Pushing through Pain

Change is Hard: Pushing through Pain

“Experience has taught me how important it is to just keep going, focusing on running fast and relaxed. Eventually pain passes and the flow returns. It’s part of racing.” – Frank Shorter

If you’re a competitive runner, it’s the price of admission. It’s going to hurt, a lot. Both in training and on race day it’s the one thing you can count on to be there. Most running articles, blogs and advice I’ve read really don’t dig into this but are instead centered around the physical aspects of performance because the metrics are easier to measure. Training plans and races can be analyzed and tweaked based on splits and total time. The results can then be compared to determine the best course of action. Pain though is subjective and not easily measured. We all experience it in similar ways but for each of us pain is a singular experience. Like a fingerprint, you can immediately identify it at first glance but as you look closer all the subtle lines and details make our suffering uniquely ours. What this means is when you’re pushing your effort above the 95th percentile, getting those last few percentage points are all mental and there’s no cookie-cutter road map to getting to your peak. The only guide we have to maxing out is knowing just how much discomfort we can tolerate.

A Word of Caution First

To start with let’s be clear about what I’m taking about. I’m not referring to the type of debilitating pain that signals something is wrong. Issues such as a critical physical injury, heat stroke, hyponatremia and other serious and potential life threatening situations need immediate attention and the ceasing of activity. Ignoring this type of pain will turn you from a hero into a cautionary tale very quickly, so don’t do it. The more experience you get as a runner, the better you’ll get at understanding your body’s language and the easier it will be to know if you are in serious trouble or not.

So we’ve narrowed it down. We’re talking about the”‘gut check”, “grin and bear it”, “suck it up buttercup” type of misery we deliberately subject ourselves to on a regular basis. For what it’s worth here’s three ways for dealing with the inevitable:

Accept it

Admit it, when you first feel the discomfort rising your first reaction is fear. You can hear yourself saying “I shouldn’t be feeling this so soon”, “I’m in better shape than this” or “How bad is this going to get?” All of these responses are irrelevant. The pain fairy has shown up to make your day more interesting and she’s going to hang around for a bit. The key is not to react emotionally at first because your first reaction is typically going to be a negative one. That negativity then is going to wreck your confidence, sap your energy and just dig you deeper into the hurt locker.

Our attitude should be to expect it. Like a boxer in a fight you know your going to get hit so don’t flinch when the blows come, because they will come and flinching will only make it worse. Accept it so you can focus on what matters.

Pursue it

In some races it comes and goes in waves, in others it’s a slow smoldering burn that builds in intensity until it’s searing. Instead of backing way, I’ll force myself to lean into it and if I’m feeling too comfortable mid-race I’ll start looking for it by pushing the pace. Our instinct when we’re hurting is to slow down until the pain is manageable, but this is a missed opportunity. You’ve been handed a motivational tool that if used and channeled properly can help propel you and keep you focused. When you feel yourself struggling keep the pedal down. Find out if this is a ‘stick around’ kind of suffering or just a ‘comes and goes’ type. Regardless keep pressing, you’ll never be able to push past your limits until you know where they are.

Pass through it

In some races it feels like we are stuck in our current predicament and when that happens panic can start to set in. If we give in to panic we initiate a series of events that is going to undermine our performance and set us up for defeat regardless of how we run the rest of the race. With each stride you are moving through an experience, you’re not trapped so don’t react like you are. Now is the time for that emotional reaction only it needs to be positive. Use visualization techniques and see yourself passing the field, setting a new PR or placing in your age group and what you’re going though now is the price you have to pay to get that. This positive feedback will keep you moving and focused on the race instead of the discomfort. Let the pain pass through you instead of letting it set up residence.

Pain Comes in Many Forms

Non-running lesson of the week: Last Wednesday was a pretty apocalyptic day for me, not physically but emotionally. I’ll spare you the details but I had to deal with a work situation that was a perfect storm of Murphy’s law, instructions not followed and some high visibility commitments. It got ugly early and didn’t get better until I headed home. That evening as I was struggling to fall asleep I had a bit of a revelation, I got to the point where I couldn’t feel any more frustration, disappointment or anger. Then it hit me… you can only hurt so much. Pain doesn’t scale to infinity even though we think it can. I accepted it, passed though it, and then fell into a deep sleep.

As I went in the next day to continue to deal with the aftermath, I was at peace with what occurred and thought about how to make the best of a bad situation. I learned, quite by accident, that every kind of pain has its limits and only has as much power over us as we choose to give it.

photo credit

Broad Street Run – Race Report 2012

Broad Street Run Pre-Race:

In the interest of full disclosure, I had no idea what was going to happen at this race. I’ve scheduled my races this year around my two marathons along with the Mid-Atlantic USATF Grand Prix races since my running team competes in those events. The Philadelphia Broad Street Run is one of those USATF events and when I saw that it was three weeks after Boston I winced as I pressed ‘send’ on the email telling my team captain I was running in it. I normally like to have at least a good month after a marathon to fully recover and even though I have bounced back quicker after each marathon over the past year, three weeks was cutting it tight.

Broad Street Run

I looked through the race guide a few days before race day and I saw a reference to the “over 37,000 runners” that were registered for the race. The last time I ran Broad Street back in 2005 there were 12,000 runners and the past few years there were about 25,000 each year. Increasing the field size 50% in one year seemed like a recipe for a logistical disaster so I planned my weekend with that in mind.

The pretzel street venders must have made a killing!

Packet pickup options allowed for a Friday or Saturday pickup. Trying to avoid having to drive into Philly on Saturday I decided to take a long lunch to see if I could run over and grab it on Friday since I figured most runners would come on Saturday…big mistake. I wound up standing in line for over 30 minutes before I had to leave for a meeting. Never even got indoors. Saturday morning I got there right around the time the expo opened and was in line for only 25 minutes since the line was moving well. I feel sorry for the folks that got there later.

If it takes longer to pick up your bib than to run the actual race, that might be a bad sign.

