Is there a genetic marker that makes girls love their shoes?

Perhaps, financially, I was fortunate enough to be born with giant feet. Because being able to buy cute girly shoes should certainly kill any hope of a budget we would have.

Instead, I drive my husband crazy with the purchase of running shoes. But how can I help myself? Running shoes used to be boring. They used to be white. But recent favorite trail shoes have come in brilliant shades of teal and perriwinkle blue. They are beautiful and unique. But most of my favorite trail running shoes are also expensive. So I can’t help but buy them when I find them at seriously discounted prices online.

Now my shoe shopping addiction is not as bad as my friend‘s (although she is smart enough not to blog about her addiction to Zappos, or the piles of empty shoe boxes she has stowed away, I promise I’m not the only one), but I do have a spouse to answer to. A spouse that has so many trail runners that they form a mound when take up an entire corner of my mud room. I can’t really compare to either though, as both are actually capable of running Ultra distance events and their training reflects it.

My real problem is that I love my Inov-8 RocLite 283 trail runners so much that I use them on the road. This is not something one should do when loving a relatively grippy soled shoe. This is not something one should do when the runner’s gait includes a slight scrape. Especially not for 200 miles. So although they still have many miles before retirement, I’ve already lined up the shoe’s reinforcements a pair of Inov-8 Terroc 308s.

They are of the most beautiful blue colour, it would be a shame to dirty them.

Also new to the fleet, a pair of Nike Free 5.0. Nike’s solution to the movement towards minimalist shoes and the barefoot movement (*While mine are boring gray and blue (**Probably why they were on sale) Nike Free comes in an amazing variety of colours including purple, hot pink, red and bright blue). I did a short run in them yesterday and I have to say that I didn’t feel less supported than in the Inov-8s or Brooks. I didn’t feel like I had to modify my gait to run “barefoot”. But I did find them quite comfortable compared to my older supportive shoes.

Perhaps I will use the Nikes as my new road shoes, so I can keep my beloved RocLites around longer. Despite that the RocLites are cute enough to become everyday shoes when they retire from the running world.

That and I hope to do some trots in the FiveFingers again this summer. I’m still convinced they helped my biomechanics out tremendously.

So women of the world who are considering getting into running. Think of the part of your shoe closet you haven’t even tapped into yet. The beautiful, colourful world of new running shoes.

So I hopped on my blog this afternoon to look something up and quickly realized how much this little piece of the internet has been neglected. And it’s been an eventful time. I do occasionally put some posts up on my SparkPeople blog (the following post is actually an edited piece from that blog), but I generally don’t put as much effort into those posts as I do those on this site. Either way, shall we continue with some catch up posts?

Race:Winter Half at Hampton
Date: February 21, 2010
Distance: 13.1 Miles (A half marathon)

Let me start this post with a quick review of why after years of bumming around I started running again.

I was in Cape Cod, watching my husband run his first marathon (he had been doing ultra marathons for a while) and I realised that I didn’t like to always be the one on the sidelines taking pictures (as much as I love taking pictures). Right then and there I decided, I would start running so I could race the shorter distances often affiliated with Marathons. Even if it was just the 5k fun run.

That was at the end of October. I couldn’t run more than a mile without stopping and even then I was running 11 to 12 minute miles. My feet, although significantly better from the barefooting, still hurt. My cardiovascular system was feeling mighty inefficient. But I trudged along on the miles. Tracking every step carefully. Celebrating every extra mile.

Somewhere along the way I became obsessed. I did a 13.2 mile training run one day while visiting my parents. During that run I took my time, I stopped to stretch and pet dogs. I wasn’t taking the run very seriously. But  I knew I could do the distance. So I signed up for a half marathon, that was still a few weeks away.

So this is how I found myself at the starting line of the Winter Half at Hampton. I was among a crowd of 1150+ of my favorite strangers.

As I toed the line (Ok so I was a good way back from the line, as I stood around in a giant pack would be a better description) I had some relatively reasonable goals. My do or die goal was to finish the race. My expectations of myself goal was to break 11 minute miles. My highest aspirations goal was to get a 10 minute/mile average. I’m an ex-elite athlete, I know how to strategize.

In the pack I found the 10 minute/mile pacer and jumped around to stay warm. When the gun went off, I found myself claustrophobic in the crowd. I just kept to the edges of the course and moved to somewhere mid pack. I had no idea where the 10 minute/mile pacer was so I just kept going at the pace that I felt happy at.

