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This week was a bit bizarre from a running perspective. My lower legs were really sore on Monday and Tuesday from Sunday’s race, so I didn’t run at all either day. The combination of a paved very hilly course and racing flats was not ideal. My feet and legs took a heavy pounding during the steep downhills. If I race the same course again next year, I’m definitely wearing regular running shoes so I have more cushioning.

Wednesday: I did a FIRSTish speed workout at LA Fitness consisting of 4 x 3/4 mile intervals at a 6:11 pace. This was a repeat of my speed workout from the previous week, and I could definitely see an improved heart rate curve. After the speed workout I played an hour of racquetball with Mark.

Thursday: Ran a mile on the treadmill at home in the morning and rode a stationary bike at LA Fitness or 48 minutes after work.

Friday: After work I did a tempo workout at the gym consisting of a mile warm-up and then 5 miles in 34:43. I felt really, really good for the first mile and a half or so, but then I started getting very warm. The air-flow at LA Fitness is pretty wimpy and the upper deck, where all the aerobic equipment is located, was packed. After the run, I played about 50 minutes of racquetball with Mark and Ryan, which was a blast. Mark was really rocking his serve, but I felt like I had a bunch of really solid returns.

Saturday: I hadn’t made any plans to run with Jon L. on Saturday, but when I woke up in the morning, I sent him a text message to see if I could catch him. He called me back later and we decided to meet up and go for about 10 miles at an easy pace. We ended up going for 12 miles including a few moderate hills (which I had been avoiding for a while, but I knew would be good for me). We had a good time, sometimes chatting a bunch, sometimes running a mile or so in near silence. I know this run wasn’t going to be helping my planned FIRST long run tomorrow, but easy paced long runs with friends are my favorite running activity.

MotionBased (first .4 miles are missing due to having the wrong activity type set in the beginning)

Sunday: When I woke up, I was intending to try and complete a FIRST style long run. My resting heart rate was in the normal range, but I could tell my legs still had some lingering fatigue from the last two days. I checked the weather and saw that it would be about 40 degrees at noon, so I hung around the house until 11:45, and then drove to the Conewago trail.

The goal was 12 miles @ 7:35 minutes/mile (planned half-marathon pace + 30 seconds). I did a minute or so warm up in the parking area, and then hit the main trail. My legs definitely didn’t have as much spring as usual, but I was thrilled to survive the workout at just under the planned pace given all the running in the previous 42 hours.

MotionBased

Overall: While I wish I didn’t cram 90% of my weekly mileage into a 42 hour period, I felt good about the workouts. Being able to complete the scheduled run on Sunday, despite residual fatigue, was a real confidence booster. Hopefully the upcoming week will have a more typical schedule, although I am considering racing a 5k on Saturday morning in Harrisburg.

I spent a bit of time this weekend watching some amazing videos from the TED conference archives. There is a wide range of topics available. I particularly enjoyed:

• Steve Johnson’s presentation on the story of a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the major breakthrough in understanding about how cholera spread and could be stopped.
• David Gallo showing some bio-luminescent deep-sea creatures and mind-blowing examples of camouflage (the best parts are towards the end).
• Alan Russell talks about regenerative medicine, showing some really cool early results.

I also read an interesting NY Times article by Steven Pinker called “The Moral Instinct” that explores how morals differ from other opinions we hold about proper behavior and some questions that help you analyze your own values.

Background

I’ve been running for about a year (~ 1400 miles in 2007) with roughly half my time outside and half on gym or hotel treadmills. I really enjoy the commercial Life Fitness treadmills at my gym, but sometimes it is nice to have one you can just hop on without a 20 minute drive (or this time of year having to wait for one to open up). My wife and I were looking at a few different treadmills, and we liked the main stats of the Bowflex series 7: strong engine, large tread area (20×60), heavy frame, fast enough. For just under $1400 and with no tax or shipping charges, buying it through Amazon seemed like a good move.

