Stress testing in sixteen steps

On May 30, 2014 By Emerging Runner9 Comments

Not as fun as it looks

Today’s run (street): 3.4 miles

Despite my resistance to the idea of taking a stress test, I finally acquiesced and went through it this week. My experience at the end of the Brooklyn Half provided the impetus to do it. Actually, it was strong encouragement from my wife, the Runsketeers and my friend KWL that made me go through with it.

If you’ve never gone through a stress test (this was my third), you should know that it’s not particularly stressful. But it sure takes a long time. I don’t know if the process is universal, but at my doctor, the process goes like this:

1. Arrive at doctor’s office at your scheduled time.
2. Wait an hour to be called in.
3. Wait for the doctor in the exam room. You can pass the time by reading your chart on the computer display (at least that’s what I did).
4. Have a conversation with the doctor about how you ended up in the medical tent after running a half marathon. Hint: his response will always be, “I want you to run a stress test today.”
5. Have an EKG.
6. Have blood taken.
7. Have an heart ECHO sonogram.
8. Go to stress test lab and wait.
9. Get your first injection of thallium, a radioactive isotope that’s used as a trace agent during the imaging process. Very reassuring.
10. Go into the imaging room and get scanned for 12 minutes.
11. Go into another sonogram lab and have carotid arteries checked.
12. Go into the room with the medical treadmill, where the technician attaches electrodes all over your body attached to a belt unit that you wear during the process.
13. Start at walking pace, with the goal of getting heart rate over 140. She ended up putting the incline to 16% and the speed to over 5 MPH to get me there.
14. Get your second injection of thallium and wait.
15. Get your second imaging to compare to the first after exercise.
16. Go home six hours after you arrive.

The good news is that you do get feedback throughout the process. My doctor said my EKG and ECHO were fine, the sonogram tech said the same about the carotid check and the treadmill technician said I didn’t have a single missed beat during my session. I needed my doctor to review the imaging results. If there were concerns, I would have got a call yesterday. All of that, and no issues.

So why am I running so slow?

My doctor’s office should now deliver my clearance form so I can use my company’s fitness center. I can then do workouts in the morning when I get into the office. Without that, my options are either to go back to 4 AM runs, or work out when I get home from work. I worked from home today and got in a few miles before I started what turned out to be a busy day. It’s the weekend now, and I hope to give those Cascadia’s their first experience on the trails either tomorrow or Sunday.

Performance is down, but excuses remain high

On April 30, 2014 By Emerging Runner5 Comments

Ready or not, here it comes

Today’s run (treadmill): 25 minutes

My running has slid back into the questionable range. I had a tough time running a very slow 5K on Sunday. That may have been due to over-training last week, shoelace malfunctions or something less obvious. This week was the start of my new job and, after taking my usual Monday rest day, I skipped Tuesday as well. This morning was a return to 4:00 AM running and it didn’t go particularly well.

After 20 years of commuting on the Long Island Railroad into NYC, I had a break over the last year. I didn’t miss riding the the train and I still don’t. But instead of the train, I’m now driving 75 miles a day to and from my new office. Driving is not fun and I’ve decided to head out around 6:00 AM to minimize the amount of traffic delays on the LIE, Route 95, etc. Consequently, the window for early running before my commute is short. And unlike train commuting when I could take a seat and sleep, I need to be 100% alert when on the road.

I happened to have an all day meeting in the city today, so I got on the treadmill at 4:00 and ran for 25 minutes. It was one of the toughest workouts I’ve had in a while, and I’m wondering why. Since I’m making plenty of excuses about my sub-par 5K performance, I’ll make more by saying that two days of driving on highly trafficked roads, plus full days in the office, have exhausted me. I’m hoping it’s just that. Brooklyn will happen soon and my running confidence has taken a big tumble since last week.

Introducing some speed into Brooklyn Half training

On April 17, 2014 By Emerging Runner6 Comments

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.1 miles

I skipped Tuesday’s speed workout due to a timing conflict but I put it back on the schedule for today. According to my training plan, this was supposed to be a tempo run that peaks at 10K pace. I’ve gotten out of sync on my speed work and thought I’d do intervals instead. Although this morning’s weather was very nice, I was running behind schedule and elected to save time by staying indoors.

It wasn’t until I got on the treadmill that I decided which workout to follow. Thinking at first that I’d run intervals, I began with a warm up at half marathon race pace. I wanted to go into the repeats with a harder than usual effort to prime myself for speed. Once I got going, I considered the tempo idea. I then thought about SIOR’s suggestion that I introduce some sustained speed into one of my weekday workouts for a couple of miles. I decided to continue with this half marathon pace for the duration of the run.

