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.