Monday, August 20, 2012
It was a beautiful evening, sunny and in the low 70’s…and ideal night for a running workout.  I’d done 32 minutes on my last run and planned this one to be 35, followed by ten minutes in the bleachers.  I continue to look to do more weight-bearing exercise as I prepare for the Adirondacks, which means less riding and more running.

I returned to my favorite, short course in the Metroparks on which I’d done my last run in 27 minutes.  I hadn’t checked to see how that compared to my pr on the course, but I had a feeling it was close on a day I’d been running what I felt was pretty easy though my heart rate had been 160.  Anyway, I started the run with the monitor on and with the intention of running a little faster.  I arrived at my first check point about 10 seconds ahead of the run I’d done two days earlier with a heart rate in the high 140’s, which was good.  It indicated that I was running faster, but with less effort…and it did feel pretty comfortable. 

I tried to hold that effort for the remainder of the run and purposely didn’t pick it up over the final mile as I might if I was attacking a course pr.  I didn’t want to aggravate the knee, which faster running could do, and so cruised through the finish.  I was pleased to see that I’d run 26:43, or 17 seconds faster than on the previous run and with my heart rate maxing out at 148.  When I returned home later and looked up my pr for the course, I was surprised to see that I’d broken it by 2 seconds on a day when I was just cruising and in running shape that should be sub-par.  I continued running until I’d reached the 40-minute mark…a little longer than planned, but not excessive.

I drove to the track and jogged slowly to the bleachers.  I was leg-weary and not looking forward to the pain I was about to experience.  I decided to run the bleachers for 10 minutes and see how many sets I could do.  Ugh.  As I completed my 15^th set with a little over 9 minutes on the watch and the heart rate monitor at 150, I decided I’d had enough fun.  I finished by jogging for two minutes back to the car where I collapsed into the front seat.

While bathing in my neighbor’s pool, its owner asked me if I still had my floor jack and could help him with some work on his sports car.  We needed jack stands, too, which a third neighbor, Mike, owned and the three of us gathered to put a new bumper for pulling trailers onto the car.  When Mike’s wife stopped over to ask what we were doing, Mike answered in two, simple words, “man stuff.”

So there’s another day in the life of a guy continuing to fight the good fight.  Any day you do a great workout and finish it with “man stuff” is a very good day.

Run/Bleacher Duration: 50 minutes.  Hike Duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 145 running, 80 hiking.
Calories burned during workout: 850 running, 300 hiking.