Training log - Week ending 9/09/18

This week was 49 miles of running, 18 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.  

Another down week, since I rested up to run the Fifth Avenue Mile on Sunday. 

I was pretty happy with Sunday's race.  It was obviously way off of my PR from last year, but it showed that things were trending in the right direction, both fitness-wise and in terms of focusing and competing well during the race.  I'm actually a bit sad that I don't have a few more weeks to focus on shorter stuff - this past weekend was the first time I "felt like myself" at shorter stuff, if that makes sense.

But...CIM calls, so I'll just write off these past few weeks as a speed-intermission in my year of marathon training.

Reviewing my year so far, my training log has reinforced my belief that it takes me a fair amount of time to recover from a marathon and switch back to running shorter distances well.  Not weeks, but more like months.  

When I ran the Houston Half-Marathon this past January, I felt like the 13 weeks I had between the Hartford Marathon in October and Houston in January were not quite enough to run my best at Houston (though I was still happy with the race).  And similarly, now that I'm 12 weeks out from Grandma's, I feel like things are just starting to turn around, and that in another 4-5 weeks or so, I could be running well at shorter stuff.

In contrast, it seems much easier for me to move up from shorter distances to longer, or to add a second marathon after the first, as I did this spring.  [Note: easier, not easy.]  At the same time, I know that just sticking to marathons is a formula for staleness and stagnation at that distance - the short fast stuff preserves my speed, which is the first thing to go as one ages.  (Plus road miles are so much damn fun.)

Mapping stuff going forward, I think that after CIM, I'm going to skip a spring marathon.  Instead I'll spend the spring focusing on shorter stuff, with the goal of running very fast in March/April/early May before a shortened marathon cycle to support a return to Grandma's Marathon in June 2019.

(it's just a shame that there are really no road miles in March/April.)

Dailies

Monday: Upper body weights/core and 9 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 400/800/1200/1200/800/400 in 1:38, 3:04, 4:35, 4:29, 2:53, 83.  Also injury prevention work and recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  7 miles very easy to yoga (9:29) and then yoga.  Later, another 5 miles very easy (8:50) plus drills and strides. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  Upper body weights/core and 9 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 miles, including one mile up-tempo in 6:18.  Followed with light injury prevention work and DIY yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 5 miles very easy (8:51) , DIY yoga, and then some foam rolling

Sunday:  3.5 mile warm-up, and then a mile race in 5:36.  Followed with half mile jog back to gym to change shoes.  Later, did 8 miles very easy (9:02) to enjoy Central Park.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Fifth Avenue Mile, September 9, 2018

I ran the Fifth Avenue Mile today, finishing in a time of 5:36, good enough for 4th in my age group.

I've always wanted to do this race, but life, in the form of October marathons, has always gotten in the way.  Not this year, though.

Getting up to New York was an adventure.  I dislike staying overnight at races if I don't have to. It isn't due to finances or not sleeping well in hotels; rather, I just like my home and my boyfriend and my cats, and hate to be away from them.

So that's why I decided to do this race as a day trip.  Of course, a 9:10 am race in New York makes for an early DC train - 3:10 am to be exact.  Which in turn meant a 2:10 am alarm.  And a 6:30 pm bedtime.

(No - I couldn't actually drift off at that time.  But...my rule is: if I'm lying on a bed with my eyes closed, it counts as sleep.)

***

Sunday morning, I rolled out of bed at a time that I would have been getting home just 10 years prior.  With apologies to the cats for not feeding them and to the boyfriend for the noise of the unfed cats, I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and grabbed my bag.  About 40 minutes later, I was back asleep, curled across two Amtrak seats just like everyone else in the quiet car. 

My train got into New York about 20 minutes late, at 7 am, but I had built fudge time in my schedule.  I took the E train to 54th and Lexington (doing pre-run yoga on the station platform while waiting to save time) and then bought a day pass to the local Blink Fitness gym.

