Temple Terrace: it's no Worcester

Today's run was 4 miles with 4 minutes uphill.  When I first saw that, I automatically assumed that those four minutes would be on the treadmill since this region of Florida is pretty bereft of hills.  All of the other places that I've lived since starting my running career have had a decent hill profile.  Boston has some killah hills, and others that are the slow and painful gradual types.  These are the ones that you don't even notice until you decide to run them, then you wonder why your run has been so awful for the past 1/4 mile.  Looking behind you, you realize that this is because you've been on a very long and gradual hill.  Looking ahead, you realize that this very long and gradual hill may never end.  Trust me, I've been on this run more than once.

When I started running in Boston, I lived in Somerville, which has several really nasty hills.  Somehow, I managed to live right near the crest of one of them.  So no matter which way you came to my apartment, the end of the run was inevitably a long, gradual, uphill climb.  I initially noticed this as I was trying to finish my very first long run (6 whole miles!) and felt like the last part of my run was all uphill.  I then realized that it actually was and that this 'all uphill' feeling was not my imagination.  This is the town with Heartbreak Hill, after all (it's a big, long, gradual hill 20 miles into the Boston Marathon, which is not where you want such a hill.  Many runners have been felled by it).

After Boston, I lived in Worcester, which is one of those many cities of seven hills.  They aren't kidding.  It's in the foothills of the Berkshires and you definitely get your hillwork done.  I ran more hills in my warm-ups than I probably do now in a month of Florida running.  There was a particularly brutal one that I used to use for hill practice which was a pretty decent incline that went on for 5-6 minutes.  Back then, I didn't even really think about hills.  They were just there.


Then I moved here, where there were zero hills.  Where I lived before, the only thing approaching a hill was a pedestrian overpass located on a running trail.  And yes, I did actually use that for hill training.  It even had the added advantage of no shade whatsoever.  So that was my hill. Or the treadmill.  Or wait for the summer and Vienna, which has some completely ridiculous gradual hills:

Yeah, I used to run that.  Up.  And down.  That's running Wiener-style.

When I was there this summer, I went on a run that had 15 straight minutes uphill.  Seriously.  And this was a casual hill compared to some.

Anyway, you can imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that Temple Terrace does actually have a few hills.  My first concern was whether it had enough of a hill to constitute four minutes, as mandated by my training plan for today.  I decided to tackle 'the hill' to see how long it took, and wouldn't you know it?  Two minutes up.  So I ran it, circled around a lovely treed neighborhood, then ran it again.  Problem solved!

When I checked my phone upon finishing the run, I realized that Temple Terrace actually has several elevation changes in the form of long, gradual hills.  So actually, I did more than four minutes.  Hopefully this is making me a stronger runner without me even noticing -- although I don't think I'm quite ready for Comrades, the insane South African ultramarathon with completely insane hills:

Comrades profile map.  Insane.  I cannot use that word enough in describing this race.

Here is a photo of the hill I ran today.  Feel free to laugh.  I should probably put 'hill' in 'quotation marks':

It's no Worcester, that is for sure.  But I am running this marathon in coastal South Carolina, so likely I will be okay.

Where I ran in Boston

Some pictures to illustrate the places I've been talking about:

This view of the Charles River is where I ran when I went to the right.  You can see that the beginning is hectic for traffic, but there are paths on either side (with lovely, shady trees).

Boston University Bridge, about 0.7ish miles into my run when I was going to the right.  No Smoots on this bridge.

That bridge in the distance is the Smoot Bridge (aka the Mass Ave Bridge).  Boston skyline in the distance.

Actual, authentic running path next to the Charles.  Not a bad place to run!

Last run in Boston

Before I talk about today's run, let me just say that if you live anywhere near a Whole Foods, you should run -- not walk -- to get some of the Gruyere reserve wheel cheese.  Ridiculously good.  I may have to make French Onion Soup just for the cheese if I can locate this at the Tampa Whole Foods.

Unfortunately, my friend couldn't make it out to run.  I decided to lounge around this morning and have a bit of a break.  I'm not one of those 'Must Run First Thing In The Morning' people by any means.  I think that you should run when you can...that being said, you do need to plan and make time to go.  Yesterday, I was proud of myself because I changed my plans to make sure I could fit my run in.  This scheduling stuff is important or else you can get behind.  Also, the clear advantage of going first thing in the morning is that your run is done and nothing can get in the way later.  I do prefer usually to go earlier rather than later, but either is fine, really.

