Monthly Archives: May 2011
Normalcy?
My 2011 miles so far.
“Normal” isn’t a word I throw around often, but May has been just that. Normal. At least with running. With other things – such as doing 725 push-ups as part of the 100 push-ups program – it’s been establishing a new normal. Then there’s a the new job, which I’m still getting used to as normal. That will take another couple of weeks.
With running, though, I’ve had some really good runs coupled with solid and consistent mileage, even with stomach issues in the final full week. Four weeks of miles at 19.8, 20.1, 20.1 and 15.8, plus yesterday’s 10k, puts May at 82 miles, the highest month so far this year. It’s also the second-straight month of more than 80 miles, which is perfect for building a base heading into summer.
In the past 31 days, I’ve become more and more grateful for just being able to run. It’s so easy after an injury to move on and not appreciate the ability to run, but every time I’m out there I think about how great it is to be running. I think this feeling will help continue to keep me focused over the next 20 weeks as I prepare for the Baltimore Marathon.
I approached May not having specific goals for the month. Usually when that happens I get lazy or fall off whatever wagon I was on, but this month was much different. I liked it. For June, my plan is to do more of the same.
My 33rd birthday is June 24, which is 16 weeks and a day away from the marathon. It’s a perfect weekend to flip the mental switch to “officially” start marathon training, but I’m pretty much already in training mode. The training before the training is working well and I can’t lose focus over the next month.
Smarter, stronger, faster — it’s what I said many times during my low points six months ago and now’s the time to put those words into action.
A horrible race to remember
Today I ran my third 10k of the year — and just my seventh 10k ever — in 55:05. It was, in a word, horrible.
The heat and humidity were awful; I’ve dealt with stomach issues on and off for several days; did I mention that it was horrible?
I won’t beat myself up for this. In fact, nearly 12 hours after the fact, I realize even more that I had very little control over what happened today.
Without going into details of my problems since late Wednesday, there was really no way I could probably hydrate for this race. And a good pre-race meal or proper nutrition? Forget about it. OK, maybe I could have done a little better, but I had fought with food for a few days figuring out what would work best. In fact, last night I questioned whether or not I’d go to this race.
While I was running and slowing down mile by mile, I thought a lot about how I would prepare for an “A” race — one that I put it all on the line for — if I got sick the week of the race or the forecast called for highs in the low 90s. I don’t have a complete answer for that just yet, but you better believe I’ll be better prepared.
While this is a race I’d like to quickly forget, the lessons learned today will help carry me through the summer. That may be more valuable than actually have a solid performance.
My internal shoe debate
In the mid-1990s when I ran some track in high school and then from 2004 to mid-2006, I didn’t worry about what shoes I wore. I would try on a few pairs and buy what was the most comfortable and economical. Then I joined a training group in the summer of 2006 and got what I thought was an education on shoes.
Don’t get me wrong — I learned a lot about shoes and myself that summer, but it’s also easy to trace my steps back to that moment and see a pattern. My first injury happened at the end of a training cycle that summer. Could it have been my increased mileage over time? Maybe, but in hindsight I know that the mileage buildup wasn’t drastic. Could it have been the change in shoes? Possibly, but it wasn’t like the injury happened right away in those shoes.
This is one of my Brooks Adrenaline from a couple of years ago.
Fast forward a few years after battling plantar faciitis, going through different shoes — mainly the Asics 2100 series line and Brooks Adrenaline, both stability shoes — and I got a different answer at a race expo at the end of summer 2009 (I first wrote about these shoes here).
Simply put, the shoes I had been wearing may have been too much for my feet. The Brooks Ravenna was still a stability shoe, but just barely. I then strung together my longest injury-free streak since I first got fitted for shoes.
The story of my most recent injury isn’t one I need to rehash, but as I slowly build a base and prepare for marathon training again, I’m analyzing everything. I attribute most of my recent trouble to sloppy running — poor form, not doing enough cross training, etc. Perhaps those are things I’ve always done that led to previous problems. But as I string together a solid couple of months or so, I can’t help but still wonder — do I need to do something about my shoes?
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but haven’t been able to find the right words until this week. I’ve been rotating two pairs of shoes of the same model for a year and a half — it definitely helps increase my mileage, I think. I recently started to wonder if I should rotate two models of shoes though. I see so many of my Daily Mile friends doing it, but no one really explained why.
Then, this week, I read this post from Fitz over on Strength Running who discusses this very topic. In a response to my comment, Fitz credits Pete at Runblogger for discussing this subject as well. (Both blogs are great, by the way, so add them to your blogroll/reader. You’ll learn a lot from them.) In reading Fitz’s post I realized what my “problem” may be — I’ve learned this certain way to think about shoes and gotten in my head what I “need.” Yes, I do need good shoes, but do I need just one model?
