Run Number Five: I’ve Got Blisters On My Fingers, er, Toes

This evening’s run was, essentially, a repeat of my last run, style-wise, though I ran what I would generally consider a more pleasant route.  More and more I’m feeling strong in the run, though I’m not remotely fast.  It’s a bizarre feeling, in fact.  My lungs are burning moderately, my legs are swollen and aching, and I feel fucking great.  Part of it is the music, I’m listening to, I suppose.  It’s good, kinetic, upbeat stuff.  Stuff with backbone.  I find that my running paces tend to mimic the beat of the song I’m listening to.  I have a lot of fun with that.

I think what’s happening for me is that my runs are starting to take shape.  They’re beginning to arc.  I head out the door and I’m stiff and maybe my feet hurt because I work upright in uncomfortable shoes (really, I’m gonna have to do something about that, immediately).  I might have some mild shin splints that make me feel like my fibula and tibia are negotiating a divorce.  I might have serious questions about some shit that’s going on in my life, outside of the running, and that might have me a stormy as I head out the door.

And so I run up my street and hang the first right and head left thereafter and after about 1/2 mile my lungs are smoldering a bit which, naturally, gives me a bit of a headache.  The run is not helping things.  And at the 1 mile mark, things are not improving, until I hit the big six-way intersection that I’ve got to, essentially, sprint across, and the speed with which I’m able to do that surprises me and afterward, I’m not feeling any more out of breath than I already was and my muscles don’t ache any more and I feel a sort of comfortable warmth all over.

And so I keep running, and I keep feeling better.  Just before the second mile of my route, I hit the point where I start heading toward the house again, and I’m cruising pretty nicely.  “I Know You’ve Come to Take My Toys Away” comes on and I enjoy the lyrics and music so much and I’m cruising so well that I plum forget to start walking again when “Midtown” comes on and I accidentally run through half of my 1 minute rest period.  Not that I’m complaining, and, no, I didn’t give myself an extra thirty seconds of “Asthma Attack” for walking.  I just started right back up again, because, for about half this run, climaxing in minutes 20-25, I felt really, really good running.  And, what’s more, I felt like it was something that I could, with plenty of work, actually become pretty good at.

Anyway, here are today’s stats (all numbers are as approximate as ever):

30 minutes
3.02 miles
9:56 per mile pace

Under ten minutes–that’s the kind of improvement I like to see.  Of course, given the kind of rounding I do, it’s very likely that I’m still actually averaging over 10 minutes–probably in the 10:30 range, in fact.  But the larger point is that, somehow, I continue to improve.  I almost want to have a lesser run with cramping and all that stuff just to make me struggle a bit more.

Anyway, the only new development is my first toe blister.  Between the big toe and the lieutenant.  It isn’t too big, and I’m hoping it’ll heal by Friday when I hope to run again.  Tomorrow is a rest day.  Honestly, I think the blister is more a product of the lousy shoes I wear to work than the running I’ve been doing.  If I hadn’t gotten it, I think I could’ve run a bit farther and faster, and almost certainly I couldn’t run longer.

 

Running a Bit More Aggressively

So, to my huge surprise, with each run, I’ve grown noticeably better at running.  My pace is a bit more consistent, and I feel stronger during the run than I had in the previous effort, and at the end of 30 minutes, I’ve gone just a bit farther than I ever had before.  Really, I’m amazed that I’ve improved with, literally, every run.

That said, it was time to up the difficulty.  If you recall, I’ve been running in intervals: two minutes of running, followed by two minutes of walking, and repeat.  In the end, I’ve run 16 minutes and walked for 14.  Well, it’s time to up the running portion of each outing.  Instead of merely increasing the runtimes and keeping the walktimes at 2 minutes, I’ve decreased my walking time to 1 minute, and kept the run at 2.  Now, after thirty minutes, I’ve run 20 minutes, and walked 10.  It’s a 20% increase in run-time, which I feel good about, and I hope to gradually up the amount I’m running until I’m running 30 minutes flat out.  From there… well, we’ll see.

