74:59

I ran 74 minutes and 59 seconds this morning. I thought hard about taking another step and making it an even 75 minutes but the moment passed and I was content.

My legs felt ok after a harder than usual last week. I was not speed on wheels but I ran around the neighborhood and then over to the college track with nary a blip. The college track was "inhabited" with Samaurai Warrior and a girl I will call "skinny". Her boyfriend stood guard over her while she ran laps. He placed himself on the ramp leading to the stands. He had pressed himself back into the shadows looking as malevolent as possible as he glared out at the track.

I tried to look disinterested at all times while I chased her around each lap. No, I did not gain on her. Even with legs that felt decent I seem unable to catch anyone these days. That power is gone forever with the pride of youth. It is like an old pitcher who used to have a decent fastball but knows it is gone. So he works the corners and throws junk and stuff that moves around a great deal. There is not much else in this ancient arm. I no longer throw flames but rather dust.

Never Say Never

This morning at the club workout, I warmed up for 2 miles with the slow, slow dog-meat group. Wally couldn't hang on when we threw in a couple of 11:30 pace mile surges as we straggled by the bathrooms. "We" being Jim Myers and John Petersen and Ken Noel.

I then went down to the track and did a never say never workout with Dimitri consisting of 4 x 1200 meters at 6:40 mile pace starting every 8 minutes. Afterwards we slow-jogged around campus for a warm down. I caught up with Dennis who had won the club race running in the mid 26's for Farwell-Horseshoe which is 4.68 miles. I once ran the old version of this race just under 25 minutes in a solo run for the then club record. No one had been under 25 minutes much less 26 minutes so I decided to be the first. It didn't last long. Jake saw what I had done and wiped my record from the books the next time the club ran that event.

Anyway, back to our workout: The pace of the reps didn't bother my breathing much but my legs were tired from Wednesday's Jake workout and Friday's chase the girl seven miler. I think I still tend to forget about what I am trying to do which is to simply break 13 minutes for 3200 meters on the track in a time trial.

I just did too much semi-hard stuff this week. It's funny. If I just bring down the time trial everything will probably get faster. It's all so simple.

{{{{Focus}}}}

Two Trails & The Tracks

I ran the railroad tracks this morning. I did cut away and ran the "two trails" between Prospect and Parker Ranch but then went back on the tracks. I kept the pace as slow as I could stand it for the first 4 miles and then picked it up over the last 3 miles coming home. I was chasing some gal in orange shorts who I had seen at the turn around down at Sunnyvale-Saratoga Avenue. She just kept pulling away and I realized that even if I went hard, I wasn't going to catch her. The strange thing was that at McClellan she disappeared off to the right or left. She was too far ahead and I figured she had made a turn on "her" course. As I was coming down the last section of the trail I could hear feet pawing dirt in back of me. It was the same girl. I was veering off the trail and heading home and as I did she rambled past me at flank speed. Whatever effort she was running, it wasn't easy. I could hear her breathing. She was working.

My HR during the early part of the run was rarely over 120 but during the last part it was rarely under 150.

Strong Day

Jake and I ran on the trail to Lexington Dam. It was a back and forth "loop" and for the first time in weeks he hadn't totally immolated himself in the days before we hooked up. I insisted that we jog the first loop very, very slowly. Everyone running on that trail in our direction easily passed us going out and coming back. We ran for 32 minutes give or take a few seconds.

On the second loop I let Jake set the pace and we did a strong 21:36. My HR hovered in the 145-152 range with a slight spike up to 158 at the very end. Jake then asked for a minute or two to recover and we went back up again and this time my HR monitor was consistently in the 155-164 range. Over the last few minutes we pushed hard and I came across in 20:50. Jake was 5 seconds behind me. I was trying to lead him in but he just had to back off in the last 100 meters. Still his best run of the year.

Jake said that the whole run was 8.5 miles.

I made the decison NOT to go out to the Wednesday evening workout. The last two times I did this I was just plain wasted. Jake and I are going in different directions. I am going to continue down the path of less is more and he is going to more is more. It not about who ends up to be the fittest or fastest. For me it is about running and feeling decent and enjoying the process. Since late 1990 that has not involved running more miles. I hope I can progress (while I inevitably get slower due to age). I can use age grading to track my progress. I thought I wouldn't care but as arbitrary as it is, it better than just seeing your times slow.

