Indianapolis Monumental Marathon 2012 3:58:32.4

What Came Before…

The story of this race starts in January of 2012.   After not really being able to budge my running fitness for an entire year, I decided to try a mileage based approach.   I worked my up to between 40-50 miles a week in the winter and tried to hold it.    My biking suffered, I didn’t swim, and my running got just a very little bit better, but mostly I was flat. 

When we ran St. Pats in March of 2012 I had loads of base, but I paced myself for a slight PR and totally blew up.   I was really frustrated; running is just the sport I don’t really get.  

After a mediumish season of doing half ironman distance I decided to hire Mike Ricci from D3 Multisports to coach me and things started turning around.  My proving ground would be the Indy Monumental Marathon, and my goal was a sub 4 hour run.   Before meeting Mike, I’d either get slow mile based approaches, like above, or I’d get so much speed work, so hard, I’d just blow up and be wiped.  Mike really helped me balance the “work” with the “easy” and set me on a path that allowed me to improve quite a bit in the 8 weeks or so that I had between my last Tri and my Marathon.

Unfortunately for me, I injured my right calf in July when I got a severe cramp on a hot day, and that injury was brought center stage with my new found speed.    With about three weeks left, when it was time to taper, I was really hurt.   I couldn’t run without pain and cramping in my right calf.  

With massage, stretching, and foam rolling, I ran through it and made it to taper.   My hope was that it would heal as I rested.    I knew I’d be flat on race day, but it was what I had to work with.  

But then it got worse.   Two days before the run I was doing an easy 2 miler and my calf cramped.   I hobbled home.   That was it; I wasn’t going to be able to run.   My second DNS of the year…

Defeated, I loaded up the car for Indy.   Lana was healthy and planning a great run and I wasn’t going to miss that at least.

The night before the race, I made the decision that I would run until I couldn’t.  I was pain free, and it was a well-supported race with plenty of medical folks, so why not?

I also had a dedicated ‘pace’ team.   Seth and Logan were going to be running with me.  Logan was taking the first 6 miles, and Seth would be doing the last 20. 

The plan was a negative split, starting at about 9:30, and finishing around 8:50/

The Logan Miles

The first 6 miles, I took it pretty easy peasy as planned.   Lana took off and was way ahead of me, gone.   About one mile in Logan and I both jumped as Mark ran up behind us and grabbed my ass.  He went on to pace his wife to a PR half. 

Logan was disturbingly cheery.   He was talking about how great the race was going to be, how my injured calf was going to hold out…the whole deal.  My guess is that Seth slipped him some SSRIs in his morning coffee.  

The run was going well, my calf was holding out.   My legs were heavy, and the pace was harder than it should have been, but that’s what three weeks of over tapering/resting will do.

The Seth Miles

At mile 6 Seth jumped in and relieved Logan of his duties.   Things were pretty easy and uneventful, for at least the first 15 miles.   My legs were still heavy.  Seth talked.  And talked.   And talked.  

Starting at about mile 18 things started getting a little more serious.   My calf was starting to cramp just a little, and I’d feel occasional shots of ‘electricity’ through my leg.   I made it a point to relax the best I could.   Seth suggested I work to not fire that muscle and just run around it.   My negative split wasn’t really happening, but I was still on target to finish sub 4.  

At about mile 20, Seth started telling me a story about floating in the water in this lake, and how it was kind of this surreal experience, comparing it to a scene in Battlestar Galactica where Baltar was experiencing something similar.  

And then he was talking about the movie Gattaca, where inferior Vincent triumps over the genetically perfect Anton because of desire and passion.   You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.  Two hours after the race, that thought was extremely inspiring, however 22 miles in I mostly thought Seth talked to much…  J

At mile 26, finish line in sight, I couldn’t hold off the injury any more.  So that was it, it held together just long enough.   My right calf cramped completely, just a few feet from the finish.   I put my foot down, and put my weight on it, forcing my calf to release.   It hurt.  It hurt alot.   Seth was visibly ready to push me over the finish, and I stumbled over the line just a few minutes ahead of 4 hours. 

On the way back to the hotel I almost fell over in the grass of the capital as my calf just totally gave out.   It locked up and wouldn’t release and I was in a lot of pain.   I was getting rained on, and was starting to shiver.  For the first time that day I was getting sort of scared.   After about 10 minutes on my back, thankfully it released and I made it back to the hotel. 

The Celebration

The best part of any big race is the celebration afterwards.   This was one of the best.   We went out to a Brazilian steak house, ate EVERYTHING, and drank an awesome bottle of Malbec.  Then there was ice cream, and more drinks.  It was a great time!  

The next morning we woke up and I registered for IMFL 2013.   Then we went to a Colts game for the afternoon.

And then…

It took me around 2 weeks to run again.  After that, it took about 6 more weeks of being very patient with the calf to finally clear that injury.  

2012 Illinois Half Marathon - 1:45:11

This is going to be a crazy race report, it's more about my life than my race. It will be a complicated read, and it tells a story 6 weeks long, but I'm telling the story this way because racing and life are so often just perfect analogs of one another for us crazy few endurance athletes.

Pre Race

Lana and I woke up at 4:30, in a Red Roof Inn in Champaign, after running a 5k the night before. Completing both the 5k and the half netted us a special award, so we duffed the run the previous night.

Breakfast was peanut butter and honey on white bread. Then off to the races. It was stormy morning, and the temp was in the high 40s. The wind was about 20 mph SSE. The rain cleared before the 7am start.