Except for intervals, I have not done many runs lately at sub-10 paces. This is because I’ve focused on endurance and distance rather than speed. I was surprised to find myself comfortably running at a mid-9:00 pace this morning. I wondered if I could keep this pace the entire way through and it turned out that I could. All this distance and hill running are clearly helping my stamina.

It’s scary to think that I only have four more training weeks before my taper week. The longest run I’ve done so far this year is eight miles, but I did fairly well with that. I’m hoping that I’ll continue to progress as I move into double digits. My average HR finally exceeded 85% of max today. If I can push a little harder and sustain it, I should start seeing my speed improve as well.

Treadmill repeats, a little faster and a little better

On April 8, 2014 By Emerging Runner8 Comments

Check this box ☐ if you are tired of seeing my HR charts

Today’s run (treadmill repeats): 2.5 miles – 6 x 400 plus 1 mile warm up / cool down

My Runsketeer buddy TPP has been focusing on cutting back on her sugar and carbs. Reducing your sugar intake is a good idea (provided there are no underlying issues related to hypoglycemia). Moderating simple carbs is always smart. Most of the time we don’t need that sugar, but our cave-person genetics force us to crave it. The one exception is when you are 40 minutes into a 10K and you need energy right now.

I used to use GU gels frequently on my runs, even when I ran relatively short distances. Now I rarely use energy boosters, or anything like it. I’ve now reached the point in my half marathon training program where I’m approaching double digit base runs. That means I’m running for 80 minutes or more at a time, long enough to (supposedly) deplete my glycogen stores. So far I’ve avoided using supplements during this training. I took a GU gel along on Sunday, but never felt like I needed it. Then again, despite all the hills, I really didn’t push myself that hard.

I’m not Brooklyn race ready yet, but I’ve definitely moved the needle in terms of endurance. Running seven easy miles, as I did over the weekend, would have been a struggle four weeks ago. But I felt great on Sunday. This morning I ran another set of 6 x 400 repeats, this time on the treadmill. I prefer to do this workout on the track or at least on pavement, but it was raining fairly hard outside this morning.

Considering the challenge I had running 220’s a couple of weeks ago on the treadmill (at a slightly slower pace), I can see progress. Today’s quarters were run at 7.2 MPH, book-ended with half mile warm up and and cool down runs. I was very pleased to see my HR reaching 85% of max by the final seconds of each interval. I plan to take the speed up to 7.3 MPH next time I do treadmill repeats.

Tomorrow is my mid-week base run, which by my formula (80% of Sunday’s long run) should total 5.6 miles. I’ll try to run at least two of those miles at Half Marathon target pace, per the advice of SIOR. This will be the first “bridge” workout where I partially combine a speed and distance run. I’ll be interested to see if I’ve restored my fitness well enough by now to manage through it.

Forced ageism on the treadmill

On March 29, 2014 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Demographically insulted

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.6 miles

I knew it was going to rain this morning but I thought I might be able to fit in a run before the weather changed. As often happens on Saturday mornings, I got a little too comfortable settling in with a big cup of Green Mountain Double Black Diamond Extra Bold (thanks again Bill!) and watching the news. Time passed until I finally managed to tear myself from a hard hitting news story about dog racism and headed upstairs to change.

My wife is extremely disciplined about getting things done and that includes her daily workout. When I got upstairs, she was already halfway through her treadmill run. Knowing that I’d planned to run outside, she looked at me sympathetically and said, “You’re probably better off using the treadmill rather than running outside that this point.” A look outside supported that view. I got caught in the rain about halfway through yesterday’s run. Although it only lasted a couple of minutes, I found it extremely unpleasant.

My run went fine. No heroics on the treadmill. I set a moderate pace and stayed with it throughout my targeted time. I got tired of switching the channel between the local news station, MSNBC, CNN and HLN every time they went to a commercial. I changed over to the Music Channels and was amused to see how the display ads differed depending on the type of music selected. The Classic Rock and Soft Rock stations kept showing an ad with an older guy holding a cane, with the headline “Having Difficulty with your Knees?”

Each time they showed that, I felt like yelling, “How dare you infer that I need your services just because I choose to listen to the Steve Miller Band! I’m running!” (actually I may have yelled it once). In the end, today’s workout was exactly what I needed. I’d planned to throw in some fartleks, but SIOR made the point that I should not be focusing that much on speed at this point. Unlike some recent runs, today’s felt energizing and I had no breathing issues or fatigue. Perhaps the warmer weather is helping. And not a moment too soon.

