If the miles behind me could be put into words before you, you would feel my efforts, my struggles, my desires. Most of all you would see my joy. Watch me from afar run the trails and hills and miles upon miles and you will see ...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Epic Weeks Are Here Again...

....sung to the tune of "Happy Days Are Here Again" (the old song from the forties or early fifties. Saw it on MASH. What can I say? I love that show.)
So last Saturday Ian sent me the next weeks leading right up to Spartathlon in one month. My legs almost detached themselves from my body in revolt. Never had I seen such hours spent running. He seldom does my workouts by distance, mostly by hours run. Here's what I've done this week:

Monday - I took a run from the Club Fatass website around Burnaby Mountain. I didn't realise how hilly this would be. It took my an hour and fifteen minutes the first loop to find my way and the half mile run up after the 7.7km mark to the right turn on the Trans Canada Trail was a killer. Especially the third time I did it. I went through other trails to make it more interesting but I was either going up or down. Not overly conducive to a long road run but it reminded my glutes what it was like to scream. Time running 6:15, mileage on the Garmin read 41 miles. Total round trip time from doorstep to doorstep - 8.5 hours (I used the car as an aid station and there was a lot of filling up).

Tuesday - Long easy bike ride 4:45, 124km or so. As I have throughly exhausted the roads from here to Mission with the bike, I decided to go south through the States. The incredible wind was blowing from the Southwest so as usual coming home it was totally in my face.

Today - Long run 4:45, 35 miles. I woke up with the winds howling through the neighbourhood and thinking that this was going to be a great day for a run. Thankfully it wasn't raining anymore and didn't for my run. I tried to keep it as flat as possible because my knees were still aching from Monday. Also the glutes were talking to me on every downhill. I felt as though I'd been running fifty miles already, and that was after twenty minutes of being out the door. I didn't know how I was going to get through this run. After two hours I took a couple advil and that seemed to calm down my knees. Again I wore layers and once it warmed up the sweat was pouring off me. The only break I got was when I was going into the wind where it cooled down some. For a perfect ending a mile from the house the sun broke through and made the last ten minutes that much more enjoyable.

I went afterwards and saw Colin McKay at Precision Health and he confirmed that my knee discomfort was due to IT band tightness. He worked on them for a bit and it made them feel awesome. I'll be going back again next week for another session.
Then it was off to the sauna for a forty-five minute sit in the heat. I can't take the really hot sauna anymore, it makes me feel like I'm going to puke after being in the other one for half an hour. Maybe I'll try the opposite - ten minutes in the stinkin' hot one, then thirty in the hot one.
Tomorrow is another four or five hour bike to the States, Friday off (thankfully), then a 2.5 hour run Saturday. Wait until I tell you about NEXT week.....

1 comment:

Gary Robbins said...

Dude, that's some serious training!! Glad you are able to keep moving through the injury. If I ever get back to good it would be great to head out for one of those epics!
GR