Running doldrums

Wednesday's run (street): 2.5 miles
Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

It's been a a tough week. I've done a couple of runs since Monday, but I haven't had time to post. I've had a lot of distractions lately, both in and out of the office. My motivation to run is definitely at a low point. The good news is that a lack of motivation has not affected my running schedule and I'm on track for a normal mileage week. I'm just not feeling it these days. I'll blame the hot weather and the numerous non-running related items that are taking up my time and attention.

Next Wednesday is our corporate 5K. It will be a new experience to race in the city. It will be fun to return to Riverside Park, where I occasionally ran when I first moved to NYC in the early '90's. The race starts at 6:00 PM. As an early morning runner, I expect to have some trouble hitting my stride so late in the day. But, perhaps, the excitement of this race will help get me out of my running doldrums. That would be great.

A recovery run on a recovery day

Today's run (street): 3.3 miles

I took today off to recover from the hectic weekend, but I spent most of the day working from home. That was partly by design and I was able to make progress on a few items that need to be completed before the end of the week. I was still able to spend some time with my family and get in a morning run that wasn't constrained by my usual morning schedule.

Yesterday's run was difficult due to the hot weather and the timing of my workout. Today's conditions were much more positive. Although it was hot at 8:00 AM, neither the heat not the humidity had reached unbearable levels. It was early and I was not weighed down by a big meal so I moved along much better. I wasn't sure where I was on pace and I chose to ignore my Garmin so I wouldn't feel compelled to push harder.

My route followed the perimeter of my neighborhood and I ran on the sidewalks along Jericho Turnpike and South Oyster Bay Road before turning east onto the service road. The sidewalks along these roads have broken sections, so I frequently needed to watch my step. On the positive side, I had more tree cover than when I continued through the main neighborhood.

I covered about the same distance as yesterday, but I beat Sunday's time by almost three minutes. It wasn't the easiest run, but I finished feeling strong. I need to get back to longer distances next weekend and my schedule should help me do that. In the meantime, I'm off to a decent mileage week with 3+ miles on my usual rest day.

Overdone for my run

Today's run (street): 3.3 miles

It's been quite a weekend and we bade farewell to our last guests around midday. I'd had no opportunity to run since Friday morning, so my calorie intake had far exceeded my burn rate. I was determined to get in a few miles today and finally made it out the door around 2:00 PM. With the high heat and humidity, I thought it might be tough to get moving. I had no idea how difficult it would be.

It's so easy to slip back into bad food habits during celebrations and I plead guilty to that. Prior to my run, I'd eaten a big lunch and two hours was clearly not enough time for proper digestion. I struggled as I made my way up the street. I felt like I was carrying ten pounds of extra weight.

I almost cut my run short after the first mile but decided to tough it out. I hoped I'd gain some strength as the run went on and to a degree, that happened. By the time I reached the second mile I knew I'd be able to complete my targeted 3 miles. But I still felt like I was carrying a lead-filled backpack. By the time I finished, I was fairly exhausted. I jumped into the pool after first checking my pockets.

It's now back to my healthy diet and proper portion control. I'm not sure it was a good idea to run on a day when the weather was so hot and my readiness was so low. I need to get back on track with my training, stating tomorrow. I'm out of the office Monday and I'm hoping to get in an out of cycle run. I just hope today's performance won't carry over to tomorrow.

This technique may have made me faster

Does back leg lift = faster running?

Today's run (street): 4.25 miles

I'm out of the office today and Monday and the weekend will be busy. We'll have a house full of people starting this afternoon and that will continue through Sunday. The major activity is on Saturday and the day will start early, so I'm probably going to need to skip tomorrow's run. I tried to make up for that by running a little extra distance today.

Conditions were pleasant when I left on my run around 7:00 AM. I tried to maintain a decent speed and thought about how my default pace has slowed over the last few years. I'd say, overall, that my speed has remained consistent. The difference is that my median pace seems to have slowed by about ten seconds since 2009. It could be that when I used the FR50 and 60 with a foot pod, my times were recorded more accurately (and faster) than with the FR210.

About halfway through today's run, I looked at my shadow and noticed I was running with a low degree of back leg lift. I've noticed that better runner's legs come up fairly high after toe-off and I suspect that helps their speed by reducing the amount of time their feet touch the ground. Inspired, I worked on bringing up my leg as I ran. I'm not sure if it made me run faster, but I did feel it in my hamstrings.

I'll look at my pacing across the timeline after I upload my data to Garmin Connect to see if my speed improved after making that change. I did finish with a decent overall pace, so perhaps it made a difference. It would be great if a small change like that could have made a measurable effect on my pace. It almost seems too easy. Then again, it did illustrate my need to do more core work.

Chillin' with my biggest fan

May the force be with you

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

I decided to run on the treadmill this morning because I knew it would be humid and I wasn't too keen on gearing up for an outside run. In the past, a day like today would have been the reason to run outdoors. Things changed when we bought a stand up fan at Target and put it in front of the treadmill.

The treadmill itself has been a problem, with an ongoing issue with tread belt slippage. Although that's annoying, the machine comes in handy on days like today. I put the new fan on its highest setting, turned on the treadmill's small fans and started my run. Due to the slipping/jerking of the tread, I generally keep my speed at 6.5 MPH and below. I ran fairly slow today and set the grade to 2%, since elevation seems to minimize the slipping.

Although it was hot, I didn't really start to sweat until I'd covered a mile. In fact, the force of the air coming off the fan was almost too strong and I'd wished I'd chosen the middle speed. Fans are cheap and they can do so much to improve the indoor experience on hot days like today.

The treadmill repair guy is supposed to come next week and (hopefully) we'll get the tread issue resolved. In the meantime, we've been waiting months for parts for our elliptical. If you are thinking about getting a treadmill or an elliptical machine I would avoid buying anything made by Sole or BH Fitness.

My first July race (corporate approved)

A corporate 5K - what's not to love?



Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

Today was one of those automatic pilot runs where I got up, got changed and headed outside without thinking about the effort ahead. Unlike yesterday, I let my natural rhythm determine my pace and I paid the price with a run that took over a minute longer than Tuesday's (along the same route). I gave myself a break after yesterday's hard run and was glad at the end.

It's all well and good to run easy, but suddenly I have a new race on the calendar and I have to train for speed. My parent company is holding a 5K in the city on July 25th and I've signed up. This would be my first ever July race. Most importantly, it's an opportunity to run with my colleagues. Many of my work friends have signed up to do it and I'm looking forward to the event. It's has an evening start time (6:00 PM) and I'm a morning runner, but I'm hoping to make the best of it.

My $4 running phone decision

Tonight's dish: wet phone over rice

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

After my pool screw up on Sunday, I got a tweet from a colleague, who suggested that I place my nearly drowned cellphone in rice. My daughter said that her teacher had done that and successfully restored her smartphone after an accidental bath. I figured, what the heck, I'll try it. I placed the phone in a small container and covered it with brown rice.

Last night I removed the phone from its rice bed and replaced the battery, but it didn't power up. That wasn't a big surprise. I expected that the lithium ion battery would have fully discharged after being held under water for a time. I plugged the phone into its charger and the Verizon screen came right up. I thought I might have lucked out, but immediately after the welcoming message, the screen said, "Use genuine battery. Power Off."

To be fair, the battery is genuine

Now I must decide whether to invest in a new battery in hopes of bringing this phone back to life. It looks like I can buy one for about $4 online (plus tax and shipping) but I'm not sure it's even worth doing that. There are still some drops of water trapped under the lens of the TFT that may interfere with the display. Also, the battery cover no longer stays in place and would need to be secured using a rubber band or something similar.

I'll make my way to the Verizon store at some point to get a new "running" phone. I ran without a phone this morning but felt okay about that, since I didn't stray too far from my home. Ironically, I looked to take off my SPIbelt when I got back, but realized I hadn't needed to wear it. I wish I'd remembered it as well last Sunday.

Involuntary phone slaughter

How not to clean your phone

Today's run (street): 5.25 miles

I thought my story for today's run would be how I covered 5.25 miles at a pace that handily beat my expectations. But it turned out that the real surprise was discovering I was still wearing my SPIbelt when I jumped into the pool following that run. I had carefully removed my Garmin and Road ID before hitting the water, but I'd forgotten about the SPIbelt and the contents within.

SPIbelt - definitely not waterproof

The great thing about the SPIbelt is that you literally forget that you have it on. I've discovered a number of times that I was still wearing it, even after returning my other running gear to storage. While in the pool, I'd re-checked the pockets of my running pants, thinking I might have forgotten to remove something. It occurred to me (too late) that I was still wearing my SPIbelt that contained my LG VX8300 "running" phone.

I noticed that my phone was vibrating in the SPIbelt pouch when I brought it to the surface. I'm not sure why it was vibrating, but I knew it wasn't good. I tossed the belt and phone on the deck and finished my swim.

I've kept that phone for almost eight years, using it primarily as a backup to my smartphone. It's been great to carry on runs because it's compact and light. I hope Verizon offers a similar model because I don't think this phone is coming back.

Hours after I pulled it out of the water, the phone is still not working. I'll give it a day to dry out and I'll try it again to see if it comes back to life. In the meantime, I'm happy that I was able to get out for a decent run on such a hot and humid morning. It may have cost me my phone, but perhaps it's time for a change. I did learn an important lesson that I won't soon forget: Look before you leap!

Bugs, sun, hiking and running

Mislead by the map, much more to the east

Yesterday's activity (Stillwell Woods hike): 2.2 miles
Today's run (street): 4.4 miles

Surprise! It's hot in July

Despite the popular idiom, it really is the heat (but the humidity doesn't help). People talk about the heat like it's some sort of unusual phenomenon, but every July it's just like this. Today's temperature should get close to 100° F, so I got outside relatively early. Even at 7:50 AM, the thermometer was edging towards 80°.

Yesterday was equally hot, so after a morning of working from home, my son and I headed over to Stillwell Woods for a hike. A midday hike on a hot summer's day may sound like torture, but we knew that the tree canopy would keep the sun off our heads. For the most part, that was true, but we didn't count on the clouds of bugs that we encountered as we moved deeper into woods.

