Training log - Week ending 12/22/2024

This week was 54 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 6 "miles" of pool-running.

I didn't really feel like I needed any recovery time after the 15K, but I kept Monday and Tuesday easy anyway.  One of my biggest priorities is avoiding injury, since it takes me so darn long to come back from one.  

Instead of the track this week, I returned to Iwo Jima for hills.  I need more power in my legs, and a session of hills always seems to help with that.  

Saturday was the key workout of the week - another 2x5 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float.  This went much better than the last session - probably in part because I'm back on the medication that seems to work best for me.  While I wish the paces of the marathon effort segments were faster, the paces I hit this weekend would get me well under 3:30 at Houston, which is really my biggest goal (3:30 being the high-performance standard for my para-athlete division at the Boston Marathon).  

I registered for Houston hoping to go sub-3:20 there, but I'm probably not going to be in shape to pull that off in 4 weeks. However, the paces I hit on Saturday are consistent with sub-3:25, which I would be happy with (especially given where I was in September and October).  And...the marathon effort miles truly felt like marathon effort - I could have kept going and extended the workout another few miles.  That's a good feeling (and what I strive for during marathon effort workouts).

Saturday's workout was also notable for two things.  First: it was extremely windy - sustained winds of 15-20 mph with gusts higher (the wind was mostly a cross wind for the workout, but occasionally a head or tail wind).  So...in better weather the same effort might have yielded a pace that was a few seconds faster.  

Second: I intentionally tried to err on the side of overdressing, as opposed to last weekend's race.  And...I felt great and comfortable the whole run, never overheating.  Definitely helpful information for deciding what to wear in the future.

I think that my increased cold sensitivity is due to a few things - one is simply age, and another is Parkinsons (PD really messes with one's ability to regulate body temperature, and it's pretty normal for people with PD to handle cold poorly).  The third is simply that I'm slower than I used to be, which means that for each race I'm working at a lower intensity for a longer period of time.  That in turn means that I'm not generating as much body heat as I used to.

The net conclusion: in the winter, I need to ignore both my ego and what worked best for me a few years ago and wear more clothing when racing.

Dailies:

Monday:  3 "miles" pool-running in the morning.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:31) plus upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Wednesday: In the morning, 7.5 miles including 7 Iwo Jima hill repeats (~2:20 up a 3% incline, 90-100 second jog; ~200m downhill stride, and 60 jog to the bottom of the hill.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  3.5 miles very easy (9:35) on treadmill and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles very easy (10:38) on trails in the morning.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:40) plus two strides and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 17 miles, including a workout of 2x5 miles at marathon effort - splits of 38:30 (7:42 pace) for first 5 miles and 38:40 (7:44 pace) for the second 5 miles; 1 mile in 8:44 between.  Followed with leg strengthwork and foam rolling.

Sunday: 1000 yards of swimming and 3 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 12/15/2024

[one more late post - I'll blame racing on Sunday, followed by kitten adoption.  I don't like to write the weekly log until I've written the race report. And with my current schedule, if I don't get the blog done by Sunday night, it basically doesn't get done until next weekend.]

This week was 46 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 2 "miles" of pool-running.

Just a placeholder for race week.

Dailies:

Monday:  In the morning, 7 miles very easy (9:33) on the treadmill.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 9 miles, including a track interval workout of 1600, 4x800, 400 in 7:38, 3:39, 3:36, 3:33, 3:30, 1:44.  3:31 recovery after the 1600 and 2:00-2:30 recovery after the 800s.  PT session in the afternoon and sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 500 yards swimming and 2 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (9:32) plus strides in the morning.  Streaming pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 6 miles on the track, including 1600m up tempo in 7:01.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 4 miles very easy to pick up bib (9:38) in the morning; foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: A bit over 3 miles warm-up, then 15K race in 1:10:11 (7:32 pace if this was 15K), followed by 1.5 mile cooldown to make 14 miles for the day.

Race Report: Jingle All the Way 15K, December 15, 2024

 I ran the Jingle All the Way 15K last weekend, finishing in an official time of 1:10:11.

[this race report is being written very late.  That's what happens when a newly adopted kitten takes up all of your free time.]

This race was my tune-up for Houston, and a chance to check my fitness.  I prefer a half-marathon 3 weeks out from a marathon, but Houston always falls 3 weeks after Christmas/New Years, and half-marathons are hard to come by at that time of year.  Hence using this 15K 5 weeks out instead.

