Run.Yng

My Running Journal: 011111; or, "The Foot Bone's Connected to the Ankle Bone."

2011-01-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

No running this morning. I’m currently “running” about once a week, if that. The reason is that I volunteered to be an alternate for the Affiliate Team for Crossfit Portland. The way that the 2011 Crossfit Games are shaping up, I doubt that I will be able to offer much even as an alternate, besides being a great cheerleader. But I’m going to keep up my current training cycle until February, at which point I am going to (probably) shift focus to races.

This morning I was thinking about what Kelly Starrett of Crossfit San Francisco said the other day in his Mobility WOD blog. Specifically, in episode 141 he addresses tibialis posterior. Tibialis posterior is a muscle of the lower leg, and it sits behind your tibia (duh). When talking about muscles, you can talk about origins (where the muscle starts), and the insertion (where it ends). And our friend tibialis posterior inserts, without getting too specific, into the bottom of your foot by way of some tendons that pass behind your inside ankle bone (medial malleolus). Here, take a look.

What tibialis posterior does, amongst other things, is work to invert the foot. Which means it helps to pull your footsie inwards. If you stand up, and then roll up onto the outside edge of your foot (the side where your pinkie toe is), you are technically inverting your foot. The opposite direction is “eversion,” but that isn’t important right now.

Why am I thinking about tibialis posterior? Well, I have arches that aren’t exactly the greatest. Even running in minimalist shoes. Tibialis Posterior is part of the chain that keeps the wonderful suspension system that is your foot in position. Strengthen the links in that chain, and you strengthen the whole. Since a stronger, more integrated body is what I am after, this is good stuff to know. And it has me thinking about other things, but more on that later.

My Running Journal: 010910; or, Running for Fun and Profit!

2011-01-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Today was an easy 5k on the reliable Leif Ericsson trail. I didn’t time it, just wanted to get the distance in and shake off some lingering soreness from a particularly interesting workout last week. I met up with one of the members of the running team that I have put together for the Shamrock run, and one of my friends who has been talking the talk about working out showed up as well. All in all it was a nice run, and a surprise waited for me at the end. More on that shortly.

I’m trying to get back in the blogging habit. Really, I am. I originally started this blog as a way to keep myself motivated to “get back in shape,” and I think the blog took a back seat once I actually started feeling healthy and self motivated again. I know that this blog is almost all words – I don’t think that I have linked too much outside of it, and I’m not one for pictures of myself doing stuff. Being a text based blog may make it hard to really explain things at times, but I’m happy to rattle off a page of text where a single picture might suffice. Because I hate taking pictures.

When I started, I was just trying to get my butt out of bed early in the morning so that I could get myself together for a run before going to the office. Now I’m back to sleeping in till 7am (or later, sometimes). But whereas last year at this time I was staying in bed because I was unmotivated, now I actually am sleeping because I am working out. Sleep is good in this case.

At the end of today’s run I was showing a drill to one of my running partners (Hi Tami!), and while we were discussing it, one of the other random strangers at the trailhead asked if I was a running coach, and if could show her (and possibly some people in her regular running group) the proper techniques for Pose/BoF style running. Luckily, I had my trusty electronic brain with me, and shot off an email to her with my contact info. Sure, I’ve spent a bunch of time, sweat and money on learning how to train people in movement, but I wasn’t expecting for a potential client to come up to me at the end of a run. That made today pretty great. We’ll see if she actually contacts me and arranges a session or two, but the very fact that I was approached because of what I was saying and doing is cool.

So now I actually have to think about rates, curriculum, and where in my schedule I am going to fit this. This is not a bad thing.

"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come," OR, My Running Journal, 010611

2011-01-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

So I’m not dead, contrary to no one in particular’s belief. I doubt that there is even the hint of a rumor out there about my demise. But to allay any possible fears on the part of my dear reader(s), no, I am not dead, and have not been near death any time in the recent past. Unless you count sleep as death, in which case, perchance to dream.

Anyway. Way back in May of 2010 I was all jazzed about running. Crossfit was treating me well as a training modality, I was feeling strong, and had high hopes for the Portland Marathon.

Well, at least I can say I finished the Portland Marathon. I’m not going to brag about my time – let’s just say that I finished before they re-opened the streets, and leave it at that. I did learn an important lesson that day. Of course, that was a few months ago, and so I have probably forgotten whatever it was that I was thinking.

Oh, I remember now. 2011 will be faster, and there will be 3 marathons. Two I am sure of – the Portland and the Marine Corps marathons. The third may be the Eugene or Haulin’ Aspen trail marathon. We will see. I’m in the process of planning out my year of races.

Oh, and that Crossfit thing? Totally a fad. Flash in the pan. Not only did I get stronger and faster, I got cockier (“No Way,” you say. “Way,” I say). So cocky, in fact, that I signed up for a trainer certification. I am now a Crossfit Level 1 and Crossfit Endurance certified trainer and a Pose level 1 coach. Totally a fad. In fact, such a fad that I am signed up for another Endurance trainer certification course, and am looking into all kinds of other exercise related stuff. Such a flash in the pan that I am now training five days out of the week, and have asked the owners of the gym that I go to if they need a helper monkey for their intro classes (fingers crossed).

When I was in my teens I couldn’t understand how people could get out of shape and unhealthy. I remember talking to a family member about how I felt that I was always going to be intensely physically active. At some point that thought process got away from me. I rediscovered that love of activity last year.

I’ve put together a running and training team. Ostensibly to have a fun run – training for the Shamrock Run in Portland. Just a simple 5k fun run. But I’m hoping to translate that running team into something greater.

So I’m not dead.

My Running Journal, 050410

2010-05-04T12:02:00.001-07:00

Hey, look at that, I have a blog!

I haven’t forgotten about it, but I have been lazy. Not running as much as I was, and definitely not writing as much.

Both of which I should be doing. But I am at a point where I don’t have a huge amount to say. I’m still doing Crossfit work five times a week, and have been going on trail runs on Sundays. I feel that I am teetering right on the edge of overtraining – I know that I can push harder, but I have feeling that I will start to see longer and longer overall recovery times between workouts, and I’d prefer that to not happen.

I’m definitely way off on following the Higdon schedule that I started – but I have a feeling that, overall, I am at least as strong and fit as I would have been had I stuck with it. To be perfectly honest, I have a feeling that I am much stronger overall because of the Crossfit than I would be if I was just running. Having a good strength base will contribute to my success as a marathoner.

I’m pretty sure that I could run a half marathon tomorrow if I wanted to. I know that I would be slow, but based on what I did on Sunday, 13 miles doesn’t seem like a long way. Sunday I tested out my legs – I went on 5k trail run on the Leif Ericksson trail here in Portland in the morning, and then hiked a trail on Dog Mountain in the afternoon. The morning run I did without my metronome, and while my overall cadence was too slow, I did finish the run in 29 minutes. Which is by no means fast, but I was at a cruising speed where I was trying to focus on my form more than anything else. The first ½ mile absolutely sucked, and I was wondering if my aerobic capacity was shot – but then I remembered that the first ½ mile or so always sucks, I just haven’t been running enough recently to keep that in mind. Assuming that I pay attention to my cadence, I will go faster.
The afternoon hike was by no means a leisure stroll. Dog Mountain starts with a ½ mile climb that covers 700 vertical feet by way of switchbacks. At the .7 mile mark the trail splits, and you get to choose between “less” difficult and “more” difficult. Note that “Difficult” is a component of both. My buddies and I decided to go up the more difficult trail and come down the less difficult trail. More Difficult was 2.2 miles to the summit, while less was 2.6. More difficult was an aggressive trail, with sections that must have been 45-50 degrees in pitch. So steep in some sections that I could probably have put my hands out and climbed if I wanted to. Which made for an interesting hike. Round trip was a little over 7 miles, and I got to test my downhill running technique on the way back to the car.

Between the hike and the run, I was more fatigued by the end of the day than I was when I ran the Haulin’ Aspen half marathon a couple of years ago. Based on what I did on Sunday, I think I could handle a 13 mile run without too much issue.

I’m going to stick with Crossfit as my primary training mode until the end of this month, and then I’ll assess if I am doing as well as I think that I am.

My Running Journal 042010

2010-04-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

I went running (finally) this past Sunday. Okay, not quite running, more of a trot, as I was running with friends who aren’t quite as far into running as I am. We were all wearing VFFS, so I wasn’t the only one fielding the questions from folks on the trail.

I’m at a point now where I think I am recovering quickly enough from my Crossfit workouts that adding the CFE workouts won’t be too painful. The specter of overtraining is one that has been looming over me – in order to maintain my current momentum, I need to avoid wiping myself out.

And I need to get back to running on a regular basis. I know that I’m not really improving my running without practicing the skills. It’s now been a week and a half since I took the Pose clinic, and I really haven’t utilized the skills or drills more than twice. The good thing is that the warm-ups at the gym this week all start with a 600ish meter run. That will let me practice some of my footwork. The run this Sunday was more of a trot, and the cadence we were moving at was slow enough that I really wasn’t keeping good form. But I can’t complain, I’ve been the out of shape one on runs, and it was fun to encourage my friends to keep going and to talk about technique and goals.

Speaking of goals, this week my micro-goal will be to get back into running on Wednesday mornings, and practicing my Pose footwork drills at least once a day for 15-30 minutes. And to get back to writing everyday.

More soon.

My Running Journal 041210

2010-04-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today is a non running day. I think that I am going to spend a few minutes working on my jump rope technique, and maybe some of the skill building exercises that I learned yesterday in the POSE Technique class.

It turns out that the guy who taught the workshop yesterday Drew Miller, is also a Crossfit Endurance trainer as well as a POSE technique coach. He taught a great class, and it really helped solidify some ideas in my head about how things are supposed to work. It also became very clear that just reading about how to do something, and watching videos, does not substitute for good coaching. The workshop was small, a total of five of us. Two of the other guys were experienced mid to long distance runners and are training for the Eugene marathon - both of them knew about POSE, one of them the does Crossfit training, and the other one is starting to run in VFFs. The other guy, who had come up from Ashland, has been running in huaraches. The one woman in the group was not an experienced runner, which was probably good for her, since she didn't have to fight old habits, and was clearly able to focus on getting the pose right without having to contract old muscle memory.

We had a great conversation about Chi Running, the similarities between the two forms, and the bad blood between runners from all camps. I haven't encountered any negativity directly, but I'm not coaching people. Evidently there are loads of people who decide that if you aren't doing something their way, you must be doing it wrong ( I do this, but normally it is in response to other people's driving). And folks seem to be okay with criticizing other people's decisions, without knowing the other, "wrong" position. You see it in everything that has been systemized, and I guess running techniques are no different. Of course, the whole push behind the Pose technique and forefoot striding, along with minimalist shoes, is a threat to the current paradigm of running. Especially when you factor in how much money there is involved with shoes. Sarah, the woman at the clinic yesterday lamented a little over the fact that she had purchased a brand new set of nicely, heavily protective New Balance shoes based on the observation of what her foot did when she heel strikes.

The funny thing is that, and this keeps getting repeated to me in various forms, you cannot pronate or supinate your foot if you are utilizing the Pose technique. Your general center of mass is over your point of support, which happens to be your forefoot. If you aren't heel striking ahead of your hips, then there is no way that you can pronate or supinate your foot without really injuring yourself and doing it purposefully. I let Sarah know that I was in the same boat - I dropped a large amount of money on a pair of stability control shoes when I started ( those wonderful Brooks Addictions), and now they get used to transport me to the car on mornings when I head to Crossfit. Just to the car and the gym - I change over to my VFFs at the gym.

We went over tempo, body mechanics, uphill and downhill running, and skill drills. Drew videoed us running at the beginning of the class, middle, and end. And we all watched and picked apart our forms. I thought I had the forefoot stride down pretty well, at least as far as getting my foot to touch down directly below my center of mass, instead of ahead of it. Boy was I wrong. There were a host of other things that we kept an eye on, and by the end of the clinic I had improved a little bit.

Beside the specific skill drills and coaching that I got from the clinic, we also discussed effective training - this goes back to my thoughts on what it means to run as fast as you can. Drew reinforced my opinion in that it makes no sense to train poorly - if your basic skill set is deficient, and you have a bad running form, then you aren't helping yourself if you push yourself to run faster without taking the time to really improve your basic skills. You are a better runner if you have and can maintain good form throughout the course of your run. If you can't maintain a good form in a training run, then you are running farther than your skill, and aren't really benefitting from the exercise.

We also got some fun toys - a metronome and an EZ run belt. I'll discuss the belt in a future post, but it seems like it will be a very helpful training tool. The metronome is a much nicer one than I have been using, primarily because it is louder and has a belt clip.

Tomorrow I am going to go out and give my new found running skills a test. And hopefully I'll find other people who are POSE runners in Portland that would like to get together for group training and critique. Because Drew Miller is the only Pose certified trainer in Oregon.

My running journal, 040810

2010-04-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Tabata training protocol is pretty cool. Wednesday's workout ended with us doing Tabata sit-ups. Four minute abs!
The Tabata protocol is pretty simple. The workout spans all of four minutes, and consists of eight sets of 20 seconds of all out effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, then 20 seconds all out, etc. Four minutes. Easy, right? Well, it is and it isn't. The first set you feel like you have all the time in the world, and then as the sets progress, the rest times seem shorter and shorter, while the work time stretches out, and the work gets harder. My sets broke down to 17, 14, 13, 11, 9,9,9,9. That last one was hard to get - it took me three seconds to get that last sit-up in. There wasn't any pain in the sets, just a decided lack of response from my abdominal muscles to respond as fast I wanted them to. The study usually used to show the effectiveness of the Tabata protocol indicates that it is potentially as aerobically effective as a 45 minute step aerobics class. I'd like to see more studies before I completely accept that, but i have a feeling it is at least approaching the truth.

Now that I know how a Tabata set works, as far as timing, I really need to work them into my training set. And to avoid overtraining, I'm only supposed to do a major muscle group Tabata set once or twice a month. I think that I am going to start usig my early Saturday mornings for track work. I have already blocked out that time for CFE workouts.

