Training log - Week ending 2/15/2026

This week was 50 miles of running, 9 "miles" pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

The most notable things about this week are that all of my runs were outside, and that I raced.  Oh, and I saw my favorite band (Nine Inch Nails) again.

The snowcrete has slowly started to melt away.  Between that and some plowing, there are several running routes that are mostly passable.  By which I mean that there are stretches of ice each morning (some of it black) from snow that that has melted the day before, seeped across the trail, and then frozen overnight. As the morning progresses, the ice melts away, and by noon there are plenty of good running options.  Unfortunately, I work during the day, so I continue to run in the morning, carefully picking my way around ice and sections that look like they could be water or ice.

The track is still far from clear, but I wanted to do some fast running outside last week in preparation for Saturday's 5K.  On Wednesday I headed down to Georgetown, thinking I could do a 10 minute tempo circling around the waterside park (the loop is about 1300m) followed by some strides, with running underneath the Whitehurst or in the plowed bike path as back-up options.

Unfortunately, stretches of the waterside path were icy, the road under the Whitehurst was surprisingly busy with cars, and there were numerous bikes using the bike lane.  So, I ended up finding a short section of the waterside path that was not icy and just going back and forth between two points that would be easy to identify on a map later.  I did 8 of the longer reps first - each took about 90 seconds so I went with a 60 second jog for recovery.  Then I did 8 shorter reps that took about 21-23 seconds each, at what felt like a very fast effort, with about 30 seconds for recovery.  

Later I mapped it out and confirmed that the longer reps were 330 m in length and the shorter were 90m (so 7:20 ish pace for the longer reps and 6:40-50ish pace for the shorter reps). It was obviously a unusual workout, but it gave me an opportunity to do some faster running on outside pavement, so I tallied it as a productive morning.

We saw Nine Inch Nails on Wednesday, which meant I went to bed just before midnight.  I took 2 hours of PTO on Thursday morning so that I could sleep in, workout, and then start work.  Even so, I still ended up in a bit of a sleep deficit that had to be repaired Thursday night, meaning that my running mileage was lower than I would like for Thursday and Friday.  I race better when I don't reduce mileage too much, and so I wonder how Saturday's race would have gone had I run more for the two days prior.  OTOH, I was pretty happy with the race overall, and seeing NIN was totally worth it, so in the end everything worked out.

Completely unrelated, but because I don't know where else to put it, here is my #1 tip for outside winter running based on the past few weeks: coat your face with a) sunscreen and then b) vaseline. Protects your face from sunburn, wind burn, and the cold.

Dailies:

Monday: 7 "miles" pool-running in the morning; yoga in the afternoon; foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: Upperbody weights/core and 8.5 miles very easy (9:59).  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 miles in the morning, including 8x330m in 89-91 seconds with 60 second jog, followed by 8x90m in 21-23 seconds with 30 second jog.  Leg strengthwork and foam rolling in evening, followed by Nine Inch Nails concert.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy (11:09) on steep hills, followed by PT exercises. Streaming Pilates in the afternoon; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 4 miles very easy (10:46) and 250 yards of swimming in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4 mile warm-up, and then 5K race in 23:24 (7:41/7:33/7:14/0:56), followed by a 3.5 mile cooldown. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 15 miles easy (9:55), followed with leg strengthwork, 750 yards of swimming and 2 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night.