On the road again . . .

Hmmm, could the fact that I weighed 8 lbs. (not a typo) more after my vacation on Maui than I did before have anything to do with feeling like these runs were a bit harder Maybe it wasn't just the higher temp.

My gosh...that roast is gorgeous!! And the pie looks awesome!

I'm glad to hear that your running is coming along well and that you aren't having any pain in your hip. I DOES take a while to come back, that's for sure. And our age doesn't make it any easier....

Nice to see you back running Tom, I had to take 2 months off for medical issues too, it isn't fun at first but I really did miss it. By the way, I was up 10 lbs and it took me about a month to lose it, which I was shocked, and yes it makes your first few runs tough. Good luck in your recovery.

Also, that meal looks AWESOME!! You are quite the cook, sir.

Don't discount the sun and temperature in that last run, Tom. They can make a huge difference in effort level.

I think some base-building using low heart rate training would be a great idea. It helped a lot when you were getting ready for Eugene, and I bet it'd help you now.

That was some amazing looking roast! Did it taste as good as it looked?

Mark, no question the direct sun and higher temps were the biggest factor. Today the temps dropped and I was able to go out early in a nice cool 61 degree cloudy environment. Nice.

Now, remember back in high school when you went to the beach/park/trails with your buddies and one of them would say something like "Hey look, I scored a six-pack of beer. You want one?" Of course you wanted one, peer pressure is a powerful force. I think Mark, you have that same impact on me in a lot of my running, but for the better. After reading more of your blog and thinking about how I'm enjoying running now, I see some similarities. But like you, I also like to be able to sometimes quantify the experience to get a stake in the ground. So today I decided to do a LHR run on the same basis as I did for Eugene (and this was before your post above, great minds and all) to see where I stand right now. Max HR was to be 143 and cadence goal was 90 on the Garmin. Expectation was a 10:30 pace but I did get a bit of a surprise. Here's how it played out:

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Cadence
1	9:06	151	89
2	9:03	141	91
3	9:12	141	89
4	9:21	142	89

Ignore the HR for mile one as that was the strap going through its normal settling phase. I didn't watch the pace as I ran, only the HR. Felt like I was going slow so was very surprised at the end to see these paces. Not surprising, however, was how they rapidly started falling off by mile 4 as I haven't done very many miles at all in the last 6 months. The run was much more relaxing in the cooler temps even though the pace was actually not much slower that what I did during the hotter runs of late. Interesting stuff.

As far as the Pork Loin goes (Kathy, Joel and Mark), it did taste every bit as good as it looked. If you want to see how it came together step by step, I've posted it here in another forum about smoking foods that I participate in. It was a lot of fun to make, and the reviews from the family made it all worthwhile.

Tom H wrote:So today I decided to do a LHR run on the same basis as I did for Eugene (and this was before your post above, great minds and all) to see where I stand right now. Max HR was to be 143 and cadence goal was 90 on the Garmin. Expectation was a 10:30 pace but I did get a bit of a surprise. Here's how it played out:

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Cadence
1	9:06	151	89
2	9:03	141	91
3	9:12	141	89
4	9:21	142	89

Ignore the HR for mile one as that was the strap going through its normal settling phase. I didn't watch the pace as I ran, only the HR. Felt like I was going slow so was very surprised at the end to see these paces. Not surprising, however, was how they rapidly started falling off by mile 4 as I haven't done very many miles at all in the last 6 months. The run was much more relaxing in the cooler temps even though the pace was actually not much slower that what I did during the hotter runs of late. Interesting stuff.

A nice surprise, indeed! Don't you love it when that sort of thing happens?

The fall-off as the miles progress is entirely to be expected, of course. How do the times/HRs compare with the time before Eugene? Fairly favorably, I suspect. Looks like you're off to a good start.

Mark, I went back and looked at my records for the Eugene cycle and I did not have splits at this pace until less than 1 month before raceday. I guess it is not really a fair comparison though, as all of my runs were longer than 4 miles then (7 minimum) so I may have been starting out slower to allow me to keep the HR down for the longer running times. Here's what that period looked like:

Avg HR	Distance	Avg Pace	Date	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
140	16.44	9:57	3-Apr-11	9:39	9:38	9:45	9:39	9:39	9:40	9:38
151	8	8:59	4-Apr-11	9:20	9:26	9:20	9:18	9:16	9:11	7:42
140	9.3	9:39	6-Apr-11	9:27	9:38	9:38	9:43	9:37	9:44	9:41
151	10	8:28	8-Apr-11	8:42	8:38	8:38	8:38	8:41	8:27	8:25
144	20	9:11	10-Apr-11	9:29	9:25	9:23	9:26	9:30	9:29	9:29
137	10	9:26	12-Apr-11	9:21	9:30	9:20	9:27	9:36	9:28	9:22
153	7	8:23	15-Apr-11	8:32	8:24	8:24	8:23	8:23	8:22	8:13
142	12	9:18	17-Apr-11	8:51	9:07	9:05	9:24	9:26	9:19	9:11
141	7	9:10	19-Apr-11	8:58	8:40	8:59	9:09	9:23	9:31	9:26
141	6	8:53	21-Apr-11	8:52	8:35	8:59	8:56	9:02	8:56
153	6	8:04	22-Apr-11	8:12	7:51	7:58	8:21	8:28	7:32
141	8	9:01	24-Apr-11	8:45	8:51	8:57	9:11	8:56	9:08	9:09
142	6	9:09	18-May-11	8:52	8:56	9:09	9:16	9:13	9:10

The entries in yellow are runs where I was working on increasing speed, not focusing on HR, but you can see that nothing was close to today's performance until April 17, and race day was May 1.

Regardless of the differences, today's numbers are surprising in that they do favorably compare with the later stages of that training. Gives me something to think about.

Today was a fun day. Started out with a 1000 yd swim to warm up, then a 2 hour rest, then a 6 mile run. Actually, the plan was for a 3-4 mile run, but it felt so good . . . First time I've done the swim/run thing in quite a few months and had appropriately low expections on the run side. Decided to keep the run tame, in fact LHR limited as I did for yesterday's run. Expectation was for a significant decrease in pace after the swim, but again was surprised. Here's what it looked like:

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Cadence
1	9:00	152	88
2	8:48	142	91
3	8:59	142	90
4	9:13	142	90
5	9:13	143	90
6	9:18	143	90
Summary	9:05	144	90

This far exceeds my expectation and I have to admit to being at a loss to explain why the performance is so good at this point. Over the past 6 months my conditioning has been sporatic as I've backed off due to injury and have only had on and off short runs/ellipicalled/occasionally biked/etc., but certainly cannot be accused of doing anything to work on aerobic conditioning. I guess it is fair to say that two data points does not a trend make, and to draw any conclusions from such spotty data would be asking for a later swift kick in the seat of the pants. Nonetheless, I'll take it, and we'll see where things go from here.

Looks like a triathlete in the making!

My guess is that the shorter duration work did a better job of maintaining your base than you'd expected, which is very cool. I think I've read that once you build to a certain level, it takes less effort to maintain it. (There are a number of ultra runners who are turning training strategies on their head and, once they've gotten fit, aren't doing ridiculous levels of mileage to maintain it before running 50- to 100-milers, even.) Maybe that's what's going on with you. Less may have been more!

At any rate, the times at the lower heart rates look very good. Keep building on them, and I think you may be in for more pleasant surprises.

So I may be back on the LHR wagon. The structure I get from it keeps me slower in a phase when slower is better. That being said, I do like the freedom of running without constraints. Have to see how this all plays out. Since I'm not training for a specific race (for the first time) I feel I have the freedom to play around a bit.

Part 2. Since I was coming off the bench and asking muscles to do that which the had not done for a while, I decided to treat them right with a much higher protein component in my diet. Since I've not really been putting in significant mileage this has worked well with pretty good muscle recovery and no sign of injury. Not sure if this also applies to tendons, but it would be nice if it did Now however, as I'm running more consistently and doing the cross training, I think I may be approaching that tipping point where the carb component has to become a more dominant part of the nutritional equation. This comes from the past few days, but mostly from today where I felt listless and had to push myself out for my short run.

