Training Log - week ending 11/23/2025

This week was 66 miles of running.

I was on antibiotics (Doxycycline) through the end of this week.  I know from past experience that I run much slower on antibiotics, but I really have no idea how much they affected my running this time.  I definitely felt sluggish and a bit off this week.  However, I also felt stronger as the week went on.

Sunday was the end of training for the Jacksonville Marathon (Dec. 13th) and the start of my taper.  It was also the last day I was on the antibiotics. Basically, I've been sick or recovering from being sick for the last three weeks of marathon training, leading me to doubt whether I should start the race.  I've decided to see how I much I perk up next week after being off the antibiotics and then make a decision.

Dailies:

Monday: 6 miles very easy (9:53) with 4 strides plus upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 9 miles on the track, with 2x1600, 2x800 in 7:57, 7:57, 3:58, 3:55 - recoveries of 3:0x-3:1x between.  Followed with 6x30 second hills (cycling twice through easy, moderate, hard) and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 7 miles very easy (9:59) with 10x100m strides (27 down to 26). Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy on trails (14:20), PT exercises, and later 3 miles very easy on Lever Up at - 5 pounds (9:41). Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 miles on the track with a 5K tempo in 24:58 (8:07/7:59/7:54/0:58) plus four short hill sprints and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8 miles very easy (9:54) with 8x100m strides (27-28 seconds).  Followed with upperbody strengthwork.

Sunday: 20 miles, split as the first 7 miles averaging 10:04 pace, the next 6 miles averaging 9:07 pace, and the last 7 miles averaging 8:20 pace. Followed with injury prevention work.

Training log - Week ending 11/16/2025

This week was 37 miles of running and 6 "miles" of pool-running.

I woke up the morning after the Boston Half and I had no voice.  And my asthma was much worse.  Both of which were frustrating; neither of which were surprising.

I managed to get in to see my primary care on Monday afternoon (the appointment started off with me croaking:  "So....I made some poor decisions over the weekend...."). After examination, he gave me the choice of either a) doing a few days of prednisone AND a week of the antibiotic doxycycline, or b) just doing the pred and seeing if that worked; if it didn't, I'd start the doxy.

I know that antibiotic overuse and antibiotic resistance is a thing; additionally, I always feel weak and run really badly on antibiotics. Thus, I picked door a) in hopes that this was just inflammation and a few days of pred would kick it to the curb.

Unfortunately, by Saturday when I was tapering off the pred, it was clear that it hadn't been enough.  My lungs had improved, but they started going downhill again.  So, on Sunday I started my seven day doxy sentence.

One will notice that I kept running through all of this (after Monday).  That's because I very quickly lose the neurologic motor patterns for running when I don't do it.  I essentially forget how to run.  And it's really hard to relearn my running gait when I lose it.

As a compromise, I did many of my runs, including some "workouts" on my Lever Up (essentially a budget alter-G).  By doing this, I could run at my normal paces (and thus practice running), but with a lot less stress on my body and especially the lungs, since the effort was much easier for that pace. I also kept the mileage low - about half of what I had planned to run this week. 

Dailies:

Monday: Off except for foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 7 miles very easy on the Lever Up at -20 pounds (9:57) and some PT exercises. Sports massage in evening

Wednesday: 5 miles very easy outside (10:33) with two short hill sprints plus some light upper body weights. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles on the Lever Up at -10 pounds, including a "workout" of 2 miles (8:03/7:51), 1 mile easy, 1 mile (7:33). Followed with leg strengthwork + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 5.5 miles (9:46), mostly very easy but with 8x100m in 28-29 seconds and two hill sprints.  Followed with upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12.5 miles on the Lever Up at -8 pounds, including a "workout" of 2x4 miles in 31:42 (7:56 pace) and 31:12 (7:45 pace).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 6 "miles" pool-running, PT exercises, foam rolling.

Race Report: Boston Half-Marathon, November 9, 2025

I ran the Boston Half on November 9, finishing in a time of 1:56:02, which was good enough to nab top place in my division (honestly requires that I admit that I was the only one in my division due to travel disruptions that prevented others in my division from making it to Boston).

This race report could be entitled "don't do what I do, kids." Or "why I think that what would normally be a bad decision was the right decision this time."  More on that below.

***

This was my second year doing the Boston Half, and I entered it both because it was a great opportunity to come back to Boston and compete in the Para Pro division (and enjoy the fantastic hospitality of the BAA) and because it could be a tune-up for my upcoming December marathon. After a challenging summer, my training was going decently well until last weekend, when I had a really tough long run.  Out of breath, no energy.  I was concerned but blamed it on training fatigue and the hilly route I had chosen.  And then overnight I developed sinus pain and a scratchy throat.

So I was sick. I wasn't bedridden, but I felt like crap. And this was lousy timing, given that the Boston Half was less than a week away. 

I'll skip a detailed discussion of my head cold (not flu or covid, I tested) and just note that I was laid up on Monday-Wednesday. And as the cold faded away on Wednesday, the fatigue remained and my asthma started to flare like it always does after any viral infection.

A doctor's appointment on Thursday confirmed the asthma flare. I left the doctor's office with instructions not to exert myself for a few days (which I interpreted as Thursday-Saturday) and a prescription for prednisone. The latter was not a surprise - when my asthma flares, there's only one way to tamp it down, and that's with oral prednisone. 

However, under WADA rules, oral pred is legal outside of competition, but banned in competition. Yes, there are ways to get a TUE and technicalities about what is in competition versus outside of competition - you can read more about all that here. But I was uncomfortable getting a TUE. I'm not judging others who would, since they are complying with the rules. But I personally didn't want to do it since I believe that pred enhances my performance when I take a large enough dose to control an asthma flare.

In the past when this situation has arisen, I've just skipped the race. And that would have made a lot of sense here, especially with my goal marathon a few weeks out.  But this was the Boston Half and the BAA's support of the para-divisions is really important to me. I wanted to support that by showing up if I could.  Additionally, I thought I had a decent shot of winning my division even with the asthma flare.  So, I made the dumb-but-right-for-me decision to hold off on starting the pred until Monday and race the Boston Half as best I could safely, with the knowledge that it wasn't going to be pretty. [The fact that I was confident that I could manage my own effort and not push myself to a dangerous point also came into play.]

***

For my trip up to Boston on Friday I took the Amtrak Acela high speed train from DC rather than flying.  I had booked the Acela several months ago, theorizing that 6.5-7 hours on a train was more relaxing than 5+ hours spent navigating airports and security and cramped airplane cabins. (Conclusion - it was).  My choice ended up being prescient as my travel was completely unaffected by the FAA reduction in flight capacity that unfortunately resulted in several athletes being unable to make the race.

The Amtrak Back Bay station in Boston is a 10 minute walk from the hotel I was staying at, so it was an easy trip up.  I left DC around 9:30 am, played on the computer for a few hours and then checked into my hotel room at 4:30 pm.

Saturday was a double shake out.  I'm (like always) trying to perfect the timing and amount of my PD meds for racing. While taking the train up to Boston, I took both a larger and a smaller dose of Rytary (one of my meds) about 5 hours apart.  And I noted that while I was very jumpy on the larger dose (what I usually race on), I was much calmer on the lower dose. That jumpiness and tenseness - called an "exaggerated startle reflex" definitely hurts my race performances.

So, I did two shakeout runs on Saturday split by about 5 hours - the first on the lower dose, and then the second on the higher dose.  The lower dose felt much better, so I decided to try that for Sunday.

[the obvious question is: why can't I just go with the amounts that work the best for me in training?  The answer is that what amount works best for my running seems to be affected by my overall training volume over the past few days - the amount that is enough when I'm running 60+ miles a week is too much if I'm tapering.]

***

Sunday morning dawned with perfect weather for this race - low 50s, overcast sky, some wind but it wasn't much of an issue. I took my lower dose of Rytary around 6:45 am, gave it a few minutes to kick in, and then headed out for my warm-up.  The designated warm up area had no flat spots - just up or down.  Which gave me plenty of opportunity to confirm that uphills were going to be painful today. [when my asthma flares, it limits hard efforts much more than easy efforts, and uphills seem to be the worst.]  So...I struggle on downhills because of Parkinsons, and now I was going to struggle on uphills from the asthma flare. Did I mention that there were no flat sections of this course?  This was going to be fun.

I returned from my warm up to the Para tent to head over to the starting line. While in the tent, I learned that I was the only woman in my division this race - the others had not shown up - presumably due to travel disruptions.  Unfortunate news, but certainly beneficial to me.  

As a member of the Para Pro field, I still had an obligation to race to the best of my abilities, so I couldn't just jog the race and collect the win. But at least I had a bit more leeway to play it safe (racing to the best of one's abilities does require one to finish the race...).  As for competition, I always like to unofficially compete with the men in my division.  Officially it doesn't matter at all, since there are separate awards for each gender.  But unofficially, I like competing. So I chase the guys too.  And there were quite a few male T35-38s racing today.

