March 2021 Newsletter

Now that that is out of the way I want to talk about something related to my preamble which is running philosophy. A broad topic for sure but one that I think is important to making running part of your life, especially nowadays when I imagine that for many of us running is an anchor for our mental health and wellness. I want to talk specifically about ways you might adapt your philosophy to make running yours and finding your reason to run. And I’ll use the only human example I am 100% qualified to discuss and comment on, which is myself.

I’ll let you in on another secret since we are friends now, I used to hate running with an unbridled passion (but now I love it). Yup, this sounds like the beginning of an infomercial for a “life changing tool” but it is true. In the past I’m sure I have said such dramatic things like “running is the absolute worst” and “running is a punishment devised by an angry god”. A bold claim but even now I sometimes agree with it, but in the same way that having to go through the effort of making dinner after work when you are bone tired is “the absolute worst”. Point being, that until running became something I was invested in, it was suffering. I chose to invest in running by making it mine. 

Running is beautiful in that it is one of the few sports that is absolutely unrestricted. No real rules, no real guidelines, no real limits, just you and how you choose to do it. Because I’m a control freak on the inside, I made running mine by making it personal through things that make me happy. Things like style and music. I’m going to stress the first part “style” because that was really the cincher for me, everything else was just frosting on what eventually became a delicious cake. I’ve often said; “glam game, is the most important game” which is because at least for me everything changes when I feel as though I’m “looking fly”.  There is even some science showing that you do in fact feel more confident, engaged, and even productive when you dress for success. That isn’t to say that you have to “dress like a runner” but rather you can change how you feel about running by making a conscious decision about your outfit. For me this involves a lot of bright colors and color coordination which admittedly makes me look a bit like a Power Ranger but it also requires an investiture of time that gives me a sense of ownership. In the beginning it also became part of my commitment to keep running. I usually run after work so it can be very easy to bail because I’m too tired, especially when I first started running. But this got a lot harder to do when I had already went through the trouble of picking out my running outfit and taking it to work; like somehow my clothes would be disappointed in me if I flaked on them. So time and time again I would lace up, dawn my aesthetically formidable color coordinated outfit, give myself a quick look in the mirror with a “looking good buddy” nod, and hit the pavement. While I could have good runs and bad runs depending on a lot of variables I could always be in control of how I looked. And the fact that I knew I looked good quite simply made me feel good. Dressing up became a practice that I enjoyed that set the mood for me at the onset and eventually practice led to habit, and habit led to enjoyment and a source of fulfilment. Now while the outfit does wonders for the mood it can’t always be enough to sustain you through a long run, which is where the music comes in. 

My running playlists are 90% music from anime and video games with high BPM, overflowing with energy, funky lyrics or lyrics in a language I do not speak. All of which together create a soundtrack for my runs that make it scientifically impossible to not feel pumped and energetic. You try listening to this: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=_qYYetCVBko and not feeling like you’re ready to go fight the bad guys and save the world. Can’t be done. And the lack of lyrics or at least lyrics that I do not understand or don’t really need to listen to allows my mind to focus more on the intent and feel of the music. Each song in the playlist has an intended effect or place in the run; higher energy songs for hills, heavy four on the floor beats for straight flat sections that benefit from good pacing, more bubbly songs for the ends of the runs when I’m running on fumes and need a boost. And again, going through the effort of crafting a playlist and seeking out songs made me invested in the run that they would feature as the soundtrack for. It wasn’t long before I got in the habit of christening a new playlist with a run or saying things like I can’t wait to run to this!”  These curated playlists ended up being another way I decided to claim running for myself, invest in it, and eventually turn it into something I love. 

Through style and music I decided to shape running into something that was unique to me. They gave me an aspect of running I could look forward to that made it easier to get through the self-doubting and demotivational slog I think many people new to running, including myself, get that make us want to throw out our shoes and never run again. But don’t give up friends! Running is definitely a physical challenge but it is also a mental one, and by adapting your running philosophy you can bring your mental A game! And I fully acknowledge that the ability to afford stylish running gear and having the time to spend crafting a playlist come from a place of privilege, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t countless other ways you can claim your run. I chose ones that align with my interests but for you it could be running to or around beautiful places, using the tracking paths of your runs to make images, or just claiming the time that you are running to think about certain things or nothing in particular and zone out. The more you can make running feel like it belongs to you, the better you’ll feel about it. So find something you enjoy and think of a way you can fold it into your running, to make your brand of running yours!

