What I am thinking about this morning?

I am still feeling a bit tired, no tired is not the correct term. I would say fatigued, but more so mentally than physically. It has been a long 18 months and a lot of crap has gone down during that time. It seems according to the news media, social media and the powers-that-be that we are always on the “Eve of Destruction” — daily. I know it is not true, but it does wear on me a bit much at times. (These thoughts are continued in the Other Stuff section if you want to read more).

It will be a good day for a run and to worry more about putting one foot in front of the other. Hopefully at a much faster pace, than what I usually run at.

I do believe that things will get more difficult in the short term, but do believe that we will get through this tough period in our lives and things will get better. Hopefully, so will my running.

Planned Workout Description.

10:00 minute warm-up at an easy pace, 6 × 3:00-minutes at targeted 5K pace with 1:30-minute recoveries and then 10:00 cool down. I want to get used to running faster for a little longer to get ready for a 5K race at some point this Fall.

Per Stryd — “6 × 3:00 is a great workout to target some intensity right at or just above your Stryd Auto-Calculated Critical Power. In its template form, you’ll run 18:00 of volume, but you can adjust the number of repeats down to 4-5, or up to 8-10 based on your training volume.”

I am not sure about doing this workout today, I ran harder than I was supposed to yesterday and I can feel some tiredness and tightness in the left leg, which I don’t want to mess with. I will start and see how the legs feel during the warm-up. If I don’t do this workout, I will mostly likely do an easy run of 40:00 to 50:00 minutes and do this workout tomorrow.

The 90% plus days of humidity are kicking arse and that is another reason I am not looking forward to a hard run in bright sunshine and high humidity. I will run, but it remains to be seen how fast or far.

Did the workout go as planned?

• Course: Tiffany Snowmobile Crossing O/B
• Location: Sidney
  

While walking Bennie, I had thought seriously about going into Waterville to do the workout on the Colby track. The more I thought about the bright sunshine, humidity over 90% and temps getting close to 80 degrees, along with adding on another 10-15 degrees from the baking that a track gets, turned that idea into something very unappetizing. Not something I would enjoy by any stretch of the imagination.

Yeah, Harold being Harold, I had decided to go ahead and attempt the harder workout this morning while I was figuring out which shoes to wear. When I decided to go ahead and try the Puma Deviate Nitros again, it meant that I was willing to run faster. As soon as I stepped out the door, it was pretty obvious it was going to be a hot/miserable run, especially if I pushed the pace.

Starting out, I checked out the modifications I made to the Deviates, and they seemed to help quite a bit with how they were feeling on my heels and Achilles. However, they felt a bit looser than before, so I stopped at the Tiffany bump and did the runners lacing to lock-in the heel better.

That helped a lot and the right foot was a lot happier, once I did that. The left one would have some irritation toward the end, but that was because I didn’t cut down as far as I had on the right shoe. I fixed that when I got home.

Once I started in again, going down the hill towards Tiffany, I didn’t have time to change my mind about the first 3:00 minute interval. The watch beeped before I got to the tar and the next thing I knew, I was running faster (Pavlovian response to a watch beep). I purposely reined in the pace because I knew that it was too hot for as fast as I had started to go. That was a great decision.

Each of the fast intervals seemed longer than the one before it, and the recoveries shorter. I didn’t experience any issues while running faster and while the watch let me know that I wasn’t hitting my minimum Power numbers, after the third interval, I really didn’t care.

The last three fast intervals were all about doing 3:00 minutes at a faster than recovery pace, and not worrying about hitting the workout targets. It is better to run to the conditions than attempting to hit an artificial number that doesn’t take into consideration the heat/humidity and sun beating down on the body.

I was paying attention more to how hard I was working and how focused I was during the fast intervals. When I finished that last fast interval, it was a welcome relief and I was happy with both the effort and my focus.

Now I had just had to get back to the house.

The cool-down portion was anything but a cool-down. It was hot and miserable and with 1.5 miles left to go (I know the course down there pretty well), I started to walk, then run, then repeat. It was all I could do, the heat/humidity had gotten to me and I didn’t argue with myself too much about running and then walking a bit, before I started running again.