I met my friend Mark and a coworker of his before the start. He was planning on pacing his friend to a 1:44:xx finish. My PR for the half was last year's race where I ran 1:46:34. I knew that if I had a PR in me for today, it would be small and hard fought, and my plan was to stick behind Mark as long as I could and see what happens at mile 10.

The national anthem was sung, we smashed up to the front of our corral, and we were off. After the first mile, my legs already hurt, but I was still conversational. A long winter of aerobic base training my run seemed to have left me with a big aerobic engine and a body unaccustomed running hard. This was going to hurt. Races are, and have always been where I fight against myself.

4 Weeks Prior, Wednesday

“I'm very sorry, but you have a leak in your aortic valve my friend.” A few weeks prior my low heart rate earned me a trip to visit a cardiologist. Then there was a 24 hour halter, a stress test, and echo, and a few EKGs. It was all a big joke. I exercise, I have awesome lipid levels, my resting heart rate is in the low 30s, I'm as fit as people get. But then it wasn't a joke anymore. I had a leak...in my heart.

“That's not good” was the only response I could muster. My new cardiologist gave me the gist of it. It's mild to moderate, whatever that means. Maybe I've always had it, or maybe it happened recently. Maybe it will never get worse, or maybe it will. Maybe I'll need open heart surgery someday. Maybe I'll need a valve replacement that comes from a dead person, or one from another place in my heart...but maybe it would be a mechanical valve that would require me to live the rest of my life on blood thinners. Increased risk of bleeding. The end of my days on a racing and competing. Maybe. Or maybe nothing. Or maybe nothing until I'm 80. Where do you go from there?

Where I went wasn't a great place. Worst case scenario. Plan for the worst. Identify the weakest link. Mitigate risk. But that didn't work here. The cold analystics that I apply to engineering computer systems maybe applies to a population of cardiac patients, but not a single person. I'm the single point of failure, the non redundant node. Nothing I could do. Where do you go from there? Where I went was to the lobby. I texted Lana. I had fought so hard to get my life back, to come back from where I was to be here.  And now this.  I sat down and cried. I was totally overwhelmed.

Mile 2

I stuck by Mark. My legs warmed up a little bit and I felt a little better. I never had that “wow, this is easy” taper feeling though. I didn't want to think about how bad it was going to get when the suck found me. For now I just tried to live in the moment. I'd worry about mile 2, mile 13 was a lifetime away.

4 Weeks Prior, Thursday

I didn't even want to get out of bed. I went between panicked, resolved to fight, ready to quit, and back again as I analyzed my new condition. I learned about it, thought about it, and tried to wrap my head and my emotions around the situation. But I did get up. That morning at 5am I did a 2x15 minute bike ride at 95% Threshold. When it got hard I quit. I can count the times I've walked away from a workout on one hand. This was one of them. I was afraid my heart would quit. I'd need to monitor my blood pressure daily now. It was sky high suddenly. I was a ball of stress.

Mile 4

My lungs were starting to work a little harder, my legs were feeling better. I was still in this. I choked down a gu and picked up a few cups of water as we turned into a head wind. Mark was dropping the pace just a little bit, doing a great job leading us towards a 1:44 goal.

3 Weeks Ago

Every morning I wake up, stand in front of the mirror, and brush my teeth. When I do, I'm reminded of my previous life. The 400 pound me is gone now, but not forgotten. I'm reminded of that person every time I look in the mirror and see the 20 pounds of loose skin hanging from body. I carry it with me every day as a reminder.  I had something new to carry with me now.

I spoke to a few other cardiologists, and I got some better news. Alot of the time, the thing I had doesn't get any worse, maybe it will never get worse for me. When it does get worse, it's usually when people are alot older than I am. I was maybe reaching acceptance, maybe, but I had something new to carry around.  I'd need to avoid salt, and take medicine to keep my blood pressure super humanly low.  

Mile 7

I still kept hanging on. It still wasn't easy. I was purposely keeping my blood sugar higher than normal to take the edge off. My legs were starting to fail. Before the suck had really found me, I was in a place where I could no longer will my legs to turn over at the speed required to stick the pace. Frustrating, but I dug deeper. The line was 10 miles. I had to make it to mile 10, then I could gut out the last 5k. Even if I couldn't drop my pace, Mark had banked us enough time that I could PR. If I could just hold on a little longer.

2 Weeks Ago

Friend, uber endurance runner, and cardiologist Dennis tried to ease my mind about the situation. After talking to him I was reassured. Alot of the time it just doesn't get any worse. Nothing is for sure in life, but if the news is that I might need heart surgery when I'm 70...well, who can't say that?

Sometimes it degrades really quickly, but I'm not sometimes. This is probably something I did to myself with uncontrolled high blood pressure, when I was 400 pounds, doing my best to commit suicide by food.  

It's a hard lesson to learn. There are things you can do to yourself that can't be undone by an older wiser you. It's an obvious lesson, I suppose. Life is hard, but success for me has always been measured more by “showing up every day” and less about winning the big race.

My mind went to a quote I just saw in a friend's email signature:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”

-Rocky Balboa

Mile 10

I made it, Mark was still in sight, but I was falling off the back. He was dropping to the 7:30s I guessed, and I couldn't follow. I surged, tried to catch up, and then fell back and recovered into a sustainable pace. If I could hold on, I could PR.

Mile 11

The suck finally found me. The seconds ticked by, everything hurt, and my goal became to get to mile 12 at my current pace. My brain disassociated with the physical stuff. A PR was still possible. I couldn't will my legs any faster, so I just focused on trying to be as economical as possible.

