You must be swift as the coursing river (as long as it's the Lazy River) - comments welcome

[WillRunForPizza]

March 31 - April 6, 2025
5K training week 2 | 42 days until Hero Dogs 5K9
In which things fall apart


Monday
"Easy"/hill strides: 5.9 miles (10:23), avg. HR 158, max 185
Core

Oof. Something went horribly wrong here. Despite running pretty slowly for me, my HR was quite high. There's more elevation than usual on this route, but not that much more. Yuck.

Tuesday
Workout: 2.2 mile WU/strides + 5 x 1 mile @ LTP/90s RI + 2 x 30s uphill + 1 mile CD
9 miles, avg. HR 168, max 192
Lower body strength



Well that was a mess.

It would have been a nice day to run if not for the wind. The wind was annoying. I ended up running in the afternoon because the wind chill was yucky in the morning.

It went...not particularly well. I could tell about a minute into the first rep that I was not getting to seven. I thought five was a stretch. I know about what my HR should be at lactate threshold, and I was already above that. And I wasn't running too fast.

I survived the first interval, though. Things started to go off the rails around interval #2, with my tummy feeling quite uncomfortable. At least my timing was good for a pit stop - it just made my recovery interval a bit longer than planned.

You'd think that would make me feel a little more recovered for rep #3, but no: I just felt sort of wobbly. I had taped my ankle, and it didn't hurt, but maybe it just sort of pushed the problem up the chain, because at the very end of #3, I felt like my knee was going to collapse. I actually stopped with like 0.02 miles to go because I literally couldn't run.

After a minute of frantic stretching/moving things around, I managed to start running again, but I was seriously concerned that I wasn't even going to be able to jog back, let alone finish the workout. But the recovery interval seemed to let it work itself out, at least temporarily (while I went through all of the form cues I could think of to try to fix myself).

I was actually okay for interval #4, if quite tired. Mostly I was just happy my knee was working. In #5, my tape started to fall apart, so I guess I didn't do a very good job. But the last rep was the closest to the (unadjusted) pace I was actually supposed to be running, so that's something.

I did one decent hill rep, and then on the second I just couldn't anymore. So I skipped the rest. Honestly I'm kind of surprised I got through even five mile repeats, so I wasn't too upset about it. The hill strides were just kind of a bonus anyway. So at that point, I felt reasonably okay.



Wednesday
Recovery: 5.8 miles (10:58), 100% Z1-2
Upper body strength

Yep, turns out I messed up my knee too. And bruised my toe, which actually happens all the time but is not usually uncomfortable. I guess this is just my lucky week. At this rate I'm going to need a cast for my entire left leg soon. I miss not hurting.

Most of my aches and pains felt slightly better when moving, so I did run, albeit very easy. (Forgot my armband so HR data isn't great, but I was just shuffling.) I had my ankle taped again and dug out an old knee band to deal with that issue. The tape did not fall off this time, but I didn't get to the point in the run where it came off the last time, so I didn't know if that was meaningful.

Thursday
Easy/"hill strides": 7.2 miles (10:35), avg. HR 147, max 176, 95% Z1-2
Core

I convinced myself before I went out that my knee was feeling better (false). At least the tape seems to be helping my ankle some. It did start to fall off a bit again though.

I don't know if this is from compensating for all these aches and pains or just running for months in a very flat area, but I feel like I have zero power going uphill. You can't even see the hill strides on my pace chart, they were so wimpy. All this is making me feel very blah.

Friday
Medium-long: 10.1 miles (10:24), avg. HR 151, max 165, 97% Z1-2
Total body strength
Unplanned double: 2.8 miles (10:54)

And here is where things really took a wrong turn.

My knee was not better. It was also not worse (yet), but still. My ankle was maybe a little better? The tape seemed to be helping, and it even stayed on this time.

I tried to do strides but my knee did not like running fast. After all that, I decided to skip the strength training. Partly I was tired, and partly I didn't want to do any more damage than I already had, but mostly those are just excuses and I didn't feel like it.

However.

Then I went to an alumni reception at my grad school in the evening, and when I tried to get home the bus never showed up. The next one wasn't for about half an hour. I said to myself, "I could run home by then."

Then I said, "Ugh."

So I ran home. In loose athleisure sort of slacks, and a t-shirt, and a regular bra, and dangly earrings, holding onto my purse so it wouldn't bounce all over the place. I almost tripped on my flaring pant leg about six separate times. I was at least wearing old running shoes, because I'm pretty much always wearing old running shoes.

