Seven runs in seven days

Vacation day on the 'ole North Fork

Today's run (street): 3.4 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.3 miles
Tuesday's run (street): 3.2 miles
Monday's run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

Seven runs over the last seven days. So where's my parade? The last time I ran that many days in a row was in September 2012. I didn't cover that much distance over the past seven days (23 miles) but it brought me back to my old running schedule. Up until early 2013, I would run outside (or on the treadmill) six days a week. Monday was always my rest day. These days I typically cram my running in between Fridays and Sundays. Not the best recipe for continuous improvement.

Pretty good shot of a vineyard at 60 MPH

Since I'm on vacation this week, I had no excuse to skip a run on Monday. I ended up on the treadmill because it was raining. At least I think that's why. I have almost no memory of that workout. Tuesday was a typical neighborhood jaunt and Wednesday was more of the same but a little longer. Later in the day we went out to the North Fork of Long Island for the day and enjoyed the sights (and food) in towns like Greenport and Southhold. Between running and walking, I accumulated a lot of steps.

I considered making today a rest day since my right foot has taken over responsibility for torturing me with Plantar Faciiitis. The weather was too nice to skip a run, so I wore my cushy Saucony Triumph ISOs to minimize impact on my heel. The pain was bearable, but today I felt some pain and tightness at my right hip. That may be signs of Piriformis syndrome. I had similar sciatic nerve pain when I was recovering from a herniated disc a couple of years ago. It may be a recurrence of that, or it could be punishment for running so many days in a row.

I may end my running streak tomorrow and switch to the elliptical. Working out with different motion and lower impact may be the best way to proceed at this point. I can always resume running on Saturday. If the weather is nice  on Friday I may have trouble staying indoors.

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.

Successful (Brooks) Launch on the treadmill

Special Delivery

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 4.4 miles

There are few things as delightful to a runner as receiving a pair of running shoes in the mail. Better than that is getting them delivered without even knowing they're coming. That's what happened to me a couple of weeks ago, thanks to my daughter, who surprised me with a pair of Brooks Launch 3s for my birthday. I was very touched that she surprised me like that.

The Launch isn't a shoe that I'd ever considered because it's not as minimal as my Zantes and Kinvaras. My daughter did some research and decided that the Launches would work for me. They arrived close to my birthday, but were (unfortunately) a half size too small. Although the Launches felt good on my foot, I've learned that any snugness in the toe box will result in pain on the road.

We reordered them in my size (11) and they arrived last night. I was going to take them out on the road this morning, but conditions were rainy. There was no way I was going to subject brand new running shoes to rain and muck and decided to try them inside. I was also interested to see how they felt on the treadmill compared to my Kinvara 5s that have been my only indoor running shoes for the past two years.

The Launches fit me well but felt very different than the Kinvaras. They reminded me of the Brooks Adrenalines but were much lighter. The forefoot is also far more flexible. I like the relative stiffness of the Zantes on the road and I'm curious to see how the Launches will run on pavement. The 10 mm drop may also help my plantar fasciitis that has minimized, but has not disappeared.

My first steps on the treadmill felt a little awkward compared to the Kinvaras, probably due to the higher stack height. I got used to them after a while, but it was hard to perceive the responsiveness that is the hallmark of this model. I always try to run negative splits on the treadmill and push my speed on the last mile, mostly to get the run done faster. The Launches had good turnover but I think the Zantes might actually have more pep. Hopefully tomorrow's weather will let me determine that.

I ended up having a better run than I'd expected. I got my speed out of my comfort range by the time I finished and decided that the Launches will have a regular place in my rotation. Tomorrow morning's schedule will be very tight so I may not end up going out until late morning. If it's supposed to get as hot on Saturday as it did today, I may end up trying for a 6:00 AM workout.

April fooled by the weather

Wind chilly

Today's run (street): 3.1 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

It being April Fools day, my daughter offered me a bite of her vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. That turned out to be mashed potatoes with turkey gravy. Instead of being repulsed, I was inspired to add the rest to my lunch. The real April Fools joke seems to be today's weather trying to make us think it's still winter.

