Training log - Week ending 2/18/24

This week was 53 miles of running and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This week was a bit jumbled by weather.  Tuesday's interval workout was pushed back to Wednesday because of a forecast of freezing rain on Tuesday morning.  I can't do an interval workout on Wednesday and a tempo on Friday - they are just too close together - so I opted to skip the interval workout and move my tempo workout up to Wednesday so that I could do a big long run on Saturday and then have two days to recover before the next interval workout.

And then Saturday's long run almost didn't happen - 3-5 inches or more were forecast for Friday night into Saturday morning.  But...that forecast fell apart and I woke up to clear streets, so I did the workout after all, and it went very well.

My gait has really improved over the last week or so, and that's showing in much faster times.  It's not a jump in fitness, just a change in how I apply that fitness that results in running a lot faster.  Part of it is just reviving neural connections, and part is that I figured out a "hack."  Namely - my legs and feet do whatever my arms and hands do.  Which means that when my legs and feet go rigid and lock up on me, instead of focusing on those, I think about keeping my elbows bent and my hands relaxed.  When I do that, then my legs start mimicking my arms and start working much better.  Pretty cool.

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

Tuesday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:27) on treadmill in the morning; streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 11 miles on the track, including a 4 mile (6400m) tempo in 28:35 (7:19/7:13/7:02/7:00) followed by 2x400m in 1:41 and 1:39.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles very easy on trails (10:20); streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 8 miles very easy (9:23) to the gym, upper body weights/core, and then 2 miles very easy (9:42) home plus two strides.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 16.5 miles, including a marathon pace workout of 4/3/2/1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float.  Split it as 4 miles in 29:59 (7:30 pace), 3 miles in 22:24 (7:28 pace), 2 miles in 14:53 (7:27 pace), and 1 mile in 7:24.  Floats in 8:09, 8:22, and 8:35.  Followed with leg strengthwork.

Sunday:  9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.