Wednesday, March 31, 2010

March in Review

March is pretty much over, and it's been another successful month on the running front for me. Although I've done less stationary biking than in either January or February my mileage continues to climb as planned. In fact, I am a bit ahead of schedule.

Today I ran home at lunch because Malks was sick with a fever. I took it nice and slow and went along Queen Street until the Valley and then dropped down and ran along the trails up to Beechwood Avenue, where I climbed out that big hill and made it home. The total was 10.5km and my heart rate averaged out to 137bpm even with that hill. I was overheating a bit and had to take off my jacket just before the 5k mark. In fact I found it really tough to keep the heart rate under 140bpm today and really slowed down to a crawl for the second half of the run. Also of note, I got passed by a guy running at a pretty good clip in those Vibram Five Fingers shoes. They made a funny slapping sound with every step and I wondered if that was a factor of the footwear or of the running form.

The data for March goes like this:
  • Ran 177km (Goal was 155km)
  • Averaged 39.96km per week (planned 35km/week) (Just missed 40 and didn't even know it.)
  • Weighed in at 188.3lbs (started the month off at 192.5lbs) (Better keep a close eye on this one since I really don't want to be much lighter at 6'4" tall.)
Since Malks is sick I haven't made it to the gym for an upper body workout. I am planning to do something at home this evening, or maybe sneak out to the gym later. I suspect I'll be content to do a bunch of push ups, chin ups, crunches, and the like at home. No big deal...

The legs continue to get stronger, and I am now at the point where I am squatting as much as I am bench pressing. The amount is still pathetic (plates), but I see progress and that's a good thing. My right knee is still sore, though it hasn't stopped me from running. I really have to pay close attention to my form and make sure to roll and stretch every night. Seems like whenever I slack off a bit on the rolling and stretching I have a setback. I am still hoping that stronger legs will lead to a full recovery, but it's very frustrating that after three months I am still no further ahead than when I started.

Also, I've discovered the "joy" of low heart rate training. I could get into all the physiological reasons to train this way, but in the end the most important part for me is that keeping an eye on my HR keeps me from pushing myself too hard. I have a tendency, when left unchecked, to train at heart rates that are in the lactic threshold range. This also leads to more injury as I do not recover very well when every workout leaves me gassed. My only concern is how training at pretty slow paces will translate to racing. Will I be able to go faster when called upon to do so over the Half Marathon distance in late May? If the knee starts to improve I will be able to sprinkle in some tempo and interval speed type workouts, but until then I have to be satisfied with slow and steady while at the same time moving the mileage up every week.

Here's hoping April is a good month as well!

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Going a Bit Faster

Just a bit...

It was another sunny Tuesday, though not altogether balmy or anything, but a perfect day to forgo the treadmill and head outside for another jaunt by the lake. I intended to run about 8km at an easy pace, but once outside things kind of got out of hand and my plan changed. I decided to just have a good tough, but not too tough, run.

After negotiating the traffic and red lights getting from the gym down to the harbourfront I ran at a controlled pace and effort and was pleased to see that I was going faster than I thought, or what it felt like I was going. My heart rate was definitely not below 140bpm, but I felt controlled and managed to keep it in the mid 150s. I ran 9.5km with the middle 7 kilometres at this faster pace and averaged 4:54/km (7:53/mile) for the entire run. My average heart rate overall was 146bpm, but in those middle seven clicks I'd guess it was around 150-152bpm. The last fast kilometre was the toughest heart rate wise and averaged out at 161bpm. The splits for those "faster" clicks go like this:
  1. 4:42 140bpm
  2. 4:48 149bpm
  3. 4:42 153bpm
  4. 4:42 154bpm
  5. 4:50 156bpm
  6. 4:44 161bpm
It was a good run and I can't wait for my knee to get stronger so that I can do more of these. Ideally I'd like to do one tempo type workout every week, and perhaps sprinkle in a speed workout once every two weeks somewhere down the line. The rest of the week I will try my best to go easy and stay in the 130s bpm.

