Given last week's successes, I continued building up both swimming and cycling this week. Fortunately, everything is still going along smoothly and there are no signs of trouble. I'm still limping a little, so I held off on introducing a walking regime, however it's gotten a lot better over the course of this week (no pain, just stiff). I'll probably add that in sometime near the end of this week to test things out, and hopefully I'll be able to get back into running in the near future.
As things went so well on the bike, I slowly added some hills in the rides this week. On Saturday's group ride, the plan was for a relatively flat ride but we missed a turnaround and ended up on some larger hills. Thankfully, aside from tiring me out, there were no problems so I'm likely safe to reintroduce them into my normal routine. Naturally, I will still like avoid explicitly looking for hills to be safe, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to avoid them.
As far as my fitness goes, I'm okay on flat ground but I've obviously lost a lot of climbing strength. Before the injury I usually opened up a significant gap every time we hit some hills, but this time a couple of them were able to drop me pretty comfortably when things got steep. The aerobic engine is still there, but the leg strength has been eaten away so my ability to power through the hard stretches is compromised. With that said, part of the issue was likely that I was being very conservative with the gearing to play it safe (ie downshifting early to granny gears), so when I get my nerve back things should improve.
I'm hoping that adding hills back into my normal routine will help to remedy that, and I think I'll add in a bit more aggressive speedwork to help. Naturally, doing explicit hill work would be the best way to get that back, but I'm not sure that I want to try standing climbs in the big ring just yet as that can put different forces on the foot.
Week 30 Totals:
Running: 0.0km 0.0mi)
Walking: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Cycling: 162.4km (100.9mi)
Swimming: 6.5km (4.0mi)
Total: 168.9km (104.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 758.6km (471.35mi)
Walking: 28.4km (17.6mi)
Cycling: 2289.5km (1422.6mi)
Swimming: 155.4km (96.6mi)
Total: 3231.9km (2008.2mi)
The weather for week 31 is looking a lot better, although it's going to get steamy again on Friday. We've got another group ride planned for Saturday, so I'm hoping to be a bit more competitive this time around ;) Either way, I'm just happy to be out there in this gorgeous weather once again and the plan is to take full advantage of what is left of the summer!
Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Week 29: Review
Now at the end of my first week back into training and the foot is feeling much better. It's still not 100% and I have to be careful with it, but getting the ankle moving again seems to be helping to make it more comfortable. I'm thinking that a lot of the discomfort last week wasn't so much the bone itself, but tightness in the connective tissues around it as they've basically been locked in one position for a month and a half. Fortunately, I don't appear to have lost nearly as much strength as I had expected so getting back into my routine is going to be easier than expected. I'm by no means as strong as I was before, but it is nowhere near starting from scratch.
In the water this week, I managed to squeeze in two sessions (Tuesday and Friday). While I'm a good deal slower than I was before the interruption, my stamina seems to (mostly) be intact and swimming for the entire session at my previous effort levels doesn't appear to be an issue. As this is the one sport where I can go full bore if I'd like, this is good as it will allow me to use the pool to help rebuild my cardiovascular strength ahead of ramping up the other two disciplines.
In an effort to train a bit smarter, however, I've taken to breaking my swim up into smaller bits and doing a more structured workout. My approach for the last few years has been to stick to long sets, but the more I read about this sort of training the more I get the impression that that was a mistake. Prior to the injury I had been stuck at a 2:00/100m pace for a long while, so I'm hoping that this new approach will allow me to eventually break through that barrier.
On the bike, I started out with an easy ride around the subdivision on Wednesday. That allowed me to stick with flat ground for the time being (as I was advised to avoid big hills as I started up) and test things out safely. Fortunately, everything felt great on that ride so it also helped to buoy my confidence a bit. It wasn't, however, a good ride to evaluate my fitness as the nature of residential streets doesn't lend itself to that (too much starting up and slowing down to get a feel for what is sustainable).
As such, on Saturday I headed out for a longer ride on some rural roads to get a better feel for where I was at. As it's nearly impossible to avoid hills from where I live, I drove out a few kilometers to get past them and headed out from there. Needless to say, it felt great to get back out on the open road. While I've certainly lost some degree of power, I was still able to comfortably maintain cruising speeds above 30km/h so I'm not too far back. My stamina at higher speeds (~40km/h+) has definitely taken a hit, but at this point I'm just happy I can still hit those speeds.
The one tricky part with the ride was that I wasn't able to get out in the morning, and it was a hot and humid day with full sun. When I broke my foot in mid-May, it was still the early days of summer so the downtime meant that I didn't get a chance to gradually acclimatize to the full-bore summer weather. As such, fighting through the heat was, and will continue to be, a challenge over the next little while. For the time being, I will have to redouble my efforts to get out early and keep it as cool as possible.
The other caveat is that my gears are still acting up on me. Shortly before my injury, I had my front derailleur cable replaced but when I took it for a ride the chain was rubbing when in the big ring and anything smaller than the 6th cog. I didn't get around to getting that addressed until last week, and it was working fine when I tested it outside of the shop. Unfortunately, on both of my rides this week it was doing the same thing so it's likely going to have to go back in. The result is that I basically have a big gap in my gearing and riding anywhere between 28 and 40km/h requires sub-optimal cadences.
I'm not sure if it's just the cable stretching out on me, or if it's something to do with how I'm putting it in the car but I'll have to talk with them about it when I go back. I've picked up a book on bicycle maintenance and am working on figuring this stuff out, but I'm reticent to mess around with the shifting until I have a better understanding. With that said, I'd like to take a more active role in keeping it in good condition as doing it yourself is always the best way to be sure that it's done right.
Week 29 Totals:
Running: 0.0km 0.0mi)
Walking: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Cycling: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Swimming: 6.2km (3.9mi)
Total: 62.9km (39.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 758.6km (471.35mi)
Walking: 28.4km (17.6mi)
Cycling: 2127.1km (1321.7mi)
Swimming: 148.9km (92.5mi)
Total: 3063.0km (1903.3mi)
Longer term, I'm hoping to get back together with my normal group for a ride next weekend. As most of them did races in Peterborough last week, they're still in a recovery phase right now so it's a good match for my rebuilding. Naturally, we will have to avoid the bigger hills for the time being, but I don't think it will be necessary to avoid them entirely as there was no hint of pain on either ride.
If I have the time, I'd also like to give water running a shot as it might be a good way to rebuild that part of my fitness up without having to worry about the foot. While it looks like an incredibly boring way to spend a workout, it's about the only way that I'll be able to keep my running strength up. I will probably be adding some walking this week which will help, but that doesn't cover all of the muscles that running does.
In the water this week, I managed to squeeze in two sessions (Tuesday and Friday). While I'm a good deal slower than I was before the interruption, my stamina seems to (mostly) be intact and swimming for the entire session at my previous effort levels doesn't appear to be an issue. As this is the one sport where I can go full bore if I'd like, this is good as it will allow me to use the pool to help rebuild my cardiovascular strength ahead of ramping up the other two disciplines.
In an effort to train a bit smarter, however, I've taken to breaking my swim up into smaller bits and doing a more structured workout. My approach for the last few years has been to stick to long sets, but the more I read about this sort of training the more I get the impression that that was a mistake. Prior to the injury I had been stuck at a 2:00/100m pace for a long while, so I'm hoping that this new approach will allow me to eventually break through that barrier.
On the bike, I started out with an easy ride around the subdivision on Wednesday. That allowed me to stick with flat ground for the time being (as I was advised to avoid big hills as I started up) and test things out safely. Fortunately, everything felt great on that ride so it also helped to buoy my confidence a bit. It wasn't, however, a good ride to evaluate my fitness as the nature of residential streets doesn't lend itself to that (too much starting up and slowing down to get a feel for what is sustainable).
As such, on Saturday I headed out for a longer ride on some rural roads to get a better feel for where I was at. As it's nearly impossible to avoid hills from where I live, I drove out a few kilometers to get past them and headed out from there. Needless to say, it felt great to get back out on the open road. While I've certainly lost some degree of power, I was still able to comfortably maintain cruising speeds above 30km/h so I'm not too far back. My stamina at higher speeds (~40km/h+) has definitely taken a hit, but at this point I'm just happy I can still hit those speeds.
The one tricky part with the ride was that I wasn't able to get out in the morning, and it was a hot and humid day with full sun. When I broke my foot in mid-May, it was still the early days of summer so the downtime meant that I didn't get a chance to gradually acclimatize to the full-bore summer weather. As such, fighting through the heat was, and will continue to be, a challenge over the next little while. For the time being, I will have to redouble my efforts to get out early and keep it as cool as possible.
The other caveat is that my gears are still acting up on me. Shortly before my injury, I had my front derailleur cable replaced but when I took it for a ride the chain was rubbing when in the big ring and anything smaller than the 6th cog. I didn't get around to getting that addressed until last week, and it was working fine when I tested it outside of the shop. Unfortunately, on both of my rides this week it was doing the same thing so it's likely going to have to go back in. The result is that I basically have a big gap in my gearing and riding anywhere between 28 and 40km/h requires sub-optimal cadences.
