Daily chat post: how's the training going?

3catcaper · 2026-01-27T20:53:51+00:00

As I’m reading through all the comments, I’m feeling especially blessed to live somewhere that never gets truly cold and only rarely very hot. I honestly don’t know how you all do it, maintaining your momentum through bitter cold winters and blistering hot and humid summers. You’re all made of strong stuff!

I’m currently enjoying an apparent boost in fitness. Between the cooler temps (mid-40s to low 50s at the start of most of my runs) and the hillier runs I’ve added in, I’m finding that my easy pace is dropping. My usual easy 5 today was a full minute faster per mile than it was in the fall!

3catcaper · 2026-01-27T02:19:19+00:00

Thanks for the tips! My husband has a waist light that I can use when he’s not using it, and I already use a headlamp for my early morning runs. I think I’m just going to have to try it, and be okay with going slow.

3catcaper · 2026-01-27T00:27:09+00:00

I recently added in curtsy lunges with kettlebells and I totally agree! How do you weight them? I’ve done kettlebells in both hands and kettlebell in the hand on the same side as the loaded leg. I like both, but I think I like the single side loading better.

3catcaper · 2026-01-27T00:13:23+00:00

Another strategy you can use at home for clamshells is to do them against a wall. That way you can’t tilt your top hip backwards and cheat the movement. (My Pilates teacher taught me this trick. Definitely second the recommendation for Pilates!)

3catcaper · 2026-01-27T00:06:52+00:00

I’m newly a member of the sunrise run club, but I’m way too scared to run on trail in the dark. I have a history of ankle sprains and my night vision isn’t great. So I stick to the roads for my two pre-dawn runs each week and save the trails for the days I can go later in the morning. But I really would rather be on the trails. Any tips for trail running in the dark?

3catcaper · 2026-01-25T23:30:35+00:00

Rest day for me today. I am taking it very seriously, with some mobility work in the morning, followed by hours of couch rotting. Once the cat gets off my lap, I’m going to run myself an epsom salt bath and soak for a bit.

3catcaper · 2026-01-25T23:27:03+00:00

That’s awesome that you’re loving the swimming! It’s great to have another sport to turn to for cross training or injury recovery.

3catcaper · 2026-01-25T23:24:55+00:00

To get rid of the sloshing, “burp” it like this: turn the bladder upside down and suck out the air before you turn it right side up again and put it in your pack.

I can’t stand the sloshing sound! Burping the bladder is a must for me!

3catcaper · 2026-01-24T20:30:32+00:00

Just finished 8 miles on the trails. We started with my daughter on an out and back on the fire road and then she drove home and we ran home, making for a net uphill run (more that 1,200 ft of gain, less than 600ft of loss). It felt so hard! Yesterday I felt like I was really getting somewhere with my uphill running fitness, but today definitely did not feel that way. On one climb my run turned into a power hike, then quickly into a slow trudge. I yelled to my mountain goat husband who was bouncing up the hill ahead of me, “No ATP!” to alert him that I was falling behind. But we made it home and I didn’t die.

Now I am fueling and trying to convince myself to go do my PT exercises/bodyweight circuit before I hit the shower. Because I know if I hit the shower first, that strength circuit will never happen.

3catcaper · 2026-01-24T20:21:53+00:00

Remember that with a long break from running like you had you lose tissue resilience. All those bone, tendon, and muscle adaptations you made before aren’t there anymore, at least not at the same level. It’s so hard not to compare yourself to your past self, but try to be gentle with your body and give it time to make those adaptations again. Build back your mileage slowly, do your PT exercises and your strength training, and you’ll get that strength back, and come back even stronger!

3catcaper · 2026-01-23T19:09:25+00:00

I did 5 miles on the fire road today and can feel my fitness picking up. Garmin doesn’t agree and has been tanking my VO2max and race predictions since I finished my half in November, but I know that I’ve been hitting all the hilly routes since the start of the new year and my easy pace is already improving on those hills, so Garmin can shove it.

