Training log - Week ending 12/28/2014

This week was 44 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

A bit of a rough week - on Monday I learned that my beloved elderly cat had both inflamed intestines and a liver tumor indicated on an ultrasound.  A tumor isn't always cancer, but in a cat of her age (almost 16) with these findings, cancer is at the top of the list for suspected diagnoses.

Aramina, during a previous hospitalization.

So, that was a cue to a very stressful week.  I've learned that stress in other parts of my life predisposes me to injury and overtraining - I don't recover that well when I'm sleeping, and when I'm distracted, I'm more likely to take bad steps and twist things, etc. 

And despite backing off on my training some, that was what happened.  From an overanalytic standpoint, it was interesting to note just how high my resting HR got as I worried over my cat.  And sure enough, I also took a bad step with my left foot on Wednesday, which aggravated both ankles - the left from twisting it, and the right (my "bad ankle" to begin with) from having to catch myself.  So I backed off the rest of the week - opting for pool-running on Christmas day and keeping my other runs easy pace wise - using hard swimming and pool-running intervals to get the HR up.

And yes, there was a pool open on Christmas morning, at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville Maryland, which was fortunately on the way to my parents' house (and by "on the way" I mean "in the same state").

As for sweet kitty, we met with the oncologist the day after Christmas for a consult.  In a nutshell, it might be cancer, or it might not - it's possible that the inflamed intestines are a result of her kidney disease, and the tumor appears cystic on ultrasound (so not obviously cancerous at first glance). 

But, there's no way to know for certain -- we can't do a biopsy or aspiration to check for cancer, since she can't be sedated or anesthetized, due to her high blood pressure, heart murmur, and kidney disease.  So, we're instead giving her some meds to reduce the intestinal inflammation and watching the tumor to see if it grows or stays consistent.

(obvious question - why don't I put the poor old kitty with kidney disease, a heart defect, high blood pressure, and now possibly intestinal cancer to sleep?  Well, kitty is still enjoying life, playful, snugly, eating and pooping well, acting like a cat half her age, and doesn't seem to be in any pain.  And she doesn't mind being pilled or getting shots, and handles vet visits well.  I'm not going to do any treatment that makes her uncomfortable - palliative care only.  But as long as she's happy and comfortable, we'll keep going.)

Of course, this new veterinary regimen makes for tricky scheduling.  She's now on five meds (carafate, budesonide, atenolol, amlodipine, and pepsid), and one of the drugs (carafate) has to be given every 12 hours, and at a spacing of 2 hours from it and any other meds/food.   So, my workout schedule has been a bit chaotic while I try to figure out how to combine it with cat care (and also work). 

And yes, Aramina now has her own "training log" on Google Calendar, where I document the times of her daily meds, and also her eating and her poo (I kid you not - poo is very important here).  I'm not planning on giving her her own blog, though.  I have to draw the line somewhere.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and 6 "miles" easy pool-running; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  7.5 miles, including 6 hill repeats, followed by some injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night

 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (9:25).  Later did a yoga class and 1500 yards of swimming. Foam rolling in afternoon.

Thursday:   6 "miles" of beltless pool-running, followed by injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  4 miles easy (8:25), some lower body injury prevention work, and 2500 yards of swimming, including a hard 6x100 on 2:00 in 1:38.67, 1:38.73, 1:40.40 (but hit late), 1:39.48, 1:39.64, 1:39.47, followed by a tempo effort set of 200/150/100/5x50 on 2:00 (splits were 3:27.97, 2:33.84, 1:42.98, 50.67, 50.77, 49.72, 51.02, 50.44).  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   11 miles easy (8:24), followed by yoga and upper body strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  11 miles very easy (9:04 pace), followed by 6 "miles" pool-running, including a set of 10x3:00 hard, 1:00 easy.  Yoga and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 12/21/14

This week was 52.5 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running and 3000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Not too much to report here - still coming back.  I did my first bit of harder running on Friday with a tempo - the tempo was pretty slow, which is partially because I'm really trying to keep my workouts controlled, and partially because I'm out of shape, both mentally and physically.

I'm still playing with the running metrics on my 920.  I'm sure they're of limited value in the end (just like paces and HR), but fun to geek about.  Two things I noticed:

1) cadence - I generally have a fairly high cadence - about 190-195.  What was interesting is how much that cadence can change based on circumstances.  Below, the first picture is my cadence for an easy run on a fairly hilly route where I was also dodging puddles and pedestrians, stopping at lights, etc.  Next is my cadence for the 2x3200 on Thursday.  The difference between the two (variable on left, very steady on right) is exactly what you'd expect to see, but still interesting.  (you can click on each picture to enlarge it).

2) ground contact time.  On Saturday, an easy run turned into a hard run for the last few miles - the change in ground contact time really stands out.

Neat, huh?

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and 3 "miles" easy pool-running; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  10.5 miles easy (8:47 pace), 1500 yards swimming, and some injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night

 

Wednesday: 4 miles easy to yoga (9:10 pace), a yoga class, and then another 4 miles home (8:31).  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Thursday:   10 miles, including a sleepy tempo workout of 2x3200 (split as 13:59 -7:09/6:50 and 13:30 - 6:51/6:39).  Followed with injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  Yoga and 6 "miles" easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   10 miles as an unplanned progression run- averaging 8 mile pace, but picked it up, finishing the last two miles at roughly 6:45 pace (my coach told me to pick it up - apparently I overdid it). Followed with upper body strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  14 miles easy (8:43 pace), yoga, and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 12/14/2014

This week was 45 miles of running, 7 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Recovery week #3.  Still a bit tired, but definitely starting to feel more normal.  By the end of the week, I had built up to a 12 mile run - it wasn't terribly challenging from an energy standpoint, but did leave me pretty achy after.   It's definitely taken me longer to recover from Philly than from Shamrock, but that makes sense, given the thrashing I gave my quads.  Hopefully in another few days I'll feel ready to get back into training.  I really do miss the workouts.
 
I also got a new toy this week - a Garmin Forerunner 920xt. 

Did I need a new Garmin?  Well......that depends on your definition of "need."  I've been doing quite well with my 910xt, and have a 310xt as back-up.

Rather, I had a 310xt as back-up until this week. Apparently at some point it sprung a leak in its waterproofing.  It passed in a surprisingly sad splay of air bubbles and screen static during Monday's pool-run.

I named him Homer. 
Cuz no name says
sex like Homer. 
And when I hit the
wrong button I
yell "D'oh"!

Of course, I still had the 910xt.  However, that Garmin was starting to show signs of age - the battery life was half of what it was in its prime, it was starting to forget workouts, and it no longer screen-locked.  Time to put it out to pasture.

And yes, I could have just gotten another 910xt - it's a great watch and now available for a good price.  But I wanted new and shiny.  And I had a gift certificate to blow. 

And that's how I came to own the sex toy pictured at right. 

(it vibrates on command and I purchased with lust in my heart.  Ergo, sex toy).

So...how is it?  Well, first of all, anyone interested in the 920xt should read DCRainmaker's review.  Then come back.  (I'll wait).

***

Truth is, despite the pre-purchase lust, I didn't love this Garmin at first wear the way I loved the 910xt.  I think that's because there's several radical changes between the 920xt and 910xt that required some adjustment. 

For one thing, the design of the watch is subtly different from the earlier Forerunners.  To illustrate, I've posted a picture of all four of my Garmins.  From left to right, they are the 305, the 310xt, the 910xt, and the 920xt.

If you click on the picture to expand, and look closely at the buttons, there are some key differences between the first three models and the 920xt. 

First of all- for the previous editions the bottom two buttons (lap and stop) are actually on the face of the Garmin, just below the screen.  But for the 920xt, the buttons have been relocated below the edge of the face of the watch, closer to the strap itself. 