Today a 1000 yard swim in the AM and a run that was only 4 miles in the late afternoon. Unfortunately it turned out to be very windy, such that the return leg of my out and back course was a lot harder than the first half. Overall the results were still good with HR of 143 or less in each mile but paces that reflected both my physical/mental state as well as the windy conditions. Splits were as follows:

1. 8:51
2. 8:49
3. 9:17
4. 9:24

The effort in the second half didn't seem to be that much greater, it was just like those miles were uphill miles. Near the end my mind wandered back to my first marathon in Big Sur and Hurricane Point, which was a 500 foot climb over 2 miles. Not totally dissimilar.

That feeling of listlessness has continued. I thought I may just be needing a rest day, and that's what Saturday was scheduled to be, so it fit right in. But come Sunday, still no energy and my wife feeling the same way. Today, more of the same. I'm wondering if there isn't a virus or some such going around that is causing this. At any rate, with an energy level of 0, spending a lot of time doing nothing - something I am very bad at.

Hm. It sounds like a bit more rest, and a few more carbs, might be in order. Hope you feel more peppy soon.

Started upping the carb intake Friday night, so hopefully that helps. I'm also heading out on a houseboat fishing trip where there's no running, biking and with a water temp around 55, no swimming - so a period of enforced rest and recuperation. Kinda sucks, though, that when things start to look better, this type of thing takes the wind out of the sails. Oh well, two steps forward and all that . . .

Tom H wrote:Started upping the carb intake Friday night, so hopefully that helps. I'm also heading out on a houseboat fishing trip where there's no running, biking and with a water temp around 55, no swimming - so a period of enforced rest and recuperation. Kinda sucks, though, that when things start to look better, this type of thing takes the wind out of the sails. Oh well, two steps forward and all that . . .

Houseboat trip? To where? Shasta? Lake Mead? Details, Tom. We need details!

Enjoy your enforced rest. There's no rush, right? The goal is to keep building steadily over time and avoid the boom-and-bust cycle.

Home again, home again. Love being on vacation, love coming home. OK Mark, the houseboat trip was on Shasta Lake here in Northern California. Played a couple of rounds of golf on the way up to get into the right frame of mind. On the boat was a group of 12 guys, most of which have been fishing together here or in Mexico for many years. Target on this trip was bass and trout, and we had a good showing of each species. Waaaay too much food, but when you are in the fresh air at the lake, seems like one is always hungry. I took up smoked pulled pork, smoked salmon, smoked beef jerky, smoked sausuage/beef snack sticks (like slim jims), smoked almonds, smoked pistachios and smoked cheese. Can you tell I love my smoker? I guess it was all OK as I had no leftovers to bring home .

Monday was back to the real world. So, between the 4 days of no energy and the vacation, had not been able to run, bike or swim for about 10 days. Energy level had returned, so had been thinking about a short run during the 5 hour ride home, but the 88 degree temp when I got here had me put it off until the next day. Easing back into it, did about a 4.5 mile run on familiar grounds when the temp was only 82. I expected to see a step back in performance due to the layoff and higher temps, and was not disappointed.

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR
1	9:05	135
2	9:21	141
3	9:33	142
4	9:47	142
5	9:36	142
Summary	9:28	140

The next day kept it easy and ran another 4 miler with slightly better results:

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Cadence
1	8:57	137	88
2	8:59	142	90
3	9:25	142	89
4	9:29	142	90
Summary	9:13	141	89

During the day I got to babysit my granddaughter (nothin' better) and at one point when getting up off the floor using my left hand to push up felt a really sharp pain in the wrist. Remembering my fall while running a few weeks ago, went to the doc, got a series of x-rays and a diagnosis of a cortical buckle. What is that? Well, according to the interweb it can be defined as:

Derived from the latin word "Tori" meaning swelling or protuberance, the "torus" or cortical buckle fracture is a very common fracture involving the distal third of the radius in children. It usually results from a fall on an outstretched hand/wrist, resulting in a cortical kinking or buckling which may assume a vast array of configurations. Because children have softer bones, an incomplete fracture occurs, in which one side of the bone buckles upon itself without disrupting the other side.

OK, I've got a grandchild thus I'm no child, so I'll take this as a sign that my bones are not brittle. The casting on this usually is only abut 3 weeks since it is supposed to heal faster than greenstick fractures, so my doc has me in a splint now to keep the wrist immobilized. If it ain't one damn thing, it's another. I never knew I could find so many different ways to get injured running. At least this one doesn't keep me out of my shoes.

