Why I Run | Page 3

February 27, 2011
by Sean Brown
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Ragnar Del Sol race report

“Where’s the Damn Van?!”

Where’s the Damn Van was the name we chose for a team of 12 runners running in the Ragnar Del Sol 2011 Relay. It’s a race that covers roughly 200 miles through the desert in the Phonenix, Arizona area. Most teams were made up of 12 runners who run approximately 15-17 miles each, but there were a few “ultra” teams as well. Ultra teams only have six runners so each person runs somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 miles over a 24 hour period. To quote Robert DeNiro in Midnight Run, “That’s a very respectable neighborhood.”

Here I am, glowing in the middle of the night

To give you some idea of what the race was like, let’s head back to college. Remember back in the day, when you and your college buddies would go on a road trip? Remember how the destination became an afterthought compared to the trip getting there? That’s what Ragnar was like for me. My runs were great. But getting to know the 11 other runners, and crazy fun we had while cooped up in a van for 30 hours with no sleep is what made the whole thing incredible.

Don’t get me wrong, the running was off the charts too. Steve Speirs‘ third and final leg was a 7.7 mile jaunt, nearly straight down. An 849 foot drop over 7+ miles is insane, but he just crushed it, sleep deprived and all. He even paced another runner who was hurting and still turned in a 6:01 pace. Nuts. Jenny J‘s last leg was the opposite: a 600 foot climb over almost 9 miles. All on beat up legs, spotty van nutrition and no sleep, but she just put her head down and ran and ran. Joe Marrachulla started the whole thing off on leg #1 by destroying a run that included a 500 foot climb over about 4 miles. And that was just short of a week after running a marathon. Nina A had a tough run in the dark where the signs directing runners weren’t very clear, so she got a bit off course. But you should have seen her giving it everything she had to make up time by nearly sprinting the final portion of her leg. There is no quit in Nina. This isn’t an exhaustive list of the hard runs, but it does give you a glimpse into the kind of performances our team gave.

I have admit it. Going into the weekend, I was pretty nervous. I really believed I was going to be the weak link in the team, the slowest of the runners. And you know what, I still might have been, I’m not sure. But, I did manage to run all three of my runs in paces below 8:00 min/mile. My leg average paces were:

Leg #6: 7:40 min/mile
Leg #18: 7:36 min/mile
Leg #30: 7:43 min/mile

To put my times into perspective, I’ve never even had one training run at better than an 8:00 min/mile average, yet in this race, I did it three times in a row. So, even if I was the slowest on our team, I think I did myself proud by not dragging the team down with really slow times.

There was one disappointment this weekend. Once the race starts, the team divides itself into two sub-teams. Each 6 person sub-team stays together for the whole race in their own van. Makes sense, and it even gives each group of runners a window of time to try to rest and relax. What didn’t dawn on me, was that it would only leave brief little periods of time, at major exchanges, where each “van” would get to see the other van of runners. So there were six team members that I barely got a chance to know, and in the short conversations we did get to have, I knew I would have liked to have gotten to know all of them.

The upside of the van arrangement is that you really get a big chance to get to know the runners in your van. And I can say this without reservation or embarrassment: I loved getting to know each of them. I truly feel like I’ve made friends that I’ll keep for a lifetime. There were inside jokes, funny stories, brief flashes of nudity (hence the PG13 rating), rotten doggie bag food smells, generous hosts allowing us to rest and have meals at their home, gnomes, tough runs, the stink of 6 sweaty runners, cursing of bad maps, cursing/loving Katy Perry, random texting to people sitting 3 feet from you, multiple U-turns, loud cheering, cowbell ringing, absolute amazement, spectacular sunsets, gorgeous sunrises, shared pictures of each others’ kids, war stories of races gone by, salves, gels, aches, pains, running advice given, running advice taken, personal lives discussed, hopes shared … and the list goes on and on. A weekend I will never forget.

Here are all of my team members. All of the photos seen on this page where taken by Michael Miller, who not only runs like a deer, but takes excellent photos too.

Andy M.

Carol T

Dan C.

Eddie R.

Jenny J.

Joe M.

Kimberly M.

Michael M.

Nina A.

Steve S.

Thomas N.

The Whole Team

UPDATE: This evening we found out that we finished ~~19th~~ 20th out of 306 teams. Pretty damn good performance from the Damn Van!

February 1, 2011
by Sean Brown
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Running in the cold

One of the questions I get a lot from non-running friends is, “What do you do when it snows/rains/too hot?”

