Category: exercise

I haven’t posted about my running since the race on New Year’s Day. That’s ’cause I tried something different and injured myself again. Dammit.

I get these email newsletters from Active, and in the last one, they had an article about treadmill running and making it effective. And in the article they said:

Use a minimum of 1% grade. Running at 0% grade is similar to running on a slight downward slope. It’s also very difficult to maintain solid run form on a flat treadmill, so kicking it up to a minimum of 1% means that you?ll have a better chance of getting into your normal running style (foot strike, body lean, etc.). Note: As you increase the grade for hill workouts, be sure to cut back a bit on the speed. We all slow down a bit as we head uphill, but the treadmill won’t unless you tell it to.

Great, I’ve been running on a flat treadmill. No wonder it’s so easy, I thought.

On Tuesday I put this into practice, even though I’m still fighting allergies and generally did not feel like running. I upped the incline to 1%, set the speed for about a 10:00 pace, and started going. I planned on doing a simple 3.5 mile run.

I could immediately tell that it was tougher. Duh. I expected that. What I didn’t expect was my footstrike feeling odd and different. Different even than running on the street, unlike the article said. My feet, especially my left foot, was landing toes-out, at an angle. It didn’t feel right, and I tried to compensate. But because I had less time to land my feet straighter, it just wasn’t working. After about 3/4 of a mile, I was working harder, and my ankles were complaining. I kept pushing, though, trying to complete the distance. I slowed down the speed a bit, and even stopped to walk for about a minute after a full mile before trying to get back to a 10:00 pace in the second mile. I lowered the incline to 0.5% and kept going. But after 2 miles it was obvious I wasn’t going to be able to complete my planned distance. My left ankle felt… bruised. I stopped after a measly 2.1 miles, cooled down, and stretched out.

Next morning, my ankle was still tender. By the end of the day, though, there was definite soreness. And this morning, still sore. Ugh.

I planned on running tonight after work, but decided on the better part of discretion. I used the elliptical trainer instead for 30 minutes, at a high incline, a medium resistance, and a fast tempo, then stretched out and did those strength exercises I’ve been meaning to add to my routine: 3 sets of 10 at 75%-80% of my max weight for my lats/back, sit-ups, triceps, pecs, and quads. Probably need more leg exercises and core exercises but that was a half-hour’s worth. The elliptical is non-impact.

I think I’ll just focus on 3 days a week of strength training for the next week or two and see how my ankle feels. If I feel like running I’ll just hop on the elliptical, or the bike. Oh, y’know, I might do some running. But the focus will be strength for now. Winter’s a good time for it, and the next race isn’t until February so there’s plenty of time.

As mentioned last night, my nephew Max and I participated in The First Run 5K. I was… um… mostly ready, having been up late the night before (and several previous nights – hey, it’s the holidays) drinking. I knew I wouldn’t be posting a personal best time but since there were a lot of runners and walkers participating, and since Max is still getting used to running, I didn’t mind.

The weather was cold and intermittently raining. Max and I showed up early, around 10:30 PM, to pick up our race packets and scout around. They were serving food (bagels, peanut butter, crackers, cookies, Gatorade and water, um, yay?) in the tent in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Max was wearing running pants and a long-sleeved running shirt, I had on basically the same except for a stocking cap and an extra layer underneath the running shirt. Max wore his race t-shirt over the top.

My dad showed up around 11:00. He wasn’t running, but was planning on getting pictures of us at the start and finish. He also helped out by being our “bag check”!

The starting line was packed, and apparently the start line was a bit constricted – it didn’t cover the entire width of Broadway. Lots of happy people, a countdown to midnight, and the line got moving. I estimated at the time that it took us almost 3:00 to cross the start line. The event was chip-timed.

Once past the start line, we broke into a jog. The race ran uphill, south on Broadway for 5 blocks, turned left on Columbia, downhill to Front Ave., where it was essentially flat. We ran along Front for 15 blocks before turning around, and coming back the same way. Basically the course looked like this:

Start /________x________/ Finish

…with the [x] being the turnaround point.

Max, perhaps inspired by his excellent training run last week, did great. Just as we were reaching the top of the hill, Max explained that he had a side stitch. I told him to try to drop his shoulders and relax, and he just kept going and did not let it stop him. By the time we reached the mile mark, the side pain was gone.

