Wednesday Dec 6, 6 miles indoors

NCP Community Center track 6 mi, 53:51, pace 8:59. I wimped out today. Schedule says run with the Woodbury gang tonight, but the weatherman was talking about an Alberta Clipper (Canada’s blustery, frigid gift to the Great Lakes) due this afternoon and evening. A & S wanted to go to the club, so what the heck. I wore the heart rate monitor again, and tried to peg my pace right on 9:00, just like last Sunday. The HR leveled out at 132 for the first four miles, just like Sunday’s run, which ended at four miles. Then today it crept up to 136 in the last two miles. So why was it 146 yesterday? Quite possibly just the difference in pace; yesterday I averaged 8:37 per mile. Also I ate a gel every four miles yesterday, and drank 5 oz of water every two, thus adding the stomach to the list of customers for blood flow. Tomorrow’s schedule shows four miles; I’ll go to the club again and check the HR at 8:06 miles, right about MP. Today’s splits: 8:57, 8:57, 8:59, 9:00, 9:00, 8:59. Breathing 5 footfalls per full breath throughout; easy pace.

Unfotunately, I heard from the right hamstrings again today. Not a sharp pain, just a dull ache which appeared briefly a couple of times. Now that the run is over I can feel the ache every time I walk, but for the life of me I can’t find it by palpation. I wonder if it’s really nerves, not a muscle or tendon problem at all. Well I’m going to run until it hurts enough to take it to a doctor or therapist, but still building back up to 40 MPW in a fairly conservative manner.

The club was really a nice place to be today. There are windows on all four sides of the track, so we watched snow showers one minute and blue sky sweeping in from the west the next. And we got out of there before the Jazzercisers cranked up their loudspeakers. I wonder how much outdoor running I’ll do this winter. I need some, for hill training, but that can wait until the hamstring issue gets resolved. Saturday morning with the SCV runners for sure.

Cuter than Cute

I'm still learning how to upload images and put them in the right places.



This is our grandson. I just love him.

Tuesday December 5, 2006, 10 miles indoors

NSP Community Center track, ten mi in 1:26:09, pace 8:37. Again did some metrics, because it’s so easy to hold an exact pace on a track that has 13 time checks per mile. This time my heart rate was 146, not especially low. So much for all of the self-congratulations of two days ago! HR went right up there early and stayed there. Why was it low Sunday and not today? Maybe any or all of several reasons: (1) Sunday the pace was 9:00, today 8:37; (2) Sunday I just ran, but today took water and gels at intervals appropriate for marathon training, thus increasing the need for oxygen; (3) I had lunch a couple of hours before running Sunday, only a latte this morning; and (4) I didn’t “carb up” at all last night; maybe not enough in the tank.

Soon I will step it up to marathon pace again and see if the HR goes even higher. I don’t think I should run a marathon at a pace much higher than 146, which is 87% of max HR. Maybe today was atypical; I hope so, but time will tell. Maybe the answer is that HR metrics are bad if I obsess on them. No worries when I leave the HR monitor at home :-)

The right hamstrings ached a little during the cool-down walk. Nuts. Well I’m not going to stop again; if 18 days off didn’t do it then I need a better plan. Maybe try a massage terapist - never tried that before. I did some deep massage on it myself last night, and it hurt a little afterward. Might have caused today’s ache myself; better leave that stuff to the professionals.

North St Paul Community Center is such a nice facility. Because A & I are seniors, we get a rate of $165 per year even though we are non-residents. It’s a bit of a drive, but the indoor track alone is well worth it, and the cross-training equipment is quite adequate.

