It’s that time of year when celebrations and family events, along with the limited daylight hours and regular hangovers mean running is squeezed out of your schedule. For me the festive season always starts a bit earlier than usual because my (American) family celebrate Thanksgiving at the end of November (I am writing this from my mum’s house as we wait for everyone else to gather together and for someone to pick up the forgotten cranberry sauce).
Thanksgiving is quickly followed by my birthday and then suddenly there are only three weeks until Christmas and the nights are filled with office parties, friend and family gatherings, card writing and last-minute shopping. What makes things slightly more complicated this year is that we now live a good three-four hour drive away from parents, friends and in-laws so, like we have done this week, tend to stay for a few days or a long weekend each time we go visit. Of course, I usually take my running shoes with me, but families have a way of planning things for you and when you aren’t in control of where you are going or when/what you are eating there isn’t time to fit in a good run and you have to grab ‘spare miles’ where you can. Having said that, for the last few years I have managed to run on both my birthday and Christmas day and they’ve become one of the best things about those days, as well as some of my favourite runs. On Christmas day runs there is no-one else on the roads and I usually put some jingly music on and whatever new running gear I have received. My birthday runs are usually more reflective occasions, where I find myself thinking about the past year and what I want to achieve in the next one.
Back to Thanksgiving and I have just stumbed on an opportunity to run: we still have no cranberry sauce so a trip to the supermarket is needed and I’ve suggested it is perfect running distance. Running back again with a jar of cranberries in my hand will bring a whole new meaning to festive running!
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Visibility
Tonight at the running club (North Devon Road Runners) I saw a great piece of kit for winter running. Someone was wearing a beanie with a flashing light at the back and reflective shapes at the front. As well as looking cosy and offering improved safety, I thought this hat offered a solution to a problem you would never dream existed- that of appearing like a 'headless torso' which so many runners suffer from at night time due to wearing reflective jackets or vests but covering their heads with dark-coloured hats. This high-vis hat shows that there is a head on top after all!
However when I got home (and defrosted, gawd was it cold out there tonight!) I tried to look for this hat to paste a picture of it into my blog and couldn't find one. The nearest I could find was a reflective cap by Brooks (http://www.brooksrunning.com/prod.php?p=280020) which had the same flashing idea and would solve the visibility problem but would lack the warmth of the beanie. Next week I will have to speed up my running and chase down the hat wearer to find out their source. Will keep you informed....
However when I got home (and defrosted, gawd was it cold out there tonight!) I tried to look for this hat to paste a picture of it into my blog and couldn't find one. The nearest I could find was a reflective cap by Brooks (http://www.brooksrunning.com/prod.php?p=280020) which had the same flashing idea and would solve the visibility problem but would lack the warmth of the beanie. Next week I will have to speed up my running and chase down the hat wearer to find out their source. Will keep you informed....
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Marathon Recovery
It's been 10 days now since the marathon and I still haven't quite worked out the right approach to getting back into training. I've been reading around the subject but there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. I decided to just go with how my body feels and started easing into gently exercise last week. The first three days I did nothing and was exhausted from all the traveling on top of the race, but on the fourth day I went to the gym and did some light cycling. On Saturday I went for a swim and did about a mile, which felt great, then on Sunday I tried a 5 mile run. This went fine so I went along to the local running club on Tuesday night and was met with quite a few horrified faces! People weren't sure if I should be running yet, and more than one person mentioned hearing an old rule about resting a day for each mile following a hard run (so 26 days after a marathon!).
But I can't see how this can be correct: if I rested for a whole month I would put on weight, lose fitness and most of all go stir-crazy! It would be hard to resist putting on my running shoes, and hard to get going again to begin training for the next event. Of course I'm not going to rush things, but I'm going to keep running, sticking to small distances and fun, relaxed outings until after my birthday in early December. Then it will be 20 weeks until London so I will begin increasing my base milage again and work out which training plan to use to try and be at my best for April. I'm already so excited!
But I can't see how this can be correct: if I rested for a whole month I would put on weight, lose fitness and most of all go stir-crazy! It would be hard to resist putting on my running shoes, and hard to get going again to begin training for the next event. Of course I'm not going to rush things, but I'm going to keep running, sticking to small distances and fun, relaxed outings until after my birthday in early December. Then it will be 20 weeks until London so I will begin increasing my base milage again and work out which training plan to use to try and be at my best for April. I'm already so excited!
