Pain in the butt...errr...feet

I am now officially one month post marathon. Ask me how far I've ran in the past month. Go ahead, ask. Well I'll tell you. It's been a whopping 3 miles. 3. It sounds so sad. I promise I do have a good excuse. No, I'm not just lazy.

Toward the end of my training, as my mileage was ramping up, I began having pain in my feet. As I usually do with pain, I ignored it. Especially since the marathon was approaching. Nothing would set me back from that. Well, during the marathon, the pain really started getting to me around mile 18. I ended up taking some ibuprofen when I saw my family at mile 20. It was a deep aching pain that really was incessant no matter what I did. It even hurt during my walking breaks.

During training it would subside after a long run. Well, that wasn't the case post-marathon. The pain did not subside. It pretty much stayed the same and hurts A LOT in the mornings when I get out of bed. I went for that 3-mile run and regretted it. My feet weren't too happy with me. Since then, I've been resting and pondering what could possibly be wrong. I thought maybe I had a stress fracture in each foot. I Googled it. I had all of the symptoms. Cool, I was staring down 6-8 weeks in a walking boot.

Now, instead of actually going to the doctor, I (again) swore off high heels and wore Puma tennis shoes to work, with my work clothes. Sexy. Of course that didn't really help much. Just made day to day life a bit easier. So, I finally made an appointment with the podiatrist who happens to be in the same clinic as my primary care physician.

Yesterday morning I went to see Dr. Shea. First he asked me why I would run 26.2 miles. I told him it was fun. He then asked me about my symptoms and then asked if we were going to have to amputate. Hah, funny doc. I didn't really know how to respond to that. It seems like it would have been funnier if directed to an 8-year-old. Oh well, he was at least good-natured. He moved my ankle around, pushed his thumbs in the areas I told him hurt, and all around poked and prodded my feet.

The diagnosis? Tibialis tendonitis. Turns out my calf muscles are too tight to allow the tendons attaching them to my foot bones to function properly. Thus, the tendons are mad and inflamed, causing all of the pain in my feet. Well, we have a diagnosis. Now what do I do about it?

Step 1: Stretch my calves 3-4 times a day for 4-6 minutes each time. Not sure how well that'll go over at work. We'll see. Step 2: Take prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine. I just picked it up at Target. Can I just say that I really love $4 generics? Step 3: Get orthotic inserts for my running shoes. Good thing my favorite running store gives me a 20% discount just for being on their mailing list. Easiest discount I've ever gotten. Step 4: Wear a heeled shoe to work. Done. No argument from me! Step 5: Take it easy and just walk for exercise for now. In a couple weeks, slowly start adding in running. As long as the pain isn't getting worse, I'm OK.

As you can imagine, I'm quite pleased to not have a stress fracture and to not have to wear a boot on each foot. That would have been funny. I'm not pleased that tendonitis can take a while to heal since every-day activity aggravates it. But, I am very, very happy that I can get out and be active during the process. Bam! Now if only I would have signed up for the Monster Dash half marathon that was last weekend. I'm somewhat regretting that decision. Maybe there's a Thanksgiving 5K in Sioux Falls I could do... I'm addicted.

Marilyn vs. Twiggy

I’ve recently been thinking about the issue of weight and what we perceive to be healthy. I've always been active so I've never really had to think about it before. Now that I've toned down the running for the time being, I started thinking more about it as I saw a pound or two come back that had consequently fallen off during marathon training. What I’ve realized is that we, as American women, are pulled so far in each direction that it’s no wonder that a majority have no idea how to be a healthy woman.

Obesity is considered to be one of the more serious public health issues of this century, and one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide. Yet why do we seem oblivious to the detrimental effects of being overweight or obese? Honestly, I don’t think we’re oblivious. I think we’re in denial.

In the mid 20^th century we saw a huge shift in what was considered to be beautiful. Women the size and shape of Marilyn Monroe thrived in the 1950’s. She’s still considered to be one of the most prominent sex symbols of all time. Then the 1960’s rolled around and came Twiggy, one of the world’s first supermodels. Let’s make a comparison of their measurements.

Marilyn:

Height – 5 feet, 5 ½ inches

Weight – 118-140 pounds

Bust – 36 inches

Waist – 23 inches

Hips – 37 inches

Twiggy:

Height – 5 feet, 6 inches

Weight – 110- pounds

Bust – 31 inches

Waist – 23 inches

Hips – 32 inches

Well, I see some similarities. Ms. Monroe and Ms. Twiggy were of similar height and have similar waist sizes. But, look at their bust and hips. What? There’s a 5-inch difference in each of those areas. That’s pretty big. This makes Marilyn a distinct hourglass and Twiggy a ruler. The biggest difference was in their basic shape and we started valuing the ruler over the hourglass.

Now I don’t know why this change happened but, it did and the movement continued to grow. As we moved into the latter part of the century, the prominence of stick thin women grew. It’s still prevalent in the first eleven years of this century.

The effects of this trend are pretty noticeable. Women and young girls started yearning to be like these cover girls. Incidences of eating disorders grew and the female population became discontent with their bodies.

Now, we’re facing pretty terrifying obesity rates and it makes me wonder how this happened. If women want so much to look like today’s models, why is obesity increasing? Well, I think there are countless factors at play but I feel like one of them is that women don't know where to look for help and have come to a point of rebellion. They know that they can’t look like models and so they’ve rebelled. They know that excessive dieting was unsuccessful (and quite frankly, not fun) so they went in the opposite direction. We started teaching our girls to love themselves for who they are and not teach them who they could be. We led our girls down a path of future health problems such as type II diabetes, joint problems and hypertension in the name of promoting self esteem.

The problem I see here is that there is no medium. Women strive for one extreme or the other. They limit calories by day then end up binging by night. They spend hours at the gym for a week, then when they don't immediately resemble a runway model, they don't return for months.

What is a woman to do with no positive healthy role model to look to? Yes, grown women need role models too. All they want is guidance. Someone to show them what to do, to tell them how they should be career women, girlfriends mothers, wives, partners, caretakers, and still feel like Wonder Woman.

 What women fail to understand is that it isn’t about the shape and size of the body, it’s about the lifestyle chosen. Women need to learn the motivation behind a healthy lifestyle. Yes, the desire to look good will always be present. We are human after all. But, if women choose a healthy, balanced lifestyle, they will find that they will have a healthy and balanced body. When that balance is realized, I think we’ll finally be able to peg down our role models. We'll start becoming our own role models.

26.2 Completed!

Well, it's been over a week since the marathon and I'm finally getting it together enough to write about it. Within a couple of hours of finishing, I was in a vehicle headed for South Dakota. The week following was a whirlwind of spending time with my new nephew and sister, cooking a ton of food for them, going shopping and eating. Thus, there was not a lot of time for blogging. I mean, who wouldn't want to hang out with this guy? He's all about the Gophers too, just like his aunt. :)

I got a lot of Bryce-a-Roni time and  you can see why blogging was set aside for the time being. But, now that I'm home, I'll give you a run down on how the big day went.

Erich's and my parents arrived on Saturday morning. Erich and his family went shopping at the Albertville outlets while my parents and I went shopping for beer-making supplies and wine. We have some pretty good priorities. The only problem was that I didn't want to take part in the included wine tasting due to the marathon being on the next day. Oh well. Next time.

For dinner we met up with much of the Run to Stop MS team at Buca Di Beppo for a pre-race meal. If you're unfamiliar with Buca, it's a chain Italian restaurant that serves huge portions family-style. While I really wanted to pig out, I didn't really want to be extra heavy and miserable for the race the next day. The strategy seemed to work.

Sunday morning I woke at the ripe old time of 6 a.m. Jenna was picking up Erich and I at 6:30 so we could meet our parents at my office by 6:45. The rest of the team also met there and we prepped for the race and took a team photo. I don't have a copy of said photo because it's on my mom's camera and she hasn't gotten it up on Facebook yet. I'll share all of the photos we have once my mom posts them on Facebook. After the photo we walked over to the Metrodome to get ready for the starting gun.

The gun officially went off at 8 a.m. I was in the last corral with Michelle so we didn't cross the start line until well after that. But, by 8:10, we were off. Right away it was obvious this race would be different from any other I'd ever done. Not only would it be considerably longer but there was an intense energy surrounding the whole event. From the moment we left, there were complete strangers cheering on every runner. Many people held signs for their family and friends and all of them clapped and yelled as we went by. This was true for the entire race. 26.2 miles of spectator-lined streets. The energy also came from starting a race in downtown. Running through towering buildings and stopping traffic (while they all honked for us) was empowering. Too bad we were out of downtown by mile one. But, the fun was just beginning.

We made our way into Uptown Minneapolis via Lake of the Isles and around Lake Calhoun. Our path took us by the exact spot where Michelle's car was broken into, as well as the lakes where I completed many training runs. After missing my family at mile 3 (they got held up, we ran too fast and were gone before they could meet us) we zipped around Lake Harriet and met up with them at mile 7. By this point I was quite warm and had to shed the gloves I was wearing along with the free arm warmers I received from the marathon. Thankfully I saw them at mile 7 and was able to toss them off at that point.

On the south end of Lake Harriet, we turned and meandered onto Minnehaha Parkway. During this segment I saw my family once, a couple of great Bike MS volunteers and participants and two good friends from high school, who were there to watch another friend from high school attempt to qualify for Boston. She did by the way. Go Hannah! I lost Michelle around mile 11. She was going too fast for my liking so I let her go on ahead. I faced the last 15 miles alone. At this point I realized how great it was to see friendly faces along the course. Don't get me wrong, it feels pretty good to have complete strangers cheering for you, but nothing beats having someone call out your name and yell.

We hit the halfway point on the north/northeast side of Lake Nokomis, before continuing on Minnehaha Parkway to Minnehaha Park. After arriving in the park I was again in familiar territory. This area was where I started many training runs and where Michelle and I started and completed our first run together when we ran 13 miles. I arrived at mile 16 just north of the park and started scanning the street ahead for the MS Cheer Zone. About the time I spotted it I heard my name called out and my coworker, Anna, snapped this photo:

It's not a great picture because I stole it from Anna's Facebook page. But, it does a good job of summing up how I felt about seeing people I know on the route. I was pretty happy. Notice the people behind me who were beginning to take a walking break at this time. Other than going through the water/Powerade stations, I hadn't walked yet. I saw co-workers and volunteers waving signs and ringing cowbells. I saw some volunteers who are very near and dear to me and some of whom I was running for. That was a lovely boost to have when looking at 10 more miles to go. shortly thereafter I saw the family again, this time with the addition of Jenna's brother and his beagle, Fila. I took in some energy and a half a banana in hopes I'd get through to mile 20.

Well, that's about as far as I got before the pain really set in. Ouch. At mile 20 it starts getting rough in any marathon (or so I hear) but this is where the Twin Cities Marathon takes an uphill turn. Yep, as if having to struggle through the last 6 miles isn't hard enough, we had to go uphill. That's the point where if you're not careful, you start to cramp. And, I did a little. I found that an incline really made my calves get tight, so I eased up and walked partway up the hills. I traded off between walking and running during the 2-mile incline. I ran until my calves started feeling tight, then walked a bit. I followed this method for a good amount of the next 4 miles then tried to run even more for the last 2.

Summit Avenue encompasses that killer uphill as well as most of the remainder of the race. Summit has some of the most incredible houses in the area. They're all historic and beautiful. Summit Avenue is home to the governor's mansion as well as the James J. Hill house, which is the house of a railroad tycoon from the 1800's. It's huge, see!

It also marks about a 1/2 mile left in the race. By the time I passed the James J. Hill house I'd made a friend. He was running for the World Vision team and gave a huge proclamation at mile 25 that we only had 1 mile left. In reality it was 1.2 but I tended to forget about the .2 at the end. Thus began our mile-long friendship. We ran and walked a little through the last 1.2 miles, and cheered each other on to the end. We picked up another guy at about 25.5 and the three of us ran into the finish line. It was all downhill from there and was AWESOME. There are people literally everywhere. They are thick on the streets and surrounding the finish area. Everyone is cheering, there is music playing, and as you cross the finish line, an announcer calls out your name.

Immediately after finishing, volunteers are there placing medals around everyone's necks, then you're funneled into an area with food, food, glorious food. I hadn't realized it but I was starving. Turns out 5 hours of Powerade and Clif Shot Blocks aren't really enough to keep you full. There was so much to snack on, I couldn't carry it all. The two things that tasted the best were the Pearson's Salted Nut Roll and an ice cold chocolate milk. Now I know why all of our Bike MS participants freak out about the Salted Nut Rolls after a long ride.

I grabbed my shirt and made my way to my family who was waiting at the MS Society's meeting tent. After sitting for a while and getting off my feet for the first time in almost 6 hours, I decided to take a trip to the bathroom. Out of toilet paper! Now, I understand that there are 11,000 people competing plus spectators but let's make sure the bathrooms are stocked full of TP okay? I plan events too. We literally drive around restocking the porta potties, or we assign volunteers to it. It's not that hard folks. Now, that was really my only complaint about the event logistics.

After my less-than-successful trip to the porta potty, we headed home. Erich had to get to work and my parents and I had to head to Sioux Falls. My overall time was 5:12: 36. Not really great, but I finished. Michelle ended up slowing down quite a bit too and finishing in around 5:06. We did it!

I realized that I may have started out a little too fast in the beginning. This may have contributed to my demise around mile 20. Because I know where I can tweak things and make it better, I think I might have to do another in the future. Now, I'm not sure when it will be, but I'm about 90% certain it will happen again. I know I can do much better than that.

For now, I'm enjoying being able to just say no to going for a run if I don't feel like it. I do like that I can just run when I want and not have to worry about mileage and time. For now, I'm going to enjoy that. Until I take on my next adventure.

Thanks to all of you who supported me though words of encouragement, donations, and coming out on race day. You know who you are and how much that meant to me. It's great to know I have a full network of support behind me, no matter what crazy shenanegans in which I decide to partake.

Change of Pace

The marathon is less than a week away. Just as I wrote that I got a little nervous and a butterfly flitted across my midsection. A week? What happened? I was so busy with my work schedule in the past few weeks, and was so wishing our event season would be done, I didn't really think about the proximity of the marathon. I also didn't think about the fact that once the event season would be over, the marathon would be here. Now, here it is. The week prior.

I will say, that the past couple of weeks have been great in terms of marathon training. First, it's been nice and cool. After a hot summer, the cool temperatures are a nice change of pace. It also makes running much easier. Secondly, the mileage is better! Hah, I'm really loving the taper. It takes much less time to go for a run when it's only 3 to 6 miles.

Last week I went on a 3-mile run in my neighborhood. It was a route I pretty much always take for 3-milers. Usually I take it pretty easy since it's completely on concrete, unless I run in people's yards. Even the roads are concrete. But, occasionally I ramp it up and try to see how quickly I can do it. Well, last week I finished the 3.03-mile route in 00:26:18. Bam! That means my 5K time would probably be under 26 minutes 30 seconds, again, Bam! I felt so good about it that I think my goal after the marathon is to bring my 5K time down to around 25 minutes. It's going to be spectacular. We'll see if it happens over the winter. Sometimes it's hard to do significant running in the winter months. I'm hoping I can get some good outdoor running in over the winter. The treadmill might be the death of me now that I've been running outdoors exclusively for the past five or six months. If I make my 5K goal, I'm going to start working on reducing my 10K time. I'm pretty excited to move on to something new.

In other news, my friends and family have been incredibly supportive through the whole process including financially. My supporters have contributed over $1,100 dollars toward my fundraising! That is phenomenal and I'm so appreciative of all of those contributions. If you're reading this and you've made a donation, Thank you. Your support means a lot. You'll be receiving an official thank-you after the marathon.

For now, I'm going to start making some spaghetti for dinner. To be honest, I made the sauce a while ago and just pulled it out of the freezer today. Carbo loading begins now! :)

20 miles, F-yeah!