I was obviously not wearing my armband, much less tape on my ankle or a brace on my knee. The knee was kind of painful at first, but did feel better as I went on. But I stopped and walked the rest of the way when I got about half a mile from home because my ankle was starting to hurt. Also my toenail felt like it was gently stabbing itself into the nail bed every step. I recommend none of this.

Saturday
Long: 2.5 hours

So after Friday, I was already kind of debating whether it would be a good idea to run on Saturday. When I woke up, it was clear that running was not a good plan. My knee felt much worse. Anytime I started moving after sitting or standing for a while, it hurt. If I tried to bend it more than 90 degrees, it hurt. It got better as I kept moving, but then if my (walking) stride was even slightly off, it hurt. Very not good.

So other than walking the dog, I tried to stay off my feet as much as possible so my knee could rest. (My ankle and toe also still hurt! But they had not really gotten worse, so I wasn't focused on them.)

Sunday
Obviously I did not run today either. My knee is still kind of uncomfortable, but it feels less, I don't know, wrong, which I guess is something. Heat seems to help it, so I've been doing some of that, plus still putting my feet up whenever I'm not walking the dog (though I do actually need to do some chores and things today, so I won't be quite as lazy as yesterday).

Totals
Running: 6h 55m, 40.8 miles
Strength/mobility: 1h 45m
Total: 8h 41m


So that didn't go as planned.

Normally if I can't run, I at least do some yoga to stretch things out a bit and get a little movement in, but I can't even do that because of the whole bending-my-knee-more-than-90-degrees-is-ow thing.

Coming up
Who knows? I'm going to give it one more day and then see where we are. If running seems okay at that point, then I'll ease back into it. If not...well, that will suck.

One more thing
On a completely unrelated but happier note, if you have 10 minutes, go watch Alysa Liu's fantastic routine from the figure skating world championships. It brought me joy during a generally crappy week.

 

[col1]

March 31 - April 6, 2025
5K training week 2 | 42 days until Hero Dogs 5K9
In which things fall apart

View attachment 954506
Monday
"Easy"/hill strides: 5.9 miles (10:23), avg. HR 158, max 185
Core

Oof. Something went horribly wrong here. Despite running pretty slowly for me, my HR was quite high. There's more elevation than usual on this route, but not that much more. Yuck.

Tuesday
Workout: 2.2 mile WU/strides + 5 x 1 mile @ LTP/90s RI + 2 x 30s uphill + 1 mile CD
9 miles, avg. HR 168, max 192
Lower body strength

View attachment 954766
View attachment 954768
Well that was a mess.

It would have been a nice day to run if not for the wind. The wind was annoying. I ended up running in the afternoon because the wind chill was yucky in the morning.

It went...not particularly well. I could tell about a minute into the first rep that I was not getting to seven. I thought five was a stretch. I know about what my HR should be at lactate threshold, and I was already above that. And I wasn't running too fast.

I survived the first interval, though. Things started to go off the rails around interval #2, with my tummy feeling quite uncomfortable. At least my timing was good for a pit stop - it just made my recovery interval a bit longer than planned.

You'd think that would make me feel a little more recovered for rep #3, but no: I just felt sort of wobbly. I had taped my ankle, and it didn't hurt, but maybe it just sort of pushed the problem up the chain, because at the very end of #3, I felt like my knee was going to collapse. I actually stopped with like 0.02 miles to go because I literally couldn't run.

After a minute of frantic stretching/moving things around, I managed to start running again, but I was seriously concerned that I wasn't even going to be able to jog back, let alone finish the workout. But the recovery interval seemed to let it work itself out, at least temporarily (while I went through all of the form cues I could think of to try to fix myself).

I was actually okay for interval #4, if quite tired. Mostly I was just happy my knee was working. In #5, my tape started to fall apart, so I guess I didn't do a very good job. But the last rep was the closest to the (unadjusted) pace I was actually supposed to be running, so that's something.

I did one decent hill rep, and then on the second I just couldn't anymore. So I skipped the rest. Honestly I'm kind of surprised I got through even five mile repeats, so I wasn't too upset about it. The hill strides were just kind of a bonus anyway. So at that point, I felt reasonably okay.

View attachment 954769

Wednesday
Recovery: 5.8 miles (10:58), 100% Z1-2
Upper body strength

Yep, turns out I messed up my knee too. And bruised my toe, which actually happens all the time but is not usually uncomfortable. I guess this is just my lucky week. At this rate I'm going to need a cast for my entire left leg soon. I miss not hurting.

