Showing posts with label effort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label effort. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

A Virtual Pacer with Real Results

Today's run on the Bethpage trail

Last February an ignorant orange man told the country that COVID-19 would soon disappear with the heat, "like a miracle." The only miracle is that, seven months later, 42% of the country still believes him. Sadly, we're pretty much where we were the last time I posted (April 28). If there's anything positive I can say about this, it's that on the road things are pretty much the same as they were pre-COVID. Socially distanced outdoor runs don't require runners to wear masks as long as the six foot rule is rigorously maintained. It's really not that hard to do.

It's been about sixteen months since I've had to commute to a job and my time is structured very differently these days. I now get 8 hours sleep every night and my stress level is pretty low. I give a lot of credit to my 6 day a week runs for keeping me healthy. However, I've recently realized that while daily cardio may be great for my vitals and heart health, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm actually in good athletic shape. Can I run five miles without stopping? Yes. Can I run five miles in 42 minutes like I used to? No. Nein. Nyet. 没有.  

During my last checkup in August I asked my doctor why my pace has gone from age group competitive to pathetically slow over the last five years. I'm running a lot more than I was back then and I couldn't understand why all this running wasn't making me any faster. My doctor looked at my chart and said, "Physically there's no reason. You must not be trying hard enough." I knew he was right. I was so inspired that I went out the next morning and did absolutely nothing different because trying was harder than floating through my run.

Since that doctor visit I did try making some changes to my technique that yielded modest speed increases. I focused on cadence and stride length intermittently during runs. The improvement was not dramatic but I did pick up about 30 seconds per mile. Knowing that a little extra effort yielded a marginal performance benefit, I started thinking about ways to really move the needle.

I did a search to see if there was anything online that would inspire me to try harder and I came upon an article about virtual pacers. My old Garmin 210 had alerts that beeped when your pace slowed below a set speed and I was surprised to find a video from DC Rainmaker that showed how to use the virtual pacer feature on my FR35. I had no idea that my watch even had this feature because getting to the menu is not intuitive. But I was able to configure it to beep if my pace went out of range.

Just hit Run > Run Mode > Virtual Pacer > Edit > Set...
My first run was scary because I was so afraid my watch would be beeping like an EKG, with each tone broadcasting my failure to keep on pace. But a funny thing happened. The only time it beeped was to indicate I was ahead or on pace. I was so fearful of the watch's judgement that I ran 1:20 faster than the threshold I'd set. It was like the movie Speed when Sandra Bullock needed to drive over 50 MPH or the bus would blow up. My run was like that but more stressful.

I've been using the virtual pacer (VP) feature on every run I've done since Friday and my pace has been over two minutes per mile faster on each of those runs. The VP is a great motivator but I needed to own the effort. It's a different experience going out with the gas pedal down from start to finish rather than wending my way through my route at a comfortable speed. The sad part is that I'm pushing very hard to run almost three minutes per mile slower than my former everyday running pace.

I'm determined to run 3+ miles at a 9-something pace by the end of the year. I went out to Bethpage this morning to torture myself on the hills and was pleased that I still paced well, even with my bête noire, the big hill that crests near the parking area. If I can keep this up, maybe I can again run alongside the cool kids: SIOR, KWL, Professor Mike and TPP.  Who knew that listening to the doctor could be so helpful!

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Effortless Thanksgiving run, but not in a good way

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles

Happy Thanksgiving! I worked from home yesterday and have been feeling the holiday spirit since wrapping up work on Wednesday afternoon. SIOR is shaming encouraging everyone to do the Thanksgiving to New Year's streak that involves running at least a mile every day. So far, I'm good. I even ran yesterday, and I'm wondering if I can apply that to a day during the streak when I can't run.

Yesterday's run was fairly textbook. Usual route, usual pace. I'm hard pressed to recall anything interesting about it except that the roads were almost completely free of cars. Neighborhood running is much better when schools are out. No buses or parents doing drop offs. I enjoyed having the streets to myself.

During that run, my heart rate was hovering around 75% of max, which did not match my harder perceived effort. I found it interesting that I matched my usual pace with a 6% lower heart rate. Is that an indicator of improved fitness? If so, then why did it feel so challenging?

