Pre-race rest

On June 4, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I’m still a racing newbie and while I have competed a couple of times in the last two months I’m not convinced that I have figured out the best strategy for optimizing my readiness prior to race day. I’d decided to take two rest days before my 4 mile race in April. The idea was to aid my recovery from the harder than normal training program I had been following. I ran a good race that day and despite a few killer hills I kept my overall pace at 8:50 per mile. The second race, in May, was a 5K on a flatter course and I decided to push my training a little more and my rest a little less. I only took one rest day the day before and ended up averaging 8:33 which pleased me to no end.

This Sunday’s race is my longest yet, 8K/5 miles on an unknown course. I have not had too many sub 9:00 runs at distances greater than 4 miles so I’m not really sure how I’ll do. My goal for the 4 miler was to break 9:00 and I did. My goal for the 5K was to break 8:40 and I did. My goal for Sunday is to do better than 9:07 which seems to be the best pace I’ve attained for 5+ miles in the last couple of months. If I can beat 9:00 I’ll be happier still.

I’m enjoying a rest today although I could easily have run a couple of miles. I woke up with little leg and knee soreness (icing and compression helped that) and thought one more day of rest can’t hurt. Saturday will also be a rest day if you consider back to back appointments at the eye doctor and dentist restful. Then it’s race day. I’m hoping for the best.

A penultimate pre race run

On June 3, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I took the day off today and sneaked in a longer than normal week day run. I’m in taper mode and wanted to get one more 3+ mile run under my belt before Sunday’s 8K. Like other times when I’ve run during the work week morning I was cautious about sharing the road with cars and school buses and I stayed on the sidewalks more than I normally do. Sidewalk running has its own risks, especially when you encounter buckled or broken sections. But compared to a steady stream of cars making their way to the local school and landscaper’s trucks maneuvering through the streets it’s a better way to go.

I gave myself a quarter mile to work out the leg stiffness that remains on my right side and then focused on keeping my pace steady and brisk. I felt good and the weather was cooperative so I expected that I’d end up pacing below 9:00 minutes overall. I was a little time pressed and needed to return home within 35 minutes of departure so I knew I’d probably run less than 4 miles. I purposely kept the Garmin in time mode rather than pace or distance. I wanted to see how I would run if I concentrated on speed without knowing how much distance I’d covered or what speed I was running. As I came upon the last segment of my route I tried to run faster, lengthening my stride and quickening my cadence. I finished and saw that I’d covered 3.6 miles at 8:54/mile. I was happy that I broke 9:00 but I’m still wondering why I’m not in the 8:30 range at this point. Oh well, I plan one more run on Friday and perhaps I can again push the speed and get ready for a faster pace on Sunday.

I will soon announce a new section/site related to the Emerging Runner that focuses on running technology: Runner’s Tech Review. The first review will cover the Moji knee icing wrap which I am wearing as I write this. AG field tested it with her team during her recent Patch Sprint mountain race. I am also starting to work with the QStarz GPS Sports Recorder and will report on that soon.

Stay tuned for lots of new stuff on emergingrunner.com including “Running Gone Wild” and, every week, “Sedentary Man.”

8K’s a week

On June 1, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

It’s getting down to the final days leading up to my 8K race on June 7. It’s hard to believe that it’s already June 1st. You wouldn’t know it this morning with temperatures in the 40’s in the suburbs east of NYC. It’s too early to count on the long range forcast for next Sunday but the race starts at 9:15 AM and I’m hoping the humidity will be relatively low at that point.

I’ve decided to taper my workouts this week, starting yesterday with a shorter (but faster) 2+ mile run. I covered the distance at an 8:50 pace which compares to the 9:07 average I ran in May. Knowing that it would be short I kept up my speed throughout the run and benchmarked distance from the Garmin against known waypoints on my route. I saw that the Garmin was undercounting my progress so I ignored the readout and just followed the route I’d Gmapped prior to the run. In all, the Garmin was off by 5% and I manually adjusted the watch so it should be accurate now. I followed my run with some time in the pool where I did kicking exercises that, combined with the cold water, helped my quad soreness.

This morning I did 22 minutes on the elliptical as a weekend recovery workout (totaled 12.5 miles between Friday and Sunday). Tomorrow I plan to do a weekday run outdoors using the vest and head lamp I borrowed from AG. I’m taking off Wednesday so I hope to do my last long run before the race and follow that with a rest day on Thursday. Friday morning I hope to do a relatively short city run with AG to finish the taper and rest on Saturday.

