Why?

1. The blog has been locked because it "has characteristics of a spam blog." Huh? All those ads for fake meds I've been posting, I guess. If this is posted, however, it means Blogger deemed it "not spam after all."

2. A toenail on my right foot is purple/black and will most certainly fall off in a few months because I'm too chicken to poke a hot drill through the nail. Has anyone really done that? My shoes have always felt pretty roomy, but now I wonder if they're still too small.

3. The Nike+ worked perfectly this morning. I had the most accurate mileage reading ever and still without calibrating it (I have a date with the track tomorrow but I'm a bit intimidated.) Andy thinks the gizmo must like him - as soon as he was running with me again, it worked. Either that, or it thought it was helping me through the race by giving really encouraging splits. Side note: One of my favorite words is resistentialism, the idea that inanimate objects rebel when we need them most.

4. My "easy runs" are so often (like this morning) the least easy of my runs. Maybe because I've been running them mornings for the last month (I've never been much of a morning person)?

Chinese New Year 10k

Despite the night of heavy rains, 6:30am this morning dawned misty and overcast. Our downstairs neighbors had picked the night to pull an all night hang out session, and as a result what sleep we got was punctuated with trance music. They were still at it when we got up - the pitches and rumblings of their voices pressing toward us as we stumbled into our running clothes and shuffled money and sweat shirts into a backpack. Then our friends were outside in the car and we were off to Chinatown.

As soon as the race started, it was clear that Andy wasn't going to wait around for anyone. He had an ambitious goal of finishing in 53 minutes, and a slow start would kill his plans. He wished us good luck and headed out. Juanjo took off after him and Willow and I settled in at good slow pace, around an 11 minute mile. We chatted easily for the first two miles, then began upping our speed and at the end of the third mile, we were tired. I was just under my 5k time from a few weeks ago, and we still had 3+ miles to go. We watched the 5kers peel off toward the finish line, then looked in horror as volunteers pointed us up what looked like one of the steepest hills in San Francisco. I thought for a few seconds, then walked it. Willow followed my lead. It probably saved our time. At the top, we launched back in - up a smaller hill then down steeply for several minutes. "Lean forward as much as you can," I told Willow, "and rest." We passed mile 4. I'm not sure how fast we were going at that point - fast enough for it to be work, but not so fast that it was killing us. We passed mile 5, still feeling OK, and this time stopped for water. I drank a full dixie cup and immediately felt my stomach lurch, threw my second cup, still full, into the trash barrel and continued on.

As we headed into the smaller part of the enormous hill before the final sprint to the finish, Andy came jogging back toward us. We had just hit the hour mark and he knew I was going to come in near my goal time. He ran with us back up the hill and then Juanjo came up behind us and pulled us both along toward the finish line. Just as I was about to cross, Willow put on speed and passed me - grrr! Then we were walking out and handing our tags to a volunteer and climbing up to the square to get our green tea and sliced oranges. I couldn't see the clock as I crossed the line, but it was somewhere right around 1:03:30, which was exactly the goal I'd set. Since I wasn't really aware of how fast I was going for much of the run, I think I just did a good job of guessing what I would be able to do. The Nike + registered my pace as somewhere between a 5 and a 6 minute mile the whole way, not sure why, oh well . . . Andy came in very close to his goal at just over 54 minutes, and Juanjo came in with us looking very rested.

Now, if I can just do that for 26 miles, I'll have my 4:30 marathon. Eeek!

Here we are after the race. I'm in the Nike hat, Andy's in the black knit hat. Willow and Juanjo are on either side of him.

Easy 5

It's been relatively cold this week. Thursday it hailed, then cleared up at night and was frigid and star filled when we ventured out for and easy 5 miles. It took about 2 slow miles to warm up and the shin didn't like it much, but after that I pushed the tempo up into the low 9s and kept it there for 2 miles, even on the inclines. Andy had been running backwards for a good while, so he struggled just a little, but for me it felt great, and so easy. For the first time, I could imagine keeping up that pace for a good long time. Not a 26 mile long time, but luckily I have another few months before need to start imagining that.

