Alameda Runners – Get After It!

This is an article about what I did wrong.  I don’t know how to fix my workout nutritional problems but I will find out.  I will post the proposed solutions when I do find out.
Today was a triathlon training day for me.

The issues are the same for all hard exertions.  If you are going to do long workouts, you need proper nutrition to complete the workout.

Today I was supposed to ride for 40-50 miles then run 9-13 miles.  Someone just had to put a mountain near my route.  I decided to add 2 or 3 miles and about 4,000 feet of climbing to my ride.   This gave me 53 miles and 5,300 feet of climbing.  Changing my workout to suit the situation is no big deal to me as the primary purpose for today’s workout was to tame the nutrition beast for long workouts.  As usual, I did very poorly with the nutrition.

I may have to send a memo to my buddies at Clif to help get this thing straightened out.  I knew today would be tough so I carbo loaded last night with lots of pizza and beer.

For me 2 glasses of beer is lots.  I started out the morning with two servings of oatmeal with two tablespoons of grade B maple syrup.  During the ride I had the following:

20 oz of Clif shot Electrolyte drink Cranberry Razz 3 scoops
3 Clif shot gels, chocolate, vanilla and some type of berry (Razz).
Did not eat the chocolate
1 large Macadamia Clif Bar.  Ate three-fourths of the bar.
28 ounces of water.  Drank 1.5 bottles

Food                              Calories
Electrolyte                      240
Gels                                   200
Bar                                    180

That gives me 620 calories consumed and I am probably being optimistic here.  My Garmin said I burned 4800 calories.  I seem to be at a calorie deficiency.  To make matters worse, I only drank an optimistic 60 ounces of water over the course of a 5 hour ride.

Is it any wonder why I was a mess for the final 5 miles of the ride that were mostly downhill?  I ate a gel at about 4:15 into the ride and wanted to throw up for the remainder of the ride.

I did a lot of things wrong today and lived to tell about it.  Adding 4,000 feet of climbing to a 50 mile ride is not always the brightest thing to do but it was so nice out I just had to go to the top.  The Clif instructions say to eat 2 gels per hour.  That seems a bit excessive to me.  GU says to eat 4 packages per hour!  I don’t know why but was racing to get sweats on before I started shivering too much to function.  Maybe, I was shivering because of the cold or maybe, it was because of my poor nutrition.

Tour guide

Shout outs for this ride:
Kenny for being a great guide and waiting patiently for me at the confusing intersection.  I may be hurting but I had a lot of fun riding up Mt.  Tam.
Clif for their great products to carry on the ride.
Athletes Honey Milk for making strawberry protein milk taste like a milkshake.
Alpha-Flex for making a great massage lotion for post workout pain.

Instructions for running a half marathon in two hours and fifteen minutes.

Alamedated, that’s me, will be running a pace group to complete the 2011 Oakland half marathon in 2:15.  To complete the run in 2:15 we will have to run an approximate 2:10 pace.  Here is a picture of me and my sign.  It is not fancy but it will work.  Last year we finished at 2:15:37.  I was told we ran a 10:03 minute per mile pace.  I had people lined up to pace other groups but the event organizers did not get back to me when I requested permission to set up pace groups for more times.  That is okay.  I will be back with my 2:15 sign again this year.  Maybe I will make a snazzier sign.  I had a lot of fun last year and I hope to see you back again this year.

I will be there 30-45 minutes early.

I will be standing around mid pack.

We will be running at approximately 10:00 per mile to make up for lost time in the crowds.

We will start out by standing with space around us. The space will close up and people will pack in ahead of us.

It will take time to get to the start line. Do not worry, we will make it up.

If you get pushed away by the crowd, just keep the sign in sight and slowly catch up. It will get easy after the first couple of miles when the crowds start to disperse.

We will be behind schedule until mile 10 or 11.  Do not worry, we will make it.  It does not matter if we are 2 minutes late as long as we finish.

I will walk approximately 15 seconds at every water station.

Do not worry about missing a station, there are plenty.

If it is hot or I notice fatigued runners, I will instruct people to drink and slow down to accommodate fluid intake at the aid stations.

