Training log - Week ending 1/22/2023

This week was 20 miles of running and 44 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

The first half of the week was recovery, with just social pool-running. 

 I recovered really quickly from Houston - I suspect a lot of that is because my neurological issues were the limiter rather than my aerobic system or legs. I wasn't able to max myself out, and so I bounced back faster than I would otherwise have. 

Starting on Friday morning I swapped neuro meds - I had been on the generic version of a drug called Sinemet - a blend of the drugs carbidopa and levodopa. I swapped to a drug called Rytary, which is also carbidopa and levodopa, just a higher dose and delivered as extended release (meaning it doesn't wear off as quickly). 

I have only been on Rytary a few days, but it has felt amazing from the first time I took it. I'm pushing off with my calves and toes when I run again, and my legs feel ridiculously bouncy. I can mostly tell where/when my feet are relative to the ground again, which makes running a lot easier and more enjoyable. 

 So I'm really excited. We will see what this week brings.

Dailies:

Monday:  9 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 6 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 9 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: Streaming yoga and 6 miles (9:37).  Foam rolling at night

Saturday: 10.5 miles (9:23), drills/hill strides, and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 3.5 miles easy (9:36), drills/strides, and 11 "miles" pool-running.

Training log - Week ending 1/15/2023

This week was 55 miles of running and 6 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Just a place holder for race week.

Monday: Upper body weights/core and 6 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 8 miles including a track workout of 2x1200, 2x800, 400 in 5:44, 5:19, 3:24, 3:19, 1:33, with long recoveries between each.   Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy (9:34); yoga midday.  Massage in evening.

Thursday: 7 miles, including 1600m in 7:25; followed with drills and light upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: Off.  Just travel and some foam rolling. 

Saturday: 4 miles very easy (9:50) plus drills.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: .75 mile shakeout and then Houston Marathon in 3:26:24

Race Report: Houston Marathon, January 15, 2023

I ran the Houston Marathon yesterday, finishing in a time of 3:26:24. 

The omens were bad when I boarded my flight to Houston, scheduled to depart at 6:10 am on Friday the 13th.  From my window seat as we waited to push back, I could see heavy rain blown by strong winds.  I checked the seat pocket and noted that I was on the infamous Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, now back in service in the US.

But the flight went well, other than a rough takeoff and a bit of turbulence, and we landed in Houston both early and intact.  I decided to take this as a positive indication for the weekend.

[obligatory note here: I actually do think that the Max 8 jets are probably the safest aircraft out there at this point, given the level of scrutiny given to them before they went back in the air]

After landing, I grabbed a cab from IAH to my hotel.  As an aside, one of the few things I don't like about Houston is the lack of public transportation to/from the airport.  I always like to take public transportation when possible - both for environmental reasons and because it's a cool way to experience a different city.   When you take a cab, you are separate from the city; when you take a bus or train, you're in the city.

 It seems like most major cities at this point have at least a specialized shuttle service or express bus that will take you directly from the airport to downtown.  But not Houston.  The only offering was a regular bus that would take 60-90 minutes to get to downtown.  A trip that long would be cutting into precious Chipotle carb-loading time, so I sucked it up and grabbed a taxi.  

So essentially, when given a choice between the environmental high road or Chipotle, I chose Chipotle.

***

For the Houston expo this year, we were asked a week in advance to choose a 15 minute timeslot for attending the expo.  Each 15 minute timeslot had a maximum capacity of 500 people.  I had selected 9:30 am on Saturday but was able to swap that to 2 pm on Friday pretty easily once I landed.  Nobody checked my information or my timeslot once I got to the expo, so it seems that the timeslots were request and not strict requirement.

In years past, Houston has given out one race shirt at the expo and then a second shirt when you finish.  This year, they changed that - I received a nice bag at the expo, and then a shirt and a glass mug after finishing the race.  Which was cool - before I was never quite sure which shirt was the official race shirt (answer: both of them).

As an aside, it seems that race shirt practices really vary based on region of the US.  On the east coast, you get your shirt when you attend the expo, and can exchange it there.  On the west coast, you get your shirt when you attend the expo, but can only exchange it for another size post-race.  

And then there's the middle of the US, where you get your shirt after finishing the race (unless you're the Houston of prior years, where you did both).  I guess one of the benefits of a post-race shirt practice is that you have to buy slightly less shirts.

