Week of May 20 - 26, 2024
My current plan is to do a trail 5k on July 27. I have a two-week break in June when my husband and I go to Hawaii for hiking. This week had a graduation party for our seniors, commencement for our college, and then I traveled to western PA to visit my family for some time off. Busy!
Monday after work:
- Hill repeat HIIT -- 13min easy + 3 x [7 x (20sec sprint uphill + 20sec walk downhill) + 4min walk downhill]
- T+D 141, 3.5% effect, T 76 F
- time: 40:01
- distance: 2.9 mi
- repeat splits: 8:38, 8:53, 9:37, 8:35, 9:27, 9:22, 9:54, 8:25, 8:36, 9:17, 8:23, 8:39, 9:37, 8:49, 8:21, 8:53, 9:28, 8:41, 8:41, 9:04, 10:06
- elevation gain: 194 ft (corrected)
- route: neighborhood loop 1
- comments: I take these splits with a huge grain of salt! I think they were too short for the GPS to necessarily track well. The point was to be going all-out. I was sprinting uphill, then turning and walking downhill for about 15 sec before using the last 5 sec of walking to get turned around uphill again. It takes me 7 intervals to get to the top of the hill, and so that's when I have the 4-min walk back down to the bottom.
Tuesday after work: Power workout
- Warm-up
- 4 min jump rope
- 50 jumping jacks
- 20 high knees
- 20 butt kicks
- Lower body power: 3 rounds of
- 20 forward bounds
- 20 high skips
- 20 (each side) fast feet forward/back
- 20 (each side) fast feet in/out
- Sprints
- 6x length of tennis court
- 6x width of tennis court
- Upper body power: 2 rounds of, using 8-lb bouncy medicine ball
- 8 overhead throws at wall
- 8 (each side) side-arm throws at wall
- 8 overhead slams
- 8 squat jumps with upward set throw
- 8 plyo push-ups
Wednesday
- Before breakfast: Workout 1
- 3 x 5 suitcase squats with 55 lb + 20-lb vest
- superset
- 3 x 5 lateral pull-downs with 42-lb bands
- 3 x 5 bench presses with 55 lb
- 3 x 5 Romanian deadlifts with 55 lb
- superset
- 3 x 5 shoulder presses with 35 lb
- 3 x 5 band pull-aparts with 13-lb bands
- In evening: walk on treadmill
- time: 43:11
- distance: 2.41 mi
- ave pace: 17:55
- incline: 4%
Thursday evening: 2-hr tennis doubles match. We were unexpectedly given outdoor courts by the facility, and rain caused us to have to stop after about 1 hour. We were ahead 5-3. Now we have to reschedule to play the remaining time, starting exactly where we left off. What a pain in the neck.
Friday before breakfast:
- 50 min easy on trail
- T+D 134, 2.5% effect, T 69 F
- time: 50:02
- distance: 3.87 mi
- average pace: 12:55 (GAP ave pace 12:41)
- splits: 13:07, 12:48, 13:17, 12:24
- ave HR: 129 BPM - within my target range
- elevation gain: 208 ft (corrected)
- route: Valley Trail, Rock Creek National Park
- comments: After the run was completed, I did two 20-sec uphill strides.
Saturday
- Before breakfast:
- Tempo intervals -- 10 min easy + 6 x (5 min tempo + 1 min walk) + 10 min easy
- T+D 124, 1.5% effect, T 65 F
- time: 56:00
- distance: 5.04 mi
- tempo splits: 10:04, 10:01, 10:03, 9:56, 10:06, 10:01
- elevation gain: 52 ft (uncorrected)
- route: Samuel Justus Trail
- comments: This trail was paved. Visiting family in PA.
- After breakfast: hike!
- T 75 F
- time: 1:52:33
- distance: 5.16 mi
- ave pace: 21:47
- elevation gain: 833 ft (corrected)
- route: part of the Gerard Trail, cutting across the Swinging Bridge; Oil Creek State Park
- comments: I would not have done this right after a run, but if I was going to fit in a hike before the thunderstorms, that was the only chance. Got chased off the end of the hike by thunder and it started to rain a few minutes later!
- comments: This was a beautiful trail and park. Of course I almost never went here when I was a kid living in the area! Sorry, no photos since I'm working on a computer that isn't mine - don't want to deal with the hassle of attachements.
Sunday before breakfast:
- Hill repeat HIIT -- 13min easy + 3 x [7 x (20sec sprint uphill + 20sec walk downhill) + 4min walk downhill]
- T+D 120, 1% effect, T 60 F
- time: 40:00
- distance: 2.94 mi
- repeat splits: 8:33, 9:09, 9:12, 9:35, 8:32, 8:36, 8:51, 8:05, 9:04, 8:49, 8:43, 9:14, 8:56, 8:50, 8:17, 9:23, 9:09, 9:05, 8:36, 9:00, 9:25
- elevation gain: 178 ft (corrected)
- route: Tanglewood development
- comments: I take these splits with a huge grain of salt! I think they were too short for the GPS to necessarily track well. The point was to be going all-out. I was sprinting uphill, then turning and walking downhill for about 15 sec before using the last 5 sec of walking to get turned around uphill again. It takes me 7 intervals to get to the top of the hill, and so that's when I have the 4-min walk back down to the bottom.
- comments: I should have done a long run today, but given all the exercise I had the day before, I put that off and pulled this run forward.
Health
I finally had my first physical therapy visit for my knees on Wednesday. As I've said previously, I suspected that I had patellofemoral syndrome in both knees and some additional problems with my left knee. The PT did watch me walk and run and did some other diagnostic moves and measurements. She thinks that I have chondromalacia, which is a more generalized behind-the-kneecap pain than patellofemoral syndrome, and maybe some meniscus degeneration. She also said that my glutes are relatively much weaker than other muscles. She also thinks that my left leg might be a bit shorter than my right leg, so she recommended that I see a podiatrist. She does think that she can design a PT program that will be helpful to me and did not ask me to stop any of my current activities. However, this visit was entirely diagnostic, so I don't have any instructions until my next visit. I am hopeful about the knee PT and I suspected my weak glutes (overcompensating with quads), so I think that will be good for me. I will make a podiatrist appointment, but not until after my Hawaii trip.
The knees have been improving quite a bit on their own the last couple of weeks. The lower volume running has definitely been helpful for that, which was my intent. But I do want to get back to longer races in the fall and next spring, so I need to get them fixed as best as possible.