Ordering
I ordered the treadmill late Friday night and received a call on Monday from the freight delivery company (ABF, in my case) asking if I would be home on Tuesday for the treadmill to be dropped off. They gave me a 2 hour window of 11am -> 1pm to expect the delivery. Knowing it was a very heavy unit (300 lbs), I asked a friend if he could come over and help me move it into the house and assemble it.

Freight Delivery
The freight company arrived a few minutes before 11:00am the next day. I was a bit surprised that there was only a single guy in the truck. I helped him move the unit on a dolly to the porch, and then we waited a few minutes for my friend and his teenage son to show up. With 4 of us, it wasn’t hard to move the BIG box into the house, but it would have been pretty tough with just two people. Make sure you have a friend or two with some muscles to help.

Assembly
We unpacked the unit and read through the instructions. Overall, the instructions and labeling were pretty clear. There were two small things that could have been improved. There was a difference between the instructions and the names printed on one the blister packs of screws, but it was pretty easy to figure out. Another minor issue that puzzled us for a minute was that the assembly guide indicated a philips head screwdriver was included. The ‘philips head screwdriver’ was actually one of the ends of an included allen wrench. Assembly was a breeze. It took the 3 of us about 30-35 minutes to assemble the pieces (it would have taken about 1/2 the time if we had a 2nd allen wrench and screwdriver of the correct size).

Trying it out
After assembly, I hopped on the treadmill, eventually pushing the speed up to about 9 mph. I was definitely working a lot harder than the treadmill was. The motor felt smooth and wasn’t very loud, although the noise from the foot strikes was a bit loud (to be expected as the speed increases). The running surface had a little bit of a bounce, giving a nice cushioned feel. Having the long belt surface made me feel pretty confident as I was running, knowing I wasn’t in danger of getting near the back edge.

As other reviews have mentioned, the console is pretty weak. The main text display area is only 2 characters! This makes it awkward to read messages as text scrolls by. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t have made it at least 3 or 4 characters, which would have made a big difference. While I don’t care much about the console for my personal use, if you are used to big displays like you see on gym machines, you will be very disappointed in this aspect.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a Polar heart-rate strap came with the package. After putting it on, the HR started showing up on the console within 10 seconds or so.

The fan is also a bit on the weak side. If you get hot while running, I think you are better off putting a “real” portable fan in front of the treadmill.

The handles are pretty short, but they were sturdy enough for me to put my entire body weight.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Pros: large tread size, easy assembly, strong frame, powerful motor, Polar HR compatible, folds up easily and can be rolled around

Cons: console is lame-0, fan isn’t strong

Thanks to Team Silverstein for the moving and assembly help.

Updated:  The official results finally got posted. My final time was 20:49.5, placing 22nd out of 135.

What: Spring Valley 5k (York Winter Series)

Where: Spring Valley Park, New Freedom PA

When: January 6th 200, 2:00 pm

Executive Summary: finished in 20:5X, well marked but really hilly course, $7 entry fee rocks

Full Report:

I could tell it was going to be a well managed race as I was driving towards Spring Valley Park. At about 2 miles outside the park I started encountering arrows marked “runners” that told cars where to go. As I pulled into the race area, volunteers were directing people where to park. I walked up to the registration area, handed over my registration form and $7 (cheapest non-free race I think I’ve entered) and got my bib within about 30 seconds.

I started doing a light warm up about 20 minutes before the race and looked around for anyone I might know and ran into John. We hadn’t met in person, but I was pretty sure I recognized him from his website. I introduced myself, he introduced me to his wife Jamie, and then we did a couple of warm up jogs together in the perfect 50s weather while waiting for the race to start. John mentioned that he had heard it was a pretty hilly course, so I put all thoughts of a new personal record out the window.

Turnout for the race was pretty solid, I’d estimate there were 120 or so people running. We lined up, kind of heard a few last minute annoucements, and were off.

