Running Questions and Answers a.k.a. Get to Know Me Better

I’m following up on an idea from a blog post by TracyNicole at The Writing Runner. I have borrowed some of her questions and included some of my own as well, so thanks TracyNicole!

I know some of you have been following my blog for a while, and others may be new followers or maybe you just stumbled upon my blog and haven’t read a single other post by me. Regardless where you fall into those cases, I’m quite sure I’ve never addressed the questions I’m going to put here. So, I’m providing a bit of an insight into myself and encourage you guys to post comments about some or all of the questions that follow. It’s meant to be purely for fun, so let’s go!

When did you start running?

I ran on the track team in grade school for two years, fifth and sixth grade. I still remember running with some of my team mates on days so cold it made my lungs ache but I loved the feeling I got when I ran and pushed my body hard. When I started junior high school I decided not to run in school but just ran for fun on my own. I also didn’t run on the high school team but continued to run when I felt like it and this went on throughout college until I developed shin splints. After taking a few years off of running, I ran my first race as an adult when I finished graduate school and haven’t stopped since.

Not my first race by any means but I always liked this race photo for some reason

What do you consider to be the hardest distance to train for and/or race?

Hands-down the marathon is the hardest distance to train for. When I was training for the one and only marathon I ran, the Long Beach Marathon, I felt like the time it took to train was like having a part-time job. I was also injured with what seemed like one thing after another. Back then, I really had no idea what I was doing when it came to training for a marathon. I just followed some training plan I found online but I knew nothing really when it came to proper fueling, stretching, cross-training, or any of the other things that go along with long-distance running, even though I had run at least a few half marathons by that point.

I think the hardest distance to race is the 5k. The distance is just long enough that you can’t run all-out for the entire race but you can’t warm-up into it and speed up later like you can in a longer race like a half marathon. The 5k is an intimidating distance to me, even though I’ve run 46 half marathons, a marathon, a 10k, 15k, and 10 miler. I would rather race any of those other distances than a 5k.

Describe some of your favorite race courses.

One of my favorite races ever is the Spearfish Canyon Half Marathon in South Dakota. This course was downhill through a beautiful canyon surrounded by trees with water views along the way. I loved every second of the race. Not surprisingly, this was also my fastest half marathon to date. I also think the course for the Famous Potato Half Marathon in Idaho is one of my favorites. Similar to the race in South Dakota, this race in Idaho also began in a canyon and had several water views along the way. Apparently I really enjoy running races through canyons. That being said, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to run the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim and not in a million years the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim.

This photo from the race start of Spearfish Canyon Half Marathon doesn’t do it justice

Are/Were either of your parents runners or active in other sports?

Absolutely not. Both of my parents weren’t even the slightest bit interested in sports of any kind. My mom couldn’t and still can’t ride a bike or swim and never even went on regular walks. My dad had a physically demanding job with odd hours so when he was home (before my parents got divorced anyway), he was often sleeping or working on his car or tinkering on things around the house. I didn’t inherit the running bug from either of them!

What is one weird/unusual thing you do as a runner that most other runners don’t?

I’d rather run outside in the early evening during the summer when it’s 90 degrees than get up early to run before work even though it would be 20 degrees cooler. In other words, I’ll run in 90 degree weather over 70 degree weather if it means I don’t have to get up early. Crazy? Probably.

Do you have a bucket-list race?

Not really. Sort-of I guess. Since I’m only running half marathons in the US now (only 6 more states to go!), I’m pretty limited with my choices now to make sure I finish all 50 states. Once I’m done with all 50 states, I would like to run Seawheeze in Vancouver. I’ve been dying to go to Vancouver, I hear this is a fun race, and I love racecations, so I think this one would fit the bill perfectly.

What about you guys? Let me know some interesting running info about you! Feel free to answer some or all of the questions I’ve posted here.

Happy running!

Donna

 

 

 

 

Book Review- What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan

I first heard about this book while listening to the Another Mother Runner podcast about it, which you can find here. The co-host, Dimity McDowell said both she and her teenage daughter had read the book and she recommended that any parent with teenagers who might end up on an athletics team in college to read this book. Well, my teenage daughter is a runner now so I thought I should definitely read this book. Not to exclude the other co-host Adrienne Martini, who also had some helpful insight and comments of her own, having gone through depression herself and having written a book about it.

Author Kate Fagan is a sports writer for espnW, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine and was a college athlete herself. She doesn’t have children of her own, so she can’t write from a parent’s perspective, but she does write from a former college athlete’s perspective. Fagan interviewed Madison Holleran’s friends and family, read Maddy’s phone messages, emails, and social media feeds to try to perhaps portray a bigger picture of what might have happened to lead to the tragic death of Madison Holleran by suicide.

