Once, twice, three times a lady runner

Today's route

Today's run (street): 3.4 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 4.7 miles

Yesterday morning was rainy, so I stayed indoors and cranked out a decent run on the treadmill. The music mix was worse than usual, causing me to toggle between multiple channels to escape a string of slow ballads from the 70's and what seemed to be the worst songs recorded between 1980 and 1989. For example, anything by Cher. I followed my usual technique of upping the treadmill's speed by a tenth of a MPH every quarter mile (or so) and by the end I was in a full sprint mode.

This morning's run was delayed due to an early morning appointment, but I still managed to get out the door a little before 9:00 AM. The weather was mild (57°) except when the wind hit. I dressed light and stayed comfortable. There are only so many roads to run in my neighborhood and the challenge is to string together a route that somewhat breaks the monotony. It can be as simple as running a street in the opposite direction than I usually run it.

Today I began with a run around the grounds of the middle school and while rounding the front drive I noticed another runner coming from the opposite direction. As we got closer, I recognized her from other runs. This woman probably has two decades on me but she's always out there, wearing her purple running jacket with a matching hat. We exchanged cheery hellos as we passed by.

About five minutes later I was heading up a different road when this woman and I crossed paths again. This time we exchanged shy waves. I thought that was that until I rounded another road and saw her once again in the distance. She wasn't fast but she got around. As she got closer, I saw her go up on the sidewalk and run on top of some driveway edging stones. When we passed, she said, "I have to do something to make this fun!" I could see TPP doing the exact same thing 30 years from now.

I had hoped that yesterday's good workout would continue into today, but I ended up having only a so-so run. That was okay because even a mediocre run is better than none. I'm thinking about a trail run and may return to Stillwell tomorrow. The last time I ran there I had a bad fall and now I'm a little gun shy. I love Stillwell too much for that to hold me back. So maybe.

There's nothing acute about Plantar Fasciitis

This heel pain is making me nutty

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

If you're ever looking for ways to ruin your appetite, I suggest looking up foot pain on Google Images. I did that, and I'm now confident in saying that the foot is our ugliest external body part. The reason why I was looking at feety things was because I've been experiencing acute foot pain in my heel that the Internet thinks is Plantar Fasciitis. I usually associate the word Plantar with mixed nuts, but this seems to be something different. I learned, in terms of pain, that acute means short term and chronic is long term. At least that's what the trainer person said in an infomercial that I couldn't switch off because the remote was out of reach.

Whether my pain is here to stay or just visiting, I can tell you it's very annoying. I first started experiencing discomfort at the bottom of my left heel about three weeks ago. Interestingly enough, that's when one of my co-workers generously donated his standing pad to me because he decided that using a standing desk was dumb. Prior to using that pad, I had no pain in my heel. It seems counter intuitive that a pad made specifically to reduce leg fatigue for people who stand for long periods would create this problem. But when it comes to feet, all bets are off.

Plantar Fasciitis is a strange affliction. I'm not really sure what it is. As a matter of fact, I don't think anyone actually knows what it is. If you look it up, it's blamed for just about anything having to do with foot pain. My particular problem is when I put pressure on my heel it hurts. The pain is fairly sharp (one might even say "acute"), but it minimizes once I walk around on it. So far it hasn't interfered with my running, although it is noticeable at the start.

I did treadmill runs yesterday and today. They were fairly identical except that Saturday's music had more Sheila E while today's had more Prince. I think Price wrote some of Sheila E's songs so technically they were identical. But I digress. My treadmill experiences have been good of late, mostly because I limit my distance to 3.25 miles. My friends SIOR and KWL and a few work colleagues often spend well over an hour on the treadmill. I can't do that anymore but I can psych myself up to cover about 5K.

Despite this heel pain, I seem to be covering a lot of ground. According to my Garmin 35, I've taken about 14K steps today. A chunk of that was my morning run and another chunk was when I walked to the library to return a DVD. In both cases my heel pain was minimal. How it felt afterwards was a different story. I'm going to look up things you're supposed to do to address heel based Plantar Fasciitis. I'm also going to take a break from my standing mat to see if that makes it better or worse. If going mat-less makes it better, I'm going to give it to someone in the office whom I dislike. Maybe that's how I got it in the first place.