Anyway, I still don’t have a watch, so I’m forced to use the iPod to tell me when to switch.  A whole new playlist today for the new run:

1. The Replacements – Waitress in the Sky
2. Queen – Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
3. Beirut – My Family’s Role in the World Revolution
4. Operation Ivy – One of These Days
5. The Beatles – I’ve Just Seen a Face
6. Tom Waits – Bend Down the Branches
7. Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof
8. Brian Wilson – Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine
9. Kings of Leon – Velvet Snow
10. Cat Stevens – Tea for the Tillerman
11. Johnny Cash – Send a Picture of Mother
12. The Beatles – Wild Honey Pie
13. The White Stripes – Hotel Yorba
14. Tom Waits – Bone Chain
15. The Mountain Goats – I Know You’ve Come To Take My Toys Away
16. Tom Waits – Midtown
17. The Fiery Furnaces – Asthma Attack
18. Andrew Bird – /=/=/
19. Sufjan Stevens – Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
20. Mewithoutyou – Orange Spider

• Total Time: 32:12

All in all, I felt pretty good after the run.  Tired, certainly, and a little sore, but good.  I ran about 2.8 miles, which is a pace of 10:43 per mile–my best yet.  In high school and college, I ran the mile in about 6 minutes.  Now, I wasn’t much for running, then, though I was in much better shape overall.  I’m certain I couldn’t run a 6 minute mile right now, but I’m thrilled–literally, thrilled–to see my pace trending toward that personal record.  I’m about 80% above it now, but I’m not just dashing 4 laps around a track as hard as I can, and accepting that on lap 4 I’m gonna be slowing down.  I’m moving intentionally slowly in an effort to just keep running as far as I can.  Every thirty seconds I drop off my pace is a big accomplishment for me, and in just the past week, I’ve dropped 1:33–from 12:16 on my first run to 10:43 on my next.

Now, I understand the nature of results.  A baseball team that one 60 games last year could, by picking up a few good players, win 70 or more games this year.  A team that won 90 games last year, through the addition of only the same players, is unlikely to reach 100 wins this year.  The better you get, the harder it is to improve.  So, while I’m seeing spectacular results right now, in a few weeks or months (or even years, what do I know?) I’m going to sort’ve stall out.  Maybe I’ll find that I pace at about 7:00, and so nearly every thirty minute run lands me at about 4 1/4 miles.  I’m not sure how I’ll handle that.  Maybe I’ll just run farther.  I’m just pleased with how I feel during and after each run.  My muscles are sore, but the ache is gentle, and almost pleasant.  I cramp less and less with each run.  My lungs feel better, I breath better.  When I repeat a playlist, I get to later and later tracks before I get tired.  And then I come home and plot my route and pace and distance, and I can tangibly measure my progress.

I understand why so many people run, and why more than one person has told me it’s addictive.  I find myself thinking about running when I’m not doing it.  I want to run more.  I want to run farther and faster.  It’s a wonderful activity just because of it’s versatility.  You can run by yourself or with others–with different types of pleasure.  You can choose your route, and your choices can be versatile–maybe something utilitarian with hills and traffic, or maybe something scenic along a river or through the park.  Running is flexible.  I can get up early and run before work, or I can unwind from work by running away all my stress when I get home.  Or I can wait till evening and run between dinner and dessert (note: haven’t actually done this yet, as it’s baseball season).  There are tons of resources for people who are into running, because it’s something that can be done by anyone.  There is no ego in running.  No prima donnas.  No overpaid self-important asshat sport celebrities.  Hell, the most revered members of the sport are anonymous Kenyans and Ethiopians who populate the record lists.  I can’t name one, and you probably can’t either.  And that’s part of the beauty of the sport.  I cannot name any of its greatest athletes, and yet I’m utterly in awe of them.

Yeah, I think I’m going to stick with this running a bit longer.

