Archive for October, 2010

…or Echo Stress test, whatever the order is.  Anyway, as expected, nothing was discovered, though it was an interesting experience.

First, they stick a bunch of things on you and look at your heart via ultrasound, take a bunch of pictures, then stick a bunch more stuff on you and you get on the treadmill.

They start you walking and then every few minutes, they increase the incline and pump a little more speed.  For my age, they would ordinarily stop the mill when my heart rate hits 145 but since I’m Runner Chick, they let me keep going.  I was on there for 20 minutes total though I didn’t reach my max HR (193 is what I’ve clocked a couple times), only reaching 186.

Also, you’re not allowed to take your hands off the bar in front of you (I think they’re afraid people will be whisked off the back or will faint or something).  So I learned that it’s a major pain in the ass running without the use of your arms.

While on the treadmill, they periodically take your blood pressure and mine behaved perfectly.  Then it was back for another lie-down with the ultrasound machine.  I got mucho kudos from the doctor and technicians for being such a healthy specimen, and they were all so sweet that when I left, hugs were exchanged (talk about your strange bonding experience).

Of course, it’s fabulous that I’m so fit, but leaves me with nothing solid on which to blame the collapses.   C’est la vie, it’s what I expected and now that the evil summer is over, I’ll just attribute it to weather and not let it worry me until next year.

Latest Runs
Wed – 7 easy @ 8:44, Thurs – 6 easy @ 8:28 + stress test, Today – frickin’ hard tempo intervals.

Actually, it was a solid workout albeit tough thanks to my legs feeling yesterday’s treadmill hill fun coupled with 23mph gusts of wind.  For the wind alone, I would have rescheduled but tomorrow’s a huge regatta which means forget the bike path and also, I want my 17 on Sunday to be on fresh legs.  On the good side, it was a lovely 55 degrees.

The workout was 9.5mi w/ 3 x 2mi @HP, 2min rec’s.  Warmup was 2@8:12, Cooldown was 1@8:20, average for the entire run 7:40.

Starting directly into the wind, the first mile sucked @7:21, but after that things improved.  The 2mi splits went 7:16, 7:11 and 7:08, avg 7:11.  Not bad, really.  Also, my HR was lower than usual for that pace, so double not bad.

And with that, I return to sloth mode with a rest day tomorrow.   Have a great weekend, friends.  May you enjoy some fine running and Halloween stuff, if that’s your thing.  Personally, I can’t wait till this silly holiday is over so I can stop thinking that stuffed scarecrow doll in overalls on Green Street is not a human being.   It’s annoying being tricked every damn time.

Later, loves.

Yesterday’s interval session seemed to validate my new pace philosophy.  Not only are my daily workouts suddenly way more fun and even a bit exciting as far as unexpected ease, a background worry that the quality workouts might suffer from picking it up everywhere else has so far been allayed.  In fact, I had a kick-ass session.

The session was 9.35mi (odd distance due to timed recoveries) w/ 5 x mi @15K pace (targeting 7:00s), 1 min recoveries. It was 69 and humid (temp + dewpoint =128), but the weird thing is that having run this new way for a few days, confidence is starting to creep in; I had little doubt that I’d be hitting the right paces and weather wasn’t even a worry.  This is no small thing.

So…leaving the house, my first two miles averaged 8:09s.  Splits on the mile intervals went 6:57, 6:55, 6:58, 6:58, 7:00.  The recoveries were quicker than usual, staying in the 8s except for a middle one, and the last 2 miles home averaged 8:17.  The whole run averaged 7:41.

Today and Tomorrow
I’ve got a voiceover job this morning (had quite a few this month, yay) and upon my return will do 7 miles purposely devoid of zoom.  Then tomorrow I have the Echo Stress Test.  All I’m thinking about that is “It better not compromise Friday’s tempo run!”  A girl’s got her priorities, you know.

And that’s the story, Morning Glories.  Have a lovely couple of days and run swell!

Continuing on this weekend’s blog subject, I’m loving the return to my old way of running (faster overall as well as from the get-go).  But I wanted to say to you lovely readers that this is totally my own experiment and nothing I’d suggest for anyone else.   So here’s a disclaimer:

You will rarely see me give advice on forum posts or here because I don’t feel qualified to tell someone else what to do and also, everyone’s so different.  So keep in mind that the conclusions I come to or new experiments I try are results of investigating my running logs as well as the peripherals surrounding my running (mileage, what I can handle recovery-wise, etc).  Plus, I’ll try anything to get outta this rut.

