Training

There’s been a tremendous amount going on since my last post. Mostly all excellent.

Regarding training, it continues and I’m seeing quite a bit of progress. With eight and a half weeks until the More Half Marathon in Manhattan, the focus has moved beyond simply staying the course to get there. Being comfortable in the midst of the process allows one to look around and appreciate it a bit more.

I’ve settled into the following weekly routine, which is an amended version of Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 program:

Monday = yoga

Tuesday = run 4 miles

Wednesday = cross train core and upper body

Thursday = run 4 miles

Friday = cross train core and upper body

Saturday = rest

Sunday = long run

Please note that cross training is still done using exergames.

This past Sunday, E, T and I ran a little over eight miles for our long run. That’s right, eight blessed miles. We were pretty amazed. That’s the longest any of us has ever run.

We felt great!

We became aware that, like, wow, we could go more maybe on another day…nine didn’t seem so out of the picture. And if nine isn’t so far out of the picture, then ten is just a little beyond that. And a wee bit farther sits thirteen. Wait; thirteen…that’s a HALF MARATHON!

All of our training thus far has brought us to this point. We are completing the distances, able to recuperate, and go and do it again…and again.

All pretty exciting stuff!

Cross Training

When I was younger, and coaches would have us cross train, we’d all just do it. It was simply what one did, not what one thought about beyond how heavy the weights could be or some other measure of endurance.

When I began working out on my own in my 20s and 30s, I didn’t bother consciously cross training. Different exercise classes were fun, so we’d try those out. Running was something to be endured on the treadmills of the world to try to keep the weight off or train for a 5K. Yoga was new and exciting, as was Pilates. But nothing stuck, per se; cross training always seemed a lark.

I hadn’t truly thought about the implications of mindful cross training until recently, upon signing up to run a half marathon in April. I’ve known and openly discussed with others that my lats begin to ache at around mile 5 whenever I run long distances. Everything else feels fine, it’s pretty much my back that hurts. In reviewing different half marathon training plans, they all suggest (but to not require) cross training, which includes core and upper body work outs, as well as stretching.   I figured, what the heck…I need something to help me and my lats get through the second 10K of the half marathon in order to finish.

So for the past couple of weeks, as discussed here, I’ve been mindfully including yoga, core and upper body workouts, as well as additional cross training through walking. The intention is to get this 40+ year old body in some semblance of shape to be able to finish the 13.2 miles of a half marathon by April 2012. From what all the plans say, it does seem possible if one is mindful about one’s training schedule.

I’m not positive that it’s working, but on my last 10K (6.1 mile) long run, my back ached LESS than it had in the past. I feel that that is some sort of achievement in itself. G-d willing, additional cross training will only improve the outcomes.

Do you routinely cross train? If so, email me and let me know what you do and how it helps your performance!

Jacket: SportHill Symmetry II

It’s cold out here. In fact, as I sit at my computer, gazing past my computer screen to the “artic tundra” outside the house, it registers as 24 degrees on the thermometer we’ve stuck outside my office window for exactly this purpose.

Twenty-four frickin degrees.

I was not anticipating this when I first strapped on my Merrell barefoot running gloves and took my first run in many years down the dirt road a few months ago. Way back then, running in eighty degree heat seemed comfortable and a lark. Now, temps are falling in the frozen zone and the road still calls.

Until recently, I’ve been ignoring the falling temperatures. Chilly fifty degree runs called for a ratty sweatshirt over my t-shirt. Of course, me being me, I didn’t want to wear my nicer sweatshirts while running and get them all sweaty. Generally I looked like a female version of Rocky hitting the local roads, pulling the hood on if it began to rain.

Since running is one of my prime times to defrag, I haven’t been generally concerned with appearance or the way in which one’s clothing affects one’s performance. I’d simply throw on something ratty, hit the roads and let my brain wander.

All that changed as the mercury dropped. My feet got cold and wet, my hands got cold, my head got cold and my trunk…well, it was cold too.

Something needed to change if I was going to continue running into the winter. I researched local health clubs for the bare minimum buy-ins. Since I’m not one to generally take exercise classes, or care if I have exercise partners, I only wanted to find someplace where I could wear my ratties and hit the treadmills for ever longer runs. While there are a few good options locally, the local roads still call, which means I actually have to outfit myself to use them.

