Training log - Week ending 3/22/2026

This week was 56 miles of running, 15 "miles" of pool-running and ~1000 yards of swimming.

Since the low point of last weekend was me bailing on a Saturday marathon effort workout after my right hamstring cramped, this was a cautious week.  I pulled back on mileage and pace for the first half, while also getting the knots worked out of the hammy and doing some strengthening work on my hip rotators. (This was because I suspect that irritated and tense hip rotators pressing on the sciatic nerve were a significant factor in the hammy cramping.) I also emphasized mobilization work on my ankles, since they seemed to play a role as well.

I was supposed to race Shamrock Half-Marathon this weekend but decided early in the week to skip it due to my hamstring/hip blip. By the second half of the week, things were better, but I stayed home anyway. Being healthy at Boston is my top priority, and I didn't need to do a half-marathon as a tune-up, given that I did one three weeks ago.

I tested the hamstring with a very cautious track workout - about 2 miles of work - most at tempo pace but with some strides at the end.  My objective was simply to check how things felt without ever working too hard, since I hoped to get some sort of long run in on Sunday.

As for how I felt on Friday?  The hamstring was fine, but my gait was definitely off - when I don't do fast strides regularly, I lose the muscle memory for fast running.  Fortunately, by the time I got to the strides, I had "remembered."

My plan for Sunday was 12-14 miles with 2x4 miles at marathon effort. The first mile at marathon effort was influenced by my paranoia - sometimes a tweak or injury can be gone, but one is so hyperfocused and worried about it that the muscle in question tightens up in response.  After that mile, I got my groove back, and felt better with every mile.  About a mile into the second rep, I decided to swap from 2x4 to 4, 3, 2, 1 at marathon effort. That went well (admittedly a bit too fast at the end), and no pain, tightness, or cramping during or after, so yay.  

Perhaps I could have done Shamrock after all, and I'm sad to have missed it.  OTOH, if I had reaggravated the hamstring/hip racing Shamrock, I'd be very upset right now. And doing a marathon effort workout is nowhere near the physical stress of a half-marathon raced all out.

Related - in case anyone else ever has the issue of weak hip rotators triggering sciatic pain and cramping, here is how I strengthen those muscles (keep in mind that I have no medical training or expertise, and what works for me may very well not work for you.  Caveat lectoris.):

• Program your Garmin to time intervals of 10-15 seconds, with recovery until you lap the watch.
• Lie on your stomach.  Your legs should be straight behind you; your hands can be under your forehead or wherever.
• Bend one knee and bring it out to the side, with the inside of the knee touching the floor.  Your ankle should be lying on the back of your other knee (that leg stays straight).  Basically, your two legs should make a triangle, with the three points being your hip, your knee, and your ankle on top of the back of the other knee.
• The exercise:
• 1) Isometrically press the front of your hip into the floor, as hard as you can tolerate (if your hip rotators are weak, you may have some cramping), for 10-15 seconds.  This works some hip rotators.
• 2) Isometrically press the inside of your knee into the floor, as hard as you can tolerate, for 10-15 seconds. This works other hip rotators.
• 3) Isometrically press the inside of your ankle into the back of your other knee, as hard as you can tolerate, for 10-15 seconds.  This works yet other hip rotators.
• Now, slide your ankle down your leg, to the bottom of your gastroc (the thick muscle at the top of your calf).  Repeat the three steps above (for the third isometric, press the inside of your ankle into your calf.
• Now, slide your ankle down more, so it's on top of your other ankle.  Your legs are still making a triangle - it's just a longer, flatter triangle. Repeat the three steps above again (for the third isometric, press the side of your top ankle into the back of your other ankle).
• Now, switch legs, and repeat the whole thing again on the other side.  This will be 18 isometric holds in total (9 each side), each lasting about 10-15 seconds.

This exercise takes about 6 minutes to do and can be done anywhere there is floor space.  I'm not making any promises or representations about whether this can help others, and I expressly disclaim responsibility if someone gets hurt doing this.  Again, I'm not a PT, and PTs are the experts on this sort of thing. However, this is the exercise that has cleared up things for me any time I've had hip rotator pain, or sciatic pain and cramping down my leg that I suspect is caused by tight hip rotators.

Dailies:

Monday: 6.5 miles very easy (10:08) with 2 untimed strides in the morning; foam rolling in the evening.

