Monday, March 28, sunny , 84, humidity 70% , Nice day.
Legs a little bit sore, not a surprise after a 7 mile day.
Morning HR 58/9, a little elevated
I-Mad 3.5 – a little better Index of Morning Achilles Discomfort
Weight 152
Not much to say today because I took the day off. Elevated heart rate a good excuse for a rest day. The days in St. Augustine are getting short. We leave early Thursday morning. I am already missing the beach! ?
March 27th, Easter Sunday ,warm and cloudy, humidity 97%
Weight after running today 150.2# lowest weight to date
I- Mad this morning =4
Base heart rate 54 BPM holding steady
Happy Easter running lovers.
Today’s workout was a total of 7 miles. 2 miles warm-up plus 5 miles in 57.32
After a good night’s sleep of about 9 hours and a relaxing morning I set out to run with very few expectations. The goal was to just run slowly and recover with emphasis on proper foot placement, short strides and steady belly breathing. I preheated, put on my compression sleeves and my new argyle socks and set out. Walked for 4 minutes and started jogging very slowly with sweats on for what turned out to be about 2 miles, very comfortable. Strip down and start on a run. Manage 5 miles with very little distress of any kind. Created a full blog in my head about my disappointing college running career. Very therapeutic. But the run was very nice. My Achilles had no distress as opposed to the 4 ranking on my I-Mad Index this morning getting out of bed. This is a good sign I think. Afterwards iced my legs in the pool for a while and actually went for a nice swim, that was very refreshing. Seven miles is the longest workout I have done to date. I am surprised to have done that today. I think blogging totally distracts me and makes the miles go faster. So after swimming, had chocolate milk, ate some pizza and enjoyed my green tea/tart cherry cocktail. Also iced my achilles and calves just as a precaution.
Workouts seem to be getting stronger and, fortunateIy, I am feeling very well. I’m wondering if this will transfer to improved 5K performances. It would be nice. Don’t have one scheduled but might start looking for one in the near future.
Happy running my friends.
Saturday, March 26th about 7 p.m
Morning heart rate 54 BPM
Weight 15 4#
I’m at 4 on my new I-MAD index.
We have a lot to talk about today.
I-MAD equals 4. This is a new index I have created to measure the discomfort in my achilles tendon each morning so that I have a running record. The amount of discomfort that one feels upon taking the first 10 to 20 steps after getting out of bed in the morning is a very good indicator of the extent of the Achilles tendon injury. Two years ago I had done some extreme damage to both my achilles tendons. I could barely walk when I stepped out of bed in the morning. It was very painful . I would classify it as an 8 on my new scale. I visited the Rothman sports clinic in South Jersey and was prescribed six weeks of a specialized treatment and rehabilitation to get it under control. My obsession with it at this time is understandable. I don’t want that to happen again. So I created this new Index of Measurement of Achilles Discomfort. It will be added to my training log blog each day. On the index 0 represents no pain at all, 10 represents unbearable pain. I will not be happy again until the index is at 0.
So, with my morning heart rate steady at 54 BPM for 2 days, I decided I was ready for a workout on the beach. There was a total cloud cover and a gentle breeze although the humidity was 94% . Preparation was lots of heat, compression sleeves and 25 minutes of warm up, walking and jogging a total of about 1.9 miles with sweats on. Stripped down I set out on what I hoped would be a 5 mile run. Because my achilles tendon was sending me messages of dull pain, I decided to cut it to four miles during the run. It was a comfortable run with each mile time being faster than the previous. Aerobics were fine thanks to Belly Breathing, and muscles were fine thanks to a day off. By the end of the run my tendon was not aching at all. That is kind of a tricky message from my body I think , because it does not necessarily mean that things are all well. I think that the run was probably still having a negative effect on the Achilles but, because I was so warmed up and blood was flowing to the tendon, the pain had subsided. It would not surprise me one bit if this was the reason why I got into so much trouble 2 years ago. I was running through the pain to the point of no pain, and then pressing on. Maybe I was damaging my achilles at those times. Hopefully, I have learned a lesson there.
I immediately soaked my legs in the cold water of the pool and had a short swim. I am not experiencing any pain as I write this post. But tomorrow morning will tell the story. I was generally pleased with the workout because I was able to drop the mile time for each segment. Here are the splits;
10:56 10:14 9 :44 9:07 I was working hard on the last mile to try and break nine minutes , but it just wasn’t there today. All in all a pretty productive workout.
