7 things I’ve learned about running

A recent article prompted me to think about what I’ve learned about and while running… and it boils down to 7 things:

1. I always feel better after a run than beforehand – Regardless of whether I’ve had a good run or a bad one, this is always true.  If I’ve had a bad run (hard time getting going, not breathing right, out of rhythm, sucky weather, etc), just the fact that I went out and did it anyway makes me feel better.  And if I’ve had a good run, it’s the cherry on top of the whipped cream.  It is a weird feeling, that good warm sensation that comes after a run, but it always happens.  And ultimately, when I’m feeling lethargic about getting out there, knowing that I’m going to get that feeling it’s what gets me out there to run.
2. Pay attention aches and pains  – Certain aches and pains need to be reckoned with, while others can be ignored.  The ones affecting my ankles, knees, and certain muscles (like my hamstring and calves) are the ones that I especially pay attention to.  Why?  Because I want to make sure that I can run again tomorrow.  Running “through the pain” can be counterproductive (unwarranted damage that will take much longer to heal).
3. Breathing really helps – Or put more correctly:  “breathing properly” really helps….  If I’m not breathing smoothly I simply don’t run well and I wind up having a shitty run.  I wind up struggling for the entire period and simply never get to the point where I feel I’m able to enjoy the experience.  But if I can manage my breathing and get into a nice rhythm, I almost always will have a great run.
4. Thin layers are the way to go – With summer nothing but a memory, I’ve learned how to dress for different cold/cool weather conditions and “thin” layers are the way to go.  No more sweat shirts or hoodies, at least for now (I’m sure that there will be a cold blustery day when I’ll go out with a hoodie….).   But the point of the thin layers is that: a) they are light weight, and b) each layer traps heat.  And then as I or the day warm up, I can lose a layer and easily carry it.  For example, aside from almost always wearing full length stretchy pants when it’s below 40 degrees, for mid to high 30’s I might wear two long sleeve layers.  If it is definitely in the high 30’s, I’ll do a long sleeve and a short sleeve layer.  Between 20 and 30 degrees, I’ll go with three layers, and perhaps top it with a windbreaker.  The wind can be a killer, and will make a big difference in the “feels-like” temperature – thus the windbreaker.  I’ve also learned to wear a skull cap – I lose a lot of heat up there.  I haven’t tried running when it’s below 20, but I’m sure I will soon.
5. Don’t go for a distance run without having fueled up beforehand – I did it once and I won’t do it again.  I had intended to do a very reasonable 6-8 mile jaunt, but events in the morning got away from me causing me to not start my run until almost noon.  At that point my only nutrition was 2-3 cups of coffee since 6-ishAM.  Realizing that, I sucked down a pack of GU and took off, only to feel the effects of not having any juice left to run literally just 3 miles out …. Fortunately, I had another pack of GU with me and I managed to stumble home.  Bottom line:  If I’m going to do more than 4 miles, I make sure that I get some fuel in me at least 2 hours beforehand.
6. Shoes make a big difference – It really is all about the shoes.  If your feet don’t feel just right, your ankles, knees, hips and all the associated muscles, tendons, and ligaments won’t work right.  It’s so worth the $100 for good shoes and so worth trying different brands and models.  Good sox too (no cheepies...).
7. I don’t always need to run with music – Oddly enough, sometimes I find that I get more pleasure out of my run by just running and listening to myself.  I wind up listening to the cadence of my steps and my breathing and letting my mind wander.  It is definitely a different running experience.  I get why the hardcore runners don’t run with iPods… But on the other hand,  I really like listening to my music.

There are more, but these'll do for now....

January running (it's like Spring!)

Quick notes:

• January and very un-winterish weather. Little or no snow, and not that cold.
• Working up weekly mileage, up to 20 miles per week for two weeks in a row.
• Stretching, massaging, and icing my left ankle regularly after each run. The ankle is feeling good.
• Focused on building my endurance.
• Signed up for the Ann Arbor Marathon, June 17. Not crazy about the course, but it's a hometown event, and I should give it a go. Actually, I think that it will be pretty hard for me - the course has some hills. In comparison, the Chicago Marathon was a pretty flat run, so this will be interesting. The other downer is that it could be, will likely be, hot. So I'm not counting on a PB.

More later.

Recovering

Five weeks to the day that I stopped running I finally felt that my ankle was strong enough to venture out for a short one and a half mile run.  And I felt great - my ankle not so much, but the rest of me was in heaven.  Actually, the ankle was ok through most of it, but towards the last half mile I could feel some soreness coming on.  I tried to run easy, thinking of a 10+min/mile pace, but for the 4 runs that I've gotten in I have averaged sub-9 min/miles.  And I wasn't even really trying.

One thing that I've noticed is that my overall endurance is off - I'm tired....  My legs feel strong, but it's like my body itself is flat out tired after a run.  Which makes sense:  my cardio work outs have been substantially less aggressive, so my overall endurance levels will be off.  I'll need to build that back up.

After every run I've immediately applied ice to my ankle for 15-20 minutes, and then after my shower a light massage to keep things loose.  Every morning do a stretch routine.

As of this morning, after 4 runs in 5 days, including 3 good miles yesterday, my ankle feels pretty good.  Today will be a rest day, and I'll follow it with a 3, 4, rest, and then 5 mile routine.  I'd like to be up to 8 miles next week.

Peroneal Tendon injury

Somehow or another I have stressed/injured the Peroneal Tendon on my left foot. It turns out that there are two Peroneal Tendons (Peroneus brevis and Peroneus longus, i.e. one short, one long). These tendons run from my lower calf muscle (I'm confused about which muscle exactly) along the outer edge of my left ankle, under the ankle bone (that part that protrudes out from your foot), ultimately connecting the calf muscle to bones in the ankle itself.

The pain in my ankle is directly below that outer ankle bone that protrudes out from the ankle and to some degree, tender along the back of my lower calf/ankle area.  But I don’t remember an event (like tripping, slipping,  or stepping on or through an uneven surface that would have caused the injury.  I just remember that it started to hurt some hours after running (never during) and especially the day after. And it hurts enough for me to not run for a while.

So, in doing some research I found what it was that was hurting me (the Peroneal Tendon) and the standard therapy is simply rest, as in "don't walk, run, stand.."  Obviously very impractical.  Nonsteroidal anti-inflamatory drugs, aka NSAID’s, such as ibuprofen seem to help, but I tend to try not to use it during the day since I worry that it will mask the discomfort, leading me to overstress the injury – so, when I use ibuprofen I’ll do so at  night.   But the bottom line is that I am forced to ease up (as in “not run”) for a while.

(I found this image at http://footphysicians.com/footankleinfo/peroneal-tendon.htm)

The tough part is that I don’t know for how long I need to ease up for.  I’ve read reports ranging from a week to 3 months (that won’t do….).  As long as it hurts, I’m definitely not running.  I posted the question on the active.com/community forum, and although its gotten a lot of hits, no one has ventured an opinion yet.

In the meantime I’m occasionally wrapping and massaging my ankle, along with some gentle stretching.  Icing doesn’t seem to help, but the use of a pressure wrap makes it feel much better.  I’m hoping for a quick recovery – too much good stuff to eat and drink during the holidays and besides, I really miss being out there…

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An “Iron Turkey” run

A local running store (Tortoise and Hare -  http://tortoiseandhare.com/) sponsored a Thanksgiving Day/Veterans Day run this past weekend at a local metropark and offered up a 5K and a 10K race (www.a2turkeytrot.com).  But to make things interesting, they staggered the starts so that runners could run the 5K race and then line up to run the 10K event as well, and if you completed both events you would be awarded an “Iron Turkey” race medal (and be the envy of the running community….).   So naturally, I had to sign up for this.

I figured that since I was probably going to run 8 or nine miles on that day anyway, I may as well contribute an entry fee for a good cause (a couple of different veterans organizations), and get another t-shirt.  And it was fun.

The way it worked is that the 5K started at 9AM and the 10K would start an hour later.  Out of the 1400 or so people that signed up for either the 5K or 10K event, only about 300 ran both events (which kind of surprised me….).   I planned on running an easy but aggressive (now there is an oxymoron) 5K, finishing somewhere between 27 and 30 minutes.   That would give me 30 minutes to rest a bit before lining up for the 10K, which I would want to run a bit harder.

I wound up doing the 5K in 27:13 (a 8:47 min/mile pace).  I then did the 10K in 52:27 (a 8:28 min/mile pace) and I was really happy with that.  I was hoping for less than 52 minutes, but it didn’t happen (I got a little screwed up with my timing and made a math mistake while calculating my pace during the run).   Overall, for the “Iron Turkey” I was 99 out of 304.  Separately in both the 5K and the 10K I managed to be in the top third overall.

I am still very frustrated with regards to speed and my inability to place higher in my age group.  For the 10K I placed 13 out of 35 runners (in the 50-54 age group) – which is ok I guess, but for comparison, the top three positions in that age group were 53, 53, and 51 years old respectively and they all ran 6:xx min/mile.  They literally finished 10+ minutes ahead of me.  How do they get to be so fast?

In conversation with a guy who came in first in the 55-59 age group in the 5K event, he explained to me that many of the guys in our generation era were high school track runners, and so they learned at an early age the subtleties of running fast.  His advice to me was to stay healthy and continue to work on speed, but most importantly: stay healthy.

