Running Shoes and Toilets

Warning: This is a ramble, unedited and uncensored. I won't even spell check and be warned I can not spell well so this should be fun.(BLOGGER NEEDS SPELL CHECK)

Q: What do modern running shoes and modern toilets have in common?
A: Both inventions tried to fix a problem that really never needed fixing.

OK running shoes in general were not a problem until someone had the idea that we needed to pad our heels more so we could heel strike more comfortably and then someone decided we need pronation support(god forbid we try to strengthening our feet when a bit of ridgid plastic can support our bones and tendons and muscles for us) all of which has weakened our feet enslaving us further to the clutches of our running shoes laces. Yes I am being a bit dramatic here but it does seem to me that the more advanced we are getting the less natural we are becoming and so less human. Which brings me to the "toilet" part of my ramble. For goodness sake we humans of the Western World don't even know how to have a proper bowel movement. Sitting on a toilet the way we do is an unnatural position for getting the job done. It is not only unnatural but it is also unhealthy and whoever had the idea to build the first "sitting" toilet pretty much set us all up for a long string of physical problems which permeate our society today. I am not going to go into the list of the internal reasons why we should not be sitting while using the "potty" but can read for yourself here and here and here. The one reason this sitting vs squatting issue has irked me is my personal inability to squat without tipping over backwards due to my tight short Achilles tendon . Squatting to stretch my Achilles and soleus has been an ongoing battle for me and although I am making progress it is very evident that what should be a natural position is virtually impossible for me to hold while barefoot. Yet if I were to have lived a few centuries ago that same position would be a natural one, one I would have held every morning(after my coffee of course), perhaps noon and night. I am sure heeled shoes also play into my current disability. Yes that's right, we are all disabled. If you can't squat without a heeled shoe and hold it for a few minutes than you are less abled then every person aged 2 -100 who lived at time when squatting was the way of the world. People squatted to eat, squatted to work, squatted to rest, squatted to relieve themselves. But you know what, I can't do it and neither can you. We are a weaker less mobile kind of a human that once inhabited this earth and knowing that doesn't make me happy for our progress it makes me mad at how we tend to screw things up when we think we are making things better.

Rant over.
Running has been going well. Lots of long slow kms at 120 bpm. My tight calf that pulled on my foot when I ran Emilie's Run has loosened up a bit from my rehab exercises and stretching and the foot has held up well to the increased time on my feet. I have a 5km race this weekend and although I am not optimally trained for the speed I think running with a happy foot and calf will make up for the lack of intensity of my current training. There are so many layers to training and getting back to basics and adding in the longer runs really feels like it was the right thing to do. I am happy and lucky to have a great coach who knows when it is time to pull back, regroup and make changes.
A favorite quote I have been using lately from Tony Robbins, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

Note: For the past 3 years I have run "The Sandbanks 5km" at this time of year however I entered a contest to design a logo for an upcoming local race called "Run With The Wild" and I decided that if I won the contest then I would run that race instead. Well I won the contest which asked you to draw something you would see in the wild near the race course. Here is my entry and winning design. I call it, "The Wild Man of Lemoine Point".

Quietly Waiting Ramble



Doing the Scorpion

 I have been quietly waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Something worth writing about. Some monumental accomplishment that will have you all dropping your jaws to the ground and gasping in awe as you read my account of my superhuman feats of glory. But Spring is threatning upon us, Winter's cold is lifting from my bones and the quiet has become deafening as I wait so I have decide to break the silence and speak to you of my not so superhuman accomplishments.

