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.