Ups and downs

I seem to be in a “motivational trough” at the moment. The week after my last post, I went up to Goma for a meeting and while I was there, I ran in my Vibram FiveFingers for the first time here. It was great – 4 miles – but my calves! Oy, they hurt like. . . for more than a week. Why did it they hurt so much from running on the lava soil of Goma when this didn’t happen (not to this extent) when I ran on the beach in Zanzibar?

When I returned from Goma, I got a cold. Too many sleepless nights, too much sugar, too much beer and too much stress. Not a big surprise all in all. But something about the cold really sapped me. Even now, though I have few symptoms, I often feel like I am not getting enough oxygen and I’m tired as a result. And then I just don’t feel like running. So I ran a few times last week, but haven’t run since Thursday (today is Sunday). I’m heading to Kalemie on Tuesday and will be “on the road” for the next month. I’m hoping that will re-motivate me. We shall see.

It is interesting, though. I really feel like God is trying to teach me to be nicer  and more forgiving to myself. So, I’m trying that.

I tried, again, to look for an online coach. But every time I post to any runner’s forum anywhere, I either get no response at all, or someone is snarky with me. I don’t really understand this. I know there are lots of online coaches. But maybe they really aren’t interested in helping fellow runners but just want to post some generic plan and make lots of money? I’d hate to think that, but I’m surprised that no one seems at all interested in working with me. I mean, I can pay a reasonable fee. I just need a personalized approach because I run on what are essentially trails (not a lot of pavement here in the DR Congo) and I have some food allergies that mean I can’t follow most of the advice in Runner’s World. But I’m not *that* weird. . .

If anyone has any ideas or recommendations, I’m interested.

The rainy season begins!

And my lesson for the day is, don't believe what a non-runner tells you.

This morning I went out for my scheduled 12 mi run. I really wanted to run up the hill and into the neighborhoods -- Kadutu and Panzi and beyond -- rather than going to the border, then Centre Ville and then out by the port. Mostly because although the second choice is paved, it also means dealing with a lot more cars and trucks. But it started raining (finally!) this week and I was afraid that Kadutu and Panzi might be one big mud slosh. Thousands of people, motorcycles and cars and large trucks, and one of the major routes into and out of town, all on a dirt road seemed like a formula for seriously slippery mud to me.

But, on the other hand, we had driven to Kadutu market yesterday and didn't find much mud, mostly nicely hard packed and rocky dirt with the dry season dust washed away. So, I had a conversation with our guard about what he thought the road conditions would be like. He said, no there won't be any mud there now. It rained overnight when no people were walking on it and not many cars. No problem.

Oh, oh, oh how wrong he was. View the photo -- my once white-ish Brooks Trance, my foot even under the muddy sock was full of mud, and that went all up my legs.

Otherwise it was a fine run and I did, finally, do 12 miles. But next time I am definitely wearing my trail shoes. There were spots where I simply had to walk because it was so slippery it was treacherous. Other places, I tried to run delicately in muddy sections where there were some rocks underneath to provide some traction, but on more than one occasion I upset a few people as I passed because I must have splashed some mud on them. (Africans' ability to navigate through mud so that the tops of their shoes and their pants & long skirts stay clean is absolutely amazing.)

The mud was really pretty incredible. It is not the sticky red stuff we had around Bamenda. It is darker brown and slippery. Running through some of these areas today, it is hard to imagine that they will ever again be dry. The mud was easily several inches deep. Maybe they won't ever be dry again until the next dry season. Scary thought. It's not just that people walking (and running) risk falling, but there are cars and minivans and rather large trucks that slide around in the stuff and could easily hit you. It takes a lot of focused attention to run in these conditions, particularly in regular running shoes. I do hope the trail shoes help with the slipping, though I bought them when I was in the Solmon Islands and have never tried them in mud (La Sportiva Fireblades).

I have to give credit to the Brooks, though. They did good work. They have good traction, just not sticky soles.

Next week, I think I'll stick to the tarmac. . .

Barefoot on the beach

I'm in Zanzibar for a week of R&R and having a great time. I spent the first half of my time in Stone Town -- a town of narrow, narrow "streets" (too narrow for any kind of car), tall buildings and (mostly) Muslims observing Ramadan. It is also completely paved and flat, which was a distinct change from the conditions I'm used to running under in Bukavu. I ran north one day, south the next, each around 10K, and the third morning I did a fast 5k loop around town (which required adding on a bit because the perimeter of old Stone Town is only about 2 miles). So many sights and sounds! Women in everything from Western dress to bhurkas; lots of people riding bicycles; dalla dallas (open sided busses); gazillions of mosques, a couple of churches and several Hindu temples; beautiful architecture everywhere; the ocean and palm trees and boats. . .