Tuesday: 8 miles on the treadmill, including 6x3:00/2:00 - intervals at 7.6 mph with 6 mph jogs.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.

Wednesday: 12 "miles" pool-running in the morning; upper body weights/core in afternoon.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday:  7 miles very easy on a muddy towpath (10:23).  500 yards swimming at lunch. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 9 miles, including testing the hamstring/hip with 2000m at tempo effort (7:53), 3x400m at tempo effort (1:54, 1:55, 1:54) with full recovery, and 4x100m strides (25, 25, 24, 24) with full recovery . Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8.5 miles easy on a muddy towpath (9:50), including a Park Run in 29:56. Followed with PT exercises and 500m of swimming.   Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 17 miles, including a workout of 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float in between.  Splits were: 36:08 (8:02 pace), 23:27 (7:49 pace), 15:23 (7:41 pace), and 7:37.  Floats were 8:51-8:53.  Followed with 3 "miles" pool-running and leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Training Log - Week ending 3/15/2026

This week was 44 miles of running, 21 "miles" of pool-running and 1000 yards of swimming.

Two workouts this week - one good and one not quite as good.

Wednesday's workout was a 4 mile tempo - in years past I've done 3x3200 as a slightly less-stressful alternative to my coach's preferred 25x400m at 10K pace. Being a bit older now (and having two half-marathons on the schedule), I decided to go even more conservative, with a simple 4 mile tempo. Better to undertrain than overtrain at this age and point in the training cycle.

The tempo went extremely well - I was expecting to run around 30 minutes, which would have been a big jump from 6 weeks ago, when I ran 30:44. Instead, I ran just over 29 minutes, which was a real shock. (I ignored my watch during the tempo, and so I didn't know what my splits were until I finished). Training is working.  Cool!

On Saturday, I hit Anacostia Park for my second 2x5 miles in fairly windy conditions. The effort during the workout felt remarkably easy,  Unfortunately, my right hamstring began to spasm during the second 5 mile set, so I shut things down before a spasm turned into a hamstring pull.

I'm pretty I know what caused this.  My hip rotators like to get tight sometimes and press on my sciatic nerve, which causes spasms and tightness down the leg. On Saturday my ankles were really tight (it happens sometimes), there was a strong crosswind which forced me to stabilize with my hip rotators, and my legs were cold (and thus rigid) due to a poor choice of shorts over tights. All of these combined to irritate the hip rotators on the right side, and...spasming hamstring.

Since I stopped rather than run myself into actual injury, this shouldn't take too long to fix.  Heck, if I was 20 or 30, it might have already vanished. But I'm 51, so it'll take slightly longer. As for the fix, I need to:

1. reduce my running but not stop altogether (both because it's harder to come back from zero and because running is the best tool I have for keeping my hips and ankles somewhat flexible)
2. work out the knots in my hamstring and hip rotators
3. mobilize and strengthen the hamstring and hip rotators.

So that's the plan for the upcoming week.

Dailies:

Monday: 8 "miles" pool-running; foam rolling, yoga, and PT exercises in afternoon.

Tuesday: 8 miles very easy (9:59), followed by 500 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 12 miles, including a 6400m tempo on the track in 29:01 (7:24/7:15/7:14/7:08) plus 4x200m in 54, 55, 53, and 52. Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday:  5.5 miles very easy on the towpath (10:42) followed by upperbody weights/core and PT work. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 6.5 miles very easy (10:14) and 500 yards swiming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12 miles, including a workout of 5 miles at marathon effort (40:06), 1 mile jog, and 1.5 miles at marathon effort (8:03).   Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: Upperbody weights/core and 13 "miles" of pool-running.

Training log - Week ending 3/8/2026

This week was 63 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running and 1000 yards of swimming.

The first half of the week was recovery from the One City Half.  We had yet another bout of icy conditions on Tuesday (fortunately shortlived) so Tuesday was a treadmill run.

One of my goals this training cycle is to be very smart about my recovery between hard efforts.  With a half-marathon last weekend and a progressive 20 miler this weekend, my mid week workout was intentionally half-assed - a 1600 at tempo effort and then some 200s and 100s to preserve some speed.

On Saturday I once again structured my easy run to include the Fletchers Boathouse parkrun.  Even at an easy effort, this parkrun is challenging for me (in a good way).  It has crowds and an uneven surface (the towpath), and a section that transitions from the towpath to concrete and back that is really hard (pun somewhat intended). Transitions between harder and softer surfaces are tough in a way that I can't really explain but a neurologist might.