If Philly is intent on making this a big race nationally then they should plan the expo accordingly. Having it at Lincoln Financial Field (Home of the Philadelphia Eagles) is a good start but they didn’t utilize the available space well. Once you got into the stadium the section that housed the expo was fairly narrow and only allowed enough space for the vendors and about one lane of traffic going in each direction. It made for a lot of congestion. Also they staged bib pickup and t-shirt pickup at opposite ends of the expo to force you to walk past the vendors twice. I’ve seen this done at a few races and I think it’s bush league. If you give the runners a good experience they will be more likely to purchase from vendors. Make it difficult for them and all they’ll want to do is get their stuff and get out.

Broad Street Run Race Day:

Enough about the expo. I went into race day hoping for the best but planning for the worst. Since Broad Street is a point-to-point race there is some transportation logistics involved. If you were driving your best option was to drive to the stadium parking lots (about a mile from the finish) and take the subway up to the start area. SEPTA allowed all runners to ride for free which was a nice touch. For a 8:30AM gun time my plan was to get to the start area a little after 6:30AM since I expected a mob scene and wanted to make sure I could take care of any pre-race “issues” with minimal stress. Factoring in the drive and the subway ride, that meant a 4:30AM wake up.

It's beautiful man...sniff...

The early wake up paid off. That morning everything went off without a hitch and I found myself at the start area staring at a field filled with porta-potties and no lines. I well up a little just thinking about it.

Our gear bags needed to be on the buses by 8AM so I headed over there to remove my warm ups and get race ready at about 7:30. For me the weather was perfect, temps in the 50′s, overcast and a bit of a breeze. A little chilly for shorts and a singlet but wonderful for running. I did some warm ups and then headed to my corral about 8:10. Corrals were assigned based on time but there’s no verification process so you know how that goes. Some folks took advantage of the honor system. Also there wasn’t any corral enforcement in place so the honor system was getting abused a bit there too. Nothing egregious but noticeable.

Race Start

There was just one corral between me and the elites so when the gun when off at 8:30 we started about 2 minutes later. This worked out well because over the race there was just the right number of runners on any section without it being over crowded.

If you don’t know Broad Street it’s a fast course, downhill most of the way:

Broad Street Run Elevation

Miles 1 thru 3

I went out too fast but I realized it and went with it anyway. I didn’t have a really thought out plan since I wasn’t fully confident where I was recovery wise. I figured I would start to fade at some point so I went out hard and had the goal of holding on as long as possible. The first few miles didn’t have any spectators and weren’t very scenic so I just focused on finding a workable pace. My first three splits were 6:10, 6:13 and 6:17.

Miles 4 thru 8

These miles were fun while we went through the heart of Philly. We passed Temple University, City Hall as well as the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts. Great crowds, marching bands and mascots all around. One sore point was I could tell the folks working the water stops weren’t pros since at a few water stops it seemed we were getting funneled into a narrow lane from the crowd on one side and the water stop volunteers on the other. I’m sure it widened as bigger crowds of runners came through but it was a brief concern.

Broad Street was in pretty good shape, a few pieces of pavement missing here and there but I’ve seen worse. One section though actually felt a little slick as I was making ground contact. It must have been from motor oil residue on the surface so I moved over near the double yellow and that felt firmer. Still loving racing in the Inov-8 150′s, it’s a great shoe. I don’t think I would have felt the pavement surface change if I was wearing my old Hyper Speeds.

Splits were 6:26, 6:16, 6:11, 6:18, 6:20

Past Mile 8 to the Finish

The course was flat for the last two miles and I thought I was in trouble as my perceived effort went up a notch or two between mile 8 and 9. Being so close to the finish though gave me the mental energy to keep the pedal down along with knowing I was looking at coming in under 1:04. My last two splits were 6:22 and 6:19 giving me a 1:03:06 and a new PR.

Epilogue

Right after I crossed the finish I noticed to the side of the finishers chute Cecily Tynan was standing there talking to someone. She had a post race glow that most runners recognize immediately. Cecily must have a had a good race. I thought back to the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k where she beat me by one second. She was probably in the corral in front of me so I wasn’t sure how she did. When I got home I saw she ran a 1:02:12. AHHHHHH!!!!!

TYNAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!

I think we are officially in nemesis territory here. Her Doc Ock to my Spiderman, her Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic…you know Sheldon was right, it’s amazing how many super villains have advanced degrees. Grad schools should really do a better job weeding them out.

Purpose

I find that I use my recovery time after a marathon to reflect on my past training and look ahead to what I’m planning for the rest of the year.

Inactive recovery, circa 2003

As athletes it’s easy to find ourselves bouncing from one training workout to the next, from race to race, and in the flurry of our complex and overflowing schedules confuse activity with accomplishment. For a marathon training plan we focus on the minutia of every run. The days we have tempos, hill repeats, long runs and rest days are all scheduled with laser like precision least we over-train and risk injury or under-train and miss our race day goal. There are reasons for every activity (or lack there of) in the plan. Every run in the plan has a purpose.

That’s as far as most of us take it though. We see a race we want to run, we put a training plan in place, we execute the plan, and then run the race. It’s a very common and familiar theme we all recognize. Now ask yourself “why run the race?” and the question that naturally follows is “why run at all for that matter?” When you ask most runners those questions you get the basic stock answers and they tend to be very general, it’s rare to get a focused answer. “For a sense of accomplishment” or “I want to be in better shape” are very common responses. Some are raising money for charity, which is noble, but there are other ways to raise money. What are you trying to accomplish? If your serious about it, what’s the purpose of your running?

Whether it’s health, achievement, or charity, I don’t think many of us really give it enough thought. Email, voice-mail, job pressures and daily errands occupy our thinking to such a degree we never take a step back and evaluate the big picture. We never take the time for long-term thinking, things just seem to play out as a result of our short-term decisions. Do you see the problem here? If short-term thinking drives long-term decisions where is your running going to be three years from now? Are you satisfied just being on the hamster wheel of activity?

It’s at this point in my post I need to ask you to stow your tray tables and put your seats in their full upright position because it’s going to get a little bumpy. To fully answer what purpose your running has you need to take one more step back. You need to look at what your life’s purpose is and that brings up a bunch of issues most of us would rather not confront. I don’t have the answers for you but what I want to accomplish here is to get you asking the right questions. So here we go.

