And You Know, We’re On Each Other’s Team

The last time I was on a team was when I played kickball in Charleston, SC with some coworkers.  “Kick in a Box” didn’t do so hot.  Evidently accountants don’t make the best kickball players.  However, I learned the year before that boozing Citadel boys aren’t much better – Our  “My Couch Pulls Out But I Don’t” team (you can guess who came up with that name) maybe squeaked out just one victory the whole season.

In high school, I drank a little less beer during play and became the second seed on Northern Nash’s tennis team.  Only problem was that we had just one good player.

Even though my most recent team experiences haven’t exactly panned out, I am super pumped about being a part of the Charlotte Running Club team at the Boston Marathon!  And I’m really not just being a polite Southerner when I say that – I really am excited!

After learning about the organization shortly after the Marine Corps Marathon, I joined Charlotte Running Club (“CRC”) back in January.  Not only does the group offer me the opportunity to connect with training partners for runs, but it also provides me with resources for training and racing advice.  And since a coworker once told me that he feared that I thought there was a written section to the marathon since I studied so many training books, I know I could probably use some advice that doesn’t come off the shelves of Charlotte’s Public Library or ordered off Amazon.

At this year’s Boston Marathon, Charlotte Running Club will have teams competing in both the men’s and women’s open divisions and the men’s and women’s masters divisions.  The three fastest times on each team will be used to rank Charlotte Running Club amongst teams from all over the country.  You can check out last year’s results here http://raceday.baa.org/team.html

Of course I am always looking to pick off some ponytails at the end of a race (if I can!), but I am honestly more concerned with beating myself than some other runner.  I feel like when we are out there racing we are all struggling to do our best, and in some ways – especially in a marathon – we are all a team.  But ranking running teams brings a whole new competitive element to Boston.  I don’t want to crush some mountain girl’s spirit, but I would love to kill Asheville Track Club whose Women’s Team placed 7^th overall last year.  I mean – seriously! – Charlotte is a million times bigger than Asheville!  We need to take these girls down.

Besides fueling my competitive nature, being a part of CRC’s Boston Team is a nice way to share the excitement and experience of the 2014 Boston Marathon.  Running the Boston Marathon is awesome, but I think running it as part of a team will be even more special!  Like celebrating my birthday last weekend with a good friend that was born just two days after me, it’s way more fun to be able to share these good times with others!

 

Birthday Girls!  Brittney (L) and Me (R)

Boston Experiment Week 12 of 16:  38 

This week’s training was comprised of mostly easy miles – most of which were thankfully off pavement.  I did do a 17-mile long run that contained 3 x 1 mile at marathon pace with 1 mile off.  I felt like the run was exactly what I wanted – nothing crazy, just a little bit of quality.

This Week’s Beer Choice:  AleWorks Bitter Valentine Double IPA (VA) 

The Bitter Valentine at Berret's in Historic Williamsburg

Fueling for Boston

I grew up in Eastern North Carolina where Sunday dinners (known as lunch in the rest of the country) consisted of fried chicken, barbeque, Brunswick stew, chicken pastry, collard greens, and of course fried hush puppies and breadsticks.  It wasn’t until college when I was enjoying the Down Eastern BBQ plate at the Carolina Brewery with my Connecticut-raised college roommate and her family that I realized not everyone regularly eats foods cooked with bacon grease and lard.  Watching me enjoy a little taste of home, my roomie gave me a puzzled look and said, “So, you fry cornmeal and then you dip it in butter?”

 Yup.  Not only did I grow up eating plenty of hushpuppies (my favorites are the ones with a little taste of onion in them!), but my parents would also pack a Dr. Pepper and a Little Debbie snack cake in my lunch box each day – bless their hearts.

Fortunately, my eating habits have improved over the years and lately I have been paying particular attention to what I put in my mouth.  I figure even though I am limited on the number of miles and workouts I can safely accomplish, I can control what I put in to my body to fuel those workouts and recoveries.

Immediately post-workout, I am a huge fan of low-fat chocolate milk.  At home, I will pour the milk into one of my frozen beer glasses so that it almost turns into a milkshake.  And when I drive somewhere to do a long run, I will pack a water bottle filled with chocolate milk so that I can drink it immediately after the run on my way home.  It’s like a treat to me, but I have also read repeatedly that it is the perfect recovery drink since it contains a good balance of protein and carbs…Sounds good to me!

Focusing a lot on recovery this “training” period, I try to make sure I am getting enough protein.  Thus, I love lots of chicken dishes like the Chicken-Quinoa Soup and the Chicken-Mango Fajitas from the Runner’s World cookbook, but I also like to just grill chicken and put it on a salad or make a chicken sandwich with avocado. 

