Crabby on Friday, better today

On July 18, 2015 By Emerging Runner7 Comments

Don’t eat at Joe’s

Yesterday’s run (street): 3.5 miles
Today’s workout (elliptical): 40 minutes

I work from home most Fridays and that experience (no commuting or multiple meetings) usually provides a nice segue to the weekend. My responsibilities have ramped up in recent weeks and Fridays have become a blessing in terms of catch up time. Except for yesterday, where I started at the crack of dawn and didn’t stop until close to the crack of dusk.

My one concession to the Friday workday madness was to break away for a short time to do a neighborhood run. Once I was satisfied that I addressed some overnight business issues, I quickly changed into running gear and headed out the door. The humidity and temperature were both surprisingly low and I looked forward to a pleasant experience.

It’s much nicer running on Fridays without buses and school drop-off traffic. But the recycling manics remain. These guys drive their ten ton truck around my neighborhood streets like it’s a Porsche, exceeding the posted speed limit by 20 MPH and ignoring stop signs. Whenever I hear the roar and rattle of the truck, I make a beeline to the sidewalk. Even though there are 5+ miles of road in the neighborhood, I always end up encountering them at some point on my route.

Except for the truck, the run went fine. I had some slight breathing issues when I tried to push my pace, and I’m thinking that my aerobic threshold may have dropped over the last couple of years. If that’s the case, it would explain my measurable reduction in speed. I had hoped last weekend’s intervals would have gained me some improvement, but perhaps a mile of repeats at around 92% of max heart rate was not enough to make an impact.

Even with decent weather, I ended up feeling depleted. I had a fast shower and then it was back to work for the rest of the day. We had planned a family dinner last night at Joe’s ~~Crap~~ Crab Shack which recently opened in our area. We’d gone to one in Orlando years ago and had a great time. We all looked forward to this dinner.

I don’t know if I happened to be getting sick (perhaps my hard run and the long day standing in front of my laptop were responsible), but by the time we left the restaurant, I was feeling awful. The experience at Joe’s was interesting. Here is my recommendation: Don’t eat at Joe’s Crab Shack. At least don’t eat at the one in Westbury, NY.

We arrived at the place before the busy hour and although the room was more than half empty, we were told we’d have to wait for a table because they didn’t have enough servers. My wife wanted to leave, but we were all hungry and chose to stay, since they managed to “find room” for us in the back. This back area resembled the dining room of a highway truck stop circa 1973. The photo at the top shows the room full of invisible diners we needed to walk through to get to our table.

The greasy fish I had was terrible and no one else liked what they’d ordered. By the time we got home, I was feeling sick and had to lay down for a few minutes. I rallied enough to go out back for our Friday night fire pit and even managed enough of an appetite for a S’more. We have seen some interesting things on these nights, like an extremely porcine raccoon “sneaking by” atop the fence. Last night we were again dive bombed by a bat, who perhaps thought the pool was a pond.

This morning I was time-pressed because we had an early appointment at a local college. I probably could have fit in a short run, but I was still feeling iffy and decided to do today’s workout on the elliptical. Despite my opening windows on both ends of the room for air flow, it was humid as heck. Even so, the workout was pleasant. Some people don’t like the elliptical, but I do, mostly because it’s not a treadmill.

Tomorrow I’m heading to Massapequa Preserve to meet up for a Runska-run. I’m hoping that I’ll be in ready shape for the six miles I plan to cover. The heat and humidity are supposed to be off the charts, so I’m not planning to do these miles very fast.

97% of a good run

On February 28, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Unhappy ending

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.3 miles

When does a tenth of a mile make all the difference in a run? Today it was in the final 10th of my treadmill workout. It’s been a lot of time since my last run because my business schedule is sucking up all my bandwidth. Today I worked from home and managed to get back to running, although I had limited time this morning.

It was my fourth run on our new treadmill and I continue to appreciate it compared to the old one. The Freemotion running experience is far better than the Sole’s. Besides the much quieter motor and stable tread that doesn’t jerk underfoot, the Freemotion unit feels more substantial and the running less tedious. The time – and mileage – seem to go by a lot faster.

