This week was 53 miles of “real running” and 20 “miles” pool running plus 1000m of swimming -- training log is here.
Some kinda week. Running wise, I battled with ragweed allergies all week, and very high humidity destroyed me on Friday. I’m pretty grateful that this is the peak week for ragweed, so things should improve soon. Humidity should be improving as well.
Outside of that, we dealt with a) an earthquake mid-week and b) a hurricane on the weekend. No long run due to the hurricane – I didn’t have enough time on Saturday morning to do a long run, and the humidity was ridiculous anyway. I ran 11 miles just to get something done in case I couldn’t run on Sunday. [Meant to do only 6-8, but went longer to keep company with some others, making me late in the process. Ooops.]
On Sunday I was able to get out post-hurricane, though I waited until the winds had died down, so as to minimize the risk of falling tree limbs or trees. Since I had already done the 11 on Saturday, a Sunday long run would have pushed my weekly mileage way beyond where it’s been recently, so I opted to do a 5 mile tempo on a bike trail instead, focusing on dialing into something between 10 mile and half-marathon pace (with some allowances for the remaining gusts of wind, the heat, and the debris-dodging).
Dailies
Monday: 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles”. Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 11 miles on the track in fantastic weather, including a track workout of 5x1200, followed by 2x400. Splits were 4:46, 4:35, 4:36, 4:35, 4:33, and then 84 and 82 (~4:00 recovery between each 1200, full recovery between 1200s and 400s due to side stitch that had to be worked out). Followed with 20 minutes pool-running. Upper body/core strengthtraining, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Wednesday: 12 miles outside (8:31 pace) on a hilly route, plus drills and strides (did about 2 miles easy, then the drills and strides, before hitting the Custis). Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Pilates class in the evening, plus foam rolling.
Thursday: In the morning, 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 7 miles in 100% humidity, including a 4.5 mile tempo on the track (average pace 7:00, splits were 7:00/6:56/6:53/6:58/3:29), followed by 30 minutes shakeout pool-running for “3 miles”. I had wanted to go at least 5, but even cutting the pace way back, my form started breaking down. Gentle pilates session in evening.
Saturday: In the morning, 11 miles outside at supposedly 8:12 pace, but I’m not buying it (Worked off of Garmin, rather than using a mapped route, and I think the signal was kinda wonky). Once again, very humid. Foam rolling and stretching in the afternoon, while watching hurricane coverage.
Sunday: In the mid-day (after the worst of the winds died down) 12 miles outside, including a 5 mile tempo on the trail at 7:02 pace (35:10) – splits were first 1.5 miles in 10:36 (slight uphill), next 1.5 miles in 10:27 (slight downhill), next 1.5 miles in 10:48 (back the uphill, plus some gusts of wind), and final .5 mile “kick” in 3:19 (wind assisted, and downhill). [weird splits are because I was running on a trail, using chalk marks that indicate a 1.5 mile mark, before using the Garmin to measure the final half mile]. Followed with 30 minutes of cool-down pool-running for “3 miles.” In the evening, restorative yoga, plus some foam rolling.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Bag lady's waterproof iPod
Previously, I posted instructions for a "poor woman's waterproof iPod" -- it's a way to waterproof your iPod when you don't have a nice waterproof case.
But, what to do when you forget both your waterproof case and your back-up plan of plastic baggie and swim cap?
Easy. You somehow acquire a plastic shopping bag or similar (my gym has rolls of them; you could also grab one from any convenience store, or even raid a nearby dumpster), wrap your iPod in it, and then tuck the wadded bag into your hair bun, wrapping the excess plastic around your bun.
(if you pick the dumpster option, it might be worth a bit extra digging to see if anyone tossed out an iPod as well)
Yup. Bag lady waterproof iPod (wrapping the headphone cord around your bun works very well).
You're welcome.
Pro-tip: for additional yuks, make sure to walk back home through your urban neighborhood with the plastic shopping bag still in place.
But, what to do when you forget both your waterproof case and your back-up plan of plastic baggie and swim cap?
Easy. You somehow acquire a plastic shopping bag or similar (my gym has rolls of them; you could also grab one from any convenience store, or even raid a nearby dumpster), wrap your iPod in it, and then tuck the wadded bag into your hair bun, wrapping the excess plastic around your bun.
(if you pick the dumpster option, it might be worth a bit extra digging to see if anyone tossed out an iPod as well)
 |
| Obviously, this doesn't work that well if you don't have long hair to begin with. |
Yup. Bag lady waterproof iPod (wrapping the headphone cord around your bun works very well).
You're welcome.
Pro-tip: for additional yuks, make sure to walk back home through your urban neighborhood with the plastic shopping bag still in place.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Training log - Week ending 8/21/11
This week was 45 miles of “real running” and 19 “miles” pool running plus 2500m of swimming -- training log is here.
Most of the week was dedicated to recovery from last week's heat issues. I really hated to miss a track workout on one of the nicest days we’ve had in forever, but the combination of an elevated resting heart rate Tuesday and poor quality sleep convinced me that I wasn’t recovered adequately from Sunday’s race. And given the fact that I still felt lousy for Wednesday’s run, I’m sure I made the right call. By Friday I was nearly recovered, but still not 100%, so I played the tempo slow. (I could handle distance just fine, but my aerobic capacity was lacking).
By Sunday I felt good again, but still kept the long run careful, due to some really tough conditions. The absolute last thing I want to do is to set myself back another week -- every time I get heat exhaustion, even a mild case, it takes me a minimum of 7 days to recover. And that’s a lot of good training that I cut short or miss.
But in a way, this slight setback has been a good thing – it’s been an opportunity for me to practice running relaxed and really trying to listen to what is the appropriate pace for my body on that day (which is generally slower than what I want to be running).
Dailies
Monday: 60 minutes of very easy running (ended up being 7 miles at 8:36 pace). Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: Skipped track in lieu of upper body weights and core, 1500m swimming breathing drills, and 20 minutes pool-running. Core and alignment class in the evening, plus foam rolling.
Wednesday: 10.5 miles outside (8:46 pace) on a hilly route, followed by drills and strides. Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Pilates class in the evening, plus foam rolling.
Thursday: In the morning, 55 minutes of easy pool-running for “5.5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 11.5 miles, including a 4 mile tempo on the track (average pace 6:57, splits were 7:01/6:57/6:55/6:43), followed by a longer cool-down jog, and then 20 minutes shakeout pool-running for “2 miles”. Pilates session plus foam rolling in evening.
Saturday: In the morning, 70 minutes of easy pool-running for “7 miles”. Upper body strengthtraining, injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching in the afternoon.
Sunday: In the morning, a 16 mile long run that I’ll describe as “sloggerific” – temps in the mid to upper 70s, and dewpoint in low 70s. The group started very slow, at about 9:20 pace for the first 3 miles. From then I just averaged 8:00 pace for the rest of the run (whole thing averaged 8:16). Followed with 25 minutes of cool-down pool-running for “2.5 miles.” I’ll hit restorative yoga tonight, and also do some foam rolling.