If you look carefully, today's route resembles a turkey
This morning I went out fairly early when the real feel temperature was 31°. I wore two top layers and track pants. At the last minute I added a fleece vest. That helped a lot, because running directly into the wind was pretty unpleasant. I originally thought about going to the track this morning but decided that a Thanksgiving run should happen closer to home. I chose a different route than normal and looked forward to another traffic free experience.

Like Wednesday, my perceived effort on today's run was greater than my actual heart rate indicated. I was puzzled to see that the Garmin showed my HR at around 71% of max. I felt like I was working a lot harder than that, closer to 80% range. By the time I finished, I'd managed to push it to 79%. My pace confirmed the data and I saw that I ran 50 seconds per mile slower than yesterday.

I'm not sure why my running is feeling a little tough right now. Last night we went out to dinner and saw a good friend. It was a big meal and maybe that bogged me down a bit this morning. If that's all it takes, tomorrow should be more of the same. We had quite the Thanksgiving feast today, put together with the team of Mrs ER and ER daughter. Feeling sleepy now, but I'm sure I'll get my second wind soon.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

It's not fair that I have to try harder to run better

Apparently you also need to put in more effort 
Today's run (street): 4.1 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles

Considering how much I run, I'm not really that good at it. People tell me that I need to run more intervals, do more hill, core and strength training, run longer distances and run more frequently. I'll concede that those things could help, but they all require more time and/or the acceptance of more discomfort. I'm not a physiologist, but I've always understood that if you do something a lot, you get better at it. If I'm putting in a dozen or more running miles a week, shouldn't I see continuous improvement?

My running experience since late summer has been positive. I reduced my intake of sugar and simple carbs and that led to some weight loss. Running with less weight would usually yield direct improvement, but it wasn't until my friend KWL surprised me with a Garmin 35 watch that I started to see gains. That's because I was paying closer attention to my running data, especially heart rate. Using percent of HR max as a guide to pacing myself on runs helped me improve my average pace by almost two minutes a mile.

While I did see a measurable improvement from that, I've still been averaging 30-40 seconds a mile slower than my average pace from a few years ago. I know some of that is due to getting older, but it hasn't been that long since my overall performance began to noticeably drop. Of all the helpful suggestions people have made to me, the point about running frequency probably hits closest to home.

This morning seemed like a perfect running day and I expected to run as well as I did on Friday when I exactly matched my current pace. But today felt much harder. When in doubt, I always look at the data. My average heart rate for my last two runs were exactly the same. Rate of effort was the same -- 76% of max with the last six minutes pushing closer to 85%. Today's run also matched yesterday's for average cadence. The only variable was stride length, with Friday's being a foot longer than today's.

So if effort was the same, why was my stride so short? I did feel fatigued throughout run and that surprised me because I'd had a good night's sleep. There's really nothing that can explain why I did worse today (by 50 seconds per mile) except that every stride carried me 175 feet less every minute than yesterday.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll bounce back and open my stride enough to get back to current pacing. I know that some of my friend's suggestions for improvement would yield a quicker cadence which is the other lever I can pull to improve. But increasing cadence is tough and I still maintain that I should be getting faster because practice alone should be enough to make perfect.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Middle school snow shoe adventure

Trekking along the glacial firn
Today's workout (snow shoeing): 1 hour (2.75 miles)

I decided to go straight for an outdoor workout today and headed over to the middle school for some snow shoe trekking. There's still plenty of snow cover, but the roads are free of it. Wearing snow shoes on pavement is a no-no because of the crampons, so I elected to take a short drive over to the school. It's difficult getting my boots into the bindings, so I put them in beforehand and then stepped into my shoes when I was ready to start.

Once equipped, I walked onto the field and headed out. The school field's perimeter is about a half a mile if you keep to the far edges. I thought I'd do a few laps around and see how it went. I started moving at a brisk pace but had to ease up a bit after a quarter mile. Like running, you need to anticipate that you will heat up over time. Unfortunately, I didn't do that. After ten minutes I was ready to shed my top layer and ski mittens.

