I’m that weirdo on the treadmill

January 31, 2010

herb mindless dribble, running, training , , , , , 8 Comments

This month I did 180 miles. I haven’t had a month this low in mileage since 2008. I’m not overly concerned with that, but I do have some casual goals to keep it above 200 miles per month. Part of its a game, part of it’s to give me incentive to get the miles in on the days I’m not really motivated. But mostly, I find that the months I have higher mileage are the ones preceding the months where I have my best races. Being I just had a good half marathon and strep throat this month, I can let this go. I’ll try to get 220 miles for February though :)

I finished off the month with a 5 mile recovery run along the Bronx River Parkway. It was the first time I put a windbreaker jacket over my usual cold weather running attire. With the temps around the mid teens I didn’t think I would be able to keep warm going at my planned recovery pace without the windbreaker; and I was right.

It’s not that the cold bothers me. In fact, I enjoy it. But yesterday, I had 20 miles planned in the same low temperatures as today. With the amount of time I would need to do the 20 miles I was worried I would be putting some extremities at risk for frostbite. I tell you I learn from my mistakes, and that is one mistake I never want to make again, at least not there again.

So with the weather yesterday, I wimped out by doing my long run indoors. All 20 miles of it on the treadmill for about 2 1/2 hours. Incline 1.5, varying speed of 7.5mph (8:00min/mi) to 8.0mph (7:30min/mi). Certainly not fun. Watching the TVs they have mounted on the treadmill directly at face level about 6 inches away makes me sea-sick, so I tend to just listen to my iPod and zone out. Or at least I try to. That is until I accidentally make eye contact with someone on an opposite facing treadmill and I get knocked out of my trance. Then, for a few seconds, I become paranoid wondering if the other person thinks I was staring at them. Normally, I wouldn’t think for more than two seconds in a situation like this. Except, in a situation like this that person isn’t going anywhere, and neither am I since we’re both basically running in place. So instead, I spend mental effort trying to avoid letting my line of vision drift that way again.

What’s worse is if in my peripheral vision it seems as if that same person may be staring at me. Naturally, this gives me a strong urge to check to see whether they are. But, always when I look over to check, I find they’re not actually looking at me, but they immediately notice that I’m looking at them and then comes the even more awkward eye contact; a second time. It’s at that point I can literally read their mind wondering, “Why does that creep keep staring at me?”

So, two and half hours of that. Next time, I’ll take some Dramamine and watch TV.

Manhattan Half Marathon pictures – heel striker or not?

January 28, 2010

herb mindless dribble, racing, running , , , , 6 Comments

The pictures from the Manhattan Half Marathon became available today. I was somewhat curious to get a look at them to see if I heel strike. It’s the first opportunity I’m getting to see pictures of myself running since I’ve been focused on my gait.

Although most of the picture show my foot already planted on the ground, and unable to tell how it landed, I did find two pictures worth examining. One of them took place during the middle of the race with my foot looking good in my opinion. The other very close towards the end of the race and obviously landing very hard on my heel. With that said, however, I was making a turn, running all out, and quite tired by that time.

While looking through all the pictures though, I did find some other interesting facts about my racing form. Apparently, I’m a chronic napper and I like to taking dancing breaks. See below…




Around mile 7, not heel striking! - Good!!! :)



Heel Striking towards the end - Bad!!!




Catching a nap early on in the race

Napping again during the race

Finished!! Time for another nap!


Taking a break during the race to do the cha-cha!

Whole Foods and Healthcare

January 27, 2010

herb health , , , Leave a comment

It was in the news yesterday that Whole Foods will be giving their employees an incentive to make healthier lifestyle choices by giving extra discounts on top of the 20% discount they already receive on their purchases. How much discount an employee receives depends on which of the four categories the employee qualifies for. The lowest group offers an extra 2% while the most extreme offers an extra 10%, totally 30%.

The most stringent category has some very extreme criteria. I consider myself to be very diligent about my health, but I would not qualify under these requirements.

  • Cannot use nicotine products – ok, no problem there
  • BMI less than 24 – My BMI is between 25 to 26.
  • Blood pressure 110/70 – Nope, last checked it was 120/64
  • Total Cholesterol under 150 or LDL under 80 – I don’t track my Total Cholesterol because I find it useless, but my LDLs are 113 – I’ve never tested lower than 97

With that said, there has been a typical reaction from the media focusing on those crying discrimination and calling for boycotts. First off, let’s make it clear that this is for employees, not the public. Furthermore, it’s voluntary for just the employees that are enrolled in the company health plan provided by whole Foods.

