January 30, Sunday

 Flat, Firm and Endless

It was the perfect day for the 1st run of 2022 in St. Augustine. The temperature was 56°, the sky was a deep blue and the sun was shining brightly as I started to run on my favorite beach.  It had been two years since we visited St. Augustine because of the  pandemic. I ran 3 miles in under 40 minutes after a 7 minute warm up.  I could not stop thinking throughout  of how lucky and how thankful I am to be here right now.

Arlene and I had scrambled to get out of  New Jersey before the snow that was coming. We went to bed on Thursday night around midnight with the car, finally, totally packed and ready to go. We were on the road by 5:30 AM and drove for ten hours to Florence, South Carolina to stay over for the night.  The roads were clear and the traffic was light for the whole journey.  We slept in, had a lovely breakfast and got on the road at 11:00 AM for another sunny, six hour ride to St. Augustine. We will be in our beautiful condominium til mid march.

I am totally excited for six weeks of beach walks, soaking up sunshine, serious training, good food and healthy living In the northern Florida winter where the temperature hovers in the 60’s and 70’s on a daily basis. ☀😎

I hope all my family and friends in the North stay safe.

Stat reports will resume after my body stabilizes.

January 16-20, Sunday to Thursday

Champions are made when no one is watching.  Anonymous

Locked in 3 good workouts this week on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Sunday as darkness fell I bundled up and headed out for what I thought might be 1⁄2 an hour run. But it turned into 4 miles in 56 minutes with several speed segments.  It was a very draining effort because of the weather conditions and extra weight.  Ate well and sacked out for 11 hours afterwards.

Tuesday I did 3.5 miles on the cinders in 40 minutes, once again adding some strong speed segments.  It takes in excess of 20 minutes these days to open up and run a comfortable stride. But once it occurs my legs are feeling very good.

Thursday I got a little braver and decided to try running some hills  in my neighborhood. I have not attempted a hill  workout in months.  Once again it was very cold and I was heavily padded.  But I managed 4 miles in 50:31 with 4 times 200m hill surges in the middle.  I was pleased with the effort, the time and the distance.

My legs feel good as write this on Friday, surely helped by the fact that I have been getting extended rest this entire week usually exceeding 9/10 hours per night. Plus I am resting every other day!

800m race at Monmouth College indoors on next Thursday, 1/26.

I am very psyched at the thought that I will be running in shorts and T-shirt in Florida in 10 days.🎽🏖☀   🌬❄

Good stats!

January 14, Friday

“Why would I practice running slow?  I already know how to run slow. I want to learn how to run fast.”            Emil  Zatopek

After a few bitter cold days that kept me off the road, I had two good workouts on Wednesday and Thursday at the cinder track. On Wednesday my legs felt strong as I ran 3 1/2 miles in 40 minutes with a few speed segments along the way. On Thursday I went back to the cinders to do some faster work. The goal was to run 4x  800m intervals as close as possible to 4:00 each. The weather was a balmy 49 degrees at the time. After a mile and a half warm up I actually stripped down for the first time in a while and set out running my 800s.  It was pretty demanding but, all in all, comfortable. I rested 2:30 between each interval. The times were 4:08, 4:20, 4:15, and 4:19.  My Garmin app rated it as a Overachievng workout (5) and recommended 72 hours recovery. I began with 10 hours of sleep last night.  Today I took the dog for a long walk.

Stats are steady and legs are feeling fine.

January 7and 8,  Friday and Saturday

Friday- Some good work on the dreaded treadmill this evening. 2 miles + 3 x 800m at 5min

Saturday- a surprisingly productive four and a half mile run and 59 1/2 minutes in 29* fortified by multiple layers

Stats steady

 December 31, Friday –     1  hour to 2022

Well,  on December 23, I had my second cataract surgery.  This was not a serious problem, basically elective surgery to improve my eyesight. As a result I had to take a few days to recover. But, fortunately, the final week of the year worked out pretty well for training. I have expanded my  workouts in both time and intensity.   Recent workouts have been between 45 and 50 minutes with frequent speed segments added along the way. Tonight’s final run of 2021 was 4 miles with more than a dozen speed segments of 50-100 strides each.  And my Garmen Connect  app gave me a “STRONG FINISH”  badge.  Perfect !     🎆 Happy New Year 🎆

Good stats….