• April 22nd,    Friday,      9 p.m.

Today’s run consisted of 4 of what many would consider junk miles. (4 miles in 50 minutes and 36 seconds) Now many very successful coaches at high school, college and elite level have suggested that junk miles are a waste of time .  They claim there is no physiological advantage gained by running slow miles.  I  believe as a + 70 Runner that there are a number of advantages to slow miles.  For the purposes of my age and fitness level, I’m going to define junk miles as anything slower than 12 minutes per mile. That  is 2 minutes slower per mile than my Comfortable Quality miles and 4 minutes slower than what I hope to be my 5K race pace..   However, I can think of four areas in which  so-called junk miles can be positive for me.

• Bone building –  (4 miles = about 7,000 foot strikes )  I have read studies that conclude that humans are able to continue to build stronger bones through the 70s if they continue to stimulate bone growth by foot strikes. Every time the foot strikes the ground a message is sent to the bone to generate stronger and thicker bone marrow in the core. This is why seniors are constantly being told by those who are supposed to know that they should be continuing to walk into the seventies and eighties and nineties. So 7,000 additional strikes can have positive effect if it does not lead to something negative like a bone fracture .

• Aerobic strength –  Even 12:00 miles raise my heart rate and keep it in a raised state, as today for 50 minutes. This is clearly an advantage and a benefit for my aerobic conditioning.

• Toughness –  the only reason I would have for running miles slower than 12 minutes would be because my legs were heavy a sore at the start of the Run. But to continue to run through a little discomfort or even significant discomfort I think builds a little mental  callusing.  That allows me to run through some of the hard times when I’m doing a quicker workout or during a tough patch in a race.

• Confidence – I am constantly amazed at the way my body is capable of responding on days when it seems like I have no resources.  After the first two miles in twenty six and a half minutes today, my body began to feel loose and comfortable and finally relaxed.  Each mile was getting a little quicker.  I don’t know where those reserves come from, but it gives me great confidence to know that they’re in there.  The last two miles in 23 minutes would actually not even qualify as junk by the definition above.  So, I guess the final benefit is that even slow miles on tough days add to my confidence.

Most likely you will catch me out on the road still running those slow miles some day in the future.

• STATS –

I-MAD – 3. 5

a.m.HR  –   52

WEIGHT  – 153# a.m.   &  151.6#  after run

Sleep  – 8 hours

Workouts  – 4 miles  in 50:36

1 – 14:46  with  walking 1st 5 mins.

2 – 11:44

3 – 11:06

4 – 11:33   Stopped to loosen laces. Tightened up laces at start of run today to feel better support.  At the beginning of mile 4 Achilles tendon started talking to me. So I stopped to loosen laces and that seem to relieve the discomfort. Still working on that laces thing . Loser laces seem to have a positive effect on the whole food area. This surprises me because most of my life I have laced my running shoes quite snugly.

Heat pre & ice and chocolate milk post + My green tea and tart cherry juice cocktail     —  Yummmm!