Most of the week was dedicated to recovery from last week's heat issues. I really hated to miss a track workout on one of the nicest days we’ve had in forever, but the combination of an elevated resting heart rate Tuesday and poor quality sleep convinced me that I wasn’t recovered adequately from Sunday’s race. And given the fact that I still felt lousy for Wednesday’s run, I’m sure I made the right call. By Friday I was nearly recovered, but still not 100%, so I played the tempo slow. (I could handle distance just fine, but my aerobic capacity was lacking).
By Sunday I felt good again, but still kept the long run careful, due to some really tough conditions. The absolute last thing I want to do is to set myself back another week -- every time I get heat exhaustion, even a mild case, it takes me a minimum of 7 days to recover. And that’s a lot of good training that I cut short or miss.
But in a way, this slight setback has been a good thing – it’s been an opportunity for me to practice running relaxed and really trying to listen to what is the appropriate pace for my body on that day (which is generally slower than what I want to be running).
Dailies
Monday: 60 minutes of very easy running (ended up being 7 miles at 8:36 pace). Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: Skipped track in lieu of upper body weights and core, 1500m swimming breathing drills, and 20 minutes pool-running. Core and alignment class in the evening, plus foam rolling.
Wednesday: 10.5 miles outside (8:46 pace) on a hilly route, followed by drills and strides. Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Pilates class in the evening, plus foam rolling.
Thursday: In the morning, 55 minutes of easy pool-running for “5.5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 11.5 miles, including a 4 mile tempo on the track (average pace 6:57, splits were 7:01/6:57/6:55/6:43), followed by a longer cool-down jog, and then 20 minutes shakeout pool-running for “2 miles”. Pilates session plus foam rolling in evening.
Saturday: In the morning, 70 minutes of easy pool-running for “7 miles”. Upper body strengthtraining, injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching in the afternoon.
Sunday: In the morning, a 16 mile long run that I’ll describe as “sloggerific” – temps in the mid to upper 70s, and dewpoint in low 70s. The group started very slow, at about 9:20 pace for the first 3 miles. From then I just averaged 8:00 pace for the rest of the run (whole thing averaged 8:16). Followed with 25 minutes of cool-down pool-running for “2.5 miles.” I’ll hit restorative yoga tonight, and also do some foam rolling.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
That XKCD comic.
So there's an xkcd comic that's been making the rounds:
One of the points is that the recommendations commonly given for strong passwords don't necessarily ensure strong passwords, and that there are other ways to construct passwords that are both easier for the user to implement and harder to crack. Cue mocking of those who set security requirements for corporate passwords.
Of course, what doesn't get captured in this comic is the fact that the security professional has to consider what the user will ACTUALLY DO in response to requirements. Yes, if we could rely on users to choose truly random strings of words, it'd work great. But in practice, there would be a non-negligible number of users who would choose something like "thisismypassword" or "th1s1smypassw0rd" or "correcthorsebatterystaple".
And while we do have the mechanics to force someone to have a password of so many characters minimum, with so many special characters, uppercase/lowercase etc, we don't have a similar easy way to confirm that random word strings are truly random.
Similarly, we require users to change passwords so often NOT because frequent changing will make much difference if users have very strong private passwords to begin with, but because users tend to pick very weak passwords to begin with, and like to share them with their buddies. We set the standards NOT to what is perfect, but to what will generate the best result, given human nature.
There's a good chance that a lot of people with security backgrounds will jump in to rebut what I've written above, and that's to be expected - there's no universal consensus here on what best practices are. We can debate all day.
But my broader point is: it's not just the recommendations, but the result of the recommendations combined with the user's response, that determines what the "best recommendations" should be. And so you don't make perfect world recommendations, but rather recommendations that take into account the user's response.
There's parallels here to the health/fitness community. The clearest example is the recommendation that we see for 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week. Many people, especially those who don't really like working out to begin with, assume that this means that 15-30 minutes is optimal for health. But it doesn't say that anywhere in the HHS document. The 30 minutes of moderate activity is recommended because it at least gets people to do something. Again, the recommendations are determined based on what they think people will actually do, not what is best in the real world.
But I wonder here, too, if we don't also see a parallel to the canned running training plans that so many seem to place utter trust in, like the ones set forth in Jack Daniels or Pfitzinger, or (*shudder*) Smartcoach (lots of irony in that name). What if those plans aren't based on what's really best, but instead the assumption that the reader probably won't follow the plan fully? Which means that those who compulsively stick to the plan no matter wreck their training in the process.
And of course, I don't see how any plan could ever be "best" anyway. Too many variables, and there's also the belief that there's one "best workout" or "best plan" -- that's the belief that so often gets us into trouble. It's really just consistency that advances one in running, not strict adherence to a schedule of paces and mileage no matter what.
Interesting thought, huh? Makes me pretty happy that I was never one to buy into one of those preset plans.
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| Full size version can be seen here |
Of course, what doesn't get captured in this comic is the fact that the security professional has to consider what the user will ACTUALLY DO in response to requirements. Yes, if we could rely on users to choose truly random strings of words, it'd work great. But in practice, there would be a non-negligible number of users who would choose something like "thisismypassword" or "th1s1smypassw0rd" or "correcthorsebatterystaple".
And while we do have the mechanics to force someone to have a password of so many characters minimum, with so many special characters, uppercase/lowercase etc, we don't have a similar easy way to confirm that random word strings are truly random.
Similarly, we require users to change passwords so often NOT because frequent changing will make much difference if users have very strong private passwords to begin with, but because users tend to pick very weak passwords to begin with, and like to share them with their buddies. We set the standards NOT to what is perfect, but to what will generate the best result, given human nature.
There's a good chance that a lot of people with security backgrounds will jump in to rebut what I've written above, and that's to be expected - there's no universal consensus here on what best practices are. We can debate all day.
But my broader point is: it's not just the recommendations, but the result of the recommendations combined with the user's response, that determines what the "best recommendations" should be. And so you don't make perfect world recommendations, but rather recommendations that take into account the user's response.
There's parallels here to the health/fitness community. The clearest example is the recommendation that we see for 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week. Many people, especially those who don't really like working out to begin with, assume that this means that 15-30 minutes is optimal for health. But it doesn't say that anywhere in the HHS document. The 30 minutes of moderate activity is recommended because it at least gets people to do something. Again, the recommendations are determined based on what they think people will actually do, not what is best in the real world.
But I wonder here, too, if we don't also see a parallel to the canned running training plans that so many seem to place utter trust in, like the ones set forth in Jack Daniels or Pfitzinger, or (*shudder*) Smartcoach (lots of irony in that name). What if those plans aren't based on what's really best, but instead the assumption that the reader probably won't follow the plan fully? Which means that those who compulsively stick to the plan no matter wreck their training in the process.
And of course, I don't see how any plan could ever be "best" anyway. Too many variables, and there's also the belief that there's one "best workout" or "best plan" -- that's the belief that so often gets us into trouble. It's really just consistency that advances one in running, not strict adherence to a schedule of paces and mileage no matter what.
Interesting thought, huh? Makes me pretty happy that I was never one to buy into one of those preset plans.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Training log - Week ending 8/14/11
This week was 36 miles of “real running” and 15 “miles” pool running plus 3000m of swimming -- training log is here.