Some non-runner friends are running the 10k with us tomorrow, so we're going to try to stick together for a nice slow first loop (3 miles) and then hit the gas at our own paces for the second 3 (thanks Phil, for the game plan). We hope to beat them by a satisfying margin since we can't manage to pummel (or scrape by) them at Scrabble, even though, as writers, we gloat about our superior verbal skills, and even though one of them is from Spain and not a native speaker. In Spanish they would doubly kill us, getting 50 point scores while we floundered around making words like gato and hola.

Regardless of the outcome, it should be a fun morning. The run goes through Chinatown and North Beach, up along the waterfront to the Ferry Building, and back around. And if we don't beat our friends in the race, we'll still have one more chance - to win the betting pool at their Oscar party afterwards.

Run for Something Better

Seen anyone sporting orange shoe laces out there lately? Chances are, they donated to ING Run For Something Better to support youth running programs. I'm a sucker for a charity, even if it's a corporate one: my two pairs of laces currently hang on my bedroom door knob (yeah, they're very orange, but they're going on my shoes eventually!) A pair will set you back $10 bucks, which wouldn't even cover lunch downtown where I work. Good deal.

Daniels VS Pfitzinger

I ordered both books online, but I'm not really planning on pitting them against each other. In fact, I don't plan on adopting the "Pfitz" plan any time soon (after the SF marathon?), but I am ready to get a bit more scientific about training. I'm still building base miles, trying to encourage my body to catch up with my ambitions, trying to keep it slow and patient, getting my mind to adjust to sustained pressure. Why is it that I can run for an hour and a half with relative ease, but a two minute dash to catch a train leaves me with heart pumping, struggling to catch my breath? Am I not pushing hard enough on my regular runs? Andy would say so. He thinks I should be forcing the pace up, chasing speed goals.

I want to be running farther and faster too, but most of my runs still leave me with tight calves, ominous shin aches, sore hamstrings. Part of that is expected, but I don't have any threshold for comparison. How hard is too hard to push, and what pains are run-of-the-mill, what pains are cause for carefulness? Case in point: after my long run Monday, the back of my left leg grimaced painfully along the whole length, painful even to stretch. It has only started to subside today, and the shin still aches. I want to get in a good hard run before Sunday's race, but is that wise? would a gentle 5 miles be better? if I do include a 6 mile tempo run, when should do it? should I give myself ample time to recover from Sunday rather than risk a real injury (run on Friday), or give myself ample recovery time before next Sunday (run on Thursday)?

Books aren't any substitute for experience, but I'm hoping they will give me context, new ways to measure and make meaning from the jumble of questions and impressions I've built up so far. After July 29th, maybe I'll be able to look back over a year of running and know things, crown myself "intermediate," set new goals. Until then, there are running books, and a break from all that poetry :)

8 Miles

I missed my long run yesterday and Andy and I ran it today instead since we both had the day off. It's been an amazing week - clear, sunny, and mostly in the high 50s-low 60s during the day. Today we added another mile to make it 8. I iced the shin and took an Advil before we set out, then iced again when we got back. Not sure if it was necessary, but it's continued to bother me a bit, and I was concerned about the longer distance. No problem during the run though, and I felt much better than I did on the 7 miles last Sunday. In fact, I still had a little gas in the tank at the end, despite running at a faster pace today. We completed the run in 1:27:52 for an average of about a 10:58 pace. I still haven't managed to calibrate the Nike +, but it seemed a little more accurate with the miles today and I think the pace is pretty right on.

The run was definitely a confidence booster for the 10k this weekend - I'm setting an ambitious time goal of 1:03:30, a 10:15 mile, which is last weeks 5 mile tempo run speed, but only a little slower than my 5k time. According to my schedule, I should also start adding a short recovery run on Fridays, but I think I may stick to my current schedule this week to give myself two days rest before the race.

