May 2008 Archives

Run: 8.06 miles - Pace: 11:30/mi - Week: 18.03 miles - Total: 401.11 miles

Pretty good run today. I used a 9/1 walk/run ratio which worked well. I figured if I was going to be running slower, it would be better not to use the mile markers as the place for walk breaks. Mapmyrun.com puts this run at 8.16 miles, so the Nike+ was pretty close, which is somewhat surprising given that this is the slowest pace it's seen this year. (Actual pace would be about 11:22, a pretty negligible difference.) Anyway, let's take a look at those splits.

• Mile 1 - 12:41
• Mile 2 - 11:59
• Mile 3 - 11:39
• Mile 4 - 11:16 -- First Half - 47:35
• Mile 5 - 11:16
• Mile 6 - 11:18
• Mile 7 - 11:04
• Mile 8 - 10:53 -- Second Half - 44:30

Well, I have to say that those are some good numbers. First, a solid negative split of just over three minutes. Second, how about that pacing in miles 4-6. I can't believe they're within two seconds of each other. Finally, with the slight exception of mile 6, each mile is as fast or faster than the previous mile. That's a good run.

Of course, it didn't feel quite as good as those numbers may indicate. Of course, it was slow, and wasn't as easy as last week's 7-mile run. So what are some differences. The temperature started roughly the same (just about 60°), but today it got hotter faster, with the finishing temp being just under 70°. To make matters a little worse, the humidity was above 95% when I started and even when I got back. That does not a good run make. Finally, I wasn't nearly as good about hydration and food yesterday as I was last Friday. I even had a few drinks with friends and stayed up past midnight, which couldn't have helped either.

Still, considering that my legs felt pretty tight for most of the run, it went pretty well. Now to note the little pains. In mile 3 I noticed my right achilles felt tender, but that went away after a few minutes. In mile 5 or 6 my right shin started hurting out of the blue, but it also stopped hurting relatively quickly. Finally, during the last couple of miles, the upper part of the quads in both legs were getting to me, but I think that was primarily just an endurance thing. Oh, and on the last significant hill (Gregory to 74th or so), those hamstrings felt really tight. That'll make miles 20-23 of the marathon, which are all uphill, interesting to say the least.

Ok, this is getting long but there is a bit more to document. I tried some Jelly Belly Sport Beans which worked out pretty well. I found I could eat about 4 in a minute walk break, but they were also easy to eat while I was running. I ate half during the 49-50 minute break and the rest after the 59-60 minute break. I found it easier to make sure I got enough water while I was walking and then pop a few jelly beans as I was getting back into the running portion.

I will say that they didn't seem to affect my stomach while I was running, but I did feel somewhat nauseous during my walking cool down. This may have been the beans, or it could have been the fact that I was carrying the water bottle around my waist for the first time this year, or even the exertion. Tough to say. I think I'll try them again on the 10 mile run, where I'll have to be on the road longer after eating them. Side note: I was having some gas issues that may or may not have been related. :)

Last comments. I tried some new fancy socks today which freakin' rocked. I can't say I noticed them during the run so much, which is probably a good thing. Mostly it was after the run when I took off my shoes and noticed that the socks were not soaking wet as the regular cotton ones tend to be. Cool. Also, the new Nike shorts I picked up were awesome. The pockets were a little deep, but they definitely felt cooler than any of my other shorts.

Ok, that's enough for now. Bike ride tomorrow, so I'll see you then.

*Run: 4.04 miles - Pace: 9'13" - Week: 9.96 miles - Total: 393.04

*The Nike+ was off as this was a faster run, so I used the distance from mapmyrun.com

Good run this morning. Decided to go for what the McMillan Running Calculator called a steady-state run, which for me would be between 9:00 and 9:15 a mile. Pretty cool that I hit that narrow pace pretty well, especially since I didn't have the most accurate data being displayed on my arm.

The only thing I noticed was that the upper part of right quad was a little tight, but otherwise only bothered me slightly during the run.

I'll have to figure out how I'm going to incorporate different pacing in my training. I like having Tuesday as a tempo run (8:37-9:00) or hill work, but don't know what to do with these Thursday runs, if anything. I think once I go to alternating long runs every other week, that "off" week run will be at marathon pace (I'm hoping for 10'00"). Monday is more of a recovery run and will be nice and slow, so I don't know what to do with these Thursday runs. We'll see...

Bike: 8.57 miles - Time: 43'57" - Pace: 11.7 mph

Decided to explore my next mapped out long runs, without the lower loop that I always start out with. Made sure to keep my leg rpm pretty high so that I didn't strain my quads or knees too much. Perfect day for a ride, right around 65°. It's good to bike again.

Run: 2.5 miles - Pace: 10'18" - Week: 6.13 - Total: 389.21

For whatever it's worth, there's the graph. It isn't entirely accurate as I was doing some hill work today. Using mapmyrun.com I calculated that the hill I was running up was an increase in 114 ft over 0.18 mile or about 290 meters. That comes out to not quite a 12° incline, which is fairly steep. Anyway, I did four runs up this hill, jogging back down and taking a 1-minute walk break after the 2nd and 4th. Before there was about a half-mile warm-up and then another half-mile cool-down.

That was freakin' hard. I know I ran those hills too quickly as the raw data suggests that my top pace was right around 7:00 mins/mile, and that's without calibrating at that speed so it may have even been faster. I should be doing those hills around a comfy 8-8:30 pace. Ok, now I know for next time.

In other news, walking down the steps I noticed pain in my lower right calf (just about the ankle) and in my left hip. I'll see how those feel tomorrow.

Run: 3.63 miles - Pace: 10'12" - Week: 3.63 miles - Total: 386.70 miles

Pretty good run this morning. Only downside was that it was raining. At first it was just a light sprinkle, but after about a mile it became a steady rain. Ugh. Some people like running in the rain, but I'm not one of them. I'll have to get my summer gym membership up at UMKC so I can avoid this in the future.

Only thing that bothered me physically was my right calf, which just seemed a little tight. Actually, neither ankle felt entirely comfortable. I'll need to take it a little easier with the Wii Fit.

Ok, so the Nike+ gets a little off when I do these long runs, so I'll post what the distance I got from mapping it online and the real pace, along with the Nike+ graph, which in this case was about 5% off today. The week and total miles are based on Nike+ stats.

Run: 7.08 miles - Pace: 11'12" - Week: 17.20 miles - Total: 383.07 miles

Today's long run was much better than last week. I certainly felt like I could have run another 1-2 miles. I think the reason would be the cooler weather (a perfect 60°), better hydration yesterday, and a nice, slow pace. The only noticeable problem was a slight pain on the ball of my left foot. My best guess is simply a little too much friction. Need to check out some fancy socks.

Well, next week is 3.5, 2.5, 4, and 8. Wish me luck!

Ok, so my web hosting service had my site down for a few days this week, so I'll have to summarize a few different runs.

Run #1: 3.65 miles - Pace: 10'28" - Run #2: 2.53 miles - Pace: 9'09"
Run #3: 3.59 miles - Pace: 9'50" - Week: 9.75 miles - Total: 375.64 miles

And now for the graphage...

Ok, so here's how everything went, according to my recollection.

Monday's run went pretty well, though I was experiencing some soreness from the bad long run on the previous Saturday. The main concern was the pain in the arch of my right foot. It was scary because I noticed the pain as soon as I started instead of having it build gradually during the run. Thankfully, though, it just remained dull and didn't bother me enough to cut the run short. The slower pace on Monday is really necessary for a good run.

Tuesday's run was a little fast, eh? Well, it felt so good at the beginning I thought I'd go ahead and push myself a little bit. Also, this wasn't entirely unplanned. I've been thinking about doing quicker runs or incorporating hills into these shorter Tues. runs. I will say, though, that I don't think I could have run it too much faster. Make me respect that 10K race that was right around 8:30/mi. The only problem with this run is that I just increased this distance from 2 to 2.5 miles. Basically, I increase one weekly run by .5 miles each week, in the order of Thur, Mon, Tues, so every three weeks there is an increase for a particular run. So, I think maybe next time I'll do more speed work and hills on the 2nd and 3rd weeks (basically not the week the distance increases).