ER was here
Instead of laps, I followed the snow where it drifted and where there were interesting areas to "explore." I criss-crossed in both directions and, just for fun, spelled out ER in honor of the eponymous blog. Going in a straight line over a period of time (versus the frequent slowing and turning required in my backyard) was ultimately wearying and certainly a good workout.

I tried to gauge my level of exertion compared to running and ellipticalling. Running in snow shoes felt comparable to hard track intervals, while brisk walking felt like a challenging hike. Overall, I'd position the effort of snow shoeing as somewhere between running and the elliptical. Of course, that comparison only applies to me. People who are elliptical maniacs may consider that a harder workout. Then again, those people would probably be snow shoe maniacs too.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Running never gets easy

 
Today's run (street): 5.4

It was just about six years ago when I decided to get serious about my diet and fitness. I wasn't planning to start running. That happened after a few weeks of morning treadmill walks leading to longer walks around the neighborhood. At one point during a walk, I decided to run to the end of the street. I remember how difficult it was to just do that. I figured that running would get easier, and then finally become easy.

Six years later, despite building fitness and developing an aerobic base, I still think that running is hard. Unless I'm doing long slow distance, I usually experience some level of discomfort during a run. Over time, I've learned to manage - even embrace - a certain degree of suffering. If I had known that this would be the case six years ago, would I have continued to try?

With yesterday's hot, hard and humid five miles on the treadmill, I was prepared to struggle today. The first mile reinforced that. As I ran, I felt frustrated with the level of effort that I was expending so early in the run. It was humid and cloudy, but fortunately not that hot. I headed to "neighborhood #2" for a change of scenery and to eat up some distance along one of my favorite straightaways.

After a while, my effort started to feel easier. I took the opportunity to increase my pace and ended up running negative splits. I thought it was interesting that, during the run, I'd reconciled myself to a laborious effort only to experience a rare easy training run. I'm also happy to report that I nudged closer to my targeted 18 miles week. That 4:00 AM run on Wednesday did the trick.

Monday, July 7, 2014

The paradox of high humidity and faster running

Part of today's route. Pretty. Humid.
Today's run (street): 4.5 miles

Happy 7th of July. For some reason, the company I work for has made both the 4th of July and today company holidays. That, plus working from home last Thursday, allowed me to run for five consecutive days. Counting this morning, I've covered 21 miles in that period. I wish I could do that every week.

Even though I was up before 6:00 AM today, I managed to squander the early hours and didn't start my run until a little after 8:00 AM. When I stepped outside it didn't seem all that humid. There was a slight breeze from the north that combined with the mid-70's temperature, creating what seemed to be comfortable conditions. That was an illusion.

The neighborhood looked very nice under sunny skies and the first mile of my route was fairly shady. From then on, the temperature seemed to rise by the minute, along with the humidity. I mixed up my route in an attempt to break the boredom of my local streets and found myself running up what passes for a long hill in my neighborhood. Between the treeless road and the thickening air, I moved into direct drive mode. That's when I put all resources toward getting through the distance.

I often forget that when I put a little more power into my stride, my running efficiency (speed benefit as a function of expended energy) increases. This is the trick I occasionally use when a faster runner begins to overtake me in the neighborhood or on the Bethpage trail. By lengthening my stride and increasing cadence a little, I can lower my pace by a mile per minute for short periods without feeling like I'm working that much harder. 

About half the time I can hold back speedy challengers until one of us turns off to another road. Running harder, despite the humidity, helped get me to the 4 mile mark faster than I expected. The only issue is that I usually reach a point where I can no longer sustain the greater speed. Fortunately, I was able to maintain the pace and I even took it up a gear for the final 200 meters.

When I went inside to cool off before my shower, I realized that my level of sweat was equivalent to having jumped into the pool. In fact my running clothes looked like I had just done that. I have a different schedule this week that will involve some travel, so I don't know when I'll get a chance to run again before the weekend. If the timing works out favorably, I may be able to fit in a couple of mid week runs.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Return to a real workout

 
Today's run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

Colds are funny. No matter their severity, they all seem to follow the adage, "Three days coming, three days staying, three days leaving." An impending cold signals the start of an uncomfortable week. Bad decisions are often made (certainly by me) about how far to push myself after the first symptoms appear. I questioned whether it was wise to run 6.7 miles two Sundays ago, when it was clear that I had started a cold. But if that had an effect on this cold's duration, it was a minor one.

