Free to be free of Nike Free

Yesterday I awoke to the sounds of torrential rain and percussive surf and thought I'd miss my opportunity to run in the morning. I considered the idea of running even under those conditions but I knew I wouldn't really like it. About an hour later the skies began to clear and I optimistically changed into running clothes hoping that the rain would pass. My wife and kids had already headed across the boardwalk to the beach and I came by to say hi before heading south. I had my Adidas trail shoes on so I stayed on the sand for about half a mile before deciding that I much preferred the boardwalk as a running surface. I decided to run from end to end a few times since, according to a sign on southern end, the boardwalk measures 1 mile. In the space of that mile the area changes from neighborhood to hotels to tourist traps and then back to hotels. The one thing that's consistent is the beautiful and inspiring water on one side or the other. The rain came back in the middle of my run but it was light and cooling. The only negative was that my glasses fogged and limited my ability to see much beyond the immediate distance. In all I covered 5.2 miles under 9:00 per mile. What pleased me about that was that the beginning part of my run was relatively slow because of the sand yet I still maintained a decent overall pace.

Later that day, after we all showered, we set off into the town for lunch and then hit some stores including Nike and Under Armor outlets. At the Nike store I saw they had the Frees so out of curiosity I tried on a pair. When I put them on I noticed they felt more like a slipper than a running shoe and when I walked on them I was surprised by how unnatural and unbalanced they felt. Maybe that's the point but no thank you. After that we headed to the Under Armor store and I tried a pair of Apparition running shoes, also out of curiosity. At least this shoe felt supportive and balanced. I'm not really interested in UA shoes and I didn't think at $90 that these shoes felt as good as some competing brands. I don't really like the UA brand anyway, I'm sure the clothing is top notch but I don't care for the hyper-competitive edge they convey in their marketing.

On the other hand my daughter happily picked up a running shirt on sale and later got a t-shirt elsewhere that said "I am a girl, I am an athlete, and running is my sport. Well said.

Beach run

REHOBOTH BEACH, DE - We arrived at our weekend getaway and immediately went out to explore. Rehoboth Beach is a nice ocean side town that caters to vacationers and there are plenty of stores and restaurants. Most of the stores are dedicated to selling t-shirts. After some assorted small purchases including a half pound of fudge and a tub of pomme frites we headed back to the room to change for afternoon activites. For my wife and kids that meant beach clothes and for me, running clothes. I had my eye on the boardwalk from the moment we arrived and I couldn't wait to get out for a run.

It was a cool 68 degrees by the water and very windy. I took off in a northern direction to see how far the boardwalk extended in that direction. It felt good to run on a such a forgiving surface and walkers were sparse at that end. I eventually reached the end but kept going into the bordering neighborhood until I started to feel too distanced from my intended route. I turned around and ran to the other end, at one point passing through the main tourist area that smelled of cigarettes, cigars, ketchup and funnel cakes. I tried to hold my breath through there but my anaerobic conditioning still needs some work. I cut a little into a side street before resuming my boardwalk travel. I passed a few runners, some cyclists and many walkers. I in turn was passed twice by another runner who was comfortably circling the area at what I guess was a mid 7:00 pace. I held my own around at 9:08 for a total of 4.5 miles. When I finished I headed to the water to find my family on the beach. The kids had jumped into the water and their beach shoes were covered in sand. They had a great time.

It's raining pretty hard this morning but I'm hopeful that it will clear and I'll get to go out again today. A little rain can make for a nice run and looking at the water along the way makes me happy. I brought my Adidas trail shoes so I'll probably run in those. I tried to include a picture but it's hard to use this interface when posting from an iPhone. If I'm unsuccessful you'll just have to believe me when I say it's a beautiful place to run.

Down at the boardwalk

I'm pleased that I got three morning runs in this week plus a good elliptical session. I went out this morning for a tidy 2.3 miler and appreciated the cool temperature and low humidity a lot more after Wednesdays hot and steamy conditions. I've been trying to average over 20 miles a week and that's sometimes hard to achieve with my schedule. When I was running on Fridays in the city I could usually count on 14+ miles between then and Monday. That meant I only had to find six more miles during the rest of the week to make my distance goal. Now that fall has arrived, bringing with it meeting-packed Fridays, I'm discovering what a luxury it was to have that time for my running adventures. I could still do a weekly city run but that would require my arrival at the office before 7:00 AM or a later trip home in the evening. Neither is an appealing option as my days are already long.

