And the next day

I ran ten around the house (minutes not miles) and felt good. No apparent after effects from last night's workout. Drove over to WVJS and cruised another 60 minutes with Tom and Danny (well, Danny showed up late). We included Valley Vista in the venue. My legs felt great which tells me I had better be damn careful or something will happen and I'll go to horse poop.

Danny and Rich play on the track

Danny and I joined the Wednesday night group. It was the first time for me in a year or more. We were going to do some speed play. For us that was  couple of semi-quick 400's sucking off the younger faster runners who were running 800's. Maybe a ten minute warmup with some striders. Then ran behind Becki and did an 84. As usual the first one was a bit tough as I asked my body to run fast in 90 degree heat. Danny ran an 81. I held back from really working it and cruised.

The second one was smoother still as I hung with Pick while Danny charged ahead. He ran a 75 and I ran a 79. Once again, hard but under control.

As we cooled down while walking around the track, I told Danny I was sure there was another sub 80 in me right then. I felt that good.

"Not tonight," he said and of course he was right.

Another 70 minutes

Another 70 minutes. Tom, Danny & myself (with 10 minutes already under my belt). We ran Saratoga-Douglas as part of our one hour workout. Jeff from our club caught up with us. He had to do a hard stop to keep from running right over us because our pace was so diddly poo. But that's what makes it work for us old guys. Tom got us on his GPS (Gee, I wish I had never heard this) and we only covered 5.3 miles so we were running very slowly indeed. The happy news is that I can go slower. I am sure of it. Of course we walked for 4 one minutes stretches during the run and that probably contributed to slow being slower.

2:07:66

Warmed up with 25 minutes of slow running both around the house and over at Foothill Track. Then did some strides. The usual. 30-50-80. Had my race shoes on. Legs felt light and fluffy.

Dimitri and I agreed that the workout should be 1 x 200 shakeout in 40-45 followed by a 600 with the first 400 at 90 and the last 200 at 40 or under. The primary goal was 2:10. Faster would be good as long as we weren't at race effort.

The 200 turned out to be 42 which felt very controlled and easy.

We then rested a bit and then lined up. I said that I wouldn't look at my stop watch so I just stayed behind Dimitri and ran a relaxed but steady effort. When we came through the 400 he said something about us on being right on pace but by that time we were both accelerating rather sharply. As we came though the 500 I said to Dimitri that I was coming up on his shoulder and we crossed pretty much together.

I looked down at my watch and it read 2:07:66.

Dimitri had 2:08 but my watch wins!

We had run sub 38 for the last 200.  I asked Dimitri if we should do some more. Maybe a 300. He said that he was up for it but thought that I would had already accomplished my goal and that shutting things down would be best. I took his advice but not because I was tired because I wasn't. It was just plain being careful.

Jogged easy for 15 minutes. We were going so slow that a walker passed us. Joggers lapped us. The burden of the older runner.

Maybe 45 minutes altogether. 

Bushwhacked!

My Saturday club workout got bushwhacked by a mid morning delivery of our new dryer. I got my run in anyway but had to forget breakfast with my buddies. I did get in a very easy 45 minutes which was fine given that I'll end up running 5 days this week. I ran the last 5 minutes with my racing shoes on. I couldn't tolerate them last weekend but after Bill adjusted my talus (OW!) the problem seems to have gone away.

So tomorrow back to the track and this 800 meter business.

70 looping minutes

Danny dropped me an emailed message last night that he couldn't make the Thursday workout but I went over to WVC anyway. Lucky I did because there was Tom back from Wisconsin and raring to go. We ran Valle Vista and then did tennis court and track loops for an hour. I already had 10 minutes in the bag from home so it was another 70 minute run.

Tom runs a slightly faster pace than I usually do (aka jog)  but I felt strong though the whole run. The long hill up Fruitvale to Valley Vista felt pretty much effortless. A good sign. I made some comment about how I would like to race the club 3 miler that follows the same course. I mentioned something about running it in the 21's. Back in 1982 I scorched it in 15:54 with a 4:50 last mile. The plain fact is that I would have to run 20:16 to equal what I did back then. That's based on age grading.

Anyway, we went to breakfast afterward with Tom and Jake.

Clean and Jerk

Did my usual ten minute dump run around the neighborhood and then ran another 62 minutes over at WVC, most of it with Danny. My legs felt much better than yesterday which shows that my recovery systems are engaged. That means I ran slow enough on both days to allow myself to recover.

72 minutes altogether. 


After the run Danny and I drove up to see Big Bad Billy and he did the usual adjustment plus did a quick clean and jerk on my right foot because we both thought that the talus bone was out again.  As I sit on the couch writing this, it feels much better. Hopefully it's gone because it has been dogging me for the past several weeks.

So for at least now, game on.

This diagram shows where the talus bone is. That big bone is the hell and ball or as it is better known, the rear of the foot.

Dumpster Legs

With Sunday off because of a long drive up to see my mother, I decided to run an easy 45-50 minutes today. I ended up running 50 minutes with much of it super slow. My legs were in the dumpster from Saturday. Not so bad that I considered cancelling the run. I actually began to feel better as I ran and the last 10 minutes was the best.

The weather is heading towards heaterville again so running before 9 am felt good. It was still relatively cool. The De Anza Track remains unchanged. It's surface is pretty torn up but the walker was there and we chatted about the Niners playing not to lose (they lost anyway).

5 x 200

Ran an easy 15 minutes this morning around the house and over at the club workout. The goal was to shake out the cobwebs. In the early afternoon I drove up to Foothill to meet Dimitri (aka "D"). Part of the track were out of bounds because the maintenance guys were getting ready for an early evening football game. There was enough room on the front side to do 200's though and that was all we needed.