Great treadmill run. This is not a typo.

Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day

Today's run (treadmill): 3.5 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3. 2 miles
Tuesday's run (treadmill): 1.25 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 4.1 miles

It snowed this week and the streets have been very unfriendly for runners. The treadmill likes to use these times to prove its worthiness to me. Over the years I have learned to appreciate the indoor option but that doesn't mean I particularly like it. Our FreeMotion machine has been a big improvement over the tortured Sole F63 it replaced and I am grateful for that. Today it was my hero.

I worked from home on Tuesday. Although I had an early video call, I managed to squeeze in a short treadmill run. Very short. But every mile counts and I'm counting that one. I worked from home on Thursday, but limited my exercise to multiple shoveling sessions in order to get through 13" of snow. It turned out to be a good leg and upper body workout, especially when digging out the huge snowbanks at the end of our driveway that were left by the town plows.

I stayed home yesterday because the Long Island roads were still a big mess. I dutifully hopped on the treadmill and cranked out a three miler, the same distance I would have done had I been able to run on the road. I approached yesterday's run like a 5K, starting easy and increasing speed as I went. The last half mile was run about two minutes per mile faster than I've been averaging this year.

This morning I noticed that the streets were relatively free of ice and snow. Unfortunately, the sidewalks were buried under three feet of snow, leaving no place to escape from cars on the road. I elected to run inside.

For those of you who are expecting me to write about how today's treadmill run was just terrible because treadmills are soooo boring I'm afraid I must disappoint. I put on the cable music channel and was rewarded with some great songs. I only wore my Kinvaras and compression shorts and set the treadmill's fan to "stun", so I felt cool and dry most of the way through. I didn't attempt the same challenging pace as yesterday, so the run felt much easier. Dare I say, enjoyable?

Even though I could have gone longer, I elected to cap it at 3.5 miles. Rather than duplicate Friday's progressively faster pacing that left me worn out by the end, I finished feeling energized. I liked that feeling and the treadmill is my friend. At least for today. Tomorrow may be a different story.

Musically mindless on the treadmill

Rock on, but watch your back

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.4 miles

Happy President's Day. While my Runsketeer buddies were doing 8-12 mile runs out in the freezing cold this weekend, I took the path of least resistance. That would be the treadmill, and it's probably more disinterest than resistance. I've bashed the treadmill enough this weekend, so no more complaining until next week.

I've determined that watching scripted TV shows doesn't work for me when I run indoors. I have a lot of trouble concentrating on the dialog and plot. I do better with news but they run the same stories over and over. That repetition eventually becomes tedious and the commercial breaks are frequent and long. However, I think I've found my solution: music.

Instead of watching the news yesterday, I switched to one of the cable music channels. I listened to 70's music which didn't require any concentration. Perfect. I occasionally switched to a different station when a slow ballad came on, because faster tempo songs better matched my stride rate. I did the same this morning and had to admit that listening to music made the time go by much faster.

I used to listen to music when I ran outdoors, but I stopped due to safety concerns. I also used to listen to Pandora, but the Sole treadmill would pass along big shocks through my headphones. Our FreeMotion machine is far better behaved and I can probably go back to doing that without fear of electrocution. Plus the treadmill has big speakers that would negate the need for headphones.

In the case of my source of music I'll probably end up following the path of least resistance once again and stick with the cable music station. It's easy and there's no commercials, unless you count the ads for geriatric home care and other products targeted to the 70's channel demographic.

Forced ageism on the treadmill

Demographically insulted

Today's run (treadmill): 3.6 miles

I knew it was going to rain this morning but I thought I might be able to fit in a run before the weather changed. As often happens on Saturday mornings, I got a little too comfortable settling in with a big cup of Green Mountain Double Black Diamond Extra Bold (thanks again Bill!) and watching the news. Time passed until I finally managed to tear myself from a hard hitting news story about dog racism and headed upstairs to change.

