The Neurosis of Running

Running using the podrunner program of 150 bpm made me realize I preferred to switch back to the interval training once again. Somehow, the variety adds more spice to my running. Though I am somewhat of the obsessive-compulsive type, wanting predictability in my run therefore preferring to run in the same route over and over again, another part of me also gets easily bored with routine. That is the kind of neurosis that running has unearthed from me. A lot more is emerging.

Halfway through my one-hour slow run this morning, I began to feel the pain behind my ankles again. My new shoes still needs a lot of breaking in. I got blisters on the same spot just two days before. The other time, I failed to lace one hole at the topmost part and this caused the rubbing of the shoe on my skin. Now, I think I really need to buy the ankle protector until this part of the shoe gets softer.

I struggled with the stinging sensation on my feet and the desire to run. I endured it to the end. I recalled how author-runners relate their own experience of masochistic tendencies which they claim is common to all runners. I guess that's the kind of neurosis that a lot could identify with. Though I sighed a lot of times and missed my old Nike free shoes, I vowed I will not stop running with these new shoes until these bend and mold to the condition that I desire. This tug of war of some sort has become fairly common to me. I had this tug-of-war before with myself, pushing my body to do what it does not want to do. I just do not know if my shoe is as obedient as my body. One hour and 8 km after, I limped my way back to my car. My double band-aid, already half-stripped as well as the skin it used to protect, exposing the nasty fresh wound. No skirts and exposure of ankles for now, I suppose. Even my vanity is suppressed with this exercise. Tomorrow I will try running with a much adherent band-aid. My husband warned me that the skin may darken and thicken from the constant trauma. Should that deter me from running tomorrow? Let's see which part of me will win the battle.

Building Up for Endurance

For me, the holiday is over. I need to get back in shape, not that I have totally lost it. Just a 3-pound gain which I can easily lose. The holidays gave me a lot of excuses to miss running three times a week. But today, I have decided to break in my new shoes... a Christmas gift from my husband. Yeey!

I looked at the sky and smiled. It was casted with thick clouds. Getting back to the stadium gave me a sense of coming home. There were the usual morning runners occupying the tracks. The air was cool and the occasional blowing of the wind brought a refreshing touch to my face. Wearing my new Nike plus zoom with the nike i-pod+ sensor neatly tucked in my left shoe, I began to run and pray.

I have just finished Haruku Murakami's book and a new resolution has evolved. Running has brought me a clearer perspective of my life and where God is leading me and my family. When you run in circles in a track filled with strangers with only your i-pod as your companion and you do that for an hour, you are left with nothing but your thoughts. Most of the time, these thoughts would also desert you, bored with what you are doing and you are left with nothing in your mind. The blankness and the silence is just the perfect environment that awakens the spirit within. Then you hear the Voice that whispers so softly. Then you realize why there are some runners who prefer to do long-distance running.

After an hour of running slowly on the track, I pushed 'work out completed' in my i-pod and shifted to walking. Covering a distance of 7.96km, I have awakened my slackened body to embrace the 2009 training I have set out for it to do. For week 1 of January, I need to cover 26-km broken down as follows, at least 6-km done 3x a week for Build Up and one LSD of 9k for endurance. My ultimate weekly distance target for base training is 33-km per week which I hope to achieve sometime in April.

The basis is the recommended training program for a beginner who wish to run a half-marathon and this is to run a total distance of 20-30 miles per week (32.2 - 48.3 km/ week), with a frequency of 3-4x a week for base training. From my previous weekly distance of 15-20km/week, I am building up my mileage to that of the target. This build up should be done gradually, following the rule of not greater than 2 miles/ week (3.2 km per week) or 10% of current distance whichever is greater. Every forth week, I also incorporated an Easy Week which is equivalent to 75% of the current distance being ran.

This slow build up is done in order to teach my bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons to strengthen and adapt to the distance. This build up is a sense of programming so that normal adaptation occurs and the body does not succumb to injury. Training requires a lot of patience, consistency and discipline. There is no shortcut to my half-marathon. Cramming will not work.

I ended my morning work-out with a prayer: Lord, help me to carry my crosses daily but let it be the cross that you give me and not crosses I make for myself, for Your yoke is easy and Your burden light. May I go about my business doing things Your way because Your ways are not my ways. Your ways are better than mine.

Then I hear His voice ever so faint:

"I have plans for you... plans to prosper and bless you and not harm you. Because I have come so that you may have life and have it abundantly."

My spirit expanded. A new year is ahead of me, filled with hope and so much promise. I went home to a new book waiting for its pages to be devoured... Running and Philosophy - a marathon for the mind, edited by Michael W. Austin. This is a promising companion for my build up to base training. As I discipline my body, so will I discipline my mind and soul and feed it with healthy stuff as well.

Read, Run and Write

Twenty days have gone by and this is the only time that I once more got to sit and write. The holiday rush has taken its toll. My running activity has diminished to once or twice weekly but I have increased my distance to at least 10k per run. This is not to compensate for the decrease in frequency. I just realized I liked running long slow distances more than short and fast ones.

