The Runsketeers talk a lot about a supermarket

On February 21, 2016 By Emerging Runner5 Comments

KWL, TPP, Stewy, ER

Today’s runs (Bethpage and neighborhood): 4.6 miles total
Yesterday’s run (street): 3.4 miles

I was not feeling too well on Friday morning and elected to postpone my run until after business hours. I had a busy day, but felt even worse by the end. I considered doing a workout at that point, but decided there would be no fitness benefit. I took sinus medicine before bedtime which caused much restless sleep. By morning, the pounding sinus headache was gone and I was excited to get outside for a run.

We’ve had a lot of snow and ice since late January and I hadn’t run outdoors in over a month. I’ve made my peace with the treadmill but being on the road on Saturday was a welcome joy. Still not feeling 100%, I managed to get around the neighborhood without much problem. Unfortunately, I was not fully recovered and conked out by early evening. That was probably related to the rigorous hike my son and I did in Cold Spring Harbor later in the day.

Long climb to the top at Cold Spring Harbor

This morning I met my Runsketeer buddies for the first time since the New Year’s Hangover run. Between schedules and weather it has been tough to find a weekend to get together. SIOR and KWL were looking to run about 10 miles and TPP and I were looking to do less, so we met them in the Bethpage lot after they’d covered five.

We decided to head north and things got off to a rocky start with a discussion about running pants that I still don’t understand. That was the first of many discussions we had today that didn’t make a lot of sense. TPP and KWL took the lead and SIOR and I ran and chatted until she stopped to walk because my pace was so slow it hurt her knees. We walked almost a mile where we caught up with the other two and ran together back to the lot.

I felt badly that my inability to run my friend’s preferred paces interfered with their objectives for today’s workout. But they never complain about that and supported the fact that I wasn’t feeling great today. I had expected to run at least three miles today but, with the walk, I fell short of that. But I got to have a great conversation SIOR without my usual huffing and puffing.

I’m sure SIOR did this by accident

We decided to switch venues and went to a different Starbucks today. After coffee was ordered, we began the first of many interesting conversations. SIOR, TPP and I talked about strategies to restore my speed to previous levels before we got into some serious discussions. We began with the extremely complex subject of supermarkets. Actually a supermarket called Stew Leonards that recently opened in the area.

I am not kidding when I say that it took over a half an hour to successfully explain the following:

1. Stew Leonards is a supermarket.
2. There is also a Stew Leonards wine store.
3. They are not the same thing.

Once that bit of highly intellectual discourse was completed, we moved onto less challenging subject matter: whiskey appreciation and rock climbing walls. As usual, the time went by too quickly and we needed to start the non-running portion of our days.

Probably due to these energizing discussions, I decided to go for a couple more miles when I got home. Although I ran pretty slowly with my buddies, I did a little better on my second run, I’m sure that being warmed up with my earlier effort helped that.

Back to the work week tomorrow. I’m hoping to do at least four workouts this week and dedicate one of them to speed. SIOR made a point that adding distance is a good way of increasing performance. I should probably work on that. I reached my top performance when I was running six days a week and my speed has declined commensurate to the drop in run frequency. I don’t have an easy way to get back to that schedule. But the point is, this is not easy.

Trail running on the Bethpage feather bed

On May 13, 2013 By Emerging Runner7 Comments

Wood-chipped trails as soft as a featherbed

Today’s run (Bethpage State Park trails): 3.6 miles

Happy Mother’s Day!

After yesterday’s workout washout, I decided to go to Bethpage for a run on the wooded trails. It was rainy and overcast early in the morning, but the weather reports were predicting the sun would return by 9:00 AM. Once I saw that was true, I headed over to the park and made my way up the hill where I could pick up a trail on the southern side.

Once I got past the basketball courts and picnic area, I cut into the woods and encountered a wide, wood-chip covered path. I haven’t spent much time on these trails since hurricane Sandy and I was surprised how much work was done to return them to pristine condition. Running along the path gave the sensation of being on a very thick carpet or a feather bed. Even though we’d gotten a soaking yesterday, the wood chips were doing a great job keeping things dry.

