Sidelined: Starting the aging process young

Remember a few posts ago when I decided I was interested I was interested in running a half-mary? Well, I guess I won't be after all. I've been having a weird hip problem recently; the past few days it's kinda blown up and now it hurts to walk or sit. Ridiculous. I must be the youngest person I know to have a bum hip! I'm off to the school health clinic tomorrow to see what's up. Being a poor graduate student on a very limited budget and one without a car (I have to walk a lot), this could get iffy. But, it is what it is, and I have to play the hand I was dealt. Needless to say, I'm a little sad to give up the half-mary goal. The registration is due tomorrow and I just don't know whether I'll be okay to run in October.

Today, despite the achy hip, my roommate and I went to a Fleet Feet store. All I have to say is: wow. After measuring my feet, looking at my walking gait, a quick discussion of what I do for running, and a glance at my old shoes, the salesman brought out 3 pairs of shoes, all of which fit perfectly and were comfortable. I'm sure they have some kind of formula or something, but to me it was like magic. Buying running shoes by oneself is a daunting process. Apparently, my last pair of shoes (which I purchased on advice from Amy) were pretty good, but I needed even just a little bit more support. The ones I ended up getting were Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9 in a cool slate blue and white color scheme. Interestingly enough, I had gone up half a size since last summer. Guess all the standing at my old retail job combined with all this running had an effect! My shoes also came with one of those metal waterbottles so trendy right now. I am so excited to run in my new kicks. But, alas, no dice until my hip stops hurting.

Get lost: On how to turn a 40 minute run into an 1:45 one

I'd like to share an amusing anecdote from this past week. I had roped my friend into going for a run with me Tuesday night. On the half-mary schedule was a 40 minute moderate run (after switching the schedule around). He living about equi-distant as me from this little bridge over one of the lakes in Shaker Heights, we decided to meet up there around 7pm. To keep things simple, we decided to do 20 minutes up the road on the northern side of the park (aptly named North Park), then turn around and head back.

So we cruise up North Park, up around the second lake, and followed what we thought was North Park straight across an intersection. We keep running until we hit 20 minutes. As there were a ton of people mowing their lawns on North Park, we decided to walk a little bit, as I'm allergic to grass and it was bothering my asthma. So as we are walking down the street, all of a sudden we come to the intersection of North Park and another street. Whaa? Weren't we on North Park? Numerous attempts to head back in the correct direction all ended up looping us around to the same location. Once we finally thought we were going in the right direction, we then realized we were actually headed in the exact wrong direction. This time, however, we found ourselves on a major road in Shaker Heights, this one a straight road with no weird turns! Finally, an hour and forty five minutes later we got back. Crazy! Silly Van Sweringen brothers and their loopy plan for Shaker.

Half mary

I think I've found my next goal: a half marathon. Why a half mary? When thoughts like "13.1" and "half-mary" and "remember that time you ran 12 miles?" keep popping into one's head, at some point, one has to listen. I haven't officially signed up for anything yet, nor I am solid on whether I even want to do it, but there's a nice race about halfway between Cleveland and Akron in some parkland in October that sounds very tempting. The race would be about six weeks away, but I am confident I could at least finish. Plus I think I've roped a friend into doing it as well!

Having no real idea on how to train for a 13.1 mile race, I consulted the Half Marathon Special article in the August '09 Runner's World. I have a very nice co-worker who lets me read her copies after she is finished with it! In the magazine, there's a beginner's half marathon plan. It seems quite doable, if we start with week 4 on this coming Monday, and with a few modifications. Namely, to sub out one of the XT workouts or the Monday run with interval training of some type. Surges, tempo runs, fartleks, etc., on the track. I am reserving at least one XT workout for swimming!

I did the 7 mile conversational pace run from week 3 today. Lesson learned: fuel properly BEFORE a run. I bonked a mere 20 minutes into the run and had to eat my emergency gel and walk a little. That managed to reverse it because about 10 minutes later I felt perfectly fine and finished the rest of the run without a problem except for stumbling after tripping over an uneven sidewalk slab. My inner-ring suburb is old enough to have slate sidewalks, which don't always lie perfectly flat!

runCLE: Exploring downtown through running

Background: I signed up a few weeks ago to be a City Advocate for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance (DCA), who is the downtown improvement corporation for the business improvement district downtown. Phew, that's a lot of mumbo-jumbo, eh? Well, a business improvement district is a special area that decides to get together, tax themselves an extra amount, and use those monies to provide services to that area. Those services can include street cleaning, safety ambassadors, marketing, etc., and the downtown improvement corporation administers the whole shebang. In an effort to court young professionals, the DCA set up an innovative program where you can sign up to a "City Advocate" where one does about 20 actions of varying levels to promote downtown. You can find more information here, as well as a new way to stalk your favorite Furmanator. The carrot being dangled in front of us is a potential position on the board for the DCA... clutch, eh? My end goal is not to be on the board; rather, it is to promote downtowns because I believe in them, in any city. Having watched my home city turn itself around, I know Cleveland's can, too. I might not be a wealthy developer or heck, even a planner for the city, but I can do my little part. Always leave a place better than when you got there, right?

My first idea is to start a running group downtown. This idea stems from a few sources. After a discussion with the City of Cleveland's bike planner, I discovered the Cleveland Clinic has a lunchtime cycling group where they meet once a week to bike around. I had also recently done a search looking for a running club/tri club practices/master's swim team based either in the Heights area of Cleveland (where I live) or downtown (where I work and attend school). It was a fruitless search. I'm still training mostly on my own. I did find a swim team, but then my work schedule changed completely. All the group runs or practices were far out in the suburbs. Donuts, anyone? I also see a lot of people running downtown during the lunch hour. Something clicked between these three influences, and of it my brainchild was born: runCLE. (This name is not set in stone, but my "clever" side seems to be still on vacation). 

At first I thought it would be as easy as saying "downtown runners, meet in front of Tower City at noon on Wednesdays and we'll run together." Ha. The practical side of me realized people run at different paces, I'd need to lay out routes (and at what distances?) ahead of time, and how on earth do I get runners to show up? An email to the group of fellow City Advocates illuminated another problem: the post-run shower. I'm a spoiled brat at my internship: we have a shower/locker area in our office. This is clearly not the case at most places. Luckily, someone came up with a brilliant idea to combat the shower problem, we just have to flesh it out first. 

As for the routes... that might be an easy problem to solve. I explore cities through running; hence, I'd like the routes to feature Cleveland landmarks. I also make maps for a living, so mapping won't be too hard. Plus I could always utilize mapmyrun.com or Google Maps. An excellent suggestion was to end the runs at non-sit-down lunch places (Subway versus Applebees) where runners can grab a quick bite before heading back to the office. 

As for different pace groups... that's where the maps come in. We can take a minute or two to sort out pace groups before starting, and give small maps out (think photocopied quarter sheets of paper). 

As for getting the word out... social networking! Facebook, twitter, the DCA blog, a new blog for the running group, press releases, word of mouth. Emails to those suburb-based running and multisport clubs (some of their employees have got to work downtown!). 

So here's to runCLE, and here's to hoping I didn't bite off more than I can chew.