Training log - week ending 9/28/2025

This week was 65 miles of running and 8 "miles" of pool-running.

This was a big improvement over last week.  I suspected that the creatine that I had started taking was making my asthma worse, so I stopped it this week.  And my breathing improved dramatically. Go figure.

Another change that I made stemmed out of a PT session.  Basically, my default tendency is to not use my calves when I run - I don't have any toe-off.

To some extent, this predates my Parkinsons diagnosis. I grew up doing equestrian sports almost exclusively, which means that I spent many hours each day with my ankles dorsiflexed and never did anything that required a calf raise. (In fact, I was even discouraged from jogging for fitness when I was a teenager, because it would make my calves too muscular and I'd have to get bigger riding boots.) So, it's just not natural for me to toe-off strongly.  Now add that tendency to a neurological condition where you tend to start to forget to use muscles, and... you get my non-toe-off.

So, I've been trying to learn how to toe off* when I run.  It is challenging, but it does seem to result in much faster running for the same effort when I get it right.  Which is sometimes but not always.

[*editorial note - I've decided that the proper spelling is toe-off when it's a noun and toe off when it's a verb.  Just like login is a noun and log in is a verb.  My blog, my grammar rules.]

Dailies:

Monday: 9 miles (9:50) with 8 strides. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 7x3:00 on/2:00 jog plus 6x30 seconds on/2:00 jog. The longer intervals were at 8.4 mph; the shorter intervals were 9.0 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph.  PT session in afternoon.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy (11:59) on trails in the morning plus PT exercises. 2.5 miles very easy (9:49) + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 30:52 (7:59/7:46/7:37/7:30) followed by two hill sprints.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles mostly very easy (9:38) with 9x100m in 30 seconds down to 26 seconds)  Upperbody strength and core in the afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 17 miles progressive, split as the first 7 averaging 10:06 pace, the next 5 miles averaging 9:20, and the next 5 miles averaging 8:32. Foam rolling in evening.