Just returned from 5K in Freehold. Very happy with performance- 25:40. Finished first in 60 and above division. Got that 25 number in front!!
Will post full story in a while. Need beer.
Monthly Archives: May 2016
Pre-race prep
May 6th, Friday, 7 o’clock p.m.
Always a little nervous……
After being justly chastised by a former runner, Meet of Champions winner Chris Robinson, for whining about the weather, I set out boldly for a pre-race run in the cold, rainy, windy, crappy weather today. Dressed once again for a February run, this time including the gloves, I managed to cover two and a half miles in 33 minutes. I think it was enough for a pre-race effort.
Early to bed and up early for a 9 a.m. start. l will have to preheat Achilles and calves plus a sore right quad before I leave home in the morning.
My race plan is to hit 2 miles under 16 minutes, then go into Black Box for the 3rd. Hopefully, I will survive my 2.5 mile test warm-up plan.
STATS –
I-MAD – 2
AmHR – 54 BPM
Weight – 151#
Sleep – 7 hours
Workout – 2.5 miles in 33:00
The Thursday Day Off Theory
May 5th , Thursday, 5 p.m.
The “Thursday Day Off Theory” is an idea that I developed after a number of years of coaching experience relating to how to prepare for an important race. I chose to take the day off today because my body was feeling very tired, the weather was still unpleasant and I have a race on Saturday. The circumstances brought to my mind the concept of “The Thursday Day Off.” Now I know of no science behind this whatsoever. I know of no physiological realities that support this theory. But what I discovered after a number of years was that in preparing for an important Saturday race, Friday’s off did not seem to have the desired positive impact. We did take off Thursday frequently. On Friday we would do a pre-race type of workout which could range from a 40-minute run to some race pace 400m’s on the track. I did not share this idea with many people because I thought it was our little secret. I will let the results speak for themselves . There is an interesting story to go along with this.
One Monday morning while I was teaching class at North Hunterdon High School, I received notice that I had an important phone call. This is a very unusual event to be called out of class for a phone call. So I was a bit concerned when I reached the phone. Turned out the call was from a coach friend. Now he was not a close friend, but someone I had met had a number of track meets. We had spoken and had similar thoughts on many track related issues. But he knew my reputation well. He told me that he had a guy running Saturday in the Meet of Champions. This guy was one of the top 5 runners in the state but had never beaten the best guys around. He said to me,
“Coach, you have had more individual success at the Meet of Champions than anybody I know. Do you have any suggestions that you would share with me to prepare my guy for Saturday.”
In a moment either of weakness or of kindness, I’m not sure which, I told him the “Thursday Day Off Theory.” My friend responded,
“This guy has not taken off a day in 2 years. I don’t think he will do it.”
I said, ” All other things being equal, that’s the only thing I can tell you that might change the situation. Tell him to take the day off!”
He said, ” I’ll give it a shot and see how he responds, thanks coach.”
On Saturday his guy won the Meet of Champions. After the race he said to me, “Coach we did it. We took the day off on Thursday, but it was a battle. On Thursday we came to Holmdel and very slowly walked the course; that’s all! Thank you.”
I have not told many people that story. But it is one of my favorites.
So, I took the day off but decided I needed to post anyhow because I have not missed a day of blogging since its inception. It’s not that Saturday is such a great big important race. I do hope I finish with the time that has a 25 in front of it. That would be kind of a Benchmark in my plus70running career. It was in my brain the original goal I set for myself 4 years ago. And tomorrow is projected to be a Nor’easter type day in New Jersey. What I can get in tomorrow I do not know, but I’m definitely going out for some kind of work, hopefully between the torrents of rain.
STATS
A.M.HR – 50BPM Low?
I-MAD – 3
SLEEP – 8 HOURS
WEIGHT – 152#
WORKOUT – Nothing YIKES!
Workout on a Cold, Rainy, Windy, Raw Day
Toughness and stupidity: are they mutually exclusive?
Set out to the Cinders today dressed for February weather. I had four layers on top, 3 on my legs, a hat and a hood. And believe it or not I was cold through the entire episode. When I started driving it was cold and cloudy. When I arrived at the cinder track it was cold, cloudy, windy and raining. My hands were freezing. Who brings gloves in May?
My thought pattern was the following. I didn’t do any running yesterday. I am racing on Saturday. Wednesday is the only day this week that I want to do serious training. So despite all these negatives I pushed on. I could not accept letting this day go by without any running. It was wet and cold and took a long time to achieve any fluidity. I did finally get to the point where I could do some 30-second pickups, 2 per lap on the half-mile track. I did five 30 second pickups. When doing these I count 75 strides , that equals about 100 yards. The total after all was 3 miles in 36:40. As I plodded on, I congratulated myself for being tough and chastised myself for being stupid at the same time.
