Not the worst way to spend your birthday

This morning I completed my first race, a 4-mile run through and around Huntington, NY. I had anticipated this for quite a long time and the excitement built as I edged into the weekend. My goal was to finish with an overall pace below 9:00/mile and I was pleased to have done that. I ran the course at 8:50 per mile and I finished the second two miles slightly faster than the first two.

The day began with a Kid's Fun Run and both of my kids participated. It was about a quarter mile race that ended at the same finish point as the big race. All the participants received medals and I was proud that my kids were part of the event. As soon as the Fun Run completed, I made my way to the starting line that first involved a trudge up a big hill. When I got to the line I saw that this steep road was actually the route off the line, so at least the start would be downhill. As we lined up and waited I spent time looking at my co-runners, wondering who had raced before and who (like me) was racing for the first time. I also noticed the outfits that people were wearing. Asics and New Balance were definitely the most popular shoe choices and I was surprised to see so many people wearing jackets and multiple layers since the temperature was in the high 40's. I was originally planning to wear a Nike Fit Dri shirt that AG had given me but I had washed and air dried it and it was still damp when it was time to leave. Instead I wore a different technical shirt and my new running shorts. I was cold but I knew that after a mile I would start heating up.

I had a tracking chip from the race around my ankle and I brought my Garmin foot pod which helped me keep track of my progress as I ran. Coming off the starting line downhill, many people were whizzing past in what seemed to be unsustainable paces. That's relative to their conditioning but I had decided to run my own race and I held back in anticipation of the BIG HILL that I knew would come at the half mile mark. I learned today that I had not properly trained on real hills, this was quite a challenge both because of the grade of the hill and the fact that we would be ascending it for close to a mile. I was glad that I had studied the course before the race so I knew what to expect in terms of path and direction. Although my Garmin told me how much distance I had traveled, it was the understanding of where I was on the course, relative to the finish, that underscored the amount of work ahead.

Volunteers along the course shouted out cumulative distances at each mile point and I was encouraged to know that I was beating a 9:00 pace, which was my goal. As we drew closer to the finish I considered pouring it on with everything I had but then, like a cruel joke, I encountered another big hill with a little more than half a mile to go. It was a struggle getting up that incline but somehow I managed and came around to the sound of spectators cheering us on toward the finish. I was really ready to stop by that point and as I came around the last corner I pushed it up the slight rise that led to the finish line and crossed the line to the loud cheers of my wife and kids.

I was immediately asked for my timing chip as a race volunteer handed me a bottle of water. Some minutes later we saw that they had posted the results and I made my way over to see how I did. It wasn't a big field of runners and I finished mid pack but I did place in single digits for my age group. The thing that matters most is that I ran my race, achieved my goal and had the strong support of friends and family.

Plus, I won a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant because it was my birthday!

From the Emerging Runner Laboratories

This morning I went to a running store in Northport, NY (Cow Harbor Running + Fitness) that is providing the T-shirts and goody bags for tomorrow's race. The store is small but they have some very nice stuff and I bought a pair of Pearl Izumi Infinity shorts while I was there. I was disappointed to find that the store wasn't distributing the runner's bib numbers or tracking chips so I'll be lining up for that tomorrow morning. My countdown clock is down to just hours at this point.

On a different subject, I've recently heard from a few companies that are looking for ways to publicize their events or products. While this blog is not commercially focused I am not opposed to recommending or highlighting things that may be of interest to readers. I don't accept payment for any of this but if I ever move in that direction it will be in the form of an ad and I will be very clear about that relationship.

One of the two items I am mentioning today is about a movie called "Beyond the Epic Run" about a couple from Switzerland who sold all their belongings to literally run around the world. The trailer for the film is above this post. Runner's World Loop readers can see it here. Running isn't the subject of too many movies so why not check it out?

The second item to mention is a company called MixMyGranola that built a business around custom blended granola. It's a clever idea. You go to the site, choose a base, choose your other ingredients and a couple of days later you'll receive a pound of mix. I've gone so far as to choose, order and receive my mix. I will soon publish a full review from the Emerging Runner test kitchens.

