It happens every year

I thought you were supposed to have fun on birthdays

Today's run (Bethpage State Park): 8.25 miles

It's my birthday today, an event that used to coincide with Patriot's Day, a Massachusetts holiday that was best known as the day they ran the Boston Marathon. Growing up in Massachusetts, I enjoyed the fact that I never had to go to school on my birthday, first because it was a holiday and later because we always had our spring break that week. It wasn't until college that I had to attend classes on my birthday. I may have chosen not to go on those days just to maintain the tradition. Well that was my story anyway.

We went to a large family dinner last night and near the end I was presented with a birthday cake. It was very nice of my wife's family to do this. The cake was selected by my brother-in-law who is a dedicated vegan. The cake was pleasant enough. I have no idea what it was made of but it tasted like a bran muffin with white non-dairy frosting. Yummy! Fortunately (or unfortunately) there were a number of un-vegan desserts available.

This morning I decided to celebrate my birthday with an 8.25 mile run on the Bethpage bike-paths. I bought an Empire Passport on Saturday and was looking forward to being waved through for my generous contribution to the park service but no one was in attendance. Oh well. I brought along my Amphipod hand water bottle and set out with a target of 8 miles. It's been a while since I've done a run exceeding 6 miles but I expected it to go well since my aim was to run it easy.

Useful GU

I consumed a GU Roctane in vanilla orange flavor about 30 minutes before my run and I think it helped get me moving at the beginning. The skies were gray with some very light rain and the temperature was a cool 50 degrees. At around the 3 mile mark I grew concerned about my stamina on this hilly course but I decided that I'd simply throttle my speed below my lactic threshold level (English: slow down but not stop) if I grew too tired. I recovered some energy by mile 5 but I struggled with the last long hill at the end that I always dread.

It was a good run overall. I maintained a pace in the high 9:00 range despite the tougher sections. I'll probably go even longer on a run before I return to work next Monday and begin my taper. I'm a bit sore from this run and yesterday's speed work. Add a day of recovery and the result is improved conditioning. Happy birthday indeed.

Karhu Fast 2's live up to their name

Today's run (track intervals)

You know those movies where the mousy librarian takes off her glasses and the leading man suddenly notices how beautiful she is? That was akin to my experience today with the Karhu Fast 2's that I'd damned with (very) faint praise in my recent review. In testing these shoes I thought I'd done an adequate job of assessing their capabilities, both on long runs as well as short speed bursts and tempos. What I didn't do - and shame on me for that - was put them to the test on the Tartan track. This morning, along with my daughter (who served as my running partner and coach), I used these Karhus in their natural environment.

Our plan was to run multiple short intervals to help build fast twitch muscles and anaerobic base. After a trip around the track at a moderate pace we headed to a side track that had sand pits on either end. That gave us about 45 meters of useful track length for our short, fast sprints. My daughter and I took turns running on this track beside some high school boys who were practicing their long jumps. We did multiple runs, going in both directions and were pleased with our speeds. My daughter (age 12) was able to match me or come within a second of many of my times.

We followed that first set of runs with another lap around the track and then ran additional sprints on the main oval. Again our speeds were good and I was happy that most of my running (besides the recovery jogs) stayed well below a 6 minute pace. The Karhus really shined today. I finally got the "Fulcrum" concept and ran on my forefoot, practically on my toes, bringing my knees up higher than I would on an aerobic run. The Karhu Fast 2 will be my speed shoe going forward and it even felt good at a sedate pace today. I'm still committed to a lower profile shoe like the Saucony Mirage and Kinvara as a daily trainer but the Karhu is a true sprinter. That made for a great practice today with my favorite running coach and partner.

Bethpage trails on a sunny day -- but I didn't love the run

Today's run (Bethpage State Park trails) 3.5 miles

By now I have a sense of how a run will go long before I take my first step. When I prepare my gear the night before my 4:00 AM runs I usually know how I'll feel when my alarm goes off in the morning. On weekends, when I run longer and later in the morning, I've come to expect a tougher time once 10:00 AM comes and goes.

That was the case today. I was up early but I didn't get out until almost noon. I wasn't feeling the drive to run and I even considered talking the day to rest. As the weather grew sunnier through the morning I decided to go for it. I knew that we'd see rainy weather for the next couple of days and I didn't want to waste a good day. I didn't feel it today but I knew I had to get out there.

I went to Bethpage to run the trails and started at the beginning of the bike path. I followed that for about half a mile before reaching an opening to the dirt trail that runs north. That trail eventually wrapped east and opened to numerous other paths. I followed the wider, better groomed, trail before deciding to switch to a single-track that first took me north but then bent right and eventually reversed direction. I continued through these trails, switching paths every so often and gauging my position by the direction of the sun.

I wasn't fatigued but my running lacked an energetic punch. In truth, it wasn't a very good run. I never got that free-wheeling feeling of roller coaster running that I often experience on the trails. After three miles I decided to pay attention to what my body was telling me and I wrapped it up after covering 3.5 miles overall. I still have a cold that I'm hoping will be over soon. A rest day tomorrow will be nice and long distance run is the plan for Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on weather.

Spring vacation kickoff run

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles

My spring vacation starts today and with weather reports calling for afternoon rain I thought it best to go out early. I woke up after a decent night's sleep with a mild cough. It's just another phase in this annoying cold that I've been suffering since Monday. Knowing that I had busy days ahead, including some travel, I decided early on to ignore this cold as much as I could. I worked long days, went out at night and ran or elliptical-ed every morning. This seems to have worked. After a cup of coffee my cough seemed to recede and I made my way outside.

It's still cold for mid-April and I dressed for my run appropriately. I've noticed that over the last few weeks my Saturday runs have been so-so but my Sunday runs have been good. I'm not sure why but anticipating that this morning I aimed low - three or four miles tops. I wore the new Mirages that continue to feel great. In terms of comfort I still prefer the Kinvaras but I like the way these new shoes move with my foot and land me ahead of my arch. Without really trying I maintained a mid-9 pace that felt easy and fluid. I'm hoping I'll have a window on Sunday to cover 8 or more miles but the rain may interfere with that plan. Since I'm on vacation I'll have numerous opportunities to run long distances. The half marathon looms large -- two weeks and a day from now.

Massachusetts Institute of (Running) Technology

Today's workout (elliptical): 23 minutes

I'm back in NY so last night I thought I'd do a morning run in my neighborhood. When I got up I considered my mild cold and decided to do an indoor workout instead. It had been over a week since I'd cross trained so I did a shorter than normal elliptical session that generated a good sweat. If the weather is clear this weekend I'll try for a long base run as I train for the half marathon that's happening in three Sundays from now.

My visit to the Media Lab was enlightening as usual and I came upon a couple of interesting activity related projects. The Cardio Cam, from the Affective Computing Lab, is a mirror with a webcam mounted at the top. You position yourself so that your face is centered in a frame that's superimposed on the mirror. After a couple of seconds, large numbers appear on the lower right that show your heart rate. It's as simple as that. The webcam images your face and the algorithm calculates your heart rate based on a spectral analysis of your image samples -- or as they put it "Non-contact, automated cardiac pulse measurements using video imaging and blind source separation." The display showed my pulse just a bit under 60, which would be right for me under normal conditions.

A project that came out of the Speech & Mobility group used location tracking on a smartphone that feeds a narrative that plays while a person runs. In the demo, a runner plays an adventure game by listening to instructions that tell him where to run and turn to perform steps in the game. The app was written by a grad student who was bored running the same old streets of his neighborhood. Sounds familiar. I wanted to try it but it's Android only. Another reason to dump the iPhone!