Dirty Sock 10K - progress and firsts

As I consider my race this Sunday I'm thinking about my running progress over the last year. It was just about a year ago when I saw the results from my annual physical and realized that I needed to make a fundamental change in my diet and activity. I am fortunate that changing my eating habits was a fairly easy effort. I had always eaten well but my meals were too large and I had too much sugar in my diet. I simply changed expectations about portion sizes and planned everything I would eat during and after a meal. The activity part was the bigger challenge because, with the exception of playing Wii with my kids on occasion, I rarely did anything close to exercise. I had always been an active person but in the past few years I'd become fairly sedentary. Rather than lace up a pair of running shoes and hit the pavement I understood that I needed to manage expectations for activity as well. My prior foray into running a decade earlier taught me to take a careful approach to fitness.

Looking back at my pace times last September I can see where I began to transition from primarily walking to primarily running. I can also see how my weight declined through September from its August high and I know that less weight led to a better experiences on the road and treadmill. I'll consider October 1st as the start of my return as a runner and I'm reflecting upon how, eleven months later, I'll be running in a 10K race. This race will be the fourth competition I've entered in the past five months. Eleven months ago it would have seemed unlikely that I would be able to do this run. I was considering distances over a mile a great success and when I started The Emerging Runner in November my best continuous distance was only 2.6 miles. So Sunday's race has a few firsts: My first 10K race, my first trail race and my first race with my running partner, Adventure Girl. My wife and kids are excited to be going there although an 8:00 AM start will mean a very early morning for everyone.

I don't really know how I'll do in this race. I ran the course at a modest pace a couple of weekends ago and was fairly spent after that. Races do supply a lot of energy and I won't be doing as much talking so I think I'll do better than I did that day. At least I hope I do. 6.2 miles is still an intimidating distance but its a length I've run before. I love the trails and I'll appreciate the shelter from the sun. I hope the weather is clear of rain leading up to the race because a muddy trail would add a lot to the effort. It really doesn't matter though, progress has been made.

Zoot suited - a shopping story

I was out after lunch yesterday in the mid-town heat so I stopped into City Sports to cool off a bit. Okay, it was very hot outside but I don't really need an excuse to stop into that store. What I like about City Sports is that, while they stock plenty of gear for other sports, they have a big running section that greets you right as you walk in. Since most of my athletic wear shopping takes place in the suburbs at Sports Authority, Dick's and Target (their Champion running stuff is a very good value for the price) or in private running stores that have less selection and (understandably) higher markups I appreciate the expanse and brand diversity at City. The only other place I've seen such choice is Paragon in Union Square but City Sports is just two blocks away!

My intention was not to buy anything during that visit. I really like looking at running gear and it's interesting to see brands like Sugoi and Craft displayed along with apparel from Mizuno, Brooks, Pearl Izumi plus the more common suppliers. One brand that caught my eye a few months ago is Zoot, a company that makes performance apparel primarily for triathletes. Hanging seductively in their section has been an Ultra Tech Tee that is so sheer that it almost doesn't exist. I imagined that this would be the perfect running shirt - light as a feather but with venting, sun protection and wicking capabilities. The only reason I never bought it was its sizable cost that I felt was just too high a price to pay for an item that is likely to be outweighed by a honey bee. As I looked at the racks I noticed signs indicating that a clearance sale was going on and I gravitated to the Zoot section only to see that this shirt was marked down quite a bit. Even so I hesitated to buy it, I probably have six or seven running shirts already and two, my Nike Sphere and Adidas adiZero shirts, are excellent for competition. I then thought about what my wife would say if she was standing there: "Go ahead, you've been looking for an excuse to get it. If it was me you'd say to buy it." So I did.

I'm glad I did. I remember reading a comment on my Runner's World blog from someone who said he buys a new shirt for every race. That sounds about right but I think I'm done for now. I invested in some good cold weather gear last year and now I'm fully equipped. Of course my Brooks running shoes are almost five months old so maybe its time to start thinking about their replacement...

