workout update

I've been neglecting my workout blogging. I have been logging things in my racewalking log (cool Excel spreadsheet I downloaded) but have been a bit busy and the blogging has suffered.

Sunday: Moderately hard 4 miles around Liberty Park (& to & from my house). I finished in 40:11 for 10:21/mile according to my Garmin.

Monday: Easy 2 miles on the treadmill for a warm-up for weights. Then weight training - mostly PT for my hips to help w/my IT band. Then I did something colossally stupid. I decided to try my new running shoes (bought them on Saturday hoping that if I had a new pr of running shoes w/more stability that might help me run again one of these days - need to eventually do some running this spring for TNT). I ran for 5 min on the treadmill, and it seemed OK though possibly a bit tight and a teensy bit sore at the end of the workout. Then I compounded my error by forgetting to take my anti-inflammatory Monday night and this morning. This was a problem (see Tuesday).

Tuesday: It was cold out, and I wanted to do my first speed workout since being injured. I decided to do it on the treadmill (wise choice!). I did 1 mile easy to warm up (5.5 mph or 11 min/mile at 0.5% incline) and then started in on some 0.25 mile (400m) repeats at 6 mph (10 min miles) with 0.1 mile recovery at 5 mph (12 min miles). It was great! I did them really slowly because 1) my treadmill seems to be a bit harder workout than the road - not sure why as usually it's the opposite; perhaps it's improperly calibrated?, and 2) I didn't want to do too much too soon. I did 8 of them in 2:30 or at a 6 mph/10 min mile pace. That was still enough to get my HR to 155-160 for most of them, and up to 168 on the last few. I love my Garmin - I used the lap timer feature and it takes my average heart rate for each lap, max HR for each lap, etc. Awesome. Anyway, I digress - my average HR was from 155 on the 1st one to 164 on the last repeat. That's a little high for 10 min miles, but I'm out of shape, I need to lose about 5 lbs, and I'm not sure my treadmill is 100% accurate.

So, you're probably wondering how my IT band was - it felt fine the whole time until my cool down. I cooled down at 4-5 mph (varied the speed to cool down) for 8 minutes. I was going to do 10 min, but 6 min into it, my IT band started to hurt. Uh-oh. Not good. I slowed my pace and it was a bit better but still hurting. I stopped and used my foam roller, took my anti-inflammatory, and put ice on it for a while. It feels fine now, but I hope this will not be too much of a setback.

That running thing was a very stupid idea. Why did I do that? I hope that if I take it easy for a day or two and remember to take my meds and ice that I will be OK again.