Big Sur!

Props to the Big Sur Marathon runners! My brother finished in a time similar to his run last year. At least one K-Star put in an admirable performance for the challenging course.

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Mesocycles

Today's run: Recovery run of 5 miles at 9:02 pace.
47 miles this week. Marathon is 13 weeks from today!

This morning brought a nice, warm, quiet run in the Mission today, featuring one and two-thirds Mission Loops. Almost surprisingly, I felt quite fine putting in the five slow miles after the 17-miler yesterday. It started to feel like it was no big deal to have run my longest run ever the day before, and suddenly it starts to seem like my eventual runs of 20 miles won't be that big a deal either. Okay, so is now the point where I have truly reached insanity?

I spent much of today's run thinking about Recovery, the next week, and the next part of the training plan. This was a Recovery run, and next week is termed a Recovery week (featuring no runs that will seem especially difficult). The logic is the same: use the run (or week) to set yourself right for the coming run (or weeks). So by backing off the intensity and the mileage for a week, I'll be ready for the next mesocycle.

The book I'm following, Advanced Marathoning, describes the mesocycles (sub-sections of the overall training plan) as follows:

• #1– Increasing mileage to improve pure endurance
• #2– Improving lactate threshold (and continue to improve endurance)
  
• #3– Race preparation
• #4– Taper and race the marathon
• #5– Recovery from the marathon

So, after this coming week, I'll start having many more lactate threshold runs, and it stands to be a challenging set of weeks. I'm very glad to have experimented and used the previous set of weeks to give me a good idea as to what pace to shoot for on the lactate threshold runs (especially including last Sunday's race, which really gave me the best guidance). I feel like it will be this cycle that will make the difference between meeting my goal and not doing so.

Food and Water

Today's run: Long Run of 17 miles at 8:32 pace

Another longest run ever! I arrived early for the K-Stars run and put in three miles, timing it (or so I thought) so I would come back to our regular starting point in time to synch up with other (kind) runners who agreed to run 14 miles with me (and waited a couple of minutes as my timing was off).

The weather was perfect: overcast, not cold, not warm. The route was the same as two weeks ago, with the same rewarding, dramatic ocean vista after rising up the hill from the base of the Great Highway. What was new was to be joined by six other runners, to have constant conversation as a result, and to allow the group to fragment towards the end into the right combinations of paces.

I felt pretty good! My legs were certainly tired in the last two miles, and I had to push a bit to get back, but nothing serious. Chris was there to help pace me back.

The other thing that was new: goo.

Kleenex : Tissue Paper :: Gu : Energy Gels

When I was running Cross Country in high school, even in the deadly heat of the San Fernando Valley, I didn't carry water. Maybe we'd find a water fountain along the way, but I don't really remember that. I don't remember drinking before, after, or during any run, at all. I even recall being particularly determined to have an empty stomach before I ran, running in the afternoons (long after lunch) or in the mornings (before any breakfast). Food and running were completely set apart from each other.

More recently, as I bridged the gap between 5 mile and, say 10 or 11 mile runs, I didn't change this practice. Well, at the insistence of my wife, I did start to have a small bit of food in the mornings before morning runs. But nothing during.

In learning about running a marathon, I have come to understand that not only should one drink and eat before and after, but during the race as well. Drinking while running? I tried that once in a 10k and gagged. Eating while running? What is this goo-stuff anyway?

There's a whole section in the book that discusses it, and even describes how to pick up a cup, crush the top of it closed, and drink carefully during the race.

Now I have a water bottle that I carry, and today, I tried my first goo while running. This is all to train myself to be able to do this on the day of the marathon, and I'm using longer runs as the practice ground.Though I won't carry it during the race (since water stations are plentiful), the water bottle is easy, and well designed with a strap (so one doesn't have to grip it in order to carry it) and a top that allows a simple squeeze to dispense the water, so one doesn't need to open it.The goo is another matter entirely. In short, these are small packets of a gel-like substance that delivers about 100 calories and 25 g of carbohydrates, some sodium and a few other things. Delivers them, that is, if you can get them down.

I had selected a particular flavor at the recommendation of a friend who had done her share of running and just loved this one flavor. I found it had the consistency and taste of a toothpaste, and tasted like cola flavored toothpaste. I was grateful to be carrying a water bottle so I could immediately wash the taste down.

Then, there were a few other things to learn: where to hold them on your body (safety pinned, but I put them in the wrong place today), how to open them while running (your teeth), the invariability of getting your hands sticky, and ultimately, how to adapt to doing this so that during the marathon, I can refuel effectively.

Fortunately, I have many more long runs to go, and I can try the various brands and flavors to see which ones I can stomach (literally and figuratively).

Not quite all the way there

Today's run: 11 miles of General Aerobic at 8:32 pace

I came close to running from the office to the Golden Gate Bridge (Fort Point, anyway) today. It felt like it was within striking distance when I had added a half mile to this route:...but I wisely turned back, figuring that the added mile or so would not do me any good, and I'd get there next week or the week after. That's the thing about any out-and-back route: every step forward is one you will have to repeat on the way back.

It was a warm, spring-like day in San Francisco, and fortunately that miraculously translated into a less windy evening (normally, the converse would be true). Very pleasant temperature. I felt a little slow.

I felt even slower when Thomas came upon me at the end of my run, running a couple of blocks to warm up for his tempo run (he hadn't started yet). Thomas is much faster than I am, and I could tell he was holding back to run that slowly with me!

However, I should mention that I spent the first part of my run thinking that the Recovery run did exactly that. Tuesday's run felt bad, Wednesday's run felt sluggish. However, I didn't feel bad on this run, not at all. I didn't really push, even with the wind on my back, and I felt a little tired at the end, but, well, this was eleven miles, after all. Recovered!

Measurement versus "feel"

Today's run: Recovery run of 5 miles

Today's run felt pretty bad. The first mile, my left leg felt like an anchor, and the water bottle I was carrying felt like lead. I didn't reach the point where my heart rate monitor was alerting me until about 3.5 miles in, and only very briefly.

Last Wednesday's run was precisely the same route and length. That run felt pretty good! I noticed a handful of things and was sometimes held back by the heart rate monitor.

Both runs followed a Tuesday General Aerobic run and a Monday softball practice.

Quiz: Which run would you suppose was today's run, based upon the numbers below?

Pace/Average Heart Rate
9:12 / 145 bpm (faster, with a lower heart rate)
9:32 / 150 bpm (slower, with a higher heart rate)

That's right! The first one, 9:12 pace, was today's run. I was going faster, and working not as hard, and it felt like crap.

This is why most scientists prefer to use objective measurements over asking people how they feel. Surveys are often viewed with suspicion on anything behavioral, anything that relies on people's memories or subjective evaluation of things. This is a perfect example, since if one was trying to assess how fast I was going, I would have said I was going faster last week, not today.

• • •

A couple more notes I could have included in yesterday's post:

• More evidence that my Maximum Heart Rate is much higher than 185 bpm: during the period of time when the heart rate monitor strap was still around my chest (in the first couple of miles of Sunday's 10k, when I was holding back), it took a peak reading of 188 bpm.
• If anyone was curious: The winning time in the race was 36:23, and my 15th place finish was in a field of 117 timed runners (16 more "self-timers", whatever that means).

Miscellany

Today's run: 9 miles of General Aerobic at 8:24 pace

Any pretense that Sunday's running didn't kick my ass was long forgotten today, as I felt like these nine miles were remarkably difficult. Part of that was the harsh headwind on Marina Green, along same route I waxed lovingly about last week. I must have turned it up a bit with the tailwind on my way back, since my pace does not reflect my feeling of lethargy.

• • •

I crossed paths with K-Star Monica again.

• • •

The impact of yesterday's softball practice was not as profound as last Tuesday, but it was certainly there. Today, I had lunch with Thomas (and a poor co-worker who was submitted to almost nothing but running talk), who explained that it wasn't actually the glute, but I can't remember what muscle he said it was. Thomas also reminded me that the onset of muscle fatigue can be delayed by a day or so, which explained why I had energy to run around yesterday at softball practice, chasing down flyballs and roaming into the outfield to receive cut-offs, but not today on my 9 mile run.

• • •

I took note of both the South End Rowing Club and the Dolphin Club which are somehow related to the DSE, sponsors of Sunday's race.

• • •

A few post-scripts on Sunday's race:

• Photos! Or, at least one: No Shirt Guy, before I passed White-Shirt Guy
• I came in 15th.
• Senior guy was 62 years old, and finished 14 seconds ahead of me
• Bead-necklace guy was 35 years old, and finished 4 seconds ahead of me
• My actual time was 41:39, not 41:35.

• • •

Tomorrow is a Recovery run. I never thought I'd be grateful for one of those!

Big Day of Running. Big. Lots of running. Wow.

Today's runs: Warm up run of 1.3 miles at 9:48 pace. 10k Race. Cool down run of 7.8 miles at 8:57 pace.
43 miles this week. Marathon is 14 weeks from today!

If you didn't read yesterday's post, you might want to for the context.

Warm Up
I got to the park with just the right amount of time to register, change my mind about short sleeve versus long sleeve (long), stretch, and do a light warm up run. On my way back, I saw the end of the Zippy 5K, which I knew Thomas was running. Man, those guys were going fast! Thomas was in the second bundle of runners, and though I was clapping for all those guys, I didn't get my voice out to call out encouragement specifically to Thomas. He looked very focused and part of me didn't distract him by having him look up to see who was cheering him on.

The 10k Race
The San Francisco Dolphin South End Runners Club puts on small races in various locations around the city just about every weekend. They played gracious hosts to this race at a time and place that suited me well. Thanks, DSE!

I was hoping to finish in 42 minutes, which would represent a personal record (PR) of over 40 seconds for me. This was only my third 10k I've ever run.

We assembled under the overpass of Crossover Drive:
And after a few too many announcements as we cooled off before the start, we were underway!

(I had some trouble getting my stopwatch to start.)

Here is the race route:

If you click and zoom in, you can follow along a little better.

A quick course description: We started in the middle of the map, where the blue line intersects with Crossover Drive. We headed East on JFK drive and did a clockwise loop as shown in blue, taking us past the De Young Museum and around the far side of Stow Lake. We rejoined JFK and turned West, coming back under the overcrossing and then taking the Western loop counter-clockwise, returning via MLK Drive, Middle Drive and Overlook drive.

Race strategy: Go out slower than my overall hoped-for pace, at 7:00 per mile, for the first two miles. Pick it up in the middle of mile three and average 6:40 for the rest. Come in at 42:00.

I had to go by feel, rather than by my watch, once I realized that there were no mile markers on the course (I was distressed by this a bit). I started out at a reasonable pace, trying my best not to push very hard. Quickly, a pack of about 15 runners coalesced ahead of me, but I knew they were probably on pace to finish 5 minutes ahead of me so I resisted my urge to compete and just let them stay there. However, there was one fellow, whom I'll call White-Shirt Guy, who was just ahead of me and behind that pack. I decided to trail him, keeping him about 20 feet in front of me.

A pack of Zippy runners, doing their cool down, headed in our direction, and Thomas was amongst them. He cheered and called out my name. Thanks, Thomas!

At times during the East Loop, I felt like I must have been going too fast. I checked my time on my watch and it showed my heart rate at 182, and I worried that this was too early for me to be working this hard (something like 13 minutes in). Coming around the bottom of that loop, I just worked on trusting White-Shirt Guy's pace, and while that can be a dangerous tactic, it felt like it was working for me. However, at this point, I could feel the heart rate monitor strap starting to slide down. It wound up just above my waist shortly. Moderately distracting.

Back on JFK, heading West, I knew that we'd shortly be facing a long stretch of downhill. I brought White-Shirt Guy in a bit as we caught a sprinkle of rain.And when the downhill came, I decided I needed to work the downhill. We were certainly at the point I wanted to start working harder, and so I took White-Shirt Guy.