Yesterday started out rainy and cold and I didn't hesitate a moment before getting on the treadmill. That run was fine and I worked my pace into the mid nines by the end. I appreciated having the indoor option, especially on days like that.

This morning I was ready to get back to the road. The local news station was showing 37° and the view outside looked mild. The roads were still wet from the recent rain but it looked pleasant. I had just read an article in Runners World about Iditarod runners who drag their gear behind them along the 1,000 mile route. One runner mentioned the value of keeping your neck warm as that's an area where heat can drain quickly. I took another look outside and saw the trees were swaying a little so I put on my bandito buff to keep that area covered.

It took over five minutes to acquire a GPS signal through the overcast sky but soon I was off and running. I'd worn light track pants and a long sleeve quarter zip. That was fine until I changed direction for the first time and encountered a 19 MPH wind. Those blasts instantly brought the temperature down ten degrees. The buff helped, but my face was freezing. It was so bad that when I finally reach a point where I turned from north to east my glasses immediately fogged up from the sudden warmth combined with 93% humidity.

I took a roundabout route circling the neighborhood and covered my distance at a moderate pace. I was surprised to see that my average heart rate was below 80% max. I really need to look at my Garmin during the run to see if I should be picking up the pace. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot nicer and, since I have a limited window to get in a run, I'm going to try to do it a little faster.

Run interruptions, indoors and out

Tether and lace

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday's workout (elliptical): 30 minutes
Thursday's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 3.2 miles

This week has been busy. For a change, it wasn't due to work. I took Wednesday and Thursday off for some family stuff, but that didn't give me much workout time. I did manage to squeeze in a treadmill run, but accidentally pulled out the safety tether halfway through. That brought the machine to an abrupt halt. I was upset for a moment because it caused my time and distance to disappear from the display. Fortunately, I'd set my Garmin for an indoor run that captured all that information.

The worst part of interrupting a good run is the drop in heart rate that follows. I've had occasions when a perfectly good workout became a struggle after an unscheduled stop. A few years ago I was on a brisk lunchtime run in Central Park with a friend who asked me to stop so he could shed a top layer. We were at the halfway point on Cat Hill when we stopped. I struggled from that moment on, and ended up cutting our five miler to three.

This morning I was anxious to get outside after yesterday's elliptical session and Thursday's treadmill run. The weather was pleasant, 52° and overcast, and the pavement felt good under my NB Zantes. I hadn't run in them for over a month due to their low platform and my plantar issue. I figured that I'd made enough progress to try them again. They really are great shoes and I had no post run heel problems.

Like the treadmill tether problem I had on Thursday, I found myself needing to stop a couple of times on my run. I hadn't double knotted my laces and they were whipping annoyingly around my ankles. It was no big deal, but I did feel light headed after bending down to retie the Zantes. My recovery from those stops went better than that time in Central Park but it did throw off my momentum.

Today's run

This morning, around the time I was doing my little run around the neighborhood, Runsketeer SIOR was running the Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon. She snagged an age group award and next month SIOR and KWL will be in Hopkinton, MA for the Boston Marathon.

Tomorrow will be colder than today and I'll decide in the morning whether to brave the outdoors or retreat to the treadmill. Either way, I'm hoping to get through my run without any tether or tying issues.

Stir frying and treadmill flying

Hot Hibachi on a cold day 

Today's run (treadmill): 3.6 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

A year ago I was writing about running in 59° weather and now we are bookending two March snowstorms. Friday's nor'easter turned out to be kinda lame but it did produce a couple of inches on Long Island. This Tuesday we are due to receive another 12"-18" which just doesn't seem fair. Because winter has been acting like winter I've continued to do my runs on the treadmill.

Although Friday's storm didn't cause too much disruption, it did delay my running schedule. I ended up fitting in a mid-afternoon 25 minute run between meetings. Not much to say about that except I made the mistake of selecting the classic rock channel and enduring back to back songs by Pink Floyd and Rush. On the plus side, my plantar pain was hardly noticeable.

