Crabby on Friday, better today

Don't eat at Joe's

Yesterday's run (street): 3.5 miles
Today's workout (elliptical): 40 minutes

I work from home most Fridays and that experience (no commuting or multiple meetings) usually provides a nice segue to the weekend. My responsibilities have ramped up in recent weeks and Fridays have become a blessing in terms of catch up time. Except for yesterday, where I started at the crack of dawn and didn't stop until close to the crack of dusk.

My one concession to the Friday workday madness was to break away for a short time to do a neighborhood run. Once I was satisfied that I addressed some overnight business issues, I quickly changed into running gear and headed out the door. The humidity and temperature were both surprisingly low and I looked forward to a pleasant experience.

It's much nicer running on Fridays without  buses and school drop-off traffic. But the recycling manics remain. These guys drive their ten ton truck around my neighborhood streets like it's a Porsche, exceeding the posted speed limit by 20 MPH and ignoring stop signs. Whenever I hear the roar and rattle of the truck, I make a beeline to the sidewalk. Even though there are 5+ miles of road in the neighborhood, I always end up encountering them at some point on my route.

Except for the truck, the run went fine. I had some slight breathing issues when I tried to push my pace, and I'm thinking that my aerobic threshold may have dropped over the last couple of years. If that's the case, it would explain my measurable reduction in speed. I had hoped last weekend's intervals would have gained me some improvement, but perhaps a mile of repeats at around 92% of max heart rate was not enough to make an impact.

Even with decent weather, I ended up feeling depleted. I had a fast shower and then it was back to work for the rest of the day. We had planned a family dinner last night at Joe's Crap Crab Shack which recently opened in our area. We'd gone to one in Orlando years ago and had a great time. We all looked forward to this dinner.

I don't know if I happened to be getting sick (perhaps my hard run and the long day standing in front of my laptop were responsible), but by the time we left the restaurant, I was feeling awful. The experience at Joe's was interesting. Here is my recommendation: Don't eat at Joe's Crab Shack. At least don't eat at the one in Westbury, NY.

We arrived at the place before the busy hour and although the room was more than half empty, we were told we'd have to wait for a table because they didn't have enough servers. My wife wanted to leave, but we were all hungry and chose to stay, since they managed to "find room" for us in the back. This back area resembled the dining room of a highway truck stop circa 1973. The photo at the top shows the room full of invisible diners we needed to walk through to get to our table.

The greasy fish I had was terrible and no one else liked what they'd ordered. By the time we got home, I was feeling sick and had to lay down for a few minutes. I rallied enough to go out back for our Friday night fire pit and even managed enough of an appetite for a S'more. We have seen some interesting things on these nights, like an extremely porcine raccoon "sneaking by" atop the fence. Last night we were again dive bombed by a bat, who perhaps thought the pool was a pond.

This morning I was time-pressed because we had an early appointment at a local college. I probably could have fit in a short run, but I was still feeling iffy and decided to do today's workout on the elliptical. Despite my opening windows on both ends of the room for air flow, it was humid as heck. Even so, the workout was pleasant. Some people don't like the elliptical, but I do, mostly because it's not a treadmill.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Massapequa Preserve to meet up for a Runska-run. I'm hoping that I'll be in ready shape for the six miles I plan to cover. The heat and humidity are supposed to be off the charts, so I'm not planning to do these miles very fast.

97% of a good run

Unhappy ending

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles

When does a tenth of a mile make all the difference in a run? Today it was in the final 10th of my treadmill workout. It's been a lot of time since my last run because my business schedule is sucking up all my bandwidth. Today I worked from home and managed to get back to running, although I had limited time this morning.

It was my fourth run on our new treadmill and I continue to appreciate it compared to the old one. The Freemotion running experience is far better than the Sole's. Besides the much quieter motor and stable tread that doesn't jerk underfoot, the Freemotion unit feels more substantial and the running less tedious. The time - and mileage - seem to go by a lot faster.

So I had 97% of a great run and 3% of a really bad one. It was my own fault. The three weeks I spent exclusively on the elliptical helped heal my chronic sciatica. My return to the treadmill last week re-aggravated that injury. I hoped resting from Monday through Thursday would reverse the damage and, to a degree, it did. But I pushed too hard today and that set back my progress.

