My First Year Running - What I've Learned
My Running Blog.
Less than a year ago, I got inspired. In July of 2013, I was 43 years old and I “got
off the couch” and just started running.
I have not stopped since. At my
office, I had been working with younger guys in their 20’s and they were
talking about doing this “Tough Mudder”
race. The guys were all talking about it
and they were inviting all the younger guys to join them but they never
extended me an invitation nor discussed it around me. I was a bit taken back because I was always
very athletic in my youth. In High
School I was Varsity in Football, Wrestling and Lacrosse. I Surfed, Skydived, Bungee Jumped, etc…
But the years go by quickly and I have really not done any
athletics since my early 30’s. And now I’m
in my mid-40’s and I had let myself go.
I stand at an even six foot tall and at my heaviest, I weighed 215
pounds. I know that I’m not terribly
heavy but I was a mess. I had let nature
and gravity take its course on my very sedentary body. Beer, video games and sitting on the couch
every night had taken its toll on a once very strong and once ripped body.
Something in my head just clicked and I decided to go for a
run. I was training for the “Tough Mudder” but I didn’t know it
yet.
My first run was pitiful.
I plotted out a mile or so on
google maps around the block from my house and strapped on my gym shoes and
went for it. I didn’t make it ¼ mile
before I had to break pace. In fact, I
had to stop and walk at least 4-5 times during that first mile run. It probably wasn’t even a mile run, it was
just around the block, but it could have been a marathon to me because I was so
out-of-shape. My short term goal was to
try to make it all the way around without having to break my pace and walk. It took probably 2 weeks of effort of running
every other day before I finally achieved my goal. I was very excited about it, but I still didn’t
quite feel like a ‘runner’ yet.
My shoes were giving my feet blisters. My crotch was on fire from the constant
rubbing of the un-toned fat. I started
to wear my rash-guard shorts that I bought a few years ago for surfing, under
my shorts instead of underwear. This
helped out a lot and I no longer got rashes.
I went out to the running store and bought an official pair of Brooks
running shoes – for running only, not for kicking around town or going to
the store. I was getting serious and now
I was running for over a month. Still
not a ‘runner’ though.
I started plotting the maps on google maps, saving them as a
jpg image and now I had a collection of like 3 routes that I would run. I would time myself with the clock on the
cable box (my old friend) as to how fast I could do them. I even started putting my time and photos of
my runs on Facebook. One day a friend of
mine suggested that I check out a website called “MapMyRun.com”. I was in heaven. Suddenly I had a wealth of information at my
fingertips as to plotting out new routes and knowing the distances and keeping
a running journal. I quickly abandoned
my google maps approach and fully embraced mapmyrun.com
Now that I had been running for a month or so, I noticed
that my right knee would swell up to the size of a softball after a longer run
(2-3 miles). I had to ice it and elevate
it for hours after a run. I posted it on
FB and the same friend who introduced me to mapmyrun.com told me that I could
have a case of “Runner’s
Knee”. Oh great now what. So I went to the same knee doctor that had
previously operated on my wife’s knee.
He x-rayed it and quickly prescribed me something called Meloxicam which is a NSAID –
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug.
He told me that 90% of his runner patients take it and it works great
with very little side effects. I started
taking the Meloxicam and my
knee swelling and any joint pain I was experiencing went right away. I still take it daily although I have been
searching for alternates. When I stopped
taking it, I started with the pain and swelling again so I will continue.
I also was told that I should stretch more before and after
runs, so I followed that advice as well and it has helped me out greatly. At first I could barely touch my fingers to
the floor when I would bend over to stretch the hamstrings. Now I can practically put my palms down on
the floor when I stretch. I have become
much more limber as a result of all the stretching. My wife got me this stretch out strap which
is great and I use it all the time.
