Coaches and 3 days a week

I ran an easy 45 minutes this morning. Both my knees were slightly sore afterwards.

38 years, no real knee problems until now.

I was thinking the other day that I have gone through as many coaches in the several years as George Steinbrenner used to go through managers of his Yankees. I am not proud of this but on the other hand I also find it humorous. I have always been somewhat uncoachable. Gasp!!!!

Even back in my best days my friends tried to coach me with little or no success. These days I have approached coaches, not the other way around. The one who has tried to help me most is Dwight (he of the 100 mpw). But another friend , Jim (he of the many injuries) has tried too. Not so much coach as much as share his approach with me.

The truth is all have helped me but I have also found that their "way" is not mine. Somehow in the last few years I lost myself as far as running is concerned. Thyere s no question that my fast approaching geriatric body no longer responds the way it used to (but who's does?).

I may have already entered the 3 day a week running phase even though I may not like it yet. I have been basically running 4 days a week since late 1990. 1990-1995 was a bit of a renaissance because of two factors. The introduction of the HRM and the adoption of every other day running. Sheehan shiften to 3 days a week in his 60's with great success. Derek Turnbull and Jack Foster were running 3 days a week by the time they hit their 50's and 60's. Now these were 3 big days. Turnbull crossed trained by working on his sheep farm and Foster rode his bike at least once a week. I am thinking of pool running 1-2 days a week. Even Jack Keston who just crossed 80 years of age has shifted to two big days (12-14 miles) with 4 days of walking.

Three big days might make sense. Two days of 10-12 miles often doubling and one longer day or a race like effort. Keeping legs fresh is the key. Now I could still run 4 days but keep one as a strictly minimalist day running those 9 x 100 with a short warmup and warmdown and walking in between sprints. Right now I do these at the end of a very long day so my legs are tired.

I am at that same point I was in 1990 when I was still running 6-7 days a week. I kept dinking around with the idea but just couldn't make the switch. And even after I finally did it took 4-6 months before I saw the benefits. When they came (and boy did they come) I wondered why I waited.