Breakthrough Week

It was another breakthrough week for me this past week. Without taking, or even feeling the need to take, a day off, I ran about 17 miles this week. That is about 2 miles further than I have run in a single week for several months, and at the end of it I feel less tired than I did at the beginning. I am beginning to think that the time I was sick and unable to run did not put me as far back as I originally thought.

At this time, I am attributing this minor breakthrough to a change in tactics. Due mostly to increasingly cold weather, I went out to the local Road Runner Sports store and bought a pair of more normal running shoes. After trying a few different "minimal" pairs, I opted to go with the Brooks Green Silence. Brooks has been my go-to brand for some time. They tend to fit my feet better than most other brands, being relatively long and narrow.

The Green Silence model is a very minimal shoe. It actually does not feel much heavier than my Vibrams. In addition, as the name implies, they are about as eco-friendly as you can get in a running shoe these days. They are made with recycled materials and non-toxic dyes. Even better, they have bright green soles, which I like. I always love to be just a little bit flashy when I run.

The primary reason, I believe, that running in shoes is going better than running in the Vibram Fivefingers ever has is the cushioning effect of the soles. With the surfaces I am usually forced to run on around Westminster, the 5F's leave my feet and the rest of me very exposed to pounding, which forces my calves and other supporting muscles to work much harder in order to protect the rest of my body. The cushioning in the shoes removes much of that requirement: I still run primarily on my forefoot to midfoot, but my calves, and the rest of me, does not have to work as hard.

Does this mean that my experiment with the almost-barefoot running was not a success? Not entirely. I still like the feel of running in the 5F's, but I do not think that I can build up the type of mileage I would like in them. It seems that they have definitely increased my foot, calf, and stabilizing strength, which will always be advantageous. To continue this strengthening process, I still plan to run in the 5F's two or three times a week. I plan to run my "serious" workouts in shoes from now on, and leave the 5F's for the shorter, easier runs.

As a bit of a follow-up to my own experiences with barefoot, or near barefoot, running, I will shortly be participating in a barefoot running study at CU. The goal is to study the metabolic effects of the cushioning and weight factors introduced by wearing shoes. I am very curious about what their results might be.

A Windy Day in RMNP

I am fortunate enough to live within an hour or so of Rocky Mountain National Park. I will readily admit that, though one of my favorite runs ever was a 15-mile monster in the park, I have not taken full advantage of this proximity. Recently, however, my girlfriend and I discovered that heading up to Estes Park, at the RMNP gateway, is a good way to relax on a Sunday afternoon. Last time we did so, we went into the park proper, and I took the opportunity to buy a year-long pass (which happens to be exactly twice the cost of a single day pass). We did not do much of a hike that day, and I actually completely forgot to take pictures.

Two weeks later, though, I got the opportunity to go up again with a friend and take a decent little hike. It had been snowing and windy much of the week, and the weather kept forcing us to postpone our trip. Even when we did finally make it up there, it was windy enough to be somewhat concerning. Nevertheless, we got a hike in, and some beautiful scenery in the bargain.

We didn't even get up to the trailhead until about 3PM, much later than I would usually choose. The advantage of arriving that late was the light.

My friend M, with whom I was hiking, thought the rock formations in this picture looked like giant "Rock Organ." Whatever it looks like, it was quite pretty.

We never got quite up to the lake we wanted to hit, off the Bear Lake trailhead, since it was snowy and icy the whole way up, but we did hit a nice lake on the way up. One of my favorite images of the trail, however, was a giant, striated boulder that seemed almost too big to be believed.



I particularly liked the icicles hanging off it. I realized at this point that there was good reason so many people come up to boulder around this area in the summer. For a size comparison, at 6 feet, I might make it up to the first snow-covered ledge.

The light just got better and better as it got later. I got my best pictures on the way down.

On the final stretch of the trail on the way back down to the car, we had a bit of a shock. During the hike up, I had mentioned how at least once last year I read a news story about a hiker in the park getting killed by a falling tree during a particularly windy day. In addition, there were signs mentioning that, with the beetle killed trees in the park, this was a growing concern. Sure enough, on the way down, we came up on a tree partially fallen across the trail, looked at each other, and M asked "Was that there when we came up?"

