October 25, Monday
I wish that I had said this. It should be posted in every high school cross country locker room.
Bad Athletes- Don’t take much seriously
Average Athletes- Take track meets seriously
Good Athletes- Take Meets and Practice seriously
Great Athletes- Take academics, nutrition, rest, hydration, warm-ups, cool downs, summer workouts, practice and meets extremely seriously
This morning marked week five of the fall cross country series. The race was held at Fox Hill Recreation area, a course I had never run before. The racing conditions were ideal. It was 53*, with a lite sprinkle of rain, a beautiful grass covered course and I was fortified with my modified calf sleeves. After three weeks of very light training because of sore calves, my legs felt quite lively as I warmed up today.
I am proud say I started strongly and ran competitively throughout the race. My right half muscle ached throughout, but it didn’t have an impact on my ability to run. The result was my best time of the season; 27:44. I am much more confident now that this puts me on track for a positive finish in the final 5K of the season at Holmdel Park next Saturday.
Steady Stats.
Workouts and postings are still being hampered by sore calves. Today was the best workout I did it in over a week. At the clubhouse I rode the bike for 10, elliptical for 10, treadmill for 10, weights for 10 and swam for 20 minutes, followed by 15 minutes in hot whirlpool. I plan to repeat that scenario tomorrow. Every time I have tried to do a running workout for the last two weeks my calves have seized on me and made it impossible to run. Night time cramps have also plagued my sleep. Have not had sleeping cramps since college. But today was better. Yesterday I actually cut my compression socks to make them simply calf sleeves. That might have helped. Also using heat a few times a day. It might have been a good idea to do these measures sooner, but I did not understand or appreciate the depth of this injury. I expected the soreness to simply disappear in a day or two. Well, that never happened for almost three weeks. I skipped Saturday’s race at Big Brook Park for fear of aggravating the injury. I am hoping to try racing on Saturday at Wolf Mountain, a course I have never seen. It would be great to be ready to race hard at Holmdel Park on October 30, the final race of the Autumn season. To be continued………..🤔💭
Stats – I have been too bummed out to note. Ok I guess.
After another frustrating week with sore calves, I approached Saturday’s race with more trepidation. My run on Tuesday ended abruptly with a feeling in my left calf muscle that something really bad that happened. I was forced to walk home the last mile barely able to take a stride longer then one foot because of the pain in the calf muscle. On Wednesday Thursday and Friday I only walked. On Saturday morning I still felt soreness as I did a truncated warm up. It was probably a mistake to try to run in the race, but I thought I’d give it a shot. It was a perfect morning to race and the trails at Tatem Park were beautiful. But I was only able to jog the course in 33 minutes. It was impossible to push off my left foot without considerable pain on each stride. I plan to bike, swim, whirlpool and lift this week with no running at all. My explanation for this injury is twofold. First is the amount of speed segments I’ve been running on almost every workout for a month. And second is the addition of my spikes at the Holmdel course two weeks ago. This is the only foot or leg problem I have experienced in over a year. So, I feel fortunate and I must recover with deliberation. My new goal is to have a triumphant return to Holmdel Park in three weeks.🙂
Stats are holding steady except for sore leg.
The last two weeks have been very interesting to me. After my previous post about how I had run myself a little tired after a few overly enthusiastic workouts, I was forced to do a week of very lite work leading up to the 1st, on September 25th, in the series of six 5K races I will be running this fall.. I approached that 1st 5K at Holmdel Park with trepidation. I had no idea how my body would respond to the lite work after the hard work. It turned out that I ran a comfortable 29:48 at Holmdel. That was about 30 seconds slower than my performance at the same time on the same course last year, not bad.
Following that race I had very severe soreness in my calf muscles notably because it was the 1st time I had worn spikes in over a year . But, uncharacteristically, the soreness lasted the entire week. So, I spent another week doing basically jogging or walking. Accordingly. I approached today’s race again with trepidation. However, I was pleased to be able to run very comfortably and very relaxed and break 29 minutes at Johnson Park. That is only 15 seconds slower than last year on the same course. So, given all the trepidations, and another year logged on the body, I survived the 1st two weeks of the autumn 5K series in relatively good shape. 😏
Stats hanging tight among all the September chaos.🤒
Starting with the very nice workout that I posted on September 10th at the Jackson Liberty High School track, this was very successful training cycle.
Sept. 11 – At Thompson Park during the class meet I did a long series of 60 to 200 M strides on the grass which lift my legs pretty used up on Sunday morning. So, I went to cross country practice at Ocean County Park and jogged lightly on Sunday and rested on Monday.
Sept. 14 – I ran a nice work out of 5 x 1000m on the grass at Jackson Liberty High School during cross-country practice. I act as the Caboose while running with the boys picking up the slowest Runners at the rear. The 1000m repeats that I did were from 8:00 pace to 8:40 pace. It seemed to be just the right kind of work out that I needed at the moment. I rested on Wednesday the 15th.