I warmed up for another 22 minutes and did my usual progressive some strides. D and I conferred and I asked that we run a shake out 200 in around 40. D led and we ran what felt like an easy pace but we nailed the 40 on the dot. Walked back for recovery.

Next two 200's were in 38 and I felts s-T-r-O-n-G!

The next 200 was 37 and change. It felt a might quicker but I just focused on staying close to my pacer.

On the last one we came though the 100 in 17 and  kept the effort going through the turn. I was slightly shocked when I saw 36:8.

We jogged a slow 8 minutes and called it a day.

So....40-38-38-37-36

Tuesday and Thursday

 Tuesday

Ran my usual 70 minutes this morning at WVC. Danny joined me for the last 60. Good run. Overcast with the sun coming out towards the end. Danny's birthday yesterday.

Jake joined us for breakfast. We had a lively discussion. New receptionist. Very punk but she pulled it off nicely. Big earrings! Big ear lobes!

She didn't seem worried about me because I am not in her age group ;-)

Thursday

Ran another easy 70 minutes over at WVC. Admit to feeling sluggish. Probably because I ate like s##t yesterday. I finally got some pasta down around 8 pm but Wednesday's lunch was a white mocha coffee and a cookie. Yummy but crummy. I have days like this. No excuses.

Bingo!

Today was back to Foothill with Dimitri.

I warmed up for a very slow and easy 25 minutes. Then I did my usual progression of strides to get ready.

30m (walk back) 50m (walk back) 80m (walk back).

The workout was 1 x 500 in 1:45 followed by 2 x 300 in around 60.

I led us out in the 500 and came through the 100 in 22 (too slow) and the 200 in 44-45 (way too slow) so I was left with the choice of either continuing off pace or stepping in the gas. I chose the latter and ran the last 400 in 80 seconds to finish in the target time of 1:45.

We rested a bit and then ran a 300 hitting the 200 in 40 and the 300 in 59.

More rest and then off again hitting the 200 in 39 and the 300 in 58.

Generally I felt stronger as we progressed which was a very different look and feel when compared to last week. It was also good to have Dimitri back and running with me.

Jogged down for an easy ten minutes and called it a day. 

Drifting for 60 minutes

The plan was to run 45-50 minutes this morning at a glacial pace. The second part was accomplished but the first part ended up being 60 minutes because I ran (excuse the pun) into my buddy Charles at De Anza Track (still there) and we ran big loops. We caught up on work gossip.

There was an small mob of geese combing the infield grass for eats. The weather was on the warm side but it didn't bother me. Not a cloud in the sky. No wind.

Finally at 45 minutes I told him that I needed to walk so that I didn't heap too much extra time on my run.  I knew it was a 13- 15 minute trip back home.

I got home at 60 minutes of running and my legs felt great because I was really drifting out there and on the verge of walking at any given moment.

Repeat of Tuesday

Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday except it was just Danny and I all the way round. Another easy 70 minutes. We had planned to run several fast 400's but we both agreed that spending all afternoon at the XC meet on Wednesday in 90 degree heat had pretty well sapped us. I decided to be safe and put it on the line at my Sunday workout.

4 for breakfast

Tom, who retired last week, joined Danny and I today for our run except Danny was late (he let me know ahead of time) so Tom and I ran for 24 minutes. Danny huffed after us and caught up with us. We ran the requisite hour and I did my usual ten ahead of time. So 70 minutes of the big easy today. Tom has a faster training pace than we normally run  but I settled right in and felt very good. Legs seems recovered from Sunday.

Jake joined us for breakfast so it was four of us gabbing like the old days.

Cat fight and track work

Big cat fight outside my window at about 5:30 this morning. I never could get back to sleep.




Finally, I got up and made some coffee.

I went out for my jog-around at just after 8 am and ran the neighborhood and then over to the track at De Anza (Yes, it's still there).  I really didn't have a firm idea of what the workout would be. My total warmup was 25 minutes. I did two 100's. The first was in 19 which said I wasn't spiffy. But the next one was in the 17's so I decided to do some longer stuff.

I ran 2 x 200 both in the 38's. That was good but I was feeling tired rather than energized.

I then ran a 300 and blew down a crisp 58. Afterward I thought about doing another 300 but I could tell I was on low energy. I waited until I felt decent and then ran another 38 second 200.

Something told me me to stop then. I was just running on empty but stupidly I ran one more 200 and fell off to 40. Then I fully got the message. I jogged back home for another 15 minutes.

So all in all:

2 x 100 = 200 19-17
2 x 200 = 400 38-38
1 x 300 = 300 58
2 x 200 = 400 38-40

1300 meters of goal pace

Back to classic lacing

I halfway thought about doing reps this morning but decided to hold off. My right ankle has been bothering me for several weeks and I think I finally figured out what the problem is. I wrote a post sometime back about changing my method of lacing my shoes. The new way may not be offering me the support I need. Not absolutely sure but I switched back today to the classic lacing pattern and ran 60 slow minutes. I also taped my ankle to give it extra support.  I was happy to see that the pain had disappeared (I think). No problems. So tomorrow I'll do some sort of progressive workout to test things out.

Dave Garcia was in town so I ran with him and Danny while the club slugged it out on the short six course. Toughest course we have. 5.74 miles with some runnable but challenging hills. One friend recommended that we run it slow and easy. I told him there is no slow and easy on short six.

Short Six

Jake joined us at breakfast so all we were missing was John and the dynamic quartet would have been back in business.

Another 70 minutes

Another 70 minutes (actually 71 and change) of easy running. 60 of it was done with Danny at WVC. We stayed on the upper campus to avoid the traffic. Much quieter and serene (as Danny says).

We agreed that next week we'll insert some quick 400's on our one of our runs. It'll pay off next summer.