29 October 2007

Workout notes 2200 yard swim; I am getting better at swimming again. Then I had the best yoga session (on my own) that I’ve had in a long time; the “camel” pose is finally beginning to open up for me.

Walking: my legs are recovering. But for those who wonder why I call myself “pathetic”, here is the type of walking a national class (or world class masters) ultrawalker does:

quick note: I walked the hilly 30 miles today 48 minutes faster than last week, 4h 26m. Ate a bag of jelly beans, a coke and a gatorade. morning weight 175. feeling strong. last mile 8:27.

Ray has qualified for the U. S. Olympic Trails 50K racewalk.

Get a load of this training week:

147 kms this week in 6 days. That’s about 90-91 miles, I think.

Sunday: Rest

Monday: 60k, with 6 k slow, 50k in 4:25:34, 4 k slow

Tuesday: 10k jogging/ski walking

Wednesday: 8 k slow walking

Thursday: 3 X 5k in 24:07, 23:22, 23:49

Friday: 6k slow, 8 k slow

Saturday: 1 k slow, 25 k 2:07:10 (26:02/25:08/25:22/25:02/25:34), 1 k slow, 5 k 23:52, 1 k slow, 1 k 4:31, 3 k jog.

I’m ready to walk about 4:15 now for 50k. I have 12 weeks to lose a few pounds, increase the pace a bit, and do more long walks. I’d like to take a second per week off my readiness pace, which is around 5:05 per km now. I can walk 4:55s without breathing hard, but 5:05s or so is all my legs can handle for 3-4 hours. In the 25k today I had a few 4:58s or 4:59s, but my legs were tired from Monday so I stopped at 25k to rest instead of doing 40k in 3:22, which I probably could have managed with an all-out effort.

A 4:25 50K training walk!!!! For the uninitiated, I’ll put it this way: his training walk would have placed him 12 out of 133 in the Chicago 50K RUN (paved bikepath course) in 2004 (the year I walked a 6:20, which remains my PR). Of course, the world record walk is 3:35, and anything under 3:50 is considered world class.

Anyway, this is what a real athlete does in training. This is why my wife calls me a “pretend athlete”.

Athletic excitement this week: Football, Navy vs. Notre Dame. Can Navy end the long losing streak (since 1963?) Notre Dame is a 3.5 point favorite.
NFL: Colts-Patriots. Two teams that just completely dominated other good teams. The Colts blew out Jacksonville and Carolina on the road in back to back games (the first one on Monday night, no less) and the Patriots dominated a good Redskin team 52-7 and blew out the otherwise undefeated Cowboys in Dallas.

In running, we have the men’s Olympic trials marathon on Saturday.