Category: running

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you have to run fast to run faster

noah-running

tapestry seems to be a church of runners. we have a lot of threads who are passionate runners. several of our college students are members of the uwsp cross country and track teams. when i ran the oshkosh half marathon last sunday i ran into three threads who were also running the race. we have several within our small group who have run marathons and one of our number has even run the boston marathon (a feat that i will never be able to copy). so it was no surprise a few weeks ago when one of those involved within tapestry suggested we start a running group. i thought it was a great idea but then remembered that there is a group that meets at the uwsp outdoor track on wednesday afternoons. one of the things we feel at tapestry is that if you like something it is best to join a group that is already doing it outside the church community rather than starting a “CHRISTian” group for the same purpose.

i’m sure you know this but just in case you don’t i’ll tell you that there is a “CHRISTian” cultural ghetto that tries to get believers in JESUS CHRIST to stay within it. you want to watch movies? well the “CHRISTian” cultural bubble will create a “CHRISTian” movie group that you can watch those movies with. you want to read books with people and discuss the books you’ve read? the ghetto will develop a “CHRISTian” book club for you and others to read "CHRISTian” literature and discuss them. you want to exercise? well the bubble will create a “CHRISTian” exercise group for you and you can listen to “CHRISTian” music while you sweat with others just like you. the ghetto makes it where you never have to be around people who aren’t like you. it makes things safe and warm and it sets up a place for you to bring your friends to. this is key – the ghetto tries to get people to come to it rather than encouraging believers to go out into the world.

those involved in tapestry typically try to stay as far as possible from the “CHRISTian” cultural ghetto. our goal is to constantly “go out” rather than asking people to come to us. so when someone has an idea for the group to be involved in something new the first question typically is “what groups are there already in our community doing this that we can join?” that’s what the running group conversation turned to. there is already a group doing what we would like to do so why not just join it instead of creating a “CHRISTian” one? therefore i decided i would go run with this group this past wednesday night.

now i know and accept that i am not a fast runner. all the same i still usually finish firmly in the middle of the races i am involved in. typically about 49% of the people involved in the race are faster than me and 49% are slower. i’ve grown used to this. so when i went to the running group wednesday night and realized that the oldest member of the group was running a pace that was a full minute and a half faster than my best pace i knew i was in trouble. the group was incredibly nice and FAST. i mean really fast. several of the 12-15 people there had run ncaa division-i cross country when they were in school. three of the guys there had just finished the boston marathon on monday and all had finished in under 3 hours. heck one of the guys had finished the boston in 2:35 – THAT’S FAST.

they were too fast for me. i hung with them for 2 miles and then had to give up and run at my own pace before i began violently vomiting. ironically it was great. i figure running a couple of miles with them each wednesday will dramatically help my speed even though it will be killing me. so i will be sticking with them (at least for a couple of miles each week). i won’t be there this week because of the q conference in chicago but i will running with them as often as possible. i hope many other threads will be joining me. don’t worry if you are slow. i’ll be there to make you feel better about yourself 🙂

SIDE NOTE – many threads are running the tiger trek 5k that is put on by washington elementary school. here’s the signup form. you can turn it in on sunday night if you are interested.

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in search of the perfect running jacket

those who know me know that i don’t care a great deal about clothes. if at a particular moment i am dressed with any style at all it is because pam bought me those clothes. when i decide that something is comfortable and that i like it then i have a tendency to wear it a lot. take the sweater vest for an example. i never knew it until moving up to wisconsin but i was born to wear sweater vests. i wear them so often that devon (tapestry’s  all around tech guy) has declared the sweater vest/jean/chuck taylor combo to be the tapestry uniform and wears it on sunday nights to mock me (yeah i feel the love). pam and my parents can tell you stories from high school concerning a t-shirt i stole from chris lee that i wore every other day (it’s graphic said “cajun power” and it was awesome).

so that’s why it is with almost shame that i now admit that i have discovered i have a passion to find the world’s most perfect running jacket/windbreaker. i presently own 4 windbreakers and i find myself looking for new running jackets all the time. i almost bought a new yesterday because i saw one on sale. did i need it – nope – but it was on sale and had a hood (one of the things on my list of what makes a perfect running jacket). i didn’t buy it but i came real close to doing so.

so here’s my list of what makes the perfect running jacket.

  • weather resistant – it should block the rain and the wind. you would think this was a given but one of my four windbreakers is a rain magnet. if i run with it during a mist i gain 5 pounds of weight from the rain it soaks up.
  • supple – my current favorite running jacket is a sugoi versa convertible jacket which is so smooth it is like running covered in butter (which was meant to describe a good thing but now that i think about it probably isn’t). a good running jacket should be incredibly smooth and move well with you while still being weather resistant. this also helops the windbreaker to fit well next to your body.
  • lightweight – the less it weights the better. if you need warmth then put layers on underneath the jacket BUT the jacket itself should weight next to nothing.
  • good zippered storage – there needs to be plenty of storage for gel packs my cell phone and ipod. these pockets need to be zippered and positioned in such a manner that i can position my stuff in such a way that the jacket is balanced on my shoulders. my sugoi is perfect for this with unzippered pockets on the inside of the jacket, two front zippered pockets and a pocket in the small of the back of the jacket.
  • a collapsible hood – this is the only thing that my present sugoi jacket doesn’t have. if it did it would be perfect. i so wish my sugoi had a hood. it would be an absolutely amazing jacket then.

one advantage that my sugoi versa jacket does have that is not on my list is that it is convertible from a running jacket to a running vest. as i said at the beginning of this post i like vests. when i bought the jacket i didn’t think being convertible to a vest was that great of a thing but soon realized how amazing it was on a day of dramatic temperature change when i was able to cool off by removing and storing the sleeves during a long run.

anyway for a guy who doesn’t care about clothes and i am somewhat bothered by the fact that i now find myself drawn to and tempted by windbreakers every time i’m around them.

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running as elivs or maybe chris

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i ran the 2010 point bock run today. it was a fun day in which i was able to see quite a few “threads.” i have three things i want to post.

first, on a whim i decided to do something i have never done … i ran in costume. one of the things that pamela and i love about about the marathons and half-marathons that i have run is the costumed people that run the races. some people come to the races ready to party and they make it fun for everyone else. for example, when i ran the chicago marathon in 09 i ran against a guy dressed as the pope – funny hat, staff, and all. there were also three guys that had rigged a chinese dragon to harnesses so that it floated above the crowd of runners. it was very cool.  i love the creativity and fun that the costumed people bring to the race. therefore, i decided to be one of those people for the bock run. actually i was one of 4 costumed people out of 2,000 people who ran the race. the other costumed people were a a guy who wore a green afro, a guy who made a spiked mohawk with his hair, and a guy who had pinned a dust ruffle around his neck as a cape. we were the costumed aspect of the bock run.

this was the first i have ever done this but it won’t be the last. it was a lot of fun running through the race hearing people shout “RUN ELVIS!” i was asked a couple of times during the run if i had run the las vegas marathon yet because they the running elvi begin the race there. kids shouted, adults smiled, and everyone seemed to enjoy the costume. a couple of friends of mine were behind me and when they saw me after the race they told me about all the people talking about elvis passing them during the run. while i’m not sure that i would want to do this on any of the other races i run during the year, i do plan on regularly doing this in the point bock run. it would be even more fun if i could get a few people to costume up with me. who knows we might could turn the bock into a primarily costumed run. that would definitely be fun.

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second, i was apparently destined to run today as someone other than my normal self. the race administration made a mistake in entering my registration information because i was labeled as “chris terrell” instead of my real name of “robert adam terrell.” this was pretty easy to correct because our family is the only terrell family in the point area – remember we are surrounded by german and polish people, there aren’t many english names around here. whether i was dressed as elvis or not wasn’t going to matter. i wasn’t going to be running as “robert” today.

