‘Running Friends’ Articles at , Page 3

Two Days in a Row…My Bum is Feeling It

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Cait — 10 Comments ↓

They say that putting the treadmill at 1.5% grade makes it equivalent to running outside. I don’t care who ‘they’ are but I’m telling you that running outside is harder, one and a half, schmone and a half. 😉

Road vs. Tread

Okay, no, I know that there are differences between ‘real’ running outside and running inside. On a treadmill your strike, footfalls, and gait are able to stay exactly the same. Even on a flat road, you will make some turns, there are variances in the road, you move to avoid a branch or rock, slight elevation, slight grade down…normal stuff. All of these things add up.

The other big difference is that on the tready you actually don’t use your hamstrings at all. The way the belt moves, it works only your quads; the movement of the belt actually drags your leg back and thus takes your hammies out of the equation. So going outside it’s a little bit of a shock to the backside of your legs!

So in an effort to return to being a ‘normal runner’ I’ve taken it to the streets. Well, not the real streets, but outside on the bike trail. I feel safer there, still working against a little residual ‘I’m a weenie and cars kinda freak me out’ fears, but a bike trail I can manage. Now that I’m living closer to an awesome bike trail I’ve been going there.

It’s also a slap of reality, I’m also able to go faster on the tready than outside…most of that I think is just ‘me’ though because I’ve never been a real power runner, so the difference in paces I think is more overt just because I have strength that needs to build up.

This guy kicked my tush today. 🙂

Today was a good one, hillier than I’ve been doing…I say this and laugh because I ran with a good friend of mine (actually, it’s so funny because he’s about 7 years younger than me and I remember when he FIRST started running, him going out to his first races and now here I am running with him…PS-he kicked my butt and was way too nice to admit I was definitely the dead weight holding him back…haha!) and when I said, “So now we’re done with the rolling hills, this is flat from here on out, right?” his reply was, “Oh, yea, I forgot about the hills…haha…ya, I guess those were them, I was distracted talking!” I guess the only thing I can feel better about is that at least I was able to hold a conversation the whole way through. 😉

Ahh, but I loved it. The other great thing about the bike trail on the weekends too, you see tons of runners getting their miles on. Oh, and bikes…but runners are better. 😉

So kicked Sunday off to a good start; backtracking a bit, I also had a great Friday when I went out to On the Border with my fam and my little sis’s boyfriend. Mexican food and good conversation always makes for an awesome night. As for the boyfriend, all I have to say is this: this was just a ‘regular’ day, no special occasion and he brought her flowers. Earlier in the week he picked her up from school with a surprise: a limo waiting to drive them to San Francisco. Ummm…where were guys like these when I was in high school?!?!

Sis and the BF at San Fran

So, fun Sunday runs…like the title notes my hammies and bum are feeling it a tad but it’s a GOOD feeling. The feeling like I’m back among the outside runners…and YES, regardless of what David may think, those WERE rolling hills!! 😉

——————————————

Update: this runnerchick somehow made a dorkette mistake and a few paragraphs were repeated in my post!! What was I doing?! Anyways, you no longer will see double but that’s only thanks to the amazing Christina for telling me!! Thanks so much and I emplore you all to go and follower her blog because it’s totally stalkworthy! 🙂

——————————————

1) What were/are you up to this weekend?

2) If you’ve spent a lot of time doing treadmill vs. outside running, do you find you can go faster on the tread than outside, even if you have it at the 1.5% grade?
This is true for me even when I do hard workouts on the treadmill vs. if I do the same workout on the track. It gets me frustrated when I can go faster on a treadmill tempo and then I take it to the track and I’m slower…what’s the dealio?!

3) Have you ever been surprised with a trip in a limo?
No…but sign me up.

4) On the Border is Mexican…love me my Mexican food…what’s your favorite Mexican dish/food?
Bean burrito, Baby!

