Posted by: Travis From: The Field
Week 20: Back to it
Total Mileage: 903.23
Usually after a marathon, I take a nice, long, relaxed running vacation; delighting in not waking to an alarm clock at 4 am, in not having to force myself into bed early, luxuriating in eating whatever the hell I feel like, and putting a few pounds back on now that I don't have to worry about the extra weight being a drag on my race time. As I've said before, rest and recovery can be a severely underrated part of your training program, but I fear I tend to take things a bit too far; focusing more on the rewarding part than the recovering.
To my discredit, my past recovery periods have a way of stretching sometimes from a few planned weeks, to a few unplanned months. As I've said before, part of the impetus for this whole challenge is to try to keep myself from slipping too far out of form, to drive me to get back to work much sooner than I usually would.
This week I took my first steps back to my regularly scheduled running program. I managed to get out for a couple of shortish 4am runs and was pleased to find that my leg injury seemed to be all but cured. I still had some lingering muscle complaints, but I could hit my regular stride again and, so far, no need for extreme amounts of compression, icing, or pain-killers afterwards. My goal for the coming week is to ramp back up to my regular number of runs, and then to my regular distance the week following, but I will keep a close watch for any returning pains.
***
During the hiatus, I participated to two 5k runs. I know, what kind of running hiatus features 2 races in 2 weeks, right? Well, these were races that A) represented way less mileage than I usually log and B) were intended to be fun, social events with friends and family. Now that they are in the books, I can say the two races could not have been more different (unless, I guess, they changed the distance or something).
The first was the Dallas Corporate 5k, which I took on with a group of folks from work.
Not exactly representing a group of elite runners, we planned to walk the course and enjoy the company (and the free beer and food trucks offered at the finish line.) We've done the event a couple years in a row now, and each time we end up having a lot of fun.
The course is in a sort of out-of-way part of town, but has a really great view of the Dallas skyline. The start/finish line is in this newish food hall/modern food court type of situation, so there's a lot of good food and drink at the ready for pre and post race revelry. Which is all well and good, but the main benefits in my opinion are the fund raising (race proceeds go to the United Way, and your team can solicit donations for them as well) and the team building aspect.
For example, last year -- our team had me and coach Kasia (members of our daily walking group) and a couple colleagues; neither of which were runners, one of which didn't seem convinced they would even take on the whole course.
So, we all set off with the crowd of folks, walked around the first corner and (I assume since I was a known runner in the group) this person asked if I was going to take off and run to the end. "No," I told them, "we're a team; we're going to do this together." We walked on and after crossing the one mile mark, that person made a move to double back - "Just meet me at the finish line." Again, I told them, "We're a team; we're going to do this together - even if we're the very last team to finish." And so we walked on. We made the turn, hit the water stop, and the police car caught up with us… and we walked on some more.
And we were the last team to cross the finish line, but we all finished together.
And then we all went and ate and drank and celebrated.
And despite being exhausted and sweaty, that person signed right up again this year.
This year, that person was unable to attend the race, but we borrowed a stuffed animal from their desk and brought them along in spirit all the same.
Again we walked the whole way.
Again we finished together (although one was via proxy).
Again we had a blast and I'm sure I'll be back again for next year.
*
The other race was another newish race which I ran with my wife and our boys; the 5k on the Runway, which takes place on the tarmac of Love Field airport.
Last year, we caught the very last shuttle to the starting area and almost didn't make it to the starting line before the cutoff. The course that year was fast and fun and we had plently of time to stop for pictures of the boys with airplanes in the background. Big Man ran with me and posted a pretty good time for a 7 year old; Little Man walked with his mother and enjoyed some snacks as they ambled along.
This year, though, Big Man has been training; going to his track practices for about a month, working on his conditioning (and being a full year older didn't hurt either).
To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I was going to be able to keep up with him -- I can for sure outrun him over a long distance, but he's way faster than I am, even with his short legs, in a sprint.
We all arrived at the starting line with plenty of time to spare and a wary eye on the darkening sky, hoping that a forecast thunder storm would hold off long enough for us to at least get underway. I ran through my fatherly racing advice; "Don't run too hard at the start - let the people spread out a bit before you try to hit your stride" and though he said "ok dad," I'm not convinced he heard me. Sure enough, once the gun went off, so did he; weaving in and out of groups of walkers, trotters, even outpacing some of the runners. Owing to his smaller size, he had a much easier time squeezing through tight gaps as he ran more or less flat out. I did what I could to keep pace, being way more agressive than I ever am, just trying to keep an eye on him if he got too far ahead. To my surprise, I not only made it through the gaggle of people, I also kept more or less in step with him.
We hit mile one, my run tracker suggested we were maintaining about an 8-minute-and-some-change pace -- which is way faster than my training pace (and my race pace, btw) -- and that's when the rain started in earnest. Funny how if it starts to drizzle while you are just standing around, you'll run for cover, but when the sky opens up during a run, you hardly even miss a beat .
We kept pace through mile 2, struggled to drink any water at the water stop and turned around into the last mile where the wind and the rain met us full in the face. To his credit, Big Man never let up, though strong winds did slow us down a bit. I tried to position myself so he could draft me, but I must not have explained the idea very well, because he took it as a challange and sped up so he could be in front again. At one point, my sunglasses were blown off my head and I had to double back for them, but otherwise we were both full steam ahead the whole way and we both managed to set a 5k PR, finishing just south of 27 minutes.
I was already impressed with how well he had run. We looked up his results as we hung around the finish line awaiting the rest of the family, and found he has finished 4th in his group… which was just short of a special medal, but he and I were both thrilled all the same. In fact, he still hasn't stopped talking about it (and he already has his sights on winning his bracket next year). No sooner had I checked the results, then who should I see crossing the finish line, but Little Man - who apparently had also decided he was going to run this thing, leaving his mother and his snacks behind, but bringing his stuffed dog along and running the whole damn thing. Checking his results, he improved by 30 minutes over last year. 30. Minutes. Which is insane, even if he walked the whole thing last year. I expect it won't be long before I'm struggling to keep up with him too.
It was a proud dad moment for sure - just the kind of thing to recharge the running batteries; to power up the motivation as I plunge back into the second section of this challenge.
General Mood: Deep breath before jumping back in
Sound track: Comeback Kid
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
April Results:
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Week 17
Total Mileage: 823.6
Marathon Stories 3 - Irving (2018/2019)
As I recall, I signed up for the 2018 Irving marathon more or less because I got an email telling me that registration was opening for the race. Yes, it may actually be the only time in human history that a random blast email worked exactly as intended; actually incited anyone to act on it. I had no idea what to expect from the race, but it was in an area I knew decently well, having worked nearby for the last 6 years. As I crossed the finish line in 2018, a miserable, cold wind driving drizzle into my face, I smiled, pleased with my time and charmed by a low key, compact race course. I made up my mind then that I would be coming back to run again the next year, and last Saturday, that's just what I did.
To cut to the end a bit, the race was still fun, still charming -- and I suspect I'll be back for 2020 -- but differences between the 2018 and 2019 race were everywhere; from the weather to the course to my pace.
First of all, the race date was moved back about three weeks in 2019, I assume to try to be solidly out of the Texas Winter Weather(tm) before having the race. It sounds good on paper, as TX Winter can be pretty miserable (see 2018 and the aforementioned bitter winds and rain) ... but TX Spring has its own set of problems. To whit, the week of the race was filled with thunderstorms and several inches of rain. So much rain, in fact, that several miles of the course ended up under several inches under water, forcing the race directors to change the race course; abandoning the twisting trails through the local park (now a lakefront property) for a mercifully flat, but almost completely unshaded stretch of road. Whereas I came to the starting line in 2018 in long pants, long sleeve shirt, thermal vest, gloves, and hat and still felt cold, 2019 found me in shorts and a tank top (and my usual hat), already beginning to sweat.
I tend to run faster in the cold weather to begin with - I assume due to sweating a little less, and cold weather running clothes offering a little more support/compression - but a fluke of the weather last year led to one of the more interesting races I've had. Last year, as I rounded the first big corner and started down a steep incline, a strong gust of wind swept my usual hat off my head and blew it back up the street. Another guy running a few steps behind caught it and handed it back to me. I thanked him, re-tightened my hat, and was trying to get my headphones back in place when the guy started up a conversation. Now, I'm not an unfriendly guy, but generally, when I'm running, I'd rather keep quiet, keep focused on the running. Despite my headphones going back on, the guy seemed to want to keep talking.
We chatted as we ran for a little less than a mile, then we hit the flat section and he feel behind. Until we made the turn into the local park (2019 lakefront property) and he caught back up to me as I struggled to open a Gu packet. He asked what time I was hoping for and I told him that anything under 5 hours would be ok with me. "Really?" I remember him saying, "because you are crushing that time right now." I honestly had no idea. I asked him the same question, he told me that he was a bit off his usual pace, aiming for 4 and a half hours. "Ok," I said, "then I'll try to keep you in sight."
And for most of the race, I did. Thought we didn't really talk much after that, we would alternate passing one another, one of us getting ahead, the other catching up on the next curve, the next straightaway. The Irving marathon has a bit of a small footprint, so the people running the full marathon end up running the half marathon course twice. The half marathon course also has a big turn around section, so you end up running past the other runners 3 times during the race. Each time the course doubled back, I'd check for hat retriever guy to gauge how much of a lead each of us had. I told him early on that I was expecting to hit "the wall" pretty hard in the second half, because, well, I always do, and that turned out to be prophetic; I finally lost sight of him somewhere around mile 19 as my pace slackened and never did manage to find him at the finish line.
As I set out in 2019 I kept an eye open just in case, though I was pretty sure I wouldn't recognize him even if he was running again.
This year, though there was no wind to blow my hat up the street, I did start to recognize the people running near me. I kept an eye out for a lady in a Team RWB shirt carrying the American flag who may or may not have been drafting behind me the first six miles. I saw her still going strong as I set off for half marathon number 2, but didn't see her in the second half.
As previously mentioned, where last year was a bitter 36 degrees, this year was a balmy 67 and climbing. Though I ran a pretty strong first half (for me), I was already getting a bit of dry mouth in between water stops, finally hitting "the wall" (like I do) somewhere around mile 18. As we turned to double back for the last 6 miles, a lady who I had been keeping pace with turned, smiled and said "only 6 more, we can do this." I returned the smile, "I think we're going to live." And as you may have guessed, we did live. But shortly thereafter, I gave in to the heat and trying to avoid completely dehydrating myself, started taking extended walk breaks, and again, lost sight of my random running friend well before the finish line.
So, Irving 2019 wasn't my best race, but it may have finally convinced me to investigate hydration solutions that I can have with me during my next race. Towards the end, my mouth was so unawarely dry that I feared I was on the verge of throwing up (which, by the way, I saw more than one person doing on the sides of the course - I guess I wasn't the only one unprepared for the heat). Even just having a small water bottle that I could squirt in there in between water stations would've at least felt really great. The race also gave me signs that I should be trying out new in-race nutrition options. I tried to keep up with Gu packets and for the most part they seem fine -- but my stomach just doesn't seem to be able to take more than 4 of them in a single run.
And now, with this race in the books, I am booking myself a running hiatus. With this year-long challenge in mind, I'm planning to keep it to a relatively short 2 weeks -- long enough to heal a little, but not so long I fall way behind in total mileage.
General Mood: Willingly resting
Sound track: Funk the Fear
Posted by: Travis From: The Lab
Week 16+: Gearing up for the marathon
Total Mileage: 790.2
In just about 30 hours, I should be down in Irving, toeing the starting line with a bunch of other runners, getting ready to stampede up and down the rolling hills of the aptly-named Las Colinas, about to take on the Irving marathon for the second year in a row. With the race inching nearer, I've spent the last few weeks preparing, going through my pre-race routines, which is to say, not doing too much of anything at all.
