A run that went according to plan

On February 12, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street) 5.3 miles

Although we’d been hearing that the temperatures would rise by this weekend it wasn’t the case this morning. It was barely 20 degrees at 8:00 AM and the sun was blocked by clouds. I’d dressed for the cold (layered compression pants, warm hat, running gloves) but I only wore a half-zip, with a short sleeved jersey on top because I knew I’d eventually get hot. It was breezy but the winds didn’t have the same force as those that I’d faced on Thursday in Central Park.

Once I got going I started to think about route and distance. I often have great ambition at the beginning of a run in terms of what I’m prepared to do. Sometimes I match, or even succeed my intended goal but there are still occasions when I don’t. Happily, today’s energy level matched my plan. I’m on target to run more miles this week than I have in the prior two weeks and it’s easy to explain why. Twice this week I’ve run outside and I’m planning another outside run tomorrow. My runs on the treadmill are great workouts but I just can’t endure it for long periods of time.

Although this morning’s run was contained within the streets of my neighborhood, I still appreciated the winter scene. The snow covered lawns made the suburban roads appear more like country lanes. The cold air helped me along and I maintained a decent pace throughout my planned course. I finished up after completing a little more than five miles. I could have gone longer but I stuck to my plan. It was great to be back on the road again. I could get used to that.

Hey, what do you mean no boardwalk?!

On February 4, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

No-flakes only on the boardwalk

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from the Snowflake Run race organizers that said “Due to weather conditions, the race has been moved off the Boardwalk.” I’m sure they did that for good reasons but I’d signed up for this race mostly to run along the water. I guess running on the wooden boardwalk with ice and snow could get slippery and dangerous. But after all, it’s called the Snowflake Run for a reason! The new course will be routed through the town streets and that will be fine, but I’ll miss those views.

I enjoyed my guilt-free rest day this morning and I’m hoping that I’m not over confident about my readiness for Saturday. In the past I’ve made the mistake of assuming that a shorter race like this one should be an easy distance to cover. That would be true if I was planning to run it like a typical weekend training run but, in competition, any distance requires proper training. I hope I’ve done enough to prepare for this race. If it’s snowing, sleeting or raining tomorrow it will impact how I run. I’ll bring along my trail shoes just in case.

Does this count as a 60 minute upper body workout?

On January 27, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

14″ added to the base. Hey, I can finally dunk a basketball!

I woke up to 14″ of new snow and a pile of icy chunks 3′ high, 4′ deep and 20′ wide at the end of the driveway (courtesy of the town plows). My wife and I got out early and spent an hour digging out as much as we could. Even after that point it seemed that we’d barely made a dent. I am happy to shovel for hours but I wanted to wrap up before my neighbor came out with his snow blower that spews a toxic mixture of gas and oil. A couple of roving shovelers happened by and my wife and I decided to hire them to get through the rest. It turned out to be a good investment. The Long Island Railroad canceled many trains and suspended service a few times so I elected to work from home today.

I’m not sure this morning’s shoveling constituted a workout but I did work up enough of a sweat that I shed my jacket to help me cool down. I’m thinking about doing an elliptical workout at lunchtime if my schedule works. The irony of working from home is that I often over-schedule calls and I end up with less time than I do when I’m actually in the office. I love the snow but the frequency and volume we’ve received this year has forced me to run indoors a lot more than I’d like. Worse, I haven’t been able run the trails since December and I miss that a lot. I wish I had invested in snow shoes before the winter season. While I’m thinking about it, it would also be nice to have an efficient, environmentally correct snow blower.

5 degree weather is cramping my style

On January 24, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

It’s extraordinarily cold today. The display in my car showed 27 degrees in my garage and by the time I reached the train station, seven minutes later, it said 5. I usually rest on Mondays so I didn’t have to suffer through a treadmill session this morning. My threshold for morning runs is about 14 degrees. After that it’s the treadmill or elliptical machine.

It’s been a tough winter for running. We’ve already had more snow in December and January than what we usually average for the entire season. I like snow but it reduces my choices for running venues. I won’t be running any wooded trails for a while and I’m sure that the Bethpage bike trail is snowy and icy right now. My choices are either indoor running or around my local neighborhood. Make that a subset of local streets because the snow and ice has limited access to some key cross points. More snow is coming this week which will exacerbate the problem but at least the temperatures should rise. It looks like I may be doing much of my race training indoors unless we see a big thaw soon.