I'm not sure if it's just the cable stretching out on me, or if it's something to do with how I'm putting it in the car but I'll have to talk with them about it when I go back. I've picked up a book on bicycle maintenance and am working on figuring this stuff out, but I'm reticent to mess around with the shifting until I have a better understanding. With that said, I'd like to take a more active role in keeping it in good condition as doing it yourself is always the best way to be sure that it's done right.
Week 29 Totals:
Running: 0.0km 0.0mi)
Walking: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Cycling: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Swimming: 6.2km (3.9mi)
Total: 62.9km (39.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 758.6km (471.35mi)
Walking: 28.4km (17.6mi)
Cycling: 2127.1km (1321.7mi)
Swimming: 148.9km (92.5mi)
Total: 3063.0km (1903.3mi)
Longer term, I'm hoping to get back together with my normal group for a ride next weekend. As most of them did races in Peterborough last week, they're still in a recovery phase right now so it's a good match for my rebuilding. Naturally, we will have to avoid the bigger hills for the time being, but I don't think it will be necessary to avoid them entirely as there was no hint of pain on either ride.
If I have the time, I'd also like to give water running a shot as it might be a good way to rebuild that part of my fitness up without having to worry about the foot. While it looks like an incredibly boring way to spend a workout, it's about the only way that I'll be able to keep my running strength up. I will probably be adding some walking this week which will help, but that doesn't cover all of the muscles that running does.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Week 26: Review
My mileage has been steadily climbing for more than a month now, so as noted in my previous review I elected to make this week a recovery week. With Canada Day on Thursday, a fishing trip on Friday and a few other commitments in the week I knew that it would be a busy one so that worked out well, as it afforded me a little more flexibility in moving things around. In the end I dropped a couple of runs (6mi & 4mi) as well as one of my swims (~3K) and one ride (~50k), and I also cut back the mileage for today's long run.
The only downside to this approach was that the weather was absolutely perfect this week, so I hated wasting good days. With that said, these recovery weeks are critical to avoid injury so it was something that had to be done. If this TRIMP algorithm is accurate, it appears to have paid off as my CTL (fitness level) and ATL (fatigue level) are lined up again which indicates that the recovery went well (have to research these synthetic metrics a bit more, as they appear to be quite useful).
I had hoped to get some open water swimming in on Friday while I was out on the lake, but we never got a chance to get to a beach so that didn't work out. With that said, I'm not sure that it would have been possible to do much as most of the beaches on lake Erie are swarming with boats so getting out deep enough to swim would likely be pretty risky. Either way, it was a great day out with family and helped to work out a bit of stress from the system ;)
Unfortunately, we're now back to the brutal heat and humidity so the next week is going to be a fight as I ramp things up again. This morning's run was extremely difficult, as the humidex was up to 44C (111F) when I headed out and it really hit me hard. I had planned to do 13 miles, but ended up cuting it short at 11 miles as my heart rate was climbing higher than I was comfortable with. Compounding the issue was that my legs were feeling great, so my body kept accelerating on me and it was difficult to keep things slow. Either way, I'm glad that this was a recovery week as if I'd tried to do a 16 or 17 miler, it would have been quite the fight.
Week 26 Totals:
Running: 38.7km (24.0mi)
Walking: 1.7km (1.1mi)
Cycling: 174.9km (108.7mi)
Swimming: 4.0km (2.5mi)
Total: 219.3km (136.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1104.9km (686.6mi)
Walking: 59.2km (36.8mi)
Cycling: 2370.7km (1473.1mi)
Swimming: 164.1km (102.0mi)
Total: 3698.9km (2298.4mi)
The plan for the upcoming week will be to begin ramping things up again, although the forecast is calling for more of today's brutal heat so that's going to be difficult. We got spoiled by the great temperatures last week, so going back to the sticky weather isn't going to be fun :oP
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 90k Ride
Sun 17mi (27.4K) LSD
The only downside to this approach was that the weather was absolutely perfect this week, so I hated wasting good days. With that said, these recovery weeks are critical to avoid injury so it was something that had to be done. If this TRIMP algorithm is accurate, it appears to have paid off as my CTL (fitness level) and ATL (fatigue level) are lined up again which indicates that the recovery went well (have to research these synthetic metrics a bit more, as they appear to be quite useful).
I had hoped to get some open water swimming in on Friday while I was out on the lake, but we never got a chance to get to a beach so that didn't work out. With that said, I'm not sure that it would have been possible to do much as most of the beaches on lake Erie are swarming with boats so getting out deep enough to swim would likely be pretty risky. Either way, it was a great day out with family and helped to work out a bit of stress from the system ;)
Unfortunately, we're now back to the brutal heat and humidity so the next week is going to be a fight as I ramp things up again. This morning's run was extremely difficult, as the humidex was up to 44C (111F) when I headed out and it really hit me hard. I had planned to do 13 miles, but ended up cuting it short at 11 miles as my heart rate was climbing higher than I was comfortable with. Compounding the issue was that my legs were feeling great, so my body kept accelerating on me and it was difficult to keep things slow. Either way, I'm glad that this was a recovery week as if I'd tried to do a 16 or 17 miler, it would have been quite the fight.
Week 26 Totals:
Running: 38.7km (24.0mi)
Walking: 1.7km (1.1mi)
Cycling: 174.9km (108.7mi)
Swimming: 4.0km (2.5mi)
Total: 219.3km (136.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1104.9km (686.6mi)
Walking: 59.2km (36.8mi)
Cycling: 2370.7km (1473.1mi)
Swimming: 164.1km (102.0mi)
Total: 3698.9km (2298.4mi)
The plan for the upcoming week will be to begin ramping things up again, although the forecast is calling for more of today's brutal heat so that's going to be difficult. We got spoiled by the great temperatures last week, so going back to the sticky weather isn't going to be fun :oP
Tentative Schedule:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 3.25K Swim, 6mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 3.25K Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 90k Ride
Sun 17mi (27.4K) LSD
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Week 22: Review
It certainly was a good week this time around, as the recovery is coming along nicely and the weather has let me get out more on the bike than I'd planned. All of the residual pain is pretty much gone at this point, and I can freely run without any issues at this point. My heart rate is still running higher than normal, however, which is an indicator that the recovery is not entirely complete regardless of what I'm feeling ;) I'm sticking pretty much to the five week recovery plan in Pfitzinger's book, although it's certainly been difficult to keep a reign on my pace.
Weather-wise, the heat and wind have made a few of my cycling and running sessions challenging, but fortunately I made it through without any issues. It is certainly going to take some time to get the body used to the heat, as what we've been experiencing is nothing compared to what we will be getting in the coming months. With the body used to running in comfortable 10-15C weather, however, the humidity and 30+ temperatures do take their toll.
Thursday's ride was probably the most challenging, as I took an eastbound out-and-back route but the westerly winds were brutal so the ride back was pretty much a constant fight. With the wide open farmer's fields, the headwinds hit speeds near 50km/h which made me feel like I was dragging a dump truck behind me ;) Compounding this, I ended up running out of water with about 12km left, so the final part of the ride (which included some nasty hills) was even more of a challenge. I debated with myself a few times how awkward it would be to go through the drive thrus of the coffee shops along the way (can't really leave the bike unguarded outside, so going in wasn't an option), but figured that I was close enough to get home.
This weekend, however, has been beautiful for outdoor activities and I've taken advantage of it as best I could. It's been pretty warm as well, but not to the point of being hot enough to cause problems. As such, I tacked on another 12km on my long ride yesterday (making it 62km), and after my run this morning I couldn't resist taking the bike out for an easy 25km this afternoon. A 100km charity ride (Giro T.O.) was rolling through town this morning, and after running by clusters of cyclists for the duration I had lunch, grabbed the bike and went right back out ;)
In addition, I also took a couple of short and slow rides with my father who's trying to get into cycling as well. We're slowly building up his endurance, speed and grade tolerance in the subdivisions in the area, and hopefully we'll be able to do some proper rides before the summer is out. Hopefully the weather remains decent over the next little while, so we'll have some opportunities to work on that ;)
This Week:
Mon 51.7K Ride (29.9km/h) + 8.3K Easy Ride w/Dad (17.7km/h)
Tue 8.3K Recovery (footpod battery died, so had to play it by ear)
Wed 33.1K Ride (29.0km/h) + 8.1K Group Run (5:03/km)
Thurs 52.7K Ride (28.1km/h)
Fri 9.7K Recovery (5:16/km)
Sat 62.1K Ride (30.2km/h) + 10K Easy Ride w/Dad (19.4km/h)
Sun 11.3K Recovery (4:57/km) + 25.1K Ride (29.3km/h)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 37.4km (23.2mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 243.8km (151.5mi)
Total: 283.3km (176.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 957.8km (595.1mi)
Walking: 150.4km (93.5mi)
Cycling: 1,313.4km (816.1mi)
Total: 2,421.6km (1,504.7mi)
Due to scheduling issues our cycling group hasn't met up for the last three weeks (this week due to several people running races in Ottawa), but fortunately we should be back on track this coming Saturday with a few new people. We're talking about doing some longer rides at this point, which will be a good opportunity as it's difficult to push very far when riding on one's own. I just have to be more careful about not losing the group at times, as the further we get out the less familiar I am with the roads and how to get back on track ;) With that said, while I am a bit faster than most of the others, they generally have more experience with long range rides so hopefully things will even themselves out as we travel for longer periods.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 5mi (8K) Recovery
Wed 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 50K Ride
Fri 7mi (11.3K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 50K Group Ride
Sun 9mi (14.5K) GA
Weather-wise, the heat and wind have made a few of my cycling and running sessions challenging, but fortunately I made it through without any issues. It is certainly going to take some time to get the body used to the heat, as what we've been experiencing is nothing compared to what we will be getting in the coming months. With the body used to running in comfortable 10-15C weather, however, the humidity and 30+ temperatures do take their toll.
