Rodeo Run 10K Race Report, and Polar H7 Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor Review

Every year the single 10K race that I look forward to the most is the Rodeo Run.  This year again fully met my expectations.

Arriving early with my wife and her friend, both of whom ran the 5K, we had plenty of time to check-out some horses and decorations of the parade floats prior to my 10K and subsequently their 5K start.  These floats and horses, along with hundreds of parade participants, are viewed by tens of thousands of spectators in Downtown Houston each year to dramatically kick-off the start of the Rodeo.  The spectators, eager to see and cheer for a parade of any kind, are consistently enthusiastic and supportive of the nearly ten thousand 5K and 10K Rodeo Run runners.  This, combined with the high volume shouted encouragement of numerous announcers along the downtown streets, creates a truly celebratory mood particularly in the first mile where the spectator support is the greatest.

Resulting from the cheering crowds and my fresh legs, I consistently find it hard to initially moderate my pace in order to run the second half of the race faster than the first half (Kenyan Way coach Sean Wade's number one rule!)  Sadly, as is oft the case, my earliest mile pace was my fastest, and I subsequently gradually slowed until the final mile, when provoked by a runner in my age group passing me my competitive juices kicked-in and I was spurred to catch him - which I did just before the finish line!  My mile-by-mile paces, on a 70 degree nearly 100% humidity morning were: 7:46, 7:46, 7:58, 8:23, 8:23, then 8:08.

While far from my personal best time I succeeded in protecting my legs for the far more important 200 mile Texas Independence Relay which I will be running with eleven friends in four weeks.  My calves, which I've had issues with in the past months, felt good throughout the race.  For this I again thank Connie, whose therapeutic massage skills have allowed me to run three races in the past two months.  After the race was over I was happy to see that within my division I placed 11th out of 146 - within the top ten percent.

Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor Review:

Earlier this week I purchased via Amazon a highly rated Bluetooth heart rate monitor, the Polar H7.  It paired easily with my iPhone 5 and, thanks to it being natively supported by the iSmoothRun App I used it to monitor and announce each prior mile's total mileage, pace, cadence and heart rate - all while otherwise playing a motivating music playlist.  This information, conveniently provided without my needing to glance down at my wrist as I had previously done with my Garmin Forerunner proved helpful via cautioning me against a dramatic increase in exertion seen through a sharp increase in heart rate.  The Polar H7 worked well with the iSmoothRun App, and conveniently auto-uploads afterward to DailyMile and RunKeeper.  Bottom line, while I am new to using the Polar H7, I give it a big thumbs up.

Further Planning for the 2014 Texas Independence Relay!

For my sixth consecutive year I'll soon be running the Texas Independence Relay with a great team called the DOGS.  Despite the predictable last minute scheduling challenges, I'm excited!

To see our latest plan, see the individual GoogleMaps' leg-by-leg views shown below or this GoogleEarth KML file for the 2014 DOGS.  Finally, the following very helpful one was recently posted by the TIR organizer.

Sleep Shift 1 Vehicle	Rick	MarkU	David	Ruth	Don	Janet
Leg 1	01-Rick	08-MarkU	09-David	10-Ruth	11-Don	12-Janet
Leg 2	27-Rick	26-MarkU	25-David	29-Ruth	28-Don	30-Janet
Leg 3	33-Rick	32-MarkU	31-David	35-Ruth	34-Don	36-Janet
Leg 4		38-MarkU	37-David
Relay Miles (Legs)	14.2 (3)	19.5 (4)	19.8 (4)	14.3 (3)	15.6 (3)	13.0 (3)
Sleep Shift 2 Vehicle	Paul	MB	Kim	Tim	Kath	MarkO
Leg 1	02-Paul	03-MB	04-Kim	05-Tim	06-Kath	07-MarkO
Leg 2	13-Paul	14-MB	15-Kim	16-Tim	18-Kath	17-MarkO
Leg 3	19-Paul	20-MB	21-Kim	22-Tim	23-Kath	24-MarkO
Leg 4	40-Paul		39-Kim
Relay Miles (Legs)	20.9 (4)	16.4 (3)	17.9 (4)	18.0 (3)	14.1 (3)	14.5 (3)

Versus the plan posted a month ago we had the additional challenge of replacing yet another DOG who had to withdraw due to an illness or injury.  As with our prior unexpected personnel withdrawals we were again fortunate to quickly identify a willing and capable experienced runner to fill the void.  Last night upon realizing that to avoid the second sleep shift needing to be awoken 90-minutes short of their well deserved sleep allocation (to avoid being charged an extra night's stay by violating the hotel's Noon check-out) I again reshuffled the DOGS' running order.