Another friend told me that when you have sore muscles after
running to try drinking Tonic
water. Here’s the history that I
learned about it. There is a drug called
quinine that doctors used to
prescribe all the time back in the 1700’s and 1800’s to soldiers whose legs
hurt from all the marching in war. It
was eventually labeled as a cure-all and was prescribed for many different
ailments. In the 1900’s more modern
medicine found that quinine was causing people to have heart attacks and other
serious problems and was killing people so they stopped prescribing it. However, it did work to relieve tired and “dead”
legs. The only way one can legally acquire
quinine today is in Tonic water. It is
what makes the tonic water have that bitter taste. Just drinking a little bit can help out with
leg cramps. It affects different people differently
but it’s worth a try if you have tired or dead legs or even cramps. It may work, or it may not, or it may kill
you, who knows. It might be worth a try.
Going back to my initial running motivation, I found this
game that you can put on your smart phone called Zombie Run. It is an interactive game that played in the background
of your music tracks that simulates a world where zombies run free and run
after you. As Runner #5, your job is to
run all around a post-apocolyptic world collecting things like first-aid kits,
clean underwear, and weapons and then return to the encampment. It is a pretty cool story and really puts you
into the action. Well when I found out
about this game I wanted to try it and this was one of the other reasons that I
started to run. Later, I abandoned my
headphones entirely when I run and so no more zombies as well. But if you want some motivation during your
runs, check it out.
So I started my training for the “Tough Mudder” in July and the race was
scheduled for October. Another friend of
mine started to follow my progress and recommended that I try running a “Spartan Race” in September along with
him and a few of his buddies. The race
is only 4 miles compared with the 12 miles of Tough Mudder. So I figured I’d try this “easy” race in
preparation for the Tough Mudder. I was
thinking that this was more ‘training’ than anything else. It’s a good thing I wasn’t concerned about my
time or anything – I was only training.
I could not have been more wrong about the Spartan
Race. I thought it was going to be
easy. It was probably one of the hardest
things I had ever done physically in my life and I had only done the easiest
version of the race! The 4 mile is
called the Spartan
Sprint. There’s also an 8 miler called the Spartan
Super and a 12 miler called The
Beast. Subsequently I found out that
they also have an Ultra
Beast which is 26 miles and they have these Death Races a few times a year (the
website is www.youmaydie.com – I’m not
kidding).
It was the night before the race and my friend Jacob and I
shared a hotel room. He told me about
these GU energy
gels and he said that I would need them.
He said about 45 minutes into the run I would start to run out of energy
and I would need to eat these. He gave
me 3 chocolate GU Energy packs. I used
them on the course and boy was I thanking Jacob after that. I use them all the time now in my runs, like
it says on the pack – 15 minutes before a run and then every 45 minutes. They work.
Even though they are not organic and they are made in a factory,
scientists came up with the right amount of carbs/protein, etc… that you need
in a race and filtered it down to what’s in these GU Energy packs. I also drink about a liter of water with each
one – if possible. Some runners get diarrhea
and other not-so-fun stomach ailments from these, so use at your own risk and
don’t use for the first time during a race.
When I was at the Spartan Race world championships in Mt.
Killington VT with my friends, one of the guys ran The Beast (12 miles), while
the rest of us ran the Sprint (4 miles).
The guy that did the Beast was also planning on doing the Tough Mudder in
October, so I was psyched that I had a potential team mate. This guy was ripped and in incredible
shape. I was nowhere near his level of
physical shape. When he finished the Beast he said that it
just about killed him and it took him 8 hours to finish. He barely finished and this is a guy that I
looked up to as I would eventually get to achieve his level of fitness (after 5
years of working out). After the Sprint
just about killed me, I decided to postpone doing the Tough Mudder until the
next year or two. I had a new found
respect for this type of event and realized that I should not take these things
too lightly. I ran the Spartan sprint at
Mt. Killington in 2 hours 20 minutes and 8.3 seconds. He ended up doing the Tough Mudder in October
and he said it was easier than the Beast, but it was more distance running and
not as much mountain running.
