Training log - Week ending 7/26/2015

This week was 70 miles of running, 11 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Not the greatest week.   Tuesday's planned workout got cut short due to horrible humidity and heat (no argument here).  The weather was better later in the week, and I had a solid hill workout, but then I didn't feel great for Sunday's long run, pulling the plug when I started to feel like I was straining.  I hate pulling the plug on hard runs, but I gain nothing by running myself into the ground.  I've also got some sinus pain, and mild head-spinning symptoms when at rest (weirdly, I only notice the head-spinning when I'm NOT running). 

There's several potential causes here - the humidity is one possible cause; others include not getting enough fluids, not eating enough, overtraining, fighting off a bug, or allergies.  I'm suspecting it's one of the last two - I know of at least one other friend who's been fighting allergy symptoms this week, and head spinning/ dry sinuses are often allergy symptoms for me.  OTOH, Brian had a few days of sinus issues, so it may be a bug that he's given me.

Regardless of what the cause is, the best first response is rest, eating well, and drinking a ton of fluids. Can't hurt, especially since I'm between training cycles, and there's no need to push stuff if I'm not struggling.   So that's my plan for this coming Monday, at least, and then I'll see how I feel.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga, some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work, and 5 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; 2 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  11 miles, including a workout that was supposed to be 2x2 miles with 3 minutes recovery.  Modified to 2 miles, 8 minute recovery, 1 mile (7:10/6:37, and then 6:36)  followed by some injury prevention work and 1750 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 5.5 miles very easy (9:51), followed by a yoga class and then another 8 miles very easy (9:03), followed by drills and 6 hill sprints.   Foam rolling in afternoon, plus 2 "miles" easy pool-running.

Thursday:   5.5 miles very easy (9:23), followed by a yoga class.  Later, another 3 miles very easy (9:08) with drills and 4 strides, and some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work,.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12.5 miles, including eight hill repeats.   Followed with some injury prevention work and 1750 yards easy swimming.    Sports massage at night.

Saturday:  10 miles very easy (9:26) plus drills and two strides, followed by upper body strengthwork/injury prevention work and foam rolling.  2 "miles" easy pool-running in the afternoon.

Sunday:  14 miles progressive, split as first 5 at 8:51, next 5 at 7:45, last 4 at 7:21 (but with a 2:00 break halfway in the final part).   Followed with some injury prevention work and a yoga class.  500 yards easy swimming and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 7/19/15

This week was 70 miles of running, 10 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

The 70 miles this week was a bit of a whoops...I've been trying to keep my mileage in the 60-65 range until marathon training starts in a few weeks.  But my team's workouts have been temporarily relocated to sites about 3-4 miles from home - I jog each way, and those miles (especially the cooldown) add up.  I am keeping my non-workout miles very easy, and I'm hoping that controls the risk from a high mileage week.

This week was also my first full week of workouts, with mile repeats on Tuesday.  We did the repeats on a bike path that has a slight grade, meaning that the odd-numbered uphill reps are a bit slower than the even-numbered downhill ones.  It also means that when given your choice of 3 or 4 repeats, you'll just automatically do four, since it seems silly to skip the last downhill rep.

(of course, when it's your first workout back, and a fairly humid day to boot, it's not THAT silly to stick to three repeats.  Unfortunately I didn't figure that out until I had already started the fourth mile.  Oooops.)

Other than that, the week was pretty uneventful, and highlighted by a decent long run on Sunday, where I (hopefully) successfully tested my formerly bad hip by running fast on a long downhill stretch.

The back story is that my right inside hip has historically HATED running fast downhill for extended periods of time.  Hate in this context means a pretty strong stabbing sensation, followed by a few days off from running.

The issue was originally diagnosed as osteitis pubis on the right side, with a treatment plan of "try not to do anything that makes it hurt - if it hurts, you have to rest it."  Then an MRI about two years ago confirmed the osteitis pubis and also noted a chronic tear in my groin on that side (where an abdominal muscle and my right adductor attach to the pelvis).   The fancy language in the formal report was "[c]hronic degeneration of the adductor­rectus abdominus aponeurosis with small focal tear on the right."