There, I finished my prerace breakfast, did some stretches, and then jogged over to the start to pick up my bib, where I ran into my teammate Phillippe (who very graciously checked the 5th Avenue Mile hat that was my race schwag in his own bag).

***

The weather, though not ideal for a mile race (drizzle and slightly chilly) was much much better than what we've had in DC recently.  An added plus was a slight tailwind.

I had packed a plastic poncho, so I wore that while warming up, tossing it right before the start.

For my warm-up, I did about 2.5 miles easy and then a half mile at 5K-ish effort, followed by drills and then two hard 200m repeats.  All with plenty of recovery in between, finishing up about 15 minutes before.  Then a mix of walking and relaxed strides until we were corralled at 9:02.

***

The gun went off at 9:10 sharp.  Like almost every mile race I've done, I was in 25th or 30th place after the first quarter.  But then, as we hit the uphill second quarter, many started coming back.  I worked my way through them, picking off one after the other, while trying also to not work too hard too early.

We crested the hill at the 800 mark, and then I rolled down the back side, trying to build speed and recharge for the final 400.  But when I hit the final 400 I couldn't find that top gear.  I had the gas in the tank, but no turbo.  I finished feeling strong, like I could have gone longer (but not faster). 

Despite the above, I was still pretty happy - I ran a stronger, more focused race than last week.  And this was a solid way to end my "marathon intermission."

***

After the race I was able to catch up with my former DC teammate Jessica (now living in NYC), my friend Steve from RWOL, and Phillippe, who also had a good race.  Then a cooldown jog, a hot shower at Blink, some Chipotle (of course), and back to Central Park to watch the elite races.

Thankfully several buildings along 5th Avenue were under construction.  Which meant scaffolding.  Which meant I could stand along the race course AND be sheltered from the rain. Win.

Then I grabbed the 3 pm train home.  A long but fun day, and worth it.

***

Splits were (garmin autolap): 83/88/83/81.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably push a bit harder up the hill in the 2nd quarter - I think I was too cautious there - saving energy to support a kick I didn't have.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this.  Slightly bummed that I was 4th in my age group (top 3 got awards), but I don't think I had another 4 seconds in me today (5:32 was third).

As for whether I'll do this as a day trip again next time?  It depends.  If I'm in really good mile shape next year at this time, I might go ahead and stay the night to maximize my shot at running a really good time.  But I don't think the early morning wake-up and train ride cost me much, if anything.

Other notes:

* Apparently for this race, if you miss your heat you can run in a later one.  Good to know if I do the train thing again and it gets delayed.

* Wore my Takumi Sens for this race - this is the distance where they shine.   I did see a few women in my heat wearing the Vaporfly.  None of them in front of me.  I can't imagine racing a mile in that shoe - even a mile with no turns.  But apparently they could.

*Wrote this race report on my phone on the train ride home (I didn't want to lug a computer with me). Worked surprisingly well.  I also grabbed an old school paper copy of the Sunday NYTimes so I'm going to enjoy that for the rest of the ride.

Training log - Week ending September 2, 2018

This week was 41 miles of running, 16 "miles" of pool-running, and 2000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

Another week, with a good workout and a meh race.  I do wonder if those two weren't correlated - every year, it seems like my recovery takes just a bit longer.

I suspect, as I wrote in my race report, that much of it was just that I need to race fairly regularly in order to stay in touch with what race effort feels like.  I'd write "lesson learned" except that I knew that one already.

I had originally planned to fit in a long run on Sunday, but my coach nixed it - ordering me to run for no longer than an hour.  His reasoning was that Saturday morning had been pretty hot and humid, and I'm still 3 months out from CIM - there was no need for me to be doing any long runs just yet.  

I was annoyed at first, but then realized that a Sunday long run this week would have been for mostly the wrong reason.

To go into detail: I think all serious runners train for two reasons:

1) to improve their running performance.

2) to feel better about themselves.

Nobody is exclusively motivated by one or the other - it's a blend of both, though the motivation to do any single workout can be based more on one or the other.

For example, when I have a great 20 miler during my peak week of training where I cruise the last 7 miles at marathon pace and feel fluid - that workout has done a lot for my fitness, and also made me feel like a bad ass.  So...that workout was driven by both reasons.

But....there are many times that someone is driven almost exclusively by the second, emotional motivation.  Examples include:

• Running a 20 miler every single weekend, to establish one's dedication to marathon training.
• Running 10 miles the day before a race, to relieve oneself of pressure to perform during the race.
• Adding a bit onto the end of a run so that the weekly total comes out to a round number
  (I do this one all the time - ever noticed how my weekly totals are almost always a round number, rather than a half-mile?)
• Doing a workout/race because it's on the schedule and the schedule must be followed  at all costs, even though one's calf/hip/whatever feels off.
• Jumping in that big peaking workout even though one is several months out from the goal race because everyone else doing it and nobody likes being left out.
• Running even though you feel like utter crap and are functioning on 2 hours of sleep because you want that high.

[examples of things that are driven mostly by the urge to improve include doing PT exercises consistently, holding back on marathon pace workouts to get a feel for the proper pace, and taking a day off if every road in the area is covered with ice.]

It's OK to do workouts and runs just for the emotional benefits sometimes - heck, that's what my self-designated "month of less-than-smart choices" in July was about.  But, if I really want to improve my running, I have to make sure that, on the whole, my decisions are targeted towards running my fastest when it counts.

And the truth is that I wanted to do a long run on Sunday to make myself feel better about my meh race on Saturday.  As a friend once described it, the "punish myself" theory of training.  Soothing my ego, but accomplishing nothing else while adding stress and injury risk.

While it's too early to be doing serious long runs for CIM, it's not too early to make sure my training decisions are based on the right reasons.

Dailies

Monday: Yoga and 8 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12.5 miles, including a track workout of 6x800, 4x200 in 3:04, 3:01, 2:58 (well...3:03 less a shoe tying break), 2:58, 2:55, and 2:51.  And then 41, 40, 41, 41.  Also injury prevention work and recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  10 miles very easy (9:28) and then DIY yoga.  Sports massage in afternoon.

Thursday:  Upper body weights/core, DIY yoga, and 8 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 3.5 miles very easy (8:58) and then DIY yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 3.5 miles warm-up, and then a 5K in 19:48.  2.5 miles cool-down and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.

Sunday:  6 miles very easy (9:02) and then a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Kentlands 5K, September 1, 2018

I ran the Kentlands 5K this morning in 19:48, which was good enough for 3rd place female.

I'm not terribly happy with this race - while I know I'm not in great 5K shape right now, I'm in better shape than this.  I think the issue this morning was that my physical fitness exceeded my mental fitness.  More on that later.

This is the fourth or fifth time I've done this race, though the last time I ran it was several years back.  It's a very fast course that never feels fast when you run it.  It rolls with several lengthy downhills and a sustained uphill in the third mile.  Though it's not a flat course, the placement of the hills (especially the long downhills) make for fast times - this was my 5K PR course for a long time.

***

I jogged the course once with my friend Jenn as a warm-up, and then did an extended stride (about 90 seconds) at tempo pace plus a few drills and a shorter stride.  I would have liked to have done a bit more, but I misjudged stuff and started my warm-up just a bit too late.  Then we lined up and were off.

Like always, a lot of runners surged off of the line.  I hung back a bit and eased into a controlled fast pace.  I spotted Jenn and another woman ahead of me, and I settled in just a bit behind them, with my intent to hold that effort until I got near the top of the hill in the third mile - at which point I'd empty the tank and hammer home.

