Running Therapy

Tuesdays I run "Quality" runs. These can be any kind of hill or speedwork. I overslept Tuesday morning, and I planned on a nighttime hill run. I did not plan on a stressful, emotionally-challenging phone conversation right before the run. Well, my Tuesday night hill run was the best therapy I could get at that time (and the cheapest and least destructive).* I ran what most Spokanites would know as part of the Bloomsday Run (heading west on Riverside to SFCC), but instead of heading up Doomsday to enjoy a mostly downhill finish, I turned around at SFCC to rerun the hills by the cemeteries,** and to run back up the large hill on Riverside that leads from the M.A.C. to Peaceful Valley. This is a challenging run, but I was a runner with a mission, and I easily ran up and down those hills as if I were running on a flat trail. I barely noticed my hard breathing, focusing instead on my playlist (including a heavy does of Motley Crue) and getting out of my head.***

I came home and barely got out of my sweaty running gear before passing out for the night, and this morning--no more stress. All I could think about was my morning "easy" run.****

*I'll admit that retail therapy is my favorite form of "R" therapy, but I have been discovering the benefits of running therapy. I also considered sweets therapy, carb therapy, and wine therapy. I'm glad I decided against these options.

**I don't know if these are actually separate cemeteries, or one big cemetery split by the road.

***Primal Scream is a fantastic running song.

****This morning's easy run was less than easy. My amazing and hard hill run + less recovery time than normal made it challenging, but since I finished, it was still a great run.

Queen of the Hills

Running teaches you things you don't know about yourself. Last summer, running taught me that if I really put my mind to it, and gave something the effort it deserved and needed, that I could do anything. Well, at least it taught me that if I kept going out, putting one foot in front of the other, worked through the pain and occasional heartache, that I could indeed become a runner.* I also learned about some of the secrets of the running life: body glide is not something you buy at an "adult" store; even a bad run can be a good run; learning how to properly spit is a necessity; black toenails have nothing to do with nail polish; not all gels are created equal (flavor wise); and G.I. distress is a frightening thing.**

Running also taught me that if you don't follow the rules--and even if you do--running might punish you. I tried to take advantage of running last summer, and I got punished with two broken metatarsals, which meant months of not running and a walking "boot" that I hated. So, while I have been seriously running since late May of last year, I probably have less than a year of real running in my legs because of the injury.

In the last 3-4 weeks, I have really become serious about my Portland Training. Giving a lot of effort to my runs, listening to my body, suffering through ice baths, watching my nutrient intake, getting more sleep, consuming less alcohol and sugar, and really focusing on the specific goals of each training run. I am a noticeably stronger runner than I was last year at this time, even though my running had been more consistent for a longer period at that point. I am definitely in worse physical shape than I was last year, but I can run harder and faster, and, unexpectedly, I have fallen in love with hills.***

Every runner knows that hills are a challenge, both uphill and downhill. The uphill challenge really needs no discussion--even the non-runner can appreciate it--but downhills offer their own challenges.**** Still, I have really been pushing myself on hill training, and I have gone from a little bit of distaste to a bit of an obsession. Hills have become Benicio del Toro or Javier Bardem or Jonathan Rhys Meyers--each of these men has a decidedly unique look, one that would not be considered conventionally attractive, but I cannot tear myself away from them. Hills are mini-reminders of how much better your running is becoming. It's great for the ego to conquer a hill today that conquered you yesterday. The fact that hills whip you into shape quickly and are great for your glutes certainly doesn't hurt either.

*I previously wrote about what a runner is here: http://runnergrrl30.blogspot.com/2008/07/running-just-might-be-pearl-izumi-ad.html

**Last summer, running made me vomit and not figuratively. My stomach was extremely sensitive about what I ate before a long run. There was a particularly nasty huckleberry pancake incident that I wrote about in a post last August. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out what fuel works for me. That fuel is definitely not GU. I would compare the taste of the caffeinated berry flavor to sucking on a cherry-cough syrup coated penny. Fortunately, the apple-cinnamon Carb Boom reminds me of the filling in an apple donut and stays down.

***I consider the first half of 2009 to be six months of excess. Coming on the tail end of recovering from the broken foot, I was set back by a broken heart. In the past, I handled heartbreak by hours in the gym. Not this time...I solaced myself with sugar and libations; late nights out with friends; not a lot of sleep; and even less gym time. This is BAD for your fitness level. The flat stomach I was so pleased about making it through the holidays with was replaced with my "break up belly." That little belly...and a little more everywhere else...is hanging on still, but my new lover running is showing it who's boss, albeit slowly.

