Strides – July 16, 2021

How am I feeling today?

After driving 300 miles, no exercise, and eating crappy yesterday, I am a bit tired and have the blahs. I don’t plan to make up yesterday’s workout and will probably just run an easy 50:00 minutes without the strides. I might do a couple just to get the legs moving, but with a full interval workout planned for tomorrow, I want to keep the legs mostly fresh.

I am starting to think more about the rising numbers with the COVID-19 Delta variant and how it might affect my trip next week. Gotta see what happens, I am not all that keen on getting on an airplane with the numbers rising, but at the same time, I really want to see loved ones that I haven’t seen in a long time. There are no guarantees in life, but there are times when making intelligent choices do matter. I wonder if this will be one of those times? Time will tell, won’t it?

Planned Workout Description:  

Type: 

• 19:00 Easy Run
• 8 x 30-second – Strides with 1:00-minute recoveries
• 19:00 Easy Run

Per Stryd “”Strides” are defined as short bursts of faster running to get your body used to running at a higher intensity. Your goal for strides should be to start a bit above your Stryd Auto-Calculated Critical Power and practice running at a fast speed without straining. After a brief warm up, you will run :30s repeats with an easy 1:00 recovery. After you have completed the number of repetitions, cool down with an easy segment of running.”

Today’s Running Focus

• Figure things out

Why am I doing this run?

While I probably won’t do more than 2-3 strides this morning. I think that I need to do some, just to wake the legs up a little. An easy run with strides in the middle to help push the legs into going faster than they are used to without creating a great deal of fatigue is an excellent way to increase fitness and get the old body slowly ready for faster running over the long haul. I still am not looking at racing or doing stuff with the local running club yet. 

This may go on for another year, so I am prepared to just keep doing what I am doing for a while longer. This virus crap is an Ultra-endurance race where there will be peaks and valleys. I am just entering one of those valleys and need to keep focused on the idea that I take the long-term view and keep myself and those I love safe from needless exposure.

What I Actually Did Today: 

Oops, I may have done the full workout plus one. I guess I am like an old warhorse when the bugle sounds, or in my case, the watch buzzes, I do what needs to be done. Although I must admit that the humidity did get the best of this old warhorse today.

Warm-up — 19:00 Easy Run

• Split Avg Power        Target Range
• S:1 201W 163 – 186 W

Run/Recover – 8 x 30-second Strides with 1:00-minute recoveries

• Split Avg Power Target Range
• x8 0:30 262W 249 – 258 W
• 1:00 177W 116 – 163  W

Cooldown – 19:00 Easy Run

• Split Avg Power Target Range            
• 19:01 198W 151 – 175 W

I might have even done one extra stride in front of the Town Office, where I really hammered it and got up into the 400 watts/power range for the first time since I got the Stryd pod.

Did the workout go as planned?

The suffering began. After the first few strides, I questioned my sanity of doing them in close to 80% humidity and over 70*F. Yeah, that 70/70 stuff doesn’t work too well for me, but the old warhorse kept answering the bell, and I would walk a ways, start shuffling my feet again, and when that buzzer on the wrist said it was time to go, I answered the call.

Not really the smartest run I have ever done, and I set myself up to suffer with that hard push up the Town Office hill. It is a great hill for short repeats and to end the stride at the Wolf River driveway is about all I can handle for now. Once I got the strides finished, I didn’t hurry things too much and even walked from the upper gate for a couple of telephone poles just to keep things safe. I don’t like this kind of run and will purposely wimp out at this point in my life after the workout part of the run is over. There is no sense in totally killing myself to finish up a run when I am supposed to be going easy.

Overall, I was surprised with how well I did going up in front of the Town Office, and while I had a couple of crappy stride splits, most of them were pretty good for the conditions. However, when the 50:00-minute chime hit, I didn’t run that much further, and I know that I looked a lot like Death had been chasing me the last mile.

What did I learn today?

Hot weather running is still hard and not that enjoyable, but I can still surprise myself from time to time. If I do the fastest stride first, I don’t have much gumption left for those at the other end. So I have to think more about pacing than I ever have because I don’t have the same stamina that I used to have.

Injuries/Niggles: 

The left Achilles grumbled a little after the faster strides, but it didn’t talk nasty to me for a change, so that was good. I behaved myself after the strides were over.

Weather: Clear sky, 78°F, Feels like 82°F, Humidity 78%, Wind 7mph from N. Hot and miserable are two of the milder words I used to describe today’s weather.

Shoes: Hoka Carbon x1 – They cranked it up the Town Office hill, and while at the start, I can feel some tightness in the right little toe area, I don’t notice it as much once I get going. They do let me move right along when I decide to pick up the pace.

Other Stuff:

I sat down and cooled down for 20:00 minutes. I got up and mowed the front lawn for an hour. I had looked at the radar, and it looked like we would get whacked pretty well around 1:00 PM. I got it done, and around 1:00, the rains came. They are welcome and needed, but I would have loved to have relaxed a little longer before mowing the lawn, but it is done, and I do other more fun stuff this afternoon.