Training Log - week ending 11/23/2025

This week was 66 miles of running.

I was on antibiotics (Doxycycline) through the end of this week.  I know from past experience that I run much slower on antibiotics, but I really have no idea how much they affected my running this time.  I definitely felt sluggish and a bit off this week.  However, I also felt stronger as the week went on.

Sunday was the end of training for the Jacksonville Marathon (Dec. 13th) and the start of my taper.  It was also the last day I was on the antibiotics. Basically, I've been sick or recovering from being sick for the last three weeks of marathon training, leading me to doubt whether I should start the race.  I've decided to see how I much I perk up next week after being off the antibiotics and then make a decision.

Dailies:

Monday: 6 miles very easy (9:53) with 4 strides plus upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 9 miles on the track, with 2x1600, 2x800 in 7:57, 7:57, 3:58, 3:55 - recoveries of 3:0x-3:1x between.  Followed with 6x30 second hills (cycling twice through easy, moderate, hard) and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 7 miles very easy (9:59) with 10x100m strides (27 down to 26). Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy on trails (14:20), PT exercises, and later 3 miles very easy on Lever Up at - 5 pounds (9:41). Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 miles on the track with a 5K tempo in 24:58 (8:07/7:59/7:54/0:58) plus four short hill sprints and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8 miles very easy (9:54) with 8x100m strides (27-28 seconds).  Followed with upperbody strengthwork.

Sunday: 20 miles, split as the first 7 miles averaging 10:04 pace, the next 6 miles averaging 9:07 pace, and the last 7 miles averaging 8:20 pace. Followed with injury prevention work.

Training log - Week ending 11/16/2025

This week was 37 miles of running and 6 "miles" of pool-running.

I woke up the morning after the Boston Half and I had no voice.  And my asthma was much worse.  Both of which were frustrating; neither of which were surprising.

I managed to get in to see my primary care on Monday afternoon (the appointment started off with me croaking:  "So....I made some poor decisions over the weekend...."). After examination, he gave me the choice of either a) doing a few days of prednisone AND a week of the antibiotic doxycycline, or b) just doing the pred and seeing if that worked; if it didn't, I'd start the doxy.

I know that antibiotic overuse and antibiotic resistance is a thing; additionally, I always feel weak and run really badly on antibiotics. Thus, I picked door a) in hopes that this was just inflammation and a few days of pred would kick it to the curb.

Unfortunately, by Saturday when I was tapering off the pred, it was clear that it hadn't been enough.  My lungs had improved, but they started going downhill again.  So, on Sunday I started my seven day doxy sentence.

One will notice that I kept running through all of this (after Monday).  That's because I very quickly lose the neurologic motor patterns for running when I don't do it.  I essentially forget how to run.  And it's really hard to relearn my running gait when I lose it.

As a compromise, I did many of my runs, including some "workouts" on my Lever Up (essentially a budget alter-G).  By doing this, I could run at my normal paces (and thus practice running), but with a lot less stress on my body and especially the lungs, since the effort was much easier for that pace. I also kept the mileage low - about half of what I had planned to run this week. 

Dailies:

Monday: Off except for foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 7 miles very easy on the Lever Up at -20 pounds (9:57) and some PT exercises. Sports massage in evening

Wednesday: 5 miles very easy outside (10:33) with two short hill sprints plus some light upper body weights. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles on the Lever Up at -10 pounds, including a "workout" of 2 miles (8:03/7:51), 1 mile easy, 1 mile (7:33). Followed with leg strengthwork + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 5.5 miles (9:46), mostly very easy but with 8x100m in 28-29 seconds and two hill sprints.  Followed with upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12.5 miles on the Lever Up at -8 pounds, including a "workout" of 2x4 miles in 31:42 (7:56 pace) and 31:12 (7:45 pace).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 6 "miles" pool-running, PT exercises, foam rolling.

Race Report: Boston Half-Marathon, November 9, 2025

I ran the Boston Half on November 9, finishing in a time of 1:56:02, which was good enough to nab top place in my division (honestly requires that I admit that I was the only one in my division due to travel disruptions that prevented others in my division from making it to Boston).

This race report could be entitled "don't do what I do, kids." Or "why I think that what would normally be a bad decision was the right decision this time."  More on that below.

