The three stages of injury

What do you do eight weeks into your half-marathon training programme and you pull your hamstring? Well if you are me you spend the first week limping, taking anti-inflammatories and convincing yourself it is not that serious. The second week is spent feeling depressed and convincing yourself that you do not really like running anyway so what has been lost. By week three you pull yourself together, start on a routine of stretching, massage and miracle heat cream.You have realised that while the 13.1 miles is officially off the programme, the 5K race that is also part of the event might well be within your grasp if you approach your recovery both sensibly and with a positive attitude.

So tell me Lara, running - why do you do it?

The runners around me

As we know female runners are different to male runners - there is always a new article in a running magazine or website that tells us this. Our bodies are different and therefore our training and injuries tend to be different. I have been living in the United States for one year now. That is one year of running amongst the American female runner and I can report that in the USA the female runner comes in many forms and varieties. Below are just a few that I have spotted out and about these past 12 months.

1. Super Mum Runner

There she is, wonder woman in the perfectly laundered running kit pushing not one, not even two but three children in a buggy up a hill and holding a conversation with them all the while. I am never sure whether I should be jealous or impressed when I see here and so I veer between the two whenever I see this specimen of runner. Now I know that her life is just like mine, full of things she has forgotten to do and complete exhaustion come Friday night.  But when I see her out running, I think of her as the woman who doesn't have "can't" in her vocabulary.

Making friends with pace not a pace maker

This week I am looking at pace.  To me one the great mysteries of running.  In the early days I naively thought that all you needed to do was to just go out and run.  To a large extent that is true and always will be. But what I had not counted on was that after a while 'just running' was not going to be satisfying enough for me.  I wanted to get faster and stronger and in paticular faster.

However with much of my running I spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to do but quite often very little time actually putting it into action.  This week however is different.  This week is my week for speed, well pace really.

I have built in two speed sessions , one on Thursday as part of my easy run and then one with the training group on Saturday.  Speed training is all about understanding your pace and understanding how to build up strength to run at your race pace. To do that successfully you must learn how to run for short extended periods at your race pace then dial back and run at a slightly slower pace.

There are two ways to speed train - one is laps on a track at pace race and just under, and the other is hills - running them.

The seriousness of a (semi) long distance runner...

I could just have the most understanding supervisor ever.  After nearly dying from heat stroke on Tuesday evening (I can have a sense of the dramatic on occasion) from running my 3 miles along the Atlanta Beltline which has little to no shade I realised that I needed to switch my running to the mornings if I was going to keep to my schedule, enjoy it and not die.

While I clocked my three miles in 35 minutes (included a couple of walking stretches) I know I am not going to get stronger or faster if I continue to do the majority of my training in the evening summer heat.  So my great boss TC has agreed to let me come into work a little later on Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's. This will allow me to run in the mornings and not be rushed into work overheated and hungry. Three cheers for TC please.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

My sister sent me a book for my birthday this year "What I talk about when I talk about running" by Haruki Murakami.  As the title suggests it is about running.  Mr Murakami has run a marathon every year for the past 23 years and in 2008 he published a book about his meditations on his running journey.

I have not read any of his other works but I started this one last week and the phrase in the title of this blog was what jumped out at me when I read the preface.  A simple yet effective mantra that I repeated to myself several times on Saturday during my first training run for the All State half in October.  It was billed as an "easy 4 miles" and while it was not terrible, I don't know whether I would categorize it as "easy"...

Where's Lara?

Like the eponymous character in the Where's Wally? cartoons - north American readers will know him better by the name Waldo - Lara Lapin has been somewhat hidden these last six months.  Despite my signature red running face but unlike Wally's red stripy jumper hiding slyly in a crowd, I have been nowhere to be seen in any Atlanta running crowd.  My running in 2013 has been sketchy to say the least.

Where's Wally? Where's Lara more like

Harder than you think....

Is this month over yet?  Happy new folks.  I can tell you right now that my first two weeks of 2013 in terms of running have been utterly, utterly crap.  I started off all hopeful, positive and full of the new year zeal.  I went out for my first run on 3rd January - crap.  Heavy legs, heavy lungs and an even heavier sense of failure.  My only consolation at the end of that run was that with the first one of the year being that bad things could only get better... right?

Wrong.  It seems I started 2013 with a second indication that I am a runner - I lost all motivation to run.  Every run I went on during the first 10 days of the year was worse than the one before.  It did not matter whether I was looking forward to the run or I had dragged myself out despite my better intention.  Every run was heavy on my legs and lungs, mind and motivation.  I thought perhaps I could leave the funk in London but no even when back in Atlanta those early January days were tough.

