2017: A year in review

After 20 years not running, and a couple trials (up to 3 miles) in December, on January 1st I ran 5 miles straight for the first time. And it didn't kill me.

I ran 3,416 miles in 2017. I was on my feet a little longer than that, but those 3,416 miles are true running. And yes, I walked too, but based on my movement percentages I never finished a run with less than 99% movement.

The first half-marathon

I hit the half-marathon mark sometime in March. I hit the mark right in front of the McDonnalds at the Herndon K-Mart plaza, and I had misjudged how much time I had available to run, so there I was 3 miles away from home, no juice left, and I was already 15 minutes late for work (I telecommute). I called Ivette and she picked me up. In the whole year I only had her pick me up twice, the second time was due to a heat wave, I ran out of steam on mile 15 and I played the "fuck it" card. I stopped at Trailside Park in Herndon, got a Slurpee and a cinnamon roll and chilled in the park until Ivette picked me up.

The Wall

Hitting mile 13 was also my introduction to "the wall." I had no clue that glycogen depletion was a thing, but I wasn't surprised when I complained at the runners store that I was running out of juice somewhere between miles 10 and 13, without any pain or breathing discomfort. I just ran out of juice.

They asked me if I was eating. That's when I had to learn about eating WHILE I ran. I experimented with both gels and chews and eventually settled on gels simply because they are easier to dispense. I tried a lot of CLIF, GU, Gatorade, Honey Stinger products. The Gatorade chews are dirt cheap, but they are a royal pain in the ass to dispense so I quit using them. CLIF, GU and Honey Stinger are awesome, but I eventually settled on two CLIF products, one that has 100mg of Caffeine per portion, one that has 50mg. I originally stacked these in 5-mile intervals but eventually I found that I was doing a lot better with 45-minutes between snacks.

And no more wall. Now my limit is usually how much abuse I can inflict on my feet. My lungs are never a problem, even after 20+ miles, and my legs just get stiff. But my feet just kill me after mile 20.

The Uber Ride of Shame

I took the Uber ride of shame three times. The first time I ran out of fucks after 15 miles, which meant walking from Herndon, VA and I wasn't ready to do that. That was also my very first Uber ride, which I enjoyed a lot even if the driver couldn't navigate worth shit.

The second Uber ride of shame was funny because I ran into Ivette (my wife) right as I was getting ready to order the ride, and she had been thinking about bailing out from HER walk, about 3 miles away from home. Our driver was excellent and he actually knew the town very well.

The last Uber ride of shame was a preventive measure. My ankle started to act up a little under 3 miles from home, and I didn't think it was wise to walk it. This time my Uber driver knew the town so well that he actively argued against the voice prompts from his GPS, something that both Ivette and myself do in our own cars ("are you kidding me? why would I drive through THAT at this time of the day?"). The ankle was strained a little bit, it actually hurt more walking than running, which to this day makes no sense. I wore KT tape for about two weeks, but most of the relief was needed for walking, it really didn't hurt when I ran, and it eventually went away.

My Town Keeps Getting Smaller

My understanding of the size of my town changed dramatically over the past year. Every time I am out in the car, the "uh, I have run through here" moments keep happening farther away from the house. This reached crazy proportions when I actually managed to run across route 28 and back for the first time, it really felt unbelievable at the time. Later I managed to run three miles further West, which put me at the Ashburn Village Boulevard. I other words, I was now running from Reston to friggin Ashburn and back.

I also ventured towards the East and made the Vienna run on the W&OD (14-mile round trip from Lake Anne, can be stretched to about 16 miles if you hit Beulah Road) so many times that I got bored of it. Anyone that has seen my map routes comments on how I am always turning all over the place, I do this because it keeps me from being able to see further than a quarter mile or so away. When you are riding the W&OD between Ashburn and Vienna it is very straight, the only real variety that you get is the elevation changes due to the pedestrian bridges, the dangerous street crossings and a few nice hills between the Dulles Toll Road and Vienna. It also becomes a cyclist superspeedway during the nice weather months, so you are one of hundreds running, with a dozen or so cyclists zipping by at very high speeds every few minutes. 


