Tag Archives: excercise

Jun 4 2012

Oxygen = speed

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Running Blogs.

My work had me traveling once again, this time a bit farther to our Nations Capital. I had arrived a day early due to travel logistics, so I planned on taking advantage to do my long run around the National Mall, one of my favorite places. The Active.com training plan had me at 60 minutes, so my hope was to see how close I could get to a 10k and see what running at sea level was like.

The last time I ran below 4,000 feet was last November and I ran my fastest 5k at a little over 26:30, so my thoughts were that I might be able to make some time and some distance. I remember the last words out of my wife’s mouth before I ran. “Take it easy on the first couple of miles and you will have no problem.” ooops.

Since I was staying out in Alexandria, I had to figure out how to first, get to the mall, second, what to do with all of my stuff. I remembered using the YMCA three day pass in Austin, Tx last summer, so I went online to see what they might offer. Sure enough, they had a similar program. This is an awesome thing to use while traveling, as you get access to awesome facilities and this would give me a locker and shower to use. Score one for the home team.

I found online that there was a route around the mall, including the Jefferson Memorial, was around 6 miles. Since I was starting about 0.75 miles north of the mall, I figured a lap around would put me close. Plan in mind, I found my way via the metro to the “Y”.

Starting out

The nice part of starting at the “Y” was that heading to the mall was downhill for the most part. It had been a long time since I have run in an Urban setting, so I had fears of hitting the lights bad, breaking up my pace, however I actually sailed right on down to the White House. More on that later.

When I rounded the West Wing, my iPhone announced my first mile pace: 8’06″. Wow, I was flying compared to what I had hoped. What I wasn’t was winded, sore or even thinking I was on that type of pace. As I got onto the mall itself near the Washington Monument, I tried to ease up and just cruise some.

Mile 2 pace: 8’40″. Geez, this was actually getting me excited and scared, because I knew I had two goals of 1) 60 minutes and 2) 6 miles. Could I really run sub 9’00″ miles and make it 6 miles? I was also thinking about my fastest 5k pace of around 26:30, which wouldn’t that be a kicker if I could do better than that WHILE running a 10k type distance?

Mile 3 pace 8’18″. I have no idea what happened here. I actually was trying to slow down and I think that since I was actually passing many other runners on the path, I started racing on accident.

So three miles, 25:08, my 5k time was right at 26:00. Serious oops in my head but still was rather psyched. Could I actually get a 10k sub 60 minutes?

Mile 4 pace: 9’23″. Here is where things started happening. First, I hit a headwind. Not a Wyoming type of wind, but enough to have people flying kites around the Washington Monument on my way back towards Lincoln Memorial. Then, my right foot started to feel a bit off. Having played basketball long enough, I knew there was a blister forming. I have no idea why, as I had already put over 10 miles on my new shoes and didn’t have any different feeling on the fit. I think it might have been the fact of the gravel trail I switched to at mile 3, so i moved back to the paved trail.

Mile 5 pace: 9’53″. As I rounded the Lincoln Memorial, my legs were getting heavy. Part of me wanted to stop, mainly due to the blister, however the little soldier in my head was thinking about the battles reminding me of our countries heroes of days past. I had run around the WWII, caught a glimpse of the Korean War and ran past the Vietnam, which all reminded me of those people who dealt with more than a blister and that damn training kicked in. What was a blister compared to the lives given for our freedom. Damn that brain washing…

Mile 6 pace: 9’53″. This was three issues combined. I wanted to make the hour for the 10k, so I kept my pace realizing I was very close to my goal and very close to the end of my run. Then the strangest thing happened. Choppers! I know from my military background that D.C. is a giant no fly zone except for one chopper: Marine One. Obama was causing me to move, well him and the secret service agent shoving me along my way. I tried to get a quick pic, but the guy with the gun wasn’t in a mood to allow me to stay where I was and I wasn’t in the mood to mess with him.

End of run.

So minus the blister on my right foot, I was amazed. Not only had I gotten below the 60 minute 10k distance I did it with a minor injury and Presidents harassing me. Having oxygen to help fuel the muscles really helps in a run.

When looking at the pace chart, i was also impressed that I maintained a reasonable pace, even if I had started a bit faster than I had planned, but I never got below a 10’00″ which also was impressive for my run. I did this on my 45 minute last week, so now this showed me that I have the legs to do this at 6 miles.

Learning’s.

The biggest thing I picked up on was that pace early helps and hurts. While I had plenty of time at the end, my legs were pretty well shot. I know that when I start going past this, as I basically am half way to the 13.1 mile distance I hope to attain for this fall, I need to manage my earlier miles to make it to my final ones. As always I should have listened to my wife.

