Training log - Week ending 1/26/14

This week was 58 miles of running, “15 miles” on the arc-trainer and 3,500 yards of swimming  -- training log is here. 

Yup – I’m in training again.  And it feels good, in that runner-specific masochistic way.  We had great weather for the Tuesday track workout, and it was a real confidence boost.  I started off very cautiously, but loosened up the reins a bit towards the end, and ended up with a 800 and 400 that were both sub-6 minute pace – a speed I didn’t think I’d be seeing for a few workouts.  Hammy felt a bit stiff afterwards, but nothing terribly concerning.

And then winter hit again.   Wednesday and Friday’s runs were done in single digit temperatures, under the Whitehurst freeway.

The Whitehurst Freeway in warmer times. 
Picture from Google Streetview; originally posted at beyonddc.com

[for non-DC people – the Whitehurst freeway is an elevated highway that nicely results in a covered  pavement stretch that’s roughly about 3/4s of a mile long. When everything else is ice and snow covered, you can run back and forth along this stretch to get some miles in.  The elevated highway itself interferes with GPS reception, so one has to run by time, and guestimate pace and distance]

Temperatures were slightly warmer (into the 20s) for the weekend, but still chilly.  And many of the trails were ice/snow covered.  On Saturday, I cobbled together a route that was mostly on the snow-free sidewalks of downtown DC (albeit with a mile or so on ice); for Sunday my group met in Rock Creek park and ran back and forth on a ~6 mile stretch of roadway that was mostly closed to vehicles.

By Sunday, I was feeling quite tired, and fairly beaten up.  And this makes sense.  I’ve been ramping up the running miles fairly aggressively the last few weeks (26, 38, 45, 52, and now 58).  Plus adding in workouts this week.  By itself, that would be a lot.  But then factor in the supercold temperatures and the occasional slipping on ice/snow, each of which take a toll, and you’ve got a substantial load.  

I can tell I’m right on the edge, with a bit of soreness/stiffness.  Nothing horrible, but a lot of aches in a lot of places, including the locations of the injuries I’m rehabbing.   So, in response, I’m going to play it careful and back off a bit for the next few days.  

Consistent with this plan, Sunday night was a sports massage (much needed) and a bedtime of 8:30 p (slept for 8.5 hours - fairly rare for me - I usually bounce out of bed at between 7:00-7:30 hours, no alarm needed).  This coming week, I’m going to sit out the Tuesday workout (intervals, in single digit temperatures with below-zero wind chill).  I think that for someone recovering from any injury, but especially a hamstring one, it doesn’t make sense to run fast in temperatures that cold.   

As for mileage, I’ll play it by ear.  If I’m going to make it to Boston, then my top priority needs to be staying injury free, followed by adequate mileage and the long run.  Fast running (especially intervals) is much less important in the overall scheme of things.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, “5 miles” on the arc-trainer and 1500 yards of swimming.   Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 9.5 miles, including a track workout of 400/800/1200/1200/800/400 (splits were 1:35, 3:09, 4:38, 4:37, 2:57, 1:26)  followed by 30 minutes on the arc-trainer.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work and ~10.5 miles outside (90 minutes spent running back and forth under the Whitehurst Freeway – I’m assuming 8:30 pace)  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, “4 miles” on the arc-trainer and 1000 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 10 miles running, including ~4 miles at approximately tempo effort, and 30 minutes on the arc-trainer.   Yoga class in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 11.5 miles easy (8:37 pace), and upperbody/core strengthwork.   Foam-rolling  in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 16.5 miles outside (7:58 pace), and 1000 yards of swimming.  Sports massage at night.

Training log - Week ending 1/19/14

This week was 52 miles of running, “12.5 miles” on the arc-trainer and 6,000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Still the same story – ramping up the miles and the marathon training.  Which means I’m in that weird transitionary period where I’m cutting back the cross-training, but it’s still a large part of my schedule.  I’m on week two of my coach’s training plan for Boston, which would normally have me at 58-68 miles per week.  But instead I did 52 miles, plus cross-training to make up the difference.  I'm on the same plan for this upcoming week, except a few more running miles, and a bit less cross training.

I finally got to do my first track workout in literally months on Friday.  It felt great to be back, even if the fun was marred by my apparent inability to tie my shoes.  I was hoping to use the “fast mile” part of the workout to gauge my fitness, but you really can’t read anything from a 1600 where your shoe came completely untied TWICE.  I have since invested in lace locks – if that doesn’t work, my options for next steps include Velcro, a return to kindergarten, and/or a manslave to tie my shoes.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 45 minutes on the arc-trainer for “4.5 iles, and 1000 yards of swimming.   Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 11 miles on a hilly route (8:18).  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work, 6 miles easy (8:50) and a yoga class.  Later did another 3 miles easy (8:29 pace) and 1500 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work , 50 minutes on the arc-trainer for “5 miles” and 1500 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 8 miles running, including a tempo workout of 3200, 1600 (splits were 13:43 (7:04/6:39) and 6:22) followed by 30 minutes on the arc-trainer.   Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 10 miles easy (8:24 pace), and some upper body weights work.  Foam-rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 14 miles easy (8:06 pace), and 2000 yards of swimming, including 6x100 on 2:00 (1:43.39, 1:43.15, 1:43.20, 1:41.90, 1:40.94, 1:39.93).  Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 1/12/14

This week was 45 miles of running, 21.5 “miles” on the arc-trainer and 9,000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Well, this was an interesting week.  I had every ambition of returning to workouts this week, but was foiled by circumstances.  Very cold temperatures on Tuesday caused me to skip my team’s hill workout - single digit temps plus hill repeats were not a good call for a runner recovering from a hamstring injury.  So I ran easy and then did an arc-trainer tempo.