This shift in lap button location was mildly annoying during my first run with the device - when trying to lap, I kept poking the screen, where those buttons were in the earlier models.  By the end of the run, I had successfully reprogrammed myself to hit the right location, so it's not too hard to unlearn those old habits.  But it does require a bit of adjustment - I wouldn't recommend using this watch for the first time in a race if getting splits is important to you.

Secondly, while the 305, 310xt, and 910xt each have three buttons on the right (up, down, and enter), the 920xt just has two - up and down.  On the 920xt the enter button is also the start/stop and is on the bottom of the watch.  This resulted in a learning curve when navigating the menu - I kept hitting down when I meant to hit enter.

That wasn't the only source of difficulty menu-wise.  The 920xt's menu structure is different from those of the previous models.  I suspect that this is because there are so many additional features in the 920xt that it made more sense to revamp the menu completely than to try to build on the previous.

However, I found the new 920xt user interface (UI) hard to navigate.  With previous Garmins, I never needed to read the user's manual.  The 305/310xt/910xt interface was intuitive.  Not so for the Garmin 920xt - I've had to review the online user manual multiple times to figure out how to do things that were easy before.  I want to blame this on subpar UI design.  However, I do note that I am very used to the old Garmin menu structure, having used them for 7+ years.  Part of my struggles with the UI (and also the button location) are because I've had to break old habits; someone brand new to the Forerunner series, or alternately, a habitual RTFM'er,* will have less issue.  And the happy news is that 48 hours into my ownership, I think I've got the new interface and button locations down.

 

*RTFM -> "Read the F'ing Manual"
 

As for the additional functionality itself?  It's fun, though I'm not sure it's an additional $200 worth of fun.  Running-wise, I got additional metrics on running cadence (about 190 for me), vertical oscillation (8 cm) and stride length (1 meter during Sunday's easy run).  I love numbers, but I'm not really sure what I'll do with these.  

 

The 920xt also has a "recovery advisor", and smugly informed me after Sunday's run that I would need 5 days before I'd be ready to run hard.  I'm moderately annoyed that I've apparently purchased a device that will lecture me on the virtues of rest - I already have a coach, a PT, and a boyfriend for that. 

 

Swimming-wise, I do like it a lot more than the 910xt - it offers a lot more in the way of display screen options, and allows me to note the distance of drills at the time I'm doing them.  To explain this to non-swimmers - I liked swimming with the 910xt because it automatically counted my laps - letting me know when I had hit a preset distance.  However, it counted laps via the motion of my left arm, which meant that it ignored laps that I used a kick board for, and got confused by one armed swimming drills.  Now, I can add those in as I do them, to keep the overall yard count accurate.  It's a little thing, but it's so much nicer not to have to keep mental count of how many yards I've kicked.   The screen is also brighter and easier to read in the pool.

 

There's also some lifestyle functions.  It serves as a pedometer, which has proven surprisingly addictive.  Apparently I'm less sedentary than I thought I was - on a non-running day I've still gotten about 13,000 steps in*.  It will also track my sleep at night - tracking how much I moved during the night as a metric of how well I slept.  Of course, I'm not sure how much use this is - if I had a rough night of sleeping, I generally know it. 

 

*I pace during conference calls or when I'm trying to figure out something.**

 

**Lawyers love footnotes

 

Other pluses - much expanded battery life.  It's designed to be worn as a day watch/pedometer too, and so is designed to go several days between charges.  Additionally, it seems to charge extremely quickly when I dock it to upload data - I really have no excuse for running out of juice with it.*  And, as noted before, the screen is very bright and easy to read. 

 

*These words will haunt me, I'm sure.

 

Finally, it's lighter and smaller than the 910xt, following a trend of each Garmin being slightly smaller and more comfortable than its predecessor.  It was really interesting to don my old

305 on left, 920xt on right.

305 for comparison purposes - how did I ever wear that thing on my wrist?  Of course, there was also a time when I thought large car phones that plugged into cigarette lighters were amazingly portable, so there you go.

 

Downsides are that the vibration function is weaker than it was on the 910xt - sometimes I don't notice it.  And when reviewing past workouts on the watch, it doesn't show heart rate data - you have to download the workout to get that.  I find this annoying, because I like to manually input my workouts - I find it actually easier and quicker than importing the data into Runningahead and then correcting GPS errors and adding notes. (ignore the above - I figured it out).

 

But overall, after owning it for 2 days, I think I'm happy with the purchase.  And it is awfully pretty.

Dailies

Monday:   4 "miles" easy pool-running; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  7 miles very easy (8:38 pace), 1000 yards swimming, and some upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night

 

Wednesday: 8.5 miles very easy (8:46 pace) and yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Thursday:   Upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work, yoga, and 3 "miles" easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  10 miles very easy (8:43 pace) and a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   7.5 miles easy (8:28 pace), 1750 yards swimming, and upper body strengthwork.   Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  12 miles easy (8:28 pace), yoga, and injury prevention work.  Later swam 1250 yards to try out new Garmin (and even out the log).  Foam rolling at night.

Just a quick note: Facebook Blackout Day 2014

So, I'm participating in this event (happening on Monday, December 15) and figured I'd sidetrack my blog to get the word out.

Essentially, Facebook has a policy of forcing everyone to use their "real name" - which may be very different from the name they actually go by or would like to use.  It's a policy that has little effect on white bread middle class mundane people like myself, but is a hardship on many others, including:

• victims of stalking/domestic violence who are trying to fly undercover;
• celebrities and children of celebrities who would like to have a normal FB account and not dodge random friending entries every two minutes
• LGBT individuals who aren't necessarily out to everyone
• those whose current name doesn't reflect the gender they're transitioning to
• those who are trying to maintain a sharp division between work life and personal life
• those who commonly go by a name that is not their "legal" name.

This policy has caused headache and heartache to several of my friends.

Facebook absolutely is a non-governmental institution, and can institute whatever rules it would like.  At the same point, those of us who disagree with those rules can and should express our disagreement with those rules.  Tomorrow's Facebook Blackout Day is a way to do that.  The details are in the link below, but basically you join the event, and then deactivate your Facebook page for the day.

Do I believe it will actually cause change?  Honestly, no.  I think Facebook is too tonedeaf to hear the message.  But I also think there's value in expressing the opinion anyway.

I do believe that people can disagree on this issue - I think the "real name" policy is abhorrent, while others may believe it's not a big deal, and may even believe that Facebook offers sufficient privacy protections to mitigate the concerns of those listed above.  (um....yeah....)

It's an individual choice, and I have no animosity towards those who don't think this protest is needed.  Again, we all have the right to our opinions.  But if you do agree with me and want to participate, a link to the FB Blackout Day event is below.

https://www.facebook.com/events/772626502817075/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=1

Training log - Week ending 12/7/2014

This week was 19 miles of running, 10 "miles" of pool-running and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

I started some gentle jogging on Thursday, so 10 days post-marathon.  At that point, the quads were still somewhat sore, but there does seem to be something to "hair of the dog" as a cure.  Or maybe it was the massage I got this week, with instructions to dig into the quads hard.

Whatever it was, I'm happy to report that the quads have finally stopped hurting, except for some twinges when going down stairs.  Took them long enough - it wasn't until Saturday of this week that I was able to jog mostly pain-free (so, just about two weeks).  But I really shouldn't complain too much - the pain was, after all, self-inflicted.

While on the topic of self-inflicted pain, I'll also note that I went in for another follow-up with my PRP/prolotherapy doctor on Tuesday.  We discussed getting a follow-up prolotherapy injection in my right SI joint at some point (previously we did the left, but now that's much better, and the right is weak by comparison).  I decided I wanted to go ahead and get it done; he then offered to try to squeeze me in that same day, so I didn't have to schedule an appointment and come back.  I went ahead and did it, so that was an unscheduled rest day on Wednesday.  Perfect timing since I'm still in marathon recovery anyway.  So woo.