It was in many non-physiological ways a hard easy run, but that was the whole point, and I once again felt better for doing it.  Additionally, I set a "Fletchers Boathouse Parkrun PR" of 28:28, so I seem to be getting better at these.  Or it's getting warmer.  Or I'm not being good enough about keeping the effort restrained on these.

Sunday's long run was a huge confidence boost. I ran it in Rock Creek Park as three out-and-backs of various lengths. Admittedly repetitive, but structuring the run this way meant that I did the whole run on rolling hills and was able to include two decent longer climbs - 1000m at a 1.5% incline and later 600m at a 2.3% incline - during the final third of the run at marathon effort.

I made a point of focusing on marathon effort (not pace) during the final third, and so was pleasantly surprised to see at the end of the workout that I had averaged sub-8 minute pace for the seven miles at marathon effort.  A few months ago running 800s at sub-8 pace was hard, so this is definitely progress, even if I am always at my best at the end of a long run.

Traditionally my running does three long runs of 20-22 miles split into 3rds, with 1/3rd easy, 1/3rd moderate, 1/3 marathon.  My coach told me to do two 20s, and I had no objection to that.  Additionally, I kept the run at 20, rather than the 21 or 22 I would have done previously.  Some of this is age - as an over 50 runner I think it's essential that I not stress my body any more than is necessary to achieve my goals.  

But there's also the fact that I'm slower now, and so running 20 or 21 or 22 miles keeps me out there longer. And there's a point where I'm simply running for too long, even if it's less miles than it was before. Doing a 20 miler structured as 7/6/7, rather than the 7/7/7 or 8/7/7 split that I used to do, means I still get the most important part of the run done (7 marathon effort miles on tired legs) but reduces the risk of overdoing stuff.

As I get older, and presumably slower, I suspect I'll probably modify these long runs even more, perhaps even down to something like 6 miles at easy effort, 5 at moderate effort, and then 7 at marathon effort. It seems the smartest way to balance the demands of marathon training with the reality of aging/slowing.

Dailies:

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running; foam rolling and PT exercises in afternoon.

Tuesday: 5 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:52), followed by 500 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy on a muddy towpath (10:22).  Upper body weights/core and foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 1600 at tempo effort, 4x200m, 8x100m.  Splits were 7:31 for the 1600, 54, 54, 54, and 53 for the 200s, and straight 24s for the 100s. 5:17 recovery after the 1600, 1:2x recovery between the 200s, full recovery for the 100s. Did two short hill sprints after. Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 7.5 miles very easy to gym (9:48), upperbody weights/core, 3 miles very easy home (9:28). Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8 miles easy on a slightly less muddy towpath (9:29) including a parkrun at easy effort (28:28).  Followed with 500 yards swimming and PT exercises.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 20.5 miles, split as the first 7 miles averaging 9:34 pace, the next 6 miles averaging 8:45 pace, and the last 7 miles averaging 7:57 pace, plus a half mile cooldown.

Race Report: One City Half Marathon, March 1, 2026

I ran the One City Half Marathon last Sunday, finishing in a time of 1:41:46, which was good enough to win my age group.

This is my fourth time racing this half, and I've got the day before routine nailed for this race.  Leave home as early as possible on Saturday (I left at 8:15 am) this year, drive down (stopping for Chipotle along the way), grab bib from a small but very organized and efficient bib pick-up/expo, check into hotel.  

The one tweak I made this year was to stay at the Holiday Inn at City Center.  The last few years, I've stayed in Hampton, VA - about a 10 minute drive from the finish line (and the buses from the finish line to the start). However, I did the math and the mapping and realized that the Holiday Inn's special rate was about half of what I would pay in Hampton, while only being about 5-10 minutes further from the finish line. I should note that there were also buses from the Holiday directly to the start line, but they weren't scheduled to arrive as early as the first finish line buses, and I need a long warm-up.

Getting up 10 minutes later on race morning wasn't worth $150 to me, so the Holiday it was.  Which was doubly fine because the Holiday was probably a bit nicer than anything I'd book in Hampton.

***

One of the many nice things about the One City Half is that the start is at a local high school, and for the past few years the high school gym has been open on race morning - providing a nice warm place to hang out, stretch, etc.