Most of my aches and pains felt slightly better when moving, so I did run, albeit very easy. (Forgot my armband so HR data isn't great, but I was just shuffling.) I had my ankle taped again and dug out an old knee band to deal with that issue. The tape did not fall off this time, but I didn't get to the point in the run where it came off the last time, so I didn't know if that was meaningful.

Thursday
Easy/"hill strides": 7.2 miles (10:35), avg. HR 147, max 176, 95% Z1-2
Core

I convinced myself before I went out that my knee was feeling better (false). At least the tape seems to be helping my ankle some. It did start to fall off a bit again though.

I don't know if this is from compensating for all these aches and pains or just running for months in a very flat area, but I feel like I have zero power going uphill. You can't even see the hill strides on my pace chart, they were so wimpy. All this is making me feel very blah.

Friday
Medium-long: 10.1 miles (10:24), avg. HR 151, max 165, 97% Z1-2
Total body strength
Unplanned double: 2.8 miles (10:54)

And here is where things really took a wrong turn.

My knee was not better. It was also not worse (yet), but still. My ankle was maybe a little better? The tape seemed to be helping, and it even stayed on this time.

I tried to do strides but my knee did not like running fast. After all that, I decided to skip the strength training. Partly I was tired, and partly I didn't want to do any more damage than I already had, but mostly those are just excuses and I didn't feel like it.

However.

Then I went to an alumni reception at my grad school in the evening, and when I tried to get home the bus never showed up. The next one wasn't for about half an hour. I said to myself, "I could run home by then."

Then I said, "Ugh."

So I ran home. In loose athleisure sort of slacks, and a t-shirt, and a regular bra, and dangly earrings, holding onto my purse so it wouldn't bounce all over the place. I almost tripped on my flaring pant leg about six separate times. I was at least wearing old running shoes, because I'm pretty much always wearing old running shoes.

I was obviously not wearing my armband, much less tape on my ankle or a brace on my knee. The knee was kind of painful at first, but did feel better as I went on. But I stopped and walked the rest of the way when I got about half a mile from home because my ankle was starting to hurt. Also my toenail felt like it was gently stabbing itself into the nail bed every step. I recommend none of this.

Saturday
Long: 2.5 hours

So after Friday, I was already kind of debating whether it would be a good idea to run on Saturday. When I woke up, it was clear that running was not a good plan. My knee felt much worse. Anytime I started moving after sitting or standing for a while, it hurt. If I tried to bend it more than 90 degrees, it hurt. It got better as I kept moving, but then if my (walking) stride was even slightly off, it hurt. Very not good.

So other than walking the dog, I tried to stay off my feet as much as possible so my knee could rest. (My ankle and toe also still hurt! But they had not really gotten worse, so I wasn't focused on them.)

Sunday
Obviously I did not run today either. My knee is still kind of uncomfortable, but it feels less, I don't know, wrong, which I guess is something. Heat seems to help it, so I've been doing some of that, plus still putting my feet up whenever I'm not walking the dog (though I do actually need to do some chores and things today, so I won't be quite as lazy as yesterday).

Totals
Running: 6h 55m, 40.8 miles
Strength/mobility: 1h 45m
Total: 8h 41m

View attachment 954775
So that didn't go as planned.

Normally if I can't run, I at least do some yoga to stretch things out a bit and get a little movement in, but I can't even do that because of the whole bending-my-knee-more-than-90-degrees-is-ow thing.

Coming up
Who knows? I'm going to give it one more day and then see where we are. If running seems okay at that point, then I'll ease back into it. If not...well, that will suck.

One more thing
On a completely unrelated but happier note, if you have 10 minutes, go watch Alysa Liu's fantastic routine from the figure skating world championships. It brought me joy during a generally crappy week.

Oh no!! Sorry you are having to deal with that, injuries suck. Fingers crossed they will improve soon.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Oooooh that jump with the Brian Biotano arm up? The sheer number of jumps that are in current figure skating is mind-boggling. It's so refreshing to see a skater in a competition look like they're actually enjoying themselves instead of the usual "smile for the judges" faces they have with all of the focus a long skate takes.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Oooooh that jump with the Brian Biotano arm up? The sheer number of jumps that are in current figure skating is mind-boggling. It's so refreshing to see a skater in a competition look like they're actually enjoying themselves instead of the usual "smile for the judges" faces they have with all of the focus a long skate takes.

Right? I don't really follow figure skating, just watch random clips, but she just looked so happy.

