The Exhausted Runner

We're staying at a hotel this weekend and it's raining outside so my Saturday run was accomplished indoors. The hotel has Life Fitness treadmills and I was impressed that the speed on the treadmill's display almost exactly matched the readout on my Garmin 50. To my left and right were a couple of women doing workouts and updating each other with facts like, "I just ran up a 70 foot hill!" I felt bad when I hit the speed button to get to my 7 MPH pace because the noise level interrupted their communication.

The treadmill's display had multiple ways to view progress and I chose the "trail" view that showed a 5K course with markers in 1K increments. It wasn't virtual reality but it was a good distraction. The fitness center was really hot so I was sweating very early in the run. I was tired at the one mile point and it got worse as I went on. I kept a moderately fast pace and ended up running 3 miles at 8:54/mile.

After the run I was very tired, much more than after yesterday's run. The heat had much to do with that. I'm a little concerned about running in the warmer weather as we move from spring to summer. At the very least I'll need ensure that I pre-hydrate before longer runs.

Tie goes to the runner

I took advantage of a commute-less work day by sleeping a little later and running a little farther than I would on a week day. The cold is retreating and my leg, if somewhat stiff, is in good shape. I waited for the sun to come up and set out for my run a little after 7:00 AM. I'm used to neighborhood running on weekends where, for the most part, I have the roads to myself. This morning I was inundated with cars and school busses and spent more time running on the sidewalk than I ever had before.

I started a little slow because my right leg felt stiff but started to push it when I reached the mile mark. My intention was not to run a "weekend-length" distance because we're heading out for a long drive and I didn't want to be too tired. I ended up running just short of 3 miles at 9:00 minutes per mile. So I didn't get under 9:00 but I didn't go over it either. I have work to do this morning prior to my trip so I won't have time to Gmap my distance. I hold out hope that I actually ran farther than the Garmin said I'd run. If that's the case I would have made my goal of 8:59 or under.

I'll probably only do treadmill running this weekend in the hotel but if I have a chance to run outside I will certainly will.

Racing to run

As I've mentioned in past postings, my morning routine is planned with a similar precision to a space shuttle launch. The alarm goes off at 3:55 AM, I pour my coffee at 3:58, turn on the treadmill at 4:00, put on my shoes and running clothes by 4:05, set up the HRM by 4:06, consume half my Special K bar and 1/3 of my coffee by 4:08 and start my warm-up by 4:09. This gives me approximately 20 minutes to run two miles at target pace before ending with a couple of minutes to cool down and reduce my heart rate.

Some mornings the routine goes flawlessly and I sometimes gain a few minutes and run a little longer. Other times, like this morning, time went by in fast motion and before I had even started my run the clock read 4:12. This left me with only 15 minutes to run, forcing me to get up to speed faster than normal. I ended up running 15:00 at 9:05 (1.66 miles). I thought I'd actually run faster than that but the Garmin doesn't lie (unless I calibrate it wrong). Making things worse was my treadmill display that sputtered out after about 5 minutes. That left me no easy way of monitoring progress and performance short of toggling through my watch settings as I ran. That's fine once or twice during a run but repeating this process soon becomes tedious.

It seems like 9:05 is my new default pace, quicker by far than my average daily performance in 2008, but again, not under 9:00. I could blame my cold and my leg soreness for being off goal pace but I know that I could have pushed harder than I did today. I'm working from my home office tomorrow which will give me an opportunity to run a little later (possibly outside) and longer. If I keep it under 3 miles tomorrow I won't be happy with any pace above 8:59.

Signs of recovery

No, I'm not talking about the Dow or the housing market. I'm actually referring to my cold and my leg injury. I'm happy to say that both seem to be losing intensity. I ascribe the cold recovery to the theory that exercise helps the immune system. I refuse to let the cold win and, compared to the past, I seem to be coming through this fairly quickly. On the other hand my soreness around and across my upper thigh has reached a point of leveling off. It hurts but it hasn't got worse.

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I took an Aleve last night and this morning the pain was less severe. I used the elliptical machine for about 25 minutes and stepped off feeling okay. My leg is still a little stiff but the sharp pains have lessened. I'm hoping that this continues. My fear is that Aleve, which is actually Naproxen, a powerful anti-inflammatory, is giving me a false sense of improvement. I really want to work on speed between now and April 19. Race day is coming in less than a month!

Powering through

My head cold continues and yesterday afternoon I paid a visit to my company's medical department. The doctor, who I've known for years, said "Sorry, but I don't have a cure for the common cold." I told him it wasn't the cold that was bothering me, I actually wanted his take on my running injury. He had me lie on the table and tried to isolate the problem but it was inconclusive. He didn't understand why the pain was intermittent and why the discomfort went away after I walked or ran on it. He then suggested that I see an orthopedist and though he warned me not to overdo it he didn't tell me to stop running.

