And the horse I rode in on!

I did a 6 minute shakedown run at the house and then sped over to WVC for a rep workout. Did another 19 minutes with Dimitri followed by 4 x 100 strides. I admit it. I felt sluggish. Gee whiz, I wonder if that could be Thursday's run coming back to bite me?

My plan was to run every other one while D ran 12 x400. His goal was an 85 second average and my goal was to run 5-6 at the same pace. I was dragging on the first one which was an 86 (or was ti 87?). Then we got down to business and I ran the next 4 in 84-83-84-83. Not too bad and well below my goal pace. D had had it at 10 reps so I decided that 5 was enough for me. Could I have done 6?

Yes. And I am sure I could have managed a sub 85. But it was not to be. We jogged around campus for another 20 minutes.

The bottom line was this: Good workout but stop running so hard on Thursday. It ain't buying me good Saturdays. So (#$*&) me and the horse I rode in on.

Some things I am going to have to do if I want to stay in the game

1. Stop doing drills before workouts. I am not talking about striders. But I need to stay away from high knees, butt kicks, hops etc. Sure and hell they cause my right achilles to swell and other bad things. I understand that they are activators but I am just going to have to find other ways to "activate". Striders over 50-100 meters are safest for me.

2. Stop running steady several days before my key workouts. This has been an issue since my best days of running. If I run too hard on the roads my reps suffer. It's simple. The rule was same at age 30 and it is the same now. If I want a good rep workout I have to slow down on my regular runs. In fact, the slower I am willing to run (Van Aaken 101), the better I will run on hard days. I can extend the time I run but if I try to cover more ground in an hour, I will use up adaptive energy.

We're all different. Hard training never bought me squat. Duration and a small amount of speed paid the highest dividends.