Monthly Archives: December 2009

by amyreinink | December 23, 2009 · 2:18 pm

A red and green (and white!) run to end 2009

It’s so easy to stay inside.

I ran through Silver Spring wearing this, causing at least one passerby to say: “What the … “

If not for the promise of costumes at Pacers Silver Springs’ “red and green fun run” on Tuesday night, I may have done so.

I would have missed such a beautiful adventure!

We left from the store wearing Santa hats on our heads, jingle bells on our shoes and a variety of other interesting holiday fare in addition to our reflective vests and fleece jackets. We did the uber-hilly 5.1-mile Grubb Road Out-and-Back out-and-back, which I usually run in 41 minutes or less, in 44 minutes — and loved every minute of it. We dodged snow drifts as high as we were, slush piles as deep as our ankles and pedestrians trying to dodge these things themselves.

I giggled through the whole run, and I wasn’t the only one taking the “fun” part of this run seriously. The fastest runner in our group, who usually runs sub-7-minute miles on routes like this, turned around a few times to shepherd the gang along. Steve, who’s usually a good 30 seconds per mile faster than me, stuck with my group, running slowly enough to make sure his Santa hat stayed in place.

Best of all, the route took us past some of the most beautiful holiday scenes around: Rock Creek Park with a thick blanket of snow, the stark trees casting eerie moonshadows across the white. Christmas lights made soft-focus from a veil of snow in the bushes. Christmas trees glowing like beacons in the windows of beautiful, stately homes in the Colonial Village neighborhood. And finally, the Bishop’s House, a home on North Portal Road with more Christmas lights than you’ve ever seen in a single yard (trust me – you don’t know from Christmas lights until you’ve seen this baby).

It left me with a sense of peace I’m hoping to carry through the whole holiday season, not to mention 2010.

*Editor’s note: This will be my last blog post of 2009. I will return with running-specific New Year’s Resolutions, my 2010 race schedule and photos of my awesome, runner-friendly Christmas gifts ((crosses fingers)) in 2010.*

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by amyreinink | December 22, 2009 · 3:25 pm

Can a Santa hat boost running performance?

The darkness of the winter solstice, the looming deadlines and the two feet of snow blanketing Silver Spring all suggest a quick treadmill run might be the safest and most comfortable option for today’s run.

But if I run with my group at Pacers Silver Spring, which is holding its annual “red and green” costume run tonight, I get to wear a Santa hat. Easy choice, right?

We’re running the historic Seminary loop, which is one of my favorite routes, even without the Santa hat. And this may be my last chance to see my running buddies before Steve and I start our holiday travel extravaganza, which will take us from DC to Tampa to Colorado, not to return until 2010.

So in a continuation of Motivation Monday, I will admit that today, I’m motivated by the idea of running in a Santa hat. Really. That’s all. It’s the little things in life, right?

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by amyreinink | December 17, 2009 · 2:30 pm

Running metrics that matter

We runners love our numbers: our PRs, our heart rates, our weekly mileage, our minute-by-minute pace. I have been inordinately proud of what I perceive to be a fast pace for training runs (8-minute miles for a normal five-miler) and deeply disappointed in what I perceive to be a heartbreakingly slow marathon time (4:39) given my pace for long runs (between 9 and 9:30-minute miles).

At my annual physical yesterday, I got a reminder of some metrics I should probably be more focused on and proud of: My cholesterol (low for the bad stuff), my blood pressure (112/76), my resting pulse (46!). When my doctor ran through the standard list of questions about my medical history and current habits, I felt a rush of gratitude that my problems are relatively trivial running injuries rather than major disorders or diseases. When she brought up stress management and its role in curbing health problems, I nodded vigorously and told her I believe endorphins cure all ills.

I’ll be heading out with Pacers Silver Spring’s running group tonight, and we’ll be running a pace-ruining hill loop.

But rather than focusing on how fast or slow I’m running, I’m going to focus on how much stronger and healthier the hill work makes me, and how much a good, hard run can do to erase pre-holiday stress — accomplishments that seem much sweeter than any PR.

