A Guide to Ladies Night

The infamous Trak Shak Ladies Night is tomorrow night from 6 until YOU QUIT SHOPPING!!! I was thinking on my run this morning that I need to publish a “Trak Shak Ladies Night Guide”! Whether this is your first Ladies Night or you’ve been to them all, the guide will surely help!
1. I’d like to preemptively answer some common questions. No, we do not RSVP for this event. We want as many ladies in the store as we can get!! For you super, super bargain shoppers, NO you may not get your BTC, Vulcan Tri, Team Magic discount in addition to the already SWEET 20% OFF YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE (of regularly priced items) LADIES NIGHT DISCOUNT!! We’re discounting the stuff, not giving it away! HA! Lastly, NO you may not put something on hold on Wednesday night to wait to purchase on Thursday night. I know that sounds strict, but our hold shelf only has so much room, and it stresses our manager out as it fills up!
2. Obviously, the best thing about Ladies Night, other than the guys in skirts, is the 20% OFF YOUR ENTIRE PURCHASE of regularly priced items. Other than Mercedes Marathon weekend, this is the only time our shoes are discounted this much! Even if you don’t need shoes, I’d recommend considering it!
3. New this year! We’re adding a Sidewalk Sale!! There will be quite a bit of apparel and quite a few shoes outside that will have extra special discounts!! I’d recommend arriving at 6 on the dot if you want to catch the extra special deals!
4. GIVEAWAYS!!!! We’re going to have a table set up with a bucket to throw your name into, from which we will be drawing for prizes at 7 PM!! What can you win? We’re giving away 2 pairs of Mizuno shoes ($100 value) and a Timex watch ($69.95 value). I’m sure, in the next 24 hours, we’ll come up with some other stuff to just giveaway without having a drawing, so be ready for key chains, caps and t-shirts!
5. Look for our Newton Running rep and Alektra Sportwear owner, Angela to chat about their products! 
6. If you can’t make it, try to get by our 280 or Trussville locations during the day, where we will be celebrating Ladies Day!! It’s the same discounts without the booze, raffle and food!
Well, that’ll about do it! If you’re sitting in front of your computer thinking “I don’t really need anything” remember this! Christmas is right around the corner!!! Sadly, I was reminded of that this past weekend after seeing some Christmas stuff already up in the stores! It’s the perfect opportunity to shop for that running brother, husband, girl friend, son, daughter, and…you get it! Also, this year’s attractions include a couple of bearded ladies, which is obviously a must see!!! We can’t wait to see you here!!!

An Old Dog Remembering Old Tricks

A couple of weeks ago, Vestavia Hills Country Club was nice enough to ask me to come out and participate in their first Lunch and Learn session. It was VERY cool! Basically, I got an excellent free lunch to do what I do everyday, talk about running!! During the Q&A, a member, who happens to be a friend of mine, asks about proper running form. He’s noticed over the past few years, after watching folks in his running group and in races, everybody’s form seems to be different. So how does one know when they have proper form? It seems I’ve become rather complacent when asked this question. I answered with, what has become my default response, “You run how you run.”, and added a few tips. For some reason, that answer  really bugged me though! I couldn’t quit thinking about it after the session!!  
Coincidentally, the following week, Newton Running was at our Wednesday Night Run. The reps brought a bunch of shoes to try out on the run AND their running form expert, Ian Adamson. Ian spoke at the run and then put on a running form clinic on Thursday morning. It was about 5 steps into the high knee drills  when I realized, I REMEMBER THIS and I really need to work on my answer to our customers’ “how do I run” question!!
Back in the day, after virtually every easy run, our team would venture over to the practice football field and do a series of drills that included strides, high knees, butt kicks, bounds and my personal favorite, The Karaoke. Back then, drills just seemed like something I had to get through before hitting the ice bath. NOW, after going through them with Ian and the Newton boys, I realize not only how weak I am, especially in my core, but how much they actually help with running form!
SO, here’s the new answer! Obviously, if you are a long time runner, out of habit and muscle memory, you’ve developed a form, and if it’s working, who am I to tell you to change! However, if you are new to running, have been running forever and can’t seem to get rid of a nagging injury, or want to improve your times, add these drills to your running regimen! I know it will help!! Oh yeah, for a full demonstration, please see Scott at The Trak Shak Homewood!