The last stages of race training have always seemed a bit counterintuitive to me: you spend so much time and energy over weeks and months of training -- seemingly countless miles, hours of effort and exhaustion, dutifully executing your plan, your nutrition -- then you hit the 'taper' weeks and it just kind of feels like you've become idle, lazy. Even knowing full well why I'm doing it, I still have to remind myself that I'm not really being idle -- I am, truly, preparing my body for an enormous strain even if it looks a lot like laying around. To an outsider, my prep work looks a lot like sitting around and eating; to me though, it is focused on rest/recovery and carbohydrate loading.
As I've said before, I'm no certified trainer, so in this case my guidance borrows very, very heavily from Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook (which was highly recommended to me by my nutritionist and which I can highly recommend to anyone reading this). I really like Ms Clark's book, not only because it is filled with all sorts of science-based information, but also due to down-to-earth advice she offers throughout, addressing fitness myths just as steady-handily as see discusses scientific studies.
A quick example: Thumbing through the table of contents, I found a chapter on "Accessing you body: Fat, Thin, or Fine." As I have been participating in a weigh loss challenge (more on that later), I flipped to the page, hoping to read advice on how to cut down on body fat, especially around my waist/love handle area. To my disappointment, the advice I read boiled down to something like "a lot of athletes say they want to lose body fat, but most of them are in a healthy range. Really, you should keep in mind that men tend to have more fat stored around their waist; women more on their hips, and try to appreciate your body for what it can do, not for how it looks." Which is a really great, wholesome message which I should probably try to take to heart... and not at all what I expect from a fitness training book.
That said, the first (and perhaps most important) piece of her advice I've taken up is tapering before your race. In the past, I've tried running my usual training program right up until race weekend; thinking that it would be get me to the starting line already in the proper form (ok, so sometimes just because I was way behind on mileage, too). For further details on how that strategy worked out for me, please see last week's marathon story (spoiler alert: it didn't go great). I've also tried slowly ratcheting down my long runs in the two weeks before a race... to be honest, I haven't seen any major performance swings doing this, but it does start to feel a bit risky; longer runs mean more chances to turn an ankle stepping off a curb the wrong way and with less time to recover.
When she talks about tapering, though, she really means resting, letting your body get back to full strength after having been run down during your training regimen. Her general advise is to cut your mileage down to 30% of your training distance, to focus on your pace instead to help keep your edge, to give your muscles time to recover as much as they can before you put them through the stress of your race.
In my case, I was also contending with an injury, so this part was not terribly hard to stick to... though, again, one need only look back at my last few posts to see a thinly veiled sense of panic creeping in as weeks started to pass wherein I ran less than 30 miles.
The next part of preparing - carbohydrate loading - starts out seeming like it would be the most fun, but in a Twilight Zone worthy Be-Careful-What-You-Wish-For Turn, can quickly become a painful chore. Much like Michael Scott before his rabies fundraiser 5k scarfing down a plate of fettuccini alfredo mere minutes before the starter's pistol, a lot of people make the mistake of doing too little carb loading, much too late (see the prior week's post once again to see how I did this wrong in the past). Ms Clark suggests you start the carb loading process several days in advance (even during training, if you can manage it) and the nerd in me was glad to see that Ms Clark offered a pretty simple equation to figure out how much I needed to be taking in:
eq. Your Body Weight x Exercise Effort Factor = Grams of Carbs to eat that day
On light days, she recommends 2.5 - 3 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight. (so an 185 pound person would aim for 463 g of carbs throughout the day). For extreme effort days (say, during a marathon), she recommends anywhere from 3.5 - 5.5 g / lb. (which would take that same 185 lb person to 647.5 - 1,017.5 g of carbs).
You might be like me and think "Wow, ok. So I'll get a bunch of bagels and just eat on those all day." Please let me dissuade you from that idea as even at the 650g level you're looking at 13.2 bagels that day (with about 3,100 calories to go along with it). I started feeling pretty miserable about bagel 4 of my baker's dozen from Einstein Brothers and never did come that close to hitting my carb goal. By the way, though, despite coming up short of my recommended carb level, I definitely noticed I had steady, ready energy almost all the way through the next day's race; managing to avoid the wall I usually hit in the last 10 miles of a marathon.
Some other high carb foods that might give you more bang for your buck (and not fill you up right away):
-Raisins (1/3 cup) - 43g
-Banana (1 medium) - 27g
-Corn (1 cup) - 21g
-Bagel (1) - 49g
-Tortilla (1 large) - 31g
-Raisin Bran (1 cup) - 46g
-Baked Potato (1 medium) - 65g
-Frozen Yogurt (1 cup) - 35g
Try to mix things up as much as you can to keep your palette interested, but don't eat anything brand new the last few days before your race -- you don't want to discover that it doesn't agree with your stomach at the last minute.
I promise to post a follow up running down how successful I feel my prep work was once the race is over (either Sunday or Monday night). Until then, spare a good thought for me as I pray my leg holds up for me one more time.
General Mood: Psyching Up
Sound track: 123456
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Week 15
Total Mileage: 739.4
Marathon Stories 2 - Austin (2010)
Man, considering that this was my first full marathon, I sure as hell don't remember too much about it. What I do recall is that my dad and I ran the 2010 Austin marathon about 2 months after completing our first half marathon in Dallas in 2009. For anyone wondering, that's not exactly the recommended ramp up time.
I remember that I was running semi consistently back then. With our first child still over a year from being born, I had a lot more time for running in general and even tagged along on some of dad's Team in Training team runs.
Both of us were still rather green and when we trained we would run/walk in 5/1 minute intervals. It worked okay as neither of us had a ton of endurance built up (and some of us (me) were carrying some extra weight) but goddamn did I hate that little alarm that signaled time to run again. "Beep-Beep!" dad's watch would say. "Shhhhhit!" I would reply. I wasn't keeping a log of my training distances back then, but if I am recalling properly, we did set out with a goal of 20 miles on our final training run. We ended up calling it quits around 18 miles due to the cold and our general exhaustion.
The night before we were to run the Dallas half marathon, we got together to carbo load; in our case, eating pasta and drinking way more than we should. We had a grand old time, but I spent the rest of the night waking up every hour, fearing that I was going to over-sleep my early morning alarm, feeling more and more hung over as the night wore on. As we climbed on the train the next morning, my head aching formidably, I began to picture myself throwing up on the side of the road somewhere very early on in the course.
But we made it there, the race started, and we set off, skipping the first 5/1 interval to get a bit further out from the starting line, hoping to disengage from the general gaggle of people. The first few intervals passed, with me swearing loudly each time a new run interval started, and an odd thing happened; I started to feel a lot better.
I'm not here to recommend drinking too much as a pre-race nutritional strategy, nor a long distance run as a valid hangover cure... but at the time I sure was thinking about it. We finished up the half marathon rather slowly, but without any major mishaps (at least, none that I recall). I remember crossing the finish line and then asking dad "can you imagine? running as far as we just did... then turning around and running all the way back?"
All that to set the stage for when the eve of the Austin Marathon rolled around; there were dad and I, sitting in the hotel dining room, drinking a bit too much and eating pasta, woefully under the recommended training mileage and more or less unaware of the geography of the course we were about to run.
We arrived at the bag check in the shadows of the Texas capitol building the next morning -- or rather, it would have been the capitol's shadow had the sun been up yet. We used the port-o-potties and vaguely did some stretches. The starting gun went off and the lot of us thundered off, directly up Congress Avenue. As before, we planned to skip our first interval, even as it began to sink in that the road ahead of us represented about 3 miles of decently steep uphill running. The streets were dark, but there were still native Austonians blaring music and leaning out widows; cheering and doing their best to keep everything 'weird'.
As we crested the first big hill and turned right to take on the remaining 23 or so miles, I was already feeling rather tired. I hadn't slept well (I rarely do in hotels, nor before races), I hadn't eaten well, I wasn't very hydrated, and hills were still a major energy drainer to me.
And from there, I wish I could say more, but I really don't remember much.
There were a lot of drastic up and down hills.
There were a lot of people who seemed eager to chat with us as we ran.
There were a bunch of spectators that cheered loudly whenever dad ran by in his TNT jersey, shouting 'Go, Team!' and ringing cow bells.
Somewhere along the way, we both agreed to cut our 5/1's to 4/2's (and eventually 3/3's).
Somewhere a little further, my hip really started to cramp and complain; we stopped frequently to try to stretch out my legs and hips and backs before grimly trudging on, running whenever we felt we had a little bit of energy restored, walking as we entered the more suburban parts of town.
Chalk my lack of memory up to repressed trauma, I suppose, as when I think back on this section of the race, I can only really recall general pain and deciding that walking a marathon is much more difficult and physically taxing than running one.
By the time we hit the home stretch of the course, the capitol building visible in the far distance and a long, mercifully gentle downward slope sweeping us back down town, we had already been running on empty for a couple hours. I have a distinct memory of a guy running past us, a full-sized US flag held out proudly in front of him, not just resting over his shoulder, and a realization that the crowd around us was getting rather thin.
The last few miles were littered with cool, historic buildings; the aforementioned capitol, the UT stadium, and other parts of the UT campus, but felt like they were creeping by at an agonizing pace. People on the sidelines seemed to keep shouting that we were almost there, that the finish line was right around the corner... but every corner seemed to yield another long road or hill that stood between us and finally finishing.
Through sheer stubbornness and refusal to give up, I feel, we at last saw the finish line and a corral of people cheering loudly as we, wounded and slow few, dragged ourselves onward. Among the crowd, dad and I found our respective spouses, crowding the fencing and cheering along. I was able to stop, lean over the wall and kiss my wife before trotting off and finally crossing the line.
I can't even describe the emotional reaction I had. I already couldn't breathe from all the physical exertion, but a wave of relief brought tears to my eyes. We hobbled through the finishers area, posed for a few pictures, then limped back to the car to return to the hotel for showers and rest.
Probably the things I remember best about that race were: A) the huge pop my hip made and the accompanying cry of pain I made as I climbed into bed that night and B) walking around the Texas capitol like a 80 year old man in very bad health the next morning.
I promised myself to never attempt another marathon this under-prepared again.
General Mood: Reluctantly Tapering
Sound track: World Wide Funk
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
March Results:
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Week 13: Out like a lamb, a cold-but-dry lamb
Total Mileage: 690.6
I'm at a bit of an awkward stage in my marathon training at the moment; stuck between a few last "really" long runs before the tapper prior to the race, trying to rehab and rid myself of shin splints, and the general pressure to keep pace with the Run the Year challenge.
History has proven that when faced with any kind of complicated running issue, I will tend to err on the side of "working through the pain." I blame my high school wrestling coach who, despite my extremely short tenure in the sport, managed to instill in me the idea that continuing to "do the work" even (maybe especially) when it hurts is the epitome of what the best athletes do. Don't get me wrong, there are times and places when that's exactly what you have to do, times when your grit and determination are all that you have left, the only things keeping you moving towards your goals. What I'm still trying to learn, though, is when you buckle down and grit it out no matter what and when you run away, live to fight another day.
I try to remind myself that as far as training is concerned, "don't get injured" should be to overriding principal in all things. So I have to rationalize my way through these factors and convince myself that letting up on the gas, so to speak, is the right thing to do for now.
Let's address the easiest issue first. Thanks to marathon training mileage and "bonus" steps from the Fitbit, I'm ahead of schedule on the year-long challenge. Somewhere deep inside, my brain knows that I can afford a couple of rest/recovery weeks... but it seems to be very stubborn about admitting that to itself. My general strategy here is to ask for my wife's opinion. She's really good at taking an objective view of my situations and succinctly telling me to cut out the bullshit.
Maybe highest of my concerns is the hit my marathon training is taking. I haven't completed my longest scheduled training run yet. This bothers me not because I'm not sure if I can cover the distance - one way or another, assuming my knees don't explode, I'm sure I can will power myself through the course - but because I fear not having at least one 20 mile+ run under my belt might mean I'm going to hit the wall pretty damn hard on race day. That said, I feel that I may be able to fall back on prior experience here. I know I've run this distance before, I know I have a decently solid nutrition plan, I know that I've been logging more total mileage this training season than any other marathon I've run in the past. I think that should mean I'm in "okay" shape, even if I haven't hit my mental distance hurdles just yet.
