Training log - Week ending 6/19/2022

This week was 53 miles of running, ~1500 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Week 3 on the estrogen.  I think I'm feeling better, but it was also pretty hot and humid for most of the week, which made it hard to distinguish feeling hot and slow because of weather from feeling hot and slow due to lack of estrogen.

This week, I started introducing in blended workouts - mixing hills and work on the track.  Tuesday's workout was spontaneous - I showed up to the track workout only planning to do a few 800s, but then upon finishing thought that I'd test out a hill repeat sequence that I had seen on a friend's training log - 6x1:00 up the hill, cycling twice between easy, moderate, and harder effort.

Friday's run was more deliberate, as I started with a few short hill sprints to wake things up, before heading to the track for some long repeats - 2K and 1K.  After the 1K I jogged over to the hill to do another 6x1:00 hill sequence (again, twice times easy, moderate, hard) and then jogged back to the track for a final 1K repeat.

The workout really doesn't look like that much - it's a total of about 3 miles worth of hard running, with plenty of recovery packed in.  But it was challenging in practice, especially the last 1K. 

This article explains why that last 1K was so hard - the hard hills recruit fast twitch muscle fibers, which aren't used as much when running aerobically.  Once those fibers are turned on, you continue to use them when you return to the track - training those muscle fibers to do a new, aerobic job.   Very interesting.  And apparently a good workout to do when your focus is on general strength and power, rather than race-specific training.

Dailies:

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

Tuesday: 10 miles, including 4x800m in 3:31, 3:31, 3:29, 3:27, with 2:3x-2:4x recovery in between.  Then did 6x1:00 hill repeats, cycling twice through a sequence of easy, moderate, powerful).    Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

 

Wednesday: 9 miles (10:10), with drills/strides and streaming yoga. Foam rolling in evening.

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

Friday: 11 miles, with a blended track/hill workout consisting of 3x10 second hill sprints (6% incline, jog to the bottom for recovery), then to the track for 2K, 1K in 9:04 and 4:23, with 3:00 jogged recovery in between.  Then back to the hill for 6x1:00 hill repeats, cycling twice through a sequence of easy, moderate, powerful).  Finally I jogged back to the track for another 1K repeat in 4:25. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8.5 miles easy (10:12), drills and strides, and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14 miles progressive, split as the first 5 miles averaging 10:24 pace, the next 4 miles averaging 8:57, and next 5 miles averaging 8:11.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 meters recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.