 

Learn to Run: The Long Runner

The Long Runner is a marathoner training to run Cactus Rose 100 mile trail race.  That’s 10 times longer than the Broad Street Run, and, I’d estimate about 50 times harder.  Or whatever.  For frame of reference, I’m training for a race which was completed by 19,193 in 2008.  The fastest runner finished in about 46 minutes.  The slowest finished in 3 hours, 15 minutes.  The race he’s training for is so insane/amazing/difficult/intimidating that, last year, only 50 people bothered to enter it.  There we no twenty survivors finishers.  That’s 40% of the field.  And the fastest time was just under 25 hours.  The guy is training to be able to run an incredible distance, when, if you ask me, his biggest challenge is just going to be staying awake that long.

Yikes.

Anyway, he updates pretty regularly, talking about his runs (seems like his regular run is about an hour long), as well as his philosophies on running, races, product recommendations, and any other run-related musings that strike his fancy.  For me, at least, the blog is interesting primarily as a document of someone training to attempt something extraordinary.  That said, it’s also a wonderful source of information as a beginning runner such as myself.

Sure, like myself, you might be wondering to yourself, “what are electrolytes, anyway?”  Long Runner has yet to provide a precise definition, but at least by reading the blog, a guy can get a decent idea of why Gatorade makes such a big deal.

Longrunner’s 100: It’s, like, just 150,000 steps.

 

Not Born to Run, But Learning

There’s a lot to know about running.  Sure, in the end, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, but if you want to keep that up for 3 or 5 or 10 or 26.2 or 100 miles, you need to learn a few things.  Before I began running for the Broad Street Run, I knew nothing about running.  As previously posted, I had to be told to go buy shoes.  Now, I don’t intend to place in the run, or anything.  I’m not trying to become an “elite” runner.  I have a stated goal of 10 miles in 75 minutes, but I’ll happily adjust that goal for reality as we get closer to the actual race.  If I can’t possibly finish in 75 minutes, I’ll shoot for 85 or 90 or whatever.  If I practice run 10 miles in January in 75 minutes, maybe I’ll shoot for 70 or 65 or something.

Right now, I suspect that, through a combination of walking and running, I’d make it about 10 miles in 120 screaming minutes.  (Maybe I’ll try that–a Broad St test run).  Pretending that, by foot, in some form, I can move 10 miles in 120 minutes, getting down to 75 means knocking 3/8ths of my time off (or, for you percentages lovers, 37.5%).  That’s no small task, and, I suspect, just putting one putting one foot in front of the other isn’t going to cut the mustard.

So, we’ll study running over the next year as well as, ya know, actually doing it.  We’ll find some blogs, read some magazines (and maybe some books… maybe), and maybe we’ll harass some doctor into giving us some information on what training and stuff like that do to a body.

We’ll start on the informative posts next time (don’t want to shortchange any interesting sources by lumping them into this post). For now, a quick synopsis of today’s run:

Today’s run lasted about 38 minutes.  Maybe when the first paycheck from the new job comes in, I’ll get a digital watch that’ll countdown intervals and stuff so I can get a more precise time, but for now, I’m more than happy to rough it, timewise.  I figure I’m not off by more than a minute or so, and, for now, as long as I’m over the 30 minute mark, I’m happy.

I traveled throughout Fishtown, traveling 3.33 miles.  Like from Thursday, the weather was cool, and it was raining out, though not nearly as hard as last time.  Something that’s given me a good deal of pleasure so far is how with each outing (all three of them so far), I’ve gotten noticeably better in my pace and in my distance.  I’m especially pleased by this because I’m not actually trying to run faster or farther.  I’m just trying to go out and run.  And, somehow, it’s getting easier.  My first run I paced 12:16 per mile.  On Thursday I ran at a 11:40 rate, and today I ran an 11:25 rate.  My distances went from 2.44 miles to 2.57 and today I finished after 3.33 miles, though that was in 38 minutes.  While the pace might have been improved only slightly in today’s run, my endurance had improved as I had little issuing continuing on for 8 minutes more than planned.

I’m hoping to get up to a point where I’m running 4 miles per outing.  I think I can do this within a couple of weeks.  Obviously, I’ll be continuing to run/walk, albeit over a greater distance, adding the time necessary to cover the distance as my body allows me.

