Runsketeer run at the Massapequa Preserve

Me, SIOR, virtual KWL, JC & TPP

Today's run (Massapequa Preserve trail): 3.1

The Runsketeers got together today (at the Massapequa Preserve) for the first time since late November. We almost ended up at SUNY Old Westbury out of concern that yesterday's snow would make the trail unrunnable. SIOR, who is training for Boston in April, had a long run planned today and got to the Preserve early to gain miles before we arrived. She texted us that the trail was fine so we all met there at 9:00 AM.

We had a complete crew today that included me, SIOR, KWL, TPP and JC. We were glad to see each other but quickly hustled onto the trail. There was a guy standing with his barking dog that SIOR said had been in that spot all morning. Better a dog on a leash than some of the other weirdness that goes on at the Preserve these days. I took it slow for two reasons. One because it was slippery. Two, because I'm slow. TPP and JC took off ahead of us, KWL eventually caught up with them and SIOR and I carefully made our way through the snow and ice covered sections.

I'm still coming back from a couple of weeks where most of my aerobic activity consisted of coughing and not running. I'd run about 6.5 miles since Friday, but today's weather and trail conditions discouraged me from going more than 3.1 miles today. SIOR and I were able to chat easily through our out-and-back. We took refuge in her monster truck to stay warm until KWL joined us after completing 5+ miles. The three of us hung out until TPP and JC returned from their 7 mile journey.

Unfortunately KWL needed to leave earlier than planned and couldn't join us for aprés run coffee. The four of us made our way to Starbucks and commandeered a long table where we exchanged holiday gifts. I think this counts as the Runsketeer holiday party. SIOR gave me two ways to keep my hands warm - an awesome pair of UA running gloves and two packet hand warmers. Both will be well used. TPP gave me a couple of Daily Burn CDs which will finally force me to pay attention to my upper body.

The four of us talked a lot about running and TPP and I compared our PBs for 5K, 4 miles, 10K, and half marathons. She beat me by either a little (3 seconds on the 5K) or a lot (3+ minutes on the 10K). I wished I'd mentioned 8K, because I may have won that one since she probably hasn't raced that distance.

We talked about endurance events and I asked JC what part of a triathlon is the hardest. He said none of it is hard. In fact he said an Iron Man is a piece of cake because you have 17 hours to finish. Actually he said SIOR could do it in less than a day and I could do it in a week. I wonder if I should be insulted by that. I always thought a week was more than 17 hours. Maybe triathlon math is different than regular math.

We missed KWL, but I put him in the picture above. That was his picture from the last time the Runsketeers got together. This picture was the best of about five that I took today. SIOR was making faces in one (big surprise) and my phone distorted at the edges and made TPP (who is extremely fit) look like a candidate for the Biggest Loser.

It was great getting to be with my buddies all morning. I'm excited that I'll get to see them again soon when we all go to see the movie Patriot's Day. Due to the icy roads, I'm probably going to stay inside and do my fourth weekend run on the treadmill tomorrow. If I'm feeling ambitious I will take a crack at the Daily Burn vids. I really hope we have a thaw this week so I can run outside and use my cool new running gloves on Friday.

Frozen face syndrome

Saving face

Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

Winter in January can be brutal and we got a taste of that today. The news was displaying 24° this morning and the howling wind made it seem even colder. I debated staying inside and running on the treadmill until I became distracted with a home electronics project. After finishing that, I bundled up and headed outside to face the freezing cold.

"Feels like" winter

I knew I'd be dealing with wind chill, so I went with track pants, two top layers, plus a windproof jacket, mitten-gloves, fleece hat and the buff that KWL gave me. The buff turned out to be my most valuable piece of gear, protecting my face from the 14 MPH winds. No matter how hard I try, I can never get my clothes completely right. My core got fairly warm, but my extremities bordered on freezing throughout the entire run.

At one point in the run, a neighbor yelled from his front porch, "Boy oh boy, this is some cold running weather!" I replied, "Grab your shoes and join me!" He laughed and wished me luck.

Although the roads were clear of snow, there were patches of ice that I was careful to avoid. The wind, cold, and my freezing face tempted me to head home to the treadmill after a mile. I decided to tough it out and was glad that I did. Running a little distance yesterday should have primed me for a more energetic run today. Unfortunately I had trouble generating speed except in those cases when I was running downhill with the wind to my back.

