Does low temperature affect my running?

Basically, cold makes me "feel" tight. I think it makes me run "slower". But does it?


Process: I looked into my running log, picked all the Interval runs I had on Tuesday at my target running pace, and I calculated my %-age-of-target for each of these runs. (So if my interval pace was 9:00 and I ran the interval at 9:30 my percentage of target would be 94.7%) Then for each one of these runs I went into my log and pulled out the "feels like" temperature and did a scatter plot, tried to fit a trend line, and calculated a correlation.


Results: Although, the math says there is a correlation of 69.9% with those two sub 10°F temperatures (I was also going through a bit of gut cramping for those two-weeks), if we drop those numbers we see a weaker correlation on the remainder of 30.4%.

Conclusion: My running is basically unchanged in the range of 10°F-36°F. If there is a temperature function at work, it's slight, or I am able to adjust for it by altering my clothing for that day. It looks like the discomfort of running at these temperatures is really "all in my head".

I've been keeping a log of what I wear when I start my winter runs.  And then I make a note of if I was cold at the start or at the end, or if I need to wear more or less if the conditions are the same next time.  So far I think it's helped.  For those two interval days running below 10°F (I have had 6 days below zero and 22 days below 10 total for this Winter's runs) I wore two pairs of track pants, a couple of technical shirts, a sweatshirt and a turtleneck with thermal socks, glove inserts and mittens!

Since I run a warm up distance before my interval running, this graph could also show me that my warm up is effective in bringing my body's working temperature to an efficient level for interval work.

At least this is just one less excuse for bad performance for me!

Yesterday's Tragic Tempo Run

The basic goal of this run was:

• 1.5 mile warm up
• 6 1K interval repeats @5K (9:37) pace w/2 min active recovery between sets
• 1 mile cool down

But I really sucked big time!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/74892005

Target	9:37
Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
2	9:36	139	146
4	9:50	142	147
6	9:53	141	146
8	10:00	141	146
10	10:02	139	144
12	10:20	138	143
Avg	9:56	140
Max			147

The weather was 26°F partly cloudy, feels Like14°F, with winds N 16 m/h

I really really sucked!  I only have 3 weeks until my sub-30-minute 5k Attempt.

This is where the suspenseful music plays ...



The faster I run though ... the more CO2 I produce ...

Some Jokes

From the 10 oldest jokes (source: http://uktv.co.uk/network/item/aid/604709).

3. Three ox drivers from Adab were thirsty: one owned the ox, the other owned the cow and the other owned the wagon's load. The owner of the ox refused to get water because he feared his ox would be eaten-by a lion; the owner of the cow refused because he thought his cow might wander off into the desert; the owner of the wagon refused because he feared his load would be stolen. So they all went. In their absence, the ox made love to the cow which gave birth to a calf which ate the wagon's load. Problem: Who owns the calf? (First written on papyrus in 1200 BC).


4. A woman who was blind in one eye has been married to a man for 20 years. When he found another woman he said toher: 'I shall divorce you because you are said to be blind in one eye.' And she answered: 'Have you just discovered that after 20 years of marriage?' (First penned in a papyrus letter containing Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1100 BC).


8. Augustus was touring his Empire and noticed a man in the crowd who bore a striking resemblance to himself. Intrigued, he asked: 'Was your mother at one time in service at the Palace?' 'No, your Highness,' he replied, 'but my father was.' (Features in Saturnalia, by Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius around 63 BC).


9. Wishing to teach his donkey not to eat, a pedant did not offer him any food. When the donkey died of hunger, he said: 'I've had a great loss. Just when he had learned not to eat, he died.' (Dated to the Philogelos - widely described as the world's oldest 'jokebook' in the 4th and 5th century AD)


10. Asked by the court barber how he wanted his hair cut, the king replied: 'In silence.' (Collected in Philogelos, 4th-5th century AD)

I think number 10 is the best.  9 is funny.  3 is too much like a math problem.

But the funniest thing is that writing and recording stuff in carved rock, papyrus and in clay tablets is exceedingly hard, and requires a fair bit of skill, patience, and professionalism.  And yet a meaningless joke can still be written down!

I'm starting to feel a real bond with historic mankind!

I was watching a marathon over the weekend and I saw one runner dressed as a chicken, and another runner dressed as a egg.  And I though to myself 'this could get interesting'.

Planetary Observations

While I'm waiting for a clear night (BTW we've had snow return to us in a big way this morning - YAY for XT days), here are some pictures of an awesome planet:



Q on the Move is back in the blog world.  I want to be just like him when I grow up.  Go checkout his awesome blog.

