Fitbit fits and multicolored running

On May 7, 2016 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

These colors do run

Today’s run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday’s run (treadmill): 3.1 miles

I really liked my Fitbit yesterday, because it showed that I had reached 6,500 steps after my morning run. I really despised my Fitbit this morning when I checked post-run and saw that it didn’t record a single step. What a waste of exercise. The saving grace is that my Garmin captured my run and, using the SPM metric and elapsed running time, I estimated that I ran about 6,400 steps. My Fitbit will never know this. Adding insult to injury, I expect the Fitbit to put a message on the display tonight shaming me for moving so little today.

After eight straight runs over my vacation break, I had a long layoff. My return to the office resulted in no running until yesterday. I was able to determine that my average step count during a work day is about 5,500 and I’ve been adding about 5,000 more when I got home. If I can’t fit in runs Monday through Thursday, I need to generate more steps at work. I’ve been using a stand up desk in my office for the last year and that’s better than sitting, but it’s impolite to stand during meetings and worse to pace around the conference table.

The weather this week has been cold and rainy. Yesterday I stayed inside and used the treadmill. As I ran, I thought about how much I dislike the treadmill experience. I tried to think about the positives – the softer surface, no wind resistance (except for the fan), no broken pavement, no cars, and no hills. I had the TV to distract me and I could just set my pace and zone out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way for me. I usually turn off the TV after a few minutes because it starts to annoy me. The lack of true forward progress feels futile. My only thought is that every step gets me incrementally closer to finishing.

This morning started with rain, but I had to bring my son to the high school and wouldn’t have been able to run before then anyway. By 9:00 AM the skies had cleared, and I got outside for a neighborhood run. There was a lot going on for us, so I wasn’t able to cover that much distance. I appreciated the cool air and the cloudy skies. My run almost felt automatic. It was as if I was riding along, rather than doing any work.

While my son was getting through his SAT and I was running through my neighborhood, my wife and daughter were at Citi Field participating in the Color Run. This is a non-competitive run where participants get sprayed with colored corn starch along the way. The “race” starts in the corridors under the ball park and winds through the playing field and then around the stadium area. It was a fun pre-Mother’s Day activity and definitely more fun than taking the SATs.

Tomorrow is officially Mother’s Day so I’ll need to get out early. I hope the rain will stay away long enough for me to get a few miles in.

Running eight days running

On April 30, 2016 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Crowded lanes

Today’s run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday’s run (track): 3.5 miles
Thursday’s run (street): 3.2 miles
Wednesday’s run (street): 3.4 miles

Today is the eighth day of my vacation and I’ve run every day since it started. I’ve covered 28 miles since last Saturday, including today’s 3.6. The last time that I covered over 25 miles in one week was during my training for the 2014 Brooklyn Half. On top of my running miles, I’ve also managed to fit in a couple of hikes, the second one happening yesterday. I’ll credit my new Fitbit for motivating me to move more.

I planned to do at least one run at Bethpage this week, but I ended up staying local, except for when I ran at the track. I’ve purposely kept my run distances in the three mile range because I knew I’d be accumulating mileage through the break. Saturday to Friday’s total was 40% higher than what I’d typically run within seven days. I’ve heard that training volume really shouldn’t increase by more than 10% in a given week.

Wednesday and Thursday were neighborhood runs and the streets have been quiet because it’s school vacation. I’ve seen a couple of news articles this week touting the idea that ten minutes of high intensity exercise is as beneficial as a moderate 45 minute run. That may be true but I prefer running. I’m not ready to trade that for Tabata-like workouts. Still, I have been incorporating more anaerobic effort into every run I’ve done this week.

Oval by Garmin

There was a lot going on when I arrived at the track on Friday. The Syosset baseball team was practicing on the adjacent field and they were blasting country music from a big speaker. I was concerned that it might disrupt my peaceful run. The music itself was weirdly anachronistic for suburban Long Island but somehow it worked. There were a few track teams taking up the inside lanes while I ran, but we managed to peacefully co-exist.

