20th anniversary run and fun

On October 28, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Getting the scoop (or the schmear) at Bagel Boss

Today’s run (street): 3.5 miles

I took the day off from work today because it was my 20th anniversary. Besides enjoying the luxury of sleeping until 5:30 AM and not driving 35 miles and back today, I got in a nice morning run. The weather is currently monsoon-like, but just before 8:00 AM it was cool and overcast with nary a drop of humidity. I like to start my weekday runs at 8:00 because that gives me about 40 minutes between the caravan of high school and middle school buses and the secondary wave of elementary school buses and kid drop-offs.

The buses don’t bother me that much because I can hear or see them coming at a safe distance. I always hop onto the sidewalk in those cases. Parents dropping off their kids are a different story. They’re typically aggressive speeders who don’t even pretend to slow down for stop signs. I stay hyper aware at all times.

This morning I saw a car that was going at least 10 MPH faster than the speed limit almost collide with a car coming around a blind corner from the opposite direction. Besides that, I ran past a house as a car started backing out of the driveway without looking. I anticipated that and she heard my yell loudly and clearly.

The rest of the day was spent doing various anniversary-like things, including having lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant and going to Home Dept twice. We also walked into a location shoot that the local news station was broadcasting from a neighborhood shopping center. I have no idea what they were talking about, but it appeared to be bagel-related.

Tomorrow it’s back to work, which doesn’t seem fair as today felt so much like a Friday. Still, I did get in my run and I’m looking to do the same on Friday morning. We have family staying part of the weekend so I have to remember to grab my Saturday running gear out of the guest room before they arrive.

Recovering on the Bethpage trail

On October 18, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s gear. Black is the new black.

Today’s run (Bethpage Bike Trail): 5.6 miles

As the song goes, what a difference a day makes. The work week was exhausting and I counted on Saturday for recovery. Unfortunately, I felt ill all day with a pounding sinus headache that persisted throughout the evening. This morning I woke up feeling one hundred percent better and looked forward to getting outside. While Saturday’s perfect weather gave way to much colder temperatures today, conditions were still great for a run.

According to the local station, it was 33°, so I pulled out my Opedix running tights, Alpine Design quarter-zip top and ASICS lightweight running beanie. Not my warmest collection of gear, but good for today’s weather. I also wore my Saucony Triumph ISOs thinking they would be warmer than the Kinvaras. It turned out they aren’t and next time I’ll remember to wear wool socks.

I wanted to cover 5+ miles so I went to the Runsketeer staging area off Haypath. I ran south to Bethpage Stage Park and turned around at the start of the north trail. The Bethpage bikeway is a rolling path with a couple of steep but short sections between the park and Haypath Rd. I know the constant elevation change is great for conditioning, but I always dread those hills.

I ran north all the way to Old Country Road, passing many walkers along the way. Most were bundled up against the cold. There were surprisingly few runners and cyclists so the path was relatively clear. My gear kept me perfectly comfortable with the exception of my feet that felt the chill when the wind was blowing.

Today’s route

I would have liked to cover another .4 miles to make it an even six, but I ended up back where I started and felt good about how I’d run. Yesterday’s workout contributed to my fatigue that lasted throughout the day, while today’s run is still producing energy. One day made a huge difference, and I’m happy to be ending the weekend feeling this great.

Knight sighting on my run

On October 4, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

This jacket is actually neon bright

Today’s run (street): 5.25 miles

While it wasn’t a great week for running volume, I was glad to get a couple of decent runs in over the weekend. Yesterday’s treadmill workout was the right way to go. For some reason, the running experience on our Life Fitness machine is much better than on our old Sole F63. Today I had the opportunity to get outside and was rewarded with perfect weather conditions.

Rain wasn’t expected but the skies were low and cloudy with 55° temperatures and a 9 MPH wind. That was a chilly combination, so I decided to wear my new running windbreaker. Its high visibility orange color would stand out on a dark morning. I was concerned that the jacket’s lack of venting would build up heat as I progressed through the run. I managed to stay comfortable by opening up the front zipper and letting in wind-cooled air.

I wanted to cover at least five miles today and that meant running on almost every street in the neighborhood. Not much to report, although I did encounter some guys dressed like Templar knights running around inside a small park with an un-costumed guy following them. I assumed they were filming their own sequel to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I was tempted to stop and take a picture, but I was moving along well and didn’t want to stop.

