Author: RWD

Training and Traveling

Last week was the fourth time I’ve traveled in 2016, and it was the first time I was able to successfully work out. I’ve been foiled by a broken treadmill with no backup plan (UP Michigan), mostly laziness (Florida), and illness (Calgary).

While in Edmonton last week, I was actually very successful at fitting in workouts. Gold stars for me!

I benefited from a couple of things:
1. My company doesn’t require me to work on long travel days, so I can choose my own schedule.
2. I was able to check a bag which allowed me to bring a lot more stuff along and also gave me more freedom to move around the airport.
3. I traveled to a very walkable city, and had amazing weather the entire visit.

Here’s how I stayed active while in Edmonton:

Tuesday: Travel day
I didn’t leave Duluth until 3 PM, so I was able to sleep in and shake off the crummy, tired feeling I’d had for the past week. I had a long layover in Minneapolis, of my own design. I hate being cooped up in planes (I am also not fond of being cooped up in airports, but it’s better than a plane), so I like to have a little break between flights. I also don’t want to risk a delay; I was on the last flight to Edmonton for the night, so if I’d had a delay out of Duluth on a later flight, I’d have been hosed. This is largely irrelevant, but the point is I had a lot of time in the airport. So I walked around a lot. Shopped a little bit, got a bite to eat, and then just wandered. Sat and worked for awhile, wandered again. Customs at the Edmonton airport is also comically far from the gate where we landed; I guess they figured we fat Americans needed a little extra workout. I booked it down the corridors to try to beat a few of my fellow travelers to the customs line, only to discover it wasn’t that big of a line (unlike my trip to Calgary). I reached 10,000 steps without fitting in a workout, for the first time since getting my tracker.

Wednesday: Work day
I got a lot of steps in 1. finding my workplace 2. dealing with my credit card (long story) 3. getting lunch and 4. heading to dinner with my colleagues. I think again I was at 10,000 steps without working out. I stuffed my face at dinner, but I made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to let food settle before getting on the treadmill. I ran 5 miles in the relatively warm hotel gym, and then did some push-ups after I got back to my room. I was a little wound-up when I tried to go to sleep, but no big deal.

Thursday: Team building event
More walking: to work, to another building, to lunch, back to the hotel for a minute after lunch. We had a team building event in the afternoon at a local park, and were allowed to wear our comfortable clothes to the morning meeting. I probably stretched this a bit by wearing a buff (as a headband), a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, but hey, I was ready for the afternoon. I ran over to the park after leaving the hotel, which was supposed to be about 2.5 km (when in Rome…), but ended up being a 5k, since I made some wrong turns. Hooray. I was late for the kickball game. After kickball, I played some 3 on 3 soccer, which about killed me, and then probably racked up a bunch of “steps” playing ping pong. I walked back to the hotel with some coworkers and ended up running up a bunch of steps to… I’m not sure what. Another woman and I decided to do it rather than take a very slow escalator in the Shaw Conference Center. Again, it nearly killed me. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill once back at the hotel, although it was an unpleasant run thanks to the 10-12 teenagers who decided to use the hotel gym as their personal hangout.

Friday: Travel day
Got up at 4:30 am, did a little bit of airport walking during my layover in Minneapolis, sat on the plane in the Duluth airport for an hour before disembarking, thanks to a thunderstorm, and decided to call it a rest day.

Overall, I think I did pretty well at working out while traveling. I could have gotten a workout on Tuesday if I’d chosen to get on an earlier flight, but the walking I did was plenty. It was a good time for a cutback week as it was. Next time I go to Edmonton, I need to do some more running along the river; it is gorgeous.

Superior 25K Training: Week 4

Taking a step back was a great choice. My resting heart rate is down again, and I feel energized and cheered by the improved weather.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest/travel
Wednesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 135 bpm
Thursday: 3.3 mi, road, unknown HR + 3 mi, treadmill, 137 bpm
Friday: rest/travel
Saturday: 7.3 mi, road + trail (SHT – Martin Rd trailhead to home), 124 bpm
Sunday: 9 mi, trail (SHT – Highland/Getchell trailhead to home), 142 bpm
Total: 27.7 mi

My week was a hodgepodge of running. I was so tired on Monday that I didn’t run at all. I’d planned just a short run, maybe 4 miles, but I just couldn’t do it. I slept in on Tuesday since my flight wasn’t til later, and got a decent night’s sleep on Tuesday, so I was already feeling a heck of a lot better. The weather in Edmonton was great, too, which helped perk me up as well.