***

This was my second year doing the Boston Half, and I entered it both because it was a great opportunity to come back to Boston and compete in the Para Pro division (and enjoy the fantastic hospitality of the BAA) and because it could be a tune-up for my upcoming December marathon. After a challenging summer, my training was going decently well until last weekend, when I had a really tough long run.  Out of breath, no energy.  I was concerned but blamed it on training fatigue and the hilly route I had chosen.  And then overnight I developed sinus pain and a scratchy throat.

So I was sick. I wasn't bedridden, but I felt like crap. And this was lousy timing, given that the Boston Half was less than a week away. 

I'll skip a detailed discussion of my head cold (not flu or covid, I tested) and just note that I was laid up on Monday-Wednesday. And as the cold faded away on Wednesday, the fatigue remained and my asthma started to flare like it always does after any viral infection.

A doctor's appointment on Thursday confirmed the asthma flare. I left the doctor's office with instructions not to exert myself for a few days (which I interpreted as Thursday-Saturday) and a prescription for prednisone. The latter was not a surprise - when my asthma flares, there's only one way to tamp it down, and that's with oral prednisone. 

However, under WADA rules, oral pred is legal outside of competition, but banned in competition. Yes, there are ways to get a TUE and technicalities about what is in competition versus outside of competition - you can read more about all that here. But I was uncomfortable getting a TUE. I'm not judging others who would, since they are complying with the rules. But I personally didn't want to do it since I believe that pred enhances my performance when I take a large enough dose to control an asthma flare.

In the past when this situation has arisen, I've just skipped the race. And that would have made a lot of sense here, especially with my goal marathon a few weeks out.  But this was the Boston Half and the BAA's support of the para-divisions is really important to me. I wanted to support that by showing up if I could.  Additionally, I thought I had a decent shot of winning my division even with the asthma flare.  So, I made the dumb-but-right-for-me decision to hold off on starting the pred until Monday and race the Boston Half as best I could safely, with the knowledge that it wasn't going to be pretty. [The fact that I was confident that I could manage my own effort and not push myself to a dangerous point also came into play.]

***

For my trip up to Boston on Friday I took the Amtrak Acela high speed train from DC rather than flying.  I had booked the Acela several months ago, theorizing that 6.5-7 hours on a train was more relaxing than 5+ hours spent navigating airports and security and cramped airplane cabins. (Conclusion - it was).  My choice ended up being prescient as my travel was completely unaffected by the FAA reduction in flight capacity that unfortunately resulted in several athletes being unable to make the race.

The Amtrak Back Bay station in Boston is a 10 minute walk from the hotel I was staying at, so it was an easy trip up.  I left DC around 9:30 am, played on the computer for a few hours and then checked into my hotel room at 4:30 pm.

Saturday was a double shake out.  I'm (like always) trying to perfect the timing and amount of my PD meds for racing. While taking the train up to Boston, I took both a larger and a smaller dose of Rytary (one of my meds) about 5 hours apart.  And I noted that while I was very jumpy on the larger dose (what I usually race on), I was much calmer on the lower dose. That jumpiness and tenseness - called an "exaggerated startle reflex" definitely hurts my race performances.

So, I did two shakeout runs on Saturday split by about 5 hours - the first on the lower dose, and then the second on the higher dose.  The lower dose felt much better, so I decided to try that for Sunday.

[the obvious question is: why can't I just go with the amounts that work the best for me in training?  The answer is that what amount works best for my running seems to be affected by my overall training volume over the past few days - the amount that is enough when I'm running 60+ miles a week is too much if I'm tapering.]

***

Sunday morning dawned with perfect weather for this race - low 50s, overcast sky, some wind but it wasn't much of an issue. I took my lower dose of Rytary around 6:45 am, gave it a few minutes to kick in, and then headed out for my warm-up.  The designated warm up area had no flat spots - just up or down.  Which gave me plenty of opportunity to confirm that uphills were going to be painful today. [when my asthma flares, it limits hard efforts much more than easy efforts, and uphills seem to be the worst.]  So...I struggle on downhills because of Parkinsons, and now I was going to struggle on uphills from the asthma flare. Did I mention that there were no flat sections of this course?  This was going to be fun.