I always debate exactly when to get to the start of a point to point race, but for the One City Half, it's an easy decision. There's no reason not to be on the first bus there, since I can stretch and mobilize in the gym just as well as in the hotel. As early as possible this year meant the 5:05 am bus from the finish line. An early morning, but that's part of racing.  

My hotel had an 11 am checkout, and late checkout was prohibitively expensive (I would be charged 1/2 night if I checked out between 11 and noon, and for a full night if I checked out after noon). Since I was racing the half and would be done well before 9 am, checking out post-race was possible, but would come at the expense of cheering for friends running the full marathon. So, I decided to check out before the race - packing a clean change of clothes and some wipes in a separate bag for post-race.

This made for an even earlier morning.  Since I also had to time my Parkinsons medication with the race (I get roughly 4 hours per dose of Rytary), and with breakfast (Rytary works best for me if I take it at least 30 minutes before a meal or 60 minutes after) my morning ended up looking like this:

• 2:00 am - wake up, take Rytary, go back to sleep (I wasn't sleeping very well anyway).
• 3:30 am -wake up again.  Take asthma meds, eat breakfast and check the weather, get dressed, do some preliminary stretching, finish packing up everything.
• 4:30 am - check out of hotel.
• 4:55 am - arrive at finish line and park car (like every year, parking was well organized, efficient, and easy).
• 5:00 am - get on first bus to start line (like every year, it was very easy to find the right bus, with plenty of helpful volunteers and race staff).
• 5:05 am - bus leaves
• 5:45 am - we arrive at Menchville HS. Walk over to Menchville HS gym, hit indoor bathrooms before they get crowded, more mobilization.
• 6:00 am - take second dose of Rytary. Put on racing shoes.

After all of that, I walked over to the elite tent by the start line to drop off my gear bag. One City very generously invited me to be part of their elite field this year based on my para-athlete performances, which really meant a lot to me. And was also really convenient because I could access my gear bag until just before the start.

*** 

For my warm-up, I went with my standard - jogging for 15 minutes followed by 3 minutes at marathon down to half-marathon effort, 4x30 seconds faster, and then 4x10 second strides. I was wearing a jacket over a singlet with arm-warmers and thin tights.  The forecast started in the low 40s and ended at around 50 with a slight headwind and so I had been on the fence about tights versus shorts. My warm-up didn't help much with the decision (other than confirming that I didn't need the jacket). 

I stuck with the tights. One nuance of running with Parkinsons is that if my legs ever get chilled, my race is over - my legs lock up and then it becomes impossible to run hard enough to warm-up. The legs need to stay warm. And I haven't yet been bothered by legs that are too warm. OTOH, my torso seems to have a completely independent thermostat and can overheat pretty easily. So I went with tights and a singlet with arm-warmers. Plus an old heat sheet that I could wrap around me while standing in the corral.

***

With a few minutes to go, I entered the starting corral and made my way back to the 1:50 pace group.  It's very hard for me to get up to speed after standing for a few minutes, and so I generally seed myself by the pace I expect to run for the first mile, rather than the time I hope to finish in. It just works better for both myself and others.

We stood for a few minutes and then the gun went off.  Since I was back in the corral, I crossed the start line roughly 15 seconds after the gun. The first mile, as always, was rough. I focused on my balance and staying cool and remembering that this was a long race. After a mile or so, my gait settled and I was able to start working my way up into race pace.

Every year I seem to run this race a bit slower, which means every year the race (to me) seems to have more people.  It took some time to navigate my way up and past the 1:50 pace group, which had pulled ahead at the start. I could see the 1:45 group ahead, and it was a big group. Cones limited the race course to the width of one lane and the 1:45 group was spread fully across the lane and about 3-4 people deep. Getting past them was going to take some work.

It's probably helpful at this point to explain that one of my big challenges with Parkinsons is balance.  My proprioception and my vestibular sense are both lousy, meaning that I rely mostly on vision for balance. When I'm on an open road or track and can see far ahead, running is easier.  When I've got a group of people in front of me, most of whom are taller, running is harder. And it gets even harder as I get closer to the group. I can't spot something in the distance for balance - instead I see bouncing heads and backs. But the situation was what it was, so I did the best I could.

I worked my way up to the 1:45 group, but then was stuck, with no room on the course to pass them. Tt was really tempting to step outside the cones, as several other runners were doing, so that I could have a clear path past the group. But I didn't want to do anything that could be construed as course cutting, so I stayed inside the cones and bided my time.

