The anxiously anticipated and simultaneously dreaded return to racing on July 11 has come and gone. My split of 3:42 was better than expected and the source of considerable relief. I managed to emerge from the event with sore muscles but no bodily injury. Plus my 80 year-old team did set a new American record for the 4x800m relay, which was our goal.

The week beginning July 13 was mostly relief and recovery. I walked a lot and swam a few times and did a lot of core work and Upper body weight lifting while my legs recovered.

Then I agreed to join the Shore Athletic Club team effort in the Big Bang Mile scheduled for August 1.

Starting on Sunday July 19 I began to ramp up my training a bit in anticipation of running a mile.

On Sunday I ran 3 miles of Fartlek on the Cinder track.

On Monday the 20th I ran 3 miles with pickups at Turkey Swamp Park in 44 minutes.

On Tuesday I did upper body weight and a very good hard core workout.

Then I read a workout that Josh Kerr did a week before he broke the world record in the mile that intrigued me. He ran 12 times 400 meters and 12 times 200 meters. I thought maybe I could do it age appropriately modified.

So, on Wednesday at Turkey Swamp Park I ran 12 times 400 meters in 2 minutes with a 1 minute recovery. It was pretty difficult but I completed it successfully. I was pretty tired, but I thought I would try the 200s if my body could handle it. The only problem was that my heart rate would quickly rise to over 150 b/m as soon as I started to run the 200m. This convinced me that I had reached my maximum for the day.

I was tired and sore on Thursday and Friday. I only did core work and weights. Also my calf muscles were for the 1st time quite sore.

On Saturday I did the second half of the Josh Kerr workout. I tried to run through the soreness in my left calf muscle. The 200 meter workout seemed harder than the 400 meter workout probably because I was not fully recovered and I was worried about my calf.

On Sunday my back was also very tight and achy. So that became a total day off.

On Monday, today, I took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon instead of doing a workout because my body was signaling me. I am not yet Josh Kerr!😋

The mile race is on Saturday. I will do some moderate work for the rest of the week and hope to compete well on that day.