Daft repeats: longer faster better stronger

On March 25, 2014 By Emerging Runner8 Comments

Today’s workout (treadmill repeats): 2 miles
6 x 400m plus .5 mile warm/cool

Week 3 of half marathon training started better than week 2 finished off. After my second consecutive Sunday long run fail (only in the sense of performance, personally I had a great time) the evidence is pointing to cold induced breathing issues. Every run that I’ve done, either at temperatures above 40° or indoors, since my Brooklyn half training kickoff, has resulted in a decent performance. The two times I ran in high 20’s/low 30’s weather, I struggled mightily. Cold weather, J’accuse!

Or it could be the hills. Either way, the fact that I’m running decently more often than not is keeping me hopeful. Spring is here so chances are that one of these upcoming Sundays will provide better weather. That may help me turn the corner on my weekend base runs.

Today was speed day. It was 22° outside this morning, so I opted to do my workout indoors. Hal Higdon’s program prescribed a 3.5 mile run, but I decided that I know a little more about this stuff than he does. But seriously, I’ve modified the Higdon training program to start my week with speed on Tuesdays and a base run on Wednesdays. Hal puts speed work into the Wednesday slot and allocates only Sundays to long runs. I felt I needed a little more base than that, an opinion echoed by some knowledgeable runners.

Hal’s speed workout is 6 x 400’s at 5K pace (8:24) and that’s what I did this morning. In between repeats, I did 240 meter recovery jogs (.15 miles), which I may cut down to .12 miles next time. I also did a half mile warm up and cool down. I normally would have run another mile at my usual training pace to make a full three, but today I decided that 1.5 miles of speed stood on its own.

Tomorrow should be a 4.8 mile base/recovery run. The “feels like” temperature is predicted to be 19° when I plan to go out in the morning, so I’ll have to decide whether to endure this cold and its effects, or suffer the tedium of a longish treadmill run. We’re getting snow overnight, so that may help the decision.

Running at "pace", as Hal Higdon puts it

On March 22, 2014 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Can my training get me here in 2014?

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

Today’s workout, per my training program, was 3 miles at “pace.” I like Hal Higdon’s site because he leaves nothing to interpretation. He explains it clearly on the training schedule page: “What do you mean by ‘pace?'” I mean “race pace,” the pace at which you expect to run the half marathon. That of course prompted me to ask myself, what I am targeting for race pace?

I ran my last Half in 2:08:47 which is approximately a 9:49 pace. In order to break 2:00 I would need to pace 40 seconds per mile faster. That’s a stretch for me, but crazier things have happened. My 2:08 finish in 2012 was a full minute per mile improvement over my 2011 time. Still, I have little expectation that I’ll break two hours this year. As a practical point, I have slipped in my race performance and didn’t break 9:00 on any of my 2013 10K’s. It will be interesting to see if my recent rebound, coupled with a focused half marathon training regime, will make a difference in May.

This morning was busy and that forced me to wait until 10:00 AM to start my run. My wife said that rain was expected mid-morning, so I decided to do my 3 miles @ “pace” on the treadmill. I chose 6.3 MPH which, if sustained for 13.1 miles, would yield a 2:03 finish time. I am feeling much stronger since last weekend, but I still have far to go before I can manage goal pace throughout a long run. The race pace training plus the weekend base runs will theoretically bridge my stamina and endurance enough to at least break my 2:08 PR.

Tomorrow is my second Sunday base run and I plan to meet the Runsketeers for 6 miles of fun. SIOC will be running Boston in April and needs to cover 17 miles tomorrow. We plan to meet at her 11 mile point and do the rest of the distance as a group run. TPP is still battling a respiratory issue and is forgoing a five mile race tomorrow in favor of our easier paced run. It’s supposed to be cold on Sunday, so I need to figure out the right combination of gear. I’m dreading the hills on the Bethpage trail, but I know there’s no easy path if I want to reach my goal time.

Again with the treadmill repeats

On March 13, 2014 By Emerging Runner5 Comments

Today’s run (treadmill repeats): 3.1 miles
(10 x 340m plus 1 mile warm up/cool down)

I’d like to thank everyone who commented on my post and sent me emails regarding my Brooklyn Half training plan. The consensus is that my weekly long run schedule is fairly solid and that speed work should integrated throughout the training cycle. I’m anxious to return to Bethpage and excited to be able to begin this training, with the additional six miles of paved bike trail that was completed last year. If I chose to do it, I could run an entire half marathon distance from my house to the Massapequa Preserve along that trail. But somebody would need to pick me up at the end! 13 miles is one thing, 26 is quite another.

