Housebound, but still pushing race pace

On February 10, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

Warming trend

The roads have been cleared but they’re still too narrow to run. The sidewalks are completely inaccessible. So, once again, I hit the treadmill this morning. I wasn’t very excited to do another indoor run but I had little choice. Yesterday I went for 5 easy miles, but today I needed to step it up.

We had late morning plans so I had a limited time to run. I figured that I’d go about 30 minutes, a pretty short workout for a Sunday. To get over 3 miles I knew I needed to push my speed. That meant starting at a pace close to where I normally finish and building speed further through the last mile.

Despite yesterday’s restful workout, my return to speed went seamlessly. I had no trouble maintaining a brisk pace throughout the 30 or so minutes that I was on the treadmill. I ran hard, covered my distance and finished feeling like I’d been racing. The difference between today’s effort and a race effort was about 20 seconds per mile. I didn’t want to go all out, but I did want to get my heart rate up into zone 4. I ended up just about there by the end.

With this snow, I’m not sure when I’ll feel comfortable going back to the streets to run. I’m hoping for warmer temperatures and sunny skies over the next few days. According to the weather reports, I may get my wish.

Early morning run at a more reasonable hour

On February 6, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

Today has been an interesting day. It was my first time back in the office since last Wednesday and I was definitely in a different mode. I can’t say that I miss the old schedule. Waking up at 3:30 every day is (hopefully) a thing of the past. I had so many great conversations today that I barely made a dent organizing my office materials. I’m sure I’ll make much better progress tomorrow.

This morning’s workout happened at a far more reasonable hour than normal. 5:00 AM is early for many, but it allowed me almost 90 minutes more sleep than I’d usually get. Once again, I hit the treadmill hard, starting at a speed that I usually wouldn’t reach until I’m five minutes to the end of the workout. I’ve found that when I’m consistently running faster paces I establish a new benchmark for my normal speed. Somehow, over time, I always end up reverting back to my equilibrium pace.

Still, today was another great run and I’m not sure if it has more to do with a renewed focus on speed or simply getting more rest. It’s probably a little of both. I’ll probably do another treadmill run tomorrow (or an elliptical session) and get outside for Friday’s workout. That’s contingent on whether we get the 6″-12″ of snow that’s predicted to fall prior to the weekend.

Fast paced run despite a Bethpage lockout

On February 5, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Snowed out again at Bethpage

Today’s run (street): 3.4 miles

I had a great run today, but it wasn’t the one I had planned. I headed out early to Bethpage to run the bike trail and to take on some hills. When I arrived, I saw that the drive leading into the park was locked and gated. I thought at first to drive to Haypath Road and park where the Greenbelt trail continues north. Along the way I noticed that the bike path had a lot of snow, so I headed back home.

My neighborhood roads had some icy patches this morning. I’d initially dismissed the idea of running in my neighborhood, but when I returned from Bethpage I saw that the streets looked much clearer. I figured that since I was already dressed for an outdoor run, I’d be better off outside than on the treadmill. After minutes of standing out in the cold, my Garmin acquired its signal and I was finally off.

Today’s plan was to run hard, and that’s what I did. There was still residual snow on the far right and left sides of the streets, but I felt that I had enough room to maneuver to maintain safety. Traffic was sparse, so I was able to focus on the effort at hand. For the longest time, I’ve been running at what I call “equilibrium” pace. That’s the speed I go when I just tune out and run, usually between 9:30-9:55 per mile.

The speed and effort curves crossed to the left of normal today and I came through the first mile in the 8:30. I didn’t record a single split above 9:00. Following my 8:30, my timing went 8:59, 8:58 and 8:26 (for the partial). My overall pace was 8:45/mile, making it my fastest training run in ten months. My heart rate stayed exactly where I wanted it, topping out about 5 BPM below max.

The shorter distance prevented today’s harder effort from causing me undue fatigue. In fact I’ve felt more energized than usual since the run. The challenge will be to maintain that level of focus going forward, at least until race day. Not every run needs to be speedy, but that will be my bias between now and the 23rd.

The problem of running too fast

On January 7, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I have two friends who tell me they simply cannot run slowly. When running alone, they claim to always push their pace to a level of discomfort. They have a difficult time easing up when their coaches tell them to slow down during training sessions. If these guys weren’t two of the nicest, most secure people I know, I’d chock it up to macho posturing. After thinking about it, I’m beginning to understand their perspective.

Unlike my friends, I can run slow anytime that I’m asked. But ask me to walk slowly and you’ll get a different response. I often find it maddening to walk the streets of NYC, especially in midtown where I work, where my path is constantly obstructed with dawdlers of every type. I’ve always been a fast and impatient walker. This trait that makes for efficient travel across the city, but it can really annoy others who aren’t in a rush.

