It seems that since I my latest injury that something happened to the old engine. I swear someone swapped out the snappy 6 cylinder and replaced it with a 4 cylinder that ain’t geared correctly. The old body sure has that 4 cylinder feel and it revs up to higher RPMs and effort to do the work that not all that hard before.

A lot like the times when I traded in my bigger engines made for going faster, for gas sipping sensibility.

It seems that I can run longer and still have something left, but attempting to do the faster/harder stuff taxes my current engine too much and I have to back off a bit. In other words I have a feeling that the old heart is going from an pretty hot 351 8 cylinder, with a 4 barrel carb – that fit quite nicely in my old 1971 Camaro, but got around 10-12 mpg, to a reliable 4 cylinder getting over 30 mph, that would fit nicely into one of my old Subarus that just seem to hang around forever.

Sometimes, I still make believe I am still able to run like I did when I had that Camaro. Err Harold who are you trying to kid!!! You are becoming that Subaru.

Yeah, I went over to the Colby Track again today and ran a mile time trial in the heat and humidity. I wanted to see how my New Balance 890 v7 did on the track and if I could finally break that 7:00 minute barrier. Then I planned on running some shorter, but quicker intervals, while working more on form while running faster, than running as fast as I can.

Well, the 76*F and 69% humidity, which crept up to 74% before the workout was done was a factor when I was running. However, I have run in this weather most of the summer, so I have acclimated for the most part, but at the same time it still makes me work a lot harder than I will later on.

After a 1.0 mile warm-up, I snuck up on the starting line for a mile and had a false start!!!

Can you believe it, I am the only one running and I false start a second time.

Actually, I hit the start button on my watch and the damn thing didn’t start either time. Finally the third time I was more focused on the watch starting than getting my butt in gear and lost at least 2-3 seconds making sure that everything was working correctly.

The first lap was ok and the second lap was slower, as usual the third lap was my downfall. I have a tendency to loose my focus on the third lap and slow down – a lot. The bell lap was a 96 second quarter. Not a super fast, but only 4 seconds off my best 400 for since I turned 60. I did finish the mile in a 7:07 a couple of seconds slower than last week, but not quite where I wanted.

My times for the mile are stuck in the 7:05 to 7:15 range and while I know it ain’t a big deal, I would like to crack that 7:00 barrier this summer and am sure that I will, it is just a question of being a bit more focused and pushing the accelerator down a bit more. It will happen, it is just a question of when, not if.

After I recovered a little, I decided to see if I could get in 12 x 200.

I got in 8 x 200 and then 2 x 400, so I got in the same distance, but not at the same speeds. By the time I finished the 8 x 200, I was pretty dead on my feet and really didn’t feel like doing 4 more laps, so I conned myself into doing 2 x 400 with 2 rest laps – yeah I still did 4 more laps, but the brain and the body didn’t realize the what had happened until I started that fourth lap heheehee.

Yeah, I was that tired.

That last mile cool-down was tough, all I wanted to do was pull over and stop running. Forcing myself to do that final slow mile was the toughest part of the whole workout. Sometimes even running slower can be a mental and physical challenge that you have to overcome.

While I still haven’t gone sub 7:00 for the mile time trial, I really am close and feel confident about getting it pretty soon. The New Balance 890 v7 worked better on the track for me than the Nike Zoom Fly SP. There is a firmer and better feel on the track with them. While I ran slightly faster last week in the ZF SP, I did loose time on the false starts and have been battling some hay fever stuff with the Goldenrod exploding around me, so they did play into the slower pace.

The biggest thing was that the 890v7 just feel more comfortable underfoot, which is something that is pretty unexpected. I am getting used to the colorway and enjoying the fit and ride.

After I got done with the track, I headed up to the New Balance Tent Sale in Skowhegan to see if they had anything else new and exciting or more specifically another pair of ugly 890 v7s. Of course, no such luck.

Although I came close to getting a pair of Beacon v1 in 8.5 EE, but they were just a tad too big, if they had been 8.0 or 7.5, I probably would have gotten them. Otherwise there wasn’t anything that I really couldn’t do without. That is the problem with the Tent Sale, it is pretty much hit or miss and really they don’t focus a lot on premium running shoes up In Skowhegan.

Then a couple of hours behind the lawn mower, finished off another day. Tonight the legs are pretty tired and I am seriously thinking about an Epsom salt bath to see if I can soak away some of the tiredness.

A good track workout.