I only aimed to cover three miles and felt good running at a moderate pace. With half a mile left to go, I began increasing my speed. Everything felt fine and I decided to cover 3.25 miles. By the time I was on the last quarter, the speed felt challenging. At the 3.2 mile point I felt a searing pain in my upper hamstring/glute region and I knew I'd pushed too hard. Y'ouch!

I thought I'd seriously hurt myself. I immediately reduced my speed and stopped the treadmill. Walking felt painful and I hoped it was a temporary situation. I took Ibuprofen and hit the shower. I certainly did myself no favors today. After living with the result all day, it doesn't seem as bad. I'll see how it feels tomorrow morning. I may substitute a run for an elliptical session rather than further aggravate the problem..

The little treadmill that couldn't

I'd like to sell this Sole to the devil

Yesterday's workout (elliptical): 60 minutes

We're facing a perfect storm in the Emerging Runner household. It's actually related to the weather in my case. Last year we had a very snowy January and the weather kept me off the road most of that month. Despite that, I was able to do my usual miles on the treadmill. We had better luck this January, but circumstances have changed. Our treadmill's condition has gone from bad - to worse - to done. Fini.

A failed treadmill is inconvenient to me, but my wife depends on it for her daily workouts. We're both dedicated to our running, but I prefer to run outside while Mrs. ER likes to keep her workout indoors. With snow, freezing rain and sleet hitting us this week, we're both missing the treadmill.

It was clear yesterday morning that the treadmill was fading fast. No longer was the ever-increasing sound level the only issue. The machine was now giving off an unholy metallic screech at a decibel level that could only be described as dangerous. I decided to record the sound for posterity and had the brilliant idea of running the Sole at 12 MPH. I was curious to see what would happen and here's the result. The last moments of our treadmill...

I ended up spending an hour on the elliptical. It's definitely a good workout, but I never feel it equals a run. Until the weather warms enough to clear the roads we're stuck with that choice. I've been doing my research to find a replacement for the highly recommended but ultimately disappointing Sole F63. Everyone says you need to spend thousands of dollars to get a treadmill that won't fail with regular use, but I'm thinking that almost anything will be better than this retched Sole.

Perceived effort was not enough

 

Today's run (street): 4.6 miles

Yesterday's run in Old Westbury provided a great hill workout. Today I thought I'd keep it simple and keep my running to my local roads. It wasn't as cold as Saturday, but it was still pretty chilly. I wore the Opedix again, along with three top layers. It wasn't until I took my first steps off the driveway that I knew my legs had recovered well. I had high hopes for a performance improvement and I sure gave it a try.

After we finished preparing for our runs this morning, my wife said, "Okay, let's get our runs on!" We were both ready to get going - she to the treadmill and me to the street. I was psyched knowing that I would be dealing with less distance and lower elevation today. My plan was a four mile run with negative splits.

The temperature was 35° and there wasn't much wind. I was comfortable in my gear and I felt good from the start. I'd left my HRM home and though I had my Garmin, I decided to run by feel instead. The first mile went by quickly and I was convinced that I was beating Friday's moderately brisk pace. I avoided looking at the readout on my watch because I didn't want to be discouraged, or overly encouraged, by what I saw.

I'd started around 7:30 AM and there were few cars or people around, although I kept crossing paths with two other runners. I felt like I was moving a lot faster than yesterday and was hoping to finish with a big surprise in terms of time and pace. I was surprised, but not in a good way, Running by feel did not generate the speed I'd hoped for. I did achieve negative splits, but my pace was 30 seconds off of Friday's.

On the positive side, I put in almost 20 miles this week, had some good workouts and got to run and hang with my friends. I'll take that over performance anytime.

My Garmin lied and the truth hurts

My Garmin made up most of this route

Today's run (street): 3.75 miles

Halfway through today's run, I glanced at my Garmin and saw that I had covered two miles in about 17 minutes. That would have put me on track for my best training run in memory. I was puzzled because my perceived effort was nowhere near what I'd expect for that pace. I tried to rationalize the reasons for such a dramatic improvement in my performance compared to yesterday. It was 10 degrees cooler and cloudy, but could that account for running over a minute per mile faster?

