trail run

Sloan Long Run Technique

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The day started out with my friend bailing on our long run. Proceeded into me having to get inspiration and motivation from my Twitter friends (because lord knows I wasn’t going to get it on my own.) and continued to me tearing my room apart looking for, wait for it, my Pearl Izumi arm warmers. It was finally that weird temperature that didn’t require a long sleeve, or a jacket, and was too cold for just a t-shirt. These are the days we’re given for arm warmers, however few and far between, we cherish them.

As you can see, I tore my room apart and eventually gave up and took an old pair of wool socks and cut out the toes. PERFECT!

I set out to climb to Four Corners and return. Long, up hill, and mentally taxing for me. As I was running, (if you can call my slow trot up running) it was nice to be alone. I knew that the run was going to be harder mentally for me, just to keep pushing myself instead of go home and crawl on the couch with my new favorite book. (I did get my motivation to run from people across the country I have never met! Thank you Twitter!)

As I reached the part in the path where it splits I had already been contemplating turning around at the next “check point”. If I had turned around there I would be cutting probably 45 minutes off of my run and I know I would be mad at myself when I got home. But still, I wanted to turn around. So instead of going right, (right would take me to the trail that continues up to four corners) I went left. I had no idea where left took me. I was pulling a classic Sloan Long Run Technique.

 

Sloan Long Run Technique: to set out for a set amount of miles, time, destination and proceed to get lost. The outcome usually being more miles, time and more bliss.

 

The trail I ended up following was the Queen of Hearts trail. I took Alice and Wonderland and White Rabbit to get there, (how fitting.) This QH trail led me along a single-track ridge covered in snow, up another switch back and to an opening that forced me to udder (shield your eyes Grandma) fuck yes. This view was spectacular. I looked around me to see if anyone else was as amazed as I was, I was alone. Fuck yes. Alone, up high on the mountain, I could see how far I’d come from town and how far I had to go.

The way down was like a roller coaster for my feet. I just let loose and ran. I really had no idea where in the trail system I was but someone once told me just run down and you’ll eventually make it back to town. So that’s what I did. Down down down the rabbit hole I ran and was spit out on Park Street where I found my bearings and ran straight to the running store to tell someone about my amazing run.

My co-worker, Timothy, was stoked for me and my run. He knew exactly where I had gone and we talked about how incredible that feeling is when you reach the top of QH.

This was a run that made me love running again. Thank goodness for my innate (and inherited) ability to get lost.

RICE

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RICE: who knew it actually worked?

 

Thursday last week was my only day to get in a long run. Needing to go somewhere new, my running partner and I set out to climb to Ostrich Peak. If you know me at all you know that I have my dads sense of direction: AKA I’m always lost, always getting myself more lost, not afraid to ask for directions but usually mess them up anyway. In my running life this has become more of a blessing in disguise. My runs are usually longer than I anticipate with even knowing it!

So when I told my partner that we had to turn right on Strawberry, then right again on Hitt Road I figured she knew where Strawberry was… a few miles later we figured out where we needed to go—basically we just needed to up, up and up higher! So needless to say our run turned into more of a five-mile hike, which is fine, the trail was great, the day was perfect—until we reached the top and started back down.

The view was great. I could see Mnt Shasta (I think) and some other mountain in the distance…I’m horrible at identifying them! On our run back down it was just a straight shot down hill, rocky terrain, and with my awesomely weak ankles I stepped on a rock in just the right spot to feel like I tore all the ligaments and broke the bone. (DON’T WORRY, NEITHER OF THOSE HAPPENED. They were just my first thoughts that entered my brain.)

Sweet View

Beatuful View

I limped along for a while and when I decided nothing horrible actually happened we started running again. But when I got home I used the RICE (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) method to get better as soon as humanly possible. Along with taking fist fulls of ibprofen it was feeling better soon. Who knew that by actually doing what all those running magazines tell you to do you can actually reduce the time it takes to get better? CRAZY!

Roommates frozen peas

My roommates frozen peas

I haven’t run yet, it’s still tender, but I did elipt my heart out today and plan to run tomorrow morning. Still icing it to keep the swelling down, and not doing anything too crazy this week. I’d rather be hurt a bit now then totally injured later!

 

Had any injuries lately? How long did they last?

 

What did you do instead of run or impact?