Also like always, people started coming back to me as early as half a mile in.  I held my rhythm, taking advantage of the downhills where I could without overextending myself, and passed person after person.  As I watched ahead, I saw Jenn pulling away more, but the woman Jenn had been running with was fading.  Just before we hit the big climb, I passed fading-woman.  As I passed, I noted her gasping breaths and knew that she was done.

By that point, Jenn was too far ahead for me to have a reasonable chance of chasing her down in the last mile (it turned out there was another woman ahead of Jenn that I wasn't aware of).  I focused on the guys around me, trying to balance reeling them in with not overextending myself on the climb (which was every bit as long as I remembered).

Then we were turning for the long downhill to the finish.  I picked off two more men, and then I had nothing but a long open road ahead of me.  Time to hammer home.  But I didn't.  I ran decently hard to the finish, but it wasn't my best effort.  I simply didn't have the motivation/killer instinct/whatever to run harder today.  

I'd like to blame it on not having anyone right in front of me to chase, but I think it was mostly my reluctance to embrace the pain of a well-raced 5K.

I'm annoyed and also a bit embarrassed about my lack of fire this morning.  However, I'm clearly not so mortified that I won't blog about it.  Nor am I all that surprised.  I seem to need to race at least once a month or so to stay race sharp, and it's been a bit longer than that.

So...while I'm frustrated and bit angry at myself, I'm also really really glad I raced this morning.  I obviously needed this, and hopefully I'll do a bit better next weekend at the Fifth Avenue Mile because I raced this morning.

***

Splits were:

Mile 1: 6:20
Mile 2: 6:23
Last 1.11 - 7:05 (6:23 pace)

So....a very evenly paced hard tempo.  Except for the fact that I was, y'know, racing....

***

Other notes:

• Jenn ended up winning the women's race, and my teammate Matt was second in the men's race, so it was a good day all around.
• The weather was a bit sticky - temp of 72, DP of 71.  So not great weather.  On the other hand, it's always this way for this race.  And I've run faster 5Ks in worse conditions.  Heck, of the three 5Ks I've done this year, this was the best weather I've had.
• Got to the race around 7:15 for the 8:30 start.  I think that was just a bit too short for me to have the relaxed, unrushed warm-up I like.
• Wore my Takumi Sens today.  In retrospect I should have gone with the Adios.  My footstrike varies depending on how fast I run, and I need to be running close to 6 flat pace for the Takumi Sens to feel good.  

Training log - Week ending 8/26/2018

This week was 61 miles of running, 8 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

Travel and juggling schedules.  Though not as much of either as I had expected.

My plan for the week was to travel to Kansas on Monday afternoon through Tuesday or Wednesday for my grandfather's funeral, and then to travel to Flint, Michigan on Friday for the USATF Masters Road Mile Championships.  So, my coach and I moved the normal Tuesday workout to Monday morning to fit it in.

Monday's workout sucked.  The weather was lousy - very humid, with spluttering rain and a fairly strong headwind on the track.  And I was in a bad mood.  But I got it done at the proper effort.

And then the travel started - a ~2 hour flight from DC to Kansas city, and then a lot of driving.  It's 320 miles each way between the Kansas City airport and Collyer, Kansas, where my grandfather's funeral was held.  I landed at Kansas City and drove to Topeka the first night.  

I specifically chose my hotel in Topeka based on its proximity to both the interstate 

Loop-de-loop in Topeka

and a shopping mall.  I've learned that when I'm traveling through strange areas, my best bets for safe running are large shopping malls or universities.  Either usually features a paved perimeter drive of at least a mile in length that is well lit, patrolled by security, and very low in car traffic in the early morning.  Doing multiple loops is boring.  But it's by far the safest option for a woman running by herself in the dark in a strange location.

Then it was off for my day trip to Collyer, Kansas.  Which is every bit as isolated as you think it is. 

Collyer, Kansas - as seen from my rental car.

