Running the Streets

Yes yes yes I’ve been runnin. Some. And lifting. I need an actual race to focus my efforts on. If I’m just running to run, then … well, that’s not so bad. But it’s easier to structure my running life if I have an actual, tangible reason. So, I’m working on that. I saw photos from a recent local (actually, Lake Texoma, I think) trail race. The race distances were from 5K to 50 miles — HELLO! How awesome is THAT? Some folks looked like machines, sure, but most were either older (an older machine is still a machine, but still) or had physiques that were, how do you say, not quite of the Olympian standard. Which was totally inspiring! That says to me, If regular folks are doing this, then what in the world am I doing? I just have to remember that what gave me the running itch to begin with were the crazy-distance trail runs like that one. However, got to get a few long-distance road races under my belt first.

Ok, I’ve decided that until I nail down an actual race for myself, 20 miles a week is my minimum. I could very well find a race in a couple of days, which would make my plan have to change altogether, but that’s ok. To keep me motivated, I need some structure in the meanwhile.

Tonight’s numbers: 6 miles in about 65 minutes. Treadmill. Half a powerbar gel.

Ok, strep is over and gone and I’m back. Went running on the Katy Trail after work today, four miles, about 43 minutes.

It’s time for new shoes. My knees were rubbing together, so I looked down and saw that my shoes weren’t holding me in correct alignment anymore. This time: NO PASTEL COLORED RUNNING SHOES. They’ve served me well but wow, they’re boring.

I emailed Brian and showed him the link to RunOn‘s social runs and said I’d like to do the one on Wednesday night. I was soooo flummoxed and happy when he called and said he’d like to come up and do it, too. Drive to Dallas on a Wednesday night! To run!

Brian, if you’re reading this: You made me very giddy today.

See, I knew we weren’t crazy!

P.S. We’ve soft-launched a fitness blog at the paper. It’s not for-real-deal until April 8, so I’ll post the link when it’s ready.

Here’s one of New Balance’s LOVE/hate ads I talked about below. The best description of running ever: “A complex, torrid affair.”

Man, this blogging thing is a pain in the sesamoid.

Ok, since my last post … Since it was after the half-marathon, I needed something else to work toward. Had my sights on the Big D, but I just simply couldn’t train for another one back-to-back. I was mad at myself, but decided to go a bit smaller with a 10K. It’s got an embarrasing name (the “Camper Scamper,” ugh), but I felt good about doing more than my past-usual 5K yet not quite a half. I guess I DID sort of skip the middle races. I went from doing 5Ks to training for a full marathon before paring down to a half marathon. Graduating might have been a good idea. Oh well, I’m a skipper. What can I say.

Chris mentioned that I NEED to get off the treadmill. But UNGH!! I absolutely, positively, no-way-in-the-universe can run in the mornings (unless I’m forced to because of a race), so I run at night. Even though the mean subdivision streets of Waxahachie are probably safe, I a) hate running in subdivisions, and b) don’t feel safe running anywhere else around here at night. I try to get on pavement or at least an indoor track on the weekends. Sometimes.

I’ve been hitting the weights, which I like lots. I’ve always liked weights. Makes carrying in the groceries and pushing Brian around easier. Pah! Anyways, I do machines and free weights alike, for all muscle groups. But my trouble spots have always been my calves, which I’m working on. F-L-A-C-I-D. But really, I have no idea if the calf is a pivotal muscle in running. Is it? I’ve got my quads up to snuff, I do believe, because I haven’t experienced knee trouble in a long time. Thank the Lord! That was making me crazy. But anything over 5 miles with sprints mixed in, and the ol’ IT band starts screaming. Can I just have that removed? Like an appendix? I could really just do without it, if you ask me.

I love the new New Balance ad campaign that’s out. About how running is a “LOVE/hate” thing. HELLO PREACH IT. I’ll post the clip in a minute.

After two weeks, I tried to get back in the swing on Saturday. Except I had a dilemma: My niece Janiece is seeing a personal trainer who’s making her do stuff that I want to do. He reminds me of a Marine soccer coach I used to have, who I’d meet at the park for him to, essentially, abuse the heck out of me with drills, sprinting, etc. So on Saturday, I decided to test my one mile on the treadmill. I came in at BARELY under a nine-minute mile (8:59), and I had to hoss just to get that. I can do better than that, ugh. I haven’t done a dead-run for that distance in a long time. Problem is, this has zero to do with long-distance training, which I’m allegedly trying to do. I worked out, too, incorporating some things Janiece has been learning. But all that was Saturday, and it’s now Tuesday. Wednesday night, I gotta get back on the wagon — or get off of it, as it were. I haven’t signed up for Big D yet. I need to check into that (and decide for sure-for sure if I’m doing it or not).

