Tag Archive for "winter running" -

Dear Santa,

From now until Christmas, I’ve decided to add a post everyday. Each post will be a new gift idea for the runner in your life. You may also feel free to buy any of these as a gift for your dedicated blogger.

As I looked around Gazelle Sports, I debated where to start. Running is a simple sport. We don’t need much. That doesn’t mean that we lack wants. Gazelle Sports is full of gear that I want because good gear makes running more comfortable. The cold magnifies the comfort derived from good gear. I decided to start at the top.

Being follically challenged, I need a hat to keep my head warm. The SmartWool Cuffed Beanie is great. Of course you’re familiar with the wonderful SmartWool socks. They keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They do this because they (like this hat) are so fantastic at wicking moisture away from your skin. The soft Merino wool will wick the sweat away when it is still in the vapor state. Dry is more comfortable than damp, so go with the SmartWool. The hat fits snug against your dome and looks good enough to wear around town, too. The Cuffed Beanie is also available in several great colors. Best of all, it retails for a mere $25.

10th December 2010

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What would you do…

What would you do for a Klondike Bar? That was the old jingle that kept going through my head this morning on the run. No, I wasn’t craving ice cream at 5:30 in the morning (although that wouldn’t surprise people who know me). I was thinking about the lengths I go to fit my runs into my daily schedule. I regularly wake up at 5:00 a.m., and I’ve gone for runs at 10:30 p.m. I’ve run in every sort of weather. Now that I have kids, I draw the line at lightning storms, but I’ve run in 25 m.p.h. winds, snow, sleet, heat, etc. I live the USPS creed better than they do.
At first, I ran in all kinds of weather because I needed the stress relief. Stressful days come regardless of the season or precipitation, so I would head outside. As I ran in a blinding rain, I realized that it made it even easier to forget the trials and tribulations of the day. All my stress and anger would be forgotten by focusing on the storm. It was also fun to think that I was the only person tough (or foolish) enough to be out in this slop.
That morphed into a feeling of pride that the weather couldn’t stop me. It was (and still is) fun to see people’s incredulous looks when they hear that I was running at 5 or through the blizzard that closed all the local schools. Long-time runners know that there is no bad weather only inadequate gear, but non-runners are easily impressed by running in 35 degree monsoon. I also realized that races are run in all kinds of weather, at least in Michigan they are (sorry Myrtle Beach marathoners), so I had better train in all kinds of weather.
I’m more than a little obsessive about my training for marathons. I feel driven to nail every workout barring injury. That’s where I’m at right now. Hectic schedules get me out on the road before 6:00 in the morning because that is the only time to do the workout. I do my long run on the slippery sidewalk or the quad-thrashing snow drifts because I want to be ready for Boston. No matter what the weather is like on Patriots’ Day, I know it can’t compare to what I’ve trained through. I’ll be ready. Will you?
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 8 miles w/ 3X1600 at 6:00/mile and 4:00 recovery
Wednesday: 6 in the a.m./6 in the p.m. (pushing the double jogging stroller)
Thursday: Hard 10 miler pushing the double jogging stroller
Friday: 8 miles
Saturday:17 miles (maybe closer to 18)
Sunday: Rest

Weekly Total: 60 miles
Total for the Year: 411 miles

4th March 2010

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Big Week

I’m heading into the high-mileage weeks of my marathon training plan. It becomes more and more of a challenge to fit these weeks into my daily life. I’ve enjoyed running before work (even if it means a 5:15 alarm). This works well for a five-six miler but not so well for an 8-10 mile run on a weekday. I need my sleep, I need my family-time, but I also want to be prepared for Boston in April. Sometimes I run twice a day. Other times I fit a longer run after work. My peak while training for a spring marathon never gets as high as for a fall race.

Still, I can feel the accumulated miles more and more. Heavy legs the day after a hill workout stay heavy for two or three miles. I really love my compression socks by Sugoi. I feel like the compression really helps me recover faster and more fully. I got them on after my 20 miler and felt fresh through most of my shift at Gazelle that afternoon. I’m being careful to avoid the over-training colds and flu, but this requires a lot of sleep. I don’t have the option of a two hour “business meeting” like Ryan Hall calls his naps. I have been trying to go to bed earlier, though.

