I won’t give you her whole bio but her introduction to the US was a truly surreal story.  She came here in 1978 to be a rabbit (pacer) for the New York City Marathon. This was to be her running swan song as she was going to retire from the sport right after.  The portion of the race she was responsible for leading was the first 12 miles which incidentally, was the distance of the longest training run she’d ever done in her life.  Ever! And you know what that crazy gal did?  She won the damn race! And set a then-world record with a 2:32:30.  The announcers and press didn’t even know who she was when she crossed the finish  line – all they knew was her bib number!  This is the stuff fairy tales are made of.

Now I have to be honest, the book is aimed at extreme beginners, it includes a run/walk program to get sedentary folks into the running realm.  There’s also a simplistic marathon training plan but it’s as basic as they come starting at 14 miles a week and peaking at 37 with no workouts.  The whole idea of the book is to get you to finish a marathon rather than race one.

I’m not saying it’s empty reading by any means, it’s chock-full of classic information for someone who doesn’t know anything about the mysteries behind marathoning.  And like the Kara Goucher book I reviewed a few weeks ago, what I like best in this one are Grete’s personal stories and anecdotes from her running career.  She’s also got a real honesty about her; for example, she shares that she had some, er…nasty GI problems in two of her races but because it was win or lose, she had to keep going.  I have a few racer friends still trying to figure out those problems so it’s cool to see that even some Elites tackle similar troubles.

The book covers the usual areas: training, nutrition/hydration, mental, injury, shoes, the race itself and also includes some excellent candid color photos of racers in all shapes and sizes during the NYC marathon, as well as additional photos of Grete doing stretching exercises.

So my thoughts on the book are this: if you’re one of my regular blog readers, you’re most likely more advanced than the person this book is aimed for.  However, if someone you know is thinking of doing a marathon and needs a basic primer that is not technical but is fun to read and full of solid tips from an amazing marathoner, than this would make a great gift.

Not that I want to dissuade anyone from reading it, you won’t find Grete’s wonderful point of view in any other how-to marathon book, but if you’re looking to race a marathon (as in, focusing on a goal time you want to achieve), you’d be better off with Pete Pfizinger and Scott Douglas’ Advanced Marathoning.

1. It’s not a training book written by a coach – those are generally the only types of running books I read

2. I was afraid it would be the same old regurgitated stuff you can find anywhere on the Net

But no, even this cynical running webhead found it to be an entertaining and fun read with some useful tidbits.

My favorite part of the book, hands-down, are her personal accounts scattered throughout.  I loved reading about how nervous she was the first time she ever ran with Paula Radcliffe on a casual training run or when she was injured and gained 30 lbs then had to make an appearance at the Footlocker XC championships feeling like a fat cow.  Tales like that make you realize Elites go through some of the same crap we do. And of course, her progression from a gawky school girl to becoming a star marathoner is very tasty stuff,  indeed.

The book is also peppered with little femme tips/tricks that I got a kick out of, like her method with deodorant, washing hair between workouts, buying mens shoes instead of girls so you’re not stuck with the stupid colors, etc. There are also question/answers sprinkled throughout that aren’t your usual fodder, like whether having sex before a race will affect your performance (Kara’s tried it both ways and found no difference…yay sex!).

I also found some of some of the racing and mental tips she included to be genuinely useful.  There’s something about reading a great athlete’s personal handling of different elements within running and racing that transcends the generic “Runners should do x, y and z”.

Granted, the general training stuff in this book is geared towards less-advanced runners but the way it’s written, in short paragraph chunks, makes for easily-digestible reading without too much time spent talking about the basics.

So while it’s not at all in the same league as a true training book like Jack Daniel’s Running Formula or Brad Hudson’s Run Faster, Kara’s personal anecdotes and useful tips/advice make this an entertaining read and a worthy purchase for your running shelf.

Before I went out, I reread portions of Daniels’ Running Formula online (thanks to the ole Electronic Resources my library offers). The first thing I wanted to check on was warmups, since I am forever stuck in the beginning runner’s head of “if I do too much warmup, won’t that steal from my remaining energy and make me tired sooner?” but as I read the pages on warming up, I started to see the light. Especially when he asks (paraphrasing here) that when you do intervals, don’t you usually feel better after the 2nd or third one? Why yes, Jack Daniels, I do!

So today, instead of doing my usual one-mile warmup for tempo and then bing, jumping into tempo pace, I did a two mile warmup with the last mile gradually speeding up, so the tempo pace was less of a shock to the system. Very good, I liked it.

Tempo over and it’s time to implement another Daniels suggestion, adding in strides during cooldown.

Now, reading that I thought, “What the?? I’m going to be too pooped to do strides, not to mention I’ll have done that extra warmup mile so I’ll probably be super-pooped right there”, but no – ole Dr. Daniels knows his stuff. The strides actually “woke me up” during the cooldown, gave my legs a little energy back. Seems totally antithetical but there you have it.