Getting up to speed (literally)

On May 30, 2009 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

I was thinking about my upcoming race on June 7, 8K (5 miles) in New Hyde Park, NY. This will be my longest race to date and it will certainly push me to the limit in terms of effort and conditioning. After dedicated focus on running for the past nine months I have reached the point where I can handle the distance but not necessarily at the pace that I’d like to run. I am satisfied with my performance on the 4 miler and the 5K but while I was consistently running below 9 minutes per mile a month or two ago my speed seems to have regressed to the point that I’m still in the 9:00 to 9:10 range on most of my better runs. It’s possible that I’m doing better than I think. Since I changed the battery in my Garmin 50 foot pod its distance accuracy has been questionable. The other variable is my shoes. I switched from My Nike Turbulence 13’s to the Brooks GTS 9’s after the 5K. The Brooks feel great and my hip and leg problems have gone away for the most part. Could it be that I just don’t run as fast in them?

I am excited about the race but I’ll admit my anticipation is different now that I know more what to expect for the most part. I’m trying to pick up as many miles earlier in the week and taper near the end of the week possibly running a slightly shorter but faster course next Friday.

Yesterday AG and I did our weekly city run down the bike trails along the West Side Highway. We did this run as an end of the week recreational run rather than a business update. We started close to our building and went west about a mile before heading south along the path to the park behind Stuyvesant High School on Chambers Street. In total we covered close to 5 miles and after we returned to the office we Gmapped the route to calculate our pace. It was hard to determine the true pace because I only timed the longer southern route but it appeared as though we ran around 9:30 or so per mile. I kept the pace relatively slow because I wasn’t feeling strong enough to work on speed. At one point she turned around to look at something we had just past and ran backward for short time at the same pace I was running forward! I’ll blame some of my slowness on the fact that I just run better in the morning. I’m also not feeling all that great this morning and I’m wondering if I was fighting a slight fever. But it’s easy to make excuses.

My plan today is to run about 5 miles and I think I may do that later in the day. I also want to work in some speed drills. I’m sure doing that helped me achieve a decent pace in the 5K. Eight days and counting to the 8K. It’s coming fast.

Downsizing

On May 27, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

This past weekend was a busy combination of activities. Some I enjoyed (long runs, buying running clothes, swimming) and others I didn’t enjoy at all (an all day reception on Saturday). In between that I spent a few hours organizing my workout storage area consolidating everything into a wooden wardrobe in the guest room. I placed my running sweats, compression tights, thermal wicking jerseys, winter head gear and gloves into their own section and created new spaces for summer jerseys, running shorts, socks, etc. Now I no longer have to bounce back and forth between the bedroom, cabinets and baskets to collect my gear for a morning workout. I’m hoping this better organized setup will shave off a couple of minutes of prep time for me in the morning. Every minute counts.

As I was doing this task it occurred to me that I still have drawers filled with clothes that no longer fit me. Over the past few weeks I’d transferred some suits into the donation bin but I still had dozens of tee shirts, polo shirts and dress shirts that now look huge on me. I’ve recently bought some new casual clothes so it was easy to let go of most of the tees. I drew the line at my MIT shirts since they are special and many still fit. There were some items that had me on the fence like long sleeve comfortable jerseys. I had to fight the urge to retain them but out they went. The purge continued with pants and shorts and by the end I must have had 50 lbs. of clothing ready for donation.

All the while I was throwing clothes into the donation basket I wondered if this was a fool’s errand. What made me think I would continue to remain the size I am now? What if I gained 5 or 10 lbs? I decided that I had to press on as I fully intend to remain focused on fitness and running. I lost my weight quickly but I did that through a sustainable program of portion, sugar and (bad) fat reduction. I don’t starve and running keeps my weight in balance. I could always buy bigger clothes if that became necessary but my dislike for shopping for (non-exercise related) clothing is so intense that it may be enough to keep my diet in check.

After all my dreading of the treadmill I did get on it this morning for a quick couple of miles. I started off at a comfortable pace and increased it periodically until finishing the last two minutes under an 8:00 pace. I ended up running 8:32/mi overall. It was fine but I miss the street. AG lent me a head lamp and reflector vest from her relay team supplies so I’m planning to try that as an occasional alternative to the weekday treadmill events.