This will be another tough work week and, once again, I'll need to go into the office rather than work from home on Friday. That will impact my running schedule, but I'll try to fit in an elliptical session or treadmill run one night this week.

BMImpossible

Off target

Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

It's always nice to have a three day weekend, because it gives me an extra day to run during the week. If I'm lucky, the weather will cooperate. Unlike yesterday when the rain chased me indoors, today looked sunny and clear. Except for the near freezing temperature, it looked like ideal conditions for a run.

I dressed for cold but didn't put on too many layers this time. I stepped outside and confirmed that my gear matched the weather. I noticed that the driveway, that was covered by a shadow, had a thin coating of ice. When I reached the sunnier road I was happy to find it ice-free. That happiness was short-lived. By the time I reached the half mile point, I was dealing with patches of ice where the sun didn't reach the road.

It wasn't bad enough to stop, but I needed to be careful. I put aside any thoughts of performance and focused on landing on my mid-foot to maximize my stability. I didn't have any close calls like yesterday, but it didn't make for a very pleasant experience. For a fairly short run, it was exhausting.

I've continued to watch my portion sizes and have already lost a few pounds (I believe this is the primary reason women resent men). Based on the advice I recently got from a nutritionist, I did 12 push ups after finishing my run. I considered doing 15, but didn't want to invite upper arm soreness on top of of my diminishing (but still present) sciatica. Fellow running blogger Renee recommended the Matt Fitzgerald site to calculate my ideal racing weight and BMI (see graphic at top). Will I get down to 14.8% body fat? That would be a no.

Slipping and sliding, inside and out

Unstable on every surface

Today's run (street/treadmill): 5.1 miles total [1.5 street, 3.6 treadmill]

Per yesterday's post, I've fallen into a distance rut by keeping every run in 2015 (but one) under 4 miles. Some of that is related to the sciatica I've recently developed and my concern about aggravating its root cause.  Other excuses factors included a very busy period at work and a tight schedule on weekends.

I was determined to cover at least five miles this morning. The early weather reports said that today's rain wouldn't start until after 10:00 AM. I figured that starting at 8:00 AM would mean dry and clear roads. That was true for the first few minutes, but then a light rain starting falling. I was okay with that, but the 35° temperature made the road slippery underfoot.

I tried to tough it out, but the risk of falling increased as the rain fell harder. I decided to head home rather than deal with a dangerous, unstable surface. Disappointing, but a practical move. I immediately headed upstairs and got on the treadmill to complete my workout. The 1.5 miles outside warmed me up enough to start fast. Unfortunately, like the road, the treadmill presented a slippery situation.

Our Sole F63 has a lot of problems and one of them is that the tread belt jerks randomly, especially when the speed is increased. My desire to get through a treadmill run as quickly as possible is limited by this issue. Slipping at race pace can be scary. As a consequence, I keep the speed around 6 MPH and deal with it.

I managed through 3.6 miles on the Sole on top of what I covered during my outside run. I exceeded 5 miles for only the second time since New Year's day. We haven't had nearly as much snow this January as we did last year, so I may catch a break next weekend and put in some mileage. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow, but I'll do something.

Snowy, icy Bethpage run

Stretching the definition of "great shape"

Today's run (Bethpage State Park): 3.75 miles

This morning I looked out the window and determined that the roads were too messy for running. With the temperature stuck below zero since last Thursday's snowfall, there was still ice along the curb and snow on the sidewalks. I'd heard a tip that the dirt trails at Bethpage were in "great shape." That got me out early for a run in the park.

It was very cold so I wore numerous layers, more than I needed as it turned out. When I arrived at Bethpage, I encountered a group of runners making their way downhill along the main driveway. Seeing people running off the trail was my first sign that the paths were in pretty bad shape.

The lot was barely plowed but I parked in one of the few open spots. I decided to run up to the north path extension and then cut over onto the dirt paths at the first trail head. There were a surprising number of runners braving the thick coating of icy snow on the paved trail, but no one followed me into the woods when I turned in.

Off the snowy beaten path

From what I was told, I'd expected the paths in the woods to be in better shape than the main trail. In fact, they were a mess, with thick snow along the edges and rutted ice at the center. Neither easy nor safe to run. I followed the route back to the main trail and then headed south on the snowy paved path. My plan was to head back toward the lot and run on the road as that group was doing when I arrived.

