A Fat American in Europe – Part the Second
Like many unfortunate runners, I suffer from a phenomenon called a very weak stomach. Eat the wrong thing before a run? Drink too much water? Stars aligned incorrectly? and WHAM! a run starts more closely resembling a mad treasure hunt from public restroom to public restroom than ... well, training.
In the U.S. I consider myself an expert at ferretting out peeing spots. I've got every park and public restroom in and around my runs mapped out, I know every store where there isn't *technically* a public restroom but the employees don't care, and in times of dire straits, I can invent a tear jerking tale of epic woe to convince a random establishment along the way to conveniently convert itself into an emergency pit stop for me.
This doesn't really fly in Europe, apparently. They are much more protective of their restrooms. A lot of them require payment to even enter, and the ones belonging to restaurants and other workplaces are kept under a watchful eye of some old lady who can and will turn into a wailing banshee if a random person from off the street dare trundle inconspicuously in to use the facilities... Thankfully, though for the most part there is also an abundance of relatively quiet forest trails in which, if heaven forbid one would need to pee, the nearest tree is 2 feet away.
Sunday 10/14: off. Weather forces us to descend from the mountains :(. Wanted to run in the trails again, but felt that a day off was advisable, so drove back to the flatlands of Peschiera. Plan was to bike a little bit with Peter but this turned out rather poorly. Suffice it to say that it lasted only about an hour, and included 2 flat tires, 1 Power Bar from the year 1991 and some unfortunate medical problems.
In the evening drove to beautiful Verona to see the quirky Italian ex-triathlete and his non English speaking Cuban wife. Walked around the old city, ate pizza and embarked on the ultimate quest for an authentic Cannoli. Luckily for me, Marco was extremely knowledgeable about that subject area. Felt afraid for my life/the integrity of the paint job on our poor little rental vehicle in the narrow 0.5 lane cobble stone roads, but everything was worth it for the Cannoli.
Monday 10/15: 31:57 in the AM. Extremely grouchy due to morning and cold… Tried to find some trails to run on but was mostly unsuccessful. Ended up running up and down a short segment along the river bank feeling irritated. Unfortunately this morning excursion was necessary in order to catch the train to Venice!
Probably the most striking city we saw, for obvious reasons. Really liked all of the little canals and bridges and old buildings. Bought gifts, ate dinner by the water, and some delicious mystery pastries for dessert. Lots of walking, feet were not delighted by the end. Really liked the city except for the discovery of a rare species of Restaurant Nazi—the kind that don’t let you use the bathroom, and scream like a banshee if you try to sit down with your cup of coffee. Apparently sitting down makes your meal twice as expensive, leading to the curious phenomenon of neat little rows of empty tables and throngs of customers milling around the counters stuffing their edibles down in the upright position. Got back pretty late, then drove up to Salo on the west side of the Lake.
Tuesday 10/16: Hiking! Felt close to death in the morning after the coldest night of my life. Apparently heating is a luxury of expensive hotels here… what’s most outrageous is that there IS a heating unit IN the room… it just doesn’t WORK. Did not get any sleep at all due to it being cold.
Day turned out much better though, we departed the town of freezing cold, went to a neat Italian supermarket. Bought some delicious cheese, cookies and probably bought more fruit than we needed due to the novelty of the “print it yourself” weight and price sticker machine. Took the food with us on a hike in the Alps above Tremosine. Followed a mountain bike path for a bit, then veered off onto a smaller trail, which turned out to be a fantastic choice. Walked along a narrow 0.5 person wide trail carved into the side of the mountain, including rock face. I would have rejected the path as incredibly dangerous and impassable, but it didn’t seem to faze Peter. Was exhilarating in that “HOLY CRAP I’M GOING TO DIE” way sort of like a roller coaster. The best part was finding someone’s adorable little mountain hut at the top. Had a picnic lunch nearby and headed back down a safer larger trail. Really fun. Feet were not happy by the end though. Drove straight to Milan from trailhead, ate at a funny little restaurant called GROG.
Wednesday 10/17: Central heating at last! Really enjoyed a full night of sleep and the towel heater and mini fridge. Peter went to meet the professor at the university in the morning, then we went to explore the city in the afternoon. Emerged from the train station into the mother of all shopping districts. There were Prada stores and Gucci stores on every corner like Starbucks! Trying to imagine the amount of money that must change hands here every day to keep all of these shops in business was just mindbending. We found suits for 2000 Euros or like $3,000 and shoes for 950 Euros. Peter was instructed to buy business attire here, but somehow that didn’t end up happening… We did find some culinary treasures, such as the best Gelato I’ve ever had, and this funny little shop that sold inexpensive fried/baked calzone-like edibles.
Thursday 10/18: Left Milan in the morning in search of some more hiking prior to dinner with Peter’s professional triathlete friends. Wasn’t quite as successful finding good trails today, not to mention the intermittent drizzle… Aborted a few extremely steep rocky paths, then found a quaint little route that we didn’t have enough time to explore. Feet not feeling great.
Drove back up to the North side of the Lake to complete our circuit of the circumference, and had dinner with two professional triathletes who were married to each other. They were surprisingly down to earth and non-scary, but I was very thankful nonetheless that the topic of my athletic incompetence did not come up in conversation.
Friday 10/19: Drove back to Germany. Failed in the quest to find another SMA brand supermarket where I had hoped to buy a lifetime supply of pastry cookies, pasta, cheese and mini croissants… was very sad about that, but we managed to find a different supermarket the size of a shopping mall on our way back that had a large variety of pecorino cheeses, which I was persuaded to view as acceptable compensation for the lack of pastry cookies and mini-croissants that I had wanted. Had coffee and a fantastic apple strudel with another of Peter’s friends, then drove (through the snow!) to the Olympic stadium in Munich. Was sad that the track was closed, but we got to see the inside of the swimming complex.
Saturday 10/20: The last day :(. Bought last minute gifts, saw some more people, packed. Went to an authentic Bavarian restaurant to eat potato dumplings and cabbage for lunch. Peter does not understand my extreme fondness of sweet red cabbage, but I ordered a second helping anyways. We also had Meinhold Family Dinner with all of the brothers and sisters and their significant others, was impressed with delicious home made Indian food. Was exhausted afterwards, happy to let Peter hit the bars with the boys while I had a nice hot bath and read in bed.