In short, Tuesday’s workout was a confidence booster. Nothing spectacular, but after two weeks of feeling lousy due to infection/antibiotics/etc, it was nice to be normal. Sunday’s race sent my confidence back into the crapper. But nothing to do except to be patient and try to train smarter.
Dailies
Monday: 40 minutes of easy pool-running for “4 miles,” then 1000m of swimming breathing drills followed by some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 10 miles on the track, including intervals. Prescribed workout was 1600, 2x1200, 2x800, 2x400 – half-distance recoveries between intervals. I ran 6:19, 4:38, 4:38, 2:58, 2:58, 84, and 80 (um yeah – pretty consistent). I was pretty darn happy just to be feeling like myself again. Followed with 20 minutes of pool-running (“2 miles”) and injury prevention work.
Upper body strength-training at night.
Wednesday: 12 miles easy outside (8:31 pace) on a hilly route (did 11.5, then stopped for drills and strides, before a final 5 minutes of easy running to lock my form in). Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills.
Thursday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 6 miles easy (8:14 pace), followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Wow, the weather was gorgeous. Per coach’s orders, I skipped my scheduled evening Pilates class, and also didn’t do any drills or strides.
Saturday: Off.
Sunday: In the morning, 8 miles. Warm-up jog of ~1.5 miles, then “10K race” (confirmed long by race staff– don’t know exactly how long, but Garmin read 6.36) in 45:23 (ugh – race report here). Followed with 40 minutes cool-down pool-running for “4 miles.” Skipping yoga – feeling lousy.
In short, Tuesday’s workout was a confidence booster. Nothing spectacular, but after two weeks of feeling lousy due to infection/antibiotics/etc, it was nice to be normal. Sunday’s race sent my confidence back into the crapper. But nothing to do except to be patient and try to train smarter.
Dailies
Monday: 40 minutes of easy pool-running for “4 miles,” then 1000m of swimming breathing drills followed by some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 10 miles on the track, including intervals. Prescribed workout was 1600, 2x1200, 2x800, 2x400 – half-distance recoveries between intervals. I ran 6:19, 4:38, 4:38, 2:58, 2:58, 84, and 80 (um yeah – pretty consistent). I was pretty darn happy just to be feeling like myself again. Followed with 20 minutes of pool-running (“2 miles”) and injury prevention work.
Upper body strength-training at night.
Wednesday: 12 miles easy outside (8:31 pace) on a hilly route (did 11.5, then stopped for drills and strides, before a final 5 minutes of easy running to lock my form in). Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills.
Thursday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 6 miles easy (8:14 pace), followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Wow, the weather was gorgeous. Per coach’s orders, I skipped my scheduled evening Pilates class, and also didn’t do any drills or strides.
Saturday: Off.
Sunday: In the morning, 8 miles. Warm-up jog of ~1.5 miles, then “10K race” (confirmed long by race staff– don’t know exactly how long, but Garmin read 6.36) in 45:23 (ugh – race report here). Followed with 40 minutes cool-down pool-running for “4 miles.” Skipping yoga – feeling lousy.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Product review: Uber Air minimalist running footgear.
So, a little bit ago, I got offered my first product review -- a niche running shoe called the Uber Air. Frankly, I was a little surprised, simply because I don't think my little blog really generates the level of traffic that interests most shoe companies. But, I believe this is a new company, and the nominal subject matter of my blog (pool-running) apparently linked me to their target market.
The Uber Air is being promoted as highly refined running footwear that can also be worn in the pool for pool-running. It appears that they're going after the minimalist running crowd, for their slogan is a bit snarky, but taps into that elitist mindset that seems to drive some (but definitely not all) to barefoot/minimalism.
Love it!
So, I guess one generally does product reviews by taking a bunch of photos, starting with the opening of the box and the savoring of that new shoe smell. Let's commence, shall we?
[as an aside to the FTC - I have not been compensated in any way for this review. Indeed, the manufacturer was a bit difficult to deal with -- they offered me the shoe, but wouldn't let me specify the size. Fortunately, the shoe that they provided fit perfectly, but I was still a bit annoyed. I guess that's minimalist customer service for you].
So... took them for a test run, and they definitely lived up to representations. They weigh far less than even my Saucony A4s, and the feel for the road is amazing. You can literally feel each pebble or sidewalk crack, which I didn't think could be accomplished in a trainer, even a minimalist one.
The sheer look was incredibly fun to wear. As I floated along (again, I can't possibly emphasize enough just how light these things are), I became aware that while these shoes might not make me a faster runner, they definitely made me a superior runner. And that's a great feeling.
A nice side benefit of the construction of these shoes is that I experienced none of the rubbing that I normally do when running. I was able to run sockless for the first time, with no need to place a protective barrier between the shoe and my foot. If only I had had these when I was dealing with my foot blister about 2 weeks ago.
There are a few drawbacks, however. I doubt the ability of these shoes to protect me adequately from the rocks and such I often experience on the towpath -- they just don't seem durable enough, though I'll concede I noted absolutely no wear and tear from the miles I did put on them.
The lightness of the material also makes me certain that this is a shoe best worn in the summer time; cold weather demands a bit more insulation. But, as a summer shoe, the Uber Air is superb. I especially appreciated the lack of "shoe sloshing" that I've experienced during humid long runs with my Kinvaras.
I also took them for a test pool-run. Most DC area pools prohibit any sort of footwear in the pool, except for flippers, and so I was concerned that the guards would stop me. Nope. Nobody batted an eye. And the shoes were every bit as comfortable and light and functional in the pool as they were on land. Win!
I did find that the lightweight insoles that come with the Uber Air weren't quite enough arch support for me. I was concerned that my Superfeet orthotics wouldn't work with the shoe, but it turned out that they fit quite easily.
I also found that the laces that came with the Uber Air were difficult to manipulate -- I really suck at tying normal shoelaces, and I could barely manage these laces. The problem was easily addressed by swapping out the laces, though.
So yeah, the shoe's an overall win, and I recommend it highly. You don't get more minimalist than this, folks.
BTW, the team at Uber Air also gave me a promotional sports-bra made of the same sheer and super lightweight material - guaranteed not to chafe. Unfortunately, my cell phone's run out of juice, so no pictures for this review. Sorry. I'll try to get it in a future review.
The Uber Air is being promoted as highly refined running footwear that can also be worn in the pool for pool-running. It appears that they're going after the minimalist running crowd, for their slogan is a bit snarky, but taps into that elitist mindset that seems to drive some (but definitely not all) to barefoot/minimalism.
we give the middle finger to Vibram 5 Fingers.
Love it!
So, I guess one generally does product reviews by taking a bunch of photos, starting with the opening of the box and the savoring of that new shoe smell. Let's commence, shall we?
[as an aside to the FTC - I have not been compensated in any way for this review. Indeed, the manufacturer was a bit difficult to deal with -- they offered me the shoe, but wouldn't let me specify the size. Fortunately, the shoe that they provided fit perfectly, but I was still a bit annoyed. I guess that's minimalist customer service for you].
 |
| Here's the box they arrived in. Open the box, and... |
 |
| Voila! New shoes! I love new shoes! |
 |
| Here's the shoe. As you can see, the upper and sole are both constructed of a super sheer material that is also amazingly lightweight and flexible |
 |
| And a side view of the right shoe. |
 |
| On my feet. |
So... took them for a test run, and they definitely lived up to representations. They weigh far less than even my Saucony A4s, and the feel for the road is amazing. You can literally feel each pebble or sidewalk crack, which I didn't think could be accomplished in a trainer, even a minimalist one.
