intofitness.net

Yesterday’s Shelter Island 5K was most definitely a very cool event.

Big time amenities:

• Flat course - thank you, I appreciate that!
• Free champagne brunch for the participants
• Cool t-shirt

Not so fun:

Only one downer — the weather was a little on the cool side, not so cold that it was uncomfortable while running, but mainly after the run when my sweat was drying really fast and cooling my body temperature.

Kathy Loper typically hosts some great events, and this was no exception.  With adaptive therapies for injured soldiers as the cause, my wife, son and I were pleased to participate in this event with our entry fees benefiting such a worthy cause.

Results: (Also, check out my runningahead.com results summary.)

• Official time = 21:56
• Unofficial time = 21:54
• Age Group (40-44): 12/46
• Overall: 73/920

I’m pleased with my results considering it’s my first race ever, and after only four weeks of running.  I entered the race with three goals:

1. Beat Trainer Murray
2. Finish in under 22 minutes
3. Beat my fastest time

I accomplished two of the three, but did not beat my previous fastest 5K practice time of 21:42.

I am amazed at how fast people can run, even in their old age.  There were some 50+ year olds who had faster times than me and faster than people much younger.  The winner was 36 years old with a time of 16:02.  The first three finishers in my age group finished around 19 minutes.  My son was saying that running speed at this level is almost independent of age, and with people in their 30s through 50s running at these times, I have to agree with him. 

What I learned:

1. Save some gas for the end.
   I definitely came out of the gates way too fast.  My one-mile time was around 6:40.  Strangely, it didn’t feel like I was running that fast.  By 1.5 miles, I met my milestone marker of being under 9 minutes, but by the last half-mile of the race, I was tired.  I tried sprinting for the last half-mile, but my legs and lungs rebelled.  I did, however, sprint the last quarter-mile, but by then it was too late to beat my previous best time.
2. Stick with a routine with eating.
   I really liked how I did not drastically alter my pre-race breakfast: cereal with non-fat milk, fruit, and coffee (grande, iced skinny vanilla latte from Sbux).  The only new item I added to my pre-race diet was a free drink mix sample I received called CytoMax (Cool Citrus flavor).
3. Be sure to get to bed early the night before.
   I went to bed at 10 PM.  I probably could have gone to bed at 9 instead.  Because I was excited about the race, I didn’t sleep very well.  I might consider taking some Melatonin next time to help me sleep.
4. Enjoy the improvements and gains made while training.
   Hard work pays off.  And while I may not have reached all my goals, I am content with my progress in learning this new sport.

I know I’m just a novice runner, and maybe I shouldn’t be talking about medals in my very first race.  Maybe I should lean more to the side of realism, and just remove any ideas of getting a medal from my head.  But I’ve ALWAYS been like that for as far back as I can remember.  I learned it from my mom.  If there’s an activity to be done or something to know, she always said, “Why not be the best?” or “Why not do your best?”.  So I say, “If I’m going to race, why not race to win?”

Yes, I’m aware that my chances are slim.  But I don’t intend to go into this race resigned to the fact that I will lose.  I know the likelihood of getting one of the top three medals in the upcoming race is very low.  Last year’s winning results for my age division, ages 40-44 were as follows:  1st place = 18:30 (44 years old), 2nd place = 19:03 (44 years old), and 3rd place = 19:08 (43 years old).  My latest time seems light years away with a difference of 3 minutes.  No, I don’t think it’s humanly possible to shave three minutes off my time by November 9th.

But that is not going to stop me from trying.  Because in the course of trying, I make great strides and improvements.  Example: When I first ran the 5K distance, my time was in the 28-minute range.  I’ve now run this distance a total of five times, including today’s run.  My time today was 22:44, a difference of about 6 minutes.  

Belief is the heartbeat of success, the core to my success.

**I like my abs**

And yes, I’m going to save that e-mail for a very long time.

I was able to convince, cajole, and otherwise, persuade Maria and Tony to join me at the Cal State San Marcos track this morning.  Tony kicked a soccer ball around the little field in the middle of the track, while Maria walked in her new running shoes.

My goal: to run 5 x 400 meter intervals, which is approximately 2.5 miles overall.  5 laps of sprints with walking in between laps, a total of 10 laps.  That’s 1 sprint followed by 1 walk, for a total of 5 sets.

My times are here, not that bad for a total novice like me.  At least I think they’re okay.  For the most part on the 1 lap sprints, I was running them at a sub-six minute pace.  That’s pretty fast for a 42-year old, no?  The real question is: Can I sustain a similar pace for 3.1 miles (equal to a little less than 13 laps around the track) on November 9th for the Shelter Island 5K?