 

[GollyGadget]

Ughhh, sorry you're dealing with extra niggles. It's often easier said than done, but don't discount taking more time off. You've really ramped up your running the last couple of years and your body may just need a break.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Ughhh, sorry you're dealing with extra niggles. It's often easier said than done, but don't discount taking more time off. You've really ramped up your running the last couple of years and your body may just need a break.

That is a good point. My knee is actually feeling much better today, but the trend of many niggles is not a great one. I think I might dial back a bit for the spring so I can go into marathon training healthy.

 

[avondale]

So sorry about the knee thing! Seems to have come on suddenly. Agree with the suggestions for a break. You don't want to be trying to rehab the knee for a year+ like me...

 

[WillRunForPizza]

April 7 - 13, 2025
5K training week 3 | 34 days until Hero Dogs 5K9
In which nobody asked winter to come back


This was the plan, before my leg decided it didn't want to do leg things.

Monday
Easy/strides
Core

My knee was feeling almost normal again. But I had promised myself three days of rest, and I had one more to go. (Also the weather sucked.)

I did do a core workout, though - it felt good, but two days off made me feel a bit wobbly at the same time.

Later on, I was fixing a protein shake, and I said to myself, "Hey, if I mix this with hot water, it will be like having hot chocolate!"

DO NOT DO THIS. Apparently protein powder somehow does not dissolve in hot water. No matter how much I stirred, I ended up with a bunch of little clumps of powder suspended in water. It was disgusting. I had to toss it and make a regular protein shake with cold water. The more you know...

Tuesday
Workout
Upper body strength

Well, I was planning to go for a run, as my knee had been feeling pretty good all day, but then when I was doing my warm-up, I started to have issues again. So I did not in fact go for a run.

After limping to the grocery store (I needed apples for my breakfast), I put a heating pad on my knee and then it felt okay again.

Wednesday
Easy(ish): 4 miles (9:53), avg. HR 152, max 168, 70% Z1-2

I finally went for a run again! My goal was mainly to see if I could do it. (I could.) The first couple of (downhill) miles felt good, and then again, going uphill my HR went wayyyyy up. I still felt fine, and I think some of the extra effort was for dodging tourists. (Why do tourists think that a wide sidewalk just means they should spread out more??) But I clearly still need to work on hills.

Aside from a handful of twinges on landing (literally I think three; guessing I just landed with my leg too straight), my knee did pretty well. I did find myself extra-conscious of my form, but that isn't necessarily the worst thing.

I was really more worried about how my knee would feel after the run, and it was mostly okay. It did feel tired but didn't really hurt. I put a heating pad on it again (which I did before the run too), since that seems to help.

Thursday
Easy/hill strides: 6.3 miles (10:28), avg. HR 154, max 185, 88% Z1-2
Core

Once again, my legs felt okay. No complaints from the knee; ankle was a little sore but not a real problem. Also again, aerobically my run was a mess - and there wasn't even a big hill/tourists to blame it on this time. I don't understand why my HR has been so high lately.

Friday
Medium-long
Yoga

I was planning to run on Friday. Really. But it was cold. And raining. For the entire day. And I convinced myself that I might as well just take the day off since my schedule was so messed up anyway. Sigh. At least I finally finished doing my taxes?

Saturday
Easy/hill strides: 8.2 miles (10:46), avg. HR 154, max 184, 85% Z1-2

The rain had stopped, but it was still chilly. I overdressed (on purpose) and didn't regret it.

Legs were mostly okay, but HR remains significantly higher than normal.

Sunday
Easy/pickup: 11.6 miles, avg. HR 161, max 189


I overdressed again and slightly regretted it. (There was significantly less cloud cover than I was led to expect.)

My legs were tired but nothing actually hurt. Because I hadn't really followed my schedule in like a week, instead of finishing with 2 miles at M pace and 1 mile at HM pace as planned, I decided to just run 60 minutes out and do an unstructured progression back. Mostly because I didn't think I would be able to do 2 miles at M pace followed by 1 mile at HM pace.

That was probably right. My HR remains significantly higher than normal for a given pace. (Or, from another direction, my pace is significantly slower than normal for a given HR/effort level.) Like, I'm out there running 30s/mile slower than M pace and my HR is already above lactate threshold. Why am I broken?? It's like how I feel after I just ran a marathon, except that I didn't run a marathon. It was happening before I had to take a break to fix my knee, too, so it's not that. Grrrrrr.

I did manage 85g of carbs/hr and felt good, so that's nice. I did a big order from The Feed when they had 20% off, so now I'm well stocked with all the high-carb gels I like. Every time I take a gel, I just imagine my cells cheering the all the sugar like:

I was hoping to get in some lower body strength also, but my knee is still having trouble with things like squats and lunges, which makes it kind of difficult.

