Running from the rain

So, after much talk about running a 5k in Westfield this weekend, Julie and I decided not to do so. Instead, we decided to take our time getting ready before heading to The Big E.

Of course, that means that we had to run today. And we did. It was by far the most difficult run I've had since starting this project. How far was it? Not even three miles. I could run three miles in my sleep at this point. Three miles is just warming up and really getting into the groove. A few months ago, three miles might have been daunting, but this is not the case these days.

I have been turning it over in my head as to why every second of this run hurt. I mean, the first mile is always a little tough, but every single step today was a battle. While I can't really blame one thing in particular, I can definitely say that exhaustion, having a terrible cold, the weather being 75 degrees with 90 percent humidity and a delicious breakfast in my immediate future probably had something to do with it.

iRun

One of my first thoughts after realizing that I would not be able to listen my iPod while running the marathon was, "No way." I vowed that I would try to slowly wean myself off of the iPod, but that was probably going to be more towards the 2009 end of things. Then, tragedy struck. I had to run 10 miles without my iPod, a daunting prospect. But it wasn't that bad. I realized that I actually prefer running without one and haven't run with music since.

It sounds crazy, I know. I would have laughed in your face if you told me that I would voluntarily run without music to distract me, but here I am. I can remember reading running articles in which the author describes running as meditation or reaching a zen-like state of mind. I never bought that. Running is hard. It still is, but that's part of why I like it. But now I get what all of those people, I think.

Using your head to push your body 2, 5, 7 miles further when you already feel fatigued -- that's something a lot of people don't engage in on a regular basis. There's a reason why half of all cross-country shirts ever made say "mind over matter." Listening to music let me tune out what my body was feeling and why. In fact, life can be a lot like that. You can choose to tune out and find things to help you do that, or you can face it head on and really dig in. I feel like I do that when I run. Eventually, my mind and my body find an agreement and I just run. And run and run.

Before that agreement can happen though, I have an argument with myself that goes something like this:

Me: Yeah, this actually is not even a good idea. And my ankle huuuuurts. You can probably just stop and go back home now. Stopping this running thing will probably make it feel a lot better.
Me: Mmmm, yeah, but I'm supposed to run seven miles today.
Me: Pffft. Pleaaaaase. I am wheezing over here.
Me: No, no, how about I run over the Mass Ave bridge and see how that goes? If running continues be this unpleasant, I'll stop. If I don't finish this workout, I'm going to blog about it and I really don't want to say that I gave up on a run for no reason. So I'm going to keep going.
Me: Okay, yeah, that isn't that far. Besides, I kind of want to be able to say I ran seven miles today...

fall

My answer is "yes" to Christine Luff's article "Fall - The Ideal Running Season?" published Monday on About.com (I know it sounds silly that I refer to this website, but their running advice is extremely helpful). She talks about feeding off the energy of other runners who are also pumped about autumn, an improvement in overall temperature and the changing color of leaves. As someone from Western Mass, I can more than identify with her affinity for fall foliage. I went for my first run of the season last night.

It brought me around the Fens and to the medical district. After envisioning the Longwood Avenue hill, I expected my route to be at least remotely hilly. I braced myself. Then Francis Street presented the slightest impression of a hill and I soon found myself approaching Brigham Circle. Yes, there were a lot of hills last night. But most of them were downhill. Hrm. I chose to endure a little extra workout by climbing up the six flights of stairs leading to my apartment when I got home. This is a fairly regular practice, but still leaves me panting most of the time. Last night, I must have been extremely excited - or extremely out of it - because I passed my floor and kept going. Um, woops. And that was that.

Maps

Maps and I have a very special relationship. So special that, when my computer started playing "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs earlier, it immediately broke me out of the my-brain-is-numb-from-too-much-reading slump. Maps are magical. This spring would not have been the same without them. And I'm pretty sure they've helped out other people at one point or another. Maps rule. Which is why it's only natural that I'd want to add them to my blog.

