April 28 - May 4
Five runs (M, T, W, Sa, Su). Two were 50min, two were 30min, and one failed to satisfy my moral quota. Nevertheless, they were. And that is what I was aiming for. Monday's 50min was particularly buoyant, causing me to suspect that the fitness turkey might be caffeinated. Heather, will chasing turkeys - metaphorical and otherwise - be involved in the punishments you administer?
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monday-
10 miles. started late owing to a heavy drizzle.
seriously: saw a green laser looking light shooting out of a campus building and *curving* across the sky. yeah: curving. w.t.f.
April 28 - May 4 48mi last week. Includes an approximately 22mi trail race that took 2:37. My longest run and time on task for the year. Rode my bike to warm up. 25 min to the start from home. Sucked down 4 Powergels and about 2+ bottles of water throughout. Great weather. Sunny. Mid-60's at the finish. Felt really good on the 6 mi run today -- to retrieve my bike from the start line...
Missed my run yesterday due to plagiarists. Decided it was more important to my mental health to get out all of the letters I had to send. I still have to type up all of the reports for the Provost's office today. I'm revising my estimate of how much time it will add to my life to upwards of 60 hours. I'm thinking about writing a paper about the ways in which the current climate of concern for student fairness and empowerment is leading to encouraging faculty to ignore issues of academic dishonesty at the exact same time that we are trying to increase writing initiatives on campus.
I swear I'm not missing a run this afternoon, though. They've already more than messed with my life.
Erik, your post reminds me that I need to start solving my fueling issues as I get back into heavy training next month. I expect to be picking all of your brains...
sounds like a great paper.
May 6: Training Run 1:20;24. Was trotting along A & W rev. as I wasn't thinking I felt good enough for MTPO to be a good idea when I had the bright idea to run along the rr track on the dirt and gravel. It felt so nice that I kept following it across Central, then Johnson, then Stinson, and before I realized it I was hell and gone from home on the far side of New Brighton. Fortunately this coincided with my hip/groin area getting progressively warmer. Split off the tracks at that pointed and ambled homeward as the rain got going, which was nice. Twice as long as I had generally intended to be out, but more than twice as pleasurable as I anticipated running to be today. I'll take it.
I'm all ears if anyone out there has some good thoughts on long race fueling, particularly the ol' pre-race component. I've been having an increasing amount of trouble with all of that, which is annoying.
Brooksie, I assume that's a reference to the fact that the race was sponsored by a local brewery?
May 5
9 (1:00) Macalester Track.
2+ WU, 1 easy tempo, 4x 400, 1 easy tempo, 2+ CD.
Apparently Mac locks the track now. Fortunately, the fence isn't too high. The workout felt ok, but the 400s were definitely faster than I've run in a long time. I'm not holding my breath for Thursday.
6:09, 73, 73, 72, 70, 6:03
May 6
11 (1:17) River.
Easy, in the rain. Felt good.
Finally! I didn't get out until nearly sundown, but I managed a little over an hour in one of my usual haunts. There's a little path in a local park near here - when combined with a loop through the adjoining cemetery, it's around 1.5 miles. The reason I love running there is that there's a male mallard in the pond that has been following me for the nine months we've been living here. It's now really adorable, as he will run/fly after me for nearly a full 1/4 mile loop, quacking all the time.
So, I've always though that I fueled pretty good for races, but after winding up in the med tent following the Trials, I'm thinking I could use some help. I am guessing that I didn't take in enough fluids - just was having a hard time stomaching anything.
My other problem is that I don't train with what I race with. I generally don't take much water during training runs and only occasionally use gels. Usually I'm fine, but I've had the occasional post-long run nausea and dizziness.
Many years ago I had a bout of hyponutremia following a horribly hot half marathon followed by 2 hours of trying to find Kelly in the crowds. I think I have electrolyte issues.
Chris and anyone else, you up for discussing fueling approaches?
yeah, i need fueling help to. i mean, i think i know that we all need to work on (in training and racing) spending more time with bottles in our hands, making sure we get everything down. corey's coach recommends drinking like 20 oz 15 min before the start of the race, which leads to a sloshy stomach for the 1st 8 or so. the other thing i had trouble with at the trials was balancing the concentration of the gatorade. mine was way too strong, so i could only get a sip in each time.
tueday: 30 min in the morning. 70 in the evening. scratched a RR because it was 80. ran 8 x 200 instead (33 to 29).
day: 15 miles
Matt, have you tried drinking 20 oz. of fluid right before a race/long run? that sounds excessive to me, since I have a tendency towards a sloshing stomach already.
