A Runner’s Balancing Act

1. Make the summer your “off season” and expect to put in far fewer miles. Even professional athletes train in cycles to optimize their athletic gains. Your body needs a period of time to recover and rebuild especially if you are constantly training for races in the fall, winter and spring. I remind myself of this often when I start to feel like less of a runner because my weekly milages are falling under 20 miles a week.  In AZ the weather is the worst from mid June through mid September. I’m pretty lucky because that’s only 3 months. If I lived in colder climates I’d be dealing with crappy weather from October through April.

2. Find your comfort cutoff. Get a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer that measures both the temperature and humidity. Then track the conditions before you leave on your run and after you return (if you run at dawn or dusk this can actually change quite a bit). Keep track of how you felt in each temperature and humidity combination. This way, you can start to get a feel for where your comfort cutoff is. I get up most mornings around 4:30 am and check my thermometer. I know if the temperature is above 80 degrees while the humidity is above 30%, it’s going to be too hot to run outside by the time the sun comes up (and I go back to bed or hit the gym). Your tolerance may be different. Knowing your range will allow you to watch the weather forecast and predict the days you might be able to run. I keep an eye on the “overnight low” forecast since I usually run at dawn when its close to that temperature. I’ve found that the midday high prediction really has no bearing on the overnight low.

Besides the humidity and the temperature, the last factor you’ll want to track is the presence of the sun. I have found I can run in temperatures between 85 and 100 fairly comfortably when its dark or very cloudy. Especially if the humidity is lower than 25%.  I have also found that 80 degrees in direct sunlight, feels a whole lot hotter than 80 degrees in the shade or darkness.

4. Start exploring the gym. I’ll be the first to admit that being in the gym SUCKS. I am a nature girl at heart and I’m sure that’s one of the reasons I love running so much. On top of that, I’m also an endorphin junky so when I do go to the gym its a rare occasion when I venture out of the cardio room. But since mother nature and I aren’t on such good terms during the summer I make do with the gym. The problem is that the treadmill is BORING. This summer I hired a personal trainer for a few sessions since I have very little knowledge or experience with weight training. Now when I’m stuck going to the gym, I run on the treadmill for about 25 minutes and do 25 min of weights. It works well for me because I am far less bored. I do different muscle groups each day so it’s always something new. There are such a variety of exercises you can do in a gym that no day has to be exactly the same. I usually spend my time on the treadmill planning my weights workout which keeps the boredom away. Another thing I really like about weight training it leaves me feeling pleasantly fatigued, where 25 minutes of running wouldn’t be enough to give me that “ahhhh” feeling as I walked out of the gym.

5. Do intervals on the treadmill. By mid July I cannot stand the thought of getting on the treadmill. The boredom can be crushing. I combat it with doing intervals – after all the treadmill is the perfect place to run a prescribed pace for a specific time. You spend all that time staring at the numbers on the console, might as well make it work for you! I like the book “Run Less, Run Faster” to pull interval workouts (I convert the paces to MPH using an online calculator). But you don’t have to be that precise. Make up your own intervals if you want. Just varying the speed breaks up the monotony. Instead of thinking “geeze I’ve got 45 more minutes to stare at this wall”, you are thinking “just 5 minutes till the end of this interval” By running harder, you can run less and still get in a great workout that will help you PR come fall.

Snapped this photo of the sunrise on an early morning run last week.

First, the stats:

Distance: exactly 20 mi (according to Sheila’s Garmin). We had to run in circles at the end for about 1/4th of a mile because we came up a little short.

Moving Time: 3:08 (9:24 ave pace) that does not count the time spent stopped at water stations. At this pace I would finish a marathon at approx 4:06

Total Time: 3:28 (10:24 ave pace) including all water and stop light stops. At this pace I would finish a marathon at approx 4:32

Weather: 80 degrees at start (5:45 am), 89 degrees at finish (9:13 am), 25% humidity, not a cloud in the sky. HOT

Course: Central Phoenix, along the Arizona canal. Starting at Granada Park (20th St & Maryland), north west to Central (3 mi), turn around, then south east to 64th St (10 mi), turn around back to Granada Park (7 mi).

