Not Great – Saturday – July 10, 2021

How am I feeling today?

Yesterday’s rest day seemed to do the trick and I am feeling better, it is amazing what taking off a day does to the body and yes, I kept my total steps to under 10,000, which is what I need to do on rest days. After Tropical Storm Else blew through yesterday, the sun is out and shining and there is a nice feel to the air, even if it is a bit breezy. I feel like today’s workout is going to be a good one and I hope to run up in Waterville if everything goes as planned. 

Planned Workout Description: 

Type: 

• Threshold Run

Stryd’s Description: “Your workout today is another round of a 10:00 at 88-95% plus 5:00 at 95-102% of your Stryd Auto-Calculated Critical Power. After your 15:00 Time Trial your Stryd Auto-Calculated Critical Power may have changed. The targets for this workout might be slightly higher or lower than the last time you ran them, so check to see how your workout went last time before running this session! The goal of the workout is the same as last time: Practice running at a solid effort for the 15:00 section with the goal of running at a higher power in the second section. This week, you have an extra 5:00 added to your second quality section. Make sure to again start conservatively in the first few minutes to ensure that you can finish strong and within your target! After your 10:00 section, run an easy cool down.”

• Splits                   Split                    Target Watts                 %CP
• S:1                       16:00Warmup     163 – 186 W                 70 – 80%
• S:2                       15:00Run            205 – 221 W                 88 – 95%
• S:3                       3:00Recover       116 – 163 W                 50 – 70%
• S:4                       10:00Run            221 – 238 W                 95 – 102%
• S:5                       16:00Cooldown  151 – 175 W                  65 – 75%

Today’s Running Focus

• See what happens

Why am I doing this run?

To work on running faster when fatigued and increase my overall aerobic fitness.

What I Actually Did Today: 

First of all I forgot my Stryd Pod again, it seems whenever I attempt to run other than from home lately that I forget the damn thing. So I did attempt to do the workout, just without the pod. It didn’t go nearly as well, plus I had to find some trees after the first mile. I ran way too fast the first 16:00 minutes (yeah, I know) and then while I ran well going down Gilman Street, once I got to the main road, I lost focus and slowed down. I had to wait at the traffic light, so I could go over the 2 Cent bridge into Head of the Falls Park. When I got to R/R underpass, there is a short steep hillock that you have to scramble up to get back on the road.

Up to that point the Achilles had stayed in the 2-3 range, which is pretty normal for it. On one of the steps going up the hillock, I felt a sharp pain and needed to stand for a couple of seconds to figure out what happened. Phew nothing serious, but for the rest of the run, the left Achilles grumbled a bit more than it had been, reminding me that it doesn’t like it when I put too much force on it going up a hill. 

The rest of the run I just plugged along to get it done and didn’t attempt to go faster. 

Did the workout go as planned?

In a word – no. 

Too fast for the first 16:00, meant that the 15:00 push was slower than it could have been and by the time I got to the 10:00 minute push, I was too fatigued to really do it well and then when I made the Achilles angry at my attempt to keep pushing a little too hard, it made it so that I only got 4:00 minutes of the scheduled 10:00. 

This has always been my problem; I go out too hard and don’t have a lot in the tank for rest of the workout and suffer more than I need to as a result of my own stoopidity.

Injuries/Niggles:

Left Achilles wasn’t too impressed with my lack of scrambling ability and told me all about it from the Head of Falls Park all the way to the finish. My right foot was not so much painful as it was feeling too scrunched after the park and the Injinji socks didn’t seem to work well with the Carbon x1s. 

Weather: 68* Clear and a nice breeze

Shoes: Hoka Carbon X1 – They felt fast and comfortable the first 34:00 minutes, but after the Achilles started to grumble, I must have changed my stride slightly to accommodate it and the right foot was feeling cramped on the outside by the small toe. Which meant that I was landing more on the forefoot than usual. Lots to think about after this run.

Other Stuff

SD2 had a leak in the roof, so I had to play with that in the afternoon, which as I get older, I am not as fond of climbing up ladders and working on roofs anymore. My sense of balance is not what it was, and I have fallen off too many ladders in the past and don’t bounce nearly as well as I once did.