I actually started doing some of my work out DVDs at home. Friday I did a Denise Austin pilates total body thing…it was good! Denise is super annoying, but I got a good work out in. On Saturday I did a yoga burn DVD with my friend–we opened all the windows and doors in her house so it felt like we were outside, SO GREAT!

Newton Review

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So, the newest, latest and greatest way to run is ‘naturally,’ right? Mid-foot strike, under your body, short quick cadence and a nice lean forward—this is what’s ideal. Most people do not run like this. Watch someone running down the street, I bet you they are landing first with their heel (sending shock waves up the body,) rolling through the rest of their  (maybe over pronating,) and toeing off only to begin the cycle again. What I want to emphasize is the shock starting from the heel and reverberating up the entire body. ENTIRE BODY.

So ideally let’s not do that, okay? Let’s all mid-foot strike. We can start a club, The Mid-Stikers…or something more clever than that. Let’s land more towards your toes, under you body (not in front,) and reduce the amount of pain, pressure and shock on the entire body. Well, not all of us are really able to do this with out a bit of help, that’s where your choice of shoes can come in. The kind people at Newton were nice enough to send me a sweet pair of shoes to test out and tell all of you about! Yay! More shoes!!

The idea behind Newton shoes are that the lugs under your metatarsals are designed to encourage the Action/Reaction technology in the shoe by Land-Lever-Lift. So essentially you’re running more efficiently, you’re running with less effort and you’ll (hopefully) be at less of a risk for injury. You can read more about this HERE. I’m not going to get super techy on you.

So, what did I think of the Newton shoes you ask? First things first, I reallllllly like the color. Purple, teal, yellow! Oh my! These are cute. They were super weird when I first put them on, it felt like I was leaning back and standing on a ridge of some kind. Like a pole under my metatarsals (those, I learned, were the lugs.)

Sorry it's blurry

The first run I took in them was a lot of climbing up hill. My ladies group run took me up, up and up higher in the mountains, so I was on my tippy toes anyway but could still notice the lugs and my legs working hard. As the run progressed I actually felt a bit unstable in them. They were about half a size too big, so I should have tied them tighter, so that could have been some of the issue, but none-the-less I still noticed I had shoes on my feet.

When we got back from an hour of hills and trails I threw them off my feet and said I’d never wear them again! I was so annoyed with the sliding and the feeling of a pole under the front of my foot and then I realized I was really hungry, and tired and needed dinner and bed, so I apologized and said I would give them another chance in a couple days.

After a meal, a night’s sleep and a run in my normal running shoes I was ready to try the cutie Newtons again. I decided to run a flat loop around my ‘hood to see how these guys feel on pavement.

Super cute! Right?

  First, a bit of back ground on me: I already run on my mid-foot. I always have, so the heel strike thing most of you guys do isn’t an issue with me unless I’m SUPER tired and like 12 miles in on a city run…so my experience is probably different from most. Just an FYI.

As I ran around the city I’m trying to call home I was trying to figure out what I was feeling under foot. I again NOTICED the shoes on my feet. With my normal running shoes I lace up and forget about it. I just run and enjoy the run. with the Newton shoes I felt kinda wabbley. I felt like they were clunky. Not stiff, they are quite cushy actually, just noticeable.

I got kind lost on my run, I wanted to eventually end up at the gym, so I just kind of went in that direction and ended up running a loop through a ritzy neighborhood (not where I live, that’s for sure!!) and that’s when the numbness began. I had to stop, shake my feet out, wiggle my toes and then get started again.

About 8 minutes later I was happy to have to wait for traffic because I needed to shake my feet out again, annoying! So I got about 25 minutes of ‘notice-my-shoes’ running in, and another 30 minutes of run-walk-shake-run (no this is not a new dance) running in. By the time I got to the gym I wanted them off my feet, but my weight lifting class was starting and the instructor said that it wasn’t allowed.

They functioned fine for lifting weights and I got lots of compliments from the old ladies in the class with me about how bright they were, but my feet at this point were craving my slippers.

Overall you may think I hate these shoes. I don’t! Like I said before, I probably had a completely different experience with them than someone who heel strikes would have. I would urge you to go find a pair and try them on! They’re weird, but definitely worth taking a peek at if something just isn’t going right with your running. These guys might be a really good option for YOUR feet, just not mine.

For now I’ll probably bust them out a few times a month and see if I can start liking them—but for most of my runs I’ll stick to what I’ve been having good luck with.