Well. I still get out there and run. And that’s when I get that head shaking, “You crazy!” look from whomever asked the question. I hate treadmill running so much, it would have to be pretty bad outside for me to make that choice.

Today’s one of those days that the piper came calling though. I tried to time the run prior to the predicted rain turning to sleet, and with only about 50 minutes or so to run, I figured that would be easy. I was wrong. About one-half mile into the run, the sleet started. Tiny little sleety ice pellets coming down into the bitter wind kept heading right for my right eye. Why my right eye? I don’t know. But my vision was blurry by the end because my right eye was scratched.

Then the ice stopped and turned into rain. Hard rain. Lots and lots of rain. And did I mention the wind? Still there. Still around 32 degrees. And I was soaked to the bone.

Just three miles into a little 6 mile run and I was ready to quit. I even changed my route a bit to take me back closer to home, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stop. I hate the feeling of quitting anything, big or small, and in the scheme of a marathon training plan that includes 700 miles, ending early on a six miler is small. But I kept going.

By the time I finished and walked into the house, my hands were so frozen and painful that my wife had to take off my gloves for me. I could barely speak because my mouth and lips were completely numb. After about 30 minutes, I made my way up to the shower, but the pain in my hands was so intense when they felt the luke-warm water I started with, the shower took forever.

January was tough with much more snow than is usual in Cincinnati, and it sure looks like February isn’t taking the challenge lying down.

Maybe my friends are right. I am crazy.

January 26, 2011
by Sean Brown
1 Comment

Running better with a coach

Last summer, I wrote about how I have a difficult time asking for help. This isn’t something that’s just running related, it’s something that I’ve had a difficult time with in many areas. However, in December of 2010, I decided to get past my fear of reaching out, and asked a friend to help me put together a good training plan for the Flying Pig Marathon, and to help monitor how I’m doing as I tackle the runs one by one. If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll recognize my friend’s name: Joe Marruchella. Joe is the founder of Run for Dom, the charity for which I completed the Chicago Marathon last October.

Joe’s help has been invaluable already and we’re only into week 5 of the 18 week plan. We’ve made changes to the weekly schedule to make sure I’m making the most out of the important runs, we’ve added tempo and hill work (both new to me), continued to focus on cross training, and even made adjustments to my shoe choices to make sure I get to the starting line on May 1 in the best possible shape. His attention to detail is tremendous and that helps me keep focussed on doing the work and really getting it right. My confidence grows week by week and that alone will pay dividends come race day.

January 19, 2011
by Sean Brown
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First run with Zensahs

As the fall in southwest Ohio gave way to winter last year, I noticed that there were days that were not quite cold enough to require a jacket, but the chill did get to my arms a bit. After having read reviews of arm sleeves (and calf sleeves), I thought it would be a good idea to give them a try. I know my family thought I was insane when arm sleeves were the only thing I listed for our Secret Santa Christmas gift exchange. After I opened them up, my sister (my Secret Santa) said, “What the hell are those for?!”

Today was the perfect kind of day to take my new Zensah Arm Sleeves for a spin. It was one of those odd January days where the temperature goes up enough to feel warmer but there’s still some drizzle in the air to remind you it’s not Spring yet. I slipped on the Zensahs, put on my reflective gear and off I went for a 5 mile marathon pace run. I could tell right off the bat that was going to love them as they kept my arms at the perfect temperature. At the beginning of the run, before I had really started generating my own heat, the arm sleeves kept my arms warm and dry, which is exaclty what I had hoped for. As the run went along and I got warm and started to sweat, the sleeves helped move the sweat away from my arms and let it evaporate to keep me feeling cool enough. Again, keeping everything at that “just right” temperature. While I didn’t need to on this run, I loved the fact that if I were running a longer run or a race and the day started to warm up, I could remove them without any problem, something I wouldn’t be able to do with a long sleeve technical shirt.

Many runners wear calf sleeves during and after their training help aid in recovery. I’m soon going to enter the weeks in my marathon training where my long runs will be long enough to really feel the benefit of the compression Zensah Leg Sleeves give, so I may have to treat myself to some of those too!

Great product. Highly recommended.

Zensah Compression Sleeves

January 3, 2011
by Sean Brown
1 Comment

2011 Running Goals

Just as I am nearly required to write a year end wrap up, I might lose my membership card if I don’t set out some goals for the new year.

