Training log - Week ending 11/3/2024

This week was 44 miles of running and 1200 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

Another belated post, mostly because my left back and hip spasmed badly on Sunday (the last day of the training week documented here), and so most of my free time was spent trying to limber that up before my race this coming weekend.

Prior to the back spasm, things went well.  I had a Tuesday workout in the dark that was predictably much slower than expected until the sun rose, and a Saturday tempo that felt shockingly easy.

As for my back/hip?  I can't think of anything I did to trigger it, other than doing a workout and lifting and then driving an hour+ to visit family (which I've done before without issue).

I'm starting to think that this muscle spasm thing is a Parkinson's thing, especially since there never seems to be a real injury to the muscle underneath the spasm.  And to this point, it seems that doing a high resistance eccentric hold for 30 seconds considerably reduces the spasm (which would make sense if this is a neurological thing and the signals to the muscle just need to be "rebooted" for lack of a better term.)  

I did several rounds of heavy resistance isometric holds to each spasming muscle, and that plus a massage and some Graston and ART seems to have cleared things up reasonably quickly.  So that may be the key to future occurrences.

Monday: 4 miles very easy (10:11) and foam rolling.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 2x1200, 2x800 in 7:59, 5:45, 5:36, 3:36, and 3:33. 4:43 recovery after the 1600 and 2:4x-3:0x recovery after the 800s and 1200s .  PT in the afternoon; foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 miles very easy (9:44) plus two strides.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 3 miles including 8 short hill repeats (30 seconds each) and 6x100m strides followed by 700 yards of swimming.  Streaming pilates and a massage in evening.

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Friday: 8 miles very easy (10:57) on trails, followed by upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 29:25 (7:27/7:23/7:18/7:16).  Followed with leg strengthwork and foam rolling.

Sunday: 500 yards of swimming + yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.