Lights for running at night - FENIX!

I've been doing a lot of night running lately since I'm marathon training, and running 80-100 mpw. I've been pretty frustrated with the wimpiness of headlamps in general. I don't have the luxury of running on pitch-black solitary streets, so I have to deal with traffic washing out my vision and a good deal of cars.I tried MANY headlamps. Tikka Plus, XP, MyoXp, Black Diamond Icon and others. (I returned most of them.) My old setup was a Tikka Plus on the head and one on the waist. Good for pitch-black roads, but terrible when cars wash out your vision, and I was frustrated since I couldn't see more than 6-8 feet ahead even with fresh batteries. Made it VERY hard to do tempo work at sub7 minutes per mile.

On the suggestion of a bike commuter, I tried the FENIX L2D flashlight with a headstrap. The FENIX is a tiny 2 x AA LED flashlight, that's about the length of your hand, and about 150g with batteries.This thing ROCKED THE HOUSE for light. I could finally see CLEARLY 20-30 feet ahead. And if you flash this thing into a car, it stops 'em COLD. That never, ever happened with the Tikkas, which were too weak to get their attention from a distance. Bikers claim to be able to ride 25mph easily with this as their only light, and I would have to agree. Even though we runners are slower than bikers, I've found that close & far range lighting is nearly equally critical for us since we're much more susceptible to roots and other things that tires would roll right over. Especially running fast.

The Fenix puts out 140 lumens, versus a paltry 40 for the Tikka plus. Even the MyoXP hits only 80 lumens. (lumens are additive, so it's about 3-4 Tikka Pluses.) Furthermore, the diffusion system of the Fenix is ideal, with a central hotspot and a wide diffused ring for peripheral vision. I could see the entire road for the first time! Runtime's pretty good as well - on rechargeable NiMH AAs x 2, it runs for 2 hour on turbo mode(140 lumens), and for days at low levels (10 lumens) with gradations in between. It didn't even get warm to the touch when I ran it for 90 minutes on my head in 45 degree temps.

Tikka XP. This is a GENEROUS picture (see comparison below for a much more realistic shot) - the floorspot is nowhere near this bright. (My budget digital camera doesn't do fixed exposures.) Note how small the beamspot is, with poor spill. Still, this is one of the most commonly used headlamps for running, and actually works very well in the absence of traffic glare.



A realistic shot of the FENIX torch. It really is that dramatic compared to the Tikka - like night and day.




This shot of both the FENIX + TIKKA PLUS on together best illustrates the difference between the Tikka and the FENIX. Note the little groundsplash of light that the Tikka puts out compared to the huge flood of the FENIX. You will literally wash out the Tikka if you aim it into the periphery of the FENIX.

Here's shots of my night running gear as well:

THE GEAR:
Illuminite hat
Brooks Element Reflective Jacket
Adventure strap light on sternal strap
North Face Hydration Pack with added reflectors
MARS 3.0 bike reflector attached onto the hydration pack
Brooks Adrenaline sneakers
FENIX P2LD on a NiteEyes Headstrap (will be replaced by a Jakstrap soon)
Tikka Plus on my waist for any needed close-range feet lighting
I add Illuminite gloves when it's colder out.






Here's with the lights ON. I'm pretty sure this will get attention in traffic!

RACE PREPARATION mesocycle - complete

With this final week, the "race preparation" mesocycle comes to a close. I originally had big plans for this mesocycle, after my very strong prior cycle, but alas, things didn't go as perfectly as I had hoped. My mileage got knocked down early after 2 sprained ankles and a surprise interview at Stanford radiology, but I managed to maintain decent mileage and get back on track. One highlight was hitting the 100 mile mark for one week, which was definitely much more difficult from a scheduling standpoint than from a physical standpoint. I also had at least 1 crappy week where my tempo run was terrible, and I still don't know why. (See earlier blog posts for details of all of these events.) Fortunately, I turned it around in the final 2-3 weeks, and felt like it was overall a successful training cycle in which I accomplished the bulk of my goals.