Memorable Memorial Day

On May 23, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

We had an event that took up most of our day today so I got an early start to my run. I took off around 6:30 AM with no planned route or distance. I figured that I’d do at least 30 minutes and let my location relative to home determine my full distance. I got off to a good start navigating through my neighborhood for a couple of miles before crossing over to neighborhood #2. The weather was cool and I wasn’t having any issues with my leg so I figured it would be a fairly smooth run. I did a loop through neighborhood #2 and by the time I exited into the far end of my neighborhood I was starting to feel some fatigue. Throughout the run I was thinking about pace and I was a little frustrated that I wasn’t getting an accurate read from the Garmin foot pod. The pace it was showing was about 9:47 yet I knew I was running close to race pace at that point. I really have to do a focused calibration on the Garmin this weekend.

While I wasn’t really all that tired or in any way winded as I approached 30 minutes I recall feeling like I was working harder to run 3 miles than I had in recent days. It was hot this morning but not oppressive. As I ran I kept thinking about how it would feel to jump into the pool when I got home. So much of running is accepting some pain and tedium and while last weekend’s runs seemed a lot like floating today’s felt less buoyant. Despite the way I felt I decided to run another 10+ minutes towards home. It was getting hotter as the sun rose higher and I decided to push the pace a few times to test my conditioning. As I reached the last couple of streets I began to feel some slight discomfort coming from my right inside leg. I held back a little concerned that it could be a groin related issue but I did push the last quarter mile. Knowing the Garmin is currently inaccurate for distance I Gmapped the run and calculated that my pace was 9:07 for 4.82 miles.

I gave myself a few minutes to get my heart rate down, quickly changed into swim trunks and jumped in the pool for the first time this season. I entered the pool hot and sweating and emerged freezing (which was a much better feeling). The rest of the day was spent at an event where the music was too loud and the high calorie food was too available. I certainly exceeded my calorie and fat quota today and didn’t much enjoy it. I know I’ll run it all off but I’m feeling a little guilty, especially about the sugar.

I saw AG’s tweet reports from the Patch Sprint 12 mile mountain race. Her team all finished the event and one teammate finished 2nd. Great going to all. I’m hoping the rain hold off tomorrow so I can try the Bethpage trails. I did 20.6 miles this past week and I hope to total at least 13 over the long weekend. 8 miles to go!

Heading to the Charles

On May 17, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I’m getting ready to leave for another trip to MIT. I have a busy day on Monday but I’m planning to take a little time in the morning to do my favorite run along Memorial Drive in Cambridge. This morning I ran about 4 miles at 9:08. I’m not quite sure why my pace has slipped back over 9:00 but it has. I’ve been concentrating on distance and less on speed but all the same I feel like I’m pushing pretty well. I tried to calibrate the Garmin this morning using the automatic feature. It didn’t quite work out but I believe I’ve managed to get it back to spec through manual adjustment.

Only three weeks until the New Hyde Park 8K. I wish they’d put the online registration up on the site already!

Back on track (or is it tread?)

On May 15, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I realized last night that I had not run on the treadmill since the Tuesday after my 5K. That seems like a long time but it actually makes sense because I’ve integrated an extra long (street) run during the week and have finally started taking weekly rest days. In between street runs I’ve used the elliptical and I’ve been tracking about 19 miles per week since May.

Today I returned to the treadmill and I’ll admit I really didn’t want to use it. My last time on it had gone poorly and I really wasn’t looking forward to the tedium. Nothing has changed since the 5th, the machine still droned and the display flickered. What was different about today’s session was that I was running pain free and my new Brooks felt stable and comfortable. I was still grateful when my finish time approached but I was pleased to have covered two miles at an 8:43 pace.

Today is Friday, the start of Adventure Girls’s Ragner relay. I’m happy to report that she found a new teammate to fill out her roster of 12 and things will get started at 1:00 PM EST. I’ll be following progress through Twitter and report results. Best of luck to the team!

A weekend of joyful running

On May 10, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I’ve really enjoyed running this weekend and I’ll give much of the credit to my new shoes. The pleasure of running pain-free combined with the feeling of moving efficiently has often eluded me over the last couple of months. I am appreciating the Brooks although I do wish that the tongue extended higher past the throat to provide more padding when the laces are tightened. Other than that they are really great and they have quickly dispatched my leg soreness issues. I thought I might redeploy my Nikes as my office running shoes so I tried them again with the after market insoles I had recently purchased. Wearing the Brooks over the last seven days gave me an opportunity to compare the two pairs and the new insoles in the Nikes exaggerated the pronation and made me realize why I needed a stability shoe. I went back to the original insoles and that stabilized the Nikes enough to use them for another activity: a Mothers Day soccer game with my wife and kids.

