The last gasp of winter stretched across the Willamette Valley these past couple of days, and my drive from Portland to the Rock Creek Trail parkrun was like driving from a reasonably cold early Spring morning to Hades clawing for Persephone as she returns to the overworld. Thankfully, it wasn’t freezing or too windy and ended up being pretty good weather for a run.
So let’s get this out of the way: this was the best 5k I’ve run since 2013, timewise. I might argue that it’s the best 5k I’ve ever run, because back in 2012/2013, Runkeeper’s GPS was very erratic and would often screw up for me. That said, I think the first half of 2013 was probably my best in terms of running, as I was doing a lot of heavy lifting too, which added necessary core and leg strength. Plus, if you extrapolate my 11:44/mi pace from the 8k Shamrock I ran back then, it comes out to 36:27 for a 5k, which you could argue would be faster since it would be a 5k rather than an 8k, blah blah blah, I was faster back then. But not by much!
I attribute 75% of my faster pace to my new shoes. Whenever I watched videos of people reviewing new running shoes, I would scoff because aside from some basics, like weight, how can a shoe on its own make you faster? Well, the answer is: I don’t know, but these Nike Winflos did it. The pep and push I felt from these shoes were undeniable. The cushioning is great; just enough to let me feel the road beneath me but not too little to hurt. The balls of my feet did NOT go numb this run, which is a big win. My footfalls felt neutral and not too turned out. My instincts were right–the stability shoes were hindering me, not helping me.
At the start of the run I noticed I was behind many people who usually disappear away from me early on. When I checked my watch, I discovered that I was running a 9:35/mi pace, and I did not feel like I was doing that! A lot of this run became me trying to figure out how to run with these shoes, in a manner that wouldn’t leave me exhausted early on. That turned out to be a lot more walk breaks than I would’ve liked, but my pace never dropped below 13 minutes, which is a good thing.
A bonus pic of me at the finish line!
I attribute the other 25% of my success to eating better and exercise. You know, the basics. I had a lot of protein thanks to those lime & pepper chicken breasts I cooked up earlier in the week, plus I’ve been trying to count my calories so I don’t stuff my face and can lose some weight. That plus some lower body strengthening exercises and stretches have helped me all around. I’ve become one of those people who stretches while watching TV.
My IT band continues to give me trouble but during the run itself it wasn’t bad. The stretches and strength workouts are helping and I know it is getting better over time.
Good parkrun! Next week is #10, which would be my first milestone if I was a kid. Unfortunately, I only act like a kid.
They say that running is a mental game as much as physical, and nothing will test your mental capabilities like running on an injury.
Long time readers (my mom? Maybe?) will remember a significant portion of this course from the Race for Warmth, my first 2023 5k from January. I am grateful to say that this race was much, much warmer. It’s also only 3 miles, instead of a 5k. I’m not sure why that is and I can find no information on their website as to why they chose not to make this the most popular race distance in the world. But it really is 3 miles; I just checked via a pace calculator. Why? Why 3 miles? Do hate the metric system? This whole thing reeks of people who are like “Why do we even do 3.11 miles bro? Why not just 3?” The other distances are 7 and 10 miles. Again, no metric here, this is AMERICA.
To be honest, this race had the slightest tinge of “fuck the libs” atmosphere to it. A LaCroix level, nothing more. I don’t mean for these posts to be political, I’m just saying what I see. It was the first race I’ve done where they sang the Pledge of Allegiance beforehand. (In contrast, at the Shamrock they sang America the Beautiful.) They apparently have not one, but two shirts from prior years which feature stylized American flags on them. They love America across the Columbia.
Nobody was like “Let’s Go Brandon” or anything like that.Though, when I went to get my bib the day before the run, at the Foot Traffic in eastern Vancouver, there was a guy in a truck playing what sounded like a very cool rap song, until I learned the chorus was “Let’s Go Brandon” repeated over and over. I don’t think he was part of the run though, just some guy driving through the strip mall. News alert to conservatives: liberals hate Joe Biden too! It’s the centrists who love him. Again, I’m just writing down what I saw–I’ve admittedly got a narrow view of race swag, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen race shirts with prominent American flags on them. Maybe the 3/6/10 miles really is a big Fuck You to the metric system! Maybe it’s more of an “anti-Portland” sentiment, that would make sense. Maybe it’s none of these and I’m making up something that truly does not exist. There have to be tons of races in this country which use American flags in their design, and not just on Independence Day. I’m just stuck in the Portland Bubble.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Swag
This was the physical contents of the Swag Bag. There were also a few flyers in there, as well as a copy of Vancouver Family magazine, which of course I needed in my life. That is my second pair of Clover Run gloves; I received my first pair at the Race for Warmth and thankfully, these ones actually fit. My favorite item is the soap. I can’t wait to use goat’s milk soap. Thank you, Bend, Oregon. I’ve taken the Turmeric pills and they work? Sure. They work. Haven’t taken the Sportea yet but I’ve heard good things.
The t-shirt fits fine but is long sleeve and the sleeves are looooong. Longest gaddamn sleeves I ever had on a t-shirt! Eyyyyy.
A pretty decent haul overall.
The Atmosphere
The Vancouver Waterfront continues to up-and-come,hahahahahahaha, I crack myself up with construction ongoing. As you can see, it is pretty impressive looking, though it also feels kind of like the Las Vegas version of “New York City,” like a facsimile of a waterfront. It genuinely looks better than Portland’s waterfront, though, and setting up for a race on solid asphalt and concrete next to buildings, rather than in a series of tents on muddy ground, was a welcome relief.
This morning the entire area smelled like sewage, though. I’m not sure why; there were large black pipes just sitting on top of the sidewalks nearby, but they were disconnected from each other at points and couldn’t possibly be holding sewage. I think they’re in the process of installing sewage pipes to new buildings and had laid them down prior to burying them, but that doesn’t explain why it smelled like sewage now, unless they’re, like, putting sewage in an enormous holding tank until they get the pipes installed. That would be hilarious if it were true. I’m imagining the sewage sitting in a giant inflatable pool.