I wanted to increase the challenge, so I took some side paths that were more technical, narrow and steep. I wondered if I’d run into the paved path that runs parallel to the top of the woods, but I stayed tucked inside. The low tree cover and the dry air acted like nature’s air conditioner I made my way back to the east end and followed a few trails that I’d never run before. One of these trails ran parallel to the start of the new paved bike path. I’d run next to it a number of times before, but never on it.

Trail running miles can feel harder than pavement miles and that was the case today. I felt like I had a very good workout and it was great to be back to the woods. The trail was as comfy as a B&B mattress, except when I was running on twisty, narrow single-track. In each case, my surroundings made the experience an energizing way to spend a cool Sunday morning.

Bethpage is better, but some bikers are bozos

On May 5, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

The new, improved Bethpage trails

Today’s run (Bethpage State Park): 6.4 miles

It’s a beautiful day on Long Island, sunny and a little cooler than yesterday. Today is Cinco de Mayo but we’re not doing anything related to that. Tequila lost its appeal many years ago, but by dinner time I may be persuaded to go out for Mexican food. Today is also the day of the Long Island Marathon, Half and 10K. I feel slightly guilty for not participating this year, but I’m glad that I didn’t need to run 13.1 miles this morning.

It’s been at least six weeks since I ran at Bethpage and I’ve missed it. The last time I was there, me and KWL did an early morning run and covered six miles. I haven’t done too many runs greater than five miles this year, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to renew my Empire Passport and run the bike trail.

After getting my sticker, I drove to the lot and saw that much work had been done to the trails since I last saw them. The entrance to the north trail was now open, and a small structure had been put up next to the trail head off the parking lot. There was fresh paint marking the newly paved sections, and a new sidewalk was added along the main driveway.

When I reached the northern trail entrance I noticed more improvements. I saw some new access points to the dirt trails and some decorative fencing around rest areas. They’d also stenciled distances in tenth of a mile increments in bold white numbers. Even though I wear a Garmin, I still found that to be extremely helpful during my run.

I felt good at the start and had no trouble with the rolling trail as I moved north. I wanted to go six miles to get a little more base conditioning and my energy level seemed to support that. A year ago I was at Bethpage every weekend doing progressively longer runs as I trained for the half marathon. I thought about the LI Marathon and Half that was going on as I ran. I did feel strong, but I don’t think I could have managed a half today.

I crossed Haypath without a problem and then Old Bethpage Rd. Neither had much traffic. I wondered if I’d reach my projected turnaround point of 3.1 miles before I hit Old Country Road. I preferred not to cross that busy street if I could avoid it. I was about a quarter mile short of my halfway mark, so I needed to keep going. There was a traffic light and crosswalk, so I had no safety issues except for the bozo on a bike who cut me off when I reached the other side.

There were many walkers and cyclists on the path today, along with a smaller number of other runners. I had another bike incident, when a cyclist riding in the same direction that I was running, passed me with an inch to spare. She was busy talking to her two friends and wasn’t being careful. I yelled “hey!” but she didn’t react (or apologize). Most cyclists are courteous and careful, but it was amateur hour this morning.

I covered the second half of my run faster than the first. I had no trouble getting past the two short but steep hills located a mile from the trail entrance. For some reason I began feeling stronger on that last mile, so I picked up the pace. That helped get my overall time into my “acceptable range.” When I got back to the lot, I saw what looked like a clown car convention. It was actually a Mini Cooper show taking place at the park. Unfortunately it attracted some losers who decided to tear around the parking lot in their cars (not Mini Coopers BTW) before exiting at a high rate of speed.

I was very happy with my run today, especially for the fact that I haven’t done a six miler in a while. Now that I have my new Passport, I look forward to visiting Bethpage and the other state parks without needing to pay an entrance fee.

DST run with KWL at BSP*

On March 10, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

*Bethpage State Park

Today’s run (Bethpage State Park): 6.25 miles

Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts today and (for this one) we “Spring” forward. I wasn’t thinking about that yesterday when I committed to a 7:00 AM run with a friend. In DST world, 7:00 AM is really 6:00 AM. By the time I got to bed, it was almost DST midnight. I somehow miscalculated all that and got up at 4:50 DST. So I ended up getting less than five hours of sleep.

