Coming to terms with the treadmill

With another storm coming tomorrow I'm resigned to doing this week's training runs indoors. This winter's snow has put me on the treadmill much more frequently than ever before. I've become more comfortable running on it but I still dislike the experience. My small toes were sore from friction burns after yesterday's run, a rare experience with my Brooks Adrenaline's. As a result I'm giving my feet a break today. I had considered an elliptical session this morning (my usual rest day) to front load my taper since I'll likely be resting Thursday and Friday ahead of Saturday's race. However, I didn't think a workout today would make much of a difference and I wanted to avoid exacerbating my foot problem.

I'm pleased with this weekend's running, 9 miles, all on the the treadmill. Some may find treadmill running easier than outdoor running but I find it hard. When I'm running at 6.5 mph (9:13 pace) it feels harder than when I run 8:45 outdoors. I no longer try to match my outdoor paces indoors, instead I start at a comfortable pace and after 10 minutes I'll increase my speed every few minutes. I usually end up running the last few minutes between 7.1-7.4 mph and that brings my overall run pace into the high-normal range. I'll run tomorrow and Wednesday morning and either rest or do a light elliptical session on Thursday. Friday will definitely be a rest day. Saturday's race should be a chilly one and today's weather report said there may also be some snow.

Forget the "shots", I'm happy with my GU

Today's run (treadmill): 5 miles

Such a deal

Somewhat related to Friday's entry, I saw an article this morning on nypost.com that reported that those ubiquitous energy "shots" that you often see on store counters near the register are "nothing more than slightly caffeinated, sour-tasting water."  It surprises me that so many people would pay $4 for 2 oz. of a product that has no FDA approval and (in some cases) doesn't list its active ingredients. It never fails to amaze me how people spend their money and use "herbal" medicines that lack clinically-proved efficacy or safety testing. My experience with Max Muscle Barracuda energy drink that came in a goody bag at one of my races was enough to dissuade me from trying any more products of that type.

I do believe in gels because I know what's in them and why they work. I had a GU "Expresso Love" packet 20 minutes before I started today's treadmill run. The extra caffeine would be a good boost for my planned 50+ minute workout. I started well and held an easy pace. This would be the first run of any distance since last weekend. The best effect of a gel is the way it helps me power through the first few minutes of a run while I transition to aerobic breathing. Before I knew it I had covered a mile and the effort to that point was low.

Five minutes later the treadmill abruptly shut down because I'd inadvertently hit the stop button. I managed to resume my run in less than 30 seconds and I upped my speed for good measure. By the time I reached three miles I'd started weakening due to the heat of the room and the small toe on my left foot was beginning to hurt from the friction of running. I decided that I'd cap my run at 5 miles so I increased the belt speed once more and powered through the next two miles before stopping the Garmin and reducing my speed to a walking pace so I could cool down and lower my heart rate.

This may be the longest run I'll do prior to my 4 mile race next Saturday. The snow has disrupted my access to the roads and trails and, with only the treadmill and elliptical as options, I haven't trained the way I usually do for a race. I'm hoping my conditioning and the short distance will help me get through the Snowflake Run. It will be fun to race for the first time since Thanksgiving week. Hard to know how I'll perform, but no matter what, I'll be glad to be running on something besides the treadmill.

Earmuffs make awful headphones on the treadmill

Today's run (treadmill): 4 miles

Hot tunes

I got an early start on my workout this morning due to the day's agenda. With the narrower roads and obstructed views of traffic in the neighborhood (all due to the huge snow banks) I thought it best to run indoors. Knowing that this would be a longer treadmill run than my usual weekday morning workout, I took my iPhone and some ear buds to keep me company. I'm not a fan of running with music for outdoor runs because the ambient noise on the trail or street is a far better sound track. That, along with safety concerns, prevents me from doing it. Indoors is a different story and I thought it might be a way to distract me from the tedium of the treadmill experience.

