Training log - Week ending 8/27/2023

This week was 54 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 24 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Though it looks low in mileage, this was actually a heavy week - I averaged 13.5 miles on each day I did run, with some high volume quality in there (8x800 and then the 8K tempo followed by the long run the next morning).  

This was intentional, as this was my final week of strength building.  At this point, I think I have all the strength I need for the marathon and then some - my legs feel heavy but also like they could go forever (I did have to cut Saturday's long run a mile short, but that was because I started the run too late and it got too hot, not because the distance was an issue).  For me personally, once I get to this point I can keep that strength for a really long time.  Thus, there's no real reason to do more work on endurance.  

So even though I'm still about 7 weeks out from Chicago I'm going to pull back on the mileage a bit to get my legs a bit fresher for some faster running.  I know I can cover 26 miles without issue; it's just a question of how fast I can do it.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  12 miles, including a track workout of 8x800 in 3:35, 3:30, 3:31, 3:29, 3:26, 3:25, 3:26, 3:26 with 3 minute recovery after each.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 8 miles very easy (9:54) with some grass running and drills/strides, followed by upper body weights/core.  Then jogged 3 miles home (9:42).  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 12 miles, including an 8K tempo in 36:35 (7:18/7:19/7:18/7:23/7:17) followed with 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 19 miles, mostly easy but with a fartlek of 10x2 minutes on/5 minutes jog in the second hour.  Followed with 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  1 hour pool-running and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/20/2023

This week was 65 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Just two workouts this week: Wednesday and Saturday.  Wednesday's workout looks a bit underwhelming, but that's because I was experimenting with a lower dose of the meds I take for the dystonia stuff, and I got it wrong, resulting in legs that were clumsy and heavy.  

I decided that it was worth doing the workout anyway at the proper effort level, so that's what I did.  And made some notes for next time.

Saturday's workout went much better.  I was able to find that sweet spot of marathon effort and lock into it, which was a big confidence boost.

I am still deciding between the Hoka Rocket X2 and the Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 2 for my fall marathon shoe.  I've run a marathon pace workout in each, and I go back and forth between the two.  I think that right now I'm leaning towards the Pumas, both because they have much better grip on wet pavement and because they seem more forgiving when my legs get a bit tired.  But I've got a few more weeks to decide.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  9 miles easy (9:50), upper body weights/core, and then 2 miles very easy (9:44) plus strides  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 14 miles, including a track tempo workout of 4800, 3200, 1600 in 21:29 (7:15/7:09/7:05), 14:14 (7:10/7:04) and 7:05 (recoveries of 5:32 and 5:19 between).  Followed with injury prevention work.   Sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11.5 miles very easy (9:36) including some grass running, and then upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17.5 miles, including 2x5 miles at marathon effort in 37:25 (7:40/7:27/7:28/7:25/7:25) and 37:21 (7:33/7:28/7:34/7:27/7:18) with 1 mile in 8:40 between.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  11 miles very easy on trails (11:20) plus hill sprints.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/13/2023

This week was 65 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

A pretty boring week.   We had some nice cool weather in the middle of the week before it heated up for the weekend.  I wish my paces were faster, but gotta train where one is.  At least I'm getting better at grass running and trail running.  

I am playing around a bit more with the medication I take for the dystonia in my lower legs.  It seems that I'm on slightly too high a dose, which is why I'm having a bit of trouble rolling through my feet and pushing off.  Of course, too low a dose has its own issues too, and since I'm a fairly small person, we have to be pretty precise with the dose to get it right.  So we're still fine-tuning things.