It turns out that I don't need to buy a new watch after all. I started playing with my Forerunner 305, and it has an interval function. And I can set it up for timed intervals and/or distance intervals. Which will be good, as it is hard to figure out how far 200 meters are on the street - I guess i could chart a route and break it down, block by block, but the last thing that I want to try and do while sprinting is to keep an eye on street signs or mailbox numbers. Easier just to have a GPS watch beep to tell you when you have reached your set distance. We'll see if I am smart enough to figure out the basic programming needed to do this.

Interval training hear I come!

My Running Journal, 040710

2010-04-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

I slept in today instead of going out and running. I'm allowing myself to do this, as I am trying to ramp up my activity level while not overdoing it. Zero gain, or negative gain, is something that I want to avoid. I was tired all day yesterday, and the workout last night at the gym was harder than it should have been for me. The negative gain train has three cars, and one of those is a lack of rest. So I'm trying to let myself go about this in as natural a process as possible.

Based on some of the articles by the Crossfit Endurance gurus that I have read, ideally I shouldn't be training sport specific more than a few hours a week. So between the five hours of Crossfit that I am putting in per week, I can probably add a little over five more hours of workout time before I start to really stress myself out. Beside getting to a healthy weight and overall health, I am training to run in a marathon this year, and that is to build a base on which I plan to build up to participating in an Ironman level triathlon by the time I am 40 years old, if not sooner. I have to keep that in mind, that this step in the process is part of a greater and greater process.

I am trying to find out what the ideal level of aerobic training is. In order to be a good endurance athlete, one must have a strong aerobic base. What this boiled down to is that, at the end of the run, I should be able to bounce back, heart rate and respiration wise, within a few minutes. Sunday's run demonstrated to me that I have the aerobic conditioning sufficient to run an 11min/mile pace for at least 5 miles. I'm trying to answer a question in my head about what it means to have a strong aerobic base, and how you measure it without fancy lab equipment.

Reading about interval training has given me a little peek into this. Part of the interval training process is a rest period in between periods of exertion - part of this is to allow for aerobic recovery - breathing, oxygen, etc. One of the things that I can keep an eye on is how fast my heart rate returns to an aerobic baseline from an anaerobic level. Your max heart rate is supposed to be 220 minus your age, which means my max heart rate is around 186 bpm. For an intense interval training session, my heart rate should come up to about 170 bpm which would be about 90% of my max - and ideally, (if I am reading some of this stuff right) by the time my rest interval is over, my heart rate should have recovered back to the aerobic threshold, which for me should be around 70% of my max, or 130 bpm. So, does that mean that a solid aerobic base means that my heart rate is about 130 bpm at the end of a long distance run? Say, after a 10k? Or is it that my pulse rate gets up to 130 and stays there for the majority of the run? Some more reading is in order. I definitely feel the need for a heart rate monitor on my next run to see what is going on.

This Sunday I am taking a Pose running class. Time to start developing that skill set. I find it interesting to read back to some of my earlier posts about using chi-running skills to go faster. I'm trying to find the balance between that and what I am picking up about Pose technique.

Tonight we are doing some intense work at Crossfit. The last component of the workout is going to be Tabata situps. Which means several rounds of 20 second max output, followed by 10 seconds rest, for 8 rounds. So I may not run tomorrow morning, even if I manage to wake up early enough.

My Running Journal, 040510

2010-04-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I ran a five mile trail run in my new VFF KSO treks. The Treks are the heaviest version that Vibram offers, having kangaroo leather uppers, a pretty aggressively lugged outsold component, and a thin EVA midsole. Contrast this with the classic, which has a lightweight fabric upper, no midsole, and a siped rubber sole. The midsole on the treks was added to protect against the stuff that you inadvertently run over while on a trail or off road. And they do feel different than the classic or the sprints. I still felt the gravel, stones and other stuff on the trail yesterday, but there was a slight sense of insulation from all of it. I think the biggest difference with the treks is not so much the midsole, but the aggressive tread. I can see the tread helping in conditions where the siped rubber would just slide along, like over a thin layer of mud, or wet vegetation. The siped rubber works really well on surfaces like wet concrete, asphalt, or the deck of a boat - but in my experience they are less than ideal in situations where there is wet vegetation/algae, or any amount of mud. I know that my Sprints didn't work very well to keep my footing on wet lava rocks in Hawaii, or over wet logs and muddy trails here in Oregon.

The run itself was nice. My iPhone lost GPS signal at a couple points, so it only mapped a run 4.61 miles in length, but I am sure that I ran closer to 5, in about 56 minutes. And that included stopping in a portapotty for a leak, the 30 seconds or so of walking right at the start to get my waist pack on and tightened, and a few seconds around the 2 mile marker where I adjusted my tights. I was running at a nice, easy pace, as I haven't really been running as much. I originally was just going to run 3 miles, again, since I haven't been keeping up the pace of training runs. But I got to the mile and a half marker, and realized I had plenty of gas left in my tank. I decided to run to the 2 mile marker and see how I was doing there. 2 miles came, and I kept going. I decided to turn around at the 2.5 marker, as I didn't want to overdo it. I was definitely feeling a little fatigued towards the end, but I'm not sure if that was physical discomfort or just being slightly bored.

I tried to keep smiling during the whole run, and thinking about fun stuff. Most of the first mile sucked, but I settled into a decent pace and felt pretty good for the rest of the run. Smiling, and trotting along. I had the metronome to 80 bpm, and only tried to not fall to a pace any slower than that, instead of trying to strictly stay at that pace.

I'm definitely feeling some of it today, but nothing more that the usual aches in my ankles. I have a feeling that most of that pain is coming from either my fibula being in slightly the wrong place, or the talus, or both. It is a familiar pain, and the fix will be to see a chiropractor to have the bones put pack into correct alignment. Some of the pain is coming from my peroneal muscles, as massaging the muscles (the ones on the outside part of your lower leg, behind the fibula) alleviates some of the discomfort. I am trying to figure out what has caused it, as I haven't twisted my ankle. It could come from switching between the vibrams, the boots that I regularly wear, and other shoes.

Crossfit is definitely helping me to get into shape. I'm noticing that my muscle tone is greatly improving, and the fact that I felt good enough to run 5 miles and still feel good at the end of it means something. The workouts aren't getting any easier, but I can do pull ups again, and my ribs aren't bothering me.

I had an interesting conversation with one of the trainers the other day. We spoke about our experiences as runners, and her view was similar to what mine was when I started all of this. Now, she is a Crossfit trainer, collegiate level soccer player, and she hates running distances. Most Crossfitters dislike the idea of long, slow distances - i.e. Long term aerobic exercise. The idea is that you can get the same overall effect, in terms of health, by performing high intensity anaerobic exercises over a short period of time. Now, this is borne out by some studies, but there hasn't been much in the way of large scale comparative studies done regarding different training styles. And by "large scale," I mean participation in the thousands.

But her attitude surprised me. Within the general philosophy of Crossfit, there is the idea that no matter what the exercise is that confronts you, a Crossfit practitioner would be able to pull it off. The negativity towards LSDs I think is a response to the negativity that has come at people practicing Crossfit from traditional endurance trainers. Which I think is stupid. In order to be a well rounded active person, you need to be able to perform comfortably in both aerobic and anaerobic activities, and, in my opinion, should be able to transition from one to the other with ease. The founders of Crossfit are trying to establish a basic training paradigm that says that the definition of "fitness" not only encompasses overall physical health, but physical ability. From the evolutionary point of view, the most successful or "fittest" individual is the one able to adapt quickly and successfully to whatever environment they are in.

How does this tie into long distance runs, or endurance activities in general? The first event in the 2009 Crossfit games was a 7k combined road/trail/hill run. The course looked like a punisher, but the attitude of the majority of the participants towards the run, compared to some of the other events, was pretty interesting to see. Most of them claimed that they had never run more than a mile at a time, and that 7k was a long distance. Now, admittedly, the course look very, very difficult through some stretches, but it was only 7k. That is a warm up run for most endurance athletes. Admittedly, most endurance athletes wouldn't then be able to do an increasing weight deadlift over the course of ten minutes within 40 minutes of finishing a race. Which is the way that the games went.

It is the attitude that most of the people interviewed had, as well as my trainer. That long distance runs are hard, or bad, or unpleasant. Your mindset towards the work you have in front of you will dictate how you feel about at work. If you are at best neutral to it, then the perceived effort will be neutral. If you think it will suck, then it will suck. For my trainer, I was surprised by her attitude - she is a pretty high level soccer player, and from what I have observed at soccer games, she should be able to run super long distances with little perceived effort. If she is like any other competitive soccer player that I know, she is sprinting, at the least, the equivalent of two miles per game. That's a heck of alot harder than cruising along for five or so miles.

It's only as hard as you want it to be.

My Running Journal, 033110

2010-03-31T11:43:00.001-07:00

I haven’t gone running since last week. Not because I am lazy (okay, a little bit of the lazy), but mostly because I really don’t want to over do it. I am doing Crossfit workouts five days out of the week. That is every weekday, with “rest” days on Saturday and Sunday. I am trying to exploring the upper limits of my physical capacity, and keep the activity level dialed to a few notches under the upper limit.

Which means that I have been a little cautious. The strength conditioning workouts at the gym haven’t really taken much out of me, but the “metcon” (as in, metabolic conditioning) sections are. Since this is Crossfit, we are doing brief, intense exercises that place a considerably anaerobic demand on us. My recovery times have never been great – normally people that I have worked out with will recover about twice as fast as I do, and I have a feeling that is due to a blood sugar issue on my part. Last night was especially telling – we did an interval set on rowers. 5 rounds of 40 seconds, all out effort, for calories. We had 4 minutes of rest between each round, and then 10 minutes after the last round we did a 2 minute all out sprint on the rower. Counting the calories really showed me how quickly my performance degrades. The first round I burned 16 calories. The second round 17. The third, 15. The fourth, 14 and the fifth 12. After resting 10 minutes I managed to burn 34 calories in 2 minutes of rowing. The first two rounds I was able to keep my pace strong all the way to the last second, but the second through the fifth rounds my intensity levels dropped way, way down. Whole body fatigue – not to the point where I was unable to think or move, but I could definitely feel the draining sensation. Your limbs get tired, your core gets tired, your brain gets tired of telling your body to move.

Last night’s interval set on the rower gave me a good idea of what I should be shooting for in my CFE interval WODs, though. Which means more gear – a watch with a stopwatch, lap and countdown timer function. Probably a Timex Ironman. Hooray, a valid reason for more toys! I’ve been accumulating smaller bits of workout gear so that I can practice outside of the gym – jumprope, kettlebell, a 6’ section of PVC. A stopwatch is something that will help – I know that I can use my Iphone as a stopwatch and countdown timer, but it isn’t waterproof or very easy to access while moving fast.

I don’t want all of my workouts to end up feeling like that kind of grind. So I am trying to find the balance of my desire to see gains, and my desire to not go backwards. Which is why I haven’t been getting up at 6am to go running. I have been waking up at 6am and assessing if I should go running. And the answer, for the most part, has been “no.” Some of that comes from an honest desire to not over train, and some (probably most) comes from being cozy in bed, and it being pretty cold and rainy outside. Cold and damp I can deal with, cold and pounding rain I don’t think would be good for my health. At least I am not that tough yet.

I have signed up for a clinic in Pose running. The closest trainer is in Salem, which is an hour drive away. So starting the second week of April I will hopefully have some drills and skills to practice, as well as have trained feedback on what I can work on.

My Running Journal, 032510

2010-03-25T20:28:00.001-07:00

Today was a wash, as far as runs go. Woke up with the alarm and realized that I wanted more sleep.

So I did. Zero miles at a pace of Zero minutes per mile.

Since I am technically still recuperating from my “injury,” I get to rest. Which made me start thinking about the difference, if any, between “rest” and “recuperation.” Besides the semantics, is there a difference? Gotta think this one through.

I bought a 1 “Pood” kettlebell today. I find it kind of funny that kettlebells are basically measured using an archaic Russian system. One Pood equals 16 kilograms, which comes out to about 35lbs. Which is surprisingly heavy. I was eyeballing the 1.5 Pood Kettlebell, but I need to improve my form with all of the regular Kettlebell exercises. Heavier weights do not necessarily equal improved performance. I probably should get one that is ½ pood (8 kilos), as there are some movements that I tried today that I can’t safely do with the 1 pood bell, for a number of reasons – the primary one is that I’m not ready for that weight in those motions.

Thinking of running, and running performance. Yesterday I talked about running as fast as I could while still maintaining a good posture and pace. As I think about running as a skillset, and not just “Put one foot in front of the other, very fast,” I keep realizing how bad the coaching was that I have received throughout my life. I am sure all of the shortcomings are a combination of me being a bad/slow student, and my instructors and coaches not quite grasping a specific skill, or how to teach that skill.

I am adopting the train of thought that, when it comes to running, the answer to people’s problems doesn’t lie in a pair of shoes that correct for their gait. Or more specifically, the problem is exactly that. I am guilty of giving people bad advice like this, and buying into that thought process. It is interesting to think of how inculcated we are now to look at a physical problem like over pronation or supination and try and fix it with shoes that restrict motion. Up until these past two months, when I thought about running, I thought about pain in my ankles and feet, fatigue, and the shoes that I would wear. Big, padded, awesome shoes. I went to a store that specializes in running. I had my gait analyzed. Shoes were prescribed. Run in these, and your problems will be fixed.

But that is so much bullshit. As I read more, and experience more running in minimalist shoes, I can really see how corrective footwear is a crutch that does not help – and the harm that it can cause, through weakening of the foot, ankles, knees, etc., is tremendous. Now, I know plenty of people who run without discomfort or serious injury, and have all of their lives. It isn’t just the shoe. It is also the runner. I’m happy to see that more and more people have already realized it. That developing running as a skillset is important. Not just “here, try these on.”

I’ve worn a hole in my VFFs. It is really neat to see, since it shoes exactly where the contact is between my feet and the ground. So a new pair is in order soon.

My Running Journal, 032410

2010-03-24T12:10:00.001-07:00

Today was the first of my Crossfit Endurance workouts. Which factored in nicely with all of the short distance running that I have been doing. The workout that I am starting with is a time trial (TT) for a short course – which means run 5k as fast as you can.