Second Run With New Paces
Yesterday’s Long Run was way fun.  Again, like Saturday, I went a little overboard with the initial miles, only because it’s amazing to me that I can feel good going fast out the door, when my usual run profile for the longest time has been 9:00-8:45′s to start, then whittling down with each mile.  Such a creature of habit, I thought I needed that slow start!  Kooky.

Anyway, this was a 14-miler that started 8:00, 7:50, 7:50 (hilarious splits) but then I slowed up as the heartrate increased – was 70 degrees so warmish – then used HR to keep it real which averaged 162 (76%HRR or 81% Max for those keeping score at home).  No pretty progression shape on the SportTrack graph, but it was hella fun!  I was tired and satisfied at the end, knowing today would be a rest day.  Average pace 8:11.

Now, keep in mind that I will not be running all Sunday runs like this!  14 miles isn’t a big deal to me as far as distance, but next weekend I’ve got 17, which I’ll take into the trails and be closer to MP+20% – MP+10%.  I’m experimenting but doing it responsibly.

For instance, this week is a cutback week with 2 days off so I can afford to play a bit, but next Sunday’s 17-miler kicks off 2 weeks without a day off and includes a 10k race in the middle, so I’ll be more circumspect about pacing.  I also won’t be hitting quality work warmups as crazily as I did for Saturday’s tempo (I was having fun testing the waters).

Weight
I admit that after the debacle that was the Philly Half last month, I had a couple weeks of bad attitude with the weightloss.  Not really bad, I still didn’t buy any junk or eat a whole lot more, but I had some “what am I doing this for?” mental poop going on.  Still, I continued to jot down my daily calories (while eating a little extra here and there) but eventually got back to my routine.

Then I was sticking around 115 and was beginning to think that’d be my last stop on the weight-loss train, only because I’m not willing to eat less than I have been (around 1900 calories). But the fun thing about tracking and making a cute chart in Excel is that patterns emerge.   What I’m seeing is I’ll land on a new weight, then for the next 3 weeks, there’ll be ups and downs fluttering around that number, then it’ll go down to a new number with more fluttering.

Today I fluttered into 113 land!  113.8 to be exact.  That makes 10 lbs lost since July 23rd.

Sleep
All my sleep problems from the summer disappeared when the weather improved.  Now that I can go to bed at my normal time again (12:00-12:30) and wake up when my body says to, I’m getting a full 8 hours and even 8.5 sometimes.  Huge relief.

Newsletter
I have been So. Bad. on that front.  Someone asked me a couple weeks ago if I had her correct email address since she hadn’t received one in ages.  I embarrassingly told her no, it wasn’t her email, I just haven’t gotten around to sending one out in forever.  I almost removed the link entirely thinking my newsletter career was over, but for some reason I haven’t given up all hope.  I just have to start looking around for things that interest me enough to share.   Sorry for being such a slug about it.

Yesterday’s blog post was put in action today and boy, do I have great feelings about this!  Forgive me Facebook folks, this is basically the update I just posted but I’m so pleased, it deserves blog detailing as well.

Today was a tempo run: 9mi with 6@HP.  61 degrees with 10mph wind.

Implementing my old style, instead of doing my usual slow couple miles before the workout, I left the house with pep in my step.  I wasn’t shooting for anything special, just wanted to feel energized.  So with huge surprise, my first two miles were 7:53 and 7:45 (a full minute faster per mile than my usual warmup miles). I was looking at my Garmin thinking “Girl, you are going too fast” but since my heartrate was averaging 158, I said screw it.  I did have a thought that maybe this peppy beginning might make my tempo miles harder but figured at least I’ll know for next time.

Once the tempo miles started, I had some dodging and weaving thanks to the Dragonboat races on the river which brought a ton of people out on the path.  I was going for 7:10s and Garmin told me I was doing that (going as low as 7:03s), but once home, when I added the real splits off the bike path, it came out to 7:13s, oh well…still cool by me.

The cooldown mile home was 8:11.  That one surprised me the most. I was thinking that my cooldowns will be slower from here on in, as in, actual cooldowns…but I ran what felt right and that’s what it came out to.

Of course, this is just one run but it now holds a place as the fastest pace I’ve averaged for a run in a non-race situation (7:29s).  Neat-o!  Though no worries folks, I’m not going to race my training runs, heart rate will be a major player in keeping it all “legal”.

So we’ll see if picking up the pace here and there ends up picking up my pace as a whole.  I can’t see how it won’t.

I haven’t felt too interesting this week, thus the silence on blog posting, though the forum I frequent has been hopping with fun stuff so I’ve been making trouble elsewhere.  But now I’ve got something worth talking about.

