Training log - Week ending 6/04/2023

This week was 54 miles of running, ~1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

The week started with a hiccup when my dystonia flared during a track workout. I made it through 1.5 800s, and then decided to bail and return the next day. 

 So I came back on Wednesday and hopped into the team's 25x400m workout (that's 25 400m reps at 10K pace with a 100m float between each). I've always found 25 reps to be too much for me, but 16 reps is just the right amount of work, so I did that. 

It was a big and hard workout, but not an excessively big and hard workout, and I was pretty happy with it. The entire workout (intervals plus floats) added up to 8K in 35:09, which is not too far from tempo pace for me, so that was another indication that I got it right. 

Since I did 16x400 on Wednesday, I skipped the Friday tempo, instead timing it for my teammates (ran before and after), and just did a marathon effort workout on Saturday. I'm now less than 2 weeks from the Garry Bjorklund half, so I'm in maintenance mode until then. Then I'll take a few days pool-running before thinking about starting training for Chicago.

Dailies:

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

Tuesday: 8.5 miles, including an attempted track workout of 2x800, 1600, 2x800.  I ran the first 800 in 3:23 and then bailed on the workout partway through the second 800.   Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 10 miles, including 16x400m with 100m float.  The 400s averaged 1:41 and the 100m floats averaged 31 seconds.  The total distance/time of the workout was 8K in 35:09.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming

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

Friday: 1.5 miles very easy (9:41), then a 30 minute break (timing my running team's Friday workout) before 9 miles very easy (9:33) plus drills and strides.  

Saturday: 14 miles, including a workout of 2x4 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float in between.  Splits were 30:01 (7:30/7:32/7:21/7:36) and 29:54 (7:34/7:31/7:25/7:34), with a 8:57 mile (we'll call that a "semi-float" in between.   Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 meters recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:21) plus drills+strides and 2 miles very easy (8:55) testing a new pair of shoes.  Then upper body strengthwork and core and foam rolling.

Training log - Week ending 5/28/2023

This week was 59 miles of running, 500 meters of swimming, and 9 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I was sick for the first part of this week, which wasn't a surprise, given that the preceding weekend was dedicated to minimal sleep while attending two parties, a race expo, and a race.  It was just a simple head cold and gone in 36 hours.  However, I always get an asthma flare-up after a head cold, and this time was no exception.  The only way to tamp down my asthma once it flares is with a short round of prednisone, so I took some on Thursday and Friday (I have a standing prescription from my doctor just for this reason).

I felt pretty strong on Friday's short tempo workout, which wasn't a surprise - prednisone will do that, which is why it's banned in competition (it's legal outside of competition, so I didn't break any rules by taking it).  That's also one reason why I kept the tempo short - when I'm on prednisone, it's really easy to overdo things, since it doesn't feel like I'm overdoing stuff.  Of course, my dystonia also flared, which could be from the prednisone.  Or maybe it was unrelated.

I try to take as little prednisone as possible, since it's awful for my bones and all sorts of other things, so I stopped it on Saturday - my asthma wasn't 100% improved, but I've learned that if I kick start things with the pred, that's often enough to end the flare.  

Of course, this meant that Sunday's long run was also my first day off of prednisone.   Stopping a short course of prednisone is like quitting caffeine, but slightly worse in terms of sluggishness/achiness**.  Despite this, I had an adequate progression run, so I called it good.

[**I'm pretty sure this is why WADA/USADA only bans prednisone in competition - there are plenty of good reasons to take it on a short term basis outside of competition, and nobody with any sense at all would try to train on prednisone and then stop it before racing.  It's not at all like HGH or EPO, where you can train on it, then stop taking it and retain the benefits from training on it.]

Dailies:

Monday:  Upper body weights/core and 5 miles easy on treadmill (9:54).   Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 7 miles easy (9:22) plus drills and two hill strides and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 10 miles easy (9:38) plus drills and strides.   Foam rolling in evening.

