Training log - Week ending 5/01/11

This week was 36 miles of “real running” and 48 “miles” pool running (per my conversion below) plus 2800m of swimming -- training log is here.

Essentially, this week was a mixed bag. I had a decent workout on Tuesday, but my race on Sunday was not great (race report).

Post-race, my coach made it extremely clear in a series of emails that I am shooting myself in the foot by doing way too much work and failing to taper, and that I will never experience a solid breakthrough and run the times I am capable of running until I start allowing myself to recover.

Based on this, I wrote up a proposed schedule that significantly cuts back on my pool-running and swimming. He grudgingly admitted that the proposed schedule doesn't make him want to tear his hair out, so I guess that's a start :). Now I just need to follow it to the letter.

Separately, I met with my GI doctor on Friday morning to discuss my stomach difficulties. He actually has an interesting theory that my stomach issues (and possibly my breathing problems) are related to my Reynauds -- basically, when I get an attack, it's not just the blood vessels in my hands that vaso-constrict, but also sometimes the vessels circulating blood elsewhere, including to my GI system.

It's just a theory, but this has been seen before, and so he strongly recommended that I consult a vascular specialist.  I'm coming up with a short list of specialists who are covered by my insurance, and then he'll look them over and recommend whom I should see. That's the more positive news; the other news is that he also needs to rule out Crohns disease, so I have the most unpleasant of exams scheduled to rule that one out (and he also wanted me to schedule it as soon as possible -- no putting off this one, *sigh*).


Dailies

Monday: In the morning, "12 miles" – 2 hours easy pool-running. Foam-rolling+stretching+injury prevention exercise in the evening.

Tuesday: In the morning, 10 miles on the track, including a track workout of 4x1200m with half-distance recovery -- splits of 4:42, 4:39, 4:37, 4:39. I felt pretty good here -- focused on relaxing into the correct effort and not straining or trying to race the workout. We had our choice of 4 or 5 repeats, but I opted for 4 as I was getting pretty overheated by the end (unseasonably warm and humid) and I had Broad Street on Sunday. Breathing is getting easier. Followed up with 1200m of easy swimming (all breathing drills with pull buoy) and "1 mile" of easy pool-running (10 minutes -- just wanted to get the recovery benefits for my legs post-track). In the evening, upper body strength-training plus "4 miles" of easy pool-running (40 minutes)

Wednesday: In the morning, 10 easy miles outside on a flat route (8:36 pace), followed by "7 miles" (70 minutes) of easy pool-running. Foam rolling plus yoga at night.

Thursday: In the morning, "11 miles" of easy pool-running (1:50) followed by strength-training. 1600m of easy swimming (all breathing drills with pull buoy) at night.

Friday: In the morning, 4.5 easy miles outside (8:18 pace) plus drills and strides, followed by "9 miles" (90 minutes) easy pool-running. Foam-rolling plus injury prevention work and stretching in the evening.

Saturday: In the morning, "4 miles" of very easy pool-running as a shakeout. Foam-rolling+stretching in the afternoon.  And got to finally meet Flo that night!

Sunday: 1 mile easy jog warm-up and then a 10 mile race in 69:27 (6:57 pace, race report).