Zombies, Run!

Relevant background information:

When I am chased, I have neither a fight nor a flight response. I simply sit down, essentially presenting myself as bait. I believe it was my brother who summarized it so eloquently: 'So, you basically have no survival skills at all?'

I'm not proud of this fact (nor amused when people try to test the theory), so I decided to work on it. I downloaded the Zombies, Run! app on my phone, the 5K program. I've been sidelined from making any progress due to the toe situation for a few weeks, but by this morning I was itching to get out into the fresh air and get back on track.

At first it was a disaster. I woke up at 7am wide awake and ready to rock and roll, but then thought that since I had 4 shots of tequila last night I MUST be hungover (I wasn't) and therefore should return to bed for a bit. 'A bit' turned into four hours. Whatever, I'm more than rested now. I got up, took a quick shower, chugged some V8 and water and put on my running clothes. Toe felt good in the sneakers. Phone had just enough charge to get me through the run. But then I couldn't find my headphones, my new iPhone holder strap-on thingie was too big and awkward, and I couldn't get my house key off the ring. I spent 20 minutes looking for the headphones to no avail, then just said screw it and grabbed the buds that came with my iPod (which I hate). I also said screw it to the iPhone holder and shoved the phone in my bra instead. Got my ass out the door. SUCCESS.

It's damp and slightly rainy and chilly today--my favorite running weather! I started up the app, which incorporates a story into your run in between songs from your own phone, and headed out. The story is essentially that you are in a helicopter, heading to a human town in a zombie-infested post apocalyptic land or something to that effect. The helicopter crashes, and people from the human town are speaking to you over the radio. They guide you back to base, letting you know when to speed up because zombies are chasing you (they tell you not to turn around and to run as fast as you can, all while zombie sounds are fading in and out--CREEPY.) I had my Garmin on, along with the heart rate monitor, so it was kind of funny to see my heart rate spike throughout the run when the voices came on.

The chart above is my elevation (in green) overlayed with my heart rate (in red). I basically walked/ran up a giant hill and then turned around and ran back down. The amusing part is that the heart rate elevation at the end where the elevation is decreasing is sort of because I was running rather than walking, but  mainly due to the fact that I was running FAST because that was the part where the zombie was right behind me. I got all panicky and I would have loved to watch myself, silently chanting 'ohshit ohshit' while I ran home. At least I didn't sit down, right?

Halloween 5K

When my mom told me about a month ago that she'd been trying to incorporate a little bit of running into her exercise routine, I was more than thrilled. Like me, my mom is constantly battling her weight. When she loses, she's happy. When her eating is out of control, she's crabby and sad. Sound familiar?

I signed us up for a Halloween 5K that I've run before at a school for kids with special needs and developmental disorders. It's a great cause, and a fun run. Also, plenty of walkers so no pressure. I promised to stay with her, and we would run when we could. It was a wonderful experience to share with her, and although with her asthma she struggled at times to keep up (there might have been some swearing and dirty looks at my cheerleading attempts), I loved every minute of it.

I told her as we started that we were going to finish the race in under an hour...anything longer was not an option. She looked at me doubtfully, but to me it's a lot more fun to run when you have a goal. I kept telling her our time, and we'd estimate our pace and see if we needed to speed up or not. At one point I spotted a port-a-potty and needed to go, so I told her to keep walking and I'd catch up. I thought she'd walk slow and take the time to catch her breath, but that little bugger went into full-speed power walk mode and I had to sprint about a quarter mile to catch her. (That's when I realized I wasn't the only one driving our team to finish in time.)

We turned the corner for the final quarter mile, and although it was all uphill I kept pushing her to keep up the good work. She was huffing and puffing and working her ass off just to walk up the steep hill, but when we got to the final corral of cones she looked at me and said 'let's run to the end.' I was so damn proud of her! We held hands as we crossed the finish line together in 50 minutes. The woman who has inspired me all of my life to be better, aim higher and persevere no matter what the circumstances had yet again been the inspiration herself. Love you, Mama Bear. 

Note to self

When checking the weather before a morning run and seeing 65 (oh sweeeeeeeet nice perfect), you should also check the humidity level. I don't know what it was, but I think I just ran in soup.

HOWEVER. I just ran. 2 miles. Uphill for most (ok, more like half). Only walked up The Big Kahuna because it's practically vertical.

Yesterday I wasn't even out of bed at this time, so I'd say for right now that Friday is beating Thursday by a mile (well, 2 actually).

Footsies

I have been lamenting to you about the problem of my feet falling asleep when I run. This usually happens after about 2 miles, and was getting increasingly worse despite my best efforts to fix the problem (tie laces tighter, looser, upside down, different stride, different socks, different sports bra, voodoo, etc). I got a lot of advice and feedback from you awesome folks, but sadly none of it worked.

I finally sucked it up and went to visit the podiatrist a week or so ago, and he said it was foot neuroma. In summary, with ‘sheer force’ (giggle), a nerve in my foot swells. It initially feels like my socks are folded around the balls of my feet, and gradually spreads until I’m running on rubber feet. Fortunately, he said it wasn’t causing any permanent damage, although it’s obviously a safety concern to be running without feeling the road. 
He recommended new sneakers since mine were getting older and probably a bit “sloppy”, and said that if the problem persisted I should remove the soles and try full gel inserts.

I was (and still am) planning on getting something with some extra cushion, but I was shoe shopping with a wine buzz this weekend and saw these beauties:

I know, I know…Skechers ew. BUT I’m kind of excited about taking them for a run. They’re extremely light and technically fall into the minimalist sneaker movement, but they are designed with a lift in the arch area designed to promote a midfoot strike. They weren’t great for walking since the heel is dropped a bit, but I think they’ll be a different story for running. Also…we should probably take a moment to appreciate their cool color.

(…appreciating…)

Speaking of cool colors, apparently I love them when I’m wine-buzzed shoe shopping because I got these too. Sort of like Minnie Mouse shoes, right?

  
And finally, in an effort to appease readers who like all kinds of shoes, I’ll also show you my third shoe porn entry recently purchased: I think they kind of look like hooves, but in a hot way (yes...just go with it).

The Boston Marathon...a not so short essay

Since I’ve been a little girl, “Marathon Monday” (aka Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts) has been one of my favorite days of the year. I grew up pretty much on the route (~Mile 10), and lived within walking distance of it (in several different homes) all the way up until last year.

As a child, it was awesome because it was the kickoff of April vacation from school. We would watch the wheelchair racers leave Hopkinton on TV, then head downtown to wait anxiously for the blimp, the helicopters, the motorcycle cops and finally, the news vans. That was our moment to shine! We would wave frantically as the vans slowly drove past in front of the lead runners, never quite realizing that everyone we knew was at the race and therefore, we would never be recognized on national television. (So much for my big break).

As an adolescent, the marathon (yes, THE marathon—I had no clue there were any others) was more of a social scene. I would go down to the race with my friends and walk endlessly up and down the street looking for other kids we knew. If we watched the race at all, it was only to giggle at people running ‘in their underwear’ or to cringe at the bloody nipples. I had zero appreciation for the event I was was so lucky to have practically in my backyard, or the incredible feats of athleticism that were being accomplished while I worried about whether or not my stretchy pink jeans were ‘too much pink’ when worn with my high-top pink Balloons sneakers (they definitely were).

In my early to mid 20s, the marathon became an awesome reason to party. We would start early with bloody marys and breakfast sandwiches, then head down to scream and cheer for the runners, acting like drunken fools and bragging about all of the people we high-fived. We’d hold up signs with updates on the Sox game and drink beers, assuming the runners were having just as much fun as we were (they were, right?). We would be psyched when the weather was hot, and bitch and complain when our barbecues were ruined by rain or cold weather.

In my late 20s, my brother Chris started running the Boston. It was then that I began to truly understand and appreciate the hard work and sheer determination that goes into the race, although certainly not from watching him. He never talked about training and pretty much (maybe always?) finished in under 3 hours, bounding through Natick like a big happy (skinny) kangaroo with a giant smile on his face. Watching the difference between his form/attitude/facial expressions and the folks staggering by 2-3 hours later was like night and day. I grew to respect the people on the back end even more than the elite runners in the front. I mean, they may have been running slower but they were clearly exerting themselves and for a much longer period of time!

Now that I run (jog…power walk…etc), I can say that I have more interest and respect for the great 26.2 than I ever have. Reading the blogs of folks that are training for these events is unbelievably inspiring, and if you’re one of them I hope you pat yourself on the back daily because you DESERVE IT! Now I hope for cooler days, and try to remain reasonably sober throughout the race so as not to miss a thing.

Yesterday was truly an awful weather day for Boston runners (understatement of the century). Although he was still a happy (skinny) kangaroo, even Chris showed minor signs of fatigue as he came through Natick. He finished with a net time of 3:12:33, which is obviously incredible but sadly is just over the qualifying time for next year’s Boston (which is bogus in my opinion).

(going to do this here because it’s weird to say in person…cue sappy violin music)

Chrisr,

I just want to tell you that I am unbelievably proud of you. I know I’ve told you a thousand times before but I want you to know how much I really do admire you. You are always so humble when we run 5Ks together and you pretty much win while I come limping across the finish line 20 minutes later. Although my ‘running’ is probably laugh-worthy to you, you always note my improvements, track my stats in your nerdy mathy way and honor my achievements like I just…ran a marathon (that’s my go-to analogy for doing something awesome). Knowing how hard you trained for this and how frustrated and angry you must have felt upon realizing you weren’t going to make the cutoff just about breaks my heart. If I could march down to BAA headquarters and give them a piece of my mind about their ridiculously strict rules I would (and I still might). In the meantime, know that whether you chose to run another marathon to qualify or to run for charity next year I will give you my unconditional support and at LEAST 20 bucks towards your cause. I love you, little bro (I actually even like you a lot, too). You’re the coolest. :)

Love,

Your somehow even cooler older sister.

Doncha wish your Garmin had an Icelandic route like mine?

I could (and plan to) wax poetic about Iceland for the rest of my life, but one of my most favorite moments of the trip was the early morning run my friend Tobey and I took on our last day. Throughout our 4 day stay, we were often plagued by strong winds, icy rain and snow squalls. However, Sunday morning came through like a champ; greeting our sleepy faces with a mild breeze and strong sunshine.

The people of Reykjavik party like ROCK STARS on Friday and Saturday night (we could hear them reveling in the streets until 5 or 6am), but then the area goes silent for a few hours while those who greeted the dawn get a few hours of rest. So it was just Tobey and me, a solitary black cat lazily chasing a rat, and the street cleaners (the city is unbelievably clean). We only ran a little over two miles through the square and down by the docks, but we took the moments required to take a deep breath and truly appreciate our surroundings.

And so I creep (yeah)

I think I came up with the MOST innovative of ideas yesterday. Fact is, my building is about 0.1 miles long, separated into 3 sections by double doors. It is also 6 stories high, and I live on the first floor.

My workout (after my run) was to run/walk/run (the three sections) down one floor, take the stairs to the next level, walk/run/walk down the next floor, stairs up again, run/walk/run, etc. Every other set of stairs I used as an opportunity to stretch my calves and hamstrings. If I hadn’t just come back from a run, I would have run the whole hallways.

Same thing on the way down. When all is said and done, it’s a little over a mile (not including the stairs).

The pros:

• If the weather is crappy, it’s not like I have to wait for a hallway to open up like a treadmill.
• If I hit a stinky patch of hallway, I sprint through (speedwork!)
• It’s safe.
• No hills.
• It couldn’t be any closer, and I’m always less than 0.1 miles from my door (and water/bathroom/etc).
• Stairs=crosstraining!
• When the doors between the sections are open, it looks like The Shining, which scares me, which creates adrenaline and makes me run faster, thus increasing my heart rate.

The cons:

• I feel like I’m creepin’
• No fresh air and nothing to look at.
• The Shining hallway concept FREAKS me out. Like…FREAKS ME OUT.
• If people see me, I have to stop and walk because…well, it’s weird what I’m doing, right?
• Those random smelly hallways are very smelly.

I feel like this is a good alternative to keep things fresh (well, maybe not so fresh in the hallways with my sweaty self running through) or when I just want to do a mile or so, but how long do you think I can keep this up before someone notices? And if they do, is it wrong? I mean, I don’t see any “no running” signs in the hallway…

I went for a 2.5 mile run yesterday, and again I had wooden, numb feet after ~1.5 miles, which got progressively worse despite my stopping a few times to shake them out. Once they start falling asleep, I can’t get them fully awake again until I’ve stopped running.

Why does this happen? Why do they fall asleep right as I’m hitting my stride and no longer gasping for air? You are pissing me off, feet.

I have thoroughly searched Dr. Internet (my main source of medical information, obvi), and there does not seem to be a general answer for this problem. I’ve also gotten some advice from you lovely running folk. Some say shoes, many say lacing, some even say spinach (actually, no one said that but I’m kind of craving it).

I have tried the following (to no avail):

-Different shoes (2 different brands, totally different types of sneaks)
-A slower pace
-A different stride (smaller, faster steps rather than bounding steps)
-Treadmill, road and trail
-Inserts (blister festival after 1.5 miles, and when I took them out the sleeping started, but I don’t know if it’s because I took them out or because it had been 1.5 miles. Classic chicken/egg scenario.)
-Different walk/run patterns
-Stretching before
-Not stretching before
-Hills/no hills
-Lacing my shoes from the top down (so awkward-looking)

-Lacing my sneaks super tight
-Lacing my sneaks super loose

I really do get a lot of suggestions about the lacing, but I’m fairly sure it’s not a circulation problem. It seems to be more of a nerve that is getting pressed thing. I would like to find that nerve and get that nerve a cup of coffee.

Side  note: I know I just said I don’t think it’s circulation and this may not have anything to do with anything, but I remembered that when I was little, my feet used to fall asleep when I would play outside in the winter with my friends, and then I would fall. Luckily it was winter in Massachusetts so I would usually fall onto a pile of snow. However, it got a little embarrassing (I was probably like having a narcoleptic friend…now you see me, now I’m laying down), so my mom took me to the doctor, who made the great rule that I had to come inside every 20 minutes for a foot rub and a sock change. That time interval is strangely similar to the current troublesome time interval. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled blog post…

I have a couple more options to try before I have to go visit the podiatrist (who has the huge fun purple chair):

1. Try inserts again, but with my shoes tied very tight so they don’t slip and cause blisters
2. Try the inserts after 1 mile
3. Try one more type of laces (Xtenex), which don’t tie and are stretchy.

Abrupt stop.