I guess this doesn’t really qualify as a training week. I’m just hoping that all of the walking and hiking has at least kept me from becoming morbidly obese and out of shape. And that it hasn’t destroyed my feet… but we’ll see.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Week of 10/07//2007 - 10/13/2007 (Traveling Week 1)
A Fat American in Europe – Part the First
Training heads to the other side of the pond. Peter and I hit the road again with Boston, Ingolstadt, Germany and Lake Garda, Italy this week. Tons of traveling, but somehow I was so stressed about mashing in running time where-ever it would fit that I ended up doing my second highest weekly training minutes total thus far. Some off way to spend an off week… its shaping up that next week will end up being really sparse though, which may end up okay with starting a new cycle fresh when we land back in LA.
Lots of interesting new running locations, but much more good food and many more interesting cultural learnings. Beverages are un-refrigerated, hotel rates are per person, the left lane is not for driving, groceries aren’t bagged and bags are not free, and baked bread is purchased daily. At 5 euros per hour, internet time is limited though, so for now I will leave you with the following cultural mystery:
For several days I had been confounded by the creeping suspicion that something was a little bit off about the toilet paper here, until I finally discovered the source of the strangeness. In Europe, the standard aspect ratio of one square of toilet paper is different than in the states. While one sheet of US toilet paper approximately resembles a square, one sheet of European toilet paper approximately resembles a rectangle—like an 8 x 11 sheet of white paper. Why?????
Sunday 10/07: Off. Drive down from Maine to parental unit’s new condo. Feeling crappy and allergic and still jet lagged. Decided to let the body and the legs rest from yesterday. Instead, took a turn around the new neighborhood with Dad. Nice to see the fall colors.
Monday 10/08: 42:12 around the ‘hood. Tried to make it to the old cemetery with the soft grass, but turned back without making the whole circuit because run was already getting too long and the L foot was starting to feel funny. Was fairly relaxing to run in the overcast, cold weather, though a bit consterned about the possibility of rain. Also, woke up with sore throat and tons of snot. Unclear whether this is related to illness, allergy to the family cat, or traveling stresses.
Tuesday 10/09: 28:12 arrived at Peter’s parents house in Germany after staying up doing math puzzles in the airplane all night. Rabbits and grapes and cheese bread, oh my! Tired and cold, but was really excited about the best bread ever. Saw garden, compost pile, rabbit pens, home grown grapes and pears and real live English Granny. Really quaint and nice, but another cat—argh! Still not feeling great, but went for an exploratory fun in the fields/woods behind the house with Peter on bike. Many trails and sights to see, but foot started hurting about 16 minutes in so came back a bit early. Thinking this is related to lack of doing physical therapy (idiotically forgot to pack the stretchy-band on Friday….) so borrowed a theraband to work on the toe in the evening.
Wednesday 10/10: 30:58 slow jogging with Peter. Felt substantially crappier than yesterday. Tired and groggy and even more jet lagged, still with an excess of mucous. Went slow and felt peeved, but toe held up for about 22 minutes this time, so felt good about the improvement—like last time, the physical therapy helps a lot. Saw the town center today, also very quaint and cute, with old buildings, fantastic little bake/bread-eries and cobble stone streets.
Thursday 10/11: 32:23, finally a good run! Trails with Peter on the bike again. Felt quick and relaxed. Toe was okay for almost the whole time. Felt just the tiniest bit tender in the last 2-3 minutes, but discovered that strangely it takes pressure completely off of the pain point if I open up my stride and run faster. Felt good to go at a solid steady pace, but the cardiovascular effort felt too high to maintain for an extended amount of time at this point.
Friday 10/12: 32:37 early morning on the trails again with Peter. Cold, sleep deprived and grouchy. Felt bad, tired, nose was running continuously, and toe started to hurt pretty early on. Not in the habit of running in the morning and did not like it. Feet did not enjoy the < 24 hours of recovery time either. Felt irritated about screwing up all of the rehab effects of the past few days, and also about being up and about in the cold, and about the fact that unfortunately Peter runs with me on the days where I feel slow and groggy (which appears to be every other day recently, and since he jogs with me every other day the cycle never ends). Today we drive to Lake Garda in Italy though, so the morning run and all of its woes were regretfully necessary.
Saturday 10/13: 35:32 random adventuring up in the mountains of San Zeno di Montages near Lake Garda. Found these fantastic soft woodsy trails that were unfortunately a bit too short, but there were some segments of extended climbing that were a lot of fun. Really liked the soft dirt paths and rolling terrain. Toe hurt on and off, but the trails were so fun I just ignored it. Strangely feet felt much better after the run.
Target training total: ~ 2.5 - 3 hours
Actual to date: 3:21:54 hours. Ooops. So much for an off week.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Week of 09/30/2007 - 10/06/2007 (Transition Week 7)
Obviously the story of the week is Geb, the amazing perfect human being. I was really, really not expecting this turn of events, but at the same time, when I saw it, I wasn't really all that surprised. No one had really even gotten close to Tergat's time in so long, I had started to wonder if it would take the next generation to break it, but then again, Haile has been churning out WR's recently and it was sort of like, well ofcourse, Geb can do anything. duh. The man is fast, and also a fierce competitor, and also a classy, cheery, likeable sort of guy. He's also interesting in that he's adapted with age, always being the best at what he does--instead of having one event and eventually declining and retiring. For me, I guess the fact that people who are 34 years old and still setting world records exist makes the loss of one competitive year of my 20's slightly less devastating.
From the old to the new, someone who's been getting slightly less attention at least for the time being replaces Shalane Flanagan as my new girl hero:
http://www.iaaf.org/WRU07/news/Kind=2/newsId=41916.html
10K girls can do anything. Imagine setting an AR in your debut half marathon. Per a recent Caltech blog thread, she is rapidly becoming the more impressive Goucher.
Sunday 09/30: 42:11 with KB to the RB and back. First "long" run, by which I mean accompanying the lovely Ms. Breeden on a recovery jog :). Felt pretty good though, didn't feel like the extra 10 minutes was taxing, thus leading me to the conclusion that currently the limiting factor is not cardiovascular fitness but the structural integrity of my feet. Time passed quickly, good to talk and chill out.
