Training log - Week ending 9/13/2026

This week was 51 miles of running, 18 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

I kicked off the week by getting my Covid shot on Monday.  My original plan had been to get both the Covid and flu shots the week after Chicago - I always try to schedule vaccinations for before or after marathon training cycles so that my training isn't disrupted. 

However, at least 5 of my friends have had Covid in the past month, so it's definitely around now.  If I were to get Covid in the next few weeks, it would force me to skip Chicago, so I decided to get the Covid shot now. (Flu can wait until mid-October).

Unsurprisingly, I felt crappy and needed extra sleep for the next few days.  By Friday, I was feeling close to normal, so I showed up at the track for the team tempo workout.  

I had been hoping for a decent weather day (finally) so that I could get a sense of my fitness, but no such luck on Friday.  Instead, I got steady rain, poor visibility, and standing water on the track. 

The poor visibility was an opportunity to see if my running has improved at all in low visibility conditions (neuro issues mean that I don't have a good sense of where the ground is, so I depend on my vision a lot).  The answer was yes, my running in poor visibility has improved.  But it's still not great.  I was stuck at marathon effort until the sun rose a bit more, and then I was able to shift into tempo effort.  I decided on the fly that the first mile of the tempo didn't really count and stretched my planned 4 miles to 5.  The end result was an 8K tempo that was essentially 2K at marathon effort and 6K at tempo effort.

I finished up the week with a shorter long run on Saturday - mostly easy (around 10:00 pace) but with ten 60 second strides in the second hour, each with 8 minutes of jogging recovery.  I've done the tempo-day one/long run with strides day two a few times before and gotten a good response from it.  Structuring my week this way also meant that I could have two easy days before doing some 800s on Tuesday in prep for the DC half marathon next weekend.

Speaking of the DC half - unfortunately it's looking like we aren't going to get a break in the weather for that one.  But seven days is still far enough that things can change.  At least I'm heat/humidity acclimated at this point.

***

Monday: 8 "miles" pool-running and PT exercises in the morning.  Covid shot and foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 7.5 miles, mostly very easy (9:37), but with drills, PT exercises, and 12x100m strides (27 down to 24) in the morning. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 9.5 miles very easy (9:53) and 300 yards swimming. Sports massage at night.

Thursday: 5 miles very easy (12:40) and then another 1.5 miles (10:16) with 2 strides (testing a new pair of shoes), Followed with upperbody weights/core and PT exercises. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 11.5 miles, including an 8K tempo in 38:29 (7:57/7:50/7:40/7:35/7:26), followed by six 30 second hill repeats (cycling twice through easy, moderate, and hard efforts). Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:16 miles, mostly easy but with 10x1:00 on/8:00 jog starting in second hour.  Followed with 4 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 6 "miles" pool-running, 700 yards swimming, and core+PT exercises. Foam rolling at night 

Training log - Week ending 9/6/2026

This week was 65 miles of running, 12 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

And that's the last of six weeks of focused marathon training.  Just like most of the other weeks, I went with two workouts - this time tempo intervals on the treadmill on Thursday, and then a progressive 20 miler on Sunday.

The tempo intervals felt a bit easy, but I decided not to push them. When marathon training it's almost always better to err on the side of a slightly slower pace and more volume - staying conservative ensured that I completed all 5 intervals for a total of 37:30 of tempo-ish work (45 minutes, if you count the short recoveries).  I kept the recoveries at 90 seconds to match the Jack Daniels recommended ratio of 1 minute recovery for every 5 minutes of tempo work.

About the tempo intervals - I generally prefer straight tempos on the track but tempo intervals on the treadmill.  On the track, it can be hard to keep the recovery durations exact, since I may need to wait for a gap in traffic before jumping back into lane one. And there's also something to be said for the focus and solid pacing required by a continuous tempo on the track.

However, on the treadmill I find continuous tempos to be hard on the body - I think it's because every step is the same. My theory is that inserting very short breaks where I am running at a different pace (and so my footstrike is slightly different) helps mitigate injury risk from the repetitive stress of running on the treadmill.

