Running Faster but Gait's A Disaster

In other words, I'm limping

In my April 14 post, I wrote about the way my blood pressure medicine was negatively affecting my running performance. A change in dosage made such a difference that I'm now running about 2 minutes per mile faster than my pace prior to March. 

While that's great, my lower back is not on board with it. Running harder seems to have triggered an old disc issue and on most runs my stride starts slightly unbalanced. This is likely due to nerve aggravation. This irritation has gone on for a few weeks and my aggravated nerves are beginning to aggravate me.
 

The problem minimizes after about 8 minutes into the run but it doesn't completely disappear and my antalgic gait appears to be costing me 30 to 45 seconds on my first mile. I really want that time back. I'm applying heat and ice to my lower back and have been doing active leg swings on the advice of Runsketeer TPP. It's helping, but recovery has been slow. 

In terms of performance, I looked at my running history on Garmin Connect and the data revealed a sharp drop-off in my pace that started in June 2017. 

This coincided with two interesting data points:

• My stride length shortened 8.5% compared to the prior six months. 
• My average cadence/SPM fell 8.6% over the same period.

I usually prefer downhill, but not in this case

Something caused this and I wanted to know what it was. Looking at my medical history at that time, I saw two things that happened around June 2017 that could explain it. 

• My doctor put me on blood pressure medication. 
• My ophthalmologist put me on a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor to address an eye pressure condition. 

I suspected that these drugs were negatively affecting my running, but I didn't know to what extent. Now that my BP medication is at the correct dosage and I'm no longer on that eye medication, my cadence and speed have returned to May 2017 levels. As great as that is, my stride length has not dramatically improved. I attribute that to my current back issue, so I still have a problem to solve.

I'm going to keep heating, icing and dynamic stretching and hopefully the nerve issues in my lower back will recede. If that happens, I think I may be able to improve my average pace by at least 30 seconds per mile. Will I ever get back to running well enough to credibly compete again? Well, that's the subject for another post.

900 miles is easy but running fast is hard

Hoping for 80 in December

Hello runners and the running adjacent! It's December 10th: the first night of Hanukah, the 12th day of the Advent and, most notably, national Dewey Decimal System Day. 

This is my first after-election post and while I try to stay non-political on this blog, I will say my faith in democracy has been restored by the 81 million people who voted for a return to trust, competence and decency. Let's move on, unify and hope that the next Attorney General puts the current president and his cadre of corrupt criminals in federal prison for a long time. If you don't like what I'm saying here, I invite you to comment below. But please share respectfully and don't put in a link to your stupid product website because I will delete that 🏃

Okay, now onto 2020. The pandemic is getting worse and we are "rounding the corner" into a horrible winter season (see what I did there?). So instead of not running the Seaford Hot Chocolate 5K in Seaford or the Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday run in Bethpage this year, I won't be running the virtual versions of those races. I don't want to race for a couple of reasons. First, I've slowed considerably and I'm self conscious about posting a pathetically weak finish time. Second, I don't really get virtual racing. The best thing about racing is being present with a a bunch of strangers and having the possibility of beating some random person over the line at the last minute. I've done it and I've had it happen to me. I'm talking to you TPP. 

I recently passed the 900 mile mark, my distance goal for 2020. I run between three and four miles every day except Mondays, and I could easily do a virtual 5K or 10K race. A couple of months ago I started looking at my running stats on Garmin Connect that go back to 2009. I saw that I'm running more miles than I ever had in any of the previous ten years. The difference of course is the quality of those miles. Back in 2011 most of my training runs were between 8:45 and 9:30 a mile, my average stride length was about .9 meters and my cadence was around 174. Things have changed.

A few months ago I decided to test the waters and see what would happen if I actually tried when I ran, rather than defaulting to a comfortable pace. Or as someone in the Running Lovers group in LinkedIn put it, "Slow mindful running." Up until that point I figured I'd just drop a couple of gears and roar back to when I was a mid-pack competitor. I set off on my next run with a pedal to the floor mindset, finished my run and checked my watch. Once my heart rate fell below the point where "vagal maneuvers" would be required, I saw the data.

I was nowhere near my past performance benchmarks but I did see a marked improvement against my running average. Yes, that's a pun. Subsequent runs at vagal imperiling speed brought marginal improvement. I started doing weekly speedwork hoping to unleash a little more speed but I finally reached my performance limit. I realized that in order to move to the next level, I would need to train longer and even harder. I'd have to do regular hill training, long distance runs and maybe even core work. I thought about it and decided to focus on holding the gains I'd recently made.

So now I go out and push myself a little harder than I had prior to this performance focus. I rate my  perceived effort for each run on Connect and most of the time it's between moderate (3) and hard (6). The scale goes to 10. Every once in a while I push myself to very hard (7) and my numbers reflect it. While it's nice to see the mirage of higher performance, it comes at the cost of pain and discomfort. If every run required a "no pain, no gain" mindset, I don't think it would be worth doing. Speed is a nice to have, but it isn't everything.

If you disagree please feel free to comment below 👇 

A Virtual Pacer with Real Results

Today's run on the Bethpage trail

Last February an ignorant orange man told the country that COVID-19 would soon disappear with the heat, "like a miracle." The only miracle is that, seven months later, 42% of the country still believes him. Sadly, we're pretty much where we were the last time I posted (April 28). If there's anything positive I can say about this, it's that on the road things are pretty much the same as they were pre-COVID. Socially distanced outdoor runs don't require runners to wear masks as long as the six foot rule is rigorously maintained. It's really not that hard to do.

It's been about sixteen months since I've had to commute to a job and my time is structured very differently these days. I now get 8 hours sleep every night and my stress level is pretty low. I give a lot of credit to my 6 day a week runs for keeping me healthy. However, I've recently realized that while daily cardio may be great for my vitals and heart health, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm actually in good athletic shape. Can I run five miles without stopping? Yes. Can I run five miles in 42 minutes like I used to? No. Nein. Nyet. 没有.  

During my last checkup in August I asked my doctor why my pace has gone from age group competitive to pathetically slow over the last five years. I'm running a lot more than I was back then and I couldn't understand why all this running wasn't making me any faster. My doctor looked at my chart and said, "Physically there's no reason. You must not be trying hard enough." I knew he was right. I was so inspired that I went out the next morning and did absolutely nothing different because trying was harder than floating through my run.

Since that doctor visit I did try making some changes to my technique that yielded modest speed increases. I focused on cadence and stride length intermittently during runs. The improvement was not dramatic but I did pick up about 30 seconds per mile. Knowing that a little extra effort yielded a marginal performance benefit, I started thinking about ways to really move the needle.

I did a search to see if there was anything online that would inspire me to try harder and I came upon an article about virtual pacers. My old Garmin 210 had alerts that beeped when your pace slowed below a set speed and I was surprised to find a video from DC Rainmaker that showed how to use the virtual pacer feature on my FR35. I had no idea that my watch even had this feature because getting to the menu is not intuitive. But I was able to configure it to beep if my pace went out of range.

Just hit Run > Run Mode > Virtual Pacer > Edit > Set...

My first run was scary because I was so afraid my watch would be beeping like an EKG, with each tone broadcasting my failure to keep on pace. But a funny thing happened. The only time it beeped was to indicate I was ahead or on pace. I was so fearful of the watch's judgement that I ran 1:20 faster than the threshold I'd set. It was like the movie Speed when Sandra Bullock needed to drive over 50 MPH or the bus would blow up. My run was like that but more stressful.

I've been using the virtual pacer (VP) feature on every run I've done since Friday and my pace has been over two minutes per mile faster on each of those runs. The VP is a great motivator but I needed to own the effort. It's a different experience going out with the gas pedal down from start to finish rather than wending my way through my route at a comfortable speed. The sad part is that I'm pushing very hard to run almost three minutes per mile slower than my former everyday running pace.

I'm determined to run 3+ miles at a 9-something pace by the end of the year. I went out to Bethpage this morning to torture myself on the hills and was pleased that I still paced well, even with my bête noire, the big hill that crests near the parking area. If I can keep this up, maybe I can again run alongside the cool kids: SIOR, KWL, Professor Mike and TPP.  Who knew that listening to the doctor could be so helpful!

When it comes to pace, some things are obvious

Dare to believe

Some things are so obvious that we ignore what's right in front of us. I think I may have figured out something that could get me out of the performance stasis that I have struggled with for a very long time.

I've worked hard over the past 3.5 months to get back to my old running self. Since May, I've been consistently running six days a week. This has resulted in a 4X increase in mileage per month compared to what I was doing prior to May. My runs are peaceful, almost meditative. Compared to where I was, this all seems great. But it's not all great.

 According to Garmin Connect, almost every one of my performance metrics are at their lowest points in over a year. Speed, cadence and stride length are down compared to last summer and way down from where they were when I last competed (2014). I know I'm five years older, but I don't accept this level of decline. Some of it may relate to the medication I take, but I'm now rethinking that theory.

Back to the obvious. Most runners who focus on performance understand the basics. The harder the effort, the higher your heart rate. The higher your heart rate, the faster you go. Higher effort yields more steps per minute. A longer stride gets you there faster. So if your average heart rate on a run is 60% of max, your runs will be peaceful and meditative. But your cadence will be low and your pace will be awful.

I've always been a little suspicious of HR monitors because they occasionally give readings that would trigger a trip to the ER if they were real. It's a known issue across all brands, Garmin, Polar, Suunto, etc. I noticed that my heart rate on most runs was pretty low but I chose to believe the monitor wasn't accurate. If I thought about it more, I would have realized that I had fallen into cruise control running and I had no one but myself to blame for my poor pacing.

I decided to run 10 x 160 meter intervals to see if I could match my performance from years ago. I couldn't hit those numbers, but the times were faster than anything I've recorded since 2015. More importantly, my heart rate, cadence and stride length for those ten repeats were strongly correlated to the fast paces. One might say that was an obvious result, but I still didn't connect it to my daily runs.

It wasn't until I started tracking my all-day heart rate that I concluded that the HR monitor was fairly consistent from day to day. I realized that I should believe the readings I was seeing on my run. And if those readings were barely cracking 60% of max HR, I needed to ramp up my effort.

I look good in blue

So I did. Starting Monday, I focused solely on my HR on my runs with a goal of 70-85% max. The results have not been dramatic, but I'm running almost 2 mins per mile faster than I was a week ago. It's no piece of cake and I can feel the effort, but it's tolerable. Per Garmin Connect, my V0₂ max has moved from good to excellent for my age.

My challenge going forward will be to continue pushing on every run in hopes of making a higher HR my new normal. I don't think I'll be getting back to 9:00 paces too soon, but at least I know what I need to do to get there.

I wish my run training worked like the movies

Another day, another 3.64 miles

There's a common trope in film, where the lead character goes all out training for a major challenge. There is usually one scene, played out in a series of quick cuts, showing the overwhelmed hero progressing beyond his or her physical limits. Typically, this is all done to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger." Two minutes later, the protagonist is ripped and ready to make something big happen.

I thought about that on my run this morning. Since I'm the hero of my own personal movie, I've set my sights on returning to performance levels I haven't seen for a few years. I'm not completely delusional. At my age, I know I'm not going to match my best times and that's okay. My issue is that I'm not where I feel I should be for my age range. In competition, I would usually finish between the 25th and 50th percentile (I placed best in 5Ks and worst in halfs). I'm not sure I'd even show up on the bell right now.

So my equivalent of this cinematic convention is the work I'm doing to build up my monthly mileage. In my movie, you would see a series of shots of me taking off on my daily runs, with a calender showing the day of the week superimposed transparently over my disappearing silhouette. In one shot, I'd pull up at the finish, look at my Garmin, and gasp at the evidence of improvement. My legs would bulge with muscle tone and I'd resemble one of those ectomorphs who start races in the front row and finish before most runners reach the halfway mark.

Well, in the 50 days since I rebooted my running approach, I've made some gains, but it's nothing dramatic. I've doubled my monthly distance in that time and my average run is a half a mile longer than it was in April. Despite all this running, my average pace has improved zilch. However, in the same period, my average heart rate during runs has dropped 8 bpm. That's telling me my fitness is improving, but I'm not taking advantage of it. I'm going to try to focus on that tomorrow to see if it's that simple. In the movies, the hero turns their hard work into victory. I'd settle for a mid-pack pace.

When your pace is slow, focus on the statistics

Saw this on a car in the REI parking lot today

Happy Father's Day. My goal of more frequent postings has been stymied (only six this year including today) but I'm definitely on track for running frequency. Over the 44 days since I finished up work on May 3rd, I've run 36 times (82% of days). Just to compare, I only did 33 runs from January 1st through April 30th (28% of days). So run frequency is good. End of statistical report.

June so far - 14 runs in 16 days

It's not all good news in the running department however. The three measures of progress I'm using are frequency, distance and speed. My plan is to meet a target for each point, hold that target and start focusing on the next point. I'm tracking just about 6 runs a week and have started to focus on increasing average distance per run. I'm going in the right direction, but the increase is small, up about 8% from May's average.

The third measure, speed, is my biggest challenge and I have done very little to address it. My pace is abysmal, but I'm hoping that by maintaining high run frequency and increasing distance, my fitness will unlock some of my old speed. I don't like being slow, but forcing my pace turns happy running into a dreaded chore. I guess I could go back to doing intervals which compartmentalize the discomfort. Once I reach my average distance goal, I'll start putting weekly track visits into my schedule.

I've been planning to buy a new hybrid bike to cross train. I'd like to ride some of the great bike trails on Long Island. Two of the other Runsketeers (TPP and KLM) are serious cyclists and I'm pretty sure Professor Mike knows his way around a bike. SIOR has a bike so she has one leg up on me. KLM has been giving me expert advice and will be helping me make a purchase in July. When that happens I'm I'll be looking to do the inaugural Runsketeer ride.

Running mileage is up, performance not so much

Rat race

I think this running thing is starting to work. I knew that increasing my weekly run frequency would help my overall performance, but I didn't know where the benefits would come. Thanks to my Garmin F35 and Garmin Connect, I can compare my current performance metrics over the past 12 months. While I'm not quite at the pace and cadence levels I was achieving last July, I'm covering 10% more weekly mileage and my May performance metrics are up compared to the last five months.

That said, I'm still embarrassingly slow and that's primarily due to reduced cadence and shortened stride length. When I look back at my metrics on Connect from 2011, it's almost like I'm looking at a different person's numbers. I know I can knock a minute per mile (or more) off my pace if I commit to running at 85% of max. I'd still be well below my peak, but the improvement would be encouraging.

My plan right now is to continue to run six times a week. So far, that's been holding. I've been adding distance carefully and today I did my longest run in May, 3.3 miles. Not the six milers I used to do, but three miles a day, six days a week, would get me to my target of 18. If progress continues, I'll probably step down to five runs a week and go longer on the weekends.

I've needed to stay away from Bethpage State Park this week due to the PGA Championship. That has kept me in my neighborhood for most daily runs. I need to work on my timing to avoid the parade of aggressive parents dropping off their kids at the elementary and middle schools and escape the cavalcade of yellow buses. Just for fun, I Gmapped my entire neighborhood to see how much distance I'd cover if I ran on every street. It's a little more than 9 miles and it looks a lot like a rat's maze. That's definitely not the way I want to cover that distance. Happily, the golf tournament ends on Sunday and then it will be back to the trail for me.

Emerging or submerging?

The emerging will continue

Today's run (street): 3.2 miles

Happy New Year! Okay, I'm about 40 days off the mark, but you get the point. Chinese New Year starts on the 16th so it's still valid to say that. Those of you who used to follow this blog may have noticed that I haven't posted since late November. There's a reason for that*. Anyway, it's 2018 and everything is great. The stock market is going gangbusters, Congress is unified and the White House isn't being led by an unqualified, dishonest, ignorant, racist, misogynist. I may have some of that wrong.

You're probably wondering whether my hiatus from blogging meant that I stopped running. The answer is no. I've continued to run, but frequency and distance have both come down. Speed? What's that? Am I emerging or submerging? Unclear.

I've had a cold for the last three weeks. It's not the flu. A doctor told me that. But I do have a dry cough that won't go away. The cough seems to be improving, but it's very disruptive at work when I have to interrupt conversations by coughing into my elbow. Every time I do that I'm sure my colleges are convinced I'm going to make them sick. Of course it was one of them who made me sick in the first place.