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by amyreinink | December 16, 2009 · 12:44 pm

A carrot, a stick, a lovely swim and a sweet reward

I woke up yesterday morning dreading my scheduled swim.

So I revisited an idea I’ve been experimenting with recently: outright bribing myself. At the grocery store the other day, I’d spotted a box of Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Herbal Tea, but held back from making what I saw as a frivolous purchase. But I’d acquired a Celestial Seasonings coupon since then, not to mention a task it could serve as a worthy reward for.

Here’s the workout that earned me the sweetest cup of tea ever:

All freestyle is done with a pull buoy.

1,000 warmup: alt. 250 free, 250 back

Pyramid set, freestyle, on :15 rest, moderate pace that you can maintain (goal is to hold your pace the whole time): > 1×50 > 1×100 > 1×150 > 1×200 > 1×250 > 1×300 > 1×250 > 1×200 > 1×150 > 1×100 > 1×50 (1,800 total)

4×25 sprint freestyle on :45

4×25 no-breath freestyle

My body felt so good and loose and happy afterwards, I didn’t even need the tea (though you’d better believe I drank it, anyway)!

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by amyreinink | December 14, 2009 · 12:41 pm

Motivation Monday: the happy stomach edition

Last week, I asked for suggestions for what a girl can eat to make sure her stomach doesn’t act up on long runs, as mine did

Who knew something as simple as a piece of banana-pumpkin bread could provide motivation?

during the Marine Corps Marathon in October. You delivered, providing dozens of awesome and varied suggestions, and I’ve been happily sampling new pre-run meals ever since.

My new favorite: banana oats before a morning run, or a banana with a packet of Justin’s Nut Butter in the afternoon before an evening workout. Quaker slow-cooking oats were already a breakfast staple for me, but the pumpkin and flaxseed I usually mix in aren’t quite the easy-to-digest quick carbs I was looking for. Not only were the banana oats easy on the tummy, I like the idea that oats are healthy and hearty even as they’re light, making them perfect both before a long run or for a breakfast any old morning.

This week, thanks to the new eats and some training tweaks, I’m motivated by feeling like I have some control over my body. If I have a bad stomach day during a marathon, I can mess around with my diet to reduce my chances of it happening again. If I have trouble with the 10K, I can add a faster, shorter tempo run or long lactate-threshold repeats to my workout schedule to try to nail my goal pace (thanks for the suggestion, Megan and Lindsay!).

Plus, it’s just exciting to try new things, which I’m doing both in training and in the kitchen. Along with my goal of finding safe, dependable pre-run meals, I’ve also set a goal of sampling one new in-season vegetable per week. Two weeks ago, I tried kabocha squash, sometimes called a Japanese pumpkin. I roasted it with brown sugar and spices, and learned that it tastes like a cross between a sweet potato and pumpkin, smooth, sweet and almost creamy. Last week, I mixed kale leaves into soup. Yummy, though I feel this is a bit of an acquired taste. This week, it’s Swiss chard and ambercup squash, a bright-orange pumpkin cousin. I’ll let you know how they work out for me.

I’m also finding motivation in looking to what’s worked in the past. On two separate occasions last week, I tried a slice of banana bread (the recipe I’m using right now involves pumpkin and oatmeal, plus some of my own tweaks — less sugar and oil, more pumpkin) and a latte (one shot of espresso, a tiny bit of nonfat milk) pre-run. Not sure how this combo will hold up on 15-milers, but it really does work like a charm before shorter workouts.

I also looked backwards, in a good way, when I revisited one of my favorite topics, sports psychology and motivation, in a guest post for the cool, helpful Web site Treadmill Reviews last week. I reminded myself of some of the tips I tried to master last summer, and I’ve had some luck getting my mind back on track already — turns out, I have control over my body AND my mind (who knew?).

What’s motivating you this week?