When Treadmills Revolt and Walking

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Cait — 6 Comments ↓

Temporarily out of service. This is what my treadmill has informed me; I guess that whole saying of, “If you don’t give something a break it will devise a method of its own to get one” is true. Actually, I know that’s not a saying but I’m making it one…sounds legit.

Actually, I can breathe a sigh of relief because my lovely tready is actually only getting work done on her and didn’t interrupt any actual miles that needed to be logged. But she’s been finicky and throwing up error messages the past week and so, my friend, the Fit Guard diagnostic man is on the job!

This has been going back and forth for weeks, working through the web of phone calls between companies, people, repeating the same thing over and over to the next person. Diagnosis: walking too fast for the cool-down. What?

Okay, the deal was that after I’d finish my run, I’d stop it (of course make note of my final stats, I’m not anal about those at all), get a drink of water, then return and just do a short cool-down walk. Well apparently if you start walking faster than the treadmill as it ramps up it stages a revolt. Random story that I guess is just further proof running is better…walking is nothing but a headache and will cause you problems. 😉

I jest, but actually on Wednesday I went out to join a friend who is part of a 5k training group. The people who meet up are in various stages of fitness, but mainly JUST starting out and to them a 3 mile race they have coming up sounds like an epic distance. For which most of them are walking it. It’s fun to hear them talk about their goals, watch them beam when they finish and see the Garmin tell them they clocked 2.88 miles.

One of the ladies completed her fastest mile yet and we all know how good a new PR feels. She was in the more advanced group and alternated between walking and jogging. It was a nice change of perspective for me; many of my friends or people I talk to are ‘runner runners’ and to them 2.88 miles would be a warm-up. Their PR’s would be minutes faster, but you know what, everyone is in a different stage and point.

The thing is, I remember being that lady thinking that finishing 2.88 miles WAS a marathon. The first time I ran a whole 5k I was on cloud nine. It was refreshing to be among some newbies. Anyways, sometimes it’s really easy to always have our sights set on ‘one-upping’ ourselves; we get lost in only looking forward to the next goal, the next race, getting a faster time, that we forget to enjoy the moments of our accomplishments.

Juuuuust a quick peek though! 😉

Sometimes it’s necessary to just take a quickie sneak peek behind you (I know, this is breaking a cardinal rule in racing, never look back, you can’t let them see your weakness…lol) and see how far you’ve come. Just a quick peek though, we can’t let those egos get out of control…haha. 🙂

1) What’s the ‘worst’ error type message or even that’s happened to you on a machine?
This isn’t mine, but I like the story of my friend who was doing 800’s on a treadmill, but halfway through his last one the treadmill shorted out because he was going too fast…haha. Love it!

2) Are you kind of a fast-walker?
I don’t mean to, but I guess my ‘normal people walk’ is quicker and it annoys my family sometimes if we’re out shopping.

3) What’s the last thing you did that you were proud of? It can be anything, not just running related. 🙂

I’m Back and Busy Watching the Pro’s Bring Fire to the Track at World Champs

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Cait — 5 Comments ↓

Goodness, me! Wow, sorry to have been gone for a few days there, don’t you hate it when work and life stuff gets in the way of the real important things? Blogging that is. I would say that it’s a pain in the butt should ANYTHING get in the way of running or working out, but we all know that would be a lie since there isn’t anything that I’d let get in the way of that one. 😉

But yea, I’ve been busily working on a few freelancing projects that have sucked up all my ‘would-be-blogging-and-blog-trolling’ time…so my apologies. The good news is that rather soon I’ll be rolling out some new art here…what, you’re not sick of the recycled ones yet? Good. Hehe.

I hope your weekends have been going well and if you’re living under a rock, I’ll tell you that the World Track Champs are currently underway. Now, I’m totally biased towards both the longer distances and my friends, so fair warning that’s really all I’ll be mentioning. Hey, it’s my blog so deal with it. 😉 But really, you can check the full results at the IAAF site and Paul Merca has a stand-out track and field blog which you should hop on over too.

Back to my biased little two cents; I was really rooting for our girls in the 10k there. Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher especially, I’m sure the 7^th and 13^th places respectively weren’t what they had gone in there vying for but we all know that on any given day all we can give is what the legs are willing to put out.

Kara though has shown her guts in just spiking up; she’s coming back from a stress reaction in her femur…and should I also remind you that she did push a human being out from between her loins this past year…just saying. 😉 Still, I never counted her out of putting it all out there, she’s one of the most mentally tough people I know. But again, injuries suck the big one and always have a ‘nice’ way of popping up at the least opportune time. Though, is there ever a good time for an injury? Me thinks not!

That said, all the athletes competing there have enough of the stuff to even BE there in the first place! And as a track fan it’s fun to watch or read all about it. In the men’s 10k there was a big upset in that Kenenisa Bekele didn’t win the very first 10k he’s ever entered; he actually DNF’ed. So the title went to a dark horse in a sprint to the finish, as much as it’s sad to watch a great runner DNF it is nice to spread the gold medal love around I suppose?

Back to us regular runner peons…hehe. 🙂 Did anyone have a race of their own this weekend? If so it’s bragging time! Just some easy miles for me with the distraction of some Disney. I wonder if Kara and Shalane were thinking of Disney related material while busting ther @$$e$ on the track? ;

Well, sorry to keep this short but back to the grind! Oh, before I forget…I need to address that for whatever reason stupid WordPress is now staging a revolt against me! All of my reply comments seem to disappear a few hour after I post them…I don’t know what is up?!?! So, please don’t think I’m ignoring you guys, I love comments and I reply to them! It’s WordPress, maybe somewhere in a dark alley it is selling the comments it stole from me. 🙁

1) What was the most fun thing you’ve done this weekend?

2) Do you enjoy going out and watching/cheering for track races? Do you actually stay and watch the full 25 laps or are you a dork who uses that time as a potty break?

3) Last thing you ate?

Cinnamon raise English muffins.

New Friends and Things I’ve Learned About Running

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Cait — 9 Comments ↓

So kind of a hectic Tuesday. Forget the whole song and dance about Manic Mondays. Actually, I’ve always hated the part in that song where she is singing the praises of Sundays and says, “My I don’t have to run days…” forget that noise. Yes, I’m nitpicky and if I want to hate the song just because it’s hating on running I’ll do that.

The GOOD news is that I’m finally with wheels! Hurrah, I’ve got a car…it’s been a long time coming. Next stop DMV…and I’m not looking forward to that, so I’ll push it off as long as possible. I think I have like only 10 days so not much time to push of the inevitable.

So I’m also excited because for the past few days I’ve been talking with a wonderful new runner friend, Aron, over at XC Nation. I have been known to blabber on about running forever and I may have met my match…in a good way, I love ya Aron! 🙂

Anyways, so I’ve been learning a lot from him myself and hearing some amazing stories from; the people he’s met, talked to, read up on, interviewed, and all that jazz. (PS- he’s super hard core and ran a 20 miler at sub-six min pace, got gang green, had to have his toe amputated, went BACK out running soon after, got sick and had to go back to the hospital…but is back at it today. I mean, c’mon who really needs a toe anyways, Aron’s out there busting out the miles! 😉 *that last part was said with sarcasm, remember that next time you try to come up with a better excuse to skip a run*)

It’s a great site for high schoolers because it offers not just national rankings and current news but also schools them about the runners before their time that helped bring our sport to what it is today. It’s also brought up a lot of memories from my own cross days and things I’ve learned from racing and running in general.

1) Running makes you tough…if you do it right. I think the reason our sport gets a bad rep is because even just our easy days aren’t ‘easy’ I mean you’re always going to get to a point of discomfort, that’s the truth.

2) Running sucks but we love it anyways. I am a fan of those new shirts that read that, some people got all upset about them, but I like the slogan.