It was a long day of driving - I have no idea how anyone drove long distance before the advent of satellite radio.  Though I will note that multi-hour pool-runs are excellent training for a multi-hour drive through Kansas.

The Kansas driving segment - click on picture to expand.

The trip as a whole - click on picture to expand.

In terms of boredom, the drive was not quite as bad as I expected.  Though not a sightseeing tour by any means, there were enough points of interest - military bases, gas stations-combined-with-laundromats, closed-and-decaying gas stations, lingerie-and-porn-shops-marketing-to-lonely-truckers, and wind farms  - to keep me engaged.

[not my wind farm video - just one I found on YouTube by GregHillTopeka]

And seriously, the wind farms were really really cool - the video above doesn't quite capture how HUGE these things are.  The contrast between the very rural landscape and the futuristic giant windmills was eerie.

I made it to Collyer and back safely, and in good time, and got to see my extended family (albeit under sad circumstances) so the (very long) day was a success to the extent attendance at a funeral can be classified as such.

***

I arrived back in DC Wednesday afternoon, and started prepping for my second trip of the week, to Flint, Michigan for the USATF Masters Road Mile Championships.  Only to realize that I really didn't feel like going.  

I was looking forward to the race itself, but the trip there required a 70 minute flight and then an 80 minute drive each way, and repeating the drill so soon had no appeal, even if this trip would be significantly shorter than the Kansas one.  I just didn't want to get on another airplane to fly another place to rent another car to drive on another highway.

Plus, I was tired, making the prospect of getting home well after midnight on Friday distasteful.  Ultimately, I do this sport for fun.  And the truth was, traveling to this race was feeling like a chore, not an adventure.

I chatted with my coach to see whether he cared if I did the race.  As it turned out, he much preferred that I stay home, avoid the travel stress on my body, and get a good quality tempo in.  So that's what I did. I had to eat the plane fare, but it was a cheap flight, so not a big deal.

***

We all have workouts that we find especially beneficial - for me, my sweet spot workout is running for 25-35 minutes at between 10 mile and half-marathon pace - which is another way of saying "a tempo of 4-5 miles in distance."  Out of all the workouts we do, I respond to those the best, but I rarely get to do them in the summer due to the heat and humidity.  We either shorten the workout to 5K or split it into intervals, which I don't benefit from in quite the same way. 

On Friday, we were gifted with unusually cool and dry weather for August, and I took advantage of it with an 8K tempo.  I was definitely still a bit tired, but the tempo went well, and there's no doubt in my mind that I gained more fitness-wise from the tempo than I would have from a mile race. 

Then on Sunday, I unofficially kicked off CIM training with a 14 mile progression down to marathon pace effort (this cycle, I'm planning to ignore my watch on long runs and do all my marathon pace work by feel).  It went pretty well - marathon pace effort is not yet yielding my desired marathon pace (between 6:45-6:50) but I have a bit over 3 months for that to change. 

***

Last winter, when I was mapping out my training and racing for this year, my plan had been to race Boston, then spend the rest of the spring and summer getting into good short distance shape so I could run really well at the mile and 5K distances in the late summer/early fall before switching back to marathons.  Inserting Grandma's Marathon into the mix obviously changed things, and the fact is that I'm not currently in the shape I had hoped I would be at this time of year.  

But, you can't have everything, and the PR I ran at Grandma's was worth the trade-off.  I do feel that I'm in a good place for starting a new cycle.  I'm fresh and eager and well-rested, I'm sufficiently out of shape that I'm not too worried about peaking too early, and I'm also fit enough that it's not going to be too hard of a climb back.  Bring on the training (after the 5K and mile races I have in the next two weeks, of course).

Dailies

Monday: 11.5 miles, including a track workout of 4x(800, 400) in 3:00, 87, 3:02, 88, 2:58, 88, 3:01, 85.  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming, and some foam rolling.  Flew DC to Kansas City in the afternoon, and then drove to Topeka, Kansas that evening.

