I hope you had a wonderful weekend and happy Easter if you did celebrate. We attended church with my in-laws, but our church observes Easter next weekend, so Cullen gets two Easters! I got a long run in before church, and then after church I worked at the store.
It’s time to get some serious miles in before the summer races start! I haven’t been putting the kind of miles in that I would like to, so it is time to change that. I finally got back in a good groove last week: running some decent mileage, getting to bed earlier (most nights), eating better, lifting, stretch/foam rolling, and all those wonderful things that help you get back in shape and feel good and strong.
Here’s what my workouts looked like this past week. I ran 45 miles with one longer-run, a tempo workout, and another medium-hard workout. I was incredibly sore after the tempo workout, but all workouts went (relatively) well–just working on that fitness.
Monday
8 miles | up-tempo workout
Craig had the day off for Seward’s Day, so I was able to run during the day and in the sunshine and warmth! I ran in the later afternoon, so it wasn’t nearly as cold, which was so nice to run in less layers. When I’m getting back into shape, I like to do up-tempo workouts, which (in my mind) is a pace that’s slower than your tempo pace but faster than an easy pace. For me that was about my marathon pace. For this workout, I picked an out-and-back route and ran “out” at an easy pace and “back” at an up-tempo pace.
Here are my splits:
4 easy miles – 8:24, 8:05, 8:09, 8:32
4 up-tempo miles – 7:09, 7:10, 7:05, 7:04
I usually don’t have specific paces that I need to hit during this workout, so this is a great workout to do and go based on how I’m feeling that day.
Tuesday
Off
Wednesday
9 miles | tempo workout | 3 x 7 minutes @ tempo
30 minutes of weights
I did this workout with the Alaska Endurance Project, which is a training group here in town that meets once a week to workout together. They have a great group of competitive runners and those who love running year-round. For the workout, we were supposed to start at our tempo pace and then work down to our 5K pace, but it’s been a while since I’ve run very fast, so I was okay with paces right around my tempo pace. For the first 7 minute interval, my pace was 6:19, 6:15 for the second interval, and 6:16 for the final one. I was spent after this workout, so I knew I had given it my all.
Thursday
5 miles | easy run
This was a super easy run because I was incredibly sore from the workout the day before.
Friday
7 miles | easy run | 8:18 average pace
A fun run with a friend! So nice to have the company, and I even got back in time to make breakfast for everyone.
Saturday
5 miles | easy run
Nice easy run before work. I love that it is finally light when I run some mornings. (It starts getting light at about 7:00 a.m.) This was a really quick, easy run, and I am loving the dry pavement. About 95% of the neighborhoods are clear, which is so nice! I am still avoiding the paved trails in town because many of them are shaded and still have a lot of snow on them.
Sunday
11 miles | long run
My clock played a nasty trick on me this morning. I’ve had my alarm clock for years, and it is still set to the old daylight savings calendar, so I woke up at 5:30 a.m., but really it was 4:30 a.m. because it had advanced forward an hour. I ended up staying up and working on my athlete plans, but an extra hour of sleep would have also been nice!
At 6:00 a.m., I finally ventured out for my run, but the temperature was about 20*F, so it is still cold here! It is getting quite “warm” (upper 30s/low 40s) during the day, but the mornings are still cold. I cannot (CANNOT) wait until I can walk outside in shorts and a short sleeve shirt (heck, even a long sleeve!) and not be cold!
The run went really well, and I felt decent. I can tell I’ve lost some fitness, but I’m optimistic it will come back quickly. I did have a couple random niggles during the run, but otherwise nothing bothered me. I started running in the darkness, but then it started getting light about half-way through my run, and instantly my mood was lifted. I felt SO much better. I remembered why I love running so much. And I cannot wait to do more running in the quiet, serene, peaceful mornings this spring and summer!
Total weekly mileage: 45 miles
Hi – I have been inspirred by your return to running post hip-labral tear. Especially since I have recently acquired this same condition myself. When you said you were sore after your tempo run was that just general soreness or the hip specifically? And do you have any PT/strength/cross-training work that you recommend for this injury?
Last week my soreness was general soreness I-haven’t-worked-out-in-a-while soreness. Thankfully I have had only a couple minor hip flare-ups since last winter’s diagnosis of a labral tear.
The two PTs I saw for my hip labral tear recommended a lot of glute strengthening exercises including bridges, quadraped, monster walks with a therabands, single-leg deadlifts, lunges, etc.
Thanks so much for the information. The fact you ran your marathon PR so soon after your condition was diagnosed has me really interested in what you did to make that comeback and how much pain you just simply endured during the process.
Fortunately I had a really good base prior to the injury, which I think helped. Once spring came and the ice and snow melted off the roads, I was able to run pretty much pain-free, so I think the ice and snow contributed to the pain as well as the ART and exercises I did all winter helped heal it. (While I think this all contributed, I ultimately believe my prayers played a role too.)
Good info, thanks. Needless to say, since my diagnosis I have been scouring the internet trying to find success stories to give me a bit of hope. Thanks again and good luck with your continued recovery!