April 6th, Tuesday
An interesting feature out my new Garmin 235 is one that applies a rating to each workout based on intensity. The watch monitors heartbeat throughout and applies a number between one and five to indicate level of intensity. Based on that number the program also prescribes the number of hours needed to recover from a specific workout. I have not been closely following those recommendations because they usually exceed the number of hours I would actually take to recover from a workout. But, given that information and a recent article published by Dr. Merkin concerning the number of intense workouts necessary to maintain Fitness, I am becoming less guilty about the days I have taken off lately.
So, I am thinking this concept is even more applicable to the plus 70 crowd. I have managed to keep running without injury for almost 3 years now. I remember being impacted by an article I read about the amazing senior runner, Gary Patton. I have been beaten handily by Gary Patton a number of times in national competition. Asked about his training, he said that his main goal was to avoid injury. You can’t train if you’re injured and you can not race if you can’t train. It’s a pretty simple concept that is so true of senior athletes. I have read that over 80% of senior athletes lose training time from injury on a yearly basis.
So, yesterday’s workout was rated at 4.2 which is a very intense rating and recommends a 45 hour time of recovery. That was five miles on the dirt trails of Turkey Swamp Park with some gradually increasing speed segments as I went along. I had rested for two days after a 6-mile road run on Saturday. That 6 miles must have drained my body pretty seriously. I spent a lot of time sleeping and napping for the following two days. Getting started on day 3 was still an effort, and I did not feel any strength in my legs until about 30 minutes into the run. All of this confirms my belief that running on the road, as I did on Saturday, is a bad idea for a 78 year old guy. Rubber tracks and cinder tracks and dirt trails are my future training venues. That, and adequate recovery time should help me to stay fit and injury-free.
STATS are steady and sound.