Running Notes by HJL

I’ve been fairly casual this time around, compared with previous marathon training cycles. This will be my 4th outing at Big Sur, and I’m basically just planning to enjoy the run, probably something around 4:30 or even 5:00ish, depending on the weather and how interested I get in taking photos. I took a lot of notes and did a lot of planning the first couple of times on the course, but this time I’m relying more on past experience and being able to look back at previous runs there.

Looks like I’ve averaged something like 35-40 miles per week since the start of 2007 on this training cycle. The graph is slightly misleading as I’ve also been coaching my daughter’s soccer team for the past few months, and other activities which I don’t try to log, but in general I’m running at slower paces than a couple of years ago which tends to hold down the weekly mileage. This training cycle has been pretty similar to last year’s.

I still haven’t gotten any constructive resolution of my “mysterious breathing problem“, other than it’s not life-threatening, and my lung function is still testing in a “healthy normal” range. I find it psychologically challenging, though, in that I always feel like I’m working harder than the pace I’m actually running, i.e. it “feels” like I’m running 30-45 seconds/mile faster, based on my level of effort and heart rate from a couple of years ago.

This year I actually did log a single 20 mile run (versus last year’s zero 20+ runs) although I don’t feel that it’s making me any more prepared at this point. I generally try to stay at 3 hours or less for training runs, and I simply don’t go as far in a given block of time on my current (slower) paces. While we were on vacation in Maui a couple of weeks ago, I had the luxury of extra time and nice scenery, so I got in 10-12 miles along the ocean, several days in a row, and in relatively higher temperatures than I expect to see on Sunday.

The current forecast for Carmel this Sunday says 64 hi /51 low, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain. A few degrees cooler, and that’s nearly ideal weather for the marathon.

Views like these are basically why I run at Big Sur:

I logged 20 miles on the treadmill at the gym yesterday, which will be my last long run before Big Sur at the end of the month. I did the whole run at 9:00 pace, with a water/bathroom/gel break at each hour. I think I’m going to plan for a little slower than that on the course, though. I did 16+ at 9:30-10:00 pace a couple of weeks ago during vacation in Maui where it was scenic, but around 80 degrees by the time I finished. Wasn’t planning on putting in 20 miles yesterday, but it was raining a little which got me to run in the gym instead of outside, then I figured I’d just run for 3 hours instead of 2+. I also started on the treadmill at about the same time as Waterworld started playing. It’s a relatively long movie which I’ve seen in bits and pieces, never had sufficient interest to rent it but interested enough to keep it tuned in instead of my usual treadmill fare of SpongeBob on the video screen while I listen to my own music on headphones.

I didn’t prep as thoroughly for yesterday’s run as I might have otherwise, as I didn’t originally plan to go that far. I discovered a few sunburned spots that got chafed at 3 hours that have been ok at 2 hours running time. I also didn’t trim back my toenails beforehand, so I have some blistering around one of them, which may end up falling off. No carb loading, so I ended up a little tired and hungry all day yesterday and today. On the plus side, no cramping, no joint or muscle problems, no blistering except around the slightly long toenail. The Hurricane 9’s have been OK during the long runs on this training cycle, although I would like just a little more forefoot cushioning / support. I guess I still like the Hurricane 5’s better, if only they still made them.

I’m still having problems getting my the Timex HRM strap working lately. It doesn’t give sane readings on the new Bodylink watch I got to replace the old one, and I get bogus data in the data recorder as well. So no nice charts and graphs. I may try doing one more round of changing all the batteries before I completely give up on it. It hasn’t really been useful since I ran Big Sur last year, I didn’t even bother bringing it on vacation to Hawaii. Using the old fashioned method of counting heartbeats, I ended the 3 hour run at about HR 164.

I finally got around to rotating in a new set of running shoes. I’ve been running with a few pairs of shoes that I’ve had since last spring, partly because I didn’t log many runs in the latter part of the year. I skipped from the Hurricane 7’s to the Hurricane 9’s because the 8’s seemed too narrow again (like the 6’s which I also skipped). For the past few years it seems like every other update to the Hurricanes has been too narrow. I tried the 8’s and they were way too narrow for me in normal width, I probably could have gone with the extra wide version but they didn’t have them in stock at the time.