I guess maybe these realities can be mutually exclusive!
PS : An article published yesterday by Runner’s World on Twitter added validity to Dr. Mirkin’s article in which he quoted studies that touted the benefits of the 30-20–10 Workout. (See my post from April 20th.) I will definitely be coming back to that workout.
Stats
I-MAD – 2
AmHR – 54BPM
Weight – 151 .4 pounds
Sleep – 8 hours
Workout – 3 miles and 36:40 with five 30 second pickups.
Recovery day
May3rd, Tuesday 7:00pm
Take the challenge.
After a record performance yesterday in my 4 mile run, I decided to take a day off today from running. The fact that it was a cold and rainy miserable day had a little bit to do with it. Ha Ha ….Spent 25 minutes swimming and running in the pool and 15 minutes in the whirlpool. My right quad is still aching a little, so I spent most of the time in the whirlpool blowing heat on to it.
I did sign up for the 5K race at CentraState Hospital on Saturday!
That’s going to be my warm up test. Running two and a half miles before the race is a chance I’m going to take to see if it affects my performance. Will report.
What’s your challenge?
Stats –
I-Mad – 2.5
Weight -150.4 pounds Lowest ever!
A.m. HR – 54 BPM
SLEEP – 9 hours
Workout- 20 minutes in the pool
5.4 Miles on the Jackson Roads
May 2nd, Monday, 9 p.m.
“On the Road Again” Canned Heat
Good things about running on the roads in Jackson are; 1- there are hardly any cars, and 2 – there are very convenient loops. Today I set out with a goal to run 4 miles under 40 minutes on a very nice 4-mile Loop. I heatee in my legs for 20 minutes. Then did a 20 minute walk and Jog and stretch warm up. Then I set out running; mile one in 10:27, mile 2 in 9:57 , mile 3 in 9:23 and mile 4 in 9:19. That totaled 39:06, well within my goal. I’m pretty sure that is the fastest I’ve ever run 4 miles in practice and I am very happy with that. Cool down was a half-mile for a total of five and a half miles. A good day.
I hope some of you guys are having some successful workouts. I’d be happy to hear about anything that is working for you.
STATS –
A.M HR – 52BPM
I-Mad – 2
WEIGHT 151.4#
Sleep – 7 hours
Workout – 5.4 miles 4 miles in 39:06 Practice PR!
The + 70 Running Years, Part 1- 2010, 2011 & 2012
2010
My first sketchy log reports from May through August of 2010. It consists of two or three entries per week indicating that I was walking, swimming, biking and occasionally weightlifting in the Warwick condominium weight room. There is no mention of running. At that point in time I was trying to keep active in any way possible but had not thought about running yet.
2011
Logs from early 2011 indicate that I had actually started to jog. I was still bike riding hand walking frequently. But I did run some 3 4-mile efforts. I checked in at 177 lbs at that time. The logs are detailed about distance and time. I would run 4 miles once a week at 56 minutes or so. At this time I was using a heart monitor and my heart rate at the end of runs would frequently exceed 170 beat per minute. By August I decided to run in the annual Jason Memorial 5K at Hillsborough High School. This race was held to remember a state champion 800-meter Runner named Jason Walton who had died tragically. Jason and I were very close and I attended this event annually. For the first few years I was an honorary starter or some other official. This year I decided to run. It was a pitiful 35:39 for 5k. I barely finshed.
Undaunted, I continued to increase my frequency and distance of what were essentially my jogs. A workout that I noticed frequently in my log was a walk- run- walk type effort. I would walk for 20 minutes jog for 20 minutes and walk for the final 20 minutes. This was an hour of work that did not wipe me out too much. By September I was capable of actually running 4 miles under 50 minutes. Always finishing with a very high heart rate in the 170’s. That seemed quite an improvement and my weight was dropping into the mid-160s. I had lost almost 10 pounds in a year. I was doing four mile runs usually once a week. The rest of the time was walking swimming biking or weight lifting. Being able to do all of this on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City made it a lot more pleasant. In September, I actually ran my first mile under 10 minutes. (9:45) I have no logs for November or December of 2011.
2012
Still using heart monitor and recording rate at 165 BPM frequently after runs. Runs have increased 2 two to three times a week and consistently around 4 miles. In January. I recorded my first Four Mile Run under 48 minutes. I hurt my back in the weight room which caused me some training days for a while. In February we drove to St. Augustine for the first time to spend some winter weeks away from New Jersey. I have logs of 3 to 4 workouts a week running Barefoot on the beach. Managed to reach 5 miles under 60 minutes and broke 9 minutes for the first time for the mile. All of this being done in the wonderful weather of Florida in February and March. It was during this time that I first see recordings of Achilles pain in my legs. I was later told by a orthopedic doctor that running on the beach causes Ahilles to stretch out too far resulting in inflammation. But I was starting to feel the rush and push the pace probably to my detriment. This began what has been a continual lower leg issue for the last 3 years. Each time I try to up the intensity of my work my lower legs cry out.