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

Friday: 10.5 miles, including a short track workout of 3200, 1600 in 13:44 (6:53/6:51) and 6:43 with 4:50 recovery between.   Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles easy (9:33) plus drills and strides, and then streaming yoga.

Sunday: 16.5 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 9:06 pace, next 5 miles averaging 8:06 pace, and next 5 miles averaging 7:42 pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown jog.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 meters recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 5/21/2023

This week was 42 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming and 24 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Just two hard days this week - a track workout on Tuesday and then a marathon effort workout embedded in a half-marathon on Saturday.   (The how and why of that workout/half-marathon is here)

I ended up running the latter half of the Saturday workout too fast - somewhere between marathon and half-marathon effort. I guess that's the primary risk of doing a workout during a race. But...my goals were to run the half-marathon fast enough to snag a NYC Marathon guaranteed entry while not trashing myself the way I would if I raced a half-marathon, and I accomplished both, so we'll call it good. 

 I usually do that 2x5 as part of a 16-17 mile run. But I only had time to run 2 miles before going through all the steps to get into my corral, and there was no good place to run after (plus I needed to get back to my hotel to check out), so I decided 15 was sufficient.  I was pretty tired anyways.  

Saturday's workout by itself didn't take that much out of me, but when you combine it with a) 4 hours of sleep on Thursday night (due to doing fun stuff) plus b) hiking around Arlington, DC, Manhattan, and Brooklyn with a heavy backpack on Friday plus c) about 6 hours of combined sleep on Friday night (due to a lousy hotel)...I was pretty tired on Saturday night.  I intentionally cut back my mileage on Friday to balance some of the non-running "load," but you can only balance things out so much.

Monday: 90 minutes pool-running. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 1200, 2x800, 2x400 in 6:43, 5:00, 3:17, 3:14, 93, 94.  5:00 recovery after the 1600 and 2:3x recovery for the 1200 and first 800; equal time recovery after the second 800 and the 400s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy (9:48) with drills/hill sprints and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 3 miles very easy (10:05), 6 "miles" of pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 4 miles very easy (9:43).  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 15 miles, including 2x5 at marathon effort with 1 mile float, embedded in the Brooklyn Half-Marathon.  The intervals averaged 7:37 and 7:17, with a 1 mile float in 8:00 between the two. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 90 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

(non) Race Report: Brooklyn Half, May 20, 2023

 I ran the Brooklyn Half this morning, finishing in an official time of 1:40:33.

I initially wasn't going to write a race report here, since I didn't race this, but instead did a workout during the race.**  But....one of the big reasons I write race reports is so that I have notes to look back on if I do the race again.  So I'll jot down some thoughts here, in bullet point form.

• Bib pick-up was located on Pier 2 of Brooklyn Bridge Park.  I'm sure that the point of holding it here was to showcase a lovely part of Brooklyn.  And it was lovely.  But....Pier 2 was a nearly mile-long walk from the nearest subway stop and didn't appear to be much closer to the designated rideshare drop off point.   Getting to and from the expo was a lot more walking than I would want to do on the day before a race.  To the point where I don't think I'll do this race again until they move the expo or offer the option to get one's bib another way.
• I stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Brooklyn.  It was a good enough location, but I don't think I'll stay there again.  I had a bad experience with this hotel where they cancelled my room on me for a very flimsy reason and I had to work to get it back.  And then, when I stayed there, I discovered that the hotel was adjacent to a 24/7 Cube Storage facility.  Meaning that people were going in and out of that facility (and driving trucks and yelling and opening and shutting big metal gates) literally all night long.  Luckily I always carry earplugs with me, so it wasn't too much of an issue.  But IF I ever do this race again, I'll look into other options.
• I left my hotel at 5:40 am to jog over to the starting area, about 1.5 miles away.  I thought I was being way too cautious and leaving early, but in actuality, this was just right or maybe a bit late.  Everything was crowded and a mess; I had to follow a convoluted path to drop off my bag, and then it took nearly 20 minutes to get through security and into my corral.   This was a big race at 26K runners, but it's not that big - the Army 10 Miler, the Broad Street 10 Miler, and the Monument Avenue 10K are all bigger, but also seem to work better.
• I wasn't crazy about the course either.  Essentially it was about 7 miles of up and down and up and down in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, followed by 6 gentle downhill miles that finished with an annoying run up a ramp and onto the board walk.  None of the hills in Prospect Park were especially bad, but after 7 miles they did start to wear on me a bit.   
  I found the final part of the course, with the concrete ramp and then a tight turn before about 200m on the board walk to be my least favorite part of the race.  Perhaps this is just because I really hate running on uneven boardwalks (which is a personal thing).  If I had been racing this, I would have found it very hard to kick at the end. 
  For myself personally, I don't like this course enough to justfy a return trip (unless I want to get another NYC guaranteed qualifier, and don't have any other options).
• The course finishes at Coney Island.  Which means that it was a long (45-50 minute) ride on the subway back to my hotel to the north, and would have been even further to Manhattan.  Anyone doing this race should note this and plan accordingly with regard to hotel check-out times.

