Me and my damn Virtual Partner

   In my last post (which seems like ages ago) I made mention of negative splits, as I had just found out what they actually were and what the concept was behind them.
   I then decided that I would attempt to utilize them and set out last week on a 5k run. I have a Garmin and thought that I would use it to help me co-ordinate these splits.
   Well, having a Garmin and knowing how to properly use a Garmin are two radically different things. I ran the first k at a relatively slow (even for me) pace and then attempted to reset the Garmin. I thought I'd done this but at the end of my second k, I discovered I'd only just paused the Garmin and had no real idea where the hell I was for a time anymore. This pretty well totally discombobulated me and the rest of the run was more or less a washout.
   The next time I got out, I got the idea of using the Virtual Partner feature on the Garmin to assist me with this. My brilliant plan was to set a target pace for 5k, let my VP get slightly ahead of me, catch up to him by about halfway and then blow past him in the home stretch.

Sort of the opposite of what MY Garmin looked like!

   So we set off together, my VP and I, and he very slowly pulled away. This was the plan so this was not a problem. From looking at the screen, it looked like he was only about ten yards ahead of me at the most, almost like I could reach out and tap him on the shoulder if I wanted.
   By about the halfway point, he was pretty close to the edge of the screen so this where I picked up the pace a touch.
   And so, apparently, did he.
   That was pretty well the last I saw of my VP, the bastard obviously had his own nefarious little plan and went about putting it into play. Seeing as how he was now off the edge of the screen, never to be seen again, I have no idea whether he cheated, took a shortcut, hopped on a bike or maybe even had a friend pick him up in a car. All I really know is that, the next time, I'm not letting him out of my sight!
   

Things I Didn't Know, That I Had To Go Look Up: Part One

   For the past several weeks I have been reading a ton of running blogs and quite enjoying the process. I am, however, a "newbie" and along the way I have encountered a handful of terms I've been unfamiliar with. At these times I've found myself thinking wouldn't it be cool if there was some sort of easily accessible electronic device that would give me instantaneous answers to pretty well any question I could possibly come up with but seeing as how that seems pretty far-fetched, dontcha know, I'd simply decided to ignore those terms.
   And then somebody told me about Google.
   Because of this, I am now able to take you along with me on my personal journey of discovery as I learn the meanings to words the rest of you runners out there have been intimately familiar with for years now. The list for this post is relatively short but, as you may have noticed in the title, this is only Part One, I fully anticipate more posts to follow.

IT Band
  Okay, so what the hell is an "IT band" and what the hell do you use it for? If your IT band is stiffening up can't you just lubricate or, if all else fails, go buy a new one??
   Yes, I kept running into people who were having issues with their "IT bands". Their IT bands were tightening up, they were getting physio for their IT bands, and round about mile 8 their IT bands started to hurt. It finally occurred to me that if an IT band hurt then it must be an actual body part. So far, though, with all of my own achy body parts, no medical

person had ever talked to me about my IT band so how was I to know?
   Finally I decided I was hearing so much about IT bands that it only made sense to find out what they actually were and why it was that so many people seemed to be complaining about them.
   IT actually stands for "iliotibial" and your IT band is a thick band of fascia which extends down from your hip, attaching itself just below your knee. Apparently it is crucial in the running process and when you see a depiction of it you can understand why.
   So now I know.

Negative Splits
   All I seemed to be able to figure out when I was hearing about negative splits was that people were dividing up their runs or races into portions and timing them. In an oddly counter-intuitive kind of way, the more negative the splits, the more positive people seemed to feel about them.
   Personally, I have never timed a portion of anything, I waited until the very end to see just how slow I ran. It was good enough for me to know that I ran the same route faster (or perhaps not as fast) as the last time.
   Eventually, though, I was hearing so much about negative splits that I looked it (them?) up. Negative splits occur when you divide your run up into equal portions and each portion is run slightly faster than the previous one. More simply put, you finish stronger than you begin.

   The strategy around this is a pacing one---don't use up all your vital energy at the beginning. Essentially, start slow.
   I thought this was actually pretty cool because if there's one thing I can do, it's start slow! What I struggle with is finishing even slower...

   So there you have it, the first installment of "Things I Didn't Know, That I Had To Go Look Up". I am quite sure there will be future installments as I continue to read about runners who know what they're doing. As I was writing this, actually, it occurred to me that I only think I know what "fascia" is...

   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!


  

My Legs

   I am fast approaching my very first "runniversary" and it's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since this running adventure began.
   When I learned that my wife, Doralyn, had signed us both up for a 10-week Learn-to-Run course at the local Running Room I was pretty certain that, at the end of the course, running would go right back up on the shelf it had been collecting dust on for the last 30 years or so of my life. I am still amazed that, long after the weekly sessions ended, I still wanted to run and was quite happy to run on my own, without being accountable to a schedule or another group of runners.
   One of the things I was pretty certain about was that I would lose weight. Sure enough, the pounds gradually came off. When I started to run last August I was flirting with 235 and  by the time the fasciitis hit in March I was flirting with 210. Unfortunately I kind of plateaued there due to having to lay way off the running while the heel got better. Eventually, people started looking at me and saying stuff like holy cow, you've lost a ton of weight, haven't you?
   Because I've rollercoasted with weight issues like many of us, I've gotten used to occasionally getting this kind of reaction from people, if things have been going well. One of my friends looked at me about a month ago and said something no-one else ever has, though. He said he thought my legs were getting skinny.
   If there's one part of my body I've never had a problem with, it's my legs. A lifetime of one kind of sports or another has managed to keep them what I always considered to be well-toned and muscular. I've had issues with upper body strength and tummy weight but my legs always seemed to maintain some sort of constant good health. I guess that's why my friend's comment took me a little by surprise.
   In retrospect, though, it's not like body fat picks and chooses where and how to distribute itself. It made some sort of sense, I suppose, that if I'd lost this much weight then likely some of that was from my legs.

It's in there somewhere!

   Since that comment, I've paid a little more attention to my legs, in an investigative (and hopefully not too narcissistic) kind of way. What I've noticed is where certain muscles were in ways more rounded  that now they seemed to have taken on a slightly more angular sort of shape with a touch more definition. The other day, I was leaning over and tying a shoe when I looked down and actually noticed a vein popping out on the inside of my right knee. The light sort of hit it the right way, or something, because I saw it clearly then but have had a hard time finding it since. But the fact remains that I actually saw a vein and I have never seen one there before. Over the years, I've seen all sorts of pictures of well-muscled athletes and one of the things about them that stood out the most for me (no pun intended) were their veins. The fact that I now had a vein (an elusive one at that) popping out kind of tickled me!
   Of course, this might also mean that I'm one run away from a heart attack or something so if you're runner and have experienced this kind of thing please weigh in!
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!
  

The Wet And Hot Week That Was!

   We spent Monday to Friday of this past week at my mother-in-law's trailer, near Port Franks, Ontario, right near the shore of Lake Huron.
   As it was across most of North America, the heat was damp and extremely oppressive and we tried to spend as much time as possible either in the air conditioned trailer or at nearby beaches.
   I knew that in spite of the weather I wanted to get out and run on some kind of a regular basis while I was there. I'd just started doing hill repeats a couple of days ago and I knew that I wanted to work on of those babies in as well as a basic 5k run.
   As luck would have it, my mother-in-law's trailer is at the top of a pretty steep hill so it only made sense to use the hill for a session of repeats. The road leading to the trailer park is long, flat and tree-lined so it seemed tailor-made for the longer run.

Blessedly flat and shady run.

   I did the run Tuesday morning. It was about 85 degrees with a hundred percent humidity when I set out running. It had been a while since I'd actually been able to complete a 5k without stopping so I decided to make this particular run an SSD (short slow distance). The run went well, I had taken water with me and there was plenty of shade along the way. And you know what? It was flat! In thinking about it afterward, it occurred to me that in my whole year of running I have never run a 5k distance that was flat. Where I live in the west end of London it is very difficult to travel 5k in any particular direction without running into a hill of one kind or another and, lately, I've been purposely trying to incorporate extra ones. So it was kinda nice to run on flat ground for a change! I wore my Garmin for the mileage more than for the time as all I really wanted to do was complete the run.
   I saved the hill repeat for Thursday morning. From the bottom of the hill to the top was conveniently a hundred meters. This was the same distance I had started with last week so it was kind of nice to be able to compare.
   It was a killer. It was perhaps the same distance but it was much steeper than the hill I'd previously done. Because it ended right at our trailer, I had Doralyn videotape my first

 run. Now, when I ran up the hill the first time I thought I was going pretty damn fast, little legs motoring and everything. Then I saw the video. Huge disappointment! I looked like some old geezer chasing his paper plate across the lawn at the retirement home's annual picnic, and not the amazing athlete I know myself to be. The scary part is that I was running way faster than on a normal run (I can't even imagine what one of those looks like on video...) After much technical manoeuvering, I was finally able to post that video here. Please watch at your own discretion!  
   By the way, by the end of the fifth hill repeat I was toast and couldn't possibly imagine doing six of them, which is next on the agenda. Good news is I won't be seeing that hill anytime soon again!
   So that was the week that was, running-wise. It does seem strange to be doing all this running and not have a race goal in mind so I do have my eyes on a 5k road race coming up in London at the end of the summer and by this time next week will hopefully have signed up for it.
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!
  
  

Am I really injured?

   Right at the moment, if you asked me as a runner, I would tell you I was injured. For the last few months, I've been harassed by a nagging case of plantar fasciitis.
   If, however, you were to ask me as a hockey player, I would say that I was not injured but simply had a heel that was bugging me.
   I've been trying to figure out exactly what the difference in mindset is.

One on the R will stop you from running. One on the L, not so much.

   A couple of summers ago, I suffered from the same condition. It cropped up toward the tail end of ball hockey season and, at the time, was un-diagnosed. Fortunately, it occurred right at the end of the season and by the time the next season rolled around it had cleared up and did not return. At no time while I had it, though, did I consider it something that would stop me from playing. I went out and bought some over-the-counter orthotics, threw them in my athletic shoes, and continued to play. I limped a little but didn't consider myself "injured".
   Fast forward to four months ago and the PF shows up again, likely as a result of over-training, worn-out shoes and winter-running (I love hyphenated words!)
   Now, however, I feel injured.
   So what's the difference?
   After giving this much thought, here's what I've come up with.
   When you're playing a sport, there are many ways of being injured in many different parts of your body--sprains, concussions, broken bones, torn ligaments, pulled muscles, etc. At the same time, you can hit a home run with a sprained ankle and you can score a goal with a separated shoulder. Other well-trained parts of your body can still perform.
  

Anyone out there tired of hearing about my PF...?

With running, however, it all boils down to the relationship your foot has with the running surface. If your foot hurts, you're injured. No pun intended, a searing pain in your foot (substitute knee, hip, etc., as required) will stop you dead in your tracks. When this happens to me, as a runner, I feel injured, as opposed to just suffering from a nagging ailment.
   One of the cool things about having access to so many running blogs these days is that you get to hear and find out about the injuries other runners are having, or have had, to deal with. As an example, many other runners also have had issues with PF and it's informative to get their perspective on what worked, or didn't work, as far as their treatment of it. What I find even more fascinating, though, is how runners deal with their injuries from a psychological aspect. I found it encouraging to find out I wasn't the only person who was going bonkers because they couldn't get out and simply just run. There seems to be a constant struggle with wanting to run but wanting to heal at the same time and needing to balance the two. Some runners show great patience, others not so much, and it is very easy to identify with all of them!
   On top of everything else, when you play a team sport you have some responsibility to your team members. There is a desperate need and desire to pull your own weight and, occasionally, this will lead to players continuing to play even though they might be injured. There is also the possibility you might actually be hurting the team by playing injured. In running, your only responsibility is to yourself and what you do with that responsibility is entirely up to you. In most

Better be TRUE, damnit!

cases, there is no coach or trainer saying you can't run and nor is there any pressure to run. You are neither helping the team nor hurting the team one way or the other.
   So here I am, trying to decide whether I am, or was,  actually injured or not. Most days, I can now get out and run and only suffer minimally afterwards. Because of this, right at the moment it is hard to describe myself as injured and so I don't. There was a time however when running seemed like an impossibility and I have no qualms about describing myself as injured back then. However, if a coach had said "get out there and run, Baker".....     

Hill Repeating!

   I had my first experience with hill repeats today and, whaddya know, I lived to tell about it!
   I described hill repeats to her as I was on my way out the door and Doralyn asked me if my will was up-to-date... so I did have a little trepidation. Suzan at http://welcometothenuthouse.com had sent me a link to an article describing hill repeats and as soon as the author used the word "brutal", I was hooked (and just a touch nervous about the whole thing.)
   I very definitely had a hill in mind, though, and headed there this morning. Most of what was said in the article flew out of my head by the time I reached the hill so I stood there at the bottom of it, looking up, and thinking to myself so do I have to run the whole thing? I seemed to remember something about at least a forty yard run but knew that the whole hill was way longer than forty yards.

Today's hill.

   I walked part way up, stopped, set my Garmin, and took off running hard. I basically ran until I was really tired and then stopped. The Garmin is set to "kilometers" and it showed ".12". My math has always sucked but I finally figured this out to be just over a hundred meters. A hundred meters is substantially more than forty yards but I liked the roundness of that figure and so decided to stick with it.
   I then did four more repeats, bringing me up to the recommended five. At the end of the fifth, I was toast. Hard to say what a sixth repeat might have felt like but I imagine I'll find out next week.
   If my heel comes around. Because right at the moment it hurts as bad as it has in a long time. This was the first time I'd run "all out" in ages  and one of the very first times I did so going up a hill. I don't think my plantar fascia enjoyed the experience and it's currently letting me know about it. My hope is that by tomorrow it has forgiven me just a touch. We'll see...

   The actual running, though, was simply not as bad as advertised. I've had a pretty steady diet of tennis, football and ball hockey over the last forty years or so and the idea of going all out, resting briefly, and then going all out again is totally ingrained in me. Didn't stop me from being exhausted, mind you, but it was a very familiar kind of exhausted and, therefore, not very scary. I know I can do this again, no probs!!
   Except for maybe that heel...
   

My "Running-backwards-and-almost-puking" 5k Run

   For the last couple of weeks I've switched over from trail runs to a 5k run on pavement, here in my neighbourhood. This was a route I'd run extensively up until late February, when the PF hit.
   It's a route I came up with in prep for a trail run I'd signed up for in late April. I'd heard the run was very hilly and challenging so I wanted to incorporate a few more hills into my training. All was going well, right up until the PF.
   I've run this hilly route many times and decided this past week that, simply for a change, I'd run it in the reverse direction.
   Normally, the run starts at my house and finishes up slightly less than half a kilometer away. To run it in reverse, I walk to the normal "finish line", turn around, and start to run.
   Running this route in reverse changed everything. What were once long, wonderful, downhill lopes were now torturous, breath-robbing uphill ascents. What used to be a kilometer-long, mind-numbing slight uphill grade near the end of the run became a delightful, energy-reserving canter near the beginning of the run.

From the bottom...

   Overall, it seemed easier now, apart from one steep stretch I found almost impossible to do without stopping. I'm pretty sure that anyone
watching would have had one finger on 9-1-1, just in case. At the end of that stretch, however, basically everything else was downhill, or at least felt that way.
   At the right is a picture of this hill. Like most pics, it doesn't show the steepness (would that there were "Hill-o-Vision") but I did point my camera straight ahead. The first pic is from the bottom. I then drove half way up and took a pic of the rest, although I had to leave out the very top (cuz no one wants to see runners' skeletons...)


...and halfway up.

   So I did that once, no problem, and noted the time on my Garmin. The second time, I was nearing the end, probably had about half a kilometer to go and I take another quick peek at the Garmin. I notice that I'm pretty close to my previous result and figure that, if I kick it up a notch, I'll be able to better that result. So I put things into a slightly different gear, legs pounding, and bettered my time by five seconds. I did, however, almost collapse in my driveway, thinking to myself please don't collapse in your driveway! I did manage to recover, though, and as is my habit, began walking back along the sidewalk, to cool down. About six houses down, I started to get a sensation I've never had at the end of a run before. I thought I was gonna puke.
   As stated, this was a new feeling for me and I wasn't quite sure what to do. It wasn't like I was in the middle of a trail run and could simply skulk off into the bushes and do my thing. No, I was in the middle of a residential neighbourhood on a well-travelled street. I wasn't that far from my house but, at the same time, I wasn't quite sure I could make it back there. I wondered what the etiquette was for barfing in front of a neighbour's house. Do you barf on the grass or barf on the sidewalk? Do you avoid the driveway? Lawn or boulevard? What's the best way to clean up outdoor puke or do you simply lose your cookies in the street and let the city handle it? Is barf bio-degradable?
   It was amazing how many scenarios ran through my head in the relatively brief time I felt as though I was about to upchuck. This feeling did pass, however, in a minute or two, to my relief. Hopefully, I will remember this the next time I try and go all out at the end of a run. Although I'm not sure it would stop me...

   Have you "lost it" on a run before? Is it kind of an "occupational hazard"?

   And in the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!