My newest running fashion accessory:



Today, however, I do take a rest from running day, so this morning it was a 1000 yard swim to keep the cardio going. After the layoff, it was a bit harder than expected, but really felt great to strech out the shoulders and upper back.

Keeping mileage low and slow, yesterday was 4 mile @ LHR. Felt clunky, sorta like an adolescent boy who's just had a growth spurt and can't quite get the legs and arms to move together the way he used to as a kid. Pace was slower at about a 9:25 average and it was a battle with HR from the get go. Oh well, some days are like that.

On the wrist front, I got a call from the imaging center telling me I needed to come back in, that my Dr. has now ordered an MRI. News to me. I guess that the radiologist may have seen something more in the x-rays after further review. It was too late yesterday to contact the Dr. to ask what he suspected was going on, and I had the MRI this morning. Let the waiting begin.

First glad to see you back on the roads running again!

Second good old houseboat trips on Lake Shasta! Heck yeah I remember those good old days when I was living in Chico. I would love to retire to the town of Shasta someday.

Hey Schuey, it is good to be back! We've been doing a family houseboat trip on Shasta annually for about the last 15 years. Now that the kids are older, they insist upon it! No cell phones, computers, TV, nada. Just family time, games, fishing, swimming - a solid week of the family reconnecting after a year of life getting in the way.

Shasta Lake was a very good choice, Tom. Glad you had fun maxing out your protein (and smoke) intake.

I'd take your "kid's only" fracture as a sign of your youthful spirit.

"Youthful spirit", I like that. I took my youthful spirit out for a 6 mile run today with sunny skies and mid-70's temps. Run felt great, all parts working in synch, much different than the last one. Results, however, were similar. HR stayed at or below the 143 target (140 for the run) and pace was a 9:22. It was warm enough that my 1 mile dog walk before the run got enough moisture on the HR strap such that mile 1 actually had zero spikes! Still struggling with the cadence a bit though. Target is 90+ and I seem to be stuck at 89 and can't figure it out. Not too worried about the difference between 89 and 90 from a performance standpoint, just frustrated I can't seem to get it back as quickly as I had hoped.

Edit: Finally got the Garmin to upload so can record the gory detail.

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Cadence
1	8:57	132	88
2	9:01	142	90
3	9:25	142	89
4	9:36	142	89
5	9:39	142	90
Summary	9:22	140	89

Another note on the MRI as it had some fun aspects. Because it was my wrist being imaged, the office tech to took me to the changing room told me that I did not need to change out of my clothes but should probably take off my wedding ring and watch. I did that, then the MRI tech called me in and put me face down on the table with my wrist stretched out above my head letting me know I would have to stay in the very odd position and NOT MOVE for about 20 minutes. Then he pushed a button to move the table into the MRI device. I thought that there must have been some sort of rod I laid down on as when the table got in to about my hip level, it felt like something solid was raking up my left hip. Whack! Out of my pocket shoots my pocket knife in the super strong magnetic field! The tech rapidly backs the table out and asks if I have anything else in my pockets. I replied that why yes, I did - a money clip, wallet, keys. He muttered something about the office tech not doing her job and asked me to empty my pockets. I dug out the money clip and keys with my right hand while still lying face down and brought them around in front of my head to hand them to him. Damn, when you get metal in that imager magnetic field, it tries to pull you right in! Now I understand why they ask so many questions about whether you have pins, screws, plates or other metal in your body - that magnetic field could cause some serious pain.

So after that excitement it was 20 minutes of lying pefectly still listening to all the banging sounds coming from within the MRI instrument, noticing my outstretched arm was going numb, and that the arm I was lying my head on was trying to cramp up. When it was done the tech backed me out and the first thing he said to me was "How do you stay so fit? You've got almost no body fat!". He should know, right? He'd just spent 20 minutes creating images of the inner part of my lower arm to fingers. Then it was questions about diet, how often did I run/swim/bike/Pilates, etc. He was sincerely interested and I think a little inspired to up his fitness level. A great way to finish the procedure.

The doctor's orders for the MRI came late Friday afternoon and I never even got to ask what they suspected or were looking for. I'm anxious to get the results and hope there is something definite that can be addressed as the wrist is, if anything, feeling worse day by day. With the splint on I can do a fair amount of stuff, but with it off and with the ability to rotate and bend it, the operative word is "ouch".