***

The race started with the same downhill as last year, and just like always happens on downhills, I got dropped by most of the para field. I'm always rigid in the first miles of a race if I have to stand for a few minutes before starting, but this was extra. I decided that the lower dose of Rytary had been a bit too low, so I popped a 1/4 tablet of sinemet (short acting med) while running the first mile.  It was a bit awkward, but downhill running is awkward for me anyway, so no great loss.

As for whether it helped - it didn't obviously hurt, which I think probably means that it did help.

The race itself was rolling the entire way, with almost no flat.  On the downhills, I tried to manage my balance while catching my breath.  On the uphills, I tried to push things as hard as I could safely.  Which was honestly not very hard - just running already had me uncomfortably close to oxygen debt. 

Much of the race was a blur, simply because I felt lousy. And so I was doing my best not to think too much, because as soon as I started thinking, I started thinking about how crappy I felt....

The course had several turn-arounds, and at each one I had a chance to see how far I was behind the men in the T35-38 division.  I could tell I was making up time on all of them, but at the halfway point the leader - Joe Drake - was still far ahead.  I didn't know if I could make up that gap, but I was going to try.

After mile 8, there was a solid climb - I remembered this from last year.  However, unlike last year the course allowed for a bit of a breather before climbing again towards the finish. Sometime during the breather I passed the second place male T35-38.  Which was a nice distraction from just how lousy I felt.

So now there was just Joe ahead. I scanned ahead for a tall figure with a white hat and pink compression socks.  I would occasionally see what I thought was Joe, but I couldn't be sure.  The crowd of runners was thick enough at this point that it was hard to pick out any individual.

The last mile of the course was essentially a big serpentine to the top.  Once I passed the 20K marker I tried to empty the tank as best I could.  I was successful, but unfortunately I was working with a very small tank. 

I crossed the finish line and almost immediately saw Joe standing there.  So, I didn't quite catch him, but I was close (officially he edged me by 20 seconds).  Next time, my friend. Next time.

***

Splits were:

• First 5K: 28:42
• Between the 5K mark and Mile 4: 7:46 for .89 miles.
• Mile 5: 8:55
• Mile 6: 8:45
• Mile 7: 8:34
• Mile 8: 8:32
• Mile 9: 8:54
• Mile 10: 8:34
• Mile 11: 8:40
• Mile 12: 8:56
• Mile 13: 8:41
• last bit: 1:04

Other notes:

• It was absolutely perfect weather for this race - 42 degrees, overcast skies but no rain, little wind.
  
  
• I really enjoyed the train ride both ways and think that's my choice for traveling to Boston from now on.  When you factor in the time it takes to get through security, board, and fly plus travel to/from the airport, taking the train is really only an hour or so longer.  The train is much more comfortable than flying, and I really enjoyed watching the country go by outside my window (especially the stretch in Connecticut or Rhode Island where the train runs right along the Atlantic Ocean).
  
  
• Unsurprisingly, I felt awful the morning after this race. My asthma flare got worse and I lost my voice - resulting in another doctor's visit and a confession of my sins. Ultimately, I ended up having to do a week of antibiotics (doxycycline) to clear up a laryngitis/bronchitis thing.  What could have been one down week due to sickness turned into at least three - a nice illustration of why it's generally a bad idea to race when you are recovering from a cold and/or are experiencing an asthma flare. [That's also why this report has taken so long to write.]
  
  
• Given the above, I still think racing was the right decision here. It would have been completely different if this was a race that I had entered as part of the open field - in that case it would have been an easy call to skip the race and rest. But besides the fact that I wanted to support the para divisions, there was also the point that...when you accept an invitation to be part of an elite or pro field, that comes with an obligation to show up and race to the best of your abilities if you can, even if you don't like the weather or you don't feel 100% that day or you'd rather use this race as a workout or you could jog the race and still pick up some cash.
  
  Of course, there are exceptions such as a personal emergency or significant injury (I've withdrawn from elite fields in the past for both).  And if you know several weeks out that you're not going to perform well and someone else can take your slot and run better, that's OK too.  I once withdrew from the elite field at Indy Monumental for that reason - my training wasn't coming together and I knew that there was a waiting list for the elite field, so I gave up my slot so someone else could have it.
  
  But here, I knew my race was going to be really ugly, and I was fairly sure I'd feel awful after, but I was a) in the pro field, b) past the point where I was contagious, and c) confident I wouldn't do any permanent damage to myself.  So, I showed up and gave it my best shot.  And I'm really glad I did.

Training log - Week ending 11/9/2025

This week was 33 miles of running.

I didn't do much this week because I was sick and then my asthma started flaring.  And then I raced a half-marathon (report coming).

Dailies:

Monday: Off except for some gentle yoga in the evening. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 4.5 miles very easy (10:21) with 8x100m strides in 30 seconds down to 28. Foam rolling in evening

Wednesday: Off except for PT exercises and some foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 5.5 miles very easy (10:00). Upperbody weights/core + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 4 miles, including a 1600 uptempo on the track in 8:13.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 3 mile shakeout (10:42) plus foam rolling and PT exercises.

 

Sunday: 3 mile warm-up and Boston Half Marathon in 1:56:02.

Training log - Week ending 11/2/2025

This week was 61 miles of running and 9 "miles" of pool-running.

I felt good at the beginning of the week, not so good at the end.  Friday's tempo was slower than I wanted, but I attributed that to windy conditions.  

Sunday's long run was on a route that was net uphill. I thought the route was uphill, then downhill, then mostly flat for the last 6 miles.  Unfortunately, I was wrong, and the last 6 miles had a substantial climb and some rolling hills. The long run was progressive by effort and heart rate, but not by pace.

I also felt awful on the long run, and short of breath in the final miles.  This was concerning. Then I woke up the next morning with a sinus headache and a scratchy throat and realized that I was sick. Not great news, but at least it made me feel better about the long run.

Dailies:

Monday: 9 miles very easy (9:42) with 2 flat strides, 2 hill sprints, and 2 downhill strides. Upperbody weights/core in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x3 minutes with 2 minute jog plus 6x30 seconds with 2 minute jog.  The 3 minute intervals were at 8.3-8.4 mph and the 30 second intervals were at 8.8-9.0 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 9 "miles" of pool-running plus PT exercises in the morning.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (10:40) on a very muddy towpath plus PT exercises in the morning; streaming Pilates + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 12 miles, including a 6400m tempo on the track in 31:46 (8:10/7:57/7:51/7:48), followed by hill sprints and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 6.5 miles very easy (9:53) plus 4 hill sprints and 6x100m in 27-28 seconds. Upperbody weights/core in afternoon; foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 18 miles progressive, split as the first 6 miles averaging 10:33, the next 6 miles averaging 9:06 pace, and the next 6 miles averaging 9:01 pace, plus a 1/2 mile jog cooldown

Training log - Week ending 10/26/2025

This week was 61 miles of running, 6 "miles" of pool-running, and 9 miles walking/jogging/cheering at the Marine Corps Marathon. I'll call it 76 miles for the week.

More tweaking of meds.  To make a complicated issue as simple as possible - basically I take medications that replace the neurotransmitter dopamine (what my body is not producing very well now). If I take too little of these medications, then my muscles don't want to relax (because they never get the message from the brain to do so).  If I take too much, then my muscles keep contracting (because they're constantly being told to do so).  Two different things, but they feel very similar. The biggest differences are that I'm a bit weaker with too little dopamine, but my muscles are stiff in a predicable, steady way (like the day after a marathon).  If I have too much, then I'm much stronger, but my muscles contract suddenly and sometimes unpredictably. It's pretty annoying.

I also take medications that can extend the duration of how long I can go between dopamine doses, or that can dampen the effects of too much dopamine medication.  At the beginning of October my doctor and I decided to slightly increase one of the medications that dampens the effect of too much dopamine - the hope was that I could reap the benefits of more dopamine (being stronger and faster) without the costs (tight muscles that contract suddenly).  Increasing this medication meant that I had to lower my normal dopamine dose slightly to counteract the boosting effect of this medication. It seemed like a small, almost negligible change that would hopefully yield some benefit.

After three weeks, I've decided that I was better off with the previous regimen.  My running has slowed over the past few weeks, and when I tried to add a tiny bit more dopamine to see if it would help, it made things worse instead. 

Example 1 was Tuesday's marathon pace workout - I felt a bit sluggish and tight during the first 5 miles, so I took a tiny (1/4 tablet) dose of dopamine before the second 5 mile set.  And then things went massively downhill (in a figurative, not literal sense).

I wasn't sure if this was just a random thing or bonking or dehydration, so on Thursday I tried the slightly higher dose again.  And same thing. Even my 100m strides on the track were stuck at just over 8 minute pace. And I could tell what was happening: when we run, our quads contract eccentrically with each stride just after the foot makes contact with the ground.  On Thursday my quads were massively overcontracting (if that wasn't a word before, it is now). The faster I tried to run, the harder my quads contracted, slamming the brakes on each stride.

So that was a failed experiment. After Thursday, I decided to go back to the previous regimen, which was working decently for me. Saturday's tempo felt a bit better, though still rough. It takes a few days for the effects of a medication change to be fully seen (there's an immediate effect and a long tail effect) so we'll have to see what the next week brings.

