Running In Place

I must’ve been passed by 20+ people on bicycles yesterday while running my long run on the towpath. From recreational folks in cut-off denim shorts to serious folks in technical clothing and matching helmets – not one freakin’ one bothered to announce their presence. I stay to the right of the path, and if the path narrows I always check behind before moving towards the center, I really try to be aware and considerate and not get in anybody’s way. I heard most of them coming, but a couple I didn’t and it scared the sh!t out of me to have them all of a sudden tear-ass by me. By the end of the run I was being a dick and calling out the questionably clever and doubtfully mature subject line above. This is not a rant on bikers, just those bikers who played touch and go with the hapless runner in the purple shorts and orange sneakers yesterday. Phooey on ya!
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I went to PT last week and was at the height of discouragment. After weeks of stretch and strength, the pain was worse than ever in my hip/groin. AND my pelvis had tipped back again and my left leg was shortened as a result. Again. I’m all like, why why tell me why!! And the PT dude is just kind of shrugging his shoulders and, again, bringing up the degenerative joint business. He has seriously got to shut up with that! So he looks back over his notes and recalls that, after the first week of a very simple and localized stretch, I had felt so much better that he was ready to cut me loose – but when more balanced stretching and strength were added in I started to go downhill again. He suggested we get back to basics and just do that initial, simple stretch, only on the affected side. Well guess what! I feel, like, 95% better!!! I’m back to occasional vague soreness, rather than sharp and shooting pains and the constant ache. Maybe we moved ahead too quickly with the balanced stretching and need to spend some time just concentrating on the one side. Anyway, I am feeling encouraged again!
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My runs in the past week have been outstandingly pleasant. Partially because of the decrease in pain, and partially because I am working hard to s l o w d o w n. It’s an interesting change in focus but it’s made for some strong, consistent runs. Rather than going out and running a 10:30 mile (fast for me), then an 11:15 mile, then an 11:40 mile, etc etc until I’m just about shuffling along at the end and feeling spent, I’ve been trying to stay at a true conversational pace throughout. I’ll adjust slightly for distance and, depending on how far I’m going, have been running anywhere from 12:10 to 12:50/ mile. And I love it! My body feels better, and I just feel better about running. I’m doing strides once a week and a hill day once a week so not every run is a vacation, but it feels much better to me, physically and mentally, to not have every run be a competition against the last run (talking training runs here, not races). This was all spurned by my interest in working with the heart rate monitor, but I actually haven’t been using one. The one that I purchased was not satisfactory to me and I have been messing around with b!kes0mewhere dot com to try to get a refund or exchange. My experience so far has been a minimally responsive customer service department so I don’t expect I will be working with an HR monitor again for at least a couple of weeks.

My long run this week was 8 miles and it went well. I chose the towpath because then at least half my run would be on groomed dirt and gravel rather than all asphalt. Per the PT, I’m not even supposed to be running more than 3 or 4 miles (yep, here’s where the truth comes out that I am not quite the perfect patient), but I traded in a couple of long runs for 10K races in the past few weeks so I really have to get some miles in before the 1/2 M. I’ve got 3 weeks before the taper week to get in a 10 and an 11 or 12 so if I can just keep this hip thing at bay for a few more weeks I promise I will be that perfect patient afterwards! The towpath is a drag for long runs – mostly flat, mostly straight – it runs alongside the canal, so that’s pretty exciting Thank goodness for the mp3 player!! And podcasts!!! I listened to 4 episodes of Endurance Radio 3 of which featured ultra-runners or triathletes! Also, 4 episodes of Slate Magazine and, in the last mile, just when I really needed a boost – Barefoot Radio came on! I love these guys and they totally took me the last mile! Another great podcast – and Susan got me started on it – is Phedippidations. I love listening to this dude – check out his awesome account of the recent Falmouth Road Race. While running it!!
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Last but not least – on this day next week, I will be motoring along the Mass Pike, making my way to Susan and much RBF revelry. I won’t get the Farthest Distance Traveled prize though: David’s, jetting in from not-so-sunny Florida and Jon & family on a rowdy roadtrip from Michigan!! CT won’t know what hit it!

First of all, I need to give a shout-out to cool weather! I don’t think I had a clear sense of just how profoundly heat and humidity affected my running until I had this beautiful opportunity to run without it. Autumn racing is going to rock!!

This race was held in conjunction with the annual Woodsmen’s Days. You wanna talk about a workout – come watch these men and ladies chop, saw, and climb trees! It’s Fear Factor in flannel and Timberlands. There’s no eating of cows’ eyeballs but plenty of greasy steak sandwiches to go around.