Ate a lot of bread, then resurrected physical therapy. Lots of icing and stretching. Various aches and pains are coming and going and its hard to tell exactly what's happening. Both ankles now seem to have stabilized, but now the arches feel tight and sore, plus the funny tendons that run above the metatarsals are sometimes achy. I thought for a while that my toe was collapsing again, but upon closer inspection, I can grab the toe itself and jerk it around and joint isn't painful at all... its just that where tendon attaches to the toe knuckle is bizarrely inflamed. Not sure what causes this or how to fix it, so for now, just icing a lot and attempting to stretch the top of my feet (which is an awkward and mostly ineffective endeavor).
Monday 10/01: 30:23, goodbye pile 'o wood chips, hello La Loma bridge! I've finally decided to extend the formerly 30 minute run out a few hundred meters to become the newly 30 minute run. Happy to put the Nike Frees back on my feet. I can't explain why, but my feet just feel better in them. Did some more PT, tried to massage out those weird little tendons on the top of my feet. L Arch still a bit tight and sore, gotta keep an eye on that.
As I was heading back past the park on the Arroyo, my usually calm, pleasant jogging was interrupted by the growing awareness of heavy breathing behind me. Momentarily distressed, I quickly got out of the way to let he/she/it pass on by... and was suddenly confronted by a vision of a former self: a short, dorky looking asian girl came barreling through on my left side, arms flailing wildly in bad form, huffing and puffing, she turned and scrambled on up the trail up to the streets above and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.
She looked as I imagine I must have looked several years ago as a fledgling runner, with a chip on my shoulder and something to prove, pounding out the miles as fast as I could, running as if the demons were right behind me... Its not that I've quelled those demons, per se. They are still alive and kicking, perched firmly on my shoulder, they've never left my side--whispering sweet nothings in my ear about wasted potential, I've missed my chance, I'll never be unbroken again and gosh, how much of a disappointment I've turned out to be... but what I've learned in the past few months is that what you have to do is grit your teeth and tell them to shut the hell up and be patient. Because shit happens, LIFE happens... and great runners are forged over years, not weeks and months. So you just have to suck it up and do whatever you have to do, every day to train, or be able to train. Its not always pretty, but, I guess that's just too bad.
Tuesday 10/02: 33:04, to the RB and back. Inaugural run in my new old ebay Nike Free's, freshly delivered from Canada! The Nike Free 5.0 v2 is the best shoe ever made. Unfortunately they are REALLY hard to find even on ebay, and my first pair are getting very, very worn. Also some debacles at work, didn't get home until sunset, so did a slightly sketchy Arroyo run in the semi-dark. Hard to see footing, so a bit scary, but otherwise, it was actually really nice. Good temperature, felt relaxed and form felt good, breathing easy, legs fresh.
Wednesday 10/03: 35:39, tried to find the "20 minute rock" and was disgruntled to realize it had either been removed or rolled to the other side. You take half a year off and everything's all different.... sheesh. This used to be the standard 20 minute mark on an easy run starting from my house--thought it would be a good 16-17 minute turnaround for my current Arroyo route, but it ended up taking 18 minutes. Felt crappy today. Stomach felt heavy, had a mild side stitch, breathing felt shallow, legs felt uncoordinated and eyes hurt a lot today from allergy or infection. Went slow(er than usual) and felt irritated. I guess I'm almost 3 whole weeks in at this point, so maybe statistically there's got to be a crummy day in there at some point.
Also noted, per Mark's observation about physical therapy exercises, I feel like mine are both helping and hurting this week. Feeling some good progress in the stability of the toe in question, but at the same time, I feel like those funny little muscles in my shins are sore now, and where they feed into my ankles feels weaker... I think the answer here is to keep at the exercises, and maybe plan in a "down" week next week. I'm on track to be increasing 30 min/week, but when one's weekly total is like 2-3 hours, that's 15-20% increase per week. Maybe that's a lot for just starting out. I guess that's alright since next week will probably end up being light anyways due to travel.
Thursday 10/04: Off. Trying to get stuff done for the trip. Managed to squeeze in some physical therapy, the more PT I do the better my toe feels but the worse my weird little ankle tendons feel. Hope that goes away soon.
Friday 10/05: 43:24 to the RB, a little ways around the trails on the side and then back. Felt... eh. Wasn't going that slow, but kinda choppy, not as relaxed as usual. Just felt like I was getting through the allotted time, which is sad because I usually really enjoy my runs lately. On second thought a lot of this may be explained by the fact that I had to run in the morning, which I've sorely gotten out of the habit of, and we all know I am NOT a morning person, at least not in my natural state. Felt really tired, hard to get out of bed, and just not excited about anything except crawling back into bed.
Mostly all of my other runs have been at dusk, after I've been awake and fed for a while and generally itching to stop doing work stuff and get out there to do some running stuff. This morning I felt inadequately rested, stressed out and crunched for time, which made going out there feel like a chore rather than something to look forward to... I think I'm fixating on this because I really want to avoid that state where running becomes a severe emotional stress, and right now there's no reason why it should have to be that way.
Saturday 10/06: 42:22, debacles in far away lands! Around confusing little Maine country roads, got lost, somehow my "easy" day got turned into a "long" day and running harder than normal too to try to get back to the hotel in time to get ready for Stu's wedding. Nice weekend getaway on the New England coast with Peter though :). Unfortunately not a good running location, all of the things that looked like trails were some rich person's driveway--so ended up running on the pavement for the first time in months in my Nike Frees--not sure I'd recommend this. Argh, my heels hurt... Its so much easier to run on pavement though, other than the impact factor. There were also a lot of these tiny little hills, which made me realize that I am in VERY appallingly poor climbing shape--harder than I would have liked. All in all, the 40 minutes didn't seem too long, and the slightly faster than jogging pace didn't feel too bad, so mostly a good run. Took an Aleve upon returning to help with the anticipated heel pain tomorrow.
Target training: 3 hours and 30 minutes
Traing to date: 3:45:03 hours
As much as I dislike off days, the 1 day off a week system will have to be the steady-state for a while. I find that my feet require that rest day, and while they are still tentative, probably best not to push it. For this week I'd like to phase in a few 35-40 minute type runs provided that my feet are holding steady.