Ok, so this morning's run was great. With the Wii Fit, a very accurate scale, I was able to calculate my sweat rate at 55° and high humidity. I can't imagine what that increases to when its 80°. The only thing to add about this run was that the Wii Fit exercises I did the other day put some strain on my left ankle, but it didn't give me any trouble during the run.

So I think I'll incorporate upper-body strength exercises Mon-Thur, and Yoga stuff on Sun and Wednesday. I think I'll avoid everything on Friday, as I need to be ready to go for the long runs on Saturday.

For this long run, I'm doing to try and be better about food and hydration. I'm not sure what happened last week. Hopefully these seven miles will be better than the previous six.

Run: 6.24 miles - Pace: 10'18" - Week: 15.32 miles - Total: 365.87 miles

This was just a spectacularly bad run today. I couldn't believe it. After 3 miles I was ready to go home. At that point, though, in a 6 mile run, it's either walk 3 miles or tough it out, so I did the latter. Before getting into possible explanations, let's first look at the splits.

• Mile 1: 10'22"
• Mile 2: 10'10"
• Mile 3: 10'03" - First Half: 30'35"
• Mile 4: 10'20"
• Mile 5: 10'24"
• Mile 6: 10'24" - Second Half: 31'08"

Ok, so the second half was a full 10 seconds per mile slower than the first. So here's what I felt. Around mile 3 I noticed some pain in the arch of my right foot toward the front more than the heel. This seemed to be lessened by striking more midfoot than on my toes and though I couldn't maintain that accurately, I didn't notice any pain by mile 5 and it does not hurt now. The other big problem was a stitch that developed by mile 4 and did not go away. I was able to lessen it somewhat through deep abdomen breathing and with the remaining walk breaks, but toward the end of mile 5 it had spread from the right side across my abs to the left side. It was bad.

So why the extra 0.24 miles? Well, the slower pace means that this wonderful Nike+ system was less accurate. When I run faster than I calibrated it, it underestimates the distance, and slower it overestimates. I simply ran to where I had mapped out 6 miles. So the sensor was about 4% off today.

Now, rather than feeling bad about today's run, I have to figure out how to prevent such experiences again. I did feel like I ate pretty well yesterday. I didn't go crazy on carbs or anything, but did limit my fat intake and had a reasonably healthy dinner of chicken piccata. I tried to hydrate later in the evening, but slept in too long this morning and didn't want to risk drinking more than just a little water before the run. Normally I like to get in a full glass of gatorade a little before I head out, but I was anxious to get going.

Other factors include the increase in temperature today. Granted, it was only 71° when I got back, but I've barely run in anything above 60°, so that's a big change. Also, I did not sleep well the last couple of nights, so that might also be a contributing factor. Finally, I think it's time to abandon my walk break strategy of 1 min per mile and get back to what I was doing last year with a certain time ratio. I think I'll go for 9/1 next week, to see how that works. That'll give me 1-1.5 minutes less running per walk break which should be nice.

Anyway, I don't think anything should give me too much trouble tomorrow, save some soreness, but I've some flexibility time-wise in the training, so if I need to I'll take it easier than planned.

Time to start respecting the distances, eh?

Run: 3.57 miles - Pace: 10'11" - Week: 9.08 miles - Total: 359.63

Great run today. I made sure that I wasn't running too quickly for the first two miles and consequently felt much better toward the end. It's so nice to feel great after a run rather than feel worn out. The interesting thing is that it wasn't much slower than Monday's pace, but those 11 sec/mile made all the difference. Plus it was cooler today than on Monday.

As a side note, my right hamstring hurt a bit when I tried to stretch it, so I didn't. Everything felt good during the run, so I'll have to see how this is for Saturday.

Run: 2.01 miles - Pace: 9'40" - Week: 5.51 miles - Total: 356.06 miles

Ok, good run this morning. What doesn't exactly get shown in the graph was how much faster the second mile was than the first. I know I hit 1 mile at around 10'00" so the second mile was 9'26". Part of that was getting warmed up, and part of that was that I kept thinking about racing 10K's later in the season. Every time I think about racing my pace increases. Go figure.