My BH Fitness problem child

Although we have both an elliptical machine and a treadmill I very rarely use either. Since I've started running outdoors before work I have completely stopped using the treadmill and I've been using the elliptical sparingly, perhaps once a week, as a low impact alternative to a daily run. I love the idea of the elliptical, especially the fact that, unlike the treadmill, I can completely control the experience. The treadmill is loud and cacophonous and though I use the safety tether I'm always conscious of the possibility that a slight misstep will turn into a serious injury. I've been unbelievably fortunate to have had such a long string of early mornings without rain that would force me indoors.

The elliptical is self powered and far less dangerous and it theoretically helps build upper arm strength with a motion similar to cross country skiing. I'm not sure if that's true or not but I'd like to believe it. The biggest problem I have with my elliptical is the quality of the unit itself. We spent some time selecting a machine. I did my due diligence and really liked a Schwinn model we'd tried at Dick's but a visit to Fitness Showrooms seduced me into purchasing the "high end" BH Fitness X1 that was on sale for about the same price. From the beginning the X1 proved problematic. I wrote about the fact that the HRM just didn't work and after three attempts to replace it I just gave up. The display itself was replaced three times and is still off center. The machine makes a loud banging-clicking sound that the Showroom Fitness tech could not fix. Not a surprise since the last time the display was replaced my wife needed to point out to him that the upper assembly was installed backwards. Now the machine is beginning to make different noises as though some key connection points are becoming loose. Rather than call the unqualified tech who will likely make it worse and then charge me because it's no longer under warranty, I'll see if I can resolve it myself.

In the meantime my wife uses the elliptical every other day and doesn't complain. I used it this morning and did a few miles that felt like a decent workout. If I had to do it over I would have bought that Schwinn. But I'll live with the BH Fitness, at least until it falls apart under me.

Road runner

I wracked up some decent mileage over the last three days averaging about 4.5 miles per run. Two of these runs were a bit harder because of the heat, humidity and hill challenges. Today I decided to be kind to myself and go out early through the neighborhood and enjoy the mostly flat topography without thinking too much about pace. I started out feeling energetic and wondered how long it would be until the first feelings of fatigue would set in. After almost a year I still hit the wall around 3-4 miles but I always manage to keep going. Most of my weekend runs range between 3.1 and 6 miles although I have run longer than that on occasion. Of course 4.5 miles on a soft trail surface with tricky switchbacks and sharp elevations is not the same as running a flat road course of the same distance. I felt good about all three runs I've competed since Friday.

Today was about putting some additional distance in and I planned to follow a straightforward course that took me around neighborhood #2 and looped around my main neighborhood along the outside roads. For the most part this was a simple flat run but at the 33 minute mark I faced the big hill on Jericho Turnpike that increases elevation by about 25 feet over a tenth of a mile or so. For some reason this hill never seems as bad when running it as it does when viewed from the road and I managed to get up and over without a problem. I used the AllSport GPS app on my iPhone today and it worked well but, like MotionX, iMapMyRun and Runkeeper, it suffers from the lack of precision with GPS. The Allsport did come within 1% of my actual distance of 4.64 miles (the Garmin did slightly better than Allsport) when compared to a hand mapped route on Google Earth. The Allsport interface is quite nice though and their website provides some nice mapping and metrics of your activities. Almost everything you'd want for $10 except accuracy! One feature it lacks is the capability to play the iPod app while tracking your run. MotionX, at $2.99, is a better choice in that case.

This weekend has been fun with friends and lots of good meals that led to some over indulgence. I'll take today as a reset to get back to my rational eating habits. My son and I are going to see the G.I. Joe movie today so my discipline will be tested by the bucket of popcorn he will invariably request. Well I guess when you're training there is no such thing as bad carbs.

Trail trial

Despite feeling a bit fatigued from yesterday's bridle trail run in Central Park I ventured over to Stillwell Woods Preserve for a little more training for next week's race. When I arrived there were tents set up at the trail head and I saw lots of mountain bikes and trailers. I walked over and asked if there was a bike race today but they said the event was a demo by our local bike place, Bicycle Planet. They were going to show some riding techniques and then provide people a chance to take bikes out on the trail. I said I was relieved because I didn't want to deal with 100 mountain bikers racing through the paths as I ran. One of the guys suggested that I try biking today instead of running but I really needed to train. As I stood at the beginning of the trail another runner came by and asked me what was going on and I told him what I knew. He smiled and said we'd best get on the trail before we get mowed down by test drivers.

