Elevation

From http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ I get the following elevation map for the 5k I ran (1.51 mi there and back, thus the symmetry)

Lousy run... :(

I took a week off, to see if my foot would get better.  My first run was today, and I was stopped after 1 mile and walked back, because of my injury.  What's new right now is a peculiar cramp in my calf, which I am certain is a by-product of the plantar fascia injury, where the calf seems "weak"...it doesn't support weight well.  Weird!  Most of the time I don't feel it, more than a twinge, and I am not sure whether it is because of over compensating for my foot, or something else.  At any rate, I am going to see a podiatrist next week to get a clear answer, and hopefully a solution.

I tried to get my altitude on the website you posted, Bill, but it wouldn't give me altitude information.  I guess Rhode Island is a little too flat.  :)

Oops..

OK... so apparently my calculations from the last route weren't very accurate. It seems now to be 4.2 miles or 6.7 kilometers. In fact, if it were the 3.8 miles I thought it was, that would be 6.11 kilometers rather than 4.8. I probably should have noticed that, but was so deep in a pit of despair that it eluded me.

On the negative side, I still can't actually run that route. One of the things that I found on veloroutes.com that was really interesting was that it actually will give you a "profile" of the elevation of your routes, which is pretty nice.
This, for example, is the profile for this route. I think the grade might be somewhat exaggerated, but you can probably guess what the hard part is. It's really really tough to run that continuously. But it also gives a nice way to visualize what part of the route is actually useful from the perspective of steady-state endurance. That's actually the first part along Voelkel St., which turns out to be a relatively low grade way of getting farther West. Maybe I should just run little laps on that leg. :)

I'm about done with the Long Now lectures that I've downloaded so far. The last one was by anthropologist Steven Lansing, and explored the complex adaptive systems dynamics of the Bali irrigation systems. It was a fascinating and somewhat demoralizing critique of the "5 year program" approach to resource management. Highly recommended! http://fora.tv/2006/02/13/J__Stephen_Lansing_A_Thousand_Years_in_Bali

Blechy run...

Tough run. Inspired by Brian's run, I decided to try the run that I used to do, years back, as my regular run. It's about 3.8 miles (4.8 k) and has a maximum grade of 10% but enables me to avoid the 13% right around the house. It's not that bad, on average, but it really gave me a hard time. I could feel my face turning purple and I just felt incredibly hot. Blech. Happily, there was a torrential rainstorm on the way back that, at it's height, sent me under an awning to avoid the ipod getting wet. This may well be one of those cases where, rather than listening to the very arrogant Kevin Kelly talking rather uninterestingly about science in the future, I might have listened to Moby. :)

Blah.

And Lucy, thank you for giving us this tool: veloroutes.org. It's totally cool!

My first 5k!

So I ran 5k today, not an official one, but just 3.1 miles mapped by mapmyrun.com.   I past the turnaround for 2.5 miles that I did the other day, and felt good, so I kept going.  Of course, I wasn't feeling quite so good at the end of the run (very tired), but it was nice finishing the run.  I even have my own finish line, which is a line of tar-repair across the road.   :)

My foot seems to be hurting more this afternoon, but it may have been me going to the beach and being barefoot (which I hear is not good for the ol' plantar).

I'd like to see if there is a good way to visualize the elevation of the run that I do, like a 2d side-view, just to see how it compares to Pittsburgh.  I'm sure it is much flatter. 

Running with verve

I love that MapMyRun tool! Except for the ads. But it is nice to be able to catalog and, more importantly, to see the runs that other people are doing in Pittsburgh. Perhaps I'll drive to a different run at some point. I can tell that underlying that thought is the hope that somewhere there is a bright, green land with no hills. I'm thinking the hidden answer is ... not in Pittsburgh. But 2.17 miles today with a few stops to let my feet recover a bit. The new route problem, in fact, is trying to find a nice decently long route that doesn't involve traffic. Not that it's an affront to my sensibilities so much as I can't hear Dan Janzen talk about biodiversity very well, even with the ipod pretty much blasting.

Glad you like your shirt, Brian. I have one two. I like the sense of running in parallel several hundred miles apart! And, of course, it's funny. I rarely get the chance to wear t-shirts these days, but when I do, they often come from verve.com.