Chicken-Quinoa Soup

Chicken-Mango Fajitas

Chicken-Avocado Sandwich with Salad

In general, I try to stay away from processed foods and instead make sure I get lots of fruits and veggies.  Thus, I tend to eat a salad almost every day.  Sometimes I have a salad with a meal, but often I will also make it my main course and add hardboiled eggs and nuts.  I have also played around with adding apples to my salads and sandwiches.

Home-Made Cobb Salad

Salad with Apples (Instead of Dressing)

Turkey Sandwich with Apples

I tried once to go vegan….it didn’t last long.  I found it extremely difficult because you do not realize how many foods have dairy in them until you are trying to cut it all out!  I also love sushi and juicy, rare steaks too much. 

Sushi at Miyagi's

Steak and Mashed Potatoes with Asparagus

Of course, the elephant in the room may be my beer drinking.  However, cutting out beer would be like wanting to go out and run a 2:30 marathon – that’s nowhere close to even being on the table.  But I will say that the number of my weekly alcoholic beverages is at or below the recommended seven per week for women.  I am definitely not as much fun as I used to be, but my empty alcoholic calories are fairly in check.

While I do try to only, or at least mostly, eat foods that will make me healthier, I do not exercise portion control.  I do not count calories, and I never restrict the amount of food I eat.  I eat when I am hungry and until I am satisfied.  One of the main reasons why I am not concerned about potentially overeating is that with the injuries I have had, it is important that I am getting enough nourishment to recover.  I would much rather risk overeating than not giving myself enough energy to heal.

Comparing my diet today to what it was in high school, I certainly believe I have made substantial progress.  However, I am still an Eastern North Carolina girl at heart, and I still love some good barbeque and fried food.  I may not eat the stuff every day, but I had no problem enjoying a fried shrimp burger, Brunswick stew and hushpuppies last fall after my Marine Corps Half Marathon victory.

Good, Eastern-NC Grub from The Bogue House

I also believe that no matter how restrictive someone’s diet is, there are times when it is ok to splurge.  Thus, it’s my birthday this week and I’m gonna eat cake…Funfetti Cake in fact, because I like to pretend I’m turning eight instead of 28.

Boston Experiment Week 11 of 16:  12

I could have run 50 miles this week, but I purposefully did not.  Instead, I took Monday-Thursday completely off, and ran six easy miles on Friday and six easy on Sunday.  I honestly just don’t feel that great, and I am concerned about coming in to Boston with so many minor injuries.  I don’t think anything is that serious, but I’m not 100% or close to it.  Thus, I’m aggressively taking a break from hard training and giving my body a chance to fully recover.  I just care so much more about getting to the starting line healthy than I do about getting in enough training.

This Week’s Beer Choice:  Sierra Nevada Pale Ale with my Early B-Day Dinner

You‘ve Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em, And Know When to Fold ‘Em

So, this is actually the second version of this week’s blog post.  I previously wrote an article, edited it, and was ready to share, but a sense of uncertainty kept me from clicking the publish button.  And after lying in bed wide awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night Tuesday night (which reminded me too much of the night before the Marine Corps Marathon last fall when I was pacing the hotel halls with a sprained ankle), I made the judgment call Wednesday morning to not run in the Tobacco Road Half Marathon this Sunday in Durham, NC.

I have been back running after my ankle-sprain injury for about two months now, but I am still not feeling 100%.  I am sure I probably needed a couple months of nothing but easy running just to get my body used to the stress again, but instead I almost immediately started putting in some workouts in hopes of scraping together some sort of marathon training.  Thus, I have been consistently battling all those fun overuse and too-much-too-soon injuries.

On one hand, I remind myself that almost everyone who is training for a race struggles with some sort of injury.  I would even estimate that more than half of the participants at this year’s Boston Marathon will have at least something that has bothered them recently.

In Grad School, I skipped class one day because I went out too hard the night before.  I still remember one of my guy classmates said to me, “You know, Paula.  You’re not the only one who gets hangovers.”  The guy was quite the confident young chap and was definitely trying to be a jerk to me, but he had a point.  And I think the same thing applies here…Almost all runners have challenges with injuries.  Thus, you reach a time when you have to woman-up and do your best with what you got.  I can only use the “I had a sprained ankle” excuse once.  And I surely don’t want to be known as a whiny, why-me Nancy Kerrigan type.

However, I also do not want to be known as the idiot who runs a marathon on a sprained ankle.  And looking at my track record, that would be a fair way to describe me.

Thus, even though I was pumped to get out and race Sunday and excited to see how I could run, I am being conservative and choosing to not risk any further injury by racing too soon.  It is extremely important to me to try to get to Boston as healthy as I possibly can.  No matter what, I will be undertrained coming in to the marathon, but if I bring a healthy body to the starting line, I can at least give myself a chance to perform.

