January 16-20, Sunday to Thursday

Champions are made when no one is watching.  Anonymous

Locked in 3 good workouts this week on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Sunday as darkness fell I bundled up and headed out for what I thought might be 1⁄2 an hour run. But it turned into 4 miles in 56 minutes with several speed segments.  It was a very draining effort because of the weather conditions and extra weight.  Ate well and sacked out for 11 hours afterwards.

Tuesday I did 3.5 miles on the cinders in 40 minutes, once again adding some strong speed segments.  It takes in excess of 20 minutes these days to open up and run a comfortable stride. But once it occurs my legs are feeling very good.

Thursday I got a little braver and decided to try running some hills  in my neighborhood. I have not attempted a hill  workout in months.  Once again it was very cold and I was heavily padded.  But I managed 4 miles in 50:31 with 4 times 200m hill surges in the middle.  I was pleased with the effort, the time and the distance.

My legs feel good as write this on Friday, surely helped by the fact that I have been getting extended rest this entire week usually exceeding 9/10 hours per night. Plus I am resting every other day!

800m race at Monmouth College indoors on next Thursday, 1/26.

I am very psyched at the thought that I will be running in shorts and T-shirt in Florida in 10 days.🎽🏖☀   🌬❄

Good stats!

January 14, Friday

“Why would I practice running slow?  I already know how to run slow. I want to learn how to run fast.”            Emil  Zatopek

After a few bitter cold days that kept me off the road, I had two good workouts on Wednesday and Thursday at the cinder track. On Wednesday my legs felt strong as I ran 3 1/2 miles in 40 minutes with a few speed segments along the way. On Thursday I went back to the cinders to do some faster work. The goal was to run 4x  800m intervals as close as possible to 4:00 each. The weather was a balmy 49 degrees at the time. After a mile and a half warm up I actually stripped down for the first time in a while and set out running my 800s.  It was pretty demanding but, all in all, comfortable. I rested 2:30 between each interval. The times were 4:08, 4:20, 4:15, and 4:19.  My Garmin app rated it as a Overachievng workout (5) and recommended 72 hours recovery. I began with 10 hours of sleep last night.  Today I took the dog for a long walk.

Stats are steady and legs are feeling fine.

January 7and 8,  Friday and Saturday

Friday- Some good work on the dreaded treadmill this evening. 2 miles + 3 x 800m at 5min

Saturday- a surprisingly productive four and a half mile run and 59 1/2 minutes in 29* fortified by multiple layers

Stats steady

 December 31, Friday –     1  hour to 2022

Well,  on December 23, I had my second cataract surgery.  This was not a serious problem, basically elective surgery to improve my eyesight. As a result I had to take a few days to recover. But, fortunately, the final week of the year worked out pretty well for training. I have expanded my  workouts in both time and intensity.   Recent workouts have been between 45 and 50 minutes with frequent speed segments added along the way. Tonight’s final run of 2021 was 4 miles with more than a dozen speed segments of 50-100 strides each.  And my Garmen Connect  app gave me a “STRONG FINISH”  badge.  Perfect !     🎆 Happy New Year 🎆

Good stats….

December 21, Tuesday

Push Your Pace

A tribute to Justina and Rich

On Sunday I ran my second consecutive four mile run in 45 minutes on the cinder track.

Today while doing my bundled up warm-up I got an inclination to run a time trial to see how my 40 minute aerobic workouts have helped my fitness. I decided to attempt a 2 mile with a goal of 20 minutes. I told myself I would attempt to run each half mile lap in five minutes or better. if I failed to hit that pace at any point I would stop. The outcome was better than I anticipated. I was better than five minute pace on each lap and ended up running 18:38. I finished strong feeling no aerobic or anaerobic stress. And it was a negative effort with the first mile in 9:28 and the 2nd mile and 9:10. I left the cinder track feeling very satisfied with the current level of fitness.

STATS-

Weight- 146*. A little bump, Everybody tells me I’ve gotten to thin.

Sleep- 8/9 daily

Diet- 7/8 Beer and chocolates!

Heart rate- still in mid 50pm. resting

Foot and leg muscle indexes are strong

December 17, Friday

The full moon was shining over the cinder track as I arrived trying to get a workout in ahead of the setting sun. It was still light out at about 4:20 when I started my run, but the moon had already established itself self clearly in the eastern sky.  As I ran the sun disappeared and the area was bathed in soft moonlight. I was listening to Frank Sinatra throughout my run. Yes, he actually crooned a lovely version of “Moonlight Serenade”along the way.  Truth!