The sheer look was incredibly fun to wear. As I floated along (again, I can't possibly emphasize enough just how light these things are), I became aware that while these shoes might not make me a faster runner, they definitely made me a superior runner. And that's a great feeling.
A nice side benefit of the construction of these shoes is that I experienced none of the rubbing that I normally do when running. I was able to run sockless for the first time, with no need to place a protective barrier between the shoe and my foot. If only I had had these when I was dealing with my foot blister about 2 weeks ago.
There are a few drawbacks, however. I doubt the ability of these shoes to protect me adequately from the rocks and such I often experience on the towpath -- they just don't seem durable enough, though I'll concede I noted absolutely no wear and tear from the miles I did put on them.
The lightness of the material also makes me certain that this is a shoe best worn in the summer time; cold weather demands a bit more insulation. But, as a summer shoe, the Uber Air is superb. I especially appreciated the lack of "shoe sloshing" that I've experienced during humid long runs with my Kinvaras.
I also took them for a test pool-run. Most DC area pools prohibit any sort of footwear in the pool, except for flippers, and so I was concerned that the guards would stop me. Nope. Nobody batted an eye. And the shoes were every bit as comfortable and light and functional in the pool as they were on land. Win!
I did find that the lightweight insoles that come with the Uber Air weren't quite enough arch support for me. I was concerned that my Superfeet orthotics wouldn't work with the shoe, but it turned out that they fit quite easily.
 |
| Side view of the Uber Air plus orthotic. It is a slightly different look, but I think I like it. |
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| All customized and ready to go! |
BTW, the team at Uber Air also gave me a promotional sports-bra made of the same sheer and super lightweight material - guaranteed not to chafe. Unfortunately, my cell phone's run out of juice, so no pictures for this review. Sorry. I'll try to get it in a future review.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Training log - Week ending 8/07/11
This week was 40 miles of “real running” and 30 “miles” pool running plus 2000m of swimming -- training log is here.
This was a rough week. I struggled for reasons that I don’t believe are related to my fitness, and so I decided to back way the heck off. My target peak racing season is October to December, and so it made absolutely no sense to run myself into the ground fighting to complete workouts that were tougher than they should have been, or to hit a certain mileage this week.
The first part of the week, I was on antibiotics (Bactrim) for my blister infection, and they knocked me for a loop. Bactrim’s side effects include “shortness of breath” -- it’s actually contradicted for people with asthma, but I’m assuming that precaution is meant for people with more serious problems, not my mild need-an-inhaler-before-track issues.
Well, “shortness of breath” just about describes it. My strength was very clearly fine; it was just that my aerobic capacity was about half the norm (noted in running, swimming, and pool-running). I stopped my track workout after the first set of three planned – I felt as tired after the first set as I normally do after the final set, and I thought that was sufficient reason to make the first set my last. I tried to do 20 minutes of swimming breathing drills afterwards, but struggled there too. I can normally work up to 13 strokes (very easy, with pull buoy) between breaths; I couldn’t do more than 7 on Tuesday. Without the pull buoy? It was very hard not to breathe every two strokes.
So, contacted my doctor and described the trouble I was having, and she agreed I could stop the antibiotics before the full 10 day cycle was done, due to the side effects (I was having a few others not directly running-related).
I stopped the Bactrim after Tuesday afternoon, and had a pretty good run on Wednesday. Of course, I then had a long and somewhat stressful day at work on Thursday, followed by a rare bout of insomnia (I don’t think the two were related) on Thursday night, resulting in 4 hours of lousy sleep. I debated skipping tempo on Friday, but the weather was so nice that I couldn’t resist. So, I showed up (acting like a space cadet) and ran a short 5K tempo at a slower pace. Not ideal, but I got something done, and I didn’t dig myself into a hole. Even after that shortened workout, I was totally beat with symptoms that felt like a cold might be coming on, so I skipped Pilates.
Tons of sleep (9.5 hours on Friday night!) later and I felt like myself for Sunday’s long run. I played Sunday’s run pretty carefully though – running out and back with a friend for 10 easy miles. After the 10 miles, I felt OK, so I went ahead and turned it into a progression long run that went pretty well, given the bad conditions (temps in upper 70s, dewpoint in mid 70s). Hopefully this is an indication that I’ve got all of these frustrations behind me – I really dislike not finishing workouts.
(aside - Elizabeth was nice enough to grab my running gait evaluation videos from a few weeks back and post them on Youtube at my request. I've updated the log entry discussing that gait analysis to show the videos)
Dailies
Monday: 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles,” and then some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 7 miles on the track. Prescribed workout was 2-3x1600, 800 – half-distance recoveries between intervals. I ran 6:17, 2:56 for the first set, and then called it a day – I was pretty clearly not myself, and no reason to dig myself into a hole. So jogged easy while cheering my teammates, and then hit the pool for 30 minutes of pool-running (“3 miles”) and 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Upper body strength-training at night.
Wednesday: 10 miles easy outside (8:22 pace) on a hilly route. Followed with 40 minutes pool-running for “4 miles” and then 1000m of swimming breathing drills.
Thursday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 8 miles on the track, including an abbreviated tempo 5K workout on the track (6:52 pace – splits of 6:56, 6:49, 6:43, and 50 second (6:40 pace) for final 200m). Followed with 20 minutes of pool-running (“2 miles”) but skipped my scheduled evening Pilates class.
Saturday: In the morning, 70 minutes easy pool-running for “7 miles.” In the afternoon, light upper body strength training plus foam-rolling, injury prevention exercises, and stretching.
Sunday: In the morning, a long run of 15.5 averaging 8:00 pace – the first 5 miles (uphill) were 8:37 pace, followed by 6.5 miles at 7:52 pace (downhill+flat) and 4 miles at 7:23 pace (flat - including the final mile at 7:00 pace and then a 6:00 pace 400m kick). Pretty happy with this one.
I followed this up with some injury prevention exercises, and then 30 minutes very easy pool-running for “3 miles” to shake things out. Yoga and foam rolling tonight.
This was a rough week. I struggled for reasons that I don’t believe are related to my fitness, and so I decided to back way the heck off. My target peak racing season is October to December, and so it made absolutely no sense to run myself into the ground fighting to complete workouts that were tougher than they should have been, or to hit a certain mileage this week.
The first part of the week, I was on antibiotics (Bactrim) for my blister infection, and they knocked me for a loop. Bactrim’s side effects include “shortness of breath” -- it’s actually contradicted for people with asthma, but I’m assuming that precaution is meant for people with more serious problems, not my mild need-an-inhaler-before-track issues.
