My new running plan...

Ever since the last marathon, I've been in the pool more, but I've just been throwing together the runs here and there. I have been searching around for a new training plan and was thinking that I was going to do a "self coached" plan. But last week I stumbled across a really good book on running, called "Brain Training for Runners, by Matt Fitzgerald. ISBN 978-0-451-22232-9. And I've been doing some reading...

Despite the title, the core thesis of the book is not about "mental training," but how the brain interacts with the muscular, cardiovascular, nervous and other systems to determine racing, pacing and training effects.

The book is thick, but that's because it is half training plans -- from 5k's to the Marathon. I think that is just fine, because the front half is packed with running theory and studies. What I liked most was the studies he cited that effectively challenged some of my longer-held assumptions (example: lactic acid balance in muscles returns to normal in about an hour after a workout - who knew? Despite no change in my acid balance, I'm still going for a sports massage ). There were parts when I laughed because I knew from experience what he was saying was accurate. Interestingly, he ditches the heart rate monitor as a training tool in favor of pace-based approaches.

One weakness for Texas triathletes is that his section on heat and hydration was not terribly nuanced. As the book barely points out, heat is the one condition where mixed signals between the brain and body can have truly drastic consequences. Heat can kill. In my opinion, the section could have been stronger (and should have been) and included more variations in running speeds outside elite runners.

All that said, I learned a lot and I'm fired up. I started my 10K running program Sunday and will switch over to the marathon program in about 12 weeks.

A little insurance for Celiacs on the road?

I saw a recent posting on a Celiac site about a study from Finland. It said that:

"Bifidobacterium lactis inhibited the gliadin-induced increase dose-dependently in epithelial permeability, and, at higher concentrations totally eliminated the gliadin-induced reduction in transepithelial resistance."

OK - all fancy words that basically say that a probiotic kept gluten from getting through gut cells (in a petri dish).

Now, I think that's really hopeful news and here's how I'm going to use it. First, a petri dish is not a controlled human study. I am not going off the gluten-free diet to give it a try, and I think anybody would be nuts to do so. But from time to time, a restaurant will do that for me without my knowledge. We've all been there and done that, right? So I think that I'll just start taking a probiotic with B. lactis in it during times when I'm at higher risk (like on the road for a race or eating out a lot, for example).

I've had some pretty good luck using probiotics after a course of antibiotics and never had a bad reaction, so this seems to me to be a pretty good and relatively inexpensive way to keep ahead of the cross-contamination issue. Peaking correctly for a race or event is hard enough as it is, and this approach might just be some reasonable insurance on the diet side.

25K in 2:26:11

Well, I have to say I was pretty pleased with how my Houston Masters 25K run over the weekend turned out. I think I learned a little bit about my Celiac body during race conditions. I actually pushed this one to race speeds (for the distance), carried water in my 32 oz. water bottle so I could drink when I wanted, and gutted out the last three miles, running.

True story - I think 15.5 miles is farther than I've run consecutively in a long time (if you don't count me stopping for a few seconds to refill my water bottle at mile 11). If you'll recall, my 13.1 mile time trial ended in disaster a few weeks ago. I was determined not to repeat the under- hydration mistake. But I've also made the over-hydration mistake as well.

I carpooled to the start with some of my Katy Fit running club. I set up well - even got a pre-race massage -- and only took about 30 seconds to cross the start line. I started with a cramp in my side, one of those annoying little things - not enough to make you care but enough to make you notice. It stuck with me the whole way. By mile 12 or so, I had taken two electrolytes and had drunk enough to "slosh" -- that is, my stomach wasn't keeping up with the fluid I was putting in... It's an odd thought, because I think I drank about 48 oz. I'd eaten half an Access bar.

The last few miles were interesting. I had to talk myself into keeping running, but I knew I was slowing down a bit and starting to hurt. I struggled up the last hill about half a mile from the finish when two of my (much) faster friends said "Hi" as they blasted by me on a cool down run.