Then I found the 9:30 minute/mile pacer (about a 2:05:00 finish). I thought to myself, “Miriam, you are way above pace you are going to crash and burn”. So I started following the pacer. It didn’t last long for a couple reasons:
1) The pace I had found previously was comfortable and happy. I felt like I was only shortening my strides to follow the pacer.
2) The group was claustrophobia inducing. The people following him clung to the pacer as if their lives depended on matching him step for step. It wasn’t a friendly happy group excited about the race, they gave off a vibe of anxiousness that I didn’t enjoy.
3) Once I was in the group I felt boxed in. I had a really hard time getting out of it and once I was out, I didn’t want to look back.

So I just ran on. My Garmin Forerunner giving me updates on my pace that mostly stayed in the 9:00 to 9:30 min/mile range. I decided to stick to that pace as long as it felt good. I figured eventually I would burn out and slow down and the people I should have been running with would catch up to me and pass me. But I was on a runner’s high, I had no intention of playing smart.

As for the race itself, the volunteers were friendly and helpful, although they seemed a little surprised when I was thanking them for holding a flag on the side of the road (in a looking around “are you thanking me?” kind of way). I found that sad, these people were helping keep us safe on a winter’s day. It doesn’t take a lot of breath to say thank you. Luckily it seemed to spread as I heard people a little down the pack from me thanking as they passed.

The course was quite flat as it wound through the neighbourhoods of Hampton, NH. I passed by Team Hoyt and I was very impressed as they cheered on those runners passing them. Their positive attitude about life is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. If you have never heard of this father son team, please click on the link and read about them. They have been an inspiration of mine for years.

When I reached 6.5 miles in about an hour I was amazed. I stayed motivated, I cheered people who passed me, I cheered for people I passed. I apologized to those around me for being that annoying perky runner (although one lady I apologized to said she was staying near me because she was feeding off my positive energy).

Around 8.5 miles my IT band acted up. I just kept going. It was going to hurt if I ran 11 min/miles or 9 min/miles and I was so excited and pumped. I was going to finish this race and I was going to reach my reaching goal.

So I ran on. The only negative part of the race was when one of the walkers thought I was cheating (walkers start 1 hour before runners) and asked me if I was supposed to be in the walking group as I wizzed by. I know I don’t have a runner’s physique but we are all in this because we have different goals. And mine isn’t to win a medal it’s to challenge myself. The sad thing is, I let it affect me for a bit. I looked at the GPS and realized I was only running 10:30 min/miles. I shook it off and cheered on the next walkers for spending so much more time on the course than I was. Honestly I would hate to walk for 3+ hours, especially being passed by runners for a good portion of the race.

With 3 miles left to go I started doing math in my head. How fast would I have to go to break 2 hours? I started passing a lot of people who were losing their wind. We encouraged each other in the exchange. The part of the pack just racing themselves is an amazing place to be. I wonder if there’s a component like that somewhere in rowing?

Before I knew it, I was running along the main stretch of Hampton Beach, NH. I didn’t have the gusto to sprint to the finish but I didn’t mind. I crossed that finish line, got my finishers medal and as soon as I stopped moving I immediately felt nauseous and severe pain in my legs. I should have cooled down.

I was super happy with my time though 2:01:27. It was 14 minutes faster than my loftiest goal time. Fourteen minutes faster! And the sad thing is, I’m pretty sure if I had believed I could do it earlier I could have found that extra minute and 27 seconds.

My hubby was at the finish with layers and an attempt at photography (the finish was of course crowded). He had run 35 miles from our home to be there for my finish. It was a great ultramarathon training opportunity for him.

My next half? Run for the Border at the end of March (which may turn into a 20 miler if I can get one really good long training run in before then). Wish me luck that my knee will like me better by then

You know what’s awesome, having parents, friends and family that support your hobbies. It’s really wonderful to be surrounded by encouraging people who want you to succeed.For Christmas my hubby got me a pair of trail running shoes, because I was complaining about Manchester’s streets being more like a trail than a sidewalk. My in-laws got me a wonderful winter sweater that has gotten me outside on days that were just bitter cold.

My parents like to get me gifts that are useful, yet splurges. Objects that I would have a hard time financially justifying to myself, but that would be helpful to my quest at the time.

Because they are so pleased with my progress with the running they decided that they would get me a GPS tracking watch for my birthday. They gave it to me when I was visiting St. Catharines to get my Passport renewed. I was so happy with it that the first day I got it, I ran 13.2 miles consecutive.

