January 6th, Friday

Back to running pickups …..

There’s something women like about a pickup man!

On this chilly, January afternoon I headed to the cinder track with the goal of running four safe miles. Well padded, I started slowly, stopped for some warm up leg drills, a few lunges and stretches.  I inserted  70 to 100 stride pickups on each straightaway of the half-mile track, 11 in all over the 4 miles.  My legs feel better on each lap and I was experiencing no aerobic difficulty. I stopped only out of an abundance of caution even though I felt that I could have gone much further. So far the cold weather has not presented any difficulty. I am happy to be feeling comfortable running pickups again because I think that is one of the keys  to achieving maximum fitness.  I am glad I got this workout in before tomorrow’s predicted snowfall. Now iceing, rolling and drinking chocolate milk.

Stats –

I-Mad =1

Sleep = 7 hours

Weight = #154

a.m.HR = 54BPM

Workout = 4 miles, 11 pickups,  60 minutes ?

January 5th, Thursday

I set out expecting to walk about 20 minutes to recover today, even left my watch home.  But, since my legs felt so fresh, I started to jog a little.  I ended up running for a half hour at a pretty solid pace, improving as I went along.  Pleased to be able to do a little more than expected on this cold day.          (2.5 miles)

Stats –

I-Mad = 0

a.m.HR = 55BPM

Weight = #154

Sleep = 10 hours

Workout = Steady, relaxed 30 minutes recovery

January 1,2, 3
The last 3 days were New Year’s Day on which we had the annual O’Rourke family Christmas party, and two very bitter cold rainy days. I managed to get in one session at the clubhouse. I decided to try the 20 minute bike workout suggested by Dr. Mirkin because time was short. This consists of five-minute warmup and 5 minute cooldown with 10 minutes in the middle of 20 second full effort bursts every minute. It does get the heart rate up and fatigue the legs for a considerable time afterwards. I followed up with a very refreshing 15 minutes in the hot whirlpool. That was on the 2nd.  1/3 was off.

Poor statting these days……

January 4th,  Wednesday

During my run today I decided to give myself a little time trial.  Since the last five or so months have been marked by inconsistent training segments, I have been wondering what is my current level of fitness.  So, when my legs felt good today at the beginning of my run,  I decided I would turn it into a one mile time trial.  I had warmed up and done leg drills indoors and had layered plenty for the Run. After a mile jog, I ran six stright-aways as I gradually delayered.  I set out with a goal of breaking 10:00 for the mile.  Early on my watch was reading closer to 8:00, which kind of shocked me.  I don’t believe I have  run anything close to that in months.  So I settled down and  held a  steady pace  for the next  minutes.  It was quite windy throughout.   I would judge my perceived effort to be 75 /80%.   The final time for the mile was 9:08!   I was pleasantly surprised.  The total workout covered  4.33 miles and took 1 hour.  The forecasts suggest that this will be the last of the very nice winter training days for a while as temperatures will be dropping into the twenties for the foreseeable future.  I am glad to have gotten this indicator today.

Stats –

I-Mad =1

Sleep = 8 hours

a.m.HR = 55BPM

Weight  = #154

WORKOUT = 4.33 miles  in 1 hour with 1 MILE trial @  9:08

December 31, Saturday

End of year 4 on a crisp  New Year’s Eve

Felt surprisingly good today.  Ran 4 Progressive miles today feeling no ill effects anywhere.  I spent about a half an hour warming up indoors today.   I have become able to do a series of drills standing on one leg.   I layered up about four deep before I left because I really don’t like to be cold. After I returned I weighed my wardrobe  and it came up in excess of 8 pounds (lol).  Still started out very slowly. I inserted 5 50 stride pickups each time I came to a slight incline. Afterwards I iced and rolled my feet.

Mile splits;

13:44,    12:01,     11:19,    11;08.     =    48:12

Stats are steady.

HJ

December 30th, Friday

Basically jogged 30 minutes today.  Not much energy in the legs.

Thought of this article as I ran today. (I also cannot stop singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer while running for the past 3 days. Making me a little crazy.) There is nothing new in this article, but it’s always a good idea to refresh on the most important things.

http://www.runnersworld.com/health/4-things-we-can-all-learn-from-masters-runners#

I guess you would have to copy and paste the url address into your browser because I can’t get it to open from this post. In case you don’t want to read the entire article, here are the four key ideas;

Get plenty of rest , Hydrate constantly,  Strength train,  Worry less and enjoy.

Here’s to happy and healthy running in 2017.??

