Slugs

Been running, just not been blogging.  I won't make an effort to recap all the details of the past week but I'll note that it included daily runs with a few strength routines mixed in there.  Spent the past weekend in Boston where I was reacquainted with the Charles River paths.  Saturday explored down to MGH and the Museum of Science and Sunday went the opposite direction out to Watertown.  What a great place to run.

So I guess running has been going fairly well, although some issues still haven't completely resolved.  Right heel and left arch are more of a nuisance than anything serious, but after a quicker road run last Thursday the right heel was definitely more sore than it's been in a while.  Felt OK after taking Friday off.  All this seems to boil down to a process of adjustment.  Feedback and fine tuning, rest and growth.  The process of adapting to lighter footwear is a slow one, but one I'm convinced will pay dividends in the long run.  Pun intended.

Tired this morning after a double day of morning weights and a short run yesterday evening.  Couldn't find a rhythm in Rock Creek, and this was probably a combination of mental and physical fatigue (can't seem to get enough sleep lately), the wet and sloppy trails, GI issues (I learned the hard way how long hard-boiled eggs stay fresh), and anxiety about upcoming holiday travel.  Observed a slug belly up in the mud at one point and quickly identified with it.  Some days you feel like a slug, I guess. 

Looking forward to hopping a flight to Colorado tomorrow.  MM's parents have moved into a new house, and should give me plenty of streets to explore in the pre-dawn hours.  But it's a holiday, and I have a stockpile of DNR cards to cash in should I feel so obliged.

Distractions

1:30+ running in Rock Creek this morning.  After 50 min or so of lackluster trail stomping, I took my shoes off for 10 minutes to see if I could find a rhythm.  Not sure how this works, but once I put my shoes back on the final 30 minutes of the run were some of the best I've had in a long time.  It's almost like I had to prompt the muscle memory for lighter footfalls (such as required for running barefoot on a gravel laden dirt trail) and then it stuck around for the rest of the run.  Hips (especially glutes) are very much involved here, and I relished in the sense of coordination and strength that seems to be returning to my stride.  Gym strenght training is helping.  Feet feel great now, with the only complaint being the plantar irritation (it has lingered for the past few months).  But even that felt better once I went barefoot.  Wondering if this will ultimately resolve through these barefoot "moments?"  Also, right shin is almost a forgotten injury.  Good riddance.

My major frustration these days is not finding the time to check in here.  I feel like I've made some huge progress over the past couple of weeks.  It would be nice to divulge some of that and where I think the change has taken root.  In a nutshell, I think it's mostly that I've been allowing myself to do what I want, and heeding the feedback I get from my body.  The new diet has also made a significant impact.  Not stuffing myself full of chocolate and ice cream and cereal and pasta, I'm discovering new tastes I never knew I had.  Put like that, it's a wonder I didn't make this connection sooner.  I guess I'd always suspected that nutrition makes a big difference, just was never willing to look past my fears and insecurities.  Don't we deserve to eat whatever we want when we are working so hard burning calories?  Apparently it's not that simple.  Also, with a lack of training pressure (i.e. upcoming races on the calendar) I guess I'm just not pushing myself as much as I would be otherwise.  Speed does occasionally work its way into my legs, such as the last 15 minutes of today's run.  It's just sporadic, and mostly when I'm not really making an effort.  Which is the best kind of speed.

Also did 1:30 on Saturday, :30 and weights on Sunday, :50 yesterday AM, :30 yesterday PM.  This has been almost exclusively soft surfaces and trails.

This window has sat open for 7 hours, guess I got distracted.

Progressing

Ran around by headlamp for an hour in Rock Creek this morning.  I've wrapped up my runs of late with the feeling that I could do this for hours on end.  Partly due to the relaxed pace I've been running, but also because it's just so much fun.  Mostly ran today although I'm still taking walking breaks periodically just to check in with the leg, which is better by the day.  I'm back to 100% minimal or barefoot, and I find that with a little extra awareness it is entirely doable and in fact ideal (speaking for myself here).  I was headed in this direction this spring but the pressure to train pushed me to exceed my rate of adaptation.  A little mindfulness and a lack of pressure this time around seems to be going a long way.  Form has been critical and I think this is really an individual process.

Yesterday did the following exercises at the gym: machine single leg press, swiss ball leg curl, standing dumbbell calf raises, dumbbell lunges, dumbbell renegade rows, barbell squat, barbell bench press, and five types of range-of-motion hip excersises on the cable machine.  Similar excersises had been prescribed to me in the past for physical therapy, but instead of performing them lying down (e.g. four-way straight leg raises) these involve a lot more specificity in that you have to support yourself on your non-exercising leg.  They are adapted from this book, which is not very good reading but is a great resource for running-specific strength exercises.  It's also got some pretty thorough analyses of various stride patterns.  The whole gym session took two hours, and I'd hope to trim that by 10 or 20 minutes in the future.  The emphasis of all this is general strength and core/hip stabilization.

Autumnal Bliss

Sage pork loin, kale and chard, and sweet potato.  Still licking my chops.  I'm loving getting back into minding what I eat.  This is about three weeks now that I've abstained from grains, dairy, and most processed foods and I would really recommend everyone try something like this especially if GI trouble is ever a concern.  My stomach feels great.  I've had a healthy layer of extra fat around my midsection for the past couple of years even as my training ramped up over the summer.  I can feel it now starting to melt away (for the record, summer weight topped out at about 151, I'm at about 148 average these days).  Energy is great.  I'm not calling it Paleo because I think labels are restrictive.  But it's close to that I guess.  As a former yoga instructor used to say, if you truly enjoy what you eat in the sense that it feels good, it is healthful.  Ice cream tastes good but it makes me feel like shit, so I can't say honestly that I enjoy it.

I was bogged down with some chores for most of the day, including winterizing my bike, which mostly consists of tuning it up and putting the fenders back on.  I also reinstalled the rear rack in hopes of using panniers more often than my shoulder bag.  I don't have a hose outside, and I discovered that washing a bike in a shower is much more trouble than it's worth, as it involves then washing the shower and then taking a shower.  I'm growing tired of this closet apartment day by day.

After tooling around with the bike and then some other organizing, I was frustrated that most of the day had passed in spite of my intentions to head to the gym.  I had accepted that I wouldn't get in any exercise today, but about an hour before dinner I realized that I could fit in a decent run and still have time to cook.  I headed down to Rock Creek for some exploration and found myself on some carriage roads I've never seen before.  The scenery is almost perfect, and several times I found myself in awe at the utter beauty of the orange and yellow that now lines the stoney trails.  Turned out to have a pretty good run, even though the right shin is still on the mend.  It's at the point where it feels safe to run, and I've been good about adjusting based on feedback I get on the fly.  37 minutes on some uncharted, forgotten path.

This evening's jaunt quite harmoniously complemented a longer trip through RCP I had yesterday morning.  I set out with expectations low, just looking to spend some time outside.  I wound up doing a loop and getting lost on some game trails only to run up on what was probably the biggest white-tailed deer I've ever seen in person.  I got close to him, enough that his musk was pungent, and then realized that there were actually four or five other deer within sight that I hadn't noticed.  Most of the outing was run, but I took walking breaks, and even took off the shoes for 15 minutes or so of authentic barefoot running.  Haha.  I guess I'm a sucker for fads after all.  One hour and thirty minutes spent in autumnal bliss.

By the way, if anyone in DC actually stumbles across this, check out the lineup at Red Palace next Saturday night.  I'll be accompanying Naseem of Kingsley Flood on various acoustic devices.  Should be rad.

Test Runs

Here I find myself in a transitional phase again, and given that I haven't really been running, entries here feel a little awkward.  There have also been logistical challenges that have always been there, such as finding an appropriate time to post, that seem more pronounced now that there is not a convenient format such as summarizing my runs or divulging my weekly mileage.

When things are in flux for me, they tend to be in flux, and I often combat the feeling of helplessness that occasionally accompanies these periods by engaging myself in alternative interests.  For now this feels refreshing, like I've been able to explore some ideas I've been toying around with but haven't been able to invest in due to the pressure of getting daily runs in.

The biggest things have been nutrition and conceptualizing my training strategies, in addition to reacquainting myself with music and some other hobbies of mine.  Regarding the former, I've never been a die-hard believer in anything resembling a fad, but I admit I've been toying around with a Paleo-esque nutrition scheme, and even picked up some reading relevant to endurance athletes.  I've come across Friel before and if he thinks something like this is worthwhile, I'll at least entertain the idea.  Over the past few years a GI issue has surfaced for me that is sometimes associated with gluten intolerance, and while I've never considered a wheat-free diet, it seems like a logical step to try and mitigate some of the symptoms.  And regarding carbs and energy as they relate to endurance training, I've recently discovered that many of the old standby's that many runners fall back on here, such as consuming gels and supplements, are just unnecessary for me.  In all the hundreds of miles I put in leading up to MCM, I only consumed one gel.  Those hundred calories of sugar were strategic, and I think they should be by default as opposed to something I just do every few miles in a long run.  The diet thing will be something I continue to explore and report back on here.  It's been about 10 days, and so far so good, but I've realized that I'll need to consume MASSIVE amounts of vegetables and supplement with more fruits than would otherwise be promoted by cavemen types in order to get enough calories.  But I'm not a caveman, and I don't aspire to that, so I'll continue with whatever works for me.

Training?  I'm thinking long term.  This break is refreshing, but I want to get to the point where I don't need to interrupt long stretches of running because of injuries (that is, after all, the only reason I haven't been running lately).  I've done much better in this regard over the past year, and things feel like they continue to improve as I learn more, but there's still progress to be made.  I'd like to establish a regular circuit of races, where I'm not feeling pressure necessarily to peak for one event, but rather implement them as training and "fun."  In a way, it's also a way to integrate my running identity, which is something that perhaps I haven't always been open to for one reason or another.  This weekend is the Jug Bay 10k, and I've been considering showing up on a whim (there's also a 5k) but that's mostly a matter of how my leg feels.  It's improved a ton over the past week.  I'm off to the gym now, and we'll give it a test run.