Some improvement running at Bethpage

On February 28, 2016 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Making strides

Today’s run (Bethpage trail): 5.1 miles

I’m happy to report that I was not the dog’s dinner on today’s run. I wanted to break away from my neighborhood and headed over to Bethpage to run the bike trail. I know I should be running 6 or more miles at least once a week to raise my base, but that hasn’t been happening. I wasn’t prepared to do six today, but I thought five was reasonable.

With 9 MPH winds, the real-feel temperature was 42°, although it felt much chillier. If my running jacket hadn’t been ruined yesterday, I may have worn it as a top layer. I was lucky not to have that option because I heated up a lot as I progressed. By the end, I was regretting my second layer, hat and gloves.

The run went okay, but the hilly route felt ponderous. I felt a little rough throughout the first half mile and realized that I’d only covered a tenth of my targeted distance. I hoped that my aerobic engine would soon kick in. I cruised along, tolerating the ups and downs of the rolling course and dreading the mini-mountain I knew I’d need to climb at the start of my last mile.

Most of the run was at my usual speed but, near the end, I began experimenting with different pacing. I shortened my stride and increased my cadence while maintaining the same level of effort. I didn’t know this at that time, but this change provided a measurable improvement in my pace.

I don’t know if I can permanently adapt to this running style, but if I’m successful, I should be able to improve on my current performance. I plan to try doing it for longer periods in hopes that it will begin to feel more natural.

Marathon day but not a marathon run

On November 1, 2015 By Emerging Runner6 Comments

I ran 1/6th of this distance today

Today’s run (street): 4.25 miles

After yesterday’s horrible run I was a little gun shy about going out again this morning. Daylight Savings Time allowed me to sleep until 6:30 AM and still get up at 5:30 and I was hoping the extra rest would help. I think it did. I told my wife that I was worried about having another bad running experience but she dismissed the thought, saying every run is different. I managed to get out of the house early and my Garmin quickly acquired its signal. I wasted no more time thinking about how I’d feel once I got going.

I usually think out my route and distance before I run. Today I took off in a random direction thinking I’d figure it out as I went. I soon determined that yesterday’s struggles wouldn’t carry over to today and I focused on getting through the run as quickly as possible. I was anxious to get home so I could watch the NYC marathon coverage on TV and track a number of friends who were running.

I felt much better today and it was enough to improve my overall pace by 42 seconds per mile. There was a pronounced wind that both helped and hurt depending on which direction I was going. The temperature was 59° but I began to feel the heat due to the 72% humidity. I’d paid no attention to my time or distance and thought I’d only gone about 3.5 miles when I got back to my house. I was surprised to see that I’d run more than 4 miles.

It was fun to watch the the coverage of the elite runners when I got back. I had a half dozen people that I wanted to track and I was excited to find that FS was also running when I looked her up. I enjoyed being able to follow people’s progress by laptop and wished that the network spent more time covering non-elite participants.

Watching the marathon was fun and I keep waiting for the racing bug to return for me. For now I’m happy to run on my own terms. I’m more interested in training to beat my PB for distance in a single run (13.1 miles) and I plan to start on that next weekend. Once I get my base up, I might be looking at 10Ks a little differently.

Kenyans are faster than my commute

On September 18, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

These cars were new when I started my commute

Today’s run (street): 3.4 miles

If you took every car on Long Island and laid them end to end, it would stretch all the way to my exit off the Long Island Expressway. That is the reality of my daily commute home. 35 miles in 150 minutes is an average of 14 MPH. An elite runner could run home faster. This is the reason I like Fridays, because working from home saves me one day of all that aggravation.

Last night it took 2 1/2 hours to get from my office to my house. I had every intention of doing a post-work elliptical session, but my night was getting short and I decided to forgo it. Today I had no excuses. I was pleased to see the below 70° temperature and feel the cool dry air when I stepped outside this morning. I felt good from the start and that continued throughout the run.

It’s getting close to fall, my favorite running season, and I’m wondering if I’m finally turning the corner on my lethargic performance. Little by little, I’ve increased my effort on my runs and have started to see incremental improvements to my pace. Today I focused on increasing cadence and a more dynamic leg motion.

The end result was a substantial improvement in my pace compared to a few weeks ago. As impressive as that sounds, I’m still over a minute per mile slower than I was last year. On the other hand, today’s pace was half a minute faster than last Sunday. This type of progress is very encouraging. If it continues, I might get fast enough to out run the Expressway traffic.

Moving lower on the dizzy scale

On July 26, 2015 By Emerging Runner3 Comments

Today’s run (street): 4.4 miles

After another good nights sleep I’m functioning a little better than on Friday. I woke up today without feeling dizzy. Even after my run, I haven’t experienced any problems. I still feel blocked on my right side around my ear, which may be due to fluid build-up. It’s possible that I got water in my inner ear from being in the pool last weekend. That could explain my occasional dizziness over the past week.