A difficult run on a cold winter’s day

On January 23, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

H/H Trail Lizards — great on snow – not so much on the road

Today’s run (street): 3.8 miles

My streak of energizing, feel-good runs was broken today with a 3.8 mile run that felt much longer. I was surprised to hit the wall so hard on this relatively short run. Learning from yesterday’s experience, I wore my Helly Hansen Trail Lizards because there is still much snow and ice (and ice covered snow) on the roads. Things started out well, I moved right along, hardly slowing down for the snowy-icy patches. The Helly’s provided great grip and stability over these areas for the most part though there were some spots that I preferred to dodge rather than run straight though.

My first hint of trouble happened on my first turn into the westerly winds that made the 18 degree temperatures feel much colder. I really wished at that moment that I’d worn my balaclava. On top of the force of the wind, the touch of my glasses against my face grew increasingly uncomfortable. Once I turned another corner that problem fell away and I felt like the worst was over since my body was warmed up, making straight-on winds less of an issue from that point. That much was true and I progressed well but I started to get tired as I neared the 25 minute mark. It may have been the cold or the fact that the Helly’s don’t run very well on pavement but I began to experience signs of bonking.

My level of effort (using the Daily Mile 1-5 scale) moved quickly from two to three to almost four in a period of five minutes and I decided to re-point my route back towards my home. Despite this difficulty I forced myself to maintain a reasonably fast cadence and came in with a respectable mid-9 overall pace. The runs today and yesterday were not typical street runs as the snow, ice and slush made them more trail-like. Perhaps it was the harder work coming from running the Trail Lizards on the road instead of the trail where they shine. It doesn’t matter why, only that today’s run was tough and hopefully the next one will be better. Even as I slogged through the difficult last mile I thought to myself how much I loved this crazy sport.

Garmin foot pod calibration – one of life’s mysteries

On January 22, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 5 miles

The action of calibrating my Garmin’s foot pod is hit or miss. The best way to do it is when you run an exact distance and it calibrates automatically. Another method is to adjust the foot pod based upon a known factor, such as the percentage between what was recorded and what you actually ran. The third way is the worst way and of course it’s the one I usually follow because it’s also the the easiest. In this case, when I’m consistently over or under recording my distance (compared with Gmaps) I manually compensate by arbitrarily increasing the the index until I get close. Sometimes this works great and the foot pod will report accurately for many runs. Since I often switch the foot pod between pairs of shoes it’s usually off by some factor anyway and that’s why I Gmap my runs.

Easier said than done

This morning I adjusted the foot pod thinking that a .05% decrease would compensate for over recording would get me to the 1/100ths of a mile accuracy that I often observe. When I went out this morning on the freshly plowed streets I was moving well. Except for on the spots that were still covered with packed snow my pace was fast and my stride was good. I often follow the same exact route for the first mile to gauge whether the Garmin is ahead or behind my real distance. I must have been confused today because I came through the first mile thinking that the foot pod was under recording, when in fact it was probably off by 3% the other way. I’m still fuzzy about when it chirped and where I was when that happened but when I finished my run the recorded distance was .23 miles greater than what I mapped using Gmaps.

I find it hard to believe my calibration was that far off and I have a different theory. Much of the roads were covered with a combination of slush and snow and my form differed greatly when I ran on those sections versus the open pavement. It’s possible that this difference in stride, cadence and lift may have thrown off the foot pod. I won’t ever really know but I’m planning to reset the foot pod to 100% index value and start again. If I thought that a GPS watch would be more accurate I’d probably buy the Garmin 210. Most of the time I’d be better off just running with a stop watch and calculating pace later, after I’d Gmapped the route. The only problem with that is when I run the trails or on the treadmill and the foot pod also provides excellent data that I value, including split times and cadence. I guess I’ll just keep calibrating and hoping for the best.

2.75 tons of workout fun

On January 13, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

It seems much heavier once you do the math

Today’s workout (Shoveling): 2.75 tons

I didn’t do a formal workout today but worked hard to clear the snow from my driveway no less than three times. I decided to estimate the amount of snow I moved off the driveway and street, basing my calculation on the dimensions of my driveway, the height of the snow and the weight of water: 7.48 gallons per cubic foot. Compensating for the snow moved by my wife and factoring in the heavier density snow piled high at the end by the snowplows (three times!) I came up with the above number. As impressive as it sounds, most of my technique involves pushing rather than lifting snow and I barely work up a sweat even after 90 minutes. But work is work and we did work.