So I ran 3.45 miles as “fast” as I could. Instead of going hell for leather, I ran as fast as I could while maintaining form. So I finished 3.45 miles in 34:18. Which seems like a long time to me, but I ran a new route, and from mile 1.5 to mile 2.5 was a continuous hill climb, covering about 200 vertical feet, most of which was right at the end of the hill. I’m also trying to figure out how I was averaging a pace of 10:30 in the first mile, but completed the first mile in 9:30, and how my second mile was at a pace of 9:35, but I completed it in 8:43? However that works, I ran a pretty decent pace given the hill involved and my trying to focus solely on maintaining my form.

Which, I discovered, is pretty poor. I really need to find a coach, or get on a treadmill and have someone film me run. On the final leg of the run, I was passing in front of shops with large windows. This allowed me to view my form while I was running. While it is hard to really focus on your reflection in a window next to you while you are running, I managed a few peeks. And I noticed several things. The most glaring issue is my hips and torso. I could really see that my chest was raised, my back was arched, and my butt was out. I had a really pronounced lumbar curve and my posture was very upright. Which isn’t what I want – I am aiming for a forward lean and a neutral torso.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I am running with my abdominal muscles relaxed. Which is allowing my spinal muscles to bear the load, and which is probably pulling my lumbar curve even further out. So I experimented a little bit with pulling my belly button towards my spine and tensioning my abs over all. I didn’t see much change as I was running past the various windows, but I could feel a slight difference. I need to find a treadmill and someone to video me while I run (or at least set up a tripod with my camera).

A good concept for me to keep in mind was first introduced to me while practicing Taijiquan a couple of years ago. Honestly, I wish it had been clearly explained and reinforced while I was a teenager, or before then. The concept is that all movement originates from the core and ends in the extremities. In the martial arts that I was practicing, the idea is that, ideally, you originate your power and movement from your lower dantian (your center of gravity). You then direct that through to your extremities. Something that is becoming quite clear to me, since injuring my abdominal oblique, is that I have failed to incorporate this idea. I thought that I had it – as I can hiptoss people, whip a punch out without utilizing too much of my shoulder to generate the movement, and am really aware of my center of gravity. But truly incorporating the idea of core to extremity really means engaging the core muscles. And it has become obvious to me, based on what I glimpsed in the windows, that I am depending almost exclusively on the muscles that are in my lumbar region for this. When I sprint, I really start to feel a funny, weak joint sensation in my lumbar region. And this also comes in when I would do work on any gymnastic apparatus where your lower body is a pendulum – high bar, rings, parallel bars. Core to extremities – I need to keep my abs tighter when I run or perform any exercise, in order to protect my low back. 20+ years of working out and learning about all of this, and now I am actively thinking about its integration.

I’ve hammered out my workout schedule – and barring further injury I believe that I can handle it. Regular Crossfit on the weekdays, with a CFE workout on Wednesday and Saturday.

I think I am going to sign up for the Race for Roses 5k, to see if my 5k time improves. It will have been about a month from the Shamrock run, and the Race for the Roses track has less of a hill climb in it than the Shamrock run does. We will see.

My Running Journal, 032310

2010-03-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Today I did a short run, 1.27 miles at a pace of around 8:50 min/mile. I had my metronome set to 90bpm, and it was work to keep up with it. I felt like I was putting out a lot of effort to keep up the pace, but overall I didn’t feel that I was putting out a lot of effort – if that makes sense. Most of the effort was in keeping my legs moving fast enough to keep time, and not a whole lot of effort beyond that.

Now, what does that mean? A 9 minute mile will mean my marathon time will be just a hair under 4 hours. I wasn’t exhausted by any stretch of the imagination at the end of today’s run, but I doubt that I could have kept my feet moving that fast for more than 30 or so minutes right now. I’m going to have to by October, and if not faster.

I’m working on transitioning into POSE technique running. I feel that I should find an instructor, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the Portland area who is an actual POSE instructor. Which is funny, given how many people in the Portland area are runners – you’d think someone would have learned this and want to teach it.

The oblique that I strained last week is healing nicely – the muscle itself seems to be fine, but there is still pain and restrictions to my range of movement. If feels as if it is coming from the rib tips themselves, which makes me believe even more that I pulled the ribs out of alignment, or possibly sublaxed the costal cartilage at the ends of the ribs. Whatever I did, I feel that I am able to put about 50% effort into things. I absolutely don’t want to re-injure the area – if I do, it will most likely be worse. So I have to take it easy. Which is causing some motivation problems. This morning I almost didn’t go running. And I definitely didn’t run the distance I was scheduled for. But, I must remind myself, recovery. I have to keep reminding myself to take it easy(er), at least for the next week. And then…

Crossfit Endurance. I’ve decided that this break in my running schedule, again, is a good point to reset my training paradigm. The last break ended up with me switching from running shoes to VFFs, and this break will see me going from LSDs to CFE style workouts. 4-6 Crossfits anaerobic workouts per week, with 2 CFE endurance days. I’ll probably mix in some long distance trail runs, to keep things varied and to get used to running distance – to learn how to maintain form after a long period of sub-maximal output. Or, maximal paced output.

We’ll see. I want very much to be done recovering, an to be able to really, really push myself. I was right on the cusp, and now I have had to ease off a bit.

I have also started to put together a little micro-gym in my office. Right now, it is just a couple of pieces for joint mobility and PNF maintenance. What is PNF, you ask? “Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation.” A video is an easy way of showing what it is. So here is a video (not of me)

That is the general gist of PNF. Bonus, because I still have a tight hamstring that is causing me some pain.
PNF “stretching,” isn’t. The concept behind it, and the physiology behind it, mean that the muscles being “stretched” aren’t in fact stretching – that would imply that the muscle fibers and connective tissues are under mechanical tension and are elongating based on elasticity. Which shouldn’t be the case with PNF – instead, what should theoretically be happening, is that the muscle in question is relaxing under load – and it is doing this to prevent mechanical tension on the tendons. PNF should, in theory, work to make the muscles better able to relax and not stretch. The problem is that “proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation” is tough to say, while “stretching” isn’t. So we can abbreviate it to “PNF.”

Beside the massage table and stools in the office, I now have a 6’ section of 1” internal diameter PVC, otherwise known as the “Incredible Shoulder Mobility Device,” and a loop of climbing webbing to assist in some PNF work with my lower limbs.

Tomorrow, farther, and hopefully just as fast.

My Running Journal, 031810

2010-03-18T10:22:00.001-07:00

So no running these past couple of days – my next run is slated to be on Sunday, and will be a 3 miler.

Monday morning during the warm-up in Crossfit we were doing walking handstand drills. Now, I have a background in gymnastics, and handstands are an old hat. But at some point during the drill, I started to feel a little twinge in my left side. By the end of class, the twinge was a dull ache, but my whole body was a little achey/feeling worn, so I chalked it up to the post exercise ache. By the end of the day I was acutely aware that I had probably strained an oblique.

By Tuesday evening the ache hadn’t lessened, but I decided that I would see what it felt like after warming up and getting it mobile – which makes since – one of the best ways of reducing pain in a muscle that is aching due to use is to keep using it – the blood flow helps clear the crap out. In Chinese medicine, pain is caused by a stagnation of blood and/or qi, and so movement is essential.

Instead of handstand drills, we did rope climbing drills. I know how to climb a rope from elementary school, gymnastics, and the USMC. The least fatiguing way to do it is wrap the rope partially around one leg, so that the rope lays over the top of the foot, and then step on the rope with the other foot. This locks the rope between the feet, and with the correct tension between your legs, you can basically climb the rope with almost no upper body strength. However, doing this in minimalist shoes like the Vibrams is a new experience, and since the top of my foot is not calloused, I wanted to not give it rope burn. And I wanted to show off a little bit.

Stoopid. So I tried to climb without my feet. I used to do it in gymnastics, and in the Marines. It isn’t very difficult with enough upper body strength and grip strength. But what I didn’t take into account was the use of your abdominal muscles to stabilize. And how much strain it puts on your obliques, evidently. So when I heard and felt and popping sensation in the bottom of my ribcage, followed immediately by a twisting, excruciating pain, I realized that I was an idiot. I dropped off of the rope, clutching my side. I pressed in to make sure that I hadn’t caused a hernia (nope), but the crackling and popping sound along with the feeling of something moving back into place was a little disconcerting. Since the pain had ceased to be excruciating, and I still had full range of motion, I was pretty sure that I hadn’t torn the muscle in half, or from any of its bony connections. That, at least, was comforting.

So yesterday was a rest and recovery day, as is today, and probably tomorrow and Saturday(although the ocean has calmed down enough that it is probably going to be a great day to go fishing and kayaking, which I haven’t done since October).

I’m trying to not let this get me down. I was in a motivated space where I could see the increase in overall tempo of my training. I was excited to do it, and I was reflecting on how much I actually enjoy running and being physically active. This injury sets me back a week or so training wise, but it is also a test of my ability to heal and recover. It also gives me more time to assess my goals and where I am in achieving them.

Next week, on Monday, I hope to be back in the gym. I have decided that I am also going to train for the marathon using the Crossfit Endurance training paradigm. I’m excited to try it.

My Running Journal, 031610

2010-03-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I was supposed to run 2 miles, but I didn’t. Zero miles in zero minutes.

Instead, I sandbagged. Which is probably a good thing right now, given that, since last week, I have basically been working out everyday since Thursday, and right now five days of work outs in a row is right at the maximal level that I think I can sustain without hurting myself. So when my alarm went off at 0545 this morning, I woke up, hit snooze, and groggily decided to sandbag the run today. Give my calves a rest day.

Not that I am taking the day off, I just didn’t run this morning. No, I have a Crossfit class this evening. So I will get my workout in.

Which leads nicely into what I have been thinking about. I started Crossfit to increase my overall fitness. Part of this whole process has been researching various styles and philosophies of training. Most of the training advice regarding prepping for long distance work involves “LSDs,” otherwise known as “Long, Slow Distances.” The idea being that you train your body to run long distances, well, by running long distance. Which makes sense. As you become accustomed to running longer and longer distances, your brain begins to make the rest of your body more efficient at what it is doing. Your footfall, stride, pace, it all comes together over time. In addition to the basic mechanics of covering long distances, your body begins to change the way it handles food and energy storage. Improving your aerobic stamina generally only comes about by training your aerobic metabolism – and that means long, slow(ish) workouts. The training cycle that I have been following is designed to do that – once I start the actual marathon training cycle, I will begin to run farther and farther each week – increasing my regular runs and then doubling that distance once a week. Which seems to be the standard design of most of the training calendars that I have come across. 18 or so weeks of progressing towards 26 miles.

Now that I have started Crossfit, and have come across the idea of Crossfit Endurance, I am re-thinking that training schedule. I still have time left to reconsider it, as I still have about 12 weeks before I start the marathon training cycle in earnest. So I have a little while to make that decision.

The trick will be convincing myself that CE will work in place of LSDs. Because the last thing that I want to do is half-ass and try and do both. From all of the anecdotal evidence I have come across (i.e., forum posts and speaking with trainers), you can only really do one or the other in order to expect any results other than an injury. And really, half-assing anything is just asking for trouble. I’m still not entirely convinced about certain aspects of CE, but that may just be because I haven’t asked enough questions yet (or I haven’t taken a big enough swig of the CE Kool-aid).

My main question is one of pacing, and having a sufficiently developed aerobic metabolism. I was a gymnast in High School, and had pretty intense anaerobic training – short bursts of power and speed was what I was trained for. When I tried any sort of real aerobic workout, I basically broke down. I’ve been talking about this since I started – learning how to be efficient, how to pace. Metronome, cadence, stride length, etc. How can I develop my aerobic metabolism to the point where I can get to 26+ miles, without actually learning what it feels like to get to that point?

I don’t know. Some ideas are percolating, and I think I may start putting it to the test. There are several races between now and the start point of my marathon training calendar. My run distances right now don’t really come into the LSD category, since none of my training runs are going to be farther than six miles. So I may be able to test out the CE training process in the meantime.

We will see. I figure I’m running close to barefoot right now, what’s another little training modification?

My Running Journal, 031510

2010-03-16T08:42:00.001-07:00

Today was a “rest” day, so of course I scheduled myself for an early morning Crossfit class. So much for rest – and to top it off, I think I strained one of my abdominal obliques, doing, of all things, a handstand.

Yesterday was scheduled to be a 4.5 miler, but I ran the Shamrock 5k instead. I finished in 30:17, which works out to be about a 9:40 pace. Not fast at all, but faster than I have been running any of the 3 milers, and plenty fast for right now. I probably could have kept that pace up for five or so miles – and I may have run the first and last mile faster than the middle one, since the middle mile in this race goes up Broadway, from Burnside up to PSU. The hill isn’t spectacular, but I haven’t done much in the way of hill work, and so grinding up it was a chore. Coming down the other side was pretty spectacular and fun. At the point that the course turned downhill, I started turning up my speed (same cadence, basically, just much, much longer stride) – which is easy when you are running downhill. What made it hard was that there were approximately 1000 people all in the same spot, and I think there may have been ten of us really trying to fly down the hill. Made for some awesome zigging and zagging, as well as abruptly having to slow down. I managed to keep enough in the tank to be able to sprint across the finish, but again, I encountered the same issue as I really picked up my pace – people bunched up, or running five to six abreast, at a much slower pace than I was moving at. Now I understand why they sent us out in waves – I can only imagine how a sub six minute/mile runner would feel getting stuck behind a bunch of 10 minuters.

The race, overall, was pretty fun. I hope that as the distances get longer, the fun level stays the same.

My Running Journal, 031210

2010-03-12T11:28:00.000-08:00

Crossfit today. Workout was relatively “easy,” insofar as I didn’t feel like vomiting afterwards. Today was a 2 part set, A set was all chest and triceps – 4 rounds, A1 benchpress 3-5 reps at a 5/0 tempo (lower for five seconds, explosive press up) and then rest 20 seconds, A2 3-5 dips then rest 20 seconds, A3 AMRAP pushups and rest. B was L-Sit compressions – sit on the floor, lift feet off of the ground with legs straight and fingertips pressing down on the floor, 5 second lift, 15 second rest, 15 reps.

Pretty simple, right? The wheels completely came off in my second round of the A set – my bench press was fine, but it has been a really, really long time since I have done dips, and between being on a gym floor at 7am and the bench presses, my pushups, were a little spotty.

But I got it done, and I feel good about being back in the swing with Crossfit.