From the old to the new, someone who's been getting slightly less attention at least for the time being replaces Shalane Flanagan as my new girl hero:
http://www.iaaf.org/WRU07/news/Kind=2/newsId=41916.html
10K girls can do anything. Imagine setting an AR in your debut half marathon. Per a recent Caltech blog thread, she is rapidly becoming the more impressive Goucher.
Sunday 09/30: 42:11 with KB to the RB and back. First "long" run, by which I mean accompanying the lovely Ms. Breeden on a recovery jog :). Felt pretty good though, didn't feel like the extra 10 minutes was taxing, thus leading me to the conclusion that currently the limiting factor is not cardiovascular fitness but the structural integrity of my feet. Time passed quickly, good to talk and chill out.
Ate a lot of bread, then resurrected physical therapy. Lots of icing and stretching. Various aches and pains are coming and going and its hard to tell exactly what's happening. Both ankles now seem to have stabilized, but now the arches feel tight and sore, plus the funny tendons that run above the metatarsals are sometimes achy. I thought for a while that my toe was collapsing again, but upon closer inspection, I can grab the toe itself and jerk it around and joint isn't painful at all... its just that where tendon attaches to the toe knuckle is bizarrely inflamed. Not sure what causes this or how to fix it, so for now, just icing a lot and attempting to stretch the top of my feet (which is an awkward and mostly ineffective endeavor).
Monday 10/01: 30:23, goodbye pile 'o wood chips, hello La Loma bridge! I've finally decided to extend the formerly 30 minute run out a few hundred meters to become the newly 30 minute run. Happy to put the Nike Frees back on my feet. I can't explain why, but my feet just feel better in them. Did some more PT, tried to massage out those weird little tendons on the top of my feet. L Arch still a bit tight and sore, gotta keep an eye on that.
As I was heading back past the park on the Arroyo, my usually calm, pleasant jogging was interrupted by the growing awareness of heavy breathing behind me. Momentarily distressed, I quickly got out of the way to let he/she/it pass on by... and was suddenly confronted by a vision of a former self: a short, dorky looking asian girl came barreling through on my left side, arms flailing wildly in bad form, huffing and puffing, she turned and scrambled on up the trail up to the streets above and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.
She looked as I imagine I must have looked several years ago as a fledgling runner, with a chip on my shoulder and something to prove, pounding out the miles as fast as I could, running as if the demons were right behind me... Its not that I've quelled those demons, per se. They are still alive and kicking, perched firmly on my shoulder, they've never left my side--whispering sweet nothings in my ear about wasted potential, I've missed my chance, I'll never be unbroken again and gosh, how much of a disappointment I've turned out to be... but what I've learned in the past few months is that what you have to do is grit your teeth and tell them to shut the hell up and be patient. Because shit happens, LIFE happens... and great runners are forged over years, not weeks and months. So you just have to suck it up and do whatever you have to do, every day to train, or be able to train. Its not always pretty, but, I guess that's just too bad.
Tuesday 10/02: 33:04, to the RB and back. Inaugural run in my new old ebay Nike Free's, freshly delivered from Canada! The Nike Free 5.0 v2 is the best shoe ever made. Unfortunately they are REALLY hard to find even on ebay, and my first pair are getting very, very worn. Also some debacles at work, didn't get home until sunset, so did a slightly sketchy Arroyo run in the semi-dark. Hard to see footing, so a bit scary, but otherwise, it was actually really nice. Good temperature, felt relaxed and form felt good, breathing easy, legs fresh.
Wednesday 10/03: 35:39, tried to find the "20 minute rock" and was disgruntled to realize it had either been removed or rolled to the other side. You take half a year off and everything's all different.... sheesh. This used to be the standard 20 minute mark on an easy run starting from my house--thought it would be a good 16-17 minute turnaround for my current Arroyo route, but it ended up taking 18 minutes. Felt crappy today. Stomach felt heavy, had a mild side stitch, breathing felt shallow, legs felt uncoordinated and eyes hurt a lot today from allergy or infection. Went slow(er than usual) and felt irritated. I guess I'm almost 3 whole weeks in at this point, so maybe statistically there's got to be a crummy day in there at some point.
Also noted, per Mark's observation about physical therapy exercises, I feel like mine are both helping and hurting this week. Feeling some good progress in the stability of the toe in question, but at the same time, I feel like those funny little muscles in my shins are sore now, and where they feed into my ankles feels weaker... I think the answer here is to keep at the exercises, and maybe plan in a "down" week next week. I'm on track to be increasing 30 min/week, but when one's weekly total is like 2-3 hours, that's 15-20% increase per week. Maybe that's a lot for just starting out. I guess that's alright since next week will probably end up being light anyways due to travel.
Thursday 10/04: Off. Trying to get stuff done for the trip. Managed to squeeze in some physical therapy, the more PT I do the better my toe feels but the worse my weird little ankle tendons feel. Hope that goes away soon.
Friday 10/05: 43:24 to the RB, a little ways around the trails on the side and then back. Felt... eh. Wasn't going that slow, but kinda choppy, not as relaxed as usual. Just felt like I was getting through the allotted time, which is sad because I usually really enjoy my runs lately. On second thought a lot of this may be explained by the fact that I had to run in the morning, which I've sorely gotten out of the habit of, and we all know I am NOT a morning person, at least not in my natural state. Felt really tired, hard to get out of bed, and just not excited about anything except crawling back into bed.
Mostly all of my other runs have been at dusk, after I've been awake and fed for a while and generally itching to stop doing work stuff and get out there to do some running stuff. This morning I felt inadequately rested, stressed out and crunched for time, which made going out there feel like a chore rather than something to look forward to... I think I'm fixating on this because I really want to avoid that state where running becomes a severe emotional stress, and right now there's no reason why it should have to be that way.
