“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.”

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

STEADY STATZ with a coupala extra poinds

Thursday- Bike for 6 miles in the cold.

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.

Stats are holding steady at good levels.

December 17th, Monday

4 miles in 46.26. Pretty solid run on a bitter cold day.

December 18th, Tuesday 

20 minutes of work in the pool plus 15 in the hot tub

Steady stats

December 14, Friday 

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.

Stats-

Weight = #152.8 🙂

Diet= 9

Sleep = 11  hours in last 24

Morning heart rate = 54bpm

I- Matd = 0

Diet = 9

I-Mpfd = 3

December 11th and 12th, Tuesday and Wednesday 

At times like this I must remember;

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 stress reaction.  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 !

Stats are good!

December 9th, Sunday

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.

Stats – 

Weight = #154

Indexes – plantar fasciitis = 3 and achilles tendon = 0

Diet = 10

Morning heart rate = 54 beats per minute

• December 7th, Friday 

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.

Stat blackout!

December 6th, Thursday

Tuesday and Wednesday were rest days after my demanding workout on Monday. The fact that the weather was bitter cold did play a role in my decision to take off.  So,  today I spent 90 minutes in motion at the weight room and the pool. It was a pretty depleting workout. I did a little work on the bike and on the elliptical machine, 20 minutes on the treadmill,  a good set of leg drills, a solid set of upper body weights, 10 minutes swimming and 10 minutes running in the pool. The goal was to keep the heart rate elevated throughout, a goal which I believe was accomplished. I am pretty beat tonight.

Stats – Steady 

December 3rd, Monday

Charlie Heidecker, ” If you want to get stronger, add weight.”

After hearing a dire weather forecast for the next week, I decided to try a ambitious workout this afternoon on the cinders. The temperature was 57 degrees with a brisk wind on the back straightaway. My goal was to run three interval miles under 10 minutes with about 3 minutes recovery. The outcome was much better than I expected.   I ran the miles at what seemed like a comfortable but demanding 5K pace. The first was a perfectly even 9:12 pace.  The last two I ran in a negative fashion. ( #2  was 4:39 and 4: 33 = 9:12)   (#3 was 4:33 and 4:10 = 8:43)   With a mile up and a mile down it was a 5-mile day. This is the most substantial work I’ve done in many months, both distance and intensity. The finishing pace  on my third mile  was 6:38. That might be a little too quick for this stage of my training. My legs are quite beat up tonight, and I will see what happens tomorrow and Wednesday.

Stats –

Weight = #154

Diet  = 10

Morning heart rate equals 54 beats per minute.

Sleep = 9 hours

Indexes are good. Let’s hope they stay good after today.