I was excited for Sunday's workout because I thought the hot weather was going to finally break.  And it sort of did, but not as much as predicted.  The weather for my progressive 20 miler ended up being almost identical to two weeks ago, and so I ended up running pretty much the exact same splits as two weeks ago.  

I would have really loved to have had a good weather day so that I could get a sense of where my fitness is, but I guess I'll just have to be patient.

And so now, with six weeks of marathon training done, I'm going into a five week taper. This wasn't the original plan, but then I started my marathon training a week early so that I could avoid awful weather for the first marathon effort workout.  At the time I thought that I'd just take a down week at some point and jump into a 5K, but my coach suggested instead that I just do a longer taper.  His reasoning was that if I didn't run a 20 miler the week before my tune-up half in two weeks, that would set me up for a really good race there.  And I like that theory.  

Additionally, one of my big issues with tapering is that it can be really hard on me. Aerobic exercise is effectively medication for Parkinsons, and so tapering is withdrawal.  It can be challenging to strike the balance between a) resting enough to freshen up but b) not resting so much that I'm too stiff and awkward to run well.  A longer taper means that I can very gradually ease off of the mileage, which will ideally make for a better balance between the two concerns.

We'll find out in about five weeks, I guess.  In the meantime, I'm feeling pretty good - this definitely feels like the best marathon cycle I've had in several years, and the fittest I've been in the past 2-3 years.

***

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running in the morning.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 8.5 miles, mostly very easy (9:45), but with drills, PT exercises, and 12x100m strides (27 down to 24) in the morning. Upperbody weights/core in afternoon, foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (10:11) and 500 yards swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 11 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 5x7:30/1:30 plus 4x0:30/1:30.  The long intervals were at 8.1-8.2 mph (7:19-7:24 pace) and the short intervals were at 9.4 mph (6:23 pace).  All recoveries at 6.2 mph (9:41 pace). Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 5 miles very easy (10:47) on a muddy towpath plus PT exercises/drills. Upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:53) on a still muddy towpath and 500 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 20 miles progressive, split as the first 7 miles averaging 9:53 pace, the next 6 miles averaging 8:48 pace, and the next 7 miles averaging 7:57 pace.  Followed with a half-mile jog back to car and 3 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night 

Training log - Week ending 8/30/2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Training log: Week ending 8/23/2026

This week was 64 miles of running, 12 "miles" of pool-running, and 1500 yards of swimming.

We had a big break in the humidity and heat on Wednesday morning. With remarkably good timing, I had a tempo workout on tap for that morning.

And then I woke up on Wednesday feeling a bit beaten up and sore from the combination of a 90 minute run in high humidity and a PT appointment. One of my big rules now for training is that if I think I might need to push a workout back a day or skip it in favor of recovery, I do so.

And so, very reluctantly, I went to the pool instead of the track Wednesday morning.  I hoped that the good weather might linger into Thursday morning, but no such luck - the air was best described as soupy (75 degrees Fahrenheit with a dew point of 74).  The good news was that tempos are really about holding the correct level of aerobic effort, so I could still get a good workout in, I just wouldn't get a solid read on my fitness.

So, I did the tempo, once again ignoring my watch completely until I finished so that I kept it at proper tempo effort instead of trying to beat a recent time.  When I checked my time after, I had run a bit faster than two weeks ago, which was unexpected but nice.

Doing the tempo on Thursday meant that I had to push my progressive long run to Sunday (I need at least 2 days between a workout and a long run if the long run is going to have any marathon effort work in it).  As it turned out, it rained on Saturday morning, so perhaps Sunday was the right call anyway.

Sunday was my first 20 miler of the cycle. Since Chicago is flat, I did the entire long run on Hains Point (flat), oscillating four times between the two gates (it's 2.5 miles between gates). Mentally, this wasn't too bad, though I'm sure it would be harder if I did all of my long runs there.

The long run went fairly well - I felt in control until the last mile and half, when I started to overheat (it was in the high 70s by then, with no cloud cover).  I finished the run without having to dig too deep, so I'll still call it good.