Also in case you were curious, my favorite songs to run to right now are “GAS GAS GAS” by Manuel (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=atuFSv2bLa8&feature=share) and “Maniac feat Yann Ligner” by Carpenter Brut (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LcI8sfwxvIs&feature=share). They have so much manic energy it’s hard not to have a little extra pep in your step. And this song (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ1N7-HyH1A&feature=share) which I think is Japanese so I don’t actually know the name but the cascading piano rifts and bubblegum vibes just make it feel like a happy song. 

One of the things I will miss this March (and we missed last year) because of the pandemic is the Shamrock Shuffle.  There are all sorts of good things about shuffle season; the sap is running in the maples, teammates who have been buried under six feet of snow start to reappear,  and the Shamrock Shuffle is anything but a shuffle - being the fastest miles of the early season.

Undoubtedly one of the cheeriest sights of race day is when the race director stands up to call us to the line - wearing his over sized, emerald green topper.  His "chapeau", his "lid". That Irish Green Top Hat.  The Mad Hatters Hat!

If I was to win this race, perhaps I would be bold enough to ask Paul Coats if I could don his headpiece the color of the hills of Eire!

Today you can do it!  This months challenge - go out and run your own Shamrock Shuffle, photograph yourself, and then use the special-to-UVRC website to add Paul's Emerald crown to your own head.

Then post it for use!

https://www.trailnotes.org/WearTheHat/

Oh joy, oh joy! Writing as we are expecting a 6-12" of the white stuff. Having been a bit out of commission due to surgery in November and still figuring out the best settings to prod my brain into action, I have been easing back into action. Snowshoeing and (finally) cross country skiing.. 2 busted feet don't like the rigid boots I had and I broke down and got some more forgiving ones on sale at Lahouts. Took them out for their baptism after work(my feet like them).

So the moral of the story is just get out there and do something. Give thanks for the things you CAN do. And a short whatever is better than nothing at all.....  

I'll admit, I don't enjoy wearing a mask while running, but I understand that in these times of pandemic, it is the right thing to do.  I know there is now a lot of data which says that transmission of the virus in open air is exceedingly rare.  Still, when I meet someone out on the road, I'll pull up my mask; in part to be safe, and in part to demonstrate that I care about my community.

But this article is not about why we wear a mask, but rather how does a mask affect our running.

Ever since I have been running with a mask I have wondered if wearing a mask has a measurable effect.  But then after writing about Heart Rate for the December newsletter, I knew I had the tools (my running watch measures heart rate) to do some experimentation.  The question is, if I exert the same effort with and without a mask, how will that affect my pace.

So this is how my reasoning went; heart rate is a good measurement of effort.  Ideally, I would hop on a treadmill, set the speed, and run a mile with and without a mask, and compare the heart rates from the two trials.  Done.

The first problem is, I don't have a treadmill.  If I just go out and run I know that my pace will tend to go up and down and my heart rate will too.  But that is not too bad.  I imagined a graph (see figure 2) with speed or pace on one axis, and heart rate on the other axis.  As you go faster/run harder, your heart rate goes up.  My watch records heart rate and speed every second.  So if I plotted those data points I expect a scatter of points, clustered around a rising line.

But other factors can change your heart rate besides how fast you are running.  Heart rate is tied to effort, and around here effort often means am I running up or down a hill.  Long, straight level places are hard to find in the Upper Valley.  After a bit of exploring I settled on a section of sidewalk next to Rt 10, north of Hanover.  From the Fire Hall to Kendall is about a kilometer, and the elevation varies by only 8 feet.

When my plans had evolved to this stage I heard that UVRC was going to be giving out masks when you renew your membership, which solved another one of my problems.  Through the fall I had been running with two different masks.  One is pretty flimsy, the other an impenetrable canvas.  I expect that the measured effect would vary widely, and I wouldn't be able to translate it into anybody else's experience.  But now I will use the UVRC mask as my standard - and you can too.