The run started at 6PM so I was able to sleep with no alarm clock and putter around most of the day. It was cool and overcast all day, and when I left the house the temp was 68F with a slight little bit of humidity and a good breeze. I arrived at the high school and picked up my packet and while I was waiting around at the start the wind really picked up and it was darn chilly. We were all wearing short sleeves or tank tops and everyone was shivering! I actually thought about going back to my car and getting my jacket! Evidently, all this heat has de-acclimated me to anything below 75F! There were maybe 50 runners and I took my place at the back. The race director announced that there was a “violent storm” moving in our direction and expected to show itself in about 1 1/2 – 2 hours. He said that in the event that the storm moves faster than we run to just get off the road and go to the nearest house. Being a small town, it’s pretty safe to say that if 5 or 10 runners showed up at anyone’s door they would be welcomed in for coffee and pie without hesitation. The director then set off his car alarm as our starting gun and we were off.

Everybody shot off the start and I immediately found myself bringing up the rear, with the sweeper truck hot on my heels. There were a couple people a few yards ahead of me, moving at about my pace but everyone else was really off and running. I didn’t mind being last and I really didn’t want to go out too fast just because everyone else was moving quickly but it was really hard not to try to keep up. The first mile was flat and I was really working hard and hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake. As we passed the first marker I looked at my watch – 10:23. Uh oh.

I kept on pushing because I just couldn’t bring myself to slow down and a short way into the second mile things started to smooth out and I could feel myself hitting a stride. This is also where the course started to roll – nicely roll – some good ups and downs but not the intense steeps and longs of a couple of weeks ago. I kept up my pace and closed the gap between myself and the man and woman who had been keeping just ahead of me. She was moving at a nice, steady pace but he was struggling and kept trying to rocket past us on the hills. He didn’t sound like he could sustain it much longer. I passed both of them in mile 3 and was feeling great! I was powering up the hills, maintaining my pace, working hard but feeling strong – wow! Is this really me? In the 5th mile I really started to feel the confidence that I was not going to crap out and that I still had enough in me to really race this. I passed a lady on a hill who had been pretty far ahead of me the whole while but was now really struggling. Next in my sites was a guy who had been motoring along at a pretty steady pace and I wondered if I was going to be able to catch him. Then I saw his t-shirt. He was wearing the race shirt from that miserable 10K in June!! And I thought well, this is providence! I am going to run my best 10K by reeling in this dude who represents my worst 10K. I’m gunning for you buddy! I mean seriously, how symbolic can you get! It took awhile to overtake him but as we headed into the last mile I came up on him. We exchanged a few words and I did not tell him the whole reason I was passing him – just wished him well and left him (or more specifically, the past) behind. The last mile was pretty well flat and there was one last guy in my sights, though he was still a ways away and moving along at a strong, steady pace. I really had my doubts about catching him but I poured it on and, lo and behold, in the last tenth of a mile or so, I made my move and managed to get by him. I had a good kick for the finish too! Official time 1:04:32!! That’s an average pace of 10:25! That’s almost as fast as my 5K PR pace (though that was all the way back in May).

But you know, the real pleasure for me was that I ran a good race. I put myself out there and gave it my all, even though there were moments I was afraid to, and it felt great! I know it doesn’t always work out like that but that doesn’t matter today

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One last thing – if any non-runners who ever go out and cheer for runners are reading this, thank you so much for coming out and giving encouragement when we need it most – BUT – At least you’re not last! is not only not motivating, it’s actually kind of insulting and hurtful to all of us back of the packers, especially the person who is last and who is doing as great a job as the person who came in first! I’m sure you don’t mean it that way but for the future – Way to go! and You’re doing great!!will be much more appreciated. I, and some of the people behind me (though presumably not the person who was last) got this shout of “encouragement” at least 3 different times.

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Ok, next up: New Haven! I can’t believe it’s just a couple of weeks away! I’m putting in an advance order for some more nice, cool weather so there will be some serious RBF rocking on those courses!!

MP3 Player

I had never run with one. It just never occurred to me. I was ok with my thoughts and the sound of my incredibly loud breathing but several weeks ago, for no good reason, I ordered one. It sat on my desk for awhile and I was wondering why I ever thought I wanted it. Then I discovered podcasts! I know, I know, I ‘m way behind the curve.

So today I ran while listening to ultra-runner Gillian Robinson on Endurance Radio, a couple of short pieces from Slate.com, and a little bit of Skepticality. What a great way to pass a run!! I don’t plan to use it every time, I don’t want to come to rely on the distraction and am not necessarily in any hurry to move away from the thoughts, sights, sounds, and sensations of running that could probably be blunted by the chatter. On the long runs though, it seems very enticing.