All weather, fair weather, ill weather...

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and general Festivus all round.  Mr Lapin and I flew into London last weekend to spend our first Christmas in 10 years in England (oh bah humbug - why would you deliberately leave a tropical clime for cold damp England in December if you did not need to?)

Ill weather.....
I am all set to start my half-marathon training; running in the park, beginning to put some core exercises into my post stretch routine and building the focus I know I am going to need to push past my 11K maximum.  Not to mention the anticipation of wearing my presents, because an interesting discovery is that once you have become a runner you need never struggle to answer the question "what do you want for Christmas?"  The easy and truthful answer now can always be "oh running kit please."

The Half-Marathon Has Begun

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an aspiring runner in possession of a goal, must be in want of a few races to run.  And so it is that having run two 10K races this year I have signed up to run the Georgia half-marathon next March.

As some of you will know I ran my first race in February; I trained hard and ran a very respectable time of 1:10.  OK Mr Lapin (aka The Fitter One) verily sprinted away once the race began; but I remember having a lovely race, running around parts of Bangkok; across bridges and through old parts of the city.  I vowed then and there that 10K was going to be 'my' race.  It was a doable distance.  One that didn't necessarily demand too much of my time or a single minded and focused training plan.  It was a distance I could work towards running in under 60mins.

Hills, Thrills and the American Way

Well how y'all doin'?   Welcome to Hotlanta! You're gonna' have to get a car.

Mr Lapin and I have been in the United States for two months now, Atlanta to be precise.  The last couple of weeks in Bangkok were so incredibly stressful that I had just about enough time in the day to get the relocating stuff done let alone trying to contemplate running.

Needless to say I arrived in a very hilly city very unfit.  I am not kidding the first few weeks here it seemed that whatever direction I was walking in I was always walking up hill.  Big hills. I am beginning to think this is why everyone drives.  Oh, my legs ached and my heart thumped.  I huffed and puffed and thought how the hell am I going to be able to run these hilly streets?

The solution was to get all American and take my 'sneakers' to work so that I could join my ladies walking at lunch time.  Now don't be fooled, when I say walking I am not talking about a gentle lunch time stroll to 'stretch the legs'.  I am talking FAST walking.

Bangkok: It's been nice but now it is time to go.

Things I will miss when I go:

1. Life on the streets:  Bangkok is one of the most vibrant cities there is.  Everything happens on the pavements here.  Food stalls and market stalls.  Motorbike taxis idle while waiting for fares.  Dogs, cats and people jostle for space.
2. The eternal sunshine: Pretty much every day for 12 months of the year the sun shines.  Even when it doesn't it is only cloudy for a while.  It is perpetually sunny in this country and that is nice.
3. The colours:  Thailand is full of colour.  Perhaps it is the Buddhism, perhaps it is the perpetual sunshine, but people wear colours with abandon. 
4. Double think:  The concept that allows people to hold two opposing ideas and treat them as equal.  This means that you can be the  President o
   f a major Thai corporation and still visit the fortune teller to ensure that you do important things on auspicious days.

Blogging: It's a bit like bank statements

While speaking to my mother the other night she gently chided that I had not posted anything on this site since 27 May and she was left to tracking me through my twitter feed and the photographs of what I ate.  I proffered such excuses as "been really busy", "never quite got back into the rhythm after injuring my foot" and my killer "well I am trying to relocate myself and Mr Lapin to the other side of the world in four weeks time".  All of which are true but it got me thinking about why something I started (running and writing) as a way of relaxing and opening up my horizons has become quite quickly the first thing I drop when life piles up.

The low-fat foodie

I like my food.  As Mr Lapin will attest I enjoy great food with a glass of good wine - the latter unfortunately difficult to get here in Thailand. And while I like to think I eat well my recent medical showed to the contrary and that I need to become more focused about what I eat, erring perhaps on the side of the low-fat end of the dietary scale.

At the same time as my Doctor suggesting I go low-fat, he did remind me that I am still out gunning the bad cholesterol with high good cholesterol numbers - this I put down to regular running, olive oil and garlic.  For the last two, I thank my mum who brought us up on what is now termed a Mediterranean diet, but to her was just how you cooked and ate food. Lots of vegetables, garlic and herbs, fish and olive oil. So eating well for me is not about a radical change of life long habits but is about becoming more intentional on what I cook and how much I am eating.

Being lapped by a Lady Boy...