I’ve started clocking the kind of distance I cover biking.  It’s a little over 3 miles (I think about 3 1/4 miles) each way to work.  And though I’m biking the distance, and biking is way easier than running, I’m clocking it just because it is exercise, and I can’t imagine it’s not contributing to my training.  Over the past 4 days I’ve covered about 30 miles on 2 feet and 2 wheels.  About 2/3rds of that has been on bicycle, but while the biking is pretty constant (6-7 miles per day for commute to/from work), I anticipate the running portion will gradually grow. Looking forward to it.

 

Run #2: Rainy Day

Yesterday brought a bunch of pain from the day before’s running.  My legs were stiff and sore, and if I stopped moving for more than a few minutes, they cramped up.  Of course, if I kept moving, they got tired, and quickly.  So, there was no running, though I had a few errands to run, and I walked to accomplish them, so I probably ended up with three or four miles walked, which I can live with.

Today, however, I woke up feeling much better.  My legs didn’t feel 100%, but close enough to it that I felt good about hitting the pavement again.  Katie didn’t have to work until 10:30 today, so she decided to join me.  We ran a slightly longer route than the one I ran on Wednesday–about 1/10th of a mile longer, in fact.  We stuck with my first playlist as the device for determining our run/walk iterations.

I feel a lot better about this morning’s run than I did about Wednesday’s.  I didn’t have nearly as much pain while running.  My chest cramped up slightly about 15-20 minutes in, but I never had the kind of trouble breathing I experienced the first time, and my primary problem was just leg exhaustion toward the end.  I like that.

It also helped that it was raining out.  It hurt my ability to see: raindrops + glasses = blindness.  But the mostly light, though constant rain helped keep us cool as we ran, which I think was good for us.  It was certainly good for me.

I also like that we ran today, in such miserable weather.  It’s easy, for me, at least, to find reasons to not run:  sore body, bad weather, Firefly marathon on the SciFi channel.  This was the first step being actually dedicated to this.  Hopefully, I can keep it up.

 

Oh It Burns!

I just finished my first run.  I’m happy to say I’ve survived, and that I only expect it to get harder, then slightly easier, and then harder again from here on out.

My instructions were to run for one half hour, alternating running and walking.  I expect I’ll be doing this for a while, as, at this point, running for 30 minutes straight would probably result in dizziness and headaches and vomiting and unpleasantries like that. I don’t own a watch, so to run/walk for 30 minutes, alternating a regular intervals, I created a playlist on the iPod.  15 tracks, all about 2 minutes long.  I hoped to run for 8 of them and walk for 7, but that didn’t quite work out.  First, the list:

1. Operation Ivy – Vulnerability (run)
2. The Mountain Goats – Magpie (walk)
3. The Futureheads – Robot (run)
4. The Beatles – Do You Want to Know a Secret (run)
5. The Beatles – And Your Bird Can Sing (run)
6. Panda Bear – Ponytail (walk)
7. Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flower Part 1 (walk)
8. Radiohead – Hunting Bears (run)
9. Elvis Costello – No Action (walk)
10. The Mountain Goats – Going to Malibu (run)
11. The Replacements -  Waitress in the Sky (walk)
12. Beirut – My Family’s Role in the World Revolution (run)
13. The Beatles – I’ve Just Seen a Face (walk)
14. Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof (run)
15. Pixies – Doolittle (walk)

• Total time: 30:37

As I assume you can see, I took a bit of an extended vacation early on.  After 12 minutes of activity, my lungs were burning, my head felt hot, swollen, and I was getting a little dizzy, I’m afraid.  So, by necessity, I took another 2 minutes to walk.  I’m pleased to say the two minutes were just what I needed, as I felt well enough to complete the run.  Though I certainly struggled toward the end, I never felt like that again, and my endgame struggles were more along the lines of my legs getting tired, instead of my body trying to explode.

All in all, I ran for 14 minutes and walked for 16, and covered about 2.5 miles in the process.  I’d estimate that about half that distance was covered in the first 12 minutes, as I was discernably slower after the break than I was before, and I was definitely moving slower than I would have liked during the final 8 minutes of so.  I wish I could’ve run farther in 30 minutes–a 12 minute mile isn’t something to brag about, but I have to admit I’m pleased I actually made it for the duration.  In my previous, less guided, efforts to run I have always given up at that 12 minute hurdle.  I’m pleased that I was able to handle it reasonably well.

