Rushing Runs

My last couple of runs have been fine. Did 15 minutes straight yesterday in the KSO's, and felt good today. Calves were a bit tight, but this is probably due to not stretching afterward. Warmed up on the eliptical and did all my PT exercises today, though, to get the kinks out.

As I was hurrying to pick up Speedy for a doctor's appointment (and *not* stretching), I wondered: Do runners always cheat ourselves on workout time because the sport seems to attract driven over-achievers? You know, people who schedule 25 hours into each 24-hour day, expecting to run (literally or figuratively) through some of those tasks and make it all fit. Jesse had the same experience on Sunday, when he squeezed in his long training run between driving to the farm, picking up veggies, and taking care of Speedy while I went to back-to-back meetings at the Havurah. I think we both regularly catch ourselves wanting to run faster than our training plan requires, simply because of the other pressures outside of this one bit of "me" time in our days.

Getting Back to It

After taking a lot of 2009 off due to a variety of injuries, I'm gradually getting back to running, thanks in no small part to Greg & Andy at McGovern Physical Therapy. (Thanks, guys!)

My new training partners: a pair of Vibram Five Fingers KSO's.

I figured that since I am basically reteaching my body to run, I may as well ease myself into minimalist running. I won't rehash the arguments for barefoot (or "minimalist" if you life in an urban neighborhood as littered with glass and debris as mine) running. But since you have to start slowly when acclimating your feet to the VFF's, what better time than when you're already restricted to 5-10 minutes of running at a time!

Apparently, there's little consensus as to which approach works best, so I'm going with Dr. George Sheehan's "We're all an experiment of one." I know other folks are interested in this experiment, too, so I'll try to documnet along the way. (Aside: when I bought the VFF's at Great Outdoor Provision Co. in Charlotte, they mentioned that they've sole 3,000 pairs of the lizard-toes/gorilla feet this season, which is a lot for a quirky shoe!)

I did a 10 minute run in the middle of a 2.5 mile expedition today. I'll report later on how my calves feel. The shoes were totally comfortable at 32 degrees, and not freezing when I had to step through ice or snow. No one tried to engage me in conversation, which was a first -- the first time I wore the VFF's, a woman with glitter on her face came over and told me how everyone was wearing them when she went to Burning Man. No surprises there.

Endurance 50

I'm starting to feel like life is maybe under control -- the dishes are clean, I'm able to read a few pages a night, Speedy sleeps for longer than 2 hours at a time and feeds himself solid food... Soon the ground will freeze, plants will die, and my work will slow down for a couple months. Maybe I'll be able to post more now.

The Swadfather is running some portion of the Boston Marathon course with Dean Karnazes tomorrow as part of his Endurance 50 series. Speedy & I will be setting up shop on the back of the Black Sheep (my truck, so called because it's the only one in the fleet that's not white) to hand out fruit slices & water along the route. I'm excited, but I don't know whether to hope that the Swadfather finishes or sags, as he hasn't been training. I think both of us take endurance events with a grain of salt now that we're working parents. I mean, Dean's totally inspiring and crazy, but he also has a high-power job, endorsements, and a nanny for his kids.
Last weekend, Swad & I both ran totally unprepared, and did OK. Saturday, we ran the Somerville Homeless Coalition 5K -- Swad with a time of 27 min unladen, and me in 32:29 with a sleeping Speedy in BOB. While 10:27 miles are no PR, it was substantially faster and easier than the 13-minute miles I did last year. Of course, I was 8 months pregnant at the time, and my lungs were squished somewhere up around my ears... It was cool to come full-circle and run the same race with Speedy outside instead of inside. And I passed the same lady I passed last year, only this time I had the baby-jogger, and she was unladen!

Monday, I did the 30th annual Tufts 10K, an all women's race which I've done almost every year since I've lived in the Boston area. Finished in 1:03:27, which felt pretty good, given that my goal had just been to run the whole thing.

Running an all-women's race can be really powerful. About 8,000 women run, and many are first-timers, so the start can be a bit chaotic. You have to seed yourself optimistically, because a lot of the folks are up with 7-minute milers and plan to walk and talk the whole way. I wasted a lot of energy 2 years ago trying to break through the pack for the first mile. Anyway, when we were lined up and waiting around, the announcer was calling for various groups of women to raise their hands: sisters, aunts, mothers, etc. Lately when I've been close to hitting the wall on a run, I think about labor and delivery, and how much pain and effort my body can handle. So, when I my calves started cramping and planter fasciae were screaming in mile 4, I looked around me, remembered that approximately 1/3 of the crowd had raised their hands as mothers, and got all teary at the raw power that was surrounding me. I was on adrenaline for the last mile, and sprinted in to "Meet Virginia" on the iPod as we rounded the Common.

