A-fartlek-ing we will go!

Yea! I did my first series of fartleks today! That being said, we're still trying to adjust around my house to saying the word "fartlek" with a straight face!

I didn't do a ton today, but I did 4x800m (about .5 mile) today. Ideally, when you do fartleks, you want to go at a pace that pushes yourself just a little beyond what you're normally comfortable running. For me, this meant keeping a pace up of around 6.0 to 6.2 mph, which I know to many runners would be their normal jogging pace, but for me, that's pushing it pretty hard. In between each one you can do a resting walk or jog. Jeff Galloway suggests about 2:30 to 3 minutes between each 800m fartlek, so I tried to stick to the 2:30. By the final (4th) fartlek I was feeling pretty beat up. However, if I think about it, the fact that I was able to continue running at my normal 5-ish mph pace for another 40 minutes after that means I couldn't have been TOO much the worse for wear.

Initially when I got done with my workout today I was a little disappointed with my seemingly average pace... as you'll see below, it's nothing special for any given workout for me. However, after I was completely done and off the treadmill (and the oxygen had returned to my brain), I remembered that today's 75 minutes included a 5 minute warm-up at a much slower pace... so when you take that into account, the other 70 minutes were actually pretty good. I think if I take out the warm-up my pace came out to about 5.1 mph, which is a little better than normal... yea! My pace wasn't so bad after all.

The main point of the fartleks is to try and bring a little speed into your endurance runs. Ideally, you would be able to carry this surge forward & fall back pacing into a race, which would ideally allow you to run the entire race at a little better pace than straight line pacing might. I'm not sure how rigidly I'll be able to adhere to that principle, but I think that doing these speed intervals is good for my training, no matter how much of the actual technique translates over to race day.

In the meantime, I think I will try saying the word "fartlek" at least 15 times a day in order to desensitize myself... no one in the running community will take me seriously if I can't at least fake a straight face when I say it out loud... no matter how much I'm cracking up on the inside!

Today's Run
Miles: 6.18
Time: 1:15
Pace: 4.9 mph
Treadmill  Run

Oh, my aching legs!

I skipped running on Thursday this week so that I could run with my favorite running buddy, my sis-in-law Heather, on Friday.

If you read Heather's blog "Will Run for Coffee" and hear her complaining about the hill she has to run that is behind her house. My recommendation... believe her when she says it's painful! We ran a four mile route yesterday around her house, including the killer hill directly behind.

Let me tell you, pretty much the entire run was a tough one. It's four miles of nearly nothing but hills - steep inclines, shallow inclines, little hills, big hills, some you go up, some you go down, but all in all, very little flat surface!

I can't remember the last time I ran such a tough four miles. Last night my legs were sore as if I had run a much longer distance... makes me think maybe I should be doing this kind of run a little more frequently. Yikes!!!

Fortunately, Heather was right there along with me and cheering me on the whole way. Although this might not make the hills any easier, it certainly makes them more tolerable (saying the word 'fun' here would definitely be overstating the matter) and makes them go by much more quickly. Thanks Heather!

Then, we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Panera for lunch... a very good balm for my (invisible) wounds!

Yesterday's Run
Miles: 4.0
Time: 51:25
Pace: 4.7 mph
Street Run (lots of hills!)

Brr... I'm freezing!!!

Well, the last two long runs I've done I've noticed a new phenomenon that I've never encountered in my experience as a runner... I'll usually cool off for a few minutes after I've changed out of all my ultra-sweat-soaked workout clothes and then go shower. Well for the second time in as many weeks, I spend the entire length of my shower so cold... it seems like I just can't get the water warm enough to overcome how cold I am. Since I've only noticed this for the last two weeks during my long run days, I started putting two + two together today. Thinking about it, I realized that this is probably not a unique experience... after all they give marathon runners space blankets at the end of a run. So, I ended up trying to poke around online to see if I could come up with the answer.
 

Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. I'm probably letting myself get too dehydrated during a long run. I'm not sure of the exact physiology here, but everything I've read in different articles and in various forums suggests that, especially for long runs, you need to make sure you replenish your fluids during the run.
2. I'm probably not getting enough nutrition during long runs... again it affects your body's ability to regulate itself. Apparently, you should also not be having whole "natural" foods during or immediately after (w/in the first 15 minutes or so) a long run, it can be hard on your stomach. Hence, the need for energy gels & cubes. (Okay, I confess to having a kind of d'uh moment on this one...)
3. Your body heats up during a run, but then when you stop running your body immediately cools off, dropping several degrees rapidly... and apparently this can include dropping down to below 98.6º
4. Don't forget the problem of wet clothes. Tech clothes will help with wicking moisture away from your skin during the run, but after a run, wet clothes are still, ultimately, wet clothes whether they're 'tech' or not... and sitting around in them for too long can also lead to a reduced body temp. Like I mentioned above, I usually change out of my wet clothes immediately, so this most likely isn't where I'm getting chilled, but it is certainly something to keep in mind..