Right from the beginning, you know what you’re getting into by reading this book because you know how it ends. What you don’t know at the beginning is just how quickly things can turn from bad to worse to desperate in someone’s life, even when things appear fairly smooth on the surface. Despite telling her closest friends and family members she was not happy at the Ivy league University of Pennsylvania, no one could have predicted she was so completely out of hope that she would take her own life.

What stands out the most to me is the pressure kids have to face during college and for most of them, there is little to no professional help when they need it. When Madison sought help from counselors at college, she was given a lengthy wait time, which to me is unacceptable. More resources need to be available, especially for freshman or new students.

You may say pressure is nothing new; kids have always faced pressure in school that increases steadily through high school and peaks during college. True, pressure has always been there, but it does seem like the pressure kids are facing now is much greater than 20 years ago. All of this pressure results in anxiety and it seems like teens today are at an all-time high rate of anxiety. From the moment they enter middle school, they’re told they need to get good grades so they’ll get into AP and honors classes in high school, which they need to get accepted into “the best” colleges, then they need to excel in college to graduate with honors to get “good jobs.”

This is just the academic portion of the source of anxiety. When you add in athletics in college and how demanding the schedules are for college athletes, you have the perfect storm. Madison went from playing soccer, her self-professed true love in high school to running for University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship. She clearly missed playing soccer and wasn’t happy running at college partly because of the demanding schedule, to the extent that she typed a letter to her running coach explaining to him why she wanted to leave the team, and she brought her mother along for the meeting. However, her coach didn’t want to see her leave the team and ended up talking her into modifying her workouts but not leaving, to which she agreed.

Another aspect that Fagan covers thoroughly is social media and how it can downplay or mask negative feelings. For example, if I texted a friend that I had a bad day but then added in some silly emoticons, it might look like things weren’t really as bad as they were; the tone can easily be misinterpreted by the receiver. Tone is always difficult to portray electronically, whether through an email or text. Madison also was sure to always put up photos of herself and friends on Instagram that on the outside looked like everything was great.

So as a parent, what can we take away from this book? For starters, don’t assume you can just send your child off to college and everything will be wonderful- they’ll make friends, do well in their classes, and adjust easily. In fact, a majority of students that go away to college are woefully under-prepared both emotionally and physically. We aren’t doing our children any favors by doing their laundry for them all the time and never discussing difficult subjects with them. It’s the ultimate job of a parent to prepare their child to be an independent adult.

Keep the communication lines open, which you’ve hopefully done from the start with your child. Ask them how they feel about something rather than assuming how they feel. Make it clear that if they’re ever not happy about how things are going in their life, they should talk to someone about it, whether it’s a roommate, RA, counselor, friend, or family member. It should also be clear that if they want to transfer schools or drop out of a sport, that’s perfectly acceptable and while it’s a big decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly, it’s certainly a viable option.

When Madison mentioned to family members she wanted to transfer schools, she was told to wait it out just a little longer, but clearly she couldn’t wait any longer. I’m sure her family had no idea things were as dire as they were with Madison, and I think that’s a huge takeaway from the book. No one ever truly knows how another person is feeling. Maybe that’s the most important thing we all need to remind ourselves.

Did any of you play on a sports team in college and if so, what was your experience like? What about you guys with kids- do you tend to avoid “difficult” conversations with your teenagers? It’s tough, I know. Teenagers especially often become quiet or don’t want to talk about certain subjects with their parents, so it’s a fine line to walk as a parent to ask questions and get conversations going but not be so pushy you scare them away. Mental health is a subject many people shy away from talking about but it’s an important topic that needs to be discussed.

Happy running!

Donna

 

Book Review- Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Book by Alex Hutchinson

I’ll cut to the chase here. I absolutely LOVED this book! It’s hands-down one of my favorite running-related books I’ve read in a while. This isn’t just a book for runners, though. It’s a book for any kind of person who is interested in gaining some insight into how the brain influences our bodies when pushed to extreme conditions. Be forewarned, though. If you’re looking for a training manual to help you increase your endurance, this is not the book for that.

There are a lot of scientific references in this book but don’t let that scare you away if you normally don’t like a lot of “science talk.” I’m a scientist and perhaps part of the draw for me was all of the science, but I don’t think it’s too over-the-top for most people. There are plenty of anecdotes and stories told throughout the book to keep things interesting. For example, the backdrop of the entire book is the 2-hour marathon attempt (Breaking2 documentary can be watched here) which the author comes back to every few chapters and helps keep the story going.