It was theorized that the groin tear was causing pelvic instability, which then led to all sorts of injuries.   So, we addressed the tear with two rounds of PRP injections last year to kickstart healing, and I've also been working like crazy in the gym/at yoga on my pelvic stability (there's about 10 jokes you can insert here).

My hope was that the healed tear and improved stability would fix the pain-while-running-fast-downhill issue, but a test run last summer resulted in the same stabbing pain.  So, I've been avoiding running fast on downhill stretches, which means that I've avoided running my team's 21 mile "loop" during marathon training, in order to minimize the risk of setback (the loop finishes with a significant downhill stretch).

But...this morning was the perfect time to test my hip out again - I've got a few weeks before marathon training starts, and the upcoming week is going to be pretty bad heat and humidity-wise.  If I have to skip running for a few days due to my hip acting up, let it be this week.

So, I ran out (uphill) and back (downhill) on that troublesome stretch.  And deliberately pushed my hip pretty hard, hitting 6:45 - significantly faster than my marathon pace - on the last 2 miles on that section.  As a marathon workout it was too fast and counterproductive (and I'll pull back next time); but as a "let's really test this thing" it was right on.

And the good news is, no stabbing pain during the run or immediately after - a refreshing change.  If nothing hurts tomorrow (and I don't expect it to), I'll consider my hip to have passed the test.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga, some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work, and 5 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  12 miles, including a workout of 4x1 mile with 3:00 recovery - split 6:43 (up), 6:26 (down), 6:31 (up), 6:28 (down), followed by some injury prevention work and 1250 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 3.5 miles easy (10:05), followed by a yoga class and then another 8.5 miles easy (9:06), followed by drills, 2 strides, and 2 hill sprints.   Foam rolling in afternoon, plus 2.5 "miles" easy pool-running.

Thursday:   5 miles very easy (9:13), followed by a yoga class.  Later, another 3 miles very easy (9:10) with drills, and some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work,.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  13.5 miles, including seven hill repeats.   Followed with some injury prevention work and 1600 yards easy swimming.    Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  10 miles very easy (9:03) plus drills and four strides, followed by upper body strengthwork/injury prevention work and foam rolling.  2.5 "miles" easy pool-running in the afternoon.

Sunday:  14.5 miles progressive, split as first 4 at 9:36, next 6.5 at 8:48, next 2 at 7:20, and last 2 at 6:45.   Followed with some injury prevention work and a yoga class.  1150 yards easy swimming in the afternoon.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/12/2015

This week was 64.5 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

(and yes, it drives me nuts that the week ended on a half mile. We all have our neuroses.)

This week was a careful return to training. I added in drills and strides after my easy runs during the middle of the week.  Friday was almost 3 weeks post marathon - close enough that I was OK'd to start back to hard running with a conservative hill loop workout - six repeats of running hard for about 2 minutes up a hill, then about 90 seconds jog, a stride focused on turning over the feet, and then jog down easy to the start of the hill.

It's a fun workout, and one of my favorites, even though I'm a really poor uphill runner.  I think I love it so much because it doesn't involve little circles on the track, and my whole team is consistently cheering each other on as we run.

This is pretty much how I imagine
I look when I run.

I feel that the uphill segment of the workout really targets my weakness, so I'm happy to have a chance to work on it. The downhill segment focusing on leg turnover/high running cadence, on the other hand, targets a debatable strength of mine.

As the owner of a short body with disproportionately short legs for my height, the only way I get anywhere is by moving my legs quickly.  I'm intrigued by those who struggle to meet that magic 180 cadence - I overshoot that on my very easy runs (usually mid-180s), and my marathon pace cadence is in the low 190s.  Fast speedwork on the track is about 200 steps a minute.

So when we come to the fast turnover part of the workout, I usually try to up my cadence a little, but focus more on the "good running form/don't overstride" guidance, which is really the underlying goal of increasing turnover for most people.