I returned from my warm up to the Para tent to head over to the starting line. While in the tent, I learned that I was the only woman in my division this race - the others had not shown up - presumably due to travel disruptions.  Unfortunate news, but certainly beneficial to me.  

As a member of the Para Pro field, I still had an obligation to race to the best of my abilities, so I couldn't just jog the race and collect the win. But at least I had a bit more leeway to play it safe (racing to the best of one's abilities does require one to finish the race...).  As for competition, I always like to unofficially compete with the men in my division.  Officially it doesn't matter at all, since there are separate awards for each gender.  But unofficially, I like competing. So I chase the guys too.  And there were quite a few male T35-38s racing today.

***

The race started with the same downhill as last year, and just like always happens on downhills, I got dropped by most of the para field. I'm always rigid in the first miles of a race if I have to stand for a few minutes before starting, but this was extra. I decided that the lower dose of Rytary had been a bit too low, so I popped a 1/4 tablet of sinemet (short acting med) while running the first mile.  It was a bit awkward, but downhill running is awkward for me anyway, so no great loss.

As for whether it helped - it didn't obviously hurt, which I think probably means that it did help.

The race itself was rolling the entire way, with almost no flat.  On the downhills, I tried to manage my balance while catching my breath.  On the uphills, I tried to push things as hard as I could safely.  Which was honestly not very hard - just running already had me uncomfortably close to oxygen debt. 

Much of the race was a blur, simply because I felt lousy. And so I was doing my best not to think too much, because as soon as I started thinking, I started thinking about how crappy I felt....

The course had several turn-arounds, and at each one I had a chance to see how far I was behind the men in the T35-38 division.  I could tell I was making up time on all of them, but at the halfway point the leader - Joe Drake - was still far ahead.  I didn't know if I could make up that gap, but I was going to try.

After mile 8, there was a solid climb - I remembered this from last year.  However, unlike last year the course allowed for a bit of a breather before climbing again towards the finish. Sometime during the breather I passed the second place male T35-38.  Which was a nice distraction from just how lousy I felt.

So now there was just Joe ahead. I scanned ahead for a tall figure with a white hat and pink compression socks.  I would occasionally see what I thought was Joe, but I couldn't be sure.  The crowd of runners was thick enough at this point that it was hard to pick out any individual.

The last mile of the course was essentially a big serpentine to the top.  Once I passed the 20K marker I tried to empty the tank as best I could.  I was successful, but unfortunately I was working with a very small tank. 

I crossed the finish line and almost immediately saw Joe standing there.  So, I didn't quite catch him, but I was close (officially he edged me by 20 seconds).  Next time, my friend. Next time.

***

Splits were:

• First 5K: 28:42
• Between the 5K mark and Mile 4: 7:46 for .89 miles.
• Mile 5: 8:55
• Mile 6: 8:45
• Mile 7: 8:34
• Mile 8: 8:32
• Mile 9: 8:54
• Mile 10: 8:34
• Mile 11: 8:40
• Mile 12: 8:56
• Mile 13: 8:41
• last bit: 1:04

Other notes:

• It was absolutely perfect weather for this race - 42 degrees, overcast skies but no rain, little wind.
  
  
• I really enjoyed the train ride both ways and think that's my choice for traveling to Boston from now on.  When you factor in the time it takes to get through security, board, and fly plus travel to/from the airport, taking the train is really only an hour or so longer.  The train is much more comfortable than flying, and I really enjoyed watching the country go by outside my window (especially the stretch in Connecticut or Rhode Island where the train runs right along the Atlantic Ocean).
  
  
• Unsurprisingly, I felt awful the morning after this race. My asthma flare got worse and I lost my voice - resulting in another doctor's visit and a confession of my sins. Ultimately, I ended up having to do a week of antibiotics (doxycycline) to clear up a laryngitis/bronchitis thing.  What could have been one down week due to sickness turned into at least three - a nice illustration of why it's generally a bad idea to race when you are recovering from a cold and/or are experiencing an asthma flare. [That's also why this report has taken so long to write.]
  
  
• Given the above, I still think racing was the right decision here. It would have been completely different if this was a race that I had entered as part of the open field - in that case it would have been an easy call to skip the race and rest. But besides the fact that I wanted to support the para divisions, there was also the point that...when you accept an invitation to be part of an elite or pro field, that comes with an obligation to show up and race to the best of your abilities if you can, even if you don't like the weather or you don't feel 100% that day or you'd rather use this race as a workout or you could jog the race and still pick up some cash.
  
  Of course, there are exceptions such as a personal emergency or significant injury (I've withdrawn from elite fields in the past for both).  And if you know several weeks out that you're not going to perform well and someone else can take your slot and run better, that's OK too.  I once withdrew from the elite field at Indy Monumental for that reason - my training wasn't coming together and I knew that there was a waiting list for the elite field, so I gave up my slot so someone else could have it.
  
  But here, I knew my race was going to be really ugly, and I was fairly sure I'd feel awful after, but I was a) in the pro field, b) past the point where I was contagious, and c) confident I wouldn't do any permanent damage to myself.  So, I showed up and gave it my best shot.  And I'm really glad I did.

Training log - Week ending 11/9/2025

This week was 33 miles of running.

I didn't do much this week because I was sick and then my asthma started flaring.  And then I raced a half-marathon (report coming).

Dailies:

Monday: Off except for some gentle yoga in the evening. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 4.5 miles very easy (10:21) with 8x100m strides in 30 seconds down to 28. Foam rolling in evening

Wednesday: Off except for PT exercises and some foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 5.5 miles very easy (10:00). Upperbody weights/core + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 4 miles, including a 1600 uptempo on the track in 8:13.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 3 mile shakeout (10:42) plus foam rolling and PT exercises.

 

Sunday: 3 mile warm-up and Boston Half Marathon in 1:56:02.

Training log - Week ending 11/2/2025

This week was 61 miles of running and 9 "miles" of pool-running.

I felt good at the beginning of the week, not so good at the end.  Friday's tempo was slower than I wanted, but I attributed that to windy conditions.  

Sunday's long run was on a route that was net uphill. I thought the route was uphill, then downhill, then mostly flat for the last 6 miles.  Unfortunately, I was wrong, and the last 6 miles had a substantial climb and some rolling hills. The long run was progressive by effort and heart rate, but not by pace.

I also felt awful on the long run, and short of breath in the final miles.  This was concerning. Then I woke up the next morning with a sinus headache and a scratchy throat and realized that I was sick. Not great news, but at least it made me feel better about the long run.

Dailies:

Monday: 9 miles very easy (9:42) with 2 flat strides, 2 hill sprints, and 2 downhill strides. Upperbody weights/core in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x3 minutes with 2 minute jog plus 6x30 seconds with 2 minute jog.  The 3 minute intervals were at 8.3-8.4 mph and the 30 second intervals were at 8.8-9.0 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 9 "miles" of pool-running plus PT exercises in the morning.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (10:40) on a very muddy towpath plus PT exercises in the morning; streaming Pilates + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 12 miles, including a 6400m tempo on the track in 31:46 (8:10/7:57/7:51/7:48), followed by hill sprints and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 6.5 miles very easy (9:53) plus 4 hill sprints and 6x100m in 27-28 seconds. Upperbody weights/core in afternoon; foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 18 miles progressive, split as the first 6 miles averaging 10:33, the next 6 miles averaging 9:06 pace, and the next 6 miles averaging 9:01 pace, plus a 1/2 mile jog cooldown

Training log - Week ending 10/26/2025

This week was 61 miles of running, 6 "miles" of pool-running, and 9 miles walking/jogging/cheering at the Marine Corps Marathon. I'll call it 76 miles for the week.

More tweaking of meds.  To make a complicated issue as simple as possible - basically I take medications that replace the neurotransmitter dopamine (what my body is not producing very well now). If I take too little of these medications, then my muscles don't want to relax (because they never get the message from the brain to do so).  If I take too much, then my muscles keep contracting (because they're constantly being told to do so).  Two different things, but they feel very similar. The biggest differences are that I'm a bit weaker with too little dopamine, but my muscles are stiff in a predicable, steady way (like the day after a marathon).  If I have too much, then I'm much stronger, but my muscles contract suddenly and sometimes unpredictably. It's pretty annoying.