***

The rest of the weekend pre-race was pretty boring, as it should be before a marathon.  I did a four mile shakeout on Saturday (up from my normal two miles) and bought more Chipotle as well as some sunscreen.  The weather on Saturday was great for racing (45 degrees) but the forecast was trending warmer for Sunday, and sunscreen was the one thing I hadn't shipped to myself.

I experimented with a different taper this time.  I've had a taper schedule that worked well for years, but I've found that my recent neurologic issues get worse with more rest. At Chicago, I used my standard taper, and my legs felt very fresh but really really stiff.  So this time I didn't taper quite as much, with some subtle increases.  A 5K tempo 10 days out became 4 miles, and 12 miles moderate 7 days out became 14 miles with the last 4 at marathon effort.  I also ran a mile or two more each day than I have in previous tapers.  My legs felt fantastic during my Saturday shakeout, which were a sign that I made the right changes to my taper.  Of course the true test would be on race morning.

***

For my neurologic/dystonia stuff, I'm currently on a medication called carbidopa/levodopa that I'm supposed to take every 5 hours (can shorten this to 3:30), which usually seems to last about 4 hours after I take it.  I'm supposed to take it when I first wake up, and then every 5 hours after that.  It takes about 20-30 minutes to kick in - giving me a fairly small window of when it works.  I also have to take it 30 minutes after eating or 2 hours before.   So it's a bit tricky planning this around running a marathon.

I ended up going with the following on race morning: I woke up at 2:45 am, took the first dose, and went back to bed.  Then I woke up at 4 am and ate breakfast.  After that, I did my stretching and then went for an 8 minute shakeout around 5:30 am.  Came back to the hotel (conveniently located 3 blocks from my corral entrance), used the bathroom once again, and then grabbed a little baggie with a few tablets of the C/L (I only take one tablet, but wanted extras in case I dropped one) and headed over to the corral.  The race started at 7:01, and so I took the next tablet at 6:30 am, hoping that I had hit the timing right.  And then I entered my corral.

I've run Houston twice before, but this was my first time in the A corral.  Honestly, it wasn't much different from the ADP corral.  I saw signs for various pacers, and decided to seed myself behind the 3:35 group, and then plan to chase down as many pace groups as I could during the race.  

At around 6:55 the A corral was moved into place behind the start line, elites, and ADP corral.  There was a fresh set of portapotties available for last minute use there - a very nice touch by the Houston organizers (though I suspect the primary purpose of those portapotties was for the elites during their warm-up - we were now standing in what was their space).

The race started at 7:01, but I didn't cross the start line until around 7:05.  Despite my best efforts, my legs were awfully stiff and awkward the first few miles - a combination of standing still, the darkness, a fairly strong tailwind, and being surrounded by many other people - all of which are triggers for my neuro issues.  But I knew this would be the case and I'd just have to be patient - the good thing about marathons is that there's a lot of opportunity to make up time.  And sure enough after the first 10 minutes my legs loosened up and I was able to start really running.   

***

I ran this race by feel as I always do, not looking at my watch.  I generally have two racing marathon plans.  

-One is for when I'm feeling sure of my fitness and the weather, and am willing to take risks for a top performance - that plan is basically very easy for the first mile, careful for the next 5-6, and then lock into a hard rhythm, hopefully starting to hammer around 20-21. 

-The second for when the weather or my fitness is uncertain - in that case I run cautiously for the first 16 and then plan to pick it up the last 10 miles if I am able.  This is a safer strategy that can still result in a really good performance, since 10 miles is enough space to really make up time if I am feeling good then.  And if I'm not, or if the weather has worsened, then I'm still set up to pull out a decent performance.

It was 58 degrees when we started, and the forecast was for temperatures to rise during the race, so I went with the second plan.  At least it wasn't very humid, and the forecast was for overcast skies and a brisk breeze, both of which would help with the heat.

***

Once my legs started working, I began to slowly reel in the 3:35 and then 3:30 groups.  The 3:30 group was massive, and I was stuck behind them, unable to pass, around mile 7.  I knew that the race would get less congested once the half-marathon split off at around 7.5, so I just backed off on the effort and hung out there until I had space to pass.