My first week back to picking up running seriously again went pretty well; as did the dive into exploring a more low-fat diet.  Now I am not going to sit here and boast that all was a cracking success.  A month off running and in fact any training of any kind whatsoever clearly revealed itself to me within the first ½ km of my Monday evening run.  It was hot - I know, I know a reoccurring theme that I am sure you are getting fed up with.  But in the absence of any comment available to me about the terrain or even changing weather patterns you just have to give me the one constant to my running at the moment – it is hot here, hot and humid and about 35C.

Heath Warnings Now Apply

As most of you know I turned 40 last year, I began to run, found I really liked it, ran my first (and so far only) 10k and have been on the fitness motorway ever since.  Since turning 40 I have also started to consider my health a lot more seriously, as in, which parts of me are likely to fall to bits over the next few years, and which bits of me should I start to get checked out on a regular basis?

The past year of self-monitoring has not yielded any useful information other than me wondering whether the slight ache in my wrist meant something other than a side effect of having slept on it awkwardly.  The past year has however seen me become more intentional with nutrition, supporting my diet with vitamins and other supplements as well as trying to understand the best approach to sustaining a healthy lifestyle despite constant travel with the associated hotels and restaurant food that goes with business trips.

Runners strife

As you know I am currently in London enjoying the cold spring weather and the tree blossom that is starting to burst.  The cool weather has prompted me to dive back into regular runs and on Tuesday I ran my fastest 5k ever - 27 minutes.  It was 27 minutes of pure joy running through Kensington Gardens; the morning sun low in the sky that made running past an iron fence like dancing in a disco with a strobe light.

The park was full of other early morning runners, walkers and their dogs and cyclists making their way to work.  A London park is so utterly different to a Thai one that I had to remember to keep running and not stop with the shock of seeing a park being used rather than revered.  Sometimes Thai parks want to make you feel grateful for being allowed in them - not always, but sometimes.

Some of my favourite places

Not running today but I have just got back to London for a short trip home for Easter.  So as I am feeling a little whimsical I thought I would share some of my favourite places that have nothing to do with running.

I don't consider myself particularly sentimental but the following have a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons.

The Palm House, Sefton Park Liverpool

I first visited Liverpool in 1997 with my boyfriend (now Mr Lapin). As a  proud Liverpudlian he was keen to take be me back to visit his childhood and spiritual home.  So one cold winter's night I found myself on the last train heading north from London taking a circuitous route via Manchester finally alighting at Liverpool Lime Street.  And there he was, Mr Lapin, just before midnight waiting for me on the platform.

Too Hot to Run?

I have been contemplating this question for the past week - is it ever too hot to run?  I am not talking about the Olympic marathons runners or those who take part in endurance races in the desert, but I am talking about runners like me who are just starting out or those that run shorter races most weekends.

Here in Thailand the hot season has suddenly ramped itself up and last week saw the temperature hit around 37C (falling only slightly to 35C in the evening).  Along with the rising mercury the humidity has also been going up.  The combination has made my last three outside runs feel as though I am running in a sauna or at any rate having to fight my way through something heavy that is trying to drag me backwards.  The air has been thick and sultry and most certainly tropical.  And while this is to be expected in April in Bangkok it has made me wonder whether it is ever too hot to run outside?

Flooding not Running

A couple of weeks ago I cancelled my evening run (I know I was complaining in the previous post about my lack of running time - but I'm human what can I say?)  Instead Mr Lapin and I made hasty arrangements to meet at Siam Paragon, a gargantuan monument to high end materialistic consumerism that is all the rage in Thailand, to go and see John Carter at the pictures.  Despite us both loving films we seldom manage to get ourselves to the cinema so this was a treat for us.  We splurged the extra Baht and paid for the luxury screen which seemed to enable us to watch John Carter on Layzboys.

All was going well, we had time to spare so we headed to the bookshop to browse before the film.  Then my mobile rang, it was our neighbour with the words "you have to come home now, your flat is flooding." What the f%*k?

Running hills and the hamster wheel

A few weeks ago I found myself in Atlanta, Georgia for a conference.  It proved a good time for catching up with dispersed work colleagues and all of us valuing the face to face time that is all too rare in the budget tight world of an NGO.

One of the great things about being in the United States is that this is where (modern recreational) running was born.  I mean the ‘jogger’ came from America. While the rest of us in Europe looked dismissively at those crazy Americans and their running.  Those crazy Americans had discovered something that the rest of us would soon catch on to – running is fun.  Seriously, it is.