Sunday December 3, 2006, four miles indoors

NSP Community Center track again, 4 mi in 35:54, pace 8:59, splits 8:58, 8:55, 9:00, & 9:00. A little experiment today. Since the idea was to run four easy miles anyway, why not put on the heart monitor and measure the heart rate at exactly nine-minute miles, because it's so easy to do an exact pace at the track. The average rate was 127, and the steady-state rate after leveling off was 132. It's my recollection that nine-minute miles used to get my heart up to a higher rate, close to 140. Looking back in this log, I see a heart rate of 143 for a six-miler in May 2003, and 141 for a 19-miler in April 2004, both at nine-minute pace. Of course it makes sense that the rate is down, because my race times have gone down too.

So what physiological changes account for the decrease? An increase in running efficiency would result in less oxygen uptake. Also, the cardiopulmonary system itself may have become more efficient, so that one beat of the heart can pump more oxygen. I think probably both. I wonder how much farther I can take that before age starts to reverse the trend.

I've previously thought that my maximum heart rate was about 167. If so, then today's nice easy sub-marathon pace was at 79% of max heart rate. Is that normal for an easy pace? Seems like I've read that 65%-70% is a target for long-slow distance running. Need to do some research.

Running / Training Schedule

Some people like to run, or not, as the mood strikes them. I'm not good at that, preferring a little more structure, even if it's only structure that I provide for myself. For the last three years, therefore, I have created and mostly followed a running schedule, designed to get me to the next marathon in good enough shape to run it.

I get up in the morning and look at the schedule to see what's on tap for the day. Of course I know that Tuesday is usually the day for the long run of the week, and weekend days are often races. But the schedule tells me how far to run, and I always run that far if there is no physical reason not to.

Since it's my own schedule I change it as needed, so long as the weekly mileage goal is still met. For example, I had four miles in the schedule for yesterday, intending to do the Reindeer Run with some cool-down. But when we decided to run indoors instead, that seemed like an opportunity to run a little farther. So I did six instead, and then reduced today's scheduled mileage by two.

I've added a link to the current schedule on the righthand panel of the blog. It will probably be kept mostly up to date; we'll see.

Myeloma Tests

Myeloma blood draw tomorrow at 1:00 pm, pee in a bottle all day today and tonight. Then I'll see the doc on the 11th and get the results. Last time he was unconcerned enough to suggest four-month intervals instead of three, but I preferred three. I will submit a new post about the results, and the actual data will be posted here.

Saturday December 2, 2006. Six miles indoors

NSP Community Center track, 6 mi in 48:53, pace 8:09. Marathon pace. Splits 8:31, 8:10, 8:03, 8:03, 8:15, & 7:53. We three went to the Reindeer Run this morning, but it was so darn cold we decided to watch all of the costumed runners go by at the start and then go home to run at the gym. Temp was almost OK, but there was a stiff wind, and we really didn't want to face it on the far side of the lake. But on the track at the gym I felt very good, no sign of hamstring trouble. I knew it would be a good afternoon when the first mile was 8:31 instead of 9:00. And my breathing was five or six strides per full breath through at least the first four miles, really changing to four strides per breath only for the last mile. For me, this is an indicator of good aerobic capacity when I can breathe that easily at marathon pace. A little warning from the right knee around mile 2, but it passed.

Looking at running the Zoom! Yah! Yah! Marathon in Northfield on January 14. It's Minnesota's first indoor marathon, 150 laps on a 283-meter track, certified BQ. Sounds like quite a snore, but I've done 20-milers on a much shorter indoor track (270 laps / 20 mi) so this won't be bad, and there will be support. Very small field, half-filled already I think. But can I get ready for it without re-injury? We'll see. I need to be sure that I take at least two days off from running every week. Pete Pfitzinger wrote a wonderful article in the January issue of Running Times (the current issue). To paraphrase one point: "There is no such thing as overtraining; there is only under-recovery." And I need to stretch regularly, even on the off days, especially the conventional hamstring stretch and the toe-touches.

I notice that I'm writing more in this log now that it's also going on the web and I can imagine that someone else might actually read it. That's ego for ya. But I hope that in my creaky, cranky years I will enjoy looking back on this log.