The smell eventually went away.
I parked a few blocks away and headed toward the waterfront, past a gaggle of people setting up for the Vancouver outdoor market, which honestly looked very cool and hip when I passed it later on, walking back to my car. Downtown Vancouver seems hellbent on pulling people away from Portland, and I think it’s working.
Then, I was in the throng of people. Much fewer people than the Shamrock, which is a blessing. There were tents with lots of different vendors and a coffee truck and I think shaved ice? Shaved ice is at every event it feels like. The whole thing felt kind of crowded. What the Shamrock lacks in form it certainly makes up in function; Waterfront Park is more then large enough to house 15,000 runners, and even more in prior years. If 15,000 people showed up to the Clover Run, it would be a mess.
The Race
The few minutes prior to the race starting were a bit of a clusterfuck, but it wasn’t too bad. The first to go were Ainsley’s Angels, which seems to be a run for people with disabilities (particularly those who can’t run on their own). Fucking cool as hell. I didn’t realize what it was until it was too late, otherwise I would’ve been cheering like crazy. I’ll have to remember to look out for them at future races.
The 7 and 10 milers went next, along with a 1 mile walk (the Lucky Leap) which was heading in the opposite direction. It didn’t start at the same spot as the runners; that would be very dumb. Then after the distance runners went, the rest of us had about 2 minutes to funnel into the start. This was a marked difference from the Shamrock, with its 5k waves, and one of the things I wish was done a little better. There didn’t seem to be the same cohesiveness of instructions here, and most of us were having to push through people and around tents and fences to get to the race line. Not a huge deal, it’s not like we’re going off gun time, but still a little annoying. They should’ve made the 3 milers start at 9:05, rather than 9:02, to give us a little more time to get into place.
This was a desperate pic I took while we were all actively heading toward the start line, which says Finish Line because it’s the finish line. Get it?
I’m pretty pleased with my results overall. I only walked five times total, with each walk being about a minute. I ran the first full mile and I ran every uphill. My average pace for the first mile was 12:10, with a GAPGrade Adjusted Pace, basically some fancy formula for altering your pace based on when you run uphill. of 11:51. Moreover, my average pace overall did not fall below 13 minutes, even with my bouts of walking.
This was not without sacrifice, however — my knees and legs were killing meafter the race. I very rarely run through pain, and if this was any more severe, I would’ve stopped. Thankfully, my body held on and I remembered to slow down on downhills, which are terror for my knees. There is a VERY tender spot on the right side of my knee which is likely my IT band telling me to quit it. But even after the agonizing walk back to my car, and the agonizing climb up four flights of stairs to my apartment, once I got home, rested, did some RICE, and took some ibuprofen, my legs don’t feel that bad. Not great, but at a point where I think in a couple of weeks I’ll be good enough for the next 5k.
The course was nice, especially the part that winds through the Fort Vancouver Historic Site. Probably the best part is being able to run from a downtown city street to a historic site with a lovely field, and then into a brand new waterfront with fancy buildings. The variety was nice!
According to Garmin, my stride length is .87 m, or about 2 1/2 feet. I just thought that was an interesting statistic. My VO2 Max continues to be 39, which is bad. I feel like my breathing is one of the best things I do, personally, but Garmin thinks otherwise. Could be damage from smoke inhalation/covid, though.
Post-Race
At the end of the race we got these big honkin’ medals. Seriously, they’re huge, and heavy, and like all medals nowadays, you can open a beer bottle with them. Runners must be alcoholics; you get a medal with a bottle opener AND you get a post-race beer at like 9:30am.
At the finish line were turkey half-sandwiches from Big Town Hero (good, if plain), a tomato bisque soup that didn’t come with a spoon so you had to slurp it down like an animal (good and you could dunk the sandwich in it), and some orange/banana slices (good; I had orange slices because we all know how I feel about post-race bananas).
I also got a Clover Run pint glass and waited in line a bit for a beer, but decided to not get one, mainly because I wanted to leave but also because the beers they were pouring were like half head, which was disappointing.
I sat down, ate my food, then got up and hobbled back to my car. I think there was more stuff that you could do, like go in a hotel with a bar or something, but I was done. My legs were like, “Let’s sit down please.”
Then I proceeded to drive to McDonalds. I wanted a Big Mac but they weren’t selling lunch yet. I still want that Big Mac.
Final Thoughts
I know I said all that stuff about there being a “tinge” of anti-lib sentiment at the Clover Run. I still think that existed but it was not a huge thing and, moreover, was not a detriment to this run. This run had a better atmosphere, better swag, and a better medal than the Shamrock did. The course was nice and at some points lovely, whereas the Shamrock just goes up and down a road. If anything, the Clover Run is trying to remind people of how good the Shamrock used to be, which is important. Gotta remind people that the Shamrock’s not the only big run in the Portland-Vancouver area.
My only sincere gripe is that it should be in kilometers, not miles, but only because I can’t use this race to compare to prior ones because it’s missing that .11 of a mile. I will definitely be signing up for next year’s race.
See you next time at the Lacamas Hop Hop, in my nemesis of a city, Camas, WA.
My first sunny parkrun! Rock Creek Trail is fuckin’ gorgeous, bro.
Today I opted to run with my compression sleeve on for the ol’ knee’s sake. It’s doing pretty well overall; I ran about half of the 5k today and walked the other half, and while it was giving me trouble nearly the entire time, it wasn’t enough to stop me. In fact, I used it as an opportunity to work on my running form, trying to run in a way that would mitigate bouncing up and down while also taking more steps. It kind of worked at the end.
There were cupcakes and like fudge brownie things at the end. Both very good. I’m still trying to figure out how to be social again. I’m pretty bad at it. I might have always been bad at it.
Afterwards I went to Vancouver to get my bib and swag for the Couve Clover Run, which is tomorrow. The event looks cool as hell on paper. After it’s done we get to drink on a hotel balcony? I will report back for sure.