***

Monday: 6.5 miles very easy (9:59) in the morning, upperbody weights/core in afternoon, foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 9.5 miles very easy (9:52) and 300 yards swimming in the morning, followed by a PT appointment. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 9 "miles" pool-running and 700 yards swimming. Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 10 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 30:15 (7:42/7:36/7:34/7:23) plus 2x100m in 24 and 23, followed by leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 5 miles very easy on trails (11:47) and 2.5 miles very easy (10:18 - testing a new pair of shoes) plus upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:55) with 2 strides and 500 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 20 miles progressive, split as the first 7 miles averaging 9:49 pace, the next 6 miles averaging 8:43 pace, and the next 7 miles averaging 7:58 pace.  Followed with a half-mile jog back to car and 3 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night

Training log - Week ending 8/16/2026

This week was 62 miles of running, 15"miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

Somewhat random musing:

I've been running marathons for 19 years now - from age 33 to age 52.  And in that nearly two decades my training has evolved as I've aged.  

When I was in my 30s, I'd do two track workouts a week, plus a long run, and seemed to handle that OK. In my early 40s, I shifted to five workouts over two weeks.  Then, as I approached and passed 50, I transitioned to two hard days a week - either two track workouts and no long run (if not marathon training) or a big mid-week track workout and a weekend long run if marathon training.

Now, as I'm getting into my mid-50s, my schedule is shifting again. Even with the benefit of supershoes, I don't seem to be able to recover fully if I do both a big mid-week workout (something like 14 miles with 3x2 miles at 10 mile effort) and a quality long run in the same week.  So, I'm now doing a "normal" workout during the week (either intervals or tempo), then taking two easy days before the quality long run, and then several easy days after the long run.

(the one exception, of course, is when I intentionally do a track workout and then an easy long run the day after, followed by at least three easy days).

This evolution hasn't been planned (no "at 52 I will train like this"), instead it's just an ongoing reflection of how my body recovers as I age (and I'm sure Parkinsons plays a role also). Good training is all about optimizing the balance of stress and recovery, and if my body isn't recovering as well as it used to, then my training needs to change to match that.  At least that's been my experience.

So far, I seem to be responding well to this change in structure, as I feel like I'm seeing more progress this training cycle than in previous ones.  My interval workouts continue to get faster and this Saturday's 2x5 miles at marathon effort felt solid. Unlike two weeks ago, where I ran the final marathon effort miles way too hard, I kept them under control this week. Of course, it's much less tempting to overcook things when the marathon effort intervals are 5 miles long, not 1-2 miles.

***

Monday: 8 miles very easy (9:52) in the morning, upperbody weights/core plus foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:58) including some untimed strides in the morning and 500 yards swimming; PT in the afternoon; foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 10.5 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 2x4:30/3:00, 2x3:00/2:00, 2x1:30/1:00, and 4x0:30/1:30.  4:30 intervals at 8.4-8.5 mph (7:04-7:09 pace), 3:00 intervals at 8.5-8.6 mph (6:58-7:04 pace), 1:30 intervals at 8.6-8.7 mph (6:52-6:58 pace), and 30 second intervals at 9.1-9.2 mph (6:26-6:31 mph).  Jogging recoveries at 6.2 mph (9:41 pace).   Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy on trails (12:46) plus upperbody weights/core and PT exercises in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9.5 miles very easy (10:08) plus two strides. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17.5 miles, including a marathon effort workout of 2x5 miles at marathon effort with a mile float between the two.  Splits were 40:07 (8:05/8:11/7:59/7:54/7:58), mile float in 8:53, and 39:31 (7:54/7:59/7:54/7:52/7:52). Followed with 3 "miles" pool-running and 500 yards recovery swimming.

Sunday: PT exercises and foam rolling, followed by 12 "miles" pool-running.

Training log - Week ending 8/9/2026

This week was 55 miles of running, 22 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

I pushed last weekend's marathon effort workout a bit harder than I should have, so I skipped a "real" workout in the first half of the week, instead doing some strides and 30 second hill repeats (for the latter, cycling between easy, moderate, and hard effort).

The purpose of the hill repeats is to build/retain power - due to both age and Parkinsons, I tend to lose power quickly and have to work to retain it. The obvious question is "why not do each repeat hard?"  