Thursday's ride was probably the most challenging, as I took an eastbound out-and-back route but the westerly winds were brutal so the ride back was pretty much a constant fight. With the wide open farmer's fields, the headwinds hit speeds near 50km/h which made me feel like I was dragging a dump truck behind me ;) Compounding this, I ended up running out of water with about 12km left, so the final part of the ride (which included some nasty hills) was even more of a challenge. I debated with myself a few times how awkward it would be to go through the drive thrus of the coffee shops along the way (can't really leave the bike unguarded outside, so going in wasn't an option), but figured that I was close enough to get home.
This weekend, however, has been beautiful for outdoor activities and I've taken advantage of it as best I could. It's been pretty warm as well, but not to the point of being hot enough to cause problems. As such, I tacked on another 12km on my long ride yesterday (making it 62km), and after my run this morning I couldn't resist taking the bike out for an easy 25km this afternoon. A 100km charity ride (Giro T.O.) was rolling through town this morning, and after running by clusters of cyclists for the duration I had lunch, grabbed the bike and went right back out ;)
In addition, I also took a couple of short and slow rides with my father who's trying to get into cycling as well. We're slowly building up his endurance, speed and grade tolerance in the subdivisions in the area, and hopefully we'll be able to do some proper rides before the summer is out. Hopefully the weather remains decent over the next little while, so we'll have some opportunities to work on that ;)
This Week:
Mon 51.7K Ride (29.9km/h) + 8.3K Easy Ride w/Dad (17.7km/h)
Tue 8.3K Recovery (footpod battery died, so had to play it by ear)
Wed 33.1K Ride (29.0km/h) + 8.1K Group Run (5:03/km)
Thurs 52.7K Ride (28.1km/h)
Fri 9.7K Recovery (5:16/km)
Sat 62.1K Ride (30.2km/h) + 10K Easy Ride w/Dad (19.4km/h)
Sun 11.3K Recovery (4:57/km) + 25.1K Ride (29.3km/h)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 37.4km (23.2mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 243.8km (151.5mi)
Total: 283.3km (176.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 957.8km (595.1mi)
Walking: 150.4km (93.5mi)
Cycling: 1,313.4km (816.1mi)
Total: 2,421.6km (1,504.7mi)
Due to scheduling issues our cycling group hasn't met up for the last three weeks (this week due to several people running races in Ottawa), but fortunately we should be back on track this coming Saturday with a few new people. We're talking about doing some longer rides at this point, which will be a good opportunity as it's difficult to push very far when riding on one's own. I just have to be more careful about not losing the group at times, as the further we get out the less familiar I am with the roads and how to get back on track ;) With that said, while I am a bit faster than most of the others, they generally have more experience with long range rides so hopefully things will even themselves out as we travel for longer periods.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 5mi (8K) Recovery
Wed 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 50K Ride
Fri 7mi (11.3K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 50K Group Ride
Sun 9mi (14.5K) GA
Monday, May 18, 2009
The week after...
As noted in my previous posts, I was pretty sore after the Marathon. The cycling helped a lot on Tuesday, but the first run back on Wednesday (data) was pretty difficult as the legs were still quite tired despite the slow (5:38/km) pace. I started out with the group, but as they wanted to do 10K I elected to short turn it and do the scheduled mileage so as not to push it too hard this early after the race.
On Thursday I did another ride (data) to loosen things up which worked quite well again. I had hoped to throw in a few small hills, but the wind was brutal (gusts were approaching 60km/h) so I figured that it was safer to stay close to home. Naturally, thanks to the wind my speed was all over the place, but as on Tuesday it was a good workout and left me refreshed at the end.
I headed out for my second run on Friday morning (data), and while it started out a bit rough the legs started feeling a lot better after the first kilometer. I still took it relatively slow until the last kilometer, and then opened up to see how the legs were doing. Average pace was 5:18/km, although a lot of that was thanks to the speed added in the final stages (finished at a 3:53/km pace).
As I was feeling good, I headed in for a quick lunch and then headed back out on the bike shortly afterwards (data). As the weather was much better, I went down to the subdivision south of us that has a few smallish hills and did a few laps. Thankfully, the legs were quite comfortable for the duration of the ride and took in the hills with little trouble. I focused on powering my way uphill, and allowed myself to relax a bit on the flats and downhill segments. Average speed was 29.3km/h, although I managed to pull off a few uphill sections at a 37km/h pace.
Finally, on Sunday I did my third run (data) - a short 5 mile recovery run. Fortunately, this time out the pain was pretty much gone and the legs felt great. My heart rate was a little high for the pace, however, so I kept myself at a slowish (~5:22/km) pace and simply enjoyed the run. Thanks to this session I'm feeling a lot better about my recovery, and look forward to enjoying a few longer runs in the weeks to come.
At this point, I can comfortably climb stairs again and there are no real noticeable problems left over from the race a week ago. I'm going to try a proper ride (ie ~50km range, 80km/h roads, big hills) later this afternoon and will likely follow that with a short ride with my father (who's just getting back into cycling). Naturally, I'll be following Pfitzinger's recovery schedule religiously over the next four weeks and will try my best to take it easy (as much as that is against my nature).
Weekly Totals:
Running: 24.7km (15.3mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 92.9km (57.7mi)
Total: 118.6km (73.7mi)
Marathon Week Totals (catching up):
Running: 69.6km (43.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 0km (0mi)
Total: 72.2km (44.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,014.7km (630.5mi)
Walking: 150.6km (93.6mi)
Cycling: 1,162.5km (722.3mi)
Total: 2,327.8km (1,446.4mi)
The main question at this point is what to do after the recovery period. Finishing the Marathon was my long term goal, and now that that's been met I have to figure out what comes next. The natural next step would be to focus on getting my time down to 3:10:59 in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. If I focus on that goal, my best bet would be to target the Goodlife Toronto Marathon in October and build for a 3:20 finish, then hopefully push for a BQ next spring. The timing works out quite well for this, as I'd be starting the 18 week schedule right after the fifth week of the recovery schedule.
The other option would be to focus on Triathlons, and stick to half marathons on the running front so that I have enough time for that training. I'm pretty comfortable with the bike and running bits at this point, but I have a lot to do on the swimming front and those pesky transitions will require a good deal of experience to master. Long term I'd like to eventually push towards an Ironman (which includes a Marathon, after a 2.5mi swim and 115mi bike ride), however that will take a few years and a lot more work than I've done this time around.
Either way, I have a few more weeks to figure it out and the plan doesn't necessarilly have to be one or the other. Chances are that I'll likely stick with plan A and just work some short triathlons in this year to get a bit of a taste for the sport, and worry about seriously training for it next year. Fortunately, many of the lessons inherent in the marathon will be significant for multi-sport events, as the endurance aspect is important for the length of time that larger triathlon distances consume.
On Thursday I did another ride (data) to loosen things up which worked quite well again. I had hoped to throw in a few small hills, but the wind was brutal (gusts were approaching 60km/h) so I figured that it was safer to stay close to home. Naturally, thanks to the wind my speed was all over the place, but as on Tuesday it was a good workout and left me refreshed at the end.
I headed out for my second run on Friday morning (data), and while it started out a bit rough the legs started feeling a lot better after the first kilometer. I still took it relatively slow until the last kilometer, and then opened up to see how the legs were doing. Average pace was 5:18/km, although a lot of that was thanks to the speed added in the final stages (finished at a 3:53/km pace).
As I was feeling good, I headed in for a quick lunch and then headed back out on the bike shortly afterwards (data). As the weather was much better, I went down to the subdivision south of us that has a few smallish hills and did a few laps. Thankfully, the legs were quite comfortable for the duration of the ride and took in the hills with little trouble. I focused on powering my way uphill, and allowed myself to relax a bit on the flats and downhill segments. Average speed was 29.3km/h, although I managed to pull off a few uphill sections at a 37km/h pace.
Finally, on Sunday I did my third run (data) - a short 5 mile recovery run. Fortunately, this time out the pain was pretty much gone and the legs felt great. My heart rate was a little high for the pace, however, so I kept myself at a slowish (~5:22/km) pace and simply enjoyed the run. Thanks to this session I'm feeling a lot better about my recovery, and look forward to enjoying a few longer runs in the weeks to come.
At this point, I can comfortably climb stairs again and there are no real noticeable problems left over from the race a week ago. I'm going to try a proper ride (ie ~50km range, 80km/h roads, big hills) later this afternoon and will likely follow that with a short ride with my father (who's just getting back into cycling). Naturally, I'll be following Pfitzinger's recovery schedule religiously over the next four weeks and will try my best to take it easy (as much as that is against my nature).