Despite working on my form, always running on hills by default and mixing up the types of runs I do, the fact remains that running is a repetitive motion. Eventually my body is going to get used to all that and, very likely, have some sort of injury. That’s not negative thinking — it’s the truth.
But looking at my friends on Daily Mile who rotate different types of shoes, there’s a pattern — they remain free of major injuries.
All this brings me to present day and what I did yesterday — for the first time in 5 years, I tried on a shoe that didn’t have “stability” labeled in front of it. I was in a chain store, so I didn’t feel guilty about just trying on a pair, and didn’t have a salesman try to talk to me about why or why not I “needed” a certain shoe.
I tried on a pair of Brooks Ghost 3, a “neutral” shoe. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this shoe and my trying-on test didn’t disappoint. They were very comfortable. I also tried on one shoe while wearing a retired running shoe to see if I could feel the difference. There wasn’t much.
As with any shoe, though, the true test doesn’t come until there are several runs in them, which is unfortunately impossible with any shoe.
Last night I posted on Twitter and Daily Mile a question about making the switch from stability to neutral and I got no reasons not to do it. In fact, several people have made the switch with no issues.
So why am I writing all this? I’ve already answered that — I’ve learned a certain thing about shoes that I can’t get out of my head. For a while with my Ravennas I’ve had the “if it ain’t broke” mentality, but an injury proves that something — perhaps several things — is broke. I’ve worked on everything else without even thinking about my shoes, which is a mistake. I’m not going to get rid of my Ravennas, but perhaps it is time to mix it up.
If you’ve ever switched types of shoes, or have any advice on this subject, I’d love to hear it.
The new routine
After finally getting into running in the morning, my new job has twisted my life around. Not that it’s a bad thing. In fact, my new job has a great wellness benefit that actually encourages people to be active. The great thing about it is a couple of people I work closely with are runners, and we have a perfect opportunity to run at lunch.
While I’m not a fan of mid-day running, it hasn’t been all that bad the couple of times I’ve done it. I’ve also been pleasantly surprised at how it breaks the work day up and makes it feel like two completely different days. It’ll take a while to get use to, but this will be my routine a few days a week for a while. The payoffs with my benefits are so great and it wouldn’t make sense not to do this.
In other running things going on this week, I have a 10k race on Monday that also has flipped things around for me this week. My long run for the week was yesterday — just 6 miles this week — but I’ll still hit 20 miles for the week. And at the end of next week, I’m running 13.1 miles on Friday and Saturday at various points for Relay for Life. I’d love to do the 13.1 all at once, but I’m just no where near ready for that.
It’s certainly been some crazy busy times for me and lost in all this is that training for the Baltimore Marathon “officially” gets under way in a month. While my injury is in the back of my mind, I’m pretty excited about training again. The lunch runs open up a lot of opportunities to do more doubles and increase my mileage during the week to take pressure off the weekends. I’m not sure of my “plan” yet, and I don’t feel any pressure yet to put anything in writing.
Wordless Wednesday
We got to feed the giraffes at the North Carolina Zoo recently.
Do SOMETHING
Way back on April 8, I started something that I didn’t really plan on — a “do something” streak. In the past 45 days I’ve done SOMETHING related to physical activity — push-ups, running, sit-ups, plank, squats … even a trip to the North Carolina Zoo that consisted of nearly 5 hours of walking and time on my feet.
The only day I think I fudged a bit was a day at the park with my wife and son — but it was hot and we did take about a quarter-mile hike in the woods. It counted. The key thing is I didn’t sit on my butt that day. I got up and did … SOMETHING.
Now that I’m 45 days into this, I should have some rules, right? Sure, I could, but then that would end the fun of it. I’m not going to count walking to and from my car every day, or my trips to the bathroom, or things like that to get away with calling it doing something. It is, simply, doing something outside of normal everyday life. If it’s too silly for me to post on Daily Mile, it won’t count.
Today was the challenge of all challenges in the streak. My son wasn’t feeling well all day and I was completely wiped out after yesterday — a 7-mile run and then a trip to a strawberry festival to pick strawberries made for a very full day. I fell asleep around 9 p.m. I didn’t “do something” until 9:15 p.m. today. That “something” was week 4, day 3 of the 100 push-ups program — my first-ever week 4 test is coming up in a couple of days.
I doubt I’ll talk about this much besides logging my workouts on Daily Mile — like making “rules,” I want this to be something fun. If I start thinking or talking about it too much, it becomes a hassle. When I stop for a day or have a day like this that was a true challenge or hit a “milestone” type of day, I’ll let you know.
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