Every time I've run Stillwell I've intended to cover the wide northeastern set of trails but the trail diversity is confusing when you're running and it's often hard to know just exactly where you are. I used the compass function on MotionX and followed the trails that led east and north. Some of it looked familiar and some was definitely new discovery. There are some formidably treacherous segments within these trails and some seem to go up forever (see above photo that I took after reaching the top of one). Others go down a long way but it's easier when gravity helps you along. I wore the Helly Hansen Trail Lizards and they worked great on those steep challenges. It was extremely exhausting going from one steep climb to another. I eventually reached the end of a trail that led to a road and I thought I had reached the northern part of Stillwell. After looking at the route I ran via Google Earth I saw that there's more to run if I cross that road but I turned around at that point looking to go southwest and cover other parts yet unexplored.

After a few more steep inclines, carve-outs that were typically the width of one runner or biker, I found myself in the back yard of a large house. I was totally confused because there was nowhere to go except to turn back. I ran a little in the woods behind the house hoping to pick up a trail but I feared I would only pick up Poison Ivy so I made my way back the way I came. In the course of the run a made a couple of stops, each about three minutes. I was very tired from the hills and wilting from the humidity. I re-pointed my direction based on the compass and took off west to complete the circle I thought I was making. I was listening to another Podrunner Podcast (160 BPM) that was usefully innocuous until, at the 40 minute point, there was another repeated phrase that JUST WOULD NOT STOP. I pulled the headphones out of my ears and listened blissfully to the sound of my footfalls for a while.

I eventually came back having navigated around the edge of the open area of the Preserve for a while and when I was done I noted that I'd covered 3.76 miles. The MotionX was way off and from the GPS path view I saw that the signal was lost a few times. So the Garmin 50 wins again. That was a rough 45 minutes and possibly the toughest run I'd ever done in terms of physical exertion. Next week's race course is fairly flat and I'm hoping that this weekend's training on tougher terrain will help condition me to be competitive. AG is running the race as well and this will be the first time we'll compete together. I have no illusions of matching her pace but I'm hoping to achieve a credible time.

Ring around the reservoir

It's a rare day when I completely miss the chance to post. The summer is growing to a close so I only have a few more chances to take off early on "Summer Fridays." That said I'm taking full advantage when I can but it often means a jam-packed morning, a NYC run and then a return to LI. We had lots to do when I arrived home and before I knew it the clock said 10:30 PM and I realized I'd just need to post in the morning.

Yesterday I decided to try the Central Park bridle path on my own. I had never run it alone and although I have a decent sense of direction I still get very confused in Central Park. Running with AG had been my safety net because she knows the park so well and can navigate much better than me. I found the start of the trail and took off. The bridal trail is mostly dirt with some mud and some rough sandy parts. While it's fine to run with regular running shoes it's probably a better surface for trail runners. The mid-day sun was hot and the air was very humid and by the first mile I was feeling a little spent.

The bridle trail affords more shade than the paved routes in the park but the tree cover is intermittent and when the sun is overhead it's brutal. I recognized most of the route from previous runs and felt good about that. When I reached the reservoir I took the east path thinking I would cut south and then head back to my starting point. I didn't realize that the path was actually going north and I was actually rounding the reservoir. Tried to get a bearing on my compass on my iPhone but the glare of the sun made that hard. I finally saw that I had reached the point where I came up to the reservoir and realized I had run around the whole thing. Despite my struggles I was still moving along pretty well and had passed two or three runners and a couple of slower moving cyclists. I followed the west side bridle path back to approximately where I'd started and noted that I'd run a total of 4.4 miles. The MotionX was off, as usual, and by looking at the GPX file on Google Earth (above) you can see how the GPS cuts corners which translates to less distance.

