Friday, April 24, 2009

7:25 mile--run as eight 220 yard runs followed by 5 minute breaks, in long and quick paces style

This is an abbreviated report; I suspect the reports on the workouts have become too verbose. I might update this report at a later time to increase its 'verbosity'.

I wonder whether people underestimate the value slash propriety of 'verbosity' in these reports.

After a workout I am usually too tired to do anything except sit at the computer and type out a report, and I am not hungry. Then again, I find that: stuff like 12 quarter-mile runs makes me more hungry compared to three one mile runs; drinking beer after a workout quickly puts me in the mood for food; the sitting at the computer and typing a report can be replaced with drinking beer and eating. Problems are: beer is expensive; beer & food makes me sleepy.

My strategy with regards to my goal of getting fit enough to competitively play sports that I am skilled in, is to exploit every possible advantage that can be produced by thoughtful cleverness; the idea is to take advantage of supposedly being relatively competent in terms of record-keeping and analysis of the records that are kept. To do this, I need info. If reports are too un-verbose, this can interfere with the achievement of tactical cleverness.

Workout April 23 started:3:20 PM; ended: 8:00 PM.

Eight 220 yard runs (time in seconds) with 5 min breaks in between each run (time at end of run rounded up to next minute plus 5 minutes=start next run), alternating with walked miles.

60+63+58+63+62+68+61+59=8:14; 1 mile of 220 yd runs

23:41 = 1 mile walked

68+66+58+61+57...(52 min break 5:06-5:58 PM)...+57+58+52=7:57; 1 mile of 220 yd runs

25:00 = 1 mile walked

67+56+57+55+54+53+54+49=7:25; 1 mile of 220 yd runs

24:54 = 1 mile walked

total time after 5th mile=72:17

Average 220 yd run time for day: 59 secs

5:06 PM - 5:58 PM, break for errand

Total time of workout not counting 52 minute break for errand: 228 minutes, 3 hours 48 minutes.

Remarks

My idea of honor was to run the 220 yd distance in less than 73 seconds, because 73 seconds is one half of the time it took me to run my fastest quarter-mile.

I found that my speed was increased by mentally concentrating on: chanting the chant, getting the chant right, chanting all the stanzas in the proper order; running smoothly with good technique.

Seemed to me during the workout that every stanza in the chant serves a purpose and that omitting any line or stanza from the chant, impairs the level of performance that is achieved per unit of energy expended.

The chant during the workout April 23 was:

Long are our strides as we streamline the sky
Many are our steps per unit of time
The greatness of our speed is famed in rhyme
Doing just an eigth of a mile
in that long-paced style
Lord of roads of magnificence am I
Lord of roads of painlesness am I.

I remember how when practicing swimming sprints, I counted the number of stroke-cycles while swimming, and knew the number of stroke-cycles required to go the distance I was going. This reduced fatigue and improved performance. Similarly with the chant, after a while I know how many stanzas are chanted during the run--yesterday the entire chant chanted twice, plus the first two lines of the chant, corresponded to the time between the start and the finish of the 220 yd run. Maybe I'll try mentally counting the number of times I step forwards with my left foot during a 220 yd run, but this requires a lot of counting and counting at a high speed compared to swimming, and it interferes with mentally chanting the chant.

Amazing how much time (52 minutes) can be wasted on some false alarm like supposedly having to meet someone just a couple of miles away, even when you have a car.

The checklist really does help me to get through the pre-practice prep at a minimal cost in terms of stress, time, and mental energy. With the checklist I do not have any doubts as to whether something that has to be done has been done or not, and I do not have to use my mind to remember what has to be done.

@2009 David Virgil Hobbs

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