My Weekend Reading: "Run Like a Mother"

• 4 • Uncategorized

I just got my copy of “Run Like a Mother” by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, and I am LOVING it.

I’m learning a lot, thoroughly entertained, and at points really moved to read about other mothers who feel just like I do about running.  There are a lot of running quotations from many different mothers, as well as Dimity and Sarah’s stories.

It makes sense that I’m not the only mother out there who NEEDS a run some days in order to make it through dinner and bedtime without snapping.  Yet it’s still amazing to read a book that makes me feel like I’m part of a big community of people who have discovered that running isn’t just about a sense of accomplishment, or self-improvement, it’s about survival.  It’s about making it through your day, or your week, and being happier and more energetic because you ran.  It’s about those post-run endorphins, about that thirty minutes, forty minutes, or even a couple hours where no one is asking you for anything or interrupting you.

You don’t have to be a parent to appreciate the alone time and the positive mood lift from running – moms are not the only ones running down their stress levels!  It’s just that for me, it took becoming a mother for my need to run to outweigh the challenge of getting into shape.  It was finally so necessary that the effort of completing C25K became worth it for me.  (I began running because of some post-partum depression.)

If I’d known the benefits on the other side, I would have done it in my early twenties instead of my late twenties, but it’s hard to know until the hard part of getting into shape is over and the real running begins!

I’m loving this book, because it’s got great advice for newer runners, lots of great thoughts on being a parent and balancing running with the rest of life, and, frankly, I’m obsessed with running right now and this gives me something to connect me to my passion when I’m not actually running 🙂

Learning to Run Slower for my Long Runs

• 4 • My Running
5 a.m. is DARK

Went for my first 10 mile long run!  Got up on Wednesday at 5 a.m. and headed out.  After my last long run experience where I wanted water so much I was relating my thirst to vampires, I decided to wear Greg’s fuel belt that has spots for water.  IT WAS AMAZING.  I didn’t even feel self conscious when I saw other runners out there on the road who looked more fashionable, because I’m figuring they just felt thirsty and jealous.

The weather was fantastic, I actually felt a brief chill when I left the house, which was such a relief after all this summer running in the heat.

My two previous long runs had both been 9 miles each, and had included a frustrating number of walking breaks.  My goal this time was to run slower rather than pushing my pace, and reduce my breaks.

It was SO much better.  The weather was a big help, but it was also amazing just to slow down, not pay attention to my watch, and just run a comfortable pace that I felt like I could maintain indefinitely.  “Settle in, settle in!” as my father-in-law likes to say.  He has two sons, one a marathon runner (my husband) and the other a professional triathlete, and he’s a former runner, so he really knows his stuff.  He used to shout encouragements like that to his sons during their races, and it’s fun now that his advice is starting to make sense to me in my own running 🙂

I knew mentally that my long run was supposed to be like this, a pace that I could maintain, that was slower than my shorter runs.  That’s easier said than done, though, when you realize how far you have to go and how much longer it’ll take you if you don’t pick up the speed.  I want to get home and have breakfast, darn it!

On my previous long runs I was pushing too hard, and taking walking breaks every half mile or mile to recover.  That’s A LOT of walking breaks when you’re running for 9 miles, and it made me feel like a failure.

I found that my average pace actually improved when I ran slower and took fewer walking breaks.  I went from an 11:30 average pace with breaks to an 11:09 average pace with breaks, and this was including adding a mile to make it a 10 mile run.  I stopped to drink water from the fuel belt, to take a gu, and at one point when I thought there was something in my shoe.  Other than that I just kept on going, and it felt like a much greater accomplishment than when I was running a faster pace and then giving up, over and over again.

My 9 mile run a 2 weeks ago

My ten mile run on Weds

There’s a lot of running books out there that have nifty charts for taking your 5k pace and using that to determine your half marathon or marathon pace.  It’s important to remember that the longer you’re running, the slower your pace is so that the challenge can be the distance.  I was forgetting that, and trying to run faster than I could maintain and getting really frustrated on my runs.  It’s an accomplishment to run 10 miles on a single run, that’s enough success without trying to do it FAST, also.  That’s a great way to get discouraged or get injured when you’re a beginner like I am and doing that distance for the first time.

Why are there such obvious running lessons out there that I still seem to have to learn by making the mistake on my own rather than just paying attention and doing it right the first time?! If you read ANYTHING about long runs online, it’ll tell you to run significantly slower than your 5k pace!  My husband knows this.  The internet knows this.  My body knows this.  Only took me like six long runs to figure it out.

The great news, though, is that I’m figuring this out during my training so I won’t end up pushing too hard on race day and walking half of it and feeling like a failure.  I’d rather run the whole thing at an 11:10 pace than run 70% of it at 9:40s and walk the rest.  My mistake was in thinking that I could run the whole thing at the pace I maintain for shorter runs, just adding on a mile at a time at the same pace.  Nope.  That’s not how it works.

Hey, now I know.