[** Lengthy explanation of why I did this as a workout and not a race: My normal rule is that I only race during races; I don't like using races for workouts because I think doing so can result in a conflation of race and workout efforts, with the end result that one runs one's workouts too fast and one's races too slow.   Racing should always be where I give all I have; workouts should always be done with restraint.

However, this was a bit of a unique situation.  I want to run the NYC Marathon in 2024 with a group of friends.  NYC has a time standard that allows one to bypass the lottery for entries, and for me that time standard is 1:49 for a half-marathon.  However, entry under the time standard is only guaranteed if you run that time at a New York Road Runners race; there is a limited # of slots for time-qualifiers at non-NYRR races.  And those slots sell out very quickly.

So, I wanted to run that time at a NYRR race so that I had a guaranteed entry.  So I registered for the Brooklyn Half.

However, I then got greedy with the race registrations and ended up registered for...the One City Half-Marathon; the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, the Broad Street 10 Miler, and the Garry Bjorklund (Grandmas) Half-Marathon - all in the spring of 2023.  Five races of 10+ miles is too many in a season, so one had to go.

And then some friends of mine announced that the "20 year reunion" (actually 23 years, but we hate counting) of a nightclub I used to go to would be on the Thursday before the Brooklyn Half.   And I can tell you that there's no way that I can go out partying on a Thursday night and then race well on Saturday morning.  

So Brooklyn Half would be the race I would skip.  Except that I needed the NYC marathon guaranteed qualifier, which I could only get at Brooklyn.   

And that's the lengthy explaination of why I decided to run Brooklyn as a workout.]

Training log - Week ending 5/14/2023

This week was 55 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Summer began to arrive in DC this week, and I didn't handle it particularly well.  On Tuesday, I had to modify a track workout by extending the recoveries when my asthma flared.  Friday's tempo went well, but then I had to really pull back on the paces of Sunday's long run to keep it in the right effort level.  

It honestly wasn't that hot - Sunday's long run ended in the lower 70s.  I suspect that I'm just not acclimated yet, and it's going to take another week or two to get there.  

Monday: 9 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 6x800 in 3:16, 3:15, 3:17 with 2:30 recovery between each, followed by 5:00 recovery and then 3:13, 3:13, 3:14 with over 3 minutes recovery between each.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 10 miles very easy (9:30) plus drills.  Massage at night.

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

Friday: 10 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:47 (7:01/6:59/6:58/6:49), followed by 4x200 in 48 seconds each with full recovery.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10.5 miles (9:18), followed by drills and strides and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14 miles progressive, split as first 4 miles averaging 9:31, next 6 miles averaging 8:21 pace, and final 4 miles averaging 7:56.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in the afternoon. 

Training log - Week ending 5/6/2023

This week was 50 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Whoops - I never posted my training log from the past week, so here it is.  Nothing that noteworthy, just recovering from the Broad Street 10 Miler (which was easier on my body than Cherry Blossom)

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 7.5 miles easy (9:30) and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 7.5 miles easy (9:29) plus drills and strides, and then streaming yoga.   Foam rolling in evening.

