Recovering from my stem cell transplant has forced me to break my jogging into small pieces. To keep it interesting, I come up with different patterns:
- repeats (e.g., 12 x 2)
- ladders (e.g., [1 2 3 4] x 3
- pyramids (e.g., [2 4 6 4 2] x 2)
While I wish I could jog longer without rest, I am happy to reacquaint myself with interval training. I had forgotten how much I like it! It was a staple of my training as a college 800m runner, and for a few years after that as a competitive road racer.
But I have been a recreational runner for a long time, and just about all of my running for many, many years has had the following pattern:
- run some distance at some pace
The run might 3 miles or 14, fast or slow, but it was almost always just a run.
One thing I like about intervals is that it adds variety to the run. I need to avoid sunlight, so I stick to a route that is well shaded in the early morning. But it's pretty boring traveling the same route every day, even if I sometimes get to travel it with Jan. Having an interval pattern to follow shifts my focus from the route to how I'm feeling during the tiny jog and rest pieces.
Another reason I like interval training is the way it breaks up the run into bite-sized chunks. Even in my current state, I can jog for a minute, or sometimes even for six minutes.
I am surprised at how similar my current interval training feels like my training 30 years ago, given the difference in speed.
How slow am I going? During my last interval session (12x2), there was a man about my age and build out for a walk, a few dozen yards ahead of me. I was jogging for two minutes and walking for one, and the man ahead of me kept increasing his lead. Sure, you can take me now. Just wait until I get some red blood cells.
Aside from training at one-third the speed of 30 years ago, the effort and psychology feel familiar. My heart rate is getting up around 160 at the end of a jog, and down to 130-140 by the time I start the next jog. And I enjoy passing milestones: halfway done, only 3 to go, this is the last hard one... There are a lot of little victories along the way.
When I progress to being able to really run, I need to remember to stick with the intervals.
Hi Joe
ReplyDeleteYour Joy of Sets post reminded me that you need to avoid sunlight. That means that you are getting virtually no vitamin D by way of the channel that gives most of us whatever vitamin D we get.
But vitamin D is important for avoiding respiratory infections and possibly also for dealing with AML:
In multivariate analyses, only vitamin D (P=0.03 and P=0.049) and WBC count (P=0.02 and P=0.02) retained their statistical significance for PFS and OS. In summary, AML patients with subnormal vitamin D levels had significantly inferior PFS and OS compared to patients with normal vitamin D levels. [PFS = progression free survival, OS = overall survival]
http://ash.confex.com/ash/2010/webprogram/Paper31724.html
If you are not currently supplementing, I recommend consulting with your docs about beginning to supplement at 5k IU/day of vitamin D3 (not the often-prescribed D2). If a test of 25(OH)D finds you below 32ng/ml, heavier up-front loading would be worth considering. Note, the test is 25(OH)D; most docs are more familiar with the 1,25(OH)2D test, which is irrelevant and misleading in this context.
Hopefully the docs have had you on adequate D all along, and all this is well in hand.
Joe, upon receipt of a photocopy of a lab report showing your current level of 25(OH)D, I will donate a thousand bucks in your name to the charity of your choice.
ReplyDeleteThis offer is good for seven days.
Not a joke.
"This offer is good for seven days."
ReplyDeleteIe, the date of the blood draw must be on or before Sep 19.
Surely there is a charity that you would like to see receive $1k, Joe, isn't there?