In response, I'll first note that I can't take credit for the "cycling-through-different-efforts" structure - it's something I saw in a friend's training and borrowed. I've kept it because I've found that cycling through the three efforts facilitates a truly all out effort on the hard efforts.  

Essentially, the (first) easy and (second) moderate repeats prime me (mentally and physically) for a really hard effort on the third rep.  And knowing that the next rep (the fourth) after the hard rep will be just a jog reduces the tendency to "save a little for the next one."  The result is that the third and sixth hill sprints are all out, which is what I want.  Two truly hard efforts with full recovery are better than six fairly hard reps when one is trying to develop/retain power.  

DC was at its swampiest over the weekend (dew points in the mid-70s), and so I abandoned any ambitions of marathon effort work.  Instead, I ran a careful tempo on Friday, followed by 18 miles at easy effort on Saturday.  Doing the two workouts on consecutive days meant that I already had some fatigue on my legs going onto Saturday's run, so that the 18 miles felt more like 20-22 miles at easy pace - a solid endurance stimulus.  

I'm not generally a fan of back to back hard days, but in marathon training I have found that following a tempo on day 1 with a long easy run on day 2 is a solid alternative when a progressive long run with quality (marathon effort work) is not a good choice due to weather. It's just important to make sure I recover well after.

***

Monday: 7 miles very easy (10:07) with two strides in the morning, yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles very easy on trails (10:47) and upperbody weights/core in the morning. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 9 miles including 6x30 second hill repeats (cycling twice through easy, moderate, hard) and 11x100m in spikes 26 down to 23, followed by 500 yards of swimming and then a PT appointment. Sports massage at night.

Thursday: 10 "miles" pool-running and upperbody weights/core in morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 30:38 (7:47/7:46/7:37/7:29) plus 2x200m in 50 and 49, and 6x30 second hill repeats (cycling twice through easy, moderate, hard). Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 18 miles easy (10:04) and 3 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 9 "miles pool-running and 500 yards swimming, plus PT exercises and foam rolling.

Training log - Week ending 8/2/2026

This week was 50 miles of running, 24 "miles" of pool-running, and 1500 yards of swimming.

I had initially planned to start "serious" marathon training next week but decided to bump it up a week after looking at the long term weather forecast - though the weather wasn't great this week, it is expected to be more humid next week.

Marathon training meant two big workouts.  Wednesday was supposed to be 2x(2000, 1200, 1600) at 10 mile effort, with 1 lap jog between reps and 2 laps jog between sets.  I made it to the second 2000 and then pulled the plug because I was starting to strain (never ideal when marathon training).  I finished up with a few short reps to preserve some speed and called it good.  I still got over 4 miles of work, so it was a productive morning.

Saturday was my first marathon effort workout of the cycle.  I haven't run at marathon effort in a while, and it showed in this workout. Instead of locking into the right effort, I sped up considerably for the shorter reps.  This is always a risk for me and is one reason I prefer doing 2x5 miles - having to hold a pace for 5 miles removes the temptation to run faster than marathon effort.

Of course, running faster than marathon effort doesn't give the same stimulus as running at marathon effort - it's the aerobic equivalent of cheating and using muscles other than those you intended to strengthen.  And it also meant that this workout will need a bit more recovery than it otherwise would have.

Mental note to not make that mistake again.  Fortunately, I have at least two months of training ahead of me to get it right.

***

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running in the morning, upperbody weights/core plus foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 7 miles including 4x100m strides in spikes in 27 down to 25 seconds followed by 500 yards swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 10 miles including a track workout of 2000, 1200, 1600, 2000, 400, 2x200, 2x100 in 9:16, 5:31, 7:21, 9:07, 1:41, 48, 49, 24, and 23 (2:4x-2:5x recovery after the 2000s and 1200; ~5 minute recovery after the 1600, full recovery for the short stuff. Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy on trails (12:26) plus 1000 yards swimming in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 10 miles very easy (10:00) plus upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17 miles, including a marathon effort workout of 4, 3, 2, 1 mile(s) at marathon effort with 1 mile easy after each.  Splits were 32:54 (8:27/8:15/8:07/8:05), 24:06 (8:03/8:04/7:59), 15:47 (7:57/7:54) and 7:43.  One mile easy between each in 9:1x-9:3x.  Followed with PT exercises and 3 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: PT exercises and foam rolling, followed by 12 "miles" pool-running.