In the meantime I have some stretching and resting to do before my 8:30 AM start time tomorrow. I followed the race course by car today and there are some impressive hills over the first mile and a half. Well, as my son pointed out, what goes up must come down.

See you at the finish line!

Trip summary

This has been a busy week, so busy in fact that I didn't even have time to post on Thursday. Due to the fact that my access to a PC has been limited I haven't posted to the Runner's World Loop in two days. Being a media person I certainly respect the need to publish so I'll summarize the last couple of days.

I'm up at the MIT Media Lab for the spring meetings for the CE 2.0 Working Group (creating best practices for consumer electronics usability and connectivity) and the Digital Life Consortium which focuses on media, technology and society. My role as liason to MIT is one of my favorite parts of my job. My wife and kids came by the Media Lab on Wednesday and interacted with some very cool stuff including singing robots and WII enabled guitars.

The theme of yesterday's meeting was Smart Sustainable Cities and there was much discussion about innovative directions on energy, housing and healthcare. Hugh Herr, who directs the Biomechatronics group at the Media Lab, spoke about advances in prothesis designs that can help amputees regain their ability to walk to the degree that their gait and balance are indistinguishable from a non-disabled person's. Hugh also showed a running shoe that he and his team designed that gave a measurable advantage to the runner. The shoe had a carbon fiber spring that efficiently stored and released energy to the degree that a marathon runner could gain 8 minutes over the length of his or her run. Hugh also showed some exoskeletal designs that would help an able bodied runner gain 30% efficiency in his or her running. I would love that for Sunday's race.

My colleage Adventure Girl is very focused on environmental science and sustainability and she also came up to Cambridge for yesterday's session. We met at the fitness center of the hotel where I completed my last workout before my race on Sunday. AG ran on the treadmill while I worked the elliptical. It was a fairly low impact session for me but she ran almost 4 miles while we talked. This morning I'm at a different hotel and my first thought was to go down to the fitness center and run. I then remembered that I'm resting.

Being from Boston I always try to catch up with people when I travel there. Last night my wife, kids and I visited some very good friends and this morning we're seeing my brother and his family. Tomorrow I will rest and stretch and as for Sunday, well you know about that.

End run

I closed out my pre-race run training this morning with a 3 mile treadmill run at my hotel. Since I don't belong to a health club it's rare for me to exercise with strangers. I'm always amused by the subtle dynamics that occur when other people (typically men) line up next to you on the treadmill. What should be a singular and personal experience becomes implicitly competitive: "Oh, you're running? I'll run faster." "You're going 30 minutes? I'll run for 40."

Maybe it's me just being competitive but I'll admit that I do get sucked into it. I didn't know how far I would run this morning but, having people on both sides, I knew I wouldn't quit until they did. In fact that was the case.

I had originally considered running four miles but kept it to three due to the reoccuring soreness in my right leg. I'm pretty sure that this injury is nerve related since it has not worsened over time and continues to respond positively to anti-inflammatories like Aleve. All the same I'm planning to give it a rest after tomorrow.

Short and sweet

I'm heading to Boston this morning, getting an early start so I can make a mid day meeting. Since my kids are on vacation I'm taking my family with me on this trip. My wife went to college in Boston and she loves to show the kids around the city. I'm a native Bostonian who now lives in New York so I always enjoy being back to a place where I can safely wear my Red Sox hat.

In the scramble to hit the road as early as possible I had to tailor my workout for maximum benefit. I started with a quick elliptical warmup and then ran a fast (for me) mile on the treadmill. I ended up running an 8:28 pace which was helped by my warmup. Since I began having this leg pain and stiffness I've experienced relatively slow starts over the first quarter of a mile. This morning, without that stiffness, I dialed up the speed right away. It also helped that I knew I was only going to run a mile so I pushed it more than I would were I doing my usual weekday distance.

Tomorrow I will do a longer run, my last before the race. On Thursday I'll finish my training with an elliptical workout and then rest until Sunday morning. That sounds about right.

This week's Sedentary Man

In this week's column, Sedentary Man discusses breakthroughs in artifical limbs and the relationship between our bodies and our minds. He describes a view of the future where the physical body becomes increasingly less important. It actually reminds me of an old song by Zager and Evans. Read his new column here...

