Gearing Up

I may have graduated, but I still believe in back to school shopping. I figure, I am working just as hard as I did in school, so I deserve to gear up for a new season and a new year. Only now everything seems to be running orientated... go figure.

Purchases in order to be properly prepared:

Gary Garmin

This is the reason why my new favorite number is 610. Meet Gary, my new training partner! I have decided to upgrade from a regular Soleus timing watch to the big daddy- the newest touch screen Garmin Forerunner 610. So far I have absolutely loved it. Besides being slightly depressed after realizing how slow I actually do most of my runs, I am in obsession mode. I can tell my cadence with the foot pod and I am getting some of the first heart rate feedback I have had in many years. Lots of information all at my fingertips. The best part is that I get to upload all the info my 610 gives me right to the training log I have been using for 5 years- Logarun. It has been a great way for me to log/journal/record all of the stuff I have trouble remembering. I can't express how important it is as a runner to keep track of things like your mileage, sleep habits, weight, weather, and the way you felt after races and work outs. You can see patterns and habits that you may not be able to see with out a log. Some of it seems like common sense, but we all know how easy it is to let life just kind of rough us up a bit. PS- the graphics and the way Garmin Connect sets up the website and info is really great! I love the map of the route I ran. I can see everything! Plus, it is so much thinner than any of the GPS watches I had seen. Fits my little wrist just right!

Fire, as worn by the Asics DS Trainer

Of course, in a healthy relationship it is only fair that you give as much (or more) as you receive! So my surprise for Derick was a new pair of DS Trainers! They were perfect Trinity colors. He used to run in these and while he has a new pair of running shoes (see below!) now I figured they would make a great coaching shoe! He fought me a bit on the size (he has worked at a running store as well, if you are in Ohio go here: Columbus Running Company) but I won. They are just a color update to the DS Trainers set out this year, but I loved the red. I am still waiting on feedback from Derick, but he has worn them a couple times. They have to compete with the new wear test shoes that Puma sent him and his new running shoes(New Balance Road Minimus) but I think he likes them.

New shoes+ Old feelings = minimalist

Enter Derick's new running shoes. He has never really been a minimalist runner, buuuut I have been begging him to get new shoes for a while and these are what he went with. The New Balance Minimus. I have had a pair for a while and I just use them for work. After my race at Jon's Run, I realized that my feet are not quite as young as they used to be and I need to be careful of which shoes I run in. For me to transition into minimalist running, I have to take a very cautious and slow approach. Derick, on the other hand has been wearing the same pair of DS Trainers and old Puma flats for years. That is basically like running minimalist- no cushioning and most of the support is long gone. The Road Minimus basically feels like a racing flat, for those of you who are familiar with light weight shoes, and Derick has been able to just start running in them and not look back. I am a bit jealous! My Brooks Adrenalines and I will always be best for each other, but I miss the days where I could pop on a pair of flats or spikes and just run fast for a bit. Derick hasn't complained one bit about the lack of cushioning or flat feel. I tried to get him to grab a pair of the NB 1190's but he stayed solid on wanting the Minimus. Runners who are wanting a great transition shoe in the minimalist world would be very happy with the road or trail Minimus. New Balance has done a great job of re-vamping their style, approach, fit, and technology to be on a whole new edge of running.

Minimalist by heart,
but nature calls for a little help for my feet

The other side of New Balance: Trail Minimus. This is the new women's color and they were great at work today! I have a pair of the Road Minimus, and I have been so in love with them I refused to go to the other side! Until today. The fit is very different than any shoe I have had. Automatically I want to stand differently when I slip the shoes on. With very little heel, my feet sit flatter on the floor and I use my forefoot more. In some of my other work shoes, I get some pain in the balls of my feet because the taller heel shifts my weight a bit forward and I put a lot of weight on that part of my foot. While I can't run in a minimalist shoe, I can still benefit from wearing them at work! They help my posture at work and while my calves were sore after the first few times that I wore them, they feel much better now.

More my speed

The Nike Lunarglide was the first shoe I purchased at Run On! when I got the job. Generally, in retail, you should get used to wearing the product that you sell. My first day I showed up in a pair of Derick's Pumas. We don't have a single thing by Puma in our entire inventory... I had to catch up quick! My old closet of shoes used to include about a 75/25 ratio of dress shoes to running shoes. I really only needed one good pair of training shoes and a pair to race in. Now, I actually forgot that I still have a pair of cute boots and at least one pair of heels in my closet. I am in running shoes almost 24/7 now. The ratio has tipped quite heavily towards the cushioned, supportive, and colorful athletic footwear! I have become such a huge shoe nerd. For 6 years, I was strictly a Brooks loyalist. Still loyal, but quite curious now, I have explored and found many shoes that I like the feel of. The fun part has been being able to try the different shoes on my runs and workouts. The Lunarglide has been a great shoe. First time on they seem to have a semi-firm feel. But walk around in them for a day and you feel them soften right up! One of my favorite work shoes and a shoe I can run in on lighter days.  

The Sacrowedgy

You can not overlook injury prevention when you start running again. With some of the back pain and sciatica I have been having, Derick recommended the Sacrowedgy. I ended up needing the guys version as a "taller slender female" because my hips apparently are "shaped more like a male" as the instruction manual puts it. It was "a more natural and comfortable fit"...It is a pretty awkward device but I haven't used it enough to tell what the difference is. The goal is to help situate the hips like a sports medicine or a chiropractor does. I will keep you updated on the results of this fun-looking device. 

