Training Log Archive: Traut

Quads were like rocks all day. Headed to the pool at the Y after work to aqua-jog and maybe loosen up a bit. Actually felt glute activation some and had some decent form. As I was going I thought maybe I was loosening up... as soon as I stepped out of the pool and was weight-bearing again it became obvious that I was still immensely sore. Still a decent day in the pool. Knee did well.

Finally felt OK to start stretching and rolling some in evening.

Event: WPOC-Boyce Park
 

Boyce Park Sprints at Boyce.

http://www.wpoc.org/

Results on WPOC page

Forgot GPS watch but just as well... I was a mess physically. Of course that is not unexpected. I haven't run since February and I swelled up a ton 2 weeks ago that I really haven't come that far down from. I am not going to let today effect me too emotionally in the context of dealing with this newfound knowledge that my knee is extremely arthritic.

I wore the brace for both courses. The first course was an open sprint and the second a total forest sprint or maybe just a short forest course. I was as sloppy navigationally as I usually am in the first meet of the year. I had trouble adjusting to the scale of the blown up map on the "c" sprint and overshot the second control so bad I went completely around the hill and back to the first control again. I then took a second crack at it that went a bit better. My other mistake was on the "D" course. I wanted to contour the top of the cliffs to 7 and I somehow drifted much further west then I thought and hit the big junction clearing. I am not sure why it took me as long as it did to sort that out, but it did. Two things to learn. One is that I need to look more at the catching features like that clearing when I am route planning. Second, I need to focus more on the speed of trails in a sprint. I tried to contour too much. Approaching 6 and 7 on "D" were clearly faster to just use the trail instead of contouring above the cliffs.

On to the physical. As I said, I was a mess. It was like I forgot how to run. Glutes were non-existent. I was so slow and basically hobbling, and I was working very hard. I basically was middle of the pack here and this was a sprint. I was middle of the pack physically. It wasn't even a navigation thing (not that there isn't a ton of room to move there), it was speed. My knee was not feeling good, even with the brace my knee was feeling the impact in a negative way. Uphill I even struggled. The good thing is that the swelling the day after was not to the level of the swell-up two weeks ago. My quads were tight as rocks on Monday though. Clearly my legs were not receiving the shock wel at all.

Event: West Point A-meet
 

Feeling weak and vulnerable. Just trying to get used to the bike on some dirt and get a ride in. Very very slow. did Irwin rd. and horse trails next to Kummer.

This time it was left calf that was twitching to cramp. I felt lousy from the beginning and just need to be satisfied with just having an interesting ride. I was faster then my last ride at least, but this was mostly road. I had trouble with the horse trail, as expected. Very muddy and I even went down on the first uphill as I drifted into some soft stuff and couldn't get out of the pedals quick enough. I am so weak on uphills right now. It will get better.

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/129593415/overvie...

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/478599319

I now kind of see why my body was sending me signals not to push yesterday. My calves and hamstrings are crazy tight... I felt it on my left while I was doing crabs last night, but thought it was just getting back used to doing PT. I had cramps in both calves over night. the one in my right was maybe the worst I have ever had. I have a terrible knot in there now. This will last at least a few days. This happened to me two days before the state meet back in High school... yeah, that was awesome....

swelling might have gone up a little this morning.

50 minute aqua jog. Right calf had a knot all day but felt OK in the water. Like when I was doing crabs last night, my left hamstring was twitching and about to cramp. that stopped me at 50 minutes or I would be have been good for an hour.

Didn't wear brace after swimming yesterday and did short PT (heal raises, step downs, and balance). Swelling did not increase.

Had a short time after work before needing to pick up Claire. I planned to go for a bike ride, but my knee was feeling very vulnerable all day and I felt very pulled to taking a short walk instead. My glutes felt good, but the knee continued to feel very vulnerable. I was surprised to see that at the end of the day, the swelling in my knee hadn't increased over the day and might have even decreased...

resistance band walks, crabs, straight leg lifts. Swelling may even be down a little bit. Glute firing is hit and miss.

even though still wearing brace all day, swelling seemed increased today. Had more trouble activating glutes and finding my form then yesterday. I did have moments of finding it and swelling didn't seem so bad at night. Knee still feels so fragile and weak.

heal raises, balance, and step downs. Went OK. No irritation to knee. Knee still feel very very fragile and a baseline of swelling seems to be maintained.

Felt activation of my glutes better then I have in a week. Calf was twitching and lost glutes after about 20 minutes. Kept it short not to strain knee while things are weak.