Plus, I think as the previous post demonstrates, pictures add a whole new dimension to Life Ain't A Track Meet. Please view the map below to see today's run.

It was one of the hilliest five miles I've experienced in a while. Brutal. The worst part by far was Jamaicaway's terrible hills. By that point, I was ready for the run to be over so my mind wasn't really in the game anymore and my lungs were less than thrilled. But I put in the extra effort at the end and finished strong. I was pleased with myself. And it was brilliant to hang out with Padmani afterward.

Indeed I can run it, run it

Julie and I conquered the Big Dog 5K this morning! We met up at 8:30 for some much-needed sustenance and coffee from Espresso Royale. After that, we headed over in the early morning chill to the Esplanade. Julie got her very first number for a race, which is very cool. She was 167, I was 168. Not surprising, considering we signed up for the race together.

As usual, we were there entirely too early, so we spent a lot of time scoping out the scene, stretching and listening to Brian Bergeron playing live before the race.

I've never actually run in a race outside of school ones, so this was definitely interesting. This race wasn't seeded at all either (why would it be?), so the first two or three minutes after the gun went off, I spent most of my time trying to navigate past people. It was frustrating because I was running slower than I wanted to for those first few minutes, but that's okay.

My first mile split was 7:23. The distance between mile 1 and mile 2 seemed much further. The last mile and a tenth was definitely the slowest, but I finished 21st for the ladies in 23:49. I stand by my statement that middle school me would have whooped me in this race. Even though this was only a 5K, it made me remember how different running for training runs and running for races is.

I am sure Julie knows this, but her much better (25:13!) 5K time does not appear in a Google search. Yet. I guess we'll have to keep running these things to knock that other time out of the 50 links or so associated with her name.

Setting some PBs

Tomorrow I'll be setting a personal best at the Big Dog 5K. How do I know this is going to happen? Because I've never run a 5K before so there's really nothing to beat. Whatever I get will be what I get and it will be my PB. I'm not concerned about my time because, after all, I'm not training for a 5K. I'm training for a marathon. But every once in a while it is good to tap into that inner racer, the competitive drive within all of us.

And I'm curious to see how this will affect my Google search results. Like anyone with excessive time on their hands, I'm prone to wasting many a hot minute searching for myself on the Internet. Note: that is not meant to sound philosophical. No. I just like to see the order in which links to my work come up and check in on my newest appearances in other blogs and websites. You're right, I'm truly as arrogant as that sounds. But it's funny because one website that always comes up is titled Paramus 5K Run. It contains the score results from a race in October 2002. And, sure enough, someone with my name competed in that race and clocked in at 45:58. The other Julie was 18 at the time. I was 15, a sophomore in high school.

With any luck, I can set a personal best for the both of us and maybe the results will make it to the Internet. I guess we'll find out, uh, tomorrow.

a bitterSWEET workout

In choosing to take today's run, I made the enormous mistake of missing a meeting I had planned to attend at my job. I completely, entirely forgot about the meeting. Now, I'm clearly disgusted with myself and consider it a massive time management failure, and I only have myself to blame. But I guess the best option is to consider it part of the past and look at the positive side of the series of events.

I ran approximately three miles to and from Stony Brook. The last time I did this short run my right knee was absolutely murdering me. Murdering me. And I know that's crazy because it is, but my knee was in rough shape. Today was wholly different. My knee felt perfect, my arthritis tame. Consequently, I turned things up a notch. I don't know how quickly I ran the miles, but I was satisfied with myself afterward, particularly when a man on Ruggles Street stopped to speak to me. "Wow, you're fast!" "Excuse me?" "I just took the train from Stony Brook and we got here at the same time. Unbe-unbelievable! That's amazing!" An optimal way to finish an incredible run. I've never felt fast or been called "amazing" so I was reasonably stoked.