Well, “shortness of breath” just about describes it. My strength was very clearly fine; it was just that my aerobic capacity was about half the norm (noted in running, swimming, and pool-running). I stopped my track workout after the first set of three planned – I felt as tired after the first set as I normally do after the final set, and I thought that was sufficient reason to make the first set my last. I tried to do 20 minutes of swimming breathing drills afterwards, but struggled there too. I can normally work up to 13 strokes (very easy, with pull buoy) between breaths; I couldn’t do more than 7 on Tuesday. Without the pull buoy? It was very hard not to breathe every two strokes.
So, contacted my doctor and described the trouble I was having, and she agreed I could stop the antibiotics before the full 10 day cycle was done, due to the side effects (I was having a few others not directly running-related).
I stopped the Bactrim after Tuesday afternoon, and had a pretty good run on Wednesday. Of course, I then had a long and somewhat stressful day at work on Thursday, followed by a rare bout of insomnia (I don’t think the two were related) on Thursday night, resulting in 4 hours of lousy sleep. I debated skipping tempo on Friday, but the weather was so nice that I couldn’t resist. So, I showed up (acting like a space cadet) and ran a short 5K tempo at a slower pace. Not ideal, but I got something done, and I didn’t dig myself into a hole. Even after that shortened workout, I was totally beat with symptoms that felt like a cold might be coming on, so I skipped Pilates.
Tons of sleep (9.5 hours on Friday night!) later and I felt like myself for Sunday’s long run. I played Sunday’s run pretty carefully though – running out and back with a friend for 10 easy miles. After the 10 miles, I felt OK, so I went ahead and turned it into a progression long run that went pretty well, given the bad conditions (temps in upper 70s, dewpoint in mid 70s). Hopefully this is an indication that I’ve got all of these frustrations behind me – I really dislike not finishing workouts.
(aside - Elizabeth was nice enough to grab my running gait evaluation videos from a few weeks back and post them on Youtube at my request. I've updated the log entry discussing that gait analysis to show the videos)
Dailies
Monday: 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles,” and then some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 7 miles on the track. Prescribed workout was 2-3x1600, 800 – half-distance recoveries between intervals. I ran 6:17, 2:56 for the first set, and then called it a day – I was pretty clearly not myself, and no reason to dig myself into a hole. So jogged easy while cheering my teammates, and then hit the pool for 30 minutes of pool-running (“3 miles”) and 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Upper body strength-training at night.
Wednesday: 10 miles easy outside (8:22 pace) on a hilly route. Followed with 40 minutes pool-running for “4 miles” and then 1000m of swimming breathing drills.
Thursday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Injury prevention exercises, foam rolling, and stretching at night.
Friday: In the morning, 8 miles on the track, including an abbreviated tempo 5K workout on the track (6:52 pace – splits of 6:56, 6:49, 6:43, and 50 second (6:40 pace) for final 200m). Followed with 20 minutes of pool-running (“2 miles”) but skipped my scheduled evening Pilates class.
Saturday: In the morning, 70 minutes easy pool-running for “7 miles.” In the afternoon, light upper body strength training plus foam-rolling, injury prevention exercises, and stretching.
Sunday: In the morning, a long run of 15.5 averaging 8:00 pace – the first 5 miles (uphill) were 8:37 pace, followed by 6.5 miles at 7:52 pace (downhill+flat) and 4 miles at 7:23 pace (flat - including the final mile at 7:00 pace and then a 6:00 pace 400m kick). Pretty happy with this one.
I followed this up with some injury prevention exercises, and then 30 minutes very easy pool-running for “3 miles” to shake things out. Yoga and foam rolling tonight.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Training log - Week ending 7/31/11
This week was 47 miles of “real running” and 25 “miles” pool running plus 3000m of swimming -- training log is here. Biggest lesson learned this week was not directly running related.
[comment: I know that stuff like infected blisters are TMI for some people. But I learned some good lessons from this, and so I'm sharing, so others know to take these symptoms very seriously.]
“Hey I've got a blister on my foot and I really don't think it's anything, but I promised my father I'd page you. If you want, you can call me tonight, but I really don't want to bug you so tomorrow is fine.”
She called me back 2 minutes later. After I described my foot (picture below), she prescribed an antibiotic, and ordered me to get to the 24 hour pharmacy ASAP (i.e. do NOT wait until morning). So I did, and started them.
By my appointment with her Thursday morning, the foot was MUCH better. Nearly pain free. In a nutshell, it was a cellulitis infection. Apparently, you can get infected blisters even if the skin doesn’t break (it didn’t here), especially if you have a) a circulatory disorder (as I do) and b) even a mild case of athletes foot (*cough*). The red streak on the top of my foot was the bacteria moving upstream, and the "muscle knots" in my thigh were inflamed lymph nodes.
So, I got off pretty darn easy, with 10 days of antibiotics, follow-up appointments, and instructions not to do any workout requiring a closed toe shoe until the blister had settled down. The last point meant that I got to skip out on a Friday morning workout in ridiculously hot and humid conditions in favor of the pool – definitely not the worst thing in the world.
I do note, though that I would have been in big trouble had I waited until morning to bug my doctor – these infections apparently spread VERY rapidly, with potentially severe consequences. And, I might have been able to tempo on Friday if I had given her a call on Wednesday morning, instead of procrastinating until Wednesday night.
So, big lessons are: a) take any indication of infection in a blister very seriously, even if you are sure you’re just being a princess; b) even mild cases of athlete’s foot can end up causing big issues; c) pale red streaking on your skin traveling away from an infected cut or blister is a VERY bad sign, and merits either paging your doctor or going to the ER within the hour.
Duly noted. Moving on. Pre-toe infection and antibiotics, I was having a decent week, but the second half of the week has been a bit tougher. I don't think it's any indication of a true performance loss; it's just that my body's still a bit off from either the infection or the antibiotics. My 16 miler on Sunday ended up being a bit of a struggle, and I made myself finish it when I should have shut it down. As my coach noted, I'm not doing myself any favors when I make myself complete a workout at all costs.
I've got a few more days of the antibiotics to go -- I'm just going to try to keep my runs and workouts on the less intense side until I have everything out of my system. I've made too much progress to get greedy and screw stuff up now.
Dailies
Monday: 1000m of swimming breathing drills and 40 minutes of easy pool-running for “4 miles,” and then some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 10 miles on the track. Prescribed workout was 2-3x1200, 800, 400 – half-distance recoveries between intervals; 400m recovery plus “hydrate fully” between sets (still pretty humid – temp of 74, dewpoint of 73). I ran 4:48, 3:03, 84; then 4:40, 2:55 (oops), 81; then 4:35, 2:58, 80. I was pretty happy with this one, with the exception of running the second 800m a bit too fast.
Followed with some injury prevention exercises and then a shakeout 20 minutes easy pool-running, for “2 miles”. Upper body strength-training and foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 12 miles easy outside (8:41 pace) –shuffle warm-up (10:00 pace) before meeting up with Jessica for 11 easy (8:41 pace for overall run), followed by some running form drills. Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Pilates class in the afternoon, plus foam rolling
Thursday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Yoga class at night.