My friend KWL arrived a little before 7:00. It was still dark when we headed over to Bethpage but it had lightened up in the ten minutes it took to get there. As I feared, the gates were up at the park so we quickly headed to Haypath Road. We were able to park the car in a spot that was adjacent to the Greenbelt trail head. This southern entrance put us on the newly paved section of the Bethpage bike path.

KWL and I started our run in 30° temperatures. We’d both dressed for the cold so we were comfortable as we made our way through the first mile. Our plan was to cover 10K easy, but easy is a relative term. KWL is a triathlete, accomplished cyclist and 1:40 half marathoner, so his “easy” pace is somewhat challenging to me. We happily compromised and settled into pace that worked for both of us.

The new section has some hills which I tackled easily, using my early run freshness to power through. KWL loves inclines and I don’t. On the other hand, he dislikes running downhill and I can do that all day. So in the rare times when I held the forward position, it was usually on a downward slope.

Along way we encountered a group running in brightly colored outfits. Both times we saw them they were about to run up a hill as we were running down. They were a cheerful, talkative bunch, undaunted by the challenge. KWL and I reached the 3.1 mile mark and immediately turned around to complete the out and back route. I was feeling a little tired at that point and wasn’t looking forward to scaling the upcoming hills.

A few minutes after we’d met that challenge, I began to feel stronger. We picked up the pace with about 2K left to go. I’d thought that the trail extension would be easy, since (this time) we’d be on the better side of the hills. I’d forgotten that there were still some inclines going north. Before long, my Garmin chirped for 6 miles and we picked up the pace as we completed final quarter mile.

KWL and I both found the run exhilarating. Despite the DST change, we still had plenty of morning left. Today’s experience reminded me how enjoyable it can be to run with company. I really should do that more often. Perhaps it’s time to do something about joining a running club.

Sixteen staircases on the Bethpage trail

On February 26, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

This morning it was full

Today’s run (Bethpage State Park): 4.2 miles

The next couple of days look to be windy and wet, so this morning I figured I’d go someplace where I could enjoy the outdoors. Although the warmer weather has melted most of the snow, I didn’t want to deal with the muddy trails at Stillwell just yet. I decided to go to Bethpage and hoped that the gates were open.

When I arrived, I saw a large maintenance truck parked in front of the gate and feared that access would be restricted. I then saw that the gates were open, and as I made my way in, I noticed a couple of people running on the path. The trail head was blocked off with a webbed fence and a sign saying “entrance closed.” Like everyone else, I ran around the sign and headed up the hill toward the original trail.

Despite seeing two runners as I drove in, the trail was almost empty. That wasn’t a surprise, as it was a Tuesday morning, not the weekend when I usually run there. I liked the quiet but I wasn’t loving the run for the first mile. My legs felt leaden and I wondered if I should have taken an extra day’s rest after my race.

I started the day with my Fitbit and was curious to see what data it would capture during my workout. After I reached the one mile point, I turned around and headed back in the other direction. I wasn’t looking forward to running up the big hill, but at least I’d be doing it while I was relatively fresh. Once I made it to the top, I continued east and reached the entrance to the new section. I had covered two miles and my legs still felt like they were carrying ankle weights.

Bethpage is hilly and the route is rolling. Most of the time you are either running uphill or down. The first segment of the new trail has a series of hills that are individually short, but collectively challenging. I ran down these hills until I reached three miles, where I turned around and went right back up. Once I got past the worst of it, I noticed that my legs were feeling a little more flexible.

Once I finished my run, I looked at the Fitbit and saw that I’d covered about 7,000 steps and climbed the equivalent of 16 staircases. The activity meter on the Fitbit (a flower) was full to the top. It also captured my distance accurately, along with calories burned. I liked that the Fitbit, unlike the Garmin, is always on and ready to capture activity at any time. But the Garmin provides valuable data that the Fitbit doesn’t record, so I’ll use them together.

After lunch, my wife and I went to a local park for a walk and I picked up enough steps for me to modify today’s goal to 13,500. My wife already has me beat, and I can see it will be hard to keep up with her. But today was a great start.

Fast paced run despite a Bethpage lockout

On February 5, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Snowed out again at Bethpage

Today’s run (street): 3.4 miles

I had a great run today, but it wasn’t the one I had planned. I headed out early to Bethpage to run the bike trail and to take on some hills. When I arrived, I saw that the drive leading into the park was locked and gated. I thought at first to drive to Haypath Road and park where the Greenbelt trail continues north. Along the way I noticed that the bike path had a lot of snow, so I headed back home.