90 minutes

I went for a progressive 90 minute run this morning. It was already getting warm at 9 AM. I started at the slowest pace I could stand and ran that way for about 40 minutes keeping my HR down in the 120's. From 40 minutes on I just gradually pushed down on the accelerator and took my HR up into the 130's and 140's. I slept badly the night before and really didn't know how this run would go but by keeping it easy in the early stages I was able to work into the run and increase the effort. The run was uneventful (no Cricket this time around.

Perspective

13:13 for 3200 meters is a perspective thing. If I age grade it, it is the same as running 10:26 when I was 30. If I age grade it versus what I was doing at age 54 it is equivalent to a 12:13. Back then I was running time trials in around 12:22 so I am probably ahead of myself (If one counts age grading). I was around 19 minute 5K shape in my mid 50's. That would translate to the 20:30's now.

Could I run 20:30? For some reason I doubt it but perhaps over the next few months those doubts will go away. My plan is to work that 3200 meter down to 13:00 flat and under and to get used to running hard. I am not very good at running hard in case you haven't picked up that little bit of information. I don't mind tempo but race-like efforts are no longer familiar even though I felt a bit of it yesterday during the trial effort I ran. My plan is to become more familiar with that sort of effort. Race-like.

I won't do mileage though. That is not the path. The path, or so I believe, is by doing 2-3 big days a week and perhaps one other shorter day even though that 4th day is up for grabs.

The question is, how far can I go?

I will continue to work on 1600 and 3200 meters and everything else in between.

I will go as far as I can go.

13:13

Saturday club workout. Cool in the morning but getting warmer. I warmed up very slowly for about 2.5 miles. When I mean slow, I mean slow. Wally was running again after his minor heart attack two weeks ago. The guy never gives up. I ran part of my warm up with him and a few others. I was thinking 3200 meters on the track. The last time I had run 13:25 with a strong finish. This time I was thinking 13:20 (6:40 pace).

Dimitri was quietly and efficiently waiting for me on the track. Absolutely no wind. We did 3-4 strides. Then he led me out coming through the first 800 in 3:22. By the 1600 we were 6:42 and half way we were right on pace at 10 flat. I just stayed glued to a spot about 3-4 yards behind him and just focused on whatever lap we were running. I felt a slight shift on lap 7. Dimitri was picking it up ever so slightly but picking it up he was. At the end of lap 7 I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 11:40. I figured I had 13:20 no matter what. I was tired but not lagging. I was still feeling strong. Old but strong. The last lap was like pressing down the accelerator of a car(gradually...very gradually). We came across in 13:13 which was a PR of 13 seconds. We had run a 3:13 last 800 and a 93 second last lap. My last 1600 had been 6:31.

We then warmed down around campus. I mentioned doing some 100's but Dimitri recommended that we not do them. "You did your workout," he said emphatically. I knew he was right.

I felt redeemed. With the exceptions of the 1200 meter trials I had done zilch at 1600 or 3200 meters for the past 8 weeks. That 13:25 had been staring at me since May 30th. I feel close to 13:00 flat. Not there but close. The 13:13 age graded to 10:24 at age 30.

And Later That Afternoon

I showed up for the afternoon club workout. Danny and the Lockmart crowd were absent due to the Corporate Nationals and so it was just us unattached guys.

I had had a beer and a burger for lunch and I lurched around the track at a 10 minute pace for the first 800. Finally I gathered myself together and ran 3 more 800's at well under an 8 minute pace. But it was a lost cause and so I sat out the last two and drove home to a solo dinner. Sue was out for the evening.

Maybe a 9 mile day inclucing my morning run with Jake.

Los Gatos Run

Jake and I hooked up at Los Gatos High parking lot and ran 54 plus minutes up and down the trail to the dam. Jake set the pace which kept my HR in the mid 130's and mid 140's throughout the run. We were supposed to do 3 loops (up and backs) but Jake was done after two so we went to the track and I ran 5 laps with 5 x 100 striders (one strider per lap). My legs felt good so no complaints. Jake was "done" in as usual by continuing to run every day and by not starting out slow enough to work into the run. My 140's, which are easy for me, are too hard for Jake.

He just keeps himself in a constant state of tiredness. I wonder if he woud follow my workout recommendations for one month? His legs would feel much better but he would hate it.

Another Approach

I have been talking to George Beinhorn on email. He is a few years older than I am and seems at peace with his approach to running. He starts his runs very slow and works into it as long as it feels right. He also believes in putting most of his work in on a single day. The other two days he runs are short 30 minute recovery runs. His hard day is long and generally up in the hills. So we have been chatting and I just bought his book. Watching my peers crash and burn by constantly doing too much running tells me that as I age I need more rest or alternative workouts (walking???) to pounding every other day. I am ready to shift to one big day a week and 2-3 short recovery days. This will be my first shift since I went to every other day back in late 1990. Of course I realize that one running day is simply to burn calories. I can always walk that mileage instead.

