Thursday, September 01, 2005

Running into trouble

Less than three weeks till the taper begins. Both Kurt and I are battling physical problems.

Kurt, who was running lights out with a sub-46 10K and blistering 10-miler at 8:20 pace in San Francisco last week, is now hobbled with shin splints. Last week's dazzling SF runs were on asphalt, his first off the relatively cushy dirt trail he's been running all summer at home. Changing surfaces can do it. My recommendation was to return to ice, ibruprohen and bike spinning for a week. His shins should be fine, without losing any conditioning. The only issue is skipping his first 20 miler this weekend. He could run just one 20 as scheduled before the taper -- or go to a two-week taper, opting for two 20s, on the second and fourth weekends out. Depends on how the shins feel in 10 days. Problem on the latter option, if he injures anything with only two weeks to go, you have less time to recover. Worse case may be he lines up with one 18 under his belt and possibly only one 20; the endurance side of the equation would be less than ideal but manageable.

Lingering fatigue from long runs in the heat, a touch of IT band, and a strained hamstring are bothering me. I should be okay with rest, although the R-IT that tightened this week is troublesome. I never like to see that pop up at this late date. I'm taking a couple days rest and planning on 15 this weekend.

Perhaps more threatening is the new tropical wave developing slightly north and east of the Leewards. Hate to see storms brewing in that area.

2 comments:

Steve Vogel said...

By contrast, I haven't completed a decent run over 10 all summer, haven't been able to run the requisite intervals and tempos in the heat, haven't run a time trial since June 1 for the same reason, can't sustain the MP pace run over 5 not even on the treadmill because of a respiratory infection that's lasted for 3 weeks, have run myself to exhaustion in the heat and now I'm sick with stomach flu and fever and have a tender ITB and pulled hamstring, and question whether I can even finish a marathon much less run under 4:30. Sub-4 is now a joke. I may walk with Ed, if I can keep up...

Steve Vogel said...

I said, if I can keep up. Send Miracle Cream....