The longest run for the year was about 21 miles, I ran to Smiths Switch Station on the W&OD and back. It destroyed my toes. I now wear silicone toe caps which in theory should help me avoid the major mangling I went through in that particular run.

Another crazy side-effect of all of these miles is that my "home" zone is now a 2-mile bubble. If I am running 16 miles and I hit the area within my "home" zone I relax, I am home. I am going to make it fine no matter what. Even at my lowest speed it means I'll be there in less than 25 minutes, which is the equivalent of being just around the corner. So I run towards route 7, then to Sterling, down to the W&D and back home, and right as I see the Reston Town Center I hit my "home" zone. This is when just 100 pounds ago the idea of walking from my house to the Reston Town Center would freak me out because of the (then) seemingly impossible hills I would have to climb if I took the trails. 

Racing

I raced twice: a 5-miler charity run in Ashburn, which was so-so but I beat my goal time, and a 5K in Herndon, another charity run, which was a blast. Still, I didn't click with racing so I stopped signing for them. I already run 6-7 days a week, those races basically mean I have to waste hours to drive there and back when I can just spend those hours running.

Shoes!

I ran through a ridiculous amount of shoes through the year, and I learned a lot about my "right" shoe and how to get the most bang for my buck. I posted a very long analysis here.

I also ran through some extreme weather. It varied from terrible blizzards early in the year, to 1200% humidity during the worst of the summer, then terrible wind chill that is still happening today. For today's run it hit 2° F when adjusted for windchill, which was rough, but I still think it was nowhere as hard as running in 100% humidity. 

Gear

I started the year with my faithful Fitbit Charge 2, which helped me walk off 70+ pounds without feeling like I was doing a lot of work. But for running it simply didn't measure up. So I switched to a Garmin Forerunner 235, which so far has been fantastic.

I also learned the importance of having a great headlight, and I lost my first one when it slipped off my hat. I tried to replace it with a clip-on that didn't measure up, so when I replaced it with another of my original favorite design, I got the idea of using Velcro to stick the lamp to my hat instead of using the supplied head band. I have now run a couple hundred miles with this arrangement and the lamp has failed to fall off the hat. 

The Great Running Shoe Experiment of 2017

The hardest thing that I had to come to terms with over the past year wasn't my transition from pure couch potato to running 60-80 miles per week, or that I started to go to bed before 8 PM so I could be out running before dawn.

Nope, the biggest thing for me was coming to terms with how much money I was spending on shoes.

I was putting 500+ miles/pair when I was walking (which helped me lose my first 70 pounds, which really helped me when I transitioned to running) but my first pair of serious running shoes, used exclusively for running, lasted me 290 miles.

That's $150 (there's a "members" discount at my runners store, but there's also a yearly fee) that didn't buy me a month worth of running shoes. These were Saucony ISO Hurricane 3s. It's one hell of a shoe, fantastic fit and finish, but I destroyed the outer soles to the point I didn't trust them. The uppers were in great shape.

Next were the New Balance Fresh Foam 1080 V7.  Again, a truly fantastic shoe, and I destroyed the bounce and sole in 262 miles. Uppers were absolutely pristine.

I complained to my trustworthy "advisor" at the runners store, and he told me that my problem was that I was not rotating shoes. That soft shoes take longer than 24 hours to recover.

I said sure, I would happily buy two pairs, but only of a shoe that lasts no less than 300 miles.

He sold me a pair of Brooks Glycerin 14s. I put 348 miles on them before I blew up their bounce. The soles were still in great shape, but the shoes felt like walking on bricks.

I went back to pick up two pairs, only to find out the Glycerin 14 was phased out, they didn't carry my size in the liquidation sales, so I went ahead and picked up two pairs of Glycerin 15s.

• Glycerin 15 Pair #1: 431 miles. Bounce dead, sole about 95% used. Uppers look basically new.
• Glycerin 15 Pair #2: 444.51 miles. Still enough bounce for maybe 30 minutes of running or 1+ hours walking. Uppers look almost new.

These two pairs have been retired from running duties. Pair #1 is now used as my house slippers, pair #2 is my "casual" pair for walking around.

But I got curious. What if there was something better?

So I tried the Hoka One One Bondi 5. I put 30 miles on them and returned them. The shoe simply wasn't OK For me. 

So I went ahead and went back to Brooks:

• Glycerin 15 Pair #3: 593 miles. Bounce still good for 90 minutes, sole is about 90% used. Uppers look basically new.
• Glycerin 15 Pair #4: 503 miles. Still enough bounce for at least 2+ hours of running, sole looks about 75% used. Uppers look almost new.

I was getting ready to retire pair #3, but decided to see what would happen with a 3-pair rotation. Pair #5 is now at 152 miles, they feel and look as if I just took them out of the box.

I think that the 3-pair rotation has something to do with being able to hit almost 600 miles on pair 3, and it's obvious that pair 4 is going to hit the 600 mile too.

 In terms of cost, assuming my 2017 mileage:

• One pair at a time: I would have bought about 10 pairs for the year, assuming I would get at least 350 miles per pair.
• Two pairs at a time: I would have bought about 8 pairs for the year, assuming I would get at least 430 miles per pair.
• Three pairs at a time: I would have bought about 6 pairs for the year, assuming I can still pull 600 miles per pair.

 There are of course multiple factors that will keep the math from being linear. For example, temperature, pace, weight variations, stride mechanics, surface, and God knows how many others. But it is obvious that for my running style, and when wearing soft shoes, any kind of rotation will yield better mileage than simply wearing the same pair of shoes 6-7 days a week.

"El Abominable Pedro de las Nieves"

AKA "The Abominable Snow Pedro"

BRRRR

The weather was a little hostile this morning. At least it wasn't windy and all the trails and roads were dry and clean.

Closing the week at 78 miles

Sometimes enough is enough. I don't think I had enough juice to round up today's run to 11 miles.

A streak saver run

This is what happens when you don't want to go out to run, but running is less of a hassle than spending the day bitching and moaning about missing out on the daily run...

And then it was winter

15 miles in 24° F, but at least there was close to zero wind. 

The headlamp hack

I lost my trustworthy rechargeable headlamp after about 10 months of great service. It was obnoxiously bright, and the price was right. I resisted the urge to buying the same unit because I didn't want to use a headband, even if I wear it over my hat. I felt I would spend most of the run obsessed over losing it.

So I bought a cheaper clip on. And it was a piece of shit, the illumination pattern was crap, the batteries aren't rechargeable. It's OK to show oncoming traffic that you are there, but it is useless as a true headlamp.

I learned my lesson, so I bought an exact replacement of my original headlamp. Only this time I didn't use the headband, instead I glued some velcro to the bracket and stuck it into the front velcro patch of my "operator" hat. The end result is a much better placement for the lamp without having to worry about it slipping over the hat. I wore it today for about 8 miles and it worked perfectly. I was worried about the light bouncing around, but it stayed solid throughout the dark part of today's run, about 8 miles. Once it was light enough I swapped it for my usual US-flag patch and recharged it once I got back home. 

The only downsides:

1. By wearing the headlamp over the hat you lose part of the illumination pattern, probably 60-90 degrees off the full circle.
2. It is painfully bright, please mind opposite traffic, especially pedestrians and cyclists. Around here people either turn off their headlamps to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, or purposely aim it away until passing. I prefer to aim it away.

Hello World

I am already run for today's late

ugh.

I am already late for today's run.

And while running a shoe report on my Strava API hack I realized that I should make some kind of summary at the end of the year. And I haven't used Blogger in a while, so here I am.

As of yesterday I have run 3,301 miles in 2017 and I have worn no less than 11 different pairs of running shoes.