And yes, I am very familiar with Botox being used for dystonia.  However, it's not a good choice for me because a) the problem is not with one specific muscle, but with several; and b) selectively weakening lower leg muscles makes sense for people who just want to walk normally or to run a few miles a couple times a week.  But I want to continue to train seriously, and so weakening my lower leg muscles creates an unacceptable risk of compensation injury.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  11 miles, with a track workout of 1600, 2x1200, 2x800, 2x400 in 7:04, 5:09, 5:03, 319, 3:17, 96, 97.  4 minutes recovery after the 1600, 3 minutes recovery after the 1200s, and equal time recovery after the 800s and 400s.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 9.5 miles very easy (9:32), including some grass-running and drills/downhill strides; then upper body weights/core, followed by 2.5 miles very easy (9:28).   Sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10 miles, including a 6400m track tempo in 28:02 (7:08/7:01/6:55/6:58), plus 2x200m in 49 seconds each.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11 miles very easy trail running (10:51) plus drills/strides and then upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 20.5 miles progressive, split with the first 10 miles averaging 9:30 pace, the next 6.5 miles averaging 8:46 pace, and the next 4 miles averaging 8:13 pace. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/6/2023

This week was 61 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming, and 21"miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

The week started off poorly, with a frustrating track workout where I was essentially stuck at my tempo pace for intervals.  In retrospect, it was simply because the track workout was too close to Sunday's 16 miler, which was followed by some heavy squatting.  So I'll file that workout under "it's the effort that counts."

I moved my marathon effort workout up to Friday to take advantage of better weather, and ended up being very happy with the results.  I had planned on doing the 4-3-2-1 workout (4, 3, 2, and 1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile between), but I hit a good rhythm during the first 4, and decided on the fly to swap to 2x5 miles at marathon effort.  The marathon effort miles all felt good and controlled and like I could have continued on (which is the ideal when doing a marathon effort workout, IMHO) so I felt pretty good about it.

Since I did my long run on Sunday and my next hard workout isn't until Tuesday morning, I used Sunday morning to run a whole bunch of 100s, 200s, and even a few 400s, wearing different shoes and playing with different mental cues.  The winners ended up being the Takumi Sen 8 (other choices were the Adios 7, the Adidas Adizero Pro, and the New Balance RC Elite 1).  

As for mental cues - the best cues for me in running fast and smoothly seem to be engaging my transverse abdominus (deep abdominals) while allowing my stride to extend behind me (not in front of me) with some torso rotation.  And keeping my feet relaxed.  It also helps to visualize a harness tied around my hips pulling me forward - when I try to push forward I try too hard with my legs and get stiff and slow down.

Not sure if those mental cues will help anyone else, but they were working for me.  At least for today.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  10 miles, with a track workout of 2x800, 1600, 2x800, 2x400 in 3:30, 3:29, 7:00, 3:21, 3:21, 1:37, and 1:38; 2:4x-2:5x recovery after the 800s, 6:01 recovery after the 1600 and 88 seconds between the 400s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (9:38), including some grass-running and drills/downhill strides; upper body weights/core later.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 17 miles, including 2x5 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile easy/float (9:00 pace) between. Splits were 37:47 (7:33 pace) and 37:41 (7:32 pace).  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 9 miles very easy trail running (11:12) plus drills/strides and then upper body weights/core plus 3 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14 miles with a collection of 100s, 200s, and 400s done with full recovery.  Final 200s were the fastest, at 46 seconds. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/30/2023

This week was 57 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

More mileage and trying to build some fitness.  The one thing that really stands out to me is that I have plenty of strength, but not much stamina or speed.  I really need to prioritize the work at tempo and marathon pace in the next few weeks.

Other than that, this was a lot of getting the work done.  My running gait feels the best it has in a while (which is still a bit far from where I want it to be) so that's good. 

Monday:  90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  2.5 miles (10:03), time team workout, and then 6 miles (10:16 - included some trail running) plus upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

 

Wednesday: 10.5 miles, with a track workout of 2x3200, 2x200 in 14:16 (7:08/7:08), 14:14 (7:10/7:04), 49 and 48.  5:15 and 5:30 recoveries after the 3200s and full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10 miles, including 6 alternate Iwo Jima hills (about 2:30 up a 2.5% incline, 60 second jog, 30 second stride, and then 60 seconds jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles very easy (10:10) including some trail running and also drills/strides and then streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 16 miles, with the first 7 miles averaging 9:30 pace, the next 5 miles averaging 8:19 pace, and the next 4 miles averaging 7:43 pace, plus a half-mile cooldown. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/23/2023

This week was 46 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Very belated entry this week - oops.