Inspired by the ambiance surrounding me, I extended my normal 40-minute run  to 4 miles in 45:17 and relished every minute.   I am continually thankful that I can still enjoy these wonderful experiences running as a 78-year-old.

Steady, solid, positive stats.

December 11- 15,  Saturday  – Wednesday

I am spending more time at the cinder track these days because it is archery deer haunting  seasin in Turkey Swamp Park and I look too much like a Buck when running.       Doe?        Fawn???

 Saturday and Sunday recovering,

Q

Monday at the cinders- 3.5 in 40 minutes,  Good day!

Tuesday back at the cinders for a rare consecutive workout,  2 miles in 27:00 with  6 x SS under 9:00 pace, fastest pace  in over  a month.  Progress

Wednesday recovering

Steady stats, legs and feet good

December 10, Friday

Today on the trails of Turkey Swamp Park I covered 3.2 miles.  (12:50 pace).  After Monday’s 10:50 pace I needed extra rest.  Sticking with the 40 minute plan for the time being.

Found a 60+ running site recently. It is full of inspiring stories and discussions about starting and continuing to run after 60 years old.  Worth a look for anyone considering starting to get going again.

Steady stats this week.

December 7,  Wednesday

Peggy  circa 1948 with little bro and me+l

It has been far too long since my last post.

A word about that to myself and also to my small cadre of loyal readers:

I began my +70 Runner blog  almost seven years ago with the idea of keeping a detailed log of my training accompanied by a few comments about the terrain and the weather.  I had not been writing anything for a while. The new task became very exciting, and I was motivated to write more detail about the local color and to include my personal, emotional experiences along the way.  As I began to enter competitions, reporting results became even more fun. At the time I was posting every day; details about my training, descriptions of the beauty of the environment and the joys of the run,  whines about my injuries and soreness,  mostly glowing reports about my competitions and the occasional anecdote from the coaching days of yore.

As my family and friends spread the news about my blog,  it became apparent that I was gathering a few loyal followers mostly from coaching ranks and former athletes.  Reconnecting with boys and girls that I once coached has been a delightful surprise. All of these wonderful motivators made writing a daily +70 RUNNER post an enjoyable part of my evening routine for almost five years.

In time, especially after the exciting period of racing in the Senior Nationals, I began to feel that my blog was becoming repetitive and boring.  I began to skip days and write weekly updates of mostly workout logs with little elaboration.  I suppose two years of civid lockdown has made my daily ramblings seem even more irrelevant.  The thrill of the write was gone

I am trying to rekindle my excitement for the game and the blogging.  The announcement that the Penn Relays are back on tap for this spring is very exciting. My new 40 minute run plan has been working very well for the last 3 weeks.  I am healthy and injury free. We are leaving for Florida for six weeks in January.  My cousin, Peggy aka Sister  Mary Kathleen, will turn 100 years old next Thursday!  I am writing a long post.   Come on, man !!…….Good stuff…….

40 minute plan

Purpose: to develops aerobic strength while avoiding injury

Since November 17th, 8 times at various venues mostly dirt and cinders

Interspersed with adequate rest and light cross training.

Extraordinarily beautiful running weather for early December.

11/17 – 3.21 miles – 12:27 pace

11/20  – 3.5 miles – 11:25 pace

11/24 – 3.31 miles  –  12:02 pace

11/28 – 3.29 miles –  12:10 pace

12/2 – 3.31 miles  – 12:19 pace

12/4 – 3.67 miles – 10:50 pace

12/6 – 3.82 miles  – 10:28 pace

Muscles and aerobics reeling strong!!

STATS-

Weight steady at  #144

Diet is excellent

Heart rate  steady at 54 bpm

Sleep 8-10 hours nightly

Legs and feet without issues

November 20, Saturday

“Like so many runners, if I don’t run, I don’t feel right. I don’t feel relaxed,  I don’t enjoy eating.”  – Fred Lebow

I have settled on the idea of running comfortable 40 minute efforts for the foreseeable future. Thursday at Turkey Swamp Park I covered 3.22 miles in 40 minutes.  Today at the Cinders was it was 3.5 miles. In between was a recovery day and 1 hour of work at the clubhouse.  I think the 40 minute limit allows for enough recovery in two days to run quality efforts with healthy legs.  Thinking positive!

Stats are holding steady in positive territory.

Legs and feet are without issues.🌝🌤