When I got home and saw my time and mileage on the Garmin, I thought I'd rocked it. Maybe I was turning a corner with my training. After all, I used to regularly average 8:45 paces on my daily runs. Breaking 9:00 minutes on a run these days is a notable achievement for me. I hoped it was accurate and not some weird Garmin fail.

Despite that wishful thinking, it did turn out to be a badly confused GPS. For some odd reason, the Garmin put my starting point 3 miles north of where I began my run. Looking at the run data through Garmin Connect, my course appeared to have frequent 50-foot elevation changes. That's definitely not the case for my relatively flat route. I'm guessing that the low cloud cover may have interfered with the GPS signal and caused it to skip.

I Gmapped my route and was disappointed to see that I'd only covered 3.75 miles, rather than the 4.35 that the Garmin said I'd run. I wanted to run 4-5 miles today and thought I'd met my objective. The good news is that I beat yesterday's pace by 42 second per mile. The other good news is that it's a long weekend and tomorrow we're hosting a Runsketeer pool party. If the weather reports are accurate, the skies will be clear and I'll be able to get in a longer run in the morning.

Addressing my need for more speed

My experience today

Today's run (street): 5.1 miles

I'm back into a three day running cycle and I ran in the neighborhood yesterday and today. My morning schedule was tight, so I needed to get outside early. Fortunately, it was still relatively cool and (bonus) not as humid as Friday. I had no route or distance in mind, but I did want to cover at least five miles.

Like yesterday, I started with good energy and tried to establish a faster pace from the start. It seemed a lot faster than it was. I still find it curious that putting in the same effort compared to a year ago will typically yield a 30 sec/mile slower pace. I'm not planning on doing any races before Dirty Sock, so I'm not really upset about that. Still, I'd like to gain that time back if I can.

Tomorrow the Runsketeers will get together for our first group track workout. I look forward to seeing how fast these two speedsters can run when they don't need to reserve energy. I'm not going to be able to cover as much distance tomorrow as I would on a typical Sunday, so this week's mileage total will be extra low. But track miles are quality miles. If I can figure out a way to add one more workout a week to my running schedule, I can get back to pre-commuting weekly volumes.

Not a step back, but not what you'd call progress

Disappointing cadence

Today's run (street): 4.6 miles

I wasn't sure what to expect on today's run but I hoped I would find it easier to reach my targeted performance numbers after seeing some improvement yesterday. To my dismay, I felt less energy this morning and I hoped that I'd rebound during the run. Although I did quickly get into rhythm, I found even the first couple of miles difficult. I wasn't sure if I'd started too fast, or if I was simply too tired.

I've read numerous times that an ideal (non-competitive) pace will allow a runner to maintain a conversation while still providing some level of challenge. For most people, that's 75-85% of max heart rate. A check of the data from today's run showed that I stayed primarily between 76 and 79% of max for the first 3.75 miles. Even though I was primarily at the lower end of the HR scale, the going felt difficult.

My response was to pick up the pace and, for the last 3/4 of a mile, I kept heart rate between 80-86% of max. In terms of technique, I adopted an almost bouncing stride that I hoped would translate to greater speed. It did, but it still fell short of today's expectations. My cadence, even after using my new form, never got out of the middling range. The one upside is that getting my HR into the higher 80% range is good preparation for harder workouts.

I don't know if I can return to doing 8:00 minute range training paces, but even if I can't, I still have lots of room for improvement.

Liked my run and loved my park

Been there, didn't do that

Today's run (street): 4.6 miles

I'm working through my new work schedule and trying to find the time to fit in all my training runs. I caught a break on Thursday by working from home. That was good for over six miles, something that I couldn't have done if I was driving to my office that morning. I was back to the drive on Friday morning and couldn't fit in a run before that. The saving grace is that my new office is in an enormous building and I cover a lot of ground on foot during the day.