Friday: In the morning, a tempo workout in the pool totaling “10 miles” – including a tempo workout of 22 minutes at tempo effort for “3 miles”, followed by 15 minutes for “2 miles” and 8 minutes for “1 mile” – 1 minute recovery between each (trying to replicate my coach’s “3, 2, 1” tempo workout that we do outside). Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills, half with pull buoy, half without. Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Saturday: In the morning, 8.5 miles outside averaging 8:00 pace, followed with a shakeout 20 minutes of pool-running (“2 miles”). In the afternoon, light upper body strength training plus foam-rolling, injury prevention exercises, and stretching.
[comment: I know that stuff like infected blisters are TMI for some people. But I learned some good lessons from this, and so I'm sharing, so others know to take these symptoms very seriously.]
The story in brief is that I had a blister on my right big toe that got a bit inflamed after my track workout on Tuesday morning. I didn’t worry about it too much – I get blisters all the time (I have baby skin, and you just have to look at me to chafe or blister me), and I just run through them. If they rip, then I clean them really carefully with rubbing alcohol.
On Wednesday, I was feeling fatigued and dull, but I thought it was just recovery from Tuesday’s hard workout (which was pretty hard, being our first interval workout in 6 weeks). My toe hurt some during the run, and more and more as the day went on. The toe also started to swell, and the inside of my right foot got red. I also noted that my right inner thigh had some very distinct sore spots – I decided these were probably muscle knots, and made a note to get back in for another sports massage.
That evening, I noted a pale red streak on the top of my right foot, and the toe started to REALLY hurt. And my calf was cramping a bit. So I called my dad (a doctor) and asked if this was something I should call my primary care doctor about tomorrow, or wait a few days. He told me (pretty strongly) to page her. So, I did, VERY apologetically.
“Hey I've got a blister on my foot and I really don't think it's anything, but I promised my father I'd page you. If you want, you can call me tonight, but I really don't want to bug you so tomorrow is fine.”
She called me back 2 minutes later. After I described my foot (picture below), she prescribed an antibiotic, and ordered me to get to the 24 hour pharmacy ASAP (i.e. do NOT wait until morning). So I did, and started them.
 |
| Doesn't look all that bad, does it? (ignore the toenails, please) But note the red streak starting to run up the top of the right foot into the ankle. (the stuff on the top of the left foot is just standard chafing -- like I said, I chafe EVERYWHERE ALL the TIME) |
By my appointment with her Thursday morning, the foot was MUCH better. Nearly pain free. In a nutshell, it was a cellulitis infection. Apparently, you can get infected blisters even if the skin doesn’t break (it didn’t here), especially if you have a) a circulatory disorder (as I do) and b) even a mild case of athletes foot (*cough*). The red streak on the top of my foot was the bacteria moving upstream, and the "muscle knots" in my thigh were inflamed lymph nodes.
So, I got off pretty darn easy, with 10 days of antibiotics, follow-up appointments, and instructions not to do any workout requiring a closed toe shoe until the blister had settled down. The last point meant that I got to skip out on a Friday morning workout in ridiculously hot and humid conditions in favor of the pool – definitely not the worst thing in the world.
I do note, though that I would have been in big trouble had I waited until morning to bug my doctor – these infections apparently spread VERY rapidly, with potentially severe consequences. And, I might have been able to tempo on Friday if I had given her a call on Wednesday morning, instead of procrastinating until Wednesday night.
So, big lessons are: a) take any indication of infection in a blister very seriously, even if you are sure you’re just being a princess; b) even mild cases of athlete’s foot can end up causing big issues; c) pale red streaking on your skin traveling away from an infected cut or blister is a VERY bad sign, and merits either paging your doctor or going to the ER within the hour.
Duly noted. Moving on. Pre-toe infection and antibiotics, I was having a decent week, but the second half of the week has been a bit tougher. I don't think it's any indication of a true performance loss; it's just that my body's still a bit off from either the infection or the antibiotics. My 16 miler on Sunday ended up being a bit of a struggle, and I made myself finish it when I should have shut it down. As my coach noted, I'm not doing myself any favors when I make myself complete a workout at all costs.
I've got a few more days of the antibiotics to go -- I'm just going to try to keep my runs and workouts on the less intense side until I have everything out of my system. I've made too much progress to get greedy and screw stuff up now.
Dailies
Monday: 1000m of swimming breathing drills and 40 minutes of easy pool-running for “4 miles,” and then some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 10 miles on the track. Prescribed workout was 2-3x1200, 800, 400 – half-distance recoveries between intervals; 400m recovery plus “hydrate fully” between sets (still pretty humid – temp of 74, dewpoint of 73). I ran 4:48, 3:03, 84; then 4:40, 2:55 (oops), 81; then 4:35, 2:58, 80. I was pretty happy with this one, with the exception of running the second 800m a bit too fast.
Followed with some injury prevention exercises and then a shakeout 20 minutes easy pool-running, for “2 miles”. Upper body strength-training and foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 12 miles easy outside (8:41 pace) –shuffle warm-up (10:00 pace) before meeting up with Jessica for 11 easy (8:41 pace for overall run), followed by some running form drills. Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills. Pilates class in the afternoon, plus foam rolling
Thursday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” plus upper body strengthtraining. Yoga class at night.
Friday: In the morning, a tempo workout in the pool totaling “10 miles” – including a tempo workout of 22 minutes at tempo effort for “3 miles”, followed by 15 minutes for “2 miles” and 8 minutes for “1 mile” – 1 minute recovery between each (trying to replicate my coach’s “3, 2, 1” tempo workout that we do outside). Followed with 1000m of swimming breathing drills, half with pull buoy, half without. Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Saturday: In the morning, 8.5 miles outside averaging 8:00 pace, followed with a shakeout 20 minutes of pool-running (“2 miles”). In the afternoon, light upper body strength training plus foam-rolling, injury prevention exercises, and stretching.
Sunday: In the morning, a long run of 16.5 miles out and back, complete with 4 water breaks (and two Margarita shot bloks). The average pace for the run was 8:06. The first 7 miles were at 8:30 pace, followed by 5 miles at 7:52 pace and 3 miles at 7:25 pace. Then I was totally done, and finished the run with a cool-down jog at 8:30 pace. Not my greatest long run by far – as my coach noted, I should have just called it at 14, so as not to risk injury.
I followed this up with some injury prevention exercises, and then 20 minutes very easy pool-running for “2 miles” to shake things out.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Paging Doctor Google and Coach Runnersworld
I play on the internet as much as the next person. Maybe a bit more.
OK, a lot more.
I love message boards, fora, blogs, etc and have played on them since the days of Mosaic. But I'm not alone here. There's a wide community of runners who spend significant amounts of time on letsrun, runnersworld, etc, where we geek out all day about training, injury management, which race to run, ad nauseum. And it is truly nauseous -- in the company of those with similar obsessions, we can ramble on about blisters and impromptu bathroom breaks with the openness traditionally reserved for the elderly and incontinent.
We interact on those forums because of the friendships we build, and I've made some darn good ones. But there's another reason as well.
***
When I started running, I quickly figured out that I had no idea what I was doing. So I reached out to the runnersworld forums for training advice and learned a lot. Then I branched out and also started posting on letsrun -- having not broken 17 for a 5K, I'm arguably not fast enough to be posting there, but I have the requisite thick virtual skin honed from years of gothic-industrial music scene fora.