Dailies:

Monday: 4 "miles" of pool-running and 8 miles very easy (9:57) plus drills and four hill sprints, followed by upper body weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 16 miles, including a marathon effort workout of 2x5 miles in 40:37 (8:07 pace) and 41:25 (8:17 pace) with 9:16 jog between the two, followed by leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 4 miles very easy on trails (11:53) plus drills and PT exercises.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 3 miles very easy (10:53) with 4x100m (all in 30 seconds), then 9 miles very easy (10:00) Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 8 miles very easy (10:12) with 8x100m in 28 seconds down to 26 seconds, followed by upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12.5 miles, including an 8K tempo in 39:38 (8:08/7:57/7:53/7:50/7:50), some 200s in 55-57 seconds, and some 100s in 28 down to 25 seconds.  Followed with leg strengthwork   Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 9 miles of walking (and a bit of jogging) cheering at the Marine Corps Marathon plus 2 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

 

Race Report: Race for Every Child 5K, October 18, 2025

 I ran the Race for Every Child 5K on Saturday, finishing in 24:40.

My original plan had been to run Army 10 Miler the week before, but when it was uncertain whether Army would happen this year I switched to this 5K. I would have preferred to do the ten miler because a) it's more relevant to marathon training and b) I'm generally more competitive the longer the distance. But either race offered what I really needed - a chance to practice running fast in a large chaotic crowd. 

To explain: I tend to struggle in my running when there's a lot of movement around me. There's a few different reasons for this.  One is that my vestibular sense is not great, and so motion around me, especially unexpected motion, can throw my balance off. (To experience a bit of this yourself, try balancing on one foot while staring at a fixed point in a quiet room.  Now try balancing on one foot while people are walking around you, stepping in front of you, doing jumping jacks behind you, etc.  A bit harder now, right?)

Another reason is simply that running for me is like a big plate spinning contest, where I have to get all the plates spinning (i.e., get all the muscles firing the right way) and then keep them going.  Any time I have to change speed, direction etc, it figuratively stops a few of the plates and I have to re-establish my gait. Thus, weaving around people can be challenging.

So, running in crowds can be hard, especially when its people going at different speeds (common at the beginning of a race).  All of my races since June have been on the track, with no more than 7 other competitors, so I haven't had to deal with a mass start in a while.  And I badly needed the practice.

***

I warmed up with a bit under 4 miles of running, including my normal 3:00 at marathon to half marathon effort, 4x30 seconds faster, and then some 10 second strides. I could tell that my meds were a little bit off because I was having some trouble running over the crosswalks on Pennsylvania Avenue, which are a slightly different surface from the pavement. It's a big tell for me - when my meds are working just right, I can handle changes in surfaces without losing my balance.  But when the meds are a bit off, those changes throw my balance off.

I debated taking a small dose of extra sinemet (medication), but I wasn't sure whether I had too little or too much already in my system (it can be very hard to tell the difference).  Since things weren't too bad, I decided to stick with my current status.

After warming up, I lined up in the corral by the 8-10 minute pace sign - I hoped to run faster than that during the race, but I also start slowly.  There were a lot of people ahead of me who looked like they were new to racing and probably didn't have a good sense of where they should line up, including kids.  This was going to be messy.  Which was fine - that was exactly what I came for.

***

The gun went off, and it took me about 4 seconds to cross the start line.  Just as I had expected, the first mile was people weaving all over the place.  Between that and the crosswalks, it was a rough mile. And a good chance to practice staying relaxed and trying to be as efficient and lose as little time as possible.

After that, things started to open up some and I was able to pick up some speed, though I was still a bit stiff.  Unfortunately, the course had two 180 degree turns that I struggled with a bit, losing some time there. 

Then we turned back onto Pennsylvania Avenue to head back to the finish.  By then, I was feeling pretty good and able to pick up the pace to what felt like a hard tempo effort.  I would have liked to have gone faster, but my gait kept getting tripped up a bit by the crosswalks (mile 3 was mostly mile 1 in reverse).  The end result was that I crossed the finish line feeling like I had run the first three mile of a longer race, rather than a 5K.  Which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world, since longer races are my target and I generally run them faster anyway.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 8:16
Mile 2: 8:05
Mile 3 plus last bit: 8:18 (7:30 pace)

As a 5K, slower than I would like. As the first three miles of a longer race (which is what this felt like, since I couldn't get going until well into the second mile) not too bad.

Other notes:

• As I warmed up, I noted that my legs felt a bit heavy. At the time, I assumed it was because I had done a bit too much trail-running the day before.  But in retrospect I think it was also that I've been doing breathing training daily, which fatigues my intercostal muscles and diaphragm. Mental note that I need to taper the breathing training before my goal races.
• I wore the Asics Metaspeed Edge Tokyo for this race to test it out. It feels like a very good shoe for me for the half-marathon and beyond, but not as good for me for shorter distances like 5K.  I think this is because my footstrike changes based on the distance, and the Edge feels best when I am landing further back on my foot and rolling through.  The funny thing is that most reviewers seem to prefer the Edge for shorter stuff. In contrast, I've read reviews saying that the 361 Flame 4 is a shoe for all distances, but it feels much more comfortable at faster paces for me, and very awkward at tempo or marathon pace.  I guess we're all different.
• Absolutely perfect weather for this race - 56 degrees Fahrenheit with low humidity and little wind.
• Even though it was in the 50s, I wore thin tights with a singlet.  I've discovered that my legs just work so much better when they are warm, and too warm is much better than too cold.
• This was a big race for my tunning team - Capital Area Runners - since the race benefited Children's Hospital and the son of one of my teammates was one of the mascots.  We ended up as the top-scoring team, which was fun.  And it was really cute to see Elliot wear the medal the team won.

Training log - week ending 10/19/2025

This week was 41 miles of running and 12 "miles" of pool-running plus an hour of hiking.

I pulled back on the mileage a bit this week to give myself a chance both to absorb the last few weeks' training and so that I could rest some for Saturday's 5K (separate race report coming). 

Easing back on the miles also gave me some "space" (so to speak) to accommodate the new training stress of doing my daily breathing exercises for inspiratory weakness - i.e., weakness of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. The breathing exercises are 5 sets of 5 inhalations against resistance (I use the EMST-150 with an inspiratory adapter), with 10-20 seconds between breaths and 2 minutes between sets. 

The exact mechanism of how inspiratory weakness can affect running is pretty interesting.  It's not a direct "you don't get enough oxygen in through your lungs." Rather, it's something called "metaboloreflex" - the body prioritizes blood flow to the areas that need it the most. Breathing is a big priority, and so if weak breathing muscles are struggling, the body will prioritize blood flow there at the expense of other areas, such as the legs. Less blood to the legs means less oxygen to the legs, and reduced performance.

At first, I thought I could just add these exercises into my day with no other changes. Then I realized over the course of this week that the breathing exercises increase my training load and need to be considered when mapping out the balance of training stress and recovery.

The added stress to my training load comes from the fact that training the inspiratory muscles fatigues them, which then translates into increased need for oxygen for those muscles, which means that my other muscles get a bit less oxygen. So, in the short term it makes things a bit harder.  In the long term, I'm confident it's going to pay off.

I found it interesting that, when I do the inhalation exercises, afterwords I have a bit of that familiar "lung burn" that I remember from when I used to be able to run a fast mile. I haven't felt that in a long time. My hunch is that I've gotten into a bad cycle, where every time I take a training break at the end of a cycle, my inspiratory muscles weaken from the lack of work (with Parkinsons, muscles seem to weaken frighteningly quickly if not used). Then, when I start workouts again, metaboloreflex means that my legs don't get enough blood.  So I can't run fast enough to work my lungs hard enough to strengthen the inspiratory muscles, and those muscles stay weak. And I feel like I can't get back to where I was before the training break.

[This may actually be why the best masters runners seem to either a) cross train a lot with intense swimming/cycling or b) never take a break.  As you get older, muscles weaken more quickly with lack of use. Intense cross-training stresses the lungs and gets them stronger, while never taking a break means that they never have a chance to weaken.]

Assuming that this is right, the solution is NOT to never take another training break, but rather to include inspiratory training when I ease back into work after a break, so I can build back my breathing and my legs.

Dailies:

Monday: 8 miles very easy (9:45) with 2 strides plus a 1.5 mile fartlek on the track testing different shoes. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 11.5 miles on the track, including a workout of 1600 at tempo effort and then 8x800 with the first 400m at tempo effort and the second 400m faster. Splits were 8:00, and then 3:54 (2:00/1:54), 

3:55 (2:02/1:53), 3:54 (2:01/1:53), 3:54 (2:02/1:52), 3:52 (2:00/1:52), 3:52 (2:00/1:52), 3:51(2:00/1:51), 3:50 (1:58/1:52).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 1 hour of hiking in the afternoon.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 mile fartlek on the track, with some 100s, 200s, and 400s playing with form cues, plus an additional mile testing different shoes. Streaming Pilates + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 5 miles on trails (14:45).  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4 mile warm-up, and then 5K in 24:40 (8:16/8:05/8:18 for last 1781m (1.11 miles).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 12 "miles" of pool-running plus PT exercises. Streaming yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 10/12/2025

This week was 59 miles of running and 21 "miles" of pool-running.