***

I also went in to see a nutritionist this week (I cashed in some use-or-lose vacation time this week, so it was easy to find the time). 

I had two questions for her: 1) I wanted to go over my nutrition/hydration before/during the Philly Marathon, to see if I had made any mistakes; 2) I was dealing with a recurrence of the nausea/lightheadness/digestive issues I experienced during my taper, and wanted to see if she had any thoughts about that.  If she didn't, the next step for #2 (har-de-har-har) was the GI doctor - and I didn't want to go there.  GI doctor appointments generally result in unpleasant procedures requiring consumption of nasty stuff.

As it turned out, the answers to questions 1 and 2 were the same, and annoyingly simple. 

The short answer: woefully low salt intake.  The longer write up?  It's below.

***

As background, I used to have major salt cravings and was never without a salt shaker.  I literally caked it on everything, and felt crappy if I didn't.  I also had low blood pressure.  Then I went on calcium channel blockers this spring, which had the happy and completely unexpected consequences of raising my blood pressure to normal and eliminating the salt cravings.  Woo.  I stopped caking everything with salt and embraced normality.

Fast forward to my taper for Philly.  During the training cycle, I ate about 90% healthy, but also indulged in tortilla chips/salsa and gluten free cookies- my weakness.  For the taper, though, I decided to cut out the junk food, and just eat quality food.  I don't eat processed foods, with the exception of the aforementioned junk food, so my diet was basically eggs, chicken and buffalo, potatoes, rice, and veggies, all flavored with a small amount of butter or olive oil.  Plus hydrating with water mixed with Ultima - my preferred electrolyte mix.

Ultima has no salt.  And the foods I was eating had very little salt included in them, since they weren't processed and I wasn't adding salt.  And I had cut out my chips and salsa and cookies, which were how I was getting my salt while training.

No salt is bad.  The body likes to keep a balance, so when I wasn't getting in enough salt, my body just dumped water like crazy to keep the balance and avoid hyponaetremia (which is both trendy to reference and hard to spell).  The ironic result was that I actually was dehydrated despite peeing clear and often.  It was all just going through me.  And I was dealing with nausea and shakiness and problems concentrating, but attributed it all to taper and marathon nerves.

So the marathon happened and I crashed and burned in a way that appeared to be hydration related, even though I drank a ton and it was a cool day, because I didn't include ALL the necessary electrolytes.

And after the marathon, I hit the salty junk food through Thanksgiving, but then cut it out.  I knew my body was really beaten up, so I decided that I needed to prioritize quality food to promote repair until the quads stopped feeling like hamburger meat.  And...sure enough, I started feeling nauseous and sloshy stomach and dizzy again.  But I didn't make the connection.

I was so used to being the person that caked salt on everything - it never occurred to me that I might now be salting too little.  Especially since I was using the Ultima, and never realized that it didn't include salt, because it had never been an issue before.

So, I've added salt back in, and the nausea and lightheadedness has drastically improved.  Ridiculous.

Obvious question #1 - But weren't you craving salt massively?

Yes, but I thought I was craving junk food, and resisted.  Everyone loves chips and salsa and cookies, right?  And because my past heavy use of salt had approached cliche, it never occurred to me that I might be too low on it now.  As for the lightheadedness and nausea?  I thought it was just nerves/taper paranoia.

Obvious question #2 - And don't you feel really really stupid now?  And a bit embarrassed (and yet perversely compelled to blog about it?)

Yes. 

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  6 "miles" of pool-running in the morning plus some injury prevention/upper body weights.  Prolotherapy in the afternoon.

Wednesday:  Massage - heavily quad focused.

Thursday:   3 miles easy running (9:01 pace) and yoga, plus some injury prevention/upper body weights.   Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  4.5 miles easy running (8:54) and 2500 yards easy swimming, plus a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   4 miles easy running and 4 miles pool-running.  Yoga in the afternoon, plus some foam rolling.

Sunday:  7.5 miles easy running, including casually running a holiday 5K with some friends.  Followed with 2500 yards easy swimming and some injury prevention work.  Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 11/30/14

This week was 0 miles of running, 20 "miles" of pool-running and 2000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Recovery week.   Raising the question of how to best recover?  Go completely sedentary, or do some activity?  Throw dietary caution to the wind or focus on nutrition?

I'm certainly no expert, but in my opinion, recovery is both mental and physical.  The first few days for me were pretty light on the fruits and veggies and sweet potatoes and lean meats, and heavy on the gluten-free cookies and turkey drumsticks with the skin on.   Perfect nutrition might have been better for the body, but it was restorative to do a traditional ugly American Thanksgiving.

As for activity, I _attended_ yoga the day after the race.  Which doesn't mean I really participated in the class.  I showed up at Tranquil Space, did the opening stretching bit, and then childs-posed my way through much of the rest of it, though I did do a few gentle lunges.  It did feel good to move my legs through their general range of motion - probably much better for recovery than just laying around.

[that's the great thing about having an unlimited annual yoga membership -- since I'm not paying by the class, I really don't feel any pressure to do the whole class - it's not like I've wasted money if I just do happy baby for 40 minutes].

And that was pretty much how the rest of the week went.  I went to yoga each day, gradually expanding on the amount of the class I was actually doing, and branching out to more intense classes.  By Thursday I was pretty much doing the whole class, though my chair pose was...restrained.  I did some pool-running also, though it was not at all intense - just gently wiggling my legs in the water while chatting.

My quads were tight enough to gimp up my walk for most of the week, though they finally felt better on Sunday, enabling me to walk like a normal person. I can now get up from a chair (or toilet) without using my hands to assist.  It's the little things, y'know.

As of Monday, they are still shaky and weak, though.  Which seems ridiculous since we're now 8 days post marathon - by this time after my first marathon I was feeling just about normal.  The other signs of overreaching  have resolved - my resting HR is back where it should be, and I'm sleeping soundly.  I'd like to start up with some gentle jogging, but I'm debating whether that's a good idea, given that the legs seem to still be recovering.  I don't know whether doing some easy jogging will make my legs feel better, or slow my recovery. 

My plan is to take a few more non-running days, and do some more foam-rolling and other recovery stuff.  If the quads are still shaky in another few days, I may try some gentle short jogging to see if that makes a difference.

Dailies

Monday:   Lie on my back during a yoga class in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  Half-assed yoga in the morning; massage at night.

Wednesday:  30 minutes conversational pool-running plus a quarter-assed yoga class.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Thursday:   30 minutes easy pool-running and a yoga class (full-assed).  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  70 minutes conversational pool-running and a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   70 minutes conversational pool-running and a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  2000 yards swimming and a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 11/23/2014

This week was 47 miles of running and 2000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Race week, and not the race I wanted.  But what's done is done.  And I hobble away a bit better educated about the marathon, and substantially fitter than I was when I started.

So where from here?  My legs are shaky, and so are my emotions. What I would really like to do is to take 2-3 days off to let the soreness pass, then start running again, start training soon after, crushing workouts while upping my mileage, and then do another marathon immediately.  I really miss running (it's the day after my marathon, and I'm envying the people I saw jogging on the sidewalk this morning - ridiculous).  And when I have a bad race, I want to get back on the horse ASAP.

Don't worry.  I know how stupid the above is, and I'm not going to do that.  Especially since I think I made similar mistakes this past cycle.