Aside from some residual stuffiness, this cold has pretty much passed. I decided to ease back into running during the "leaving" phase, with extremely easy workouts. This morning I felt close to full strength and went back to my usual routine. I'll admit that I picked a program on the lower end of the performance scale, but it was a legitimate workout.

My concern was that resuming a normal training pace too soon would tire me out before I could finish the run. I had a moment around the first quarter mile when I wondered whether I'd taken on too much too soon. Happily, that didn't last long. Although the rest of the run felt long, it was completely manageable. My other concession to recovery was forgoing the anaerobic sprint I usually do for the last quarter or eighth of a mile.

The best thing about today's workout was knowing that I'm ready to train again. I'll take it fairly easy over the next week and hopefully see some pavement this weekend.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

A harder effort, but an easier run

Today's afternoon snowfall
Today's run (treadmill): 3.4 miles

I had some early work that needed attention, so I didn't get to running until late morning. We saw some snow yesterday and I had little expectation that I could get outside for a run. The roads had improved, but not to the point of safety. It was back to the treadmill, once again.

Instead of music, I decided to put on Meet the Press for distraction. That helped a lot, especially the Rand Paul segment that provided some good energy-producing anger. I'd set the treadmill's speed 5% faster than yesterday's pace. It felt about the same and I hoped that would continue. Maintaining the same speed throughout yesterday's run had caused my heart rate to increase 16% by the end. Even with today's more challenging effort, I didn't reach yesterday's 88% of max.

My late start forced a shorter run than I'd usually do on a Sunday. I was fine with it, although I probably would have gone a little longer if I was running outside. Monday's temperature is supposed to rise to 37°. That, along with predictions of rain, could get rid of the snow that's been keeping me off the road for so many days (including today's mini-snowstorm). Clear roads would be a welcome sight, although a return to 11° temperatures is also part of the deal.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

A weekend of Yin and Yang

Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles
Today's workout (treadmill): 40 minutes

My workouts really varied over the last two days and were as different as Yin and Yang. Friday morning had us doing last minute preparations in anticipation of a house full of guests. That, plus calls related to a big business project, almost forced me to cancel yesterday's run. By 9:30 I was able to break away and switch to workout mode. With little time to run, I opted for the treadmill.

For my Yang run, I decided to go full tilt from the start and set the speed at 6.6 MPH. On my treadmill, that speed feels much faster than a 9:05 pace. Though I feared it might be a hard rate to sustain, I quickly settled into the pace and was able to hang on for the duration of the run. I would have liked to have had a longer recovery period after I'd finished, but I was soon out of time.

Our guests started arriving around noon. My brother and his family were down from Vermont and my mother and her friend were in from Florida. The remainder of the day was spent on non-running activities and after a big dinner and desserts, me and my sister-in law took a walk around the neighborhood. We moved along at a brisk pace, but it was relaxing compared to my run that morning.

I wanted to spend as much time as I could with our guests this morning so I delayed my run until everyone had left. After a busy afternoon, I decided that I needed today's workout to be more Yin than Yang. Running hard late in the afternoon would probably not have positioned me well for another run tomorrow morning. I'll admit that I felt too lazy to put on cold weather gear and the thought of an easy workout on the treadmill seemed far more appealing.

I set the treadmill's incline to 3% but gave myself a break on speed. I eventually brought down the incline when I felt some leg burn. The intention of this workout was not to push to the level of discomfort. Although it's still only Saturday, it feels like it's been a three day weekend. I mean that in the best way.

My brother brought me a Keurig brewer and sent some coffee to go with it. I'm looking forward to having a cup of Kenyan to fuel my morning run tomorrow. Good coffee and running, yet another perfect Yin and Yang.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Seven miles of fun on the GLIRC Clubhouse Run

Group shot just before the start
Photo courtesy of SIOR and GLIRC
Today's run (GLIRC Clubhouse run): 7.4 miles

Well the snow came a little earlier than expected, but it didn't interfere with today's club run in the least. I arrived at the Greater Long Island Running Club (GLIRC) office just before 8:00 AM this morning and saw that I was almost late to the party. My friends TPP and SIOR were there among the assemblage of colorfully dressed participants. After some quick hellos and a group picture, we were all off and running.