So I had 97% of a great run and 3% of a really bad one. It was my own fault. The three weeks I spent exclusively on the elliptical helped heal my chronic sciatica. My return to the treadmill last week re-aggravated that injury. I hoped resting from Monday through Thursday would reverse the damage and, to a degree, it did. But I pushed too hard today and that set back my progress.

I only aimed to cover three miles and felt good running at a moderate pace. With half a mile left to go, I began increasing my speed. Everything felt fine and I decided to cover 3.25 miles. By the time I was on the last quarter, the speed felt challenging. At the 3.2 mile point I felt a searing pain in my upper hamstring/glute region and I knew I’d pushed too hard. Y’ouch!

I thought I’d seriously hurt myself. I immediately reduced my speed and stopped the treadmill. Walking felt painful and I hoped it was a temporary situation. I took Ibuprofen and hit the shower. I certainly did myself no favors today. After living with the result all day, it doesn’t seem as bad. I’ll see how it feels tomorrow morning. I may substitute a run for an elliptical session rather than further aggravate the problem..

The little treadmill that couldn’t

On February 3, 2015 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

I’d like to sell this Sole to the devil

Yesterday’s workout (elliptical): 60 minutes

We’re facing a perfect storm in the Emerging Runner household. It’s actually related to the weather in my case. Last year we had a very snowy January and the weather kept me off the road most of that month. Despite that, I was able to do my usual miles on the treadmill. We had better luck this January, but circumstances have changed. Our treadmill’s condition has gone from bad – to worse – to done. Fini.

A failed treadmill is inconvenient to me, but my wife depends on it for her daily workouts. We’re both dedicated to our running, but I prefer to run outside while Mrs. ER likes to keep her workout indoors. With snow, freezing rain and sleet hitting us this week, we’re both missing the treadmill.

It was clear yesterday morning that the treadmill was fading fast. No longer was the ever-increasing sound level the only issue. The machine was now giving off an unholy metallic screech at a decibel level that could only be described as dangerous. I decided to record the sound for posterity and had the brilliant idea of running the Sole at 12 MPH. I was curious to see what would happen and here’s the result. The last moments of our treadmill…

I ended up spending an hour on the elliptical. It’s definitely a good workout, but I never feel it equals a run. Until the weather warms enough to clear the roads we’re stuck with that choice. I’ve been doing my research to find a replacement for the highly recommended but ultimately disappointing Sole F63. Everyone says you need to spend thousands of dollars to get a treadmill that won’t fail with regular use, but I’m thinking that almost anything will be better than this retched Sole.

Perceived effort was not enough

On November 17, 2014 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 4.6 miles

Yesterday’s run in Old Westbury provided a great hill workout. Today I thought I’d keep it simple and keep my running to my local roads. It wasn’t as cold as Saturday, but it was still pretty chilly. I wore the Opedix again, along with three top layers. It wasn’t until I took my first steps off the driveway that I knew my legs had recovered well. I had high hopes for a performance improvement and I sure gave it a try.

After we finished preparing for our runs this morning, my wife said, “Okay, let’s get our runs on!” We were both ready to get going – she to the treadmill and me to the street. I was psyched knowing that I would be dealing with less distance and lower elevation today. My plan was a four mile run with negative splits.

The temperature was 35° and there wasn’t much wind. I was comfortable in my gear and I felt good from the start. I’d left my HRM home and though I had my Garmin, I decided to run by feel instead. The first mile went by quickly and I was convinced that I was beating Friday’s moderately brisk pace. I avoided looking at the readout on my watch because I didn’t want to be discouraged, or overly encouraged, by what I saw.

I’d started around 7:30 AM and there were few cars or people around, although I kept crossing paths with two other runners. I felt like I was moving a lot faster than yesterday and was hoping to finish with a big surprise in terms of time and pace. I was surprised, but not in a good way, Running by feel did not generate the speed I’d hoped for. I did achieve negative splits, but my pace was 30 seconds off of Friday’s.

On the positive side, I put in almost 20 miles this week, had some good workouts and got to run and hang with my friends. I’ll take that over performance anytime.

