Aug 21-26 : 1st Rest Week, Trying Ancillary Work - p v

This week was the rest week of the first cycle.  I'll talk more about my training plan in my next post.  For now, here's a recap of this week:

Aug 21, Tuesday:
60 min strength session, on 2.5 hours of sleep.

Aug 22, Wednesday:
Treadmill run in Newton shoes that's half a size too big.  Oh well, still runnable.  The shoes forced me to take smaller steps, landing under my body, which should be a good form change. My feet were kind of uneven in the shoes, though.  The right foot would roll through just fine, as if the lugs didn't exist.  On my left foot, however, it was as if part of the shoe was missing, and not only did I feel the drop-off of the lugs, but the material on the left half of the toes seemed to almost be missing, and I could almost feel the lugs under my toes.  Don't know if it's my feet or if it's the shoes.

I threw in some hills because it felt kinda good, and even then, the run's effort felt pretty easy.  Earlier in the day, I had calculated the degree inclines of the Philly course.  There's a 1.2 mi portion at 2.5 degrees, a 1 mile portion of negative 3 degrees, a 0.3 mi portion of 7 degrees, and a 0.3 portion of -7 degrees.  The hills, I can sort of train for... not the full feeling of doing uphill then running another 16 mi after having done 10 mi already... but at least the uphill part.  The downhill will be a bit harder to train for, and they may hold a good quad thrashing.  It'll be eccentric contractions.  Maybe some plyo squats will help.

Splits> 8:23 @ 1 degree, 8:03 @ 1 degree, 8:12 @ 3 degrees, 8:07 @ 5 degrees, 8:02 @ 1 degree, 3:52 for 0.5 mi @ 3 degrees.  No well-defined hill pattern... just mixing up the usual run a bit.  5.5 in 44:40, 8:07 ave.

After that run, I tried the Cannonball Cooldown, to help with mobility.  I've been listening to Coach Jay Johnson's podcasts lately, and it sounds like doing that kind of ancillary work really helps with recovery, injury prevention, muscle balances, muscle recruitment, (benefits depend on what kind of ancillary work you do) all helping you to run more, and more efficiently.

Here's the cooldown:

I think it did help me feel better.  I tried it twice this week.

Aug 23, Thursday:
Treadmill again.  Decided to just hold marathon pace, to get used to it.  I only held it for 4 miles, though, before the repetitive stresses were too much for me and I sped it up for another 0.8.  Splits> 8:30, 4x8:00, 5:43 for 0.8.

Friday - lower legs were sore, mostly from the Newtons, probably, and maybe a tiny bit from the hills.  Did the Cannonball Cooldown  again.  Also a bit of self-Sweedish massage to flush out whatever.  I still like static stretching at night, even though there's movement against it.  I wouldn't recommend it before workouts, but I do like it a few hours after workouts.  Feels good.

Aug 25, Saturday:
I saw a video about Mastering Technique Drills, and they looked really good, too. It calls for doing a warmup (I did 3 mi), then doing a set of 10 drills with jogs, strides, and walking afterwards, then doing a bit more running to hard-wire the new firing patterns (I did 3 mi).  It took about 18 minutes.  At first, it felt really easy, and I considered doing 2 sets.  With all the strides, though, it ended up being just right the way it was.  The video is a bit goofy at first during the intro, but the drills are really well thought out, I think.

6 in 47:14, 7:52 ave.   Wore more flexible Kinvaras, to allow for more natural movement, foot muscle activation and strengthening, etc.  Splits> 6:28, 07, 5:53, 38.  After: 5:58, 47, 40, 39.

Aug 26, Sunday:
Went back to the park to get in some more running on soft, varied surface.  Good to be outside, in the fresh air, with natural ground for my feet.  It was getting dark by the time I got out, though.  30 minutes of runnable sunset, and about 15 minutes using a teeny pen light mostly for confidence, while altering my usual lap course to stay on flatter, less rutted surfaces.  5.2 in 46:24, 9:02 ave.

I think the Technique drills stressed my feet more than they're used to, so they feel kinda banged up... hope I don't get a stress fracture or anything like that.  Gotta ease into new things.  I think they help, just gotta ease into it.

STILL waaaay jetlagged.  Go to sleep at 4am, would prefer to wake at 2pm, then nap for a couple of hours in the evening.  Getting up for work every day last week was rough.

On the bright side, I used nocturnal time to make some really good chocolate chip banana bread.