Yesterday's Interval Run

Split	Distance	Target	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
2	1200M	9:58	9:53	137	142
4	1200M		9:55	142	151
6	800M	9:37	9:35	144	149
8	800M		9:44	148	152
10	300M	8:56	9:21	143	154
12	300M		9:01	143	155

I still haven't memorized the speed I need to run to be sub-30 mins. on my next 5k! I'm going to run KM-Splits on my watch and run sub 6:00 splits - that's all I can tell you. I've been changing the splits based on the race length. 5ks and 10ks get KM-Splits while 5Ms, 8Ms, etc. get Mile-Splits.  (Split number 10 was around two corners, and I didn't realize there is so much deceleration when you make a turn.  I have to think about this for race time.)

Closet Astronomer

All of you don't know this, but soon it will be 20 years since I studied Astro-Physics at the University of Toronto.  Back then, our knowledge of the Solar System was primitive.  We believed that the Earth was a Styrofoam ball which moved around a larger yellow Styrofoam ball on a well-placed wire.  Now we know this to be false.  It's not a wire but a string.

Well, I found a really good camera for my telescope - $91 on amazon.  And it arrived last Friday, but we've had nothing but cloudy skies all weekend.  I'm hopeful that I can populate the blog with a few of my photographs and movies.  If it gets really hopeless, I'll buy an H-Alpha filter and take pictures of the Sun!  But that will probably make my scope catch on fire.  So far I have some pictures of the cherry tree across the road.

The brochure claims that I should be able to get pictures like this:

Bottom of the pizza box

A UFO

An eyeball

I'll be monitoring my Clear Sky Chart for my next available chance.  I live in a light polluted city, and my neighbor burns down a forest every evening in his wood stove, but we'll give it a try.

The Mother of All Posts - Week in Review

Thanks Chris K for reminding me that the blog world still cares about my posts!  :)

Wannabe Week In Review

Sun		rest
Mon	Base	5 miles @ base + 6x30M strides	drills	weights	5.35 miles @ 12:10
Tue	Interval	wu + 8x400M @ 8:40-8:56 + cd			Target 8:40-8:56 Interval Split Avg Pace Avg HR Max HR 1 2 8:33 147 176 2 4 8:40 141 151 3 6 8:46 140 152 4 8 8:47 143 156 5 10 8:56 141 155 6 12 9:20 143 153 7 14 9:27 143 154 8 16 8:49 146 157 Avg 8:54 143 Max 176
Wed	XT	Elliptical	drills	weights
Thu	Tempo	wu + 2x3K @ 10K + cd			Target 10:13 Interval Split Avg Pace Avg HR Max HR 1 4 10:14 141 151 2 7&8 10:15 144 150 Avg 10:14 142 Max 151
Fri	Easy	2 mi + XT (2 hrs of Squash)	drills
Sat	Long	5 miles @ base + 4 miles @ faster ea. mile			Mile Avg Pace Avg HR Max HR 1-5 12:17 122 160 6 11:28 124 132 7 11:00 127 133 8 10:31 130 139 9 9:52 143 150

28.72 total miles ... and only 4 weeks to go at my attempt at a sub-30-minute 5K in Guelph at the Billy Taylor 5k on Sunday April 17th at 10am.

New Running Equipment

I went to the Running Room Poor-Man's Outlet on North Queen in Etobicoke in the week, and bought myself two pairs of shoes.  I've put about 700 miles on a pair of Asic Gels, and I needed to retire them.

I bought a pair of Black and Red Mizuno Wave Rider 13s for $69 (regular $139) and a wide pair of White and Lime Brooks Summon for $39 (regular $89). I'll keep the Mizunos as my regular running shoe, with the Brooks as backup.  And I'll use the Brooks as my XT, weight and drill shoe, with the Asics as backup.  I have a wide foot and I run on the outside of my feet, so the best I could do was purchase neutral balanced shoes at this outlet.

I've also been raiding the Running Room for Shot Bloks.  I buy a box of 18 at a time for the fact that I get one free!  (Can you tell that I am cheap from the last couple of paragraphs?)  I find that this is the only "engineered" nutrition that I can manage while running.  The Mexodexotrilmaltilotsugaralcihol in GU is way too sweet, the XOODs and Gator Aids really make me want to puke when I really just need a cool swig of fresh water.  I say "engineered" because I have ran with a toasted bagel in my pocket, and it has really hit the spot at mile 5 of a long run.  And I have been known to call ahead to order pizza for the half-way rest stop.  One thing I don't enjoy is all that water on my fuel belt rocking around.  I'll have to look into a camelbak.