I received my replacement charging clip for my Garmin F210 this week and was able charge my watch without having to precisely position rubber bands to attach the broken unit to the watch. As I mentioned yesterday, my work schedule is getting a bit tighter. I’m committed to getting back to at least four workouts a week and will need to do one or two before my work day — or after. Easier said than done.

More work could mean less workouts

On October 3, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Today’s run (treadmill): 3.4 miles

A couple of years ago I left a long term job with thoughts of working only when I felt like it. I started consulting and found myself just as busy. Still, without a daily commute into the city, I had far more flexibility for running. After one of my consulting engagements turned into a permanent role, I found myself spending more time working and less time running. This week I accepted a promotion at my new company that greatly expands my responsibilities. The downside is that it will further restrict my workout opportunities during the week

As a result, I missed working from home this Friday. Worse, I skipped my usual Friday run that kicks off my weekend activity. Besides dealing with another long drive to and from the office, I’m feeling the guilt of going from four workouts per week to only two this week. I intend to resume my working from home on Fridays, but my new role involves a lot of interaction with people. As I transition to this position, those discussions are best done face to face.

At least I’m home on Saturdays and it was good to run regardless of what else was happening. “What else” turned out to be driving rain and I found myself on the treadmill for the first time in at least a month. I have no love for the treadmill, but it met the need. The outside temperature was 53° and the guest room felt cool and comfortable. I locked into a pace and set my mind on a time to finish.

The treadmill has a great fan and it made a big difference when set to high. The miles went by surprisingly fast. I turned off the TV after the first ten minutes because the noise was beginning to bug me. That was an improvement and before I knew it I was ready to stop. I won’t have a high number of miles this week, but after five days off from any type of exercise, I felt good about today.

While my 3-something mile treadmill run was a decent workout on a rainy day, my fellow Runsketeer SIOR managed to run 26.2 miles high in the sky in St. George, UT this morning. Not only that, she did the marathon in around 3:30 on a course that required running up and down a volcano.

Stillwell running with my fiscally fit buddy

On September 26, 2015 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Post-run photo at the Emerging Runner HQ

Today’s run (Stillwell Woods): 4.25 miles

It’s hard to believe that a couple of weeks ago I was cursing the August heat and humidity. This morning our local station reported a temperature of 58° at 6:00 AM, signaling fall is truly here. I was pretty psyched about that because my friend and financial guru Steve was coming by to discuss the Emerging Runner family portfolio. We planned to follow that with a run.

Near perfect conditions during our run

Steve is a dedicated CrossFit guy who has focused lately on weight training. Although running is only a component of his workout regime, he is always up for a run on the road or trail. A few years ago, when we both had offices in midtown Manhattan, we’d meet for runs along the West Side bike path and around Central Park. Steve and his family moved to Atlanta a couple of years ago, but he comes up frequently to see his clients in the NYC area. We’re always talking about fitting in a run when he comes up, and today was the perfect day to do it.

We decided to run at Stillwell Woods today. It’s been months since I’ve done a real trail run and the cool conditions made it a perfect choice. I wore my Brooks Cascadias but Steve had his Brooks Glycerins, so I routed us along a less technical section. Giant Bicycles was running a clinic at the western end of Stillwell and I feared that we’d be overrun by mountain bikers. That didn’t turn out to be the case, but we ran into swarms of high and middle school cross country runners who frequently blocked our path.

Today’s route

Considering my current struggles with speed, we moved along nicely and I was able to maintain my end of the conversation. The weather clearly helped both my breathing and my energy level. Although Steve hasn’t run in a while, he had no trouble with the course or the distance. We ended up covering 4.1 miles per Garmin, but I mapped the route using Gmaps and determined that we’d actually covered about 4.25 miles.

Considering the fact that one trail mile equals 1.18 road miles in terms of effort, it was as though we ran 5 miles today. Actually, I made that up, but I’ll bet you believed me, I may aim for an actual five miles tomorrow. If weather conditions are anything like today’s, I might even do more.

Pouring without raining

On August 21, 2015 By Emerging RunnerLeave a comment

Todays run (street): 3.5 miles

As expected, I woke up around 5:30 AM to the percussive sound of rain on the skylight. This continued for at least an hour, but by 8:00 AM, conditions had improved enough for me to venture outside. The skies were dark and overcast and I couldn’t tell whether the rain had completely stopped. Surprisingly enough, my Garmin grabbed a signal almost instantly and I was off.