Physical Therapy

My left hip/groin is still troublesome. After the first week of PT, I felt significantly better and the dude was all set to cut me loose. By the next, and supposedly last, visit the discomfort was right back to square one. Each visit he adds more stretch and strength but I can’t say I’ve felt any improvement in a couple of weeks. He says that the hip flexor has loosened up and that my pelvis is no longer tipped, also that my legs are of equal length now, due to the un-tipping. So that’s improvement. He also says that my ITB and hamstrings are good and don’t seem to be a contributing factor. So what’s up? Next up will be an x-ray to rule out degenerative disease or some other structural problem. Thankfully, I continue to be allowed to run as he feels it’s the best way to measure my progress – or lack of.

Slowing Down

Seriously. Since I’m always so clueless in my pacing, my training pace and race pace tend to be interchangebale. I just go run run run until I have to stop running. It’s never all-out but it’s never easy either. I’m reading up on the heart rate training and thinking more closely on what pace I run and when. One pace calculator says that if I run a 10K race at an average pace of 11:32 (which was my pace for the last 10K) I should be doing easy runs at, like 14:00 to 15:00 min/mile pace. That’s wild. But you know, I’m going to try it. Who knows, maybe not treating every run like a tempo run will ease up my hip problems. I’ll be interested to see how (if) I respond to this.

Girls’ Night Out

As I sat with a group of female co-workers last night, formed in a circle around a big round table in the back corner of a dimly lit restaurant, I was convinced that there is no generation of energy quite like that created by a gathering of women.

Orphan Fawns

About a month ago, a young girl hit and killed a mama deer in the road in front of my house. I heard the all-to-familiar sound of tires braking on pavement and waited the breathless split second that follows, hoping I would not hear the unmistakable dull thump. But I did. I went outside and headed towards her car, which was pulled off to the side. As I jogged across the lawn, I came across 2 fawns just standing, dazed, on the lawn. They didn’t know what was going on and when they saw me they started towards me. I stopped and waited, wondering if I was going to have a Snow White moment (with the deer, not the 7 dudes. Geez!), and wondering what I could do for these babies. After a minute of indecision, the fawns took off into the woods across the street. I checked to see that the driver was ok, the police were called, the carcass located. After everything was squared away, I gave a call to a nearby wildlife rehabilitator to see what could be done to help the fawns. She was not optimistic. She told me that they were right on the cusp of the weaning time and that it was a real crapshoot whether they would be able to survive without their mom. If they weren’t weaned, no – if they were, maybe. Unfortunately, I am located within the containment area due to the appearance of chronic wasting disease. Rehabilitators cannot take in deer and feeding deer is illegal, though if they weren’t weaned, putting out food wouldn’t make a difference anyway. She advised me to keep an eye out for them, that if they weren’t weaned the tale would be told within 3 days, and if I saw them and they were acting weak or sick that I should call the DEC to come and “dispatch” them. Well, to make a long story less long, evidently they were weaned and the kids are doing great. They come by frequently for visits and you can see them here. Now I just pray they look both ways before crossing the road.

I had originally planned to run a 4 mile race on Saturday but when I got up, I just didn’t feel like it. No big drama, I just felt like I’d rather hang out at home and have coffee on the porch with my old man. And so it was.

I did sign up for a 10K next Friday evening that I am looking forward to. It’s just up the road and I will probably head to my sis’s after for a beer and a dip in the pool. Then, no races till New Haven because I have got to stop messing around so much with my 1/2 M schedule.

So. I bought an HR monitor. Evidently there was not enough minutiae in my life for me to obsess about. After two runs with it, it would appear that my “conversational pace” puts me at about 95% of Max HR. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but the reality was that I could not run slow enough to keep my heart rate even a bit below 80%. However, for reading more in the 90% range, my subjective feeling of effort did not feel as high as my pulse indicated – on a 1 to 10 scale, I might have given it a 7. What does it all mean?

The Max HR I was going by was the one the cardiologist gave me when I had the stress echo – which was 177. However, at one point when I was doing some hill repeats, my HR showed 181. If I were to do the 220 minus age formula, it would give a Max HR of 182 (now don’t be going and doing any fancy math to figure out how old I am!). So was the doc wrong? If it was the fault of the monitor, I would expect it to miss beats, not add extra ones. Is it possible that after a year my heart is still so inefficient? Both runs were in hot and quite humid conditions so that might have contributed – but how much? Dunno.

Anyway, I – of course – promptly ordered a book, and I’ll continue to experiment along with it. I’m thinking I’d like to incorporate heart rate training as a tool to improve. I’m thinking about next year, and I’m thinking about it being a Marathon year.

