Today I managed 2x1600. I ran about 1.8mi warmup. Then I ran a 1600 at 5:51 (5:44). Rested. Second lap at 6:01 (5:55). Too tired to try a third. Ran a half warmdown, then was in a hurry to get to car, and then home, to get warm. I knew the first mile was going a tad fast, as I was watching pace, but it felt good, and it was evenly fast -- no blistering opening quarters First time is elapsed time for four laps going outside the shotput pit; parenthetical time is my Garmin watch time on the mile (the watch marked a mile several yards before the end of the fourth lap). I'm surprised it differed. This suggests my watch is about 1.5% short. One of these days I'm going to run a mile or two on Patuxent High Track, and see how it compares to that.

I considered the difference between 1600 & mile, but it is the other way -- a mile should be 9m longer than a 1600m track. My watch is registering the mile before the 1600m (fourth lap). Either my watch is off, or that track is long. It seems unlikely that the track is off, even though it is an odd track (with pole vault pit in the cinder part). I want to verify against a normal track -- eg, Patuxent High -- but I fear I'll discover my watch is off. Today I went out to try to see if I could run 8min/mi for distance runs. I ran 4mi in 30min, but then stopped to get my coat where I'd left it, and then helped work at theater, and caught a ride home later (raining, so unwilling to run carrying coat). Result -- I think 8min/mi pace is tough for me to run for distance runs, but I might try to slowly build up how far I can go at 8min/mi, at some point. I tried recording my recent workouts on the My Workouts section here on this website -- happily you can leave most of the boxes empty and just record what you want to. I discovered the existence of RRCA (Road Runner's Club of America) when someone forwarded one of their newsletters, and I browsed some back issues -- the Sep 2006 and several following ones have some articles on training that I printed out to read later. http://www.rrca.org/resources/footnotes/ One article on immediate post-race recovery advised against stretching directly after a race, saying there is a risk of injury from stretching after a race -- I forget why. It advised consuming carbs and proteins. Another article (not on races, just long distance running) advised consuming enough liquid to end run at same weight as start (I'm not doing that, as I'm always at least several pounds lighter after distance run), and to consume sodium to balance sweat loss -- I forget the grams of sodium they advised per 8oz of water, but they said energy drinks are better than water b/c they include sodium. One of the training articles advised only going up 5% mileage a week. I've not done any 10+ mile runs in at least a month, and I was doing them kind of haphazardly -- not making any effort to limit mileage change from one week to the next -- so I'm considering starting to keep track, to limit total mileage increase per week, and to limit distance mileage increase per week, to hopefully help reduce risk of injury from overstress (I keep reading that going up too fast dramatically increases risk of injury). I think 50mi/week sounds like a big time investment -- a colleague of mine was running 50mi/week b/c his daughter had to run that for her college cross country summer schedule. They used a fairly simple system -- 5mi x 5days, plus one 10mi plus one 15mi.

Rick, re: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=486 Good idea: I forgot about those. This summer I found that link, and started doing those everyday, until I read an article saying muscles should be given 48hrs recovery. Then I kind of forgot about them. I liked those, they were nice and easy, and I should start them again, on alternate days.

With the exception of some detriment to my joints or bones, I've found that running more and consistently has always been the way to avoid injury. Whenever I take a day off, I always feel awkward the next day in ways the emphasize muscle and join pain. Unless something really bothers me, I've always found it best to run as often as possible. I'll let you know how that goes for me when I start running more consistently...

Let us know if you have any contact with him, I'd be interested to know how he's doing.

Last night's workout went perfectly according to plan. But, as Joe and Perry can certainly attest, the cold was bitter and biting! And it got dark much quicker than we could run our 1.5-mile warm up around campus. My 4 X 200 + 1 X 400 + 4 X 200 splits went as follows: 34; 36; 35; 34; 1:14; 3(5-6?); 38; 36; 32. I did recovery 200s between the sprint 200s, but paused before and after the 400. I had hoped that this would be one workout which we could all perform in unison, but considering that this was Joe's first run since the previous track workout a week prior (which had been his first run since the Thanksgiving 5k 10 days before then), he couldn't exactly run abreast. And although Perry pushed me along determinedly for the first 200 set and the 400, he dodged out of the second set, consenting to jog along with Joe --- until the time came for the final 200. I was cramping up something awful in my shoulder socket and side, but we launched into a fierce race nonetheless. With almost no power left in my legs, I relied on sheer force of will alone to push me along. Being fresher from jogging, Perry had the advantage, and after a race of hoof-pounding intensity he won by a stride length. Joe had already absconded from the track to sit in his Explorer by then, and I'm afraid we kept him waiting a good while longer with our six-lap cool down. Adding it all up, I did an even five miles yesterday --- the final speed workout of 2007.

Well, your performance today was certainly optimal, as were the performances of Crystal, Alden, and myself (not meaning to sound like a braggart). Tomorrow I hope to write a more vivid race report.