In the long run

I look forward my weekend runs because, weather permitting, I can run outdoors and enjoy some actual scenery. Weekends also provide an opportunity to run greater distances since I'm limited to about 20 minutes in the morning during the work week. Over the past few months I've made it a goal to increase my average distance during my weekend runs to help prepare for two races, the first coming in 49 days and the second two weeks later. I am careful to track my pace and I collect a lot of data about my runs. It's a bit belt-and-suspenders but I use and used the Garmin 50 and the Nike+ Sportband respectively to capture real time information. Since I don't trust (for good reason) the distance accuracy of these devices I usually map my actual run against Gmaps or Google Earth to determine actual pace.

In studying what is now 6 months of run data I see a clear pattern in terms of distance covered by day. Saturdays are by far my best distance days and all my personal distance records have been made on those days. Although my intentions are always to meet or exceed Saturdays on my Sunday runs I usually fall short and I'm sure this relates to the fact that while I'm dedicated to running I have not reached a level of conditioning that allows me to complete back to back runs over four miles.

This morning I ran 4.3 miles at a 9:26 pace. Good for me but not where I want to be in 49 days when I compete in a 4 miler. The good news is just a few months ago my pace was 30 sec/mi slower on average and my top distances were in the low 3 mile range. So progress is being made. I'll see how tomorrow goes. We're due for some snow on Sunday but hopefully it won't start coming down until later in the day.

Bad advice and some that's good

This morning, while on the elliptical, I watched one of those celebrity entertainment programs (I think it was Extra) before the news came on. There was a lot of discussion about nutrition and they had a guest trainer to the stars who talked about a healthy diet that included five small meals a day.

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I think that's a reasonable approach, in fact I've heard the term "grazing" to describe that type of diet. What bothered me about this diet were the meal-snacks themselves: egg whites, cheese and meat. The portion sizes were small but the balance was completely off. There were no vegetables or fruit or whole grains. I'm sure that following this diet and training would help a person lose weight but unless the person was taking supplements I can't imagine it's a healthy approach. During other parts of the show they featured diet snacks, all of which included Philadelphia cream cheese. This was clearly sponsored and cream cheese is probably a better choice than butter or lard but I think it's disingenuous to represent the main ingredient in cheesecake as particularly healthy.

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I eat small portions in my four daily "meals" - pre-post exercise, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Total calorie intake is low and I am careful to balance to the food pyramid. Knock on wood this diet works since I rarely get sick and when I do it's usually a mild cold that leaves after a day. Yesterday, due to scheduling issues, I missed lunch and barely noticed. I had something small on the fly to remind my metabolism that I’m not starving so it should keep working. I remember a time six months ago when missing lunch would be much more noticeable.

I hope people recognize that just because a famous trainer on television promotes a diet that is disproportionately balanced toward protein it doesn’t mean it's a good choice.

One of these things is not like the other

Those who know me understand my viewpoint on smoking. I support personal freedoms and everyone has the right to do awful things to themselves (just don't do it near me) but I just can't understand why they would. This morning, on my way to the office, I walked by two people dressed for running who had taken a break to smoke. I passed them quickly and only caught a second of their conversation (which was in German) but I wondered how they could rationalize combining a healthy run through mid-town Manhattan with the indulgence of a cigarette break.

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I didn't look to see if they continued their run after the smoke or if they turned into the adjacent Dunkin Donuts to continue their hedonism. It did make me wonder how many runners are also smokers. It seems like a weird combination of behaviors but I'm guessing the percentage is higher than most would think. Never having been a smoker it's easy for me to judge and I am admittedly naive about how difficult it is to quit. All the same I just don't get it.

Quirks of the Garmin

I'm back to the work week routine and despite the residual fatigue that comes from rising at 4:00 AM I've settled back in to my running program. Although I am pleased with the Garmin 50 I've experienced some frustration with its operation, mostly due to its complex interface and its too simple instruction manual.

There are four buttons on the watch that do different things based upon the mode: time, training, intervals, etc. It is not obvious to the user which sequence of buttons need to be pushed to start an action, check a performance metric or calibrate the unit. The manual doesn't cover much of what the watch can do so I'm left frustrated knowing I'm not getting everything I can from the watch. In some cases the frustration comes from inconsistancies with the interface. For example, when in training mode, the usual default screen displays 0000:00:00 meaning "hit start and run." It then records distance, speed, cadence and pulse rate and will display any of those metrics by toggling with one button. That's great except when that display doesn't show up when you switch to training mode.

This morning I got going on the treadmill, brought the speed to my normal starting pace, switched the Garmin to "Train" and was annoyed to see that it did not give me my expected start display. So as I'm running at about a 6.5 mi/hr pace I'm jabbing at the watch in hopes of correcting this so I can record my run. Eventually I noticed a different display that seemed to be capturing distance so I left it alone and in the end it allowed me to save the run. The aggrevating part was that I ran at least .3 miles while this all played out and consequently none of that data was captured.

I'll see exactly what it did capture once the run is uploaded to Garmin Connect. I'm sure I'll eventually learn every aspect of the watch through trial and error but I'm puzzled by the lack of operational documentation. I wonder how many Garmin users give up on the features simply because the thing's so darn complicated.

Runners: emerging and re-emerging

This morning I did my first elliptical workout since discovering that a high resistance level can provide an equivalent effort to running. I had hoped to maintain a level of 10 (approximately 100 watts of energy) throughout the workout but I ended up averaging about 7 which kept my pulse rate about 10% lower than when I run. I wouldn't call it an intense workout but after 20 minutes I certainly felt like I worked harder than I did with previous elliptical workouts.

While I've been improving my routines for cross training and distance my wife has been changing hers as well. She has been serious about fitness for as long as I have known her and was doing some intense cross training and walking until she developed a debilitating calcium deposit in her shoulder late last year. She has worked hard to get past that and has returned to daily workouts, changing things up to minimize a reoccurrence of her injury. Over the last few weeks she started incorporating running into her treadmill routine, first in 5 minute intervals and now around 30 minutes at a time. I encouraged her to buy real running shoes and I think she appreciates the difference. I'm hoping we can all go to the track this weekend where she can experience some outdoor running.

My friend Adventure Girl has had a tough time over the last few months due to a bad soccer injury that required shoulder surgery in December. Consequently she has not been able to run, play soccer, rock climb or adventure race and I can't help wonder how frustrating her recovery has been. The good news is that she's been given the okay to begin running again and started last night. CK, another friend and experienced runner, has been suffering from a foot injury since late last year and he hasn't been running since completing a Turkey Trot in November. He's been skiing, playing hockey and doing other sports that don't cause the same stress on his foot as running. I'm seeing him today and hopefully he'll report that he's back to his running routine.

I'm glad to see everyone making so much progress!

The 20 minute challenge

The alarm went off at 3:55 AM this morning for the first time in over a week. I was surprised that I had some energy and I decided to run instead of elliptical (which I usually do on Mondays) because I hadn't yet recorded a treadmill run on the Garmin. Actually I had done that on Sunday but my lack of familiarity with the watch controls caused me to delete the run before it could be uploaded to Garmin Connect. That was annoying but it was only a mile so I didn't care. This morning I ran about 2 miles within my tight 20 minute window. Over the last nine days I became a little spoiled with the amount of time I had to run so I felt some stress to get my distance in today. I didn't get a chance to review my average pace or any other workout data because I had to move along but I'll do that tonight after I upload. I'm concerned that Garmin Connect will only accept the most recent run, unlike the Nike Sportband that would accumulate the runs and upload them in batch. That is until it stopped uploading at all.

Despite the short amount of time I had available this morning I'm happy with my run. Tomorrow I'll elliptical at resistance level of 10. So much for looking forward to easy workouts on elliptical days.

Training without straining

Graphic Copyright © 2008 Physical-Fitness-Trainer.com

After yesterday's long run I considered taking the day off from training. It's the last day of our vacation and it made sense to relax a little. I had a headache when I got up (due to a sinus condition) and my wife suggested that we take a walk around the neighborhood as a low impact activity. We set out with my daughter and walked for 40 minutes but, in the end, I still felt tired and my headache was still there. After lunch I decided to do a light workout on the elliptical using only the arms. I have discovered that by setting the resistance to 3 or 4 and standing in front of the unit (facing the back of the display) I can get a very good upper arm workout that's similar to the upper body effort of cross country skiing.