This morning I considered getting outside but the temperature, with wind chill, was in the teens. Running in extreme cold would be fine if I could protect my face as well as the rest of my body. Even with a balaclava I didn't think being outside was worth the sinus pain. I elected to stay indoors which turned out to be a good decision.

My run was great, probably due to taking Pseudoephedrine earlier in the morning for a slight sinus headache. I started out at a moderate pace. After realizing I could handle more, I upped my speed and did the remainder of the run at about a 9:30 pace. That may not sound very impressive, but for me these days it was pretty good performance.

One buff, many uses

Midday the Emerging Runner family met up with Runsketeer buddy KWL and his sister HC at a local Hibachi place for lunch. HC is a master seamstress and the designer-creator of my beloved bandito mask. We had a great time and it was great meeting HC who, like KWL, is awesome. I'm looking forward to our next food adventure.

Hoping for some plantar relief in the Futuro

The futuro is now

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

Earlier this week I was complaining to anyone in my office that would listen about my foot soreness due to plantar fasciitis. I am fortunate to work in a place that has many experts on health (along with other subjects) and one of them told me she got great results from something called the Futuro Night Plantar Fasciitis Sleep Support brace. The next day she brought it in so I could use it. Some people are really nice.

The brace seems designed to hold the foot in a way that prevents you from pointing your toes when you sleep. Apparently we all do that. Pointing toes aggravates the plantar fascia. That explains why every morning my heel feels like someone hammered a nail into it overnight. Unlike my "night sock" that yanks back my toes, the Futuro brace does its thing gently. I wore the brace extensively on Thursday night and on Friday (because I worked from home) and started feeling some relief.

I was encouraged by the improvement but felt concern that I'd undo my progress if I went for a run. I decided that it was worth chancing a relapse and did a treadmill workout on Friday morning. While I did feel a few pangs of soreness at different stages in the run, I experienced no residual pain. I've continued to wear the brace while in the house and it seems to be helping.

This morning I decided that 20° weather plus wind chill are not an appealing combination. Once again, I did my running on the treadmill. My current routine is to put on a music station and set my speed to a brisk but sustainable pace. No treadmill hating these days as I've learned to appreciate the more forgiving surface compared to pavement. Plus, did I mention the 20° plus wind chill outside?

I've often said that treadmill minutes seem twice as long as regular minutes. Today the time went by quickly. Instead of watching my time or mileage, I now run by songs. Roughly three per mile. Psychologically, it's a much better approach and probably why every runner but me listens to music when they run outdoors. I'm still not doing that.

My buddies SIOR and KWL have been tuning up for the Boston Marathon in April by running NYRR races the past two weekends. This weekend they're running the Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K up in Washington Heights and will be adding another 13 miles on top of that. With all those hills and a real feel temperature of 13°, it's going to be interesting. That is so beyond anything I'm prepared to do right now. I'll stick with the treadmill, a temperature controlled room and my borrowed brace.

Night socked and soda blasted

This won't hurt a bit

Today's run (treadmill): 3.5 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 1.5 miles

Before you judge me for for my abysmally low mileage this week, please know that I had plenty of excuses why that was the case. And by plenty, I mean two. First was my work schedule that required me to come into the office on Friday. I normally work from home on Fridays, but I had my buddy KWL come for a visit. It was great having him at the office, but I didn't get a chance to do my usual Friday run.

Plantar fasciitis is the other excuse for my five mile week. Despite my purchase of a compression sleeve and plantar orthotics, the pain in my heel hasn't gone away. This discourages longer runs because I'm concerned that I'm doing damage with every step. I don't know if that's true. Even though the Internet has plenty to say about the condition, I've found very little useful information about it.

Saturday morning I followed my usual routine of waking up and limping downstairs to make coffee. The limping hasn't always been usual, but this has been my experience over the past month or so. After I took a few hundred steps, the pain reduced from pointedly sharp to mildly uncomfortable. I started thinking about my morning run and considered driving over to the track where the surface is more forgiving. Then I remembered that I had my six month dental checkup in a couple of hours and went back to drinking coffee.