I had some time pressure to get my run done early, although I still took my sweet time getting outside. I like to take it easy on Saturday mornings, leisurely drinking coffee and watching the news, although those aren’t conditions that motivate me to run and sweat. I do eventually get there. According to my Garmin data, I didn’t actually start my run until 8:43 AM. Fortunately, the weather was still a balmy 77° with an 8 MPH breeze and only 57% humidity.

Since I skipped my workout yesterday, I considered covering a little extra distance today. I ended up keeping my run to around four miles because I didn’t want to overdo it. That was a good decision and I ended up having a good, energizing run. The run itself started as it typically does, with the first few minutes setting the tone for the entire workout. I usually start off feeling uncomfortable, probably due to the high degree of anaerobic breathing that happens before my body switches over to aerobic.

The rest of the run went fine and I was back home in time to stay on schedule. Today has been busy and I was happy to get my run in after missing it yesterday. I’m glad the dizziness has gone away. I just hope it stays gone.

Goodbye pain, hello speed

On May 10, 2015 By Emerging Runner9 Comments

Illustration by Mr. Emerging Runner Jr.

Today’s run (street): 3.9 miles
Yesterday’s run (street): 3.6 miles

Happy Mother’s Day. We did most of our celebrating yesterday because we had a lot of stuff to do today. That meant family time during the day, followed by an early dinner at our favorite place. This weekend also included a couple of sunny outdoor runs for me that felt close to normal. The gating (or gaiting : ) factor is my stride that feels constrained on my left side. It’s causing my left foot to land differently, so that it jams up against the front of my shoe.

Both of my weekend runs were pretty much the same, although they were tougher than they should have been. The issue wasn’t my disc problem. Part of it came from an extremely heavy pollen count and high humidity, especially today. I’ll also blame the minimal road work I’ve done over the past couple of months. My street runs are generally longer than the treadmill and elliptical workouts that I’ve been doing. Plus, these outside runs produce a lot more impact than fitness machines.

The bright spot in today’s run happened near the end when I came down a long stretch and saw a couple walking in the distance. I picked up the pace to pass them and held it long enough to determine that I wouldn’t cause a relapse of my upper thigh pain. My overall pace for the run was still very slow, but that last quarter mile was in the mid-8:00 range. No pain during or after.

Tomorrow I’ll finish up the formal testing of alternative running machines. I want to keep the momentum of weekday workouts after this program finishes. I don’t like using the locker room at my company’s fitness center, but if I schedule my workouts for the end of the day, I can towel off with gym wipes and then head straight home. That’s what I’ve been doing during this testing period.

Over the weekend, my son created a running graphic for me (above) that looks like some of the artwork I’ve created for this site. I like his running man (or woman!) and I think he nailed both the concept of running and a forward leaning stance in karate. I haven’t had to combine those two things to date, but if I do, I’ll have an icon to represent it!

Running in the right direction

On May 24, 2014 By Emerging Runner7 Comments

A subtly better run

Today’s run (street): 4.4 miles

This morning’s run was 25% longer than yesterday’s and 1% faster. In other words, better. What the numbers don’t show is how I felt during and after the run, and that’s real reason why I was pleased with today’s workout.

Friday’s run was the first one I’d done since the Brooklyn Half and, after five days rest, I’d hoped for a good rebound. What I actually got was a rough 3.4 miles featuring a cranky stride and more fatigue than the distance should have produced. Rather than benefiting from an (almost) full week’s recovery, I felt as if I had over-trained. I don’t know if it was related to the run (or a fairly intense week at the office), but I was tired for the remainder of the day.

This morning was sunnier than Friday and a little breezier. I didn’t get out as early as I’d planned because I got caught up watching an episode of Lillyhammer with my son. Worth the wait. Once I got outside, I was ready to run. There was no delay with the GPS this time, 20 seconds and I was good to go. The air smelled of cut grass and something that might have been mesquite. I took off in a direction that bypassed the landscaping crew trucks that were parked up and down the road.

I had targeted four miles for my run today without any particular route in mind. I encountered some runners and walkers along the way and I observed a number of people packing up their SUV’s for what I guessed were Memorial Day getaways. I felt relaxed and tried to open up my stride as the run progressed. Overall, I slightly improved on yesterday’s pace.

I may go out for a little more distance tomorrow, depending on how our schedule goes. While I didn’t see a dramatic improvement in performance over yesterday’s, I certainly had a more encouraging experience. I finished the run feeling strong and had no after-effects like I did when I finished Brooklyn. After feeling a little down about running this week, my motivation is on the rise.

Running happiness in a squeeze bottle

On November 1, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Doping the right way

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

Oxymetazoline HCl is my new favorite drug. I’ve recently found that a minimal dose of this OTC nasal spray provides a lot of relief to my pressure headaches. Using it seems to negate the need to take ibuprofen or pseudoephedrine. I don’t like to take either of those, especially when I’m planning to run. I get these headaches during certain weather conditions and they are tough to treat, but a couple of sprays have put me back on the mend.

