Sunday, February 3, 2013

Welcome recovery week!

"Never lose sight of this important truth, that no one can be truly great until he has a gained knowledge of himself, a knowledge which can only be acquired by occasional retirement."
Johann Georg Von Zimmermann

After two intensive weeks of training, today begins a recovery week. Considering the fact that I am now dealing with the post-prednisone "down", let's just say that this recovery week is well timed. You will notice that I put a "Prednisone sucks" widget in my side-bar with the number of days I've been off prednisone tallied beneath the image. It's been almost two years since my longest number of days off prednisone, which was 143 days. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a nice long stretch. There are three things in life that I have a love/hate relationship with: Cars, computers and prednisone! All three, for different reasons, are valuable and necessary to me, but I wish they weren't :) 

Despite the fatigue, this week was another good week, which included a spinning class and a yoga class, plus lots of running. As mentioned, today was the start of a recovery week, so my long run was just 16km ;) Usually, I complete all my long runs using a 10 min. run/1 min. walk ratio. I have always used this method, and when coming back from an injury I would even go 5/1. However, my runs during the week are all done non-stop and are getting longer. So...today I decided to try and complete my long run with only two one-minute walk breaks when it was time to take a GU. It actually went really well and I was super proud of myself. The difference in pace is less than 10 seconds per km and since the mileage was lower than the last few Sundays, it's not a huge difference. I may try it again next week for longer mileage and without the prednisone "down" and we'll see how it goes. I'm testing out this new fitter body and stronger mind :)

Today was a beautiful day for a run outside...still cold, but nothing like last week and the sun was shining brightly (temp felt was about 0°F and rising). There were lots of people out ice fishing and I couldn't help myself from stopping for a minute to take a photo :)
Winter in Québec!

Enjoy the Superbowl everyone! Even here in Québec, chicken wings were on display all week!

Cheers!

12 comments:

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

It's kind of fun to experiment with new things/ways of running. I hope that your test on your long run of taking fewer walk breaks works well for you and that you are truly beginning a long break off of Prednisone.

Char said...

I've added recovery weeks into my program too. And I really like them. It's usually just one run less and a reduction in mileage of the other runs but so far it seems to be suiting my body just fine.
I hope you get your long stretch off prednisone. Running's hard enough without having to deal with breathing issues and medication problems.

Kate Geisen said...

Great job with the training! It's funny how little of a difference in pace those regular walk breaks can make and how much better you can feel. I tend not to take walk breaks unless I HAVE to, and then I have friends who do a run/walk method and kick my butt. :)

Good luck staying prednisone free! :)

ajh said...

I thought today was beautiful for a run too. It was not as cold as last week and except for the wind very pleasant.
I think cars/computers are love and hate too.
So glad to catch up with you each week.

Purple Pineapple said...

oh wow, you have A LOT of snow there. I'm in the Toronto, ON area and we can still see the grass through the dusting of snow on the ground.

I'm with you on all of your love/hate relationship items, even the prednisone!

Oh, btw, I'm glad you started blogging again. I use to read your blog before your blogging break and I decided to pop back over a little while ago. I was pleasantly surprised that you were posting again. :)

Dawn

Miles of the Journey said...

I was never one for the run/walk but when I got into triathlons I found it quite beneficial. There is a local half marathon (hilly)in this area that I like to do before a half ironman in which I practice walking the aid stations (about every 1 1/2 miles. It sets the confidence level up for big show.
It is in the 70s here, sunshine; wonderful training weather...

Johann said...

You certainly deserve a recovery week. You have been running a lot and very well indeed. You cope with winter weather very well. Have a good week!

Robin said...

I took an unscheduled recovery week myself...and will be taking another one in a couple of weeks! You've had a great training cycle so far so enjoy the rest!

Beth said...

I'm sorry to see that it has been so cold there, too. Minnesota has been bitter cold the last month with finally a little bit of a break today. Good thinking taking a recovery week. I'm rooting for you to have a long streak of no prednisone!

Jill said...

Here's to hoping you have the longest post-prednisone EVER!

I hope you're enjoying your recovery week, too. I really do think they refuel and recharge the body; next week, you'll feel a little bit stronger :).

Teamarcia said...

My heart goes out to you on the prednisone front. I was on it once and getting off was no picnic. Hooray for a recovery week--rest up and enjoy!

Caroline said...

recovery week...there is a concept...maybe I would benefit from that during my training cycles...
prednisone...I hate it..I always have some here because sometimes I need to take it because the congestion is so bad I loose balance and it is the only thing that will help..but it scares me so I try to stay away from it as much as I can.