Labels:

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Another Recovery Week in the Books

This was a strange "recovery week". Although I limited myself to three runs this week, and only made it to gym for three weight training sessions due to a course I had to attend, I still felt a bit more wiped than usual for a couple of reasons. One, my diet was not so good this week, and two, I helped my sister move so that meant a lot of lifting and stair climbing. The diet was linked to the move on Saturday, but the rest of the week could have been better as well. The crap they serve at courses did not help matters...

I did manage a decent 9km on Friday after being let out early from that course at UofT, running from home around the trails in Taylor Creek and to Owen's school. That actually felt OK, but even though I tried to maintain my heart rate in the 130s the run was more difficult than I'd have liked and it averaged out at 145bpm. The effort level was right where I'd wanted it to be, but something weird was going on.

The weirdness continued on Sunday. After spending Saturday with the move, I went out this morning for another easy run, but it didn't turn out as easy as planned. I ran 11km, but was never able to keep my heart rate in check. Although on the perceived effort meter I was right where I wanted to be, my heart rate was elevated and averaged out to 150bpm. Not good. Too much pizza and cookies over a few days will do that I suppose, and at least it's good to know that this is how my body copes with crappy carbs.

The recovery week got me over the monthly total goal of 155km - I managed 31km for the week and now my March total is up at 157km. Now the fun starts as I plan on averaging 40km per week for the month of April. I'm mulling over adding a fifth run per week as my mileage keeps inching upward, but I don't know if my body can take it. The knee continues to be a trouble spot, but at least it's not getting appreciably worse. I was really worried after Saturday that all the stair climbing would set me back significantly, but it seemed okay on today's run so I think I made it through better than expected. Just have to keep weight training, stretching, watching my running form and pace, and hoping for the best I suppose.

Labels: ,

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Backpacking Home from UofT

A quick post so that I can remember how I felt on yesterday's run home from UofT, where I am attending a course for a few days.

I was able to run a bit longer than the standard 8km (my usual distance when I run home from work on Wednesday) because we were let out a little before 4:30pm. As such, and given the nice weather, I decided to run nice and slow, but longer. Also, I had to carry a big backpack with all of the stuff that I would typically leave at the office. I checked after my run that it weighed a little over 10lbs, but it sure felt heavier while I was running. I managed a decently easy 11km and kept my average heart rate at 135bpm, though I think the multiple red lights along the way helped with that metric. While running the Garmin said my heart rate was in the high 130s, and did sneak up into the low 140s toward the end of the run. The pace was pretty slack at 6:11/km, but I kept it really consistent and that's okay as far as I am concerned. All in all, a good run. Can't wait to run again on Friday!

Labels:

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Heading Into Another Recovery Week

The third week of March is now at an end and my training continues to stay on track. This morning I ran 18km at an average heart rate of 139bpm and pace of 5:41/km. All in all it was the perfect long run. Even though my route included two significant hills in the form of Beechwood Avenue, which leads up and out of the Don Valley over a steady 500m climb (the entire length is half-a-kilometre, not the elevation gain because if that were the case I'd be dead right now, but it is pretty steep and steady, guessing somewhere in the 4-5% incline range), my overall goal to keep the average heart rate under 140bpm was met. I decided to run the same loop twice because I can tell that this will make for a good place to run those really long marathon training runs later this summer. It has two water fountains fairly well separated, puts me never that far from home, and includes that aforementioned hill for extra training benefits.

The whole week's worth of running added up to 46km (the highest total of the year) and I am now only 29km away from my monthly total goal of 155km. This coming week is another recovery week when I will only run three times and will likely top out somewhere in the 25-30km range. Then there are a few days at the beginning of the following week to finish off March and get April off to a good start.

In summary: so far so good...

Labels:

Friday, March 19, 2010

Another Beautiful Day for Running

It's Friday, so that's a good thing. And the weather is absolutely perfect for running, which makes a great day even better. As such, I took my lunchtime run outside yet again for a lovely jog around the City, and the campus of the University of Toronto.

