Low volume this week but a decent run today

At least I didn't skip today

Today's run (street): 4.3 miles
Friday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 3.2 miles

This has not been a good week for my running. I'm at that point in the year where business activity peaks for a few intense weeks in December before going quiet as everyone shifts into holiday mode. That's meant longer days and less inclination to work out when I get home. I know I should try to run a couple of miles in the morning before I start my day, but I can't get into that mode right now. Making things worse this week was a Saturday schedule that had me out the door before 6:00 AM. That kept me busy the rest of the day, so no Saturday run this week.

I did run on Friday and it was fine, but slower than I've been averaging. I don't know if it was due to my busy work schedule, but I felt tired throughout the run. I had no time to get out before my early start yesterday and thought I'd go for a late afternoon run when I got home. I ended up feeling too tired to run, but I did do a long neighborhood walk and ended up with over 10K steps for the day.

I turned in early last night and got a rare 8 hours of sleep. Even so, my energy level was low when I got up. After a small breakfast and a big cup of coffee I was feeling more energetic. I put on my new ASICS Men's Essential Pants that I got for a great price from Running Warehouse. The weight of these pants is lighter than my beloved City Sports track pants, but perfect for this morning's 39° weather. I added my ASICS thermal beanie and a winter weight half zip and my Balston wool socks. I looked in the mirror and realized I was head to toe in black like a very slow ninja.

I've lost a little speed over the past few weeks and I'm pacing about 5% slower than I had throughout November. My cadence hasn't dropped but my stride length has shortened a bit. I'm not too concerned about that. My heart rate has been averaging about 75% of max so I should be pushing harder. My running hasn't felt particularly easy so perceived effort is obviously higher than my real effort.

Today's runaround

Today's run was a meandering tour of my neighborhood. I enjoyed looking at the holiday decorations and laughed at the deflated Santas, snowmen, reindeer and elves laying across lawns, waiting to be filled with air after the sun goes down. There were a few hardy souls out walking their dogs, some walkers and a runner who suddenly appeared from a side road. I came close to overtaking him but he split to the left while I continued heading right.

I wanted to cover at least four miles and managed a little more than that. I did step up my pace as I got closer to home and proved to myself that I could move back into target range if I was willing to maintain the intensity. At this point I'm still running better than I have over the past two years but I need to decide how hard I'm willing to work to continue improving. The Runsketeers had planned to run a 5K on Saturday until we encountered scheduling conflicts. I didn't feel ready to race this weekend so it's probably for the best.

Using guilt, once again, to jumpstart a run

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

I didn't expect to run this morning when I got up. For no reason I could identify, I was too tired to do my planned workout. I drank my coffee, watched the news and hoped my energy level would rise enough to get me on the treadmill. Time was growing short, because I needed to head to the city for a meeting. I decided to start my run and hope for the best.

The reason I was determined to run was simple -- I didn't want to feel guilty for skipping my workout. It's been said that the hardest thing about running is starting. I'm not talking about those runs that happen on a perfect spring morning. It's days like this, when the "rest" option is so tempting. But guilt can be a powerful motivator and today it won out.

Rain dampens demand

While I was in the city, the weather quickly changed from sunny and bright to damp and dismal. I saw a number of Citi Bikes racked in various places, as I made my way through NYC (I took this pic near Grand Central). With the pouring rain, there were many bikes to be had. The idea of a Citi Bike is good. I try to avoid taking the subway unless I need to be someplace far sooner than I could possibly travel by foot, and I would consider a Citi Bike as an alternative. But I'm a long way from trusting that NYC drivers will safely share the road.

Shouldering pain from a long day on the streets

Relief is imminent

Today's workout (treadmill): 30 minutes + 8 miles walking

I had planned to be in the city today and tomorrow, but some meetings have shifted to next week. I consolidated the remaining business into today's schedule, making it a very long day. NYC is a big place and my meetings are often located many blocks apart. I try not to use the subway unless it's raining, or I don't have enough time to walk.

