WEEK 11/4, DAY 5: PT/Strength and Brick day

PT this morning was really good, and I talked to Karis (my therapist) about it . . . he says he sees a pattern - leg feels great on days when I rest between runs but hurts more when I run consecutively. I guess we can attribute the speed to my muscles getting stronger and my aerobic fitness increasing. He used the ultrasound machine on me today and did some myofascial/trigger point massage on the shin and lower leg. It hurt so bad when he massaged it that I almost jumped off the table. 6-minute warmup on bike followed by 15x2 of:

stationary lunges
hip extension on machine
side hip extension on machine
rotations on balance board (25x2 each leg)
lying hamstring stretch (3x30 sec)
lying quad stretch (3x30 sec)
calf stretch (3x30sec) - did these Wed too
calf/foot exercise on wobble board - 30 on each ankle

double-armed push with resistance band
double-armed pull with resistance band
single-armed pull with resistance band
single-armed push with resistance band
torso twist with resistance band (15x2, to left and right)
rolling push-up on knees with yoga ball

Then afterwards (at night) I did my short hill ride - think my back tire needs air, but that aside, I only got passed by one person on the trail, which made me feel good (I normally get passed by packs and packs of people and there was just one guy out last night). My average speed was really low, about 13mph. I did get up to 30 on one of the big hills, which made it totally worth it. Total elevation climbed according to the route tracker added up to 400 or more feet which in FL is a lot.

My brick wasn't as long as I had planned. I didn't have time to run the full 3.0 after my ride because it was getting dark, so I did 5 sets of hill repeats, a little over a mile, on one of the long slow climbers on the trail. I'm going to try to get in a 3-mile run tonight. Let me just say that running the day of PT is not the least painful idea. My calf and shin were throbbing and I had to pop some Advil and wrap my leg in ice.