No chukkers in the snow

Before I made it all the way there, I noticed that a path leading into the soccer and polo fields was clear. With nothing to lose, I followed it around and saw that it looked clear all the way to the golf course. I'd been chased out of this area in the summer because no running is allowed during the season, but I had little concern about that this morning.

View from the 12th hole

The path continued southeast and I followed it all the way to its termination point on Round Swamp Road. There were a few steep downhills that became noticeable hills on the way back. When I reached the south side of the polo field, I saw that I could continue on the clear path southwest. I stayed on that until I reached a wider snowier road that took me back to the north trail head and ultimately back to the lot.

Looking north from Round Swamp Road

I crossed paths with the same group of men and women at different points during my run. They were moving along well despite the snowy surface. I last saw them entering the woods as I was getting into my car. Based on all the places I spotted them, I'm guessing they were covering close to ten miles. All my layers contributed to overheating, except for my face that was freezing for most of the run. I had hoped to cover at least four miles today, but conditions were ultimately difficult.

Later, when I got back to my neighborhood, I spotted a few people running on the road. The streets looked clearer than when I looked in the early morning (probably due to the sun) and I realized, if I'd waited, it probably would have been safe to run them. No matter, I got to run some new parts of Bethpage Park on a combination of trails, pavement and golf cart paths. I may not have covered my targeted distance, but I had a great workout. When I got home I did ten push ups. Just because I could.

The freezing rain workout

 

Today's run (treadmill): 3.1 miles

Yesterday morning did not work out for a run. The overnight snowfall was saturated with freezing rain and my schedule was too tight to allow time for both shoveling and doing a workout. I was due to give a webinar later in the morning, preceded by some planning calls. Weather conditions were so bad they closed the schools and I figured that was due to the ice covered roads.

We only received a few inches of snow so I thought I could easily push it off the driveway. That was a bad assumption. The weight of this snow made it hard to move it more than a couple of feet. A full shovel's worth of the stuff probably weighed over 30 pounds. I figured out a way to clear the drive and walk, but it took me three times as long as it did during the last snowfall. After about 40 minutes, my wife was able to join me and that cut the time considerably. No run yesterday, but I did get a good upper arm workout.

The still icy roads made the treadmill my only option this morning. I could have also used the elliptical, but I wanted to run. I had an early call scheduled, so I set the speed slightly faster than my comfort level. If everything went according to plan, I'd be able to finish, shower and still have a few minutes before the start of the call. I ended up cutting it close, but I made it. I was very tired by the end.

I'm in there!

Earlier this week I received my first copy of Footnotes, the Greater Long Island Running Club's (GLIRC) official magazine. That, added to my recently received GLIRC 2014 calendar, made me feel like a real member. It was interesting to see that there are group activities listed in the magazine that don't seem to be on the website (if they are they're hard to find). Looking further, I saw that I was mentioned as a new member. Yay!

Black ice and snowy running at Bethpage

One of the clearer spots on the trail

Today's run (Bethpage State Park): 4.3 miles

Enough was enough after two weeks of nothing but indoor running. I felt the need to get outside and reacquaint myself with the road. My neighborhood streets have pretty much cleared and yesterday's "warmer" temperatures exposed a lot more of the sidewalks. Safer for running, but not ideal. Assuming the Bethpage bike trails would be similarly clear, I figured that would be a better bet. This is why I don't gamble.

I'd traded Facebook notes this morning with The Petite Pacer (TPP) and She Is Out Running (SIOR) and mentioned my plan to run at Bethpage Park. TPP expressed some interest in running there as well. I wasn't sure I would be heading there, but I hoped I'd see her if I did. When I arrived I was disappointed to see that the trails were covered in white. The only views of the pavement came from the narrow tire-tracked sections.

View of the southern trail head

I parked in the lot and was delighted to see TPP's very distinctive car pull in a minute later. I think I surprised her when I walked over while she prepared her gear. We noted the poor condition of the trails and started our run at the northern trail head along the 4" of exposed asphalt. Soon enough, we reached sections consisting only of ice over snow. This forced us to the edges, that were a more stable crusty snow.