I also learned a stunningly important lesson today.  One I’ve learned before, in fact, but always forget when I lose the habit of exercising: eat before you run.  Not necessarily right before, but if you run in the morning, have breakfast first.  I didn’t today, and I’m fairly sure it contributed to my dizziness, and it’s also the main suspect in the confusing feelings of extraordinary hunger and nausea that I’m feeling presently.

I don’t think I’m going to do most of my running in the morning, as my job will have me working from 6:30AM until the early afternoon, and though I like getting up early, I don’t think I have an extra half hour for running like that, when I’ve got nothing but free time in the afternoons.  Hopefully, I’ll just remember to eat lunch first.

 

The Only Absolute Necessity

Aunt Mary, in her first email about running and such, informs us of an important detail:

You MUST have a decent pair of running shoes.  Go to a GOOD running store and they’ll fit you properly.  It’ll cost about $100.  That’s the only absolute necessity.   Do that asap.

Now, nobody in my house knows what constitutes a “GOOD running store” in the Philadelphia area (or any other area, for that matter), so we do what we always do: trust in the goodness of the internets. Google says Philadelphia Runner is the place for me, so off to 16th and Samson I went.

Now, I have never bought running shoes before.  Really, my primary form of sneaker is, essentially, a bowling shoe, which, of course, has no padding, or arch support, and isn’t even much good for walking if you’re going to be doing a long of it.  I have no idea what I’m looking for.  Thankfully, the girl working there (whose name I really should have gotten, as it makes this little documentary easier to follow) knows her running shoes.

So, I arrive, I take off my bowling shoes (which look sort’ve like the shoes above), roll up the cuffs and take a few steps around under her watchful eye.  By her scouting report, I’ve got small arches (aka “flat feet”), and I tend to walk toward the outside of my foot.  Which means I need…something.  I probably should have asked about that, too.  Anyway, I have a shoe with good arch support now.  Tossing in a couple pairs of socks, and a wildly expensive pair of shorts to run in, and I walked out of with $140 of merchandise–all hopefully well spent.

Behold!  The mighty Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8!  The official shoe of TC, Broad Street Runner in training.

I’m only going to use the shoes to run in, and (again) according to the Tubes, they should be good for about 500 miles, so I’m curious to see how long it takes me to reach that point.

I wasn’t able to actually run today, as after buying the shoes I was stuck in an interminable wait to pay our gas bill, and then I took the Viscount down through South Philly for the Flyers game.  So, no running, but 15-20 miles on the bike to feel good about.

Tomorrow, we run for the first time.  In the meanwhile, we begin the bargaining with God for survival.

 

Getting Started Somewhere

My fiance, Katie, recently remarked to me that she’d like to do the Broad Street Run next year.  After laughing at her, and then, later, thinking about it, I’ve decided that, yes, I’d like to do it.  The Broad Street Run is ten miles long, in a straight line down Philadelphia’s most prominent roadway.  I, meanwhile, am an overweight, out-of-shape, mid-twenties non-runner (who apparently is loving hyphens right now), who has never run anything remotely close to ten miles at once.  The goal is to do the run in 75 minutes on May 3rd, 2009.  Obviously, we’ll adjust the goal for realism as time and training progress.

Assisting me will be my Aunt Mary O’Brien, who runs with vigor and enthusiasm and almost unsettling dedication.  And, by assisting, of course, I mean, “instructing me on how to run, when to run, how often, how hard” and all the rest of it.  If I succeed, it’s all because of her, I suspect.  We’re paying her, meagerly, for it, with fancy words and baked goods.

This blog will, hopefully, document the experience of spending a year training for a single event in a field in which the subject (that’s me) has absolutely no experience in the field at hand (that is, running).

So, if you’re interested in running, the Broad Street Run, learning to run, schadenfreude, or long-winded tales of people overcoming their own personal laziness, stick around.  Hopefully we’ve got something to offer you.