Putting in the miles before putting in the rest

On February 19, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 4.6 miles

My energy level still hasn’t rebounded, and the only thing that got me out the door today was the promise of an easy run. Yesterday’s workout was surprisingly challenging, telling me that I’m due for some rest. But the lure of the open road was too tempting this morning, so I decided to go out for a run, regardless of the time it would take to cover my distance.

I followed a route by the nearby middle school where I ran by a bunch of guys playing a serious game of flag football. They had parked their cars along the road and I was amused to see both a Maserati and a Maybach among the numerous Honda’s and Jeeps. Sunday morning football is the great equalizer. I continued on with the intention of covering four or five miles.

Like last Sunday, I kept my pace easy and ran fairly well. There was an unexpectedly stiff wind coming from the east that made things uncomfortable when I faced it head-on. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s rest day where I can (hopefully) recover enough to take on seven miles mid-week. So much for getting a long run in this weekend. But with a full week of vacation ahead, I should have plenty of opportunity to put in the miles.

Hate tapering, huh? Liar!

On February 8, 2012 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s workout (treadmill): 25 minutes

This morning’s treadmill workout was my last run prior to Saturday’s race. The end of my taper. There was a column in a recent TrailRunner magazine where the writer complained about his two week taper leading up to running the Hardrock 100. I’ve seen plenty of quotes, and even a Runner’s World survey, where people expressed distaste for the period of reduced mileage leading to a pre-race rest period.

Here’s what I think about it: they’re lying. It’s like what my wife and I call brag-plaining (“It’s so hard for us with little Timmy because of all the homework from his AP honors classes, plus his travel soccer team, advanced violin classes and immersive Mandarin courses on the weekends.”). I think many runners can’t admit that they like the indulgence of rest, even though they do.

Sure, I like to run, but taking a few days off without suffering the usual feelings of guilt feels earned. I’m looking forward to getting up tomorrow and sipping coffee without giving a thought to running gear, my reflective vest or the weather.

Monday R&R

On January 23, 2012 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

I always appreciate my rest days, but I especially enjoyed it this morning. After a few tough workouts this weekend, I was ready for a break. I’ve resumed my focus on distance and performance after dropping both mileage and intensity in my running in December. My half marathon doesn’t happen for three more months, but I’m determined to be better trained for 13 miles than I was at last year’s race.

An important part of training is proper rest and recovery. After this weekend’s challenging run on snow, followed the next day by an hour of treadmill and elliptical, a day of rest feels just right. The temperatures are rising, so by tomorrow I’m hoping that the ice on the roads will be gone. Otherwise, it’s back on the treadmill, once again.

A look ahead in 2012

On January 17, 2012 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

It was great to wake up and realize I had a scheduled rest day this morning. Coming off a three day weekend, it’s always nice to ease into the work week by sipping coffee and watching the news. Somehow, going from a deep sleep into the cold wet weather to run lacked appeal today.

I’m thinking about my running goals for 2012 but I haven’t yet set them in stone. I would like to do more running outside of Long Island than I did last year. As a subset to that, I would like to explore more off-road venues. I’m hoping to participate in as many races as I did in 2011 and to improve my half marathon time by at least ten minutes. I did five personal bests in my ten 2011 races, so it will be hard to repeat that this year. But I promise to try.

I’ll be listing my full set of goals soon. The most important, as always, is to finish the year as excited about running as when I started it.

I rest my case

On January 11, 2012 By Emerging Runner1 Comment

Today’s run (street): 2.5 miles

Two day’s of rest seemed to do the trick, and I had a decent run in the neighborhood this morning. Most of last week’s runs were challenging and I’d hoped an extra day would help reset my system. Over the weekend I had some concern with a possible left knee injury, but my recovery plan seemed to work. The pain was gone this morning.

It was harder than I expected to get up and out this morning. Rest days can be seductive and it’s always tempting to give in and take one more. I’m pleased to say that I rarely do that. When I do, it’s because my body has told me to skip a workout. Today my body was imploring me to rest, but it was a half-hearted argument. Before I knew it, I was standing on my driveway waiting for my FR210 to acquire a signal.

The run itself was good, but not great. While my legs didn’t feel weighed down like they did last week, my stride felt mechanical over the first mile. I began pushing the pace at that point and things improved a lot. Although I ended up with a middling overall pace, the second half of my distance was run about a minute per mile faster than the first. I’m beginning to see evidence that incremental effort can yield measurable results. But to achieve that, you need to take the proper rest.

Recovery on Saturday yields benefits on Sunday

On December 11, 2011 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s run (street): 5.25

My run on Friday took a lot out of me. That was surprising, considering the short distance I covered. It was a sign that I was still fighting a cold. The other indication of that was waking up with a sore throat and feeling weak at the start. My Friday run went fairly well considering how I’d felt, but I think I might have pushed too hard.