Then back home, hobbled up some stairs, and my knee/leg started feeling better pretty quickly. I ended up taking a walk a couple hours later and was shocked at how normal it felt. I’m hoping I’ll be back to around 100% in a couple of weeks.
That’s about it. Good parkrun! A++ would parkrun again.
#1 is here, if you’re wondering. I’m trying to make this a regular thing.
I bought new running shoes. They haven’t arrived yet. I bought them yesterday after the type of internal mental waffling that could make a person go insane. These are what I chose:
The “Best Budget Shoe” according to Runner’s World. They retail at $100 but are 40% off right now; I guess $100 is “budget” for the running world. I know, I know, you should never cheap out on shoes. The ones I bought before, the Saucony Glide 14s, were $80 but I think they were on sale on Amazon too. Before that, my Brooks Whatever-They-Were-Called were $120; that was 2011, today they would be worth about $164. Proper running shoe prices!
Anyway, Nike. I’m buying them because I have made the Head and Heart decision that my current shoes are the cause of my knee and leg pain. My hypothesis is this: in 2011, my Brooks shoes offered stability on the inside to offset overpronation. This is what the salesperson at Fit Right NW suggested I buy. I didn’t know what overpronation was but I was like, fine, whatever. I bought them and wore them and ran in them for many years, more years than I should’ve! I wore the outside of the shoe out, so much so that in the later years I felt like I was running with my feet at opposing 45° angles. But I never felt any significant pain with them, probably because I was strength training a lot back then, doing lots of heavy squats and deadlifts, which is good for your knees overall (if you do them with correct form, of course).
Cut to: now. A decade later. I am a big slob of a man, sedentary To The Max and still picking up the pieces of my mental health post-the-first-two-years-of-the-pandemic.Tangent: I wish we had a name for 2020/2021 covid times. The argument over whether covid is still a pandemic or if it’s now endemic is one for 2022 onwards, I think, so “post-pandemic” makes sense to me, but I don’t want to alienate people for whom covid is still very much a danger to them presently. And I think we can all agree except for weird MAGA people that 2020 and 2021 were the worst years of the pandemic. I’d say “lockdown” but that sadly only describes a few months in the U.S. Let’s get a name going, people. I started walking again and decided it would be a good idea to walk in my Converse; that is, to walk flat footed and build my foot strength. I think this was a good idea? It never really hurt, other than the general aches of walking long distances. I’m not turning into a Vibrams guy or anything, I promise.
Eventually I thought it would be good to walk fast enough that it would become a run, and I knew I needed shoes for that. Since my first shoes had stability in them, I decided that I needed stability shoes now, because to me, overpronation was a thing that I just had, like one has wisdom teeth or an extra finger on each hand. So I bought these Saucony shoes, which have been nice, but the more I run in them the more I see the signs of my Brooks shoes; namely, the extra wear on the outside of the shoe. That, plus the stiffness of the stability on the inside of the shoe, made me realize that overpronation is a thing that can be fixed, and that those years of running with the Brooks shoes likely helped my overpronation (if I ever really had it to begin with!) to the point where, now, ten years later, I don’t need them.
What I’m saying is that I’m pretty sure that my Saucony shoes are directly responsible for my knee and leg pain. Because if the IT band rubbing up against your thigh bone is what causes IT band pain, wearing shoes that make your feet roll outward too much probably causes your knee to also move outward, making it easier for your IT band to rub up against your thigh bone. This is my overarching theory that may be total bullshit. We’re going to find out!
The moreover problem isn’t the running so much as the walking. I think the walking is what is causing this issue, because perhaps the stability helps me when I’m running, but when I have to walk around the stability and do that for a few miles, it adds up. I want my shoes to be versatile, for now at least, until I can afford to buy a nice pair of walking shoes. Walking shoes, daily trainers, race shoes, and trail shoes. One of these days, I’ll own all of them, plus some Crocs, I’m sure.
Today I’m going for a walk and a bit of a run to test out the legs. Probably just a mile of running, nothing more. Slow and steady. If it feels good I’ll probably run/walk parkrun on Saturday. The Couve Clover Run is on Sunday and I’m going to do it as best as I can. Then, the new shoes arrive next week, which is good because it’ll give me enough time to break them in before the Lacamas Hop Hop (god I hate that name). April is going to be my wildest month as I have a 5k every other week for three weeks (Lacamas, Lilac Run, and Cinco de Mayo, which is killing me because it’s on the 6th, not the 5th), before about a month off before the Starlight Run. That is a fun run at night, but THEN a month after THAT is my first 10k, which I desperately need to start train for without hurting myself.
Alright, bear with me, this is a long one. The Shamrock Run was the first race I ever ran back in 2012 (I know, I keep saying this, deal with it). For a few years it was the only race I ran. I, and a lot of runners in Portland, judging by the crowd size, feel like I have a special kinship with it. So I’m going to dive right in to the whole day.
For those who want a TL;DR, it goes like this: I ran well despite my leg issues, I’m glad I got under 40 min, and I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t beat my original 2012 time of 38:28.
A classic finish line pose I call “Josh Thanks God He is Done Running.”
So, I woke up as I always do at 6:30 am and was like, “Why is it still so dark outside?” before remembering that Daylight Saving Time happened. I hate DST but it’s even worse when you have to run that day. I lost an hour of precious sleep!
Got up, got dressed, debated how many layers to wear (answer: more than I should’ve), got all my stuff together and then proceeded to walk to Waterfront Park. It was a surprisingly warmer morning than I was expecting. The path to the Morrison Bridge was confusing to find and also puts you under the bridge very early in the morning, which just feels sketchy overall, but nothing sketchy was going on anywhere. I saw one guy who looked like a panhandler and genuinely wondered if we was getting any money this early in the morning.