The course goes on a bit of a downhill for the first 1/10th of a mile, then cut a 90 degree turn to the left. This started the first climb, which lasted about .3 miles and had about 80 feet of rise. As we started going up the hill, I was a bit unsure on what appropriate pacing should be. I hadn’t run hills with any intensity in quite a while. I decided to push moderately hard and see how my legs felt. As we crested the hill, we had a very long and steep down hill section. This took us almost 200 feet down in a third of a mile. I was doing my best trying to relax and let gravity do the work, but my feet were definitely making a loud pounding sound. This definitely wasn’t a case of high-efficiency running. We then hit a flat area for a little bit, and had to do a 180 turn around a cone. There was bit of a”single-level cloverleaf” pattern where we had the faster runners running through the stream of slower runners. I think if a few additional cones were used that area could have been made a little bit smoother. I hit the first mile in 6:39 according to my Garmin (probably was a bit long because of all the turns). The next part of the race was mostly rolling hills, with one moderately steep up and down part thrown in. I hit a marked 2 mile sign around 13:45. During some of the uphill parts, I felt like my speed must have been around 9 minute miles. I was actually wondering at one point how much time would be lost walking the steepest parts, but kept chugging away and didn’t give in.

During the last half-mile or so, we ended up doubling back towards the starting area. I was jockeying for (an unknown) position with 2 other runners. I was struggling as we crested the top of the last big hill, and the younger guy passed me by a few feet as we started going down the 1/3 mile hill before the turn towards the finish line. As we ran around the final curve, I could see the finish line and felt the adrenalin pumping. I was able to finish with a strong kick, putting a few seconds on my competitor. I’m always a bit conflicted when I end with a strong finish. It is definitely a nice feeling, but I always wish I had made better use of the energy by dispersing it over the last mile rather than the last 100 yards. Final time was 20:5X.

MB

Overall Thoughts: Reasonably happy with the effort, although it is hard to say how much the elevation changes slowed me down. I definitely need more practice on my technique for running up and down hills. The funny thing is that I mentioned this to Jon Laman during our 10 miler yesterday, but wasn’t planning on getting the practice during a race 28 hours later.

Elevation graph for the race (approx 550 feet of climb and descent)

To partially answer a big question I’ve had over the last year “How much of my reduced speed compared to high-school is a product of an aging body versus a lack of conditioning?” I checked out some information on age-graded performances. The quick answer is that in their mid-30s, most people have the potential (assuming sufficient training) to turn in performances that are pretty close to what they ran in their teens. Now, I’m certainly at an age that is starting on the down-slope for performance potential, but as time goes on, it will be interesting to see the intersection of cumulative training effects versus aging.  I’m guessing that my overall performances, especially at the longer distances, will likely increase for the next 3-5 years if I keep the training up. It was also neat to check out the age-graded performances of my high-school times. Trying to beat my previous performances from an age-graded perspective is a goal I can go after for decades, even if I never match the actual times.

I was really inspired to see some of the records set by people in the 80 years and up categories. Certainly the times weren’t blazing, but if at 80 or 90 years of age you are capable of hauling your butt to a track meet and competing, that is living life!

The NY Times had an interesting article But First, Doctor, What Was Your Marathon Time? about whether to pick a doctor who is also an athlete.

LA Fitness has been super-crowded for the last two nights with all the people kicking off an exercise plan as part of their new year’s resolutions. While I sincerely wish every individual luck in their goals, the more selfish side of me will be happier once the crowding reduces over the next few weeks . The air conditioning was definitely struggling to cool down the upper floor with all the people working out on the aerobic equipment. Running was a miserable experience tonight. I’m really looking forward to Spring when we will have sufficient post-work daylight and nicer weather.

I used to read the forums at coolrunning.com, but since their take over by Active.com, it seems like there has been a fairly large exodus of people and I don’t like the new forum software nearly as much. I have started frequenting the forums at runningahead.com.

I’m doing a very non-FIRST easy 10 miler with a friend on Saturday morning, and then if I’m not feeling too tired on Sunday afternoon, I’ll likely drive to Spring Valley Park and enter the 5k that starts at 2pm. If you are going to be at the race, let me know.

It sounds like most of my friends that have been injured lately are starting to recover. Take it easy guys and welcome back!