The strength training wagon, that is. The week after my trip to San Diego, in late Nov/early Dec, I had a hard time getting back into the strength training routine. And then in mid-December, seemingly out of the blue, I developed pain in my right shoulder. I'm really not sure what happened, and for awhile, my whole right arm was sore. I've narrowed it down to my shoulder rotator cuff as the source of the problem. The pain is a lot better now, but I feel like my strength is really diminished on that side. I especially feel it when I raised my arm over my head. Of course, I could have continued to work my legs and core during this time, but I didn't. No excuses and I'm sure I'll really pay for it when I start up again, which I plan to do this upcoming week. I'll take it especially easy on the upper body work.
Anyway, I really felt my lack of strength on yesterday's 19 mile run. Especially in my lower back. Its been about a month since I've been on the trails and I had planned to head over to Forest Park. But a wind storm came through Friday night and I decided it would be better to stay closer to home. So I ran my favorite "from the house" long run, which takes me down to and around the Portland waterfront. It's 90% on bike paths so I can avoid most of the traffic. It was still quite windy, but the first two hours of my run were under overcast skies. It looked ominous and I was sure the sky would open up at any time. Sure enough, about 2 hours in, it started to rain steadily, with a little sleet mixed in. The way back was against the wind, so with that, the cold rain, and having to go uphill the last two miles, I definitely slowed up on the second half. But I was still happy with my sub-10 minute mile pace.
With today's 6 mile recovery run I logged my highest week (45 miles) since early November. I'm anxious to get back to the trails. Next week for sure! But otherwise, it feels like a good start to 2008.
Anyway, I really felt my lack of strength on yesterday's 19 mile run. Especially in my lower back. Its been about a month since I've been on the trails and I had planned to head over to Forest Park. But a wind storm came through Friday night and I decided it would be better to stay closer to home. So I ran my favorite "from the house" long run, which takes me down to and around the Portland waterfront. It's 90% on bike paths so I can avoid most of the traffic. It was still quite windy, but the first two hours of my run were under overcast skies. It looked ominous and I was sure the sky would open up at any time. Sure enough, about 2 hours in, it started to rain steadily, with a little sleet mixed in. The way back was against the wind, so with that, the cold rain, and having to go uphill the last two miles, I definitely slowed up on the second half. But I was still happy with my sub-10 minute mile pace.
With today's 6 mile recovery run I logged my highest week (45 miles) since early November. I'm anxious to get back to the trails. Next week for sure! But otherwise, it feels like a good start to 2008.
10 comments:
Definitely a good start! Get that shoulder better and hope that nutty weather you guys have been getting ends relatively soon.
Odd about the shoulder...wonder where that came from??
Nice 19 miles...sub 10s, in sleet and wind. Solid week, Sarah!!!
You sure have some challenges weatherwise up there. I salute you for getting it done.
nice job on the 19-miler!
Sounds like a good start to me. Hopefully the trails aren't in too bad of shape due to the wind.
Oh, be careful with that shoulder! Rotator cuff stuff is bad.
Your from home route sounds nice. If you can't run in the woods, then along the river has got to be good!
Sarah,
Due to my tremendous upper body strength I have the name "Bird Man" in the gym. OK, so I don't have big guns and dancing pecs with ship tattoos on them. I have however noticed that the shoulders seem to lose strength faster than any other group of muscles. I'll admit that I've let weight lifting go about two years ago but when I used to frequent the gym and had to take a break I always saw the biggest drop in strenght in my shoulders. I think it's because of all the smaller muscles that make up the whole roto-motion device. Hopefully you have not been lifting wrong and caused some sort of rotator cuff issue. Perhaps as the smaller muscles have grown lost strenght some of the larger muscles are pulling or pushing on a nerve and causing the pain.
Hang in there and keep those miles up!
Trail Scat
You fall - you pick yourself up, dust off and start over:) Slowly!
But otherwise, it feels like a good start to 2008.
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Ditto
Great Job on ur 19 miler!! Time to Focus back in...Yeah the Holidays are over and we can get our lives back -lol
I've been out of the weight training regimen for two years now. I'm anxious too, finally joined a gym last October but haven't made serious use of it yet. Way to go on your runs. I did some short maintenance runs while I was away but I'll be starting my training soon as the worst of the jet lag is over. I might start tonight even throw in a short workout in the gym now that I think about it. Here's to all of us, surviving the holidays and getting ready for a new year.
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