Sunday, October 24

Post Mary Noodling

Today was a run day. My first since MDI. Felt good to get out and feel the rhythm of the feet. After a sleeping late and several cups of coffee, I put my season training plans away and dressed for cool weather running. It was 48* with a light NW breeze – perfect for me. Shorts, tee, arm-warmers gloves and a beanie to start.

The plan was to go 20 minutes easy and turn around. Well, as I crossed the bridge towards UMO, I decided I should see how far it was to the UMO track. Next week I start my Out Season (OS) and will need to do a 5K vDot test and that would be a great place to do it. Twelve and a half laps – nearly all out on a uniform surface, no hills and wind not a one-way factor. When I got there it was empty so I started around. My Garmin chirped mile 3 on the back stretch and I exited on the other end. I probably should have gone back the same way but wondered what the distance was the other way (Stillwater to Bennoch).

It felt so good not to be concerned about heart rate or pace for a change. I sped up a little, then slowed way down for a bit. It was like since I didn’t have to stay on pace, I intentionally altered it – because I could. Most of the time when running I get so ‘in the moment’ of running I forget to look around. Today it was just the opposite. Just noodling along, checking out Halloween decorations, watching crows arguing over some road kill and the like. Unstructured running. That’s what got me started so many years ago. Sure I like the training and data tracking and all. But every now an again, I need to go out and just run. Today was that day.

Maybe I should insert ‘Noodling’ days into all my training. It would be nice to noodle at least twice a month. Hhhmmmmm….

Yesterday I did a demo set of intervals on the trainer. Carole came down to join me. She was doing a 4 mile walk-run on the DeadMill. We had Bourne Supremacy queued up for distraction. I don’t think either of us saw any ‘fluffy bunnies’ but we really didn’t expect to either…… After a 5 minute warm-up I hit the interval button on my Joule and quickly spun up to speed. The first 4 minutes seemed too easy but that feeling didn’t last past minute 6. By then I was getting to understand what I was in for…. I knew nothing. At 10 minutes I found myself looking at the clock about every 20 seconds. Finally I hit the 12 minute mark – gasping for air. Four minutes later I was starting my second 12 minute session. This time I felt the burn start much earlier. I tried not to see the clock till I though I was close to the end. No way! That had to be more than 8 minutes! Must be something wrong with the clock. By 10 minute mark I was looking at the clock every 10 second. I didn’t think I was going to hold on till the end. Of course I did. I can’t quit. I hardly even started.

Still learning about the trainer and the power meter. That will be a long slow process I think. At this point the data are not important. mostly just trying to get to a place so I am ready to test next Monday. Protocol for the test is WU then 2x20’ (2). Meaning start with a warm up, then two 20 minute intervals with a 2 minute recovery in between. My normalized average power for the 42 minute session will be my FTP (functional threshold power) that will guide all my training until I retest 4 weeks later.

Run Strong

No comments: