To Cow or not to Cow

 

Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

Running conditions this morning could not have been better, and I am not exaggerating when I say that it felt like autumn. When I stepped out a few minutes before 8:00 AM, it was 60° with very low humidity. I was so comfortable that I didn't break a sweat until after my first mile. With only 25 minutes on the treadmill since last Sunday's six miler, I had been looking forward to getting out and running today.

The route I followed intersected three times with a middle aged man, his college age daughter (I'm guessing), and a dog (definitely a dog). They walked along the right side of the street when they weren't walking right in the middle. I saw a FedEx truck nearly drive over the left curb to avoid hitting them from behind, although they appeared oblivious to the whole thing. I probably should have said something, but I've learned by now that people don't want my safety advice.

Despite my continued frustration with those risk-taking fools, I really enjoyed the run. I thought about performance training, versus plain old running. These days, I'm far more interested in the health aspect of running compared to the idea of competition. I'm sure my decline in speed over the last couple of years is a factor. If I don't focus on pace and just run hard enough to feel like I'm making a good effort, I enjoy the experience a lot more.

Which brings me to Cow Harbor. One one hand, I consider the Great Cow Harbor 10K Long Island's premiere race. Plus, I've never run it with my blogging buddies and I know they're in. On the other hand, I can't commit to that race without also committing to doing some serious training between now and September 20. SIOR said that the entry fee rises to $40 on September 9, so no matter what I decide, I'd better do it before then.

Treadmilling before the crack of dawn

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

I think this early treadmill workout thing is beginning to stick. This morning, for the third week in a row, I got in a few running miles before starting my work day. I went to bed intending to do this run, but I'd forgotten to prepare for it. When I got up, I saw that I hadn't laid out my running gear or put towels down for my brief post-workout recovery period. It doesn't take that long to do those things, but in the morning every minute counts.

Time was my friend today. I got up before my alarm went off. Even with those extra preparation steps, I was on the treadmill before 4:00 AM. The bargain I make with myself is to cap these early runs at 25 minutes. That's a short enough time to seem manageable before the crack of dawn, but long enough to provide some benefit.

The run went well from beginning to end. I guess I could have pushed harder, but I knew I had an hour-plus drive and a full day's work ahead of me. I finished feeling like I'd worked reasonably hard, but I still had plenty of energy. I probably won't have a chance to run again until Friday so it was nice to have a couple of miles in the weekly bank. I've felt really good on my last few runs. I hope that continues.

Persaid at Stillwell and six miles on the road

 

Today's run (street): 6.1 miles

Last night we went out late to Stillwell Woods to watch the Persaid meteor shower. Unlike last year, when it was too cloudy to see much of anything at Sunken Meadow, the skies were clear on Saturday. Stillwell is a lot closer to our house, and its relatively light-free location would normally provide an optimal viewing experience. As luck would have it, the "super moon" lit up the southern sky last night, making it difficult to see any stars. However, facing north, we were able to view some exciting celestial fireworks.

My wife and son saw one that looked like this

SOURCE: NASA

Staying up late to watch shooting stars is fun, but getting up early the next morning to run is far less enjoyable. I downed my coffee, ingested a small amount of carbs, and took off before I could fully realize what I was doing. I didn't suffer from heavy legs or feel particularly tired as I ran, but a short night's sleep undercut my interest in pushing my pace.

Along the way, I thought about next weekend's Dirty Sock run and my decision not to participate this year. My interest in competing is still low and I was glad not to be preparing for that race. I know I could run it for fun and not worry about my time, but that doesn't work for me. If I'm going to take it easy, I'll do an easy run on my own. Besides that, my narcissistic side doesn't want a slow time added to my Athlinks racing stats.

I'd considered driving over to Bethpage this morning, but instead chose to stay local. My route wound all around the neighborhood and I kept my speed moderate. About four miles in, the run began to feel easier and I stepped it up to take advantage of my increased energy. The last two miles were easier than the prior miles and I was happy to get through my sixth feeling energized.

