March 6, Saturday

Have been mostly running around with the puppy, not motivated to get out in the raw weather for a true workout.  Except for yesterday!  Sheltered with multiple layers of insulation, I went alone, without Gracie pup, to the cinder track.  I did not have my watch, so I don’t know anything about time. But I covered five miles starting very slowly to generate some heat. Along the way I did at least 25 speed segments of 100 strides. By the end I was moving along pretty well. I am counting this as a positive workout for a number of reasons. The first is I was able to complete five miles feeling refreshed at the conclusion. Second, I was able to do multiple speed segments along the way with no negative impact on my legs or feet. Third, I feel ok today. Just walked and chased with the pup, with a steady 800m finish. I believe that my body has reacted well to a two-week back off. I can’t wait for some warmer weather so I can do some serious training on track.

Weight is steady, Sleep is good. Diet is healthy. Heart rate at 54bpm.  Legs and feet are fine.Mona procedure healing nicely.  Working daily on Frozen Shoulder therapy.    Yes, frozen fucking shoulder is an actual diagnosis. 🙂     All. Good.  14 days to spring!

March 2, Tuesday

Spring is coming!

The last 10 days was a winter break I used to resolve some medical issues. All is well and I am ready for a restart. I have run 10 miles in the last 4 days and everything is feeling fine. All I need now is a goal and a plan to achieve that goal. I am working on both.

In other good news, we have received one covid vaccine are scheduled for a second one on March 13th.

February 15, Monday

So, in the last 10 days I have run over 25 miles during six workouts all on local roads. This was accomplished between three winter storms and a long road trip to Stroudsburg PA to get a covid-19 vaccine. My overall feeling is that I have been not doing enough, but it’s still 6 days out of 10. Most days I do Progressive miles with sporadic speed segments along the way. Today was probably the quickest with five miles and clearly in excess of 20 speed segments. This was the most physically draining of the lot. After tonight’s ice storm I hear it’s going to be in the low 50s tomorro. I still don’t expect there to be any soft surfaces available. So, I may do another “Crank and Cruise” workout to keep the mileage down and the speed up.

GOOD STATS

February 5th,  Friday

“No workout is written in stone.”   Skip Norcross, renowned North Hunterdon and Voorhees High School track coach

As the sun shone on this late afternoon, I thought it would be a good day to try a new workout I learned from Tony Holler’s site on Twitter. I did not write down the name of the coach who created this work out, so I can’t give him full credit.  But Tony Holler posted it.

He called it “Crank and Cruise.”  It goes like this;

Warm up- 5 minutes  Vlose

Run 12 minutes consisting of three 4 minute segments. Each segment begins with a 30 second Crank effort run at goal mile pace, followed by 3 and 1/2 minutes of Cruise at 10K pace. It is a constant 12 minutes with no break.

Follow up with 4 x 100m straightaways 5K pace.

That amounts to a quick 32 minute workout with both speed and aerobic components.

There is no mention of cool down.

______________________________________

Now the old guy version; 🙂

My pace estimates were 7:15 to 7:30 mile,  10:30 to 11:00 for 10K and below 9:00 for 5K adjusting for temp and multiple layers of clothing.

The workout went quickly and I felt strong and relaxed throughout. Having not run for two days previously, I’m sure, gave my legs a little bit of spring.   (Gerund clause)

Warm-up- 1.5 miles, 20 minutes. Old guy cannot warm up in 5 minutes in 38-degree temp.

12 minutes with Cranks @ 7:20 and Cruises @ 9:30 to 10:30

4 x 100m @ under 8:00.   6 minutes

1000m cool down.  12 minutes

50 minutes!  Close…… Skipper will forgive me.  RIP buddy.

I may be in  better shape than I thought.

18 days of work,   11 days rest, 1 day unaccounted for probably off

Some good middle distance speed work, 200m, 400m and 800m

Mostly longer runs with progressively faster miles, usually finishing at under 10:00 pace.

A little more comfortable at 10k distance

Interspersed a respectable # of SS throughout

NOT A BAD MONTH CONSIDERING I AM NOT IN ST. AUGUSTINE.    HUMBUG!

January 8th thru 14th

“It’s like a car starting. There’s an immense amount of energy you need to start the car, but once you’re rolling, it’s easy.”        John Landy

I’ve been experiencing the truth lately of John Landy’s quote above.  Each day as I get out to run I feel as though my legs will not be able to provide for me the energy I need to do a significant workout. But as I push on through the first 20 to 30 minutes of the workout my legs begin to respond positively. The second half of the workout is more enjoyable, faster, more relaxed and decidedly more confidence building. I’m beginning to think as I enter the 1 hour mark of these recent workouts that maybe my true calling is the 10k race.  That is yet to be determined, but I am enjoying my recent running efforts. To summarize the most recent week;

Friday the 8th was a rest day.