Followed up with chocolate milk, a banana, a large salad and my cocktail of green tea, pure tart cherry juice and a spritz of lemon.
Now enjoying a DOGFISHHEAD 60 MINUTE IPA while Villanova beats Kansas.
Bonnne Nuit
Friday ,March 25, late evening. Today was a warm day but cloudy and occasionally stormy throughout.
I took the day off today again. It’s that whole listen to your body plan. Last night I stayed up till 1 a.m. because I got caught in The Bourne Identity. It is one of the movies you can’t get out of once you get into. But I did sleep for 11 hours not rising until noon today. That is probably the longest sleep time I’ve had since arriving in Florida. In a discussion with Rich Refi on the phone last night I had to admit to him and myself that had not been monitoring my heart rate each morning. He and I both agree that this is the key predictor of when an athlete is overtraining. As soon as I began complaining about being overtired, that was the question he asked. My answer was no. So, duly chastised, I have begun today to take my puse rate each morning when I wake up. It will now be included with my Daily Post. This morning it was 54 BPM. That has been my heart rate for all the years that I have taken it. The theory is that if an athlete’s base heart rate rises for a few days in a row, that as a sign that he is not fully recovering from his workouts. The prescription is rest. So today I made the decision to swim in the very lovely pool that is right outside our window. It is 7 weeks that I have been looking at the pool but the water has always been too cold I thought. Today I decided, cold or not , I was going to swim. I probably swam for 20 minutes . For the first 10 minutes I had to share the pool with a wild goose who seemed quite disturbed that I was invading his pool. He finally flew away and I completed my swim. So that was the extent of my workout today . I hope that my body feels better tomorrow. I’m anxious to get a happy run back! The days in Florida are growing short and the weather for the next few days is predicted to be mostly rainy with storms. I hope the spring weather is coming to New Jersey.
The more I think about it the more I believe that I could write about high school endlessly. However, there are three themes that dominate my memories of high school. First, endlessly laughing and laughing and doing stupid stuff with the guys. From the Lexington Ave. gang to all the new friends I met in high school, it was a nonstop ball. I have no idea how the poor Sisters survived.
Next there where the girls. I was equally attracted to, mystified by and totally terrified of the pretty girls at st. Al’s. You’re looking at a guy who was an altar boy through 12th grade and went to Confession every Saturday, unfortunately with nothing to confess.
But most of all there was running. Running dominated everything. I could not wait for practice at the end of every day and for the next competition. In 10th grade I made Varsity cross-country. Training with Kevin Hennessy , who had replaced his brother Brian as the running alpha male in the area, forced me to get better and better. With Eddie and Jack Healy and Richie Brown we won all the Championships. Next year Eddie graduated and joined the Marines. My childhood buddy, Richie Graham, joined the cross country team for the first time in 11th grrade. Richie was an All County basketball star. Kevin and I dominated, and with Rich’s help we again won the major championships. In Spring at the Penn Relays I was offered a full scholarship to run at Seton Hall by Coach John Gibson. I had run the 3/4 mile leg of the Distance Medley Relay again, this time in a pretty memorable 3:18. Now, that’s pretty average today, but in 1960 it was pretty solid. That year Al Adams of St. Michael’s in Jersey City anchored the Distance Medley to win the Championship of America. He was awarded High School Athlete of the Meet for running a 4:23 mile. Today that is considered pretty average too. I’m certain that a good deal of Coach Gibson’s offer was due to the fact that John was running at the Hall at the time , and Coach Gibson lovedJohn! Nevertheless, I was getting faster and sitting on top of the world. Summer after jr. year I trained harder than ever to prepare for my senior season. Summer training was not as common back in the 50s, so I think that gave me an edge. By this time Willie was also running Varsity cross-country and along with Cliff Sprague, Richie and Billy Marino, Pete Doody and Kenny Beil, we again won a number of championship titles. I had a dream senior season winning City, County and Catholic Conference titles. I broke all of Brian and Kevin Hennessy’s records , set a new course record at Lincoln Park and was selected Runner of the year by the legendary sports writer Ed Grant. I was flying high and ready to conquer the world. Next was Seton Hall University and probably the Olympics.