Disclaimer: I'm about to swear. If you're easily offended by four-letter words, skip a sentence or two. I just ran 20 miles. Fuck yes! By "just" I mean yesterday afternoon. I'm just now getting up the gumption to write about it. My body still hurts but I actually have enough energy to type more than a Facebook update.

I got up yesterday and it was raining. It cleared up around 1. I left my house around 1:45. It had started raining again. It was one of those light drizzle/misty kinds of rain. I thought I would tough it out and head for the lakes. I got to Calhoun, parked and started out. I was a little chilly to start. I couldn't even see across the lake. But, a couple miles in I was feeling pretty good. By mile 10 the rain had subsided. I couldn't tell if I was soaked with rain or sweat. Around 15 miles I was still feeling pretty good. Mile 17 brought some soreness to my outer quads. I pushed through it and finished up the last couple of miles. I was pretty excited considering I did it in a faster time than I did 18. Looking back, I think I was having a bad day when I did 18. When I got back to my car, I actually did a fist pump. I'm not talking a big fist pump in the air, but more of a Tiger Woods-style fist pump. Eeeks, I just compared myself to Tiger Woods. I think I need to take a shower...As you can tell, I was stoked about how well this run went.

In May, my friend, Pete suggested the Jeff Galloway method for running marathons. I have been pretty skeptical because it doesn't seem like as much of an accomplishment to walk a bunch in the Marathon. But, Hal Higdon who wrote my training plan, mentioned that he ran a 2:29 marathon and walked through all of the water/aid stations. Now don't get me wrong, I will not be running a 2:29 marathon or anything close to it. But, after these 20 miles, I'm pretty sure I'll be following Mr. Higdon's lead. Here's why:

1. I've started using Clif Shot Blocks instead of GU. This is partially because of an attempt to eradicate my tummy troubles and partially because they're much more palatable. More like eating a large fruit snack. The downside is that it's practically impossible for me to eat them while running. I'd suffocate. It takes me about 1.5 minutes to eat the three I take in at a time. On Sunday, that seemed like the perfect amount of time to get the blocks down as well as have a quick little rest.

2. The idea of running the marathon in 13, 2-mile segments seems much more feasible than 26 miles. I figure I can just get from aid station to aid station and be good.


3. Considering I don't run at any sort of incredible speed, walking won't slow me down much either.

4. I only walked 4 times during my run. I had planned to take some Shot Blocks every 4 miles so there you go, I didn't even walk that much. One of those stops was to go to the bathroom so there was some time lost there and another stop included me mixing some Gatorade for my fuel belt. That will shave off some time too.

Now, I'm not taking the full Galloway approach. I'm still not a full fan but I do appreciate the quick breaks to eat and get a drink so I don't choke. I'm pretty happy to have this 20-mile run out of the way. I've been staring it down since May and had to put it off last week due to our Mud Run. I'd post pictures of the event, but my good computer is on the fritz and is currently being serviced by the Geek Squad. I can't get the pictures from my camera to the computer.

My next long run is an 8-mile run. PIECE OF CAKE! In the meantime, have a few shorter runs to do. Awesome. I've found a great new route and wish I would have come up with it sooner. Erich takes the train to my office from his, picks up the car, and I run home. It's about 3.5 miles so it's a nice quick run. Plus I get to run across the bridge where he proposed almost 3 years ago.

I'm hoping my soreness gets better tomorrow. We're loading trucks for the Marathon, plus I'm supposed to have a short run. We'll see how that goes. I'm getting pretty stoked for this race now. Partially because I want to run it, and partially because I get to go back to South Dakota for a full week following it. I'm going to visit my new little nephew and help my sister get ready to go back to work. I can't wait!

Coming Clean, sort of

I have a confession to make. I've been slacking terribly at my running. This is hardly the time to slack too. I'm looking at just over a month out of the marathon. Tomorrow is an 18-mile run and I'm so scared because of how little training I've done lately. I do have some excuses for why I've been such a loser but really, it's my fault.

Now, this is a blog about running, so I should be writing about the real aspects of running, correct? The good and the bad? Well, this definitely falls in the category of bad. I encourage you to skip ahead to my part about Sioux Falls if you are uncomfortable reading about bodily functions.

Last Monday, Michelle and I went out for a 16-mile run. We went after work. Mistake. I don't think I will ever, ever run that far after work. It was no fun at all. That wasn't the worst of it. Lately on my longer runs I've been having some serious GI issues, and Monday was no different. Apparently this happens to Michelle too. What a pair we are. We hit the mile 14-15 point and it all started going downhill. Stomach cramps and a very uncomfortable urge to find the nearest bathroom...fast. Luckily, we both made it through and made it home but it's been a close call on a couple of runs for us. My issues were so bad, I called in sick to work on Tuesday morning. Ugh.

This got me a little worried because if I can barely get through 16 miles, what the hell is going to happen when I have to add 10 more to that? I can't be stopping at every mile just to use the john. I'll get picked up by the sweep truck for sure! It's been very distressing to say the least.

So, I did what any 21st century athlete with a problem does. I Googled it. Typing "running" and "diarrhea" into Google was kind of scary because I wasn't sure what would come up, but it was very very helpful. Mostly it was helpful because I found that my problems have a name. Runner's Trots. That just sounds like it's going to be something terrible. So, with Google I began my research. Turns out this is a fairly common problem with runners and there is a lot of information on the web about it. This probably has to do with the fact that up to 50% of runners, or extreme exercisers have this problem. Good, I'm not even close to being alone. I'm not weird. Whew. That's good. So, I've found ways to combat it. Namely, staying hydrated.

I've been very afraid to do any long runs lately because of this phenomenon. Well, armed with my new info and a box of Immodium, I'm going to tackle this week's long run...18 miles. I'm scared to death because that is sooooo far! 18 miles?! What? 16 didn't sound so bad but 18 sounds like forever. It's going to take almost 4 hours to complete, when we include driving time to drop our cars at the start and finish of the route.

So, besides the runner's trots, I've had some other excuses. Lame ones too. I've really gotta get myself past these hurdles. It's not helping me out in any way to be lazy and to find excuses to not run.

I spent a few days in Sioux Falls last weekend. Now, I'm not really fond of running in Sioux Falls right now. The only good place to run, the bike trails, are under some massive construction, especially on the side of town where my parent's live. Terrible excuse I know. But, part of my time in Sioux Falls was for work. There's an MS Society chapter office there and I had to conduct a training. I had spent a lot of time prepping for this training and was massively stressed out and tired. I also was planning a baby shower. I was just plain tired. Running did not sound good. So of course I wimped out of going for runs and completely ran out of time to go for a run I'd scheduled with a friend. Hmph.

That brings me to the next lame excuse. This summer is really wearing on me. Now, summers are always busy for me and I knew that going into this training. I figured I could do it. I will not lie. It's been very hard. Working extra hours and being on events has not helped me at all. I'm completely zapped of energy by the end of the day and there's no possible way I can get out of bed early enough to run as far as I need to. I've just felt so blah.

Lastly, as these runs have gotten longer in mileage, they have also gotten longer in time. What used to be a quick 30-60 minute run after work is now an hour to two hours. Suddenly, my evening and my time home is gone. It feels like I'm never really relaxing. I get up, go to work, go for a run, then go to bed. I repeat that 3 days of the week. Then one day on the weekend I have to block off nearly 4 hours for a long run. Maybe the key here is that I just need to run faster. I guess there's a thought.

But, I'm really going to need to turn it around. 18 miles tomorrow. Whitney, get your shit together. I figure even if I have to stop a bit, I must, must, must get out there and get in the mileage. I plan to meet Michelle at 8 a.m. tomorrow. While I'm very scared, writing this entry has made me feel a little better about it. On that note, I just realized that I'm short on GU gel so I should get going to the sporting goods store to get some.

I'll be sure to provide a full report post 18 miles.

Running Misfortunes

To warn you, this may be a bit of a rant post. My runs this week have been HORRIBLE to say the least.

