Training log - week ending 5/4/2025

This week was 28 miles of running and 24 "miles" of pool-running.

It looks like my mileage dropped from last week, but that's only because the marathon was on Monday, which added to last week's total. 

This week was about ramping up my mileage and re-introducing some faster running with hills and short track intervals on Sunday.  When I don't run for a few days, I have to relearn the mechanics of how to run.  And when I don't run fast for a few days, I have to relearn how to run fast.

It's a lot easier for me to run fast on an incline than on flat ground - it's a combination of hill running requiring less hip extension/stride length and my balance feeling more stable going uphill. So mixing hills and track running was a good way to practice running faster where it's easier for me before trying to carry that over to the track.

I also spent this week adjusting to different shoes.  This is because I hope to run in at least two para-athlete track races this summer (the Hartford Nationals in July plus a track meet in May to get the required qualifying times.) For those meets I'm required to wear shoes with a stack height of 20 mm or less (this is changed from last year's limit of 24 mm). 

It's hard for me to shift between high stack supershoes and low stack shoes - I suspect this is because I'm always estimating where the ground is under my feet, and the stack of the shoe I'm running in affects the distance between my feet and the ground. When I run in high stack shoes, I make an educated guess that has to be recalculated for low stack shoes (and vice versa).

For this reason I've started working on that shift now - doing all my runs in older low stack shoes like the Adios 5 and the original Adidas SL to get used to no bounce and more ground feel. Unfortunately though those shoes are _lower_ in stack height, they're still not low enough to be legal - 20mm or less is a very thin-soled shoe

I've been looking for a track racing shoe that is legal, but does not have spikes. There are very few non-spike shoes that satisfy the 20mm requirement, but I've managed to locate a pair of the New Balance Pvlse, which is track legal. Hopefully I'll get a chance to test them this upcoming week.

One other thing I've been playing with is PNF stretching.  One of my issues is muscles that want to contract and stay tight even when I try to relax them.  Botox injections are a traditional treatment for this, but I don't want to get them for a few reasons - a) they're unpredictable and not a long term fix; b) I don't have one or two muscles that need relaxing, but all of them; and c) I'm concerned that deliberately weakening muscles will set me up for injury during very hard workouts or races.

PNF stretching (also known as contract and relax stretching) supposedly can temporarily pause the excessive neurological signals that make muscles tight for no good reasons. So I've been experimenting with it before some runs, to see which muscles I need to focus on most and also when to time the stretch before the run.  

So far, it seems like the best muscles to stretch are my quads, all the muscles of the lower legs, and the intrinsic muscles on the underside of my feet.  Those are the muscles that like to contract and make it hard to bend my knees or ankles. I'm going to spend some more effort here in coming weeks to see if I can refine my pre-run stretching routine down to something that works but is efficient (and ideally can also be done in a starting corral pre-race).

Dailies:

Monday: 7.5 "miles" of pool-running + foam rolling.

Tuesday: 8 miles very easy (10:44) plus drills and two strides and upperbody weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 6 miles very easy on trails (11:03) and leg strengthwork.

Thursday:  7.5 "miles" of pool-running and upperbody weights/core + foam rolling.

Friday: 5 miles very easy (10:02) + streaming yoga and foam rolling.

Saturday: 9 miles, including 6 x 30 second hills (cycling twice through easy/moderate/hard), 4x400 in 2:02, 2:00, 1:59, and 1:56 with 90 second recovery, another 6x30 second hills, and 4x100 in 25-26 seconds. Followed with streaming pilates and foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 9 "miles" pool-running plus core and foam rolling.