This morning I targeted 4 miles around the neighborhood. I plan to run as close to 11 as I can on Sunday. Just for a change, I wrapped my run around the neighborhood, following Jericho Turnpike west to South Oyster Bay road and then onto Terrahans going east. The change of scenery was welcomed and I figured that this new route would distract me for the first two miles and make the overall run feel shorter. That sort of worked, even though I added another 2/3 mile to my distance.

I feel that I'm running exactly the same way and expending the same amount of energy that I did a year ago. Now my typical pace is now almost a minute slower. I used to be able to sustain sub-9 paces with a focused effort. These days I'm happy when I see that I've averaged mid-9's. Today I didn't even break 10:00. I'd hope that my weekly speed workouts would have moved the needle, but I've seen little payoff from it.

Later in the day, we all headed to Caleb Smith State Park in Smithtown for "I Love My Park Day." Last year we planted a tree and were looking forward to this year's tasks. However, when we arrived at noon, the event organizers were wrapping things up. Our information said that activities would go until 3:00 PM, but it was incorrect. We were disappointed, but it didn't prevent us for spending an hour hiking the trails.

If everything works out, we'll have a Runsketeer run tomorrow morning that includes a couple of guest runners (J who I met on the bike trail two weeks ago and his wife). I'm very curious to see how I hold up for 11 miles or more. Only two more Sundays before the Brooklyn half, and I need to make them count.

Performance is down, but excuses remain high

Ready or not, here it comes

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

My running has slid back into the questionable range. I had a tough time running a very slow 5K on Sunday. That may have been due to over-training last week, shoelace malfunctions or something less obvious. This week was the start of my new job and, after taking my usual Monday rest day, I skipped Tuesday as well. This morning was a return to 4:00 AM running and it didn't go particularly well.

After 20 years of commuting on the Long Island Railroad into NYC, I had a break over the last year. I didn't miss riding the the train and I still don't. But instead of the train, I'm now driving 75 miles a day to and from my new office. Driving is not fun and I've decided to head out around 6:00 AM to minimize the amount of traffic delays on the LIE, Route 95, etc. Consequently, the window for early running before my commute is short. And unlike train commuting when I could take a seat and sleep, I need to be 100% alert when on the road.

I happened to have an all day meeting in the city today, so I got on the treadmill at 4:00 and ran for 25 minutes. It was one of the toughest workouts I've had in a while, and I'm wondering why. Since I'm making plenty of excuses about my sub-par 5K performance, I'll make more by saying that two days of driving on highly trafficked roads, plus full days in the office, have exhausted me. I'm hoping it's just that. Brooklyn will happen soon and my running confidence has taken a big tumble since last week.

Why bad runs don't really matter

The long unwinding road

Both Saturday's relay and Sunday's half marathon "Week 1" training runs were disappointing for me. The good news is that it really doesn't matter. Running is one of those things in life that can lift your spirits or temporarily disappoint you. But as long as you aren't suffering a running injury as a result, there's really no excuse for feeling badly about one or two bad experiences.

That's why I'm looking forward to getting out tomorrow. I rested yesterday and took an additional recovery day today. It's still winter-y cold outside, but at least it's sunny and the snow is gone. The Hal Higdon Intermediate Half plan says that I should run 3 miles, plus strength training, on Wednesday. However, the Emerging Runner Training Plan™ says that I should run 80% of the prior weekend's longest run on Wednesdays. So that's what I'm doing. I do appreciate Hal's attempt to add more diversity to the training schedule, so I may add in a small amount weight or core training.

I gave myself a break on speed training today, but I will resume that next Tuesday. Without weekday access to the track, I can either do treadmill intervals inside, or run 400's along a road that's adjacent to my street. That long road has a slight grade when running south to north, but SIOR says that shouldn't matter. I'll need to figure out how to manage recovery periods if I choose the street route because I'll need to start each repeat at either the beginning or end of the road.

Progress made on a progressive run

Progressively paced

Today's run (street): 3.25 miles

I've been feeling a little down about my running lately, because I haven't been able to generate much speed on my training runs. I feel I should be meeting certain paces and I've come up short over the last week. The fact that my race times have been going in the wrong direction has fed into this frustration. Today's run didn't completely reverse my perspective, but it certainly helped my confidence.