We're going away this weekend and staying at a place near the water. Our hotel faces the beach, which is nice, but I'm also excited that there's a boardwalk that runs along the beach. I've only run on boardwalks a few times but I've always liked the cushioned effect and the springy response from the wood. Much of running (for me) centers on the places where I run (hence my love of trails and extreme dislike for treadmills) so I'm really looking forward to looking out at the water on what will be - hopefully - a cool dry morning. The Cape Cod marathon may give me another opportunity to run by the water but I'm not sure if my two relay legs include sections of the ocean. I sure hope they do. In the meantime I'll enjoy this weekend's waterfront experience. I just hope it doesn't rain.

Two-a-day training for my marathon relay

Back when I started running I would often go out two or three times a day. This activity was performed primarily on weekends as my daily run was often limited to 15 minutes on the treadmill. On weekends I'd go out early and do a mile. I'd often try to stretch that to two miles but it took some time before I got there. Later in the day I'd do another short run (or two) so that I'd cover a total of 3 miles on Saturday or Sunday. Stretching out the time between runs was essential to that because in my early running days I'd need a lot of rest between activities. More recently, as runs have become longer and my conditiong has improved, I'm less apt to do multiple runs in one day unless the second run is a modest two mile jog with my daughter on a Sunday afternoon.

Training for my marathon relay brings back the idea of two-a-days and in my case that means two runs within two hours. Last Sunday was an interesting experience because it revealed my limits very quickly. My first segment went fine, a 3.1 mile run that would normally serve as a typical weekend distance (at the shorter end). I stayed in my running clothes to simulate the conditions for the race. I'm not expecting that I'll have access to a changing room during the actual event although I may change into a clean jersey in the team car. After toweling off I did swap shirts and then had a bowl of cereal with dried fruit as I waited to run my next segment. Exactly 120 minutes after I finished my first run I set out again for the second leg. The lesson I quickly learned was that two hours rest allowed me to recover well enough to go out with some energy but the wall comes up hard 30 minutes later. I struggled to continue at that point and came up short of my 9 mile total distance goal.

I have about four weekends left to train with these two-a-days. The biggest concern I have for the race relates to the unknown elevations of the course and the level of heat and sun that day. I'm going to assume it will be hot and hilly but I really hope I'm wrong. 9.05 miles, even broken up into two segments, would still be a record distance for a single day. I'm up to the challenge and hoping for the best.

Anticipating the weather

Every morning when I go out to run I anticipate the weather. As the garage door pulls itself up to reveal the morning conditions I brace for what I'll see. This morning I saw that the driveway was spotted with rain and the air felt extremely humid. The past two weeks have been cool in the early hours and I've enjoyed that. I even needed two layers during a run last week. I set out with no particular route in mind, hoping that the rain had passed for good.

Around ten minutes into my run I began to feel some drops. I laughed about the fact that the rain always seems to come when I'm at the farthest point from home. I didn't really care as long as it stayed at a drizzle. Anything more and I begin to worry about my watch and my phone. Plus I don't like to get my shoes wet. I mentioned yesterday that my headlamp didn't throw enough light to illuminate my path when I'm running in total darkness. I stand corrected, all it took was a quick on-the-fly angle adjustment to solve that issue.

I ended up covering 2.5 miles at 9:08 and considering how slowly I started it turned out to be a decent pace. Worrying about beating the rain can definitely motivate you to hustle. It never really rained during my run so my luck held once again. I'm anticipating the day my garage door opens to reveal a layer of freshly fallen snow. Treadmill or trail shoes? What would you do?

Shoe tie, don't bother me

Last December I poked a little fun at Runner's World for running this tease on their cover. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge because I had an un-tying incident during this morning's run that was distracting and potentially dangerous. Although I love early morning running there are some issues with the darkness on moon-less nights. My headlamp,  a Petzl Tikka Plus, does a good enough job but it doesn't really throw very far. My concern is that someday I'll miss seeing a rut in the road or the sidewalk and I'll turn an ankle (or worse). 