There may be a day I can't do this anymore. My heart valve might give out. Or maybe it will be my knee, that was supposed to never work well again, but it does.

My mind went to something else I heard, this time not from Rocky but from Aragorn, in “The Return of the King.”

I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! 

There may be a day when I can't do this anymore, but that day isn't this day. Finally I was able to let the suffering in, let it wash over me, and welcome its familiarity.

And I got faster.


Mile 12-13.1

I saw Seth and Ryan (who ran the half in 74 minutes...wow) running a cool down around mile 13.  I was in my groove and rushing to the finish.  I had just enough to kick a little bit on the .1.  I crossed the line in 1:47 gun time, a PR for sure. I walked a bit to cool down but I was a real mess.  There was no way I could have run another step.  

Finish

It's no secret I'm not much of a runner. A 1:45 half is nothing special to be sure, as far as 30-34M goes at least, but today I did pretty good. (And in the words of Billy Madison “It was hard for me, so back off!”) I put it all on the table, there was nothing else left. I finished running my 5k pace, in complete agony, but smiling, proud of where I was able to take myself. I crossed the line in 1:45:11 chip time, 666^th out of 6756.

Splits

1 – 8:11

2 – 8:01

3 – 7:56

4 – 7:56

5 – 7:51

6 – 7:39

7 – 7:59

8 – 7:44

9 – 7:46

10 – 7:59

11 – 7:56

12 - 8:08

13 – 7:53

13.1 – 7:22

The Next Day

I regained consciousness at about 6:30. I moved my legs and pain was reintroduced into the vocabulary of my mind. Ouch. William was moving down stairs. I was hungry and there was a bowl of oatmeal with my name on it. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was my beautiful wife laying next to me. Yesterday I fought against myself and won. I was up for an easy Sunday morning. I can't help but feel very lucky.

A few days ago I told Curt from “Running on Guinness” that sometimes it's like having two different lives, coming from where he and I were to where I am now. That's true, but also, getting from there to here has involved so many struggles and hard fought victories, of which a screwed up heart valve is just the newest.

“my life has been extraordinary
blessed and cursed and won
time heals but i'm forever broken
by and by the way...

i know that i am meant for this world”

-Muzzel, Smashing Pumpkins

High Milage Running

I've recently decided to give higher volume running a shot this winter.  I've dropped out the intensity and I'm working to slowly, steadily increase volume.  Most of this comes from reading Lydiard and some of the other running greats, but some comes from having done an intensity based program last year, and not really getting anywhere with it. 

Anyway, this came up in a forum post on letsrun.com.  I got a chuckle out of it. 

If you spend most of your time running, you don't have time to have any fun or do anything else that might affect your running

Yeah, that feels about right.  I can't even finish reading the book I was reading (on running) because I've been too busy running.  :)  Oh well. 

Illinois Half Marathon 1:46:34

The Illinois Half was my first real race of the 2011 season.  It was also the first time I have run a half for time, rather than survival/to finish. 

My training this winter was a little unconventional.  My focus was on “getting fast.”  I spent a good amount of my time, something like 50+%, running at either 5k pace or T pace.  My MPW dropped from something like 40 to something closer to 20 most of the winter.  About 6 weeks out from the race I added some distance and race pace specificity to my run.  My goal was pretty clear, I wanted to close the gap between my Daniels predictor for HMP and my actual HMP.  Up until this race, I was running long stuff about 1:30/mi slower than my Daniels predictor and I wanted to dramatically decrease that spread. 

My theme for this race was execution.   Too often when I’m running I think about things like “oh, maybe if I just ran more like this, or did more of that.”  This time, because of my unconventional training, I went out of my way to focus on running my best race and keeping everything else out of my head.  The training choices were made, and my goal was just to use whatever fitness I had built as well as I could and put together a good race. 

My taper was pretty non-existant.  This was a B race for me, and I didn’t want to slow down my on-going bike/swim build.  I did rearrange things a bit.  My week looked like this:

Monday:  Easy Run / Swim 2700Y

Tuesday:  Run 30M HMP / Bike 40k w 2x20@100%

Wednesday:  Swim 1600Y / Run 4M, w 2M @HMP

Thursday: Swim 2700Y

Friday: Run 3M Easy w 1M@HMP

My run volume was tapered to about 50% for the week, and I dropped most of the intensity from Wednesday. 

My goal was to run an average of 8:00/mi for a finish time of 1:45:05.  My Daniels predictor was 7:48/mi for a goal of 1:42:17.  My PR for the distance was set during the Indianapolis Full at 2:04:03 as my half split.   I don’t run outside of triathlon very often, so I didn’t have a great predictor of what I could do, but the marathon split would have to do. 

Race Morning

Lana and I got up at 4AM and left for the race at 4:45, we had to drive about an hour and the gun was at 7:30. 

My pre-race breakfast was 2 peanut butter and honey sandwiches on that 35-calorie bread.  I wasn’t too concerned about banking calories, I mostly just wanted to keep my stomach full.  I ate normally (at no deficit) for 2 days leading up to the race, so I knew I was pretty much on a full tank.  I ate them in the car on the way with a 24 oz bottle of tea and my morning beta-alanine. 

Parking was good, but bathroom accessibility was not.  There are never enough bathrooms for these things. 

At 7:00 am, right before we checked our gear, I drank a 16 oz. cocktail of Gu brew, BCAAs, and First Endurance Pre-Race.

The Race

The wind was about 20 Mph, from the SSE, which was less than ideal.  I knew there were going to be some challenges with wind.  My strategy for dealing with it was to a.) draft a lot and b.) pace based on heart rate instead of GPS speed when I was running into the wind. 

