Forks In the Road

 Well. See...I dunno.

The sprint workout I did this last Monday was something of a mixed bag. Any time I sprint HARD and walk away with my hamstrings intact, that's a HUGE win. Huge. And my hamstrings were fine enough after the workout in question that I did a fairly large deadlift (at least for where I'm at now) workout after the runs and supersetted the deads with some nordic curls. No injuries there.

Having said that, I have varied concerns...

I had started getting some pretty lofty goals. I wanted the perceived large gains I'd already had to continue...but it seems clear to me that I was getting a little big for my britches in how "fast" I might really be getting in previous workout estimates. I wanted to do a 10.9 100m dash fitness equivalent workout on this last one (March 9th). I ran I think just about as well as I could...but it was NOT conducive to a 10.9ish 100m dash. Not even particularly close.

In hindsight, ALL my calcs on 100m "equivalents" were probably a bit off, going even a couple weeks back. I DID improve/progress, that still seems pretty clear. But the upward trajectory isn't as steep as I hoped it would be or thought it already was. That, in a sense, was a wake up call in and of itself.

To get really into the weeds, I ran an older college styled workout (slightly altered for my old butt) which was a 120m, 160m, and another 120m. These days I take 10+ minutes rest between runs, but in college we used to just get 4.5 minutes. I ran this workout pretty well, frankly. But...not well enough for my wild expectations. I thought I could hammer out my first sub-19 second 160 since early 2019, but I didn't. I was close...but I still didn't.

All in all, I essentially ran a 13.7 for the first 120, a 19 flat for the 160, and a 14.4 for the last 120. For my adjusted "maths", I think this means that the workout essentially represented 11.10/11.15 100m ability on that day. Maybe, I think. Which probably still isn't half bad for early March. But it's not where I wanted to be, addmitedly. Plus, for all I know, 11.1ish is still a wildly optimistic estimate.

A few problems now arise. For one, I made it through the runs without any obvious injury...but I'm three years post-achilles rupture. The repaired achilles actually still feels GREAT,  frankly. But the "good" one....ehhh, I'm growing concerned. This is not a new problem, though. In fact, I was worried about this happening before I even started sprinting. 

I'm pretty clearly dealing with a tendinosis/itis/whatever for my right achilles (the "good" one). BUT, I had been doing some new-ish stuff to address it and between the positive response to that and the way it has handled all the sprinting up to this point, it seemed like I had turned the corner. But this past sprint workout seems to be bringing the issue back to the forefront. Which presents another fork in the road: dial back the sprints....or forge ahead?

As of tonight....I'm planning to use a warm and windy day tomorrow for another sprint workout. I want to seize the weather opportunity, and double down on seeing where my fitness is REALLY at. So, full intensity, perhaps even more intense...but also shorter distances so maybe less strain on the achilles in that sense. The plan is for a 85 meter run, a 120 meter run, and a 70 meter run. In that order. Full rests.

This workout, assuming I do run it and successfully do it without injury, can be a really important data point on where things are going for me. What IS the achilles doing? Does it feel worse after this workout? The same? BETTER (dare to dream)? And how fast AM I possibly improving, if at all? I'm going to be running with a pretty big wind on my back so if I don't have a fairly gaudy result -time wise-, that will be truly telling about how overly optimistic my projections really, really are.

Hold onto your butts. If I tear something, my ghost audience will be the first to know.