In keeping with my mantra for the week I was only concerned with keeping my heart rate under 140bpm, thereby ensuring that I was not running too fast. After some abdominal exercises and stretching at the gym I took off and had a lovely run of 8km. My average heart rate was 136bpm, which was awesome, and my pace was a decent 5:36/km (9:04/mile). It felt really easy running like this, and I think this approach is really what I need to hold me back. As I continue to increase my weekly mileage I need to limit my pace to the long and easy variety. This is helping me stay true to the plan, and so I am happy. Just hoping it helps me reach my mileage goals so that I can start running a bit faster sometimes, for running faster is also fun!

Labels:

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Long Wednesday

Can't believe I have the energy to actually try and summarize the day, but here goes...

Woke up, biked Owen to school, biked to the gym and did some weights, biked to the Doctor's for my annual physical (seems like everything is OK), biked back home, grabbed my stuff and walked 7.25km to work, worked, ran to Owen's school to get Owen and then ran with him on his bike back home for a total of 10km (another low heart rate attempt where I averaged 138bpm despite going a bit faster at 5:36/km), and now am in the middle of doing laundry (yay).

Whew! That wasn't so bad...

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Another Sunny Lunchtime Run

For the second Tuesday in a row the weather allowed me to pass right on by the treadmills and head outside for my run. Last week I pushed the pace a little bit, and even though it felt comfortable I was a bit sore as a result. This week I just wanted to run really easy and today was the start. So, the plan was to keep the heart rate under 140bpm and the pace steady, not worrying about how fast I was actually running.

I ran pretty much the same route as last time, but I stretched it out a little bit because I was just having such a good time running. Glad I did too because I had an unexpected chance encounter with my wife! She was going for a walk and spotted me running towards her on the trail. Normally she doesn't work anywhere near me (though that is changing soon), but because she was on the west side of downtown for a course we were able to cross paths.

After chatting for a minute or two I was off again and retraced my steps along the waterfront back to the office. In the end I ran 10km at a relatively easy pace of 5:46/km (9:17/mile) and at an average heart rate of 135bpm. Mission accomplished! Felt like I could have kept running for a long, long time...

And the Garmin, once again, messed up the data while I was running around big buildings. What a joke...

And did you hear about the guy who died while running on the beach when he was hit by a small airplane that was making an emergency landing? The article implies that it was the runner's wearing of an iPod which prevented him from hearing the airplane bearing down on him from behind. I'm no pilot or aircraft engineer, but I assume that a plane without it's engines on makes ZERO noise and I really don't think they come equipped with horns. It's crazy out there - be safe!

Labels:

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Another Successful Week

So far so good in 2010. Two weeks done in March and I'm still on track with the whole "plan". Today I ran a really easy and steady 16km trying to keep to a low heart rate plan that I learned about through Andrew over in New Zealand. The idea, at its most basic, is to keep your heart rate under a specific number of beats per minute that roughly is calculated by deducting your age from 180. For me that meant I had to stay under 145bpm.

After the first two kilometres where the Garmin gave me the usual messed up data, telling me I was averaging 167bpm and maxing out at 205bpm, I hit my goal. I don't know why the Garmin does this, but I wonder if it's a battery running low thing. Though if that were the case wouldn't the entire run be compromised?

Anyway, I ran into the wind for the first half of the run and with it on the way back. My heart rate stayed pretty much consistent in the mid 130bpm range, with a few hills popping it up into the 140s. Overall, even with the funky first two clicks, I averaged 139bpm at a pretty steady and even, though slow, pace of 5:56/km.

I am happy with this run. And with another weekly total of 40km, just shy of 25 miles.

This week is another week where I will try to get up over 35km of running, but I will be trying to keep it slower than this past week. The two 8km runs around 5:00/km pace have left me a bit more sore than I would like, and so I want to just keep the mileage plan intact while I keep any faster running confined to the future.

