Another Record Week For 2011'

I got in a very long and hard week again, and have set another record for a week this year. I covered 38 miles. Two 3 mile treadmill runs with hills the last mile. Two 5 milers, one at NMSU where I did 10 hill repeats and a few ugly football field sprints, and another where I did 8 repeats of one minute at about 800 meter pace. An easy 6 miler. A 7 miler where I did 1.5 miles at 10K pace, .7 at 5K pace, and .6 ten seconds faster than 5K pace. And a long easy 9 miler. I am tired and pretty knee knackered. Definitely need an easy week this week before I push another month or so. I found a 5K to race 6 days after my birthday, so I am 6 weeks away from testing weather this testosterone induced super hard training will pay off! I have no desire to train hard for the sake of training hard. After 4 "T" shots, two things are very clear. I have gained about 8 lbs. that is probably at least 5 lbs. water, and the improved recovery has allowed me to train much harder again.
Deb got me this T-shirt in Hawaii. It is pretty close to my regular mantra....60 is the new not dead!

60 Is The New Not Dead!

My friends Ernie and Frank turn 59 soon, and begin the push to 60. I want us to find a nice event to be able to run when we are all 60. Of course, I don't turn 60 until later in 2011, but we can find something I am sure that we can all get to and train for. Nothing dramatic. No death marches. Anyway, I thought we should comprise a team called the Flying Turtles with our motto being "60 is the new not dead"! Have to look into finding a shirt maker before then.
After running 5 miles in the flying dirt storm yesterday, today was my day off. No wind and a beautiful 73 degrees. Figures. Still struggling to get my right leg to follow a coordinated running flight path that is somewhat normal. This week the front of my ankle is bugging me, and the knee is a good bit less troublesome. I tried doing eight 30 stride pickups yesterday to see if I could stretch out whatever muscles, tendons, and ligaments are impinging my flight path. Didn't work particularly well. Also couldn't keep my heart rate in any kind of easy range in the wind. Will try it again next week along with more hill work on the treadmill. Am running about 5 hours a week total, which is all I really want too for all of this year. Just want to reorganize it to incorporate a longer day each week, and some strength and speed work later in the year. Am running a minute a mile slower than pre crash, and hope I get some of that back soon. My morning heart rate has returned to the 50 to 52 bpm range. That tells me I am starting to get into the beginnings of shape, but my pace at 132-136 bpm has not improved much in the past 4 weeks. Hopefully it will over the next 8 weeks. This is by far the hardest comeback from any of the back surgeries or foot surgeries. Probably has a lot to do with age. Sure wouldn't want to be making a comeback from anything much later than this.....