Saturday morning I was under some time pressure and I still felt weak, although my throat felt better. I decided that a run would do more harm than good so I did a rare weekend skip day. I spent the middle of the day at a cooking class with my daughter, while my wife and son went into the city to shop and see the winter holiday sights. We all had great experiences.

The upside of feeling as exhausted as I did on Saturday was that I managed to sleep until 6:30 AM this morning. That may sound early to some, but my weekday wake up time is 3:45 and it’s hard for me to sleep much past 5:00 AM on weekends. I felt good when I got up, and after having some coffee, I was ready to hit the road.

I stayed in the neighborhood but planned out a route that was different than usual. It was in the low 20°’s outside, so I’d dressed in layers. I didn’t intend to run for performance and hoped that the extra gear would keep me comfortable without overheating me. My plan worked and I was neither too hot or cold throughout my run.

I wore the Hattori’s to see how they’d do in colder temperatures and I was pleased that my feet didn’t suffer from the chill. By the two mile point I noted that a day’s rest had restored my energy level and I appreciated the opportunity to zone out and enjoy the cold, but sunny, weather.

As I came back towards home, I noticed that my trajectory would have me finishing just short of five miles. I decided then to divert to a series of hilly roads that would provide another quarter mile of distance that would get me past my planned distance.

I finished after covering 5.25 miles and had felt very good throughout the run. Next weekend I plan to run the Ho Ho Ho Holiday run. If the weather cooperates this week, I’m planning to get in a city run with Adventure Girl who is in town for the holidays. Hard to believe it’s so close to New Year’s. I’m looking forward to some long brisk runs during my annual year end vacation.

Skip to my rue?

On November 28, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I’m considering taking both today and tomorrow as rest days. I feel like I’ve been pushing myself a little too hard over the last two weeks and I think I’ll benefit from some recovery time. Since 11/13, I’ve run two 10K’s plus a low-key 5K and my overall level of training has been relatively intense. It’s very hard to skip workouts when you run almost every day. Disrupting routine is not a trivial thing. I know I won’t lose fitness if I miss a run, but I’ll still feel guilty if I take an unscheduled rest day.

What’s harder, running or not running?

On October 11, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I did some hard running over the weekend and a long elliptical session on Monday, so I decided to take a rest day today. I usually run or work out every day of the week before a race (except on the day before) while reducing distance and effort for the taper. Today I needed to rest. Yesterday’s marathon session at the doctor took a lot out of me and my body told me to forgo my run this morning.

Since I didn’t run I’m feeling energetic, but I know I made the right decision. I feel prepared for the hilly challenge this Saturday and I don’t think one day off will make any difference to my conditioning at this point. It’s sometimes hard to get moving on my runs each morning but it’s often harder not to run at all.

Time for some needed rest

On August 18, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 2.5 miles

This morning I went out for my last run prior to Sunday’s race. I wore my Mirages to acclimate to their feel, although the trail surface at the race will be different than pavement. I’ll admit that I liked the luxury of this minimal, yet well cushioned, shoe. It’s a nice change from the harder ride of the Hattori’s.

It’s often recommended that runners leave their watches at home and run by feel. I bring my Garmin because I have an irrational need to capture the metrics of every run but I rarely look at the display for anything except elapsed time. I purposely ignored my watch this morning and only checked it at the end when I pulled up by my house and hit the stop button. I saw that I’d averaged 9:14 per mile, which made sense based upon the effort I had made.

I’m still battling the feeling of tiredness and, although I was happy to have run 15 seconds per mile better than my July average, the fatigue was noticeable. Along the way I encountered both a car and a walker at the same intersection — unusual because I rarely see either at 4:00 AM. That woke me up a bit. I’m done with running until the race, although I may do some less strenuous activities between now and then. Rest, I believe, will be the best thing to do before I line up for the Dirty Sock 10K on Sunday morning.

Running beats resting (at least it did today)

On June 14, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Making the better choice

Today’s run (street): 2.5 miles

I’ve felt tired this week. It’s as if I haven’t adapted yet to my weekday sleep schedule. I was glad to have an excuse to rest on Monday and I slept for most of the train ride into the city yesterday. I was still feeling fatigued last night as I readied my morning running gear and I hoped that a good night’s sleep would produce some energy when I awoke. That wasn’t the case and when my alarm went off I had one of those “Are you serious?” moments as I considered my options.

By the time I collected my coffee and changed into my running clothes I felt a little more alert. As I turned to leave the guestroom, I looked enviously at the bed and wished I could take an hour’s nap rather than head out for a run. It had rained a little overnight and the temperature was a cool 61 degrees. The Garmin locked in quickly and off I went.

Once I hit the street all signs of fatigue had left me and I focused on my stride and how my feet were landing. I followed my usual route and the run felt effortless. This was probably an opportunity to throw in some speed play but I decided to maintain this moderate-but-steady pace. As tempting as it seemed, there was little chance that I would have chosen the guestroom bed over my run today. That’s good, because I would have missed a really nice run this morning.