(Click to enlarge. The spot in the middle is a raindrop. I'm on the right, with White-Shirt Guy to my left. Also take note of the two runners to White-Shirt Guy's left.)

With White-Shirt Guy behind me, I focused on No-Shirt Guy about 30 feet ahead of me. A couple of minutes went by, with my strides long and the downhill allowing for some speed, and I heard two voices behind me. I resisted the instinct I formed in High School Cross Country races to take a look back (since it just didn't matter at all how I finished relative to other people in this race, but it would in a Cross Country race). In another couple of minutes, the two guys above passed me. I'll call them Bead-Necklace Guy and Senior Guy. They quickly left me behind and caught up to No-Shirt Guy.

Despite my knowledge of the roads on this course, running them just about every weekend, I got fooled, looking ahead and seeing Chain of Lakes Drive and thinking it was where we were to turn. When the three guys ahead of me didn't turn, I realized my mistaken notion and did what I could to maintain my pace for the rest of the downhill. Finally at the turn, we hooked onto Bernice Rodgers Way, then, to the uphill of MLK Drive.

At this point, only No-Shirt Guy was in reach. I worked on keeping him close, slightly surprised I still had the energy to be climbing uphill. I was breathing hard, but I could still summon the legs.

When we turned onto Middle Drive, I mistook it for Overlook Drive and thought we were getting close to the finish. (This was silly: Galen always describes this route as "three hills", and I was clearly on the second one.) Second mental mistake, but again in my favor, since I was able to maintain pace. I pulled No-Shirt Guy in at the start of Middle Drive. He said something to me but I don't know what it was. I left him behind me and started working the uphill hard. When I realized my mistake, I just redoubled my efforts, knowing the end of the race was near. I started to think about all the hill training, the cross country home course that was nothing but hills, the hills I ran on where I grew up, the hills around my home I ran on, and the fact that I had been up these hills many times before. I own this! This course is made for me! I thought.

At Overlook Drive, I saw Bead-Necklace Guy and tried to drag him in, mostly just closing the gap a bit. I pushed and knew the race was near the end. I saw the finish line, and the clock. Someone was walking past it, but I saw that it said 41:xx. 41 minutes? The clock came into focus and the guy at the finish line called out 41:35 as I crossed, saying "nice finish!".

41:35! 25 seconds ahead of my goal for the race. A PR by over a minute! I'm so pleased!

The Cool Down
I had to put the cool down out of my head completely for running this race. I just couldn't think about running more than the distance I had covered in the race after the effort I was going to (and wanted to) put in. So after a little sports drink, a little water, a cookie, a kiss for my wife (who was a champion, dragging herself out of bed and taking these pictures!), and retrieving my water bottle from my car, I headed out for nearly 8 miles more.The route to the edge of the park feels much shorter when you start where I did!

Along the Great Highway, I had a few really nice moments taking in the ocean view. I reached my turnaround point and headed back, having maintained a moderate heart rate (150 bpm) and felt like I was keeping it slow.

However, at many points in the last 2 or 3 miles, my legs were certainly tired and I felt like I could just stop. I didn't, though. I started to think about the race again, and darn it if I didn't speed up. I slowed down again, and I put the steps together to make it back to my car. Exhausted, I drove home.

My champion wife was waiting for me, having a delicious hot breakfast ready when I got there. She's the best.

Ice and Advil, here I come!

Thinking about tomorrow

Today's run: Recovery run of 4 miles at 9:27 pace.

As I'll go into below, I didn't do a usual long run with the group today. It was a Mission Loop plus a mile. Since I didn't run yesterday, it felt a little odd. Within a mile, my body felt fine and was raring to go, and if not for the heart rate monitor, I'd have gone much, much faster. It was a nice, warm day, and the Mission was pretty calm. I missed running with the K-Stars, but it would have made too much of a production for just a 4 mile run.

The most notable part about it was that I took a short break to help turn a guy in a minivan around (he was looking for Hayes Street and he was heading South on Harrison at 22nd).

Mostly, I was feeling slightly caged, and thinking about tomorrow's running.

• • •

Tomorrow is completely insane, and I am a little nervous about it. I am taking the suggestions of Mike, Galen and Thomas to run a race in this early stage of preparation to benchmark my performance against and help me understand my Lactate Threshold pace.

So here's what my plan was for the next several days:

• Saturday: 15 mile Medium-Long Run with the K-Stars
• Sunday: 4 mile Recovery run
• Monday: Softball practice
• Tuesday: 9 miles of General Aerobic with 4 miles at Lactate Threshold pace.

Instead, this is what I'm doing:

• Saturday: 4 mile Recovery run
• Sunday: 1.5 mile warm up, 10k race, and 7.5 mile cool down. (15 miles in total.)
• Monday: Softball practice
• Tuesday: 9 miles of General Aerobic.

I guess I'm a little freaked about it because I have dinner plans tonight (which could involve a good bit of wine), I've never paced myself particularly well on a 10k (and this won't be worth it if I blast out too fast or too slow), and I have a bit of a notion that I'll feel pretty dead afterwards and not feel like doing the 7.5 mile cool down.

Tune in tomorrow!

The amazement of covering just 5 miles of San Francisco

Thursday's run: 10 miles of General Aerobic at 8:21 pace

I realized on my way back from a 5 miles out (and 5 miles back) run from the office that San Francisco is truly an incredible place. In just 5 miles, you can see a lot. And at the far end of yesterday's run, I saw this:


Well, not exactly like this picture, which I took mid-day in Fall. But it is a great thing, that bridge, and to approach it on foot is an amazing visual reward. It looked a bit more romantic today, largely in shadow as the evening sun retreated to the West. I was also facing a hard wind for the previous two miles, so maybe I was a little delirious. On my way back, right about when I reached Fisherman's Warf again, I realized just how great a place this is. The run had a variety of distinctly different regions, each with a different feel. Here's the route:

click to enlarge

• Downtown Office Canyons: from Howard Street to the Embarcadero, it's basically tall buildings on either side. Running those blocks is sort of annoying because of the narrow sidewalks and the stoplights, and visibility is limited by the buildings.
  