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Looking back
Today I went for a very easy run, along one of the first routes I did when arriving in Devon a few months ago. It is a nice route, which takes in some of the town and part of the Tarka Trail along the Taw estuary before skirting around a park and arriving at a nice village on the outskirts of town. Running it again with no set agenda or time in mind I was just freely enjoying the scenery and was able to think about how much I'd learned about this area of North Devon through my running over the past few months. I now know the town quite well, perhaps even better then some other areas I've lived in for much longer, because I have studied different routes and footpaths and experimented with different route planning techniques.
I felt really happy today as I ran too. I had the feeling that everything had slotted into place, and after several months of my running being controlled by a training schedule it was nice to be able to just relax and think about where I was running rather than how. I even had one of those weird sensations where you feel nostalgic for something you are currently experiencing rather than something you are looking back on as I thought about how perfect the environment around me was for running. I guess it was some part of my subconscious reminding me to make the most of the conditions in this area and to continue to appreciate them even when I become accustomed to running around here and the routes become second nature.
I felt really happy today as I ran too. I had the feeling that everything had slotted into place, and after several months of my running being controlled by a training schedule it was nice to be able to just relax and think about where I was running rather than how. I even had one of those weird sensations where you feel nostalgic for something you are currently experiencing rather than something you are looking back on as I thought about how perfect the environment around me was for running. I guess it was some part of my subconscious reminding me to make the most of the conditions in this area and to continue to appreciate them even when I become accustomed to running around here and the routes become second nature.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Running Podcasts (Plodcasts?)
The Running Lounge, a running blog network I follow has this week launched a podcast all about running (http://blog.runnerslounge.com/files/episode1.mp3). The first episode is basically an interview with the creators of the Lounge, but in the future they plan to publish more of the reader-led discussions which fill their site with inspirational running chat.
The news of this podcast got me thinking about listening to podcasts whilst out running. I have actually tried this before. Once when I had a long, lonely run ahead of me and was bored of my music I decided to download some podcasts from radio 4, thinking some stimulating discussion or some comedy would make the time pass quickly. But it turned out this approach didn't work for me at all. It could have been the talk-heavy nature of the podcasts I chose, but I found the slow rhythm of the voices lulled me into a dull plod, and because each episode was only around 25 minutes long, having to stop and select the next one on my ipod was irritating and made the 90 minute run seem much longer. Perhaps running with podcasts would work for those people who like to workout in front of the Simpsons at the gym, but I would rather run to uplifting music or with nothing. Mostly I am quite happy drifting into my own dreamworld as I run and don't feel the need to be doing something else at the same time.
The exception could be running-centric podcasts, as I can imagine listening to other runners might be quite motivating. It could be like having a running pal who never expects you to break your breathing pattern to join in the conversation. Either way, I enjoyed listening to the Lounge podcast whilst making tea, and will keep listening out for their recordings and other running podcasts as they are yet another way to feel part of the ever-growing community of runners.
The news of this podcast got me thinking about listening to podcasts whilst out running. I have actually tried this before. Once when I had a long, lonely run ahead of me and was bored of my music I decided to download some podcasts from radio 4, thinking some stimulating discussion or some comedy would make the time pass quickly. But it turned out this approach didn't work for me at all. It could have been the talk-heavy nature of the podcasts I chose, but I found the slow rhythm of the voices lulled me into a dull plod, and because each episode was only around 25 minutes long, having to stop and select the next one on my ipod was irritating and made the 90 minute run seem much longer. Perhaps running with podcasts would work for those people who like to workout in front of the Simpsons at the gym, but I would rather run to uplifting music or with nothing. Mostly I am quite happy drifting into my own dreamworld as I run and don't feel the need to be doing something else at the same time.
The exception could be running-centric podcasts, as I can imagine listening to other runners might be quite motivating. It could be like having a running pal who never expects you to break your breathing pattern to join in the conversation. Either way, I enjoyed listening to the Lounge podcast whilst making tea, and will keep listening out for their recordings and other running podcasts as they are yet another way to feel part of the ever-growing community of runners.
