So many running clothes, so little time

On April 30, 2017 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Wanna buy some used Karhus?

Today’s run (street): 4.7 miles

For the first time since fall, I’ve had two consecutive runs wearing short sleeves and shorts. Yesterday’s temperature was moderate, but the humidity was anything but. Happily, today was cooler and far less humid. In both cases I was comfortable, helped along by overcast skies. I’m not looking forward to running in the summer heat and I hope I’ll have the discipline to get out at dawn most of the time.

Today’s run or Rorschach test?

Now that we are transitioning to warmer weather, I’ve started to pay attention to my lighter gear. Over the past eight years, I’ve collected a lot of running clothes that I keep in a wooden wardrobe in the guest room. I have at least three pairs of running tights, three pairs of track pants and a sizable collection of quarter zips, rain jackets and long sleeve running shirts.

My collection of short sleeve running shirts includes the first one I ever bought and every one after that. I also have a bunch of shirts I got from racing. Storage has extended to a dresser in my bedroom. I also have six pairs of running shorts and dozens of socks. Don’t get me started on shoes. There are pairs I use and those I just can’t throw out.

I swear I’m not a hoarder, but I find it hard to throw out perfectly good running clothes. Perfectly good may mean different things to different people. I don’t think rips and tears necessitate disposal. As long as you can wear it, and it doesn’t expose areas that need to be covered in public, I think a shirt should be kept in inventory.

In truth, I tend to wear the same gear, cycling through four or five pairs of shorts, the same number of shirts and about half a dozen pairs of socks. That changes a little when the seasons change and I put wool socks to the back of the drawer until fall. I know I should go through all this stuff and keep only those clothes and shoes that I actually use. I really should donate the undamaged shirts and recycle the old trainers. I’ll make it a project for next weekend unless I can find anything else to do.

Good track run despite the hurdles

On December 27, 2016 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

High school track, population: 1

Today’s run (track): 3.6 miles
Yesterday’s run (street): 3.4 miles

If you live in a country that puts a “u” in the words color and favorite, then I wish you a happy Boxing Day. For everyone else, I hope you are fortunate enough to bring this year to a close by taking this week off from work. That’s what I’m doing. We have some fun days planned this week. If the weather holds out I’ll get to run in a more interesting place than my local neighborhood.

Sunday morning was cold, but I got out on my local roads. I probably over-layered for the 35° “feels like” temperature and broke my rule about dressing for my second mile. Due to that, I ended up covering my distance rather slowly. But I did get out there for the fourth day in a row.

Adding to my streak, I headed over to the high school this morning for a change of scenery. I figured the cold temperature (25° real-feel with the wind) and early hour would keep most people away. Aside from some work trucks in the parking lot, I had the track to myself. Unlike yesterday, I picked the perfect gear for today’s conditions. I even left behind one of my layers, knowing I’d eventually get too warm.

Since I had the place to myself, I had my pick of lanes. There were a few hurdles set up that were probably placed by the coach for track practice. I elected not to run over them since I wore my Opedix which were a little restrictive. Not that I had any chance of clearing one. With no one else on the track, I looked for distractions.

I noticed that someone had left hand weights in the shot put area. The owner correctly assumed that no one would come by and steal them today. I also noticed a couple of groups of people setting up to play tennis on the nearby courts. I shook my head as I drove by them on my way out as my cars’s display said it was 30°.

I ran faster today than on Sunday and managed to string five runs together It was the longest streak I’ve had in months. That may end tomorrow, but I’m hoping to start a new one on Wednesday.

Holiday run by any name

On October 12, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

All clear on the local roads

Today’s run (street): 3.6 miles

Happy Columbus Day. Or as some people are calling it, “Indigenous People Day.” I know there’s controversy around that. What’s really important is that I had the day off. Between my working from home Friday, the weekend and then today’s run, I was able to string together four consecutive workouts for the first time in weeks.

The good thing about running a lot is that your body gets used to it and it’s easy to get into rhythm. I liked the experience of running on a weekday morning without squadrons of parents swarming the roads to drop off their kids at school. No buses either, and even the garbage trucks were silent. The time went by fairly quickly and I ended up covering more ground than I’d planned.