I’m not sure if this is true or not but Shamrock has always been the first “destroying Waterfront Park” event of the year to me. The park has a long beautiful stretch of green grass that absolutely gets mutilated into a muddy shithole every year as tons of people show up to do stuff by the river.
Not my photo, as I am not 50ft tall.
Like, Portland Parks & Rec is there every week come springtime through the fall seeding the absolute shit out of that lawn with quick growing grass. The grass farmers in the Willamette Valley must make bank off of them.
I got there with about 15 minutes before start time. Now, you’ll notice in my race results image above — the 5k race had over 4,000 runners. Thankfully, this race has been going on for 45 years and thus they run a tight ship. (Side note: I was trying to find old photos of me at prior runs and realized that back in the day there could be up to 35,000 runners, so our measly 15,000 this year was not that great in comparison!) The setup was clean and precise and they had huge signs for everything like gear check and whatnot. The atmosphere is great too. It’s the first “real” race for Portland, or a big corporate one at least, and people love dressing up like stereotypes, and it does have a bit of a big party vibe to it, which certainly helps with getting amped up to actually do the run itself.
The sky threatened rain and drizzled a bit throughout which fumbled my run up a bit, so I guess I’ll just talk about the run itself now.
In order to get 4,000 people running, you have to do it in waves, which is why my chip time was 39 min but my gun time was 55 min. A 16 minute difference between the race starting and me actually running. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of Shamrock for me, because 15 minutes standing in line crushes my warmup, and also by the time I started running, the elite runners were not only finished, but were like standing around with their medals, probably ready to run a marathon. It’s just not super great to be a slow-ass runner and run past people that could beat you twice in a 5k. Oh well.
Also the lady announcing the event at one point between waves just randomly said she was born in South Africa, which was weird. She wasn’t and isn’t from Portland. Got it.
First race thing: I set up a PacePro split thing in my Forerunner before I started. It was a 5k split with a negative pace increase per 1k? Something like that. I don’t know the terminology. It sort of helped. The damn thing alerted me constantly, whether I was ahead, behind, or on pace, which meant I was checking my watch a lot. Ultimately a good thing, I think, but I probably need more practice with it.
My goal time was 38:00, and I could’ve split these by miles but ended up not doing so because my Shamrock Run splits thing didn’t sync for tedious reasonsI have two splits so far: one for parkrun and one for Shamrock Run. The parkrun splits are the one in the image above. Originally, I had the Shamrock Run splits set for 1k increases but for a goal time of 37 minutes; when I hurt my knee I decided to switch it 38 minutes and to mile splits, rather than kilometers. But I forgot to sync that with my watch, so I had to use the parkrun splits instead. Tedious! and it seemed better to ease into what would be around a 10:30min/mi split at the end. Ultimately I think it was helpful to be reminded where I was, pace-wise, but I also found the interface confusing because it was my first time using it.
The first mile was fine, other than I knew my leg would hate it from the start. I started slow because my watch told me to (thank you, watch) but I could tell that the walk to the venue was a good warmup for everything but it. The second mile is when things started to get wonky. First, it had threatened to rain but didn’t rain as much. I gambled on wearing a rain jacket and decided to take it off, so I did and tied the arms around my waist, like you do. Except every time I do this, especially when I’m doing it while running, I don’t tie it tight enough and it starts to slip past my butt. Tripping on my own rain jacket would be embarrassing and would likely injure me. So I had to slow and walk to try to undo the knot, which, of course, was too tight and wouldn’t come undone. So in a moment of panic I ended up lifting my jacket up as if to take it off like a t-shirt, but then found that the the arms rested nicely around my belly. A gentle reminder that I could lose a few pounds.
During this time is when “Naatu Naatu” started up on my Spotify playlist and let me tell you, if you need a song to get you hyped and running, this is the song. The moment it popped up I was like, “I am going to fix my rain jacket and then restart this song and then it’s go time.”
Second, after my rain jacket nonsense the race looped back and at some point soon after that, we literally had to stop so that two buses could drive across the perpendicular lane ahead of us. In my mind this took at least 30 seconds if not an eternity, but it was probably more like ten. Still, ten seconds is a lot for me, plus after they let us run again I felt like I needed to rush to get back to my goal time, which ended up winding me quicker towards the end. It was a frustrating moment but would probably be more frustrating for a 5min/mi type of runner, where every second truly counts.
After that was just a rush back to the finish line. A gradual downhill that likely exacerbated my knee and leg issues more than the uphill. I can control the impact of my step going uphill, but downhill feels like I’m lurching and slamming my feet into the ground with each step. Did not like. Once it leveled out you could see the finish line from very far away. Some might say too far, as in, Don’t start sprinting yet, wait an extra block or two.
I was really hoofing it at the end there. Everyone was, of course, but when I crossed the finish line I was probably the most exhausted I’ve been with a race for a while. According to Garmin my heart rate was in the 180s at the end. I’m nearing 40 — that’s, like, the ceiling of my heart rate now. Any faster any my heart would explode like that guy’s head in Scanners. Wild stuff.
Pace chart with my graded pace in gray behind, from Garmin.
Looking at my actual pace versus what I was supposed to be running is also wild. I never thought I’d be interested in this shit but here we are. The part that fascinates me the most is the 4th kilometer, where I was behind pace but the most steadily paced out of all kilometers. Why then? Did my body just fall into a groove? The first kilometer is nuts, and you can clearly see that I was running faster or slower depending on what the watch told me to do. Kilometer 2 is when I started walking, and that bouncing pace in kilometer 3 is when I took off my jacket, then started running to “Naatu Naatu” (that above 10min/mi pace peak), and then walked to keep my jacket from falling off my ass. See, there’s a story in the data, people.
What I am gleaning from this chart is that the graded pace I set for myself wasn’t the best option. In fact I probably should’ve just set a straight pace for the entire thing. It seems clear to me that my pace wants to be more of a 12-12:30min/mi overall, for now at least. Obviously I would like it to be about 2-3 minutes faster, but for now it looks like my body wants to keep around that pace, but I tend to run faster at the start because I am not that good of a runner.