He maintained a running pace well past the 2.0-mile mark. We stayed togther, although he started running ahead of me a bit after the turnaround and I suggested we slow the pace just a little bit. I kept giving him encouragement: “You’re doing great! We’re strong, just keep running.” …although the encouragements lessened as the race continued.

And encouragement also came from the sidelines. As we passed various bars and clubs, party goers would stand on the sidewalks, dressed to the hilt, waving their drinks and making noise, cheering us on. When we passed blocked-off intersections, cars would honk their horns for us (at least I think that’s what they were doing).

I was thinking ahead to the hill we still had to run up, and also dealing with my allergies and excess alcohol consumption and lack of sleep. But I didn’t want to hold Max back if he felt like running. I stopped a couple of minutes into the final full mile, Max kept going for a bit, noticed I had stopped and then stopped with me.

Panting, smiling, he said, “I was waiting for you to stop!”

I laughed. “That’s funny, I was waiting for you to stop!”

We walked for about 30-45 seconds and then went back to our jog. Again he kept pulling ahead of me. I kept thinking about the hill, and wanted to try to conserve some energy for it – perhaps not the best strategy in hindsight. The hill wasn’t that long, although it was somewhat steep, and it was followed by an easy downhill stretch until the finish.

I had to stop to walk again once we started up the hill. I let the hill psych me out, I think. Max noticed again, and waited for me. Once I caught up to him, I started running again, using the head-down, short-steped gait that are the best way to tackle a hill. “Max,” I said, “if you still feel like running, don’t stop for me. Just keep going if you can. We’ll meet up at the end.”

“OK,” he said, and that’s what he did. I had to stop to walk one more time on that hill, coughing up some gunk from my lungs (frickin’ allergies) and Max kept his pace. He rounded the corner when I was still a couple of blocks back.

Once on the downhill, though, I found my second wind. I just let gravity take me and broke into a flat-out run. My form wasn’t that great; my feet were slapping against the pavement when I should have been up on my toes more, although that’s hard on a hill for me, not being a sprinter. People could hear me coming. “Look out, this guy’s coming!” one guy told his partner. But this is how I tend to train; those sprints at the end of a long run train me to finish strong.

I could see Max ahead of me, still at the same pace, maybe a bit faster because of the hill. I could see the lights and the crowd at the finish line. I realized that Max might not suspect that I’d catch up to him. He was off towards the right side of the street, so I angled towards the left side. I tried to run quieter but that just wasn’t in the cards. I caught up to Max, and we were neck-and-neck, when Max suddenly broke into a sprint! He must have seen me! He raced ahead, but I just couldn’t dig up any more speed and, besides, I was laughing and smiling, proud of him for the performance he’d shown that night.

Just before I crossed the finish line, I saw my dad, off to the side, with a shocked expression on his face. After I had gotten through the gate and given back my chip, he came up to me and Max.

“Did you let him beat you?!” he said, laughing.

“I didn’t let him beat me. He just did it!”

Max was all smiles afterward as we stretched out and cooled down. I had messed up and didn’t get my time, but Max showed a total of 34:34 on his watch. I estimated about 3:00 to reach the starting line, which meant about a 31:30 chip time. An awesome job and significantly better than our previous race.

After I’d dropped him off at home, I mentioned something I had said before, that running is partly physical, of course, but also partly mental: just training your body to push past discomfort (rarely is it actual pain, just a mild discomfort). I asked him what had changed between the last race and this one. “I don’t know,” he admitted honestly. “I think it was mostly mental,” he agreed with me.

This morning, they have already posted the results (yay for chip timing!)

Max came in with a chip time of 0:32:15, and I finished just a couple of people back of him at 0:32:19. Our fastest race of the year, and Max’s personal best time.

Merry Day-After Christmas Eves’ Eve to you all!

Today was a pretty good day for me. Got up fairly early and fairly un-hungover (last night I was drinking Finlandia and Squirt… kind of a quick-‘n’-dirty Greyhound) and picked up my FlexCar for the day. I had a little bit of Christmas shopping left to do, and then I was going to run.

I had originally planned to run at the gym, but today was very mild in comparison to the last several weeks – in the 50s, no rain, no wind. Looking around I saw lots of other runners, and realized that it would be good to get off the treadmill and out in streets.

I called my nephew, Max, to see if he’d like to join me and he did. After finishing my shopping, I went to pick him up, then we went out on my 3.5 mile loop. We walked the first half-mile to warmup, and since I’ve been hoping to helpl Max train more, he set a goal of running without stopping to walk for at least 15 minutes. I figured that was an achievable-but-challenging goal for him, as he had to stop to walk at around the 8-10 minute mark in our last race. Hopefully, without the pressure of a race day, he could do it.

And I stayed with him for the entire run, and it turned out to be challenging for me, as well. With the exception of the races I’ve done in the last couple of months, I haven’t run outside at all. I guess I’ve gotten used to the treadmill and have forgotten what it’s like to deal with asphalt, and cars, and hills. But we still turned in a very good performance for a training run. Actually, Max did better than any race he’s ever entered. He’s a rock star!

I wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, my Asics, and no music. I did use my inhaler, and took an extra dose of Claritin-D for my allergies and sinuses.

Here’s my half-mile splits:

1. 4:54.1 (04:54.1)
2. 5:04.4 (09:58.4)
3. 4:40.0 (14:38.4)
4. 5:21.6 (20:00.0)
5. 5:22.5 (25:22.5)
6. 5:20.3 (30:42.8)

That gives us a 10:14.3 average pace for the run, which as I noted above is awesome for Max, and pretty damn close to what I do in the gym lately. I knew Max could be a runner! When I asked him about his time today, he said “I don’t know. Some days I feel like running, and some days I don’t.”

Truer words were never spoken.

Since tomorrow will be spent around family, Max and I might sneak out for another run, probably go downtown to run around the waterfront and the Esplanade. I know I’ll want a break from family stuff tomorrow… I love them dearly but… well, you know.

Running update:

I’ve still been eating like, well, like a bear storing up loads of adipose tissue for a nice long hibernation. Well, like a bear who works near a Starbucks’ and loves cinnamon, chai, eggnog, and peppermint mocha, not to mention cookies and almond! M&Ms! and anything chocolate and that’s not even counting the gianormous burritos and chips and adding bacon to everything bacon’s good on… yeah. Where was I? Oh, right, running.

So I knew I needed some hard running. My allergies or whatever are still flaring up, and that puts a damper on my speed, so I decided on distance. (I still need to add the strength training that I’ve been yapping about for weeks; soon, I hope) Tonight I planned on 4.5 miles. I knew it would be busy at the gym and I knew I would probably have to break that into two sections but I was going to do that much distance before going home or the gym closed. Ha, ha, just kidding. It’s open 24 hours, see, so… yeah.

Wore the Adidas, took a hit off my probably-completely-empty inhaler (it’s a psychological crutch by now) and wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Music was Green Day’s “American Idiot” and the good parts of the Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack.

Annnnnnd… I was off and running. Had to start out on my second-favorite treadmill but that’s OK. It doesn’t have much of a shelf but I had forgotten my towel and didn’t really need the shelf. I set a nice steady 10:20 pace and started running. I decided that I would run for 30 minutes or 3 miles before taking any kind of a break, whether a bathroom break, for water, or just a walking break. After 2 miles I bumped up the speed a bit, and then again around 2.5 miles. And I plodded along and did, in fact, manage to make it to near 3 miles without breaking anything other than a sweat. I did fantasize about making it to 3.5 miles, so I just had to finish with a 1.0 mile cooldown, but my digestive system did not cooperate. I finished with about 0.1 mile of 8:06 pace and logged, in my first segment, 3.1 miles in 31:36 or so, for an average pace of about 10:12. Meh. But it was a tempo night, not a speed night.

Did have to use the bathroom, and returned to the treadmill about 5 lb. lighter and ready for my final 1.4 miles. I set a 9:50 pace and just stayed there. Breathing was a teensy-tiny bit constricted but I tried to relax and just go with it and nothing untoward happened. My sinuses did start clogging up, too. Ugh. I hate these allergies. I decided I wanted to end with a couple of 30 second fast segments, so when the timer rolled over to 13:30 I pushed the speed up to 8:06 again for a full 30 seconds, the dropped back to my 9:50 pace for 30-45 seconds, the back up to 8:06 pace for another 30 seconds, and by then I had gone past 1.5 miles. I neglected to check the exact speed (good for me!) but it was pretty close to 15:15 and just a shade over 1.5 miles.

Did my new-normal stretching routine, drank what felt like a gallon of water at the fountain, and I was done. 4.6+ total miles for the night.

NOTE TO SELF: Even though I have next Wednesday off due to it being my birthday, the gym is going to be doing work in the showers that day.

Ran tonight.

Gym, treadmill, Asics, used the inhaler, planned on 3 miles.

Mostly kept a 10:00 pace, but near the end of each mile (0.1 mile to go) I bumped the speed up to just a touch faster than I thought I could handle tonight (which worked out to be anywhere from an 8:35 pace to, around the 2 mile mark, an even 8:00 pace) until I rolled over to the next whole mile. Finished in 30:00 with 3.05 miles total.

Did a comprehensive stretching routine after

It was hard to get the energy to go. Cold, wet weather, short days, having been house-bound all day Sunday due to snow and freezing rain, the persistent allergies due to mold… damn, this winter is getting to me. It’s kinda hard to stay motivated. I’ll stick with it, though, because it will pay off when the season starts changing and I can run outside again.

Quick running update:

Yesterday, at the gym, wearing my Adidas, I attempted my treadmill intervals (1 mile warmup, 4x 4:00 fast, 2:00 slow, 1 mile cooldown). Had to take a break at the halfway mark (bathroom break) and had to walk twice during my slow segments. Ugh.

Total distance covered was 4.46 miles, well below what I was doing before. But I’ll get back on track.

Last Tuesday I had a crappy, crappy run. My asthma – excuse me, my exercise-induced breathing difficulties – were acting up, in spite of the shot of albuterol I took prior to running. I had had a bad sinus headache that ended up in my ear the night previous to that, and by the following day it was gone except for a lingering running nose. It was all messed up in there behind my eyes and between my ears.

Wow, that previous paragraph jumped all over chronologically, didn’t it? But to hell with it; blogging is essentially first-draft anyway. I’m leaving it as-is.

Anyway, Tuesday I ran about three miles total, but had to break it into two 1.5-mile segments, and each segment was slower than a really slow thing. I wasn’t happy with my performance at all, and knew I could do better.

I was so discouraged by my performance Tuesday night that I skipped any kind of workout at all last night, just went home and lazed around and ate Thai food and drank delicious holiday drinks and thought about cleaning up my apartment, another thing that’s discouraging me. I can’t concentrate in a messy apartment.

So, today, I approached the gym after work with a mix of optimism and pessimism. I wanted to do some speedwork, but thought that might be pushing it. I always try to decide on my goal before starting my workout and then stick to it, but tonight I was uncertain what I was going to be doing until I had finished walking a quarter-mile to warm up. I decided on 4 miles tempo pace, which works out to about a 10:00/mile pace for me.

My ankles, both left and right, were giving me warning signs through the first mile, but I just tried to relax and let everything “fall” into the right configuration, if that makes any sense. Instead of trying to impose perfect form on myself, I just kept my head high, let my breathing come at a natural rhythm, and tried to zone out and not overthink my form. It seemed to work, because at the start of my second mile, I was feeling well enough to up the pace a bit, and finished my second mile with about two minutes of around an 8:35 pace. Instead of stopping for water or a walking break, I decided during the second mile that I would push through for at least 30:00, see where I was, and then continue to 40:00 at whatever pace I wanted. Around 2.9 miles, I pushed the pace up to 8:00, and I ended up hitting mile 3 at 29:30 total, which felt really good, before dropping to a walk for less than a minute. Then I ran the pace back up to 10:00/mile for almost the remainder of the last full mile. At 3.85 miles, I sped up to an 8:35 pace again, and kept it past the 4.0 mile mark (39:36 total) and kept going for another minute or two. I think around 4.06 miles I finally slowed to a walking speed to cool down.

It felt really good. My asthma did not show up, and after the first mile of slight pains from my ankles and calves, especially the outside of my calves, I had no other discomfort.

I do want to find a stretch for that area (outside of my calves and or my IT band) because that still feels really tight. I also notice that when standing, my feet want to pronate a lot, to where I’m standing on the outsides of my soles, and I have to consciously flatten out my feet so they’re resting full on the ground. Something to watch in the future.

I’m keeping these shoes (Oh! Tonight I wore my Asics; last Tuesday I wore the Adidas) through the winter, but come spring I’m going to go through the whole fitting process again because I believe my gait/stride has changed since I first started running. Just a note for the future.

I’m definitely running tomorrow and Saturday or Sunday. Still not back up to 20+ miles per week but I’m not really in training for anything specific. Probably good to focus on non-running exercise for at least the next couple of weeks.

But, y’know, I’m not going to be able to stop running. Just not gonna happen.

My nephew and I participated in the Red-Nosed RUN Deer this weekend. It was freakin’ cold, as expected, and I wore three layers for my run. I think Max had on two layers. At any rate, we averaged about a 12:00 pace for an estimated total time of about 37:15. That time, however, includes the time it took for us to reach the starting line; our chip time will be less than that, I believe. There was quite a crowd! Lots of antlers and Santa caps. Max and I just had on our race t-shirts and sleigh bells.

On my suggestion prior to the race, Max had stated that his goal was to beat his last 5K time. That would have been the Run Like Hell in October. Max’s chip time in that race was 36:51, so, depending on how much time it took us to cross the starting line, he may have actually achieved his goal! He came pretty close, though, and I think he’s doing great, considering that he’s not actually training. He exercises in school, but it’s not really structured for learning to run longer distances. So the only “training” he gets is in these races, and, frankly, no one would improve if they only trained once per month.

I’m afraid I might have set the bar too high by suggesting that he could have aimed for an average 10:30 pace for the race. He had managed about a 10:35 pace for the first two miles of the Turkey Trot in November – but, admittedly, that was entirely downhill. I hope he’s not disappointed at all for his showing in this race. For a novice (and I consider myself barely out of novice stage) there’s still a huge difference between 2 miles and 3.1 miles.

I think, with just some regular training, Max could be easily beating me (his still-chubby, short, over-40 uncle).

I’m proud of him for going out and trying, and for setting goals, even if he’s not achieving them right away.

So… our next race is the First Run, starting just after midnight on New Year’s Day… I will help Max be a little better prepared for this one. And, no matter what, it will be our fastest race of 2006.

OK, so I’ve blown the schedule I set for myself earlier this week.

I went to the gym last night to run, but, as has been the case the past couple of weeks, it was crowded. And, to make it even more difficult to find a treadmill, four of the good treadmills were out of commission. Ugh. So, instead of waiting around for one of the two remaining good treadmills, I bagged it and decided I would get up early and run.

Man, oh, man, was that difficult. I set the alarm for 4:30 AM, which did actually wake me up, but I just shut off the alarm and went back to sleep. I faded in and out of sleep for the next 45 minutes until I decided that, yes, indeed, I did need to get up and go to the gym.

And I did. I was stiff and cold and tired and hungry, but I went to the gym. Did I mention cold? (Man, it’s gonna be so freakin’ cold on Sunday when I run in the Red-Nosed RUN Deer) And, since I thought I was supposed to do my scheduled speedwork on Thursday night, and I hadn’t looked at my schedule for what I was supposed to be doing on Friday, I just decided I’d do an easy 3.5 miles.

Turns out that I had scheduled 3.5 miles for Thursday, and my speed workout for Friday. So, I’m not that far off right now. I think I’ll do my intervals on Saturday. The race isn’t going to be that stressful. Y’know, except for the cold. But since I’m running with my nephew, I can just burn him for warmth (just kidding).

Running update:

Haven’t been running much lately. I ran twice in the past two weeks: once for 3 miles, once for 4 miles. And, yeah, the past two weeks have included some heavy holiday eating. So… that’s not so good. But as of this week I am officially back in stride.

In that spirit, I am posting my schedule/goal for this week:

• Monday: 3.0 miles
• Tuesday: 4.0 miles + strength
• Wednesday: Rest day.
• Thursday: 3.5 miles + strength
• Friday: 4.5 miles – treadmill intervals (speed)
• Saturday: Rest day + strength
• Sunday: Red-Nosed RUN Deer 5K with my nephew!

Only about 18 miles this week – want to start back in slowly. But no worries, I’ll be back up to my 20+ miles per week in no time.

Oh, and also, I’m going to be adding at least a half-hour of weight training three times/week to my training. I’m not sure how I’ll break it all down, but just want to do something for each major muscle group (arms, chest, abs, back, legs) on a regular basis.