Saturday I ran 3 miles in motion on the roads, still recovering

Sunday the 10th I had fun running on the beach with Winnie and Gracie. It did not amount to a lot of distance but it was about an hour in motion.  Basically recovering.

Monday was a really good workout on the cinders. I covered 10000m in about an hour and 5 minutes with frequent surges. My mile times were 12:14, 11:14, 10:46, 10:46, 10:26, 10:35.

Tuesday the 12th I ran 4 miles on the roads in 5229.

On Wednesday the 13th I tried a new workout plan that I have been reading about. Consists of running 24 minutes in the following manner; run6 minutes  mile Pace X, 12 minutes at Mile pace ex-, and 6 minutes back at mile Pace X. Wasn’t very scientific but I did run 2.9 miles in 30.58.  I was hoping to run at 12 minute pace, then 10 minute pace, then back to 12 minutepace. But I actually ran a bit faster. It was more like 11 minutes, 9 minutes, 11 minutes. They was more demanding than I had anticipated , but it was not totally exhausting.

Today, Thursday the 14th, I woke up with achy legs after having some leg cramps during the night. I did not expect to get much done today when I returned to the cinder track. But once again as time went by a legs responded and I was able to put it in a fairly good workout of one hour in motion with twelve, fast, speed segments covering 4.2 miles.  I was very surprised at how quick I was able to run the approximately 100 meter speed segments with paces averaging below 6:30 minutes per mile quite frequently.

Thus, another week is in the books.  I am planning to run a mile time trial at the end of this month in a virtual competition. I haven’t decided yet whether I will be trying the mile run on the school rubber track or simply at the cinder  track. I’m thinking it might be fun to put on some spikes and run on the rubber track if the weather is cooperative.

Stats have been very consistent and quite satisfactory. Weight, sleep, and diet have been excellent.  I experienced some calf cramps on the night after the 6-12-6 workout, but was ok on the run next day. No plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendon or knee issues….

January 7th, Thursday

Got in some pretty serious work today on the cinders which I will describe below. It was another one of those days where I had to dig deep to get myself out there. It was cold and breezy.  I struggled through a 14 minute first mile bundled like I was in the Artic, barely moving. But, as usual, muscles began to loosen up as my frozen face began to thaw. So, I pushed on like a trooper and wound up running a solid 10,000m before the day was over.

Thea run evolved into a steady progression of  My Modified Fartlek (MMF) program that I used a lot running on the beach during my trips to Florida.  I should be in Florida right now!  MMF consists of  three stages of movement; walking, jogging and running. I will elucidate on my reasoning for this format below  for anyone who would like to read it and to remind myself . The final five miles of MMF was completed in 57:33.  Along the way I popped 35 speed segments. (SS)  Twenty-four of them were the 30 second variety and eleven were of the 60-second variety.  (60-30-30).  All the speed segments were at between 6:30 and 7:30 per mile pace. The final two miles were pretty awesome. I was feeling no pain and running very quickly. The quality of this workout was a pleasant shock to me.

Stats-

Weight- 142lb

Sleep- 9 hours+

HR- 54 BPM.  150 BPM after workout

No foot or leg issues

MMF consists of a quick run for a specified period of time (ie. 30 seconds) followed by a steady walk for an equal period and a steady jog also for the same time.  The run segment can be extended if you feel strong as I did in the final 11 runs today. This sequence I believe provides three positive outcomes;

1- An elevated heart rate can be maintained throughout.

2-The speed segments provide frequent opportunities for running at faster than race pace.

3 – The walking segments, while maintaining the elevated heart rate, reduce the total number of foot strikes by 1/3, a bonus for the mature runner.

The walk and jog segments seem to provide the psychological and physiological recovery to allow for a commitment to the speed segment which provides the major fitness benefit  of the workout.      It works for me.

January 4, Monday

After three days of rest I went out to the cinder track for a solid workout.  The day was cold, damp and calm, but I was layered up.   I ran better than 6 miles in total.  I covered 4 miles in 45:20 with at least a dozen SS, and then ran 9:20 for mile #5.  Than addrd 5 quick 70m straightaways and a 800m cool down  There were no leg or foot or aerobic issues.  Three days off, though psychologically difficult for me to bear, has bern very beneficial for my body.

Solid stats…