The book itself is divided into three parts. In the first part “Mind and Muscle,” Hutchinson goes through the history of endurance research and the various theories used to explain it:  the “human machine” approach, Tim Noakes’ central governor theory, the psychobiological model by Samuele Marcora, and others. In the second part, “Limits,” he gives specific stories of people who have either intentionally or accidentally pushed or exceeded their limits in various ways such as pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, and fuel. Hutchinson vividly describes the experiences of polar explorers, Death Zone climbers, lost desert wanderers, and deep-sea freedivers among others as he looks for indications of which theories of endurance best fit the facts. In the third section, “Limit Breakers,” he explores various new approaches to expanding the apparent boundaries of endurance, ranging from mindfulness and brain training to electric brain stimulation, including accounts of his own experiences with some of them.

The last chapter of the book is about belief. The author states, “One of the key lessons I’ve taken away from writing Endure is that races aren’t just plumbing contests, measuring whose heart can deliver the most oxygen to their muscles. The reality is far more complex, and I think the first major post-Breaking2 marathon will be a great chance to see the “curious elasticity” of human limits in action.” Back to this chapter in a moment.

This book is 320 pages so it’s not a quick read. I found myself not wanting to put it down and I ended up staying up a bit later than usual sometimes when I read it before bed. Some of the stories are so engaging and thrilling, I found myself so engrossed that I just wanted to hear how the story ended before putting the book away for the night.

My take-away from the book is that we are capable of so much more than we realize. Sometimes our brain is just trying to protect us (if we’re running outside and it’s 90 degrees) but sometimes we have to take control and tell our brain that we CAN do this, whatever the current challenge is, even if it’s hard, or maybe especially if it’s hard. Positive self-talk is no secret and we’ve all heard how important it is for reaching our best effort, but we need to go beyond that if we want to push ourselves further.

I especially like one of the last pages of the chapter “Belief,” where the author states the following:  “This book isn’t a training manual. Still, it’s impossible to explore the nature of human limits without wondering about the best ways to transcend them. In the end, the most effective limit-changers are still the simplest-so simple that we’ve barely mentioned them. If you want to run faster, it’s hard to improve on the training haiku penned by Mayo Clinic physiologist Michael Joyner, the man whose 1991 journal paper foretold the two-hour-marathon chase:

Run a lot of miles

Some faster than your race pace

Rest once in a while”

Have any of you read this book? Are you interested in our brain’s involvement in pushing ourselves in any sport or activity? Do any of you have book recommendations for me?

Happy running!

Donna

Why I Love Trail Running and How it Can Make You a Faster Road Runner

I grew up in the southern part of West Virginia and since the Appalachian Mountains run through the entire state, pretty much the whole state is full of mountains, hills, and nature. I remember spending a lot of my childhood at state parks and walking on the trails with my mom, brother, or friends. My childhood friends and I would ride our bikes through trails and we would go for walks through the many wooded areas around where I grew up.

In other words, trails are nothing new for me. As an adult, I now live in North Carolina and have access to numerous trails near my home. If I get tired of the trails that are within walking distance of my house, I can always drive 30 minutes or less and get to many different trails at several different parks that I can run, walk, or ride my bike on. You should know when I say trails here, I mean everything from dirt trails that go past ponds, lakes, or creeks and have tree roots sticking out in random places to mulch-covered trails in wooded areas of parks that are less “technical.” I also run on asphalt trails, but that’s not what I’m referring to here.

About 2 or 3 years ago I decided to do more trail running and I have to say it did not go well. I was running along a very thin dirt trail that was lined with giant rocks on either side. From the beginning, I didn’t have a good feeling about running here and I should have listened to my gut but I kept going. After some time, I fell and hit my face just below my right eye on one of the rocks. Fortunately I didn’t hit my head or do major damage to myself but it did scare me and I had a nice scar on my right cheek for quite some time. I couldn’t help but think if that would have been just a fraction higher, that would have been my eye. I haven’t been running on that trail since then and I backed off running on other trails after that happened. I have to add that I recently had a pretty bad fall when I was running on an asphalt trail and I got bruised and cut up much worse on the asphalt trail than on this dirt trail.

Last year I began getting my courage back up to run on dirt trails and began incorporating about one trail run a week into my weekly runs. This year I’ve found myself running on trails or portions of trails about 2 or 3 times a week and I’ve gotten more comfortable running on trails. I’ve found trail running can be a great way to beat the heat, as they’re usually very shaded and feel several degrees cooler than running on the roadways.

A trail without much mulch but more gravel and dirt.

I also started noticing that when I would run on asphalt trails or on roads, my times seemed to be getting better; I have been getting faster. Maybe it was because I started a new training plan but maybe it was because I have been running on trails through the woods. Without changing where I run and not running on trails at all, there’s no way to know. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.