This morning I was determined to run and, despite some sneezing and coughing I got on the treadmill for what I'd accepted to be a low impact run. Once I got moving my leg started feeling better so I turned up the speed. I ended up running 1.75 miles at a 9:05 pace although the last two thirds were probably faster since I'd run the first six minutes at about 9:50/mile. Since the run I feel pretty much okay. It wasn't a long run today but I needed to show my cold who's in charge.

This week's Sedentary Man

In this week's column Sedentary Man talks about his first golf outing of the season. This should prove once and for all that SM and I are not one in the same since I dislike golf as much as he seems to like it. Hey, whatever makes him happy. At least it seems like he's getting some exercise. Read this week's column...

Core for the common cold

As strange as it may sound I was happy to see that my sore throat was just the first sign of a cold. Having had a few bouts of strep in the past I take sore throats pretty seriously. Colds are annoying but relatively easy to ignore. I don't consider them an excuse not to exercise and, in fact, I believe that powering through a cold actually speeds recovery.

My biggest concern right now is an increasingly noticeable stiffness and pain in my upper right leg. As I have mentioned, this discomfort disappears while running but it always returns. I should be icing it more but it was a busy weekend. Yesterday we returned to the track and I ran a little more than 3 miles at a 9:07 pace. I purposely held back to protect my injury but I did push the speed a few times. There was another runner on the track who was pacing (I'll guess) around 7:30/mile and I didn't want him to lap me.

This morning I decided to skip both running and elliptical and instead did 15 minutes of core followed by 10 minutes of upper body work. That was a great combo. My leg felt a lot better and I got my heart rate up a little. I'm thinking of doing core again tomorrow before running. It seems to help but it will cut into my running time. I guess I'll just have to run faster!

Hurtin for certain

Yesterday afternoon we all headed over to the high school to do some running. The kids had fun running on the track but they wore themselves out pretty quickly. Mrs. Emerging Runner, who's a dedicated walker, has been integrating running into her daily workouts on the treadmill. She wanted to see how track running compared to the treadmill and we ended up doing a couple of miles (in total). We kept it to a moderate pace but it was still 30% faster than she normally runs on the treadmill so she occasionally switched over to walking. In all, it was a impressive beginning run on terra firma and she set a goal to double the amount of distance during her next visit to the track.

On the other hand I had a tough start. After running 5.2 miles in the morning, my muscle injury felt better but the pain returned by afternoon. My first few minutes on the track were uncomfortable but the pain reduced after I'd warmed up. On top of this pain, I've started to experience a sore throat. I'm hoping it's the start of a cold, rather than a throat problem like strep. When I woke up this morning my throat was even worse and my muscle pain was sharp. A little Ibuprofen seems to have helped but I skipped my usual morning run. If I'm feeling up to it later I may run a couple of miles but I'm not going to try again for the three miles under 9:00 goal this weekend.

36 darn seconds

This morning, with the temperature in the high 20's, it didn't feel like much like spring. My right side soreness was better but I was concerned about aggravating it with a long run. As I prepared to start, my next door neighbor (a CPA) was preparing to head to his office to deal with corporate tax filings. He said he'd rather be running than doing that (who wouldn't?) and I said "Cheer up April 16 isn't too far away." For me it was time to run.

I decided that I would run a minimum of 5 miles today and planned my route on Gmaps to help me stay focused on the goal. My secondary goal was to stay under 9:00 per mile but I knew that running 5+ miles puts me at the edge of my distance capability. I set out on a road with an incline to help me get my heart rate up quickly. It was cold and I dressed with a minimum of layers anticipating that I would build heat as I ran. I was running an 8:55 pace as I reached my first mile and I started wondering how long I could maintain that rate. As planned, I cut over to neighborhood #2 and did the big loop. Not being fully familiar with that area I made a navigation error and I ended up running about half a mile away from my planned exit. I didn't mind, miles are miles no matter where you take them.

Around the 4.5 mile mark I started struggling and I had another episode of hyperventilating. What was different about this is that I was relatively far from home when it happened. Like last time, I simply held my breath and ran until I felt rebalanced. I took a couple of slow deep breaths and soon returned to my previous rhythm.

I'll admit that the last leg, about 1/3 of a mile, was a struggle and I tried to generate as much speed as I could but I knew I was near my limit. I Gmapped my actual run and compared it to the Garmin and was happy to see that they were within .01% of the distance of 5.22 miles. I calculated my overall pace at 9:07 which meant that if I'd run 36 seconds faster over 47 minutes I would have averaged 9:00 min/mile. Later I'll look at my split times to see if I'd held pace under 9:00 for the first 3 miles which was the original goal.

I'll decide tomorrow whether I'll try for another long run or shorten the distance and turn up the speed. My injury seems no worse for the long run and I'm hoping the pain doesn't return later.