When I got back home from Vermont, I had to seriously weigh
not going to the Tough Mudder. One of
the best ways to stay on target with a goal is to tell many close people about
your objectives so that you have that feeling of dread should you not do
it. Many programs that help people quit
smoking use this strategy. Well, I had
to sheepishly tell everyone I know that I was no longer doing the Tough Mudder
that year and I would put it off until I was in better shape. Accepting this was difficult but I think it
was a great decision because it helped me re-focus on training, training and
more training.
I was running 4-5 days a week. I was not losing any weight. I was still 210 lbs. My legs were starting to look like the
incredible hulk’s legs. I started having
muscles pop out on top of muscles – muscles that I didn’t even know
existed! I came to realize that if I was
to run more efficiently I would have to lose weight and this meant focusing on
my diet as well as the exercise. I
finally had to accept that I had to really watch what I was eating and that food
is only fuel to help me exercise more efficiently and nothing more. My ideal target weight is 178 lbs according
to the doctor’s chart. I have not
weighed 178 since my college days. But I
had a new goal to achieve along with my running goals.
After the Spartan Sprint, I signed up for a lighter local
race called “The Rugged Run for Respect” which benefited the Special
Olympics. After the Spartan race I
figured this would be easy. Once again I
was wrong. I was a slow runner. My pace was between 11-12 minute miles during
training and at the race this was also my pace.
I truly believe that it was because I was carrying this extra weight and
I simply wasn’t putting in enough long distance runs during my training. I finished the 4 mile run in a pretty
respectable time. I ran it in 35:53 and
came in 57 place out of 174 participants.
Again, I realized that I’m not superman and I need to keep pushing
myself harder to get the kind of results I want.
It started to get cold through October and November but I
continued running on a regular basis. I
bought long thermal pants and shirts. I
ran with a hat and gloves. I even
covered my face while I ran. I jumped
over snow mounds and got my feet wet and cold.
I didn’t care, I was on a mission and I was committed. I started thinking about road races and
thought that it might be interesting to run a ½ marathon. I didn’t sign up for any in my town and I
didn’t really know of any so I just decided to plot out 13.1 miles on
mapmyrun.com and see if I could run that distance. I was going to do a solo ½ marathon!
So on December 1, 2013 I ventured out alone and cold with no
support from water stations or anything and I did just that. I ran 13.1 miles and I did it in 2:23:13 with
an average pace of 11:01! This was with
very limited knowledge of running and no real experience besides what I
described above. I felt that if I had a
coach or trainer I could do much better and even compete in a local ½ marathon. Right after this, I got an email from Runner’s
World magazine and they offered me this book about training for a Marathon
appropriately titled, “Marathon”
by Hal Higdon. Of course I signed up
for the magazine and the book. When I
received it, I consumed it and carefully hung on Hal’s ever word. I finally
started to feel like a real runner.
Not a Tough mudder, not a Spartan, but a real marathon runner (in
training). I started following Hal’s
training program and I signed up for a 10k that corresponded with his 8 week
training program. I also signed up for
my first official ½ marathon in May 2014.
I learned some things from running that 13.1 miles. In the first place, I had pretty bad chafing
in my crotch. Even though I continued to
wear the rash guard shorts, I was in pretty bad pain and I knew that I was
going to have to do something else. At
the running store they had something called “Body
Glide” which I now use on my longer runs.
It is a big help and I recommend it on your crotch and even on your nipples and maybe even under the arms –
any place that chafe’s during a long run.
I also realized that if I was going to continue doing long
runs on my own I was going to need to stay hydrated. Along with the other items, wifey bought me a
camelback
hydration pack and now I could carry things with me on my runs. I started using an app from mapmyrun.com that
runs on my galaxy 3 smart phone and uses gps to track my runs. This lead me to research more things…
When I was on a particularly long run one day, a fellow
runner caught up to me and told me that he was doing a triathlon called the “Beach to the Battleship” in North
Carolina. Wow, what could be more
hardcore than that! He was wearing a Garmin
Forerunner 310xt and he said that I should get one if I ever want to do a triathlon. He said that it tracks his miles, his pace
and lots more metrics. Once I started
recording my running metrics with the phone and GPS, I worried that I may break
my phone during a run. I also worried
that I would have to take the camelback everytime so I could have something to
put my phone in. The next thing that
would help me with my running would be one of these Garmin watches. I found one used on ebay for $100 and so far
I really enjoy running with it. It takes
all the thought work out of the capturing of data.