And then my calf tightened up after Wednesday’s run – I was tempted to tempo on Friday, but sat that one out also to play it safe – so more easy miles followed by ANOTHER arc-trainer tempo.  

Fortunately, I was able to get into Capitol Rehab on Friday and get my calf worked on.  Apparently two muscles in the calf were stuck together – a bit of ART and I was good to go.

This weekend was ordinary, which made it awesome.  On Saturday, I did some easy miles outside in a heavy rain – I realized a few miles in that I was dodging puddles and pedestrians with umbrellas without a second thought.   No protecting the hamstring. No worries.  I had a big grin on my face for the rest of that rainy run.

Then on Sunday, my Boston training schedule had me down for 12-14 miles progressive.  Since the longest I’ve run post-injury is 10 miles, I thought I’d shoot for 12.  But at mile 6 I felt so good that I decided I’d continue running to Pierce Mill (the standard turnaround point) before heading back – I’d do 14 miles, but keep it easy.

I was still feeling good on the way back, so what the heck, I decided to try the last few miles at marathon pace effort.  I had a headwind and was really out of shape, so I knew that “marathon pace effort” would end up being pretty slow.  But gotta start somewhere.  Upped the pace and cruised on home, then checked my watch at the end, and…. my “marathon pace” segment ended up being 7:06 pace – surprisingly close to “normal”. 

There’s nothing special about doing 14 miles with the last 4 at 7:0x.  And that’s what made it so very cool.    It feels so damn good to be back in the routine.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, an hour on the arc-trainer (count as “6 miles”),  and 1000 yard swimming.   Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 7 miles easy on the treadmill (8:22), and an arc-trainer workout of 20 minutes at tempo effort, 2:30 rest, and then 10 minutes at tempo effort.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work, 10 miles easy outside (8:14 pace and 1000 yards of swimming.  Massage at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, “3 miles” on the arc-trainer at easy effort (30 minutes) and 2000 yards swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 7.5 miles running easy outside (8:59), followed by an arc-trainer workout of 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes at tempo effort, with 2:30 recovery.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 5.5 miles easy outside (8:18 pace) and 3500 yards of swimming.  Foam-rolling  in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 14.5 miles outside (7:48 pace, split as first 3 miles at 8:17, next 7.5 at 7:57, last 4 at 7:06), and 1500 yards of swimming.  Restorative yoga and foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 1/5/13

This week was 38 miles of running, 2 hours on the arc-trainer and 14,000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Still moving forward.  This week I started to test things a bit more, by a) running 2 days in a row; b) adding some gentle hills at easy pace, and c) adding some faster running.  I handled the first two pretty well, but the faster running on Friday did leave my hamstring a bit tender.  However, I suspect that the tightness had less to do with the pace of the running and more to do with the very cold temperatures that morning (temps in the low teens).  Similarly, my hamstring didn’t feel great after Sunday’s run, where the first two and last two miles were on mostly ice – but I suspect that was more the ice (and associated slipping than the hamstring.  Especially since the hamstring felt fine the first few miles.   

Duly noted – while continuing to rehab this thing, I have to be a bit more careful than I normally would be about weather conditions.  Fortunately, the hamstring felt fine during my rehab exercises on Monday morning, so I don’t think Sunday set it back too much.  We are supposed to get a decently bad cold snap the first part of this week, so I'll probably end up staying inside to be safe.  It's a bit disappointing - I was really looking forward to doing a hill workout this week.  But hills+very cold temps+healing hamstring is just too high risk.

This upcoming week will be more running, which means less swimming.  In a way, I’m sad to see the swimming get cut back – now that I’ve gotten to the point where flip turns are natural, I enjoy it.  But I enjoy running a lot more.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 5 miles easy running (8:25 pace), and 3500 yards of swimming, including a workout of 3x300 yards plus 100 yards on 2:00 base (5:19.13, 5:19.22, 5:14.62, 1:37.10), followed by 600 yards as 75 easy/25 hard and then 6x50 yards on 70 (47.64, 47.42, 47.59, 46.87, 46.85, 46.20).   Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 9 miles on a hilly route (8:08), 30 minutes on the arc-trainer, and 1500 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work, 30 minutes on the arc-trainer and 4000 yards of swimming, including a 1000 yard time trial in 18:03. 6x100 on 2:00 (1:45.59, 1:45.90, 1:45.54, 1:45.74, 1:43.69, 1:42.72) and 6x50 on 70 (49.59, 49.94, 49.08, 49.43, 49.14, 47.57).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work and 7 miles running (8:03 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 7 miles running, including ~1.5 miles at something between marathon and tempo effort, and 30 minutes on the arc-trainer.   Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 30 minutes on the arc-trainer and 2300m of swimming (essentially 2500 yards).  Foam-rolling  in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 10 miles outside (8:23 pace), and 2500 yards of swimming, including 6x100 on 2:00 (1:41.60, 1:42.81, 1:42.17, 1:41.14, 1:41.18, 1:39.10) and 4x50 on 1:00 (47.38, 48.77, 48.27, 48.82).  Foam rolling at night.