Training

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

On December 15th, I got a new watch. The watch I chose (Garmin Forerunner 225) includes an activity tracker, something I didn’t necessarily need but thought would be interesting to experiment with and learn more about. Now that I’m almost a month in, I’d like to share my initial experiences.

As for the watch as a running device, I’ll offer a review once I use it a little more.

This post is focusing on the activity tracker features and, for the most part, not specifically about this device but my feelings on how these features in any fitness tracker may be useful and how they may not.

Heart rate monitor

The heart rate monitor in this device is interesting. It’s wrist based and works by shining a green light on your skin and measuring changes in how much light reflects off your skin (green light reflects off red blood cells better than other colors, hence the color choice).

Unfortunately, this specific device doesn’t automatically record heart rate except while running so I can’t automatically track my resting heart rate but at least it gives a convenient way to manually check my resting heart rate.

Of course, we know that our resting heart rate goes down as we gain fitness and when we’re well rested but spikes when we’re overtrained. This information can be useful. I haven’t been checking my resting heart rate much but I can see the potential usefulness of this.

Activity tracker/step counter

It’s important to note the pros and cons of wrist based activity trackers as compared to old fashioned pedometers.

The pros are that you don’t have to have something attached to your belt and they are on your wrist where you can easily check on your progress throughout the day.

The cons are that, being on your wrist instead of your hip, accuracy won’t be quite as good. I can definitely see times when my steps aren’t being counted. I see other times where I’m not walking and my step count is increasing due to something else I’m doing. In general, though, I do think the recorded step count is a pretty good proxy for how active you have been throughout the day.

So what’s the benefit of the step counter? Personally, I’ve found it to just be something fun to play around with. It’s fun to do a long run and see 20,000+ steps before noon. It has made it clear to me how little activity I do in the winter outside of running. Unfortunately, it hasn’t necessarily changed my habits but that’s on me, not the device.

I can see the benefit, though, if a person would use the step counter as motivation to hit a target. Anything to encourage more activity will result in a healthier lifestyle. Just because I don’t use it that way doesn’t mean it isn’t a benefit for those who do use it that way.

Move alerts

The Forerunner 225 comes with a "Move alerts" function. This basically buzzes or beeps at you and tells you to move if you’ve been sitting for an hour without a walking break. It then will not reset itself until you’ve walked for 2 minutes.

Conceptually, this seems like a great idea. We now know that sitting for long times is bad for our health and frequent short walking breaks like the 2 minutes needed to reset the move alert are all it takes to negate the negative effects of sitting.

In practice, it didn’t work for me. I ended up turning move alerts off. Partly because I didn’t want it buzzing me during meetings and partly because I couldn’t get it to reset just by walking around the house without basically walking laps. I just found it to be an annoyance more than a useful tool.

Again, though, this is on me. It could be very useful for people who use it to motivate themselves to get up and move around every hour.

Sleep monitor

This is something I was very curious about. The sleep monitor works basically by monitoring your movement throughout the night. It then tells you how much deep sleep (with very little movement) you had, how much light sleep (with a little more movement) you had and how much awake time (with a relatively high level of movement) you had throughout a night.

I found it surprising how much I move around overnight. Apparently I’m not getting as much deep sleep as I thought I was. This was an educational experience for me. It’s also interesting to see when I am sleeping deeply and when I’m not.

I suspect I might be able to use this information to help improve my sleep quality if I can find some correlation between my quality of sleep and things going on in the house. It would also be interesting to do things like adjust the thermostat and see how my sleep is affected.

While I have done very little with this information at this time, it’s actually where I’m most expecting to gain some benefit. Basically because I’m expecting to actually act on the data.

Conclusion

As usual, the tool is just a tool. It’s all about how you are going to use it. Personally, it seems like a fun toy for me for the most part. If I can convince myself to change some habits due to what this is telling me, maybe I’ll change my mind.

