Training log - Week ending 6/9/2024

This week was 41 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running, and 500 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

This week was a bit low on mileage, both because I raced on Saturday and because I had some weird food poisoning/stomach bug thing on Wednesday morning. I was horribly nauseous for about 2 hours, then totally fine.  No idea what was going on.  My best guess is that snacking on raw chocolate chip cookie dough on Tuesday afternoon was a bad idea.

Saturday was another track meet.  Per my usual, I was stiff and rigid for most of both races - when it takes you 1-3 miles to hit your stride, races shorter than 2 miles are an exercise in frustration.  But I felt like I ran better than the previous meet, and I certainly accelerated off the line a bit better.  And I also figured out that I ran my best in these shorter meets when I wasn't thinking about the meet at all.  That's different from the psychological approach that used to work best for me (which was to ignore times and focus on running the best race I had in me). But times change, I guess.

On Sunday, I decided to ignore my running gait and focus on two things - keeping my shoulders relaxed and running as quietly as possible. The run went very well and I was able to converse and navigate uneven pavement better than my norm.  So perhaps those are key running cues also (of course, being tired from the race also helped -I'm always much more fluid and have better control of everything when my legs are tired).

I also swapped from pre-run stretching and mobilization to pre-run muscle release (massaging out knots and foam rolling) and that seemed to help also.  I may need to switch my schedule up and foam roll before my runs and stretch after.

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including 2x(1200, 800, 400) in 5:32, 3:33, 1:43, 5:12, 3:24, 1:40 (recovery was 1 lap jog in 2:1x-2:5x after each.).  Then did some 200s in 49-50 seconds.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: Nothing in the morning (felt sick). Yoga in the afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 8 miles very easy (9:29) in the morning; streaming pilates and foam rolling in the evening.

`

Friday: 5 miles on the track, including drills and some 200s (50-51 seconds) and 100s (24-25 seconds).  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 7 miles, including two track races - 3000m in 13:11 and 800m in 3:19.  Followed with 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday:  11 miles easy (9:17) followed by full body strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.