I ran into my friend who is training for her first 1/2 marathon on the trail, she was set to do 7 miles yesterday.  I know that the fact that I was doing more than twice as many seemed a little overwhelming to her but it wasn’t that long ago when doing 7 seemed like that to me.  People who are newer to running or training for their first distance race can look at people who are routinely running marathons and think “that’s so far, I’ll never get to that point.”  But the truth is, we all start from a base of zero.  I didn’t just open my door one day and run 20 miles.  In fact when I first started running I would add in some walking.  I’d run 9 minutes and walk a minute, when training for my first marathon I always did a little walking during my long runs.

There’s no magic bullet in running, if you want to be able to run farther then you have to, well, run farther.  The easiest way to build your long run mileage is by adding 1-2 miles a week to your long run.  Going from a 5 mile run to a 10 mile run would be overwhelming physically and psychologically if you tried to make that jump at once.  But adding just one mile a week to your base of 5 miles builds your endurance gradually.  It’s easier to mentally adjust too, telling yourself it’s only ONE extra mile makes it seem much more do-able.  You get to the point too where everything’s relative. Once you do a 10k, a 5k seems like a piece of cake, when you finish a marathon you can knock off a half-marathon much easier.

Some people are better sprinters and doing long runs don’t seem worthwhile, but even if you’re not training for a longer race, there’s value to the long run.  Here’s a good Runner’s World article about the merits of long runs.  Even when I’m not training for a race I like to do a long run on Sundays, old habits die hard I guess.

Here’s an appropriately titled pick for your running mix, Run On.

Often though you don’t have to look far to find inspiration all around you.  This morning on my run I saw a mom pushing a triple jogger with triplets.  And she was running!  I know how tough it is to get one kid wrangled into a jogging stroller and push that thing so this was one amazing mom.  There’s plenty of inspiration all around me, my mom who has rheumatoid arthritis and had rotator cuff surgery is running again and ran almost every day last week.  My little brother stopped smoking (YIPPEEE) and stopped eating meat and started running and has lost over 20 pounds.  My friend Sandy is training for her first half marathon and building her mileage.  Each one of them is doing something that is challenging them and that’s one of the really cool things about running.  Even if you don’t race you can challenge and push yourself just by running faster or farther.  You’ll not only be doing something good for your body but you’ll be learning a lot about yourself.  Whether your run is easy or tough, either way you get a daily affirmation that you are strong and who doesn’t need that?

Here’s one of my favorite songs that inspires me, especially on the rainy days we’ve had this week.

I will go ahead and admit it right now, I don’t stretch.  You can find evidence to support either it works or it doesn’t work or it’s bad for you or not but I think you go with what works for you.  When I was doing a lot more races, I went to yoga a couple of times a week and that was much better for me than stretching after a run.   Yoga can be great not only for your flexibility but also for your all around well being.  It can be calming and centering.  I have fallen out of the habit and need to get back into it and I just came across this: 10 Best Poses for Runners. I’m going to challenge myself to do this at least twice a week.  My daughter loves doing the yoga poses I’ve taught her so I’m going to recruit her to join me.  Unless Max & Ruby is on, then I’m on my own.

If you are an Eric Carle fan as well, be sure to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to a child you know and love on October 8 in conjunction with Read for the Record.  The goal is to set a record for people reading the same book.  You can sign up here.

Speaking of cats, how about a little Cat Power for your running mix.

It rained here today so I had to suck it up and run on the treadmill.  When I trained for my first marathon I did all my running on a treadmill, I really can’t believe it now.  I remember doing a long run one Sunday night at the gym and right as I got on the treadmill the movie The American President was starting.  I watched the entire movie during that run.  Now I just get bored but sometimes I have to do it if I want to get my run for the day.  One thing I do to make it more tolerable is turn it into a little bit of a speed workout.  I generally start out at an easy speed, one that I would do for a long run.  Then depending on how far I’m running I crank up the speed just one notch – like 6.0 to 6.1 every 1/2 mile or mile.  The last 1/2 mile of my run I crank it up every .10 of a mile.  By the end of my run I’m usually sprinting but at least it breaks things up a little.  I was doing a little online searching and found a Running Times feature on treadmill workouts that looks pretty intriguing, I’d like to try these workouts so I’m going to challenge myself to do a treadmill workout at least once a week and try a new workout each week.  Maybe I’ll start liking the treadmill again!

