Renovating Kaeti

This weekend I participated in Nancy’s Virtual Club Run, running my very first 10K (do I get extra points because it was my first?)! Here are my splits and some of the thoughts that accompanied them:

10:02 — Just warming up a bit. Still feeling creaky after the mile race on Thursday. Treating this 10K as my LSD run this week.*

9:42 — Finally hit a comfortable pace. Trying to avoid being lapped by that obnoxiously fast guy for the 18th time.

9:47 — Is it over yet? Wait, I have to run around the lake again? You’re kidding, right?

9:42 — Why do people keep staring at me? I wonder if my new running hat makes me look like a tool. Maybe it’s my cameltoe.

9:38 — It is surprising that I haven’t died yet.

9:09 — Did that guy just lap me again? At least I’m not wearing a do-rag and aviators. Almost done!

1:45 — 6.01, 6.02, 6.03. Why is this taking so long?! I command you to stop looking at Gary.** 6.12, 6.13, 6.14. Seriously, stop it. Oh, wait, is that 6.2? I’m DONE!!!

Total — 59:45

I’m so excited that I managed to squeak by in just under an hour. I was honestly expecting to run at a 11-minute-mile pace (especially after all the Mother’s-Day-justifies-everything junk food I ate). And over all, the distance didn’t feel so bad. The last mile was tough, but not excruciating.

Many thanks to Nancy for inspiring me to run my first 10K — and to all the other “virtual” runners who joined me. Now it’s back to work for me — deadlines are calling my name.

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*That’s “Long Slow Distance” for those of you not familiar. But, like the street drug, these runs can cause hallucinations and feelings of despair and/or euphoria.

**Gary is the working name of my Garmin 305.

The TC 1 Mile race last night was finger-licking good time. There were thousands of people, and running downtown with the crowds cheering for us was fantastic. I’ll try to post photos this weekend, but for now here’s a screen shot of the results:

May I just say: Way to represent, Carrie Tollefson! Carrie was featured on our cover last June (and you may have seen her modeling for that abs story in a recent issue of RW), and it made me so happy to see her finish in the top five.

The best part of the race? There were free cowbells for the spectators. I snagged a couple on the way home, and let me just tell you, whoever thought that giving me a cowbell was a good idea is going to have to answer to my severely annoyed neighbors, friends and roommate. I’m sorry, what was that? I can’t hear you over my cowbell.

(Goats image courtesy of kris247)

So my 6 mile long run this weekend turned into a 5 mile run. I woke up late, was distracted by Tim Russert* and left the house 20 minutes after my planned start time. I was feeling a bit frustrated with myself and my lack of running progress, and was about to wrap up my run when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted someone who looked eerily familiar.

I scanned my brain trying to figure out how I knew this guy (ex-boyfriend? Crazy neighbor? UPS man?). But then I realized — it was none other than local meteorologist/goat farmer/runner Sven Sundgaard (a.k.a. the Pocket Swede**).

Nothing like a celebrity*** sighting to motivate you to pretend that you are Really Good At Running toward the end of your miles.

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This week, I have the TC 1 Mile on Thursday.**** I’m pretty excited about the race because I’ve never tried to run a mile as fast as I can, and I’m curious to see what sort of blazing fast speeds I can conjure from my legs. (In all honesty, I’m just hoping to beat the 12-minute cut-off time.)

The fun continues on Saturday with the 10K on the 10th of May, the brainchild of the ever-inspiring Nancy. I’ve got my club in hand, and I am ready to beat down any lingering negative thoughts that try to stop me.

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend. Your marathon and half-marathon reports are getting me excited to start training for my 10-mile race this fall. Or at least answering the question in my mind: Who would be crazy enough to run these distances??

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*I blame the probing questions and perma-smirk. Irresistible.

** Not sure of his actual heritage, but Pocket Scandinavian doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.

***Celebrity might be a bit of an overstatement, but here in Minnesota we adore our Norse-ly named newscasters.

**** $18 to run a mile downtown, past all the People Smarter Than Me who will be spending their hard-earned money on happy hour. Reason No. 4367 runners are loopy pickins.

I am a master of excuses. If there was an award for lame justifications, I would win (or at least come in second).* Take this week for example:

Me: I should run today. But I don’t know if I’ll have enough time.

S: Well, you have over an hour. You’ll run for, what, 30 minutes?

Me: Yeah, but then I have to shower, get ready and stuff. And by the time I leave I’ll be cutting it close.

S: If you go now, you’ll have plenty of time.

Me: I guess. But it’ll take me a while to get dressed and put on my shoes. Sigh. It is really nice out. I’ll bet tomorrow it will be really gross outside, just to spite me.

S: Actually it’s supposed to be even nicer.

Me: Ohhh, well in that case, maybe I’ll just run Wednesday and Thursday instead of Tuesday and Thursday.

Cut to Wednesday, and you’ll find me preparing the “why I can’t go running today” diatribe in my head:

I don’t have time. I need to get some work done. I should probably pluck my eyebrows. The American Idol results show is on the teevee. Oh man, I love Neil Diamond. I bet Neil Diamond doesn’t have to run. He was just born svelte. …

So in an effort to hit the pause button on this repeating track of excuses, I have a few tried-and-true techniques:

• Remind myself that I probably won’t regret going, but will definitely regret it if I don’t.
• Weigh the activities that stand to replace exercise (or eating well), and evaluate what actually matches my values. In other words, which is more important: a healthy body and balanced mind or getting lost in Jason Castro’s eyes?
• Run my excuses by a trusted friend, and realize how ridiculous I sound when said excuses are vocalized.
• Put my running/yoga clothes on — it’s hard to talk myself out of an activity once I’ve put in the effort to get dressed.
• Bully myself. I’m not condoning a bunch of negative self talk, but sometimes a little cajoling is helpful. C’mon K Slice, cowboy up.**
• Think about my longterm goals instead of giving in to the temporary satisfaction of procrastination.

If you’re interested in more inspiration about how to get your butt from couch to anywhere but the couch, check out these articles. This is the segment of the program that I like to call Motivational Procrastination:

• Ready, Set, Go! (November 2006)
• All Over It: How to Eliminate Goal-Blocking Obstacles for Good (April 2008)
• What’s Stopping You From Getting Started (from Lifehack)
• Can You Sacrifice Temporary Pleasure for Longterm Goals? (from PickTheBrain)
• 31 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Exercise (from Zen Habits)

So what are your sure-fire ways to bust through excuses? I definitely need some help in this department, because even my “tried and true” methods can falter when a Very Important Activity comes up (like the premiere of a particularly terrible reality TV show or the release of a new flavor of Fruit Gushers,*** for example).

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*First place is a tie between Zack Morris and everyone in Hollywood.

**Yes, I refer to myself as K Slice.

***Just kidding about the Gushers. Maybe.

Have ya’ll seen this article on how we’re “wrecking our feet”? It’s definitely an interesting (if a bit one-sided) look at the biomechanics of walking.

We’ve covered this topic in the past (see “Bare Your Sole” and”The Shoe for You“), and I’m torn. On one hand, I love my stability shoes. They’ve all but eliminated my knee issues and just feel better. On the other hand, I want to run as efficiently as possible, and my body will never learn and adapt if I don’t give it the option. Throw ChiRunning into the mix, and I’m just starting to feel downright befuddled.

What are your thoughts on barefoot training? When it comes to shoes, is less actually more?

In honor of Runners’ Lounge Take It and Run Thursday, here is what I have learned about running in 13 words or less:
The rewards of running are worth the pain and frustration. …I think.

I know that the hard runs are worth it when they make it possible to have the really, really good runs. But it does seem like runners put our bodies and minds through all sorts of beatings. And yet even when I question why I run, I still run. I have to run. It’s become this inescapable part of who I am.

Hm, kind of sounds like some sort of chronic condition. Wow, I sure make running sound awesome, don’t I??

Some other possibilities:

Even when you question if it’s worth the trouble, keep running.

You may never simultaneously love and hate something more than running.

Those are my thoughts on the matter, or at least the best I can come up with at 8 a.m. on a rainy Thursday morning. I dare you to try and summarize your running/life/fitness philosophy into 13 words or less.

Sara and I got to the lake early, picked up our numbers and chips, and then went back to the car to stay warm.

Shortly before the race started, we warmed up a bit and stretched. Because we’re hardcore like that.

Note: This is not an example of an effective stretching program.

We started out of the gate strong and when we reached the hills we cursed our fate and gave up powered through with the strength of 10 American Gladiators.

We finished with a flourish, and then immediately broke down into tears of pain and nausea joy and celebration. It was a moment worthy of a Lifetime made-for-TV movie.