By mile 9-10 I was feeling really good - my gait felt strong and smooth and I was starting to roll.  I opened up a bit but decided to not push it too much.  And this ended up being a good decision as around mile 14 the sun came out and I started to wilt a bit.  I think if I had trained in the summer the weather would not have been too much of a factor.  But it's hard to train in 20-30 degrees and then race a long race in the mid-60s, and bright sunshine above wasn't a great combination with light concrete underneath.

Fortunately a bit later the sun went behind the clouds and I felt a bit better.  I kept pounding the water, refilling my water bottle every second water station.  I had a bit of a salt craving and belatedly realized I didn't have any lemonade roctanes on me (those are heavily salted), so that was a mis-step.  My Maurten gels would have to do.

Around mile 18, we turned right and started what seemed like a very gentle and extended rolling downhill that would take us all the way to the finish.  Old me would have loved this and rocked the heck out of it.  But current me had neuro issues that were starting to act up, and it felt like I was going to trip over my own feet on the downslopes.  The slight climbs were great, and I could reel in many people going up.  But as soon as we turned back downhill, it became a battle again not to trip.  And since more of this part was down than up, I spent a lot of time trying to run as fast as I could without falling.  Oh well, it was what it was.

About this time, it was really starting to heat up, to around 70 degrees according to Weather Underground.  It actually was not as bad as I expected - we had cloud cover again, and also a stiff breeze from the east that was cooling.  My main limiter here was not the temperature or the headwind, but my own two feet.  It was frustrating, in that aerobically and muscularly I think I could have gone faster - I just couldn't get my own feet to cooperate.  In particular, my big toe on my right foot was clenching, making it very hard to roll through my gait on that foot.  But again, it was what it was, and I just had to work with what I had.  

***

The final 1200m was through downtown Houston to the finish.  When I ran the half-marathon, this part took forever and felt awful.  But this time it felt pretty good.  Most likely because I wasn't maxed out aerobically.  When we passed the 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile marks, I tried to kick (I had plenty of energy to do so), but the dystonia was in full bloom, and so I really couldn't go any faster.    But hey, I got to the finish and crossed it, and that was a good thing.

****

Splits were:

Mile 1: 8:47
Mile 2: 7:58
Mile 3: 8:07
Mile 4: 7:49
Mile 5: 7:42
Mile 6: 7:45
Mile 7: 7:38
Mile 8: 7:55 (stuck behind 3:30 pace group)
Mile 9: 7:39
Mile 10: 7:45
Miles 11-12: 15:15 (7:38)
Mile 13.1: 8:42 (hit at the half marathon mark instead of 13)
Mile 14: 6:56 (actually .9 mile)
Mile 15: 7:36
Mile 16: 7:41
Mile 17-18: 15:36 (7:48)
Mile 19: 7:54
Mile 20: 8:04
Mile 21: 7:51
Mile 22: 7:49
Mile 23: 8:02
Mile 24: 8:05
Mile 25: 8:02
Mile 26: 7:59
Last .21: 1:44

Overall, I'm happy with it.  The time by itself was a new lifetime personal worst for the marathon distance.  I came here hoping to run faster than I did at Chicago, and instead I ran 2 minutes slower.  At the same time, Chicago was in perfect weather while this race was a bit warm, so I think this was ultimately a much stronger performance, and an indication that things are trending in the right way.

As for the legs losing coordination at the end?  I was disappointed but not totally surprised.  My understanding is that long duration hard exercise can burn out the carbidopa/levodopa early and shorten the duration of effectiveness (that's been reported by other people with neurological issues running with it), and I'm guessing that's what I experienced.  The good news is that I was approved for a longer lasting version of this medication called Rytary, and hopefully that won't have the same issue.

Either way, I knew this race wasn't going to be an impressive performance - I just wanted to test things about, see if I had improved, and execute a marathon well.  I accomplished all three and felt like I ran the best race I had in me today, given where I was fitness and neuro-issues-wise.  So I'm happy with it.

