How am I feeling today?

It is nice outside, and I feel a bit sore in the hamstrings from Tuesday’s track workout. A little of that Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) that is so wonderful. Otherwise, I seem to have at least half a brain and know that I don’t have to mow the lawn again until next week, which is a good thing.

I am looking forward to today’s workout and am thinking that I will wear my Reebok RunFast v1s for the run today and maybe go for a max effort on the first one to see what Stryd thinks of it. I want to know if I remember anything of that last 100 from Tuesday’s track workout.

Planned Workout Description: 

• Easy Run –
• Strides – 6x

Per Stryd: “Easy + Strides is a fundamental part of any training program, typically the day before a quality session. You can adjust the warm-up/cool down duration as needed and increase the number of strides based on your specific training volume.”

Today’s Running Focus

· Do it

What I Did Today: 

Warm-up

• Split Avg Power Target Range Pace
• 20:00 206W 163 – 186 W 9:43

Run/Recover 6x :30 second strides with 1:00 minute recoveries

• Split Avg Power Target Range Pace
• Strides 299W 249 – 258 W 6:21                
• Recovery 173W 116 – 163 W 11:27

Cooldown

• Split Avg Power Target Range Pace
• 20:00 201W 151 – 175 W 9:54

Did the workout go as planned?

Yes.

I changed the length of the strides from 20 to 30 seconds. That is what I have been doing lately, and I felt it was the correct thing to keep doing without changing the intent of the workout too much. 

I felt strong on the strides but number 4, which I kind of wimped out on. That is one of my weaknesses, I have a lull in focus before I start the final push part of a workout or race, and that doesn’t help my time or confidence levels, and it doesn’t matter what the distance is. 

It isn’t that I’m any more fatigued than at other parts of the run. It is more that I don’t have enough focus to keep up the faster pace. Which is one of the things that I am working on and improving. In the past, this would have been strides 3, 4, and 5, not just 4. So, I am improving my ability to maintain focus.

Also, the stride portion of the workout is getting faster, which in part is because I am not as worried about walking for a short distance at the end of the quality portions as I used to be. Quality is more critical than running faster during recoveries.

Injuries/Niggles: At the start, the left Achilles grumbled a bit but stopped after about a mile and felt pretty good until about mile 4.0 when it was tired of running. The right knee seemed to falter a little during the 4th stride but came back to finish without any problems. 

Over the past couple of days, I have noticed an old injury to the middle of my back (more the rib attachment to the spine area) from landing on padeye on a buoy deck after taking a wild ride on the boom hook back in the day. Is grumbling a little more than usual, just something to take note of and keep an eye on.

Weather: Clear sky, 68°F, Feels like 68°F, Humidity 67%, Wind 3mph from N

Shoes: Hoka Carbon X1 – Did what they were supposed to, comfortably and without fanfare. I changed my mind on what shoes I wanted to wear at the last minute. I am attempting to reduce the number of shoes in my rotation and I do run slightly better in the Carbon X1s than I do in the RunFast v1s.

What did I learn today?

That I am slowly but surely getting into better shape than I have been in a while. My strides are faster, and I don’t feel totally destroyed after finishing a set, just mildly wasted. The biggest thing is that the recoveries are not as onerous as they have been, and I seem to actually have a stride for 30 seconds.

Not so much just today, but with the increasing number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, I have been, and I will continue to be conservative about racing or going to any larger gatherings. It doesn’t matter if it is indoor or outside, I don’t want to be around a lot of people at this point and time. As a result, I have decided that the 5K race that I had targeted as my return to in-person racing will not happen, and I will continue to train and have fun, but not race for the time being.

Especially, since I decided to cancel my trip to see my grandkiddoes because of this most recent surge, I sure as hell am not going to run in a race just to satisfy my ego. As much as I want to see how much this training block has helped me improve, it is not the right time for me to stop being conservative when it comes to my return to racing. Which means that I will do a 5K time trial a week from Saturday and then start a 10K training plan to see how they work.

As a result, I am looking at the end of September 5Ks in the area or my local club’s 10K in early October as my first in-person race. I want to get past the return to school uptick that I expect to happen in addition to the present one that is occurring.

Not what I want, but you can’t always get what you want. Sometimes you get what you need. I think there may have been a song with those lyrics from my younger days.

I can’t believe that we were that young – once upon a time.