Training log - Week ending 2/7/2021

 This week was 68 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming and 5 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here. 

Due to multiple snowfalls, many of my runs were on the treadmill this week.  Wow, is it nice to have that option.  Unfortunately the incline motor on my treadmill is not working, and the repair parts are back ordered.  In the meantime, since I like to run on the treadmill at a 1% incline as a default anyway, I've propped up the front of the treadmill with a piece of plywood.  It makes my runs slightly slower for the same effort, but also encourages me to push off with my glutes rather than run in a quad-dominant fashion.  I will totally take the trade-off, especially since the body responds to effort, not pace.

After taking my down week, I've shifted to focusing on basic strength - both leg strength and aerobic strength.  I listened recently to a great podcast with Nate Jenkins where he described the importance of building one's aerobic house.  So that's what I'm doing the next few weeks, relying on a shorter relaxed progression long run, Iwo Jima hills, and an alternation tempo.

This week's alternation tempo highlighted just how weak I am aerobically right now.  The point of the workout is to push a little over your lactate threshold and then duck back under and recover while still holding a fairly strong pace.  Right now, I can't do that at all (as highlighted by Tuesday's workout).  I was expecting that workout to be easy, since I'd be averaging around 6:45 pace.  I was shocked when I struggled and could not recover at all.  A straight 6:45 tempo would have been much easier.

When I think about it this is not all that surprising.  I had noted during my recent track workouts that I needed to run my recoveries much slower, even though I was running my intervals at the correct effort.  I'm not aerobically fit, and thus relying too much on my anaerobic system to support.  Which is no good for a marathoner.

So I need to rebuild that.  A controlled progression run that does not get too fast will help me.  Alternation workouts at the right effort (i.e. easier than this week's failed attempt) will do a lot.  As will discipline in keeping my easy runs truly easy (Jenkins makes a great point in his podcast about how it's always the people who run their easy runs too fast who can't seem to run to their potential in the marathon.  By running their easy runs too fast, they use their anaerobic system to supplement their aerobic system during those runs.  Their aerobic system never gets fully developed as a result, and fails them when they need it in the marathon)

And I'll also do Iwo Jima hills this week, just to balance all the aerobic work with some power and turnover.  

Dailies 

Monday: 9 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:22), followed by upper body weights/core, and an extra treadmill mile (8:57) after lubricating the belt.   Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles including a treadmill workout - I attempted an alternation workout of 4 sets of 4 minutes at 6:55 pace/4 minutes at 6:36 pace, for 32 minutes of work. Bailed at 26 minutes, which included inserting a 2 minute jog during one of the 6:55 paced segments.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  10 miles very easy on treadmill (9:04) and streaming yoga in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 5 "miles of pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 12 miles, including 6 Iwo Jima hill repeats (~2:00 uphill, 90 second jog, ~25 second downhill stride, 75 seconds jog to bottom).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 10.5 miles very easy outside (9:05), followed by drills, 2 hill strides, 2 flat strides, and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:  14 miles progressive on treadmill, split as first 5 averaging 9:14, next 5 averaging 7:49, next 4 averaging 7:14, and then a half-mile cooldown.  Followed with streaming yoga, some injury prevention work, and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in afternoon.