Other notes:

• I used to use caffeinated GUs in all of my races, but I've found that caffeine seems to aggravate the neuro issues now.  So I swapped to Maurten gels for this race.  I thought they worked well and I'll probably stick with them for the foreseeable future.
• I did do some last minute heat prep for this race, including overdressing for most of my runs in the last week and doing two sauna sessions.  I think they helped somewhat.  I also wore my sunsleeves/arm-coolers.  They look ridiculous - "why is she wearing arm-warmers when it's hot out" but they really do help with cooling, especially if you splash water on them.
• I really really liked this course, and hope to return to this race when I'm in better shape.  It's just as fast as Chicago, I think.
• I flew United to IAH instead of Southwest to HOU (Hobby) this time.  Though I really like Southwest, and prefer Hobby airport over IAH, I also really liked how United basically has a flight to DCA every 2 hours from Houston.  I was booked on the 4:40 pm flight home but managed to get onto the 2:20 pm flight.  Which meant I was home exactly 8 hours after finishing the marathon.  It was nice to get home at a decent time, order a massive amount of tacos, and eat them in my own kitchen with Brian and my cats before going to bed.
• United also offers an inflight magazine (Southwest has stopped).  I don't care about peanuts or crackers on the plane, but I have this bizarre love for inflight magazines.  I especially love looking at the back sections with all the route maps and airport diagrams.  Everybody needs a hobby, I guess.
• Also regarding flying, I've decided I've become a real fan of wearing n95 masks when flying, now that it's semi-acceptable.  It's not necessarily about the virus avoidance (though that's a plus).  It's also that I find that the flight is much less dehydrating and I feel much better after the flight when I wear the n95.  I suspect this is because airplane travel is dehydrating due to the continual exhalation of moist air and inhalation of very dry air while in flight.  The n95 is uncomfortable and awkward, but it ensures that I inhale moist air, with the result that I feel better post-flight.  And it's definitely not as hard on my asthma to wear the n95 in the air as it is when I'm on the ground.
• I ended up on an Airbus 319 for my trip back to DC.  After the luxury of the Boeing 737 Max 8 on the way out, with its fancy neon lighting and usb charging ports, the 319 felt very domestic.
• What's next?  About a week of easy pool-running, yoga, and junk food, and then returning to running with some hills.  I think I'm probably not going to do another marathon this spring; instead I'll focus on shorter stuff and fixing my gait (I'm back in neuro PT now). 

Training log - Week ending 1/08/2023

This week was 54 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

This was the second week of my taper for Houston.  I'm going with less of a taper this time than I normally do, since it seems that my gait gets worse when I cut back too much.  Fresh legs aren't all that helpful if they aren't working correctly.  So my taper for Houston is going to look much more like a 10K taper than a marathon taper.

Things continued to improve, which I'm very happy with.  On Friday, I chose to sleep in and skip the team tempo so that I could tempo after the sun rose (around 7 am).  Unsurprisingly, I ran a much faster tempo when I could see.  Same effort, just a lot faster running.

To that point I went back to neuro PT this week after several months away (this is because I switched jobs and needed to build up sick leave).  We did some more tests, including a test where I marched in place with my eyes closed for 60 seconds.  Except I didn't make it 60 seconds because I wobble-marched all the way out of the rehab room and into a table, banging my knee nicely.  Oops?

The conclusion from this and other tests was that my proprioception is awful and I am not getting much feedback from my feet as to where my body is in space.  Which matches the general sensation I have of never being quite sure where the ground is with each stride.  So now I have new neuro PT exercises to do.  The nice thing about neuro PT is that they're not really focused on strength, and so I don't need to taper them before the marathon.

I also have sadly figured out that taking caffeine seems to make my neuro issues worse - looking back at my training log there's a definite trend of my legs getting more rigid and awkward after I take a caffeinated gel.  So I think I'll try to run Houston with just non-caffeinated gels (I usually alternate caffeinated gels with non-caffeinated) and see how that goes.

Monday: Upper body weights/core and 9 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 11.5 miles, including 2000, 5x800, 2x200 in 9:00, 3:24, 3:21, 3:18, 3:15, 3:12, 48, and 48, with recoveries of 5:20 after the 2000 and 2:4x-3:0x between the 800s.  Full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 9.5 miles very easy (9:19) plus drills/strides.