Most of our running required side stepping between tire exposed asphalt, packed (but not icy) snow and compressed leaves flattened by vehicle traffic. I followed TPP for the most part, and she did a great job of guiding us through the more treacherous segments. Every once in a while she'd point to black ice. I did have a couple of missteps along the way, but thankfully nothing that caused a fall.

Can you believe we just ran that?

My plan, after seeing the poor trail conditions, was to cover four miles rather than my original target of five. My reasoning was that every step I took was a potential chance for a spill. That, along with the additional work that was required to avoid hazards, made four miles a great workout. We returned to our starting point where I finished my run and TPP headed off to do another couple of miles.

I would have liked to cover a little more distance today, but perhaps I will tomorrow. The temperatures are supposed to remain above freezing through the weekend, so I may try a neighborhood run on Sunday. With most people staying home to watch Superbowl pre-game shows, the roads may be fairly free of traffic. At the very least, I won't be dealing with the hazardous conditions I saw at Bethpage this morning.

Glittery roads lead to an indoor challenge

From sparkly to sludgy

Today's workout (treadmill speed and elevation run): 50 minutes

The snow began falling last night when I left the office and it had coated the streets and lawns of my neighborhood by the time I got home. The reflections from the streetlamp revealed ice in the mix, prompting my daughter to compare it to glitter poured all over the road. By morning, that beautiful scene had changed to a dangerous combination of dirt and ice and my only choice would be an indoor workout.

The freezing cold has made outdoor running hard over the past week and I've grown tired of the treadmill. I wished we'd already received our new elliptical because it would have been the perfect workout for this cold morning. With no other options, I headed to the treadmill with some new ideas about the run.

Since it was the weekend, I had more time for my workout. I decided to focus the first half of my run on elevation and the second half on speed. I started with 1% elevation and increased that every few minutes until I hit 4%. I maintained the same speed throughout these elevation increases and watched my heart rate climb toward zone 4. At the 15 minute mark I began stepping down the elevation. At 25 minutes I was down to 1% and soon leveled off while blipping up my speed.

It was tough to get through the first 25 minutes with both the elevation and the indoor heat. I began to feel a second wave of energy around the 30 minute mark and wondered if it was induced by ketosis. I took full advantage and increased my speed periodically until my heart rate reached my target. I maintained that pace through the remainder of the run.

It was a really tough workout, far more challenging than my usual treadmill session. I was pleased with today's effort and glad that the speed and elevation workout had distracted me from the tedium  of the treadmill. Tomorrow I hope to be back on the road or trail. I'd like to cover enough miles to reach my weekly goal.

Even with this freezing weather, my friend KWL is planning to run his first half marathon tomorrow morning in Central Park. I'm wishing him the best, and I know that he'll do well. I'll be thinking of him and my friend FS (who will do this Half or a different run) while we all go out in the 18 degree temperatures. Why do we do it? That's probably a good subject for a future post.

Stillwell trail run, frozen paths and a near collision

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 3.9 miles

I was hoping to get a trail run in over my last vacation but the timing never worked out. I did manage to cover a lot of miles during my time off, but the only time I traveled to run was the Hangover Fun Run on New Year's Day. I was determined to get back to Stillwell this morning, where I did my first trail run of 2013.

It has been cold all week and today was no different. I dressed for freezing temperatures, including a base layer under my running pants. I was glad to have layers top and bottom when I stepped out of the car at Stillwell Woods to start my run.

The trail head and the main trail leading from it were covered with ice. I needed to step carefully as I made my way to an interior trail. There were a number of mountain bikers getting ready in the parking lot and I wondered how they'd fare on the slick and frozen surface. I never did see a biker on the path today. Perhaps they rethought their workouts after seeing the condition of the trails.

I wore my Helly Hansen Trail Lizards that eat up rough terrain. Their only shortcoming is the lack of a rock plate, which is normally a non-issue. Today it would have been provided great benefits, as the interior trails consisted of mud that was grooved by bike tires and refrozen as hard as rock. I needed to watch the trail closely to avoid slipping on the uneven surface.

About half a mile into the woods, I detected movement behind me. Thinking it might be bikers I moved to my right and soon saw two runners passing me on my left. There was no courtesy "Thank you", which is fine, but I would have liked to know there was a third runner trailing behind them. I had just started to move back to the center when the third runner came along, and we almost collided. People generally say, "On your left!" in those situations but these guys were jerks.

