Blog – Page 42 – RunningWell

Winter Running Tips

January 22, 2013/in Blog Posts/by RWadmin

Today was one of the coldest days of the year so far. I know, we’ve gotten soft with our winters lately, but -24C with the windchill still seems pretty cold to me – whether I’m used to it or not. SO, what do I do to get out the door on days like this? A few tips:

“Run” an errand. You probably have to get out the door for something, right? If you’re going to brave the outside anyway, why not just don your running gear and see if you can add a few miles to and from your destination if needed (I needed to get to the bank today, so used that as my reason to get out the door)
Take the pressure off your time and pace. In freezing conditions and snowy/icy footing, use effort as your guide, not pace. I had a 5 mile loop in mind today and left my watch at home.
If you do have an effort session in the plans, consider hills instead of intervals. Hills work on strength, so effort based repeats work well and you don’t have to be as concerned with time – you can still get the same quantity in as you do in the warmer weather. I have hills planned for my workout tomorrow with my dedicated and intrepid group so I went to check out how our hill looks.

This is the top of it – the city has salted a path – yay! Here’s the middle part:

I tried to take a picture from the bottom to show the 3rd part and the better perspective, but that’s when my phone decided it was too cold to take any more pictures.

Bundle up! Ok, sometimes when I’m feeling particularly wimpy, I tell myself I’m going to overdo it on the clothing so that I don’t have that uncomfortable first 5 minutes of cold before I warm up. That’s what I did today, but I think I was just overdressed. I had planned an easy day, so didn’t plan on sweating too much. If you’re doing a tempo, you should really be too cold when you just start out in order to be comfortable mid-run. This will also motivate you to run fast! What I wore today:

That is a pair of running tights, a pair of windpants, two long-sleeved shirts, a jacket, two pairs of gloves (although I took one off later to bundle my poor cold phone at the expense of one hand’s warmth), one scarf and two hats. I don’t know why I felt I needed two hats – one of them isn’t even a running hat. As you can see, I don’t worry too much about fashion sense on days like these.

Don’t stray too far from home. If you’re doing a longer run, do a couple of loops which go near (but not right by) your house. I don’t like running by my house when I’m planning on continuing because it always makes me feel like stopping. But if you do need to stop and walk for whatever reason when it’s cold, you will lose heat quickly and could find yourself in trouble if you’re too far from home.
Enjoy the different sensations from running in the winter – my run today was silent with just the sound of my feet crunching on snow. Your routes are all new again with different perspective. The seasons keep it fresh. I can’t imagine seeing the exact same scenery on my runs for 12 months of the year (ok, maybe people who are forced to run year-round in California aren’t suffering, but let’s try to look on the bright side). Here was the sun in all it’s blazing glory today:

Finally, when you’re getting out and running in this, you deserve a treat. I ended my run at Starbucks where my phone came back to life, I got a yummy warm drink, and all was well with the world.

Cheers!

Cross Training

January 20, 2013/in Blog Posts/by RWadmin

A few words about cross-training. I like it because:

It helps prevent injury by maintaining a balance in your muscular strength
It adds to your overall “functional fitness” and by this I mean, your ability to perform in other activities in life at a higher level, rather than just being really good at running in a straight line
It burns more calories, which, let’s be honest, is never a negative

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that a lot of my everyday activities involve “cross training” (at least I put them in that category). Sometimes I think “this has GOT to benefit my running somewhere down the line” and other times I think “thank god I’m a runner or I’d never be able to do this!” Yesterday was a big cross training day for me.

It started with a regular run. Then I had the kids in the house all afternoon and no car. The skating rink right beside our house was booked for the day. No problem. There’s one a short mile away – UPHILL. This is what we looked like heading out:

Then we added the chair which my youngest needs to a) skate and b) be pushed on by me when she gets tired of skating after the first 15 minutes.

This is the view from the top of the hill, and honestly, this photo does not do justice to the grade. It is a long, STEEP hill and I forced the kids to cheer me on from about halfway to the top (I completely forgot bike helmets until looking at this photo – the skating helmets, knee pads, gloves, 3 pairs of skates, hockey stick and chair made me incorrectly assume we had enough gear).

I probably shouldn’t count as cross-training (but I will) putting on 3 pairs of skates, helmets and shin-guards. I use the sweat-barometer test, and I was drenched by the time we hit the ice. Then it was time to actually skate (the main activity). For the most part they were fine skating on their own, although I was called on for more than the occasional game of tag, and to push the chair “Really Fast”. Thank goodness Thing 1 took pity on me and helped out by pushing Thing 2 for a while.

After about 45 minutes it was time to head to our local cafe for hot chocolate. Luckily I’d done this to them, so I could count on some quiet time later at home:

And what did I do with my “Quiet Time” at home? Cross trained of course! The one form of “real” cross training I’ve gotten into is Kettlebell. My husband and I have a set and a routine which takes 35 minutes. It is INTENSE and really feels like it’s doing a lot based on the endorphin buzz and muscle shakes it produces and the body soreness the next day. Here’s a picture of our instruments of torture:

They may look pretty, but they’re killer. We’ll see if they help my running – I’m trying to get them in once-twice a week.

As for how my run went this morning after yesterday’s workouts: let’s just say I’m glad I was finishing off my easy week and didn’t time my 7 mile route.

Now to gear up for a series of 3 build weeks in the freezing temps! I’m going to try to build to 70 in one of them. Stay tuned…

Perspective

January 14, 2013/in Blog Posts/by RWadmin

Here’s the funny thing about perspective – it’s hard to really change yours until you’re really forced to see it from someone else’s. My days move along by my accomplishing tasks. I like to check one thing off the list and move onto the next. This mentality suits my running quite well, but I seem to maintain it when dealing with my kids. A typical Saturday involves me dressing them, feeding them, taking them to at least one activity to burn off energy and get them all out of the house, and this all has to be planned around my and my husbands’ endurance activities and chores which need to get done. SO, I tend to end up spending a lot of time “running the show” and trying to get people to move on to the next activity.

After an afternoon of swimming and lunch with the kids the other day, I looked at some of the video my 5 yr old had been taking. All I can say is that we were in completely different worlds. The one below was taken (without my knowing) while I was trying to wrap up lunch and get the kids in their bike gear so we could get home. I had been making “we’re leaving now” noises for about 10 minutes before this video was filmed. I was busily trying to get kids to finish their “last bit”, get into their snowsuits, pack up all activities which were lying around the table, pay the bill and get on to the next daily activity. As you can see, I am in no way the central character in this world. In fact, I think my voice actually sounds like the adults in Charlie Brown. There is an entirely different agenda here, and it’s not rushed or stressed – it’s completely in the moment. Does it look like the author of this video is trying to get his stuff together and get ready to get out the door? Sigh…

It took discovering and watching this to fully understand how difficult it must be for someone living in the moment to understand and comply with “my agenda” all the time. I have a mental “to do” list, and they can’t see it. And here I thought my kids’ worlds revolved around me. Hunh… Sometimes it’s good to slow down and see the world as a 5 yr old does. Showing more patience was one of my New Years’ resolutions and I’ll try to apply it to my running and my family. Goodness knows – I need it!!!