This morning’s weather was windy and rainy. Fallen leaves on the roads made for slippery conditions and I resigned myself to another treadmill workout. I’d used the nasal spray as soon as I got up and felt instantly better. I was ready to push hard today and I set the speed a full MPH faster than yesterday. Today was warmer and more humid than Thursday, yet I felt much stronger throughout the run.

The good thing about running faster on the treadmill is that you get through your planned distance sooner. I had plenty to do today so that was a bonus. The nasal spray, unlike decongestant tablets, doesn’t make me dizzy or tired. Treadmill running is scary enough without having to deal with those concerns.

Progress made on a progressive run

On October 28, 2013 By Emerging Runner12 Comments

Progressively paced

Today’s run (street): 3.25 miles

I’ve been feeling a little down about my running lately, because I haven’t been able to generate much speed on my training runs. I feel I should be meeting certain paces and I’ve come up short over the last week. The fact that my race times have been going in the wrong direction has fed into this frustration. Today’s run didn’t completely reverse my perspective, but it certainly helped my confidence.

It’s hard to explain my current issues. I’m not running to exhaustion, but I’ve felt like the effort I’m putting in isn’t translating into commensurate performance. I haven’t been pushing the pace like I’d do if I was training for a race, although I do have a 10K coming up in three weeks. I shouldn’t be expecting greatness, but perceived effort seems greater than observed performance.

I started out slowly and expected this run to be another disappointing effort, but I picked up speed every mile, finishing up a minute and half per mile faster than I started. This improvement was not apparent in the moment. It wasn’t until I’d downloaded my Garmin’s data that I saw my negative splits and realized I’d managed to hit an acceptable overall pace.

I’m glad to have tomorrow, my weekly rest day, for further recovery. I’ll need to turn my attention to race training soon. For now I’m just happy to have broken my streak of sub-par runs.

Can you really improve your running speed?

On September 7, 2013 By Emerging Runner8 Comments

Looping the loop

Today’s run (Business Park): 4.8 miles

I’m beginning to wonder how much one can actually do to optimize running speed. When I first started running, I was averaging 12 minute miles over the first full month. Two months later, I was breaking 10 minutes a mile. When I completed my first full year, I was averaging 9:15 per mile, with occasional dips below 9:00 on shorter distance runs.

Four years later, despite holding consistently to a six day running schedule, I’m still averaging about those same paces. The good news is that I’ve managed to keep my performance at the same level. The bad news is that it now takes a lot more effort to do that. My goal has always been to average below 9:00 a mile and I’m wondering if I’ll ever get there.

As I focus on speed, I’m realizing how difficult it will be to get to my targeted pace. After taking a break from performance to run the trails on Friday, I headed over to the local business park to run the big loop. This route provides a lot of elevation gain and loss (+/- 1,040 feet), which I thought would be helpful training for Cow Harbor.

The temperature was 59 degrees when I went out 8:00 AM, and that provided great conditions for taking on the hills. I did two laps around the park before ducking into an adjacent neighborhood for another mile. With the great weather, I was surprised to see only two other runners out this morning. One woman was circling the park counter-clockwise while I ran it the other way. She was running with traffic and we passed closely. I wonder if these people ever connect the reason why I run on the left with safety. I’m guessing they don’t.

I made it back home in time to make an early obligation. When I mapped my run, I saw that I’d averaged 9:27 a mile. Despite my focus on speed, my performance is still lagging on longer runs. Tomorrow, I’m planning on doing a fairly long tempo run, followed by hill repeats. Only one more weekend after this to train for Cow Harbor before I taper. I’m doing the best I can to prepare, but there may not be much more performance to gain.

Redemption run gives hope for Dirty Sock

On August 16, 2013 By Emerging Runner6 Comments

The Garmin doesn’t lie

Today’s run (street): 3.25 miles

With the Dirty Sock trail race happening on Sunday, I had one more run to go before I finished my taper. Yesterday’s run was disappointing and Tuesday’s was similarly mediocre. I’ve recently committed to pushing harder on training runs and that paid off last week with a few decent runs. When I say decent, I mean closer to last year’s average pace. Certainly not as fast as the paces I used to hit while training for a race.

The Dirty Sock is a tough course. The terrain isn’t especially bad for trails, but the steamy weather conditions and muddy paths make the last miles difficult. My time expectation for this race is about 59 minutes, which is five minutes slower than my 10K PR. I’m usually happy to run it in under an hour. Actually, the way I’ve been running, I’m concerned about breaking 62 minutes.

Hope came this morning with a run that redeemed my spirit. The difference today was that I kept a steady focus on speed. It wasn’t an impressive pace for many readers of this blog, but it was almost a minute per mile faster than what I “achieved” yesterday. I’m not going into Sunday’s race with a string of fast runs under my belt, but at least I ended training on a good note.