It's been a tough uphill climb trying to rebuild my fitness after missing 8 weeks of training this summer.  The older you get, the harder it is to come back (and to stay uninjured while coming back) and so being over 50 weighs against me.  The whole Parkinsons' thing doesn't help either.  And then there was the two weeks of reduced training while Isabella was sick.  

I had been doubting my fitness all the way up to the week before the race, when it seemed like things were possibly starting to turn around.  Hopefully the race would give me a better read on things.

***

The forecast was for temps right about freezing, with overcast skies and light wind. I debated what to wear before opting for a longsleeve and tights.  I've realized in the past year that I don't run well when I'm cold anymore - I become way too stiff.  However, given that 32 degrees used to be singlet, arm-warmers, and shorts weather for me, I've been reluctant to wear too much when racing.  A longsleeve and tights seemed like the most I could reasonably wear while racing, so I went with that.

***

I arrived at my supah-secret parking space at 7:15 am (the race started at 8:30).  I put on my racing shoes (Hoka Rocket X2) waited a few minutes and then left my car to head over to the start line.  I was wearing a throwaway sweatshirt over my racing outfit - I'd tie that around my waist if I was too hot while warming up, but plan on keeping it until right before the gun.

As it turned out, I never felt warm during my warm-up, even with the sweatshirt on.  I wished I had brought something else - a light jacket or even just a buff for my neck, but unfortunately I hadn't.  So I had to go with what I had.

***

I attempted to warm up for a bit over 3 miles, including my fartlek of 3 minutes at tempoish effort, 4x30 seconds faster, and 4x10 second strides.  After that was done, I kept jogging until it was time to jump into the corral - hoping that would keep me warm. 

This was a relatively small race (about 1000 runners) so I was able to get in the corral about 4 minutes before the start.  I placed myself conservatively, knowing that I would start slow.  With 1 minute to go, I reluctantly tossed the sweatshirt.

***

I hadn't thought about it until right before the race, but this 15K was the first time I've been in a mass race start since May.  I've raced since then, but it's all been either track stuff or races where I was in a separate para-athlete start.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well I handled the chaos of the first few minutes of an open start - all that PT is paying off.

I was definitely still stiff, though.  I worked my way through the first mile, and then the second, waiting to warm up and loosen up.  But I never did.  It was frustrating - I wasn't breathing very hard - I was just too cold and stiff to move faster.

That was pretty much the whole race.  I crossed the line feeling like I had done a moderately paced workout, not a race.  And I wasn't even sweating.

I checked my watch and noted my time - over 70 minutes and also my very low heart rate (in the 160s - I'd want to be in the 170s over this distance).  I caught up with some friends, retrieved a polarfleece I had checked at the start, and then jogged a 15 minute "cooldown" that felt way too energetic.

Splits ended up being:

Mile 1: 7:51

Mile 2: 7:35

Mile 3:7:26

Mile 4: 7:13

Mile 5: 7:20

Mile 6: 7:21

Mile 7: 7:20

Mile 8: 7:27

Mile 9: 7:17 

last .44 miles at 7:26 pace

[I used my Strava splits for this as the mile markers were not terribly accurate on this course.  The 15K is supposed to be a certified course, but the route was altered for construction.  So I'm not entirely sure whether this was an exact 15K, or longer, or shorter.  Not that it matters that much, since I was nowhere near a PR.]

So...I feel like I didn't get a good fitness check out of this race.  I guess the one good bit of news is that holding 7:26-7:30 pace for 9+ miles didn't feel very hard - that's better than having run that pace and feeling like it was a maximum effort.  But..my A goal for Houston was to break 3:20 (7:37 pace), and it seems pretty clear that I'm not that fit.  I guess I'll need another few months (and another training cycle) to get there.

Other notes:

• It ended up being 33 degrees with a light wind for the race.  So pretty good weather - I just wasn't dressed correctly.
• I wore the Hoka Rocket X2 for this race - I think this is definitely my marathon shoe, assuming it doesn't rain at Houston.
• I ended up second in the 50-54 age group, 22nd woman overall.
• As I noted above, we have a new kitten, named Karma.  I picked her up a few hours after finishing this race.  In fact, I was time crunched enough that I didn't have time to shower and change before picking her up, which means that the photo of me taking her home has me all bedraggled, with my face still shiny with vaseline.  Oh well - everyone was looking at the kitten anyway :)

Training log - Week ending 12/08/2024

[once again posted very late because the week got away from me]

This week was 64 miles of running, 2000 yards of swimming, and 2 "miles" of pool-running.