There was a man doing survey work, and as I walked by, we commiserated with each other about being out in the heat and how miserable it was. He did say something interesting about ticks, though. That despite as much time as he spends in the woods, for the last month he hasn’t seen very many. I told him that was a good thing and I wouldn’t miss them a bit, if they all disappeared.

Usually, when I end up doing the running/walking/running routine, I get rather pissy with myself, and get rather negative about things. However, today, it was absolutely the correct thing to do, and I didn’t do my usual whining about having to walk. I didn’t need to over-cook the few brain cells that I have left, and wanted to make it back to the house without keeling over when I got there. So, the run/walk was very effective in making those things a reality.

Plus, I was pleased with my effort level during the fast intervals, which meant that the cool-down portion didn’t need to be an all-out effort. That part of the Stryd training plan has taught me a lot and with the Pavlovian response, I have learned as my watch beeps, means that I don’t always have to do a certain pace for the entire run. That it is okay to vary my starting and ending paces from the quality portions of a run, which is a big deal, and initially a difficult lesson for me to accept.

• Injuries/Niggles: Nothing bothered during the run, well, besides the heat and humidity kicking my butt.
• Weather: Few clouds, 76°F, Feels like 77°F, Humidity 90%, Wind 0mph from N. Yep, the humidity got me good this morning — well again, I should say.
• Shoes: Puma Deviate Nitro’s — The shoe surgery on the right foot worked nicely. Then, when I got home, I made sure that the left shoe matched the right one after I noticed that I had not cut as deeply into the left heel counter previously. They now match.
  

Which should take care of the irritation I felt towards the end of the run. Otherwise, the Deviates worked great once I used the Runner’s knot to secure the heel better. Hopefully, these changes will make the Deviates a shoe that I can wear and enjoy for a while.

However, if I had a chance to buy another pair of Puma Deviate Nitros at anything other than a great price, I would probably decline. The heel blistering and irritation issues are not something that I would want to deal with. I hope that Puma does a design change to alleviate/eliminate the heel issues with what otherwise is a great running shoe for training and I have a feeling racing at almost any distance for me.

• I did make a bid on a pair of 361 Flame running shoes this afternoon for a cheap price, and the seller surprisingly accepted my offer. So, I am eagerly awaiting to see how they fit and work for me. They are a pair of running shoes that I really wanted to try back in March and at that price point, I couldn’t resist getting them.
• Socks: I wore the white Danish ones today and a couple of times towards the end when I was running I could feel my right pinky toe, be a little uncomfortable, nothing serious, but noticeable.
  

Other Stuff?

Believe it or not, I went out and mowed the lawn for an hour and half this afternoon. It was hotter than earlier, but I survived, but I have a feeling that the stench levels built-up in that running shirt has now reached the point of no return, and it will go away. Yeah, even with my inability to smell anything, I could smell the offensive odors emanating from it when I picked it up to put in the laundry. Which means that it is very offensive to others in the house. Yeah, it went out to the garage for disposal, it is beyond redemption.

(Continued from — What I am thinking)

With the pandemic going in the wrong direction, a so-called splintering nation, our withdrawal from the war (no matter who was in office it was going to end badly, which is why no one did it sooner), weather disasters (hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, etc.), and all the other negativity going on in the public spheres, it no wonder that I am fatigued.

So, while most of us muddle along with our lives and do the best we can, others play games of Power, purposely lighting and fanning the fires of unrest, misinformation, propaganda, and anarchy, versus promoting the common good. Simply to increase their personal power or influence, but to achieve what ends and by what means?

Unfortunately, this is happening at both ends of the idealogical spectrum by both countries and individuals on whatever the issue is. Those of us in the middle on many of these issues are portrayed as weak or ideologically impure and dangerous to the cause of the moment. Since we might compromise on some things or worse disagree with the methods or results being pursued.

Yeah, I am worn down — fatigued at the crap going on around us. The information overload and constant bombardment of negativity is wearing most of us down.

I know that this time will pass, and the history books will judge what we do now and whose names will stand the test of time. After all, the victors write the histories, but I wonder what kind of world will be left in its wake. Will it be the dystopian world of Blade Runner or a future closer to Star Trek, with many problems, but not as much darkness? All I know is that I feel as though Orwell’s 1984 is coming to life in 2021 — at times in our post-truth world.