Lastly, let's move from the mental to the physical challenges. In an attempt to convalesce my shin splints (see last week's post for more on that topic), I booked myself an extra day off while cutting my total planned mileage for this week by ~30%. So, instead of 6 mile daily runs, I did 4; instead of ramping back up to 18 miles on the long run, I repeated the 16 mile run from last week. I also kept on with the foam roller and cycled through my compression socks, sleeves, recovery pajamas, and ice packs. The good news is that the new shoes seem to be helping a bunch; my feet feel great even if my calf isn't yet 100%. I'm still a bit limpy this morning, but the runs felt more like they did a couple weeks ago, when I had a bit of discomfort at the start, but didn't keep me from hitting my stride. This week will bring more forced rest days - scheduling circumstances necessitating that I be at home in the early morning hours, rather than out on the trail - so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to recover even more and finally get my 20 mile run in come this Sunday.
One last random point from this week:
If you like to take your dog(s) out on the running trails and your dog is the type that likes to jump up on people who are passing, might I suggest you not use those extendable leashes? The benefits of a leash that always stops at, say, 2 feet flashed through my mind this weekend as a particularly enthusiastic pup came a few inches from jump kicking me in the face before being pulled back, mid-air by his owner who seemed to be searching the lock-the-distance button.
Just a suggestion; I suspect I'm not the only one who would appreciate it.
General Mood: Self-rationalization
Sound track: GHETTOCHIP MALFUNCTION (Hell Yes)
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Week 12: Check Engine Light Comes on
Total Mileage: 636.4
All things considered, it wasn't a bad week of running - nothing got cut short, no days were missed - but a couple of things I want to discuss, one that could turn out to be serious, one that definitely is not.
First, I'm elevating a prior concern from minor to high importance. I've mentioned for the last couple of weeks some general aches and pains that have been cropping up. It's not at all unusual during a training season to have some minor pain - you're going to get sore, you might twist an ankle or stretch a bit too far taking an odd stride, it is a feature/bug of the human body. So, when my legs started feeling a little more achy than usual, I didn't think too much of it.
When my aches started getting stronger and more persistent, I still chalked it up to the increased mileage load I've been under for this year-long challenge. It wasn't debilitating or anything like that, more like a bit of rust on the gears when I would start out. A pain would crop up when I first hit the street, reach its peak as I crested the hill in the first half mile of my route and then abate. Usually, by the time I started on mile 3 of my routine runs, the pain was significantly dulled and I was hitting my normal stride. "See", I said to myself, "how bad could it be if I can still (eventually) run like normal?".
I finished my Thursday morning run, overjoyed that I was going to get 2 days off (forecasted early morning rains on Friday and Saturday precluding them from the schedule). When Friday afternoon rolled around, we wound up at the playground with the little ones. In the course of normal play events, I was enlisted to a game of tag, and running even for a few minutes in my "regular" shoes sent a thrill of pain up my leg. I had ordered a new pair of knee-high compression socks to wear post-run in hopes that would give me a bit more recovery power and I put them on as soon as I could that night. I'm not sure if you're supposed to do this, but I slept in them overnight, trying to maximize any relief they could offer. I also dug out my old neoprene compression sleeve and did a few sessions with the ice pack.
If I didn't have a race coming up in a few weeks, and if I didn't feel like I'd miss a lot of miles for this challenge, I might've convinced myself to skip the long weekend run... but I'm not always as bright as I would like to think that I am, so I still rolled out of bed and hit the streets (working in more of a warm up routine beforehand) come Sunday morning. I managed to get everything done without any major issues, but when I got out of the shower, I could tell that my leg was not in good shape and I spent much of the day afterwards limping my way anywhere I went.
In search of other advice to remedy what I was becoming convinced was a bad case of shin splints, I turned to the online group for the run the year challenge and read through a couple threads on the topic. The major consensus was that shin splints can crop up due to poor technique (I didn't *think* that was my problem), poor pre-run stretching (that sounds more like me) and old or poorly-fitting shoes. I pulled up my running app, which has a feature that tracks the mileage you've logged on your current pair(s) of shoes. My shoes were showing less than 150 miles... "That can't be right, I've had these shoes since last November," I thought exactly 5 seconds before realizing that I must have turned off the tracking feature, and likely a few months ago. Well, now I figured I had my culprits; a used up pair of running shoes and my dumb brain which had been waiting for my running app to alert it when it was time to changes shoes.
As with anything in the sport, there's a bit of debate about how long you should keep your shoes, but it seems to me that 300 miles is right about in the middle of the suggested distances. Being a terrible cheapskate, I usually bump my tracker up to 400 miles before break down and get a new pair... but then, here I am writing about my "surprise" shin splints.
So, off we went to the running store. I brought along my current pairs of shoes, showed them to the lady who helped me, asked her to re-measure my feet (just to make sure I was in the right shoe size), and requested any recommendations she had. She measured me, brought out a new pair of my current shoe, and a bunch of other options that I could try with one foot in the old pair, one foot in the new. Then I got to jump on the treadmill and give each pair a test spin to make sure they weren't rubbing. My leg complained a bit, but already felt much better with new soles underneath. I found a comfy-but-not-overweight-with-extra-padding pair, had them boxed up and went on my way.
I am still booking myself an extra day of rest this week, just to be sure that I heal as much as possible, but I'm very optimistic that this new pair will help a lot as I make my way back to 100%.
The other thing I wanted to bring up is, unfortunately, another example of how dumb my brain is when it comes to running.
The week before, I my long run was 18 miles. It wasn't fast, but it wasn't overly challenging either. This week, I was booked to do 16 miles on my long run. "Oh good," thought I, "a short run this week!"
Somewhere around mile 9 it dawned on me that 2 fewer miles isn't really all that different.
Oh well, it's all relative, I guess.
General Mood: On the Mend (hopefully)
Sound track: Mayday
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Week 11: when sticking to the schedule sort of feels like an extra day off
Total Mileage: 576.7
A sort of rare thing happened this week: through a coincidence of scheduling, we ended up capping off Spring Break with a 3 day weekend which featured not a single kid's sporting event. With a sudden influx of time on the calendar, I was able to not only stick to my running schedule without shifting any days around, I even got to push back my starting times for the Friday and Saturday morning runs.
I've said it before, but a long run on a (work) day off is maybe the most satisfying type - and even better if no one is waiting for you to get back at a certain time. It's very freeing to not have to worry about getting all your milage in before you have to get dressed for work, or take the kids to school, or any other random thing. You can take whatever time you want completely guilt free.
With nothing else on the schedule, and no other required running on the docket, I even got to sleep in on Sunday ... I can't even remember the last time I got to do that.
Sleepy time updates aside, previously reported leg pains are becoming persistent, but still manageable. I foresee a lot more Icy/Hot in my future.
***
So, we've discussed the equipment you might want to investigate when you get started running. Where, then, might be the ideal environment in which to actually do these training runs? Well, it probably won't surprise you that my general recommendation is: Wherever you can. Certainly some places are easier to make use of, are 'better' - but an 'ok' place that you can get to easily and quickly may prove to be loads better than a 'great' place that requires a lot of travel or extra prep to access.
I am on record with my distaste for treadmills, but, as with everything else in running, if that is what works for you, what lets you run consistently, then by all means, have at it. My only bit of advice with treadmills is if you also plan to do any races, work in at least a couple actual feet-to-street runs before race day rolls around. Since the treadmill will force you to keep a steady pace, it might feel odd the first time that you have to set the tempo yourself, it might feel like you have to expend a lot more energy to get the same results, and you might find your stride is different enough on the street that you have new pains cropping up. This could represent an unpleasant surprise the first time you experience it and the last thing you want come race day is an unpleasant surprise.
In a similar vein, unless your race is on an airport runway, I don't expect that your course will be perfectly flat. Most treadmills I've been on do have inclination options that will simulate hills, so throw one of the random incline programs on as hill running can also be surprisingly difficult when you first try it.
Now, if you are lucky enough to have a dedicated running trail or park nearby, I highly recommend taking advantage. Having a space that you're only sharing with other runners (and bikes), not needing to check over your shoulder for oncoming cars, really lets you focus on your running - lets you zone out a bit and relax into things.
If a running trail isn't near-by, you really only need a block or two with a sidewalk to get some/most of the same benefit (just watch out a be extra careful passing any alleyways or blind intersections).
If there isn't a sidewalk on the roads near you, you can also run on the side of the road, but PLEASE keep in mind to A) wear highly reflective clothing to maximize the chance you are seen, B) run on the side of the road facing into traffic (so, if you are in the US, run on the left-hand side, so that you and any oncoming drivers would be looking at each other in the eyes), and C) be ready to move completely off the road if need be (every once in a while, I've had to bail out on a blind turn or when the driver is taking their first sips of coffee) - never assume that you have been seen and that other traffic is actively trying to avoid you.
If the choice is presented to you, opt for a location that is well-lit and that is decently well populated. Dark trails can lead to falls and other unsavory activities. Hopefully, you never need it, but having people nearby in the case that you have some kind of emergency is a real benefit. As I advised previously, bring along whatever you think you need to feel safe while you're running; headlamps, emergency whistles, pepper spray; you'll run better if you feel safer and the you'll certainly get more training done if you lessen the chance of avoidable injuries.
I count myself lucky that the area right by our house has both: decently lit, wide sidewalks, a longish biking trail, a number of routes that I can take ot hit different mileage goals without re-running the same blocks over and over, and, maybe most importantly, a decent variety of hills. It sounds weird to say, especially since those hills seem to be able to drain my energy whenever they damn well please, but, as mentioned previously, your race course is not likely to be perfectly flat and you will want to be decently certain that you'll be able to take one or two of them on without wanting to die afterwards. The hidden bonus in hill running, I've found, is that it also works your legs in a different way. If you are only running on level, flat land, you only ever really need one stride... and if you never need another stride, you end up hammer the same muscles over and over again. When you have to lean into a hill, push harder with your quads, you give your flat land muscles a bit of a break, work different parts of the leg, and you give your brain something different to focus on. So, don't fear the hill! But do be careful if you have any downhills on your course, they can seem easy, but can be murder on your knees. Try to force yourself to keep your flat land pace (or a little slower) on severe downward slopes (you'll be working new muscles here too and don't want to overload them).
Other bonuses to consider:
- Available public bathrooms. Especially during longer runs, these can be life savers. On my personal route, I have my house on one end and a park with public (and well-lit) restrooms on the other. I don't think I need to sell anyone too much on the benefit of a bathroom in general, but having one open that is out on the course can help fight the urge to cut the whole run short if you have to make a pit stop. Once I'm back in my house, my brain is conditioned that my run is over and it can be torture to try to start back up again (not to mention waking up everyone in the house trying to get in).
- Water storage area. Meaning somewhere you could stash a water bottle or a gatorade so you don't have to carry it with you as you run. For me, this is my front porch, where I leave a bottle that I hit after each completed loop. If your course is somewhere away from your house, look for somewhere that your bottle won't be blown over (and then roll away), that won't interfere with anyone while you are running, that won't be attractive to wildlife. Make sure to double back and pick up whatever you stash, you're trying to stay hydrated, not be a litter bug.
- A view. This can be a bit of a tall order, but it is one of the big rewards I count from my early morning runs. Seeing the sun come up over the trees, the first rays of light illuminating the pastures, the steam from the cows grazing - or the days when I catch the hot air balloons that launch nearby as they swoop down to touch the surface of the lake before pulling hard on their fires and lifting back up into the sky; I can't help but feel lucky to be one of the few people who gets to take in that view.
General Mood: Mildly Limpy
Sound track: All I Know
Posted by: Travis From: The Field
Week 10: now, just do it 3 more times and we're golden
Total Mileage: 519.5
This week was a milestone in this whole 2,000 mile journey; hitting the 500 mile / one-quarter mark. It seemed like a good time to stop down and take stock of the effort.