Wednesday I ran 5 treadmill miles, and Thursday I had a split workout: 3.3 miles running from my hotel to my work event (followed by kickball and soccer) and then 3 more treadmill miles in the evening. I had a long day on Friday, starting at 4:30 a.m. mountain time, and I sat on the plane for an hour once I finally got back to Duluth, as severe weather prevented the ground crew bringing the plane in (it’s def. not safe to be working around a giant metal airplane when there’s lightning nearby), so by the time I got home, I had lost motivation to even get a couple miles in.

Saturday I waited too long after eating to run, and I ended up running with dead legs and no energy. I should have brought a granola bar or something just in case; I thought the big sandwich I’d had at lunch would be sufficient. I hated most of the run, plodding along. It’s clear from my low average heart rate (124 bpm!) that I could have run much faster.

Sunday confirmed for me that I don’t really know how to run fast anymore. I was running pretty slowly (even for me) and again at a low heart rate (on the flats and downhills); I think a winter of slow runs dictated by my heart rate monitor has left me with a too-slow “comfortable” pace. My heels both have blisters on them from breaking in my new shoes, so that also prevented me from wanting to speed up. My GI system was a little off, so there was ANOTHER excuse. Eventually I was able to push myself past my excuses and speed up.

I’m running a 5K this upcoming weekend, so this week I’m going to leave the trails behind and focus on getting my legs turning over faster. I don’t mean a week of speed work, just a week of shaking off that complacent stride I’ve had for months.

Superior 25K Training: Week 3

Last “big” week of training. My schedule and my resting heart rate are telling me I need to back off.

Monday: 5 mi, treadmill, 140 bpm
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 3 mi (6×400 @ 10:00 pace), treadmill, 145 bpm
Thursday: 6.4 mi, treadmill, 131 bpm
Friday: 7.3 mi, trails (Hartley), 138 bpm
Saturday: 5.5 mi, treadmill, 144 bpm
Sunday: 13.9 mi, trails (Superior Hiking Trail), 152 bpm
Total: 41.1 mi

Monday I let myself have a nice workout while ignoring that aerobic threshold. My average heart rate still stayed below 143, and the highest spike was only 156 bpm. I was pretty wrecked all day Monday, basically in a fog at work, but I felt better after the workout.

Wednesday I did my first speed workout in months! It was a little ambitious (and actually I meant to do 8×400, but I had to cut the workout short to make it to the 7 PM showing of Purple Rain on time and not sweaty), but I always find it harder to hit certain paces on the treadmill than I do outside. I hope the weather cooperates and in 2 weeks when I’m doing my next set of repeats, I’m able to do them outside and can really gauge what my speed is. It wasn’t exceptionally cold out, but there were some strong gusts of wind, and I’d have stayed inside to work out even if I didn’t have time constraints. My heart rate was in the high 170s during the 400s, but for 4/5 of the recovery intervals (0.1 mi) I was able to get my it back down to aerobic. (I say 4/5 because the 6th was also part of the cooldown so of course it was aerobic.)

Thursday I did a nice easy run on the treadmill, testing out my new shoes. I ended up running at a 15:41 pace; contrast that to Saturday’s run (there was a cold, gusting wind so I stayed inside like a wimp), where I ran at a 15:51 pace and had a higher heart rate. A clear sign of fatigue, though obviously I’d be more fatigued the day after a medium-length trail run than I would be the day after a short speed workout.

Friday I had a nice run at Hartley. I was overdressed, but not significantly. I was wearing gloves, which I ended up carrying most of the time, but better safe than sorry. I ran the Fairmont Street trail, cut over to the outer loop, ran Root Canal, and then took the Fisherman up to Guardrail. I was concerned about how much daylight I’d have left, so I thought instead of doing the full Guardrail loop, I’d run Blue Pots, the inner loop. Well, it seems like no one takes that trail, because it was really hard to follow where it went, and I ended up rejoining  Guardrail the first chance I got. If I ran out of daylight, I’d rather do it on a familiar trail. I took the hills easy, but didn’t worry about my heart rate. Liberating!