The three of us followed the group and headed out of the business park onto the bike trail. It's a hilly section from that point to the turn onto Washington Ave. Although I had good energy at the start, I worried about how I'd be feeling after many more miles. SIOR and TPP are both speedy runners, but they maintained a pace that I could sustain with some effort.

We chatted with other runners as we made our way south and came under the LIE overpass at Washington Ave. We crossed the road and found ourselves on a wooded trail that roughly parallels the bike trail. The snow had covered the sidewalk that led to the paved path, so it was confusing where to go. A little diversion into the woods was unexpected and appreciated at different levels by the three of us. The ice and roots on the path made the going treacherous.

We came out at Old Country Rd and continued on the paved path that rose for a while and proved a little challenging for me. Unlike the last time we ran together, today was more of a workout (though not much of a challenge to my friends). I found it hard to maintain a conversation at times, but we did have our moments. We took the run past Old Bethpage Rd and as far south as Haypath. As we drew close, many of the returning runners warned us of black ice further down.

I struggled to keep up with my friends who were gracious about waiting for me to catch up from time to time. They were probably running one or two minutes slower than their normal training pace, except for periods where they opened the throttle for a few minutes. I was challenged but I didn't reach the point where I felt I was over matched or wished the run was done.

When we turned north from Washington Ave I knew we were close, but I also knew the toughest hills were coming. I took on the first hill with a pace slightly better than a fast walk. SIOR had no trouble burning up that hill as well as the ones that followed. TPP stopped to walk and I stopped with her. She will occasionally do that for 30 second periods and it's a good strategy. I probably delayed her a little, but once we saw SIOR at the top of a hill we returned to running form.

TPP and SIOR took on the remainder of the hills at a brisk pace and I followed. We reached Sunnyside Boulevard and made our way back to GLIRC HQ where they hosted an amazing spread of post race goodies. After indulging in some high carb treats, TPP, SIOR and I headed over to Starbucks for coffee and conversation. Given the greater effort on today's run that made it less conversation-friendly, we still had a lot to catch up on.

Post run - (from left), SIOR, ER, TPP
Photo courtesy of SIOR
It was a really fun time and it's the perfect way for me to do group running. The next adventure for "The Three Musketeers" will be the LIRRC Hangover Run at Eisenhower Park at 9:30 AM. It's a timed five mile run that goes around a one mile route. No bibs, tracking chips, or winners. In this event, everyone's a winner. I'm looking forward to this event as I do every year and it will be more special because my friends will be joining me.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Is 93% of max the magic number?

Not far from 180spm, so where's the speed?
Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

I'm a little disappointed with today's run because I could not generate any speed. Despite clocking my first mile in 8:57 (easy for many, but hard for me lately), I ended up averaging an unremarkable 9:29 pace over 3.5 miles. After a good start, I'd lost time on mile 2 and then tried to make up for it over the last 1.5. I felt like I'd made a good effort, but according to Garmin Connect, my heart rate across the whole run ranged only between 77-85% of max.

I took a look at my race history and compared my pace performance with my average heart rate. Since I've only run about a dozen races using a heart monitor, this wasn't a statistically significant representation. Directionally, it seemed to indicate that my best times happened when my heart rate averaged 93% of max HR or greater.

Does this mean that I'm somehow holding back, even as I work to push my speed during a run? The numbers seem to point to an opportunity to unlock some speed by adding even more effort. My cadence rate has actually improved over the 5+ years since I've starting daily running, but that hasn't translated to speed. I will do my best to hold the effort on Saturday. I'm not asking for much, but beating 27:50 would be nice.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

A hard workout inspired by a movie

Hey Hollywood, I have an idea
Today's workout (Elliptical): 40 minutes

I never think that elliptical sessions are as difficult as running, but occasionally I'll finish a workout that has my legs vibrating like a tuning fork. That was my experience today, although I didn't plan it that way. We had early morning plans that threw off my run schedule and I almost took today to rest instead of tomorrow. I felt off-cycle most of the day and by mid afternoon I was ready for some type of activity.

