Amy Reinink

by amyreinink | April 14, 2009 · 2:20 pm

Looking for a good masseuse

When I first started training for half-marathons in Gainesville, Fla., I happened to live a few blocks from a friend of a friend who was a massage therapist. Every few weeks, she’d magically knead out the kinks and strains that inevitably pop up during training. Her office was a lavender-scented cocoon with Asian fountains, calming artwork and sleepy-time music involving flutes.

When I moved to Jacksonville, I cycled through the following: A runner who was a gifted massage therapist but talked about his latest ultra the whole time; a woman who squinted in confusion when I asked her to work on my IT band; and a woman who was so aggressive, she left bruises. The last one, an older woman with drawn-on eyebrows, was my personal favorite. Her office had white walls, an exam table with white sheets and a CD player loaded with what sounded like “Flight of the Bumblebees.”

So when Steve asked what I’d like for my birthday (coming up May 20 … mark it on your calendars), I hesitated before asking for a visit to a massage therapist. I want someone gentle enough to make it relaxing, but tough enough to work out all those funky running kinks. I want someone who understands runners, but who doesn’t confuse the massage with a group run. I also want to find someone affordable enough that I can actually consider going back.

Any ideas for someone in the greater Washington area who fits this description? Post a comment below. I’ll be sure to post a review here once I find one.

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by amyreinink | April 13, 2009 · 11:25 am

How (and why) to cross-train

You may have noticed that, for a running blog, a lot of my posts are about doing things other than running.

Ever since a torn hip labrum in October 2007 sidelined me for several months, I’ve been the queen of injury-prevention, icing and resting and elevating and generally being a good kid before I get hurt, not after.

For me, being the queen of injury-prevention also means following the FIRST plan, which is designed by two exercise physiologists and marathoners who noticed their marathon times got better, not worse, when they ran less and cross-trained more while training for a triathlon. They advocate running only three days per week, cross-training three and taking one day off. The general idea is this: Your hard days are HARD, but the cross-training days give your muscles time to rebuild to be stronger and more efficient than they would be if you logged a few junk miles (how do you know? Because two smarty-pants exercise physiologists tell you so).

I followed the FIRST half-marathon training plan leading up to the National Half Marathon on March 21. In the past, I’d followed plans that call for five days of running, but that didn’t specify a pace or goal for each run. I ran my best time by several minutes in March, 1:49:19. More importantly, I staved off the injuries my body seems so prone to, and didn’t feel a lick of burnout the whole time. I truly looked forward to every running day (OK, fine, I dreaded speed work. But who doesn’t?).

My friend Kaveh, who’s training for the Marine Corps Marathon with me, asked a really good question about all this: What counts as cross-training? The FIRST guys are actually really specific about that, which I learned only after reading their helpful and entertaining book, Runner’s World Run Less, Run Faster. You cross-train at least 30 to 45 minutes, at a pretty good clip. You do not do the elliptical machine, as that stresses many of the same muscles running does, according to the FIRST guys. Some FIRST-approved ideas:

Cycling
Swimming(my personal favorite – use a pull buoy to really give your legs a rest)
Rowing (confused about how? Read my post about it here)

Kaveh asked if lifting counts, and noted that when he stopped lifting while training for the New York Marathon, injuries descended.This is an apt observation, and the FIRST guys highly advocate strength training for all your major muscle groups to fend off injuries (check out my injury-prevention workout from physical therapy here). That said, lifting does NOT count as cross-training in their book, and is something to be done above and beyond other cross-training.

Here’s what my past week looked like following the FIRST plan. It just so happens that I didn’t take an off-day in this seven-day period, but know that squeezing in an off day is usually NOT a problem for me.

Monday: Lift one hour, hard, mostly legs. Swim 3,000 yards.
Tuesday: Run roughly 7 miles with Pacers. The main run of about 5.4 miles was at what I imagine to be my tempo pace. I count the run to and from the store (about 1.6 miles there and back) as a warm-up and cool-down.
Wednesday: Swim 3,000 yards. Lift 30 minutes, mostly legs.
Thursday: Modified track workout that included 4X800. I also ran about 3 miles on the road, sort of accidentally, while trying to calibrate my NikePlus.
Friday: Swim 3,000 yards.
Saturday: Swim 3,000 yards.
Sunday: I typically would have done a 10-mile run, but did a 7-miler with 4X800s in the middle to test my NikePlus calibration, and to ensure we made it to my cousin’s Easter brunch on time.