Sunday I decided to run the Superior Hiking Trail, starting at Spirit Mountain. I followed the Harder ‘N Hell course until Twin Ponds, and then turned off on Skyline to go home. I drove out to Spirit Mountain and left my car at the trailhead, and picked it up later while running errands. It was convenient! The run was… ok. It was not at race effort (I ran Zumbro at an average of 162 bpm vs this run at 152 bpm avg), but it wasn’t exactly inspiring. I was overdressed again, but I didn’t know what the wind was going to do. I wish I’d worn shorts. I had a hoodie on but kept it tied around my waist most of the time, and kept my tissue-weight long-sleeved shirt on the whole run. It saved me from more sunburn, I guess. The back of my neck is burned, and my face is a little pink (I did put sunscreen on my face, but missed the back of my neck because it was covered by my hoodie. Poor planning.) I tried to take the hills at a less-than-maximum effort, and then run flats and downhills aerobically. I had 2 protein bars, one handheld with sports drink, and one handheld with water, which I consumed almost completely during the run. It looks like 14 trail miles might be my limit as far as liquids are concerned.

This next week I need to take things down a notch. I’m pushing too hard, and getting fatigued. My resting heart rate is up, I had a bit of trouble falling asleep last night, and my ears are ringing. All of these are signs that I need to relax, ramp down my mileage, and regroup for the race. I am traveling for work this week, so I will have one, maybe two rest days, maybe more, depending on how the trip goes. I’ll be prepared to hit the hotel gym in the evenings, but will see how I feel and how much work stuff I’ve got to get done. If I don’t run much on this trip, it’s not a big deal.

Summer Gear Wish List 2

It’s not warm yet, but it’s gettin’ there. I’m starting to plan out what new gear I need. Here’s last year’s summer gear wish list, and here’s my evaluation of it at the end of the season.

High Priority:
Bug repellent
New sports bra
Super lightweight jacket

I realize bug repellent is very easy to come by. What I need is a bug repellent that works, but isn’t something I have to worry about getting in my mouth or eyes if I’m sweating or I wipe my face. It doesn’t have to work perfectly, as I ran last year without any insect repellent at all, but it was also kind of like torture at times, swatting at my calves  every 5 seconds to fend off the hordes.

I still haven’t found a good sports bra since Under Armour stopped making the style I loved. I bought one from UA a year or so ago that has adjustable straps that threaten to fall down because they don’t stay adjusted where I want them, and soft cup inserts (not really padding) that migrate whenever I wash it. I also have one from Moving Comfort which is okay, but the eye hooks in the back gave out rather quickly.

I want a jacket that will protect me from rain when I need it, but won’t cause me to overheat and won’t be a nuisance around my waist while running.

Medium Priority:
Hydration belt or lightweight vest
Racing briefs
Body Glide alternative
Trail shoes

I have found that running with 2 handhelds can be a bit clumsy at times, so I’d like to be able to put them away. However, will 2 water bottles bouncing on my waist or chest be too annoying? I could go back to my hydration pack, but I also don’t usually need a backpack full of water, and it doesn’t have any front-accessible pouches.

I’m not insane, I don’t want the racing briefs for actual races. I actually want them for the treadmill. I don’t plan on doing too many treadmill runs this summer, but there’s always a chance that a hard rain’s a-gonna fall and I’ll be forced inside. I’m also getting hot on the treadmill right now, so I’d wear them sort of year-round.

Body Glide is ok for warm weather, but I’ve found in cooler temps it doesn’t work as well. Its coefficient of friction increases with cooler temps, and loses some of the “glide.” I’d like to find something with a better texture, as well.

I just got new shoes, but I would still like to try something trail-specific. My current Wave Prophecy pair has been going strong for 600 miles, but the shoes are starting to get a few holes (and they smell a bit). I will look to get the trail shoes some time after the Superior 25K.

Low Priority:
Prescription sunglasses
Shorts

I could use a pair or two of shorts so that I’m not cycling through the same 2 pairs, especially in the summer heat. I re-wear them probably more times than I “should,” so a few more pairs in the rotation wouldn’t hurt.