Thursday: 9 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 9 miles, including a 6400m tempo in 27:44 (7:05/6:59/6:54/6:46).  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 9.5 miles very easy (9:20) plus drills/strides.  Streaming yoga and foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 14 miles progressive, split as first 5 averaging 9:18 pace, next 5 miles averaging 8:09 pace, and next 4 miles averaging 7:34 pace, plus a half-mile cooldown.  Followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night. 

Training log - Week ending 1/1/2023

This week was 62 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 24 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I'm now two weeks out from Houston.  My taper for this race is a bit different from my normal taper for two reasons:

1) This is the first time that I've trained and tapered for a marathon over the winter holidays.  It was important to me to still enjoy Christmas and New Years, and so I moved my biggest runs around to accommodate those holidays.  Normally I would have done either a 21 miler four weeks out and then a half-marathon three weeks out, or some combination of a 2x5 at marathon effort and a 21 miler three and four weeks out (don't really care about the order).  But...three weeks out was Christmas.  So instead I did my 21 miler four weeks out, and then reduced the 2x5 to a 2x4 so that I could do it two weeks out from the marathon and still recover.

2) With my ongoing neurological/dystonia issues, it seems that my traditional three week taper is now too much.  For the Chicago Marathon, my legs felt very fresh, but also extremely stiff and awkward, which I attribute to the reduction of running in the final week.  I think I could have run a better marathon with legs that had some residual fatigue but weren't as locked up.  Thus I'm changing my taper to do slightly more in the last two weeks.  My Houston taper will look more like the taper for a 10K than for a marathon.   A 4 mile tempo rather than a 5K tempo ten days out; 14 miles progressive rather than 12 miles aerobic seven days out; and a normal track workout on the Tuesday before, rather than 3-4x800.

Maybe it will work, and maybe not.  But I need to try different things, and so I'm trying this. 

As part of my accommodating the holidays, since I wanted to go out on Saturday night, I did my long run on Friday and planned a "maybe" hill workout on Sunday to work on form - if I woke up feeling lousy on Sunday, I'd just skip it. But I woke up on Sunday (later than normal) and actually felt pretty good, so I did it. 

As for Friday's long run, I was really happy with it.  That's the fastest I've run at marathon effort in quite some time, and those paces felt natural and my heart rate was right where it should have been for a marathon pace workout. [Like always, I ran the long run based on perceived effort rather than pace, using heart rate as a sanity check.]  

I also saw my neurologist again this week - he told me that the meds I'm on can take weeks or even months to be fully effective, so hopefully I'll continue to see improvement with each week.

Monday: Streaming yoga and12 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 12 miles, including 2x1200, 3x800, 2x200 in 5:25, 5:14, 3:21, 3:16, 3:12, 47, and 47, with recoveries of 2:3x-3:0x after the 1200s and 800s.  Full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 9 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:31), upper body weights/core, and 3 miles very easy on treadmill (9:27)

Thursday: 12 "miles" of pool-running. Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 14 miles, including a marathon effort workout of 2x4 miles in 29:29 (7:23 pace) and 29:09 (7:17 pace) with 1 mile float in 8:15 between.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 12 miles very easy (9:35) plus drills/strides, and then streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 12 miles with 8 Iwo Jima hills (2:00 powerful up a 2% incline; 90-100 second jog; 40 second downhill stride; 60 seconds jog to bottom.  Followed with injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night. 

Training log - Week ending 12/25/2022

This week was 60 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 21 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I'm three weeks out from the Houston Marathon.  Normally when I marathon train I either a) do the last 20+ miler four weeks out and then race a half-marathon 3 weeks out or b) do the last 20+ miler three weeks out.  However, since three weeks out coincided with both Christmas and the polar vortex, I did my last 20+ mile last weekend (4 weeks out) and decided to just focus on form and leg speed this week.

Since I raced a marathon back in October and my last 20 miler felt so good, I really don't think I need much more marathon specific training.  At the same time, I know I have a lot of room for improvement in terms of leg turnover and gait, so I'm mostly focusing on those for the last few weeks.  

For that reason, I did an Iwo Jima hill workout on Friday - normally I do this workout a few times at the very beginning of a training cycle, and then progress to more standard track and road workouts.  But I thought I could really benefit from another session focusing on leg power and gait (especially fast downhill running) so I added this one in when the Friday track workout was cancelled.