I hadn’t gone more than a few tenths before I felt a cascade of water drops as I rounded the first corner. Despite the rain, I decided to keep going. Interestingly enough, the “downpour” stopped as quickly as it came, and I realized the “rain” was merely droplets of water shaken off the trees overhead. I continued along, getting intermittently splattered every time I ran under a group of trees.

My route today was three 1.15 mile loops that started and finished in front of my house. As time went on, things began to dry and the tree showers became less frequent. The sun started showing through the clouds, but not enough for me to regret leaving my sunglasses at home. It was a decent run and I was pleased that the weather hadn’t relegated me to the treadmill today.

Tomorrow is supposed to be dry all day and, if I get out around 8:00 AM, the humidity level should be a tolerable 52%. That would be a big improvement compared to all my other runs this week. If I get in eight more miles over the next couple of days, this could be my highest mileage week this year.

As exciting as it gets on a neighborhood run

On July 11, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper

Today’s run (street): 3.6 miles

I was berating myself at the beginning of this morning’s run for being such a sloth and not working out since last Sunday. Then I remembered that I was home for the extended July 4th holiday on Monday and did an elliptical session that morning. I don’t remember how long I worked out (35 mins?) but at least it was something.

I was up at 6:00 this morning and spent almost three hours working on business stuff. It suddenly occurred to me that if I didn’t get outside soon, I’d lose any opportunity to run today. My schedule had me on calls and virtual meetings from 10:00 through the end of the day. Instead of stalling, I quickly changed into my running gear and got myself out the door.

The temperature was 72° and if the humidity was high I didn’t notice. The wind was blowing briskly and that kept me cool throughout most of the run. The strong breezes made the uphill sections a little tougher, but I kept my mind on my stride and my breathing. I tried to focus on diaphragm breathing (versus chest) as suggested by a recent Runners World post.

Friday’s are my weekend kick-off runs and I usually keep them between 3-4 miles. That’s a perfect distance for me psychologically, short enough to feel quick and manageable (especially since I’m usually time constrained), but long enough to feel like a decent workout. Since the schools are closed now, the roads were pretty clear except for the army of landscaping trucks and their gardeners riding on the street between homes on industrial strength mowers. I still prefer that to avoiding school buses.

There’s only so much to talk about when describing a neighborhood run, so I’ll just say I ran on lots of roads and saw lots of houses and cars. There were people out walking, but no other runners that I could see. The big excitement came from a tree removal company that had set up a huge chipper and was griding up trees. A group of neighbors had gathered to watch the spectacle despite the 120 decibel roar.

I didn’t stick around, but I assume they eventually ran out of trees and switched to chipping up trash barrels and lawn furniture. That’s what I would have done. I managed to get through the rest of my run in time to shower and make my first call of the morning. I’m not sure what my morning schedule looks like tomorrow. If I’m able to get out early enough, I may head over to the track to try some intervals or head over to Bethpage for another crack at the bike trail..

Predictions variable, but not the humidity

On June 28, 2015 By Emerging Runner16 Comments

Foggy as humidly possible

Today’s run (street): 3.9 miles

Once again, Saturday night predictions of Sunday morning thunderstorms have turned out to be wrong. I was thrilled because I REALLY didn’t want to spend any more time on the treadmill this weekend. It looked pretty iffy outside when I was getting ready for my run. I opted to stay local just in case it started pouring and I had to dash home.

I did a quick check out the door before choosing my gear and noticed it felt cool and a little breezy. The local station was showing 63° and I picked a long sleeve hi-visibility shirt to go with running shorts. The low clouds had darkened the sky and I wanted to make sure I was easily seen by drivers.

While I stood waiting for my Garmin to acquire its GPS signal, I caught a flash of yellow in the corner of my eye. I saw that my next door neighbor had started his own run and was bolting down the street. I didn’t even know he’d taken up running. He headed south, then west through the middle school, while I went northeast. Even though our neighborhood has dozens of streets and side roads, I predicted I’d see him at some point on my run.

My prediction came true after I’d completed the northern loop of my route and was on my way to the southern end. I saw my yellow-garbed neighbor in the distance coming back towards the school. I don’t think he noticed me and I was too far away to catch up to him. I put my focus on catching up and passing a number of walkers who were making their way along the road.

Today’s run conditions per my Garmin

What promised to be a cool and energizing run turned out to be a very humid one. My long sleeved shirt ended up being a bad choice. Even at 94%, the humidity wasn’t completely oppressive. This was probably due to the clouds blocking the hot sun. But the humidity fogged my glasses throughout much of the run. Not enough to impair my vision, but enough to be annoying.

