VLM Training Week 5

After a weekend of decent (treadmill) miles and no knee pain, I started the week with a reasonable amount of optimism. I decided to start introducing some road miles by gradually extending my weekday 1 mile jog uphill to the gym by a mile or so every day. I also resolved to get better at doing all of my daily strength exercises, which had lapsed a bit.

So on Monday, I added an extra mile or so, and had a decent cross-training / treadmill session totalling 7 miles of running. Tuesday morning was painfree, so again, I ran 3 road miles and decided to replicate the usual club interval session on the treadmill. This meant doing 5  x 1500m at around 5:20 pace off 90s walking rest. I nervously set the treadmill at 0% incline for the reps and despite failing to programme the treadmill right, got the session done OK – 10 miles for the day felt like marathon training again. I was pleased that the knee hadn’t flared as a result of running on the flat – encouraging for London if not for the very hilly Grindleford Gallop, a 21-mile target race which is starting to loom large in the calendar.

Wednesday morning was pain free, so that evening’s run was again extended – aiming for a decent 4 or 5 mile loop before finishing off in the gym. Four miles into the run having gone down a few gentle inclines, the bloody knee started to flare up. In a rare moment of common sense, I stopped running straight away and walked to the gym for a few miles on the bike instead. My experience thus far is that the bike loosens the knee up and seems to have a renewing effect.

My guess is that the hard session on the flat on Tuesday coupled with a few miles of undulation on the road 24 hours later had aggravated the knee. Whilst I am not a doctor, I decided that the injury had probably been on the way to being better, but that I had pushed it too hard too soon and set it back a bit.

The knee felt fine on Thursday morning – supporting my analysis(?) – but I was nervous after the pain the day before so stuck mainly to the cross-trainer and bike (10 miles) with a mile on the road and two miles on the treadmill. I continued the cautious approach on Friday with a decent few miles on the bike but introduced some quality work with some horrible hills (just over 6 miles). The intention was to get my glutes firing a bit more - it worked!

Whilst I was starting to feel optimistic again, I was scarred by the experience of the knee flaring up a few days before. And, I was seriously worried that my sanity would not survive much more bloody treadmill running in the gym. What if this was it until London? And, what if my bizarre training routine, whilst pain free, was actually just hindering my recovery and I would get a few miles into the marathon and have to pull out?

On Saturday morning, I went to watch Lola representing Sheffield in the South Yorks Schools XC Champs. It should have been a proud morning for her but she had a terrible run – feeling stuffed-up with cold, and nauseous before and during the race. She limped home mid-pack holding her stomach and looking thoroughly miserable. On the basis of previous form, she should have been up with the leaders. She was gutted. I had run around watching the race a fair bit, and my knee was just registering a bit of discomfort - just enough to darken my mood further. Mardy household. Shit day.

I managed a few miles in the gym on Saturday afternoon with some cross-training, but my heart wasn’t in it.

On Saturday night, I was dreading the tedium of the treadmill the next day. What could I do to make it bearable? I decided to try a bit of music. I have never got on with music whilst running – it upsets my rhythm and I like to hear what’s going on around me (not that this is as important when the loudest thing in the room is a student grunting dramatically whilst lifting weights). I also especially dislike music whilst I am working hard as I focus on my breathing patterns. The final nail in the coffin of music accompanied running is if I have to adjust the headphones every 30 seconds because they are falling out.

Nevertheless, anything is worth a try. After a bit of sifting through the various pairs of headphones we have accumulated over the years, I found a fetching pair of pink headphones that looped round my ears and sounded OK. I also found an old headband of Deb’s that seemed to keep the earphones in my ears. To be honest, I looked a right idiot, but if it got me through the session...

Next up was choice of music. To get round upsetting my rhythm I set about building up a Spotify playlist of songs that were either 90 or 180 beats per minute. My cadence is pretty consistent at 180 steps per minute and I figured if the music has the same tempo that this would work better.

In the gym I self-consciously put my silly headband on and got on the treadmill for the first 6 miles of my Sunday run, which I had decided to split am / pm to aid recovery and avoid tedium. Whilst a few of the tracks I had chosen didn’t work at all, the trial was a resounding success. Time seemed to pass about three times a fast and I retuned homed a lot chirpier.

Most of Sunday daytime was spent watching Lola and Isla in the 3^rd of the South Yorks Indoor Series at EIS. Both girls had great days – with Lola smashing her long jump PB with a 4.37m leap (the length of a transit van!) and doing well enough in all of her events to hold 2^nd position overall in the South Yorks league (out of over 50 U13s). The girl in first place is probably the best multi-eventer in the country for her age so no shame in 2^nd place! Debbie did her first truly long marathon training run with a 17.5 mile undulating effort at around 7:40 pace (20 seconds a mile quicker than I had prescribed!)

With a good day behind me, I hit the gym, headphones on, and knocked out the second half of my Sunday run - a 10 mile inclined progression in 1:03 (averaging 6:18 pace). I had completed a 50 mile week – with nearly 90% of the miles uphill on a treadmill. I was amazed I was still sane.