I did my usual loop a couple of times and noticed that, in the short time I'd been running, the sun had started to melt the ice. What had been frozen earth became soft and slippery mud and I needed to adjust for that. I saw a few people out walking with their dogs but no other runners today. I completed my second loop feeling like I'd worked fairly hard, even for a run that didn't quite go four miles.

Overall, it was a decent trail run. My last trail run went poorly (at Caleb Smith) and I appreciated the difference. I'm not sure where I'll run tomorrow, but today I'm happy to have had another great experience in the woods.

Icy trails at Stillwell and a talking robot at my side

Treacherous going on the trails

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 3.2 miles

I had high hopes that the recent warm temperatures had melted the snow on the trails at Stillwell Woods. After days of 40, 50 (and briefly, 60) degree temps I thought that was a reasonable expectation. I was very surprised to see that the local temperature was 19 degrees this morning and when I arrived at Stillwell I saw that the melted snow had refrozen into ice and hard icy snow. I wore my Helly Hansen Trail Lizards in anticipation of rough terrain and set off over the packed but rutted ice and snow. I was still hoping that the interior trails would be bare and more runnable, perhaps protected from the canopy above.

I wore my Garmin and also brought along my iPhone to capture my route using MotionX. It had been a long time since I carried the iPhone on a run and used that app. The app has been updated numerous times since then and after the first minute a robotic female voice said "You have run for one minute and have traveled zero-point-one-0 miles. Your pace is ten minutes per mile." That spooked me but then I realized that my robot friend would be "updating"me on progress every minute going forward. I considered switching off the MotionX app but decided that I'd just let it go as I didn't want to play with my iPhone while I ran on these tricky trails.

The trails were covered by hard snow rutted with impressions from hikers, runners, animals and mountain bikers. I didn't sink into the snow but the ruts that were formed when the temperatures were higher were a few inches deep and a misstep would easily result in a sprain or fall. There were small exposed dirt channels at the edge here and there and I ran on those when I could. The progress reports from MotionX kept coming and I couldn't believe each time that another minute had passed. I enjoy a hard challenge, especially on the trails, but I was growing concerned that I'd trip on a rut and get hurt. I followed the path back to the open field and finished my run with two laps around the perimeter. The field was mostly devoid of snow because the sun had gotten to it so my last mile was on muddy dirt and grass.

I was happy to be back to the woods for the first time in 2011 and it was a different kind of workout than I'd expected to get. I was so happy to have chosen the Helly's for the job today. I'm going to head to Bethpage State Park this week and get an Empire Passport so I can get free access into the NY State Parks where I normally have to pay admission. It will be nice if Bethpage's bike trail is clear when I go there. The 14 mile out-and-back route (or 10 or so miles of it) would be a good kick start to my half marathon training.

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.

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.

Tough going on snowy roads

Today's run (street): 4.1 miles

With all the attention that I've been giving to running a half marathon you'd think I'd been working hard to build up my base mileage. Between August and November I was doing a good job of mixing distance runs into my weekly training schedule and I credit that work to achieving consecutive PR's on my last two 10K's. I had a few high mileage weeks between Thanksgiving and early December but since my 10.2 mile run at Bethpage on 12/11 I've only done one run that exceeded 6 miles. I can blame that (somewhat) on feeling under the weather mid December after my flu shot and then dealing with actual weather obstacles (snow) between Christmas and New Year. The snow prevented easy access to higher distance locations like Bethpage and Stillwell on the weekends.

I went out this morning with the intention of covering 3-5 miles. After yesterdays snowfall the streets are fairly clear for cars but it's still somewhat icy for foot traffic. I figured I could run safely without a sidewalk escape path if I was extra vigilant and I had no issues with the local traffic today. It was 25 degrees outside when I started my run and I dressed appropriately. I took the first mile slow, partially because I didn't feel that energetic and partially due to the icy, snowy layer underfoot. I think that the constant but slight adjustments for balance tired me out quicker than I'd expected. I found a pace that I could sustain without too much trouble and after winding through a number of streets I reached my house after covering 4.1 miles.

It was one of the toughest 4 mile runs I can recall, far more taxing than some I've done at twice the distance. I hope the temperature rises above the freezing mark and melts the ice enough to make tomorrow's run a little more stable. Of course we're hearing about more snow tonight so I may end up working out indoors on Sunday. I'm really hoping that won't be the case.