Mostly slow miles and swimming with days off for recovery.. This feels like a very funky training period. Not running with confidence and recovering slowly. No routine, no plan and too many days off. Got to refocus.
Not for publication!
“Every day is a good day when you run.” Kevin Nelson
I ran three moderate miles on Saturday on the dirt trail at Turkey Swamp Park with no adverse results. Today at the Jackson Liberty high school track I covered 3.1 intermittent miles with my calves feeling well and stopped, feeling refreshed, only out of an abundance of caution. These are good signs that my calf muscles have healed. The comfortable fall weather over the next few days should give me some more chances for aerobic work.
My current plan is to train through the holidays with the goal of running a credible mile at one of the Monmouth University winter meets in January. I will have to resist tte many Thanksgiving and Christmas 5k races along the way unless I want to jump in one or two as a tempo run.
I have been fortunate that my stats have remained positive and consistent during the period of minimal actual training.
Weight- 144
Sleep- 9 HR +
Heart rare 54 bpm
VO2MAX (NEW). as reported by my Garmen = 41 They say that is good!
‘Hello Yes and leg indexes are all very good Hello
Despite dire weather forecasts for this morning, the running conditions were excellent at Holmdel Park for today’s final 5k of the Fall Cross Country Series. My race performance was not as good as I expected. I ran 30:34. I am disappointed because during the race I felt like I was running very well. I broke well and covered the first hills in a relaxed manner. I approached the first mile mark with confidence and ran the bowl under control. I skirted the large hill without burning legs for the first time and recovered quickly for a surge to the teannis courts. The final 1200m seemed quick with a solid finishing kick. Reading the clock at the end was an unpleasant surprise. So, I finished 2nd in my age group for the series. 😏
My summary of the series. I ran very well in race one and beat the guy who ultimately won the age group. Ran the next four race with basically no training and sore calf muscles. Even skipped one because of night time calf cramps. My hunch is that the lack of training for a whole month caught up with me today. My legs felt fine at last, but I had no aerobic strength to sustain pace. The good news is that my legs are sound and I am ready to move forward and get back into shape. That begins with a month of aerobic work. I see a turkey race somewhere in the near future! 🦃
Stats are all back on track!
October 25, Monday
I wish that I had said this. It should be posted in every high school cross country locker room.
Bad Athletes- Don’t take much seriously
Average Athletes- Take track meets seriously
Good Athletes- Take Meets and Practice seriously
Great Athletes- Take academics, nutrition, rest, hydration, warm-ups, cool downs, summer workouts, practice and meets extremely seriously
This morning marked week five of the fall cross country series. The race was held at Fox Hill Recreation area, a course I had never run before. The racing conditions were ideal. It was 53*, with a lite sprinkle of rain, a beautiful grass covered course and I was fortified with my modified calf sleeves. After three weeks of very light training because of sore calves, my legs felt quite lively as I warmed up today.
I am proud say I started strongly and ran competitively throughout the race. My right half muscle ached throughout, but it didn’t have an impact on my ability to run. The result was my best time of the season; 27:44. I am much more confident now that this puts me on track for a positive finish in the final 5K of the season at Holmdel Park next Saturday.
Steady Stats.
Workouts and postings are still being hampered by sore calves. Today was the best workout I did it in over a week. At the clubhouse I rode the bike for 10, elliptical for 10, treadmill for 10, weights for 10 and swam for 20 minutes, followed by 15 minutes in hot whirlpool. I plan to repeat that scenario tomorrow. Every time I have tried to do a running workout for the last two weeks my calves have seized on me and made it impossible to run. Night time cramps have also plagued my sleep. Have not had sleeping cramps since college. But today was better. Yesterday I actually cut my compression socks to make them simply calf sleeves. That might have helped. Also using heat a few times a day. It might have been a good idea to do these measures sooner, but I did not understand or appreciate the depth of this injury. I expected the soreness to simply disappear in a day or two. Well, that never happened for almost three weeks. I skipped Saturday’s race at Big Brook Park for fear of aggravating the injury. I am hoping to try racing on Saturday at Wolf Mountain, a course I have never seen. It would be great to be ready to race hard at Holmdel Park on October 30, the final race of the Autumn season. To be continued………..🤔💭
Stats – I have been too bummed out to note. Ok I guess.
After another frustrating week with sore calves, I approached Saturday’s race with more trepidation. My run on Tuesday ended abruptly with a feeling in my left calf muscle that something really bad that happened. I was forced to walk home the last mile barely able to take a stride longer then one foot because of the pain in the calf muscle. On Wednesday Thursday and Friday I only walked. On Saturday morning I still felt soreness as I did a truncated warm up. It was probably a mistake to try to run in the race, but I thought I’d give it a shot. It was a perfect morning to race and the trails at Tatem Park were beautiful. But I was only able to jog the course in 33 minutes. It was impossible to push off my left foot without considerable pain on each stride. I plan to bike, swim, whirlpool and lift this week with no running at all. My explanation for this injury is twofold. First is the amount of speed segments I’ve been running on almost every workout for a month. And second is the addition of my spikes at the Holmdel course two weeks ago. This is the only foot or leg problem I have experienced in over a year. So, I feel fortunate and I must recover with deliberation. My new goal is to have a triumphant return to Holmdel Park in three weeks.🙂
Stats are holding steady except for sore leg.