My plan was to run my first two miles at 8:15 and 8:06.  Then I would fall into 8:00 until the 10-mile mark.  After that I’d run a 5k and see what I had.  Based on experience and some calculations on my calorie needs, my plan was to take a Honey Stinger Gold gel at mile 4 and 8 and drink water every time I could without slowing down considerably. 

My actual splits were:

1      8:12

2      8:03  -Just a bit too hot, kept it easy but there was a tail wind.

3      8:00

4      8:06 – Not sure what I did wrong here

5      8:02

6      8:07 – This was South into the wind

7      8:09 – For these miles I ran by HR at < LTHR and drafted

8      8:03

9      8:02

10  8:00 – From here on I ran pretty much on RPE/HR.

11  8:00

12  7:59

13  7:40

13.1  7:06

Post Race

After the race I waited just a few minutes for Lana to finish.  She PR’ed by 5 minutes as well.  After that we got a slice of pizza at the post race food place, and took a shower at the U of I ARC before making our way back to our friends hanging out in the bleachers at the U of I stadium. 

The day after I was 10 pounds heavier.  I went for an easy easy recovery ride on the bike, but I kept it short because I could tell I was hurt.  Based on that response from my body, I’d say I ran pretty much at my current fitness, and couldn’t have asked for much more.

Results

Overall I ran 1:46:34 against my predicted time of 1:42:17.  It also appeared that the course was about .1 miles long, based on about every GPS watch out there. 

I closed the gap on my Daniels goal pace considerably, from 1:30/mi to about 0:12/mi.  I’ll take it.  I trained hard this winter, and I’ve come a long way.  I also executed a very good race with that hard-earned fitness.  I couldn’t really have done much more / better this time and I’m very happy with the results.

Thank you's all around, especially to Lana for her love and support, to my friends for their solid advice on all things multisport, Endurance Nation for their awesome and brutal Out Season coaching, K-Swiss and Saucony for making the best running gear available, and Honey Stinger for the best gel out there!

Why It Matters

“Nothing can beat the CRR of the Open Corsa EVO CX II”

“Tuesday's ride put me at -23 TSB, I need to back down a bit for this part of the season.”

“There's no real reason to race that 5k, I need 50 seconds for the next VDOT and that's not happening in two weeks.”

“I got you a 2010 team GXP BB to go with your new crank.”

These are all small parts of conversations I've had in the last week. Living the life of a triathlete, chatting with other athletes, leads to a lot of conversations just like this. Bike mechanics, running, swim drills, and the stuff that goes with swimming, biking, and running, occupies are scarce free time. That's ok. It's fun, it's interesting, it keeps my mind as engaged as my body in this demanding lifestyle. It's a healthy outlet. It's a bonding opportunity. I wouldn't have it any other way.

There's more to being an athlete than training and polishing your bike though. Sometimes I forget that, but this weekend I was reminded in a big way.

Most Saturdays I wake up, eat some oats, do a bike workout, take a shower, and then get on with life. But there was something bigger on the agenda for last Saturday. Since the previous week, my six year old son William had been asking for me to take him to the track to run. He's been running the kids runs at our local 5ks, and he's really caught the running bug, to the point that he decided he wanted to practice.

By the time I was off the bike on Saturday, William had his running clothes on. We had lunch. “Dad, I'm going to eat good food so I can run really fast today,” he annouced. “That's a great idea, what do you think you should eat?,” I asked. “Umm, apples, bananas, and probably not ice cream,” he said. “That's all pretty good stuff,” I said. “And ice cream is okay sometimes too,” I added, “especially after really long runs.” William smiled and asked “Like 50 miles?” “Yes, I answered, especially after 50 miles.”  Apparently he's an aspiring ultra runner...

A few minutes later we were at the track. Like any kid, William only knows one way to run. All out! And that kid is fast. We would slow down to a trot every now and then, but as soon as someone was anywhere near us, he was determined to run them down. We had run about 4 laps on the indoor track when I told him that 9 laps was a mile. After that, it was on. He was determined to run a mile. So we did. And we learned about pacing along the way!

My 6 year old has a better handle on eating, and can run a faster mile, than I did at 30. He loves his chocolate chip cookies, don't get me wrong. But there is room for cookies and fast miles in life.  And after all that running, we had some cookies and played some playstation. There is room in this life for relaxing on the couch on a Saturday afternoon too.

Living the life of a triathlete has probably saved my life by giving me something healthy to throw my type A personality into, but if that weren't enough it now allows me to lead by example for my son. Sharing a run with him Saturday meant sharing lessons on pacing yourself, balancing work, and play, and making good food choices. It meant bonding with him, and lots of quality time.

So, it's monday now. I'm still talking about gear ratios and training stress scores, but my run with William is still at the front of my mind. I won't see him again until thursday, but he's already asking about our next run, and that's why it all matters.

The Off Season

So what have I been up to this off season?  I’ve been busy!   I’m getting revved up for the final push to Ironman Wisconsin.  I’ve been building towards this goal for around 3 years now, and it seems like the pieces are all finally falling into place.

General Training

I’m approaching training in a somewhat untraditional way this year.  I’ve built a lot of intensity in and lowered my volume considerably.  I’ve been using Endurance Nation coaching to help me with this plan.  It appears that I’ll be coming into this season a good deal faster because of it.  It’s been rough though, all that intensity is…well…intense…

Medical Stuff

The intensity plus the cold resulted in the discovery that I have exercise induced asthma.  After steelhead last year I had a bit of an asthma attack, although I didn’t really know what that was at the time.  This winter I had another, more serious asthma attack.  A trip to the doctor later I’m now “fixed” with an inhaler.  It was a bit scary at the time, but it’s very controllable.  Life moves on. 