She also kicked ass this weekend, however she is in Texas. She ran her own best 5k time of 29:08 and has a lot more in the tank (I believe) as she always starts a bit slower than she can handle. Soon she will be passing me up, that I know for sure.

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Jun 1 2012

No gadgets, no music, still finished…

So a few runs ago, I ran into technical issues, where my iPod got messed up, another time I screwed up the treadmill. A fellow runner suggested I try running sometime without my music, so tonight I did just that. The only gadget I had was my GPS watch, which I ignored, where typically I am looking at my pace probably every mile.

My training routine had me on a 30 minute run, easy with some hills. I decided to take a new route and to not worry about anything but running. Honestly it has been a long time since I have run with no music, so I had no idea what to expect.

I took off up a hill immediately. I typically run downhill for the first 3/4 of a mile, so going the other way was going to be different. I had no clue on how far my run would be, not a clue on whether I would actually get over 30 minutes or not, I just knew where I was going to run, and that was the big ass hill I had always dreaded the thought of running. If I am going to do something new, such as go out with no gadget and do an easy run with hills, I wanted it to be a situation where i had no idea on what my pace would/should be or my distance at a particular time.

The first thing I noticed was that my allergies were back a bit and man, I wheeze. Loud. The asthma wasn’t too bad, in that I felt fine, however at first I sounded like a broken valve on a bike pump. I chuckled and figured that it was good I typically run in the boonies, so no one thought I was dying.

I got around the school area, about 1/2 a mile down the road and I just started feeling better for the hill from hell. This is one I always figured I should run for training on hills, just never really cared to take it on. The hill actually has a name: Burnt HIll. Why? Not really sure, and I only know the name because we have one of our cellular towers on the top.It is one of those steady up for around a quarter of a mile. Yuck.

My pace slowed way down going up the hill, but I wasn’t going to check to what speed. I was simply focusing on my breathing, keeping a steady pace and realizing that I could hear other things. I could hear the traffic on the interstate near by. I could hear the cars coming up from behind me and could actually hear the birds. More important was that I could really put my breathing in sync with my running.

My route when down a quick hill and then back up a steeper hill, just a little shorter this time. This is the view of the hill from google street view.

It really might not look like much, but the terrain is pretty impressive for a town run. It a little less than 1 mile, this run took me up to 6,958 feet, down to 6,865 and then back up the 6,900 again.

As you can tell, my pace was all over the place with these hills, but my times didn’t really vary that much. Mile 1 came in at 9:18, mile 2 at 10:04 and mile 3 at 10:02. From the heat map you can really see how much my pace ebbed and flowed.

So a couple things learned.

First, I can run with no music. It wasn’t quite as bad as I feared.

Second, I can run that damn hill. It wasn’t quite as bad as I feared.

Third, I can keep a solid pace when running an easy pace run.

Fear was a big deal for me, pushing me to create habits around running. This put me on the same route, the same music, hell even the same water bottle (I changed that up as well, using a handheld versus a belt). I think I succeeded in bridging a gap I created on my own and now look forward to doing more various types of runs with this training program.

Also, sometimes you just need to run and enjoy the beauty of nature.It was nice to just have nature surrounding me, looking out over two states and seeing snow capped mountains and ridge lines literally 40 miles away.

I also have to give a big shout out to my bride, who seriously kicked my ass tonight in running distance, running time and Nike Fuel. I must say that she always impressed me with the fact that even after chasing our little monster, she can put in a solid run with little to no effort. She also impresses me in that she can start an easy run and then continue to add pace, ending a lot faster than she starts. Never under estimate a German Texan.

Great run honey!

May 4 2012

Running in a new town, part 2

So the next morning in Thermopolis, I decided to run off the chicken fried steak dinner and do something since I was awake at 5 a.m. Not sure if it was the dinner or just being away from home, but couldn’t rest practically at all. I decided to take a more flat route along the river into town versus back up the hill and to do a smaller run with a follow up of some intervals.

The weather was a bit chilly, around 40 degrees, but absolutely no wind. Like many towns in Wyoming, the sun rose at 6:30 a.m., however the town doesn’t get to see that until at least 45 minutes later due the surrounding hills, so it was a bit cooler than what I had planned for with my gear.

As I ran downtown, I was pretty taken aback by how quiet it was (even through my headphones pumping out P!nk) and still. Growing up in a small town, I love these moments where time is practically standing still and you are the only one enjoying it.

Downtown Thermoplois

I got my two miles done in 18:10 (not exactly flaming) and then started on my intervals. One feature I really love on my Nike+ GPS SportWatch is that it has an awesome interval function, where it will beep at you at the transitions. I have it currently set to a 2 minute run with 1 minute rest. I decided to really push these since I took two runs down to being a bit more of an easy jog, rather than a push for speed.

