As Simple As Believing In Yourself

             If you believe you can do something you have a great chance of doing it. If you believe that you can’t do something, most likely you will fail.  It’s a really simple statement and was one I lived by in my training for the 2013 Hyannis Half Marathon February 24th.  The belief was in the fact that I could train for such a race in only 6 weeks.

            After completing the Cape Cod Marathon in October I had gone into a bit of hibernation with my running.  My Achilles tendonitis had made it difficult to walk let alone run.  It was mid-December when I hit my low point.  I had kept trying to run, like continually driving a car that was just flat out broken.  The pain was always excruciating during and after.  With each run the pain in my heel was unbearable to the point that I was spending longer icing and heating my foot than actually running.   

            At my work’s Christmas party I had to dress nicely, not a big deal by any means.  However, wearing the dress shoes caused me great pain walking and even standing.  I spent a good amount of the night sitting at my table wondering what I was doing to myself.  I needed to stop before something really bad happened. So I did.  I quit running and went back to my old elliptical and stationary bike routines at the gym. 

            Weeks went by and my desire to run waned.  I began to enjoy my old routines, it was like I had never been a runner at all.  This was fine until the New Year and resolution time.  I resolved to not only return to running and racing but to do it smarter and eventually better than before.  I would fix hitches in my stride to lessen heel striking and therefore Achilles pain.  Now, on January 1^st I had no plans to race again anytime soon. A week later that changed.  I signed up for the Hyannis Half Marathon and therefore forced myself to start running or else I’d be wasting money.

            I sat at home and plotted out a 6-week training schedule run by run; something I had never done.  On paper it looked feasible.  The only problem was actually running.  This is where believing in myself came into play. I set the bar low as far as pace during my runs, the idea was just to finish it standing up and uninjured.  Time would be the last thing on my agenda. 

            The first few runs were slow and plodding but got the job done of re-breaking the running ice.  Then I decided to venture outside in the cold for a few miles. The race was outside after all, so why not experience the elements?  I did about 4 miles but more than that I felt the exhilaration that came when I initially had begun running at the start.  I loved that feeling and had missed it for so long.  Training for the marathon had become a job, and at times a tedious one.  I had lost why I began running in the first place.  It was that feeling of just me and the road. 

            Rediscovering my actual love of running made the 6 week training schedule seem not only feasible, but easy.  I believed that no matter what aches and pains I got after long runs that as long as I kept working on my stride and giving proper rest time I could make this work.  I also started enjoying running outside in the cold, rain, and snow.  I felt like a real runner.

            However, the main change in myself as a runner now as opposed to a few months ago is appreciation.  I appreciate the privilege of being able to run and treat each run, especially the outdoor ones, as though it might be my last.  It’s sort of the same thing that is said about appreciating people in your life.  If you treat it as if it might be the last time you ever see them than you will never take them for granted.  I lost my ability to run for a while and now appreciate the fact that I can do it again.

            The Hyannis Half is still a few days away, and the forecast is for rain and snow which makes me feel so much better about being ‘crazy’ and training outside.  I will of course save the actual race day for another day, but just the fact that I am ready for it after where I was in mid-December already makes this a victory.  If I can steal a phrase: Believe to Achieve.  That is all you need to do whether it’s something small like running a race, or something larger in life.  I have learned it and am now living by it.  

I truly appreciate scenes like this now.

It's Gotta Be the Shoes, Part 2

            Back in April I wrote a piece about how the shoes you wear are the single most important part of any runner’s world.  I had switched from Brooks to Mizuno and been repeatedly dealing with nagging injuries.  Only when I switched back to Brooks at the beginning of April did I begin to see improvement in how I ran and how I felt.  From April to now I have run six races including my first marathon.  That was all well and good but I was still dealing with nagging pains in my feet that seemed to hold me back.  But I had switched to the correct shoes, right?  Wrong.

            My friend Emily had mentioned a running store in Plymouth, Bayside Runner, which had a unique way of fitting you for shoes.  They actually recorded you running on a treadmill and assessed what type of shoe you needed from what they saw.  I knew I had to at least give this place a shot.

