Training Log Archive: matzah ball

cliff cave, paved and dirt trails.

10 minutes drills on track, then 10 minutes on treadmill. short hill sprints. 6% @8-10mph for 25 seconds w 1:30R @ 5mph

machines w short jog/sprints etc in between sets.

After while had this grin on my face, because in spite of it being 2nd workout of day I felt good and only stopped in deference to tom morning. granted i take a lot of downtime, but what more could one ask?

to pavilion at JB to return some running books somebody lent me. A former neighbor of Craig Virgin, so a book about him, and the Derderian Boston Marathon which besides being about the development of modern running is just a great anecdotal history lesson.

warmup w drills. old beater shoes.

Riley Flynn is the new Tim Bradley. Excellent paced coaching session, confidence booster. Didn't seem to matter is was 76F, 82RH. Old Boosts better than new.

3 x 2:30-3R(400) + 1:30-1:45R(200) +1:45 - 2:15R (200)
1:25, 39, 42
1:27, 42, 40
1:25, 41, 41

warmup, drills, strides on y track

parks to garden, then some alley hills on way back

Energy levels having gone up paradoxically by giving up chocolate products, I've realized that there must be a mental aspect to this as well as a physiological one. My theory for the physical is that stimulants in chocolate were disrupting nervous system pathways for recovery and rest. And guess what, the nervous system is tied into something called the brain.

As a corollary to the physical aspect of eating chocolate and feeling a definite buzz or rush of well-being, I noticed I was planning my day around the chocolate event i.e. 'workout, chocolate, then another workout' or 'easy workout/recovery, chocolate, then workout first thing the next day fueled by residual chocolate buzz' or even more simply 'why do I feel so @#$% tired, I can't live like this, ok, here goes choco down the hatch'! I would realize this is exactly how a junkie feels, but would justify it as some sort of medication for the aged or possibly depressed.

So the chocolate was blocking nervous system mechanisms of proper recovery, but also thought patterns conducive to independence, strength and humility. I was trying to force particular workouts to happen, and thinking too much about the next step without paying attention to the one I was taking that instant. Instead of letting things come to me, and recognizing them as they came along. I was not listening, not listening to my body, not listening, not stilling myself, in a contemplative sense, to my mind or the spirit beyond the mind. So now I realize the physiological stresses and travails of that process had a mirror-image counterpart in my mental make-up.

C • Chocolate 2

20E, 2T w/ 2R, 20 E on gravel track. 7:15, 7:09. Those times tell me I am rounding into good shape, not great but ok.