I can't wear Apple's white ear buds because they don't fit my ears so I jury-rigged headphones using a pair of 180's earmuffs. I loaded Pandora, started my music and then started my run. That worked well for about 20 minutes but the heat of the guest room plus the additional warmth from the earmuffs made it untenable. I removed my "headphones" and played the iPhone using its external speakers but between the sound of the treadmill, the fan and the music I found it too distracting. I spent the balance of my run without music and by the fourth mile I was really ready to stop. Treadmill runs are hard for me and I'd played with elevation and speed which made the challenge even greater.

I'm not confident that today's above freezing temperatures will melt enough snow to make it safe for a street run on Sunday so it's back to the treadmill for me tomorrow. I picked up a set of behind-the-ear headphones today so I'll give them a try if an indoor run is my only option.

Omega man



Fish power

 Today's workout (elliptical): 25 minutes

I was corresponding with my aunt who lives in France and she mentioned a homeopathic supplement called arnica that the local runners use. I think arnica is used primarily as an anti-inflammatory rather than for performance. In the January issue of TrailRunner magazine, columnist and ultrarunner Bernie Boettcher writes about how some supplements are merely everyday things that are packaged to appear extraordinary. His example is coffee. Bottling coffee and selling it under another name at a higher price might yield to some profitable sales. It's legit -- coffee and caffeine are proven to enhance performance, so people would be getting what they pay for. They'd just be paying more than necessary. I know that caffeine works but I don't know of too many other legal performance enhancers that do.

I've started taking fish oil on a regular basis, not for performance reasons but because Omega-3's supplied this way seem to be universally recommended by health care professionals. I've noticed that Scott Jurak endorses Udo's Oil, an Omega supplement that supposedly enhances stamina. With that in mind I've noticed that my own stamina seems to have improved since I've begun taking fish oil daily. It could be coincidence, the placebo effect or a boost that comes with a good change in diet. I've experienced performance improvements in the past that come from changing my routine or gear (my pace on my first few runs in the Kinvaras was noticeably faster than with my GTS 10's) but things tend to reset soon afterward.

This week I've run on the treadmill a few times and today I used the elliptical. In each case I performed better than usual. Not measurably better, but enough to notice a difference. It could be a lot of things but I'm hoping it's the fish oil. Since I'm taking it anyway, why not enjoy the benefit?

Does this count as a 60 minute upper body workout?



14" added to the base. Hey, I can finally dunk a basketball!

 I woke up to 14" of new snow and a pile of icy chunks 3' high, 4' deep and 20' wide at the end of the driveway (courtesy of the town plows). My wife and I got out early and spent an hour digging out as much as we could. Even after that point it seemed that we'd barely made a dent. I am happy to shovel for hours but I wanted to wrap up before my neighbor came out with his snow blower that spews a toxic mixture of gas and oil. A couple of roving shovelers happened by and my wife and I decided to hire them to get through the rest. It turned out to be a good investment. The Long Island Railroad canceled many trains and suspended service a few times so I elected to work from home today.

I'm not sure this morning's shoveling constituted a workout but I did work up enough of a sweat that I shed my jacket to help me cool down. I'm thinking about doing an elliptical workout at lunchtime if my schedule works. The irony of working from home is that I often over-schedule calls and I end up with less time than I do when I'm actually in the office. I love the snow but the frequency and volume we've received this year has forced me to run indoors a lot more than I'd like. Worse, I haven't been able run the trails since December and I miss that a lot. I wish I had invested in snow shoes before the winter season. While I'm thinking about it, it would also be nice to have an efficient, environmentally correct snow blower.

Happily, not all treadmill runs are the same

Today's run (treadmill): 2.41 miles

Despite the inherent lack of variables of the process, not all treadmill runs are the same. Yesterday's run was very different from today's. For one thing, I wore my Brooks Adrenaline's instead of the Karhu's and realized how much the right shoes matter when running on the treadmill. Second, I had no issues with fatigue this morning and I jumped into a faster pace from the beginning. The biggest difference between today and yesterday is that today I felt like I was running. Not running in the treadmill sense, where your are physically and mentally constrained within an area no wider than a 22" tread and no longer than the safety cord allows. I was able to focus on my form and actually pictured the streets in my neighborhood as I ran along. If nothing else, it helped pass the time. For me, anything that speeds me through a treadmill run is a good thing.