Click here to see the gmap!

I am not a huge fan of this route. I’ve done it once before when I was training for PF Changs with Team in Training.  Mentally, its tough to go one direction for awhile, turn around, run right by your car knowing you still have another 14 miles to go. Those middle 10 miles are facing directly into the early morning sun, and there is very little shade (a hat or visor is a must). On top of that, much of the trail is gravel road. I know some people think the gravel is softer on your joints, but in my experience the rockier parts are more taxing on my feet and hips. And I am always kicking up pebbles into my socks that I have to stop and them dig out because of they irritate my feet.

Also, the 6 miles that are west of the park go into semi-sketchy areas of Phoenix. Last year I saw quite a few homeless people sleeping along the path and in the tunnels. We didn’t see them this time, probably because the tunnels are more popular when its cold outside.  Conveniently, we get to run this part during the hour before the sun comes, when its semi dark. Not my favorite.

Another downside to this route, I discovered, is that it is much hotter in central Phoenix than out on the outskirts where we normally run (Mesa and Gilbert). I think that is called the urban heat island effect. When I left my home in Fountain Hills at 4:30 that morning (outskirts of Phoenix) my thermometer read 70.1 degrees. Yet the radio station I was listening to in the car was reporting it was 81 degrees at the airport in central Phoenix. The difference between 70 and 80 is HUGE when you are running. Huge!

So it was much hotter than my 18 mile run. I was worried as we started out. It was dark and I was already hot. I’ve done many runs over the summer in the heat, but they weren’t 20 milers. 20 milers are difficult in cool conditions. All season long I have been banking on the fact that it would be cooler by the time I had do do 20.

All in all, even though it was warmer than I had hoped, I did great. I think the lower humidity was a huge help. Sheila and I stayed together the entire way. At around 14 miles I felt like my legs had settled into a nice comfortable pace and so I asked Sheila what our pace was since she had the Garmin. I was expecting something around 9:35.  It felt kind of slow. To shock we were doing around 9:11!  That was a nice surprise.

I always think back to my very first 20 miler when I was training for my first marathon. I did it all by myself because I didn’t have anyone to train with. I thought I was going to die the last four miles. It was bad. Very bad. The toughest run of my entire life. I’ve done 3 other 20 mile runs and 2 marathons since then and none have ever been as bad.

I’ve come a long way from that first 20 miler.

After we finished I did everything I knew to keep from getting sore. TNT had two sports docs there at the finish line all set up with their tables to stretch us out. That was awesome. After being stretched, I went to my car and got the chocolate recovery drink I had stashed in an insulated bag with my favorite ice pack. I downed the recovery drink and iced my legs with the ice pack as Sheila and I waited for Liz to come in.

I think that Sheila and I were the first of the 20 milers to get back. Liz was not far behind us. We took some pictures, congratulated each other and then I headed home. I’m a bad mentor for leaving but I really wanted to get some ice on my legs fast. I could feel the lactic acid starting to paralyze them.

Me Sheila and Liz after 20 miles in the heat. All three of us happen to be wearing the exact same Champion C9 Tank from Target.

Team in Training setup at Granada Park. Not many people were back yet.

When I got home I took a lukewarm shower because there is no such thing as cold tap water this time of year in Arizona. Then I did the dreaded ice bath. It really ended up being a cold water bath because the ice melted so quickly in the warm water. After the bath, I took a vitamin E and made lunch. Then I went back to bed and slept for 4 hours. Heaven!

Amazingly, I have not been nearly as stiff and sore as I was after the 18 miler. Between the stretching, ice and the recovery shake, something actually did its job! Yay!

After this weekend’s run, I’m setting my goal for the marathon at 4:10-4:20.

Of course there is always the personal record goal which would be sub 4:08. It’s probably unrealistic since I set that on a very flat course and San Francisco is very hilly. I’m definitely, without a doubt, going to break 4:08 at PF Changs in January 09. San Fran, I just want to have fun!