I changed my plans for this week at least four times. My original plan was to race the Army 10 Miler on Sunday. However, as of the beginning of the week, it seemed likely that Army would be cancelled. So at that time I decided to make this a high volume week, with my 20+ long run on Sunday, and then race the week after.

Then on Thursday, Army announced that the race was still on. So, I was racing it after all.

And then I checked the weather forecast and noted that a tropical storm was also scheduled to roll through the area this weekend, complete with wind gusts of up to 40mph.  Not especially fun conditions for a race that includes a stretch on the 14th Street Bridge.

Between the weather, the fact that Army wasn't a goal race, and my lack of taper, I decided to skip Army anyway and do a tempo workout on Friday followed by a weekend long run.  Since the storm could last through Monday, I moved my long run to Saturday and kept it at mostly easy pace.

Despite all the back and forth, I managed to hit 80 "miles" (combined land and pool) for the week, which is where I want to be.

The other thing of note is that I discovered that my lungs - specifically my diaphragm and my intercostal muscles - are really weak. Given how much I run, this was a surprise.

I discovered this during speech therapy (which I started because I noted my voice getting a bit softer, and because the big rule in Parkinsons is: start speech therapy and physical therapy before you've fallen apart - it's much easier to preserve than to rebuild). The strength of those muscles is graded by maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximum expiratory pressure (MEP) - essentially how much resistance you can breathe through.

My MIP was 37 cmH20 (centimeters of water is a unit of pressure management).  The expected normal value for my age/sex/BMI is 97 cmH20.  So, my MIP is about 38 % of the norm.  That's a significant difference. This was obviously a big surprise to both me and the speech therapist.

The good news is that there's an easy way to improve it - just do daily breathing exercises with a respiration trainer.  There is some evidence (mixed) that respiratory training improves performance in trained athletes, and fairly solid evidence that respiratory training improves walking speed in people with Parkinsons. So, it seems like improving my MIP should probably improve my running, especially my faster running.  By how much remains to be seen. We'll see how the next few weeks play out.

Dailies:

Monday: 10 miles (10:10) with 8 strides. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x4:00/1:12 jog plus 4x30 seconds on/1:30 jog. The longer intervals were at 7.9/8.0 mph; the shorter intervals were 8.5-8.8 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph.  Pollowed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (11:59) on trails in the morning plus PT exercises. Streaming Pilates + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 12 miles, including a 8115m tempo in 30:52 (7:59/7:46/7:37/7:30) followed by two hill sprints.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 21 miles mostly very easy (9:50) with 8x(1 minute up tempo/8 minutes very easy) in the third hour. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 9 "miles" of pool-running plus upperbody weights/core and PT exercises. Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 10/5/2025

This week was 54 miles of running and 21 "miles" of pool-running.

This is my second week at 70+ "miles" (meaning land-running and pool-running combined).  I definitely have some fatigue, but it's not excessive - more like what I would expect to feel when I bump up mileage.  

The chart to the right shows my combined crosstraining/running volume over the past 36 months. (Fortunately, I don't cycle, because that would distort this chart). 

As one can see, I had a lot of 70+ mile weeks and some 80+ mile weeks up through the middle of 2024. Then my mileage dropped off as a result of injury/covid recovery/life stress.  Using mid-2024 as the dividing line, I was also running much better before that point than after.

I don't think this is coincidence. Hence my work to carefully but methodically build my mileage back up to that 70+ range. While also being mindful of the risk of overtraining and the increased risk of injury due to being over 50.

I count running miles and cross-training miles as equal here not because I think they truly are, but because it's a very useful fiction. Structuring my log this way makes it emotionally easy for me to swap in a cross-training day for a running day whenever it seems like it might be a good idea. The benefits of 12 miles of easy running over 12 miles of pool-running are incremental; the benefits of avoiding injury can be massive.

I've also started including my strides and hill sprints in my mileage, something I haven't done previously.  I don't think including them increases my mileage that much, but it does give me an incentive to do them, even if it means cutting the run short half a mile or so. Between age and Parkinsons, my body wants to shy away from moving quickly or powerfully.  Being sure to do strides and hill sprints, plus things like rapid toe taps, ladder drills, and power cleans in the gym helps to counter that.

In terms of specific workouts, my first full marathon pace workout on Saturday wasn't quite as fast I would have liked.  I locked into around 8:15 pace, which felt ridiculously easy and conversational, but my legs didn't want to move any faster. I want to break 3:30 in December (8:00 pace) so I'm a bit off of that, but I'm not too worried.  December is still a long way off, and I think accumulated fatigue from the uptick in mileage contributed.  Accumulated fatigue is of course part of marathon training, but you don't want to overdo it. So I made a mental note to prioritize quality recovery (good sleep, hydration, etc) for the next week.  If that doesn't seem sufficient, I'll ease off the mileage slightly.  Because while big mileage is important, it's also wasted if you're fried.

Dailies:

Monday: 9 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; streaming yoga in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles very easy (10:02) with 6x100m strides plus upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 12.5 miles, including a track workout of 3x3200 in 15:27 (7:46/7:41), 15:11 (7:41/7:30), and 14:57 (7:31/7:26) with 4:5x jogs after each. Followed with 4x200m in 54-55 seconds each.  Later did leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles very easy (13:28) on trails in the morning plus PT exercises.  Streaming Pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles very easy (9:56) with drills and 6x100m strides.  Followed with upperbody strength/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17 miles with 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at marathon effort.  Splits were 33:08 (average 8:17 pace), 24:44 (average 8:15 pace), 16:25 (average 8:13 pace) and 8:12.  Recoveries were miles jogged in 9:16, 9:31, and 9:34).

Sunday: 12 "miles" of pool-running and PT exercises. Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - week ending 9/28/2025

This week was 65 miles of running and 8 "miles" of pool-running.

This was a big improvement over last week.  I suspected that the creatine that I had started taking was making my asthma worse, so I stopped it this week.  And my breathing improved dramatically. Go figure.

Another change that I made stemmed out of a PT session.  Basically, my default tendency is to not use my calves when I run - I don't have any toe-off.

To some extent, this predates my Parkinsons diagnosis. I grew up doing equestrian sports almost exclusively, which means that I spent many hours each day with my ankles dorsiflexed and never did anything that required a calf raise. (In fact, I was even discouraged from jogging for fitness when I was a teenager, because it would make my calves too muscular and I'd have to get bigger riding boots.) So, it's just not natural for me to toe-off strongly.  Now add that tendency to a neurological condition where you tend to start to forget to use muscles, and... you get my non-toe-off.

So, I've been trying to learn how to toe off* when I run.  It is challenging, but it does seem to result in much faster running for the same effort when I get it right.  Which is sometimes but not always.

[*editorial note - I've decided that the proper spelling is toe-off when it's a noun and toe off when it's a verb.  Just like login is a noun and log in is a verb.  My blog, my grammar rules.]

Dailies:

Monday: 9 miles (9:50) with 8 strides. PT exercises in afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 7x3:00 on/2:00 jog plus 6x30 seconds on/2:00 jog. The longer intervals were at 8.4 mph; the shorter intervals were 9.0 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph.  PT session in afternoon.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy (11:59) on trails in the morning plus PT exercises. 2.5 miles very easy (9:49) + foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 30:52 (7:59/7:46/7:37/7:30) followed by two hill sprints.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 11.5 miles mostly very easy (9:38) with 9x100m in 30 seconds down to 26 seconds)  Upperbody strength and core in the afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 17 miles progressive, split as the first 7 averaging 10:06 pace, the next 5 miles averaging 9:20, and the next 5 miles averaging 8:32. Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 9/21/2025

This week was 55 miles of running and 18 "miles" of pool-running.

Both of this week's speed workouts were slower than I had hoped. On Tuesday I had to reduce the treadmill speed slightly from what I had held two weeks ago while on Friday tempo effort was about 8 minute pace when it had previously been faster.

At first I thought this was just lingering fatigue from last week's Covid shot or accumulated fatigue from another bump in mileage.  And then I decided to check my peak flow meter (device for measuring my asthma).  Yup, my asthma was flaring again.

Though I can't be sure of the cause of this flare, I have a hunch.  After reading about the many beneifts of creatine for post-menopausal women and the potential (mixed research results) benefits of creatine for people with Parkinson's, I decided to try it.  It's legal under USADA and very safe - as far as I could tell, the only "downside" was some extra pounds from water retention.  Since I get dehydrated pretty easily, this seemed like a plus.

So I ordered it (from an NSF-certified vendor so that I could be sure I was getting the right thing and nothing else) and started it Monday morning.  I had a good run on Monday, but then things started to slide from there, cumulating in a Friday tempo where I couldn't get my legs to move.

After realizing that my asthma was flaring, I decided to google "asthma and creatine." And of course pulled up results indicating that creatine could indeed worsen asthma.

Oops.  So now I'm off of the creatine.  We'll see how this week goes.

