Treadmills Are For Pussies!

Yeah, I know. I use em sometimes, especially during winter.

But they really are for, well, you know....

Here's an example if you still need help with what I am talking about....

Food. Notorious Food.

For those of you who wish to read this, please beware. You may suddenly become hungry, and have thoughts of attacking your refridgerator. Therefore, please read at your own risk.
Today started on a downward slide. Typically, most runners can usually get away with packing in a few more calories. This is because the aerobic exercise of jogging will burn off more calories than just about any other activity. However, there are limits, as to what you can burn off, whereas the sky is the limit with how many calories one could consume.

Unfortunately, I just don't learn my lesson.

I try to have no more than 1500-1800 calories per day. A body weighing roughly 155 pounds will burn about 75 calories per day. Multiply that by 24 hours, and voilá! You get 1800 calories burned.

After a nice weigh-in after my Brooklyn Half last Saturday, I thought that if I could get to around 140-145 pounds, that I would then be at an optimal mass. However, I love to eat. And therein lies the problem. My weakness of eating. My stomach. My taste buds. They are all part of a non-stop machine. My stepmother Cristina calls me "Hooverito". She is Cuban, but one does not need much imagination to know why she calls me that. First of all, it means the vacuum of the same name, but only in Spanish. For me, there are more marathons than just running. Keep me from eating for too long, and watch what I'll do at an Italian restaurant.... What a disgrace!

And speaking of rampant and uncontrollable urges, today was no exception. For breakfast, I had not 1, but 2 bagels. And they were loaded with real Breakstone butter. At some point I will have to learn NOT TO BUY OR EAT THESE THINGS ANYMORE!!!!

But that was nothing. The assault continued later on in the day. I actually did a run at noon. But it was to my car. From there I drove on a flat road. But to tell you the truth folks, it was all downhill. You see, there's this
little deli called "Suburban Eats". It's right on route 110 in Melville....and their food is really, really good. And I was really, really hungry.

A foot long chicken parmagiana hero, a prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich, and a bag of Garlic & Herb Roasted "Dirty" Potato Chips later, I felt as if I was in my third term. But let us not forget the Diet Coke. For we ARE watching our weight, right?! Yeah, sure. We are watching it all right. Watching it rise, like a bread in the over, to be sure.

The icing on the cake came later. Literally. The food truck (that damned food truck), which comes around every couple of hours by my office, honked his horn. "Coffee Truck is here", was announced over the PA. I was not going to go outside. No sir-ree! Heck, I ate enough already, didn't I? At least 2000 calories today, and it's only 2 pm!

But then I remembered...I owed Ken (the driver of that damned food truck) money for food from last week. I can't let the tab slide, right? I mean, I had to pay him. All I have to do is just march right out there, pay up, turn my ass around, and march right back in.

And that's exactly...what I almost did.......Till I saw them. The Hostess Cupcakes....Mmmmmm.
Hadn't had those in months. I fought and I fought. I circled the truck like a shark. I even started to mutter to myself, being careful not to let my co-workers see me (cause that might not be too cool). But the mind was too weak, and the digestive engines too strong. My stomach, like the plant in the movie, "The Little Shop of Horrors", had yelled to his rightful master...."Alex, Feed Me! Feed me Alex!!!" I pleaded with my brain to ease the sensations, but I caved. Then, I even rationalized, that "Hey? What's 350 more calories anyway?" I bought my sinful little treat, and then washed it down, with a Vitamin Water. LOL.

As penance, I went tonight to the gym, and just got back. 12 miles. After the first 6, my lower, inner part of left leg (about 4 inches down from my knee) was talking to me again. I got off the treadmill, and got on the elliptical machine, a non-impact exercise. I did this for about 20 minutes, then went to another treadmill. I'm glad I did this too because as it turned out, the second treadmill was in much better shape than the first.

I can't wait for the weather to finally warm up over here. I need to run the streets and the parks. All this treadmill running is taking it's toll on my legs.

Anyway, the lesson for tonight: Eat every 3 hours, eat small amounts, stay away from bad carbs, and if you must eat bad, be prepared to repent!

Remember.......to run like this:
you must not eat too many of this:

Gonzal-EZ does it.

Taking it easy, is the best way to get in shape without getting hurt. For me, I've found that the more gradual my approach, the better results I get. Just like I wouldn't lunge to touch your toes during a hamstring stretch, I don't believe that getting on a treadmill, and starting off at 7.5 MPH is also too rapid, and too excessive to begin your run.

For the last few years, I've had trouble adhering to the "tortoise beat hare" mentality, especially when it comes to running, & doubly so when it's treadmill running.