Tuesday: 8 miles very easy (8:50) around a shopping mall, plus drills and strides, and DIY yoga in hotel.  Drove from Topeka to Collyer, Kansas, (242 miles) and then from Collyer back to Kansas City, Missouri (320 miles).  Total of 570 miles covered - 8 running; 562 driving.

Wednesday:  5.5 miles very easy (10:00), plus drills and strides. (running on broken overgrown sidewalks outside Kansas City International Airport before sunrise = 10 minute pace).  Followed with a failed attempt at strengthwork in an impressively lousy hotel gym.  Flew Kansas City to DC.

Thursday:  Upper body weights/core at the much better gym at home, and then 8 "miles" of pool-running.  Chatted with coach and decided to skip Friday race.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 12 miles, including an 8K tempo in 32:17 (6:34/6:30/6:30/6:25/6:18).   Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1250 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:02), followed by upper body strengthwork and core.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  14 miles progressive, split as first 4 miles averaging 9:09, next 5 averaging 7:50, last 5 averaging 7:04.  Followed with leg strength work and 750 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/19/2018

This week was 46 miles of running, 24 "miles" of pool-running, and 2000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

Stuff got juggled around a bit this week for multiple reasons.  

A relatively cooler Tuesday meant that we extended Tuesday's workout, while also shortening the recovery slightly (400m after the 1200s instead of the normal half-distance recovery; we kept the recovery after the 800s and 400 to half-distance).  By contrast, Friday's workout, normally a tempo or cruise intervals) was modified to 3200 (800 recovery), 2x800, and 2x200m.  We made the switch because I'm racing two road miles in the next three weeks, and so this workout made more sense for those goals.

As it turned out, Friday was fairly warm and humid, so the team all swapped to 3200 repeats anyway.  And since some of the fast guys run 3200m at the same pace I run 800m, I ended up with company for pretty much all of the workout.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Tuesday's weather was far nicer than Friday's, the Friday workout went much better.  My breathing wasn't great on Tuesday - I really should have just used my rescue inhaler, but I didn't due to a combination of being stubborn, blaming it on tired legs, and being in denial about the onset of hay fever season.  Instead, I just ran the workout by effort and grinded through.

On Friday, I accepted that which could no longer be denied, upped the meds, and whadyaknow - better workout.  Including running Friday's 3200m at a faster pace than my first 1200 on Tuesday.  Funny how that works.

[same PSA as always when I discuss this stuff - I'm really careful to make sure everything I take for my asthma/allergies is legal.  Wondering whether what you take is legal?  Check here.]

***

My grandfather passed away this Tuesday, at the age of 100.  Sad in a wistful way, but not unexpected.  My sense was that after his 100th birthday he was ready to go, which gives peace to his passing.

The big get-together for his 100th last November.

His memorial service is on Tuesday in Kansas (Collyer, Kansas), which is going to require a lot of travel.  The ghost town of Collyer is about 300 miles from either Kansas City or Denver - the two closest cities with direct flights from DC.  So I leave DC Monday afternoon and return sometime on Wednesday, with a lot of driving in between.  

Then, on Friday night, I have the USATF Masters Road Mile Championships in Flint Michigan.  In keeping with my normal MO (which means reduce travel time as much as possible), I'm flying into Michigan that morning and then out that evening post race.   I should be done with my race before 7 pm and my flight is at 10:15 pm, so hopefully this won't be too tight.

Because of all this travel, my coach and I moved my normal Tuesday morning track workout to Monday morning.  This way I don't have to worry about fitting in a workout while driving hundreds of miles, and I also get an extra day of rest between the track workout and Friday's race (though that rest will be compromised by all the travel).  

A Monday track workout means no Sunday long run, so I spent this Sunday in the pool.  Not really an issue - marathon training doesn't start until next month, and I've certainly done enough long runs this year anyway.

