March 29th Tuesday 6 p.m           Today was a hot, cloudy and humid day.  Ran five and a half miles on the beach.

Today’s weight -151 after running

I- MED 3.5 this morning   No change

Morning heart rate 56 BPM   –  okay

Set as a goal today to run some pickups in the middle of my run. It has been a while since I did any speed work.   So I heated,  put on my compression sleeves and set out to the beach.   Warm-up consisted of 23 minutes of walk and mostly light jog with sweats on.  The beach was very nice today with a pretty solid wind out of the Northeast.   After warm-up I stripped and headed South with the wind at my back planning to display some speed pickups with the wind helping me out.   Went South for 2 miles doing pickups, 75 strides with 40 at 5K pace , 20 at mile pace +  15 at Sprint space. This was a workout I had read about and tried with the Jackson Liberty cross country boys this fall. They seem to like it and it seemed to have a positive effect on their performance.  I like it!  Turned around at 2 miles and headed back into the wind.  I tried to do pickups at 8 minute pace going back. With my brain blogging ,  I managed to run more pickups than I expected at faster pace than I had hoped.   During the run I had some Achilles discomfort and had to focus on proper foot strike throughout.  But at the 2-mile mark I entered that dangerous zone  I spoke about in the last post.  This I am calling the Perceived Invulnerable Zone or PIZ.   In this Zone the runner feels as though nothing can stop him.  There is no pain and therefore,  the runner concludes there is no danger.   However, it has become my belief  that this is the most dangerous time for injuries to occur.  So, I recommend that the plus70runner  be particularly  aware and careful in the PIZ.

I managed to complete 14 pickups today with paces ranging from 6 minutes  to 8 minutes per mile . That is the most surges I have ever done.  I finished the run at 120 BPM heart rate.  That is not very high as I have finished runs much higher than that in the past.  I consider that an indication of improving aerobic strength.   One note that I failed to mention in  the previous blog concerning that 7 mile run.   In an effort to alleviate the discomfort in my achilles I loosened my shoelaces considerably during that run.   I tend to lace them up pretty tight.   But on Sunday I ran with my shoes a little bit loose.  I was happy with the effect on my achilles tendon,  but I don’t know if it is related.  Today I did the same thing with very loose laces and once again had minimal Achilles discomfort.   I don’t know if this is cause effect or simply  coincidence,  but I’m going to continue this practice and try to monitor the results.  After workout today I just had my chocolate milk, ice  and my cocktail ,  and we are getting ready to go to swing dancing tonight.  I consider this to be a very positive and successful workout,  but I have a feeling that I am going to be experiencing delayed onset muscle pain by Thursday.  DOMS  is the abbreviation for that condition, especially prevalent in older folks,  that muscle soreness occurs 48 to 72 hours after exercise rather than in the first 24 hours.   By Thursday morning we will  be on the road .  I expect that on Thursday and Friday I will get  very little running done because we will be driving home to Jackson, New Jersey.   I hope I can get into the pool in New Durham where we plan to spend Thursday night. Either way I will probably wind up with two days off the roads and give my tired legs a good rest.   I will try to complete some positive miles tomorrow, Wednesday,  as we pack to head on the road.

I’m very happy with the outcome of this two-month stay in St. Augustine this winter.  I got started on this blog and I believe that my running and training has stepped up a level as a result.

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.

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.

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.

Noon now and resting after 6 miles on the beach. Uploaded workout data from my Garmin to my ancient Apple, drank my chocolate milk and icing and enjoying a cocktail of green tea and pure tart cherry juice. It has become a delightful spring like day.
Wow, what a difference two days can make! Doing the right thing is pretty f****** important. I should have that figured out by now. Rested and prepared properly today and had a wonderful run. With apologies for repeating I have to say the beach was flat and firm, and the cloud covered sky and cool breeze made it just perfect. Today I felt pain free, powerful and most importantly pretty. My athletes often laughed when I told them to run pretty. But I am perfectly serious about the importance of running beautiful. I guess coaches call it running efficiently or with good form but to me it is just pretty. One of the things that made me proudest while I was coaching was that a number of people I respected told me that most of my runners looked similar in their running form,that they were smooth and under control. I call that pretty. I reminded kids frequently of how often they would hear someone say after a race that the winning athlete looked like he was hardly even trying. A very nice gentleman from Scranton Pennsylvania approached me one year at the New Jersey Meet of Champions practically with tears in his eyes to tell me how disappointed he was that Brendan Heffernan was not competing that day. He said he only came to the meet from Scranton to see Brendan run because of how much he enjoyed watching his beautiful running Style. I don’t think I have ever told Brandon that story, and I hope he is reading this because it would be a very nice thing for him to hear.
But I digress as I frequently will because that is how my brain works these days.
Preparing properly allowed me to have a comfortable and productive run for which I am very be grateful. I was able to concentrate on a shorter stride and soft, firm foot strikes. I was also able to put in 10 surges of from 50 to stride. I am more comfortable counting strides of these days been trying to keep track of the duration of the surge because it helps me to synchronize my strides and my breathing. Speaking of breathing, I have become a strong proponent of belly breathing while running distance these days. The concept of belly breathing is relatively new to me but not totally new.. It was introduced to me recently by coach Mike Paul who is a friend,a former assistant coach of my mine and arguably one of the most knowledgeable coaches in the state of New Jersey. Mike suggested that I consider trying to belly breathe during my runs after watching me in a race at Hillsborough about 2 years ago. I have tried it during training and racing and I found it to be quite helpful to me. I will probably speak a lot more about this in the future but there is also an interesting story to go along with that. Way back in the eighties, when I was coaching with the legendary Bob McGivney, I would hear him constantly telling his girls during training and racing to belly breathe. Now Bob was one of the most successful girls cross country coaches in New Jersey history. North Hunterdon girls basically owned the sport throughout the 1980s. Bob and I spoke frequently about coaching training and distance running. I don’t remember ever asking him about the belly breathing thing and I don’t know why. But I can only say that his girls employed the concept and were ridiculously successful. So I guess Mac knew what he was doing. So when Mike Paul brought the concept up I began practicing it and have been belly breathing now for the better part of two maybe three years. It has helped me to improve my training and racing. Thank you Michael Paul.

Enough for now.