Tonight was great: low humidity, good temperature, and a nice run by the Charles (again).  Needless to say, I will miss this, but there is something about running here that I will miss even more.  Even in this short week and a half, I feel like I'm developing better running technique.  For instance, halfway through tonight I noticed that my shoulders were raised, meaning that I was holding in too much tension.  So I spent the rest of my run concentrating on relaxing, ensuring that my shoulders didn't get too high.  When I get to hills, I can feel my legs powering up.  In general, I feel like there is more bounce in my step.  Today, I may have even -- momentarily -- hit a 10-minute mile...although I don't quite trust the mile splits that my phone provides because sometimes they are just wacky.  For instance, if I ran three miles in less than 36 minutes, I'm pretty sure I'm under 12-minute miles, whereas sometimes my phone disagrees.

I'm trying not to get morose about leaving Boston, although I'm pretty sure that my love for this city has come through pretty clearly.  Instead, I want to focus on what I can do to be a better runner in spite of Florida.  I am going to keep watching my technique and trying to improve in the areas that I noticed, such as keeping the shoulders down.  Part of the problem there, I believe, is that I get so caught up in the challenge of just running in those conditions that I forget about other aspects of my running.  Even though any distance feels like a challenge, it is not enough to only run.  It's time to step up the technique and make the best of a difficult situation.

Funnily enough, during the Red Sox game tonight (which is in Texas) the announcers got talking about how icky the conditions can be in the south.  They were of the mindset that no one ever fully adapted to the heat and humidity.  That being said, it sounded far nastier there than Tampa: it was 100F at the start of the game.  Ew.

I ran into a guy in the elevator tonight who told me that he has been working in Boston for three months and has only been running outside four times.  Instead, he runs on the treadmill.  Tragedy!

Changing the schedule

I decided to shake things up a bit and do most of my running here for this week rather than Florida (I leave on Saturday, bright and early...too bright and early to fit a run in beforehand).  So today I did my long run of 5 miles, which went pretty well I thought.  I ran faster than I might usually on a long-ish run because I needed to meet someone afterward, but increasing the pace didn't seem to cause any real problems.

I decided to run toward Boston on the Mass Pike side.  Even though this is not the most scenic (or peaceful) run, it does have the advantage that there are no stop points or places where you might have to wait for traffic.  This benefit, I felt, outweighed the slightly less hectic traffic on the other side.  Mind you, I was running at around 6pm, so there was going to be traffic regardless (I had planned to run earlier, woke up, then just lacked any and all motivation).

Incidentally, I realized that there are pictures to come with all of these sites...I hadn't realized that I took them.  The USB cord to connect the camera is currently in Florida, but I will be back soon enough.

Today I also wound up doing a lot of peripheral walking, by which I mean the kind of walking you do in a city simply because you have to walk from Point A to Point B more often.  I think today totaled about 4 miles, which is a lot of peripheral walking to do!  Plus at one point I had to walk around a mile, go for my run, then walk another mile.  It was a bit hectic.

Tomorrow morning I am getting up bright and early (comparatively) to do a run with a friend.  We used to run "together" with another friend; I have the "together" in quotation marks because they were much faster than I was.  Basically, we would go to races together and they would sit around, waiting for me to finish.  However, she is currently rehabbing from an injury, so I'm hoping that we will be around the same pace.  Either way, it should be fun!

Today I took a right

For some variety, today I ran to the right (toward MIT-Cambridge/Boston) and for even more variety, went over to the Cambridge side.  This was a good plan on two accounts.  First, there is less Turnpike/Storrow traffic, so it's not as hectic to start.  Second, you get the best views of the Boston skyline from this side.

There is only one slight difficulty.  From my hotel to the Mass Ave bridge is very slightly less than 2 miles on this run (I was doing 4 miles today).  One choice is to wait out the intersection to run, like, 0.1 mile, which is stupid.  The easier, non-trafficky solution is to run some of the distance over the Mass Ave bridge, then turn around and head back.  Apart from the fact that bridges suck (since they incline), this is your best solution.  And what makes it even better are Smoots.

A Smoot is a measurement that was designed as a MIT frat prank -- yes, this is what MIT students do for fun in their spare time, they design systems of measurement.  Smoot was an actual guy who was about 5'7".  To measure the bridge, Smoot lay down in each spot, then his frat brothers counted how many Smoots were required to get across the bridge.  The measurements can still be seen and are commemorated with markings on the bridge.  The really fun part of this story is that Smoot himself went on to chairman of the American National Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standards.