My Garmin lied and the truth hurts

On July 4, 2014 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

My Garmin made up most of this route

Today’s run (street): 3.75 miles

Halfway through today’s run, I glanced at my Garmin and saw that I had covered two miles in about 17 minutes. That would have put me on track for my best training run in memory. I was puzzled because my perceived effort was nowhere near what I’d expect for that pace. I tried to rationalize the reasons for such a dramatic improvement in my performance compared to yesterday. It was 10 degrees cooler and cloudy, but could that account for running over a minute per mile faster?

When I got home and saw my time and mileage on the Garmin, I thought I’d rocked it. Maybe I was turning a corner with my training. After all, I used to regularly average 8:45 paces on my daily runs. Breaking 9:00 minutes on a run these days is a notable achievement for me. I hoped it was accurate and not some weird Garmin fail.

Despite that wishful thinking, it did turn out to be a badly confused GPS. For some odd reason, the Garmin put my starting point 3 miles north of where I began my run. Looking at the run data through Garmin Connect, my course appeared to have frequent 50-foot elevation changes. That’s definitely not the case for my relatively flat route. I’m guessing that the low cloud cover may have interfered with the GPS signal and caused it to skip.

I Gmapped my route and was disappointed to see that I’d only covered 3.75 miles, rather than the 4.35 that the Garmin said I’d run. I wanted to run 4-5 miles today and thought I’d met my objective. The good news is that I beat yesterday’s pace by 42 second per mile. The other good news is that it’s a long weekend and tomorrow we’re hosting a Runsketeer pool party. If the weather reports are accurate, the skies will be clear and I’ll be able to get in a longer run in the morning.

Addressing my need for more speed

On June 14, 2014 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

My experience today

Today’s run (street): 5.1 miles

I’m back into a three day running cycle and I ran in the neighborhood yesterday and today. My morning schedule was tight, so I needed to get outside early. Fortunately, it was still relatively cool and (bonus) not as humid as Friday. I had no route or distance in mind, but I did want to cover at least five miles.

Like yesterday, I started with good energy and tried to establish a faster pace from the start. It seemed a lot faster than it was. I still find it curious that putting in the same effort compared to a year ago will typically yield a 30 sec/mile slower pace. I’m not planning on doing any races before Dirty Sock, so I’m not really upset about that. Still, I’d like to gain that time back if I can.

Tomorrow the Runsketeers will get together for our first group track workout. I look forward to seeing how fast these two speedsters can run when they don’t need to reserve energy. I’m not going to be able to cover as much distance tomorrow as I would on a typical Sunday, so this week’s mileage total will be extra low. But track miles are quality miles. If I can figure out a way to add one more workout a week to my running schedule, I can get back to pre-commuting weekly volumes.

Not a step back, but not what you’d call progress

On June 8, 2014 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Disappointing cadence

Today’s run (street): 4.6 miles

I wasn’t sure what to expect on today’s run but I hoped I would find it easier to reach my targeted performance numbers after seeing some improvement yesterday. To my dismay, I felt less energy this morning and I hoped that I’d rebound during the run. Although I did quickly get into rhythm, I found even the first couple of miles difficult. I wasn’t sure if I’d started too fast, or if I was simply too tired.

I’ve read numerous times that an ideal (non-competitive) pace will allow a runner to maintain a conversation while still providing some level of challenge. For most people, that’s 75-85% of max heart rate. A check of the data from today’s run showed that I stayed primarily between 76 and 79% of max for the first 3.75 miles. Even though I was primarily at the lower end of the HR scale, the going felt difficult.

My response was to pick up the pace and, for the last 3/4 of a mile, I kept heart rate between 80-86% of max. In terms of technique, I adopted an almost bouncing stride that I hoped would translate to greater speed. It did, but it still fell short of today’s expectations. My cadence, even after using my new form, never got out of the middling range. The one upside is that getting my HR into the higher 80% range is good preparation for harder workouts.

I don’t know if I can return to doing 8:00 minute range training paces, but even if I can’t, I still have lots of room for improvement.

Liked my run and loved my park

On May 3, 2014 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Been there, didn’t do that

Today’s run (street): 4.6 miles

I’m working through my new work schedule and trying to find the time to fit in all my training runs. I caught a break on Thursday by working from home. That was good for over six miles, something that I couldn’t have done if I was driving to my office that morning. I was back to the drive on Friday morning and couldn’t fit in a run before that. The saving grace is that my new office is in an enormous building and I cover a lot of ground on foot during the day.