Now, the reader might have noticed that there’s no mention in this entire High School discussion of academics. That is actually because I don’t remember anything about academics in high school at all. I must have learned some algebra and how to diagram some sentences and maybe even some history and English literature. That is because I actually do know some of that stuff. I think a comment by my brother Eddie helps too explain a lot of this. He told me one day, “The only things I remember from any class in high school are the things my teachers told me about themselves.” I have tried to remember that during my 35 years teaching in High School. I took every opportunity possible to tell students about things going on in my life. Not personal things, but unusual things like about my dog chasing a skunk or my car catching fire in the driveway. And Eddie’s words come back to me everytime I meet a former student and they tell me, “Hey Mister O, remember that story about your dog chasing skunks ? That was hysterical!” Hardley ever does the conversation turn to the War OF 1812 .
Good morning– It’s Thursday, March 24th at 9 a.m. 70 degrees, clear and calm. Beach pretty.
There are plenty of strollers, dog walkers, Runners and cyclists along the surf today. I arrived with unhappy muscles at 9 a.m. I was greeted by a cute little autistic boy digging in the sand with his parents nearby. He was responsive, communicative and interactive but all at somewhat low levels. I found out his name was Kobe. We talked about sand and Sun for a while with his parents interpreting when I looked confused. I asked Kobe if he would watch my sweats while I ran and he agreed.
My workout was a totally different matter. It began with a 10-minute walk. I started to jog but after about a minute stopped because of uncooperative muscles. I continued walking with waning confidence that this was going to be a productive day. I stripped down and reluctantly began my daily run while Koby watched my sweats. I decided to go shirtless today to bank some sunshine for the upcoming trip to the north. What followed was 4 miles of very uncomfortable running. My muscles never fully cooperated and my stride never felt smooth or open. Each step was a struggle. This is somewhat confusing to me because I completely took the day off yesterday, and that usually results in springy legs. No Spring today. My only other explanation is that possibly my body is still adapting to my new training level. I am confident that the last 7 days have been the most strenuous of my running career. I thought that one day off would be sufficient recovery, but my body tells me something different. I probably will repeat many times, because it is one of the key purposes of this blog, that listening to one’s body, especially among +70runners, is an absolute necessity for survival. So, I trudged through 4 more miles in 49 minutes surviving only by writing this blog in my head along the way. When I got back to Kobe and his parents my sweats were still secure. I played with Kobe for a few minutes. Then I told his parents what a lovely young boy they had and how lucky he was to have smart and loving parents. They seemed pleased. I said goodbye to Toby, and I hope I will see him again before we leave. So, even though the workout was kind of gruesome, it was a nice morning at the beach.
My first memories of track and field are of my older brothers John and Eddie running in track meets at Persian Field in downtown Jersey City. I don’t know if I ever ran there, but I do remember that they were very good and came home with medals and ribbons. My brothers are John, Eddie and Willie. Everybody called me Robby. To this day nobody in my family knows who is “Bob” the adopted name that I was given as a track runner and coach. John was always John. However, there is a family legend of the Jersey City street name for John, Chico. The origin of Chico has never been explained. John was a type A,h first born child. He was as straight as an arrow and as tough as nails. Those qualities probably helped him become an outstanding quarter mile runner in high school. Running 51 seconds for a 440 in the mid-fifties was enough to earn John a partial scholarship to Seton Hall University under coach John Gibson. He entered Seton Hall University in 1957 as I entered st. Aloysius High School as a freshman. Eddie, entering his junior year, was also on the track team. So it seemed pretty much determined that I would be joining the track program as I entered High School. It turned out I was a pretty good distance Runner. Legendary coach Bob Short, who had produced many quality distance runners over the past 10 years at St. Aloysius, seemed to think I had talent. Coach Short is the first adult I ever remember calling by a first name. He told us to call him Bob. He called me Bobby.
Two key events I remember from freshman year set the stage for a lifetime in track and field. I finished in second place in the Freshman division of the North Jersey Catholic Track Conference Championship in Lincoln Park. Bob and my brother Eddie were both very impressed with that performance. Their words made me feel very important, maybe for the first time in my life. I was going to be a cross country star like Brian Hennessy, the reigning city and county cross country champion from St. Al’s!