So one fine day I went out and ran a quarter mile slow, then fast, without a mask.  And then repeated that trial with a mask - and then went home.  That evening when I plotted the data I was disappointed to find it was a mess and there was no clear trend.  However upon closer examination I realized that when I did the fast legs, my heart rate had never settled to its final steady state.

A week later I tried again, this time 1000 meters for each trial.  Things looked better, but I had probably rushed from one phase to the next.  Heart rate lags behind speed.

One final effort.  This time with 2000 meters trials, and just trying to keep the pace steady.  It will naturally vary, but that I could deal with.

In figure 1 is my final test run, as plotted by Strava.  You can see four clear legs.  The first and third were with mask on, the others with mask off.  I did meet 2 people while in the "no mask" trial, and so slipped on the mask for a short time, but I don't think it affected ("contaminated") the results too much.

In figure 2 I have plotted speed [meters per second] vs heart rate [beats per minute].  The red points are with the mask and the blue points are without the mask.  First observation;  there is a lot of overlap.  In fact a prudent statistician would probably either stop at this stage - or send the experimentalist back out to collect more data. But I am going to press on my analysis - even if I am delving into the statistically insignificant.

One other thing to note in this plot is that heart rate and speed are correlated, as expected.  That line, which is a fit to the data, says that with every 10 heart beats a minute, I also gain 10 cm per second.  I'll actually use this in a minute to help my analysis.

From this figure the blue (mask-less) tends to be more to the right (faster) than the red.  But how much?

For my final plot I am only considering the data points between 143 and 154 beats-per-minute, which is where all the trials had samples.  I then take each data point and, using the slope of the line from figure 2, project it to the same heart rate (143 bpm), and plot a histogram for number of samples vs speed (figure 3).  The left peak (red) is with a mask, the right peak (blue) is without a mask.  The difference is 0.08 meters a second,  or 3 inches a second.  That is a bit over a 2% effect.

This is the equivalent of always running up a 0.4% grade, gaining 4 meters every kilometer, or wearing a weight vest with 2% of your body weight.

I'll be the first to admit that this analysis is a bit dodgy, but I think that it does tell us that the effect of the mask on our energy consumption is pretty small.

But wearing a mask feels like it should be a 10% effect or more!  

I think the answer here is that only the lungs are working harder.  Our legs, which are the greatest consumer of oxygen, consume the same amount of oxygen at a given pace independent of whether or not you have a mask on.  The diaphragm works a lot harder, but it is still a small part of our total energy consumption.

Finally, I had this idea that I was going to be working significantly harder with a mask on.  It might be like training at high altitude.  But that was just me trying to make lemonade.  The best thing for my training will be when I again can run next to (or behind) fast teammates.  I am looking forward to that day when I can see your face.

In the meantime it is only 2%, it is not that bad!

Name: Chris Welker

Town: Thetford 

Where are you from originally and what brought you to this area?

I’m originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I came to the Upper Valley for graduate school. 

What do you do professionally?

I’m a PhD student in the Psych and Brain Sciences department at Dartmouth. My work focuses on conversations and how people connect with each other.

How long have you been running? 

I started running in 6th grade, so back in 2006.

How long have you been running competitively?

I started racing when I started running, so I’ve been racing since 2006 as well.

Why do you run?

For so many reasons! The primary one is the sense of clear-headedness that comes with a run. Once I find my stride, I do my best thinking while running. I also love seeing how far I can push myself and enjoy pushing my limits a bit more each year. Finally, running is a great stress reliever and a great time to chat with friends. That sense of clear-headedness also leads to surprisingly deep conversations; it’s always fun to run with other folks.

Best athletic accomplishment and why?

I started running trails more often in 2020 and finished the year by running the Dartmouth 50 with some good friends. That was a pretty special run for me because I bonked hard with over 15 miles left but still managed to finish the run. At the start of the year I had no idea that I could do something like that. 

If you like to race, favorite race distance? Why? 

The half marathon is my favorite road race because it has such a nice balance between distance and speed. You definitely aren’t plodding along, but you still get into the groove of a long distance race.

Cross training activities? 

I cross country ski in the winter. In the summer, I hike and occasionally bike. I’m not sure if this is a real effect, but I often feel very strong and run well after backpacking trips. That’s probably my favorite way to cross train.

Favorite local running route?

