Running Notes by HJL

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.

3/12/2006 through 3/18/2006 totals: 38.43 miles, longest 8.47 miles
Year to date: 372.91 miles.
Ran a set of T intervals this week to see how faster paces are feeling at the moment. 3 sets of 5 minutes @ 7:30 pace with 5 minutes at 10:00 recovery pace. I’m constantly feeling a little out of breath at the higher paces, like I’m not quite getting a full lungful of air. On the other hand, I’m not going totally anaerobic at 7:30 pace either, the HR flattens out in the mid-160s even though it feels crummy, and I seem to be recovering OK in between.

3/5/2006 through 3/11/2006 totals: 42.12 miles, longest 9.21 miles.
Year to date: 334.48 miles.

Ran high aerobic / T-pace (currently 8:00/mile) for 60 minutes, which was most of the long run. HR starting around 150 and ending in the mid 160’s after an hour. Today I did a set of pace intervals, alternating 5 minute periods of 7:30 pace and 10:00 pace. HR at mid 160’s during 7:30 pace, and around 130-140 during 10:00 recovery segments.

Things seem to be slowly improving. I still feel like I’m not getting enough air, especially at higher levels of effort. Last week’s 8:00 pace run was fairly uncomfortable, but I could see from the heart rate monitor that I wasn’t going anaerobic. Today’s pace interval workout felt pretty similar, although the intent is to go slightly anaerobic. I’m feeling generally sluggish but getting faster.

2/26/2006 through 3/4/2006 totals: 41.08 miles, longest 12.21 miles
Year to date: 292.36 miles.

Ran another set of hill intervals at the same incline but slightly faster pace (9:30) last Sunday. This was also the longest run so far on this training cycle.

2/19/2006 through 2/25/2006 totals: 41.49 miles, longest 10.65 miles
Year to date: 251.28 miles.

Started off the week with the first set of hill intervals for the year. Also logged a longer midweek run of 8.64 miles.

I still feel sluggish compared with last year’s training, but can also tell that I’m making progress from a few weeks ago. The hill intervals went pretty well. I may try some T pace intervals this week. Not quite sure what pace that is at the moment, though. If I assume my easy pace is 10:00, it falls between VDOT 38 and VDOT 40 on the Daniels training intensity table, and suggests a T pace in the vicinity of 8:30 to 8:00 for distances between 1200m and one mile.

2/5/2006 through 2/18/2006 totals: 36.22 miles, longest 11.64 miles.
Year to date: 209.79 miles.

Started taking allergy meds this week. I’m continuing to feel tired and sluggish most of the time, and am performing well below my logged data from the past couple of years.

On the positive side, I’m making steady progress against this year’s starting measurements, and slogged through an 11+ mile, 2 hour run this week, a new high for the current training cycle.

I had been planning for an hour on the treadmill but kept going (was watching Ben Bernanke presenting to Congress, which went on and on). It’s good to know I’m easily able to run in this range at the moment, but my paces are still really slow right now, 9:00-10:00 most of the time, and I’m never reaching a point where I feel like I’m warmed up and running well, even on these longer workouts.

2/5/2006 through 2/11/2006 totals: 28.45 miles, longest 6.24 miles. Year to date: 173.57 miles.

Been trying out the Hurricane 7’s this week, and have been generally happy with them so far. Running has been so-so. I’m still feeling sluggish and am not feeling any signs of improvement, but just keep plugging away for now.

1/29/2006 through 2/4/2006 totals: 31.23 miles, longest 6.65 miles.
Year to date: 145.12 miles

This week’s schedule has been a little improvised, as we have been out of the house while it was being fumigated. Aside from residual fumes, breathing is getting better but still not great. I’ve been feeling sluggish all week.

1/22/2006 through 1/28/2006 totals: 33.50 miles, longest 9.59 miles.
Year to date: 113.89 miles

Some improvement in breathing, continuing to increase mileage and single run distance.

I’m probably going to need replacements for the current set of shoes in rotation before too long. They’re still OK on the treadmill, but I’d rather have a fresh set of midsoles before starting higher road mileage. I’ve mostly been running in GT2100’s and Hurricane 5’s for a while.

I like the GT2100’s being a little lighter, but have also noticed that if I run exclusively in them I tend to start having small nagging joint aches after a few months. I’ve gotten more consistently about rotating them with the slightly heavier Hurricane 5’s. I’ve been happy with them since I started running a few years ago, and have gone through something like 8 pairs now.

1/15/2006 through 1/21/2006 totals: 29.02 miles, longest 8.01 miles.
Year to date: 80.39 miles

Still easing into things. Breathing is still off, but feels slightly less congested.

Tried using the heart monitor transmitter with the new data recorder, it seems to work ok but the strap needs a new battery, there’s a lot of noise in the recorded data. Also successfully imported the database from the old version of the Timex Trainer software. The new version of the software includes better support for GPS, since the new Timex TrailRunner GPS hardware provides “3D” data, i.e. elevation along with position. Haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like it might also be able to import GPS tracklogs from other devices as well.