8 is the new 7!

While on a 4 mile run this past Sunday, I was thinking about an Evite I received for a friend’s 40th birthday party which read, “40 is the new 20!”. I was thinking of the correlation of age to pace. You see when I was 20, 7 minute pace was the easy pace. On days between workouts and races, we’d take off on a run, and 7 minute pace just seemed to be where we could stay comfortably forever! Now that I’m approaching 40, (I turn 37 next month, in case you were wondering) 7 minute pace ain’t so easy anymore! So, I’ve decided to tweak my “training” a bit. “Training” is in quotations because I’m not technically training since there really aren’t any workouts, long runs, or goal races. None the less, I’m making 8 minute pace my new 7 minute pace!

After finishing the aforementioned 4 mile run on Sunday, I was shot! Granted, I’ve only been back from injury for about 4 weeks AND that 4 mile run was my longest, I still felt a lot worse than expected. After going through every excuse in my mind, dehydration, 99% humidity, a run-in with a Copperhead, it wasn’t til I plugged my Nike GPS Sportwatch (available for $199 at all The Trak Shak locations) I realized I ran faster than I have been. The first mile was around 7:30 and the rest were all around 7:00 and under. As I thought back further to the training for Mercedes Half and Talladega, I realized all of my runs were close to 7:00 pace! With the lack of speed work and long runs, that’s pretty much race pace, and race pace all the time just ain’t good!

Here’s my training adjustment and what I’d recommend, especially for you guys trying to qualify for Boston or run a PR in the next local 5K. Throw some easy days in there!! Let’s say you’re training for Mercedes Half and your goal time is 2 hours, which is 9:16 pace. Pick two days a week when you’ll run 9:16 or faster and the rest at 10:00 pace or slower, including the long run.

HAPPY TRAILS!

This is how I roll!

It was about my 10th week of running in college when I developed my first running injury! Apparently, when one goes from running about 20 miles a week to running 80 miles a week in 5 weeks, they will develop IT band syndrome! Who knew?! I was freaked out!!!! It felt like I couldn’t bend my knee and the side of my leg was on fire. I went to see a couple of docs recommended by our athletic trainer, and it seemed their only solution was some strength exercises, a shot of cortisone and/or surgery. I did the strength, stretching, pool running and swimming with no success for 4 weeks. Coincidentally, those 4 weeks are when I developed my hatred for swimming and pool running!

FINALLY, my assistant coach at the time, Scotty Strand, mentioned a massage therapist he’d been visiting consistently for a while and maybe I should go for a visit. Why it took 3 and a half weeks to divulge that information, I’m not sure! Scott also mentioned he wanted to go with me once I made the appointment. I wasn’t really sure the reason behind his eagerness to come with, but it didn’t take long to figure it out. Ole Ron asked me to lay on my side and handed me a towel. I said, “What’s the towel for?”! Both Scott and Ron smiled as Ron proceeded to dig into my right IT band! THE most painful 30 minutes of my life followed, and as promised, I figured out the towel was to clinch between my teeth!! Oh yeah, and Scott came along to sit in the corner and laugh at me!

That was a Monday. On Tuesday, I woke up to go try to do my morning run, which had ended at about 1 mile on the previous attempts. Other than a bit of soreness, my IT band didn’t flare up, my knee didn’t lock up, and I was able too complete my 4 mile morning run! Not only that, I competed in our conference cross country meet the following Saturday, with no pain! Well, no IT band pain anyway!

