Training Log Archive: TomN

Slow run today. Yesterday's workout didn't feel that hard while I was doing it, but afterward it did.

Speaking of which, a report on the new IAAF Nutrition consensus hit my news feed recently, specifically the recommendations for protein consumption for athletes in training. A 150 lb. runner doing long and/or hard workouts (yeah, that's me) should be eating about 100g of protein per day. And it's not sufficient to just get the protein after your workout, or in one meal. You have to basically keep the protein going in continuously for 24 hours, for full recovery. So, 20g of protein 5 times a day: 3 meals plus two snacks. That's quite a bit more than I've been eating.

I went to Costco and got a half-gallon of greek yogurt (20g/cup) and some protein shakes (30g ea.). Let's see how this works.

At Einstein track. 4x(1000 + 600 easy). Times were 4:27, 4:25, 4:21, 4:23. They were a little slow, target was more like 4:21. But the intensity felt right.

Longish run on Rock Creek bike path.

Warmups.

87th NASA Intracenter 2-Mile Run. Over 600 runners, and fine conditions. I was just delighted with this time. The last time I ran under 14 minutes was in 2013, when I had just turned 60. I didn't think I'd ever see the other side of 14 minutes again.

Easy run with 4 strides at the end. Race tomorrow.

First run on new ASICS Kayanos. The shoes I've been running on for the last 12 years, Brooks Adrenaline, had a radical redesign this year and are more of a neutral shoe now. I spent an afternoon at RnJ Sports trying on shoes and having them watch me run, and gradually got unhappier about having to do this at all. I quit running in Nikes for this exact reason -- every few years they'd have a new shoe with the same name but different structure and performance. And there wasn't the internet, so you wouldn't know.

Anyway, I ended up with Gel Kayano 25s this time, which were expensive and hideous-looking. They're white and black. They look like Fred Astaire's dancing shoes. I feel like I want to dye them some other color.

West Point Day 2 Brown (long). If you had told me it would take me a half-hour to get to the first control, I might have doubled my effort, but it might not have made any difference.

First I lost 5 min trying to find the indistinct trail near the junction of the two powerline cuts, and failing that, just trying to establish my position. Then I waded through thigh-high blueberries for 10 minutes, and came to a cliff that I took to be the one with the control on it. I went to its southern end, undecorated by any control, so I identified it (correctly) as the cliff to the south of the tip of the swamp, and made my way north through horrendous terrain. It was either slow wet vegetation or steep rocks and cliffs, and I toggled between the two. The only saving grace of this approach was that I identified all the rocky features in the terrain on the way to the control and spiked it while at least a half-dozen others continued wandering through the blueberries near the indistinct end of the 4-meter cliff.

In that same amount of time I picked off the other 9 controls. This got me 3rd in M65, behind Phil, who ran really well this weekend, and Glen, who made mistakes both days, but lost just a little less time overall than I did.

Long - Brown - Splits