Yesterday afternoon I had this creeping suspicion that I was dehydrated. I’ve been drinking water, but I tend to forget to for long stretches of time. Since starting running and working out in general, I’ve been trying to keep hydrated, but apparently I had fallen back into my usual pattern, which is to get wound up in whatever it is that I happen to be doing at the moment, and then 2 hours (or more) into it, realize that I haven’t had a drink of water in 2 hours. The general idea is that, once you realize that you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated. So waiting for thirst to drink water is a relatively bad idea, especially with a marathon as a goal. And I seem to have paid for my forgetfulness to hydrate in several scenarios over many, many years. The most recent being the soreness in my feet and legs. Yesterday afternoon I was hobbling around the office, and I thought that my legs shouldn’t be as sore as they were. Yes, I have been hammering them into the ground, but I’ve had muscle over-use ache before, and this seemed a little on the ridiculous side – especially since there was no sharp pain.

I did a mental checklist of all of the things that I have been doing to stave off the hurt. Anti-oxidant supplements? Check. Hot soaks after runs? Check. Proper stretching, massage, and acupuncture? Check. So what was missing? Simply H2O.

In Boot Camp all of those years ago, one of the things that the Drill Instructors seemed to get a sadistic kick out of was making sure the recruits were properly hydrated. Back then, we were issued 2 1 quart canteens as part of our wargear. When your canteen is less than completely full of water, it sloshes, and makes a considerable amount of noise when you walk or run. So either the canteens on your belt had to be empty, or full – and the only time they were allowed to be empty was if you had just drained them from full. You (as a recruit) were also never allowed to pass out because of heat exhaustion or heat stroke because you weren’t hydrated properly. We would, on a regular basis, have to drain both canteens as quickly as possible into our bodies. Try drinking 2 quarts of water as fast as you can while someone is screaming at you to ‘DRINK!” and then holding the empty canteens, opening down, above your head. And don’t vomit, because you will just have to refill those canteens and drink again.

As sadistic as this sounds, it actually served a purpose beyond the apparent hazing. The most useful place, for a human, to store water is in their body. When you are continually engaging in strenuous exercise, you need to replenish that water. Evidently, a good estimate of how much water you should drink per day, in ounces, is to take your body weight in pounds and divide by 2. The resulting number is a rough estimate of how much water you need to drink, daily, while leading a relatively sedentary life (which means that a person my weight should be drinking at least 3 quarts of water). As you increase your activity levels, so your need to replenish your water increases. So six, maybe eight quarts of water in a day isn’t unreasonable in a hot, humid climate, especially if you are intensely physically active.

How much water have I been drinking per day? Probably on the order of 2 to 3 quarts per day. Which would be fine if I hadn’t started running. My body needs more water, and not just to keep the fluid levels up. All of the metabolic waste that accumulates in your muscles after loading them (lactic acid and such) needs to be flushed out. More water should equate to a faster flushing.

So I doubled my normal water intake last night. Needless to say, I had to get up in the middle of the night, but my calves aren’t as sore as they have been.

I think I need to program my phone to alert me every 30 minutes to drink at least 8 ounces of water. And then I’ll get up every 25 minutes to pee.

You’d think that I would remember my own advice?

My Running Journal, 031110

2010-03-11T11:25:00.001-08:00

2 miles @ an average pace of 11:04 min/mile. First mile was done in 11:18, and second mile was done in 10:53.

Oh boy am I looking forward to resting the legs a bit. Especially with a race this Sunday. Today’s run was a bit of a battle even before I started – I woke up feeling a little on the groggy side, and realized it was drizzling and cold outside. And then I stood up. Feet felt swollen and very sore, and the lateral edges of my calves hurt. It is only a soreness, but there seems to be a certain level of muscle weakness – I know that my legs are probably fine, but when I woke up the last thing that I wanted to do was to go for a run.

Got dressed, stepped outside, started the metronome, and the Iphone, and took off. Today was a 2 mile day, and out of the door I wasn’t even sure if I could make it around the block. I started walking, and headed to the corner, turned the corner, and started running. Or trotting. Or something. I had to run about half of a block to get my feet in sync with the beep of the metronome, and then it was a challenge to stay motivated to keep going. To want to keep going. My legs keep telling me to stop, turn around, go home. The little conspirator keeps whispering to me that all I need to do is run a mile, or less. I mean, come on, your legs ache, your muscles all feel creaky, it’s cold, your toes are frozen, you’re tired. Just turn at the next block and go home. You can keep running if you want, but just turn around. So I ran the full two miles today. My pace wasn’t awesome, and I felt like crap for most of it. I was thinking of a whole litany of excuses based on pains and possible muscles pulls.

And that was just two miles. I have found in the past, that if I can make it past the first mile and a half, I mostly stop whining, at least in my head. And the desire to stop after I get past that point, for the most part, only comes on again after six or so miles. What it is going to be like to run 26 miles, I cannot perceive yet.

Since I started running in my Vibrams, I have averaged a pace of about 10:50 minutes per mile. Slow, slow, slow. But averaging my pace from February, I’m moving an average of 6 seconds per mile faster, without shoes on. Which is cool. I’m hoping that this translates to even faster times once I get accustomed to running without running shoes, and my calves quiet down and allow me to start to go for that 8 min/mile pace on every run. What that shows me, even though I am having all of these negative thoughts and questioning myself while I am running, is that I am actually improving. Achey legs aside, I am feeling less and less winded at the end of the runs – which hopefully means that my cardiovascular health and endurance is improving as well. It also means that I need to start pushing to go faster and farther. Which is already set into the schedule that I am keeping – the Sunday runs are incrementally increasing in distance, and by the end of the Spring training cycle, my week day runs will all be 3 milers. Hooray.

I’m trying to keep on track with my diet, but may or may not fail spectacularly. Last night was Dumpling night at a friend’s house, and while I did make a couple using mustard greens as the wrappers, I pretty much gorged myself on fried and boiled dumplings with whole wheat wrappers. So a slightly rough start to my “diet” as far as that goes.

My Running Journal, 031010

2010-03-10T09:19:00.000-08:00

Today’s run was a short one, 1.23 miles at an average pace of 9:04 min/mile. I woke up listening to the early morning traffic whizzing by the house on wet roads. Flexed my feet, and definitely felt my calf muscles twinge a little bit. Since I am trying to get in shape for a marathon that is still seven months off, and not cripple myself, today I took it easy.

Sort of. That 9:04 pace was actually skewed – the reason it is that slow is that it includes the first 30 seconds or so of my run, when I was walking and strapping everything down. Looking at the lap summary on mapmyrun, It looks like the first 20 or so seconds I was walking at a pace of about 30 min/mile, and then started running – and by the end of the first minute, I was moving at about an 8 min/mile pace, for an overall first mile average of 9:14. The last .23 miles I was moving at about a pace of 8:22 min/mile.

Still not very fast from a single mile perspective, but it is close to the pace that I will need to hold steady at if I plan on finishing the marathon in four hours or less. And this was a pace that I felt I was pushing on – I definitely had the energy to run faster and/or farther, but I really do need to give myself a little bit of a break for recovery. Today was supposed to be a 3 miler, but between the muscle pain and how cold it was this morning, I am sure I would have pulled something. This is the first single mile that I have tried to run as quickly as I could, and stay on cadence. Still 85 BPM.

Today is also day three of my semi-paleo diet. I’ve decided that it will be easiest in steps, even if that is a cop-out of sorts. Wheat and processed sugars are out, and so far I have been able to not eat wheat (hoorah, two whole days!), and I’ve minimized my processed sugars – I haven’t been adding any to my foods, but I did eat an energy bar yesterday, as well as there being sugar in the sauce that I put on the rapini in last night’s dinner. I also need to start taking my blood sugar, and develop a schedule for that. And of course tonight is a dumpling night, and I’ll probably eat a few dumplings with flour skins. But we’ll see.

My Running Journal, 030910

2010-03-09T09:42:00.001-08:00

Today was a 2 miler, which means that I actually only ran 1.98 miles. But I averaged a pace of 10:58 in the first mile, and the second one was a 10:31. And I think my first mile was probably around a 10:30 as well, except that I started the counter when I started walking, and walked about a block to get my legs warmed up.

Today’s run was a little on the painful side. I’m trying to decide if the pain is because my calves are wasted from doing something new, or if I am just being whiny. I’m pretty sure it is a little of both. I re-read the advice on barefooting and running close to barefoot, and I think I wasn’t letting my heel touch down enough. So this morning I tried to focus on allowing my foot to touch down and allow the heel to touch down all the way. If you watch some of the videos of barefoot runners striding on pressure plates, you can see that the whole foot touches down at some point during the footfall.
This one shows it well, right around 3:30

My calf pain probably comes from a combination of not letting my heel down on the footfall – basically springing along, as well as dealing with the changes in the running style.

My feet this morning were cold, but really, at no point was there any pain from them. Running on asphalt primarily this morning, and so there wasn’t much in the way of pokey things to deal with, and only a little bit of glass in certain areas.

I attribute my faster pace to a faster cadence – I bumped the metronome up to 85 BPM from 80, which means that my feet were moving that much faster – 170 steps per minute over 160. I’m going to keep it at 85 for the next week or so, as the increase in pace did not feel like too much more of an effort, and at times I felt like it was a little on the slow side. Of course, I still have to keep in mind that when I feel like I could go faster, I probably shouldn’t (not quite yet) – my reasoning being that I am still trying to entrain my brain to a specific cadence. Surging and then easing back isn’t going to work on a long haul run.

I had the thought “what are your doing?” at about the same spot today as I did the other day. I was thinking about what, if any gains that I have made in my endurance and strength, and if those will increase quickly enough so that I can reach the goal of finishing the marathon in under 4 hours. It is a sort of sense of wonder.

My Running Journal, 030810

2010-03-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

Well, unfortunately the GPS on my Iphone decided to lose signal for most of yesterday’s run. At least it kept an accurate time. Yesterday was scheduled for a 3 mile trail run, and since I am running on the Leif Ericksson trail, I just kept an eye on the trail markers. Knowing that the distances may be a little off, I ran to the 1 ¾ mile marker before turning around. That means, if the markers are correct, that I ran about 3.5 miles in 39 minutes and 36 seconds, which averages out to about an 11:31 pace. Not bad, especially since I was cruising along in my Vibram Five Fingers, which meant I was being very, very aware of all of my footfalls. The downside is that I can't view my splits, but those really aren't necessary for this run.

I ended up running by myself yesterday, as everyone who had initially said they would join me ended up having other obligations. While waiting (as I didn't know who was actually showing up), I entertained all of the other runners at the trailhead with my sales pitch for running in Vibrams. It seems that everyone out there has heard of them, but no-one seems to have seen them in real life. Which is funny, because I know at least six or so other people that wear them on a regular basis. I guess that just means that I am in the minority.

Surprisingly, my feet felt fine at the end of the run – my toes were cold, and I thought that I had bruised a toe or two (nope, just that cold), but my feet felt no worse for the wear. And the wear was stones, gravel, stones, gravel, etc, the entire time. You really become aware of the surface that you are running on when you are nearly barefoot. You also get a sense of just how loud running shoes make us. “Clomp” is a pretty good word to describe just what it sounds. It makes you think about all of the people out there running who really don’t feel the ground underneath them – I saw a couple of runners really flying, and I doubt that they could have done it without the inch of foam under their feet. Not that that is a bad thing, but observing someone else run, and only avoiding the rocks that would obviously twist their ankles, while I’m mincing along aware of every last stone underfoot, is a neat experience.

No, the part of me that hurt during the run, and after the run, and now, is my calf muscles. Specifically all of the muscles that help to plantar flex and stabilize your foot (so the ones on the back and sides of your lower leg). It was bad enough yesterday that I really couldn’t walk normally – trying to plantar flex and push off in a normal walking style hurt, and the muscles felt completely worn out. So I ended up hobbling most of the time. I received some acupuncture, and today they still hurt, but I am walking normally. I am trying to figure out if the pain and weakness came from utter muscle fatigue – Yesterday I placed a tremendous demand on the muscles in my calves – 3 miles isn’t a long way, but really, the muscles that took the majority of the load yesterday were in my calves. My hamstrings, quads, hips, they all felt like I had barely started running at the end of the run. I’m hoping that as I continue to run in the VFFs, my calves will get stronger.

Today is day one of me trying to follow a paleo style diet. I have resolved to at least drop refined sugars and wheat products, and those shouldn’t be too difficult – it may be a little more difficult to not eat rice. I was thinking about it on the drive into the office this morning. The resolve to change your diet starts with you realizing that the little voice in your head that is complaining that it is too hard to avoid those foods is the one that is addicted to them. Addicts will make any excuse or justification in order to support their addiction. Confronting that voice, and overriding those complaints is really the core to successfully changing your behavior.

We will see if the sugar monkey is riding my back tomorrow. And the smell of baked bread, well, I just need to avoid bakeries.

My Running Journal, 030610

2010-03-06T12:09:00.001-08:00

Rest days are nice days, when you actually get to rest. Yesterday I slept in until 7am, and today as well. Of course, both Thursday and Friday evenings I was out and about until a wee hour of the morning, so technically, according to the passage of time, I actually slept less on the days where I have “slept in.” Oh well, the price you pay for having fun.

Speaking of, my calves have calmed down a bit. I’m sure tomorrow’s run will bring the pain, but ideally it remains just sore muscles that are adapting to new and increased demands. Luckily, fingers crossed, my feet don’t hurt. Tomorrow is a trail run, over gravel, stones and mud, which means my little tootsies are going to have a bit of a challenge. Expect to read a whiny report in the near future about how bruises on your feet hurt.

Today is a really beautiful day in Portland – early spring, with the sun out, a light breeze, cool temps, and everything is starting to bloom. Which of course means that I have a sinus headache due to all of the pollen floating around.

Monday I am slated to really start dialing in my diet – As much grief as I gave to the people who simplify the philosophy behind the Paleolithic style diet, I am going to start down that road. Not the “I’m a modern caveman and hunt with a sharpened stick,” but “I’m trying to keep my insulin levels stable and lower my cardiovascular risks.” Monday I’m going to start getting strict with my diet. I’ve already started thinking about how to prepare foods and tried out a couple of things. I’m going to aim for a diet that is 40/40/20 – 40% proteins, 40% complex carbohydrates, and 20% fats. We’ll see how that goes.

Time to go enjoy the sun.

