Run/Training update

As was suggested in comments on my last post, back to the regularly scheduled triathlete. This is a blog about human-powered sports, no motors!

So, last week was a good one both mentally and physically on the training front.

Things are coming along slowly but surely. I've been biking pain free for 2-3 weeks now, and I'm slowly bringing up the volume. It's tough to see my avg mphs so much slower, but just got to have patience. With all that (+ strength & conditioning 2-4x week), my knee has been feeling great, so we figured it was time for a test run on a treadmill.

This is how I play it safe:
warmup
3 rounds...
10 inverted hamstring w toe touch
15 air squats
10 figure fours ea. side (hip/core activation)
10 split squats ea. side
10 windshield wipers (rotate legs side to side, good for the back)
...followed by a few minutes of skipping and walking lunges

treadmill (@ 1% incline)
2 min walk
3 min run (9:30 pace)
2 min walk
3 min run (9:00-9:15 pace)
1.5 min walk
4 min run (9:00-9:15 pace)
few-ish min walk
done.

I focused on hip/glut activation and stable knee/leg tracking through the entire stride. We think my knee tracking was one of the major problems, so I have to work on stopping that. Running at a 9:00-9:30 pace almost made it hard because I wanted to be lazy with my stride, but it allowed me to focus on form & technique so all good. Felt strong.

Tried another run about six days later. Again, all was good. Then late last week, my ART/chiro guy put kineso tape on my glut area--hot pink for "energy" (BS? probably)--and I tried outdoor running on a flat dirt trail. I didn't even care that it was noon and about 150 degrees outside, I wanted to go for it!! Started off with an extensive warmup, then did my walk/run intervals. Logged in ~20 min run time with the intervals combined. Felt good.

By the end of the weekend I was sore. A combo of biking, strength & conditioning and re-introducing running will do that even if the total volume is far below what I once was doing regularly. But it was mostly good soreness. The knee was a tad on the tight side, but no bad/throbbing pain, so just rest on tap.

Hope to keep going with this progression and begin some sort of regular training again! Maybe even a bike race or two before the year ends.