I had Indian food last night so here’s an Indian themed selection for your running mix.

I hope that she enjoys running when she gets older but if not, that’s ok.  We’ll encourage her to find some physical activity that she does like, which shouldn’t be hard since she’s only 2 and wants to try everything.  So far she’s requested to go ice skating, play tennis, take swimming lessons, and learn karate.  And the good news is that she appears to have much more hand/eye coordination than her mother who abandoned all ball related sports and still managed to break bones and get quite bruised by running and cycling.

Here’s a good article about the importance of fitness and kids.

Here’s a good song for your kids’ mix, we like to play this and run around and well, wave our hands in the air, cock a doodle doodle do.

One thing that really helps me get through my runs is music.  The iPod was a game changer for me.  Before then there weren’t any real good options for music.  A radio had inconsistent reception and ever try running with a portable CD player? I like controlling my own music selections and not having to listen to the song skip 10,000 times in 2 minutes.  I like to make new playlists for my runs or for whatever is going on in my life.  I’ve got distance mixes with enough music for the amount of time I estimate my run will take.  When I got laid off I had a “layoff” mix and last year when I had a particularly bad September I had a “september sucks” mix.

Recently I’ve discovered PodRunner mixes on iTunes and podrunner.com and prefer those on my long run day.  These mixes are house/techno mixes that are each about an hour.  There’s a brief intro by DJ Steve Boyett and then an hour of music that’s set to a specific BPM.  I usually listen to a couple during my long run and use a faster BPM mix for the end of my run, it seems crazy but the faster tempo really keeps me moving when my feet are starting to feel heavy.  And here’s the best thing – all the mixes are FREE!  You can subscribe to the podcasts on iTunes and get a new one each week as well as download all the older ones.  Today I listened to Chants Meeting which is now my fave, Splendiferous (which really is), and Hothouse which I didn’t love.

What songs keep you motivated?

Shoe laces

If you are clumsy like me, an untied shoe lace is a one way ticket to the ER.  Even double knotting proved sometimes ineffective  and then when I’d get the occasional rock in my shoe or want to adjust how tightly my shoes were laced I’d have to stop my run.  The triathletes are all over this one.  Elastic shoe laces and lace locks solve so many problems for a few bucks.  Although I’ve seen people use lace locks and regular laces, I prefer elastic because it provides a tighter fit.  You just lace your shoes like normal, put a lace lock at the top and tie the ends of the lace toward the toe.  No more untied laces and when you get a rock in your shoe you can fix it very quickly.  Just google elastic laces to find where to buy or here’s a place.

Blisters

Blisters can pop up out of nowhere, even if you are not wearing new shoes or socks.  A blister can literally end a race for you, so if you are doing a marathon it’s a good idea to have a few critical supplies on hand.  I’ve tried lots of blister solutions but the one that’s worked best for me is the Band-Aid blister healing cushions.  They stay on much better than just a band-aid, are waterproof, and have a gel pad to cushion your blister.  Put one in your shorts pocket on race day, just in case.

Toe issues

I’ve occasionally had issues with my toes rubbing together and I have a friend for whom this is a big problem.   Injinji toe socks separate your toes to reduce that friction.  They feel a little weird at first but I have a pair and can wear them comfortably during a long run.  They are especially good if you are prone to blisters between your toes where the blister cushions are harder to fit.

Friction

When I do a long run or a marathon, I always have issues with the back of my shorts rubbing my back and the top of my running bra rubbing my chest.  It’s not even a particular pair of shorts or running bra, it just seems to be any of them when I hit a certain distance.  Vaseline or Aquafor work fine but I really like Body Glide – it comes in a stick that looks like deodorant.  It’s great for those problem friction spots and I also use it for triathlons where I’m using a wetsuit to help get the wet suit on easier.

