Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Running Watchpocalypse on the Bethpage trail

Somewhere on that path sits half a Garmin.
Today's run (Bethpage bike trail): 5 miles (estimate)
Yesterday's run (track): 3.5 miles

On November 18, 2008, I published my first post on Emerging Runner. Today, almost eight years later, I'm publishing post number 2,100. I've covered many subjects over that time, and my tag cloud on the left lists well over a thousand of them. This blog has definitely accomplished my initial objective, serving as my training journal and an outlet for communicating with the running community. Writing 2,100 posts took a lot of time and effort, but it's been worth every minute. If it wasn't for this blog I wouldn't have met my Runsketeer buddies who I both adore and admire. Don't tell them though. It would only go to their heads.

Running is a simple thing, but it has its nuance. One aspect that fascinates and frustrates me in equal measure is the technology we use to gather running data. I've been through three Garmins over the past eight years and most of that experience has been good. My original Garmin, an FR 50, served me well until I accidentally destroyed it while replacing its battery. I replaced it with an FR 60 that improved on the 50 and has a far better battery replacement system.

About a year after buying the FR 60, I broke down and bought my first GPS watch, a Forerunner 210. It was big step up from the 60. I liked it a lot, despite occasional issues capturing a signal and the need to replace the data cradle after a while. Recently, the loop that secures the strap broke so I took the intact loop off my retired FR 60 to replace it. Soon after that, the FR 210's strap broke off making the watch unwearable. I returned the loop to the FR 60 and resumed wearing that watch on my wrist as a stopwatch while I secured the FR 210 to my SPIbelt using a keyring loop. That worked fine until today.

Yesterday's run - the FR 210's last map
Yesterday, I went to the local track to get in 14 laps before the sun came up. I had to be somewhere at 8:00 AM, so that was the best way to get in my miles. I ran well and have really taken to the NB Zante 2's that did great on the track. It was a typical track experience with the usual personas walking, running, sprinting and one guy who was throwing a medicine ball around.

This morning I headed to the Bethpage bike trail. My plan was to run about five miles, which I think I did. I'm not sure, because the god of watches decided to mess with both my Garmins today. My run started fine and I was in a great mood. The clouds hid the sun, but not the humidity. I made my way south from Haypath Rd and ran through Bethpage Park almost to the Parkview Court crossing. There were lots of walkers and it looked like a large group had come out together because many were wearing tees that said, "Move It." Early in my run, when I was halfway up a short steep section of the path, a runner coming north shouted, "I hear that hill is pretty steep today." I laughed because it was true.

I ran well despite the humidity and was about a half a mile to endpoint when I reached down to my side to look at the FR 210 and see how much distance I'd covered. There was nothing to grab and I discovered that my Garmin had fallen off the SPIbelt. It was probably sitting on the side of the path somewhere. I doubled back about a quarter mile, but was unable to find it. I was upset, but I've been planning to replace it since using it that way was fairly awkward.

Without a GPS map of my run, I figured I'd look at Gmaps when I got home and use the time from my FR 60 to calculate my pace. Annoyed, I ran the final half mile and about a hundred feet from the finish, my FR60 started to beep and the display blinked, "Scale Not Found" and then "Scanning." I couldn't turn off the message or get back to the timer (or turn that off for that matter). The watch would not respond to the buttons when I pressed them.

So in the space of five minutes, I went from having two functional running watches to none. When I got home I removed and replaced the FR 60's battery. That got it working, but I lost all the data from today's run. Before I could declare even partial victory, the watch started flashing "Scale Not Found" again.

It's time for a new watch, so my search begins in earnest. I doubt I'll have a replacement in time for next weekend. Until then, I'll rely on Gmaps and my $15 stop watch to capture my distance and pace. That should give me something to write for my 2,101st post.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Kenyans are faster than my commute

These cars were new when I started my commute
Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

If you took every car on Long Island and laid them end to end, it would stretch all the way to my exit off the Long Island Expressway. That is the reality of my daily commute home. 35 miles in 150 minutes is an average of 14 MPH. An elite runner could run home faster. This is the reason I like Fridays, because working from home saves me one day of all that aggravation.

