Training log - Week ending 7/01/12

This week was 70 miles of “real running” and 10 “miles” pool running, plus 2000 yards of swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.  

Was off at the beginning of the week – I thought at first I was sick, but I’m now thinking it might have been an allergic reaction to something.    Hard to tell.  Good news is that it passed pretty quickly - I was still a bit off on Tuesday and Wednesday, but felt good again by Friday.

Bigger news of the week was the weather.  We're dealing with high temps and humidity (DP of 70 is starting to feel normal).  I'm actually *really* happy with how I'm running in the conditions -- generally I'm someone who suffers a LOT in these conditions, especially breathing-wise.  The fact that I'm running the way I'm running currently makes me hopeful that I'll have a major breakthrough this fall.  

We also had massive storms hit the DC area on Friday night – essentially we got hit by a “land hurricane” with almost no warning.  Knocked a TON of trees down, meaning that my weekend runs involved lots of climbing over fallen trees and debris.  Really good for hip strength/flexibility development.

I’m racing on Wednesday, so I backed off on stuff over the weekend (always  a bit difficult to figure out how to structure a week when the race isn’t on Saturday or Sunday).  I’m also racing again on Saturday (mile) so this will be a two race week.

Dailies

Monday:   Felt sick in the morning, with aches, headache, scratchy throat, and elevated HR (also slept 8.5 hours, which NEVER happens).  So, took it off and also called in sick to work, after trying to focus but being unable to.  Napped and chugged zinc/fluids for most of the day, and felt better by mid-afternoon, so went for a quick jog to see how running felt.  Shakeout felt really good (2.5 miles in 7:48 pace with very easy effort), so apparently I wasn’t that sick after all.  Also did some foam rolling and stretching in the evening.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 13.5 miles including a workout of 7 hill repeats – nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes).     Followed with injury prevention work and 15 minutes of easy pool-running.  Floor barre and foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   In the morning, 12 miles easy (8:08 pace) and then a yoga class.  Later, did another 4 miles easy (7:48 pace).  Foam rolling and stretching at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, strength training and injury prevention exercises, followed by 600 yards of swimming and 45 minutes of easy poolrunning for “4.5 miles.”   Foam rolling and stretching at night.

Friday:  In the morning, 13.5 miles including a tempo workout of 4800m, then full recovery (~8 minutes) followed by 1600m.  Splits were 4800m in 19:22 (6:30 pace, 6:44, 6:27, 6:11 - coach told us to start very slow for first 6 laps, and then open up) and then 6:05 for the 1600m.  Followed with injury prevention work and 20 minutes of easy pool running.  Foam-rolling and pilates in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, 10.5 miles very easy (8:20), plus drills both planned and impromptu (did some drills before the run, but also had to climb over a lot of trees during the run).  Upper body strengthwork plus stretching and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   14 miles aerobic (7:54), plus more tree climbing, followed by 1400 yards of swimming and 20 minutes of recovery pool-running (skipped heavy injury prevention work since I’m racing on Weds).    Yoga and foamrolling in the afternoon.