December 29th,  Thursday  4:00p.m

Today I was proud to get out early in the drizzling rain for what turned out to be a very successful 4 Mile Run in under 50 minutes wearing Rob’s 25 year old Notre Dame, Starter jacket. ( Kind of fun & feeling a little toughness, too)   I didn’t have my Garmin because it was not charged. So I don’t have specific times per mile, but I’m certain the miles were ‘progressive.’  ( Each faster than the last)   I did not wear support socks and tied my shoes very loosely today hoping to avoid cramps. So, there were no cramps in my feet or my calves  or any place else,  all of which is very encouraging.  Good day!

Golf ball rolling daily.

Stats –

I-Mad = .5. Very good

Weight = #153 Steady

a.m.HR = 54BPM  Steady

Sleep = 8 hours  OK

Workout = 4 progressive miles

December 25th,  Sunday

This is out of order because I didn’t publish it after I wrote it on Sunday.

Today was another nice December day for a run. It was also Christmas day which was nice. I covered 4 miles 48:20.  I found it interesting that at the conclusion of the run my heart rate was only at 126BPM.  Two minutes later it was 105BPM.  I think those are pretty low numbers following a run of 4 miles. Admittedly I was not trying to run very fast use my miles were in the 11:30 to 12:15 range.  But that still seems pretty low. I suppose I should take it as a sign of a positive level of fitness.

Stats –

I-Mad =1

Sleep =9 hours

a.m.HR= 57BPM

Weight = #153

Workout = 4 miles in 49:20

DECEMBER 26TH & 27TH ,  Monday & Tuesday

This is likely to be a bit of a rambling post. I have a few things I want talk to myself about. So this is a good place for me to get it straightened out in my brain.?

First, it has occurred to me that I’m very disappointed in the effort that I demonstrated trying to become involved in the Jackson Liberty boys indoor track program this year. There is a very nice group of young men who have a lot of potential on the team. They have always been very kind and supportive of me. I should have spent more time helping Coach Brown and staying close to these young men. That takes me to my second point. I am amazed at how quickly the time slips away and that is part of my excuse for not having a more close involvement with the Liberty team.  I just let it get away.?

Writing this blog for the last 10 months has constantly reminded me of how quickly time goes by. All too often I find that I’ve missed a day of posting, and so I’m happy that this endeavor of mine keeps me focused on the present. I plan to make every effort to post daily from here on out. I especially want to share and have a record for myself of my training for the June, National Senior Games.

Today is an example of time slipping away as I have  not posted since Sunday .  So here goes for today . Yesterday I took the day off to allow my body to rest after my longest run in a while, 4+ miles. I was pretty proud of myself on Sunday. Today Arlene and I drove to the beach in Avon  because of the beautiful spring like, 63 degree weather. We walked the boardwalk and then I decided to jog for a few moments. As I was jogging, a pretty serious pain developed on the bottom of my right foot. It felt like a cramp and I couldn’t shake it during the whole time. I guess I ran a little over a mile on the boardwalk most of it quite distressed by this constant pain. When I finished I took off my support socks and my shoes, then Arlene  actually did a very deep massage of the instep of my foot which hurt quite a bit. We drove home and stopped at the ShopRite for some groceries. Afterward I decided to run again to test if this was going to be a continual problem with my foot. I ran about a mile and a quarter with no pain at all in the right foot. Now the variables; I got the massage from Arl, and I wasn’t wearing my tight support socks and I laced my shoes very, very loosely. So I didn’t get very much of a workout in today. I’m going to have to see what happens tomorrow when I try to run under normal conditions. Hopefully it will be a nice day to run as today was.?

So I am rationalizing training this week by saying that I never expected to be training at all this week after my operation. Everything I had heard about post-operative behaviour was that I would have to cease running for two full weeks. I’ve had at least three decent distance runs in the past week, and so I take that to be I am ahead of the game already. January 1st was going to be my goal to start training. I decided today that my long run for this training sequence is going to be 6 miles once per week. In  thinking about what 5K Runners are doing, it occurred to me they run 12 to 15 Mile distances once a week. My target race is 1500m.  So if I make my long run 5 times my goal race distance, that should be long enough once per week. My aim is to continue running 10 – 12 minute pace until I can comfortably run 6 miles, hopefully close to 60 minutes. At that point I can begin some tempo and interval work as we move to St. Augustine.⛱

I’m going to stop now and recheck this narrative because I have been speaking this entire post without a single check.   Checked and corrected……

STATS – Remain stable…

December 24th, Saturday

Today is Christmas Eve. I took a day of rest to err on the side of caution.  All is well.