As I’m not one to take any new endeavor lightly, I began to ask other more experienced runners what they use, what brands they were wearing, and why they liked them. The gathered information led me to purchase a few items, but I have to admit that the stuff is so darn cute it seems too cute for me to wear on the road. I’ve resisted wearing them down by wearing them out. Instead, I’ve been using them around the house and to exergame.

My reading of Runners World cover to cover began to yield other information as well. I am a target marketer’s dream. Being an early forties married mommy female, who has come to running later in life, I’m looking for their pitches to try out new items. Which brings me to SportHill.

I’d seen the SportHill ads in Runners World and ripped them out to research more online. The more I read, the more excited I got. Wow, a company that makes exactly the items I’m looking for! They can save me from frostbite and hypothermia! Fabulous!

Had to try at least one item, but which one first? I settled on the Symmetry II jacket,  as it claims to keep one warm down to 0 degrees, looks awesome, comfortable and has a fleece lined collar. Hmm…So I got it after much hemming and hawing.

It couldn’t have come sooner, as the 35-45 degree weather had kept me exergaming and homebound for a few days straight. The jacket was so cute and comfy inside that I wore it around the house feeling my mood elevate with it on. My daughter loved it too, and begged it off me and then wore it around the house the rest of the day.

The next day, it was 39 degrees out, and I was ready to go go go. I layered one t-shirt with one long sleeved t-shirt, and then put the jacket on over the two. Everything else remained the same. I must admit that when I first started the run, I was a bit frightened. I’m quite sensitive to the cold, and was fearful that I was doing something dangerous to myself.

It was chilly out, don’t get me wrong. But after the first few yards, something amazing began to happen: I warmed up. Not just my muscles in the running, my trunk became nice and toasty. This jacket was making me feel like it was fifty-five or so outside and I relaxed into the run.

The run was in fact so nice and toasty that the next time I ran, I only wore a short sleeved t-shirt under the jacket. The same effect happened. Amazing.

While SportHill is kind of on the expensive side (for me), I look forward to trying out more of their cold weather items and discussing here through the winter.

Have you tried SportHill? If so, what are your thoughts? What should I try next?

Physical Possibility

Ok, so while doing much soul searching, hand wringing and rumpledoodle baking, I’ve come to a moment of (perhaps) insanityclarity. Actually, it was a friend, D, who pointed out today that I might be ready for my next distance challenge. That perhaps what I’m feeling is the nip at one’s heels need to train for a longer distance than a 10K. When she said it, it felt right.

What will it mean to me? Basically, I’ll have to drag my ass out of bed earlier.

If one wants to train for distance, not speed, one needs to be practical and use one’s slowest pace. My pace is quite slow. This new challenge will require running regularly (read: multiple times a week) for 1.5-2.5 hours. That is definitely something new to get my head around on a lot of levels, and to discuss with Dear Husband.

It will also require me to buy a good pair of regular running shoes. Don't get me wrong: I love my Merrell Pace Gloves. They rock. But with the amount of mileage I’m racking up, I need something with a little more cushion, as well as weatherproofing for the impending winter runs. Any runners (or running shoe companies) out there with suggestions, please let me know asap!

Cross training is no problem, as the exergames fill that slot nicely already.

The final question in this mental exercise is: what will that longer distance goal be?

So this evening, I took an Advil for my aching knee and pulled up the New York Road Runner Club site online. And that’s when I saw it: the JANUARY 22^nd 2011 Manhattan Half Marathon (it’ll probably be the 23^rd in 2012). 13.1 miles of running bliss.

I have my next physical challenge.  What's yours?

Exhaustion

Image via Wikipedia

For the last week or so, my body has been telling me that it seems to have reached the edge of physical exhaustion. Or something like that.

I think the final straw was a 10K off-road race that me and a few friends ran last Sunday. Tons of people ran, I just didn’t know most of them.

The race became a turning point of sorts for me that has me going through some sort of deep tissue and emotional reevaluation of this campaign and my own motivation.

Upon starting the race, I started with the pack of all other runners going the 10K distance and realized very quickly that they were going much quicker than my normal pace. Considering that the race was about to go vertically up a mountain to the top, I pulled myself back down to my normal pace and settled in for the trudge. It wasn’t bad, especially since my normal runs now a days are on local mountain dirt roads. We passed through some mud flats, which was fun, and began the ascent. Quite a number of folks had misjudged their ability to keep their pace up the side of a mountain, and I passed them on the ascent simply by retaining my normal pace. I wasn’t trying to catch up with anyone, simply trying to make it through and finish the race. By keeping my own pace, I was able to objectively watch what was happening with other runners, which was interesting to me on a number of levels.