Of course it will be strange but it was very strange back in 1990 after 15 years of running 7 days a week.

The "big" day could be a race or long-long run or a double day. The others just easy recovery runs. The rule would be no running if I am tired and sore.

This will be strange.

Cricket's Run

Beautiful morning. I lazed around the house but finally got out around 8:40. I started very slow with my HR in the 115-125 range. After about 40 minutes I kicked it up around 130-135. I was running a variation of my railroad track route and ended up taking a right on Sunnyvale Saratoga Avenue. I was about half way up to the side street where I planned to circl back when I saw cars swerving to avoid something. The something turned out to be small white and tan terrier of some sorts. I called the dog over to the side of the road and bent down to pet him. He had a collar on him with a name (Cricket) and a phone number. I grabbed him up (he seemed quite content just to hang with me) and I walked to a nearby house, borrowed a cell phone and called the number. No one was home so I left a message. There was a small shopping center nearby with a cat hospital so I dropped Cricket off there and asked the attendant to call the number on the tag again. I took their business card and decided that if no one had called by the time I ran home, that I would come and get the dog and let him stay with us until the owner contacted me.

I headed back home taking my HR up into the 140's. Actually my legs felt great. By the time I arrived at the house I had been running for around 80 minutes not including the time it had taken me to deal with Cricket. I called the cat place and the lady on the other end told me that the owners of the dog had come by and picked Cricket up.

So as Shakespeare once wrote:

"All well that ends well."

Floating a 5K

I went to the club workout. It was a 5K on the track. I had originally thought about running it at AT effort but ended up not running very hard at all. I ran a 2.5 mile warmup, then floated the 5K at 70-75% and ran around campus afterward. The reality was that I didn't want to run hard.

I ended up chatting with Jake during and after breakfast about all he was doing which is still 7 days a week of being tired. Dimitri thrashed himself all spring and blew his summer mile racing program so he is rebuilding for Hollister. Ray has moved back down to Paso Robles to open up a business in San Luis Obispo. Men of the 800 (or the mile) is officially inactive.

Not Another Runner

I ran a true 5 miler this morning adding an extra 400 to my usual 4 laps on the De Anza Track. The strange part was that the track was empty. Not a single other runner showed up during the 5 laps I ran there. Anway, I had time to think (or maybe I took time to think). I realized that slow as I am that if I want to run faster I need to go back to my program of 1990-1991 which was basically every other day running with an AT test run every 3rd to 4th week. Most of my other runs need to be at or below 70%. That means 4 runs one week, 3 the next. Back in 1990 I did about 10 miles a day and my guess is that I can still do 8-10 miles on the days I run. I may be able to get away with my present 4 day schedule as long as I run only 3 days during the next week. Older runners with as many miles as I have on my legs have to give something away. Either intensity or running days. I am watching my friend Jake just continue to dig himself into a hole with 7 days of running week after week at any pace. His body does not recover.

If all this works I probably should be able to do intervals and tempo runs from time to time but the first order of business is simply to get faster during my AT runs or during my easy runs.

I guess this is called eating my own dog food.

12 Mile Day

I drove up to Los Gatos High to run with Jake. We took off at about 8 am and did an easy 2.5 miles. Then we came back to the track to run a 2-3 miler at Jakes AT HR. The track was crowded with football players doing 40 yard dashes. They had no track awareness so everytime we came by the front straight heading towards the finish line we were challenged with kids walking back and forth across the inside lane. We bailed after one lap because Jake's HR monitor readout was sticking. Then we began again running at an 8 pace for 6 laps before Jake just dropped. After that he decided to run up to the dam and run close to 150 HR up and back of a specific portion of the 3.5 mile distance. That part actually felt really decent. It was a gradual ascent going out but the reverse coming back. We were doing about an 8 minute pace on the way to the high school and my HR was about 140.

I told Jake that his results were not making me want to run 7 days a week at any pace. I am more convinced than ever that the way to go for us old legged runners* is 4-5 days a week running more miles on the days we run rather than adding extra days. Optimal may still be every other day.

* Old legged Runners are those of us who have been running for 35-40 years or more and have accumulated 75,000 and more miles on their legs. Young legged, older runners have still have life in their legs. They don't have the years of pounding.

Later that same afternoon I went out and did another 4 miles with the club at WVC track. I strided 5 x 100 in 20-21 seconds but frankly my legs were tired from 8 miles this morning and a 12 mile total running day.