The temperature had risen measurably since yesterday and I considered doing a neighborhood run. But the convenience of the treadmill drew me upstairs. Before I reached it, I was distracted by the elliptical. It's been a while since I've used the machine and since I'm tapering for next Saturday, I thought it would be good to work on a few different muscles. I set the resistance to medium and hit start.

It took me a few minutes to start sweating and that inspired me to work a little harder. About halfway through my session, I noticed the display metric that indicated the amount of energy being expended. I decided then that I would not let it drop below a certain number (a la the movie Speed). Happily, maintaining that level distracted me from the effort I had to expend to do it.

I set an even higher target for the last five minutes, hoping to simulate the anaerobic experience that comes at the end of a race. The last two minutes felt endless, but I kept the effort meter above the danger zone. After I finished, I moved to the treadmill to cool down for a few minutes at an easy pace. My legs were definitely worked out and I was glad to have completed a vigorous training session. I'll go out for five or six miles either tomorrow or Tuesday before stepping down my taper before the weekend,

Friday, November 8, 2013

Taper breaker on an off week

Hard to resist
Today's workout (elliptical): 35 minutes

This has not been a good week for running, but that doesn't mean I haven't been active. After taking my usual rest day on Monday, I spent all of Tuesday in the city. I Gmapped my walking routes and it came out to eight miles. I got a run in on Wednesday, but Thursday started too early and ended too late to get my workout done. However, I did cover another eight miles on foot. Normally I'd have taken today to rest so I'd be fresh for Sunday's 10K. With just one run this week, I felt like I needed to do something today.

That something turned out to be a mid-morning elliptical session that I did at 90% resistance. Every time I use the elliptical, I'm reminded how beneficial this workout can be. Even done at a moderate pace, the resistance taxes under-exercised muscles and the no-impact motion gives your knees a rest. The lack of motor noise (compared with the treadmill) is also appreciated.

What started out feeling like an easy workout got tougher as the minutes passed. Our elliptical is a pretty basic unit so the amount of data on the display is limited. Unlike our old BH Fitness unit, our ProForm doesn't report distance. Along with displaying elapsed time, the ProForm shows total number of revolutions as well as a metric that indicates level of effort (in watts?). I tried to keep that effort number as high as I could. Despite the high resistance, it didn't drop much near the end.

So tomorrow I'll rest. My wife and kids are volunteering at the race so we need to be there by 6:30 AM(!). That will be a lot of waiting for me, since the 10K doesn't kick off until 9:45 AM. But it's a great event and I'm happy that my family will be there to support me.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Today's good run becomes tomorrow's expectation

The daily burden
Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

I was a little sore this morning, possibly because my last three runs were done at high effort (though perhaps not at high speed). I haven't put up any sub-9 runs yet, but I'm moving in that direction. My saving grace today was the need to have an early call to Asia. That allowed me an extra hour to loosen up my leg muscles before my run.

Have you ever thought about how great everything seems after you've completed a fast run? You can point to it with pride and feel good about what you've accomplished. But as they say in Hollywood, you're only as good as your last movie. And when training for a race, you're only as good as the last time you ran. Time for resting on your laurels = 1 day. And that day ended for me this morning at 8:00 AM.

I started to prepare for my run after completing my call. Wednesday's good experience had now become today's burden. I knew I couldn't default to my easy running pace and, while I wasn't planning to go all-out, I had mentally set my target. I was determined not to come up short. 

A slight soreness in my legs threw me off on the first half mile. I willed myself to run faster, but I'm not sure the effort fully translated. I do know that when I'm actively thinking about performance, my speed will usually move into the acceptable range. My goal today was to do better than that, so I kept up the mental pressure and hoped that would yield a good result.

I was pleased to see that I ran 5 seconds per mile faster than yesterday. It was great to repeat a good performance and I feel I'm heading in the intended direction. I have the rest of the night to enjoy today's gains. Tomorrow morning, expectations return.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

A practical replacement for a postponed race

Ran it in spirit
Today's run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

Today was the scheduled date of the Marcie Mazzola 5K that was postponed last week. I'm not into racing as much as I've been the last few years, so I didn't look for another race to run in its place. While I love the whole experience of racing, I tend to put too much time and attention into the preparation. Lately, I've enjoyed the opportunity to run without having to focus on either distance or speed training.