I don’t know all the physiology behind why interval training is supposed to help me run faster.  I sure hope it works because I really hate it.  Perhaps by the time I reach 10 x 400 intervals, I will be better at it, and not be so winded.

Reaching 179 lbs by Greek food is definitely not the way to gain weight.  But that’s what happened after Saturday night’s dinner party.  We had some neighbors over to thank them for their generosity in letting us borrow stuff while we had lots of family staying in our home for our son’s recent wedding.  It was no holds barred on the Greek food:  pastitsio, Greek chicken, spanakopita, and Greek salad.  Maria even made carrot cake.  That morning I weighed in at 177, so the next day’s 179.6 was not a pleasant sight for me on the scale.

To offset the planned Greek food, I went on a 5-mile run Saturday morning down to the gym and back.  It was an easy run, but strangely, I felt a little lethargic.  In any case, the 700 calories I burned were not enough to offset my overeating later than night.

To compensate for the unwanted weight gain, I burned over 1700 calories in the gym Sunday:  spin class, abs workout, and a short upper body workout at LA|FITNESS, and then my leg workout at 24Hour Fitness later in the evening.  I sure did sweat a lot on Sunday, but I think the two protein shakes I drank gave me some constipation this morning.  Even so, I was able to drop down to 178.8 lbs.  Surely, if I had had a BM (as my trainer likes to say… stands for “bowel movement”), I would have been at my previous 177 lbs on the scale this morning.

Last night I used my new 24Hour Fitness membership for the first time.  LA|FITNESS closes at 8:00 PM on weekends.  I have to say that the 24Hour in Escondido looks good on the outside, but compared to the new LA|FITNESS, it was definitely an eyesore inside with old equipment.  But there could far worse things.  I am fortunate to be a member at both clubs.

My Lower Body workout routine was good.  I think my least favorite part is the squats, especially the split stance squats where you put one leg in front of the other.  I do them on the Smith machine, and it’s just not comfortable for me right now.  I feel a little hesitant, like I might drop the bar and hurt my back.  The split stance is more difficult that the regular front squats because on the front ones, I can support the weight with both of my legs directly under the weight.  In any case, I sure did sweat a lot … to the tune of about 400 calories.

I continued my new running program this morning before work.  Again, I did about 3 miles.  I felt strong in the legs, probably from the strength training from last night.  But strangely, my pace was a little slower than last week’s.  It’s hard to say why.  The whole run felt good.  I was motivated.  Maybe I got lulled into a slow pace by how easy the run felt.  I will be sure to push myself harder when I feel that strong in my legs.

I love summer.  For as far back as I can remember.  Long days of swimming at the pool with friends.  Being out all day.  The sun staying out until 9:00 pm sometimes.  Playing tennis until you can’t see the ball anymore.  Those are the joys of summer and daylight savings time.

Then there’s the depressing fall (which happens to be my wife’s favorite season).  It’s dark in the morning when you leave for work, and it’s either getting dark or dark when you arrive home.  Just plain depressing. 

Since I plan to ride my bike only once a week now and replace my cardio activities with training for runs, there is little light left during the afternoon after work to get in a good run.  Some good things about running on the Naval base are that:

• Sailors run on the streets of the base all the time
• Speed limits are strictly enforced
• There is very little traffic
• The base is closed, and pretty much safe from strange people
• There are plenty of places to run on a flat surface

So this morning, I implemented my darkness contingency running plan: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I intend to run at least 3.1 miles on the base in the morning before work.  Today I arrived on base a little after 6:00 AM.  The sun had still not come up.  After getting situated at my desk and going to the bathroom, I stretched out my hamstrings, quads, groin, and hip flexors (next time I have to remember to stretch my lower back and calves).  Just put my military id in my pocket and headed out the door!

It felt great.  Very miniscule tightness in my lower back and hamstrings, no tightness in my glutes.  I’d say the discomfort was about 1 to 2 %.  I attribute the improvement to the 15 minutes of stretching at the gym last night using the stretch machines.  I liked running with, ummmm, say about 99% of my range of motion.  What a difference.

In approximately the same distance as my previous run, I did 3.14 miles in 25:32, which is an 8:08 pace.  I’m stoked to shave off almost three minutes from my last run.  I think I’ll be ready for my first 5K in early November.  Heck, when you look at some of the winning times in my age group at around 19 minutes, I could be in serious contention for a winning medal by then.  Now that would be amazing.