My Running Journal, 030410

2010-03-04T09:41:00.001-08:00

Today was day 2 of running in my VFFs. 1.97 miles (my “2” mile loop) was completed at an average pace of 10:55 min/mile. My first mile averaged to 11:00 minutes a mile, and the second half of the run averaged to 10:49. Which is both faster and farther than yesterday, but I am sort of paying the price for it – my calves are intensely sore – but it isn’t a feeling of anything other than overuse – no sharp pains, no sensation of weakness or imminent tearing of anything. If nothing else, I felt light on my feet for most of the run this morning. Overall, at least yesterday and today, I felt like I was using far less energy to run. Whether that is the change in running style, or just that I had a week-long rest, remains to be seen. But my body feels different at the end of these runs – beside sore calves, I don’t feel any tightness in my hips or hamstrings, and I feel more energetic at the end of the runs.

This morning I actually got off pace several times – I was striding faster than the metronome was counting. When I caught myself doing that, and eased back, I felt a little disappointed. I felt like I could run faster. But the trick right now is to keep it nice and easy, and not overload my legs and feet.

When I initially got them a couple of years ago, I tried out running in them, as I was training for a Half-Marathon and was wondering if I could pull off the near barefoot stride. After trying to run around the block a couple of times, I relegated to wearing the VFFs on hikes, and while playing in and around water. And then I shelved them altogether, for a variety of reasons (the primary one being that I was headed to China, and didn’t really want another reason for people to stare at me).

So why didn’t I stick with the VFFs to start with? It was my stride, and the nature of my footfall. Or I should say foot strike. I had been training in a really nice pair of Brooks Cascadia trail shoes, as the half marathon (the Haulin’ Aspen) is a trail run. And almost all of the training runs that I was going on were on the trail… and I was being really lazy, and training minimally. Running on concrete and asphalt is different from running on a gravel, dirt, mud and stony trail. I was just at the beginning of understanding how to run properly – I was still in the mindset of striking with the heel, and then rolling forward along the bottom of the foot to the toe, and then pushing off with the toe. Needless to say, heel striking for any length of time while barefoot or close to barefoot isn’t the best idea, and I realized that within a couple of seconds of trying to run in the VFFs.

Running barefoot or near barefoot really requires a different stride than what you can do in a running shoe. Running shoes, because of the padding and support, allow your feet to be protected, but there is not real demand to have a natural, careful stride. You can heel strike all you want (okay, not true, since that leads inevitably to injury). We weren’t born with shoes on, but, to steal a line from The Boss and Christopher McDougall, we are born to run. McDougall summarizes a brilliant bit of science that explores the anatomy of a human, and how we have structures in our body that only benefit us (from an evolutionary standpoint) when we run – such as our Achilles tendons, nuchal membrane, and ability to separate our breathing from our stride. All of the little bones, crisscrossing ligaments, muscles, tendons and joints in our feet serve a purpose, and the theory is that they are an energy return system – springs and tensegrity networks that assist us.

The only reason to wear shoes, arguably, is to provide protection from the elements.

I stopped trying to run in my VFFs back then because I wasn’t ready, mentally, to allow for that. I had repeated the mantra in my head that I hated running, the injuries to my feet and ankles that I sustained doing Gymnastics in High School kept me from having strong ankles and feet, and I felt like I was wasting energy running up on the ball of my foot.

All of which were self perpetuated lies. There is nothing, physically, holding me back from doing this.

My Running Journal 030310

2010-03-03T16:27:00.001-08:00

Faster, or farther? Or both?

That’s what I’m asking myself right now. Last week I went on a business trip, and ended up not running at all for a week (and eating crappy food). Today I got back out the door and back on the running schedule, with a little bit of anxiety wondering how my performance may have been impacted.

I ran a whopping total of 1.18 miles this morning, at an average pace of 11:43.

Which isn’t far, and it isn’t fast, but, in my defense, is because I did things differently. Specifically, I didn’t wear running shoes. Nope, I decided that, since I had missed a whole week and probably am starting close to the beginning endurance-wise, that I could start the process over again, and this time without running shoes.

I pulled on my old Vibram Five Finger Sprints, that I bought back in 2008, and went for a trot. The running style that makes the most sense while wearing the VFFs is a forefoot touchdown, with absolutely no heel strike. I was already sort of running in this fashion – but the difference between my Brooks Addictions (which are designed to correct for heavy pronation), and the VFFs, which provide no support whatsoever, is huge. The sensation of running is tremendously different – and it is hard to describe. With my foot freer to move around, my legs felt completely different. Not like I was floating or anything, but without the stability control of the running shoes, or padding, the running style that I have been trying to develop – a forward leaning, ball of the foot springiness – was much easier to do. I wasn’t fighting the shoe. I was with the Brooks, which seem to be designed to encourage a mid-foot or heel strike, as there is a large amount of padding in the heel, and the sole is sort of wedge shaped, with the thicker part at the heel end. By the end of the run my legs felt really different from my other runs – most of the ache and muscle fatigue was below the knees. That, and my feet are a little sore now.

Now the question is how quickly can I condition my legs to running without padding? We’ll see. I have my first race of the season in a week and a half – the Shamrock run on the 14th. I’m running the 5k section of it.

My Running Journal, 022510

2010-02-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

So, here I am in D.C. on a business trip. The only set of foot wear that I brought with me are my boots. Why no running shoes? Well, beside them not fitting in my carryons, my desire not to have to pay extra for a checked bag, I’ve decided this trip is going to be a week where I don’t run. I would like to, but I have no real desire to run in D.C. in sub-40 degree weather – I really don’t like running around cars and traffic, and there is no way not to encounter those when staying in a hotel in downtown D.C.

So what to do to keep in shape? Good old pushups, situps and squats. 100 of each, in sets of 10 at a time. Maybe some other things that can get done on the floor without anything other than bodyweight. Like burpees, or wall sits for time. Simple stuff to at least maintain some semblance of exercise.

My Running Journal, 0223210

2010-02-23T09:25:00.001-08:00

Today was a so-so run. Pace was nothing spectacular – 10:15 average pace for 2 miles. I got to the end of mile one and really started to reconsider my choice of running a marathon. I mean, really? 26.2 miles, when you huff and puff and feel like stopping after only one?

I’m sure I am going to feel and think that a lot this next year, until I am wrapped up in a foil blankie, wheezing and shaking after completing the marathon.

I had my metronome set to 90 BPM this morning, and that lasted for about half a block. I think 90 BPM is a pace that I need to work up to – the difference between 80 and 90 is huge – it may not sound like much but trying to get my feet moving that fast was an effort in itself. So I dialed back the metronome to 80, and took off. Sore in pretty much all of the same spots. The good thing is that my hip isn’t bothering me quite as much. Still sore, still tight, but a little bit smoother as far as running and walking goes.

I’ve been thinking about running first thing in the morning. The primary reason that I am out on the road as early as I am (and to be honest, 6:30am is not early morning), is to keep myself from forming an excuse not to run for the day. I have nothing else scheduled at that time, and so there is no real reason why I shouldn’t use that time for running. I curious, however, about what early morning running is doing for my metabolism and endurance building. Without getting too far into the science of endurance metabolism, I’m wondering if an early morning workout is a good idea. Not if it is a good idea as far as getting in exercise, but as far as using the average pace from the morning run as what I am judging myself by.

I don’t eat immediately before runs, and so I am working off of what ever my body has immediately available right after waking up – I am effectively fasting prior to the workout, and so my blood glucose levels should be lower. This could account for the overall feeling of fatigue during the early morning run. Honestly, I doubt that this is anything more than me overthinking it, but I am going to start testing my blood glucose levels in the morning before and after each run. In the past I have had moderately high blood glucose levels right after waking up. We’ll see – the downside is that test strips for blood glucose testing tend to be a dollar apiece, and since I am not a diabetic, and I do not have health insurance, the cost of a 50 pack of test strips will come right out of my pocket.

I was thinking about running in cold weather, and how we used to dress for it. Back in the Corps, on cold days we would put on our cotton t-shirts, nylon PT shorts, cotton socks, and then over top of that would go cotton sweatpants and sweatshirts. Compared to what I’m wearing today – Capilene thermal top, midweight fleece shirt, insulated compression tights, nylon shorts, and wool socks.

Clothes have changed, but it’s still cold before the sun comes up.

My "Running" Journal, 022210

2010-02-22T14:34:00.001-08:00

Today is a rest day. Apparently, so was yesterday. I was scheduled to run a 3 miler on the Leif Ericksson trail, but I made the decision not to because of a nagging pain in my hip. So yesterday was pretty uneventful.

I’m not too worried about missing yesterday’s run, but I am about to go on a week long business trip to two different cities, and so my workout and running schedule are undoubtedly going to take a hit. I’m going to try and get out and get at least a one miler in – first half of the trip is going to be in D.C., and while there are some decent areas to run in near where I will be staying, the weather looks like it will be pretty crappy. So, we’ll see if I can get motivated enough to run. The second half of the trip is to LA and then a roadtrip back up to Portland.

I’ll get my run in tomorrow, but a one week break, while it doesn’t seem like a long time, is, in terms of working to build cardiovascular endurance. I really don’t want to come back home and have to get back into the shape that I am in now.

The good news is that the nagging pain in my hip, while it hasn’t gone away, has reduced in how it is affecting my stride. By Saturday evening I was pretty much hobbling around. My primary concern right now about that is not exacerbating the injury. Taking it easy on Sunday has allowed me a little bit of time to rest the area.

My Running Journal, 021910

2010-02-19T11:00:00.001-08:00

Today is a rest day – no running, no lifting. Just sit back and rest. Knowing this, I slept in this morning. Instead of getting out of bed at 6am, I got out of bed at 7am. The extra hour felt good.

Rest and recuperation are components of the overall process of increasing physical capacity. You can only go for so long in top gear before you run out of gas. And this applies to all things. If you never give yourself the space to ease back, you will most likely burnout at some point, or collapse completely when you do finally take a break.

Sleep is like that. From what I have read, sleeping like a “stone” is not always a good thing. Dropping into bed at the end of the day, and then waking up either fatigued or feeling like you didn’t get any sleep is a good indicator that you have been pushing yourself for too long. There have been several studies/analyses done of sleep patterns, and there seems to be a trend towards binge sleeping. You know, when you sleep poorly throughout the week, and then spend your off days sleeping away the morning. As a child or teenager, this isn’t so bad, as your body in the process of building itself, and most of that growth happens when you are asleep. As an adult, most of the time spent in deep sleep is when your body is repairing itself.

The extra hour that I slept this morning wasn’t a “binge,” – in my defense, I had a cold yesterday, and didn’t really realize it until after I had already gone on my run – I chalked up the stuffy sinuses and runny nose to the spring-like weather, and all of the blooming going on. It wasn’t until later in the morning when I realized that I was considerably more fatigued than normal, light-headed, and really achey. All signs that you have a cold. So I cooked myself after lunch, and before my Crossfit onramp. I have a heated massage table, and cranked that up, and tuned the heat up in the treatment room to about 80. Hopped on the table, and took a nap. Woke up about an hour later, feeling very hot, dehydrated, and not very achy. I drank about a gallon of water, took a gram of Vitamin C, and began to feel a great deal better. Not fatigued, less achy, few if any telltale signs of an actual cold. I still had the runny nose, but again, spring-like weather and all.

My Onramp class focused on front and overhead squats last night, as well as an exercise called “Burpees.” I know burpees as “8 count body builders,” or “suck.” The very basic concept of a burpee is that you start standing, then you are face down on the ground, and then you are back standing up, jump and clap. That is one. The USMC taught me a variation on that – a much more regimented version that does the same thing, but is broken down into an eight count movement. From standing upright, the count is
Bend over at the waist, hands to the hips (1)
Hands to the ground, drop to a squat position (2)
Jump the legs back into a plank position (3)
Lower your chest to the ground (4)
Push back up to a plank position (5)
Jump back into the squat (6)
Stand upright (7)
Jump up and clap over head (8).
Repeat until you vomit (seriously, 8 count body builders are the definition of Ad Nauseum)

The workout last night was 21-15-9 overhead squats and burpees, for time. I finished in 6:15, and I think I managed 5 disciplined 8 counts, and then everything just sort of turned to slop.

By the end of the class, I was winded. I got home, ate a salad with some bread (exactly the opposite of the recommendation of the Paleo diet), soaked, and went to bed. The extra hour allowed me some more recovery time, and I am happy to say that whatever cloud bug I had, I’m pretty sure I cooked it out of myself.

My Running Journal 021810

2010-02-18T09:26:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I laid out three goals
1. Metronome
2. Run faster.
3. Instead of a 2 miler, out and back, I am going to jog ¼ mile to warm up and get the hitch out of my giddy-up, and then run a mile for time.

Well, I completed goals 1 and 2. Goal three, not so much. I got a small quartz metronome. Now I can set a pace, and keep it. Every sounded “beep” should be accompanied by a left foot fall. This morning I set the metronome to 80 BPM. That is nice steady cadence, and works out to 160 steps per minute, and is 10 BPM slower than a “double time” count. Working out the math – figuring that an average slow running stride covers about 36 inches, works out to about 480 feet per minute, and an 11 minute mile. Which is pretty slow, but workable for right now – 80bpm is what I ran this morning. And I averaged 10:37 per mile – the first mile was at an 11:13 pace, and the second mile was at a 10:00 pace. So goal two was met as well.

Goal three, well, let’s say that the fatigue has started to stack up – it was hard to motivate my legs to lengthen out much more this morning – hip is still really tight, and it is making running from the hips painful.

But I finished faster than I started, and while I still don’t think I am anywhere near fast, I will get there.

Having the metronome allows me to really focus on form – and is a taskmaster as well. The idea behind using the metronome is to really set a cadence count that stays consistent – Chi runners use them, as do POSE runners. For the Chi runner, you assume your proper running form, get it into first gear (an easy trot) and count the number of left footfalls in one minute. This gives you a nice solid baseline – in my case, when I took the Chi-running intro, my steady cadence was around 88 bpm. So 80 bpm is a bit slower than my natural cadence – but this morning it felt faster than the cadence that I did earlier in this week. Pose runners aim for 90bpm – or about 180 footfalls per minute – again a military “Double time” is 180 footfalls a minute. In formation runs, 180 steps at 36 inches a step equals a mile in just under 10 minutes. A marathon at that speed would be done in 4 hours, 23 minutes. So I will increase my cadence to 88 and see what happens.