And on the blog technical front it seems that my comments are coming back. I thought initially that migrating away from FTP publishing lost all of that data, but it just took a while to sync up or something...

Labels:

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Migrating The Blog Somewhat Successful

For anyone else out there still using FTP to publish their blog on Blogger.com you might be interested in my experience. Of course, according to Google only 0.5% of all Blogger users still use FTP, so perhaps this is useless, but I'm going to write it anyway.

In short, Google is removing FTP support as of May 1, 2010 and so yours truly, who has been publishing this blog via FTP so that I can have access to everything I publish on my local host's servers, is required to migrate my blog either to a "*.blogspot.com" address, or redirect the blog to Google's servers with the use of a Custom Domain. In my case, the Custom Domain is www.wonkyankle.ca, and if I were to transfer all of my data to Google's servers and still wish to use my domain I would have to ask my web host to modify some settings and redirect everything to somewhere is California and also change my blog URL from "www.wonkyankle.ca" to something like "blog.wonkyankle.ca".

Now, I am not too technically savvy, but I do know that all this means I have to do a bunch of crap that I do not want to do. So, I went searching around on the web (ironically using Google) to see if there were any workarounds created by Internet geniuses that I could use. I found one such workaround at www.posttwo.com that allows me to leave all my data on my local host's servers, and fools Blogger into thinking that I am now publishing to "wonkyankle.blogspot.com".

Well, after checking up with my host's support folks I went ahead and injected the right code here, downloaded the right .php file there, and put said file in the "root directory" to finish the job. The deed is now done.

And the verdict? Everything seems to work, but for one major issue that may be of interest to those reading this: ALL OF THE COMMENTS FROM ALL OF MY POSTS HAVE DISAPPEARED! I do believe that new comments will work, however.

So, buyer beware.

Now back to our normally scheduled programming of how my body is adapting to this thing called "running".

Labels: ,

Friday, March 12, 2010

Most Boring Run Ever (maybe)

You know how sometimes even the seemingly easy runs, both on the body and the mind, turn out to be excruciatingly boring? Thankfully these occur rather infrequently for me, but today was one of those days.

After two slightly faster 8km runs this week, and two leg strength sessions, my legs were tight. In particular my left calf, which worried me a bit having felt that twinge/cramp/tear in the past that results from ignoring just this type of soreness. So, I headed off to the gym at lunch (rain and cold outside) to get on the treadmill for what was supposed to be an easy and slow, steady run.

Well, the run was slow and steady (8km at 6.8mph and 2.0% incline, or about 5:28/km pace not adjusting for the incline), but definitely not easy on the mind. I was clock watching within the first five minutes and couldn't stop, try as I might. That 44:08 of running felt like a lifetime. A slow, easy, boring lifetime...

Is it possible that I am actually looking FORWARD to an off day?

Hmmm...

Labels: ,

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Registered, and Funky Data

First, I registered for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, set to go on September the 26th of this year. Yup. The deed is done. I just hope it works out better this time around than the DNS from last year...

Second, the Garmin gave me more funky ass data on today's run home from work. I won't even bother trying to evaluate what the hell is going on, but seriously people; can't this friggin device compensate for tall buildings somehow?! I mean, there's more than a few on this planet where people run and use Garmin devices.

Sheesh.

I did end up running 8km at a pace that was a bit too fast (5:02/km average, with the last kilometre at 4:32), and I'm sure to pay for it later. Mental note to self: next two runs this week must be slow and easy!

Oh yeah, I also did some upper body weights at lunch. There's a six pack hiding under there somewhere. Maybe.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Spring Please Stick Around

Man, if this weather is to be short-lived then it's a major tease! We've been blessed with such nice weather over the past four or five days that it's hard to believe we are still technically in Winter. In any case, I am loving it.

Case in point, I would normally go at lunch to the gym and climb onto the treadmill for a run in the 6-8k range. Today I did go to the gym, but after doing a bit of core exercises and stretches I walked right past those belted beasts of burden and out into the glorious sunshine.