[Incidentally, the Friday track workout was cancelled because the "polar vortex" was approaching.  Fortunately, the polar vortex did not arrive in DC until exactly 8:35 am.  I did my hill workout in a fairly reasonable 45 degrees with light rain and moderate wind.  As I cooled down, I could see a dark shelf cloud rolling in.  I finished my cooldown at 8:30 am and hopped in the car for what ended up being a sketchy 15 minute drive home in ice pellets and high winds.]

I spent the weekend on my treadmill rather than deal with single digit (Fahrenheit) temperatures outside.  I was pretty happy with both weekend runs - the treadmill has been a real challenge for my neurological issues in the past, but I handled it fairly well this weekend.   I was especially happy with Sunday's workout, which is the fastest I've been able to run on the treadmill in a while.  My heart rate was also very controlled for the whole workout, which was a positive sign for my fitness.

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 12 miles, including 2x800, 1600, 2x800, 2x200 in 3:38, 3:37, 3:25, 7:02, 3:23, 3:22, 48, and 48, with recoveries of 2:50 between the 800s and 5:30 after the 1600.  Full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 12 miles very easy (9:21), drills and four hill sprints.  Sports massage at night.

Thursday: 12 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 12 miles with 8 Iwo Jima hills (2:00 powerful up a 2% incline; 90-100 second jog; 40 second downhill stride; 60 seconds jog to bottom.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 12 miles very easy on treadmill (9:31) plus upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 12 miles on the treadmill, including a workout of 7x5 minutes at tempo effort (8.5-8.8 mph) with 1 minute jog plus 6x30 second strides (9.5-10 mph) with 90 second jog.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - week ending 12/18/2022

This week was 65 miles of running, 500 yards of swimming and 21 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I'm now 4 weeks out from the Houston marathon.  I had planned to do my last 20 mile long run next week (3 weeks out) but the forecast for next week is for very dry and cold air (single digit dew point) which is very tough on my asthma.  I usually run on the treadmill on those days, but I didn't want to do a 21 miler on the treadmill if I could avoid it.  I'm fine with the mental monotony, but not crazy about the physical wear and tear of 20+ miles of identical foot strikes.  So I bumped the long run up to this weekend.

The long run went OK.  I ran it on a route that was mostly flat but had a substantial hill (out and back on the Capital Crescent) in the middle miles.  And once again, I struggled with the downhill section of the run - actually running it slower than the uphill.  Once I got on the flat again, things improved, and I finished up the run decently.  One big positive was that 21 miles really didn't feel like much at all, so I think I'm marathon-ready.

Friday's tempo is notable because it was not intended to be that much of a progression.  However, at this time of the year, it's dark until around 7 am.  I started the tempo at 6:30 am, which meant that over half of it was before the sun rose.  And sure enough, I could not get my legs to move.  It was basically like being stuck in first gear.  But as visibility improved, I was able to shift into higher gears and actually get my heart into tempo range.  I had planned on a 4 mile tempo but ended up adding another mile because it felt like the first two miles didn't count.

So overall things are improving, but I'd sure like to be able to run in the dark and run downhill.  All things to discuss with the neurologist at my next appointment.

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: 8 miles very easy on the treadmill (9:48) and upper and lower body weights.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and 12 miles very easy (9:36) plus drills and 2 hill sprints.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 12 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.   Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: 11 miles, including an 8K tempo on the track in 36:52 (1600m splits were 7:43/7:33/7:25/7:12/6:59).  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 12.5 miles very easy (9:27), drills and four hill sprints, and streaming yoga; foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 21 miles progressive, split as the first 7 miles averaging 9:16 pace; the next 7 miles averaging 8:15, and the next 7 miles averaging 7:36 pace.  Half mile cooldown after.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.

Training log - Week ending 12/11/2022

This week was 49 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

This was my second full week on carbidopa/levodopa, and it seems to be helping some.  One of my major issues has been an inability to extend my stride, and the C/L has helped that a lot, though I'm still a bit limited there.

At the same time, I'm still struggling with things like running in crowds or in the dark, which seems to aggravate my stiffness and inability to stride out.  Basically, if you think of my running as an internet browser - it works decently if I'm by myself on a flat smooth surface.  But start adding complexities like uneven pavement or other people nearby, and it's like opening additional tabs on the browser - open too many and things start locking up and freezing.