Our medals are … not metal. I think this is the first year the Shamrock is giving out medals beyond just half marathon and top 3 finishers. Because of this and the fact that there were, again, 4,000 5k finishers, my medal is like three thick pieces of poster board glued together. Professionally!
Not complaining, though when I first got the medal I thought it was wood and thought it was very cool to get a wooden medal. Also, I’m wondering what Shamrock does with the exuberant amounts of money it makes from this event. Not that I want 4,000 metal medals in circulation! We probably need all that metal for … the war effort, or something.
Speaking of money, I haven’t talked about the Swag for this event because there really wasn’t that much. The bib pickup at the expo had virtually nothing other than what I ordered — t-shirt and bib. I bought a new beanie and St. Patrick’s Day themed socks when I was there. I do have free entry into the Adidas employee store (and maybe Nike and Columbia too), so I guess that’s something.
At the actual event there was food at the end of the run which included Bob’s Red Mill protein bars (good), lil bags of your favorite Frito-Lay brand chips (good), and a banana (bad). I don’t know what it is about post-race bananas. I think they’re not ripe enough. They taste bad. Then you kept walking and there was a big tent where you got the piece de resistance: Bob’s Red Mill oatmeal.
Now here’s the thing: one of the best parts about the Shamrock Run post-race is that you get a free beer and you get a free hot meal. Well, a lil meal. A mealette. When I started running these back in 2012, a higher-end restaurant in the area called Stanford’s sponsored the run and provided a cup of hot salmon chowder at the end, ladled lovingly out of warming cauldrons. (They might have had a veggie/vegan option too, I don’t recall.) That stuff was de-lic-ious. So hearty and savory and good.
Then, a couple years later, it was corn chowder from Stanford’s. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like a good corn chowder, and it was pretty good, but it weren’t no salmon chowder. It felt like a downgrade.
Five years gone from the game and when I get back, Bob’s Red Mill is the big food sponsor now (Stanford’s doesn’t even have a restaurant in Portland anymore, unless you count the one in Jantzen Beach, which I don’t. Might as well be Vancouver!), and they’ve got hot oatmeal, the same little cartons of oatmeal that you buy at the store.
These little fuckers.
I got the brown sugar and maple flavor and it was bad. It wasn’t gross, just … it didn’t taste like brown sugar or maple. Big letdown in my book. In fact after I got home from the race I ate some instant oatmeal and it was delicious! I’m sure Bob’s a great guy and all, but I don’t want your gluten free oatmeal after a race, I want a piping hot cup of salmon and/or corn chowder.
They also didn’t provide any standing tables in the oatmeal tentOatmeal Tent is my new band name, by the way., which was not a good idea. A bunch of sweaty and cold people standing around, eating oatmeal. Just imagine it. It’s exactly what you think.
Then I went to the beer garden and drank two beers.
I got two because they gave me a beer ticket for signing up for the half marathon next year. Michelob was a sponsor for this race which means 10 Barrel Brewing was there. It was a delight to see everyone eschewing the Michelob Ultra seltzer fucking whatever they were doling out, grabbing the 14oz pints of 10 Barrel instead. We’re still not happy that you sold out to Anheuser-Busch, 10 Barrel, but damn it if we won’t drink your beer.
(Side note: that purchase happened almost a decade ago … maybe I should let that go. Also they own Widmer too?! Hells bells.)
The beer garden is my favorite place of the run because I’m always doing these things by myself and there is nothing more fun than drinking beer alone surrounded by people who are with other people. At least the Irish music was fun. I also literally get to do an Irish Goodbye.
That was about it. I walked home in the rain. Stairs were … an obstacle. My legs feel okay now but I can feel my IT bands on both sides screaming for mercy. I wish I could’ve beaten my 2012 time, but out of my 5 prior races, that one was #3. Middle of the road, never a bad thing.
Now, the real question is: Am I going to run the Couve Clover Run next week, or just walk it? I guess you’ll find out, or my emergency contact will find out a little bit earlier than you.
I’ve said this before but I am excited to run this in the spring and summertime. I suspect it’s gorgeous.
I bought a knee sleeve but didn’t wear it today. I had worn it yesterday when I walked to the convention center to get my Shamrock Run bib and shirt and it just bunched up and felt awful. I couldn’t even tell if it was working or not. But this morning went fine, my knee is fine, it’s my IT band that’s the problem. I can feel it more so now than I did originally; the ache of the band up my thigh is more pronounced in the past couple of days. It’s nothing agonizing and I don’t feel like my leg is going to explode or collapse or anything, it just feels like an overuse injury.
I went to urgent care on Wednesday because I went for a run and felt a bad twinge about a mile and three quarters in. The doc checked me out and was like, “Your hamstrings are tight and it’s probably your IT band. Lessen your mileage and take it easy for a couple of months.” (He said it much nicer than that.) I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was running a 5k a few days later, and then another one a week after that. We’ll have to play it by ear. If the Shamrock tears me up and spits me out, then I may have to skip the Clover Run the next Sunday, or walk it. I think this is one of those races where they won’t look at you askance if you walk.
Overall, the experience has been somewhat discouraging, if I’m being honest, which I should be, because this is my damn blog. I’m glad that I’m aware of easing off when I’ve got an injury, but it sucks because I felt like I was hitting my stride. I’m not sure if this would’ve flared up regardless, or if my three days off because of the snow made it worse, or maybe it was my lack of stretching or that plus bodyweight workouts … who knows. But like a car when you hit a patch of ice, you gotta let off the gas and get your shit together before you can drive again. I know easing back won’t hurt my progress that much, because it’s not like I have a 30 min 5k pace right now. I’m struggling to get to 38 minutes. It’s just a reminder that I have a ways to go before I’m at a point where running feels “comfortable.” Ah well.
I didn’t bring my phone on the run, so please enjoy this pre-event photo which makes it look like you can call this brain center to get your brain removed.