Back on the Karhu Fast 2's

Karhu Fast 2 -- I wish they ran as good as they look

Today's run (treadmill): 2.3 miles

I didn't want to deal with dark and icy roads this morning so last night I set up my gear for a treadmill workout. As much as I prefer running outdoors I do appreciate the time that I save in the morning by staying inside. I would usually choose my Saucony Kinvaras for the treadmill but the soles were caked with grime -- a combination of road salt, sand and mud. I wore the Kinvaras on Saturday after the snow plows and the residue from the street made them unsuitable for the tread belt. I decided to give the Karhu Fast 2's another chance. I was curious to see if I liked them any better after a few week's layoff.

I was tired this morning and needed my alarm to wake me up. I knew from my energy level that today would be a maintenance run and nothing more. I started slower that usual, around 6 mph, and gradually built my speed to 7 (an 8:34 pace). The Karhu's did fine but they just don't feel ideal for my stride. It may just be the height of the mid sole. Its "fulcrum" feature also may not well with my mid foot landing style. That didn't mean the shoes failed to perform, in fact they took everything I threw at them. It was really about the feel compared to my Kinvaras and GTS-10's that move more naturally with my foot. I had a decent run this morning and I managed through the treadmill experience despite the combination of boredom and terror that comes with that. I may treat myself to the elliptical tomorrow depending on the weather.

5 degree weather is cramping my style

It's extraordinarily cold today. The display in my car showed 27 degrees in my garage and by the time I reached the train station, seven minutes later, it said 5. I usually rest on Mondays so I didn't have to suffer through a treadmill session this morning. My threshold for morning runs is about 14 degrees. After that it's the treadmill or elliptical machine.

It's been a tough winter for running. We've already had more snow in December and January than what we usually average for the entire season. I like snow but it reduces my choices for running venues. I won't be running any wooded trails for a while and I'm sure that the Bethpage bike trail is snowy and icy right now. My choices are either indoor running or around my local neighborhood. Make that a subset of local streets because the snow and ice has limited access to some key cross points. More snow is coming this week which will exacerbate the problem but at least the temperatures should rise. It looks like I may be doing much of my race training indoors unless we see a big thaw soon.

A difficult run on a cold winter's day

H/H Trail Lizards -- great on snow - not so much on the road

Today's run (street): 3.8 miles

My streak of energizing, feel-good runs was broken today with a 3.8 mile run that felt much longer. I was surprised to hit the wall so hard on this relatively short run. Learning from yesterday's experience, I wore my Helly Hansen Trail Lizards because there is still much snow and ice (and ice covered snow) on the roads. Things started out well, I moved right along, hardly slowing down for the snowy-icy patches. The Helly's provided great grip and stability over these areas for the most part though there were some spots that I preferred to dodge rather than run straight though.

My first hint of trouble happened on my first turn into the westerly winds that made the 18 degree temperatures feel much colder. I really wished at that moment that I'd worn my balaclava. On top of the force of the wind, the touch of my glasses against my face grew increasingly uncomfortable. Once I turned another corner that problem fell away and I felt like the worst was over since my body was warmed up, making straight-on winds less of an issue from that point. That much was true and I progressed well but I started to get tired as I neared the 25 minute mark. It may have been the cold or the fact that the Helly's don't run very well on pavement but I began to experience signs of bonking.

My level of effort (using the Daily Mile 1-5 scale) moved quickly from two to three to almost four in a period of five minutes and I decided to re-point my route back towards my home. Despite this difficulty I forced myself to maintain a reasonably fast cadence and came in with a respectable mid-9 overall pace. The runs today and yesterday were not typical street runs as the snow, ice and slush made them more trail-like. Perhaps it was the harder work coming from running the Trail Lizards on the road instead of the trail where they shine. It doesn't matter why, only that today's run was tough and hopefully the next one will be better. Even as I slogged through the difficult last mile I thought to myself how much I loved this crazy sport.