Then I went to the gym and lifted, lifted, lifted.

blog blog blog

Here's a note to myself and others: I should follow the definitions of a blog as described in my Reinventing the News class. This means I should do a fair amount of linking, commenting and, you know, actually writing. Frequent updates seem to be a major downfall of mine, so let's work on correcting that.

First and foremost, my right knee is feeling considerably better. This does not mean that it's in perfect condition but I am capable of running without experiencing the pain. And, also important, I can walk without sensing that my knee cap is going to explode. Hard to imagine if you've never endured knee pain, but it was something of the norm last week, particularly while at work. Lots of walking, lots of pain. Proper resting, consistent icing and strengthening exercises have served as a sort of remedy. I also plan to relieve some stress by putting a heavier focus on cross-training, particularly now that my university pool is open.

Last night, Cait and I went to the Fens to do some track-style workouts. Like last time, this included the usual jogging mixed with A-steps, B-steps, the old man shuffle, lunges, etc. and sprinting. We cut the stairs out of our routine for time/motivation purposes, much to my relief, although I did climb to the sixth floor of my building upon returning home. Of course, the Fens track is a popular destination for local athletes, so we had the unusual experience of working out around people who were working out. This created conflicts regarding the sharing of the track. A certain group of local young people chose to form lines, standing side-by-side, and perform their exercises, thus making it impossible to go around them. Other joggers - like the man running infinite laps or the woman with the atrocious form - provided material for commentary. And, most of all, the company of others made me extremely self-conscious during my sprints. Was I running fast enough? What did they think of my runner's face? I guess I need to get used to these things.

Another hilarious point: turns out I thought the 5K was this upcoming Sunday. It's Saturday. Sooner than I thought, but not necessarily a bad thing. I'm unreasonably nervous. Wish us luck!

bend and not break

Listen: I'm going to show my chondromalacia patella what's up, one ice pack at a time.

Move out to the coastline, the beaches say you'll be fine

Earlier today, Julie and I signed up for yet another race: The Seacoast Half Marathon in Portsmouth, NH. The race is November 9th -- just 57 days away. I think the best part of this is that we signed up together even though Julie was sitting in Downtown Crossing and I was in Cambridge. Actually, the best part of this is that we're going to PORTSMOUTH! I love this town. I will love running along the seacoast of New Hampshire. I'm not sure if this will affect my training plans (other than, uh, running the wrong training schedule has), but I'm thoroughly excited.

inside my head

After looking at tomorrow's run mileage, I decided to browse the rest of Marathon Training's offerings. Since remaining mentally enthused throughout my runs tends to be a problem, I checked out the psychological issues section and found this suggestion: "Imagine that you are a world-class runner and are in the lead of the Boston or "Olympic Marathon" Hilarious, because I totally did that today: pictured myself in the Olympic Marathon. And it kind of worked.

go slowly

Well that's problematic.

A recent concern with the drastic mileage increase over the past two weeks got me wondering. We seemed to be following a predetermined schedule of the training we should be doing, in regards to days, miles and rests. Only, it's week three of training and rounding out at 30+ miles felt excessive. My right knee would agree. So I took a look at the schedules again, and it seems that we're a little (OK, four months) ahead of ourselves if we plan to follow the two-schedule training plan. Today would have been a rest day, not an 8-miler and we wouldn't attempt 10 miles until December.

I think I'm going to revert to schedule one of the plan. This is good news on my part because certain joints in my body have not been responding incredibly well to some of the runs. As you know, my arthritis started to act up last week, thus prompting me to buy new kicks immediately. The new shoes have eased, not solved the pain. Expect numerous updates on that in the future. Also, my knee has been hurting since I tried to pump out a 4-mile yesterday. I pumped out that 4-mile in solid time, but each step was borderline brutal until my muscles were totally warmed up. I assume that the 10-mile was too much for my knee to take at this point. Not surprised.

So I'm icing my knee and taking another look at the training plan. Most runs top at 4 miles, with some reaching 5. My bones are happier already. And I'm going to start sampling energy bars and/or drinks to see how they affect my performance during longer runs, because it seems like I always run out of energy somewhere around the 4- or 5-mile mark. Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

Monday, Monday, Monday

So, this is kind of a big deal for me: I ran 10 miles straight without stopping. I thought that this was simply impossible.

Of course we had to pause at traffic lights, but we didn't actually stop -- more like danced to imaginary music around the traffic light until we had the walk signal. Well, we did stop legitimately for a hot minute because Julie tripped over a treacherous root while we were running along the Charles. I was just about to tell her to watch out for something else when I heard a distinct thump, clunk, crash behind me. I thought homegirl might be down for the count but she got up and kept on running like a champ.

Our route took us along the Charles, into Charlestown, past the U.S.S. Constitution, back into Boston through the North End, along the Harborwalk, through the Financial District, Downtown Crossing and down Boylston Street. All in all, a pretty glorious run. I was incredibly sore this morning. My lower back ached, my right knee expressed its displeasure quite loudly and I had knots in the arches of my feet. I feel great right now though.

Another thing to note is that we both ran without iPods or any sort of timekeeping device. We ran perfectly on pace. More on this later.

Husky pride

You already know that I have no internet. Well, now I'm computerless as well because I'm getting my computer's optical drive repaired. As a consequence, I cannot charge my iPod. I'm posting from my alma mater's library, in search of a running route and bracing myself for a 10 mile run that will be music-free. I wonder if I will have the mental toughness to do this without tunes. I know that the big day will be a tune-free zone, but I don't know if I'm quite ready yet.

As Julie had previously mentioned, we both just signed up for Northeastern's Big Dog 5K. It looks like it will be a really fun race, even though I can't quite make out the map of the race route that's on the website.

I love running along the Charles. In fact, on my lunch hour at work, I often run what is known as the Mass Ave loop. Sort of self-explanatory, but it's a just-short-of-4-miles run around the Charles that includes running over the Mass Ave bridge. I usually run it between 12-2, which is of course the hottest time window during the day here.

So, on the agenda for today: making a trip to Marathon Sports and City Sports for some much-needed running apparel, figuring out what our 10 mile route will be tonight and finding a half-marathon to run between the Big Dog 5K and December 2008.

these shoes rule

Every time I enter my apartment, I'm completely soaked. Just now, it was from biking home from work in the torrential downpour. Earlier, it was from exercising in extreme humidity.

I kicked off my day by ingesting some tofu then heading over to Marathon Sports on Boylston Street. We talked feet for quite some time. Arches. Support. Give. Rubbing. Tightness. Arthritis. Socks. All the essentials. I tried on a good five or six pairs. Most of them had one or two endearing qualities. The Adidas had incredible technology but pressed too hard on my arthritis. The Mizunos were both attractive and unique, but felt like they could fall off my foot at any moment. After giving the top choices a literal run for their money, I settled on some Sauconys. Of course I did. I've been running in Saucony shoes for years because they give me the support I need and they keep my arches happy.

So I took my new kicks for an inaugural run. I was dripping sweat before I even finished with the warmup. Dripping. The heat and humidity were unbelievable. I listened to "The Eraser" and did the run I intended to achieve last night: quick and easy to the State House and back. It went pretty well I think. The shoes worked out wonderfully for me and my arthritis was less troublesome. Slightly troublesome: the fact that I bumped into the guy who sold me the shoes while I was jogging/sweating bullets on Commonwealth Avenue. I'm not even kidding. I have never sweated that hard in my entire life. Ever. So I walked it off while making my way toward Marino. Some freshman crap was taking place in the quad and I briefly wanted to sob, but then I saw the table with free lemonade. I guess even freshman orientation has its perks. Ergh... At Marino I did my first weight workout in years. And it was extremely shortlived. I just worked my way through some lower body stuff, then cooled down on a treadmill.

