Training log - Week ending 3/04/12

This week was 65 miles of “real running” and 17 “miles” pool running, plus 1050 yards of swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.

Judging by this week, I’m in pretty good shape. I honestly tried to slow down my 800s on Tuesday, per my previous weekly training report (I intentionally kept myself behind the back of the group I normally run with), but ended up still running faster 800s then previous workouts . Friday’s tempo was a confidence booster, and then Sunday I ended up running a solid progression run even though the second half was into a miserable headwind (I could have sworn I was running about 15 seconds slower than I apparently was).

So, in good shape. And so the temptation to try to top it off with one or two great workouts and pull out a bit more improvement. Nope. Not gonna do it this time. I’ve got a whole series of races I want to do starting next week through early May (racing basically 2 out of every 4 weekends), and I’m not going to risk any tweaks or overtraining.

I’m on cruise control. I’m not skipping workouts, but I have no intentions of digging deep or running them especially hard. And I’m also going to try to discipline myself to reduce my mileage some and prioritize rest and recovery. I’m in a really good place with my racing season about to start, and at this point my priority is NOT SCREWING IT UP rather than increasing fitness. Missing Houston really sucked, and I don’t want to do that again (especially since my whole reason for missing Houston was to have a great racing spring). Just stay healthy, race, recover, repeat, enjoy.

As part of my focus on recovery, I’ve decided to put my (possibly overdriven) nature to work for me and start logging my nightly sleep. I’m pretty good about my foam-rolling and stretching simply because I do log it. And in the few days I’ve been logging my sleep already, I’ve noted that I’ve been a bit better about prioritizing it.

There’s no question that sleep is something that a) affects me and b) I don’t always get enough of. 8+ hours of sleep every night is simply NOT realistic for someone like me who often has conference calls after 9 pm or before 6 am (I work a lot with people in the Pacific Rim and/or Europe, as well as the Middle East). But by logging my sleep, I’m a bit more focused on making sure that I control any sleep deficits, and remedy them.

To this point, I’ve also blocked off my work calendar for sleep. I actually did this about two months ago, after getting the third Outlook invite in a row for a call at 1 or 2 am, with the message “we see your calendar’s free at this time.” I find this amusing, but I think it’s just a sign of the 24 hour business culture that so many of us function in. And it’s really up to me to make sure that I get the rest that I need to function optimally, both in my running and in my work.

Dailies

Monday: In the morning, 70 minutes of poolrunning for “7 miles”, and then some upper body and core strength work, plus injury prevention exercises. Foam-rolling and stretching at night.

Tuesday: In the morning, 11 miles including a track workout of 8x800 (scheduled was 6-10x800). Ran 2:59, 2:55, 2:53, 2:53, 2:54, 2:53, 2:53, 2:51. Tried to run slower, but failed to do so. Followed with injury prevention work and 20 minutes of shakeout pool-running. Floor barre and a massage at night.

Wednesday: In the morning 9.5 miles easy (8:03 pace) followed by yoga. Later, 4.5 miles easy (8:03 pace). Foam-rolling/stretching at night.

Thursday: In the morning, light upper body and core strength work, plus injury prevention exercises, followed by 45 minutes very easy pool-running (4.5 “miles”), and 1050 yards of swimming breathing drills. Foam-rolling and stretching at night.

Friday: In the morning, 12.5 miles, including a track tempo of 4 miles in 25:40 - (6:28 pace, splits of 6:32/6:25/6:26/6:17), then 90 second break, then a mile in 6:11.
[Explanation: I had been debating whether to tempo for 4 or 5 miles, but ended up doing 4 because the pack I was running with all stopped at 4 (I was just behind them, so couldn’t really push through them anyway). Then I realized a teammate was doing another mile, so I hopped back in when she came around to pace her through her final 1200m, and tacked on a bonus 400m to make it a full mile] Followed by some injury prevention work. Foam-rolling and stretching, plus pilates, at night.

Saturday: In the morning, 10.5 miles easy (8:00 pace). Upper body and core strength work, plus injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching in the afternoon.

Sunday: Long run of 17 miles (first 16 progressive, then last mile aerobic to avoid running hard and tired through some risky intersections in Rosslyn and on the Key Bridge) – overall pace was 7:25, split as 9:05 pace for first 1.5 miles, 7:49 pace for next 2 miles, 7:22 for next 7 miles, 6:52 pace for 5.5 miles (all into headwind), and then last mile at 7:29 pace. Strong tailwind for first 8.5 miles, then headwind back. I'm pretty tickled with the pace of the final 5.5 -- I could have sworn this was more like 7:15 pace, and was not at all expecting to see that I actually had negative split the run (I was shooting for progressive effort, not progressive pace).

Followed with injury prevention work at gym, and then 15 minutes of easy pool-running for “1.5 miles”. Foam rolling and yoga are the plan for tonight.