One way on my run wound up being approximately 1.9 miles and 84.4 Smoots.  But I could be slightly off on that, so please don't report me to the American National Standards Institute.

Also, here is a tip for eating healthy while traveling: grab the CSA share of a friend who is going out of town.  I picked it up yesterday and it became quite the conversation item, with several people asking me what was in the box.  My favorite was a somewhat laconic guy who I walked by near the CSA pick-up place:

Laconic guy: CSA share day?
Me: Yep.  Yummy melons.
Laconic guy: Whoo hoo [in a completely laconic tone]

Oh, and if you're curious about the why eating salads when you're out might not be your best plan, check this article out.  Amazing.

Taking a left

At the start of my runs here in Boston, I am faced with an important question: go left or go right?  Either way, I am running by the river, but there are other factors to consider:

1) Going left (west-ish) means that I am heading toward Harvard-Cambridge/Brighton.  There are more streets that need to be crossed, so it won't be continuous.  However, parts of this run are very scenic and you can get away from traffic after a while.

2) Going right (east-ish) means that I am heading toward MIT-Cambridge/Boston.  There is basically no traffic to impede the run because you go underneath any bridges.  However, the start of this route is not as nice because you are running right next to Storrow Drive/Mass Turnpike for quite a while.

Both options offer plenty of shade and nice river views. Rowers are everywhere.  The path is usually pretty clear and while you have to share with bikers, they are generally considerate.

This morning I took a left and to pep things up even more, crossed to the other bank of the river (Cambridge side) for a change of scenery.  On the way back, I opted to run across the Weeks Footbridge just because I could (see photo of Weeks Footbridge below looking toward the Cambridge side).  It was a bit hot and humid, but not terrible, and I found by keeping my pace on the slower side and steady I avoided any problems.

I have to say that there are far worse choices to have to make than right or left.

Yin yoga

Yesterday I decided to take the opportunity and attend a yoga class.  Boston may be a running town, but it is also a generally fit town and there are no lack of yoga options -- particularly around Central/Harvard Squares, which is near where I am staying.  I decided to check out Karma Yoga because they had a class called yin yoga that looked interesting.  The description on the website was as follows: "Through the elegant combination of appropriate asana and gentle timing, Yin Yoga deeply stretches and nourishes the joints of the body, helping to generate much greater flexibility and core-level relaxation."  Basically, you hold uncomplicated stretches for a long time, so it was a nice class to take.  One of the challenges I find of just dropping in on a class like this is that you can be behind the students who have been attending for a while.  With a focus on holding the poses instead of the poses themselves, you don't have that problem.

I was doing yoga in Tampa, trying to go twice a week.  Mine is bare-bones yoga taught at the city's recreation facility.  The price can't be beat ($6.25 a class), although you have to bring your own mat.  Our teacher there is very nice and doesn't insist on doing annoying things like playing 'relaxation music.'  There is only one problem: when the teacher goes out of town -- as she did for the month of August -- then there is no yoga.  What is fun about being in a place like Boston are the wide number of options.  I liked the yin yoga so much that I've requested a DVD about from the library at home.  It was challenging but not taxing.

Like a lot of runners, I have basically no flexibility.  Hopefully, by doing yoga I can help prevent an injury and provide some relief to tired muscles.  When I went running today, I didn't notice any problems, which is always a good sign.

I don't hate running

The title for this post may seem strange: obviously if I want to run a marathon, I don't hate running, right?  Some days that is difficult to remember.  I spend so much time running in conditions that I dislike (even in winter in Florida since it's often still humid) that it can be really hard to think back to those good runs that I enjoyed.

Today was one of those good ones.

I went around 7:15PM (post-ballgame) just in time to get the light of the setting sun.  This run was next to the Charles, heading west (other runs have been east).  The temperature was in the low 70s, the humidity was under 40%.  It was fantastic.  I was a bit slow to start -- probably because I didn't go yesterday -- but shook that off pretty quickly .  Not too hot, not too cold, and I'm pretty sure my time was good (unfortunately, there was no good way to pause my phone at lights and I had to wait for a few, so my mile split was wrong).  I hardly looked at my phone at all to see how far I had gone, which is a real change from normal when I have to give myself pep talks to get through the last half of any run.

Hurray!

Here is hoping that my good running mojo continues for tomorrow when I do the Salem 5k.  And that I am not burned as a witch.

Wicked Scenic Boston Run with Killah Hill

I did it!  All 5 miles!  And I didn't overheat!  What a surreal feeling that was.

