It's gotta be the shoes!

As someone who runs, and who makes it publicly known that I run (see twitter, facebook, this blog, etc.), I often hear from people phrases such as:

• "I wish I could be a runner."
• "Running hurts, why would you do that to yourself?"
• "I tried running once... my shins hurt so bad I had to quit."
• "I don't have the knees for running."

Oh, the shame! If these people only knew! Running doesn't hurt. Well, it doesn't hurt that much. Not if it's done right. And the first step is to GET THE RIGHT SHOES.

I'll tell folks this and they'll say "But I did! I went and got $150 running shoes!" And I'll ask where they bought them, and they'll say something like "Big 5" or "Sports Authority" or perhaps even, *gasp!* "the mall!"

Here's the thing... when you run, your foot goes through a certain motion called pronation. Pronating is the action of your foot's arch collapsing to absorb shock, your ankle rolling slightly inward, followed by the rolling outward as you push off with your toes. People pronate to varying degrees, based in part on how high the arch of the foot is. People with low arches tend to over-pronate, which can cause excessive stress on the ankle, shin bones and tendons, knee, and hip -- and various other muscles, tendons, and bones in that general area of the body. Fortunately, the running shoe companies have figured this out, and they now manufacture shoes specifically to counteract these biomechanics (big word, I know). These shoes are called stability shoes, because they provide extra support to keep the foot and ankle properly aligned while going through your natural gait motion.

I'm not going to go deeply into the different styles and purposes of running shoes here. The point here is to emphasize that until you have someone look at your foot who knows what they're looking for, you're very likely running in the wrong shoes for your foot, and that's what makes it hurt. If you need a stability shoe and you're in a neutral shoe -- or vise-versa, not to mention the intracacies of motion-control shoes, cushioned shoes, lightweight racing flats, etc. -- you are going to hurt yourself. So... GET THE RIGHT SHOES. And to do that, you need to go to your local running-specialty store so they can analyze your gait. Trust me here. I'm about to complete my third marathon and I've never had any significant running injury.

Feel free to email me or comment if you'd like more information on this topic. :)

The latest

Here's the latest... I decided to make last week a de-facto cutback week, and bagged the Saturday run. I tell ya, if I do crappy at this marathon, it will be from not doing semi-long runs on my cutback weeks. Oh well. So this week I'm running 6 miles four times and then a long 22-24 mile run on Saturday -- and the weather's horrible, but that's part of the fun. Once this week is over, the taper starts, and let me just tell you how excited I am for the taper! Next week I'll run 6, 5, and 4, then two bike days, then 12 on Saturday. The following week will then be 4, 4, 2, one bike day, one rest day, then the MARATHON.

I'm so ready for this. Sub-5, baby.

Choices and burnout

Here's the deal. I'm getting to that point in marathon training where I'm feeling pretty confident and wishing the race were this weekend and not 3 weeks hence. I have been at this point for each of the previous marathons I've run, and I didn't run either of them as well as I'd wanted to. So I'm hoping I'm not experiencing the same kind of thing. This week it's been difficult for me to want to get any miles in, and consequently I didn't run at all on Monday. I did do 5 yesterday and 6 today, so I'm not too far behind, especially if I double up on Wednesday or Thursday.

As I mentioned, there's 3 weeks until the marathon from this Saturday. I can either make this week my last long week, and then do a 3-week taper before the big dance, or I can take it easy-ish this week and go long again next week, and follow it up with a 2-week taper. Or... I could go long-ish this week and long-ish next week, and then go with a 2-week taper. I'm leaning towards the first option or the last option -- three-week tapers just seem too long for me, since my max weekly mileage is still under 45, and doesn't look like it's going to exceed that point unless I build this week and next week -- which I think I'd like to do. Overdoing it? Maybe...

I tend to be more motivated by the possibility of overdoing it than by trying to maintain or take it more "sensibly" from now until race day.