I'm quite satisfied with the results, which can also be visualized - with great emphasis on the hilliness of the 30-miles east of Gonzales - via the following customized elevation map:

DOG FOLLOWERS!
TIR runners can have the entire course on your smart-phone, with your own location shown (as the blue dot) so that you could always see where you are relative to the course.  This is very helpful both for potentially lost runners, and for the passengers in the support vehicles to follow their runners along:

1) Click on the below link (while reading this on your phone).

https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=208385123618179864865.0004abc20606c5a9f5000&msa=0&ll=29.606894%2C-96.569824&spn=1.640482%2C2.768555

2) A message may come up about GPS tracking or using your current location... you'll need to accept / ok it.

3) You should see the TIR route come up on your phone (on your phones web browser and NOT Google Maps app), but maybe not a blue dot that shows where you are.

4) Touch the little icon near the top that looks like a diamond sign with a turn (to the right) arrow on it.

5) then a screen with "Directions" at the top should show up. Click on the icon with the person hiking (this is just to the left of the bicycle icon, and beneath "Add Destination - Show options")

6) Then touch the little icon with the map with the pointer on it (to the immediate right of the word "Directions" at the very top)

7) Now, you should be able to see a blue dot at your current location (representing you!). We now see you, too! Just kidding.

Austin Half Marathon Race Report

Finished! After this morning's Austin Half, I was, quite simply, very glad to be done.

My pre-race planning and preparations started well enough, waking-up early enough for my normal Breakfast of Champions (Starbuck's non-fat Venti Cappuccino, Gatorade, yogurt, fruit, and granola.) I arrived at the start corral north of the Capitol with enough time to avoid weaving around the back-of-the-pack runners. My physical condition was acceptable, though clearly nowhere close to my best, as a result of the six-week interruption to my training caused by a calf injury which is now, thankfully, only a painful memory (thanks again, Connie and Sean!) This being the Austin Half Marathon I had intended to do more hill training in preparation, but life got in the way and was only able to do a dozen or so loops around Houston's Miller Outdoor Theatre versus my hoped for Conroe runs.

Despite the reasonable 60°F starting temperature, I didn't factor adequately into account Austin's hills and especially this morning's dripping 100% humidity. These led me to seek to match or improve upon my recent Houston performance, thinking incorrectly that my somewhat improved fitness would overcome the heat and hills. By the eighth mile, running briefly alongside my wonderfully supportive wife inquiring my condition, I was several minutes off my hoped for pace so knew I had to reset to my back-up plan.

Fortunately, I had one! My new plan was to beat two hours total time, thereby to be below 9-minute average pace. However, with continued hills and growing fatigue working against me I knew it would be a close call as I sprinted the final downhill section past the Capitol to the finish line. I just made it with a 1:57:38 time and an 8:58 average pace. Through my inadequate planning I proved myself not to be a sufficiently loyal disciple of Coach Sean Wade, who preaches incessantly - but evidently, not sufficiently! - about the importance of every runner achieving a negative split on each race and training run.

Ultimately, I'm OK with the result. It's being healthy and able to run that's most important; performance is secondary. In the coming days I'll give my body some much needed rest, then will begin my preparations for the Houston Rodeo Run 10K and the always fun Texas Independence Relay!

RoadNoise Safety Vest Review

Through the organizer of the excellent Texas Independence Relay I found out about the RoadNoise. As is shown in the following video, the RoadNoise is a safety vest with small speakers in the shoulders which allows the runner to safely listen to music while remaining clearly visible. I will use it on the next Texas Independence Relay, as headphones (but not the RoadNoise) are appropriately prohibited as it is run primarily on the shoulder of public roads shared by high speed traffic.

To test the product's visibility I wore it after dark while running on the shoulder of the road, observing when approaching vehicles first saw me - evidenced by their moving over or slowing down. I was delighted to see every approaching vehicle do so while at least one hundred yards away. Conversely, in prior evening runs despite wearing a bright yellow running shirt a couple of drivers clearly did not see me - thus proving that bright colors alone do not make a runner visible!