This was a frustrating run. My knee has been giving me issues ever since I started running again after the snow shut everything down for three days. The issue, I think, is a lateral collateral ligament (LCL) strain. Feeling where it is tender on my outer knee, coupled with google searching, led me to this result. I also think my calves are tight for some reason, even though I’ve been stretching them pretty regularly. Growing pains, I guess.
Thankfully, the sprain isn’t devastating and I was able to finish the 5k. I also ran an extra half a mile or so before parkrun as I have signed up for a 10k training plan through Garmin Coach (with Certified Guy® Jeff Galloway), and the first run was a benchmark run because even though I imported my prior runs from Strava, Garmin don’t give a shit. So that was fun — driving to the site from Portland, starting, warming up for 2 min, running for 5, then 2 min of cool down. It wasn’t bad but Garmin is definitely reminding me that I’m in poor shape. According to it, my VO2 max is 39 right now; 40 is the border between “Poor” and “Fair.” I guess that’s better than just straight up being in the Poor category. I’m also wondering how much that will go up and how much of it is affected by me getting covid and/or my exposure to all the forest fire smoke from the Eagle Creek fire. We shall see.
Anyway, my knee is borked. Not, like, terribly, but enough to need rest. Garmin Coach wants me to run again tomorrow but I may postpone it, which is frustrating. I’m trying to mitigate my discouragement because injuries happen and you have to just let them heal up, but it also kind of sucks. I’ve been working hard trying to set up a 10% gradual increase of mileage and pace and whatnot and it’s just annoying and frustrating that my body’s like, “No, this is bad, stop.”
I should also say that I suspect the culprit behind my knee issues is (besides my weight) my shoes. I bought my shoes thinking I needed stability for overpronation but now they’re actually causing my feet to roll outwards all the time, making me realize what I really need is either no stability, or stability for supination (or whichever one is the one for my foot rolling outward, not inward). This is kind of interesting because my first running shoes had stability for pronation and I think that over the years I may have fixed that problem?
So because of the U.S. healthcare system, I can either choose to buy new running shoes, or pay my copay for the doctor appt to check my knee. Yeah, that’s right. I can probably do both but it’ll leave me, as the Irish say, skint. (I think more than the Irish say that, I’ve just been watching Bad Sisters lately and they say it a lot.) I honestly think I just need to rest for a couple of days so I’m going to try that first, which means I’ll buy shoes at an actual running store here in Portland rather than online, so someone can look at me and stuff.
Aaaaanyway, that’s parkrun 6. Next week is 7 and also the Shamrock Run the next day. I cannot miss the Shamrock Run, it is my triumphant return after 5 years away. So we’ll see how I run parkrun.
A few days ago I laid out my technology woes, about how I think I incorrectly purchased a Pixel Watch. Well folks, since then I bought a Garmin Forerunner 55 and now I’m worried that my Pixel Watch is about to become a Pixel Paperweight. Here’s why:
The Forerunner is light. Way lighter than the Pixel, and oftentimes I don’t even realize it’s on my wrist. Note: This is kind of different now as I switched from wearing it on my left right to my right wrist — I’m not ambidextrous, per se, but I’m left handed with some things and right handed with others, so I’m trying out this placement to see if I like it better, but it also means that I’m far more aware of the watch now. Also, the Forerunner has a lot more air holes in the watch band than the Pixel. I know these are for sizing for large or small wrists, but I appreciate it way more than the Pixel band, which is mostly closed off and thus was irritating my wrist because that part of my skin couldn’t breathe as easily.
The Pixel Watch feels a lot like something that’s trying to constantly make its presence known. Its Tilt to Wake feature makes me think of some obsequious servant who is always there when you need them. With the Forerunner, it feels more like “You come to me if you need anything.” Which I guess I like? I’m realizing as I use it that I’m definitely an Elder Millennial, because a lot of aspects of this watch that I like are things that I’m familiar with.
Like, for example, the LED screen, as opposed to Pixel’s AMOLED. I know I should probably like the latter more, but honestly the LED screen of the Forerunner makes me feel like I’m playing a Tamagotchi game, except instead of a little dinosaur I have to feed at 7am sharp or else it’ll dieThis is an example and something that I literally had to do in 7th grade, with my little t-rex tamagotchi. That lasted maybe two or three weeks., it’s me. I’m the Tamagotchi! And I do have to feed myself. Hell, the watch even prompts me to move and has a little “move bar” which starts to turn red if I don’t move. Fitbit does this too, but it’s much more of a pleasant, “You’re an adult” chime coupled with a graphic showing you how many steps you have left that hour. The Forerunner, at least with the watch face I’m using, just shouts “MOVE!” and then when I move enough it says “Move Bar Cleared!” which, I’m telling you, as a gamer, fills a niche in my soul I didn’t know I had.
I got the aqua band because you gotta have some color in your life, you know?
Speaking of watch faces, Garmin provides a bunch as do third parties. I got one that has a “kitchen sink” approach because I like data and I like all of it in one place. The Pixel has watch faces too, but again, they are more elegant and for business people. You can track steps and calories and such through the Fitbit app, but it takes a bit more swiping. It’s all very nice, honestly. Very 2023, very cool and sleek and rounded.
One thing on the Pixel I’m surprised I wasn’t a fan of is the crown on the side. This is a selling point of the watch, that you can press the crown and spin it to go through apps and such, but I really only used it for that and it felt more awkward than just making the whole thing a swipe function. Plus if I bent my hand back enough, which happens occasionally, it would press the crown which was annoying. (Obviously this only happens if you wear it on your left hand.) The Forerunner, meanwhile, has buttons on the side, and I appreciate the tactile aspect of it, which I think is another Elder Millennial thing. I often found when I was running or walking with the Pixel that it was swiping through the screens on Strava on its own and I’m not sure how. Brushing my sleeve or something? But that won’t happen with my Forerunner and I like that.