Weekly Totals:
Running: 24.7km (15.3mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 92.9km (57.7mi)
Total: 118.6km (73.7mi)
Marathon Week Totals (catching up):
Running: 69.6km (43.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 0km (0mi)
Total: 72.2km (44.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,014.7km (630.5mi)
Walking: 150.6km (93.6mi)
Cycling: 1,162.5km (722.3mi)
Total: 2,327.8km (1,446.4mi)
The main question at this point is what to do after the recovery period. Finishing the Marathon was my long term goal, and now that that's been met I have to figure out what comes next. The natural next step would be to focus on getting my time down to 3:10:59 in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. If I focus on that goal, my best bet would be to target the Goodlife Toronto Marathon in October and build for a 3:20 finish, then hopefully push for a BQ next spring. The timing works out quite well for this, as I'd be starting the 18 week schedule right after the fifth week of the recovery schedule.
The other option would be to focus on Triathlons, and stick to half marathons on the running front so that I have enough time for that training. I'm pretty comfortable with the bike and running bits at this point, but I have a lot to do on the swimming front and those pesky transitions will require a good deal of experience to master. Long term I'd like to eventually push towards an Ironman (which includes a Marathon, after a 2.5mi swim and 115mi bike ride), however that will take a few years and a lot more work than I've done this time around.
Either way, I have a few more weeks to figure it out and the plan doesn't necessarilly have to be one or the other. Chances are that I'll likely stick with plan A and just work some short triathlons in this year to get a bit of a taste for the sport, and worry about seriously training for it next year. Fortunately, many of the lessons inherent in the marathon will be significant for multi-sport events, as the endurance aspect is important for the length of time that larger triathlon distances consume.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Recovery
The Marathon takes a lot out of you, and my legs were pretty sore for the afternoon following the race. Once I got going I was okay (albeit with a healthy limp), but getting started was difficult and anything that required lift (sitting down, standing up, climbing/descending stairs, etc.) was extremely unpleasant. This is pretty much par for the course from everything that I've read, so I sprayed them down with cold water when I showered (chickened out of the ice bath) and rested them as much as possible.
Yesterday, things were a bit better - the all around pain was still there, but it was less significant. My quads were still quite weak, however, so going up and down the stairs was still a big ordeal. Fortunately, I work from home so I didn't have to move around too much and continued to rest them as much as possible. By the end of the day, the overall pain was significantly reduced and the weakness in the quads was really the only major impediment left.
Waking up this morning I was pretty much in the same boat. As such, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get back to running tomorrow afternoon. I was playing with the idea of riding my bike a bit to aide in recovery, but as it was my quads that were the problem I was a bit concerned about my capacity to pull that off. I continued resting it in the morning, and things improved a bit so I decided to take the bike out and simply play it by ear.
Once I got going, the discomfort disappeared and the legs felt fine. To play it safe, I stayed within the confines of my subdivision and simply did laps of the 2 mile (~3.2km) loop. This ensured that I was close to home in case anything went wrong, avoided having to deal with high speed traffic and kept me on relatively flat ground. Naturally, I started out gradually and slowly accelerated to test the waters. Aside from a few short sprints to deal with vehicular traffic, I avoided doing anything too strenuous and kept the ride relatively gentile.
After reaching the 30K mark, I did a quick cooldown and then pulled back into my driveway. I put the bike away, changed my shoes and did a full suite of stretches to take advantage of the warm muscles. Fortunately, the effect that the ride had on getting rid of the remaining discomfort appeared to persist. The quads are still a little sore when climbing stairs or sitting/standing, but I can now walk comfortably and the limp is completely gone.
Either way, this is a significant improvement and I'm feeling a lot more confident about my ability to get back into running tomorrow evening. In the space of about an hour the condition of my legs has improved more than it did over the last two days. I used this technique after my half marathon in September and it certainly helped then, but this is a much more dramatic example of it's effectiveness.
Yesterday, things were a bit better - the all around pain was still there, but it was less significant. My quads were still quite weak, however, so going up and down the stairs was still a big ordeal. Fortunately, I work from home so I didn't have to move around too much and continued to rest them as much as possible. By the end of the day, the overall pain was significantly reduced and the weakness in the quads was really the only major impediment left.
Waking up this morning I was pretty much in the same boat. As such, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get back to running tomorrow afternoon. I was playing with the idea of riding my bike a bit to aide in recovery, but as it was my quads that were the problem I was a bit concerned about my capacity to pull that off. I continued resting it in the morning, and things improved a bit so I decided to take the bike out and simply play it by ear.
Once I got going, the discomfort disappeared and the legs felt fine. To play it safe, I stayed within the confines of my subdivision and simply did laps of the 2 mile (~3.2km) loop. This ensured that I was close to home in case anything went wrong, avoided having to deal with high speed traffic and kept me on relatively flat ground. Naturally, I started out gradually and slowly accelerated to test the waters. Aside from a few short sprints to deal with vehicular traffic, I avoided doing anything too strenuous and kept the ride relatively gentile.
After reaching the 30K mark, I did a quick cooldown and then pulled back into my driveway. I put the bike away, changed my shoes and did a full suite of stretches to take advantage of the warm muscles. Fortunately, the effect that the ride had on getting rid of the remaining discomfort appeared to persist. The quads are still a little sore when climbing stairs or sitting/standing, but I can now walk comfortably and the limp is completely gone.
Either way, this is a significant improvement and I'm feeling a lot more confident about my ability to get back into running tomorrow evening. In the space of about an hour the condition of my legs has improved more than it did over the last two days. I used this technique after my half marathon in September and it certainly helped then, but this is a much more dramatic example of it's effectiveness.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Recovery
As I mentioned in my report, I felt pretty good following the race but things started to get sore over the following hours. Yesterday was pretty bad as well, as I was still limping around a bit (especially when descending stairs) and the pain in my left ITB was back (although not nearly as bad). As such, I've been resting the legs and doing some light stretching to help alleviate those pains and it started getting much better yesterday evening. The ITB pain, fortunately, disappeared completely in the afternoon but I'll still have to be careful with it.
This morning, everything was feeling much better. The joints are now fine, and the only pain left is in the muscles themselves. I'm certainly feeling muscles that I didn't know that I had before, but it's moving around and is much easier to deal with. The limping is pretty much gone at this juncture, although stairs are still challenging ;) I'm planning on doing a relatively easy session on the bike this afternoon to speed the recovery process by pumping a bit of blood through the tissues as that worked well for my after my half. If that works out well I hope to go out with the running group on Wednesday (although naturally for a shorter distance than normal).
I've got another 5K race (Harry's Spring Run-Off) on Saturday, and with the Marathon less than six weeks away I need to do what I can to usher the recovery process along. While I was a little worried yesterday about my capacity to get back up and running in time, I'm feeling a lot more confident of it at this point. I'm certainly not going to be breaking any personal bests on Saturday, but it's good to work a few casual races into the mix every once and a while to just enjoy the experience. The Harry's 5K is run through a nice and scenic course, so it should be a good experience as long as the weather holds out ;)
On another note, looking over my race telemetry today I noticed that I managed to cross the half-marathon (21.1km) mark of the Around the Bay course in 1h39m57s. I made sure to get to that point before stopping to retie my shoelace the first time, but didn't get around to looking at the time until now. Getting my half marathon time below 1:40 was the goal for Scotiabank last year, and while I missed it by 1m46s at that point, it's satisfying to know that I was able to hit it this time around (especially since I had to run another 8.9km after that point) ;)
This morning, everything was feeling much better. The joints are now fine, and the only pain left is in the muscles themselves. I'm certainly feeling muscles that I didn't know that I had before, but it's moving around and is much easier to deal with. The limping is pretty much gone at this juncture, although stairs are still challenging ;) I'm planning on doing a relatively easy session on the bike this afternoon to speed the recovery process by pumping a bit of blood through the tissues as that worked well for my after my half. If that works out well I hope to go out with the running group on Wednesday (although naturally for a shorter distance than normal).
I've got another 5K race (Harry's Spring Run-Off) on Saturday, and with the Marathon less than six weeks away I need to do what I can to usher the recovery process along. While I was a little worried yesterday about my capacity to get back up and running in time, I'm feeling a lot more confident of it at this point. I'm certainly not going to be breaking any personal bests on Saturday, but it's good to work a few casual races into the mix every once and a while to just enjoy the experience. The Harry's 5K is run through a nice and scenic course, so it should be a good experience as long as the weather holds out ;)
On another note, looking over my race telemetry today I noticed that I managed to cross the half-marathon (21.1km) mark of the Around the Bay course in 1h39m57s. I made sure to get to that point before stopping to retie my shoelace the first time, but didn't get around to looking at the time until now. Getting my half marathon time below 1:40 was the goal for Scotiabank last year, and while I missed it by 1m46s at that point, it's satisfying to know that I was able to hit it this time around (especially since I had to run another 8.9km after that point) ;)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Back to Running...
Yesterday's walk went smoothly, so I started back on my running routine this morning in order to get myself back up to speed. To play it safe, I started out at a slow (~5:45/km) pace and gradually ramped it up a bit to test the waters. After about 3km without any issues, I stepped it back up to a ~5:00/km pace to see how my legs handled it. My heart rate was higher than usual (understandable given a week off), but other than that everything felt fine.
