Marathon By 40

Went out late tonight for this week’s long run. Felt a little tight to start, but loosened up between mile 2 & 3. So, that’s my longest run so far. Next longest run before the DRC Half will be 10 miles two weeks from now.

Getting closer!

A few weeks ago I started feeling sore a little longer after runs than I should have been. I noticed that my shoes had about 300 miles on them, so I decided to replace my kicks.

I stopped in Run On!, my favorite running store, to replace my Brooks Adrenaline 8s. Unfortunately, they were out of stock in my size, but they suggested the Mizuno Wave 5 would provide similar support but with extra cushioning. Considering my runs are getting longer, I thought extra cushioning might be nice and I decided to give them a try.

Standing still, they felt great. And running back and forth in the store, they felt fine as well. I was looking forward to breaking in these new shoes.

So, I took them out one night for a 3/1×11 run (3 minutes run / 1 minute walk for 11 intervals, which ends up being just over 4 miles with a 5 minute warmup and cool down). When I actually started running, the cushion was too much, and my stride felt very wobbly as I tried to find solid footing. I finished the set with a lot of pain in my shins and ankles.

I was still sore for the next two days.

On my flight the next week, I was reading Bingham & Hadfield’s “Marathoning for Mortals” and wished that I had read this section before I went shopping:

The least stable shoes are called cushioned shoes. These shoes feel great in the store and when you take a few steps down the sidewalk. You’ll feel like you’ve put pillows on your feet. It’s tempting to believe that the cushioning is what you want and need. For nearly all of us, the highly cushioned shoe is an invitation to injury.

We’ll explain. Whether your foot is normal, rigid, or flat, you still need some kind of relatively stable surface on which to run or walk. If you put a highly cushioned shoe below your foot, especially one that raises your foot inches off the ground, you have no stability at all.

Imagine strapping water balloons to the bottom of your shoes. With each step the muscles around your joins react to the instability and try to keep your joints from going in every direction. The bottoms of your feet might feel good, but unless your biomechanics are prefect, take a pass on the cushioned shoes.

Well, my biomechanics are obviously not perfect.

Just to make sure, I tried them one more time when I was on a treadmill at a hotel during that trip. Unfortunately I felt the same results. Rather than finishing the set, I stopped just after a mile.

When I returned to Dallas, I took them back to Run On, who graciously exchanged them for the latest version of the Brooks Adrenalines (which were now in stock).

I’ve been out twice now in the Adrenalines, and feel like I haven’t missed a step. I missed several workouts while my shins and ankles were recovering, but my last two runs have felt just fine. Tonight I head out for the regularly scheduled 8 mile run, which will be my longest to date. Assuming I complete that tonight, I’ll be right on track with the training plan.

So, my lesson learned: if I absolutely need to get new kicks while I’m in the middle of training for an event, go with the the old stand-by shoe - don’t get cute and try something new.

Let’s keep running!

I’ve written before about my need to loose weight to increase my endurance and reduce risk of injury during training. As my runs got longer, I could start to feel more wear and tear on my body, and I wanted to get past it. I was running over 60 miles a month, but maintaining my (over)weight.

I wasn’t motivated to eat any differently, because I felt like I deserved to indulge considering how much exercise I was getting that I hadn’t before. Now, an article on active.com confirmed my growing suspicion that I can’t rest on exercise as the only means for weight loss:

Running 15 miles a week burns roughly 1,500 calories—but to lose a pound, you need to cut 3,500 calories a week. Bottom line? Running alone won’t cut it; if you want to lose weight more quickly, you need to adjust your calorie intake. In a study in the 2007 American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism,, researchers followed participants for a year and found that lean and overweight adults who restrict their calorie intake by an average of 300 calories a day lose nearly 25 percent of their body fat. People who just exercise but don’t eat fewer calories lose just over 22 percent. Both regimens worked, but your best bet is to combine the effort.

So, its back to calorie counting this weekend, and yet another attempt to kick my cigarette Dr. Pepper and Pepsi habit. Other common sense weight-loss advise is available in this article on Runners World.

It would be great to be 5 pounds less than I am now by the race. Maybe following some of these tips I can get there.

So, I’ve neglected the blog for quite sometime now. My bad. But, I have been running. I’m on a walk/run plan to take on the Dallas Running Club’s DRC Half on November 1.

The plan is going well. I’m only running 3 days a week with the long run on Saturday. It will be tricky to keep it up as the school year kicks into full gear.

Nike+ automagically posts my runs on Facebook (that’s probably partly why I’ve been neglecting the blog). Please do “kick me” if things go quiet again. I am determined to meet this minor milestone on the quest to run a full marathon by the time I’m 40 next year.

Keep running!