Getting excited about my progress

January 10th-16th

Mon: rest day for sore back (5th rest day in a row), dr appt after work
Tue: 6.71 km, 5:40/ km, 136 avg heart rate
Wed: 7.65 km, 5:46/km, 142 avg heart rate
Thu: rest day, dr appt after work
Fri: 6.54 km, 5:21/km, 133 avg heart rate
Sat: rest day
Sun: 12.52 km, 5:21/km, 151 avg heart rate, 1:07:00 (longest run, both time and distance, since last time I was injured)

Weekly totals: 4 runs, 33.42 km, 3:04:49 total time

2011 totals: 7 runs, 61.06 km, 5:23:44 total time

It was an interesting week to say the least.  After taking five rest days to let my back rest, Tuesday's run was a welcome return.  The break did wonders for my back.  I am certainly patting myself on the back for being intelligent and disciplined enough to take the break.  Sometimes it takes even more self-discipline to know when not to run.

My lower back pain has been on the left side.  I believe the pain is no longer being caused by being out of alignment or "kinked" as I like to call it, but due to muscle imbalance.  Per my doctors orders, I have been doing a series of seven stretches twice a day.  In an attempt to combat my belief that muscular imbalance was the root cause, I changed my routine.  At night, I am now performing some back and core strengthening exercises (in addition to my sporadic core work).  The exercises were given to me back in August of 2008 when I herniated my L4 & L5 discs.  My thought process behind the changes were that the morning stretching exercises lengthen the muscles and the evening strength exercises build the muscles supporting my spine in order to maintain proper alignment allow for pain-free daily activity, including running.  So far, my back feels much better and stronger.  I wish I didn't know this much about lower back problems, but since I do I might as well utilize the knowledge!

I think I may have mentioned the following in a previous post, but I have chosen to perform all of my runs at an easy pace.  Aerobically, I have no concerns if I were to push the pace of my runs.  In fact, if I did so, I would certainly make faster and greater gains in my aerobic capacity.  However, if I did run "faster", I would be susceptible to injuring myself.  My neuromuscular capability is what I would call "fragile".  Over the last 14 months, the various downtimes or required breaks from running have significantly reduced my durability.  So, my hope is slowly build mileage at an easy pace until I feel as though I can reintroduce some more stressful running (faster paces).

I was reminded after looking at the data from my runs this past week, that easy pace does not always translate into low heart rate!  Ha ha.  I am always curious and intrigued by my heart rate on runs and the causes that may contribute to it being high or low.  I have kept a detailed training log for years, yet I am still dumbfounded by my heart rate.  Like:

1) Wed heart rate was six beats per minute higher than Tuesday even those pace was six seconds per km slower.  This is probably due to the fact that I am not in shape or used to running two days in a row yet.
2) Fri I had a significantly faster pace (still easy) and a lower heart rate than Tue or Wed.  I realize it was a shorter run and naturally your heart rate is going to drift upwards as the exercise bout continues.  The rest day before probably also attributed to a better performance.
3) Sun I had trouble breathing right from the get go.  The aerobic effort felt labored right from the beginning even though physically I felt alright, so I slogged my way through the run.

What does all this mean?  It means I have no idea why some runs are difficult and some are easy.  There are so many different factors that contribute it is, in my opinion, near impossible to interpret the cause and effect relationship.  In conclusion, I probably just shouldn't wear a watch and heart rate monitor and just run by feel!  I do this most of the time and review the data afterwards to identify trends.

Looking ahead to this week, I have my last doctor appointment of my "rehab" program on Tuesday.  I am curious to see what the tests and x-rays reveal.  It will be nice to receive some scientific data related to physical well-being.  And, I hope to run a little more than last week.