I'm still feeling guilty for not running one of the RXR LI Marathon races. A quick check on the site shows that registration is still open. But the price to run the LI Half is almost $63 (including "convenience" fee). I've run it the last two years, and I think I'm ready for a change of half marathon scenery. Frankly, I would rather put the $63 toward a pair of Saucony Virratas, that are high on my wish list.
Virrata - just a credit card away
In deference to the Marcie 5K, as well as a lack of time to run this morning, I picked the treadmill over the street. I figured that if the race was still happening, today would been a fast run. Instead of playing with the treadmill's controls, and increasing speed as I went along, I gunned it from the start. There are times when this tactic doesn't work, and I need to back off a bit. Today the fast pace felt sustainable, and I even increased my speed over the last mile.

By the end, I felt like I'd run a 5K. It may not have been the Marcie 5K, but it was no ordinary treadmill workout either. I could have made it even more like that race by ramping up the elevation of the treadmill (to simulate the big hill on Woodhull Road), but that seemed a little much. After all, I didn't even get a tee shirt for doing all that hard running.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Afternoon runs are hard when you're a morning runner

I wish all races started at 10:00 AM
Today's run (street): 5.3 miles

All things being equal, I run much better in the morning than I do later in the day. The numbers don't lie and I have had enough bad afternoon runs to know it's true. I don't know if it relates to biorhythms, psychology, or nutrition (or some combination of the three). In any case, I usually avoid running during the second half of the day. The above chart is an unscientific but fair representation of my performance throughout the day.

I've felt a little off my game this week. Not exactly tired, but not as strong as usual. I skipped my run on Thursday to give myself a day to catch up. Yesterday's run on the treadmill was fine, although I didn't feel as energized after the run as I usually do.

This morning I woke up at 6:45 AM, a full hour later than usual for a Saturday. I clearly needed the sleep and was happy to lose a little time to gain the rest. Due to that, the morning schedule was compressed and I lost my window to run. Other things took priority and it wasn't until after lunch that I finally headed outside.

Today's plan was to go to Bethpage, but I didn't feel like taking the drive over there. I wasn't pleased about my late start and I really wanted to get my run done as quickly as possible. At around 2:00 PM, I finally had my act in gear and started off. My targeted distance was five miles. Normally that would be easy, but I was concerned that the later hour would make it tough.

The weather felt cool, even though the reported temperature was 45 degrees. A very light rain was falling and I considered wearing my running raincoat but I feared overheating. I ended up putting on my Zensah calf compression sleeves for warmth and that was a good call. Plus they have an energizing effect that I'd hoped would help.

In terms of performance, it wasn't the worst five miles I've run on a Saturday. My pace was acceptable but nothing to brag about. For some reason it was really hard to tie together five miles of roads today. The run seemed to take far longer than 52 minutes, but I didn't have any issues with stamina. I occasionally picked up the pace during the run. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help my overall time.

Running at 2:00 PM wasn't the disaster I'd feared, but I suspect that I would have done better had I gone out earlier as planned. Tomorrow I hope to get to Bethpage and execute on my goal of doing one non-neighborhood run each weekend. Even if I can't for some reason, at least today's later run provided a different expereince. And for runners who train almost daily, a little difference can go a long way.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Easy doesn't always do it after race day

Today's run (street): 5.4 miles

Between tapering and running just 3.1 miles on race day, I usually come up well short of my weekly average when I run a 5K. That was the case this week where my total miles barely cracked the teens. Despite the lower volume, I can say confidently that both runs this weekend were high quality efforts.

I usually rest the day after a race, not because it's a good practice, but because most races are on Sundays and my rest day is Monday. For Saturday races, I usually try to get out for a recovery run because I read once that an easy workout that follows a hard effort effectively forces out lactic acid that can cause leg soreness.

My lower output this week prompted me to target at least 5 miles today. The last couple of times when I followed a race with an LSD run, I found myself struggling after 30 minutes despite going slow and easy. I realized last time that running a little harder actually felt better.

