Training log - Week ending 2/09/2025

This week was 61 miles of running and 3 "miles" of pool-running.

Tuesday was my first team workout on the track in about 8 weeks.  It went well, in that I had much less trouble with the dark and with being passed then in previous years (I suspect part of this is a medication change and part is better stability due to PT work).  The less good part was that I was a bit slower than I had hoped, running the intervals at the same pace as my 3200m repeat the week before.  However, I think some of this can be written off as due to lack of recent experience in running fast outside, and also lousy sleep the night before.

Friday was a longer tempo - I haven't done an 8K tempo in a while, and wasn't necessarily planning to on Friday, but I locked into the right effort level and just went with it.

As for Saturday - I've found that my gait really benefits from running on trails (all the uneven and unpredictable footing) but that I also benefit from running on my treadmill with the Lever Runner to cue good form (I can't comfortably bend at the waist or overstride while using the Lever Runner).  So I did both with a double.  Then Sunday was a 16 mile long run to start building towards Boston.  

My legs were definitely a bit tired on Sunday, which makes sense when I look back at my log - I usually try to hang out at around 55-60 miles per week, but I've been between 30-45 for the last month due to Covid recovery, schedule conflicts, etc.  Since 55-60 is my normal mileage, I'm not too worried about jumping right back to that level from an injury standpoint.  But some fatigue will be normal until I adjust.

On a different note - I was invited to be on the Run Farther & Faster podcast this week, hosted by two local runners whom I really admire - Lisa Levin and Julie Sapper.  Give it a listen if you are so inclined.

Dailies:

Monday: 5 miles very easy (9:33) and yoga.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 2x800, 2x1200, 2x800 in 3:40, 3:43, 5:29, 5:28, 3:37, 3:34, and 1:45, with 2:4x-3:1x recovery after each.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:54) plus two hill sprints.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: Upperbody weights/core + 3 "miles" pool-running in the morning; massage in the afternoon.

Friday: 10 miles with an 8K tempo in 37:55 (7:34/7:31/7:36/7:39/7:35) plus two 200s in 58 and 55 with full recovery. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 6 miles very easy on trails (10:42), streaming pilates, and 3 miles very easy on the arc-trainer at -35 pounds (8:00).  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: 16.5 miles progressive - starting at 10:20 pace and ending at 8:02 pace, followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 2/2/2025

This week was 43 miles of running and 9 "miles" of pool-running.

This was my first week of running mostly outside after what seems like a very long time on the treadmill (it was only 3 weeks).  Unsurprisingly, running outside is a bit of an adjustment - wind, camber, uneven pavement, and declines are all stuff I can't replicate on the treadmill.

I started off with a tempo because the slower pace made it a bit easier to transition, followed by hills because I needed to do hills.  Both were OK.  I think I was hoping for some miraculous boost in fitness from my treadmill workouts, but all indications were that I either preserved my fitness or had a slight gain.  Which, of course, is not the worst possible outcome.

The One City half-marathon is now a month away, and Cherry Blossom and Boston aren't far either, so it's time to start getting a bit more focused.

Dailies:

Monday:  3 "miles" of pool-running and yoga.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 7 miles, including a track workout of 3200, 1600 in 14:41 (7:23/7:18) and 7:18 with 4:36 recovery between the two.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 10 miles very easy (9:44) plus two hill sprints.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy (8:12) on the Lever Runner (-35 pounds) in the morning; streaming pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 8 miles, including 8 Iwo Jima hill repeats (2:30 powerful up a 3% incline, 90 second jog, ~50 second downhill stride, and 50 seconds jog to bottom).  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: In the afternoon, upperbody weights/core and 6 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: 10 miles easy (9:27) plus upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 1/26/2025

 This week was 32 miles of running and 9 "miles" of pool-running.

I thought I wrote up and published an entry for this week, but it's not showing now, so this is my second try.  Since I'm now a week behind, I'll just note that I took two days off this week to recover from some prolotherapy injections in my right hamstring and left hip.  These weren't to address a major injury - rather, several people have suggested to me that the repeated problems I've had with my right hip rotators are due to some lingering damage to the right hamstring that I tore about 10 years ago.  So, before I started a new training cycle, I did a round of prolotherapy to hopefully strengthen that area up a bit.

The doctor that I use for prolo usually lets me run right away, but this time he suggested 48 hours off, so that's what I did.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" of pool-running and yoga.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 8 miles on the treadmill, including a tempo intervals workout of 6x4 minutes at 8.2-8.3 mph with 72 second jog at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: Off except for foam rolling in evening. (prolotherapy injection in morning)

Thursday: Upperbody weights/core in morning and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 6 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:41) in the morning.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 8 miles on the treadmill, with a tempo intervals workout of 4x5 minutes at 8.2-8.3 mph with 1 minute jog at 6 mph, followed by 6x30 seconds at 8.8-9.0 mph with 90 second jog at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: 10 miles easy (9:27) plus upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 1/19/2025

This week was 44 miles of running and 6 "miles" of pool-running.