I also take medications that can extend the duration of how long I can go between dopamine doses, or that can dampen the effects of too much dopamine medication.  At the beginning of October my doctor and I decided to slightly increase one of the medications that dampens the effect of too much dopamine - the hope was that I could reap the benefits of more dopamine (being stronger and faster) without the costs (tight muscles that contract suddenly).  Increasing this medication meant that I had to lower my normal dopamine dose slightly to counteract the boosting effect of this medication. It seemed like a small, almost negligible change that would hopefully yield some benefit.

After three weeks, I've decided that I was better off with the previous regimen.  My running has slowed over the past few weeks, and when I tried to add a tiny bit more dopamine to see if it would help, it made things worse instead. 

Example 1 was Tuesday's marathon pace workout - I felt a bit sluggish and tight during the first 5 miles, so I took a tiny (1/4 tablet) dose of dopamine before the second 5 mile set.  And then things went massively downhill (in a figurative, not literal sense).

I wasn't sure if this was just a random thing or bonking or dehydration, so on Thursday I tried the slightly higher dose again.  And same thing. Even my 100m strides on the track were stuck at just over 8 minute pace. And I could tell what was happening: when we run, our quads contract eccentrically with each stride just after the foot makes contact with the ground.  On Thursday my quads were massively overcontracting (if that wasn't a word before, it is now). The faster I tried to run, the harder my quads contracted, slamming the brakes on each stride.

So that was a failed experiment. After Thursday, I decided to go back to the previous regimen, which was working decently for me. Saturday's tempo felt a bit better, though still rough. It takes a few days for the effects of a medication change to be fully seen (there's an immediate effect and a long tail effect) so we'll have to see what the next week brings.

Dailies:

Monday: 4 "miles" of pool-running and 8 miles very easy (9:57) plus drills and four hill sprints, followed by upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 16 miles, including a marathon effort workout of 2x5 miles in 40:37 (8:07 pace) and 41:25 (8:17 pace) with 9:16 jog between the two, followed by leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 4 miles very easy on trails (11:53) plus drills and PT exercises.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 3 miles very easy (10:53) with 4x100m (all in 30 seconds), then 9 miles very easy (10:00) Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 8 miles very easy (10:12) with 8x100m in 28 seconds down to 26 seconds, followed by upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12.5 miles, including an 8K tempo in 39:38 (8:08/7:57/7:53/7:50/7:50), some 200s in 55-57 seconds, and some 100s in 28 down to 25 seconds.  Followed with leg strengthwork   Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 9 miles of walking (and a bit of jogging) cheering at the Marine Corps Marathon plus 2 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

 

Race Report: Race for Every Child 5K, October 18, 2025

 I ran the Race for Every Child 5K on Saturday, finishing in 24:40.

My original plan had been to run Army 10 Miler the week before, but when it was uncertain whether Army would happen this year I switched to this 5K. I would have preferred to do the ten miler because a) it's more relevant to marathon training and b) I'm generally more competitive the longer the distance. But either race offered what I really needed - a chance to practice running fast in a large chaotic crowd. 

To explain: I tend to struggle in my running when there's a lot of movement around me. There's a few different reasons for this.  One is that my vestibular sense is not great, and so motion around me, especially unexpected motion, can throw my balance off. (To experience a bit of this yourself, try balancing on one foot while staring at a fixed point in a quiet room.  Now try balancing on one foot while people are walking around you, stepping in front of you, doing jumping jacks behind you, etc.  A bit harder now, right?)

Another reason is simply that running for me is like a big plate spinning contest, where I have to get all the plates spinning (i.e., get all the muscles firing the right way) and then keep them going.  Any time I have to change speed, direction etc, it figuratively stops a few of the plates and I have to re-establish my gait. Thus, weaving around people can be challenging.

So, running in crowds can be hard, especially when its people going at different speeds (common at the beginning of a race).  All of my races since June have been on the track, with no more than 7 other competitors, so I haven't had to deal with a mass start in a while.  And I badly needed the practice.

***

I warmed up with a bit under 4 miles of running, including my normal 3:00 at marathon to half marathon effort, 4x30 seconds faster, and then some 10 second strides. I could tell that my meds were a little bit off because I was having some trouble running over the crosswalks on Pennsylvania Avenue, which are a slightly different surface from the pavement. It's a big tell for me - when my meds are working just right, I can handle changes in surfaces without losing my balance.  But when the meds are a bit off, those changes throw my balance off.