As for running, I did more miles over a (two day) weekend than ever before. On top of yesterday’s near six I ran 4.6 miles this morning. Like yesterday, I did this distance feeling very strong and I wasn’t especially tired by the end. As I ran I worked on my form and stride and played with my pace a bit. I did the first quarter mile along a measured distance and noticed that the Garmin was tracking about 6% short. I knew I would need to Gmap my route against my total time to get my true pace but at least I knew that whatever the Garmin was reporting I had run faster and farther. I mixed up my route and covered some streets I haven’t taken in a while. The whole run felt great and, for the second time this weekend, I reached the “zone” that I had heard of and read about but had never personally experienced. Where was the noble suffering that I had come to expect? Was this some great breakthrough that has propelled me from the status of beginner to something more? Had the Emerging Runner finally emerged?

Well, not exactly.

I do think that I’ve made progress and I’m a far better runner than I was nine months ago but much of this weekend’s experience had to do with using the right gear and focusing more on duration and less on speed. My pace for today’s run was 9:17 which surprised me because I thought I was moving along at a better clip. But I now know through experience that I can integrate speed into my distance runs every few minutes and gain 20 or more seconds per mile. In the meantime I’ll be happy to have run 10.5 miles over two days and loved every minute of it.

5 kilometers of fun

On May 2, 2009 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

5K UPDATE – Official Results are in: 26:34 (8:33 Pace). Finished in top 20% and placed 2nd in my age division.
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I’ve completed my second race in as many weeks and I’m very happy to report that it was another great experience. They haven’t posted the official results but (by my calculations) I finished with an 8:31 pace. There was some drizzle about 30 minutes before the start but by the time we took off it was dry and clear. I wore a very light, waterproof but breathable running jacket that my wife encouraged me to buy at the Super Runners Shop booth at the Health and Fitness Exposition. The Expo was located adjacent to the race check-in area. I decided to wear this jacket even though it wasn’t raining at the start and I regretted that near the end of the race when I started to get hot. It didn’t make any difference in terms of my performance and I was relatively strong by the end of the race, much more so than the 4 mile race on the 19th. The differences between those races explains that as the 4 miler had some formidable hills and was a mile longer. Rounding out my gear, I wore a dry wicking running hat, my Pearl Izumi running shorts and a couple of items that AG gave me, some Merino wool socks that provided the extra cushioning I needed for my aging Nikes and a Nike Fit jersey that did a great job of keeping me dry.

Joining me this morning was my friend RDV who was running in his first race. My wife and kids served as the cheering section for both of us and there was a lot of excitement as we waited for the race to begin. There were a couple of short speeches and then we were sent off at the sound of an air horn. I started faster than I’d thought I’d go but I felt good and I was still cool so I figured that I could dial it back if I felt like I had been too aggressive. I passed a lot of people over the first half mile and most of them stayed passed throughout the race. Unlike the 4 mile race I also passed a few runners near the end. I was surprised when I saw the mile 1 clock reading 8:25 and I worried about sustaining that pace. My Garmin failed me again and for the second time it recorded time but did not display distance. I tried to start and stop it which had worked once before but it was a lost cause today. There was no clock at the two and three mile marks so I didn’t know my splits but I had a feeling that I was doing well.

As I came around the final bend and saw our starting point I began to really enjoy myself knowing that I was about two or three minutes to the finish line. The race ended with a run through the stadium at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and I was pleased that I still had enough energy to push my speed for the last 100 meters. Looking up at the clock I was surprised to see that I came in well under 27 minutes which was my goal for the race. My friend RDV finished a couple of minutes behind me and he also exceed his pace goal.

So that was the day and I am happy to have completed one of my 2009 race goals (running at least 3 miles under 8:40/mile) and I’m halfway through my goal of completing four races this year. I want to start working on distance now so that I can run a 10K and be more comfortable on longer runs. But that will have to start next week, I’m going to relax the rest of today and maybe even tomorrow. I want to thank my family, my friends and my my blog mates who have been so supportive. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. I’ll post the official results when I get ’em.