My dentist recently left the office that we've been using for the last 15 years but we've followed her to her new practice. I met her hygienist who turned out to be one of those judgy types who assume that no one flosses or brushes correctly. There aren't too many things I do well, but one of them is take good care of my teeth. I enjoyed listening to her compliment my excellent "home care" and prepared for an easy cleaning. I wasn't prepared for her.

My foot issue had made me a little grouchy and my annoyance increased when this woman started aggressively going through her routine. I thought about how running has made me patient about situations like this, where you have no choice but to ride out the discomfort. Then things got a little weird. The hygienist used what I can only describe as a miniature sand blaster to power wash the inside of my mouth using baking soda. Ouch and yuck. My tongue felt like it was being hit with shotgun pellets. I was really hating this woman by the time I heard the machine winding down to a stop.

I left the office feeling sorer than when I'd limped in. I headed over to a nearby CVS to buy their equivalent of a Strassburg Sock. The sock pulls back your foot and stretches out the plantar fascia. This is supposed to relieve the pain caused by tightened and inflamed tissue. I put it on when I got home. It was hard to tell if it helped, but I kept it on for about an hour.

Socks of the night: (left, CVS, right, the Strassburg Sock) 

Later in the day I decided I was ready to try a neighborhood run. The outside temperature was in the mid 50's and overcast. Pretty good running conditions. I geared up and headed outside, not sure how I'd feel once I got going. The answer was not very good. My plantar pain was influencing the way my foot was landing and my stride felt awkward. My legs were heavy and my energy level was low. I did my best to put the discomfort out of my head, but I eventually reached the point where I felt I was doing more harm than good.

I decided to cut the run short and hobbled home, discouraged by my poor performance and feeling concern that this pain would prevent me from running for a while. I figured I'd take it a day at a time and hoped for the best the next day.

This morning brought improvement, possibly due to sleeping with my stretchy thing. My energy level was better and I again debated running at the high school track. We had plans to get out mid morning so I elected to use the treadmill and see how it felt. I thought that running with a decline might take some pressure off my heel but that actually made it worse. I switched to a 2% incline and noticed that my landing shifted me closer to mid-foot. After ten minutes, the pain was barely noticeable.

Less pain is not the same as no pain so I kept it fairly short to minimize possible damage. I was happy with my stride and glad I could bounce back from the really bad run I had the day before. I ended up running only five miles this weekend. All things considered, I did what I could.

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.

Going horizontal with vertigo

Verti, please go

Today's run (treadmill): 3.25 miles
Last Sunday's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles

This has been a dizzying week for a couple of reasons. One is that I have so much going on at the office that I'm doing five minute meetings in the hallway on my way to other meetings. The other reason it's been dizzying is because I've been dizzy. About once a year (last time was in March) I get a bad case of sinus related vertigo that puts me horizontal, at least for a little while. Aside from the feeling that the room is spinning, there are no concerning effects.

My bout with this annoyance started on Wednesday night. I had no idea it was coming, but right after dinner, I started feeling woozy. It isn't unpleasant, but it does get in the way of walking a straight line across the room. I felt much better on Thursday morning but after a couple of dizzy spells during my morning coffee, I elected to work from home. I would normally run on a work-from-home day, but I didn't want to take any chances on the treadmill.

Today was a different story. I worked from home again because that's what I do on Fridays. Between a restful night's sleep and some sinus medicine, I was getting back to normal. I decided to do a treadmill run. Although the streets are clear, the sidewalks are still snowed under and I didn't feel comfortable without that escape route.

I expected to struggle on the treadmill but ended up doing okay. No dizziness issues and the running felt easy. I suspect that had to do with my moderate pace and the fact that I had two consecutive nights of sleeping eight hours. That doesn't happen too often. With the music station playing some decent songs and a calmer day ahead, my workout seemed to go by quickly.