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by amyreinink | December 11, 2009 · 6:04 pm

How to run a fast 10K (I have no idea)

I’ve been running 10Ks since 2002, when I made my first attempt at “distance running” — at least as I saw it at the time — at the Oxford Day 10K while I was living in Easton, Md.

I was running 30 minutes or so a few times a week, in addition to other workouts, but didn’t train, per se, and felt like death the whole second half of the race. I don’t even remember my time, which is probably a blessing.

Now, even with two marathons and a bunch of half-marathons and 10-milers on my running resume, the 10K continues to stump me. I’m faster and smarter now, but still, I have a sneaking suspicion I should be turning out faster 10Ks than I have been.

A typical 10K time is about 52 minutes for me. I say “typical” because that’s how fast I ran my last two. Sure, they were hilly courses, and yes, one of them was sullied by some stomach issues. Still, 52 minutes and change is pretty far from what the McMillan Running Pace Calculator predicts I should run for a 10K — a 49:08, or slightly faster than 8-minute miles, which truly seems to make sense given my other race times. I understand why my marathon times don’t line up with the rest of my PRs — 26.2 miles is so long, any number of factors can change the course of the race. But a 10K? If I can run a decent 5K and a good half-marathon, why can’t I figure out this strange little middleman?

I don’t think I’m being unnecessarily hard on myself — 52 minutes means I’m running at a pace that’s slower than my best half-marathon, and also slower than my 5- to 6-mile training runs, which are usually right around 8-minute miles.

So what am I doing wrong?

I have played around with the pace at which I start a 10K without any definitive results. I’ve had a few races where I’ve started around 7:30-minute-mile pace, only to slow down the second half. But when I start slower … well, I just sort of stay slow. I just have a hard time wrapping my brain around how much I should hurt if I’m running the race right. I understand that during a 5K, I basically will feel like I’m running hard the whole time. I understand that during a half-marathon, I want to constantly remind myself to push the pace any time I feel too comfortable. I guess I don’t understand how I should feel in a 10K, and waver between going too hard and going too easy.

I’m had planned to run the Jingle All the Way 10K on Sunday morning, but scheduling conflicts intervened. But I’m thinking a fast 10K might be my next short-term running goal.

So who knows how to race a 10K rather than just run it clumsily and unevenly? Tips would be much appreciated!

In other news, I’ve started experimenting with new pre-run breakfasts, the first frontier in figuring out how to manage my stomach while running. This morning, before a rather intense lifting and core workout, I tried my typical slow-cooking Quaker oatmeal with banana slices rather than pumpkin mixed in. Delicious, and didn’t bug me a bit while working out! Trying something that worked made me feel like I learned something about how my body works — part of why I love running to begin with.

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by amyreinink | December 10, 2009 · 12:31 pm

Iontophoresis for runners: What P. Diddy and I have in common

After P. Diddy finished the New York City Marathon in 2003, he credited iontophoresis, or the use of a small electrical current to transmit an anti-inflammatory medicine, with curbing his knee pain enough to let him complete the race.

I was unaware of P. Diddy’s experience before my doctor suggested ionto, as it’s commonly called, for my IT band two years ago, the first time I received this nifty, noninvasive treatment. I’m receiving it again now for peroneal tendonitis and/or an inflamed posterior tibialis (or, to keep it simple, a cranky ankle), and I’m optimistic it’ll get me over the why-does-it-still-hurt hump.

Here’s how the treatment works: A physical therapist fastens a patch with anti-inflammatory ointment to the spot on my ankle that hurts. Then, she attaches a tiny device that administers a low electrical charge for just a few minutes – since I use the self-contained patch, there’s no need to keep it hooked up to the device for long (another version of ionto uses a large machine to transmit the charge, and takes about 15 minutes). I feel a slight twinge — not pain, exactly, but a little sensation that lets me know something’s going on. I leave the patch on for two hours to let the medicine do its thing. Repeat, essentially, every other day for two weeks.