Did you just use gatorade at the Trials? Has anyone tried anything other than gatorade? Many moons ago I tried Accelerade, but it tastes disgusting and is expensive, so I quit. I'm not sure it worked any better.
I'm assuming it generally makes sense to try and combine gatorade and water and gels, etc. in training since that's what we are consistently going to be able to get on the course. I've had the good fortune to be able to place special fluids a couple of times, but since I can't count on it often, I haven't ever tried actually seeing what else would work.
Around 12 miles for me today. Did around 45 minutes on my own, then joined the adult group for their warm-up, then more solo. Feeling a little sluggish today, but so happy to be out there.
May 7: LSCC 58:46, down to Lake St and such. Small group, but good. Legs remain heavy, but improving.
So I feel good about post-race recovery fueling. As far as pre-race and during race stuff, I'm struggling. My hunch is that the majority of my issues are related to general deficiencies in my regular diet, which tends to be rather irregular. But, the trouble seems to start when I start to taper for a marathon. I find it hard and unnecessary to maintain my normal feeding schedule and levels then, but by the time race day rolls around I tend to feel like crap.
As far as raceday, I never used to have issues with this, but lately if I eat anything or even drink some Heed before I go for an easy run or a race, I get all head-woozy or as Hools describes it as the "low blood sugar blues." I even tried this Perpetuem stuff (I've been using Hammer products because the simple sugary things weren't working at all for me) which is supposed to be good for long stuff over 2 hours. I took a bottle of that right before a run and within 10 minutes was crashing.
For mid-race stuff, I think my judgment is a bit clouded since I feel like I've been shooting myself in the foot before I even get to the line. I tried to hold off on gatorade and just drink water until about 7 or 9 miles in at Boston under the notion that by waiting to start putting that stuff into my system for a while it would have a better effect once I started to process it and potentially avoid crashing later in the race. Other circumstances appear to have disrupted that experiment.
I've had some success with gels in the past, but the few times I've used them in training I've noted that they don't last all that long, maybe a half hour-45 minutes. That's probably a good solution but I need to figure out how many and how often to take them.
For some reason, in trail races and real long run/races I've been able to do a lot of eating during the race without any ill consequences. I don't know if that's a result of never tapering (and therefore screwing up my wating for a couple weeks) or the lower intensity of that sorta race.
Anyway, that's enough of me crying. I'll keep playing around with stuff and let you know if I figure anything out. For tomorrow, it's a mile down Nicollet Mall. And lemme tell you, with about 600 to go there's gonna be some fireworks. . .
For general diet stuff, I've been cutting back on wheat and milk lately (ignore the pizza i just ate) and it's really made a difference. much more consistent energy levels, much better (pardon me) bowel function.
in any case: wednesday:
14 miles hill fartlek at elver park.
Yeah, the bowel issues can be a problem...thankfully that one's not troubled me in a race yet. I have had some hellish long runs, though. I don't tend to be too careful during regular training due to not wanting to give up food I like and finding when running two-a-days there's just no way to make sure my eating will always jive well with my runs.
Just got back from Peru over the weekend. Finally managed to return from the southern hemisphere without having picked up some nasty virus (I think). Didn't have a chance to run even once down there, but without a race in the near future, it was probably a good time for a break.
Have run the last two days (6.5 and 9 miles) and have felt horribly out of shape. Suppose that is par for the course. Am getting excited about cross-country in the fall, but will have to figure out how to make Churchill work.
As for fueling, I think that pre-race and training nutrition is really, really important. After noticing diminishing returns in each subsequent season over the past couple of years and having more frequent fueling issues even in shorter races, I decided to see a nutritionist a couple of months ago. After monitoring my diet for a week, she concluded that I was in fact getting only about 1/2 the protein that I needed and probably too little fat as well. While a vegetarian, I had still thought that with the sheer volume of food I ate, I was all right. Evidently not. So now I am trying to be a lot more vigilant about all of that and hopefully it will pay off during the coming training cycle. Anyway, thought that I would pass that along.
