December 26th,  Tuesday

Tonight I pushed through 35 minutes in the pool,  swimming and running (with 3 sets of accelerations)  in the deep end, plus 15 minutes in the hot whirlpool. I was tired throughout.   Painful left foot making  running workouts impossible. However, I am not too disappointed to be inside during the last few days of bitter cold weather. The next week is predicted to be the coldest in New Jersey in a number of years. We are fortunate to have a very well maintained indoor pool in exercise facility. We will be leaving for St Augustine in about 3 weeks. Hopefully my foot will be feeling better so I can do some serious running on the beach.

Stats are stable with the exception of an uncooperative left foot.

December 25th,  Monday

Merry Christmas

Thanks to the inspiration of daughter,  Kristen,  we both managed to fit a good session work in the exercise room today between two hardy Christmas Day meals.  Kristen spent her time on the elliptical machine while I kept moving between that and the bike and the weight machines. It was a good session and one I had not expected to accomplish on Christmas Day.

Stats – next time

December 22, Friday

After two days of nursing my sore foot I finally got over to the club for a serious pool workout. I spent 50 minutes moving which was 30 minutes swimming and 20 minutes running in the deep water. Wore me out pretty good, but I liked it.  After 20 minutes in the hot Whirlpool my body was as relaxed as I could imagine.  A brew and A-6 vegetable salad and I am ready for bed.

Stats are stable. ..

December 18, Monday

Set out on a bright Monday to run for 30 minutes, basically still testing my foot. I preceded the run with a 20 minute, active,  mostly non-impact, indoor warm up. That included one-legged drills, stretching, AZs, lunges  and squats. It is getting to be pretty taxing, but good. Then I ran 2.5 miles in 30 minutes  plus a half mile cool down jog/walk.  Left foot ached most of the way increasingly progressing.  Yuck!  Heating as I write this post.  But at least I got the run done.  To be continued.

Stats-

I-Mad = 1

I-Mid  = 3/4

I-Mhd = 1

a.m.HR = 54BPM

Sleep = 7 hours

Weight = #153

December 16th,  Saturday

90 minutes of good work in the exercise room at clubhouse tonight.

20 bike, 20 elliptical, 20 treadmill @ 11:00 minutes + 30 on core,upper body and leg drills.

New addition of ARIZONA DRILLS.  I figure that I might as well do what I tell everybody else to do to improve strength, speed and efficiency.  Starting slowly. Training with fewer foot strikes requires more intensity per foot strike. So AZ’S add intensity. 😊😠

Stats –

I-Mad =1

I-Mid = 2

I-Mhd-  3/4

a.m.HR =54BPM

Weight = #153

Sleep = 8 hours average

Workout = 90 minutes  as above

December 14, Thursday

Last night I spent an hour at the clubhouse. I rode the bike for 10 minutes. I worked for 15 minutes on the elliptical machine. Then ran for 20 minutes in the pool. Throughout I spent 15 minutes working on my upper body and core. I topped it all off with 15 minutes soaking in the hot whirlpool.

Rich Refi sent me an article last night about Gary Patton, who has been the premier senior, middle-distance runner in the U.S. for the past decade. He recently set a new world indoor ÷70 mile record at the 168th Street Armory of 5:29.  I ran against ( behind!)  Gary at the National Senior Games this past summer in the 1500 m. He is a very nice guy. The article talks about Gary’s training regimen. He only runs every third day. In between he does cross-training and weightlifting. Gary believes that the reason he is successful is that he does not get injured. Most senior athletes spend a good deal of time on the sidelines nursing injuries like me. He does not exceed 15 miles per week. I have found myself evolving into a similar pattern. I have found that I need two days to recover from training runs or workouts. Fortunately, I have access to a decent exercise / weight room and an excellent indoor pool at our clubhouse. I plan to more closely emulate the Gary Patton plan as I go forward with my training. I want to be in a position to dominate the +75 age group  as I reach my 75th birthday this coming February. I am motivated, but want to be smart too?

Something to think about for + 70 Runners

New  world record holder, 71 year old Gary Patton

December 5th, Tuesday

After 1 rest day

Today I swam and ran in the water with a few pickup sets for 50 minutes. It was a good workout.

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December 7th Thursday

After 1 rest day

Today I did the work out with the boys from Jackson Liberty track. I ran on the track to miles with a few pickups not much but my body felt pretty good to be out in about 36 degree weather.

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December 10th, Sunday

After 2 rest days

Today I worked out for an hour at the clubhouse on the bike the treadmill, a 1-mile in 10 minutes on the treadmill and lifted.

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December 12th Tuesday

After one day off with a pretty sore left foot

Warm up in weight room for 20 minutes and 2-mile easy run on boardwalk.

Well, that’s a summary of the last 7 or 8 days, through once again time went by at a blistering pace and I failed to write my blog. I am not happy with the frequency of my workouts or the frequency of my blogging. But tonight Rich Refi reminded me, and I felt compelled to catch up. Thank you, Rich.  My aching left foot is causing me to alter my training. It will have to consist of biking, swimming and elliptical machine for the near future with occasional runs to keep my leg muscles somewhat conditioned.

Stats are stable.

Monday, December 4th.  9:00 p.m.

Somehow 6 days have passed since my last post. That is one of the longest periods without posting it since I began this log. As usual I become less inspired to write when I have taken time off. During the past 6 days I have had four off days. That is simply because my body has told me it is too tired to work out. On, Monday, the 27th and Tuesday, the 28th of November I did two consecutive workouts, one on the Boardwalk and one in the pool.  Both were pretty draining. However, I wasn’t prepared for the toll it took on my body for the next three days. I spent a lot of time sleeping and sometimes stretching and heating my sore left foot.  On the 4th day, Ssturday, I felt pretty revitalized and headed out to the cinder track to probably once again push the envelope a little too far. This day I did an 800m warm up very slowly. I then ran 3 miles in 13 minutes, 12 minutes and 11 minutes. On each lap of the half-mile circuit I did two pick-ups each of from 50 to 100 sides. That is the most pick-ups I’ve done since returning to training last month. It felt like a pretty serious effort. On Sunday and today my muscles have been pretty sore and the left foot is acting up again.  I have not experienced any pain while running but that left foot does seem a little weaker or out-of-sync if I concentrate on it. So today I am concentrating onmy rehab circuit of lower leg strengthening, stretching, with core and balance drills.  Also rolling the fascia in the left foot.   During each of my workouts I have very little difficulty on the arobic side. I never feel totally out of breath or sucking wind. I guess I underestimated the amount of conditioning I would lose in my muscles by not running on hard ground for nearly 3 months after my races in Birmingham. The fact is I kept titty busy in the pool and on the bike and doing rehab so I seem to have sustains a good deal of my Aruba conditioning. But my muscles take an extraordinary amount of time to recover from what I believe are simple workouts at 12 minutes per mile never yet to exceed four miles. So tomorrow I will run in the deep water in the pool and if it’s warm enough out I will ride my bike and do some work in the weight room.  My current role is to run a respectable time perhaps below 28 minutes at the 5K Lighthouse run in St Augustine on March 3rd. I suppose at some time along the way in the next 3 months I will have to run a couple of 10 minute miles in order to have a shot at accomplishing that goal. But for right now I’m feeling pretty healthy; my weight is down to 153lb again and I am able to run, ride and swim.  I must keep reminding myself if that’s not a bad way to live + 70.

Stats –

I-Mad = 1😊

I-Mid = 3 🤐

Sleep =lots 🤗

a.m. HR = 54BPM 😊

Weight – #153.    #151 after workout 😆