I think most of all, though, I like that Garmin has a wider array of statistics than Fitbit or Strava. Fitbit was sort of driving me nuts. It’s clearly designed for casual exercisers or people who don’t care as much about stats. Which is fine! Whatever gets you out of the house, right? But I like stats, I like seeing the data progress. I like that Garmin has a coach feature and suggested runs. I like that I can see how terrible my VO2 Max is. I’m not even quite sure what that is, but it’s not great! Garmin also has a better recovery system than Fitbit, which has a more general “Readiness Score,” which is helpful if you just need to know how hard to go the next day, but Garmin uses recovery to help suggest workouts, which I think is better. Fitbit has a bunch of exercise videos that you can watch and follow along with, but it’s not the same. Again, Fitbit is totally fine for a certain type of person, and ultimately I don’t think I’m that person.
The only thing so far that’s been weird with Garmin is the sleep mode, which thought I fell asleep at 9:30pm last night even though that’s just when I went to bed. (Yeah I went to bed early last night, deal with it.) It also said that I never woke in the middle of the night, which is absolutely not true. To be fair, Garmin’s own website says that their sleep profile is about 70% accurate. I think Fitbit was erring too much the other way though, saying I was awake for over an hour every night, which also cannot be true. If I had to choose, I’d rather err on me getting more sleep, because sleep is good.
So what do I do with my Pixel Watch? Well, hopefully I can sell it. That’s the most ideal option. But in lieu of that, it’ll probably sit collecting dust in my drawer, acting as a backup in case my Forerunner explodes or dies somehow. It is surreal to think that I am trading in my $400 watch for my $160 watch, but it’s true. I think overall, except with computer parts, if I can buy the thing for $200 or lower, I’ll go that route. I don’t need a super fancy smartwatch that has a bunch of apps on it, I need a watch that helps me get better at running. The end.
Also, I’m aware of the irony that I got this watch with the LED screen pretty much the day Garmin announced their AMOLED watch series. I don’t really care, because like I just said, I don’t want to pay more than $200 for non-computer electronics anymore, if I can help it.
Alright, that’s it. Time to get back into the swing of things. Parkrun #6 tomorrow!
My last 5k, the Heart to Start, was on February 18th. I finished with a 38:01 time, which, to this day, I still don’t believe. This is 18 seconds slower than my all time fastest 5k race, the 2016 Shamrock Run, where I finished at 37:43. A 12:08 pace then, but my best pace was in 2013, another Shamrock Run, this time an 8k where I had an 11:44 pace.
I know it’s not the best idea to compare myself to me ten years ago. After all, these aren’t stupendous times; they’re the times of a big tall guy who prioritized heavy weightlifting over running (and then fell off the wagon, so to speak). But it is very fascinating to see progress in action. I started running again in October 2022; my first 5k race was waaay out of my league and my time was 51:28. I almost don’t want to compare it to now, but that’s where I started. So my time difference between that race and my last race is 13 minutes and 27 seconds. In four months.
The reason for stating this, I suppose, is to formally state that it is possible to get better at the thing you’re doing.
So now it’s March, and it’s cold as hell in Portland. We just survived the Snowpocalypse, which was a blessing for me; I have gotten to the point where not going for a run nags at me, and I desperately needed the three days of rest.
I upgraded my 5k in July, the Foot Traffic Flat, to a 10k. A 10.55k specifically, because it’s a quarter marathon. That’s about 6.5 miles for you apple pie and hot dog eatin’ sons of bitches out there. It’s taking place on Sauvie Island outside Portland and should be a beautiful run. But it also means I need to train. Like, now. I need to up my mileage methodically but gradually, so that I can run past 6 miles, up to maybe 8 or 9, which will make running 6.5 miles feel a little easier.
I ended up grabbing this 8-week training program from the Runner’s World website, which incorporated training 3 runs 3/week. Originally, I had the 5/week running plan, but it seemed a little daunting, and literally as I was writing this blog decided to downgrade. Right now I’m trying for 4 runs per week, and with the 3/week program I can just add an extra day, which will probably be parkrun.
That program won’t start until May, which means I have March and April to use for increasing my mileage safely. Enter: March.
The plan is simple: increase mileage by 10% every week for 4 weeks, and then the 5th week is for deloading, or running a reduced mileage (basically back to week 1). I get two cycles of this before my 10k training begins. The first week is this week, with the goal being 10 miles.
There largely (as of now) is no real other goal with the particular runs, other than to run them. I’m focusing more on mileage now so that I can have a basis for the 8-week plan, and thus, the 10k race. Last week I ended up running 12 miles total, which is insane, but the week before that was only 9, and before that only 7, and I think about 5-7 miles/week each week before then. So my mileage was creeping up a little faster than 10%, so I want to step back and make sure I do this correctly so I don’t hurt myself.
I’ve got a few staples in mind though: Mondays are Hard Runs, Thursdays are Easy Runs, Saturdays are Whatever Parkrun Feels Like and/or Race Pace (for when I actually run races), and Sundays are Long (Easy) Runs.
Monday Hard Runs will be a mix of interval training and tempo/threshold runs. I suspect a lot of intervals on the track, to be honest. It’s kind of fun to run intervals on the track. (Yes, 7th grade me, you heard that right.) Currently my intervals include 1 mile of running at a steady warmup pace, and then half-lap run/walk sessions for the other mile. But instead I’m going to run that first mile and then run for more like 30 seconds, then rest for a bit, and run again, etc, until I just can’t hack it anymore. Then, when I get better at it, I can increase the run time until I’m pushing myself for a minute.
Thursdays I hope to be dominated by Zone 2 runs. Apparently these are very good for you, as they help keep your heart rate low for longer runs. (And other benefits, I think — look, I’m still a beginner runner, alright?) Zone 2 runs are weird because I’m running slow. Like, real slow. For me, that’s around 13:30-14/mi. Slow enough that even old ladies are passing me by, and babies, and turtles, etc. And since I’m still getting in shape, I’m religiously checking my smartwatch to make sure my heart rate is staying below Zone 3. It’s hard!