Going Through My Logs
Today, I began investigating the differences between how I ran last year when my times were better and how I run now.

One glaring difference is that I always used to use McMillan’s calculator to get my easy and long paces, whereas for the past year or so I switched to being effort-based, thinking it was a more organic way to run.  This idea comes from hanging out in the marathon forums with the constant refrain “make sure you run your easy runs slowly so you have the energy to do your hard workouts”.

Not to take away from that – after all, when you see many of the paces listed for fast dudes in that thread, some of them go so surprisingly slow compared to their workout/race paces and in fact, most of my fast pals in the 3:20 thread run their Easys at extremely low heart rates and paces considering their race times.  So I was thinking that of course I should be doing the same and I’m getting brownie points by not worrying about my easy runs, it’s all the other stuff that matters.

But I’m not marathon training and my legs never feel wiped out so do I really need to be treating non-quality days so gingerly?

Comparing Then And Now
While dissecting the difference between heart rates and paces from the previous year and remembering how my easy runs used to feel effort-wise, this is what I discovered:

I used to run my easy runs at around a heart rate of 160 (75% HRR) but then I got all twisted looking at other people’s numbers and thought “oh my, that’s too high, I need to run them at a lower effort” and “slower means better” so I’ve been running my Easys closer to 150 (68% HRR) for months.  That’s a substantial difference.

I’ve also made a habit of starting every run with a couple slow warmup miles and making every Easy run into a progression run, whereas in the past, I would just take off at pace and there would be more variation throughout the run.

Now, the book-smart part of me says the progression thing is a good habit to have, it’s very Pftizinger, but the logician in me says maybe that’s not the greatest habit for general aerobic runs – if my legs aren’t tired when I begin, what am I “saving” myself for?  I think I’ve gotten used to a certain breathing pattern upon start-up and it’s simply become habit.

What’s The Fallout?
I think my slow starts are doing me a disservice for racing and hard workouts.  This larger gap between comfort and effort means it’s more of a shock when the workout starts – that’s why you’re supposed to do strides before a fast workout, to get your heart rate up and prepare you for moving quickly.  But beyond that, my logs bear out that when I was running my best, I had a smaller gap between easy and workout paces.

McMillan, I’m coming back to you
So here I’ve been ignoring McMillan’s recommended paces for a year, thinking I was getting extra-super points for “listening to my body”, but my body, if left to its own devices, would be happiest to amble along indefinitely like the lazy ass it really is.

Thus, I’m beginning an experiment.  For the next few weeks I am going to start running my easy runs pretty much on pace from the get-go.  No more “this is fine and dandy” slow starts.  I’m also going to wear the heart rate monitor more regularly and zero in on 160 for those regular aerobic-paced runs, which means I’ll be running them faster as a whole.  Because if I want to race like I used to race, I may as well run like I used to run.

This post really has nothing clever about it or a big payoff, I don’t have any wisdom and I’m not even going to open comments because I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to reply.   Consider this a half-price blog post written on a bored Tuesday evening.  The subject?  A stupid 1%.

Since I began running in 2007, I’ve covered 6050 miles of road and trail.  I have loved almost every moment and can’t remember ever cutting a run short because I didn’t want to finish.  In rain, snow, heat, I’ve been out there.   Because I love it.  Because it’s an addiction, this forward propulsion.  To leave everything behind while you slice the air from the inside out…that’s my heaven.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, otherwise known as the deep recesses of my brain, I consider how much angst I’ve given to races, to not measuring up, to dissatisfaction of those races and fear going into them.  Then I calculated how many miles I’ve raced.  282 miles.  Out of 6050.  That’s 4%.

Considering it wasn’t till this past year where things got weird, that number can be taken down even further…probably 1% have not been happy miles.  So it’s amazing to me, that with that tiny percentage, I’ve managed to build up so much negative energy about myself as a runner.  Loser, weak, chicken, poseur, jealous are only a few of the words that have sloshed like acid on the brain.  Not all the time, mind you, but far more than a stinkin’ 1% deserves.

So I have to stop and look at the big picture here.  Why do I give so much credit to this tiny portion of miles in an otherwise phenomenally beautiful pastime?  It doesn’t make sense.

I’ve been thinking about this over the last couple days and then today, I had one of those life-affirming runs that remind me what the whole point is.  The point is not racing.  Races are tests and I never did like taking tests, though I appreciate their place as a measure of accomplishment.  Really, the point is the running.

I am not a race time.  I am not a goal that I did or didn’t get, nor a prize that I won or lost.  Feet on pavement is as simple as it gets.  I’ve covered 5990 miles of pure happiness.  That’s what it’s all about.