For the past 7 years, I have paid more for health insurance each year while my benefits were decreased to some degree on most of those years. If I was an employee at Whole Foods, I would welcome any change that could potentially lower my healthcare costs, especially if I didn’t have to necessarily do anything to benefit.

About 75% of all healthcare costs in the US are from treating chronic diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, most of which can be prevented by not smoking, lowering weight, lowering blood pressure, and lowering cholesterol. All of these are controllable by lifestyle choices and are the same exact ones Whole Foods is encouraging their employees to focus on.

However, while I think Whole Foods is doing the right thing by giving their employees an incentive to make healthy lifestyle choices, they’re implementing it poorly. First off, BMI is for the birds as everyone knows it does not take muscle mass into consideration. Measuring body fat % would make much more sense, but it’s difficult to measure correctly and involves a water displacement test. Sure, there are battery operated scales that shoot tiny currents of electricity through your body, but they’re very inaccurate. For this, I don’t have many the answers.

In addition, there are some people who are too far on the extreme where reaching the criteria for a mere 2% discount would simply not be worth the effort. (I would argue the health benefits are reason enough, but that’s beside the point.) Those people deserve to receive similar awards for taking the right steps and participating. And, everything possible should be done to encourage them to participate and not leave them on the wayside. In reality, they are the ones we want to encourage the most.

Therefore, rather than basing rewards on specific criteria, the program should be geared towards achieving a realistic improvement for each individual over time until the minimum criteria is reached. For instance, having them lowering their vitals by a certain percentage should qualify them for a discount. When they reach a certain percentage they get their discount, and must continue to lose another percentage in a given time period to maintain it. If they fail within that timeframe, they then lose their benefits until the goal percentage is reached.

In fact, a model of some sort that’s based on a reward system for those who do what they can to alleviate burden on the health care system should be implemented across the country. After all, 75% of us are dying because of poor lifestyle choices.

Manhattan Half Race Report

January 24, 2010

herb race report, racing, running , , , , 2 Comments

I’m pretty happy about my performance at the Manhattan Half today. I was secretly hoping for a sub 90 minutes, but I didn’t want to admit that to myself. I wanted to stay focused on the main purpose which is to just go out there and testing myself without any expectations. Plus, I didn’t want to set myself up for disappointment, given the recent training hurdles and recovering from being sick. I’m beginning to realize I do better when I keep things in perspective and avoid putting pressure on myself.

My official result is 1:29:48. Just under 90 minutes and about 32 seconds off my 2007 PR, (1:29:16) and 49 seconds away from my goal for the year (sub 89mins). It’s satisfying to know I’m not so far away from that this early in the game. This was my first race in a while, not counting the nyc marathon 3 months ago which is really a different animal.

I’ve had a lot of bad luck in the half for quite some time. I wrote about how it’s my favorite distance, and it really is, but since I’ve PR’ed I’ve had chronically bad performances for various reasons of going out too fast, hot weather, injury, or just not having it that day. My PR was the only other time I came in under 90 minutes.

Since, this year, they moved the start to a less convenient location for my commute, I had to take an earlier train. The one after would have been cutting it too close. As it turns out, I arrived a little before 7:00am in the dark before the sun came up. I had about an hour to kill and realized it was feeling a lot colder than I was prepared for.

Ironically, the night before I was considering wearing shorts since the forecast was 35 degrees. I’m glad I played it safe and wore a long sleeved hooded top and tights, but I should have had a heavier jacket for the wait. While waiting, I found Mark T and his friend Matt and that made the hour go by considerably faster.

The night before, I had a sour stomach with gurgles and my wife complained how she kept burping up the taste of the dinner we ate at the place we went to. If it’s not one thing, it’s always another on race day for me. Waiting around I hit the port-a-john two times and then realized during my warm-up with Mark I had to go a third time and I had to get to it fast.

While doing my business, the sound hitting the bottom of the port-a-john made my heart start racing. Right before the race I come down with diarrhea. When I was finished doing my thing, there was no time left and I had to head straight to the corral.