I did two really sub-optimal things this fall.  One was ramping up from basically nothing to a hard marathon training cycle with high volume; in retrospect I think I would have been better to focus on just staying healthy and getting fitter.  It's one thing to jump into a marathon cycle after a season or two of steady and consistent running, and another to do it from where I was.  It was too much, too fast, too soon.

The other mistake was training at the paces that I wanted to be right for me, rather than where I truly was.  I trained at paces that matched the races I wanted to run, hanging with a group that ran the races I wanted to run.   And it was easy to rationalize doing so, since it wasn't too long ago that those were my paces also.  But they weren't the right paces for me this fall.  I was able to fake my way through some workouts fairly well (by running them too hard); the others I excused due to allergies and high mileage fatigue.

[to be clear, these were my mistakes, no one else's, and I own them].

The good news is that I've come away from this training cycle considerably fitter than I was when I started, which is a huge win.  But I fried myself too.  So now I need to consolidate my gains while also letting the damage heal.

The first step to that is to take some time off from running.  For this week, the rule is that I only do any physical activity if I really want to, and what I do will be restricted to yoga, some easy swimming, and some social pool-running.   I'm trying to hydrate really well, but also not setting my alarm clock, and eating as many gluten free cookies as my little heart wants.

I do want to introduce pool-running back into my routine - I skipped it for a while because it was annoying my back before that healed up, and then I didn't want to intro anything new late in the training cycle.

When I do start running again (likely sometime next week) I'll keep stuff easy, fun, and social for several weeks.  If everything feels right, I'll start doing workouts again in mid-to-late December, focusing on running the workouts easier than I feel I should.  I really want to run another marathon, but there will be no spring marathon training cycle for me.  Instead, I'll spend a season doing consistent, controlled-pace training (anybody who knows me in person, you are encouraged to forcefully remind me of this commitment), and then do a fall marathon.

I had been considering Richmond Marathon for next fall, but after yesterday, I kinda want revenge on Manayunk.

Dailies

Monday:   2000 yards easy swimming in the morning, foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday:  In the morning, 8.5 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 2x800 (6:06, 2:56, 2:52).  Sports massage at night.

Wednesday:  In the afternoon, 7.5 miles (8:02 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: Rest day.  Did get my spasming glute dry needled and did some foam rolling.

Friday:  5 miles (8:03 pace), and got ART on a sticky calf in the morning.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:  Rest day; picked up bib and foam rolled.

Sunday:  Philadelphia Marathon in 3:20:17, positive split as 1:35/1:45.  Big ass strawberry margarita at midday.  Foam rolling at night.

Race report: Philadelphia Marathon, November 23, 2014

I ran the Philadelphia Marathon today, finishing in a time of 3:20:xx.  This is both the slowest marathon I've ever run and the second fastest.  I like the latter characterization more, so I'm rolling with it.

The too long, didn't read version is that my legs cramped up and the last miles were ridiculous - a combination of horrible and amusing.  The longer story, read below...


Every lengthy overthought race report starts with a summary, and who am I to buck tradition?  My training can be summed up as a rapid build from very low mileage and injury recovery to a peak of 85 miles per week, followed by a taper.  Long runs were alternating 20-22 milers and 16-17 miles with 4-3-2-1 mile marathon paced segments.  Then I tapered.

The taper was, of course, a paranoia fest.  At various points during the last week, my glutes spasmed, my right calf got tight, I got bad indigestion, and I convinced myself I was coming down with a head cold (I'm pretty sure I wasn't). It's strange all the curveballs that your mind and body will throw at you.  I just told myself that it was all part of the taper paranoia and that I'd feel great on race morning. And I did.

By Saturday, I was fairly tense and bouncing off the walls.  That was when I had an inspired idea - instead of going out to eat, Brian and I ordered takeout and paid for a hotel movie (X-Men Days of Future Past).  It was exactly the right order - I relaxed and put the race out of my mind.  And whadyaknow - I felt good on Sunday morning, right when I needed to be.

I felt shaky/jumpy - very ready to go.  This worried me a bit - there was a real possibility of going out too fast here.  So I seeded myself in the very back of my corral, and started with a friend who was shooting for a more conservative time.  We crossed the start line and chatted for the first mile, and then I started to open up a little more, though still staying conservative.   I focused on keeping an easy effort - I'd find myself picking it up to a pace that felt "good", and then I'd remind myself -"if you don't feel like you're going too slow, you're going too fast" and I'd pull back to what felt "too slow."

As in my previous marathon, I started the race with a carry-water bottle - I planned to drink from that and then toss it, and then get another from either Brian or my coach at the halfway point.  However, for whatever reason, I had completely drained my bottle by mile 5.  And I was thirsty.

(before I get accused of starting the race dehydrated, I'll note that I was peeing clear for the days before (TMI) and also needed to pee slightly when we started the race).

This presented a bit of a quandry - I'm not good at drinking out of cups while running.  At the next water stop, I attempted to refill my water bottle with a cup of water so I could run while sipping, but that was pure fail.  So I tossed the water bottle, and reluctantly slowed down at the next station to grab a cup and down it.  Then I was off again.  (And not too long after, I saw my coach and got my second water bottle).

I continued on like that, running through Philly and enjoying the tour.  Around mile 8, we hit a set of hills that my coach had warned us about - essentially we were to be careful on the downhills not to run them too fast.  The downhills were a bit steep, and it felt like if I slowed too much, I was placing more stress on my quads, since they were doing the braking.  So I decided to focus on running them in whatever way felt like it took the least effort and the least stress, regardless of the pace.

I was feeling good and in control as we turned back towards the Arts Center and the half/full split, and then I noted that both my inner quads (VMO for you physio geeks) were a bit sore.  This was...concerning.  But...I could either freak out about it, or put it out of my mind.  I decided to do the latter, and just focus on running in control.

But the quads started talking louder.  Not good.  I wasn't even halfway yet.  But... the worst of the hills was over, right?  And breathing great, energy level good - I'd just keep working through this.

By mile 14, they were starting to yell at me, and I was having crazy fantasies about KT taping them (my mind is an odd place).  And then I remembered....

On the last interval workout before this race, we did a set of 1600, and 2x800.   I felt like my legs were tying up and I had no knee lift, only to discover that my running tights had slipped down.  The feeling I had now, as my quads tired, was much the same as when I had my wardrobe issue.

So....that was how I rationalized it - if I could hold ~6 minute pace with my tights slipping down, then holding 7 something pace while feeling the same was eminently doable.  So that's what I did as we progressed away from Philly towards Manayunk.

And so I progressed.  Between miles 17-18 there's a downhill for a quartermile, then a 180 turn and you come back up hill.  And that was truly the beginning of the end.  I held it together for that, but the quads were on fire, and in Manayunk, they spasmed.

From there, you can imagine how it went - the last miles back into Philly (most of which were downhill) were a shuffle/slogfest.    In a way, it was really upsetting - no one likes to run a race that way.  But in a strange way, I could also see the hilarity of it - my legs simply were not listening to me, but just doing some variant of a running motion.  It got worse as my right hamstring and calf decided to play along - a symphony of disobediance.

I felt like I was running past crowds of people with my pants half down, both figuratively and literally.   I also came to the realization that the slower you run and the more it's obvious you hurt, the more people start cheering you on - at the very point where I really wanted to pretend like no one could see me.

But... that's racing.  So, I slogged home to the finish.  I realized later that I could have just dropped at 18 and done CIM in two weeks (I'm entered).  But, I didn't want to do that for multiple reasons.  For one, I want a break now, not in two weeks.  Secondly, I didn't want to let this race win.  Simple as that.

And though it was a sucky experience, it was also a good one.  Though this was my second marathon, in someways I felt like it was my first.  My first marathon went so well that I never really felt like I had been tested, or experienced the suckiness of marathons.  I was worried that I didn't respect the distance and all the things that could go wrong.  Now I've been blooded, and that's a good thing.