I was fortunate to have clear conditions to run outside this morning and, even with my busy work schedule, I managed to get in over 2 hours of running this week. I really do need to figure out how to consistently get in an additional workout during the week. When I complain about my declining performance, I have to remember that I used to run six days a week without fail and that I’d typically cover over 20 miles in a week.

What I’ve learned about running from non-runners

On June 27, 2015 By Emerging Runner4 Comments

Credit: http://www.runnersworld.com

Today’s run (street): 4.5 miles
Yesterday’s run (treadmill): 3 miles

Have you ever started a conversation about running with a non-runner and ended up regretting it? Like politics, religion and parenting, running is a subject that generates strong opinions. Generally speaking, most runners — even those at different ends of the performance scale — will agree on running related topics. Whether we run seven or eleven minute miles, we all sweat, have to deal with weather and wish we were faster. But discussions with non-runners can sometimes go like this.

Non-Runner: What did you do this weekend”
Runner: I did a couple of long runs on Saturday and Sunday.
NR: Wow. I’ll bet your knees are hurting today.
R: Running doesn’t hurt your knees. In fact it’s been proven that running is good for your knees.
NR: Tell that to my my friend [sibling, spouse, friend of a friend, guy I work with…] who used to run until it ruined their knees.
R: Do you run?
NR: No! I don’t want to hurt my knees and besides running is so boring!
R: Nice talking to you.

If you think I’m exaggerating, I had this conversation with someone at work this week. Others have warned me of other potential maladies, including heart attacks. I will say that the majority of conversations I’ve had with non-runners are positive. I’ve heard just as many people tell me they admire runners and wished they had the patience or discipline to run themselves.

I haven’t been much of a runner this week myself, as my increasingly busy work week has cut into my workout time. I took a vacation day yesterday so I could go out east to the Atlantis Aquarium in Riverhead. We needed to get on the road early and I opted for a treadmill session to save time. Conditions were humid, so I did what I could to move air around the treadmill room. I used the big floor fan and set the built-in fans on the treadmill console to full power.

That helped, but only so much. Although I only covered three miles, it felt like six and I was wishing for a nap on the way to the Aquarium. We had a great time in Riverhead, and Atlantis is always a good experience. After a tough week, it was nice to do our first family activity since the kids began their summer break.

This morning conditions felt more like spring than summer. It was 65° when I went out and the humidity was far lower than on Friday. I’ve felt ambivalent about my workouts lately, but today everything worked. The air felt cool throughout my entire run and I was pleased with my stride. I’ve been reading an article excerpted from Meb Keflezighi’s new book and tried to do some of the things he recommended to improve to my form. I felt that today’s run was one of the best I’ve done this year.

Scattered thunderstorms are expected to start tonight and continue through most of Sunday. That’s disappointing. But you know, weather conditions are just one of the many problems we runners face. I know a few non-runners who would tell you that.

Early run on an early Father’s Day

On June 20, 2015 By Emerging Runner2 Comments

Obligatory selfie at the business park

Today’s run (street): 4.2 miles

Although Father’s Day is officially on Sunday, we always celebrate it on Saturday. That gives my family an entire day to spoil me without the specter of the workweek starting the next day. On top of that, my son is still studying for Regents and finals that he’ll finish on Tuesday so Sunday will be a big review day. So today is Father’s Day (observed).

We had lots to do before lunch and I thought I would miss out on a chance to run in the morning. Like yesterday, I got out early and managed to get my miles in by 7:30. I’m planning to run with my buddies tomorrow morning and I’m targeting about 6 miles for that. I decided to cover less distance on today’s run to ensure that I stayed on schedule.

I got my GPS signal and went directly over to the business park to run a few loops. Although the elevation loss and gain is the same in either direction, I prefer to run this route clockwise. That allows me to get most of the gain out of the way in the first third of the loop. I did two full and one partial circle before turning back for home.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m still struggling to generate speed. The perceived effort I’m putting in feels higher than the numbers I’m producing. Today’s weather was as good as I could ask — 70°, moderate wind and relatively low humidity, so I would have expected a little better performance.

We had a nice lunch in Huntington this afternoon and more Father’s Day things will happen tonight. I’m looking forward to seeing the Runsketeers in the morning, although I may be seeing them through sheets of rain.