This morning was overcast but free of rain. I headed out in 50° weather for a run around the neighborhood. I'm not sure when I last ran around here, because the freezing weather kept me on the treadmill most of January and early February. It felt like good running weather, cool but not face freezing cold.

A few weeks ago I ran at the track in -5° weather. I had face protection, a winter weight hat, triple layers top and bottom, running gloves inside of running mittens and two pair of wool socks. I had to stop after four laps because my hands were stinging from the bitter cold. It took two minutes before they warmed up enough to wrap my fingers around the steering wheel. I finished my run at home on the treadmill.

I only ran outdoors once last weekend. Yesterday I stuck to the treadmill and tomorrow I'll go outside again, weather permitting. My stride has shortened and my cadence has lowered. Not the direction I need to go if performance is important. That's the thing. When I run without regard to speed, I enjoy the experience a lot. When I need to hit the gas to prevent being passed by a neighbor-runner I don't enjoy it. Plus I usually get passed anyway.

For the New Year, I hope to do more runs and miles than in 2017. In terms of performance, I'm guessing more running will lead to more speed. The groundhog community has spoken and it looks like six more weeks of winter cold. I'll do my best to get out more often. If I work from home more frequently, I can probably get in more runs. Emerging Runner will have its ten year anniversary in the fall. I need to live up to that name.

*I got tired of doing it.

Adapting to my anti-running medicine

Problems (L) and problem solved (R)

Today's run (track): 3.3 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 2.2 miles

I'm coming up on the nine year anniversary of The Emerging Runner and there's a certain irony that, for different reasons, I'm running at about the same performance level as I did back in 2008.  I started the blog as a public journal to record my transition from exercise walking to running. By my first post I was running more than walking, but my distances were fairly modest. Due to some unexpected medical issues involving my eyes, I'm now experiencing challenges that are similar to what I was dealing with all those years ago. However, I am making progress.

Back in September I needed eye surgery to address a couple of problems. This procedure is routine and performed about 4 million times a year in the US. Most go perfectly well. Mine only went okay and I'm dealing with a couple of issues that require medication, at least for now. Some of this medication addresses ocular pressure with a residual effect on heart rate.

One medication that is used for my condition is also the go-to drug for high altitude sickness. The first time I took it I felt extremely dizzy. I questioned why this drug would be a good choice for mountain climbers who really should not be woozy negotiating a couloir at 25,000 feet. I mentioned that to my ophthalmologist who also climbs mountains. She said the dosage for altitude sickness is half of what I'm taking. Good I guess, but I'd stick with Dramamine.

The net effect of a post surgery running layoff and all these medications has resulted in a performance setback. I had adapted somewhat to a couple of the post op drugs and was covering 3 to 4 miles a few weekends back with decent results. Last Saturday, with the addition of the altitude drug, I couldn't run a fifth of a mile without stopping. I recognized the problem and filled in the blanks with a lot of walking, but I really hoped I would be able to adjust to the new medication.

I worked from home on Friday and set a goal of running a mile or two before I started my work day. After last week's experience, I didn't know what to expect. I decided I would try to run as easily and efficiently as I could for as long as I could. If I only made it through a half a mile it would still be progress.

Most runners have a good idea about how their run will go within a minute after they start. Last Saturday I knew I was in bad shape before I lost sight of my house. Friday morning was cool and clear and once the middle school buses had wrapped up their routes, I took off through the neighborhood. I felt okay and made my way past the quarter and half mile marks with no thoughts of stopping. By the time I reached my first mile I knew I could manage two and probably three. I kept it to a little more than two miles and my pace was slow, but I was very pleased with the run.

Knowing that I could run, I set the bar a little higher for this morning's workout. I set off to the local high school to cover about three miles on the track. I left just after sun-up to avoid the crowd and to avoid the humiliation of being the slowest guy running. That was a bad plan because, when I arrived, there were two speedsters, another slowster and a couple of walkers. I lined up in lane 4 and took off at an easy pace that I knew I could maintain. Like clockwork, the speedy guys passed me about once a quarter. I picked up the pace as I progressed, which meant their passing orbit grew increasingly longer as time went on.

Besides running over a mile longer today, I paced 6% faster than on Friday. Still slow, but edging toward pre-surgery speed. I was told by my ophthalmologist that my new medication requires a high degree of hydration with electrolytes, especially potassium. There's something to that because when I do hydrate properly, the effects of the drug are minimized. I've been consuming a bottle of Drink Melon Organic Watermelon Water daily which contains 980 mg of potassium (compared to Gatorade which has a paltry 37 mg). It's pure watermelon juice and only 80 calories a bottle. 

I hope that I will fully adapt to all my medications soon and get back to running as usual. Last weekend was a setback but today was very encouraging.

A week of celebrations and bad running

Just a bunch of pomp and circumstances

Today's run (street): 3.3 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Last Sunday's run (track): 3.6 miles
Last Saturday's run (street): 4 miles

It's the end of the academic year and my kids have finished all their classes. My daughter just completed her freshman year at college and my son graduated high school Wednesday night. Last Saturday we hosted my son's graduation party and that was loud and fun. Mrs. ER and I had a table adjacent to the party space and the wait staff kept bringing us food. And then they brought cake.

Track be nimble, fog be thick

I definitely exceeded my calorie and sugar budget and hoped that I'd at least get some running benefits from all that carb loading. I didn't. I ran around my neighborhood on Friday and Saturday with mixed success and decided to run at the track on Sunday. Conditions were very foggy (according to Garmin humidity was 100%) so I knew what I was in for.