At the 4.5km mark, I stopped for about five minutes and did a few stretches against a lamp post to take full advantage of the warmed up tissues. Once complete, I started running again and continued to pick up the pace through 4:45/km and finally up to 4:30/km for the home stretch. Once I hit the 4 mile point, I switched over to a moderate walk (~8min/km, ~130bpm) and did another mile to carefully manage my cooldown. Once I got home, I did another full suite of stretches (~15 min) to get everything into shape and headed inside.
Note: That blip in the heart rate near the 1km mark is due to poor contact with the HRM strap. I'm used to running at higher intensities, and at this level I don't sweat quite as much as I normally do. Will have to be more careful when wetting the contacts next time out ;)
Either way, I'm pleased by the progress so far and this is certainly a good sign that I'll be able to get back on track. It's obvious that I've lost some degree of fitness with the downtime, however that will return with sustained training. I will have to be careful not to get overconfident and mess things up again, however I also don't want to be overly conservative either. Tomorrow night I'll head out with the Running Room group, as that should help to keep my pace under control and I might be able to get some pointers from the other runners.
As for Achilles this Sunday, I definitely won't be able to do it all out but I might consider heading out anyway and just treating it as a fun run. I'll certainly have to see how the rest of the week goes, but it would be nice to get into the racing mood again even if it isn't possible to push as hard as I'd like ;)
As noted in my last review, I'm hoping to be able to find some time to fit in some swimming this week as that would likely be the best thing for this situation. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've spent any significant time doing lengths so there will certainly be a bit of a re-learning curve involved ;)
At the 4.5km mark, I stopped for about five minutes and did a few stretches against a lamp post to take full advantage of the warmed up tissues. Once complete, I started running again and continued to pick up the pace through 4:45/km and finally up to 4:30/km for the home stretch. Once I hit the 4 mile point, I switched over to a moderate walk (~8min/km, ~130bpm) and did another mile to carefully manage my cooldown. Once I got home, I did another full suite of stretches (~15 min) to get everything into shape and headed inside.
Note: That blip in the heart rate near the 1km mark is due to poor contact with the HRM strap. I'm used to running at higher intensities, and at this level I don't sweat quite as much as I normally do. Will have to be more careful when wetting the contacts next time out ;)Either way, I'm pleased by the progress so far and this is certainly a good sign that I'll be able to get back on track. It's obvious that I've lost some degree of fitness with the downtime, however that will return with sustained training. I will have to be careful not to get overconfident and mess things up again, however I also don't want to be overly conservative either. Tomorrow night I'll head out with the Running Room group, as that should help to keep my pace under control and I might be able to get some pointers from the other runners.
As for Achilles this Sunday, I definitely won't be able to do it all out but I might consider heading out anyway and just treating it as a fun run. I'll certainly have to see how the rest of the week goes, but it would be nice to get into the racing mood again even if it isn't possible to push as hard as I'd like ;)
As noted in my last review, I'm hoping to be able to find some time to fit in some swimming this week as that would likely be the best thing for this situation. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've spent any significant time doing lengths so there will certainly be a bit of a re-learning curve involved ;)
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Week 10: Review
The knee injury last week persisted throughout most of this week as well, so I didn't risk heading out for any runs. It was significantly better on Friday, however, so I figured that it was safe to do a bit of cycling to keep up my fitness without the impact that running generally has. This worked out well, and for a few hours after the ride (and lots of stretches) the pain was completely gone, so I did the same thing on both Saturday and Sunday (30km for each ride).
On Saturday's ride, I actually pushed myself a little harder than I normally do in order to get my heart rate up into the region where I typically run. I managed to sustain a steady pace of about 32km/h (equating to about 260w) for the duration of the ride, which is higher than the ~29km/h (~210w) that I normally do. While it was a bit hard for the first 10km or so, after I got warmed up it was actually quite comfortable. With that said, I did stay away from the sprints that I usually do near the end of a cycling workout as I didn't want to push the knee too far - but other than that it was a good session.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Walking: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Cycling: 90.0km (55.9mi)
Total: 90.0km (55.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 601.6km (373.8mi)
Walking: 123.6km (76.8mi)
Cycling: 755.0km (469.1mi)
Total: 1391.2km (864.5mi)
At this point, the knee is feeling much better and I'm getting to the point where I can get back to my running routine. Naturally, the plan for this week is in flux as it will depend on how well things go - but given the improvement over the last few days, I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get back on track. I should be okay for the marathon, as there are still eight weeks left, but I'll have to see about Around the Bay as it's only three weeks out. Next Sunday's Achilles 5K was supposed to be my first run of the year, however at this point I don't think that will be feasible.
With that said, the tentative schedule for the week is to start out with a short walk on Monday to test the waters. If that goes well, I'll do an easy 4 mile run on Tuesday and then build from there. Naturally, I'll be mixing in some cycling and I might also try adding some swimming this week, as it's likely the best way to regain any lost fitness without risking re-injury.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 7K Walk
Tue 4mi (6.4K) Recovery + 1mi (1.6K) Walk
Wed 30K Cycle + 6mi (9.7K) Recovery
Thurs 5mi (8K) Recovery + Swim (?)
Fri 50K Cycle
Sat 8mi (12.9K) GA + 30K Cycle
Sun 14mi (29.0K) LSD
Either way, I'll try to make a few more posts during the week to outline my progress through the recovery.
On Saturday's ride, I actually pushed myself a little harder than I normally do in order to get my heart rate up into the region where I typically run. I managed to sustain a steady pace of about 32km/h (equating to about 260w) for the duration of the ride, which is higher than the ~29km/h (~210w) that I normally do. While it was a bit hard for the first 10km or so, after I got warmed up it was actually quite comfortable. With that said, I did stay away from the sprints that I usually do near the end of a cycling workout as I didn't want to push the knee too far - but other than that it was a good session.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Walking: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Cycling: 90.0km (55.9mi)
Total: 90.0km (55.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 601.6km (373.8mi)
Walking: 123.6km (76.8mi)
Cycling: 755.0km (469.1mi)
Total: 1391.2km (864.5mi)
At this point, the knee is feeling much better and I'm getting to the point where I can get back to my running routine. Naturally, the plan for this week is in flux as it will depend on how well things go - but given the improvement over the last few days, I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get back on track. I should be okay for the marathon, as there are still eight weeks left, but I'll have to see about Around the Bay as it's only three weeks out. Next Sunday's Achilles 5K was supposed to be my first run of the year, however at this point I don't think that will be feasible.
With that said, the tentative schedule for the week is to start out with a short walk on Monday to test the waters. If that goes well, I'll do an easy 4 mile run on Tuesday and then build from there. Naturally, I'll be mixing in some cycling and I might also try adding some swimming this week, as it's likely the best way to regain any lost fitness without risking re-injury.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 7K Walk
Tue 4mi (6.4K) Recovery + 1mi (1.6K) Walk
Wed 30K Cycle + 6mi (9.7K) Recovery
Thurs 5mi (8K) Recovery + Swim (?)
Fri 50K Cycle
Sat 8mi (12.9K) GA + 30K Cycle
Sun 14mi (29.0K) LSD
Either way, I'll try to make a few more posts during the week to outline my progress through the recovery.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Week 6: Review
The last three days have been pretty much textbook perfect running weather, and have done wonders in decimating the massive snow piles that have accumulated over the last month or so. There was a bit of cold and snow in the early week, but once we got through that it got up to a high of 8C on Saturday which is quite the reprieve from what we've been dealing with lately ;)
Unfortunately, after the 15 miler last Sunday I began to have a bit of discomfort in my upper right leg. It was likely caused by the fact that I've been spending a lot of time lately running on the roads rather than the sidewalks. As I tend to religiously stick to the left side of the road for safety purposes (going against vehicular traffic), the camber of the road creates an imbalance in my stride (as my right foot is repeatedly hitting ground higher than my left, it hits the ground with much greater force than usual). While this isn't a big deal in and of itself, when the body is continually pounded like this for an extended period it can cause problems. This was likely exacerbated by running long stretches on the larger roads, as the camber at the edge of a four lane road is generally much more aggressive than that of a two-lane residential street.
In the interests of letting it heal, I skipped the cycling session on Monday. By Tuesday it was improved, but there was still a bit of tightness there. It wasn't really bad enough to throw off my running schedule, so I went out for the Tuesday run anyway. Fortunately, it didn't really cause much issue with my running and actually improved a bit over the duration of the session. It was still a bit uncomfortable to walk on it, however, so I skipped my walk that afternoon to let it get better.
On Wednesday, I elected to give the scheduled 30K ride a shot to see how it would work. As cycling doesn't have the impact of running or walking, this worked quite well and any discomfort completely disappeared while I was riding. It even stayed away for a few hours after the ride, although it did start to come back afterwards. I did my 5mi recovery run at the Running Room as usual, and like the day before it wasn't really an issue.