Seeing as we aren't quite a full quarter-way through the year, hitting the 1/4th mark now gives me hope that I'll be able to get this whole thing done. Applying my weekly averages to the rest of the year, if form holds up, I could be done some time in early October... well, I mean, I haven't ruled it out yet.
Also counted in the plus side of my progress chart: I haven't really had any weeks so far (touch wood) when I had to completely abandon my running plans; many times thanks to my local gym and my arch-rival, the treadmill.
We are only a few weeks out from the Irving marathon, so I'm ramping into longer long-distance runs than I've been averaging so far; evidenced by hitting a new record for total weekly mileage this week of 60.8 miles. This should give the next few weeks a healthy boost in distance, but makes me a little more nervous about wear and tear and the potential for injury.
To be honest, though, I am starting to see a few cracks in the last couple weeks. I haven't had a full-out schedule slip, but I have had to do a good deal of juggling. Some schedule juggling is fine - to be expected,really - as the man said "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" and that certainly applies to running schedules. The thing I worry about is getting too comfortable pushing runs back, and then back again, until I end up trying to cram too much catch-up running into a bunch of back-to-backs, or two-a-days, which I fear would lay out the welcome mat for otherwise easily-avoidable injuries.
I'm also worrying a bit about what comes after Irving. I've all but signed up for the Dallas marathon way out in December 2019... but wondering if I'll be able to keep up with my current pace in the long stretch of months in between the two races. Generally, I like to take a running vacation after a major race to give my legs (and my sleep schedule) a chance to recover. In the past, this has ranged from a couple weeks to a couple months; but I don't think I'll have that luxury if I'm going to stay on track with this challenge. I think I will try to take a week off when the end of April rolls around, but I predict doing so will give me great anxiety this time around - I can definitely foresee a future where not seeing the mileage counter ticking upwards drives me into a panic and I cut my quote vacation short.
So, all that said: 1/4th of the way through, I'm generally pleased with my progress and cautiously optimistic about the remaining 3/4ths. I just need to keep up with the schedule discipline and stay vigilant about minimizing injury and I should be able to remain just as optimistic... at least until 1,000 miles rolls around.
General Mood: Cautiously optimistic (I think I just said that?)
Sound track: Hey You
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Week 9: In like a lion; a cold, damp lion
Total Mileage: 458.6.
It seems way too soon to be March already and yet, here we are. I, for one, am truly looking forward to some warmer weather, though there was precious little of it this week.
Another cold and rainy Sunday morning found me at the gym (not so) bright yet rather early for my long-distance run. I was able to get 16 miles in on the tread mill before I couldn't take it any more. I'm still not able to stop myself from checking on the clock or the distance counter every few moments to see if I'm almost done; even after throwing a towel over the control panel to block it out, I could only zone out for ten or fifteen minutes at a time and was right back to peeking, then ratcheting up the tread speed to try to get done as soon as I could.
More cold weather seems to be in store for the upcoming week, though I'm holding out hope that I'll be able to get back to the good, ol' streets.
***
I want to take a moment to tell a cautionary tale ... and I'd love to open with the lesson, but I fear knowing the lesson spoils the story. So, challenge yourself to count the red flags as I tell you about a day that I was very late for work.
Work, at this point in time, was down in Irving TX, which is a hell of a commute from my house and included a long trip down 635. I'm sure that any Dallas resident will agree that 635 is to avoided at all times even now, but especially so then, back before the express lanes were put in. With a terrible commute in mind, I came up with a brilliant idea to leave for work at 4 am, drive down a mostly empty highway, and start my day out at a gym before showering and going in to work at a normal time.
For a while, this worked just fine. After a few weeks, I figured it might be a good idea to go for run a few times a week instead of just lifting weights or using the hated tread mills. I fired up google maps, and noticed there was a nice lake (North Lake in Coppell, btw) just a block north of the gym. "Great!" I thought to myself, "I'll just take a lap around the lake and be on my way." I guess I assumed that there would be, like, a nice running path around it, I don't know.
I drove down through the dark the next "day", parked at the gym, dropped off my backpack in a locker, then headed out the front door and started my run. I traveled the half block or so, crested a smallish hill, and started looking around for the lake.
Well, in the dark, the lake was nowhere to be seen. I could see the hill, a preschool, a huge fence that barred access to the unseen lake, and a lot of darkness. I've never been one to give up when all signs point towards that being the right thing to do, so I improvised and took a right turn and ran on. "Surely there will be a gate or something somewhere." I tried to keep the map I had looked at the prior day in mind, and knew that I was ultimately looking for a street called Beltline.
I took a left turn at the first intersection and ran down a very steep hill assuming that the lake was now somewhere on my left. I continued making the same assumption, generally bearing left and generally expecting to be on the lake shore at any moment. That moment never came, but I did eventually see a street sign for Beltline. "Oh, ok," I thought, "I know where I am now, I need to go right" - which, according to my mental map would lead me around the lake and then back to the gym. On I ran.
And Ran. And Ran.
Eventually it began to dawn on me that I was not where I thought I was ... and I had no idea where I had gone wrong. At this time, while phones generally could give you GPS directions, my phone didn't have that function ... also it was in my backpack way back in the locker at the gym. I decided to back track a little bit to see if I could get a better idea where I was and that's when it decided to start raining.
Not just raining - pouring. Buckets of rain and lightning. On I ran, now sopping wet and even more disoriented.
The storm was fierce but mercifully brief, stopping after about 20 minutes of hard downpour, but still left standing puddles and little gullies of rushing water seemingly everywhere I directed my feet. I guess that's why there was a lake there in the first place.
As the sun started to come up, I ran on, with basically no plan on how I was going to un-lose myself in this unfamiliar neighborhood. I ran down streets and alleys, somehow convincing myself that I just needed one or two more turns before I would be near something I recognized. But that wasn't the case. I became more and more desperate, no longer able to tell myself I had a cushion of time to get right before I needed to be at work.
The sun was up in earnest and school buses were picking up kids and I was now out of other options. I, an exhausted, soaking wet, twenty something man, found a mom who had just put one of her children on a bus and asked her, "excuse me... I'm really lost; do you know how to get to 635 and Olympus?" She gave me the I'm-trying-to-decide-if-you're-about-to-rob-me look and said, "I don't know where that is."
This was not a good sign.
She informed me that I was much closer to 35 and Sandy Lake (about 8 miles from where I needed to be, btw). "Ok, I know how to go if I can get to 35, which way is that?" She appraised me again and must have decided that she didn't think I would be able to make it. "Why don't you follow me home? My husband is about to head out to work; he can give you a ride to where you need to be." It was my turn to consider whether I was about to get murdered or robbed or both, but I didn't see any other option. I walked with her and her other kid to her house, nearby. She opened the front door and stepped in. While I was determined to wait on the porch, she beckoned me in while her other son ran ahead, up the stairs and shouted "Dad! Mom brought a strange man home!" I could hear "Dad", presumably getting ready for work "She did WHAT?"
I felt like an idiot and a creep, but this family of strangers was overwhelmingly nice. The wife offered me a towel and coffee, but I declined, not wanting to be any more of an annoyance. The dad came down shortly, picked me up in his SVU and drove me back to the gym, making awkward small talk during the trip. I thanked him profusely, entered the gym, showered at warp speed, got dressed and made my way into the office.
I stopped in at my bosses' office and tried to explain why I was now 2 hours late by telling him the story I just laid out here. To his credit, he just laughed and laughed at my stupidity. He told me to not do that again and sent me on my way.
I later mapped what I thought my route must've been, and found that my planned 4 mile run had probably ended up being just over 14 miles.
And that was the time I accidentally ran a half marathon.
General Mood: chilly
Sound track: The Cure
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
February Results:
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Week 8: Continuing to start to feel it
Total Mileage: 405.6
A solid week of running as I start the real run up to the Irving Marathon coming up at the end of April. Sunday was my first Real Shit (tm) long run while training for this race - the 16 miles felt pretty good if maybe just a bit slow.
I've been feeling little aches and pains the last couple weeks and I worry that I may be hitting an upper limit in my weekly mileage. I've been employing more and more of my post-run compression braces and while they do help, they also tend to feel like I'm squeezing the pain from one place directly into another -- that in compensating for the brace, that I'm stressing other body parts.
So, more rolling, more stretching, and hopefully a little less pain going forward.
Last week, I spoke in some general terms about what equipment you might need when you get started running. This week I'd like to get into more specifics. The below is my personal recommended list of what to buy, sorted in descending order, by my impression of how important they are. As ever, your mileage may 9and probably will) vary, so please take the below under consideration and then make up your own mind.
You should get:
1) A 'Just OK' pair of shoes:
Hear me out here, if you've never run before, you can certainly use your new favorite local running store for a stride analysis and a fitting (and you really should, tbh) and skip over this step. I'm suggesting this as a way to really hone in on what kind of shoe you really need. Some potential issues don't just crop up when you take your trial run on the store treadmill; you might not feel those rub points right away and better to have to abandon a 'Just OK' pair of shoes than an expensive pair if you have to throw them out if turn out to not quite be the right fit.
2) Body Glide (or any other anti-chafe stuff):
No matter what your running level, your body parts are going to rub somewhere and you're going to want to have this in hand, either as a preventative agent or for relief when you've uncovered a new rub spot. Believe me on this now and thank me later.
2b) Band Aids:
For when you find new rub spots and for places that need a little more protection than your anti-chaff cream provides.
Also let's just address this now: You might be one of the lucky few that never need to do this, but yes, it will probably feel weird putting band aids on your nipples the first time you do it. It will be a bit weird, but you will get exactly 0 quizzical looks from any runner you meet on this point and (here's another place you'll be happy you trusted me) it's way less painful to pull them off after a run than deal with scabs in that area. Just, maybe don't bring it up to a non-runner...
3) A running belt (or some other bag that you can carry your stuff in):
I don't recommend going crazy at first - I've never had anything more than a simple belt with a zip that will fit my phone, my ID, a credit card (for rare occasions when I have to take a cab or train to a race), and a house key. Honestly, I don't know how people run with those fancy belts with all the separate water bottles, looking like Batman about to chase the Joker down on foot. Maybe that's the thing you'll decide that you really need, but again, better to work up to it. Whatever you get, make sure it fits pretty closely (so it isn't flapping around or rubbing anywhere) and has enough space for what you plan to carry. I've never found it very easy to carry anything in my hands for very long once I start sweating, and you really shouldn't go out on your own without some way to call for help if need be.
4) A 'good' pair of shoes:
Once you've figured out if you need support for facia tendonitis or over-pronation, shoes are the one place I'd say you have free rein to spend as much as you feel you need. People have asked me what type of shoes I use and what kind they should wear - I tell them the right shoes are whichever ones let you keep running. I personally like a lighter shoe with less cushioning... but if you need that cushioning to keep your knees or ankles from hurting, you aren't gaining anything from being a bit quicker and having to stop sooner because of pain. Use your experience with your 'Just OK' shoes, talk to your running store clerk, and zero in on a pair that offers you whatever correction or support you need.
5) Underwear and Socks:
Really, this could be co-number 4. Your feet and your personal zones are going to take some punishment, they just are. Find yourself some comfortable underwear that hold everything where it should be without any more rubbing than necessary and find socks that will at least hold up (I like a pair with a little bit of compression and a thick sole... but again, that's me).
This might not be the place to mention it, but I'm not sure where else to bring this up. There seems to be a kind of debate in the community about whether you should be wearing underwear with your running shorts (assuming your shorts have a built-in liner). I, for one, come down firmly on the side of the "Yes, wear underwear, what the hell are you thinking? You really want your sweaty area rubbing up against your expensive running shorts?" camp.
