Photo from Mount Royal, Frisco, Colorado.

"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

Thursday 17 May 2012

It's log

Everyone wants a log. It's better than bad; it's good.
-Ren & Stimpy

I've never been the type to keep a running log. But this week has just been special.

Plus, I heard a quote on the radio that went like this: writing about boxing is like writing about yourself and I figure that must apply to writing about running, too, right? (try not to get mowed over by sweeping generalizations)

Saturday: run 26 miles on Ice Age Trail 50 route.
Sunday: swim for 1 hour with Onalaska adult swim team. During the 50 meter intervals, I beat my old record of 53 seconds on one with a 50 meters in 50 seconds (thank you coach Francis!). Woohoo! That was during a set of 6. And I was presented with a team swim hat on the same day. Then spinning for 45 min. Run 6 miles.
Monday: 17 mile run despite wicked e.coli, 20 min bike with kids in trailer.
Tuesday: run 2 mile warmup, ½ mile intervals on flat dirt trail with half mile markers! (2 min rest)
                 1. 3:20
                 2. 3:22
                 3. 3:10
                 4: 3:17
                 5: 3:16
                 6: 3:23
                 7: 3:18
                2.5 mile cooldown
                group strength training class, 40 min bike with friend, quick swim, 20 min bike with kids
Wednesday: 19 mile slowspiritual run with SR, 20 min bike with kids.

Total: 76 miles run in 5 days! I'm finally running again and just in time for the good weather. I should mention that I can't do hills, though. The left ITB can't take them yet.

The above was the first set of intervals I had run in 17 weeks. Oh my gosh does time fly! I am so happy to be able to run them again. I wasn't thrilled with the times, but I haven't lost as much ground as I had feared.

Aside: I have been rethinking the two minute break thing again in intervals. Basically, I think the rest should start at 1 min and get progressively longer after each interval. If the point is for the rest to get the pulse down and lactic acid flushed out, it should take progressively longer time. I don't know who came up with the idea of each rest period being of the same length. Doesn't make sense to me.

Diastasis Recti

I have to thank Brianna for mentioning diastasis recti as a possible explanation for my belly pooch since Mattias' birth. I had not thought of it (though SR said he had suspected it when I mentioned it to him). I just looked online and did the test for it where you lean back into a crunch position and attempt to fit three fingers between your abdominal muscles above your belly button. I could exactly fit three, so I guess this means I just meet the criteria for having diastasis recti. From what I read, my goal of setting the world record in plank holding may need to be reevaluated as planks seem to be the number one exercise for making the condition worse (I have to wonder if that is part of the reason I got this- and why it didn't go away). I have to be honest that I am not going to modify my exercising, though, because I am kind of fond of my pooch belly as long as it is not a sign of something malignant inside of me.

I found this website helpful. They are trying to sell stuff, though.

Edit (May 17th)- right after I finished this post, I forced SR into a crunch position on the floor and I measured the width between his rectus abdominus muscles above his belly button and it was actually WIDER than 3 finger widths. What does this mean? Either 1. Poor SR has diastasis recti, too or 2. I am actually normal (but perhaps have thin fingers?) or 3. I have mild diastasis recti and the normal width in males in wider.

....

Heard and read in La Crosse, WI:

said: "grody to the max!"
written: "What is your favorite past time?"

(to the second, I don't think they wanted my answer, which was "The Renaissance")

14 comments:

Olga said...

I've got same thing. The diastasis recti, since first baby.

sea legs girl said...

Olga, you sure do hide it well! :)

PiccolaPineCone said...

interesting thought re: intervals and lengthening rest breaks. i can see your logic but here is my counter point: take a 5 km race... every km gets tougher with more lactic & muscle fatigue accumulated. the goal of a work-out such as the one you did is to simulate that and train you to run even, fast km splits despite the accumulation... lengthening rest periods work against this.

i suspected that about plank and diastasis recti. i did tons and tons of plank after the birth of la cocotte and saw mine getting worse but thanks for the confirmation. so what is an ab seeking mother to do?

Coach Jen said...

I've had diastasis recti since my daughter was born and it sucks, I have that pooch and I feel helpless about it! I talked to a surgeon colleague and got the unfortnate answer that the only true fix is surgery, but PT told me pilates does help, I've been trying but just don't fit it in more then once a week.

As far as the rest in intervals are you just slowing or stopping to rest? I find that I try to do no more then 1/2 the time it took for the interval for the rest, no real theory behind it just my thing.

Brianne said...

Hmm... interesting about SR having a gap too. Maybe the norm for males is wider. I wish I would have known about it before I had kids so I would know what my normal is.

SteveQ said...

So... to answer Brianne's question, I had to do the test myself (what I do for "science"...) I can stick three fingers in there with room to spare.

Alicia Hudelson said...

I feel like any test relying on finger width has to be flawed; one of Divesh's fingers is twice as wide as one of mine, and when you're talking about only three fingers, that's kind of significant!

That's a nice interval workout. I'm jealous of your training week--I got struck down by the Death Flu on Monday night and haven't been able to run since:(

Diana said...

I've got the same problem with diastasis. I noticed it during my pregnancy, and I think it's here to stay. There goes my amazingly lucrative modeling career.

I love keeping a running log. It helps to keep me motivated even when I'm having a rough patch with running.

sea legs girl said...

Diana, they could probably use models for the diastasis recti website ;). Although you have a bunch of women here as competition!

sea legs girl said...

I'm trying to figure out why the following (awesome) comment from an anon did not show up here but showed up as a blog comment in my email. Anyway, here it is!


"Just FYI, I am now spending the day saying things like "My beloved ice cream sandwich..." and "My collection of nose goblins." Ren's last name is suspiciously like your own."

sea legs girl said...

Alicia, "death flu"? Why don't you come to La Crosse for a visit again? Sounds like something our family would like to try...

Get better!

sea legs girl said...

I see your logic with the breaks PPC. But then why wouldn't we just run a 5k to prepare for a 5k?

PiccolaPineCone said...

because an all-out 5 km requires taper and recovery and constantly running 5 kms would eventually eat away at base fitness therefore we use work-outs with injected rest breaks to simulate race effort which require less recovery and allow bigger training load. the way i see it, the point of the first couple of intervals is simply to tire you out for the last intervals which is where the real work happens.

SteveQ said...

The anonymous comment was from me; why it went where it did must have something to do with the strange system I was using while waiting for power to come back at my house.