And I have been running with it since. I find it very encouraging, the distance measurement pushes me to got a little further (how bad is another .25 miles). The timer helps me be accurate with my pace. I can look at the graph after and see where my heartrate was at a given pace.

I find it to be a very handy gadget. If only it held Cooper’s poop bags so I didn’t have to stuff them in the only pocket I wear sometimes (love that sweater).

I still have a long way to go in this running journey, but I think I’m making good progress towards some lofty athletic and weight loss goals.

I’m taking a light week from training this week, I have a lot of races coming up and my knees were talking slightly. So it’s better to rest up now than be sorry later.

How are you doing on your goals for the year? Any special gadgets that keep you motivated?

I don’t really enjoy the January thaw. It makes me freeze when the seasonal weather comes back. It doesn’t help that I’ve been running again. I get back from my lunch run and spend the rest of the day freezing.

I don’t usually realize how cold I was during my run until the shower afterward. The warm water burns as my frozen fingers and toes actually express what my nerves have been suppressing. But I’d rather keep running outside than spend my time on the treadmill.

New Hampshire is supposed to be entering a cold windy spot in out weather pattern in the next week. I’d also take feet of snow over the windchill.

What do you think -

• Freezing for the rest of the day versus treadmill?
• Heaps of snow versus awful windchill?

This last unseasonably warm Saturday I traveled to Lyndeborough, NH (a small town near Milford). As I drove to the race the hills on the road where a great indication of what the race course would be. I was going to my second snowshoe race ever, the Feel Good Farms Snowshoe Race. Depending on the source the race would be 7-9k. I didn’t really care, I just wanted to get outside to play.

Just before the race I discovered that my right snowshoe was broken. A metal piece of the binding had broken off and the tightening mechanism couldn’t cinch down. I fixed it with a shoelace.

My snowshoes were still enormous compared to other people’s little racing snowshoes. I hope to get a pair of those while my big Atlases are out for repair.

The course was challenging, going up and down a small mountain 4 times. The snow was a little thin in places. Especially after having a hundred people running the course twice. I think the warm weather probably helped the snow be a little safer than if it was pure powder.

I finished what they called a 5.25 mile course in 1:10:24 (results). Considering I walked most of the uphills and had to be careful on the downhills (the snow was a little thin in places and rocks and roots could have destroyed my careful patch up job), I think this was a decent time. There was a point in my life when finishing 86 out of 100 in a race would have upset me. Instead I was just happy to have finished this one.

I actually took a picture while running. I kept passing this really cool old rusting bus. I just had to take a snapshot.

My snowshoe barely made it through the race. When I took it off the shoe lace fell apart. Here I am with my broken snowshoe.

Then I remembered I was supposed to be unhappy about my snowshoe. I was just so happy to be done with those hills.

It always amazes me how quickly some people get around to posting their race reports and pictures and I’d like to acknowledge some of those reports here.

• First Krissy Kozlosky demostrated her love for the camera and caught me pretending to be a stuck in a train. The picture is great, but I look terrible. And then she caught me squinting as I approached the finish and my hair doing it’s thing as I happily am done. It’s kind of fun to see pictures of myself running.
• Scott Mason also has an extensive Gallery.
• Breakheart Trail Running has an elevation profile on his post about the race.
• Snowman Says
• NikonRunner

After looking at all these running only blogs I may have to start a sub-blog dedicated to my athletic adventures. So I can communicate with some of the other proud to be slow, could care less about the poodle runners.

When I was in college I was paid for my sport. I had a scholarship that covered my tuition, my food, my apartment, my books and even my health insurance. I had access to athletic trainers whenever I needed them. I had the good life. But this also had it’s moral trade offs for me. I felt like I needed to do everything in my power to earn that money. To be the best athlete possible so that others would understand why I was getting such a great deal. So often when I was sick or injured I would have to wonder, am I really sick enough to take a day off? Is this injury serious enough that I can’t row through it?

And a lot of times my performance suffered because I wasn’t given a back sprain or the flu the time it deserved to heal. But every day I took off I felt guilty about. And this is something I don’t think my teammates ever understood about me.

As an adult training anew, it’s very hard for me to separate myself from that attitude. The one where letting my body have days to heal is a waste of time. I’m not sure if it’s related to a fear that I’ll get back out of the habit of training, or if I’ll lose fitness on my days off. It might even be a fear of boredom being stuck on the couch.