I don't like admitting this, but my last few treadmill runs have gone very well. I think we're due for spring-like weather next week and that might get me back on the road. This weekend, I'm pretty sure I'll be running inside. But with the Monday holiday, at least I'll get an extra chance for a run.

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.

Running and coughing and slipping and freezing

Oh yes, it's January again

Today's run (street & treadmill): 3 miles total

Whatever cold or virus that hit me on December 29 is still with me. The only remaining symptom is a dry cough that just won't abate. I took a rare sick day on Tuesday, worked from home on Wednesday and returned to the office on Thursday. My coughing was so relentless that my boss, whose office is adjacent to mine, told me to work from home on Friday. She couldn't stand the thought of another day listening to my hacking.

The good news is that I feel almost back to full strength. I considered going for a run on Friday morning, but ended up doing a brisk (4 MPH) treadmill walk instead. This morning's weather was a lot colder, but I was determined to get out and run. 23° with winds dropping the real feel temperature into the teens meant a lot of layers head to foot. I did my best to prepare, but I ultimately found conditions too harsh.

I was fairly comfortable while I waited for the Garmin to acquire its signal. I started off optimistically, planning to only run fast enough to stay warm. When I took my first left off my street, I felt the wind on my face and it hurt. I decided to give it a few minutes, hoping that warming up would help minimize my discomfort. I thought I could tough it out for three miles and probably could have managed that. After completing a loop through the middle school, I saw that the lightly falling snow was becoming heavier and the ground was getting slippery.

That was enough for me. I made tracks (literally) back to my house and headed upstairs where my wife was just finishing up her treadmill workout. I quickly shed my heavy layers and hopped on the treadmill. I completed the balance of my run indoors and ended up getting in trouble for tracking dirt in the house because I'd forgotten to take off my running shoes.

I usually try to cover closer to five miles on weekend days, but the combination of not running for two weeks and feeling less than 100% made three miles seem like a good distance. Besides that, we're in the middle of our first snowstorm of the season. I knew I'd be going out at least four times to shovel as we're looking at 9"- 12" at this point. Between the running and shoveling, I've already covered more than 10K steps today. That number will go up further when we go back out again at 7:00.

I was glad to get back on the road this morning for the first time since Boxing Day. Unfortunately , it was for barely more than half a mile. Looks like another fun session on the treadmill tomorrow.

I found something to make the treadmill better

Performance supplements

Today's run (treadmill): 3.7 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 30 minutes

I ran out of time for an outside run on Friday morning, so my only option was the treadmill. I don't know how many times I've written, "my only option was the treadmill" in a blog post, but I'm guessing the answer is "a lot." That's because it's my workout of last resort. I guess the elliptical is also an option, but elliptical-ling is not running. My three weeks of using the elliptical (which coincided with my testing zero impact "running" machines) while recovering from a disc problem clearly proved this.

I had what you might call a bad attitude when I got on the treadmill. I didn't want to use it and did everything I could to make the experience better. That included running shirtless (sorry ladies, no pictures), blasting the fan and putting on what I'd hoped would be decent music to run by. The run never got better, the music sucked and my schedule limited me to 30 minutes. And they were very long minutes. I also forgot to record my distance.

After a busy work day, the ER family went over to our favorite Thai place for a get together with friends. Consuming food that registers high on the Scoville scale makes me happy. I'm wondering if that was the reason why this morning's treadmill run was far more pleasant than Friday's.

Mother Nature had covered the roads with a few inches of snow overnight, so for a different reason I was stuck inside today. Like Friday, I dressed lightly, cranked up the fan and put on the music channel. I was prepared for the worst because I'd planned to run even longer today. Although I'd set the speed the same as yesterday, the effort seemed lighter and the music seemed better.

It must have been the Kaeng Phanaeng Neua and Tom Yum Goong. I was happy with today's run despite the fact that it happened on the treadmill. I ended up pushing my speed progressively and didn't feel overtaxed like I did the day before. I've done enough running to know that good runs often follow bad ones for no explainable reason. But I'm going to assume todays better experience was due to the food.