As a side note: Even readers who aren’t training for a race may enjoy following the general principles of the FIRST plan. It calls for running at a purposefully hard pace, both in the form of intervals and tempo runs, which is great for burning calories and improving overall fitness, as well as improving race times.

Got a favorite form of cross-training? Or a strength-training move you’re sure has fended off injuries? Share your knowledge by posting a comment below.

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by amyreinink | April 10, 2009 · 12:52 pm

A fix for Garmin lust

Long runs are tough. They’re even tougher when you’re not exactly sure how long you’ve run. Tools like mapmyrun.com are nice, but the distance measurements aren’t always dead-on. With a three- or five-miler, a tenth of a mile deviation per mile isn’t such a huge deal. On a 15- or 20-miler, that can mean a difference of almost two miles. If you’ve ever embarked on a run this distance, you know how maddeningly unacceptable that is.

When I trained for my last marathon, I avoided this uncertainty by running the Jacksonville Marathon route for every long run. Think it’s boring running 20 miles straight all by yourself? Try doing it several times over. You truly start dreading every too-familiar street corner. The worst part: It was an out-and-back course. I’m getting the chills just thinking about it.

I decided there would be none of that this summer, when I start training for the Marine Corps Marathon in earnest.

The obvious fix is the Garmin, that brilliant mini-GPS the size of a regular watch that tracks your distance and pace.

My cheapo fix is the NikePlus, a neato little tool that hooks up to my beloved iPod Nano to track distance and pace. The NikePlus costs about $30, plus $5 for a little Velcro doo-dad to attach it to my shoe. Given my propensity for registering for expensive races, this a whole lot more realistic than a $300 Garmin Forerunner. But the NikePlus isn’t so accurate when you get it; even though I felt sluggish and nasty while running yesterday morning, it told me I was doing 7-minute miles. Thanks for the ego boost, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t just run my PR for a 5K on a slow run through my neighborhood.

So I headed to the track to try to calibrate it. I tried a neighborhood track just over the DC-Maryland line in Shepherd Park. Nice neighborhood, non-regulation track. Again, my plodding was charted as 7-minute miles, which would be ego-boosting if it weren’t so impossible.

Frustrated, I drove — yes, drove — to the track at Montgomery Blair High School, located a couple miles from my house. It was glorious. I was the only one there, and I think I nailed the calibration on my first 400-meter loop. I ran two half-mile repeats to test it, and each one came in at .5 miles, on the nose. And for the first time that day, since I was running half-mile repeats and not doing my standard neighborhood slog, the 7-minute miles were roughly correct.

I’ll withhold my final judgement until I test this on a longish run this weekend, but I think I’m in love.

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by amyreinink | April 9, 2009 · 1:15 pm

The art of sucking (and mixing) it up

I’ve got about two months until the 1-mile Bay Bridge Challenge, an open-water swim in the Chesapeake Bay I signed up for back in January as a way to force myself to cross-train.

I did the swim last year, too, so I know I ought to be in the pool for a 3,000-yard workout about three days a week at this point. Non-swimmers: The 3,000-yard swim is kinda like a 30-minute run in that if you make it any shorter, it’s barely worth the effort.

Problem is, just when I need to start amping up my workouts, I’m just totally not feeling the whole swimming thing.

I mean, this is why I signed up for a race: to coerce myself into getting into the pool rather than pounding the pavement every day. Still, getting in the pool yesterday for my standard Wednesday workout was really, really rough. I actually had a sad little daydream that the pool would be closed, forcing me to go home and abandon my workout for the day. This, after driving across town to the pool, not to mention putting on my suit, cap and goggles.

Earlier in the week, I attempted to combat my swimming apathy by sucking it up and kicking my own butt with a hard set of 10 X 100 butterfly in the middle of the workout. Non-swimmers: Butterfly is like doing a tough hill workout, in that even when your heart isn’t in it, it’s hard to slack off. I left the pool with a good workout, but feeling very much like I’d been beaten with sticks.

So yesterday, I decided to try to trick myself into having a little bit of fun by mixing things up instead. I’m too cheap to sign up for a master’s team and too much of a stroke swimmer to do much in the way of freestyle intervals, so I typically do a semi-hard 1,650 or 2,000 “warm-up,” followed by 200 or 400 IMs, or 200s free, until I reach 3,000 yards. Here’s how I mixed it up:

Warm-up: 1X100 free, followed by 1X50 stroke, in IM order. In other words, swim 100 free, 50 fly, 100 free, 50 back, etc., etc. I intended to do two full IM cycles, but was having so much fun (honestly!), I stuck with it for three, totaling 1,800 yards. Something about breaking up the freestyle with quick bursts of stroke really made the yards fly by.