On my way over, I saw Joe running and he asked me in German how I was as if I was multiple people, so I answered back in German that “we were good” and thanked him. Before I had a chance to tell him I was lining up more towards the rear and to wish him luck, he darted through the crowd and was gone.

Waiting in the crowd at the start things felt warmer. I felt as if I had a little gas and before letting one slip out I realize it wasn’t gas and thought to myself, “oh shit”, literally! Starting in 1 minute, and no port-a-joins in sight. Well, screw it I said, it’s not a goal race anyway and I’ll have to just last until I see one on the course. I’ll just correct my time on the garmin for myself.

So, the horn goes, and we’re off. I cross the start very quickly in about 15 seconds and start the garmin. This is my first race in the new corals and it looks like NYRR finally got something right lately. I made sure not to go too fast and tried to just go with the crowd. I kept thinking to myself “easy and relaxed and just see where it takes you”.

Mile 1 – 6:51 – Not sure how things were feeling at this point. It was still too early.

Mile 2 – 6:49 – Ran over cat hill and I was surprised how fast it went by. There was effort but less than what I usually experience during a training run. Still not sure how this will go though and I’m having occasional feelings of pessimism.

Mile 3 – 6:36 – Flat and I may have pushed through this one too hard. I remember being surprised at how fast this split was and reminded myself to dial it back again.

Mile 4 – 7:00 – Harlem hills. Pushed through it with effort, but less than expected. A good sign. Getting to the top I thought to myself that I had some time to recover on the downhill

Mile 5 – 6:59. This mile was even harder than Harlem hills. There are a few rolling hills during this mile and Harlem hills just sets you up to struggle during these. I see Mark ahead, catch up to him, and pace with him a bit before saying hi. I try to get comfortable. I find my groove and it takes me ahead of him.

Mile 6 – 6:42 – Some downhill, flat and a little incline before more downhill to where we began the race. At the start of this mile I began to feel as if something was going to squirt out. At the end of the mile there were a bunch of port-a-johns, but things were feeling better and I threw caution to the wind and skipped stopping. If things got worse I would just have to slow down until the next port-a-john opportunity.

Mile 7 – 6:46 – Same as mile as mile 1 with most of it uphill. My pace wasn’t all that fast, but things started to turn around and it the effort seemed easier than the first time. During this mile I began to find my groove and get comfortable in my stride. The crowd was also thinning out and I had some more room.

Mile 8 – 6:53 – Again, up cat hill and a tad slower than the first time (mile 2), but still feeling good and I get through it before I know it. I remind myself I won’t have to do that hill again.

Mile 9- 6:44 – Slower than mile 3 but more comfortable and at the right pace. It felt right. If I could have just did the whole race at this pace.

Mile 10 – 7:11 – Harlem hills again and I had to push hard through this one. I panicked a bit at how off this mile was, but I realized at this point, I was probably going to do a sub 90 if I just hold it together.

Mile 11 – 6:56. A bit better than mile 5, especially considering the fatigue setting in. However, I’m feeling hot in my top and I wish I dressed smarter considering how warm the weather forecast was. :)

Mile 12 – 6:41. About the same pace as mile 6 but I’m pushing very hard now in terms of effort. I see the guy I’ve been running along side for the past mile take a gel, and I think to myself, “what is that about? A gel at mile 12 in a half marathon?” Then I remember I still have my gel tucked in my sleeve, unused. I remind myself its the same gel I planned to take at mile 18 in the marathon 3 months ago which I skipped then too. I had no intentions of taking it now.

Mile 13 – 6:48. This was tough since I began running into the back of the pack and there were lots of people in the way. It was uphill and a struggle to maintain the pace and dodge around those in the way. I saw mile 13 and I thought to myself, “I got this, less than a minute to go!”

Mile 13.1 – the math says 0:48 seconds, but there’s no way I finished at an 8min mile pace. Nonetheless, I run hard across the finish and I see the gun time was 1:30:05. I know I’m under 90 minutes and I think back to the last time I did the Manhattan half back in 2007, and I feel I’ve redeemed myself.

I think I’ll attempt to do all 5 NYRR halves this year with the one in Brooklyn maybe allowing me to break 89 minutes. It would be nice if someone knew when they were scheduled for so that we can plan better.

(Edit : According to Brooklyn Running, the Brooklyn Half looks slated for May 22.)