I don’t want to mention it, but I will for prosperity
sake. In January 2014, I found out
about a race that was taking place in my town and it went right along the same
path that I trained on every day. It was
sponsored by the local brewery called “The
Blue Point Brewing Company”. It is a
10 mile race. I tried to figure out how
to sign up for it but the registration was closed. When I spoke with the race coordinator he
told me that he could not stop me from running in the street, even if a race is
going on. So I decided to just “Bandit”
the race – run it without being an official participant. The brewing company race is a 10 miler and I
kept a 10 minute/mile pace just about the entire time. I finished in 1:44:06 on January 28, 2014. Being a bandit and all, I decided not to
partake in the beer after the race.
I did the 10k that I signed up for on March 22, 2014. It was called the “Spring
Fling” a part of the NYC runs club races.
My goal was to beat 1 hour and I finished in 57:53 with an average pace
of 9:20. This was my first real official
road race and it gave me a good feel for what it’s like. I definitely ran a bit faster than I should
have out of the gate. I kept a pretty
good pace though the race, better than I thought. Hal says that the best racers have a negative-split
time, which means that the first half you should run slower than the 2nd
half. You speed up towards the end. I did just the opposite. But nonetheless I achieved my goal and
finished in under an hour. I will try to
beat my time in the next 10k I will be doing in July.
After I did this race, my sister told me about another 10k
on July 4th in Atlanta called the Peachtree 10k, which is supposed
to be the largest 10k in the country. I
signed up for that race also because I will be celebrating the fourth of july
with my parents and sister down in Atlanta this year.
I continued on the Hal
Higdon, Intermediate ½ marathon training program. I continued using the things that helped me
so far and purchased a new pair of running shoes. I was very choosy this time and ended up with
a pair of Nike’s. With all the
training, I started running into other problems. My right foot started hurting on the outside
near the bone so I went to a podiatrist.
We did an xray and an MRI and he said everything was normal. So I tried getting different shoes. My original (first) pair of running shoes
were of minimalist design. I really
liked them but I am a pronator,
which means as I step, my foot rolls inwards so I needed a shoe with a little
more support. These new Nike’s do just
the trick and the first time I used them, I felt like I was running on
pillows. They were great.
While I was beginning my training with Hal Higdon’s plan and
reading his book “Marathon”, my wife an ex-marathon runner herself, told me
that I should do the Chicago Marathon
because it is flat. I researched it and
found out that they have a lottery to get a running slot so I signed up without
much more thought about it. I decided
that if I get picked to run, I would take it as a sign and then I would train
for the marathon. Wouldn’t you know it,
I got picked!?! I was kinda panicking
for a bit because I know that I am nowhere near ready for a full marathon but I
decided to take advice from Joe
De Sena, founder of the Spartan Race who said “If you’re not scared
shitless by your goals, they’re probably too easy.” (Yes I’m reading his book right now). So I signed up for the full marathon and paid
the $185 entry fee. Training starts on
June 9th and I am scared
shitless.
I have a good training plan though. I will follow Hal
Higdon’s novice 2 marathon training program. He guarantee’s success. I followed his plan and got through the Long Island Half-Marathon a few weeks
ago. So let me tell you about my
experience with this race. After the 10k
and hearing all about negative splits and experiencing how tired I will be
towards the end of the race, I decided to tone down my initial pace. I tried
hard to keep my pace around 10:30 in the beginning and the first mile felt
great. I found myself stuck behind a
bunch of Korean runners who were all talking Korean with each other and farting
a lot. I couldn’t stand being behind them any longer so I had to kick up my
pace. No disrespect to Koreans but I
couldn’t stand the smell of ethnic food smell (among other smells) oozing out
of their pores. I ran the next 5-6 miles
at around 9:30 pace. I used the GU
Energy Packs, as I usually do and I followed Hals’ advice to walk through the
hydration stations and take my time drinking.