I think that I'll be a better runner in my next marathon (and there will be a next one, and it might be Philly) because of the experience I had today.  I now have a better understanding of how it can hurt and suck, and I still think it's my favorite distance to race.

Splits for the hell of it:

Mile 1: 7:59
Mile 2: 7:35
Mile 3: 7:21
Mile 4: 7:22
Mile 5: 7:17
Mile 6-7: 14:14
Mile 8: 7:11
Mile 9: 6:57
Mile 10: 7:18
Mile 11: 6:57
Mile 12: 7:04
Mile 13: 7:15
Mile 14: 7:10
Mile 15: 7:12
Mile 16: 7:14
Mile 17: 7:12
Mile 18: 7:13
Mile 19: 7:18
Mile 20: 7:28
Mile 21: 8:10
Mile 22: 8:35
Mile 23-24: 17:34
Mile 25: 9:42
Mile 26: 9:22
last bit: 1:38



Other notes:

• Weather was absolutely perfect.  Doesn't get better.  Started in high 30s, ended in mid 40s, overcast, little wind.
• I stayed at the Embassy Suites, which worked well.  It was right outside the secure zone for the marathon start/finish, and had a TGI Fridays as the hotel restaurant.  The one trouble spot was that the elevators were slow and we were on the 14th floor - I was worried that the elevators would get VERY slow when everyone decided to come down for the race.  So I left my room early and headed to the gym on the second floor for some final stretching.  Gym was empty and had a bathroom - perfect for some pre-race relaxing.
• Hit the security entrance at 6:30, which was perfect timing for getting me into my corral at 6:40.

Training log - Week ending 11/16/2014

This week was 50 miles of running and 3000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Taper, week 2.  Just resting up and recharging.  And starting to feel really good, albeit with some "taper aches" that I attribute to paranoia.  Both Tuesday and Sunday's "workouts" felt awesome; Friday's was a bit harder, but I attribute that to being significantly underdressed for conditions that ended up being a lot colder than I expected.  

 

On Sunday, I did the last few miles of my "long run" at "goal marathon pace" - the hope was to hold 7:15 (3:10 pace) for two miles and then drop to 7:05 (~3:05 pace) for the last mile, just to lock in the feel.  I know that's slower than the pace I've held for my runs, but I really believe in setting conservative marathon goals at the start and then re-evaluating as one goes.  I run my best races with negative splits, so going out "too slow" isn't a concern.

 

As it turns out, I ended up running a bit fast than those paces anyway.  I'm not too worried, though - my heart rate for those miles was at the low end of my normal marathon pace HR, so the effort was conservative.  I've reinforced my knowledge that I need to run easy and restrained and "too slow" for those first miles, and to trust (as always, I'll race with my Garmin screen hidden) that the pace will be right.

 

From here until this coming Sunday it's just a matter of sleeping and eating well, and dodging injury and illness.  The training's done and the die is cast; all I have to do now is show up on Sunday and run.  Simple.  Easy. Awesome.

 

And it reads cheesy, but I really am proud of just getting to where I am today as opposed to where I was last year. (for fun I've pasted in my training log from this week last year.)  The past 12-18 months have been their own endurance test - blood (literally), sweat, tears, pull buoys, injections, MRIs, missed races, PT sessions, alternating dejection and hope.  Emotional bonking and then the slow climb up.  But now, with the help/support/love of teammates and friends, I see the finish line, which is also the start.

 

Completing a training cycle is its own achievement, and its own reward. But what's even better is that I get to race. 
 

Dailies

Monday:   1500 yards easy swimming in the morning, foam rolling at night. 
Last year: In the morning, injury prevention/rehab work and 4000 yards swimming, 50/50 with and without pullbuoy.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 10 miles, including a track workout of 6x800 (3:01, 2:58, 2:57, 2:54, 2:52, 2:52) followed by injury prevention work and 750 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

In the morning, injury prevention/rehab work and then 3000 yards of swimming, 1/3rd with pull buoy. 2/3rds without.   Foam rolling at night.
 

Wednesday:  In the morning, 8.5 miles very easy (8:22).  Massage at night.

In the morning, injury prevention/rehab work and then 4250 yards of swimming -  1/3rd with pull buoy. 2/3rds without.  Sports massage at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 5.5 miles easy (8:11) followed by a few drills+strides and some upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

In the morning,  injury prevention/rehab work, upper body strengthwork and walking 2.5 miles.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  8 miles, including a 5K tempo in 20:11 (6:34/6:24/6:27/0:46), followed by 750 yards easy swimming.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

In the morning, injury prevention/rehab work and 3750 yards of swimming, 25% with pull buoy.  Also some walking.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   8 miles easy (8:18) followed by a few drills+strides; foam rolling in afternoon.

In the morning, injury prevention/rehab work and 4000 yards of swimming, with about 500yards pull buoy (rest without).  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  10 miles with the last 3 at marathon pace (two miles at 7:08 pace, last mile at 6:50 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

In the morning, injury prevention/rehab work (including testing out the arc-trainer for a few minutes) and 3000 yards of swimming (no pull buoy).  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 11/9/14

This week was 50 miles of running and 3000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Taper, week 1.  And for the first few days I enjoyed it.  Needed it.  Tuesday's workout was a struggle, run on legs that had done 22 with a fast finish less than 48 hours before.  After that, I cut back sharply.    Before my last marathon (Shamrock) I did a fairly steep three week taper and thought it worked well, so I decided to do the same this time.   So, 45-50 miles with 3 weeks to go, 45-50 miles with 2 weeks to go, and then 15-20 miles in the week before the race.

I'm also tapering all my other activities.  This past week was my last week for yoga - I'm skipping that for the next two weeks both to rest and to avoid any contagious fellow yoga students (it always shocks me how many people will drag themselves to a group class when sick - it's really selfish).  I'll swim some this coming week (though not much), and then will cut it out for the final week of taper.

I'm definitely starting to feel the benefits of the taper.  I had several warning signs over the last two weeks that I was overreaching - high resting HR, insomnia, concentration issues.  The first two have resolved.  As for my shortened attention span, I seriously doubt that will improve during taper.  I'm also starting to get a bit jumpy, with taper anxiety.  Did I do enough?  Did I do too much?  Am I resting too much now?   Should I be resting more? 

There's no real answer, except not to worry about it and to find something to distract me (I am stocking my Kindle well).  In the end, I don't think there's one perfect taper, just as there's no one perfect training cycle or perfect race.  Just get to the starting line healthy, and see what happens. 

I did race on Sunday - it was one of the best bad races I've had in a while, if that makes sense.  It was bad in that I went out too fast, which is a mistake I rarely make.  But this was a good time to make it - to remind me to be cautious in the marathon.  And working my way through a mental tough patch at the end was a confidence boost of its own.  And it was nice to see that I'm now fit enough to run a major positive split and still run just over 40 minutes.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and upper body strengthwork/injury prevention work in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 10 miles, including a track workout of 4x1200 (4:38, 4:26, 4:27, 4:29) followed by injury prevention work and 2000 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.
 

Wednesday:  In the morning, 9.4 miles very easy (8:24) followed by yoga.  Later an easy 2.5 (8:37).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 3 miles very easy (8:46) to yoga.  After yoga, did another 4 miles (8:09), followed by a few drills+strides, some upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  8 miles, including a 1600m pick-up in 6:18.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   1000 yards easy swimming and foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  13 miles, including a 10K race in 40:13.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Veteran's Day 10K, November 9, 2014

I raced the Veteran's Day 10K today, finishing in a time of 40:13.

I have a preferred racing style - I usually go out fairly slowly and cautiously, and then drop the pace gradually, with a strong second half.  I'm pretty good at pacing, if I do say so myself.