My running appreciation just went up.  I’d say that I moved a couple of notches above hating to run to actually just below liking it.  The best thing about it so far: I can actually envision myself getting better at it.

I’m really enjoying the new “Power Phase” workouts my trainer (Murray) has me doing.  I think the terminology he uses is based on the Optimum Performance Training (OPT) model from his NASM Certification.  He’s taking me through the OPT Model for Sports Performance Clients — on the previous link, see the cool diagram at the bottom of the page.  Since I’ve worked with him the last four months, I’ve gone through the Stabilization and Strength phases, so now I’m learning some new workout routines in the Power phase.

What’s nice is that my workouts are only 8 exercises for each of three routines: Upper Body, Lower Body, and Total Body.  So far I’ve tried the Upper and Lower; today at the gym, I plan to do the Total Body workout for the first time.  The weight/sets/reps philosophy behind this phase is heavier weights at fewer reps performed in 3 - 5 sets.  Murray says I should expect to gain about five pounds in weight during this phase with about 1.5 pounds of it in new muscle mass.  He says the rest of the weight will be water weight.  What’s exciting about this weight gain is that he says I should also see my body fat percentage decrease.

**Don’t tell Murray: he doesn’t want me to be in the gym for more than an hour per workout, but I added an ab workout to the routines, so I’m in there for two hours at a time.**

I have to admit that it’s difficult for me to not to FREAK OUT about gaining weight.  I’ve already gained one pound above my previous limit; currently, my weight is 176 lbs.  I’ve been advised not to weigh myself every day, but I need my body weight to enter in the correct info for my heart rate monitor (HRM).  As a compromise, Murray said he would take weekly skinfold measurements with the calipers so I can measure my body fat percentage weekly.  I think this will ease my mind as I see the pounds go up on the scale; I expect some decrease in body fat.  Last week’s caliper measurement yielded 9.1% body fat, which probably means that if I were to take a hydrostatic measurement (under water), I’d probably be at around 7% body fat.  So granted, I don’t have much more fat to lose; I think the healthiest lower limit is 6%.

What’s new about my results just from two workouts is that I’m experiencing muscle soreness.  I think it means that I’m breaking down muscle fibers during the workouts, which should translate into new muscle growth and density.  To that end, I’ve also started taking a creatine supplement before and after workouts, as well as, ensuring that I eat a glutamine supplement with my post-workout protein shake. 

Along with the new workout routines, I’ve just started a running program.  So far I’ve ran two times, the latest run was last night for about 3.2 miles.  I completed the run just before sundown in 28 minutes, which is about an 8:45 min/mi pace.  I think that’s okay for a novice runner at my age.  I had some slight discomfort during the run.  My quads, hamstrings, and glutes were really tight, and limited my range of motion as I was running.  I did take time to stretch before the run, so I was surprised at the tightness.  I hope it goes away before my next run on Friday.

Per Joe Thorn’s recommendation, I’m trying out an electronic running journal called Running Ahead.  Although I like electronic journals, I only plan to use it for running.  I record my exercise in the gym in a traditional notebook journal called The Body Minder.

Now that I’m done with the TDP, I’ve set my sights on a new goal: to learn how to run.  I’m targeting two events to gauge my progress:

1. Shelter Island 5K - November 9, 2008
2. San Dieguito Half Marathon - February 8, 2009

So I went on my first training run yesterday.  I really hate running.  Anyone want to explain to me why I’m doing it and training for two running events?  Oh well. I need to have a new fitness goal, and I know I’m up to facing the new mental and physical challenges.  My wife and son say that I’m the most disciplined person they know, an inspiration.  I dunno about that, but I’ll take it.

I left the house, turned on my HRM and foot pod (both by Suunto).  The goal was locked in: down to the corner where LA | FITNESS is and back.  One way was about 2.5 miles.  Ambitious?  Maybe.  Crazy for a first run?  Probably. Doable?  Most definitely.  I figured that since I just finished riding 100 miles on a bike last week that my body could handle a measly 5-mile run.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad.  Breathing was good.  Stamina was good.  Legs were good.  I was pleased with my times as well.  I finished the first 2.57-mile lap in 21 minutes with an average speed of 7.3 mph, and then took a five-minute break before heading back home.  For the way back, it took me 23 minutes with an average speed of 6.7 mph.  The last time I ran this type of distance, it took my 45 minutes to complete 3.5 miles, so this is a big improvement.

To remain positive about this endeavor, here are three things I liked about the run:

1. My shoes were comfortable.
2. My times were faster than before.
3. I didn’t have any problems with breathing or being out of breath.