One of the mulch-covered trails I sometimes run on.

Don’t just take my word for it that trail running can make you a faster runner. Runner’s World has an article on this very topic that you can read here.  In addition to helping you increase your speed on roads, running on trails has many advantages such as helping to make your ankles and legs stronger, helping with balance, and helping to strengthen muscles that often get neglected with road running. Running on trails is also great for those runners such as myself that are over the age of 40 because the softer surface is easier on your joints.

If you’re a bit nervous about running on trails, you can gradually ease into it both in distance and trail difficulty. Find some nice wide trails near where you live that are pretty flat without big tree roots sticking out or big rocks on or along the trail and run there for a short run. Gradually increase how long you’re running on trails like this until you feel comfortable. Once this seems easy, branch out and try a bit hillier trails.

My daughter actually built and hung this bird house as part of a Girl Scout project in a park where I run trails!

Another thing you may be concerned about when running on trails is encountering wild animals. If you live in an area where there are bears or mountain lions or other large wild cats, I strongly suggest you run with a friend (or a few friends), a big dog if you have one, and talk to other runners in the area about where the safest trails are. Fortunately for me, snakes are the worst I have seen on a trail when running. Last weekend in fact, I came across what looked like a juvenile copperhead snake crossing over the path. One time I remember seeing a giant black snake lying across the trail and it wasn’t moving in either direction. I certainly wasn’t going to jump over it even it was a nonpoisonous snake, so I just waited for it to slither off the path before continuing on my way. Generally if you leave snakes alone, they will leave you alone.

The funny part of all of this is, I’ve never run a race on a trail. The closest I ever came to a trail race is when I ran a race on loose gravel and dirt along a river in Nevada. It was perfectly flat and more what I would call a small dirt road than a trail. The race was one of my least favorites, though, because it was so hot, not scenic at all in my opinion, and I was just ready to be done with that race. You can read about the Laughlin Half Marathon in Nevada my 11th state of my quest for a half marathon in all 50 states. Not that I’m necessarily planning on running a trail race but I guess you never know. It seems like most races on trails are ultras and believe me, I have no intention of running one of those!

Do any of you run on trails but consider yourself a road racer? Have any of you run a trail race and if so which ones are your favorites?

Happy running!

Donna

 

 

5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before My First Half Marathon

I was extremely naive when I ran my first half marathon. While I wasn’t new to running, I was most definitely new to long distance running. I feel like I have been running since I could as a child. The only time I took time off from running was during college when I experienced the worst shin splints of my life and had to practically crawl home during a run. I decided to take some time off to heal and for whatever reason (most likely school and studying) that time off stretched into years. Finally after I had finished graduate school, gotten married, and moved to a new state, I began running again.

When I began running again in my mid-20’s, I tried to do things “the right way.” I began to gradually increase my distance, first running a 5k, then a 10k, a 10-miler, and a 15k (although I don’t think the races after the 5k were necessarily in that order). When I took the plunge and ran my first half marathon, I felt pretty well-prepared. Pretty much the only factor during the race that really threw me for a loop was the weather. The race was on the coast of North Carolina in late November and it was cold and rainy, which turned to snow eventually. By the end of the race, I was frozen to the bone, but hungry for more.

The weather that day was extremely unusual for the area so I was counting on that not happening again the following year. I knew if I could do as well as I did at my first half marathon, I could do even better the next year. You can read about my first half marathon here. It’s the only half marathon I’ve ever ran more than once. Since then I’ve finished 43 half marathons in 41 states (I ran three half marathons in North Carolina).

Not my first half marathon, but one of my first ones. What the heck was I thinking not pulling my hair up into a ponytail?! And no hat/visor/sunglasses?!

Many things have changed over the years in the field of long distance running. Some fads have come and gone but mostly we’ve been given more options from everything like what to fuel with to apparel and shoes. When I was training for my first half marathon, there wasn’t this multitude of options for fueling before, during, and after running. There pretty much was Gatorade or Powerade. There was no Nuun, Tailwind, or Honey Stinger. This brings me to the first thing I wish I had known before my first half marathon.

1. Try out some snacks on training runs to make sure your stomach and gut agree with them. Now I run with Nuun hydration and snacks on all of my long runs including my half marathons but back then I just drank and ate whatever was offered on the course. Maybe some people are fine doing this, but if you have a finicky stomach like I do, it’s not a good idea. I also love Honey Stinger waffles for a pre-run snack and haven’t had any gut issues after eating them but experiment to see what works for you.