While engaged in this experiment I enjoyed music via the RoadNoise's built-in speakers connected through the earphone jack of my iPhone, which is held securely in place in a Velcro enclosed pouch sufficiently large as to accommodate devices up to a Samsung Galaxy 3. I was impressed that the audio quality was not bad, once I set the equalization to "small speakers" (an important item to test on any new speaker system.)

I was also impressed that even with music played sufficiently loud to clearly hear the lyrics that I was still easily able to hear approaching vehicles and pedestrians. So, I have no hesitation recommending that runners try the RoadNoise. Particularly at this time of year, when days are still relatively short yet the improving weather encourages us to go outside, we need to be ultra-cautious with the potentially deadly combination of heavy vehicle traffic and increasingly distracted drivers.

The RoadNoise is well constructed and designed, and its mesh construction does not restrict air flow so allows you to run cool. Note, however, that as its speakers are powered from your device, you will find its battery to drain much more quickly than normal; consequently, be sure to fully charge it before your run. Also, though the RoadNoise's speakers are water resistant, the vest offers no weather protection for your electronic device, so be sure to protect it (I recommend via a clear plastic sandwich bag.)

From my experience exchanging my previously ordered medium, which proved too snug, to a large I found that RoadNoise's customer service is both courteous and prompt. I received neither a promotional product nor an incentive for this review. Bottom line, I highly recommend RoadNoise!

Houston Half Marathon Race Report

Up until two weeks ago my running was badly suffering. Beginning two months prior my left calf had suddenly acted-up, forcing me to the sidelines for two weeks. Two weeks later, thinking I was recovered, I ran on a cold and rainy day, and on the thirteenth mile my right calf suddenly screamed with pain, once again forcing me to the sidelines. Worried about my declining fitness, every succeeding two weeks I tested my calf's recovery by attempting a short three mile run, and was increasingly dejected since after only two miles I discovered that my calf was not healed.
This sad situation continued for six weeks, when I finally sought-out then heeded the excellent advice of Kenyan Way Coach Sean Wade, who recommended that I see his long-time sports masseuse Connie. Doing so proved nearly miraculous, as she unlocked my extremely tight fascia which had been restricting the blood flow and the cellular healing of the injured calf muscle. As a result of her healing touch, in the past two weeks I've been delighted to quickly ramp-up my running distances - with no hint of calf problems.

With this as my recent backdrop I ran today's Houston Half Marathon intending to run at a conservative pace, as running too quickly would raise the risk of incurring another injury - especially given my loss of endurance resulting from my nearly two month hiatus. I was delighted with today's half-way decent 1:51 time, which while far from my 1:35 personal record proved both calves are fully healed, and I remain on-track to build my endurance towards the Austin Half Marathon in four weeks. Thanks again, Sean and Connie!

Bottom line, when confronting a frustrating running situation, rendered more-so by endorphin deprivation, don't rely solely on your own judgement. Instead, seek out the council of your more experienced coach or trusted adviser.

I love the new 2014 Houston Marathon and Half Marathon course!  Especially notably, both courses, beginning this year, completely avoid the dreaded Elysian Viaduct, a mile long spectator-free road, ramp and bridge north of downtown that had previously provided runners unsightly views of railroad tracks and down-scale commercial properties. Conversely, the new course substitutes neighborhoods with ample, and always appreciated, spectator support. Great job to RD Brant Kotch and his staff!

Plans for the forthcoming Texas Independence Relay!

Returning again in March I am looking forward to running the Texas Independence Relay (TIR) with team "DOGS" for my sixth (the team's seventh) consecutive year. The TIR is consistently well managed, and I'm blessed to have an excellent group of friends to run this relay race with. It is always tremendously fun, and I recommend it highly to Houston-area runners eager for a new adventure.

In the past several months our team has overcome many significant personnel challenges, resulting from the unfortunate injury or relocation amongst four of last year's twelve DOGS. Fortunately, we were successful at finding strong replacement runners whom we've known for years, so we're all looking forward to another fantastic experience.

