Low impact, high diversity

I've been taking it fairly easy over the past few days. A real rest day on Friday, a normal long run on Saturday (5 miles) and a shorter run on Sunday (2.5 miles) made a little more challenging via trails and mud. I do think there's something to resting but I also think it's important to get my heart rate up every day to maintain a good level of conditioning. This weekend I found mixing up the workout to be a good way to isolate muscles and give them a rest while staying true to my daily routine.

I felt as though yesterday's trail run provided a greater than average effort-to-distance ratio, meaning that I worked harder than usual to reach my distance. All the same I felt like I should have gone longer so later in the day, when my wife went upstairs to do the elliptical, I joined her by doing about 20 minutes of core and 15 minutes working my arms with free weights.

Keeping in mind that I had already exercised in the morning I didn't push too hard but I finished feeling energized and satisfied that I made some gains. This morning I continued the low impact routine with 15 minutes of elliptical set to medium resistance. The rest of the week will be more intense but I wanted to give myself a break for a few days. Tomorrow I'll be running in a 4K training session and I'm sure I'll appreciate the rest I've taken.

A fun new world very close to home

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I'm still experiencing some soreness off my right hip and, based upon reaction to pressure, I'm wondering if it's due to an aggravated sciatic nerve. This soreness makes walking and running uncomfortable for the first ten or so steps but it goes away after that. I almost decided to rest it but instead headed over to Stillwell Woods, a local preserve that sits across the street from the High School track. I figured that running trails would have a lesser impact on my injury and if the soreness continued I could just return knowing that I tried.

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Access to the trails is fronted by a large complex of athletic fields and as I ran past I saw many other early birds gathering to play football and soccer while others were unloading trail bikes. Those people scared me because I figured we'd be competing for trail space and they didn't look particularly courteous. As it happened I didn't encounter a single biker on my run but I did see a couple of other runners. I entered the trail and instantly found myself in another world. I'd run a little at the Planting Fields but that is a not really set up for trail runners and mountain bikers. There was nothing but high brush on the sides and a flat trail in front with other trails connecting right and left. The elevations varied every hundred feet or so and, in the narrow parts, it felt a little like riding a roller coaster. The trees prevented a line of site to give any true perspective on where I was relative to anywhere else so I just let the trail take me where it would. It was really fun.

The temperature was in the low 40's and I wore less layers so I had no issues with the heat. The trails were muddy but the cold kept me from sinking in. Any colder and it probably would have hurt to run on it, any warmer and some sections would have been just too mucky. Perfect. I learned that trails are harder to run than pavement or track and I know this because I could barely maintain a high 9:00 pace but my heart rate was showing that I was putting in a strong effort. When I finally came out at the other side of the athletic fields I was at 2.5 miles and I decided that, with respect to my injury, it was enough for today.

I'm looking forward to returning to Stillwell to explore the many trails not taken this morning. It's literally five minutes from my front door but it feels like it's a million miles away. I'm betting that this change from road running can only help with my training as I approach race day.

Training to train

This morning I did a 5 mile neighborhood run, including about 1.25 miles running around neighborhood #2. Considering the length of the run I am happy with my 9:17 overall pace although my target was to average under 9:10/mile and my goal was to stay under 9:00. I guess you could call that a stretch goal. Maybe if I did more stretching I'd have made it.

The Garmin 50 pulled a new trick, about 3 minutes into my run I noticed that while it was happily reporting time, speed, cadence and heart rate the distance stopped incrementing after .08 miles. I couldn't figure that out so my only recourse was to stop the timing and restart. Somehow it took that action as starting a new split but at least the Garmin was recording distance again. I felt really good throughout the run (gee maybe there is something to taking rest days) but in the final minute I experienced a reaction where I suddenly had difficulty breathing. This was hyperventilating and not related to being out of breath from the run. I had a similar experience the last time I ran over 5 miles. I recovered by forcing slow breaths and holding my breath until it re-regulated. I'm sure it's psychological. I just hope it doesn't continue to happen.