It was not.

Push through it.

Yet another interesting article from the New York Times column Personal Best. This particular one is how to Push through the pain.

I have not been racing for some time, but I do intend to get back into it this spring. Hopefully I can learn a thing or two . . .

Summits

I felt a little bit off this summer. My schedule never seemed to settle. I was consistent looking for a new apartment on the weekends, and climbing and working on the weekdays. I had planned to do a wide array of 14ers over the course of the summer, but never got to them.

I did, however, get a few in this September. Quandary, Bierstadt, and Evans fell in quick succession. Quite a shift given that previously I had not done any peaks in September, but it was quite fun. I have found, and I don't know whether this is a normal situation or not, that the weather was much more cooperative in September than in July or August. I didn't encounter any major storms on the three peaks I bagged.

In any case, here are a few pics from the hikes.

Quandary: Looking West from the summit.

And looking east, back where we came from



Beirstadt was my first solo fourteener. I only saw 8 other people on this hike, which is a record low for a 14er. The first pic is me on the summit. I tried to get Grays and Torreys in the background.

The notorious sawtooth between Bierstadt and Evans.



Evans was by far the easiest 14er I've ever done. It helps when you can drive up to 12800 feet. But, we saw six mountain goats on the mountain, all told. That's six more than I've seen before.


The required summit pic.

On the way down, we got a fantastic view of Colorado's fall colors.


There was talk of doing Sherman the weekend after Evans, but those plans never panned out.

Overall, though, I would call September a very successful month for 14ers.

Breakthroughs

I believe that one of the main reasons so many people enjoy running is the potential for breakthroughs. I believe I've written a post on this sometime in the past, but I cannot quite remember, so at the risk of repeating myself, I am writing one now.

In my experience, there are very few sports other than running that contain the possibility for such massive breakthroughs. Normally in my case it has to do more with overcoming some mental hurdle than a physical breakthrough. You are running along one day, out for a mid-distance, easy workout, and rather than turning around, or taking the left fork, you keep going, or take the right one.

Before you know it, you're much farther out from your house than you ever intended. In fact, you're pretty sure that this is turning into the longest run you've done so far this training cycle, or even in your life. And yet, somehow, your body feels fine. Better than fine. Your body starts telling you "I can go like this for as long as you want me to." And best of all, you believe it.

These are by far my favorite runs. And naturally, I had one this morning. Having changed from "real" running shoes over to the fivefingers, I have necessarily reduced my training by quite a bit. Quite simply, my feet and calves were not any where near strong or conditioned enough to train seriously in the minimal coverings yet. This was expected, and I knew to deal with it. And my training was not going particularly well in any case, so I made the leap.

Today, I ran twice as far in my Sprints as I ever have before. I just kept going at what I thought was the end of my favorite trail around here, and it felt fantastic. And then, at the end of my run, I found a detour: there was a construction crew out laying tar on the asphalt outside my apartment building, so I was force to run an extra half mile on top of the run I'd already completed.

It felt fantastic!

This ties in with the theories expounded upon in the latest running book I am reading. The book is called simply "Run," by Matt Fitzgerald. The subtitle calls it "The mind-body method of running by feel," and that says it all. Rather than rigidly following a particular training plan, you listen to what your body is telling you, via your brain, and tailor your workouts accordingly. That's not to say that you don't have a plan, but rather you leave yourself open to adapting it according to what works best for your body.

A particular theme in this book is listening to your feelings of confidence. Use whatever training techniques and workouts that make you the most confident in your ability to race well. There's a reason that certain workouts make you feel more confident, and that is because they are in fact doing the most for your body.

But confidence in itself is important as well. Up until today, I was not feeling very confident in my fivefinger shoes. But I ran both longer and on a much rougher trail today than I have up until this point, and suddenly I feel as though these foot gloves might just work for me, and more than that, might just be fantastic!

That is not to say that I won't be taking tomorrow easy.

Now, on to the important business of the day. I have not had much luck with my computer ever since our cat spilled water all over it one night. At the moment, it seems to be working two out of three days, but I'm worried that ratio might be falling. So I am off now to try it again and see whether I can get it to work today. If not, I may be forced to buy a new one.