Later in the day we stopped into Trader Joe’s at the Gallery at Wesbury Plaza. While there, we walked over to SA Elite. This is basically a running discount store and a great place to find bargains if you time your visit right. Today I looked at ASICS running vests that were on sale for about $20. It was a really good price, but I didn’t like the way the collar fit, so I took a pass.

Purple-y purchase

My wife was luckier and found a pair of ASICS Kayano 20’s for a great price. Her GT-2160s have at least 700 miles on them and I’ve been after her to retire them. I have a pair of Kayano 20’s that I use for recovery runs and love them. I think she’ll appreciate this new pair just as much.

The Emerging altruistic philanthropher

On January 10, 2015 By Emerging Runner3 Comments

Running prohibited

Today’s run (treadmill): 45 minutes

I get a lot of junk emails (don’t we all?) that I usually ignore or delete. If you ever sign up for something online and don’t forget to opt out of marketing, you’re going to see some unwelcome emails. Worse, those companies sell your address to other companies, forcing you to unsubscribe to mail lists you never joined in the first place.

I don’t know what I did to get on the railstotrails.org list, but they sure send a lot of emails. And guess what, it worked. I am now a member of the Rails to Trails Conservancy. The reason I took the bait was a series of emails that had subject lines like, “Your trails at risk…like Bethpage Bikeway” and contained dire warnings like, “Next year, our elected officials could slash funding for great walking and biking trails!” Those awful, irresponsible elected officials! How could I stand by and watch them do this to my beloved path!? So I made a donation.

As a result, I am now the proud owner of a Rails to Trails membership card that, as far as I can tell, allows me to make more donations to the Rails to Trails Conservancy and buy Rails to Trails Conservancy merchandise. Along with this card, I received an electric blue winter cap and my first copy of rails to trails magazine that seems to suggest that these paths are only for cyclists. Seriously, every story is about biking.

My wife looked at the hat and said two things. 1. “Bad color.” 2. “Are you really going to wear that?” Of course I am! The cap may be vividly ugly, but it’s also visible. If I ever get to run outside the house again before spring, I plan to wear it.

This morning I’d hoped to do a neighborhood run but the streets had too much ice. I made a query on the GLIRC Facebook page to see if anyone knew the condition of the Bethpage trail. Perhaps I should have emailed Rails to Trails since they seem to know so much about about the Bethpage path. I probably would have received a response like, “Dear Mr. ER, please let us know what type of bike you ride and we’ll let you know if trail conditions support it…”

I received some helpful responses from GLIRC members that I don’t know personally and some unhelpful responses from GLIRC members I do know. Those members, SIOR and TPP, were going to SUNY Old Westbury at noon. My schedule didn’t allow me to join them. I hope they had fun running that freezing, hilly course.

I kept inside for my workout today, running about 45 minutes on the treadmill. The machine is ridiculously loud, but it seems to have moved past its tortured screeching metal phase. It sounds more like a wooden roller coaster now. You can think of it as the least fun ride at Adventureland.

My run was fine and, although I had some sciatic pain over the first half, things eventually settled down. Happily, the soreness did not return after my run. In keeping with my one fitness resolution for 2015 (that I’d stop completely ignoring my upper body) I did ten push ups when I got off the treadmill.

One of the GLIRC posters said that the wooded trails at Bethpage are in good shape so I may head there tomorrow and do a trail run. The mountain bikers should be able to spot me before they run me over because I’ll be wearing my new hat.

New life for some old gear

On December 20, 2014 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Aging like fine wine

Today’s run (street): 4.3 miles

I was recently in SA Elite looking at their holiday sale items. They had ASICS running vests for 20% off, but the price still seemed high for a jacket without any sleeves. Since then, I read a piece on winter running that mentioned the benefit of keeping your core warm on very cold days. A warm core helps keep your extremities and the rest of your body warm.

I didn’t buy a running vest, but with this morning’s wind chill, it felt like 28° outside. Rather than put on two long sleeve layers, I put on an acrylic fleece Sports Illustrated promo vest that I had from my Time Inc. days. The vest is lightweight and has a mesh liner inside. After a decade using it to keep warm in my office, it had a new use.

After choosing the vest, I needed to pick the shoes I’d wear on today’s run. I’m no longer concerned that the Kayanos are causing my sciatica, but I decided to go back to my Sauconys to see how they felt on a run. The appropriation of the vest as running gear inspired me to pull my ancient Brooks Adrenalin GTS 10s out of the closet and use them instead. The 10s probably have 1,000 miles on them, but they are still viable.