• Photos: See my picky-pics!

I did my first half yesterday! At the AT&T Austin Marathon in, well, Austin. My time wasn’t what I was aiming for (a 10 minute mile — I ended up with 2 hours and 49 min., about a 12-minute mile), but I had such a good time that I almost didn’t care.

Brian went down with me on Saturday, and it was an absolute soaking deluge when we got there. We picked up my packet at the Events Center, where there was also an expo going on. Packet pick-ups for shorter races in the past have been uninteresting trips to Run On or Luke’s. So I wasn’t used to an entire expo hall filled with Lara Bar samples, a Guitar Hero game center and every running comodity imaginable for sale. And of course we couldn’t leave without each getting a pair of sunglasses and me getting an extra pair of running socks and some Body Glide.

We toyed with the idea of getting custard shakes at Sandy’s on Barton Springs, one of our fattening Austin traditions. But it was still early in the day, so we turned into Chuy’s and pigged out there instead. Afterward we trekked around downtown a bit to get our bearings for potential parking places and early coffee the next morning. After my first trip to the the downtown Whole Foods (it was the first Whole Foods, right?) for energy the next morning — mixed roasted nuts from the nut bar, a tub of fresh-cut strawberries and blueberries and a bottle of chocolate-flavored Metro Mint water — we called it an early night.

4:30 a.m. comes eaaarly! But it got us downtown and parked in a free, close spot by 5:30. We hovered with other early birds in the dark cold underneath portable heaters, with a beautifully-lit capitol building up the street. Liz, who was in town for her second Austin run, showed up, and later we three went to the gabillion-person start line, where Brian left us right before gunshot.

I was one of the many rules-breaking rebels with mp3 players, but I rarely used it. There were plenty of sights and sounds to experience along the 13.1 course. I normally don’t run that early in the morning (start was at 7 a.m.) but I went ahead and found it exhilarating, since I didn’t exactly have a say in the matter.

First we bound down (actually, up and down and up and down) SoCo, the slightly faux-cool yet nonetheless adorable area of South Congress Avenue, then by public housing, then through charming neighborhoods … then after that, a blur.

Heard along the way, at mile 3, one random 40-something to another: “You know, I think we might be able to do this.” Dude, you’ve got 10 miles left.

This other guy was dressed in some ultra snug tights with an ultra snug spandex tank … except it looked like he was smuggling a walrus into the race arounf his bellly. WRONG. Later he passed me, which was WAY wronger.

The course entertainment included a band of old dudes playing Texas swing on the porch of some sort of historical home across from an HEB, and lots of female-fronted bands: A dad living vicariously through his teen daughter while he ran the audio for her rock band, a metal band fronted by an older woman in front of a no-name convenience store, a blues singer, and tons more. Lots of others, like a black dude hocking his really-bad-soul DJ business and a band of dudes covering the James Gang (OW! love you guys!). It definitely kept things interesting.

I had to stop TWICE to pee, and I spent a total of 20 minutes standing in lines. We women in the lines kept complaining about how the guys could just whip it out next to a bush and 10 seconds later, be back in the race. For anyone who knows me, you’d believe how much this fact gave me grumpy face syndrome. While the gap between women’s and men’s race times is narrowing, there’s still a gap. Even if women didn’t mind completely dropping our drawers and showing our a*ses to the entire world, the whole process of disrobing and peeing just takes longer. That’s nobody’s fault, but the small number of potties is ridiculous. Women not only have to stand in line with each other just to pee out all the powerade we’re guzzling, but we also have to share the line with guys who are either modest or who have to No. 2. Twenty minutes getting added to my time just to wizz was the most frustrating part of the race, even moreso than my IT band issue adding extra time. Bluh. I complained to Chris about the pee issue, and he said that in the races he’s done, women just run into a woody area and drop ‘em. I think the exact line in his email was, “In Chicago, I probably saw 100 naked women asses … lol!” Ha! He said he’s got some tips for not peeing during races, so I’ll be interested in hearing that trick of the trade. Anyway, I wondered what that one woman was doing when she ran to a business’ parking lot and disappeared behind that dumpster. I’m sure there were more women busting the same move during the race but I just didn’t notice. I guess that was a first-timer’s naievete on my part. Still, anyone who’s worn running tights knows that pulling those things down and pulling them up is a total beating. I can just see myself face-down in the dirt right after getting pitched forward mid-squat from trying to balance with my tights crammed around my knees.

