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.