April 13, Tuesday

60* and cloudless sky!  Covered 5 miles in 1:01  with 8 x 600m intervals along the way. Today’s goal was to get as many  plus/3/minute intervals with elevated heart rate as possible before threatening breakdown.   I manage to do eight progressively, beginning at 4:45 and progressing to 3:50  on #7 before relaxing to 3:07 in #8.  Recovery was walking approximately half of interval time.    Mission accomplished.  It felt like really good work.

STATS-

Weight = #142.5 after run

Sleep = 10 hours

Diet = 9   Beer and ice cream = -1

Legs and feet = 9  Achey rt. ankle

Friday- 80 minutes slow at Turkey Swamp Park

Saturday – 3 miles on Cinders with eight x 100m fast. :21-:23

Sunday  – 3 miles on Freehold Township High School track in 38 minutes under cold & rainy conditions.

Monday – REST

April 6th, Tuesday

An interesting feature out my new Garmin 235 is one that applies a rating to each workout based on intensity. The watch monitors heartbeat throughout and applies a number between one and five to indicate level of intensity. Based on that number the program also prescribes the number of hours needed to recover from a specific workout. I have not been closely following those recommendations because they usually exceed the number of hours I would actually take to recover from a workout.  But, given that information and a recent article published by Dr. Merkin concerning the number of intense workouts necessary to maintain Fitness,  I am becoming less guilty about the days I have taken off lately.

Too Much Intense Exercise May Harm You

So, I am thinking this concept is even more applicable to the plus 70 crowd.  I have managed to keep running without injury for almost  3 years now.  I remember being impacted by an article I read about the amazing senior runner, Gary Patton.  I have been beaten handily by Gary Patton a number of times in national competition. Asked about his training, he said that his main goal was to avoid injury. You can’t train if you’re injured and you can not race if you can’t train. It’s a pretty simple concept that is so true of senior athletes. I have read that over 80% of senior athletes lose training time from injury on a yearly basis.

So, yesterday’s workout was rated at 4.2 which is a very intense rating and recommends a 45 hour time of recovery. That was five miles on the dirt trails of Turkey Swamp Park with some gradually increasing speed segments as I went along. I had rested for two days after a 6-mile road run on Saturday. That 6 miles must have drained my body pretty seriously. I spent a lot of time sleeping and napping for the following two days. Getting started on day 3 was still an effort, and I did not feel any strength in my legs until about 30 minutes into the run.  All of this confirms my belief that running on the road, as I did on Saturday, is a bad idea for a 78 year old guy.  Rubber tracks and cinder tracks and dirt trails are my future training venues.  That, and adequate recovery time should help me to stay fit and injury-free.

STATS are steady and sound.

April 1 & 3, Thursday & Saturday

Two spring-like days provided the opportunity for two good workouts this week. Thursday’s workout covered 5 miles on the cinders with 11 speed segments along the way and a solid 9:15 mile to finsh. I was thinking about a staple work-out from my coaching years which we labeled R-B-R-J for Run-Burst-Run-Jog.  I was reminded of this workout in a wonderful letter I received last week from a boy I coached 40 years ago, John Vierow. He related  fond memories of his days as a non-scoring team member back in the early 80s. Along the way he mentioned that while currently coaching his son in Middle School he has been using the  R-B-R-J  work-out.  I marveled once again of the potential impact that all coaches have on every athlete on their team.  That letter made 2021 a good year already. (Thanks, Johnny) He also said he reads my blog down in Virginia, which brought another smile. 🙂 🙂

But, I digress.

So, on the spot, I created a senior version of that workout which is now labeled J-R-J-W for   Jog-Run-Jog-Walk. The 11 speed segments were done in that rhythm.  It was both demanding and fun.  By the time I got to mile five my form was smooth and fluid.

Friday was a few long walks with and dog.

Saturday’s run was 6 miles at a very modest pace on Freehold roads and the trails of Turkey Swamp Park, totally aerobic and quite tiring on the body.

Easter Sunday is a walk and eat day.

STATS-

Heart rate- 52 BPM

Weight – 143.5 lb.

Diet- 8.5

Sleep- 9 hrs average

Feet and legs exhibiting no soreness!

March 26, Friday

Today it felt like spring was blowing winter back to the North Pole. The blustery wind was unrelenting: yet the temperature was in the low eighties at the cinder track.

I managed to accomplish 4.26 miles in 53.30. Along the way I added 4 x 800m intervals with 200m recovery.  (5:29, 4:49, 4:21, 4:21)

It was fun running in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in months.

My new Garmin is telling me that I’m working too hard. That may be the case since my right knee is starting to ache. I had a very sore calf muscle for the last 3 days and even had a serious muscle cramp in the middle of the night on Tuesday. It could be that my decision to switch to some faster work instead of longer work over the last two weeks is taking a toll.  I guess I will have to back off for a while.

STATS – Weight, sleep, heart rate and diet are steady and sound.

March 21, Sunday

Tuesday, 3/16

Got to the cinder track today for 5 miles of work. Included 3 * 600 m in the middle at 3:12, 3:11 and 3:18. Good day.

Wednesday, 3/17

40 minutes of work on the Cinders with 8-speed segments in the middle very fast. Legs feeling good.

Friday, 3/19

105 minutes of work on cinders with 4 x 800m @ 4:20- 4:18_ 4:11- 4:05,  comfortably fatigued.

Sunday, 3/21

Another good day with 4 miles at Four Seasons that included five times fast 120m speed segments on the grass @ 6:15  – 6:45 pace.  All body parts feeling fine.

Stats- Steady and solid.

March 12,  Friday,

Today I ran 4.33 miles at Four Seasons roads in anticipation of a few days off because of getting a vaccine tomorrow.  I activated my new Garmin 235 GPS watch which I have thanks to my good friend Don Linden. The 235 collects much more data than my 410 and uploads it instantaneously to my phone. This will make things a lot easier  for my post-run evaluation of my workout.

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