Dailies:

Monday: 9 miles (9:45) with 8 strides plus upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 9.5 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x3:30 on/2:30 jog plus 4x30 seconds on/2:00 jog. The longer intervals were at 8.2-8.3 mph; the shorter intervals were 9.0 mph  All jogs at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Deep tissue massage in evening.

Wednesday: 12 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:57) including 8x100m in 29 down to 26.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 32:10 (8:16/8:02/7:58/7:54) followed by 4x100m in 28, 28, 27, 26 and 2x200m in 57 and 55.  Followed with PT exercises.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 18 miles, mostly very easy but with a 60 second pick-up-the-pace every 9 minutes starting in the second hour.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: upperbody weights/core and 6 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 9/14/2025

This week was 51 miles of running and 15 "miles" of pool-running.

Just two workouts this week, since I'm trying to stick with at least two moderate to easy days after each hard day.  Wednesday was an ad hoc 8K tempo.  I had planned to do 2x3200 and then some 400s since I was debating racing a 5K on Sunday. But I had a very sluggish start and then hit a groove about 2000m in, and I decided to go with the flow and do a longer tempo, with the understanding that it would probably compromise my 5K. 

I was pretty happy with the tempo - I ran the last 16 laps (6400m) in 30:26 - about 30 seconds faster than I had tempoed 6400m three weeks earlier.  Some of this is that I just get better as I run longer, but I think it also shows improved fitness.

I eventually decided to skip the 5K for a number of reasons:

- I wasn't really feeling the need to race since I had raced a 10.000m two weeks ago;
- cutting back mileage for a 5K race ran counter to my current goal of increasing my weekly mileage;
- I wanted to attend a memorial service for a friend's father on Saturday afternoon/evening; and
- I wanted to get my Covid shot out of the way before I got into serious marathon training.

Instead, I did a decently high mileage easy run on Friday and then headed out for a marathon paced workout on Saturday. 

My intended workout was 16 miles with 3x3 miles at marathon effort.  I usually do either 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at marathon effort or 2x5 miles for this workout, but since I haven't done many long runs or marathon pace workouts recently, I swapped to this version just to ease into things.

Unfortunately, I started Saturday's run at 8:30 am.  Had I started earlier, or had there been clouds in the sky, I think I would have been fine. But the late start combined with the bright sunshine and lack of shade meant that the heat really started to get to me after the second three mile set. Which was about the same time that my water bottle was drained and I discovered that the water fountain wasn't working.  

I decided that forcing a third set was just going to dig a hole, so I jogged back to my car and headed home to rehydrate.  Once I felt a bit cooler, I headed back out to get some more miles in on a mostly shaded route, with a few 200s at marathon-ish effort just to get the feel of that pace on tired legs (I honestly would have done long at marathon effort but the track was packed). 

Even though Saturday was technically a failed workout, I was happy with it. Marathon effort yielded me 8:11-8:12 pace, which tells me that going sub 3:30 this December (~8:00 pace) is a reasonable target. And I managed a total of 17 miles for the day with 6 of them at marathon effort - this was a useful building block for 14 weeks out from my marathon.

Dailies:

Monday: 8 "miles" pool-running in the morning; streaming yoga in the afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 8 miles very easy (10:07) with 8x100m in 28 down to 25. Upperbody weights/core and foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 10.5 miles on the track, including a 8K tempo in 38:40 (8:14/7:47/7:37/7:33/7:29), followed by 2x200 in 57 each and 2x100 in 26 each.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 4.5 miles very easy (11:16) on trails in morning followed by PT exercises. Pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Friday:11 miles very easy (9:50) with 4x100m in 26 down to 25. Upperbody weights and foam rolling in the evening.

Saturday: 12 miles with 2x3 miles at marathon effort in 24:32 (8:11 pace) and 24:35 (8:12 pace).  Later in the morning did 5 miles very easy (9:46) with 2x200 at marathon effort (8:04) and one 200 a bit faster (7:47 pace).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Covid shot in evening.

Sunday: Spent 2 hours cheering at half-marathon, then 7 "miles" of pool-running and PT exercises. Yoga and foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 9/7/2025

This week was 54 miles of running and 9 "miles" of pool-running.

Since I raced both Saturday and Sunday, I kept Monday-Wednesday low key. My running team usually does workouts on Tuesday and Friday and a Sunday long run. I planned to do the Sunday long run with the team (or...trailing them, at least) and I need at least two easy days between hard efforts, so I did a workout on Thursday so I could run easy on Friday and Saturday.

Thursday's interval workout was on the treadmill once again. I wasn't straining, but I was on the edge of straining. The workout was hard enough that I only did six 3:00 intervals (I plan for six to eight intervals and play the exact number by ear). Of course, I looked at my log after and realized that holding 8.4 mph for all six intervals was aggressive in comparison to recent workouts, so it was no surprise that I felt the effort and had to adjust the # of intervals accordingly.

The Sunday long run was at Carderock this week, which means running on the stone dust/pebbles/rocks of the C&O towpath. When I go to the team long runs, I usually end up running by myself after the first few miles, but it's nice to see people before and after. However, I woke to light rain with more on the way, and I couldn't find any enthusiasm for 14-16 solo miles in mud.

Instead, I headed over to Georgetown and the paved (if covered by leaves and littered with twigs) Capital Crescent trail.  This gave me a chance to try out a new shoe - the 361 Flame 4 - on a long run with some uphill and downhill running.

I've been using the Flame 4 on the track, and after an initial adjustment period of about 4 miles, I really like the shoe there.  But I've never taken the shoe off the track, so I thought today was a good day to test things out. 

It was a dreary morning, with misting rain and puddles and wet leaves.  The Flame had notably good traction, but I felt awkward on uphills and downhills. Some of this may have also been that I felt like I didn't get a good dose of my PD meds this morning.  And some lingering blahsfrom Thursday's flu shot. So I'm going to try to run in it a bit more on hilly asphalt routes to see if I can get more comfortable with it.

Dailies:

Monday: Upperbody weights/core. followed by 9 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 6 miles very easy (10:07) to gym; leg strengthwork, 3 miles very easy home (9:57).  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 5 miles very easy (10:45) on trails in morning followed by PT exercises.  Streaming yoga during lunch; foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x3:00 on/2:00 jog plus 6x30 seconds on/90 seconds jog. The "On" parts were at 8.4 mph (3 minute intervals) and 8.8 mph (30 second intervals) with the jogs at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling + flu shot in evening.  

Friday: 6 miles very easy (11:15) on trails in morning followed by PT exercises. Streaming yoga and foam rolling in the evening.

Saturday: 10 miles, mostly easy (9:57) but including 4x100m strides in 28 down to 25 seconds.  Upperbody weights/core in afternoon; foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, split as the first 5.5 miles averaging 10:05 pace, the next 4 miles averaging 9:07 pace, and the last 5 miles averaging 8:29 pace, plus a 1/2 mile cooldown. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Potomac Valley Games, August 30-31, 2025

I ran the 10,000m and the 3000m at the Potomac Valley Games last weekend, finishing in 47:36.73 and 13:57.22 respectively.

I had entered the 3000m several weeks ago, thinking that it would be an opportunity to update the 3000m time I ran at the Hartford Nationals. A few days before the meet I reviewed the meet schedule and noted a 10,000m was on the schedule - first thing Saturday morning. 10,000m races on the track are pretty rare around here, and this one was both the first race of the morning (a plus) and scheduled on a day with unseasonably cool weather.

This was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up, especially since there was currently no American record for female T36 athletes. I'd run the 10,000 and try to set the standard as high as I could for others to hopefully chase in the future. As for the originally planned 3000?  I'd play it by ear.

***

Saturday morning dawned just as predicted - temperatures in the low 60s with low humidity. With the race scheduled to start at 8 am, arriving at 6:45 gave me enough time to pick up my bib and hip number and warm up on the track.  Wonderfully, this was one of the meets that allowed runners to warm-up in the outside lanes right up until about 3 minutes before their race started.

There were five entries in the 10,000: me, a guy in his 30s who listed a seed time of 34 minutes and change; and three 50+ men, each targeting a bit over 50 minutes.  I expected to run anywhere from 46 to 48 minutes, so I'd likely be solo for much of the race.  Fine with me.

We lined up at the waterfall line for the 10000 (me on the outside), and the gun went off.  Just like always, everybody dropped me. I've learned that it's really best for me to start slow, get my running gait in line, and then pick up the pace. Everything proceeded as expected - Mr. 34 minutes was way ahead, while I reeled in the other three men over the first lap.

***

I was roughly 300m into the race when I noticed my shorts were falling down.  I was wearing an older pair of split shorts with a drawstring, and it seemed like the drawstring had come loose, resulting in the aged fabric of the shorts sagging uncomfortably close to the camel toe zone.  

I eased up on the pace and fumbled with the drawstring (nobody was near me on the track) and fixed things.  Only to have them sag again about 200m later.

I repeated this process twice more and then realized that the drawstring had broken on the shorts.

Well, this was awkward.  Or, at least, potentially awkward.

I debated dropping out and then nixed the idea. I really couldn't justify dropping out because my shorts might end up around my ankles.  Dropping out because my shorts had fallen around my ankles, on the other hand, would at least be a great story.

So I tugged at my shorts and managed to roll the waistband a little bit (all while still running) which made the shorts sit slightly higher and more secure.  With that temporary fix in place, I decided that I would run until either I had clocked off 25 laps or my shorts fell off my butt.

The laps clicked away, punctuated by Mr. 34 minutes lapping me a couple times, me occasionally lapping the other runners, a n annoying headwind at one corner of the track, and me tugging on my shorts.  

I have never done 25 laps at a steady continuous pace on the track, though I regularly do 16 and occasionally do 20 lap tempos (and I've certainly done track workouts with the intervals/recoveries totaling to more than 25 laps).  All of which is a lengthy way of saying that I was in new racing territory. When I passed 20 laps and didn't get to stop, I realized that 25 laps is a long way to count down - mentally it's much closer to 13 miles than 6 miles.

That's another way of saying that the last few laps were a real grind. But I managed to hang on and even pick it up a bit for the last lap. I crossed the line officially at 47 minutes and 36.73 seconds and called it a good morning.

***

I woke up on Sunday morning and felt tired, but surprisingly not sore. My coach had (surprisingly) recommended that I take a shot at the 3000 if I felt OK. So I decided to head over to the track for day 2 of the meet, warm up, and then decide whether I was racing the 3000.

My warm-up went OK - I was still (unsurprisingly) tired, but my legs were notably less stiff than the day before.   Once again demonstrating that taper for me has to be a careful balance between too much taper (less tired and more stiff) and too little (more tired and less stiff). I had to beat 14:31 to lower my 3000m record, and that seemed eminently doable even on tired legs.  So what the heck - it was only 7 and a half laps, right?  After yesterday's 25 laps, that seemed like almost a sprint.

I lined up once again, this time in a group of six - four men and two women.  The gun went off and once again I dropped behind everyone else into last place while I eased into my gait, before starting to pick up the pace.

There were two key differences between yesterday and today.  The first was that my shorts were not an issue.  The second was that when I pulled next to the other woman to try to pass her, she picked up her gait to match mine. This was a challenge in other ways beyond the obvious. When I first start running from a standstill, it can be really hard to run very close to someone else.  The best way to put it is that I'm really focusing fully on staying on my feet, and having someone next to me is a distraction. And every time I lose a bit of my focus, my gait goes to hell.

However, I'm not very good at changing gears anymore, so dropping behind her to gather some steam and then surging past on a straightaway was not an option, even though we were both running side by side at a pace that wasn't too hard for me. So, I just ran in lane 2 as best I could, reasoning that a) this was good for me and b) at some point she'd get tired and fall behind and then I'd have my space.

The "at some point" happened about 700m into the race. After pulling ahead, I shifted over to lane 1 and felt my stride really smooth out. From there on, it was just a matter of counting down laps and reminding myself that 4 laps to go wasn't very far (although it really was).

When I hit 3 laps to go, I glanced at the clock - it was just changing to 8:30, which meant I had to do 3 laps in 6:00 - about 8 minute pace - to take down my record.  Cool.  I focused on relaxing my quads and ankles and keeping my body upright and my feet striking under me and endured another lap.  10:20 - so now I had another 10 seconds of room. 

At the bell lap, I noted 12:10, and realized I could possibly duck under 14 minutes. Since I had room to experiment, I decided to relax my quads and ankles as much as possible and see where that got me on the last lap. As it turned out, that got me to the finish officially in 13:57.33 - good enough to knock some time off of my previous record.  I was happy with that, and also very happy to be done racing for the weekend.

Splits were:

10,000m
Mile 1: 7:50
Mile 2: 7:38
Mile 3: 7:40
Mile 4: 7:35
Mile 5: 7:34
Mile 6: 7:29
last 400 - 1:49 (7:19 pace)

3000m:
Mile 1: 7:36
last 1400: 6:21 (7:18 pace)

[all miles were obviously 1600s, not full miles]

Other notes:

• This time I actually remembered to bring my records forms to the meet to get them completed that day. Of course, what I failed to do was send an email in advance, advising that I was going for a record, which meant that they had to do a "Zero Gun" test on Saturday that they hadn't planned for.  Next time I'll have my act totally together.
• One of the nice things about track meets is that you can show up by yourself and leave with several new friends. It reminds me a lot of the DC dark music scene in that way.
• I had an interesting chat with a racewalking coach during the meet.  Apparently, my tendency to heelstrike and my leg stiffness would work very well for racewalking. So I guess that's always an option if I decide I need to move on from running (note: I am nowhere near that point right now).
• Someone actually complimented me on my running gait!  It's been a while since that happens. More evidence that PT works.
• This was my last track meet for the year, so time to get used to the roads again.
• Next year, I want to try to get that 3000m time down some more.  I ran 13:39 earlier this year, but it didn't count because the meet wasn't set up with the right kind of timers/officials, etc.

Training log - Week ending 8/31/2025

This week was 45 miles of running and 3 "miles" of pool-running.

Another cutback, as I raced twice this weekend - a 10000m on Saturday and then a 3000m on Sunday.  I will be the first to admit that racing a 3000 the day after a 10000m is generally not a great idea, but we had really fantastic weather for the meet, and my coach gave the double his blessing if I felt like I could do it without getting hurt.

Both races went well (race report coming) - I feel like my fitness is improving.

Obviously the next few days are going to be easy.

The other poor training decision was squeezing a Nine Inch Nails concert in Baltimore into the week on Tuesday night, which meant Wednesday was essentially a day off. But though it was a poor training decision it was an excellent life decision, and my only regret is that I didn't splurge for better seats and/or pit tickets (as Brian noted, we ended up standing the whole night anyway, so we might as well have been on the floor).

Dailies:

Monday: 8 miles very easy (10:03) plus two strides and upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 3200, 3x800, 2x400 in 15:23 (7:49/7:34), 3:47, 3:41, 3:36, 1:47, and 1:46 (recoveries were 5:42 after the 3200, 2:5x after the 800s, and 63 between the 400s. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Rock concert (Nine Inch Nails with Boys Noize) in evening.

Wednesday: 3 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles on the track including about 15 100m strides with full recovery (26 seconds down to 24) and a 200m in 52 seconds. Pilates and foam rolling in evening.  

Friday: 4.5 miles very easy (11:07) on trails in morning followed by PT exercises. Foam rolling in the evening.

Saturday: 10 miles, including a 10000m on the track in 47:36 (7:50/7:38/7:40/7:35/7:33/7:29/1:49. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 6 miles, including a 3000m on the track in 13:57 (7:35 and then 6:21 for the last 1400, with a 1:47 final lap). Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/24/2025

This week was 55 miles of running and 7 "miles" of pool-running.

I split my workouts between the track and the treadmill this week.  I'm becoming a big fan of doing my Tuesday interval workouts on the treadmill rather than on the local track.  Much of this is because the track can be extraordinarily congested on Tuesday mornings, with sometimes 100+ runners on the track. (Friday tends to be much better.)

With that many runners on the track, things are just chaotic in general. It also makes it very hard to manage the recovery times between intervals, since starting a new interval requires merging onto a congested and fast-moving highway. My personal belief is that the duration of the recoveries is an important variable in the workout - as important as the pace of the intervals. And it's much easier to time my recoveries exactly on the treadmill.

As for the recoveries - I use the following (mostly taken from Jack Daniels):

• Tempo intervals- 1/5 ratio of jog to interval (so 1 minute jog for every 5 minutes of work)
• CV intervals- ~1/3 ratio of jog to interval (72-80 seconds jog for every 4 minutes of work)
• VO2 max intervals - 2/3-3/4 ratio of jog to interval (so 2:00-2:15 jog for every 3 minutes of work)
• Fast intervals to work on top end speed - 2/1 or greater ratio of jog to interval (so 30 seconds of work should have at least 60 seconds recovery after, with more being better).

I find that if I emphasize the ratio of interval duration to recovery duration in my workouts and let the pace and effort of the intervals be whatever feels doable given the limited recovery, I get really solid results from my training. Much better than if I start chasing paces/speeds during a workout and end up stretching out the recoveries in order to finish the workout without slowing down. Focusing on interval paces/speeds looks nicer on Strava, but limiting the recovery gets me faster quicker.

On Tuesday, the main workout was two sets of 4:30 on with 3:00 recovery after each, then two sets of 3:00 on with 2:00 recovery after each, then two sets of 90 seconds on with 60 seconds recovery. So...the duration of the intervals and the recovery jogs varied, but I always had a 2/3 ratio of rest to work. And then, after doing 30 minutes of VO2 Max work, I shifted to doing a few fast intervals with full recovery (at least twice the duration of the interval) to work on top end speed.

Separately, if anyone is wondering why my VO2Max workouts seem to be in 90 second increments (e.g., intervals of 1:30, 3:00, or 4:30 in duration), it's simply because I subconsciously assume that a lap of the track at interval effort takes 90 seconds  Thus, a 1200m rep is 4:30, an 800m is 3:00, and a 400 is 1:30.  Of course, this assumption is an artifact from where I was 5-10 years ago. I'm significantly slower now, and structuring these as 5:15, 3:30, and 1:45 would be closer to reality.  But I seem to be getting good results with the workouts I'm currently doing, so I see no reason to revise (and changing would also make for harder math).

Dailies:

Monday: 7 miles very easy (10:15) plus two hill strides and two flat strides and upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 8 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 2x4:30 with 3:00 jog, 2x3:00 with 2:00 jog, 2x90 seconds with 60 second jog, and then 4x30 second strides with 90 second jog. Speed of 4:30 intervals was 8.1-8.3 mph; 3 minute intervals ranged between 8.3 and 8.5 mph; and 90 second intervals were at 8.6 and 8.7 mph. 30 second strides were 8.7- 9.0 mph, all jogs were 6.0 mph.  Treadmill probably not accurate. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 11 miles very easy (10:08) outside plus 4x100m strides in 28, 28, 27, and 26.  PT session in afternoon and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday:  4 miles very easy (11:07) on trails in morning followed by PT exercises. Pilates and foam rolling in evening.  

Friday: 11 miles, including a 6400m tempo on the track in 30:55 (8:05/7:48/7:36/7:26), two hill strides, and two flat strides. Foam rolling in the evening.

Saturday: 14 miles (9:43) - mostly easy but with a 30-90 second surge every 10 minutes in the last 6 miles. Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: Core, PT exercises, and 7 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/17/2025

This week was 38 miles of running and 18 "miles" of pool-running.

The nice thing about doing speedwork on the treadmill is that you can compare your workouts over time without distortion from weather.  And...back on July 8, I ran 6 intervals of 3 minutes with 2 minutes recovery plus 4 intervals of 30 seconds with 90 second recovery, with the 3 minute intervals run at 8 mph (7:30 pace) and the 30 second intervals being run at 8.4-8.5 mph (7:04-7:09 pace)

Fast forward 5 weeks and my two workouts were:

1) 8x3:00 at 8.2-8.5 mph (7:04-7:19 pace) with 2:00 jog plus 4x30 seconds at 8.7-9.0 mph (6:40-6:54 pace) with 90 second jog.

and

2) 6x4:00 at 7.8-7.9 mph (7:36-7:42 pace) with 1:12 jog plus 4x30 seconds at 8.7-8.8 mph (6:49-6:54 pace) with 90 second jog.

So that's a nice bit of improvement. Anywhere from 10-25 seconds per mile pace-wise.  (Of course, this illustrates the fact that it is easier and quicker to regain fitness than to establish it in the first place.)

I think part of the reason that the treadmill training is working so well for me is that I can focus entirely on sustaining a certain effort for a set period of time with a very controlled recovery.  I don't have to worry about navigating around other runners or uneven footing or inclement weather.  

Thar's also obviously a downside, and why I can't just train on the treadmill from now on.  But I can certainly take advantage of the opportunity to get fit and then transition to running outside, while hopefully maintaining the fitness I've built over the last few weeks.

Dailies:

Monday: 7 "miles" of pool-running and yoga. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday:3 miles very easy (10:03), time team workout (coach on vacation, so I subbed in), 3 miles mostly easy but with 14x100m strides and ladder drills/plyos.  Upperbody weights/core and foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 8x3 minutes with 2 minutes jog, followed by 4x30 second strides with 90 second jog. Speed of 3 minute intervals ranged between 8.2 and 8.5 mph, 30 second strides were 8.7- 9.0 mph, all jogs at 6.0 mph.  Treadmill probably not accurate. Leg strengthwork and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday:  5 miles very easy (11:38) on trails in morning followed by plyometrics. Yoga and foam rolling in evening.  

Friday: 2 miles very easy (10:30), time team workout, 5 miles very easy to gym (10:19), upperbody weights/core, 2 miles very easy home (10:29) plus strides. Foam rolling in the evening.

Saturday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x4 minutes with 72 second jog, followed by 4x30 second strides with 90 second jog. Speed of 4 minute intervals ranged between 7.8 and 7.9 mph, 30 second strides were 8.7-8.8 mph, all jogs at 6.0 mph.  Treadmill probably not accurate. Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 11 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 8/10/2025

This week was 55 miles of running and 8 "miles" of pool-running.

This was my second week at 50+ miles, and the fatigue really kicked in.  Not surprising - that's what happens when you drastically bump up the mileage and also do your first long run in months (last Sunday) and your first hill workout (this past Tuesday)in months....

I felt comfortable increasing my workload this aggressively because a) I have a history of high mileage and b) I'm not coming off of an injury.  Additionally, the upcoming week is going to be a cutback week because of personal obligations.

For the heck of it, I ran a report in my training log to see how my weekly volume has changed over the last few years. Here's my volume (essentially running+ pool-running) from 2020-2025. 

Clearly there's been a drop-off in recent years.  Some of that is because I'm slower now and so a 90 minute run equates to less miles than it used to.  But another factor is that I've added in a lot of other stuff - stretching, balance training, etc, and some of that has taken time away from my running. If I can find a way to keep those things (very important) while also bumping my volume up a bit, I think my running paces will improve.

Here's a second chart, showing weekly volume for the last 12 months:

The three really low weeks are a) when I got Covid at the end of 2024; b) the week after the Boston Marathon; and c) when I got heat stroke a few weeks back.

Looking at the second chart, it's obvious to me that my volume has been markedly low for much of the period from April/May until two weeks ago. Just more evidence that I have room to increase that mileage, and hopefully improve my running performances.

Dailies:

Monday: 8 "miles" of pool-running and yoga. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 8.5 miles, including 7 Iwo Jima hill repeats (each repeat is up a 500m hill at a 2-3% incline, 90 second jog, 200m downhill stride, and 50-second jog to the bottom.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (10:04) + 8x100m strides (25-27 seconds). Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday:  4.5 miles very easy (10:53) on trails in morning followed by plyometrics. Streaming Pilates and foam rolling in evening.  

Friday: 8.5 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 31:56 (8:10/8:02/7:54/7:50) plus 4x200m in 56-59 seconds each.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in the evening.

Saturday: 9 miles very easy (10:02) followed by upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14.5 miles easy to moderate (9:33 average; first mile 11:16, last mile 8:26).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

The Hartford Nationals, July 13-14, 2025

I ran the 1500 and the 3000 at the Hartford Nationals meet in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 13-14, with times of 7:09 for the 1500 and 14:31 for the 3000 - finishing as top female in both heats.

The Hartford Nationals are (using their own words) the "largest and longest-running national sport championship event for athletes with a physical disability, visual impairment or intellectual disability." The full event covers multiple sports over 8 days, including track and field, swimming, archery, weightlifting, triathlon, tennis, and several others. 

I went last year and really enjoyed the event even though I had to withdraw from my races due to injury (I did hobble through an 800, but I decided that didn't count as a race). This year, I resolved to come back healthy.  

At last year's Hartford Nationals, I planned an ambitious schedule - targeting the 400, 800, 1500, and 5000 over two days.  Since I'm a marathoner, this didn't seem very intimidating.  However, I learned over that summer that warming up and racing a short distance two or three times in the same day with a gap of several hours between each was very hard on my body. I suspect that doing so at several meets in a row was why I got injured. So this year I planned for just one race each day.

I also chose to enter the first race of each day at the Hartford Nationals.  I thought this would give me my best chance to perform well. To explain why, I first have to go into the differences between Move United meets and the USATF meets in my area. (Move United is the governing body for adaptive sports in the U.S.)

In my experience, meets sanctioned by Move United are much more formal than USATF meets. At a Move United meet, the track is open for warm-up for a specified period of time, and then closed, and there's generally not any other good place to run while awaiting your race. Move United meets also want the athletes to check in well ahead of time.  And once you've checked in, they keep you on a fairly short leash. 

In contrast, the USATF meets I've done have always had some place to run besides the track and also allow athletes to do laps on the track infield while waiting for their heat. USATF check ins also seem more casual. I tell them I'm there, get my hip #, and then I'm free to head off wherever while awaiting the start. If I miss my race, it's my own damn fault.

For a number of reasons (age, Parkinsons, and being a marathoner), I need a long warm-up before a short race, and I need to time it so that my warm-up finishes shortly before the race starts. Thus, at Move United meets, it's a lot easier to time my warm-up correctly if I'm in the first race of the day.  

So, back in March of this year, I pulled up the preliminary schedule for the Hartford Nationals and noted that the 1500 and 3000 were the first races on each of the two track days. I found a Move United sanctioned meet in May where I could snag qualifying times for the two distances. Once I had those, I submitted my entry and booked my trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

***

I flew out of BWI to Grand Rapids. While waiting to board, I noted that most of the other passengers appeared to be going to the Hartford Nationals as well.  I was surprised at first and then recalled that there's a significant para-athletic/adaptive athlete program associated with the Kennedy-Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

Unsurprisingly, there were a LOT of pre-boards.  I idly wondered if I would read something on social media later complaining about how many people took advantage of pre-board. In this case, a good third of the passengers on board really did qualify for and need pre-board.