            I wore my current pair of Brooks Adrenaline to the store as a reference for the employees.  Since it was my first time there they needed to measure my feet.  I mentioned I was a 9 1/2.  I was shocked when they measured me and suggested a 10.  The man told me it’s wiser for running shoes to be a little larger than too tight.  It seemed like a really simple concept.  Suddenly I was remembering how many times my feet, toes, and heels hurt during and after running.  Could my shoes being too tight have been the reason?

            I remembered nearly everytime I ran I would have some pain on top of my feet followed by red skin near where the shoes would be tied.  I also remembered during one of my marathon training runs my entire right foot lost feeling because of pressure on one of the blood vessels.  I guess in the moment I believed that it must have just been from overtraining.  Like I said in April, it’s all about the shoes.

            So I had been running in tight shoes for nearly 2 years which blew my mind.  Next I had to get on the treadmill and run.  They set the camera up behind me and started recording once I had been in my stride for a minute or so.  Once I was done they put my running film on a television screen.  Frame by frame the man helping me showed me what my feet did and explained just what each movement meant.  I was in for another surprise when it came to my shoes.

            I had been running in, and enjoying, my Brooks Adrenaline.  The man explained that they are stability shoes and that judging by my stride and gait I did not need stability shoes.  He said I needed a neutral shoe to 'let your feet do what they do.'  So I had been running in shoes that were too tight and gave the wrong support for my stride?  How was I even able to run at all?  I started thinking that this was probably the major cause of all my aches and pains I had been dealing with.

            I tried on several pairs of shoes but stuck with my preferred brand, Brooks.  I switched from the Adrenaline to the Defyance, a neutral shoe in the proper size.  I had felt really good and proud of all I had done running in the past 20 months.  Now I am full of excitement wondering what I might be able to do with the right shoes in my arsenal.  It all starts tomorrow with my first run in my new shoes.  

           Have any of you been fitted for shoes in this manner?  Having your stride filmed?  Maybe this is common and I’m new to the game.  Have any of you run in tight shoes?  What effect did they have on you?   

Bayside Runner.com

A Triumphant Return?

In the heat of the moment things seem worth it.  I have no regrets about making a return to racing only 3 weeks after doing some damage to my legs in my first marathon.  That is the addiction, all runners know it well.  Once my legs began to feel good again my mind naturally went back to competitive mode. 

I had said that after the Cape Cod Marathon in late-October that I would not race again until the Hyannis Half Marathon in late-February.  In the days after the marathon that promise seemed like it would be easy to keep.  My legs, specifically my left foot, were worn out.  I had bruised my left heel and ball of my left foot all in the efforts to finish the final 11 miles of the marathon.  I had battled the pulled hamstring, battled the cramped calves, battled the achy hip flexors and groin, and had succeeded in crossing that finish line.

I had begun my convalescence by changing up my workout to strengthen my legs and core so that when I returned to racing I would be ‘new and improved.’  It only took about 10 days before I felt good and was back to running, although only for as long and as fast as I chose to.  I was NOT going to train for any races until 2013.  Well, that did not happen.

Last year I had run a 5K on Thanksgiving and really enjoyed starting a fun family holiday with a sort of ‘running adventure’ that I could share with the family later on.  I wanted that again.  I chose another 5K since I knew that I could finish it without having to do any sort of training.  I chose to run in Provincetown since it would be a scenic run and a scenic drive to and from the race.  Plus the fact that I signed up 2 days earlier meant there was not a lot of time for me to start over thinking if I was ready to race again.

I got to the race site an hour early as is my superstitious custom since I did it for my very first race.  There were only a few other people there so I got my number and wandered off.  It was at a motel so I got to off on my own and stretch and meditate on a basketball court.  I sat on the walls of a barbecue pit and surveyed as other runners showed up.  It was a small event, probably 70-80 runners, a far cry from the 12,000 that ran the Falmouth Road Race in August.

The people running the event were nice but the setup was a bit amateurish.  There was no timer at the finish line, and the Start/Finish line was hand drawn in chalk 2 minutes before the race commenced.  The time was kept by stopwatch.  Needless to say I was ready no matter what, it was 50 and sunny which was much improved over the 30 with 20 degree windchills during my Thanksgiving race in 2011.  Since 5K’s are all out sprints I positioned myself on the starting line ready to take off. 

