I had taken 12 days off before Tuesday's run. During that time off I was so discouraged over this latest injury/set back. It put me in a deep enough funk where I did no workouts (cross training) whatsoever. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself those days. After only the 3rd day off I was walking around pain free. But I knew I should give it more rest from running. On the 12th day I went out for a 4 mile run at an easy pace. But at the 2.5 mark or so I could feel some pain creeping back. I was walking at 3.2. It actually felt worse walking than running. Could feel pain when walking the next 2 days. Today I decided to get my mind right again and went to the gym. I took out all my bad feelings on the pool today. I knew I could go all out without risk of injury. I wanted to get tired and worn out, and I did. So today's swim surprised me, excited me, and ticked the living heck out of me all at the same time. One of my most frequent swim workouts over the years has been swimming 1000 yards and alternating between freestyle and breaststroke every 100 yards. Since resuming running last fall after healing from my stress fracture swimming has been something I had not worked on much. But today I blew away my old PR for this swim by 13 seconds! I have no idea how this was done with no pool time and no workouts at all for almost 2 weeks. When I set it last July I was swimming daily. I must have been angrier with myself than I thought. My breaststroke kick felt very strong. I think that is where a lot of the time was made up. I have noticed over the last couple of months my leg muscles have looked a little bigger and better defined. But this swim leaves me with my head shaking and several questions. I believe my fitness is at an all-time (post high school) high which is great. It also makes it even harder to accept that I am in the middle of an injury now. This setback has really hurt me mentally. I was at a point where I could care less if I worked out or not the last week or so. Now I regret the time I took off. Hopefully I can snap back and build up my fitness for the day I am ready to run at full strength again. After the swim I rode the AirDyne bike for 20 minutes. Heart felt like it was actually going to break through my ribcage it was thumping so hard. Went home the jogged 1.1 miles to my son's soccer practice. No pain in the calf...yeah !! After the practice I ran home for 2.2 miles. Sometimes on the uneven sidewalk when I had to stretch my stride to clear a bump or hop up onto a curb I could feel a little something in the calf. But much better than the run 2 days ago. I am listing my swim splits so I can have a record of it...just in case I beat this PR again someday.
| 4/18/2007
| 7/24/2007
| | 100 free | 1:33.83
| 1:30.24
| 100 breast | 2:00.39
| 2:00.40
| | 100 free | 1:32.27
| 1:35.30
| 100 breast
| 1:56.46
| 1:59.63
| 100 free
| 1:33.19
| 1:34.90
| 100 breast
| 1:55.73
| 1:59.49
| 100 free
| 1:33.03
| 1:34.27
| 100 breast
| 1:54.33
| 1:57.58
| 100 free
| 1:35.07
| 1:33.42
| 100 breast
| 1:51.77
| 1:54.45
| | Totals | 17:26.07
| 17:39.68
|
AirDyne Bike - 6.0 miles - 20:20 Run (1) - 1.1 miles - 9:35 - 8:43 avg. Run (2) - 2.2 miles - 20:06 - 9:08 avg.
| 