Foregoing my run today

On May 6, 2010 By Emerging Runner1 Comment

No workout today

I decided to forgo my usual Thursday workout this morning and take an additional day of rest this week. I’m looking to add more distance to my weekend runs and I’ve recently added a longer run on Fridays in the city. It’s taken a while but I’m beginning to understand the value of rest as an enhancement to my training. On a recent run with my friend and running advisor, CK, we talked about the frequency of my runs. CK suggested that more rest would be beneficial for recovering from longer runs and the additional rest would probably help me improve my performance. I’ll see if that’s true tomorrow where I plan to run the big loop around Central Park (6 miles). My goal is to average around 20 miles a week and I should be able to do that even if I take two days of rest on some weeks.

Runner’s envy in Central Park

On April 13, 2010 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s run (street): 2.4 miles at 9:06

I didn’t run yesterday but I took a three mile walk at lunchtime to Central Park. My route followed the lower loop and I included a few side paths as well. It was perfect weather for walking, bright and sunny, but cool enough for me to be comfortable in my suit jacket and tie. I watched enviously as runners, cyclists and in-line skaters passed by. I really wished I was running on the bike path rather than walking along the pedestrian strip. The park was filled with people, but my surroundings had a quiet (but positive) feel. Central Park is truly an oasis within mid-town Manhattan and I wanted to spend more time on my walk but I really needed to head back for a meeting. The only negative was that all that walking was rough on the bottom of my feet and I was in a little pain by the time I’d returned to the office.

This morning I went out for my first run since Sunday’s race. Due to resting for two days prior and one day after the race, I’ve only run about 10 miles over the last seven days. It was great getting out at 4:00 AM but it felt far chillier than the 49 degrees that the local Long Island television station reported. I was concerned that the irritation from yesterday’s walk would have a negative impact on today’s run but with a good pair of socks and my trusty GTS 10’s, I had no issues at all. I started my run on a street with a slight (~2%) elevation and re-lived the running of the big hill on Sunday. Of course today’s challenge was shorter and far less steep. It was just enough to get my body temperature to a comfortable place and I headed into the next series of roads, listening for the chirp that would tell me I’d passed my first mile. I encountered no cars and the only sounds were birds (and my Garmin) chirping, interrupted occasionally by the clattering sound of a lawn sprinkler. I felt I ran harder than normal and ended up averaging 9:06 per mile, which is a good pace for me at that early hour.

Note: I want to give a shout out to my friend FS who also raced on Sunday (NYRR “Run as One” 4 miler). She maintained an impressively fast pace (low 9:00’s) – a possible PR for that distance.

How many furlongs is a 5K?*

On April 8, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s workout (street run): 2.4 miles at 9:21/mile

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my friend and financial advisor who was asking whether our run on Friday was still on. We had talked about running the West Side bike path on Friday but I told him I’d prefer to try for Thursday instead because I’m abstaining from running after today. I explained that I wanted to be well rested for Sunday’s race. He laughed and said it sounds like I’m talking about a racehorse and I said that a bag of oats and a leg massage certainly wouldn’t hurt my chances. We ended up rescheduling for a week from this Friday.

I know it seems unnecessary to rest two full days prior to a short race like Sunday’s 5K. However, I’ll argue that 5K’s require more prior rest than longer races because the pace is faster and more anaerobic. In two of my 2009 races I ran with either one or no day’s rest and my performance took a hit as a result. This morning I did my last training run and was once again pleased with the Garmin FR60. I had set the watch to signal when my pace slowed past a certain threshold (10 min per mile) and I made sure I moved along so I wouldn’t be subjected to the scolding chirp from the Garmin. Happily I avoided that (except once, just as I’d started the run). I really liked the splits alert that told me when I’d passed another mile. It’s very helpful to have this feature, especially for the fact that the run summary details each mile’s individual pace. I’m aiming for negative splits on Sunday, especially with that big hill to face at the beginning.