Listed below is a summary table extracted from my Excel planning spreadsheet with ample stats, additionally showing each leg run with a corresponding Google Maps link:

	DON's TRUCK 1st Sleep Shift:
	Rick	MarkU	David	Janet	Raul	Don
Relay Miles	15.7	19.0	17.6	13.0	14.5	14.7
Prologue Miles	1.15	1.15	1.15	1.15	1.15	1.15
Total TIR Miles	16.9	20.1	18.8	14.2	15.7	15.9
Pace (cool & flat)	8:30	8:00	8:45	11:39	9:45	8:30
Forecast Run Time (h:m)	2:17	2:35	2:39	2:34	2:26	2:07
Forecast Pace (Hot&Hilly)	8:46	8:12	9:02	11:51	10:04	8:41
Overall Elev. Increase (ft.)	528	460	770	285	556	323
Overall Elev. Decrease (ft.)	(498)	(620)	(578)	(395)	(575)	(408)
Overall Net Change in Elev. (ft.)	30	(160)	192	(110)	(19)	(85)
Overall Number of Legs	3	4	4	3	3	3
Leg 1	1-Rick	2-MarkU	3-David	12-Janet	13-Raul	14-Don
Leg 2	28-Rick	10-MarkU	11-David	30-Janet	29-Raul	31-Don
Leg 3	34-Rick	27-MarkU	32-David	36-Janet	35-Raul	37-Don
Leg 4		33-MarkU	38-David
Relay Miles (Legs)	15.7 (3)	19.0 (4)	17.6 (4)	13.0 (3)	14.5 (3)	14.7 (3)
	TIM's TRUCK 2nd Sleep Shift:
	Paul	MB	Kim	Kath	Tim	MarkO
Relay Miles	19.0	18.1	18.4	15.8	17.5	14.9
Prologue Miles	1.15	1.15	1.15	1.15	1.15	1.15
Total TIR Miles	20.2	19.2	19.5	17.0	18.7	16.1
Pace (cool & flat)	8:30	9:00	8:03	8:04	8:21	10:00
Forecast Run Time (h:m)	2:46	2:47	2:31	2:11	2:30	2:33
Forecast Pace (Hot&Hilly)	8:47	9:18	8:17	8:21	8:35	10:18
Overall Elev. Increase (ft.)	585	401	427	537	259	399
Overall Elev. Decrease (ft.)	(433)	(462)	(527)	(575)	(361)	(443)
Overall Net Change in Elev. (ft.)	152	(61)	(100)	(38)	(102)	(44)
Overall Number of Legs	4	3	4	3	3	3
Leg 1	4-Paul	9-MB	7-Kim	5-Kath	8-Tim	6-MarkO
Leg 2	15-Paul	16-MB	17-Kim	18-Kath	19-Tim	20-MarkO
Leg 3	21-Paul	22-MB	23-Kim	24-Kath	25-Tim	26-MarkO
Leg 4	40-Paul		39-Kim
Relay Miles (Legs)	19.0 (4)	18.1 (3)	18.4 (4)	15.8 (3)	17.5 (3)	14.9 (3)

For even better visualizations of the route install Google Earth then click:

• Here for the customized zoom-in on any leg along the route;
• Here for a fun view of our ~36-hour trek compressed to 5.5-minutes!

Here's a great elevation view generated by the very handy GPSVISUALIZER.com tool:

iSmoothRun iPhone App Review

For many years I have been a loyal Garmin Forerunner user. Two years ago, anticipating that I would participate in more triathlons than I subsequently did, I purchased the swim, bike and run friendly Forerunner 310XT.

This unit, and the two reliable Forerunners which preceded it have played an important part of my running. They provided me consistently reliable feedback during my training runs and races, and allowed me to wirelessly connect through my PC afterward to Garmin Connect and DailyMile (my favorite owing to their excellent runners' network, and the primary repository for my data.)