Despite the heat, gnats and occasional hard climbs, we had a great time looking for the elusive Ewok Forest section on Stillwell. I used Endomondo to record our hike and I referred to its real-time map a few times to help locate our position. The simple graphics on the map led me to believe that we were further east into the woods than we really were, so we never reached our intended destination.

My son did a great job tracking our direction and, when were ready to go, his compass skills led us straight back to our stating point. We headed home and cooled off in the pool with my wife and daughter. Our serenity was interrupted when a town worker in a lift truck surprised us by swinging over the tree line to trim around some adjacent telephone lines. Surprise!

I took it very easy on this morning's run. I briefly considered turning off the GPS so that I wouldn't track my pace. I tend to be self-competitive when I know I'm being recorded and I didn't want to move too fast in increasingly warm conditions. I ended up recording it, but I didn't look at my time until the end.

I needed to keep reminding myself that pace didn't matter, and that this workout was just about maintenance miles on an extremely hot and humid morning. The run never felt hard but I was glad to end it. I'm pleased that I put in a few miles today and I'll look forward to some easier activities in the pool this afternoon. Before too long, the T-storms will be here to finally cool things off.

The holiday is over but the humidity remains

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

The city is so quiet today it's almost like working on Saturday. Yesterday's holiday was short, but sweet. We had a nice 4th of July lunch and spent an active day outside, including a lot of pool time. I think all that fun, plus my surprisingly difficult treadmill run in the morning, has made me tired today. I'm not sure how I did it, but managed to get out for my run this morning.

The humidity at 4:00 AM was already insufferable and the breezes that pushed air from the south were not cooling. My legs felt heavy and I suspect that was due to lactic acid buildup from yesterday. I was able to maintain a steady stride but I knew I wasn't moving very quickly. I remember reading that high humidity will erode your pace measurably. I took comfort in that when I saw that my elapsed time was a full minute longer than usual.

I'm hoping this weekend's weather will be more conducive to running. The heat is fine but this humidity has got to stop. Of course it's great training weather for the Dirty Sock 10K that always seems to happen on a weekend when the dew point approaches 80. But it's a long time until that race. If conditions are hot and sunny on Saturday, I may head to the trails where the tree canopy provides some relief from the sun and the heat.

Sole treadmill slippage, once again

Today's run (treadmill): 40 minutes

Happy 4th of July. I keep forgetting that today is Wednesday because it feels so much like a Saturday. I'll feel differently tomorrow when I'm standing on the the train platform at 6:15 AM. But this morning I had the pleasure of sleeping in until that time.

The weather is alternating between sun and rain this morning. I'd hoped the skies would clear long enough for me to get outside for a run, but the rain was coming down too hard. Instead, I positioned the stand up fan that's in front of the treadmill and started my indoor run. I forgot to bring my iPad home from the office last night, so I didn't have the Virtually Active app to distract me. I had to make due with the scene out the window.

Our Sole F63 treadmill has been a disappointment in the two years since we bought it. We've replaced a lot of the components under warranty, but the labor costs have made this unit far less than a bargain. We are, once again, experiencing tread belt slippage and this is both disconcerting and borderline dangerous. Our low end Pro-Form treadmill gave us over a decade of trouble-free service. It's too bad that this highly rated Sole continues to experience chronic problems.

The slipping belt seemed to settle down after a few minutes of running, but it returned for short periods when I upped my speed. I ran about 40 minutes and was happy to come to the end. The AC and fan both helped against the high humidity, but it was still a soaking run. I'm glad to have completed a decent workout early enough to enjoy the rest of the holiday. The sun has returned, so today's outdoor activities will probably include a little time in the pool.

Malaise or maturity?

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

I am definitely in a malaise when it comes to running, but that's okay. Since I started running on a regular basis, almost four years ago, I've worried about losing my core motivation. Every year I check in with myself in terms of interest and, so far, I've had no issues. My biggest concern has been that I'd tire of the activity and, ultimately, stop.

Lately I've become less energized by news of groundbreaking shoe technologies and I'm not scanning the web in search of interesting races that I could run this year. My gear site, Runner's Tech Review, has lain fallow, even though I've tested product in the last few months.

All this is true but, like I said, it's okay. That's because I still want to run. I expect to run and plan to run. I woke up this morning knowing I'd have a light schedule and an early departure that invited me to put off my workout. Despite that, I dragged myself outside at 3:55 AM to run my daily route. I paid attention to my stride, cadence and level of effort. I speculated on my overall pace and was slightly disappointed when I saw how long it took me to finish the run. But I was also pleased that I cared.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and I get to spend the day with my family and enjoy a rare day off in the middle of the week. It's hot out, so I plan to get out early for my run. I won't think about it much until I'm out there but, once on the road, I'll be committed.

A friend of mine, who has run for decades, once told me, "Some day, you'll care much less about the gear and much more about the run." Runner's maturity? Maybe. However, that same friend recently got a Garmin 610 and won't stop talking about it.