****I'll write about downhills in a later post.

Run Like An Irishman (Run 74)

It had been well over a month since I last ran with the Irish (possibly longer). It had been a rainy, cold day for August, and I decided that I would run with the Flying Irish for my fifth run with them.* Little did I know I arrived on the day they were completing their longest route (closer to 4 than 3 miles).

The "River Loop" starts at O'Doherty's (as does every FI run), heads west on Spokane Falls Blvd., down to Clarke and through Peaceful Valley, across the Sandifur Bridge, up the winding hill path towards the former (current?) Kendall Yards project, around by the health building, down Monroe, back through Riverfront Park, all to return to O'D's. The route is hilly (downhill for a good portion of the start), rocky, and long. Despite this, I ran considerably faster than I had during my previous FI runs. Was I the fastest? Usain Bolt, I was not. But, there were more people finishing after me than there were on my previous runs.

Next time I run with the FI, I get "shirted," which from what I understand involves me standing on the bar at O'D's and telling and Irish joke. I think I have one--an Irish lawyer joke, no less.**

*Yesterday was also my dad's 65th birthday. So, basically when my dad was born, people still ran road races in their barefoot--mostly for the purposes of avoiding rival clans/tribes/Greeks & Romans.

**If you complete 6 runs with the FI, you get a technical running shirt (long sleeve) with the FI logo. There is a brief "initiation" to get said shirt. For more on the FI, go here: http://www.flyingirish.org/.

No One Said This Was Going to Be Easy (End of Week 11)

Week 11 started with a missed run* and ended with vomiting and overheating on an 8-miler. It included hill sprints, stair repeats, sore legs, a blister,** an unexpected generous donation from my favorite tattoo artist, and an inspiring video from Sean "P.Diddy/Puffy/Puff Daddy" Combs about running.***

Thirteen weeks to go until my race. I can run faster, farther, and harder than I could more than 165 miles ago (about the distance I have ran since I started training).****

*I added the time from my missed run to my other runs and made sure to get in the full amount of running time allotted for the week.

**The blister was from walking around in heels all day--peep toes, which I wear less often than closed-toes.

***The Sean Combs video can be found here: http://dailyviews.runnersworld.com/2008/07/diddys-treadmil.html. Diddy reminds runner to be conscious of the run and for the blessing that it is--being alive and being able to run. Sure, a lot of jokes can be made about Mr. Combs, but the man did train for and run the NYC Marathon a few years back.

****I have missed a few runs here and there, so my overall mileage is a bit below the mileage prescribed. I'm confident that I'll be able to complete the race in 13 weeks.

[Also, this post was originally longer and more thoughtful, but I had a computer/internet issue and lost all my work.]

Hill Repeats (Run 47)

Tuesdays are currently hill runs on my training schedule. This week, instead of running a hilly course, I ran hill repeats on the Centennial Trail. Since the trail is right across the street from my office, I headed west on the trail (on the south side of the river) to the bridge over Hamilton Street. From my office to the Hamilton bridge it's just over 1.5 miles, so a good warm-up before I tackled the actual hill.

Once I hit the hill, I was in L.T mode (LaDanian Tomlinson not Lawrence Taylor).* I had seen a few interviews with L.T. over the past few years in which he talked about running the sandy hills behind his home to condition himself for running routes. I know that Tiki Barber, pre-retirement, did the same thing in the Jersey hills. So, my hill wasn't sand, but I am preparing to run a half-marathon, not preparing to run a route while men who are 6'5" and 300lbs. try to pummel me into the earth. With thoughts of L.T. in my mind, I sprinted up one side of the hill and walked down the other, for six repeats. I was out of breath by the time I reached the hill's peak on each sprint, but I felt so strong and accomplished.

I ran the rest of the way back to my office (on the north side of the river) with tired legs and a positive outlook.

*I am fairly certain the original L.T. (Lawrence Taylor) "trained" by cutting back on the amount of cocaine and the number of "escorts" he consumed. I am pretty sure that is not the best training method for me to follow, even though it clearly worked from him.

Run 'Til You Puke (Or, At Least 'Til You "Spit Up")

I am unsure what the line between puking and "spitting up" is, but I think last night's hill and stairs run (Run 42) included spitting up, but I'll get to that.

