Training log - Week ending 12/27/2015

This week was 65 miles of running, 2000 yards of swimming, and 7 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This was my first full week of training, post-marathon, and it's great to be back in the familiar rhythm: intervals/hills on Tuesday, something tempo-ish on Friday, and a long run on Sunday.

Of course, there were a few deviations this week.  On Tuesday, I woke with a sore throat, so I opted to go back to bed and skip the team hill workout.  Later that morning I felt better, so I decided to take a "lunch break" from work and go for a run, perhaps run a hill or two.  As it turned out, I felt better as I went, and ended up cranking out 7 hill repeats, each one of them solid and faster than the previous week.  

The fact that I could have a great workout also demonstrated that I wasn't really sick - it was just my mold allergies popping up with a vengeance due to the unseasonable (and unreasonable) combination of warmth and moisture that we've had in DC this past week.

I normally tempo on Friday, but of course that was Christmas Day this year.  I debated running it on Thursday morning instead, but opted to wait: I wanted the extra day's rest between hills and tempo.  I'll also fess up that Thursday was miserably rainy and warm (in the 70s), while Friday morning was a bit better. 

Xmas team photo.  I'm in the center in the longsleeve
(which was tied around my waist while running
-it was nearly 70 degrees.)

So Christmas morning came, and I treated myself to 2x2 miles around Hains Point, timing my cooldown to meet up with some of my teammates in front of the National Christmas Tree by the White House.  Though it was far from my "best" tempo pace-wise, there was magic in tempoing by myself on a deserted peninsula through the mists as the sun rose.  I ran hard, with a smile.  And then I met my teammates by the Christmas tree, and that was special too.  Running the streets of Washington DC on Christmas morning is reliably one of the best runs of the year.

On Sunday, I did another not-quite-a long run of 12 miles progressive.  I'm running a net downhill half-marathon in late January, so I was glad that today's route had the "fast" part of the progression on a downhill that's just a bit steeper than my half-marathon.  I intentionally pushed the pace to close to half-marathon effort for the final miles, to give my quads a bit of "fastdownhillrunning" proofing.

As an aside, it's interesting to note that my pace for my 2x2 mile tempo on Friday was slower than the final four miles of Sunday's progression run.  Friday's run was definitely the harder workout by far, but it was done on flat ground with temperature and dew point in the high 60s.  By contrast, Sunday's run was in significantly cooler conditions, with a solid downhill assist.  To me, this reflects the importance of training off of effort rather than pace.  And also that I'm one of those people that really gets a speed boost from downhills.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga plus 7 "miles" easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  11 miles, including a hill workout of 7 repeats up Iwo Jima (~500m up, then 200m jog, 100m stride, and 100m jog down to base of hill.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 3 miles very easy (9:57 pace) to yoga, and then a yoga class.  Followed with 7.5 miles very easy (9:08) plus some drills and two strides.  Sports massage at night.

Thursday:   2.5 miles very easy to the gym (9:57 pace) followed by some upper body weights and core.  Then did another 7.5 miles very easy (9:20).  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  11.5 miles, including 2x2 miles at tempo effort with 4:30 jogging recovery.  Splits were 13:35 (6:49/6:46) and 13:15 (6:43/6:32). Followed with lower body strengthwork, foam rolling, and 1000 yards recovery swimming (yes, there was a gym/pool open on Christmas day).

Saturday:   10 miles easy/aerobic (8:16), plus drills and two strides.  Followed with weights work in the gym and foam rolling.

Sunday:  12 miles progressive, split as 2 miles at 8:57 pace, 6 miles at 8:18 pace, and then 4 miles at 6:38 (downhill, but into a headwind).  Followed with lower body strengthwork and yoga.  1000 yards easy swimming and foam rolling later.