I arrived home looking like I had gone swimming. No joke.

this is the story of my red right ankle

Cait apologizes for her absence. She does not have internet at her apartment - or an apartment, really - and consequently finds it more difficult to post. I, on the other hand, am ethernetting it up real hard in my new digs.

And what you need to know right now is: less than two weeks into my training, I have encountered a serious problem. Those of you who know anything about my feet are aware that my right one has a less-than-flattering bump. I've been rocking it for a while now. Earlier this summer, I went to the foot doctor and had it examined via X-ray and otherwise. It was concluded that I have a rather mild case of osteoarthritis and that it does not need to be dealt with unless it becomes a problem. This was good news at the time: it meant that I would not need imminent surgery and that I could potentially fulfill my dream of running the marathon in 2009. Surgery, on the other hand, would have knocked me off my feet for weeks if not months and I would be hesitant to put the kind of grueling pressure on it endured during extensive running.

And the bump has not been a problem. The most recent dilemma I had with it was after walking miles upon miles in Copenhagen. My muscles throbbed and the bump caused severe discomfort. My foot simply could not take it any more and I had to go home early. I felt fine the next morning. Again, that was the last problem I had with it, until tonight. Cait and I went out to dinner with Megan and Mary Ann, then hung out for a while waiting for our food to digest. Once we had reached a satisfactory level of digestion, the two of us embarked on a quick run to the State House and back. It was going wonderfully. We stretched in the Christian Science Center grass, after I got my groove on real hard to Radiohead's "Bodysnatchers." Then we made our way down Boylston Steet. Some time after passing 500 Boylston, my right foot delivered the bad news. Bones rubbing together. Too much. Too hard. Too little cushion. And it frustrated me immensely because I had just slipped into the right running pattern. The rest of my body felt awesome and I was good to go. After a minute or two of suffering, I informed Cait of my pain, asking her if it would be OK to cut the run short. We turned at the Public Garden, hoping to make our way back to Mass Ave via Commonwealth. But my foot was too much to handle and I was forced to call it a night.

Imagine the frustration. I wanted to rage. I wanted to cry. If my foot does not get back in gear, then I physically can not run this marathon. And I don't even want to think about that this early in the game. I'm too excited about accomplishing this. But I also don't want to cause irreparable damage to my body. Yes, weight loss is fine. Muslces are acceptable. Sleeping better at night is also fine by me. But bone damage and the inability to walk comfortably is not really my beat.

So I'm going to do something I should have done days ago, when my toenails began to turn purple. I'm going to buy some new shoes immediately. Tomorrow morning, rather. No, they can't cure my arthritis, but they can improve the overall situation and hopefully provide some more support for my limbs. Please let this work out for me.

my tongue's the only muscle on my body that works harder than my heart

Let's consider this morning step 3. Step 1 was deciding to run the marathon. Step 2 was starting training. Step 3 is figuring our registration and actually applying to charities. Turns out this morning's registration was strictly for qualified runners, which Cait and I are not. But the good news is that applications for several of the charities were released so we had the opportunity to tap into those.

Step 2 has been the most interesting and challenging so far. Last night, the two of us took over one of Wentworth's quads where Cait busted out some of her old track exercises. It was good to mix up the jogging with some good old speed workouts. It was also nice to get in touch with some muscles that I don't usually use while running. We followed these exercises with some stairs, which will always freak me out a lot. I don't know what it is, but I always feel like I am going to go tumbling down stairs and land on my ankle. Maybe it's because I've done that several times before, particularly when I went to Westfield High School. Regardless, we got those stairs did then we cooled off. For whatever reason, my arms were killing me. This makes little sense because we did absolutely no arm exercises during any part of the workout. Weird. Then today I faced the scorching sun to pump out a 5.5 mile run along the Charles. It was nice to be surrounded by serious runners. One guy ran backwards faster than I run forward. Umm... And this other guy paced himself to me which made me feel pretty good about my speed. Mostly, everyone looked good and I felt great.

