Five solid days of 800m prep work……
6/22. Rest day
6/23. 5 x 400m on cinders with 3 minutes rest. 2:07- 1:55- 1:54- 1:46- 1:50. 3 miles
6/24. 40 minutes work in pool.
6/25. Rest day
6/26. 4 x 300m in spikes on cinders with 2 minutes rest. :49- :51- :50- :48. 2.5 miles
I figured that Sunday night’s 200m workout will be last work day before Saturday’s 800m race. The next five days will be mild jogging, pool running and rest.
Legs and stats are optimal.
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“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—-the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—- that’s where it’s at. ”
Jesse Owens
Training for the last nine days has been positive and consistent. (Posting daily has been neither.) Alternating impact and non-impact days seems to be working out well to control my knee soreness. I have kept the mileage very low on impact days. Pool workouts have been longer. I had one workout on the track with spikes running 4 x 200m. I ran eight times a 50m hill at Turkey Swamp Park dirt trails. On June 21st, I ran three 800m at a respectable under 9-minute pace on the cinders.
June 13- 35 minutes in pool
June 14- SS @ cinders 20 minutes
June 15- SS @ cinders. 22 minutes
June 16- 8X hills @ TSP
June 17- 40 minutes in pool
June 18- Spiked up 200m’s @ track. :49, :46 , :47, :48
June 19- hot whirlpool and stretch.
June 20- 40 minutes in pool
June 21- @ cinders 3X 800m. @ 4:27, 4:06, 4:14. 3 mile day
My watch says that my VO2 max is currently at 40. That is reportedly pretty good. In general stats have been steady and positive.
After five weeks of training in the pool to protect a sore knee, I approached this 800m trial with apprehension. I was fairly confident that the water work had maintained my aerobic conditioning to a significant level. It also seemed that the leg work that I did in the pool was demanding on my muscles. I had no idea what effect five weeks of absence of impact would have my leg structure. Would my legs even carry my body twice around d the track? So, I created an optimistic goal of running 3:30 for this 800m trial with no basis at all support that goal.
The plan was to run a careful first 400m with the hope of hitting near 1:45. The timer read 1:43 as I completed the lap, and I was still upright. So, I tentatively pushed the pace each 100m going forward and finished in a very satisfying 3:27.4. 😅 Everything seemed to be intact and my knee did not hurt afterward. All in all, it was a satisfying trial and a confidence builder for my 800m relay leg on July 2nd.
Trainingwise I plan to alternate track and pool running for the next three weeks as long as my knee holds up.
Stats have remained steady and sound during this non-traditional training period.