Random Banter

 It's dark and cold outside. That's the reason why my running season has shifted to a treadmill season. And even that has had it's ups and downs...mostly downs.   I really don't mind running on the treadmill but for some reason this season it has been a lot harder to get into it.  I don't know what the issue is but I'm struggling.  I'm mainly down to 3 days a week of running...if I'm lucky!  Most of the time it's like 2 but I'm hopeful that I've found my motivation and I'll be back to at least 3 days with another 1 day dedicated to getting some strength work in.   There are 2 things that I hope will motivate me and keep me going thru these winter/colder/darker months.  That is spending a few weeks running at a lower heart rate and kind of ignoring power for the time being.  I think that may help me a lot.  Tomorrow that experiment begins.  I did that at the start of this year and I think aerobically I was in the best shape that...

Yesterday morning, the 27th, I did a critical power test.  I think workout in the Stryd application said it was a critical power calibration but for all purposes it was a critical power test.  The prescription was to warm up for 5 minutes, run hard for 20 minutes, recover for 5 minutes, run extremely hard for 30 seconds and then cool down for 5 minutes.   In typical fashion I had been thinking about this for two or more days prior to the event. Where was I going to run? Should I include a hill? What if it's really windy?  Is 5 minutes warm up enough?  Should I do this on the treadmill since it will be treadmill time shortly? You get the idea!   Since this was not scheduled to be as long as I normally run in the mornings I slept in for a few minutes and was out on the road, lit up, at 5:25AM.  The route I ended up choosing was mostly flat but there was some downhill and some uphill.  But they were both very slight in nature!   A...

 Saturday's are my long run days most of the time.  Today was no different.  Last weekend my long run wasn't as long as I had wanted because I started to get light headed after about 30 minutes so I cut it short and only ran for 45 minutes. So I was looking forward to today's long run and boy was it worth the wait.   I had a couple of ideas of where I wanted to run but as has been the case these past few weeks I've been focusing on the cadence and enjoying the act of running.  I took off on my run at about 7:50 and planned on running for 70 minutes as I had something that I needed to do at 10.   By about 20 minutes I was hitting my stride, I'm still slower than a turtle, and it felt so damn good.  And it wasn't a temporary feeling...it kept going until the end.  Running seemed easy and wasn't any work.  It's on of those runs that you wished would never end or you could bottle up and drink before your next run.  Even now nearly ...

 As I mentioned in my previous post I wasn't really sure what to do after my trail race.  More than one time, or two times, I've put a training block on my calendar only to remove it a few minutes or days later.  I'm just not there for another block of training.  Instead of that I've been concentrating on increasing my cadence.   I wasn't sure how increasing my cadence would go.  Part of me thought it would take a lot of work and it has been but almost 2 weeks in it's starting to feel more natural.  I'm not at that much talked about 180 number but I have increased into the 160's.  My sweet spot seems to be between 160 and 164.  On my long run this last Sunday I had to do a double take at my watch because the cadence I was running at felt natural.  That was 164.  I still have to think about it but it's become more of my routine.   As a result of focusing on my cadence my per mile times have come down by a couple of min...

 Last week was my race...my "A" race if you will.  It was a 4.8 mile trail race that I'd been training all year for...well for as long as I've been running this year!! In my previous post I had talked about some times I was seeing with the Stryd calculator.  I felt they were a bit off but if those had come true I would have been over the world to have one of them.  However a day or two before I was to run my race I was able to download a copy of the race course and input it into Stryd which gave me a more accurate time.  I believe the projected time, if I ran at that power (280 watts), would have been 51:45 or something along those lines.   Saturday morning I was feeling good.  I had a bit of toast with peanut butter and some coffee at the house and then we drove to the course which was about 30 minutes away from town.  I did a little over a half mile of warm up and then waited for the first race, an 8 miler, to go off and then we lined up an...

I'm one week out from my trail race that I've spent the bulk of the summer training for.  To say I'm stoked is an understatement.  I'm in the cut back phase of the program I'm following and I'm feeling pretty good.   The Stryd application that I've been using for my training is telling me that there is a possibility I could run this in about 48:30.  The last time I ran this course it was 59:12 I believe. So as much as I want to believe that 48:30 time I have my doubts.  I'm the fittest I've been for running.  However I've been training on roads and not trails so I suspect that takes some time into account.  Additionally there is some climbing on it but not a ton.  This time is based on if I can keep my power at 280 watts which is 97% of my critical power (288).  Part of me wants to believe that I can do it but there's also a large part that says I'd better make some adjustments to not go up in flames.  So here's my 3 goals (A,B,C) a...

 Last weekend was the 3rd month of my wife and I doing weight watchers.  I'm not sure were she is on her journey (she's lost more than me I do know!) but I thought I'd stop in here to update my progress.  Weight watchers wise I'm down18.6 lbs at this point. I'm weighing in at 213.6 lbs.  Last year, 2020 (before COVID) I think I remember seeing 211 on the scale but I can't find any records to back that up. But I'm going to use it for motivation.  Once I go beyond 211 I'm not sure of the last time I saw a number that low.  My hope is that by my race at the end of August I'll be below 210 and can crush my previous time.   Which brings us to Stryd running.  Things have been going well.  My times continue to improve.  One area that I really need to work in however is getting 4 days of running a week.  Last week I did it and this week it didn't happen cause I was just beat.  For me I need to get my sleep and in order to get 4 da...