It's not the first time that I've ended up having a good run (or a good race) after less than a full night's sleep. I read recently that you don't really pay for sleep debt the next day, it's more often the day after. That's good because I'm resting tomorrow. If I can get a good night's sleep tonight, I should rebound well. There's supposed to be more of the Persaid shower this evening, but I don't think I'll be staying up for it. If you are able to do it, I recommend the experience.

Stillwell Woods and wildlife, but not together

Long view of Stillwell, the woods lie beyond

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 4.4 miles

This morning I went for an invigorating trail run at Stillwell Woods. It was cool and comfortable at 7:15 AM and the trails were empty. I'm always concerned about getting mowed down by a maniac mountain biker, so it was nice to have the woods to myself. While I was happy for the lack of humans on the trail, I had hoped to see some of the local fauna.

Rocky raccoon just passing by

Fired up

In the past, I've run into deer, foxes, snakes, rabbits, possums, chipmunks and birds of all types. With the exception of a little gray bunny that hopped across my path, there wasn't much wildlife today. That wasn't the case last night when we made s'mores by the fire pit. Once it got dark, the whole backyard filled with fireflies and we were visited by a raccoon that lazily passed by atop our back fence. We were sitting by the pool and a bird kept swooping down to the water. When I saw it in contrast to the twilight sky, I could see it was a bat.

I followed my usual route at Stillwell, but took a few side paths along the way. The cool, relatively dry air prevented the gnat cloud that I usually endure on hot and humid summer days. My Cascadias easily handled the challenge of steep, scree covered hills, and I'm always grateful for the protection they give from sharp rocks and high roots.

Near the end of my run, the bikers began to show up. I couldn't see them through the trees, but I could hear them. I knew that we would be contending for the same trails in a matter of minutes, so I increased my speed to put additional distance between us. As I approached the trail head, a group of high school-aged boys were coming in. I was glad to be exiting at that point.

I ran by time, not distance this morning, and had hoped to cover five miles in the woods. I didn't quite get there, but I got a great workout. I'd like to cover six miles tomorrow - at least that's the plan.

Doing the wave on a friendly Friday

Howdy neighbor!

Today's run (street): 4 miles
Tuesday's run (treadmill): 2.3 miles

In the scheme of things, adding a couple of miles to your weekly volume doesn't make a lot of difference. However, when you are only able to run three days a week, adding another workout day provides some psychological benefit. Or perhaps it lessens guilt. Same thing. So for the past two weeks, I've dutifully risen at 4:00 AM to up my weekly run count to four and get my mileage a little closer to where it used to be.

The rest of my week's running happens between Friday and Sunday and I kicked that off today with a 4 miler around the neighborhood. I work from home on Fridays and that saves time from my long commute. I try to get outside early so I can finish my run and start my business day at my usual time. Since I prefer early running, this works out fine. Today it worked out great.

I've written dozens of posts complaining about running the same streets of my neighborhood, day after day. I thought about that this morning as I covered a section that I've probably run more than 800 times over the past six years. But every one of those runs has differed in some aspect. There's always a story.

Getting out early provided great weather conditions with temperatures in the mid 60's and humidity at its lowest point in the day. As I ran, I noticed some people in business clothes walking out to their cars, ready to start their commute. Perhaps it was a TGIF mindset, but almost everyone waved or said good morning as I ran by. I crossed paths with a couple of runners and they gave friendly waves as well. Even people in cars waved as they passed. Lots of waving today.

That pleasantness carried over to my run. I felt good enough to push my pace and ended up averaging about 20 seconds per mile better than my current training pace. I had hopes that it would be even faster than that, but I'll take what I can get. As much as I enjoyed my friendly neighbors today, I'm looking to get away from my local roads over the weekend. The Bethpage trail would be an obvious choice but since I'm not planning to run Dirty Sock this year, I may go to Belmont Lake and run the course.

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.

Hot August treadmill

Rain, rain go away

Today's run (treadmill): 5.3 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.4 miles

I'm an early riser and my hope was to get out for a long(ish) run before 7:00 AM. The morning sky was dark gray and I tried to look outside to see if it was raining. It was too dark to see outside, but the steady thrum on the skylight confirmed a downpour. I considered putting on my running windbreaker and going out anyway, but the jacket isn't vented well for humid conditions. Besides that, I really don't like running with soaking shoes.