What makes these early “big” weeks even more challenging is the feeling that the race is far, far away. With snow and ice clogging the sidewalks, a spring marathon feels like it is never going to arrive. On my 20-miler this Saturday, I felt amazed that there are times when it is too hot to run. I had a mental image of myself running shirtless and covered in sweat, and the impossibility of it almost made me laugh. There are fewer than 60 days to Boston, though. I need to get ready. It feels good to have the first 20-miler of this training cycle in the books.

If you haven’t signed up for your spring race, DO IT. If you want to do RiverBank, Borgess, SunBurst, the Town Crier, or whatever, sending that check in is a great motivator. That will get you out the door. It still just an idea if you haven’t registered.

Monday: 6
Tuesday: 8 with 2X1000 (at 5:45/mile), 1X2000 (at 6:00/mile), and 3X500 (at 5:35/mile). 400 m recovery
Wednesday: 7.5 in the morning/4.5 at night
Thursday: 6 w/ 4 at 6:44/mile and random (treadmill) hills
Friday: 6
Saturday: 20
Sunday: Rest Day
Weekly Mileage: 58
Yearly Total: 351miles

22nd February 2010

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The feeling we all crave

You still have 6 more miles. At least another 45 minutes, probably more at the pace you feel like you’re going. The snow fell last night and the sidewalks are sorta clear, clear enough, but every step you take you have to think about not falling. The Michigan sun has been great all week, shining and bright—that is until this morning, the morning of your long run.
Run. Run. Run–4.5 more miles to go. Your pace has slowed, your legs are tired and your feet are dragging, but you have to keep going. It’s not like you can turn around and be home any faster; there are more miles behind you! Finally having found you rhythm on the road, away from the slick sidewalk, you feel okay. Not great, but better than the first 3 miles you slogged through.
Feeling safe in your reflective gear on the not-so-busy road at 9:30 am during the week, you stretch and your stride has finally found a balance. That is until a truck drives by, hits a slushy, muddy, nasty puddle right to your right. Now you’re wet and colder than you were before.
2.5 miles left. What is on your mind? At this point you’re basically done, but there is something keeping you from walking the rest, from giving up. Something you cannot wait to see, taste, touch, smell… what is it?

-Is it a hot shower?

-Is it a bowl of oatmeal?

-Is it a kiss from your significant other when you walk in the door sweaty and cold?

-Is is a beer?

What ever it is, after a run like this you deserve it. You have less than a mile to go and that thing—that object, that feeling should be on your mind. You better know where it is, or where you can get it the moment you walk through the door.

I tell myself that I’m only allowed one run like this per-training. Today was most definitely that run. But an hour and forty minutes later it was over, I finished. For me, that thing that I crave most, that one thing that was literally on my mind for the entire 9.5 miles I ran this morning, (9.5, not 8 like I had planned, I got lost, yeah, it’s been one of those days,) was a cup of hot coffee.

My saviour

I didn’t even make it home before I went to the coffee shop to get my recovery coffee. So cold, so wet, so tired—that coffee did exactly what I needed it to do. I think that every runner needs something that when a run can’t give them that feeling (you know what feeling I’m talking about,) they can still finish the miles and then create the feeling themselves!

What is your thing?

12th February 2010

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Things that I learned this weekend.

Friday
1) In 9 degree weather your running buddy’s camelbak tube can freeze solid in less than 10 minutes.
2) It doesn’t matter that the water is sloshing around, your bottles on your water belt will also freeze; this takes about an hour.
3) If your running buddy decides they want to be like Scott Jurek and take real food, bring along extra gu for when their hummus tortillas freeze solid.
4) When in doubt, wear trail shoes instead.
5) I’m glad that I read the Hardy Boys Survival Guide when I was 12, but I don’t really want to have to employ that knowledge in order to survive my long run.