(Edit again :
Tentative dates
05/22 Brooklyn
08/15 Bronx
09/12 Queens
10/02 Grete’s Gallop
10/10 Staten Island
)

I lost my toenail

January 22, 2010

herb mindless dribble , 1 Comment

You would think a thing like this would be painful. It’s surprisingly not.

I was expecting this to happen after it turned black in the summer, although I didn’t think it would take this long. Anyway, I’m all too happy to be rid of this thing. I wish the other 9 would come off too. They serve absolutely no purpose and are just a nuisance. Let’s hope it doesn’t grow back. Unfortunately, I know it will.


[Edit: I'm getting a lot of flack for posting pictures of my toenail coming off with no warning. so, if you still want to see, then click here and here]

Long run at the Rockies

January 17, 2010

herb running, training , , 2 Comments

I did my long run yesterday at Rockefeller Estates. I did 17 miles at a very easy pace and got lost somewhat at mile 12. It was nice to run in just shorts and a long sleeve shirt, although it felt chillier than the 45 degrees forecasted. It wasn’t so bad until I had to stop to check the Garmin navigation. Stopping causes me to cool down pretty fast and I soon realized it was still the middle of winter.

Anyway, you can get somewhat of a sense of the hills and terrain of the rockies if you have the google earth plugin. Rather than post flat map images of running routes, this is leagues ahead.. Unfortunately wordpress doesn’t allow embedding of this, so you’ll have to jump over to my defunct blogger site.

One week and counting

January 15, 2010

herb running, training , , Leave a comment

Not much in the way of running to post about for this week.

After getting an antibiotic for strep throat on sunday, I went out monday for an easy run around my development. It was anything but easy. It was as if my legs forgot how to run. Running felt awkward and landing on each foot felt hard and abrupt. This was after taking 4 days completely off and it was like I no longer had any coordination.

Being someone who obsesses over how many miles I’ve run, I’m always ridiculously paranoid about how much fitness I’ll lose if I take anything more than 2 days off. We work so hard to gain fitness, but it seem so transient and is gone almost the minute we can no longer continue.

However, I’m sure in this case it’s due more to the fact I wasn’t as fully recovered from being sick as I thought I was. When you feel so horrible for a while, you forget how it feels to be healthy.

In anycase, I wanted to run a little over an hour to get out 8 miles, but wound up making a conscious decision to cut it short and not push it past 5 miles. That was Monday.

Tuesday, I was back at work, and did 8.2 miles on the treadmill in 64minutes. It was an odd pace for me; between my easy and marathon pace. I wanted to run a little harder than easy but marathon wasnt something I could keep for the full time.

Wednesday is typically a scheduled day off and I decided to keep it that way despite missing so much last week. Frankly, I actually still felt the run from the day before and needed the break.

Thursday, I started feeling a bit better, but not good enough for my scheduled tempo. So I started the treadmill at marathon pace and increased the speed 0.1 mph every 10 minutes for the full hour. 9mph would be my pace for cruise intervals, and I went from 8.2 to 8.7, but without rest intervals so I counted it as a tempo anyway considering the effort.

Friday, today, I ran 2 miles at marathon pace and decided to cut back to easy pace for the rest of the hour covering 7.7miles.

What a shitty week in terms of performance. Thankfully its warming up to 45 degrees tomorrow, so I’m hoping to get out for a long run and enjoy the temperature while it lasts; and hopefully most of the snow will melt.

Next weekend is the Manhattan half. I was planning on doing some hard training in preparation last week before getting sick – didn’t happen. This week was just a struggle. I’m not happy I didn’t get an opportunity to do anything in the way of Vo2 max intervals, or anything faster than tempo pace and now it’s too late. It’s a shame because for a while I thought my training was going well enough for a decent performance and now its hard to know where I am. For now, I’m just glad this half is not a goal race.

Strep!

January 10, 2010

herb mindless dribble, training , 2 Comments

No, that pink line you see there does not mean I’m pregnant. However, I do have strep throat.

Strep Test

My positive strep throat test

It’s good to have a diagnosis, but I feel like I would have been 100% better by tomorrow. Nonetheless, it’s good that I’m on an antibiotic now, not that I’m a fan of antibiotics, but I’m contagious for another 24 hours after first taking it and I don’t want my daughter catching this. Plus, the doctor clued me in on a series of complications that can occur after strep if it’s not treated with an antibiotic. This one is rather ironic given my last post regarding my echocardiogram. Ok, so I won’t be the tough guy and I’ll take the damn antibiotic.

