Oh Happy Day

Sunday, Feb 17:

Gosh it feels good, bouncing along on the rubber indoor track at Bethel University. Today my only race was the 800 meter, and I finished within one second of my PR, one way or the other, at 2:50 or so. I went out WAY too fast, a 37-second first lap when the average ended up 42.5, but that didn’t seem to hurt the end result. The race is four laps of 200 meters, and the third lap was undoubtedly the slowest, but I think I drove a little harder on the fourth. I don’t know the actual splits, except the very first one. The good news is that if I can run 2:50 with a bad strategy and without training much in the past few weeks, I may be able to do quite a bit better. Is 2:40 possible? I may have to follow a rabbit with a better sense of pace than I have.

Even better news is: No pain in the left achilles, and no pain in the right knee, which has started to lock up on occasion. Even going downstairs, the acid test for both, there is no hint of trouble. Regardless, I’m going to visit my very wise primary physician ASAP about the knee. I may not have a lot of time left to run, so I’ll probably treat this aggressively, if treatment is possible.

Unfortunately, the primary objective of this race was not to make a PR but to discover my maximum heart rate (HRMax). I may have gone about it wrong, by warming up too much beforehand. During the race I saw the heart rate monitor (HRM) showing 189, but I have seen that before when it wasn’t making good enough contact with my chest, so I don’t believe that number. Immediately after the race it still showed 189 until I pressed the HRM strap against my chest, and then it showed 155. I don’t believe that either, because I’ve seen it higher in races; I believe the max is somewhere around 167. By the time I held my wrist and counted my pulse for 30 seconds, it was back down to about 105. But still I want to measure my HRMax, because certain training goals are calculated from it, so I will have to come up with a new plan.

I probably warmed up too much today for a good HRMax measurement - almost three miles of warmup, mostly easy jogging. Better to surprise the system a little more? And for sure I’d like to find some sort of contact gel or paste for the HRM, so that the contact with my chest doesn’t dry out while standing at the start line. I could do the running outdoors, of course, but it’s nice to use a track because a tumble or other injury event is more likely during speed work, and tracks are softer. Perhaps I’ll wait until spring, when outdoor high-school tracks will be available. Or find another indoor track where I can do this on my own. Or dreadmills? That’s possible, because the pace is only about 10.5 mph, but I really don’t like the dreadmill at that speed. Suggestions invited.

Back to today’s race, though. To my surprise, I’m very much taken by this sort of racing. Who’d have thought that circling a 200-m track could be so enjoyable? I’d like to find a way to do more of it, if my old bones and ligaments can take it. All the more enjoyable today because friend Jim joined us at Bethel, and ran a very nice 5:53 mile. In a couple of weeks, I believe that he could run a mile in 5:35 to 5:40. Oh yeah.

Saturday, Feb 16:

North St Paul Community Club, three miles in 25:04, pace 8:21. This was intended to be an easy three miles, and it was, but I felt very good and ran a litle faster than the 9:00 pace I’ve used of late. Splits 8:38, 8:19, 8:07. No pain in the left achilles, which is very good. My right knee did sort of “lock up,” though, in the very last (fastest) lap, and I stumbled and hopped for a few seconds before it cleared up again. I’m sure there is a piece of cartilage sliding around in there. I need to find out (1) if it can be taken out or fixed somehow, and (2) if that should be done now before the knee joint chews itself up.



Don running the 800m.


Last night's dinner: Wild-caught sole, organic sweet relish, organic blackberry preserves, shredded mango chutney, fresh-squeezed organic lime.


Recent salad: Organic salad greens (under there somewhere), cantaloupe, organic baked blue-corn chips, pineapple, Sunshine's homemade guacamole, organic brazil nuts. This photo turned out a little more suggestive than the salad seemed in person. Anyone want to offer a title for it? Salad fantasizing about dessert?