Here's my summary for the entire mesocycle:

11/12 - 11/18: 64 miles, 11 miler @ 8:20/mi, 18 miler @ 8:01/mi

11/19 - 11/25: 100 miles (!), 15 miler @ 7:19/mi, 6 x 800 @ 5:57/mi, 12mi @ 6:55/mi

11/26 - 12/2: 64 miles, 10 miler @ 6:42/mi

12/3 - 12/9: 71 miles, 15 miler @ 8:14/mi, 21miler @ 8:21/mi

12/10 - 12/16: 90 miles, 8miler @ 7:14/mi. , 15miler @ 7:14/mi, 20 @ 7:45/mi (13 @ 7:20 + 5 @ 6:50)

12/16 - 12/22: 90 miles, 6miler @ 6:15/mi, 16miler @ 7:12/mi, 22 miler (12 @ 7:25 + 6 @ 7:00 + 4 @ 6:50). (Was on track for 105, but swapped out one run for a 4 hr hard mtn bike ride.)

Average mileage per week = 80 miles per week

The 64-mile weeks were due to ankle injuries and the interview - I had planned for 80 for those 2 weeks. I felt that I really benefited from the final high volume push, with 71, 90, and 90.

In looking at the volumes and times I've got here, it really doesn't look at all that fast. I do think that these times are artificially slow though, as I encounter many stoplights en route which are included in the total pace time, and often carry up to 8 lbs of water in a Camelbak, which will also add 5-15 seconds/mile on the pace. So in reality, I think I'm probably running overall 10-15 seconds faster than the listed paces (except for the short track tempo runs.) I was also hoping for more consistency, but as can be seen, my pacing seems a bit uneven, which is surprising given the late stage of this cycle. I think the big jumps in weekly mileage are a factor here , since during my last cycle, with consistent mileage increases, my times were more even.

The typical course elevation profile on my long runs doesn't help, either. This is my typical running course, with added flat miles in the middle (on the beach) for the longer stuff. It goes from about 400 feet to -10 feet. That final climbing last half is always tough.



The final 22 miler of the cycle is probably the best indicator of my ability, as I did it on a marked trail with only one 300ft hill, so I did not lose significant time from traffic stops (as all of my other long runs). I still carried a fairly heavy (6lb) camelbak, though, so without it, and without it, I may run faster than my training paces during race day if all goes well.

My training cycle doesn't really look altogether like a Pfitz schedule anymore. In this race preparation mesocycle, Pfitz's plan swapped out the 6-12 mile tempo runs for more VO2 short-distance work. I opted not to dramatically change my training schedule, mainly because it has been working so well for me, and thus did almost none of the VO2 intervals, opting instead for hard 6-mile tempo runs that served me well in the last cycle. The hard tempo runs and the hard long runs have really given me great improvements, and I was reluctant to trade away a training regimen that yielded clear large gains during the last cycle. So I've done more of the same, just a bit faster. Hopefully it'll all pan out. I do plan on getting some of the VO2 stuff done in the 1st and 2nd week of taper, but not to go overboard there.

Interestingly, I don't feel dramatically faster now than when I started training this cycle. I know I am, since my race times have improved, but I think that with all the increased mileage, my gains have been relatively hidden. During my previous Pfitz race mesocycle, I definitely felt faster, as I did not increase training volume, so it was easier to do the hard VO2 runs. This time, I've opted to maximize mileage for endurance, as I believe I already have adequate leg speed for a strong sub 3:10 performance.

The hardest thing about this last cycle really was finding the time to log all those miles. Fatigue was never a huge factor, in all honesty. I managed to hit all the hard runs very hard, and the easy runs were never ever a problem since I took them so easy. (Averaging about 9:20/mile on them.) I'm certain that 80-90mpw is the upper limit of practicality in terms of logging mileage with a busy full-time job and few other commitments. Future gains will have to be made through increased paces, as I cannot realistically make any more significant mileage increases in my schedule.

Taper weeks coming up. I'm going to use the book Pfitz taper for this one, but I do plan on running the 3rd week out a bit more aggressively than he recommends, mainly because I have a significantly larger volume base than the original 70mpw plan.