“There’s no escaping reason, no denying purpose, because as we both know, without purpose we would not exist.
It is purpose that created us,
purpose that connects us,
purpose that pulls us,
that guides us,
that drives us,
it is purpose that defines,
purpose that binds us…”
Agent Smith: The Matrix Reloaded

Why Purpose Matters

For a fictional, sentient computer program, Agent Smith pretty much nailed it. Take a moment now and look away from your monitor and note some of the objects in your environment. I’m sitting at my desk in my office and the objects in my field of view are magazines, papers and gadgets all spread out in different piles in front of me along with a water bottle within arm’s reach. Do you know what they all have in common? Every single one of them has a purpose and there is no reason to think we are any different.

It may seem nonsensical to start comparing a person with an inanimate object but follow me on this for a minute. Imagine the water bottle on my desk was searching for personal fulfillment and decided “You know what, I want to be a chair! A chair is a great job with good benefits. People would look forward to sitting in me and relaxing. They might also want to use me to do some productive office work. Holding water by comparison seems so work-a-day and uninspiring. That settles it, I’m a chair.” The water bottle then spends the next 20 years in misery because it wasn’t created to be a chair. It’s uncomfortable to sit on and it can’t support much weight so it never gets used. It then can’t understand why it’s so unhappy when the answer is so simple. It’s not fulfilling it’s purpose.

Asking the Right Questions

First question: How do you determine purpose? It begins with brutal honesty. In our postmodern society we’ve become such experts at rationalization it’s become increasingly difficult to take an objective look at who we are and where we are going. If you have a spouse, partner or really close friend sit down with them and ask them if they can give you some honest feedback on your choices and life decisions. You might find that they’ll confirm for you some things you’ve been thinking about but were afraid to admit to yourself. Their insight might save you a few years of misery. For years during my flying career my wife would tell me I should work in the computer field and I would insist I would never get hired because I didn’t have the right work experience. Yet here I sit fifteen years later having spent the last eleven as a Database Engineer. Your spouse has incredible insight into how you tick, listen to them.

The next question I would ask is ‘What makes me feel comfortable, secure and safe?” Find out what that is and then run as fast as you can away from it. I’ve never heard or experienced a situation where purpose wasn’t found after overcoming conflict and emotional turmoil. As runners we don’t shy away from hard work and struggle to get where we want to go, how you approach your life shouldn’t be any different.

One last question for you: Am I living someone else’s life? We spent so much time trying to fit-in, conform and copy the success of others we lose ourselves in the process. Stop worrying about what your friends, family and coworkers think and follow your intuition. Listen to that voice telling you to act. The more you listen, the louder it gets. Trust me.

Running = Life

Take the same approach to finding your life’s purpose and apply it to your running. If we are honest with ourselves we all have to admit that there is something about our running that resonates on a level we don’t fully understand. It may just be a hobby for you now, or it might be something more. You won’t know until you start asking the right questions.

Bad Software

The Art of Running: Bad Software

Leonardo da Vinci - Vitruvian Man

As an engineer the human body amazes me. We have a number of systems all over-layered with one another yet there’s this harmony of form, function and sophistication that no man-made system can duplicate. Our built-in software and organic CPU is what really blows my mind though (pun intended). Before we are born our native OS (Operating System) is hard at work controlling our involuntary systems and responding to our inputs. This software is so complex and fine-tuned that it enables us, over time, to perfect our movements. We compensate for our environments, we learn and adapt, we develop techniques and improvise ways to overcome obstacles (climbing a tree) and obstructions (crossing a river) practically on the fly. As we hit the same challenge time and time again our OS analyzes our various responses, identifies which is most successful, and then stores it in long-term memory for future use. If you’ve haven’t picked up a baseball bat in ten years or ridden a bike in fifteen, you still reflexively know:

- where to place your hands and feet.
- how much pressure to apply with your grip.
- how to balance your weight.
- how to keep your movements fluid and in rhythm.

and this all occurs subconsciously.

Fascinating...

With the continued advancements over the past several decades in artificial intelligence and robotics, we are still no where close to duplicating our natural capabilities in a computer program. If we were a machine, any scientist would find us ‘fascinating’ yet we find ourselves in our later years lumbering along on our runs when we used to glide effortlessly. We started with the best software ever written but at some point during our lives we got hacked. Let me explain…

The day before the Boston Marathon I did my best to just relax in my hotel room and save my energy. I had a dinner reservation at 7:30PM but by about 5 I started getting antsy. My hotel was right next to Boston Common so I decided to take a short walk and sit in the park for a while. In my ‘retirement dry run’ I couldn’t help but notice folks running through the park and then I started noting their strides. I saw the typical range of form from smooth to awkward and then a family with a few kids came walking by. Correction, the adults were walking, the kids were running. Back and forth and around in circles, little balls of limitless energy bouncing off each other. Then I paid attention to how they were running, it was practically flawless. I was jealous of their technique for a moment, I realized I’d spent the past two years working on mine but had yet to reach the level of a four year-old. A real ego boost the day before Boston.

Instinctive running

At one point we were all kids and had this instinctive ability. Then we lost it, why? First think about what kids spend most of their time doing. Any parent will tell you how hard it is to get preschoolers to sit still. They are constantly moving and providing input and feedback to their software as they run, jump and climb. It’s also tough to get them to keep their shoes on (and their clothes in some cases). The reason kids hate wearing shoes is the same reason they hate wearing gloves or being blindfolded. It’s sensory deprivation.

Preschoolers eventually become teenagers who eventually become adults and the further along that timeline we go, the more sedentary we become. We also spend the majority of that time encasing our feet in thick protective enclosures. During this process our adaptive systems are continually at work. Inactivity and lack of sensory input is seen as an obstacle so our brains immediate start compensating and begin overwriting our efficient movements. What was once easy and fluid becomes hard and awkward. Years of bad footwear choices and spending most of our waking hours relatively motionless resulted in us hacking our own code. The learned movements that were refined during our youth weren’t forgotten, it’s worse than that, they were overwritten. Imagine how difficult it would be to swing a baseball bat if you spent the last ten years wearing thick oven mitts. All the compensation your systems made for the mitts has replaced the natural sensation of gripping the bat. You’d be a complete klutz.