As the previous runs went well, I did my 10 miler on Thursday but skipped the scheduled walk in case that would help. On Friday, I did my ride as usual (although I scaled it back to 40km due to scheduling issues) with the same results as I had on Wednesday. At this point, it was significantly improved but again wasn't completely gone so I elected to skip the 5 miler on Saturday morning. This does mean that I lost a bit of running mileage, but I figured with the long run scheduled the next day it was worth it to ensure that I'd be able to make the most of it. It was certainly a shame as the weather yesterday was incredible for this time of year, but it's better to be safe than sorry on this front.
Which brings us to this morning, where I set out for my first run with a chunk at marathon pace. The schedule called for 16 miles with 10 of them done at marathon pace. I'm still not 100% sure what that should be, as my fitness has improved significantly since September so my previous race times don't really mean a lot at this point. As such, I looked over my data for the last little while and settled on giving a 4:45/km pace a shot (which works out to a little over 3h20m for a marathon distance).
Given the issue with the leg, I carefully plotted a course that would allow me to stick with the sidewalks for the majority of the run. Thankfully, the heat over the last few days had melted a significant amount of the snow so the problems that I ran into last week wouldn't really be an issue this time around. What I didn't properly anticipate, however, is that as the temperatures had dropped below freezing overnight there were a good number of icy patches that I had to deal with. As the snow banks didn't completely melt, in many places they formed a dam on either side of the sidewalk trapping the water and allowing it to refreeze.
Fortunately, the clear portions were pretty much bone dry so these ice patches were easy to see, however I had to slow down significantly when passing over them. In some areas (especially on hills, where the water ran down the sidewalk) these patches were quite large, so they had a significant negative effect on my ability to maintain my desired pace. For a normal long run this wouldn't be a big issue, but when trying to maintain race pace it made it difficult to keep my heart rate up where it needed to be.
Despite these issues, however, the run went quite well. I averaged an overall pace of 5:05/km, with the 10mi segment at 4:52/km. Running the raw numbers through a spreadsheet however, my median pace worked out to a perfect 4:45/km so when the obstructions are factored out I stayed pretty close to where I needed to be. Unfortunately, my heart rate was much lower than it should have been during this segment and it's hard to tell if that was the fault of (a) the periodic slowdowns or (b) if the pace was a little slower than it should have been. Either way, I'll have to do some more experimenting with different speeds to figure out where I need to be.
As I missed the 5 mile recovery run on Saturday, my mileage is a little short this week (40mi vs. 45mi). Naturally, the two walks and cycling session that I skipped also mean that those numbers will be a little lower than usual. Either way, the leg is feeling a lot better today and as next week is a recovery week hopefully it will get back to 100% soon.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 64.8km (40.3mi)
Walking: 2.3km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 70km (43.5mi)
Total: 137.1km (85.2mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 395.5km (245.8mi)
Walking: 119.7km (74.4mi)
Cycling: 485.0km (301.4mi)
Total: 1000.2km (621.5mi)
As noted above, the upcoming week is a recovery week so mileage will drop down a bit (to 37mi) before jumping up to 50 miles the week afterwards. Other than the bump in the road this week, the training program has been going quite well so far and as long as I'm a little more careful things will hopefully continue along that path ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Cycle
Tue 8mi (12.9K) w/10x100m
Wed 30K Cycle + 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 8mi (12.9K) Steady
Fri 50K Cycle
Sat 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 12mi (19.3K) LSD
In other news, I'm now officially registered for the Mississauga marathon so I'm committed to seeing this program to the end one way or the other. There is still a lot of training to be done which is only going to get harder and harder, so I figure that locking myself in will help to keep me motivated ;)
Unfortunately, after the 15 miler last Sunday I began to have a bit of discomfort in my upper right leg. It was likely caused by the fact that I've been spending a lot of time lately running on the roads rather than the sidewalks. As I tend to religiously stick to the left side of the road for safety purposes (going against vehicular traffic), the camber of the road creates an imbalance in my stride (as my right foot is repeatedly hitting ground higher than my left, it hits the ground with much greater force than usual). While this isn't a big deal in and of itself, when the body is continually pounded like this for an extended period it can cause problems. This was likely exacerbated by running long stretches on the larger roads, as the camber at the edge of a four lane road is generally much more aggressive than that of a two-lane residential street.
In the interests of letting it heal, I skipped the cycling session on Monday. By Tuesday it was improved, but there was still a bit of tightness there. It wasn't really bad enough to throw off my running schedule, so I went out for the Tuesday run anyway. Fortunately, it didn't really cause much issue with my running and actually improved a bit over the duration of the session. It was still a bit uncomfortable to walk on it, however, so I skipped my walk that afternoon to let it get better.
On Wednesday, I elected to give the scheduled 30K ride a shot to see how it would work. As cycling doesn't have the impact of running or walking, this worked quite well and any discomfort completely disappeared while I was riding. It even stayed away for a few hours after the ride, although it did start to come back afterwards. I did my 5mi recovery run at the Running Room as usual, and like the day before it wasn't really an issue.
As the previous runs went well, I did my 10 miler on Thursday but skipped the scheduled walk in case that would help. On Friday, I did my ride as usual (although I scaled it back to 40km due to scheduling issues) with the same results as I had on Wednesday. At this point, it was significantly improved but again wasn't completely gone so I elected to skip the 5 miler on Saturday morning. This does mean that I lost a bit of running mileage, but I figured with the long run scheduled the next day it was worth it to ensure that I'd be able to make the most of it. It was certainly a shame as the weather yesterday was incredible for this time of year, but it's better to be safe than sorry on this front.
Which brings us to this morning, where I set out for my first run with a chunk at marathon pace. The schedule called for 16 miles with 10 of them done at marathon pace. I'm still not 100% sure what that should be, as my fitness has improved significantly since September so my previous race times don't really mean a lot at this point. As such, I looked over my data for the last little while and settled on giving a 4:45/km pace a shot (which works out to a little over 3h20m for a marathon distance).
Given the issue with the leg, I carefully plotted a course that would allow me to stick with the sidewalks for the majority of the run. Thankfully, the heat over the last few days had melted a significant amount of the snow so the problems that I ran into last week wouldn't really be an issue this time around. What I didn't properly anticipate, however, is that as the temperatures had dropped below freezing overnight there were a good number of icy patches that I had to deal with. As the snow banks didn't completely melt, in many places they formed a dam on either side of the sidewalk trapping the water and allowing it to refreeze.
Fortunately, the clear portions were pretty much bone dry so these ice patches were easy to see, however I had to slow down significantly when passing over them. In some areas (especially on hills, where the water ran down the sidewalk) these patches were quite large, so they had a significant negative effect on my ability to maintain my desired pace. For a normal long run this wouldn't be a big issue, but when trying to maintain race pace it made it difficult to keep my heart rate up where it needed to be.
Despite these issues, however, the run went quite well. I averaged an overall pace of 5:05/km, with the 10mi segment at 4:52/km. Running the raw numbers through a spreadsheet however, my median pace worked out to a perfect 4:45/km so when the obstructions are factored out I stayed pretty close to where I needed to be. Unfortunately, my heart rate was much lower than it should have been during this segment and it's hard to tell if that was the fault of (a) the periodic slowdowns or (b) if the pace was a little slower than it should have been. Either way, I'll have to do some more experimenting with different speeds to figure out where I need to be.
As I missed the 5 mile recovery run on Saturday, my mileage is a little short this week (40mi vs. 45mi). Naturally, the two walks and cycling session that I skipped also mean that those numbers will be a little lower than usual. Either way, the leg is feeling a lot better today and as next week is a recovery week hopefully it will get back to 100% soon.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 64.8km (40.3mi)
Walking: 2.3km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 70km (43.5mi)
Total: 137.1km (85.2mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 395.5km (245.8mi)
Walking: 119.7km (74.4mi)
Cycling: 485.0km (301.4mi)
Total: 1000.2km (621.5mi)
As noted above, the upcoming week is a recovery week so mileage will drop down a bit (to 37mi) before jumping up to 50 miles the week afterwards. Other than the bump in the road this week, the training program has been going quite well so far and as long as I'm a little more careful things will hopefully continue along that path ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Cycle
Tue 8mi (12.9K) w/10x100m
Wed 30K Cycle + 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 8mi (12.9K) Steady
Fri 50K Cycle
Sat 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 12mi (19.3K) LSD
In other news, I'm now officially registered for the Mississauga marathon so I'm committed to seeing this program to the end one way or the other. There is still a lot of training to be done which is only going to get harder and harder, so I figure that locking myself in will help to keep me motivated ;)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Week 41: Review
This week signaled the end of my recovery period for the half marathon, and the start of getting my mileage back up to where it was before the race. The training plan peaked at about 50km (~31mi) and I'd like to get back to that level again before pushing much further. What I do after that will depend a lot on what my next big target race will be, so that is still up in the air.
As for the possibility of doing a race next weekend, with my watch out of commission I'm likely not to bother at this point. While I don't mind running training sessions without pace readings, I'd be a bit nervous to attempt an all out effort without them at this point. The logistics of getting down there would have been complicated at this point anyway, and it shouldn't be too difficult to look for another 5-10K race down the road a little (when I have a better idea of my longer term plans).