• The Embarcadero: which features views of the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island, the newly redone Ferry Building, and lots of pedestrians, cyclists and other runners. Running there is pleasant: the wide road and sidewalks provide an open feel, and there's always something to see or notice.
  
• Pier 39 / Fisherman's Warf: a.k.a. tourist central. On the Pier 39 side, there are wide sidewalks and tons of hawkers and gawkers. Yesterday there were two men painted in silver performing for the crowd. On the Warf side, particularly on Jefferson Street, it is lots of restaurants, trinket shops, and crowded, narrow sidewalks. Particularly on the way back through this gauntlet of congestion, I felt the contrasts of the different areas I was running through.
  
• Aquatic Park & Fort Mason: while adjacent to the hub-bub, a completely different feel. Tranquil, despite some walkers, cyclists, and yesterday, swimmers (in wetsuits). There was even a party on the deck above at the Maritime Park Museum. Running past is all too brief, as is the short hill up through Fort Mason. Back down the hill to the street and in a moment, it is the:
  
• Marina Green: here's where the wind started blasting me in the face. Very open feeling, as the Green is wide, there are sailboats in the docks, and on the way back, I caught a clear view of Alcatraz, lit up by the evening sun.
  
• Crissy Field: still fighting the wind, it was hard to do anything except admire the bridge. There's a marsh, and a beach, and a field, and it is even more tranquil than the Green. If I had been going longer than 10 miles, I could have reached the bridge! (What a diverse path to get there.) On my way back, I noticed the top of the dome of the Palace of Fine Arts (which houses the Exploritorium). I also crossed paths with Thomas, who was running into the wind. I wonder how many miles he was covering yesterday.
  

All that in just one run!

Though I was tired afterwards, the run felt good, especially after I had the wind on my back instead of in my face. I felt like this was a pretty good pace: not too fast, not too slow. Glad to be learning to slow down. Of course, I'm sure it helps to slow me down that I put in 13 miles across the previous two days.

A few things of note

Today's run: Recovery run of 5 miles at 9:32 pace.

A few notes today:
• • •
Just a quick clarification about yesterday's post. I declared it "adding to the insanity" to have softball in addition to this. I think that's because now that the running schedule has me running 5 days a week, softball makes 6 days a week of some sort of scheduled athletic activity in addition to whatever else I do in my life. A bit insane, don'tcha think?
• • •
The softball-sized bundle of nerves in my left glute was less painful today. My experience is that as softball season gets into a few weeks, my body will complain less about the strange muscles used to play ball. Today's run was nice and easy, and pleasantly warm.
• • •
Today's route was 1 and 2/3 Mission Loops. Just a refresher, I list things I saw on various runs because, in running slower than I otherwise would, it is something to stave off boredom (and insanity, if I am still sane). Saying that, here's my top five sightings in the Mission from today's nice warm run:

1. Vista Point Gallery is a business I keep passing by on Florida Street. It is hard not to notice the photography on display, because it looks like this:
2. I realized today that La Palma Mexica-Tessen is called such not just because of the palm tree in the logo, but also because of the palm tree in on 24th Street right in front of the place. Duh.
3. An old school bus, painted, including a palm tree, with the words "Eat good fats!" boldy on the side, is apparently an advertisement for a line of organic foods.
4. I saw a slim, red-headed gal walking brisky and talking on her cell phone. When we crossed paths, I realized that she was crying. Sobbing, really. Sobbing into her cell phone, and walking briskly.
5. I knew it. I was thinking on Sunday that I should have gone out and taken a picture of the overhead connector that was in the midst of being dismantled, because today that connector is gone. If you look closely at the image in the link, you can see a diagonal line crossing the street. That was an overhead connector, now gone. In fact, I'm quite sure it hasn't been used in quite some time, because on one side, the hole where the connector used to connect is bricked in with cinder blocks. I'll try to head out this weekend to snap some pictures of it.

Tomorrow will be a 10 miler, probably back along the Embarcadero out towards Crissy Field...

Pain in the tuchus

Tuesday's run: 8 miles of General Aerobic at 7:50 pace, including 10 x 100m strides.

When I stand waiting for the pitch, I rest all my weight on my right leg. I seek to transfer my weight forward while I swing at the ball, and hence a fair bit of momentum is caught by the ball if my aim is true, but another fair bit is stopped by my left leg as it lands, stepping forward.

Joining this insanity is softball season. We held a practice Monday, and I swung at 15 pitches and hit about 50 fungo ground balls for infield practice. I guess, according to what I just linked, there must be another word for it, but I don't know what that word would be. But the point here is all that swinging of the bat and landing on my left leg sent energy to the top of my leg, or, my tuchus.

When I set out for my run today, that spot seemed to have a softball of its own inside it, and it bounced, painfully, with every step.

Aside from that, it was a surprisingly fast run. Surprising because I didn't realize I was running that fast, as it felt pretty relaxed and easy-going. It was easy-going enough for me to take in the sights of the route:

• A tourist family who had discovered the hard way that a sunny afternoon in San Francisco can turn into a cold-windy afternoon in San Francisco, wearing matching and presumably brand new San Francisco souvenir sweatshirts.
• A two-fifty guy driving a pristine Mustang Convertible, black, with a broad red stripe, wearing a Barry Bonds Giants jersey.
• A runner whom I recognized! K-Star track all-star, Monica. She reminded me that 8 miles isn't "just 8 miles".
• A late-twentyish couple enjoying the view of Treasure Island from the Embarcadero, smoking cigars. The gal of the couple had some distinguishing features.

The strides were lighter this time around. After the comments the last time, I just ran at a fast pace that would still fit in to, say, a 10K pace. I watched my form carefully, but I honestly don't know when my form breaks. My arms move a bit higher, my strides seem a bit longer, but I'm not going breakneck speed.

It was a beautiful day. Short sleeve shirt for the first time in a while!

Just to shake things out a bit

Today's run: Recovery run of 4 miles at 9:47 pace.
41 miles this week. Marathon is 15 weeks from today!