Last night it took 2 1/2 hours to get from my office to my house. I had every intention of doing a post-work elliptical session, but my night was getting short and I decided to forgo it. Today I had no excuses. I was pleased to see the below 70° temperature and feel the cool dry air when I stepped outside this morning. I felt good from the start and that continued throughout the run.

It's getting close to fall, my favorite running season, and I'm wondering if I'm finally turning the corner on my lethargic performance. Little by little, I've increased my effort on my runs and have started to see incremental improvements to my pace. Today I focused on increasing cadence and a more dynamic leg motion.

The end result was a substantial improvement in my pace compared to a few weeks ago. As impressive as that sounds, I'm still over a minute per mile slower than I was last year. On the other hand, today's pace was half a minute faster than last Sunday. This type of progress is very encouraging. If it continues, I might get fast enough to out run the Expressway traffic.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Orthopedist appointment invokes Murphy's Law

 
I cannot remember the last time I've run, but it was at least three weeks ago. Since then, my workouts have been done on the elliptical machine. It's a fair trade-off, but not an equal one. I know I've lost fitness as a result. While I've wanted to return to running, I've been concerned about further aggravating what I'm calling a piriformis issue. I wish I could be more specific about the cause of this soreness. Unfortunately my opportunity to get a diagnosis today was taken away by an incompetent receptionist.

Most people are familiar with "Murphy's Law," the idea that if something bad can happen, it will. That law has been in full effect today, starting with news from our electrician that the cost to bring our pool electrical system up to code will be five times what we expected. And we'd expected it to be a lot. Next it was the plumber, who informed us that the cost to replace our leaky shower fixture will be double our expectation. We have to stop inviting these people to our house.

A little later, I received a message that the cool new fitness equipment that I'm helping to test (they're no-impact treadmill alternatives) will be delivered late. I was counting on having access to this gear so I could do workouts that match running intensity without inviting further injury. The stuff is coming, but I'll need to wait a couple of more weeks to start the program.

The worst of it was when I arrived at the orthopedist this afternoon, after waiting three weeks for my appointment, only to find that the doctor wasn't in. Apparently they'd tried to call me to reschedule, but the person who made the appointment had recorded my number incorrectly. So, after looking forward to some type of resolution of this problem, it's still a mystery. I still don't know if I should be running on it, but my patience has grown short.

I'm going to try a run this weekend, either on the treadmill or around my neighborhood. I don't think I've run on pavement since January and I don't expect it to be easy. I plan to take it very easy and stop if the soreness goes past moderate discomfort. I'll make another doctor's appointment and will hopefully be able to schedule it soon. But I'm going to lay low for the rest of today and let Murphy find someone else to bother.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

When running watches use German syntax

Don't not not change to Yes
Today's run (street): 4 miles

Things started off badly this morning. I failed to think through a question that was asked by my Garmin running watch, preventing me from tracking my progress. Garmin is a German company and they seem to use German syntax (subject before the verb) in their menus. So instead of saying, "Use GPS?", my 210 says "Use indoors?" with the default of "No." All that double negativity caused me to incorrectly change it to "Yes", which disabled the GPS function.

All attempts to cycle through the menus or otherwise cajole it to turn on the GPS were fruitless. Unless I was willing to do a full reset of the Garmin, I was stuck with nothing but a stopwatch. At least the HRM synched up. I decided to make zitronen into limonade and do the run by time rather than by distance.

My run went pleasantly through the first 20 minutes, but despite maintaining less than a 75% of max heart rate, I started to feel tired. My legs were feeling heavy and it reminded me of how I had some surprising struggles last winter, even on some shorter runs. While I was dealing with that, I crossed paths with a woman who came onto the street a block ahead of me. I couldn't tell how fast she was running, but I tried to catch up to her.