I debated taking a small dose of extra sinemet (medication), but I wasn't sure whether I had too little or too much already in my system (it can be very hard to tell the difference).  Since things weren't too bad, I decided to stick with my current status.

After warming up, I lined up in the corral by the 8-10 minute pace sign - I hoped to run faster than that during the race, but I also start slowly.  There were a lot of people ahead of me who looked like they were new to racing and probably didn't have a good sense of where they should line up, including kids.  This was going to be messy.  Which was fine - that was exactly what I came for.

***

The gun went off, and it took me about 4 seconds to cross the start line.  Just as I had expected, the first mile was people weaving all over the place.  Between that and the crosswalks, it was a rough mile. And a good chance to practice staying relaxed and trying to be as efficient and lose as little time as possible.

After that, things started to open up some and I was able to pick up some speed, though I was still a bit stiff.  Unfortunately, the course had two 180 degree turns that I struggled with a bit, losing some time there. 

Then we turned back onto Pennsylvania Avenue to head back to the finish.  By then, I was feeling pretty good and able to pick up the pace to what felt like a hard tempo effort.  I would have liked to have gone faster, but my gait kept getting tripped up a bit by the crosswalks (mile 3 was mostly mile 1 in reverse).  The end result was that I crossed the finish line feeling like I had run the first three mile of a longer race, rather than a 5K.  Which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world, since longer races are my target and I generally run them faster anyway.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 8:16
Mile 2: 8:05
Mile 3 plus last bit: 8:18 (7:30 pace)

As a 5K, slower than I would like. As the first three miles of a longer race (which is what this felt like, since I couldn't get going until well into the second mile) not too bad.

Other notes:

• As I warmed up, I noted that my legs felt a bit heavy. At the time, I assumed it was because I had done a bit too much trail-running the day before.  But in retrospect I think it was also that I've been doing breathing training daily, which fatigues my intercostal muscles and diaphragm. Mental note that I need to taper the breathing training before my goal races.
• I wore the Asics Metaspeed Edge Tokyo for this race to test it out. It feels like a very good shoe for me for the half-marathon and beyond, but not as good for me for shorter distances like 5K.  I think this is because my footstrike changes based on the distance, and the Edge feels best when I am landing further back on my foot and rolling through.  The funny thing is that most reviewers seem to prefer the Edge for shorter stuff. In contrast, I've read reviews saying that the 361 Flame 4 is a shoe for all distances, but it feels much more comfortable at faster paces for me, and very awkward at tempo or marathon pace.  I guess we're all different.
• Absolutely perfect weather for this race - 56 degrees Fahrenheit with low humidity and little wind.
• Even though it was in the 50s, I wore thin tights with a singlet.  I've discovered that my legs just work so much better when they are warm, and too warm is much better than too cold.
• This was a big race for my tunning team - Capital Area Runners - since the race benefited Children's Hospital and the son of one of my teammates was one of the mascots.  We ended up as the top-scoring team, which was fun.  And it was really cute to see Elliot wear the medal the team won.

Training log - week ending 10/19/2025

This week was 41 miles of running and 12 "miles" of pool-running plus an hour of hiking.

I pulled back on the mileage a bit this week to give myself a chance both to absorb the last few weeks' training and so that I could rest some for Saturday's 5K (separate race report coming). 

Easing back on the miles also gave me some "space" (so to speak) to accommodate the new training stress of doing my daily breathing exercises for inspiratory weakness - i.e., weakness of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. The breathing exercises are 5 sets of 5 inhalations against resistance (I use the EMST-150 with an inspiratory adapter), with 10-20 seconds between breaths and 2 minutes between sets. 

The exact mechanism of how inspiratory weakness can affect running is pretty interesting.  It's not a direct "you don't get enough oxygen in through your lungs." Rather, it's something called "metaboloreflex" - the body prioritizes blood flow to the areas that need it the most. Breathing is a big priority, and so if weak breathing muscles are struggling, the body will prioritize blood flow there at the expense of other areas, such as the legs. Less blood to the legs means less oxygen to the legs, and reduced performance.