The rain let up just as I started my run, so at least it was dry. Despite the flat course (same as Wednesday's), I ran quite slow (at the same heart rate).

I'm guessing it was because this was a big week: the jump up to 5 days instead of four, cresting 40 miles in a week for the first time, my first Lactate Threshold run, and another longest-run-ever. Perhaps that put some tiredness into me and accounts for the 0:50 slower pace I took.

I also have begun to realize that I'm in a bit of a calorie deficit after yesterday's run, as I can't seem to eat enough. I need to modify my diet and find healthy ways to seriously increase my caloric intake. Ideas, anyone?

One scenic note: the overhead connectors I mentioned in a previous post appear to be non-functional, and on their way to being either replaced are removed. I might capture a picture of what I saw today: one of the two connectors is now just a frame, and the entrances from the buildings appear boarded up.

Despite the mist, a great long run

Today's run: Medium-Long Run of 14 miles at 8:45 pace.

Today's run was great. There were several reasons:

1. Cool temperature with only the lightest rain
2. Great route with a rewarding vista
3. Excellent company willing to keep it slow
4. Excellent result: the pace I was hoping to keep it to
5. Longest run ever!

Cool temperature with only the lightest rain
The rain held off, and for most of the run, there was at most a light mist in the air. This resulted in a nice, cool temperature, decent surfaces to run on, and, depsite being soaked at the end, not the sensation of bone-soaking I experienced twice earlier in the week. You know it has been really wet when you are optimistic after a run where it rained only a little.

Great route with a rewarding vista
The variation on last week's route was to run around the South end of the Zoo and to add a few turns here and there in the park. The reward: coming up the hill from Skyline to the Great Highway, at the crest, the Pacific completely opens up to you. With the marine layer overhead and the lack of glare, it was stunning. For much of the Great Highway, you can't see as much of the ocean as you might think, but from the South end of the Great Highway, you see the entire sweep of Ocean Beach, all the way up to the Cliff House.

Excellent company willing to keep it slow
Clearly, the best thing about the K-Stars is the people. What results from a Saturday morning group of runners of just the right size is that most people can find other people to share the distance and pace you want to go. I was sort of surprised that, in addition to Galen, with whom I had been discussing the 14 mile route during the week, both Mike and Danielle decided to join us as well. All three of them had participated in last weekend's insanity (Mike's team placed second overall and first in its division), so they were all willing to take it easy and go at a very managed pace, and it was great fun to chat about various topics (running and non-running related) while persisting across the distance.

Excellent result: the pace I was hoping to keep it to
One is supposed to run their long runs 90 to 120 seconds slower than their goal pace, and I have, until today, always felt like I was going with the group and finding a pace a bit faster than I "should" be running. This pace felt just right: easy enough through most of it, slightly pushing towards the last couple of miles.

Longest run ever!
About once a week until late May, I will be running my longest runs ever. Today exceeded last week by a mile in distance and 14 minutes in time (both factors being important steps). Remarkably, though my legs were clearly tired at the end, I was feeling euphoric at the post-run brunch.

Starts to sound completely insane when you say, yeah, I ran 14 miles today and I felt euphoric afterwards. Really.

A beautiful day for a run!

Today's run: Medium-Long Run of 10.7 miles at 8:46 pace.

I lucked out today. I took today off from work for a variety of reasons, and my reward was sunshine and a mid-day run in the park. With yesterday being the first time in the schedule that I run three days in a row (bumping up from 4 runs per week to 5), I wanted to make sure I took this run a little easier than I had been for my Medium-Long Runs. Thankfully, I have figured out some decent heart ranges for that, and I was able to stay in range for 94% of the run, averaging 161 bpm.


My route was one introduced to me by Amy, a great gal who helped me bridge the gap from when my longest runs were 8 miles or so to where I could do 11 or 12 miles. It was good slice of time last summer that helped me feel comfortable joining the K-Stars for Saturday runs for more than one reason:

1. When I first heard of the 9am K-Star runs, I thought 9am was way too early for me. Amy, however, liked to meet at 8am, so I started to realize the benefit of getting the long run done with and having the rest of the day available.
   
2. A typical K-Star run can be 10 miles.

A few great things about Golden Gate Park:

• American Bison. They were out in the sunshine and grazing in the paddock. I saw nine of them. Big, furry creatures.
• The views of Ocean Beach as you run up the Great Highway. Always a nice reminder that we live not only by the Bay, but by the ocean as well.
  
• The completely re-done De Young Museum is something you don't expect to see rising out of the trees.

My pace was fine, and the run felt okay. I was trying out a new water bottle (never having run with water, ever, before) and it was defective, leaking more on to my shirt than I got to drink. That aside, there were points in the run when I struggled, and times when I wondered if the dull, light pain in my quads was just the result of adding milage and starting to build strength in my legs.

The marathon is a long way away.

Another wet one.

Wednesday's run: Recovery run of 4 miles at 8:53 pace.

Let's set aside the fact that the moment I started was the moment rain started to fall today, and that I neglected to bring a hat (my hat from Tuesday was still soaked), and that even in a 36 minute run, I got soaked to the core of my being, with rain dripping down my face the whole way.

Setting that wet wet wet my lord there was so much rain rain rain so wet so wet wet wet soaked wet wet rain rain I am so sick of it rain wet wet wet rain rain rain aside...

It was a nice, easy run. I think I have set the right heart rate zone for this, as at that pace of nearly 9 minutes per mile, I feel comfortable. Any time I started to shift the pace up a bit, I'd get reminded to keep it slow, and it resulted in a nice and easy run.

For those keeping track of my routes: this was one Mission Loop with a mile tacked on.

I'm wet! I'm hysterical, and I'm wet!

Tuesday's run: 4 miles of General Aerobic at 7:57 pace and a Lactate Threshold run of 4.2 miles at 7:22 pace.

It rained all day.

I worked downtown, so I took the same route as last Tuesday, just heading out a handful of additional blocks along the Marina Green to get in the appropriate distance.