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

Friday: 10 miles, including 2x1600 in 6:46 and 6:42 with 5 minutes recovery after each, and then four Stafford Street hills (about 1:40 up a 4.5% incline with 3 minutes jog back down).   Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles easy (9:28) plus drills and strides, and then streaming yoga.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 9:38 pace, next 4.5 miles averaging 8:20 pace, and next 5 miles averaging 7:34 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 4/30/2023

This week was 40 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 15 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Just a belated placeholder for race week.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 2x(1600, 800)+2x200 in 6:44, 3:15, 6:38, 3:11, 45, and 45.  5:0x recovery after the 1600s and 2:44 recovery after the first 800; full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 8 miles very easy (9:35) plus drills and hill strides.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 6 miles, including a 1600 in 6:57.  Followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 2 miles very easy (10:03), and a bit of DIY yoga plus foam rolling.

Sunday: 3.5 mile warm-up, and then a 10 mile race in 1:10:26, followed by a half mile jog back to my care.  500 yards recovery swimming later in the day.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Broad Street 10 Miler, April 30, 2023

 I ran the Broad Street 10 Miler today, finishing in 1:10:26.

Last year, I had a slightly rocky trip up to Philadelphia the day before, as first my cab to the train station was delayed by closed roads for a 5K, and then my train was delayed due to an incident south of DC that closed the tracks and blocked incoming trains. So, this year I planned ahead, remembering to ask the cab to route around the 5K, and also booking a train that originated from DC.  

This all worked well, and it was only when I was sitting on my train that I realized I couldn't find an entry confirmation email anywhere in my email.  I had a moment of panic (I knew I had registered).  And then I went to the race website and searched my name under "tracking."  My name popped up with an assigned bib number, and I breathed a massive sigh of relief.

I got up to Philly around 10:30 am, which was perfect timing to a) grab my bib, b) grab Chipotle, and c) check into my hotel to watch the Land Rover Kentucky 3 day event all afternoon before an early bedtime.

***

The race day forecast had been all over the place, from perfect to thunderstorms.  By race morning it had settled on possible rain at the start of the race progressing to more certain rain as the morning bore on.  Fortunately, the temps would be in the low 50s and the wind looked like it would be a tailwind.  After a bit of thought, I went with shorts, singlet, and running cap plus latex gloves under disposable gloves, covered by a throwaway sweatshirt and then a plastic poncho.

I got to the Walnut-Locust train station around 6 am, where there was a train waiting for runners to board - very different from previous years, where I had waited for up to 20 minutes.  I ended getting to the start around 6:30, which was a bit earlier than I had planned.  Fortunately, there is a church by the start line that always opens its doors on race morning to runners, so I checked my bag and then hung out there until it was time to start warming up.

I started my warm-up a bit after 7 am, noting the somewhat steep drop that starts this race.  I've done this race many times, but I keep forgetting just how downhill that first mile is.   I also noted the strong wind from the north (a tailwind).   This was looking like a very fast day.

After doing my standard warm-up (~15 minutes of jogging with some surges, 3 minutes at marathon down to half-marathon pace, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort, and 4x10 seconds at mile effort), I made my way to my corral, entering right before the supposed "7:40 am cutoff" (which didn't happen).  Then I stood there, doing the occasional set of lunges to try to preserve some mobility, pretending that the rain wasn't "spittling" (my new word), and deeply regretting my decision not to wear arm-warmers, until my wave was finally released at 8:05 am.

***

The air horn went off, and the first mile of the race was enjoyable, as always (sarcasm).  It wasn't the crowded mess that Cherry Blossom was, but my legs were really stiff and I couldn't seem to get them to roll down the first mile.  I did the best I could and reminded myself that there were plenty of miles to make up time once I warmed up.

A bit past the first mile marker, things did loosen up, and I was able to open my gait and start rolling.  From then on, I just did my usual - find a tempo rhythm and lock into it.  The rain was an off and on drizzle, and the wind shifted around.  Sometimes I noted a solid headwind; at other times I didn't notice anything - I'm sure that's when I had a tailwind.