Now, that annoyed me a bit (they looked pretty fresh for all that distance), but it also lifted my spirits and I found I could keep pace, albeit about 25 yards back. So that pickup became my "kick" to the finish line. I did not feel great when I finished, but after a few moments, the nausea passed and I felt pretty good. I got a post-race massage and went home. I would have gone out to Denny's for something afterward, but I just didn't have the energy to explain gluten this time. Afterwards, I wondered if using Celiac as an excuse to skip a social meal was a good or bad thing.

So - what could I do better for next time? My next scheme will be to try electrolytes tabs and bananas -- It's pretty likely I'm not getting enough carbs. Gatorade seems to be unreliable because of the different strengths it is mixed on the course, and my body does not like "gu-ish" things. Maybe Shot Blox?

Then there's the post-race food problem. Everything looks good. I've noticed from using my Wii fit that I overeat after a hard workout or race, so I need to be really health conscious afterwards. So better preparation (stocking the cupboard with good food and not soda) would be smart.

Anyway - good day, good run.

Time trial meltdown

Just a tip - don't do a half marathon time trial the day after a flu shot. Let's not mention that stupidity ever again...

Flu shot - tip for better running

I got my flu shot today. It's one key tactic I have that helps me get to the marathon start line every year. It's been a long time ago now, but I read somewhere that in Canada, they recommend that immune compromised people should get a shot. They also recommend that Celiacs get a shot.

There must be something to it, because at work, I get them for free and my employer has surely run the numbers. So the strategy is to feel a little crummy now, with the idea that if the flu is going around in January, it will miss or "lightly hit" me, and I will still be able to race. (I suppose I will also have to work that week, but it's a good trade-off.)

I think the better part of the deal is I can be slightly less paranoid in the days leading up to the race. I know runners who won't shake hands the last week before a race. They should get a life. The time to not shake hands is after the marathon. That's when you're the most worn down and likely to get sick.

Runners live longer and have fewer injuries

I always suspected the findings from this study.

Selected study findings:
Runners were half as likely to die over 19 years.
Runners had fewer injuries of all kinds, including those to their knees.

I've always said that running keeps me young, now I know it's true...

Treadmill workout(s)

People ask me where the heck I come up with time to train. For starters, we should all be exercising more. What are we supposed to be doing in the way of daily exercise? An hour? Who gets that and is gainfully employed with two kids, I want to know.

I went to my son's swim meet on Saturday. On a lark, I brought along my running kit. I'm glad I did, because I went inside the Y and ran my workout (10 miles, easy) on the treadmill there. For those of you unfamiliar with "swim meet timing," let me just say you get there very early, the kids hop in the pool real quick to "warm up" and then sit around for an hour or so for things to get going. You actually just watch your child for perhaps 15 minutes over the five hours you are there.

It's just dead time - unless your wife hangs out waiting and calls you when it's his turn. So, I just put my cell phone on the treadmill and waited for her to call. I'd jog out (thanks honey!), watch the race, and then keep going. It was like free time.

2 mile time trial - 14:04

I did my TT over lunch -- 2 miles in 14:04. It might have been short.

Lost 2 lbs water - did I mention I've been weighing myself to determine my rate of sweat loss?
96 degrees
49% humidity

I'm pretty encouraged - I didn't run negative splits, but the second half effort was much harder. I did go through 1 mile in 6:52 and 1.5 miles in 10:27. The 10:27 is significant, because even if the path is short, I went through the same 6 loops in 10:48 before I started "Beat the Heat." -- so on the same course I've improved perhaps 15 secs/mile (and this run was definitely hotter).

Oh - now this is interesting. I just pulled out my post-Celiac-diagnosis PR/goal list. And right under the 2 miles is a 14:20 I ran in May of 2006. I think that was a treadmill run, so I'm not sure it's a fair compare. Still, I'm running near my best times - whoo hoo!

Wondrous Bike Ride

A few weeks ago, I had one of those runs that makes you feel glad that you are alive. Yesterday, I had one of those bike rides. The weather was perfect - the weather was just a little cold, foggy and overcast, but the roads were mostly dry and not slick. No wind.

I joined forces with some people from my team and we started out easy with the large group. As the ride strung out, someone went by and I hopped on his wheel. Two others hopped on as well and we cruised until we hit the first turn a few miles down. The pack broke up a bit and the road narrowed, but we still made good time and were able to reform. As we descended a long hill, some challenges presented themselves - wooden bridges and road debris, but we skirted those and I suddenly found myself drafting off my teammate, making very good time. I took a turn and we pulled into the back of another paceline. I was content to sit there, but my teammate pulled out and I went with him. I had noticed by now that I was pretty much the fastest one out there going downhill (my weight was good for something). On stretches that were mostly downhill, I would take a pull. We jumped out again, and he pulled, then I pulled and we skipped the first rest stop. My heart rate was really sky high at this point, but I gamely jumped on the wheel to keep the draft going uphill. We saw another paceline and I thought "refuge." So I took the front for a strong pull, then he did (with me struggling) and we finally pulled in the back. I was nearly cooked, 16 miles in, but I thought I might be able to recover. And I did, for a bit. The paceline held together pretty well for another 10 miles or so, but when we turned, I had a bit of crosswind and knew I was in trouble. I finally cracked a mile short of the 2nd aid station, where everyone stopped. At this point, my teammate and I pulled out our maps and said, "Wow - we've covered a serious amount of pavement." It was just 3 1/2 miles to the turn for the longest route. Time off the bike always restores me, so we hopped on pretty quickly and fell into a pattern of "sharing duties." I'd go hard on stretches that were mostly downhill, he'd drag me up sections that were mostly uphill and give some rest on the downhills, too.

Long story short, we traded off that way through the rest of the ride, well matched and flying. Toward the end, I was hurting a lot and standing up on some uphill sections to keep pace, but we pulled into the parking lot with a 19.7 mph average. It was by no means a "long ride" (more like 3 1/2 hours of intervals for me), but it was an immensely satisfying ride with just two weeks to go to the MS150.

Two hours at the melting point of Iron

I think it was Churchill that said that "The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare." While he was talking about war, the notion seemed to equally apply this past weekend as I am doing the workout buildup phase for the iron-distance race in just over a month. Because of my illness, I needed to both re-invigorate my mileage and my ability to handle the heat. So the perfect workout weekend was 9 miles in the humidity-soaked Houston air on Saturday, followed by a 75 mile ride on Sunday out to Sheridan.

One of the things about acclimating to the heat I find fascinating is that my body slows down (dramatically) to compensate for the lack of cooling. I noticed this phenomenon the other day when I was up on the reservoir. In the sun, I was only able to do twelve minute miles, but in the cooler shade later in the same run I was able to go at sub 10 minute pace for the same heart rate. The same thing happened this Sunday on the bike ride. As the heat index climbed close to 100, my speed slowed down. It wasn't hard on my (already tired from the Saturday run) legs, but it was slower. I noticed some mild dizziness and nausea, but nothing too bad. Still, for two hours in the very heat of the day, I slogged into a headwind, making what felt to be slow progress. Slowing down was mentally pretty wicked, too, because every mph slower you go, you add minutes to your finishing time. Don't give me grief about that, though. I had plenty of electrolytes on board and calories, too. (I joked with my wife that I had more 'points' on my bike than she eats in a day). It's interesting to me that my body almost appears to rock back and forth over the heat threshold the same way it does over an anaerobic threshold.

I've concluded that the race day temperature is one variable that really matters for a nutrition plan, because cooling and fluid intake (plus electrolytes) depend on it. Unlike the anaerobic threshold, which depends on fitness, "heat fitness" depends on heat index and, more importantly, is a variable that the racer doesn't control. So my ever-sage wife asked me what this "heat training" was going to be good for in September. Sure enough, when I checked the average high temp for race day it was a mere 82 degrees! So I should be well-ready even if it is blasted hot when the gun goes off. Yay.

