The Works

It was in the low 40's when I went out for a slow 5 mile run this morning. So it is THAT time of year.

The good news is that I was once again the fastest guy during my mile portion on the local track. It was all walkers and slow, slow runners so I (running a sizzling 9:30-10 minute pace) was king of the track. This is what aging is about. I am now truly running paces that I never imagined I would subject myself to. 20-25 years ago this would have been an 8 minute pace run. That was my really, really slow pace. My dialy pace was 6:30-45.

I am recovering from latest bout of 3-days-in-a-rowitis. My legs feel good again and I slept well last night.

I still have tonight's club workout. I plan to wear the works. Tights, gloves and cap. The works!


And later......

OK, back now from my evening 5 miles with the club. I ran 8 minute pace the track and felt very decent. It was cold but "the works" kept my ass from freezing.

7 miles slow

Glad I took the extra day off. I slept well Sunday night and felt OK on Monday. I took off at about 8:30 AM and ran one of my 7 mile courses that includes about 3 miles on the track. There was a little slender, spike of girl (under 5 feet tall for sure) who showed up about the time I got there and took off running what looked to be a fast pace. I figured she must have been running close to 7 minute miles (as she blew by me several times). Finally I timed one of her laps and was surprised that she was running an 8 minute pace.

So what was I running? I decided not to find out. It was way too horrible to even speculate. 9 minute miles? 10 minute miles?

Oh the horror.

At my age

I decided not to run today. Felt slightly washed out. At my age, how I feel wins every time.

Coldest Yet

Coldest morning so far. I went down to the Saturday morning workout and ran an easy 6 miles while the club did 1200's on the track. Joe, Bob and Jim dueled each other whenever they came into contact. There is no "off" switch with these guys. It's what makes them so tough in races. I am such a wuss ;-)

It warmed up nicely later on but frankly I threw away my plans of running anything hard (even though I am due) because of the cold weather. I keep eyeing my running tights but haven't worn them yet.

Jim and I walked around the track and had our usual discussion about long timers who just didn't value competing anymore. In football terms Jim is a playoff team in our age group. Maybe 10-6 or 11-5. Porteous is a 13-3 or 14-2. Goldman is a solid 11-5 or 12-4.

I am a 9-7 (if things go right) or 8-8. Sometimes I am a 7-9.

What does that make Jake and Tim?

Thanksgiving Day Run

Joined the club for our traditional 7:30 AM Thanksgiving day run. It is 7.25 miles. Even though this was my 3rd running day in a row I felt very strong and covered the distance in about 60 minutes. When I feel like this I know my slow-slow (sub aerobic) running approach is a good one. My legs just felt good throughout.

There was a fun moment about 6 miles into the run where Dimitri said that this was a tough course. "Tough," I shot back. "It is pretty normal." You know. Some hills. Some gradual up and downs but mostly nothing too challenging. Then i realized it was my legs. They just felt good. Of course Dimitri ran some hard 400's the night before.

I am going to take Friday off and run Saturday and Sunday if I feel decent.

The Month of Terror

Cool and quiet this morning. I took off at around 10 AM and ran 5 miles at a very easy pace (again). This is a great time to run. The commute traffic has had time to bleed off and I am not dodging cars whipping around corners filled with desparate parents and half asleep kids.

In the evening I went to the club workout and warmed up for 2 plus miles with Dimitri and then ran two miles on the track in the form of 8 x 400 in 2 minutes each. My legs felt really loose and decent. I really can't complain. Not many people there. Thanksgiving tomorrow whcih means many of them are headed out of town or are entertaing family and friends. So begins the month of terror. Thanksgiving, XMAS and New Years. In another world I would disappear from town and go someplace where people didn't really care about the holidays and all the craziness that goes with it. Luckily Sue and Alex are low key about it so we work hard at keeping the stress to a minimum. I know Sue misses her family but whenever I say to her, let's go to Seattle, she makes it plain that the trip is not worth the cost.

Mini-Ed Whitlock

Took Monday off and ran today for 75 minutes. As usual my legs felt tight the first several miles and then began to loosen up. The 61 year old body does not want to run but if I can fool myself through the first part, then I actually want to run. I went out in the mid morning so I was feeling pretty rested. Got stronger as the run went on and finished strong.

This week should be interesting because the plan is to run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, take Friday off and then run Saturday and Sunday. I hope to hit 35 miles in a gradual build up to 40 mpw. I am taking the Mini-Ed Whitlock approach with plenty of slow miles and then I will use tempo runs for relative speed. The goal is to burn more calories, not faster racing.

Rocketman Mile

It was the Danny dowhill mile again. Danny Moon ran 4:57 the last two years on this course to keep his 26 year streak alive of breaking 5 minutes for the mile. This year it was not to be. Injuries, lack of training and a significant weight gain finally slowed Rocketman down. He still ran 5:35. This made sense given his 5:59 at Hollister. Last year he ran 5:23 at Hollister and then ran 4:57 at the Downhill mile. The same the year before. Danny gets about 24-26 seconds advantage on this course.

I warmed up by jogging to the start and then paced Jake down the hill running 6:10. I then warmed down with Dimitri. I felt fine before, during and after the run. I check my HR during the mile and the highest it got was 168 and that was in the last 440 and I didn't kick.

Danny and I took everyone out for breakfast afterwards.

Mon-Wed-Saturday

I ran 7 miles on Monday, 9 miles in two runs on Wednesday and 8 miles on Saturday. I was going to run Friday but had a lousy nights sleep Thursday and decided to shelve it for a day.

My legs felt washed out so I am taking it easy.