Spring training

Today is the first day of spring, marking the end of my second season (fall and winter) as an emerging runner. I'm pleased with the progress I've made in the past six months and now, with 29 days to my first race, it's time to get serious about training.

It's interesting to think about the benchmarks I've passed since last September. Not long ago I struggled through my first mile and I'm proud to say I can now run more than five. My training approach has been anything but scientific but I like the way things have worked out. Back in December, when I signed up for the May 5K race, I was barely able to run three miles. Before I do that race I'm facing a 4 miler in April with no concerns about the distance. The goal now is pace and that's where the training comes in.

Two of my running advisors, CK and CMC, have given me great guidance on using speed work to increase fitness. I read blogs from other runners who are much more disciplined about these methods and this explains why they run 6 and 7 minute miles and I don't. I just like to run and by integrating some faster paces into my normal pacing I've been able to improve my overall pace. I'll start stepping that up this weekend and will try again to run over four miles at under 9:00 per mile.

This morning I achieved that pace at half the distance, running 2.01 miles at 8:46 per mile. I felt like I could have sustained or even exceeded that pace if I had time to run a couple more miles. Some of that comes from conditioning and some comes from the fact that I only did upper body exercise yesterday. I'm beginning to appreciate rest days as a training tool.

The fitness of my elliptical machine

This week we closed a chapter in the saga of my BH Fitness elliptical machine when the manufacturer sent their own service tech to replace a number of parts. The retailer, Fitness Showrooms, abdicated responsibility for the machine after a few failed attempts to fix its numerous ills. I've crossed Fitness Showrooms off the list of stores I'll ever patronize again.

BH Fitness replaced everything (some parts for the fourth time) and the net result remains disappointing. The HRM is still completely inaccurate and the display is difficult to read when operating the unit. I would have been better off sticking with the original unit with a bad HRM. I'm not sure it's the machine itself, design engineering flaws or tech incompetency (this last round my wife had to point out to him that he'd installed the arms backwards) but I'm not going to endorse this unit.

I was going to use the machine this morning but my muscle soreness on my right hip made me rethink doing a lower body workout. I ended up doing about 20 minutes of arms and upper body work. My HRM readings showed it wasn't much work at all so I can hardly count it as a conditioning day. If I feel less sore tomorrow I'll consider a run. Otherwise I'll try a round with the elliptical which will hopefully put less strain on my injured area.

If the Emerging Runner developed products

It was great to do an outside run yesterday but it was back to the treadmill this morning. I'm still struggling a little with soreness around my right hip and it took a few minutes of warm-up for that to dissipate. Once I felt more comfortable I increased my speed and ended up running about 2 miles at 8:52/mile. I want to get these shorter runs closer to 8:30/mile but I'll take some pleasure in knowing that an 8:52 pace is a full minute faster than what I was doing four months ago.

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While I ran today I thought about treadmill running vs. street, track and trail running. I am a fan of the treadmill but I'm not a fan of its limitations. If I created my own treadmill I'd do the following:

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- Build the tread wide enough to move laterally. I don't know if there are limits to how wide the tread can be relative to factors such as power and weight capacity but most treadmills are narrow to the point of claustrophobia. I like when I get to run in hotel fitness centers because some high end units provide a wider track.

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- Speed sensing. I know from tracking my performance with Garmin Connect that my running speed varies from minute to minute. On the road it's no problem as the speed of the runner is relative to a static surface. On a treadmill you are running variable paces and the treadmill is running at a steady pace. This translates into constant subconscious adjustment by the runner to regulate to the speed of the moving tread. Plus the constant concern that you'll either overrun the unit or fall back so far as to pull the safety cord. It would be great if the treadmill could detect subtle changes in cadence or pace and adjust the tread speed accordingly. If the runner wanted to sprint the treadmill would follow. Sure you can accomplish the same by constantly adjusting the speed control but that's tedious and imprecise.

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- Use an electric eye or motion detector to control emergency shut off. Running with a cord attached to your shirt or shorts is another contributor to treadmill claustrophobia. Plus, based upon conversations I've had with people, many don't use the cord for this very reason. It's like seatbelts vs. airbags: active versus passive protection.

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- It's not the first time I'm mentioning it but how about a virtual reality screen to simulate outdoor running? The video can interact with the treadmill so that it automatically goes to inclines on hills, etc. I don't know how to simulate different surfaces (muddy trails, dirt, macadam) but I'm confident the Emerging Runner Laboratories would figure that out.

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It's possible that some of this technology already exists in the higher end units. To do what I'm suggesting above would likely add thousands of dollars to the cost. With advances in screen display and sensing technologies it's not unrealistic to think these features could be offered at a reasonable cost. Call now, operators are standing by!