April 30th, Monday

The last two days were used as rest and recovery time after a particularly difficult workout on Friday. I was definitely experiencing Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness by Sunday. While I have been walking and stretching and doing strengthening workouts for my legs and feet, I have not been running biking or swimming.  I have also been doing household chores including repainting a table for our kitchen plants on Saturday.  As a result of these activities my lower back has been quite sore for the last 2 days. Despite that I decided to head to the clubhouse and swim tonight.  I swam leisurely and sporadically using a variety of strokes for about 25 minutes. Then I committed to try swimming 500 meters Non-Stop and see how long it would take.  I completed 25 lengths of the pool, which I believe is 500m, in 22 minutes.  I was encouraged by my stamina  during the last part of what was essentially a 50-minute swim. Then I ran in the deep end for 10 minutes just to loosen up the tight muscles in my legs.  I think the swimming helped to relieve the pain in my back also. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

The next few days are predicted to be summer-like. Sounds like an opportunity for some running and biking workouts.

Stats remained steady and sound.

April 27th, Friday

Penn Relay weekend always inspires me to go for some quicker stuff on the cinders.  Yes, I ran on the Franklin Field cinders for the first time in 1958 as a high school frosh.   (60 years, Really?. REALLY!  Really.)   Two years later I ran the third leg on the DMR, which was at that time 3/4 of a mile. I ran 3:18, which was considered pretty good in those days, because John Gibson from Seton Hall told my coach that day he would give me e full scholarship to Seton Hall University.

Sad story…..I passed the baton in second place to our anchor,  Kevin Hennessy, one of the best milers in the East at the time, with full confidence that we were on the way to a Championship of America. Kevin blew up with a 4:35 disaster, the only bad race I saw Kevin run in 8 years.  (We also ran at Seton Hall together.)  Two weeks later Kevin won the Eastern States Championship Mile in 4:23!   Ahhh, memories!!!

Workout:  on cinders.

2 mile warmup including 6 x 50 stride and 6 x 25 stride pick-ups

3 x 800m + 1 x 400m with equal recovery

3:57 – 3:54 –  3:47 – 1:46

1000m cool down

Too much fun for 50 years:-)

Stats –

Indexes are all good.

Sleep = 8 hours

Morning HR = 54 bpm

Weight  = #154

April 26, Thursday

Today I  biked for 5.2 miles in 33 minutes. Than I tried the transition to running. It worked better today.  I was able to work quickly into a more comfortable pace than last time which I maintained for a full mile.  Learning to use the 21 gears on my bike in a more efficient way helped me to cover the last hill with less impact on the thighs.

We also visited Mercer County Park today to check out the venue of the triathlon I am planning to run in August.  The lake looks a little scarey, but the bike and run paths are flat and well marked.  Still have a lot to learn about how to prepare for event day though.

April 24th, Tuesday

Ran 5 miles in the FSML neighborhood in 62 minutes.  Trudged on with heavy legs at 12:30 pace with a few walking breaks of 30 seconds determined for some unknown reason to reach 5 miles and 1 hour.  Log says I have worked out 5 day in a row.  Nothing fast, but I think I am getting a good base.

Stats-

Sleep = 10 hours

Weight = #153.5

I-mad = 1/2

I-Mid = 1

Morning HR = 55bpm

April  23rd,Monday

Just 30 minutes in the pool; 10 swim, 10 run in deep end, 10 swim + 10 whirlpool

Nice easy day!

Stats are steady and good.

Continue reading Barefoot in the grass →

April 21st,  Saturday

Rode for 5 miles on the bike this afternoon. Then I tried to transition to a run.  The last 800 of my bike ride was pretty strenuous as I was going uphill and my thighs were burning pretty good. I wanted to test my ability to transition when my thighs were a heavy. I started to jog but it was just about hopeless. So I continued with a slow walk that I gradually increased.  It took about 400 before I felt that I could start to jog with any semblance of comfort. I’m going to have to do more work on getting the transition more comfortable.

Stats –

MORNING HR = 55

Weight = #153.5

I-Mad = 1/2   I-MID = 1

Sleep = 8 hours

APRIL 20, Friday

Solid 5 on Jackson roads in 102 minutes.  Windy and cold; heavily bundled. Better than expected. I like it that the 5-mile run is becoming more the rule than the exception these days.Not very fast,but I am building strength.

More progress on camp presentation. Should be ready by August, LOL.

Stats are positive and steady.

April 16th, Monday

25 minutes swimming and 15 minutes in whirlpool.  1st time in pool since my recent sinus issues.  Recovered quite well…

APRIL 17,  Tuesday

“What ever happened to Tuesday and so slow?”

Hoping for the relentless winter weather to back off as the day progressed, I waited until late afternoon to bundle up in five layers and head out to the cinder track. Feeling more like a shuffling Eskimo then a distance Runner, I began running with remarkably fresh legs. I ran at a moderate, comfortable pace as I worked on composing my speech for the Push Your Pace camp this summer. I guess I can say that I am nervous about it because I’m preparing 3 months in advance. But it turned out that I quickly covered 3 miles on the cinders at a gradually increasing pace. It felt good and I warmed up considerably. So I decided to strip down a little and try for some quicker efforts despite my fears of aggravating my  nagging abdominal /groin issues.  I proceeded to run two times 800m at 4:15 with 2 minutes recovery.  I’m convinced that  I could have run faster because I was not aerobically challenged at any point. But I did hold back from running any faster out of an abundance of caution. I rebundled and finished with a cool down mile run. In all  I covered 5 miles which far exceeded my expectations.

Stats are stable.