But every once in a while, I screw it up.  Ooops.

***

The Veteran's Day 10K is held every year on a very fast course (Hains Point) in DC.  It's flat except for one tiny hump, and there are no sharp turns.  It's essentially an asphalt track, and can be very fast if there's no wind. 

There was no wind today, and temps were perfect.  This race brings out a lot of fast people, and so everything was in place for a fast day.

I warmed up by jogging for about 3 miles.  My legs felt a bit marathon heavy still, so I inserted a quarter mile pick-up to get everything moving.  Then some drills and strides, and lined up.

And we were off.  Fast.  I backed off a little, to a pace that felt controlled but still fast.  It felt uncomfortable, but frankly anything faster than 6:50 feels uncomfortable right now. so I went with it. 

As it turns out, someone was calling out splits at the first mile, and I heard a "6:20" as I went by (and I started a few seconds after the gun).  That was a bit faster than I was anticipating.  Huh.  Arguably not good, but maybe I was just having a good day.  Nevertheless I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, so I decided to back it off a bit so that I could come home strongly. 

As it turned out, I couldn't quite repair the damage, by mile 4 my legs were pretty much done and I was just hanging on from that point.  I nursed myself through the last 2 miles, reminding myself that I might feel like this during my marathon, and so this was good practice coaxing everything out of my legs.  And I'm pleasantly surprised at just how well I was able to hang on, given how spent I felt.  Usually when I blow up, I REALLY blow up.  This time I just fizzled.  Marathon strong legs FTW.  I can be dead, but the legs will still do their thing.

Splits were:

6:18
6:26
6:05 (mile measured .95 ~6:26 pace)
6:47 (mile measured 1.05 ~6:26 pace))
6:35 (oof)
6:36 (oof)
last .21 in 1:23 (also ~6:26 pace - this was all I had for a "kick")

40:13 - which was good enough for a top 10 female finish and second in my age group.

I am a bit wistful, because I think I could had run faster had I run a better paced race.  On the other hand, this race was primarily a final tune-up for my marathon in two weeks.  I'm pleasantly surprised that I had this much speed in my legs, given the focus of my training the past few weeks and months.  And after hanging on so well the last two miles, I feel ready for what the marathon may throw at me.

Next race report in two weeks :)

Other notes:

* Weather was absolutely perfect.  About 50 degrees, calm winds.
* Wore my my marathon shoes (Boston Boost) rather than my normal shoe for this distance (Hitogami).  I prefer to run my last tune-up race in my marathon shoes, rather than my flats - it gives me an extra bit of confidence to know that I can run significantly faster than MP in my marathon shoes.
* Parked on Rock Creek Parkway just on the far side of the Lincoln Memorial from the start - worked perfectly (one does need to get there before 7 to snag a spot, though).

Training log - Week ending 11/2/2014

This week was 85 miles of running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

And this is it.  Taper starts now.

And it's just at the right time.  I've hit that marathon training zombie mode.  No real speed, but I can go between easy and medium-hard forever.

By the end of this week, I was unquestionably tired.  There was a substantial differential between when I got out of bed on Friday (early), and when I actually woke up (about halfway through my tempo workout). The last two miles of my tempo actually felt pretty good (being awake helps), and I briefly debated adding another mile, but decided against it - if I was feeling that tired, I really didn't need to be stretching out any workouts.

(the astute reader will note that I swam a bit more than normal on Friday post workout.  Why?  Especially since I was already tired?  The answer is that I was in zombie mode and I completely lost track of time and laps, and basically swam half-asleep until the guards blew the whistle to indicate the end of morning swim.  Ooops.)

Slept a ton over the weekend, and cranked out my last long run on Sunday morning, which went fairly well (the windy conditions reminded me of when I raced Shamrock last year, which is actually a pleasant memory). 

Of my three 20-22 mile runs, this last one felt the easiest and left me the least sore afterwards - that's a good place to be.  The only bummer was a blister I developed under my left foot on Sunday at about mile 11 - apparently my compression socks don't play nice with the Boston Boosts.  It's all good - that's why I test stuff out during my long runs, so I don't learn stuff like this during my goal race.

So now I just need to rest and wrap myself in bubble wrap for the next three weeks.  Memories of my last training cycle for Philly haunt me a bit, so I'm being VERY careful.  I'll probably race a 10K this coming weekend as a final tune-up, but I'll wear my marathon racing shoes for it, just like I did during the Shamrock cycle.  I like to do this because it makes marathon pace in my marathon shoes feels a bit easier.  And I also feel I'm reducing the risk of injury by doing so.

So much nicer to be here than where I was last year at this time.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and upper body strengthwork/injury prevention work in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 14 miles, including a track workout of 400,800,1200,1600,1200,800,400 (splits of 1:32, 3:06, 4:34, 6:06, 4:32, 2:57, 1:24), followed by injury prevention work and 1250 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 10 miles very easy (8:48) followed by yoga.  Later an easy 6 (8:28).  Sports massage at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 4.5 miles very easy (8:48) to yoga.  After yoga, did another 4 miles (8:20), followed by a few drills+strides, some upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12.5 miles, including a 8K tempo in 33:31 (splits were 6:52, 6:47, 6:45, 6:36, 6:31), followed by lower body strengthwork and injury prevention work, and then 2100 yards easy swimming.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   12.5 miles easy (8:18), followed by yin yoga.   Injury prevention/upper body strengthwork and foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  21.5 miles averaging 7:27, split as first 1.5 miles at 8:42 pace, next 5 at 7:54, next 6 at 7:27, last 9 at 6:56 (took a ~5 min break about mile 16 to chase down water when the water fountain I was relying on was off).  Followed with 650 yards shakeout swimming; foam rolling at night.  Skipped yin yoga to watch the second half of the Maclay finals. 

Training log - Week ending 10/26/14

This week was 74 miles of running and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Another week in the books, with one more to go before taper.

I mixed stuff up a bit this week.  Normally my hard run days are Tuesday (intervals), Friday (tempo), and Sunday (long run).   This weekend I had the final "4-3-2-1" workout on tap, which I had to do on Saturday due to the Marine Corps Marathon being on Sunday. This raised the question of where to fit in the tempo workout.  The only real option was to do it on Thursday, but I really prefer to have at least 2 days between track workouts, since they're fairly hard on my body (the constant turns annoy my hips and ankles).   After talking to my coach, we decided just to skip the tempo altogether this week - it just made sense since the tempo for this week was a fairly minimal cruise intervals - not that important a workout.   And I think I'm better off for having only two hard workouts this week - it's not about packing in as many workouts as possible, but about hitting the proper balance of stress and recovery.


The other thing I mixed up were my shoes.  My quest for the perfect shoe is quite the saga.  By way of background, I ran very happily in the Kinvara for several years, including my first marathon.  Until Saucony changed the shoe on me, so that it no longer fit my foot well.  (Why do companies change good shoes?)

The was the start of a long quest for the perfect shoe.  Or several perfect shoes (I don't ever want to get dependent on one shoe again - damn you Saucony).  After a long cycle of injury, and test driving many shoes, and many consultations with podiatrists, PTs, etc, we determined that many of my injuries were caused by ankle instability.  This ankle instability is accentuated by shoes that are soft and cushioned, allowing my foot to sink and wiggle with each strike. (I also supinate slightly, so despite my instability issues, "stability shoes" that correct pronation just give me peroneal tendonitis.)

So, I swapped to firm, light neutral shoes, and they've worked very well for me.  The Mizuno Hitogami was instrumental in getting me healthy again, and the Adidas Adios Boost has been a good shoe for me too. 