Today’s morning run was good. My pace was non-competitive but okay for 4:00 AM. Sunday’s race starts at 8:30 AM and that fits well into my 8:00 AM-10:00 AM window when I do my best running. Cool dry weather is predicted for Sunday morning. I hope that prediction holds.

*24.8

Liking the Garmin FR60 (so far)

On April 7, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s workout (treadmill): 2.2 miles with 2% to 5% incline

As planned, I used today’s run to complete my hill training for Sunday’s race. Until the new treadmill is repaired tomorrow (I’m really hoping a replacement motor will remedy the belt slips) I’m being careful not to run at faster speeds on the machine. I set a pace just below 6 MPH and pushed the incline steadily up to 5%, starting first with 2% and adding a percentage point every couple of minutes until I reached 5. Even at a slower pace, running a 5% grade was hard work. Near the end I brought the incline down to 0 and ran the last couple of minutes around 6.8 MPH. I received my Garmin FR60 yesterday and put it to work today. It was great to see it sync up with my FR 50’s foot pod and while the interface on the FR60 is still fairly opaque it’s an improvement over its predecessor. Once I understood the menus and navigation I realized that FR60 has some very nice features that the 50 lacked, such as automatic capture of split times. I’ll need to calibrate the FR60 because its distance numbers weren’t aligned with the treadmill’s but I’ve also been suspicious of the treadmill’s accuracy and that could be related to the motor problem.

The FR60 has something called “Race Mode” that sounds interesting. I plan to look online at the expanded manual to understand what that means and how it differs from normal training mode. Tomorrow I plan to go out for a regular run to finish my training for the race. I feel good and I did very well with the inclines. Although my pace was modest the effort was not. Based upon the summary metrics, adjusting for the incline (per my chart) I averaged an equivalent of 9:00 per mile on a flat course. I’m happy with that since I usually reduce my normal pace by 20-30 seconds per mile on race day.

My 500th post!

On April 6, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s workout: 2 mile tempo at 8:41 per mile

It’s hard to believe but today’s post is the 500th since I started The Emerging Runner in 2008. I like having a bit of history to look back upon. My original goal for this blog was for it to be a journal of my experience returning to running. I do use it for that and I find it helpful to occasionally look back on what I was doing a year ago to see if I’ve made any progress or if I’m looking at running differently. I’d say there’s been progress and my view of running hasn’t changed a bit. Both good things.

With all my hill work and trail running over the last week I felt that I needed to do a more speed-focused workout today. Last night I mapped a run that measured exactly 2 miles that I planned to cover at 5K race pace. One reason I kept the distance down to two miles was to motivate myself to run faster than I normally would at 4 AM. Another reason for the exact two mile route was to quickly compare the distance MotionX was mapping compared to my actual, known distance.

The run went well. I didn’t expect to hit a record breaking pace because I generally run about 15 seconds per mile slower at this early hour. The run felt fast and I knew I’d do better than normal (and I did) but I was still disappointed with my 8:41 pace. MotionX, the GPS app I’ve been using on my iPhone, was again way off. It measured the run at 1.86 miles. It’s easy to see why it does that. Looking at the map trace from the GPS signal shows a number of vectored corners and shortened paths that add up to less total distance. This confirmed that the GPS always under-counts distance and today’s margin of inaccuracy told me that it was off by 7%. That’s disappointing and it’s the primary reason that I didn’t buy a GPS watch to replace my Garmin 50. I’ve been told that the Garmin GPS watches are far more accurate than the iPhone but I’ll stick to the foot pod for now.