My first winter run but it's still weeks away

Face freezing run

Today's run (street): 4.3 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.1 miles

Brrrr. There are still twelve days until winter, but this morning it felt like January. Even with moderate wind, the 30° temperature felt like 23°. Yesterday morning was a little milder, but still very cold. Due to that (and an early work schedule), I opted to run on the treadmill. I felt like I should get outside even though today's conditions were even worse than yesterday's.

My treadmill experience on Friday was actually pretty good. By wearing only running shorts and cranking the fan on my treadmill to maximum, I remained comfortable through most of the run. I set a challenging pace and put on a cable music channel in the hope that it would distract me from the usual tedium. And wouldn't you know it, it did. Time didn't stand still as I'd feared and I got to the end faster than expected.

I knew it would be chilly today so I took a little extra time to decide what to wear. Wool running socks, check. City Sport track pants, check. A Nike DriFit base layer, winter weight half zip, lined winter beanie and ASICS mitten gloves rounded out the gear. I added a thin buff that I could pull up to my chin when the wind hit straight on.

Even with that getup it still felt frigid when I stepped outside. Fortunately my Garmin acquired its signal immediately and I was on my way.  A half a mile in, I was still waiting to warm up. The cold wind amplified the low temperature and made my sunglasses feel frozen against my skin. I didn't began to feel comfortable until I was halfway through the run.

It looks like tomorrow's weather will be more of the same so I'll do my best to protect my face from the freezing wind. I know there's always the treadmill option, but I'll tough it out as long as I can. If this January is anything like the last, I'll be spending plenty of time running indoors.

Not every run is stimulating

Four miles in da hood

Today's run (street): 4.2 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 2 miles

Friday morning was cold and blustery and I needed to get out early for an errand. Due to major time constraints, I opted for a quick treadmill run that I figured would be better than postponing my workout until later. I wasn't sure how long my work day would go and it was also my anniversary. I didn't think it would be polite to delay our dinner by doing an early evening run.

I ended up running a couple of treadmill miles and loved that the Garmin FR 35 captured all my metrics without a foot pod or chest strap. I should have gone all out during that short workout, but I chose to start off at my current pace. I bumped up the speed once I reached the second mile and I finished in the mid nine minute range. It was a good use of the small window of time that I had.

This morning's schedule was a little more flexible and the weather was decent. It was 39° when I went out and I wore track pants and two light layers on top. That would have kept me comfortable throughout the run, but the temperature rose four degrees in the 40 or so minutes I was out there.

I'm still not used to starting strong since most of this year I've lacked energy during the first minutes of my runs. I expected to go easy today and was prepared to run a little slow. Somehow I ended up doing better than normal. I'm improving but still running half a minute off my targeted pace.

Today's run was pleasant but my neighborhood roads were not very stimulating. The only interesting thing on my route was the work being done using heavy equipment at the middle school. Steamrollers are cool. I hope to go somewhere more interesting tomorrow and cover about five miles. I may do even more if conditions are good.

Denial of both service and stimulation

Treadmill data more stimulating than treadmill

Today's run (treadmill): 4 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.1 miles

This weekend's weather isn't great for running, but I managed to get in a couple of workouts today and Friday. Yesterday my friend and portfolio advisor (Steve) came by for one of our periodic financial reviews. Before we got down to business, we hit my neighborhood roads for a tidy 5K run.

Steve is a Crossfit guy whose workouts focus primarily on strength training and high intensity activities. Cross-fitters incorporate running into their training, but it's typically 400 meter intervals between squats, push ups and other dynamic stationary exercises. I imagine it would be hard to adapt from intensely anaerobic workouts to an aerobic training event like running. Steve said the first mile is always his slowest. I'm guessing that's due to the heavy cardio aspect of running.

Steve and I ran my typical Friday route and the pace we set seemed challenging to us both. We were surprised to discover that our speed did not reflect our perceived efforts. After Gmapping the route, I calculated that we'd averaged about 10:30 a mile. We did talk the entire time and that's an indicator that we weren't pushing all that hard. According to Garmin Connect, I averaged 76% max HR which is about nine percentage points lower than what I've recorded on recent high 9:00 runs.

After Steve and I finished up, I settled into my work, only to discover that my company's email system was down due to the massive DDoS attack on Dyn. That was fine as I had plenty of non-email work to do and, fortunately, our other systems were accessible through the VPN. By 5:00 PM, our mail server started pushing through messages. I caught up with the most important stuff and left the rest for Monday morning.

This morning the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I'm willing to run in sub-optimal conditions but the howling winds, steady rain and chilly temperatures forced me to accept the treadmill as my only real option. My enthusiasm for today's run dropped a few levels, but I dutifully got on board.  I set the speed to 5.6 MPH and edged it up to 6.1 throughout the run. Unlike running outdoors where you can see your progress, the treadmill provides very little sensory stimulation. I spent the entire time thinking about the wonderful moment when I would hit the stop button.

With humidity close to 100%, I felt all used up at the end. I've been hoping for more dramatic improvement in my performance but I'm leveling right now. Still, at this level, I'm running almost a minute per mile faster than I did in September. Yesterday's humidity was 94% and today's was worse, so I'll blame that for not pushing any harder.

I'm excited that I'm going to see the Runsketeers tomorrow. Per my opening reference to the weather, the winds on Sunday are supposed to be fierce, with gusts up to 40 MPH and a real feel in the high 30's. Should be fun.

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.

O Canada and fitting in some running

Land of maple leafs, moose and fun

Today's run (street): 3.3 miles
Sunday's run (treadmill): 20 minutes
Friday's run (street): 3.25 miles
Wednesday's run (treadmill): 30 minutes

My running over the last week has been a blur. The only clarity being today after we returned from a trip. I worked from home on Wednesday and did a treadmill run. I got outside and around the neighborhood on Friday. I needed to fit those workouts into busy work days and didn't do a good job of tracking my treadmill mileage.

View of the Green Mountains

We headed to Montreal on Saturday and made a stop in northern Vermont to see my brother and his family, along with my mother who was visiting from Florida. We were only passing through for a few hours, but we made the best of it and the kids loved spending time with their cousins. All too soon we were on our way to Canada.

Cool happenings at Place des Arts

We stayed near McGill University in area that was adjacent to a lot of nice restaurants and close to the Place des Arts. I did a treadmill run in the morning on a machine that was not up to my standards for a fitness center unit. I was tired from travel and struggled to get through 20 minutes at an easy pace. Well it looked easy on the display, but it felt much faster. I ended up covering 16,000 steps that day, so I didn't mind the short workout.

Swim, Bike, Run in the Old Port

We met up with friends who live in the city and had a great time with them. While we were in the Old Port we stumbled into the middle of the Montreal International Triathlon. There were runners and cyclists flying along sectioned areas and swimmers in the St. Lawrence River. We needed to sprint to get past at the cross points.

Montreal has a lot of energy and it reminds me so much of Europe. My brother had mentioned that Les Habitants "didn't get the memo" that smoking is pas bien. Unfortunately that proved to be true. On the positive side, we covered a lot of interesting ground and had some great meals. We were sorry when we had to head back home.

When we got back, I went out for a run around my local streets to cap off a really nice mini vacation. My running was back to where it was prior to that hotel run and I did well considering the heat and humidity of the day. I really would have liked to run outside when we were away, but the timing didn't work out. The next time we go back - and we will - I'll definitely do my running on the rue.

Fitbit fits and multicolored running

These colors do run

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.1 miles

I really liked my Fitbit yesterday, because it showed that I had reached 6,500 steps after my morning run. I really despised my Fitbit this morning when I checked post-run and saw that it didn't record a single step. What a waste of exercise. The saving grace is that my Garmin captured my run and, using the SPM metric and elapsed running time, I estimated that I ran about 6,400 steps. My Fitbit will never know this. Adding insult to injury, I expect the Fitbit to put a message on the display tonight shaming me for moving so little today.

After eight straight runs over my vacation break, I had a long layoff. My return to the office resulted in no running until yesterday. I was able to determine that my average step count during a work day is about 5,500 and I've been adding about 5,000 more when I got home. If I can't fit in runs Monday through Thursday, I need to generate more steps at work. I've been using a stand up desk in my office for the last year and that's better than sitting, but it's impolite to stand during meetings and worse to pace around the conference table.

The weather this week has been cold and rainy. Yesterday I stayed inside and used the treadmill. As I ran, I thought about how much I dislike the treadmill experience. I tried to think about the positives - the softer surface, no wind resistance (except for the fan), no broken pavement, no cars, and no hills. I had the TV to distract me and I could just set my pace and zone out. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work that way for me. I usually turn off the TV after a few minutes because it starts to annoy me. The lack of true forward progress feels futile. My only thought is that every step gets me incrementally closer to finishing.

This morning started with rain, but I had to bring my son to the high school and wouldn't have been able to run before then anyway. By 9:00 AM the skies had cleared, and I got outside for a neighborhood run. There was a lot going on for us, so I wasn't able to cover that much distance. I appreciated the cool air and the cloudy skies. My run almost felt automatic. It was as if I was riding along, rather than doing any work.

While my son was getting through his SAT and I was running through my neighborhood, my wife and daughter were at Citi Field participating in the Color Run. This is a non-competitive run where participants get sprayed with colored corn starch along the way. The "race" starts in the corridors under the ball park and winds through the playing field and then around the stadium area. It was a fun pre-Mother's Day activity and definitely more fun than taking the SATs.

Tomorrow is officially Mother's Day so I'll need to get out early. I hope the rain will stay away long enough for me to get a few miles in.

Run, hike and Fitbit

ER and ER Jr taking on the trails at Bethpage

Today's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Yesterday's run (street): 3.25 miles
Sunday's run (street): 3.5 miles

It's nice to be out of the office this week. We've had some great days so far. Since work often gets in the way of my weekday running, I try to take advantage of off days to fit in extra workouts. That's been the case so far on this vacation. I've been able to run every day since Saturday.

I can barely remember Sunday's run around the neighborhood, other than that it was windy and a little cold for the short sleeves and shorts I wore. Like Saturday, I had good energy and I felt I moved well. Yesterday I got out fairly early and enjoyed the quiet roads, courtesy of school vacation that kept both buses and parents off the roads.

Yesterday afternoon, my son and I decided to do an impromptu hike in the woods at Bethpage. We parked in the northeast corner of the lot and entered at the trail head at the far end of the picnic area. We followed the main trail that parallels the bike trail and then cut to a path that led us to the big field. We ducked back into the woods and began to take side trails, one of which led us to the paved path where the short but very steep hill begins.

We stayed on the bike trail for about three quarters of a mile before going back into the woods. We followed a winding path that eventually brought us back to where we'd started out. It was a good hike with some nice climbs and I was glad to get a second workout in on Monday.

Post-run selfie, Sunday or Monday. I've lost track.

We had buckets of rain this morning starting at around 4:00 AM, but conditions cleared up by about 9:00 AM. Even though the rain had stopped, I decided to save a little time and stayed inside, covering 3.3 miles on the treadmill. It was a good progression run and, like the three before it, I finished my last mile running a fairly fast pace (for me).

I'd given my wife my Fitbit a couple of years ago because I got frustrated with it. Not that it didn't work, it was just that I'd frequently leave it on my dresser instead of transferring it to my next pair of pants. And everyone knows that a run or walk that wasn't captured by a device technically never happened.

My company just did a wellness challenge and every participant got a Fitbit to track their contribution to their team. I didn't participate, but I became envious of people when they'd announce their step count. I decided to get back into the Fitbit game and ordered a new one. The building where I work is humongous and every meeting I'm in seems to be as far from my office as physically possibly.

I'll be curious to see how much I actually travel during the workday. I wish I had it now so I could track my progress during this vacation week.