My running belt and tube of Nuun for a recent race

2.  Don’t get caught up in the excitement of the race and start out at a pace you can’t maintain for more than a few miles or so. People hear this one all the time, and yet they continue to do it. It’s tough to make your legs go slower than they want to in the beginning of a race, but they’ll thank you later for it.

3.  Don’t let it get to you when you see older people or people that look like they’re not in as good of shape as you pass you. I eventually learned this one. When it comes to runners, you can’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve been passed by runners of all shapes, sizes, and ages during races. Sometimes I’ve been able to pass them towards the final miles of the race when they were walking, but sometimes I never saw them again and they left me in the dust. That’s OK.

4.  Wear what you’re going to run the half marathon in during your long training runs. Just because a sports bra/socks/shorts/shirt doesn’t rub and chafe you on shorter training runs doesn’t mean it won’t cause chafing on 13.1 miles. I always wince when I see people running in the shirt they just got at packet pickup. I was pretty badly chafed by my sports bra after my first half marathon, most likely because I hadn’t worn it enough in long training runs to know how it would perform on race day.

5.  Do some push-ups and other arm exercises to strengthen your arms and shoulders as part of your half marathon training plan. I didn’t do this and could barely lift my arms over my head after my first half marathon. I had no idea my arms would be the most sore part of my body after running a half marathon, but they were. Since then I appreciate how hard my arms work during a race and have made sure I work on them in addition to my core and legs.

What about you guys?  What things about long distance running have you learned the hard way and wish someone would have told you?

Happy running!

Donna

 

My New Half Marathon Plan-How It’s Going and a Whole Lotta Shoe Problems

It doesn’t seem like it, but I’m on week 10 of my new half marathon training plan for my 44th half marathon in state number 42, which means I’m in the nitty-gritty of all things running. I wrote a post about my new plan a while back, which you can read here. It’s very different from the training plan I had been following for my past several half marathons.

Previously, my plan was more of a run less, run harder kind of plan, with three runs a week consisting of a hill or tempo run, a speedwork run, and a long run. I also cycled, lifted weights, did yoga, and did core work so I was doing some sort of exercise 7 days a week. It worked fine for years but I felt like I was in a rut and needed to shake things up a bit. Now, I’m running five days a week, cycling one day, lifting one day, doing yoga once a week, and doing core work when I can fit it in. My runs now consist of a distance run usually around 35-45 minutes plus six 20-second strides twice a week, a tempo run, a fartlek run, and a long run that maxes out at 13-14 miles (runner’s choice).

So far the only running-related issues I’ve had have been shoe-related issues. For a couple of weeks I started having extreme calf pain about 20 minutes into my runs. I would stop and stretch but that did nothing to relieve the pain. Massaging my calves helped but not completely. After about 25 or 30 minutes of running, my right foot would go numb until I couldn’t feel it at all. The only thing that would bring feeling back to my foot was when I stopped running. Not good.

Running in my Topo Fli-Lyte shoes before I knew they were evil

My first thought was the lacing on my running shoes needed to be re-done. Years ago the top of my left foot (I think it was my left anyway) would go numb and I figured out if I laced my running shoes differently, basically skipping the criss-cross pattern over the top middle part of my foot, that would solve the problem. I tried that this time to no avail. My foot was still falling asleep when I ran.

Then I thought maybe it’s just tight calf muscles. I had an appointment with my massage therapist and had her work extra long on my calf muscles and discovered that my right hamstring was about as tight as it’s ever been. She was able to completely get all of the tightness out of my hamstring and both calves- yes, she’s a miracle worker. When I ran the next day, my right calf tightened up again and my foot went numb. Sigh.

OK. Maybe it’s my shoes. I run with two pairs of running shoes, alternating them between runs. The problem is, I would have a tight calf and numb foot with both pairs of shoes so then I thought it must be BOTH pairs of my running shoes. Really? I bought them both just a couple of months ago so they weren’t that old, but maybe it is both pairs of shoes that’s the problem, I thought.

Fortunately I still had my Newton running shoes from last summer and fall. I never had any kind of calf tightness or foot numbness with my Newtons. I had been wearing my Newtons to the gym for lifting weights and things like that but they were down-graded to gym shoes because they had plenty of mileage on them. Last weekend I ran 13 miles in my Newtons and never had any problems with my calf or my foot, which told me it’s definitely my shoes.