What movies do you run to?

For whatever reason, it seems to rain nearly every day here in Houston this year, but I still train by running on my treadmill and riding in my bike trainer. One of the things I've found out is that my free time is so compressed I now have a rule that I don't watch TV unless I'm working out, or done working out.

A lot of people have told me that they couldn't do that (ride three or four hours on a trainer or run hours on a treadmill), so I guess it's just something about the way I'm wired.

One of the things I do is get rental movies and watch them while I train. I've found some movies are better than others - especially for hard and long workouts. Anything with running in it is good -- The Amazing Race (any season), the LOTR (2nd one, especially). Battle scenes are good - like most of the Star Wars and Matrix movies, although sometimes there can be some irritating quiet spots. I also enjoy comedies.

One huge hit - I usually watch the Tour de France every year. At this rate, I'll have to get a DVD and watch it over my Christmas holiday.

Bike fit = 20%+ more watts!

I know it's been a while since my last post. Work has been busy. Today I went for a bike fitting at the local bike shop. The fitter takes a look at your form and then mucks around with your seat, handlebars, stem, etc to get you more "aero" and more powerful.

To make a long story short, I went through the process and even in the store I noticed I had more power. So I went home and put the bike in the computrainer and did my ride. My heart wasn't working any harder, but I was putting out more watts - over 20% more power. I knew my fit was bad, but I didn't think it was that bad. I'm a believer. I think I'll make my next goal to put out more watts than my weight in pounds for an hour aerobic ride.

In other fun news, my back tire is showing the tread, which means I've finally worn out a tire before I ruined/punctured the tire.

Also - the other day I used a CO2 cartridge to repair a flat, and I thought my tire had reflatted, but the guys at the shop told me that CO2 just leaks out like that. Who knew? You're just supposed to empty the tire when you get home and refill it. Hmm. Learn something new every day.

Back on Track

I did the Tejas Triathlon on Sunday, and I had pretty low expectations coming up to the event because of lack of sleep and missed training. It just goes to show you that you should make the most you have on the day of the race. For the first time in "I can't remember how long" I had a tri race where I didn't "screw up, blow up or throw up." Despite the heat, I put in 1:10:32, which was good for 49th place in my age group - the top half! (It's been almost two decades since that's happened).

I felt good and managed to a 173 average heart rate with a max recorded HR of 187. So what does that mean? I was at 92% of my max HR for over an hour. No wonder I'm happy. The actual data from a race also puts the lie on MaxHR = 220- your age, because that would make me 33. My recovery still took 5 minutes or so to drop below 130.

The moment that made the difference for me was my "smart swim." Let's just say it involved cutting the tangents to the buoys and a clever application of rule 4.2 and leave it at that. So I raced smart and hard and had a great day.

Packet Pickup

I dropped by packet pickup today, and I had a discussion with another athlete. He said, "Well, maybe you'll be lucky and your toenail will fall off during the swim..." I think I'm just going to have to tough it out. I did a little math on the shoe tradeoff. I figure I can go 1 mph faster for the 10 miles, which roughly works out to about 2 minutes. It won't take me two minutes to swap shoes. In fact, I'll be surprised if it takes me two minutes for the whole transition area. So I'm sticking with using both bicycle shoes and running shoes. On top of all this, I think I caught a stomach bug my son had, which won't take me out of the race but will probably annoy me.


I also did some figuring on how fast I will be able to leave - and it's all about the slowest bicyclist from the last wave. I figure the earliest I will be able to lay my hands on my bicycle is 8:30, so that makes making the first service a pretty tight connection. We'll see. What drama.

The Blog lives!

Now that the superbusy-ness of the race has died down, I'm back to my workout. Tonight was an hour on the bicycle. I have to say that my toenail and riding don't mix well, and it's making me think about my options for the triathlon I'm doing this Sunday. It's short enough so that I'm thinking about biking in my running shoes. You see, I've cut half the toebox off one of my old painting shoes - and it works pretty good. Does anyone have any thoughts on the bicycle/running shoe tradeoff (improves transition time, but you are slower on the bike?)

