This week was 62 miles of running, 19 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.
This week had some ups and downs. I had some fatigue on Tuesday (not surprising, since I had done a hard workout that weekend) and my breathing felt slightly tight. Then Thursday's tempo was at the correct effort, but a pace about 10-15 seconds slower than I would expect.
At first I thought the slow tempo was due to a combo of fatigue and being overdressed for unseasonably warm weather. And then I thought some more and realized that I had been coughing a lot post-workout, and gave the asthma doctor a call. A quick check of my breathing confirmed that values were low and my asthma was starting to flare again - apparently I didn't rest enough after getting sick last week. Or perhaps I just would have flared anyway.
Asthma flares are like injuries - running on them just makes them worse. But they're unlike running injuries in that rest does nothing to ease them, once you're flaring. The only way to calm a flare is with medication, and the longer you delay hitting the meds, the more meds you need to take.
So onto another dose of prednisone. Not what I wanted at all, but it was what it was. At least this time we tried half my normal dose to see if that would be sufficient since I caught this one early - the less prednisone I take, the better.
My long run went very well on Saturday, though it's hard to know how much was improved breathing versus prednisone assistance. I guess the test will be this coming week.
It's worth noting that the paces on Saturday's long run are also slightly misleading - my first 7 miles were on mild rolling hills, and then the second 7 were flat to uphill, followed by 2 miles uphill at marathon effort (7:00-ish) and 5 miles downhill at marathon effort (6:40-ish).
So that marathon pace segment was definitely assisted, and not necessarily a good indicator of my fitness. But it did achieve my goal of doing some MP work going uphill and then a lot of MP work downhill. My quads were definitely a bit sore the next morning, which was exactly what I wanted - a bit of quad proofing for Boston.
Dailies:
Monday: 7.5 very easy to yoga (9:28), yoga, and then 1.5 very easy home (9:16) plus drills and strides. Foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 800, 2x1600, 800 (3:05, 6:17, 6:09, 2:57), followed by injury prevention work and 1250 yards of recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 10 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core. Massage in afternoon..
Thursday: 11 miles, including a tempo workout of 4 miles in 26:37 (6:39/6:42/6:41/6:36). Followed with 1250 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: 10 miles very easy (9:19) plus drills and strides. Later DIY yoga and foam rolling.
Saturday: 21 miles progressive, split as first 7 at 9:00, next 7 at 7:36, last 7 at 6:45. Followed with light injury prevention work and then 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling in evening.
Sunday: 14 "miles" pool-running, followed by yoga and foam rolling.
That's a really solid week, and great job with that long run. Frustrating about the asthma, but at least you know now and you were able to treat it.
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