I started thinking about my shoes, though. My Newtons have a heel-toe offset of 5 mm, which means since the height of the heel is 27mm and the height of the forefoot is 22 mm, the difference is 5 mm. Of the two pairs of new shoes I have, my On Cloud shoes have a heel-toe offset of 6 mm, with a heel height of 24 mm and forefoot height of 18 mm; however, my Topo Fli-Lyte shoes have a smaller heel-toe offset, of only 3 mm, with a heel height of 18 and forefoot height of 15 mm. Clearly, the Topo shoes have far less cushioning and heel-toe offset than either my Newtons or Ons. Maybe it’s just the Topos and my calf and foot hadn’t had enough time away from the Topos to recover. Either way, I couldn’t keep running in my old pair of Newtons so it was time to shop around for a new pair of shoes.

Apparently the current “standard” heel-toe offset is around 10 mm, meaning the heel height is around 10 mm higher than the forefoot height. The idea is there will be less stress and strain on your Achilles and calf muscles with a 10 mm heel-toe offset. I used to run for many years in Asics Nimbus shoes with absolutely zero problems with my calves or Achilles. I looked up heel-toe offset for Asics Nimbus, and lo and behold, they come in at 13 mm, actually 3 mm more than the men’s version. According to the Asics website, this additional 3 mm is to help relieve Achilles tension, which apparently women are more prone to than men.

I decided to buy a pair of Asics, though not Nimbus, with a heel-toe offset of 10 mm. I tested them out with a 40 minute run and didn’t have any calf tightness or foot numbness. The next day, I took a chance and went for a 45 minute run wearing my Ons and again, no calf tightness or foot numbness. Now finally I know- it’s the Topos causing all the problems. I had gone down too low of a heel-toe offset and my calf and Achilles were screaming at me for it. Lesson learned, more minimalist shoes (i.e. less cushioning and lower heel-toe offset) are not for everyone and certainly are not for me.

So now I just have to crank out a few more weeks’ worth of runs to get through this training plan before my next half marathon. I’m just glad I figured out all of my shoe issues before I did some real damage to my Achilles!

What are you all training for? How’s everything going with your training plan?

Happy running!

Donna

 

 

All the Ways I Recover from Running

It seems like the topic of recovery after a running or workout session has come up a lot lately in many different places from blogs to social media. As a 40-something runner, recovery has become more important to me over the years. When I was in my 20’s I don’t think I ever stretched and I know for sure I never used a foam roller or did any yoga.

Over the years, I also seemed to be plagued by running injuries, too. When I was an undergraduate in college I had shin splints that almost stopped me running completely, they were so painful. After picking running back up after a few years off, I had little aches and pains and minor running problems over the years but fortunately nothing serious.

My daughter and me after going for a hilly run in the Canary Islands recently

One of the worst for me was struggling with a tight IT (iliotibial) band; this was around the time I started seeing a massage therapist regularly, which is one of the ways I recover from running (regular massage therapy). Massage therapy helps me to get rid of the knots and tight muscles that would otherwise continue to get worse and no doubt cause more serious issues. I get a deep tissue massage once a month and it’s one of the biggest reasons why I continue to run mostly pain-free.

I don’t remember exactly when I started going to the yoga class at my gym but I do know I was in my early 30’s. I had talked to some other runners who recommended yoga to me, so I naively went, not really knowing what to expect honestly. Over the years I’ve been a member of 3 or 4 gyms and have had probably around 10 different yoga instructors at these gyms. Yoga has undoubtedly kept my hamstrings and hips from just bunching into tight balls and refusing to do what I want them to do. I truly believe everyone would benefit from doing yoga once a week, whether you’re a runner or not. Believe me when I say not all yoga instructors are created the same, so if you go to a class and don’t care for it, try a different instructor and see if that changes your mind or try watching a show or DVD and doing it at home.

The foam roller and I have a love-hate relationship. I love how it loosens my tight IT bands, calves, quads, and hamstrings but I hate how painful it can be, especially on my IT bands. Nonetheless, I use my foam roller religiously after every run and have done so for years after my aforementioned problems with my IT band began in my 30’s. I also stretch my hamstrings and legs after a run, and have found it works best to stretch first then use the foam roller.

My trusty foam roller after a recent run fueled by Honey Stinger and nuun

Another way I recover from a run is by refueling my body with carbs and protein. After reading Roar by Stacy Sims (you can see my book review here) I began to make sure I consume plenty of protein along with carbs after a run. In the book, Dr. Sims recommends women should take in protein high in leucine before exercise and within 30 minutes of  exercising to help maintain muscle especially when hormone levels are high.

The final and most important thing I do to recover from the stresses of running is making sure I get plenty of sleep. I think getting enough restful sleep is hugely important for everyone, whether you’re a runner, cyclist, swimmer, or if you never exercise; we all need to get enough sleep every night. Our muscles repair when we’re not working them so we need to make sure they have plenty of time for that. I think probably everyone understands the importance of getting enough sleep but a lot of people underestimate just how much sleep they need and don’t make sleep a high priority in their busy lives.