However, if you’re committed to change your habits based on what an activity tracker is telling you, I can definitely see where it can be useful.

Sure, you can change your habits without the use of an activity tracker. However, I’m a numbers guy. I know how it works for people like myself. If you will use the numbers to hold yourself accountable, then it could be very useful. The numbers may not be perfect but, in a general sense, they don’t lie. If your device records 10,000 steps yesterday and only 8,000 today, it’s a pretty sure bet you were a fair bit less active today. If you’ll act upon that information, then it can be a good motivator to improve your health.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Bo Ryan, the recently retired fundamentals coach

I’m a fan of Wisconsin basketball. Not just because I’m a Wisconsinite, though that plays a role, but also because I like the Bo Ryan way of doing things (thanks Andrew for sharing the link with me). Fundamentals first and foremost. In basketball, those who practice fundamentals the way the Badgers do will always be good, though they may not be flashy. Regardless of talent, they will always be competitive. They may not always overcome talented teams, especially talented teams that also focus on fundamentals, but they will at times and they will always be the teams labeled overachievers.

So what does this have to do with running? Well, the same is true in running. Practice the fundamentels until they are routine, then keep practicing them, and you’ll be an overachiever.

We’re runners, though. We aren’t passing and dribbling in running, we’re just putting one foot in front of the other. What does practice the fundamentals mean in running? Well, it means you don’t try to overcomplicate your training. Don’t try to copy workouts you hear about just because someone you admire is doing them. Stick to the fundamentals of training. Build a good base of volume, do the core workouts that you’ve been doing for years and you know work, don’t skimp on the basics. Just because you did a lot of tempo runs and strides last year doesn’t mean you get to skip them this year. It means you do them better. You do them faster if you’re coming in with a greater level of fitness. You don’t ignore what you were focusing on last year but you pick a weakness you found last year and give it extra attention. Make it a strength.

This doesn’t mean you don’t look for new things. New workouts are great if you have a reason and plan to fit them into your schedule. Have a plan, though. Have a reason for everything. And never overlook those basic fundamentals that have gotten you to where you are.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

During the holidays, our lives can get hectic. Traveling, family events, the weather (in some areas, including here in Wisconsin). Many things can get in our way this time of the year.

What do you do when life gets in the way of your running plans? How do you respond?

Most of the time, we can probably find a way to get our runs in. However, there are exceptions. When these happen, don’t beat yourself up if you have to cut a run short or even miss a run.

No single workout will make or break your year. As long as you’re getting in the large majority of your runs, you’ll be fine. Just roll with it and do your best to get your next planned run in.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

A different runner than 15 years ago

During my high school, college and even early post-collegiate years, I was an inconsistent runner. Anyone who knew me in the late 1990s and early 2000s knew I could put up a sub-16 5K or struggle to get home under 17 minutes in any given race. In any given 10K, I could go sub-33 or struggle to break 35 minutes.

Why? I was obviously capable of sub-16 and sub-33. It had nothing to do with my fitness or physical preparation. It had everything to do with what was going on above my shoulders.

At times, I’d enter a race with what I would now call a calm confidence. I’d be relaxed, knowing what I was capable of and knowing what I had to do in order to execute the good race. I’d feel the anticipation and excitement of race day but my mind was in a good place. My thoughts were positive, focused on executing the plan and knowing that the execution would lead to a good result.

Other times, for whatever reason, I’d enter a race a nervous wreck. I remember one race my sophomore year of college where I stopped during my warmup to retie my shoe. I put my foot up on a bleacher and I was so nervous I couldn’t even hold my foot still. I got myself too worked up about going after the result and I wasn’t centered and focused on executing the plan I knew I was capable of executing. I wasn’t thinking positively about how executing the plan would lead to a good result. I was thinking "I have to…" Those three words lead to bad thoughts, which lead to bad performances.

