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Week 196
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Greetings 50+ers! Weather, weather, and more weather (started early morning Wednesday, first 2” of rain fell, followed by a record 17” of snow Wednesday night into Thursday midday, then temps plummeted to sub-zero…..sheesh!) Knock on wood, we’ve seen the last big winter storm for the season and that spring is just around the corner. I was determined to top last week’s miles, and thankfully I found a way to get in 30 miles on what I’ll call 5-½ days (note: everything was late afternoon or early evening.) Here’s the log:
Sun: 5.2 easy-to-hard (7:27 avg)
Mon: 2 easy (jogged home from work plus a bit with a backpack….this is my half-day)
Tue: 6.5 with 1.3@6:19 pace
Wed: Off (rainy, then snowy)
Thur: 4.2 easy (but icy)
Fri: 4.3 w/5x1/4mi@6:00 pace (treadmill @1.5%)
Sat: 7.9 steady (7:38 avg)
-Sunday was a good acceleration run. Started at over 8 min/mi pace, and dropped the pace each mile. There was about a 0.4-mile stretch near the end, that I was running in the 5:40 range; that felt pretty good.
-Tuesday’s sub-6:20 pace section was in the middle of the run. Most the rest of the run was in the 7:45 to 8-min/mi pace.
-Wednesday, they called off evening classes around 3pm in anticipation of the impending snowstorm, so I thought I could sneak into the gym to run the treadmill for ½-hour, but, of course, they were also closing early for the same reason, so Wednesday was lost. Then Thursday, despite the snow (and because of the closed gym), I went down to UK campus to get some mileage in. They are typically the first to get their walks cleaned and I figured that by evening they’d be OK, but even theirs were still pretty slick in spots and quite a few hadn’t yet been plowed. I was just glad to get a few in, though.
-Friday, the gym reopened, so I used that opportunity to try to get a little speed work in. Happy to increase the reps from 4 to 5; and really happy that I even felt I could have done a sixth. Progress!
-Saturday afternoon, it warmed up enough that I actually ran in shorts! UK’s walk paths were much clearer now (but a lot of melting snow made for some pretty big puddles). The plan was to run for an hour…..almost made it 8 miles.
But enough about me. John Trautman was awesome last Sunday, but can we talk about Anselm LeBourne? I think it’s not been emphasized enough just how awesome that performance was! KP and Co57 get it, as I’m sure most on this thread do, too. I finally got to watch the 1500m race mid-week (when the weather turned.)
http://www.usatf.tv/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=45365&do=videos&video_id=135997
The race announcers tried, but clearly didn’t really know these athletes or their histories. Even then the news blurb at USATF was a bit underwhelming. But for him to have moved the indoor 1500m age-group world record by a full 8 seconds this year is simply jaw-dropping (granted the 55 AG record was a couple seconds soft compared to the 50 and 60, but still.)
http://www.usatf.org/News/World-Masters-record-set-at-USATF-Indoor-Champions.aspx
With all due respect to the likes of Whiteman, Trautman, and Young (all fantastic runners, that I admire in the utmost), so far this year it has been Anselm and Bernie that have completely redefined to what masters middle-distance runners can aspire. Incidentally, on my run yesterday, I ran across a friend of mine (also out running, imagine that) who used to train with Trautman back in the day; said he was tough as nails to train with back then, and it didn’t surprise him that JT still has that fire in him. What a year for masters middle-distance so far!
OK. On to other things. Welcome Paul061! Thanks for sharing your training and aspirations. As for your tough run yesterday….happens to me all the time. But don’t fret, a day or two can make a world of difference. I’ve never been able to figure out what specifically causes those “down” days (other than the obvious, like the day after a really hard work-out): lack of sleep, poor fueling, or other life stressors all can play a roll. You just hope it doesn’t hit on race day. Running Formula Racer, I think that’s an OK time based on your training, but I do agree that you need to mix it up with some speed. It’s a bit of a misconception that Ed Whitlock doesn’t do speed work, he just doesn’t do it in work-outs; he does it by racing short races frequently.
Kudos to everyone else getting out there and getting it done! Hope you’ve all had a great week, and look forward to hearing about it!
All the best!