Saturday
1) Windboxers are the best. HOWEVER, when it’s just naturally -3 without a windchill, they just don’t cut it.
2) You know what happens to eyelashes in a Dentyne Chill commercial? Based on actual events.
3) There are at least 300 insane people in the Kalamazoo area, evinced by the fact that we were out running in subzero temps. Especially since the temps were in the 20s later that day.

1st February 2010

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Now I remember…

I have been a gym rat lately. I’ll admit, mid-winter tends to get me down and makes it hard to pull on my running tights, wool top and socks, hat, gloves, a jacket or a vest and some reflective gear… it takes a lot more planning to run in the winter than in the warmer months of shorts and a tank. I had my first ‘real good run’ in months, yesterday.

Recently having moved to Grand Rapids I’m just now starting to get to know my neighborhood and the surrounding streets that are safe to run on. I know them on the four wheels of my Subaru, not my two feet. Until yesterday I’d been nervous and unmotivated to get out there for more than 2-3 miles. The warm gym has provided me with the sweat sessions I’ve craved, but I’ve found my favorite way to really get to know a city is on foot, breathing hard with an accelerated heart rate—not starring at a TV with dance jams beating over the speakers.

I was told I could get a good 5-miler in if I head East on Wealthy towards Reed’s Lake. So that’s where I went. Along the way I discovered my local fresh Sub Shop, an ice cream shop next door, some coffee shops I’m waiting to try out, some consignment stores and an almost ice-free sidewalk and bike lane. It was refreshing to breath the cool air and to see so many other runners out and about taking advantage of the strangely warm January afternoon. It seems like everyone and their brother is beginning to kick off for some sort of training for the Spring. It’s inspiring to hear who is training for what for the first time or the tenth time. I personally am amping my mileage up to complete the River Bank 25K in May. I ran it last year and had a love/hate relationship with the winter training.

So, even when the Michigan sky is dreary, school is piling on the work and everything else seems to be harder than it should be, I know that I can hit the road and in about 10 minutes I’ll be feeling better and will return ready to tackle what I have coming at me. That is a feeling the gym can’t give me.

Happy running!

25th January 2010

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Another Day, Another Blizzard, Another Winter Running Post

It’s still winter, and we are still left with the almost constant dilemma of deciding whether to enjoy those chestnuts and that open fire, or to go slug it out with the consequences of our most recent winter storm. The former sounds much nicer to our cookie conditioned keesters, and frosting fattened feet; the latter we actually prefer, but the desire is buried somewhere amidst the gallon of egg-nog and three pounds of chex mix we consumed in the past fifty-seven seconds. Plus there’s always that nagging doubt in the back of our heads – sure I’ve got my reflective gear, but I’m not a big fan of running through snow that has roughly the consistency of quicksand, what to do?

Fear not fellow runners, you can have traction! That big intro paragraph was really just to hook you into reading this pros/cons list I decided you might find helpful. Our subject: Traction – built in, or external? Our competitors: In the built in category – Trail Shoes, in the external category – traction aids such as hobnails, stabilicers, or yaktrax, (yaktrax are available at Gazelle, the other two… maybe).

First of all, let me say that this list is largely compiled from “interview” and sales “research,” as I do not actually OWN any of the external competitor options. So, take this all with one of the many grains of salt out on the roads right now.

Trail Shoes – Pros

No need to put something else on.
No awkward feeling on pavement

Trail Shoes – Cons

Nothing that will actually “bite” into ice.

Externals – Pros

Metal! This will both give you some extra traction in snow (particularly in the way the yaktrax are structured) or ice (particularly in the extra spikey design offered by hobnails or stabilicers).
Easy enough to get on and off (with the exception of hobnails).

Externals – Cons

They feel goofy on pavement, and too much pavement usage can wear them out faster than UPS can ship a fruitcake to your aunt Erma in Timbuktu.

That’s my list. If I was into the whole brevity thing, which I obviously am not, I might have summed the whole argument up in this way: I like trail shoes, some people like external traction aids. Trail shoes rule the snow and slush, but you can’t match the metal of an external option for biting into those insidious patches of black ice. Basically go with the option you’re most comfortable in.

To paraphrase my number one tongue-in-cheek rule for skiing: run fast, don’t fall.

7th January 2010

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