In celebration of my son's graduation and my daughter's birthday, I took a couple of vacation days this week. I've been fighting a sore throat since Tuesday and worked from home on Tuesday and Wednesday. That would normally prompt me to get a couple of extra runs in during the week, but I wasn't feeling up to it.

Even though Wednesday night went late due to graduation and post graduation festivities, I managed to get myself out the door for a run the next morning. I slept longer than on a work day, but was still tired when I got dressed for my run. Things didn't get any better once I hit the road despite another night of carb loading. Every time I have a run like this I start to worry that I've gone over the edge and will never run well again.

Thursday was more celebrating with food, this time for my daughter. I told myself that despite the gluttony, residual head cold symptoms and my less than impressive running, I would go out with a good attitude this morning. It was very humid when I stepped outside so I didn't overdo it. I ran far better than yesterday and felt encouraged that I've broken my streak of lethargic workouts.

Today was a vacation day from work but not from life and we all put attention to things that needed to get done. I spent a few hours replacing our home networking system which always brings joy and frustration in equal parts. But I got it done. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to post today.

I'm not sure what the weather will be this weekend but I hope things cool off. If I can follow through with it, I'll get out very early tomorrow to beat the hot morning sun. By 7:30 this morning things were barely bearable.

The mind is willing but the body is slow

Translation: Run faster jerk

Today's run (treadmill): 21 minutes
Yesterday's run (street): 3.9 miles
Friday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 3.2 miles

It has been a very busy June, but all for the best reasons. End of the school year, get togethers with friends and family and a heavy schedule at work. Make that mostly the best reasons. This has taken a toll on my running, especially this weekend. I keep telling myself that I'm going to get back up to my targeted mileage, but so far I'm falling short.

Last Sunday I did my usual neighborhood loop that I usually reserve for Friday mornings. I don't remember why I kept it so short that day, but I'll assume it was due to limited time and not laziness. It may have been an attempt to reserve energy for what was to come later in the day -- a great time at Chez SIOR's BBQ extravaganza.

When we arrived at SIOR's house we were greeted by two of her adorable girls who were carrying what appeared to be a very expensive plush toy. It was in fact a shiba puppy. We were ushered into the backyard to find a collection of friends and new faces who had the common attribute of being much faster runners than me. Mr. SIOR was manning the grill and the aroma of barbecue made me very hungry.

I'd call it a Runsketeer party but it was really RunsketeerPlus. I got to meet a Hofstra professor who races at least once every weekend and SIOR's buddy DL who paced her at the Main Coast Marathon and has a 2:49 PR. He is also the owner of the plush pup. It was great to see TPP and JC as well as KWL. I had a cheeseburger, half of my daughter's hamburger, two chicken legs plus SIOR's Brussels sprouts that we have since cooked at home using SIOR's recipe. And two beers which is exactly how many beers I can drink.

After a very busy work week, I finally got back to running on Friday. Like last Sunday, I followed my usual 3.2 mile route at a glacial pace. I'm not sure why I've reverted back to really slow running but I'm confident that it's more mental than physical. During yesterday's run I thought about René Descartes' concept of dualism, that the mind and body are distinctively separate. My challenge is bringing them back together.

When I went out on Saturday I was prepared to run well. The temperature was 72° but the humidity was low and I was out early, before the direct sun made 72° feel too hot. Almost immediately, the effort seemed uncomfortable. It wasn't the usual beginning of the run difficulty that sometimes happens when transitioning from anaerobic to aerobic breathing. If that were the case I would have been running a lot faster. This discomfort was more abstract.

Yesterday's struggle was odd because I wasn't feeling physically burdened. In fact, my heart rate averaged 77% max over the almost four miles and I never felt like I needed to back off my pace. However, I felt like any increase in speed would feel terrible. It wasn't until I was on my last quarter mile where stepped things up and discovered that the additional effort actually felt better.

My mind is holding back my body and I don't know why. I do have a lot of things happening these days and perhaps that's contributing to my slow performance. When I force speed, my body responds and it feels sustainable. What's interesting is that my pre-run intent is positive, but once I hit pavement I find it hard to conjure the motivation to hit my potential. Is there such a thing as a mental running coach? I think I need one.

Street, trail, track and treadmill

 Memorably running

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Sunday's run (track): 3.3 miles
Saturday's run (Bethpage Bike Trail): 4.4 miles
Friday's run (street): 3.2 miles

Happy Memorial Day. The past three days have been good for running, but this morning's weather wasn't very parade friendly. I found myself on the treadmill today and I think that was terribly unfair.

It's always nice to have an extra weekend day and we've made the most of our Memorial Day break. Schools were closed on Friday so I was able to get around my neighborhood streets without dodging school buses and distracted parents dropping off their kids. Getting in a run on a work day morning is always good because you start with an accomplishment. Friday's weather was cloudy and a little humid but, I managed to beat most of my recent paces.

Saturday was warmer and less humid. The early morning sun successfully tempted me to the Bethpage bike trail. I parked on Colonial and ran south to Bethpage State Park Picnic Polo Road where the northern part of the bike trail starts. That's a fancy name for the part of the road that connects the admission booth (manned by SIOR's bitter enemy) to the parking lot. He usually lets me in for free by the way, because I'm nice.

