Running Smarter

One thing that stands out in my memory of the 2008 Summer Olympics, aside from Michael Phelps taking home 8 gold medals, is the story of Dara Torres. She was making a comeback after taking years off from swimming, the Olympics and having a kid. In addition to that, I believe she was the oldest swimmer in attendance. I think she only swam the 50 Free, but what I remember most is her talking about how her training had needed to change as she aged. She didn’t just bring a coach to the Olympics, she brought a masseuse and a personal stretcher and a trainer and any number of other specialized people to help her perform at her best.

I hadn’t given that much thought until recently, when I decided to train for a half marathon. Somewhere along the way, I realized that while I wasn’t old, my body was aging. It’s no longer effortless to go out and race a 5k with no training. My body can’t handle running 7 days a week anymore. Hell, my body doesn’t even like running two days in a row at this point. Somewhere along the line, cross training became not only important, but necessary.

But even the cross training has changed. I used to spend time on the elliptical instead of running, which is really stupid because 1) it’s the same motion and 2) I hate the elliptical. So this time around I’m trying to be smarter about training. And part of being smarter means realizing that I probably won’t run low 8’s anymore. Right now I’m struggling to get under 10’s consistently, but the good news is I’m healthy. I’ve added weights and yoga to my cross training. Who would have ever thought I would be doing yoga? But it actually helps, and not just with my flexibility. Yoga gives my mind a chance to recover as well. Running alone gives a person an awful lot of time to be inside your own head! I’m also trying to work on adding swimming to the mix consistently, anything to mix it up to keep me interested in the training process.

And thinking along the lines of Dara Torres, I’m also getting regular massages. Not as regular as I’d like, but regular enough to beat back the major issues that spring up when I run. I still get shin splints and my hips are still tight, but I’m nowhere needing MRI’s, cortisone shots and physical therapy. I consider that serious progress.

I’m five weeks out from the first of two planned half marathons. And for the first time in a long time, I’m more concerned with staying healthy and injury free than I am with my finish time. I’m not getting any quicker as I age, but I’m getting smarter about how I do the things I can enjoy so I can do them for a long time to come.

Backpacking 101

Every now and then I get a bee in my bonnet about doing some event or visiting some place. For example, I must go to Alaska and see Denali. Once I decided I needed to run a half marathon (this year I decided I might need to run two). I also really need to go to Switzerland – my name is Heidi for crying out loud. And I need to see Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. Recently I decided that I need to hike the West Coast Trail on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

To be completely honest, I’ve never really been backpacking. I went once with my dad and another father/son pair when I was barely old enough to carry my own pack and sleeping bag. While it seemed quite impressive at the time, I have a feeling all I was carrying was my clothes and sleeping bag while my dad carried the tent, food and anything else we would need. Then a couple years ago I backpacked into a cabin in Juneau with some friends. Although it was only about two miles and since the kids were 4 and 3 at the time, it’s not like we were moving very fast. And once again, the guy carried all the really heavy stuff (often in addition to a kid).

But I love to camp, love the outdoors, love to walk and am an excellent packer and organizer. It seemed like this was an adventure made for me. I’ve been slowly stockpiling supplies over the years. I no longer have to borrow my brothers JetBoil, SteriPen. And he even bought me a ¾ size sleeping pad for backpacking. Okay, I thought it as for backpacking, he said it was because I was ¾ the size of a normal person.

I recently attended a “Backpacking 101” class at REI. Whereupon I realized for the first time that I have to carry everything. EVERYTHING. Not just clothes and water, but gear and food and anything else I might need. The idea of a multi-day backpacking trip is much more daunting than it was previously. I knew I would have to pack all my own stuff, but suddenly seeing all the gear laid out, and thinking about organizing food and water and all the other logistics made this venture a bit more daunting than it had been in my mind.

I still need to major items – a backpack and hiking boots. Once I have those things I am ready to go. I think I’ll start with an overnighter and see how that goes first, and then work my way up to a multi-day trip. And then maybe next year I’ll be ready for the West Coast Trail. Once I learn how to pack and am sure I can survive carrying a 50 lb. pack. This should be an interesting adventure.