A deep blue sky and white puffy clouds looking just like a painting greeted me as I started out on my bike ride this afternoon. I set a goal to ride for one hour having no idea how many miles that would cover. The temperature was about 84 degrees but never seemed to be a problem along the way. I finished in one hour and two minutes and that coveted 11.9 miles which surprised me. That’s about the best workout I can hope for until my calf muscle becomes runable. Tomorrow I will shoot for some time in the pool and some core work in the fitness lab.
Just arrived home after a long day trying to run and visiting and partying. The day began at 7 a.m. when I awoke to prepare to head to Spring Lake for cross country practice with the Jackson Liberty boys cross-country team on the boardwalk. It was a lovely morning with a beautiful breeze and a cloud cover that made the temperature just about perfect. I tried to warm up very slowly and walk to be sure my calf muscle would be prepared for a nice 40-minute run on the boardwalk. That was not about to happen. About two and a half minutes into my run my calf muscle began to speak to me about not feeling too well. It became obvious that if I continued I would have another severe cramp. So I had to stop. I left Spring Lake and headed home to make breakfast. It was a nice morning because Kristen was around, and we prepared to head to our first party of the day. It was a family pool party at Pat Conway’s spactacular party house a bit north in Old Bridge, about a 35 minute ride. The entire O’Rourke family was present with dozens of little kiddies running around and playing in the pool. It is always very nice to see everybody and catch up. However, we had to leave way too soon and head to South Jersey for the second party of the day. It was a birthday party for our friend Denny who is the boyfriend of Arlene’s niece, Rosemarie. The party was about a one-hour ride back south to Mount Holly. It was a very nice affair, tasty dinner, and it was good to catch up with Rosemarie and Denny and meet his family. The aborted run in the morning was disappointing, but on the whole it was a very enjoyable day .
I will have to spend some extra time in motion to account for all I ate and drank this day.
Today I completed 40 minutes of core and upper body work in the fitness room plus 20 minutes of swimming and running in the pool.
The calf is feeling better. I will test it on the boardwalk in Spring Lake tomorrow where the Liberty boys cross-country team will be having practice at 8 a.m.
Stats –
I-Mad – 0
a.m HR – 54BPM
Sleep – 7.5
Weight – 153#
Workout – 1 hour; 40-minute core & upper body + 20 minutes in pool
After careful consideration I opted for a bike ride today to give my sore calf one more day to rebound. Things are getting rapidly better, thankfully. I completed 9 miles on the bike in about 48 minutes with 8 x 50 pedal surges in the Dr. Mirkin mode. It was a pleasant ride on a pleasant afternoon in Jackson. I finished feeling exhilarated and satisfied with a solid aerobic effort. There were no negative effects on my legs.
Off to xc practice tonight where I plan to add some core work with the Liberty boys.
Stats –
I-Mad – 0
a.m.HR – 54BPM
Sleep – 7 hours
Weight – 153#
Workout – Nice 9 miles on bike with 8 x 50 pedal surges
Very depressed to have to give up another day because of my sore calf. I’m not quite sure what I did, but my right calf muscle is aching, and it’s tender to the touch, and it tightens up every time I sit for a few minutes. I was able to walk a few laps at the Avon boardwalk this evening with Arlene, which I couldn’t do after the event that occurred while I was running last night. I’m convinced that I did some damage to some portion of the calf muscle. I rolled it and massaged it. Can’t decide if I should I use heat or cold on it. So I did neither.
Tomorrow I will definitely get in some serious work. If I can’t run, then it will be swimming and work the fitness room. It’s getting dangerously close to August 28th, when I plan to run 5K in Hillsboro at the Jason Walton Memorial Run and the NJ Senior Games two weeks later.
Sorry for the whining, I just want to log the events for learning purposes.
Had to stop my run tonight after only four minutes because of a severe cramp in my right calf. Came out of nowhere and made it impossible to even walk for over an hour. Pain is gone now. After being totally perplexed for a few hours, I have to conclude that the cause must be that I danced barefoot with Arlene for an hour this afternoon. That was mostly on my toes! Then I went to practice and did not take enough time to warm up. Hopefully, this is only a one day setback.
