Training log - Week ending 8/28/11

This week was 53 miles of “real running” and 20 “miles” pool running plus 1000m of swimming -- training log is here.

Some kinda week. Running wise, I battled with ragweed allergies all week, and very high humidity destroyed me on Friday. I’m pretty grateful that this is the peak week for ragweed, so things should improve soon. Humidity should be improving as well.

Outside of that, we dealt with a) an earthquake mid-week and b) a hurricane on the weekend. No long run due to the hurricane – I didn’t have enough time on Saturday morning to do a long run, and the humidity was ridiculous anyway. I ran 11 miles just to get something done in case I couldn’t run on Sunday. [Meant to do only 6-8, but went longer to keep company with some others, making me late in the process. Ooops.]

On Sunday I was able to get out post-hurricane, though I waited until the winds had died down, so as to minimize the risk of falling tree limbs or trees. Since I had already done the 11 on Saturday, a Sunday long run would have pushed my weekly mileage way beyond where it’s been recently, so I opted to do a 5 mile tempo on a bike trail instead, focusing on dialing into something between 10 mile and half-marathon pace (with some allowances for the remaining gusts of wind, the heat, and the debris-dodging).

Dailies

Monday: 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles”. Stretching and foam-rolling at night.

Tuesday: In the morning, 11 miles on the track in fantastic weather, including a track workout of 5x1200, followed by 2x400. Splits were 4:46, 4:35, 4:36, 4:35, 4:33, and then 84 and 82 (~4:00 recovery between each 1200, full recovery between 1200s and 400s due to side stitch that had to be worked out). Followed with 20 minutes pool-running. Upper body/core strengthtraining, foam rolling, and stretching at night.

Wednesday: 12 miles outside (8:31 pace) on a hilly route, plus drills and strides (did about 2 miles easy, then the drills and strides, before hitting the Custis). Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Pilates class in the evening, plus foam rolling.

Thursday: In the morning, 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.

Friday: In the morning, 7 miles in 100% humidity, including a 4.5 mile tempo on the track (average pace 7:00, splits were 7:00/6:56/6:53/6:58/3:29), followed by 30 minutes shakeout pool-running for “3 miles”. I had wanted to go at least 5, but even cutting the pace way back, my form started breaking down. Gentle pilates session in evening.

Saturday: In the morning, 11 miles outside at supposedly 8:12 pace, but I’m not buying it (Worked off of Garmin, rather than using a mapped route, and I think the signal was kinda wonky). Once again, very humid. Foam rolling and stretching in the afternoon, while watching hurricane coverage.

Sunday: In the mid-day (after the worst of the winds died down) 12 miles outside, including a 5 mile tempo on the trail at 7:02 pace (35:10) – splits were first 1.5 miles in 10:36 (slight uphill), next 1.5 miles in 10:27 (slight downhill), next 1.5 miles in 10:48 (back the uphill, plus some gusts of wind), and final .5 mile “kick” in 3:19 (wind assisted, and downhill). [weird splits are because I was running on a trail, using chalk marks that indicate a 1.5 mile mark, before using the Garmin to measure the final half mile]. Followed with 30 minutes of cool-down pool-running for “3 miles.” In the evening, restorative yoga, plus some foam rolling.