So far I've tried two approaches. The first was the, "eh, I'll warm up after a mile" approach. Running capris, short sleeved moisture wick T and a baseball hat. I was sweating after a mile, but I had goosebumps on my arms and legs the whole time.
The second approach was, "Let's pretend we're in Alaska." On top of my one pair of full-length sweatpants and a tank, I layered two sweatshirts (one was mine, one was my husband's and very heavy) and wore a thick canvas cap. After about ten minutes of running, I kind of felt like I was sprinting in a sauna. But, I highly recommend this outfit if you do live in Alaska.
So what do you wear when the winter weather is "mild" (any location that gets more than two seasons) or "bone-chillingly cold" (South Florida and locations with similar tropical climates)?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
A "running" list of New Year's resolutions
Last year I resolved to lose weight and get in shape. With just a handful of days left in the year, I think it's safe to say Mission: Get Fine in '09 was a success. Thank you, running.
Unfortunately, in the process of losing weight/getting in shape via running, I developed a bunch of bad habits I never had before, so I'm going to have to make 2010 the year I improve upon the following:
1. Develop better form. I've recently discovered I run leaning on my right side, making my gimpy left leg do all the work, making me all the gimpier.
2. Be nicer to pedestrians.
3. Mix up the cross training. Not just spinning but strength training, Pilates and yoga, too. (Just no more step aerobics, OK? I think I've done enough stomping on the bench to never want to do a revolving V-step again.)
4. Stretch more.
5. Talk less about running in social settings to avoid boring friends, family and co-workers to tears--or giving them the impression that I'm some holier-than-though exercise saint who looks down on them for eating Pringles. (This blog will have to become my super-secret outlet for everything running-related, as I attempt to convince the rest of the world that I'm much more interested in, say, antiques, than I am in the latest water bottle contraption.)
6. Run a marathon.
7. Stop defining success by the number of miles run or by race results and instead define it by....hmmm, I'm still searching for the second half of this sentence.
But when I find it, I promise I'll reveal it only in blog form--I won't tell you, if, say, we run into each other at the supermarket or at a party. I'll keep that discovery, and my feelings about Pringles, to myself.
Unfortunately, in the process of losing weight/getting in shape via running, I developed a bunch of bad habits I never had before, so I'm going to have to make 2010 the year I improve upon the following:
1. Develop better form. I've recently discovered I run leaning on my right side, making my gimpy left leg do all the work, making me all the gimpier.
2. Be nicer to pedestrians.
3. Mix up the cross training. Not just spinning but strength training, Pilates and yoga, too. (Just no more step aerobics, OK? I think I've done enough stomping on the bench to never want to do a revolving V-step again.)
4. Stretch more.
5. Talk less about running in social settings to avoid boring friends, family and co-workers to tears--or giving them the impression that I'm some holier-than-though exercise saint who looks down on them for eating Pringles. (This blog will have to become my super-secret outlet for everything running-related, as I attempt to convince the rest of the world that I'm much more interested in, say, antiques, than I am in the latest water bottle contraption.)
6. Run a marathon.
7. Stop defining success by the number of miles run or by race results and instead define it by....hmmm, I'm still searching for the second half of this sentence.
But when I find it, I promise I'll reveal it only in blog form--I won't tell you, if, say, we run into each other at the supermarket or at a party. I'll keep that discovery, and my feelings about Pringles, to myself.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
All I wanted for Christmas...
...was to be able to run more than 4 1/2 miles without my knee painfully "popping" as it has for the past month whenever I ran for more than forty minutes. Thanks, Santa! Today I ran 6.0 with no pain and no popping (just trepidation that slowed me down a bit, but hopefully I'll get past that soon and pick up speed.)
Actually, I don't think Santa deserves the credit--I'd say this post-Christmas miracle was the work of my orthopedist, who told me to spin rather than run until I healed, and my Team in Training coach, who spent a lot of time creating a low-mileage schedule for me to get me through to the half marathon next month without over-stressing my knee. And ME. I'll give myself credit for actually listening to the experts and not being so hot-headed that I ran through pain as I have in the past.