I considered my options: the elliptical, core and strength training, or the treadmill. I opted for the treadmill but I needed to wait for my wife to finish her run. While that happened, I had another cup of coffee and a small snack to top off my glycogen level. That turned out to be a good strategy and, though the humidity level this morning was off the charts, I experienced no energy drop throughout the run.

I worked from home yesterday, and it turned out to be an extremely busy day. I had to get out early to keep my schedule and I hoped that meant the humidity would be at a minimum. I was fooled by a breeze that, combined with the 73° temperature, made it feel relatively cool. But by the time I reached the half mile point, I could tell that it would be rough going.

I needed to get home in time to shower and prepare for an early call, so I capped my run at 3.3. miles. August humidity has always seemed the worst to me and that was certainly the case on Friday. Considering the oppressive weather, I ended up pacing a little better than expected. If the rain doesn't return in the morning, I'll aim for either a trail run or return to the Bethpage path.

It's good to be putting in more mileage as my weekly volume has dropped 15% since May (when I resumed a commuting job). I don't feel like that's resulted in a loss of fitness, but I need to up my game if I'm going to be ready for fall racing.

Back to the 4:00 AM run

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

The alarm woke me up just before 4:00 AM and that gave me enough time to roll out of bed, change into running clothes and hop on the treadmill at 4:05. It's been well over a year since I did a run at that early hour and I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't quite ready to go back to running with a headlamp on the the dark streets of my neighborhood, so the treadmill had to do.

Even though I planned to run just 25 minutes this morning, the time passed so slowly that it felt like I'd been on the treadmill for an hour. It wasn't a particularly hard workout or the fact that I went from sleeping to running in a matter of minutes. Some runs are like that. And those runs happen most often when you're on the treadmill at 4:00 AM.

Berkshires, Vermont, treadmills and loops

Seemed like a good idea at the time

Today's run (street): 6.4 miles

Our treadmill is in tough shape but it still does the job. Our technician recently told us that it could go at any time. My wife depends on the treadmill for her daily workout and I'm a lot rougher on the machine than she is. I only use it as a last resort because I don't want to contribute to its demise. I did use it on Tuesday, because we were leaving on a trip that morning. Time was tight and I wasn't sure how (or if) I'd have an opportunity to run while we were away.

My second run of the week happened at our hotel in the Berkshires. I did a little more than three miles on their Precor treadmill and really appreciated the experience. There's a big difference between running on a mid-range consumer treadmill like our Sole F63 and a fitness center grade treadmill like a Precor. The Precor felt more solid and stable and I seemed to be able to run faster on it than on our home unit.

When the time comes to replace the Sole, I'll consider investing in a brand like Precor. They actually have a few models under $2,000, which is still pricey, but could prove to be a better value when amortized over a longer period. Our Sole F63 was recommended by the leading consumer product rating company, but after four years steady use, it's totally worn out. The Sole can be folded and put away to save space, a feature we've never used. I think we'll go with non-folding unit next time, because those units are probably more durable.

I didn't get a chance to run the rest of the week, but we covered a lot of ground in western Massachusetts. We also spent time in northern Vermont with my brother and his family who took us to (among many places) the Ben & Jerry's factory. It was great seeing them, along with my mom who was also up visiting. Due to all that, I haven't posted since last Sunday.

Loop-de-loop

This morning I got out early in hopes of beating the humidity. I ran six one-mile loops around some adjacent roads because I wanted to be close to home if it started to rain hard. Despite the repetition, this route was perfect for the workout I had in mind. The miles seemed to go by faster than they do on a more spontaneous route. I was better able to focus on my thoughts while I ran on auto-pilot.

In terms of performance, I did much better than expected. The humidity that I'd hoped to avoid was high from the start, but the low clouds protected me from any direct sun. My running volume for the week is even lower than normal, but I will begin to pick up mileage by re-introducing 4:00 AM workouts next week. I'm glad I got out early today. The rain never came, but the humidity has continued to rise.

