That’ll Leave a Mark

It came upon me so quickly, like jumping into a pool of hurt.  I’d diagnose it as overtraining, but looking over my fitness record, I’m not seeing the “over” part of that condition.  Maybe the bar got lowered on my performance and no one included me on the distribution list.  Whatever the explanation, I am beat.  My legs are tired, sore and stiff.

Exhibit A was that 21 mile run a month ago that was 40 seconds per mile slower than my usual long training run.  Exhibit B was the first RMRR fall Marathon Training Series 20 mile race a few weeks ago.  With five miles to go my pace rose a full minute per mile.  Exhibit C was today’s 20 miler.  I have run much faster training runs.  Times and paces are relative and one man’s slow is another man’s fast, so I won’t bore you with specifics. 

Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, defines overtraining as a physical, behavioral, and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual's exercise exceeds their recovery capacity.  Maybe that is what I’m suffering, but I’m not fully convinced.  It is difficult to identify the issues, but the results are hard for me to accept.  Could it be that I’m slowing down and just need to adjust my expectations and learn to grow slow gracefully?  At every race there are guys who pound the ground far more minutes than I do and they receive my admiration.  Part of being an endurance athlete is being able to endure and pain is part of the gift we share.

There’s the pain of tearing your Labrum; generically called the rotator cuff.  In October 2009 I tripped and stuck my right arm out to catch my fall.  I knew instantly that damage had been done.  I waited six months, until after ski season, to have surgery to repair it. 

There’s the pain of dislocating your shoulder.  I crashed while leading a criterium in 1986 and can still recall the pain of pushing my shoulder back into its socket. 

There’s the pain of breaking a bone.  When I was in eighth grade I broke a bone in my hand while tagging a runner out in a baseball game.  That was on a Thursday evening.  I finished the game, played trumpet in a concert the next night and played another baseball game Saturday morning.  It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that I had the bone set.  I also broke a bone in my foot in 2008 and ran several miles before being convinced to wear a walking cast.

There’s the pain of a spinal headache where there is not enough cerebrospinal fluid in the brain.  I lost two days of my life from this while I laid on the floor in the fetal position.  Any movement led to a round of vomiting. 

There’s the pain of running the 2005 Boulder Backroads Marathon with a torn hamstring.  I qualified for Boston at that race.  There’s a great photo of the back of my leg, red from the subcutaneous hemorrhaging. 

Then there’s the reality of declining performance.  It is the unspoken part of the trinity; death and taxes.  It is the 800 pound elephant at the refreshment table after races.  Old guys may rule, but they can’t beat Eric Greene in a foot race.  Mandatory retirement for most occupations was eliminated by the EEOC in 1967.  The way I feel right now we should impose it in amateur athletics.  It would give me a way to save face.  My cop out would be ‘sorry guys, I’d love to keep racing, but they have their rules’.  But at what age do we make the cut-off? 

More impressive still is the pain that Scott Jurik describes in his book “Eat & Run”.  Scott is a legend among hard-core runners and has fashioned a lucrative career as an ultramarathoner.  He runs, and wins, grueling races in excess of 100 miles, in a wide array of usually inhospitable environments: Death Valley, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Mexico’s Copper Canyon.  And he does it on a completely plant-based diet.  His story is one of an average Midwestern kid growing up on meat he caught or killed himself who becomes a vegan elite athlete.  The book is part memoir, part training guide, part vegan manifesto.  The inspirational message is that running is less dependent on physical skill than it is on willpower.  The book is far more educational, informative and inspiring than this blog.  Log off now and go buy his book. 

In Defense of Cotton

Lyle Eldon Case of Greenwood Village died in his sleep on August 16^th.  He was 79 years old.  Though I never met him, he had an impact on my life.  If you run along the Highline Canal path, he impacted yours, too.  A Geologist during his professional career, Lyle was responsible for building the tunnel for the Highline Canal path under University Boulevard.  Old-timers will remember what a freak show it used to be at that intersection.  This week’s entry is dedicated to Lyle.

I have a very famous relative named Cotton.  He lived in New England at the turn of the 18^th century and was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister and prolific author.  He left no name-bearing descendants.  If he’d had an iPod, he’d have listened to Bach.  He is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials.  I am not writing about him.  I am writing about cotton, the fiber. 

The weather has changed.  The temperatures during my early morning runs have been in the 50s this week, 52 on Thursday.  The humidity is steady and below 30%.  The grass in the open spaces is turning yellow, like the color of sweet Vidalia onions.  With this change I have been running in cotton T-shirts instead of technical shirts.  What a great feeling.

Cotton holds water, so it gets wet when you sweat.  I like that feeling.  It reminds me that I am working.  Cotton gets stronger when it gets wet so it almost feels like it is hugging you.

Here are some of the other benefits of cotton:

It is hypoallergenic and dust-mite resistant, which means it is the best choice of material for people who suffer from asthma or allergies, or those who have sensitive skin prone to irritation. 

For people concerned with environmental issues, cotton clothing makes a lot of sense. Cotton is biodegradable and a renewable resource.  During processing, less than 10 percent of it is lost or deemed non-usable.  

Organic cotton clothing is even better: no pesticides are used to grow it, which means fewer chemicals in the environment and less exposure for the people growing it. 

Cotton clothing is inexpensive, durable, and easy to care for.

There are times when I prefer the wicking benefits of technical fabrics, like in races or during the winter or when it is really hot out.  But there is a window when wearing cotton feels better.  Wicking fabric is a term most commonly associated with performance and technical t-shirts.  This style of t-shirts is used most in athletic events because of its ability to breathe and keep the user's skin dry from sweat.  

Wicking is the flow of liquids through porous media.  In t-shirt terms, this translates into the fabric being breathable, allowing sweat to transfer from the wearer's body to the air around them.  This has a few extra benefits to it including being antimicrobial and lightweight.  Wicking material is typically a synthetic fabric such as polyester or a combination of polyester and cotton.  Since wicking fabric is so technical, it does in fact cost more than standard t-shirts.  

The main drawback to technical shirts is odor retention.  There are a lot of nooks and crannies for your bacteria to nest.  The result is a stinky shirt.  The solution is to run the shirt through the dryer.  This kills the bacteria and makes the shirts less stinky.

So I am in the eighth month of this quest.  I am trying to find the meaning of life through running.  I have run on dirt, grass, cement, asphalt, cinder, ground up tires and rock.  I have run in the rain, snow, hail; in blazing dry heat and 80% humidity.  I have run at an hour some people consider the middle of the night and when the sun has been high in the sky.  While I log my miles, I could not tell you how many I have run since January 1^st.  There’ll be time enough for counting when the year is done.  So far I have come up with more questions than answers, but it has been a great trip.  And so, that is why I lace up my shoes and head out the door; one foot in front of the other. 

Totally Random

It is a 50 minute walk from Pittsford to Bushnell’s Basin along the Erie Canal; long enough to contemplate many things.  It takes me 25 minutes to run that same distance.  From that evidence I deduce that I run twice as fast as I walk.  It is an odd dichotomy.  I’m no Ryan Hall, but I run relatively fast compared to other guys in my age group, but I feel ungainly when I walk.  Maybe it’s my long legs.  The effort it takes to swing my legs forward and the time that it takes to stride are so great.  The small electric impulses that leave my brain to contract my muscles and move my joints must be traveling on a very crowded highway.  Maybe I’m over-thinking it.

On this recent trip I walked a fair amount.  The hotel I stayed at was less than a half a mile from an access point to the Erie Canal.  On an early morning run I sensed a presence and looked over my left shoulder.  There were two bucks running just behind me.  The turn of my head startled them and they bolted into the woods.  On two of my runs I saw an old timer like me rowing a single scull on the canal.  If I lived there, I would be that guy.

For several years I have been running many days a week and my grasp of why I run continues to grow.  I find running, whether I am running well or not, deeply satisfying and this blog has been an attempt to express my thoughts.  On days like today where I am completely taxed, running brings more pleasure than easier pursuits. 

Well, that was fast.  My replacement Garmin Forerunner 205 was waiting for me when I got home from my trip to Rochester, NY. 

Today was the first installment of the RMRR’s Fall Marathon Training Series.  The races start and finish at the Westminster City Park.  The course runs on the Big Dry Creek Trail.  It is mostly flat with a few, rolling hills.  The course surface is a combination of smooth dirt path and paved bike path.  Today’s event was cannibalized by yesterday’s Georgetown – Idaho Springs ½ Marathon and there were only about 40 athletes in the 10 and 20 mile races combined.  I felt the effects of a week at sea level.  

