broken...

It should have been a nice report about the nice 135km done in the week and a good final workout, but in reality this post is about my hip...
in short, I am injured at the hip: the muscle that runs above the hip until the knee (tensus lateralis or something similar) is strained and inflammated.
Yesterday the long run has been a nightmare: I started to feel pain and that caused an alteration of the stride until the leg "locked"... so I jogged home (10km...).
I am afraid it is quite severe because at the end in the past 10 days just went worse and worse.
Therefore I fear that my marathon is really in jeopardy and that is pretty depressing perspective.
Honestly, after 5 months of training under this scorching sun and breathless humidity, I would have deserved a bit more luck... just 15 days to go...
The physiotherapist this morning gave me a combination of remedies, but with only 15 days to go, sounds pretty desperate.
What to say more.... I got the worst "revenge" for those small mistakes done in the past months:
- not enough core stability excercises
- lack of sleep, with conseguent fatigue of postural muscles
- not enough streching...

Injuries list

Honestly the major concern I now have for the marathon is the long list of small injuries and pains that are with me already too long.
I think it is the doom from the orthopedic who discouraged me from running saying that my legs were not suited...

A) sore achilles
- root cause: tight calves and too much running on hard surfaces
- not affecting my running at all, so I am not concerned. Sometimes I ice them when I remember about it..
I will strech more in the next 2 weeks.
- risk: very low
B) plantar fascitis, left foot
- likely due to increase in mileage and always running on hard surphaces + poor mobility of the ankle/calf
(Goes together with A) ).
- not many ideas on how to solve it: already got several suggestions here and there. I am a bit lazy about some of them. Anyway is not much paiful, apart sometimes nighttime
- action: massage + using shoes with support
- risk: low to moderate
C) right hip pain
- occured first while trying the new marathon shoes on a long run
- appears usually after 15km and does not go away. Stride is seriously affected.
- cause: the literature say some overuse + weakness in back muscles + inflammation of tissues + tighness in muscles
- action: I now make streching on the area and take Voltaren.
- risk: high... If it happens on race day, I am dead... I am really scared about it. Any suggestion welcome
(General suggestions on Internet and literature are: changing running surface, changing shoes, strenghen back muscles)

13/October - long and "mean" run

This morning I was 100% committed to make a long and fast run, whatever it takes..
....it took a lot....:
a) my daughter was sick and I maybe slept 7 hours in the past 2 nights...
b) to be back on time for work, alarm clock at 4.15am (well, anyway I was not sleeping anymore)
c) it was another humid day, luckily only 25C, but 90%rh

regardless of a), b) and c) I went out with very mean intentions: at least 35km with 20k+ at medium effort.
So after 10km of lethargic warm-up at 4'10" pace, I upped the pace and the effort to slightly below 160 bpm (80%HRmax). The Km were passing by fast, at 3'50" pace and I felt overall very well and very comfortable in the effort... even after 30k, it was still a nice going..
Total: 35km in 2h17' (3'58"/km pace..). That is like a projected marathon in 2h47'....
Average HR: 151 (around 76%HR max)... (Polar Running Index was as good as 89!!)

in short... it was a very mean run...
(a pity I could not do many of them in the past month...)




in shor

Wk 41 Summary

- 127km in 7 workouts
- 1 excellent race, that left me satisfied in full
- 1 excellent workout on Tuesday (4x4km @ 3'25" pace approx), total 30k
not yet a decent long run... and I have only 1 week training + 2 weeks tapering....

=> right hip pain after Tuesday's workout, appearing now almost every day after 1hr. I guess the new shoes strained some muscle. Hope it will disappear with stretching and Voltaren.
My major concern is if the choice of the shoes for the marathon (NB RC902) is the right one, or if they are too light and not enough cushion... next week end I will make a final test.

Some nice pics from Saturday's race:

- early in the race, still together - in full effort with 500m to go (I should have been at 3'05" pace...). Nice to see that I look smooth...
- the winner

2nd on 5K race ... But it was very sweet placement

2nd place can be a bit bitter, but today for me was all sweet: the winner is by far too superior to everybody and I come home with a huge PB on the distance and great indication of shape for the marathon.
Let's go in order...
Today was the final race of the 5K series and the only flat 5K in HK.
The course is on a pedestrian road not closed for the race and full of twist, so not exactly a super fat course (last year I was hitting a pooing dog....).
Honestly, I was not very motivated to race because I hate running in the afternoon, it was hot (27C/80F) and I do not want to affect the training for the marathon.
I went only because being the last race of the series I wanted to collect the "goodies" and prize for the series and at the same time it is unrepeatable occasion for a 5k PB.
All said, I felt good on the warm-up and decided to use a passive tactic to follow the pack of runner at my level and just kick for the final km.
It all went to plan. After the start, the winner (congratulation Stefano for the fantastic time) disappeared fastand we formed a pack with my usual opponents (all guys capable to run below 16min in ideal conditions).
I just hang out there, covering every move and trying to avoid overstriding. The first 2k were tough because I was not used to these paces, but progressevely I felt better and I was not even at 100% effort. Felt very confortable, waiting for the right moment. With 1500m to go, I felt that the others were hurting and I placed my move, easily gaining ground.
With 500m, no one was closing by, so I cruised in good form to the finish line in 15'51".
A great PB, also considering the weather and the twisting course. I was not even hanging out for death, so there are other seconds to collect here and there...
As remark, the Italian domination in HK continues... Whenever we took the start line, either myself or Stefano win. Also today a 1-2 like last time ....

What would you do after a PB and before a marathon ????
Well, obvioulsy putting the time in the McMillan calculator or Jack Daniels' VDOT, right ??
They both comes out with a marathon equivalence around 2h32-34', and I also played a bit factoring the hot weather (2sec/km), the twisting course, etc on a time in ideal conditions.... But it could become really a wild dream...
All said, for sure I have the right aerobic power and stamina, I feel good general endurance, but lacking of something in specific endurance (marathon pace for long distance).
The answer in 3 weeks...
(I can not give a displeasure to Jack Daniels and McMillan...)

Flash news: Italiani ancora dominanti !! Doppietta 1 - 2

A Hong Kong ormai non c'e' ne per nessuno.... Continua I'll dominio italiano.
Gara finale della serie 5km e un nuovo filotto:
1o Stefano 15'15" (tempo fantastico considrerando i 29C ed I'll percorso piatto ma non veloce)
2o io, Roberto 15'51" (gara tattica, ho succhiato le ruote fino a 1km all'arrivo e poi allungato facile sul mio gruppetto)
Bravo Stefano, penso che I'll record di HK sui 5k sia per te fattibile (in pista)

10/October - Running Index

After the "Golden Week" of holidays for the China National Day, back to work for the factory. So I swap the "running camp" to Dongguan...
2 easy run yesterday and today, about 19km each. Weather was warmed up again, but obviously it is not so dreadful like in Summer. So the pace was comfortably around 4'05"-4'15" + some stride.

More interesting is that I extracted again the chart of the Polar Running Index and it looks really awesome.
I can not swear on the validity of the Index, but the correlation between HR and speed during the workouts makes sense as indicator of the general fitness.
Obviously I dot not think that gives any useful indication on the specific endurance/performance for a certain race distance, but at least makes comparable different period of the years or year-on-year.

All said, it is very confortable that my current level is much higher than the run up to my last marathon. It also shows the period of "stale" in September due to "heat fatigue" and mental tiredness.