I’ll give it one more day off today, probably run easy tomorrow without any fear now that I’m on medication, and see from there. I have some VO2 max intervals loosely scheduled and I want to get those in sooner than later for Jan 24th.

Shame this has really blown my mileage for January. I have a casual goal of 215 miles per month with 2600 year-round for 2010 and with only 41 miles 10 days in it looks like I’ll already miss it.

climbing the walls

January 10, 2010

herb mindless dribble , , , , 1 Comment

Throughout the night I woke up about once per hour in pain and unable to swallow. I finally got out of bed at 6am. After about 15 minutes or so I noticed my throat losing some of the sticky sore feeling it had throughout the night.

I popped two Tylenol and wasted time online. I noticed the weather was also 10 degrees Fahrenheit!!! I’m almost glad I have the excuse of being sick in order not to run in this temperature.

Before the sun was up I saw a runner doing the lap around my development I usually do; just in reverse. Although I didn’t get a good look, I suspect it was one of the two Japanese women who live near by who I often see and wave to along the Bronx River Pathway. They’re a bit older and very dedicated to running.

For a split moment I thought about going out to do the same and then I remembered that I’m sick.

I’ve since played around with this and have created something pretty cool from my long run in Düsseldorf.

It’s now 10:00am and I’m trying to figure out a strategy to get my wife to allow me to go out for an easy 30 minute run. Yes, she’s the boss.

mortality

January 9, 2010

herb mindless dribble Leave a comment

Friday I woke up with a 101 degree fever, sore throat, aches and pains, sensitive skin and a splitting headache, so theres not much to say about running this week. I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve been so sick that I couldn’t run, but August 20th was when I last had a cold.

Anyway, my fever broke this morning, but the sore throat is only getting worse. If it continues I may have to go to the doctor. Although I feel weak, I think I might be getting better because I’m thinking about how I would like to get out for a run, though I couldn’t possibly at the moment.

Since my last post, I only did 8 miles on the treadmill Wednesday after the tempo runs. I had to then take the following day off because of a blister on the arch of my foot that just kept getting worse. I’ve had it for almost two weeks now from a small pebble in my shoe when running. Each successive run just made it worse. Yes, I know, not smart.

Back in August I happened to have had a stress test and echocardiogram to rule out any serious causes for a PVC I’ve been experiencing. It turned out to be harmless and I can even get rid of them if I cut out coffee; but I like coffee too much so I tolerate them.

Recently however, I came across a post on a message board from an experienced marathoner who suffered a heart attack after his race. It sort of put things in perspective and I’ve since called the cardiologist to get his opinion on the amount of plaque I have around my heart. He said there was nothing significant and after talking to him a bit, he mentioned he could send me the disc of my echo, which I think is the coolest thing. Well, I received it today and although its not hard to tell what I’m looking at, I have no idea if anything looks good or bad. Nonetheless, I find it quite intriguing.

But, this has now given me something new to wonder about since I’ve discovered my left ventricle measures 4.7cm while the normal range is 1.9cm to 4.0cm. :)

Speaking of mortality, I’ve finished reading Haruki Murakami’s book “What I talk about when I talk about running”. Its quite a bit like a running blog in book form. I enjoyed it, but since I’m comparing it to a type of running blog, I have to admit there are blogs out there I enjoy much more. Nonetheless, this was a good read and offered a lot of insight that other runner’s can relate to, which is the reason runners read other runners’ blogs in the first place.

Out of the themes he focused on, two of them seemed to stick out in my mind the most. The first was how he believed his lifestyle as a writer was toxic for his soul and how he used running as a means to have physical health in order to balance it out. He never elaborated on this as much as I liked, but I found it to be an interesting concept for my own reasons.

The second, which was somewhat prevalent through the book, was the fact that he is aging and his performance declines. He discusses this as a part of life. He simply comes to grips with it and accepts his mortality. This is something I personally fear, but I know it’ll come one day for me as well. If the day I stop improving were to come tomorrow it would be very difficult for me to accept at this point. I just hope when it does come that I’ll be ready.

In there are also a couple of “race reports”, one particular one was his 100K race and how he lost motivation for running for a while afterwards. Since he’s also a writer, he spent a lot of time writing about writing which I cannot relate to since I am not a writer, and therefore, didn’t enjoy as much.

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