Two Low K Weeks

Weeks of Aug. 17 ~ 30.

40K and 30K. This was due to being cautious because of a weird pain in my left quad, or maybe knee. It's a sudden, brief sharp pain that causes my knee to give way...or maybe I do that involuntarily when I feel the pain. It doesn't last, just very brief, but quite disconcerting.
And sometimes my quad is a bit sore, and feels like if I go faster, it will start to hurt.
So I took a number of days off (but only two in a row) and ran less distance and slower pace on the easy days. (But still ran some hard days.)

This may have been brought about by two hard days in a row, which was a bad mistake.
I had taken Monday the 17th off, due to very tired legs, so did my usual Monday tempo run on Tuesday, then did 400m x 12 at the track on Wednesday.
All the 400s were good - 86 to 82 - but felt twinges in knee on the last two.

Took thursday off as quad was a bit sore, then tried to run friday, but had slight pain, so stopped after 2k.
Easy saturday, then a hilly 8.4k in seaside town of Kamakura on sunday, but at an easy pace. Got a twinge just at the end of that.

This past week, rested mon and tues, then ran the 5,000m time trial on wednesday night, with no pain, in 19:53, which was nice since it was the first time in about 10 months that I have been under 20:00. (A cool 21C but 100% humidity.)

Rest thursday, then 800m x 6 and 400m x 2 at moderate paces with the high school cross country varsity girls (season has started) on friday.

Easy 5k on sat and easy 10k today, with quad feeling "ok" but a bit iffy.

I'll do a tempo run with the kids tomorrow and see how it is. If I have any issues I'll just rest for about 4 days, which should clear it up.

Hope you're all going into the autumn feeling good.

Finally Over 70K

Week of Aug. 10 ~ 16

71.6km / 44.5 mi.

Finally got a week over 70k, which is not a helluva lot of mileage, but is at least my target, and enough for 10K racing, with three hard workouts a week, I believe.

Monday
4:00 - 12k with 6k warmup and 6k tempo @4:45/k.
Well, "perceived effort" is what counts, right?
The humidity made it tough, and my legs were tired and heavy. Actually, I think humidity aggravates the heaviness.
30C/86F, 66%
A light 58.1 kg

Tuesday
Weight machines, core, hamstrings.

Wednesday
6:30pm - Club track workout - 15k with 7k warmup, 1000/800 x 3, 400
3:51/3:00/3:47/3:04/3:49/3:00/83
Felt good and worked hard to run with others (big group). Hot and humid, but didn't feel too bad, for some reason. Much more comfortable than the last two weeks.
30C/86F, 65%
59kg

Thursday
8:15pm - 10k easy.
28C/82F, 60%
58.8kg

Friday
1:00 - gym workout
4:00 - 12k with 250m hill x 10
Good workout, up hard, down easy, as usual. Humid, sweat pouring off, but felt ok.
31C/88F, 60%
58.3kg

Saturday
4:00 - 8.6k easy.

Sunday
4:00 - 14k easy. Quads a bit sore and heavy.
31C/88F, 60%
58.3kg

Good, Not Great Week

Week of Aug. 3 ~ 9

56.8km / 35.3 mi.

Monday
8:30pm - Ate dinner at 4:30 so I could run later, when it is cooler. This worked ok, my stomach felt all right, but my legs were still tired from the 19k hilly run the day before.
So I only did 8k, with 4k warmup and 4k tempo. The tempo was really slow, however, 5:30-5:40 per k, as opposed to my usual 4:30. This was due partly to the fact that it was still 30° and 50% humidity and partly to the "running at night" syndrome, which I have noticed before. It seems that I always go slow at night, but it feels much faster. I knew I wasn't running 4:30, but I thought it was 5:00 or a little under and couldn't believe each time I looked at the watch and the kms got slower. So maybe night running is not so good.
30C/86F, 50%
59.2kg

Tuesday
Usual day at the gym for weight machines (6), core training and hamstring exercises.

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track workout. 5.8k warmup, then 1000m x 6.
4:03/3:59/3:57/4:01/4:05/3:59 (200m jog in 2:40, 3:40 after 4th)
Well, this was a tough workout because it was so hot and humid. Legs still not completely recovered from Sunday, either. After the workout, instead of me leading an abs session as I usually do, we had Harrisson, one of our top runners, lead an interesting session to build leg and achilles strength.
32C/90F, 60% - at 7:30
59.8kg

Thursday
Rest. Legs very tired and had an afternoon meeting so would have had to run at 12 noon, which I didn't especially want to do in 35-36 degree heat.

Friday
1:00 - gym workout
4:45 - 12k with 6k warmup, 400m x 10, 2k back home.
400s in 93/95/93/92/96/93/95/95/89 (90 sec. walk as rest)
Well, it was hot, although cloudy, so not brutally hot. But hot enough. And humid, of course.
Actually felt good coming back and picked up the second km to a decent pace.
34C/93F, 60%
58.9kg
Happened to look at an old training log from just after I turned 50 and did 400 x 8 in 72-73, with 90 sec. rest. I guess those days are gone. I'll be faster in the fall, though.

Saturday
2:30 - 10k easy
33C/91F, 50%
58.3kg - really cutting the calories

Sunday
3:30 - 14k easy. Out at 6:10 pace, back at 5:50. Very relaxed pace.
32C/90F, 50%
58.5kg

2 Hill Workouts

Week of July 27 ~ Aug. 2

56.2km / 34.9 mi.

Rested Monday and Tuesday, after the hilly trail run on Sunday. Legs were sore.
Did a gym workout Tuesday, though.

Wednesday
7:30pm - Club 5,000m time trial. 6.6k warmup.
20:36, which was 2 seconds faster than last month. Felt ok, although my quads were still a bit tired from Sunday. The problem, however, was the heat and humidity. I, and pretty much everyone else, found it hard to set and maintain a good pace.
Splits were 4:00/4:04/4:09/4:13/4:08. Managed a kick, but not much of one.
29C/84F, 70%
59.8kg

Thursday
4:00 - Very easy 6k. 30C, 75%, but felt like 95%.

Friday
1:00 - gym workout
4:00 - 6k warmup, 250m hill x 10 (250 jog down), 1k back.
Ran them at a pretty good pace. The hill is in the shade, so heat not too bad.
34C/93F, 55%
59.1kg

Satuday
4:00 - 8k easy
34C/93F, 50%
59.2kg

Sunday
9:30am - 18.6k trail run on the very hilly Ome course, in the far western part of Tokyo. With 5 others. Used to run this often, but haven't been out there for about 4 years, so it was nice to run it again. It's a very nice trail through the woods, with almost no other runners or hikers. Lots of steep inclines, which I walked up, for the first time ever. (But our super ultra guy Eric was walking them, so I felt ok about it.) About 35°, but quite a bit cooler in the woods. In fact, running across the few sunny sections was like going into an oven. Picked up the last 3k, as I always do, so it was a very good workout. Let's see how I feel tomorrow. I'll try to do my tempo workout....
Oh, and saw a smallish deer just beside the trail at one point. It was gray, so we thought at first it was a bear. Didn't know deer can be gray.
35C, 50%
59.3kg