Another exchange on the EN forum; this one started by a 61 y/o who had great success after starting up serious triathlon training about 5 years ago. The original post has been lightly edited for acronyms and jargon.
| …Back in early March I hurt myself on a training run with ENer C. L. She was training for the Boston marathon, and I frequently run with her. Anyway, we were doing a 2 mile interval at 6:40 [minutes/mile] pace and I strained my lower back muscles and hip. Could barely walk that night. After a couple of MD visits, I learned I have degenerated L4 and L5 discs in my lower back and this was putting pressure on some nerves. So no running for 5 weeks, lots of PT, NSAIDs, stretching and strengthening exercises for hip and lower back. I’m ok riding and swimming (meaning no pain during or after these activities). I’m finally back to easy running…like 2 or 3 miles at a time. I did a 5 miler last Thursday and no pain. That was my longest run since March. I’m going to slowly ramp things back up since I’ve got a 20 mile run at the end of the Long Course Worlds in 7 weeks. Coach said to add 5′ to each run each week and see how it goes. I’ll probably just have to gut it out to finish.
Lessons learned: speed kills. I just have to focus on moderately hard stuff and leave that really hard stuff for the younger folks. |
My reply: B… this is a safe place to kvetch; we’ve all got one thing or another we’d rather not be dealing with, I’m sure. It sounds like you’ve got the correct diagnosis – running too far at too fast a pace – and the correct approach – slowly ramp up distance and pace over a longer time than you’d like.
I think those faster paces are OK, just in micro doses, meaning ‘strides’. My speed is [slowly decreasing the past few years], but I can still hit a pace of 5:30-6:00 with no after effects, when doing 20-30 second bursts. Also, I’ve found a prolonged warm-up (20-30 minutes), including some of those strides is now mandatory before I attempt any fast intervals.
I am just now starting to feel healed in my knees + thighs, which I apparently abused this winter following Ironman Arizona. It was a combination of any or all of the following:
- Racing hard on insufficient training – a 5K, then a 10K in Jan, then three weeks of nothing/skiing (which included a stay in the hospital for a concussion/cerebral bleed0, followed by one week of “training”, followed by a 15K. I was trying to win each race (a series), and probably shouldn’t have done the last one.
- Taking 2-3 weeks off in both December and February to go skiing, then getting right back to the training plan without ramping into it.
- Heavy weight lifting to get ready for skiing.
By this time, it was the middle of March, and I was off to South America for a two week adventure. I learned my lesson, and came back a little more gingerly. It paid off (somewhat) in the half marathon I did yesterday, finishing 2nd – believe it or not, I got passed in the last 2-3 miles and couldn’t/wouldn’t pick it up to stick with the guy. Probably a good thing, because this morning my knees and quads are doing just fine, it’s only my calves which are sore.
The double whammy of aging – I mean once I got past 61, when I started to notice this – for me is, slowing down, and taking MUCH longer to recover, resulting in being easier to injure.
You’ve got a third issue, which is things just start to break down, become almost unrepairable, and need to be “babied”. I’ve got a friend who has the exact same back/nerve issues, and worked for some time to be able to get back to running, successfully. He also continues to trek, ski, and keep up with his adult sons. I know you’ll do just fine with this; keep to your plan.
I’m always reminded of a little scene from the end of the 2nd or 3rd season of Battlestar Galactica. The few remaining humans had been marooned on a planet by the Cylons, basically in a refugee camp. But some of the old guard continued with a resistance. Starbuck and the Chief were talking, something like this:
Starbuck: So what do we do now?
Chief: Keep fighting ’em ’till we can’t, I guess.
Starbuck: It’s what we do.