I told the neurologist this, and he told me that the C/L takes a few weeks to be fully effective, so give it time.  So I will.  It clearly helps, and that tells me that I'm on the right path.  

I have to take the C/L three times a day at 5 hour intervals, and Saturday's awful run (intentionally done 4 hours after I took my morning dose) demonstrated that it does indeed wear off about 4 hours after ingestion.  (I suspected this based on my experience during my last two long runs, but wasn't totally sure that it wasn't just the fatigue of the long run).

This short duration of effect means that I need to think carefully about timing the dosing with racing or long workouts.  For Sunday's race, I took the first dose in the middle of the night, then the second dose about 90 minutes before the race.  That worked mostly well in that the drug was effective for the entire race (though I didn't sleep well) so I think I'll have to do a variation of that for my long runs and marathon.  

Dailies:

Monday: Upper body weights/core and 8 miles very easy with backpack (10:02).  Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 4x800, 2x400 in 7:17, 3:26, 3:27, 3:19, 3:20, 1:39, 1:40.  5:30 recovery after the 1600; 3:00 recovery after everything else.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming..  Foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday:  Streaming yoga and 6 miles very easy (9:45).  Sports massage in evening.

Thursday: 90 minutes pool-running..  Foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 7 miles, including 1600 uptempo in 6:55.    Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4 miles easy outside (9:40).  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 3.5 miles warm-up, and then 15K race in 66:14, followed by a mile cooldown.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Race Report: Jingle All the Way 15K, December 11, 2022

I ran the Jingle All the Way 15K today, finishing in a time of 66:14.

I signed up for this race for a few reasons - 1) I've always wanted to run it but the scheduling hasn't worked out; 2) I'm training for the Houston Marathon (still undecided on whether I'll do it) and this worked well as a tune-up; and 3) as I work through my neurologic issues, it's helpful to keep testing myself by racing.

***

For those neuro issues (and I still don't have an official diagnosis - we're going with "dystonia" for now) I recently swapped to a new medication called carbidopa/levodopa.  So far it seems to be helping, though I'm told it will take a few weeks to see the full benefits of it.  

C/L is a tricky medication to be on - I need to take it every 5 hours, starting first thing in the morning.  It takes about 30-45 minutes to kick in, and it also seems to wear off about 4 hours after I take it.    I also need to time it carefully around meals, since food (especially protein) consumed too close to it can interfere with the uptake.  At the same time, I also need to time my meals carefully around racing, since my ulcerative colitis means that I'm prone to significant GI problems when running if I'm not careful.

So yeah, it's complicated.

Normally, I would wake up around 5 am for this race (which had an 8:30 am start).  Doing so would mean that I would have sufficient time to eat breakfast and move it through the system, so to speak.  However, taking my first dose of C/L at 5 am would mean that it would wear off at 9 am - approximately halfway through this race.  And obviously all of this medication and food timing will become even more tricky when I run a full marathon.

So... I tried the following schedule for this race:

-wake up at 2 am, take first dose of C/L.  Try to go back to sleep.
-wake up a second time at 5 am, eat breakfast like normal.  Allow breakfast to move through the GI tract while stretching.
- take second dose of C/L at 7 am, leave for race.

This sequence seemed to work well, as the C/L definitely did not wear off for the race.

***

This race starts at the same spot as the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, but is a lot smaller, so I had no issue finding parking reasonably close to the start.  I swapped into my racing shoes and headed down to do my warm-up routine (20 minutes easy jogging, 3 minutes at tempo effort with 90 second jog, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort with 30 second jog, and then four 10 second strides) before hitting the porta-johns one final time and lining up.  There were no signs indicating pace groups, so I just guessed at the right spot.  

Since the first turn on the course is a right, I lined myself on the left side so that I would hopefully not be too crowded early on.  (The C/L seems to help a lot with my hip extension/stride length, but so far it's not doing much for my issues with uneven pavement/curbs or crowds).   Then the race started.

The first few moments of the race went well as we ran up a gentle slope.  Then we turned right and descended, and my gait got really wonky.  It was the trifecta of things that trigger my neuro issues - decline, crowds, and uneven pavement.  

As always happens at this point, I really wanted to step off the race course, but I forced myself to keep going - the whole point of racing, especially on the new medication, was to see what went wrong and what went right.