My neighborhood roads had some icy patches this morning. I’d initially dismissed the idea of running in my neighborhood, but when I returned from Bethpage I saw that the streets looked much clearer. I figured that since I was already dressed for an outdoor run, I’d be better off outside than on the treadmill. After minutes of standing out in the cold, my Garmin acquired its signal and I was finally off.

Today’s plan was to run hard, and that’s what I did. There was still residual snow on the far right and left sides of the streets, but I felt that I had enough room to maneuver to maintain safety. Traffic was sparse, so I was able to focus on the effort at hand. For the longest time, I’ve been running at what I call “equilibrium” pace. That’s the speed I go when I just tune out and run, usually between 9:30-9:55 per mile.

The speed and effort curves crossed to the left of normal today and I came through the first mile in the 8:30. I didn’t record a single split above 9:00. Following my 8:30, my timing went 8:59, 8:58 and 8:26 (for the partial). My overall pace was 8:45/mile, making it my fastest training run in ten months. My heart rate stayed exactly where I wanted it, topping out about 5 BPM below max.

The shorter distance prevented today’s harder effort from causing me undue fatigue. In fact I’ve felt more energized than usual since the run. The challenge will be to maintain that level of focus going forward, at least until race day. Not every run needs to be speedy, but that will be my bias between now and the 23rd.

Foggy morning run at Bethpage

On January 13, 2013 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Beware the moors and stick to the bike path

Today’s run (Bethpage State Park): 5.1 miles

If there’s a downside to having 40° weather in January (besides the fact that it may be caused by global climate change) is that things can get foggy. There’s nothing specifically wrong with fog, but I wasn’t thrilled to drive through the cloudy Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway this morning. Most people were smart enough to keep their car lights on, so the trip wasn’t as scary as I’d feared. When I got to my destination, Bethpage State Park, I was happy to see that the gates were open.

It’s been a long time since I’ve run at Bethpage. They had closed access to the park after Hurricane Sandy and I had not made it back until today. It was great to be back for a run. As I drove toward the lot, a dark mist over the golf course made it look a little like the Scottish moors.

My plan was to run five miles, starting first by going south on the old trail and turning back at the one mile point. I appreciated the first, mostly downhill, half mile but I knew it wouldn’t be fun coming back up that tough hill. Once past my nemesis, I was two miles in and I crossed over to the newer section of the bike path. I had to complete a three mile out-and-back to get my total to five.

Bethpage’s bike trails are rolling and, while I don’t always notice the falling sections, I never miss a hill. The new, northern path has plenty of hills. Just like the southern part, it’s tougher coming back than going out. I reached Haypath about a quarter mile short of my turnaround point so I crossed over and ran until my Garmin showed 3.5 miles.

I knew I’d soon encounter the three noticeable hills and I took them on. The hills are a bit steep, but the incline is fairly short and there’s a enough separation between them for recovery. Once past those challenges I settled in for the remainder of the run. Before long I was back at the trail head having covered my planned distance.

Even though it was unseasonably warm, there weren’t too many other runners out today. I worked hard and felt good throughout the run, but I was glad when I finished. I was also happy that I made it out of the neighborhood for a run this weekend. That was one of my stated goals for 2013. Having come into the weekend with less than ten miles logged, I’m pleased to have finished close to my weekly target of 20.

No Ho Ho Holiday run

On December 14, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

I’m not exactly sure why I’ve veered away from racing for the time being, but I’ve decided against running in tomorrow’s Ho Ho Ho Holiday 5K in Bethpage. Good thing I didn’t prepay that $20, huh? I know if I did choose to participate, I would enjoy the race a lot. Racing provides many layers of experience: the chill of the morning air, the throngs of runners gathered for the start, the exciting first steps of the race and the combination of relief and exhilaration you feel after (finally) crossing the finish line.

Of course the time spent between the start and finish of any race is the reason why you are there. My experience during that time has ranged between sheer joy and sheer will. I’ve had at least two experiences when running 5K’s, when I actually wished the race was longer because I was enjoying the experience so much. On the other hand, my first time running a half marathon (plagued by injury) and my second time running Cow Harbor (with oppressive heat and humidity) could be best described as voluntary torture.