I would have felt better if I had appropriate runner attire on. This is something I need to remedy sooner rather than later. Fractions of my next pay check or two will need to be dedicated to expanding my running wardrobe. RIght now, I'm jogging in baggy T-shirts and this one pair of shorts that actually fits correctly. I need more shorts, spandex shirts, pants and basically anything that doesn't make me feel like I'm running in a pile of my own sweat. I also need some new sneakers. My feet have absolutely had it with my old ones. And by "had it," I mean that my toenails look like they're going to fall off any day now. Which would be inconvenient.

15 steps, then a sheer drop

Last night, I went to bed expecting to feel positively abominable this morning. Positively atrocious. So I stretched it out and prepared my mind for the worst. I woke up at 10 a.m. feeling just fine. Well, fine except for the fact that I had just endured a painfully realistic dream that one of my favorite guitarists died (turns out he's still alive and well). Absolutely no part of my body was sore. Not my legs, my arms, my neck, my anything.

This came as a shock because Cait and I worked it pretty hard last night. We ran from Northeastern, up Huntington Avenue and then up Massachusetts Avenue to the Mass Ave bridge where we stretched it out. Despite the brevity of this warm up, my heart rate was still all over the place. I blame the music. Remind me in the future to create a playlist with consistent upbeat jams. We then polished off a run to and from Harvard that clocked in at just under 8 miles total. This is the longest run I have done in quite some time and I paced us for such. I spaced out pretty hard to all of "Kid A" - OK, I skipped "Morning Bell," "Treefingers" and "How to Disappear Completely" - then tapped into the beginning of "In Rainbows." Maybe it's strange that I listen to Radiohead while running, but their music is exactly what I want to hear always so it only makes sense. And "Kid A" has this hypnotizing quality that makes it well-suited for longer runs. It was lovely.

And none of this is to say that I was not exhausted after the run. I certainly was. Cait and I downed some Vitamin Water like it was Jesus, while discussing our workout plan for the week. My legs felt like lead, but most of me was pretty excited to get my exercise on really hard over the next six days. Today is a rest day, despite both of us feeling totally fine after last night. Tomorrow we're going to do a shorter, quicker run and a lot of track exercises. Then I'm going to get up bright and early to see what kind of registration I can do on the marathon's website. I'm not sure if Wednesday's registration is strictly for qualified runners or if it includes those partaking in charity. Regardless, the applications for most of the charities will be released on or around that day so that should start getting exciting.

In other running news, Cait and I are hoping to partake in Northeastern's first "Big Dog 5K" along the Esplanade on September 20. I don't plan to be remotely competetive, since I'm sure there are tons of runners who have been running a lot more frequently and for a lot longer than I have, but I think it should be fun. It's considerably shorter than I'm used to running, which could be interesting or terrible. We'll see.

drove through ghosts to get here

The 8 mile run last night felt surprisingly good. In all honesty, I was expecting a struggle to make it any mile past mile number 4, but the run felt easy. Julie and I met up on campus, although there was some meet up location confusion. I should also mention that we met up for our run after 10 p.m. On a Sunday night. That's dedication right there.

We ran up to the Mass Ave bridge, which was about a mile out from out starting point and stopped to stretch it out. I always feel terrible while running the first mile. I had started getting into what I call the "warm zone." It's the point at which I finally feel like a runner and find my rhythm because my muscles are warm and loose. Once I got to that point last night, I went into autopilot mode and just kept the same pace the entire run. I felt like a running machine.

For the duration of the run, I listened to 65daysofstatic's One Time for All Time. I don't what it is about 65, but whenever I listen to them, my focus increases by a factor of at least 5. I usually listen to something upbeat (i.e. Girl Talk, almost exclusively), but I knew I needed to pace myself for this run. Turns out I chose correctly.

The last surprising thing about this run is that I'm not sore this morning. I have no doubt I will feel it tomorrow morning though. It's always the day after the day after.