Friday' Musings

Friday, January 13, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning and happy Friday the 13th! Grab your coffee and let’s go.

Hope you have had good week. The weather has certainly been beautiful as we close out the week and even my good friends to the north, pulled out their shorts for the winter running. While we have had some cold days here in Pinehurst, I have only worn running pants once so far, this winter. I am a bit of a goof, in that it takes temperatures below 25 degrees to get me out of running in shorts, so my running pants don’t get much use here for sure. For some reason, I feel slower in running pants as opposed to feeling like a speed demon in shorts. I could probably go over my Garmin data and compare my running times for days above and below 25 degrees and it is likely that there is no difference in my pace.

A little FYI: If you are like me (especially on cold mornings), you love that hot coffee right out of the coffee maker or from the barista and that first sip while piping hot, warms your whole body. Back last fall Kathy showed me a piece from an article that mentioned that coffee is normally cooked to 170 degrees. While that temperature will burn your tongue if you are not careful, apparently it can also burn your esophagus, which might increase your chances of throat cancer. They suggest that we let our coffee sit in the cup for 5 minutes before taking that first sip. I agree, that can be very challenging in the morning, when all we can think about, is that first sip. I have gotten good with pouring a cup and letting it sit but, I don’t like it. I am also an advocate of putting a sprinkle of ground cinnamon in my cup of coffee, as cinnamon had great healthy benefits.

Yesterday I ran hill repeats, giving me a second quality workout for the week. Not that I am training for any particular event, but I am using training cycles for my own personal running plan. The first cycle was base building and now this next cycle is strengthening. Not to be confused with strength training, the strengthening stage is a focus of strengthening my legs, lactate threshold and cardiovascular system. So, I will add longer intervals and hill repeats, while continuing to work toward my goal of comfortably running a long run of 90 minutes. The hill repeats were challenging, but it was a good change from my typical Thursday run. My regular runs the past 6 weeks have some hills in them so, I was in good shape for this workout and I could run repeats for 25 minutes. The difference to my hill repeats from previous times, is that I pushed myself to run close to race pace for each repeat. In the past, I have stayed at a steady pace and while that strategy has benefits, pushing the pace, improves both my cardiovascular system and my lactic acid tolerance. Though yesterday, I did not feel like I took myself to my lactate threshold, so I must either speed up or run for a longer duration. Possibly, I will find a longer hill and keep the other factors the same. For me, it is all about improving “running efficiency” and that requires challenging runs and some discomfort physiologically.

I have myself on a schedule this morning. I must be at work by 10:00, so my goal is to be done with my chatting by 8:10, so I can start my strength training by 8:15. I am tracking, so only my laziness will keep me from working out.

I am through my first week of college and I am unsure of which will be harder; my courses or the ACE certification program. Both will challenge my greatest weakness and that being understanding and remembering anatomy terms and functions. I am all about challenging and continuous improvement, so it is something I should embrace but, I am nervous about being successful. All of it will require a lot of my time and a great deal of discipline and thankfully I have the time, I just need to be disciplined. I am not much of a TV watcher, so that does help. The challenge for as well, is to not just memorize material, but to actually understand how it all works. While passing the courses and the certification program is important, but I am doing this so that I can learn. It is just easier sometimes to focus on memorizing stuff without actually understanding. It will be a challenge.

It is almost 8:10, so I will get going. Have a great Friday!

God Bless!

Mike