Saturday 10/06: 42:22, debacles in far away lands! Around confusing little Maine country roads, got lost, somehow my "easy" day got turned into a "long" day and running harder than normal too to try to get back to the hotel in time to get ready for Stu's wedding. Nice weekend getaway on the New England coast with Peter though :). Unfortunately not a good running location, all of the things that looked like trails were some rich person's driveway--so ended up running on the pavement for the first time in months in my Nike Frees--not sure I'd recommend this. Argh, my heels hurt... Its so much easier to run on pavement though, other than the impact factor. There were also a lot of these tiny little hills, which made me realize that I am in VERY appallingly poor climbing shape--harder than I would have liked. All in all, the 40 minutes didn't seem too long, and the slightly faster than jogging pace didn't feel too bad, so mostly a good run. Took an Aleve upon returning to help with the anticipated heel pain tomorrow.
Target training: 3 hours and 30 minutes
Traing to date: 3:45:03 hours
As much as I dislike off days, the 1 day off a week system will have to be the steady-state for a while. I find that my feet require that rest day, and while they are still tentative, probably best not to push it. For this week I'd like to phase in a few 35-40 minute type runs provided that my feet are holding steady.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Week of 09/23/2007 - 09/29/2007 (Transition Week 6)
Pleasant Arroyo Jogs Continue (hopefully)
Last week was say 2.5 hours on 5 runs, which I'm feeling pretty good about given that 3 hours was a relatively arbitrary goal for a first week. I'd like to get to 3 hours on 6 runs this week, keeping the ~30 minutes per day rule. For some reason I've decided that I value the consistency in training right now over increasing time/miles per day. Its sort of like, I would rather condition my body to accept running on a daily basis even if it has to be in small doses, than to be able to run say 5-6 miles in one go ASAP.
For some reason I'm thinking right now that this approach is less taxing on one's body than last summer's strategy of running 5 miles 3 times a week for my first week back (discounting the debacle where I ran an "easy 8.5" on my first attempt and couldn't walk for the next 3 days due to soreness...).
Sunday 09/23: 33:32 from California entrance to the Arroyo to the Rose Bowl and back. I've noticed a tendency to feel choppy and tight the day after an off day, which plagued the first 5-10 minutes of this run, but settled in nicely after that. Went back to the Free 5.0's, for some reason I've been feeling lately that a person's foot naturally lands in such a way to reduce impact and injury and the more "stabilizing" a shoe is, the more weird pressure points accumulate.
Ground a bit mushy from yesterday's rain but overall, pleasant conditions. Lots of folks out, mostly dog walkers and strollers, but there was some odd race thing going on near the RB. There were even some folks who were running slower than me... now THAT hasn't happened in a long time :).
Monday 09/24: 29:59 Improvement! First time to the woodchips in under 15 minutes, consequently, the route was a bit short, time-wise, but supposing its okay since yesterday's was a bit long. Felt pretty good, wanted to go longer, but trying to keep in mind that the feet are disproportionately stressed by the 30 minutes than any other body part.
Tuesday 09/25: 30:04 same as yesterday, didn't have time for anything fancy. Had to squeeze in a run during the daylight hours to prevent tripping and falling in the Arroyo. Felt like I was going slower, but somehow managed to end up at about the same pace as yesterday. Feeling stressed and irritable about work today, but felt much better after running.
Wednesday 09/26: 29:15, the weekly check-in. 2 x Arroyo Tempo loops 27:43 in 13:54, 13:49. Just squeaked under the 9 min/mile mark at 8:56 pace. Pleased with progress, but considering scrapping this run for the next few weeks. I really don't like knowing how long something is right now, I noticed that I just felt stressed on this run--not physically, but emotionally. I knew I would be sad if it were slower than last week's, but at the same time I was worrying about running too hard because I was thinking about time and improvement.
All in all, maybe the effort was a little bit higher than last week's, but I did maintain my default anti-pushing the pace rule of "if its uncomfortable to breathe through your nose, slow down". This is this weird thing that Andrea Vasconcellos ingrained in me during my first year of running--that one should do one's easy runs breathing solely through your nose, apparently this helped her make sure she actually ran easy on easy days. Everyone else has subsequently has told me that this is weird and artificial and that most people manage to keep a relaxed pace while breathing through their mouth, etc. etc. but for some reason I just can't break the habit at this point.
There were also a lot of folks out, and on the last stretch back to the start, there was a little group of 3 runners, 2 guys and 1 girl, and it really irritated me that I wasn't catching up to them.
Thursday 09/27: 34:22 same run as sunday to the RB and back, but had to park a bit farther away this time. Ran at a relaxed zoned out pace and felt slow, but good. Also, tried running in trainers today. Picked a pair with a pretty flexible sole so as to be closer to the Frees. Bleh, I'm caught between the dilemma of competing potential injuries... the trainers really made my heel feel better... but now my R ankle is a bit sore. For some reason the Frees help with my L toe and R ankle, but the trainers help with my R heel and my L ankle. Goodness only knows WHY... but that's the way it is. Or maybe the aches and pains come and go since I haven't run in so long, and I'm just assigning causation where there isn't any.
Anyways, I need to learn to be able to wear trainers anyways, cuz there's nothing but pavement available in Boston where I'll be next weekend, and also, I'd like to race again some day, and I'll need to be able to wear something other than Frees for that.
Friday 09/28: Off day, whoopie-doo. Ironically, my feet were feeling fantastic all day. Kinda wanted to go out and run, but didn't have a ton of time, and I knew that I needed to take a day off pretty soon. So, stuck to original plan.
Saturday 09/29: 28:44 to woodchips with Peter (in his VERY first pair of Nike Free's :-D). A bit short, but I've managed to safely reach my goal training time of 3 hours! Feel self conscious to run with company... definitely not presentable yet. I do feel encouraged by the progress though, I know I shouldn't think about distance and speed, but I've shaved 3 minutes off of this woodchip pile route, or say ~10%. Which means that potentially I'm running closer to 9 minute miles at this point. Never thought I'd see a day when that was a cause for celebration, but that day is today.
Weekly Goal: 3 hours
Training to date: 3:05:56 hours
Last week was say 2.5 hours on 5 runs, which I'm feeling pretty good about given that 3 hours was a relatively arbitrary goal for a first week. I'd like to get to 3 hours on 6 runs this week, keeping the ~30 minutes per day rule. For some reason I've decided that I value the consistency in training right now over increasing time/miles per day. Its sort of like, I would rather condition my body to accept running on a daily basis even if it has to be in small doses, than to be able to run say 5-6 miles in one go ASAP.
