Training log - Week ending 8/21/16

This week was 50 miles of running, 31 "miles" of pool-running and 2000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

And....I'm halfway through the hardest part of the training cycle.  During what's the most challenging part of the year to run in, to boot.

The weather for the first part of the week was fairly tough - Wednesday's workout was in temperatures in the high 70s with a dew point to match.  On paper, the workout was supposed to be 25x400m at 10K pace with 100m active recovery (i.e. around 8:00 pace, not the normal shuffle jog).

 Because of the weather conditions, I slowed down my pace on the intervals (1:38s instead of 1:33s). However, in retrospect, I should have slowed down the recovery jogs as well.  The point of keeping the recovery jog so short and upbeat is to keep one's heart rate from dropping too much, but in hot and humid weather, one's heart rate isn't going to drop anyway.

As I got further and further into the workout, I could tell that I was overreaching and overheating, so I stopped the workout at 20 repeats to limit the damage.  It's always hard to do so - like any type A personality, I equate "harder" workouts with "better."  And forcing the last few laps would have been good mental toughness training.  But gutting out the workout would have also dug me into a big hole.  Y'know, the same one I always dig myself into if I'm not careful.

It's funny how good decisions make one feel sheepish at the time.  Workouts are stimuli, not validations of one's fitness and toughness.  But it's hard to remember that in the heat of the (hot and humid) moment.

The other news is that, sadly, my asthma has started acting up again.  And the uptick coincides very nicely with the onset of ragweed season.  Of course.

I had noticed my chest getting tight again, so I headed back to the asthma doctor on Friday.  There, some tests confirmed that my breathing had backtracked a bit, so we bumped up the strength of my Advair (from 250 to 500, for those who care).

I was annoyed for several reasons.  For one, I hate the side effects of the stronger dose of Advair.  I find it very dehydrating, and it also gives me hot flashes - both of which are not fun when trying to train in a DC summer.  It also makes me irritable - I get annoyed at really minor things, and then feel awful about it later.

I've also gotten really hooked on having 100% functioning lungs.  It was just an amazing feeling, and I'm depressed to have regressed.  It's like I'm in some pulmonary retelling of Flowers for Algernon - my breathing peaked, and is now slowly ebbing away.  I know that I'm still breathing much better than my norm for this time of year, and I'm pretty sure that this will pass in another 4-5 weeks (which is also when my training cycle concludes).  But 4-5 weeks seems a long time right now.


Dailies 

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running; 2 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 7.5 miles very easy (9:17) then upper body weights, followed by 2.5 miles very easy home (8:59) plus drills and strides.  2 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 12 miles, including a workout of 20x400m averaging 1:38 pace with 100m recovery at easy run pace.  Followed with 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Sports massage at night.

Thursday: 8 "miles" pool-running and yoga in the morning.  2 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling at night

Friday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:26), followed by upper body weights and core.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17 miles, including a workout of 4, 3, 2, and 1 miles at marathon pace, with 1 mile easy in between. Splits were:
4 mile in 28:57 (7:23/7:15/7:06/7:13 - average pace 7:14)
3 mile in 21:33 (7:14/7:13/7:06 - average pace 7:11)
2 mile in 14:22 (7:15/7:07 - average pace 7:11)
1 mile in 6:55
Followed with injury prevention work and 1000 yards of recovery swimming. Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: Took the morning off to clean and unpack (our brand new kitchen was finished on Friday).  6 "miles" of pool-running and foam rolling in the afternoon.