July 16th, Saturday, 6:45 p.m.
Sitting and waiting for the weather to clear for early evening run. The WeatherBug was giving bad news of lightning and thunderstorms. Hope to get out by 8 of the clock. I might post after I return if I do get out on a run. The plan today is to run a nice 3 to 4 mile effort and test my new insoles.
? “Hot! Hot! Hot!” ??
92* in Jackson today ! The air-conditioned clubhouse was the place for a solid workout today. Spent 60 minutes in weight room on core and upper-body strength today. Then ran and swam in pool for 30 minutes. It was draining on the body, but I was reinvigorated by 20 minutes in the outdoor hot tub. Our community really has a fabulous recreation facility. The indoor pool is closed for two weeks of annual maintenance. So the outdoor pool is now open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.. I am less inclined to make the 18 minute ride to Freehold when I can walk 200 yards to our own facility. I will return to the CentraState facility though because I do like the salt water pool, and they have some really cool machines in their exercise room including the Zero Runner.
I received my Spenco insoles in the mail today that have been recommended by Brother John. They fit nicely into my Kayano 22 trainers, and I will test them out on my run tomorrow.
XC practice at Liberty High School begins next Tuesday. I’m starting to get excited.
I-Mad – 0
A.m.HR – 55BPM
Weight – 152#
Sleep – 7 hours
Workout – 90 minutes in motion – 60 of core & upper + 30 in pool
??” You know it hurts so bad.” NO! NO! NO!
http://www.ageless-athletes.com/archives.php
Ageless Athletes – Master Trainer
Richard Winett , Virginia Tech
The URL above connects to a very interesting site that talks about the current science of resistance training and interval training, especially training for seniors. One can read for free a whole series of articles that report the latest science in this area. (He also has publications for sale.) Have not read all of them yet but I am intrigued and impressed with what I’ve read so far. The key development in my mind is the concept that seniors can continue to improve strength through low intensity resistance training. That kind of training eliminates painful recovery days and dramatically reduces the potential for injury. I am reminded of a recent statistic that I read in “Runners World” stating that nine out of ten runners over 60 report losing some training time in the last 12 months because of injury. Your humble blogger is among the nine.
I must give due credit to Dr. Gabe Mirkin for publishing an article by Richard Winett on his weekly e-zine. That article put me in touch with the site I am speaking of today.
Happy and healthy reading, fellow +70RUNNER’ s.
Today was a rest day after three solid days of work. The body feels good, but the day of rest is indicated at this time. Just being careful.
So with no workout to report, I thought I would take this time to thank my friends and family who have voted for me in my silly quest to be chosen for the cover of an edition of Runner’s World. The contest asks each entrant to write in 200 words or less the story of a moment that changed his or her running life. I have shared the story with many people over the years, and I am convinced that it was a truly life-changing moment for me. I thought maybe the judges at Runner’s World might think so too, so I entered the contest. I have recreated my 200 word story below. If you would like to, you can vote daily. If you have voted, thank you.
I am contestant # 513. The contest can be found just about anywhere under the heading Runner’s World Cover Contest.
WHAT WAS YOUR BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT?
A cool, breezy evening on the boardwalk in Avon was the setting for tonight’s very positive run for me and some striking photos from Arlene.
While the local lifeguard crews were having their annual contest on the beach, I sent out on a four mile run. The wind was out of the south at 12 to 15 miles very steady. I set as a goal today to run 1 mile under 10 minutes just to see if that was still in my fitness arsenal. I headed south first into the wind. It was steady but not cold, rather enjoyable actually. Mile one was walking and jogging: mile two was a steady 12 minute pace. On mile three I cheated to get the time I was seeking. I turned and headed back north with the wind in my sails. I was pleasantly surprised that I finished the mile in a very comfortable 8:59. In truth the watch read 8:59.88. So I guess we need to round that up to 9.00 flat. I will take that. Mile four was another steady, relaxed recovery. This was the first effort that actually felt like training in two months. No leg or foot issues.
Cheeseburgers and some cold Sierra Nevada’s at Paul’s Pub in Belmar during karaoke night followed.
I-Mad – 0 Very nice!
a.m HR – 54BPM
Weight – 152#
Sleep – 8 hours
Workout – 4 miles on boardwalk with Mile #3 at 9 minutes
Lots of work today; 50 minutes in the weight room for core, upper body and stretching, plus 40 minutes in the pool swimming and running. That’s a lot of moving around for an old guy. I left pleasantly tired.
Stats- stable
An Alman Bros “Blue Sky” evening
At 6 o’clock tonight it was blue skies, puffy clouds and 82 degrees. My workout covered 3.8 miles in 47 minutes. It was warm but very pretty. I walked for 5 minutes, ran for 30 and then walked and jogged the final 12 minutes. I’m starting to feel a little stronger. I have not done anything really fast yet. I averaged about 11 minutes for miles tonight: legs and feet feel fine. The road back is slow and I have to be careful, but things are looking up.