The early part of the year will bring two races for which I’ll have no stated goals. I’m running the first one for fun and the second one for personal reasons. The third race will be the one that’s circled on my calendar.

Ragnar Del Sol Relay, February 25, 2011. This one is just for fun. Myself and 11 other runners from DailyMile are going to descend upon Arizona to run all night, have a lot of fun, and just see where that puts us, ranking-wise. The race is a little over two hundred miles so we’ll each be running somewhere around 16 or 17 miles broken up into three legs each. I have no particular time goal in mind for this one.
Cincinnati Heart Half Marathon, March 20, 2011. I’m running this one because that race now has a place in my family’s memory, and honestly, I’d like to help make that memory be a little less sad. I ran the mini marathon at this race last year, but they’ve added a half marathon to the mix this year, and that distance fits better in my full marathon training plan. However, if I try to set a time goal for this race, my coach will kick my ass, as that Sunday is supposed to be the end of a step down week.
Flying Pig Marathon, May 1, 2011. This is the first “real” race I’ll have this year. After my experience at the Chicago Marathon last year, the 26.2 distance and I have a score to settle. My A, B and C goals are: a) 3:55:00, b) 3:50:00, and c) 3:45:00.

I’m trying not to look too far beyond May 1. If everything goes well at the Pig, I may set some more aggressive goals for a marathon late in 2011 or early in 2012.

December 29, 2010
by Sean Brown
4 Comments

2010 Year End Review

The year in review.

Writing a running blog and having just a few days left in 2010, I’m pretty sure I’m required to write a year-end recap. I’d like to keep my membership standing in the Writers Writing For An Audience of One Guild (or the WWFAAOOG), so here we go.

2010 was filled with a dizzying array of ups and downs, first time accomplishments, complete failures, and more than anything else: learning. I learned a ton about myself as a runner, a father, a husband and a friend, and I can attribute a lot of that learning to my dedication to running.

The year started out high hopes and lots of goals. I had just begun to run in September of 2009 and before that year was done, I had managed to go from sitting on the couch (both literally and figuratively) to running my first 5K, a second 5K and a 10K. I was hooked, and I was loving every minute of it. OK, not every minute of it. December is cold.

By the end of 2009, I had decided to set two running goals for 2010: complete a half marathon, and if that went well, train for a full marathon. One of the nice things about the earliest parts of running is that you can set new personal records left and right since there’s no long history to compare. Run 5 miles today? New distance PR!

As January bled over into February, I began to ramp up mileage as I prepared for the Flying Pig Half Marathon. During that same period of time, I learned about YakTrax, how much I hate running on a treadmill, and the need for nutrition during longer runs. All new things to me. By February, I had also put together a plan for the year, or at least for the major races.

As February gave way to March, I also got to have my first run in a different country: the Bahamas. This was a make-up trip for the one we had to cancel in November of 2009 when my older son got the dreaded H1N1 flu the night before the trip was to start.

This also started a period of time that was personally very difficult. My father-in-law’s health had begun to decline pretty rapidly and there was a lot of worry about what was going on. It was very tough for my wife to get good information about what the doctors were saying from 2000 miles away. As the month came to a close, my wife was in Florida to be with her dad, who passed away on March 28th. I’m not sure I’ll ever feel good about not making it to be by her side in time.

April was spent learning what the longer runs would feel like, and I even threw in a half marathon distance run to see where I really stood. I also faced my very first taper leading up to the Flying Pig Half. I think I can confidently say that I’m not a fan of the taper. I’m surprised I wasn’t kicked out of my house.

On May 3rd, I ran my very first half marathon. I completed the race in 1:56:14 which was just over a minute longer than I wanted it to be. I learned some great lessons on that first big race about pacing, running through pain, the effects weather can have on performance, and, yes, about pride. This would be the first big race where my sons and wife got to watch me run. They, too, braved the rainy Sunday to cheer me on and it made a huge difference to me. Reuniting with them after the race was one of my favorite moments of the year. Seeing the pride my boys had for what I had worked hard to accomplish was priceless.

Having put together a respectable run at the Flying Pig, I turned my attention to marathon training through the summer. The summer months went by in a blur of heat, humidity and baseball! Both of my boys play baseball so we spent the majority of our time going to and from baseball fields all over the Cincinnati area. My running continued to progress although I had to learn some hard lessons about running in the heat. I also took some time to work on my form and even went to a sports nutritionist to find out just how badly I was doing fueling my body.

August brought two bright points to what was otherwise a long, hot slog through the summer: deciding to run the Chicago Marathon for the charity Run For Dom, and my second half marathon, the Spirit of Columbus Half.

September started with my one year of running anniversary and the two 20 mile training runs that preceded the marathon. I left the month feeling confident that the goals I had set for the marathon were within reach and that my training was right where it needed to be.

October turned out to be an extraordinary month. It started with the Chicago Marathon on the 10th. While I did complete the marathon, my performance was hampered by a knee injury that occurred a little past the halfway point. Having never dealt with any type of training injury, I was thrown pretty hard by this. I managed to gather myself and push through the final half, but I needed to alternate walking and running to get it done. The highlight of the year for me was finding my family in the runner reunite area and being tackle-hugged by my boys and my wife. My sisters, mother and father also surprised me by traveling to Chicago to cheer me on. While I admit that my first reaction to my race performance was bitter disappointment, it didn’t take long for me to see just how much I gained from the experience and just how much I and my family learned from the road it took to get there.

Having to stop running for 6 weeks to let my knee heal seemed like a prison sentence when the doctor gave me the news. But I took the opportunity to work on two areas I hadn’t spent any time on before: cross training and strength training. The rest of October and the entirety of November were spent improving those areas and staying away from any impact on my knee. As I’ve been able to get back to running everyday in December, I can already see some positive results. I’ve never felt better or stronger as a runner.

December 27th was the first day of marathon training for the Flying Pig on May 1, 2011 and I’m feeling good about being back on a plan. It looks like I’ll finish 2010 having run 1362 miles.

December 12, 2010
by Sean Brown
0 comments

How injury leads to better running

OK, I can’t say that I suggest you go out and injure yourself as a means to becoming a better runner, but I can tell you how it’s helped me.

I’m a pretty stubborn person, just ask my wife. There are good aspects to being stubborn (like not backing away from a challenge) and bad aspects (like ignoring what’s best for you). Had I not injured my knee in October, I’m certain that the stubborn side of me would have simply continued doing what I had been doing: logging miles. Don’t get me wrong, logging miles is an important part of distance running and something that can’t be skipped. But, it’s only one part of what it takes to improve as a runner. And prior to my injury, I pretty much ignored three other very important aspects that could have helped me get better.

Cross training. Prior to the injury, I did none of it. I simply ran and ran and ran. Anyone who has payed attention to running at all knows that cross training is very important. It works muscles that aren’t used as much during running (even in your legs) and it reduces the amount of wear and tear on the tendons, ligaments and muscles in the hip, knee and foot. Because I had to go a full month before I was allowed to run again, I was forced to give cross training a chance. While I didn’t learn to love it, I now know I can put in time on the elliptical, bike and pool and benefit from it. And maybe enjoy it, just a little bit. My current training plan now includes cross training every week.
Strength training. Again, I pretty much ignored this while training for Chicago, and it may have played a part in the knee injury. Underdeveloped quads (common to for runners) can allow the kneecap to float around too much under stress and cause injury. And, at the end of long runs, I could feel my form starting to go south as my upper body and core strength were just not up for multiple hour efforts. When your form deteriorates, you start to compensate and you become far less less efficient. Your injury risk increases too, because compensation usually leads for terrible form. Which brings me to …
Running form. This past summer, I attended a seminar on Chi Running, one of the handful of running form methods that attempt to help runners move from heel striking (and the injuries that can result) to midfoot/forefoot striking. While I loved what I learned there, at the time I felt that I was hip-deep in marathon training and didn’t want to risk making a wholesale form change. Looking back, maybe I should have. As I have eased back into running, I’ve given myself the time and focus to change my form. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% there yet, but it’s feeling more natural every day.

An interesting thing happened on the way back from injury. Since October, I’ve really spent a lot of time cross training, strength training, and as I’ve eased back into running, getting my form right. And wouldn’t you know it, my results are already reflecting those changes. Last week alone, I had two 4 mile runs and a 7 mile run under 8:00 min/mile average pace. To compare, prior to that, I had only ever had one run in my whole life with a sub 8:00 average.

It shouldn’t have taken an injury layoff to realize these things. They were there, right in front of me all along, but I bullheadedly kept doing the same thing. Someday, when up is down, and black is white, and dogs and cats peacefully co-exist, I’ll learn to be less stubborn. Until then, I’m enjoying the benefits of teaching this old dog some new tricks.