Another event that happens tomorrow is the NYRR Ted Corbitt Classic 15K that’s run in Central Park. Friends FS, CG and KWL will be running this 9.3 mile race that’s almost two times around a loop that goes between 61st to 104th Streets. The course this year avoids the Harlem Hills, but that doesn’t mean runners will have an easy time. There’s still Cat Hill and they have to climb that twice. I’m rooting for my colleagues and hope they have a blast.

I still need to decide where I’ll run tomorrow. I may try to get onto the Bethpage bike path from one of the connecting roads if the park entrance is still closed. I know I’ll be missing the excitement of tomorrow’s race and the feeling of accomplishment that comes at the end of a competitive run. On the other hand, choosing my own venue allows me to set my own pace and distance and I can sleep in a little later in the morning. Right now, that seems to be the better choice.

Anniversary walk on the Bethpage trail

On October 26, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today is my anniversary and I didn’t have time for a run this morning. I felt a little guilty about that until my wife suggested that we take a walk on the Bethpage bike trail. We headed over to the park shortly after the kids left for school and made our way to the trail extension.

I run at Bethpage almost every weekend. It’s my favorite place for longer runs because the trail allows me to do distance training without needing to cross busy roads. The extension that runs north of the original bike trail has three segments. The first runs through an area that used to be an unpaved trail and terminates at Haypath Rd. That’s the section we walked this morning.

It was fun showing my wife the route that I run on weekend mornings. The leaves have started changing and it felt a lot like fall. It was a nice change to cover this route at a walking pace. We covered about three miles on our out-and-back route. I still feel a little guilty for skipping my workout, but the bike trail proved to be a perfect choice for an anniversary walk.

10K training run on the old Bethpage route

On October 21, 2012 By Emerging Runner3 Comments

I’m going to stick with the SPIbelt

Yesterday’s run (treadmill): 35 minutes
Today’s run (Bethpage State Park): 6.2 miles

It’s been a busy weekend but I did get in a few runs. Yesterday morning I had to get blood drawn as part of my annual checkup, so I elected to do a moderate length run on the treadmill. I’ve learned from past experience that losing blood, even small amounts like this, can effect your stamina. I didn’t suffer fatigue at any point in the run but I capped my time at 35 minutes. I needed to reserve some energy for the day ahead.

The Emerging Runner family headed into the city to see my dad, along with my aunt and uncle who are visiting from France. Later, we were excited to meet up for dinner with Adventure Girl, who was in town this weekend for a friend’s wedding. They are all great people and we had a great time with everyone. I was glad that I didn’t push myself too hard in the morning, because I was exhausted by the time we arrived back home.

I headed over to Bethpage State Park this morning to get in some extra miles and to take on a few challenging hills. I love the new trail extension to the north but I had not run it in the southern direction in a long time. I headed down the bike trail feeling energized by the crisp fall air, but I was regretting my decision to take the RooSport to carry my phone instead of my SPIbelt.

The RooSport hangs over the top of your running shorts and stays secure with magnets that connect the inside and outside flaps. I had some issues the last time I ran with it, but I thought it was related to the shorts I was wearing. I had on different shorts today but, from the start, I felt like the pouch was slipping. I feared that it might disconnect and fall off, so I took it off and ran with it in my hand.

Other than that, my run went very well. I covered the first three miles barely breaking a sweat. My heart rate was only 84% of max despite the hilly route. On my way back I boosted my glycogen with half a GU Roctane that I had diluted 4:1 with water in my gel flask. The helped take the edge of the first of two challenging hills that need to be managed on the way back.

There were less runners and running groups today than I expected to see. Friends TC and FS, who are running the ING NYC marathon in a couple of weeks, are doing their 10+ mile workouts this weekend.. I thought I’d see more marathoners doing the same but it was mostly cyclists, including a woman who was riding a tall unicycle.

After last week’s 14 mile total (due to running the 5K race and two less training workouts), I wanted to get back up to 20 miles this week. I think I might have made it but I’ll have to check Daily Mile. I have a month to train for my next race, the Long Beach 10K Turkey trot. Today’s 10K base run was a great start to that training.