I do not have a speedometer so the mile times may vary but I will try to maintain a constant pace.

If you feel fatigued, slow down to an easy shuffle. Keep the sign in sight as long as possible.

If you are new to half marathons and want to speed up, stay with the group until mile 8 then slowly speed up.

Along with my sign, I will be carrying a camera. I will take some pictures along the way. I may hand the sign off to someone then dash ahead to take pictures.

I will post all pictures that are not blurry.

Good luck and have fun. I will post more instructions as I think of them.

alamedarunners.com
Mile    Time
0    0:00:00
1    0:10:15
2    0:20:30
3    0:30:45
4    0:41:00
5    0:51:15
6    1:01:30
7    1:11:45
8    1:22:00
9    1:32:15
10    1:42:30
11    1:52:45
12    2:03:00
13    2:13:15

As reviewed earlier the Athlete’s HoneyMilk is a favorite among the Alameda Runners, even though it’s still a lesser known product. We recently received a test case of the AHM Strawberry Banana flavor (light) that we’re enjoying after training runs.

I tasted the Strawberry Banana AHM and it’s the sweetest HoneyMilk flavor, and was more like a sugary milkshake than protein drink. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the often unexciting taste of post-exercise protein and supplement drinks.

If you don’t like drinking or eating sweets, I’d recommend trying this flavor with care. For the rest of you, feel free to give it a try the next time you’re looking for a post-run option.

After a hard workout, I’m willing to give the Strawberry Banana another try (but the Chocolate flavor is still my favorite). The sweetness is something that will take getting used to, but is effective in aiding muscle recovery after hard workouts.

Here is the nutritional information from the Strawberry Banana AHM:

Calories 150; calories from fat: 30
Total fat: 3.5g
Cholesterol: 15mg
Sodium: 120mg
Potassium: 450mg
Total Carbohydrates: 11g
Sugars: 11g
Protein: 20g

A case of 12 bottles of Strawberry Banana costs $34.99 (free shipping courtesy of AHM), and can be found on the company’s website. It may seem like a steep price to pay, but these drinks are excellent post-race recovery drinks, because they are pre-mixed and tasty.

Alameda Runners previously interviewed Athletes HoneyMilk last year, so feel free to give it a read. If you have any questions for AHM, please feel free to comment, e-mail or Tweet us … and we’ll see what we can do!

Now that people are starting to run for the upcoming season, I have been hearing a lot of complaints about lower leg injuries.  For people on Dailymile.com, it is easy to see them racking up the miles, fast.  A few questions from the other runners always leads to the same conclusion: we like to injure ourselves from over doing it.  We increase the mileage before our bodies are ready for the additional stress.

Social media makes the problem worse because we see all of these people doing things we want to do.  We do not think about how long it took them to get their elevated status.  We think we can work hard and get there too.  Most of the overuse injuries are on older (over age 30) runners too.  Here is a list of injuries that come to mind.  Keep in mind that I have suffered from all of these injuries because I tend to over train a lot.

Plantar Fasciitis – Pain along the bottom of the foot generally in the heal area.  I had Metatarsalgia which is on the pad of the foot near the toes.  This website has a lot of good stretches and exercises to help this pain.  I have not tried their inserts, perhaps I should.  I swear by inserts.  All of my shoes have inserts, even my cycle shoes.

Calf pain – Another injury us older runners get when we try to go out too fast.  We need to take it easy, stretch and do strength training to get our legs up to speed.  Sports injury clinic

ITB – The dreaded Iliotibial Band Syndrome.  This is a terrible injury.  It is usually caused by over training and catches up to you during or after a long run of like 18 or 20 miles.  There is nothing worse than working up to 20 miles then getting injured.   Time to run injury page

Knee pain – front and back, most likely from tendonitis.  This is one of the best injuries because it is rarely chronic and heals relatively easily from applying ice and rest.  Medical site

• All of these injuries are generally caused by overuse and can be avoided by taking your time when increasing your speed or distance.  When you get an injury, it is always practical to follow the good old R.I.C.E. Method.  Rest-Ice-Compress-Elevate.
• Rest is probably the hardest things for us athletes.  We just want to get out and go.  If you rest as soon as you feel the pain, your healing time will be greatly reduced.
• Ice is easy.  Strap on an ice pack for 15 minutes every couple of hours and you are good to go.  The ice reduces swelling and increases circulation.  Be careful to make sure gel packs do not touch the skin.  You can get a nasty ice burn from a gel pack.  It will take off a few layers of skin so be careful.  I have a shelf full of various gel packs in my freezer and use dollar store support braces to protect my skin and hold the gel packs in place.  Old T-shirts also work to protect your skin.
• Compress – You can wrap your leg in an ace bandage or use the dollar store braces for compression.
• Elevate – If you are like me, you won’t sit still long enough to elevate.  Do your best.

After your injury heals, take it easy with your training, build your strength, stretch and warm up before you work out.

I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget about the people who are just starting out.  I am not a professional athlete or trainer.  I do excel at trying hard and getting injured from over doing it.  I usually fix the injury and move on to find a new body part to injure.  I always manage to have fun and find alternate routines to keep me training while
injured.

The most common cause of injury for beginners is from doing too much, too soon.  People following my training plan or any other training plan usually try to go faster every day.  Fitness and endurance are long-term goals.  You have to stay within your abilities.  It is easy to look at someone who has been exercising for a long time and think running is easy.

Running is easy; it just takes time and practice to run for extended durations.

I posted links to sites from professionals.  Look at their sites and look around for more information.  As they say, knowledge is power.  The more you know, the better you can treat yourself.

Every now and then I go on a tangent that does not seem to be running related.  Today, I am ranting about getting involved and voicing your opinion.  You may not think it matters that your elected representatives know who you are.  Think about who controls the funding for our parks, bike trails and other public places.

Talk to your elected officials.  They listen to what you have to say.  You may not agree with the answer, but you are heard.  I am tired of being “protected” by the TSA.  I sent both my senators and congressman an email voicing my displeasure.  Senator Dianne Feinstein likes a controlling TSA.  I may not agree with her but that is fine.  She listened to my complaint and responded.  Senator Boxer may or may not agree with me but enough people complained she is doing something about it.  Keep in mind, the senators do not read the emails.  They have aides for that.  But they certainly keep an eye on the numbers.  Pay attention to what is going on around you.  Your elected officials want to know where you stand on issues.  It is nice to know where they stand too.

Here is the response I received from Senator Boxer.

Dear Mr. Hoffman:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) new procedures for screening passengers at airports in the United States. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you know, in 2010 the TSA introduced whole-body imaging systems and enhanced pat-down procedures, either of which may be used to check for concealed weapons or explosives underneath an individual passenger’s clothes.

Many Americans have expressed concerns about these new intrusive security measures. I am pleased that TSA Administrator John Pistole recently announced a test program that would capture less revealing images to check for threats underneath a passenger’s clothing.

In addition, on November 19, 2010, I wrote a letter to Mr. Pistole, asking him to develop a “trusted traveler” program – already available for airline pilots – for fully vetted, law-abiding U.S. airline passengers.

I strongly believe that we can implement common-sense policies to protect our national security without infringing on individual privacy rights. Be assured that I will keep working to ensure that all American air passengers can travel safely and comfortably.

Again, thank you for writing to me about this issue. Please feel free to contact me again on this or any other issue of concern to you.

Barbara Boxer

United States Senator

I went from a long injury layoff of 6 months right into a hard half marathon in the hills. I injured myself again by over doing it. I seem to excel at injuring myself from excess. I took three weeks off, now I am right into training for a half ironman distance triathlon. All of this has put me a bit out of sorts for writing. I am going to post a few blogs to help me get back into the swing of things.

First of all, I need to apologize to Fluid. We reviewed some fluid sports drink last year and gave it a bit of a poor review. I tried it again this year and it is much better. I ran out of sports drink and decided to give Fluid another try. This time, I paid attention to the instructions and stuck with the product for a month. The taste is okay. It goes down well and I do not feel ill effects after my runs. I put them back into the buy category.

I was out for a run with the guys from Clif about a month ago. As you can guess, our conversations all revolved around Clif. It is nice to see them out running and using the products they sell. They sent me a care package full of their new products. I tried Mojo bar between an hour run and 90 minute bike ride and felt fine after the ride. I felt no need for gel or anything else while riding. I will really put the products to the test when my mileage increases. The bars taste good enough to eat after a morning swim.

In my next post, I will try to string together some coherent thoughts.

On January 29, 2011, Brazen Racing came to our home course in Newark, California.  It was fun doing a run on our local trails.  The half marathon was two loops with an out and back leg.  The Brazen events always have hills and single track trails, or at least it seems that way.  Most of us are used to the trails but the single tracks can be a challenge for track runners starting out on trail runs.  This was a great event with a unique start line that was on the hump of a small hill.

A lot of us have a few key events that we are training for and do other races as social events or advanced training events to gauge our fitness.  This was a social training run for me.  I was out with the Mission Peak Striders, Daily Mile members and plenty of Alameda Runners.  Thank you all for showing up in such great numbers.  It is nice to get all of the local runners together for an event.  Oddly enough, I wound up running with Ron the Punk Rock Runner who is in his own group.

I am training for a triathlon in July.  This week was a rest week in my training cycle so I took it easy on my run.  The Punk Rock Runner is training for an Ironman distance triathlon so he was cruising along too.  The way I see it, if you can run 13 miles on a rest day, you are doing well.  When you do these events as social events, it is fun to meet new people and talk to them in the back of the pack.

My new best friend Ron, started running 3 years ago after he heard a coworker talking about marathon training.  He weighed over 280 pounds when he decided to run a marathon.  He told his friends at work he was going to run a marathon.  He said they had an office pool to see how far he would go before he crashed and burned.  He finished, now he does Ironman distance triathlons.  He still has trouble with his weight but he does no let that stop him.

Get out and do some events, it is a lot of fun and you meet a lot of people just like you.  It is great to compare notes and have a new friend to encourage you along.  We were comparing notes on our strengths and weaknesses thinking “if only…”.

This was a great event for me.  It was like a family reunion with so many friends and conversations.   we all had something in common.  We just finished something hard.  Doing a rest run of 13 miles is still hard.  It was still fun.

I just wrote a piece on DeFeet socks and footwear last month.  I don’t know if it is because of the article or because so many people are training for the Oakland Running Festival but feet have been a hot topic.

I will start off by saying that foot problems are not a badge of honor saying that you are a runner.  They are something to avoid and take care of as soon as something comes up.  There is nothing good about injuries of any type.  The most common foot injuries that I hear about:

• Black toe nails
• Toe nails falling off
• Blisters on the toes
• Blisters on the feet or heels
• Foot pain
• Arch pain
• Athletes foot

Black toe nails and toe nails falling off usually come from the same source – your toe nail is hitting something.  The first and easiest thing to do is make sure you toe nails are nice and trimmed.  If you don’t like clipping your toe nails, go get a pedicure (polish is optional).

If your nails are good check the quality of your socks.  Cheap socks can bunch or have a seam across the toes.  Then check your shoes for proper size and room in the toe box.  Take your time in the shoe store, when selecting shoes.

You should find shoes that fit comfortably and have room for the toes.  Walk around in the store for a little while and jog a bit to make sure the shoes stay put.  One of my dailymile friends has to drive 4 hours to get to a running store.  I have a theory on that…  You should spend as much time trying your shoes as you do commuting to the shoe store.  While you are at the store try some high quality running socks and shoe inserts.  They will both last longer than the shoes.

Blisters usually happen for the same reasons as black toe nails but they happen on the bottoms of the toes and feet.  Blisters are always from rubbing.  Sometimes, you get blisters because your feet are just not ready for running.  Check out your shoes and socks and keep running.  When you get a blister, do not pop it!  Put ice on it to relieve the swelling.

The next time you run, put some Vaseline or Body Glide on it.  I prefer Body Glide because I like the texture.  After about 3-5 days the blister will shrink away to nothing.  If you are at an aid station of an event, it is popping the blister is fine.  It will add to the time it takes to heal but you are at the event to finish.

Foot pain can be serious.  If you have foot pain that persists, go see a doctor.  I live in California where the medical care is not quite up to standard so I usually go see the sports chiropractor first.  The choice is yours.  Keep in mind that feet are very important and a lot of injuries can be taken care of easily if they are treated early.

Athletes foot/feet – Do not mess around with athletes foot.  Treat the first itch between the toes.  Over the counter medicines work fine.  I prefer creams because they do not stink up the house or locker room and the cream stays where you put it.  If you take care of athletes foot at the first itch, there is a good chance it can be cured before the skin is damaged.

I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget about the people who are just starting out.  I am not a professional athlete or trainer.  I do excel at trying hard and getting injured from over doing it.  I usually fix the injury and move on to find a new body part to injure.  I always manage to have fun and find alternate routines to keep me training while injured.

The most common cause of injury for beginners is from doing too much, too soon.  People following my training plan or any other training plan usually try to go faster every day.  Fitness and endurance are long term goals.  You have to stay within your abilities.  It is easy to look at someone who has been exercising for a long time and think running is easy.

Running is easy; it just takes time and practice to run for extended durations.  I am in my base building phase right now and I still add some extra miles because it is a nice day or I feel good.  I know better but I do it anyway.

The most common injuries for runners building up their miles occur from the knees down.  The knee problem I suffer the most is an ITB injury.  The best way to find out what knee ailment you have is to do a search on the internet.  All of the search engines work well and come up with similar answers.  Strength, or lack thereof, is a common theme for older runners taking up the sport.

After I get done tearing up my knees, I start working on my calves and shins.  The common cause is lack of strength, flexibility and building up too fast.  Calf injuries are not to be trifled with but they are relatively easy to correct by strength training and stretching.

The feet are extremities that are not really affected from poor strength training but they are affected by a lack of stretching and doing too much too soon.

Next I will post about feet.  The feet are the most common annoying issues that people endure but they are usually easier to fix.

Santa stopped at Finis on the way to my house this year and brought me a pair of competitive briefs, two pair of long SwimAmerica shorts and a pair of shockwave goggles.  Finis has quietly taken over my swim collection.  I don’t have much brand loyalty for anything.  If a company takes over on any of my high use items, it because they have a product I like at a price I am willing to pay.  People who do not shop at swim shops don’t usually know about Finis.  The big sporting chains usually carry Speedo, Nike and little else.  Nike is the king of sports and swim suits are called Speedos for a reason.

The Finis competitive briefs are great swim suits because they are durable and double lined.  When you swim in a pool a lot, the single lining gets very thin and become transparent when wet.  You usually go around mooning people for a while before someone tells you about your clear shorts.  The double lining gives you time to notice the wear before the inner lining wears out.  I like to wear briefs when lap swimming because there are less things to move around and wear out.

The Finis Swim America long swim suit was on sale so Santa brought me two pairs.  The long shorts do not last nearly as long as the briefs because there is a lot more material to stretch out and move around.  The long shorts are a good change of pace every now and then.  I really like the long shorts when I am going to do a swim bike combo.  Riding with the long suit is like wearing cycle shorts without padding.  I see a lot of guys at the pool wearing the long suits.  Give them a try, long shorts may be for you.

Shockwave goggles – My first pair of Finis goggles were review goggles and I have been wearing them since.  Goggles are very personal as everyone has a different facial structure.  The Finis goggles have a good seal that is pretty durable.  The anti fog coating lasts about as long as the seal so it is a good match.  I get between 200 and 300 swim hours out of a pair of goggles before they start fogging up and leaking.

I like my Finis swim equipment.  All of my stuff is for training.  I do not wear race swimwear as most of my races are in cold water where I am wearing a wetsuit.  I have a warm water triathlon scheduled this July in Napa California.  I will not wear a wetsuit in 75 degree water but I am not sure about wearing a $200 swimsuit on a 56 mile bike ride.