I had that in mind when I went out this morning, taking the first mile at around a 9:00 pace before settling into a mid-9 pace for the duration of the run. I chose the hilliest streets in the neighborhood to get my heart rate going. After a race, almost any effort below race pace feels easy and that was the case today. I could have gone another few miles but I didn't want to overdo it. Besides, we are celebrating my son's birthday today and I needed to get home to shower before we all went out.

I look forward to tomorrow's rest day but I'm eager to start training for two 10K's in November. I have always run my best 10K times at these races and that's probably due to the cooler weather and relatively flat courses. Still, I'm planning to maintain my hill training because that seems to make me  a better runner, regardless of the elevation.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Whatever gets you out the door

Today's run (street) 2.5 miles

Every morning I wake up and look at my alarm clock that's usually about a minute away from going off. Occasionally I'll need that alarm, but in either case, it's only a matter of seconds before I realize that I have to get dressed and go outside for my run. EVERY morning I consider not doing my workout. And EVERY morning I manage to talk myself into getting ready.

One of the things that helps me get out the door is a self agreement that I'll take it easy, just this time. No pressure, just get out and float through my route. By the time I'm standing in front of my house trying to acquire a signal on my Garmin, I'm usually more open minded about putting some effort into the run. About halfway through the run is when I start playing with speed in an effort keep my time below a certain target.

That's exactly the way it happened for me this morning. The air was chilly enough to warrant long sleeves and the cold provoked me into speeding up my stride from the start. Even though I could see vapors from my breathing, I noticed that many of my neighbors were still dutifully watering their lawns. I worked hard to avoid running through spray but got hit from the side a couple of times. Brrrr!

There's a quote that goes, "No one ever says 'I regretted that workout'" and, when I complete my run, I'm always pleased that I did it. The tricky part is getting out the door in the first place.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Not exactly a recovery run

This year's Cow Harbor's race tee
Today's run (street): 3.7 miles

I looked forward to today's "recovery workout" as a way of enjoying a run without thinking about performance. After Saturday's hard running up, down and over the Cow Harbor course, I thought an easy four miles would be, well, easy. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.

My run started out fine as I settled into slow but steady pace. My heart rate stayed below 70% of max through the first two miles as I enjoyed the quiet of my neighborhood streets. Soon after that I began to tire, and I felt the effort even though my pace was slow. I was puzzled why I seemed to be hitting a wall on such an easy run, especially since my heart rate remained low.

I abandoned my original plan to run 4 and a half to 5 miles and instead changed course towards home. The final mile was difficult and my stamina was shot. I wondered if the work I did during the race had taken more out of me than I'd realized.

As I reached the last few streets heading back to my house, I increased my speed to see how my body would react. I've previously experienced fatigue when running slow and I found that increasing my effort sometimes helps. This seemed to be the case today, my energy level improved and by the time I finished I was running a high-8:00 pace.

I'm not going to over-think today's run. I'll assume that my experience was directly related to yesterday's hard running. I'm off from work tomorrow and I'll decide in the morning whether to run or rest. I'm curious to know how my next run goes, but I recognize that a rest day may be the best way to ensure a better experience.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Like the DJIA, running performance has its gains and losses

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

My performance gains of last week have given way to more moderate results this week. It's almost like a market correction where I've found myself dropping speed, but still holding some gains. I wonder if my ups and downs of running ever synchronize with the Dow. That would be an interesting investment strategy.

Tuesday's performance was hard to measure because I don't fully believe the numbers that I see on the treadmill. If I were to go by heart rate, I'd say that it was a credible run. Yesterday I did a street run and used my heart  rate monitor to guide my level of exertion. It became clearer to me how my perceived effort affects my speed. I didn't break 9:00 on Wednesday, but I came close.

This morning was a different story altogether. Running felt harder than the day before, and my stride did not feel fluid. I just wanted to get through the run so I could relax for 15 minutes before starting the rest of my day. Although it didn't feel like I was slacking off too much on my pace, my overall time was almost two minutes longer than yesterday, along the same route.

I expect to get out a little later and go a little longer tomorrow because it's a day off. I'm looking to experiment further with the relationship between heart rate and speed. I also need to get some hill training in so that I can be somewhat ready for big hill at the Cow Harbor 10K in a couple of weeks.
 

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