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April 25, 2005

Two tents

I'm wondering if anyone has ever had success in changing their running form when the problem is a too-tense upper body. How do you change something like that? There are no drills for such a problem. Our old coach Mixon never tired of telling me "Relax those shoulders, girl!" Steve says my form is fine ... except for the upper body thing. Gilbert, on the other hand, always yells "BUTT KICK!!" but he yells that at everyone. He also comments on my shoulders but says when I get the butt kick thing down the rest it will all fall into place.

I've started to realize that my shoulders are ALWAYS tense. When I'm hanging out at home. Right now, even. Relaxing them takes conscious effort on my part. I guess I'm just a tense little person. But since most of my running these days is fart-around, I've decided to make more of an effort on my form. So I tuck my butt under and try to do Gilbert's butt kick and TRY to relax my shoulders. The lower body feels fine when I do this; but I feel like my arms are all over the place, like Phoebe Buffay when she goes running. I'm running really slowly but my arms are swinging like I'm in the last 200 of a 5K and it's taking everything I have to get to the finish line. And then as soon as I lose focus I go back to "the shrug." I had to teach myself to swing my arms in the first place (when I first started running my upper body was not just tense but nearly rigid) so maybe I should just pat myself on the back for that (but then again, my shoulders may be too tight to do that properly.)

Andy did a trail race this weekend (I worked.) I think he may be better suited for that less-competitive crowd; he had a really good time. I'll be out there next year. Seriously. I have trail running - beyond Town Lake Trail - in my future.

Posted by jenandmats at 7:51 AM | Comments (1)

April 21, 2005

That 70s routine

On Tuesdays and Thursday mornings I've been getting up and doing what I've been calling my "70s aerobics routine." Matty and I walk briskly to the park, and then while I'm there I've been doing jumping jacks and toe touches and arm circles and anything else I can remember from elementary P.E. It's a little embarrassing - and I admit that while I'm at the park I hide behind some bushes so no one on the street can see me. But it's *great* for getting my blood flowing and getting things warmed up so that when I get back to the house (Matty and I do some little sprints on the way back) I can do some stretching and weights without feeling like rigor mortis has set in. Thank you John Kellogg!

I'm thinking it may be a good practice even once I've *really* started running again. Maybe instead of an easy 5 as my first run of the day I can do an even easier two and incorporate this aerobics/stretching - especially since the whole point of that first run (at least for me) is to just get my blood flowing so that when I get down to business in the afternoon the pump's already primed.

I think if I try really hard I can top 20 miles this week. Sweet. Of course, that's only if you let me count the Gallow-miles!

Posted by jenandmats at 8:04 AM | Comments (5)

April 13, 2005

Sage advice from a (recently) older woman

Dudes ... look. When you're running with your girl, run *with* your girl. Don't half-step her the whole way so that she has to yell to talk to you. I see this all the time. Actually, I see guys do it to other guys, too, but I think the guy-girl combination is more prevalent. And I think *maybe* the guy is trying to impress the girl with how much more "fit" he thinks he is than the girl. But it just looks bad. And it's annoying. I have a few guy friends who do this to me, and it drives me insane. If I try to catch up with them to have a normal face-to-face conversation the pace just gets faster because they have to be a half-step ahead. And eventually it turns into a race of sorts.

Worse than the half-step, however, is the pseudo-encouragement over the shoulder. This morning as I headed up one of the trail's little humps I passed a couple, with the guy about 5 feet ahead of the girl. He told her to "pick it up" and "don't slow down" and "c'mon" for almost a half mile. Then I started my strides and couldn't hear him anymore. She never said anything. I'll bet she wasn't having a good time, though.

I think many people who say they hate running hate it because they feel like they have to struggle the whole way. I'm sure that's the way it felt for that girl on the trail. If her dude had really wanted to help her, why didn't he run beside her and get her to relax?

Anyway ...

Spring is here. We've had gorgeous mornings. And lots of worms hanging from the trees on the trail.

Posted by jenandmats at 7:45 AM | Comments (3)

April 5, 2005

Holy Capitol 10,000 Batman!

My first real roadrace other than a one-miler I did as a kid was Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. There's nothing like a soggy tortilla shower, naked people, a 6-1/2 foot Madonna, frat boys pushing a keg in a wheelbarrow, and other assorted characters to keep you distracted while you run farther than you ever have before in one of the hilliest towns in the nation.

