Training log - Week ending 1/12/2026

This week was 47 miles of running, 8 "miles" pool-running, and 1500 yards of swimming.

I somewhat randomly decided to race the Al Lewis 10 Miler on Sunday.  This was after deciding about a week ago that I wasn't going to run the Houston Half-marathon. I love that race, but I'm not fit enough to justify spending ~$1000 on plane/hotel for that race. Plus, I had signed up thinking that the race was on MLK weekend (meaning I had Monday off), when actually it was the weekend before. Which raised some scheduling issues that I preferred to avoid.

My revised plan was to rack up some more miles and workouts this week.  And then on Thursday a friend noted that there was a 10 mile race on Sunday - a double out and back on Hains Point - and it was only $10 to enter.  The forecast looked decent for Sunday - good temperatures but slightly windy.  I wasn't fit enough to race a 10 miler really well, but I really needed to rip the racing band-aid off. And now I was officially out of excuses.  So, I signed up (race report to come).

In related news, two changes that I've recently made to my training seem to be really paying off.  The first is adding swimming into my week.  I made that change a bit over a month ago, and I really notice the change in terms of how much looser my back and shoulders are.  The tightness and restriction in those two areas was really limiting my stride and I feel much smoother now.

The second change is including a Park Run as part of my easy run when available. Basically, I just line up in the middle of the crowd, jog the 3 miles in the crowd, and then continue on with the rest of my easy run (I may or may not also do some easy miles ahead of time). This Saturday was the second time I've done that, and I could tell on both Saturday and Sunday that already I'm handling the chaos of running in a group much better.

I guess that's part of the trick to trying to manage Parkinsons - you have to keep pushing your boundaries by challenging yourself with nervewracking but essentially safe situations.

Dailies:

Monday: 8 "miles" pool-running in the morning. Streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 9 miles, including 7 Iwo Jima hill repeats (roughly 500m up a 2.5-3% incline, jog 250m, 200m downhill stride, and then jog 100m to the bottom).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy (10:09 pace), with 4x100m strides (25-26 seconds). Followed with 650 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 4.5 miles very easy on trails (10:50), followed by PT exercises. Streaming Pilates in afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 6.5 miles on the track, including 2x100, 1600, 2x200, 2x100 in 27, 26, 7:44, 53, 53, 26, and 26 (full recovery after each).  Upperbody weights/core + foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 4 miles very easy on the towpath (10:05) + 350 yards of swimming.

Sunday: 2.5 mile warm-up, 10 mile race in 1:17:55, and 1.5 mile cooldown, followed by 500 yards of swimming.