If you were raised in a modern society this was inevitable, like some bad Sci-Fi movie plot your memory’s been wiped and replaced. We’ve got bad software, flawed code, so now what? If you spend a lot of your time in front of a keyboard like I do, it’s an ongoing battle to relearn those fluid movements and retain them. To fight your way back to efficiency, you need to take some proactive steps:

Education: Seek out experts.
- Dr. Pete Larson over at Runblogger has several excellent articles that discuss both form and footwear.
- The Natural Running Center is another excellent resource to learn about proper form. The director of the center, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, knows his stuff and finished 4th in the 45-49 male age group at this year’s Boston Marathon with a 2:37.
- Runner’s World, Running Times and Competitor can also help in pointing you to good articles and subject matter experts.
Practice: Do the work.
– You need to reprogram your form. During your runs shorten your stride, keep proper cadence and posture and integrate form drills into your workouts and warm ups
Patience
- Change is hard and takes time. The longer you’ve been running with flawed form, the longer it’s going to take to correct. Go slow, make small changes and reinforce those changes with consistent technique.

Now that you understand the problem, it’s time to start working on the solution. Free your feet, embrace change, run with joy.

Boston Marathon Race Report – 2012

Boston Marathon 2012: Overview

Sufferfest. I can’t get that word out of my head. It’s the only word that keeps coming to mind as I reflect on my experience. My whole approach to the event changed in the starting corral and the first few miles as dealing with the heat became my primary focus. It’s an odd feeling when your legs want you to tear it up but your body won’t let you. Every race gives you an opportunity to learn something new and this one was no different.

Boston Marathon 2012

Pre-Race

I made the drive up to Boston solo this year since my family had commitments this weekend. Both my boys gave up their spring break to serve on mission’s trips with their school and were coming home on Saturday and Sunday so Mom needed to stay home and play catcher. My oldest was working on building homes for Native Americans dealing with extreme poverty out in Arizona while my youngest was working with at-risk kids in our nation’s capital. I’ve been congratulated a lot for finishing Boston this year and I’m proud of my accomplishment, but I’m more proud of the men my sons are becoming. Is it weird to think of your kids as your heroes?

For the marathon I drove up from South Jersey Saturday morning and got to the hotel around 5PM. After checking in I decided to take a walk and snap some photos before heading to the Dailymile meetup. A big thanks to Brian Adkins for organizing the event, it was a lot of fun.

Boston Marathon 2012 Expo

I had monitored the weather for race day and when I woke up on Sunday to head over to the expo to pick up my bib, I checked the weather again and read my email. The BAA had issued a weather warning for Monday. Their last email took on an almost alarmist tone. Some of it read:

- “Only the fittest runners should consider participating.”
- “Do NOT assume that any experience you have in running a cooler marathon will be a reliable guide in making the decision in whether to participate or defer.”
- ” you should adopt the attitude that THIS IS NOT A RACE. It is an experience. ”

As the reality of the conditions for Monday sunk in I had a pretty strong emotional reaction. I had taken some big training risks in the past 16 weeks to get ready for an attempt to get under three hours. I had also spent close to a grand on a hotel, food and gas while being away from my family. Defer? Not race? I put my thoughts down quickly while they were still fresh and raw. I apologize for the length but I didn’t want to leave anything out:

I’m sitting here in my hotel room at about 9:30AM on Sunday morning, getting ready to head out to the expo to pick up my bib and all everyone’s been able to talk about is the weather. Monday’s forecast is currently looking at 87 degrees for the high which would make it one of the hottest Boston Marathons in history. Gun time is 10AM tomorrow so the temps will start in the 70’s and climb from there, getting close to peaking right around the time I’m climbing Heartbreak Hill in Newton.

Since I got here yesterday afternoon I’ve heard talk of runner deferments to the 2013 race, lowering of expectations and huge chunks of time being added to everyone’s goal pace. Last night when asked what I was shooting for, I half kidding responded ‘I WAS looking to sub-3, but…’ and I would leave it at that. After checking the forecast weather this morning and seeing no changes to the heat forecast for Monday, I have just one thought that sums up tomorrow’s weather for me. I don’t care.

I’ve taken nothing but risks the past 5 months to get me to this point. I’ve changed my footwear and form. I’ve run longer and harder than at any point in my life. I’ve sacrificed my time, my money, my energy and time away from my family to be here. I’ve spent too many years letting fear of failure drive my decision-making. It’s not happening this time.

I’m well trained and I know my body well. After years of deployments to the Middle East (along with runs on the Arabian Peninsula) I know the warning signs and how my body responds to heat stress. I’m not about to put my health at risk for a race, but what I am willing to risk is my pride. From here on out any finish time above 3 hours holds no meaning for me. Whether it’s 3:01 or 4:01, it’s all the same. I’d rather drop out and not finish reaching for a 2:59 then play it safe and conservative just to finish. I’ve already got plenty of medals and certificates on my wall.

What I don’t have is knowing where my running is taking me. As I’ve mentioned before someone knows but He’s not talking. I know He won’t until I’ve given everything I have, until I’ve put it all out there. Because during our 21 year relationship I’ve always found Him when I’m empty, poured out, and have nothing left. And that’s all that I want, to find Him.

Philippians 4:13

I got two things wrong there. The weather started out around 80 degrees and peaked at 89.

Race Day:

I can’t remember the last time an alarm woke me the morning before a marathon. I set my alarm for 5AM but woke around 3:30AM. I just lied there in bed in the vain hope of trying to relax and doze back off. By 4:45 I knew that wasn’t happening so I got up, showered, got suited up and headed out to the buses on Tremont Street. One of the benefits to being up and out early is I was on one of the first buses to arrive at the athlete’s village. I wound up getting some prime real estate under the big tent where it was nice and cool. At around 7AM it was hard to believe it was going to get in the 80′s that day but once 9AM came around and you stepped out into the sun you could feel the intensity.