Finally, just before mile 6, the course widened and I was able to slip past and open up my stride. The next few miles were about cruising, reeling in struggling runners, and slurping a gel.

***

Since I was in the elite field, I was allowed to put a water bottle out on course at mile 8. I had dropped my bottle off at the expo the day before, with a caffeinated gel taped to it. As I approached mile 8, the sun was coming out and I was starting to get a bit thirsty. Sometimes I grab my bottle just because; but this time I actually needed it. Or at least really looked forward to it.

Unfortunately, my bottle wasn't on the table. My best guess is that another runner grabbed it by accident. It happens.

The good news was that it was only water (also available on the course) and a caffeinated gel, which I could do without. The bad news was that I hadn't bothered to memorize where the water stations were on course. And I also had to be careful, because there were several unofficial community water stops, but taking water from one of them would DQ me.

Fortunately, the official race water stops were well marked and plentiful, and I was able to (poorly) grab a cup about a mile later.

***

At mile 10 I decided it was time to start hammering to the finish.  Fortunately, there was no shortage of people to chase down, which was really helpful. Less helpful were the numbered streets - when you know the finish line is on 25th Street, seeing a sign for 71st Street can be disheartening. I ignored the streets and focused on the people and the road ahead.

Finally, thankfully, the last turn loomed - I knew the finish line was about 100m after the turn. I accelerated as best I could (which wasn't all that much) to and across the line. As I finished I saw the clock ticking up to 1:42 and was slightly disappointed - I had hoped to go below 1:40. But I felt I had run a solid race so I couldn't be too upset.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 8:43
Mile 2: 7:50
Mile 3: 7:52
Mile 4: 7:42
Mile 5: 7:57
Mile 6: 7:45
Mile 7: 7:48
Mile 8: 7:42
Mile 9: 7:45
Mile 10: 7:49
Mile 11: 7:22
Mile 12: 7:22
Mile 13: 7:19
last .11 0:49 seconds

Other notes:

• Thought I didn't run as fast as I wanted, I did win my age group, which meant a lot to me.  I'm 3 years into my Parkinsons diagnosis, and I'm really happy that I can still hold my own racing against (presumably) runners that don't have Parkinsons.
• I also note that a few months ago I was working really hard to hit 7:50 pace during an 800m repeat. Things are definitely moving in the right direction.
• I ran the last 5K of this race in 22:52. I ran the By George 5K three weeks earlier in 23:23. This is the third year that I've run both races, and each time I've finished the One City Half faster than my standalone 5K time. By George is held on a very fast course, and the last 5K of One City is flat, not downhill, so race courses don't explain this.  It's just that it's very hard for me to run fast right away after standing. A 10 mile warm-up, on the other hand....
• My friends in the marathon ran well.  Unfortunately, the race got a bit too warm for fast marathons (55 degrees is fine if you've been training in it, but a shock to the system when you've been training in 14 degrees), but they both put in solid performances that they can be proud of.
• I saw a lot of familiar faces from the DC area at this race - it's really cool that more DC/Northern Virginia runners are realizing what a great race this is.
• Everyone in the elite field got a nice parting gift after - a bottle of champagne. You could also have it decorated with a customized message if you wanted.  It was a really cool perk.
• The finish festival for this race has a large assortment of food trucks, and runner bibs include a ticket for a free meal from a food truck. I grabbed some tacos, and they really hit the spot.

Training log - Week ending 3/1/2026

This week was 47 miles of running,and 500 yards of swimming.

This was the week that I raced the One City Half-Marathon.  Race report to come.

Dailies:

Monday: 6 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:46) and upperbody weights/core; foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 8 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 6x3:00/2:00+6x0:30/2:00.  Three minute intervals were at 8.2-8.3 mph; 30 second intervals were at 8.8 mph.  All jogs at 6 mph.  Followed with leg strengthwork and PT exercises.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 7 miles very easy (9:48) with 2 hill sprints and 4x100m in 26 down to 24, followed by 500 yards swimming. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 4 miles very easy (10:49) on trails, followed by PT exercises. Upperbody weights/core and foam rolling at night.

Friday: 6 miles with about 15 strides (meant to do a mile pick-up, but the track was too slick). Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: Travel to Newport News, DIY yoga, foam rolling.

Sunday: 3 mile warm-up, and then One City Half Marathon in 1:41:46.