Later in the day, my son and I went to Trailview State Park for a hike. Trailview has a hiking trail and another that’s supposedly reserved for biking. On our way back we followed the bike trail and found it much more interesting. It wound around in different directions and seemed to go on forever. Just at the point where I thought it was taking us farther away from our starting point, the trail head came into sight. It was a nice second workout of the day and helped me get to almost 14K steps on Friday.

I considered taking a rest day today but we have plans for an end-of-vacation breakfast tomorrow. If I’m going to run on Sunday I’ll need to do it early. Knowing that, I decided to get out again today to keep the streak going. I ran okay and covered some streets I haven’t run in months. I wasn’t under time pressure and thought about adding a few extra miles, but I didn’t want to tempt fate and invite injury. My sciatica returned earlier in the week, this time it was on my right side. I was concerned that my herniated disc had been re-aggravated, but I’ve been pain free over the last three runs.

I’m happy to have the Fitbit and I’m curious to see how much distance I actually travel during a typical work day. I’ll find out next week. My work calendar will be even worse than usual because I had the audacity to take a week off and that means lots of catch up meetings starting Monday. I’m hoping that all the walking I do in between meetings will add up to more than 10K daily steps.

Run, hike and Fitbit

On April 27, 2016 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

ER and ER Jr taking on the trails at Bethpage

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Yesterday’s run (street): 3.25 miles
Sunday’s run (street): 3.5 miles

It’s nice to be out of the office this week. We’ve had some great days so far. Since work often gets in the way of my weekday running, I try to take advantage of off days to fit in extra workouts. That’s been the case so far on this vacation. I’ve been able to run every day since Saturday.

I can barely remember Sunday’s run around the neighborhood, other than that it was windy and a little cold for the short sleeves and shorts I wore. Like Saturday, I had good energy and I felt I moved well. Yesterday I got out fairly early and enjoyed the quiet roads, courtesy of school vacation that kept both buses and parents off the roads.

Yesterday afternoon, my son and I decided to do an impromptu hike in the woods at Bethpage. We parked in the northeast corner of the lot and entered at the trail head at the far end of the picnic area. We followed the main trail that parallels the bike trail and then cut to a path that led us to the big field. We ducked back into the woods and began to take side trails, one of which led us to the paved path where the short but very steep hill begins.

We stayed on the bike trail for about three quarters of a mile before going back into the woods. We followed a winding path that eventually brought us back to where we’d started out. It was a good hike with some nice climbs and I was glad to get a second workout in on Monday.

Post-run selfie, Sunday or Monday. I’ve lost track.

We had buckets of rain this morning starting at around 4:00 AM, but conditions cleared up by about 9:00 AM. Even though the rain had stopped, I decided to save a little time and stayed inside, covering 3.3 miles on the treadmill. It was a good progression run and, like the three before it, I finished my last mile running a fairly fast pace (for me).

I’d given my wife my Fitbit a couple of years ago because I got frustrated with it. Not that it didn’t work, it was just that I’d frequently leave it on my dresser instead of transferring it to my next pair of pants. And everyone knows that a run or walk that wasn’t captured by a device technically never happened.

My company just did a wellness challenge and every participant got a Fitbit to track their contribution to their team. I didn’t participate, but I became envious of people when they’d announce their step count. I decided to get back into the Fitbit game and ordered a new one. The building where I work is humongous and every meeting I’m in seems to be as far from my office as physically possibly.

I’ll be curious to see how much I actually travel during the workday. I wish I had it now so I could track my progress during this vacation week.

Fitbit value to be determined.

On October 22, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Planned obsolescence

Today’s run (street): 3.3 miles

The best time to value your personal technologies is when they stop working. Do you fix, replace or discard? Years ago, I actually paid money to have my VCR repaired. It was worth it because a functioning VCR was important to me. An issue I’m having with my Fitbit has forced me to decide whether I’m in for a penny or a pound. Actually, 6.2 (British) pounds.

