Training log - Week ending 5/15/11

This week was 25 miles of “real running” and 25 “miles” pool running (per my conversion below) plus 4400m of swimming -- training log is here.

I’m a bit annoyed. I was planning on running a 10K on Sunday (and tapered accordingly), but a bit of plantar fascitis raised its head in the middle of the week.  After my track workout on Tuesday morning, I did 3 minutes of barefoot running on the infield.  That afternoon my right foot was sore. I felt nothing the next morning, but the soreness reappeared after my 10 mile run on Wednesday. I decided to taper anyway for my 10K, and see how things progressed.

I felt no pain during my short run on Friday, but the foot felt bruised and stiff after. As of Saturday morning, it still felt achy and bruised, and so I reluctantly decided to skip the race. It was a really hard call, as by Saturday afternoon, the foot was really just stiff and achy, not sore, but I decided to skip the 10K anyway (and per coach's orders, I subbed the pool for my long run on Sunday). More than any particular race or time, my overarching goal for this year is to stay uninjured, which I can only do if I ease up in cases like this.

Turned out to be just as well anyway – conditions were not great for racing on Sunday, and I was also pretty tired from a trip out to the middle of Kansas to see my sister graduate vet school. It was great to see her, but the trip was exhausting -- I did manage to set a driving PR for the 130 mile distance of 1:50:00 (including pit stop), so that’s something. I could have done without a 2.5 hour plane ride that ended up turning into a 5 hour ordeal, though.

I have a medical procedure scheduled for Tuesday morning, so next week will be an easy week as well.   The timing's pretty good here, as I'm guessing my coach wouldn't let me do track on Tuesday anyway.

Dailies

Monday: 2000m easy swimming breathing drills (majority with pull buoy), followed by 10 minutes easy pool-running for "1 lonely mile", plus foam-rolling+stretching+injury prevention exercises.

Tuesday: In the morning, 10.5 miles on the track, including a track workout of two sets of 1600m, 800m, 400m; half distance jogs between reps, and a 400m jog between sets. I felt a bit sluggish during the warm-up, but the workout went extremely well – splits were 6:09, 2:57, 87 and then 6:08, 2:56, 79. A lot of the credit goes to the weather – we’ve been dealing with temps in the low to mid 60s for the last few weeks, and this morning’s temps were in the low 50s – perfect for fast running. I followed with 20 minutes easy pool-running for "2 miles." Strength-training plus foam-rolling and stretching in the evening.

Wednesday: In the morning, 10 easy miles outside on a hilly route (8:06 pace), followed by 1000m of swimming breathing drills (most with the pull buoy, some without). Foam rolling plus yoga at night.

Thursday: In the morning, "4 miles" of easy pool-running (40 minutes) followed by strength-training. Drag luggage around airport in afternoon, followed by 2.5 hour flight and 130 mile drive.

Friday: 4.5 miles of easy running (8:19 pace) in the morning. Drive 130 miles in 1:50:00 that night (a PR).

Saturday: In the morning, drag luggage around airport plus 2.5 hour flight that lasted 5 hours, including an unscheduled landing/deplaning/wander airport/replaning in Ohio. In the afternoon, "4 miles" of easy pool-running plus upper body strengthtraining and foam-rolling+stretching.

Sunday: “14 miles” of pool-running, most at easy effort, but with 10 hard intervals of 3 minutes each (1 minute recovery) near the end, followed by 1400m of swimming breathing drills (vast majority with the pull buoy). Later injury prevention exercises plus foam rolling and stretching.