Run DMZ

To be able to sleep in and get in a long hike before life kicks into a higher gear is a true blessing. So many people were out and about last weekend, perhaps because trails were closed the three days prior due to tree treatments. Will be back here tomorrow (Thursday) with friends as the big backpacking trip approaches.

The beginning and ending tend to be what gets remembered most. We can recall the excitement and enthusiasm starting a new project, partnership, romance, home, family, or friendship. We also vividly remember how all of these end, whether naturally or suddenly. This robs us of the portion that really matters, where the mundane resides but without which progress comes to a halt. I'm talking about the middle, that part of a plan, relationship, or life where we actually devote the bulk of our time. It tends to muddle together because it doesn't leave quite the impression of the beginning and the end, what is known as the primacy effect .  That's why so much emphasis is placed on first impressions and final departures. But the middle is where we make our imprint, whether living up to a promise or proving people wrong. It's everything in the middle that determines how we are seen and remembered when it's lights out. Right now I'm in the middle of my backpack training ....

  I don’t remember the last time I tried to sit cross legged on the floor in what we the un-woke once called Indian style. It’s painful because I have very tight hip flexors. I even hate doing yoga on account of how we all start with legs tucked under. My quads don’t cooperate and my feet cramp – even with two blocks under my butt.   I shuffle when I run due to too-taut hamstrings, and wobble during walks thanks to arthritic hips. This is what happens when long-time runners give short shrift to stretching. I’m not light. I’m not lithe. And I’m certainly not limber.   With that as the setup, allow me to introduce my word for 2022: Stretch. I need the daily reminder as I near a milestone birthday and, well, feel my true age. That makes this year’s word as practical as it is multi-purpose and metaphorical.   Kids, jobs, school, pups, grandkids and a geriatric pit bull with bladder issues have all robbed me of the requisite warmup-exercise-cooldown ritual. I’ve long stri...

Lately, I’ve been telling everyone within earshot that I’m tired of working so hard. It took a couple of carefree weekends and slow Mondays to realize how much more padding I want around hard weeks’ worth of work.    I’ve been a two-income earner for many, many years. With a few years’ exceptions, I’ve always held more than one job, as much to keep my mind stimulated as our cupboards full. And until now, I handled two occupations relatively well. But decades of heavy loads and a shortening lifespan have me reevaluating how I want to spend my days ahead. It probably doesn’t help that most of my friends now are unencumbered by jobs and school-aged children and living their best lives. I have several years before I can join them.   The hours add up My lifestyle is no longer a novelty.  A lot of people work gigs  beyond a full-time job. As a professional writer and budding novelist, I spend way too much time tethered to a desk and chair. I do get up at least once ev...

My friend Louise, a longtime reader and commenter on this blog, sent along a news item out of Portland on new smart sunglasses to help runners maintain a swift pace. The glasses are embedded with code that tracks your pace and distance, much like a Garmin or other GPS-based watch. But here's the really cool thing: When you start to fall behind, an avatar appears on your right going the pace you originally set. So, you in essence start to race yourself. Genius. And expensive. The startup behind it expected the first version to hit the market around the winter holidays and cost $300 to $500 a pair. And these are sunglasses, which means they may also help keep out harmless sunrays but are more likely to be lost, broken or stolen because they aren't affixed to your wrist when not in use. But this certainly seems to be the wave of the future for runners in search of novel ways to improve running times. Whether this particular tool for training will truly work remains to ...

We all know that running with someone else can improve our pace, our spirits and our distances. But here's another reason: it really improves your mind. At a workshop last week, a national expert in dementia care urged everyone to engage in healthy lifestyle choices now to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and other types of memory impairment associated with aging, poor exercise, bad diet, stress, poor sleep habits and head injuries. (And even if she didn't mention it, there's now evidence forgetting to brush and floss teeth can contribute to the disease too .) It's also important to not socially isolate yourself since doing so can lead to "cognitive stagnation." That's why I'm recommending everyone occasionally team up with a running partner. When you carry on a conversation while running you engage the brain differently. -You take turns talking, which requires you to think before speaking. -You use decision making to decide together where...

Take an inventory of people you'd call your friends and ask: How did you find each other? The other week there was a fascinating piece in The New York Times about the difficulties in forging strong, lasting friendships once we hit our 30s and 40s. It struck me as strange in that most of my strongest bonds began when I hit my 30s and 40s. My life may not be typical. I was usually the fifth wheel in school. Our family moved frequently with my father's job, but we didn't live in military communities where there were lots of transients. So I normally had to find a clique to infiltrate. But with no personal history, I was forever the outsider valued by the group mainly for my brain. In other words, I stayed in good standing so long as I allowed people to cheat off me during test and term paper seasons. There are a few exceptions, of course. I was recently invited to a very old and dear friend's 50th birthday party from high school. My college friendships, grouted by c...

Back before I started blogging, I kept an online weekly diary for my track club's marathon training program. The first few months, I never received feedback. Then I wrote the following post and everything changed. People started commenting - praising me, even - on a very active message board. After having a conversation this weekend with a friend who maintains you aren't a real runner until you pee or poop on yourself, I decided to rummage up that 9-year-old piece to repost here. File This One Under TMI (Too Much Information) Way back when my sister and I were planning our first marathon, we relied primarily on word of mouth for training tips. With each new piece of information, we’d mull over the possibility -- falling behind pace; overdosing on Gatorade; running in rain -- and adjust our expectations accordingly. (We would also, unfortunately, encounter all of these situations and then some that October morning.) About three weeks before the big day, my sister called. ...

Do you stay up later and sleep in on weekends? Many of us do. There's an interesting piece on NPR about what one expert calls "social jet lag," saying that when we live on different schedules during the week vs. weekend, it results in feeling like we're in different time zones. One potential side effect is weight gain, much like when you travel East to West and vice versa and get thrown off your eat and sleep routine. Listen (or read) for yourself: Jet-Lagged By Your Social Calendar

I used to think it was just me. Then I started following a good many running bloggers and realized that I’m not the only one that seems to be struck by a significant injury soon before a big event. Here’s what I think happens. We invest a lot of hope and money into a big “A” race, or even a B race that sells out quickly, and we promise to follow the marathon or half marathon schedule to stay healthy. But maybe we get ambitious and ramp up the mileage ahead of schedule or start the schedule midway through without a proper base. Then, what starts as a niggling ache in our foot, ankle, shin, knee, quad, hamstring or hip becomes bona fide pain as we build up mileage. We realize this is maybe going to take more than a day or two off to heal. So we take ibuprofen and give it a week when we really need to give it two or three. But that long of a layoff could spell trouble so we “modify” our routine but continue to put undue pressure on our knees, hips, feet and thus make matters worse. Instea...

As you work up to longer distances, it can be easy to forget what it was like the first time you ran a mile and then a 5k and then a 10k and so on, whether it was in a race or in your backyard. You get picky about the T-shirts, stashing the cotton ones deep in a drawer. Medals don’t mean as much unless they're different or from some exotic place. Even among new-runner bloggers, eventually the shorter race posts get short shrift to the marathons and ultras and half and full Ironmans. There’s an implicit message that you’ve moved on to bigger and better things. I used to hold a similar attitude once I began running marathons , but a few people recently reminded me of what I'd already forgotten a few years ago -- that feeling of accomplishment when you push past a new barrier. Yesterday two of the women that I run with on Saturdays completed their first half marathon. They sent a great photo of everyone wearing similar T-shirts, big smiles and medals at the finish. I’m thinking ...

You are running your usual neighborhood route and hit the crosswalk button at a traffic light to run across a quiet street. You have your reflective vest and cell phone and aren't wearing earbuds because it's only 5:45 a.m. and still pitch dark. You get the signal to walk and are midway across when you hear a car approaching. It is slowing but not enough to actually stop. The driver misses you by inches, then speeds off. Do you: (a) Call 911 on your cell phone, knowing the chance of a police chase is slim to none? (b) Make note of the car's make and model, knowing the chance of finding it later to leave a nasty note is also slim to none? (c) Use all that anger to power up the hills, ending the route 10 minutes faster than usual? Yes, I opted for (c) while obsessing about (a) and (b). This is the second time in a week I've almost been hit by an early morning motorist. I am doing everything right, but the past week just proves that staying aware is not enough. I pick area...

Not initially, at least. Here are a few things I've discovered in my many years of running. 1. Technical clothing stinks. Yes, it wicks away moisture better than cotton and it generally makes you look more slim, but synthetic fibers hold in smells. They also don’t respond well to regular detergent. If you don’t wash your running clothes quickly, with special cleansers and often, the smell sets in and is “reactivated” next time you sweat. 2. Headphones are uncool in races. The USATF has relaxed its headphone ban in most of its sanctioned races, leaving it at the race director’s discretion unless it’s a championship race. The same safety issues remain, but enforcement proved too difficult so now we usually are free to move to music. However, the earlier ruling and vocal opposition and non-compliance from primarily mid-pack and back-of-the-pack runners created a division within race ranks. Fair or not, there’s an unspoken perception that frontrunners don’t need the assistance for mo...

Why do I always seem to stumble on great articles the day I am sworn to keep my mouth shut? Yesterday, a.k.a. "Wordless Wednesday," I discovered an article in the Wall Street Journal that every distance runner/triathlete should read - and heed. Runners Learn to Realize Their Training Limits As the title suggests, it's about the downsides of staying a little too focused on training and not really listening to your body when it is trying to tell you something. It's a place almost every seasoned runner has been in. A more-is-better mentality permeates the endurance-exercise culture. Novice runners in particular tend to think that finishing a marathon requires no end of training. In fact, however, under-training is rare. After all, more than 95% of marathon starters reach the finish line. But, as the article later makes us aware, getting to the start line is a different story. Of the tens of thousands of Americans who pay as much as $180 to register for marathons, as many...