Very, very enjoyable evening watching Olympic trials tonight. Good races, tremendous competition. Robby Andrews in the 1500 meters and Sydney McLaughlin in the 400-meter hurdles were just terrific. They joined a plethora of New Jersey athletes who have qualified to represent the United States at the Rio games.
Stats – stable
Every runner who came through the North Hunterdon track program while I was coaching there from 1974 till 2000 will tell you they remember doing AZ’s . AZ’s are Arizona Running Drills.
In the spring of 1974 many of the coaches at North Hunterdon High School we’re pretty shocked when I was named the new track and field coach. I had been interviewed by the principal, Bill Cromwell, and the former coach. During the interview the coach asked me how would I handle the situation when the fastest runner on the team would not come to practice regularly. My response was that I didn’t understand the question. I told him no athlete would be on the team if they did not come to practice regularly. It didn’t matter if he was the best athlete or the worst athlete. I think Bill liked my answer. Anyhow there I was a head track coach who had never coached before with a team of about 60 runners and jumpers and throwers. I made the decision that I would coach all the varsity runners. My assistants were assigned to coach hurdles jumpers and throwers. I had to face the fact that I had no idea how to coach a sprinter. I had a pretty good background in distance running from high school and college, but I never paid a lot of attention to how to coach a sprinter. So I went to the library to look for some information on how to coach sprinters.
Now as an aside: I have to mention that I had recently arrived from Lincoln High School in Jersey City. In 1970 the Lincoln High School track team had won at the Penn Relays the 440 yard relay and the mile relay. I am pretty sure they are the last US team to ever accomplish that feat. One of their runners, who was the lead off runner for the 440 yard relay championship team, graduated and attended Arizona State University. At the time Arizona state was probably the best college sprint team in America. In 1972 and 1973 Charlie Wells from Lincoln lead off the Arizona State 440 yard relay to a College Championship of America. I did a little research tonight and found out that in 1977 every member of the Arizona State track team that attended the Penn Relays came home with a Penn Relay watch! The ASU mile relay that year ran a world record 3:04 . Their coach, Senon “Baldy” Castillo, is in the National Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
So when I found an article in the library that talked about the Arizona State Sprint team, I was naturally intrigued. In the article the coach described the set of running drills that all members of the Sprint team performed every day during practice. I decided to borrow these drills and I labeled them the Arizona Running Drills. My sprinters did Arizona’s everyday. It turned out that they became in very good shape and we had a very good sprint team. Now, we also had a very good distance team. Coach Pat Pinto and Ed Lavin did a marvelous job with the hurdlers, jumpers and throwers. The result was the beginning of what became a strong program for almost three decades. After two years Coach Pinto and Coach Lavin moved to Voorhees High School to start the track and field program at that new school. Not long afterward Bob McGivney became one of my assistant coaches. He was intrigued by the Arizona drills and spoke to me often about their purpose and their success. One day, over one of our meetings at the local pub, Bob asked me why I don’t have my distance runners perform the Arizona running drills like the sprinters do. I told him that they were designed to develop speed. He asked me, ” Don’t you want your distance Runners to be fast.” I answered, “Yes, of course.” And he said, “Then why don’t they do Arizona running drills.” Of course I had no legitimate answer to that question. Shortly thereafter I began to interject the Arizona drills into the program for my distance runners. I was very pleased with the results. From that time forward ‘Arizona’s for everybody’) was the motto at North Hunterdon track and field. Now remember, this was in 1977 or 1978 when I first applied the drills to the distance team, and I believe we were ahead of our time. In the early eighties Mike Paul joined our program as an assistant coach. Michael had recently received his doctorate in exercise physiology. Mike is one of the most knowledgeable coaches I have ever met and his success with athletes throughout New Jersey is widely known . He told me that the reason he joined our program was because we were the only program he found when looking around to become an assistant coach in Central Jersey that was doing running drills, mainly bounding. Bounding is the most difficult and demanding of the drills. It is also the only one that is a plyometric drill.
It makes me proud to say that numerous running coaches, track fans and parents commented to me over the years that many of my runners had the same running form; that they ran smoothly and with efficiency and with power . I believe that the Arizona Running Drills are big part of the reason that is true . Today running drills are a regular part of almost every High School distance running program, and every article or book on distance running includes reference to some form of running drills.
July 8th, Friday, 6:00 p.m.
Wisdom tooth extraction today.
No negative effects from yesterday’s run. Resume tomorrow.
With forecasts of a heat index exceeding 100 degrees today, I set the alarm for 6 a.m. and was on the cinders before 7 o’clock. It was already 75 degrees but about one-third of the 800 meter track was still in shade. I was determined to achieve my goal of a 30 minute run today, and accomplished that with 10 minutes warm-up walk and 10 minutes post walk. It is exactly two months since my race on May 7th where I injured my foot. Today I experienced no discomfort in my foot. I am wearing my new compression socks and my new Asics Kayano 22 running shoes. I feel pretty well protected. The shoes are very comfortable and seem to be very supportive. So far I like them. Also rolling, stretching and icing foot…
I anticipated that I would be so tired that I would go back to bed after my early morning run today. As it turns out I am wide awake and having breakfast and writing my blog instead. We will see how the day unfolds.