Thinnest Girl On The Track

I cut back my Monday morning run to about 7 miles keeping my HR below 140 most of the way. Legs felt Ok but not great. I have a nice case of the plods. I ran into "Ohio" and we talked sports for about 15-20 minutes. Good guy. Seems to have a great deal of obscure sports knowledge like me. Stuff that people just don't care much about (except for guys like us). Chinese Girl was charging around the track towards the end of my run. Same dark tights and orange jacket she seems to always wear. She is the thinnest girl on the track but she works at it. But she also wears a great deal of makeup. She was still in her running phase when I headed back home so I missed the jumping rope phase.

4:43

Saturday club workout again. "Ta dah". No Glucosamine for the last two days. I think this may be contributing to my heartburn. I warmed up slowly for close to 3 miles with no problems. I did some striders with Dimitri before launching into a 1200 meters "redemption" time trial. "What do you want," he asked. "4:45 give or take," I responded. I was still wary after Wednesday's 3:50 "and my legs were tired" effort. But today went ok. We went out a bit slow coming through the 400 in 1:39 but then we picked it up to a 97 and did the last lap in 87. That gave me a 4:43. The key was that I was able to accelerate on the last two laps.

We did another 4 laps with 4 x 100 meter strides and then went around campus for a warm down.

Walt was out timing and then later joined us for breakfast. He had bacon, eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast. He can't run for a month (doctor's orders). So he had a heart attack on Wednesday, a stent put in on Thursday and Saturday he is out joking with us at breakfast.

Whoa!

6 miles, Heart Attacks & a 5:30 Mile

The last two days have been real heaters. I went to the track yesterday evening and watched Dimitri run a 5:30 mile. He was very (VERY) unhappy. He had hope that this would be the year of the sub-five minute mile. I can remember how that felt in my competitive days. He was just about to cash in the summer but I told him to wait a a few days and see if he still felt the same. He is struggling with the fact that his mile training has gone down the toilet. I believe he killed off his legs with numerous "secret" hard workouts instead of allowing the speed to just come to him. He doesn't see it because his running log is not on paper but in his mind and the mind plays funny tricks on us all.

Danny was there too. He told me that Wally had had his second heart attack Wednesday after a hard set of 400's. The doctors put another stent in (his 6th) and my guess is that he'll be banned from running. The fact I am writing about it in this manner says that he'll be ok for now. Just another clogged artery. His genetics are trying to take him down. He keeps surviving regardless of his DNA.

I went out this morning and ran 6 miles. It was already warm. I ran the RR tracks out to Sunnyvale-Saratoga and back. I kept my HR in the 140-150 range. My legs felt ok but not great. There is no magic there. A 9 minute pace is beginning to become normal. It is no longer an aberration.

Back With Jake

Back with Jake this morning at Los Gatos High School. We met in the parking lot at 7:30 AM and it was already getting hot. Ran up the trail to just below the dam. Jake said it was between 3.5 and 3.75 miles round trip. Ended up bumping into McKayla Plank who is a top collegiate runner and an old friend of ours. We also saw Christine Kennedy who is a top class 50 plus woman runner who has the goal of running 2:50 at Chicago in the fall. Her 10K's say 2:58-3:00 hours but she gets stronger as she goes longer.

By the time we got back to the track I sort of knew that this wasn't my day despite the very easy pace. I tried a 1600 meter trial but gave up at 3 laps. Just didn't feel that energetic. It wasn't any leg soreness. I was just body tired from two nights of sub-par sleep. Jake and I ran back up the trail again as a warm down (from what?) and 2 laps around the track for another 3+ miles. Altogether I ran around 8 miles.

Jake felt better about his running. He is keeping his HR down on almost all of his runs even though I still think he runs too much. If I ran 7 days a week, I would keep my HR low and run about an hour a day just like I did in ancient times. Back then I could run about 9 miles in an hour without an great strain. It might be 6-7 miles in that same hour at age 62 but the load would be much the same. Anyway, something to think about.

We went to breakfast with the club. I decided to sit next to Madelyn and Danny and had a great time. I own half the issue here so I decided to swim in the belly of the beast. Hopefully this is the beginning of an upturn with Madelyn.

Railroad Track Route

I ran early today. I was on the road by around 8 am. I did the RR Track route going all the way out to Saratoga and back. It took about 80 minutes. My HR was in the 140-144 range most of the way.

The weather is going to get tough this week. Expect highs in the 90's by Wednesday.
I plan to keep my running to the early mornings.