I also think Thursdays will be some hill training, which basically means just running east, away from the river. It’ll be nearly impossible to keep me in Z2 for those, though.
Saturdays are parkrun and a couple of races. I’m just going to play these by ear. No need to go all out for all of them, especially those in which I have a race the next day. I may use them as a way to keep a steady 5k pace, including keeping my pace lower at the start, because I, like most people, like to start faster than I should. If I can even out my pace over the whole 5k, that would be awesome.
Sundays are the proverbial Long Run days for most people. I think most of my races are on Sundays so we’ll see if I just keep running once the race is over, or what. I might have to split my runs on race days, and then commit to longer runs on non-race days. We’ll see. But yes, long runs.
So, two cycles of this and then an 8-week plan to get me ready for a 10k by July. I totally think I can do it. In fact I’m eager to do it. In fact fact, my brain is a little more eager than my body; it feels like Captain Kirk to my legs’ Scotty. But it’ll work. And in 4 months you’ll see me with a 10k medal around my neck, come hell or highwater.
This evening I thought it would be interesting to track down as much data from previous runs that I could find and compile them onto my “Running Journal” spreadsheet. It would be neat to see how well I was running ten years ago, I thought. I remembered that I used to use Runkeeper for my runs, and managed to log in and, much to my surprise, discovered that Runkeeper does, in fact, keep you runs!
But what I thought would be fun turned into me watching the run data align with my depression. Which is not fun. The data begins in 2012, which is about when I started to get into fitness stuff in general. Weight lifting and all that. Back then, I lifted weights way more than I ran, so I didn’t have a lot of data — only 22 runs in 2012 and 30 in 2013, minus the two or three runs I did that were completely garbled by Runkeeper’s GPS.
These were the years I was in grad school. I didn’t have a job, didn’t need a job due to Obama’s “training unemployment,” and thus could spend my days in class or bettering myself. Which I did. The small amount of runs in 2012/13 paled in comparison to my lifting schedule.
I graduated in 2013 and then did some temp jobs for a bit, until getting hired at the law firm where I currently work. Gone were the carefree days of plays and rehearsal and weight lifting classes. Now I had a Big Boy job, a 9-to-5 if you will, even though no job is 9-5 anymore.
Maybe this is related, or maybe it’s not, but for some reason in 2014 my mental health took a nose dive. To this day I am picking up the pieces of whatever shattered my brain in May of that year, and then ground the pieces into gravel in August, when Robin Williams killed himself. And you can see it in the running data, where I went from 30 runs in 2013 to eight. And one of those is probably a walk. Eight/seven runs that abruptly ended in August.
2015 is worse: seven runs, all of them part of a couch-to-5k program I attempted in October. My motivation was in the toilet. It looks like 2016 was going to be different; I began in January, dropped off a month, but then got my ass in gear in February as I was running the Shamrock Run that year (my 3rd go). I then did a Zombies, Run virtual 5k a couple of weeks later. But after that, it dropped off, and after May there were no other runs that year. It didn’t help that we were kicked out of the home we rented because the owner was going to sell it. In a daze I rented a cheap apartment out next to Gresham, way on the east side of Portland, which … was not a good idea.
For some insane reason I decided to run the Shamrock Run in 2017 and 2018. But that apartment on 174th destroyed my spirit. It’s one of those things that I knew but didn’t know at the same time; the feeling of living alone for the first time in my life was nice, but the fact that I was so far away from my friends and nature was soul-sucking. I missed walking among trees. My house before wasn’t in the forest or anything, but the neighborhood was nice enough. This new apartment was surrounded by concrete and bland buildings and gang activity and it was just not great.
The good news is that I was still getting steps in. Frequently at work on my lunch breaks I would go for a walk, and then the walks to the train and to home were helpful too. At this point, my exercise data is limited to Google Fit, which kept track of my steps. Runkeeper was out in 2015, and Zombies Run was largely abandoned with the 5th Shamrock Run.
Then came the pandemic, and I guess that was all I need to slide into some kind of bottom. Not rock bottom (I’m thankful that I don’t think I’ve ever hit that point), but a new low which included barely moving and having copious amounts of food delivered to me via DoorDash. My weight had already been increasing steadily since 2019 but it ballooned to its highest point at that point in my life — 307lbs. This weight didn’t last long, however, as this is also when my neighbor started being psychotic (literally, meth induced psychosis) and targeted me as someone who was doing something bad to him, which caused me to stop eating and lose around 20lbs in two weeks. Not a diet program I recommend!
Fortunately, I was able to break my lease early and leave ASAP, moving to my current and infinitely better apartment in June of 2021. Immediately my step count jumped from 22,000 in May to 60,000. I even started running again, restarting once again the couch-to-5k program, which I did for a few weeks until getting plantar fasciitis from being too sedentary and heavy. I relegated myself to walking for the rest of the year.
I don’t know if these are interesting to look at, I just think it’s nice to break up text with images.
My weight ballooned up again at the end of 2021 and into 2022, reaching a new PR or 308 in late August. August was also the month that I decided to really invest in walking; I walked everywhere, all the time. I was ramping up all through the year, but went from 70k steps in July to 123k steps in August. And then, two months later, I was starting to run again. Last month, I had 210k steps; this month I am at 204k and still have six days to go.
What did I learn from this? I guess I learned that it’s hard to see depression when you’re in it. For many years I was in a heavy brain fog (I honestly think I was missing some key vitamins then) and it was only after the depression that I could look back on it, but I couldn’t, also, because I didn’t remember it. But the data never lies, and will tell you the truth, whether you like it or not.
I learned that I am still here. I still went for runs. I still tried, until I didn’t, but even then, I did. I kept myself afloat, despite the sadness and the dark days. I’m doing it now. I am making up for those four years in east Portland. I am moving and progressing.
I also learned that I have NEVER gotten below a 10 min/mi pace and barely got below an 11min pace and that is driving me nuts.