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third, i love the general vibe of support that is a part of a road race. people genuinely want others to do well in the race. people shout for each other and stay to cheer for the people who are finishing after them. i can’t tell you how many times i have heard someone encourage another racer that they were being passed by or who they were passing. it doesn’t matter if you are fast or slow everyone just wants you to do your best. if you are a slow runner nobody expects you to run with the fastest. you are just expected to try your hardest, improve, and enjoy the experience. it’s a pretty good example of what community is supposed to be like. the fast as well as the slow are expected to run their best and everyone is supposed to “enjoy the ride.” if you do that then the people at the race will celebrate with you. i think that is what the church should do – encourage both the slow and the fast to run their best and party big time.

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tell it slant

tell_it_slant_eugene_peterson when i am training for a race i run the following times of runs:

  • easy runs – 3 times a week – these are just maintenance miles to build up my weekly mileage.
  • speedwork / hill work – 1 time a week – i run a fartlek or any hills i can find or intervals on a track.
  • long run – 1 time a week – this is to build my endurance

anyway on my easy and long runs i like to listen to podcasts or audiobooks (i can’t listen to them during my speedwork because they make me run slow – or should i say slower). yesterday i finished listening to “tell it slant: a conversation on the language of JESUS in HIS stories and prayers” by eugene peterson. i love peterson. i loved the way he writes and what he writes about.

in “tell it slant” peterson turns his wonderful intellect towards the parables and prayers of JESUS. peterson focused on the “slanted” way that JESUS used language and stories to cause HIS listeners to consider aspects of their lives and faith in new manners. JESUS used words to catch HIS listeners off guard and then point them to what life is really all about. 

any book that i listen to while running needs to be pretty good and have a decently quick pace in order to keep my attention. “tell it slant” was perfect for this. peterson does a great job of conveying depth in a manner that is still enjoyable enough to hold a slow runner’s attention.

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winter running

when it gets as cold as it is right now (3°F at noon) i always struggle with what to wear for running. fleet feet sent out an email today with good suggestions for cold weather running attire. i thought i would share it. you can find more info on fleet feet’s winter gear suggestion page.

General Rules of ‘Numb’

  • Dress as if it is 20 degrees warmer
  • Think layers of technical fabrics to wick sweat
  • Zippers at the neck or gloves you can adjust will help you regulate as you heat up

 

COLD

  • 30 degree weather: 2 tops, 1 bottom. Long sleeve base layer and a vest to keep your core warm. Tights (or shorts) for you polar bears.
  • 10-20 degrees: 2 tops, 2 bottoms. A jacket over your base layer and wind pants over your tights.

 

COLDER

  • 0-10 degrees: 3 tops, 2 bottoms. Two tops (fleece for the cold prone) and a jacket. Windbrief for the men.
  • -10 to 0 degrees: 3 tops, 2 bottoms, an extra pair of mittens, 1 scarf or neckwarmer wrapped around mouth or a balaclava.

 

COLDEST

  • -20 degrees weather: 3 tops, 3 bottoms, 1 balaclava, sunglasses.

turns out that the above list actually came from runner’s world. fleet feet just republished it. you can find that article here.

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they laughed at me

yaktrax

i love running in the snow!

as most of you know , i m not a fast runner. i don’t usually beat very many people in the races i enter. i’m thrilled if i’m in the top 50%. therefore, i rarely ever really feel like a runner when i talk about the speed at which i run. i know people who can speed walk faster than i can run. while i don’t run very fast i am very committed to running. this is why i love to run when it is raining or snowing. the uncomfortable times are when other people usually will not run and therefore i usually feel like a real runner for being committed enough to run even though the environment isn’t very conducive for a positive running experience. it’s times like this when i feel like a real runner.

since we had a storm moving in last night (in fact A BIG STORM) i couldn’t miss the chance to run right when the snow began. i went to the plover river trail to run on it before the snow got high enough for cross country skiing (the point area has the best trail system and it is very rude to mess up the groomed cross country ski trails once there is enough snow to ski). it was an amazing run along the plover river with its edges icing up.