Like a shot I was off.  I felt good and as I got about a mile out I realized I was 3^rd overall with nobody behind me.  I kept my cool and kept my pace up.  Now here’s where it gets interesting, like ‘it can only happen to me’ interesting.  There was a fork in the road ahead, the race route was to go to the left, that was easy enough.  However, we were told at the start that there would be a woman dressed all in Pilgrim garb with water.  She would be the halfway/turnaround point.  Easy enough, right?  It turns out that she did not expect any runners to get there as fast as the top 3, myself included, did.  She had been posting a sign with an arrow making sure no runners went the wrong way at the fork.  So she was nowhere to be found and therefore we had no clue where the turnaround was.  I saw the two runners ahead of me turn back as the pilgrim lady yelled to them. With my headphones on I did not hear her but turned around too.  We ended up going about ¼ mile too far and I was stuck in 8^th overall on the way back.

I was running out of gas but crawled my way to 5^th as I crossed the chalk finish line.  It ended up being my best finish in a race, not counting a 'Virtual 5K' where I had nobody chasing me, you did it wherever you felt like doing it . I finished the 'virtual' in 2nd overall.  I kept the extra ¼ mile in mind when figuring my time, I ended up with a 7:17/mi. pace which made me feel good considering I didn’t train and had planned on not racing until late-February.  The pilgrim lady showed up at the finish line and she was so sweet and nice that I forgot all about her vacating her post as the halfway marker. 

Now as I said at the beginning in the heat of the moment it was a great start to a great Thanksgiving.  The next day?  Not so much.  I aggravated my bruised left heel so my plan of not running a race until February might be back in effect.  Walking has been a chore today but what can you do?  I might have been overzealous and returned too quickly but hindsight is always 20/20.  I’ll give it a few days and see if I can go on or go back to square one.  I don’t regret it though, I have never regretted anything I’ve done during my racing life.

Have any of you made a vow not to race for a set period of time only to give in to the ‘addiction?’  How did it go for you?

Surveying the scene from my perch on the barbecue pit wall.

My 'cyborg leg' part injury-prevention, part preparing to run in the cold.

Running For Fun? What's That?

Running For Fun?  What’s That?

            I guess I am going to have to find out.  After running, and now recovering from, my first marathon I have been of course looking toward the future.  I immediately began looking for the ‘next race.’  I had tentatively scheduled a Thanksgiving Day race and a New Year’s Day race, a 5K and 5-miler respectively.  Before I actually plopped down the money though I began to wonder if I wanted to get right back into training.  I didn’t.

            From nearly the beginning of my running life I’ve been training for races, 14 in 17 months to be exact.  Granted, not all are marathons or half marathons, but you run differently when you have a time or a pace in mind.  It’s different when you just point your feet and go for the hell of it.  Or so I have heard.

            Turns out that I have really never run just for fun.  I was looking back over time trying to figure out when I had an extended period of just running because I want to, not because I have to.  I could not find one.  Sure, I have had periods where I wasn’t training per se, but it was because I was doing runs to recover from some sort of injury.

            It was a little different I must admit to step on a treadmill (give me a break we turned the clocks back and it’s dark right after I get out of work) and just go.  There was no ‘I need to run sprints,’ no ‘I have to hit 10+ miles.’ No, it was just running at a comfortable speed for a comfortable time.  When I was done I felt great.

            I think every runner at some point reaches the tipping point.  It’s like going back to basics to rediscover why exactly you started running at all.  After getting severely burned out during my 5 months of marathon training a return to the basics of running was just what I needed.  As of right now I plan on running for fun until the end of 2012.  January 1^st will see me start training for my 2^nd Hyannis Half Marathon in late-February.  Until then I will be running because I want to.  Granted I will do long runs, sprints, hills, but only when I want and for how long I want to.  Running for fun?  Wow, what a concept.

            How about you?  Have any of you gotten so into training and races that you’ve forgotten about the basic joys of running?  Have you ever taken such a break where you run only when you want to?  If so, how long did it last before the call of competition became too much to ignore?  Maybe I’ll last until New Year’s, maybe I won’t, who knows…