I felt great until about mile 10.
I hit some kind of wall. My knee
was beginning to buckle. I should have
brought Aleve or Advil or something with me because my knee was in a lot of
pain. My pace began to slow down. I was trying to run in the middle of the
road, where I could so there was no camber to the road. I tend to run better on flatter surfaces. On a road race the road angles slightly to allow
rain water to flow down. Repeated
running on even a slight angle starts to upset my knee and ankles. So I tried to keep it directly in the middle
yellow lines.
Mile 12-13.1 were probably the hardest running I have ever
done. My legs were like cement. I could barely move them. Every movement was a major effort. Part of me was telling me that I should have
walked for a bit, and part of me was saying that I should keep going and just
finish. Funny because I did taper in the
weeks prior to the race, but there was no denying that the muscles in my legs
were pumped up with lactic acid and I was having great trouble moving them.
I sucked it up and kept pushing myself. My pace weakened, however. And what was a 9:30 pace started turning into
an 11:30 pace in the last mile. My goal
was to try to finish in under 2 hours. I
finished in 2 hours 14 minutes and 53 seconds.
Still better time than when I did the 13.1 alone back in December – by a
good 8 minute improvement, but I thought Hal’s program would have gotten me a
better time than that.
Oh on a final thought, I parked like 2 miles from the finish
line. Not a good idea. I had difficulty finding my car and was
limping all around like a lost puppy and I had to ask someone for directions. It was very embarrassing and I felt like
hell. The party at the end of the race
seemed like fun, but after that tough race all I wanted to do was go sit in my
heated seats and drive with the sunroof open.
I need to put in more long runs into my training if I am
ever going to finish that Marathon in October.
Instead of daily 4-5 mile runs, my daily runs need to be 7-8 miles. My weekend runs need to be 10-15 miles and
weekly I will need to be putting in 30-40 miles instead of 20-25.
My next race is in a few weeks. I’m doing the Spartan Sprint again. Only this time it is in Tuxedo Park NY. Not as difficult as up in Killington VT. Also I’m running along with my 13 year old
son Ethan. I am super happy that we are
going to run as father & son. I keep
telling him to join me on runs and to train for the race, but he will find out
his own inner strength when we do it. I
hope that when he’s there and experiences the race that it has the same effect
on him that it did to me. I originally
had a goal to beat my other time of 2 hours 20 minutes 8 seconds. My new goal is to finish alongside my son. We do it together.
I guess all this running I’m doing is influencing the people
around me. My sister even told me that
she just purchased a bicycle and is going to get into shape that way and
because I have helped get her motivated.
There’s lots of side effects to all of this running. My wife has been trying to walk in between
buildings at her office more frequently.
She has MS so it has been difficult for her to walk but she’s really
putting in the effort and it shows. As
for me, I am down to 187 lbs now and I’m starting to see a V shape and oblique
muscles return to my abs again. I have
more energy than I can ever remember since I was in my 20’s. I sleep great at night and I genuinely look
forward to my daily runs.
In summary here’s a few things I’ve learned:
- · Hydration pack for long runs
- · MapMyRun.com to track distance and daily runs
- o Experimenting with TrainingPeaks.com and Garmin’s own site GarminConnect.com
- · HalHigdon.com for free training plans for races of all kinds
- · NSAID – Meloxicam or comparable replacement for joint pain
- · Tonic water for the quinine for muscle aches
- · Stretch before and after runs – StretchOut Strap
- · Garmin ForeRunner 310xt or similar watch
- · Get the right shoes for the way you walk – pronation, etc…
- · Sign up for a bunch of races and just do them to finish
- · Glow in the dark vest & headlamp – I didn’t even get into the several times I’ve almost gotten squashed by cars.
- · GU Energy Gels
- · SPI Belt – great way to bring things along on your run – i.e. cell phone, cash, car keys
- · Don’t wear cotton shirts
- · Body Glide for rash prone areas
posted by Paul Fedorys @ 10:42 AM
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