An early run and another SA Elite bargain

Can't resist SAE markdowns

Today's run (street): 5.3 miles

This has been a very full day. So full in fact, that I can barely recall the details of this morning's run. My wife and son had planned an early venture into the city while my daughter and I had other plans. I headed out for a neighborhood run before 7:00 AM with a target of covering at least 5 miles.

What I can remember about my workout was the ideal weather for a July run - overcast sky, relatively cool temperature and moderate humidity. I try to do at least one run outside of my neighborhood every weekend. Due to time constraints, I had to settle for my local roads. I criss-crossed a number of different streets to keep things interesting and threw in some fartleks every mile because the cool conditions were so energizing.

At one point in the day, I stopped into SA Elite which was near the place where we had lunch. I can't resist a good bargain and found a lightweight Brooks long sleeve running shirt with an appealing old school graphic. It was $25 with discounts applied. I know I'll get a lot of use out of it.

It was a great day and another good weekend of running. I may try to do a treadmill run Tuesday morning to get back into at least a 4 x per week running schedule. That would help me get closer to my weekly targeted volume.

Numb Runner

Distance lost

Today's run (street): 5.4 miles

Instead of heading out this morning with my running buddies, I was at the dentist having a broken filling repaired. I like to get out as early as possible on my weekend runs, so I can cover longer distances and still have my day. If I scheduled the dentist any later in the morning, the inevitable backups would have taken too much time. That's why I'd asked for the first appointment of the day.

It's been years since I've needed to get a local anesthetic at the dentist, so that was lots of fun (not). My dentist talked to me about Cow Harbor. She lives in Northport and has run the race a couple of times. I told her I'd run it this year if she does. I'm pretty sure I will participate either way, so I can run it with SIOR and TPP. I'm still on the fence about Dirty Sock though.

Since I have so few opportunities to run these days, I knew I had to get out today. The weather was ideal, mostly overcast, with temperatures in the low 70's. One side of my mouth was still unpleasantly numb when I set off from my driveway. Almost immediately after starting, I was flagged down by a man on a bicycle who asked me a question about the neighborhood. I stopped my Garmin while I chatted with him, and thought I'd restarted it once I resumed running.

I had covered about 1.5 miles when it occurred to me that I hadn't heard the one-mile chirp from the Garmin. I looked at my watch and realized that it wasn't recording time or distance. I restarted the timer, figuring I could determine my mileage when I got home by mapping my route with Milemeter. Since I had started off with the Garmin recording my start time, I was able to back into my pace by subtracting the "chat" time from total run duration.

Surprisingly enough, my mouth was still a little numb by the time I got home and that prevented me from having my usual post-run refueling. I did drink about 24 ounces of water to re-hydrate. Within an hour, the numbness had thankfully worn off. Between the dentist and the run, I was fairly wiped out, so that came at a perfect time for lunch. I was glad to get in some decent mileage today. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow, because the family has early morning plans. Maybe a 6:00 AM run is in order. That might help prepare me for even earlier workouts on weekdays.

Hiatus from racing

 

Today's run (street): 4.6 miles

The Dirty Sock Run happens in 30 days and I'm thinking of skipping it. In fact, I'm also considering skipping the Cow Harbor 10K in September. I've always enjoyed these two races, so this would represent a big gap in my racing schedule. Although I continue to look forward to my runs, I've become disinterested in racing.

I'm only running half the days that I did prior to my return to commuting and this disrupts my running schedule. It also undercuts my excitement about competing. My performance has definitely taken a nosedive and that's probably contributing to my lack of racing spirit.

I got out this morning for the first time since Sunday and had a nice run. We've had a respite from the rainy, humid weather and it felt good to be outside. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow because I have an early dentist appointment. I'm planning to go for a run after that. I hope it doesn't get too hot.

I'm going to try to return to workday running at 4:00 AM, starting with a 25 minute treadmill run one morning a week. If that works out, I can expand the days and maybe even go back to early neighborhood runs.