This morning I targeted 4 miles around the neighborhood. I plan to run as close to 11 as I can on Sunday. Just for a change, I wrapped my run around the neighborhood, following Jericho Turnpike west to South Oyster Bay road and then onto Terrahans going east. The change of scenery was welcomed and I figured that this new route would distract me for the first two miles and make the overall run feel shorter. That sort of worked, even though I added another 2/3 mile to my distance.

I feel that I’m running exactly the same way and expending the same amount of energy that I did a year ago. Now my typical pace is now almost a minute slower. I used to be able to sustain sub-9 paces with a focused effort. These days I’m happy when I see that I’ve averaged mid-9’s. Today I didn’t even break 10:00. I’d hope that my weekly speed workouts would have moved the needle, but I’ve seen little payoff from it.

Later in the day, we all headed to Caleb Smith State Park in Smithtown for “I Love My Park Day.” Last year we planted a tree and were looking forward to this year’s tasks. However, when we arrived at noon, the event organizers were wrapping things up. Our information said that activities would go until 3:00 PM, but it was incorrect. We were disappointed, but it didn’t prevent us for spending an hour hiking the trails.

If everything works out, we’ll have a Runsketeer run tomorrow morning that includes a couple of guest runners (J who I met on the bike trail two weeks ago and his wife). I’m very curious to see how I hold up for 11 miles or more. Only two more Sundays before the Brooklyn half, and I need to make them count.

Performance is down, but excuses remain high

On April 30, 2014 By Emerging Runner5 Comments

Ready or not, here it comes

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

My running has slid back into the questionable range. I had a tough time running a very slow 5K on Sunday. That may have been due to over-training last week, shoelace malfunctions or something less obvious. This week was the start of my new job and, after taking my usual Monday rest day, I skipped Tuesday as well. This morning was a return to 4:00 AM running and it didn’t go particularly well.

After 20 years of commuting on the Long Island Railroad into NYC, I had a break over the last year. I didn’t miss riding the the train and I still don’t. But instead of the train, I’m now driving 75 miles a day to and from my new office. Driving is not fun and I’ve decided to head out around 6:00 AM to minimize the amount of traffic delays on the LIE, Route 95, etc. Consequently, the window for early running before my commute is short. And unlike train commuting when I could take a seat and sleep, I need to be 100% alert when on the road.

I happened to have an all day meeting in the city today, so I got on the treadmill at 4:00 and ran for 25 minutes. It was one of the toughest workouts I’ve had in a while, and I’m wondering why. Since I’m making plenty of excuses about my sub-par 5K performance, I’ll make more by saying that two days of driving on highly trafficked roads, plus full days in the office, have exhausted me. I’m hoping it’s just that. Brooklyn will happen soon and my running confidence has taken a big tumble since last week.

Why bad runs don’t really matter

On March 18, 2014 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

The long unwinding road

Both Saturday’s relay and Sunday’s half marathon “Week 1” training runs were disappointing for me. The good news is that it really doesn’t matter. Running is one of those things in life that can lift your spirits or temporarily disappoint you. But as long as you aren’t suffering a running injury as a result, there’s really no excuse for feeling badly about one or two bad experiences.

That’s why I’m looking forward to getting out tomorrow. I rested yesterday and took an additional recovery day today. It’s still winter-y cold outside, but at least it’s sunny and the snow is gone. The Hal Higdon Intermediate Half plan says that I should run 3 miles, plus strength training, on Wednesday. However, the Emerging Runner Training Plan™ says that I should run 80% of the prior weekend’s longest run on Wednesdays. So that’s what I’m doing. I do appreciate Hal’s attempt to add more diversity to the training schedule, so I may add in a small amount weight or core training.

I gave myself a break on speed training today, but I will resume that next Tuesday. Without weekday access to the track, I can either do treadmill intervals inside, or run 400’s along a road that’s adjacent to my street. That long road has a slight grade when running south to north, but SIOR says that shouldn’t matter. I’ll need to figure out how to manage recovery periods if I choose the street route because I’ll need to start each repeat at either the beginning or end of the road.