A little feminine protection

You’d think a 40 year old woman would have acquired enough wisdom in her life to not be caught without supplies and yet, no.  I learned this lesson the hard way, in line to use the bathroom before a 1/2 marathon.  I had nothing with me, nothing in the car.  I ended up scrapping the race and going home (in tears).  So even if you are one of those regular gals, throw an extra tampon in your car, maybe you can help out a running sister some day!

Here’s something for your long run mix tomorrow, in honor of all of us who are runners because we aren’t coordinated enough for sports that require running and doing something else.

Over the years I’ve been talked into numerous races, like the 4th of July race, another one Charlie talked me into (and I in turn talked my mother into).  It was about as small scale as you can imagine.  The race organizers didn’t even spring for race numbers, everyone got their name written on a piece of paper stuffed into a baggie and you were supposed to pin that on your shirt.  And not even a ziploc baggie, an old school fold over closure kind.  They didn’t work so well and I’d say about half the people crossed the finish line with an empty baggie.  The funniest thing is that I found Charlie’s name near the finish line and my mom found mine.  The fire department was involved though their involvement consisted of holding a fire hose near the finish line that you could use to cool off.  Except the water coming out of it was as warm as bath water.  At the end each finisher got a popsicle.

Fortunately my friends and family are good sports and will generally agree to go along with one of the many things I propose with “hey doesn’t THIS sound like fun?”  My friend Joanna was a very good sport when I convinced her that driving 7 hours and doing our first triathlon would be loads of fun.  She hasn’t done a triathlon since though.  It’s easiest for me to venture outside my comfort zone if I have a little company and I like sharing new experiences with my friends and family.

If you are thinking of doing a race but need a little extra support, ask a friend to join you.  Everyone has at least one friend who is adventurous and willing to try something new.  Or maybe you’re that friend, so if someone says to you “hey doesn’t THIS sound like fun?” maybe it will be but you’ll never know unless you try.  Unless it’s a 1/2 marathon in freezing temperatures and 30 mile an hour winds, I can tell you right now, that is in no way fun.*

Here’s something for your running mix that will help you finish that last 1/2 mile or so.

*My brother and I did this race, my mother who can be swayed by peer pressure only so much was supposed to do the 5k but saw the conditions and refused to get out of the car saying “I’m 57 years old, I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.”

Yesterday I talked up running outside however, the one drawback that running outside has as opposed to treadmill running is that it’s a bit trickier to keep track of your mileage.  Although I usually run on a trail in a park near my house, it has some sort of mileage marker system that makes no sense to me.  I’ve found this to be true of a lot of trails.  If you are running neighborhood streets you can do what people did in the days before the ubiquitous handheld GPS devices, plot your route in your car or do a little cross training and use a bike with a cycling computer.  I’m a fan of technology and so I’ve tried a few different higher tech options.

The Nike Ipod+Sport Kit $29

If you already have an iPod nano this is a pretty cost effective way to determine your distance and pace.  The kit includes a receiver that plugs into your iPod nano and a sensor that hooks onto your shoe.  It’s technically made for Nike shoes but you can buy a shoe pocket for about $5 for the sensor.  This is not a GPS device but rather an accelerometer, sort of like a higher tech pedometer.  The sensor in your shoe detects when your foot is on the ground and the device converts that to a running speed.  The drawback is that it has to be calibrated to a baseline distance to get a really accurate reading.  I found about a 10% discrepancy in distance (on the short side) vs. a GPS device.  The system has a couple of cool add on features though.  At the beginning of a run you can indicate your intended distance and if you choose, get voice updates at certain intervals.  It also has an online component and when you sync your iPod you can log your run.  The freakiest thing about it is the special messages you get when you’ve done a new long distance or time.  I had finished a run one day and thought perhaps I hadn’t hydrated enough and was hallucinating when I heard Paula Radcliffe congratulating me.  Lance Armstrong has a message on there too.  I did have a frustrating number of issues with the sensor and receiver working together and then when my husband accidentally vacuumed the sensor I had left in my car in the car wash vacuum, I decided I was over it.  But if you’ve already got a Nano and you are looking for a pretty cheap option, this is a fairly good one.