At first, I thought I could just add these exercises into my day with no other changes. Then I realized over the course of this week that the breathing exercises increase my training load and need to be considered when mapping out the balance of training stress and recovery.

The added stress to my training load comes from the fact that training the inspiratory muscles fatigues them, which then translates into increased need for oxygen for those muscles, which means that my other muscles get a bit less oxygen. So, in the short term it makes things a bit harder.  In the long term, I'm confident it's going to pay off.

I found it interesting that, when I do the inhalation exercises, afterwords I have a bit of that familiar "lung burn" that I remember from when I used to be able to run a fast mile. I haven't felt that in a long time. My hunch is that I've gotten into a bad cycle, where every time I take a training break at the end of a cycle, my inspiratory muscles weaken from the lack of work (with Parkinsons, muscles seem to weaken frighteningly quickly if not used). Then, when I start workouts again, metaboloreflex means that my legs don't get enough blood.  So I can't run fast enough to work my lungs hard enough to strengthen the inspiratory muscles, and those muscles stay weak. And I feel like I can't get back to where I was before the training break.

[This may actually be why the best masters runners seem to either a) cross train a lot with intense swimming/cycling or b) never take a break.  As you get older, muscles weaken more quickly with lack of use. Intense cross-training stresses the lungs and gets them stronger, while never taking a break means that they never have a chance to weaken.]

Assuming that this is right, the solution is NOT to never take another training break, but rather to include inspiratory training when I ease back into work after a break, so I can build back my breathing and my legs.

Dailies:

Monday: 8 miles very easy (9:45) with 2 strides plus a 1.5 mile fartlek on the track testing different shoes. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 11.5 miles on the track, including a workout of 1600 at tempo effort and then 8x800 with the first 400m at tempo effort and the second 400m faster. Splits were 8:00, and then 3:54 (2:00/1:54), 

3:55 (2:02/1:53), 3:54 (2:01/1:53), 3:54 (2:02/1:52), 3:52 (2:00/1:52), 3:52 (2:00/1:52), 3:51(2:00/1:51), 3:50 (1:58/1:52).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 1 hour of hiking in the afternoon.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 mile fartlek on the track, with some 100s, 200s, and 400s playing with form cues, plus an additional mile testing different shoes. Streaming Pilates + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 5 miles on trails (14:45).  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4 mile warm-up, and then 5K in 24:40 (8:16/8:05/8:18 for last 1781m (1.11 miles).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 12 "miles" of pool-running plus PT exercises. Streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 10/12/2025

This week was 59 miles of running and 21 "miles" of pool-running.

I changed my plans for this week at least four times. My original plan was to race the Army 10 Miler on Sunday. However, as of the beginning of the week, it seemed likely that Army would be cancelled. So at that time I decided to make this a high volume week, with my 20+ long run on Sunday, and then race the week after.

Then on Thursday, Army announced that the race was still on. So, I was racing it after all.

And then I checked the weather forecast and noted that a tropical storm was also scheduled to roll through the area this weekend, complete with wind gusts of up to 40mph.  Not especially fun conditions for a race that includes a stretch on the 14th Street Bridge.

Between the weather, the fact that Army wasn't a goal race, and my lack of taper, I decided to skip Army anyway and do a tempo workout on Friday followed by a weekend long run.  Since the storm could last through Monday, I moved my long run to Saturday and kept it at mostly easy pace.

Despite all the back and forth, I managed to hit 80 "miles" (combined land and pool) for the week, which is where I want to be.

The other thing of note is that I discovered that my lungs - specifically my diaphragm and my intercostal muscles - are really weak. Given how much I run, this was a surprise.

I discovered this during speech therapy (which I started because I noted my voice getting a bit softer, and because the big rule in Parkinsons is: start speech therapy and physical therapy before you've fallen apart - it's much easier to preserve than to rebuild). The strength of those muscles is graded by maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximum expiratory pressure (MEP) - essentially how much resistance you can breathe through.

My MIP was 37 cmH20 (centimeters of water is a unit of pressure management).  The expected normal value for my age/sex/BMI is 97 cmH20.  So, my MIP is about 38 % of the norm.  That's a significant difference. This was obviously a big surprise to both me and the speech therapist.

