Running in Santa Fe

Adobe home in Santa Fe, NM

After Albuquerque, I headed north to the capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe.  While Albuquerque takes your breath away at 5,300 ft above sea level, Santa Fe is located at an impressive 7,300 ft.  As a city, it is much smaller than Albuquerque, but it has a rich history, having been established by Spanish missionaries 400 years ago.  The architecture is truly unique, with the majority of the buildings being in the Adobe style of the Native Americans.  I spent two full days in Santa Fe; one skiing and one sight seeing.

Ski Santa Fe base lodge

Ski Santa Fe is located just 15 miles outside of Santa Fe's city center.  While the access road is only 15 miles, it climbs over 3,000 ft to the ski base (10,350 ft).  Ski Santa Fe is a really cute area!  They had gotten several inches of fresh snow, overnight and that morning, which made for great conditions.  However, visibility was somewhat limited while the snow was still falling, and it was COLD (especially for a person living in Austin, TX).  The base was just below 20F (-6C) and the summit was 10F (-12C) without the wind chill.  I found out afterwards that this was unseasonably cold weather for the area, and turned out to be the coldest weather for Santa Fe in well over a year.  Lucky me :)  Getting back on my skis was a lot of fun and I realized after two runs how much I missed it.

On my non-ski day, I managed a nice 7.3 mile run.  I wasn't sure where to go, so I asked the hotel concierge.  A lot of times, that doesn't work out.  The hotel staff either has no idea why I would want to run outside as opposed to on their treadmill, or they detail a 1 mile loop for me (without understanding that I would prefer something in the 5-8 mile range).  This time, however, the concierge handed me a printed and highlighted Santa Fe Running Map!  There were three unique loops, all starting from and ending at the hotel, with street names clearly printed.  The loops had multiple cut-offs with distances ranging from 2 to 7 miles.  It was fantastic!  I headed out on the 7 mile loop, which took me through the historic downtown, and then out along Canyon road, lined with art galleries and colorfully painted adobes.  This road ran next to a beautiful park and winded up towards the mountains.  It was breathtaking!  I was treated to a fantastic sunset as headed back towards downtown Santa Fe, and finished up the run with an average 8:20 min/mile pace - fantastic considering the altitude.

This time around, I definitely noticed the effects of the altitude, which left me feeling winded for the first 20 min of my run.  This part of the run was also a gradual but steady climb up the canyon.  I do think I am adjusting somewhat to the thin air here, and I'll be able to test it again on my next run in Taos, NM.

An Albuquerque Run

Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, NM

This past week, I hit my peak mileage goal (well, 1 mile short) with 59 total miles over 6 days of running.  Now, 3 weeks out from the Miracle Match Marathon, I have started my taper.  This perfectly coincides with a 9 day trip to New Mexico.  I flew from Austin to Albuquerque yesterday, and took a much needed day off from running.  In the previous two days, I had run a 7.8 mile hilly tempo run with a sub-8 minute mile pace, followed by a more relaxed, but still hilly 9.1 mile run at a sub-8:30 minute mile pace.

Channel Trail, Albuquerque, NM

So now that I am tapering and on vacation, I decided to start off this morning with a relaxed but enjoyable run.  Fortunately, I woke up to a perfectly clear, blue sky and bright sunshine.  While it was cold here (high 20s), the sunshine made up for it.  Nonetheless, it was an adjustment coming from Austin.  I had to put on running tights and a running hat for the first time in about a year.  I skipped the gloves though.  The hotel was located right along a bike trail called the Channel Trail, which runs for miles along a steep, concrete drainage channel.  The bike trail runs alongside some busy roads, but is completely separate from the traffic, which makes it ideal for an uninterrupted run.  Also, because it just keeps going for miles, it makes it really easy to head out for a run without getting lost.  The scenery wasn't great, but running in a new place is always interesting enough (the first time around) so I didn't mind.  I simply ran for an hour, 30 minutes out and then turned around.  My splits were perfectly even and I ended up covering 7 miles, just what I was hoping for.  My legs were still feeling pretty tired from previous workouts, and I felt a little winded, which I attributed to the high elevation of 5300 ft (for reference, Austin has an average elevation of 576 ft).  While I didn't feel like I could bust out a fast track session this morning, I did feel fit and had no problem holding an 8:30 pace.

Today we move North to Santa Fe and tomorrow will be a ski day.  I may not run tomorrow, but if I'm feeling good I might get a short run in.  I'll be skiing 4 of the days on the trip, so I intend to run at least the other 5 days, maybe more.

A Long Run Recap

Workout
Yesterday: 7.25 miles with Ike (7:43 pace)
Today: 22 miles in 3:01:50 (8:15 pace)

Suspension bridge across Brazos River in Waco, TX.
The Miracle Match Marathon finishes across this bridge

Today I got up and out early for a grueling long run.  Boyfriend and I are babysitting Ike, who was pretty disappointed that he didn't get to go with me.  Unfortunately for him, 22 miles is just too long, so he had to stay home.  This was my final long run in preparation for the Miracle Match Marathon in Waco, TX.  I signed up to run this race and it takes place on January 30th.  This race is only 4 years old, and is held on the same day as the very popular Houston Marathon, so expect it to be small and low-key, just how I like my marathons!

Counting today, I've had 4 good long runs leading up to this race.  Towards the end of November, I ran a 30k trail race, followed by a 20 mile training run and a 30k training run, and of course today's 22 miler.  Today's weather was cool and calm.  I ran from my apartment, 4.3 miles to Town Lake, around Town Lake with a loop of the steep Stratford Hill Rd, and 4.3 miles back to my apartment.  I was happy with the overall pace, but the last 3 miles of the run were very tough for me.  I had to take a couple walking breaks, my legs were really beat up.  I did however, seem to get a fresh wind around 21 miles, go figure.  I'm hoping that a long taper will give me the extra energy I will need on race day to power through 22 miles, and run 4.2 more.

Speaking of taper, I will have an extra long (and easy one) for this marathon.  Next Saturday, I'm headed to New Mexico for a ski trip with my parents.  I will be out of town for the next two weekends, which is why my longest run had to be 4 weeks out from the race (as opposed to the 3 I would prefer).  I will definitely be bringing running attire with me on the trip, but I know I won't be able to run as frequently or as far as I would prefer.  However, now that I live in TX, its really important to take every skiing opportunity seriously, they are few and far between.

I have been experimenting with my long run nutrition.  A cycling friend of mine mentioned he likes to take dried fruit with him in lieu of gels, bars or sports drinks.  I tried both apricots and dried apples on my run this morning and found them very palatable and (fairly) easy to digest - no harder for me than a sports gel is.  I think I'm going to explore this further for several reasons.  First, I buy dried fruit in bulk, which means that calorie for calorie, dried apricots are way cheaper than GU.  Further, I hate consuming GU without water, it makes my mouth sticky and gross, and it gets all over my hands if I'm not careful.  I didn't have either problem with the dried fruit, which surprisingly I handled well without water.

For Christmas, I received some EnduraSoak bath salts as a gift.  This product is designed to be added to a warm bath as a post-workout recovery system.  The product claims to be gentler than an ice bath but deliver the same results.  I was feeling some serious leg fatigue when I finished my run this morning, so I gave the Rosemary Peppermint salts a try.  I have tried ice baths in the past, and they are extremely effective, albeit uncomfortable, especially in the winter.  So how did the EnduraSoak compare?  At the very least, the bath smelled delicious, and being in warm water was much more comfortable than cold.  At the time, I definitely felt like I noticed the difference, and my legs were significantly less sore today than after previous long runs.  I'd like to say the product was effective, but I won't know for sure until I wake up tomorrow.

Because Ike couldn't run with me this morning, I took him for a consolation walk this evening.  It was a good excuse for me to stretch out my legs.  We practiced walking through the neighborhood off the leash.  Ike was extraordinarily well behaved, staying on the sidewalk and never going into the street without my permission.  Whenever he reached the end of the street, I told him to "wait" and he would stop and wait until I caught up to him.  He is very obedient, which makes him easy to go running, walking and hiking with.  He did get into a little scuffle with a cat, and the cat smacked him on the snout.  I don't think he'll get close enough for that to happen again :)

(Science) PhD 101

ChemE stands for chemical engineering.  I have a bachelor's of science from MIT in chemical engineering, and in September 2008 started in the Chemical engineering PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin.  I chose to pursue a PhD because I really enjoy research, and the advanced degree is a necessity for all of the permanent jobs I have considered, both academic and industrial.  I realize that the majority of my posts center around running, but today I'd like to talk about being a PhD candidate.

One thing you may not know is that the majority of science PhD candidates are paid while working towards their degree.  They receive a stipend, health insurance and tuition is paid by the department or advisor.  In return, PhD candidates perform research and/or work as teaching assistants.  The stipend amount varies significantly and depends largely on the field of study and the school.  Engineering programs tend to offer better stipends than sciences, and theoreticians usually have stipends on the low end because that area of research isn't raking in the dough.  Highly ranked programs typically offer the most competitive packages.  In ChemE, UT Austin is ranked 6th by US News and World Report, and their stipend package is particularly generous amongst the top ranked programs.

A masters of chemical engineering is a rarity and unnecessary for a PhD program.  This really throws people off; usually when someone hears I am getting a PhD they assume I already have a masters.  That is absolutely not the case for ChemE, but tends to be true for other fields like mechanical engineering.  In chemical engineering, a masters degree is pretty much unmarketable and does not come with pay increases or a different job title.  Companies routinely hire chemical engineers with bachelors and masters degrees to do the same work.  A PhD however, comes with a significant pay increase, different job title and career path.  Furthermore, admissions into a graduate program for a masters is rare.  This is largely because the masters degree is awarded for course work (i.e. you take classes), which does not have the tangible benefit to the department that research does.  I had several friends from MIT interested in doing a masters in chemical engineering.  They submitted applications to top ranked schools, and their applications were automatically switched over to the PhD program, for which they were admitted.

One of the worst questions you can ask a PhD candidate like myself is how much longer they have.  Unfortunately, I get asked this question all the time, and it makes me feel bad because the answer is not so straightforward and inevitably, I have more time left than I would like to admit.  Many people assume that, like med school or law school or business school or veterinary school, a ChemE PhD program has a set length of time associated with it, and as long as you don't fail anything, you will finish in that time frame.

In reality, graduation hinges on the ability to set forth and accomplish unique research goals.  When I started my PhD, I selected an academic advisor whose lab I work in.  With the help of my advisor, I have crafted a thesis proposal that states my novel research goals.  I then selected a thesis committee and presented my proposed research to them for approval.  This committee is made up of 5 professors; my advisor, 2 additional UT ChemE professors, 1 professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at UT and 1 professor of Chemical Engineering from MIT.  This group of experts in my field are assembled to offer me guidance and suggestions, and evaluate the merit of my work.  When I have met my research goals, I will write a dissertation or thesis document, summarizing my work.  I will provide my committee members with a copy of the dissertation and give an oral presentation of the work.  This final presentation is called a thesis defense.  At that point, the committee will be asked to sign and approve my degree.  All members of the committee need to sign for the PhD to be awarded.  The College of Engineering will then review the degree, but this is usually a formality because they almost never go against the decision of the thesis committee.

The length of time required to achieve a PhD in the sciences is highly dependent on the specific project.  The whole idea behind research is to explore uncharted territory, and with that comes a lot of roadblocks, troubleshooting and failures.  Some people get lucky and have research projects that simply take off and work well from the start.  Others get very unlucky, and work for one or two years on something that completely fails and have to start over.  Most people fall somewhere in between.  The quicker things work and the less roadblocks along the way, the sooner you get your degree.

Two additional factors are the advisor and the department.  Advisors tend to graduate all of their students in the same time frame.  Some keep their students one to two years longer than the average, while others regularly graduate students a full year less than the average.  In my department, and chemical engineering in general, the average time is five or five and a half years.  I realize this is a long time, especially compared to something like an MBA, but the averages in the sciences is typically much more than that.  Biology PhDs at some of the top schools (including MIT) routinely take seven years to complete their degrees.

At the time I am writing this post, I am two and a half years into my PhD.  My advisor is new, with no track record (I joined his group in his first year), so there is no precedent for my group.  I am hoping to graduate in the average 5 years.  Some aspects of my project are working really well and moving along at an acceptable pace.  Unfortunately, some major aspects of my project are roadblocked and progress is stalled.  I also work with mammalian cells, which grow very slowly compared to the yeast and bacteria of my colleagues.  This makes my experiments slower and time consuming.  On the other hand, I have the pleasure of manipulating the genetic engineering of human cells...how cool is that?