I mixed stuff up this week to try to work around weather - we had some really cold dry air roll in, which is hard on my asthma.  Thursday looked like the best morning from a breathing perspective, so I did my tempo workout that morning, pushing my interval workout back to Monday to accommodate it.  I did the Monday workout on the treadmill because of the cold dry air, which meant that I did my intervals at slightly faster than tempo pace with short recoveries, rather than at interval effort (this was because the treadmill is extra hard on my calves, and I was minimizing the risk of a pulled calf).

Thursday was a tempo outside on the track - the weather was iffy (windy and with a tiny bit of snow).  The tempo felt solid but was slightly slower than I had hoped - I attributed this to the weather.

I thought Saturday and Sunday were both going to be very cold mornings, so I did my long run on Saturday so I could do a track workout with the team on Tuesday (as it turned out, I guessed wrong, and Sunday's weather was much better).  The long run went well. I would have liked for the marathon effort section to be faster; however, I ran that section on the downhill Capital Crescent, and true to my norm I was slower on the downhill section than on the flat.  Overall, I felt better than I have previously on the downhill section, so that was a positive.

Dailies:

Monday:  In the morning, 9 miles on the treadmill, with a workout of 6x4 minutes on (7:17 pace) with 72 second jog, followed by 4x30 seconds hard (6:4o-7:00 pace) with 90 seconds jog.  Leg strengthwork in the afternoon; foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: Upperbody weights/core + 500 yards swimming in the morning; 6 miles very easy (9:39) in evening.

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 10 miles very easy (9:08). Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 10 miles on the track, with a 6400m tempo in 29:42 (7:31/7:27/7:24/7:19).  Leg strengthwork in afternoon and foam rolling in evening.

`

Friday: 7 miles very easy (9:34) on the treadmill plus upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 21 miles progressive, split as the first 7 miles averaging 9:43 pace, the next 7 miles averaging 8:56 pace, and then the next 7 miles averaging 7:58 pace.  Followed with a ~half mile cooldown and injury prevention work plus foam rolling.

Sunday: 1500 yards swimming and 2 "miles" pool-running.

Training log - Week ending 12/1/2024

This week was 64 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming, and 1 "mile" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I stuck with the new medication - Crexont - for most of this week.  But after an extremely frustrating long run on Friday where I simply had no power in my legs, I swapped back to Rytary to see if I felt better.  And I did.  Despite the fact that Saturday ushered in our first sub-freezing temps of the season, the cold bothered me much less than it had just a day before. And it also became clear to me during pilates, swimming, running, and lifting just how much more power my muscles have on Rytary.

So that's that, I guess. I'll see if my doctor wants me to try another strength of the Crexont, but at this point I'm inclined to stick with the Rytary through Houston in January and then take a second try at something new.

In the meantime, we're getting a surge of very cold, dry air over the next week, so I'll be doing many of my runs on the treadmill to let my lungs breathe air that's slightly warmer and not as dry (note how I avoided typing "moist").  I split today's run into two so that I could do a few miles on the treadmill to get a feel for it.  And it felt like coming back to an old friend.  Now I just need to get some good running music cued up.

I also started carefully adding pool-running back in with a single 10 minute "mile" on Saturday.  My obturator sadly did feel slightly achy after even that, so I think I will need to tread carefully here.

Monday:  4 miles very easy (10:04) and 4 miles very easy (9:54) (runs before and after meeting a friend for coffee); foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 4800, 3200, 1600 in 22:27 (7:36/7:28/7:23), 14:44 (7:25/7:18), and 7:11, with recoveries of 5:08 and 5:11.  Followed with leg strength work.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 7 miles very easy (10:48) on trails. Massage in evening.

Thursday: 11 miles very easy (10:08) plus two strides, plus some upperbody strengthwork.  Foam rolling after Thanksgiving dinner.

`

Friday: 17 miles, including an attempted marathon effort workout of 2x5 miles in 39:06 (7:49) and 39:45 (7:57) with 9:19 jog in between.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: Streaming pilates, 1500 yards of swimming, and 1 "mile" of pool-running. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 5 miles very easy (9:40) on treadmill in the morning; 5 miles with a few relaxed 200s and 100s (53-55 seconds and 26-27 seconds) at midday.  Upper body weights/core and foam rolling in afternoon.