I got to my corral at about 9:50AM and as I’m standing among the other runners I noticed I was sweating. Standing in place and sweating. Now I consider being under 5’6″ an advantage here because I immediately started looking for a 6 footer in the corral where I could stand close enough to block the sun. The real funny thing was I wasn’t the only guy doing this.

I was in the back left corner of corral 6 near the fence and there was I guy I saw who was a dead ringer for Dean Karnazes. A bunch of guys were talking with him and sure enough bib number 5996 was Dean. The guy looked like he was in incredible shape, 2% body fat tops. I kept an eye on him at the start, curious about how I measured up to the legend.

Race Start

When the gun goes off the ropes for the corrals get removed and you start moving up to the start line in a huge mass. I was watching in disbelief as runners from the corrals behind me were rushing to move up as much as they could as we moved forward. My attitude was just the opposite, I chose to get in the back of the corral to use the crowd to force myself to go out slow, to keep it close to my Game Plan target of 7:00 min/mile splits at the start and then evaluate from there.

Miles 1 thru 4

The start at Boston is a complete traffic jam for the first few miles. You’re basically locked in to whatever pace those around you are running. There is a big downhill drop the first four miles and the key to the rest of the race it to take this easy and focus on good form to conserve energy. My mile one split was 7:16, slower than planned but considering the crowd it was nothing I couldn’t make up if I needed to.

I spotted Dean Karnazes again around mile one and thought about pacing him. As I came up near him though, in what will be a quote that I will be repeating until my dying day:
“I had to drop Dean Karnazes after mile one, he was just going out too slow” (I also beat his finish time by 19 minutes, just saying…)

Mile three was my only split of the day below a 7 minute mile (and only two tenths of a second below at that). As I ran the steep downhill, with some shade on the road in places, I noticed I was working a lot harder than I should. My legs were feeling great but I was breathing harder than my pace would dictate. I recognized right away my body was struggling to cool itself. We had about an eight mile per hour tailwind on race day and if you’re running about 8 miles per hour that means you’re running in stagnant air. In fact I only remember two or three times during the race where I felt any breeze at all and then it was only for a few seconds.

Miles 5 thru the scream tunnel (mile 13)

This part of the race was about heat management and trying to measure my level of effort against my pace. I hit every water stop and kept taking my gels to keep up my fluid and electrolyte intake. It was a continual struggle to find a pace where I wasn’t over heating. I continually kept pulling the pace back from 7:10′s to 7:20′s and then 7:30′s as I worked the easy half of the Boston course. Between miles 6 and 8 was when all thoughts of coming in under three hours were officially abandoned. Subconsciously it happened well before that point but I never throw in the towel until the math says so. I hit the halfway mark at 1:35:53 knowing that a negative split wasn’t in the cards given the rising temps. At this point I wanted to finish with my best effort and ran with that as motivation.

Miles 13 thru 16

All thoughts turned to Newton, I dropped my pace further in preparation. Above all else maintaining good form would require the least effort and provide the fastest ascent to the coming hills. The plan: maintain form, maintain effort, manage the heat, hydrate.

Miles 16 thru 21

I don’t mean to be anticlimactic but the heat was way more of a concern at this point in the race than the ascents. The Newton hills are challenging but not apocalyptic. All that form work paid BIG dividends as I was able to keep the splits in the 8:30′s on this section. Cresting Heartbreak was very rewarding but I didn’t bother taking a moment to celebrate as I still had over 5 miles left while working my way through the teeth of the furnace.

Mile 21 to the Finish

The downhill stretch to mile 24 is a welcome respite after heartbreak. In an overly fatigued state the temptation is to over-stride to use gravity to pull you down the hill. This is always counter productive as the over-striding produces a heel strike with an accompanying braking action and trashing of what’s left of your quads. In contrast to how good my legs felt, the heat was really starting to take its toll on me. I had no clue what my splits were at this point, It felt like 10 mins/mile or higher but looking at my Garmin info I was between 8:15 and 9:10 the rest of the way in. The last two miles are deceivingly difficult as the course flattens but your perception is skewed because you’re coming off 3 miles of downhill.

It was at mile 24 I was getting a noticeable cramp on my right side that I could feel when I inhaled. It had been there since Newton but it was becoming more of an irritant. At mile 25 this cramp spawned another on my left side that was even more uncomfortable. Every time I inhaled I could feel it. At this point I just wanted to be done to finally end the torture. I didn’t even look at my watch when I hit the finish (a first for me) but checking later I had crossed with a time of 3 hours, 28 minutes flat.

Boston Marathon 2012 Finish Line

Post Race

After crossing the finish I was feeling a little light-headed and a tad queasy. This wasn’t a first but since I had driven myself to Boston my plan was to drive home after the race. Considering what I had just been through I didn’t think that was a good idea until I got looked at by the Medical Staff. So I checked my pride, grabbed hold of one of the medical volunteers and headed over to the medical tent as a precaution. I got my vitals checked and while my blood pressure was solid my temp was a little high and my heart rate was elevated as my body was still struggling to cool down. The staff handed me a few ice bags and I hung out in the air-conditioned tent for about 15 minutes. I started to feel like myself again and after thanking the Doctors and staff for supporting the runners I headed back to the hotel to get my things and get on the road.

Conclusion

After the crossing the finish my first emotion was disappointment. As runners we so often grade ourselves based on time that we can lose the sense of achievement if we can’t look past the clock. I spoke with about a dozen fellow Boston finishers at the hotel and on the trip back and there was this wonderful feeling of camaraderie above and beyond what you would get at a typical marathon. There was this immediate friendship and closeness you could sense when we discussed the ordeal we all had just been through. By the time I got home I was almost bubbly (never thought I’d use that word) when I spoke to my wife and boys about the race.

I got online this morning to check out my stats because I’m a numbers guy and no matter what the emotions and struggles a race entails, I want to see the math. I finished 2789 overall and 279 in the Male 45-49 age group. That puts me in the top 13% overall and in the top 13% for age group. If you count all the entrants, I’m close to top 10% (let’s go with that). At the Boston Marathon, where many of the best runners in the US and the world are in the field testing their metal, that’s an accomplishment I’ll always treasure. Even if it doesn’t come with a plaque.

Nutrition

Nutrition: A Work in Progress

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or registered dietitian. I have no formal training in human physiology or nutrition. Come to think of it, given my upbringing and past eating habits, I’m probably the last person on the planet you should be looking to for nutritional advice so have a nice day and thanks for stopping by.

OK… now that the lawyers are gone we can talk. Since publicly coming out with my ‘Dear John’ letter to Splenda I’ve been continually working to improve my diet. I think all of us would like to make more healthy and natural choices when it comes to our food selections but some things always seem to get in the way. Willpower was at the top of the list for me for many years since favorite meals (pizza), enticing desserts (ice cream, home-made cookies) and holiday indulgences often threw me off track.

Calories?...what calories?

With the decision made I now find a couple of different obstacles standing in the way. Considering our family’s existing expenses and our two teenage boys who eat way more than I do, our grocery budget just can’t stretch enough to include a Scott-Jurek-like $600/week trip to Whole Foods. Any mom can tell you that unhealthy food is cheap and healthy food can get pricy. It’s just the nature of the beast, all families need to find that happy medium between eating healthy and having enough to feed their family.

Time is also an issue for me. It might seem like an odd obstacle but follow me on this. One activity I’ve wanted to get into was juicing but it looks like a heck of a lot of work. Also healthy foods in general require some degree of preparation and planning. When you’re walking out the door you can’t just stick some celery stalks in your pocket to nosh on later. There’s a reason prepackaged foods are popular, they’re convenient. Now some folks (like Mrs. Designed to Run) love to cook, it’s their joy and an activity they look forward to. As for me, I’d rather you give me a paper cut and pour salt into it. When I was in my 20′s and single, I would shop for microwave dinners based on how many seconds faster one package would cook than the other. Now with a full-time job, full-time family, 60+ mile weeks and blogging on top of that, the last activity I want to be involved in is food prep (especially since my PS3 has about two inches of dust on it and I think the last game I played on it was Madden 09).

So what’s a guy to do who hates cooking but wants to eat healthy and run competitively? He breaks down what his primary nutrition needs are and finds some creative solutions.

Protein

For me protein is priority one. I spent a lot of my adult years eating a carbohydrate loaded diet and got my protein mostly from pizza, hamburgers and my morning bowl of Capt. Crunch (don’t judge me). When you start amping up the mileage this diet obviously isn’t going to cut it. It’s only been over the past few years I’ve realized I’ve been sorely underestimating my protein needs. For runners protein is key for recovery and you need to know how much you need. Most articles I’ve read target 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Power Bar also has a Protein Calculator on its site that’s allows you to enter in some parameters and provides a protein intake recommendation based on body weight and other factors. I’m about 145 lbs so I typically try to shoot for a range of 100 g to 125 g per day. Those numbers may be a little on the high side but I want to make sure I’m covered.

I try to get in lean cuts of meat into my meals as much as possible and when it comes to beef for my protein needs, I make sure it’s grass-fed. My wife and I a year ago watched the documentary Food, Inc. and it cured us forever from eating fast food burgers or eating grain fed beef. I highly recommend dialing it up on Netflix and doing some research on the topic. It’s important to get a solid understanding of the food that’s fueling your run.

I honestly don’t get as much animal protein as I need so I supplement a bit with protein bars and mixes. Word of caution though, I recently discovered that most mixes contain sucralose so if you’re trying to avoid artificial sweeteners you’ll need to do some more research. Also I suspect that many cheap protein mixes use whey from grain fed cows. I don’t have a mix to recommend as I need to dig a little deeper on this issue but as far as protein bars go, you can’t beat Clif Bar Builder’s Bars for both price and taste.

Fruits and Veggies

Fruits I’m pretty good with. Vegetables, I have a historical adversity to them. It probably goes back to my youth and those mulch sized bags of Birds Eye vegetable medley that made the corn and carrots taste like lima beans and my mother’s cooking methods pretty much boiled every last nutrient out of them.

AHHHHHH!!!!......IT BURNS!!!!!!

It may not be optimum, but I found a solution to my vegetable issues: V8 V-Fusion. I love this stuff! 100% juice, gluten-free, no added sugar and no high fructose corn syrup. I can pick up a case of 12 oz cans at the local warehouse store and put them in my lunch and bring them on race day. Best of all it gets me a full serving of fruits and a full serving of veggies without having to pull broccoli bits out of my teeth. Win-Win-Win.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do eat fresh veggies at every opportunity. I’m honest enough to admit though it’s much less than I need so I need to supplement. And speaking of supplements…

Supplements

I highly recommend a good multivitamin regardless of your current diet. No matter how vigilant we are, we always tend to miss something. Whether you’re a hard-core vegan or bringing along a t-bone steak for a snack after your Cross Fit class, chances are you need to supplement. I’m constantly on the look out for a good multi but as in other areas I need to strike a balance between quality and price. I’m currently taking the GNC Mega Man Sport and I have no complaints. As with my protein intake I’m sure I’m getting more vitamins than I need and while I’m not advocating a ‘more is better’ approach, I want to make sure I’m covered.

My other supplement is omega-3 fish oil. I have a fish issue similar to my vegetable issue (fine, you can go ahead and judge me now). I started taking these on the recommendation of my doctor mainly for heart health but omega-3 has other benefits as an anti inflammatory. Since I don’t eat much fish, it makes sense for me to supplement in this area as well.

Conclusion

The simple answer for runners is get enough protein and eat a balanced diet. We all have our food preferences and issues so we need to make a concerted effort to work around those. Many runners deal with recurring injuries and while we tend to look at bad form or improper training as a root cause it’s possible that some injuries might be due to our diets. Stress fractures for example might be linked to vitamin D/calcium deficiencies and a poor diet in general might lead to more frequent illnesses. As the science on diet and health is frequently changing we need to pay attention and stay current. Proper nutrition is a journey, not a destination.

Game Plan

Game Plan: Boston 2012

Boston Bib Number

About an hour and half after crossing the finish at the 2011 Philadelphia marathon I started thinking about Boston. I just came in at 3:09:20, an eight minute improvement over my previous PR from earlier that spring, and I starting asking the question ‘is breaking 3 hours possible at Boston?’ With less than 5 months between the two races I knew it would be a big stretch and a lot would have to break the right way for me to get there. Now that I’m 16 days away from pinning on bib number 5751 and lining up in my corral, let’s take a hard look at where I am.

Past Performance is not Indicative of Future Results

…but it’s all we have to work with so let’s get started. For my analysis I’m going to take two of my races from last year, the Hershey Half Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon, and make some comparisons and correlations to my recent performance at the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon and then attempt to draw some conclusions on how that should predict what I’m capable of at Boston. So our first step is to look at my Hershey and Caesar Rodney performances and try to evaluate how much I improved between those two events. Hershey was 5 weeks before Philly and Caesar Rodney is 3 weeks before Boston so that should make for some good comparisons.

On the surface the improvement is not encouraging since at Hershey my finish time was 1:26:36 while at Caesar Rodney I came in at 1:25:14, only a 1min 22sec improvement. But there are a number of factors that influence race day performance so let’s look at those.

Hill Profile and Weather

Looking at the two half marathons you can see that one is a bit more challenging than the other:

Hershey Half Marathon Elevation Profile

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Elevation Profile

While the elevation scales vary a bit it is still obvious that Caesar Rodney is a much more challenging course. While Hershey has more rolling hills, those hills rarely get higher than 50ft as opposed to the lactate-producing, quad-busting 250 ft foot accent and decent after mile 6 at Caesar Rodney. Hershey has a 280 ft total gain while Caesar Rodney has 402 ft.

Since I was making a conscious effort to hold back during the flat portion of Caesar Rodney I’m confident I could have maintained an average of a 6:25 pace or better on a Hershey-like course in lieu of the 6:31 average I had on race day. Also consider that the race day weather at Hershey was darn near perfect. The weather at Caesar Rodney temperature-wise was good but the roads were slick due to the rain and the humidity was high. All things considered I would think 1:24 is an equivalent time for Caesar Rodney to compare with Hershey.

Philadelphia vs. Boston

Time to look at the Philly Hill profile and compare it to Boston:

Philadelphia Marathon Elevation Profile

Boston Marathon Elevation Profile

Again the elevation scales are slightly different. Philly is a course with a total gain (and a total loss) of about 500 ft. Boston has a 548 ft total gain (about the same as Philly) but a 994 ft total loss. The two hills between miles 7 and 11 at Philly are about 100 ft high and then you have a lot of steep short hills around mile 20 in Manayunk. The second half of Philly is a very choppy course elevation wise. In Boston you have a total of four hills near Heartbreak that are about 100 ft each over five miles and that’s it. The rest of the course is almost all DOWNHILL! Honestly, if you could choose between the two which would you pick to run a faster time?

Now I can hear the runners screaming at me about how the downhills trash your quads and then Heartbreak finishes them off. Personally, I have to respectfully disagree here. I ran Boston in 2010 and my quads were fine (drained obviously but no more so than after any 26.2). My plan is to maintain good form on the downhill, avoiding heel striking which hurts you double on the downhill due to the breaking action, and monitor my pace closely. As a runner I’ve noticed that I tend to be able to take on hills better than a lot of my competitors and that may have something to do with my physiology. Since I’m not build like a distance runner I attribute that to my Earl-Campbell-like thighs:

Earl Campbell

Another consideration when making comparisons is that when I ran Philly I was coming down with a head cold and fever which didn’t fully manifest itself until the evening of race-day. I had battled the head-cold and congestion for a good week or two prior to that.

Conclusion

Here’s what I’m thinking. After making adjustments, in the half marathon I’m a good 10 seconds per mile faster now than last fall. If we project that out to the marathon (not exact I know but close enough) that takes my 7:13 pace from Philly down to about 7:03. For the head-cold I’d take off another 5 seconds and that’s conservative since the first half of Philly I was holding off my pace and looking back I could have taken the first 13 a tad faster. For the extra elevation loss at Boston I’d take off another couple of seconds. So where does that leave us?

Right back to what I was thinking 5 months ago. I think I’m right on the edge. It’s a reach but a 6:52 min/mile avg pace is doable and a lot will have to break my way for it to happen. Health, weather, race day execution..it could go either way so here’s my plan:

I’m going to take those first few miles between 6:55 and 7:00 staying closer to 7:00.
If I feel comfortable with that pace after mile 4 or so I’ll nudge it down around 6:55 but above 6:52 until the halfway mark. I basically want to dig a hole for myself time-wise and put myself in a position where I have to negative split to hit my time goal. This strategy worked very well for me in Philly so I’m going to approach Boston the same way.
At the half way mark I would have a split of 1:31 or higher. At that point I’ll evaluate how I’m doing and make the decision to start dialing the pace below 6:52 or not.
If I make the call to push it up I’ll need to average a 6:47 or better over the second half of the course to hit a 2:59:59 and with the Newton Hills on that section, it will be daunting.

Looks like another opportunity to go all in…

Back to Boston: Boston Marathon Training Week 13

Back to Boston: Boston Marathon Training Week 13 Wrap Up

Overview

This may be my final training update for Boston. From here on out there’s not much excitement. It’s a matter of getting in the mileage, some strides twice a week and letting the body heal. It’s better to under-train by 5% than over-train by 1%, especially for masters runners.
53 miles last week with the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon on Sunday where I PR’d with a 1:25:14 tag time.
My biggest concern was how my legs would handle running a half marathon three weeks before Boston. Legs feel good today with little or no DOMS. I have about 55 miles on the schedule this coming week and then two weeks of serious taper.
Less than 3 weeks to Boston.

Monday

Standard lower body conditioning routine (See week 5).
100 Push-up program: Week 6, Day 1, Level 2, 200 push-ups over 5 sets.

Tuesday

6 miles easy at a 8:35 pace.

Wednesday

Aerobic run, 11 miles averaging 8:09 pace.

Thursday

Aerobic run, 14 miles averaging 7:59 pace.

Friday

100 Push-up program: Week 6, Day 2 Level 2, 224 push ups over 9 sets.
Easy 8 miles, 8:28 pace.

Saturday

Standard lower body conditioning routine (See week 5).

Sunday

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon: 1:25:14 tag time, killer hills and 14 miles total.

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon – Race Report 2012

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Pre-Race:

This one was the yard stick. I wanted to go out there and see where my fitness level was so I can start putting my race plan together for Boston. There’s a lot to cover and dissect so let’s get to it.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous race report, being a Masters runner means you’re always dealing with some minor tightness/injury/pull/fatigue on race day. It’s going to be there so just plan for it. Today’s surprise was a twinge in my right glute I woke up with that felt more like a nerve issue than a pulled muscle. I might have slept in a funny position because if I moved or turned a certain way it would get my attention. As the morning wore on it felt better and I went through my pre-race warm up with no issues so I wasn’t too concerned (but just concerned enough to make it interesting). The older issue, the cramp/numbness on the outside of my left knee I mentioned last week, has improved and it’s really a non-factor at this point thought I’m still paying attention to it to make sure it continues to heal.

I brought my photographer to the race today (Mrs. Designed-to-Run) so you’ll have some better pictures. We got down to Wilmington, DE about an hour prior to get good parking and get a jump on the port potty lines. I ran Caesar Rodney last year so there wasn’t much to scope out but I wanted to get my photographer oriented so she could get some good snaps. Since I was running this as a member of a team (Moorestown Distance Running Project) I had gotten my packet on Friday from our team president so that was covered.

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Race Start:

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon start

Wasn’t sure what to expect from myself today considering where I am in my training (heavy miles) and the one day taper (solely for injury prevention). Based on my last Half Marathon time of 1:26:36 at the Hersey Half and the more severe hill profile of Caesar Rodney, I was hoping to get under 1:26 but I wasn’t willing to take big risks to do so. Since we’re talking hill profiles let’s take a look at Caesar Rodney:

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon hill profile

Nice hill huh? It’s got about 402 feet of elevation gain over the entire course. By comparison Boston has about a 550 ft gain (but a 994 ft loss) over twice the distance. As you can see you’ve got a pretty steep down hill right out of the gate and the fun starts as you’re approaching mile 7 and go through Brandywine and Rockford Park. If you’re not making adjustments for these hills you will get burned. I’ll be giving some examples later in the post.

Since my goal was to see where my fitness level was I ran mostly on perceived effort but I was checking my splits to make sure I was getting under 6:36 on the flat portions (based on my 1:26:36 time at Hershey) but not overreaching on the downhills. Here are my splits:

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Splits

There’s almost no way you can dial it back enough on that first mile considering the adrenaline at work and that steep down hill. Keeping it at about a 6:20 was an accomplishment. I felt good on the flat section and held back a bit. I’m really pleased with my hill splits. Considering the relentless 3-mile climb I was really happy clocking 6:47′s. I had anticipated going over 7:00 during that stretch. After cresting the peak you’re grateful for the down hill on the way in until you revisit that hill near the finish and start cursing the name of the race director. My official tag time was 1:25:14, a new PR by 1:22.

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Finish:

After crossing the finish I found my photographer, gave her a kiss and posed for a few pics. Saw a lot of familiar faces including my good friend John Murray.

Legs are trashed but we're still smiling...

Even though he just crossed the finish line he was more than willing to pose for a quick pic. Note my blue Inov-8′s which are now two-for-two regarding races and PR’s. They felt great and performed well on the wet and slick pavement. I attribute my race performance to a lot of hard work and preparation but I have a buddy who has a different opinion. What are your thoughts Mars?

I heard Mars is now working for the Natural Running Store but I can’t confirm it and Patton’s not talking…

Post Race Analysis: How Not to Run Caesar Rodney

When I was looking over the race results I couldn’t help but notice that in my age group male 45-49 I finished 4th and the next two finishers were in my age group so we finished 4th, 5th and 6th right behind each other. I’ve cropped out the results and covered the names to protect the innocent, but see if you can look at their splits and see how our different approaches impacted our performance:

What jumped out for me is they were right out front at the start (one second difference between tag and gun time) and they went out too fast (3 mile split). Considering the hill profile of the course this is good example of where being out in front with the rabbits at the start can hurt you big time.

Bib 1558 had a 1:20 lead on me at mile 3 and a 55 sec lead at mile 10. He fell back about 19 secs per mile over that last three miles which allowed me to catch him and beat him by 3 seconds at the tape. Bib 1264 wasn’t as aggressive but made the same mistake. He had a 50 second lead at mile 3, I was 6 seconds behind him at mile 10 and I wound up with a 45 second lead at the finish.

Lesson: Going out too fast will doom you. You can’t bank time!!! Have a solid race plan and stick to your plan unless circumstances dictate you make a change. Ninety nine percent of the time the change will be to slow down.

Next week I’ll have a post up where I break down this race and compare it to races from last fall so I can get a good gage on how I’m going to handle my pacing for Boston. Stay tuned!

Back to Boston: Boston Marathon Training Week 12

Back to Boston: Boston Marathon Training Week 12 Wrap Up

Overview

A little late posting this week but better late than never…
With the 5k last week and some tired legs I pulled the mileage back to 53. Starting to enter the ‘Don’t do anything stupid’ phase of my training. Looks like it was a good call as my legs are still tired but holding up. Will probably look at keeping the mileage under 60 this week as well.
Less than 4 weeks to Boston.
1st treadmill free week of the year, Woo Hoo!
Citizens Bank Caesar Rodney Half Marathon on tap for Sunday.

Monday

Standard lower body conditioning routine (See week 5).
100 Push-up program: Week 6, Day 1, Level 2, 200 push-ups over 5 sets.

Tuesday

9 miles with some interval work. 5 x 600m at 5k pace (6:00 min/mi.)

Wednesday

Aerobic run, 13 miles averaging 8:13 pace.

Thursday

100 Push-up program: Week 6, Day 2 Level 2, 224 push ups over 9 sets.

Friday

Easy 5 miles to shake out the legs for the 5k on Saturday, 8:32 pace.

Saturday

Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k new PR of 18:43! 6 miles total on the day.

Sunday

Long Run, 20 miles averaging 8:08 pace.