Told you!

Told you I went running on the snow!  This was taken afterward…

Snow Run Take 2?

It looks like my long run will not happen this Saturday.  Because tomorrow?  We’re meant to get hit with snow.  A lot of snow.  And it’s supposed to keep on coming until 10pm on Saturday, anywhere from 18 to 24 inches, which means that as much as I liked running on the snow, the run will not happen…

But, as luck will have it, the snow is meant to start at 10am.  And, of course, in my office it’s all “business as usual”  They say if it starts snowing, we can just go home.

For those of you who live in a place where snow is common, this might seem reasonable.  But DC?  We usually get hit with snow once or twice a season, usually no more than 3 inches.  The roads don’t start getting plowed until after the snow stops.  So traveling becomes impossible.

DC is also the sort of place where if it rains, heck, if it sprinkles, traffic comes to a standstill.  I wish I was exaggerating.  I never seen people reacting like this to water.  So you can imagine how people react when it’s frozen water.

Commuting home will be near impossible.  I don’t live far, but my bus only runs during rush hour, and here as soon as the snow gets bad enough public transportation stops running.  Even the metro, which is not all underground, shuts down.

If my job doesn’t change its mind by tomorrow morning, I’m bringing only the essentials to the office, and packing my running gear, including gloves, ear warmers, maybe some sunglasses so having my eyes open doesn’t get so painful, and am running home.  It should be a 7 mile run taking the trails (I really have to look into better routes from my new place to work).  7 mile run?  Totally doable.  I was supposed to be running longer than that on Saturday anyway.

The weird thing?  As much as I bitch about having to be here when we KNOW a blizzard is coming, I’m also secretly looking forward to it.

Born To Run

I had heard SO many people talking about this book.  A lot of people who now also wear the Vibram Five Fingers, recommend “Born to Run” and I finally sucked it up and bought it.

I haven’t finished the book yet, but read enough to say that it’s very interesting.  I was already interested in the barefoot movement, if only because of my own running injuries (seriously, internal bleeding on my heel when I’m wearing cushy shoes?  That’s NOT normal).

Here are the interesting tidbits I’ve found out since I’ve been reading it…

-They mention how the foot is a piece of perfect engineering:  it has 26 bones, 33 joints and 18 muscles (I knew about the bones and joints, but had no idea the foot had that many muscles!)

-The founder of Nike (until then, shoes had no cushions), designed the first Nike shoe in a way that people would change their strike into a heel strike.  He looked at people running and realized that if they heel striked, they would have longer strides, and then not only they could get faster, they would take less strides making a long run less tiring (this is all in theory).  So it’s no surprise that most people change their stride to a heel-strike as soon as they put shoes on.

-The human foot searches for stability, so in cushioned shoes people automatically strike harder (there has been studies on this).  Basically, they strike harder to go beyond the cushion and get to the harder surface for stability.  The author also compares wearing cushioned shoes to covering an egg with a potholder then hitting it with the hammer — the end result (the destruction of the egg) is the same.

Unfortunately, I don’t yet have the waterproof Five Finger Flows (and it’s not expected to ship until March — boohoo), so I haven’t been able to wear my Five Fingers with all the snow we’ve been getting here in DC (last year we had ONE snow day, of a couple of inches.  Last night was our third snow storm this season, more to come on Friday.  FML).  It seems like it’ll be a while until I can wear them full-time, which sucks, as I love how light they feel when I run with them.

Have you read Born to Run?  What did you think of it?

Snow!

I woke up on Saturday morning knowing I had to go out there and run for 80 minutes.  I also knew that if it was snowing I was going to back out — it was less than 20 degrees out.

There were only flurries.  I texted my friend, she was still up for it.  I woke Karl up and off we went.  By the time we got to Crystal City and left the garage with the other runners, the flurries had become a full-blown snow.  We were already too committed to back out.  So the 6 of us went on our way.

We were going to take the Mt. Vernon Trail, cross into DC via the 14 street bridge, and run around the Tidal Basin.  We were excited to see DC in the snow!

The way towards DC was horrible.  The wind was strong, it was cold, the hard pellets of snow were hitting us on the face, and we could barely keep our eyes open.  Ice was accumulating on our eye lashes which made visibility even worse.  I thought I was going to get frostbite on my uncovered face.

I had never run on the snow before, and was a bit scared of slipping.  I slowed down my pace and ended up running with Ben, who was also taking it easy.  Karl was running faster wearing his Five Fingers KSO, which were getting soaked.

From across the Potomac we couldn’t even see DC.  All we could see is a white and gray fog and the bridge disappearing into it.  We felt a bit insane, and a tad hardcore for sucking it out.  We must have seen another dozen runners during our time out there, all with smiles on their faces, everyone greeting each other.

We barely made it to the Tidal Basin when it was time to turn around and head back.  And when we turned, everything suddenly felt right.  The wind was no longer on our face, the swoosh-swoosh of our feet on the snow provided a great background noise.  The snow, which had accumulated to about an inch, was nice and fluffy and easy on the legs.