My gait never felt great during this race.  Sometimes I have better dystonia days and sometimes I have worse dystonia days, and this was one of the not-so-great days.  I just didn't feel comfortable, and timing mats were hurdles to be navigated, as were the train tracks that cross the course at one point (that I'm sure absolutely nobody noticed or remembers except me).  The combination of wind and rain meant plenty of wet paper cups all over the road, and those were hard also.  I was annoyed at myself, but resolved to keep working through it - what else could I do?

The only other thing of real note during the middle miles was when some idiot (and I don't use that term lightly) standing in the crowds on the side of the road decided to stick his umbrella out onto the race course while opening it. Right in front of me and another runner.  We both yelled at him, and he seemed befuddled as we ran by.

***

Somewhere after mile 7, the weather turned from a drizzle to a steady rain.  It was honestly pretty miserable, but I just reminded myself that the quicker I finished the race the quicker I could grab my checked bag with warm clothing.  I felt like I was slowing during these miles, but the splits show that I sped up, so I guess my rationalization worked.

There are three variants on the Broad Street Course, and as of this year, I've run all three.  The course this year had us turn left a bit after the mile 9 marker and run beneath an elevated freeway for nearly half a mile before turning left again to kick into the finish.   I think this finish, though not at all scenic, is my favorite finish of the three options for two reasons:

1) you finish not too far from a subway station (easier to get back to the hotel after) and

2) this gave us a blissful half-mile or so of respite from the rain.  The road was still wet, and there was a stream or two to be forged, but it was a solid improvement.

I had mapped out the course beforehand, and I knew that I needed to start giving whatever I had left when we hit that underpass.  So I extended my stride as much as I could until I got over the finish line.  As I crossed, I noted 1:10:4x on the clock.  I was pretty sure I had crossed the start less than 40 seconds after the airhorn, so no sub-70 for me.  Oh well.  

***

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:53
Mile 2: 7:16
Mile 3: 6:58
Mile 4: 6:59
Mile 5: 6:56
Mile 6: 6:58
Mile 7: 7:02
Mile 8: 6:51
Mile 9: 6:48
Mile10: 6:45

And yes, I'm really really annoyed by that first mile.  And I don't have a chaotic mess of a start to blame it on this time.  I need to figure out how to fix that and get my legs to work better when starting a race after standing for a while.

I guess the good news is that I ran this year's Broad Street about 90 seconds faster than last year, so there is progress in some sense.  And a month ago I was happy with 70.2x for 10 miles, and now I'm annoyed.  So that's progress as well.

Other notes:

• I stayed near City Hall this year instead near the Liberty Center.  As much as I love Club Quarters hotels, staying near City Hall made everything so much easier - it was a 3 block walk to the expo, and post race I didn't have far to walk at all in the rain between the subway stop and my hotel.
• A lot of people ran really good races and set nice PRs, with most people running faster than they did at Cherry Blossom.  So clearly the rain and wind wasn't much of a factor - it was a good day to run fast.  
• I discovered post-race that the Reading Terminal Market has gluten free funnel cake and onion rings, and they were divine.
• When taking the train between DC and Philly, one can choose between the faster/more expensive/less stops Acela train or the slower/cheaper/more stops regional.  I intentionally booked a regional train for the return trip so I could get off a stop early, in New Carrollton, Maryland (I'll often do this because the orange line of the DC Metro system terminates in New Carrolton, and it's easier to get on the orange line there and take it home than it is to get to the orange line from DC's Union Station.)  Today I learned that the regional train doesn't always stop at New Carrolton.  Duly noted.

Training log - Week ending 4/23/2023

This week was 67 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming and 9 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

My mileage is artificially high this week because I took one of my recovery pool-running days on Sunday instead of Monday, resulting in one week at 50 miles and the next week at 67 miles.  Had I swapped those two days, then I would have had two weeks at 58 and 59 miles - essentially even.  Which just shows how weekly mileage is not always that great a metric to focus on.  In my case, average mileage over 14 days is a much better metric.