6) Fancy Running Clothes:
As previously stated, you really can get by with just some old workout clothes that you don't mind getting all sweaty. You might have more chaffing with "non-running" clothes, but they'll get the job done. But, if you've been running consistently and are ready to shell out some cash to feel more fashionable and more comfortable -- or if the weather is about to turn much colder or hotter than your current wardrobe supports -- then this is another area that feels right to spend a little bit on. Keep in mind though that clothes are washable. You can even re-use items a couple times a week if you have a place to hang them up (and febreeze heavily). Focus on one or two outfits for the current weather patterns at first and put them through the paces, then expand out as needed. Personally, I collected my current cold weather stable of clothes over about the last three years. Especially in the winter, when I sweat a little less, I will use my heavy duty running pants two or three times between full washes. I hope this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, please do not re-use your underwear in these situations.
7) Headphones:
I considered not even including these on the list, because you really shouldn't be running with headphones if you are just getting started. If you intend to run at the gym, then fine, but I strongly discourage them anywhere you aren't used to or that doesn't have, say, race course monitors. If you aren't 100% sure that you'll be able to hear on-coming traffic - and if you've never run somewhere, you can't be 100% sure of that - then you need to focus on listening so you don't end up as a hood ornament. I know it's going to be boring and music is way more fun, but when you're getting started there's so much to focus on and learn about yourself, I think you'll get by.
After that, I'd recommend something wireless (so you don't have to worry about the wire getting tangles), that says put (constantly replacing earbuds that pop out is really distracting), that is easy to deal with quickly (headphones with a one-touch pause and skip song buttons minimize the time your attention will need to be on pulling up the next song), and that has a decent battery life (running out of tunes before you finish your run is a really bummer).
There are some headphones out on the market that use bone conduction instead of going directly in your ears which claim to let you hear your environment. I am currently using these on my runs, and will say that they do seem to let me hear more things ... but no where near everything.
So, use with caution, and, again, save them for the courses you already know pretty well. And KEEP THE VOLUME LOW ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN STILL HEAR.
8) Recovery Items:
Here is a category where I will have to claim a bit of ignorance. I really only have a foam roller at home to roll my sore muscles on when they become extra troublesome and the afore-mentioned compression braces for my knee, ankle, and foot.
There are a whole bunch of products on the market, from roller blade roller vices to spiky balls to (painful), like, sticks to rub on your muscles to calf-stretching levers to something called Kinect Tape ... it's really easy to get overwhelmed. Every time I've been at, say, a fitness expo prior to a marathon, the place is usually lousy with these products and extra fit, young salesmen trying to convince you that whatever they're selling is whatever you need. It just doesn't feel right to me.
So, here above all I would say, wait on these things until you start to feel you need something. Then consider talking to an actual doctor about your options. They may tell you that Kinect Tape or a roller blade vice is what you really need, but I'd feel way more confident taking that advice from a medical professional.
9) Pre/During Race Foods:
Personally, I only really use these during marathon races, but if you are going to be working out any longer than an hour, then you really need to find a way to put some calories and nutrition back in your body.
There are approximately one million different options and brands and honestly, I haven't gone too deep into researching any of them.
My only advice here is to:
A) avoid anything with added sugars or caffeine as these can lead to GI troubles when your stomach starts getting too much and
B) do a couple of trial runs with your item of choice before you bring it to your race - you really don't want to find out that your gel pack is a super effective laxative when you're in the middle of your big race.
General Mood: Attentive
Current Soundtrack: I Gotta Have It
Posted by: Travis From: The Field
Week 7: Starting to feel it
Total Mileage: 347.4
There's not much to mention as far as running this week -- the weather swung from pleasant to bitter cold, culminating in a chilly, misty 14 mile run on Saturday. I'm not sure if it was due to the mileage, the cold, or poor sleep, but I had a higher than usual amount of soreness when Saturday evening rolled around, but a bit of ice on the knees and some time with the feet up seemed to take care of things. I'm going to try to do more stretches and leg rolling this week to see if that helps as well.
***
So, let's give me way more credit than I deserve and say that reading about my attempt to run 2,019 miles this year has convinced you that you should give running a try too. Where do you start?
Do you just open your front door and start running?
Should you start on a treadmill?
What clothes do you need? Which shoes?
Well,before I offer anything in the way of advice, let me state for the record that I am not certified in any way.
At all.
In regards to running or training (or much of anything, really), a person taking their first stride on their first run ever has exactly the same amount of official credibility as I do.
So, please keep in mind, what I can share with you is based ONLY on my own experiences with the sport and informed heavily by many, many missteps I have taken along the way and let that inform you as to whether any of my recommendations make sense for you.
I also want to enter my personal theory of running (if I haven't already done so):
Running is an experience that is unique to the person.
The general activity is more or less the same for everyone, but at the same time is a hugely personal endeavor. Any number of the things that work great for me are going to fall flat for you. I can copy every part of Meb's training regimen, buy all the same equipment he does, fuel the same way, and still take 2 or 3 more hours than he does to run a marathon (most likely way more). The whole thing is not an A + B = C Result situation. Even if our A's and B's are the same, we're likely going to have radically different C's.
To circle back to the question at hand, the beauty of this sport is that you can literally start whenever and however you want. So, yes, if you felt the urge, you could indeed open your front door right now and just go. You don't have to have any fancy clothes or $200 racing flats or a GPS watch or anything - I mean, I've seen folks out there in just their bare feet (I, personally, don't know how they do it, but that's a different conversation). All that equipment will, no doubt, help you perform better, but none of it will replace the actual experience - and in my mind, the experience is the thing that will help you grow and improve more than anything else.
SO, with all that said and firmly in mind, my first actual piece of advice before you start compiling your equipment: find a local running store that you can visit.
Aside from a veteran runner or an actual coach, there really isn't any other substitute. Not only will these places have the equipment, clothes, and recovery implements you are going to need, they are also likely to have a friendly support staff who can point you to the right stuff, along with information about races and running clubs and facebook groups and all sorts of great support if that's what you need to start and/or continue your running. Maybe most importantly - and what sets them well apart from, say, Amazon - they will usually let you try out the stuff before you buy it. In this sport, you're probably going to have to try a lot of things before you find what works for you. A lot of the places I've visited will spend time with you measuring not only your shoe size, but also your stride to make sure you are getting the best shoe for your technique. They are all, categorically, excited to talk to you about running, no matter what level you're at currently.
My second piece of advice: don't buy everything at once.
When you are first getting started it's hard to know what is going to work, what you're actually going to use, and there is a metric shit-ton of stuff out there that you can easily convince yourself you need. Resist the urge to buy 3 pairs of the same socks, or underwear, or running shorts if you haven't actually used them yet. You never know if the socks (or whatever) in question are going to wear thin and rub a massive blister on your toe. The last thing you'll want is a drawer full of blister socks, especially if they cost $10 or $20 a pair.
My true-life example of this is with a certain easily-recognizable brand of exercise underwear. I had used the brand for years in the gym and they worked just fine. They even held up pretty well when I started using them on my runs... for about a month, afterwhich all of them (seemingly at the same time), due to the specific geometry of my thighs and my stride, developed tears which would more or less rub my skin raw within the first ten minutes of any run I wore them. I'll save you the details, but I will say the fallout from these "events" would last several very uncomfortable days.
Not only will this 'buy slow' approach save you some cash, it may just save you a couple painful blisters and chafing.
So get out there and run! Wear an old t shirt! Wear your gym shoes! Wear those sweatpants that you hide when guests come over! Wear whatever you have, but get out there and pay attention to what is working and what isn't. Armed with that info, bring yourself into a local run spot, or track down another runner at work and get ready to chat about recommendations.
General Mood: Anticipating Spring
Current Soundtrack: City
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Week 6: The Dreaded Tread.
Total Mileage: 298.9.
Another decent week; though a bit short on total miles thanks to a couple curveballs. A sick kiddo at home, followed by some cold weather (not so cold that I couldn't run, but cold enough that I wimped out) put me two days off schedule and looking to play catch up. Trying to squeeze in the mileage I needed to pick up between weekend soccer/basketball games meant my only option for my long run was Sunday and when Sunday came around rainy and wet, I took drastic measures: I went to the gym and ran on a treadmill.
Now, far be it from me to deride the treadmill in general – if that's your thing, more power to you, and, by the way, don't let anyone try to convince you that treadmill running isn't quote real running unquote – just, personally, I can't handle it. Something about having the mileage and a timer right there in front of me - I can't stop checking to see how far I still have to go. Plus, the scenery doesn't change enough for me so I just can't get in the same mental zone that I do when I'm running outdoors. Yet, I wasn't really interested in slogging through puddles and squinting into the cold rain, so, I held my nose, put a long podcast on the headphones, found a TV that wasn't showing political commentary, and did what needed doing.
I did have to cut things a bit short, though, seeing as driving to and from the gym eats up some of my allotted run time. Oh well, making some progress is always better than making none.
***
Marathon Stories 1 – The Dallas / Whiterock Marathon Relay (2006)
The first taste I ever had of running a marathon was thanks to my wife. Her office mates had formed a team planning on doing a group relay to complete the Whiterock (now Dallas) marathon. At that time, you could enroll a team of up to 5 people to split up the 26.2 miles into 5 stages of varying length based on the relative difficulty of the course segment. As far as I recall, the group's experience level was not that high, but the team was enthusiastic to take on the challenge. When one of their members suffered a running injury and had to bow out, they were motivated to press on with the race - so, lucky me, I was enlisted to fill the open space.
I don't really remember how much running I was doing regularly at that time, but I can't imagine it was very much (nor very good). My stage was only supposed to be 5 miles, so I figured I probably wouldn't die. My wife and I took a couple training runs (I think) and set out in the dark to catch the DART train to downtown Dallas on race day.
I remember being impressed with the number of people packed on the early-morning train decked out in their running gear, race bibs, and warm hats. It was cold to start with, and the day topped out at ‘‘gloomy' when the sun did finally come up – plus who gets up this early on the weekend if their life doesn't explicitly depend on it? I don't know what I had expected, but it certainly was less than a car this full of people, irrational in their excitement to go torture themselves with this race.
One train transfer and a Nutrigrain bar later, we unloaded and filed in to the American Airlines Center, which had been opened for last minute registrants and to serve as a pre-race waiting area. We found the rest of the team, figured where each of us would need to go to each our individual starting places, and then parted ways for our own buses.
I felt lucky as I sat down on the tour bus that would shuttle me to my station; I had drawn the anchor leg, so would be starting last, and therefor would have a few hours of waiting ahead of me, which I planned on using to nap out of the elements while the rest of my team was covering the distance between us. I did manage to get a decent hour of sleep after the bus parked in the Swiss Avenue area of town, but after that got nervous that I would over-sleep and miss my handoff. For another hour I anxiously gazed out the window, straining to see the team member who would be handing me the baton; completely oblivious to the idea that, at this point, my whole team would need to be running a world class pace to already be there.
People started getting on the bus. Other relay runners - mostly high school and college track teams, by the look of them - had finished their legs and were waiting to head back to the finish line. That's when I started to panic in earnest - "people are starting to get here, surely my person is coming up!" - and jumped off the bus. I wandered over to the handoff corral and waited. Five minutes later, I was freezing, watching the stream of runners going past. None of them looked like the lady I was looking for, and I began to wonder if I had missed her. I watched more and more people come through. I remember seeing folks in tutus; cow costumes; more than one guy carrying a full-sized American flag; even a group of guys in three piece suits and dress shoes, shuttling a case of Key Stone Light between the five of them, drinking and throwing their empties out at the water stops.
It might have only been another twenty minutes - maybe an hour, I'm not sure – but as last I spotted my person huffing up the hill. I quickly stripped off my hoodie and the track pants I was wearing over my gym shorts, balled them up and traded them to her for the team baton (which in this case was a slap bracelet that I attached to my wrist) and I took off at top speed... for about a block before I realized I needed to pull the pace back a bit if I wanted to survive even the (relatively) short 5 miles ahead of me.
The part of the course I remember most clearly was traveling (historic) Swiss Avenue back towards down town. People lined the streets pretty consistently, many with signs or cowbells or both. Many held out bananas, oranges, jolly ranchers, tissues, and other supplies meant to help tired racers replenish themselves. Everyone was clapping and cheering, many calling out encouragement. "Keep going! You look so strong!" a woman exclaimed as I ran past (I can only assume that she was addressing the gaggle I was with as a whole). "Well, I would hope so," I thought, "I've only been running for a mile."
