Surprisingly, I ran 6 miles today very slowly, 77 minutes. Started out with no goal in mind and hoping to cover three to four miles maybe. Legs were achy and a bit heavy for the first mile and a half. I kept extending the run as my legs felt better. Got back past my home at four and a half. Challenged myself to go for 5. I took a route that got me back around five and a half. So I challenged myself one more time and went to 6. Each mile got a little faster. Started around 14 minutes and ended up around 10:30. Don’t quite know what to make of the whole situation. But it was the first six mile in many months: so I guess that’s positive.
More driving to Hoboken and puppy sitting makes getting in runs a little tougher. But I do get in some speed work chasing Gracie.
Sunday and Tuesday were days working at the FSML clubhouse in the exercise room and the pool. Sunday was weights and aerobic machines for 1 hour. Tuesday was 1 hour in the pool running and swimming. Yesterday was sporadic running with the dog, Gracie. Time for a road run today.!
It was another cool, cloudy, breezy afternoon at the cinder track. Since yesterday was a a recovery day and my legs felt ok, decided to try to run a few sub 8:00 pace repeats. During my extended warm up I considered which distance I should try for my repeats. Then a brainstorm struck and I decided that I would just begin running at 8:00 pace and see how far I could go. This seemed a little daunting, but I decided to “do something that frightened me” a little. The short story is that I pushed past 8 x 200m at under 1:00 each and finised a mile in 7:53. The time energized me to continue the workout. During a recovery one mile I managed to run two 400m pickups, the first at a very quick 7:20 pace and the second at a more tempered 9:20 pace. I was pretty impressed. The whole workout covered about 4 miles of continuing motion for about 62 minutes.
Today was overcast, breezy and cool at the Jackson Liberty track. One day out from my 10 mile weekend, I approached this workout very deliberately. I started slowly with leg drills: then ran 1200m with 6 x 100m at increasing intensity. I dropped my sweats and decided to try some 400m repeats at tempo speed to see how my body would react. I didn’t have my watch so I ran 400’s on received effort. As the body became warmer and looser I gradually increased the pace. It turned out that I was able to complete eight feeling pretty well drained. Jogged another half mile with sweats on before heading home. Liked this track work!
Quote from Des Linden after finishing sixth as first American woman in New York City Marathon today.
“Mission accomplished. I died….. but also I didn’t actually die and that’s valuable.”
October 30th, Thursday –
48 minutes on the cinders with four times 800m in the middle. I sent out to run comfortable 800 repeats 10:00 per mile pace. It turned out my legs felt pretty good and I ran the four 800m repeats at under 9:00 pace. 4:15, 4:28, 4:20 & 4:27
October 31, Friday – REST DAY. HEAVY LEGS
November 1, Saturday
Easy 5 miles at Manasquan Reservoir during cross-country practice. I expected my legs to still be a little sore from Thursday’s workout as I began a slow run around the reservoir. I anticipated maybe a mile and a half out and back. But egs seemed better than expected and I finally hit the point of no return, and so I finished all 5 miles around the reservoir. A positive run!
November 2, Sunday – Another surprising 5 miles
Got out late on this chilly afternoon with not much expectation for a strong workout. I managed the first two miles basically as a warm up with heavy sweats and alternating between jogging, some pickups and walking. After two miles I decided to get Brave and discarded my sweats on the side of the road to run the final 3 miles around my home loop with some stronger effort. My body responded with more energy each time I pushed the pace. So the final three miles were covered in just under 32:00. The declining mile times were 11:18, 10:35 and 9:52. I’m beginning to feel much more positive about my fitness. I can’t recall covering 10 miles in 2 days in quite a long time. How my body responds in the next 2 days should tell me a lot. But anyway I look at it, the last two weeks have been encouraging.:-)
And fortunately all statistical measures have been very strong and very steady, the complaints.
Ran 2 repeat miles with the JV guys , 9:21 and 9:55. This was more than I intended to do today as it was the seventh day of workout in succession. After last night’s four miles with a good number of speed segments I thought this would be a good time for a lighy day. But the boys were doing repeat miles and the slower guys were struggling. So I jumped in on two of them and got a bit of a workout that I didn’t anticipate. Legs felt ok, but running under 10:00 took some work. Swim tomorrow…
Stats –
Weight = 150lbs
Heart beat = 54 BBM
Diet = 8. Seems like too much beer and ice cream. But my weight is still staying around 150lb. I have frequently said that I only run so I can drink beer. So I guess it’s all working out. (10)
Morning indexes are remaining about 2/3. Not bad after seven straight days of work.
Need to get back to the weight room.
Stretching – having a hard time getting motivated to stretch after re-reading Dr. Merkins beat down of the whole concept of stretching.
Today Arlene and I drove to Hoboken to visit Rob and Gracie for lunch. We had a walk and run with Gracie along Frank Sinatra Boulevard while Rob did some work in his apartment. After the ride home I was very sleepy and took a 2-hour nap. Upon waking I decided to go for a nighttime run. That turned out to be a good four miles in 45 minutes with about 15 speed segments of 50 to 100 strides along the way. My legs felt refreshed after a no-impact day yesterday while swimming.
This afternoon Arlene and I took a trip to Holmdel park for some Autumn Beauty and a hill workout. Arlene took some picturesque shots of the landscape and one of me.
It was 66* and overcast amidst the striking autumn colors. I managed to cover 4 miles around the lower field by the starting line. With my legs still feeling heavy from my 5-mile workout two days ago, I needed an extended warm up. I ultimately ran the first 400m hill of the course five times at increasing intensity as my legs woke up. I was in motion for more than an hour. So, I feel as though I got an aerobic as well as in an anaerobic workout today.
A little hill work………