My puppy sleeping

What about you guys? I’m sure I probably left something out. How do you recover from running or exercise?

Happy running!

Donna

 

Sometimes You Fall

Last weekend when I left to go out for my 10 mile run, I felt great! My legs felt good, I felt pretty well-rested, and the weather was absolutely perfect. I was ready! I had gone about a half mile down an asphalt pedestrian trail I’ve probably walked/ran/cycled about 100 times and then I fell. Hard.

I have absolutely no recollection of tripping but I assume that’s what happened. It felt like someone was literally pushing me forwards presumably because of the momentum I had going while running. I tried to pull back when I started to fall but couldn’t so I skidded along the asphalt about 5 or 6 feet until I finally rolled onto my shoulder, thinking that would stop me, and it did. Instinctively, I didn’t want to fall on my hands but I didn’t know how else to stop other than rolling.

There was a nice couple walking their dog who came to my rescue. They asked if I was OK, and handed me one of my water bottles still full of nuun that had flown out of my hydration belt. I was a little stunned, because like I said, I really don’t remember tripping, but I stammered something like I would eventually be OK, and I thanked them after they also handed me my sunglasses that had flown off me as well.

I assessed the damage and realized nothing seemed broken at least. My shoulder felt like I had just ran full speed into a giant tree or something and it was rubbed raw and was bleeding. Both hands were bleeding on the fronts and backs. My left knee was gushing blood and my right thigh and right forearm were scraped but not bleeding.

In a daze, I walked the half mile home where I washed all of my cuts and scrapes (OUCH!), put on antiseptic cream and tons of Band-Aids, took a couple of Tylenol, and iced my shoulder and knee. After about 20-30 minutes I decided to go back out to finish my run. My thought process was I was probably going to just feel more sore the next day so if I waited to run then it would most likely be even more painful than if I just sucked it up and went back out then.

Surprisingly, I had a fairly good run when I went back out the second time that day. My times were pretty good and I felt pretty good overall (albeit sore from the fall). I’ll admit, I was a little tentative about falling again when I first started back out, and I decided not to go back the way I was originally going to run, which has cracks, gaps, and bumps all over the asphalt trail. I knew I would have to face that demon again eventually, I just didn’t want to do it quite so soon.

While I was out running I started thinking how sometimes it’s almost good to go through things like this when we’re training for a race (I’m running a half marathon in May). It shows me that if this happens during a race, unless it’s more serious, I can continue running and everything will be OK. A couple of weeks ago it was cold and misting light rain when I was supposed to run 40 minutes. I didn’t have the option of waiting until later that evening to run so I went out and realized it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was.

Although it’s not always been the case, usually I end up feeling pretty good at the end of a run, even if I didn’t feel so great in the beginning, or the weather was crappy so I dreaded running in it. The old saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” definitely seems true in the case of runners. I think this applies to the emotional and mental aspect of running as much if not more so than the physical aspect of running.

Have any of you had a bad fall when running? What happened? Did you feel like it made you a (mentally) stronger runner afterwards?

Happy running!

Donna

 

 

Dipping My Toes into Heart Rate Training

Many years ago I bought a Polar running watch with a chest-strap heart rate monitor. Honestly, I was new to running and really didn’t get much out of the whole experience. I think this is common to new runners, and for good reason. Heart rate training is complicated!

Recently, I decided to try heart rate training again. My TomTom running watch suddenly stopped working so I had to buy a new running watch. I decided to buy a Garmin and bought a slightly older model through Amazon, the Garmin 630 with heart rate monitor (a chest strap versus wrist-based). I opted for this model because I feel like chest straps are more accurate than wrist-based. You can read a whole article just about chest straps versus wrist-based heart rate monitors here. They both have their pros and cons. Knowing I never had any problems with my Polar chest strap before (as far as chafing, etc.) I didn’t think wearing one now would be an issue.

Ok. So now you have your heart rate monitor, whether it’s wrist-based or a chest strap. Now what? To begin, you’re supposed to take your resting heart rate. That’s the easy part. Then it gets much more complicated. Unless you can afford a stress test, by far the most accurate way of getting baseline numbers for heart rate, it’s all kind of a guess from there.

There are calculations for determining your maximum heart rate, heart rate reserve, aerobic heart rate range, aerobic training range, anaerobic training range, recovery training range, and lactate threshold zone. Have I lost you yet? Runners Connect has some pretty good info on getting started with calculating resting and maximum heart rate here and there’s more info on Active.com for calculating heart rate training zones here. I’ve also seen the calculation Maximal Heart Rate (MHR) = 206.9 – (0.67 x Age). If I do the calculations for myself using the three suggestions, the final way of calculating MHR is right in the middle, so I’m going with that one.