Garmin foot pod calibration - one of life's mysteries

Today's run (street): 5 miles

The action of calibrating my Garmin's foot pod is hit or miss. The best way to do it is when you run an exact distance and it calibrates automatically. Another method is to adjust the foot pod based upon a known factor, such as the percentage between what was recorded and what you actually ran. The third way is the worst way and of course it's the one I usually follow because it's also the the easiest. In this case, when I'm consistently over or under recording my distance (compared with Gmaps) I manually compensate by arbitrarily increasing the the index until I get close. Sometimes this works great and the foot pod will report accurately for many runs. Since I often switch the foot pod between pairs of shoes it's usually off by some factor anyway and that's why I Gmap my runs.

Easier said than done

This morning I adjusted the foot pod thinking that a .05% decrease would compensate for over recording would get me to the 1/100ths of a mile accuracy that I often observe. When I went out this morning on the freshly plowed streets I was moving well. Except for on the spots that were still covered with packed snow my pace was fast and my stride was good. I often follow the same exact route for the first mile to gauge whether the Garmin is ahead or behind my real distance. I must have been confused today because I came through the first mile thinking that the foot pod was under recording, when in fact it was probably off by 3% the other way. I'm still fuzzy about when it chirped and where I was when that happened but when I finished my run the recorded distance was .23 miles greater than what I mapped using Gmaps.

I find it hard to believe my calibration was that far off and I have a different theory. Much of the roads were covered with a combination of slush and snow and my form differed greatly when I ran on those sections versus the open pavement.  It's possible that this difference in stride, cadence and lift may have thrown off the foot pod. I won't ever really know but I'm planning to reset the foot pod to 100% index value and start again. If I thought that a GPS watch would be more accurate I'd probably buy the Garmin 210. Most of the time I'd be better off just running with a stop watch and calculating pace later, after I'd Gmapped the route. The only problem with that is when I run the trails or on the treadmill and the foot pod also provides excellent data that I value, including split times and cadence. I guess I'll just keep calibrating and hoping for the best.

A tropical change of pace

Sunset over the Gulf coast

Yesterday's run (southern FL): 4.1 miles

I've been at a conference for most of this week and due to travel and meetings I didn't get a chance to run on Wednesday. Thursday morning I met up with my friend CK for a run before the conference activities started. I was giving a talk in the afternoon and knew that this would probably be the only time that I could fit a workout into this trip. CK and I headed out from the hotel tracking south along a straight, palm tree-lined road. It was fairly early when we left and there was little traffic. The sun seems to rise later in southern Florida and the light at 7:00 AM was still at low intensity. Florida gets hot, even in January, but it was a cool 58 degrees with very little humidity when we started.

Compared with my recent paces, CK and I moved along at a moderately fast clip and I was pleased that I could hold up my end of the conversation even as we pushed against my comfort zone. We continued south for two miles then turned around for the return. On the way back we threw in some minute long tempos and before we knew it the resort was back in our sight. We ended up averaging 8:55 per mile for the run and it really seemed effortless.

The conference went well  and despite the 5" of snow that fell in New York this morning I was able to return home pretty much on schedule. I've only run about 6 miles this week so I'm hoping to make up for that this weekend. With all this fresh snow it looks like I'll be once again confined to neighborhood running on Saturday.  My next race is coming up in few weeks so I'll need to focus on training for that. Running with a high performer like CK showed me that I'm in good shape but I still need to step it up to be as competitive as I'd like to be. I want to achieve a new PR for 4 miles and this race takes place at the same location as my 10K PR so prospects are good. Performance will be my focus for now.

Heading to warmer climes

I'm sure I'll find someplace to run here

Tomorrow morning I'm heading down to Florida to give a talk at a conference. The weather in NYC is miserable and it looks like that may continue into Wednesday so I'm hoping I don't encounter too many travel delays. According to my colleague KWL who arrived there today, the conference resort has some great places for running. My friend CK will also be down there and we have plans to get together for a run. My schedule is so tight that I'm not sure when I can fit that in but I expect that we'll figure it out. The weather where I'm staying is mild, ranging between 60-78 degrees so I'm packing light. No long sleeve running shirts or cold weather compression gear. I'm not a fan of business travel but the chance to run someplace near the water gives me at least one reason to like it.