I need to go to the eye doctor, since I haven’t gotten new glasses in almost 3 years, and my current glasses are in rough shape (the lens coating started coming off in spots a few months after I got them, but since I got them at Macy’s and then moved away a month later to the land of no Macy’s, I couldn’t take them in to complain), but I hate making appointments. That is dumb and immature so I need to get myself together and do it, and since I’ll have a current prescription in hand, I should take advantage of the convenience to get a pair of sunnies for driving and for running. I may not use them on trails that are in the woods, since the visibility might be lower than I’m comfortable with.

I can’t think of anything else that I would like to try, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be impulse buying this season. I’ll try to add anything that’s not on this list, but that I chose to purchase, to the end of season wrap-up.

Superior 25K Training: Week 2

It’s never going to be warm again. Ever.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 136 bpm
Wednesday: 4.7 mi, trails/hills (Bagley), 143 bpm
Thursday: 5 mi, treadmill, 135 bpm
Friday: 6.5 mi, road, 139 bpm
Saturday: 7.1 mi, road (MAF test), 138 bpm
Sunday: 10 mi, treadmill, 151 bpm
Total: 38.9 mi

IT’S ALMOST FREAKING MAY AND I’M ON MY TREADMILL BECAUSE IT’S TOO COLD THIS IS NONSENSE.

Ok we actually did have a couple nice days this past week, but now we don’t have another high above 50 degrees until May. It is really getting to me, mentally and even physically. It’s tough to get motivated to do anything. Last weekend, it was warm, and I had the energy to come home after a trail run and clean my house. This weekend, I slept poorly both nights, got buffeted about by the wind on Saturday, and had to do my long run on the treadmill rather than get hypothermia from running 10 miles in a frigid downpour.

I discussed in my last post that I won’t be doing MAF training for awhile. I still plan to monitor my heart rate, so I’ll still give that stat in my wrap-ups, but I won’t be sticking to any set maximum. I’ve already had a couple workouts where I’ve had sustained periods above my target heart rate.

Wednesday, I decided to do the first real hill workout I’ve had in quite awhile. I went to Bagley, which ended up being kind of stupid since it was 4/20 and there were several groups of people smoking dope in the area. I felt like a tool running by them, but no one made any comments, so I felt lucky. I did get a few whiffs of smoke as I went by. I warmed up with the easier loop, and then attacked the hill 3 times, heart rate be damned. I recovered with another pass of the easier loop, and then 3 more attacks on the hill. It wasn’t so bad, although by the end my legs were feeling a bit wobbly.

Unfortunately, the hill workouts took a toll on my calves, and they felt as taught as violin strings for a few days after. I didn’t have any other muscular issues, which was surprising. I thought I would have felt something in my thighs, but I didn’t.

My weekday treadmill runs were as uneventful as they always are. There’s really nothing to report on any of them, which is why I skip over them. I can’t stand that I’m writing about treadmill runs on the regular right now, but I am trying to stay healthy and sometimes that means staying out of the cold. I’m such a weakling right now. I’m not sure what I’m going to do now that the Wild are knocked out of the playoffs, as I watched a lot of hockey while on the treadmill. It’s a lot better distraction than movies or TV shows, although I get easily frustrated when the game isn’t going well, which doesn’t help with treadmill running.

I got in a little extra workout on Thursday as I made a little pilgrimage to Enger Tower, which was lit purple in memory of Prince. I climbed to the top, which was a nice stair workout, but it was too misty to get a good picture of the view.

Friday I had an uneventful road run. I got stopped at almost every stoplight I encountered, so that threw the pace off a bit. Saturday’s MAF test was cold but I did enjoy the roar of the surf to the north of me, just out of view.

There’s a ship just barely visible on the right side of the photo. I think the waves were more dramatic on Sunday, but I didn’t venture out of my house beyond a coffee run. Sunday I slept late, since I’d had trouble falling asleep again, and I was wrapped up in the Wild game and the extra innings of the Twins game, so there wouldn’t really have been time to go down to the beach again. Plus, rain and gusting winds and cold and sloth.