Totals
Running: 5h 4m, 30.1 miles
Strength/mobility: 1h 13m
Total: 6h 18m


I guess that's not too bad considering I missed two runs and some strength this week. And in good news, my knee is like 85% recovered. (Running seems fine, but like I said, some strength exercises are still a challenge.) My ankle is about the same, but that wasn't what was stopping me from running.

In less good news, running continues to be a struggle effort-wise. I guess it could be just normal early-in-the-training plan issues, plus return-to-hills issues, though it feels like more than that. I have also considered the possibility that my iron is low, but I don't want to supplement it without knowing for sure because high iron is also bad. And I don't have a checkup where I might get it tested coming up until late summer, and testing independently is not that cheap.

Coming up
Anyway. I had a plan:



I should be able to do the workout fine with minor modifications: I'll just do the 1min intervals on a hill (which I probably would have done anyway) and break up the threshold segment into shorter reps. I'll probably also take tomorrow off and push the workout to Wednesday, since I did my long run on Sunday instead of Saturday this week.

I'm not sure whether I'll do the parkrun or not. Considering how I feel right now, I might bump it to the next week when there's a chance I might actually be able to run decently. (It's just for practice, but it would still be nice to not suck.) I'll decide later in the week whether I want to keep it or swap it with threshold hills, which was the following Saturday's workout.

Also, keeping in mind that my body is apparently struggling massively right now , I'll probably aim for the lower end of my scheduled range for everything rather than mid-to-high as I had been doing. Also there might be extra rest days. Maybe. Or maybe adaptations will finally start to kick in! I can keep hoping, right?

Oh! Also also, this week Tracksmith announced the dates for the Twilight 5000 series which I had been wanting to do. Instead of being in July like it was last year, this year the DC event is actually at the end of May, two weeks after the 5K I was already running. So, as one does when one is basically falling apart, naturally I decided to tack it onto the end of my current plan, and I went ahead and signed up for that. If nothing else, it'll be an interesting experience - I've never done a track race before.

 

[jmasgat]

Why do tourists think that a wide sidewalk just means they should spread out more??)

I think it's a corollary to "Why do groups of people who walk races think it's okay to go 5+ across the race path?"

Sorry your running is not stellar right now. But you seem to have a reasonable attitude towards adjusting. Hope you see some improvement soon.

 

[GollyGadget]

Not to keep banging on the same drum, but the higher HR could also be a sign your body needs a break. It's definitely one sign of overtraining. Obviously there are other factors that impact HR like weather and stress, but definitely something to keep in mind.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Not to keep banging on the same drum, but the higher HR could also be a sign your body needs a break. It's definitely one sign of overtraining. Obviously there are other factors that impact HR like weather and stress, but definitely something to keep in mind.

For sure. I know some of the symptoms I've been experiencing do align with overtraining syndrome. In this case I don't think that's the problem, just because my volume and especially intensity have been relatively low for the past...eight weeks? And the high HR thing only became noticeable a couple of weeks ago.

It's not unusual for me to feel like I forgot how to run at the beginning of a training block, and I think taking extra time off for my knee issue may have extended the "beginning of the training block" feeling. Plus having to adapt to running uphill again is a bit rough at the same time. Hopefully it's just that combination and will work itself out in a couple more weeks! But if not, trust me, I have been wracking my brain for explanations and haven't completely ruled out overtraining yet. Not ready to say that's what it is, but haven't ruled it out.

 

[The Expert]

Not to be alarmist, but have you considered going to the doc or a walk-in clinic to make sure that HR elevation isn't a sign of a medical issue? I know you're young and active, but it never hurts to get something like that checked out, just in case. (Sorry if I missed if you did this already.)

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Not to be alarmist, but have you considered going to the doc or a walk-in clinic to make sure that HR elevation isn't a sign of a medical issue? I know you're young and active, but it never hurts to get something like that checked out, just in case. (Sorry if I missed if you did this already.)

Do you know of cases where a small bump in HR has been caused by a medical issue? My HR isn't skyrocketing on every run; it's just ~5-10 bpm higher than I'd expect for a given pace. I have been treating it more as an annoyance than a serious problem.

 

[The Expert]

Do you know of cases where a small bump in HR has been caused by a medical issue? My HR isn't skyrocketing on every run; it's just ~5-10 bpm higher than I'd expect for a given pace. I have been treating it more as an annoyance than a serious problem.

Ahh I see. So it's not across the board all the time. In that case, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about medically. Whew!