Top 10 List

My visiting mom sometimes gently teases me about being a stressed-out super-mom. She's right, at least about the stressed out & mom parts. Anyhow, by way of atonement for my 4-month disappeance from the blogosphere, I offer my top 10 "You know you're doing too much when..." list.

10. "I really want coffee, but it will just keep Speedy up, which kinda defeats the purpose..."

9. My sling allows me to take multi-tasking to a whole new level: I can feed Speedy, feed myself, pee, and send a text message all at the same time!

8.I'm afraid someone is going to call the police some day because, 'A woman with a shaved head, carring a suspicious black bag just got into an unmarked black truck...Oh my G-d, now she's plugging into the truck and attaching wires to her chest!'

7. While Bob, my mechanic, was changing the oil in my truck, I fired up the laptop so that I could show him baby pictures.

6. At a time-management seminar, my boss asked why I took off so quicky at the break. "Because, we have 20 minutes, which is exactly how long I need to pump." (I also returned voicemails, had a snack, and scandalized a few folks in the women's lounge...)

5. Our office manager can accurately guess what Speedy will be having for lunch based on the color of his shirt. Green shirt? Peas! Saves on clean-up.

4. One of Speedy's first uses of the sign for "light" was to crawl over to a colleague's computer during an early-morning trip to the office and inform me that he was checking out the green "light" on the back.

3. "Running home from work wasn't so bad. The baby jogger & kid were ok -- I'll skip the 24 oz of breastmilk and day's worth of wet cloth diapers next time, though."

2. I routinely have to get a co-worker to hold Speedy while I move the plants out of his carseat wher I have buckled them in.

1. "Wow, if I buy batteries for my pump, I can express milk while walking!" (Note: I have never pumped while driving, nor am I planning to.)

B.O.B.

I haven't posted since going back to work full-time. No big surprise -- it's the time of year when all landscapers' spouses threaten divorce, because we're only home to sleep and maybe eat. (Only if we're nursing, it's to eat, and maybe sleep. And sweetie, could you bring me a big glass of water, please?)

I still have plantar fasciitis. And, like a dummy, I'm still running. Not too much mileage, but at minimum a few miles every weekend.

But all of that is about to change, as we have welcomed the newest member of our running blog-family, B.O.B. No, not my dad. Our beautiful yellow hi-tech running stroller.

My initial reaction after taking it for a spin to Alewife & the turtle pond on Sunday: it really is as light as they say. Corners like a semi, but that's not a big deal for distance running. My shoulders didn't hurt the next day, even though the handlebar is a little high. And the shocks are great -- Speedy's head didn't bang around at all. He played with Ducky (caribeenered to BOB) and took a nap on the way home.

Freedom!!!

Running as Anti-depressant

BTW, Runner's World this month has an article on an ultra-marathoner mom who has struggled with depression, and the dynamics of depression among runners.

Just 10 minutes of pedaling at a moderate pace on a stationary bike is enough to boost mood... But runners get an even bigger payoff: sustained, high intensity exercise, specifically running, appears to have extra benefits, especially where stress and anxiety are concerned. A team of researchers at the Universtiy of Missouri-Columbia measured anxiety levels of female runners, ages 18-20 and 35-45, beofr and after 33 minutes of moderate or high-intensity exercise. The women who ran at 80% of maximum arerobic capacity (a slightly faster pace than would allow you to carry on a conversation with your running partner) were found to have experienced tha sharpest decline in anxiety. What's more, the anxiety relief continued at least 90
minutes after they had stopped exercising.

"The Long Road Back", Christopher MacDougall, Runner's World, March 2006, p.72

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

Just a quick post tonight -- must get food and sleep. I ran 3.2+ miles on a rolling street course tonight. Ran the entire way, at a 10:23 pace, and felt like I had a couple more miles in me when I got back to the house. Soooo good! It helps that we're having a warm snap -- it was 53 degrees when I went out, and much of last week's blizzard had melted.

One other quick note: I had a change of fortune at new moms' group today. Here I've been worried about how I measure up to these women, and today I learned that they think I can do it all. Not only are we already having dinner guests, working, and working out, but I have a partner who does most of the cooking! No, it's not a contest, but it does feel good to know that the grass is always greener.

Perceived Exertion & Pregnancy

Ran on the treadmill tonight -- later than usual because Speedy again refused the bottle from his abba, and I had to do the final tank-up before leaving. The Swadfather thinks it's just a timing issue -- getting to him before he's really hungry. I hope so.

I did 2.5 miles in 30:55 (that's 12:22 min/mi) today. When I was running during pregnancy, I told myself, "This is just like those martial arts movies where the guy trains with weights attached to him so that when the big fight comes, it is effortless." I reasoned that I was lugging around an extra 30 lbs., distributed quite unevenly (that's not counting the weight I had to gain by backing off my training in order to get pregnant), plus the constant stuffy nose, shortness of breath, and having to stop to pee every 2 miles or so. Freed of all that, I expected to be running faster after I gave birth!