Our weather has not been good for running this week.  The local trails have been either snow/ice covered or visually clear but subject to patches of black ice.  And the weather has been frequently very cold - I find now that when it gets into the mid-20s or lower, my muscles get super tight and I'm prone to injury.  The air has also been very dry, which aggravates my asthma.

So, because of the weather, I was on the treadmill all week.  Saturday actually seemed like it would be a good day to do a hill workout outside, but black ice quickly sent me back to my treadmill.  Sunday morning was another opportunity to run outside, but I slept in after getting my second Shingles vaccination on Saturday afternoon (basically checking off that box before starting to train for One City/Cherry Blossom/Boston).

Since I'm between training cycles right now, I spent this week doing hills and tempo intervals - giving me a chance to work on power and stamina. My paces have continued to speed up as I come back from Covid - which is much better than the reverse.

I also continued to experiment with my Lever Runner.  When it's set at -5 pounds, it feels essentially like normal running, but with constant reminders to not hunch over or overstride.  On Sunday, I tried running at -35 pounds, and I think that's a helpful setting for me also, though I wouldn't want to train with that much of an assist all the time.

Running while weighing 35 pounds less feels very much like running downhill, which is a good opportunity to practice staying relaxed while the ground falls away from me.  

Another bonus is that running with that much weight reduction allows me to run with a very big stride and proper cadence while still keeping my heart rate and effort in the recovery zone.   From a Parkinsons/neurologic standpoint, it would be idea to run with a big fast stride every time.  However, from an orthopedic/endocrine standpoint I need easy low effort days.  Using the Lever runner at this setting lets me do both.

I obviously can't train with the Lever runner, or even the treadmill, all the time.  I need to be running outside on different surfaces and with downhills and cambers.  But I think that after the weather clears I'll still try to run with the Lever runner regularly, just so I can reap some of its benefits as well.

Dailies:

Monday:  6 "miles" of pool-running and yoga.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: Upperbody weights/core and 8 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:10) with the Lever runner set at -5 pounds. Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Wednesday: 5 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:17) at midday.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 5.5 miles on the treadmill, including a tempo intervals workout of 3x7:30 at 8 mph with 90 second jog at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 7.5 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:12) with the Lever runner set at -5 pounds. Upperbody weights/core in the afternoon. Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 8 miles on the treadmill, with an "Iwo Jima Hills" workout of 8 reps of 2:00 at 8 mph on a 3% incline, 90 second flat jog (6 mph), 30 second stride at 8.5-8.8 mph, and a 60 second jog (6 mph).

 Leg strengthwork and foam rolling in the afternoon, followed by second Shingles vaccination.

Sunday: 10 miles very easy on the treadmill (8:13) with the Lever runner set at -35 pounds.  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 1/13/2025

 This week was 33 miles of running and 4 "miles" of pool-running.

I tested negative for Covid this week, but a combination of slight residual fatigue, bad weather, and other commitments meant that my training was reduced in both volume and intensity, as well as completely inside.

Related to the above, I've decided to DNS the Houston Marathon for a second year in a row.  With a week to go, I don't feel like I have any reserves.  Part of this is from having Covid recently, but it's also because our new kitten, Karma, has now had three unexpected surgeries for the same issue in the past month, and staying on top of her needs has been physically and emotionally exhausting (though hopefully worth it).  I just don't feel rested and ready to go at all - and that's not a good thing for a marathon. Plus, I don't necessarily want to leave town when Karma's still recovering from surgery. And of course there's that risk of getting long Covid from pushing stuff too aggressively after a recent Covid infection.

So it's better to skip the marathon, get my batteries recharged, and focus on the spring.  The fall training cycle wasn't a waste at all - I started it coming off of an injury that had me miss two months of serious training, and by the end I was back to my normal training volume without re-aggravating anything.  I feel like I'm old enough now that simply accomplishing that is something to appreciate.

So, this week was reduced mileage, with "fun" workouts that were deliberately run at a lower than normal intensity.  Basically, staying active with some upbeat running without doing anything really stressful.  I also stayed on my treadmill the whole time, first because of ice and snow, and then because when it gets too cold my muscles get tight and I feel more likely to pull something.

As part of my treadmill "fun" I decided to test out my Lever Runner again.  And...I made a pretty cool discovery.  

Essentially, two major flaws that I'm always fighting are a tendency to bend at the waist and a tendency to overstride. - both of these are neurological in origin - it feels like I'm upright, but I'm not.  However, when I use the Lever Runner, it is really awkward to do either, to the point where I immediately self-correct into a better balanced form.  This applies independent of how much or little weight I have the Lever Runner set at.