Depending on the type of workout you’re doing, you want to focus on keeping your heart rate within a particular range. For example, if you’re doing a recovery run, or an “easy” run, you should try to keep your heart rate within the recovery training range. If you’re doing speed work, you should try to stay within the anaerobic training range. This is high intensity, where you can only sustain that pace for a couple of minutes at the most, and not where you want to spend the majority of your training, or you’ll just wear yourself down.

As my title states, I’m just dipping my toes in at this point. By no means am I an expert on heart rate training. At this point, I’m exploring heart rate training, educating myself, and trying to use it to supplement what I’m already doing. I didn’t have a stress test so my numbers are a best guess. If I start to stray over my targeted maximum heart rate, I’ll back off a bit to get my heart rate to go back down a bit. I try to stay within my recovery training range on easy runs, and let me tell you initially it feels like you’re just crawling! My hope is that eventually my body will adapt and I’ll be able to go faster without my heart rate going crazy. We’ll see. I’ll try to keep you all updated after some time has passed.

Do any of you do heart rate training? What methods do you use? How did you figure out your target heart rate ranges? I’d love to hear any and all comments!

Happy running!

Donna

 

 

 

Shaking Things Up a Bit

Last winter when I was training for a half marathon in Utah in February and I had to run my peak miles during some of the worst weather where I live in North Carolina, I was cursing my choice of a race in February and vowed to not make that mistake again. If you want to read about my race in Utah, the Dogtown Half Marathon, you can find it here. For those of you that aren’t aware, I’m running a half marathon in all 50 United States and ran my 41st state in West Virginia last November, the Marshall University Half Marathon.

I should state that my husband and daughter always go to races with me and since my daughter is in middle school now, I plan my races around her school schedule. She’s currently in a year-round school, which means she’s basically in school for nine weeks and out for three weeks throughout the year. One of her current breaks is during February, hence my decision to run a half marathon in February last year. I’ve ran all of the southern states except New Mexico, if you consider that a southern state, and I refuse to run in a state like Minnesota or Nebraska in February.  Call me crazy or call me a wimp, but I’m done running races in February and all other winter months for that matter.

Photo taken last January. For a southern gal like me, this isn’t good running weather!

This all means I’ll go from running a race last November to my next one which isn’t until May. That’s a pretty long time to go in-between races, but that’s the way it’s going to be as long as my daughter has this school schedule. When she’s in high school, she will no longer be in year-round school, so I’ll have the option of running during the early spring again, as long as I can find a race during her spring break, which should be possible.

Sooooo, what have I been doing during this long break between training plans? Well, I’ve still been running to keep up my fitness level, but it’s been more “run for fun” kind of thing. I haven’t been doing any speed work of any real kind although I’ve done a little bit of playing around with increasing my speed on some treadmill runs and doing some sprinting here and there. I’ve also bought some new shoes in preparation when I do start my next training plan next month.

As I mentioned in a post last year, I tried some new shoes in a completely different brand and style than I had ever ran in before and that worked out well for me. They were Newtons and while I definitely like them, my next pair of new shoes aren’t Newtons. See, for years I had been running in Asics Gel Nimbus shoes and really liked them so I kept buying them for many years. However, after reading Jonathan Beverly’s book, “Runner’s World Your Best Stride: How to Optimize Your Natural Running Form to Run Easier, Farther, and Faster–With Fewer Injuries,” I began to re-think some things. My full post on Beverly’s book can be found here.

For 2018, I plan on incorporating more of the concepts from Beverly’s book such as not always wearing the same shoes, not always running on the same routes, not always doing the same stretches, etc.. In other words, shake things up a bit. I know many runners have the mentality, ‘if it ain’t broke, why fix it’ but for me, I think I need to mix things up. My 20-something and even 30-something body didn’t need much variety and got by just fine without switching things up, but I feel like my 40-something body needs variety if I intend on running forever (which I do).

My last few years-worth of training plans have been the same, namely running three days a week, cross-training twice a week including cycling and yoga, strength training one day and core work one day. On the days where I ran, there were no easy runs but every run was either a tempo run, hill repeats, speed work, or long run. This next training plan I will start in a few weeks includes running five days a week, so I’ll have to double-up and go to yoga class for example after running earlier in the day to fit it all in. My plan is to at least try it and if it’s too much for my body (i.e. if I’m getting injuries) I’ll cut back to four days a week and try that.

Wish me luck! How often do you guys shake things up with your running?

Happy running!

Donna