The reason I'm training hard this weekend is that I'm participating in a group run next week that's been organized by Adventure Girl to start her team's training for the Ragnar relay race in May. This relay is a 175 mile race from Woodstock to the Bronx with 12 members who each run three legs. I'm not participating in that race but I'm excited about this training run because it will be the first time I've run with people in over a decade. I have to admit I'm a little concerned about carrying a conversation while running but I'll do my best. My other concern is that I'm going directly to the office afterward without a shower. The run, which takes place in Central Park, is only 4K so if I under dress I might be abe to minimize the amount that I sweat.

I'm going to try some trail running tomorrow to take advantage of the weather and to exercise some different muscles.

Under a rest

Last night I had a conversation with my wife and kids about alarm clocks. They were mentioning how annoying it is when my alarm goes off at 4:00 reverberating loudly through the house. Hey, with the split second timing of my morning routine I need that jolt to get the day started. So I guess you could call it irony that I forgot to set it last night and by the time I woke up this morning it was too late to run.

Right now I'm debating whether I'll accept my fate and just call it my first rest day of 2009. I actually considered bringing gear to work so I could run at lunch but, without ready access to a post-run shower, it's not a practical option. I also have the option of running when I get home but I prefer to spend evenings with my family. Taking a real rest day is probably a good thing to do. I've been dealing with a sore tendon on my right side that hasn't affected my running but it makes walking uncomfortable. A rest day can only help that and this is a good opportunity to see if my performance on Saturday will be improved because of this extra recovery time. This is important to know as I plan my strategy for the week of my April race.

I did take the time to weigh in this morning and was mystified to see that I am continuing to lose weight. I thought I'd stabilized but apparently I'm consuming less than I'm burning off. I should be happy about this, I'm certainly not emaciated, but I do need to build back some muscle. Perhaps some weight training needs to be added to the routine. That's a good goal for this weekend.

Fooling myself into working hard

My workout routine has become fairly consistent at this point, mostly running with a couple of weekly cross training sessions. The amount of effort I put into running varies based upon circumstances. During the week my runs are fairly short owing to an extremely tight morning schedule. On the weekends I try for distance, usually doubling (or more) the average weekday distance that I had been running. This has worked for me and although it is one of my 2009 fitness goals, I haven't taken any full rest days this year. On the other two days I focus on cross training, mostly on the elliptical machine. I have had some trouble with this unit but overall I really like it. It's solidly built, easy to operate and has a small enough footprint to fit in my guestroom along with the treadmill.

Although the elliptical provides an excellent workout and can be adjusted to require a formidable amount of effort to use, I always view my cross training days to be a welcome break from the rigors of running. The elliptical exercises some different muscles than we use for running and I think this helps overall. The device also provides some upper body exercise but the impact of that is not really apparent until the resistance is ratcheted up to its higher limits. All the same I think it's contributing to my better upper body definition.

The great thing about elliptical days, for me, is that I feel like I'm getting away with less work while I know that most of the time (based upon HRM readings) I'm doing the same amount of work as I do when I run. Another key benefit to the elliptical is the lack of impact on your knees when you use it so it's a great alternative when you are dealing with a muscle pull or have knee twinges.

If I had to choose one I would pick running over the elliptical every time and I think the reasons are obvious. But on certain days, especially following a couple of days of hard long runs, that elliptical is a welcome alternative.

Just don't call me a @#$%! jogger

This morning I saw a news story where a reporter was interviewing two women who were out for an early morning run. Superimposed on the screen were their names and the word "Joggers." It made me laugh to see that. These women were serious looking runners but the word jogger evokes, in my mind, someone dressed in a designer sweatsuit and headband, holding a bottle of Vitamin Water, listening to an iPod and bouncing along at a fast walking pace. Someone recently asked me if I was "still jogging" and I was tempted to say "I don't jog, I run." Instead I just said yes because to most people it's the same thing.

So what is the real definition of running vs. jogging? Does it have more to do with speed or attitude? I read one view that the difference between the two is an entry form. Meaning a runner races and a jogger just jogs. I'll debate that since I know at least one serious runner who never races. Another view was that joggers run 9+ minute miles and runners run faster than that. That seems like a fairly arbitrary distinction. In that case, with an average pace of about 9:15 I'd be an aspiring - not emerging - runner. I'm not going to change the name of my blog so I'll have to reject that definition.