I think the Capitol 10,000 here in Austin used to be that way. When I ran it in 1997 for the first time (which coincidentally happened to be the morning after I first enjoyed the purple - Everclear - margaritas at Baby Acapulco just down the street from where Jenna got her MIP and I spent the night in a friend of a friend's two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on West 6th Street with approximately 8 other people) I think there were more costumes. I remember lots of women wearing bluebonnet dealy-boppers on their heads. I also remember W. the governor starting us off, and my sweaty palms and knotted stomach at the starting line after hearing the announcer, "Evil," warning us not to run if we had consumed any alcohol in the past 24 hours.

So our creative/crazy inflatable-Christmas-penguin-in-the-backyard friends organized for us to run in costume during the race on Sunday. Superheroes all. (Last year they all ran in prom garb. I joined them for the last quarter mile in an old bridesmaid's dress after having finished up my last 20-miler before Boston - NOT in a bridesmaid's dress.) Andy and I were Batman and Robin. My costume was easy, but Andy's required a lot more thought and creativity and he looked AWESOME. In a funny way, though. Gray running tights and shirt, blue calf-high dress socks, blue speedo over his tights, a mask, a blue plastic tablecloth cape and homemade ears. The speedo definitely took some nerve to wear. And no I did not wear Robin's little green spanky pants; I just wore green shorts.

It was incredibly fun to start in the back and run through the crowd with a near continuous stream of "It's Batman and Robin" exclamations behind us. The kids definitely dug us; Andy said a kid in the porta-potty line looked completely dumbfounded when he came out of the hut.

As much fun as we had, I still have one major gripe. It was perfect pr weather. Sure wish I'd had my pr legs on.

(By the way ... do I abuse the parenthetical? I hope not. But I can't help but use it.)

Posted by jenandmats at 9:06 PM

April 2, 2005

Uncoachable?

Last June or July when I made my plan for Freescale I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted to train. I'd spend my entire summer just building mileage, then I intended to move into a phase where a few of my longer runs became progressive runs to introduce some speed (although I did do strides pretty regularly even when I was just doing mileage.) After a couple of months of that, when things cooled off, I intended to drop the mileage a little and start adding workouts. I eventually wanted to do two distinct types of workouts each week - one a tempo-type run or a sustained run with lots of hills and the other some kind of track work. That combination worked really well for me in the past. I'm convinced that this plan would have led to strong results in February, too, if I hadn't hit the rough patch in late December that led me to feel like I had to make things up in January, which, well ... made a big huge mess that got me a big fat dnf.

By the time I'd joined Steve's group in September my plan was pretty well underway. I'd moved into the progressive run phase and things were clicking along just fine. I was excited to have Steve's group for the camaraderie on the long runs and for one of my workouts, and to have Steve as a coach to help me think things through and bounce things off of. The group fit in well with my plan, but was really only part of my plan.

Anyone have any opinion as to the ethics of this situation? Should I not have joined the group if I wasn't intending to follow the plan to the letter? If that's the case then wouldn't it be unethical for people to join and then flake on the workouts, too - kind of the opposite of what I did? Or does it all hinge on your intentions when you join the group? Steve did know that I had my own plan, and while I think he appreciated what I was trying to do I'm sure he would have preferred me to just do what I was told. If I *had* done what I was told I probably would have made it to the finish line in February, but I also would have wondered how I would have done if I'd followed my own plan.

I'm rehashing this because Steve has started a new program - the program I was looking for last year, actually! Two workouts a week (it was that second workout I was trying to do on my own that caused me so much grief last year) with a good group of women near my speed to run with! But I've been taking quite a bit of flak from Andy about it and even a little from Steve because they both seem to have this impression that I'm not very coachable. It's a reputation I really don't think I deserve, and I *certainly* don't want people reluctant to take me on. This program that Steve's designed will be a real challenge, and he and Carmen (Troncoso) will expect full cooperation and commitment. It's almost a little scary!

So I want to prove that I'm coachable. However, despite my protestations that I really really really really am coachable, I'm already worried about one aspect of the program. It sounds like every run will have a pace to hit. I don't mind each run having a *purpose*, but as I've posted before, timing every mile every day is stressful and not really my idea of a good time. Part of the beauty of this group is that they plan to really work *with* each person to make sure it's more of a cooperative effort, so maybe it's something I should bring up with him.

Or maybe I should just shut up and do what I'm told for once.

Unfortunately, I can't really give it any real serious attention until after session anyway. So I have lots of time to think about it.

Posted by jenandmats at 2:42 PM