Somewhere along the way, I passed a house with a group of young-ish folks handing out red solo cups. "This is beer," one of them said, thrusting a cup into my hand. I assumed they were joking, but drank it anyway - nope, not joking. "This must be where the frat houses are in Dallas," I mused as I cruised down to Elm Street and prepared to make the last turn back to Victory plaza. Speakers were blaring music and little kids were leaning over the railings to give me high fives as I crossed the finish line, feeling every bit like a damn champion despite having run just under a 10k.
I met up with my wife and some of the others from our team that were still lingering. She announced her satisfaction with my performance (I really don't remember what my time was, but I'm sure I'd be embarrassed by it now) and we all went out to a late-ish brunch where I ate as if I had just ended a hunger strike.
I didn't realize it then, but that's when I was hooked.
General Mood: nostalgic
Sound track: Wired for Light
Posted by: Travis From: the office
January Results:
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Week 5: Welcome to February.
Total Mileage: 253.5.
The first full month of the year done and I'm feeling fairly optimistic. At the moment, I'm on pace for the year-long goal and so far (knock on wood) no major aches, pains, or other complaints. At the outset, I was afraid the increased mileage I was taking on would quickly result in some kind of injury, and while there's still plenty of time for that, I'm becoming a little less worried after each run.
Last week I discussed long-term motivators and I wanted to circle back to talk about some one-shot goals that turned out to be surprisingly effective for me. As I discussed, macro-motivators (the driving force behind all your training) can be hard to define and may change as time goes on. Micro-motivators (the race day goals and encouragements) are a different beast. For example, while it might help you keep to your training schedule, you can't really use a macro-motivator like "I want to lose weight" to power through the last couple miles of your race the same way you might with a micro-motivator like “I want to set a new personal record”.
Having or not having a good micro-motivator in mind can be the major factor affecting the quality of your race – looking back on past races, sometimes it's the most important. In races where I just sort of signed up to have something on the calendar, anything after about 10 miles kind of seemed like a huge chore. I gave up more quickly, took longer walk breaks, ran at a slower pace - nothing was really on the line, so what did it matter how I finished? In races where I'd set a goal, when I had something to work towards, on the other hand, it was like that little extra push, that X factor that quickened my pace, convinced me to run another half mile before a break.
For some people, just trying to beat a previous time, or finishing ahead of someone you had been keeping pace with during the run - even just having to get back home in time for another appointment can be enough to give them that spark of energy. For me, the most effective motivator has been having someone who is expecting me to perform to a certain level.
The most recent example of this came last year when I ran the Irving marathon. My buddy from work seemed to be at least halfway interested in my training, so I asked her if she'd come cheer for me at the finish line. When she accepted, I told her approximately when I expected to be there and I held that time in mind as I set off after the starting gun. It was a truly miserable day outside (cold, windy, raining off and on; terrible), so throughout the course, I kept thinking about her standing around in the cold, asking herself when this slow asshole who made her come out here to freeze was going to show up. The vision (and the associated guilt) helped me push on when I would usually have been thinking about walk breaks.
I ended up running a really strong first half (for me), and held off my usual back-half struggles way longer than usual (with some thanks due to a pace group I fell in and out of). The problem here was that the motivation worked too well; I ended up setting a PR and was gone before she even showed up... so she still ended up waiting around in the cold wondering where I was.
Quick side note - if you aren't a runner, but know someone who is, I can't tell you how much it means to have someone cheering for you along the course. It's an easy way to show that you recognize all the hard work that someone has put in to their training and a confirmation that you want to share in the celebration. I think of my buddies waiting with homemade signs where the New York City marathon took its big left turn towards Manhattan. Taking a minute for hugs and high fives, gave me a way bigger boost than all the other people cheering, the bands, the signs, and everything else along the way.
Both of these examples could be lumped together as "having people waiting on you" or maybe being accountable to someone else. It's the reason that running groups can be such a powerful motivator; if you skip a solo run, you've really only disappointed yourself, and you (probably) aren't going to get too down on yourself about it. If you skip a group run, they (probably) won't be too harsh about it, but you'll have that extra impression of letting someone down.
As with all my other advice, your mileage may vary and you may need to do some experimentation before you can easily lock in on a powerful micro-motivator, but they are out there for the taking and when you find one, I think you'll really notice a difference.
General Mood: Eager
Sound track: Light a Match
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Week 4: trending the right way.
Total Mileage: 203.7.
Pretty standard week for running, all things considered - the most interesting turn of events being the cows escaping the pasture near my house as I was finishing up my long-distance run this morning (they were safely returned to their fields without doing much more than sampling the grass on the other side of their fence). Not much in the way of weather either, though the temperatures have stayed rather cold in the mornings, and I've had to gingerly step over some patches of ice that cropped up where the water usually runs off into the lake. But I'll take kind of cold and boring if it means I don't have to do much schedule juggling.
***
When I ran the New York City Marathon, I spent a hell of a lot of time hanging around in the starters' corral (more on that at a future date). While pacing around trying to keep warm, I saw a guy with a hat that said "J'aime courir" and underneath "Je n'aime pas courir", which I translated as, "I like to run / I don't like to run" and I can't think of a better summary of the love/hate relationship that most of us have with the sport. If I had a similar hat, it might say "I love running / I hate going to run". Most of the time, once I'm out there, everything is more or less great, but I always need some kind of inspiration to do the “get out there” part.
My primary theory about running, across the board, is that it is highly specific to each person; so many tiny little things that are slightly different from one person to the next can make what is, on paper, one of the simplest and most straightforward activities completely unique. I think the biggest mental factor that affects how someone approaches running, the thing that can make it either a pleasure or absolute torture, is their motivation.
Maybe it goes without saying, but it's so much easier to press yourself when you have the right reason to do so (duh, right?). Whether it's to psych yourself up to take on that last mile of your race or simply mustering up the energy to hit the street for a training run; motivation is an invaluable commodity when you're running, and you're going to need a hell of a lot of it if you plan on training consistently. You're going to need to tell yourself why you're dragging your ass out of that warm bed, or scarfing down your lunch so that you can squeeze a trip to the gym into your over-packed schedule, or taking laps around the park while your kid is doing soccer practice. The problem, of course, is that a lot of the time, you're not going to have someone coming around to kick you out of bed or remind you why you should go out there and run. A lot of the time, you'll have to do that yourself.
Starting out, it's more than ok if your whole raison d'être is just “I want to see if I can do this.” Once you've been successful with your running for a few weeks, though, you might find that it doesn't have the quite the same impact. "Of course I can do it -- I have been doing it," one might tell themselves as they roll over and go back to bed, no longer feeling they need to prove anything.
It's also perfectly acceptable for your first motivator to be “To lose weight”, or “To make my clothes fit a little better”, or any other short-term goal - but what happens once you achieve that initial success? After you hit a weight loss goal, or run a mile at a faster pace than you though was possible, what's going to convince you to keep going? My strong suggestion is that while you are working on your first goal(s), spend some of that time (if you're out running anyway, I suspect you'll have plenty of good thinking time) and consider the long-term while you are working towards the near.
In general, I try to keep in mind that the best goals in this case are ones that don't have an end point. “So that I can be a good example to my kids,” or “to add balance to my life”, or - maybe the best – “because I really love it” are the kinds of motivators that can carry you past more than one race's finish line, can outlast any recovery period, and help you convince yourself to start it all again.
I'll admit to a small bit of hypocrisy here as “Try to run 2,019 miles in a year” is a long-term goal... which is basically made up of 365 short-term goals. Though I've never attempted a challenge that went on this long before, I've seen huge drop-offs in my own production when I've completed similar kinds of things; once the marathon I had been prepping for is over, I go on hiatus for months sometimes. I know I'll be spending a great deal of time thinking about this very thing. As the months drag on, I fully expect that I'll need to figure out the next idea I can hold in mind when “Can I keep up this pace for the whole year?” is no longer an interesting question to me.
General Mood:Ready for more
Sound track: Harlem
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Run the Year | Week 3
Week 3: becoming a habit.
Total Mileage: 150.8.
Early this week, I opened up a weather forecast to see if any schedule rearranging was going to be called for. Most of the week looked fine, with some potential rain on one of my off days, but I noticed with a frown that my long-distance day was projecting to be a balmy 17 degrees F when I would be stepping out my front door. Every day for the rest of the week, I checked again - hoping that somehow the jet stream had shifted in such a way that I'd be able to avoid having to sweat for a couple hours in the freezing cold. The projected temperature did fluctuate, but never got higher than 25 and my dread for the coming Sunday morning grew.
As a quick aside - since I live in North Texas, anything lower than 30 degrees F can legally be considered sub-arctic. So, while I recognize that a lot of places are having it way worse as far as cold weather goes, I reserve and hereby exercise my right as a Texan to complain anyways.
Regardless of the weather patterns, the week went on and running went fine, though each morning that I made it out, I kept Sunday morning's threat of bitter cold in mind. I even delayed a much-needed hair cut, telling myself I couldn't spare the extra head/facial insulation.
And then an unexpected - though maybe not entirely unpredictable - thing happened. When I actually dragged my ass outside on Sunday... it turned out to be fine. Sure, it was still cold, it did take me the better part of three miles to un-stiffen my legs, and there were a few random ice patches that I had to side step... but after that, aside from a bit of ice in my beard, it was more or less just another run.
In retrospect, this same sort of thing happens to me whenever I run a marathon (or when I have a really long training run to prep for a marathon); I build the difficulty level up in my head and convince myself I should spend a lot of time dreading it beforehand, only to find that the event itself is perfectly fine.
If you find yourself thinking like me - even if you aren't about to take on extreme cold or super-long distances; even if you are just worried about how hard it will be to tear yourself away from your warm bed when it's still dark out - try to remind yourself (and I will try to do the same) that worrying about the thing is usually way worse than actually doing the thing.
***
I feel like I shouldn't go too much further without mentioning a favorite app of mine, Charity Miles
(https://charitymiles.org/how-it-works/)
It's a pretty straight-forward little pedometer/activity tracking app which I've used for tracking daily runs, short walks, and treadmill sessions, though they also mention that it will work for other active things like biking and dancing as well. It's not as accurate as, say, a gps watch, but it gets you close enough, in my opinion. The draw, of course, is not the pedometer/distance tracker -- it's that for each mile you log, you generate a small amount of money that is donated to a charity that you pick from a fairly extensive list.
I'm not really sure of the conversion rate of miles to dollars - my operating assumption is that it varies based on the specific campaign sponsor - but I really like the idea of turning something I was going to do anyway into any kind of bonus donation for a cause I really support. (For me, by the way, that cause is St Jude's (https://www.stjude.org); which I encourage any and every one who has a kid or knows a kid to support as well.)
You see an ad when you fire the thing up, stow your phone, do your thing, are gently reminded of who your sponsor was (and encouraged to do the social media thing) when you're done, and that's that.
A couple extra bonuses with the app, in my mind:
1) It runs in the background.
So if you, like me, want to use a second app or tracker to get a bit more granular on your routes, this won't stand in the way.
2) It's really easy to pick up your phone and start tracking whenever an opportunity comes up.
For instance, when we take a walk break at work and traipse around the parking lot, or when we have a bunch of shopping to do at the mall, or I decide to park in the cheap lot at the ballpark; it only takes a few taps to start an ad-hoc session and start raising at least a little bit of cash for a worthy cause.
My whole goal with this blog is to help motivate you to get out there and get moving; I hope if I can persuade you that far, I can also convince you to endure an ad or two in the name of charity.
General Mood:Keeping on
Sound track: Jump on My Shoulders
Posted by: Travis From: The Field
Run the Year | Week 2
Week 2: Salvaged.
Total Mileage: 96.8.
This might be just me, but many days when I set out for a run, about 5 minutes in, my brain starts trying to convince me that I should be back at home instead. I then have to fight for the next mile (at least) to get my brain to shut the hell up and settle in to the run. That given, I really shouldn't be surprised that this year-long run would follow a similar pattern; with an early set back that I have to struggle through. That is to say, I felt like I dodged a bullet this week.