DSE 10K

This morning I drove up to SF with my buddy Shedon. We ran the DSE Embarcadero 10K which I decided to do at an AT effort. The conditions were just about perfect. Cool with a bit of a headwind going out and tail wind coming back. After running the previous two days I got about what I expected. Even though both previous days were easy runs of 4-5 miles my legs were still tired (and maybe my body too) because the first sign I had that I was not "with it" was that I could not get my HR up to 90%. It took 4 miles to finally get there. Now one might say "well you are in great shape and so it should be harder" but that is not the way it works for me. Usually it takes a mile or maybe a mile and a half but I was still in the low 170's at the turn around point and finally reached 180 because it simply was warmer heading back with a slight tailwind plus I was wearing a long sleeve cotten shirt. Generally my legs were tired while my breathing was OK throughout.

All in all I ran 45 minutes and change. If I age graded the effort it would have been like running a low 36 minute 10K at age 30. Maybe a minute or more off what I would consider to be par.

So what did I do that might have contributed to this sub par effort?

1. I ran 3 days in a row.

2. My sleep has been spotty. Several good night surrounded by nights where 6 hours was norm.

3. I ran too hard wednesday evening at the track. I did some grey area runs as Jack Daniels call them.

What do I plan to do about this?

Nada. It is what it is. I will get back on my program and try to stick with it.

Two easy days

Friday: 4 miles very slow. Felt sluggish and "off". I might have run further but decided that it was best to cut it short.

Saturday: 5 miles easy. Felt better than Friday but it was cold and raining lightly. My legs took some time to loosen up. Promised Joe that if they need me for the X-country championships or the Xmas relays that I would be there.

This is one of those rare 3 days in a row. I am running a 10K DSE run on Sunday. I plan to take Monday off.

10 mile day

I ran 5 miles Wednesday morning keeping the HR at or under 140. It was balmy. Incredible weather for November. The wind picked up throughout the day by the evening run it was in the high 50's but with a cold, sharp wind blowing. I ran another 5 miles with 3 miles on the track cruising an 8 minute pace, keeping my stride short and quick and running very compact.

My legs felt tight but not tired. I think it was the relative cold snap. I could have actually worn tights, gloves and a long sleeve short. Kathy, the long-legged, drink of a girl intimated I was a whimp. Can't say I don't agree with her. But I do believe you have to protect those legs or you are out of business.

There is something soothing in running in the dark around the track. I will have to figure that out one day.

Dimitri and I went up to The Diner and I had a big bowl of chili.

Danny didn't go again. The gap widens.

90 Minutes Easy

90 minute easy run this morning. Beautiful weather! My back held together throughout the run so I guess I can wait until my regularly scheduled Thursday appointment to go in.

I am going to have to deal with Wednesday nights. I keep picking up the pace during the rep portion which for me is not at all productive. I really need to just take it easy and save my harder runs for the weekends. I was OK doing 100's on Wednesday's and I may go back to that but running sub tempo during the week (big gray area workout..No benefit I can see) serves no real purpose. I just don't have that much gas left in the tank.

Sub-Tempo

I woke up early Saturday morning, grabbed some coffee and sat on the couch tring to shake out the cobwebs. When I got up my left hip seized up (OUCH!). I snuck back into the bedroom and went into the master bath and got some advil. 800 mg later the hip felt passable so I decided to go to the Saturday club workout.

I ended up running about 8 miles including a 2.75 sub-tempo run in 22:06 with Jake.

Drizzle

I ran 5 miles this morning under slate-gray skies and drizzle. It was another of those "how slow can I run" runs that I seem to specialize in lately. Still I was fast enough to pass the super-thin Asian woman who is always on the track running in the outside lane in high tech gear. I tried to match her pace for a about 100 meters but had to slow so much that I was almost walking. I won't give up though. I know with work and time that I eventually will be able to run her pace.

Life on hold

A very quiet day. It's like my life is on hold.

The only thing I "did" today was to go out and have lunch with Anne (formerly from the Labs at Sun). She was Rif'd in the last wave. All her underpinnings were knocked out. Ivan went to teach at UC and her job slowly became uninteresting so I am sure that over time she became a target. I've been there more than a few times.

We went to a Japanese place run by Koreans located in Los Altos. She wanted to pay but I told her the rule was she pays when she gets a job so for now, I pay. So we ate Bento Boxes and caught up on life. She seems sturdy enough but I will keep tabs on her until she lands somewhere. She tends to be a loner who inhabits dark places (like me). We socialize nicely but at heart we like our "dens".

The Wednesday night workout was strange. Ray cut out and didn't mention dinner. Probably because Dimitri (he of the 5:11 mile) wasn't there. Danny doesn't go out anymore in the evening. I think he is either tired of it or tired of balancing between me and Madelyn. There's a gap there where there wasn't one before. In any case our friendship isn't the same. It's broken just enough that we have spun off in our own directions.

I found myself finishing the workout and jogging off into the dark quietly with no good-byes. It felt right evn though it was weird. The Danny downhill is in several weeks and I am not sure will do it this year. Danny is not in sub five shape. Injuries and fat have slowed him down. Somehow sub-six doesn't seem that exciting. A friend knows when they are needed and when it is time to leave.

I think I need to leave for now.

39:42!

I went out this morning and ran my slightly short five miler "summer" course in 39:42. I kept my HRM in the 148-152 mode most of the way which is a 70% of max run. This is a decent time and shows that I am in recovery/building mode. I have been known to run this in the 41's & 42's at this same HR effort when beat up. One day that may be a decent time but not right now.

I plan to run another 4-5 this evening at the track.

Weather forecast for this evening: DARK!

Watch-word....Don't blow it. Keep your own counsel.