I live in Thetford, and one of my favorite longer loops goes down Academy Road, then along Campbell Flats, and finally up Hogback/Godfrey to 113. You get great views coming down Academy, Campbell Flats is beautiful, and the Godfrey climb is pretty fun.

Favorite post run treat? 

This is a summer-specific treat, but after a long, hot run I love ice cream. 

Strangest place ever run?

Probably Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. I ran there when I was in high school and it just felt like I was on a different planet. It looked a bit like the pictures of Mars from Perseverance. 

Any notable streaks or other unusual running events?

Inspired by a friend, I’ve started running my age in miles on my birthday! 

What made you start running?

In 5th grade, one of my closest friends trounced me in my middle school’s annual 5K race. I was playing soccer at the time, and he was running cross country. The next year, I decided I wasn’t going to be beaten again and started to run cross country.

Are your reasons for running now the same or different than the reason you first started?

Quite different! Although I still love a competitive 5K, I run for the sake of running now.

Why did you join UVRC? 

I didn’t know many folks when I first moved to the Upper Valley, so I decided to see what UVRC was all about. On my first day, everyone I talked to was welcoming, interesting, and kind (and I really enjoyed the workout), so I decided to join.

Hot or cold weather runner? 

I’ve been converted to a cold weather runner since moving to the Upper Valley! Before living here I would take winters off, but I’ve realized that – after the first mile or so – running in the cold can be really pleasant. Plus, the mental game of deciding which layers to take off and when to take them off/put them back on can be pretty entertaining.

Morning or evening runner? 

I’d love to be a morning runner, but the transition is too daunting. For now, I’m decidedly an afternoon/evening runner. 

What is your motivation?

I’m inspired by runs that I’m looking forward to. My motivation often slips when I don’t have a goal – whether it’s a race or a long trail run – that I’m working toward. As a result, I’m almost always trying to plan big runs in the future so that I keep working in the present. 

I run therefore I ______________________.

… eat all the time

What does your daily workout consist of?

This really depends on the time of year. I run 4-5 days/week and typically like to fit in two easy runs, a speed workout, a long run, and, if there’s room, a mid-distance run. On one of my off days I usually try some other activity like hiking, skiing, or biking.

How about favorite work out?

My favorite workouts are long runs. It’s easy to fall into an enjoyable rhythm during long runs, the miles just slip by. Long runs also tend to provide the best stretches of mental clarity, so I enjoy them even more when I have a lot to think about.

What’s your favorite pre-run meal?

I like to have a bagel with peanut butter and a banana before big runs.

"The SRK Greenway is a 75-mile loop of hiking trails in central New Hampshire. The Greenway Trail System circles the Lake Sunapee area and connects Sunapee, Ragged, and Kearsarge Mountains."

The SRK Website contains section maps and trail descriptions,  and info to purchase a tyvek map of the entire Greenway. I found the little map to be very portable and durable, and I would also read the online section guide before doing each section. https://www.srkg.com/

Percentage runnable: 65-80%

Elevation change: lots of ups and downs

Ease of Navigation: Most of the trail is well- marked with white, trapezoidal metal or painted blazes. Occasionally the trail is hard to follow when it passes through towns or coincides with wood roads.

Parking areas: clearly indicated on maps and in trail descriptions. Some parking is not usable in the winter. 

I enjoyed many section runs, alone or with one of my kids, over the last 18 months or so, finishing my last segment at the high spot of the top of Sunapee. Some of the sections include a lot of road running, most notably from the center of Sunapee village to Deer Hill Rd., which is ALL road (trail 3). I found the prettiest/smoothest running segments to be: Section 2 in Sunapee, from a small parking area on Harding Hill Rd., through the Webb Woods to Tilton Park (5.5 miles, would make a nice out-and back); trail 5 from 114 in Springfield to Pleasant Lake in New London (8.4 very hilly miles, might be a nice one to do with a friend and two cars), and Trail 6, from Pleasant Lake in New London to the summit of little Bog Mountain in Wilmot (4.2 miles, another nice out-and-back).  It is probably better to do in the summer or fall: I tried a few segments in the winter and either had parking problems or navigation problems (hard to see the white blazes when they are covered over by fresh powder).

Got a question for the coaches? Send it to newsletter@uppervalleyrunningclub.org and I'll send it on!