So...I've started doing my easy treadmill runs with the Lever Runner set so that it barely removes any weight at all (using my bathroom scale, it's set at -5 pounds from my body weight).  Running with it this way isn't that much different from running without, but I still get the benefits of the instant form correction.  It will be interesting to see how this pays off when I return to running outside.

Dailies:

Monday:  Off except for some foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 5 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 5x4 minutes with 72 seconds jog.  The on part was at 7.6-7.7 mph, the jog was at 6 mph.  Followed with some leg strengthwork; foam rolling in the afternoon.

Wednesday: 6.5 miles very easy on the treadmill (8:50), using the Lever Runner at -10 pounds.  Pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7.5 miles on the treadmill, including a "Iwo Jima Hills" workout of 8 reps of 2:00 at 7.6 mph on a 3% incline, 90 second flat jog (6 mph), 30 second stride at 8.3-8.5 mph, and a 60 second jog (6 mph).  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 4 miles pool-running and yoga.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 7 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:32) using the Lever Runner at -5 pounds.  Upper body strength/core and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: 7 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 4x5 minutes with 60 seconds jog.  The on part was at 7.7 mph and the jog was at 6 mph.   Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 1/5/2025

This week was 20 miles of running, 40 minutes of hiking, and 4 "miles" of pool-running.

This was going to be my first week of taper for the Houston Marathon, and thus pretty active.  And then I tested positive for Covid 19 on Wednesday morning and that messed up everything.

So much of this week ended up really light, as I prioritized recovery.  The last time I had Covid, I found that moderate running, including workouts done at an easier effort than normal, seemed to help clear stuff out, so I'm using that same strategy this time.  A big part of this is keeping an eye on my heart rate, making sure it stays below my marathon effort heart rate. 

I did a cautious hill workout on Saturday and felt better on Sunday for it.  So we'll see how things go.  I have Houston in 2 weeks, and I'd obviously like to be able to run it well.  I'll decide a few days before the race whether I'm recovered enough to go down and race it.

Dailies:

Monday:  4 "miles" of pool-running in the morning.  Yoga and foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 7 miles easy (9:13) and upper body strength/core; foam rolling in the afternoon.

Wednesday: Tested positive for Covid 19.  Just gentle yoga and foam rolling.

Thursday: 40 minutes of walking on trails/hiking plus a bit of leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 3 miles very easy (9:38) and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 6 miles on the treadmill, including a careful imitation Iwo Jima hill workout of 6 repetitions of 2:00 at 6.8-7.1 mph with 3% incline/90 seconds jog/30 seconds at 8-8.4 mph; 60 second jog.  Followed with a bit of leg strengthwork and foam rolling.

Sunday: Yoga and 4 miles very easy (9:58).  Foam rolling in evening.

Training log - Week ending 12/29/2024

This week was 68 miles of running and 3 "miles" of pool-running.

This was my last week of training for Houston before starting to taper down.  I did have to work most of my training around our new kitten, Karma, who popped an anal fistula two days after we adopted her last week.  (An anal fistula is essentially a second, uncontrolled exit for digestive waste from the kitten - very fun to manage at home).

Karma had surgery to repair the fistula on Monday, but then ate something she shouldn't have (a dangling nylon thread hidden in a carpeted cat cave).  The resulting digestive issues undid the surgery and resulted in an ER visit on Friday night (and a very late night for me).  I've learned that trying to do a long run at the end of a hard week on no sleep is a recipe for injury, either during the long run or a few days after.  So I pushed the long run back to Sunday.  

The long run itself went OK, if not great.  I'm hoping to run 3:25 or faster at Houston, but marathon effort for the last 7 miles yielded a pace about 15 seconds too slow for that goal.  However, I was really tired and stressed for that long run and felt very meh during it (plus the weather was unseasonably warm for this time of year), so I'm just going to ignore the long run as a measure of my fitness and be glad that I got it done at the correct effort level.

Dailies:

Monday:  8 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:28) in the morning.  Foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: In the morning, 8 miles on the treadmill, with a workout of 5x4 minutes on (7:09 pace) with 72 second jog, plus leg strengthwork.  3 miles very easy outside (9:29) in the afternoon; foam rolling in the evening.

Wednesday: In the morning, 7 miles very easy (10:26) on trails.  Yoga and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 10 miles on the track, including a 6400m tempo in 29:22 (7:25/7:25/7:17/7:13), followed by leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 10.5 miles very easy (9:40) plus two strides and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 3 "miles" pool-running in the morning; yoga and foam rolling in the evening.

Sunday: 21 miles progressive, split as the first 7 miles averaging 9:35 pace, the next 7 miles averaging 8:51 pace, and the next 7 miles averaging 8:04 pace.  Plus a 1/2 mile cooldown jog.