The good news is that there's an easy way to improve it - just do daily breathing exercises with a respiration trainer.  There is some evidence (mixed) that respiratory training improves performance in trained athletes, and fairly solid evidence that respiratory training improves walking speed in people with Parkinsons. So, it seems like improving my MIP should probably improve my running, especially my faster running.  By how much remains to be seen. We'll see how the next few weeks play out.

Dailies:

Monday: 10 miles (10:10) with 8 strides. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x4:00/1:12 jog plus 4x30 seconds on/1:30 jog. The longer intervals were at 7.9/8.0 mph; the shorter intervals were 8.5-8.8 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph.  Pollowed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (11:59) on trails in the morning plus PT exercises. Streaming Pilates + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 12 miles, including a 8115m tempo in 30:52 (7:59/7:46/7:37/7:30) followed by two hill sprints.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 21 miles mostly very easy (9:50) with 8x(1 minute up tempo/8 minutes very easy) in the third hour. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 9 "miles" of pool-running plus upperbody weights/core and PT exercises. Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 10/5/2025

This week was 54 miles of running and 21 "miles" of pool-running.

This is my second week at 70+ "miles" (meaning land-running and pool-running combined).  I definitely have some fatigue, but it's not excessive - more like what I would expect to feel when I bump up mileage.  

The chart to the right shows my combined crosstraining/running volume over the past 36 months. (Fortunately, I don't cycle, because that would distort this chart). 

As one can see, I had a lot of 70+ mile weeks and some 80+ mile weeks up through the middle of 2024. Then my mileage dropped off as a result of injury/covid recovery/life stress.  Using mid-2024 as the dividing line, I was also running much better before that point than after.

I don't think this is coincidence. Hence my work to carefully but methodically build my mileage back up to that 70+ range. While also being mindful of the risk of overtraining and the increased risk of injury due to being over 50.

I count running miles and cross-training miles as equal here not because I think they truly are, but because it's a very useful fiction. Structuring my log this way makes it emotionally easy for me to swap in a cross-training day for a running day whenever it seems like it might be a good idea. The benefits of 12 miles of easy running over 12 miles of pool-running are incremental; the benefits of avoiding injury can be massive.

I've also started including my strides and hill sprints in my mileage, something I haven't done previously.  I don't think including them increases my mileage that much, but it does give me an incentive to do them, even if it means cutting the run short half a mile or so. Between age and Parkinsons, my body wants to shy away from moving quickly or powerfully.  Being sure to do strides and hill sprints, plus things like rapid toe taps, ladder drills, and power cleans in the gym helps to counter that.

In terms of specific workouts, my first full marathon pace workout on Saturday wasn't quite as fast I would have liked.  I locked into around 8:15 pace, which felt ridiculously easy and conversational, but my legs didn't want to move any faster. I want to break 3:30 in December (8:00 pace) so I'm a bit off of that, but I'm not too worried.  December is still a long way off, and I think accumulated fatigue from the uptick in mileage contributed.  Accumulated fatigue is of course part of marathon training, but you don't want to overdo it. So I made a mental note to prioritize quality recovery (good sleep, hydration, etc) for the next week.  If that doesn't seem sufficient, I'll ease off the mileage slightly.  Because while big mileage is important, it's also wasted if you're fried.

Dailies:

Monday: 9 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; streaming yoga in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles very easy (10:02) with 6x100m strides plus upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 12.5 miles, including a track workout of 3x3200 in 15:27 (7:46/7:41), 15:11 (7:41/7:30), and 14:57 (7:31/7:26) with 4:5x jogs after each. Followed with 4x200m in 54-55 seconds each.  Later did leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (13:28) on trails in the morning plus PT exercises.  Streaming Pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles very easy (9:56) with drills and 6x100m strides.  Followed with upperbody strength/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17 miles with 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at marathon effort.  Splits were 33:08 (average 8:17 pace), 24:44 (average 8:15 pace), 16:25 (average 8:13 pace) and 8:12.  Recoveries were miles jogged in 9:16, 9:31, and 9:34).

Sunday: 12 "miles" of pool-running and PT exercises. Foam rolling in evening.