The busy-ness I've been experiencing in the last few weeks looks to continue until we can hire a few people, so I need to apologize in advance for my absence from the blogosphere!

Well Wishes

Good luck to everyone running this weekend at Seabrook TX, Long Valley NJ, Moab UT, and Rome Italy!!!!  And I hope you can all send me your successful mojo as I train to beat my next race.

Prediction Run

I found a link yesterday to a race that's held near me every month.  It's called a prediction race.  The idea is the entry fee is all put into a pool, and the winner gets half and half goes to charity.

How do they judge the winner?

You tell them how fast you will run/walk the distance (it's 3K).  Then the difference between your real time and your stated time is your SCORE.  The lowest score wins.

Sounds easy, so what's the catch?

There's no watches, clocks, or timing devices allowed on the course.  You've got to be right on!  Plus no traffic cops and lots of lights.

Here's a link to it.  There's no official timer apparently, and you have to tell the time keeper your time after you finish!

No timer means no HR and stats ... that's the best part of running! :)  I don't think I'll be doing this one too soon. As I haven't been training to run a certain pace without my watch, plus I like to speed up and slow down as the body says it can.  But I bet Chris K would be awesome in one of these races.

On the books today is an 8-miler in the 11:35-12:24 pace range.  I hope you all have a good weekend!

Temp Run in the Books

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72287326

Target	10:13
Interval	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	10:12	141	152
2	10:29	145	154
3	10:33	145	151
Avg	10:24	144
Max			154

39°F rain Feels Like: - Wind: E 9 m/h

cap, glove inserts, turtleneck, technical, track pants, socks

Ran with music, phone and a key.  Puddles everywhere.  No water or food on this run … cut the cool down run short by a ¼ mile because of time constraints.  Had a bit of a upset stomach near the end.  Very draining activity!  Very.  Loved it.  Have to remember to remove Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Soundtrack from my iPod - way to grundgy with no beat or powerful lyrics - actually very depressing.

Two miles easy for today.  I have all of 50 minutes to finish it!  Maybe I should run backwards?

... But I don't think I'll have anything else on my mind except the tsunami wave and the earthquakes in Asia.

Thursday Means Tempo Run

Today's Tempo run will be in the rain but it's looking like 42°!

• 1.5 mile warm up 
• 3 x 2K @ 10:13 pace w/3 min @ 12:30 pace between sets
• 1 mi cool down

April 17th and my sub-5k attempt is less than 40 days away!  40 days of desert and temptation to enter into glory!  (I think I'm taking this a bit far, don't you?)  Anyway, this time is a time of spiritual warfare.  I'll be using it to fight against my poorly-placed desire for ease, and to instill more gratefulness for the life I have been given. 

Ash Wednesday

"Remember, man, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return."

But before then, my schedule is:

• XT - 50 minutes of cross training on the elliptical
• Stretch - 16 mins range-of-motion and strengthening Video
• Cardio - Repeats each x2 - 15 each leg mt climbers/ 15 burpee with pushup
• Weights - 2x15 goblet squats w/db / 2x15 Lateral Lunges w/db / 2x15 step ups w/db / 2x15 Dumbbell deadlifts / 2x hold as long as possible Front plant, side planks / 2x25 regular sit ups

Thanks for all your comments.  Very very much appreciated.

Today is a meatless fast day for me - but where does my protein powder fit in all this?

So that's my password to blogger!

Hey, remember me?  I've been very busy with a startup, so let me post a little about my boring old running and my quest for a sub-30-min-5k.

Today's hill repeats looked like this:

• Incline 14%, 
• 1.5 mile warm up run
• 8 x 45 second comfortable sprints up hill, then recovery pace down
• 1.5 mile cool down

Interval	Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	3	7:51	137	145
2	5	8:45	123	146
3	7	8:39	126	151
4	9	9:39	127	146
5	11	9:40	126	144
6	13	8:49	128	148
7	15	8:38	133	152
8	17	9:17	130	151
.	.	.	.	.
Avg		8:54	129
Max				152

Roughly, if I want to beat 30 mins. I need to run faster than 9:36 a mile.  Looks like I can run that fast for about 200 feet uphill!  But my race is on Palm Sunday morning.  Will I be able to improve enough even though hill repeats are the secret to everything!