Training log - Week ending 1/4/2026

This week was 54 miles of running, 8 "miles" pool-running, and 1500 yards of swimming.

I had a little hiccup this week when my right peroneal muscle (outside calf/foot) got tight after Tuesday's treadmill run.  I usually do some mobility work before I run, but I was trying to squeeze this run in during a late lunch, and my peroneal paid the price.  It was still tight and just felt "iffy" on Wednesday morning, so I ended up pivoting from my planned treadmill interval workout to a pool-running workout to give that muscle time to heal up. 

It seems to have been the right choice, since I haven't felt the peroneal since.  And the pool-running workout was a very hard aerobic workout - probably harder than anything I can do on land (the nice thing about pool-running is that you don't fall down if your legs give out, so you can push things a bit harder than you would on land) so it was well spent (if painful) time.

One of my many issues is that I struggle with running in crowds and on uneven surfaces.  So, on New Years Day I decided to hop into the Fletchers Boathouse ParkRun for part of my easy run.  Call it immersion therapy.

The Fletchers ParkRun works really well for me because a) it's on the towpath with all the uneven surfaces that I hate running on and b) it's a fairly big ParkRun, so I'm certain to get stuck in a crowd and have to deal with it. Thursday's run was hard mental work, but also felt productive, so I'm going to try to make a habit of doing this more often.

Other than that, my fitness seems to be improving and my running feels much smoother than it has been.  Hopefully this upward trend continues.

Dailies:

Monday: 6 miles very easy (10:08) with two unmeasured strides. Upperbody weights/core and foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 5 miles very easy (10:24) and 600 yards swimming in the morning; 3 miles very easy (10:11) on treadmill during late lunch. Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 8 "miles" in the pool, including a workout of 20x 70 seconds hard/20 seconds rest. Leg strengthwork and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 8 miles very easy on the towpath (10:12), including jogging a ParkRun and upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x4:00 on/1:12 jog plus 4x30 seconds on/90 seconds jog.  Four minute intervals at 7.9-8.1 mph; 30 second intervals at 8.5-8.6 mph, jogs at 6 mph. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:46) with 2 hill sprints and 4x100m strides in 29 seconds down to 24 seconds. Followed by PT exercises. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 14.5 miles progressive, starting at 10:20 pace for the first 2.5 miles and ending at 8:23 pace for the final 2.5 miles.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 900 yards swimming.  Foam rolling at night.