Now that I've learned a little bit more about long runs... stuff, I confess I probably should've known before setting out on one... I will take some extra precautions during next week's run and let you all know if I think it is helping me keep my body a little better regulated.

Today's Run
Miles: 8.56 (new personal distance record... you guys are probably getting sick of me saying this already!)
Time: 1:46
Pace: 4.85 mph
Treadmill Workout

Yea for Me!

I am happy to announce that yesterday's run was SO much better than Friday's run. I got out and even within the first 5 minutes, I could tell it was going to be a pretty good one. The weather, while not super warm or sunny, was at least dry and it was temperate enough that I could have left my gloves at home (my fingers are usually the first thing to start complaining when I get chilled). My stride was feeling good, I was loose and I didn't feel like every step I took was an exercise in torture.

In fact, yesterday, I ran all the way up one of the hills in my neighborhood without stopping. It's not the worst hill in the neighborhood, and it's certainly not the length or steepness of the horrible one that my sis-in-law has to deal with, but its one of the ones I have to navigate no matter what if I want get anyway in our neighborhood.

That being said, I will confess that I did stop and walk for about 30 seconds once I reached the top of the hill, and my form in getting there would have Steve Prefontaine absolutely cringing in embarrassment, but no matter what, I was super excited to have made it to the top. I only wish every run could be this good!


Yesterday's Run
Miles: 6.22
Time: 1:15
Pace: 5.0 mph
Street Run

No, really I AM!!!

Saw this on Café Press this morning and had to laugh...

A little off my game...

Well, Heather and I had been looking forward to getting together for our run all week long. I shifted my long run to earlier in the week so that it wouldn't impact my run today... we had it all planned out. Heather arrived this morning and although the weather wasn't great, at least it was not raining, so we set out.

About a mile into our run I was really not feeling it... I just felt like every step I took was a struggle. Finally, about 3/4 of a mile later I had to bail on Heather. We walked about another 1/4 mile to get back to my house and that was it. It was definitely an off day for me. I felt so bad for Heather coming over only to not be able to get a full run in.

I should have known it wasn't going to be a great day... I woke up this morning feeling really bloated... even in my legs and feet, which is something that rarely happens to me, but at the time, I didn't think it would necessarily affect my run. Of course, what I forgot until well after Heather left is that I also had a lousy night of sleep last night... I got about 3 hours of really restless sleep and if I had remembered this, I might have been tempted to call Heather and tell her to save the trip... but since I forgot that little (but probably very important) piece of information while getting ready this morning, she showed up and we set out.

Over time I am better able to tell when the fatigue I'm feeling is mental and it's something that I need to just push through, but occasionally, the fatigue really is a physical thing... and I think it's at this point that's it's best to listen to what you're body is telling you and pull back for the day... the road will always be there tomorrow. So, Heather and I have postponed our run until next week... I will do everything I can to make sure there's not a repeat performance of today!

Really? Are you serious?

I was reading through some back articles from John “The Penguin” Bingham this morning and I was struck by how often he talks of his foray into running at the age of 43 as “fun.” And then every time I would read this (pretty frequently) in one of his posts, I would think to myself, really? You genuinely find pounding pavement for miles on end with your heart beating wildly, your leg muscles burning as you climb hills, and your lungs burning as you gasp for air “fun?” Obviously John Bingham and I have very different definitions of this seemingly innocuous little three-letter word…  So it got me to thinking about what it really means for running to be “fun.” Usually, I will even go so far as to decry the hypocrisy of the “fun run.” Clearly this is a misnomer… especially when it involves any distance longer than, say, 5K at the absolute most.

To come to a mutually acceptable definition, let’s start out by establishing here and now that the fun of running is not (nor will it ever be, in my mind) the same kind of fun as, say, going to Six Flags and hopping on a roller coaster (Ignoring for the moment that there are some experience-deprived people out there who actually don’t like roller coasters at all). It’s not the same kind of fun as going to Hawaii for a week’s vacation or watching your favorite sports team win the big game. These, to my way of thinking, are what I would term fun, in the classical sense of the word. No, running (or really any kind of sport that requires more than a modicum of physical exertion – hopefully this will nix the questions about chess as a sport for the purposes of this discussion) is not fun in this classical sense of the word. That being said, if John Bingham, or anyone else for that matter, can change my mind about this perspective I’m open to the arguments…. 

