July 21 - 27, 2025
Marathon training week 3 | 91 days until Marine Corps Marathon
In which summer is the worst
Monday
Ride: 90 min, 18 miles, avg. HR 129, max 158, 100% Z1-2
Core
To my mild surprise, I was not sore from my two-hour bike ride on Sunday. (Okay, my butt was kind of sore, but from the seat, not the work). So I hopped on the bike again.
I might not have been sore walking around, but my legs definitely felt tired biking. It made it hard to get my HR even into Z2 - aerobically the capacity was there, I just couldn't get my legs to do enough work. I think this is partly inexperience with biking and partly a really crappy bike. Anyway, it was better than nothing, but definitely not the equivalent of a 90-minute run.
I snuck in a little core workout in the afternoon too.
Tuesday
Easy: 2 miles (9:57), avg. HR 149, max 164, 94% Z1-2, T+D~130 
Upper body strength
My foot was feeling pretty much okay, so I did a short test run. My foot was completely fine except maybe a bit of an ache going downhill. (I was planning on a flat run, but then I got impatient at a light and went up - and then down - a little hill.) My HR was kind of all over the place, but that's not really a surprise after a few days away.
When I got back, I wasn't planning to have a snack because I ran for 20 minutes and didn't think I needed one. However, my stomach went, "Hey. We ran. Now is time to eat. Food!" So...I had a snack.
Wednesday
Easy/hill strides: 6.1 miles (9:58), avg. HR 152, max 179, 81% Z1-2, T+D~145
Core
My foot felt fine the rest of the day on Tuesday, but it was a little sore when I woke up on Wednesday. It didn't seem like a great idea to do a workout, especially because the most running I had done since Friday was two miles. That's kind of a jump. I still went for a run; I just kept it mostly easy with some hill strides at the end. My foot actually felt totally normal the whole time. But I still put some ice on it afterwards to hopefully prevent further soreness.
The hill strides felt especially difficult. Probably because I hadn't done any kind of speed in like a week.
Thursday
Workout: 6 x threshold hills + 6 x 30s hills
10.7 miles, avg. HR 162, max 182, T+D~145
Lower body strength
My foot was not sore in the morning, yay. So I was good to go on the workout.
Hills are good for minor injuries, too - you get the same work without as much impact.
Later in a training block I'll typically do eight reps of threshold hills, but six seemed good for week 3. And I was pretty tired after six, so I think that was the right call. The hill sprints afterwards were a struggle. I had to stop with my hands on my knees for like the last three.
However, my foot did not hurt at all, so that was good. Although I did feel a blister forming on the bottom of my big toe, which was less good. Should have put some Vaseline on.
The paces seemed a bit slow, but I'm trying not to worry about it this early, especially when it's still hot and I missed a few days.
Also, I kept getting hamstring cramps - my hamstring was almost but not quite cramping on my cool-down, definitely actually cramping when I was doing Bulgarian split squats, and then somehow cramping when I just shifted position on the couch?? I've had hamstring cramps before, but that's a new one. I asked Claude for help again.
Claude said my hamstrings are probably in a "hypervigilant state," meaning they're working too hard to stabilize when something else isn't doing its job. Probably the glutes. It's always the glutes.
Apparently it's not unusual for glutes not to fire properly after cycling.
I'm kind of liking this AI-for-diagnosing-minor-issues thing, though. Obviously if I had a serious problem, I would go see an actual medical professional, but I'm not going to go to urgent care to ask them why my hamstring is cramping. So far it's been pretty good with the small stuff. It gave me some exercises to add to my warmup that might help.
Friday
Recovery: 6.2 miles (10:31), avg. HR 145, max 159, 99% Z1-2, T+D~155
My legs were a little sore, but my foot felt okay. I didn't do a very good job staying mostly in Z1, though.
Saturday
Easy/pickup: 12 miles, avg. HR 156, max 185, T+D~155
PT exercises
I was very sweaty. I picked it up for the last few miles, but not very much - it was too humid.
I did manage to dump some electrolyte powder into my empty bottles while running before I got to the fountain to refill them, so we're making progress. I had a packet of Mortal Hydration that I got for free somewhere, and it was fine, but I still like Skratch better.
When I went to do my PT exercises, I told myself I would just do 20 minutes or so because it had already been kind of a big week. 35 minutes later...
Sunday
Long: 17.1 miles (10:17), avg. HR 151, max 163, 96% Z1-2, T+D~155-160 
Ugh. I realize it's the end of July and it's no longer interesting to complain about the weather, if it ever was, but the dew point was 77º this morning, and that is horrible. It literally felt hard to breathe even in Z1. I'm actually really surprised I managed to spend most of my time in Z1-2 just because running at all was so freaking hard.
I ran through the water feature in the park for the first time on the way back. My shoes got soaked, and I ended up with some minor chafing from my wet shorts, but I felt comfortable for like five whole minutes, which might have been worth it.
Here, I found a photo - the sprays vary from about knee to chest height
My legs were also tired, but that didn't really become an issue until around 14 miles, so, whatever, I can deal with three miles of dead legs. That's just marathon training. But I never would have thought I'd be looking forward to dew points in the high 60s.
Totals
Running: 8h 58m, 54.3 miles
Biking: 1h 31m, 18.1 miles
Strength/mobility: 2h 8m
Total: 12h 39m
Let's just pretend that the biking time belongs to last Saturday; then it all becomes more reasonable.
Anyway, my foot seems fine now
so hopefully it won't happen again.
Coming up
Well, I expect Wednesday's workout to be garbage. But...then it might be pleasant! At least for a few days! O great and terrible weather gods, please do not replace this forecast with another heat wave, amen.
)
Claude also told me that it was okay to take ibuprofen to reduce some of the inflammation, so I did that along with the icing. (Yup, I'm getting my medical advice from AI now. 
increased blood circulation 