The last few days have been boring, miserable, sickly rest days. I had a great 9.5 mile run on Tuesday, this was after 90 minutes of Bikram yoga and before going to the climbing gym with Adam in the evening. I was all excited, I was going to get a second 30+ mile week in a row. My ankle was still a little sore from the twist during my snowshoe race, but I was running great distances.

Then Tuesday night I was hit by either a stomach flu or food poisoning. I spent Wednesday moving from the bed, to the couch, to the futon and back. I didn’t even have energy to blog, nevermind taking a little jog with the pup. So I was going to run Thursday. I was back at work I was feeling ok. I was going to take a run in the afternoon once I had gotten some calories into my system. No such luck. After a small candy from a coworker’s candy dish, my stomach decided it didn’t like the oatmeal and water I had so gently been feeding it. So once again I took a rest day.

I have learned to listen to my body more as I have gotten older. I know the signs of dehydration, of low sugar, of acute injury, of chronic pain. I can modify my life to help these things. But the days that require full rest drive me nuts. It’s that whole, being told you can’t do something. Even if you didn’t really want to do it in the first place, it becomes the one thing you want more than anything.

In the end, I know these two days off will be for the best. I will have given my body a chance to heal from the stomach ailment and from the ankle twist. But gosh darn it, I wish I could feel good about taking days off for the good of my body.

How do you feel about rest days? Love them or loathe them?

On Saturday I participated in my first snowshoe race ever. I ran a 5k in Salem, MA called the Olde Salem Greens Snowshoe Classic.

I really enjoyed it. The group I ended up running with for a long time felt more like a weekend exercise group than a group of people actually racing each other.

I also learned a lot about snowshoe racing.

1. Size
My snowshoes were huge next to all the tiny little racing snowshoes. I found another lady with Atlas Electra snowshoes and had to take a picture of her snowshoe because it was even bigger than mine (I have the 25″, hers are 27″).

Smaller snowshoes are lighter and easier to run with.

2. Lines
In snowshoe racing if you want to be competitive you have to get ahead early. Everyone gets in a single track and there is a single packed down row. Passing someone requires a lot more energy because you are running on unpacked snow. Until I twisted my ankle I was in the middle of a pack that I felt was very manageable if not a little slow. But it wasn’t worth passing anyone because the next gap was at least 12 people ahead of me.

3. Hidden obstacles
If the snow isn’t very deep, rocks and roots hidden under the snow can be a danger. The crampons under the snowshoe snags on the obstacles and can cause the ankle to twist.

I did hurt my ankle running this race, but I did finish. I ended up walking a good portion of the race because I’m training for a half-marathon in March. When I got home I was slightly discouraged because I found out that I was only 3 minutes behind second place in my age-group. I might have actually placed if I had been able to run the whole race.

(I feel I look very short and oddly proportioned in this picture. I’m not sure why)

However, as this woman running in a snuggie shows. The race was more about getting out and having fun on a sunny, windy and very cold January morning.

There’s a lot of things I love about running. I love the change of scenery, the people watching, the feel of moving forward at a speed that I’m controlling. I love the smells as I pass by parks. I love the challenge of navigating potholes and dodging cars. I love so much about running and I don’t know why I listened to my body and stopped for so long.

Yesterday however, the reported windchill outside was -11F. That’s -23C for my Canadian readers. It’s early season, I’m not used to that yet. And I’m a wimp when it comes to wind. And I run in the city, so the buildings form a wind tunnel of evilness.

Rather than make excuses I headed downstairs and got on the treadmill. I hate, hate, hate the treadmill. This is proof that I actually like running and have some lofty goals in the new year.

Please pay no mind to the work I still have left to do. I’m not exactly proud of how I look spandex clad right now.

A great tragedy is that I did this activity suited only for gerbils and hamsters wearing my brand new trail shoes. I should be ashamed, shoes like that need dirt, rocks and mud to be happy.

I was so bored. I wore headphones I tried to set song long goals of not looking at the display. I tried to vary my pace. But I was so bored. I only lasted 2.2 miles on the dreaded machine. But I did something. I’m thinking I’m going to have to bring my laptop into the gym, throw a DVD in and let it play so I can at least watch something while running. It’s the only way I’ll last longer.

While running on the treadmill is deadly boring at least this little guy was at the gym waiting for his daddy. Totally adorable and really entertaining. He kept wanting to crawl to the treadmill.

Being that adorable is evil, evil I tell you.

And while I was trapped in one place bored out of my mind, the one who needs to get out and run to be happy was probably lying around doing this.