Category: exercise

My running shoes are worn out. Runner’s World suggests changing your shoes every 300-500 miles, and I know I’ve put more than 500 miles on my oldest shoes, so it’s time for new ones. And since I’ve been having heel pain for a while, I’ve been re-thinking my loyalty to Brooks’ shoes. I wanted to try some other shoes and see if that helps.

I went to my favorite technical running store, Portland Running Company yesterday. Tried on several shoes, but unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of choice, because they didn’t have many wide sizes in stock. Bummer. I don’t normally wear a wide shoe, but I do in my running shoes. The kind salesperson said he’d special order some of the Brooks’ Adrenaline GTS 6 (the update to the shoe I now wear) and was going to have some Asics GT2100’s in a wide size sent over from their other location. I said fine.

But, y’know, I really wanted to get some new shoes now.

I went over to Fit Right NW, and explained what I had been wearing and about my heel pain. The kind salesgirl brought out a bunch of different shoes, including the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 5’s I’m used to, and we did a comparison. And, in the end, I really liked the Asics GT2100s and the Adidas Supernova. The selection was much better than the Portland Running Company; there was no problem with finding sizes to fit me. I couldn’t decide between the two, and, since it’s good to have two pairs of shoes and rotate them, I ended up buying them both (the fact that the salesgirl looked like the runner version of Jennifer Love Hewitt had absolutely nothing to do with my purchase decision).

Thinking ahead, if I run 20-25 miles per week, and I alternate my shoes from run to run, I will need to start thinking about replacing them in 6-7 months, or about the time the Shamrock Run rolls around.

Ran in the Komen Race for the Cure today. They run a co-ed 5K run, a co-ed 1 mile walk, a women’s-only 5K run, and a co-ed 5K walk. I ran the co-ed 5K with my nephew, Max, who is 13. Because Max is a new runner, I didn’t care much about pace or speed; I just wanted to stick with him. We finished in about 38 minutes. There were so many people! I think there were 25,000 people registered for the race we were in, and I heard later that the co-ed 5K walk had over 43,000 registrants! Wow! It was the largest Komen even on the West Coast.

After our race, Max and I got breakfast at the Hilton downtown; they have an all-you-can-eat buffet that’s pretty good. After loading up on bacon and eggs and fruit (mmmmmm…) we went to find my sister. My sister (Max’s mom), and her mother-in-law were walking in the co-ed 5K walk. We found them near the start line, and ended up walking the entire route all over again! It was fun, and I’m glad my sister did it, but man is my heel bothering me now. I’m icing it, even as I type…

There were plenty of booths giving away free stuff, and I brought home a container of Pacific soy milk (mmmm… vanilla) and a container of Tazo Chai tea, along with some other doo-dads and gee-gaws.

Running update:

I’ve been taking it easy this week, but I’ve still found time to run. Last night after work I was planning on a 6+ mile run, but it was raining, so I hied myself hence to the gym. Because of the time restrictions on using the treadmills (loosely enforced but still important) I ran 3 miles, took a small water-and-bathroom break, then found another machine and did the remaining 3 miles. I managed to repeat my pace from the Pints to Pasta race, albeit with the help of the break.

(Speaking of which, the official results for that race have been posted. I came in 555 out of 787. Yay! It was a good race.)

I also ran on Wednesday,in my neighborhood, and on Tuesday around the waterfront, 3.5 miles and 3 miles respectively, but didn’t keep track of the time. Adding in the Race for the Cure tomorrow, my weekly miles equal 15.6, a nice easy week after training so hard.

Next week I plan on getting back to my 20+ mile weeks, and to add back in my speedwork or hills. I also plan on seeing a doctor about my heel pain, and to get a new pair of shoes. Brooks has updated the Adrenaline model; we’ll see if their being bought by Russell has had any impact on their shoes. I intend to try more than just Brooks, though…

Didn’t want to think about this right off the bat, but during my race yesterday I kept track of (most of) my mile splits. Here they are (with the split plus elapsed time):

1. 09:44.99 (0:09:44.99)
2. 09:38.84 (0:19:23.83)
3. Didn’t see the 3-mile sign…
4. 19:53.20 (0:39:17.03)
5. 09:47.12 (0:49:04.15)
6. 11:24.63 (1:00:28)
7. 1:47:33 (1:02:16)

Up until Mile 5, I managed to keep a 9:48 pace, dammit! I was doing so well. That last full mile killed me… Yeah, I had to stop and walk a bit. Grabbed water at the water station right after the Mile 5 sign, then had to stop as we passed the Marriott… then had to stop again on the long dirt road by the new OHSU buildings that are going up. But dammit, at least I finished strong…

Unofficial time in the Pints to Pasta: 1:02:16, for a 10:01.2 pace, or about 38 seconds per mile faster than I ran the Run Hit Wonder.

Yay for training! Yay for resting!

The best part is, my heel, that’s been bugging me? It didn’t hurt at all during the race nor after. Resting really did help!

And I got to drink two beers (Widmer’s Oktoberfest seasonal, very good) and stayed for some music. A great race and a good way to end my season.

Oh, yeah, running schedule for this week. Um… OK, here:

• Monday: 3.5 miles training (no timing)
• Tuesday: Elliptical trainer intervals 5 miles total.
• Wednesday: Rest day.
• Thursday: 4 miles – run at race pace
• Friday: Rest day
• Saturday: Rest day
• Sunday: Pints to Pasta 10K

Running helps me deal with the sadness and frustration of the twin American disasters. The first, Hurricane Katrina, was natural in cause. The second, ongoing tragedy, however, is the government preparation and response to the first one.

Take note, kids: Republicans. Can’t. Govern. Bush has demonstrated what he’s done to learn from the lessons of 9/11. Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

See? I can’t talk about anything without talking about my outrage. I’ll post more later. Remind me to tell you about the National Guard troops stuck in Iraq with families in the affected area. Short version: if their families are confirmed dead or wounded, they can come home. If they’re just missing, or refugees, the troops are shit out of luck. They stay in the sandbox.

Deep breath. Getting a grip.

But for now, I wanted to post my running times. Ran 7 miles tonight, my longest single run ever. It’s part of my preparation and training for the Pints-to-Pasta 10K, which I’ve chosen as my season-ending race. Last year I performed incredibly well, running the race in 59:54.5, for a 9:40 pace. I hope to do at least that well this year. And my plan has been to increase my long run until it was more than 10K and run it several times before the race, to build up my endurance, and to work on my bursts of speed with hill- and speed-work. Yadda yadda, I’ve explained this before.

At any rate, tonight was the stress test of my training. And I think I’ve done quite well. I finished 7.01 miles in 1:13:58.2, for an average pace of 10:33, which I think is very good considering my poor results in the Nike RHW last month, not to mention my horrible time last week. Hell, last week that was practically my time for 6.5 miles.

My time at the 6-mile mark was around 1:02:00 or so, which put me at a 10:25 pace. Keep in mind that I was running on the street, in warm (but not hot) weather, and I did stop several times for water. The P2P course is almost entirely downhill, and I will be pushing myself harder, so I’m really pleased at where my training has brought me. I’ll continue to work on speed for the next couple of days, then taper for at least 2 days and maybe 3 if I can stand it, so I’ll be running on fresh legs for the race.

I’ll also be running in the Race for the Cure co-ed 5K, but because there are so many entrants in that one, and because I might be running with my 13-year-old nephew, I’m not planning on having a great time in that race. I’m going to stick with my partner, and make sure he enjoys the race, and not focus on speed.

I might look for another 5K to run in myself, though. With my great 4-mile times (sustained sub-9:30 pace) lately in training, I might be able to (finally!) post an equally-great “official” race time for the 5K this year.

I know I haven’t posted a running schedule for this week. I’m basically following the same schedule I posted last week, except my long run is going to be 7 miles.

Which means, tonight I was scheduled to do speedwork on the elliptical trainer at the gym. And, I did.

I ran my warmup at a very brisk pace; I set the machine for a 9:32 pace, then around .4 miles, I increased it to 9:22, then pushed it to 9:15… yeah, I just kept pushing the pace faster and faster every .1 mile or so. Had a lot of frustration to wear down. Didn’t work, but, hey. Oh, and I ended up doing 1.25 miles, instead of just 1 mile. Go figure.

Then, on the elliptical trainer, in spite of the left footpad being loose and making a “clunk” noise every so often, I did my normal 30 minutes, with 8 x 0:30 “sprints” and 1:30 of “normal” pace in-between. And I increased the distance I went in my 30 minutes, up from 2.72 miles last week, to 2.8 miles this week, an increase in overall average pace from 10:59 last week, to 10:43 this week. I guess if my pace on the elliptical trainer ever reaches my 5K race pace (best pace 9:27) I’ll know I need a new speed workout.

Finished with 1 mile of fast-but-not-as-fast-as-my-warmup running on the treadmill, and a quarter-mile of walking to cooldown from my cooldown. Yay.

Side note: warming up, I was directly behind this very cute girl with an amazing dragonfly tattoo on her back, between her shoulder blades. Kept telling myself I should at least compliment her on it. But the timing of my workout and hers never gave me the opportunity to catch her when we both weren’t in the middle of a workout. Oh, well.

From Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon, I ran a total of 15.5 miles.

Which is almost as much as the average Hood to Coast runner did between Friday morning and Saturday evening (196 total miles, divided by 12 runners on a team, equals an average of 16.3 miles per runner).

So, in a small way, my weekend was almost as grueling as running in the Hood to Coast.

OK, not really. I didn’t have to sleep in a van with 5 other sweaty runners and eat nothing but energy bars and Diet Rock Star and not shower or shave for two days, along with all the rest.

But it gave me a small idea of what it might be like. I think I might be ready for HTC next year.

UPDATE: Since I’m able to get up or down stairs easily, unlike several HTC entrants I know right now, I’m going to say I definitely haven’t pushed myself as hard as I would in the HTC.

Turns out I was wildly optimistic (next-to-last paragraph) about my 6.5 mile run. I finished the route in 1:13:31, for a pace of 11:15.5 or so.

Full disclosure: I had to stop the clock just before the 5.5 mile mark, and use the bathroom in Sellwood Park, which gave me a break of about 10 minutes or so. But my intestines would have burst if I hadn’t…

Ugh. Hard to breathe, had to stop and walk quite a bit. It wasn’t overly warm. I mean, it was warm (in the high 80s when I started out around 6:15 PM) but not like Texas heat or anything. Stupid allergies.

After I crossed over the Bybee Bridge, I discovered that my route coincided with a section of the Hood-to-Coast relay (specifically Leg 12), so for a couple of miles I was running with company. There were volunteers along the way, and they would clap and give me encouragement just like the runners in the race. I didn’t tell them that I wasn’t an entrant, even though, technically, they should have noticed that I didn’t have a bib number on, but maybe it just didn’t matter. I was a runner and they were encouraging me.

I was worried that the lady volunteer at the spot where my route split from the race route was going to yell at me for not following directions, but she just gave me a glare and let me be.