***

The flight went smoothly. Once in Grand Rapids, much of my time was dedicated to standing in line.  This was because I did the same thing everyone else did - I booked my car rental through the airplane, and I stayed at the hotel where all the official meetings were held.  So that was a 20+ minute wait for a car, and another 20+ minute wait to check into my room. Clever me also decided to pick up my bib numbers and other stuff at the same time as everyone else later that afternoon, so that was another 30 minutes.

The moral of the story - next year I need to be more original in my planning.

***

Friday evening was the "track and field coaches meeting" to go over the rules of the meet.  Since I was there on my own, I attended.  As someone who really wishes that track etiquette rules were posted at my local track (this comment aimed at the woman who does her recovery jogs in lane 1 clockwise...) the slide presentations warmed my heart a touch.

***

I slept in Saturday morning and then headed over to Calvin University - site of the track and field competition. The track itself was closed to runners because the field events were being held on the infield, but I was able to get a general sense of the venue and do a brief shake-out on some trails on the University campus before getting lunch.  It was warm, but the dew point was refreshingly low after a few weeks in DC - it felt great and my legs felt zippy.

The track was open to runners from 1:30-3:00 that afternoon, so I returned for about 15 minutes of jogging to see what the track felt like. It was a surprisingly soft track - almost like running on an astroturf infield. I had brought two pairs of race shoes with me - the Saucony Sinister and the Reebok FloatRide RunFast Pro.  A few minutes jogging in each convinced me that the Reeboks were the better, more comfortable choice for this weekend.

***

Sunday morning was my first race - the 1500.  Unfortunately, though I was in the first race of the day, I was not in the first heat of the day. Rather, I was in the 6th heat (of 10) for the 1500.  Oh well, I knew that I probably wasn't going to be lucky enough to be in the first heat, and it was what it was.  I warmed up on the track during the scheduled time (6:30-7:15 am). With my heat estimated to start at 8:30 am, I then tried to keep walking and stay limber, before starting to jog on a slip of road near the call tent around 8 am.

I didn't feel great, unfortunately. Just sluggish and a bit dull. Which surprised me as the air was still relatively dry and the temperature was in the low 70s - perfect for a summer 1500. But whatever, I was here, and I would race as best I could.

My heat of the 1500 was a mixed ambulatory field - meaning men and women (all 18 or older), with different impairments. Most were in the 18-21 age range, including another woman with a coordination impairment. And then there was a female lower leg amputee in her 30s and me.

We lined up for a waterfall start - men on the inside, women on the outside.  I noted that the amputee was to the right of me, with her left leg being the prosthetic.  I've noted that prosthetics tend to swing outwards slightly. Given my balance issues, any contact between my leg and her prosthetic would mean a possible fall for me.  I made a mental note to let her cut to the rail ahead of me, and then hopefully pass her on the outside.

The gun started, and just like always I was in last place.  I took a few breaths to try to relax my gait and then started working on that weird blend of "running hard but not running too hard." Over the next 3 and 3/4s laps I reeled in both of the women. It wasn't pretty, though.  Every time I would try to aggressively pass my quads would lock up, and I'd have to ease up and re-establish my rhythm and relax the tense muscles. I ended up swinging out to lane 2 and passing each very gradually (no surges).

 I would have liked to have run down some of the men as well, but I just had no oomph and they were too fast for me.

I crossed the line in 7:09.  Good enough for top woman in my heat and a win in my division.  I wasn't very happy with how I had run, though.  I was frustrated by both my rough gait and how off I felt.  The gait clearly needed more work, which was fine - it's always nice to have room and potential for improvement.  But why did I feel so rough?

I figured it out later that morning when I checked the weather on my phone.  We were under a code red air quality alert due to forest fire smoke from Canada that had rolled in overnight. It wasn't affecting me enough to make my asthma super obvious, but how I was feeling was totally consistent with a mild asthma flare.  

Unfortunately, the smoke was predicted to linger through tomorrow morning (the second and final day of track) before dissipating.  Of course it was.

Normally I try to avoid running outside in smoky air to protect my lungs. But, I was here and tomorrow's 3000 would be a short race. So rather than hang around at the event for the rest of the day to cheer others on, I took a quick tour of the vendor area and then headed back to the hotel.

***

The vendor area was pretty cool.  Several businesses that cater to adaptive athletes - primarily those with wheelchairs or prosthetics - had set up shop.  Some pictures:

This tent had the wheelchair equivalent
of the "trainer" used by cyclists.

If you zoom in on this picture...

You see a fancy carrying case 
for a prosthetic.

***

Sunday afternoon was Chipotle + stretching + reading.  I wasn't running a marathon, but why mess with my routine?

I went to bed fairly early so that I could get up around 4:30 to do my full routine of mobilization/stretching before heading over to the track to warm-up for the 3000.  Unfortunately, I somehow either slept through or didn't set my watch alarm with the result that I woke up at 5:15 am instead.

Not how I wanted to start the morning.  Fortunately, my original plan had been for a leisurely morning.  Sleeping in just meant that it was a bit less leisurely and more rushed, but I was still able to do everything I needed to before heading over.

***

When I arrived, I noted how hazy the sky was - almost like it was a foggy morning (though it wasn't).  My warm-up confirmed that I didn't feel any better than the day before. Which was disappointing, as I thought the 3000 was my best chance for a good performance, given a) the distance and b) the fact that it was scheduled to be the first race of the day. But whatever - I was here and I'd give it my best effort.

Unfortunately, when I checked in for the 3000m, I learned that the 5000 was being held before the 3000, so I no longer had the first race of the day.  (When I had registered, the 3000 had been listed first on the schedule). Oh well. Such is racing. I waited until the 5000 had about 6 laps left, and then began jogging again, trying to stay limber. Then we were called to walk to the start line.

I approached the 3000 with a different strategy.  Given the air quality, I didn't want to be pushing things too hard, lest a subtle asthma flare become less subtle. So this was the perfect opportunity to practice staying as relaxed as possible while racing.  No TENSION.  This strategy might backfire and cost me the race, but the air quality was already limiting me, so this was the perfect time to work on this.

When the gun went off, my legs were definitely stiff from the wait for the race, and so I very delicately eased into what felt like the fastest pace I could maintain while staying completely relaxed and smooth.  Fortunately, this pace was fast enough to gradually close the gap between me and the female amputee from the 1500 (this was another mixed race, with men and women from different classifications combined). Every time I felt the slightest bit of tension, I backed off the pace.

Focusing on smoothness, I eventually pulled up next to her.  She threw in some surges trying to keep up, but I did my best to ignore her and the fact that I was racing her and just keep my gait smooth.  We went around like this for two laps - her in lane 1 and me in lane 2 the whole time (yes, I know, but dropping behind her on the turn and then attempting to pass on the straightaway wasn't an option - my legs would just lock when I tried to pass).

Then things began to loosen up, and I started to pull away.  Eventually I had enough room to move into lane 1 comfortably.  From then I was running by myself, with a male runner about 50-75m ahead.  I spent the next laps negotiating with myself, because I knew I wasn't running at full race effort and I had someone ahead of me.  But my biggest goal for the morning was to run the entire race with absolutely no tension, so I held steady.

I finished in 14:31 (I don't have intermediate splits because I wasn't allowed to wear a smart watch for this race). Significantly slower than what I had hoped for when I entered, but I had finished as top female, won my division, and run a much better race (from a gait perspective) so I called it a good morning.

I won two gold medals - aren't they pretty?

Other notes:

• This was my second time at the Hartford Nationals, and I'm really glad I came again.  Overall, it was a really good experience and I hope to return next year.  I do think I need to focus on competition and forget about running my best times at this meet. With the big gaps between warm-up and race starts, The meet is just not set up for me to run my fastest. This is not a complaint at all, just an observation, in the same way that I'd never use a hilly marathon for a PR attempt.
  
  
• The New Jersey Navigators (an adaptive athlete team from....wait for it....New Jersey) have informally adopted me and let me use their tent when we're at the same meets. It is very much appreciated.
  
  
• I had optimistically booked a flight for Monday night back to BWI.  That flight was cancelled about 10 hours before takeoff, due to a predicted storm that actually did happen.  Fortunately, I had planned for this and packed everything I needed for staying an extra day as well as going into the office straight from BWI, so I declined Southwest's offer to rebook me that evening and just swapped to the 5:30 am flight on Tuesday morning. This was a good decision. 
  
  What was not a good decision was trying to save money by clicking on a last minute Trip Advisor deal for a hotel right next to the airport.  The hotel had 2.5 out of 4 stars and was a national chain, so I assumed that $50 would get me a clean safe bed and a shower for the evening. 
  
  I was so very wrong. I ended up checking out roughly an hour after checking in, skeeved out by the non-working door bolt, the pot smoke everywhere, the vague warnings from staff to avoid the back or side of the building, and the clerk's willingness to dispense a key card for any room to anyone who wanted a card for that room without confirming identity. I went back to my previous hotel and gratefully paid another $150 for another night of clean sheets and clean air.
  
  Lesson: never book a hotel "deal" without reading the reviews.