I’m still using the Hurricane 7’s and GT-2110’s from last year for short runs, but they’ve both got well over 500 miles on them, and for me that rules them out for longer runs. I start getting a variety of foot and leg problems, mostly plantar fasciaitis, if I log a lot of mileage in worn out shoes. So far I’ve put in a couple of 10 mile runs without any problems. The Hurricane 9’s seem to be a little lighter than the 5’s or 7’s, which is good if your form is pretty clean, but I feel like it might not provide quite as much support if you’re on the edge of an injury. I haven’t had any problems on this training cycle yet, but I haven’t pushed my mileage up very far yet either.

I’ve been putting it off, but it’s the end of January and tomorrow the registration fee for this year’s Big Sur Marathon goes up by $10.

I’m a bit ambivalent about it, mostly because I still haven’t found a solution to my ongoing mysterious breathing problems, and I’m not too excited about the resulting slow paces.

On the positive side, I logged a 10 mile run this weekend at 9:00 pace without any problems. I remembered to find the Vanilla Gu from the pile of last year’s training stuff in the drawer. Popped one at about 60 minutes. Wasn’t quite as sleepy afterwards as the week before without it, although my conditioning is probably improving slightly from week to week.

As noted previously, 2006 wasn’t a great year for me in terms of running and health. One personal goal in 2007 has been to assess where things stand and make improvements from here, rather than focusing on where my previous benchmarks have been.

On the positive side, the mysterious breathing problem that started at the end of 2005 doesn’t seem to be life-threatening and hasn’t been getting worse over the course of 2006.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve increased the volume of running workouts and have begun increasing the duration of my longest weekly run. Yesterday I logged a 9 mile run for the first time in months, mostly at 9:00 pace with a couple of 5 minute segments at 7:30 pace to check it out. Part of my training task is to work on the psychology. I’m running more slowly now, and it simply takes longer to cover the distance. Or put the other way, since I usually run for a set time, I’m logging shorter runs in the same time as before.

I’ve kept a base training level of around 20+ miles per week during the latter half of 2006, with relatively short weekly longest runs of 5-6 miles. I’m encouraged that I can still crank out 9 miles without a huge effort, and I seem to be OK holding 9:00 pace. On the other hand, I’m de-trained enough that it’s been making me sleepy all day yesterday and today. Next time I’ll bring some gels if I think I might run longer than an hour. I have a bunch of Vanilla Gu in my desk drawer somewhere left over from last year.

Here’s a look at the past year’s weekly mileage (2006). Total miles for the year are roughly 1316, average of about 25 miles per week.

This hasn’t been a great running year for me. I’m still having chronic breathing problems, even after making the rounds over at the Palo Alto Clinic. The good news is that after pulmonary, cardiac, and CT exams, they’re pretty sure I don’t have any life threatening problems and my weight and blood pressure look great. The bad news is that while I’m technically “healthy”, my lung function is testing well below where I was a few years ago when I went in with allergy-related breathing problems. So I’ve been feeling relatively short of breath and sluggish all year, and there aren’t any obvious avenues of investigation to follow.

At the moment my easy/long workout pace is still around 10:00, and I’m starting to mix in some 9:00 pace as well to see how it works out. My legs turn over at higher paces without any problems, but I go anaerobic pretty quickly at anything above 7:30 now. This is generally discouraging since before this I was at 8:30 for easy workouts and 7:00 for weekly T runs. It looks like I may be stuck with these lower paces for the foreseeable future, though.

I ran Big Sur in April on my downward-adjusted target pace of around 10:00/mile, plus time for picture-taking stops. This was a “personal worst” for me, but I always enjoy the course and I got some nice photos.

For most of 2006 I’ve basically been in a holding pattern while investigating the mysterious breathing problem, just running enough to maintain a modest aerobic base and stay on a daily training routine. At least I’ve avoided gaining weight, despite the large reduction in weekly mileage since mid 2005. As of today I’m exactly flat for the year. I’m starting to rethink the plan for 2007 based on not seeing an improvement in my breathing and assuming that this may be a more or less permanent condition. Yuck.

Fun with treadmills, by OK Go.

Nike and Apple recently came out with the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, an accessory which turns an iPod Nano into a running training device. The main component is a small pod containing an accelerometer that attaches to your shoe and transmits sensor data back to an attachment on the iPod’s docking connector. Some Nike shoes apparently have a special pocket to insert the pod, but there is at least one hack for attaching the Nike+iPod sensor to non-Nike running shoes.