The best part of the whole run was when I stopped looking at the watch, started just running a comfortable pace, and looked down at mile 7 to see that I was doing a 10:19 pace, which I maintained for almost three miles towards the end of the run.  That felt great, and made up for some walking water breaks and a slow warm up mile in the beginning.

Skipping Ahead When C25K Is Going Well – Great Question from Caroline

• 4 • Running
Just received a GREAT question from Caroline in a comment on a previous post, and didn’t want people to miss it so I’m answering it as a new post rather than in comments.  I think it’s really relevant for anyone doing C25K and having it go well! (That would not have been me.  There was NO skipping ahead for me!!! There was REPEATING for me.)

“Hi Kelly,
I wanted to get your advice. I’m in week 4 of couch to 5k, but today I missed the cue and accidentally ran for 9 minutes, 30 seconds without stopping. It felt pretty good, so I repeated that for the second half, after a 2 minute walking break. What should I do next? Should I get back on the program, or build off of this because it went well?
Thanks!
Caroline R”

Here’s my advice:
I don’t know.
Wow, thanks Kelly, that’s really helpful, I’m so glad I read your blog.
No, wait, wait!

Let me explain.  My gut feeling is to give yourself a goal range for your runs so that you’re neither sticking the program nor skipping ahead, but listening to your body on each run and allowing for the possibility of either.

The danger of skipping ahead too much despite recent success is that you could feel like you’re backtracking if your next run doesn’t go as well.  We all have some days that our runs go great, and some days they don’t go as well, based on weather, our hydration, sleep, and all those other x factors that impact our running.  If you take this run as a sign that you’re further ahead rather than as a sign that you had a great run, then you could be disappointed or end up pushing too hard to make progress. 

At the same time, why take extra weeks to complete the program if you’re making extra progress and feeling great about it?  I don’t believe in holding yourself back and getting frustrated when you feel like you could do more, either!

Here’s my suggestion: look at where you’re supposed to be chronologically in C25k, and make that your goal for your next run.  Then, just like you did by accident, keep running if you feel up to it.  When you’re ready for a walking break, pretend you ran the suggested amount, and take the suggested walking break accordingly (ie, don’t use it as an excuse to walk longer).  Then, do your next running segment as suggested by where you are in C25K, unless you feel like you can go longer.  Repeat this strategy until your total amount of miles / running time meets the C25K requirement for that workout.

So if you’re in week 4 of C25k, your modified strategy would look like this:

Jog 1/4 mile (or more if you feel like it!)
Walk 1/8 mile
Jog 1/2 mile (or more if you feel like it)
Walk 1/4 mile
Jog 1/4 mile (or more if you feel like it)
Walk 1/8 mile
Jog 1/2 mile (or LESS if you got your mileage in in previous running segments)

If you feel great, I think it’s ok to run a little more mileage than the program is giving you, but I’d be careful not to increase it by too high a percentage.  Listen to your body while you’re running, listen to it the next day, and build a gradual but strong foundation for future running.

CONGRATULATIONS on having a great run, on doing more than the program asked of you, and of sticking with it and making progress and feeling great! 

Can’t wait to hear how the rest of the program goes for you!!!

Why I Love Stroller Running

• 2 • Stroller Running

I love running with a jogging stroller.

It gives me the flexibility to get my shorter runs in without a babysitter or on the treadmill during naps.  It gets me, and the kids, outside for some fresh air.

It can be the best remedy for a challenging afternoon, because it’s 30-40 minutes where I don’t have to say “no” to my kids and they don’t have to hear it.  They’re not jumping on the couch or climbing onto the kitchen counter, and I’m not constantly redirecting them.  What a relief!

We see all kinds of things on our runs, and the boys love pointing them out to each other.  One of my favorite stroller runs is parallel to the commuter rail, and my little train enthusiasts love seeing a train go rushing by on the other side of the street.  People walking their dogs, cyclists with reflectors on their helmets, motorcycles, construction vehicles, landscaping trucks… our runs are a smorgasbord of visual delights for toddlers.

They’re great for me, too, because I’m out there exercising and improving my mood.  Science has now shown that running and other exercise really do release endorphins into your brain.  (Check out this New York Times article from 2008 about the runner’s high if you’re interested in reading more.)

There are more benefits to stroller running than just my runner’s high:

We’re out of the house
No one is fighting over toys
No one is making a mess of the family room
I can use my babysitting or nap time for something else
If the kids are overtired, it can be down time for them
I get some upper body and core workout benefits from pushing the stroller
I can steal water from their sippy cups and hydrate on the run
I look like an awesome runner even though I’m running really slow, because I’m pushing two kids
I have that calm feeling a mother gets when she knows where her kids are and that they’re happy
I can do something I love without interruption (chatting with them doesn’t hinder my running)
It’s something fun to do that’s free, healthy, we all enjoy, and that is a little different every time

Andrew often claps for me on our runs… slowed to a jog and captured this with my phone 🙂