Worn and torn

The thing is, my Fitbit’s “belt holster”, a spring clip with a rubberized housing, is falling apart. The rubber that protects clothing from the sharp metal clip has ripped and detached. This makes the process of attaching the device to pants or a belt so difficult that I’ve stopped wearing it. I thought I might write to Fitbit and mention their poor clip design. I figured they’d be horrified and would immediately send me new one for free. When I went to the Fitbit site, I saw that my problem can be solved with the purchase of a replacement holster for $9.95 plus tax and shipping.

I probably won’t bother to get it. It’s not about the $10+ required to buy a new clip that will likely need to be replaced again in six months. I get that things cost money, though I find it offensive that they make money off their own design flaw. I’ve discovered that, despite the Fitbit’s great features and attributes, I don’t really find it that useful anymore.

The excitement of occasionally reaching 15,000 daily steps or 25 flights of stairs is mitigated by the frustration that comes from forgetting to transfer the device between sleepwear, running shorts, and pants. What’s the sense of tracking only part of your activities? I’ll give it another week to decide between purchasing a new clip or relegating the Fitbit to the technology junk drawer. It comes down to whether the value of the Fitbit is closer to pennies or pounds.

Making my last taper count

On October 17, 2013 By Emerging Runner3 Comments

A serious threat to pant-kind

Today’s run (street): 3.1 miles

As much as I love running, business needs to come first. For that reason, I was unable to get in my workout yesterday. I was in the city all day for meetings so the opportunity for a run didn’t surface. I’m temporarily boycotting my Fitbit because the holding clip has deteriorated to the point where I fear it will rip my pants when I wear it. Without it, I don’t know how much distance I covered yesterday on foot, but I’m estimating it was between 4 and 5 miles.

Today I had no excuses. Without a commute into the city, I had enough time for one final run before Saturday’s 5K. Although I’ve heard that I need to do weekly speed work in order to avoid embarrassing myself on race day, I think I’ve prepared well for the race. I decided that a good hard run over three miles would be a nice way to end my taper.

I took off at a brisk pace and tried to maintain that turnover throughout the entire run. The difference between this type of workout and a race centers on two factors: the influence of other runners and the psychology of competing in a timed event. Without those two things, my expectation was to see a very good, but not spectacular performance today.

That’s exactly how it came out. I’d kept my heart rate around 85% max and covered the distance in a little over 28 minutes. For me, that was exactly on the mark. I could have pushed harder and dropped my pace into the 8:00 range, but I didn’t see any reason to do that. 9:06 was a decent average under the circumstances. I’m making no predictions for Saturday. A lot of it will come down to how I feel on race day morning.

To whom the Cowbell tolls

On August 21, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Pointing out James Street after last year’s race

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. After some high mileage training weeks leading up to last weekend’s Dirty Sock race, I haven’t run a step. Mondays are my usual rest day, which works out great when I race on Sundays. Today started early because I had to get into the city for some morning meetings. I went to bed thinking I might run today, but I slept until 5:15 AM, which didn’t give me enough time.

Even without running, I still managed to meet my daily requirement of Fitbit steps. Between my backpack and sports jacket, combined with 81% humidity, I worked up quite a sweat. So it was sort of like a workout, but I really missed the part where I get to shower.

Tomorrow I’ll officially start my Cow Harbor training. The good news is that I’ll be starting on two days rest. My plan right now is to go out early enough to minimize the heat. If I’m training for this race, I’ll need to start pushing the pace right away. As for the hill training, that can wait another day. But not too long, James Street looms large.

Stepping it up for race day

On August 17, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Getting there

Flower power

If you use a Fitbit, then you know that the currency is steps. It also measures distance traveled, staircases climbed, calories burned and “energy” (expressed in the form of a flower). But between me and my wife, steps are a shorthand for daily activity. My daily goal is 10M steps, with typical variance of 2,500 steps. On days when I do a long run, that number can go in the 20M range.