After my miserable end to week 8 and after spending too much time on the Pearl Izumi running site (see my previous post), I went out last night for a tough hill run, determined to run until it hurt. There's a hill route that goes west on Riverside, down the hill towards Peaceful Valley, and leads to the top of the hill by Hamblen/Hamlen Conservation area. The hill up to the Conservation area is a looping 1/4 mile of climb. The hill back up Riverside heading east is a full 1/2 mile from start to finish. I successfully ran (or, at least shuffled towards the end) both hills, and then I threw in the stairs by the MAC.

Upon summiting the final stair (I believe there are 5 flights), I spit up. I think spitting up is a more accurate description than puking. My stomach contents at the time were solely water and Kiwi-Strawberry Carb Boom gel, and the regurgitation wasn't the gut-clearly event that puking is. I am fairly certain that I have not run harder in my life.

Part of my motivation (aside from the Pearlisms about running v. jogging) was a man with his daughter on the Centennial Trail. The girl looked like she was about 14, and she was in a wheel chair. My uneducated diagnosis of her condition was cerebral palsy. As I was midway up the 1/2 mile hill, I thought about her and the fact that she would like never run--and had not likely ever run. Perhaps I needed a new perspective on running--recognizing that I was lucky or blessed or privileged to be able to even actually physically run, regardless of factors like pace, endurance, etc.

Skipping, Stairs, Snake Charmers (Runs 37 & 38)

I skipped run 37 yesterday (a scheduled 40-minute hill run). I am not giving up on running and training, rather, I have had a general "over it" attitude about everything of late, so my pouty attitude + really hot weather = sitting on the couch watching Olympic Trials and "Throwdown" with Bobby Flay instead of running. This lame attitude got me nowhere, but I did get to watch Mr. Phelps (aka Aquaman) break another world record (which was previously held by him), and I learned that coconut cake is primarily made of butter (literally pounds of it) and heavy cream--no wonder it tastes so good.

Anyhow, as my previous post mentioned, watching Olympic athletes (particularly swimmers and runners with their ridiculously low body fat percentages--google 40-year-old Olympic hopeful Dana Torres) is both motivating and disheartening, so this morning I did my 30 minute run (I actually ran 35), but I threw in three sets of stairs at the MAC (Metropolitan Museum of Arts, I believe--the museum in Browne's Addition). Each set of stairs included 6 or 7 flights (I couldn't get an accurate count, as my breath started to run out at the top of each flight). I am going to run twice tomorrow (at least that's the plan) to make sure I maintain the right mileage for my training schedule.

Finally...I try to run early in the morning. It's gotten quite hot in Spokane, so night runs are out of the question unless I want to run around midnight. Usually the only people I see are other runners and people walking their dogs. This morning, in addition to those two categories of people, I also saw a man wearing what appeared to be a red bathrobe--not the kind that ties at the waist, but the kind that my mom used to wear in the early-1980's, that slips over your head and has a zipper that comes down to your chest. The man was walking west on Pacific and playing what appeared to be a recorder, you know the instrument everyone learns in third grade music class? He looked like he was attending an Arabian Nights-type costume party dressed as a snake charmer. I was tempted to run by to get a closer look, but I decided against it.

The Hills is not just a bad "reality" show (Run 32)

This morning I entered the "strength phase" of my training. For the last six weeks, I have run five days per week, with long runs on Saturday mornings. The strength phase differs from the "base phase" with its addition of hill and tempo workouts. This morning was my first "hill workout."

My training materials tell me that I am to warm up, and either run an overall hilly course or add 4-8 hill repeats in the middle of my workout, and then cool down (for a total of 40 minutes). I created a "modified" version of this plan, running on a flat route for 10ish minutes, and then doing 10 short hills (running hard up and walking/jogging down). I ran short stretches of road/sidewalk between the hills, and then I ran about 8 minutes at a normal pace to finish the workout. I was moderately impressed with my own running abilities this morning, at six a.m.

I had created a specific playlist for this morning's run, which I neglected to load onto my iPod. So, I played some random tunes from my "RunnerGrrl" general playlist. This morning's hill workout was fueled by: "Put Your Hands Up," Black and White Brothers; "Battle Without Honor or Humanity," (from the Kill Bill soundtrack); "Faint," Linkin Park; "Under the Knife," Rise Against; "Knock 'Em Out," Lily Allen; "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing," Chris Isaak; "Liar Liar (Burn in Hell)," The Used; "Sabotage," The Beastie Boys; "Hospital," The Used; "Drama Queen," Switches; "Dance, Dance," Fall Out Boy; "Supermodel," Jill Sobule; "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson; "Ch-Check It Out," The Beastie Boys; and "In Da Club," 50 Cent.