Six Goals for 2011

Well...I couldn't think of any more than six goals (half of which I stole from this guy) so here they are for 2011:

1. Run another 100 miler
2. Complete at least one 100 mile non-race week
3. Average 200 miles/month
4. Run at least five ultra races
5. Do at least two ab workouts 2x/wk (notice how I don't specify what a "workout" is)
6. Do a set of sprints 2x/month

I think #1-4 are attainable and #5-6 are iffy. I just can't make myself do any other workout other than running (and Zumba, of course). That's why I got injured back in April- for not strengthening any other muscles- butttt...oh well. Life's tough.

Disappointing Drymax

No, that's not my foot.

Last year at Mohican I got hit with a ton of blisters and it ended up forcing me out of the race. Nick had the same problem and finally recommended me some good, expensive socks that supposedly do the trick: the $20/pair Drymax Socks Maximum Proctection "made for ultra runners, guaranteeing to keep your feet drier than any other pair of sock" socks. Since these were the "top-notch" socks that everyone loves, I kept them in the back of my mind and was going to buy them as my mileage picked up and as I got closer to attempting another 100 mile race (Woodstock is 9/24).

So the other day I forked out $60 for three pairs of them, assuming they'd get me through a 50 mile race. I ran six miles in them the other day and felt fine. I was on a ten mile run today and at mile EIGHT my feet were soaked with sweat! I could feel the water sloshing around. I came home and I already had a little blister on my toe. The crazy thing was that it was cooler out today (76 degrees) than my other runs and for some reason I noticed the wetness in these socks more than other socks on different runs.

I'm pretty disappointed as big races are approaching and I have yet to find a solution to blisters. I wasn't even in water today and my socks were wet. What the heck am I going to do with a million water and mud-caca crossings during a race? Buy 30 pairs of socks and then change my socks every five miles? Maybe I should just run in water shoes. After all, wouldn't water shoes be similar to Vibram shoes and isn't barefoot running in style nowadays?

Someone at my last race suggested putting the powder that you put on baby's butts on your feet to help. I forget what it's called. I'll go ahead and get my money back for these socks and keep on searching for solutions.

Am I the only one having problems? No one else in these ultras seems to suffer. Any suggestions? Any help?

Last Week's Recap

Mon- Off
Tues- 6mi
Wed- 12mi
Thurs- 10mi4mi
Fri- 10mi
Sat- 12mi16mi
Sun- 6mi

26/58 miles for the week- woohoo! Don't worry...I'll get my butt in gear and start running again.

I made a new friend last week, Bob, and he gave me the confidence I needed to know I can finish this 100 miler coming up. He's run a few 100s before and here are a few tips he gave me:

• Eat mostly solids for the first 50 miles, liquids during the 2nd 50 miles (I guess at the end of the run, you'll get the calories and protein faster if it's through liquids...if you're drinking protein drinks or something like that)
• When I'm at the starting line, I need to know and believe I'll finish...no doubting allowed at that point
• I neeeed to be peeing during the race reguarly (during my previous ultras, it was a goal of mine to not pee at all because I didn't want to stop)
• Go slow enough in the beginning so I can pass people in the second half...it'll boost my confidence.

When I told him that I was afraid I hadn't been running enough miles per week to be able to finish, he said he normally only runs 25-40 miles a week and was still able to finish the 100s....so that helped boost my confidence. Everyone is different and has differnt training styles and what not....so I know I can do it!!

He told me about ice bandanas and how to make them (see here). I tried them out on my Saturday morning run. Since it was only about 67 degrees out at that time, the cold ice kind of hurt my neck...and I didn't like having something on my throat tied tight...but I eventually got used to it. I bet they'd feel awesome during a super hot run.

So I ran 10 miles Saturday morning and then 6 miles that evening. No miles yesterday. Hopefully I'll get a few in today and get back in the swing of things.

Newly Found Post-Running Awesome Snack

My friends are in Chile now for 4 1/2 months and they left behind their big dog, Kaiser. Unless I visit him during this time, I've been told that this poor dog will not get walked at all. Of course feeling guilty, I took him on a run this afternoon at the canal.

He had tons of energy and so he pulled me super fast in the beginning. I didn't like it but I was keeping up. Literally after 10 minutes, the dang dog got tired and started walking! How annoying! Don't dogs know how to pace themselves? So since I didn't want him to die on me, we walked some so he could catch his breath. For the next 10 minutes we walked some, ran some, etc.

It's too bad that dog's out of shape because it was perfect weather and started to sprinkle, too. I wanted to at least get in 30 minutes of running but it didn't happen.

So anyway- to relate to the title of this post- I came home and I was bored. As usual, I stand at the freezer and fridge and expect some great, magical food that I haven't noticed the past 2 weeks to jump out at me. Nothing looked good but since I was bored, I felt like I had to eat something. I grabbed the bag of frozen blueberries and my life has been different ever since.