This week our club began 10 weeks of hill training on Tuesday nights. I ate a lot of dust and humble pie on the first one, which included going up and down two particularly gruesome hills in Balboa Park a total of six times. I managed to stay with my group the entire time, but on the last two climbs, we all pretty much ran out of steam and walked a wee bit. Since I run hills routinely at home, I was surprised at how difficult the workout was for me. Hills are part of the training trilogy: long slow distance runs to build endurance; speedwork to improve pace; and hills to build strength. We got a mini-lesson on how to handle hills from our coach just prior to the workout. The most important thing, whether in training or racing, is to "never, ever sprint up a hill." If you do, you will implode at the top and suddenly be passed up with no chance to catch up. Form is key with hills. You need to keep your head up (to keep air flowing) and pump your arms to get those legs moving....

I will be volunteering at a master's track meet next Saturday, but I hope some of you moms and daughters will instead be at Ocean Air Community Park in Carmel Valley for a fitness fair hosted by GoTRIbal. Caleb K., who I know from DailyMile.com and who is a pretty phenomenal triathlete, wrote a nice piece on the event in the San Diego Examiner. GoTRIbal is a network of women who promote - primarily through example - triathlons and running. Its Chief Ambassador is Kona Queen Chrissie Wellington . San Diego is home to the largest "tribe" in the nation, which is no surprise given every other person here seems to be training for a triathlon right now. Here's some more information on GoTRIbal in the Park on Saturday . It runs 8 a.m. to noon and includes: An hour-long yoga session "Get Your Booty Strong" Bootcamp 2k fun run/walk Mother-daughter activities A cycle-run for the wee little ones Food Raffle giveaways You can also learn more about GoTRIbal on its Web s...

Tuesday night I fulfilled my main running goal: returning to my club's track workouts. A small victory, maybe, but a very significant one for me. I'd last run with the group in July 2007. I was still suffering from serious sunburn behind my knees where sunscreen had worn off on Sunday. It ached every time I bent my legs. I was hoping I'd forget the soreness once we started and I did. Amazing what going anaerobic within a minute does to pain priorities. Since it was the first post-marathon workout for some folks, we had it "easy." We were assigned eight 400m repeats w/ 30 sec. recovery between followed by ten 100-meter strides, then we finished up with crunches. My group took longer recovery breaks, so we managed only 7 repeats before we were told to fall in line for the 8 remaining strides. My 400 splits were 2:10 to 2:12 - consistent if not quite fast. I did the first 50 crunches, but only managed half the rowing rotations and just two minutes of planks. I have n...

Here I am sitting in front of my laptop privately cursing another lost opportunity to get in a run—and it’s only 5:30 in the morning. Such have been my weeks for a while now, and I am suspecting the pattern isn’t breaking any time soon. I get up at all hours for what I consider important work—the freelance stuff that helps pay the bills and keep me sharp. (Well, as sharp as you can be at 4 in the morning.) Then there’s my position at a non-profit, which is threatened by the state due to California’s budget crisis. And this time it truly is a crisis if voters want to throw the elderly with dementia effectively out on the street, and right now they do . If I am up all night worrying, I cannot imagine what the families of our Alzheimer’s patients must be thinking. Meantime, daily living lacks its usual diversity. Calories get consumed but no longer counted. The gym bag remains in the bedroom corner. Laundry piles up, as do dust and bills, and my car is starting to resemble my closet. So t...

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of joining some friends to hear Dr. Joe Vigil discuss how he trains runners to become national champions and Olympic medalists (Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi among them). The man has quite a sense of humor and quite a resume, having coached 425 All-Americans and been inducted into 11 Halls of Fame. He’s also featured in the recent best-seller Born to Run , which helped spawn the current barefoot running movement. I thought I’d share a few bits of advice, both tactical and philosophical, gleaned from the coach’s talk at City College. In Joe Vigil’s world, they are pretty much one in the same because a truly competitive runner embraces a lifestyle and not just a sport. Be passionate. If you are truly fervent about running, you look forward to every workout and you do not fear the potential pain of long runs or speed work. Embrace the experience and be grateful for the opportunity to be helping your body stay healthy. “You’ve got to run as a style o...

I went back to school this year to learn new software skills to stay competitive in today’s anemic economy. About 80 percent of the students are professionals who lost their jobs; the other 20 percent fear the same fate. The classes take place at a satellite campus in Serra Mesa on Saturdays and Sundays. We have to arrive between 7 and 7:30 a.m. to get in line for a good seat in the Mac Lab. Some weeks, I am in class all day Saturday; others, it’s Sunday. Beginning after spring break next week, it’ll be both Saturdays and Sundays through May. I don’t know about the other 20-percenters who have day jobs, but I’m beginning to tire of weekends devoted to a life of the mind. I love it while I’m learning, but come Sunday evening I realize how little time I spent outside a cold classroom. This semester’s schedule also has created an exercise inversion. I basically now bulk all of my running, rowing, and gym time into Monday thru Friday. The key for me is to prepare well the night before. I ...