Training log - Week ending 8/30/2026

This week was 66 miles of running, 12 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

This was another week with a mix of great running weather days and not-so-great days, and I scheduled my long run for the latter.  It's just how it works out sometimes.  

Tuesday was beautiful, but it was also two days after my 20 miler, so a workout was not a good idea. The truth is that I didn't care about the midweek weather too much anyway, since I had planned to do intervals on the treadmill anyway. 

The treadmill workout went very well, other than a hiccup when my headphones conked out partway through the 3:00 intervals, and I had to raw-dog a few reps until I managed to get things re-established. Annoying, but I couldn't justify pausing a treadmill workout due to lack of music - especially when I don't run with music at any other time.

Saturday would have been a great day to do my marathon effort workout - 70 degrees but with a low dew point.  But...a) it was too close to Thursday and b) I wanted to attend a running event our team sponsor - Road Runner Sports - was hosting that morning, so Sunday it was.

Sunday wasn't super hot, but it was very humid. Stupid humid. 

Running by feel, my marathon effort workout on Sunday ended up about 15-30 seconds slower per mile than I hope to hold on race day. I'm thinking something between 7:45 and 8:00 pace is likely if Chicago has good weather, and I averaged about 8:15 pace on Sunday. 

About that choice to run by feel: when training, I prefer running marathon "pace" workouts by effort over targeting a specific pace - here's my reasoning:

a) when training, one's body responds to effort and stress, not the pace shown on a watch - running a workout at the wrong effort can mean that you don't get your desired adaptation;

b) I think it's really important to learn how to lock into a certain effort/feel and adjust pace for the conditions, since you may not get perfect weather on race day;

c) when doing lots of mileage, forcing a pace that's too hard can result in injury or overtraining (and I have very little room for error at this point); and

d) there's negligible difference in gait mechanics between paces that are separated by 20-30 seconds. If your marathon pace is 7:00 in perfect weather, it's entirely possible to train at a marathon pace of 7:30 and then run 7:00 pace on race day - I've seen it done many times before.  So, training at a somewhat slower pace than you hope to hold on race day isn't going to hold you back.  (The converse is not true - I don't think I've ever seen someone consistently run faster than their current fitness during marathon workouts and have a good marathon.)

Given the above whole way-too-long justification, I felt like Sunday was a solid workout. I finished the workout at the appropriate pace and didn't feel like I strained or fried myself, so I can check that box off.

My one hiccup during the run related to the timing of my Parkinsons medication.  Essentially, when I run a long run or a marathon, I need to time my Rytary (4 hour window) so that I can finish the run/race within that window.  That generally means taking the Rytary about 20-30 minutes before the start (and hoping for minimal delays). 

But I also need to function before the run/race starts, so I can get dressed, transport myself, etc.  So that means I need to take medication earlier in the morning to tide me over until I can take the pre-race/run dose.  

I often just take another Rytary 4 hours ahead, which means that I wake up, take it, then try to go back to sleep for another 1-2 hours.  But this disrupts my sleep.

So this time I tried to take a small dose of fast-acting levodopa (Sinemet) about 3 hours before the run started - my hope was that this dose would fade out just as the Rytary was kicking in.  Unfortunately, the Sinemet lasted longer than I planned, meaning that I was overmedicated for the first hour or so of my long run.  Which meant that my quads locked up and it was hard to run smoothly until things settled down. Not the worse thing in the world - it just meant that my earlier miles during this run were a bit slower (though the effort was still correct). But mental note - that medication timing strategy will NOT work for race day.

***

Monday: 7 "miles" pool-running in the morning, upperbody weights/core in afternoon, foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 9 miles, mostly very easy (9:58) but with a break for drills/PT exercises and 4x100m in spikes (27, 26, 25, 25).  Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:54) in the morning; 500 yards swimming in the afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 10.5 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 8x3:00 with 2:00 recovery and 6x0:30 with 2:00 recovery. The 3:00 intervals were at 8.5-8.6 mph (6:58-7:04 pace); the 30 second intervals were at 9.1-9.3 mph (6:26-6:36 pace). All recoveries at 6.2 mph (9:41 pace).  Leg strengthwork in the afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 7 miles very easy on trails (11:13) plus upperbody weights/core and PT exercises. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles very easy (10:08) and 500 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 17.5 miles, including a workout of 2x5 miles at marathon effort (averaged 8:18 pace for the first 5 miles and 8:09 pace for the second 5 miles, with a 1 mile float in 9:22 between). Followed with 5 "miles" pool-running (with a belt - active recovery). Foam rolling at night.