Training log - Week ending 2/23/2020

This week was 50 miles of running, 18 "miles" of pool-running, and 2000 yards swimming -- training log is here. 

An annoying week.  Usually I start feeling really good around 7-10 days out from the marathon.  This week, not so much - just lots of achiness in my hips and hamstrings  There's clear reasons why - my ulcerative colitis started flaring moderately, meaning that I had to go on meds again for a few days.  That took care of the achy hips, but then a very very frigid tempo on Friday (that I underdressed for) left me stiff and sore.  Both hamstrings were tight on Saturday and Sunday's run.

I'm not too worried about it - there are clear explanations why I'm not feeling great, and all this should pass.  We'll chalk it down to taperitis.

Dailies

Monday:  DIY yoga and 9 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 4x1200 in 4:31, 4:28, 4:28, 4:24.  Recovery between 2:37 and 2:43 after each 1200.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 800 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: DIY yoga and 9 miles very easy (9:00), followed by drills and four hill strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: DIY yoga and upper body weights/core followed by 90 minutes of pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  10 miles, including a 5K track tempo in 19:51; splits of 6:26/6:21/7:05 (for 1800).  Followed with leg injury prevention work and 750 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: DIY yoga, 8 miles very easy (8:51), drills, four strides, and then upper body weights and core.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: DIY yoga, 12 miles easy to moderate (first 4 averaged 8:17; last 8 averaged 7:47).  Followed with foam rolling and 450 yards recovery swimming.

Training log - Week ending 2/16/2020.

This week was 71 miles of running, 15 "miles" of pool-running, and 2000 yards swimming -- training log is here.

This was more or less a transition week from training into taper.  I shifted from 1 big mid-week workout and a big long run to two smaller workouts and a smaller long run.  And while my mileage stayed fairly high, I ran it over more days per week, so that I averaged 12 miles for each day of running, instead of the 14 I was averaging before.  In the upcoming week, I'll shift to averaging around 10 miles a day.

I'm not hitting any of these workouts very hard - the whole point now is to sharpen, not to build extra fitness.  But I was happy with how each workout felt - very controlled and doable.  The effort is going to stay at "fast but fun" for the track workouts until race day. Cruising, not hammering.

I'm already feeling good.  My hope is that if I time this just right, I'll start feeling amazing around 7-10 days before the marathon.

Dailies

Monday:  6 miles very easy (9:17), upper body weights/core, and then 2 miles very easy (8:53), followed by drills, four strides, and 6 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 4x800 in 6:08, 2:57, 2:56, 2:56, 2:52.  Recovery of around 5 minutes after the 1600, and around 2:30 after each 800.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 8 miles very easy (9:12), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy (8:57), followed by drills and four strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: Upper body weights/core followed by 90 minutes of pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12 miles, including a track tempo of 6400m in 25:18; splits of 6:24/6:19/6:22/6:13.  Followed with four hill sprints, leg strengthwork, and 750 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (8:58), drills, four strides, and then upper body weights and core.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 16 miles, split as the first 5 averaging 8:44 pace, the next 5 averaging 7:19 pace, the next 6 averaging 6:38, and then a half-mile cool-down jog.  Followed with leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 2/9/2020

This week was 69 miles of running, 24 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards swimming -- training log is here.

And that's the last week of big training in the books.  Just two hard days this week, in keeping with the structure that seems to work best for me in marathon training.  I do 3 day "mini-cycles" when marathon training - the first day is a lot of easy mileage to "pre-load" the legs with some fatigue; the second day is a hard workout on tired legs; and then the third day is a very easy day in the pool, where I absorb the training stress of the previous day.  (To make this work with a 7 day week, sometimes I add an extra hybrid day, like I did on Monday of this week.) 

How easy the third day is depends on how hard the day before it was.  We don't improve our running from training hard; we improve it from training hard and then letting our bodies respond.  So...the harder the hard day, the more space I give my body on the easy day.  Hence the 21 miler on Saturday was followed by a very relaxed Sunday.

69 miles looks like the highest mileage week in this cycle, and that's because it technically was.    And it also looks like a big jump from the previous week's 56 miles.  But....I think that's because weekly mileage isn't the best way to measure training load, especially for someone like me who only runs between 4 and 6 days a week.

This week, I split 69 miles over 5 days of running - that's an average of 14 miles a day for each day run.  Last week I split 56 miles over 4 days of running - that was also an average of 14 miles a day for each of those 4 days.  The fact that I ran 56 miles on one week and 69 the other is just a quirk of where the cut-off was between weeks.  Both weeks felt equally hard.

(this is why I think people who measure their training just in terms of weekly mileage and length of long run are missing some key points in their training.) 

I was pretty happy with this week.  While I'm not as fit as I was this fall, I'm not far off of it, and I think I have a good chance of PRing in my marathon if everything aligns (I've certainly got the course to run fast).   Saturday's long run felt great - reasonable, controlled, strong.  I would have liked the pace to have been faster for the given effort, but I'll blame that on the headwind coming back, plus two slow splits from a section where my Garmin often cheats me on distance (the downsides of using autolap).  

I had debated doing a 5K this coming Saturday as a final tune-up, but I think I'm going to skip it.  I think I'll benefit more from a Friday tempo and Sunday 16 miler then I will from a 5K, and 2+ weeks out is still far enough to be building a bit of fitness, even as I start pulling back on the workload.  Tough call, as I like to race regularly to stay in practice.  But hopefully January's race in Houston is close enough to One City to work.

Dailies

Monday:  6 miles very easy (9:03), upper body weights/core, 2 miles very easy (8:41) and then 6 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night

Tuesday: 7 miles very easy (9:17), yoga, and then 5.5 miles very easy (8:41), plus drills and four hill strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 14.5 miles, including a workout of 2x3 miles in 19:24 (6:35/6:30/6:18) and 18:50 (6:21/6:25/6:04*) with 4 minute recovery between the two, followed by four "fast-but-fun" .25 mile reps in 88, 90, 91, 92 with full recovery.  Followed with leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.
[*suspect Garmin error on the last mile - probably closer to 6:15 pace.  Also worth noting that this was a very windy morning, so some of these splits had head/cross/tail winds]   

Thursday: Upper body weights/core and 12 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  8 miles very easy (9:19), yoga, 4.5 miles very easy (9:27), drills and two strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 21 miles progressive, split as first 7 averaging 8:50, next 7 averaging 7:32, last 7 averaging 6:47.  Followed with half-mile cooldown jog, leg injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: Yoga and 6 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in afternoon.