Matthew Jordan
| Programming, Running, and ThingsI have to be careful. I’ve now written two blog posts in two days, after ignoring this blog for a good six months. Seriously: if I write too much, I’ll get annoyed and just stop again.
Maybe every two weeks is a good goal?
Maybe.
Anyway, I wrote last time on maintaining a work/life balance because I felt I needed context for this post. Namely, that I run. That’s traditionally been one of those things I set aside from work, and don’t violate.
Except that hasn’t been true for some time. I have to qualify my “I run” statement: I’m working back to becoming a runner. Two years ago, I ran quite a lot, all of which culminated in the Rocket City marathon. Unfortunately, I torked my knee out about a month before the marathon. Undeterred, I ran it anyway, and at about mile 18, my knee fell apart. “Fell apart” is a nice way of saying it felt like someone took a chisel to my knee cap. I willed myself through the next 8 miles, but I went from running a good 9:00 minute mile (which was, at the time, my goal marathon pace) to 12:00 minute miles. Or worse. I’m not sure.
It sucked.
Either way, I did finish the marathon (4:09 and change) - but the marathon ultimately did me in. I haven’t run in the two years since.
Having running disappear from my life sucked a lot more than the knee pain ever did.
Getting the run back on
Running is a weird thing. The vast majority of the time you’re running, it sucks. Running in the South doesn’t help either; we have the worst conditions for running. Hot and humid just doesn’t go with slogging through a long distance run.
Now, after you’ve done it awhile, it does get “better”. But it’s not like your legs suddenly stop hurting, or your muscles stop cramping, or your head doesn’t spin when you run too hard up a hill and it’s 100 degrees out with 100% humidity. You can just hurt longer as you run farther, and that’s about all.
A funny thing does happen, however: eventually, you start to kind of like it. And when you’ve been out there for quite awhile, you eventually do get the glorious Runner’s High.
So… hours upon hours upon hours of pain to get a few brief moments of pleasure? Sure, why not!
Of course, I’m underselling this a bit. The Oatmeal got the joy of this correct when he called it “The Void”: time seems to stand still. Your legs are moving, things hurt, but it’s all good. Everything is awesome (cue theme music). And, when the world is stressful, when your thoughts are plaguing you, when all is chaotic and crazy… the void is a great place to reach.
It’s all worth the pain to get there. I decided to get back there.
Doing it better
My biggest fear is getting injured again. That knee: it took the wind right out of my void-happy sails. It’s not that injuries won’t happen again - when you’re pounding pavement over and over, sometimes things give - but I’d like to do better at preventing it this time around.
Number 1 problem: old shoes.
This one is easy to fix: buy new shoes and stop being a cheap skate. Compared to other hobbies, running is pretty cheap.
Number 2 problem: running too damn fast.
I tend to do pretty well at keeping myself to a 10% mileage increase week after week, but I get competitive. I attack hills; I try to beat my last pace. I do this even on long runs: if I ran a 6 mile run at 9:30, I can do an 8 mile run at the same pace. Or at 9:25. 9:20? Sure.
FYI: This is dumb.
To try and prevent my nature from overriding my brain - particularly when I want to run harder - I bought a Garmin Forerunner 220. Yay, new toys!
The Garmin Forerunner 220 has got all sorts of crazy features. It’s amazing how much functionality you can fit onto a chip (go-go Moore’s Law). The two features that I wanted the most were probably the most obvious:
A heart rate monitor. Heart rate doesn’t lie.
GPS. I want to actually know my pace per mile, and how far I’ve actually run.
10 miles at 143
Before going out for my 10 mile long run this Saturday, I calculated my aerobic heart rate at 143 (using the somewhat arbitrary calculation of 180 - 32 (age) - 5 (less than 6 months of running)). Last Saturday, I strapped on the heart rate monitor, drove up to Monte Sano, parked at the Elementary school, and started out.
It was a great day for running: overcast, a bit drizzly, and cool for July. The mountain tends to get wrapped in fog and clouds when the weather is like this, and Saturday was no exception. There’s a great 10 mile route on the mountain - start at the school, run the Panorama loop, head up to the state park, run to the overlook, run down the old bankhead/toll gate road until you hit five miles, then turn around and run the thing in reverse.
The first thing I noticed was that I hit 143 pretty easily, and at a much slower pace than I thought. I had previously been running my long runs at about a 10 minute per mile pace; I found that this really was too fast. Disappointing, but not unexpected. At it turns out, keeping myself at a 143 heart rate was closer to an 11:20 minute per mile pace. Oh well.
The second thing I learned: I attack hills. Not even a little, a lot. I actually speed up on the inclines, and my heart rate - not surprisingly - goes up a lot. (It’s surprising how fast heart rate goes up when start going up hill.) It took a bit, but I learned to slow down - a lot - when running up a hill. I ended up having to walk a few of them, particularly later in the 10 miles.
The final thing: I liked running with a heart monitor. It was kind of a game: how close could I keep myself to my target heart rate? It felt like I was a bit more engaged at times with my running. While I have always loved my long runs - far more than the weekly grind - sometimes, they can get a bit dull as you wait for that void to kick in. The heart rate game kept me interested during those first six or eight miles.
When the ten miles were done, and I was back at my car, I was surprised how much better I felt. Often, when I finish a long run, I’m a bit winded and my legs are a bit “jelly” like. Keeping myself a bit slower and in that aerobic zone helped a lot - I felt like I could have easily run another couple of miles.
Supposedly, keeping myself in an aerobic zone will slowly improve speed. I get to test that out over the next few months, as I’ll be wearing this during my weekly training runs.
Hopefully this will get me ready for the new marathon route this winter… and get me in shape to run it better this time around.