My friends FS and SIOR both pointed out the Hal Higdon training plan and I found it realistic, accessible and very close to mine in terms of weekly long run schedule. Following months of complacency, I’m getting excited about performance again. After Monday’s speed session, I opted for a moderate elliptical session on Tuesday. This morning it was back to speed work with another set of repeats done with a little less intensity.

Like Monday, I started with a half mile warm up before moving to intervals. I wanted to go a little longer on each repeat, so I bumped up the distance from 220 to 340 meters and set the speed about 3% lower than on Monday. I also capped it at 10 repeats, although it worked out to almost the same distance. I finished again with a half mile cool down.

I’m not sure if this late stage speed work is going to translate into better performance on Saturday, but I hoping for the best. It’s supposed to be very cold on Thursday, so I may have to do tomorrow’s run on the treadmill. I would prefer to run outdoors, ideally on trail, so I could simulate trail race conditions.

Treadmill 220’s, surprisingly fun

On March 10, 2014 By Emerging Runner6 Comments

220m intervals with 70 second recovery jog

Today’s run (treadmill intervals): 3.2 miles (16 x 220m, 1 mile warm up/cool down)

Although you wouldn’t know it by looking at my Garmin data from my weekend runs, I have turned my attention back to performance running. It isn’t without irony that, despite my now-clear neighborhood streets, I did my first speed workout this year on the treadmill. My preference would have been to do this on the track, but I was reluctant to risk being hauled off by security for trespassing at the high school.

I normally take Mondays as my rest days but I really needed to focus on my readiness. If the weather holds, I’ll be racing on Saturday with the Runsketeers. I didn’t intend to take as much time as I ended up needing for today’s workout, but it was good that I did. My plan was to start with a half mile warm up at about 9:30 a mile and then run 12 x 100m before finishing with a mile cool down. I discovered that running intervals on a treadmill can be difficult. This is because the machine lacks the hard start/stop precision of the track. I had to account for the time it took the treadmill to get up to full speed each time.

As a result, I decided to run 220m repeats instead of 100’s. I’m not confident of the accuracy of the speed displayed on the treadmill, but I set it 25% faster than what I usually run on the machine. I averaged 67 seconds for the 220’s (about an 8:10 pace), after factoring in the starting lag.

I started and ended today’s session with regular running. I bumped up the speed on the cool down to take advantage of the fact that 6.5 MPH feels a lot easier after pushing close to 8 MPH for twenty minutes. I was surprised that my heart rate averaged only 81% of max overall. Perhaps 67 seconds isn’t enough time to go up from 64% (heart rate during recovery cycle). I’m sure that if I was doing 400’s at that pace I’d be in the red zone by the end of each repeat.

Treadmill intervals were more fun than I expected and I hope this was a good way of reactivating my speed. I may do another speed session on Wednesday before my mini taper. Running fast is fun. I wish I could remember that more often.

Feeling the run, but not the runner

On March 7, 2014 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Thursday’s city walking

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

My schedule on Wednesday and Thursday prevented me from running, although I did cover close to seven miles on foot yesterday. I’ve managed to get free of my cold, but I still feel like I need to build back some fitness. I’ve read that taking a week off from running (as I just did) should not affect your your level of conditioning. That’s probably true, although I’m finding it harder going when I push to my anaerobic threshold. I really need to do some speed work.

This was a busy morning and I was down to business by 6:30 AM. Around 10:00 AM I took a break and got on the treadmill for my first run since Tuesday. Knowing that I’m not back to 100% in terms of fitness, I opted for just a slightly faster speed than the last treadmill session. I managed to hold that pace without difficulty and, after a time, began to increase speed every quarter mile. By the end I was fairly tired, but not exhausted.

My activity record over the first two months of 2014 looks very similar to prior years. The big difference is where I did my workouts. All the treadmill running that I’ve done this year has created a level of detachment that I never get when I’m running primarily on the road or on trails. Yes, I’m maintaining (more or less) the same weekly mileage, but I don’t feel much like a runner these days.

Unless we get some unexpected snowfall overnight, I plan to return to the road tomorrow. This will be my first neighborhood run in over a month. I really feel the need to reconnect to running. My interest in racing is at an all time low. With the Bethpage relay, Marcie Mazzola 5K and the Brooklyn Marathon on the schedule, it’s important that I get back on track. And back to the track.