Despite this Garmin Forerunner loyalty, lately I have begun testing a new iPhone App, iSmoothRun, and in several ways it is a superior alternative.  For example, I used it on this morning's 12-mile Kenyan Way run, and found it helpful in achieving a negative split. I also appreciate its detailed weather information which, with other run parameters, is automatically uploaded from iSmoothRun to DailyMile, a capability which does not exist with Garmin's export facility.

iSmoothRun makes it easy to export one's complete activity data to multiple services.  History has proven that web services periodically close, often with no notice.  Consequently, a well prepared runner's best defense is to maintain their data on multiple services, which iSmoothRun facilitates as shown below:

My initial concern with iSmoothRun was with its distance measurement accuracy, since deviations proportionally affect calculated pace.  After testing both iSmoothRun and the Forerunner side-by-side over several test runs I have concluded that iSmoothRun's measurements are slightly more accurate.  The reasons for this are not completely clear, but I suspect relate to the excellent LTE-adjusted GPS measurement data captured by iSmoothRun on my iPhone 5. iSmoothRun consistently measures distances approximately 1.3% to 2% short of the Forerunner, approximately an equal margin that the Forerunner consistently measures certified race distances as excessively long.

Finding motivation from my iPhone's music playlists I appreciate iSmoothRun's optional ability to play from a playlist while announcing every mile through my headphones my run's data, including the past mile's and overall run's distance, pace and cadence.  Though the Garmin Forerunner provides the same information, in dimly lit conditions I have difficulty reading even the large Garmin 310XT screen, so I appreciate being able to hear this information additionally since it is non-interruptive to my running flow.

Also, I find periodic real-time cadence information to be valuable in reinforcing my ongoing migration towards a more rapid running cadence.  This is helpful both to improve my running efficiency and form. iSmoothRun assists in this regard by conveniently using the iPhone's built-in accelerometer to measure cadence, where-as the Forerunner requires the runner purchase a separate, expensive, and battery dependent shoe pod.

iSmoothRun's developer has proven responsive to my support e-mails, and open to product improvement suggestions including:

1. When the user has only run one mile, in the announcement say "mile" versus "miles";
2. In the set-up screen, allow user customization.  This would allow, for example, iSmoothRun to include the "Average cadence" text string preceding that numeric value;
3. In the tabular run report, allow the iSmoothRun user to see displayed *for each mile* both the actual start/finish elevations, and the overall elevation increases/decreases within that mile;
4. Allow the user to press and hold the select button on their iPhone's headphones to start or stop the run.  This feature is essential in a race or a competitive event since the runner is unable at the moment of crossing the start or finish lines to access their iPhone, and iSmoothRun's auto-pause feature would not be helpful since the runner cannot slow as they approach the start or leave the finish line area.

Until the final item is incorporated into a future release of iSmoothRun, I will continue to primarily rely upon my Garmin Forerunner in races.  However, given the many benefits of iSmoothRun over the Garmin Forerunner for training runs, and recognizing that the App costs only $4.99, I highly recommend it.

There are many other important iSmoothRun features beyond those mentioned above.  To learn more suggest you visit the developer's website.

Update (10/24/13):
After many months and many runs since this post I exclusively use the iSmoothRun App during training runs on my iPhone in lieu of carrying my Garmin Forerunner. I love it! Incidentally, I noticed on this morning's run that yesterday iSmoothRun issued a major new update to the App which significantly improves upon its appearance, but leaves the core functionality untouched.

Houston's Rodeo Run 10K Race Report

Every year I run Houston's ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run 10K, and I always enjoy it.  This year was no exception!

The primary reason is that the race is always lined with enthusiastic crowds of spectators.  The fact that the crowd is primarily there to see the trail riders who follow immediately behind the runners doesn't dampen my enjoyment at all.

One of these days I'll figure out running, as despite my presumed expertise in running races of varying length I made several mistakes while running a 45:36 (7:20 average pace), specifically:

• In the face of the screaming crowd starting the first 5K at a much too fast 6:56 average pace, which revealed itself in the final half pace of 7:46;
• Too many warm-up miles (3 versus an ideal 1), run at a get-to-the-start-before-they-begin frantic 8:00 pace versus an ideal 9:00;
• Arriving at the race start with less than five minutes remaining which prevented a sufficient cool-down;
• Not taking into account my leg fatigue having just six days prior run the Austin Half Marathon.

In any case, shown below are the trail rider photos that I took from my car on Memorial Drive while temporarily sharing the road.  Though my race performance was minimally affected by the resulting delay I am gratified to have had an opportunity to admire close-up these amazing trail riders, as they annually ride to Houston often from hundreds of miles away to kick-off our world class Rodeo and Livestock Show: