Caumsett Park 50K

It is hard to write a lot about a race that is over a loop course. The Camsuett Park 50K was held in a State Park over a 2.6 mile loop. It is the same thing over and over again, so it is not like you have changing scenery to describe. I really don’t mind a loop course though. I find that I get a meditative pleasure out of it. The key to running a loop course is to see how evenly you can do each loop and for the most part this is what I accomplished. In general, you are running with two types of runners. The first kinds are those runners who are faster and wind up looping you; and the second kind, those who are slower, which you loop. Obviously, I tried to loop as many runners as I could and limit the number of runners (and number of times) the faster runners were able to pass me. I was looking forward to this race all week long. It was going to be the first real test of my shins and real distance racing. I didn’t know how they would react and whether or not the pain would build up and force me to drop out. Fortunately, the pain was never that bad, although I could tell that whatever is bothering my shins was greatly limiting my speed. I was able to keep a nice steady pace, but I was concerned with my inability to generate any real speed. This really is only a concern, because I want to run a Boston Marathon Qualifier at the upcoming New Jersey Marathon. I felt that with the number of 20+ milers I’ve done so far this year that I should have been able to maintain a faster pace. I really don’t understand why I have such a lack of speed and this is something I am going to have to discuss with my coach. Perhaps with my shins, it is just not possible for me to run fast at this point. As with any long distance race, I was riding an emotional roller coaster throughout it. There were times that I seriously considered dropping out, when I was wondering why I was bothering to place this punishment on my body. The there would be times I felt good and wanted to keep on going. I am smart enough to know now that a lot of these feelings have to do with the timing of my nutrition. I mostly found that during the first half of the loop I was pretty miserable and wanted to quit, but by the time I got to the second half, the food I had taken in at the aid station/lap counting location would start to kick in and I would feel better. Ultimately though, what I think got me through this race was the announcement I made to my friends on Twitter that I was going to run a 50K this weekend. I didn’t feel like going back later on and telling anyone that I had quit the race because I didn’t feel like going on. I did have a couple of low points. The biggest one was as I was just finishing up my 7th of 12 total loops. I was developing some nasty blisters on my right foot and I knew I needed to take care of them. I stopped at the aid station, grabbed some Vaseline and lathered it on my toes with the blisters. It helped somewhat and I was able to proceed without being in too much pain. The delay cost me 3 minutes which I came to rue later on as it caused me to miss breaking 5 hours on the clock. I came in at 5:01:40 and in addition got passed within the last few feet by another runner as we sprinted to the finish, but more on that later. If only I was man enough to deal with a little more pain, I would have broken 5 hours and moved up a couple of places in the standings. I kept myself fueled throughout the race by drinking from a bottle of HEED that I prepared at home. I am really glad I took that I didn’t rely completely on the food provided by the race. The food at the race was mostly PB&J sandwiches, or which I did eat several, cookies, M&M’s and cola. I alternated my fueling with the HEED and PB&J and cola. It worked well for me and I was never really hungry or low on energy. During the entire course of the race, I was alternating between being too hot and too cold. There were times that the wind was behind you with the bright sun shining down upon you and I wished I didn’t have my running jacket on. Inevitably though, I would come around a last turn that led into the aid station which had a strong cold headwind blowing right through you. At those times I was glad to have my jacket. All I could do was marvel at those runners who ran in short sleeves, singlet’s and shorts. I was dressed for harsh winter conditions. Perhaps I should have dressed a little lighter, so I would have been encouraged to speed up to generate body heat. Once I got past the 7th loop I knew I was more than half way home. At this point I thought I had to do 13 laps, so I was saying to myself, just keep steady and keep running. I guess the high point of the race came around the 10/11th lap when I finally realized that we only had to do 12 laps. I found this out when I was at the aid station and I asked the race director how many total loops we had to do. He told me 12 and I replied “That’s all”. He thought I was a little crazy so I explained to him that I thought we were doing 13. It was like being given a little present. My pace was starting to slow down from the mid 9 min/mile to somewhere in the 10’s. I was happy to know that the race would soon be over with. Once I got into double digit laps I knew I has the race complete. I passed the marathon point at about 4 hours into the race so I knew I had an excellent chance of breaking 5 hours. I wasn’t really paying attention to my watch; otherwise I would have pushed it a little harder on my last lap. It was this last lap that annoyed me as someone passed me within 200 yards to the finish line. I let him take the lead for a little while and then decided to make a move to try to retake him. I held him off until about 30 yards in front of the finish where he caught me and beat me by 3 seconds. I should have waited a little while longer to make my move so as to have the surprise and more importantly, I shouldn’t have stopped to fix that blister, since that is really where I lost the time. In the end, it really didn’t matter though as that extra place had no impact on whether or not I won an age group award. It was though a great sprint to the finish and we both looked at each other and laughed and thanked each other for the strong finish at the end. I felt pretty good after the race and took my time getting ready to leave. I drank some Recoverite to refuel and had a little bit of the post race food. I really couldn’t tolerate anything solid in my stomach at that point, so I was glad to have my recovery drink. Later on when I got out of my car from driving home, my shins were completely shot. It was agony walking to the front door of my house from my car. It made me a little nervous, because I was wondering if I just crippled myself. However, a few ibuprofen fixed me up and I was able to move relatively well after that. To further soothe my legs and shins I took an ice bath. That always a brisk and semi-torturous experience depending on how hot you are after a race. As it was winter time, this bath felt a little more frigid than when I race hard in the summer. I also knew that one of the reasons why my shins hurt so badly was running on worn out sneakers; well at least the right shoe. I wear them out unevenly. Here is a picture of my quite dead right show. I did see my podiatrist the next day to get the blisters on my feet taken care of and to ask him about my shins. He gave me a bit of cortisone in each shin and fitted me with some special orthotics that he invented and is looking to bring to market. He is using me as a case study to see how they work. I need to wait 72 hours before I run again (after the cortisone shots), but I can’t wait to see how I feel in them. Hopefully, I will feel a lot better. I’ll also be starting on a new pair of sneakers as the shoes I wore for the 50K were very sadly worn out. There was no way I should have been running in them. Here is a picture of one of the shoes that shows how worn out it is. Anyway, I hope I recover quickly. My next ultra race is the Queens 60 Kilo (37.2 miles) on March 29. It’s another loop course and I am looking forward to it. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it with a couple of friends. It’s always good to have company of these long runs.

Cry Uncle

So I finally cried uncle last night and gave up a run. I only made it around the corner of my block when I decided that my 9 mile run just wasn’t going to happen. It felt like I was running on stumps instead of legs. All I could manage was an awkward trot and a very painful one at that. If it was just pain in my legs that I felt I think I would have been ok, however, my form was very poor and resembled nothing like running. I finally had to decide that discretion was the better part of valor and turn back home. Once inside I sulked on my couch for a good half hour. I sat there fully dressed in my winter gear thinking that perhaps if I gave the ibuprofen I took just before I went out a longer chance to take effect, that perhaps I may be able to salvage the run after all. I knew in my heart though that I needed to be off my legs. I think part of the problem was taking several days off from running when I went on my ski trip Sunday – Wednesday. I think my legs start to heal, but that when I just pick up running again my legs rebel and say what the fuck are you doing? We are trying to heal over here. Damn, I really think that amputation is a viable alternative at times. I haven’t read anything else that seems to offer a quick fix for shin splints. So as I was saying, I sulked on the couch for about an hour, while my wife insisted I go get on my bike in the basement. I’ve been feeling very depressed lately, which is no doubt due in part to my lack of exercise for the past 4 days. I start to feel really bad if I don’t get a regular fix in. Missing workouts can also put me in a downward spiral as the longer I go without exercise, the worse I feel and the less I feel like exercising. But anyway, I finally managed to get myself into the basement and onto my bike. I was pleasantly surprised to see my legs reacting well to the work and I easily and quickly ticked off two hours while spinning. I entertained myself while riding by chatting with friends on Twitter and on IM and watching movies on TV. I felt good and actually enjoyed the sweaty workout. I don’t know when I will try to run again. It was both legs that were painful and I think they are crying for rest. Either that or amputation. I’ll try for another run this weekend.

9 Glorious Snow Filled Miles

Tuesday night was the first snowfall of the year and I went running in it. It was my regularly scheduled Tuesday night run with my friend Larry and I don’t think either of us would have missed it for anything. It’s so much fun to be out at night during a snowstorm. The world looks different, is all quiet and has a dreamlike quality to it. I will admit that running in several inches of snow is a lot tougher that running on dry pavement, but the extra work only added to the enjoyment of the run. I wasn’t sure whether I should do this run as my shin is really starting to bother me. The snow outside, erased any doubts though as I really wanted to run in it. The snow lightened the impacts of my footfalls and was actually a help in that respect – it made the running easier on my shin. We practically had the park to ourselves and put in a strong 9 mile effort. The ground was slippery at times and the snow slowed our pace considerably. I remarked that when we completely two loops of the park, we were seriously behind schedule. It didn’t matter though, as it was just so nice to be out in the snow. I would say that running in the snow was the best part of my day. However, after I came in from my run, I spent some time with my son wrestling in the living room. He has been on a huge wrestling kick lately and begs me to wrestle him every time I am around. Later, when I was tucking him into bed, I asked him about school, what he did and what was his favorite part of the day. This was the fateful question. He replied that his favorite part of the day was wrestling me just a few minutes earlier. This sent a stab through my heart as I suddenly felt bad about spending the time out of the house running. But it also melted my heart to hear that the best part of my son’s day was wrestling with his dad. My son just knows the right things to say to tear me apart emotionally. I just love that boy so much. I just wish I didn’t feel as though I am sacrificing time away from my children when I go out to do my training. It feels as though I could never do too much for them and what I do is never enough. I suppose that is part of being a parent. God I love my children.

Three Bridges Run – Brooklyn Side

On Sunday I ran with my friend Larry over the 3 bridges that span the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. I say Brooklyn side, since this time we did the bridges in reverse and headed through Brooklyn to the Williamsburg Bridge for our first crossing into Manhattan. We got started around 9:30am and begin the day with a loop through Prospect Park, where we exited onto Grand Army Plaza. From there it was down Flatbush Avenue and onto the NYC Marathon Route through Fort Greene and into Williamsburg. It was supposed to be a cold and windy day, but in actuality it wasn’t so bad. At times it felt positively warm outside, especially when we were running in the sun. When we got into Fort Greene we stopped at McCarren Park for a bathroom/water break. When we came out, the sun had suddenly disappeared and it felt like it dropped 20 degrees. We were only at about 7.5 miles at this point and the rapidly changing weather is what we had to contend with for the remainder of the day. It really wasn’t a problem as long as we kept moving. Otherwise, I tended to get a bit cold when standing still. Once we left McCarren Park, we headed down Bedford Avenue for the Williamsburg Bridge. It was here that I decided to take my first picture of the day. I had brought my camera and asked Larry to take a picture. I am about ½ mile onto the bridge, just before the start of the bridges superstructure/suspension. If you can read the sign you can see that this bridge was completed in 1906. It is hard to believe they built these great structures so long ago. I wanted to take some more pictures once on the center of the Bridge, but felt it was poor form to ask Larry to keep stopping so I could indulge in my picture snapping habit. It was a bit windy running over the Williamsburg Bridge, but the views were fantastic. The run over it took us to the Lower East Side. From there we headed back towards East River. We had a good view of the bridge from there, so we took another picture. Here I am trying to create an action shot. I hope it looks like I am running, though apparently I am heading right for a fence. After this picture, we headed down the east river towards the South Street Seaport and over to the Brooklyn Bridge. We stopped at a street vendor for some refreshments, who asked if we would like a hotdog. I have nothing against dirty water dogs, but not in the middle of a long run. We both got a Gatorade and then sat down on a bench by the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridges pedestrian path. I thought the Woolworth building looked particularly nice today so I asked Larry to take another picture. The building came out great, but I think I look like a dork. We then did our run over the Brooklyn Bridge. The views from here are fantastic, but running the BB is a pain in the ass. It’s just too crowded. Once over the bridge we make a left onto Tillary Street and headed back into Manhattan by way of the south side of the Manhattan Bridge. It made for some excellent hill training. As we ran over it into Chinatown and we wondered if we would see any of the costumes for the Chinese New Year Parade. There was a lot of traffic, but other than that we didn’t see any revelers. We didn’t run for long in Chinatown and just crossed Canal Street for a nice tempo run back into Brooklyn on the North side of the bridge. Once in Brooklyn, we headed back up Flatbush Avenue to Prospect Park. Larry and I were both wearing Polar 625x heart rate monitors which also gives you your distance ran. For some reason my monitor was reading about 1.5 miles greater in distance than Larry’s by this point. When we got back to our starting point in the park, I had just turned 20 miles, while Larry was at 18.2 miles. Larry wanted to turn 20 on his Polar 625x, so I accompanied him for a bonus 1.8 miles. For the record I think my watch was more accurate, so I am going to stick with my total distance on the day being just about 22 miles. Once home, I ate, showered, ate again and then shocked my shin with my TENS Unit. After that I vegged out on my couch and iced my shins for about 40 minutes. My shin felt ok, not great, but not excruciatingly painful. Denial so far is still working out. For some reason, I was feeling a little tired by this point. I was a little concerned with this since 22 miles will have to feel as though it was nothing more than a warm-up at some point. However, I am not feeling tired or sore this morning so perhaps I was just running a little low on energy. My shin was a bit painful today, but nothing too bad. I am still not limping when I walk. Developing a limp will be my litmus test to know I need to back off. In the meantime I am going to relish in my gradually increasing mileage. This week I am scheduled for two 9 milers, a 6 mile and a 24 miler. I am looking forward to them.

Applying the Denial

Well, I am still running on my leg with the painful shin. I just apply some Denial and I am good to go. Denial is a great product, you can get it right off the shelf and all it really costs is some breakthrough pain in the morning. So far the costs have been manageable, although it does seem to get a little bit more expensive every day. But as long as it is just a little bit at a time I think I can manage it. I attribute these rising cost to inflation (aka inflammation), but just so long as the price rises slowly I think I will be able to keep up with it. I am really not sure what I will do if the cost suddenly spikes and I find myself no longer able to afford it. My whole identity as an athlete right now is wrapped up in doing this 100 mile race. I want it very bad and I am willing to put up with a lot. I just don’t see myself doing anything else right now. Well, check that, I can, but I don’t want to do them. Maybe I can spend some time on the Elliptical Trainer at the gym as an alternative to running once a week. At least the motion is similar to running. Last night when I came home from work, I was feeling very tired, slightly nauseous and the Denial was wearing off a bit so my shin was feeling a bit painful. I really wanted to just go to sleep and call it a day, but doing that is not how a 100 mile runner is made. So I lathered on some more Denial, took 3 ibuprofen (works great in combination with Denial) and went out for an 8 mile run. I have to say that once I got going, I started to feel much better. I was very pleasantly surprised. Sometimes when I am tired I get a mile from home, run out of juice and wind up walking. Not last night though. My legs carried me very well and I had a spiffy 8.1 mile run in 1:11:16; only 6 seconds slower than my run on Tuesday night. Not bad considering how I felt when I started and the fact that I once again overdressed. So to answer my Twitter friend Darkgracie’s question “you are crazy! your shin will just hurt worse... is living in denial working for you? *wink*”, - yes, denial is working for me so far. People live in denial all of the time and survive. Denial can take you a long way. I just need my denial to take me 100 miles.

Two Days Off

Ah well, the unexpected has happened and it appears that I will be taking two days off from training this week. I hate when that happens, which is why I never plan for a day off or let myself slack very often. You never know when something beyond your control is going to come up and force you to miss a workout. When this happens, I begin to start feeling all out of shape. I need to keep up with a regular dose of exercise to feel normal. My first day off was Monday. I had intended to spin on my trainer after I got home from work, but I was feeling a little lazy so I said that I’d do it after dinner. Well, that was the end of that. I sat on my couch after eating and promptly started to fall asleep. I just decided to screw the workout and went up to bed at 8pm. I guess I needed the sleep, because I slept through the night without any sleep aids until 7am the next morning. In fact, I wanted to sleep longer, work was my unfortunate reality. Tuesday night though I got back into the swing of things. I had my regularly scheduled run with my friend Larry and we headed out to Prospect Park for a couple of loops (we ran 8.1 miles in 1:11:11). At first I was a little worried about doing this run. On Monday morning, my shin was hurting pretty badly and by Tuesday night it was only somewhat better. So far my method of ignoring the pain and hoping it will go away has been working, but if the pain starts to get any worse, I fear that I may have to revisit that strategy for dealing with the injury. So anyway, it was with a bit of trepidation that I went out and hoped that the pain wouldn’t get any worse. I was feeling ok during the first few miles and I began to relax. The pain was there, but nothing too bad. At just before midway into the run, I remembered about a website on Chi Running that my Twitter friend Gracie told me about. It espouses the idea of running with a more forefoot stride. I changed myself to a forefoot stride a couple of years ago and that had been very successful until relatively recently. In fact it worked until I came back from an injury to my left hipflexor back in September of last year. Thinking about Chi Running, I realized for the first time that perhaps my stride had changed a bit since I came back from that injury. That could explain why my left shin has been such a problem lately. So I re-concentrated on landing forefoot, especially with my left foot and noticed an improvement in the way my left shin felt. It wasn’t much but it was progress. I guess the real test came this morning when I first started to walk around. I was expecting the type of pain that I had on Monday morning, but it just wasn’t there. The shin was painful alright, but it felt different somehow. It was the type of pain I could definitely deal with, even if it is always present. I’ll just need to pay a little more attention to my stride, until really landing forefoot once again becomes natural. So this leads me up to today (Wednesday), in which I need to take another day off from training. I have a school event to go to for one of my children that will take me into late this evening, so I have no chance of an evening workout. I suppose I could have made sure I got to bed real early last night, so I could have done a workout this morning, but I just didn’t feel like making myself go to sleep. In the past, I would take an Ambien to force myself to go to sleep, but that doesn’t really work for me anymore. My body has learned how to fight it off and stay awake right through it. So basically I am annoyed at myself right now for getting myself into a situation where I miss two workouts in a week. Maybe that is a good thing though. Every time this happens to me, which isn’t too often, I get hard on myself and tell myself that it is time to focus and recommit. Every now and then I need to reset myself and get my act in gear. I have a big race coming up and I can’t be fooling around with it. What I put in today will show up tomorrow. It is all cumulative. If I don’t put it in now, I won’t have it to draw upon when I need it most.

Masochism

I am a masochist. I guess though that anyone who is into endurance sports is part masochist though. How else to explain why people push themselves through such great lengths to complete a grueling endurance event. The pain that they receive brings to them a certain level of pleasure, especially when the complete the event that they set out to do. That is a good pain. These days though, I am experiencing a bad pain. The pain in my shins is really becoming a problem. It hasn’t stopped me from running yet, but the pain is almost always present. I am trying hard to convince myself that what I am feeling is pleasure. I need to rewire my mind so that I view this discomfit (understatement) that I am feeling in my shins should be relished the same way as I relish the feel of muscle soreness after a good hard workout. Only difference is that this soreness never goes away. I get to experience the pleasure of it all the time. I guess I am taking my masochism to a new level. I just don’t give a fuck this time around. I’ve let shin pain sideline me for several races in my life and I am fed up with it. I will command my body to do what my mind wants it to do regardless of the way my body feels about it. I will keep taking another running step until the point comes that my leg collapses because it is no longer able to bear my weight. Maybe then I’ll go for the amputation and run with one of those new fangled artificial running legs. Pain is a very interesting thing. Some people are addicted to it like a drug and actively seek it out. For me, part of it is how good it feels once the pain is gone. The sense of relief and release stimulates endorphins in me and makes me feel good. I enjoy knowing that I got myself to the point of such hurt. What is pain anyway but the remembrance of it? Once it is gone, it’s over. It’s like it never really happened. I’ve wondered what some people would do if presented with the opportunity to become filthy rich if they endured the worst horrific and agonizing pain they could imagine for 24 hours. Would they do it? Probably not, but then add into the equation that they would have no recollection of what they went through over the 24 hour period. Once the 24 hours is up, it would be like they fell asleep and just woke up with no memory of what they went through. Would it have ever really happened? Would you do it then? Maybe I’ll do some permanent damage to myself and always have a pain in my leg. I wonder though if every time I feel the pain, I’ll look back and smile over the achievements I accomplished that caused what I am feeling now. Will it have been worth it? Right now I believe it will have been. So anyway, getting back to the training I’ve done this week, it’s been pretty uneventful so far. Monday I did an easy one hour spin on my bike after I got home from work. I worked up a nice sweat, but didn’t push myself all that hard. Tuesday night was a good workout. I went out with my friend Larry and we did two loops of a virtually deserted Prospect Park. The park was so empty that it felt more like 2am, rather than 7pm. We talked about various shit, but especially the VT100 from the time he did it. I am amazed at how much recollection he has of the event. To help me remember it and to keep my friends informed of my progress, I plan on doing an Utterz every 10 miles or so. I should be very interesting to go back and hear how I sounded as the race progressed. Wednesday night I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I was supposed to swim, but that is such a pain in the ass. I decided to skip the pool and spin on my bike for a while instead. My coach tells me it doesn’t matter what I do, that Wednesday s and Fridays are just recovery. I have to say that as of right now, training for a 100 mile running race has been a lot easier than training for an Ironman. But tell me to say that again when I start doing back to back 40 miles on the weekends. Tonight I downed 3 ibuprofin and took my aching shins out for an 8 mile run. At first my shins were hurting and with every step it was as if someone was tapping the insides of my shins with a hammer. However, as the run progress, the pain from the hammer tapping diminished and I was able to resume a normal running pace. I was able to space out during the run and get myself into that runner’s zone where things just start to flow. As I slowly progress towards 8 miles, I began to get confidence that I will indeed be able to run the VT100. I have seriously doubted it from the way my shins have been feeling, but if how they feel now is the worse they will get, I will be able to handle the pain. It’s already becoming something I am accustomed to feeling all of the time, sort of like being accustomed to always have tired legs when you climb up a flight of stairs. I finished these 8 miles strong and filled with the confidence that I will have what it takes come this July. Does a mid-week run get any better than that?