With Boston less than six weeks away, it is time or perhaps past time for my body to feel strong and healed.  I do not want to be up in the middle of the night before the Boston Marathon walking the halls, worried about a nagging injury and whether I’m strong enough to race.  In addition to possibly preventing further injury, skipping the Tobacco Road Half Marathon this Sunday allows me to take a break from the hard running and actually put in some easy miles for a change.  I am hoping to get 100% healed and pick back up training runs next weekend on my long run.  My goal is to get in a few more quality longs runs then give myself a mental pat on the rear and trot to the Boston Marathon starting line.

The Boston Marathon should not be the fastest marathon I will ever run (at least it better not be!), but my confidence has grown over these past few weeks, and I really do believe I am capable of having a solid race.  Perhaps it is a sense of hope or possibility, but I feel something that makes me believe I can run Boston and run it well.  Maybe I am wrong and maybe I’ll get swept up and go out too hard at the beginning.  But if so, oh well – everyone gets hangovers and every runner at some race goes out too hard at the beginning.  It happens.

Boston Experiment Week 10 of 16:  37  (Only 3 runs but lots of quality!  One run included five hard miles (no recovery) at around half-marathon/10K pace, and my long run was 20 miles with first 10 miles at an average pace of a little under 8 minutes (easy) and last ten miles a little under 7 minutes/mile (moderate))

This Week’s Beer Choice:  Sweetwater 420 with my pasta when I was still carbo-loading for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon

Shoe Problems

At what point does it become a problem?  How many is too many?  And is this normal? – These are questions I asked myself recently when I decided I needed a new pair of running shoes even though I currently have three pairs that I am rotating and one still never-worn pair in a box packed away in an upstairs closet (Hey, when things are on sale you buy in bulk, whether it’s paper towels or running shoes.)

Excel Mileage Tracking of My Shoes

However, when our bodies are breaking down from the heavy loads of training, we like to not take responsibility and admit that yes we probably did do too much too soon, but instead we take the easy route and blame the shoes.

Thus, a little over a week ago, I decided that in addition to cutting back my mileage, I may need to also switch out my training shoes.  But what should be my next shoe love?

Trends in the running shoe industry tend to turn over faster than the legs of an elite marathoner.  It appears that this season everyone is jumping into more cushioned, plusher trainers than before.  Running shoe reviewers are even calling it the “Maximalist Movement.”  I – on the other hand – am scratching my head wondering what did I miss?  Didn’t these people read Born to Run?

I love a minimalist shoe.  When wearing my 6.0 oz Brooks T7 Racing flats, I feel like I am flying.  I also enjoy feeling the road underneath my feet.  The sensation somehow makes me feel more connected with my run.  But I also love to be able to run, and I have struggled with building back mileage after my injury.  If a heavier, more cushioned shoe is what I need to be able to train more, then bring on the foam.

After trying on several pairs of heavier, more cushioned but still neutral training shoes, I purchased a pair of the Adidas Supernova Glide 6s.  I didn’t know it at the time, but the shoe was actually Runner’s World’s Editor’s Choice in their Spring 2014 Shoe Guide.  Personally, I liked the laces on the shoe a lot not only because they were pink but they were also designed in a way that I can tighten them to make the shoe narrower to fit my long, skinny foot.

Packed with “Boost” technology, my new Adidas shoes are almost at the other end of the spectrum from the minimalist, leather huarache sandals worn by the Tarhumara distance runners in Born to Run.  I have been trying to get used to feeling like I am running on marshmallows, but I cannot say that the shoes are uncomfortable.  My biggest complaint is that I feel like my speed work is sloppier than a frat boy at a keg party.  Especially when I am running quickly over hills or uneven road, the shoes feel extra clunky and my feet move all around.  Perhaps I just need to tie my laces tighter, but they feel like a lot of shoe compared to trainers from the semi-minimalist Brooks Pure line.

Hopefully, time will tell if my plush, new Adidas kicks will help my legs handle harder training and additional mileage as I push towards the Boston Marathon starting line.  And if they don’t work out, then they can just join the others in the running shoe graveyard where I have stored shoes that have long since had their mileage maxed out, but I just can’t seem to throw away.  Maybe I do have a problem…

Boston Experiment Week 9 of 16:  37

Another week of extremely low mileage, but it was to be expected since the week consisted of only three runs.   However, they were three quality runs, and I am optimistic that my running is improving.  I also did two easy “runs” in the pool this past week, but I think I pulled my left hamstring by overextending my stride in the pool.  I had this same problem before but it was my right hamstring.  I think I am just over the pool.  Hopefully, my left hamstring will feel 100% after a few days out of the pool.  I no longer have any issues or discomfort with my right hamstring so I am hoping that it is not a big deal.

This Week’s Beer Choice:  NoDa Brewing Company’s Jam Session at Heist Brewery