 
The Tikka Plus does have a ratcheting swivel head that allows the user to aim the light but I find that I often need to put my head down in dark areas to properly see the road. The combination of a dark morning and the unraveling of my shoelace put me a little on edge. This is what passes for drama at 4:15 AM! I was reluctant to stop in the middle of a run to tie my laces so once I established that my shoe wasn't slipping I decided to just bear it the rest of the way. The resulting distance was covered without incident but I was more concerned than usual that I'd trip on my un-tethered laces. Except for the constant whipping from the loose pair against my shin the rest of the run went without incident.
 
The key reason my laces became untied had to do with a recent problem I'm having with my Brooks GTS 9's. The top of the laces are positioned exactly where my tibia meets the upper tarsal and there are two large nerves that run through there. When I tie my laces too tight it pinches and hurts. I've always had this issue with these shoes although the severity of the pinching can vary. This morning I must have tied them too loosely. I don't have this issue with my other four pairs of running shoes so it may be connected to the design of the Brooks. I have a different pinching issue with my office pair of Asics 1130's so I wonder if it's the design of my foot and not the shoes. Either way, when I look for my next pair of everyday trainers, tongue and collar comfort will be an important criteria.

The information gap in racing

I was thinking about how I stumbled upon that 5K race yesterday and the fact that in this age of ubiquitous connectivity to the web how often information about events doesn't reach runners. Yesterday's 5K,
whose route came within blocks of my home, was unknown to me and would have remained that way if I hadn't gone in that direction on Sunday's run. The bigger events, like the Long Island Marathon Series, are well promoted and documented. They even had course maps on their website to provide runners an idea of the route. The LI Marathon website itself was marginal with pages that went nowhere and lots of missing information. All the same, with their booths at fairs, festivals and at other races, along with a complement of newspaper ads, the event was hard to miss.

I've run four races this year and have at least two more scheduled. In two cases there were course maps available, one easy to find and another that required some Google skills. I was extremely curious to
see the course for the New Hyde Park 8K race last June but the site had no map and little information about the race itself. In fact, online registration wasn't available until about a week prior to race. Before that the online registration had been set up for 2008. On race day the organizers were working diligently to trace and print course maps using Gmaps and I wondered why they waited until an hour before the race to do that. It was a great event but it would have been better had they made this information available earlier. My most recent race, the Dirty Sock 10K, was really well done and their website had everything I needed to know to prepare for it. I tried to participate in an LIRRC race last week but the information gaps did me in. Another event the same day blocked access to the race start that was defined on the LIRRC website and I wasn't familiar enough with the park to find my way in time.

I was online yesterday and came across the USATF site that has a page that lists certified courses with hand drawn maps. I found the New Hyde Park race included in this direction. It would have been a simple thing for that races website to point to it. With MapMyRun, Gmaps, Garmin Connect and many other mashups to Google and Microsoft's mapping applications you'd expect to find a lot more course information available online. If I had the time I'd create a "MapMyRace" site to allow runners to see the course and its elevations to help them with their training strategy. I realize that maintaining a website is challenge and keeping one up to date is tough when it isn't your core point of focus. It's situations like yesterday that make me wonder couldn't they have tried a little harder?

Who put that 5K in the middle of my run?

I'm training for the Cape Cod Marathon that takes place on October 25th. Impressed right? Barely a year under my belt as a runner and I'm already tackling 26.2 miles! Well, the race itself is that long but my participation is limited to two legs out of five and I'll be sharing the course with three teammates. I'll be the starting runner covering 3.05 miles before handing off to a teammate who will be facing 6.15 miles. The next leg is 5.7 miles then the baton comes back to me for six more before I hand off to the last runner who needs to cover 5.3 miles to finish. The course winds around Falmouth and appears to have sections near the water so it could be a visually beautiful race. As a matter fact the website states that "Runners' World called this race one of the ten "Most Scenic" marathons in America." I've got concerns about covering my distances competitively so I officially started my training today.