I like that this is noninvasive and basically risk-free. I like that I’m receiving the treatment on my ankle — since the muscles and tendons are closer to the surface there, my chances of it working are greater. I like that I may have the boniest ankles in the history of ankles for the same reason.

Finally, I like that it’s only one way I’m looking to attack the problem. I’m also doing several prehab exercises given to me by the therapist I worked with yesterday, an enthusiastic woman named Toni. Toni told me she embarked on a prehab program to strengthen her own ankles after multiple ankle sprains clued her in to possible weakness.

She gave me a TheraBand, and showed me how to use by pointing and flexing my foot in all four directions: plantar flexion, like pressing on the gas pedal in your car; dorsiflexion, pulling back in the opposite direction; and inversion and eversion, or pulling the resistance band from side-to-side.With the ionto and the exercises, it can only be a matter of time before my ankles are in good working order again!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my post about managing a runner’s stomach. My next experiment, thanks to your thoughtful and interesting suggestions (other ideas still welcome!), will be oatmeal and a banana. Which sounds pretty delicious, even without the run.

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by amyreinink | December 9, 2009 · 12:05 pm

Managing a runner’s stomach

Your legs are ready after months of speedwork and long runs. Your race plan is set, your gear well-tested, your shoes broken in. You’re perfectly primed to run a great race — except for your stomach, which is roiling from some unknown source of distress.

I’ve got a wide variety of perfectly manageable, not-at-all-serious digestive issues. I’m not going to elaborate on those here, but will say only that it’s not entirely surprising that I experienced race-ruining GI issues the day of the Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 25. Here’s what is surprising: Since then, I’ve read dozens of blog posts echoing mine, with well-trained runners succumbing to similar issues despite following all the obvious advice about pre-race fuel. None of them seems to have a clue about how to prevent another such experience in the future.

I know all the obvious stuff: I shouldn’t eat or drink anything new leading up to race day, I should avoid bean burritos and chocolate chip cookies and wine the night before. My new plan: Look beyond the obvious to take my own personal nutrition plan to the next level.

A few things that seem to work:

I’ve got a few staples I’m pretty sure I’ll never remove from the pre-race rotation — pizza has literally been my pre-race meal for every longer-distance race I’ve completed (all but one have been free of stomach issues), and one of my first cooking experiences in high school involved a pre-race banana bread for cross country (right now, I’m loving my own version of sports dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield’s banana-pumpkin bread).
Eating stomach-friendly foods two days before a big race, not just Race Day Eve.
Eating a *small* meal or snack three hours before running. Not medium-sized, which my finicky stomach can sometimes get tripped up on. Small. Like, a single piece of banana bread and an apple.

A few pre-run breakfasts other runners have suggested:

Oatmeal
Wheat toast with natural peanut butter
Wheat bagel with banana and peanut butter
An Ensure or Boost shake
Cream of wheat

Here’s what I’m going to try:

I’m keeping a food diary tracking what I eat and how it makes my stomach feel.
I’m mixing up my routine to see if there are new foods to add to my repertoire. My first such experiment involved everyone’s go-to pre-run food, a bagel with some peanut butter. I visited friends in New Jersey last weekend, and enjoyed one of the Garden State’s characteristic chewy, doughy bagel smeared with peanut butter, eating half for breakfast and half with a banana for lunch. It was delicious! But when I ran about three hours afterwards, I could still kind of feel the bagel hanging around in my stomach. Next up: bananas and peanut butter, oatmeal.
I’m reevaluating everything I think works now. My current pre-run snacks or breakfasts involve a piece of homemade banana bread or a Luna bar and a shot of espresso with a tiny bit of milk. These have served me well for years. But does the espresso shot work because it’s a good and safe pre-race food for me, or because I’ve gotten lucky? Like a cheesy murder mystery at a small-town dinner theater, even the seemingly good guys are suspects at this point.

Which foods work for you, both the night before a race or the hours before a race or workout? Which foods definitely DON’T work for you? What steps do you take to ensure you don’t suffer GI distress on race day?