I’m also dealing with some biomechanical stuff related to the knee repair that I had done when I was huge and fell in the snow.  More on that later as it shakes out…

Bike Fitting

I recently went to visit Get a Grip Cycles in Chicago for a professional bike fit.  They spent a bunch of time looking at my flexibility, anatomy, and goals and put me on a fit bike.  Then they put me on a fit bike and did some motion capture video analysis to really get my fit dialed in.  They did good work, and I’m more comfortable than ever on Karma (my Cervelo P3).

Swimming

I’ve been working hard, and not so hard, on my swimming.  All the intensity in my bike/run training has really left me wiped out.  A lot of the folks training with EN stop swimming during the off season because of stress involved with their bike/run training, and the “return on investment” of off season swimming.  I stopped for a while myself.  I missed it though, so I made a compromise and took my swimming back to the drawing board.  I stopped pounding out yards, and started doing entire swim sets of drills.  Drills, drills, and more drills.  Now I can bilaterally breath, swim with much less effort, and swim a bit faster as well.  It was time well spent, and it helped keep the weight off this winter!

The Other Stuff

Life has been very busy, and there isn’t really much time for all that much “other” stuff, but this off season has found me a little extra time and I’ve been having some good times.  I’m cooking my way through all the recipes in the book “Food Matters” by Mark Bittman (what an awesome book!!!).  I’ve also managed to finish all three God Of War games, Heavy Rain, and a few other titles on my PS3.  I’m really working to find some balance in all of this, and so far I’m winning…but it’s a fight!  Healthy is more than just triathlon though. 

St. Pats 5k. 22:09

The race season has officially began.  Lana and I ran in the Bloomington/Normal St. Patrick's Day 5k today.

I had a pretty good day.  I ran 22:08, improving on last year's 25:03.  I've been working hard this winter on my run, and it seems as if that work is starting to pay off.  I pushed pretty hard today.  In the last 800m I gave myself permission to vomit, and started wondering what that Jimmy John's I ate for lunch was going to look like on the pavement.

I'll have more about the off season coming up in my next post, I have lots to report but that warrants it's own post. 

My plan is to run my daniels E pace for IMOO, so today I earned the right to run a 9:28/mi marathon on the big day.  Can I hold that together?  Who knows, but it's at least a target to shoot at.

Running in a Blizzard

Disclaimer:  You should not run in a blizzard.  I did because 1.  I'm an idiot. and 2. I had the stuff and experience to do it safely.  Don't try this at home.

There's a blizzard going through Central Illinois at the moment.  Big snow, big wind, big cold.  My day started pretty normally.  I woke up, ate some breakfast, donned the spandex, and got on the bike.  After that, shower and off to work.  About an hour in it became very clear that we were about to get a big big snow.  A few hours later we were sent home.  So, I did what any runner would do...I went to the gym to try to get my run in before it closed.  Alas, I was too late.  The gym was closed as well. 

At first I was bummed.  I really hate missing workouts.  Then my mind wandered to some people I was helping a few days ago, and some of the word on this blog.  And then the endurance athlete started bargaining with the sensible part of me.  "Well, the snow isn't that deep, and you're just supposed to run 5k easy anyway..."  "Besides, you just told all those people to do whatever it takes, and to suck it up buttercup."  Yeah, I did say that.  And then my mood changed.  How many people go running in a blizzard?  This is going to be fun!  Apparently, my inner athlete had thought I was suddenly getting off too easy.  "And oh, BTW, these easy tuesday runs are always form work...so you're running in your vibrams (aka almost barefoot), but hey, that's not totally barefoot, so no whining."

 

So off I went.  It was 16 degrees out, with 25 mph winds gusting up to 55 mph, and a wind chill of -1.  There was, at the time, about 4 inches of snow on the road.  At first it wasn't so bad.  I was working hard to run my easy pace, since I'd probably added about 20 pounds of clothing.  The snow wasn't so bad at all.  The cold was bad.  It cut right through both pairs of gloves and my hands stopped hurting less than a mile in.  In the cold, the absence of pain is concerning.

The hardest part was the wind and blowing freezing snow/ice.  It really hurt.  My eyes stung to the point that I kept them closed as much as I possibly could.  It was in the worst of this that I started to wonder "why on earth am I doing this?"  It was for me, in my quest to be better than my previous self, sure.  But more than that, it was for the people I've met since my escape from obesity.  I know the fight.  It's every day, it's exhausting, it hurts.  It's not even a fight that can be won, but rather it's a fight you take on for the rest of your life.  I ran in the middle of a blizzard so that I could say "suck it up buttercup" and not be just another fake with a weight loss book talking about the latest gimmick. It was because, for at least today, I'm fighting and I'm winning.

It continued to snow, and after I had been out there around 20 minutes traffic was having a real difficult time making it down the smaller streets.  They certainly had strange looks to share with me however! 

After returning home I stood with my face over a sink of steaming hot water, melting the ice covering my eyes, and grinning like a dumb ass. That was a huge challenge, and also possibly the most fun I've ever had running.

So suck it up buttercup, what's your excuse, a blizzard?