Oh, and in case you think I'm sooo running obsessed that all I truly wanted for the holidays was a good run, I have to disclose that I'm Jewish, and already got plenty of loot a few weeks ago for Hanukkah, including a massage giftcard, last year's fabulous if enormous Garmin Forerunner 305, iTunes, and a plastic "#1 Mom" keychain from my 4 year-old daughter.
I hope everyone had happy holidays.
Actually, I don't think Santa deserves the credit--I'd say this post-Christmas miracle was the work of my orthopedist, who told me to spin rather than run until I healed, and my Team in Training coach, who spent a lot of time creating a low-mileage schedule for me to get me through to the half marathon next month without over-stressing my knee. And ME. I'll give myself credit for actually listening to the experts and not being so hot-headed that I ran through pain as I have in the past.
Oh, and in case you think I'm sooo running obsessed that all I truly wanted for the holidays was a good run, I have to disclose that I'm Jewish, and already got plenty of loot a few weeks ago for Hanukkah, including a massage giftcard, last year's fabulous if enormous Garmin Forerunner 305, iTunes, and a plastic "#1 Mom" keychain from my 4 year-old daughter.
I hope everyone had happy holidays.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
I figured out my problem. I'm lop-sided!
It's a shame I can't run in front of a mirror, because I would have figured this out ages ago.
My trouble has always been with my left lower body (foot, ankle, calf, knee, quad). Every injury I've had, from when I sprained my ankle at age 11 to this recent knee problem, has been on the left. Meanwhile, I've had other aches and pains in the upper half of my body on the right side (ab soreness, shoulder strain, etc.) but never the right.
I joked before that I thought this had to be the handiwork of someone who had created a voo-doo doll of me and was sticking needs only on the left side. But I have discovered a more likely culprit: I overwork my left side when I work out, and then afterwards carry things (my laptop, purse, children, lunch, sometimes all at once) with my right side perhaps because my left side has already had enough.
My trouble has always been with my left lower body (foot, ankle, calf, knee, quad). Every injury I've had, from when I sprained my ankle at age 11 to this recent knee problem, has been on the left. Meanwhile, I've had other aches and pains in the upper half of my body on the right side (ab soreness, shoulder strain, etc.) but never the right.
I joked before that I thought this had to be the handiwork of someone who had created a voo-doo doll of me and was sticking needs only on the left side. But I have discovered a more likely culprit: I overwork my left side when I work out, and then afterwards carry things (my laptop, purse, children, lunch, sometimes all at once) with my right side perhaps because my left side has already had enough.
This epiphany occured to me today during spin class, when the instructor forgot to dim the lights all the way. I had a bike right up front, by the mirror, and I noticed that when I was working the hardest, I was leaning to the right, while pushing much harder with my right leg than my left. I realized then that I kind of run in the same pose: Leaning right, powering harder with the left leg.
You can even see from this finishline photo of me from my 10k--that was 54 minutes of running leaning right, working left.
Perhaps the answer to all of my troubles could be as simple as running with my head on straight?? Dare I hope?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
So this Type A runner goes to the mall 3 days before Christmas...
I'm going to stop prefacing everything unflattering I write about myself with, "I swear, I really am a good person!" because at some point, I just have to admit that there's something less than "good" about a person who collides into old people who dare to walk on her jogging path, tells off incompetent sushi waitresses and--today's confession--weaves aggressively between slowly browsing shoppers, occasionally bumping into them, in an attempt to acheive a shopping mall "PR."
(That personal record would be: One baby gift, one defective jewelry return and one stop at the Adidas outlet in less than an hour, at a mall where the parking lot is so crowded, you have to park at the furniture store across the street. Three days till Christmas. I know the ends don't justify the means, but that is pretty efficient shopping.)
Not that this makes me seem any nicer, but I didn't actually hurt anyone, and I slowed down when I saw parents pushing strollers and of course yielded to people in wheelchairs. (But that self-centered teenage girl who stopped walking in the middle of a throng of shoppers to answer her phone? Yeah, I might have clipped her shoulder a little bit. She'll get over it.)
I think from now on, I'll stick with shopping online, and catalogs.
(That personal record would be: One baby gift, one defective jewelry return and one stop at the Adidas outlet in less than an hour, at a mall where the parking lot is so crowded, you have to park at the furniture store across the street. Three days till Christmas. I know the ends don't justify the means, but that is pretty efficient shopping.)
