Okay, so my attempt at changing up when I do my workouts is now officially over.

I realized this morning while out snow scooping the yard from yesterday’s 5-6″ inches of white shite, that there was no way I was going to do a set of longer tempo paced runs after I got done moving snow, that I had planned on today.

Then I got to thinking about how well my training went with the Hansons Half Method and how I really am into training, but not into racing.

So in the interests of accepting reality, I went back to my old schedule.

There is just something right about doing hard repeats on Tuesdays and long runs on Sunday, with another hard workout day if the body is up to it on Thursdays. The Thursday session has to be optional and dependent on my fatigue level. While I understand the principle of accumulated fatigue and its importance in a training cycle.

At this point in my life, even at the young age of 61, getting too deep into the fatigue cycle just doesn’t work as well for me as it does for a younger runner. To be honest I do not recover from a hard workout the same and it does affect how long I can do a hard training cycle before it becomes too much and I have to back off to let the body recover a little before getting back after it.

So after playing with the snowscoop, I ate lunch, took a nap and thought about what I really needed to do versus what I wanted to do. Yeah, there is a difference.

Then I headed for the gym to do faster repeats on the treadmill.

How did it go?

Better than I thought it would. I knew even though I was tired that I could do this workout, that confidence thing, which is a big deal for me.

• 6 x .50 @ 8.6 mph
• 3 x .10 @ 9.1 mph or faster
• 1 x .20 @ 9.6 mph
• all recoveries were at 6.2 mph

All-in-all it was a really good workout! I was able to do all six of the repeats without any real difficulty, other than getting the last tenth done on the last two repeats. By that time I just want to get things over with more than anything. However, it did surprise me that I was able to maintain the pace this well after playing with the snow earlier this morning.

When I finished the planned repeats, I wanted to do a little more, but at the same time, I wanted to limit my miles to 6.2, which meant that I did strides and didn’t do the cool-down mile that I want to do after most of my runs. I still did my usual .3 mile walk after the run which I really believe helps me feel better after a run versus just stopping.

Overall, it was a really good run and happy with how I felt running faster.

At some point, I will get outside this Spring in shorts and t-shirt, but just not this week it seems.