Another day in the life and another new adventure or is that something unexpected happening that turns out pretty well.

Well overnight, all of yesterday’s melt water was frozen solid and immediately after walking Bennie, I got to sand the driveways, so that none of us would slip, fall and injure important parts of the anatomy on the ice. I just so love lifting 5 gallon buckets filled with sand and spreading it first thing in the morning – not.

Bennie’s walk was not down-back, I figured that if my driveway looked like a skating rink then down there would be even worse and even though I was a bit reluctant to walk down Philbrick Hill before my planned Something of Substance (SOS) workout this morning, it was the much safer alternative to say the least. That 20+ mph wind out of the NW this morning was still pretty damn cold.

Enough wasting time, what was the tough workout I was complaining about?

Today Planned Workout

This morning’s SOS workout courtesy of the Hansons Half Marathon training plan was:

1.5 mile x 4 @ 7:30 pace – about 8.0 mph, with .5 recovery at a pace I could start to breath normally again, which I figured out was 6.2 mph.

Actually this is a workout that I should be able to complete without any issues, I have been running 4-5 consecutive miles for my tempo workouts at about a 7:40 pace, which is only 10 seconds above my planned pace this morning. Yet just the idea of having to run a mile and half, four times at a 7:30 pace seemed more intimidating than it should have.

Oh well, Harold, sometime your head does get in the way of your running, when instead you gotta suck it up, get the old arse in gear and do the damned workout.

Ego Stroking

I did have to chuckle though, in the locker room one of the Planet Fitness regulars came up to me and asked. “You are a pretty good runner aren’t you?”

MMMMMM – how do you answer that question…compared to who, I had never had a conversation with this person and had no idea where the conversation was going, so I said.

“Well I run, but I don’t know how good I am.”

He then said, “I need to pick your brain about running faster. I have a younger guy who I have to beat in a 5K or two this summer and I was wondering if I could get some pointers on running faster from you?” “I have watched you on the treadmill and you seem pretty fast to me.”

Yeah he was feeding the ego, just a little.

It boiled down to that he wants to beat this person at a race that I have done a couple of times before and that he had seen me there for one of them. Since this is a race that he usually races every year. The younger guy is in his 40s and this guy is mid 50s. He asked how old I was, we both chuckled when I told him. I have a feeling he was thinking, now I have got beat an older fart too, I could see the wheels spinning in his head.

After that we went over his experiences and previous times, how old he was compared to the younger runner, about his current mileage and how soon he needed to race. I told him that I wasn’t really a coach and that I had some books at the house he could borrow to read, to find a training plan that best mirrors his personality and as the weather gets better outside, maybe we could do some quality workouts together.

He seemed excited about that and I will bring in a couple of my training books that I don’t use any more and probably talk some more about running with him.

Finally getting to the Workout

While it was nice to talk with him about running and stuff, I needed to get my SOS workout done and we both headed out to the floor and I did my warm-up, I wimped out and only did 20 push-ups and headed for the treadmill.

I actually prefer to use a treadmill for this kind of workout, I can’t wimp out and I HAVE to keep my pace up, until I manually slow the treadmill down. So what did I actually end up doing for a workout.

1.0 mile @ 6.5 mph – warmup

2 x 1.5 miles @ 8.0 mph with .25 recoveries @ 6.2 mph. I reduced the length of the recoveries from .5 to .25, because I did have someplace I had to be a bit later in the afternoon, so subtracting a mile total of recovery time seemed like the best place to make the workout fit the time that I had. The two repeats felt pretty good, they were not easy, but I didn’t have any issues other than the GI issues that seem to plague me part way into most runs on the treadmill.

At the end of the second recovery .25, it was time for a brief pit stop in the locker room, before heading back out and finishing up the workout.

2 x 1.5 miles @ 8.0 mph with .25 and .20 recoveries @ 6.2 mph. I am not going to lie and say that these two repeats were in any way easy. They were not. However, as much as I wanted to put my right hand on the treadmill and hang on for that last half mile, I didn’t. I just kept running. It is some of that mental toughness training that I needed as much as pushing the body to do more than I have done in the past.

You notice that I only cooled down for .20 before moving to the next part of the workout.

Yeah, I had enough energy left to do 5 x .1 strides at a pretty fast for me pace, with .1 recoveries.

I liked doing them a whole lot better than those long arse 1.5 mile repeats. Yeah, I do prefer the short, faster stuff, but I also know that I need to improve my stamina and strength to accomplish some of the nascent goals that I have been thinking about chasing this summer.

So I gotta do what needs to be done. Which is to run longer distances than I prefer.

New Furniture

The reason I was time-limited this morning was the wife needed a new evening sitting chair, so we were going to go get her one she had seen while out shopping this weekend. However, we decided to stop at one more place along the way and look at what they had.

While we were there we discussed what we really wanted/needed versus what we already had and decided to look at recliners for both of us, along with a center piece that will double as a charging station for some of our electronics.

I wasn’t really expecting to get a new workplace, but it seemed like the best plan, especially since our loveseat was showing a bit of wear where a certain old fart plants his arse most nights.

Yeah, we both got new recliners for a pretty decent price. Then we had the bright idea of getting rid of the old stereo and speakers, keeping the loveseat and redoing the living room once we got home. The above photo is after a few hours work and actually, I like the results. Bennie I have a feeling is less than thrilled with the change, but he will adapt.

So it has been one of those busy days, where I had my ego fed, a tough, but satisfying workout done and getting a new place to plant myself after supper and for napping after more of those hard workouts was pretty cool. 🙂