As far as increasing your speed, I know, at least as far as someone practice Chi-running is concerned, the increase in speed is not an increase in cadence. The increase comes about from increasing your forward lean as well as your stride length. I was trying to practice some of that this morning – leaning forward and allowing myself to fall forward, to increase my forward momentum. In order to complete a mile in 8 minutes at a cadence of 88bpm, my stride needs to lengthen out to 45 inches. This morning, my 11:13 pace mile means my stride was averaging just under 35 inches.

In addition to the metronome, I decided that getting some insulation on my legs was a good idea. I have plenty of long underwear which could probably work, but they are designed as base layers and have no wind resistance built in, nor are they designed with running in mind. Having the seams in the correct spot saves a load of chafing and pain down the road. I have been looking at ¾ length tights – with the tight only coming to below the knee, and not to the ankle, I avoid any snag that might occur, as I have a tendency to brush my heel across my ankle as I run. Plus, it isn’t cold enough for me to cover completely up. And I have great calves.

So I poke around my local store (Pacesetter Athletic on Woodstock). Really nice, helpful people who had no idea of what I was talking about. I asked for ¾ length tights, and they directed me to the women’s capris. Eyeroll. They suggested, since they didn’t have ¾ lengths, that I should buy a pair of full lengths and then have them hemmed. Really nice, helpful people, who operate a store dedicated to selling running gear, who have no idea about the products available. So much for supporting the local retailer.

I wound my way towards Next Adventure, to no avail. I remembered that there was a running store somewhere in that neighborhood, but then realized that I was thinking of the Bike and Hike… actually, the store I was thinking about is Portland Running Company. Oh well. I ended up down at the U.S. Outdoor Store downtown, as REI had been stripped bare of tights that would have come close to what I was looking for. I came home with a pair of CW-X Insulator Stabilyx tights. Not only are they ¾ length, but they are lightly insulated, have wind resistant panels on the thighs, and, like all of the other CW-X products, it has a suspension system akin to kinesiotaping – support bands of heavy elastic fabric. The ¾ lengths wrap the quadriceps along the lines of the IT band, region of the adductors, and some other key places. They fit very, very snug, and provide muscle compression, insulation, and wind resistance. Which is awesome. The only drawback, that I see, is the support that they provide. The support itself is great – strong webbing that helps hold things in place – but therein lays the problem. I am right at the beginning of my training, and need to get my body in shape to run. I could argue (and will) that by providing support externally, my body may not develop and learn the internal support needed. Part of my overall goal is to explore how far I can get without using any of the technology out there. I am conflicted about my nice new tights – I’m worried that they may make me lazy, complacent, overly confident, or dependent on them.

How far can I go as I am?

My Running Journal, 021710

2010-02-17T09:35:00.001-08:00

Today I ran 3 miles in 36:27.

Slow. Too slow for my liking. I felt like I was running through molasses this morning. Painful, tired molasses. 36 and a half minutes is really way too long – I probably could have walked the course in less time than that – and unfortunately, I’m probably not using hyperbole.

I comfort myself, a teeny tiny bit, knowing that, since I started all of this, this run constitutes my 9th morning run (that I have been tracking). A month ago I was struggling to complete a mile. This morning I wasn’t really struggling – right at the start I had to stop to walk a bit to warm up my hamstring, but other than that, keeping going wasn’t the problem.

Picking up the pace was the problem. I think part of the reason why I was running so slowly this morning, beside having to stop or really slow down to not get hit by cars, was that I was thinking about my stride. Running relaxed still isn’t something that I am doing without thinking about. I’m trying to keep my toes relaxed or slightly dorsi-flexed, landing on the ball of my foot, trying not to let my heel strike, knees bent, hips relaxed, back straight, head up, etc., etc. This morning, at times, I almost felt as if I was running in place – as if I didn’t have any forward inertia.

I know part of that is fatigue – Since the beginning of this month I have started running four times a week, Crossfit three times a week, and a Taiko class once a week. Lots, and lots of energy expenditure. Even with a rest day or two thrown in, this morning was a report by my body that I am pushing it.

I know that this is just the beginning. That my body will get used to it, and get stronger. And so far I have just been going on jogs.

Tomorrow in the Crossfit class we are going to discuss setting goals. Small, short term, measurable and achievable goals.

So I have three goals that I can complete before tomorrow’s Crossfit class.
1. Metronome. I need to set a steady pace count – my chanting to myself just isn’t cutting it. So I am going to find a small device that acts as a metronome, and will run with it clipped to my running gear tomorrow morning.
2. Run faster. I’m jogging, not pushing too hard for fear of really messing up my hamstring. But I think that I can definitely move faster.
3. Tomorrow morning, instead of a 2 miler, out and back, I am going to jog ¼ mile to warm up and get the hitch out of my giddy-up, and then run a mile for time.

As an aside, we were introduced to a popular structure of Crossfit workouts last night – the tapering reps. Last night we finished the class with 3 rounds of 20-15-10 pushups, squats, pullups. That means 20 of each exercise, and then 15 of each exercise, and then 10 of each exercise. For time. I finished in 8:35, and I was the last one. But I finished, and finished as strong as I was able to. So that probably counts for something.

My Running Journal, 021610

2010-02-16T08:54:00.001-08:00

Today was supposed to be a 2 miler. I mapped it out, and the route that I decided to run mapped out to be about .02 over – so off I went. Turns out, according to the GPS, that it was only 1.97 miles. 150ish feet short. Looking at the route as charted by the GPA, it looks like I was zigzagging all over the place – if the track is to be believed, I was veering from one side of the road to the other. I’m pretty sure I was running straight down the middle of the road. Since I am using an Iphone, I think it may be using a combination of the GPS chip to track, along with triangulation from cell towers and WiFi base stations. I’m going to turn off the WiFi tomorrow when I head out, and see if that has an effect. There are also all of these spikes in the data chart for my speed and pace - I’m trying to figure out how to correlate the spikes with where I am on the course – like when my pace drops dramatically, is it because I am slowing down as I approach an intersection, or is it because I have made a turn? I need to figure this out, because there are sections of my runs where I have a nice steady, pretty consistent pace, and then suddenly there is this enormous spike.

This morning I did 1.97 miles in 20 minutes, 27 seconds. My pace averaged 10:15 mins/mile, and I finished faster than I started. First mile was down in 10:34, and the remainder I managed to bump up my pace to 9:54. Still not very fast, but this is still only the 3rd week.

Getting motivated to run this morning took a little bit of effort, but once I was up and out of bed, it was much easier to actually get going. I was hemming and hawing between doing the scheduled workout (2 miles), or switching over to my Vibram Five Fingers and doing some nearly barefoot work. The longer distance won out – I need to focus on improving my baseline cardio, and I can work in barefoot stuff later.

The first half of a mile this morning was tough – my hip was really bugging me. I isn’t the “I’m about to rip a muscle” sharp stabbing pain, but a dull ache that says that the muscle is in spasm, and isn’t cooperating. After the first half mile or so, the hip starts to warm up and ease up a little bit, but I am going to have to really focus on not injuring myself.

My Running Journal, 021310

2010-02-13T13:02:00.001-08:00

Today was day three of my Crossfit Onramp experience. The exercises we covered were deadlifts and box jumps. Both a very easy exercises as far as getting the form right, but because of their simplicity they are also very easy to do wrong. Especially Deadlifts. The exercise today was a partnered 10 minutes AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of 7 Deadlifts and 7 Box jumps. One partner exercises while the other rests, and when both partners have completed one set of each exercise, then they have completed one round. My partner and I did six rounds – focusing more on form than on speed right now. The DL bar was (only) 95lbs, and the box was about 18” tall.

I’m pretty sure we could have done DLs of 115 to 135 lbs and still had good form – in fact I think with more weight, my form probably would have been better – the reason being that with low weights it is relatively easy to unconsciously cheat during the exercise – I “don’t” need perfect form to lift half of my body weight, but I would need it to get up to 2/3rds, and good form also allows you to be energy conservative. I am pretty sure that I was cheating at certain points, if only because I was aware of flaws in my form and was still chugging along.

And I can’t blame that on the weight – we were at a lower weight because we were partnered up, and my partner needed to focus on his form as well as dealing with the weight. Once you have entrained yourself to use good form, there is less thinking about overall body positioning and more brain power can be pushed into your lift.

I think that today’s workout is a good replacement for the scheduled 30 minutes of fast walking in the running training. Tomorrow is a 3.5 miler on the trail, which will probably be a fun, dirty, muddy jog.

My Running Journal, 021210

2010-02-12T11:45:00.001-08:00

Today is a rest day, and I feel like I need it. So no running this AM. I did zero miles in zero minutes, at a pace of zero minutes/mile.

Slept in until 0630. It’s amazing how luxurious it can feel to know that you don’t have a reason to get out of bed “right now.” Which kind of made it tough to motivate myself to even stand up.

Last night was the second training session of my Crossfit Onramp experience. We focused on back squats (weight bar across your shoulders, behind your head), and kettlebell swings. After learning the proper form, we used what we learned. 5 rounds of 10 squats and 10 kettlebell swings, with a partner, and you are doing it for time. So while one person is doing the squats, the other person is swinging the kettlebell.

Being that it has been a good long time since I honestly did a back squat (sure, there probably have been dishonest ones), my partner and I opted for a relatively light weight of 95 lbs. And the kettlebell that we were swinging weighed about 26 lbs. The each round is completed when each partner has completed one set of each exercise. We finished in about 5:27 minutes. And then my legs felt like rubber bands. Sore rubber bands.

I got home, drank some water, and soaked in the tub with some Epsom salts. This morning, when I was trying to get out of bed, I was thinking about how much it was going to hurt. I think that I may have even dreamt about how much it was going to suck – wiped out muscles that are sore. But getting up wasn’t all that difficult. I’m sore, sure, and stiff, but I can move around. All of the whimpering and whining is purely for show.

Given my profession, I do actually know all of the things that I can do to deal with the soreness and pain. But I haven’t bothered with much of it. Beside some stretching and massage to deal with the pain in my hip, everything else is par for the course. When you are planning on working out, some level of soreness and pain is eventually going to enter into the equation. And being prepared to handle it goes a long way to being able to maintain.

I think that a lot of people get into training routines and get into the pain zone, and then try and figure out how to deal with it. I think that trainers should focus first on recovery strategies before they are needed – when you end up having this happen, you do this. And it doesn’t need to be explicit – encouraging people to stay hydrated (hopefully) means that their bodies can process metabolic waste from their muscles faster. Proper deep breathing techniques improve the exchange of CO2 from your lungs – and CO2 is a metabolic waste. All of that panting that you do after a strenuous workout is actually your body trying to help you in the long run. Applying heat and massage to a muscle helps it to relax and allows for increased circulation to it, which again, improves the flushing of the bad and bringing in of the new.

Not to say that deep breathing, hydration, stretching, massage and heat are all the ultimate panacea for muscle pain, but combined they go a long way. Doing the simple stuff first, before getting into needles, deep tissue massage and herbs, allows you to really explore your baseline potential. What can I do without support?

My Running Journal, 021110

2010-02-11T11:41:00.001-08:00

Ran 1.71 miles this AM in 18:11mins. Pace over the first mile was 11:05 mins/mile, and in the last .71 mile stretch I managed to pick it up to 9:28 mins/mile.

Not bad – finished faster than I started, felt fine after the run, and had a nice easy run for the most part – I chose a path that allowed me to run down the middle of the road. Running on the sidewalk is okay, except that the majority of the blocks around me are residential areas, which means that driveways cross the sidewalk surface. Which is like crossing a curb every 50-100 feet (or less, in some areas). Running on the side of the road is probably safer, but I’m on residential streets, and the crowning on the road is really steep – the center of the road is probably a good four or so inches taller than the edges. By staying in the middle of the road, I can avoid having to change my stride because one foot lands lower than the other.

This morning I was pretty much chanting a mantra the entire way “toes relaxed, land on the forward part of the foot, no heel strike.” As I’ve said before, I’ve taken a Chi-Running class, and have been watching videos of people using the POSE method as well. The idea is to run lightly. So I am trying that – this morning in addition to continually reminding myself to stay loose, to keep my toes relaxed and to not heel strike, I kept making sure that my chin was tucked or neutral, my back was straight, and that I wasn’t pushing off of the ground.

I was thinking about doing some sprints this morning, but instead I ran and extra .21 miles. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was until I was at my turn around point, and I decided there to add an extra five blocks (that, and the street signs in Portland are poorly placed and not often visible). I turned around after the extra blocks, and decided to just work on keeping a good stride while speeding up a little bit. I probably could have gotten my split time even lower – I had picked up my pace, and had a good amount of forward inertia – and of course at that point every intersection seemed to have a car in it.

18 minutes isn’t a very long time, but it is feeling like forever – running by myself in the quiet of the morning is probably a nice time for contemplation, but right now it just feels like forever. I’m making sure to not check my time right now until I finish. I’m hoping that this will allow me to develop a natural sense of my pace.

Overall, it was easier to run. Getting out of bed was a bit tough, but the run was easy. I’m hoping that they stay that way.

My Running Journal, 021010

2010-02-10T09:15:00.001-08:00

OOOOOH. I need a massage, a soak in a hot tub, a nice long sit in a steam room, and then another massage.

I ache. All over. But is a good ache – the kind that you get when you have worked out, and your body is letting you know it. There are few, if any sharp pains or intense burning sensations – actually, there are none. Just a whole body ache – every muscle feels like it has worked, and is now fatigued and tired.

Today I ran 3.04 miles in 34.25. This averages out to an average pace of 11:15 per mile. Which isn’t terrible, but it isn’t fast. And it isn’t remarkably faster than last week’s 2.95 miles in 33:39 – which averages to 11:24 per mile. Nine seconds per mile is the pace difference between not stopping on a 3.04 miler, and stopping and walking a half a mile during. But this isn’t a terrible performance, and I am not dissatisfied – I didn’t stop to walk today, I went farther than I was scheduled for (Even if it is only 200 feet more), and I finished faster than I started – my splits for each mile show that I kicked off mile one in 11:23 minutes, mile two I finished in 11:15 mins, mile three went down in 10:58 mins, and I finished that last .04 miles at a pace of 9:38 min/mile. So today I won.