Let's start with Sunday. Michelle and I scheduled a good 15-miler. We met up and neither of us were feeling too excited about the run. Well, we tried to turn our attitudes around and set out. I ended up getting us lost around Lake of the Isles. Not so much lost since it's essentially a loop, but I definitely misguided us. We ended up going around the lake twice because the first time I missed our turn off to head back around Lake Calhoun. I've discovered that it's easy to lose where you are on that lake because of it's shape and how the trails are laid out. I'll be more careful next time. After this we continued on and still felt a little crappy. Michelle has some crazy knee issues that started acting up. There's a screw in one knee that holds a ligament from a cadaver in place. Really cool in a nerdy scientific sort of way. Really not cool in an athletic sort of way. But, I guess that can happen when you play soccer all your life, including D-1 college. So, we ended up calling it quits at mile 8. Michelle's knee hurt and last week I had a terrible shin splint flare up so I didn't want to over do it. I felt a little guilty about this but I think it was for the best.

Tuesday was scheduled to be 4 miles. We decided to do 5 because of our lack of running on Sunday. One mile doesn't really make up for it, but hey, it helps. We set off from our office and ran north along the river, into the "north loop" area, or the warehouse district for those of you familiar with the Minneapolis area. There is a slight problem with this route however and that problem blew up in my face on Tuesday. You see, the "running" path is concrete and meanders into the woods and drops down close to the river, while the biking path is asphalt and stays close to the road. As you can imagine, for the sake of my joints and for the sake of my safety, I run on the bike path. Most runners do. In fact at any given time, you'll see more runners on the bike path than the "running" path. Well, Michelle and I were about a mile into our run when suddenly she veers off into the grass on the left and in about 2 seconds time, I hear a bike come up behind me and someone yelling, "Bike Path!" before taking out my right leg. WHAT THE F**K? Who doesn't give the standard, "On your left" warning AND passes on the right? Moron. So, he hit me then crashed himself. He got up all huffy and blaming me for running on the bike path and not giving a damn about my safety or being injury free. When I told him that the asphalt is better for runner's joints he actually said, "Well crashing on my joints isn't good for me either!" At this point I'm pretty pissed off because I'd asked him 3 times if he was ok, and I apologized. NEVER did he ask me if I was ok, despite the fact that I had tire marks up my right leg. I lost it. I got angry. I threw it down. He's lucky my fist didn't meet his face, but I yelled, "You know what? WE may have been on the biking path but YOU didn't give verbal warning, YOU passed on the right and YOU ran into me. So, this is YOUR fault!" He didn't like that. He just kept saying, "There's a running path over there." So, he went limping away (he scraped his knee, poor baby) and Michelle and I stopped to use the bathroom. He ended up passing us again and giving us some snide remark to which Michelle replied, "There are 50 other runners on this path. Are you going to run them all over?" Heh, nice.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'll admit that I was partially in the wrong for being on the bike path but I was completely out of the way, and following the rules of the paths. I consider the roads to be largely the car's domain, with a few cyclists scattered in and you don't see me plowing down the cyclists just because they're there. And trust me, they are much less courteous than the runners on the bike paths. So, when I got home, my leg looked like this:

Kind of painful. Notice it's not only on the thigh but on the calf as well. It's all scabby now. Looks great. :/ Hurt to sleep because the covers touched it. The good thing about the incident is that it must have sent our adrenaline going because we finished these 5 miles in 50 minutes flat and that included the time we were stopped for me getting hit and for Michelle to go to the bathroom and some time taken to walk because my leg was stinging from the sweat going into the wound. That is speedy for us!

Well, after that drama, we went for a run yesterday. 8 miles were on the docket. We set out to run around the chain of lakes again. This time it would be Calhoun and Harriet. We parked on the west side of Calhoun and took off. After about 1.5 miles, I decided that my shins were still in pretty bad shape. Probably because of the speed we'd done Tuesday. We turned around and walked back. Upon return to the car, we found that someone had broken in and stolen Michelle's purse as well as a baby shower gift (weird). Well, let's just say that Michelle's whole life was in that purse. 3 credit cards, her debit card, ID, social security card, planner (which she was REALLY upset about) and other things. Her ID is still from Ohio because she's in the process of changing everything. So now she's stuck in weird limbo between ID's. Minnesota won't issue one without her Ohio ID unless she wants to take the whole driving test. Ohio will issue her one but she'll either have to go back and do it in person or it will take 60-90 days. So, she has to wait 60-90 days. That's not even close to the worst of it. In the past 24 hours she's found out that her AmEx card had $9,000 charged to it and another card was maxed out. In addition, her checking account got overdrawn by $6,000. HOLY CRAP! She's now meeting with a Minneapolis police sergeant because the amount of money is on a felony level. I hope the F---ers get caught. They were dumb enough to make online purchases so it's possible to trace it through IP's and the shipping address.

In short, Michelle and I are not allowed to run together for a while. We have bad luck. Let's hope that by our 16-miler on Sunday, the luck turns around.

They're baaa-aack!

Yes, the evil has returned. What evil might you ask? Shin splints. At least, I'm pretty sure it's shin splints. I had a minor panic attack at work yesterday when I thought I might have compartment syndrome. Here's why. The picture is pretty awful and that's what they have to do to fix it. But, I am about 99% positive I'm experiencing shin splints again. Now I understand why doctors hate the internet and people who self-diagnose. They, just like I did, tend to jump to the worst-case-scenario.

Thursday I had a 4-mile run scheduled. This is now ridiculously easy. That is unless your legs feel like they're going to explode. Mine felt like I stepped on a land mine with each stride. This happened right from the beginning, all the way up to the first mile, when I decided to stop and stretch out. It didn't help. I hobbled the mile back to my office. I probably looked like a giant loser. People probably thought I was a big tool walking along the river in my sports bra and running tights. Who goes for a leisurely stroll in clothes like that? I mean seriously! It took me under 10 minutes to run the mile but over 20 to walk back. Damn what a waste of time. I came home and iced the shins. They seemed to improve.

Now, I usually have something to blame the shin splints on. This time is no different but I'm not sure I'm actually addressing the underlying cause of the problem. I did push myself really hard to keep under a 10 minute-mile pace in my 7-mile run on Wednesday. It was quite hot that day. My legs started to feel a little off after that run, but they seemed fine. Thursday was the first day of the week that I got to wear normal clothes to work. We'd just wrapped up an event the week before and spent Monday through Wednesday unloading trucks in our warehouse. So, I popped on a pair of heels on Thursday. That is not happening ever again after a long-ish run. Ever. I don't think that helped at all with recovery.

I also stopped running on the dirt paths instead of the asphalt. That was moronic. I will say that the asphalt is easier to run on from a fatigue point of view because the dirt paths are uneven and sometimes sandy. But, my legs will appreciate it much more if I run on the dirt. Back to the dirt I go.

I'm a little nervous because tomorrow is a 15-mile run. Michelle and I are doing it together which is helpful. However, these legs might not hold out. Luckily she's prepared for me to collapse in a heap at some point during the run. I've given her fair warning. But, to keep that from happening, I'm doing this for 20 minutes, every 3 hours today:

DG's if you're reading this, that IS an Anchora on my coffee table, and book club members, that IS a half read copy of "State of Wonder." I'm splitting time between that and the book below it, "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."

Ice packs held on to my legs via plastic wrap. I'm reminded of the time I spent in the athletic training office after high school cross country work outs. Only they used straight up bags of ice and there was no barrier between skin and ice. Kind of dangerous now that I think about it, but it worked. I remember driving home with those bags of ice taped to my shins. It was especially fun because I drove a manual and slamming down on the clutch jostled the ice quite a bit.

Today, I'm taking it easy. There was supposed to be a trip to the lake planed for some tubing and wakeboarding, but I think that has gotten cancelled due to a high level of "festivity" at a friend's birthday party last night. I'm not sure my friends are even out of bed yet. So, instead of that, I might have a cupcake. Lately I've been a little obsessed and have been spending time coming up with new flavors. Last night for the party, I developed pink lemonade, and it looks a little something like this:

Pink lemonade cupcake with lemon buttercream frosting.

Last week it was margarita and looked like this:

Margarita cupcake with tequila-lime frosting.

