Training log - Week ending 7/30/2023

This week was 57 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

More mileage and trying to build some fitness.  The one thing that really stands out to me is that I have plenty of strength, but not much stamina or speed.  I really need to prioritize the work at tempo and marathon pace in the next few weeks.

Other than that, this was a lot of getting the work done.  My running gait feels the best it has in a while (which is still a bit far from where I want it to be) so that's good. 

Monday:  90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  2.5 miles (10:03), time team workout, and then 6 miles (10:16 - included some trail running) plus upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

 

Wednesday: 10.5 miles, with a track workout of 2x3200, 2x200 in 14:16 (7:08/7:08), 14:14 (7:10/7:04), 49 and 48.  5:15 and 5:30 recoveries after the 3200s and full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Sports massage in evening.

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

Friday: 10 miles, including 6 alternate Iwo Jima hills (about 2:30 up a 2.5% incline, 60 second jog, 30 second stride, and then 60 seconds jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles very easy (10:10) including some trail running and also drills/strides and then streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 16 miles, with the first 7 miles averaging 9:30 pace, the next 5 miles averaging 8:19 pace, and the next 4 miles averaging 7:43 pace, plus a half-mile cooldown. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/23/2023

This week was 46 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Very belated entry this week - oops.

The lowlight of this week was Sunday's 5K, which ended up being an exercise in frustration.  Other than that, the week was a bit off due to bad air quality (hence the treadmill workout on Tuesday) and having to go into work on Wednesday (hence the run commute).

Other than that, just getting the miles in (albeit with a cutback for this week's race).

Monday:  90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  10.5 miles, with a treadmill interval workout of 10 minutes at tempo effort (8.5-8.7 mph),4 minute jog recovery; then 4x3:15 at 9.1-9.3 mph with 2:30 jogs, followed by 4x0:30 at 9.6-9.9 mph with 90 second jogs.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (10:27 - run-commute with backpack); streaming yoga at lunch time.   Foam rolling in evening.

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

Friday: 8.5 mile fartlek with 400s and 200s at 5K effort.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4.5 miles very easy (9:50) plus strides; foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 3 mile warm-up, and then 5K race in 22:33.  Later ran 6.5 miles very easy (10:34 - mostly on trail).  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Birthday Bash 5K, July 23, 2023

 I ran the Birthday Bash 5K today, finishing in 22:35.  

Honestly, not my best race.  But I guess that is what rustbusters are for.

After my last race - the Garry Bjorklund Half - I took some time off and then started training again.  I've also been doing PT religiously, and it really seems like my gait has been improving.  

So I signed up for this race as a check-in.  I knew it would be a rolling course, but that would be a good chance to see how I handled downhills.

***

I jogged the first mile of the course and noted that the downhills were a bit steeper than I remembered (I haven't run this course in 7-8 years).  But I did some downhill strides and seemed to be able to run fast downhill (a big improvement on where I was previously) so that was positive.

After doing my normal warm-up (3:00 at tempo, 4x0:30 at 5K, 4x0:10 strides) I wandered over to the start and jogged with some strides until it was time to warm up.

I wasn't sure where to go, so I lined up next to two guys who were discussing goal times.  The guy on the left said he was targeting 18; the guy on the right was targeting 22.  I hoped to be somewhere in between those two times, so I thought I was in the right place.  And if I was too far back, well...it wasn't that big a race, so it wouldn't be too hard to work my way up.

***

The race started, and yup, I had started too far back.  I assumed that things would open up pretty quickly but the course was narrower than I expected and it took about half a mile for me to get enough room to run.

Once I had room I went to work - pushing the uphills and trying to run the downhills well.  I struggled with the downhills more than I had expected - essentially running downhill fast requires a lot of concentration, and it's harder to concentrate when I have other people around me.  The end result is that while my downhill running was much improved, it still wasn't good.  I still have work ahead of me.

My splits ended up being:

Mile 1: 7:35 (stuck in traffic)
Mile 2: 7:01
Mile 3: 7:03
last bit: 54 seconds.

So....not great at all.  I guess the positives are that I did run downhill a bit better, and I got my rustbuster out of the way.  

On to the next one.

Other notes:

• It was actually pretty good weather - Temperature of 68 with a dew point of 66.  In northern Virginia, that's pretty good for July.  
• I left my home around 6:30 am for the 8:00 am start, which was just about perfect.
• I wore the Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 1s for this race.  I think I really like that shoe for a 5K.