I have some family in town this weekend and yesterday we took the cog railway to the top of Pikes Peak.  It was a beautiful, clear day.  It is hard to believe the temperature swing of 50 degrees from the station in Manitou Springs to the top of the mountain. 

The last time I took the train was with my parents on the 4^th of July, 2007.  When we got on the train to make the return trip down the mountain, Matt Carpenter was sitting in the seat next to the conductor.  For those who aren’t familiar, Matt is one of the greatest trail runners of all time.  Among his many running successes he is an 18 time winner on Pikes Peak (6 Ascents, 12 Marathons) and course record holder of both.  He won them both (the Double) in 2001 and 2007.  His web site “Oxygen is Overrated” has a lot of information about the Pikes Peak marathon and other writings on the sport of trail running. The Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon will be held next weekend, having been postponed due to the savage wildfires that swept through the foothills a month ago.

When I saw Matt, he had just run up the mountain and was taking the train down.  He was wearing a long sleeve technical shirt and shorts.  The temperature was in the 30s and he was convulsing from the cold.  I offered him my wind breaker, but he refused.  I couldn’t bear seeing him shiver, so I started to take my jacket off, but he was adamant.  He is much tougher than I am and it shows in his signature line: go out hard, when it hurts speed up!

Acquiring Satellites

Way back in 2006, when GPS watches were starting to appear on the wrists of runners, I made the statement “I’ll get one those when someone wearing one beats me.”  That happened on June 11^th of that year at the Rocky Mountain ½ Marathon when Jay beat me while wearing a Forerunner 201.  I bought a Garmin Forerunner 205 the next day.  It served me very well for six years. 

A month ago it started acting up.  It would turn off if I pressed the mode button or twisted the unit.  Then the battery drained faster than usual.  Then it would stop after about an hour and a half of use.  Then it just stopped working altogether.  At that time I contemplated life without a GPS and decided I needed to get another unit.

What did we do before GPS units?  Remember how you had to wait for the next mile marker to know how fast you ran the last mile?  And what happened?  You went out too fast, but got the news at one mile intervals.  With a GPS you can watch yourself blow up in real time.  What would Frank Shorter have done if he had the benefits of a GPS watch?   

There are more GPS watch options now than in 2006.  Garmin is a pioneer in GPS devices and has about a dozen units in the Forerunner line.  The Forerunner 610 is the most advanced GPS running watch on the market.  It has a full functional touch screen interface that allows for quick navigation of its many features.  Made partially out of metal the watch is both durable, comfortable and professional looking as well as being one of the most advanced GPS watches on the market.

But Garmin has competition. 

Motorola has the MOTOACTV which is a next generation touch screen GPS fitness tracker and smart MP3 Player.  Not only can you track your daily activity, you can also track over 30 metrics on your run, cycle, walk, elliptical trainer, or step machine.  The MOTOACTV can be worn on the wrist, mounded on a bike or worn with an arm band or belt clip.  The MOTOACTV can sync with your iTunes or music library.  The MOTOACTV then works out which music you train best to and collates a playlist for your future sessions.

Nike has created a GPS that is perfect for recreational runners who need something stylish and simple to use.  A great feature of the Nike GPS watch is that you can download 5k, 10k, Half or Full Marathon training plans from Nike straight to the watch.  It will then prompt you to run the required distance that the schedule dictates on the correct days in order to train you up for your desired race distance.

Timex has designed one of the most advanced GPS watch on the market to date.  Not only does it offer a wide range of training metrics but it is also waterproof to 50m and has a large display.  It also offers a powerful on-line training portal for recording and tracking aspects of your fitness such as health and diet as well as your running, cycling and swimming.

Suunto Oy, based in Finland, produces and markets sports precision instruments for Diving, Training and Outdoor sports.  The Suunto Quest is an advanced heart rate monitor that you can hook up to either a GPS pod or a Footpod in order to keep track of your distance.  The best thing about the Suunto Quest is that it tells you exactly how intense your training is and how much recovery time you need after each run.  You can also download training plans to the watch and it will tell you exactly how close to your daily mileage or intensity goal you are during your run.  

I was overwhelmed by all of the choices.  So, I decided to spend the $69 to get my Forerunner refurbished.  I mailed the unit back to Olathe, KS on Friday and the replacement unit should arrive in a couple of weeks, just in time for the final run up to the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.  Today I ran 21 miles at about 8:00 per mile and felt like I couldn't take another step.