Racing toward race day

On March 5, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I received a notification yesterday that I am officially confirmed for the 5K run that is part of the upcoming LI Marathon event. This event occurs over two days and includes a kid’s fun run, a 1 mile run, a 5K, 10K, plus half and full marathons. This is actually the second race I’m running in early spring. Two weeks before the 5K I’m running a 4 mile race. I have about six weeks to refine my run strategies and work on my conditioning so that I can meet my goal of under 9 minute mile paces for both races.

This morning I tried to make up some time from yesterday’s short run. I ran 20 minutes at about a 9:10 pace. Adventure Girl says that a treadmill pace equates differently to street pace so that 9:10 on the treadmill would translate to 8-something on the street. I think that’s true, I’ve noticed that my weekend runs, though longer than my weekday runs, generally have faster pacing. It also may be that I can precisely measure outdoor running using tools like Gmaps while I have to rely on less precise tools (like the treadmill’s speedometer or the Garmin foot pod) for indoor measurement. If I’m underestimating my normal pace and working on my speed it may help me make my timing goals for these upcoming races.

Now for the big question – what do I wear on race day?

Less time? Run faster

On March 4, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I found myself running behind schedule this morning and was unhappy to see that I had far less than 20 minutes to do a run that included time to warm up and cool down. At the same time I was concerned that I would not meet my (self imposed) minimum distance of 1.5 miles for a weekday run. Since time can’t be controlled the only lever I had to play with was speed. I cheated a bit and got to my normal run pace in less than a minute before further cranking up the speed.

Now speed is relative, a fast pace for me would be an easy or even slow pace for an experienced runner. Indoors, I generally run at a 6.4 MPH tread speed which works out to about 9:22/mile. Today I ran closer to 7.2 MPH completing 1.62 miles in a little under 14 minutes for an 8:30/mile pace. That’s where I want to be. It was hard work to maintain that pace, my average pulse rate was almost 6% higher than at my normal pace. According to what I’ve read I can even push that higher rate 9% to be within 80% of max. Having the HRM has been handy in helping me understand the effort I’m expending relative to other workouts (e.g., elliptical) and now I’m seeing that it’s a good indicator for understanding how much further I should push to attain desired speed and pace.

My challenge now is maintaining that faster pace for longer than 1.62 miles. Completing a 5K at 8:30 would be great but I have work to do.

Happiness is a warm treadmill

On March 2, 2009 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

This morning I awoke to a foot of snow in Cambridge. From my hotel window I watched the plows working to clear streets and paths in Kendall Square. I went down to the fitness center for a run and indulged myself by selecting a treadmill with a personal TV screen.

I started my run and watched through the window as the snow blew almost parallel to the ground. People were walking in shovel-width paths that appeared to be two feet high at the sides. I watched the school closures on TV, virtually every school in the area is cancelled but happily MIT is open so my travel wasn’t wasted.

I ran about 25 minutes at about 9:20/mile. It felt like a good weekday workout. I think my wife had a better workout though – she went out to shovel our driveway at 5:30 AM where we got more than a foot on Long Island. I’m trying not to think about my travel back to NY later today.

A PR for the ER

On February 21, 2009 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

This past vacation week has been great fun. We stayed close to home but did a lot of different things. I’ve also enjoyed the opportunity to run outdoors every day and I’ve covered a lot of distance: 25 miles since last Sunday. I’m 56 days away from my 4-mile race and I’m confident that I can cover that distance at a credible pace. I’m feeling ready and what was once a comfortable buffer measured in months is now looking like an unnecessarily long gap that’s making me a little impatient. I’m tempted to look for a local race between now and April to just get one under my belt.

One reason I’m feeling this way is that I reached a new distance milestone this morning, covering 5.26 miles in about 52 minutes (9:53/mi avg pace). This broke my previous distance record by about .8 miles. Although I was off my normal pace I was very pleased with the run. I struggled a little at the beginning (I’d expected that since the first half mile was up an incline) but quickly settled into a good stride and knew that I was in for a long run. One of my biggest de-motivators has been the adjacency to my house. As I get closer to home, near the end of my run, I usually begin to feel the struggle to finish. I decided today that I’d double back a few times far enough away from my house that I wouldn’t have an expectation that I was nearing the end. It worked. I was at least 2.5 miles from home at the 2.5 mile mark so I knew that I had to cover 5 miles unless I stopped or walked. And I never do either.