Splits

So ironically, with 4 intervals with 4 walking periods, I ran a 9:22 min/mile which is about the same I ran for the two miles.

I do have one question for those who actually run marathons at less than 3:30…how the hell do you run that fast for that long? 7 minute miles are trucking in my big guy opinion, but I guess when you weigh in at 225 pounds, there is more effort to push that down the road than people at 125 pounds.

Note to self, lose some weight if you ever want to run a marathon.

For those who wonder, this is a view within the Wind River Canyon

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May 1 2012

Running in a new town

My job requires me to travel, not too much and most of the time around the Wyoming/Colorado region. I typically like to get a run in simply to get the rust off of a 4-5 hour road trip and also because most towns across Wyoming are typically a few hundred, if not thousands of feet lower in elevation. Why not run where there is some air, right?

So this trip brought me to Thermopolis, a town of 3,000 in the heart of Wyoming, just north of the Wind River Canyon. If you ever do get a chance to road trip across Wyoming, you absolutely HAVE to drive the 10 or so miles of the Wind River Canyon. Thermopolis is know for the “world’s largest hot springs”. They are huge, and everywhere. The hotel actually has a hot springs next to the pool. I didn’t bring a swim trunk, but they say the 135 degree water and57 minerals that have healing powers. Maybe next time.

So after we got in town, I decided to get a quick 5k in, to try and get my legs back after pushing up the hills this weekend. So I looked at my iPad maps and determined a route that would be as free of hills as possible. Ha, guess they are haunting me.

The weather was great from a temperature point of view, around 65 degrees. The wind, well, that seems to have kicked up a bit. It was about 10 mph steady with gusts up to 25 mph. Luckily the uphill outbound 1.5 miles was with the wind, but the downhill against the wind was no fun.

What I truly enjoy the most of running in a new town is that you never know what you are going to come across. The first thing that got me on this run was the smell of the hot springs. The sulfur smell wasn’t overwhelming, but it was a bit obnoxious. Next, the road hit a cattle guard which was like tap dancing on 2×4′s. The sign that said “Warning, Buffalo are dangerous” kind of worried me. What do you do if you come across a 4,000 pound buffalo on a run? That has yet to be on any website I have read. Luckily, no buffalo. What there was going on was scenery galore.

I doubt this does the valley justice, but the river cuts across the town and splits it half, with the hot springs being on the east side.

My run got me up around 120 feet in the first mile, then had a bit of a dip, which then switched back on my return. While my legs felt ok at first, the wind was sucking the energy from me. I was almost 2,500 feet below what I typically run, yet I was struggling with my breathing. Good thing this was just a jog.

When I got back down, after pounding back down the hill against the wind, I was about 0.4 miles short of my 5k, so I went across the river. This was truly an awesome sight, even though my body was not thrilled to be still running at this point.

Overall, I wasn’t crazy about the run itself, but I did enjoy getting to see a part of Thermopolis that is off the beaten path. My plan is to get back out in the a.m. and do a couple of miles at a faster pace to see if I take advantage of the lower elevation and get some intervals in. This is a screen shot of today’s run from my Nike + GPS Watch.The part that is cut off would be the 275 foot elevation height gain. Have I mentioned I hate hills?

We will see how tomorrow goes, but it was good to get a run in and while I would have like a bit better than a 9:40 pace, we can work on that still this week.

Apr 23 2012

Note to self…suncreen on bald head when running

When you are folliclely (word?) challenged (PC way to say going bald), one should always where sun screen on the dome, or at least a hat, bandana, etc…to prevent your head being hot and itchy the next day when running.ick.

So tonight was supposed to be a slow down day after two hard days getting ready for my upcoming birthday eve 5k. I am running the Super Hero Fun Run in Provo, Utah this Saturday. We chose this run for two reasons.

1) The run is at 9 am and neither Suzanne or I like the idea of getting up at 5:30 am for a race

2) This is the Grand Marshal of the race

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Bridger is just too cute. How can you say no to those cheeks. The run benefits the kids of the Shriner Hospital, so we also like supporting great causes.

Back to the blog note. I was suppose to jog a few miles and since I was exhausted, I flipped that to see what my best time would be on the treadmill. Since we live at nearly 7,000 feet, times in Utah at @4,500 feet are usually 2-3 minutes better. So if I can run a 29:00 at home, I am around 26-27:00 in races. I took off at about my cruising pace, up it to my race pace for the first mile, then alternated between those two every quarter mile. Time ended up at 27:30, which is one of my better times at the home treadmill, so we will see how that equates to running this weekend.

That is if I don’t kill myself this week from sunburn.