Training Log - Week ending 4/9/2023

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

The first part of this week was dedicated to recovery from Cherry Blossom.  I was pretty beaten up (both quads and both hamstrings were sore), so I spent both Monday and Tuesday in the water to give my body a little extra time to recover.  It paid off, as I felt pretty good on Wednesday morning.

Friday would normally be a set of tempo intervals on the track, but I just didn't see the benefit, given that I had just raced a ten miler (in my mind, a 10 mile race is the ultimate tempo).  Plus, I've been on the track a lot in the past few months.  

So I swapped to Iwo Jima hills, which were a nice change in scenery and gave me a chance to work on my gait running both up and downhill.  I noticed that my splits for the uphill part of the workout had gotten notably faster - only about 5-10 seconds off where I used to be a few years ago.  And my downhill strides were slightly faster as well (though still way off what I used to run).  Of course, on Iwo Jima you can't compare splits too closely - sometimes one swings wider on the uphill route to avoid cars or buses, sometimes there's a headwind.  But still, 5-10 seconds on a roughly 2 minute repeat is significant.

I usually structure my long runs as progressions by thirds, but I ended up extending the easy part of Sunday's long run so that I could run with a friend for the first part of his progressive long run.  So the moderate and marathon paced parts of the run were shorter than normal, but that's not the end of the world.  I was mildly shocked to see how fast I had run the last few miles of the long run - those were at genuine marathon effort (not checking or chasing paces) and a real pleasant surprise.  So things continue to improve.

Dailies:

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

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

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 10.5 miles easy (9:14) plus drills and strides.   Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles easy (9:30), 3 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles, including 8 Iwo Jima hill repeats (~2:00 up a 2.5% incline, 90 second jog, 40 second downhill stride, 60 second jog).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11 miles very easy (9:01) plus drills and strides, and then streaming yoga.

Sunday: 16 miles progressive, split as first 9 miles averaging 9:07 pace, next 3 miles averaging 7:57 pace, and next 4 miles averaging 7:18 pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown jog.  Followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.