Considering the heat and the mid day timing I was okay with a 9:20/mile average pace. I was extremely sweat-soaked at the end and remained that way all the way to my office despite walking close to ten blocks from the park (through some highly air conditioned buildings no less). The run took a lot out of me and I was fairly tired for the rest of the day. I have a busy day today and I'm trying to figure out when and where I'll run. I should go for long distance as training for next week's 10K trail race but I don't know if my energy level is high enough. It couldn't hurt to try. I still want to explore the northern part of Stillwell that I have not yet run. Maybe that's a good choice for today because the canopy will provide some needed protection from the sun. My experience on the bridle trail gave me some hope that I can navigate through the previously uncharted parts of Stillwell. At least I run there with a compass now. When it comes to the topography of Stillwell Woods, I need all the help I can get.

Letting go of data obsession (a little)

As a coda to yesterday's post I managed to delete this week's run history from my Garmin before I had a chance to upload it to Garmin Connect. I'm disappointed by that but I'm also okay because running has finally become more about the experience than the measurement. A year ago I began to log my activities, first when walking and then when I switched over to running. The act of capturing the data, monitoring improvement and summarizing my monthly mileage became my primary motivation. When my Nike+ Sportband stopped uploading to the Nike+ website I practically panicked because I felt if the run wasn't captured it didn't count. Like it didn't even happen.

I switched from Nike+ to MapMyRun after that and I meticulously transferred information captured on Sportband to this website for a while, until the Nike+ technology failed altogether. Every month I would look at the summary and compare my miles per day/week/month against previous periods. I'd key in my cross training to capture elliptical miles from a paper log I kept next to the machine. I think my focus on the data rather than on the event began to switch when I started running trails more often. Mixing pace times from rugged, hilly runs with flat road runs made monthly pace averages less relevant. I'm still interested in the metrics of each run but I'm satisfied to know that I ran about 20 miles in a week, not that I ran 20.65.

Does this mean that I have transcended the beginner phase of running by focusing metaphorically on the game rather than on the score? Many experienced runners chuckle when I tell them how I capture run data with foot pods and GPS apps. They say they've been doing it so long that they know the distances they run and can pretty much assess their pace as they go. I'm not willing to give up my measurement tools quite yet but I'm willing to live with a few missing sessions on Garmin Connect.

Luddite technologist rant

I am feeling very grumpy about technology today and I felt I needed to do something so I deactivated a Facebook account I'd created some months back. Nothing personal about Facebook, as a technology it's been fine and if I'm ever reincarnated as a 19 year old female, alcoholic, exhibitionist, college student I'll reconsider joining. But like I said, I'm grumpy. I never check the site or contribute to it. At least once a week I received invites from people (many of whom I actually like) but finally decided that accepting them was disingenuous because I'll never check the site. I have an Emerging Runner Fan page that (ironically) I can no longer access. I wonder what will happen with that. Thanks to everyone who fanned it. Sorry to disappoint!

The reason I'm grumpy about technology is that it often doesn't work like it should. I'm not talking about technology that we depend upon daily like elevators and traffic lights, I'm talking about running technologies. Especially those that run on my iPhone. I love my iPhone. It's much more fun than my Blackberry that I gave up with some real misgivings. But when compared to the Blackberry as a business tool it's not very fun at all. Okay, I'll accept that as long as it still does the job. It's annoying to switch from Verizon to AT&T, I liken it to taking a step back in time to the mid 1990's when getting a usable signal on your phone was an unexpected surprise. I've put some GPS apps on the iPhone to help track my running metrics and so far I am not impressed. MotionX GPS, that I paid for ($2.99), has great features (lots of data elements captured: photo utility, interactive maps, iPod integration, etc.) but I'm at about 50% in terms of successful outcome when using it. The other apps I've tried, iMapMyRun and RunKeeper Free, have less capabilities (they're both free) but clever enough. I just bought AllSportsGPS (the company gave me a promo code for a comp version but I managed to screw that up (technology!). I'll see how it works. For $10 I'm expecting a lot.