Biz- sounds like it could be an insulin issue where you're spiking your blood sugar, then crashing. Not sure if that happens from Heed, since that's supposed to be more complex.
During my first marathon, I drank too little water, and basically no gatorade. I needed more practice drinking on the run, and just wasn't good at it, so it didn't happen. Crashed and burned. Heather probably noticed as she went by on Summit.
Second marathon it was much hotter, and I did quite a bit of running with the bottles they had available. I still hadn't practiced much, but drinking from the squeeze bottles was way easier, and I got a lot more liquids. I also took two gels, starting at ten miles. I took half a gel each at 10, 15, 20 and 23. I'm small, but it definitely helped to have a small energy boost. Other people might take the whole thing each time. Starting early was, I think, a big part of that. Try to stave off energy depletion rather than fight it when it shows up. Just my thoughts. I crashed in the second marathon, too, but it was much less substantial- I didn't slow down as much and I never hit the same wall. My legs weren't as trashed afterwards, and I'd like to think it was the weather's fault.
In terms of diet, I probably have the worst diet around, so I won't say anything. But I'm listening.
Nathan, interesting to know that, as I am also vegetarian (this is my 20th year of being veggie) but have generally felt that my protein needs are being very adequately met.
My largest problem with during-race fueling is that my stomach tends to shut down somewhere between 16 and 20 miles in. I can usually get down gels early, but not late. At the Trials, everything shut down much earlier. I had a hard time even drinking my fluids. I think I might have needed to dilute them more. Usually I take a gel around every 7 miles, so 7, 14, and 21. This time I gagged down the one at 7, but that was it. Everytime I thought about doing it after that point, I felt the gag reflex coming on.
here are a couple links about nutrition and protein:
http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/caryn/protein.html
http://btc.montana.edu/olympics/nutrition/eat11.html
personally, keeping sugar/energy levels consistent seems to make a much bigger difference than protein etc. also, i've been taking kelp, which is badass (the kelp is, i mean).
Matt, why kelp? And what makes it badass?
Thanks for the links. I'll check them out. Sugar may well be part of my problem as it is the temptation I give in to with regularity.
Other nutrition questions - Nathan, do you have any issues with iron? I tend to worry about my iron more than my protein. When I've tracked protein online via tools like fitday I've always been well above what I need, with the caveat that those guidelines are not for particularly active people.
As for my run today - 11 miles around lunchtime. I struggled a bit with this one, probably due to low fuel (another topic of discussion for me - how to time eating. On days when I'm not sure when I'm going to get my ass out the door to run, I tend to underfuel). It was also 83 and 22 mph winds, so I'm sure that didn't help. Still, nice to be out.
kelp is for iodine. badass because not having goiters is badass.
Hope the mile race went well, y'all! Looking forward to reaports.
May 8: Some warmin' up--actually did a decent job of that, worked up a nice lather. Followed that up with, well, a mile. Then there was some coolin' down. Official results aren't posted yet, but I can approximate here:
Took 'er out relaxed, though hit the 400 in 71. Eased back on the effort and actually moved up a bit through the crowd, hitting the half in 2:25. Felt real strong at that point and got a bit antsy. The next 200 was pretty darn quick followed by a fade into the 1200 at 3:37. The last 400 consisted of a series of surges and explosions as I got passed a lot but also did my share of passing. Ended up about 4:53-54ish. I think it's about a second faster than Rice St. last summer, which is a much faster course but was hotter. In any event I think that makes it a "road pr" for the mile. Only 35 seconds or so off of my track equivalent, but it'll have to suffice.
I'll allow the other fellahs to recount their tales, but we had a solid squad with a huge 3rd place finish by Ben Merchant as well as solid races by Rube, Paul Fischer, and Matt Mascioli rounded out the scorers in his Slab City debut!!! Ben Ho had himself a solid race and Tom "freakin" Church made his return to action in glorious fashion.
Poor fueling over the course of the day, not enough water, but it's only a mile so it didn't seem to matter. Nice to have that full-body acid flow going on, it's been a while since I've felt that. Overall, better than Boston. It's pathetic, but I'll call it my best race since the Human Race in March '07. Baby steps. . .
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