I did the upper arm workout for about ten minutes and then ran an easy mile on the treadmill, mostly to see how the Garmin distance tracking matched up to the treadmill's. After yesterday's long run I bumped up the Garmin's calibration slightly in hopes of reducing the 3% variance from actual distance covered. I was pleased to see that both the Garmin and treadmill were in synch with the Garmin running slightly ahead by a couple of 100ths of a mile. This is similar to what I experienced when comparing the Nike+ Sportband to the treadmill's distance tracking.

Today's walk, elliptical and run activities didn't add up to a highly taxing fitness day but after getting my pulse rate up on the treadmill, followed by a quick shower, I feel pretty good and ready to contend with the start of a new work week.

A PR for the ER

 This past vacation week has been great fun. We stayed close to home but did a lot of different things. I've also enjoyed the opportunity to run outdoors every day and I've covered a lot of distance: 25 miles since last Sunday. I'm 56 days away from my 4-mile race and I'm confident that I can cover that distance at a credible pace. I'm feeling ready and what was once a comfortable buffer measured in months is now looking like an unnecessarily long gap that's making me a little impatient. I'm tempted to look for a local race between now and April to just get one under my belt.

One reason I'm feeling this way is that I reached a new distance milestone this morning, covering 5.26 miles in about 52 minutes (9:53/mi avg pace). This broke my previous distance record by about .8 miles. Although I was off my normal pace I was very pleased with the run. I struggled a little at the beginning (I'd expected that since the first half mile was up an incline) but quickly settled into a good stride and knew that I was in for a long run. One of my biggest de-motivators has been the adjacency to my house. As I get closer to home, near the end of my run, I usually begin to feel the struggle to finish.  I decided today that I'd double back a few times far enough away from my house that I wouldn't have an expectation that I was nearing the end. It worked. I was at least 2.5 miles from home at the 2.5 mile mark so I knew that I had to cover 5 miles unless I stopped or walked. And I never do either.

I was surprised by how well I felt when I reached my house. My pulse rate was slightly lower than average and although my legs felt tired I knew I was good for another mile if I had to run it. For the first time I understood how people can get through 10Ks, half-marathons and even full marathons. I can't do any of those but I understand a little more how conditioning prepares you to run for hours at a time without needing to stop.

I may take Sunday as a recovery day, either an easy run or light cross training. 4:00 AM Monday morning will come soon enough and I'll need to be ready for a fast 2 miles to start my workday.

Heart of the matter

I ran a half mile calibration run this morning and was disappointed to see that my Garmin 50 is still off in recording actual distance. I set the unit back to neutral (no compensation) since that gave me a constant variance that I can correct when recording into MapMyRun. The Garmin Connect site doesn't allow the user to modify uploaded data so my distances (and therefore speed and pace times) will continue to be under reported by about 3%.

I wasn't too energized during this short run, probably because I knew it would be over quickly. I want to do an extended run in the next few days but it didn't seem like the right time to try that. Instead I decided to train on the elliptical machine. I find that to be a good workout but I never feel like it's an equivalent effort to running. As an experiment I used the Garmin to see how it tracked distance and to monitor my pulse rate since the elliptical's readings are practically random. I started out at low resistance and after a minute or so I discovered that the Garmin was not recording distance at all. I think that's because the foot pod relies on foot strikes and the elliptical does not mimic the impact of running. The HRM was working fine and I watched the numbers increase as I added levels of resistance.

The interesting thing was that when I reached my normal level of resistance (5) my pulse rate was almost 15% lower than my average pulse rate when I'm running. It wasn't until I increased to level 10 that I came within a few points of my running pulse rate. I stayed at that level for a while and was really sweating by the time I reached the 40-minute mark. According to the display I was producing 102 watts of energy on the elliptical compared to the 58-62 watts I'm used to seeing when I use the machine at level 5.

So, knowing this, I will double my usual resistance to maintain the level of conditioning that I follow during my weekday runs. I used to think of the elliptical was my easy workout and a break from my intense daily runs. Going forward it will be a different form of hard work. I welcome the challenge!