3) But there are times when we can be the creepers rolling along with a big smile on our face. I’ve done it, but maybe it only looks like a real smile in my mind…I always look horrible in any running picture I see!

4) The Runner’s Inner Circle. It’s there, we’re one giant group, we ‘get each other.’

5) Runners are quirky. I don’t need to rattle off my lists of quirks, and I say this as a good thing to all you other runners. Now, I know there are the ‘cool’ runner people that outwardly appear to be sort of like the popular kids at the high school, and yes some do have actual fashion sense and don’t wear running clothes all the time. BUT, even they have certain oddities that when you get to know them you can laugh and recognize, “Okay, yea, I guess all runners are a little quirky.”

6) The power of Pop-Tarts. I guess that whole pro-high fructose corn syrup campaign should add some awesome pre-race fuelage to the list. I jest, I’m sure it’s just crap food, but for a stretch of about four years I HAD to have my Pop-Tarts before my race. Now, later when I learned more and got more ‘serious’ I mixed it up…but do I need to remind everyone that Bill Rodgers used to slather mayo on cold pizza to refuel after his hard workouts and long runs?

7) Running teaches you about life. I don’t know if I would have been able to face or deal with lots of ‘life junk’ if I wasn’t a runner.

So, I’ll leave this list off at the odd and random number 7. Some people call that a lucky number, I’ll call it I’m out of time and gotta wrap it up number! Haha…happy Tuesday to you all and next time I hear that Manic Monday song I hope to start a flash mob in protest…we’ll all rip off our normal people clothes and have on running gear and chant, “My I DO my run day!!!” 😉

1) Are there random song lyrics that bug you or you just hear them and they annoy you for some reason?

2) What can you add to our list about running?

3) Do people at DMV sometimes just make you laugh out loud?

Yes. A resounding yes.

Seven Links to Runnerpeeps and Some Things Shouldn’t be Cooked

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Cait — 6 Comments ↓

Hello writer’s block. I have no idea where this post will go, nor something funny to open with…not that I ever really am able to open up rather quippy. So let’s see where this stray brain will lead us…

I'm sunk...no inspiration...

We’ll start with this: the running world is crazy small, I mean it’s dinky. I say this because it seems like every runner somehow, some way knows a person, who trained with so-and-so, coached so-and-so, or something like that. Forget the whole Kevin Bacon thing, I think there should be something like a seven links to Bill Squires. Don’t know who that is, Google, baby. 😉

I say that because I was talking on the phone with one of the coaches getting her team the Runner’s Training Log I’ve made and we kept hitting points in the conversation with, “Wait, you know them, did you know that they used to be coached by so-and-so and so-and-so was the person who used to coach me back in the day!” or “Wait, you know that person, oh my gosh, my runner friend works with them managing all these races.”

It’s cool because even just out and about in ‘real life’ (runner life world is far better btw…haha) you bump into a runner and chances are somehow, some way you guys are connected through the WWRT…World Wide Runner’s Trackwire. Try it, it’s fun…maybe it works like that in bloggy world? Who knows…

Next up, I’ve been meaning to say this but keep forgetting….there is this road close to my new place named: Dick Cook. Not even Dick Cook Road or Street…every time I pass it I smirk. How immature am I? Then again, what a tempting appetizer that sounds like, no?

I’ve just started working on a new project so I just finished doing some 1950’s style moms. It makes me wonder if I would have really ‘lasted’ back then. I mean, sports for girls weren’t really there and there is no way I could live wearing poodle skirts and the like back then.

Though I know I couldn’t really cut it as a ‘rebel’ bad girl either…I don’t like tight leather pants anyways. Nerd? Maybe, I mean I know I’m a dork but maybe I just wouldn’t be smart enough to make the cut. So where the heck would I fall? Would I just be the really weird girl no one would even talk to because I just somehow still managed to find running and spent my free time running around? Did they even have treadmills back then? If so, did they go faster than 10 min/mile pace?