It's hard to explain my current issues. I'm not running to exhaustion, but I've felt like the effort I'm putting in isn't translating into commensurate performance. I haven't been pushing the pace like I'd do if I was training for a race, although I do have a 10K coming up in three weeks. I shouldn't be expecting greatness, but perceived effort seems greater than observed performance.

I started out slowly and expected this run to be another disappointing effort, but I picked up speed every mile, finishing up a minute and half per mile faster than I started. This improvement was not apparent in the moment. It wasn't until I'd downloaded my Garmin's data that I saw my negative splits and realized I'd managed to hit an acceptable overall pace.

I'm glad to have tomorrow, my weekly rest day, for further recovery. I'll need to turn my attention to race training soon. For now I'm just happy to have broken my streak of sub-par runs.

My Garmin speaks the ugly truth

It's a match

Today's run (street): 3.25 miles

I'm incredibly annoyed with my Garmin today. I did this morning's run and, as always, recorded my distance using GPS. I always assume the watch will under-count my distance, so I wasn't upset to see the indicated time and pace. Usually, after Gmapping my route, I'll need to add about 3% more mileage to the calculation. That often makes the difference between a good and mediocre pace. Today, both the Garmin and Gmaps said exactly the same thing, and what they said wasn't good. I missed my targeted pace by 23 seconds per mile.

There's no reason why I ran this slowly today. I'd tried to focus on form and turnover. The weather was perfect, so heat and humidity were not a factor. Perceived effort was on par with my better runs and I even ran the last quarter in a semi-sprint. But in the end, my performance did not match up to expectations. Tomorrow is my last run before Sunday's race, so I need to make it count.

Zeotrope concept (left), example (right)

I took most of the day to be with the family and we spent it at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The experience was great, and I even got to play with a nineteenth century zeotrope of a man running. But instead of marveling at this 100 year old wonder of technology, I was watching his form and thinking how he should shorten his stride.

Rain disrupts my plans, but not my running

Weather fit for neither beast nor trail runner

Today's run (treadmill): 3.1 miles

I ended up skipping yesterday's workout altogether, choosing to wait until this afternoon to run the trails with my friend. The early morning's weather was perfect, but unfortunately, it was the only good weather we had today. I glanced outside throughout the day and watched the sky grow increasingly darker. It would either clear up, or I'd be looking at rainy and muddy conditions at 4:00 PM.

Around 3:00 PM, my friend Chris called to check in. He was on Long Island for business and preparing to finish a meeting, before heading to my house. The rain was coming down in buckets and any hopes that it would taper off were gone. We decided to postpone our trail run until next week.

With my afternoon freed up, I refocused on a business project. I knew I had the option of running on the treadmill so, by 4:15, I'd decided to do that. In keeping with my plan to train at faster paces, I started on the edge of comfort and increased my speed periodically throughout the run.

Some people find treadmill running easier than outdoor running, but I have the opposite experience. 6.6 MPH (9:00/mile) on my Sole F63 feels like 5K race pace. I was determined get through the run, despite increasing discomfort. I bumped up the pace with a quarter mile to go and held it until I'd "covered" my planned distance.

It was definitely one of the hardest runs I've done in the last four weeks and I was glad that I didn't back off on my speed, even as the run got tougher. I need to maintain that mindset as I go through my Dirty Sock training. Even without Chris to push me or the challenges at Stillwell, I think made some good conditioning progress today.

Speed decline, is it nature or nurture?

My story in two axis

Today's run (street): 3.25 miles

Conditions were near perfect when I went out for my morning run. The 7:00 AM sun was low enough to cast great shade along my route and the air felt cool and dry. The neighborhood was quiet, with just a few cars and a couple of walkers. I moved along well and thought about the fact that my running performance has suffered greatly this year.

A few years ago, I would average around 27 minutes for a three mile training run. Over time, my normal training pace has edged up almost a minute per mile. Back in 2010, I went out on every run with a pace goal in mind, and I was racing far more frequently than I have this year. That may explain some of the loss of speed.

I'm not willing to concede any performance drops to age at this point. Although I really want to run for the sake of running, I do find myself thinking about turnover and stride length while on the road. If I look at my pace on the Garmin during a run, I'm often surprised by how much effort it takes to break 9:00 minutes.