This week’s EE Times has a teardown showing how the pair of devices are put together. The retail price is only $30, and the sensor pod is sealed, meaning that when the lithium battery runs out you get a new pod. They apparently last for a while, though.

I don’t run much with an iPod lately, but if I switch to an iPod Nano at some point this might be an interesting running gadget to try out.

Well, this year’s marathon training cycle for Big Sur has gone fairly miserably. Regardless, I look forward to running this Sunday. Big Sur is a hilly, but scenic course. Part of the reason I like it is because it’s simply a nice place to run, and the road along the ocean shore is closed only once a year to hold the marathon.

Since training hasn’t really gone as I’d planned, it’s time to assess where we are and come up with a plan to match.

Some shortcomings:
- Breathing and HR are still behaving strangely. The symptoms haven’t gotten worse, but haven’t gone away either.
- Weekly mileage maxed out in the low 40’s instead of low 70’s. Average in the high 20s to mid 30s, vs mid 40s to mid 50s. This is partly due to running slower paces, but I’ve also logged fewer hours on this training cycle.
- Longest runs in the low teens, no 20+ mile runs. Normally I would like to have logged 3 or more.
- Relatively little LT pace training compared to previous training cycles. This is partly related to the mysterious breathing problem, since I limited LT and anerobic training for a while, in the interest of being cautious while seeing how my body is behaving.
- Difficulty getting my mental game together this time around for training at what feel like really slow paces.

Some assets:
- This will be my 3rd time on the Big Sur course, so I have pretty detailed knowledge of the various hills that don’t show on the elevation profile.
- No major joint or muscle problems, partly because I haven’t trained that hard.
- No observed problems breathing while inactive, or at easy aerobic paces. Performance has been pretty consistent with running at altitude, or reduced O2 intake.
- I have no particular time goal, and am willing to DNF if something blows up.
- I have good data from two previous runs at Big Sur, along with training logs from this time around, which give me some confidence in how my body will perform.
- Had some good 10+ mile runs while on vacation in Hawaii. It’s much easier to focus on running without other things going on in the day.

Recent paces:
Aerobic: Most of my easy mileage has been at 10:00 pace, versus previous cycles at 9:00 or even 8:30 pace.
LT: I’m able to hold 8:00 for over an hour, versus something inside 7:30 or perhaps 7:15 at this time last year.
Anaerobic: Not useful for marathons, but I tried cranking up the treadmill and I can still turn over at 5:30 pace, just not for more than a minute or so. This is consistent with my theory that my performance is mostly O2-uptake limited right now.
VDOT: Being able to hold 8:00 pace for an hour+ (i.e. at or below LT) puts me at around VDOT 40, but I am also undertrained at longer distances. VDOT 34 corresponds to a MP of 10:00, which matches my comfortable training pace, so that gives me a range to think about.

Plan:
Run at 10:00 or whatever pace feels very easy. Don’t expect any problems in the first half, through Hurricane Point and Bixby Bridge. I usually find the hills around mile 19-22 mentally challenging, but at this point I know where and when to expect them. Will keep an eye on the HRM and see if anything strange is going on, in particular if I’m at an unexpectedly high HR. During training I have found it pretty easy to accidentally end up at a higher HR than I want, presumably because of the reduced O2 intake, and corresponding reduced outgoing CO2 rates. It’s also likely that I’m going to have a more difficult time after 3 hours / 18 miles or so, due to being underconditioned for longer runs, but it probably helps that I’ve maintained a base of 25-30 miles weekly for the past few years now.

Goals:
Primary goal: finish comfortably in around 4:30 (avg pace 10:18).
Fallback: finish under 5:00. (Course closes after 6 hours. Used to be 5:30, but they apparently extended it this year.)
In general, just enjoy the run and see how things turn out. I may stop and take pictures this year, since I have absolutely no intention of beating last year’s time (3:50).

Brad Feld has the most awesome treadmill + multihead computer setup ever. Three displays, trackball and voice input wrapped around a Vision T9450HRT and an IBM ThinkCenter.

I’ve been playing with voice recognition (Dragon Naturally Speaking) but for me it’s been too fussy to use while running. My practical limit for treadmill multitasking seems to be conference calling and watching CNBC. I can’t read while running either.

Update 05-01-2006 2205 PDT: Now new and improved!