I ran across the Digital Running Club site when I was checking out Running on Candy‘s recap of her experience in last weekend’s Ragnar Relay in Key West. 

My teammates and I have been discussing our tapering plans the past few weeks as we approach our upcoming race and we quickly realized that everyone approaches tapering very differently. Some people are trying to get rid of some last minute aches / pains and others are cautiously approaching their first relay race while a few of us have opted to keep our schedules consistent throughout our training. MapMyFitness posted an article on this very topic a couple of weeks ago. The general advice is the longer your race is, the more rest you should take leading up to the event, but I’ve found that if I change my standard routine too much, that’s when I start to have issues (usually my IT band). So, instead of taking a week (or even multiple days) off, I decided to continue playing soccer throughout this week. I plan to take tomorrow off completely and then my part of the run will start around lunchtime on Friday, so I’ll be sure to share how my “tapering plan” works out for me!

This is my experience with the shoes noted below and what I think happened in my case. I’m not a running / shoe / injury expert and can only say what’s worked for me. Use your best judgement for your situation. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been running on Nike Vomero 8 shoes since last October. Before that, I was wearing the Adidas AdiZero Boston 3 shoes. In training for previous half marathons, I have had issues with my left IT band, but while training with the AdiZero shoes, I started having a lot of tightness in my right hip. Originally I thought it could be that I was overcompensating for my left IT band, but I brought up the issue to my group run leader and he asked to see my shoes. He looked at the soles and told me that they were still in good shape, but that one problem could be the way the bottom of the shoe was designed. Below’s a comparison of the two shoes:

If you’ve ever wanted to challenge yourself by running up a mountain, I would highly recommend trying out the Bear scheduled for the evening of Thursday, July 10. The race starts in the town of Linville, NC at 3640′ and ends 5 miles later at the top of Grandfather Mountain at 5181′ with a view that can’t be beat! I’m officially registered for this race for my third year in a row – 2012 was cold and rainy where you couldn’t see more than 100′ in front of you while 2013 was sunny and you could see the spectacular views of the valleys below. If you’ve ever been tempted, I would recommend signing up as soon as possible – registration opened today and caps at 800 people (it sells out every year). For anyone who wants even more of a challenge, there is also the Grandfather Mountain Marathon which will be held on Saturday, July 12.

What’s the most elevation gain you’ve ever had in a run?

Last week I was able to hit up a Nike outlet store to check for a new pair of running shoes. I started using the Nike Vomero 8 when I started having some hip issues training for my October half marathon and I know I will need a new pair before too long, so every time I am near an outlet mall, I try to check the Nike store in case they have these shoes in stock. Luckily, this time, they actually had them! The first pair I bought, I had to get quickly because I was 2 weeks from my race so I got them off of Amazon for over $110. This time I found a pair for about $80 (still not cheap, but $30 is a good amount of savings). I also found a long sleeve running shirt for half off. Both items are from the LiveStrong collection, so they coordinate with a nice pink & red pattern. The only concern I have about these shoes are the fact that they’re mostly white! 

How long do you think I can keep these clean? 

With the continued cold weather and snow / ice in Charlotte, my soccer games were cancelled for the second night in a row last night, so instead of getting some running in, I decided to search online for something I could do in the house instead. I was hoping to find something on Netflix, but ended up going with the Daily Home Workout from The Biggest Loser website. No exercise equipment required, which is a definite plus! 

• 50 jumping jacks
• 15 crunches
• 10 tricep dips
• 5 push ups
• 10 squats
• 10 lunges (each leg)
• 10 standing calf raises
• 15 toe touches
• 15 rotating elbow planks
• 30-second plank

I never used to think too much about what I would wear on race day, but after going to a bunch of races and seeing all of the fun sayings, mantras and all over creative things that people wear for races, I decided that I wanted to come up with my own versions.

First up is one that I actually had to go searching for after I saw a similar one during the Tuna Run 200. The one I saw was a Carolina Hurricane’s shirt, so I had to try to find a Pittsburgh Penguins one. Amazon to the rescue! It’s actually a bike jersey, so there are extra pockets on the back, but I really like that because I was able to use it to hold my key (secured by a safety pin) while I ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon last year. 