The lowlight of this week was Sunday's 5K, which ended up being an exercise in frustration.  Other than that, the week was a bit off due to bad air quality (hence the treadmill workout on Tuesday) and having to go into work on Wednesday (hence the run commute).

Other than that, just getting the miles in (albeit with a cutback for this week's race).

Monday:  90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  10.5 miles, with a treadmill interval workout of 10 minutes at tempo effort (8.5-8.7 mph),4 minute jog recovery; then 4x3:15 at 9.1-9.3 mph with 2:30 jogs, followed by 4x0:30 at 9.6-9.9 mph with 90 second jogs.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (10:27 - run-commute with backpack); streaming yoga at lunch time.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 8.5 mile fartlek with 400s and 200s at 5K effort.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4.5 miles very easy (9:50) plus strides; foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 3 mile warm-up, and then 5K race in 22:33.  Later ran 6.5 miles very easy (10:34 - mostly on trail).  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Birthday Bash 5K, July 23, 2023

 I ran the Birthday Bash 5K today, finishing in 22:35.  

Honestly, not my best race.  But I guess that is what rustbusters are for.

After my last race - the Garry Bjorklund Half - I took some time off and then started training again.  I've also been doing PT religiously, and it really seems like my gait has been improving.  

So I signed up for this race as a check-in.  I knew it would be a rolling course, but that would be a good chance to see how I handled downhills.

***

I jogged the first mile of the course and noted that the downhills were a bit steeper than I remembered (I haven't run this course in 7-8 years).  But I did some downhill strides and seemed to be able to run fast downhill (a big improvement on where I was previously) so that was positive.

After doing my normal warm-up (3:00 at tempo, 4x0:30 at 5K, 4x0:10 strides) I wandered over to the start and jogged with some strides until it was time to warm up.

I wasn't sure where to go, so I lined up next to two guys who were discussing goal times.  The guy on the left said he was targeting 18; the guy on the right was targeting 22.  I hoped to be somewhere in between those two times, so I thought I was in the right place.  And if I was too far back, well...it wasn't that big a race, so it wouldn't be too hard to work my way up.

***

The race started, and yup, I had started too far back.  I assumed that things would open up pretty quickly but the course was narrower than I expected and it took about half a mile for me to get enough room to run.

Once I had room I went to work - pushing the uphills and trying to run the downhills well.  I struggled with the downhills more than I had expected - essentially running downhill fast requires a lot of concentration, and it's harder to concentrate when I have other people around me.  The end result is that while my downhill running was much improved, it still wasn't good.  I still have work ahead of me.

My splits ended up being:

Mile 1: 7:35 (stuck in traffic)
Mile 2: 7:01
Mile 3: 7:03
last bit: 54 seconds.

So....not great at all.  I guess the positives are that I did run downhill a bit better, and I got my rustbuster out of the way.  

On to the next one.

Other notes:

• It was actually pretty good weather - Temperature of 68 with a dew point of 66.  In northern Virginia, that's pretty good for July.  
• I left my home around 6:30 am for the 8:00 am start, which was just about perfect.
• I wore the Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 1s for this race.  I think I really like that shoe for a 5K.

Training log - week ending 7/16/2023

This week was 63 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Anyone who closely scrutinizes my training will note the addition of some grass running and some trail running to my easy runs.  I don't do all of my runs on these surfaces, just anywhere between a few minutes (grass) to a few miles (easy trail). The hope is that this will improve my ankle strength and proprioception.

