Training Journal

So yesterday I did a 30 minute spin on the bike. And the knee felt pretty good. Then I followed with a 4 mile run. 1 Mile in the middle was "up tempo". I wanted to see what the knee felt like when I tried to run a little faster. It went well. I felt a little tight afterwards, but some good stretching and foam rolling did the trick.


Today I had my Air Force PT test. I was able to get the maximum score on the pushups for the first time in years. My long gangly arms make it tough to do "perfect" pushups. The situps are never an issue for me. I get the max well within the 1 minute time limit.


Then came the run. About 5 months ago, I set the goal to get under 8 minutes for the mile and a half run. This averaging at least a 5:20 per mile pace. I'd been putting in plenty of running, but then a few weeks ago - of course - I aggravated my knee. Which is what all the fuss has been about on the blog lately.


So because I haven't run but once in the last three weeks, I decided that I should just ease into the run and see what my legs were comfortable with. I was going to do the first lap at 6 minute pace, and see if I could pick it up from there.


Well instead I did the first lap at 5:20 pace... dang. It's all that pace work I'd been doing in the previous months. I couldn't run "slow". So THEN I backed it off a little bit and ran the rest of the first mile a little slower. Finished lap four at 5:45. My legs were still feeling pretty good, so pumped it up a little bit, and ran the rest of it at 5:30 pace. Finished up in 8:29, and still felt like I had plenty of gas in the tank.


This bodes well for the Cooper River bridge run on Saturday. I'm hoping to be able to run fast there. I don't know what "fast" will look like, with the way the last few weeks have gone, but at least I have confidence that my knee should be able to handle running fast. Just need to focus on getting my legs as fresh as possible the next two days.


Till next time!