A comfortable visit to neighborhood #2

Today's run (street): 4.91 miles

I wanted to go to Bethpage to try the bike trail this morning and also buy an Empire Passport but my schedule was just too tight. We have someone coming to give an estimate on a home improvement and I wanted to make sure I got in my run before that. Instead, I went out for a neighborhood run and mixed it up by routing through the streets of neighborhood #2 where I hadn't run in a while. The roads were remarkably clear considering yesterday's 3" snowfall. The cold temperatures created patches of rough ice along the roadside and I had to step around the frozen areas that appeared in my path.

My trusty Adidas Response 15's

I wore my Adidas Response trail shoes that have been out of the rotation for months but seemed to be the right shoe for today's conditions. They're great shoes but are built a little too high to facilitate mid-foot landing. This is why I only run in them occasionally. I started slow to loosen up in the cold weather and fell into a nice comfortable rhythm. I was loving the feeling of moving along smoothly but I worried that I wasn't pushing hard enough to make it a real workout. I threw in a few fartleks (Danish for "speed play") where I'd cover a few hundred yards at faster pace before resuming my more moderate pace. The miles ticked off fairly quickly and the running probably seemed easy because my last run at Stillwell Woods provided a much harder challenge.

After covering some distance in the other neighborhood I swung back to my own and finished by following my measured mile loop in reverse. My Garmin had me a tick over 5 miles but Gmaps said it was less. My FR60 calibration woes continue, it seems that no matter how I adjust the Garmin it always seems to over-count my distance.

Finding your rivals

Not all races are listed but it's still a good resource

Today's workout (elliptical): 30 minutes

Happy President's Day. I like long weekends, especially those that extend through the entire week. My kids are off from school so I'm taking the week off as well. Unlike many of the people we know we're not heading off to warmer climates this week. There's plenty to do here, like shoveling three inches of snow of the driveway this morning.

This morning I was playing around on a site called Athlinks that aggregates races in a database and allows participants to "claim" their events. Once done, a runner has a collection of their race results and the usual social networking tools (profile, pictures, Twitter feed, etc.) for sharing or member interaction. Those features are common now but Athlinks also provides a list of your rivals and how you've performed against them. Athlinks automatically finds runners who have raced against you and lists their age, gender and won-lost record. It was interesting to see someone I've beat 7 times (he's 78) and a couple of others who have trounced me 5-0.

Those who have beat me multiple times have usually outpaced me by one or more minutes per mile. I'll likely lose to them in future match-ups. The interesting comparisons are those where I've both won and lost to the same person. Those people are truly rivals and it's about our readiness on race day and how well we leverage or react to race day conditions. I still prefer to view racing as "me versus myself" and I don't really view these people as rivals. These race day match-ups are more like benchmarks that will help me understand how close I came to reaching my potential.

Icy trails at Stillwell and a talking robot at my side

Treacherous going on the trails

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 3.2 miles

I had high hopes that the recent warm temperatures had melted the snow on the trails at Stillwell Woods. After days of 40, 50 (and briefly, 60) degree temps I thought that was a reasonable expectation. I was very surprised to see that the local temperature was 19 degrees this morning and when I arrived at Stillwell I saw that the melted snow had refrozen into ice and hard icy snow. I wore my Helly Hansen Trail Lizards in anticipation of rough terrain and set off over the packed but rutted ice and snow. I was still hoping that the interior trails would be bare and more runnable, perhaps protected from the canopy above.

I wore my Garmin and also brought along my iPhone to capture my route using MotionX. It had been a long time since I carried the iPhone on a run and used that app. The app has been updated numerous times since then and after the first minute a robotic female voice said "You have run for one minute and have traveled zero-point-one-0 miles. Your pace is ten minutes per mile." That spooked me but then I realized that my robot friend would be "updating"me on progress every minute going forward. I considered switching off the MotionX app but decided that I'd just let it go as I didn't want to play with my iPhone while I ran on these tricky trails.

The trails were covered by hard snow rutted with impressions from hikers, runners, animals and mountain bikers. I didn't sink into the snow but the ruts that were formed when the temperatures were higher were a few inches deep and a misstep would easily result in a sprain or fall. There were small exposed dirt channels at the edge here and there and I ran on those when I could. The progress reports from MotionX kept coming and I couldn't believe each time that another minute had passed. I enjoy a hard challenge, especially on the trails, but I was growing concerned that I'd trip on a rut and get hurt. I followed the path back to the open field and finished my run with two laps around the perimeter. The field was mostly devoid of snow because the sun had gotten to it so my last mile was on muddy dirt and grass.

I was happy to be back to the woods for the first time in 2011 and it was a different kind of workout than I'd expected to get. I was so happy to have chosen the Helly's for the job today. I'm going to head to Bethpage State Park this week and get an Empire Passport so I can get free access into the NY State Parks where I normally have to pay admission. It will be nice if Bethpage's bike trail is clear when I go there. The 14 mile out-and-back route (or 10 or so miles of it) would be a good kick start to my half marathon training.

Windy morning run

Today's run (street): 3.85 miles

A morning appointment prompted me to run early today. As I prepared my running gear I heard the winds howl and I checked the thermometer to see that the temperature (with wind chill) was in the low 30's. My window of time before I needed to leave for my appointment was small so I figured I'd be happy to get three miles in. I'm on vacation until the 28th so I wasn't as concerned about covering distance as I normally would on a Saturday.

I wore a stretchy short sleeved base layer under a half zip that my kids gave me for Valentines Day. On top of that I wore my trusty ASICS windbreaker and that turned out to be a perfect combination for today's conditions. I had a busy work week that preempted my running schedule. I missed my Tuesday workout and did not feel well on Thursday so I didn't run that day. I slept well last night and had hoped this week's light workout schedule would have set me up for an energetic run. Even so,  I struggled a bit at the beginning but that could have been due to the stiff headwinds that made it hard to maintain good running form.

I've taken to having a gel 30 minutes before my longer runs but I forgot to do that until a few minutes before I left. Consequently,  I didn't get any benefit until I was halfway through the run. I never felt particularly good but as I progressed through my route I did run better, with negative splits for the second and third miles. I'm not sure if I'll visit Stillwell or Bethpage tomorrow or if I'll wait until Monday to try a trail run. I'm concerned that we'll get more snow on Monday and that could push my opportunity for off road running even further away.

The end of a long strange week

Today's workout (elliptical): 25 minutes

This has been a strange, long week. I felt ill on Wednesday morning but managed to power through a run. That may have been a mistake. Wednesday was an all day industry meeting that I co-facilitated. From the beginning of the day to the end I suffered a pounding headache and by the time I got home I was ready for bed. Thursday morning I felt just as bad so I stayed home. No workout yesterday, just a lot of sleep.

This morning was far more pleasant and while I still woke up with a slight headache I felt much better overall. I thought a run, even an easy one, might be too much too soon so I settled in with the elliptical for a lower impact workout. That was a great decision that put me back into workout mode and built a good sweat. I finished up strong and energized. The temperatures have risen through this week and should continue to rise throughout the day. I'm wondering if I'll even be able to hit the trails over the weekend. That would be a great end to a difficult week.