You are what you run

I noticed that today's run was the 200th workout I've recorded on MapMyRun since last September. Overall I've run 360 miles since that time and I've burned 45,930 calories in the process. 84% of my recorded workouts are runs and the remainder is cross training, mostly on the elliptical. MapMyRun green calculations are Gas Saved:, 19.83 gallons, Money Saved: $69.00 and Carbon Offset: 383.9 lbs. of CO2. That's all well and good if I were running somewhere where I'd normally drive. With the exception of running a couple of books to the library I can't take credit for making a greener decision by running unless running has prevented me from driving to a different activity.

This morning I ran 3.46 miles around the neighborhood. It was 43 degrees but all reports said it would get increasingly colder and windier by mid day so I took off as soon as the rain stopped. It was very wet on the roads so I ran with my trail shoes although I saw few puddles and I could have got away with using my regular shoes. I started my run at 7:45 AM which is late for me and I was fascinated to see what my neighborhood looks like at that time. I was surprised to see a number of contractors working on houses and less surprised to see oil trucks filling up homes on almost every street. It's still pretty cold in February on LI. I was a little tired by the time I got home, my Garmin said I had run 3.3 miles but after mapping my route with Gmaps I saw that I had covered 3.46 miles. I think my attempt at calibrating the Garmin had backfired and put the tracking 5% off instead of the 3% variation it had without calibration. I've since adjusted the other way in hopes of getting it about right. I'll see how it works tomorrow if I decide to do a run instead of cross-training.

I know that most people are happy to estimate the distances they run but I need to know exactly what I've accomplished and how far I am from my goals. Now, when I have the luxury of time, I always run at least 5K outdoors. It was only months ago when that was a big wall to cross and I remind myself of that every time I step on the street, the track or the treadmill. I want to complete a 5 mile run before I return to the office next Monday. and I hope the weather cooperates over the weekend. 360 miles run, 45,930 calories burned and 200 workouts completed has done a lot for me but it's always the goal ahead that matters most.

Nike Sportband - A farewell to armbands

This afternoon I decided to finally end my experiment with the Nike+ Sportband by returning it for a full refund. This was actually Sportband #3, the previous two had displays that failed and the current display just stopped exchanging data. As frustrated as I was with the Sportband I felt a certain loyalty to the device. After all it was with me throughout most of my return to running and it dutifully recorded over 180 runs with useful and accurate information. I had some initial problems with calibration and I called the Nike help line staffed by very engaged people who understood and solved every problem. In the end it came down to a device that didn't meet my needs. The woman who handled my return offered to do it as an exchange saying she knew nothing about the Nike recall and that they were still selling the units. I told her I couldn't continue the insanity and showed her my Garmin 50 saying I've moved on. She rolled her eyes and said "The credit will go to your Visa, have a nice day, next in line!"

So now I'm using the Garmin and I think I've figured out how to calibrate the distance despite a less than clear manual and less engaged support from Garmin. The Sportband was slick and the Garmin is sort of bulky. The Nike+ site has lots of fun features, challenges and community boards. The Garmin site has little of that but the data it presents is much better. The Garmin tells me many things as I run while the Sportband only told me a few. I'll miss the Sportband's simplicity but I won't miss the inevitable failure of its display or functionality. I still like Nike but I'll stick to their non-electronic gear from now on. Hey, after all I just bought my wife a pair of Air Zoom Vomeros.

Vacation running progress

I took this week off because my kids are on vacation. It's great to have additional time for running and I'm running ahead of my daily average of about 2. 2 miles. So far this week I'm averaging about 3 miles per day, today I ran 3.42 at a 9:14 pace. Looking back at my late fall 2008 paces I'm doing pretty well, my average pace in November was over 10:00 min/mi and now it's less than 9:30/mi. This morning's run started fast (for me) and I very quickly realized I couldn't maintain the 8:30 pace I was running. After adjusting my speed I settled in aiming for about 2.25 miles that would put me a little ahead of my usual M-F run distance. Once I did my usual halfway loop I chose a few streets that ran away from my house to extend my total distance.

The heart rate monitor is great to have because it provides instant feedback in terms of how hard I'm working and how hard I should be running. I used it on the elliptical yesterday and it was interesting to compare those rates with rates when running. I know, based upon my pulse rate, that I need to push myself harder. I did accelerate a few times near the end but I still didn't get to 80% of max rate that is recommended for progress. I always think about the phrase "Train, not pain" and I live by it making good progress by pushing incrementally without making training a negative experience. That's probably why I look forward to my workouts instead of dreading the work.