The performance of these GPS utilities is often undermined by the inherent inaccuracy of public GPS. Despite its potential for getting to an inch of your location it misses greatly and often. If you have to remap on Google Earth every time you use these apps what's the point? I'll try the AllSport app on Friday and see how it performs. So many other running technologies have disappointed. AG tried to use the Qstarz on a 6 mile run recently and it failed to capture any data. What's annoying about that is there's no way to tell with that unit if it's working or not. The original running technology that I used, the Nike+ Sportband, failed so often that I needed to replace it three times before I returned it and bought my Garmin 50.

In truth the Garmin 50 has been a great technology and I won't disparage it although it does consume batteries and each time they are replaced calibration gets out of whack. Running technologies don't all run on batteries either and I'll give due credit to Nike, Adidas and other clothing makers who have perfected the art of sweat wicking technology. But for today I'm just a bit grumpy.

At the edge of 9:00

9:00 per mile has always been a psychological barrier for me. I've broken it many times and even broken 8:00 on a 1.5 mile run but in terms of regular running 9:00 is probably my mode pace. This past weekend, with the hilly trails at Stillwood and the relatively long distance on the Belmont Lake Park trail, I was fine with pace times that edged around 10:00 per mile. But on the street my expectations change and I really want to see an '8' before the colon on my Garmin when I finish a run. I had no real expectations for this morning's run. I wanted to cover about 2.5 miles and with yesterday as a rest day I thought I'd have a chance at a decent pace. I was delighted to see my iPhone acquire a PS signal with MotionX fairly quickly and I took off knowing the belt-and-suspenders combination of my Garmin 50 and the MotionX GPS app would capture my metrics fairly well.

The run was nice but unremarkable. I took advantage of the early morning, barely awake mode and floated through the course thinking about many things. I checked my Garmin for time elapsed, saw 6:55 and again thought I had run further than that. I have become somewhat impatient on these early runs. I noticed that the MotionX interface was continuing to show it had a signal and I was glad of that since I sort of lost track of exactly which streets I'd run. I knew the mapping file would tell me all that later. I turned east to finish the last loop and reached home having run 2.63 miles in 23:40 for an overall pace of 00:8:59:92, 8/100ths short of 9 minutes. I accidently switched to a different screen on the iPhone when I tried to hit the stop button (the touch screen is vey sensitive) but I saw the elapsed time as I did that. Later I mapped the run on Google Earth and saw that I'd covered .15 miles more than the GPS reported due to its margin of error.

I'll admit that knowing I broke 9:00 this morning made me happy. I'm thinking about pace times for the Dirty Sock 10K and I'm hoping to maintain a 9:30 pace or better. But you never know with races, how great would it be to have an 8-something time on that? If that's the case I'm throwing an additional $20 into the Garmin 405 fund.

Sunday fun running

After a fairly challenging trail run on Sunday morning I thought I was finished with running for the day. The skies were gray and growing darker. I considered taking out my bike for a quick ride before the rain came but my daughter asked me if we could go for a run. She just got a new pair of Saucony running shoes and wanted to try them out. Despite the possibilty of rain we decided to head out and see how it went. My son said that he wanted to join us. Once eveyone had put on the proper gear we headed into the neighborhood starting at a comfortable pace. I'm trying to get my kids to understand the idea of conserving energy. Children tend to go out fast and then run out of energy sooner than they expect. We didn't get too far before my son had to stop to adjust his shoe. He had a nasty toe injury some months back and it's still a problem. The podiatrist put him on antibiotics this week to help deal with the swelling from an infection. It soon became clear that my son would not be able to continue so we ran him back home and resumed our course.

When it comes to running my daughter is very goal oriented. She was determined to cover at least .75 miles before taking a breather and we did that without a problem. She wanted to cover some real distance and we took a long loop around the western part of the neighborhood and made our way back after running close to two miles. It is a joy to run with my daughter. She has no problem running and talking and the conversation is fun and funny. She's 11 and I really hope she continues her interest in running. The weather held out for us and we even had enough sun to justify a post-run dip in the pool. I'm hoping my son is back to form soon as well so the three of us can explore the neighborhood together, going further and further each time.