A few resources I’ve found helpful:

This article in the International SportsMed Journal details all the different things that can go wrong in the GI tract while distance-running.
This Runner’s World story details some “safe” foods, but my first experiment (see above) indicates even those will have to be carefully tested.
This competitor.com post offers some interesting insights from a triathlete who searched for her own answers on the topic.

Coming tomorrow: my adventures in iontophoresis. I get my second treatment today, and I’ll make sure to take a picture of the magic patch of anti-inflammatory goodness to share with all of you!

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by amyreinink | December 8, 2009 · 12:32 pm

December playlist: Carol of the Bells and other pump-up songs

Isn’t it funny the way playlists naturally evolve? Mine rotate about once a month through an organic process: I delete old songs one at a time when I get to the point that I just can’t listen to them one more time, then slowly replace them with hard-won new songs I deem worthy of running to.

I rename the playlist once a month, and usually find myself with a drastically different mix than what I started the month with.

December brings a boost in the form of the Christmas carols I add to the mix every year — kind of like the way pulling out my under-bed storage bin full of sweaters every winter makes me feel like I have a whole new winter wardrobe. That’s right — I run to Christmas carols. I’m not talking about “Silent Night” so much as “Carol of the Bells.” Get a good a capella recording of the latter, and I guarantee you’ll pick up the pace when it comes on. Vince Guaraldi’s tunes from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” are great for long runs, and almost any carol by Ella Fitzgerald will carry you through miles two and three of a mid-distance run.

Below is my carol-heavy December running playlist:

Carol of the Bells

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – Ella Fitzgerald

Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Ella Fitzgerald

Get Right Back – Army Navy (thanks to Erica from I Run For Dessert for recommending this great cover song!)

Empire State of Mind – Jay Z, feat. Alicia Keys

Ghetto Pop Life

Rosa Parks – Outkast

D.O.A. – Jay Z

Percussion Gun – The White Rabbits

How You Like Me Now? – The Heavy

So What – P!nk

Looking for more inspiration? Check out elite runner Lauren Fleshman’s playlist. This is basically a replica of my early-2008 playlist, and any runner looking to run off some emotional business should download “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It’ll make you run faster and heal your soul at the same time.

Speaking of healing, I had my first iontophoresis treatment yesterday. Iontophoresis is this nifty, non-invasive way to get inflammation to go down by using a small electrical charge to send an anti-inflammatory ointment through the skin. More details on this later in the week

What else should I add to my December playlist? Any great new finds, or classics that might be new to me?

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by amyreinink | December 7, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Motivation Monday: The get-outside edition

We pass this section of Rock Creek on our regular route — Sunday, it was covered with snow.

This section of Rock Creek Park was dusted with snow when we ran by it yesterday.

There are lots of things I tell myself when I’m not in the mood to work out: That I always feel better after a run, that even a slow, plodding run will boost my health and fitness, that if I just make myself run to the next light post, I can probably tackle the whole route.

I have a new motivation to add to the list: I run when I don’t feel like it because you never know what you’ll see if you just go outside and open your eyes.

We’d planned to lift yesterday, but found our gym closed early. So we headed outside, a little grumpy about the cold weather.

We shouldn’t have been. The bracing air immediately made everything from our cheeks to our lungs feel more alive. We took in our neighbors’ holiday decorations, and noticed the previous night’s snow weighing down the last remaining fall leaves.We saw Rock Creek Park with a dusting of powdered-sugar snow from the area’s first snowfall over the weekend.

We turned a corner to one of our route’s steepest hills, and spotted a car with a Christmas tree strapped on top. Then, we smelled a waft of clean pine air – there’s a tree lot at the top of the hill!

Up another hill, we saw two kids trying to sled on the inch or so of snow, without much success. Then, when we were almost home, we passed a spectacular-looking snowman with stick arms and a carrot nose in the front lawn of one of our neighbors.

I run for the same reason we all get up every morning — to experience and interact with the world.

What’s motivating you this week?

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