I’ve always worn my Adrenalins when dealing with minor injuries because they seem to correct whatever problem is plaguing me. My shoe size has increased in recent years and the toe box is too tight for longer distances. If they were a half size bigger I’d put them into the rotation. The soreness in my glutes was there when I started, but it wasn’t as pronounced as it was at the beginning of yesterday’s run. I was hoping for a further reduction in the pain once I began to warm up.

Some mild discomfort remained throughout the run. Surprisingly enough, I found the pain to be a good distraction from the boredom of my neighborhood roads. I decided to be cautious and keep the run under five miles today. I may go further tomorrow. I’m out of the office until January 5th so I’ll have a lot more days to run during the week. I’m really hoping to be free of this soreness by the time me and my buddies do the LIRRC Hangover run on January 1.

Underdressed and overburdened

On September 14, 2014 By Emerging Runner7 Comments

Warmer gear was out of reach

Today’s run (street): 3.4 miles

I could tell before I went out this morning that I’d have a difficult time, but that didn’t actually happen until I was on my last mile. It’s been a busy weekend and I (once again) got outside before our guests awoke. The temperature was 54° around 7:00 AM and I wanted to wear a long sleeved running shirt. Unfortunately, all my running gear was in a cabinet behind the guest room door.

Prior to the arrival of our visitors, I’d taken two sets of running clothes from the cabinet. With the relatively warm weather, I didn’t anticipate the need for warmer choices. I have many long sleeve race event shirts in my bedroom, but even with a temperature in the 50’s and 72% humidity, I didn’t want to wear cotton. I decided to tough it out and go with short sleeves and shorts.

Stepping outside, I was reminded of the feeling I get the morning of a fall race. The temperature felt chilly, the way it often does when we line up for the start, under-layered to help manage the increasing heat later in the race. I was tempted to push hard to build some heat, but I wasn’t feeling energetic enough to do that. Last night’s high carb dinner failed to translate into a hoped-for glycogen payoff.

It didn’t take long to get used to the cool air and I ran comfortably through the neighborhood until about the 2.5 mile mark. At that point I encountered a woman who was running north slightly ahead of my direction and I tried to stay on pace with her. After a few minutes I realized that she had an eight cylinder engine working at max capacity and I was a steam engine that was almost out of steam.

I managed to recover enough to resume my pace, but I was ready to return home short of my originally targeted distance. In a way, I lucked out by running with lighter clothing than I thought I’d need. The persistent chill likely energized me through this run.

I’m getting a little tired of under performing on my runs. I realize that I have to put some hard work into my training to get to prior performance levels. I can’t face intervals, fartleks and hard tempos these days. I’m hoping that the increasingly cooler weather will motivate me to do those things.

An early run and another SA Elite bargain

On July 20, 2014 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Can’t resist SAE markdowns

Today’s run (street): 5.3 miles

This has been a very full day. So full in fact, that I can barely recall the details of this morning’s run. My wife and son had planned an early venture into the city while my daughter and I had other plans. I headed out for a neighborhood run before 7:00 AM with a target of covering at least 5 miles.

What I can remember about my workout was the ideal weather for a July run – overcast sky, relatively cool temperature and moderate humidity. I try to do at least one run outside of my neighborhood every weekend. Due to time constraints, I had to settle for my local roads. I criss-crossed a number of different streets to keep things interesting and threw in some fartleks every mile because the cool conditions were so energizing.

At one point in the day, I stopped into SA Elite which was near the place where we had lunch. I can’t resist a good bargain and found a lightweight Brooks long sleeve running shirt with an appealing old school graphic. It was $25 with discounts applied. I know I’ll get a lot of use out of it.

It was a great day and another good weekend of running. I may try to do a treadmill run Tuesday morning to get back into at least a 4 x per week running schedule. That would help me get closer to my weekly targeted volume.

What’s your running shoe’s medical history?

On January 29, 2013 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

When you go to a medical office for the first time, they usually present you with a clipboard loaded with forms that you have to fill out before you can see the doctor. Among those forms is a checklist for your family medical history. It makes sense since the best way to predict future health problems is to know your areas of risk. I’m applying the same concept in assessing the useful life of my main pair of running shoes.

