Incentiveator #2

Incentiveator #2-- Go to your local really awesome running shop.

In new york, it's Jack Rabbit hands down. In Boston, Marathon Sports. Feel free to name your store in other cities.

I know what you're thinking. A shoe is a shoe is a shoe. You're right...kinda. Full disclosure, I ran on New Balances (the 990 series) for about 6 years. And I was happy with them. I picked that shoe because it was really cushiony and had a wide toe-box. Both of these things matter a great deal when one has a mangled left foot that looks more like the state of New Jersey (in the shape of the state, it's much more attractive than the landscape...), but I had never had the professional treatment. When I started all this running craziness this winter, I went out and finally bought "Happy Feet," an insole that really made a difference. I noticed an immediate difference on those-- so I didn't really think that a Jack Rabbit trip would make a big difference.

Note-- so far I've said I felt good a lot. My pain issues (when I had them) were toe pain (in the big toe of the left foot), knee soreness (on occasion), and tightness in the ankles and hamstrings (kind of all the time). None of these kept me off the roads except the ankle in 2006.

I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but what impressed me most about Jack Rabbit was the fact that the first sales woman could not diagnose my running style well enough, but she sought help. After 5 pairs of shoes, she brought in another guy who worked with us-- and he really knew his stuff. Why is this important? Cause they care-- perhaps too much. Too much to let me walk out with the wrong shoe or to lose me because none of those shoes were as good as my NBs. This hand-holding is a style thing-- if you want to be in and out, this is not friend. But then, this guy made a rec and I found my new shoes.

I'm saving the name of the shoes for the next article, but for now, just know that it really is a personal fit thing. In retrospect, it reminds me a lot of how jeans fit. Not everybody can wear low-rises. And sometimes the baggy ones ain't workin. When you find the ones that make you feel good, well-- you see where this is going.

My new shoes are peanut-butter Puffins in chocolate milk good (think about it-- yeah, that's delicious). More on this tomorrow or the next day.

Singing in the Rain

Well, I'm all settled in in Boston. I'll make my first trek into Cambridge tomorrow, though school doesn't really start until Wednesday.

But I didn't let all the commotion stop me from getting my first two Boston runs in. Today there was a very pleasant drizzle which kept me cool-- thus the headline.

A couple of you have asked me how I track mileage when I'm not running a track I'm familiar with. Well, isn't google great for everything? Try out this site.

http://www.geodistance.com/?id=60797

I have entered my most recent run-- but you can put anything in there to track your distance. It's actually really gratifying to track how far you went, and can help you to be creative with future jogs.

Have fun!

I'm leaving, On a Jetplane-- errr-- Volvo!

So folks, I've been busy. The delay has been packing related. Tomorrow morning, I'm loading up the car with all my stuff and heading off to Boston.

The limbo is finally over.

From a running perspective, this means things are about to get tough. I'm going from deciding if I'd like to run at 11:00 am or 3:00pm to 6:00am or 8:00pm. Woe is me.

Okay okay, I've been spoiled. I know. I promise a more detailed posting soon.

How Frank Bruni Inspired Me (but was just off the mark)

First things first-- I ran 5.5 Brooklyn miles today (from the house to Prospect Park, the loop, then back) and it felt pretty darn great. The weather today is low 70s-- perfect for running. Slight breeze, too. But today I want to talk about Frank Bruni. I promise not to spoil anything for those of you who wish to read Bruni's "Born Round," but if you haven't gotten around to it yet and want to go into the book with zero knowledge of his life, I suggest you stop reading now.

The truth is, for roughly the first hundred pages of Bruni's book, I related to the guy more than I can explain. Sure there were differences-- I mean, it seems his family really did eat twice as much as the rest of us, but I too was a second son who fought to keep up with the portion size of an older brother (especially mac and cheese. Jamie, I get HALF. You know the deal, you split, I choose). Bruni says he felt like he had a bottomless stomach-- I thought a third slice of pizza always sounded like a great idea (even in first grade). I don't need to get into the details too much-- but the way he describes his childhood obsession with food-- it was all me. And my favorite sport is still late night snacking. I'd be a first round draft pick.

I admire his courage for putting it all out there. And again, for the first hundred pages, I really believed that the stigma that eating disorders were exclusively a female phenomenon (other than for wrestlers and other athletes with weigh-ins) was starting to break. Then he introduces sexuality into the equation, and his story no longer fits my own. His book becomes a fair amount about date prep, and we just don't share that experience:

"He calls two days later," Bruni writes. "You're thrilled. You're panicked. When he asks if you have plans for the coming weekend, you tell him you have an out-of-town friend visiting, even though you don't. You just can't see him this weekend. More accurately, you can't let him see you. The weekend is only three days away, four if you sign up for Saturday as opposed to Friday night, and that's not enough time. In four days you might be able to lose three pounds, tops, and that's assuming several five-mile runs. You'd like to lose four to five."

Though I still greatly enjoyed reading it, I no longer related to Bruni in the way that I wanted to; we are simply too different, and that's fine. I applaud his efforts and thank him for sharing his experiences. His excellent writing kept me interested, no doubt, but I'm still waiting for a straight male role model to join him and help to break the mold and talk about male eating disorders. Frank Bruni helped us to take a step. But for now, we'll have to settle for Mike Golic talking about the NutriSystem diet in ESPN infomercials.

Treadmill Running

I completed my first week of "blog" runs with a treadmill jaunt yesterday and 4 loops around Ft. Greene Park today. Both runs were 3 miles long, and those 6 miles rounded out my week total to 19.1 miles. The goal will be to fall between 16 and 20 miles every week until my official marathon training begins. But since I ran 3 miles on a treadmill and then 3 outside, I wanted to take a moment to talk about treadmill running in general.