yet the truly fun part began when i started to drive home. you see i had been running in winter tights and a jacket. it works perfect for running because its just barely warm enough. while it is great while i am running it is not really something i want to wear into stores and around public. it is also very cold if you are not running. on division street (the main drag from point to plover) my radio died. i thought that was a little weird but it came back on so i dismissed it as static electricity resetting the radio. then it happened again and all the lights on my dashboard came on and immediately blanked out. at that point i was fairly sure that the alternator in my car was dying. i figured it out for sure just about the second that my car stopped running. i was stuck on the busiest street in stevens point during lunch hour and the beginning of a snow storm. i was going to have to get out of the car and push it on division while wearing just running tights and a jacket.

i desperately thought that i might be able to get someone to stop but apparently people don’t respond well to tall guys in tights. three guys finally had pity on me and came over to help push the car to a safe place. i’m not real sure why they laughed constantly while they were pushing the car.

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to place clothes on or not

last night i went to the wisconsin dells with pam for a conference that she was speaking at (yes, i am married to an impressive woman). if you have never heard of “the dells” you need to understand that it is the big vacation spot in the mid-west. tons of large resort hotels with indoor (for the winter) and outdoor water parks. anyway, pam was presenting a seminar on assisted living technology with the chair of her department and one of her students. so pam was going to be at the conference and since they provided a hotel for the night i went with her. my only goal was to spend the evening with pam without the boys and then i thought i might run around “the dells” during her conference.

well last night was a fun date. pam left in the morning for her conference and i prepared myself for a winter run. now you need to know my typical winter running attire. actually my tops don’t matter, it is what i wear on my legs that you need to know about. i am a little ashamed to admit this but i have been converted on windy winter days to just wearing running tights on my winter runs. when it isn’t windy or super cold i still just wear shorts – my legs warm up quickly when i start running. unfortunately they don’t warm up at all when it is super cold or especially windy in the winter. i have to wear tights then. at first i wore shorts over my tights. i changed when i realized how much unnecessary laundry i was creating. it was at that point that i decided to just wear the tights. after all it’s a pretty typical thing to see around the point area – you see winter runners in central wisconsin all the time wearing tights and a jacket.

so i was in my tights and windbreaker when pam called and said she needed me to perform tech support on her computer. they couldn’t get the projector and computer working that they were going to use in their lecture (rather ironic that no one in an assistive living conference could operate this technology). well this is part of my duties as the husband. pam regularly says that my job is to open jars, kill bugs, and keep the computers working. so i had to decide – do i run over to the conference in my tights to fix the computer or do i get dress in normal clothes first? it’s one thing to wear running tights for a morning run and only be seen on the street. it is quite another thing to wear tights when you are bending over working on a computer. of course the problem was that pam needed me to fix the problem before they started her seminar. i had to move quickly.

i will leave it to your imagination concerning what i decided to do.

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sort of attacked

first, I’M FINISHED WITH MY LAST D.MIN PAPER FOR THE “DOCTRINAL FOUNDATIONS OF MINISTRY” SEMINAR I TOOK! WOOHOO!

secondly, i was kind of attacked while running this past saturday. it was by a dog. this kills me because i love dogs. in fact, dogs usually love me. it’s part of my charm. i like dogs and they like me. except for this dog. he was not a fan.

i actually don’t blame the dog. it’s owner was walking along on the trail without holding on to its lease. the lease was just hanging to the side of the dog while the dog was running around. when i was about ‘100 away i could see the dog running free. he would run off and then come back to its owner and then run off again. it was also at this time that the dog saw me and decided that it’s goal for the day was to bite me. so it ran full tilt in my direction. i screamed for the owner to grab her dog but she was too busy with what was obviously a very important cell phone conversation to help me with her dog. it must have been an important conversation because surely no one would allow their dog to attack a runner just so they could continue a conversation concerning “twilight.” when the dog reached me and jumped at my throat i kneed it in the chest to knock it away. this worked pretty good so i moved quickly into my second line of defense which was to stretch my arms out and look as big as i could. i wasn’t really trying to scare the dog as much as i was trying to get the cell phone talking owner’s attention. it worked. she ran over grabbed the dogs leash and told me “you did the right thing” as she pulled her barking and lunging dog away from me.

i really wish i could tell you that the dog was a toy puddle or something so you could enjoy a fun visual image but the dog was about the size of a german shepherd and it put a decent amount of fear into my day. the only thing i rememer afterward is thinking how odd the lady’s statement was. “you did the right thing.” thanks lady. nice to know that i did the right thing while you were ignoring your runner chasing dog and talking on you phone. it was really not what i was expecting to hear.

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chicago marathon recap

the finish line

its tuesday now and the tops of my feet still hurt from running the 2009 chicago marathon on sunday (i have no idea why the tops of my feet would hurt from running 26.2 miles but they do). i figure while they are hurting and i am procrastinating from writing papers for my next d.min seminar i will post some photos and thoughts concerning the marathon.

1st, the chicago marathon is incredible. it is the best race of any distance that i have been involved in. it is HUGE! i mean amazingly large. it took jim and i 10 minutes after the starting gun to just get past the other waiting runners at the barriers and on to the road for the race. it was another 15 minutes before we actually reached the starting line (which was at least 1/2 mile away from where we had started). 45,000 runners take up a lot of space. the only weakness of this mass of people was that i originally wanted to improve upon my marathon time from my first marathon. that wasn’t going to happen with all the weaving between people that we had to do. otherwise running with a crowd was exhilarating. the 1.5 million spectators were also incredible. i had hours of music and podcasts placed on my mp3 player ready for when the energy of the race lagged and i was running by myself. that never happened. each neighborhood that we ran through had new and exciting things to look at. the people cheered, they were creative, and the whole thing was incredibly entertaining. i already liked chicago but after the way the city responded to the marathon i love it.

2nd, running the marathon with jim (pam’s brother) was great. i have never run a race with someone before and now i know that i have been missing out. the conversations we had over the 5 hrs of our run made the whole thing fly by. i never felt like listening to music because i so enjoyed talking with jim. the other advantage was that he kept me running. my calves were like rocks at mile 20. if it hadn’t of been for jim i would have quit running and just walked. thanks jim.

3rd, as always family made all the difference. pam, the boys, jill, and her parents bounced all over the course to cheer us on. a lot of people think that marathons are solo experiences but that is because they haven’t reached the point of realizing you can’t go on and then seeing your family and knowing you have to. i loved the fact that they went from spot to spot to make sure that we continued. it was a huge thing.

finally, jim and i ran the marathon on team world vision. world vision is a great organization for sponsoring children. pam and i have seen some of their work first hand in nicaragua and it’s organization i belief in. it is also a group that does a great job with those running for it. there were people all through out that course that erupted every time they saw a world vision shirt. since world vision was the largest charity at the marathon that equaled a lot of world vision jerseys and therefore a great deal of cheer eruptions for those supporting the world vision team. team world vision raised $600,000 before the marathon and there is a possibility of another $400,000 coming in after. if you’re interested i can send you a link.

as a SIDE NOTE on the above point i have never run with my name displayed anywhere and that was great. i’ll be doing that again. people encouraged me by name along the whole course.

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the shoes finally arrived

the new running socks & shoes
my new running shoes came in from fedex yesterday which is great because i need to put 30 or so miles in on them before running the chicago marathon in them. i also got some new socks for running in. i’ve been developing and rubbing off callouses on the underside of what i believe i would call my ring toe.

this is an issue – yes the callouses but here i’m talking about what to call this toe. seriously do our toes have names? our fingers do. if i say ring finger everyone knows what i’m talking about. this is not true with toes. anyway i would never wear a ring on any of my toes.

so once again i’ve been developing and rubbing off callouses on the underside of what i believe would be called my ring toes. this comes from what i believe would be called my pinky toes nesting underneath the supposedly called ring toes. developing and rubbing off toe callouses during a run is not a good thing. it hurts. so i bought toe socks to counteract this problem. i’ll find out how they work this weekend when i do my last long run (which isn’t really even a very long run because of the fact that i am in the pre-marathon taper). whether they work or not i feel funky fresh wearing toe socks while i run.

that’s right, i said funky fresh.

SIDE NOTE – i’m going duck hunting with andy lickel tomorrow morning. while i’ve been hunting for other things plenty of times, i’ve never been duck hunting before. hopefully i won’t have a cheney moment.