80 minute run

After two days off ( except for Doggie walks ) I ran 80 minutes with most of it spent climbing long hills in back of Foothill College. Beautiful day. Cool but sunny. Dimitri joined me and we ran up to Palo Alto Park and back. My legs felt okay. The Virtual week seem to be working.

I spent yesterday morning with John Clary at the Stanford XC Invite. Thousands of high school runners swarmed the golf course. College runners too. The start and finish are so remote and barricaded that you can't get close enough to really see the runners. We walked out on the course ( more barricades and flags ) and were able to see runners whiz by for a few fleeting seconds. In 1973, I watched Pre and John Ngeno finish a PAC 8 race right in front of where I was standing. Those days are gone.

Tom's Back

Tom returned from Cheesehead land aka Wisconsin. Danny and I ( and Rick K ) ran for 50 minutes including 5 x 100 striders. Rick got into over Obamacare and I told him to put a lid on it because it wasn't worth flushing a friendship down the toilet for. So we agreed to stop talking about something that neither of us were going to do anything about anyway.

We're a big country for talking but not for doing.

I guess I also pissed off the flag bearer from our 1984 Olympic Team because I told him I had never heard of him ( which was true ). Ed Burke. Actually I knew his story but had no memory of his name.

An all around edgy day.

50 minutes easy

I ran an easy 50 minutes with Danny over at WVC this morning. We did NOT do strides afterwards. We'll most likely add them to our Thursday run. The weather was perfect. Cool but not cold. Feels like fall is coming on.

Some threshold work

I took Friday and Saturday off except for Lucy walks. I had every intention of running on Saturday but the lure of coffee kept me glued to my carafe of black mud. I still showed up to watch the club workout and Thad breakfast afterward. But I did not run.

I felt more energetic on Sunday and ended up walking Lucy for a half hour and then running 55 minutes with Dimitri. He did his two mile run and I jumped in for 3 x 2 laps at what turned out to be AT or roughly 85% of max. I would run two laps, take off one and repeated that three times. The total was 11:36 for a mile and a half Of work. Looks pretty slow until I age graded it back to my fast days. It was almost spot on for threshold pace at age 30.

5 x 200 on my own

I was on my own today. Tom's in Cheeseville aka Wisconsin. Danny was putting on a race at Lockmart aka Lockheed.

I still went to the track because the house cleaners were at home. I jogged easily and sluggishly for twenty minutes before doing some short strides. I then dove into the workout. 5 x 200 (200 jog). 44-43-42-42-40. Warmed down afterward. 40 minutes all together. Gatorade and a power bar.

I didn't push the 200's but they were still tough. The 200 jog recovery made them challenging.  Doing them alone made them challenging. This workout tells me that I have a long way to go.

The Double

Did the double today. Ran an easy 40 minutes with Danny this morning including 5 x 100 on the track.

At noon Bob and I did our 3 mile walk to "the club" aka Burger Town and back.


Probably low balling it but around a 7 mile day.

100 minutes of something

I walked Lucy for a half hour, did a short dump run and then drove up to Foothill to catch up with Dimitri. It has been a month since we last ran. He was getting over a cold so we jogged an easy hour up and back on our usual hill course. Then we went to the track so I could do some striders.

19-18-18-17 ( walk back )

Not too bad for not pushing.

The running portion of my workout was right around 70 minutes. Add in the Lucy walk and it's a 100 minutes of something.

30 minute jog

I jogged 30 minutes over at the club.

While I was down on the track I timed Danielle's rep workout (400-600-400-200). Did my usual bulls##t socializing. Many of the usual XC runners chose not to drive all the way up to Redding. What a long haul that is. 257 miles or about 4.5 hours of driving each way. Maybe if I had a small private plane. Still 4 hours round trip.

Whoa!

Nope!

45 minutes with striders

Danny was a no show so I went it alone. I jogged around for 25 minutes and then went to the track. I ran off 3 x 100 (300 jog) in 19-20. I didn't push the 100's. Kept them strong and even.

Then I threw in a 200 in 38. Wow! A whole second faster than last Saturday.

I jogged around some more and finished off with another 100 in 19 and change.

45 minutes total including a short warmdown.

Tom and I went to breakfast.

40 minutes

Danny and I ran an easy 40 minutes at WVC and ended up with some striders on the track at the finish.

Same ole..same ole...

50 minutes

Got out early and walked Lucy. Then I ran for 50 minutes. I decided not to run longer. It didn't make sense the day after the 200's. I threw in some hills to make it challenging. 

Surprisingly I felt decent except for the bathroom "run" I had to make about 3/4th's of the way through. Just when I thought it was safe to explore the streets of Cupertino.

It's mid afternoon now on a heater of a day and I have the "nods".

4 x 200

Supposed to be an easy day but I had this feeling......

I jogged for ten minutes and caught up with Danielle who was going to run  a 4 x 400 cut down workout. I decided to pace off her effort but just do half the distance. I wanted to see if those striders were having any effect. The plan was run to the 200 mark and jog back.

46-43-42-39. Felt good too. Nothing outstanding but it's been since when that I last did anything at this pace?

We jogged around campus for a cool down.  Phil caught up with us halfway.

No idea??????

Left my stopwatch in the trunk of my car. Have no idea exactly how long Danny and I ran. Maybe (maybe) 40-45 minutes. It was kinda freeing.  We still ended up on the track striding 100's for five laps.
Tom mostly watched up. He is going in for some roto-rooter  work on his arteries next week. Should be back running with us the week after if all goes well. He had his first angioplasty ten years ago.

40 minutes

40 minutes today with Danny. He the victor of yesterday's club handicap race. We ran easy in the morning around WVC while he recounted his race. I was still feeling Sunday's AT run and Danny was tired from his race so we only did 3 x 100 at the finish.

"Kini" girl and her friends have disappeared from the volleyball area. Probably won't be back until next summer.

I did some age graded research on the mile. I have to run around 6:25 to equal the 5:19 I ran at age 50. A sub six is like running 4:24 as a youngster. I ran 4:31 at age 31. This won't be easy. For fast open and master runners those times may seem ridiculously easy but there's a day where they ain't. Ten years ago running sub six was an afterthought.

Another tempo run

I walked Lucy for a half hour and then jogged by a circuitous route to Blackberry Farm. I had decided to run a 15 minute tempo run. Five minutes longer than last weekend. My warmup was 18 minutes. I started closer to McClellan Ranch, running by last week's starting point and doing the loop up Byrne, down McClellan and snaking back through the ranch and into the Park. I ended up going all the way to the parking lot and circling it before time was up. I then jogged no walked 17 minutes to cool down.

My HR pretty much floated between 168-170 throughout the tempo part of the run. I felt in control and strong. It's more mental these days. My body is trying to get used to tempo effort after well over a year of not doing that effort ( a repetitive theme in my post competitive phase ).