For some reason I'm thinking right now that this approach is less taxing on one's body than last summer's strategy of running 5 miles 3 times a week for my first week back (discounting the debacle where I ran an "easy 8.5" on my first attempt and couldn't walk for the next 3 days due to soreness...).
Sunday 09/23: 33:32 from California entrance to the Arroyo to the Rose Bowl and back. I've noticed a tendency to feel choppy and tight the day after an off day, which plagued the first 5-10 minutes of this run, but settled in nicely after that. Went back to the Free 5.0's, for some reason I've been feeling lately that a person's foot naturally lands in such a way to reduce impact and injury and the more "stabilizing" a shoe is, the more weird pressure points accumulate.
Ground a bit mushy from yesterday's rain but overall, pleasant conditions. Lots of folks out, mostly dog walkers and strollers, but there was some odd race thing going on near the RB. There were even some folks who were running slower than me... now THAT hasn't happened in a long time :).
Monday 09/24: 29:59 Improvement! First time to the woodchips in under 15 minutes, consequently, the route was a bit short, time-wise, but supposing its okay since yesterday's was a bit long. Felt pretty good, wanted to go longer, but trying to keep in mind that the feet are disproportionately stressed by the 30 minutes than any other body part.
Tuesday 09/25: 30:04 same as yesterday, didn't have time for anything fancy. Had to squeeze in a run during the daylight hours to prevent tripping and falling in the Arroyo. Felt like I was going slower, but somehow managed to end up at about the same pace as yesterday. Feeling stressed and irritable about work today, but felt much better after running.
Wednesday 09/26: 29:15, the weekly check-in. 2 x Arroyo Tempo loops 27:43 in 13:54, 13:49. Just squeaked under the 9 min/mile mark at 8:56 pace. Pleased with progress, but considering scrapping this run for the next few weeks. I really don't like knowing how long something is right now, I noticed that I just felt stressed on this run--not physically, but emotionally. I knew I would be sad if it were slower than last week's, but at the same time I was worrying about running too hard because I was thinking about time and improvement.
All in all, maybe the effort was a little bit higher than last week's, but I did maintain my default anti-pushing the pace rule of "if its uncomfortable to breathe through your nose, slow down". This is this weird thing that Andrea Vasconcellos ingrained in me during my first year of running--that one should do one's easy runs breathing solely through your nose, apparently this helped her make sure she actually ran easy on easy days. Everyone else has subsequently has told me that this is weird and artificial and that most people manage to keep a relaxed pace while breathing through their mouth, etc. etc. but for some reason I just can't break the habit at this point.
There were also a lot of folks out, and on the last stretch back to the start, there was a little group of 3 runners, 2 guys and 1 girl, and it really irritated me that I wasn't catching up to them.
Thursday 09/27: 34:22 same run as sunday to the RB and back, but had to park a bit farther away this time. Ran at a relaxed zoned out pace and felt slow, but good. Also, tried running in trainers today. Picked a pair with a pretty flexible sole so as to be closer to the Frees. Bleh, I'm caught between the dilemma of competing potential injuries... the trainers really made my heel feel better... but now my R ankle is a bit sore. For some reason the Frees help with my L toe and R ankle, but the trainers help with my R heel and my L ankle. Goodness only knows WHY... but that's the way it is. Or maybe the aches and pains come and go since I haven't run in so long, and I'm just assigning causation where there isn't any.
Anyways, I need to learn to be able to wear trainers anyways, cuz there's nothing but pavement available in Boston where I'll be next weekend, and also, I'd like to race again some day, and I'll need to be able to wear something other than Frees for that.
Friday 09/28: Off day, whoopie-doo. Ironically, my feet were feeling fantastic all day. Kinda wanted to go out and run, but didn't have a ton of time, and I knew that I needed to take a day off pretty soon. So, stuck to original plan.
Saturday 09/29: 28:44 to woodchips with Peter (in his VERY first pair of Nike Free's :-D). A bit short, but I've managed to safely reach my goal training time of 3 hours! Feel self conscious to run with company... definitely not presentable yet. I do feel encouraged by the progress though, I know I shouldn't think about distance and speed, but I've shaved 3 minutes off of this woodchip pile route, or say ~10%. Which means that potentially I'm running closer to 9 minute miles at this point. Never thought I'd see a day when that was a cause for celebration, but that day is today.
Weekly Goal: 3 hours
Training to date: 3:05:56 hours
Monday, September 17, 2007
Week of 09/16/2007 - 09/22/2007 (Transition Week 5)
RUNNING AGAIN! This time for reals (fingers crossed).
A new beginning, hopefully. Unfortunately I am definitely not even ready for base miles. For the next few weeks, with a little help from the powers that be, I will be doing my pre-base miles, which I've decided will be measures in minutes and not miles to discourage the grousing about slow paces and embarassment. I may even forgo the HR monitor for the first few weeks lest I should be so discouraged that I give up on this again.
The goal of the pre-base miles is just to get my body used to running again, to make sure all of my broken parts are holding up, and just to get to a point where running a solid 30-40 base mile training week can be managed without undue stress to the system. However long it takes to get to that point, so be it. I think this will be fastest safest way to training again.
Sunday 09/16: Off, traveling back from Colorado. Flight delayed, pretty miserable. Got to bed around 2 or 3 am. Working from home this week, thank goodness.
Monday 09/17: 31:22 pleasant jog in the Arroyo. Drove to the entry point to be really really cautious, jogged out 15 minutes, back the same way then a little extra up the little hill back to car. Whether it was from descending from altitude, or just because I wasn't stressing out about pace--it actually didn't feel at all like drowning. Felt cool and pleasant the whole way, feet even felt pretty good in the Nike Frees on the trails.
Stretched and iced after getting back, really hoping I can just manage 30 minutes a day for the rest of the week without it breaking my feet again. Really felt like I could have happily done more today, but need to be really really careful with the feet. At this point in the game, its less about gaining fitness and more about gaining back the ability to train at all. The fitness will come, just so long as the feet don't break--so that's got to be the first priority.