Without a run on the schedule, I was facing a big challenge towards reaching my daily goal. By noon, my total was still under 2,000 and I wasn’t happy with that. I decided to pick up some steps by walking around the pool area and the yard. It took little time to reach the 5M mark. At that point, I decided to do a series of short strides. Although I ran these briskly, they were not intervals. But it was enough to work up a sweat, so my next stop was to join my kids in the pool.

Through all that, I passed 7,000 steps and I’m almost to eight by now. I think I achieved a good balance between motion and rest today. It’s about twelve hours to the start of the Dirty Sock. I hope today’s activities will help, and not hurt, my performance tomorrow.

City trek dwarfs morning workout

On April 18, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

And the day ain’t over…

Today’s workout (elliptical): 25 minutes + 7 miles city walk

I figured I’d be covering some ground today, but I had no idea that I’d travel over seven miles in the city on foot. My meeting locations varied between east 53rd Street and Spring Street, with a couple of other spots in between. I could have used the subway, but I didn’t see the point of that when I could just as easily walk.

Before I left for the city, I did an elliptical session. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I’d be getting a second workout later. The Fitbit recorded a couple of miles from the elliptical and, fortunately, I remembered to bring it with me when I left the house. I’d forgotten to take the Fitbit on Monday when I covered significant territory around Manhattan. The Fitbit recorded none of that, causing me to look like a slacker on the Fitbit dashboard. But today was a different story.

Should have that distance number over 10 miles tonight

Fitbits don’t work across the room

On March 13, 2013 By Emerging Runner10 Comments

Ouch

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

About halfway through this morning’s treadmill run, I spotted my Fitbit sitting on the guestroom bed. I’m really into capturing my activity through that device, so I was a little nonplussed by the situation. While I was still capturing metrics like time and heart rate on my Garmin, all those steps would be lost to my daily and weekly totals. I considered stopping the treadmill to retrieve the device but decided that it wasn’t worth the disruption.

Years ago, when my first Garmin failed during a run, I felt frustrated and asked myself, “If the run didn’t record, did it really happen?” I know it sounds silly, but I once felt that way. A documented run is a tangible entity. Something that happened. Something to look back upon. A run performed independent of a watch or device doesn’t become part of recorded history. I’ll admit that on the rare times when I’ve gone out “watchless” on a run, I later Gmap’d my route so I could at least capture my distance.

Even without a device, running data on the treadmill is always available via the display. I don’t fully trust the accuracy, but at least it provides ballpark metrics. I maintained a challenging pace through the workout and that took my mind off forgetting my Fitbit. So it looks like I’ll need to wait a little longer to get my next Fitbit badge. Further, today’s totals won’t approach my daily goals. But I got a good run in today, despite the lack of evidence.

Do U really like me or is it just the code talking?

On March 8, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s workouts (treadmill): 3.2 miles + 1 hour shoveling

My Fitbit likes me. I know this because it told me so. Right on the display it said, “I LIKE U.” Every once in a while it will tell me something like “LET’S GO!” or “MOVE IT.” It’s kind of pushy. I think the reason it was liking me right now relates to my double workout, courtesy of today’s snowfall.

Believe it or not, this is a color photo

The neighborhood was already covered in snow by the time I woke up and it hasn’t stopped yet. I went out early to shovel and was surprised to see 4″ of the heavy stuff already on the driveway. It took almost an hour to clear both the drive and the walk. By the end, my Fitbit showed I’d covered over 4,000 steps and almost two miles of distance. I did go back and forth and up and down quite a few times.

After taking a break for a cup of coffee, I changed into running clothes and started a treadmill run. I decided that my morning effort gave me license to set an easier pace than normal. Shoveling all that snow had provided a nice (and well needed) upper body workout and running took care of the balance. By the time I finished my run I was almost to 10K steps and approaching 6 miles for the day. I didn’t do it so my Fitbit would like me. But I’m glad that it does.