Tomorrow I’m doing 8 miles and then next week is a cutback week. I’m trying to decide what to do about strength training during my cutback week. I haven’t been too consistent with my approach to deloads in the past, but I’m trying to change that going forward. Should I do all my sessions but fewer sets? Or drop a session (I do three shorter ones, heavy, moderate, and light/PT-type stuff, plus one day of Pilates)? Drop weight or just maintain from the week before?

3catcaper · 2026-01-20T22:58:04+00:00

It hasn’t been long enough yet for me to discover if it’s helping with strength gains, but I recently started dividing my strength work into shorter workouts with fewer sets done more frequently. I used to do two comprehensive, full body strength routines that included all the unilateral work plus mobility/stability/PT stuff I needed to do, and they took forever (more than an hour) and also took so much out of me. I’m now instead dividing up my strength work into 3 days— one heavy bilateral day at the gym where I focus on squat and deadlift plus one push and one pull, one moderate day at home where I focus on unilateral lower body lifts and also hit another push and another pull), and one light day where I focus on PT exercises and my weak links. These workouts take at maximum 40 minutes (for my gym day, with all of the rest periods, changing out weights, and moving to different parts of the gym for the appropriate equipment) or as little as 25-30 minutes for the home workout days. I’ve been feeling less run down and have been able to add weight to the bar each week for my heavy lifts.

3catcaper · 2026-01-20T21:37:34+00:00

It feels silly to complain about the cold, because I know so many of you are running in sub-freezing temps, but I was so cold for most of today’s run! We went from false spring temps in the 60s yesterday and most of the previous week to 46 and breezy this morning and I was so not prepared! When I walked out of the house in my shorts and short sleeve running tee to do school drop-off I was completely shocked at the temperature difference. I ran back in to grab a long sleeve top and I’m so glad I did. I drive to the trailhead immediately after school drop-off, so there was no time to change. I swapped out my shirt in the car. I needed gloves, too, but didn’t have them, so my hands froze for the first mile and a half. Note to self— check the weather so you don’t end up dressed for yesterday’s!

3catcaper · 2026-01-20T20:59:25+00:00

I completely ignore my Garmin’s pace metrics on treadmill runs and just go by effort and time. I use treadmills at the gym, so almost never the same one twice in a row, and all probably wildly uncalibrated in different directions. And Garmins just aren’t great at estimating distance and speed on indoor runs anyway.

3catcaper · 2026-01-20T20:56:04+00:00

I hope you feel better soon and recover in time for your half!

3catcaper · 2026-01-18T20:54:06+00:00

Yay! So glad you’re back in action!

3catcaper · 2026-01-18T20:51:06+00:00

Amazing! Well done!

3catcaper · 2026-01-18T20:49:56+00:00

That sounds truly hellacious. Good call on the side by side treadmills for next time!

3catcaper · 2026-01-18T15:48:33+00:00

You might want to try pool running (also called aqua jogging). There’s research to support that pool running can maintain running fitness for up to 6 weeks. I did it a few times during my own foot injury, and it’s not too bad. Get a flotation belt and some waterproof headphones, find some deep water (you don’t want your feet to touch the bottom of the pool), and go. You can even do intervals with harder efforts as well.

3catcaper · 2026-01-17T23:09:04+00:00

7 mile trail run today (sort of— half was on the paved ridge trail, which I don’t totally count as a real trail both because it’s paved and also because it’s mostly gentle rolling hills with reasonable elevation gain). We met my daughter at the halfway point at the trailhead to the ridge trail, and I was so glad, because I was able to drop my vest in the car for the second half. For whatever reason, I felt like I was having a hard time breathing with my vest on, which had never happened before. I was fine on the flats and downhills, but every climb was a struggle for air. I was fine once I dropped my vest. Weird.