I started thinking about the negatively nannering monkey around mile 1.5. I thought about it, and told it to shut up. And then I made fun of it while I kept running. Tomorrow I think I am going to vary the 1.5 miler that is on the calendar into a speed workout – jog a few blocks, sprint a block, jog a block, sprint a block, etc.

Last night I started my Crossfit Onramp program – a 3 weeks series of training classes, 3 days a week, to bring you up to speed on the majority of the basic exercises performed in a Crossfit workout, as well as getting you up to speed so that you can join established classes. The Onramp program, at least where I am practicing Crossfit, is done in a cohort. Which is a lot of fun, and means that you can egg each other on. They have you do a “baseline” workout to establish, well, a baseline to work from – you do a baseline at the beginning of the training cycle and at the end, and compare the times to see your improvement. The trainers also keep track of your form during the exercises – and that becomes another opportunity to improve. My baseline time last night sucked – close to 7:55 minutes to complete a 500m row, 40 squats, 30 situps, 20 pushups, and 10 pullups. My baseline in the intro class was 7:09 (running instead of rowing). And time and resisting fatigue is the only thing that I am going to show improvement in – because I was a gymnast and Marine, and all of the positional training that I have already received – my pushup and situp form is excellent (thank you boot camp), my squat form is pretty good (thank you Martial Arts and bodywork classes), and since I was gymnast, I already know how to kip, and kipping pullups are allowed in the Baseline workout. Which meant that I had not excuse to use a foam roller under my legs during the pushups, or to jump from a box during the pullups. If I had scaled and jumped during the pullups, I probably could have finished in under 6 minutes. But no, form comes first. Performing the exercise correctly and possibly slowly is more important than ripping through it with bad form.

As you improve your form, and keep that form throughout the workout, you increase your speed as your endurance increases. Same thing with running.

This morning I was awake right around the time the alarm went off. The Crossfit class was last night at 1930, and ended at about 2130. I got home, ate a small dinner, took a hot bath, and then went to bed. Which means that when I started running out the door this morning at 0620, I had had all of 8 hours of recovery. This sounds like a lot, but it isn’t for a beginner. Running against the cold, running against the aching fatigue. Running for me. Toes relaxed, head up, take it easy.

My Running Journal, 020910

2010-02-09T09:18:00.001-08:00

Today I finished a 1.4 miler in 14 minutes, averaging 10.04 minutes per mile. My pace increased in the last .4 miles to a 9:42 min/mile avg. So I am finishing faster than I started.

This morning it wasn't too hard to get up - my eyes popped open at about 0550, and I rolled out of bed at about 0605, and was on the road by 0630. I don't like having to use an alarm, since the abrupt noise is really jolting. Waking up with a start doesn't feel very good - that surge of adrenaline in response to the sudden noise while in the drowse/snooze state isn't very motivating. This morning I was in that halfway state - I opened my eyes at 0550, check the clocked, and closed my eyes. I should probably just get moving once my eyes open, but there is that part of me that wants nothing more than to stay in bed, warm and relaxed.

I'm playing with my stride. I took a "Chi-running" basic skills class a couple of years ago - whether or not you believe any of the anecdotes within the books about it being a revolutionary running style, the overall mechanics involved do make for a lessened felt impact. The mechanics of the style are pretty simple, and follow the way that Taijiquan and Xinyiquan practitioners move - your spine is aligned, head is erect and chin tucked slightly, and you lean forward slightly to set your speed - the further forward you lean, the faster you go. And instead of lifting your knees on the forward stride and striking the ground with your knee, your feet rarely come forward of an imaginary vertical line drawn from the tip of your nose to the ground. Which means you take more and shorter strides, and all of the impact is supposed to occur at the ball of your foot. There are other details about the style, but it is very similar to the styles out there that focus on running barefoot.

Which I think that I am heading towards. I already own a pair of Vibram Five Fingers, and have run on trails in them. You very quickly learn not to heel strike at all, and to run "lighter." I think the biggest barrier to my jumping into my VFFs right now is the fact that I basically just bought a brand new pair of running shoes, and I don't want to feel like I have wasted my money. We'll see - I have a 3 miler scheduled for tomorrow AM, and then a 1.5 on Thursday - I'll pull the VFFs out on Thursday for the short run.

I am trying to change my attitude while I am running. Why am I training for a Marathon? My initial impetus is probably centered on a friend's illness, and having a physical outlet for my stress - but if the physical outlet stresses you out as well, then it probably isn't helping. I should probably run because it is fun and an exploration of my limitations - there is nothing physically stopping me at the moment. I have no reason not to.

My Running Journal, 020810

2010-02-08T09:49:00.001-08:00

Today is a rest day on the schedule - although I took it to mean "rest" from running, and so I altered my morning Qigong routine to include a more vigorous form that I need to practice more, and will be taking a Taiko class this evening that should use up nearly as much energy as a 1 mile run, if not more.

Yesterday I met up with a couple of friends and did a brief run on the Leif Ericksson trail in Forest Park. We were scheduled to run 3 miles, and according the markers along the trail we did, but my GPS said that we tracked 2.74. I think we ran somewhere in between that - and we were moving at a pretty slow pace - tracked at 33 minutes for that distance, which means were moving along at about 12 minutes per mile.

One of the people who joined me to run is a friend from my Marine Corps days (R), and she is training to run a half marathon this upcoming April. She is doing most of her training with Team in Training, and is already up around the 6 mile mark.

It is interesting to track her developing running injuries and mine - we have both been training on hard surfaces - pavement/concrete, and yesterday's run really showed the difference between running on a trail and running on pavement. At about the 1/4 mile marker on the trail it goes from dirt/gravel track to a short stretch of pavement which is about an 1/8 of a mile long. Going out we were out of breath, and working on just finding our rhythm, but coming back we had spent the majority of the run past the 1 mile mark talking and just cruising along. Turned around, running back downhill, and neither of us was really complaining about the injuries we both have started to sustain. Until we hit the pavement, and within about 5 strides we could tell the difference - my hip started to ache, and her knees started to burn - and then we got off of the pavement and the discomfort lessened a little bit.

My other running partner (B) yesterday is in considerably better shape than either of us, and so he took off on his own pace, and ended up basically running circles around us. He has been training in Vibram 5 fingers for the past couple of months. I got a pair a couple years ago, back when they were introduced, and quickly realized that I got my best use out of them on the trail, and not on pavement. Running without any cushioning under your feet is a completely different experience, and unfortunately I think that I am too heavy right now to run sans cushion on road surfaces. Anyway B has been training primarily on a chip track, and yesterday he had to run on mud and stones - again, totally different experience for him, and he probably bruised his feet a little.
I'll probably keep running in the shoes that I just got for a while, until I am comfortable running 3 miles a day, and ideally by that point I will have taken off enough weight, or increased my strength levels, so that I can go back to wearing my VFFs.

The run yesterday was fun - and it highlighted what I have been saying about running by yourself - it is far, far easier to keep going when you have someone keeping track of you - R wanted to stop and walk about a mile in, and I wouldn't let her - we slowed down a hair, and I had her change her stride to take some of the jarring impact off of her knees. Without me there, she would have slowed to a walk, and without her there, I probably would have as well.

I'm about to start reading a couple of books about running - the first being "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Had Never Seen." We'll see if I gain anything from it.

My Running Journal, 020510

2010-02-05T10:07:00.001-08:00

I should subtitle this - the woes of dietary romanticism.

No running this morning - today is a rest day on the training calendar, and I probably need it. While I feel that this week is a rough start, I think that it actually went pretty smoothly. Except for some snafus with mileage and motivation, everything else is coming into place.

I have added several small, achievable goals into the mix that increase the complexity of the process. Like any other goal driven activity, you can break the process down into individual bits, and each one of those part of the process can be as complex as the entire process itself. Hooray for intellectualizing physical activity! (actually, it is good to intellectualize it, as your Brain is the biggest individual/small system energy consumer in your body. - the more and harder you think, the more calories you burn).

So within the hopelessly complex network of small goals leading to a bigger goal, there are a few that I have started working towards. I have already covered some of it - getting up at an early hour on a regular basis, charting my mileage, following a training schedule, etc., etc.

Today I want to talk about diet, and the small goals therein.

I am about to start Crossfit training, and part of that is keeping a food log and modifying your diet in the direction of the "Paleo" diet. The basics of the Paleo Diet seem pretty simple - the underlying theory behind it is that Humans were distinctly Human by the paleolithic era (Stone Age). And the assumption being that Paleotlithic Man's diet was primarily that of a hunter/gatherer. So the focus of the modern primitive diet is meat. Easy enough, I love meat. Another protein source is tree nuts, which are enormously high in fat and protein, and are very healthful when eaten raw. Supplemented by lots and lots of vegetables (not tubers or legumes, but actual vegetables) - again, this is a good idea, since you need dietary fiber and other vitamins, with a small amount of fruit, and as little processed carbohydrates as possible.

I love it - simple diet to follow, and it is pretty much what I have been trending towards - although I still eat loads of processed foods.

Now, the concept of "processed" foods is an interesting one. I've read a bunch of writing in support of the Paleo diet and the theory behind it - Paleolithic Man had minimal tools, and so would have had limited ability to process foods. Additionally, most tubers and legumes will make you sick if eaten raw on a regular basis. So why would Paleolithic Man eat them? Same goes for grains - the argument being that 10,000 years ago grains would have been found in limited areas, and that the processing necessary to get from a seedhead to a usable, edible product, would have been energy inefficient.

That is a big component, as far as I can tell, about the philosophical theorizing behind the Paleo diet - the food that would have provided the biggest immediate bang for the buck would have been the one that Paleolithic Man would have gone after. The more time you have to spend gathering and preparing food, the less energy efficient it is, or so the theory goes. The more tool development needed to prepare the food, the less likely Paleo-man would have eaten it - tubers and legumes generally need to be cooked in order to be safe to eat for any length of time, and grains need to be harvested and in most cases threshed to be useable, and in order to make them edible, they need to be cooked.

While I appreciate the overall dietary concept of the Paleo Diet (Proteins and Vegetables with a minimal amount of "processed" carbohydrate sources), I would argue that the theory that Paleolithic Man was primarily a carnivore, roasting his kill over an open fire is romantic claptrap.

Think about it for a minute. We can think of all of the tribes that still exist, and that have in effect been recently discovered in the Amazon, as well as the Bushman of the Kalahari, the Australian aborigines, and many of the American Indian tribes.

Yes - they all hunt animals for food. Yes, they all place alot of store on successful hunts - meat is a brilliant source of energy when you can get it. But do any of these particular groups avoid eating tubers or legumes or grains?

Several of the indigenous tribes in the Amazon harvest Manioc - otherwise known as cassava, and is what Tapioca is made from. the Manioc grown in the jungle is poisonous - the plant contains compounds of cyanide in its raw state. This necessitates processing. It is also the staple food source for the tribes that harvest it.

Or several of the American Indian tribes that existed prior to European exploration - putting aside the more advanced forms of plant cultivation that they used, we can look at acorns. Acorns in their raw state are pretty much indigestible by humans - most contain very high levels of tannins, which make them very bitter. Most things in the wild that are bitter tasting Humans avoid. But when you soak them in several changes of water, you can remove the tannins. And then the acorns can be eaten as is, or pounded into a flour and turned into cakes.

Now, it can be argued that manioc/cassava is a bad example - undoubtedly what is meant by "paleolithic man" means pre-pre-agriculture.

Okay, so let's look at the Bushmen of the Kalahari. What do they eat? It is well known that they are great hunters and trackers, and that they eat every last part of the animal that they kill. But they also collect tubers - which are an important component of their diet, as they are great sources of water in the desert.

The argument about efficiency in the Paleo diet doesn't bear scrutiny or logical thought. The argument that you eat what is most convenient in nature excludes most tree nuts. Almost every tree nut in existence comes in the following package - outer layer of fruit, then shell, then nut. Now, I don't know about other people, but I have collected and eaten fresh Almonds. Getting to the nut is a pain in the ass - the fruit around the nut is bitter and slippery, and the shell, when it is fresh, is very difficult to get through. Same thing with Walnuts - slippery, bitter outer skin, tough shell, and then lots of work getting the edible parts of the nut out. How about Brazil nuts? I've never harvested them myself, but from the looks of it, you have to penetrate something that is as tough as a coconut's outer husk and inner shell, and then the shells of the individual nuts. Nice and energy efficient there, huh?

I also don't understand the argument that, since it requires time and patience to gather some of these foodstuffs, that Paleolithic Man wouldn't have done it because of inefficiency. Why? Because he was in a hurry to get somewhere? If we take the romantic idea of Paleolithic Man as a member of a small tribe that existed prior to regular trade and "civilization," then what else, other than hunting and gathering food, would he have to do? Get to the Stonebucks to meet with his next Client? No - when you are existing in the wild, you spend the majority of your time foraging - anything that is edible goes into your bag, and when you hunker down for snacky times, you eat what you found. If you live in a small tribe, and have communication and organization, you will learn to divide the foraging and hunting - that way you optimize, in your Paleo brain, the opportunity to always have at least some food available. Paleo Man didn't have to be anywhere specific most of the time - I doubt that there is much rushing about when you don't have to be anywhere or meet any specific deadline.

While I fully intend to trend my eating habits away from processed and refined carbohydrate sources, I'm not a fan of the argument behind the Paleo Diet. I wildcraft/collect a fair amount of my food, and let me tell you - active hunting is perhaps one of the most dangerous and high energy consumption processes out there, with little guarantee of reward. Tubers don't run away from you.

I could go on and on about this. Suffice to say, I am going to start following a modified Mediterranean diet next week - heavy on the leafy greens, fruit, fish, and nuts, with the modification of adding in animal proteins and small amounts of grains.

My small step will start with modifying my lunch to look like that, and then my dinner, and eventually my breakfast.

My Running Journal, 020410

2010-02-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

Today I came in about 500 feet short of a mile and a half today - the IMapMyRun app tells me that the route that I jogged was 1.42 miles, and that I finished in 13m59s. Which equates to about a 10 minute mile. Slow, but hey, I'm starting up.

I need to map out my runs a little better - 500 feet is probably about two blocks. Missing the mark by 500 feet isn't terrible, but as I get up in the miles, I need to make sure that I am actually running at least the mileage planned. Right now, I can fudge it a little bit, since I am getting everything dialed in.