At the top of the mountain, I caught up with a new-runner friend, T. We settled into a companionable run together and joked and talked as we ran along. Some people passed us. We rounded on a lose rock bit and some woman with a Corgy came up from behind us, as others had, except she told us to follow her as she knew the course well. We made the mistake of doing so. What the day of the race we thought was a lame-ass 1+ mile detour, I’m relatively certain was a 1.5+ detour. Ultimately, once T realized she was literally leading us down the garden path, we turned around to retrace our steps. We began calling out for help, knowing we were lost. All of the people stationed to help runners in the race had left and we were left to figure it out on our own. By this point, T and I were exhausted, confused, freaked out, a bit scared and angry.

At this point, another man who knew the race happened by walking his dog. He led us to the point we needed to get back on the race route and touched base with race officials to make sure someone was watching out for us. T and I dealt with another point where the race officials were there, but ignored us, so we ran up and down a road for a bit before we realized we needed to cross at some point and we got them to turn around to give us directions.

By this point nearly the entire field of runners was waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ahead of us. Our pace was blown and at this point we were simply trying to stay upright. T threw out the idea of truncating our run before we collapsed. We agreed to finish it together and no matter what the actual time was, because we did the race for ourselves, not for the race officials who were timing us. At this point, the aim was simply to legitimately cross the finish line.

We ultimately found out that one other runner came in behind us – an 83 year old man. Upon seeing the times, someone joked that the only person behind us was a man of such an advanced age.

Since then, I’ve done Zumba Fitness twice and run a couple of times. None of the workouts has been good. I’ve listened to talk during the runs, and become increasingly dejected.

Then, this morning, I went on my normal four mile Sunday run with a few friends. Most of them are fantastic runners. Of course, they’d never say that; but they are and they really impress me. T just started running after I did. And she’s just quitting smoking. She’s really doing well, and I’m really impressed by her on a number of levels, as I am of all of these amazing local runners.  I get a kick out of seeing their progress and cheering them on.

So we were all running along today and of course everyone passed me. Everyone. I started thinking about my barefoot running shoes and how they have no forward bounce (they’re barefoot for goodness sake), how T is 5 inches shorter than me or some such and really outdistances me, how folks talk about time and pace, and I generally slog along at my own pace and might as well be called the caboose.

Then I started thinking about why I’m running and what I’m trying to accomplish: how I want my daughter to see and feel her mommy incorporating fitness into her everyday life and thus teach her that she should too; how I want to lose more weight, but have already lost so much and so many inches that some of my old clothes are lose or too baggy to wear; how with the running I’m amazed at the distances I can go; how it’s never been about time for me, but rather to see how long I can make my body move; how I started this entire adventure with exergaming 10 months ago to see whether one could get fit simply by exergaming and have accomplished that goal by proving that one can and does.

During the run today, my body ached for the first time - really ached. One of my knees gave me a slight limp and my legs felt pain. Normally my legs don’t feel any pain during or after my runs. All day, my gluts, hips and leg muscles have felt…well, I’ve felt all of them. It seems like mentally and physically, my mind and body are going through a self assessment and reconsolidation of effort regarding working out as though I’m about to move into a new mental and physical space. We’ll see.

One thing that’s certain, I’m not competing with anyone else or the clock; this campaign continues to be about pushing myself through known and artificial limits toward personal achievement.

Acorns

Image by clocker via FlickrThere are many subtle differences between running inside versus outside; the most obvious to me is the engagement of the senses.

Inside treadmill running can be an intense workout. It’s relatively direct in that one may program in hill intervals, varying courses and intense pace. Basically, one can push oneself as hard as one wants via buttons on the machine itself.

It’s also diverting. Now-a-days most people run toward an enormous flat screened TV bracketed to the wall directly ahead of the machine, so one may watch music videos, DVDs or regular programming. Ear pods and headphones allow the runner to listen to what’s on the screen or something completely different. I’m actually surprised that no one has developed a way to play video games while one is on a treadmill, sort of like Gamercize’s step and cycle machines. If someone out there develops the technology, please let me know, as I’d like to try it!