I was fortunate to compete and place 2nd in my now annual running of the Frontenac Dion Snowshoe Race and I also managed 3rd in the Switzerville RedBarn snowshoe race. I then made a dismal attempt at a 5km race when I was sick as a dog and wishing I was home on the couch. I just hate running a race you know you never should have lined up for. It's not just the discomfort of trying to hold your aching body together through the distance but seeing the timer as you approach the finish and the time you knew was coming but did not want to see. Knowing it does not represent anything about who you are or how hard you train doesn't help when you think back to all the times you ran hills in the icy, dark, freezing night just so you could look up at the end of that very race to see all that hard work had paid off in at least shaving a few seconds off of last years time. Instead what I saw was a time which I had seen 2 years before. I couldn't help but feel I had lost 2 years of training in one single race. No matter how I tried to console myself seeing the time was devestating, overwhelming, dumbfounding. I was sick yes, but I should have been faster and I wasn't. Then reality hits me a few days later, I was slower because I was sick and I didn't feel like running fast. Could I have run faster? Yes. Did I want to? No! I didn't feel like it, and that is that. Sometimes you just don't feel like it, or you just don't have it. The perfect race is a lottery. So many numbers have to come up for you to be a winner. I had perhaps 3 of 6 numbers I needed for a perfect race that day with a good race needing 5 numbers, an OK race 4, an "at least I finished" race  3, a bad race 2, a terrible race 1 and a devestatingly horrible race 0. So on that scale I guess it wasn't so bad, things could have been worse.

Once again this year will be another chance for me to work on my running form and to study the art of  the 5km race. Emilie's Run is my goal race in June and is the one that I missed last year and I also plan to run the Limestone Mile again.



Doing one legged jump squats



I have been building strength all winter running hills and doing strength and core. Hills were hell. They are done with. I learned a lot about myself but I am glad to move on. Derrick(my running coach) now has me running hilly tempos which are much more fun as long as my Achilles and twitchy hip decide to co-operate. I also have a new strength routine I am progressing through adding reps weekly to strengthen my weak parts. Squats are not my friend. I hate them. They hurt me. But I do them because they are written on the paper my strength trainer gave me. Doing my strength routine with Tammie(my trainer) is OK. I can usually get through them because having her there is motivation for me to do well, and not slack. Doing them at home for my 2nd time of the week is another story. I tell myself I will skip reps. or skip complete exercises just to get my lazy butt down to the basement to get at it. Today I decided I needed some extra motivation because I really didn't want to get all sweaty and start lifting and pushing heavy things(my butt) around. So I decided to film me doing my entire routine in real time with no breaks so I kept it moving along and did not cheat. The camera did switch off at one point but this was purely accidental and I swear I did do the missing set of squats.  After a few minutes of watching it becomes as much fun as watching paint dry. Enjoy. Unfortunately youtube rejected my video...too graphic...no too long; ) so I put it in my Dropbox which is not working but I think it is busy uploading. I did say it was long(40min).

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Me, Myself and I QUIT!!

If running has taught me anything about life it would be quite simply to keep moving forward. At least when you move forward you end up somewhere new, hopefully somewhere better and at the very least somewhere not the same. Getting out there to expand your horizons, to learn, see and experience new things is what running and life are all about.

Unfortunately sometimes it is hard to think about moving forward when things get tough. The idea of QUITTING can begin rolling around inside my head and the words "I QUIT" may even slip through my lips in a faint whisper. Saying "I Quit" is like opening an outlet valve allowing all the anxiety and self doubt to escape in one big WHOOSH of air. I know saying "I Quit" doesn't sound good but there seems to be a part of me that needs to think it, whisper it once and a while. Who am I to deny that part of me deep down inside whom desperately wants to give up the fight even when the rest of me am fully willing to go on. OK, so I let her have her say and then I console her and commiserate with her a little and together we decide to move forward again. We decide to move forward because we remember a time when we did QUIT and learned that quitting only put us back where we started which is where we didn't want to be and was the reason we began moving forward in the first place.

So it seems that sometimes a part of me deep down inside needs to be reminded of the reasons to stay on course and follow the plan we set in motion together. I am hoping that in acknowledging this part of me and keeping her close that she will soon stop having the need to say, "I QUIT". However until that day arrives I will just keep on reminding her of our reasons for moving forward again and again until she trusts me enough to follow me no matter where I may lead her with nary a whisper being spoken.