14 April 2009

Starting the Next Journey

Duration = 30:02
Distance = 2.26
Calories = 241
Max HR = 182
Avg HR = 139
Running Index = 41
Max Cadence = 113
Avg Cadence = 84

Initial goal was to run the 30 minutes at a constant, slow speed and see how that worked. It didn't. I have a soreness like a bruise on the outside of the left mid-foot. I also still have IT band issues on the right. I need to work on some of the strength exercise I have for that.

Since the initial plan was out the door, I tried something else. After 9 minutes of running, I walked for a few minutes and my heart rate had recovered, so I tried a 60 second interval at 8.0 mph (7:30 pace). This went quite well, so I turned this into a short repeat session. I ran another 60 second interval at 8.0, recovered, ran a 2 minute interval at 8.0, recovered and ran a last 60 second interval at 8.0, and finished with a cool-down through the end of the 30 minutes planned for this session.

Probably not the best approach, but I feel good after completing it.

12 April 2009

Walk the Path on Sunday

Duration = 43:09
Distance = 2.45
Calories = 188
Max HR = 112
Avg HR = 102
Max Cadence = 69
Avg Cadence = 65

My wife and I enjoyed a nice walk in the local park just be sunset. It was cool with a bit of a breeze. I'm still recovering from the race yesterday, so the pace tonight wasn't particularly fast, even for a walk.

I still have the altitude sensor live on the HRM. This showed about a 10 foot drop in the elevation of my driveway during the walk. (The atmospheric pressure actually rose which shows as a drop in elevation.) The real variance on this route is more like 30 feet. I'm going to have to go further afield to find real hills when I get to needing hill repeats. (Not this cycle, but eventually)


The rest of this post is omphaloskepsis and can be safely ignored.



I've finally decided what to do with the tagging of these sessions. I'd been using trail to distinguish that from road courses, and, of course, from the treadmill. The problem I had was that I now know that 'trail' tends to imply beyond the pavement. I intend to do some trail running and wanted to make that clear in the tags. I've decided to call the paved trails paths and use the tag 'path' to note their use. (This is pretty obvious once one thinks about it, but it took me a while to get past the dual use of 'trail'.) I now have posts with the following tags: treadmill, path (paved; no normal motorized traffic), and road (paved; motorized traffic, even on a closed course). 'Track' is a special path specific to running or walking. (If it deviates too much from what is usually found around a football pitch, it is likely to called a "path".) I add 'indoor' to denote the protection from the elements. (Currently, only used in 'indoor track'.) I will use 'trail' once I actually do some running off of paved surfaces.

11 April 2009

Tax Trot Long Form (10K)

Duration = 1:07:13 (Session time; Official time for race was 1:05:05)
Distance = 6.28
Calories = 747
Max HR = 193
Avg HR = 167
Running Index = 43
Max Cadence = 124
Avg Cadence = 90

I ran my first 10K this morning (completing another fitness goal for 2009). This was part of the Tax Trot in Flushing, MI, USA. The races has tax inspired names: 1040EZ, Long Form, and Extension for the 5K, 10K, and 15K respectively. Conditions at race start were clear, 40F, with a bit of wind from the North. I activated the altimeter feature of the Polar RS800CX as I wasn't familiar with the course and wanted the information. Based on the data, this is a really flat course. (The measured range was 36 feet from 3 to -33. I suspect that most of this is really increasing atmospheric pressure as the finish is at -30 and very close to the start where I reset the altimeter to 0.)

I was wearing a light jacket, vented cap, shorts and long-sleeved wicking shirt. I debated leaving the jacket behind, but kept it due to the wind. This may have been the best choice, but I didn't need it by the end. I might have wanted longer socks to keep my legs a bit warmer during the walk intervals, but that was minor. I was wearing much less than in February when the temperature was similar, but there was no sun.

I didn't see marks for Mile 1 or Mile 6. The pace for the segments I did see were as follows:
10:05 (First 2 miles)
10:36
11:04
10:45
10:13 (Last 1.2 miles)

10:29 (average for official time of 1:05:05)

The last half mile was into the North wind. The core of this course is a loop of about 3 miles taken as needed for each of the target distances. A consequence of this is displaced starts for each of the distances as well. Timing is a gang start with a chip measured finish. A minor concern with this course is that it is open to traffic, but that traffic is accommodating of the runners. There is a water station near the end of the loop.

I used a 3:1 run/walk plan for this race. This worked fairly well. I walked through the water station regardless of where that was in the run/walk sequence. I also dropped the walk intervals during the last half mile and had a nice kick at the end. A bit better pace management and I would have broken the hour, but I'm happy with this first effort at this distance. I placed first (of 2) in my age group and 53rd (of 72) overall.

Next week starts the training for my first marathon in September. I intend to maintain the 3:1 run/walk for this effort. My goal for the marathon is just to finish, but I would like to finish well by running the race as planned.

10 April 2009

Final Trial Mile Before First 10K

Duration = 32:12
Distance = 2.66
Calories = 333
Max HR = 188
Avg HR = 159
Running Index = 38
Max Cadence = 124
Avg Cadence = 89

The time for the mile was basically the same as the last one (8:51 vs 8:50). Heart rate this time was a bit higher than last time for the same result. I did warm up first, ran the trial with a single 30 second walk just after the 1/2 mile, recovered from the trial, and finished with 12 minutes of a 5.0/3.0 3/1 minute run/walk. We'll see what the weekend 10K brings.

[Posted 2009-04-10 2000]

05 April 2009

Long Run/Walk (4:1)

Duration = 33:00
Distance = 2.40
Calories = 276
Max HR = 169
Avg HR = 142
Running Index = 40
Max Cadence = 109
Avg Cadence = 80

There may be a pattern here. I found this evening's long run/walk particularly difficult. I did push the pace for the run interval to 6.0 mph (from 5.0 for the long session). I felt stiff and my right knee was acting up, again. I stopped the run segments after 3 iterations about 14 minutes into the session. I walked long enough to exceed a half hour, but stopped as even the walk was bothering my knee. This weekend included 5 hours each way in a car and this is similar to the trouble I had after flying to Georgia in January.

[Posted 2009-04-10 1945]

02 April 2009

Run/Walk (4:1)

Duration = 30:01
Distance = 2.79
Calories = 279
Max HR = 178
Avg HR = 150
Running Index = 49
Max Cadence = 108
Avg Cadence = 93

Short run/walk this evening while my wife read accounts from The Darwin Awards. Run intervals were 4 minutes with the first at 5.0 mph, then alternating 6.0 and 7.0 for the remainder of the session. Walk intervals were 1 minute at 3.0 mph. Short cool-down at 3.0 for about 3 minutes.

I'm pushing the 7.0 mph intervals with the goal of moving to all 7.0 mph run intervals. Time will tell. Challenge for this weekend will be finding time to run while travelling. That would be preferable to running on the treadmill Sunday night.