Either way, other than the snafu with the watch everything went well this week. The lingering tightness that bothered me last week is gone, and I've done a few runs of varying intensities without any issues coming up (see the last few posts for details). As such, it's just a matter of climbing back up the ladder and preparing myself for whatever comes next ;)
Weekly Totals (Week 41):
Running: 44km
Walking: 57km
Cycling: 138km
Total: 239km
As noted in the last post, I did my long run today instead of tomorrow due to scheduling issues with Thanksgiving so that throws the weekly mileage off a bit. When the swapped sessions are switched around, this week basically consisted of about 38km, and next week will get me up to about 45km. To make sure everything is 100% I'm going to take another week off of the hill/speed training and I'll work that back in during the following week. If all goes well, this will get me back up to 50km/week by week 43 and allow me to stabilize at that point for a little while before I start any new programs.
Upcoming Week:
Sun (AM/PM) 8K Steady
Mon 50K Cycle
Tue 5K Tempo
Wed (AM/PM) 10K Steady/30K Cycle
Thurs 8K Steady
Fri 80K Cycle
Sat 8K Steady
As for my longer term plans, I've started reading everything that I can find on Marathon training in order to get a better idea of what I'll be up against. My initial plan was to target a Full Marathon next May, however I'm also playing with the idea of doing a couple more Half Marathons in the spring and then targeting a Full in the fall. With the original plan, the training would have ideal weather but there is a good chance of the race being on the warm side. With the alternate plan, however, the race will likely be more comfortable but the training might be a bit of a fight. Regardless, there's still a good deal more research to do before I make any decisions!
As for the possibility of doing a race next weekend, with my watch out of commission I'm likely not to bother at this point. While I don't mind running training sessions without pace readings, I'd be a bit nervous to attempt an all out effort without them at this point. The logistics of getting down there would have been complicated at this point anyway, and it shouldn't be too difficult to look for another 5-10K race down the road a little (when I have a better idea of my longer term plans).
Either way, other than the snafu with the watch everything went well this week. The lingering tightness that bothered me last week is gone, and I've done a few runs of varying intensities without any issues coming up (see the last few posts for details). As such, it's just a matter of climbing back up the ladder and preparing myself for whatever comes next ;)
Weekly Totals (Week 41):
Running: 44km
Walking: 57km
Cycling: 138km
Total: 239km
As noted in the last post, I did my long run today instead of tomorrow due to scheduling issues with Thanksgiving so that throws the weekly mileage off a bit. When the swapped sessions are switched around, this week basically consisted of about 38km, and next week will get me up to about 45km. To make sure everything is 100% I'm going to take another week off of the hill/speed training and I'll work that back in during the following week. If all goes well, this will get me back up to 50km/week by week 43 and allow me to stabilize at that point for a little while before I start any new programs.
Upcoming Week:
Sun (AM/PM) 8K Steady
Mon 50K Cycle
Tue 5K Tempo
Wed (AM/PM) 10K Steady/30K Cycle
Thurs 8K Steady
Fri 80K Cycle
Sat 8K Steady
As for my longer term plans, I've started reading everything that I can find on Marathon training in order to get a better idea of what I'll be up against. My initial plan was to target a Full Marathon next May, however I'm also playing with the idea of doing a couple more Half Marathons in the spring and then targeting a Full in the fall. With the original plan, the training would have ideal weather but there is a good chance of the race being on the warm side. With the alternate plan, however, the race will likely be more comfortable but the training might be a bit of a fight. Regardless, there's still a good deal more research to do before I make any decisions!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Picking Things Up
As I'm playing with the idea of running a 5K race in a little more than a week, I wanted to try and give a hard training run a shot to make sure that I was up to it. I originally planned on doing a simple tempo run today, but after my 30K ride this morning I was feeling quite good so I figured that I'd step it up a bit. As such, I set out with the plan to warm up, then target a sub-4min/km pace until about the 3K mark and fall back to a slower pace for the last 2K.
The first 2.5K felt great, and in a few cases I had to reign myself in from going faster. After that point my breathing became a little rough and I was getting tired, but I managed to push through to the 3K point and fell back to a walk for a short break. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise, as I figured that this pace would tire me out a lot sooner and getting to the 3K mark would be more of a fight. I'm pretty sure that maintaining this pace for 5K is still beyond reach, however in a race situation 4K is certainly within the range of possibility.
Either way, after 80 seconds of walking my heart rate had recovered back to a comfortable 150bpm so I began running again. I started off at a relatively comfortable pace and, as I was still feeling quite good I allowed myself to accelerate - performing kilometres four and five at 4:22 and 4:14 paces respectively. When I hit the 5K mark, 21:26.6 had passed which was a little slower than a month ago, but as this included a walking break it's definitely a good indicator.
Total Time: 21:26.6
Average Pace: 4:17/km (4:09/km minus walk break)
Breakdown:
0-1K 4:14/km
1-2K 3:59/km
2-3K 3:58/km
3-3.16K 8:20/km (1:20 Walking Break)
3.16-4K 4:22/km
4-5K 4:14/km
Full Telemetry
As for the rest of the week, I did the 8K run as planned on Tuesday and everything felt back to 100%. On Wednesday, I went to the local Running Room and did a 10K group run as no one else was doing an 8K. I had planned to do a 30K ride on Wednesday, however the rain made that impossible so I deferred it to this morning.
Tomorrow, I had originally planned another full rest day but as I'm feeling pretty good I'll likely try a 50K ride to work back toward the normal groove. Saturday I'll be doing another 8K run, and Sunday will depend on what I choose to do with respect to the race. Hopefully things will continue along the current trend, and I'll be able to get my mileage back up to what it was before the Half.
The first 2.5K felt great, and in a few cases I had to reign myself in from going faster. After that point my breathing became a little rough and I was getting tired, but I managed to push through to the 3K point and fell back to a walk for a short break. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise, as I figured that this pace would tire me out a lot sooner and getting to the 3K mark would be more of a fight. I'm pretty sure that maintaining this pace for 5K is still beyond reach, however in a race situation 4K is certainly within the range of possibility.
Either way, after 80 seconds of walking my heart rate had recovered back to a comfortable 150bpm so I began running again. I started off at a relatively comfortable pace and, as I was still feeling quite good I allowed myself to accelerate - performing kilometres four and five at 4:22 and 4:14 paces respectively. When I hit the 5K mark, 21:26.6 had passed which was a little slower than a month ago, but as this included a walking break it's definitely a good indicator.
Total Time: 21:26.6
Average Pace: 4:17/km (4:09/km minus walk break)
Breakdown:
0-1K 4:14/km
1-2K 3:59/km
2-3K 3:58/km
3-3.16K 8:20/km (1:20 Walking Break)
3.16-4K 4:22/km
4-5K 4:14/km
Full Telemetry
As for the rest of the week, I did the 8K run as planned on Tuesday and everything felt back to 100%. On Wednesday, I went to the local Running Room and did a 10K group run as no one else was doing an 8K. I had planned to do a 30K ride on Wednesday, however the rain made that impossible so I deferred it to this morning.
Tomorrow, I had originally planned another full rest day but as I'm feeling pretty good I'll likely try a 50K ride to work back toward the normal groove. Saturday I'll be doing another 8K run, and Sunday will depend on what I choose to do with respect to the race. Hopefully things will continue along the current trend, and I'll be able to get my mileage back up to what it was before the Half.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Back into the Routine...
As noted in yesterday's post, the plan was to do a 6K recovery run this morning and start building back into my normal routine. As planned, I headed out, warming up with a brisk walk for 1K and then breaking into a slow run (~5min/km). At first, my right hamstring was still a little sore, but after a couple of minutes that faded away and everything felt fine. I slowly accelerated to faster paces as the run progressed, in an attempt to gauge how well everything had healed in the last week. Things continued to go well, but as I was approaching the 5K mark I elected to call it quits a little earlier than planned given that the hamstring was still a little sore at the beginning of the run.
Either way, other than that minor hiccup the rest of the run went well. The first kilometer was run at a comfortable 5 min/km pace, followed by a faster 4:46K, and progressing through a 4:36K, a 4:33K and finally a 4:19K. All of those paces felt great, and there was no residual pain at the end of the session so things are looking good to get back into the swing of things. I'm thinking of taking tomorrow completely off to see if that will resolve the tight hamstring (while I haven't been running much this week, I've taken the bike out every day so that might be aggravating it a bit), and hopefully that will allow me to get through a longer run on Tuesday without any issues.
In other news, after writing yesterday's post I realized that the Zoo Run had sold out shortly after my half so I guess that that won't be an option either way. Looking over the race schedule, I don't see many 10Ks left this year so I might forget about that for now. There's always the option of showing up on race week to see if any spots open up then, however I'm not sure I want to go to all of that trouble for this race.
The other idea I'm flirting with is running the 5K race associated with the Toronto International Marathon, as it's been a while since I've run one and it would be nice to see what all of the training over the last few months can do for me there. I've already done a training run that was substantially faster than my current PB (21:23 vs. 22:41), so it would be interesting to see what I could pull off in a racing scenario.
Longer term, the next full marathon clinic at the local Running Room starts at the end of January and targets the Ottawa marathon in late May. I'm debating whether I want to go this route, however, and am thinking of just picking up a good book on the subject and finding another training plan. That would allow me to get my training started a little earlier, giving me a little more time to climb the ladder and the option to target a marathon a little earlier in the year (as it can get quite warm in late May). Either way, I'll have to do a little more research on different training programs before I figure out which path is best.