So I ran my long run of the week on the treadmill. I probably ran at a bit of a higher heart rate than I should have, but I just wanted to give it a shot. I stopped twice: once to go to the bathroom, taking advantage of the proximity, and once when I had to start a new workout because I hit 100 minutes. I ate some of a granola bar at the second stoppage, and started up at a slower pace to let myself digest a bit. I’d forgotten to take the heart rate alarm off my indoor running mode, so my stupid watch beeped like mad the whole time.

I did try again to buy a new pair of shoes, but the store I went to (a sports version of a big box store) was completely out of Mizuno shoes, and that’s what I wanted. I ended up going online and finding a clearance pair of Mizunos which weren’t exactly what I wanted, but seemed suitable and were cheap enough that I was willing to buy them without trying them on. I really hope they don’t suck. I was trying to see if I could find another clearance pair of my Wave Prophecies, but they didn’t have any in my size at the places I looked online. The shoes should be here this week, and I should have time to break them in before my 5K. So much for instant gratification.

AfterMAF

Alternative puns included MAFtermath and MAFterthoughts. I’m sure I’ll get a chance to use them later.

After I did my final MAF test Saturday, I went home and downloaded the information from the run, and then deleted the MAF heart rate alarm app from my watch. I am done, done, done with this method for awhile.

Here’s the data from my final MAF test of this training cycle. For reference: MAF Test #1, MAF Test #2, MAF Test #3.

Warmup: 1 mile, walking and easy running, 17:29, 123 bpm

It was cool and windy as heck during the run. The gales of November came very, very early, I guess. I had one HUGE spike to 158 bpm during the warm-up, for absolutely no reason. I think it was equipment error.

Mile 1: 16:00, 142 bpm
Mile 2: 15:44, 143 bpm
Mile 3: 16:02, 142 bpm
Mile 4: 15:42, 142 bpm
Mile 5: 15:33, 142 bpm

What the fffffffffff.

Cooldown: 1.1 mi, 17:09 pace, 135 bpm

Ok, I get that it was windy, so that might have been throwing things of. And I had some heartburn and hadn’t slept perfectly the night before due to some minor stomach pains, but what is this? The fastest mile is the last one? That’s the opposite of what a MAF test is supposed to show.

Let’s compare my average pace and HR for my previous MAF tests (ignoring test #3, which had GPS issues).

Test 1: 16:02, 135 bpm
Test 2: 15:05, 141 bpm
Test 4: 15:49, 142 bpm

I have made no progress. I suspected this during my run, when I couldn’t hit the paces I thought I could without my watch beeping like crazy. I know the wind was a factor, but still. I feel like I should have been a little closer to the Test 2 numbers.

I find this frustrating. It feels like a huge waste of my time. I’ve done no speed work over the last 4 months, and I’ve slowed way, way down to try to stay aerobic climbing hills, and it feels like I’ve done it all for no reason. I know this training works, so I’ll give it another shot, but I guess I was expecting magical results.

As with any experiment, repeatability is essential to obtaining reliable results. Did the weather slow me down 44 seconds? Probably not. I wasn’t feeling the best either, but I also can’t remember how I was feeling on the other days I did the test. If I did it a week from now, would I get better results? Maybe.

I made two major errors during this training. I didn’t do enough to change my diet, and I didn’t change my target HR after I got sick. I made some changes to my diet, trying to get more fat into my diet as well as more fruits and vegetables, but I didn’t really make wholesale changes to how I ate. My cold was significant enough that I should have knocked another 5 beats off my target heart rate, according to Dr. Maffetone. I plan to re-read his book before I go back to MAF training.

I also don’t think I did a fantastic job of warming up and cooling down. It was hard to achieve the slow ramp-up recommended by Dr. Maffetone; I usually had to walk my warm-ups, and with the cold weather and the inevitable hills on most of my routes, I would even sometimes find my heart rate spiking up while walking.

This is the ideal time to take a break from the training, since I will need to do some speedwork once I start training for the Park Point 5 miler. I will also be able to get in a few major hill workouts before Superior, which will be a huge boon.

There were good and bad aspects of doing this training. I’ll never do it in winter again, at least not until I’m considerably faster or living somewhere milder. The weather has too much of an impact on my heart rate, and I have many times had trouble getting in a proper warm-up (as discussed above), or have had to run much more slowly than planned due to the cold or wind. It was also difficult to stay warm while running; a faster pace would have generated more heat.