Running alone

Sometimes when I exercise I think that it might be nicer to be able to exercise with someone, but then I realize that I am much better at pushing myself when it is just me.   I think about the movie "My Dinner with Andre", and the discussion about running in that movie.  Andre Gregory says:

 "You see, I've seen a lot of running in the last few years, Wally, and there's one thing that's for sure about running: you do it alone, you see, that seems quite certain, you see, that I've seen. That the people around you mean nothing, your reviews mean nothing. Whatever it is, you do it alone. And so the question is: when I go running, what kind of a person am I going to be, and I'm just very dubious about the kind of person who would have lived his life those last few years the way I did."

I ran 2.5 miles today, in 23 minutes.  The initial goal right now is to hit 3.1 miles by September, which looks very doable (assuming that my foot holds out).  It still aches through the day, but I stretch and it helps.  Next week we will be on vacation, and I have to figure out how to keep up my running schedule away from home.  

Back in the SmellyShoes

It's been exactly a month, by sheer coincidence, since I've updated the blog. While I've been running from time to time, usually in the middle of the day, this is the first time I've been up in the wee hours to go, and I think in the end that I have to stick with this early morning procedure to really have ongoing running be feasible. There have, of course, been complications. My two year old in the hospital for a few days, and her recent odd sleep habits have been creating a very tired me in the morning, but that doesn't really add up to the the 30 days.

Just taking a step back there makes me think about the role of guilt in running. How universal is it as a motivator? For me, there is the substantial if somewhat grandiose sense that my genes want me to run to keep them around and potentially send them out into the world again, as well as to ensure the ongoing success of their externalized brethren (to whit: to take care of my daughter.) I wonder, too, if there is a more than coincidental connection between starting to run and write (which also seems a bit of an important part) and getting prescribed bifocals yesterday! Bifocals!

The final ethical conundrum of the day... when one gets chased by a loose chihuahua, what are the ethical dimensions. Where is the appropriate line of intervention? Chase them off? Yell? Drop kick?

OK, off to the showers.

2 mi in 20 minutes

So I did 2 miles in 20 minutes.  My foot is feeling better by the day, although it still hurts in the morning and occasionally through the day.  When it does, I stretch for a while, and the pain goes away.  I am doing Motrin in the morning before I run, but none at any other time.  

I took the girls for a short bike ride today, about 45 minutes, and a picnic in the park.  I found biking around the neighborhood to not be nearly as much exercise as running.  One can almost always choose to coast, and one is forced to stop or slow way down at each intersection.  With running, I'm able to maintain a good pace throughout the entire workout, and I'm able to push myself consistently.  Running also gets my heart rate up without hills, so I find that with biking my legs tire before I get winded.

1.75 mi in 17 minutes

So, now that I am switching to a miles-based schedule, as opposed to a time-based schedule, I ran 1.75 miles (which took about 17 minutes).  It was a challenge, but not impossible.  It helped to have my new running shirt with Haiku on it (thanks Bill!), which clearly gave me an advantage.  

Tomorrow is a day off, and then a run on Saturday and some light run/walk on Sunday.

A record today

I ran 21 straight minutes today, which is a record.  I am finding that I can't continue running after I stop...my motivation goes out of me, so I ran for another 3 minutes and stopped, stretched, and walked the rest of the way home.  :)

I think now I am going to start the 5k training program which I found online, and is here:

http://running.about.com/od/racetraining/a/first5K.htm?p=1

I will start with a 2 mile run, and work my way up adding .25 miles each week.  I like the fact that this training schedule has rest days every other day, especially given my injury (which seems to be back a bit tonight, but I'm going to take tomorrow off).

You can map your run to determine distance at mapmyrun.com.  I love the internet!

Running at last!

So I got back on the trail today, with a 15 minute run, 1 min break, 7 min run, 1 min break, 4 min run.  My feet felt great, and got better.  I made sure to stretch well.   I want to get to 15 min x 2, and then to 20 min + 10 min, and then to 30 straight.  We'll see how long it will take.  I want to take it slowly, but I was pleased by how little I had declined in the past month. 

As a bonus, I saw a bunny today!

Doctor's visit

So I visited my doctor on the 3rd, for my annual physical, and went over my foot pain.  This week was actually the first week since my last post that I could walk normally!  He confirmed my thoughts that it was Plantar Fasciltis.  Foot X-rays showed no real bone spurs or fractures, which is good.  The next step is to follow the steps:

1) Vitamin I

2) Stretch for at least 15 minutes before and after the run, with particular attention to the stretches that affect this injury

3) ice after the run

I will be recovering from the 4th tomorrow, having gotten up at 4am this morning to help stake out a spot at the Bristol, RI parade....the oldest parade in the country, but hope to start back running Sunday or Monday morning.  I wonder how far I have slipped, and whether I'll have to start all over again.