I’ve always been skeptical about the commonly-held view that trainers should be replaced between 300 and 500 miles. Just as people may carry greater risk for certain illnesses, some shoes and brands seem predisposed to wear out sooner than others. My first pair of running shoes were some Nike Foot Locker specials that only lasted about 400 miles. But I ran in a pair of Brooks Adrenalines for 700 miles before I retired them.

People tell me that they notice when their mid-soles have worn out after a few months. I think it’s all in their head. Unless you are a large person, it’s unlikely that you would significantly compress EVA enough to matter. I’ve come to believe that it’s the out-sole that determines the life of a shoe. When I’ve needed to replace a pair, it’s usually because the wear pattern on the bottom has caused a change in my foot strike.

Of all the running shoes I’ve owned, the pair I’ve liked the most were the original Saucony Kinvaras. Unfortunately I loved them past the point where their out-sole could provide me a stable platform and I ended up with a knee problem. After 466 miles, I took them out of the rotation. I’m currently running in the Kinvara 3’s, a great shoe as well, but I’ve reached 436 miles with them. That’s only 30 miles less than what I got out of the first Kinvaras.

Saucony’s new Virrata looks interesting

So far, I’ve experienced no knee issues when running in the 3’s, but the wear patterns are starting to show. Should I be proactive and replace the 3’s in case they go from good to bad in the next 30 miles? Or should I put faith in the idea that Saucony may have engineered a more robust out-sole in the two generations since the first Kinvara? I’m on the fence about it, but it doesn’t take much to get me back into shoe-buying mode.

The best $20 you’ll spend on winter running gear

On January 25, 2013 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Train station salvation

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century happened in 1994: the creation of 180s™ ear warmers. Yes, I know some people would say that the Internet, the airplane and antibiotics have provided more social benefits, but I think those inventions have just had better marketing. The morning weather around New York has been hovering in the low teens most of this week. My 180s have helped me a heck of a lot more than anything coming out of Silicon Valley. These ear warmers make a huge difference when the chilling winds blow across the train platform.

With the temperature at 14° degrees this morning, I had no intention of running outdoors. Instead, I slogged my way through another treadmill run. Although I pushed a little less today, the workout seemed harder than yesterday’s. The guestroom, where we keep the treadmill, can get warm on days like this. Although it does a great job of cooling me off in summer, I haven’t been running the big fan this winter. The air is very dry right now and having it forcefully blown into my face seems worse than dealing with sweat-producing heat.

The cold will continue this weekend and I’m going to have to deal with morning temperatures in the teens. I hope that I can choose the right amount of layers to keep me comfortable without making me sweat too much. I have some decent over-the-ears running hats, but on cold mornings (like today) I’ll be adding my 180s to my gear list.

Running clothes can have other lives

On January 23, 2013 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

Once upon a time, I would run outdoors in the coldest of weather, every day of the week. If the temperature was below 20 degrees, I’d add extra layers and (perhaps) a balaclava to protect my face. These days, I’m more apt to choose the treadmill for weekday runs. Weekends are a different story. I can go out a little later and spend more time preparing for the cold. I’ll still run outdoors even with temperature reaches the low 20’s, but I’m not sure about anything colder than that.

The thermometer on my car’s display showed 10 degrees as I made my way to the train station this morning. New York City is barely warmer than that. Knowing that I’d need to endure the near-zero temperatures as I stood on the platform, (wind-chills were in the single digits) I turned to my running clothes for help.

A nice thing about running gear is that can be both lightweight and warm (or cold) depending on circumstance. This morning I substituted my usual cotton tee shirt for a long sleeve compression jersey to use as a base layer. I wore a pair of Wrightsock Coolmesh socks that are snug fitting under regular dress socks. I also wore my ASICs Serpent running windbreaker, that is surprisingly warm, between my shirt and suit jacket.

I was perfectly comfortable as I waited the eight minutes for the train to arrive, helped along by my heavy wool coat, scarf and earmuffs. The socks, base layer and jacket really did make a difference and I appreciated the fact that they added no bulk whatsoever. As I ran on the treadmill this morning in shorts and a light shirt, I dreaded the cold I’d soon be facing. Thanks to my running clothes, it all worked out just fine.