Cross-Training...

I'm about to go to the Rec for a workout.... unfortunately, I'm having tendon pain in my foot along with my now ever-present and annoying knee pain. grrr

In the last post my advice was to Stop if you felt pain, but here I am, lacing up my shoes. My event is February 18th, and I have a long way to go before then!

I am going to use the elliptical machine, so that way I can get some cardio in without overly stressing my knee/foot.

Training for a Half Marathon

A lot of people have been asking me how you train to run a half marathon (13.1 miles) or a marathon (26.2), so I thought I could address that here.

I preface this by saying that I am no expert; I've only run one long distance race in my entire life, and that was the White Rock Half Marathon this past Sunday. I am currently in the process of training for the Austin Marathon in February.

However, I did finish my race, to the surprise of many people who may have doubted my ability early on. I don't hold this against anyone, as I may have doubted me too, if I were someone else. When I started I was more than 20 lbs overweight and was not a runner, and despite this I did cross the finish line in a decent amount of time (and 30 lbs lighter, at that!). So maybe what I have to say will be of some help to anyone looking to push their bodies to achieve something more than it ever has before.

A lot of people ask me, "Is it hard?" Yes, it is, but it's probably easier than you might think (and entirely worth it, I might add).

Training for a half marathon basically consists of 3 days a week of 1 hr or less of exercise, one day of crosstraining, and one long day. You have two days a week to sit on your butt and do absolutely nothing, if that's what you want. Our coaches stress the importance of resting- it allows your muscles to heal and rebuild themselves even stronger than they were before.

The short days: For me, these days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. These are your short runs you do during the week to basically keep you in shape. You start out doing 3miles on Tuesday, 4miles on Wednesday, then 3 on Thursday. This equates to about 30-40 minutes of jogging.

Eventually, you work up to 4miles on Tues., 6miles on Wed., and 4miles on Thursday.

When I started, I could not run one mile, much less three, so I ran for a couple minutes, then walked for a couple minutes, until I finished three miles.

The Long Day: Once a week (Saturday Morning for me) it is time to push your body to go longer distances. For me, this started out at three miles. Each week, I would add one mile to that. This amounts to adding just 10 extra minutes each week. Sometimes I would not be able to run the entire distance, so I ran as far as I could, then walked for a few minutes, then started back up again.


Cross Training Day: The day after the long run, or Sunday for me, we are supposed to do something other than running for about an hour. My coach works in his garden. I like to go on a bike ride with J. Just anything besides running so that you give your running muscles (and joints!) a break.

I will be honest and say that sometimes, I was too tired from my long run the day before to go on an hour long bike ride the next day. Sometimes, especially if my knee hurt, I would just add another rest day. Other times I would count cleaning the house as my cross-training.

Taper: tapering is something that's more applicable for a full marathon. It basically means that in the couple of weeks before your race, you ease off your miles and rest more, so that your body will be in peak condition. We trained up to 14 miles on long days for the half marathon, but on the long day a week before my race, I only ran 9. The short days are even shorter the week before a race: I scaled back to just 1 or 2 miles- I wanted to make sure my knee didn't get aggravated. This also ensures that your muscles will be healed and full of glycogen on race day (well, that and the tons of pasta you eat the week before your race).

Pain: I have problems with one of my knees. If you have pain, STOP! Running is very addictive once you get past the ugly, I-can't-run-around-the-block phase. Pretty soon it starts to be all you want to do, and it can be frustrating when something like knee pain is holding you back. I worried that if I "took it easy" my aerobic capacity would slide. But, in the process of training, I took 2 long days entirely off due to knee pain, and I really think that doing this allowed me to finish my race. Running with pain isn't any fun, and in the long run (haha) it doesn't gain you anything.

Other: This is just an overview- I'm not really qualified to give anything other than that. I'm sure it would be easy to find more detailed training schedules by doing a google search.

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/recsports/images/PDF/walkingtrailsofLubbock.pdf <-- good places to run. I like guy park, tech terrace park, around texas tech, and mae simmons (canyon lake road in mackenzie park) is great for long runs (hills and lakes in lubbock, oh my!).

I should also say that I have had the benefit of great coaches and mentors that have pushed me and encouraged me, and had coffee for me at our 7AM long runs on Saturday Mornings. These are but a few benefits of training with Team in Training, which is what I am doing. At some point I'll have a post just about that.

Race Results

Here are my official results:

bib number: 7289
age: 24
gender: F
overall place: 3430 out of 4570
division place: 194 out of 243
gender place: 1659 out of 2522
time: 2:28:46
pace: 11:22

So I didn't come in first place.....or even 3,000th place, but I FINISHED A HALF MARATHON! And, it was my first big race. Next time I might try and break a ten minute mile, although I must say I felt like I could run forever at the pace I went; I even had enough left at the end to do a little sprint!

Austin Full Marathon, Here I Come!

I FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!

I just completed my first half marathon!!!!!!!!!!!

That feeling when I crossed the finish line was one of the best feelings I've ever felt- a huge sense of being overwhelmed, glad that that it's over but at the same time sad, intense pride, astonishment, and probably a few other emotions simultaneously. It will take a few days to sort them all out.

I ran the entire 13.1 miles without stopping, and so that was a big accomplishment, especially given that I've been having knee pain for awhile, and also considering that the day before I slipped and fell down some stairs at my sister's house which left a large swollen bruise on my ass that I had to run with. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise, though, since it seemed to have resulted in my not noticing the knee so much.

After about 30 or 40 minutes, though, my pain receptors stopped attempting to inform me that I was in pain, which was nice while it lasted. The last few miles my knee decided that enough was enough, but I just ignored it the best I could, knowing I only had a few more miles to go.

I ran a pretty slow pace, but today wasn't about time, it was about proving to myself I could run a half marathon, and I succeeded in that.

It was so inspiring to see all of the other Team in Training members run with photographs or messages written on their jerseys about the cancer patients or survivors they were running in honor of. It's nice to be a part of something that big, especially when I thought about how each one had raised thousands of dollars for cancer research. It's good to be a part of something like that.

I can't wait to run my actual TNT even in Austin this February so that I can let everyone know about my honored hero, M, who survived leukemia.

I wondered if I would still want to keep running after I found out what a big race was like; suffice it to say I am officially hooked.

More race details to come............

One week to go until White Rock!

Next Sunday I will run the rock in the Dallas White Rock half-marathon. I am so excited about my first long distance race!!!


In other news....
It became abundantly clear to me yesterday, while attending and presenting at a conference for my graduate course on Bibliography and Research, how much running a marathon and the lessons learned while training for a marathon apply to other aspects of life.

For example: A dissertation is a marathon. It takes dilligence, hard work, perserverance, and tenacity. From where you start, it seems unattainable.

But you discover that it is not.

5mi in 45 minutes!

I just ran 5 miles in 45 minutes. This is a big deal for me because I am a pretty slow runner and tend to run 10 or 11 minute miles.

I don't usually run in the evenings, but with the semester screeching to a grinding halt, my schedule has become somewhat complicated. There's school, work, volunteering, and training for the marathon as usual, but now there are suddenly (at least it seems sudden, though I've known about it for months) final projects and papers due in less than 2 weeks, and a 20 minute presentation to give on Saturday.

And yet I am blogging.

I am very proud of myself for getting a run in today, which is also J's birthday, even though there has been so much to do. And speaking of things to do, it is time to stop this entry and actually get some real work done. It's not even midnight yet.....

Back in Lubock

I had so much fun running somewhere different over Thanksgiving. I even got to meet up with a fellow teammate, S, and we ran together at UTPB, which is a lovely trail that has several signs warning about the prevalence of coyotes in the area. The signs read, "Not safe for pets due to coyotes in the area." I loved that.

Anyhow, it was nice running with someone from the team.

According to the calories burned calculator I use (http://www.prevention.com/caloriecalc/0,5719,s1-4-0-0-0-1,00.html) I burned about 2300 calories while I was gone over Thanksgiving, and based on my estimation of how much pie (for starters) I ate, I'll bet I broke about even in that department. Happily, there are no pies in my house anymore.

I haven't posted any pictures yet, so I had J take some photos of my at the start of one of my runs. In the morning it was 65 degrees (...in November!....kind of scary yet very pleasant running weather).

Getting Ready for a Change in Scenery

Tomorrow J and I are heading down to see his folks for Thanksgiving, and I can honestly say I'm excited about it. Not only is his family just in general made up of fantastic people (that I don't get to see very often) but they are also great cooks (this year's menu will probably have, for starters, oatmeal pecan pie, pumpkin roll, carmelized brussel sprouts, sweet potato casserole, yummmm).

As an added bonus, they live in what most people would call 'the country.' They have a few neighbors in viewing distance, but not many, and what's more, they have a non-paved road that goes by their house that is exactly one mile long- perfect for shorter runs (twice down and back is 4miles). It stretches up agaist the uninterupted West Texas skyline, and meets with a blissfully flat and little traveled highway that goes on for miles (perfect for a long run). So my Turkey Day won't be characterized by immobility, as I am sad to say it has been in past years. I'll be able to enjoy pie without a lingering malaise of guilt.

Another up note: I'm now nearing the $1400 mark in fundraising for cancer research. I want to raise $800 more before February 18th. That sound like a lot, but I'm going to try my best to achieve that goal. If anyone has funraising ideas, I'd love to hear them...

A runner's body.

I do not have what most people would call a "runner's body."

I do not have long, gazelle-like legs. I am what people might call 'curvy' when trying to be polite. I posess what might be referred to as "junk in the trunk" by people not trying terribly hard to be polite.

There is a group of Ethiopians that run at the same park I do, who float effortlessly past me with their elastic gait. They have gazelle-like legs, and I admire them as I would a sculpture or a well tuned machine, as they run past me.

Eventually, though, I know I will cross the next mile, and the one after that, despite my lack of gazelle-ian features. What does it mean to have a "runner's body," anyway? Lots of people talk about this- there are swimmer's bodies, and dancer's bodies, too. I've heard people say "He has the hands of a surgeon," or, similarly, "Those hands must be great for playing the piano," or even "she has great birthing hips."

To some extent, there is some truth in these words. Our genetic make-up does make some people more suited to particular endeavors. But our bodies, in the end, do not solely dictate our actions. It is true that what we lack in talent, we can often make up for with persistence and tenacity.

At the recent NYC Marathon, a double leg amputee crossed the finish line with a time I don't think I will beat.

A "runner's body" is simply the body of a person who chooses to run.

Whew! 14 miles!

This morning I set my alarm clock for 4:15 AM, thinking I'd make it to our Team in Training running course to get some miles in before the whole team showed up at 7. I don't know what I was thinking when I made that decision, but I know exactly what I was thinking at 4:15 when I woke up: This is crazy and there's no way I'm going out there this early.

Then I slept for over 2 hours more and ended up being a little late and showed up at 7:05, bitterly noting that it was freezing outside and if we were rational human beings we would wait until noon when the weather was beautiful, but noooo.......... (I'm discorvering that runners are not always very rational people).

Sometimes I am grumpy in the mornings.

But once you get running, and your body warms up, and the sun in rising over the lake, the world suddenly becomes beautiful again, and that's what happened to me this morning.

I ended up running ten miles without stopping, then run/walked the last 4 (I wasn't out of breath, but my knee started pestering me), so now I know for sure I'll be able to run the whole White Rock 1/2 Marathon that's coming up in a few weeks. That's a good feeling, considering I couldn't run around the block when I decided to run a marathon.

So, to make a long story short, my knee's a bit sore but the endorphins are more than making up for that right now. 14 miles, and way before lunch!

God Bless 50 mph wind gusts

Yesterday I was writing about how beautiful running could be. I am doing my best to remember that this is still true even when the wind gusts up to 50 mph, making it feel 20 degrees colder than it actually is, and causing flecks of west texas dust to infiltrate your respiratory system.

As far as temperature goes, though, if you think about it, it's really a wash, consindering that your body heats up about 20 degrees while running. As for the dust....eh, I grew up around here. I'm used to that.

There are all sorts of justifications for being one of those crazy people who run outdoors in the winter when the wind is gusting up to 50 mph.

Tomorrow's forecast: warmer, less windy, and 5 miles on the schedule. Now that's beautiful.

It's about time

Hello to anyone who actually reads this:

I've decided I'm going to start a training log about my experience training for a marathon to raise money for cancer research and patient support.I really wish I had begun this earlier, when I first started toying with the idea several months ago. I was about 25 lbs overweight (using BMI as an indicator) and could hardly run a mile.

It's strange to think about not being physically able to run for more than ten minutes- now I run 3 miles on my "short" days and half marathons on my long ones.

I had just graduated college, and had an entire summer to reflect on the experience of the last five years. Although I obtained a degree (2 actually), and had become officially "educated," there was still a lot I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to contribute something more to the world. I also wanted to become physically fit- something I've struggled with my entire life.What I ended up deciding on was a way to achieve both goals: raise a significant amount of money for cancer research and patient support [contribution to the world] while training for a marathon [physically fit].

Now I've lost the weight (I'm officially healthy) and raised over $1000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, an organization that raises millions for cancer research and patient support.

I've found I love running. It's spiritual. It's meditative. It's a way to be more connected to the world around us- it's amazing the things you notice when running familiar streets as opposed to driving. The weather becomes much more important, so you notice it more. The world becomes a more beautiful place- I've seen so many more sunsets and rises since this whole thing started.

It's also hard. I won't lie. Next to recovering from major back surgery, it's the most physically challenging thing I've ever done. At times it has been painful- most things worth anything are sometimes painful. Of course, (and this is what I tell myself when I want to stop) it is nothing compared to the agony cancer patients go through every day.

As Lance Armstrong said, ""To race and suffer, that is hard, but that is not being laid out in a hospital bed in Indianapolis with a catheter hanging out of my chest, with platinum pumping into my veins, throwing up for 24 hours straight for five days. We have all heard the saying, 'What does not kill you makes you stronger,' and that is exactly it." And that, of course, is the whole reason I'm doing this.

Now for the shameless plug: If you'd like to help be a part of finding a cure for cancer, visit my website, http://www.active.com/donate/tntntx/tntntxsbrinke

Please donate- just $1 if that's all you have.

Be a part of the cure.