My plan was to simulate the effect of doing two runs within 2 hours of each other. Based on a nine minute pace I'd have about an hour and forty-five minutes to rest between legs. I went out around 8:30 AM and my plan was run the nearby industrial park because it has a long uphill stretch. From what I saw of the elevations of the course it looks to be hilly and I want to be prepared. I had a surprisingly difficult time during my first race, a four miler, that had a long hill near the beginning of the run. That challenge took a lot out of me and I never want to be caught like that again. I made my way to the Park and as I came around the corner towards the main road I saw a row of orange cones and a bit further on were people setting up what seemed to be a water station. As I got closer I saw signs that the "Angels on the Bay 5K" was happening this morning starting from Sysosset-Woodbury Park. I was tempted to see if I could sign up but there really wasn't time and I wanted to follow the training plan I'd worked out. I was frustrated that with all the time I spend looking for local races this never came to my attention. I think some better marketing would draw a bigger crowd next year.

I ended up covering 3.4 miles for my first "leg" this morning and came home to re-hydrate and have a small breakfast. I went back out at 11:00 hoping to cover at least 5 miles and I felt good at the start save for some sharp pressure on the top of my ankle from my Brooks. I stopped to re-tie that shoe after a quarter mile and reset my Garmin and my MotionX back to 00:00. I ran with the Nike+ chip on my earlier run but I hadn't calibrated it so it thought that I was running 20 minute miles. I decided to leave it home for the second run. Once I restarted I took off in a different direction than this morning and felt very good until I reached the 3 mile mark when I started to fade. Fortunately I was far enough from home that I was forced to extend the run and I ended up covering 4.55 miles (not counting the .25 before my reset) for the second leg. All totaled it was 8.2 miles, not the 9 I'd hoped to cover today. I'm still pleased with the training and I'll build on it over the next month. I feel very good after all that but I'm looking forward to bedtime tonight.

People plus and Nike minus

One of the greatest things about my work life is that I work with some cool and interesting people. A lot of that has to do with the company itself, it takes a lot to get hired here so those that do get in tend to be the leaders in their field. It's great to spend your days with people that you respect and also like. Not surprisingly, I met my wife here. Readers know about the amazing Adventure Girl and the Sedentary Man also has many fans. Another colleague who personifies this profile is KWL, a man with more sources of interest than J.P. Morgan Chase. I won't go into his professional bona fides but I will say that he is my inspiration when it comes to blending activity and technology. KWL made me aware of how applications can leverage the GPS capabilities of the iPhone and it was during our division Fun Run when I first saw MotionX in action. He's an avid cyclist and uses MotionX to record and map rides that can go 50 miles or even longer.

Now that I'm back on a - theoretically - stable iPhone (my third 3GS in two months) I'm looking to resume using the many GPS apps I have that record and map running data. Last week KWL brought me a Nike+ chip and receiver that he'd just picked up for his new iPod Nano. He went for a run with it and was impressed. I was impressed that, as a non-runner, he is capable of spontaneously pulling off 2+ mile runs whenever he feels like it. KWL suggested that I try the Nike+ app on my iPod as I ran this morning. It seemed pretty cool and when I plugged the receiver into my 3GS this morning my iPhone showed a message saying I didn't need it, that the phone would communicate with the chip automatically.

Before long I had established a communication link with the chip that I'd attached above the laces on my right foot making it a twin with the Garmin foot pod on my left. I assigned some music to the workout, hit start and hit the street. I didn't select a distance so the built in training didn't encourage me to speed up or affirm my pace but the app seemed to run okay. When I got to the end I stopped the Garmin and the Nike+ app. I then hit "End Workout" on the iPhone and that seemed to delete my run because I haven't been able to find the data ever since. That's too bad because I never got a chance to review the Nike+ data against my Garmin that showed I ran about 5K at 8:58.

I'll go back and read the instruction to see what I did wrong and try the Nike+ again tomorrow. I'm curious to see if it's accurate but my hopes aren't high for the technology. After my Nike+ wristband experience my expectations for it are very low. But if KWL likes it it's certainly worth another try.

From bedroom to street in 28 simple steps

Last night, as I was preparing my gear for this morning's run, I realized just how much I need to do just to get out the door. I've often wondered why, when I arise at 3:50, that I'm not on the road until 4:08. Thinking through all the individual steps I'm not surprised that it takes so long.

