Milestone!

   For a month or two now, I have been running every other day with a goal in mind. I wanted to be able to run five kilometers.
   I started gradually in the summer, combining walking with increasing increments of running until I eventually got to where I could run 3K without stopping to walk. As that goal was attained, I immediately re-focused. I then wanted to be able to run 4K without a break. Attaining this, 5K without a break was where I was then headed.
   I had devised my own system for doing this. I had a 5K route in my neighbourhood mapped out and I began running it. The first time, I stopped halfway and walked for one minute. The next time I ran, I simply went one sidestreet further and then walked. The next time out, one sidestreet further. Gradually, I was pushing that one minute of walking closer and closer to the end of the run, knowing that when this happened I would have reached my goal. Last night, I had one more walking break planned but when I got to it I was so close to the end of my run that I decided to just forget about it and keep running.


! ! ! ! ! !

   There I was, 5K without walking!
   This still seems a little incomprehensible to me. It truly does seem like just yesterday that I was struggling with running four minutes in a row. Now I'm running forty minutes in a row! With a view toward getting down into the thirties.
   So now I guess I start paying a little more attention to the clock. I already have been timing myself, obviously, but my time was really not the focus of my running. Until last night, all I wanted to do was be able to run the whole way. Well, I did that and now I have to keep doing that and if I can do it just a little faster each time then I'm a happy man.
  

Whether Weather

   It snowed this morning. Not a lot, just a dusting really, but it was still snow and a reminder that I live in Canada. Where we get snow. Occasionally, lots of snow!

Running in the fog

   There are several reasons why I'm not particularly fond of the snow--I have a double driveway and have not yet been able to invest in a snowblower, I drive a lot for work and this is always problematic, you never know what a ton of snow will do to your roof, and I'm not one of those winter sports kinds of people.
   This year, however, there is an added concern. I need to run in it.
   I have a target race, the 5K Brita Resolution Run, coming up on December 31st. Given that it is the end of December here in Canada, there could be snow. There should be snow. And quite likely ice, while we're at it.
   I am just in the middle of getting the hang of running on dry pavement, let alone snow, slush and ice so I am having more than a little trepidation (one of my favourite running words) as to how this might work out. More than anything, it's the footing which concerns me, naturally enough. I'm not as nimble as I used to be and the vision of me flying through the air, feet first, and landing on the back of my head rather haunts me right at the moment.
   I was running last night in 0 degree (freezing) temperature, and it didn't bother me too much--dress in layers, protect the extremities and you're okay. A couple of nights before that, the warm ground combined with the very cool night air produced heavy fog. This was not a major problem either, just make sure you're even more highly visible than usual. It's rained more than once as I've been on a training run and that's pretty par for the course.

Yaktrax--a little pricey but apparently they work

   It's just the snow which has me concerned.
   Fortunately, in this day and age, information is at your fingertips and I was able to go to several websites which offered advice geared toward running on ice and snow.
   There are a variety of devices which you can strap on to your shoes which hopefully give you the required traction in bad weather. They apparently go on and come off pretty easily and quickly, as well. They have metal cleats or rows of metal coils on the bottom which, obviously, grip the ice. Of course, there is some expense involved here and, if you've followed this blog at all, you are aware that I am a Broke Runner.

A cheaper alternative

   Fortunately, I have come across a cheaper and, frankly, cooler solution. Simply screw some sheet metal hex head screws into the bottom of your run shoes! This trick has been around for years. Depending on your running style eg. heel striker vs. midfoot striker, place the screws in a pattern you feel will give the most traction. Screw them in from the outside of the shoe until only the hex head protrudes from the bottom of the sole. The shape of the hex head is what gives the great traction. From what I read, it's not even uncomfortable to go from ice and snow to dry pavement and then back to ice and snow, all on the same run. If I end up adopting this method, I will let you know how it works out.
   I had to convince myself to go out and run last night, our cozy, warm little house was way too inviting, especially after a long day at work. It became a question not so much as to when to run but whether to run. This is was pretty well the first time whether had popped into the equation. Then it occurred to me that, winter-weatherwise, this was probably as good as it was going to get. If I didn't want to run in temperatures that weren't even below freezing then I was pretty well toast(y) as a real runner in Canada. So I got out and ran and it was no big deal. The weather will get worse and I'm going to need to pretend it's still no big deal, when it does. Will update you all, when the snow really flies!
  

Am I a "real" runner...?

That which caught my eye

   The other day as I was rooting around on Google Images, I ran across one of those humourous "postcard" type images and immediately had it catch my eye.
   It did so because I am currently in the middle of passing on little tidbits about my new running adventure and I've already started to wonder whether I'm telling people about stuff they won't give a damn about. Assuming they even read it.
   I've certainly stopped short of doing a training blog and I make almost no mention of running on Facebook, apart from posting links to the blog itself. So I think I'm doing okay.
   I don't mind if people know I'm a "rookie", I go out of my way to describe myself as a neophyte, so no big deal there. Right at the moment, this whole running thing is so new to me that I keep having these holy cow moments as I go along, self-discovering. The urge, then, is to write about them. Hence, I don't have copious amounts of gear or training information, I can't talk about all the different places I've run in, and I can't talk about all the innovative training techniques I've run across. About as much as I am able to talk about are my first fumbling steps, or strides, as it were.
   Right at the moment, it's a little difficult to see where I might be with my running in, let's say, a year from now. Presently, all I'm trying to do is get myself to where I can run 5K without dropping dead. My goal is to run a 5K race at the end of December, the Resolution Run. After that, if I've not lost any digits to the cold, I will need to decide where to go from there with my running.
   Since starting to hit the streets regularly back at the beginning of August, I've certainly felt better. There's a little more spring in my step and I've lost about ten pounds. I can think of no reason to stop running. Whether or not I "graduate" to 10K is hard to say. Right now, running 5K is a hell of a workout, both energy and time-wise, and it feels as though it might be enough. We'll have to see.

Question answered!

    I'm still hard-pressed to call myself a "real" runner. I get out and run every other day, regardless of the weather or my inclination at the time. I look forward to run days and am somewhat at loose ends on my days off. I enjoy reading about running and visiting running stores. Does all this make me a "real" runner? I'm not sure. Part of it is because I have never encountered a definition for "real".
   I occasionally run into other runners as I am out and about. They almost always look like "real" runners--this by the way they dress, more than anything. At this point, I don't think I look like a "real" runner but, at the same time, I am not running to be fashionable. I run consistently and, right at the moment, I run the same route every time. This takes me past the local Tim's. I have this fantasy that there's a couple of regular customers in there who, because of my routine combined with their routine, have noticed me streaking by on occasion. In my fantasy, one person says to the other, "Hey, there's that old guy out there again." The other person replies, "Man, I guess he must be a real runner!"
  

Kathryn, Fearless Leader

   At some point, as I am discussing my new-found interest in running, I would be truly remiss in not mentioning the young woman who was the leader of our Running Room Learn-to-Run clinic.

My Learn-to-Run group and, far left, Kathryn Fenton

   Her name is Kathryn Fenton and I refer to her as Fearless Leader. She is the lady who taught us how to run, taught us how to dress, and taught us how to plan races. She managed to assess all of us and our running abilities and talk to us individually about little ways of running more efficiently. She arranged to have experts come in and teach us about running faults and how to avoid them, running injuries and how to avoid or heal them, and how to properly plan nutrition.
    Beyond all that, she connected with us. She was interested in not only our running adventure but what was going on in our daily lives as well. This made her a little more than one of those "rah-rah" instructors who only geared up to deal with you for an hour and a half a week.
   On top of all this, she has a Phd. in Musicology (which means I now have two Facebook friends with Musicology Phd.'s, which seems bizarre to me) and, when we're not talking running, we might actually be talking opera, which is kind of cool. I now know twice as much about opera as I did before, simply by chatting over post-clinic coffees at William's Coffee Pub. And, by the way, if you're looking to hire a Doctor of Musicology, she may still be available...


Kathryn, in our nation's capital, for the Ottawa Marathon.

   Kathryn has one of those bubbly and energetic kinds of personalities and, more than anything, is engaging. I don't usually hang out socially right after athletic endeavours and I don't usually make long-term race commitments but, all of the sudden, I found myself doing this, somewhat to my surprise (and terror). A different kind of running instructor might not have had the same co-ercive effect and I strongly suspect that the other runners in the group would have that same observation. This, by the way, is a good thing.
   Were you to have encountered our running group on a random Saturday morning back in the summer, you might not even have picked out Kathryn as the leader. She kind of blended in effectively with the rest of us. What you might have noticed, though, had you watched for any length of time, was the one runner who occasionally ran the opposite direction to the rest of us. This was Kathryn, checking up on how the frontrunners were doing and then falling back to double-check on the slower ones. I was generally in the latter group and always welcomed her appearance. She wouldn't try to engage you in back-and-forth conversations (realizing you could barely breathe), she just wanted to see how you were doing and offer a word or two of encouragement.
   You would not probably pick her out as a marathon runner, she is a little shorter and does not have the long, lanky stride that you might associate with distance running. What she does, though, is runs and runs and runs. The day we talked about the specific preparations for our upcoming target race, she brought us in her medals and race-wear from the events she's competed in. I found myself kind of thinking holy crap a couple of times, this woman is dedicated. And she can run!

Kathryn (L) and her running partner, Brenda, post-Toronto Waterfront Marathon

   As supportive and co-ercive as Kathryn can be, she was unable to talk me into joining the 5K clinic. This is the next logical step for anyone who has completed the Learn-to-Run clinic and most of my fellow runners signed up. For me, the decision not to was more of a financial one (I am a broke runner, as you may remember, if you've been following this blog) and at the time I also wasn't sure how I felt about running in the winter. The 5K target race is the Brita Resolution Run, scheduled for New Year's Eve--so you could pretty well anticipate cold and snow. Stupidly, I have signed up for this race and am now training on my own. Once in a blue moon, I e-mail Kathryn, just to find out how the 5K group is doing. I can only imagine that she is guiding them, little bits at a time, on their way to a triumphant finishing sprint through the frosty late December evening air, right through a throng of people at the finish line. Hopefully, some time after that, maybe even I'll show up! 

Head-down running

   I wrote a blog post in "Neanderings" fairly recently entitled "Head-down walking". It described my habit of only being concerned with the five feet directly ahead of me as I walked.
   My feeling on this was that it enabled me to be a little more contemplative as I was walking and not that concerned with what was going on around me.
   I have discovered that I run pretty well the same way. I'm not sure if I should be surprised about this or not, it kind of seems to make sense when you think about it. I do tend to look farther on ahead than five feet, simply because i am travelling at a higher rate of speed. Even at that I find I'm all of the sudden on top of people I really should have seen a lot sooner. No "tramplings" so far though!

Some one running with her head down

   There's a slightly different dynamic at work with head-down running, I find. One of the advantages of this style is that you tend to surprise yourself when you get there. You're not constantly looking way off in the distance and thinking to yourself how much pain you're going to have to go through before you get there. You just plug along, maybe looking at the leaves or the sidewalk cracks, thinking about life and then, before you know it, you're there. I guess it's a way of focusing on smaller parts of a run rather than the whole thing. This seems to work better for me.
   Unfortunately, it seems to go against what seems to be the prescribed way for running. Most experts will tell you to run with your head up, it promotes better posture and breathing as you run.
   I have tried running this way for short periods and find it just as disorienting as walking with your head up. I suspect that I am not a lost cause, though, and will likely flirt with paying a little less attention to that five feet just in front of me and maybe more to where I'm actually headed.

Ouch!!

Just SOME of the parts of me that hurt...

   Okay, yesterday I was all excited about running 5K for the first time. Today, all I want is the licence plate # of the truck that ran over me!
   I am at that age where I wake up pretty well every morning with some kind of ache or pain. I never jump out of bed, I slowly swing my legs out over the edge, make sure they've made full contact with the floor and then I slowly roll up into a standing position. From there, I test my ability to pivot to the right. Then come the first faltering steps. About halfway across the bedroom floor, I have a bit of an idea what my morning's going to be like.

That's my motto

   Part of my problem is that I still do things younger men are supposed to do. I play ball hockey with a bunch of younger studs and they quite often forget to respect their elders when it comes to the rougher aspects of the sport. I also have no problem with trying to block 100 mph shots and diving to make some sort of play. I just don't have that hey, take it easy, you're getting kind of old thought process totally ingrained yet. Around the house I quite often lift things I probably shouldn't be lifting. So aches and pains are not that uncommon.
   This morning, though, was a little uncommon in the discomfort department.
   Like I said, I felt like I had truck tire tread marks all over me. I don't normally feel quite this bad and about the only thing I could attribute it to was tacking on the extra 1K yesterday. That and possibly the fact that in the space of four days I'd run a 4K, played ball hockey and then had done another 5K.
   I am one of those people, thank goodness, who doesn't mind the pain too much in the morning. More than anything, it is an affirmation that, firstly, I am alive and, secondly, that my body is acknowledging that I have worked it hard. I appreciate the feedback, as weird as that may sound. I remember back in my teenager days, my friends and I would spend many a fall afternoon playing tackle football with no or very little equipment on and would then need to walk home with cuts, bruises and all manner of bloodied parts. Through all the limping, it felt wonderful! Yes, a little hard to explain...
   There have occasionally been real and actual hurts which stopped me right in my tracks.
   The first of these was a charley horse incurred playing one of the aforementioned games of neighbourhood tackle football. I got tackled and the guy's knee drove right into the side of my calf. It didn't particularly hurt at the time. When I stood up and tried taking a step, however, my leg buckled right under me. This one took forever to heal, the problem being that it didn't really hurt. Because it didn't hurt I kept aggravating it. This was my first and only charley horse and were I to receive another, I'm pretty sure I'd heal it a lot faster.
   Possibly the most serious injury I had was a badly sprained ankle with a hairline fracture. This was a ball hockey injury, stepped on a guy's stick blade and my foot hit the wall and turned right over. This one hurt and I nursed it quite a bit better than I did the previous injury. A handful of visits to the Fowler-Kennedy clinic here in London greatly helped the process and I would highly recommend them for injury treatment.
   Just as debilitating but not quite as long-lasting was a case of plantar fasciitis I had last summer. Once again, this was a ball hockey injury. This is an inflammation of the thick band of tissue which runs across the bottom of your foot, connecting your heel to your toes. It is extremely common with runners (I can hardly wait) and is characterized by a sharp pain in the heel area. The pain is particularly bad in the morning when you try walking on it the first time. Some relief is provided with anti-inflammatories, icing and stretching. Preventatively-speaking, what helped me the most was buying an over-the-counter orthotic which gave me more support in the arch area. So far, so good with the plantar fasciitis.
   The other condition I've suffered which is extremely debilitating was a suspected case of gout. This attacks your feet, especially the big toe, and is due to a buildup of uric acid. This causes essentially an arthritic condition in the joint of the big toe. This one hurts a lot. Frankly, it was easier to walk with a sprained and fractured ankle. It can be diagnosed symptomatically in conjunction with bloodwork. Once again, I found icing helped and my doctor has given me a NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) for the next time the symptoms hit. There apparently is a genetic aspect to gout and the little bit of research I've done indicates that red meat and asparagus in significant doses only exacerbates things.
   The last thing that stopped me running was the strained calf muscle I believe I mentioned in a previous post. I think this one could likely have been avoided with a more conscientious pre-run calf stretch. I've been careful to do this ever since that injury and it has not bothered me further.

This has nothing to do with me, not sure why I included it!

   So there you have it, a minor compendium of some of my running-related boo-boos and ow-ies. I read somewhere that if you are a runner then, at some point, you will be injured. Hopefully, every little injury serves to heighten your own body awareness so that, hopefully, the chances that you will incur the same injury in the future will either be eliminated or greatly lessened.
   Healthy running to you all!
  
  
  
  
  

5km !! (sort of by accident...)

   Today was yet another scheduled running day. The plan for today was to run 4K  and this is what I set out to do. It had warmed up a bit so it was kind of nice not having to wear any extra layers!
   I had still planned on taking a scheduled walk break about half way through but this time I didn't set the timer, I just remembered where I stopped the last time and figured I would simply try and run a little farther this time.
   This part was not a problem. I did get a little farther and then walked for about a minute. I wasn't really happy about walking for the minute but it was part of the plan so I stuck to it.

Where I am headed

   The last couple of times I've finished a 4K run, it seemed as though there was still a little left in the tank and I had been wondering those other times how much further I might actually be able to go. Today I decided that if I felt this way again I might just add another half K to the run.
   When I finished the 4K there was still a little left in the tank so I did tack on the extra half. While doing this, I then decided if there was still some gas at the end of it all I would simply add another half K and that would bring me up to 5K. Which is what happened! Coincidentally, 5K is the length of my target run right at the moment, so I was pretty excited (in a sweaty, tired sort of way)!
   The fact of the matter is that I could probably have kept on running. I would have been running with that what the hell do I do now mindset, though, and I like to plan things out a little more than that.

I may need this on December 31st!

   So at this point my expectations have changed just a little. I can only imagine that I will try and do another 5K with my next run on Monday and see how that goes. Running the 5K today kind of crept up on me and took me by surprise and the next time I might just not feel like it. We'll see!

One broke runner

Some of my raggedy running apparel

   Tonight was another run night and the only thing much different was the fact that I had decided to run 4K instead of 3K. I didn't think it was necessarily a good idea to bump things up by a whole K so I decided to break the run approximately in half and walk for a minute.
   I had my usual pre-new-thing trepidation but I've sort of come to take this in stride (no pun) and didn't let it deter me. At the rate I've been doing 3K I figured that 4K would take about 30 minutes so I set my timer at 15 minutes and headed out.
   About a minute into my run I am still on my street and another runner comes out from a side street and then runs past me, going in the opposite direction.
   Now, this guy was a runner. He had new shoes, a running jacket, gloves, running tights and a toque. He also passed me twice as fast as I passed him.
   Me, I had on a couple of old ball hockey jerseys, a frayed Nike cap and an old pair of sweat pants. My shoes have holes in the toes.
   Granted, I am a neophyte runner. This and the fact that right at the moment I am also broke. Well, not broke for important things but I am broke for running stuff. It just ain't a priority. So I don't maybe look good when I'm running but I hope that I'm at least running effectively and moving forward.
   I was window-shopping at the Running Room here in London just the other day, to get an idea of some of the stuff I could be buying if I, indeed, was a buyer these days. I sort of concentrated on cold weather items as it is November here in Canada.
   I could easily have spent three to four hundred dollars on clothing and assorted accessories. This may happen some day but not any day soon. In the meantime, I am happy with the runner I am right at the moment, regardless of the raggedy appearance.

"Cotton is Rotten"--but warm...

   In the Learn-to Run clinic, they spend a fair amount of time telling you what to wear and what not to wear. Their credo is "Cotton Is Rotten" and runners are directed to principally polyester materials which "wick away" moisture (sweat). It's a funny kind of setting because you sit there in class at the back of the Running Room store, they tell what to buy and all you need to do after that is stand up, take four steps and there it is! All ready to buy! Unfortunately, "Cotton Is What I've Gotten" at my house and it is the principal layer next to my skin, particularly now that the weather's getting colder. So far, though, so good.
   As far as the run went, it went fine. The timer went off about where I thought it might, I walked for a minute, and then started running again. No real problem finishing the 4K. At this point, my plan is to do this another two or three times and then try a whole 4K running.
   Next stop after that---5K!                                                                     

Expectations/ Rationalizations

   In the first couple of months of the Learn-to-Run clinic I recently completed, the process involved starting with a combination of walking and running in timed intervals for a certain number of repetitions.
   Gradually, the ratio of running to walking increased so that, by the end, we were running for twenty minutes and walking for a minute about halfway. C0-incidentally, this had us running approximately 3K. This then took us all to our target race, the Gobbler Gallop 3K, here in London, which we all completed successfully.
   At this point the clinic was finished. In the meantime I have continued to run on my own and, at this point, am signed up for a 5K race on New Year's Eve.
   In any training run I have done, there have been scheduled and timed walking breaks. I had been wondering to myself, though, whether or not I might be able to run an entire 3K without stopping. I had a certain amount of trepidation around actually attempting this. I had had similar trepidation around every running increase during the clinic--I simply did not look forward to them and secretly wondered how well I'd be able to handle them.
   Putting my fears aside one evening, I set out to run a 3K without stopping.
   Piece of cake. I had no problem whatsoever completing the distance all in one go and had enough energy left at the end that I actually contemplated turning it into a 4K. That, however, would have been something.....well....new. And I don't handle new very well, so I didn't.
   This seemed like a major turning point to me, a sign of real progress. Two days later, at my next run, I attempted to do the same thing again.

   Didn't even come close. I had to stop at least three times and walk. I was gasping for air and couldn't understand what was going on.
   I wasn't happy but , at the same time, I realized what had happened.
   On the basis of one successful training run, my expectations had totally changed. My new expectation was that I had mastered the 3K distance and would no longer require breaks, simple as that.
   Any experienced runner would likely have told me just how unrealistic an expectation this was, given the fluidity of the human body and all the variables involved. The fact of the matter was that I had been out in the fresh air, running, and that this was a good thing.
   So I think I now have an altered and slightly more realistic idea of what my expectations actually are or should be and how to use them.
   What still continues to bother me about that "unsuccessful" run are the lengths I went to in my head to allow myself permission to stop running. Stopping was the last thing I intellectually felt like doing and I ended up going through a wide range of "reasons" why stopping and walking should be the thing to do.

   The cold air was hard to breathe. I was risking injury. There was not enough recovery time from ball hockey the night before. My heart felt like it was labouring and why risk a heart attack on a dark and lonely side street. Nobody will know. Learn-to-Run says planned walks are good.
   There I was, giving myself all these reasons to stop running in a desperate search for the permission to do so. I was, of course, rationalizing.
   I knew at the time that I was rationalizing because there didn't seem to be one compelling reason above all the others to stop. I was simply tired and, at the same time, wrestling with some altered expectations. Perfect storm conditions for rationalization. What made it harder was that I was by myself and free to rationalize in my solitude. I didn't have a group of running partners who, when they realized I had stopped, would turn around and say what the hell are you doing?

   In everyday living, I rationalize like hell (you should see me trying to get out of attending a funeral or giving a speech) and I really don't want this part of me to invade my running life as well. Of course, I have heard that running is a metaphor for living, so maybe I am stuck dealing with rationalizations in this part of my world.
   At any rate, my next training run went fine, did the whole 3K without stopping. I have this theory that perhaps my failed effort that one particular evening was more due to poor planning and not spacing my athletic activities out properly than anything else. I will try and keep an eye on that.
   There is another training run today. My goal is to run another 3K without stopping and this is what I will set out to do. It will, however, be a goal and not an expectation. I will simply run my best, see what happens, and, regardless of the result, know that it was good!