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Week 270
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Salutations, 50+ers! It's been another humid week in the Bluegrass, slogging through upper-80's temps w/72+ dew points. Hit 30 miles again this week on 5 days (mostly afternoons) of running. There was a little more effort compared to last week, but still need to up the mileage. Here's how the log reads:
Sun: 7.3 w/Form Drills
Mon: off (scuttled by storms)
Tues: 6.2 w/3x(800,400)3:10,87,3:10,86,3:06,89
Wed: 5.0 easy (7:45 pace)
Thur: 4.1 w/1@6:35 (7:21 avg pace)
Fri: off (busy dawn to dusk)
Sat: 7.4 variable (7:25 avg pace)
Made it a little further through Tuesday's track workout compared to last week (it was about as hot and humid.) It seems that I do OK in the heat until the thermostat crosses some threshold, and then I stop recovering. We were doing a full 400 recovery between each rep, running the 400's a little harder than the 800's. I was recovering nicely, but then after the 3rd 400, the recovery lap did me nothing, that's when it's time to stop and go stand in the shade. The others completed a fourth set; I just finished by jogging easy. Both Thursday and Saturday included some acceleration getting down to the mid-6's for a mile or so before backing off and running it in easier; Saturday's run felt pretty good (the cloudy morning helped.)
I'll be watching a lot of Olympic coverage in the next couple weeks. While watching the men's gymnastics last night, I thought about the tremendous grip-strength these athletes have (especially evident in the high bar,) and how much my grip has weakened over the past decade. Do any of you do grip-strengthening exercises? I'm thinking it might be time to get serious about it.
Maybe one benefit of having advanced arthritis in my big toes is that I can't put much stress on my PF or Achilles' anymore, hope you all suffering through plantar fasciitis can find some relief.
Welcome jikn and "use it or lose it"! Ain't that the truth, we aren't as fast as we used to be; I run hard 200's at what was my mile pace back in High School. Dave said as much in a FB post regarding his race yesterday (will look forward to your report on that.) We need to keep things in perspective....for me, the serenity prayer actually helps (as do the age-grade tables.)
OK. That's my quick update. Looks like today we'll finally get a break in the humidity; the dew point this morning is actually in the low 60's! I haven't seen that in quite some time...early June, maybe? Hope you've had a good week, and I look forward to reading about it!
All the Best!