I ran the rest of the way with a huge smile on my face.  This was fun!  This was relaxing!  This was right…  And to think that if I knew it was going to be like that, I wouldn’t even had gotten out of bed!  When we ran under a bridge and hit pavement, it felt wrong.  My legs felt heavy and slow.

We finished our runs covered in snow.  I started shivering as soon as I stopped running and got into the car.  We drove home, I changed into drier warmer clothes, put on layers, hid under a fleece blanket, and drank some hot tea.  The shivering, however, didn’t stop for another hour and a half.  I guess running outside when it’s 18 degrees, but “feels like” 8 is a lot colder than it seems.  My face aside, I was completely comfortable during the run, with just the right amount of clothes.  But when I got home, my skin was red and cold.

I turned the computer on and saw a weather alert “the snowstorm unexpectedly headed north, the County is prepared with an emergency plan” — I didn’t just run on snow, I ran during a snowstorm!

But the run?  Was worth it!  We might get hit with snow this weekend again.  And for once, I’m excited about it!

Running in the dark

Yesterday I met up the running group after a long time of not running after work.  I have run in the dark before, but oh my gosh, do I hate running in the dark when it’s freezing out.  Knowing that the trail would be dark and that headlamps were needed, made me really not want to get out.

But I did, headlamp and all.  Surprisingly, this nifty headlamp worked wonders.  It didn’t bounce at all, and didn’t bother me at all.  Just enough light so you could see the bumps on the trail.

We were supposed to go for a 50 minute total run.  I was using my Five Fingers (yay!) and Karl was carrying my change of shoes with him, so that I could switch when it was time to turn around (I’m just getting used to them, and trying to “ease” myself into using them full time).

22 minutes in, there was a part of the paved trail that was scraped off.  I was paying attention to that.  What I didn’t pay attention was for the part of the pavement that was raised by a root.  Needless to say, I tripped, tried to catch my fall and successfully did it until I reached the dirt on the side of it.  Didn’t quite make it to the grassy part, so was covered in dirt.  My knee wasn’t doing so good when I tried running again, so I switched shoes then and headed back to the start.

My 50 minute run ended up at 42 minutes (boo!), but I have a bruised knee to show for it.

My left hip, which was bothering me on Saturday, didn’t start hurting until after I switched to the normal running shoes.  Hmmmm…  I wonder if it’s related?  I try imitating my form in regular running shoes as I do with the Five Fingers, but wonder

Karl offered to carry my shoes for me from now on, until I can do the whole run in the Five Fingers.

I’m sore today, a combination of playing volleyball after 5 weeks off, running, and falling, so I might skip tonight’s run and hold off until Saturday.  I’m meant to run for 80 minutes then…  I can’t wait until I don’t need to take breaks anymore!  Remind me not to get injured again, so that I don’t have to stay away from running for this long…

7 weeks away from the Half Marathon…

The Toenail

Most of my running buddies have lost a toenail or two.  Or at the very least, had a bruised toenail to show for the miles they’ve ran.

Of course, as a runner, you’re conflicted by this.  In one way, you don’t like being the only one who has their toenails intact — what does that say about you being a real runner?  On the other side, have you seen toes with missing toenails?  YUCK.  And I’m a sandal and flip-flop lover.  That would not work.

While training for the Rock n Roll Half last September, the toenail on my left big toe would throb and be sensitive to the touch.  Of course, having painted toenails you really can’t tell what’s going on.  Being the lazy type that does my pedicure at home and sometimes just buff the toenail before putting a new coat on instead of removing all the old polish from it, I never really did find out.

That is, until I moved, couldn’t find my old nail polish, and going for a completely different shade, was forced to completely remove the old stuff.

I then found out that almost half of my toenail was no longer attached to the base.  Hot, I know.  I promptly showed it to Karl, of course, as to prove that when I complained of pain it wasn’t just being dramatic.

The toenail is still there — it seems that had my training lasted a couple of more weeks, the toenail would have been gone.  But the throbbing pain is back.  Not when I run, though I haven’t been running that much to confirm, but when I wake up.  It’s to the point that it limits the shoes I can wear to work in the morning.

It doesn’t look like this toenail is falling out anytime soon (and I sure hope it doesn’t fall out!).  By why does it hurt so much?

(And yes, I cannot believe I wrote a whole post about my toenail.)

Back

On Saturday, I finally made my way back to a run.  It wasn’t pretty…

I should seen the signs in the car, when after charging my Garmin overnight, it was not powering on at all.  Luckily, I gave Karl his own Garmin for Christmas, so we could at least record the run.

I met up with the running group by Roosevelt Island, and for the first time since the fall, we had over a dozen people out! From there we crossed the Key Bridge into DC and took the Capital Crescent trail.  My pace was my usual slow pace, I didn’t want to push it knowing I hadn’t been running in weeks.  We were meant to do 6 miles, already 2 weeks behind my half marathon training, and I also had no idea if I could push through to 6 miles.

You know those days when everything goes wrong?  For the first 2 miles I was feeling great.  I warmed up pretty quickly, was enjoying to be back out there.  Karl wasn’t as lucky — he started having knee pain right at the beginning.