I'm hoping these shin splints clear up this weekend. Wish me luck on 15 miles tomorrow. Maybe I can run with the ice packs on my legs...

Half Marathon

Well, well, well. Here I am, 8 weeks into my marathon training. Today was a true test of endurance. Half marathon. Well, ok, the training schedule said 13 miles. A half marathon is 13.1. We ended up going about 13.5. But shhh, don't tell my running partner. I don't think she'll like knowing that I accidentally tacked on an extra half mile.

Now, usually I run alone. Actually for this training I have exclusively ran alone. The reason for this is I don't have any friends who 1.) are training for a marathon or 2.) if they are, run the same speed I do. I've gone on one 6-mile run with Erich and I'm pretty sure he was bored as heck with my slow speed, despite the fact that he is not, "a runner." But, since this was going to be quite the milestone in my training, I thought I should find myself a buddy. It made most sense to turn to my new co-worker, Michelle, who is also participating in Run to Stop MS. We talk almost daily about our training. We talk about our accomplishments, downfalls and straight up disasters during our runs. We also happen to run at the same pace. Woot!

We scheduled our run to be at 6:30 a.m. Michelle coaches a high school soccer team in one of the suburbs and had a game at 11:15. This meant we had to start early. It was a little difficult for me because I had to "work" until 11:30 p.m. Saturday night at the U2 concert at TCF Bank Stadium. I say "work" because all I was doing was answering questions about the facility and this was the view from my post. Let's just say I got paid $10/hour to watch the greatest rock show I've ever seen. Yes, the stage is a giant space claw, and yes it was even fun when it started pouring rain.

Surprisingly, I didn't have a tough time getting up and out the door. We met at Minnehaha Park, my favorite place to start a run, and were on our way. The weather was in the 60's while we ran and boy did that make all the difference! Holy cow. No instant sweat today! I barely had to use my Amphipod, unlike last Sunday when I had to refill at each drinking fountain (bubbler?) I came across. Today was absolutely gorgeous for running.

Since running cross country in high school, I've known that running with a buddy helps with motivation. I'm pretty competitive with myself, and constantly challenge myself to push a little harder in my runs if I'm feeling good, but having someone with you offers a completely different type of encouragement. Just knowing someone is there and probably feeling the way you do is helpful. Having someone to talk to makes the miles fly by. Now, I'm not usually one to talk during my runs. I'm typically huffing and puffing too much to do any sort of talking. Not today. Today we talked about all sorts of things. We talked about why we're crazy for doing this, Michelle's love life, and stuff at work. Before I knew it, we were halfway done. We continued to talk for most of the other half. You could tell when we were getting tired when it gradually got quieter at the end of the run. The last mile or so we were really pushing each other along. I felt like I was back on Coach Greeno's cross country team. When we finally reached the end, we gave each other big high fives and congratulated each other on a job well done.

Now, I'm not saying that it was suddenly easy because I had someone with me. But, it was certainly easier. I found myself having less negative thoughts about the course and how I was feeling. I was either too distracted, or too busy encouraging Michelle along to have those thoughts. Telling her that the impending hill wasn't so bad made me actually believe it myslef. We now have a standing date each week to do our long runs together. Next week it's only ten miles. Hah, only! We're also going to be running together during the marathon which is such a relief. Michelle is a pro when it comes to hills despite her displeasure upon approaching them. I am not so much. She just powers up them, with seemingly no trouble. I think she has some things to teach me. :)

Upon returning home and posting our accomplishment on Facebook, my friend, Erin, from the National MS Society, Illinois Chapter asked if I want to participate in the Madison Mini Marathon. A half marathon on August 29th, in Madison, WI. I told her I'd think about it. But, the more I think about it, the more fun I think it would be. I haven't seen her since last summer and would love to get in a long road race. Hopefully It works out. I'm having more positive thoughts about it now than I was 12 hours ago. :)

The upcoming week is a "step back" week. I run 3-7-4 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then 10 on Sunday. I'm looking forward to a little bit of rest. The following week peaks at 15 miles. 15! That'll be over half of the marathon. I'm really excited to see how well I do in the upcoming weeks as I approach my peak training mileage of 20 miles.

Further than Ever

I've been incredibly remiss in my postings lately. Mostly I haven't had a lot to talk about and when I did, I've been quite busy. Since my last post I've been through 4th of July festivities, a 10-mile run, my farthest since my 18th birthday, and a 12-miler in over 80 degree heat with 75% humidity. Whew!

It's become a tradition for Erich, my friends and I to head up to my friend's parents for the 4th of July. Jenna's parents live on a lake in Detroit Lakes, MN. For the past three years we've gone up there and spent the weekend. We tube down the Ottertail River while toting a cooler of beer and various mixed drinks with us. We also play plenty of yard games and cook out. Needless to say, this wasn't a big weekend for training. I pretty much postponed my long run until we returned and I had a day off. Traveling, high heat, drinking and all around "vacation time" wasn't great for fitting in some runs. But, despite that, it was such a great weekend. I already want to go back so I may have to plan a late summer visit with Jenna. :)

After returning from up north, I was facing a 10-mile run. I planned my route and set out on a Tuesday morning after dropping Erich off at work. Luckily for me we got both the 4th and the 5th off so I had time to get in this run. The last time I had run 10 miles was on my 18th birthday. I vividly remember arriving at cross country practice that day to find out that on the day I became a legal adult, I'd get to celebrate by running 10 miles. Swell. Now, at 25 it was even more difficult. The run was tiring that's for sure, however not awful. I got done and felt pretty good. During this run I decided that I needed to procure some sort of hydration belt.

After a couple more weeks of small training runs, today I faced the longest run I've ever had in my 25-year existence. 12 miles. In preparation, I went out and bought this:

It turned out to be a very good purchase. The temps were in the 80's with 60% humidity at 7:00 this morning when I took off. I also picked up some body glide and some GU gels to try out. I thought the hydration belt would annoy the crap out of me during the run. Having extra things on my body is always annoying to me, however this really didn't bother me at all. Maybe it's because I knew it was ultimately good for me. I'd read many reviews and consulted many other runners to find the best hydration belt available. This one had some bad reviews regarding the bottles falling off since they snap in. However it came recommended by a couple of people, as well as the guy working at Marathon Sports. It was also the most comfortable. Turns out I made a great choice. I'm very happy with my purchase. I got Body Glide because chafing is a real issue with most runners. I have some pretty good thighs so I'm hoping to try it out there. Also my toes have been rubbing quite a bit so today, I put it all over and between my toes. It was incredibly helpful and I highly recommend it to anyone who's having problems with chafing or rubbing to pick some up and use it. It really works wonders. Lastly I used some GU energy gel. After almost bonking on a mere 7-mile run, I took all precautions to not have that happen again. In addition to eating good meals, I also packed a couple of these pretty foil packets. Well, they may look nice on the outside but they are disgusting on the inside. I tried a lemon-lime variety. it was not very lemon-limey. I don't really know how to describe the taste, other than terrible. Good thing I had water and Gatorade on me to wash it down. But, despite this, it turned out to be helpful and I had enough energy to get through the run. I have a berry-flavored GU saved for my next long run, which happens to be next week, when I run a half marathon for my training. Thankfully, my co-worker and I have decided to do this together to help each other along. 

For now, there are other huge feats of athleticism being broadcast around the world, specifically the Women's World Cup so I think I'm going to watch that. GO USA!!!

9th graders and 9 miles

Well, well, well, I've been a bit absent lately. I try to not post unless I have something really good to post about. I leave the menial posts for Facebook. My biggest accomplishment up until the past week was making some outrageously good buffalo wings, complete with homemade sauce. The real kind, not the battered, boneless kind. That accomplishment didn't really need a full blog post dedicated to it though. You can find the picture of them on Facebook HERE. Almost blogger worthy but since this is a running blog, that didn't really make much sense.

In the running world, here is what I've been up to. Last week's long run was a step-back run of 5 miles. You see I progress for two weeks, then step back for the third. Apparently this prevents over-training. I did two laps around Lake Nokomis in south Minneapolis. It ended up being just over 5 miles. The weather was great. It was pretty overcast and humid but I can handle humidity when the sun isn't shining and it's just barely in the 70's. Unfortunately my neighborhood doesn't have great areas in which to run. There are streets and such but they're pretty boring and quite hilly. I typically drive to the Uptown lakes area or somewhere on the River Road for my long runs.