Kettle Bell does not equal Kettle Corn

The final purchase we made was a little Kettle Bell. While I try to stay motivated and get to the gym, I don't always have that much energy. Body weight has always been enough for me, but I have seen the light. The lifting light. I feel strong is when my arms can match the effort of my legs and my heart. Apparently, I don't weigh enough make that happen. The Kettle Bell helps with that. At least I can look at it now and remember that if I was motivated enough to buy it, then I will sometimes have enough motivation to use it!



GIGI'S CUPCAKES

Of course after a long day of shopping and gearing up for the upcoming season, it is easy to have your energy sources depleted! Simple solution: EAT AT GIGI'S CUPCAKES! They are amazing and I have eaten way to many of them. Easily my favorite is the Red Velvet Cupcake. Beware, they only make certain cupcakes on certain days. But just look at the pictures...the frosting is taller than the cakes and I would run a very long distance to have these amazing little things.  

Also- I have a wish list of other things I am waiting to gear up on. Next on my list is the Stunt Puppy leash so Derick and I can run hands free with Sherlock.

The Stunner

Freaky Friday

The past few days I have been feeling pretty awful. My work outs were getting worse instead of better and everything just seems harder than normal. Not really the norm for me. I must have peed in a magic water fountain or opened a cursed fortune cookie and switched places with this other person I have been. Obviously these are the only logical explanations. Or maybe I tied my shoes the wrong way...

I was debating on what to do: take time off and give myself some rest or try and push though.

One of the toughest things to do in running is to figure out what pain is OK and what exhaustion level is OK. And where to draw the line. Even if you are being a good little consistent runner, the line is never consistent. One day, you are pushing through a calf cramp and a month later it is a torn hamstring. You fight being tired only to end up tapped out, burnt out. How can you tell what to run through?

Mostly, I think it is an individual choice. Since I believe that our choices help make us who we are, I take most of mine pretty seriously. So, it is hard to approach a choice of running or taking time off- except for SAS, I don't really want to be thought of as weak! But that leaves only one option: run through everything. Force it. Force it to work. Force your way through the hard, the tough, and the ugly. I always believed the right things would happen if I just made the tough choices.

One problem: Force is not the same as Confidence. Forcing your way through a work out means you can only do just that. Use force and get through. Force it till you can make it. Only this isn't a reality TV show and you can't just "fake it till you make it". Force is not fight, nor is it heart. It just is. The force I am talking about is not the drone defeating, Darth Vader slaying, Obi Wan Kenobi force. This is the dark side force. The one that should hardly ever be used. Forcing a work out, forcing that second run, forcing those drills can be the very thing that makes you weaker. Not stronger. The mental edge you could lose is not worth the physical gain.

At least to me, the key is to build those things into your routine. That is where the gain lies- building yourself into something instead of trying to bend yourself around some sort of plan. This past year I have forced a lot of things. Everything from mileage to recovery. I haven't built very much of anything. It is true that I have been trying to work on my weaknesses, but I feel like I have lost touch with my strengths. Example A: I am super at recovering, if I give myself time to do so. Doubling every day has left me more exhausted than anything I have ever done. That includes the SCAC meet where I ran the 1500m, 800m, and 5k all in the span of a few hours and lived. I was less tired then than I am now after some of my simple 40/20s. It is not really the doubling, but the fact that I am not giving myself the correct time to recover. There lies my one of my problems. I am forcing too much work. I wanted to be good really really fast. So just do it all at once, right?

Why would I have to force something I love to do, you ask? Well, simple. 'Tis because I have been fighting myself the whole way. My comfort zone is in middle distance work. Short. Quick. Painful. But over rapidly. My mental edge has always been in trying to stay stronger than my competitor just long enough to finish up the race. Try doing that in any distance over a mile...hard stuff. You have to have something else to keep you going. Confidence. Drive. Heart. And lots of Fire. You also have to have more than 30 miles a week. Switching gears like that has taken me to a whole new level of strength I didn't know I had, but it has called my lazy butt out on all the little things I never took that seriously. I did just enough core to keep my IT Band from flaring up. Just enough arm strengthening to keep me strong down the last stretch. Doesn't really scream FIRE at you does it? I wanted to be fast, I didn't understand everything it would take to get there.

While I may have lost sight of a few of my goals lately, and I have been struggling to keep my motivation up, I am definitely learning a lot. I know the base I have gained over the past year has been great. I know that forcing myself through some of those work outs showed me I can really do well at distances over 1500m! That is a huge step for me! My idea of rhythm during a work out used to be hitting 67's for 4x400 and calling it a night. Now I understand there is this wonderful groove that you can find during a tempo that takes you farther and faster than you think you can go. Taking the splits for those longer distances is addicting. You want to keep edging a little more time off each mile. I have definitely found my heart in some of those work outs and found a love for distances I never thought I would want to meet.

I am also learning a lot by reading what other runners are going through. My favorite runner used to be Shannon Rowbury. While she still has this special place in my mind, I have a few others making their way to the front of my inspiration block. I have been reading Lauren Fleshman's blog and I have to say I am a bit obsessed. Her attitude towards running and life has made me laugh, cry, and hope. She is an incredible runner and if I could end up with a shadow of her life I would be doing pretty well. There are runners everywhere trying to make the most of their legs. Runner's dreams riding on 10 toes, the strength of their bones, and the power and endurance in their muscles. While we are all taking different paths and running different roads, many of us hope to end up on the same track. Most professional runners seem to have had some sort of injury before, so at least I know I am not alone there! I have a long way to go until I even somewhat resemble a professional athlete, but until then, I will just say I am a pro runner trapped in a jogger's body. And smile on. With the help of people like Taylor Penrod at least I can look good while I do it!  

And one final note of good news- after spending a whole summer in Texas believing our apartment was supposed to get really hot over the summer, Derick and I now have a fully functioning air conditioner! I no longer wake up sweating unless I have the terrible "Revenge of the Runner Buns" dream again.