I remain really happy with how things are progressing.  For the second week in a row, I was actually able to run hard during the Tuesday workout, with the welcome result that I ran an 800m repeat in under 3:10 for the first time since September 2021.  Of course, in that September 2021 workout I also ran an 800m repeat in under 3 minutes, so I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

I keep thinking that one of my limiters has simply been that I have been unable to run faster than roughly tempo pace on my interval workouts due to the dystonia, so I've lost some fitness just from being unable to train at faster paces.  Now that things are improving, I'm able to do some faster running, and hopefully my fitness will come around quickly.

Friday's tempo felt decent, if uncomfortable.  I used that tempo run to test out the Nike Vaporfly3, in hopes that would be my new racing shoe.  The answer?  NOPE.

I just never felt comfortable in the shoe - it gives too much when I push off.  I may give the shoe another try in a few months, since I'm still working on ankle and leg stability.  But for now, I'm sticking with a mix of the Adidas Adios 7 and the Asics Metaspeed Edge+ for my fast running.

Monday: 8 miles (9:11) and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2k, 4x800 in 8:29, 3:15, 3:14, 3:11, 3:07.  5:10 recovery after the 2K and 2:4x-2:5x recovery for the 800s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 11 miles very easy (9:14) plus two hill sprints and drills.  Foam rolling at night.

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

Friday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:37 (7:03/6:56/6:54/6:44).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:03), followed by drills and strides and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, split as first 5 miles averaging 9:17, next 5.5 miles averaging 7:53 pace (tailwind for a lot of these), and final 4 miles averaging 7:31 (headwind).  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in the afternoon. 

Training log - Week ending 4/16/2023

This week was 55 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming, and 21 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

My paces got significantly faster this week, so that was nice. (Tuesday's track workout was one of the fastest that I've done in some time.) I suspect that this is at least in part because the weather is warming up, and the dystonia/neuro stuff seems much better when it's warmer.  However, this is also my fourth week on an additional neuro medication (rasagiline) and I suspect the med is helping a lot as well.

Since I haven't done much (if anything) in the way of strength/marathon workouts since the Houston Marathon in January, I skipped the Friday tempo in favor of a Saturday marathon effort workout.   Many people would have done a shorter version of the tempo on Friday and then the marathon effort workout on Sunday (before track intervals on Tuesday).  However, for myself I find that giving a bit more space between workouts is better, so thus I did a track workout on Tuesday, the marathon effort workout on Saturday, followed by easy days until next Tuesday.

Since I'm not racing longer than a half-marathon until October, I don't think I need many of these marathon effort workouts, but one or two over the season doesn't hurt when training for half-marathons. 

As for the workout itself, I was mostly happy with it.  As the weather gods would have it, my first really big workout in a few months fell on the first really summer-ish day of the year. I was a bit worried about how things would go, but they turned out fine - I was able to hit a nice rhythm for the four and three mile segments. By the time I hit the two mile segment, I was starting to get a bit dehydrated (I had drained my water bottle), and so I panicked a little and sped up to get the workout over with. The last few miles of the workout were too hard to be honest marathon effort, so that wasn't great. However, I don't think I dug a hole or anything, so I'll just mark it down as a mistake to avoid repeating.

Dailies:

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

Tuesday: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2x800, 2x1200, 2x800 in 3:15, 3:16, 5:01, 4:56, 3:13, 3:11 (recoveries of 2:2x-2:4x).   Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (9:21) plus drills and hill sprints; later some streaming yoga.   Massage in the evening.

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

Friday: 1.5 miles very easy (10:00), then a 30 minute break (timing my running team's Friday workout) before 9.5 miles very easy (9:27) plus drills and strides.  

Saturday: 17 miles, including a workout of 4, 3, 2, and 1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float in between.  Splits were 30:03 (7:35/7:28/7:31/7:29); 22:21 (7:26/7:28/7:27); 14:48 (7:30/7:18); and 7:13.  8:3x float between each.   Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: Streaming yoga and 90 minutes pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.