Preview of the Houston Marathon

Only a few more weeks until the big race day for my attempt to run a sub 3:10 Boston marathon qualifier at the Houston Marathon. Here's a preview of the big event.

Chevron Houston Marathon 2008

"The Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon offer participants a unique running experience in America’s fourth largest city. Fast, flat, scenic and single-loop, the course has been ranked as the "fastest winter marathon" and "second fastest marathon overall" by Ultimate Guide To Marathons. Additionally, with more than 200,000 spectators, Ultimate Guide to Marathons has ranked the Chevron Houston Marathon the fourth most crowd-supported marathon.Website: http://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com"

Date: Sunday, January 13, 2008

Time: Start at 7:00 a.m. The finish line will close at 1:00 p.m.

Location: All pre- and post-race activities will take place at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas.

SOLD OUT since 10/2007.

Weather

Start time temperature has averaged 45˚ F.
Finish time temperature has averaged 60˚ F.

Packet Pickup

Packet pickup will be held during the Roger Clemens Institute EXPO.
Date: Friday, January 11, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 12, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: George R. Brown Convention Center
1001 Avenida de las Americas
No race day packet pickup or registration.
Packets will not be mailed.

• Many elite athletes have been specifically invited to compete for $170,000 in prizes. Too bad I'm not one of 'em.
  

• The 2008 Chevron Houston Marathon will use a new timing technology, the RFID timing tag. The timing tag is smaller and lighter than the traditional timing chip and will eliminate the need for chip check and chip collection. For more information on the timing tag. This system was a 100% disaster at the Honolulu marathon where it completely failed due to rain shorting out the monitor, but did well at the Philadelphia marathon. I feel like a UPS box! ADDENDUM 12/20/08 - Latest word is that the RFID system has been cancelled due to these fiascos, and that good ol'fashioned chip timing will be used again.

• There will be ONLINE live tracking and a VIDEO of your personal finish line crossing (!!) How awesome is that?

• The ads claim to have 200,000 spectators on the course. Most people think that estimate is too high, but it's supposed to be a very well attended marathon in terms of crowd support.

• Well known to be one of the FASTEST marathon courses in the country now, with the US Half-marathon record set here last yere by Ryan Hall with a sub-60 minute performance.

Here's the OFFICIAL elevation chart in blue, and an allegedly more accurate hand-drawn elevation chart which more clearly shows the small hills on the course. (Map by nuke-runner.)



This is nuke-runner's elevation map for the course. It's more accurate than the one given on the website, and more accurately displays the few minor inclines on the course. As can be seen, it's a flat, flat course. Most of the ups and downs are highway overpasses/underpasses. This will be both a blessing and a challenge at the same time for me, but more of a blessing than the other. I have been training on relatively hilly courses this cycle to strengthen my legs, and I think that approach has definitely given me some excellent leg power that I would not otherwise have. The caveat is that I don't train on courses as flat as Houston, so I may have some difficulty at the end maintaining a very high leg turnover. I've tried to accomodate this to some degree by doing tempo work on flat tracks where I can get a better sense of flatland pacing and speed. I think I'll be fine, but I will have to likely run with a more aggressive leg turnover rate than I'm used to at the end.

Fun on Runners World Forums!

I've been posting a fair amount on the Runners World marathon race training forums as of late, as I've been on call during the evenings, and spending those 13 hours in my lonesome can get me a little weird. Regardless, I've gotten some great tips, found some inspiration, and met a lot of really great running contacts on those forums. It's been all good!

One of the more "controversial" forumites (with whom I get along with great, fortunately), recently posted a fun thread involving myself, himself (squirrel 1.1), and fellow fast marathoner (Brocknoxious). Basically, we've been talking on the boards about our marathon training for the past 6 months, and now it's nearing time that all of us step up to the big day. Good ol' squirrel 1.1 decided to call out everyone's alliances on the forums, and created a really funny polling thread asking "who's the fastest?" amongst us three.

See the link here. It's entertaining, at the least.