After 5 days in Stone Town, I hopped a dalla dalla and went to Matemwe where I found powdery soft white sand beaches, palm trees swaying in the sea breeze, bungalows with grass thatched roofs, and resorts from the ultra-economical to the ultra-luxurious. The beach sand was so awesome I was clear that I had to run barefoot. Anything else seemed a desecration. When I got to my room, I took of my sandals and haven't put anything on my feet since. Now *this* is a vacation! Here's a photo of the beach I ran in, so you can eat your heart out. :-)

When I arrived, it was afternoon and low, low tide. There was about a 1/2 km shallow area before you saw the waves from the ocean. So, I was a bit surprised when I awoke the next morning and there was barely enough beach to run on! But there was just enough. I ran two miles south down the beach, turned and went back, for a total of 4 miles my first time out. South from where I am staying is predominantly a string of other resorts, so there are few boats on the beach to block the way and not very many locals hanging out. Running in bare feet was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I felt no aches and pains afterwards, except. . . aach! I got a blister on the bottom of my right big toe. It wasn't too big, so I sterilized a pin and popped it and figured it would just roughen up.

Let me tell you about this sand. . . Wow. It is white, white, white which means it is cool, even at the hottest time of the day. There is some yellowed sand around the bungalows where I am staying and that can get pretty hot, but not the white sand. In some places it is literally like powder, but on most of the beach it is pretty hard-packed. There are places where it looks firm but is quite soft, so as I ran I had to "pick my line", but it was really easy to run on. There was one section that was canted toward the ocean, but since I had to come back the same way, I figured it would even out. And it is clean -- no glass or metal or rocks to worry about. There are pieces of coral, but even when I stepped on a few of these, they just sink into the sand, so it didn't hurt.

The second day, I first went north for a bit (there are cliffs that start after about 3/4 of a mile, so I could only go that far) and then went back south, covering about 5 miles for the whole run. It, too, was a good run although there was some occasional stabs of pain from the blistered toe, but it didn't seem that bad. However, I did discover that there is one hazard I had to watch out for -- shit. As in human. All the locals apparently do their business right down on the beach (yes, the beach that they will later come out to work on and play on). Sheesh. At least in the Solomon Islands they would go into the water. And they're not even as sanitary as cats. Just like dogs, they go out, leave their business and walk away. I was beginning to see why the higher end resorts protected the beach in front of them. So for the whole first 1.5 miles or so (as far north as I could go and back), I had to keep one eye on the beach to dodge piles of poo and the other eye up to dodge boat masts (which stick out from the front of the boats about 2 feet and are thin enough that you cannot see them until you nearly run into them). It was much nicer once I passed that area.

When I got back to my room, however, the blister on my toe had doubled in size and was now red. Hmm, not good. I went snorkeling and hoped the salt water would do it some good, but it hurts. This morning I did yoga (which actually hurt the toe more than running did, but maybe just because I was more aware of it!). Tomorrow I want to run longer -- 8-10 miles if I can -- so I may put on shoes and go run through the local villages and onto the paved road.

I wanted to start to try barefoot running and it was a great, great experience. I used to run a bit on the beach when I was a teenager and never felt any ill effects from it. But in Bukavu, it seems like it would be quite difficult. The roads are mostly dirt, but there are lots and lots and lots and lots of rocks. However, when I get back, I think I may just go out and try it with my Vibram Five Fingers. I've walked around in them there with no trouble at all. Now that I know I don't have to start with 1/4 mi run, I'm up for trying it out there.