The first mile was rough, the next mile a bit better, and then things smoothed out.  By the time we hit mile 4 I felt pretty good, and from that point I was able to roll.  I still had some limitations - aerobically it felt like I had more to give, but every time I tried to speed up, my legs would stiffen up and I'd start to catch my left toe on the ground.  So I maintained the fastest I could run without faceplanting, and called it good enough.

The finish to this race is down a gentle incline (the same one we ran up at the very start).  In years past I would have been able to fly here, but today I settled for maintaining my pace and trying not to face plant.  Not ideal, but you do your best and accept it.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:39
Mile 2: 7:14
Mile 3: 7:06
Mile 4: 7:04
Mile 5: 6:58
Mile 6: 7:02
Mile 7: 6:57
Mile 8: 7:01
Mile 9 plus last .33: 9:15

I have pretty mixed emotions about this race overall.  I still have a long way to go to get back to where I want to be, and the fact that I struggle so much with running in crowds and on uneven pavement is frustrating.  On the other hand, I'm still doing this, and the later miles were smooth enough to give me hope.  So I'll just keep trying.

Other notes:

• Perfect weather this year - temperatures in the low 40s, with overcast skies and no wind.  That plus a lighting fast course made for a super fast race day.  Hopefully more people will recognize this and show up in future years.
• I wore the Metaspeed Edge+ for this race.  I have to admit, I like this shoe a lot for anything 15K or longer.
• My Garmin measured 9.55 miles for this course, but I'm sure the course was accurate.  My Garmin simply went crazy under the Kennedy Center overhang.
• Supposedly it will take a few weeks for the C/L to take full effect (I've been on it for 2 weeks).  So perhaps I'll see more improvement in the future.
• Surprisingly, I won my age group, so that was nice.
• Since the timing of meds worked well for this race (wake up early, take first dose, then take second dose in close proximity to race) I'll try the same for my long runs and ultimately the marathon.
• I wore tights, a singlet, and arm-warmers - it worked well for these conditions.

Training log - Week ending 12/04/2022

This week was 52 miles of running, 1000 ~yards of swimming and 33 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

I had two workouts this week, and both fell on mornings with sub-par weather - mid-40s (good) but steady rain and brisk winds.  It was miserable weather but not unsafe weather, so I just sucked it up and did the workouts, and they were less miserable than I expected.

At this point, I'll note that I have my cold/rainy weather gear nailed.  That gear is:

• a cycling raincoat (the side vents are cooling if I start to overheat and the longer back keeps my butt dry); 
• waterproof construction gloves bought at a hardware store; 
• shorts (because tights just absorb water); 
• a hat; and 
• Vaseline on my face.

Wearing all this, I can stay reasonably comfortable for 2-3 hours in cold rain, including hard running.

This was my first full week on Sinemet, which I take every 5 hours after waking (3 doses total).  

So far, it seems to be really helping.  I increased the dose on Friday per doctor's orders, and felt even better.  At times, my gait felt wonderful - relaxed and even bouncy again.

The downside is that the Sinemet does seem to wear off.  During Saturday's marathon pace workout my legs stiffened up a lot in the late miles - I don't think this was due to fatigue as much as just the fact that I was nearly due for another dose.  I am going to have to give some thought as to how to structure taking the Sinemet with racing.  (It's unfortunately not as easy as just taking it right before the race as I also have to coordinate taking the Sinemet with my food intake).

But still, I'm feeling really positive.  The trick to fixing an issue is finding something that makes a difference - any difference.  Once you figure out how to move the needle, then you're well on the way to fixing the issue.  And Sinemet definitely moves the needle.

Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night. 

Tuesday: Upper body weights/core and 11 miles very easy (9:41) plus drills/strides.  Foam rolling in evening.

Wednesday: 12 miles, with 4800m, 3200m, 1600m in 22:11, 14:26, and 7:00, with 5:00 jog between each.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 12 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.   Foam rolling at night. 

Friday: Upper body weights/core and 12 miles very easy (9:41) plus drills/strides.  Foam rolling at night. 

Saturday: 17 miles, including 2x5 miles in 37:38 (7:32) and 38:39 (7:44). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 meters recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday: 12 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.   Foam rolling at night.