Training log - Week ending 11/16/2025

This week was 37 miles of running and 6 "miles" of pool-running.

I woke up the morning after the Boston Half and I had no voice.  And my asthma was much worse.  Both of which were frustrating; neither of which were surprising.

I managed to get in to see my primary care on Monday afternoon (the appointment started off with me croaking:  "So....I made some poor decisions over the weekend...."). After examination, he gave me the choice of either a) doing a few days of prednisone AND a week of the antibiotic doxycycline, or b) just doing the pred and seeing if that worked; if it didn't, I'd start the doxy.

I know that antibiotic overuse and antibiotic resistance is a thing; additionally, I always feel weak and run really badly on antibiotics. Thus, I picked door a) in hopes that this was just inflammation and a few days of pred would kick it to the curb.

Unfortunately, by Saturday when I was tapering off the pred, it was clear that it hadn't been enough.  My lungs had improved, but they started going downhill again.  So, on Sunday I started my seven day doxy sentence.

One will notice that I kept running through all of this (after Monday).  That's because I very quickly lose the neurologic motor patterns for running when I don't do it.  I essentially forget how to run.  And it's really hard to relearn my running gait when I lose it.

As a compromise, I did many of my runs, including some "workouts" on my Lever Up (essentially a budget alter-G).  By doing this, I could run at my normal paces (and thus practice running), but with a lot less stress on my body and especially the lungs, since the effort was much easier for that pace. I also kept the mileage low - about half of what I had planned to run this week. 

Dailies:

Monday: Off except for foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 7 miles very easy on the Lever Up at -20 pounds (9:57) and some PT exercises. Sports massage in evening

Wednesday: 5 miles very easy outside (10:33) with two short hill sprints plus some light upper body weights. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles on the Lever Up at -10 pounds, including a "workout" of 2 miles (8:03/7:51), 1 mile easy, 1 mile (7:33). Followed with leg strengthwork + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 5.5 miles (9:46), mostly very easy but with 8x100m in 28-29 seconds and two hill sprints.  Followed with upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12.5 miles on the Lever Up at -8 pounds, including a "workout" of 2x4 miles in 31:42 (7:56 pace) and 31:12 (7:45 pace).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 6 "miles" pool-running, PT exercises, foam rolling.