A day in the park (industrial version)

On March 21, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Today’s run: 5.5 miles (road) at 9:19

After yesterday’s tough trail run I decided to give myself a break and run on the road instead. I didn’t let myself off easy though, my first destination was the industrial park that is located a half mile from my neighborhood. I’d been thinking about the Marcie Mazzolla race course knowing that I’ll again encounter that hill that stretches for almost a mile. I clearly need to do more hill work and while yesterday was good start in that direction it was useful to duplicate the conditions of a road race. The streets in the industrial park form a 1.2 mile loop with a steady incline when running in the counterclockwise direction. I felt strong as I set out to run from my house to the industrial park. I’d dressed in a short-sleeved wicking shirt and compression shorts that turned out to be the perfect combination, but the first ten minutes of the run were a little chilly with the wind.

As I made my way around the park it occurred to me how similar this course felt to the lower loop at Central Park. Certainly not in terms of visual stimulation (although the density of Canada geese in the industrial park was far higher than in CP) but similar in the location of the elevations and downhills. I didn’t know how I was tracking for pace and I didn’t really care. It was about the hills and I felt I was holding my own. By the time I was on the third loop I noticed that I felt stronger than I did at the start. When I reached the flat part of the loop that leads to a downhill section I felt like I had done really well. Not only that, I felt like I could do more running, so I took a detour back to my neighborhood and stretched my distance to a total of 5.5 miles.

Next week I will use some of the treadmill’s hill climbing programs in my weekday morning runs to help maintain the progress I made this weekend. My overall pace of 9:19 is acceptable to me considering that a good part of today’s workout was done uphill. I’m very glad I’m resting tomorrow!

A gloomy day makes for great running

On March 14, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Gloomy but rain-free morning

Despite losing an hour due to daylight savings time this morning I was happy to wake up to an overcast but rain-free sky. Even though I maintained a better than average pace during yesterday’s run on the treadmill I was largely unsatisfied with the distance. I felt like I’d worked too hard to cover 2.8 miles even considering that I’d done another 1.2 miles on the elliptical prior to my run. As I ran yesterday I thought about Dean Karnazes who supposedly ran 211 miles on a treadmill within 48 hours. Acknowledging that Karnazes’ fitness is at a level that allows this, I still cannot imagine how he handled the tedium of running for two full days without going anywhere. Karnazes claims that he sleeps while he runs during ultramarathons but running on a trail or on straight empty roads is different than running on a treadmill where any stumble can result in hitting the ground (or the tread belt) at speeds of over 6 MPH. I’ve said it before, treadmills scare me.

The conditions at 7:30 AM this morning were near perfect for a run. The temperature was just shy of 40 degrees and the strong winds from last night had calmed to a steady breeze. The air was humid which caused an odd combination of chill and warmth when I ran directly into the wind. Many times during my run my glasses fogged but it was never so bad that I needed to clean them off to see. I did not give a thought to my pace though I knew I was running slow. When I reached the 34 minute mark I thought about the way I felt on Sunday when I reached the same point during the race. It was a very different feeling running on level and stable ground with no pressure to reach the finish line. By then I knew I could maintain my easy pace for a long time so I decided go for 50 minutes and ended up covering 5.3 miles at around 9:35 per mile. At that pace I felt I could have run another five miles without a problem but I had told my wife I was going out for 45-50 minutes and I didn’t want her to worry.

On days like this I sometimes think about my readiness to run a half marathon and I’m sure I could complete one with some more focused training. In the meantime I’m considering running the 10K in this year’s Long Island Festival of Races and doing the full 5 mile Stillwell XTERRA in June. All in good time, today I was happy the rain held off long enough for me to finish five+ miles feeling strong and fit.

Tapering to the core

On March 5, 2010 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

I was surprised to see snow falling this morning as I made my way to the train station. The news didn’t mention it but when I reached the train I noticed a layer of white stuff on the cars that had sat overnight in the parking lot. I don’t expect much accumulation but you never know. Tomorrow I’ll take a drive over to Stillwell Woods to check out conditions for Sunday’s race. I’m hoping that they will have the XTERRA course marked so I can get a better sense of the route. I’m still concerned that I could get lost!