So... am I more likely to burn out if I keep going long until a 2-week taper? Or would it be smarter and possibly less-motivating to play it safe and take an easy week this week -- or even go long this week and do a 3-week taper? Decisions, decisions....

A hard Saturday run, but I'm okay with that

Today I did 22 miles in 4:00:47, and it was hard. Really hard. Don't get me wrong, I ran the whole way, but I didn't finish as strong as I kind of wish I had. But I'm okay with that. Here's why...
That's the elevation profile from today's run. Note the steady 3% uphill grade near the beginning, and the intermittent 3% grades at the very end. And I still managed to hold a 10:57 pace (more or less) for the whole thing. (That doesn't count the pit stop at the grocery store at mile 15.5 to pick up more PowerAde.)

In contrast, here is the elevation profile for the marathon for which I am training, and in which I WILL finish in less than 5 hours.
Note the lack of any uphill grade greater than 2%, and that's just one little climb near the halfway point. Also, the uphills in miles 5 through 13 look scary, until you realize there's not a bit of them over 1%. I think I'm going to be ready.

4 weeks to go. I can do this.

TIART - Spring Training

Okay, I'm going to try something that I've never done before, and that's contribute to the Runner's Lounge "Take It And Run Thursday". The topic of the week is Spring Training.

I love Spring Training, but then I've always been a baseball fan, ever since I can remember. These days, Spring Training means more than the return of the Dodgers to Vero Beach, Florida, however... (scratch that, they play their Spring ball in Arizona now... doh!) When the players report to spring camp, it means that the days are getting longer, the mornings are getting warmer, and the running starts to transition from the treadmill to the great outdoors once again. Indeed, Spring is a great time of year!

A couple of tips for those of us emerging from Winter treadmill hibernation:

• Don't pay attention to pace. Treadmill pace and outdoor pace rarely match up evenly, so get your first few runs in at whatever pace feels right, and don't compare to what you've been doing on the treadmill all winter long. Chances are you'll be much faster (or much slower). Don't stress over it, and use this newly-established "outdoor" pace to gauge your progress from here on.
• Dress for the conditions. Spring can be tough, because you can start a morning long run in chilly weather and warm up quickly as the hours go by. Dress in layers that can be tied around your waist as the day progresses, or plan your course to run past your house or a familiar place where you can ditch superfluous clothing.
• Don't forget to hydrate! Especially on cooler days, you can forget to drink enough because you're not sweating much, and when you do sweat, the cooler air (and hopefully your hi-tech wicking clothing) will pull the sweat off of you into the air so fast you'll stay relatively dry. In these conditions it's easy to go too long between swigs. Drink up!

So there you have it; my first contribution to "Take It And Run Thursday". Enjoy! I feel honored to be participating in such a distinguished community of great runners!

Joe's Goals

I found this cool new website called Joe's Goals. I guess some guy named Joe made up the website, and it's pretty nifty. Basically it gives you the opportunity to set goals for yourself and keep track of your progress on a day by day basis. You type in your goals, and you can leave a check mark if you've accomplished it for the day. You get a total score for each day based on how many check marks you have for that day. Then you can pull up graphs and charts showing how you're trending, etc.

Currently I have 7 goals listed (the screenshot there is NOT my list), and I'm sure I'll come up with more. Chec it out. The URL is www.joesgoals.com

Ramping back up!

So last week was an impromptu cutback week, to let a blister heal and take care of car problems (which didn't work out, but that's another story).

This week, I'm ramping the mileage back up, with runs so far this week of 4, 5, 6.75, and 5.1 miles. The last two of those have been outside on variably hilly terrain, substituting as speedwork for the week. This is a total of 20.85 miles for the week so far, with a 20 miler on tap for Saturday. Tomorrow will be a bike day.

Next week, we'll throw a 22 miler into the mix, and at least one double, which I didn't get to this week... yet(?). The marathon is 5 weeks and 2 days away. I think I'll be ready. I hope I'm not peaking too soon. :)