Tuesday 09/18: 31:33 same route as yesterday, just a smidge slower. Felt good, no drowning, but did notice a bit of soreness in the hamstrings today throughout. Nothing major but eeesh, it is not good if 30 minutes of jogging makes one sore! Lots of precautionary stretching and icing. Its not much, but being able to run even a little bit really slowly is like a little piece of heaven.
Wednesday 09/19: 30:53 out to the random pile 'o woodchips again. Slightly faster today, so considered going 30 seconds farther out, but decided to restrain myself. Maybe later on I'll try driving to the California entrance to the arroyo and run 15 minutes out just to mix things up a little bit, but I'm really going to try to enforce the 30 minutes only rule this week.
Tried out a brand new pair of Nike Frees 7.0's felt good, just a tiny bit more steady on my feet but really felt mostly the same as the 5.0's. Liked the wide toe box for my big duck feet, and narrow heel. By comparison the 5.0 v.3's that I tried on really sucked... it felt like the sizes ran small, AND they were narrow and uncomfortable and something about the heel just didn't fit right. Argh. Had to find some v.2's on eBay--didn't find as many as I hoped, but DID learn interesting enough that the pair I currently own is like some rare collector's item... hahahaha.
Otherwise, stretched and iced exhaustively as a precautionary measure. Just the fact that I've actually run 3 consecutive days and am still standing is a miracle in and of itself.
Thursday 09/20: 31:36 drove to California and Arroyo for 2 x Arroyo tempo loops, easy, then a little extra up the switchback back to car. Cheated a little on the whole minutes only don't measure distance thing, since 2 Arroyo tempo loops approximately = 5K according to Ian. Was slightly too sunny at 2 pm, but felt pretty good. 15:09/15:06 for 30:15, or 9:45 pace... was pleased with sub-10 minute miles--this warrants a felicitous upgrade of my training state from "glorified walking" to "warm up jogging"!
Friday 09/21: 31:16 back to the old route. Almost sprained ankle, ergo slightly less placid than the other days. Also, rain clouds looming. I am just such a pansy about the rain... Don't get me wrong-rain, shine or snow, I WILL go out there and run, but I just really dislike it when I have to run on a rainy day. Felt a twinge in the mystery ankle tendon making a sharp right turn, which was consterning. On second thought, I'm thinking maybe 5 days of running may be sufficient for this first week, and I should take tomorrow off to hope that the tendon doesn't twinge again.
Saturday 09/22: Off. Probably a good call--raining all day, and L ankle felt kinda tweaked out all day. Did a lot of cleaning, hauling crap around though, which hopefully counted for some exercise. Iced for a long time, ankle felt better after that.
Weekly goal: 3 hours
Week Actual: 2:36:40 hours
A new beginning, hopefully. Unfortunately I am definitely not even ready for base miles. For the next few weeks, with a little help from the powers that be, I will be doing my pre-base miles, which I've decided will be measures in minutes and not miles to discourage the grousing about slow paces and embarassment. I may even forgo the HR monitor for the first few weeks lest I should be so discouraged that I give up on this again.
The goal of the pre-base miles is just to get my body used to running again, to make sure all of my broken parts are holding up, and just to get to a point where running a solid 30-40 base mile training week can be managed without undue stress to the system. However long it takes to get to that point, so be it. I think this will be fastest safest way to training again.
Sunday 09/16: Off, traveling back from Colorado. Flight delayed, pretty miserable. Got to bed around 2 or 3 am. Working from home this week, thank goodness.
Monday 09/17: 31:22 pleasant jog in the Arroyo. Drove to the entry point to be really really cautious, jogged out 15 minutes, back the same way then a little extra up the little hill back to car. Whether it was from descending from altitude, or just because I wasn't stressing out about pace--it actually didn't feel at all like drowning. Felt cool and pleasant the whole way, feet even felt pretty good in the Nike Frees on the trails.
Stretched and iced after getting back, really hoping I can just manage 30 minutes a day for the rest of the week without it breaking my feet again. Really felt like I could have happily done more today, but need to be really really careful with the feet. At this point in the game, its less about gaining fitness and more about gaining back the ability to train at all. The fitness will come, just so long as the feet don't break--so that's got to be the first priority.
Tuesday 09/18: 31:33 same route as yesterday, just a smidge slower. Felt good, no drowning, but did notice a bit of soreness in the hamstrings today throughout. Nothing major but eeesh, it is not good if 30 minutes of jogging makes one sore! Lots of precautionary stretching and icing. Its not much, but being able to run even a little bit really slowly is like a little piece of heaven.
Wednesday 09/19: 30:53 out to the random pile 'o woodchips again. Slightly faster today, so considered going 30 seconds farther out, but decided to restrain myself. Maybe later on I'll try driving to the California entrance to the arroyo and run 15 minutes out just to mix things up a little bit, but I'm really going to try to enforce the 30 minutes only rule this week.
Tried out a brand new pair of Nike Frees 7.0's felt good, just a tiny bit more steady on my feet but really felt mostly the same as the 5.0's. Liked the wide toe box for my big duck feet, and narrow heel. By comparison the 5.0 v.3's that I tried on really sucked... it felt like the sizes ran small, AND they were narrow and uncomfortable and something about the heel just didn't fit right. Argh. Had to find some v.2's on eBay--didn't find as many as I hoped, but DID learn interesting enough that the pair I currently own is like some rare collector's item... hahahaha.Otherwise, stretched and iced exhaustively as a precautionary measure. Just the fact that I've actually run 3 consecutive days and am still standing is a miracle in and of itself.
Thursday 09/20: 31:36 drove to California and Arroyo for 2 x Arroyo tempo loops, easy, then a little extra up the switchback back to car. Cheated a little on the whole minutes only don't measure distance thing, since 2 Arroyo tempo loops approximately = 5K according to Ian. Was slightly too sunny at 2 pm, but felt pretty good. 15:09/15:06 for 30:15, or 9:45 pace... was pleased with sub-10 minute miles--this warrants a felicitous upgrade of my training state from "glorified walking" to "warm up jogging"!
Friday 09/21: 31:16 back to the old route. Almost sprained ankle, ergo slightly less placid than the other days. Also, rain clouds looming. I am just such a pansy about the rain... Don't get me wrong-rain, shine or snow, I WILL go out there and run, but I just really dislike it when I have to run on a rainy day. Felt a twinge in the mystery ankle tendon making a sharp right turn, which was consterning. On second thought, I'm thinking maybe 5 days of running may be sufficient for this first week, and I should take tomorrow off to hope that the tendon doesn't twinge again.