Well, this past week was pretty lame when it came to running. You see, I spent all week as a camp counselor at MS Youth Camp. It's a camp we put on for kids who have parents living with multiple sclerosis. Often these kids take on a lot in their lives. In addition to being a normal kid they help out with housework, grocery shopping and sometimes are caregivers for their parent with MS. The camp gives them a chance to connect with other kids like them as well as have some time away from the stresses in their life. It's a great camp and is probably the reason I decided to participate in Run to Stop MS. I was able to attend last year because they needed more counselors. I requested to return this year and I'm really happy that I did.

This year I again had middle schoolers. Last year I had a mix of 8th and 9th grade. This year I had all 9th graders. The week got off to a rough start, which is pretty normal for the middle schoolers. They take a while to get settled in and get used to each other and to their counselors. Needless to say, the first and second nights were a little late. But, we got through the week and I became much closer with my campers than I did last year and I hope I was able to be a positive role model for them through the week.

Because of the late nights, it made it really difficult to get up early and run. :( There are optional early morning activities that campers (and counselors) can participate in before breakfast. They included a polar bear splash into the lake, yoga, or going for a short run. I decided to join in on the run, along with one of my campers. We only did a quick 1.5 miles on Tuesday. I did not make it up at all on Wednesday or Thursday to get out to run. I was just too darn tired. But, that's ok. I think I will be just fine.

Despite not running this week, I got out today for the longest run I've been on since I ran on the Lincoln High School cross country team my senior year of high school. This was the longest run since a 10-miler I did on my 18th birthday. I did a 9-miler today on the River Road in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I started at Minnehaha Park in south Minneapolis and ran north along the river, almost to downtown. I crossed the Mississippi river via Franklin Ave and ran south along the river in St. Paul and back across the Mississippi to Minnehaha Park. The run was lovely. I felt great during the whole thing. I ran most of it on the grass next to the path so I had no shin splints. I'm hoping my ankles get stronger from that because they get a little achy now that I'm running on the uneven grass.

According to my mileage counter, I've run 137 miles since I started keeping track. Holy crap! That's a lot of miles! I know that number is really going to grow as my mileage increases over the summer. It'll be fun to see how far I'll end up running when this is all over. Any guesses?

Here's looking to a great week of training ahead!

$2.4 Million

You'll remember that about a week ago I was really having some problems with shin splints. I decided to spend the last week resting and not running. Now, I will be honest and say that what I did do was not exactly restful. This past weekend, the National MS Society, Minnesota Chapter put on the Bike MS: C.H. Robinson Worldwide MS 150 Ride 2011. Big name, even bigger event. About 3,400 cyclists mounted their saddles in Proctor, MN (near Duluth) for a 150 mile journey back to the Twin Cities. 75 miles on Saturday, 75 miles on Sunday. We have an overnight in Hinckley, MN at the Grand Casino. So far we have about $2 million turned in from participants. Our goal is $2.4 million. Participants have until about mid-July to get all of their money in. I think we'll make it!

Team Cargill leads off the start of Bike MS: C.H. Robinson Worldwide MS 150 Ride 2011. Team Cargill has raised almost $233,000 as a team this year!

When we break for the night in Hinckley, all of the bikes get loaded into a bike corral where they are guarded by a security guard all night. 

This is about half of the bikes in our bike corral. The numbered rows go up to 50. At least I made signs for up to 50. It's possible that we had to hand write more. That's a lot of bikes!

So, with this big of an event going on, you can imagine that I wouldn't actually get to rest much. We load 8 26-foot trucks the week prior to the event. Then, we kick it off on Friday by loading all of those bikes onto 21 semi trucks, and the participants on chartered buses to take them up to the Duluth area. Saturday morning I was up at 3:30 a.m. to see the riders off and get them on the route by 6:30 a.m. A mere 3 years ago, I would have been going to bed at this time. That evening we had our grand party in Hinckley, complete with a catered meal from Buca di Beppo. They were great and gave us the meal at cost. Mmmmmm...Buca. Sunday the riders returned to Century College in White Bear lake for a grand finish. 

Needless to say, I had little sleep and was on my feet for pretty much all of the weekend. However, it was totally worth it to help these riders making this journey to help end MS. 

Today, I had a kickball game. Yes, I play on a kickball team. Nothing better than adults playing a game meant for a playground. It was the first time I'd done any sort of running since Tuesday and I have to say it was awesome. Despite the rough week and weekend, I had nearly zero leg pain. I'm pretty stoked to go on my short 3-mile run tomorrow and see how quickly I can complete it. The temps are supposed to be great but the forecast calls for scattered storms in the afternoon. Hopefully I there is a 25-30 minute window without storms to fit in this run. 

Lately, because of my extensive leg pain, it's been taking me about 28 minutes to run 3 miles. Pretty sad and lame. Tomorrow I'm shooting for closer to 26. I'd really like to drop that time down to about 24 minutes by August. I'll be running in the grass from here on to see if that helps soften the impact. Wish me luck!

Who turned up the heat?

I'm definitely not complaining. Bring it on! Today's high in Minneapolis was 102 degrees. Booyah. It's about time we had some real summer weather. Yesterday it was in the upper 90's and today, this. Granted, I spent my days in our warehouse, loading trucks for our MS 150 coming up this weekend, but it wasn't so bad. I am a little more tired than usual now that I'm home and sitting down. Although, that could be due to the fact that I got up early to run today.

Now, if you know me at all, you know I don't like mornings. Though, I will say I'm getting better with age. I got up around 5:45 today to get out and bet the heat for a short 3-mile run. I'm sad to say my leg pain is back. Blast! Give me a break already! I think I have medial tibial stress syndrome. In layman's terms, shin splints. Hooray. :( On Sunday they didn't bother me and I think it's do to the fact that I had my brand new shoes, ran on asphalt instead of concrete, rested for 2 days prior and I ran on flat surfaces. That wasn't really the case today.

Unfortunately for me, I think that means I'm going to have to take the remainder of the week off from running. Fortunately, I'd already had it built into my training plan to repeat this week due to our MS 150. I will also be investing in ice packs and a large amount of ibuprofen to see if those help at all. I remember back in high school when I used to drive home from cross country practice with ice taped to my shins. I'm thinking of doing something similar to that again.

Now, hopefully the week off will help. If it doesn't, I'm not quite sure what I'll do. I might have to take an extra rest day each week or something. Not cool. I will say though that the biggest recommendation by healthcare professionals is to rest and ice. So, if you find yourself with shin splints, I highly encourage you to rest up and don't continue with your training until it is no longer painful to do so.

All this being said, you probably won't hear from me in a while. I won't have much to report on since I won't be running. Maybe now is the time to do an entry on stretching...

All about shoes: My new ones, and how to properly fit yours.

I just completed a 7-mile run and feel fantastic!

Remember how I've been saying I need new shoes? Well, after Thursday's grueling 3-mile run I decided it absolutely had to happen. The fact that I just described a 3-mile run as grueling is a pretty clear indication that something needed to change. Also, as I was walking around our parking lot for a cool down, I must have been wincing in pain (and cursing my shoes, literally) because a guy in his apartment looked down on me and asked if I was alright. I felt a little foolish and thought, "Whitney, you get paid on Friday. You must get new shoes before you go out on a long run this weekend." That my friends, is what I did. During my lunch hour, I took a trip to Marathon Sports in south Minneapolis. This is by far my favorite place to buy running gear. The people are knowledgeable and friendly at the store. They're all trained on how to appropriately fit a running shoe on someone, and they have a lot of good tips. Also, they partner with many races in the area and last but not least, support the MS Society through offering a 30% discount to anyone who is participating in Run to Stop MS (like me) or Challenge Walk MS. Sweet deal! My normally $140 running shoes were only $98! That's pretty good. I'll take a $42 discount any day. Going to get the new shoes lead me to being the prime candidate to go pick up and drop off some materials at PostNet for work which then lead me to getting to have Punch Pizza for lunch. Let's just say the shoes and pizza made Friday a good day.