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon 4:11:35

I was running through a field. The ground was passing quickly under my feet and I could feel the wind against my face. My legs jerked against the plastic brace holding my knee together as I transitioned from a deep dream filled sleep to awake. It was a dream. I couldn't run. I couldn't even walk. Even if I didn't weigh 400 pounds, my recent fall on the ice left me immobile and confined to my bed. My weight, combined with a slip walking to my car, resulted in every muscle in my leg being torn away from my patella. The doctors drilled holes to reattach the torn ligaments. I lost the majority of the cartilage under my kneecap in the process. My doctor told me that with some physical therapy I'd walk again, but that I'd need a total knee replacement in a few years, and that I'd have some very severe arthritis.

I remember talking to my mom after that dream. I remember being deeply depressed, telling her that I had a dream about running, and that my injury would keep me from ever being able to run. “Well, lets face it,” she said, “It's not like you were going to be running any marathons anyway.” She was right. It was a rediculous notion.

There was one time in my life that I had legitimately tried to run. I was in first grade. I was the fat kid. There was this girl...Courtney. Courtney was the pretty, popular girl. I was enamored by her, pretty much everyone was. It was gym class. I was supposed to race her. Why? I don't remember. The teacher said go, and we ran. It was my first time (but hardly my last) being “chicked.” Courtney announced to the class that she wasn't even running, she just had walked fast for the win. I was crushed. That was the end of my first running career.

These stories, and a thousand other points of interest in the timeline of my life, were running through my head Saturday morning as I lined up with 9,000 other runners in the dark, cold 27 degree morning air, to run my first marathon. I've come a long way since that first cold morning that left me in the hospital with a messed up knee. I've become brave, and strong. I've become a person that I'm proud to be, a person that doesn't always succeed but always perseveres.

There wasn't a time that I was in danger of DNFing. There were many times that I had to talk myself out of walking. Around 22 miles in I was pretty gone. Was this the dreaded wall? I was at a point where I knew continuing to run at my current pace would result in a finish I couldn't walk away from. I chose to keep going, true, but not at that moment. That choice was made in the thousands of decisions that have defined me, and have gotten me to the starting line. So, that's the truth I found in the marathon. There was no wall for me. There was no one defining moment in the race that I had to push through and reach the other side of. There was my dream of running when I couldn't, there was my race with courtney, there was Lana waiting for me at the finish line, and as always there were the people that would take great pleasure in my failure. The choice had already been made a thousand times over, and four hours, eleven minutes, and 35 seconds after the gun went off, I proved it.

Marathon Update

This weekend I'll be running in the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.  A fall marathon has been in the plan for a while now, but my goals are pretty modest (finish, don't die in the process) so I haven't really mentioned it.


Anyway, this Saturday I'm going to give 26.2 a shot.  My bib number is 2223 if you care to watch from afar.  You can use this link to follow us.  Lana is running the half, and her number is 6640.

In other news, I have a bunch of friends that will be doing IMFL this weekend.  Best of luck to Tim, Mark, Seth, and Jessica!

A Triathlete’s Guide to Barefoot Running

Barefoot running is a hotly debated, and very vogue thing to be doing as a runner.  Popular though it may be, it can easily be misunderstood by Triathletes working to maximize gains in three sports all at once.   Hopefully this guide will serve as an overview into the world of running unshod and/or less shod than most. 

So, who are these barefoot runners?

The barefoot community is…um…eclectic at best.  The gurus of the barefoot world are typically wizened old runners that have been running unshod for a long time.  Luckily, they’re easy to identify because they put barefoot in front of their name.  Why?  I dunno.  Ask them.  The Yoda of the barefoot world is Barefoot Ken Bob.  Arguably the most popular barefooter however, would be Barefoot Ted.  Barefoot Ted was introduced to the world by the book “Born To Run” by Christoper McDougall, a converted barefooter himself.  (Which is a must read by the way)

So they run without shoes?

Sort of…  There are a few different types of barefoot runner.  I’ll try to explain.

Zen Barefooter:  These are the hardcore folks in the barefoot world.  They run without shoes, as often as possible, on just about every surface.  They rarely wear any type of shoe, and only do it when conditions require it.  In other words, barefoot is their default.  They just dig it, they like the connection with their environment, and the feeling of running barefoot.

The Mostly Barefooter:  This is where most people in the barefoot world live.  They do some or all of their weekly miles in huaraches (sandals for running), vibram five fingers, or some other type of footwear that is made to protect your feet from the ground while still allowing you to feel barefoot.  They may still do some running completely barefoot. 

The Minimalist:  Not actually a barefooter per se, but a very close cousin.  The minimalist runs in very light trainers or racing flats with minimal heel drop and no medial posting. 

Ok, so there are various types of nuts and hippies that run without shoes, why should a Triathlete care?

Good question, glad you asked.  You did ask, right? 

The answer is luckily an easy one.  Doing some barefoot work will very likely help you become a better runner than you are now.  Here is how I see it:

Run Velocity = Aerobic Efficiency + Biomechanical Efficiency

If you want better running performance (and who doesn’t…) you need to increase one of those two variables. 

Bio-mechanical Efficiency:  (AKA Running Economy) This is your body’s ability to convert energy into velocity by way of your muscles.  Barefoot running provides immediate biofeedback on your bio-mechanics.  Pain is a wonderful teacher.  Make no mistake, you can make great strides as a runner (pun totally intended) by embracing one of the great running techniques out there, like chi, pose, or evolution running.  However, there are nuances to running in good form that you can learn from barefoot running faster or more completely in my opinion. 