The last two weeks have been very interesting to me. After my previous post about how I had run myself a little tired after a few overly enthusiastic workouts, I was forced to do a week of very lite work leading up to the 1st, on September 25th, in the series of six 5K races I will be running this fall.. I approached that 1st 5K at Holmdel Park with trepidation. I had no idea how my body would respond to the lite work after the hard work. It turned out that I ran a comfortable 29:48 at Holmdel. That was about 30 seconds slower than my performance at the same time on the same course last year, not bad.
Following that race I had very severe soreness in my calf muscles notably because it was the 1st time I had worn spikes in over a year . But, uncharacteristically, the soreness lasted the entire week. So, I spent another week doing basically jogging or walking. Accordingly. I approached today’s race again with trepidation. However, I was pleased to be able to run very comfortably and very relaxed and break 29 minutes at Johnson Park. That is only 15 seconds slower than last year on the same course. So, given all the trepidations, and another year logged on the body, I survived the 1st two weeks of the autumn 5K series in relatively good shape. 😏
Stats hanging tight among all the September chaos.🤒
Starting with the very nice workout that I posted on September 10th at the Jackson Liberty High School track, this was very successful training cycle.
Sept. 11 – At Thompson Park during the class meet I did a long series of 60 to 200 M strides on the grass which lift my legs pretty used up on Sunday morning. So, I went to cross country practice at Ocean County Park and jogged lightly on Sunday and rested on Monday.
Sept. 14 – I ran a nice work out of 5 x 1000m on the grass at Jackson Liberty High School during cross-country practice. I act as the Caboose while running with the boys picking up the slowest Runners at the rear. The 1000m repeats that I did were from 8:00 pace to 8:40 pace. It seemed to be just the right kind of work out that I needed at the moment. I rested on Wednesday the 15th.
Slept.16 – This morning I had a training date with Al, the father of one of the boys on our cross country team. We met at the cinder track and ran four and a half miles that included three and a half miles of My Modified Fartlek workout, MMF. That workout consists of running 30 seconds quick, followed by 30 seconds walk, followed by 30 seconds jog and repeat. We completed 25 cycles in 40 minutes, and I surely finished pretty used up. It was a solid workout and was nice to have a training companion for the first time in years. We plan to try to get together weekly when possible. Friday the 17th was a rest day.
Sept.18 – Today was my longest run in many months on the boardwalk in Belmar, Avon, Bradley Beach and Ocean Grove. I didn’t quite make it to Asbury Park, but it’s still turned out to be 6 and 1/4 miles. It was a beautiful morning at the beach. The gentle breeze was drifting from the north as I started out at around 8:30 a.m. But it warmed up quickly in the full sun and at the turnaround I lost the breeze on my face. Quite uncharacteristically, I pulled off my shirt at the 4.5 mile mark for fear of overheating. That helped, and I finished my longest run in fine order.
My Garmin tells me that I may be overreaching with some of these workouts. So, this will be a lighter week was I prepare for the first of my six week series of 5K races at Holmdel Park on Saturday..
Steady and solid stats. No issues.
Training and logging have been sketchy lately. But I have managed to stay in pretty good shape over the last three weeks I think. No excuses, just unmotivated. One downer was missing the registration deadline for the New Jersey Senior Games. I did appeal and try to get an exception but was denied. So, I won’t get to run another 800m or 1500m this month. Fortunately, the National Senior Games have modified their admissions to make eligible everybody who was qualified to run in 2019. So, if I want to go to Fort Lauderdale next year, I still can.
Moving on, I have registered to compete again in the six race series of 5Ks offered by the Shore AC over the next two months. Last year these Saturday races kept me focused through the fall and provided a once-a-week strong training run.
Of all the workouts I have done over the past two weeks this afternoon’s at Jackson Liberty track was the one I like best. It consisted of a two-mile warm up followed by 2.5 more miles with 16 speed segments. It was just about one hour in motion. I finished pleasantly spent.
I have a also enjoyed reconnecting with the Jackson Liberty boys cross-country team over the previous three weeks. We will be heading to Thompson Park tomorrow morning for the season’s opener. We have a solid group of 18 guys and a chance to have a positive season.
Stats-
Weight- Still 144lbs
Heart rate- Steady at 54 bpm
Leg and foot indexes remain quiet.
Sleep between 9 and 10 hours regularly.
Diet is healthy. 8/9