This weekend I had a 7-mile run in my training schedule. The perfect distance is around Lake Calhoun, then to Lake Harriet around that, and back. Today was the best I've felt running in a really long time. I had a small amount of pain in my legs when I started but after a couple of minutes it was gone. Thank you new shoes! Just look how happy my feet were upon returning home after the run:

In honor of my new shoes, I shall give you some tips for getting yourself some good running shoes. There are a lot of things to consider so pay attention.

Thanks to a new-ish book called "Born to Run" the running world has been taken by storm by a movement called, "minimalist running" or "natural running" or even "barefoot running." Sound pretty hippy-like to you? Yeah, it kind of is. The premise of the book is that there's a tribe in Mexico, way up in the mountains, whose members run daily. They run to get from place to place and to follow food and whatnot. They literally can run over a hundred miles a day. But the key is, they don't wear shoes. If they do, they wear huarache-type sandals. How do they get so many miles out of their legs without wearing shoes? Well, running barefoot changes how your foot hits the ground. You naturally land on your midsole or forefoot, which absorbs shock a little differently. Now, Born to Run and many of the minimalist running promoters claim that being barefoot is the key to the tribes ability to run far and wide. Well, I have been a little skeptical of this. Let's keep in mind that most of us don't live in the mountainous region of Mexico. I personally live in Minneapolis. A city. With lots and lots of pavement. My opinion is that the key to their running is not the fact that they are barefoot, but the fact that they are running on dirt. Dirt is significantly softer than concrete or asphalt pavement. This is why there is always a little path in the grass next to the running trails in Minneapolis. People follow the trails but run in the grass/dirt. It just doesn't seem like a viable long-term solution to me. Now, if I were to be running on grass or dirt all the time, including during the marathon, I might buy a pair of gorilla shoes. That's what I like to call the Vibram Five Finger shoes. Click on the link and you'll understand why. I brought this up to the guy who was assisting me at Marathon Sports and he actually confirmed what I'd said. He said, "If you want to use a minimalist shoe every once in a while, it's probably fine. But if you are running multiple days a week and want to get 30 years out of your legs, you should probably stick with a good running shoe that fits properly." I can get on board with that, especially since I run in a city, with sidewalks and roads, that also happens to be cold 6 months out of the year. Here's a good article from the Huffington Post, written by a doctor, to support my general thesis.

So, what does a properly fitting running shoe look like?

Well, first a person needs to determine the type of foot they have. Basically a person falls into one of three categories or somewhere between: someone with high arches (supinator), someone with low arches or flatter feet (pronator), or someone with neutral arches. The type of foot you have determines what happens to your foot when it hits the ground while walking or running without shoes on. My feet have neutral to low arches. My feet pronate, or turn in/flatten out when I go from heel strike to toe off. Thusly, I wear shoes that have support in the midsole area to prevent that. If you look at the picture of my new shoes, you'll notice that that area of the sole of my shoe is gray. That's the firmer foam giving me more support. The bottom of my shoe also has a plastic piece that runs across the foot at about the midsole. This offers more support. For someone who pronates even more than I do, the plastic piece tends to be larger and the firmer foam covers more area. For someone who has high arches and supinates, there is no piece of plastic and no foam support. The shoe will easily twist if you held it in your hands and twisted it. This allows the high arched person to collapse a bit on their midfoot as they run/walk.

Secondly, you'll want to find a pair of shoes that fit the width and length of your foot. This is especially important in what is called the "footbed" of the shoe. It's the area between the laces and the toe of your foot. If this area is too snug, you could end up with some nasty blisters and other painful foot problems. The rest of the shoe can typically be adjusted by the laces, especially if you are lacing them correctly. I'll talk about that at the end. For length, you'll typically want a half to a full size larger than you wear for dress shoes.

The last thing to look for in a shoe is how long a shoe will last. You should be able to get 300-500 miles out of a pair of shoes. There is a large window because it depends on your running style, your weight and a couple of other factors. For example heavier people will need to replace shoes more quickly. Also, if you use your shoes for anything other than running (which I DO NOT RECOMMEND) you'll need to buy new shoes sooner. So, which shoes last the longest? Well, it's a little tough because since people require different types of shoes, different brands work differently for different people. I for one cannot stand how Brooks feel on my feet, but Erich loves them. I also have a friend who only buys Nike running shoes. They work for her I wouldn't touch a pair of Nikes with a ten foot pole. I personally think they're cheaply made (probably due to those sweat shops) and don't offer nearly enough support and thusly, don't last very long. Common brands of running shoes are:

Nike (Katie's favorite)
Mizuno (my sister's favorite)
Brooks (Erich's favorite)
Addidas (My boss' favorite)
Asics (Mine and a lot of other runners favorite)
New Balance
Saucony (Many peoples I know favorite)

Last time I bought shoes, I almost bought a pair of Sauconys. But, since I knew the Asics Gel Kayano worked, I figured I would't mess with it. My recommendation is to try many brands to see which works for you. When you find a pair, stick with it.

This brings me to my last point. Buy your shoes at a store that is specifically focused on running/walking gear! If my brother's girlfriend is reading this, she might be a little annoyed because she works for Foot Locker. Well, sorry Victoria, I'm not a Foot Locker fan. This goes for Journey's, The Finish Line and department stores as well. I say this because the people at these stores typically do not know how to properly fit a foot. All they want is to make a sale and they'll let you pick the shoe based on the size, how it looks and how it feels when you do a lap around their store. Any new shoe will feel good at that point. Someone from a specialty store will analyze your foot and gait and point you in the right direction for shoes. If you have a pair of running shoes that you are replacing, bring those to the store as well. The specialist will be able to look at the wear pattern on the bottom and tell you if they worked correctly for you or not. Although, if they didn't, your body will tell you as well. I will say that once you find a shoe that works for you and you find it cheaper at one of the above mentioned stores or online, feel free to buy it there, but only if you've been properly fitted elsewhere. Be sure to get re-fitted every once in a while just to be sure your feet haven't changed, which they can with age and depending on your profession and what other types of shoes you wear.

Big Important Note: If your shoes fit correctly, you will not need to break them in! You can head straight out for a run in them.

Once you get your shoes home you'll want to be sure you've laced them correctly. You might think to yourself, "Don't I just lace them up like normal, tie and be on my way?" Well yes and no. Yes you mostly lace them up at normal, but when you get to the end of lacing, you'll notice there's one last hole that's always set back a little far and if you lace into it you tend to cut off circulation from your foot. Well that is because you're not lacing correctly. Here are my steps to lacing:

1. Lace your shoes as you normally would, stopping with the hole just before the very last one.
2. Take the lace on the right side and put it through the very last hole on the right side. Yes, the same side. You should put it from the top down. Don't come up from the bottom. This should form a nice little loop.
3. Repeat with the left side.
4. Then, take the laces and put them through the loops on opposite sides. Right lace into left loop, left lace into right loop
5. Tighten shoes to be comfortable and supportive, then tie. I always double knot. When you tie, the loops you created shouldn't quite touch or overlap.

When done, your shoes should look like this:

When tied on your foot, it will look like this:

Now you are armed with everything you need to get properly fitted shoes. I assure you, it will be well worth the time and money if you are planning on doing a lot of running. In my area, the upcoming week looks to be quite beautiful. A little warm but beautiful. Happy trails!

Running in the West

Well, now that Memorial Day weekend has passed, we have entered into the summer season. No, not the official start to summer which doesn't happen until June 21, but the start of the time of year when we have bonfires in the backyard, go to baseball games (OUTSIDE!), and go fishing in one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. I for one could not be happier. Memorial day weekend included visiting family, gambling in Deadwood (Erich won $50 in blackjack, I lost 29 cents in slot machines) and eating good food, all wrapped up with a couple of good runs. 

