Saturday I did 6 additional miles on the tread mill because the track workout that Russ and I did was only about 3.5 mile total. Yesterday we went to Long Island to celebrate Jim's 87th birthday so I took a much needed day off.

Today is sunny and cool and I plan to run the Central Park loop which is a total of about 9 miles.

Tomorrow I may do a second track workout. I am thinking about 6 x 800 meters. I think that I will get more training effect in terms of improving my V02 max from doing two track workouts a week instead of one track and one long run. Long runs of over 9 miles are important if you are training for a race longer than 5K. I could very easily run a 10K even with the mileage I am doing (50 miles a week with four 9 mile runs). I remember something my friend George said when I was in college and getting ready to do a 20 mile run from the track at UNC. George said, "Wow, 20 miles! I have never ran more over 8 miles." George placed 4th in the WORLD Junior Cross Country Championships. He could run a 10K in the low 28s. I timed him on a rack workout once; he did 4 x 1 mile in 4:48 with only about 15 seconds rest in between each mile repeat. Those types of VO2 max workouts are far more important than long runs if you are not planning on racing farther than 10K.

If Russ gets down to low 150s with his weight, can get in some mileage, and meet me consistently once a week on the track, he will set Personal Best Times in the mile, 5K and 10K, not age adjusted personal best, but real personal best times. There is no reason why he can't run close to 17 flat for a 5K and 36 for a 10K.

According to these two websites that Age Grades Times:

http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator/0,7977,s6-238-277-415-0,00.html
and
http://www.heartbreakhill.org/age_graded.htm

an 18:00 5K for me is equal to an All Time Best of between 15:21 and 15:41 which is close to my personal best time on the road. I have ran a 15:30 5K in a workout on the track so I probaly could have run faster in a track race.

I would like to run a 17:00 5K with Russ on the track which will equate to between a 14:49 and 14:31 All Time Best.

For the record, for Russ, a 5:00 mile (age graded) equates to a 4:30 mile and a for me, a 5:00 mile equates to a 4:18 mile. So if I run a 4:59 mile, Russ has to run a 4:45 to tie me when you take into consideration he is 6 years younger than me. Of course, I would never in reality think that. If Russ runs a 4:45 mile, which I know he is capable of, I will be very disappointed if I am not right there with him.