Training log - Week ending 7/28/2024

This week was 19 miles of running, 45 minutes of rowing, and 36 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I added in a bit more careful running, mixing it with cross-training.  I need to start building my volume up in advance of a fall marathon training cycle, but I don't want to increase volume AND switch from cross-training to mostly running at the same time.  So I'm increasing my volume now.  Then, when I'm ready to cut out most of the pool-running, I'll just hold or slightly drop my mileage while shifting back to running.

In the meantime, I've been doing more pool-running workouts - they are very hard, but I know from past experience that they are effective.  I attempted some rowing on Tuesday, but I don't seem to be able to get my heart rate up very high doing that, even after getting some coaching on form.  I suspect this is because of a discrepancy between my general aerobic fitness and rowing-specific fitness.

As for my stupid hip thing, it is getting better.  Slowly, but I suspect that's due to age.  If I was 20 years old, this would have taken 4 days to clear up.  I just have what feels like a lingering bit of adductor tendonitis combined with an irritated quadratus femoris.  Both feel better when I run a bit - I suspect this is because my gait gets really rough when I take a few days off, which puts more strain on those muscles.  So..a few miles of slow easy running on the track is the recipe for now, gradually building the miles and moving to other surfaces as things improve.

Monday: 2 miles (10:10), 4 "miles" pool-running, and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 3 miles (9:36), 45 minutes of rowing in the morning.  Streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 3 miles (9:23) and 4 "miles" pool-running, including a workout of 7x3:00 hard with 1:00 recovery.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 10 "miles" of pool-running in the morning. Streaming pilates and foam rolling in the evening.

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Friday: 5 miles very easy (9:23) and upperbody strength/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 2 miles very easy (9:56) and 8 "miles" pool-running, including a workout of 8x3:00 hard with 1:00 recovery, and then 6x30 seconds all out with 30 seconds recovery, followed with leg strenthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 4 miles very easy (10:10) and then 10 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 7/21/2024

 This week was 12 miles of running and 37 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I was hopeful my hip thing was just a blip, but it has persisted.  I intentionally took three days off of running at the start of this week to see what that did.  I then jogged 2 miles on Thursday, with the first mile feeling awful and the second mile feeling better.

Slightly encouraged, I did two sets of 2 miles on Friday (I timed the team tempo workout between the two).  The first 2 miles felt much better, the second set felt like Thursday....  I call that improvement.  And it made me wonder if taking 3 days off had been a bad idea.

To explain - every time a muscle gets tight or I start feeling nerve, muscle, or tendon pain, I have to decide whether this is a) an emerging injury or b) Parkinsons-related pain.  The latter can cause random bouts of nerve pain or tight muscles (which result in tendon pain).  If it's an injury, I need to reduce load and start rehabbing.  But if it's Parkinsons-related, then inactivity and rest will make it worse, and the only answer is to carefully push through.   I suspect that I've got a bit of both going on right now.

Another run on Saturday actually felt decent (admittedly at a very careful pace) until an aggressive cyclist buzzed me in Rock Creek Park.  I flinched, and in doing so aggravated the hip again.  It was ouchy on Sunday morning, so I decided to give it a day and get in the pool.  

Since I haven't really gotten my heart rate up in the past two weeks, I did some hard intervals - my old standard of 3 minutes very hard, 1 minute easy.  I made it through 5 of them and decided that was enough.  The normal workout is 10x3:00 hard/1:00 off, but I'm clearly out of shape right now.

As for what's going on with the hip?  My best guess is a slight psoas strain combined with  "ischio-femoral impingement" - basically the sciatic nerve and the quadratus femoris muscle (same muscle that gave me trouble in January) get pinched between the ischial tuberosity and the femur.  I have discomfort when I really extend my right leg behind me (especially if I internally rotate my leg) or in front of me.  And I also have muscle tightness that moves around, which is characteristic of sciatic involvement. It doesn't seem to have any of the characteristics of a labral tear or femoral stress fracture.

And of course, the muscle tightness from cutting back on my activity level is compounding all this...

Of course, I don't want to rely on my own diagnosis. I'm trying to get in to be seen by a PT I trust (first available appointment is the week after next) and I'm also trying to find an orthopedist I'm comfortable seeing.  My concern there is that many orthopedists are going to see a 50 year old woman with Parkinsons on their list and write me off before they've even examined me.  But...I'm not exactly qualified to diagnose myself, so I need to pick someone and go.

In the meantime, I'll stick with what I've been doing - careful running with the goal of increasing load while maintaining or reducing discomfort, combined with stretching and strengthening.

Monday: Off - just cheering at the track meet and travel.

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

Wednesday: 7 "miles" of pool-running in morning; streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 2 miles very easy (10:00) and 5 "miles" of pool-running in the morning. Streaming pilates and foam rolling in the evening.

