March’s Last Run

Waking up early Tuesday morning and looking out the window, I saw dark clouds in the sky that grew even darker on my way to the grocery store. I hightailed it back home after buying a few things because I wanted to put a run in before it started raining. The forecast was for the rain to arrive by Tuesday evening but it appeared it might start pouring much earlier.

The workout planned for the day was the 4 minute run with 1 minute walk Galloway training method. I tried to start running harder than usual without a proper warm up. The difference was I took a full minute walk break between intervals. Usually I start running again after about 40 seconds of walking even before my watch starts alerting me for the next repetition. This was just an experiment since I already know that my body doesn’t get into a good groove without starting slowly and warming up first. Not only that, my inner ankle tendons tend to hurt more because it is subjected to heavier pounding so early in the run. Needless to say, it was a rough start and my stride didn’t feel smooth until after about 3 miles.

I wanted to treat this run like a regular interval workout but since I have to be careful with my ankles especially at the start, I couldn’t really pick up the pace hard enough to the capacity of my heart and lungs. So the four minutes of running is closer to a tempo pace rather than a lung busting effort.

Well, I finished my usual hour slower than my last 4:1 workout two weeks ago. This experiment made me conclude that it is better to warm up slowly at the start then pick up the pace later with the reduced walk time, than running hard from the start and taking the full 1 minute walk break. The toll on my ankles is also lesser with the proper warm up. Another lesson learned. Even though I’ve been running for 30 years, running like life continues to be a learning process. What may have worked well in the past may not work now because of changes in your body as you age. The experiment continues.

By the way, the rain never came, the skies cleared, and the sun was out when I finished the run. 

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A Decent Pace?

Two Saturdays ago I felt some shame because I couldn’t give my weekend running partner Cyndi a decent pace despite the flat terrain we ran in. It was at that time that my dizzy spells started and being unsure of its cause, I gave a conservative effort. Before today’s run, I informed Cyndi of my problems and a caveat that I may have to take it really easy. Despite that, she still agreed to run with me and I’m so appreciative of that. After my solo run last Thursday and knowing more about my condition, I figured I might be able to give a better effort than what I could muster two Saturdays ago. I woke up dizzy as has been usual the past week but it was time to “buck up” and run with my best effort. Cyndi told me before we started today that I should just run my pace no matter what it is and see how it feels and she will match it. And that’s how we started.

 Since we didn’t run together last weekend because she was occupied, we caught up with the happenings of the past two weeks. This is why I like running with other people. It makes the time and distance pass. Cyndi is faster than me so when we run together, that would be considered her easy day while it would be my tempo effort day. For people who read this blog who are not runners, tempo effort means you are running comfortably hard (even though for me, it gets uncomfortable at times).
Running the usual AREC (A Running Experience Club) 8 mile course, we climbed up 6^th Street hill at the halfway mark and what do we see but a Siamese cat crossing the street at the apex. We stopped a moment while Cyndi consumed an energy gel and I tried to catch my breath because we went up that hill at a pretty good clip, and the cat approached us. I was surprised that it didn’t run away and allowed me to pet him/her. Could it have been the pheromones emanating through my sweat, or just my animal magnetism ( LOL!)? Talk about attracting the wrong kind of creature. I told the cat that I’ll be back for him in about an hour to take him home with me. I didn’t of course, but I miss having cats at home. What I don’t miss is the tracked litter all over the place. Up to now those tiny things still come up out of nowhere. Last week a runner gets killed by a crashing plane, and yesterday another runner was assaulted by a kangaroo, and with some stroke of luck, all I encountered was a mild mannered cat. Thank God! 

Anyhow, we left the cat behind and trekked back to where we started from while trying to keep the pace that we attacked the hill with. We must have done pretty well because our overall time for 8.37 miles was 1 hour 18 minutes and 6 seconds or 9:20 average pace per mile. Two weeks prior, we did a 9:36 pace on a flat course. So today, I hope I was able to give my weekend training partner a decent workout compared to two weeks ago. Thanks again for running with me, buddy!

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