[trust me, letsrun is nowhere near the environment of rec.music.industrial, or the peak days of the alchemy-dc or gymrats livejournal communities].
It made sense for me to be reaching out for training advice - I had no coach. I'd also discuss injuries both nascent and ongoing, and this made less sense, for I had plentiful access to both doctors and physical therapists. And I noted that others with both coaches and physical therapists did the same. So why reach out to anonymous strangers on the internet, when one has already retained professionals, with knowledge of our own characteristics and back stories, to advise on the very same issues?
***
Confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms your own pre-existing beliefs. You search for information, then filter out the information that doesn't support your pre-existing view.
It's not a human flaw as much as a human characteristic, like greed. It's universal. We read newspaper articles, and our assessment of whether they are "fair and balanced" or "biased" hinges on our underlying perspective. And the more certain you are that you LACK this trait, the more likely it is that you have it.
[I'm pretty certain that I engage in a great deal of confirmation bias -- I'm not sure whether this means that I actually do, or not. I do know that my head hurts thinking about it]
And that's the key. When you pay a professional for his or her assessment and advice, many times what you hear is NOT what you want to hear, or what makes sense to you. I'm continually reminding myself that the whole reason I retained a coach was to be told the things I didn't want to hear (but needed to) so that I would do the things that I didn't want to do (but really should). Even with that mantra as my mental background noise, I often find advice that I disagree with a bitter pill to swallow. I always get it down, but it goes down better if I chase it with a fine whine.
In contrast, when you post a question to a forum or facebook or your blog, you'll (hopefully) receive multiple answers from which to shop. It's pretty easy to disregard certain comments, even when they comprise the majority of the response you get. After all, those people probably don't totally understand the situation, or are lacking in basic knowledge. It's the other comments, the ones that make sense (i.e. match what you were expecting or hoped to hear) that you hone in on.
If you start researching achilles tendonitis, and see the split between those advising total rest and those advising that you should run through it, the responses that will stick out to you are the ones that best match what you hoped to read. But when you speak to a doctor or a coach, you get one opinion, based on personal observation, with no escape.
And so we keep going back to fora, to shop for the answers we want to hear. It's the antithesis of the Rolling Stones...
you won't always get what you need,
but if you try sometimes, you might find
you get what you want.
OK, a lot more.
I love message boards, fora, blogs, etc and have played on them since the days of Mosaic. But I'm not alone here. There's a wide community of runners who spend significant amounts of time on letsrun, runnersworld, etc, where we geek out all day about training, injury management, which race to run, ad nauseum. And it is truly nauseous -- in the company of those with similar obsessions, we can ramble on about blisters and impromptu bathroom breaks with the openness traditionally reserved for the elderly and incontinent.
We interact on those forums because of the friendships we build, and I've made some darn good ones. But there's another reason as well.
***
When I started running, I quickly figured out that I had no idea what I was doing. So I reached out to the runnersworld forums for training advice and learned a lot. Then I branched out and also started posting on letsrun -- having not broken 17 for a 5K, I'm arguably not fast enough to be posting there, but I have the requisite thick virtual skin honed from years of gothic-industrial music scene fora.
[trust me, letsrun is nowhere near the environment of rec.music.industrial, or the peak days of the alchemy-dc or gymrats livejournal communities].
It made sense for me to be reaching out for training advice - I had no coach. I'd also discuss injuries both nascent and ongoing, and this made less sense, for I had plentiful access to both doctors and physical therapists. And I noted that others with both coaches and physical therapists did the same. So why reach out to anonymous strangers on the internet, when one has already retained professionals, with knowledge of our own characteristics and back stories, to advise on the very same issues?
***
Confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms your own pre-existing beliefs. You search for information, then filter out the information that doesn't support your pre-existing view.
It's not a human flaw as much as a human characteristic, like greed. It's universal. We read newspaper articles, and our assessment of whether they are "fair and balanced" or "biased" hinges on our underlying perspective. And the more certain you are that you LACK this trait, the more likely it is that you have it.
[I'm pretty certain that I engage in a great deal of confirmation bias -- I'm not sure whether this means that I actually do, or not. I do know that my head hurts thinking about it]
And that's the key. When you pay a professional for his or her assessment and advice, many times what you hear is NOT what you want to hear, or what makes sense to you. I'm continually reminding myself that the whole reason I retained a coach was to be told the things I didn't want to hear (but needed to) so that I would do the things that I didn't want to do (but really should). Even with that mantra as my mental background noise, I often find advice that I disagree with a bitter pill to swallow. I always get it down, but it goes down better if I chase it with a fine whine.
In contrast, when you post a question to a forum or facebook or your blog, you'll (hopefully) receive multiple answers from which to shop. It's pretty easy to disregard certain comments, even when they comprise the majority of the response you get. After all, those people probably don't totally understand the situation, or are lacking in basic knowledge. It's the other comments, the ones that make sense (i.e. match what you were expecting or hoped to hear) that you hone in on.
If you start researching achilles tendonitis, and see the split between those advising total rest and those advising that you should run through it, the responses that will stick out to you are the ones that best match what you hoped to read. But when you speak to a doctor or a coach, you get one opinion, based on personal observation, with no escape.
And so we keep going back to fora, to shop for the answers we want to hear. It's the antithesis of the Rolling Stones...
you won't always get what you need,
but if you try sometimes, you might find
you get what you want.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Training log - Week ending 7/24/11
This week was 47.5 miles of “real running” and 10 “miles” pool running plus 3000m of swimming and 60 minutes on the arc-trainer-- training log is here.
A bit of a chaotic week. I traveled to the Tampa, Florida area for work, which threw off my normal running schedule and also meant that I intentionally cut back on my training load to compensate for the effect that air travel always has on me (I always end up with some tweaked muscle from lugging baggage through the airport, and also get pretty dehydrated).
I do note that Tampa was substantially cooler than Washington DC, which amused me.
Then Friday was essentially a rest day due to my planned track mile race on Saturday morning. Of course, the track meet was cancelled due to our horrible weather, and so I ended up doing back to back runs on Saturday and Sunday – with a conversational medium run on Saturday, and a progression long run on Sunday. Both runs were pretty strong, despite the bad weather conditions. I'm not running fast, but I'm actually running VERY fast for me in these weather conditions, meaning that I’m feeling pretty darn good about my fitness. I just need to remain disciplined about a) not getting greedy and doing too much and b) making sure to take adequate rest and recovery.
The one hiccup has been my darn asthma inhaler. They supposedly have 200 puffs in each, and I take 2 puffs twice a week (before track workouts and hills – the long steady build-up of long runs usually means that I don’t have a problem, unless the pollen’s bad). So, an inhaler should last 50 weeks, right? So why do I only get about 8 weeks use out of each one before they die on me (as my current one did before Tuesday’s hill workout, which was a most unpleasant surprise).
Well, did some Googling, and apparently you’re supposed to rinse the things once a week to prevent the inhaler from getting clogged. Oops. Well, that would explain it, then.