YUMMMMMY- that's my awesome new snack. Eating the blueberries frozen somehow hit the spot after a run. I've always loved blueberries but how come I never ate them frozen after a workout? They're refreshing, half-way hydrating, healthy, and delicious. Put them in a little bowl and eat them.

I just finished off the bag and since I'm still bored, I'm going to go make chocolate chip cookies.

Winter Running Clothes Suck

I've made it out for a few runs in the cold this past week and these darn extra layers of clothes don't make it fun. I already feel like some slow, fat person running---they just weigh you down.

Then it always is hard because you don't know how many layers to put on and if you'll get hot or not. I started out for a run yesterday all bundled up and then stripped down the layers after about 5 minutes. Ahhhhh the troubles of my life.

Where's my Runner's High?

For those of you that don't know, a "Runner's High" is when you are exercising for a long period of time and then you basically just feel awesome. What happens is after your body meets a certain point (based on your physical exertion), your body releases endorphins that appear like opiates and then somehow all of that makes you have an out-of-body sort of experience. (I don't know what all of that means...but that's what my thorough research said)

Scientists still debate whether or not the release of endorphins is actually the cause of one's heightened performance. According to ScienceDaily, a study was performed by scientists from fields of Nuclear Medicine, Neurology and Anaesthesia at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and the University of Bonn. They had ten athletes run for two hours and had scanned them with a positron emission tomography (PET) before and after. The article states that they used radioactive substance [18F]diprenorphine ([18F]FDPN), which binds to the opiate receptors in the brain and hence competes with endorphins. I have no idea what that means but the bottom line is, their performance was tested somehow.

Basically what they found out is that the Endorphin Hypothesis holds true- there is a connection between the release of endorphins and the emotional state of the athlete. For more details, see this blog post.

So now that we know (or we at least have a concrete example) that the Runner's High exists- and we know that in order to get one, you have to run for a long period of time- why the heck have I not gotten it in over a couple of years???? And only during the past year have I started to run a marathon regularly and only over the past 6 months have I started running ultras!!!
Which means that I got a runner's high from running 10-13 miles, not from my 26-65 miles. That does not make sense. If anything, I'd think I'd have a high every month from all of these races.
I'd like the scientists from all of those medical fields to do a study on me and see why I'm getting gypped.

It was so long ago that I can't remember my experiences that well- but I do know that runner's high are awesome but also scary. When you get the high, you feel like you're on top of the world. It's so great because your speed picks up and you seriously pass millions of people. However, the high's are very scary because you never know how long they're going to last. I remember getting the high one time at around 8 miles and I still had a couple miles to go. I wanted to take advantage of the high and go fast, but I didn't know if it'd stop after 30 seconds and I'd screw myself from wasting all of my energy. What a dilemma.

I know people say (and I've experience this) that during ultras people will get like 5 winds. They'll have low points and then high points and then back and forth. This is not what I'm referring to- that's different than the runner's high.

I'd like to hear from some of you (especially the ultra-runners) if you've had the high and if you did, what distance it was for.

When to Help the Injured

Okay so I just talked about Claire getting injured during the race and I talked about how the other runners (and fans, for that matter) ignored her as she fell twice and crawled to the finish line.

That got me thinking and brought me to my next point or question:

During a race, when do (or should) you (the runner) stop to help another runner who is injured?

Vote and let me know what you think.

Many of you may think it's an obvious answer: Stop and help the person because helping a person is more important than finishing the race in a good time, or at all. However, it is a much tougher decision for me.

A few times during races I've seen injured people hobbling along with a runner that's helping them, and it's obvious they won't finish the race. At those times I always ask myself what I would do if that runner had fallen right in front of me.

It's such a hard choice because I am a competitive, selfish person (is this confession?).

If the person had fallen right in front of me and they couldn't get back up, and I was the only one around, I would feel obligated to stop and help them. Despite the fact that I would be helping someone who needs me, I would be very disappointed that it caused me to have a slower time in the race (especially if I was feeling strong and going fast).

If the person had fallen around me and there were others around who hadn't stopped, I would assume (more like, hope) that they would be fine and surely someone else would stop for them. That is the truth.

Which brings me to my next point: Whenever someone needs help- whether it be due to a car accident, due to a bully, due to a fight, what have you- the majority of people will let the problem/violence continue because they assume that someone else will take care of the matter and call for help.

One personal example is when I was driving home on the interstate last year and I saw an SUV flipped over in grassy area near the median. As I drove by I saw that people were inside the car still, upside-down. I was so scared for them and so I immediately called 911. However, that's all I did.

No one was around the SUV, no one else had stopped to help them, I don't know how long they were there for- and yet I still didn't stop because I assumed that surely someone else would see they needed help and stop for them.

The whole ride home and afterwards I kept thinking about them and wondering if I should have stopped to help.