Just give it a rest

I had planned to do a light elliptical workout this morning to minimize the impact on my knees and leg. When I got up I thought about my weekend workouts, especially yesterday's, and decided to give my legs a complete rest. I ended up doing an upper body workout with my elliptical which I do facing the front so I can stand while grasping the arms of the machine. I've done this in the past and even with resistance set moderately low, it's a great way to work on arm strength. I would really prefer to do this workout facing the front of the display so I can track progress and control resistance. As it happens, the pedal width is slightly too wide to straddle comfortably so I really can't do it that way. Overall, the forward facing method works very well and when done at a fast pace it provides a very good cardio workout.

I appreciated the respite from leg exercise this morning and my soreness is much less noticeable. I'm planning to run hard both tomorrow and Wednesday and finish my taper either with an easy run or an elliptical workout. My son signed up for the Kids Fun Run (1/2 mile) the day of my race so we'll both be participating in Sunday's event. My daughter is also considering running and we're hoping that she decides to join us.

The weather for next Sunday morning is supposed to be mostly cloudy, in the low 40's with a 20% chance of precipitation. That sounds ideal and I'm hoping it's accurate. 5 Days, 13 hours to go...

Racing season

I'll start this post with a shout out to Adventure Girl who ran the NYRR 10K Scotland Run in Central Park on Saturday. Despite the driving rain and cold temperature she ran a strong race at an impressive pace. She told me that the energy that came from running with such a big crowd (over 7,600 finishers) helped her performance. Considering that (until recently) she was away from running for months recovering for a soccer injury I think this is a great return to competition.

I'm in my final week leading up to my 4 mile race and I've tried to get some mileage in before the work week. This week will be mostly travel so I'm not sure how much street running I'll get to do. Yesterday afternoon my wife and I decided to do a second workout. Although I did some tempo runs that morning I didn't feel as though I had taken enough time to work on endurance. My wife did a second elliptical workout as I ran on the treadmill. I didn't want to overdo it so I kept it to two miles with an overall pace of 8:51.

Today we all went to the track. It was busier than I would have expected since it's Easter Sunday. My kids did a little running and a lot of playing. There were a few serious runner types doing tempo runs and they all passed me very quickly. A number of runners came and went while I did my 4 miles. I may not have matched their pace but I outlasted them all. My intention was not to run fast and I paid no attention to my pace. I ended up running 4 miles at a mid-9 pace and I felt good that I could cruise at that speed even with stiff headwinds over half the track.

I am planning to do a light elliptical workout tomorrow and then possibly one more long run before my race. 6 days and 17 hours to go.

Rain, pain go away

My running goals for the weekend were to run speed drills today and run trails tomorrow. The rain was coming down hard by the time I headed to the track and I considered staying in and pushing my pace on the treadmill. To me, running outdoors is always preferable to indoors and I decided that a little rain couldn't hurt. Make that a lot of rain combined with fairly cold temperatures and some wind.

When I arrived at the school there was a truck parked on the track and a man was removing hurdles and other equipment and placing them into the truck. He told me he was setting up for a lacrosse game that was supposed to start in an hour. I decided to get my running in quickly before the throngs arrived. Of course, with this weather, most of the game attendees would likely be either players or coaches. I wore my new trail shoes as a hedge against the rain, a long sleeve technical shirt, a pullover light rain jacket and my bamboo running pants. My hands were freezing and I wished I'd also brought gloves.

I did 4 x 400s, running at as fast a pace as I could maintain without risking further injury to my sore leg. I was very surprised by how difficult it was to do this. While I have come far in terms of aerobic conditioning I finished each 400 meter segment feeling more winded than I do when I run five miles straight. It clearly comes from the amount of work being done relative to the distance. According to my Garmin, my overall speed for 1600 meters averaged 7.8 MPH which translates to a 7:41/mile pace. This may be true but I ran 200 meters at an easy pace in between speed segments so that 7:41 does not represent a contiguous mile. It sure made me appreciate other runners I know who regularly break 7:30/mile over multiple miles.