Dailies

Monday: Yoga and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12.5 miles, including a track workout of 3x(1200, 800, 400) in 4:46, 3:05, 88;  4:39, 3:01, 88;  4:32, 2:58, 85.  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  8 miles very easy to yoga (9:14), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy (9:02).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  7.5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 3200, 2x800, 2x200 in 12:34 (6:21/6:13), 2:55, 2:52, 40, and 39.   Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:13), followed by DIY yoga and foam rolling.

Sunday:  8 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/12/2018

This week was 58 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

A bit better than last week.  My speed (intervals) is coming back before my stamina (tempo), which is normal for me, and probably amplified by the fact that my few weeks of playing around included hills (so speed) and mile races but nothing tempo-ish.  

Not a complaint, just an observation.  While it's not fun being out of shape, it is fun getting back into shape.  And I've found that for myself it's important to take that one step back in order to take multiple steps forward.

Dailies

Monday: Yoga and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 11.5 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 1200, 3x800, 2x200 in 6:10, 4:31, 2:59, 2:58, 2:52, 40, and 39.  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  8 miles very easy to yoga (9:20), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy (9:13), plus drills and strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  Upper body weights/core and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 11h miles, including a 4 mile tempo in 26:26 (6:47/6:34/6:35/6:30).  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:24), followed by upper body weights/core, DIY yoga, and foam rolling.

Sunday:  13.5 miles progressive, split as the first 4 miles averaging 8:59, next 4 miles averaging 7:49, and the last 5 miles averaging 7:04 (plus a half-mile cooldown). [meant to do 12 progressive, but did the math wrong - running math is hard.]  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/5/2018

This week was 54 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

This was my first week of seriously training (and by serious, I mean hitting the track).  Tuesday's workout went surprisingly well, aided by a conservative start.  

Friday's workout did not, despite a conservative start to that as well.  When given my choice of distances, I opted for "four miles, but dropping at 5K if I'm straining" - at 5K I was starting to strain, but decided to try for 4 anyway, only to re-decide a few moments later that I really should have dropped at 5K.   Thus, a tempo of approximately 5250 meters in distance.

I think it was partially the thick humidity, but also that I'm out of shape in multiple ways.   Physically, I was working too hard for a tempo (so it was good I shut it down).  Mentally I just wasn't in shape for 16 laps on a warm day (though from that standpoint it probably would have been better if I had finished it).  

Tempos are always the hardest workout for me since I struggle to focus for that long. Intervals and hills are easier since I get breaks, and long runs are assisted by the changing scenery.   Having done nothing but hills, mile races, and moderate distance aerobic runs has left me short on concentration skills.  Which I'm not too worried about - that comes back pretty easily.

Sunday, I decided to go with a standard progressive long run, just a shorter distance.  Since it was hot and humid again, I didn't rely on my watch during the final four miles at marathon pace.  Though I usually train watchless, in the past marathon pace running has been the one time I've relied on my Garmin - mostly because I didn't trust myself not to run too fast without the watch to reel me in.   However, I've now run 9 marathons (wow), and paced them all off of perceived effort.  I think I'm probably ready to run my marathon pace workouts off of perceived effort as well.

Dailies

Monday: Yoga and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2x800, 1600, 2x800 in 3:06, 3:01, 6:08, 2:58, 2:51.  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  8 miles very easy to yoga (9:14), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy (9:18), plus drills and strides.  Sports massage in afternoon.

Thursday:  Upper body weights/core and 8.5 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 miles, including an intended 4 mile tempo - I bailed at just after 13 laps, so my splits were 6:38/6:33/6:37, and then a bit more before bailing.  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:05), followed by upper body weights/core and foam rolling.

Sunday:  12 miles progressive, split as the first 5 miles averaging 8:51, next 3 miles averaging 8:03, and the last 4 miles averaging 7:10.  Followed with injury prevention and leg strength work, and then 1000 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.