I started out in the rain, but it was a light rain. I had left the heart rate zones a bit loose, but in retrospect I would have liked to have gone slower on the way out. I got to the 4 mile mark and re-set the heart rate zones, then picked up the pace. As soon as I turned around to head back, however, I was confronted by winds that you would not believe unless you had experience facing them yourself. As I mentioned in my last post, I was trying for a pace of 7:15. I came in at 7:22, and I knew it most of the way. Can a 15 mph headwind slow you down 2%? I think so. I know I was working hard the whole way back, feeling relief (and speed gain) whenever the wind let up. The one thing I had in my mind was Thomas' description of how the Lactate Threshold runs were hard runs. This may not have been the most scientific way to figure it out, but it was certainly hard.

Oh, and did I mention? I was soaked at the end of the run. Absolutely soaked.

I averaged 174 bpm with a max of 181 for the run, but was never so out of breath that I couldn't have pushed harder. This confirms to me my suspicions that my previously recorded Max HR of 185 is not correct, since that would have made this run more of a VO2 Max run, which I shouldn't be able to do over four miles. Right?

The Lactate Threshold

Tuesday I'm supposed to do a Lactate Threshold run, with 4 miles of warm-up and then 4 miles at Half-Marathon Race Pace.

I've decided that I'll try to use some cross between an estimated heart rate and an estimated pace, and see how that goes, though I'm a little concerned about getting this right.

There are several ways to "determine" Lactate Threshold:

1. Half-Marathon Race Pace
2. Heart Rate General Guideline of 80%-90% of Maximum Heart Rate
3. Heart Rate Deflection Point
4. Laboratory Test

Half-Marathon Race Pace:
I've never raced a half-marathon. There are some guidelines and formulas that take your 10K time and convert it to half-marathon time, such as this calculator from Runner's World. For the mathematically inclined: T2 = T1 x (D2/D1)^1.06, where T1 is the given time, D1 is the given distance, D2 is the distance to predict a time for, and T2 is the calculated time for D2. Based on the last 10K I did, it suggests a pace of 7:15.

Heart Rate General Guideline:
Based upon the ranges in the book and what I've determined about my Maximum Heart Rate, I might expect my Lactate Threshold to happen somewhere between 148 and 167 bpm. I've had quite a few longer runs at 8:00 or less averaging higher than that range, though, so one would think I'd need to go slower than 8:00 to be at LT pace, by this method.

Heart Rate Deflection Point:
Based upon the data in last Thursday's experiment, LT pace would happen at 158 bpm and a pace of 8:24.

Laboratory Test:
This is where I would get on a treadmill, gradually increasing speed, and having them sample my blood every so often to determine when lactate actually does begin to accumulate in my blood. Okay, I'm not that insane, yet.

Informal comments from people and my own recent running experiences are leading me to dismiss the estimates that have me going much slower than 7:30, since I know I can run 10 miles at that pace without racing, and having done 12 miles at 8:03 the previous Saturday, again, without it being a race and me even trying to keep it nice and easy. If lacate is starting to accumulate in my blood at those paces, wouldn't I feel something? Thomas suggested that these runs should be at a pace where if I raced the half-marathon at that pace, I'd be totally spent. That just doesn't sound like 8:00 to me.

So I've decided to do two things:

1. Guess at a heart rate range that will keep me on pace (160 to 181)
   
2. Try to do those four miles tomorrow at around 7:15 pace.

This feels more like guesswork, but I know I can do all 8 of tomorrow's miles at 7:30 without pushing hard, so what's the point in doing a hard run that's not all that hard? That would be looney.

Tangentially related:
Hey, so, my brother is training for the Big Sur Marathon and he did his last long run this weekend. I liked the picture of my route from Saturday, so I thought I'd show his 22 mile LA route (from Woodland Hills to Santa Monica!). Here it is.

Recovery... from... the... long... run...

Today's run: Recovery run of 5 miles at 8:52 pace.
36 miles this week. Marathon is 16 weeks from today!

The purpose of a Recovery run is to set the body right for the next run, primarily before or after (or both) a hard run. Yesterday's run certainly qualified as needing recovery from, since later that day I was pretty tired and definitely felt a bit draggy this morning. From the book:

Recovery runs are relatively short runs done at a relaxed pace to enhance recovery for your next hard workout. These runs aren't necessarily jogs, but they should be noticeably slower than your other workouts of the week.
- Advanced Marathoning

Before this kind of training, a 5 mile run to me started at my house, involved some hills, was run at a demanding pace, and felt like a hard workout. Today, I ran 5 miles in a completely different manner: slowly, leashed by the heart rate monitor, and looking for things to occupy my mind. I took the Mission Loops route again, and zeroed in on a couple of things:

1. The building with the painted indicator of the occupants: Felix F. Schoenstein & Son's Pipe Organs, Established 1877. Art Nouveau-like font, painted in large letters across the facade of the two-story building. Apparently, they are still in business, though Schoenstein and Sons are long gone.
2. The interconnection between the buildings on either side of Florida Street, shown below (courtesy of Google Earth), are two seperate enclosed bridges, coming from one building and connecting it to two different buildings two or three stories overhead. The picture doesn't make clear that the bridges, though eminating from the same area and following the same path, are 100% apart from each other from the moment they exit the building. (My thought is that they could have shared the same path until the two segments diverge, but no!) At some point, I'll have to figure out why they are connected.

The run felt pretty good, and I'm feeling good that I finished this week of training. Next week I'll hit 40 miles, and it features my first Lactate Threshold run, another longest-run-ever, and has me running on five days instead of four.

Visiting the Zoo, sort of

Today's run: Medium-Long Run of 13 miles at 8:17 pace. (A little too fast.)

Today was a really nice run. The K-Star crowd was a little smaller on account of some certain insanity. Mike, Galen, Danielle, Laura and perhaps a few others are doing The Relay at this very moment. Seriously, if you click on one link, this is the link to click on here. This involves 199 miles and a van. Still, they claim it is less insane than a marathon. My heart is with them.