I envy my fast running friends because I really do enjoy the experience of moving swiftly on a run. I just have trouble sustaining an urgent pace unless I’m in a race. I’d always assumed that a person who can walk fast for miles would also be able to run fast for long periods. Sadly, that’s not the case. I know I’ve become competitively complacent since October’s Town Of Oyster Bay 5K. Perhaps now is the time for me to start picking up the pace.

Friends don’t let friends push the pace

On January 3, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

“Easy” is relative

Yesterday I ran into a colleague whom I hadn’t seen in a while. She told me she was running again after taking a long break. About a year ago she’d gone from walker to runner and, by April, she was running about 15 miles a week. We last touched base in early summer when she planned to run in her first 5K. My friend said that, since that time, her discipline had really slipped. By September, she’d stopped running altogether. The New Year prompted her to restart her running routine, beginning with a three mile run on New Year’s Day.

I asked her why she had stopped after making so much progress and she told me she had felt too much pressure to run fast. Part of her interest in running came from the social interaction with her friends who also ran. Their easy pace required her to run a lot harder. She struggled to keep up and couldn’t really participate in their conversations. She ran her 5K and decided that running was no longer enjoyable, so she went back to walking for fitness.

This experience did not surprise me. My early-’90’s attempt to become a runner was thwarted by similar conditions. My only running partner at the time had run track and cross country in school and I found it difficult to keep up with her when we ran. I figured that was what running was all about – you push yourself hard and eventually you’ll like it. Or you’ll quit.

After many years, I returned to running on my own terms and set realistic performance expectations. I was amazed to see that running can actually be fun if you find a pace that works for you. My friend says she learned her lesson and will not sacrifice her running experience for the sake of social inclusion. I told her that this doesn’t mean she has to give up running with friends. If she suggests it, I’m sure they will be happy to run with her at a relaxed pace that works for everyone.

When metrics matter less, the run matters more

On December 4, 2012 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s run (street): 2.5 miles

When you first begin to run, it quickly becomes obvious how much you need to learn. I look back at my early days and realize how many bad decisions I’d made (sprinting without a warm-up, buying Nike shoes, wearing cotton socks, etc.). Once I understood that wicking clothes were de rigueur and finally learned what “PR” meant, I started to focus more on performance metrics and the technologies to capture data.

As I mentioned above, I first bought Nike running shoes, but it was primarily because I didn’t know brands. But I also bought them because they had a storage well under the insole where I could put my Nike+ chip.With the Nike+ chip and Sportband, I was able to capture interesting data about my runs including time, speed and distance. Until the Sportband display corroded (I actually went through three Sportbands, each with a MTBF of 3 months) I was able to see my pace in real time as I ran. It was exciting to monitor my progress.

I switched to Garmins after that, and studiously recorded my metrics. I analyzed my performance and tried to understand why my average pace improved or worsened from month to month. The numbers were important to me. Over the last year, I’ve noticed that I’ve stopped checking my pace as often when I run. I watch my distance and monitor my heart rate but the speed that I run doesn’t interest me much anymore. I can’t say that I’ve given up on performance (it’s always great to see when I’d paced under 9:00) but that’s not what’s important right now.

I can’t help thinking about the recent WSJ article that correlated fast paces to negative health in older athletes. Maybe that’s part of it, though my decreased focus on speed (except when racing) has been a long time coming. I ran my usual route today about 15 seconds slower than average, but I was happy because I did the run. It took years to feel that way. I wonder how long it will last.

Athlinks bemoans declining race times

On November 14, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 2.5 miles

I had a funny exchange yesterday with Troy Busot, the founder of Athlinks. This website aggregates race results and allows members to compile a rich racing history. Athlinks members can comment on their race experiences and compare their performance to “rivals” (other members who have participated in 2 or more of the same races that you’ve run).

The reason I contacted Troy was that he’d sent an email that, in a tongue and cheek way, chided runners for what he called, “an alarming decline in U.S. racing performances in distances across the board.” He compared average finish times for the most common race distances plus Olympic, Half and Full Ironman Triathlons. He made his point but I noticed that his times for half marathons were exactly the same as for 10K’s, an obvious typo:

Average Times for Leading
Race Distances from 2009-2012

Distance	2009	2012	Change	% Change
5K Run	30:30	31:47	+1:17	+4.04%
10K Run	1:01:01	1:02:28	+1:27	+2.34%
Half Mara	1:01:01	1:02:28	+0:18	+0.15%
Marathon*	4:33:18	4:33:13	-0:04	-0.03%
Olympic Tri	2:52:53	2:55:55	+3:02	+1.73%
Half Iron	5:59:43	6:05:49	+6:06	+1.73%
Ironman	12:49:44	13:11:39	+21:54	+2.77%
* Marathon times were the only notable improvement.