This morning I (ahem) jogged 1.76 miles in 16:02 for an overall pace of 9:06. Since I have already filled out a couple of entry forms I'll accept the first view and say I had a pretty good run.

Speeding along

I have 39 days to train for my 4 miler in April. For those who have run many races my countdown is probably a little dramatic but it's my first race since returning to running. I was looking at my run data this weekend and noticed how my average pace time has improved between September and today. I look at the improvements over the first five months as organic, that is, directly related to improved fitness and weight loss. Obviously, running with less weight and better Vo2max capability will yield better performance. My pace history describes a Pareto curve with earliest times in the low 13:00 range, following a steep decline until it plateaus at around 9:50. Last month, with the encouragement of some of my more experienced running friends, I started integrating faster segments into my regular runs. As I've become more comfortable with faster paces I've held them longer and the result has been to move down that curve even more. My average pace for February had improved to about 9:30 and over the past two weeks it's closer to 9:15. This weekend I did my two long runs below 9:10 so I really like the direction,

This morning I decided to push the pace to the edge of my comfort zone and after starting around 9:30 I quickly turned up the speed about 8% and ended up running 2.05 miles at 8:46. Needless to say I'm happy with that performance. What I don't know is how well I'd have done if I had time to run another 2 miles. This weekend I almost broke 9:00 for 4 miles but almost doesn't count. Well it counts a little I guess.

Across the divide

I live in a neighborhood that's really a series of contiguous developments framed on three sides by major roads with a service road that runs along the south side. My neighborhood is a quiet and peaceful place to run, especially during the early hours. While the scenery is mostly houses and cars there are other interesting distractions such as schools and parks. I prefer running through the streets of my neighborhood to running on the local high school track for a few reasons: less wind, variable terrain and more visual stimulation.

Until recently my neighborhood provided everything I needed as a runner but now that my distances have increased I'm beginning to feel boxed in. I'm finding that the streets are growing too familiar and, despite a number of curvy roads with feeder streets, there's no longer a sense of discovery. It's all in a map in my head and I now plan my routes mostly around changing elevations and ways to avoid running twice on the same road.

On Sunday I braved the service road (I'm not kidding when I say that, it's a one-way 30 MPH road that rarely sees cars traveling slower than 50) and then cut under a highway bridge. I then crossed yet another speedy one-way street and entered a new neighborhood. What I found there were more houses, cars and parks. But these were different houses, cars and parks located on different streets! I took some random rights and lefts and eventually found my way back into my neighborhood. When I hit the more familiar streets I noticed that I was well over a mile into my run and my route options for covering three more miles were better since I hadn't covered much of my home turf.

I'll add neighborhood #2 to my weekend runs until that becomes more of the same. There's another neighborhood across from the west side boundary that has lots of interesting hills that I can also explore. Hopefully these options will hold my interest for a while longer.

Garmin 50 - illogically lovable

A number of years ago, on vacation in Paris, my wife and I were completely puzzled by the challenge of crossing the street to visit the Arc d'Triomphe. If you're not familiar with its location, the building sits in the middle of a traffic circle off the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It was clear that crossing that traffic would lead to instant death by Renault and yet we saw a number of people milling around the Arc. After some searching we saw a small sign indicating an underground passage that led to the center. It certainly wasn't obvious to us but in retrospect it made perfect sense.

The Garmin 50 reminds me very much of that. Before the Garmin I used the Nike+ Sportband which had less complexity but also less features. It was simple to set up and use, basically it had two buttons that controlled everything and good documentation to show you which ones to push. The Garmin has four buttons that seem to do different things based upon the mode of the watch that can be switched between time, training, interval timing and history. The simple idea of using it as a stopwatch took me almost three weeks to master. The process to do this is simple but the lack of instruction in the manual made it maddeningly difficult. As I use the watch I'm beginning to better understand how the sequence of buttons makes things work. It's still a little annoying when the display says "press OK" when it really means "press the View button" but now, after experimentation, I know to do this.