Next up is one I made specifically so that I could wear it during the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon last October. I always listen to music while I run so I decided to pull a few of those lyrics onto a shirt and included all of the race distances I’ve done (3.1, 6.2, 13.1 and 200 relay). I used a tech shirt, iron-on letters and numbers to make my design. Because it’s a tech shirt, it wasn’t easy to iron the items on because polyester + heat don’t mix well – the key was to only keep the heat on for very short amount of times (otherwise you end up with iron marks on the shirt – ask me how I know!). Since I was making the shirt specifically so that I could wear it during a race, I made sure that the design I created didn’t extend down to where my water belt would hit. Here are the lyrics that are on the shirt:

• it seemed like a good idea at the time
• runnin’ down a dram
• I won’t give up if you don’t give up
• running down the street yelling “kiss my ass!”
• be strong * don’t give up hope * it will get hard * cause life’s like a jump rope

The final shirt is one I made specifically for the overnight relays. It’s another iron-on design, but this one I combined an iron-on monster with glow in the dark paint. I haven’t been able to test this out to see whether anyone will actually be able to read it in the dark, but I plan to wear it for the upcoming relay, so I’ll let you know what kind of feedback I get! In case you can’t read it, the back of the shirt says “I run in the dark”

Do you have any favorite shirts? 

I’ve seen a lot of different ways that people display their race bibs and medal. As I was furnishing my house, I knew I wanted to do something more than just keep them on magnetic boards in my office. I really liked the idea of having something that would take up a large portion of one of my walls so that I could show off all that I’ve accomplished. I originally started looking for a large wooden or metal sign that would fit into my decor. I ended up with a large letter “A” that even came with a few of the original lightbulbs from when it was part of a lit sign (maybe from a gas station or diner?). With all the races I did in 2013, I doubled the amount of medals and probably came close to tripling the number of bibs hanging on my wall so I may have to rethink if / how I show off everything that I’ve accumulated, but I really like how it’s turning out.

How do you display your medals and bibs? 

I’ve been trying to round up a few discounts and coupon codes to share with everyone. Not nearly as many as right around Christmas, but here’s a couple good ones: 

• March 8-9, NC Half Marathon & Twilight 5k, Charlotte, NC – $10 off the half marathon with code NCACTIVE14 or $5 off the twilight 5k with code NC5KACTIVE14 (both codes expire 1/31)
• December 7, Run Like a Diva Half Marathon / 5k, St. Augustine Beach, FL – $10 off the half marathon with code STADIVAHALF or $5 on the 5k with code STADIVA5k (both codes expire 2/3)
• Road ID – $1 off purchase of $10 or more. There is no expiration date on these and I’ve got 4 to offer, so if you’re interested, leave a comment and I’ll send you the code via email. 

My group run was cancelled again this morning due to the cold weather. On the plus side, I was able to sleep in some, but on the other hand, that meant doing my 12 mile run by myself. The temperature wasn’t necessarily the problem this morning, but the wind chill definitely was. Luckily by this afternoon it got up to almost 40, so I headed out for my run around 3:00. It was still chilly out, so I had lots of layers, including my fleece-lined pants, hat and gloves, but it was comfortable once I got started. I had a little bit of a challenge when I ran into a section of trail that was closed due to road construction overhead. There was a big detour sign that took me out into a neighborhood and it looked pretty straightforward – go out of one neighborhood, cross the street through the adjoining neighborhood and get back onto the trail on the other side of the construction… unfortunately, once I crossed the road into the second neighborhood, the detour signs disappeared! I wandered around the neighborhood for a bit and even went back to the entrance to the neighborhood where there was a map that showed the detour, but the map didn’t actually have street names on it, just the main road was listed. So, after just meandering through the neighborhood for awhile, I went back the way I came and just ended up doing an odd out-and-back loop.

The parts of the trail I was on was nice though there were a few sections with a bunch of gum tree balls – definitely don’t want to step on those!! I ended up doing 12.7 miles and went straight into an ice bath. If you’ve never done an ice bath before, it’s definitely interesting. I’ve found that it seems to help me and there’s some easy logic behind it – cold constricts your blood vessels which reduces swelling and can lead to faster recovery. Of course, there’s always more than one side to a story so, if you feel they help you, awesome, if not, you can always leave them out of your recovery plans. I’ve found that if I can get past the initial shock of the cold water, then I can handle it. You can always start with just cold tap water to get the idea of what it’s like if the idea of ice is a bit too much – most of the time I put in a couple trays of ice and they melt within 5 minutes or so.

Have you ever tried an ice bath?