crunching the numbers

i'm more of a process over product kind of person.

journey over destination.

quality over quantity.

people over project.

which is all kind of funny when i think about how preoccupied i am with tracking my training data.

with so many options out there, my favourite tool for keeping tabs on my weekly mileage is dailymile (you can see the dailymile widget on the left-hand side column on my blog).  i suppose that it's because it's a combination tracking site and social media platform, including the option to link up with friends/acquaintances and post comments, encouragements and other notes.  it provides me with just what i need in terms of at-a-glance data:  distances for specific workouts, for a week or month at a time - even what some of my colleagues are managing to pump out on a weekly basis.  

this may or may not be a preferred performance tracking and analysis tool for runners, but many of the athletes that i follow on twitter and facebook have a profile on dailymile.

many others have taken to sites like strava or runkeeper, and to a lesser degree training peaks and sporttracks.  again, there are all sorts of alternatives available, and many times i've found individuals to be fiercely loyal to their webpage of choice.

since i use my garmin 305 to record my run data, my first digital stop is normally at the garmin connect website.  so imagine my intrigue when i was reading alessandro santuz's blog and found out about tapiriik, an open-source platform for synching multiple performance tracking service streams.

what's great about this is obviously the concept of synching - one touch consolidation of information across multiple software applications.  instead of being daunted and/or bogged down by the work of logging into various profiles and inputting information separately into each one, tapiriik offers you the ability to set-up a synching network and then subsequently making your training and racing stats available in each one.  

the one notable feature of tapiriik that is especially enticing is the ability to synch to dropbox, a virtual (shared) hard drive.  while i'm still working at configuring this so that it works optimally for me, i relish the thought of being able to have a downloadable capture of my training info for my records.

which tracking service have you sworn allegiance to, if any?  do you think that a tool like tapiriik might be of use to you?

crunching the numbers

could less be more?

long have i heard and even promoted the concept that some of the world's best runners don't always run at top speed.  my friend trevor has often reminded me that one of the finest triathletes anywhere craig alexander has noted that he will often have low intensity training runs, and that when people pass him on the road he's not bothered by the fact that they can say that they outran an ironman world champion.  and it's well noted that most recreational runners spend too much time training for races at a moderate-level effort, ignoring high-intensity workouts and dismissing easy runs.

can you out-hustle this guy?

since i've started working with my coach, i've been walking more during my workouts than i have in about three years.  i've also been logging long runs at a much slower and more labourious pace.

my weekly mileage during this training cycle has also dropped by about 50% compared to where i was four months ago.  my friend stan had even wondered if i'd stopped logging all of my training on dailymile because of the lack of total training distance.  again, coach's orders.

so where do i stand now?

at this point in my training for the erie marathon, i'm running four days a week (down from six this past winter/spring).  my long runs are slower than previous long runs, but heading toward longer distances.  speed intervals are faster than i've run before (now just south of 4:00/km).  as of today, my tempo runs are now just around my desired marathon pace of 4:30/km, which is faster than what i'd been able to put together in advance of mississauga.

am i happy?

you bet.

is my coach right?

i think that i have to reserve judgment on that until after race day - but for now everything that he's been telling me is coming to pass, so i've no reason to relinquish my trust in him.

"remember, you're a machine" he tells me.

i feel like the right gears are starting to turn.

could less be more?

respect.

as the winter weather is slowly (and reluctantly) releasing its grip on this part of the country, i'm beginning to notice something.

there are more people running outside.

more runners hitting the pavement at 6:00 am with me.

and you know, something?  that's great.

i've read plenty in the last couple of months about how people struggle to make the transition to getting outside and beating the winter doldrums.  i was also reading a post last week titled "evening runner trapped in the mind of a morning runner", and thinking about how so many people find it tough/preferable not to run in the wee morning hours.

and just yesterday i recognized (thanks to dailymile) that i've eclipsed 1500km run in 2013 - something that i'm proud of, not because of how much more that might have been than anyone else, but because it's evidence of the fact that i've managed to stick with each day's prescribed run of the hansons marathon training schedule.

so when i kept my facebook friends up-to-date on my training efforts, i received in a response a number of "wows" accompanied by "i'm only ..." statements.

honestly, it doesn't make a difference to me if you're running 5k or 50 miles.

you could be clocking a 3 minute kilometre or an 11 minute kilometre.

your track of choice could be the treadmill, the oval, the lonely rural roads or the dog walking path.

healthier living could be your motivator, or a 10k age group award.

the fact is, you're moving.

and if you're moving, you're focusing on living.

so i tip my hat to you.

respect.

everything i needed to know i should have learned as a kid

having just read a status update from my good friend lewis on dailymile, i thought that it was timely that i post a quick little something about tying shoes.

i must admit that i was already thinking about this, as i had the experience last thursday of running a marathon pace training run with my right shoelace flopping about untied for about 3 km.  frustrated with this poor-performing technology, i went on a trusty google search to determine the best way to tie shoes for running.

little did i realize that i wasn't tying my shoes properly at all.

for the last 37 years.

i came across this video which - although it made me feel more than a bit juvenile - taught me the proper way to lace up shoes:

after having watched the video and applied the appropriate technological advancement, i can now vouch for two things:  

1. it feels weird to tie my knots this way.
2. my laces have not even come close to coming undone.

oh ... and if you've ever wondered why running shoe manufacturers punch an extra set of holes further up and lower than the set that would seem to be at the top of your shoes, here's why.

everything i needed to know i should have learned as a kid