My point to that story, it was the first time I realized the benefit of massage therapy for athletes, and attending massage therapy school after college only further reinforced that fact! While in massage therapy school not only did I get the added benefit of weekly massages for education sake, I also had to seek out volunteers to work on to complete the necessary “body work” hours in order to graduate. My volunteers of course were runners, which gave me a “hands on” (pun intended) view of how massage improved performance, prevented injury, and aided in recovery.

Now, if you’re like me, you can’t afford a weekly massage appointment. To remedy this issue, over the past few years, quite a few tools have hit the market to allow any individual to basically give themselves a massage. The two I like the most are The Stick and the foam roller. To give each a poor description. The Stick is pretty much a modified rolling pin made of strong plastic with ergonomic handles and segmented spindles over the shaft to independently roll over muscle. The foam roller is a large cylinder made of foam, and that’s it. They both sound pretty simple, and we’re all saying to ourselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?”! The basic premise for each is to roll over muscles to massage.

My favorite is the Stick! We carry two at our stores, the Sprinter Stick and the Marathon Stick. I recommend the Sprinter Stick to those who like deep tissue massage and the Marathon Stick to those who prefer a more sensitive massage. I prefer The Stick because I can use it to target smaller muscle groups and can manipulate it better to increase or decrease pressure. It works especially well on calves, Achilles tendons, and you can lay it on the ground to roll your feet over to loosen up plantar fascia tendons. You can also use it on neck and shoulder muscles, an often forgotten and tight area on runners who tend to tense up and lift their shoulders while running.

Honestly, I’ve just started using the foam roller! Mainly, because I’m lazy and don’t necessarily enjoy having to get into different “poses” to stretch or massage! That being said, it is by far the best tool to help work on IT bands, hamstrings, quads, glutes and TFL’s (look that one up).  Click HERE to see a really good demonstration on how it works. The idea is to use your body weight to apply pressure and to roll back and forth to massage any particular muscle group.

OK, so when do you use them? Before, after, during, it doesn’t really matter! The basic affects of massage are to loosen up muscle fibers and stimulate blood flow, both of which help warm up muscles before a workout, prevent tightness during a workout, and flush lactic acid after a workout. I am definitely not saying to forget about going to see a professional from time to time, but in the meantime, The Stick and foam roller are very useful in enhancing performance and recovering from hard, long workouts or injury! 

High Quantity H2O

I know a lot of you are right smack in the middle of your fall marathon training, which means, to most, you just have to follow that training schedule to a “T”. I know! I did it a few years back for the Chicago Marathon. Yeah, that ONE! The one where they ran out of water and shut it down with the majority left with at least 10 miles to run! Needless to say, I learned a few things training that year, AND I especially learned some things that glorious Sunday! I figured the hottest week of the year would be a perfect time to share.

Everybody has heard time and time again, you have to stay hydrated, but what does that mean? It is recommended by most docs to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day. You have to ask yourself though, who are the docs recommending that amount to? Well, I’ll tell you who it ain’t! It ain’t the runner/walker hitting the streets every morning, much less the marathon trainer in Alabama in August! So, I’ll say for you pavement pounders, 64 ounces is the bare minimum!

Now, here’s where it gets a little tricky! You can drink too much water!! If you continue to drink water after filling full, you basically are flushing your system of essential electrolytes, that not only help you retain water, but also aid in muscle and organ function. What I tell most of our customers is to mix your favorite electrolyte drink in with your daily water intake. So, try to make about 20 to 30 percent of your daily fluid intake blue Powerade, my favorite! I learned this valuable lesson on the aforementioned “glorious Sunday”!! I’ve known FOREVER not to “over hydrate”. I don’t know if it was the constant heat advisories at the marathon expo or the adrenaline that clouded my judgment, but either way, drinking probably 2 gallons of water and maybe half a Powerade the day before was a bad idea. As a result of flushing my system, I had a cramp (I describe it as one cramp because in the moment it just felt like one big, bad one) that started in both feet and went all the way through my legs into my lower back! I couldn’t move! I just stood at mile 16 wondering how I was going to get back to the hotel!