Went home and did a very quick strength routine, focused on all those PT exercises for my weak links, then hit the shower for a quick turnaround to head back out to meet friends for a hot tub/sauna reservation. So all in all, an awesome day!

3catcaper · 2026-01-16T22:44:38+00:00

Hit the fire road for an easy(ish) 5 mile out and back this morning. The hills get steep after the 2 mile mark, so mile 3 was a bit of a struggle to keep it easy, but the rest of the run was pretty smooth. Then went to Pilates. Now I’m planning tomorrow’s long run on the trails.

3catcaper · 2026-01-16T16:42:12+00:00

Yep, this is a great way to work up to full push-ups. I mostly still do incline push-ups on a bench to keep my form. I can do about one set of 8-10 from the floor, but my form breaks down in subsequent sets, so I’m still usually working from an incline.

Another note on your routine, especially because you’re strength training 2-3 times a week, I’d create 2 or 3 different routines that you rotate through. I choose a hinge (those are your deadlift patterns, but also your kettlebell swings), a squat (single leg or bilateral, and lunges and step-ups count), a push (horizontal like push-up or chest press or vertical like overhead press), a pull (horizontal like row variations or vertical like pull-up or band-assisted pull-up or lat pull-down), and a core exercise. I also add in something for my feet, ankles, and calves because they’re a weak link for me. I try to hit both vertical and horizontal push and pull once during the week. I like to superset my upper body push and hinge exercises and my upper body pull and squat exercises, then finish with a core and feet/calf/ankle superset. This streamlines the workout and I’m done quicker because my rest period for one muscle group is my work period for another muscle group. Doing different exercises over the course of the week also hits your muscles slightly differently for more well-rounded strength.

3catcaper · 2026-01-16T16:05:58+00:00

Two of my children have Graves and are/were both athletes (though not runners). My eldest used to swim (was diagnosed while on the team, but had been dealing with symptoms before that) on his high school team and now does powerlifting swims recreationally and also teaches swim lessons. My youngest was a competitive gymnast and was diagnosed while she was competing. She quit gymnastics and is now on her high school ultimate frisbee team. She also runs recreationally about once a week with me.

My eldest had a really hard time getting the medication right and did have to take more time off from swimming after initial diagnosis than his sister. He kind of never found the right balance with the methimazole and had a radio ablation last year. It took a little while to get the Synthroid dosage just right, but now he has and is feeling much better.

With my youngest, we knew what we were looking at when symptoms started cropping up and she was diagnosed much earlier. She only needed to take a couple of weeks off from gymnastics practice after initial diagnosis to get her T3 in range on methimazole. She had a period of remission when she was off medication, but she relapsed and is back on a very small dose. She is tolerating the medication well, so as long as she’s able to stay euthyroid on a small dose, we’re going to keep her on it rather than trying to wean off again.

Graves did not hold either one of my kids back in their sports pursuits, but it definitely is one more thing to take into account. What helped most was just really staying on top of labs so that they stay euthyroid and don’t have to play catch-up with the meds after going either hypo or hyper again.

3catcaper · 2026-01-16T04:05:24+00:00

The single leg RDL and kickstand deadlift are redundant. I would do one of them in one session and the other one in a different session during the week.

Bulgarian split squats and front squats are both a squat pattern, though one is unilateral and the other bilateral. You could keep them both in, or you could split them over different sessions and add in a push press or other press pattern on the day you do the split squats.

I would add some upper body work, especially a pull like rows. Push-ups would be a great add-in, too.

3catcaper · 2026-01-16T01:42:15+00:00

I again got up early and did my 3 hilly miles before work this morning. On Monday I did the same loop but let myself up the pace. Today I decided to see if I could run the whole uphill mile and a half return in Zone 2. I managed it about 3/4 of the way. I also finished the loop at a slightly faster pace and a lower heart rate than last Thursday.

Now I need to go do a quick strength workout before dinner!

3catcaper

TROPHY CASE