Troy quickly fell on his sword after I sent him a note about it and he gave me the correct figures for 2009 and 2012, which were 2:15:16 and 2:16:40 respectively. Troy wrote, “Yep, I have quit the company in typo-shame.” I’ve never run a full marathon but I have run the other distances. In every case (except my first half), I’ve beaten the average, both for 2009 and 2012. So perhaps I’m not as average as I thought, although my scores would not be so favorable were the comparison more age and gender based.

Speaking of average, my pace this morning was exactly that. The temperature was 35 degrees with a noticeable breeze, and I wore some extra layers anticipating the cold. I stayed comfortable throughout the run and didn’t really have a clue how fast I was going until I looked at my heart rate near the end. I saw that I was at 80% of Max. I tried to get it to 85% in the remaining quarter mile, but I didn’t quite get there. Even so, my average morning run still gets me around the course 45 seconds per mile faster than the 5K average!

The crossroad of speed and volume

On August 27, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

My overall time at last May’s LI Half Marathon was 2:08, which translated to a 9:49 pace. As race paces go, that was fairly slow (even for me). But my 2012 finish time improved almost 14 minutes over the year before. I would have liked to break two hours on the half, but my stretch goal for that race was to break 2:10, and I did that.

To prepare for this year’s race, I’d looked at the challenge of running the half marathon as one of stamina, not speed. Interval training can be an effective way to prepare for a 5K, but I knew that the only way I could achieve a credible time for the half would be to train for distance. A lot of distance. Between mid-March and and May, I spent almost every Saturday morning at Bethpage State Park, doing progressively longer runs until I was satisfied with my conditioning.

This volume training was the key to managing my effort across more than two hours of continuous running. There’s obviously a big difference in training for a 5K versus a half, but what about a 10K? A 6.2 mile race is double a 5K, but not quite half of a half. There’s speed involved, but also enough distance so that endurance can become an issue.

For my upcoming 10K, I’ve decided to focus on pace during my shorter runs, but work primarily on volume and hills during my longer weekend runs. Hopefully, both strategies will meet somewhere in the middle to allow me to run my best at Cow Harbor.

A good effort but the clock doesn’t lie

On August 25, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 4.3 miles

I had an early appointment that delayed today’s run until mid-morning. The temperature at 10:00 AM was a reasonable 77°, but the sun was making it feel warmer than that. My plan was to go out fast and maintain the speediest pace I could, for as long as I could. I followed a route that would take me up and down the streets that run north of my house, and then head further south to round out the course.

I decided to check my watch at the half mile point to see what the Garmin was displaying for pace. The watch said 8:52, which seemed about right, and I figured that I could maintain that for 40 or 50 minutes. I didn’t feel too overheated and I thought I was in for a run that was close to, or below, 9:00 per mile.

As it turned out, I began slowing down after passing the first mile. By the time I reached three miles, I saw that my pace was 30 seconds off my targeted range. It bothered me that my performance did not match the level of effort that I was putting into the run. After downloading the Garmin and correcting for distance errors (the GPS accuracy has been abysmal this week), I saw that I’d run the first mile in nine minutes, but my pace had crept up into the mid-nine range until improving near the end.

The combination of heat and effort prompted me to cap my run at 40 minutes, for an overall pace of 9:23. I was disappointed with that result because I felt I’d pushed harder than normal. I wanted to break nine minutes, but I don’t think I did all that badly. I’m planning to go longer (and probably slower) tomorrow. It’s okay really. After the past week’s running, I know what I’m capable of doing.

The secret to running a faster pace: trying

On August 24, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Pacing well, at least for now

Today’s run (street): 2.5 miles

It’s interesting to see how a little extra effort can result in much better performance. Once again, I beat the 9:00 threshold this morning with a run that took exactly the same time as yesterday’s. Running this way is not easy by any definition, but I haven’t been going all out as I’d do in a race. On average, I’m probably registering a 3 (out of 5) on the effort meter. This week it’s been closer to a 4.5.

It’s no miracle that my performance this week has improved about 6% over my average for weekday runs at 4:00 AM. Back in 2009, I would beat 9:00 paces regularly. That was probably due to going out with the expectation that I’d run as fast as I could manage. I also used to monitor my pace as I ran, whereas now I only look at elapsed time on my Garmin.

The pace I ran this morning felt a little harder than it did on prior days, and I wondered if I tried to put too many hard runs together in a row. But even so, it wasn’t an all out effort. I recovered quickly after I finished, with no residual effects later. I’m going to work on base tomorrow and probably won’t be seeing the same pace that I’ve been able to achieve this week. I do hope the higher cadence and harder running I’ve been doing will help me when I run greater distances this weekend.

Average Times for LeadingRace Distances from 2009-2012

Average Times for Leading
Race Distances from 2009-2012