New Shoes

An easy and fast 2 mile morning run in the new Asics 2120s. The extra room in the toes felt good, but I'm not sure if I prefer them to the 2110s. The shoe felt a bit stiffer, and the cushioning was, well, less cushy. They were noticeably lighter though, and since my feet felt sore even before stepping into them, I'm not sure it was a fair test.

I noticed today that my footstrike seemed to be somewhere between the heel and the midfoot area, rather than fully on the heel like I thought it was. Would that change over time, or was this was my natural strike all along and I just didn't notice or couldn't tell?

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.

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.

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.

Morning Run

6:00 am - Dog we've never heard before barking and snuffling in the neighbor's yard.
6:30 am - Alarm clock. I roll over and cover my head.
6:45 am - Dog begins barking again.
7:07 am - Phone rings with a wrong number call.
7:10 am - Obviously the universe is trying to help me get up this morning. I get up.
7:24-7:45 am - Run. Too fast for a recovery run. About a 10:30 mile.

So I didn't get up at 6:30, but I did discover that probably a 7 am wake up would be early enough. And I did enjoy it. I even thought of getting my Thursday runs in early as well!