I pretty much drink three things, coffee, water and beer. I mention this because two of those drinks pretty much negate the other one. Coffee and beer contain the diuretics caffeine and alcohol. They tell your brain to get rid of water, which means if you consume those beverages, you have to take that in to account when deciding how much to hydrate. Don’t get all snippy!! I’m not telling you to lay off the tap at The Trak Shak on Wednesday night! Just drink more water!

Stress Fracture?

OK! I’ll admit it! I’m possibly the worst blogger ever! Along with suffering from a stress fracture, I’ve been suffering from a rare form of writer’s block called BITTERNESS! When last we blogged, it was April, I had just run the Dega Half and discovered that I had a stress fracture in my lower right shin, so as promised, here’s my “Stress Fracture” story!

A little history first. I didn’t have very many injuries in college. In fact, I only missed two races due to injury, but my right shin pretty much always hurt. Call it being a little tougher, dumber or just simply 45 pounds lighter, I could always run through it. A little massage here and some ice there, and I was good. Looking back though, I think all the miles with that pain has lead to a weak area chronically on the verge of what’s commonly known as a stress response. If I ignore it, it turns into a fracture.

This is my 3rd diagnosed fracture in the exact same spot, so I pretty much knew what to expect when I took the bone scan results back to the doc. The initial treatment was at least 8 weeks in a boot and to use crutches as much as possible.  What I was hoping to NOT hear come out of her mouth after “distal third, medial tibial stress fracture and wear the boot” was “SWIM”!!! Low and behold, no weight bearing exercises, including cycling. Go get in a pool somewhere. AHHH!!!!

You’ve all seen those clever high school track team t-shirts that say “My sport is your sport’s punishment”. That is exactly how I feel about swimming!! I like to be outside! I like to be able to talk when I’m training! I like to breath when I want to breath! I like wearing shoes! AND there is NO WAY I look good wearing nothing but tights and goggles! All of that being said, you gotta do what ya gotta do! Luckily, the only time I could go swim was at 5 AM and no one else was ever in the pool when I was there.

Cross training adventure part 2 started at 12 weeks when I got the go ahead to get on the indoor bike. I used to ride a ton, but I’ve never ridden indoors, much less attended a spin class. I think I’ve always had this stereotypical view of some spin Nazi chick at the front of the class yelling in drill sergeant fashion “QUIT BEING A WHIMP!” at everyone. My wife loves it though, so I knew that wasn’t the case. She did make it sound like I may have to actually fight someone for a bike though. Needless to say, I was feeling a little squeamish about my first class. Of course, it wasn’t bad at all, except for that burning in my chest I’ve heard heart attack victims use to describe their near death experience! In fact, I kind of like spin! It helped me answer a question that has long perplexed me. “What is the purpose of this Linkin Park music?”

The picture above is a result of my BITTERNESS! It’s been 16 weeks! I did run twice last week, but both were less than 2 miles, hardly at a pace I call “running” and the worst of it, my shin still hurts pretty bad. It looks like it’s going to be a long road back, but I ain’t gonna give up! I’m trying a few new things with different shoes and orthotics, but the biggest thing, I’m really working on my lower leg, foot and core strength, but that’s a story for another day. I’ll be back out there! Just wait!!

DEGA BABY!!

