Adjusting to the South

Anyone who has been to the South knows that summers are dreadfully humid (I hope you could hear me saying the word dreadfully in an accent, while swooning). When I arrived and got started running, I searched and searched for summer races, only to find options scarce. Once May's heat and humidity began, I knew why.

While I'm no stranger to the heat (hello summer marathon training in Sacramento's heat), the humidity really takes the cake. My dehydration-enduced headaches have an earlier onset. I need more salt and electrolytes. I sometimes want to quit.

Instead, I'm trying to adjust.

In that vein, I was interested to see Runner's World tweet this article from last summer, on the science behind running in the heat and humidity. Anyone who has talked to me about running knows that I geek out on the science and physiology of running. I calculated out my ideal carb and protein intake during my last all-out training season. I know the proper Gu to time ratio by approximate body size. I . know why cramps happen and how to avoid them.

Apparently, on my evening run tonight from Fullsteam Brewery around Duke's East Campus, I will be putting out more effort for a slower pace and burning a higher ratio of carbs to fat than I would in cooler weather. As the article surmises, I'd rather put out more effort overall, so the difference isn't worth fretting over. But it is good to know.

A quick plug: the run tonight is put on by Bull City Running Company and Fullsteam, and is adorably called the Fullsteam Ahead! run club. It is a super fun, relaxed run, with the option to grab a nice cold beer afterward!

EEK!

 I might actually be on track to attempt a 3:30 at CIM this year. I'd been told by a few Chips that I should be able to do around a 3:30 considering my training so far, and apparently my finish in the Urban Cow Half last weekend supports this theory. According to the Runner's World Training Calculator, it might be do-able. Now I just have to keep up my training...

Based on a half marathon race at 01:39:43, your projected finish times for the following distances should be:

1500m 6:03 the mile 6:31 3000m(3k) 12:37 3200m(about 2 miles) 13:31 5000m(5k) 21:42 8000m(8k) 35:42 5 miles 35:55 10,000m(10k) 45:14 ten miles 1:14:54 a half marathon 1:39:43 a marathon 3:27:54

These times are projected equivalents and are not a guarantee of performance or final race distance times. The Distance Finish Times calculator calculates a predicted time at a distance for you based on a time you provided for another distance. It uses the formula T2 = T1 x (D2/D1)1.06 where T1 is the given time, D1 is the given distance, D2 is the distance to predict a time for, and T2 is the calculated time for D2. The formula was developed by Pete Riegel and published first in a slightly different form in Runner's World, August 1977, in an article in that issue entitled "Time Predicting." The formula was refined for other sports (swimming, bicycling, walking,) in an article "Athletic Records and Human Endurance," also written by Pete Riegel, which appeared in American Scientist, May-June 1981.

Multiple Marathoning

Between now and August, John and I are planning to do two marathons. We have a decent 18 weeks between them, but will be filling that time with shorter distance races. After August, we've been throwing around the idea of running CIM, because it is the local race and it will be the 30th anniversary event. We've also talked about a fall marathon, perhaps Portland. Every time we have these exciting conversations, I think to myself that I'm likely to over-do it if I'm not careful.

I was intrigued to see a Runner's World blog post this morning on racing in multiple marathons. The subject of the post is multiple marathons close together in time, which is what we seem to be flirting with. In it, the blogger discusses treating the sequential races as one race in several parts, and outline strategies for rest, recovery, and maintenance after the first race is completed.

We have our first marathon of the year (and John's first, ever), in just over a month. After that, when we start to plan our training for marathon number two in 2012, I'll think about what we could do to enable ourselves to do both a fall marathon and CIM. We'll see.

No heels for moi!

Photo credit: Henrik Sorensen for New York Times

I have long been an avid opponent of wearing high heels. Why? Well, there are several reasons:

#1- I'm 5'2" and they really aren't going to make me look taller.
#2- I like being comfortable, and for some reason have never found heels comfortable.
#3- I walk a lot- around the office, to meetings close by- and that becomes difficult in heels.
#4- Most of my work clothes aren't flashy enough to look good with heels.
#5- Most importantly, my legs are tired from running!

I have given in occasionally, and worn heels to a work event. I always end up, a few hours later, mad at myself for some nagging pain that doesn't go away when the shoes come off. I once had a pain for several weeks after wearing heels to an event.

This morning, I checked my blogfeed, and saw that a study was done that vindicates my longtime anti-heel sentiment. Runner's World's Training Daily blog highlighted a study of high heel wearing women versus women who don't wear heels often. The study showed that women who wear heels often have shorter strides, shorter calf muscles. I knew it!

Read the Training Daily post here, and the more detailed New York Times article on the study here.

Hilarious Runner's World Cover!

I remember seeing an issue of Runner's World in Bookshop Santa Cruz in college. As a non-runner, I only noticed the magazine because Will Ferrell was on the cover. Looking ridiculous. I figured it must be a joke. I've been telling John about it for years, and finally saw it posted. I had to share:

Photo credit: Runner's World Training Daily Blog (http://trainingdaily.runnersworld.com)

Article to Read: "A Thin Line"

I finally cracked open my March Runner's World today, and was nearly stopped in my proverbial tracks when I came across Peter Sagal's "Road Scholar" column "A Thin Line." The tagline reads: "The memory of being fat never subsides- even after you become fit."

Most people who have known me fewer than five years don't believe me if I tell them I used to be fat. Okay, so I wasn't all that fat, but at 5'2" my over 140 pounds in college really pushed me well into the fat-zone. Now, people also don't believe that I weigh over 120, which I do, but that is another matter.

I struggled my entire childhood with being a fat kid, then a fat teenager, and a fat college student. With the shame that went along. With the constant desire to eat, which I still have. I have always been, and likely always will be, obsessed with eating. This fact is what made Sagal's article ring so true for me.

He recounts starving himself in high school when he began running, thinking of all the things he would like to eat but never would. While I didn't go this far, I would think about food, then eat it and feel ashamed, or not eat it and feel hungry (even if I'd had enough to eat already). And as he details in the article, runners often "run to eat," justifying indulgence based on miles logged. I do that, and worry about injury which would curtail my ability to eat with near immunity.

What is so interesting about running is how it changes your body. I went from 135 pounds when I picked up running at 21, quickly to 120 when I was running 3 to 4 miles a few times a week, down to 112 when I first approached 15 mile weeks (with 7 as my long run). I was so excited to finally be thin, and able to run distances. I was excited to be a size 0, when I used to be nearly an 8. I was also really bony, and probably malnourished.

Conversely, now that I routinely log 30 mile weeks, sometimes 40, I have so much muscle that I can't seem to dip under 120. I was happy to be back up to 115 and healthy for the past few years, then excited to get back to that benchmark when I started training for CIM after a few months of injury. But it never happened. Despite the long miles, speedwork, and clean eating (for the most part), I stay at 120.

Like Sagal, when I look in the mirror, I still see the fat person I used to be. I'll think someone is my size, and am later told that they are much larger than I am. But I relish being fit, and relatively thin, and will work to stay this way, as Sagal concludes his article so eloquently:

"But deep inside I know I'm also running because with every step, I'm leaving (fat former self) Plumpkin further behind. And I'm afraid if I ever stopped, he'd catch me, and consume me in his unending appetite, and I'd have to look back into the mirror from behind his frightened eyes."