After cleaning ourselves up, we headed for the post-race food table. I think Pearson’s Salted Nut Roll sponsors every race in this city. But really, what’s not to love about post-race ‘nanners and nut rolls?

Big congratulations to Sara on finishing her first 5K! Also, many thanks to Stacey for taking photos and to everyone who came out to cheer us on. And thanks to the Minnesota Twins for giving me free baseball tickets.

This Sunday, one of my bestest good friends and I are running the Minneapolis Recycle Run 5K. There are many reasons this event will be awesome:

• Free Twins tickets (and a T-shirt AND a water bottle). I love swag.
• There won’t be a sheet of ice around the lake like last time.
• The finish line isn’t positioned at the top of a hill.
• I will be running 3.1 miles rather than, say, 26 odd miles.*
• I am not prepared (at all) and will be running for the sheer joy of it. Any shaving of my 5K time will have to happen later.

I wonder if it’s going to be anything like Steve’s donut run in Iowa. Maybe if I recycle things during the race, it’ll knock seconds off my overall time? I’m particularly good at recycling and reusing dirty clothes from my laundry hamper, other people’s humor and the same three stories over and over again.

Hopefully there will be loads of embarrassing inspirational pictures to post on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone.

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* Good luck Boston marathoners J-Money, Nitmos and Robin (and anyone else kicking it up Heartbreak Hill). I’ll be cheering you on from my very-comfy office chair on Monday.

After taking almost a full week off of running (there was an attempted run last Wednesday, but it’s best we don’t even talk about it), I went out last night feeling recharged and ready to go.

The pros: It was my first run in over a month with no pain. I felt comfortable. Gave me a chance to clear my head after a weird week.

The cons: I was dehydrated. It was short. Right calf started hurting about an hour after the run, and is still sore today.

This is like the injury that wouldn’t leave. It has hunkered down in my calf, and just when I think it’s better, I wake up feeling like my leg is attached to my body with a bungee cord. I’ve stretched, stretched some more, done my calf raises, taken a week off running and even cried bitter, bitter tears taken time to reflect on any sloppy running habits. Still, nothing seems to help, which leaves me to conclude that I have one of these conditions:

• Some sort of flesh-eating bacteria is noshing on my leg muscles in a very localized and persistent way
• One leg has recently grown longer or shorter than the other, creating all sorts of muscle imbalances and corresponding calf strains
• Or, I have a severe sleepwalking disorder and whilst roaming at night I spend a lot of time wearing high heels.*

In the highly unlikely case that it’s actually something I didn’t mention above, I’m going to keep trucking along slowly and surely. Following Matt Fitzgerald’s advice in Back in the Game, I’m going to work diligently to rehab this nagging pain before it becomes a chronic nuisance. As he says:

Your injury is not fully healed when the pain goes away. The healing process is truly complete only when the affected muscle or joint is back to full strength, but this may never happen if you don’t actively work on strengthening it.

While I’m at it, here are some sources to check out if you’re interested in avoiding injury, recovering from injury or injuring others:

• Active Recovery by Kara Douglass Thom
• An Ounce of Prevention (Cool Running)
• Injury tips and articles at Runners Lounge
• Some riveting charts and graphs at the Virtual Sports Injury Clinic

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*Sleepwalking may lead to awkward confrontations in your neighbor’s kitchen.

If you don’t already know (and own one), Garmin is a company that makes these nifty sports watches/computers equipped with GPS and many other fantastic features. While I honestly believe that you can get a great workout sans all the gadgets that are hawked these days, there are many reasons I’m thinking about making the investment. Here are just a few (feel free to add to the list)¹:

• It tracks your pace, heart rate, route, blood alcohol level, etc.
• It can read minds.
• It cooks dinner and does laundry. Generally very helpful with household chores.
• It knows why bad things happen to good people, among other of life’s greatest questions.
• When you get tired it runs for you.
• Nuclear disarmament function.
• Street cred.
• A Garmin will always love you back.

Perhaps I’ll reward myself after finishing the race on Saturday. Do any of you have tips or suggestions for my Garmin and me²? Is it worth the hefty price tag?

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1. Portions of this list may have been, shall we say, exaggerated for dramatic effect. It has not been verified or approved by Garmin or any other party. Other than myself, of course, but I approve of most things I do so I’m not the best judge.2. Now that would be a good blog name.