Everything started off fine; I was excited to be done with my first week, proud that I actually got a half-way decent blog post up (mostly) on time. I finished off my Tuesday run and decided I could move Wednesday back a day, since I would be getting some extra walking miles that night... which I did... but by the time Thursday morning rolled around I knew I was in trouble.
When the early alarm went off, I had an enormous headache, so I called it and slept in rather than lacing up the running shoes. When the late alarm went off, I felt nauseated, so I let work know that wasn't happening either and went back to bed.
According to my Fitbit, I slept for 16 hours.
I'll spare you the other details, but suffice it to say that I only logged 0.2 miles that day.
Friday morning felt too soon to attempt anything more drastic than a bowl of chicken pho and I despaired that I was going to be two days and 16 miles down and on only the second week.
With my own words from the prior week on my mind, I dragged myself out of bed on Saturday and got back out. I didn't have enough time to get all the miles back, but I did what I could before we all had to leave for a full day of kids' sports and play dates and all that good stuff. I managed my long run on Sunday and then settled in for more rest.
Logging in to my tracker Sunday night, I expected to see a depressingly low mileage number ... and was shocked to see I was actually right on track. I was suddenly reminded of all the time I spent chasing the kids around basketball courts, trampoline parks, shopping mall parking lots, and up and down stairs - apparently, all that extra activity added up to a decent amount of miles.
SO, a small addendum to my Be Flexible rule: you don't just have to be flexible about the days you work out, sometimes you have to be a bit flexible about what your work out actually is.
Can't get out for a road run? Maybe you can challenge your kids to a game of tag? Or a few rounds of Just Dance?
Didn't make it to the gym? I know my kids would be overjoyed to let me give them piggy back rides around the house.
Take a walk around the parking lot over your lunch break. Take the stairs over the elevator when you can. Figure out a few little ways you can add extra movement into your day, do it consistently, and it can add up to at lot more than you might think.
General Mood: Eating solid food again
Sound track: Medulla Oblongata
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Run the Year | Week 1
Week 1: in the books.
Total Mileage: 48.6.
As with any New Year's Resolution, the first week of this year-long challenge seemed really easy to stick with. I found myself popping out of bed before the alarm, running past the mileage I had planned, eager to get as many miles in as I could as early as possible. Maybe since I hit such a wall with last year's goal, maybe because I was curious to see if I could keep up with my new running plan; I was pleased with what I was able to log.
My usual running schedule for a given week is as follows: 4-6 miles on Tuesday & Thursday, and a long distance run on Saturday (usually 10 miles, but significantly more when I'm in serious marathon training mode); pretty light, really, compared to "real runners". To try to get up this huge mountain of miles for 2019, though, I bumped up T/Th to 6, added another 6 mile run on Wednesday, a quote recovery run unquote of 4 miles on Monday, and set a minimum Saturday distance of 12 miles ... which, on an average week would take my running total from 20ish miles, to at least 34 miles. Yikes.
A nice thing about the 2019 challenge -- you can log miles from almost anywhere; GPS tracked runs, treadmill sessions, walking back and forth to the break room for coffee, etc. So, on top of the 34 running miles, I was planning on gaining an extra couple miles of steps from my Fitbit as well.
After comparing my highly detailed and well-thought-out running plan to what I actually did, I came up with my first piece of running advice (tm) that I'd like to share:
Stay flexible and make sure that you are recovering.
Especially in these winter months here in Texas, you never know when you're going to wake up and find that it is pouring down rain and all the streets are flooded. Or when an urgent work email will require you to alter your sleep schedule. Or when a kid's soccer game will be scheduled at the ass crack of dawn. Or who knows, really -- life finds a way, and it usually doesn't care if you'd already had something scheduled.
For me, it was both chilly rain and a work project; but I had to shunt one of my runs to one of my scheduled off days -- since I was focusing on getting a good amount of rest, I didn't suffer much protest from my muscles when I asked them to perform on their day off.
The real test, of course, will be to see if I can keep this pace up, or if I have a significant fall off in the coming weeks. With this many days already on the schedule, I really only have one day I can move… so it'll need to be strategic and only when absolutely necessary.
If you are more on the beginner's side, I highly recommend at least one day's rest per run. You might find that this is more than you need, and if so, great -- but you'd rather go light, get yourself in the running habit, then ramp up the mileage later on, than go too heavy too early, injure yourself and have spend weeks or months in recovery. Stretch before and after your runs, get good sleep, listen to your body while you run -- your body will thank you for it.
General Mood: Feeling optimistic.
Sound track: This is the New Year
Posted by: Travis From: HQ
Run The Year | Week 0
In 2018 (ah, the distant past of yesterday) I completed a year-long running challenge (You vs the Year – 1,018 KM in 2018!), just barely logging my last miles on an early morning in mid-December (on my birthday, coincidentally). Apparently, with this achievement in mind, my wife suggested I sign up for “this thing [she] found online. This is like your other challenge, but you get medals.”
Passing me her phone, I glanced at the Run the Year challenge page, saw the mileage target, and just kind of laughed. “Hon, I just barely finished one thousand kilometers; you think I can do two thousand miles?”
My wife’s suggestions, it must be said, have a strange way of hanging around and this particular suggestion hung around long enough that I got to thinking.
I opened up my tracker for the 2018 challenge and noticed two things:
1) I had hit the halfway point of last year’s total mileage in April
2) I, having only a few more miles than the minimum total requirement, was somehow ranking in the top 9 percent of all participants
With point one in mind, I figured that if I had continued my training after completing the Irving Marathon in April, I might could’ve been done with the whole thing in early August.
Moving along to point two, I realized that most of the people who signed up for the challenge, no doubt in a New Year’s Resolution manic swing, never completed it.
When people at work find out that I’ve run marathons (and I use the word run in the loosest sense possible here), the most common thing I hear is, “oh, I could never do that; it’s way too far.” My most common response is, “it is way too far … but if I can do it, then you could too.” Which is maybe a bit trite, but I say it with one hundred percent honesty – I am an overweight, father of two, cubicle jockey with hair turning grey way faster than I would like, sporting two and a half hours worth of a commute each day, with soccer matches and basketball practice sandwiched between late night laptop work and sleep deprivation. I’ve looked at marathon training programs and despaired at the amount of weekly mileage they suggest at a minimum.
I mean, there really isn’t enough time in the day for any of it. And yet, I’ve still managed to get up at dark o’clock and get out there, I’ve still managed to drag my fat ass along for long enough to cross finish lines and earn those post-race bananas.
A marathon is a truly great challenge; there is no other way to look at it. In my 2018 challenge, though, I finished the race and then basically just hung up my shoes. Maybe, I thought to myself, a challenge this big, this ridiculous, can keep me committed for longer than just over the next finish line.
What’s more, I thought, maybe this can be a chance to show that this kind of thing really can be for anyone. If I can even get halfway through this thing without blowing out my knee, maybe that would prove that anyone can make a commitment like this and see it though; whether it’s committing to running, to losing weight, to learning the piano, writing a book, or any of those other things we all throw out there as the big ball drops in Times Square at midnight.
I’m not sure how far I might get; but I am committed to the attempt. Here’s hoping that somewhere around this time a year from now we’re all shaking our heads in mild disbelief saying, “that crazy, fat idiot really did it.”
Here goes nothin...
Posted by: Travis From: the office
So, taking a moment here for parental indulgence.
Simon is currently in love with writing. Mostly he sticks to his alphabet and his numbers 1 to 10, but he also really likes making these long lists of the names of his friends in his class (with a sprinkling of whatever words he might hear on the tv during his sessions). When he's done he'll have a small manifesto.
This weekend, he was in the middle of such a litany and I was inspired to do a quick sketch of him hard at work. I also thought it would be neat to include the type of work he was outputting into the drawing, so I compiled and copied some of his sheets of paper as well.
(BTW, when he noticed what I was doing, he was highly amused and decided he wanted to draw a picture of me as well.)
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Not too much to say - just wanted to share this.
Posted by: Travis From: the office
I am way, way behind on this - and, yes, Lent is already over. I'm working on a wrap-up/recap so this still kinda counts.
I think this sketch would work a lot better as a painting, or a photoshop since I'm (obviously) not stellar at drawing buildings. There are also a hell of a lot of liberties that I took with recreating the actual setting that I kinda regret - I feel this picture would work better if it was closer to looking like the actual place. The place, by the way, is the famous Citgo sign at the top of the hill around mile 25 of the Boston Marathon route.
Like many runners, the Boston Marathon is my white whale / delusional pipe dream ... which I think is all the set up one would need to figure out what my intentions were here.
Posted by: Travis From: the office
I can't say much about this particular quote project unquote, but I did want to post something to show I'm still working on this thing as much as I can.
More later
Posted by: Travis From: the office
So, I *did* get a chance to come back to yesterday's sketch.
I like the way the turtle shell turned out even if it's not quite even. I usually will sketch things with a bunch of smaller strokes, so it felt weird trying to do these longer, more deliberate lines. Still much work to do in this arena, but feels like a good step.
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Been falling down on the job a bit, but did get a chance to do some sketching today. I've been trying to get out of my comfort zone a bit - I generally don't have a steady enough hand for any kind of non-cartoony lettering, and I think this sketch more or less proves that.
I saw a thing on a running webpage showcasing some running-inspired tattoos; thought to myself that this quote (from the 311 song 'And A Ways To Go') would be a decent selection for such a thing. The turtle shell is there because it's the only other thing I've ever seriously thought of getting for a tattoo (also, it works with a long distance running theme).
Anyway, I'm not super pleased with the finished product... I think I will give it another draft tomorrow.
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Yesterday I wrote a short sketch of an awkward scene that I thought about posting. Ultimately I decided against it as the thumbnail of the story was inspired by actual events, and though the story itself was essentially 100% fiction, I didn't want anyone involved to discover it and misinterpret anything. Not that I have a whole bunch of people who just stumble across content on this site, but still.
Today, I made a sketch that was inspired by the story. That felt far enough removed from the original event that I have included it below.
I would probably want to do another draft of this -- while I like the overall picture (and I really like the whirly awkwardness swirls) the faces in the bowls are way too small (and wouldn't even line up on the faceless peoples' non-faces). I could also see this working a little better as a watercolor -- could be a little less concrete that way. Maybe I'll give that a shot over the weekend
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
So, this probably doesn't exactly count as something creative; but I wanted to write about an event I attended tonight -- and writing is creative, so I've decided that's close enough.
Let me first say that this post is in no way coerced, was not suggested by, nor is intended to be treated as a direct endorsement of the Bing search team or Microsoft or anyone.
That said, I signed up for and attended a "Bing Insiders" meet and great... thing ... at a local Microsoft store this evening. And it was really interesting - and it also was a little weird and maybe weird in the right kind of way.
As far as gatherings go, I feel like I generally understand why we have them -- sporting events, weddings, fan clubs; all straightforward enough. I've got to think that gatherings where people get together to discuss their search engine choices are probably pretty rare on the spectrum of gatherings, though. Among the group of people you might expect would respond to an invite for a search engine discussion, though, along with those presenting where a handful of employees. People that actually worked on the things that they put out in front of the attendees (and soon in front of the general pop), which was really neat. I got to chat directly with people - like, actual people - and that is rare enough even with just calling in to a company help line.
Anyway, the thing that made my head go weird for a second was thinking about the goals of the event; from the company's, from an end-user's, and from an employee's perspectives. There was an odd mix of priorities in play and I was more than a little distracted from the presentation considering them.