Garmin GPS $274.99 + up

Garmin has a pretty expansive line of handheld GPS devices for runners and other athletes.  The Forerunner series has watch type options but I decided to go with the Edge 205.  At $275 it’s not cheap but it’s pretty versatile.  It comes with mounting brackets so I have the brackets mounted to my bike and our jogging stroller.  When I’m running without the jogging stroller, I just hold it.  It’s pretty light and I don’t usually mind carrying it.  Because it’s a GPS device it’s not only logging your distance but the actual route so you can connect to Garmin’s online community and log your workout.  It comes with a battery charger so you don’t have to worry about batteries either.  I have had really good luck with my Edge, the only complaint which is more with GPS devices in general is that sometimes it does take a few minutes to get the signal I need when I’m getting started.  But I’ve never lost a signal once I’ve started.  You can get heart rate monitor and some other nifty features on more expensive versions but I’m quite happy with my plain Jane version.  The price is somewhat of a drawback but given how much I use it and the ability to use it on my bike as well, for me it was worth it.

iPhone iMapmyrun application

If you hadn’t figured it out already, I’m somewhat of an Apple lover.  So yeah, I have an iPhone.  There’s an iPhone application called iMapmyrun and works with the GPS capabilities in the iPhone to do basically what the Garmin does.  The app tracks your distance and plots it on a map for you which is pretty cool.  Connect to the online mapmyrun.com site and you can see different versions of your run, satellite, street view, etc. and add some details about your run – training run, speed work, etc.  I can’t remember how much the app was, but not that much.  Overall I like the application though it does have a few drawbacks.  I like to listen to music when I run so I use the iPod on my iPhone if I’m taking my iPhone with me to map my run distance.  It’s a pain to toggle between the iPod and the iMapmyrun application, if you move from the app to the iPod it stops recording your run and you have to go back to it and select the resume feature to keep logging your run.  Also, having the ipod and that app running for anything more than an hour or two will suck down a fully charged battery.  But if you already have an iPhone it’s definitely worth a try.

Here’s something for your running mix, a little something from the soundtrack to my childhood and in memory of Mary Travers.  May it inspire you to do a run tomorrow morning.

We were living in Omaha and living in a city neighborhood. One day my husband came back from his run looking very frazzled. He’d been chased by a pack of wild turkeys he claimed. Though he’s prone to exaggeration, this I knew was true, I’d seen the turkeys too. It was so odd though, a pack of turkeys milling about in a neighborhood. The first time I saw them it was around Thanksgiving and they were clustered in the backyard of a house that wasn’t fenced in. My initial thought was that a family had ordered some extra fresh turkey for Thanksgiving. Soon though reports popped up in the newspaper about runners and pedestrians being harassed by the turkeys including one who was saved by a passing motorist. But the thing I remember most clearly about the turkey incident was how a few weeks after my husband’s run in he asked me (with a straight face and in all seriousness) “you know those birds that chased me? Are you sure they weren’t ostriches?” Really, he mulled this over and then said it out loud and even as it hung in the air, he didn’t think it sounded ridiculous. A little while after that I read a newspaper article about how Sea World had to change its parking lot identification method because they were using signs of different sea animals to designate parking areas. They had to change because they had overestimated adults’ ability to identify sea animals. I guess land animal identification isn’t much better.

That’s why I like to run outside, you get to see wildlife and gather plenty of humorous blog fodder about your husband. Even if you are a treadmill runner, try and get out and do an outside run at least once a week. You notice all kinds of things you might not ever see. It’s not always pleasant, I saw a deer leg last week. Yes, just the leg. But if you are stuck at a cocktail party without a good ice breaker “I was chased by a pack of wild ostriches” is sure to get the conversation going.

Put this in your running mix. And check the video here. These are friends of my brother and the video is by bandmember Nick who is an animator.