2025 Week 8 Training Review And Thoughts

Current Training Focus: 10K training to build some leg speed before beginning Chicago Marathon training.

Current Training Plan: Jack Daniels 5K/10K Phase II Week 1 Plan

Week's Intention: run easy, continue to let the tweaked hamstring heal, perhaps test the hamstring with some strides to see if I'm ready for some faster work.

Summary: after last week's hamstring strain, I was leery to push very hard this week. I had felt fairly good after running all easy last week, but did have some soreness and tightness in the hamstring after last Sunday's long run. So this week I went in expecting to run all easy miles. Overall, the week went well, the hamstring was slightly sore from time to time, but nothing of any consequences. I was even able to run some decent strides and a tempo run without any negative consequences. Good progress, and I'll return to the 10k training plan next week, but backing the interval paces off a bit.

Monday: (Nike Vomero 17) 6.30 miles @ 8:39/mile on the treadmill - a bit of hamstring soreness. Keeping it easy. At most, might try a few strides later in the week.

Tuesday: (Tyr Valkyrie Speedworks) 7.54 miles @ 8:05/mile - Felt pretty good. Ran three moderate strides to test the hamstring. A tiny pinch, but super minor and not sore after. Promising!

Wednesday: (Topo Specter) 6.77 miles @  8:08/mile - Not good at all. HR was way too high. Effort and respiration rate did not reflect this, but I was wiped out at the end. Weird. Sick?

Thursday: (Puma Deviate Nitro Elite) 8.01 miles @ 7:18/mile on the treadmill - 4 miles at an increasing marathon-ish tempo (6:54-6:44) to test the hamstring. A bit of grumbling afterward, but not bad at all. Plenty of range of motion & power. (Bad news...my treadmill broke!)


Friday: (New Balance 1080 v13) 4.03 miles @ 8:01/mile - Stiff legs at first. Hamstring seems fine. Pace kept picking up accidentally.

Saturday: (Tyr Valkyrie Speedworks) 10.11 miles @ 7:27/mile - Felt really, really good. Had to keep slowing myself down. Weather felt great. Hamstring isn't 100%, but very close.

Sunday: (adidas Prime X1 Yellow) 17.21 miles @ 8:10/mile - Late start. This was run alone and designed as 50 mile target pace practice. Everything was fine. A bit sore from yesterday's accidentally quick run, but not bad. Hamstring is sore after, but mostly just miles sore, I think. All good! Will try the 10k plan next week.

Lessons (if any): take the break and run easy if it feels like it's needed. I seem to have recovered quickly from a potential hamstring injury. Also, listen to that little voice in the head suggesting "maybe not today" when something is feeling a bit off.

Next week: Back to the Jack Daniels 10k training plan. I'm going to shift down one or maybe even to levels on the VDOT table for the shorter interval work to offer a bit more injury risk margin.

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