Holiday Running

Workout
Yesterday: 9.5 hilly miles in 8:18 min/mile
Today: 7.1 easy miles on trail, 8:19 min/mile

We are amidst the holiday season, and what an excellent time it is for running!  The weather is cooler (in the Northern hemisphere), many of us have time off from work, and with lots of holiday food going around, the extra calorie burn is helpful.  Furthermore, if you are extra nice, maybe someone will gift you with some fun new running gear. 

On Wednesday, I put my run off until the evening because boyfriend needed a ride to the airport.  I had a fair amount of work to do and couldn't get out until 5:30pm, which is when it starts getting dark these days in Austin.  I decided that if I was going to run in the dark, I would make it festive.  I drove down to Townlake and combined a 4 mile hilly loop through a posh neighborhood with a 2.8 mile loop along the river.  This was my first time running the route at night and I was pleasantly surprised!  The neighborhood was beautifully lit up with lots of twinkly lights and decorations.  I usually don't enjoy evening running as much, but this run was particularly festive and enjoyable. 

This week I am house/dog sitting for a family that lives in west Austin.  Texans refer to this part of the state as "hill country," largely because the rest of the state is so flat by comparison.  And while there are no mountains, west Austin definitely has some extreme terrain including rolling hills, ledges and ridges.  I fancied myself a pretty strong hill runner, but running out here has definitely humbled me.  Very few of the roads out here are interconnected, so there is no direction for me to run that doesn't involve ups and downs.  While it makes planning my routes rather intimidating, I am confident that a week of Texas hill running will make me much stronger. 

Happy Holidays to all, and remember to get that run in!  It will make your Christmas day that much more enjoyable.

Running Neuroses

Workout
Today: 18.6 mile long run, 2:29:29 (8:02 pace)

Sometimes I wonder whether runners, in general are neurotic, or if I am simply a neurotic person that likes running.  In the 13 years I have been a running, I have developed a lot of habits around this hobby, and over time these habits have been so fixed in their practices that they can certainly be characterized as neurotic behavior.

Contacts
In fifth grade, it was determined that I was nearsighted, which I wasn't really surprised about because both of my parents wear progressive lenses.  I got glasses, and dutifully wore them throughout the day.  When I started running, I used my glasses.  However, when I started high school, and it became clear to my parents that I would do cross country and track, they decided it was time for me to get contacts.  This was probably a good decision because the cross country courses were typically technical trails, and if my glasses moved around on my face it would make it hard for me to see.  I also skied a lot, and putting ski goggles over glasses is a real pain in the butt.  Anyways, I started wearing contacts roughly 10 years ago.  While I like my glasses and don't mind wearing them for almost any occasion, I never wear them to run.  In fact, in the past ten years, I have probably gone running in glasses less than ten times.  The idea of running without the contacts is so unthinkable to me that I have literally skipped or postponed runs because I did not have them with me.

The watch
I have previously discussed my love of the digital running watch.  I am pretty neurotic about knowing how long and how far I ran.  Frankly, I am willing to estimate the distance when necessary, but I don't like to estimate the time when I can just as easily use the handy chrono feature on my cheap-o watch and get it down to the seconds.  Fortunately, there is little risk of me forgetting my watch, because it almost never leaves my wrist (except when I need to dress up all fancy).  However, I am definitely that neurotic runner that is stopping the chrono timer at every red light, stop sign or cat that walks in front of me.  If I forget to restart the watch (which is a rarity, but has been known to happen), I agonize over how to estimate the now lost time.

The direction I run
This is by far my strongest running neurosis.  Let me explain.  I have a variety of running routes.  Many of them involve loops.  I have very strong opinions about the direction that those loops should be run.  There really isn't a standard, it isn't like its always clockwise or counter-clockwise.  Nonetheless, each loop must be run a certain way.  It's usually the same way I first run the loop, but sometimes it changes.  Further, the idea of reversing the direction on any running loop is downright atrocious to me.  For example, when I run around the golf course near me, I always go counter-clockwise.  But, when I run around Town Lake, I go clockwise.  Fortunately, I almost always run by myself, so I don't have to explain this neurotic and illogical thinking to a running partner.  Boyfriend is pretty new to running and just lets me lead, so I don't think he even notices how crazy I am about this.  Hopefully he won't read this post...

So those are the things I can think of thus far.  However, if I notice any other neurotic running behavior on my part, I'll do a part 2 post.  Finally, here is something interesting I saw this week:  I was running in the evening through a pretty ritzy neighborhood.  The streets were very residential, with big houses.  One of the houses was having a party, I assume for the holidays.  They had valet parking for their guests!!!  At their home.  Which they paid for.  So people didn't have to park their own cars.  Furthermore, parking was completely legal on the street.  It was very strange.  It always amazes me what some people do with their money.

Running and Eating

When it comes to running, I do best on an empty stomach.  A full or half-full stomach makes me feel sluggish and uncomfortable (at best), or gives me cramps and gastrointestinal distress (at worst).  This significantly complicates my running life, because after all food is fuel and fuel is important for endurance sports.  Running first thing in the morning before breakfast is definitely optimal for me and one of the major reasons that I am a morning runner.  Occasionally, though, I wake up feeling extra lazy and can't manage to do the morning running thing. I placate myself with the knowledge that after work and before dinner, I can sneak in a run.  And, of course this is definitely true, plenty of people run in the evening.  In these cases, I seem to operate well with at least 5 food-free hours before my run. Inevitably, though, I have a hard time cutting off my eating early enough to be comfortably digested.  I like snacking, and the afternoon is a perfect time for it.  I start getting mildly hungry and then I convince myself that it's fine to just have a small snack, a small snack won't hurt me, right?  Inevitably though, I head out for the run and the food is sitting in my stomach like a rock and I regret it as I mosey through my now uncomfortable run.

It wasn't always like this.  In high school, I ate lunch around 11:30am and sports practices started at 2:30pm.  Even though the time between the two was relatively short, I did just fine and I don't remember indigestion problems at all.  I would have to attribute that to two things; first, there was really no alternative option.  I had a very strict lunch break that was not adjustable, and I also had a predefined sports practice.  Further, I think my metabolism was different in my teen years.  Either way, my body adjusted and I did just fine.

Ten years later, my eating/running habits are completely different.  I have to be very careful about what I eat and when before runs.  As previously mentioned, I try to finish meals about 5 hours before a scheduled meal.  Sometimes, I do need a snack before I run (usually if the stomach is growling) or in the morning before a race.  In these cases, I have a few go-to foods.  Bananas sit pretty well for me, as do grapes.  I can also eat a few saltines or other plain crackers.  I've tried GU Chomps or GU gels with water, and those are pretty neutral on my stomach as well.  That's about as adventurous as I get.

A few days ago, I was unable to run before work and decided instead to go running in the evening.  Unfortunately, I hadn't packed a lunch that day because my advisor was buying my lab group pizza.  I had requested a vegetarian pizza, but forgot to ask for one without cheese.  I am vegetarian but not strictly vegan.  However, I have been making a conscientious effort to avoid dairy and eggs.  In the spirit of convenience, I decided to have some of the pizza.  Sadly, this turned out to be a mistake.  I hadn't had any significant amount of dairy in a while, and it definitely did not agree with me.  There was no immediate distress, but rather my stomach was generally uncomfortable for the rest of the afternoon.  I knew that I wouldn't be running for at least 5 hours after I finished eating, and I figured everything would settle down by then.  At 5:30pm, my stomach felt better and I headed out for the run.  I think the turbulent motion of running flared up the discomfort again and my stomach was pretty miserable.  I pushed through the first 29 minutes of the run and then stopped to stretch out my abdomen.  I started back up feeling slightly better, but not great.  Finally, 35 minutes into my run I had a huge burp and experienced instant relief.  Its just amazing what a burp can do :)  I finished out the run much more comfortable.  I think the lesson here, for me, is to stay away from cheese.

In other Running/Food related news, last night I hosted a Runner's Round Table episode on Vegan Running.  I was joined by podcasters Megan, Gordon and Jake and blogger Margaret.  We talked all about how veganism (and vegetarianism) relates to running, advantages and disadvantages and we each discuss why we made our own dietary/lifestyle choices.  Definitely give it a listen and let me know what you think!