By mile three, my left hip was throbbing, I could feel my hamstrings being too tight.  And I gave up and walked…

I finished the 6 miles, but had to walk/run to the end, with an average overall pace of 13:20.

Yesterday, I woke up sore, the whole back of my leg, from my ankles up to my hips, completely tight.

I now need to work shorter runs in during the week, so I can slowly transition from my current shoes to these babies.  My mile-long run with them in Brazil went great, so it’s about time I take them out in DC.

If only my legs weren’t SO sore today.

Almost back…

I spent 3 lovely weeks in Rio with my family and Karl.

At Barra Beach, near my parents place

I even tried out my awesome new Five Fingers shoes.  I went for just a half mile run in them at first with my dad, then a mile run in them with Karl, and I LOVE them.  Wasn’t able to run more in Brazil due to timing (we were running all over the place a lot for sightseeing, etc), and just plain heat (it was in the 90’s).

I just have to figure out how to make the complete transition from regular shoes to the Five Fingers full-time, but seeing that I should now be in my half-marathon training, and the Five Fingers take a while to transition to (my calves were killing me after the 1 mile run), it’ll be hard to fit that in, since mile-long runs are not part of the training plan!

I also got my foot checked out with an MRI, and turns out I don’t have plantar fasciitis, after all.  I actually have a bit of internal bleeding in my heel (not sure of the cause, probably just pounding from the runs), and that has been the source of pain.  It’s no wonder the orthotics the doctor gave me made it worse!  One more reason to use more of the Five Fingers and work on not striking with my heel so much.

After I got back, I had a horrible cough with a bit of fever.  Then last Friday I got a full on flu, and spent the weekend in bed with a high fever.

I hope this Saturday I can finally, finally, start running again.  I will be 2 weeks late in the half marathon training, but I’ll just worry about covering the distance even if I have to walk parts of it, until my body is in running shape again.

It’s been too long.  I miss running.

I caved!

I’ve been hearing about these shoes for well over a year now, dying to try them…  I knew Karl was curious about it as well, so I held off on buying them for myself since I could get him a pair for Christmas.

As we exchanged gifts this weekend (since I’m in Brazil as of Saturday, he is only joining me on the 27th), and he loved his new Vibram Five Fingers KSO’s, I went online and purchased two pairs for myself (really hard to find my size in stock!).  As I had a sweet coupon for City Sports which saved me about $20 on a pair of Classics, I ended up buying the Sprint model on Kayak Shed as well (unfortunately, no coupon codes for them…).

I’ll get my Classics tomorrow!  I’m excited, as I’ll get them just in time for Brazil!  (Yep, I’ll look like a fool on vacation.)

So, on my way to the airport, I’ll be sporting these:

Then, shortly after I return from vacation, these babies should be waiting for me:

Yes, if I’m going to look ridiculous, might as well do so in fun colors…  My mom got all excited for them, and now she also has a pair of the Sprints on the way over to my place (Karl will be bringing them to Rio with him).

The reviews for them are great, everywhere you look there are high praises for it.  Let’s hope they are as wonderful as people make them to be, and that it’ll help solving my plantar fasciitis issues as well!

Once I actually get a few runs in with them, I’ll definitely post a review!

Speed

I really really need to get faster.  At first, I didn’t mind my slowness, I had others in my running group who were just my speed and kept me company.  I would claim that I couldn’t conquer the speed, but I could conquer the distance.  And my priority was the distance.

But then, everyone else started getting faster.  One of my training buddies got much faster and now no longer runs with me.  Karl trained with me for the half marathon, running much slower at my speed, and he was able to drop half of minute on his pace between the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler and the Army Ten Miler when he ran by himself.  (Training with me, even at my speed, makes others faster!)

Other people from my running group have also thanked me for how much faster they got after starting with the group.  Some have shaved a minute off their pace, others have shaved over 2 minutes off.  Me?  I’m at exactly the same pace.

The joke at home now is that everyone else gets faster, but me.

True, before having to take time off due to injuries (the plantar fasciitis now, but have I mentioned I got burned this summer?), I ran my best 5k yet.  When your training runs are 8+ miles, running 3 miles is nothing.  But for my long runs?  I’m still my old 12 minute/mile pace.  And that’s slow.

It means that in a marathon, I’d be running for over 5 hours straight.  Over 5 hours!!!

My goal this year was to get down to a more respectable 10 min/mile pace.  I couldn’t have foreseen the accidents and injuries.  So I end 2009 at the same pace I started the year.

How do I get faster?  Most just tell me “to get faster, run faster” — but of course, doing that I cannot run as long.  I heard that running uphill is another great way to get faster.  Again, if I run uphill, I can’t run as long.  Any other tips?

One of the organizers in my group started posting runs in the local high school track.  Once I’m done with the move and the vacation, I’ll give it a try.

My next challenge will be acclimatizing myself from running in 35 degree weather to running in 100 degree weather.  Vacation is less than 10 days away…