That’s right! Pictured above, is an RV, behind my son, Max, on a rolling giraffe, and the Martinez home for the Saturday night before Talladega Half Marathon! I know the race director fairly well, and she was nice enough to rent the “Queen Sized” RV for us and get permission to camp out behind the pit garage! We arrived around 2 PM on Saturday and stopped by packet pick up to see four gracious volunteers manning the tent with Corona Lights in hand and a curious picture of a familiar face (Julia) taped to a tent post front and center! Apparently, “Julia” was the complaint department!
Other than the huge grand stands and the blowing flags, two things reminded me I’m at Talladega almost immediately. First, the curmudgeonly gate keeper at the guard shack of the main entrance. Three years ago, when we ventured to the track to measure the half marathon course, the very same guard, who’s name escapes me, didn’t seem to be too happy with our presence. He had the same demeanor on Saturday afternoon! Second, the roar of pistons pushed to their limits echoed around the track as we parked in front of our “mobile home”. I’ve now visited the track at Talladega a total of five times, twice of which were to attend actual car races. I will admit, I am no NASCAR fan, but the first time you see 40 cars traveling at close to 200 miles per hour around that track, you can NOT help but be amazed! That day, the Dale Jarrett racing adventure was in session, so we got a very small taste of “racin’”! Max loved it!
After helping with the half marathon course set up, which included Clark and I dragging coolers full of water bottles with a golf cart to the finish line, the tail gaiting commenced! Corralled by 6 RV’s, the tail gaiting area included a gas grill large enough for 100 hot dogs and burgers, a fire pit, two coffin sized coolers full of your favorite cold beverages, and a projection screen set up to broadcast the Kentucky vs. UConn Final Four matchup! Needless to say, it was a good time! The clock struck 11, and I snuck into our recreational vehicle’s door past a zonked out Max in a pack n’ play, into the “queen” sized “bed” (note my overuse of quotations) in the very back.
2:30 AM! We awake to Max calling out MOMMA, MOMMA! WHO KNEW! My son didn’t take a liking to sleeping in a home on wheels with a gas powered generator running all night! It was pretty much play time for him for the better part of the next 4 hours! OH YEAH, did I forget to mention in this running related blog entry that I was participating in the Talladega Half Marathon on Sunday morning? My bad!
7:00 AM! I jogged around with eventual winner Scott to warm up, wake up, whatever you want to call it! The one responsibility I had, other than to make it to the start, was to deliver an iPod full of tunes to the race coordinators to play over the enormous sound system during the race. I will take this opportunity to apologize to Audrey, Martha, and Kathleen for my grouchiness. Apparently, little sleep and no coffee equal grumpy pants!
7:30 AM! The race starts under pristine conditions! We pass by the finish line where Audrey, the race MC and one of the witnesses of grumpy pants, actually called me “Grumpy Pants” over the sound system that can be heard from space! It’s around turns 1 and 2 when the enormity of the track is realized, and, FYI, the point at which I was offered my first beer! NO! I didn’t partake, but thanks BTC and Hashers! We’d almost completed 2 miles as you exit the track just before turn 3. The course then winds around the apron of turn 4 where you can look down and witness what a 36 degree grade actually looks like!
7:58 AM! I only know the time because 7 minute pace seemed to be the comfort zone for the first 4 miles. My friend Chappy says, “We can run faster than 7 minute pace!” After little sleep, no coffee, and this little pain in my right shin, which I will cover in my next blog entry entitled “Stress Fracture?”, I was really comfortable at 7 minute pace, but what the hey! 6:30’s and 45’s took us through the next few miles. After running off the Talladega Superspeedway grounds, we reentered under the Gadsden Tower of the grandstands. It was a great break from the sun!
To make a long story short, the pace stayed pretty steady over the apron of turns 1 and 2, through the Allison Grandstands, and around to the tunnels to enter the infield. Then, the wheels came off! I was just begging for the finish line from then on! We got back on the track just before mile 11, where once again I was offered a beer, which I refused. My apologies to the BTC and Hashers! As an ex-track athlete, I kept thinking “just one more lap”, but for some reason 2.1 miles kept creeping back into my head! I limped across the finish line in 1:28! Now, on the positive, that time was 3 minutes faster than Mercedes! Now, on the negative, I was limping and didn’t feel all that great! I think no break from running since October had taken it’s toll! The best thing, Lena and Max were there waiting on me at the finish!
I cannot thank the volunteers, the directors and the guys who run the Superspeedway enough! The Talladega Half Marathon is by far the most unique race I have ever run! If you’re thinking of taking a tour of the Superspeedway, I’d recommend taking the “running” tour and enter next year’s Talladega Half Marathon!