Training log - week ending 7/16/2023

This week was 63 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Anyone who closely scrutinizes my training will note the addition of some grass running and some trail running to my easy runs.  I don't do all of my runs on these surfaces, just anywhere between a few minutes (grass) to a few miles (easy trail). The hope is that this will improve my ankle strength and proprioception.

The week started cooler and drier, which was great for the Tuesday track workout. I managed to dip under 3:10 for an 800 again, which was encouraging.  By the weekend the heat and humidity was back - "marathon effort" yielded me a pace about 40 seconds slower than I hope to hold at my fall marathon, but that's summer training in DC.

The good news is that I'm feeling strong and like I am in much better shape than I was last year at this time. Hopefully that means good things for Chicago.

Dailies:

Monday:  90 minutes pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  11 miles, with a track workout of 2000, 5x800 in 8:35, 3:18, 3:16, 3:14, 3:10, 3:07; 5:42 recovery after the 2K and 3:0x-3:3x recoveries after the 800s (yes, very long).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (9:58), including some grass-running and drills/hill sprints; yoga at lunch time.   Foam rolling in evening.

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

Friday: 11 miles, including 7 alternate Iwo Jima hills (about 2:30 up a 2.5% incline, 60 second jog, 30 second stride, and then 60 seconds jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles very easy (10:20) including some trail running and then upper body weights/core.

Sunday: 17 miles, with the first 13 miles averaging 9:29 pace and the next 4 miles averaging 8:02 pace. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/9/2023

This week was 65 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 9 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This week was jumbled by both the 4th of July holiday by some bad air quality that put me back on the treadmill on Wednesday.  Another reshuffle was the return of the official (team-based) Iwo Jima hill workouts, but on an alternate route up and down the hill that lengthened the hill and shortened the recovery.

This week was also jumbled by some heat and humidity.  I handled it much better at the beginning of the week than the end - Sunday's long run was a struggle.  But...that's just summer running, I guess.

My plan is for another week or two at this volume, and then I'll start building for Chicago.

Dailies:

Monday:  10 miles, with a track workout of 2x1200, 2x800, 2x400, 2x200 in 5:02, 4:58, 3:17, 3:16, 97, 95, 47, 47, recoveries all between 2:3x and 2:4x.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles very easy (9:51), then cheered at a race, and then 3.5 miles easy (8:59), followed by streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:34) plus upper body weights/core.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10 miles, including 5 alternate Iwo Jima hills (about 2:30 up a 2.5% incline, 60 second jog, 30 second stride, and then 60 seconds jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10.5 miles easy (9:42) plus drills and strides, and then upper body weights/core.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 10:05 pace, next 5.5 miles averaging 8:17 pace, and next 3.5 miles averaging 7:56 pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown jog.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/2/2023

 This week was 37 miles of running and 27 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I had planned for this week to be mostly hills and tempo intervals, and I accomplished that.  I had also planned for this week to be outdoors, but forest fire smoke kept me inside from Wednesday-Saturday.

As for plans....Friday was supposed to be a tempo workout, followed by easy miles on Saturday and a progressive long run on Sunday.  However, because of the smoke, I stayed inside on the treadmill.  The tempo/hills workout I did on Friday felt great, but it left my calves tight after.  Not injured, but on the edge.  I think they would have been OK if I had done easy miles outside on Saturday, but that wasn't an option due to the smoke - my choices were the treadmill or pool-running.   So I moved my Monday pool-run to Saturday.  It ended up being the right choice, as my calves felt fine for Sunday's run.

Because things were jumbled anyways, I decided to just run easy on Sunday.  I'll do a track workout on Monday, which will then free me up to cheer for friends at a 4th of July 5K on Tuesday morning.

Dailies:

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

Tuesday: 9 miles, including 6 Iwo Jima hills (~2:15 uphill; 90 second jog; 40 second downhill stride; 60 seconds to the bottom of the hill) and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:34) and streaming yoga.   Sports massage in evening.

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

,

Friday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a mixed tempo/hill workout consisting of 3x10 seconds hard up a 5% incline with 50 seconds recovery; 2x5:00 at 8.5 mph (7:03 pace); 6x1:00 up a 5% incline (cycling twice through easy, moderate, and hard), and then another 2x5:00 at 8.5 mph.  All with 90 seconds recovery except for the short hill sprints at the start.   Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 10 miles easy (9:25) plus drills and strides, followed by upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.