Thursday – 80 minutes of constant work at clubhouse – 40 Drills and Weights -40 Swim and Run
Friday – Aborted run after severe pain in right calf muscle. Could not even walk! It occurred running very slowly, and I can only explain that maybe I did too much one-legged drills last night and calf exercises. Very painful (generalized) all night and into the morning. Though sleeping.
Saturday – Walking gingerly today but calf is still quite painful. Soreness has been reduced to a very point tender spot deep in the calf muscle . Still trying to evaluate how serious this is and how much time I might lose in training. I will have to continue to ride and swim and lift while this is occurring.
“It is distance, not speed, that holds the answers. The reward comes with crossing and confronting the boundaries of fatigue.”
John Bingham, The Courage to
The heading says it. I ran 4 miles in 48:10. I started with a 7 or 8 minute walk. Then I began to run hoping to continue for about half an hour of course I was approaching this as a recovery run after yesterday’s workout. But as time went on I felt better and decided to keep going for 4 miles. In the middle I ran 4 x 100 stride pickups at around 8 minute pace I would say. Each mile was a little quicker with the final mile about 10:30. My body felt pretty drained at the end and I continue to feel fatigued tonight. I weighed myself at the end of the workout with all of my gear on and then after I took everything off. It turned out that I was carrying six and a half pounds of stuff with me on that run. A good evening for college football from the couch.
“In my opinion nothing beats a treadmill workout when you don’t want to run outside. A good movie, some water, and a little ventilation are all you need.”
Florence Griffith Joyner
My lovely niece, Jackie O’Rourke, gave me a book as a present at the O’Rourke Christmas party on Saturday. It is called “The Gigantic Book of Running Quotations.” It contains over 3,000 quotations about training and running and racing and other things associated with the sport of distance running. So I should never run out of quotations to make my blog more meaningful and interesting. The above quote is the first I have selected to accompany my post on a very successful treadmill run.
Monday, New Year’s Eve
After a discouraging run on Sunday afternoon at the cinder track that was plagued by a constan, sharp pain in my right foot, I had a very positive, pain-free workout on the treadmill at the club this afternoon. The treadmill has never been my favorite workout mode. But I have recently hooked my ear plugs up to the muted TV set and I seem to enjoy it much more. Here is the breakdown of today’s 70 minute effort .
– Walk for 10 minutes – Jog for 20 minutes slowly – Start workout of 10 times 3:00 accelerations at 10:00 per mile pace with 1:00 recovery. – Total of 70 minutes in motion, longest tredmill workout ever
This seemed like one of the best aerobic workouts I have had in quite some time. I am very pleased
Stats –
Sleep = 11 hours Weight = #153 Morning heart weight = 54 beats per minute Not such great diet at holiday party = 6 Morning foot discomfort at 3 to 5 level
December 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th. How the days slip away!
Sunday – Recovery
Monday – Easy 40 minutes , 10 walk, 30 run slowly
Tuesday – Christmas, off
Wednesday – 30 minutes on the track with 16 x 100m every 1 minute
Thursday – new Clubhouse circuit of 360m x 9 every 3 minutes between 1:35 and 1:50
This was a decent 5-day segment considering the holiday and the crappy weather. +A great Christmas visit from Rob and Chris +Annual check-up that was a very positive today
First bike ride in quite a while turned out to be six miles unexpectedly. It took 42 minutes but it was a good start.
Friday- One hour at the clubhouse .
Weighs a and pool work.
Saturday- 4.6 miles on the cinders in 58:40.
This was another cold and breezy afternoon, But the cinders ware soft from all the rain. So the run was relaxed and, fortunately, free of leg or foot issues. It takes almost 30 minutes for me to get totally warm and loose to the extent that I feel like I’m running open and smooth. The final two and a half miles of this run were very enjoyable. I I was tempted to do more but stopped once again out of an abundance of caution. I am satisfied with the progress of my training at this point.
Friday afternoon found me on the cinder track testing my foot. I ran about two gentle miles with no pains in my right foot. It seems that my mysterious injury has quickly disappeared. I will still proceed with caution.
December 15, Saturday
It was a dark, dreary, misty, December Saturday afternoon. I waited all day for the mist to abate. In the meantime I heated my feet and my legs and did a full set of leg drills indoors. I felt pretty confident about my foot because of yesterday’s successful test run. As usual the first 10 minutes was a bit of a grind until everything started to loosen up. I was pleased that I was able to complete a full five miles without experiencing any leg or foot issues. It is good to get back to that level once again. None of it was very fast, but the total of one hour was a solid effort.
Tuesday– I had to abort my run today because of a surprise, sharp pain in my right foot. I was on the cinder track and felt very good until the pain came. My goal was only to run 3 miles at a comfortable pace. It was very cold. The first two laps were jog, walk, jog, The pain came on the 4th lap. I originally thought it was a cramp, but that changed. The troubling issue was that the pain did not dissipate when I stopped. It hurt all night. But I did go to the club in the evening to swim and run in the pool for 30 minutes. I came to fear that it was a stress fracture or a stress reaction in one of the small foot bones because I did find a tender spot on the top of my instep. I took a couple of ibuprofen before bed. Not happy….
Wednesday – My foot felt much better today. I had no pain in walking. Did not try to run today, but went to the club for about an hour of work on weights and in the pool. Still taking ibuprofen today. I am hoping that this event falls into that a new category of running injury known as a stressreaction. If that is the case, a few days off and cross training should solve the problem. I don’t think I’m going to be out of commission as a runner for weeks as a result of this. My spirits are llifted !
Today’s workout was a variation of one I read in a Runner’s World post onTwitter. The authors are from the school that believes running slow will help you to run faster. They suggest 3-minute intervals at a moderate pace with two minutes of recovery. There seems to be considerable research that supports this idea . Plus I have been gradually coming to the conclusion that running faster than eight minute per mile pace is detrimental to my body . Here is what I did on the cinder track on a totally calm, 32° December afternoon.
3.75 miles in 45minutes
Warm-up = 15 minutes ending with 4 x 50 to 80 stride moderate pickups
Intervals = 5 x 3 minute accelerations going off at every 5 minutes Average pace throughout was about 8:30 per mile during accelerations.
Cool down = 800m in 7 minutes
This workout felt right on all aspects. It was very arobic and very comfortable, and I enjoyed running intervals of time rather than distance for a change. This effort seemed quite effective without being too draining on the body.
Yesterday’s 90 minute workout at the club really knocked me for a loop. I didn’t do any part of the workout with great intensity, but I guess 90 minutes in motion was more than I had done in quite a while. I was in bed by 10 o’clock and slept for more than 11 hours. The day started slowly and deliberately. At 2 o clock Arlene and I bundled up and headed to the cinder track only to realize that it was much too cold for us to enjoy a workout. I only managed to walk and jog 1 mile. So later in the evening, after making some chili, I forced myself to head back to the clubhouse and run for 40 minutes the treadmill. I feel like I toughed it out today.