Since I’ve finished the running portion of my taper I’d planned to rest this morning. I decided instead to do the 15 minute core workout, as I did on Monday, and I’m pleased that the work on some of the exercises is beginning to feel easier. I’m assuming I’m making some progress and soon I’ll adopt the “make it harder” suggestions that accompany the Lolo core exercise descriptions and illustrations in the magazine. I always feel energized and stronger after doing this simple workout. I’m not sure if I’ll do anything fitness related on Saturday or if I’ll be self indulgent and rest. I really wish the race was tomorrow but Sunday will come soon enough.

A 9:00 AM start for the XTERRA hits my sweet spot

On February 28, 2010 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

I went out for my run a little later than normal today because I had some early morning errands that I needed to get done. The effect of deviating from my normal routine can go two different ways. I’ve run better than average when starting later, rather than first thing in the morning. Most of the races I’ve run have started hours after the time that I’d normally do a weekend run. I’ve beaten my normal training pace during every one of those those events. I’ve also performed poorly when running later in the day: after work or during my lunch hour. My best performances seem to happen during runs between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM. I wish Garmin Connect had more options for analyzing historical metrics so I could easily compare my average pace across various start times. There are a few ways to do this but both are cumbersome. I’ll leave that to another time.

I went out at 9:30 this morning with Friday’s snow still fresh on the sides of the street. I wore my light duty Adidas trail shoes to help maintain traction. These shoes are very comfortable and they double as my weekend casual shoes but they don’t provide the energy return that I get from the Brooks Adrenalines, especially my new GTS 10’s. Although I’d been out earlier in the morning I’d misjudged the cold and my ears were very uncomfortable for the first third of my 3.7 mile run. The first half of the run was more of a serene plod than a hard training run. I was taking in the scene of recently fallen snow blanketing the neighborhood and was enjoying the experience fully until it occurred to me that I will be racing next weekend and I needed to train. I picked up my pace for the second half, averaging between 8:50 and 9:00 per mile. Overall I averaged around 9:30 for the full run.

Tomorrow I’ll go for a little more distance and then move into taper mode prior to the March 7th event. I’m wondering what Stillwell Woods will look like after this week’s snow. With another possible storm coming on Wednesday it could get tricky on race day. It doesn’t really matter though. As long as they still hold the race I’ll be there. It will be a new experience racing in the snow and the conditions will be the same for all the other runners. I’m fascinated to see what happens.

I may be weak but I’m slow!

On February 25, 2010 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Up until yesterday I was feeling very good about my state of conditioning. I was chatting with a work colleague who I hadn’t seen for a few weeks and he asked me if I’d lost weight. I didn’t know how to respond to that question. Yes, I did lose weight when I restarted running back in 2008. Forty pounds in fact, all due to lower calorie consumption and more activity. More recently, after battling severe pneumonia, I lost another five pounds. My recovery is now complete and my weight is back to mid-December levels so I was puzzled by his question. The next thing he said floored me, “You look kind of…weak.” Weak? I really didn’t know how to respond to that. Then I thought about it and realized that it’s probably true. While my running gives me stamina, I’m not doing all that much to build strength. A year ago I was mixing up my workouts and including core exercises and some upper body conditioning. In the time that I’ve returned to daily exercise I’ve been focused solely on running. Even my elliptical sessions have been more about speed than effort. I decided that it’s time to stop ignoring my core and upper body.

Although my wife and I have accumulated a closet full of hand weights I’m loathe to use them. I find weight lifting to be mind numbingly boring. I’ve been thinking about getting one of those stretch band systems that attach to a doornob and provide a variety of ways to exercise muscle groups. It’s low tech but it works, as do sit-ups and push ups. This morning I chose the elliptical but cranked up the resistance as high as I could handle. It felt good and it was good preparation for my trail race. The benefits that come from moving the unit’s upper poles is questionable but it’s better than doing nothing. I’m going to put some more attention to strength building and I’m hoping to gain about five pounds through upper body muscle development. I suspect that strengthening my core will also lead to better running performance.