Dailies
Monday: 2000m of swimming breathing drills, followed by 20 minutes of easy pool-running for “2 miles,” and then some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 10.5 miles including 6 hill repeats – nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes). Averaged 7:21 pace for the full 6 repeat circuit (just over 4 miles); we did take a quick break after rep 3 to hydrate (I also had to tie my shoe).
This was a tough one in bad conditions (temp 77, dewpoint 70, but thankfully overcast), made slightly more problematic by the fact that my inhaler decided to die that morning, meaning a) no pre-workout puffs, b) tough workout, and c) lovely post-workout cough (“track hack”). I toughed it out, though, hitting my max HR in the process (201 – haven’t seen that # in a while).
Followed with some injury prevention exercises and then a shakeout 20 minutes easy pool-running, for “2 miles”. Travel to Tampa, FL at night.
Wednesday: 60 minutes at easy effort on arc-trainer (set at a resistance that felt equal to pool-running), followed by upper body strength-training and foam rolling.
Thursday: In the morning, an easy run outside. We’ll call this one 10 miles at 8:35 pace since that’s what it felt like (I do know it was 10 miles, just don’t know the pace). My Garmin battery was very low (I think it got turned on accidentally in my backpack), so I ended up mapping out a route quickly and running watchless for the most part. I used my precious 6 minutes of battery life to take one split towards the end – that ended up showing 8:07 pace, but I don’t think that was my pace throughout (I usually start my easy runs in the low 9s and end in the low 8s). Ran 3 miles, then did strides and drills, before finishing the rest of the run. Followed up with injury prevention exercises.
In the afternoon, dragged luggage through airports back to DC. Pilates class plus foam-rolling at night.
Friday: In the morning, 1000m of swimming breathing drills, all with pull buoy, followed by stretching, injury prevention exercises, and foam-rolling.
Saturday: In the morning, 12 miles outside averaging 8:16 pace. Conditions were bad (80 degrees, DP of 70), but I took several breaks and stuck to a shaded trail, and was fine (inadvertently dropping down to 7:15 pace for the last two downhill miles). Followed with a shakeout 25 minutes of pool-running (“2.5 miles”). In the afternoon, light upper body strength training plus foam-rolling, injury prevention exercises, and stretching.
Sunday: In the morning, a long run outside in pretty bad conditions (dewpoint of 75, starting temp was 80, ending was 85). I ran 14.5 miles out and back, complete with 3 water breaks (and two Margarita shot bloks). The average pace for the run was 8:05, with the uphill out averaging 8:37 pace, and the downhill back averaging 7:31 pace (I dialed down the pace on the way back, finishing the last mile at 6:58 pace, followed by a final kick of .2 miles at 6:05 pace).
I followed this up with some injury prevention exercises, and then 35 minutes easy pool-running for “3.5 miles” (meant to do 25 minutes, but ended up in a conversation). I’m going to skip yoga tonight since I overdid the pool-running, and just foam-roll instead.
A bit of a chaotic week. I traveled to the Tampa, Florida area for work, which threw off my normal running schedule and also meant that I intentionally cut back on my training load to compensate for the effect that air travel always has on me (I always end up with some tweaked muscle from lugging baggage through the airport, and also get pretty dehydrated).
I do note that Tampa was substantially cooler than Washington DC, which amused me.
Then Friday was essentially a rest day due to my planned track mile race on Saturday morning. Of course, the track meet was cancelled due to our horrible weather, and so I ended up doing back to back runs on Saturday and Sunday – with a conversational medium run on Saturday, and a progression long run on Sunday. Both runs were pretty strong, despite the bad weather conditions. I'm not running fast, but I'm actually running VERY fast for me in these weather conditions, meaning that I’m feeling pretty darn good about my fitness. I just need to remain disciplined about a) not getting greedy and doing too much and b) making sure to take adequate rest and recovery.
The one hiccup has been my darn asthma inhaler. They supposedly have 200 puffs in each, and I take 2 puffs twice a week (before track workouts and hills – the long steady build-up of long runs usually means that I don’t have a problem, unless the pollen’s bad). So, an inhaler should last 50 weeks, right? So why do I only get about 8 weeks use out of each one before they die on me (as my current one did before Tuesday’s hill workout, which was a most unpleasant surprise).
Well, did some Googling, and apparently you’re supposed to rinse the things once a week to prevent the inhaler from getting clogged. Oops. Well, that would explain it, then.
Dailies
Monday: 2000m of swimming breathing drills, followed by 20 minutes of easy pool-running for “2 miles,” and then some injury prevention work . Stretching and foam-rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 10.5 miles including 6 hill repeats – nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes). Averaged 7:21 pace for the full 6 repeat circuit (just over 4 miles); we did take a quick break after rep 3 to hydrate (I also had to tie my shoe).
This was a tough one in bad conditions (temp 77, dewpoint 70, but thankfully overcast), made slightly more problematic by the fact that my inhaler decided to die that morning, meaning a) no pre-workout puffs, b) tough workout, and c) lovely post-workout cough (“track hack”). I toughed it out, though, hitting my max HR in the process (201 – haven’t seen that # in a while).
Followed with some injury prevention exercises and then a shakeout 20 minutes easy pool-running, for “2 miles”. Travel to Tampa, FL at night.
Wednesday: 60 minutes at easy effort on arc-trainer (set at a resistance that felt equal to pool-running), followed by upper body strength-training and foam rolling.
Thursday: In the morning, an easy run outside. We’ll call this one 10 miles at 8:35 pace since that’s what it felt like (I do know it was 10 miles, just don’t know the pace). My Garmin battery was very low (I think it got turned on accidentally in my backpack), so I ended up mapping out a route quickly and running watchless for the most part. I used my precious 6 minutes of battery life to take one split towards the end – that ended up showing 8:07 pace, but I don’t think that was my pace throughout (I usually start my easy runs in the low 9s and end in the low 8s). Ran 3 miles, then did strides and drills, before finishing the rest of the run. Followed up with injury prevention exercises.
In the afternoon, dragged luggage through airports back to DC. Pilates class plus foam-rolling at night.
Friday: In the morning, 1000m of swimming breathing drills, all with pull buoy, followed by stretching, injury prevention exercises, and foam-rolling.
Saturday: In the morning, 12 miles outside averaging 8:16 pace. Conditions were bad (80 degrees, DP of 70), but I took several breaks and stuck to a shaded trail, and was fine (inadvertently dropping down to 7:15 pace for the last two downhill miles). Followed with a shakeout 25 minutes of pool-running (“2.5 miles”). In the afternoon, light upper body strength training plus foam-rolling, injury prevention exercises, and stretching.
Sunday: In the morning, a long run outside in pretty bad conditions (dewpoint of 75, starting temp was 80, ending was 85). I ran 14.5 miles out and back, complete with 3 water breaks (and two Margarita shot bloks). The average pace for the run was 8:05, with the uphill out averaging 8:37 pace, and the downhill back averaging 7:31 pace (I dialed down the pace on the way back, finishing the last mile at 6:58 pace, followed by a final kick of .2 miles at 6:05 pace).
I followed this up with some injury prevention exercises, and then 35 minutes easy pool-running for “3.5 miles” (meant to do 25 minutes, but ended up in a conversation). I’m going to skip yoga tonight since I overdid the pool-running, and just foam-roll instead.
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