Training Update: New Post-Surgery Records

The tweaks I have made to my training since my last setback have paid off. By keeping my long runs slower, I have been able to go as far as 16.5 miles in a single run (at about 10:30/mile pace) and 37 miles in a 7-day cycle. I'm happy that I've been able to go much farther this year. 

It's not out of the question that I will try to run an ultramarathon by the end of the year. Everything would have to go well over the next several weeks for that to be possible. If things don't go well...I'll back off and start thinking about maybe doing a long race in the Spring. 

My plans for the next few weeks include doing some speedwork (as I've been doing...see below) and trying to move my long run to 18 and then 20 miles. If it is just not there...I'll back down. The race I'm thinking of doing is a timed race in mid December. If the next few weeks go well, I'll follow up with more on the length of the race and how I will approach it.

My knee is still a little bit painful here and there. It is still stiff. Somehow, the knee has been bouncing back from workouts and not getting too inflamed. I have not been taking any medications regularly. If my knee stays like it has been recently...I can manage it. However, I still feel like a flare up could happen at any time. Every time I push the distance further or the pace faster...I wonder how the knee will feel the next day and the next run (or cycling or lifting session; I do both of those twice a week still).

So...what has been working for me? I have a strict speed limit on my long runs. I never go faster than 10-minute-per-mile pace (at least not on purpose). That has clearly helped. I started speed work again by doing a set of ten 30-second fast repeats with 90-second rest intervals. After doing that once per week for a month or so, I began increasing the duration of the repeats by 5 seconds and reducing the rest intervals by 5 seconds each week. This week I am going to attempt to jump from 50s/70s to 60s/60s. I'm running this as hard as my knee will allow. My fastest 50s interval last week was at 6:18/mile pace, while I averaged about 6:26 across all the repeats. My heart rate is spiking up to the mid-to-high 170s...putting this into maxVO2 territory. I'm also keeping a steady pace on the rest intervals, so that my heart rate is staying, on average, in "tempo" territory for me (about 160) for 20 minutes straight. I'm hoping this simple speedwork strategy will help rebuild my speed stride, give my maxVO2 a little boost, and also stimulate a little improvement in my lactate threshold. I think this will work (as long as my knee holds up).

Interestingly, my "digital limp" (spending more time on my uninjured left leg) has persisted and still evens out when I run fast (see pic below). Strangely...when I go even faster I spend more time on the injured leg when I achieve peak speed. I don't know what this means, but I'm interested to see if my ground contact balance evens out a bit more as I improve.

I'm nearly 3 years out from the first (and more serious) knee surgery and I am still (very slowly) recovering. I knew when I started this running journey after the two surgeries that there would be setbacks. My hope was that the peaks would be higher and maybe the valleys not as low as I zig-zag towards the best that I can be. I'm at a new peak right now. I'm running at my longest and fastest since the surgeries. I think the journey will have more ups and downs, but I'm still intrigued to see just how high I can climb.