Carrie Goes Baywatch: Running on the Beach

Once upon a time, an evil witch used her candy house to lure Hansel and Gretel into the forest, trying to get them lost so she could cook them in her stove. Luckily, H & G had some breadcrumbs on them, which they used to find their way home. A triumph for carbs! **

If a witch wanted to get me lost, she wouldn't need a candy house. I lose my way ridiculously easily. Once, when I was a Junior in high school, I tried to drive from my house to my school and I ended up in another state. Seriously.

For this and other reasons, I've always dreaded running while on vacation. I'm insecure enough when I'm running without worrying about unfamiliar hills, dangerous parts of town, and the disaster of my directional "skills."

Skipping workouts can be murder on my running schedule — when I miss a week of running, I tend to give up altogether. In an effort to break this trend, I've issued a personal challenge to myself to try to run every time I go to a new town, even if it's just for a day or two.

So far, it's going well. When I went to Lake Martin for work, I discovered that I actually like running on hills. When I go to see my parents, I enjoy running in the neighborhood where I spent a couple formative years. But my favorite challenge has been running on the beach, which I did last weekend when I went to Jacksonville, Florida, to celebrate my sister's birthday.

There are few things better than running on the beach as the sun rises. Besides being tremendously beautiful, it was something I never thought I could do (just walking on the beach is hard enough sometimes). I had an amazing morning, and I even set a personal best for the mile (according to Lance Armstrong on my Nike Plus). I think there was something about the challenge of doing something new, plus the overwhelming beauty of the ocean, that helped me push myself further without even realizing it.

Of course, I also got lost ... I forgot to pay attention to which boardwalk I started from. I made it back by listening to my Nike Plus (when I realized I was lost, I turned and ran exactly that distance back), and by following my own footsteps (I was lucky the tide wasn't coming in). It's no breadcrumbs in the forest, but it'll do.

** Note: I'm pretty sure I did not tell this story accurately. But it works for my own purposes, so I'll leave it. Please don't fault me for my Fairy Tale reconstructionism.

Fear and Loathing and Nike Plus

So, I appreciated Amanda and Elisa's "gift" of a Nike Plus system ... I really did. But they sure made it harder to live in denial.

For the uninitiated, Nike Plus is a relatively inexpensive (if you already have the iPod) system put together by Nike and iPod that's kind of like a super advanced, super cool pedometer. Just plug a little computer thingie into your iPod and pop a little sensor dealie into your shoe (I hope I'm not getting too technical here), and it pretty much tells you what to do from there. You can get all fancy with it, tracking workouts of your friends and family, comparing past and present workouts, and programming in your favorite songs, but I haven't tried any of that. Yet.

Truth be told, I didn't want to know how far I was running. People ask pretty often (something about starting a blog to write about your running makes people think you actually want to talk about your running ... weird). I liked being able to honestly say, "I don't know, I just run for 30 minutes." You see, it's one thing to mention (as I have, several times) that you're a slow runner. It's quite another to know just HOW slow. In trying to prepare myself for the worst, I had convinced myself that the worst was true, and that made me terrified to confirm my gloomy suspicions.

Turns out, I run a pretty respectable (I think) three miles in 30 minutes. It's no Usaine Bolt (oh, what am I saying, it's no Average Mountain Brook Mom), but I'm still pretty proud of it. Runner's World gives training advice for ten minute milers. Running three miles means I can easily handle a 5K.

Plus, I'm pretty sure that's what Miranda on Sex and the City ran when she was training for the NYC Marathon (she picked up the pace after a dating situation with a fellow runner went bad ... guess I have to start sleeping with my training partner if I'm going to run faster). I have been validated by pop culture, and, in my book, that's success!**

You can buy a Nike Plus system at The Trak Shack.

**For the record, I don't equate pop culture with success. I don't have a running partner. But, even if I did, I wouldn't sleep with him just to improve my time. Body shots, maybe.

Death of an iPod: A Blog in Two Acts

I've mentioned here before that it's hard for me to run without playing significant mind games (pretending to be invisible, conjuring James Franco, etc.). My iPod was a major player in my self deception — it was the soundtrack to whatever movie happened to be playing in my head. It was the feather to my Dumbo. The security blanket to my Linus.

Then I broke it.

Well, I think I broke it. I dropped it and then it worked fine, and I rejoiced. A couple days later, it started acting funny (also known as The Great Halloween Haunting). Finally, it stopped for good. Running without an iPod was scary for me, but I did it, and I'm glad I cleared that hurdle. I don't NEED it anymore. But I still kind of want it.

Happily, my fellow Triathabloggers have my back. As soon as Amanda heard my iPod was broken, she offered to lend me one she rarely uses. Oh joy! Not to be outdone, Elisa's letting me borrow her Nike Plus system that works with an iPod to help you track your runs. (She actually took her shoe off in the middle of Starbucks, pulled the tracker out of its sole, and threw it at me.)

So my friends have saved the music, as it were. Even more important, I have a couple Physical Therapist friends who helped me save my knee.

Allison Ashby confirmed my internet diagnosis of Runner's Knee and reminded me that a bag of frozen peas makes a good icepack (I used edamame, but she still gets credit). And Amanda Lane mentioned that taking ibuprofen straight for a couple days could kick the lingering pain out of my knee, which it totally did.

I guess the moral is, keep your Triathablog friends (Allison and Amanda Lane) close, and your Triathablog enemies (Elisa and Amanda) closer. That, and try not to drop your iPod.