And for my next pair(s) of shoes, I'm quite interested in finding neutral, low profile, not very cushioned shoes. I ran in stability shoes for ages because I thought I over-pronated and I knew I didn't like heavily cushioned shoes. But after developing pain in my feet in the Solomon Islands, I went to a podiatrist who informed me, basically, that my shoes were causing the problem. I also went to a running store that had a treadmill and a video camera that did gait analysis and it was really clear that I run just fine in totally neutral shoes. In fact, the more neutral, the less I pronate. So now I have Brooks Trance, which are "slightly" stability ('cause I just bought them new two days before I went to the chiropractor) and Nike Lunar Trainers. But I wear my orthotics with both of them, particularly the Lunar
Trainers, because they give me arch support and a firmer ride. When I ran in the Lunar Trainers out of the box, they were so soft (and wide in toe box) that my foot swam around I got blisters on the insides of my big toes. The orthotics helped with that and then I switched to a pair of green Superfeet that I had and they work even better. The Superfeet have a plastic heel cup and a plastic arch, so the ride is very firm.

What I really want is a pair of neutral shoes that aren't so soft. I don't like all the cushioning. That's why I've always liked Brooks (Adrenalines, Axioms and now the Trance), but neutral shoes are heavily cushioned. Hmm, I just remembered that I have a pair of Nike Frees back in the US that I never ran in. I just wore them to walk around. Now I think they might be quite good for running. They are much less cushioned than the Lunar Trainers. Wish I had thought of that a month ago when I had a friend send me a bunch of stuff. Harrumph.

Ah well. At any rate, I'm not due for new shoes for another 6 months probably, so I'm keeping my eye out. Maybe I should try racing flats? Except I don't think they give any/much arch support. . . If anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

Weight down, Running up, Yea!

Yes, indeed, I am running pretty well these days and since I’ve come to the Congo, I’ve nearly lost all the weight I gained after leaving Cameroon. Sometimes the universe just makes it so abundantly clear where you are meant to be. If only I would always listen!

So, I’d like to lose about 5 more pounds (about 2kg) and then I’ll be “perfect”, but I’m pretty darned chuffed (as my British friends would say) with my body even now.

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to run 12 miles for the first time in a long, long time. But I think I’m ready for it. I’ve run 10mi each of the last two Sundays. Two weeks ago, the “easy” 10 – most of it on our one paved road – and then last week, the “hard” 10 out through Kadutu which included more hills, nearly all dirt road, and dodging crowds of people. So, tomorrow, I’ll do the “easy” 12 – extending the paved road route as far as possible in all directions and then next week either do a shorter run to recover or do the “hard” 12. The paved road is pretty limited unless I go down through the port and head north. There’s a Chinese company that’s been extending the pavement that direction. I haven’t been out there in 6 weeks or so, so I don’t know how far they’ve gone, but the part of the road from the “centre ville” down and past the port is massively crowded with cars and so not terribly inviting.

Today is 15 August which means it rains. And it did. Not much, just a bit. But apparently it’s a signal. Every year it rains on 15 August and then we have 2 more weeks of the dry season and then the rainy season starts for real the beginning of September. Today a couple of my colleagues were telling me that it really rains. Very hard and all day long. Oh joy! Thank goodness I have a pair of trail shoes because my entire neighborhood is now under about 3-4 inches of dust which will pretty instantly become mud when it rains. As long as I don’t kill myself slipping and falling, and I can keep the right frame of mind, it might be fun.

I’ll keep you posted.

Africa can be awfully cold

This week I went out into the field to meet some of our partner organizations and observe two of my staff lead an orientation for them. This took me to the hill towns of Kaziba and Luhwindja. During the day, the weather was quite pleasant – a bit cooler than Bukavu at noon, but sunny and somewhat warm. But at night, holy cow! Literally as soon as the sun started to descend, the temperature plummeted. I slept deeply buried under a wool blanket. And getting out of bed in the morning to go running – soo difficult! I brought a good windshirt so the top of me was warm enough, but I wished I had brought my Capri running pants rather than just shorts. And GLOVES. The second day I went running, I wore socks on my hands so they wouldn’t become totally numb. Don’t be fooled, Africa can be awfully cold.

Running around Kaziba was nice, though. Oh, well, except the other thing was the dust. The first day I went up to the village of Lukuba and there wasn’t as much dust. In some places, the road was very hard packed and smooth which was really nice. But the second run, I went the other direction and went through dust that was easily 6 inches deep in places. I shudder to think what the rainy season must be like there.

It’s beautiful up in the mountains. Kaziba is actually in a valley, surrounded by hills and even in the dry season, things are quite green. The altitude is pretty high, though, as the tops of the hills were treeless not from cutting but because they were taller than the tree line (that’s what we call it in the US – the altitude above which trees can’t grow). And I was quite the amusement for everyone. I intentionally wore my IRC cap rather than my generic grey one (which I would never do in Bukavu) because I knew I would be the talk of the town and I thought I’d just let everyone know why I was there. The older women walking to their fields in the morning were the most astonished, I think, to see a woman running, and a white one at that.

Saturday I went for my “long” run. 8 miles which is long for me at the moment, but it still feels odd to call that long. Next week, I’m going to up it to 10 miles, which really seems like the entry point for “long” to me. The great news about Saturday is that a) I ran the whole way, including up, up and up the hills and b) I did NOT get lost. Victory! Ah the simple joys of life. My route was safe and boring – straight up and into the neighborhood called Kadutu and out the road we had gone on to Kaziba. The road is pretty busy in one section – there’s a big roundabout that seems to primarily function as a truckstop, and just beyond that is a fork in the road known locally as “Essence”. This is the fork where last week I turned right and got lost, because turning right avoids the thickest part of the crowd. But this time I barreled on, happy that something rather loud was playing on my headphones to at least modify the many, many comments I got from onlookers. I really had to be nimble on my feet to avoid running into people, but it was fun to be able to move at twice the speed (or faster) of any vehicles. Oh, why is it called “Essence”? Because there are about 50 guys there selling illegal petrol/gasoline (essence in French) in plastic bottles. Reminded me of Maroua.

The whole first 3 miles of this run is mostly uphill, with some flat parts for relief, which I didn’t really register until I was coming back and got to just fly downhill. That was great and very relaxing! And I really noticed the difference in running on pavement. About 1/3 of this route is on pavement. It is so nice to not have to keep my focus on the ground the whole time and my pace was faster. Maybe next week I’ll do the local traditional “border to Governor’s office” route which would be tarmac the whole way once I get out of my neighborhood.

This week I did all the runs on my schedule (though Friday was a bit short ‘cause I was late and had to get to work) and it feels really good to put in a good solid week and not feel exhausted. I’ve lost some weight since I got to the Congo and want to lose another 10lbs (5kg). I can already feel the difference, though. Things are definitely looking up!

Wherein Tracy gets lost yet again

Okay, so every week since I’ve been in Bukavu, I’ve gotten lost on my Saturday morning long run. This week was no exception and it was  a doozy. I really, honestly meant to do out and back, the same route, but somewhere I turned wrong and way overshot my return. So, I was out there, climbing and descending hills for a good 45 minutes longer than I expected. Bukavu is just a series of hills, some of them incredibly steep – at least the walking paths that everyone uses are very steep. I was really feeling it in my knees, though I’m happy to report that my knees feel fine today. So maybe this is really good training.

So, the plan was to run 8mi and to go up behind Nyawera market toward or to the neighborhood known as Kadutu. I did fine going out, though I did walk up 1.5 of the 3 sequential hills. It was nice that the shops weren’t really open because Kadutu is a very crowded area, but it wasn’t yet when I was running through there. (This is all relative, mind you. There were still plenty of people yelling out “mzungu, mzungu”, children running after me, etc. But I went back there later in the afternoon to visit the Kadutu market – the largest in Bukavu – and then it was wall to wall people. Literally there would have been no way to run.) I ran up and up and up, then down and up and down and up and many times came to roundabouts or intersections with 3-5 roads. I thought I kept going straight, but when I saw my route mapped out in SportTracks later, it was clear that I turned right at some point. My watch had given me the “low battery” warning before I left, but it still had 20%, so I was hoping it would last. At 4 mi I turned around (and the watch was still working).

After climbing the first hill on the way back, I got a bit confused and took the road to the right which I thought was a road I had seen from the *other* road when I was coming down and I thought they met at an intersection not very far away. But when I got to the next intersection, nothing looked at all familiar. Because I thought I had run straight out, I thought I could just “feel” my way back.  After awhile, thinking several times that I knew where I was and then realizing that I had no clue, I came to a woods and had the choice to either keep moving forward and level or taking a deep descent. Totally baffled, I finally asked some guys (since, frustratingly, men generally speak at least some French and women rarely seem to and I do not speak Swahili. . .) and they said they would accompany me. I said I wanted to run, but that turned out to be folly as we were descending so steeply that it would have been unsafe. At some point I ended up ahead of them and almost went the wrong way (since I kept wanting to follow what looked more or less like roads whereas everyone walks on these sort of “back alley” paths that wind between the houses), but they called me back. Somewhere around there I lost track of them, but that was the last part of the descent.

Shortly thereafter, I was again confronted with a choice – this nice wide road that veered left which seemed to be away from where I should go vs. a footpath that went to the right, but where? Again, I asked a man (and then was joined by a couple of others). I had the great advantage of knowing that all I needed to do was get back to Nyawera market, which is a landmark known by all. This time, when I asked which way to Nyawera, they asked me if I wanted to go by car or foot. I looked at them oddly and said, “hmm, by foot, thank you.” “Would you be okay taking the footpath?” they asked. “Is that shorter?” I replied. “Yes,” “Then that’s the way I want to go.” Rather amazed, they told me to take the footpath and that would lead down then up to someplace, the name of which I didn’t really catch, from where I could descend to Nyawera. Going down was really quite easy and I got to run again for awhile, but when I crossed over a main road and started to ascend, I was back on a steep, narrow, rocky (and dusty) footpath. At one point I passed an older woman climbing up with a bundle of something. Awesomely strong the women are here.

I get to the top and there is a main road. I only have a vague idea where I am, so I don’t know if I should go right or left. There weren’t any people standing around except for 3 policeman in their bright yellow shirts and hard hats (they are quite cool looking, the traffic police uniforms). Taking the decision that they are supposed to serve the public and therefore would be sympathetic to me, I went and asked them which way to Nyawera. They said go left and turn right at the intersection that was about 50 yards away. I did that and voila! I recognized that I was at the top of the first hill above Nyawera. It was so nice to feel asphalt under my feet again that I decided to stay on the main road and not take the flatter dirt road.

Returned home almost 2 hours after I left and I have no idea how far I really ran because the watch conked out at 4.47 mi which was about 10 feet after I took my first wrong turn. . . I tried to map out where I think I went (there’s a big gap in the middle where I have no idea how I got from where I knew I was to where I ended up) and it looks like I probably covered 8.75-9 mi, though a heck of a lot of that was scrambling up and down hillsides, not running.

Another Bukavu adventure!

Dust!

Well, in fact it rained last night (which I was clueless about until one of my roommates told me, must have slept well), which greatly lessened the dust this morning, but still, it has been DUSTY. When I get into the shower every morning, I have to rinse myself thoroughly even before soaping up.

I have a few established routes – the tour of our peninsula is 5k; if I add on the road that goes around the bay, that makes it about 4.5mi. Then I have ventured to the other side of the main road into neighborhoods where they are quite surprised to see a “mzungu” running on the morning. Yesterday I wanted to do my longer-ish run which I wasn’t able to do Saturday since we headed to the field at 6am, so I decided to explore a bit. Roger told me that the road to the right at the intersection at the end of my road led past the Governor’s mansion, so I took that and the Governor’s mansion was definitely worth seeing. Quite nice grounds. Then, I went up hill and came out by Nyawera market. I thought I’d go by the market back toward my part of town, but somewhere I stayed right when I should have veered left. It wasn’t until I returned home and could look at my route in SportTracks, on a satellite map, that I saw where I went wrong. In the meantime, I was running along, mounted a hill (where I realized I wasn’t where I thought I should be, but was still curious about where I was), and ended up deep inside a neighborhood packed with people (since it was only a holiday for IRC and it was around 8:30am by this time). I reached the end of the road, turned around, and got back to an intersection, where I saw a nice wide deserted road going around a hill. That seemed nice, so I took that road. It wound around the hill on the top of which was the military camp. I had seen this from a distance and as I rounded the bend I realized why it was there. Across and below me was the border with Rwanda. There was the bridge over the river, across the way was a Rwandan military camp. I followed the road down, hoping it would actually circle this hill. But it went down to the dam – where our electricity comes from – and ended there. So I had to climb yet another hill and backtrack. This was a nice part of the run, however, except for the fact that for the whole 2 miles or so I saw only one other woman on a very deserted stretch.

Back at the intersection, I tried one road briefly until I realized that it only went up to the camp. I returned to the intersection again and went back down the original road I had come up on. When I got to the bottom, I found a well-traveled alley which climbed up one hill, then another, where I found myself on the road I had originally meant to be on. Surprise, surprise! Winding my way back home, my run was exactly the  7 miles it was supposed to be, according to my training plan, even though a thousand times along the route, I decided I was too tired and wanted to cut it short. Ah well.