But, on Friday, empowered by the cadence sensor on my Garmin, I decided to try to truly max out my cadence once, and see just how fast I could turnover my legs.

The answer is to the left.  About 250 steps per minute.  Yee-haw!

It's a dubious achievement, but I'll keep it anyway.

For the next few weeks, I'm in maintenance mode - marathon training for the Philadelphia Marathon (my fall goal race) will start in late August.  Until then, I'll hold where I am now - about 60-65 miles per week, with my speedwork consisting of long intervals on Tuesday (1-3 miles per interval) and hill repeats on Friday.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga, some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work, and 5 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; 2 "miles" of easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  10 miles aerobic (9:31 pace, but can't call this one "easy" due to the combination of high humidity and hilly terrain), followed by some injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 3 miles easy (9:54), followed by a yoga class and then another 7 miles easy (9:26), followed by drills, 2 strides, and 2 hill sprints.   Foam rolling in afternoon.

Thursday:   5.5 miles very easy (9:41), followed by a yoga class.  Later, another 3 miles very easy (9:10) with drills and 2 strides, and some upperbody strengthwork and injury prevention work,.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  10 miles, including six hill repeats.   Followed with some injury prevention work and 1500 yards easy swimming.    Sports massage in the afternoon.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy (9:12) plus drills and two strides, followed by upper body strengthwork/injury prevention work.  2 "miles" easy pool-running in the afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  14 miles progressive, split as first 2 at 9:44, next 6.5 at 8:36, next 2.5 at 7:45, and last 3 at 7:09. Followed with some injury prevention work and a yoga class.  1000 yards easy swimming in the afternoon.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/5/15

This week was 56  miles of running, 10 "miles" of pool-running, and 5000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

This was my second week of marathon recovery.  Nothing too special.  I'm still weaning myself off of my post marathon eat all the bad stuff for a few days and also working a lot on overall strength and fitness.  I did start adding in form drills this week, post easy running, and also let myself run a bit harder on Sunday.  Not a real workout, just picking up the pace out of the 9s and back into the 7s to stretch the legs, heart, and lungs.

I also tried some easy pool-running at night, hoping that could be a way to supplement my land-running miles.  I've found in the past that running in the evening just screws up my sleep that night - any benefit I get from the extra miles is outweighed by the loss of recovery from poor sleep.  I have hopes that an evening double of pool-running won't have the same effect.  However, I did have some trouble drifting off after Tuesday's evening pool-run.  I'm not sure if it was the pool-running itself, or that I did it too long, so I'm going to try a shorter stint one evening this week, and see if I can sleep well after that.  If I can't, then so much for the pool-running double.

Plan for next week is to up the mileage a bit more and add some strides, while backing off on the yoga.  I've gotten my hip stability back to where it needs to be, post race, so now I can return to focusing more on running itself.

In other, completely non-running related news, I discovered that the entirety of In Living Color, the awesome sketch comedy series from when I was in high school, is now available on Youtube.  I *loved* this show.  Though it's nowhere near as shocking as it was when it came out (seems almost tame), it's still very funny.  Some references are a bit dated, but the comedy itself is still fresh.  I leave you with this classic - The Wrath of Farrakhan.

 
 

Dailies

Monday:   Upper body weights, yoga and 5 "miles" easy pool-running; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  8 miles easy (9:15), lower body weights, and 1500 yards swimming.  5 "miles" of pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 2.5 miles very easy (9:24), yoga, and then another 6.5 miles easy (8:46), followed by running form drills.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   5 miles easy (9:12 pace), yoga and then another 2.5 miles easy (9:11), followed by drills and some some injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  10 miles very easy (9:28), followed by yoga.  In the afternoon, 2000 yards easy swimming. and foam rolling.

Saturday:   8.5 miles before and after a race that I cheered at, followed by yoga.  Upper body strengthwork and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:  12 miles aerobic (7:59 pace), upping the pace to 7:00 for last mile, followed by some running drills.  Then did 1500 yards easy swimming, some injury prevention work, and yoga.  Foam rolling at night.