Those other two guys are REALLY fast. I don't know how I managed to end up in the same category as them, for real. Squirrel was running competitively with a 4:50ish mile as a high school student - I haven't even broken 5:45 for the mile yet. (Although I haven't tried as of recently, either.) Brocknoxious was running 18:00 5ks even before last year, while I was barely breaking 20 minutes. In all honesty, when I first encountered these guys, my first thoughts were, "dear god, those guys are fast! And they train less than I do!"

I'll be honest though, it's a "honor" to actually be considered in the same crew as those two guys. They're sub-3 marathoners for sure, whereas I'm pretty sure that I won't be there for at least one more hard training cycle. I'll definitely be close this time around, but unless I have a near-perfect race day, it's likely not going to happen, especially because I'm too worried about missing my BQ by going out too aggressively for a too-lofty sub-3 hour marathon.

The main difference between those super-talented guys and myself is that I've logged significantly more training miles than they have. Squirrel logged 60 on average, maxxing out at 80, whereas Brock logged 50 on average, maxxing at 75. Both of those are great training volumes, and definitely will yield fantastic results, but I've definitely taken it to the next level and am averaging 75, with a max of 100. Since the marathon is really a uber-endurance race, I may have a surprisingly strong performance even relative to these speedsters come raceday.

Feel free to go check out the poll results - I really can't believe that as of right now, I'm in a dead-heat with squirrel, who ran a 2:58:44 marathon a month ago. I can't even DREAM of running that fast right now! If I run a sub-3 marathon, it will be 2:59:59.99, and that'll be a stretccccchhhh..... People really are too kind to me on these forums!

Addendum: Brockmeister finished in tough humid,rainy conditions in 3:11, despite a 4-minute stop to smooth out a hamstring cramp. A disappointing, but still fantastically strong performance. The pressure's on me now....

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7.0

As I've posted before, I've been a devoted user of the el-cheapo Payless Amp running shoe, which has generally costed me $30 per pair. I've plowed my way through three of these in the last training cycle, and have one more stowed away in my closet. Alas, they have been recently discontinued by Payless, and I have heard no news of a replacement model, so I'm back to looking for new shoes again.

REI is generally a pricey store to pick up gear, but they seem to have sporadic sneaker sales at extremely good prices, often better than anything else out there. A few months ago, they were selling Mizuno WaveRider 10s and Inspire3s for $29.50, when every other retailer sold them for $85. (That's how much they're going for now, in fact.)

Today, I stopped by REI to take a peek at their sale items. I knew that the Adidas Supernova sneaker, which I had used a prior model of, was on sale there for $55, so I had intended to pick it up. However, they were out of my size (9), so I had to look for other options.

Fortunately, the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7.0 was on sale for $55 as well. It fit great, and accomodated the wide forefront of my foot as well as my flat archless feet. I took it for a testdrive 12 miler easy run this afternoon, and it performed quite well. A softer, smoother ride than my Payless Amps, although I certainly would not have paid the full retail $100+ for the Brooks sneaker. Amongst the fancy features that they advertise on their website are a "MoGo" midsole, which allegedly lasts 30% longer than a conventional midsole, some fancy medial posting to allow for stability, and 360 degree reflectivity, which I actually do value since I run a lot at night now.

I believe the Adrenaline is an extremely popular shoe, second to the Asics 2120 this season (which was wayy too narrow for my feet.) I'm excited to put it to use and to test it out on the long runs in the near future.

So for now, I've got a new horse in the stable, and it seems like a good one!

Worst run ever - and a definite loss of fitness

Today was a gorgeous day in Santa Monica. 72 degrees and sunny, which meant shorts and T-shirt weather. I got out of work pretty much the moment I got there since the X-ray machine broke down and there was no replacement, so I was home before noon! First order of business was to go for a medium-distance fast run to make up a bit for the lost training I had over the last two days due to a minorly sprained ankle.

The workout started out great. I felt good, and was all carbed up. I had only run 3 miles in the past two days, so I was ready to hammer out the pace. I took it fast but reasonable for the first 4 miles (which are downhill), holding near 7:05 per mile, which is my typical pace for a run of this distance on the downhill. Once I got to the flat beachfront, I embarked on my plan to crank out a bunch of 6:50/mile marathon-pace miles, and then slow it down near the end for a total of 15 miles.