I didn't factor in third-degree tearing that would require 7 weeks of healing before I felt reasonably certain that all my insides would stay put when I jogged. When all was said and done, I had a 2 month lay-off, starting 3 weeks before delivery, when I just couldn't call what I was doing "jogging" any more. (I did, however, speed-walk around the labor and delivery floor -- trailed by my partner, my doula, and the Captain -- when my contractions stalled.) You can't emerge as a faster runner after that sort of down-time.

What would have helped, though (other than keeping up with the perineal massage...too weird...), is knowing more about what I could safely do early in my pregnancy. Because I couldn't get any straight answers, I did very little. Luckily, when I finally got to see my midwife, she said, "If you're used to running 20 miles a week and slinging 40 lb. bags of compost, don't stop unless you want to." Even though I immediately went back to running, weight training, and doing normal activity at work, I had lost some ground already, and picked up at about 75% of my original speed, distance, and weight. Later in the pregnancy, backing off to that level was appropriate, and I continued to modify as my body asked me to, but early on it was safe to do more.

If you find yourself in a similar situation and find "listen to your body" too vague, try using the Borg Perceived Exertion Scale. You know what "moderately hard" exercise felt like prior to pregnancy (or injury, illness, etc.) -- aim to exercise at or below that intensity, knowing that your pace, distance, weight, and body mechanics will all have to shift over time. This allows people at all levels of fitness to exercise safely, without recommending heart-rate and weight limitations designed for sedentary folks to those of us who have very physical hobbies or jobs.

Incidentally, for women in trades that involve heavy lifting or strenuous work: I stayed 100% in the field until the start of the 3rd trimester, and didn't go indoors completely until the final month of my pregnancy. I got better at asking for help (to the relief of my Latin American, male co-workers), but I kept carrying plants, shoveling mulch, and squatting to weed and plant. As far as I can tell, the bigger dangers on the job are dehydration, overheating, hearing damage after the 24th week, and exposure to diseases and hazardous substances. (I'll lay out those pieces in a future post.)

Training Updates

Everyone in our house has been derailed by a nasty cold this week. I have the least to complain about, but The Swadfather was hit pretty hard.

Maybe I haven't mentioned: The Swadfather is running the Boston Marathon again this year with the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge team. (DFMC benefits the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. Please consider making a donation in the name of someone you knwo who has been touched by cancer.) We discussed the marathon while I was pregnant, and I signed on, knowing he would be training while Speedy was a newborn. I figure, heck, at least one of us is really running! But what a lot of pressure to be training for a marathon when one's partner is living vicariously through you. There are days where I can't listen to TSF's planned route, current training diet, or aches and pains, because I want to be back out there so badly.

As it is, I should be able to run a full 3 miles by mid-February. I ran for 22:40 straight on Monday at a 12 min/mile pace, and I expect to be able to do a full 30 min. this week. Had a lousy run on Thursday, but was probably paying for the cold and another day of schlepping Speedy to NE Grows (in the driving rain, nursing merrily all the way, as he seems to be preparing for his 3 mo. growth spurt.)

Pregnant Runner Haiku

It ain't Runner's World's shoe haiku, but...

1

Thirteen minute miles

feel not so slow to us now.

Week thirty-seven.

2

Strong breath, heart, legs speed

my round belly's passenger

to the finish line.

3

This race has no shirt,

no bag, no schwag, yet we push

for our squalling prize.

4

No sag vehicle

but my breath and your strong arms.

No choice but first place.

- CEV, October 2005

An Intrusion of Realism

Grammy is gone, and it's back to solo mommyhood, with the added bonus of Jesse being sick. On the plus side, I spoke with my boss on Friday, and it looks like I'll be able to work from home a good bit this season, which lessens the "I'm only working so I can afford childcare" dilemma. Speedy is accompanying me to the largest landscaping trade show in the US this week, so we'll get to see how being a "working mother" in the most simultaneous sense plays out...

Today's run started out discouraging, but improved once I realized that "shorts weather" for running is a bit too cool for run-walk training. My legs weren't cramping because I was weak, but because I should have been wearing tights to keep the muscles warm during walks. So, I ended up shorting the walk breaks to a minute or less, and got home sooner than expected.

Maybe there's a good lesson there about new parenthood: when things don't work quite as expected, it's not (necessarily) because one sucks as a parent, but because the pace and climate are slighty different with a baby, a mommy-body, etc.