For me, as an end-user, I was interested in sharing feedback and maybe getting some 'insider' information about a product. The company, I assume, was there to deliver that info to me, but I also assume the idea was to get me excited enough that I wanted to tell people I met all about the stuff I saw, to generate the ever-valuable word of mouth -- and I guess this post is proof enough that I was activated by the proceedings. The employees, though, seemed really interested in just saying "Look at this thing! Do you like it? I made it!" - showing off their new redesign with the same self-satisfaction that I have when I demo something I coded to my family members (they, however, had the added bonus of an audience who a. cared to watch and b. knew what they were looking at)
I thought to myself, this has got to be a special kind of terrifying and (hopefully) gratifying to those employees. I mean, I'm thrilled when people at my work show even a passing recognition of my name or a past project I worked on; I can't imagine the energy level that would be associated with some random person from the 'real world' bringing it up to me during a road show or something.
It also made me think about our charity events -- how neat it is when we can help artists make a similar type of connection with the 'general pop.' I mean, it's more common for a musician or a film maker to meet up with their 'end users' than maybe a search engine programmer, but when I've been a part of the connection between author and audience, it is always truly encouraging to hear the passion that comes out of both parties during the discussion.
Maybe I need to add another goal to my list to plan a new event or two this year...
***
Also, I do want to throw one small endorsement here to the Bing homepage. If you have even a passing interest in photography, they have a new homepage picture every day, and it is rarely any less than stunning. Sometimes they even run contests where they ask for user submissions (which, btw, I have on insider confidence tends to generate more submissions than their servers & reviewers can handle sometimes).
I'm including an example below (hopefully with all the copy write info needed to display it here).
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
Nothing too major today; did another sketch, you can see it below.
When I was in school and endured however many hours of lectures one of the things that helped me stay awake has drawing in my notes (whether or not I actually took any notes was, of course, a different story) - one of the things I constantly drew was mugs of coffee, usually with steam coming out. My first idea tonight was to continue a quasi-series of drawings I've been doing for my wife and her co-workers loosely based on commercial mascots (eg. an owl with a tootsie pop, a bandit dog with a bag of cookies, etc) but decided instead to do something more original (even if it is a bit of a throw back).
I actually kind of like the way the french press turned out - the shading reminds me of the illustrations for 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' -- but the wolf head on the coffee mug coulda been better. Alas
Posted by: Travis From: the office
Today's project was one I did the groundwork for back in December when I ran the Dallas marathon. The original idea being to set up a picture of the shoes I had trained in (complete with hole by the big toe!) with the medals I got on a backdrop of the poster they gave the participants. I staged the picture, dug out an old point-and-shoot digital camera from the closet and pointed and shot.
Then I made the critical mistake of not checking the results on the computer. I checked on the super tiny preview screen and things looked just fine. The next day I threw the shoes out. Today when I opened the files to edit... they looked kind of terrible.
So, I did what I felt I could with things, the result are below. Not my proudest work, but not terrible either. Plus, if you count all the training I did and the marathon itself - this would be the most work I've ever done for a single piece. Commitment.
Posted by: Travis From: the office
So... maybe I was just a bit too quick to claim any kind of success in this project, as day 2 handed me my first big miss. I didn't really mean to skip my self-assignment; I was just too tired to stay up and work on it. But call a spade a spade, and I'll have to do some catching up this weekend - an event that I can't let become a habit lest I have 38 projects to do over the last few days.
I'll count today as a 'complete' though as I spent a while playing the piano. Well, trying to play the piano and only nominally managing to do so.
It's something I've always wanted to be able to do well - but having never taken any lessons, I always struggle to get through any piece. A few months ago, I bought a few books of sheet music for some of my favorite video games, figuring they would be fun to play and be familiar enough I could at least figure out the right-hand parts easily enough.
Wrong.
Flipping through my book of Final Fantasy VII piano compositions, the tricky arpeggios and key signatures made me cross-eyed before I could hit on a recognizable melody to ground me in the mess of notes. What I will really need to do to make any head way here, I think, is to pick one song out and spend some time to read it, make notes on flats, sharps, and potential fingering and then try taking that to the key board - you know, like a real pianist might do - or else I'll just be lost and frustrated each day that 'piano' is my assigned task for the day.
Keep tryin' though
Posted by: Travis From: The Kitchen
So, it's hard to call one day any kind of a success... but 1 for 1 is a decent start.
I chose to start out easy; just doing a quick sketch to anticipation of the new Legend of Zelda game which is coming out tomorrow.
Aforementioned picture is below. Let's go for 2 for 2, eh?
Posted by: Travis From: the office
So, I generally don't do the whole Lent thing; seeing as I'm not a Catholic. In fact, I'm guilty of using the now-trite joke response of "Lent" when being asked what I was giving up for Lent on more than one occasion. Still, I do tend to think about things I might possibly be able to do without for a full 40 days when Mardi Gras rolls around and this year was no different. This year it occurred to me that what I really need to give up on is the act of giving up itself.
I'll spare you a lot of navel-gazing self-reflection here -- suffice it to say that I have a list of things that I've been meaning to do - projects that have been on hold, some for years now - that has grown to an unsupportable length. These are things I'll spend all day at work thinking about, then decide I'm too tired to attempt when I have a free moment that evening. Things I tell myself I should be doing, but give up on the moment any kind of resistance is met.
So, this year for Lent, I'm making a commitment (among other things) to give up on giving up.
My plan is to report on my progress each day. Hopefully, by Good Friday, my to-do list will have been reduced and I'll have a few new things to put up on the site.
Please wish me luck.
Talk to you soon
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
Surely I am not the only person who struggles with motivation from time to time -- who has an intense desire, a drive, but burns so much energy in excess heat that the torque of their internal engine suffers. Often letting the carrot at the end of the stick dangle in place long enough that the knot comes undone. In the regrettable case that this happens -- that the intensity of a goal once held firmly in mind fades -- most of the time there is no system shock, no punishment handed down, no slap in the face. Most of the time, you don't even notice anything is amiss. How can you hope to notice the evaporation of a possibility unless you were actively pursuing it?
Recently the evidence of such an evaporation came to my attention. A reminder scrawled on a calendar page informed me that the date of a potential harvesting, of return on investment had come and now gone with much of the required leg work left undone. There were no apologies to give -- no one really even knew that they should be disappointed aside from myself -- but I felt a twinge of shame all the same.
In a moment like that, sometimes you are granted a second chance, a second opportunity to fight or fly, to quietly place your cards face down or to redouble your bet. The last few weeks I have been doing what I can to put everything back on the line -- to a least put enough at risk that I will know when the moment of success or failure is determined, to commit to elation or depression rather than mild discomfort.
Heres hoping that any observer will be able to tell immediately which efforts I had in mind when I wrote this down.
(and hopefully not due to the spectacular failure it was)
Posted by: Travis From: The Lab
So, slightly more progress on revamping the gallery. Slow but steady, I suppose. You can even see it below if you so choose.
Also, some planning for new and exciting events has taken place. I won't say any more now, but I'm really excited to move things forward.
Cheers
Posted by: Travis From: The Lab
Here after follows the sad tale of the baseball trophy I made once.
Once upon a time in corporate America, the days were long and boring. A ray of hope shone forth in the guise of the 2014 baseball season beginning. In celebration, my wife and I attended the Texas Rangers' opening day game. To spare the gory details, the game was lousy with scoring and the poor, shell-shocked starting pitcher (his name has been removed to protect the innocent) left the game with a double-digit ERA. The following day, a colleague and I were discussing the outing and how much a pitcher's ERA can swing in the first few games of a season. The next Ranger day game was shortly thereafter, and to amuse ourselves, my colleague, and few friends and I all guessed an ERA for the pitcher that day. The aforementioned colleague ended up being closest and as a reward I gave her a Twix bar.
Every Rangers day game since, we all guessed the starting pitcher's ERA when he left the game, and random prizes were distributed to the winners.
At the end of that season, we declared a winner and I hatched a plan for what the winner's trophy should be. "There's baseball, there's guessing, the trophy should be a magic 8 ball, but a baseball one", thought I.
So, I set out to find one. "Surely," I thought "this is the kind of thing you can just buy from Mattel or whoever makes those things" -- but I was wrong. After much internet searching, I found a couple sad examples; one with a Mets logo... one that was off-color and not very appealing. I was dissappointed but not defeated. "I'll just make one!" I resolved, and set off to buy a regular magic 8 ball.
...and had much of the same results. I'm sure this was just luck, but no store I searched had one; not Target, nor WalMart nor HobbyLobby, nor anywhere else I searched for a couple days' worth of lunch breaks. Ultimately, I found one at Toys R Us, so if you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, I suggest you just start there.
8 Ball in hand, I bought some white spray paint, set the ball on some cardboard on my back patio and sprayed that thing down. Returning to see if it had dried, I realized I had missed most of the bottom section. "No worries" said I, "I'll just do a second coat." After doing so and leaving the ball overnight to dry I woke the next morning to check the results. I found that the paint had dried, gluing the ball to the cardboard, which led to a thick ring of torn cardboard remains around the viewing window... which was covered in this semi-transparent residue -- I guess from the preliminary sprays before the paint was properly shaken? Or maybe from the upside-down sprays when I attempted to coat the bottom? I'm not sure, but the thing was a mess.
I half-heartedly tried to salvage the wreckage with rubbing alcohol and an exacto knife and only managed to come out with a relatively clean, unusable, mangled white 8 ball. It was terrible.
Many months passed before I tried again.
The second time, older and moderately wiser, I took a few extra precautions:
* I covered the viewing window with masking tape before spraying my replacement
* When spraying, I set the ball on a soda cap so that it wasn't sitting directly on the cardboard
* I also set the thing up a bit higher so I didn't have to stand on my head to get the bottom parts
* I also tried to get as much coverage with one coat as possible -- one thing I noticed trying to spray too much on the first attempt, the paint that had partially dried made an odd caked texture on the surface... it looked rather... unappealing.
Anyway, the second attempt wasn't a thing of beauty, but at least it wasn't a complete train wreck. I'm almost proud to (finally) give it away. The lettering on the ERA Champ paint leaves something to be desired and it wouldn't take a well-trained eye to see that the stitching isn't even, but I'll take it.
(Painting is hard)
Posted by: Travis From: The Lab
So, a thousand years later, here is a second thumb to be viewed...
...How's this strike ya?
Posted by: Travis From: The Lab
So, I've been thinking about giving the site a fresh redesign. I mean, it's been overdue for a hell of a long time. I kind of pieced this thing together without actually learning much about MySQL, PHP, CSS, or really any kind of language that a respectable web designer might use, and, like with many other projects, when it worked for me, I was happy and said that was good enough.
I do want to rescript the page to be a little less of a ball of duct tape, but that's not exactly riveting conversation. One of the big things I would like to do is make the gallery pages load a bit faster. Due to general laziness, right now, the preview images are just the full-sized images resized to fit more of them on the screen. This is one of those things that works fine for me sitting at my desk on a high speed connection, but I could see how that might be an issue for people on mobile or with a slower connection.
Anyway, I'm thinking about making smaller thumbnails for each picture which, admittedly, will be a lot of work, but I hope will make the page look cleaner, open up faster, and be less of a burden on data plans.
Here's a first example... nothing much, but I'm going to try to do a handful to see how they look more stacked together and less like the laundry list that the gallery currently has...
Thoughts?
Posted by: Travis From: The Lab
Well, I managed to finally muster up the energy to make an easy way for me to post things in here... I'm hoping that making the process as easy as possible on myself will minimize the amount of effort it takes to overcome my creative inertia.
This place has been on my mind a lot recently. Honestly, it always is, but I feel like it is once again time to refresh the overall design, maybe clean out some old stuff and see about moving forward with mission 0 here.
Assuming I can keep my motivation up, I might even have the energy to record a podcast this weekend... but I guess we'll see when that time rolls around.
Until Later
Posted by: Travis From: The Office
So, I'm going to start posting these. I'm not going to announce it or anything, aside from this, I'm just going to start throwing them in here.
"These" will be little updates about whatever project I happen to be working on at the time -- journal-type entries just to document what I've been doing, what has worked, what hasn't, etc.
I am not announcing them to anyone, because, until whatever project is done, who cares? Maybe there would be a slight bit of interest after the fact, so maybe then I'll make it easy to come in here and see what I had already posted about said project -- I don't know.
Anyway, until then, radio silence.