My wife is extremely disciplined about getting things done and that includes her daily workout. When I got upstairs, she was already halfway through her treadmill run. Knowing that I'd planned to run outside, she looked at me sympathetically and said, "You're probably better off using the treadmill rather than running outside that this point." A look outside supported that view. I got caught in the rain about halfway through yesterday's run. Although it only lasted a couple of minutes, I found it extremely unpleasant.

My run went fine. No heroics on the treadmill. I set a moderate pace and stayed with it throughout my targeted time. I got tired of switching the channel between the local news station, MSNBC, CNN and HLN every time they went to a commercial. I changed over to the Music Channels and was amused to see how the display ads differed depending on the type of music selected. The Classic Rock and Soft Rock stations kept showing an ad with an older guy holding a cane, with the headline "Having Difficulty with your Knees?"

Each time they showed that, I felt like yelling, "How dare you infer that I need your services just because I choose to listen to the Steve Miller Band! I'm running!" (actually I may have yelled it once). In the end, today's workout was exactly what I needed. I'd planned to throw in some fartleks, but SIOR made the point that I should not be focusing that much on speed at this point. Unlike some recent runs, today's felt energizing and I had no breathing issues or fatigue. Perhaps the warmer weather is helping. And not a moment too soon.

Running to positive distraction

 

Today's run (treadmill): 5.1 miles

My hardcore running buddy SIOR was planning a long run today along the Bethpage bike trail. After so many treadmill runs over the past couple of weeks, I really wanted to get out and join her (and possibly the Petite Pacer) for a few miles. Once it became clear that the trail conditions were icy and snowy, I became concerned about slipping. Despite suggestions that included putting Slinkys and Brillo pads on my running shoes, I ended up chickening out.

If Bethpage wasn't going to be an option, I knew my opportunity for an outside run would be low. I finally accepted my fate and prepared for five miles of fun on the treadmill. And when I say fun, I mean horrible boredom. I managed to find a bunch of distractions before I finally acquiesced to the will of the Sole F63.

As it turned out, my run wasn't as tedious as I'd feared. Early on, I switched to the uppermost cable channels (Music Choice) that play music without commercials. This was great because I could listen without needing to wear headphones. I also liked that I could switch back and forth between genres. The only negative is that the names of the artists and songs are displayed in very small text and it was hard to read that from across the room.

I maintained a pace that provided a challenging but sustainable perceived effort. I noted that my heart rate's rose from 73% of max to 88% throughout the span of my run. I'm used to stopping my treadmill runs after 3 to 3.5 miles (due mostly to boredom) so going past 5 today was a testament to good distractions. I don't think conditions will change enough to get outside on Sunday, so I guess I'll do this again tomorrow.

Loathing this makes the treadmill more tolerable

Pretty sure I remember this happening before

Today's run (treadmill): 5.2 miles

Hey, has anyone notice that it snowed? Seriously, the news stations are treating this blizzard like the second coming of Sandy. For most people in the area, it was just a bunch of snow. But I do have sympathy for the thousands who lost their power last night. Sandy happened at the end of October when temperatures were generally in the low 40's. Freezing temps + no power = misery.

I was thrilled to see that we still had our power when I woke up this morning. The roads were covered in deep snow at 5:00 AM. My town supposedly received 18"-24" and I was glad that we'd chosen to let our landscaper plow the driveway, rather that go out in shifts every few hours to shovel. I actually enjoy the whole shoveling experience, but this seemed a more practical way to move that much snow.

The snowplows went to work around 7:00 AM and I decided that the streets were no place to be. I debated between the elliptical and the treadmill and chose the latter. Today's goal was five miles that I would run at a moderate pace. After a string of intense workouts, I wanted to ease up a bit while I still got some miles in. I wasn't running outside, but the view from the window was postcard pretty.

I have trouble hearing the TV when I'm on the treadmill so I usually watch the news. That's because it's more visual with lots of readable information on the screen. But today I just couldn't stand the repeating stories about the storm. Is it really that fascinating for people to hear that snow had fallen? Perhaps so. Instead of the news, I put on one of the commercial-free music channels provided by our cable company.