I think my affection for the K-Stars grows each week. It was really nice to arrive to friendly hellos, people asking me about how my April Fool's Day prank on my wife turned out last Saturday, friendly jabbing at my inability to judge my own pace and compulsiveness about wanting to know pretty precisely how far I'm running... It's a great group, and that's not even mentioning all the help Mike, Galen and others have provided.

That said, I stepped up to the longest run of my life today (but only by a half-mile or so). The route starts off the same as last week, but at Sloat Ave. on the Great Highway, we turned left and ran down to the tip of Lake Merced, then back up Sunset Blvd. This puts us in close proximity to the Northern border of the San Francisco Zoo, and on a clear day that started to turn a little warmer in the midst of all this rain rain rain rain rain rain rain, I was surprised to see fewer people approaching the Zoo. This Zoo is not reputed to be the best in the Bay Area (Oakland's is), but it carries a few nice memories. The first time my niece came to visit, we all went to the Zoo (it was a cold day). She's three now.


Brent with his niece at the Zoo!

The run was pretty good. Jacob, a K-Star who usually runs well ahead of the group, decided to stick with me. I could tell, just about every step of the way, he was holding back, so it felt like an especially nice kindness to stick with me for the long run.

It was a good day.

10 dull miles of General Aerobic, plus an experiment

Thursday's run: 10 miles of General Aerobic at 8:46 pace, controlled for data.

Thursday morning, I took the same route as in last Thursday's run, with only a few new observations about these blocks in the Mission:

• The day-laborers, instead of congregating on Cesar Chavez, now congregate one block north.
• I took note of the Theater Artaud, where I had seen a performance/reading from Daniel Handler's Adverbs.
• Next door is the Traveling Jewish Theater with a sign so permanent, I spent a few blocks wondering how traveling it was.

What had me more distracted was the experiment, or data collection, that Mike had me do in order to help understand what heart rate ranges I should be in on my various runs. (Read this post and this post if you need background on heart rate monitoring). The protocol was this:

• 1 mile warm-up
• 3 miles with a target heart rate of 145 bpm
• 3 miles with a target at 155 bpm
• 3 miles with a target at 165 bpm

The trouble with me seeking to run near an average heart rate is that I can't do it very well. It's like having a car with an outrageously sensitive accelerator, so you accelerate and brake, accelerate and brake, all in an attempt to keep a consistent speed. Instead, you accelerate and overshoot, break and overshoot, and keep going back and forth until you hit the middle. Then a hill comes along and the same thing happens.

I did use fairly narrow limits on the heart rate monitor so my heart rate didn't go too far from the target. At 145, I was barely putting one foot in front of the other at times to keep the heart rate low. At 155, I was moving faster, but still had to slow down quite a few times to keep the heart rate in range. After those two segments, with seven miles logged already, I was astonished at how fresh I felt. At 165, I was feeling like I was actually running, but still topping out above 168 a few times.

The results were modeled by Mike:

(Click to enlarge)

Qualitatively, this doesn't feel right. The point where the two lines cross is the deflection point that Mike discussed in his comments a few days ago. That deflection point suggests that at 158 bpm, I'm in Lactate Threshold Land.

This suggests that 90% of the running I did before I started with the heart rate monitor was in the LT category, or even faster. It also suggests that my goal pace should be slower than I currently think it is, which is counter-intuitive with the other methods that could be used to estimate the proper goal pace.

So I plan to keep at it, trying to figure this out with more data points and other techniques. My deciding to do a marathon is insane enough, and trying to do it via these advanced techniques, worrying about heart rate, is driving me crazier than I already am. Or not.

Let the Sunshine in!

Tuesday's run: 8 miles of General Aerobic at 8:05 pace, including 10 x 100m strides.

With great fortune, the sun came out in the afternoon and I got to run in daylight without rain. Yay!

I felt a little sluggish today. My pace indicates that, but only slightly. I decided to only lightly harness myself with the heart rate monitor, and it really only kicked in on the Fort Mason hill. Various possible causes for the slow-down (less sleep last night, strong winds, added hill, legs a little sore from Saturday...?)

Today was the daylight savings time Embarcadero route, like the start of the marathon. The main reason I avoid it when running at night is that Jefferson Street is the heart of the tourist dive of Fisherman's Warf, and I end up weaving into the street when the sidewalks aren't clear.

I do like this route, however. It goes past Aquatic Park, a place of romantic significance to my wife and me. And it leads to the Marina Green which breaks things up.

Today I took note of the kitch on Jefferson Street, the kind of things I was drawn to as a kid when we visited San Francisco. I scanned the street in vain for Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, but it was all too easy to notice the Hooters and In-N-Out Burger right next to each other. (No, I won't link to Hooters!)

One thing about any heavily populated area: insane people. There was a fellow ranting about something. All I picked up was this:

"It's easy to buy all that crap that they're selling you on Entertainment Tonight!"

The 100m strides at the end actually wore on me a bit. On the one hand, the feeling was glorious. I don't know if any of the speed-work I did in high school included 100 meter sprints, and there's something fantastic about just getting the arms pumping and the strides open and flying like that. I love playing softball for that reason, but the bases are too close together to get that kind of momentum going.

On the other hand, after about the sixth repeat, I was remembering what I felt like in the middle of the high school track workouts: "I need to do this how many more times?"

Running in the rain - feh.

I'll be running in the rain
Just running in the rain,
What a percipitous feeling,
That I'll be soaked to the bone.
My shoes will go squish,
So much water in my socks,
My shirt's adding three pounds
And I´m ready for a shower.

Let the stormy clouds chase.
Themselves from this place,
Get on with the rain
I have sweat rolling down my face.
I´ll run down the lane
With a water-logged refrain
Just running, running in the rain.

Running in the rain.

I'm water-logged again.

I'm running and sweating in the rain.

Sprinting and running in the rain.

Forecast for this afternoon is rather dreary. Looks like I'll be running in the rain. Thing is, if I take today off, then that's two off-days in a row and I'd have to miss an off day on Monday -- it'll just mess up this crazy schedule. And I think my best strategy towards not getting injured on this ambitious schedule is to stick to it.