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The scoop on Athens
So now I’m awake enough to remember, and to coordinate my fingers with my brain, here’s my summary of the Athens Marathon:
The course follows the legend which began the event of marathon racing. The greek messenger Pheidippides is said to have ran 25 miles from the battlefield near the town of Marathon to Athens, bringing news of victory over the Persians. He then collapsed and died, but that wasn’t part of our race plan for the 2008 event. However it is a notoriously tough route- the difficulty is something the organisers boast of in the race programme, and there were few fun-runners, and no-one dressed in an animal suit or pantomine horse. Even at the registration you could tell these were serious runners, wiry and tanned.
The race seemed very well organised. We runners were taken by coach from Athens to the stadium in Marathon at 7am, and there were plenty of toilets and buses for storing bags at the start. By the time the race kicked off at 9 it was already almost 20oC, and we’d already seen the whole route, albeit backwards and from 5 feet above the pavement.
Marathon is a small town, and the first steps were incredibly inspiring, surrounded by history and beautiful scenery. Along the side were orange groves, rustic cottages, and fruit stalls, occasionally broken up by a petrol station closed for Sunday. Now and then there would be locals to wave us on, having brought out stools to sit on by the roadside and gathered their whole families for the occasion.
The first 18K was undulating, but the trouble really started after that, with a continuous uphill climb for the next 10. It was sometime during this period that many apparently seasoned runners slowed to a walk, and we saw a brave soul dressed as a centurion collapsed by the side of the road, his armour practically steaming. We’d also entered the outskirts of Athens and were running on the very straight, multiple-lane, main road into the city. At times running along such a wide, ‘cityish’ road littered with drinks bottles and dust but without any traffic gave me the feeling of being in a disaster movie, a feeling magnified by the red, agonised faces of everyone around.
After this epic hill, the rest of the route sloped gently (mostly) downwards and the little clusters of supporters grew more frequent and more enthusiastic, even for the stragglers like us. There were markers every km until the 41st. I’m not sure if this was intentional but I liked the wait, as in waiting for the 41 sign to appear, it was a really nice surprise to suddenly see the finish in sight and know we were actually approaching 42. The end itself was spectacular, running down a leafy avenue, past saluting guards in traditional Greek costume and turning a corner to see the magnificent stadium underneath the shadow of huge olympic rings. I thought I might be crying or crawling in to the line, but the atmosphere gave me a second wind and we managed a strong finish. WooHoo!
The course follows the legend which began the event of marathon racing. The greek messenger Pheidippides is said to have ran 25 miles from the battlefield near the town of Marathon to Athens, bringing news of victory over the Persians. He then collapsed and died, but that wasn’t part of our race plan for the 2008 event. However it is a notoriously tough route- the difficulty is something the organisers boast of in the race programme, and there were few fun-runners, and no-one dressed in an animal suit or pantomine horse. Even at the registration you could tell these were serious runners, wiry and tanned.
The race seemed very well organised. We runners were taken by coach from Athens to the stadium in Marathon at 7am, and there were plenty of toilets and buses for storing bags at the start. By the time the race kicked off at 9 it was already almost 20oC, and we’d already seen the whole route, albeit backwards and from 5 feet above the pavement.
Marathon is a small town, and the first steps were incredibly inspiring, surrounded by history and beautiful scenery. Along the side were orange groves, rustic cottages, and fruit stalls, occasionally broken up by a petrol station closed for Sunday. Now and then there would be locals to wave us on, having brought out stools to sit on by the roadside and gathered their whole families for the occasion.
The first 18K was undulating, but the trouble really started after that, with a continuous uphill climb for the next 10. It was sometime during this period that many apparently seasoned runners slowed to a walk, and we saw a brave soul dressed as a centurion collapsed by the side of the road, his armour practically steaming. We’d also entered the outskirts of Athens and were running on the very straight, multiple-lane, main road into the city. At times running along such a wide, ‘cityish’ road littered with drinks bottles and dust but without any traffic gave me the feeling of being in a disaster movie, a feeling magnified by the red, agonised faces of everyone around.
After this epic hill, the rest of the route sloped gently (mostly) downwards and the little clusters of supporters grew more frequent and more enthusiastic, even for the stragglers like us. There were markers every km until the 41st. I’m not sure if this was intentional but I liked the wait, as in waiting for the 41 sign to appear, it was a really nice surprise to suddenly see the finish in sight and know we were actually approaching 42. The end itself was spectacular, running down a leafy avenue, past saluting guards in traditional Greek costume and turning a corner to see the magnificent stadium underneath the shadow of huge olympic rings. I thought I might be crying or crawling in to the line, but the atmosphere gave me a second wind and we managed a strong finish. WooHoo!