Back home in New Jersey my achilles tendons were very sore and I actually took 10 days off at one point because of the pain. But I did take a lot of Advil and ride bike and my weight in April was 162 pounds. May is the log of a lost month with just walking. June I was back to running and completing 4 miles and 44 minutes on the boardwalk. I was beginning to think I really could compete again. I remember telling Rich Refi around this time that I was setting as a goal to run a 25-minute 5k. There are a lot of entries beginning with BOB standing for Barefoot on Beach. So exhilarating but, in retrospect, not very smart.
On June 29th, I logged 159.5 pounds. First time under 160 pounds in 25 years! Very exciting. Then I actually did a few interval workouts on the Atlantic City High School track. My log for this phase introduced with the words, ” Full Boat Time.” I was set to go all out. I was actually starting to think like a runner again. The majority of my training with still biking, swimming, walking and weight lifting with running three maybe four times a week Max. I was very excited getting ready for the Jason 5K run in August. My log said, “Doing some form of work out everyday. Getting fit.”
At the Jason’s Memorial 5K Iran 31:07. That was a 4 minute and 30 second improvement over the year before and I won the + 70 division. It was a very, very hot and humid day and I struggled mightily in the last mile. As I approached the track for the finishing 300 meters I was looking pretty broken down. When I came up on a number of my athletes from Hillsborough cheering me, I regained a little composure and finished with a little dignity. After the race one of my young cross-country runners said to me, “Hey coach, I think you went into the Black Box.” Now, anyone who has been coached by me will understand the meaning of the Black Box. This is a concept developed by Coach Bob McMivney and I in the 1980s to try and help young athletes face the fear of getting tired during a cross country race. The Black Box represents that place where it is very frightening to enter during a race. You don’t know what’s in the Box, you’ve never been in it, and it could mean total destruction, maybe even death. Who knows? A runner has to convince himself that he can run through the Black Box because on the other side of the box is the glory. It is the runner who refuses to go into the Black Box, or slows down to let the Box receed that remains an average Runner and never achieves his full potential. This is the courage of the long distance Runner. You can imagine how much of a source of great pride it was for me to hear one of my own athletes is telling me that I had gone into the Black Box.
2012 finished in a whirl. In August I found out I had a hernia and needed an operation. In September we bought a new house and moved to Jackson. Also in September I qualified for the national Senior Games in Cleveland by taking second place in both the 800 and 1500 meters at the New Jersey Senior Games. I had a lot to think about and a lot of work to do to set up a new home. My logs crashed in October, November and December, and what I have indicates very shaky training. I did find that running the roads in Jackson was quite pleasant. There’s not much traffic and there are nice 4 and 5 mile loops. Things had kind of come to a standstill on the running front.
So, 2012 ended with a great Christmas party for the entire ORourke Family at the new house in Jackson. Life was good!
The Power of the Daily log
May 1st, Sunday, 8 p.m.
Because it’s so easy to forget and so nice to remember.
Spent most of the day today trying to piece together my collection of poorly kept training logs from the last five years. The picture above shows the muddle of notebooks and calendars and random pieces of paper. I’ve got it pretty much put together and with the help of my Garmin uploads I have an emerging picture of my training over the last 5 years.
Rummaging through my collection of insufficient logs has made me realize how nice it is to have a story. In the few instances where I was more detailed I found it very enjoyable to remember those moments. A number of the logs are of the months that Arlene and I have spent in St. Augustine over the past five years. Somehow I seem to get more motivated to log those periods than any other time and the logs are much more detailed. So I have gained a new appreciation of loging. This blogging thing that I have started has forced me to become a much, much better logger. I am much more aware of my day and things happening around me. This is true not only of my running but all the things going on in my life. And of course I’m spending a lot more time writing down the story of my training and other parts of my daily life. With this in mind, I remind the reader that I am planning a detailed log of my 5 years returning to running and training and competing. Tonight I actually began the writing of that that blog.
Since I had very little to write about today, I was thinking about not bothering to post. But the experiences that I described in the first paragraph above persuaded me that I should, even if it’s only a short blog. Even if nobody else but me ever reads this, I will be perfectly content.
Aftr my satisfaction with yesterday’s workout I felt that I deserved a lazy day. I was determined to get a good night’s sleep, which I did. Lounged around and did my log post preparation. Finally, I headed over to the clubhouse and swim for 20 minutes and took a whirlpool, a nice hot shower and I’m back home ready to watch “Thrones.”