26 posts tagged “running”
When's the last time you looked at your feet? I mean, really looked at them?
On Sunday, I ran my second half marathon. While my first was plagued with knee pain, my second was relatively pain-free. In fact, the day after, I feel almost no soreness whatsoever... except for my right foot.
It's not so much an ache, but rather a pain, like something is broken or fractured. But I'm having a very hard time believing that's the case, since during and immediately following the race, I felt no pain at all. (Well, no pain beyond what is normal after running 13.1 miles.)
Then, this morning, I glanced down at my feet, and noticed the bunion on my right foot seems significantly larger than the one on my left. (I've always had wide feet, they run in the family.) Thing is, I have no idea whether this is related to the pain, or it's just always been this way. Like I said, how often do you look at your feet?
I think I'll see how I feel tomorrow, and call my doctor if the pain hasn't subsided.
The first half of the race was fantastic. I ran at a comfortable pace, and the hills of Central Park that I'd been so worked up about didn't seem like a big deal. Around the five-mile marker, I developed a side stitch that I couldn't shake, so I walked it off for a stretch. Still, I had energy to spare, and was looking forward to picking up the pace once the hills were behind me.
Somewhere between mile six and seven, my left knee began to hurt. The pain grew steadily worse, but I ran through the pain, even though I knew I'd be hobbling for the next few days. I briefly considered throwing in the towel, but in the end, I threw out my goal time and focused on finishing. If I couldn't run, I'd walk. If I couldn't walk, I'd crawl, but I wasn't going to quit.
My Sport Kit continues to over-report my mileage, though not quite as much as before: my iPod claims I ran 13.86 miles, about 5.8% more than the 13.1 mile course. Also, there seems to be a rather substantial discrepancy between the final graph and my official splits:
- 5K:
14:09/mi.11:06/mi. - 10K: 10:56/mi.
- 15K: 12:33/mi.
- 20K: 13:31/mi.
Tomorrow's the big day! The official race website should post splits to my Vox blog via email, fingers crossed. (There have been problems in the past. We'll see how it goes.)
Kathryn and I are off to Keens for a carb-loading dinner (small steak, lots of mashed potatoes). Then, it's early to bed for me. Runners are required to be in their pace corral by 6:15 am.
I'm running in this Sunday's NYC Half Marathon. Yes, I'm getting nervous.
I'm also getting tired of my running playlist. I'll be picking through my iTunes library over the coming days, but I'm just not sure I have two and a half hours worth of good, solid running music. And so, I look to you, dear reader, for help.
Got a favorite song that helps get you excited? Pumped up? Forget that you have five miles left to run and you have a massive side stitch? Please leave a comment or send me an MP3! Also, if you're technically inclined and have some time to record a short message of encouragement ("Get up off the ground, Dan! That 70-year-old man almost tripped over you!") it would really mean a lot to me. I'll add it to my playlist, and I promise not to listen until the race.
When I think about what this guy puts his body through, it makes my head spin. In order to train for events like this, as well as hold down his nine-to-five job and spend time with his family, he sleeps about four hours a night. During races like The Relay, he shovels junk food like pizza, cheesecake, cinnamon buns and Doritos into his mouth--while he's running--because it's the most efficient way to replace the 600 calories per hour he burns while running. (He includes his 27,934 calorie food log from The Relay at the end of the book.)
I bring all this up because, until this morning, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the upper limits of what the human body is capable of enduring*. Then I read about Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin. They just wrapped up their four-thousand mile, 111 day run across the Sahara Desert. They averaged over a marathon a day for sixteen weeks in both sweltering heat and freezing cold, passing through six separate countries and nine different ecosystems.
I need to go to the gym.
* I'm quite sure Dean is capable of a run like this. I mean, the man's a machine. He ran a marathon to the south pole, for chrissakes.
I'm determined to get myself back into shape in the new year. Call it a resolution if you must, but I'm tired of being tired, and I want my clothes to fit better. To that end, I've recommitted myself to running on a regular basis. I joined the New York Road Runners and signed up for my first race: the NYRR Gridiron Classic, a four-mile run on Superbowl Sunday.
The distance had me a bit concerned at first. After completing the Couch-to-5K program, I had settled in to a comfortable routine, a routine that included no more than three miles. My times steadily improved, but at the end of each run, I was spent. How the hell was I going to squeeze out an extra mile?
Turns out, adjusting your pace a little can go a long way. A week ago Sunday, setting out to run four miles for the very first time, I slowed down a bit from my 5K pace and, to my surprise, I finished with energy to spare. Tuesday, I ran six miles. Thursday, six and a half. After each workout, I still had energy left over.
Thursday's run had me both excited and curious to see how much distance I actually had in me. I decided to pick a number that, until a week ago, seemed absurd: ten miles. Sunday, I will run ten miles.
And I did it. Yesterday, I ventured out into the twenty degree morning and ran ten miles.
As soon as I got home, I asked Google for a bit of information about the pain I was experiencing in my right knee. Turns out, increasing the mileage one runs by, say, 233% in the course of a week, is an extraordinarily Bad Idea. Based on my years of medical training--and a paragraph I found on the internet--I believe that I have Chondromalacia of the patella, also known as Runner's Knee.
Thankfully, it seems this is a fairly common, and easily treatable injury: a bit of time off, an ice pack and ibuprofen after running, and not pushing myself so damned hard.
Boing Boing recently posted a link to Spark Fun Electronics' Nike + iPod Sport Kit sensor autopsy. They claim the device is powered not by an accelerometer, but rather a piezoelectric sensor, essentially making it a sophisticated pedometer. It measures how long your weight is on your foot to determine your speed.
But, Apple's website contradicts this claim: "The sensor uses a sensitive accelerometer to measure your activity, then wirelessly transfers this data to the receiver on your iPod nano." To further confuse the issue, Apple has posted a tech doc that implies that the piezoelectric sensor is an accelerometer: "A sensitive piezoelectric accelerometer monitors your footstrike when you walk or run and determines the amount of time your foot spent on the ground. This contact time is directly related to your pace."
I raise this question because, after yesterday's run, I mapped out my route on gmap-pedometer.com, and found that my shoes are over-reporting my mileage to the tune of about 20%. I recognize that this most likely a calibration issue, but the Spark Fun report has me wondering how accurate the Sport Kit sensor is in the first place.
It's been a while since I've run, but I'm getting back into the swing of things. I eased back into things on Tuesday, and this afternoon I ran a full 25 minutes, my farthest and longest run yet. (And yet, no props from Lance or Paula. Wtf?)
Tuesday: 1.90mi, 20 min
Today: 2.47mi, 25 min
Back in the saddle again. The "b" is for "because I've been sick, and need an extra run to get back in the swing of things." I just didn't have the extra five minutes in me. I'll be back on track this Friday.
2.04mi, 20 min.
The relatively brisk 62° temperature this morning was welcome, but it got me thinking: at what point do I want to throw on a pair of running pants, or a jacket? Further down the road, is there a point where it's simply too cold to run outside?
The Couch-to-5K plan has been put on hold until I shake this summer cold. Nothing major, but I need the extra rest. Hopefully, I'll be back up and running (ha!) later this week.