I called mom while standing in line to pee at mile 9. She was encouraging yet bewildered. She’s always been physically active, and the woman is the one who got me into sports starting in fourth grade to begin with. This is all her fault. She even played sports in high school. Still, I suppose things have changed a bit since early 1950s girls’ high school half-court basketball, so I can’t quibble too much with her confusion. Love you mom, but oy.

As I already stated in the post below, around mile 9, the IT band starting kicking my butt. I walked about half the rest of the distance. I was in such pain, that I leaned forward and put my head on a tree trunk to balance myself while stretching my quads, then ran/walked for about two miles with a mess of bark stuck to my forehead.

I was so frustrated. But I kept reminding myself that I was learning a lot during this race in preparation for my next one — like carrying fewer shot blocks/Sharkies on me, finding a way not to pee so dadgum much and getting running tights with pockets or a lite backpack so I can leave the media belt at home. Or, just not running half marathons. That sort of thing.

I managed to run across the finish line around 2:49, then waited a bit for Liz so we could have photos taken of us with our finisher medals. Liz kept saying how proud of me she was, which made me all glowy inside. She’s a Team in Training coach (is that right, Liz? — update, she just mentioned in her blog that she’s a mentor, not a coach) and is blessed with the gift of encouragement, for sure.

Brian and I did another of our fattening Austin traditions, eating on the patio at Shady Grove on Barton Springs. We hit SoCo just to browse around. It was bustling with Austin hippiness, and I have to admit it was pretty awesome. Live music from the most random of folks was everywhere. So charming. It was a beautiful, 70ish degree day.

We topped it off with a butterscotch shake and Oreo shake from Sandy’s across the street from the Events Center before taking me and my broken body back to Waxahachie.

Last but not least, Brian should have received an honorary finisher’s award, because he’s the best (and hottest) male cheerleader ever ; )

When you’re training for a race with any sort of distance to it, you’ll start to experience at least one running-related injury along the way. Fact o’ life, what do you do.

I’ve already dealt with sesmoiditis, which I acquired from maniacally playing on multiple soccer teams at a time for three years straight. It’s still there, but it’s faded into the background thanks to simply not being on my feet in the same way I was for so long, from wearing ball-of-foot pads in my left shoes ad from finally getting a pair of perfectly-tailored-for-Christy’s-foot-type runners from Luke’s (the only pair I don’t have to wear a pad in).

Then I began experiencing pain in the inner left knee, which was frustrating. When Chris first mentioned that a lot of knee pain is caused by weak quads, I was all defensive like, MY QUADS ARE PERFECTLY STRONG, THANKYOUVERYMUCH. But I sucked it up and began working out the ol quads more. And by golly if the knee pain din’t reduced about 95 percent.

With pain in check, I finally felt completely ok enough to move forward with my half-marathon training at the pace I wanted.

Meanwhile, I’de heard fellow runners like Liz and Chris talk about having issues with their IT band (iliotibial band). I felt for them, but it meant nothing to me b/c I couldn’t imagine the kind of pain they were describing.

Well, the running gods paid me back for my lack of imagination yesterday around mile 8 during my first half-marathon (which I talk about in the post above). One of my favorite things about Austin, its hills, were my worst enemy. I’m a trail runner by heart and normally love running hills. But I’d trained to run 13 miles of flat, not 13 miles of up-and-down. The sharpest, most dibilitating of pain shot through the outside of my left knee (all my injuries are on my left side; what’s up with that?) to the point of stopping me dead in my tracks. Even walking hurt sooo. baaad. I tried to make myself run a bit, then walk a bit, but the running bits grew shorter and shorter. It wasn’t the kind of pain I could just ignore and suck up until I hit the finish line — it completely determined my performance.

It sucks. So, I’ll be doing many a Google search on prevention, and I’m taking any advice you have on the matter.

Ran 4 miles on the treadmill, 38:32. Ima try to be a good girl and run the full sked the rest of the week: 5 miles, 4 miles … then my long run, 10 miles.

I ran into the bathroom door jamb this evening and whacked my head pretty good. For no good reason; just led forehead-first while walking in the dark. Now I’ve got a knot and it hurts …