Monster set: 4X400 IM

Got any swim workouts that are rocking your world, or any thoughts that might motivate me? If so, for the love of God, post them below to save me from boring myself to death in the pool.

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by amyreinink | April 8, 2009 · 11:07 am

Guess who’s a runner?

Motivation of the day: If Peter R. Orszag finds time to train for a marathon, what’s your excuse?

That’s right — the guy who’s in charge of the federal budget is a runner, and finds time to train for marathons and half marathons when he’s not trying to save us from financial ruin.

Orszag apparently started training for marathons after a doctor told him several years ago that he was at risk for cardiovascular problems, “sometimes startling colleagues by appearing in their offices at day’s end in head-to-toe spandex,” according to a New York Times profile.

Orszag has also used financial incentives as motivation to train. He told NPR earlier this week that if he didn’t achieve his goal in a recent marathon, “a very large contribution would automatically come out of my credit card and go to a charity that I very much didn’t support.”

“So that was a very strong motivation, as I was running through mile 15 or 16 or whatever it was, to remind myself that I really didn’t want to give the satisfaction to that charity for the contribution,” Orszag said. He declined to name the charity.

Isn’t it nice knowing that the guy who’s in charge of trillions of our hard-earned dollars has what it takes to finish a marathon — and that he likely starts his day with a nice, head-clearing run?

I’m starting my day with this blog post. But I’m still enjoying the head-clearing effects of a great Pacers run last night. We did the Historic Seminary Loop, which travels up Second Street in Silver Spring to the the National Park Seminary, a complex that includes a Japanese pagoda, an English castle and the remains of a resort hotel. It’s one of my favorite routes, and I made a point to push myself to run it more quickly than usual, and finished the 5.4 miles in about 41 minutes.

Protein power

How do we as runners feel about protein recovery shakes?

A couple years ago, I took to preparing a tasty protein shake after hard lifting workouts, and I now do the same thing after a long, hard run. This was based not on any advice from sports nutritionists, but on advice from gym-rat friends and anecdotal evidence (if Kara Goucher feels better after consuming a protein shake after a speed workout, clearly, I should, too). And I think I notice a difference in my speed of recovery — or is that just my mind playing tricks on me?

Sports nutritionists recommend refueling after a long run with a snack that has a 4:1 carb-protein ratio. Kathryn Parker, a sports dietitian who has counseled U.S. Olympic track and field runners, among other fancy-pants athletes (read my interview with her here), offers this formula to figure out how much to eat: Divide your weight by two, and eat that many grams of carbohydrates after finishing a long run. So an entirely theoretical 125-pound runner should eat 62.5 grams of carbohydrates. If we stick with the 4:1 ratio, that’s 15 grams of protein.

Seems like there’s enough evidence there to keep up my post-run protein habit, so I’m going to share my favorite protein-shake recipe here:

1 scoop vanilla-flavored Designer Whey powder (or other protein powder)*

1/2 c milk

1-2 frozen bananas

Hershey’s syrup

1 shot espresso (you can use instant espresso, too)

Blend in food processor or blender.

* Chef’s note: Runner’s World offers a similar recipe in its most recent issue. It gets its protein from Greek Yogurt instead of protein powder. If nobody in your house yells at you for buying this exorbitantly expensive treat, try subbing it for the powder and a little of the milk … and let me know how it goes!

How do you feel about protein shakes for post-run fuel? And other tips for getting your protein fix? Share them by posting a comment below.

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by amyreinink | April 6, 2009 · 12:24 pm

Mastering mapmyrun.com

Ever since discovering mapmyrun.com a couple years ago, I’ve regularly relied on the wide variety of highly localized routes it has to offer.

I haven’t exactly been paying it forward, though. I mostly pawn off others’ hard work, copying carefully measured routes without actually contributing anything myself.

To be fair, I tried. But I’m kind of grandma-ish about new tech tools, and the drawing function completely stumped me. I sat at my laptop, cursing as I somehow traced the same route four times before finally giving up.

After a longish run on Saturday I was desperate to find out the distance of, I decided to grit my teeth and try again. I’m proud to announce that I’m not so grandma-ish after all: I succeeded in mapping a run! The Woodland-Highland-Sligo Creek Trail 10-miler is a longer version of one of our standard Pacers runs, but I really think the four-ish miles on Sligo Creek Trail add something to the hill loop through northern Silver Spring. The other extra mile comes from starting at my front door, which may or may not be of interest to a general audience.

