March 26, Friday

Today it felt like spring was blowing winter back to the North Pole. The blustery wind was unrelenting: yet the temperature was in the low eighties at the cinder track.

I managed to accomplish 4.26 miles in 53.30. Along the way I added 4 x 800m intervals with 200m recovery.  (5:29, 4:49, 4:21, 4:21)

It was fun running in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in months.

My new Garmin is telling me that I’m working too hard. That may be the case since my right knee is starting to ache. I had a very sore calf muscle for the last 3 days and even had a serious muscle cramp in the middle of the night on Tuesday. It could be that my decision to switch to some faster work instead of longer work over the last two weeks is taking a toll.  I guess I will have to back off for a while.

STATS – Weight, sleep, heart rate and diet are steady and sound.

March 21, Sunday

Tuesday, 3/16

Got to the cinder track today for 5 miles of work. Included 3 * 600 m in the middle at 3:12, 3:11 and 3:18. Good day.

Wednesday, 3/17

40 minutes of work on the Cinders with 8-speed segments in the middle very fast. Legs feeling good.

Friday, 3/19

105 minutes of work on cinders with 4 x 800m @ 4:20- 4:18_ 4:11- 4:05,  comfortably fatigued.

Sunday, 3/21

Another good day with 4 miles at Four Seasons that included five times fast 120m speed segments on the grass @ 6:15  – 6:45 pace.  All body parts feeling fine.

Stats- Steady and solid.

March 12,  Friday,

Today I ran 4.33 miles at Four Seasons roads in anticipation of a few days off because of getting a vaccine tomorrow.  I activated my new Garmin 235 GPS watch which I have thanks to my good friend Don Linden. The 235 collects much more data than my 410 and uploads it instantaneously to my phone. This will make things a lot easier  for my post-run evaluation of my workout.

March 6, Saturday

Have been mostly running around with the puppy, not motivated to get out in the raw weather for a true workout.  Except for yesterday!  Sheltered with multiple layers of insulation, I went alone, without Gracie pup, to the cinder track.  I did not have my watch, so I don’t know anything about time. But I covered five miles starting very slowly to generate some heat. Along the way I did at least 25 speed segments of 100 strides. By the end I was moving along pretty well. I am counting this as a positive workout for a number of reasons. The first is I was able to complete five miles feeling refreshed at the conclusion. Second, I was able to do multiple speed segments along the way with no negative impact on my legs or feet. Third, I feel ok today. Just walked and chased with the pup, with a steady 800m finish. I believe that my body has reacted well to a two-week back off. I can’t wait for some warmer weather so I can do some serious training on track.

Weight is steady, Sleep is good. Diet is healthy. Heart rate at 54bpm.  Legs and feet are fine.Mona procedure healing nicely.  Working daily on Frozen Shoulder therapy.    Yes, frozen fucking shoulder is an actual diagnosis. 🙂     All. Good.  14 days to spring!

March 2, Tuesday

Spring is coming!

The last 10 days was a winter break I used to resolve some medical issues. All is well and I am ready for a restart. I have run 10 miles in the last 4 days and everything is feeling fine. All I need now is a goal and a plan to achieve that goal. I am working on both.

In other good news, we have received one covid vaccine are scheduled for a second one on March 13th.

February 15, Monday

So, in the last 10 days I have run over 25 miles during six workouts all on local roads. This was accomplished between three winter storms and a long road trip to Stroudsburg PA to get a covid-19 vaccine. My overall feeling is that I have been not doing enough, but it’s still 6 days out of 10. Most days I do Progressive miles with sporadic speed segments along the way. Today was probably the quickest with five miles and clearly in excess of 20 speed segments. This was the most physically draining of the lot. After tonight’s ice storm I hear it’s going to be in the low 50s tomorro. I still don’t expect there to be any soft surfaces available. So, I may do another “Crank and Cruise” workout to keep the mileage down and the speed up.

GOOD STATS

February 5th,  Friday

“No workout is written in stone.”   Skip Norcross, renowned North Hunterdon and Voorhees High School track coach

As the sun shone on this late afternoon, I thought it would be a good day to try a new workout I learned from Tony Holler’s site on Twitter. I did not write down the name of the coach who created this work out, so I can’t give him full credit.  But Tony Holler posted it.

He called it “Crank and Cruise.”  It goes like this;

Warm up- 5 minutes  Vlose

Run 12 minutes consisting of three 4 minute segments. Each segment begins with a 30 second Crank effort run at goal mile pace, followed by 3 and 1/2 minutes of Cruise at 10K pace. It is a constant 12 minutes with no break.

Follow up with 4 x 100m straightaways 5K pace.

That amounts to a quick 32 minute workout with both speed and aerobic components.

There is no mention of cool down.

______________________________________

Now the old guy version; 🙂

My pace estimates were 7:15 to 7:30 mile,  10:30 to 11:00 for 10K and below 9:00 for 5K adjusting for temp and multiple layers of clothing.

The workout went quickly and I felt strong and relaxed throughout. Having not run for two days previously, I’m sure, gave my legs a little bit of spring.   (Gerund clause)

Warm-up- 1.5 miles, 20 minutes. Old guy cannot warm up in 5 minutes in 38-degree temp.

12 minutes with Cranks @ 7:20 and Cruises @ 9:30 to 10:30

4 x 100m @ under 8:00.   6 minutes

1000m cool down.  12 minutes

50 minutes!  Close…… Skipper will forgive me.  RIP buddy.

I may be in  better shape than I thought.

18 days of work,   11 days rest, 1 day unaccounted for probably off

Some good middle distance speed work, 200m, 400m and 800m

Mostly longer runs with progressively faster miles, usually finishing at under 10:00 pace.

A little more comfortable at 10k distance

Interspersed a respectable # of SS throughout

NOT A BAD MONTH CONSIDERING I AM NOT IN ST. AUGUSTINE.    HUMBUG!