Training log - Week ending 7/26/2026

This week was 54 miles of running, 15 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

I bumped up my mileage again this week, to 69 miles (counting both running miles and pool-running "miles") - this is the third week in a steady build back from 57 to 65 to 69.  The jump from 65 to 69 seems minor, but that's deceptive, since my land mileage jumped from 44 last week to 54 this week.

Since I have a long history of high mileage, and was running similar mileage in early June, I'm not too worried about being this aggressive in ramping stuff back up.  At the same time, I'm not getting any younger, so I am monitoring myself for any signs that I need to back off a bit.  But so far, so good.

I mixed stuff up a bit this week.  My running coach is at a vacation/team training camp, so I'm covering the fort here, including timing track workouts for my teammates that didn't go to Maine. So my own workouts have shifted to Wednesdays and the weekends (aka any day except Tuesday or Friday).

One of my PTs suggested doing some strides in spikes regularly, to force me to use my calves some when I run. So, on Tuesday's run I did just that, swapping between spikes and flats for the 100s and then doing two slower 200s in spikes.  No calf soreness yet, but perhaps that will come.  I planned to do strides with spikes after Saturday's tempo as well, but a sign on the track saying that metal spikes were prohibited changed that plan.

The weather was really nice this weekend in advance of another round of heat this upcoming week, so I took advantage of it with back-to-back workouts - a tempo on Saturday and then a long run with surges in the second hour on Sunday.  While I normally like to take at least two easy days between hard efforts, I make an exception for this combination, as I've found that doing a long run at mostly easy pace but with some short surges on tired legs works well for developing marathon strength, but also seems to be low risk injury wise if I make sure to recover well after.

I was happy with both runs, as well as the treadmill workout on Tuesday.  My paces on the treadmill are getting incrementally faster for the same effort, and Saturday's tempo felt solid. 

Since I haven't run a tempo on the track in about 7 weeks, I ran this tempo completely blind to make sure I held the correct effort. I don't look at my watch much when I tempo, but I do sometimes look at the split for each 1600.  Blind means that I take the split but don't check it, so that I have no idea what paces I'm running until the tempo's done and I stop my watch.

Running blind, I ran the same time for 4 miles as I did 7 weeks ago, but in weather that was a bit warmer/stickier/slower, and followed it up with some 200s and 100s that were significantly faster than I could have run earlier this spring. So I'll call that a win.

Ever since I since I changed my Parkinsons meds in January, lowering the levodopa dose to the bottom of the "ideal" range (the actual change was switching from Rytary 195 to Rytary 145 when running), my running has been trending steadily upwards.  This of course is contrary to the prevailing wisdom that more levodopa is better when exercising, and that one will need more levodopa the longer one has Parkinsons.

I can't speak for others, of course, but in my case, I think that the high dose of levodopa makes me less stiff and more energetic/stronger but comes at the cost of more uncontrollable random muscle contractions, which limit my ability to train hard and run at top speed. The end result is a steady loss of fitness due to detraining.

Lowering the dose meant taking a step backwards and having to always run with a very tight back, tight quads, ankles that like to stay stuck in one position, and toes that like to curl. I still have involuntary muscle contractions on the lower dose, but they are more predictable and manageable, which makes it easier to train through them. And while I have less energy and power on the lower dose, I'm also able to push myself to the limit of what I do have, which means I can build fitness again. And that building of fitness also does amazing things in terms of halting the progression of my Parkinsons. So far at least.  Let's hope that continues.

[Side note for anybody wondering how I structured my meds when I was going through my para-athlete classification - I made a point of disclosing in both my national and international classifications this spring/summer that I had shifted to the lower dose of Rytary because I ran better on it.  I also was on the lower dose for both my classification examinations and all my competitions. During classification, you are supposed to present yourself honestly, and show them how you perform at your best, so that they can assess how your impairment affects you when you are at your best. Taking the higher dose so that I had less control of my body would have been inconsistent with that.]