Yesterday, I once more stepped inside Fully Booked in Serendra and inhaled that delightful scent of fresh, new books that I just love as soon as my 8-year old daughter and I entered the glass door. I was holding her small hand and instructed her to take deep breaths with me. We shared a love for books and the smell was just pure bliss. I left her at the kids' section on the second floor with my 3-year-old kid and their nannies and I went to the third floor, scanning the book shelves along the way.

Just as I turned the corner, I caught sight of this hard-bound book titled "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami. I took it out of the bookshelf and sat on the nearby single-seater black leather sofa. As I read the first few pages, I started to get excited. I suddenly felt the urge to write. Suddenly the vision of the Moleskine flashed in my mind. I hurried to the ground floor, took one Moleskine out of the rack, looked at the price, gave out a big sigh and went straight to the cashier before I get cold feet. I have tried to write in various cheap, small notebooks before but somehow never found inspiration in them. Whether it's pure marketing or some sort of spell casted by Hemingway and other great artists to this so-called legendary notebook, the moment I sat down on the sofa again, I began to write instantaneously. Before long, I have completed what looked to be a query letter for the book that I have completed the past 3 months that I have been running.

The reason why I am so hooked into running is because of my Eureka... the discovery that all these years I've always wanted to write a book. And ever since I have done that, I felt a sense of peace and contentment like no other. It's as though I have found my place in this world. I can read, run and write the whole day, the whole week or the whole year for all I care. Everything else that truly mattered in my life became more meaningful and more significant and the things that were superfluous and superficial just lost their colors because I have found what I truly love to do. Such is the sweet discovery that I made because I took the time to run.... not to lose weight, not to stay fit., nor to compete but simply to spend more time with myself and in the process discovered more of me and my Maker.

Long, Slow Distance Runs to Prayer

Now that I am comfortable running 10 kilometers, I have decided to start with my base training. My plan is to enter a half-marathon next year, perhaps on my first year anniversary into running sometime in September-October 2009. To prepare for this, the recommended training for a beginner like me is to do base training for at least 8-12 weeks, strength training for 4-8 weeks, speed training for 4-8 weeks, and peaking/tapering for 2-14 days. But I need to adjust my training depending on when the 21k event will be. For now, I will use the 2nd International Subic Marathon on October 24, 2009 as basis of my training program because there is a 21k event listed there. I will not aim for the marathon yet because experts would advise that in order to train for a marathon, you should have been running for at least a year already, which is definitely not the case for me.

For the base training this afternoon, I started with the LSD (Long, Slow Distance). This means running at a relaxed, conversational pace lasting for at least an hour to an hour and a half. The heart rate is approximately 70-78% of your maximum heart rate. How to compute for your maximum heart rate? There are many ways:

Running for Fitness gives a formula to predict for this: For men - MHR = 214 - (0.8 x age) while for women - MHR = 209 - (0.9 x age).

If you want a more accurate way of determining your own maximum heart rate, you can do it on the track or on the treadmill. You must do your warm up first and then run at an even pace, as fast as you can. Do this for three minutes then recover by jogging for two minutes and then do the fast paced three-minute run again. Your maximum heart rate is the one taken during the second three-minute run. But please don't do this latter exercise without medical clearance especially if you are overweight or have problems with high blood pressure or hypercholesterolemia.

Anyway, it was much of an effort for me not to look at my stopwatch and note my distance because this only tempts me to increase my speed. So, I decided to enjoy the music and the cool evening air. Eventually I began to relax and to meditate. Yes, I have discovered that running is actually a form of prayer for me. While your body is busy doing the motion of running, your mind and your spirit can lift itself to heaven. I always found my running time so conducive to prayer except when I am conscious about my speed especially when am preparing for an upcoming race. But now that the race I am preparing for is still months ahead of me and I am forced to do long, slow distance (LSD) runs I am able to relax and switch to prayer mode. Running does not only refresh my body, it also refreshes my soul. LSD is the one that makes a runner addicted to running. Perhaps that is the reason behind the acronym.

Running Jargons

I guess until you've really ran your first marathon you will not be able to appreciate these jargons that I will be mentioning. But it is worth reading anyhow just in case, one of these days one of your running buddies would mention it and you would not want to be left totally in the dark. These running jargons are taken from the Complete Running Manual:

1) Bail - simply put, you dropped out of the race for a variety of reasons. You bail with composure when the reason is due to injury, illness or an emergency. You bail with embarassment when it is due to oversleeping or undertraining. You bail silently when you have diarrhea in the middle of the race.

2) Bomb - use the term when you feel you are underperforming or your personal expectations are not being met.

3) Bonk - imagine a huge rock hitting your head and creating that sound "bonk". Yup, that may just be the most appropriate term when you suddenly get depleted of energy. Most likely this is caused by hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. You should have brought a banana with you if your budget is too tight for an energy bar. Lately, I've been trying to save on grocery to accomodate extra Christmas expenditures, I had to sacrifice buying my energy drinks. To prevent bonking, I make sure I have something sweet and salty to eat after I drink my plain water. They all get mixed in the stomach anyway.

4) Bus - is when you run as a group. It can offer real support and camaraderie among yourselves but can also be a cause of irritation for other runners who want to overtake your group if you are running at a leisurely pace. Hmmn, reminds me of buses along EDSA. Totally irritating when they overtake you and then suddenly swerve and block you to unload a passenger.

5) In the zone - when you are at your best performance and everything is just as how you predicted your run to be. This is opium for the runner.

6) PB - never forget this jargon... your "personal best" because even if you finished last in the race, if you finished earlier than your previous race, it is still a cause for celebration. At least this time, you were not picked up by the sweeper anymore. (That's the special vehicle assigned to pick up runners who have gone beyond the decent time and are causing undue traffic and annoyance to the other motorists). PW is personal worst. Remove that in your vocabulary. Unless your PW is your enemy's personal best. You can freely brag about it then.

7) Split/negative split. - this pertains to the time you have covered between markers in a race. When you run faster after the designated marker, then you have a negative split.

8) Ultra - not the stadium in Pasig. In the runner's lingo, this means longer than the usual marathon distance (42 km or 26 miles). If it is 80 km or 100 km, then it is an ultramarathon. It's funny that for non-runners, a marathon is being used interchangeably with the word "race" even if it was just a 100-meter sprint. When I was new to running, I thought that too. Then when I started reading about running, I soon realized how terribly ignorant I have been. So now, whenever my friends would say that I just completed a marathon when in fact, I only joined a 5-km or 10-km race, I'd gracefully correct them. But I claim it in my mind at the same time. As much as running is a very physical activity, it is even more a mental activity.

Sports Experts

I am now reading about injuries again but this time from the Complete Running Manual. I like this book because it gives detailed but simplified explanation of basic topics on running.

Did you know that there are actually many sports experts with different specialization? There's the sports physician who is what you may refer to as the "general practitioner in sports". He can refer you to the right specialist after he assesses your problem. The physiotherapists are those who specializes on muscles and bone movements involving joints and spines. They can give therapy using various modalities such as ultrasound, massage, electrotherapy and the like. Locally, they are the physical therapists. No, they are not your regular masseaus at the spa. They've earned a bachelor of science degree in physical therapy and are licensed under the professional regulations commissions. The osteopaths are also trained in the anatomy and physiology of the musculoskeletal system but their focus is on the body's self-healing capacity. So they create a state of balance by touch and pressure. I just do not know if we can categorize our local "manghihilot" under this category. What about the chiropractor? They seem to function like the osteopaths but with more focus on the limb and spine and easing fluidity of movement in these areas. The biokineticists are those who will analyze a runner's move and relate it to how it can potentially cause injury. They can prescribe a training program to correct any muscle imbalances. The posture therapist on the other hand cuts the yellow pages of a telephone directory into wedges and puts it in the shoes of the patient to balance uneven posture. Hmmn, sounds weird to me. The orthopedic surgeon is the specialist who you want to avoid as a runner because he can charge you expensively and his treatment is really invasive. Recovery from his treatment is also long. And to avoid him, you should consult the earlier specialists that I have mentioned if you think you have a minor injury that is not relieved by the usual RICE self-treatment (rest, ice, compression and elevation). Oh, before I forget, there is one more specialist that I have not mentioned. It is the podiatrist. Contrary to what my husband suggested that this is a specialist closely related to the OB-gynecologists because of how the name sounds (my eyes are rolling), the podiatrists focus on the feet and foot-related conditions such as overpronation and supination and other biomechanics which may require the use of orthotics (those special foot accessories that may be inserted in the shoes, but not the yellow classified ads used by the posture therapists). There are many podiatrists in the US but I do not know of anyone in the Philippines. Perhaps I should get a special training for this particular specialty. It's good to diversify into something which you are particularly interested in, i.e. the foot of a runner.... not that other like-sounding part.

Have You Heard of Fartlek?

Does the word 'Fartlek' sound familiar to you or is it totally foreign? I can't blame you if you answered... 'totally foreign' because it is actually a Swedish word. What does it stands for?

If you've heard about intervals for speed then this concept is just related. When you do speed training and you do it in intervals, you follow a more structured course. This means you run as fast as you can at your planned distance, say 200-400 meters then you follow it up with a fixed recovery time, say 1-2km. You do this for a couple of repeats according to your speed training plan.

As for Fartlek, it is a much more flexible and fun way of doing speed training. There is no fixed interval of speed and recovery runs. Instead the speed runs is determined randomly. For instance, if you're running in an oval track, you will decide to run your fast pace whenever you pass by Mr. Grandpa Walker and return to recovery runs when you pass by him again. If you are running in a subdivision, you will decide to run fast whenever you pass by a red gate then proceed to recovery runs when you pass by a brown gate. You create your own rules to determine when to do your speedwork and when to do recovery runs. This adds excitement and variety to your runs. Try it!