August 2nd, Tuesday, 4:p.m
No run or blog for two days. Feeling pretty sore and tired since my reservoir run on Saturday. Interesting pulse rate of 47BPM at doctor’s office yesterday. (Just a check up visit.) Don’t know what extra low HR means. Researching.
Will report on evening workout with Liberty boys XC tonight.
It has been a goal of mine since we moved to Jackson to complete the legendary 5 mile run around the Manasquan Reservoir. Since the Liberty boys cross-country team had practice at the reservoir this morning, I thought it would be a good time to reach that goal. When I arrived at the parking lot at 10 a.m. the boys had already completed their workout, and were heading home. Coach Todd and Coach Jim were still there and greeted me kindly but informed me that I was 2 hours late for practice. So I set out alone to complete my task. I was determined to finsh the 5 mile circle of the reservoir even if I had to walk parts of the loop. Time and speed were not a factor in my mind today. I essentially jogged the first 3 miles because there were some extended sun-drenched portions. Somehow I got sidetracked and round up running an extra half-mile. Then on the final two and a half miles I ran a series of 10 x 75 stride surges. I have concluded by trial-and-error that 75 strides equals approximately 100 meters. I believe the total effort benefited by aerobic base and leg muscles as well. I will probably need a very light day tomorrow after 10 miles in 2 days.
“Happy Trails” This song came to mind today as I was thinking about a way to describe my run. And it does describe him how I felt about my run today. But immediately a flood of memories came back, really fond memories. So if you’re planning to read this entire blog today, you might want to grab a beverage and relax. I am feeling quite loquacious this afternoon. The picture I have in my head is of the O’Rourke family of six sitting in front of the TV set on Lexington Avenue back in the 1950s. My Dad and Mom loved the “Roy Rogers Show” and loved to listen to him singing HappyTrails after saving the good guys from the bad guys every week because it made everybody feel happy and, I think, safe. Those were times when I believe most of us felt pretty safe. But a week never passed in the O’Rourke household without the family gathering to watch the “Roy Rogers Show.” Those were the days when TV was our social media. I always think about Mom and Dad when I hear that song.
The run;
Because the temperature was in the 70s today, jumped at the chance to go for a long run in midday. I set out on my 4-mile loop with the goal to allow my body to dictate the pace at which I would run. Yes, at this point a four mile run is my long run. It was comfortable, and each mile became faster. Along the way I came up with a phrase to describe for me this type of running, which I labeled Comfortably Cruising (CC). It turned out that was somewhere between 10 and 11 minutes per mile when I checked my watch. It occurred to me that a few months ago I had created a similar type of expression to describe a different kind of running that I had labeled Comfortable Quality (CQ). (I do love to write in the Past Perfect Tense.) That as I remember was a pace of between 8:45 and 9:15 per mile. As I frequently do while I am running these days, I was thinking about sharing my new phrase with my readers. It then occurred to me about my previous phrase and the similarity that the two have is the word comfortable. I started thinking about that concept of comfortable and what it really meant to me. This is what I concluded. The word comfortable in both cases is not meant to indicate a measure of effort. It is a measure of body mechanics and breathing. Am I running with mechanical efficiency and relaxed breathing? I frequently told my athletes while I was coaching High School to be mindful of the comments of casual track fans at major track meets as we sat in the bleachers watching. We would frequently hear folks say to one another how amazing it was that the winner didn’t look like he was trying very hard. They were describing precisely what I’m talking about, mechanical efficiency and relaxed breathing. It is what separates the great runners from the rest of the field. Witness the recent USA Olympic trials. The not very astute announcers frequently commented that Galen Rupp, Matt Centrowitz, Bernard Lagat, Emma Coburn and Molly Huddle were winning with ease. But they were exerting as much effort as anyone else in the race. Only they have mastered through years of intensive training the Art of doing it comfortably. So I will continue my quest to become the most comfortable runner while training for quality, cruising or racing.
I mentioned recently that I submitted an entry into a Runner’s World magazine contest. Well, thanks to the efforts (votes) of my wife, my children, my extended family, all their friends and my friends, I have been selected among the top 100 finalists of 1,100 entrants. Pretty awesome! So, if any of my readers would like to vote and follow on Facebook, you can. It has been fun, exciting and humbling. It never occurred to me that I might be a 73-year-old “Cover Boy”. Ha! Ha!