Every time I find myself on a run, struggling to stay under 10:00/mile, I vow that I'll go back to doing core exercises and speed work at the track. Somehow I forget that commitment once I get home. I think it's time to get serious about speed. I'm due to run with a friend this week who tends to push me past my comfort zone. Maybe that's exactly what I need right now.

A good effort but the clock doesn't lie

Today's run (street): 4.3 miles

I had an early appointment that delayed today's run until mid-morning. The temperature at 10:00 AM was a reasonable 77°, but the sun was making it feel warmer than that. My plan was to go out fast and maintain the speediest pace I could, for as long as I could. I followed a route that would take me up and down the streets that run north of my house, and then head further south to round out the course.

I decided to check my watch at the half mile point to see what the Garmin was displaying for pace. The watch said 8:52, which seemed about right, and I figured that I could maintain that for 40 or 50 minutes. I didn't feel too overheated and I thought I was in for a run that was close to, or below, 9:00 per mile.

As it turned out, I began slowing down after passing the first mile. By the time I reached three miles, I saw that my pace was 30 seconds off my targeted range. It bothered me that my performance did not match the level of effort that I was putting into the run. After downloading the Garmin and correcting for distance errors (the GPS accuracy has been abysmal this week), I saw that I'd run the first mile in nine minutes, but my pace had crept up into the mid-nine range until improving near the end.

The combination of heat and effort prompted me to cap my run at 40 minutes, for an overall pace of 9:23. I was disappointed with that result because I felt I'd pushed harder than normal. I wanted to break nine minutes, but I don't think I did all that badly. I'm planning to go longer (and probably slower) tomorrow. It's okay really. After the past week's running, I know what I'm capable of doing.

Bethpage run plan ruined by Barclays

Today's run (street): 6.3 miles

Last night I thought about heading to Babylon in the morning to run the Dirty Sock 10K. I planned to cover the same distance on today's run and thought it might be fun to do my workout as a race. I ultimately realized that signing up for the race but not running it all out would not work for me. And I knew I wasn't ready for either the course or the pace that I'd want to hit.

Instead, I went over to Bethpage to run the bike trail. With just four weekends before Cow Harbor, I knew I needed to work on my base and prepare for the Northport hills. When I got to the gate I was stopped by a guy who told me that there was no access to the parking lot or trails due to the Barclays 2012 golf tournament that's being held on the Black course.

That was disappointing. I thought the parks were for the people, not for the banks that sponsored golf events. It's not as if I wanted to sneak over to watch. The only thing more boring to me than playing golf is watching other people play.

With no opportunity to run at Bethpage, I headed back to my neighborhood. I considered the routes I could follow to cover 6 miles and decided to run to the business park that has a long loop and some hilly sections. After one time around the park, I cut over to neighborhood #3 and made my way through to Woodbury Road where I continued east.

The per capita income of Woodbury NY is one of highest in the country, yet the condition of the sidewalks along its busy main road is terrible. The grass overgrows the pavement, the concrete is uneven and tree branches hang down so low that some sections are barely passable. I managed to get through it without slowing down too much, and I cut north into a neighborhood to bypass the worst sections on the way back.

I was fortunate to have cool temperatures and moderate humidity throughout most of the run, but I ended up soaked with sweat just the same. It was a solid effort and I was pleased to cover the distance this morning. I had no regrets for having missed Dirty Sock after three consecutive years of running it. But I do regret that Bethpage will be closed to runners until after August 30.

A reason to appreciate my next good run

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

Tuesday's post contained a quote about relishing bad runs so that you'll appreciate the good ones. I had plenty of reason to relish this morning because I ran my route over a minute slower than yesterday. I knew I was in for a disappointing time from the beginning. I may have improved my pace in the second half, but it was fairly pathetic effort.

Every weekday morning I question my expectations for performance. I'm out of bed at 3:45 AM and standing on my driveway ten minutes later. While I'm definitely a morning person and a morning runner, I understand that my body may not respond as well after abruptly waking up  from a sound sleep. Sometimes it does respond and other times, like today, it doesn't.

