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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mid-term Goal

I've been running hard this summer and worked to running 12K once a week. Hope to increase this by 2K every other week. My 3 month rehabilitation period has really taken its toll on my physical condition which means I had to start from about 5K as a long run and about 3K for regular runs. Recently I started to incorporate interval training, which means I try to run faster than my race speed in three sets. First set is for about ten minutes and then I take a walking break for about 2 minutes. Second set I run fast for 8 minutes and take a ninety second walking break. The third set I run fast for 6 minutes and cool down with a ten minute jog. The first time I tried this it was easy so I hope to increase the fast runs by 1 minute per set (=3 minutes) every other week.
Now, for my mid-term goal, I've decided to run a 10K race in November. This will give me an indication of the tempo I could run at my next marathon (without injuring myself again). The thing is though, that I'll run with some colleagues and friends who might slow me down as I know that I'm the fastest of the bunch. Maybe I'll just run alone and meet them at the finish line.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Runners Knee

I'm back! After my first marathon in April this year I came down with Runners Knee, which gave me (obviously) pain in my left knee. Before i was diagnosed I tried to run through it but no matter what I did it was just painful. After some X-rays and analysis of my symptoms,the doctor said I had Runners Knee and had to refrain from running for two months.
At home I did some rehabilitative exercises which the doctor had suggested. Runners Knee rehabilitation needs to restore muscle strength in and around the knees to ensure stability and minimal joint friction.
First rehabilitative exercise: very simple lower leg lifts, which means siting on a chair and straightening the leg by bending it at the knee bringing the foot up.
Second rehabilitative exercise: was squatting, which I used to do as cross-training before the marathon so that was easy to do. Making sure not to bend the knees more than 90 degrees and keeping the weight back so that the knees don't pass over the foot. I reached a peak of two sets of 60 reps. (without weights)
Third rehabilitative exercise: I did bridges lying on my back, bending the knees and bringing the buttocks up. This felt good to bring more stability in my upper legs, bottom and hamstrings.

Trying to keep in shape, I did an extensive cross-training program to strengthen my upper body as well. I had enough energy every day to do about one and a half hour workout before dinner.

Now I'm back and running. I'm going to make a new training schedule and aim to run the same marathon next April 2010.