My current rotation, if you're interested.  From left to right -
Mizuno Hitogami, Mizuno Sayonara 2, Adidas Adios Boost,
Adidas Adios Boost 2, Adidas Boston Boost 5

The problem is that neither of those shoes seems to be quite enough cushioning for me for the marathon (I know others have raced marathons well in them, but we're all unique).  I don't feel I can race longer than 10 miles in the Hitogami; I had been planning on wearing the Adidas Adios Boost for my marathon, but my forefeet have been getting pretty sore during my long runs.  Plus, it feels like the Adios is just a bit stiff for me.

So...went back to Road Runner, and picked up a pair of the Adias Boston Boost 5.  On paper it seems like just what I wanted - very similar to the Adios, but slightly more cushioning in the forefoot, and also a lot more flexible.  I took them for two test runs this week - an easy run on Thursday, and my "4-3-2-1" workout on Saturday.  And....yay.  They're not perfect - my forefeet were still slightly sore at the end of Saturday's run.  But my ankles and heels were also slightly achy - indicating that I definitely don't want to go any heavier on the cushioning.  These seem to strike the best balance.  For me.

But the really good news was how ridiculously fast both runs were.  I usually do my runs by effort - on easy runs I don't check pace at all, just heart rate.  On my marathon pace runs, I do check pace, but I still stick to marathon pace effort, even if that means that my actual pace is slower or faster than goal MP.  For both Thursday and Saturday's runs, my perceived effort was completely out of whack with the times I ran.   In a good way - about 15 seconds faster per mile than perceived effort.  These shoes are just a really good mate for my stride, I guess - running slow or fast felt easy and fun in them. 

So, I'm going to run in these shoes 2-3 more times, including my last 20-22 miler this Sunday.  Then I'll marathon in them.  Hopefully they'll continue to work their magic.

I just wish they weren't hot pink.


Dailies

Monday:   Yoga in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 12 miles, including 6x800 in 3:05, 3:04, 3:00, 2:58, 2:57, 2:52.  Followed with injury prevention work and 2000 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  9 miles very easy (8:50), then yoga, followed by another 7 miles easy (8:38), plus drills+strides.   Foam rolling in the evening.

Thursday:   In the morning, 3.5  miles very easy (8:47), then yoga, then another 6 miles very easy (8:12) followed by drills+strides and some upper body weight training/injury prevention work. Foam rolling in the evening.

Friday:  10 miles easy (8:22) followed by drills and strides.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   16.5 miles averaging 7:33; did the 4-3-2-1 workout.  3 mile easy jog, then:
4 miles in 27:42 (6:56/6:55/6:55/6:56), followed by a mile at 8:34 pace (and a quick bathroom break)
3 miles in 20:29 (6:50/6:45/6:40), followed by a mile at 8:03 pace  (and a quick bathroom break - damn stomach)
2 miles in 13:44 (6:45/6:59 - think Garmin lost signal here during the second mile under the freeway), followed by a mile at 8:09 pace
1 mile in 6:34 (felt like 6:50 effort).  Followed by half mile slow jog cooldown.   Total time for the 10 hard miles - 68:29 - 6:51 average pace (was shooting for 7-ish).

Followed with some injury prevention work, 1000 yards easy swimming, yoga, and foam rolling.

Sunday:  Cheering at the Marine Corps Marathon (my teammates rocked it, BTW) - logged 10 miles total jogging to different locations along the course.  Later did 2000 yards of swimming and foam rolling. 

Training log - week ending 10/19/14

This week was 80 miles of running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

And, we're at the heaviest part of the training.

I didn't feel too beaten up after Army 10 miler, but skipped the Tuesday workout anyway.  And then of course, on Tuesday night my massage guy identified approximately 726 different muscle knots that needed to be kneaded.  Very glad I went in.

The rest of the week was really about mileage and marathon pace.  I made the decision to slow down the pace of my track workouts, even if it means I end up "between groups."  I've been able to hang with my present group in workouts, but the fact is a) I feel like I've been redlining a lot of the workouts and b) I'm not running the same race times as others in my same group.  Part b) could be possibly excused by the fact that I never seem to race shorter distances well when I'm in marathon training, and that I also struggle with fall races due to stinkin allergies.  Or maybe not.  Either way, there's no real benefit to me in really crushing track workouts when I'm marathon training.

Additionally, I tend to be someone who really needs a slow first rep or first mile in a track workout before dropping the pace , while most people tend to run more even splits.  So, I go out with the even splitters, get some oxygen debt, and end up struggling to run a time that I hit much easier if I just start a bit slower.  So, I'm going to try starting off my workouts slower, and then upping the pace when it seems right - even if that means I have to solo.

And....the long runs really are key here.  I was pretty happy with today's long run.   For DC area runners - the route I took was from Fletcher's boathouse out to Rock Creek, and then take Rock Creek up to Wise Road before turning and heading back the same way.   Going this way meant that I did a lot of my marathon pace segment on parts of the Rock Creek trail that can be twisty/turny and also have some very annoying (though short) hills.  It's challenging to hold marathon pace here just because your rhythm is regularly disrupted.   But I did.

And then my last 3 miles were on a slight (but noticeable) uphill into a (*profanity*) headwind.  By the last mile, I was running on fumes and sucking a gel just for the sugar kick.  But, it seems that I can hit 7:00 pace running on fumes into a headwind, so that's cool.  If there's one skill I have, it's being stubborn.

In other happy news, I went in for a follow up with my doctor (the one who did all the PRP/prolotherapy).  He confirmed what I already knew - the chronically stretched ligaments in my ankle are now considerably shorter, making that ankle MUCH more stable.  (I knew this anyway, since my balance on that ankle is so much improved).  So, yay.

Dailies

Monday:   1250 yards easy swimming plus yoga in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 2.5 miles very easy (9:21) with drills+strides, then yoga, followed by another 8.5 miles easy.  Sports massage at night.

Wednesday:  9 miles very easy (8:58), then yoga, followed by another 5 miles easy (8:18 - mostly downhill route), plus drills+strides.   Foam rolling in the evening.

Thursday:   In the morning, 4.5 miles very easy (8:58), then yoga, then another 4 miles easy (8:25) followed by drills+strides and some upper body weight training/injury prevention work. Foam rolling in the evening.

Friday:  12.5 miles, including an 8K tempo in 33:16 - my splits ended up screwy due to me zoning out and hitting the watch at the wrong time, but I essentially ran the first 3 miles in ~ 6:46 for 1600, and the last 2 (after finally tying loose shoe when it came completely undone) in ~6:30.   Funny how much the pace picked up for the same effort after I fixed the damn shoe.  Followed with injury prevention work and 1750 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   12 miles easy (8:29) and then yin yoga.  Upper body weight training/injury prevention work plus foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  22 mile long run (well...21.86, but close enough, right?).  Ran it progressively as first 7 at 8:29, next 6 at 7:33, last 9 at 7:02. Overall pace was 7:37.   Followed with 1000 yards of shakeout swimming, yin yoga, and foam rolling.  And eating all the things.

Training log - Week ending 10/12/2014

This week was 45 miles of running and 2000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Another cutback week.  I had planned to cut back mileage some for Army 10 Miler, anyway.  Then I picked up a bit of a bug early in the week - nothing horrible, but enough for me to decide to avoid the gym and yoga on Wednesday - I really prefer to avoid others if I'm even possibly contagious.  To that point, yes, I feel bad about going to track on Tuesday - I just didn't figure out that I was coming down with something until after.  Luckily, I don't think I gave my bug to anyone.  Also lucky that it hit early enough in the week to be cleared out of my system for the weekend.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 7 miles, including a track workout of 6x800 (splits of 2:59, 2:54, 2:54, 2:54, 2:54, 2:58).  Felt dizzy during the workout, so shut it down.  Felt even worse post workout, so skipped the cooldown and injury prevention stuff.  Ended up calling it a half day at work also, and just crashing the balance of the day.
 