Before I started training for the NYRR runs that I completed in the last 8 months, I was almost exclusively a treadmill runner on cold days. When you live in the Northeast, you almost don't have a choice-- the pavement is often covered in ice which can land you on your rump faster than...well, fast enough. I also really enjoy running to televised sporting events and programs, so there was an added incentive to run indoors. The fact that Crunch's TVs rarely work is a story for another day-- but I often found myself in the purple gym and on a machine.

Once I started running outside, I noticed that my hamstrings were tighter. To be honest, I have never been a great stretcher-- so I attributed my tightness to that. Certainly, some of the blame belongs there-- but then I got a tip from a trainer about treadmill use and how it improperly trains you for running outside.

Though this guy is cornier than me (and that is saying something), this article does a nice job of explaining the problem. If you can't stand his writing-- just google the topic and you'll find something similar.

http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/treadmill-running-vs-outdoor-running-which-is-better-the-debate-continues/

Bottom line is a 50/50 outdoor/indoor split won't kill you. But running exclusively on a treadmill can lead to injury. Thankfully, I avoided one and my butt and hamstrings are in fine form. Um. Yeah.

Day off Note

I ran the Prospect Park loop yesterday, so I decided to give myself today off. The plan as of now is to try to average 4.5 runs per week.

I'm interested in hearing recommendations for good running music. All my music is a bit stale at the moment.

Demoralizerization and Incentiveator 1 and 1

Today I finally crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on foot. I have to say, I should have done it long ago. The New York City iconic bridge offers a beautiful view of the skyline while you get to marvel at the fact that somehow, a bunch of engineers figured out how to cross a body of water using a system of arches and what not. In the great words of Jesse Pinkman, "Yeah Science!" I know, I know...science and engineering...not the same. But I have Breaking Bad on the brain. For those of you Brooklyn running junkies-- the incline is not as bad as the Prospect Park hill-- but it is longer. Total mileage for the run: 4.75.

Which brings me to a segment I'd like to call "Demoralizerization and Incentiveators."

Demoralizeration #1: Don't run with your athletic friends.

So. Running doesn't come easy to you. In fact...MOST exercise doesn't come easy to you. But you strap together a few good weeks and you've lost 5 pounds. Nice job. People start to notice. You actually start to think, running isn't so bad! In fact, I'm kind of looking forward to it! And then, someone close to you-- someone you would never expect...invites you to go for a run.

Do you remember what it was like to play NBA Jam against the kid who had already had the game for 3 months? Don't do it unless you're up for a 86-2 drubbing. Running is an individual activity and to pretend that we're all created equal (in running...I'm not evil) is as silly as it is wrong.

About a week ago I ran with my college roommate Alex who routinely "dusts" me around mile 2. It always happens the same way-- the sidewalk narrows and a baby carriage comes at us from the other side-- our conversation stops as he goes in front to create the single file formation, and then he's 3 steps ahead of me. Wait-- make that 6 steps ahead. He must need to pee pretty bad-- he's kind of sprinting. Do I smell? Of course I'm used to it, so it's no big deal-- but there were times I wanted to keep up. But the simple fact is that I've kicked ass if I've run a sub 9 minute mile and that's pretty average for him. So we're not running compatible beyond that warm up phase and that's okay.

Incentiveator #1 Run to Fun places

It's pretty simple really-- if you run the same track every time it gets boring. I think if you run 4 times a week, one of them should be something silly-- today's run across the Brooklyn Bridge and back was perfect because it was fresh and kept me interested. Good idea.

Until next time.

Endorph Us Launch

The New York City 2011 Marathon is likely to be held on November 6, 2011. Weather reports for that day call for a partially sunny skies and a high chance of yours truly. After running 9 New York City Road Runners races in the last six months and volunteering for an additional race, I have earned a guaranteed spot in the 2011 NYC Marathon.

So what, you ask?

Well-- to all you long-legged, fit, thin, "I can run fourteen miles before breakfast" people out there-- you, I am not.

No, I'm the kid who struggled through the mile in seventh grade and vomited from exertion as I crossed the finish line. I'm the kid that consistently opted for the extra serving, and the one who found it easier to skip a meal or two to make up for it rather than pound the pavement.

Sadly for me, adulthood caught up with me and exercise was not my highest priority. And as I reentered my college campus for my five year reunion fourteen months ago, I outweighed my college self by twenty-five pounds. And none of it was muscle. What's more, I was about to lose my job and I was severely depressed.

So-- I started to run. It wasn't completely foreign to me because I had dared myself to run a few times before. I was called the bomb squad on the cross country team in seventh grade (they had to send me in first so we'd all finish at the same time) and I sucked it up and trained for a Brooklyn half marathon to prove to myself I was capable of running for distance. I completed that in 2006. But for the most part, I was a running virgin. It started as a means of doing something positive with my new-found free time. I ran 3-4 times a week to get in shape and lose weight. Then, my wife recommended I sign up for a five mile race to give myself something to work towards. I ran it, then two weeks later found myself signing up for another. Before I knew it, I was halfway towards my marathon spot and in a fit of passion, I signed up for the remaining races so that I would have no choice but to keep it up.

I confess one of the largest reasons for this blog is a selfish one-- I am hoping that this blog will give me extra incentive to stay in shape and actually run this marathon. I'm also hoping it will be therapeutic to read and write. And now that my difficult year is behind me and my career is starting to be back on track, I'm hoping that having readers will force me to find the time to get my miles in. So thanks for reading. I'll check back in after my next run.