The Clothes Make the Runner

At some point I'll post the whole story of the last half marathon I ran, but suffice to say that my one and only concern when it came to that race was clothing. The race was in late November and it it had been snowing the whole week, so all I thought about was how to dress. It turned out I should have been concerned with a lot more than that, but nevertheless one would think that after spending one race focusing on all matters sartorial, I would have this "dressing myself for a run" business down.

Not so.

On Saturday I went out, determined to go for a long run, and I completely biffed my clothing choice. It was one of those deceptively sunny February days in Seattle, a day that suggests that spring is just around the corner. This is a lie: after some dazzling days in February, we almost inevitably go back to unrelenting drizzle through May. But you learn to take advantage of those lovely, clear winter days when there's a hint of warmth on the wind.

Unfortunately, this Saturday there certainly was a wind, but there was no warmth to it. Quite the opposite, actually. I went out in shorts, a technical tee, and a long-sleeved windbreaker. I was a little chilly, but figured I would warm up once I started moving.

Not so.

There was a sharp cold wind from the East that made it impossible for me to warm up. I had planned a 10-11 miles run along the Burke Gilman trail, looping through Sandpoint-Magnuson park into my run. However, if I ran the route counter-clockwise, I'd have to go up some of the most killer hills in Seattle at about the 7 point mark, and I wasn't feeling up for that. So I reversed the route and ran mostly uphill for the first 4 miles, fighting the wind. Miserable. I had vaguely plotted my route, but I don't know the through streets in that part of the city very well, and I wasn't able to find the more northerly entrance to the park. By the time you hit the 65th street entrance, you're just tacking a loop onto your run, rather than including a run-through of the park. I'd gone nearly 5 miles, and was at least 4 miles from home, so I decided to cut it short and just head back.

The rest of the run was pretty crummy. I was slow, and cold, and at mile 7 I ran out of energy. I ended up walking over a mile home. Fortunately, even though I was in a crummy mood right after the run, later that evening I felt a lot better for the exercise.

So what I (re)learned about dressing in the cold is that I should wear:

1) Gloves. My hands have extremely poor circulation.
2) Long leggings unless it's actually warm. You can always roll them up.
3) Layers. They are your friend. I bought this expensive windbreaker with zip-up pockets and zip-off sleeves so I have no excuse not to layer.

Running in the Future

Nicholas is here! Hooray! I'm excited about this race and this blog, buddy.

I'm about averaging 4 miles a run myself. That's a good easy distance, and one I can knock out when I'm pressed for time, which seems like is always. But I know I'm going to have to seriously step it up seriously soon. Today I've got to pull it together for a longer run-- I'm going to try to go 7 miles, which I haven't done for a few weeks due to time and illness. Seven miles. That's only 19.2 miles short of the marathon.

So the latest news in my life is that I have officially joined the future and purchased an iPhone (I refuse to go back to AT&T, but as soon as Verizon got it I went for it). This will be either a massive boon to or drag on my productivity. So far, it's been a big time-sink as I do little but play with it. However, the run tracking apps are truly amazing.

There are apps that use the GPS tracking in your phone to track the route of your run, calculate your pace, give you your split times, estimate calories burned, you name it. It's what I've been doing manually the past year using MapMyRun. I've really liked that website, but they've recently undergone an overhaul that's increased the amount of social networking type gimmicks but not improved the functionality of the maps, which is the one thing I care about.

MapMyRun has an iPhone app, which I've downloaded, but a friend told me about the app for RunKeeper, which is giving MapMyRun a run for its money. I really like how simple RunKeeper is, so I'm switching over, at least for now.

Here's my RunKeeper profile. I've kept the maps private, but it shows my distance and pace and all that. And I think if you have a profile, you can friend me and see the maps.

And Nicholas Enters the Blog

Well Aiko, your running and blogging skills are far superior to my own. I'm just getting home from a long day at school, and have no real energy, but I wanted to write a little something to officially let you know that.... I am here! My entries will likely be short, but I do tend to get long winded when it comes to writing, so who knows.

While I generally only run a couple of times per week, I do get a lot of cycling in, as my bike is currently my primary mode of transportation. And I work on a mountain, so there's some serious riding involved. Seriously. When it comes to the running thingy that we're talking about, I'm definitely behind on the milage, but I have been steadily increasing my weekly milage over the last month, and have been feeling better with every run. I'm happy that I ran 4 miles this morning, the day you told me about this blog. It makes me feel like I'm on top of things. Oh, and I did it in 30.xx minutes. I'm feeling pretty decent at that pace, so if I can get the milage where it needs to be, 3:45 could be a realistic goal for me. It may be wildly ambitious, but I really do want to run this thing in under 4 hours. Now that I've stated this on the internet, we have to do it. That's all there is to it.

Time to sleep....class in the morning.

Belly Dancing

Some people say that you start to die as soon as your born, but I don't think that's true. I think you start to die as soon as you turn 21.

For me, I turned 21 and my hips went. They just gave out on me. One day, I was fine; the next, I was barely able to walk. Hip problems plagued me off and on until a yoga class in early 2006 really did me in, and sent me packing to physical therapy.

First, can I say? I love physical therapy. They spend a good hour with you, really talking to you, bending you around, figuring out how your body works, and then at the end of it you leave with a plan that's truly customized for your body. That is pretty much my entire goal of fitness: plans entirely tailored to me. Unfortunately I'm too lazy/busy/uninformed to figure out a full regime for myself, but I can always look fondly back upon my physical therapy days. And hope that I never have to go back, because as much as I enjoyed PT, I enjoy my ability to walk more.

Anyway, the point is that PT taught me that it's critical that I build and maintain my core strength to maintain my mobility. So I started doing pilates years ago, just using home DVDs, which were great for awhile but after literally years of using them, I started getting bored. Then belly dancing was brought to my attention, and that seemed like a good idea, so I signed up through the Experimental College.

I do feel a little more limber after a belly dancing class, but I have to say it's not working my core the way I had hoped. I may have to go back to pilates every now and again.

Back in the saddle

After running the half of the Seattle Marathon in November, my running went into a barely-sustained holding pattern. I was running once, sometimes twice a week, averaging 6-10 miles per week. Every run felt hard because I was doing it so infrequently. I was afraid I had lost my mojo.

However, over the holidays I was able to step it up a bit. I added a little mileage, and the runs felt easier. In January, I resolved to run at least twice a week, and I stuck to that promise. Runs became easier; I found my rhythm, and remembered the pleasure of a good run. I was making it 8-9 miles with energy left over.

Unfortunately, I got sick earlier this week, so I wasn't able to go running for two weeks. I was feeling ready to crawl out of my skin. Between the sickness blues and lack of exercise, I kind of hated everything and was nursing self-pitying thoughts of dying alone and unloved.

I was hesitant to go out today, because I hate running with impacted lungs, but I made myself go out for a slow three miles. Thank goodness I did; it's like I've cleared a film from my mind. I'm still cranky and low energy, but feeling better and ready to get to some of the work that seemed impossible before getting some exercise.