I don't actually mind it so much once I get going, and if I have a shower waiting for me when I return. But today I won't. I'll just be wet for a while. Feh.

Hand on my Heart (rate monitor)

Today's run: Recovery run of 4.2 miles at 9:55 pace.
Marathon is 17 weeks from today!

(Previous post on this topic.) One of the reasons I decided to use a heart rate monitor was that the schedule from the book is rather daunting. I've been a 22-27 mile a week guy for most of the past year, with a brief spot up at 30 (at which point I injured my knee from overuse – another story for another day), so a schedule that peaks at 55 miles and sometimes has you do race a 10K on one day and then a 17 mile run the next day, seemed rather insane. Here's a graph of the schedule, daily runs in miles:



It just seemed I needed to take the advice about pacing seriously, lest I overdo it.

So having decided to use the heart rate monitor as a means for managing the pace, I sought advice from the web and the K-Stars mailing list. I got particularly helpful information from Jacob and Mike.

I bought one. Tried it out on the Scenic 11 run with the K-Stars. The Scenic 11 includes, as Galen puts it, "three hills". At some point after we run up from the park past the Cliff House, after leveling off and heading onto the trails, the monitor showed 185 bpm. That was the maximum, and the average for the run was 168.

I tried to establish my maximum heart rate (HR Max) with the method in the book, which is to warm up fully, then do 3 x 600m up a moderate hill, all out. Maybe I picked too rough a hill. I thought I'd die halfway up the third one. The maximum rate recorded was also 185 bpm.

Now, I was rather skeptical that my Max HR was actually 185. See, 185 is the average HR Max for someone my age, so I thought there was some sort of forcing function in the watch (I had input my birthdate, so it knows how to calculate the typical HR Max). Plus, I did not feel like I was going that hard at any point on the Scenic 11 run. So when I was ready to drop a lung at 185 and I was not going hard at 185 the previous day, I thought there might be an issue.

Then there's the matter of probability. Sure, the probability of having the average HR Max is higher than any other single value, but the probability of having exactly the average HR Max is not that high.

Note: this is just a normal distribution, not an actual graph of people's HR Max.

See how the bar marked "5" lines up with 25%? That's the probability of hitting the average on the head. This means that there's a 75% chance that it is some other value, like 184, 183, 182, 186, 187, or 188. So color me surprised.

This results in the following run-type chart for me:

Type	Min HR	Max HR
VO2 Max	174	181
Lactate Threshold	148	167
Medium-Long or Long Run	135	154
Recovery		139

On that Scenic 11 run, where I didn't feel that strong, where I didn't feel like I was running all that hard, I was averaging just above my range for the Lactate Threshold run. This suggests that I was doing more harm than good!

Subsequent conversations with Thomas (lunch on Friday) and Mike (brunch Saturday) leave me still unclear on:

• Is 185 really my HR Max?
• Should I rely on the ranges in the book to control my pace, even when, as in Thursday's run, it winds up too slow?
• What goal should I really be setting for myself if I can do a 12 mile run without constantly pushing at 8:03, as I did yesterday?
• What is my true Lactate Threshold pace if I'm at 92% of HR Max in yesterday's run?
• Finally, should I just focus on learning pacing instead of relying on the bleeping beeping watch?
  

Another hypothesis is that this whole thing is just insane.

---

Today's run was an easy going jaunt, completely leashed by the heart rate monitor to make darn certain I keep the effort light and easy. I ran a simple route near my house which involved some hills. Uphill, out of heart rate range. Downhill, in range quite easily. Maybe if I had walked the uphills I would have stayed in range. Ended up averaging 140bpm, just above what should have been the max. With the nearly 10 minute per mile pace, it just didn't feel much like running.

I do hope that light-effort run was useful to tune my legs, which felt a bit sore after yesterday's effort. Tomorrow is an off day, and I might not post. 17 weeks to the marathon, lots left to figure out.

The Glory of Daylight Savings and April Fools

Today's run: Medium-Long Run of 12 miles at 8:03 pace. (Too fast.)

I cannot tell you how glad I am that tonight we set the clocks forward and start having more daylight in the latter part of the day. It just makes my world happier.

Plus, this means I can run later in the day without the complications of darkness: wearing reflective gear, being more concerned about routes, etc.

Since this is April Fool's, I thought I'd also let you in on a little insanity for the day: I played a trick on my wife today. The neat thing about April 1 showing up the day before Daylight Savings time begins is that it opens the door to the following trick. Last night, she went to bed a bit before I did, and I went around and set all the clocks forward in the house ...and in her car ...and her watches. I even faked oversleeping for my morning running group to keep the charade up. She wound up meeting her mother an hour earlier than planned, and spent a half-our in disbelief. April Fool's!

Today's run was a K-Stars' Golden Gate Park special. I have come to really love running in the park, and the K-Stars are a great group of people to run with. Here's a diagram of today's route, except we extended it a mile past Noriega (to Sloat) to make it a bit over 12.


Before each Saturday run, we circle up and go around and say what run and pace we are going. I was surprised to be the first to announce a longer run, and honored to find four more K-Stars agree to go that distance as well. Stalwart K-Stars Galen, Chris and Meredith even tried to keep their pace moderate to run with me. Thanks!

However, we still went faster than I should be going. I spent some time discussing this with Mike while we brunched at Crepes on Cole (the K-Star post-run tradition). The traditional wisdom is that one should do longer runs at a slower pace, much slower than goal. If this were the recommended 15% slower than goal, then the goal pace for me would be 6:51 (a sub 3-hour marathon). If only 10% slower (still a bit fast), then goal pace would be 7:15 (a 3:09:00 marathon). Neither of these seem like realistic goals for a first marathon. Instead, we can safely conclude that I need to slow it down.

That's where the heart rate monitor is supposed to help. Sure enough, it was beeping the whole run through, but I just ignored it so I could stay with the group. I spent 92% of the run outside of the range the monitor was trying to keep me in, averaging 170 bpm for the run instead of the recommended 155 or so.

More about the heart rate monitor tomorrow, with the first Recovery run.