Training log - Week ending 2/26/2023

This week was 55 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

A lot of this week was spent focusing on how (and whether) my feet behave inside my running shoes.  My hips are working well now, but my feet tend to scrunch up (technical term) when I start trying too hard or get distracted or uncomfortable.  So I'm now doing PT exercises to relax my feet (things like using a wobble board while keeping my feet relaxed, and also contracting the arch of my foot while keeping the toes relaxed).

I also played with different shoes.  Essentially, I've become Goldilocks when it comes to shoe fit - specifically toebox size.  If the toe box is snug, my toes grab up because they are compressed.  If the toebox is too loose, then my toes curl to try to keep the shoe from shifting around.  And when my toes curl my ankles get really stiff, and then my running gait goes to hell.  I need to find the perfect middle ground, shoe-wise, to keep my foot/ankle acting like a foot/ankle and not a ski boot.

On Tuesday, I ran with a shoe that was too snug, and it quickly became obvious to me how limited I was by my feet.  For Friday morning, I made a big point of getting my shoe fit just right and was rewarded with a much better workout.   Ditto for Sunday.   

During Sunday's run, I could feel my feet start to grab up at times.  At that point, I would think about spreading my toes, and also spread my fingers wide in my mittens to reinforce the signal.  And as soon as my toes spread, my toes also relaxed, my foot started working right, and my gait improved.  I had a lot of moments during Sunday's run where my gait felt like I remembered it - my legs swinging like pendulums with a bit of pounce at each end as I rolled over my foot and pushed off with glute and then calf.

So now I've got another thing to overthink.  Yay?

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

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 5x1200, 400 in 5:21, 5:10, 5:06, 5:05, 5:07, and 1:41. 2:19 recovery after the first 1200 and 2:4x recoveries after all the other reps.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 10 miles very easy (9:23) on the treadmill.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 9 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 10.5 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:48 (7:09/6:58/6:544/6:47).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:16), drills/strides and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  14 miles progressive, split as first 5 averaging 9:09 pace, next 5 averaging 7:54 pace, and next 4 averaging 7:28 pace.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Training log - Week ending 2/19/2023

This week was 59 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

My paces were a bit faster for both track workouts this week, so we'll call that progress.  A fair part of Friday's tempo was done in lanes 2 or 3 due to a deep puddle in lane 1, so perhaps that tempo would have been a few seconds faster on another day.

I'm racing a half-marathon in 2 weeks, so I did a long run this weekend just to get one in between the marathon and the upcoming race.  It went decently - I ran slightly too fast on the first and second sessions, but it still felt productive overall and not too hard.

As for neuro symptoms, my hips feel much better and less stiff.  But since I'm still having some issues with my feet curling, we upped the dose of Rytary slightly, just adding an additional dose each day (from 3 doses a day to 4).  That seems to help slightly, but I need to give it a few weeks to see the full dose.

Monday: 9 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 12.5 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 2x1200, 2x800, 2x400 in 7:11, 5:05, 4:58, 3:17, 3:16, 95, and 96.  4:48 recovery after the 1600 and recoveries of 2:4x-3:0x after everything else.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (9:21) and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 9 "miles" of pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 10 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 28:35 (7:20/7:12/7:04/6:57), plus two 15 second hill sprints.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:38) and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  16 miles progressive, split as first 6 averaging 9:06 pace, next 5 averaging 8:04 pace, and next 5 averaging 7:39 pace.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Training log - Week ending 2/12/2023

This week was 47 miles of running and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

My gait is improving, though the 5K on Saturday didn't necessarily reflect it.  I'm still struggling with strong winds, and also with running at top speed or surging.  Basically, when I really try to run fast (i.e. surging in a 5K) my toes curl and my feet clench.  It's gotten better with the medication I'm on, but it's still not 100%.  And it's surprisingly hard to try to simultaneously relax your toes and still run hard.  So that's something I need to keep working on.

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

Tuesday: 10 miles including a track workout of 6x800, 2x200 in 3:38, 3:28, 3:22, 3:19, 3:18, 3:17, 47, and 47, with 2:0x-2:5x recoveries after the 800s and full recoveries after the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork.   Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 8 miles very easy (9:33) plus drills/strides.  Massage in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 5 miles easy (9:30).  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10 miles, including a 5K in 21:56.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 14 miles easy (9:21) followed by drills/strides and streaming yoga.

Race Report: By George 5K, February 11, 2023

 I ran the By George 5K today, finishing in a time of 21:56 by my watch.

This race was a rust-buster - my first race back after the Houston Marathon, and also a chance to see how I raced on Rytary.  It's a small old-school-type race - an accurate 5K distance, but no mile markers and timing done by a combination of a "clicker" held by a race official and a tag on the race bib that is torn off in the finishing chute.  

It was chilly (38 degrees) and pretty windy this morning, which resulted in a low turnout (about 50 runners total for the 5K). I debated what to wear, and went with a long sleeve t-shirt and tights, which felt like the right choice.

I did my standard warm-up of 15-20 minutes easy running, then 3:00 at marathon-to-half-marathon effort, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort, and 4x30 seconds at mile effort.  Then I did relaxed strides to keep my legs limber until we lined up.  I noted the wind was from the north.  The race itself was an out-and-back on a "U" shaped route, meaning a tailwind for the first mile, a mix of head and tailwind for the second mile, and a headwind for the third mile.

***

The gun went off, and I stayed off to the side while trying to establish my stride.  Once I'd had that settled, I looked ahead, and saw a number of runners that I could reel in.  There was a strong tailwind, which made me feel a bit less stable, and I also found that I couldn't push too hard without losing the stability of my gait.  So I did what I could, and tried to conserve energy to spend once I had a head wind.

After the first mile, we hit the turn at the southern tip of Hains Point, and the headwind hit.    Normally I would have dreaded it, but I felt a lot more stable with it, and used it as an opportunity to reel a few runners in.

It wasn't too long until we hit the turnaround cone to return.  The tailwind was equally strong, and I had to back off on the effort a bit to stabilize my stride.  I held that rhythm until we once again ran around the tip of Hains Point and back into the headwind.    At that point, feeling secure in my stride once again, I hit the gas.  

I could see the third and second place women ahead of me.  Third place was close, second fairly far ahead.  I passed third fairly easily, and steadily pulled towards second place, but ran out of real estate before I could pass her, finishing about 8 seconds behind her.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:12
Mile 2: 7:03
Mile 3: 6:49
Last bit: 0:52

So yes, the mile into the strong headwind was 23 seconds faster than the mile with the strong tailwind....

I'm both frustrated and happy with this race.  I got my rust buster out of the way, so that was good.  And I'm definitely handling running with others so much better than I used to.  At the same time, I'm not "fixed" yet.

My gait issues have improved substantially with the Rytary.  My hips are much better, and the issue is primarily in my toes - whenever my balance feels challenged (gusts of wind) or I try to surge to pass someone my toes curl and clench, which in turn makes it hard to run.   As soon as I start really trying, my toes and feet clench and I run slower.  So....in order to run my fastest, I have to try to run fast but not try TOO hard to run fast.

I'm already working on this with PT - I just need to keep working on it and practicing keeping my toes relaxed while running hard workouts.

Other notes:

• Left my house at around 6:40 am, which was perfect for the 7:50 am start.
• I tapered for this 5K like I normally do, but my legs felt a bit stiff.  I wonder if, just like the marathon, I'm now better off doing a little bit more before the race.

Training log - Week ending 2/5/2023

This week was 52 miles of running, ~1500 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This was my first full week back at the track after Houston.  The splits were a bit slower than I had hoped, but I can blame that on track congestion (the track was PACKED on Tuesday, so there was some weaving involved with each rep) and a very windy Friday morning.  Or maybe I'm just making excuses.

In any event, I felt much more secure and stable on the ground, and that was a huge win.  Running in the dark is far easier than it used to be.

Monday: 9 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 400, 800, 2x1200, 800, 3x400 in 1:43, 3:31, 5:10, 5:10, 3:22, 1:37, 1:38, 1:39.  Recoveries of 2:0x-3:1x after the 800s and 1200s, recoveries of 1:0x-1:3x after the 400s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:34) and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 9 "miles" of pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 10 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 28:54 (7:22/7:13/7:09/7:10), plus four 30 second hill sprints.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10 miles easy on the treadmill (9:34) and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 12 miles, including 8 Iwo Jima hills (2:00 powerful up a 3% incline; 90-100 second jog; 40 second downhill stride; 60 seconds jog to bottom) and some drills after.  The odd repeats focused on knee lift and a bouncy stride; the even repeats focused on stride extension.  Followed with drills, two strides, injury prevention work and 500 meters recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.