My workout was really tiring this morning and I was concerned that I'd pushed too hard. I knew I would be covering a lot of ground on foot and I'd also be carrying my laptop. Today I went from 33rd to Union Square, up to 54th, down to E. 34th and then back to Penn.  I wasn't feeling great when I arrived at my first appointment, so I went down to the subway and put $5 on my MetroCard. I wanted to be prepared in case I wasn't up for walking forty-five blocks uptown to my next meeting.

After lunch with some friends, I was feeling much better and did my walk as planned. My Fitbit is now showing 11 miles and 21,900 steps for the day, including this morning's treadmill run. I'm really feeling it in my shoulder, probably because the weight of the laptop caused some additional strain. I really could use some rest and naproxen sodium. I'll decide tomorrow whether to take an unscheduled break.

Liquid exhaustion

Yesterday's run (treadmill): 30 minutes
Today's run (street) 5.25 miles

Circuitous route

I was tired on Thursday morning and (no surprise) my run was slow. Yesterday morning I felt the same, so I skipped my morning run altogether. I'm not sure why I lacked energy on these two days but it definitely affected my motivation to run. After a half day in the office I headed home feeling more inclined to work out, so I took the opportunity to fit in a 30 minute treadmill run.

Despite yesterday's brutal heat and high humidity, I remained relatively dry during my indoor run. Credit goes to the big fan we've positioned directly in front of the treadmill. I didn't push my pace but, by the time I reached my planned finish time, I was completely soaked with sweat. I'd placed an icy glass filled with Gatorade G2 on the side table of the bed to drink after I'd completed my run. As they say, I was keeping my eye on the prize.

This morning I took it outside with no planned route, but an intention of running five miles. The dew point was approaching 70 by the time I set off and I tried to keep a sustainable pace that would allow me to cover my planned distance. I hadn't matched my normal pace since Wednesday morning's run. Today was no different but my focus was on distance, not speed.

The hot sun and the moisture in the air wore me down, mile by mile, but I still had enough in the tank to cover 5-plus miles. I'm accustomed to being sweaty after these long runs, but today it looked and felt like I had stepped out of a lake as I walked into the house. Every square inch of skin was wet and my clothing was completely saturated. Although I felt no aerobic strain during the run, I was still breathing heavily five minutes after the finish. It was more exhausting than I realized.

I'm on vacation this coming week and I hope to get a chance to run in Washington DC while we're there. If that's not practical, I may need to settle for the fitness center in the hotel. It's less stimulating to run indoors. But, with this weather, I'll fully appreciate the air conditioned experience.

A reason to appreciate my next good run

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

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

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

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

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

Stacking the deck the wrong way

Karhu Fast 2 - a contributing factor

Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

This morning's temperature was a mild 44°, but the winds from the west made it feel much colder. I decided to run with my new Alpine Design half-zip that I hoped would block wind. I was pleased that it did, although I would have been better off had I just worn a couple of shirt layers. I was sweating profusely by the end of my run.

I'd inadvertently stacked the deck against having a good run by choosing the Karhu Fast 2 running shoes that I'd relegated to elliptical duty a while back. When I did a quick run in the Karhu's the other day they'd felt okay, so I thought I'd give them another try.

Other factors in play were a depleted blood supply (from my doctor's visit yesterday) and a very large, calorie-laden meal at our friends last night. This included a Guinness stout and my system isn't used to alcohol. I've only had the equivalent of five beers in all of 2011.

My route was through the neighborhood and I didn't plan to run it fast. I figured 3+ miles would be an easy workout. By mile I realized it would be difficult to get through the entire run but I was determined to do it. The wind didn't help and I felt hot and very tired. The Karhu's high platform made it difficult to maintain a fluid stride.

By the time I'd finished, I was surprised by my level of exhaustion. I guess if I'd thought about it I would have chosen different gear and charted an even shorter route. But good runs usually follow bad ones, so I'll hope for better experiences throughout the week.

Listen to your body, not your sleepy head

Today's workout (elliptical): 23 minutes

It was down to the wire whether I would do a workout this morning. I'm not sure why, but I've been feeling very tired over the past two days.When I woke up at my usual time, I felt justified to return to bed. Somehow, I ended up on the elliptical machine as planned. Listening to your body is a good way to decide these things.

It wasn't guilt that got me there today. It was the practical need to complete this week's training so I could feel good about taking two days rest prior to Sunday's race. If I'd felt weak or dizzy I would have skipped the workout, but I had no such excuse this morning. Today's elliptical session was light, but worthwhile. A core workout on Saturday is all that's left and then I'm good to go on Sunday.

Post-accident run with a much better ending

Today's run (street): 4.45 miles

Yesterday was a long day, we went to Boston to visit family and came back last night. We were pretty exhausted by the time we went to bed and I'd hoped that it would lead to a good night's sleep. With my scrapes and bruises from Friday's accident still mending, it was a little hard to get comfortable. I woke up groggy and with a headache, but I was determined to get outside for a run.

I wore a pair of loose running pants to protect the bandages on my calf and knee and a long sleeve running shirt to cover my elbow bandage. With my left middle finger in a splint and bandages across the back of both hands, I probably looked worse than I felt. I'd taken a couple of aspirins and a Sudafed and, while I felt strong at the beginning, I think the Pseudoephedrine was sapping my energy as I ran.

Despite all the damage caused by yesterday's roll and slide on concrete and blacktop, I was fortunate to avoid any injury that affected my ability to run. I purposely kept my pace easy and that helped me get through the distance. I followed a meandering route that had a few roads with slight elevation and I realized that I'm liking running hills more and more. I may be ready to return to the monster hills at Stillwell.

I headed back toward home after passing four miles and when I reached my driveway I was especially careful to avoid the raised edge that sent me sprawling on Friday. Having missed my run on Saturday, my weekly mileage will be lower than normal for the week.  No matter, I was glad to get back on the road and finish the week with a good running experience.

Time for some needed rest

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

This morning I went out for my last run prior to Sunday's race. I wore my Mirages to acclimate to their feel, although the trail surface at the race will be different than pavement. I'll admit that I liked the luxury of this minimal, yet well cushioned, shoe. It's a nice change from the harder ride of the Hattori's.

It's often recommended that runners leave their watches at home and run by feel. I bring my Garmin because I have an irrational need to capture the metrics of every run but I rarely look at the display for anything except elapsed time. I purposely ignored my watch this morning and only checked it at the end when I pulled up by my house and hit the stop button. I saw that I'd averaged 9:14 per mile, which made sense based upon the effort I had made.

I'm still battling the feeling of tiredness and, although I was happy to have run 15 seconds per mile better than my July average, the fatigue was noticeable. Along the way I encountered both a car and a walker at the same intersection -- unusual because I rarely see either at 4:00 AM. That woke me up a bit. I'm done with running until the race, although I may do some less strenuous activities between now and then. Rest, I believe, will be the best thing to do before I line up for the Dirty Sock 10K on Sunday morning.

Listen to your body, not your mind

Today's run (street) 2.5 miles

I suspect that I'm behind on my sleep since I've been depending on my alarm to get me up every morning. It's funny how the same thought plays in my head every morning as I pour my coffee: "You're obviously tired so why not rest today?" Somehow I manage to ignore that suggestion and head back upstairs to prepare for my run. I'm learning that the voice in my head has no credibility.

I always turn on bright lights when I'm getting ready for my morning workout. I've read that light signals the brain to stop producing melatonin and that seems to work as I'm generally alert by the time I've dressed. A couple of bites of an energy bar tells my body that I'm fueled and I top it off with a few ounces of coffee.
 
My Garmin found its satellites quickly this morning which saved me some valuable minutes. I took off expecting my legs to feel less than responsive after doing a long-ish run on Sunday. That wasn't the case and by mile one I was cruising. I didn't break any speed records but I did maintain my target pace without much trouble. It's going to be very humid today but at 4:00 AM the air felt a little chilly. That surely contributed to my positive performance. I completed my run feeling as though I could have run for hours. Unfortunately, I had a train to catch.