Wednesday:  Felt lousy in the morning, so slept in and then went for a jog to see how I felt.  I didn't feel any worse as I ran, and maybe even a bit better, so I ended up doing an easy 10.  Good decision/bad decision?  Who knows?   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Thursday:   Felt better.  In the morning, 7 miles easy plus some injury prevention work. Foam rolling in the afternoon.

 

Friday:  Felt fine.  7 miles easy, including a one mile pick-up in 6:17.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   750 yards very easy swimming in the morning.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  3 miles warm-up, then 10 mile race in 1:07:10, followed by mile jog back to metro.  In the afternoon, did injury prevention work, 1250 yards of shakeout swimming and foam rolling.

Race Report: Army 10 Miler, October 12, 2014

I ran the Army 10 Miler today, finishing in an official time of 67:10.  Still a good bit off of my PR, but I'm decently happy with it - I'm making progress.

Army's always a bit of a logistical challenge.  The most common (and recommended) way to get there is by metro, but the metro stop at the start isn't large enough to accommodate a large group of runners (and Army is a VERY large race).  Plus, once you get there to the starting area, you still have to go through a security checkpoint to get to the corrals.  And then there's really no good place to warm-up pre-race.  And they make you get into the corrals very early.

I live in Ballston, which means that I'd normally take the orange line metro (which was running a train once every 20 minutes) to the Rosslyn station, and then swap there to the blue line (running once every 6 minutes) to go two stops to the race start.  But....I had a bit of inspiration.

Where I live is about 2.5 miles jog from the Rosslyn station.  So....why not just jog to Rosslyn, and use that as a shakeout and the bulk of my warm-up?  (and also save myself the aggravation of waiting for a train that was running 3 times an hour).  So that's what I did, and it worked perfectly (except for the bit of chafing on my shoulder from my bag).  I left my house at 6:15, and the combo of easy jog plus blue line got me to the Pentagon station at 6:55.  Of course, it took another 10 minutes to actually exit the metro station, but I had planned for that, and had time.  Between getting to the surface, doing bag check, hitting the portapotties, and jogging the half mile to my corral, I ended up at my corral around 7:35.  Did a few quick strides and drills, and then hopped in to wait, chatting with friends.

We stood around for a long time (long enough that I think everyone in the corral with me lost the benefit of any strides they had done), and then we were off.  This course is always crowded, and I needed a lot of time to warm-up, so I took the first mile pretty slow (7:11), and then started nudging the pace down.  Even with such a cautious start, I still felt like I was in a bit of oxygen debt from the get go, which was annoying.  But nothing to do but work with what I had.

My breathing was a bit tough the whole race, like I had cotton wadded in my upper chest.  This was was frustrating.  But it also makes me feel even better about this race - I was able to run a decent race despite the fact that it wasn't my best day (not the weather's fault, BTW - it was perfect racing weather).

This was never going to be a PR race for me - I'm just not in that shape right now.  The whole reason to do it was to get a good race effort run in and to practice racing skills, and I did just that.  By mile 5 I was hurting, by mile 7 I was swatting away buzzing fantasies about dropping out (we've all had those, right?) and by mile 9 I had no freakin' clue how I was going to make it to the finish. But I held it together, focusing on my form and relaxing and positive thoughts, and somehow my last two miles were my fastest.  And that's a confidence boost.  The next time I'm REALLY hurting, it will be good to have in my mental back pocket the knowledge that I can really hurt and hold it together.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:11
Mile 2: 6:45
Mile 3-4: 13:31 (6:46)
Mile 5: 6:38
Mile 6-7: 13:25 (6:43)
Mile 8: 6:38
Mile 9: 6:33
Mile 10: 6:31

Other notes:

• They really need to offer space blankets at the finish if they're going to have bag check over a mile from the finish area.  October is late enough that the clothes that are comfortable for racing are not the ones comfortable for standing around in after.
• My stomach was pretty sour, so I ended up not taking any gels during the race, just a bit of water during the first mile.  I usually take a gel during a 10 mile race - not sure if that would have made any difference here.
• Used Dulera in the morning, and then when stuff still felt tight I used my albuterol about 10 minutes before the start.  No full out asthma attack, but my lungs were definitely not great today - far worse than they were during the Navy Half.  I'm guessing this is some combination of my weed allergies, standing around in the corrals for a bit of time before the start, and maybe the bug I had earlier in the week.  As I do every year, I'm crossing my fingers that this will end once we have first frost (I often struggle until then).  If not, back to the pulmonologist.
• Every year, someone describes this course as "fast and flat" - they're right on the first part - this is a very fast course.  But it is NOT flat - there's several gentle inclines/declines.
• My gait still feels just bit off, despite all the work I'm doing on it - still like one of my axles is bent, to use a car analogy.  More stuff to work on.
• 6:15 was the absolutely perfect time to leave my house.  But....NO LATER.
• This is the one year anniversary of getting the MRI that confirmed a tear of my left hamstring at the attachment.  It's so great to be here, and not there.

Training log - Week ending 10/5/14

This week was 70 miles of running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

This graphic pretty much captures where
my right hip was tender,
and the referred pain.

The first part of the week was recovery.  As I noted last week, I was feeling like I was on the cusp of overtraining.  9+ hours worth of sleep on Sunday did a lot to help that, but I then woke up with a tight right calf and hip on Monday, making skipping Tuesday's workout even more of a no brainer.  So, kept the mileage low and easy on Tuesday, and got into my PT for some dry needling of my glute medius, glute minimus, and calf trigger points (I tried to release them first myself with a tennis ball, but sometimes you just need the big guns).

The dry needling did the trick - I felt better on Wednesday, and the calf was totally fine by Thursday.

And thing is, the rest early this week was probably more constructive to my training than another

This is NOT a good model
for a marathon training plan. 
Both literally and figuratively.

heavy week.  Proper training is NOT like constructing an ice cream sundae - trying to pile on as much as you can while hoping the thing doesn't topple over before your taper.  Rather, it's like baking a cake - adding too much of an ingredient can screw the whole thing up and the whole mixture needs time to set.

Next week is Army 10 Miler; after chatting with my coach, I've decided to do the same cutback I did for the Navy Air Force Half - it strikes a good balance between letting me rest up enough to be fresh but not falling too far off of marathon training.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 6.5 miles (8:33 pace), and a yoga class, followed by dry needling.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 7.5 miles very easy (9:12) followed by yoga.  Later an easy 7 (8:31 pace) and 1000 yards easy swimming.  Sports massage at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 4 miles very easy (9:20) to yoga.  After yoga, did another 4.5 miles (8:33), followed by a few drills+strides, some upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12.5 miles, including a workout of 3200, 1600 (12:41, split as 6:28/6:13, and then 6:09), followed by lower body strengthwork and injury prevention work, and then 1500 yards easy swimming.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   11.5 miles easy (8:18), followed by some drills+strides, yin yoga, and injury prevention/upper body strengthwork.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  16.5 miles averaging 7:36; did the 4-3-2-1 workout.  3 mile easy jog, then:
4 miles in 27:52 (7:05/6:57/6:55/6:55), followed by a mile at 8:28 pace
3 miles in 20:45 (6:57/6:56/6:52), followed by a mile at 8:25 pace
2 miles in 13:51 (6:56/6:55), followed by a mile at 8:18 pace
1 mile in 6:42.  Followed by half mile slow jog cooldown.   Total time for the 10 hard miles - 1:09:10 - 6:55 average pace (was shooting for 7).

Followed with some injury prevention work, 1500 yards easy swimming, and some yin yoga.  Foam rolling at night.