Longest, Fastest Bike Ride

In recent memory, that is.  24 miles at a pace of about 13 mph.  The first ride over 18 miles, and the first over 12 mph.

I don't think I worked any harder on this ride than I have before - it's just a slightly easier route with fewer hills, mostly on trails that were once railroad tracks, hence not steeply graded.  Also the wind was not strong and, as with hills, wind hurts more than it helps.

Walk tomorrow if there is an opening in the rainclouds.

Splits: to BC Park 14:36, to GW 14:20, to GW Mile 12 - 6:36, reverse to PPK 25:11, reverse to Zeph 21:40, to BC Pk 11:52, to home 16:01, total 1:50:16 for about 24 miles, speed 13 mph.

Blogging Again

Since the most-recent hamstring injury on June 3 I have run very  little and blogged even less.  I have been busy, though, mostly biking, one ride of 18 miles and several shorter ones, working hard.

More important, I have been walking.  For some reason the hamstring doesn't hurt when I walk, only when I run, so there is a possibility that I could actually walk a marathon with no running at all.  For now that's my training plan, walking (fast) and only a little running, maybe 15 seconds per mile.  That's all!  It feels so good to run that it's hard to run that little, but for now only that much, and only uphill, because the injury has occurred twice now while running downhill.

Today I walked 6.13 miles in 1:27:48, for a pace of 14:19 minutes per mile.  That's not bad at all - if sustained for a whole marathon that would bring in a finish of 6:16, and would actually allow for two or three bathroom stops in a marathon with a  6:30 time limit.

I walked four miles yesterday, and five the day before that, all at a pace faster than 15 minute miles.  It's a training plan and it will work.  Bike tomorrow though - I don't want to push my luck.

Crap Crap Crap

The hamstring injury is back.  So much for being careful.  The hamstring failed last Wednesday at about mile 3 of a 4-mile run/walk, running just one third of the paces.  I was indeed very careful, by the way, still building up slowly from the initial injury.  I haven't blogged about it until now because I'm so disgusted.

Unfortunately I didn't recognize the injury right away - it seemed to be in the back of the knee or even below the knee at first - so for a short distance I kept trying to run, thereby exacerbating the injury somewhat.  Unlike the first time, though, I had no pain walking the last mile home, so perhaps I haven't set it back completely.

The first time, the injury happened as I was running downhill.  I thought that was probably a fluke, because hamstring injuries are supposed to happen as the hamstrings pull us up hills.  This time it also happened running downhill, though, so I'm not sure what is going on.  Maybe it's just the pounding on ancient muscle, or maybe I have the basic principle wrong. It feels like the injury is in one very small strand of muscle, or in a small ligament, toward the bottom right of the hamstring muscles.  It's a stopper though - when it happens I can't run any more.

What to do?  I've tried to wait it out and build back slowly - that hasn't worked.  If I take it to the sports doctor, s/he will probably prescribe a program of exercises and stretches and tell me to take at least a couple of weeks off from all running.  I've been around the block a few times, though, and I think that I can create that program myself.  I'll do that.

In the meantime, since Wednesday, I have gone out biking three times and walking once.  Today I biked almost 18 miles in 1:27, for a speed of 11.7 mph.  With a hilly route and 78 degrees today, that speed is good enough.  I feel quite physically satisfied after a ride like that.  And nothing hurts.

Six Mile Run

Monday, June 1, 2015:

I'm still gradually increasing the mileage of the runs, keeping the 1 to 2 run/walk ratio the same and mostly not running two days in a row.  In this case two days passed, plenty of time to heal.

6.13 miles in 1:12:02, for a pace of 11:45.  Not bad.  No Pains.