Erich and I drove to Sioux Falls on Thursday night and stayed with my sister and her husband. I got up early on Friday morning to go for a quick 3-mile run since I didn't get one in on Thursday as my schedule said I should. That day we drove west to my Grandparent's 3,000 acre cattle ranch in western South Dakota. It looks like this:

It's quite gorgeous at the ranch and even better when the sun is shining. Unfortunately it's been raining a lot there lately. About 6 inches in the last 20 days. That's much more than the area is used to. 

On Saturday morning I went for a run among all of this beauty. Unfortunately, part of what makes this ranch so lovely is it's natural hills and the large canyon that runs through it. I knew I needed to get in a 6 mile run and heard my grandparents' mailbox is about 1.5 miles from their house. I figured out and back twice would be sufficient. Well, it turns out that the mail box is only 1.25 miles from the house so out and back twice only makes up 5 miles. I thought I'd feel badly about skimping on the miles until I started running these hills:

Yep, it was intense. Since I went out and back twice and there are two big hills along the route to the mailbox, I had to go up four of these bad boys. Erich went with me as well and he runs a lot faster than me so I probably held him back but all in all it was a good run. The best part was the gravel. It's so soft and nice on the joints. No pain whatsoever. And on top of it, it was actually sunny. don't let the pictures fool you. We actually had good weather for the run. 

Luckily for me Sunday is supposed to be a cross training day. My cross training didn't really happen unless you count my elevated heart rate when we had to drive up and down hills steeper than those above, while it was raining, with gravel that had turned to mud as slippery as ice. We fishtailed a lot and may have been going sideways on the road a couple of times. All this in a 4 wheel drive Jeep. We made it back in and out of the ranch safely and headed home Monday morning. While traveling, we made a quick stop in Chamberlain, on the banks of the Missouri River. 

Look at that view! It might be a little different in a couple of days because they're expecting some pretty brutal flooding. But for now it looks like this.

Oh so pretty!

Just be careful of the rattlesnakes!

All in all, it was a very good trip and I had a great couple of runs. It's always fun to run in new places. I should think about that for the future.

Today I dropped back down to 3 miles. 3 is so easy now! Nothing too big to report. My joints were a little less sore so that was nice. I was also significantly faster. Can't wait for 7 on Saturday. Hip hip! 

Happy Memorial Day! Welcome summer!

Welcome, Heat Wave!

The past few weeks have been CRAZY busy for me. Since I took on my new position in October, I've had substantially more work to accomplish, which has meant early mornings and working past when I should be able to go home. Since May 1, we've had two events. The first was Walk MS (which had terrible weather by the way) and the second was a one day Bike MS ride. Bike MS had great weather. I even got my first sunburn for the summer. Yee haw! Next up is another Bike MS event June 10-12. Two days of riding 150 miles from Duluth to White Bear Lake, MN. It's a beast of an event with about 3,500 people riding and takes a lot of preparation to put it on. Needless to say, right now is a bit hectic and I have seriously neglected my running. Yesterday morning, that all changed.

I realized yesterday as I was brushing my teeth, that in two short weeks training for Run to Stop MS begins for real! Since my training schedule is rest Monday, short run Tuesday, mid-distance Wednesday, short run Thursday, rest Friday, long distance Saturday and cross train Sunday, I figured yesterday would be a good day to start getting used to that schedule. Now, I'm not training yet, just making sure I get used to fitting in a run no matter what. So, I decided I'd go for a run after work. Well, while at work I was putting away supplies from the above mentioned bike ride and discovered that it had become seriously humid outside. See, part of putting away supplies means washing dishes and we do it outside with a hose and a really big Rubbermaid tub. Have I ever mentioned how much my job rocks? It was pretty standard summer humidity, however seven days ago it was March weather. I was a little taken aback but immediately excited. Summer weather! Then I remembered that I had decided to get in gear and go for a run after work. I can't remember the last time I ran in hot, humid weather. Last summer I ran inside on the treadmill.

When I got home it was 88 degrees and over 60% humidity. I set out for a 3-mile run around my 'hood. I remembered my lesson from last time and did not run up Fillmore Street. Damn those hills. They will have to wait for another, more appropriate day. Instead I went up Lincoln. Oh yes, have I ever mentioned that I live in an area where the streets are all presidents and they're in sequential order of when they served in office? William Henry Harrison doesn't get a street. I guess dying in office after a month doesn't get a street named after you. [shrug] You're welcome for the interjected history lesson, but, back to my run. It was pretty flipping terrible. There is no doubt that my body is not yet used to that heat. I felt like death. To make matters worse, for the last half, I was running on a busy road so everyone driving home from work during rush hour could see my struggle. Stellar move, Whitney. But I made it home and didn't die. Though I did turn on the air conditioning so I wouldn't sweat all night. I also learned on Tuesday, after much trial and error over the past couple of weeks, that I have to break one of my cardinal fashion rules for grown women. I have to pull my hair back in pigtails in order to get enough of it out of my face and off my neck for comfort. Gah! Totally worth it though because I'm still digging this hair cut.

The hot, humid weather spawned some pretty intense storms in the area too. The far-reaching northwest suburbs had tornado touch downs. We had a tornado warning in the immediate metro area due to some funnel clouds seen in St. Louis Park and Hopkins, just west and southwest of Minneapolis. When this happened I promptly called my boss, Allison, who lives about 15 blocks from me to see if I could come over. Erich was working at the Twins game and I was not about to be stuck at home alone if a tornado actually happened. Plus, Allison has a basement. :) We didn't have much excitement in the Nordeast neighborhood. No tornadoes or hail, thank God. My poor car has been through enough since purchasing it in October. Only some rain. They did however have to rake Target Field free of golf ball-sized hail so the Twins could resume getting murdered by the Tigers. Boo Twins. What happened to that no-no Liriano?

The storms were supposed to continue into today, however they did not. I went for another 3-mile run this afternoon along the same route and it was significantly better. The temp was about 10 degrees cooler and the sun went behind the clouds about 1/3 of the way through. Since Erich was home I left my phone and keys. I forgot to look at what time I left the house so I don't know how long it actually took me to complete this today. Oh well. Today I decided that I love running with nothing on my person. No ipod, no phone, nothing. It makes me a little nervous without the phone, but I just tell Erich what my route is and tell him that if I don't return in a reasonable amount of time, to come looking for me. I tend to notice a lot more things and interact with the people with whom I come into contact. Today, at a busy intersection, I even saw three wild turkeys just chillin' in a parking lot. Strange things going on with the turkeys here lately. I think they've gotten lost. This isn't the first time I've seen them smack in the middle of the city. I want to know how they got there because turkeys don't really fly...   After dinner (no we didn't have turkey!) Erich and I treated ourselves to Culvers frozen custard. Mmmmm. Just a single scoop is perfect for me.

Tomorrow is another running day before I take Friday off. I'm going to see if Jill wants to go for a walk/run after work. I'm hoping it's not raining. It's been a while since I ran along the river so I think tomorrow will be a good day for that. I am mighty excited now that I think about it.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that between the run and the tornado warning yesterday, I ate an entire cantaloupe. Well, everything but the outer rind, but you get the idea. A whole cantaloupe in one sitting! Today I cut up a watermelon. Erich promptly told me that I am not allowed to eat the whole thing.

Chopped!

No, I'm not talking about the TV show on the Food Network.

About a month or so ago, I decided that I wanted a hair cut. I saw a girl with a really cute style at the gym and decided that I would like it. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of talented hair stylists here in the Twin Cities, however I really only trust major hair changes to one person and that's Christine Koch at Spektre Studio in Sioux Falls. Just a little plug. She and her studio mates are awesome. She's always been able to take care of me. That meant I had to wait until I went to Sioux Falls for Easter. Well, last weekend was Easter weekend so it was time for the big day!

TA DA!!!

The picture is a little MySpace-y but it's not a bad self portrait. It's also the end of the day so it's gone a little flat and I had it up in a pony tail until about 15 minutes before taking this picture. 

This photo has little to do with running however I thought I should post about it. I've never had hair this short. I will say that when I do put it in a ponytail to do any sort of physical activity, it looks pretty humorous. The pony tail is tiny and half of the hair doesn't fit in it. It's worth it though because I really dig the new look!