I made up some distance and remained close until she cut over to another road. Pushing speed when I felt like slowing down added to my fatigue, but I managed to recover after a few minutes. I started feeling stronger and was able to increase my pace for the remainder of the run.

Since I ran by time and not distance, I needed to Gmap today's route to get my mileage. I would have liked to have GPS enabled so I could see my splits, but I lost my chance by telling my Garmin, "Keine GPS für mich danke!" After 700 or so runs with this watch, I guess that was going to happen eventually.

Monday, January 20, 2014

An unwanted source of running energy

 
Today's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

When people talk about sources of energy for running, it's usually framed in terms of nutrition or rest. Supplements like gels can give you incremental energy while on a run. A good night's sleep can take away built up fatigue and tension. A far less considered (but equally effective) source of energy is anger and frustration. Case in point, today.

Although it's Martin Luther King day and my kids are off from school, not every business observes this holiday. This is especially true for those based outside of the US. Because of this, I needed to field a few calls, one of which generated a lot of frustration at my end. As I worked to address and resolve the issue, the level of stress built to a point where I needed to take a break.

Today is my usual rest day, but I have a big day tomorrow that starts very early. So early in fact, that I won't have an opportunity to run in the morning. Swapping my rest day made sense and the timing seemed right. Although the skies were clear and the temperatures weren't too bad, I didn't want to deal with gearing up for an outside run. Instead, I quickly changed into indoor workout clothes and hopped on the treadmill.

I had just come off two hard running days so my plan was to run at a more moderate pace today. Just hard enough to get my heart rate up, but not to the point where I could further stress my body. I found myself thinking about my last call and the result was faster stepping. This caused my foot to land frequently on the kick plate in front of the tread. In response to that, I incremented the treadmill's speed until this stopped happening.

The good news was that my frustration got channeled into a quick source of energy. The bad news was that all the hard running quickly drained this energy. The faster pace became increasingly difficult to sustain. I ended up backing down to my original speed but returned to the faster pace for the last quarter mile.

It turned out to be a harder workout than I would have tried under normal circumstances. The residual effect was a significant reduction in my level of stress. I returned to my business problem and satisfied the issue, at least for now. The frustration fueled a higher intensity run and the workout took the edge off my frustration. I don't want to depend on (or even invite) stress as a source of energy. But when frustration happens, I'm glad to have running to to manage that stress.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Boredom is punishment for the medium-core runner

Don't let the smile fool you
Today's run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

Whenever I have to run on the treadmill, I feel like I'm agreeing to a compromise. Were I truly hardcore, I would be out in every kind of weather. I used to be much more willing to run outside under bad conditions. In fact, in 2011, I did every run between April 13 to August 7 outdoors, despite rain, snow, ice or darkness. I've been less inclined to run in ice and snow over the past couple of years, mostly due to safety issues. Have I mentioned that the drivers in my neighborhood are careless maniacs?

My dilemma, besides feeling that I've slipped from hard to medium-core, is how to write an interesting post about a treadmill run. Here is a description of every treadmill run I've ever done:
"I turned on the treadmill and hit start. I set the speed to x. I set the incline to x (optional). I ran for a long time and looked at the the treadmill's display and saw that only a minute had actually passed. I ran for five more minutes and wondered if I could ever be more bored. I ran more and realized that, yes, I could be more bored. I continued until I had a quarter mile to go and increased my speed to race pace. I finished the run and immediately forgot how much I hated the whole experience."
There really is something to the "runner's high" concept, when your system releases endorphins after the workout is done. It's a good thing that happens. Can you imagine if you felt worse after a run? This morning I did my 3+ miles (I could only stand it for 30 minutes today) and felt great once I was able to step off, relax and shower.