I'm already thinking beyond the 12k in March about a training plan for the Marathon in July. I'll be up around 20 miles per week by then, and I'd like to be running 35 a week consistently by late June. Other than that, I'd just like to finish in under about 4.5 hours and feel good enough afterwards that I'm ready to train for the next one.

Testing the Nike +

I took the Nike + for its first test on my run today. In truth, I'm still not sure how accurate it is. At first, it seemed to be tracking the mileage correctly, but over the course of the run, it seemed to be reading miles just a little short, until it announce the completion of the run what seemed like 2 or 3 tenths of a mile too soon. That's pretty far off, but that was the aggregate of each mile being just a little off - probably somewhere around .05 per mile, which doesn't seem so bad, especially before calibration. As far as pace, it definitely works best at a steady speed. It's not great at registering minute alterations, and it seems to recognize foot turnover better than changes in stride length. Sometime this weekend, I'm going to take it up to Kezar Stadium and test it on the track, which should give a much better picture of how well its working.

I will say, it was great for motivation to be able to get instant (if not exact) feedback on my speed. According to the gizmo, I ran three miles in the 9:30-9:45 range, which is definitely my fastest tempo run speed, and which felt fast but very doable. By the time I slowed for my cool-down mile 11:30 felt positively, impossibly, slow. All in all, a fantastic run. We're basking in our traditional February warm spell right now, with temperatures near 60F most days. I was actually looking for the shady side of the street on my run. That, and the left shin seems to have realized that I'm not backing down, because it didn't let out a peep but for some token resistance in the first mile. I iced before and after the run and it feels fine now.

The Gadget Search: First Try

I bought a Nike + running system on my lunch break today. Kurt suggested I try it when I posted about running watches last week, (though I noticed that he's been complaining about the sensor in his last few posts). It's nothing like the more expensive systems. From what I read, its accuracy runs in the low 90 percents, and it doesn't monitor heart rate, or make pretty graphs, or have a GPS device. But since I already have an ipod nano (OK, technically it belongs to Andy, but I got it for him, and I mostly use it, just like the guitar), the total cost was only $37 dollars - $29 for the system, and $8 bucks for a little shoe wallet to put the sensor in. If I can calibrate it to somewhere near 95% accuracy, it might be all I need for now. Anyway, it's certain to be more accurate than than the combination of Google mapping and a cell phone I've been using thus far.

Even if I do like it, I'll probably buy a Forerunner eventually. I'm enough of a geek to want the higher accuracy and better tricks, even if I'm not yet enough of a runner to really justify it. I know I said I didn't like the look of the Forerunner, but after seeing the size and look of some of the other ones, including Nike, I think I actually prefer something that's clearly a "device," rather than a watch. But that's for some other day. First, I'm going to give the little Nike pebble a day in court.

Recovery?

I've made it up early for a morning run three weeks in a row, which really is more than I expected of myself. These two mile recovery runs are easy now, and I always take them too fast (this one came in at 21 minutes, including the lights and the minute I spent chatting with a friend I ran into). Today, to keep myself occupied, I was thinking about the difference between physical and mental stamina, how the body can do anything if only the mind won't interfere. I could practically run 2 miles on two broken legs at this point, but today, my mind didn't really want to do it, even on two fit legs. Yeah, I was a little sore after Sunday, and my left shin's been peeping again lately, but mostly, I was just a little bored, a little underutilized, my mind thought. Of course, the real challenge is to remember that these runs are about recovery, about training the body to use and conserve differently, also, about keeping the mind impatient rather than worn out. Being bored is good, being slow is good, and getting out when we don't really want to is best of all.

Three weeks late,

but I finally got in that 7 miles. The day was beautiful and warm after a week of rain and we headed through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach, then went another couple of miles out and back along the Great Highway. I was still a bit tired and sore after Friday's run. I normally run my tempo days on Thursdays, so my body must have been expecting another rest day Sunday.

Which is all to say that I began to run out of steam after about 5 miles and definitely dragged the 6th mile. In the 7th mile, Andy took off ahead and I kicked into a new gear as well. I felt great as I loped up to the Java Beach Cafe. The run felt pretty slow, but it turned out to be just under my target long run pace of 11:32. If everything feels good, I'm going to push ahead with an 8 mile run next Sunday. These are virgin miles now - with every new distance, a new threshold reached and exceeded.

Besides Running

We're focusing on writing this weekend. You can find a newly minted piece from yesterday on my other, infrequently updated, blog here.

The rain seems to have passed for now - we woke this morning to a warm, sunny sky and settled in at our computers. Later, a long run planned, more school work, and maybe a movie with our former housemate.

We also signed up for the Chinese New Year run, so there's a 10k in our near future.

Rain

I love running in the rain. Five miles through the park today with only the muffled sounds of water and leaves and an occasional car passing slowly. I've taken to running without the ipod, instead focusing on my feet, legs, lungs, heart, breath, thoughts, surroundings. In the rain, a certain unexpected stillness hangs, like the earth is pausing after a deep breath.

Living in a city, I find I most crave the smells of soil, water, vegetation. I'm still running on pavement, but around me the dense sensual world of nature reaches out. The smell of the earth after a rain is called petrichor, a word coined in 1964 from petros, stone, and ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology. It could just as well be the veins of the earth, since the source of the smell has been found to be oil based. Amazing that we have managed to take something so profoundly of nature (oil) and convert it into its supremely ruinous and dangerously practical opposite (plastic).

The run today was the perfect opposite to last Thursday - fast, rich, and vitalizing. At least two miles came in well under a 10 minute time and the third came close. I was working hard, but in a good way, holding plenty in reserve. My fastest 5 miles so far at 54 minutes.

Wanted: Running Watch

Remember all that stuff I wrote about simplicity, about running when I want, where I want, for free? Throw that all out the window. I want a fancy running watch with heart rate monitor, and pace calculator and everything else. But which one? At something over $300 regardless of brand, I'm feeling some trepidation. I'd prefer to spend somewhere around $150, but it seems that in order to monitor speed, I'll have to spring for the more expensive version. If there's a good less expensive speed tracker, please tell me. i-run links to an excellent blog story explaining the technology of pace tracking. The story also evaluates most of the main contenders.

I'm turned off by the size and look of the Garmin Forerunners - I just don't like the idea of going out with a big clunky GPS device strapped to my wrist. And since I have an Apple Powerbook rather than a PC, I won't be able to interface with the thing anyway. If you are thinking about a Forerunner, however, there's currently a $50 rebate on the 205s and 305s - get it before May 15th.

So on to the Nike Triax Elite and Polar 625X models, both equally expensive and with similar technology (neither brand seems to use GPS). They're both ugly, but Nike seems a bit sleeker, with an S shaped band and face for easier viewing. Since I'm not an elite runner, or even an elite blogger, I don't have the luxury of testing each out. But I can go to the store and try them on and push their buttons, which is what I have planned for tomorrow - after my run.

Update on the 5k

The official times are now posted here. I came in 143rd out of 1077 (probably about 700 runners) in my age group (19-39) and 465th overall. Andy came in 144th in his age group, and 446th overall. I'm hoping there's a picture of me too - I'll post it soon if there is one.

I successfully ran again this morning, with speed-demon Andy pushing the pace up to 10:30. Not much of a "recovery run," but felt great nonetheless. Since I still haven't managed a 7 mile run, I'm skipping the recovery week this week and planning to run a normal 5 mile tempo run Thursday, followed by a 7 mile long run Sunday. In fact, since the last couple of weeks have basically been "recovery weeks," I'll probably run straight through, maybe decreasing my overall weekly mileage after the 8 mile runs on the schedule.