December 1, 2010
by Sean Brown
0 comments

Ragnar bound

A running friend on Daily Mile posted this call to arms (legs):

CALLING ALL SUPER FREAKS!!! Trying to get a Ragnar Del Sol team together …

While Rick James has nothing to worry about regarding my dancing skills, Arizona better prep for a fun team of Daily Milers running all over her soil. 200 miles from Wickenburg to Tempe, Arizona. There will be hills. And where there are hills, dales must follow. And water. And streets.

The 2011 Ragnar Del Sol Course Map

I’m committed. Or should be committed. Hard to tell.

The 2011 Ragnar Relay, Del Sol. How soon til February?

November 30, 2010
by Sean Brown
0 comments

November wrap up

I have been terrible about updating this blog in November. I can do better.

The recovery from my knee injury has been going far better than I expected. I’m now at the point where I’m wondering if I’m taking it too slow. It’s a tough call to make because if you push too hard to get back to logging the miles you want to be doing, you can end up needing to keep off your feet for even longer. The runs I have had toward the end of November have been great, and I can tell that the cross training and strength training are beginning to pay dividends. The pace of my runs have been down below 8:30 pretty consistently, and I haven’t been trying to push the pace at all.

I had planned to run the Thanksgiving Day 10K here in Cincinnati since it was my very first 10K in 2009. When I woke up that morning I was very dizzy. So much so, I actually tipped over while walking and bumped my head against my TV. I decided to skip the 10K, but the dizziness persisted most of the day. My wife nailed the reason: I had gotten out of the habit of keeping hydrated. When I was marathon training, I always had water with me and was doing a great job of keeping my water intake pretty high. I think I didn’t equate the work I’ve been doing in cross training or strength training as needing as much, but I was wrong. I’m back on that bandwagon. The dizziness finally went away in the late afternoon, so that evening I ran my own personal 10K in the wind and freezing rain. Glad I did.

I’m very excited for December as I get to go back to a schedule that includes running more often. I’m still keeping the mileage reasonable, and I’m still doing lots of cross training, but I also know I’ll be happy to be outside logging time and miles on the road.

November 5, 2010
by Sean Brown
2 Comments

Cross training and strength training

Sorry for the long delay. I’m now almost a full month removed from the Chicago marathon, but I haven’t been keeping still.

The knee injury that smacked me across the face in the middle of the marathon continues to improve. I’ve had two runs so far, both of them very easy, short intervals. Very much like what I was doing when I started this journey last year. The great news is that I’ve had no knee pain so far on these little runs.

Because I knew I wouldn’t be running consistently for a while, I decided to try to do two things to improve my running long term.

Get better about cross training.
Improve my overall strength.

Cross training has been much more of a mental battle than anything else. First of all, I’ll admit that I am a bit of a running snob. I’m really not interested in doing any of the other activities particularly well, so I thought that I really didn’t need them. The hard lesson of being temporarily away from running has opened my eyes to the fact that cycling or using the elliptical will actually improve my running. First of all, they both allow you to maintain your fitness level without giving your knees, shins, ankles and feet a pounding like running does. Secondly, I’ve found that there are leg muscles that get far more engaged when doing those activities than they do during running. A consultant might call that a win-win. I might punch him in the face for being consultant-y, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’d be right!

As I got toward the end of marathon training and was running the long (15+ mile) runs, I began to notice that it usually wasn’t my legs that gave out first, but my form, particularly from the waist up. So, having forced time away from logging miles gave me the perfect opportunity to begin work on strength training. Admitting that I didn’t know the best way to do this was the first step, and then recognizing that, like running, this will take time before I see improvement was a necessary second step. So, I’ve been working with a strength trainer for a couple of weeks, and I have to admit I’ve loved it. I really feel like I’m getting my ass kicked every time I go, but it remains the “good” kind of pain. He’s also a marathon runner (yes, I can now say also) along with being a certified strength trainer, so the plan he’s put together is specific to what I want to accomplish.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my boys about how it’s important to get over the fear of being embarrassed by being a beginner at something, because everyone starts somewhere. As usual, that’s an easy thing to say but harder to live by. On day #1 of strength training, the trainer said, “Get down and give me as many pushups as you can.” Eight. Eight pushups was all I could do, and calling that eighth one a pushup was a gift. I was mortified, then quickly laughed at myself, as I was there on the training mat living exactly what I had been preaching.

My current plan is to continue to easy back into running through the end of November and hope that by then, I feel confident that I can go back to a more regular regimen. And yes, I’ve already been “caught” by my wife looking for spring marathons.