Consider this routine:

1. Head downstairs
2. Start coffee machine (set up done the night before)
3. Turn on cell phone and place in arm band
4. Take vitamin
5. Pour coffee
6. Grab energy bar
7. Head back upstairs
8. Change out of sleeping attire, put on:
9. Supporter
10. Running shorts
11. HRM
12. Compression t-shirt (it was chilly this morning)
13. Running jersey
14. Reflective vest
15. Running socks
16. Running shoes
17. Flashing tail light
18. Running hat
19. Head lamp
20. Garmin 50 watch
21. Arm band
22. Consume 1/3 of energy bar
23. Drink 1/3 cup of coffee
24. Head back downstairs
25. Step outside
26. Do quick set of flexibility stretches
27. Prepare and start Garmin
28. Hit the road

It's no wonder that my running time is barely longer than my prep time. This morning I covered 2.6 miles in 23:04, a mere eight minutes longer than the time I took to get ready. If not for all the work I do the night before to set out my clothes and gear that gap would be even closer. I'd like to run longer distances in the mornings but I'm not sure how to gain more efficiencies. Perhaps if I put all my gear downstairs I can save a minute or two by changing into running clothes while my coffee brews. Or I could sleep in my running clothes and forgo my coffee until I come back from my run. Alternatively, I could become a 7:00/mile runner and cover about 5K every morning in the same period of time. I'm all for aspirational pace goals but I think I'm just going to have to adjust to running without a caffeine boost if I want to get more time in the morning.

Motivation please

Today is a rest day. I usually take Thursdays for recovery so there's nothing unusual about that. In reality there was no reason to rest today except laziness and I'm disappointed that I took the easy way out this morning. Prior to August I rested on Thursdays to prepare for my weekend distance that usually started with a long city run on Friday. Since AG left for school I've only done a few of these runs by myself and, due to my schedule, I'm not planning to run in the city tomorrow. So a couple of miles today and a couple more tomorrow, early, would have been the right thing to do. I'd hoped that my 7.6 mile PDR on Labor Day would motivate me to run longer distances but since that run I have not had another good (long) one. This weekend was a disappointment as Saturday's run was purposely kept to around 2 miles because I was tapering for Sunday's race. Since I ended up not racing I did my long run in the surrounding neighborhoods and I only covered 3.9 miles. After that (not counting my run with my daughter) it's been a couple of early morning 2+ mile workouts and one 25 minute elliptical session.

Tomorrow I will get out and run regardless of how I feel. If I have to draw on guilt to get me out the door I will. I'm training for a marathon relay so on Saturday I'm hoping to get a long run in, perhaps on the trails. I have a jammed schedule that day so I may need to settle for 4 miles or less. On Sunday I will attempt to run 3 miles and then another 6 a couple of hours later to simulate my legs in the race. I may aim for 2 and 5 miles respectively since I don't know how I'll feel and I don't want to encourage an injury. I'm looking forward to doing that because it's different and it's also a realistic challenge. I hope I'm feeling positive when I wake up tomorrow. I'm learning that attitude is everything when it comes to achieving good performance on my runs.

Thinking about my next pair

It's been about five months since I bought my Brooks GTS 9's and I'm thinking about when I'll replace them. I already have five pairs of running shoes although three of them are for trails. My other pair of street shoes are Asics 1130's that are perfectly serviceable but I noticed they pinched a little the last time I ran with them on the bridle trail in Central Park. The past two days I've done my 4:00 AM runs and noticed that I still have an issue with the way they fit at the tongue. It's too bad because they are great shoes but I don't know if I'd buy another pair. A friend of mine just picked up a pair of New Balance 1225's and I started thinking about what I'd look for the next time I consider a replacement of the Brooks. At different times I vacillate between the idea of investing in a pair of high end cushioned stability shoes like the Saucony ProGrid Hurricanes or the Asics GEL-Kayano 15's or a pair of lightweight trainers like the Mizuno Wave Universe 3. I run between 20-25 miles per week with my longest runs ranging between five and seven miles so I don't know how these trainers would hold up in terms of comfort and support.

The mature thing to do would be to swap my low mileage Asics that I keep in my office with the Brooks that are getting close to 400 miles. I could put off my next street shoe purchase for a while if I did that. But what fun would that be!?