Saturday 09/22: Off. Probably a good call--raining all day, and L ankle felt kinda tweaked out all day. Did a lot of cleaning, hauling crap around though, which hopefully counted for some exercise. Iced for a long time, ankle felt better after that.
Weekly goal: 3 hours
Week Actual: 2:36:40 hours
Week of 09/09/2007 - 09/15/2007 (Transition Week 4)
Finally! Food returns. This week has been devoted to eating and travel. I perhaps naively thought that I would resume running immediately upon conclusion of fasting--but as it turns out, I'm a great deal weaker than I thought I would be, so the timetable has been shifted so that this week will allow me to ease back into quasi-normal existence again.
Final results: I weighted in 10 days ago at 111 pounds, after not really exercising at all for a while, with both my feet and my allergies getting alarmingly worse. At the conclusion, I weighed a shocking 98 pounds but remarkably, during this time, my feet healed extremely quickly and my upper respiratory allergies cleared very quickly in addition to the food ones (for obvious reasons). Another strange effect was that after day 1, I really ceased to be hungry in a physical sense at all, though I did find myself thinking longingly about food a lot. It made me realize though how much food is a psychological phenomenon for me... I missed food the same way I miss running, or my family or something that's heavily an emotional thing--rather than how you miss water if you're thirsty or oxygen if you're racing...
At any rate, 10 days and 13 pounds later, when I finally did start eating--oh, food is so, so good. Its still a bit of a mixed bag how much this helped me, but in general I feel like it was a good rest for my body, and that all of the allergic reactions are like, less severe and towards the end of the week I felt up for running again.
Friday 09/14 - Saturday 09/15: Colorado
Preliminary investigations of the greater Denver basin with Peter. 2 days and 400 miles of driving later, there seem to be more questions than answers. Loved Boulder, it was like a neat little Pasadena meets Boston, all the good parts only... everywhere else, a bit sketchy. Downtown was moderately acceptable, but then there were just expanses of scary mass produced suburbia and small hick towns that reminded me uncomfortably of the deep south. Still taking in all of this information, unclear for now what the future holds.
Drove up THE real Flagstaff mountain--very impressed. Steep, scary switchbacks even by car. Amazing views, trails everywhere. Plus the whole altitude thing... really wished I could have had a go at the route described in RwtB but not enough time or fitness (obviously) at the current time.
Also drove past the entrance to the Mt. Evans hill climb, also from RwtB, very cool. Totally psyched to see all of the famous sites--I'll be back some day to actually explore. Wished dearly for ability to run again.
Final results: I weighted in 10 days ago at 111 pounds, after not really exercising at all for a while, with both my feet and my allergies getting alarmingly worse. At the conclusion, I weighed a shocking 98 pounds but remarkably, during this time, my feet healed extremely quickly and my upper respiratory allergies cleared very quickly in addition to the food ones (for obvious reasons). Another strange effect was that after day 1, I really ceased to be hungry in a physical sense at all, though I did find myself thinking longingly about food a lot. It made me realize though how much food is a psychological phenomenon for me... I missed food the same way I miss running, or my family or something that's heavily an emotional thing--rather than how you miss water if you're thirsty or oxygen if you're racing...
At any rate, 10 days and 13 pounds later, when I finally did start eating--oh, food is so, so good. Its still a bit of a mixed bag how much this helped me, but in general I feel like it was a good rest for my body, and that all of the allergic reactions are like, less severe and towards the end of the week I felt up for running again.
Friday 09/14 - Saturday 09/15: Colorado
Preliminary investigations of the greater Denver basin with Peter. 2 days and 400 miles of driving later, there seem to be more questions than answers. Loved Boulder, it was like a neat little Pasadena meets Boston, all the good parts only... everywhere else, a bit sketchy. Downtown was moderately acceptable, but then there were just expanses of scary mass produced suburbia and small hick towns that reminded me uncomfortably of the deep south. Still taking in all of this information, unclear for now what the future holds.
Drove up THE real Flagstaff mountain--very impressed. Steep, scary switchbacks even by car. Amazing views, trails everywhere. Plus the whole altitude thing... really wished I could have had a go at the route described in RwtB but not enough time or fitness (obviously) at the current time.
Also drove past the entrance to the Mt. Evans hill climb, also from RwtB, very cool. Totally psyched to see all of the famous sites--I'll be back some day to actually explore. Wished dearly for ability to run again.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Week of 09/02/2007 - 09/08/2007 (Transition Week 3)
Healing.
This week will be taken off from exercise so that I can heal, in various respects. I have decided that its just not a great idea to start the running again on feet that are still so questionable. I want to get through at least a week without pain before I start to jog (slowly and painfully) again.
Other factors exacerbating my return are the increasingly severe allergies (both external and food related) including a new violent reaction to prolonged contact with sweat. Life has just become one big miserable inflammation. I feel like I'm always uncomfortable, and just taking stabs in the dark as to what I ate, stepped on, walked through today to cause the problem. To solve this... I will be fasting, sleeping and watching DVDs in my room this week. After this period of rebooting, I will introduce foods and activities one at a time so that I can more accurately ascertain what causes allergic reactions so that they can be more effectively avoided.
Well, off I go now--wish me luck. Expect the next update next week. Happy running to the rest of you!
This week will be taken off from exercise so that I can heal, in various respects. I have decided that its just not a great idea to start the running again on feet that are still so questionable. I want to get through at least a week without pain before I start to jog (slowly and painfully) again.
Other factors exacerbating my return are the increasingly severe allergies (both external and food related) including a new violent reaction to prolonged contact with sweat. Life has just become one big miserable inflammation. I feel like I'm always uncomfortable, and just taking stabs in the dark as to what I ate, stepped on, walked through today to cause the problem. To solve this... I will be fasting, sleeping and watching DVDs in my room this week. After this period of rebooting, I will introduce foods and activities one at a time so that I can more accurately ascertain what causes allergic reactions so that they can be more effectively avoided.
Well, off I go now--wish me luck. Expect the next update next week. Happy running to the rest of you!
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