Time to Strengthen the Feet

I currently wear big 'ol cushioned supportive trainers. New Balance 769s. I bought some light-weight New Balance 905 trainers to use for indoor racing. To break them in a wore them for about 15 minutes at the start of a treadmill recovery run and then switched back to my usual trainers. Oh, my... my usual trainers are really heavy and feel like crap! Now not only do I wear big 'ol cushioned shoes but I also wear them with prescription orthotics and I leave the shoe's original insole in place. Can't have too much "protection', right! I got to this point because it was the only way I could run without the pain from bunions forcing me to stop. And it's worked. But the downside is that my feet have grown progressively weaker. So... time for some foot strengthening. Here's my to do list...

1. Incorporate foot strengthening exercises into weekly routine.
2. Incorporate diagonals into weekly routine. Maybe some barefoot or in socks on turf.
3. Continue experimenting with lighter weight trainers.
4. Maybe take the original insoles out of my trainers.

Take it all slowly... my feet are in no shape to go trail running in Vibrams... at least not yet.

5:39

Got myself to the Feb 11 meeting of the NYRR's Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory in NYC. Was planning on trying an 800m but got there earlier in the program than I expected and so opted for the mile rather than hanging around for 2 hours or so. It was still 45 minutes plus of standing around and trying to stay loose without wasting energy. Back when I had planned on one of these indoor meets to be the end of a 6-month "season" I had hoped to put up a 5:30 mile or the equivalent around this time. But I was sick between Thanksgiving and Christmas and so spent January getting back on my feet and so I'm really just at the beginning of a base building phase. And I had been in all-day meetings for 3 straight days. And had just come down with a bad case of some sort of stomach virus or something. And I swear the sun got in my eyes even though it was indoors at night. And how that rock got onto the Mondo track surface I'll never know. The splits were something like 43,43,43,42,42,42,42,41+1 for each 200m lap with that 1 through in for the last 9 meters or whatever. I wasted a bit of energy trying to get into position early to run 41s but the guys in front of my would just speed up if I tried to pass so that was a waste for all of us. So all consider 5:39 wasn't too bad. Last year at this time I ran 5:42... for 1500m. So that's a pretty good year-over-year improvement. Should be able to go quite a bit faster outdoors in June at the business end of this training cycle.

Two Solid Weeks

Got in two solid weeks of training since the 10k trail run. Last week I did 6 out of 7 days, leaving out Tuesday's MP run. This week I've done...

• Sun 7 miles on the trails
• Mon 4.75 Recovery on TM in 46 Min with 2% incline and 6.5 mph top speed
• Tue 4 with 2.5 MP, didn't feel that great
• Wed 5.75 easy on snowy technical trails that took over an hour
• Thu 4.25 MP on TM in 35 Min top speed 8.4 (7:08)
• Fri 4.75 Recovery on TM in 44 Min with 2% incline and 6.8 mph top speed

So that's 30.5 this week with tomorrow to go. Already my biggest week ever. The plan is to get outside and do 3 or 4 easy with some 10-second leg speed accelerations but it's suppose to snow tonight so that may not be possible.

I'm going to start enforcing a 70% week every third week so this coming week will be one of those. Plan for the coming week...

• Sun 5.75 Easy on trails
• Mon 3 MP
• Tue 4 Recovery on TM
• Wed Rest
• Thu NYRR Thursday Night at the Races at the Armory, 800m + 4
• Fri 4 Recovery on TM
• Sat 3 Easy with leg speed accelerations

Goal for the 800m is 38,38,38,?. I final 36 for 2:30 would be nice. We shall see.

I'm also down to 155 lbs. Trying to get to 150 come Memorial day. Haven't been below 154 or so in many, many years.