Today my legs felt leaden and that affected the fluidity of my form. Affected in the sense that I had no form. The residual tiredness, that I usually lose after a few minutes during these runs, remained. On Tuesday and Wednesday I'd pushed myself at certain times and ended up with decent overall paces. I had no appetite for that today and kept both my effort and heart rate low.

In the end, I was disappointed to see how slowly I had run. I was secretly hoping that the Garmin would show (despite my less than vigorous effort) that I'd actually flown through the course. The fact is that you get out what you put into a workout, and I contributed very little. So I'll relish this sub-par experience knowing how much I'll appreciate my next good run. Anyway, that's what I'm telling myself.

Reflecting on a mediocre race

The gloom of a dark, rainy Monday matches my mood perfectly this morning. One more weekend day would have been nice, even with this wet weather. Despite an hour's nap on Sunday, I think I need a recharge. I'm fairly certain that yesterday's race-day struggles relate to either a lack of sleep or fighting off a virus. I'm not sure there's anything in my training or preparation that I would have done differently.

While I am disappointed to have missed a PR by a large margin, I'm not down about my performance. One bad race is no longer enough for me to worry about my fitness or potential. I've been fortunate to experience most of my bad runs during training sessions, with the 2011 half marathon being a key exception. But yesterday felt like a really bad run.

I'm wondering if I should plan to go out tomorrow morning or take another day's rest before resuming my training schedule. At this point I'm not sure whether I'm better off getting back on the horse, or letting the horse rest a little longer.

Rough time at Stillwell Woods

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 3.1 miles

Some runs are easy and some are not. I can usually predict how I'll perform based upon how I feel before I start. I'm at my best between 7:00-11:00 AM and any time before or after that will rarely yield an extraordinary performance. The worst time for me to run is mid-afternoon, especially after a big lunch.

Knowing this, it won't be a surprise when I say that today's run at Stillwell was:

• Not Fun
• Very difficult
• Disappointing
• De-motivating
• 50% short of my intended goal

I'm on vacation this week, which is great, but there are a lot of things to do while I'm off. I spent most of the morning with the electrician, resolving some long term problems with one of our circuits. This forced me to push my run later in the day. We had also planned a Mexican-themed lunch that may have been a contributing factor in today's poor experience.

I headed to the trails at Stillwell Woods thinking that the rough terrain would provide a great excuse to run only for time, independent of pace. My goal was to go out for an hour and cover whatever distance I could.

I parked near the street, as far from the trail head as I could get. I set off along the paved drive that runs almost a kilometer before reaching the trail. I felt an energy deficit right away but hoped that, once I got going, things would improve.

When I reached the trail I became concerned whether I'd have enough energy to run my intended route. The paths were muddy in parts and I feared that I'd slip on the unstable surface. There was only one other person on the trail when I was running, a mountain biker, who passed me a couple of times in both directions.

I slogged on and did fairly well with the two steep sections that come along halfway through my usual loop. But by the time I reached two miles I felt like I'd done enough. I decided to head back to my car, which meant that I needed to cover just one more mile.

I usually love the experience of running at Stillwell, but today it was tough and uncomfortable. I'm going to blame the time of day and the fact that I had a big lunch prior to my workout. Tomorrow is another day. I'm hoping it will be a better day for running.

Tough end to my taper

Today's run (street) 2.25 miles

I had planned today's run, my last before Cow Harbor, to be an easy workout that affirmed my readiness for the race on Saturday. I wore my Brooks GTS-10's to protect my Achilles and looked forward to a pleasant run. It didn't quite go as planned.

I double checked that the Garmin was recording properly as I took my first steps toward the road. No problems there. Instead of my expected slow but rolling gait, my stride felt off balance and I experienced some pain in my left shin. My legs felt heavy and my energy level was half of what it was yesterday. I considered stopping and returning home but decided to tough it out. My plan was to run slow and that wasn't going to change.

I'm not sure why I was feeling off today, but it was both physical and mental. I've had a busy week in the office and that continues today, so perhaps it's fatigue as much as anything else. I made it through my run though I changed the route and covered less distance than usual. I felt the workout after all and I'm hoping that whatever afflicted me this morning will be gone by Saturday morning.