Who knows, maybe I’m just not in touch with the Zen nature of running yet. I rarely, if ever, get into the soothing rhythm of a run enough to find it a freeing experience… and I must admit that it makes me feel more than a little inadequate when people talk about the Zen of running, or using their daily runs in order to clear their heads and work out solutions to tough problems in their minds. I don’t ever achieve this place of meditation during a run and when I see someone, anyone, writing or talking about this I look at them wistfully and wonder what it is that they’ve got that I’m missing… like it’s some kind of missing piece of genetic material or something… and maybe I was never really meant to be a runner because I can’t achieve this level of running nirvana.

Fortunately, I’m not willing to admit defeat quite so easily. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not physically designed to be an elite level runner, so maybe this is on that same order – only this is the mental side of the genetic equation. But actually what I suspect is that we might need a whole new word coined for the fun that is derived from running… so that people like me can get out there and run without feeling like they’re missing out on something merely because they’re not achieving the same kind of high they would as if they jumped on the Matterhorn at Disneyland (bad example, I know, but bear with me here…).

So let’s talk, instead about the kind of fun that I have as a runner. This is a fun that is much less readily apparent than the amusement park thrill ride. This is a kind of fun that has to be actively sought out and recognized for what it is. You work for this fun, it’s not handed to you (is having to work for your fun, actually fun or is this oxymoronic? Maybe... I’ll have to do some more thinking on this.) The fun of running is the fun that comes with the acknowledgment of achievement… when you run your first mile, your first 5K, your first marathon. It is the joy you feel when you get to the top of the hill and despite the lactic acid pain in your legs, you turn around and realize you’ve made it to the top without stopping (go, go Heather!) - whereas last month, you had to take a breather or at least walk the last part of that hill. 

Maybe the fun comes from the new community of friends and acquaintances you develop who share your common interest. They know what it means to face a lonely day of running in the rain and the cold. You can share the common insights about things like moisture wicking fabrics and the breaking in of a new pair of shoes… or the love/hate relationship we have with Lycra. You can reflect back and laugh together at your race time that was horrendously ruined because of the mile-long train that had to cross in front of you during the last race. Or you can sit together at the end of a race, talking over the high and low points while enjoying the spoils of pasta and beer. But still this isn’t exactly fun you have while running.

Or maybe the fun comes from the enjoyment of getting out and seeing the changes, however subtle, that come each day to the environment around you as you run your regular route. Seeing the leaves on the trees change colors in the fall, or seeing the first signs of daffodils in peoples’ yards in the spring… or even other changes that happen…  I must admit that I derive a strange sort of pleasure from seeing when the city comes around and fills a pothole that I’ve been navigating around for months and months. 

My enjoyment also comes from the changes I see and feel in my body… the weight loss, the muscle gain, the strides in my cardiovascular improvement, not to mention the more subtle changes that are only evident when I look back over the past few months or even years, such as no more knee pain when I climb stairs and no more gasping for breath when I get to the top of said stairs. But again, I really wouldn’t call all these things the fun of the actual activity of running. Yes, I do appreciate the way my body moves better, but again, this isn’t really fun per se.

John Bingham talks about our body’s inherent drive to move and to run… witness little kids running all over the place just because they can and because they enjoy it. Still, I don’t tend to think of something as fun just because it’s instinctive… running from the mastodon that wanted to eat us for lunch or the tsunami that rolls in on the shore is not fun merely because our survival instinct inherently tells us to run! 

Does this all make me too “goal” oriented and all about the end result, not the journey? Maybe… is that going to stop me from stepping out to take the journey in the first place? Absolutely not. I guess all of this is leading me to think that we need a new term to describe the kind of joy we derive from incorporating this activity into our lives that might not be fun in and of itself, but the sum of its parts does lead to a sense of enjoyment, accomplishment and fulfillment.

Now, if we only had a word for this sensation that wasn’t used interchangeably with the one we use when referring to mouse ears, relaxing on white sand beaches, or eating burgers and Cajun fries at the local “Five Guys!” As I said before, John Bingham, I’m open here... any suggestions?

Today's Run
Miles: 6.16
Time: 1:15
Pace: 4.9 mph
Treadmill  Run