I didn’t find a magic trick that made route-tracing easier; I’ve gotta believe this just comes with practice. If you’ve got any tips to offer, let me know by posting a comment below.

What did I listen to on this 10-miler? A brand-new playlist inspired by Kara Goucher, my fellow University of Colorado grad and girl crush. Goucher shared her pump-up songs with Runner’s World this month, and the first five songs on the playlist below are hers:

Numb & Encore – Jay Z and Linkin Park

Viva la Vida – Coldplay

Mercy – Duffy

Love Lockdown – Kanye West

Gies you hell – The All-American Rejects

Nuthin’ but a “G” thang – Dr. Dre

Shimmy Shimmy Ya – Ol’ Dirty Bastard

The Watcher – Dr. Dre

Get Back – Ludacris

A spring in my step

When I got dressed for my Thursday-night run with Pacers last night, I realized something big: Gloveless season is here again! For what I’m pretty sure is the first time since moving here in November, it was too warm to wear my nifty Mizuno running gloves. Spring!

My excitement was balanced by the realization that warmer weather means I’m back to being the sweaty mess I was for four straight years running in Florida. Truly, I’m the sweatiest person I know, male or female. If you think you can compete with me on this front, you’re wrong.

But I digress. This is a celebration of spring, and sweaty or not, it’s a lot easier to run when you’re distracted by the pillowy pink and white blooms blanketing the Washington area right now. For those of you in colder climes, I’m including some photos of my block so you can share the pretty, pink love.

I’m also including a photo of the other thing motivating me today: new shoes! And not just any new shoes: free new shoes! Once a month or so, a sales rep from a major shoe company visits our Pacers fun runs, offering the chance for every runner to test-drive a pair of new shoes. At the end of the evening, one pair of shoes is raffled off.

Last night, I test-drove a pair of New Balance 769s on Pacers’ 5.2-mile Alaska route, and fell in love. My orthotics fit into the shoes perfectly (no small feat), and the shoes are just as supportive but more cushiony than my beloved Brooks Adrenalines. If I hadn’t won the shoes, I would have been seriously sad to give them back. As my Pacers buddies, who saw me jumping around like a child who’s been given a free bag of candy upon winning, can attest, this totally made my week.

Happy running, and good luck to everyone who’s running the Cherry Blossom 10-miler!

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by amyreinink | April 2, 2009 · 1:31 pm

More yoga for runners

I’m always skeptical when health and fitness magazines pitch “toning” yoga workouts, and this month’s SHAPE magazine feature — Jenny McCarthy’s bikram yoga poses — was no exception.

I gave the five poses she suggests a try this morning, though, and am happy to admit I was wrong. Not only was it legitimately difficult, the moves happen to mimic a lot of the exercises physical therapists recommend for runners to stabilize ankle and hip muscles.

SHAPE mag doesn’t publish its content online. But I put together a sequence called Yoga for Runners on Yoga Journal’s nifty sequence builder that includes McCarthy’s recommended poses, plus a few of my favorite core-builders, like the plank and bridge positions. Give it a try after your next run.

Keep your fingers crossed for decent weather this evening on my behalf — I’m hoping to make tonight’s Pacers run after missing Tuesday.

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by amyreinink | April 1, 2009 · 12:44 pm

Drugs to take

Got your attention, didn’t I?

Runner’s World uses this tag line when recommending supplements and other (legal!) drugs for runners, and it always makes me giggle. Or maybe it’s pills to pop. Either way, I use it today as a way to let you know that if your doctor offers you a Medrol Dose Pack for a running injury, you should accept. Then, you should hug her, because this stuff REALLY works to knock down inflammation from a sports injury.

It’s a six-day course of corticosteroids that has you take six pills the first day, five the second, and so on. A sports orthopaedist prescribed it for me last week for my creepily swollen ankle , which stems from a clumsy move in Rock Creek Park last December and has continued to bother me off and on since.

I’d searched some message boards for testimony from other runners about Medrol, and found a few who reported improvements after four days. I hadn’t seen any improvement at all after three days, so I was skeptical.

Yesterday, after a tough 7-mile hill run through northern Silver Spring, I checked out my ankle, and was shocked to see that it looks like an ankle again. I can’t say the swelling’s all gone, but it’s pretty darn close.

So seriously: Medrol Dose Pack. If you’re struggling with a running injury that involves inflammation, ask your doctor about it today (cue cheerful music, cheesy actors running through a sunny park without pain).