The week started cooler and drier, which was great for the Tuesday track workout. I managed to dip under 3:10 for an 800 again, which was encouraging.  By the weekend the heat and humidity was back - "marathon effort" yielded me a pace about 40 seconds slower than I hope to hold at my fall marathon, but that's summer training in DC.

The good news is that I'm feeling strong and like I am in much better shape than I was last year at this time. Hopefully that means good things for Chicago.

Dailies:

Monday:  90 minutes pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:  11 miles, with a track workout of 2000, 5x800 in 8:35, 3:18, 3:16, 3:14, 3:10, 3:07; 5:42 recovery after the 2K and 3:0x-3:3x recoveries after the 800s (yes, very long).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (9:58), including some grass-running and drills/hill sprints; yoga at lunch time.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles, including 7 alternate Iwo Jima hills (about 2:30 up a 2.5% incline, 60 second jog, 30 second stride, and then 60 seconds jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles very easy (10:20) including some trail running and then upper body weights/core.

Sunday: 17 miles, with the first 13 miles averaging 9:29 pace and the next 4 miles averaging 8:02 pace. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/9/2023

This week was 65 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 9 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This week was jumbled by both the 4th of July holiday by some bad air quality that put me back on the treadmill on Wednesday.  Another reshuffle was the return of the official (team-based) Iwo Jima hill workouts, but on an alternate route up and down the hill that lengthened the hill and shortened the recovery.

This week was also jumbled by some heat and humidity.  I handled it much better at the beginning of the week than the end - Sunday's long run was a struggle.  But...that's just summer running, I guess.

My plan is for another week or two at this volume, and then I'll start building for Chicago.

Dailies:

Monday:  10 miles, with a track workout of 2x1200, 2x800, 2x400, 2x200 in 5:02, 4:58, 3:17, 3:16, 97, 95, 47, 47, recoveries all between 2:3x and 2:4x.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles very easy (9:51), then cheered at a race, and then 3.5 miles easy (8:59), followed by streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:34) plus upper body weights/core.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10 miles, including 5 alternate Iwo Jima hills (about 2:30 up a 2.5% incline, 60 second jog, 30 second stride, and then 60 seconds jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10.5 miles easy (9:42) plus drills and strides, and then upper body weights/core.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 10:05 pace, next 5.5 miles averaging 8:17 pace, and next 3.5 miles averaging 7:56 pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown jog.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/2/2023

 This week was 37 miles of running and 27 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I had planned for this week to be mostly hills and tempo intervals, and I accomplished that.  I had also planned for this week to be outdoors, but forest fire smoke kept me inside from Wednesday-Saturday.

As for plans....Friday was supposed to be a tempo workout, followed by easy miles on Saturday and a progressive long run on Sunday.  However, because of the smoke, I stayed inside on the treadmill.  The tempo/hills workout I did on Friday felt great, but it left my calves tight after.  Not injured, but on the edge.  I think they would have been OK if I had done easy miles outside on Saturday, but that wasn't an option due to the smoke - my choices were the treadmill or pool-running.   So I moved my Monday pool-run to Saturday.  It ended up being the right choice, as my calves felt fine for Sunday's run.

Because things were jumbled anyways, I decided to just run easy on Sunday.  I'll do a track workout on Monday, which will then free me up to cheer for friends at a 4th of July 5K on Tuesday morning.

Dailies:

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

Tuesday: 9 miles, including 6 Iwo Jima hills (~2:15 uphill; 90 second jog; 40 second downhill stride; 60 seconds to the bottom of the hill) and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:34) and streaming yoga.   Sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

,

Friday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a mixed tempo/hill workout consisting of 3x10 seconds hard up a 5% incline with 50 seconds recovery; 2x5:00 at 8.5 mph (7:03 pace); 6x1:00 up a 5% incline (cycling twice through easy, moderate, and hard), and then another 2x5:00 at 8.5 mph.  All with 90 seconds recovery except for the short hill sprints at the start.   Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 10 miles easy (9:25) plus drills and strides, followed by upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.