Either way, other than that minor hiccup the rest of the run went well. The first kilometer was run at a comfortable 5 min/km pace, followed by a faster 4:46K, and progressing through a 4:36K, a 4:33K and finally a 4:19K. All of those paces felt great, and there was no residual pain at the end of the session so things are looking good to get back into the swing of things. I'm thinking of taking tomorrow completely off to see if that will resolve the tight hamstring (while I haven't been running much this week, I've taken the bike out every day so that might be aggravating it a bit), and hopefully that will allow me to get through a longer run on Tuesday without any issues.
In other news, after writing yesterday's post I realized that the Zoo Run had sold out shortly after my half so I guess that that won't be an option either way. Looking over the race schedule, I don't see many 10Ks left this year so I might forget about that for now. There's always the option of showing up on race week to see if any spots open up then, however I'm not sure I want to go to all of that trouble for this race.
The other idea I'm flirting with is running the 5K race associated with the Toronto International Marathon, as it's been a while since I've run one and it would be nice to see what all of the training over the last few months can do for me there. I've already done a training run that was substantially faster than my current PB (21:23 vs. 22:41), so it would be interesting to see what I could pull off in a racing scenario.
Longer term, the next full marathon clinic at the local Running Room starts at the end of January and targets the Ottawa marathon in late May. I'm debating whether I want to go this route, however, and am thinking of just picking up a good book on the subject and finding another training plan. That would allow me to get my training started a little earlier, giving me a little more time to climb the ladder and the option to target a marathon a little earlier in the year (as it can get quite warm in late May). Either way, I'll have to do a little more research on different training programs before I figure out which path is best.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Week 40: Review
With the race on Sunday, the remainder of this week has largely been aimed at recovery. In order to avoid losing too much fitness, however, I elected to focus on cycling as that allowed me to get in some reasonably good workouts without straining anything too much. As such, I've been out on the bike every day (except for Sunday) this week, doing 50K on Friday and around 30K on the remaining days. The weather has made this a little difficult this week, but other than a few minor issues I've managed to work around it pretty well.
As mentioned in the previous post, I also did a quick 9.5km walk on Wednesday and a short recovery run on Thursday morning. I've avoided doing any running/walking since, as I wanted to give everything time to heal before I started pushing it again. While a few things still feel a bit tight, nothing hurts anymore so I think it's about time to start working back into my normal routine.
Weekly Totals (Week 40):
Running: 24km
Walking: 15km
Cycling: 213km
Total: 252km
Also, as I didn't end up doing a review last week due to the race I figure that I should put my totals up here:
Weekly Totals (Week 39):
Running: 25km
Walking: 10km
Cycling: 68km
Total: 103km
The upcoming week is naturally in a bit of a flux, as it will depend a lot on how each of the sessions goes. If at all possible, I would like to run the 10K Zoo Run a couple of weeks from now, however whether I'll be able to get in enough serious training before it is still up in the air. While the recovery is pretty much done now, other than the race the last two weeks have been pretty light so hopefully I haven't lost too much strength.
Upcoming Week:
Sun (AM/PM) 6K Recovery/30K Cycle
Mon Rest
Tue 8K Steady
Wed (AM/PM) 8K Steady/30K Cycle
Thurs 5K Tempo
Fri Rest
Sat 8K Steady
Sun 10K LSD
With the half marathon now in the books, I'm starting to play around with what I'd like to do longer term. If at all possible, I'd like to work a full marathon in next year sometime - however how I'm going to approach that is still up in the air. Either way, this is really material for another post as this one is getting long enough as it is ;)
As mentioned in the previous post, I also did a quick 9.5km walk on Wednesday and a short recovery run on Thursday morning. I've avoided doing any running/walking since, as I wanted to give everything time to heal before I started pushing it again. While a few things still feel a bit tight, nothing hurts anymore so I think it's about time to start working back into my normal routine.
Weekly Totals (Week 40):
Running: 24km
Walking: 15km
Cycling: 213km
Total: 252km
Also, as I didn't end up doing a review last week due to the race I figure that I should put my totals up here:
Weekly Totals (Week 39):
Running: 25km
Walking: 10km
Cycling: 68km
Total: 103km
The upcoming week is naturally in a bit of a flux, as it will depend a lot on how each of the sessions goes. If at all possible, I would like to run the 10K Zoo Run a couple of weeks from now, however whether I'll be able to get in enough serious training before it is still up in the air. While the recovery is pretty much done now, other than the race the last two weeks have been pretty light so hopefully I haven't lost too much strength.
Upcoming Week:
Sun (AM/PM) 6K Recovery/30K Cycle
Mon Rest
Tue 8K Steady
Wed (AM/PM) 8K Steady/30K Cycle
Thurs 5K Tempo
Fri Rest
Sat 8K Steady
Sun 10K LSD
With the half marathon now in the books, I'm starting to play around with what I'd like to do longer term. If at all possible, I'd like to work a full marathon in next year sometime - however how I'm going to approach that is still up in the air. Either way, this is really material for another post as this one is getting long enough as it is ;)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Caught in the Hail...
After the half marathon last Sunday, I've been taking it relatively easy this week to try and aide in my recovery. On Monday and Tuesday my legs were still a bit sore, so I simply did a 30km (little less than 1hr) bike ride. On Wednesday things were feeling a bit better, so I did an easy 9.5km walk in addition to another 30km ride.
By this morning things were much better, so I figured that I'd do a slow recovery run this morning to gauge my progress. After about 3km my right hamstring was feeling a little tight, however, so I fell back to a walk to play it safe (doing about 8.3km in total). Once I got back and had lunch, I headed out for another ride but after about 5 minutes it started drizzling so I headed back and figured that I'd wait it out.
A few hours later, the skies cleared up so I gave the roads about 20 minutes to dry out and then set out to finish off what I started. For about 50 minutes, the weather was beautiful (Sunny 15C) but after that the skies started to get dark very quickly - with about 23km done, I figured that it was enough (I did about 5K in the morning, and I was still about 2K away from home) and started heading back. A minute or so later it started raining, so I stepped it up a bit to get home as quickly as I could.
Unfortunately I got stuck at a red light waiting to turn left and while I was standing there the rain picked up a bit. Just before the light changed, the rain turned into hail and, as there wasn't really any cover between me and home, it was simply a matter of getting back as quickly as possible. Once the light changed, however, it became evident that this was going to be a bit of a catch-22 situation - the faster I went the more the hail hurt ;) Either way, I sucked it up and ended up stabilizing at about 48km/h (which was a lot harder than I had planned to work out in a recovery week, but better than being pelted with shards of ice) and pushed home as quickly as possible. The helmet helped a lot here, as once I got down on the drops and into an aerodynamic position it deflected a good percentage of the incoming ice.
Fortunately, other than the annoyance factor it didn't seem to do any damage to me or my bike. I've been caught in the hail a few times earlier in the year while running, but getting whacked with chunks of ice at these speeds was a lot less pleasant :( Regardless, the weather this time of year is just going to get less and less predictable so I'm going to have to get used to surprises such as these! One thing I'm really going to have to look into getting some good sunglasses, however, as I was lucky not to get hit in the eyes by any of those chunks of ice.
By this morning things were much better, so I figured that I'd do a slow recovery run this morning to gauge my progress. After about 3km my right hamstring was feeling a little tight, however, so I fell back to a walk to play it safe (doing about 8.3km in total). Once I got back and had lunch, I headed out for another ride but after about 5 minutes it started drizzling so I headed back and figured that I'd wait it out.
A few hours later, the skies cleared up so I gave the roads about 20 minutes to dry out and then set out to finish off what I started. For about 50 minutes, the weather was beautiful (Sunny 15C) but after that the skies started to get dark very quickly - with about 23km done, I figured that it was enough (I did about 5K in the morning, and I was still about 2K away from home) and started heading back. A minute or so later it started raining, so I stepped it up a bit to get home as quickly as I could.
Unfortunately I got stuck at a red light waiting to turn left and while I was standing there the rain picked up a bit. Just before the light changed, the rain turned into hail and, as there wasn't really any cover between me and home, it was simply a matter of getting back as quickly as possible. Once the light changed, however, it became evident that this was going to be a bit of a catch-22 situation - the faster I went the more the hail hurt ;) Either way, I sucked it up and ended up stabilizing at about 48km/h (which was a lot harder than I had planned to work out in a recovery week, but better than being pelted with shards of ice) and pushed home as quickly as possible. The helmet helped a lot here, as once I got down on the drops and into an aerodynamic position it deflected a good percentage of the incoming ice.
Fortunately, other than the annoyance factor it didn't seem to do any damage to me or my bike. I've been caught in the hail a few times earlier in the year while running, but getting whacked with chunks of ice at these speeds was a lot less pleasant :( Regardless, the weather this time of year is just going to get less and less predictable so I'm going to have to get used to surprises such as these! One thing I'm really going to have to look into getting some good sunglasses, however, as I was lucky not to get hit in the eyes by any of those chunks of ice.
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