E.g.: I breezed into a noon meeting last week with hands full, coffee sloshing, having just devoured a muffin for "lunch" after running errands all morning. Par for the course for me, and previously not a problem, except now the meeting was of a new moms' group, and I'm trying to compose myself without waking Speedy as I remove him from the Baby Björn. (Other moms and babies look on, as if I just missed the complimentary Valium ingested by everyone else at the start of the meeting.)

Eh. Más se perdió en la guerra.

The iPod

Jesse runs with music; I don't. Usually. Except that since having Speedy, I have not been able to leave the house without obsessing about him. My runs are the one time I would like to hold sacred, breathing the fresh air bus exhaust uninterrupted by throughts of the quantity and quality of the day's poops. So, today I took the iPod, which Jesse has loaded with fast & slow run mixes.

All I can say about the quality of the mixes is that I ended up cutting my walk breaks short when each new song came on, because the tempo was so perfect. Any GenX-er could have played name that tune as I, pounding silently along in my headphones, suddenly shouted "Leo-nard-Bern-stein!" or whistled the pennywhistle section of "Send Me on My Way." I suggest checking out Jesse's "What's on my iPod" sidebar. You, too, may find yourself sheepishly bounding along to Cristina Aguilera's "Fighter."

Post-partum Training Plan

Opted to nap instead of going to yoga last night. But I did set up a training log on Cool Running, including the past few weeks of post-partum training history.

When I was pregnant, I searched in vain for pregnancy & post-partum training plans. I am here to tell you that (1) it can be done, and (2) you don't have to keep your heart-rate below 140! Chris Lundgren's Runner's World Guide to Running & Pregnancy was a great resource, but I had lost it in the pile of baby stuff when the time came to return to running, so I kinda felt my way through the first weeks back on the road.

My first day out, I planned to walk 5 minutes and run 1 -- a gentle reversal of Jeff Galloway's intervals for marathon distance-building. When I got out there, I realized I could run 3 min. at a time, with 3 min. recovery, so that's what I did.

My goal is to continue my current flat 3 mile route, increasing my run intervals up to 5 min. and my walks down to 1 min., then start building distance and adding hills back in. My trainer/friend Lisa has also designed a strenght work-out to counter the upper-body strain of breastfeeding and baby-hefting, and to rebuild the shoulder and abdominal muscles that I couldn't work out much during pregnancy.

Dish Karma, etc.

Skipped my run yesterday after schlepping around for a friend down with a hip injury. Based on Gmap Pedometer, I did about 4 miles in the snow, with Speedy in the Baby Bjorn. The friends in question have amassed major good karma since Speedy's conception, checking in with both my partner & I, inviting us to lots of last-minute meals, and even doing our dishes. Doing each other's dishes and errand-running is very win-win: whoever is doing the chore feels altruistic, and whoever is on the receiving end gets something done that otherwise would have required additional sleep deprivation to accomplish.

Just got back from a walk (a.k.a. lull the baby to sleep), which produced these random thoughts:

1) While trying to maintain perpetual motion with the stroller and cursing cross-traffic even more than I do on a run, I realized whoever conceptualized the movie Speed must have had a wakeful infant.

2) This blog should be subtitled "The Boob Blog," since I only sit down at the computer when Speedy's nursing. I read somewhere about the importance of "mothering at the breast"... For Speedster, that looks something like "Click, Clack, Moo!"

Grins on the Run

Friday, I did something almost unheard-of in the greater Boston running community: I smiled at another runner.

I've spent 6 years bopping along the banks of the Charles with all the students, with no hint of collegiality. Even running pregnant, I only had one (1) warm encounter with other runners: a group of masters' runners on an early morning run in Davis Square smiled encouragingly as my 7-months pregnant and training for a 5K self bounced by. (Though I did get occasional encouragement from hard-core cyclists and homeless men.)

Normally, we do not make eye contact, but treat every "easy" day as a race. As I progressed through pregnancy, I mentally "raced" to pass first lanky Harvard boys, then women my own age and size, then 40-something moms pushing double running strollers, before finally giving up and racing the clock, just aiming to run a negative split (even if I was doing 12-minute miles).

But Friday, I found myself jogging towards another runner -- she was even young, pretty, and out-pacing me -- and smiling. Maybe it was a vicarious thrill at seeing a woman who felt at home in her body, who had free time to run, who was kicking it the way I did a year ago. Or maybe it was my new-found maternal instinct, which seems to apply to anyone under the age of 20, proud to see this young woman genuinely enjoying and excelling at running, rather than miserably punishing her body to justify another cookie. But in any case, I smiled at her. And damned if she didn't smile back at the weary-eyed woman beeping her watch to walk.

In any case, it was enough to inspire me to finally put up the blog I'd been contemplating. As hard as face-to-face companionship is to find among Beantown runners, I know I'm not alone in this sense that running is my home turf.