So the route was: Charles River --> Esplanade --> Cambridge Street (*not* Beacon Street, as I said yesterday, but it was in Beacon Hill) --> Tremont Avenue --> Boston Common.  Some of you have requested pictures, so here's one from around the Esplanade:

Not bad, scenery-wise.  Boston Common was fun too.  There were kids at a tennis camp and I even got to run around the Frog Pond.  This picture shows just about where my run ended.  However, the Frog Pond was closed, so it wasn't quite so active:

The Killah Hill was...well...not so fun.  My run tracker is amusing since it tracks both your pace and your altitude.  Funnily enough, my pace went down quite a bit when the altitude started to go up!

This run was fun for another reason (apart from not overheating and getting through the 5 miles).  When I first started running, I lived in Somerville, MA.  I started -- like most people -- with smaller distances and shorter runs.  Then one day I decided that I was ready to tackle what I considered to be a 'real run': my first 6 miles.  I don't know why I felt this distance made you officially a runner, but it was the marker that I chose and I set out.  I went from Somerville to Cambridge (which might sound impressive but at the time was actually across the street), down to the river, ran for a while, then came up back to my house.  This was also the run that I realized we lived up a steep yet gradual hill, one that I really hadn't noticed walking.  But I did it.  The last part of it was pretty brutal, but I made it and that's all that matters.

It was amazing to me when I considered the difference between suburban Florida and Boston in terms of space.  From my hotel to the Esplanade was about 2.5 miles.  In that time, I covered several neighborhoods, ran past the MIT and Boston University campuses, and went by three red line subway stations -- the red line stations are actual normal distances, unlike the green line, which is essentially a tram.  In Florida, I could probably still be running around the same subdivision after 2.5 miles.

What I also realized as I was heading home was that unless I change my schedule, this was my last 5 mile run in Boston during this trip.  Time certainly does fly...

In the unforgettable words of Han Solo....

Don't get cocky.

I'm in Boston and had my first run by the Charles today (yay!).  Boston is a running kind of town.  It is almost impossible to be somewhere and not see someone running, which is great.  You see all kinds of runners: ridiculously fast ones, slow ones, beginners, old people, the works.  Today I even saw a family of three.  It is inspiring.  Plus, the Charles is super nice because you can run right next to it.  Mind you, in places it is not so great since it's also right next to two major arteries (Storrow Drive and Memorial Drive) -- plus the Mass Turnpike.  But life could be worse than looking out over a river while you run, plus there are nice shady trees pretty often.  Sometimes you even see rowers (disclaimer: I used to row.  I loved it more than almost anything).

Today was four miles.  Because it is not so killer hot/humid, I really let it rip on the first mile.  This was a big mistake because while it was not *as* hot/humid, it still *was* hot/humid and I had to slow the pace down quite a bit for the remaining miles.  But the important thing was that I ran a fast mile!  Much faster than any pace I've been able to maintain for a while -- a full 2 minutes faster than those brutal runs last week.  And the moral of this story is that heat makes you run slow.

I am staying right next to the Charles by the exit for the Turnpike.  Today I made it to the MIT Bridge.  The plan tomorrow is to pass that, get to the Esplanade (that part they show sometimes on Cheers with all of the sailboats), hit the killer hill (or 'killah hill' as the locals would call it) up Beacon Street, go through Boston Common, and finally go to Commonwealth Avenue.  This is about as scenic a run as you could do in Boston, I think.  Although considering that I am from Florida and I live in a region with zero hills, this run might do me in!  Good thing that Friday is a rest day.

At the same time, I don't want to get cocky.  It still can get hot here.  So I need to pace myself better because the rest of the run was less fun than it could have been. Here's hoping that I can stay steady and not let the hill beat me.

I think I'm adapting

This morning's 3-mile run was also not so bad, although it was sufficiently humid that my glasses fogged up as I ran.  The sun, however, was not terrible (this was around 8am) and with plenty of shade, I felt pretty good by the end.  Sunny moments were actually kind of nice since they helped evaporate some of the moisture.  Good enough to crank it up a bit for the last 0.1 mile.  Then I walked it off and sweated a lot.

This is great timing for adapting to the hot/humid environment since I am sitting right now at the airport, getting ready to fly to Boston.  Here is hoping that any warm-weather experience will stay with me for the next week and a half!

Slight change to this week's training plan: Tuesday 3; Wednesday 4; Thursday 5; Saturday 4; Sunday 3.  Nice pyramid.  I'm doing a 5k on Sunday, so it makes sense to switch things up a bit.