These days, I’m a different runner. Not every race is going to be a good race for anyone. No matter what, we all have bad days. However, I’ve stopped putting pressure on myself. I go in knowing that the best result will come from that calm confidence in going in with a plan that, once executed, will lead to the best possible result. I know what result I want but I also don’t put pressure on myself to hit that result. I know the best I can do is execute the race as close as possible to perfectly and see where that leads me.

So how did I get from where I was to where I am now and how can you follow the same path to more consistent results?

There are a few keys that I’ve learned along the way. Mostly alluded to above but I want to lay them out clearly.

1) Know what you can do and believe in it: Look at your training and how it has gone. Be honest with yourself about how your training has gone. Learn what this means and what result is possible. It can also be good to have a handful of workouts that you know well enough to know what kind of race times they indicate based on how you run them.

I would also note that it’s better to be a little conservative with estimating what you can do than to be too aggressive. Because…

2) Have confidence in your goal: …you need to believe you are 100% capable of what you’re setting out to do. This is why, when I’m helping runners set their goals, I let them set the goals. I want them to set a goal they fully believe in. I’d rather see someone say they want to run a 3:30 marathon than 3:20 if they don’t believe they can run 3:20. Even if I believe they can.

3) Focus on the process more than the goal: Plan your race to meet your goal. Then execute the plan. Focus on the plan. Because it was planned to meet the goal you have 100% confidence in, it should be a plan that you have 100% confidence in. If you execute the plan, which you have full confidence in executing, the result will come.

4) Roll with the punches: There are a lot of variables on race day. Something won’t go perfectly to plan. Be prepared for that and ready to adjust the plan as necessary. Most surprises aren’t as serious as we think they are when they first happen. If you can remain calm, you can adjust the plan usually pretty simply and still hit your goal.

If you get caught with a big surprise like a strong headwind or extreme heat, you may need to adjust your goal but everyone will either adjust their goals and plans in that situation or pay the price.

In the end, it’s about heading to the line with that calm confidence. Sure, you’re excited for the race but you’re also standing at the line ready because you know what you can do and how you’re going to go about doing it. When something unexpected happens, you’re ready for it because you know something was going to happen and you can calmly make the best adjustment to get back on track.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Mudder’s race

What do you do when you wake up on race morning and it’s incredibly windy? Or raining? Or cold? Or cold and snowing?

I hope you adjust your race plan accordingly (if you didn’t already know this weather was coming and make those adjustments). Then I hope you embrace the elements.

I got thinking about this topic this past weekend when I was at the WIAC Cross Country Championships at a soggy Lake Breeze Golf Course just outside of Oshkosh. It wasn’t too cold and the rain/drizzle was pretty light but it had been a wet week leading up to race day and the course was saturated. The high spots were like a wet sponge and any low spot, no matter how minor, had standing water. It was a mudder’s race.

I was talking with someone at the meet about the conditions and said I liked these conditions when I was running cross country. I was not a mudder. I was too light and too much of a rhythm runner for a muddy course to not slow me down but I told myself everyone has to face the conditions. A lot of guys are psyching themselves out over the conditions and those are guys who I have the opportunity to beat because I’m preparing to deal with it and just run my best.

Of course you have to adjust your race plan accordingly. When I ran the Lakefront Marathon in 2002, there were some runners who didn’t adjust their plans. The wind beat them down and I made easy work of guys I had no reason to think I would be anywhere near on an ordinary day.

Once you adjust your plan, though, embrace the elements. Have fun with them. If you have your plan down and are ready to execute, you can enjoy the elements. Be a kid splashing through the mud puddles. Think of how great the stories of overcoming the heat, cold, wind or whatever else you’re facing will be once it’s over. Make a snow angel at the start line (I guarantee this will help you psych out some of your competitors while keeping yourself relaxed).

Whatever you do, don’t let the elements get to you. If you convince yourself that the elements will cause you to fail, you do nothing but ensure that you will be right.