The Altar of Consistency

The Altar of Consistency is a phrase used in the book Once a Runner, one of the quintessential running books (recently republished). It's used there in the context of a runner who, whatever the day, whatever the weather, and however he's feeling, runs twice a day.

Recently, I read another, nominally, running book, What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami. This book is more of a memoir of Murakami-san's life since he started running around the age of thirty. He also mentions something along the same lines, saying that you have to let your legs know what is expected of them. In his case, this means running six days a week, regardless of his schedule.

At the moment, I am engaged in a similar activity. Several months ago, in my last post in fact, I reported buying a pair of Fivefingers to see how they might work for me. I am still getting used to them, since this summer has not been the best for my running consistency. I am in the process of fixing that. And while I'm on the topic, the Fivefingers seem to be doing their job. I'm getting much more used to them, which is in fact a part of this post. But I've noticed that, since I can only forefoot strike in them, and never heel strike, I have fewer problems relating to my overpronation when I'm running.

Back to the previous topic, I've started running every day. Absolutely every day, in fact. I did a 14er yesterday (my first solo attempt, pics to come later), running a significant portion of Mt Bierstadt. And today, I got up, admittedly late, and went for a short run.

And my legs responded by saying, after the run, "now what? Bring it on."

So that seems to be working well for me.

As an addition to that consistency training, I put in a second requirement: that I write every day I run. I don't need to write in this blog, but I do need to write something each day I run.

I decided to do this because one of my goals, one of the items on my bucket list for life, is to write a full book. I am not clear on what type I want to write, or what would be the best way to go about it. My mother seems set on the idea that I should write a "popular science" book, or something similar (popular control systems?) since in her opinion I am extremely good at explaining complicated ideas in a simple and understandable manner. I'l admit I always thought about writing a novel (Sci-Fi or Fantasy seems the most likely). But, who knows, with this daily running/writing thing, maybe I'll end up writing some sort of memoir day-by-day.

The reason for this is that, in every book on writing I've ever read (not many), and on every author's web page, the biggest advice they have for budding authors is to write.

Thus, I only write on the days I run which, currently, is every day.

Foot Gloves!

While reading the book "Born to Run," by Christopher MacDougall, I decided to head to my local shoe store to try on a pair of Vibram Fivefingers. For those of you who don't know, they are, as the title of this post suggests, basically gloves for your feet. They have separated toes, with a sole of Vibram rubber. The basic idea is to give you a barefoot feel for the ground while still giving a good grip and mild protection.

Upon first donning these "shoes," I liked the feel. I was tempted to give them a shot. But I wasn't sold just yet.

I went home and proceeded to research barefoot running, using Google Scholar searches and my access to the CU library to see what was out there. I found peer-reviewed journal articles about the increase in running injuries with the advent of more supportive, and restrictive, and cushioning, running shoes (which began with Nike). I read articles about the benefits of minimalist and barefoot running. I read Alan Webb's story about his barefoot training.

In the face of mounting evidence, and my own experience in my reduced injury rate having switched to a forefoot strike, I decided to go back and buy a pair.

I was surprised to find that everywhere I looked was out of most models. I ended up buying three different pairs, and ending up with the Sprint model. And so begins my barefoot experiment.

At the moment, I'm fairly limited in my use of them. I run short distances in them each day, starting with a quarter mile and increasing to the point where I'm now running half a mile in them. So far I have noticed a few different sore muscles, which is only to be expected when changing running form. Other than that, I notice less of a difference than I may have expected.

I do, however, like the feel of them. They give me more of a sense of what my foot is actually doing then my other shoes.

As I said, we shall see how these work.

Hail

A very short post to get back into this:

In case you were wondering, getting hailed on when you are running hurts.

I've been biking in the hail before, and figured that was pretty bad. You are, after all, hunched over, baring your back to the brunt of the hailstones. However, if you have an ounce of sense, you're wearing a helmet, so it is much more difficult for the hail to actually strike you full on the head.

However, when running, I know very few people who wear helmets. This frees up your head for the full brunt of nature's vindictiveness. Even relatively small hailstones feel like a pincushion's worth of needles striking your head point-downwards.

So let me reiterate: getting hailed on when you are running hurts.

A lot