Celiac PSA and Polar Watch

Two nice things happened today - I got my new heart rate monitor from Polar and the NFCA sent out an email about their new public service announcement for Celiac. Yesterday, I was tired from staying up late, I didn't get yesterday's swim in, and I've not done so well with the diet lately, so this was a nice pick me up.

I've looked at the PSA and it's good, factually correct, and attention getting (starring Heidi Collins of CNN). Personally, I think it would be better with louder music running in the background, but WOW! Now we can actually pester television stations with a high quality PSA. Not that the conditions are at all similar, but I was struck by the news today about the new drugs to manage AIDS. I remember the crisis and AIDS activism back in the 80s -- and I sure hope it doesn't take 27+ years to bring this condition into a mainstream medical resolution. The PSA will go a long way, and every little bit helps. You rock, Heidi!

Playing with my new tech toy was fun, but initially quite time consuming. It turns out Heart Rate Monitors have changed a bit in the ten years since I bought my last one. The most frustrating point is that I can't get it to use my laptop's IR port to exchange data. How dumb is that? It's also hard to snap together. All that said, I used it on my bicycle, and the "ear-clippy" pulse monitor is way off from the HRM, at times by 10-12 beats per minute. I can't use the software yet (kudos for making it looks worthwhile to use - major thumbs down for using Active X garbage in the software.) Good workouts - getting faster.

Finally! a good workout

You can probably gather from the lack of recent postings that I've been a little under the weather. I either took a bug with me to New York, or I picked it up at there. In any case, it just made me tired and unable to concentrate, so I've been sleeping a lot. In fact, I skipped Friday's workout and slept most of the weekend and most of yesterday too. Although I wouldn't wish it on anyone, one silver lining is that I did lose 7 pounds this week, mostly because I just didn't feel like eating. I aim to keep that off and lose some more.

Another indication that I have been sick is that it's been really easy for me to hit my target heart rate range for my workouts. It was the same story today. I made sure I got in a full day's work and did my running workout. It didn't help my energy level, but it didn't hurt either. At nine o'clock, I almost didn't go to my swim workout, but now I'm glad I did. My swim is the weakest leg of my triathlon, and tonight I did 800 yards with good form in good time. Plus, I came out of the water with more energy than I started with. It just goes to show you that it makes sense to give the workout a try and see how it goes.

There was some interesting Celiac news. The people who brought you the Pillcam for upper GI endoscopies announced that a major insurer (United Healthcare) will be covering the Pillcam under one of their insurance policies. My hope is that more and more insurers (payors) will realize the importance of Celiac as a chronic condition and insure it and treat it as such, especially right after a diagnosis.

Where'd that ball go?

Monday was a rest day for me, and anyone who knows me knows that I take my rest days as seriously as I take my workout days. I decided to take advantage of the time by "going long" at work and using my trigger point massage gizmos. After I'd worked over both legs, I hopped in bed and tried out the massage ball on my rib area - very gently. It seemed to help, and I wondered if it would do anything for my abs, too. I put the golf-ball-sized ball on my stomach and pushed and just started laughing because I couldn't see the ball anymore. I wondered how much faster I would go if I'd just lose 20 pounds or so.

Today I had a quick 30 minute run, which felt good, and a quick 30 minute swim, which was awful so I cut it short. It was tight around my rib and makes me wonder if I didn't hurt my pec muscle when I fell. I have a book that says I should go see a doctor if that happens, and my wife said, "You should go." I pointed out that I had seen a doctor last Monday, so I guess I'll just keep seeing how it feels.

On the Celiac front, my local newsletter reported on some studies that came out regarding thresholds. They only tested gluten at 10mg for a few weeks, and I feel that's too short a time to tell if there's long term damage. I think the study recommendations are too loose and any regulation based on them would give consumers a false sense of security. The cumulative effect of small amounts of gluten over long time periods was not studied.