Training log - Week ending 2/1/2026

This week was 47 miles of running, 12 "miles" pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming.

The winter storm that hit the DC area late last week disrupted everybody's training this week.  We received about 6 inches of snow followed by a few hours of sleet and then freezing rain, which resulted in "snowcrete." Snowcrete is snow that is as heavy and hard as concrete - it is in fact hard enough to walk on without sinking in (I've done it). You can't shovel this stuff - you have to hack it into chunks with some sort of metal tool and then toss the chunks into the big piles of snowcrete chunks that seem to be everywhere right now.

Since, a) I had done a hard treadmill workout on Sunday, and b) the pool was closed on Monday, and c) I would likely be running on my treadmill for much of the next week, I skipped aerobic activity on Monday and just did some yoga and snowcrete removal. I'm worried about repetitive stress injuries from too much treadmill running (hitting the ground the exact same way with each stride), especially since I haven't been running much on my treadmill until this past week. So taking a day kinda/somewhat off seemed like the smartest choice.

Because of the worry about overdoing the treadmill, I tried to keep my runs outside whenever possible.  However, both my hard runs this week were on the treadmill - an interval workout on Wednesday and a kinda-marathon effort run on Saturday.  For both of these, the paces felt a bit easy, but that's not the worst thing in the world.

Normally I'd be doing a 14-16 mile long run with some miles at marathon effort at this point, since I'm about to start training for Boston.  But...the cold dry air meant that I didn't want to do any fast running outside, even after some of the local trails were plowed (asthma concerns).  At the same time, I didn't want to run for too long on the treadmill, for the reasons stated above.  So, I split my weekend up into a somewhat shorter treadmill run with 3x25 minutes (just over 3 miles) at marathon-ish effort on Saturday, followed by a two hour pool-run on Sunday to get some non-impact volume in. Not ideal, but it got the job mostly done while keeping me healthy.

Hopefully we'll get some melting of the snowcrete this week.  Maybe.

Dailies:

Monday: Yoga in the morning; knocking snowcrete off of my car in the afternoon; foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 9 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:38) and upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 2x4:30 with 3:00 recovery, 2x3:00 with 2:00 recovery, 2x1:30 with 1:00 recovery and 4x0:30 with 1:30 recovery.  4:30 reps at 8.0-8.2 mph; 3:00 reps at 8.2-8.3 mph; 1:30 reps at 8.4 mph, and 0:30 reps at 8.7 mph.  All jogs at 6mph. Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles on the Lever Runner at -15 mph. Breaking up snowcrete in afternoon. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: In the morning, 9 miles very easy outside (10:00). 550 yards of swimming in afternoon.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12.5 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 3x25 minutes with 5 minutes jog.  First repeat was at 7.3-4.4 mph, second two were at 7.4 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: PT exercises and upperbody weights/core followed by 12 "miles" of pool-running and 450 yards swimming.