Of course now that I have gained some comfort with its operation I am thrilled with the data it collects and presents. The combination of pulse rate, speed, cadence, time and distance (accurate to about .03 miles now that I've figured out how to calibrate it) and the Garmin Connect website (that collects and reports the information) are really good. There are dozens of things I'd do differently in terms of functionality and user interface but in the end, it works. However I do wish it calculated pace on the watch, not just speed in MPH.

This morning I ran 4.06 miles at about 9:05/mile which didn't make my target of staying under 9 minutes per mile, but I fully accept it as great progress. It was about 43 degrees when I went out for my run. I only wore a base layer plus a long sleeve technical jersey under a lightweight windbreaker. I was comfortable throughout most of the run but I got very hot near the end. I didn't make either my speed or distance (8 total miles) goals for this weekend but I am very happy with what I've accomplished.

A miss is as good as 3.6 miles

I came within 1% of my goal of running over 3.1 miles at 9:00/mile this morning, completing a 3.57 mile run with an average pace of 9:03. The chart above from Garmin Connect illustrates the technique I used throughout the run where I alternated between my normal pace (~9:20) and a speedier pace. I was pleased to see that the slowest pace that I ran today was 9:28 and the fastest was 8:24. Overall I'm 99% satisfied with the run. The temperature was around 40 degrees when I started but it rose quickly and, coupled with direct sun, I became very hot. I made the mistake of wearing too many layers. This worked great for the first eight minutes but I found it to be a burden over the next 24. At around 2.75 miles I really started feeling taxed which surprised me since I didn't run on Friday and I'd had more than my usual overnight rest. I'll blame the hot weather and the faster pacing. After hitting a wall so soon into the run I am slightly concerned that my conditioning isn't where it should be. But I did recover pretty well and my new focus on speed should help that going forward.

I was also glad to see that my large toe, although still tender, did not cause me any problems during the run. I'm trying to decide on tomorrow's run strategy: 1. Try again to make the "3+ mile, sub 9:00" goal, 2. Aim for a shorter run but make the target pace even faster or 3. Accept today's 99% success and just go for distance on Sunday.

All suggestions welcomed.

Easy like Friday morning

I woke up this morning and noticed that my big toe on my right foot was hurting. I've felt some discomfort with it throughout the week but this was a little worse. I had just read in Runner's World about foot afflictions and this appears similar to their description of "Runner's toe." It didn't help that I walked a lot on it yesterday after a 2+ mile morning run.

This has been a challenging week and while I love what I do I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Spring weather is predicted and, with sunrises coming earlier, I think I'll be okay running outside at 6AM. Every weekend I set a running goal, usually related to distance. This weekend I'm hoping to continue my speed work and finish one or both of my long weekend runs under 9:00/mile. I may trade some distance to do that but I'll cover at least 3.1 miles (5K) on Saturday and more than that on Sunday. I need to total at least 8 miles every weekend until my first race.

Since today is a TGIF day and I'm worried about my toe I decided to do an upper body only workout this morning. I used the technique where I face the front of the elliptical and work just the arms. I did this for 21 minutes and was glad I took some time to work on arm strength. It wasn't as hard as I'd hoped and by the end I was only mildly sweating. I didn't want to overdo it and strain a muscle but the next time I try this workout I'll turn up the resistance a few levels.

It was an easy session, not quite a rest day, but close. I'll see if today's rest from running will pay off for me tomorrow.

Racing toward race day

I received a notification yesterday that I am officially confirmed for the 5K run that is part of the upcoming LI Marathon event. This event occurs over two days and includes a kid's fun run, a 1 mile run, a 5K, 10K, plus half and full marathons. This is actually the second race I'm running in early spring. Two weeks before the 5K I'm running a 4 mile race. I have about six weeks to refine my run strategies and work on my conditioning so that I can meet my goal of under 9 minute mile paces for both races.

This morning I tried to make up some time from yesterday's short run. I ran 20 minutes at about a 9:10 pace. Adventure Girl says that a treadmill pace equates differently to street pace so that 9:10 on the treadmill would translate to 8-something on the street. I think that's true, I've noticed that my weekend runs, though longer than my weekday runs, generally have faster pacing. It also may be that I can precisely measure outdoor running using tools like Gmaps while I have to rely on less precise tools (like the treadmill's speedometer or the Garmin foot pod) for indoor measurement. If I'm underestimating my normal pace and working on my speed it may help me make my timing goals for these upcoming races.

Now for the big question - what do I wear on race day?

Less time? Run faster

I found myself running behind schedule this morning and was unhappy to see that I had far less than 20 minutes to do a run that included time to warm up and cool down. At the same time I was concerned that I would not meet my (self imposed) minimum distance of 1.5 miles for a weekday run. Since time can't be controlled the only lever I had to play with was speed. I cheated a bit and got to my normal run pace in less than a minute before further cranking up the speed.

Now speed is relative, a fast pace for me would be an easy or even slow pace for an experienced runner. Indoors, I generally run at a 6.4 MPH tread speed which works out to about 9:22/mile. Today I ran closer to 7.2 MPH completing 1.62 miles in a little under 14 minutes for an 8:30/mile pace. That's where I want to be. It was hard work to maintain that pace, my average pulse rate was almost 6% higher than at my normal pace. According to what I've read I can even push that higher rate 9% to be within 80% of max. Having the HRM has been handy in helping me understand the effort I'm expending relative to other workouts (e.g., elliptical) and now I'm seeing that it's a good indicator for understanding how much further I should push to attain desired speed and pace.

My challenge now is maintaining that faster pace for longer than 1.62 miles. Completing a 5K at 8:30 would be great but I have work to do.

Yes, I get it, it's cold

I know March comes in like a lion but I didn't expect it to be such a fierce one. It was brutally cold standing at the train platform and the LIRR, owing to their unofficial mandate to break down at the mention of zero degree weather, was late. Ten minutes after boarding my feet were still thawing. As I stood waiting for the train, lamenting the fact that this week's snow interrupted my highly anticipated outdoor run in Cambridge, I tried to think of something positive to offset this late season weather. The best I came up with was that at 6:20 AM the sun had already come up. That made me happy because I realized that the cold would soon pass and the days will grow longer, allowing me to run earlier in the morning. I never used to to pay attention to the weather or keep track of sunrise prior to my return to running. Now I check the forcast all the time. I can't recall how early the sun comes up in late spring and summer but I'm hoping I'll be able to get some outdoor runs in during the weekdays at some point.

Sendentary Man has a new column today. I don't know about you but he seems to be a bit more profound and less sendentary these days. Although he starts out describing an epic battle between his humidifier and de-humidifier (this reminds me of an old Stephen Wright joke) he does make his point. I think. You decide.

Happiness is a warm treadmill

This morning I awoke to a foot of snow in Cambridge. From my hotel window I watched the plows working to clear streets and paths in Kendall Square. I went down to the fitness center for a run and indulged myself by selecting a treadmill with a personal TV screen.

I started my run and watched through the window as the snow blew almost parallel to the ground. People were walking in shovel-width paths that appeared to be two feet high at the sides. I watched the school closures on TV, virtually every school in the area is cancelled but happily MIT is open so my travel wasn't wasted.

I ran about 25 minutes at about 9:20/mile. It felt like a good weekday workout. I think my wife had a better workout though - she went out to shovel our driveway at 5:30 AM where we got more than a foot on Long Island. I'm trying not to think about my travel back to NY later today.

Newsflash: eating less calories helps weight loss

I was amused to see the article that the NY Times published last Wednesday confirming that reducing calories, regardless of source (fat, carbs, sugars, etc.) is the only way to reduce weight. Although this should be a very obvious point it's often missed and most diets center on the types of calories, not their overall reduction. Of course we also know the evil side of this revelation when people reduce calories using very unhealthy methods - anorexia and bulimia as examples. Eating less will cause you to lose weight. Eating less, concentrating on nutrition and running will make you lose weight and keep you healthy. Hey, if the NY Times can be that obvious then I can too.

I'm traveling up to Cambridge MA later today to visit the MIT Media Lab. I've served as my company's affiliate to MIT for the last ten years and I'm always excited by what I see and hear when I'm there. Since I've got back into running I have a deeper appreciation for some of the people I see there, like Joe Paradiso, who heads up the Responsive Environments Group at the Media Lab. This group developed most of the motion sensor technologies that are being used by companies like Nike in products like the Nike+ iPod and Sportband tracking systems. While I'm up there I'm hoping to do some running but the weather report is not encouraging: 8 to 12 inches of snow and ice expected for the northeast by midday on Monday. So it looks like indoor running for me. It's a good thing I like hotel treadmills.

This morning I ran 3.3 miles at about the same pace as yesterdays. It snowed a little overnight so I wore my Kutu’s, which felt a little snug. I also suspect the Kutus are slightly heavier than the Turbulence 13's which makes me tire a little sooner. I noticed today that when I end my long runs I'm almost never winded. It's more fatigue than lung capacity that makes me stop. I'm making progress with conditioning and I'd rather meet the challenge of fatigue than deal with aerobic energy limitations. I was happy with my run today but I admit I struggled more than Saturday when I ran a mile further.

In the long run

I look forward my weekend runs because, weather permitting, I can run outdoors and enjoy some actual scenery. Weekends also provide an opportunity to run greater distances since I'm limited to about 20 minutes in the morning during the work week. Over the past few months I've made it a goal to increase my average distance during my weekend runs to help prepare for two races, the first coming in 49 days and the second two weeks later. I am careful to track my pace and I collect a lot of data about my runs. It's a bit belt-and-suspenders but I use and used the Garmin 50 and the Nike+ Sportband respectively to capture real time information. Since I don't trust (for good reason) the distance accuracy of these devices I usually map my actual run against Gmaps or Google Earth to determine actual pace.

In studying what is now 6 months of run data I see a clear pattern in terms of distance covered by day. Saturdays are by far my best distance days and all my personal distance records have been made on those days. Although my intentions are always to meet or exceed Saturdays on my Sunday runs I usually fall short and I'm sure this relates to the fact that while I'm dedicated to running I have not reached a level of conditioning that allows me to complete back to back runs over four miles.

This morning I ran 4.3 miles at a 9:26 pace. Good for me but not where I want to be in 49 days when I compete in a 4 miler. The good news is just a few months ago my pace was 30 sec/mi slower on average and my top distances were in the low 3 mile range. So progress is being made. I'll see how tomorrow goes. We're due for some snow on Sunday but hopefully it won't start coming down until later in the day.

Bad advice and some that's good

This morning, while on the elliptical, I watched one of those celebrity entertainment programs (I think it was Extra) before the news came on. There was a lot of discussion about nutrition and they had a guest trainer to the stars who talked about a healthy diet that included five small meals a day.

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I think that's a reasonable approach, in fact I've heard the term "grazing" to describe that type of diet. What bothered me about this diet were the meal-snacks themselves: egg whites, cheese and meat. The portion sizes were small but the balance was completely off. There were no vegetables or fruit or whole grains. I'm sure that following this diet and training would help a person lose weight but unless the person was taking supplements I can't imagine it's a healthy approach. During other parts of the show they featured diet snacks, all of which included Philadelphia cream cheese. This was clearly sponsored and cream cheese is probably a better choice than butter or lard but I think it's disingenuous to represent the main ingredient in cheesecake as particularly healthy.

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I eat small portions in my four daily "meals" - pre-post exercise, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Total calorie intake is low and I am careful to balance to the food pyramid. Knock on wood this diet works since I rarely get sick and when I do it's usually a mild cold that leaves after a day. Yesterday, due to scheduling issues, I missed lunch and barely noticed. I had something small on the fly to remind my metabolism that I’m not starving so it should keep working. I remember a time six months ago when missing lunch would be much more noticeable.

I hope people recognize that just because a famous trainer on television promotes a diet that is disproportionately balanced toward protein it doesn’t mean it's a good choice.

One of these things is not like the other

Those who know me understand my viewpoint on smoking. I support personal freedoms and everyone has the right to do awful things to themselves (just don't do it near me) but I just can't understand why they would. This morning, on my way to the office, I walked by two people dressed for running who had taken a break to smoke. I passed them quickly and only caught a second of their conversation (which was in German) but I wondered how they could rationalize combining a healthy run through mid-town Manhattan with the indulgence of a cigarette break.

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I didn't look to see if they continued their run after the smoke or if they turned into the adjacent Dunkin Donuts to continue their hedonism. It did make me wonder how many runners are also smokers. It seems like a weird combination of behaviors but I'm guessing the percentage is higher than most would think. Never having been a smoker it's easy for me to judge and I am admittedly naive about how difficult it is to quit. All the same I just don't get it.

Quirks of the Garmin

I'm back to the work week routine and despite the residual fatigue that comes from rising at 4:00 AM I've settled back in to my running program. Although I am pleased with the Garmin 50 I've experienced some frustration with its operation, mostly due to its complex interface and its too simple instruction manual.

There are four buttons on the watch that do different things based upon the mode: time, training, intervals, etc. It is not obvious to the user which sequence of buttons need to be pushed to start an action, check a performance metric or calibrate the unit. The manual doesn't cover much of what the watch can do so I'm left frustrated knowing I'm not getting everything I can from the watch. In some cases the frustration comes from inconsistancies with the interface. For example, when in training mode, the usual default screen displays 0000:00:00 meaning "hit start and run." It then records distance, speed, cadence and pulse rate and will display any of those metrics by toggling with one button. That's great except when that display doesn't show up when you switch to training mode.

This morning I got going on the treadmill, brought the speed to my normal starting pace, switched the Garmin to "Train" and was annoyed to see that it did not give me my expected start display. So as I'm running at about a 6.5 mi/hr pace I'm jabbing at the watch in hopes of correcting this so I can record my run. Eventually I noticed a different display that seemed to be capturing distance so I left it alone and in the end it allowed me to save the run. The aggrevating part was that I ran at least .3 miles while this all played out and consequently none of that data was captured.

I'll see exactly what it did capture once the run is uploaded to Garmin Connect. I'm sure I'll eventually learn every aspect of the watch through trial and error but I'm puzzled by the lack of operational documentation. I wonder how many Garmin users give up on the features simply because the thing's so darn complicated.

Runners: emerging and re-emerging

This morning I did my first elliptical workout since discovering that a high resistance level can provide an equivalent effort to running. I had hoped to maintain a level of 10 (approximately 100 watts of energy) throughout the workout but I ended up averaging about 7 which kept my pulse rate about 10% lower than when I run. I wouldn't call it an intense workout but after 20 minutes I certainly felt like I worked harder than I did with previous elliptical workouts.

While I've been improving my routines for cross training and distance my wife has been changing hers as well. She has been serious about fitness for as long as I have known her and was doing some intense cross training and walking until she developed a debilitating calcium deposit in her shoulder late last year. She has worked hard to get past that and has returned to daily workouts, changing things up to minimize a reoccurrence of her injury. Over the last few weeks she started incorporating running into her treadmill routine, first in 5 minute intervals and now around 30 minutes at a time. I encouraged her to buy real running shoes and I think she appreciates the difference. I'm hoping we can all go to the track this weekend where she can experience some outdoor running.

My friend Adventure Girl has had a tough time over the last few months due to a bad soccer injury that required shoulder surgery in December. Consequently she has not been able to run, play soccer, rock climb or adventure race and I can't help wonder how frustrating her recovery has been. The good news is that she's been given the okay to begin running again and started last night. CK, another friend and experienced runner, has been suffering from a foot injury since late last year and he hasn't been running since completing a Turkey Trot in November. He's been skiing, playing hockey and doing other sports that don't cause the same stress on his foot as running. I'm seeing him today and hopefully he'll report that he's back to his running routine.