This wasn't completely spontaneous, mind you, because I did bring the Garmin to work with me for just such an eventuality, but it did feel great to be going outside, and in shorts too!

I ran straight down to the lake shore, negotiating traffic, pedestrians, and lights the entire way. Once down there though it was smooth sailing and I had an awesome run. Lots of others were out running and at one point a group of three popped out in front of me and were running at a decent clip. I decided to just see if I could follow them since their pace was not too different from mine, and this also offered me the opportunity to not worry as much about the route I was taking. Having never run down by the harbor before I just assumed that these runners knew where they were going. We meandered around all the boardwalks near the water for a while before I had to let them go because it was time for me to get back. Someday I will definitely have to find a group to run with because it seems easier somehow.

In the end I ran 8km at a relatively good pace of 4:59/km (8:01/mile). This was definitely faster than I'd intended to run, but it felt pretty good to just run and I can't say it was particularly stressful to maintain this pace or anything. The Garmin seems to have gotten confused while I was running in the downtown core on account of the tall buildings, and in particular in the second kilometre (4:13/km pace) and the last kilometre when it recorded that I was running at 6:14/km. I guess those two average out, but it does annoy me that the GPS stuff gets so affected by buildings. Looking at the map it sure seems like the Garmin is totally losing it - a max speed of 699.5km/h? Yeah, real accurate...

Upon returning to the office I iced down my knee, just in case, having also remembered to bring another ice pack into work given that somebody stole the one I had left at work for the past few weeks (who would steel an ice pack, honestly?). I definitely look forward to more of these lunchtime runs, of the outdoor variety, as the weather continues to improve. Spring is just the best season, isn't it?

Labels:

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Say What?

Seems like Blogger is deciding to throw a wrench into my otherwise mundane blogging world and is telling me that FTP publishing will no longer be supported as of May 1st. I don't know what all that crap means, but it sure smacks of effort.

I'm not a fan of effort. Especially when it is required of me! I would like to keep this little spot of mine on the web going, but if it it starts to look like more than the least amount of attention is required then it will be difficult to justify. I think I'm far enough along in my running to stay motivated without the need to update the blog and such, but it still provides a good reason to ensure that the runs get done. At least I have until May 1st to figure out what all this means...

As far as effort goes, this past week has been the highest mileage week to date since last Summer when I went down with injury. After a nice 7km on the treadmill on Tuesday, I did the usual walk to work and run home thing on Wednesday where I added another 8km to the total. On Friday I stayed home with one of the kids who was suffering from a fever and so I took my run outside at the end of the day for another 8km. On that one I managed two things: 1. I wore my new Asics GT-2150s for the first time, and 2. I put in two faster kilometres, the first at 4:27/km (7:10/mile) and the second at 4:21/km (7:00/mile). These felt pretty good actually, and my heart rate did not go up as high as I though it might, so I was quite pleased with the effort. My ankle was a bit sore on Saturday and so I gave myself a full day off. We took the little one to the Toronto Zoo while the bigger one was away at Winter Camp.

Saturday night the little one went for a sleepover at my Dad's so that I could take the wife out for a nice dinner to celebrate her recent birthday. Let's just say that the dinner was AWESOME and I ate a tonne, with a few drinks to boot.

Sunday morning I woke up with a small headache and slowly dragged my ass out the door for a planned 15km run. I ran from home down to the lake and out around the Leslie Spit. As I was running out on the Spit I realized that my run would either end up being a bit longer than planned or I would have a few kilometres to walk at the end. I decided to just keep going, and stopped running at 17km not wanting to push it any further. I only had a half-kilometre to walk the rest of the way, and that was probably a good thing.

The total for the week was 40km, which is a nice round number if I say so myself. I should probably run a bit less this week to give my legs and ankle a bit of a break, but if things are feeling good then I might inch up towards the same total next week.

In any case, I am on track to average 35km for the month of March, as planned.

Now off to my Dad's to rescue the small loin-fruit...

Labels: