The Organic Climber – Blogging about climbing, RAW foods, vegetarianism, running and cycling.

Last night I was running the Cowtown Half Marathon, but something was strange. I was running with my Patagonia puffy down jacked, but even more odd, I was carrying my sister’s little annoying chihuahua named Daisy. I hate this do, so I have no idea why I was running with her. But, along the way I realized I was running by my house and I could quickly run by, ditch the dog and take off the jacket that was making me hot.

As I approached the front door of my house I realized I didn’t have the key. I thought about just ditching the jacket on the front porch but then remembered I had that annoying dog taking residents in my coat. So, I ran to the back door to find my spare key, quickly unlocked the door, tossed the dog inside along with my coat and was back on course as quickly as I could get there.

I had lost way more time than I wanted to though by the drop-off. I began to wonder if I was going to even meet my goal. To make this matter even more difficult I had to stop along the way during the race to talk to a friend. As we sat chatting I saw the pack of runners start to dwindle to the point there was nobody else running. Looking at my watch I saw that time was slipping away, so I referenced my GPS which appeared out of nowhere and had the course map on it, but the screen kept doing funny things and I couldn’t figure out how far I had run or how much further I had to go.

At this point I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to meet my goal but knew I still had to finish the race. As I began making my way up a large hill from the place I was meeting with a friend I noticed there was no longer any road closures ahead and that people that had been watching the race were heading back to their cars. Now traffic was another hindrance to my progress in the race. I was extremely frustrated and couldn’t understand why so many things were keeping me from running.

The bright side of the race though was the sky’s were completely clear, the sun was shining and the temperatures mild. It was a perfect day for running. I even wore my large aviator style sun glasses which I always feel a tad bit goofy wearing when participating in sports. I would much rather be wearing a cool stylish pair of Oakly Flak Jackets. It was around this time that reality kicked in… I woke up. Ahh, thank God it was all just a dream. My first ever dream about running, and bad one at that. I have had numerous climbing dreams which are ironically usually always bad, not a horrific type bad but just things you would never want to happen in real life.

This all makes me wonder, does carb loading cause bad dreams? Perhaps it does, but possibly no more than cutting carbs out completely as this article suggest about people on the Atkins diet. I recently read that carbs increase your serotonin levels, which also helps you stay asleep, I can see since eating mostly all raw the past few days I have slept better. There could be some sort of link here, but not likely. I guess it’s just race anxiety. Fellow Twitterer @jldrunner also had a “bad” running dream last night as well.

Today I will be truly carb loading though, eating more than twice the amount of fruit I ate yesterday. It should be interesting to see if any more crazy dreams occur tonight as a result of the increase intake, but even then it would be hard to determine if that was the cause. I have always been interested though in what causes dreams and what things we consume that contributes to them. I would be interested to know more. So, if anybody is aware of any studies published out there in the world wide web please share them below in the comments.

Anyway, happy carb loading to all you runners out there racing tomorrow, and to all you climbers I hope the weather is nice to you. Oh, and try loading up on fruit the day before and during your climbs. You will be surprised how much more energy it gives you.

Uncategorized by OrganicClimber
carb loading, carbohydrates, carbs, Climbing, Cowtown Marathon, dream, dreaming, dreams, Running
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For any athlete, there are always firsts; our rights of passage of sorts. For me, last night I purchased my first “fitted” pair of shoes from Luke’s Locker near Uptown in Dallas. When I say fitted, I mean somebody who actually knows what they are talking about and sat down with me: analyzed my foot, asked me questions about my running, watched me walk and run, and then made a couple recommendations for shoes. I tried on two pairs of shoes. The first pair were Asics, and the second Brooks. Both were brands of shoes I have never owned before, but based on the professional from Luke’s this was exactly what I needed.

Both shoes felt pretty good, but the Asics GT-2150 won out. As soon as I slipped them on, I felt instant comfort compared to my old shoes. I hadn’t been running long before Twitter friend @theclimbergirl of RockClimberGirl.com offered me a discount code with END Footwear –  a now defunct shoe company. I got the shoes at the low low price of $30, regularly priced at $95. The shoe was super light and comfortable. I felt fast in them, even though I was new to the sport. Prior to that I was running in my claud hopper North Face trail shoes. So, to slip on a pair of shoes that were meant for my feet felt quite amazing.

I also recently learned from looking at the wear pattern on my old shoes that I heel strike and overpronate a bit. This was confirmed when the sales associate at Luke’s Locker was helping me out. However, I’m not sure my problems are all over. When I had started this post I had yet go to on a run in the shoes. But today, I ran 3.5 miles on an indoor track. By the time I was finished my arches were hurting, as well as the outside edge of my foot.

I’m not sure if I didn’t have them laced tight enough or not, but I have a long run scheduled for Saturday, so if the problems persist I will be returning to Luke’s Locker for further evaluation of my foot. The nice thing about Luke’s is they have a 30 day return policy on their shoes. They are more interested in getting you the right shoe than just selling you something. But one thing is for sure, my old shoes are definitely done for.

The Tweetup

The reason for my trip to Luke’s wasn’t just for shoes. I was meeting fellow running Tweeps from the DFW area at the DFW Runners Tweetup. The event was organized by The Running Couple, who also organized a small Tweetup before the start of the White Rock Marathon, which I unfortunately missed due to not being able to find parking in time.  It was nice to put Twitter handles with faces and get to actually hear them speak more than 140 characters at a time.

During the Tweetup, Luke’s educated us on how the fit people for shoes and even used several of us as an example byplacing us on a treadmill provided by Landice Fitness. It was a very educational experience, and I learned a lot about how important it is to not just find a shoe that fits, but to find a shoe that fits your running style, your personality, and falls in line with your running goals. I never knew so much went into fitting somebody for a shoe.

After the meeting at Luke’s, several of us went across the street to Snookie’s – a local pub, and continued the Tweetup there. We swapped running stories, talking about different run tracking devices and even venting about other Tweets out in the Twittersphere that seem too good to follow back other fellow runners, even when they are engaged in conversation.

It was a really fun time, and I look forward to the next meeting. Hopefully our next gathering will involve a group run. As a result of going to the Tweetup I was inspired to go ahead an run the Cowtown Marathon (half) at the end of February. Originally I was planning on running the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, but the price was becoming an issue, but seeing as how Cowtown was $25 cheaper I decided to bite the bullet and register.

The best part of this is I will now have to be more disciplined in my training. I have three weekends left to get long runs in and I plan on using every one of them. One of them will be squeezed in to a climbing trip. It shouldn’t be a problem though; I have squeezed in 9 mile runs before going climbing in the past. I just have to wake up well before everybody else.

Cross Training, Running by OrganicClimber
asics, Cowtown Marathon, END, heel strike, overpronate, Running, shoes, tweetup, twitter
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