Aerobic Efficiency:  I’m referring here to a combination of Lactate Threshold and VO2max.   As a triathlete you’re probably all too familiar with these terms so I’m going to lump them together into one generic term I call “Aerobic Efficiency.”  If bio-mechanical efficiency refers to the ability to convert energy into velocity, then aerobic efficiency refers to your body's ability to convert glycogen, fat, and oxygen into energy.  I imagine you’re probably asking yourself “how on earth can running without shoes help me convert more fat and oxygen into energy?”  In order to run fast you need to, at the most basic level, run a lot.  Sometimes that will be fast running, sometimes very fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes long; but it’s all running.  All that running simply adds up to lots of miles on your feet.  How do you rack up the miles?  You train.  But here’s the catch.  You can’t train if you’re injured.  How do you prevent injury?  Good running technique.

The pose/chi/evolution/barefoot movements provides a lot of (somewhat subjective, n=1 type) evidence that bio-mechanically efficient runners spend less time hurt and more time training.  A few academics and coaches are beginning to do research to confirm this.  In the process, that improvement in bio-mechanics will get you some free speed in becoming more efficient. 

My Personal Experience

I’ve been in the “minimalist” camp since last December, and I joined the “mostly barefoot” crowd after my A race this year.  Since then, I’ve seen a huge increase in run speed, but as I had already been big into minimalism, not so much of a reduction in overuses injuries.  Overall though, I’m a lot better runner than I’ve ever been.  I’m still making huge performance leaps.  Most importantly, I enjoy running now.

Is it worth it?  Yeah.  Is it a lot of work?  Yes, certainly. 

How To Run Barefoot

I’d be remiss to not talk about this briefly, but there isn’t really a need for me to go into this.  This topic has been done a lot, and it has been done by people much more qualified than I am.  I won’t bother telling you to make the transition slowly…and I won’t tell you to listen to your body…and I won’t…oh…wait…  So, if you want to give it a shot, go over to Google and read up.  Check out http://therunningbarefoot.com/ and http://www.barefootted.com/index.php.

Keep Running…

Mike

Failure...

Tonight was heart breaking. 

My training volume has been huge lately (for me anyway), my sleep has been low, and I haven't had time to eat enough.  Well, tonight that all caught up with me.

I set out on my long run, and was feeling flat right away.  About 4 miles in I was struggling to maintain my VDOT LSD pace and I was sweating buckets.  I considered bagging it at 6 miles but I drank 16 oz of water and felt better.  I did my 2 miles of VDOT race pace (which was stupid), but again I wasn't able to hold that pace as well. 

I did pretty well until about mile 6.55, my half way point where I stopped to drink and eat a gu.  My drink break was long, and I had a hard time getting going again.

At about 8 miles, I was suffering.  I stopped to refill my fuel belt for the second time. 

By mile 10, I had to stop and take my socks off.  My feet were so soaked with sweat that I couldn't stand them anymore.  Wicking tech socks == fail.  I had to sit down for a while and recover.  There was just literally nothing left.  I've experienced "I don't want to run anymore" plenty of times, but this wasn't that.  This was, "I physically cannot run...not a 10 minute mile, not a 12 minute mile..."  I took on even more water...I was at something like 64 oz in at this point.

I walked for about 5 minutes and then started back into a jog, only to have to stop again at around mile 12.  I was sick, dizzy, foggy...  I've been to that place before and it's never good.  I ran the last half mile home.

It sucks to fail.  It happens though...and it's a good reminder for me.  That's what it feels like to walk a half marathon.  It doesn't feel good.  I need to do what it takes to make sure that doesn't happen on race day. 

At this point that looks like:
Make sleep and recovery a priority
Don't push more training in than your body can absorb
Keep your calories up

If I can't then I have no business doing breakthrough workouts and I need to adapt appropriately.  I have big goals that require big doses of training, but big doses of training require big doses of recovery protocol. Being a triathlete is about a lifestyle...you can't just do the workouts.  You have to live around the workouts.  Even when you aren't training, you're recovering, fueling, and planning.  I need to do a little bit better on that, or I'm going to have more walking in my future.  Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to a bowl of pasta and a soft bed.

AIDS Walk/Run for Life -22:49

I decided to run the Aids for Life 5k the night before as an opportunity to test and reassess where I am with my running.  It was a small, low key race on a perfect morning, near home.

There isn't much to say about 5ks for strategy.  I just run as fast as I can, and try to hold on when it starts to hurt.  For the most part I'd rather run 10 miles than a 3k.  I don't enjoy running at that level of intensity. 

Things went well though.  I got 2nd in 30-30M, 5th overall, (there were only 32 runners) a new PR, and my first trophy!  I improved on my previous PR by about a minute.  I'm of course really happy about my performance, but I'm not really a 5k racer.  I do use these numbers to set my VDOT scores for my pace training, so the data is important to my overall goals. 

After a brief cool down and some food I got a 2 hour zone 3 bike in.  It was a great training day all in all. 

VO2max Testing

One way of assessing fitness is with a number called VO2max.  The higher your VO2max, the more intensely you can exercise, and in general the VO2max of someone that is well conditioned is higher than someone who isn't in such great shape.

Ok, but what is VO2max? 

VO2max is the maximum amount (in milliliters) of oxygen that a person can use in one minute, per kilogram of body weight.  Brian Mac explains it in depth on his website, so if you want to know more that's where I'd suggest you go. 

Why do I care what my VO2max is?

The primary purpose for the fitness assessments I've been doing in this year's preseason is the establishment of a baseline of fitness.  I want to be able to repeat this tests at later dates and refer back to them so that I can evaluate how well my training is going.  Quantifiable metrics are the name of the game here.

Additionally, a more accurate VO2max will allow me to more accurately estimate my calories burnt in gym sessions with my Polar HRM, and that should hopefully help with my nutrition.

Polar HRMs use a secret sauce for calorie burn estimation, but it is thought to have once resembled this polynomial (although now Polar uses resting HR as a variable and that isn't expressed below):

Let C = KCals and weight = the person's weight in Kgs.

Men: C/min = (-59.3954 + (-36.3781 + 0.271 x age + 0.394 x weight + 0.404 x VO2max + 0.634 x HR))/4.184
Women: C/min = (-59.3954 + (0.274 x age + 0.103 x weight + 0.380 x VO2max + 0.450 x HR)) / 4.184

So clearly, the amount of calories your HRM reports burnt is rather dependant on VO2max.  

Estimating VO2max

So, outside of lab testing, how can you accurately estimate your VO2max?

There are quite a few ways, however the one I chose based on the environment I had available was the Balke VO2max test.

You can read about the testing protocol in detail at the above link, but essentially it's very simple.  Run around a track as fast as you can for 15 minutes and record your distance.  You're supposed to use a 400m track, and my track was 9 laps/mile (roughly 179m/lap).  In 15 minutes, running as fast as I could, I covered 3168 meters. 

Using this formula:  (((Total distance covered ÷ 15) - 133) × 0.172) + 33.3 gives me a result of 46.75 mls/kg/min VO2max

How accurate is this number?  Well it's probably good enough to set my heart rate to, and additionally as long as I repeat this exact test in the future it will serve as a measure of improvement to some degree.  According to Mac's website the correlation between this number and  actual VO2max is high as well.  

Estimating Caloric Burn

What does this mean for my energy expenditure estimations?  Well, the default setting on my HRM is a VO2max of 36, which would be about the norm for a non athletic 30-39 female, which is perhaps a safe bet for the typical Polar F6 consumer, but I believe it was causing my HRM to grossly under report calories burnt for me.  

For example, I recently did a bike ride averaging 150 W for 60 minutes.  Assuming 22% efficiency, which is conservative at best, that would indicate a calorie burn of:

150W = 150 J/s

3600 seconds * 150 J = 540 KJ / 4.184 (conversion rate between KJ and KCals) = 129 KCals

129 KCals / .22 (22% efficient, yeah I wish I was that good...) = 586 Calories burnt.  However in this same time frame my Polar F6 was reporting about 286 Calories burnt.  

I'm expecting that my new and more accurate VO2max will greatly improve the estimated calories burnt, but we will find out when I bike tonight...

Bass Pro Shops Maynard Cohick Half Marathon

This was a really special race to me.  I wasn't running to set a PR or to try to be the fastest in my age group.  In fact, there was no "me" to this race.  This race was about "we."  This was Lana's A race for the year, and I had the privilege of running with her.  It was a great opportunity for me to do the half marathon format before my first ironman 70.3 next year, sure enough, but being able to train and run with my most important person was the best part of this experience by a long shot.


We lined up for a 7am start on Nov 1st, the same day everyone changed timezones.  Regardless, everyone seemed to make it to the start on time.  After a short invocation and the babershop quartet style singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" by the sons of silver dollar city (did I mention I was in the SOUTH?) the gun went off and we waited to start running.

The first few miles were very uneventful, aside from having to work a bit to settle into our pace. 

There seems to be a bit of a cult following for Jeff Galloway in Springfield, Mo and as such there were MANY Galloway training groups running the race.  The only thing worse than one person suddenly stopping in front of you is a whole group of people suddenly stopping in front of you.  Lame. 

Around 7 miles in we were greeted by Lana's parents, who had driven all the way from Minnesota to cheer for us.  They had actually made signs for us!  It was really cool! 

A few times in the race we passed a woman cheering loudly with a sign that just said "woo hoo."  We took note of her each time.  That following Thursday she would be the instructor for a spinning class we would both attend.  Small world...

At around 12 miles we were both showing some pain on our faces, and things started getting hard.  I was starting to cramp very badly.  In the end though, we made it through and rounded the corner to finish strong.

Post race we were treated to Miller Lite (which appears to be some strange type of yellow water, I wouldn't  recommend drinking that crap...) and biscuits and gravy.  Did I mention I was in the south?


After a quick shower we were out to get some real food (and throwed rolls) at Lamberts, which is really the coolest place ever.  My food log would later reveil I put down 1400 calories there, and it was delicious!  I had turkey, dressing, gravy, throwed rolls, potatos, fried zuccini, etc.  Wow, lots of food.
 
So that was the half marathon.  But wait one second... Who was this Maynard Cohick character anyway?  Maynard Cohick was a famous lawyer who would run between clients appointments in Springfield and his office in Republic.  When he wasn't doing that, he was breaking records climbing mountains.

Unfortunately this would ultimately cost Maynard Cohick his life. 

Maynard Cohick spent much of his life traveling around the world; he died on top of it. In his last letter to Jeanne, received about the time of the accident on Annapurna, Maynard wrote: "I love you very much, and hope this long absence hasn't been too difficult for you. Tell all the gang I said hello and the next time you hear from me, I will have been to the summit."  --Lance Feyh, Living the Life with Mountainzone.com

As I write the ending to this chapter of my life, framed by multisport, I can't help but think about the mountains in my own life.  Yeah, it takes some endurance to run 13.1 miles, no doubt.  But living 386 miles away from your best friend and greatest love is a real test of endurance.  Lana, I love you very much, and hope this long absence hasn't been too difficult for you.   We will be at the summit soon.