Speaking of work I ended up staying home and working out of my guest/exercise room/home office using all the tools available to the 2011 business person including laptop, iPad, iPhone, VPN, IM and Webex. It was a very productive day and I thought I might work in a treadmill run or an elliptical session but I found myself without the time to do it. The town did a good job of clearing the streets but they are still too snowy and icy for an early morning run on Thursday. I’m planning to use the elliptical in the morning unless I feel more like running. In that case it’s back to the treadmill and hopefully no more shoveling.

Tough going on snowy roads

On January 8, 2011 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 4.1 miles

With all the attention that I’ve been giving to running a half marathon you’d think I’d been working hard to build up my base mileage. Between August and November I was doing a good job of mixing distance runs into my weekly training schedule and I credit that work to achieving consecutive PR’s on my last two 10K’s. I had a few high mileage weeks between Thanksgiving and early December but since my 10.2 mile run at Bethpage on 12/11 I’ve only done one run that exceeded 6 miles. I can blame that (somewhat) on feeling under the weather mid December after my flu shot and then dealing with actual weather obstacles (snow) between Christmas and New Year. The snow prevented easy access to higher distance locations like Bethpage and Stillwell on the weekends.

I went out this morning with the intention of covering 3-5 miles. After yesterdays snowfall the streets are fairly clear for cars but it’s still somewhat icy for foot traffic. I figured I could run safely without a sidewalk escape path if I was extra vigilant and I had no issues with the local traffic today. It was 25 degrees outside when I started my run and I dressed appropriately. I took the first mile slow, partially because I didn’t feel that energetic and partially due to the icy, snowy layer underfoot. I think that the constant but slight adjustments for balance tired me out quicker than I’d expected. I found a pace that I could sustain without too much trouble and after winding through a number of streets I reached my house after covering 4.1 miles.

It was one of the toughest 4 mile runs I can recall, far more taxing than some I’ve done at twice the distance. I hope the temperature rises above the freezing mark and melts the ice enough to make tomorrow’s run a little more stable. Of course we’re hearing about more snow tonight so I may end up working out indoors on Sunday. I’m really hoping that won’t be the case.

Two feet of reasons to rest

On December 27, 2010 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

The snowstorm seems to be winding down and despite almost two feet of accumulation and 40 MPH winds our driveway and walk are mostly clear. My wife and I headed outside around 6:00 AM this morning to deal with the snow that had fallen since we’d finished shoveling last night. With the proper clothing and our coordinated efforts we cleared the grounds in less than an hour. My wife has gone out for a final clean up and as long as the winds don’t blow the drifts back onto the driveway we should be in good shape. Temperatures should rise over the next few days and that will help clear the neighborhood roads.

I thought about how fun it would be to drive to Stillwell and run the snowy trails. The canopy probably caught a good amount of snow but the volume is so great that it’s probably made most of the trails impassable. Last February we got socked with a big storm just prior to the XTERRA 6K that made the course at Stillwell both slippery and difficult. The spirit of adventure makes a run in the woods compelling, but even with all-wheel drive I don’t want to take any chances on the icy roads. So I’m either going to take my usual Monday rest day or do an indoor workout. In addition, I suppose all the shoveling counts for something.

Pre-blizzard Sunday run

On December 26, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run (street): 4 miles

It’s only beginning

The snow is starting to come down hard after a period of light flakes. This morning I went to the local market to pick up some necessary items and the supermarket was a madhouse. I was glad I made the effort and now the house is well stocked. We may get 18 inches between today and tomorrow but at least I won’t need to deal with the Long Island Railroad’s inability to deal with snow in the morning. Plus the shoveling will provide some much needed some upper body exercise.

I was re-reading my posts from a year ago trying to determine when my pneumonia manifested itself. The scary thing is that just a couple of days before I was slammed by illness I had run four good miles at Stillwell. Even so, I feel far better today than I felt a year ago, but the fear of another bout with something looms large. At 9:30 AM the skies were gray but no snow was falling. I figured I should get out for a few miles because it could take days before the roads were clear again. I’ve experimented with some of the gels from KWL’s holiday gift basket and learned that one gel and half a glass of water, consumed 30 minutes before a run, seems to provide a positive result.

I chose a route that is different from what I normally run and ended up covering four miles at a moderate overall pace. I felt like I could go forever during the first three miles but I picked up my speed after that point which took my run from nice-and-easy to semi-brisk. I wore the Kinvaras that reminded me again how perfect a minimalist running shoe can feel. By the time I returned home I was accompanied by lightly falling snow. The kids are out back playing in the already accumulated inches and my wife and I will soon do the first of many driveway shovelings between today and tomorrow. Between that and today’s run I may end up with a whole body workout.