Problem is, I couldn't get down to 6:50/mile without blowing up. Actually, 7:05/mile was really killing me - and this time it was the LEGS that were bothering me. My legs are NEVER a problem on runs under 20 miles - it's always the lungs. And this was only on mile 6! I held the aggressive pace for 9 miles, but I knew at that point that the last 6 were going to be ugly.

And ugly was an understatement. Yes, there's a big climb over the final 4 miles of my run, but even factoring that incline in, I was simply spent. I averaged 9:15/mile on those 4 miles, and had to walk a fair bit. And those 9:15 miles were working hard as well, not just pleasure cruising it in.

This workout really was a shocker for me. I could understand one of my prior ugly workouts since I had been injured and sick, but this one I simply had no excuse for. I was healthy, rested, and the conditions were reasonable. I was so angry at the end of the run that I felt like throwing my hydration pack into the middle of the road!

First order of business when I got home was to figure out what the heck happened out there. During those painful last 4 miles, I had already suspected the likely culprit, but I wanted to go over the data a final time to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Here were my workouts for the last 4 weeks:
10/29-11/4 - 42.6 miles. Strained hamstring and Santa Clarita HM this week.
11/5-11/1 - 75.6 miles, but no speedwork
11/12-11/18 - 64.3 miles. Caught a cold and lost 3 days.
11/19 - 11/25 - 100 miles. Great mileage week, and the only good one of the bunch
11/26 - 12/2 - 65 miles. On call duties took a lot of time, and a surprise interview at Stanford radiology chewed up my weekend.

Total = 346 miles, average = 69 miles per week

The total mileage is 10 miles per week lower than I had desired, but in my opinion, 70 miles a week should be more than plenty to maintain fitness, and is likely more than enough for strong improvement. So plain old miles is probably not the problem here.

I did some excellent speedwork sessions as well during these 5 weeks. In fact, just last week, I ran a fast 10 miler at 6:42/mile on the track, and the week previous to that I ran a 6:55/mile on a marked 12-mile hilly trail near San Francisco. So I was running fast and strong - what was the problem?

Herein lies the culprit. When was my last 21 mile run? The answer is October 28, or over 5 WEEKS ago. I went the entire month of November without a single contiguous run over 15.5 miles. This was a terrible mistake. I had been lulled into the sense of accomplishment by racking up good weekly mileage totals with doubles and smaller sessions, but I made a HUGE mistake by neglecting my "money run" in favor of shorter, speedy runs. I think the elites can get away with this because they routinely run 100+ miles per week, but for my 70 miles per week average, that 20 miler really is THE critical run for the week. My leg fatigue on today's run completely reflected my lack of longer endurance - it was that classic feeling of the beginner marathoner exceeding their distance threshold for the first time. Sore legs, and inability to accelerate after I got past the 10 mile mark.

I'm hoping I can recover whatever losses that I've had during the month of November in the next few weeks by getting in 3 solid 21 mile runs before taper time. I think I will be able to judge my fitness level more accurately after the last of these runs. However, in my current state, I'm speedy at the short stuff, but grossly inadequate after 15 miles. If I had to run a marathon today, I think I would run a 3:30-3:40! Needless to say, I will be struggling to get back to the 3:10 standard, and for all practical purposes as of now, sub3 is completely out of the question, as I could not even hold the 6:50/mile for a single mile today.

Man, this marathon thing is tough. Just when I was starting to feel that the 3:10 was going to be an easy kill, it looks like it's going to be a monster challenge again. Well, let's do it!


UPDATE 12/10/06 Sunday - I just got in that 21 miler today. It was chilly out (42!) and I had to mess with my clothing a bit, but it went surprisingly well. Not a fast one by any means, but including a huge clothing adjustment stop including a complete meltdown of my Garmin 201 (FINALLY time to upgrade!), I made it through the 21 miler at a bit under 8:00/mile and managed to finish the final 5 miles working hard and feeling pretty strong. All is not lost, although sub-3's looking like a MEGA longshot right now. Thanks to all the folks on the commentary board who wished me well!