A couple of products I wish I could buy

Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

After yesterday's difficult run that capped a week of tough workouts, I decided to give myself a couple of days rest in the upcoming week. Since today is Sunday, I couldn't resist the chance to go out for a run without the time constraints that I face on workday mornings. You'd think that I'd take it easy today and ease into my upcoming rest period, but that's not the way it went.

I've had some tweaking around my left knee and I felt some soreness when I got up today. I noticed that the pain came from lateral, not straight-ahead, movements. That meant I could run, so I put on my running gear and headed outside.

I thought about my current stamina issues and popped a couple of Sports Beans before I left. I'm not sure if they helped, but I did feel more energy at the start than I did before yesterday's run. It made me think about two products I'd like to see: a time released carb/electrolyte supplement and an electrolyte drink that is neutral-tasting like water.

Right product, wrong geography

I used to buy electrolyte-enhanced water at Whole Foods after runs in the city, but it only solved part of the problem. I looked online and found a product called CNP Pro-Energy bars that supposedly release energy over time. The website is from the UK and I don't know if the bars are available in the US. I think both of these ideas would find a market here.

Today's run went very well. I didn't plan to cover a long distance, so I ran harder than I did Saturday. My speed improved 2 minutes per mile over yesterday's pace. That was good enough for me, and when I finished I was breathing hard but happy to take a break over the next couple of days.

I need to get in at least one 6+ mile run next weekend as I continue to build my base for May's half marathon. In the meantime, I'm hoping to recover my fitness with a little R&R.

Today I ran like a Kenyan

As if...

Today's run (street): 5.4

Don't be impressed by the headline of this post, I wasn't channeling Geoffrey Mutai winning the ING NYC marathon this morning. Quite the opposite, actually. While Kenyan runners regularly hit five minute miles in competition, they tend to do their long recovery runs at an extremely slow pace. That was my plan today and I kept to it.

The training schedule that I've followed over the last few years has been to run five days a week, with additional cross training on a 6th day. I rest on Mondays unless I'm not feeling well or if I'm tapering for a race.

With a schedule like that, I shouldn't have issues with running strength or stamina but I sometimes hit the wall around 30 minutes into a run. Since my policy has always been, "Once I start, no stopping" I run through these low points and will occasionally rebound strongly. People have said that even though my frequency is high, my base is fairly low. This is true. My weekday running distances average 2.5 miles due to time limitations. On weekends I'll go longer, but the shorter runs play havoc on my base.

My monthly mileage numbers this past November and December were down about 10% from the prior year. I know it's because I wasn't consistently doing 7+ mile distances as I had in 2010. I've decided to work on my base with 5 miles being my lower limit for weekend runs. Last Sunday I ran the 5 mile Hangover Run and this morning I did a 5.4 mile neighborhood run.

Five miles isn't particularly long but I needed to motivate myself to get out today after suffering three tough runs since Sunday. I figured that running slowly would make it easier -- and it was --  until I hit 4 miles and started to suffer fatigue. I didn't fully understand why, since I'd run over a minute/mile faster last Sunday. Unfortunately, running like a Kenyan didn't yield the results that I'd hoped to attain.

A week of tough running has convinced me that I need to give myself a two-day break to restore my fitness to normal levels. Since I can't resist running on weekends, I'll target Monday (my usual rest day) and Tuesday as recovery days. I'll see if that does any good when I get back to it on Wednesday.

Workouts, PE and relax-outs

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles
Yesterday's workout (elliptical): 25 minutes

My wife and I were comparing notes on our workouts this morning. We'd both had hard runs and I said that's the reason why it's called a workout and not a relax-out. She and I have very different training methods and I would be challenged to follow her routine. In turn, she would probably say the same of mine. But each day we congratulate each other (and ourselves) for getting it done. It's great reinforcement and it motivates us to continue.

Without a running watch I would have guessed that I ran today's route a minute per mile faster than I actually did. My perceived effort was high but I clearly fell short on performance. No matter, I recently read an article that said that perceived effort (PE) is a better gauge of how you should be running than holding rigidly to a targeted pace.

Every workout that I've done since returning to work has generated a high PE but performance on the low end of the scale. It could have to do with my adjustment back to 4:00 AM running because I feel very good overall. Maybe a long slow base run this weekend can get me back on track. Perhaps a relax-out is just what's needed.

Faint praise for the treadmill

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

I'm going to blame the transition from vacation to work for my sluggish performance this morning.  Even though I'm an early riser while on vacation, there's a big difference between waking up at 6:00 AM versus 3:45 AM. It probably didn't help that I set a 2% incline for the first 2/3rds of today's workout.

A year ago I probably would have braved the weather and gone outside, despite this morning's 11° temperature. My dislike of the treadmill experience used to outweigh the discomfort of freezing conditions, but I've finally accepted the treadmill for what it is. I even appreciate how I can change conditions like speed and elevation with a single touch. I'll reluctantly admit that, on an extremely cold morning, the treadmill can be the better choice.

Still, I far prefer the trails or the road, and I can't wait to get outdoors this weekend. I may have been better off resting today, but since I started the run I felt I needed to finish it. Around the 15 minute mark I realized I wasn't at full strength. I decided to drop the incline rather than hurt myself further. I did step up the speed a little when I did that, but not by much. Tomorrow, I will do an elliptical workout and (hopefully) on Friday the temperatures will be back in the 30's and I'll take to the streets once again.

Reality check: back to work and 13.1 training

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

As I walked through mid-town this morning, I detected the acrid odor of a cigarette. It reminded me that being on vacation had shielded me from that toxic smell for almost two weeks. Well it's back to work for me today. I'll miss being on vacation but at least I like work.

The alarm jolted me awake at 3:45 and I debated whether to ease back into work mode by skipping today's run. With temperatures in the 20's, it was easy to justify staying indoors. But when you have a treadmill and an elliptical machine, there's really no excuse not to exercise. I did an easy indoor run for 25 minutes which actually helped both mind and body.

I'm trying to decide an approach to training for the half-marathon in May. Last year I think I misunderstood the amount of base training I would need to meet my expectations for a 13.1 mile race. It was the most difficult run I've ever done, but I still felt I that could have done better in terms of finish time. I'm hoping that with a reasonable plan, I can realistically target 2:10. To do that, I'm going to need to do a lot of 10 to 13 mile training runs between now and May.