The only thing of particular note that happened during either event occurred during the 5K.  Around Mile 2 there was a guy coming up behind me that seemed to be yelling at people.  First I need to explain that the race was along a park path, which given the number of participants, was somewhat narrow (10 feet wide) and sometimes in order to pass slower runners it was necessary to run on the dirt or grass – no biggie – in fact I took to running on the grass when possible since it was softer than the asphalt.  But this guy coming up behind me was yelling at people to get out of his way as he passed them and clearly did not want to run off the path. He was huffing and puffing and being, in general, just a nasty asshole.   My first inclination was to not let this bonehead pass me – I had the juice – but I decided to continue to run my race plan.  As this guy came abreast of me I asked him why he had to be such a rude  asshole – and he just sort of looked at me like I had 2 heads and huffed and puffed his way past me.

I kept my eye on him, and as we got closer to the finish line I was speeding up, and so he never really got that far ahead of me.  On the final straight stretch I finally decided that enough was enough; I dug deep and I went into a full out sprint, running as hard as I could for the finish line.  I passed him about 30 feet from the finish line and whispered something like “see ya” and finished ahead of him.  He was huffing and puffing so hard I’m not sure that he even noticed me, but after the finish, as we were all milling around, he kept looking at me funny and I just let him be.  I was tempted to go over and talk to him, but didn’t….  perhaps a missed opportunity for something. 

Unfortunately, my right knee and left ankle are bothering me – and it bugs me because I don’t really know why.  I’ll baby them for a day or two.  In the meantime, I need to find a new event to run!

Arb hills

I decided to do some hill repeats at the “Arb” (a public park with some good trails) yesterday.  I had about a mile plus run from a parking lot to the Arb and tackled one of the better hills in the park.  There are steeper trails, but I picked one that had about a 5-6% slope that runs about .65 of a mile.  I had already decided that I would do at least two repeats, and that three would be a homerun.  So naturally I had to do three, although as I was working on my second one I was thinking that I had had enough of that fun.  But I did all three up and downs and obviously felt heroic about it (you know – the mind over matter thing). 

After coming back down and during the first quarter mile of the mile and a half run back to my truck I was so tired and remember thinking “ok, this is supposed to be fun?”  and I forced myself to look at the trees and listen to the birds and such (I wasn’t listening to music on this run), but it was still hard.  By the time I got to the paved trail with about ¾ of a mile to go I had somehow gotten myself to run faster and faster, to the point where I was running a sustained 7 min/mile pace (awesome for me) and I remember thinking “now this is fun…”.  It was hard, but it was somehow really fun.

Post Chicago Marathon…

Now that the marathon is over I’m going over thoughts of “what did I learn” and “what am I going to do now”.  With regards to the “what am I going to do now”, the weird thing is that I almost feel compelled to find another race/event to run near term, but my choices, unless I am ok with traveling, are somewhat sparse.  Regarding “what did I learn”:  lots.

One of the biggest things I learned was that doubt was ok and that once in the moment I have tremendous reserves for reaching my goal.  Doubt just made me think more about how to accomplish the objective.  And perhaps “doubt” is the wrong word; perhaps “concern” or “anticipation” might be more appropriate.  I never assumed that I could accomplish the goal, although I was always confident that I could. At the starting line at Chicago I was certainly confident that I would finish the race, but was also aware that there were at least two things that could derail my attempt (cramps and my hamstring issue) – plus there was always the unknowns things that might happen, none of which I will mention for fear of bad karma….  I did not “doubt” that I would finish, but I might have been concerned or held some level of anticipation.

Another big thing was that strength and endurance are critical.  I wish that I had been able to get at least one more 20+ mile run in along with several 16-18 milers.  I’m beginning to believe that the (limited?) conditioning of my calf, hams, and quads were part of my cramping issues.  I’ve done a lot of reading and asking experienced runners regarding cramping and I’m reaching the conclusion that, at least in my case, that my cramping is due to both electrolyte imbalances and muscle conditioning.  The net result of that is that: a) I have to pay very careful attention to my nutrient intake on long runs, b) I need to super-condition my legs (put more long distance runs in prior to a long event), and c) make sure that I vary my stride during a run.   That last item was insight from a 55+ woman, a multi-marathoner, who happened to mention that she varied her stride during long runs in order to fully stretch out her calves, hams, and quads.  Not doing so, she noted, tended to cause her muscles over time in the run to tighten up – which is exactly what was happening to me.

So my next order of business is to work on strengthening my legs (hills, stairs, maybe even weights), and build endurance (more longer runs and maybe do more of the Plyometrics on P90X).

I’m wanting to run more events next year, preferably half marathons, and I would love to run another full marathon if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I can do the full distance without cramping.  I’m drawn to HM’s because they are a respectable distance and I wouldn’t be tempted to run as hard as I would for say, a 10K (which I think can be really hard if you are running for a Personal Best).  We’ll see….  It’s also really weird that I don’t see HM’s as being that long.  A HM is a long way, 13.1 miles, but the effort required to run that far pales in comparison to that required for a 20+miler or a marathon.  Amazing.