Not that this makes me seem any nicer, but I didn't actually hurt anyone, and I slowed down when I saw parents pushing strollers and of course yielded to people in wheelchairs. (But that self-centered teenage girl who stopped walking in the middle of a throng of shoppers to answer her phone? Yeah, I might have clipped her shoulder a little bit. She'll get over it.)
I think from now on, I'll stick with shopping online, and catalogs.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
My roller-coaster post-injury run.
Yesterday was the first time I was cleared to run since injuring myself three weeks earlier. I was given the task of running a cautious 4 miles, which I haughtily assumed would be a piece of cake. And not just any piece of cake, but an exquisite one. Chocolate lava torte drizzled in creme anglaise.
I have a tendency to daydream, and I'd somehow convinced myself that as soon as I laced up, I would just fly off the asphalt. All that rest and rebuilding of my quadriceps would make me Super Runner. I'd feel no pain. I'd feel lighter than air. I would discover that all along, I was actually an 8 minute mile kind of runner, and just the weight of discomfort and injuries had been slowing me down.
Here's my reality check. This is what actually happened: I started running and at first, it did not feel amazing. Not painful at all--I just had a sudden flash of sympathy for the people who have told me, "I don't understand how you can run that much! I think it's so boring." It was difficult and a little slow, and I was also very worried about injury that I ran self-consciously, trying to make sure my quads and calves were equal partners in my movement, which made for a really unnatural gait.
Then, after about 2 miles, the love suddenly kicked in. I'm back! I thought to myself, getting a little teary-eyed. Oh running, how I've missed you! At that point, my brand new Garmin displayed that my pace had changed from a 9:55 minute mile to 8:08 (pre-injury, a comfortable pace for me was somewhere in between those times) and I felt great. And indeed, I thought the "Super Runner" fantasy was coming true.
I got in another 1.75 miles of exquisite chocolate lava torte style running and could see the end of the loop on the horizon--when all of the sudden I got a tingling feeling in left kneecap. You know, the bad one. It wasn't pain. It was pre-pain. This led to a tingling feeling in my stomach that was neither pain nor pre-prain but 100% dread. I slowed down and continued to the end of the loop (the Weston Town Center periphery, circled twice, for those of you who know the Weston Team in Training geography).
And limped defeatedly back to my car.
Driving home I decided it wasn't so bad. I felt good during most of my run, and maybe I just needed more spinning and some light quad body work and shorter mid-week runs to keep on rebuilding. I hope that's the case; we'll have to see. Sometimes being a perpetual optimist means it's hard to know what you truly are capable of doing and what you desperately want to do.
Oh, and I'm not limping anymore. The pain lasted for a few hours afterwards. I feel fine, now.
Of course some ice and cashing in the massage gift certificate my husband gave me as a holiday gift definitely helped.
I have a tendency to daydream, and I'd somehow convinced myself that as soon as I laced up, I would just fly off the asphalt. All that rest and rebuilding of my quadriceps would make me Super Runner. I'd feel no pain. I'd feel lighter than air. I would discover that all along, I was actually an 8 minute mile kind of runner, and just the weight of discomfort and injuries had been slowing me down.
Here's my reality check. This is what actually happened: I started running and at first, it did not feel amazing. Not painful at all--I just had a sudden flash of sympathy for the people who have told me, "I don't understand how you can run that much! I think it's so boring." It was difficult and a little slow, and I was also very worried about injury that I ran self-consciously, trying to make sure my quads and calves were equal partners in my movement, which made for a really unnatural gait.
Then, after about 2 miles, the love suddenly kicked in. I'm back! I thought to myself, getting a little teary-eyed. Oh running, how I've missed you! At that point, my brand new Garmin displayed that my pace had changed from a 9:55 minute mile to 8:08 (pre-injury, a comfortable pace for me was somewhere in between those times) and I felt great. And indeed, I thought the "Super Runner" fantasy was coming true.
I got in another 1.75 miles of exquisite chocolate lava torte style running and could see the end of the loop on the horizon--when all of the sudden I got a tingling feeling in left kneecap. You know, the bad one. It wasn't pain. It was pre-pain. This led to a tingling feeling in my stomach that was neither pain nor pre-prain but 100% dread. I slowed down and continued to the end of the loop (the Weston Town Center periphery, circled twice, for those of you who know the Weston Team in Training geography).
And limped defeatedly back to my car.
Driving home I decided it wasn't so bad. I felt good during most of my run, and maybe I just needed more spinning and some light quad body work and shorter mid-week runs to keep on rebuilding. I hope that's the case; we'll have to see. Sometimes being a perpetual optimist means it's hard to know what you truly are capable of doing and what you desperately want to do.
Oh, and I'm not limping anymore. The pain lasted for a few hours afterwards. I feel fine, now.
Of course some ice and cashing in the massage gift certificate my husband gave me as a holiday gift definitely helped.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Playing with the playlist (song suggestions welcome)
My brand-new Garmin is fully charged, my armband and heart monitor chest strap have been laundered and Febreezed, I've correctly matched up all of my L and R Nike Dri-Fit socks to avoid running with two left (or two right) socks on my feet, and if there were a reason to shine my running shoes, they would be shined.
I am prepared.
Let's just say that Saturday, the first day I am cleared to run again since my knee problem on December 2, could not possibly come sooner. Most importantly, I know I've gained strength in my quads from all this crack-of-dawn spinning--which, more than an April-fresh heart monitor chest strap, is what I really need to be road-ready again.
To add some fun and funk to my modest 4 miler on Saturday (I build up 2 miles a week till the half marathon Jan. 31, as per my coach's suggestion), I've been trying to put together a really high energy, kicky playlist about 50 minutes long. I have the most fun when running when I'm listening to tunes I'd enjoy dancing to--which is why I've got more Lady GaGa than Suzanne Vega on this one. But I've got a little jazz and some "grrl power" type tunes, too.
Here's what I've got so far; feel free to steal it if you're a fan of this same kind of spin-studio-inspired programming.
Imma Be Black Eyed Peas
Paper Planes M.I.A.
Do Your Thing Basement Jaxx
Bad Romance Lady GaGa
Tick Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Seven Nation Army The White Stripes
Sinnerman Nina Simone
Only Happy When It Rains Garbage
3 Britney Spears
Still in Hollywood Concrete Blonde
Where Did You Sleep Last Night Nirvana (MTV Unplugged version)
You Spin Me Round and Round Jessica Simpson
Johnny Feelgood Liz Phair
Awful Hole
Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) US3
I'm Too Sexy Right Said Fred
Am I missing any must-run-to tunes? If so, please suggest them in the comment section below or email me at joriemark@gmail.com. Even if I don't get them into Saturday's playlist, I've got a lot of miles ahead of me in the next month and a half, and a fresh new song always makes the run more fun.
I am prepared.
Let's just say that Saturday, the first day I am cleared to run again since my knee problem on December 2, could not possibly come sooner. Most importantly, I know I've gained strength in my quads from all this crack-of-dawn spinning--which, more than an April-fresh heart monitor chest strap, is what I really need to be road-ready again.
To add some fun and funk to my modest 4 miler on Saturday (I build up 2 miles a week till the half marathon Jan. 31, as per my coach's suggestion), I've been trying to put together a really high energy, kicky playlist about 50 minutes long. I have the most fun when running when I'm listening to tunes I'd enjoy dancing to--which is why I've got more Lady GaGa than Suzanne Vega on this one. But I've got a little jazz and some "grrl power" type tunes, too.
Here's what I've got so far; feel free to steal it if you're a fan of this same kind of spin-studio-inspired programming.
Paper Planes M.I.A.
Do Your Thing Basement Jaxx
Bad Romance Lady GaGa
Tick Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Seven Nation Army The White Stripes
Sinnerman Nina Simone
Only Happy When It Rains Garbage
3 Britney Spears
Still in Hollywood Concrete Blonde
Where Did You Sleep Last Night Nirvana (MTV Unplugged version)
You Spin Me Round and Round Jessica Simpson
Johnny Feelgood Liz Phair
Awful Hole
Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) US3
I'm Too Sexy Right Said Fred
Am I missing any must-run-to tunes? If so, please suggest them in the comment section below or email me at joriemark@gmail.com. Even if I don't get them into Saturday's playlist, I've got a lot of miles ahead of me in the next month and a half, and a fresh new song always makes the run more fun.
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