A trail marked "UH OH"

I returned to the trails this morning to continue my training for the 8/23 race. I now know that the Dirty Sock 10K course is fairly flat compared with Stillwell Woods so I figured that the more rugged terrain at Stillwood would be helpful in terms of developing leg strength. I decided to bring my iPhone along and I listened to the Tiesto Club Life podcast (per a suggestion from a commenter on my blog - thanks anonymous!) using the AKG K321 in-ear headphones. They work great and I kept the sound low enough to detect the sound of the many mountain bikers that I encountered during my run. I liked the mix a lot more than the Podrunner podcasts and I took some different routes than ever before. There are so many twists and turns and ups and downs through Stillwell that I believe you could run it 50 times and not cover every trail. At one point I encountered a particularly scary descent that was marked with a sign that said "UH OH" (see above). I took the bait and with my trusty NB 460's I had little trouble with that long sharp decline. The path wound around and took me through a short paved area that led to a trail marked "No Trespassing" so I doubled back and found a different route that led me through some sandy trails that led further to a large construction site.

I turned back and switched the MotionX to compass mode and redirected north. I was hoping that after looking at the KMZ files from the run that I would get a good idea where I traveled but the files didn't work on Google Earth although they do show the course on the iPhone itself. Some of the trails I navigated were so steep that I had to slow to a walk a few times. I was very pleased with myself at one point when I encountered a couple of guys also running the trails who reached a sharp incline and proceeded to walk it while I breezed by running. They may have already covered a lot of distance and had hit the wall but all the same it was better to be the passer than the passed. I ended up running about 4.25 miles and my pace wasn't too impressive but the workout was daunting. After my cool-down I stayed and watched a few minutes of an adult league flag football game that was being played where I'd parked my car. It looked like fun but I'll leave that for the very fit 20-somethings I saw on the field.

After yesterday's run with Dave and today's rigorous run at Stillwell I'm feeling good about the upcoming race. I'm thinking of getting the Garmin 405 beforehand so I'll have a reliable GPS device to help capture the run. Either way I can't wait to hit the trails again.

Great talk, dirty socks

In preparation for the Babylon Dirty Sock 10K race later this summer I ran the course with a friend from the Runner's World Loop community, DaveADK (picture below), who lives close to the location of the race. Dave is an interesting guy with a really interesting background. He's been running about 18 months and knows the Dirty Sock course very well.

Before we started, Dave explained the way the race was organized, where registration is held, the location of the starting line (and finish) and also where to park. Having run a few races I appreciated knowing all that beforehand. We walked about a quarter of a mile into the park which served as a light warm up. Dave thought we should begin the training run at the stating point of the race so we proceeded to that area and took off at a moderate pace. The trails were mostly packed dirt, often wide enough across for three or four runners. There were many people out running, walking and biking, the temperature was comfortable and the tree cover prevented the sun from baking down. We encountered sections of sandy trail, some singletrack paths and a few that were paved. There were elevation changes but nothing too pronounced. I was grateful for that because the 6+ mile distance would have been a far greater challenge for me if it had the roller coaster terrain I encounter at Stillwell Preserve.

The time went by quickly, Dave is good runner and he graciously ceded to my pace that was probably 20-30 seconds/mile slower than he would normally run. He pointed out some important things about the course that will be good to know on race day. My runs with Adventure Girl have prepared me to chat while running and I did well considering the distance. At one point, when running underneath one of the highway trestles, we encountered a flutist and joked that the improvisational jazz background made it seem like we were characters in an independent film. We were about 1/4 mile near the end and Dave said this is the time to pour it on as practice for the race. Unfortunately my groin pull that always surfaces around the 4 or 5 mile mark prevented me from pressing my luck.

When we got to the end, Dave's Garmin 305 showed that we covered a little more 6 miles. My Garmin 50 was way off, perhaps because I recently replaced the battery. I'll calibrate it tomorrow when I run. The big disappointment was with my iPhone and MotionX GPS. Around the 3 mile mark I noticed the application was confused and had lost the signal. I'm not sure what actually happened after that but I ended up accidentally resetting the unit and losing the run history. As much as I'd hoped the iPhone would be a convenient alternative to a Garmin 405 I'm realizing that I still need the GPS watch. So back to the fund - $160 to go.