I'm glad to see everyone making so much progress!

The 20 minute challenge

The alarm went off at 3:55 AM this morning for the first time in over a week. I was surprised that I had some energy and I decided to run instead of elliptical (which I usually do on Mondays) because I hadn't yet recorded a treadmill run on the Garmin. Actually I had done that on Sunday but my lack of familiarity with the watch controls caused me to delete the run before it could be uploaded to Garmin Connect. That was annoying but it was only a mile so I didn't care. This morning I ran about 2 miles within my tight 20 minute window. Over the last nine days I became a little spoiled with the amount of time I had to run so I felt some stress to get my distance in today. I didn't get a chance to review my average pace or any other workout data because I had to move along but I'll do that tonight after I upload. I'm concerned that Garmin Connect will only accept the most recent run, unlike the Nike Sportband that would accumulate the runs and upload them in batch. That is until it stopped uploading at all.

Despite the short amount of time I had available this morning I'm happy with my run. Tomorrow I'll elliptical at resistance level of 10. So much for looking forward to easy workouts on elliptical days.

Training without straining

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After yesterday's long run I considered taking the day off from training. It's the last day of our vacation and it made sense to relax a little. I had a headache when I got up (due to a sinus condition) and my wife suggested that we take a walk around the neighborhood as a low impact activity. We set out with my daughter and walked for 40 minutes but, in the end, I still felt tired and my headache was still there. After lunch I decided to do a light workout on the elliptical using only the arms. I have discovered that by setting the resistance to 3 or 4 and standing in front of the unit (facing the back of the display) I can get a very good upper arm workout that's similar to the upper body effort of cross country skiing.

I did the upper arm workout for about ten minutes and then ran an easy mile on the treadmill, mostly to see how the Garmin distance tracking matched up to the treadmill's. After yesterday's long run I bumped up the Garmin's calibration slightly in hopes of reducing the 3% variance from actual distance covered. I was pleased to see that both the Garmin and treadmill were in synch with the Garmin running slightly ahead by a couple of 100ths of a mile. This is similar to what I experienced when comparing the Nike+ Sportband to the treadmill's distance tracking.

Today's walk, elliptical and run activities didn't add up to a highly taxing fitness day but after getting my pulse rate up on the treadmill, followed by a quick shower, I feel pretty good and ready to contend with the start of a new work week.

A PR for the ER

 This past vacation week has been great fun. We stayed close to home but did a lot of different things. I've also enjoyed the opportunity to run outdoors every day and I've covered a lot of distance: 25 miles since last Sunday. I'm 56 days away from my 4-mile race and I'm confident that I can cover that distance at a credible pace. I'm feeling ready and what was once a comfortable buffer measured in months is now looking like an unnecessarily long gap that's making me a little impatient. I'm tempted to look for a local race between now and April to just get one under my belt.

One reason I'm feeling this way is that I reached a new distance milestone this morning, covering 5.26 miles in about 52 minutes (9:53/mi avg pace). This broke my previous distance record by about .8 miles. Although I was off my normal pace I was very pleased with the run. I struggled a little at the beginning (I'd expected that since the first half mile was up an incline) but quickly settled into a good stride and knew that I was in for a long run. One of my biggest de-motivators has been the adjacency to my house. As I get closer to home, near the end of my run, I usually begin to feel the struggle to finish.  I decided today that I'd double back a few times far enough away from my house that I wouldn't have an expectation that I was nearing the end. It worked. I was at least 2.5 miles from home at the 2.5 mile mark so I knew that I had to cover 5 miles unless I stopped or walked. And I never do either.

I was surprised by how well I felt when I reached my house. My pulse rate was slightly lower than average and although my legs felt tired I knew I was good for another mile if I had to run it. For the first time I understood how people can get through 10Ks, half-marathons and even full marathons. I can't do any of those but I understand a little more how conditioning prepares you to run for hours at a time without needing to stop.

I may take Sunday as a recovery day, either an easy run or light cross training. 4:00 AM Monday morning will come soon enough and I'll need to be ready for a fast 2 miles to start my workday.