week 1 in review

Well, I did it.  I started half marathon training.  Can I take a nap now?


This week was tough - not physically, but tough on my head.  My back is still pretty out of whack, and I didn't realize how much I loved the peace and recovery of swimming until I couldn't do it anymore.  My pulled intercostal is miles better than the day I pulled it, but otherwise about the same.  I did try 2 gentle swimming sessions, and it doesn't bother me as long as I stay nice and slow, but as soon as I shove some water back with my right arm, it gets all kinds of fired up.  I'm on a fairly constant ice/heat rotation, and that seems to help with the pain but I don't feel like it is actually healing.  I guess I can take a few weeks off of swimming, but I was really counting on it for some solid, no-legs-involved cross-training this cycle.  Why is my body falling apart?
However, I did discover that cycling, for whatever reason, makes my piriformis fat and happy.  For now, I'll take that trade-off.  The trainer miles on Monday left me feeling pretty stretched out on Tuesday, and Wednesday's outside ride led to a solid first tempo effort on Thursday night.  I did manage to get in 2 very light upper-body lifting sessions, but I will probably leave those out this week because they really aren't doing me any good except for appeasing my OCD about lifting during the weekdays.  Maybe I'll take this week off lifting entirely.  Hrmm.  Maybe.


Running, after all is said and done, was pretty decent.  Two sleepless nights this week brought my cold rampaging back, which left me in a snotty, cranky, heavy-legged-HR-through-the-roof place for my long run on Saturday.  I did my first post-long-run Sunday recovery run on land instead of the pool, and while it also felt like garbage due to my cold, I was glad to get in the road miles.  But I'll fight through crappy runs like these because it will make next week feel easier and lighter.  I also managed to negative-split every single run I did this week (with the exception of tempo cool-down), which makes me happy in a weird obsessive-compulsive kind of way.


All in all, week 1 ran me down pretty hard.  Here's hoping week 2 lightens up.


Monday: 60 minutes lifting (L), 1:13/17.5M on trainer, including 30 minutes HR threshold test
Tuesday: 50 minutes lifting (a/c/b, then at PT), 41 minutes/4.3M run
Wednesday: 50 minutes lifting (L), 38 minutes/10.54M cycling, 18 minutes/1000 yard test swim, 40 minutes/4M pool run
Thursday: 30 minutes various things at PT, 51 minutes/5.65M run (tempo + w/u & c/d)
Friday: 40 minutes lifting (a/c/b)
Saturday: 1:02/6.3M long run
Sunday: 33 minutes/3.5M recovery run, 65 minutes/6.5M pool run, 20 minutes/1000 yard test swim


Week 1: 19.75 miles on land, 30.25 miles total.