I found my patience tried many, many times as my heart rate monitor beeped away. It drove me nuts, which I’m sure didn’t help lower my heart rate any. It was also kind of embarrassing  to beep as I ran by people. Even writing about it, I’m kind of annoyed.

I did find that I was less tired after workouts, which should be an obvious benefit, since they were all done at an “easy” pace. I wasn’t red-faced and huffing and puffing after my runs. I am much more in tune to my body now that I am paying attention to my heart rate, and I’m more conscious of what an “easy” run actually feels like.

It helped my ego a bit to have a reason for slowing down. I could tell myself I was really faster than I was going (which is true, but how much faster, I don’t know). I also felt better about how I looked to others; since I was going slowly, but I wasn’t gasping for air, I felt less embarrassed about my pace. I felt running slowly, but at a smooth and controlled pace, looked better than running a little less slowly, but beet-red and struggling. This training method also kept me from “racing my training.” I just wish I’d made some demonstrable aerobic progress.

I’m looking forward to some more unstructured runs! I will still be monitoring my heart rate on each run, and I don’t plan on doing more than one “quality” workout (hills, tempo, intervals, etc) per week, so there will not be significant changes to the structure or intensity of my workouts through the end of my Superior training. Just a heck of a lot less beeping.

Bit by Bit

I kind of caved to the fitness tracker craze. I didn’t buy one, but I was able to obtain one through my work’s health and wellness program, which provides financial rewards that can either be redeemed for money or stuff. I probably should have taken the money, but I seized the opportunity to get another GPS-capable fitness tracking device.

Behold, the FitBit Surge.
hand
I don’t foresee a career in hand modeling unless I give up cats.

There were two options for the band size, small and large. I ordered a small and I either have chubby wrists or the company severely misunderstands the size of people’s wrists. I can only fasten it on, like, the third from last notch, and that’s only if it’s fairly close to my wristbone. It’s recommended to wear it a finger’s width from the wrist bone, or even farther away during exercise. It seems unreasonably small, if that is the case. Or again, perhaps I have fat wrists, I don’t know.

I wear it on alternate wrists. Generally I wear it on my right hand, and when it starts to irritate the skin a little, I switch over to the left for a few days. That’s sort of irrelevant but I did notice I was getting a ton of “steps” accomplished in the morning before I realized I was getting credit for brushing my teeth and my hair.

I find the overall concept of the fitness tracker sort of patronizing. The interface on the website/app is sort of juvenile. Get badges for getting steps! Compete against your friends! Here’s how many staircases you “climbed!” Get up and walk 250 needless steps an hour, just so you can meet this or that goal!

I do find it useful for a few things. First, as a watch. It’s sleek enough to wear daily, although it usually gets covered up by my long sleeves. I haven’t worn a watch in awhile, but I like it more than digging my phone out of my pocket to check the time.

I also use to to monitor my heart rate, both for fun and for informational purposes. I have gotten a better idea of my resting heart rate, and I can use that to see how my training is going, as well as to predict when I might need to rest/back off training. I also like to see what kind of an effect certain things have on my heart rate. Yesterday I had to present in a big meeting, and before hand my heart rate was around 90 bpm sitting down. Yikes!

Even though I mock the steps counter a bit, I have noticed that when I’m not working out, I’m pretty sedentary. My job doesn’t require a lot of walking, and even adding in some unnecessary walking to add in steps doesn’t make much of a difference. My house is small, and laid out so that the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom are all close by. I don’t have any interest in pacing my house just to get in “exercise.” I also like to sit on my butt and watch TV, and I don’t see that changing. I guess it’s a good thing I run, then.

I don’t use the GPS tracker at the moment when running, because I wear my other watch, but I would use it on longer runs where I might run out of battery on my primary watch. I don’t know when I’ll be running those races, but someday. I should give it a shot on a run sometime, just to see what kind of variance I get between it and my Suunto.

Overall this is a mostly-unnecessary piece of technology that has given me a bit more insight into my fitness, but I wouldn’t have paid for it. Also, I have fat wrists according to FitBit.