How am I feeling today?

The sun is shining, with a bit of a haze around it from the wildfire smoke, but it doesn’t seem as bad as yesterday. I have a challenging workout on tap for today at the track, where I will answer a few questions about my “go faster” running shoes and how I will use them going forward. 

It should be an interesting workout, although if the AQI gets, it might get pushed back to tomorrow when it is supposed to be a much better day temp and smoke-wise. 

This afternoon, I will get back on the roof to see what is going on around the chimney. No, I am not looking forward to that, but it is part of the deal of being a homeowner. You either do the work or pay for someone else to do it. I pay for someone else, it means fewer running shoes, so up I go into the wild blue yonder 😉

Planned Workout Description:

• Intervals
• Testing Running Shoes on the track

1.0 Mile Warm-up, 1.0 mile time trial with quarter recovery, 4×400 with 400 recoveries, 4×200 with 200 recoveries, 1.0 mile cool-down.

This workout will show a couple of things about my current state of fitness and how multiple pairs of “go faster” shoes work for me. 

Today’s Running Focus

· Focus

What I Did Today: 

Target Range on fast intervals 249-258W

Warm-up

• Split Avg Power Pace Cad H/R GCT   
• S:1 – 1.0 210W 9:18 170 134 292

Run/Recover – 1.0 Mile

• Split. Avg Power Pace Cad H/R GCT   
• RunFast V1 254W 7:38 178 159 241                 

Run/Recover – Quarters

• Split Avg Power Pace Cad H/R GCT   
• Rehi #1 254W 7:45 178 159 244
• Rehi #2 250W 8:04 172 159 256
• Magic #1 251W 7:37 176 157 242
• Magic #2 249W 8:01 174 159 247
• Carbon #1 249W 8:04 175 159 251
• Carbon #2 249W 7:58 174 160 257

Run/Recover – 100s

• Split Avg Power Pace Cad H/R GCT   
• Carbon #1 284 6:36 185 153 224
• Carbon #2 265 6:13 181 142 392
• Carbon #3 243 6:37 173 141. 371
• Carbon #4 301 4:46 191 135 189                                                   

Cool-down – 1/2 mile

• Split Avg Power Pace Cad H/R GCT
• 1400v6 212 9:09 170 151 281

Did the workout go as planned?

No.

It started out pretty good, and then after the first lap of my mile time trial, I thought that I would change it to doing two quarters in my RunFasts instead. Now, that was a brain cramp, to say the least, but I got back to it and, on the last lap, picked it back up a little. I don’t know what got into my head, but I sure didn’t do my best on the mile time trial. 

I managed to finish the three sets of quarters to test out the different “go faster shoes” I wanted to run in today, despite the heat/humidity and not working as hard as I planned. Then instead of four 200s, I did four 100s in the Carbon X1s because I just didn’t have it in me to do more. When doing the 100s, I did a full recovery walk back to the start to give the body a chance to recover more. It did help because the heart rates for those were lower.

A strange thing happened on the last 100, I started to run. No, not my old man slog that I have accepted as what is my running style now. The body remembered something from the deep, dark past, and instead of clumping down the lane, I ran. It wasn’t effortless, but it reminded me of someone I used to know, and while I couldn’t maintain it for very long looking at my GCT for that last 100…well, at least I can say that I did it, if only for a 100.

Injuries/Niggles: 

Weather: Clear sky, 76°F, Feels like 76°F, Humidity 69%, Wind 3mph from N. While it wasn’t as hot or humid as it has been, it still harmed today’s workout. After about 3/4s of the workout, I got rid of my shirt and glasses because I was sweating so much. 

That was the brilliant light being reflected up in Waterville this morning.

Shoes: 

How did the “go faster” running shoes do?

Reebok RunFast: They did everything that I expected of them. 

Hoka Evo Rehi Prototype – Can I run faster in them? Probably. However, they are not a shoe that I enjoyed running compared to others that I have available. As I have gotten older, I prefer a more cushioned running shoe, even when I attempt to run faster. They will become my daily walking shoes since they are comfortable for walking.

ASICS Magic Speed: They did well, and when I got into the carbon plate, I could feel the difference, but for me to get into the carbon plate regularly, I would have to be a LOT faster, which I don’t foresee being a part of my running as I keep getting older and slower. At slower paces, the Magic Speeds are meh and don’t do a lot for me.

Hoka Carbon X1 – Of all the shoes that I ran in today, they were the easiest to pick up the pace and most comfortable to run faster in for me. While I know that the 4mm drop gives my Achilles some problems on longer runs right now, for runs up to 5.0 miles, they would be my first choice to race in, and as my Achilles gets stronger, the distances I can use them will be extended.

ASICS EvoRide 2 – I didn’t use them, but I know that I can run well in them for longer distances and they are in the same weight range as the Magic Speeds and Carbon X1s. I would choose them for running longer races or tempo work without any problems, until my Achilles heals up.

New Balance 1400v6 – I hadn’t thought about using them, but when I got to Colby, they were sitting in the travel bag beside my track backpack, so I grabbed them. I did the two cool-down laps in them, and while I know that I could run a good 5K in them, my old body is spoiled with higher stack heights, i.e., more cushioning. So, they would not be my first choice, but if I needed a pair of shoes on short notice and didn’t have my preferred racers with me, I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for a 10K or shorter race.

How would I rank order the shoes I brought today?

• 1. Hoka Carbon X1
• 2. Reebok RunFast v1
• 3. ASICS EvoRide 2
• 4. ASICS Magic Speed
• 5. New Balance 1400v6
• 6. Hoka Evo Rehi Prototype

What did I learn today?

Don’t think about changing the workout in the middle of a time trial or intervals because the monkey mind will take over and do something more manageable than the challenging workout that was planned.

When doing a distance-based track workout, set up the programmed workout to use the manual advance to move to the next repeat, whether it is a run or recovery interval. In other words, press the button to move to the next repetition.

That changing running shoes after a couple of laps has its pros and cons. The pros were that I got to recover more than usual between hard intervals, which was nice. The cons were that I lost focus on the workout and was more worried about which shoes I was wearing and how they were doing versus running hard during the speed intervals.

For the end of August fitness test, I will only be using one pair of shoes and focusing on doing the workout as planned.

Wow, was Colby a mess trying to find parking to use the track. All the road work and other construction on campus made it a significant challenge to find a decent parking spot. Then I don’t think that the tour groups were too impressed with some old dude running without a shirt on the college track. I saw some of those side-eye looks, with the nose up a bit that said, “what is he doing here?”

Oh well, I have a feeling until the construction is done or school starts at Messalonskee that I will use their track for my Tuesday workouts or use the Rail Trail once high school starts. Then go back to Colby when the construction winds down because not too many people are using the track during the times that I would be until it gets too cold for outside faster workouts.

Yes, this afternoon, I went up on the roof and re-did the repair job that didn’t work last time. I could see where there were a couple of small gaps that were created when the sealant dried. This time I did a couple of things differently, and hopefully, that will take care of the small leak that had developed around the chimney casing. This is one of those annual maintenance items that need to be done around this time each year.

A good workout that I would give a B- grade to. I learned a lot about my conditioning, that I need to maintain my focus better, and which running shoes I prefer to run faster in.