Post Eugene: Pre The Next One

One more sucky race photo

The euphoria of my Hayward Field finish wore off rather quickly. Having to rush out of an Airbnb and head for Portland to catch a flight home made for a harried day to say the least.

All in all, there were few post race effects. I was a bit sore for two days although nothing monumental, my toe still hurt from that unfortunate encounter with the root on Hollister Trail, and I seemed to have brought the rain home with me. Other than that, piece of cake.

This week's training had a built in back-off. I ran slow and easy Monday and Tuesday just to keep the blood flowing (not just from the race but also because of all the traveling the two weeks prior). Wednesday felt like a halfway decently normal day and the rest of the week fell into place. Plan: run consistent, not a lot, and slow.

All that changed Sunday as I was out on an 8 mile run and I got this idea in my head. "You say you're going to start training now, instead of just running, so how about a little tempo action?" I looked at my watch, saw that I had been going for about a mile and a half, so decided to 5-4-3-2-1 it (with apologies to Mel Robbins - or maybe not). Off I went.

I was not only unsure of the pace I should be running, but I wasn't completely sure of the duration. Also, only a vague idea of the heart rate. SO..... I relied on my past. In the old days, a tempo run was 18-22 minutes at a pace around your 10-13.1 race pace. Simple enough for me: 10:00 - 10:10 probably. 

By the way, nowadays we call so many different kinds of run TEMPO runs that it's become rather confusing. I'll rely on my two experts: Coach Joe Vigil and Jack Daniels (the coach, not the whiskey). 18-22 min at roughly VO2Max pace.

The first mile or so was labored and uncomfortable. Mile two eased up a bit but I could tell that after all this time of simply running, training would be a whole different feeling (you'd think that wouldn't be a surprise after 51 1/2 years). Nonetheless, the uncomfortable mile was around 10:24 (and mostly downhill - yikes, that's slow), the second a 10:04. My heart rate was around 154 during mile two, averaged 146 for the whole thing, and maxed out at 160. The heart rate aspect was okay. I should be tempo-ing around 155-158 for my age and fitness level. Then I got home and discovered, much to my chagrin, my pace should have been 9:50. Maybe next time.

The roughly four mile cooldown brought about two emotions: I was happy to have accomplished the first real workout in a long time, and a bit sad that just 18 years ago, 6:30 was tempo pace. (did he write JUST 18 years ago - Ha!). Of course, if you'd like to go WAY back, 45 years ago, we ran nothing slower than 6 minute pace. I digress.

Looking for a good week of training. Thinking I might jump in the Colfax Half in two weeks as it's a local race I have yet to run, and the Bolder Boulder 10K the week after. Then.... it's the Dexter to Ann Arbor Half on June 3 in Michigan a race I ran during its debut in 1974. THEN...... a summer of TRAINING for the fall racing season.

So, that's it. Have a great week. Run on.