Slept.16 – This morning I had a training date with Al, the father of one of the boys on our cross country team. We met at the cinder track and ran four and a half miles that included three and a half miles of My Modified Fartlek workout, MMF. That workout consists of running 30 seconds quick, followed by 30 seconds walk, followed by 30 seconds jog and repeat. We completed 25 cycles in 40 minutes, and I surely finished pretty used up. It was a solid workout and was nice to have a training companion for the first time in years. We plan to try to get together weekly when possible. Friday the 17th was a rest day.
Sept.18 – Today was my longest run in many months on the boardwalk in Belmar, Avon, Bradley Beach and Ocean Grove. I didn’t quite make it to Asbury Park, but it’s still turned out to be 6 and 1/4 miles. It was a beautiful morning at the beach. The gentle breeze was drifting from the north as I started out at around 8:30 a.m. But it warmed up quickly in the full sun and at the turnaround I lost the breeze on my face. Quite uncharacteristically, I pulled off my shirt at the 4.5 mile mark for fear of overheating. That helped, and I finished my longest run in fine order.
My Garmin tells me that I may be overreaching with some of these workouts. So, this will be a lighter week was I prepare for the first of my six week series of 5K races at Holmdel Park on Saturday..
Steady and solid stats. No issues.
Training and logging have been sketchy lately. But I have managed to stay in pretty good shape over the last three weeks I think. No excuses, just unmotivated. One downer was missing the registration deadline for the New Jersey Senior Games. I did appeal and try to get an exception but was denied. So, I won’t get to run another 800m or 1500m this month. Fortunately, the National Senior Games have modified their admissions to make eligible everybody who was qualified to run in 2019. So, if I want to go to Fort Lauderdale next year, I still can.
Moving on, I have registered to compete again in the six race series of 5Ks offered by the Shore AC over the next two months. Last year these Saturday races kept me focused through the fall and provided a once-a-week strong training run.
Of all the workouts I have done over the past two weeks this afternoon’s at Jackson Liberty track was the one I like best. It consisted of a two-mile warm up followed by 2.5 more miles with 16 speed segments. It was just about one hour in motion. I finished pleasantly spent.
I have a also enjoyed reconnecting with the Jackson Liberty boys cross-country team over the previous three weeks. We will be heading to Thompson Park tomorrow morning for the season’s opener. We have a solid group of 18 guys and a chance to have a positive season.
Stats-
Weight- Still 144lbs
Heart rate- Steady at 54 bpm
Leg and foot indexes remain quiet.
Sleep between 9 and 10 hours regularly.
Diet is healthy. 8/9
The annual Jason’s Memorial Run always fills me with both wonderful and sad memories.
Today I decided to compete with modest expectations. The result was very satisfying. I completed the 5K course in 17:10. I have renewed enthusiasm for a positive fall campaign.
Stats are good.
8 /8- Off
8/ 9- 1 hour in motion in exercise room
8/10- Off
8/11- 3 miles with SS
8/12- 4.5 miles with SS
8/13- Off
8/14- 5 miles at Manasquan Reservoir in 53:00
8/15- Walking only
8/16- 40 minutes at FSML easy
8/17- Off
8/18- 4 miles at Turkey Swamp Park with SS 54 minutes
8/19- 30 minute swim
Stats are positive, no leg or foot issues. 🙂 🙂
On Saturday I went over to The Peddie School to run an 800m in the Shore AC event that they call the New Jersey International Track and Field Meet. From the promotional information regarding this meet one would get the impression that at one time it had quite a prestigious profile. The names of the events and the record holders are some of America’s best runners and international Olympians. (You can look it up.) Somehow this meet has been organized and run for the last 34 years completely under my radar as a New Jersey track enthusiast . It turned out to be a relaxing, lightly attended, Saturday morning event in a picturesque setting.
Because of the small entry list, all of the categories and classifications were combined for the 800m race. Once again I was was the oldest guy in the race. There were runners who could hit two flat in the field, and they did! So, I was out of contact with the field from the start not really knowing what sort of pace I was running for lap one. It did feel quick and comfortable and smooth, and lonely and not overly motivated. As I approached the clock at the 400m mark it was reading under 90 seconds! That is the fastest 400m I have run in an 800m race since 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama at the National Senior Games when I finished in 2:57.4. The possibility of bettering my race goal of 3:10 became a reality. I pushed the second lap pretty hard and came across in a respectable 3:07.4. I had set what I thought was a pretty lofty goal, but I had little confidence that I could run close to that number. I only chose that number because it’s what I ran two years ago in New Mexico at the National Senior Games to win that race.
I am thrilled at the thought that my training is somewhat validated, and I have increased motivation to maintain and improve.
Another bonus on this lovely Saturday morning was that my nephew, Matthew, showed up and recorded the entire run. And to top it off Matty and I stopped at a local brewery to have a few IPAs before I headed home. Perfect!! 🙂 🙂
I have a copy of the recording and am going to try to put it on Facebook.