Today was overcast, breezy and cool at the Jackson Liberty track. One day out from my 10 mile weekend, I approached this workout very deliberately. I started slowly with leg drills: then ran 1200m with 6 x 100m at increasing intensity. I dropped my sweats and decided to try some 400m repeats at tempo speed to see how my body would react. I didn’t have my watch so I ran 400’s on received effort. As the body became warmer and looser I gradually increased the pace. It turned out that I was able to complete eight feeling pretty well drained. Jogged another half mile with sweats on before heading home. Liked this track work!
Quote from Des Linden after finishing sixth as first American woman in New York City Marathon today.
“Mission accomplished. I died….. but also I didn’t actually die and that’s valuable.”
October 30th, Thursday –
48 minutes on the cinders with four times 800m in the middle. I sent out to run comfortable 800 repeats 10:00 per mile pace. It turned out my legs felt pretty good and I ran the four 800m repeats at under 9:00 pace. 4:15, 4:28, 4:20 & 4:27
October 31, Friday – REST DAY. HEAVY LEGS
November 1, Saturday
Easy 5 miles at Manasquan Reservoir during cross-country practice. I expected my legs to still be a little sore from Thursday’s workout as I began a slow run around the reservoir. I anticipated maybe a mile and a half out and back. But egs seemed better than expected and I finally hit the point of no return, and so I finished all 5 miles around the reservoir. A positive run!
November 2, Sunday – Another surprising 5 miles
Got out late on this chilly afternoon with not much expectation for a strong workout. I managed the first two miles basically as a warm up with heavy sweats and alternating between jogging, some pickups and walking. After two miles I decided to get Brave and discarded my sweats on the side of the road to run the final 3 miles around my home loop with some stronger effort. My body responded with more energy each time I pushed the pace. So the final three miles were covered in just under 32:00. The declining mile times were 11:18, 10:35 and 9:52. I’m beginning to feel much more positive about my fitness. I can’t recall covering 10 miles in 2 days in quite a long time. How my body responds in the next 2 days should tell me a lot. But anyway I look at it, the last two weeks have been encouraging.:-)
And fortunately all statistical measures have been very strong and very steady, the complaints.
Ran 2 repeat miles with the JV guys , 9:21 and 9:55. This was more than I intended to do today as it was the seventh day of workout in succession. After last night’s four miles with a good number of speed segments I thought this would be a good time for a lighy day. But the boys were doing repeat miles and the slower guys were struggling. So I jumped in on two of them and got a bit of a workout that I didn’t anticipate. Legs felt ok, but running under 10:00 took some work. Swim tomorrow…
Stats –
Weight = 150lbs
Heart beat = 54 BBM
Diet = 8. Seems like too much beer and ice cream. But my weight is still staying around 150lb. I have frequently said that I only run so I can drink beer. So I guess it’s all working out. (10)
Morning indexes are remaining about 2/3. Not bad after seven straight days of work.
Need to get back to the weight room.
Stretching – having a hard time getting motivated to stretch after re-reading Dr. Merkins beat down of the whole concept of stretching.
Today Arlene and I drove to Hoboken to visit Rob and Gracie for lunch. We had a walk and run with Gracie along Frank Sinatra Boulevard while Rob did some work in his apartment. After the ride home I was very sleepy and took a 2-hour nap. Upon waking I decided to go for a nighttime run. That turned out to be a good four miles in 45 minutes with about 15 speed segments of 50 to 100 strides along the way. My legs felt refreshed after a no-impact day yesterday while swimming.
This afternoon Arlene and I took a trip to Holmdel park for some Autumn Beauty and a hill workout. Arlene took some picturesque shots of the landscape and one of me.
It was 66* and overcast amidst the striking autumn colors. I managed to cover 4 miles around the lower field by the starting line. With my legs still feeling heavy from my 5-mile workout two days ago, I needed an extended warm up. I ultimately ran the first 400m hill of the course five times at increasing intensity as my legs woke up. I was in motion for more than an hour. So, I feel as though I got an aerobic as well as in an anaerobic workout today.
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.” Bill Bowerman
5 x 1 mile with 2:30 rest
12:10. 11:38. 9:39. 9:51. 10:28
On a windy,wet and cool afternoon at Liberty High School I managed to get in the best workout I’ve had in almost a month. Coach Engle had a plan to run the JV boys at 5 repeat miles with specific paces for each runner. Looking for a challenging workout, I decided I would attempt a few of the miles which we’re being run on the grassy cross-country course. I ran the first one very conservatively in my complete warm-up sweats. I peeled off layers as I went along, and by the third mile I was down to my t-shirt and shorts. I was surprised and happy to find that I was able to run miles 3 and 4 under 10 minutes and a final mile in 10:28. I had a very low expectation of actually completing 5 x 1 mile today. So, just accomplishing that would have been considered a successful day. The times that I ran were even more encouraging. Trying not to be soft!
The last three days I have been getting back to running by working out with Gracie who we have been dog sitting this week. Gracie is a beautiful, intelligent, affectionate and fast three month old puppy, It has the double effect of getting me back in motion and tiring out Gracie for a long night’s sleep. So far it is working. 🙂
Stats-
Weight = 150lbs
Sleep = 9 hours. Back to normal after a week of rough nights.
Diet = 9
Heart rate= 54 bpm
Foot indexes – all good
Stretching and body weights need to be improved as I reboot after week of sickness.
This has been a lost training week due to serious sinus issues preventing me from sleeping at night and draining me physically. On the mend, but still not close to 100%.
A little hill work………
