What am I thinking about this morning?

We are waiting to see what path Hurricane Henri will take. It looks like it will brush alongside of where we live, so it will probably not be a direct hit. However, I anticipate losing power for a while since the trees are still all leaved out and the ground is saturated from previous storms. If it floods up heah on the hill, we have bigger problems than a Category 1 hurricane. So, that won’t be an issue, downed trees and no power from the grid will be the challenges.

Otherwise, I am supposed to do my longer run this morning, but the leg is grumpy, so I am debating whether to put it off until tomorrow and just do it in the rain that is expected. I will probably run down to Wildwood, see how things feel and decide at that point. I am attempting to listen to what the body is telling me, and it is the amount of loading on the legs that I am more concerned about more than the distance. Yesterday’s strides seemed to provide more of a load than usual, so I am going to be careful today.

Bennie continues to improve but is very meechy about going up stairs or attempting to get on his perch on the bed by himself. I believe that will take a few more days before he gets back to his old self. I do let him try before helping though, I don’t want him learning to be dependent on us to do things, that he can do if he attempts to. That learned helplessness that seems to affect too many critters and people in today’s world.

Planned Stryd Challenge Description: 

50:00 minute long run. It depends more on how the leg is feeling than anything else. I do plan on wearing my Hoka Carbon X2’s with the training wheels under the insole to give about 3-4 mm more drop in the heel-to-toe. I want to see if that helps with the Achilles being a little more comfortable, since the 8mm drop shoes do feel more comfortable on longer runs than the lower drop ones.

Per Stryd: “The long run is a main staple in training and is your longest continuous effort in the training week. The goal for this run is to practice extending duration and increasing your time spent running. Over the course of the training plan this run will build in duration and slightly vary in intensity.”

Today’s Running Focus

• Listen to the body

What I Did Today: 

• Course: Howard-Wildwood-Philbrick
• Location: Sidney

Primary Workout – 50:00 minutes

Target Range	Duration	Distance	Power	Heart Rate	Pace	Cadence	Stride Length
178-190	50:02	5.25	210	141	9:31	167	1.00

Unplanned

Target Range	Duration	Distance	Power	Heart Rate	Pace	Cadence	Stride Length
None	2:39	0.28	202	149	9:36	166	0.98

I started out easy and didn’t really push the effort levels too high. The heart rate was up any ways due to the humidity, but my Power numbers were pretty much right where I have been for easy longer runs. I had thought about doing a little extra at the end, but the left leg started to get grumpy just after 5.0 miles (which is an improvement) and my hat was raining sweat, so I shut it down when I got to 5.5. 

It wasn’t quite what I wanted for mileage, but I wasn’t going to get greedy and have a setback on the progress I have made so far.

Once I got done running, 15-minutes later I was walking behind the lawn mower for 4.0 miles, so that tells me I could have done more if I had really wanted to.

Did the workout go as planned?

I stopped just a little after 50:00-minutes and while the leg got a bit grumpy, it wasn’t anything serious. During the run I kept a steady effort and focused more on keep my arms more efficient, which seems to go a long way towards making the rest of me efficient as well. 

Injuries/Niggles: Even though I could have continued running, the left leg was getting grumpy enough that I was noticing it, so I shut it down. It couldn’t have been too bad, because within 15 minutes of finishing I went out and mowed for 4.0 miles without any discomfort. It is just the running that after 4-5 miles it begins to bother the Achilles a bit too much.

Weather: Mostly cloudy, 74°F, Feels like 76°F, Humidity 87%, Wind 3mph from N. Another run that looked like I had gone swimming

Shoes: Hoka Carbon X2 – The thin “training wheels”, well actually a thin Hoka insole heel area that I cut and placed under the insole seemed to help my Achilles – just enough. Compared to last time when I wore the X2 and started to have issues with them at about 3.0 miles, getting to 5.0 miles before the leg got grumpy was a huge improvement. I like how the X2s have a smooth heel-to-toe transition and are so quiet while running. No issues with my heels, but they definitely do not have the same pop as the Deviate Nitros, but cruise along very nicely.

The X2s are more like getting in an old Caddy convertible with a big eight in it and cruising down the highway in comfort, with a smooth and quiet ride, but when you look down at the speedometer you are doing 90 mph, not the 70 you are supposed to be doing. While the Deviates are more like my old 1971 Camaro – go as fast as you want for a ways, but after a while you gotta let off the gas for a bit to think do I really want to keep doing 90, because the ass-end feels a little off and is becoming a damn distraction when you simply want to go, so you slow down to 70 mph and then turn around to go home, because it just doesn’t feel right back there. Then when you get home you put the Camaro up on a lift to see what is going on, make a few tweaks that never seem to help all that much, but make you feel as though you might have fixed whatever it is that going on with the ass-end for next time. So, you keep it around until you get tired of tinkering with it. Then you think of all the time and money you have invested in it, and keep trying something new, until it is sitting out back of the garage because you don’t trust it anymore.

What did I learn today?

That with a couple of minor tweaks I am liking the X2s a lot more than I did stock. I guess I need a little more drop between the heel and forefoot, while the Achilles is still figuring out whether it wants to be grumpy or not.

I did listen to my body and shut down the run at the point where it needed to be shut down. Getting an extra half-mile in serves zero purpose if it messes up my leg. I don’t mind a little discomfort for a reason, but there was no over-riding reason to keep going today and I pulled the plug on the run.

I do have to start up my evening mobilization routine again, I could feel the hamstrings a little more while mowing. Nothing serious, but they did feel a little tight, so I need to get on the foam roller and make funny faces with a few slow whistles and grunts as I pass over areas that get a little pissy about being foam rolled on.