I loved that I had the option of running indoors today when the roads were icy. Treadmills are boring and can be hard to write about. But unless I'm willing to harden my core, I'll be forced to use this machine. And you'll be forced to read about it.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

A run most difficult. Please explain why.


Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

Today was a tough one. I don't know why I had so much trouble getting through the run but it was a heavy-footed plod from start to finish. There is nothing I can point to that would explain my struggle. I got a good night's sleep, have no symptoms of a cold and the weather was cool and dry. Yet no matter what my mind was telling my body, my body answered, "Don't expect much."

Yesterday's route seemed short and I was surprised at the end to see the distance I'd covered. Today was opposite of that. My route was circuitous and I expected to consume most of my miles within the northern part of the neighborhood. I had a time target, but I wasn't as pressured as much as I was yesterday. I thought I was racking up the distance until I reached my turnaround point and saw that I was well short of my expected mileage. When I approached my home street, I realized that I needed to run another half mile to make my goal.

Although I ran at a sustainable pace, I felt like I was carrying an extra 30 pounds throughout the run. This wasn't the first run I've had like this, and I know that tomorrow's may be far better. I hope that's the case. One bad run is a statistical probability. Two bad runs in a row is a trend.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Frustration mounts with the ProForm CE 6.0

Hey elliptical, you've gotta screw loose!
Today's workout (elliptical): 25 minutes

Today has been busy. This morning was filled with meetings and this afternoon I presented a technical paper at a W3C conference. I'd had a much different expectation about early retirement. Tomorrow will be even busier. 

This morning I decided to use the new elliptical while my wife ran on the treadmill. It was my second time using the machine and, once again, I was disappointed. I had hoped that this ProForm, that looks a lot like our old X1, would perform in similar way. Aside from the fact that they both provide elliptical motion, the user experience is far opposite.

The difference is in the quality. The X1 had its challenges, but it was a sturdy beast. The ProForm CE 6.0 is a wobbly contraption that squeaks and squeals. The display shows your distance only in revolutions (huh?) and there's no way to pause the timer during a workout.

Why would need to pause the timer? One reason might be that the bolt that attaches the arm to the center post tends to work its way free. I had to jump off the machine this morning at one point and tighten it with an Allen wrench. Lucky for me, I'd removed the decorative plastic collar last week to get to this bolt. I needed to break the collar's connecting tabs when I did that, so it's not going back on.

The rest of my workout went without incident and the bolt stayed in after my mid-session triage. While I consider the CE 6.0 far inferior to the unit it replaced, I still ended up with good workout that got my heart rate to target. It will be back to the treadmill tomorrow. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to using it.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Why is buying running pants so hard?

Such a deal!
Today's run (treadmill - 2% incline): 25 minutes

At my last race, I noticed many people wearing pants that looked like running tights, but with a looser fit. I liked the idea of these pants for very cold days. My running tights provide energizing compression, but not much insulation. I'm thinking a little space between the material and my legs would help trap some warm air on those below freezing mornings.

Every day I receive marketing emails from Roadrunner Sports, REI, Active.com, Brooks, City Sports, etc., all offering what seem to be great deals (40% off plus FREE 2-DAY SHIPPING!). When I link into these sites I often discover that the deals aren't as good as they seem. For instance, I pursued an offer through Roadrunner promising a 20% discount, etc., and found two items that I added to my cart. Even with the discount code added, (that took a while to find as well) I saw no reduction in the item's cost in my cart. So I left the website.

Unfortunately, I've had similar experiences on other sites. If it isn't price related, it's other things. I don't like when my running pants droop far below my ankles so I want to size the items correctly. The sizing guides show inseams ranging between 28.5"-32" for medium pants. Which is correct? Do I want to take a chance and be disappointed?

I'll probably end up going to either City Sports or Sports Authority and choosing items that I can try on first before buying. It's really too bad that the need for something simple can become so complicated. My wife wonders why I hate to shop, and this is the reason. Even done virtually, it can be a frustrating experience.
 

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