Anyway, as I approached BSPPP Road for my turnaround, I noticed a steady stream of people passing by the trail head pulling enormous coolers. I heard lots of cheering and yelling and determined that a big soccer tournament was happening on the polo field. I knew it was soccer and not polo because I didn't see any horses, ladies in big hats or VIP areas with tuxedoed waiters pouring mimosas.

I did fine on the bike trail although I wasn't able to match Saturday's pace. Every time I encountered a hill (and there are plenty despite what KWL says about that) I thought about the days when I was indifferent to elevation. My favorite experience at Stillwell Woods used to be running the most technical parts, like the Viper Pit that leaves no where to go but up, no matter what direction you're headed. Now I have to psych myself up to take on the handful of steep and mostly short sections that pop up every mile on the Bethpage trail.

Yesterday morning was a lot like Saturday, but the difference in humidity was measurable. I went to the track and was fully sweating by the second lap. Some of that had to do with my reaction to having a few other runners on the track which sparked what remains of my competitive side. One runner was positioned exactly half a lap behind me, so I could gauge my speed in relation to his. I did my best to maintain that distance and spent most of the run around 85% max HR. Despite the moist air, I ended up with my best performance of the weekend.

Which brings me to this morning. I thought I might wait out the rain, but the news reports weren't very encouraging. By 8:00 AM, my wife was done with her treadmill workout and I was ready to start on mine. With better than average runs the prior three days, I decided to start a little faster than usual. For music, I opted for the 70's channel and when "Low Rider" by War came on, I was inspired to hit the faster button. Today's music mix was runner friendly and it motivated me to keep increasing my speed every couple of minutes.

I got up to 90% HR max by the end and paced just a few seconds slower than Sunday's track workout. Overall, I strung four good runs together this weekend and determined that I can push harder than I have without feeling overextended. Even so, at 90% HR max I'm only hitting a mid 9:00 pace. That doesn't give me much room to improve until I can build a little more fitness. I guess it's time for intervals. And I guess a little hill training wouldn't hurt.

The only spring in my run is new construction

Springing up in spring

Today's run (street): 3.75 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 3.7 miles
Last Saturday's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Last Friday's run (street): 3.1 miles

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but here I am again. You're welcome. It's been a combination of busy schedules and the acknowledgement that my running journal-cum-social criticism blog has become somewhat redundant. The exception to that being my write ups of activities involving the Runsketeers. On the plus side, I've still been doing my runs and today I realized that the journal really helps me with the get outside and do it part. So here I am again.

Last weekend's runs were unremarkable, although I did have a good treadmill workout on Saturday. I don't remember the other two runs, but I know I did them because they're listed in my Garmin Connect log. Further, these runs even have my average stride length because I wrote to Garmin about that metric not showing up on Connect. Amazingly enough, Garmin responded that they'd corrected the issue. Apparently this was a problem for many. I was able to re-import my runs that lacked that data. and it showed up when I imported this weekend's activities.

My running has been dismal. With a few rare exceptions, I'm back to where I was last September in terms of performance. Slow doesn't begin to describe it. Yesterday morning I did an early run in light rain and just couldn't get into gear. I averaged 72% max HR which pretty much guaranteed a poor pace.

Today's route

Today's weather was far better, but my performance was exactly the same. I varied my route. Since I was running slowly, I took the time to look around my neighborhood. I noticed many new homes had sprung up in the places where prior dwellings were razed during the winter. These humble ranches and Capes Cods are being replaced big contemporaries that rise like Olympus above the Serengeti. Toto-ly stole that phrase.

Despite my lack of speed, I was happy to be outside on a cool and quiet spring morning. I know I can run faster, but lately I haven't been motivated to push too hard. SIOR is guilting encouraging me to re-enter the racing realm by running a 5K in July. She's even picked one for me. Okay, let's see what I can do.

Running on a tight schedule beats a lack of sleep

Sleep deprived, heroic running

Today's run (street): 3.2 miles

Today, while my friends were off doing noble things like marching in DC in support of climate protection, I was doing good work much closer to home. By that I mean going out early for a run after staying up past midnight last night. Hitting the road around 7:00 AM this morning was pretty heroic in its own right. The best part was I ended up doing pretty well.

It was overcast and misty when I went outside to start. The local temperature was 58° and though I didn't know it at the start, the humidity was 94%. It didn't take too long to figure that out once I got going. Fortunately, I'd dressed appropriately, wearing one of my favorite short sleeve running shirts and my awesome Adidas Response shorts. I also wore my new super lightweight Saucony running hat that my wife got me for my birthday.

Even though the streets were damp due to mist, I wore my new Brooks Launches because I wanted to see how they performed on pavement. Overall, I liked them a lot, although the flex grooves in the front somewhat undercut the response off my forefoot. The Zantes are definitely a quicker shoe but the Launches' balance of cushioning and mid-foot bounce will be better for longer runs when I finally get around to doing them.

I wasn't going for speed today, which is good because there wasn't a lot of it. I did manage to beat my average pace by about 30 seconds a mile. Given my late bedtime and early rise I was surprised. Was it the shoes or just how I felt today? I'm not sure, but I know the humidity didn't help. My early run allowed me to finish and shower in time to meet a tight morning schedule. Maybe knowing I was time-pressed made me run a little faster than I normally would. I'm sure that's why we tend to achieve our best times when we race.

Inaugural day run faster than expected

Here we go again

Today's run (street): 3.1 miles

The last time I ran, Obama was still president. Of course that was at 8:00 AM this morning. We have a new president now and it will be interesting to see how the next four years will play out (if he even makes it four years). For now, I'll just worry about running.

I managed to get in four runs last weekend because I had Monday off for MLK day. I was feeling very tired last night and worried whether I'd be up to running this morning. The skies were clear and conditions were decent, so I allowed myself no excuses to get outside. The 39° weather felt much colder and I probably over-layered, but I was grateful for my warm hat and new gloves from SIOR throughout the entire run.

Today's workout was all about maintaining fitness. The joy of the run was missing and I spent my time anticipating when I would finish. I blamed it on my fatigue and expected the worst when I looked at my Garmin. It wasn't great, but it was best performance I've seen since mid December. I can't blame my difficulty on pushing too hard, since my heart rate stayed below 80% max most of the way.

We've been fortunate to have a relatively snow-free January and I've been able get out on the road a lot this month. I compare that to 2015 when I was stuck doing indoor workouts for much of January and February due to snowy road conditions. Tomorrow's weather should be fine, but Sunday is supposed to be stormy and rainy. I'm hoping that will happen later in the day so I can make this a treadmill free weekend.

A race happened in the middle of my run

Today's colorful route

Today's run (street): 5.1 miles

For no obvious reason, my performance took a small dip this weekend. I hit my average pace on Friday, but came up about 20 seconds per mile slower yesterday and this morning. Saturday was chilly and the wind made it feel like 35°. I know there were points during the run when running directly into the wind slowed me down. Overall, I felt like I moved along fairly well.

The good news, I guess, is that this 20 second penalty still put me a minute and half per mile faster than my abysmal August average. I had plenty of rest over the last two days so I'm puzzled by these numbers. It's not like I've returned to the "running by rote" style that I'd defaulted to after my lower back disc injury in late 2014. It may simply be a case where some runs just go slower than others.

Setting up for the 5K

This morning's conditions felt a little warmer, but there was still some wind. That made the real feel temperature closer to 41°. I dressed appropriately and felt like I was running okay. I started with a loop around the business park where I noticed a bunch of traffic cones on the road and concluded that the were setting up for a race. It turned out to be the Blue Ribbon Run for Prostate Cancer® 5K that goes through both this business park and Syosset-Woodbury Park. I briefly considered running the race, but I was already a couple of miles into my run.

My route today turned out to be interestingly circuitous. After completing my loop of the park that traced miles 1 and 2 of the 5K course, I ducked into an adjacent neighborhood and ran to Woodbury Road where I picked up the tail end of the Bethpage bike trail. I followed that to Froehlich Farm Boulevard and ran through the office park, where both my dentist and my opioid dealing orthopedist practice. I doubled back along Woodbury Road, through the other half of the neighborhood, and finally back home.

I really pushed on the last mile, but the numbers don't reflect my perceived effort. The important thing was that I tried and my heart rate confirmed that. Garmin Connect showed that my cadence was good, but my stride length was about 10% shorter than where it should be to get the speed I want to run. My dad sent me a link to this video in the NYTimes that looks really interesting. I'll try it and see if it yields any performance benefits. I'm going to skip the barefoot requirement because I'm not Tarahumaran.

A good Bethpage run guided by heart rate

85% maxed out

Today's run (Bethpage bike trail): 4.4 miles

The air felt chilly this morning, but I resisted the temptation to add an extra layer on top. That was a good move, although I do wish I'd run in shorts rather than track pants. I've had a good week of running that included spending a little time on dirt trails. Today's trail was paved, but still preferable to running on the road.

I wasn't sure if Bethpage State Park is still collecting tolls on the weekend so I headed over to Colonial Road to park. The wind made the 45° temperature feel closer to 41° and that prompted me to go out fast to generate a little heat. My second mile was slower than the first, but I settled down and had negative splits on the miles after that. My overall pace wasn't in the nine minute range, but it was better than my current average. And that pace is a significant improvement over where I was at the beginning of this month.

The section of the Bethpage trail that runs north of Haypath Road is rolling with a few noticeable hills. Those hills have roughed me up at times and I didn't enjoy them today, but they didn't slow me down at all. The weather brought out a lot of runners, many in groups, and I wondered if these people were training for fall races. I'm considering a return to racing this year, targeting a 5K that I'd do with the Runsketeers in December.

From Haypath to Washington and back

That said, my training still has a ways to go. I pushed to stay over 80% HR max throughout most of today's run and stayed between 83-86% throughout the second half. I ran the last half mile at 9:36. Perceived effort was high considering the unremarkable speed. Still, I'm pretty sure running mid-9's would have put my heart rate above 90% max a month ago and I appreciate the conditioning gains so far.

I may head to the track tomorrow to do some repeats. I'm hoping that will unlock a little more speed. My first performance improvements happened on the track earlier in the month. Perhaps these intervals will take that a little further.

Breaking the nine minute ceiling

Can you tell I ran faster?

Today's run (street): 3.2 miles
Monday's run (street): 3.25 miles

Two very different holidays this week provided me opportunities for weekday runs. My company was closed for Columbus day so I had a nice three day weekend and was able to fit in an extra workout. I took advantage of being home and accompanied my daughter to her college to hang out before her classes started. It was great spending time with my her. Even with that, I got home early enough to get out for a run before 8:30.

Conditions were chilly, 50° with 14 MPH winds, making it feel like low 40's. With those strong winds, I kept my expectations moderate, but I found the conditions energizing. I haven't radically changed my approach to my running, but I'm increasing my effort a lot more right now. Over the past few years I've slipped into an easy running style. Some of this was due to carrying extra weight, making any level of effort feel hard. I'm now at the same weight that I was when I was running faster. There's definitely a correlation between weight and performance.

I finished my run and calculated my true pace (elapsed time and Gmap'd distance) and saw that I'd averaged 10:08 per mile. On many people's scale that might look slow, but for me it was a big improvement over where I was a month ago. My goal right now is to run consistently in the 9's (9:59 is okay) but according to Garmin Connect, I haven't broken 10 minutes on a run since December 2014. That was the Jingle All the Way 5K that I ran shortly before I suffered a herniated disc.

Today was a different holiday, Yom Kippur. This is a day when the observant fast and atone and the non-observant think about life and get in a few miles. I didn't go out with expectations of speed and would have been glad just to come close to Monday's pace. The weather was cool but a little humid (87%) and I gave no thought to my performance until I came through my first mile a few ticks over ten minutes. That made me think I had a real chance of breaking the 9:00 ceiling.

I maintained this level of effort and noticed that my heart rate was still at 75% of max so I stepped it up to 81% through the second mile and did the last mile (my fastest) at 86%. The highest I got was 88% so I know I have  more to draw on. I ended up breaking into the 9 minute range on this run, with an overall pace of 9:48.

I'm going to try to consistently hit high 9's before I start thinking about even greater performance. Getting in some extra runs and miles has helped. My biggest challenge right now is to keep that going. Tomorrow Adventure Girl and I will do a trail run near my office. I can't remember the last time we ran together, but it's been years. Me and my family are excited to see her and catch up on her wild life in Montana. AG taught me almost everything I needed to know about running when I took it up in 2008. I look forward to more lessons tomorrow.

Good running beats treadmill tedium

Oh, hello deer

Today's run (treadmill): 4.1 miles

Mother nature can be thoughtless when it comes to my running preferences. I woke up this morning to driving rain that wouldn't stop no matter how many times I looked out the window. Once I started to believe the weather reports, it became clear that my only option would be to run inside on the treadmill. I really didn't want to do that, and thought one more time about braving the rain and the accompanying high winds. Ultimately, I decided that running outside in those conditions while wearing glasses would not work too well.

I stalled as long as I could by setting up the floor fan and gearing up for my treadmill session. As I did all that, I thought about the performance gains I've made in recent weeks and hoped they would translate to this type of workout. I finally hit the start button and set my speed to what I averaged for pace on yesterday's outdoor run.

I know I keep mentioning the Garmin FR 35, but that's because it surprises me (in a good way) every time I use it. This morning I selected "indoor run" and hit start. Once I got going, I saw that it was tracking my pace and distance (and of course heart rate). That's a huge upgrade from my old FR 210 that required a foot pod to capture any run data. As I went along, I compared my speed and distance between the treadmill and watch display that were roughly equivalent.

The tedium of the treadmill experience motivated me to dial up my speed throughout my run. I ended up pacing only 19 seconds per mile slower than my next big performance target. I would have hit that had I done today's run one minute faster. Still, it was my fastest pace on the treadmill since I ran intervals on it earlier this year. My cadence and stride length were also captured and showed improvement from yesterday.

Later in the day, the ER family went out to lunch and then stopped into Dick's in Mellvile. This store has just doubled in size with the addition of a Field & Stream store. My efforts to find some decent lightweight track pants went nowhere (and by the way Dick's, have you heard of any other clothing brands besides Nike, Under Armor and Adidas?) but it was fun to explore the adjacent Field & Stream store.

I don't do guns and have only fished a few times, so I wasn't interested in any of that stuff. However, the outdoor clothing was fun to look at and I always want to buy one of those Carhartt heavy duty hooded sweatshirts when I see them. The showroom had a big display with a bunch of real (stuffed) animals, including elk, moose, wild turkeys and this caribou (see picture at the top) that took a selfie with me.

Tomorrow is Columbus day and that will give me another weekend day to get in a run. There's no rain expected for tomorrow, so I'll be doing that outside. Today's treadmill experience was mostly positive and I was pleased with my performance. But ten times out of ten, I'd rather run outside.

Performance gains from running by heart

Getting to the heart of the matter

Today's run (street): 4.4 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Monday's run (street): 2.1 miles
Sunday's run (Bethpage bike trail): 4.2 miles

I've been doing more running than blogging these days, with four workouts since my last post. Every time I've gone out since last weekend, I quietly thank KWL for sending me my FR35. While I have made stamina gains resulting from cutting out most processed sugar in my diet (and losing a few pounds in the process), it hadn't done much for my performance. The FR35 has been a real catalyst for some measurable gains in that area. So thank you once again KWL.

Last Sunday I went to Bethpage to run the bike trail and ended up covering a little more than 4 miles. I ran it about 9% faster than my average pace over the past six months. Having my heart rate showing in real time helped me apply more effort that resulted in better performance. I respond to HR feedback positively, while tracking pace tends to discourage me.

I went home from work early on Monday and went out for a rare afternoon run. It was only two miles, but it was the fastest two miles I've run all year. Yesterday morning I did my usual Friday route. I didn't get around as fast as I had on my prior three runs, but it was fast compared to a couple of weeks ago.

This morning I aimed for a little more distance and headed out with performance running on my mind. Performance is relative of course, but my perceived exertion matched the 80%-92% max HR that my Garmin recorded. I ended up pacing around my new average, but I'd hoped for more.

In terms of performance, I'm still 5% slower than the top end of my current target and I'm 10% away from where I really want to be. More significantly, I'm running 30 seconds to a minute per mile faster than just a few weeks ago. When I get to the pace range I'm aiming for, I'll consider racing again.