Kaiser 5K Run

We did it! The run took place in Golden Gate Park, so we left the house around 7:10 am (we saw our neighbor coming home from a night out) and walked to the panhandle. From there, we took an easy jog down to the starting line. By the time we arrived, many thousands of runners and walkers had already lined up, but we ducked under the tape and lined up somewhat near the front. The area was crowded with walkers as well as runners (we could tell because they were wearing parkas, and some had strollers and other gear).

After about 20 minutes, they rang the bell and we started off. It took maybe twenty more seconds to get to the starting line, and another couple of minutes to wind through the walkers. We settled into a very fast pace - WAY faster than I should have been running (well, my first race). I started falling back, but Andy kept it up and soon disappeared from sight. I imagined him cheering me in after already finishing his super fast-person time.

Around the second mile, my sides began to cramp up and my pace slowed considerably. I focused on my breathing and slowed to an almost-walk. I was definitely struggling. Just then, I saw Andy running toward me. I thought he'd finished already, but he'd come back to check on me. I picked up my pace and we came in together in about 30 minutes. My finish time was 30:51, Andy's was 30:38. He probably could have come in 5 minutes earlier without me, but he joked that the race was all about me anyway. Looking back, I should have set a time goal (I think I could have come in under 30 minutes pretty easily) and stuck to a slow pace at the start, but I'm still happy with my pace (a 9:55 mile) and overall had a great time.

After gathering up our goodies, we walked back to the finish line and cheered for the elite runners as they came in from the half-marathon. The men's winner finished in just over 1:05. The woman's winner in something like 1:15.

Around 10 am, we walked down the Great Highway to the train and headed back, but I'd already caught the bug and I think Andy felt it too. We're already talking about signing up for the Chinese New Year 10k on the 25th.

Blah

My run last night lasted exactly 15 minutes and 1.3 miles. Almost immediately, my left shin tightened painfully. I tried to stretch, but that felt worse. I tried to walk, which felt fine, but as soon as I started running again, the pain was back. And it was getting late. Finally I decided to bag the run and take the bus home. Disappointed, I hobbled over to the bus stop and contemplated my remarkable lack of fitness, stamina, and mental toughness. I knew I would try again today, which I did, but it was little comfort.

Today's run was not very different, except that I finished it. The first two miles were tight and painful. Then I began to settle in, but by the time I reached the third mile I was mentally exhausted. I walked for about a minute (for the second time in the run), and then plodded on up the only hill on my route. When I reached Stowe Lake, I walked again, then dragged myself around and back down toward the De Young and began to settle in again. By the time I reached the Conservatory of Flowers, about 4.5 miles into the run and 1.5 miles away from the end, I truely wanted to quit. My feet slowed to a shuffle, then a walk. I took a deep breath, visualized reaching the panhandle just a half mile away, and began to employ my "meditation breathing" - inhale through the nose for four counts, exhale through the mouth for four counts. So doing, I attained the 5 mile mark and continued the easy final mile through the panhandle and down to Divisidero. Despite the frequent walk breaks and slow pace, I finished the run in 1:09, a respectable long run time. By that time, I was pretty happy with myself just for completing the run.

Well ok,

so I set my alarm for 6:30am but there were no outside noises to help me get up this morning. I turned it off and didn't wake up again until 7:30am - my usual time. So instead, I have a new running route tonight: from the office, up a steep 2 mile climb to the panhandle, down to the De Young, and finally home. Which should total the six miles I don't strictly have time to run after work, since we have a reading out at SF State to attend at 7pm. I brought my running clothes to the office and am hoping, with the hill, to make it home in about an hour and ten minutes. That should give me just enough time to shower and head out to campus. Bay to Breakers registration opened Tuesday, so I'm thinking of the run as early practice - it's the same climb. I also noticed that Bay to Breakers is using timing chips for the first time this year. So my record breaking pace will be accurately charted.

This is the first time my Thursday tempo run has climbed to a distance of over 5 miles, but since I'll be running the 5k on Sunday, and don't know if I'll get in another 4 miles afterwards, I'd like to get in the full 6 miles today.