Too often, when I run on at the gym, I would lose focus of the goal, and wind up abandoning my mission. I would start by doing what I'm supposed to do, like going to do a slow 5K jog, but then I'd see that the person next to me is blowing me away on the treadmill. When I see that, I either want to beat that person, or at least not be held back. In any case, I wind up doing fast sprints all too often, and as you probably know where this article is leading to, I wind up getting 2 more miles in through speed, just to give them back, and a lot more, by being injured for the next 4 days.


Especially after the injuries of the last two years, I may have finally learned my lesson, and decided to just be gradual in my running. If you look at the chart above, you'll see that each of my miles are a little bit faster (or slower) than the last.

What I have figured out it that I can run very fast and for much longer periods of time, if I don't blast out of the gate. I learned this at the 2005 Brooklyn Half-Marathon, but did not apply it till this year. During that race, my shins were killing me (later to find out that I was running on a broken left leg-yep that's a good blog, but for another day). Fearful of the sensation, I started out under running, or going slower than my normal pace for about the first 6 miles. I felt so well after that period that I was not only able to sustain my normal pace thereafter, but exceed it, and without tiring out.

Well, this year, after the heartache of last year's dissapointing (albeit courageous & foolish) finish at the 2006 NYC Marathon, I decided I would no longer just blast off. And thus, when I am on a treadmill, rather than starting at 6.7 or even 7.3 MPH, I start at 5.5 MPH and work my way up. The way I do this is a bit tedious, yet simple. Let me explain:

I get on the treadmill (after my warm up stretches), and start walking at about 3.4 to 3.8 MPH. After about 2 minutes, I reset the workout, and restart manually at 5.5 MPH. Then, with each tenth (.1) of a mile completed, I up the speed by a tenth. So, when I've hit 1 mile completed, I am now at 6.5 MPH, and so on.

Today, I went to the LA Fitness in Farmingdale during my late lunch. I started at 5.5 MPH, and since I knew I was going to run 5 miles, I upped myself by .1 MPH for every .1 of a mile completed. So, when I got to having completed 2.5 miles, I was at my max speed of 8.0 MPH. Then, in order to not finish at a high speed, I reversed the progress by the same rate. In other words, I decreased the speed by a tenth, for every tenth of a mile completed thereafter. So, I was at 7.5 MPH at mile 3, and 6.5 MPH @ mile 4, and so on.

The result was no pain, and all gain. I sweated a lot because I only passed my lactate threshold when I got past 7.3 MPH. In fact, by moving my speeds up and down ever so gently, I may have even taught my body to burn fat at faster than normal speeds. I felt great afterwards, and thought that I had finally shaken the "The Faster I Go The More I Would Impress The Woman Around Me"....not to mention that my girlfriend would probably want to kick my butt for even thinking it.....umm errr, I am blogging....Oh well. Got to live dangerously ever so often!

One last note. If you are a serious runner, and take documenting your workouts seriously, then YOU'VE GOT TO GO TO WWW.RUNNINGAHEAD.COM.

I've tried all the websites out there to include Nike, Runner'sWorld, Polar (the watch company), and CoolRunnings, and while they all have nice features, nothing comes even close to the granular level of detail that that site provides. Another thing is that it is very easy to use, very addictive, and the user community that's there today, is great! I only wish that there were others from my Metro Area (NYC) that would use this site. If they did, they'd never go back to anything else!! I think Eric Yee (I hope that it's okay if I use his name), is the creator of this site, and I think he has done a spectacular job of providing incredibly simple to use tools to help us be better runners. Thanks Eric!!!

Treadmillosis Brokenitis.

More and more, gymnasiums (a necessary supplement) have been infected with this deadly disease. It starts with the host germ, called the gym employee, doing something other than working. This includes talking to the good looking girl at the smoothie bar, or checking out the -err- fitness quotient of some of the members. And how does it end? It ends with treadmills that work like c*%p and become unusuable to the feet & legs of many.

Of course, it would be nice to put a SIGN on the treadmill warning us to stay away from these

neglected, and overrun machines....but NOOOOOOO (John Belushi style), it is far better for you, the PAYING customer to get on the treadmill, and nearly get off --- on the floor behind you.

Oh, by the way, that was a rant.

Anyway, it had been 3 days since my last run, and my mini-strains on my calves are much better now. I ran a 5K in an easy, slow speed (about 10 min. per mile). My calves were a little tight after the run, but I think I am in a much better place now.

To all people of Cleveland......THANK YOU FOR THE SUN!

Yes, the streak of gray skies is broken.

However, the streak of late flight departures is not. 10 flights in a row and counting... (That was a 'rant aftershock')

Weather is miserable, raining swimming pools over here.

Pizza night tonight (Dani's special an entire pie for 8 bucks).