Insert random Boston Terrier fist pumping like Snooki...I made this for my sis when she got her new puppy. 🙂

I guess that’s it for this chick for now. I’m out! For those who care, do you even need to ask if I ran today? 😉

1) Do you notice that the running/fitness would is funny small? Do you have an example where you stumbled upon a stranger who’s really not a stranger thanks to so-and-so?

2) Who the heck comes up with street names? I wonder sometimes. What’s a funny street name you’ve seen?

3) 1950’s, where do you think you’d land amongst the populous?

4) What are people listening to these days? What’s the last song you heard?

I was in my sis’s car and it was Taylor Swift. But my roommate has some crazy old song on that I i don’t know who it is; I don’t know if I should count that because it’s not exactly my choice to have it playing…

Running Skirts — Crossing a Thin, Frilly Line?

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Cait — 21 Comments ↓

Happy Saturfarts to all! I hope you are having a great weekend thus far, and for those that raced do feel free to brag on your fine selves, I want to hear all about it!

Today, I think I finally need to bring something up. I hope it doesn’t offend any of my lovely lady bloggers because I think it’s something that may be a little touchy subject. Running skirts.

Okay, let me start off by saying that since they’ve been around they’ve become more and more popular and I’ve seen lots of people wearing them and my tolerance for them has grown as such. I actually will go out and state that I’ve seen pictures of some friends wearing them and they do look cute, but here is my dealio with the whole running skirts thang.

When they very first were about to come out, I was working at the Nike World Headquarters up in Oregon and so I saw the wear testers doing the whole testing and fitting then first. Right away I said to a very good friend of mine (he’s a guy and shares my snarkness…we were probably twins separated at birth and a couple of years removed) “What in the heck is that??! What are they doing…those are the stupidest things I’ve ever seen…I hope they don’t actually start selling those things. I swear if those things take off I’m going to flip my top!”

Well, they did hit the stores…they did take off.

Here was my line of thinking, hear me out. This tomboy sort of saw them as yet another attempt to ‘girlify’ our sport. Here we go through all these great pains to be seen/treated as equals and now they go and bring back the skirt? I mean we already have to fight and scour shelves for any article of clothing that ISN’T in a pink or similar color palette.

On the competitive scene, girls already get plenty of flack over the fact that yes, we will forever run slower than the guys, but dang it that’s genetics and women pros are still stellar and deserve the same level of respect. They put in the miles (albeit generally less overall than the males but again that is mostly due to body composition…and if you totaled up the amount of actual time spent running versus miles the gap is even less), bust out the repeats, and can be just as gritty as the dudes. There have even been college/professional level coaches joking that, “Eh, it’s just the women’s races, they don’t count all that much.”

So that’s where I saw the skirt as a bad direction for our sport. I will admit I did cringe when I saw a few professional ladies even wearing and talking about liking the running skirt. I dunno, that’s just me. I haven’t ever worn one myself so maybe I’m not giving them a chance out of just principle and being a dorkette….that and the fact that I don’t even own a normal kind of skirt.

I’m also super picky about running shorts, so there is the comfort issue. I think the skirt part would only keep getting bunched up and ‘eaten up’ by my thighs and that would annoy the heck out of me.

So am I just being way overly feminist about this issue, girls? Like I said, in the years since I’ve seen more and more people wearing them, some of them friends, and I don’t hold it against them necessarily, but I still don’t ever see myself donning one of those running skirts. That’s just me.

1) Running skirts, have you ever worn them, where do you stand?

It’s sort of funny that I pick THIS topic to go on a rant about, particularly since I’m not one of those people who tend to go all overboard with reading into social things and women’s rights. Haha.

2) If any guys are reading this, what are your thoughts? Do you think running skirts are stupid or do you think they are ‘cool’ or whatnot for ladies…obviously you might not want to wear one for other reasons.

3) Anyone race today, if so how did it go? If not, what was your workout?

Love affair with my treadmill today (a bit over 9 miles) followed by ab and core work.