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Friday: 2 miles very easy (9:39) followed by another 2 miles very easy (10:09) and then 6 "miles" in the pool.  Leg strengthwork in afternoon.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 6 miles very easy (10:20) plus streaming pilates in morning; foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 10 "miles" of pool-running, including a workout of 3:00 very hard/1:00 easy, followed by leg strengthwork.

Training log - Week ending 7/14/2024

This week was 23 miles of running, 250 yards of swimming, and 12 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This week didn't go quite as planned.....  I showed up for the workout on Tuesday having taken a bit too much levodopa (Parkinsons med).  This is easier than it sounds - sometimes I need a tiny bit extra on bad weather days.  However, this time it was too much, and my dystonia flared.  And it flared at just the wrong moment and I pulled several muscles in my right hip (feels like psoas, adductor, and glute med).

I spent the next few days trying to calm things down, with the hope that I'd be able to race at the Hartford Nationals this weekend.  However, I made it about 20m into my first race and realized that pushing things was a bad idea. So that was that.  

I did still have a fun trip (though not without its challenges).  That race report is in progress, but I didn't want to sit on the weekly report any longer.

Monday: 8 miles very easy (9:35) with some grass running + upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 4.5 miles on the track, including some attempted 800s that I bailed on, and then 250 yards of swimming (also bailed).  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 6 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core in morning; sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 3.5 miles very easy (9:46) in the morning Streaming pilates and foam rolling.

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Friday: 6 "miles" pool-running in the morning, foam rolling in evening..

Saturday: 3.5 mile shakeout in afternoon (guess 9:20) plus foam rolling in evening.

Sunday:  3 mile shakeout in afternoon (guess 9:20), 800m around 9 pm (4:07).

Training log - Week ending 7/7/2024

This week was 51 miles of running and 7 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Remarkably, I didn't have a race this week.  Or rather, I could have raced (on Thursday) but I decided not to.  I've run eight races over the last six weeks.  Of course, many of those races were less than a mile, but even so, with four more races on the calendar for next weekend, I decided I didn't need to do an extra 5K.

So I just trained this week.  It was a bit refreshing.  On Tuesday I slept in and missed the team interval workout.  Since it was a nice morning (for July) I decided to swap in a tempo workout instead - going with 3200, 1600 since I hadn't tempoed in a while.  Splitting the tempo up was definitely the right choice as going past four laps felt very hard.  I definitely need to start doing more tempos, but that will come when I transition to marathon training.  

Friday morning is usually a tempo workout, but since the weather was pretty rough (both temperature and dewpoint in the mid-70s) the tempo workout was broken up into miles with a short jog (ideally around 2 minutes) in between.  These felt much easier than the continuous 3200, even though the weather was worse.  Again with that 4 lap thing....I may be lacking mental stamina as much as physical stamina.

Outside of running, I spent a lot of time this week working on vestibular rehab.  Basically a lot of time spent a) either on two feet together, two feet in "tandem stance" (one foot right in front of the other), or balancing on one foot while b) moving my head back and forth or up and down while c) closing my eyes or looking at one focal point or another.  It does seem to be helping, though it's a lot of work each day.

After looking at a video of my running last week (which showed a complete lack of hip and knee extension) and doing some test stretches, I realized that I've been cheating on my quad stretches by arching my back - meaning that I bend my back as much as I stretch the quad.  So now I'm taking extra care to engage my abs before I stretch each quad.  My quads are extremely tight when I stretch them that way, which tells me I have a lot of room for improvement.

Monday: 7 miles very easy (9:43) + upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the track, including a tempo workout of 3200, 1600 in 14:14 (7:09/7:05) and 7:02 with 5:30 recovery between the two.  Followed with 2x200m in 50 and 49, and then some leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy on trails (10:19) in the morning; streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy (9:51) in the morning before cheering at a 5K, then hitting the gym for upperbody strengthwork and core, plus some foam rolling.

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Friday: 9 miles on the track, including 3x1600 at tempo effort (7:17, 7:05, 7:02) with recoveries of ~2:00 and ~2:30 between the two.  Followed with 2x200m in 51 and 51, and then injury prevention work.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 12 miles aerobic (intended to be easy, but HR got out of control because it was hot) (9:29) followed with two hill strides and streaming pilates. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday:  7 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 6/30/2024

This week was 36 miles of running and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

One more placeholder weekly post.  Next week I should be back on track.

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: Upper body weights/core and 8 miles very easy (9:22) plus drills.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 7 miles on the track, including 10x200 and 4x100 (all with full recovery).  200s were 49-53 seconds, 100s were 22-24 seconds. Followed with upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 miles very easy on trails (9:53) in the morning; streaming pilates and foam rolling in the evening.

`

Friday: 6 miles on the track, including 6x100m strides.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: USATF Regional Track meet, 6 miles including a 1500 in 6:14 and an 800 in 3:18.

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