The other event was the surprise that in the spring I qualified for a spot on the distance medley relay team scheduled to compete at the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. This was a huge deal. As a fifteen-year-old I had never been away from home overnight or stayed in a hotel. This was kind of a culture shock taking a trip to a big city with the team. There were too many new experiences that weekend for me to list here. If anyone would like to hear them all, leave me a note and I’ll write a separate post. But the one event that I have said changed my life occurred at the stadium, Franklin Field. My race itself, three-quarters of a mile leg on the distance medley relay, was unmemorable. I was so overwhelmed by running in a large stadium in front of probably thirty thousand people at the time I could not even absorb it. But later that day I witnessed the St. Francis Prep High School mile relay run the first-ever sub 3:20 mile relay to win the
Championship of America. By then there were more like fifty thousand people in the stadium who were chanting wildly as this team of four boys took a Victory lap around the Franklin Field track. That moment is embedded in my brain. I was hooked for life.
Wednesday, March 23rd. Another nice spring day in Florida
Slept this morning till 10:30. Just listening to my body! I guess yesterday was not as much of a recovery as I thought it was. Set alarm for 7 a.m. again. When it went off I awoke and felt like my body hurt in every possible place. Made a quick decision to turn over and continue to heal. Is now 12:30 and I’m planning a day with as much walking as possible, no running.
Weighed 151 pounds after I ran yesterday, lowest ever. I am not trying to lose weight. I think running more and eating well is producing that result. I was 177 pounds when I started running again. After a few good meals and a day of rest, I will most likely be back up to 154 pounds which has been my standard weight for the last year and a half.
Sad to say the time has come to start planning for our trip back to New Jersey. Hopefully we bring some of the nice weather with us as many have suggested. Departure date is March 31st. So we do have some time left to enjoy St.Augustine. No more shopping for groceries. Eat everything in the house and dine out for the next week.
Whatever happened
Tuesday is so slow
Van Morrison, covered by Jimmy Buffett “Brown Eyed Girl”
I feel like I should give Jimmy a shout out before he sends me a bill. I am using a lot of his material,
5 p.m. 58* wind NE 10 to 15 mph. Beach conditions very nice, flat and firm
Today was designed to be a recovery day. Happily, I got in 4 miles in 46 minutes, not too bad. I decided to try this one Kenyan Style, that is wearing sweats for the entire run. About 3 miles into the run I began to feel smooth and relaxed. Each mile was a little quicker and the final mile was under 10 minutes. I guess those Kenyans know what they are doing. I had to keep something in the tank for West Coast swing dancing tonight. Quadriceps were sore after the run but, remarkably, got better as we continued dancing. We just got home. Its 10:30 heading for bed.
Just a note. have noticed that constructing blogs while I am running makes my workouts and Miles go much quicker. Today I started writing in my head about how I began running and the effects that my brothers had on me in those early days in the 50s. If things go as expected I plan to post that blog tomorrow. Goodnight
7 p.m. 70 degrees and very light wind. Ideal conditions 4 for an early evening run along the ocean. The Panorama of the sky was striking. A hazy, gray full moon hung over the eastern ocean horizon gazing westwood at a golden fireball sinking into the Matanzas River. Strollers on the beach must have been quite confused watching an old guy running on the beach with a wide smile on his face.
The happy runner had a number of reasons for sporting a smile.
1-the mesmerizing sky of course
2- running along in the evening without pain
3- performing a workout that far exceeded his expectations for that evening
Tonight I covered five miles on my journey along the ocean. At the start of the workout it seemed that things were going to be tedious. My quads were sore and heavy and my calves were whining. All this no doubt is a result of yesterday’s rather difficult and demanding workout. As I have mentioned earlier, it seems my workouts are getting longer, more in the five to six mile range rather then in the three to four mile range that had been my previous norm. Warm up was about a mile and a half of walking and jogging which took 20 minutes. Feeling a little better, I decided to try to do a few mile intervals wondering if I could run better than 9:30 pace. I was surprised to find that I ran a quite comfortable 8:24 for the first mile. After a four minute jog I ran an 8:13 mile! I had some idea that I might go for 3, but my Achllie’s tendon started to ache slightly during the second mile. So I opted to err on the side of caution. The workout concluded with a one-mile cool-down jog. I am pretty sure I could have run three. I think that if I can run a number of 8 minute miles during workouts over the next fiew weeks, I have a chance to reach my goal 5K time of 25 minutes.
We just finished a delicious dinner cooked by Arlene of a fish we have discovered in Florida. It’s name is trigger. The folks at the local fish store claim it is one of the most popular in the area and it is tasty and versatile. We both liked it end probably will have it again before we leave. I don’t know if it is available in New Jersey.