55th Birthday Week Workout Extravaganza!

I turn 55 this coming Saturday, October 22. I just did my 4th 11-mile run of the week, and my legs are sore. Let me be more specific—my quads are sore. Calves are fine, hamstrings are fine, quads are on Day 2 of DOMS.

Let me back up a bit. If you have been following me, you’d know that I took a 15-week break from running earlier this year due to a flare up of sciatica, most likely from some herniated disks in my lumbar spine or else just muscle imbalances. I began serious running again the week beginning June 13. Around mid-August, it dawned on me I was turning 55 this year, and it seemed a good excuse to do some training stuff I’ve never done before.

The logical thing would have been to run 55 miles on my birthday. However, I did not think this was a good idea, having only 7 weeks to build from a 31-mile weekly total to being well prepared for 55 straight. It would just hurt too much, and I’d need a good deal of recovery afterward. But I figured I could easily run 55 miles total for the week ending with my birthday.

But just running 55 miles in a week is not that big of a deal, and besides I would want to swim and bike. So to make it interesting, I decided to play around with the number 55 and figure out how to add in some swimming and biking to the week as well. I thought it would be fun on both my birthday and the day after to do a 5500-yard swim, 55-mile bike and 5.5-mile run. Now if I could complete that in 5.5 hours, I’d be golden, but it will take me a little longer. It should be more like 5:55! That is still good—all 5’s, right? Yes, I am a math geek.

So with the weekend workouts planned, the question became how to do the remaining 44 miles of running, and I decided that I would run 11 miles Monday-Thursday, and then take Friday off because I figured my legs might be a little trashed, and it would be good to rest up before the double NothingMan thingies. So that’s what I decided on. And then I laid out a plan to get me from point A to point B. I didn’t really tell too many people what I was planning, because a part of me didn’t know whether I could do it (and I’m not done yet, eh?). I’ve certainly run this much. I’ve done a ½ IM and full IM on back to back days, and I’ve swum over 12,000 yards across 2 consecutive days, and oh yeah there’s that one Ultraman I did. So really, this isn’t such an epic week (besides I hate that overused word), but its purpose is to celebrate that I’m turning 55 and I can do this, and it will help me decide whether I want to go longer than IM distance next year. In a silly way, it sets the stage for my next few birthday weeks, where I will need to add distance to each day :)

I am pretty used to training 2+ hours per day on work days, so going down to just 11-mile runs has been interesting. I am so damn efficient (and small) when I run—I only burn maybe 85 calories per mile. I ran outside on Monday and Tuesday on my usual semi-hilly route from home in the cold, blustery wind. My route was 5.5 miles out and back, and I was into the wind on the way home. I drank my caffeine-laced infinit, which was great, but caused me to not sleep well for 2 nights, so for yesterday and today I switched to just one can of Coke plus Gatorade. I just need to order up a batch of my custom Infinit with no caffeine in it, because I really did like using it for running. My outdoor runs were done as run 9’/walk 1’ and even doing that I averaged 9mpm both days! I figured I’d better do some walking lest I do the first run too fast and pay for it later in the week. I was kinda shocked I could still average 9mpm even with walking! When I had first returned to running back in June, I was doing that and averaging 10mpm, so even with absolutely no sexy run training (no deliberate tempo work or intervals), I’m doing pretty well again on the running front!

Yesterday the weather turned really windy and rainy, and I decided this was a good enough excuse to run on the treadmill. Plus, I run slower on it than when I do outside—I’m just one of those people that always runs faster outdoors than indoors, even though I know people who are just the opposite. I also decided that it didn’t matter if I only ran 10mpm on the treadmill. I mean, who cares? I’m putting in some good mileage.

Yesterday’s run came out to 9:47 pace, and today’s run was 9:34 pace. My quads were pretty sore after yesterday’s run, so I gave myself a good leg massage and did some good stretching. Today, my quads felt beat up after maybe 6 miles, but I knew it wouldn’t get any worse, so it’s all good. After I finished today, though, it was the first time in years where I could feel an ache in the front part of my psoas muscles. That used to happen regularly on long runs back when I wasn’t as fit as I have been the last 5 or 6 years.

I didn’t schedule anything besides the 4 11-milers through today, but this morning I just had to go and swim. Swimming loosens me up. It made me laugh that I was the fastest swimmer in the pool while I was there and I was just going easy. I could tell that not lifting this week gives me a bit more speed in the pool, and I do need to remember that, since I’ve been lifting heavier this year, and it will pay off eventually!

I really enjoyed my short swim—1700 yards—which felt like just a warmup, and I felt super smooth with great form. I can’t see myself just running ever again—swimming just feels really great, and I’ve worked hard to be decent at it, and I don’t want to have an emaciated upper body like some pure runners!

It’s been interesting these last few days in that I really haven’t needed to chow down like I usually do on weekdays when I’m putting in 2+ hours of training. Sucks. Oh well, I will really hit the feed bag Friday-Sunday evenings. My brother is buying me dinner on Saturday night and I’ve warned him I will be eating for two!

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from work, getting a massage, and maybe I will do some abs work, or maybe not. And fix bottles for the weekend.

I realize that in turning 55 that I will need to turn in my cougar card. I am already calling myself an old lady, but hey, I’m a super fit old lady, and happy to be so! I’ll post after I get through the weekend, assuming I get through it in one piece. I expect Sunday to be tough, but if it wasn’t, what would the point be? I will be starting my 56th year of life on a high note with the ability to take on any challenge I fancy!