I started my run listening to really bad music. Most people like songs that connect them to positive experiences. For example, the music that was playing on a first date or during a fun event with friends will provide more meaning. Sometimes those songs are bad, but you love them anyway. The channel I chose was playing that whiny, tuneless rock from the 90's that is usually described as grunge. I dislike it, but I kept listening, because it helped distract my enmity for the treadmill.

It turned out to be a very good workout and I was glad that I picked a run over the elliptical. It looks like street conditions are not going to support safe running for the next few days so I'll remain inside. That being the case, I hope the TV news becomes more interesting. Or the music gets better.

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.

The JS Bach running method

Last night, just for fun, we hosted a Chinese New Year themed dinner party for some friends. We had a great time, the decorations were festive and (of course) we served Chinese food supplied by a local restaurant. The meal was a hit and it was easy to over indulge. Adding the desserts that my wife and daughter had baked, along with those brought by our guests, it made for a high calorie evening. One friend, also a runner, said that we'll have our work cut out for us on our Sunday runs.

I couldn't sleep past 4:30 this morning so I caught the replay of last night's Olympic events and went out early after pre-hydrating with a mixture of Zico coconut water and ground Chia seeds. I've incorporated Chia into my diet at least once a day since I bought my supply. It's hard to know if it's been beneficial but I've felt great since I've started using it and I haven't had a bad run all week. I set out with the intention of running a similar distance as yesterday's and, again, the experience of running felt great in the new Brooks. I smartened up and wore one less layer and wool socks and that worked out well. After a loop around the roads that connect to my street I went south and crossed over to neighborhood #2. I had not run there since December and it was a nice change of scenery. At about 1.5 miles I noticed that I was playing Bach's Cantata 147 in my head as I ran and the 3/4 time matched my cadence very well. I've been playing my classical guitar again, after some time away from it and this is a piece that I've been practicing. When I was concentrating on front foot running and increased steps/minute in December I was mentally following 4/4 timing. Today I realized that 3/4 is a more natural tempo for me (for non-musicians, 3/4 is like the beat to a waltz).

I exited back into my neighborhood and took a long loop around as I made my way home. Along the way I passed a few other runners, one of whom I knew. He was running with a friend who was driving a car alongside him, presumably to keep him company. Not exactly the way I'd do it. I felt so good as I ran that I extended my run another .75 mile and finished with a full five miles, another post-pneumonia distance milestone. My pace was unremarkable (mid-9:00's) but I'm more focused on endurance than speed right now as I prepare for the Stillwell XTERRA race in March. Once I'm past that I'll prioritize speed so to prepare for the Marcie Mazzola 5K in April.

Silence is golden

During my last race I noticed a number of runners were running with music players strapped to their arm or hung around their neck. I know that many people listen to music while they run and if it works for them, great. It's a personal decision and I'm sure it can be inspiring to attack an imposing hill or forcing yourself to do that extra mile accompanied by an energetic soundtrack.

I choose not to run with music for a few reasons. First, I find it distracting. For me the best thing about running is that it transports me to a quiet place where I can think - or not - as I move along. I've written about running at 4:00 AM and how much I enjoy the silence of that experience. Second, the need to wear ear buds as I run is a big annoyance. The one time that I tried it the tugging from the ear buds bothered me so much that I pulled them off and tossed them away. Fortunately I was on a treadmill so I could do that. When I saw those other runners listening to music while competing it made me think they were less serious about their commitment to the run. This is a race people!

Lest you think I'm some kind of hyper judgmental person I'll concede that music can be a great companion for some. Perhaps those in the race were using the music to help them focus. I know there is a Nike+ iPod app that coaches you as you run. Maybe these iPod wearers were actually doing it for competitive advantage. I will be getting an iPhone soon, primarily for business related research. I am thinking about whether I would try the MapMyRun or other location aware applications that use the GPS signal to communicate speed, distance and other metrics in real time. If I did that would I also consider listening to some music since I'm lugging the thing around anyway? I'm thinking I wouldn't but you never know.