I've started using the Imapmyrun app on my Iphone, as well as the website, to track my course, run time, pace, and mileage on the shoes. I've also started using the Daily Plate app from Livestrong to track my diet. I'm not concerned with calorie counting right now, but I need to keep a food log so that I can really focus in on what my eating habits are like.

I have to balance the disappointment that I feel in going slow and not quite reaching the distance with understanding that I need to limit myself.

I have trained with people who insist that you finish faster than you started. This applies to races as well as training.

Right now, I am aiming for a 10 minute mile. It is a pace that I can run at right now without feeling like my lungs are going to burst or that I am going to pass out - and that is important. I'll reference earlier posts - when I start to fast, I wear myself out at the beginning, and end up calling it quits before reaching the goal.

Getting up and running wasn't such a chore this morning, and besides so lingering soreness in one of my hips, the run itself wasn't difficult. What I do need to do is maintain a good pre and post run stretching routine that involves heat. Since I don't have a hot tub, a nice hot bath with epsom salts is going to have to become part of my regular morning routine. Which means that my runs are going to have to be pushed even earlier. Today I was out the door and running by 0630 - the next early morning run, which isn't scheduled until next Tuesday, is going to have to start at 6am for me to fit in a soak. I'll probably end up starting and finishing my days with a soak, since I am going to be running early in the morning, and I start Crossfit next Tuesday. And I need to figure out what is causing the soreness in my hip - I doubt that it is bursitis, more likely a muscle - but which one? So many muscles involved with the movement of your leg, and I can't find my copy of Clemente's atlas.

Tomorrow is a rest day from running, but since the weather looks like it is going to clear up a little bit, I believe that it is time for me to start meeting another small goal, which will be cycling into work. And then I have a mid-morning, 3 mile trail run on Sunday planned, with a group of people.

Right now, I am sore and tired.

My Running Journal, 020310

2010-02-03T09:17:00.002-08:00

So I failed to meet two goals this morning, and I chalk it up to a lack of motivation.

I woke up at 0550, and then let the alarm tell me when to get out of bed. I charted a path that was a little over 3 miles, got put together for the run, and headed out. Into a light, cold rain.

This morning was a tough one - I woke up feeling fine, but knowing that I was scheduled to run 3 miles, which to me is a long way, I wasn't very motivated. The "3 miles is a long way" is a difficult mental block - before I joined the Corps, I had never run for more than a mile. I was a sprinter. A mile seemed like a long, long way (even though I was bicycling 7 miles to work/gymnastics in High School).

It is funny to me how you get a distance stuck in your head, and that becomes the insurmountable odd. Intellectually, I know that 3 miles is basically nothing, especially since I plan on running 26 miles in one go. And it isn't like I haven't run further than 3 miles in a single run before. I have.

But all of the times that I have bothered to run farther than 3 miles, I have had other people with me. People that I could talk with, whine about the distance with, and generally stay motivated. It helps me immensely to have another person running with me. Running by myself gets to be boring, and then the negativity creeps in. Which slows you down, or stops you entirely.

So this morning I was supposed to run 3 miles. I failed to meet that goal by about 170 feet - my route totaled 2.97 miles. And I finished in 33 minutes. Beside being a slow, slow pace, I stopped to walk around the 2 mile mark, and walked for probably 1/2 a mile. And I probably didn't have to - but I was cold, tired from waking up early and achey. Raining on me, gait feels funny, "Oh, ouch! uh, my hip hurts, yeah - that's a good reason to stop running."

The other goal that I failed to meet, and this is more important right now than the mileage, is to not stop running.

I basically allowed my negativity to perform an inertia creep on me. Part of me doesn't care about running, or staying shape, or fuck all, and that part of me has undermined almost everything that I have done in life. It popped up as soon as I awoke - that disappointment and not quit dread that almost kept me in bed. It popped up when I realized that I needed to put on a raincoat. got a little stronger in my head when I realized that I needed to actually run with my hood up. At the end of the second block, the monkey was ooking "screw this." I made the first mile, reminding myself that it normally takes me about a mile and half to push past the complaining little monkey.

And then at mile 2, it won. This is where having another person with you to motivate helps. Because, ideally, both people are working to motivate each other. To push a little farther, and to keep the pace up.
*Editted to add* I just read through this paragraph, and I realized that thinking this is again the negative inertia monkey talking. Yes, it is fun to have another person to work out with, and it does help, but to do what I intend to do, you have to be your own partner.*

I didn't need to slow down to a walk - I wasn't running very fast, and it isn't like I was on the verge of exhaustion/dehydration. I allowed the part of me that self-sabotages to do it this morning. Part of this training is to get away from that self sabotaging effort, and redirect all of my negativity into forward momentum. Because if I don't, then I won't even make it the first three miles.

My Running Journal, 020210

2010-02-03T09:17:00.001-08:00

Today was the first day of the rest of the training schedule. Not a rest day, but a run day. 1.5 miles is all. I charted a route around my house that was 1.7 or 1.8 miles according to Google Maps, so I figure that I met the goal of 1.5 miles.

Up before the alarm at 0550something, out of bed by 0610. I loitered in bed for a bit, thinking about what I am getting myself into as far as planning on running a marathon. stretched a little, massaged my feet, got up, and got rolling. My left foot hit the deck and I was off running by 0625.

Right now I'm keeping a loose idea of how fast I am going. I anticipate that I will finish the Marathon in about four hours. Because I plan on being a slow poke.

Back in the day (as in, in my late teens/early twenties) when I was in the Corps, I was a serious sandbagger when you put me out on the road to run. Not that I was out of shape - far from it, but I wasn't trained as a runner. I grew up doing Tae Kwon Do and then Gymnastics – neither of which really push for true endurance beyond a basic workout. I was a sprinter and fast twitch sort of guy. Running more than 400 yards felt like absolute murder to me. I grew up in the D.C. area, near the Potomac. Washington D.C. is built on a swamp, and like every other city on the East Coast south of, say, Portland Maine, the summers are incredibly hot and muggy. Moving fast in hot weather is, well, gross. So I didn’t do it.

When I got in the Corps, I had already broken and dislocated one ankle and severely sprained the other in gymnastics. Being a teenager meant that I didn’t follow the PT advice that I undoubtedly got, and so my ankles were in terrible shape. Pounding from the gymnastics, even though I was landing on mats, had dropped my arches, and to top it all off I have duck feet – EEE is the width for me, not that I knew that then.

So when I got to Boot I was issued boots and shoes based on five seconds on a foot measuring device and the number that I thought I was. Unfortunately for me, Boot Camp was not the place, evidently, to learn good running habits or how to correctly size footwear. I grew to really dislike running. Whereas I disliked it before, once I started having to run more than 400 yards at a time, I really discovered what it was like to have messed up ankles, feet and poor running habits.

They don’t really coach you in Boot Camp. They motivate you for sure, but they don’t coach you. No one sat down with the Platoon at any point and said “Recruits, today we are going to observe each and every one of you running. And then we will teach each recruit what the recruit is doing wrong, or can improve on.” Nope, it’s “RUN!”

I could have trained myself to run properly after getting out of Boot Camp, but the desire to do so never surfaced – I could run my PFT and feel like crap at the end of it, which was acceptable. I stayed in “shape,” but running never became a habit or an enjoyable activity. It hurt, it was tiresome, and I never felt rewarded by it. Truck it or Fuck it.

One of the things that I wasn’t clearly taught was pacing myself. I understood it on an intellectual level, but all of the sports leading up to my entry in the Corps had dealt in explosive, immediate power. Put all of the effort out, all at the same time. Which meant that I could run a sub-six minute mile, and then collapse from the effort.

I have been trying to learn to pace myself. And it is really, really hard to do. All of the intense physical activity that I did as a kid is getting in the way of building endurance. I have to re-train part of myself to learn to move in an efficient way, and that the distribution of my energy needs to be spread out over tens of minutes to hours, and not seconds or minutes in furious pace. I’m terrible as conservation.

This morning I probably ran at about a 7 minute a mile pace – I can’t believe that I was going any faster, but my watch showed 0625 when my left foot hit the deck, and 0635 when I got back inside the house after reaching the starting point and walking a block. We’ll call it 1.5 miles in 9 minutes. Which, believe it or not, is probably too fast right now.

My Running Journal 020110

2010-02-03T09:15:00.002-08:00

So no running for me this weekend, or today. Saturday morning I headed up to Seattle for a Qi Gong training seminar, and so all of my energy this weekend was focused on learning a new form.

Today is the start of my pre-training training. I have a good long time before the Marathon, and since I am profoundly out of shape as a runner, I need a nice, slow build up. I need to get in shape to get in shape.

If anyone is curious, I am using the "Spring Training" schedule put together by Hal Higdon. The goal is to build up over a three month period, to get to the point where the final week you are running as much as you will on the opening week of the 18 week schedule. This week I am scheduled to run a total of 9 miles, and Mondays are one of the two rest days (the other being Friday).

So I am luxuriating in this last day before I start. Latte with a bagel and peanut butter. Tomorrow, breakfast will be different - I will start making moves towards a combined Paleo/Mediterranean diet - Protein and leafy greens, with as few carbs as is possible, other than nutritionally dense fruit (blueberries, bananas, pineapple) - So I will probably end up cooking a steak this evening and some greens, and have those for breakfast along with a fruit smoothie of some sort.

I also need to start hydrating myself - one of the things that I do out of habit and inattention is allowing myself to become dehydrated. This really hammers me when I try and train in hot weather - and the 20 milers on the training schedule will be happening during some of the potentially hottest weather in the Portland area. SO habituating myself back to regular hydration is a must.

Which means coffee before running is out - in addition to the coffee itself, I normally have a latte with sugar - which is one of the first things that I am going to have to modify. I hate caffeine withdrawal headaches, but I just need to make it past the first week, and then everything will be a bit easier.

Back to work.

My Running Journal, 012910

2010-02-03T09:15:00.001-08:00

Woke up this am, about an hour before the alarm, and then again about ten minutes before the alarm. Alarm goes off at 0559. Got out of bed at 0605, and got dressed to go run. stood out in the wind and cold on my stoop with my Forerunner 305 pretending like it was going to boot up. I think I need to reset the thing.

Anyway, after 10 or so minutes of my GPS wasting my time, I went back inside and got my watch. Clock and watch said 0625. I started walking towards the back of the alley where I normally start running from, and decided instead to head off in another direction. Variety is going to be necessary, especially right now, since falling into a specific path at this moment isn't going to help me stay motivated.

managed 1.2 miles in around 10 minutes - I'm telling myself that it's closer to 9 minutes, since it was 0635 when I stepped back inside the house, after walking a block to my start point,and a block back from my finishing point.

I managed to finish faster than I started, though.

Nice.

My running journal

2010-02-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

I've started keeping a journal on a private forum, but I've decided that I may as well make this public.

I'm gonna be honest - I am a stupendously lazy person. Tie that together with a familial history of diet related diabetes, hypertension, and central obesity, and I need to do something.

For a bunch of other reasons as well, I have decided that I need to try running the Portland Marathon, this year.

So, I am slowly trying to overcome inertia. I've been trying to take small steps in this - very often people set a lofty goal, and start really strong, only to find that they run out of steam right after they start. Just like running in a long distance race - it is very easy to get swept up in the excitement, and allow it to carry you along for a couple of miles - and then the excitement wears off, and you are left to your own devices. And for alot of people, myself included, this is where your excitement and drive tapers, wanes, and flickers.

So, small steps - easily achievable, measurable goals.

At the beginning of the year I thought about what is going on in my life. I had a couple of good talks with some friends, and expressed a bunch of my frustrations. A great deal of my static inertia is self imposed - mild depression related to personal circumstances. And the depression and frustration, in this case, comes out of a sense that no matter what I do, the central things causing me frustration will not change. Which, in part, is true - as my circumstances include other people who are dealing with their own problems. Specifically, my mother had to move in with me. Details aside, single men in their early 30s should not be living with their mothers (even if it technically is the other way around).

I allowed myself to descend into a funk over the past year because of this. There is little that I can do to change the situation, as the other person involved in this has to be the one to initiate the change.
But what I can do is try and and gain some semblance of personal achievement. Small steps.

In order to get out of this funk, I needed to stop hibernating. So the first goal was to wake up before 730am. I set my alarm to 630, and did that for a week. Nothing more than waking up before 730am. I did that for a week, and then added another component. Be in the office (I am self employed) by 8, and be ready to teach a class (Qi Gong).

So I did this for two weeks. Waking up and getting out of bed by 730, and getting to the office by 8. In order to complete my morning routine before getting to the office, I needed to wake up earlier. The drive to the office, without traffic, takes 15 minutes. I stop at a local coffee shop to pick up some coffee and a bagel - factors in another 5-10 minutes - etc. So in order to make it to the office by 8, unstressed by rushing to complete my morning routine, I need to be out the door by 730. So I started waking up at 7.

I've managed to do this since the beginning of the year. This week, I added in running. Since it has been at least a year and a half since I have run any further than a block, I knew I had to start slow. Previous attempts at "getting serious" have resulted in mild injury and an increase in personal inertia - reinforcement that I hate running, it hurts, and I get no joy from it. That needed to change. So instead of going out of the gate like a shot, I am starting slowly, and going very, very short distances.

I started this monday - was up and out of bed by 630, and ran a grand total of just a couple of feet over a mile, at a very slow pace of around 10 minutes. And when I got home I was winded, slightly dizzy, and cold (cause it is cold right now). Feet hurt, legs hurt, etc., etc.

Tuesday morning I woke up around 615, and did the loop in reverse. Didn't keep track of the time, but I pretty much feel the same way at the end of the run.

Wednesday was a rest day. While I could try and be gung-ho and run every weekday, I know from experience that this won't happen, and that pushing hard this early is asking for a real injury. You push to hard and you stymie your goal. So I slept in til 7, and did the rest of my routine.

Today I woke up at 6am, and did another mile. I tried not to time it, but I think I probably did it in under 10 minutes. I know that the last half mile I started picking up the pace. It was cold and very windy this morning.

Tomorrow I will run another mile. Next week, I will increase the mileage to two miles in the morning. Etc., Etc.,

I am going to try and keep this going. Small, attainable and measurable goals.

I hope to remember to post my mileage here every day until the marathon.