Run: 3.5 miles - Pace: 10'00" - Week: 3.5 miles - Total: 354.05 miles

Today's run was not good. It was the first time I really didn't feel like I could have run much more. The pace itself is fine, I just think that since it was a Monday run and I was not fully hydrated, it was too fast for the day. The problem is that I knew this during the second mile, but had a hard time slowing myself down. I don't feel any pain or soreness right now (though the upper part of my quads were not happy from about 2.5 miles on), but I'll have to see what it feels like tomorrow. Increased post-workout crunches to 30, pushups the same.

Run: 5.1 miles - Pace: 10'14" - Week: 13.64 miles - Total: 350.55 miles

Not a bad run at all today. Things were feeling great until about 3.5 miles, then I realized that I wasn't in quite the shape I thought I was during the first few miles. Still, I definitely settled into a nice pace for miles 3-5, and for the most part everything felt good. The only thing was that toward the end of the run my right ankle felt somewhat tender. No pain mind you, just tender, if that makes sense. After a few minutes of cool down it felt fine again, but I'll have to be careful in stretching.

Mile Splits:

• Mile 1: 10:39


• Mile 2: 10:20


• Mile 3: 10:07


• Mile 4: 10:02


• Mile 5: 10:09

As a side note, a good thought for posture was imagining my upper body a vertically aligned along the spine, with my legs moving almost separately. It was an interesting image that may be beneficial. Still, it's hard to maintain posture as the run gets extended. I know I was being sloppy during that last mile.

Run: 3.5 miles - Pace: 10'02" - Week: 8.55 miles - Total: 345.45 miles

Great run this morning. This cool weather is making my life pretty easy. Noticed a slight twinge of pain between miles 2 and 3 in my right arch, but went away quickly and have not felt it since. I did too much stretching today (that's what I get for googling yoga poses for runners). My right achilles tendon is now tender. Stupid. It felt fine after the run.

Also did the 25 crunches and 10 pushups. Will take it easy on the stretching next time.

Run: 2.0 miles - Pace: 9'54" - Week: 5.05 miles - Total: 341.95 miles

Nice solid run today. Nothing special to report. In post-workout exercises I've bumped the crunches to 25.

Run: 3.04 miles - Pace: 10'05" - Week: 3.04 miles - Total: 339.94 miles

Pretty good run today, and the calibration seems to be basically dead on. That of course means that I ran this a bit faster than previous runs, so I'll have to get used to the new readings I'm seeing on the iPod lest I run too fast.

After run:
10 pushups
25 crunches
Balance and ankle rotation exercises

Run: 4.21 miles - Pace: 10'03" - Week: 12.66 miles - Total: 336.89

Ok, so now we're off and running, so to speak. This is the first of many long runs that will gradually increase my distance to 26.2 miles. I did run it a bit fast, but I've noticed now that the calibration for the sensor is definitely off. As that should have been just barely over 4 miles (maybe 4.02 or 4.03) according to Gmap-Pedometer, I figured that it's overestimating my distance by roughly 5%. Normally calibration would mean going up to the track and running a 400m distance, but rather than doing that, I decided to run until it said that I went 420m and then let it know that it was actually 400m. Seemed to work, so we'll find out on the next run.

After the run: 10 pushups, 20 crunches, ankle rotations and balance. I don't think I'll do these after my long runs anymore, as the distances will start going up quickly. Rather I'll try to do them after my mid-week runs as well as any other time I can remember. Also, if I remember correctly from last year, going for a gentle bike ride on Sunday really helped speed recovery after a normal long run, so I'll try to incorporate that as well.

Run: 3.22 miles - Pace: 9'47" - Week: 8.44 miles - Total: 332.68 miles

Pretty good midweek run. It was a bit warmer today, with the temperature around 65° and humidity of 74%. On Saturday I'll begin my first distance extension, increasing to 4 miles. After that only 22.2 more miles to go.

After the run:
10 chair pushups
20 crunches
Balance and ankle rotations