***

Monday: 6.5 miles very easy on trails in the morning, upperbody weights/core plus foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 5.5 miles including 12x100m strides in 27 down to 24 seconds, and 2x200m at 5K effort in spikes (54 and 52) followed by 500 yards swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x4:00/1:13 plus 6x0:30/2:00. Four minute intervals at 8.3 mph (7:14 pace); 30 second intervals at 9.0-9.2 mph (6:31-6:40 pace); jogs at 6.2 mph (9:41 pace). Followed with leg strengthwork. Sports massage at night.

Thursday: 12 "miles" pool-running in the morning; PT session in the afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 8 miles very easy (9:57), including 2x100 in 27 and 24. Followed by 500 yards swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 9 miles, including a 6400m tempo on the track in 29:35 (7:37/7:31/7:19/7:08), plus 2x200m in 50 and 49, 2x100m in 23 and 23. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 15 miles (9:25) with 10x1 minute up tempo/5 minutes jog starting in the second hour, followed by PT exercises and 3 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Week ending 7/18/2026

This week was 44 miles of running, 21 "miles" of pool-running, and 1500 yards of swimming.

Bad air quality during the latter part of the week meant that more of this week was on the treadmill or in the pool than normal. By Sunday the air had cleaned up enough that I could run outside, though it wasn't terribly pleasant due to high humidity.

On the bright side, I did get some decent volume in (~65 miles total between land/treadmill/pool) and had two solid workouts.  I'm doing my tempo intervals at a faster pace than my VO2Max intervals were a few months back, so progress continues.

Dailies:

Monday: 6 "miles" pool-running in the morning, upperbody weights/core + foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 9.5 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 8x3:00/2:00 plus 6x0:30/2:00. Three minute intervals at 8.4-8.5 mph (7:04-7:09 pace); 30 second intervals at 9.0-9.1 mph (6:36-6:40 pace); jogs at 6.2 mph (9:41 pace). Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 9.5 miles very easy (9:58) including 2x100m strides in 24-25 seconds, followed by 500 yards swimming. PT appointment in afternoon. Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 5 miles very easy on trails (10:45). PT appointment in afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 "miles" pool-running and 1000 yards swimming in the morning. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 7x5:00/1:00 plus 6x0:30/1:30. Five minute intervals at 8.1-8.2 mph (7:19-7:24 pace), 30 second intervals at 9.0-9.2 mph (6:31-6:40 pace); jogs at 6.2 mph (9:41 pace). Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 10 miles aerobic (9:20) followed PT exercises and 6 "miles" of pool-running.  Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/12/2026

This week was 42 miles of running, 15 "miles" of pool-running, and 1500 yards of swimming.

I needed a few days to recover from last week's trip to Olomouc.  After that, I started building up mileage again with a mix of pool-running and land running.

After so many races in the past few weeks (10 races ranging in distance between 800m and 10K over the past 8 weeks) I needed a break from the clock.  So, I headed back to Iwo Jima for some hills.  The Iwo Jima hill workout is always a great way to get my heart rate up some while working on my running gait, but without the tyranny of splits and paces.

My plan for the next few weeks is to ease into workouts while building back up in mileage.  After racing so much, I'm going to take a break from racing for a few weeks.  Right now, my next race on the schedule is the DC Half in September. However, if I find something interesting in between now and then, I may race it. Either way, it's nice to be able to train without worrying about schedules and tapering.

Dailies:

Monday: 4 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; upperbody weights/core in afternoon, foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 5 miles very easy on trails (11:09). PT in afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 9.5 miles very easy (9:58) and 500 yards of swimming. Foam rolling at night.

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

Friday: 8 miles, including 6 Iwo Jima hills (500m up a 2-3% incline, 90 second jog, ~200m downhill stride, 45 second jog to bottom), followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 7.5 miles easy (9:30), including a Park Run in 27:55, and 1000 yards swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 12 miles easy (9:12), followed by leg strengthwork and PT exercises. 3 "miles" pool-running in afternoon. Foam rolling at night.