We have a new guy! “Fireguy” is Charles G, the guy who just ran the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. I told him about our little discussion spot. He just pointed out too me via email that he has been adding comments but not seeing them. I had not noticed this, so I approved his comments and he is in now.
Here is a photo. The background clock is showing hours and minutes!
I figured out what Steve was talking about the “RSS” posting, and I installed blogbridge on my computer at home.
We are heading out early Thursday morning for a two week camping trip… one week in Oregon and another at Lake Tahoe. I doubt I will be able to add any posts since I probably won’t take the laptop since it doesn’t have a wireless card. See ya on the flipside. I look forward to reading several posts when we get back.
Chris
This weekend I completed my half marathon run in 2:38. My target distance was 2 laps of 11.6 Km. My target time was 2:20-2:50. I literally gave out 1.6 Km from the finish point. This means I completed 21.6 Km or 13.3 miles in 2:38. The pachyderm pace I set was, as always, 7 minutes per Km (including a 1 minute walk break for every 6 minutes run). I managed this pace out to around 15 Km and started to slide down hill from there. Amazingly enough, the training target for this run was 13-14 miles and my distance fell squarely inside those bounds. I am disheartened not from the point I gave out at or the excessive time I took but from the fact I gave out. I can offer no excuses as why I gave out at this stage only that I will be better prepared and will hit my target next time. After all the years of ‘do, or die trying’ it is hard to accept retreat as a viable alternative to success at meeting your goals. In my new post-endo life I am learning to approach things differently and keep the end goal in sight as well as each of the mile stones. So, I guess I can claim some honour in this retreat.
Now, as to the run itself… . I got up early to beat the heat. I started at approximately 0630. Due to LeRoi’s recent post on nutrition I decided I would try something new and had an apple and banana while walking the dog before the run (about 200 calories). Also, I have bought the mega jug of Hammer gel and carried a five shot squeeze tube with me. The first lap I took four one ounce shots at roughly twenty minute intervals. While this stuff does not come back to haunt you it does leave a sticky sweet after taste in your mouth for about 10 minutes. Nasty. I also carried a 800ml water bottle with about 700ml in it. I also put a single Elotrans package in it to help with electrolyte/mineral loss. At the halfway point (1.17) I refilled and dried off, I did not change my shirt. Mistake number one. Whle not feeling great, I did not feel drained as I normally would at this point. I had only drunk about 400-500ml by this point. The second lap went fairly well out to 16Km. I did not maintain my concentration and only had downed 2 shots of the Hammer gel. Mistake number two. At that point I started to notice I was feeling swollen and leaden and backed off the pace a bit. I also found that I had unwittingly downed most of my water supply by the halfway mark. Mistake number three. I started to take longer breaks and reduce the run time from 6 to 5 to 4 minutes. I finally gave out at the 10Km mark on the second lap feeling overheated (the t-shirt was like a blanket) and bloated (too much water) and my feet hurt (caused by excessive surface area). The odd thing I was not nearly as whooped as I normally am after a long run. Maybe it was the long walk home as a cool down, but I did not feel overheated at home nor sweat like a stuck pig and I found it difficult to rest during my post run nap. I think maybe the nutrition thing is working. Maybe I will end up perpetuem for the long runs.
–
Buford
Charles The Western States Runner invited me to run with him in the Canyon of the northern fork of the American River this morning. We didn’t run all that far, just under nine miles, but it was pretty steep stuff so my legs feel hammered. I was afraid to go out with him in light of his recent accomplishments, but I really wanted to see some of the great running routes that I live so close to so I took a chance and it paid off. He was easy on me. I have attached the profile from our route here. He said next time he is gonna take me too some steep stuff! Uh, OK…..
I ran less this week than I did the week I screwed up my leg. Monday, I ran 4.5 miles at a 9:36 pace. Wednesday, I ran 6.5 miles at a 9:37 pace, according to GPS. I just saw that about an hour ago so it made me a little happy. At least I was consistent.
My right leg is still not a completely happy camper. But it let me run 9 miles on steep fire roads, so that’s better than it was. Charles recommended some guy who specializes in sports massage. He said that if I go see the guy, I better take a bite stick. I thought that was hilarious. That’s about how much pressure it seems it would take to get it out if it is a tight muscle. Interestingly, I noticed when we came out onto a paved section of road, the leg really felt the pounding a lot more than it did on the dirt trail. On the uphill trail, I felt nothing. On the downhill trail, I felt tightness. On the pavement, I felt pounding.