Outside, one must deal with the course that actually exists. The runner has the ability to vary her pace and the route taken depending her fitness level and the level of workout desired. Once you’re on the road, though, it’s much easier to settle into the workout and allow your mind and senses to wander.

I do not run with music. It’s not a hard core thing with me, as I understand it is with others, but more because I like to hear the wind in the leaves, the birds chirping, the deer squealing, etc. One can hear cars approaching and their general speed, so that one can move aside.

Mostly I like the ability to think that running without music gives me. Loud songs with intense bass battle my mind wandering. The quietude that my own breathing and footsteps give me allows me the space to defrag my consciousness like I defrag my desktop once a week. My mind moves through my various To Do lists and I can make mental notes of what goes where, what needs immediate action and what can be put aside for a wee bit.

Image by joshme17 via FlickrToday, as the wind blew across my face, leaves rustled and a rabbit hopped into a bush ahead of me, I dissected an insurance clause of a contract. As that box got moved to its defragged space, I noticed that the air spelled a little less lush and a bit more dry-rustley, like autumn. Looking down, I realized that I was running among the first fallen acorns of the season and thought about the intensity of the impending cooler months. Not only was my entire body occupied in the running experience, but all five senses and my mind were engaged as well. For as long as possible, I look forward to running outside.

On To the Next Physical Challenge

 

The morning air was only somewhat hot and sticky when my Friend, E, picked me up to drive to the Jan Peek race on Saturday.

Our sleep the night before had been merely mediocre, as we were both a bit apprehensive and nervous about the impending race. She, because she hadn’t run in a couple of weeks; me, because I’d never run a 10K before. We’d both gotten up at 6:00 am and pinged each other on Facebook. It felt like an early morning high five – we’re up; we’re nearly heading out; yay!

We wanted to make sure we got there with time to casually check in (and get free t-shirts), so we ended up arriving about 40 minutes early. As the race start time was postponed 15 minutes, we had a ton of time to spare. Runners big and small, stylish and not so much so, all milled about in lose groups, some coming up to ask us about our shoes and their comparative performance.  We were both wearing our Merrell Barefoot Foot Gloves. Hers are a lovely shade of violet and mine are pink. Our feet looked like the happy lady sisters that they were.  E answered most of the questions, as she has much more experience than me.

It was lovely doing the race with a friend. The experience gave us some down time to simply chat, which is generally hard to carve out, as we both juggling work, home, and motherhood. While we didn’t run together very long, as her pace is far beyond mine, it was pleasant going to and through the process together. Jan Peek was a back and return race this year, so we passed each other mid-way through the course, which was neat. I hope we’re able to do more races together.

The next thing we knew, the race organizers asked us all to gather in the street, and we all started to run as a pack. Some peeled away quickly, then others’ paces took them around a corner, and then the back of the pack moved on. After a quick chat, E moved along finding someone else farther up to pace herself with, which was great. I knew I would be one of the slowest, and was totally okay with that. I wasn’t there to try to best any time or try to be Wild E Coyote. I was there to run the entire course and finish it, regardless of time.

For most of the race, I was one of the final five. There was the woman with the earphones, the couple running together, the woman in pink and me (the lady in red). On the down slopes they’d try to outpace one of us, but they’d generally slow down on the up slopes and a new order would emerge. My pace felt like it remained constant on the ups and downs. Generally, I’d pull ahead on the ups and fall behind one or more on the downs, and I realized that they had trained to be able to do that and I hadn’t. It gave me something to think about for future training.

Ultimately, while I was the final person to complete the race, I did complete it, and I approached the finish line with a police escort, which was neat. I also learned that I’d bested my prior 10K run number by 15 minutes, which shows me that I can push myself harder on my normal runs than I thought possible.

E and I have already discussed other 10Ks we can do locally this fall, as well as other race options. How is your training going?

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In other news, check back tomorrow for our first guest blogger! My friend, and author, Christina Bost Seaton will be discussing balance and her book Say Ciao to Chow Mein: Conquering Career Burnout.

Simple Exercise

Image by mikebaird via FlickrWhen was the last time you felt like a kid running just to feel the wind on your hair and skin, or hugged yourself and swayed back and forth, or started singing to yourself? That long, hunh?

Try one of those activities tomorrow, and let me know how it makes you feel. I'll bet it cheers up the rest of your day.