So I’m feeling happy and strong right now, so much so that I finally ordered Daniels’ Running Formula from Amazon because it’s really the last important running book missing from my library and nothing beats a hard copy. I also ordered Running Within, less life and death but worthy of owning and more importantly, it qualified me for free shipping.

Next on the agenda? Taking a stroll to Whole Foods to buy some good rolls…we’re grilling hamburgers tonight. Spring is in the air!

So what was different? Well, this morning I partook of my local Library’s electronic resources and read a cool book online, “Running Within” by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott. It’s about the mental aspects of running, stuff that usually has me rolling my eyes this way and that, because I suck at visualization and affirmation-type stuff, cynical wench that I am.

But this book had some points that grabbed me immediately, especially since I’ve been honing my skills at negative self-talk for a while now; during races, on training runs, pretty much wherever I can practice a hit of demoralization, I have been.

Apparently though, I have the power to stop it, and today, I did. Using one of the suggestions in the book, to write all the crappy stuff you say to yourself and turn it around into a positive affirmation using the present tense, I saw in black and white what I’ve been saying to myself…sheesh!

So, taking one of my bon mots, “I’ve stopped improving”, I wrote down this affirmation, “I’m a baby in this sport and have years of dropping times ahead of me.” Another one was “My posture sucks” which I responded with, “My form is strong and beautiful.”

No, I didn’t rhyme the affirmations the way the author suggests, because there’s a limit to my sense of irony, but what I came up with feels like something I can work with.

I must say, the book is extremely uplifting and makes you realize the dirt you tell yourself is just that, dirt. So today I was going to be running in my most hated weather, heavy wind. That in mind, I traded the message, “I hate the wind” with “I cut through wind like a knife.” And you know what? I did! OK, so maybe a 118 lb. butter knife, but it felt good, all the same.

Sure, it’s all mental, but isn’t that a gazillion percentage of running anyway? And as I was being pushed backwards on one stretch by the river today, I had a smile that would not stop. I felt strong and healthy and despite the hold the wind had on me, I knew it was a gust that would end and I’d be forward bound in no time. Not only did that hold true, but I had a really fast time for the run overall!

Here’s another happy thing that went on during today’s run: I’m an allergy sufferer and have been using Flonase (not because of it’s ultra-fabu name, but because my doctor recommended it). I’ve been bad with it, and not using it regularly because it seemed to lose it’s magic.

Then I saw an ad for a free trial of Veramyst which is kind of the same thing, but not exactly. This stuff rocks! I actually ran for a lot of my run today breathing through my nose, just because I could. So if you’re an allergy sufferer, go to the Veramyst site, they’ll send you a coupon for your first prescription for free (full-size even – $73 worth!).

One more deal; if any of you have Comcast and have had it for a while, call them and tell them Direct TV has been sending you offers that make you want to switch. Nick did it yesterday and within one minute, he got a “customer retention” deal that gives us Showtime, Encore, Starz and whatever else is left (we already had HBO) for $40 less than he was paying. Brain rot, here we come…

Meanwhile, it’s been hanging around for days, but diminished to almost nothing while sitting. Instead, it’s begun to infiltrate my runs, though not during the meat of the run or fast stuff – just during slow cooldown miles.

So today I go out for a recovery jog and get the cramp almost from the start (and I was doing 10min/miles!). I suffered through the run for about 4 miles trying everything: bending, straightening, exhaling on the left footfall, raising my arm, pressing the area, stopping entirely (temporary fix), but nothing was working.

Then I tried something that I must have hinted at during the “exhale on the left foot” attempt…I started forcefully exhaling to the point where I could hear the air huff out of me, like some weird Lamaze class. And in no time at all, I felt the cramp subside till it was gone entirely. That was the first light bulb. But wait, there’s more!

For just three easy payments of $19.95… No seriously, there is more.

Because remember in my 10K report, I mentioned how I was gasping for air and embarrassed by the sound? Well, today I realized that by accentuating the exhale, the inhale takes care of itself and gasping is no longer an option! It’s not physically possible.

So I get back from my run and immediately go on the net, finding an article from a book that explains this stuff perfectly. Took me a minute to realize I already own this book! It’s Programmed to Run by Thomas Miller. I bought it for tips on running form, totally ignoring the section on breath. That’ll teach me to read selectively.

Anyway, here’s the article, and a telling paragraph:

The next opportunity you have to watch a roadrace, observe the breathing techniques of the frontrunners, the midpackers, and the tail-enders as they near the finish line. Typically, the leaders breathe with short, forceful exhales and quiet inhales. The midpackers begin to gasp as they start their drive to the finish. These runners suck in harder as they try to breathe more deeply. Finally, the slowest runners often don’t change their effort or breathing at all.

Looks like I’ve got some experimenting to do on tomorrow’s run. And if it works like I think it will, I may or may not have my fastest 5K this Saturday, but it will certainly be my quietest!