If I look back on this year, thus far – I can’t say I have any complaints. It was just about a year ago that I took my first, tentative post-injury steps. Since then, I have improved some physically, but improved much mentally. I have struggled with the fear, bordering paranoia, of re-injury – when the slightest twinge would stop me in my tracks. I have fought mightily with the expectations that got me injured in the first place – that I must run as fast and as far as everyone else, as soon as possible. But I have also set and achieved goals that would have been laughable to me 2 years ago, and find that each time that happens the next goal somehow seems to get a little more intense. I have learned a little more about that part of running that is without language – why I embrace it, or why it embraces me – and how much more of that I want to know. So when I look at what I’ve done and I look at what I’m doing – I want to do more, I want to do better. Not because I want to measure up to anyone. Only to myself.

This year I’ve run plenty of races, and am still to run a few more. I didn’t race any of them thinking about a PR, I just loved being there and being a part of them. Some people may not even call that racing. That’s ok. But when I think about next year, I do think about being a little faster and running a little longer – not because I’m a competitor or because I think that I should, but because I want to be more physically fit and more mentally tough. And the year after that – even moreso – etc & etc. But you know, I always want the running to be joyful. Sure, in the real world, not every run is what you’re going to describe as joyful – but I always want the essence to be there no matter what my training goals. My challenge will be to not get caught up in the machinations to the point where I forget that. For a person who can easily spend 20 minutes pinning her race bib on just right, you bet it’ll be a challenge!

So those are the things I’ve been thinking about.

All the way back to last Thursday when I got to meet one of the Texas contingent of the RBF! Jennifer is actually from central NY (though you wouldn’t know it by the draaaaawl ), not but 50 or so miles west of my stomping grounds. So it was most excellent that she had the time to get together while she was back in the area!

In trolling around the internet, trying to think of a middle ground to meet up at and perhaps a nice place to run, I came across a cross country sunset run that sounded neat (< -- if you check out this link, then scroll down and click on 'Thursday, August 4' you can see our results *sigh*). So anyway, Jennifer had the time free and said she was up for it. Cool!

Now I have never run cross country, really wasn't even sure what it was. I've run on a real trail like, twice ever - so I wasn't sure what I was in for but I know the area is beautiful so I figured it would be nice enough. And mostly I was looking forward to meeting Jennifer.

Jennifer and I found each other easily because we both parked in the wrong area, so that worked out. We pretty quickly found the place we needed to be and were able to visit a little before heading off to the starting area which was, well...way out in a field. The race took place near the horse stable of a college that has an equine program, so there were lots of horses, and as Jen mentioned, plenty of horse poo - though where we were running it was old and, um...dry and flakey - not moist and, well you get the idea. The creator of this run is the cross country coach at Cazenovia College and was a thoroughly likeable guy who has been working to create this course and raise some $$ for the team.

We all headed to the start area, there were 15 of us for the 5K, a few for the 3K, and one walker. Coach Dave gave us the layout, a 3-leaf clover kind of course that looped in and out from the origin. Between his instructions and the colored flags laid out, any idiot could find their way around -

well, almost any idiot.

Since the start area was wide enough to accomodate all the runners lining up side by side, I wasn’t allowed to find my spot in the back and we all shot off the line together. I had told Jennifer to run the course for herself and not worry about hanging back with me. She was very kindly and saying ‘no, I’m slow too.’ They all say that until they run with me and get a new perspective We set off and I ran with the crowd for maybe 1/4 of a kilometer. Just long enough to realize that sawdust and powdered manure don’t have any springback, in fact they feel like quicksand. Jen said, well this is fun (bless her, she really said that), I replied with some heavy panting and dropped back at that point, mentally waving goodbye to the crowd and thinking that cross country running might suck just a little. Almost the second I had that thought, the lady running in snowshoes (yes, I am so serious, ask Jen!) passed me.

Once I slowed down and got my heartrate under 340 bpm I was able to manage most of the run, except for a particularly steep little hill (yeah yeah, again with the hill-whining) that I had to walk up. I also lost a little time jogging in place while getting directions 3 or 4 different times as, despite constant review, each time I looped back to the main area I forgot where to go next. Jen was at the finish to cheer me in when I finally did find my way. Afterwards, we snuck into the horse arena and traipsed across dirt and who-knows-what to get to a ladies room where we could freshen up.

Down in town we found a little place for a bite to eat and a visit. Jennifer is super-cool. She has a smile that just shines, a great laugh, and some groovy tattoos! It seemed to me that we had some very similar attitudes about running and life, and I really enjoyed our time together.

So there’s another RBF meet-up, one that spans nearly the length of the U.S. Isn’t that something! Jen’s heading back to her wicked trails and I’m back to my springy asphalt but I think she’s taking a little horse sh!t home on the bottom of her brand new running shoes, just to remember me by.