Monday, 10 November 2008
Runners' Return!
Just walked in and hobbled up the stairs after the epic journey which was the Athens Classic Marathon. The adventure started last Wednesday, with the car-bus-plane-bus rigmarole which took us to the legendary city on Thursday morning, and finished half an hour ago with the reverse, done at a somewhat slower, stiffer pace courtesy of the small diversion on Sunday to run 26.2 miles in the Greek sunshine.
What can I say about it? It was tough, really tough, and hot, really hot. But I got round and could not stop smiling for the last 500m. And running into the Panathinaikon stadium was everything you could hope for in a marathon finish: exciting, inspiring, beautiful, emotional, well-organised, dramatic... and downhill!
I will write a proper account of the race when I have recuperated a bit more (i.e. drank more tea- I'm surprised I got round without a good British cuppa in the morning) and have fully digested everything that happened. Right now, I am pleased just to have experienced it, and want to shout out to everyone "I DID IT!!!"
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
5 good things about winter running
As the nights draw ever darker and I get buried deeper under increasing layers of clothing it is time to cheer up by reminding myself of all the good things about running in the winter.
1. There's no need to worry about smothering yourself in suncream which you then sweat off anyway- your red cheeks come from a healthy glow, instead of a cancer-causing, wrinkle-forming toasting.
2. There is nothing like the quiet stillness of an early morning run in the winter, when you have the world to yourself . And extra smug-points from being the only one defying the temptation to stay snuggled in bed.
3. A run gets you warmed up for the rest of the day, saving on energy costs.
4. You get to dig out the reflective running gear for a cool 80s look. And you can wear whatever other rubbish you like along with it as no one can see you properly anyway. Winter runs are one of the only times you can wear a balaclava around a city, and not be mistaken for a comic book bank robber.
5. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate are brilliant recovery drinks containing all the essential ingredients: milk for protein, cocoa fors antioxidants and vitamins and minerals, its low in fat (provided you skip the whipped cream), and to top it off research has shown that chocolate releases endorphins simillar to a 'runner's high' so you get a double-buzz and feel even better for continuing to run despite the weather.
1. There's no need to worry about smothering yourself in suncream which you then sweat off anyway- your red cheeks come from a healthy glow, instead of a cancer-causing, wrinkle-forming toasting.
2. There is nothing like the quiet stillness of an early morning run in the winter, when you have the world to yourself . And extra smug-points from being the only one defying the temptation to stay snuggled in bed.
3. A run gets you warmed up for the rest of the day, saving on energy costs.
4. You get to dig out the reflective running gear for a cool 80s look. And you can wear whatever other rubbish you like along with it as no one can see you properly anyway. Winter runs are one of the only times you can wear a balaclava around a city, and not be mistaken for a comic book bank robber.
5. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate are brilliant recovery drinks containing all the essential ingredients: milk for protein, cocoa fors antioxidants and vitamins and minerals, its low in fat (provided you skip the whipped cream), and to top it off research has shown that chocolate releases endorphins simillar to a 'runner's high' so you get a double-buzz and feel even better for continuing to run despite the weather.
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Naked advertising
Recently I have noticed a bare-faced trend in sports gear adverts. I am referring of course to the numerous naked athletes that are gracing the pages of running magazines, selling anything from sports drinks to trainers. I admit they are effective advertising if that means attracting attention. The first time I saw one I did a double-take; is that really Greg Tait's perfect bottom I can see? The next one I wondered if I should cover up whilst reading Runner's World on the train, after all, with a naked woman taking up most of the opposing page fellow passengers might wonder if the 'go longer' article might really be about something else...
But mostly what I think when I see these adverts is, would I really want to train naked or to feel as if I am? There are certain bits that need to be supported and held in by clothing and I don't think comfort or performance would be improved by letting it all hang loose. Also, I worry about Rebecca Romero's comfort, perched on that pointy saddle in the buff. And mustn't there have been some serious photo-shopping in Tait's picture or the direction and force of motion would have caused another part of his anatomy to be leaping about? This is all so distracting I don't remember the point of the advert, or this post.
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