I was surprised by how well I felt when I reached my house. My pulse rate was slightly lower than average and although my legs felt tired I knew I was good for another mile if I had to run it. For the first time I understood how people can get through 10Ks, half-marathons and even full marathons. I can’t do any of those but I understand a little more how conditioning prepares you to run for hours at a time without needing to stop.

I may take Sunday as a recovery day, either an easy run or light cross training. 4:00 AM Monday morning will come soon enough and I’ll need to be ready for a fast 2 miles to start my workday.

Vacation running progress

On February 18, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I took this week off because my kids are on vacation. It’s great to have additional time for running and I’m running ahead of my daily average of about 2. 2 miles. So far this week I’m averaging about 3 miles per day, today I ran 3.42 at a 9:14 pace. Looking back at my late fall 2008 paces I’m doing pretty well, my average pace in November was over 10:00 min/mi and now it’s less than 9:30/mi. This morning’s run started fast (for me) and I very quickly realized I couldn’t maintain the 8:30 pace I was running. After adjusting my speed I settled in aiming for about 2.25 miles that would put me a little ahead of my usual M-F run distance. Once I did my usual halfway loop I chose a few streets that ran away from my house to extend my total distance.

The heart rate monitor is great to have because it provides instant feedback in terms of how hard I’m working and how hard I should be running. I used it on the elliptical yesterday and it was interesting to compare those rates with rates when running. I know, based upon my pulse rate, that I need to push myself harder. I did accelerate a few times near the end but I still didn’t get to 80% of max rate that is recommended for progress. I always think about the phrase “Train, not pain” and I live by it making good progress by pushing incrementally without making training a negative experience. That’s probably why I look forward to my workouts instead of dreading the work.

No field of dreams

On February 17, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Yesterday I decided to try an alternative route starting with a run around the local middle school’s field. The ground was still semi frozen and very uncomfortable for running. After about half a mile I peeled off and hit the service road that leads back into the neighborhood. I continued my run on the streets until I came upon the park that connects to the elementary school’s grounds. These fields were also very bumpy so I exited back to the street for the remainder of my run.

I had hoped that the additional stiffness of the Kutus would balance the uneven running surface of the athletic fields but it wasn’t a comfortable experience and I was concerned about turning an ankle. I was pleased that the Kutus performed well on the street, different from the Turbulence 13s but still good. I ended up covering 2.5 miles at an average pace of 9:09. The Garmin 50 under reported the distance by about 2.8% but I still can’t figure out how to correct for that using the calibration feature.

Future trails and Garmin travails

On February 15, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Yesterday afternoon we hit the local outlet stores in search of a few needed items. My goal was to find some trail shoes and I tried on a bunch including the Adidas Kanadias, the Timberland Vaporate and the Nike Assail. Many runners I know eschew Nike and I’m not really sure why that is. I run with Nike Turbulence 13’s and I find them to be very comfortable. I didn’t really like the fit of the other maker’s shoes and I ultimately chose a pair of Nike Tri-D Kutus which fit differently than the Turbs but feel very good. Later today we plan to do some running/hiking and I’ll have a chance to test out the Kutus.

I did my first solo run with the Garmin 50 this morning covering 3.26 miles at an average pace of 9:00. It seemed accurate as I ran by my measured benchmarks and I liked how easy it was to toggle between distance and other real time metrics with a push of a button. I’ll check the accuracy against Google Earth and adjust accordingly if necessary. I did have another negative experience with the Garmin software when I uploaded the data and it didn’t hit the Garmin Connect site or show up on the dashboard. I wasn’t upset because the watch retained the data but it seemed odd that the ANT wireless linking app didn’t acknowledge the watch at all though I meticulously repeated the the TxPairing process a couple of times. I finally discovered the problem which is that the ANT app uploads the run to your PC but only sends the data if you are already logged into Connect. The work around (which took me a lot longer than it should have to figure out) was to pull the uploaded data from my file system and send it to Connect using the “Manual Upload” feature. Okay, I get it now but Garmin could be a little more clear about what the user should expect.

The good news is once Connect has the data the presentation is excellent. It shows a length of run graph that details pace, heart rate and cadence and even has a play feature that shows this combination of metrics at every stage of the run. I’m going to try to upload this file to MapMyRun a little later.

Back on track, literally

On February 14, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I began this Valentines Day with an early run at the local track. It was the first time I’d run there in over a month and it was a nice change from my other venues. I tried an experiment using both the Nike+ Sportband and the Garmin 50 on my run. I wanted to compare their relative tracking accuracy against a known distance.

It was 28 degrees but it felt colder. There was the usual strong wind for half the loop but I got used to it pretty fast. There were four other runners on the track including a couple I often see running in the morning. I passed the husband, which made me feel great until I was passed by another runner who must have been running about a 7 minute mile. The Garmin and the Sportband remained within a few 100ths of a mile of each other and, ultimately, both under reported the total distance traveled compared to the known distance. I varied my speed throughout the run and ran a total of 4.16 miles at 9:24/mile.

The Garmin vs. Sportband experience had its good and bad components. On the plus side, the 50 was a dream to operate. The HRM appeared to be accurate (yes – finally – a HRM worth a damn!) and it was easy to toggle between pulse rate, speed, cadence, elapsed time and distance as I ran. Finishing the run I simply hit stop instead of fighting with the overly sensitive Sportband button. Saving the run was easy too. Now for the bad part. After a run is captured into history you cannot review the metrics on the watch. The data must first be uploaded to Garmin’s Training Center. The badder news is that you can’t do this with a Mac even though they’re touting new Mac capability on the Garmin website. I fell for it and installed the app and “uploaded” my run. The only problem is that the Mac compatibility only extends to the ANT USB link that allows for data transfer. So the data can be transferred but IT CAN’T GO ANYWHERE. Furthermore, the factory default setting is to delete history from the watch once data is sent so my run went away forever. Happily I also had the whole run recorded by the Sportband.

I installed the Training Center on my XP PC in my guestroom and was able to upload a test “run” to the system. I also switched the transfer program to “DON’T DELETE after sending” so I should be okay for tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Speed bumping

On February 13, 2009 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Earlier this week I caught up with a friend over lunch and covered a number of subjects including running. This friend is an accomplished runner and one of my best sources of information about training. He’s also an accomplished writer and poet and, as a top executive at Rodale, he helped bring Runner’s World to that publisher.

We talked about my upcoming race and he reinforced the need the work on intensity running to help prepare for competition. He was gracious enough to send me a summary of his points. He reinforced the reason why speed training is important by closing with “What’s the good of this if you can’t show someone your heels?” That’s the positive side of the argument for participating in races.

I ran two strong miles this morning and incorporated speed intervals into the run. I maintained a 9:20 pace for the first .75 mile then accelerated to an 8:06 pace for 90 seconds and then dialed down (I was on the treadmill) to 9:05. I folded in a couple more 90 second speed bumps before completing two miles. I haven’t yet calculated the overall pace but I expect it was close to 8:55. Tomorrow I’ll do more of this on the track. If I can beat a 9:30 pace for 4 miles I’ll be pleased. If I can beat 9:00 I’ll be proud.

Half of 200%

On February 7, 2009 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I had high hopes for Spring-like running this morning but the warmer temperatures won’t reach us until later. I watched the thermometer widget on my iMac while I waited for the sun to rise. It was 17 degrees at 5:00 AM and, annoyingly, 16 degrees at 6:00. I left at 7:00 dressed for cold but, as always, I forgot to properly protect my face. No matter, I figured my body temperature would fix that soon. It all worked out and I felt great throughout the entire run. I only finished when I did because we’re on a tight schedule today.

I had about ten minutes to go near the end of the run and reached a point where I would finish at almost exactly 4 miles by heading straight home or I could take a detour and add another half mile. Despite really feeling the effort at this point I took the harder path and ultimately finished 4.4 miles at a 9:25 pace. My goal for this weekend is 8 miles so I accomplished 50% of that and more than 100% for today. I’m not sure why the run went so well, perhaps it was getting some good rest overnight. I really hope I can repeat this tomorrow.