I somewhat regretted how much I pushed myself today, especially after I got home and noticed that the pain had returned to my leg. I stretched and felt better but I need to keep that injury protected over the next three weeks. Today's speed session was not a full workout in terms of total exercise time so, time allowing, I may run a couple of easy miles on the treadmill later in the day. I hope the rain stops early enough to allow the trails to dry sufficiently for a Sunday run. But if a little rain didn't hurt today, a little mud won't hurt tomorrow.

The Emerging Runners, Jr.

My kids are on spring break from school and today my nine year old son is coming in with me to work. He is, as they say, a "serious young man" and he's dressed for the office, tie included. We used to run together on the weekends but after injuring his toe (non-running related) he took a hiatus. We've been talking about returning to the track together and he's also interested in trying the trails. My wife and daughter are also interested and I think a run/hike might be a fun activity to plan for later this spring.

Right now I'm very much in race mode so my running activity this weekend will need to be primarily about that. I have received a lot of good advice in preparation of the event. These are a few essential points:

1. Rest two days prior to race day.
2. Moderate hydration and good carbs pre-race.
3. Dress as lightly as possible.
4. Don't go out too fast, save enough energy for the end.
5. Pay attention to everything and enjoy the experience.

I'm feeling prepared and my biggest concern is pulling a muscle or causing an injury during speed training this weekend. I have another race (a 5K) two weeks after the upcoming four miler. The 5K event will also feature a Kid's Fun Run so there may be an opportunity for me, my son and my daughter to experience racing together.

Bonus miles

I'm home from work today, which gave me an opportunity to run longer than I usually do on a weekday. It may be the full moon, the atmospheric pressure, a cold or an allergy but I woke up feeling tired, weak and headachy. I announced last night that I'd do my morning run outside at 6:15 AM (celebrating the fact that there's now good light at that time) but that was over ambitious and I didn't actually set out until after 8:00 having had more than a few of cups of coffee.

I am in the narrow part of my training cycle and I want to put in as many miles as I can before I go into my 'quiet period' two days before my race. I've had a few recent conversations with other, more experienced, runners and they have kindly provided guidance in terms of preparation for the event. What they don't say (because they're nice) is "Four miles isn't a very long distance so you don't need to do too much to prepare." That is probably true but you only get one first race experience and they respect that.

I didn't set a distance goal for today's run but I'd hoped to do at least 5K. I headed quickly to neighborhood #2 to get a couple of miles down before circling back to my main neighborhood loop. I felt good as I ran but I didn't quite trust it since I was feeling very low just a few hours before. I dressed well for the weather (low 40's) but the sun did get warm near the end. When I reached one of my either-or points on my route (where I decide to take either a longer or shorter leg to the finish) I was happy to note that I had just passed three miles. I wasn't running especially fast but it seemed to be a good pace. I ended up covering 4.1 miles and calculated that I'd maintained an overall pace of 9:06/mile. I could have easily broken 9:00 minutes if I'd paid attention to the Garmin and picked up the pace for a few segments. I'm pleased with the results and glad I traveled more distance than I'd expected to cover. I have the weekend to work on strength and speed and will probably do one more long run early next week while I'm away on business.

Tapering on

A couple of weeks ago AG asked me about my "taper plan" for my upcoming race. Being a race newbie I didn't understand the phrase. I actually thought it had to do with taping my foot for support. She explained that runners often reduce, or taper, their running routine during the weeks leading up to a race. The object is to build an optimal balance between rest and conditioning.

With my race less than two weeks away I've been thinking about the best way to prepare myself for competition. Last weekend (counting Friday) I did longer runs for three consecutive days for a total distance just short of 12 miles. In deference to a slight but persistent leg injury, I have folded in a few elliptical sessions this week which provide less strain on certain affected muscles. I'm out of the office on Thursday and I'm hoping to do a long run in the morning plus longer runs over the weekend.

Next week is when the tapering will start. I'm going to be traveling on business for most of next week so I'll need to work my routine around that. Happily I'll be up at MIT and if weather and schedules cooperate I'll get to spend some quality time running near the Charles river. I'm traveling back on Saturday and I'm not planning to do any running that day. In fact I'm thinking of resting on Friday as well, perhaps only doing core stretching.

Will it make a great difference to rest a couple of days before the race? I'll let you know on the 19th.