Monday, July 4, 2011

Training 7/4-7/10

7/4- Peavine Falls 8.2 mile run plus warm up. Time was 64:who cares. Pace was just under 8. If this had been a half marathon, I don't think I could have finished. Terrible performance.
P.M.- 6 laps at Vestavia in a time of 9:55 (6:37 pace). 1st half: 5:06, 2nd half:4:49. Sub-90 last lap. Showing signs of coming out of it. Looks to be a thyroid issue. If I have to sharply reduce the ADHS, my medical report BETTER be a lot better or else I am in big trouble. 1 mile cool.
Grade:D+/3 credits/distance=11.0

7/5- 6x200 in 32 (4:16 pace). 200 meter jog for recovery. Very even splits. Slowest was #4 at 33, fastest was #6 at 31. Cut dosage from 8 to 6 and felt definite improvement. Still a tad stiff and sluggish. No condition for 59.9 today. Probably would have been hard pressed to break 65 but since I am improving, I get a lenient grade. 1 mile warm in 7:15. 2.5 mile cool in 19:47 (7:55 pace). Good mileage so far this week. No news yet on the medical front.
Grade:B/2 credits/distance=5.0

7/6- Surprisingly good Trak Shak 5 in 34:17 (6:52 pace) plus a cool down. Temp was in the upper 80s and sticky-icky. Except for upper 30s and rain, this is my least favorite weather in which to run. Slight fade in the last 2 miles but still pleased overall. Otherwise, this day was BAD. I woke up feeling awful and it has become clear that my treatment must go in another direction. ADHS is not the path to balance because it contains too much Lithium, which messed up my thyroid. The medical report is so bad that I can't believe it's accurate. I think the infected root canal skewed the results and the doc agrees that it is a plausible explanation. I am angry about having to make another adjustment and I may not be in PR shape again for a while. Retro is in 17 days and if I know I can't PR, I'll skip it.
Grade:B+/2 credits/distance=6.0

7/7- Planned rest day. In the recent past, after 2 straight hard workouts, my legs were fine but my body felt like it took a caning. Today, I am moderately sore in the legs but the rest of me feels okay, not good but okay. I'm not sure what to make of that. So how did I run pretty well yesterday after feeling awful in the morning? I tried some chromium and felt nothing, which is good news. That battle has been won thanks to the tooth extraction. Enter yet another temporary fix. Thyroid glandular concentrate and it's raw, man. It will be taken until it stops working and is aimed at symptom relief. Otherwise, my symptoms of fatigue would be unbearable. My medical report shows the opposite pattern as my current symptoms. I think I'll just put no stock in it at all. How will I be feeling when it's time to train for the all important Fall racing season? What pills will I be taking at that time? What will the medical report say? The answer to all of these questions is that I have no idea.

7/8- The Lithium wore off by early evening yesterday and I woke up from a nap actually feeling somewhat disoriented. Not a surprise but I'll need to go back on ADHS at a lowered dosage. I have ordered Stress Pak too, which was ineffective in the past. I hope that I can get by with moderate doses of each rather than mega doses of one pill. Today, I opted for a morning run for a change and was pleased with the result. After 2 ADHS (normal dose is 4 in the morning), I put in 5 miles at moderate effort with a time of 37:50 (7:34 pace) then turned it up a notch with a final mile in 6:50. I was hoping to have more left at the end but I won't complain. Overall time was 44:40 for 6 miles (7:27 pace). That's way too fast but I needed a bit of a test today. Tomorrow, I will run with the slow group.
Grade:B+/1 credit/distance=6.0

7/9- Decent start by was slipping by Mile 5. Last 7 with the slow group and I was struggling to stay with them. Finished the run with an average pace around 8:15. The slump has now lasted a full week. Got the Stress Pak and it seems ineffective again. I must take as much ADHS as I can handle. ARRGH!
PM- Very easy recovery jog at Veteran's Park with the group and had a couple beers afterwards. Quite sore
Grade:C/2 credits/distance=14.0

7/10- Too much ADHS yesterday. Still can't find the right formula. Unscheduled rest day but there will be no penalty because I'm already over 40 on the week. I will try to stabilize the ADHS at 6 pills and I'm not sure that the Stress Pak is helping at all. I will try another medical report in 6-8 weeks and may seek a 2nd opinion and/or a thyroid hormone test. Sometimes I feel like giving up. Legs are sore especially in the shin area but the rest of me doesn't feel too beat up but I am sluggish and lethargic.

Weekly summary:
The streak of 6 straight weeks at or above 3.0 has ended at 6. Nothing more to say that I have not said before.
Distance=42.0/GPA= 23.8/10=2.38

2 comments:

L.A. Runner said...

Your Peavine time isn't as bad as you make it out. That course is a beast. Just food for thought- my recovery runs are always very closer or SLOWER than 8:00 pace. And, I'm faster than you. Not saying that in a mean way, but I think you should consider that you are running your easy/recovery runs too hard. In your past few weeks, you've had only ONE run slower than 8 and you talked about how crappy that was.

You are having some awesome training runs right now, and I hate to see you sabatoge those by not recovering fully. Just my thoughts. Take care, Justin!

L.A. Runner said...

Yeah, that should be "close" not "closer." OOPPS!