I was kind of sneaking out to do this run. I am on call this weekend. Imagine my feeling when the cellphone rang in the middle of nowhere. Luckily it was not a call-out, but just someone who had been on a fatal traffic accident all night wanting to tell me the details in case I got asked by the media. Whew!
At the end of the run, there was an irrigation ditch flowing right by where we parked our cars. Apparently this is a popular spot for distance runners because there were stairs leading into the ditch so you could go in and cool your legs. Well, you know how phobic I am of cold water from our numerous backpacking trips, so I went right in. It felt great.
By the way, Steve, this is something we haven’t discussed here yet but as you start getting up to 12+ miles, SEVERELY cooling your legs immediately at the end of your run is a genuine recovery strategy. It helps reduce swelling that occurs in your legs from the longer distances. Leg swelling has never been obvious too me, however foot swelling has been VERY obvious too me so I guess it makes sense that my legs are swelling too. I did this cold water thing when I got into higher distances training for the CIM. I seriously poured a frigid cold bath after my long runs in November and sat in there until I couldn’t take it any longer. I’m not jerking your chain on this, although that would be wonderfully fun and very much like me to dream some bullshit like this up and convince you to do it, then tell you at the start line on October 29th that I had been messing with you about it…. Here is some independent documentation on it.
Meanwhile, I hope you guys had a good training week.
Chris
I just got an email from a guy named Charles. I met him at the California International Marathon when we was the pacegroup leader for the five hour pace group. A couple weeks ago, Charles ran the entire Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. On it’s face, this is an amazing feat. It becomes even more amazing when you consider that the day of this years race the thermometer skyrocketed. It was the hottest day of the year so far. Consequently, only 52% of the people who started this year’s Western States actually finished. I think it was the lowest percentage of finishers ever. His thoughts are relevant to our discussion:
Begin forwarded message:
Overall it was a amazing day. In 20 years they will still remember the fact it was the highest drop rate (ever), the hottest day of the year (so far), and the recent course change with Duncan canyon being added back into the mix made it a grueling day!
Chris, sincerely, no words can describe how tough it was too finish. It was so hot, people were falling all the time, puking along the trail, so many folks were just wiped out when you went past them. I started about 5th from the last. The plan was to go slow through the elevation and then deal with the heat as it came. Well, nobody could have predicted how much duncan canyon messed everybody all up. The snow was bad but not as bad as last years, but we were exposed to the the direct sun for the first 7 hours of the run then it became a bit more covered in places but obviously not all the way. When I got to Duncan I was 20 min from getting pulled from the race because I was way behind, but there was a ton of people behind me and I thought oh no.. not me not here not today, it took a lot of effort to get to this journey and I was not about to let it fall from me.
So I got up and ran better and faster than I ever had in my life. It was an experience that I will never forget. It reveals the weaknesses within yourself. It finds your strengths. In the end I made up well over 3 hours. I walked from no hands to the finish. I have blisters so bad the doctors have to consult other specialists to find out how to fix them. But the finish is mine, no one can have it. It was a very humbling experience.
We are in maui, for the kids and the wife and I we took them here to thank them for all the times they put up with me during all the training. I will have several beers for you while lying on the beach!!
Cheers,
Charles
I intercepted a communique that includes accounts from a couple of people who were involved with the Western States 100 mile Endurance Run. If you are interested in reading it, click here. I especially like the guy who described his theory for finishing as RFM:
Relentless Forward Motion
Chris
I had another appointment at the UC Davis Sports Performance Lab again yesterday. I am starting to hate that place. It’s kind of like stepping back into the Marine Corps. All out effort talks. Bullshit walks. No lame-asses allowed. Consequently, they only let me in for very short visits 
. This time I went for a consultation with the dietician. Of course she is a Ph.D… and we met in Doctor Eric Heiden’s office. The walls are adorned with framed jerseys from world class athletes. All the jerseies are signed by the original owners, thanking the lab staff for helping their effort to kick butt over every other athlete in the world. Last time I went there, Eric Heiden himself yelled at me that I wasn’t trying, that I needed to get serious and start generating some sweat! So I have added him to the already long list of world class psychos who have yelled at me for not sweating as much as they wanted me too!!!
The visit was $75, and I would say that although some aspects of the visit may prove in the long run to be worth every penney, it remains to be seen if it was worth $75. It probably will prove to be a really good deal in the long run.
After analyzing everything I ate for several days, the doctor determined that:
1a) I seem to average about 3000 calories per day. She recommended I cut out my evening snack of peanut butter on toast and thereby reduce my daily average to about 2700 calories.
1b) She wanted to see me including more vegetables in every meal. Her exact words were, “Every meal should be colorful.” This would improve a couple vitamin and mineral deficits, most notably, I don’t take in enough potassium. There are plenty of others I need more of too though.
2) My fat and protein percentages were both about four percentage points higher than she thought they should be to obtain optimal fitness. She recommended taking that 8 percent and converting it to carbohydrates.
3) This will be the hardest I think…. she wants me to start eating BEFORE I work out, 200 to 400 calories! I am not sure that I will ever like this. I have always started my workouts on a completely empty stomach. I hate feeling like I have a wad in my stomach when I start running. I have however, felt ok when I started on an empty stomach and started consuming nutrients right away though. Curtis suggested this too me and I feel like it works better than if I eat before I take off.
4) She said I am not taking in enough nutrients while I run to support my goal of running a 50K. She said I need to double the calories I take in while I am running, and increase the water on hot days as well. This means I have to take in: about 240 calories each hour, 10-13 ounces (300-400ml) of water (I may have written that as a per hour requirement in a previous comment. It’s actually 900-1200ml/30-39 ounces per hour), with 300-500ml of salt per hour.
5) Post workout, she wants me to take in 160 calories from carbohydrate right away, and over the next two hours after my long run, she wants me to take in an additional 400 calories from carbs and 130 calories from protein. Additionally, for every pound I am down at the end of the workout, she wants me to consume and extra 24 ounces of water during that day.
Chris
While I realize you are all fully capable of handling real property transactions I would like to post this a reminder to myself in an easy to read format. Of course this is in addition to the standard title check.
Things to consider when purchasing undeveloped land.
–
Buford
After finally reading most of the document provided by hammer I started carrying a bottle of water with me. This part is not rocket science, but I will spell it out anyway. They recommend 500-600ML of water per hour for exercise. While the upper limit is normally for extreme environmental conditions it can also be interpreted as a limit for people with excessive surface area to be cooled. The also suggest you are better off with getting fluid when and where you need it. This seemed reasonable and fairly simple to incorporate into my workouts. The calculations were pretty easy for me in Europe. No ounce conversion required. I now carry a 800ML bottle with me. Since I religiously have a walk break of one minute every seven minutes it serves as a reminder to take one mouthful at each walking period. I am figuring on mouthful to be around 70ml. Over the last week of testing this seems to be true as I normally arrive home after the run with an appropriate amount of fluid left in the bottle. A few things I have noticed though is that I sweat excessively now. I am not kidding. My shirt is normally soaking wet when I finish now, as if I had been swimming with it on. Since it is white and plastered to my body I look like a mobile beer belly wet t-shirt contest. I am considering asking for sponsorship from the local brewery… I just tell everyone to cover their eyes as I chug past. I think on multistage runs I will consider changing it at each stage. I do feel a bit better at the end of the run, but conversely I feel hotter the entire way. I also notice that I tend to run a little slower this way; this is a symptom of over hydration. It may be because I am tired already or it may be because I have over hydrated. I typically do not drink enough to get the sloshes but who know for sure with out scientific analysis.
–
Buford
It is good to hear that Chris is doing better. Sounds like rest was exactly what was needed. I have also been feeling worn out lately. However, there is little light at the end of my tunnel. Before booking the hotel and flight I took a long look at the Galloway plan. I then worked back the plan from the event date. Suddenly, I was no longer one week ahead of plan but on week behind the plan (again). The one benefit to the plan change was that last weekend was only a 6 miler. I did seven (one for the corps). I was thankful because the longer runs every weekend were starting to take their toll on my body. This weekend I think will be the ‘make or break’ for me. I need to run 13-14 miles. Roughly, it is half the marathon in distance. I have charted out a new course that is 11.33KM with the house being at start/finish line. This Sunday I will have to do this twice to meet the required 13-14 miles. I am pretty sure I will be wiped out after wards; the single shining light here is that it will be two more weeks before I will need another long distance run. Once again it will be a big jump for me. My last long run was at 16.x KM and this will be a 25% jump. I have worked out a plan that should help. I will start as close to 0600 as possible. Lately, it has been hellishly hot by 0800 and I usually start paying for this towards the end of the run. Next, I will figure out a way to drag along a bottle of hammergel and take hits off that every 20 minutes. I will also take a bottle of water as well and refill at the middle point. I am estimating the total time to be between 160-180 minutes. According to the documentation available to me, hammergel will work for the first 2 hours. But, I should consider using perpetuem instead for runs longer than 2 hours. The problem is that perpetuem is not openly available in Europe. I will work on obtaining a supply for the longer runs. In the mean time I will consider supplementing the hammergel with a few grams of some sort of easily digestible protein. Probably powdered tofu (goes great with the brown rice and vegetables).
–
Buford
I am not too sure y’all know about this, but the duck farm blog comes equipped with an RSS feed. I have been using this to keep up to date as best as possible. The RSS feed viewer I have been using is called klipfolio. http://www.klipfolio.com. It uses a somewhat complicated structre of ‘klips’ to control the feeds. The klip I have been using is called feed viewer and it allow me to input my own feed address to monitor. Other klips do not. My boss uses something called ‘Great News’ found at http://www.curiostudio.com. But, I have no other information on that. The url for the duck farm blog is http://duck-farm.com/blog/feed and I currently have it checked once every 2 hours.
–
Buford
I guess I should have caught a hint about how tired I was while I was writing the post entitled Sleep Running! I have spent the last seven days on the bench, trying to heal my right leg. It has been an interesting rest period, mostly because I did not realize just how tired I was. Over the last week I got solid sleep and haven’t done much more than sit on a stationary bike and spin for an hour at a very low heart rate with a moderately high spin cadence. Interestingly, my appetite exploded during this period. I have been absolutely ravenous. And this morning the scale read 186/187 pounds, which is lower than I have seen in about five years… That is almost exactly what I weighed when Colin was born. Then, about four months after he was born, I quit working out regularly in order to dedicate more time to preparing for the sergeants exam and gained about 20 pounds. It’s been with me ever since!
I tested the leg this morning with a casual 4.5 mile run. So far it does not seem as if that put my healing in reverse at all. Maybe the activity even helped it.
With all my extra energy that I didn’t burn running 13 or 14 miles on Saturday morning, I spent the weekend getting ready to go on vacation. We are going to Astoria, Oregon, then Tahoe, and then home. We found a couple more potential properties that we might look at. One is particularly interesting.. it’s ten miles from Astoria, across the Columbia into Washington, and it is 1.5 acres with only an old shed for a structure and a dilapidated septic system. It’s appropriately priced for us ( I can’t remember exactly but I’m thinking it’s about 25K). The septic does’t scare me at all. A dilapidated septic may be all we need to go there with a travel trailer every so often. Plus, we have a tractor we could tow up there and use to improve the septic. I would be interested to know how much it costs to put a well in. That might be important. We feel that a 1.5 acre parcel ten miles from town might become closer to town in our lifetime and could potentially be sold in pieces. At least, from our experience where we live now, town seems to be coming a lot closer everyday! Even if the town didn’t grow and the property didn’t appreciate exponentially, it would still be an affordable and enjoyable vacation parking place.
In preparation for the vacation, I did some work on the trailer. It seems we had a water leak start near the bathtub on our last trip. After taking it largely apart and conducting tests, I believe it was a gasket leaking water that was running down the shower wall. The gasket was leakign the water in behind the faucet, into the wall, causing it to run out under the tub. Lots of caulk. I haven’t tested it completely yet, so it’s fingers crossed on it right now.
I also took down some of the lame mini-blinds that came in the trailer and replaced them with pull down shades. The bilnds sucked because the kids, being little, had bent them trying to peek out, and because they made too much noise whenever anyone (usually me) bumped them while others were sleeping. The blinds are going to be great. They make the kids sleeping area look like a photographic darkroom! This also helps make the A/C a little more effective….
Ok ,that’s probably more than anyone will ever read. I hope everyone had a good training weekend and nobody got hurt. Ciao for now!
Chris
If this is still avialable when we get to Astoria, we are probably going consider it:
http://www.lowercolumbiarealty.com/list_house.php?unique_id=6835
Chris
The pain in my right leg has been diagnosed by the coach at work. He is a contract-fitness consultant who also is on staff at UC Davis Sport Performance Lab. (Click here and then choose John Hansen, M.S. from the list of Sports Perfromance staff to see his resume.) He says I have a shin splint. Interesting diagnosis considering the pain is int he back of my leg and I never believed shin splints were real because I never had one and always thought they were just a convienent way for sissies to get out of P.T.!
Turns out a shin splint is actually a small tear in the translucent membrane that surrounds the exterior of the muscle. It is essentially the same material as tendons. So you can get the same type of injury anywhere on your leg, front or back, and even on your foot. The fitness consultant believes I probably tore it on a long run, and that my body had no problem with it and would have repaired it easily. Except that my running with the group of guys two days later put even more stress on it and made it worse before it got better. So now he has grounded me. He says I have to chill for a week, literally, icing the spot at least three times per day and doing no more than 60 percent of my average weekly mileage on a treadmill.
I have taken two days completely off and gotten a lot of sleep and interestingly, I was extremely ravenous this morning when I woke up! I think this happened too me before when my shoes were wearing out. It isn’t the shoes this time, it’s just excessive intensity.
Chris
I think I may have gone running in my sleep this morning. I could hardly open my eyes when the phone rang at 0520 hours. In fact, I initially could not figure out that it was the phone. I thought I had left my alarm set. Then I realized I was on call for media relations and thought my run had just gone out the window. It was only the traffic sergeant calling to tell me he had been up all night investigating a fatal traffic accident and he wanted someone to share his misery. No, actually, he wanted to brief me on it so I would be able to answer media inquiries. I felt like I could have slept until about noon, but it was a good time to drag myself out of bed.
In an effort to wake myself up, I walked outside and dove in the pool. It didn’t help. I got dressed, chugged some water, hit the head, and after a few minutes wake up time, I was on the trail. I was almost sleep running. Before leaving I weighed myself: 189 pounds.
After my miserable experience on the Tahoe Relay, Curtis commented that it seemed like I was unable to recover after the hardest climb. I had not thought at all about it until he said it, but I have thought about it a lot since he said it. Recovery, in the middle of the effort. I’ll come back to this.
A couple weeks ago, I started running with a couple guys in the morning before work. Both of them are younger than me. One of them is very evenly paced with me. The other is able to go significantly faster. When the fast guy doesn’t show up, the other slow guy and I usually push each other a little. When the fast guy shows up, he pushes us both pretty hard, frequently leaving me feeling like I just had my hardest run since Marine Corps days. Wednesday, we ran 8 miles at 9:15 pace…. fast for me, possibly the fastest 8 miles of my life when you consider I didn’t run 8 miles when I was in better shape years ago.
So an interesting thing happened today, that either indicates I really was sleep running, or I am getting in better shape. I usually decide what my max heart rate will be for a long run and as I approach that heart rate on the climbs, I back off. Since many of the climbs are pretty steep, I frequently back off to a walk. Even still, my heart rate never drops much from the point where I decide to back off. The act of walking up a steep hill always keeps it going pretty hard. Click here to see a profile of my route
Today, that changed. I decided my max heart rate would be 170. As I approached it on the steep climbs, I backed off to a walk. And the strangest thing happened. My heart rate fell sharply every time. Sometimes I let if fall way off, other times I would run/walk as it got low. Only one time, on a 22 percent grade, did it fail to fall sharply, and even then it fell marginally. I’m thinking this is what Curtis is talking about when he refers to recovery in the middle of the effort.
As always I carried my fuel belt and my camelback. For the first time ever, I came close to emptying the camelback. It holds 50 ounces. It was full when I left and it only had 8 ounces in it when I got home. Between the camelback and the fuel belt, I drank about 60 ounces over 2.5 hours. (I also ate one Gu pack, 1 serving of Perpetuem, and two Endurolyte capsules.) When I got home, I weighed 186 pounds. This indicates that I was drinking less than I was sweating out. I should have taken in at least one more liter of water in that time.
In three runs this week, I covered 28.3 miles and spent five hours on my feet. You would think that a 38 year old guy doing that to get back in shape would be most likely to hurt himself while running. However, it seems that sitting, specifically driving in rush hour traffic, causes my right leg to bind up tighter than a banjo string. So tight it feels like an injury, so I am recommitting myself to stretching. When I got home this morning, I spent about 30 minutes stretching. I was surprised at how I could feel the tightness in my leg when I was actually stretching my back! It was pulling from the middle of my back to the ball of my foot!!!!
Chris
