Today I got up at 4:45am and did 6 100 meter (about) wind sprints outside my house. It was pretty easy to do and it at least seemed like I was going pretty good.  I'm sure slower than 12.0 but surely faster than 15. Been so long I guess hard to say. I stopped at six because I'm worried I'll be feeling it in my back or knees later, though they felt OK at the time.Why would I be doing such a thing anyway?

Originally I was annoyed that I was practically collapsing while playing doubles tennis, so I was trying to strengthen my legs and so I decided to sprint up some stairs. I immediately played such better tennis that I was like I got to sprint stairs all the time! And then..... I had a day where I hurt my knee. (Thursday?) Not sure how. I had done some stair sprinting, some treadmill running at 8% incline (thinking similar to stairs) with 30 second bursts and mowed someone's lawn. I don't know which of the three did it. But then it didn't feel great sprinting stairs for a day or so.

I think I took Friday off....? Tennis Saturday morning (6-1, 6-0, 6-2 against Yang) but was ready to collapse at the end. Why? The heat? Legs not strong enough? So I went back to the exercise bike Saturday evening and did intervals where I put it on its max resistance (22) for 30 seconds and then went easy for 3:40 (8 to 10 at 10 mph or so). Did this for 50 minutes and really liked how it felt. Sunday just went "easy" on it for 60 minutes (gradually increasing resistance from 10 to 14).

OK. So I'm unhappy with how tired I still get playing tennis. Thinking it's my legs. But could it just be issues with the heat? I don't know. So I've been sprinting stairs and riding a bike. But then mixed in here is that I would like to run a decently fast 5k one of these days. And I guess I got to thinking about that guy I knew in the military who ran a 4:05 mile (and abruptly quit training for some reason) based off of 40 sprints of 100 meters (walk 100 inbetween) M, W, F and then a 5 mile run on T and Th. I had tried it myself and felt Horrible. Didn't make it even a couple days I don't think. All those sprints, even when going really slow, my chest felt funny. Of course I didn't work into it slow enough. (Also think i was bouncing the bar off my chest a bit doing heavy bench presses, gave me pleural issues for years back then, doh).

But I've thought of this here and there. And.... got up this morning and did six sprints. And they felt so easy. I guess because of the stair sprinting and hard intervals on the bike. So I find myself planning to do:
Day 1- lots of 100 meters sprints
Day 2- 30 minute run
Day 3- bike intervals at max resistance increasingly longer and longer for close to an hour
Day 4- an easy hour bike.
Maybe spread across 4 days, but maybe 6 or so, depending on tennis, etc. But maybe my knees or back will feel the sprinting later. We'll see. And in retrospect maybe I should just do them up a hill. Today I did the first 60 meters on a flat. A hill would probably be better for my long term health, though it's harder on a hill. On a flat I just feel like I'm spinning along against no resistance.

Another issue is that I'm only going to do those sprints in the early morning when everyone is still asleep. Because it's just too strange for a 43 year old (or just about anyone) to be doing such a thing in this here world. But worried I'll be exhausted at work. But, I sure feel fine after doing six. Six was very easy. Though, again, it mostly wasn't up a hill. If I move up the road a little maybe it will take it out of me much more. Also there may be days I'm supposed to do the sprints where I really don't want to get up so early. And then soon enough it will snowing instead of too hot outside. We'll see.

Another thing worth mentioning is that it's a reclining bike and I can (and do) read a book while on it. Though not when I have the resistance at 22. Considering that multitasking, it's not really that much time spent on exercise...

Anyway running a 400 in 80+ seconds is ridiculous. No wonder my 5k best was only 22 minutes. A bunch of 100 meter sprints, whether or not they're on a hill, and if I don't injure myself, I should be able to run a 400 surely in less than 70 pretty quick, if I don't just hurt my knee, etc. And then with just a bit of endurance I should be able to run longer distances faster. Perhaps.

All that anaerobic stuff makes you want to lay around and sleep. But then throw in the longer aerobic stuff and it has the opposite effect. Hence waking up at 4am this morning. Slept great though.

So I'm 43 and I'm running wind sprints at 4:45 AM before work. Kind of silly. Most likely I'll stop very soon due to injury or whatever.