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.