This assumption has been referred to as the Genovese Syndrome, or the Bystander Effect. According to the highly reliable source- Wikipedia- solitary individuals will typically intervene if another person is in need of help. However help is less likely to be given if more people are present.

To sum up where "Genovese Syndrome" comes from, Kitty Genovese was sexually assaulted, robbed, and then stabbed to death in front of many of her neighbors in NY in the '60s. People saw what was going on but yet let it happen, not in the least bit attempting to stop the man or to help the woman.

I could go on and on but I must get back to work.

Bottom line is- be careful if you're ever the one in need. Flag down people and yell at people to stop and help you because if there's more than one person around watching you get beat up or robbed, chances are no one will help.

Finishing No Matter What- Good or Bad Idea?

I cannot believe what I saw.

During a HS state cross country meet, Claire Markwardt from OH was about 8 yards from crossing the finish line. As girls are all around her crossing the line, she suddenly falls down. She immediately gets up and her knee starts to wobble and she falls back down. Girls continue to pass her, ignoring her as they almost finish the race. Claire then crawls the remaining 8 yards to the finish line- still being ignored (see Help). Even after she crosses the line, she's crawling away. Finally a guy comes and stands her up- which was probably a bad idea. He then carries her away.

It turns out that she had broken her tibia and fibula (whatever that is) during the race and didn't know it!!! That is disgusting! During the video you can't even see that much with her leg- but just knowing that her leg is breaking right then makes it disgusting! I almost got sick watching it, just thinking about it.

See her fall at 1:39 of the video:



Unfortunately she was supposed to be the maid of honor in her sister's wedding that night and had to miss the wedding.

One article just said that her leg had been sore two weeks before the race so she didn't practice too much beforehand. Now, surely she must have had some other kind of injury beforehand.

If she's only running short distances (3-10 miles, I assume) how did she injure her leg so bad? I know that's a dumb question because people can do anything to hurt themselves. So, I guess I'm just scared. If she broke her leg doing short distances and I'm over here running 60+ miles, when am I going to collapse and break a bone or too? Hmm.

Well anyway, awesome determination Claire! Good for her, I guess.

Good luck recovering.

Who should you believe: random doctors or random co-runners?

Here's an interesting article Mark sent me about athletes' food intake. It basically states that many athletes are gullible and that eating special foods (maybe such as my salt tablets, gus, blocks, etc) are not necessary, but rather good, "normal" foods. It quotes random doctors and their beliefs and also gives little testimonies from elite runners/Ironmaners.

Well...this information doesn't help my ignorant self. If some other long distance runner tells me that I should eat or take something because it'll help my muscles/endurance, etc, I'll most likely do it (unless it costs more than $17).

Check it out if you want and give me your take on it:

Real Thought for Food for Long Workouts.

Electrolytes

For a better, more interesting, more informational post about Salt Tablets, see:

A Better, More Interesting, More Informational Post About Salt Tablets.

Calorie Intake

According to my co-runners, you burn apx 100 calories per mile that you run (on flat surface, that is). Sooo on the hills and random roots , I could potentially be burning about 6800 calories or something. Chris says that's only 67 medium potatoes. Nice.

See Medium Potatoe Calorie Content.

A lot of times they (the aid stations during ultras) do have potatoes for you to eat, but I've never tried them. Eating a big potatoe does NOT sound appetizing during a race. It seems like because it's so big and starchy and dry, it would just sit in your stomach the whole time. Maybe I'll try it for a 100 mile race.

All of this to say that I have been eating like CRAP these past 1 1/2 weeks and knowing I'll be burning a crap load of calories on Saturday makes me feel a little bit better. I was eating really healthily (?) the past few months, then all of a sudden (after Lent) I started eating my favorite Wendys vanilla frostys and became addicted again. Once I start eating that junk then I no longer crave vegetables, but rather other junk food like pizza and hamburgers. Ay ay ay. Hopefully after this weekend I'll get back on track.

Salt Tablets

Since everyone is telling me I need to make sure I eat enough salt during my long runs and since Chris is sick of me bumming salt off of him, I finally ordered a bottle of S!CAPS. I bought this brand because that's what Chris uses and because I don't know any better in regards to other brands.

I know the S!CAPS website says these tablets include all of this other junk that's good for you. Not like I'm a pro at web design or anything, but that website looks kind of cheaply made and generic. There's too much colorful writing and randomness. It looks like a big, phony advertisement.

SO the question is, is it really worth the money for these tablets and do they really work? Why in the world did I pay $18 for a stupid bottle of salt (about $7 of it was shipping, but still)? Why can't I just take a ziplock bag full of kitchen salt and drink it down while I'm running? That seems a whole lot cheaper. Isn't it all the same?

Cleaning the Camelpak (Camelbak?)

First off, is it called CamelPAK or CamelBAK? I always get confused! I think I've been calling it Camelpak. Why haven't you corrected me? Probably because you don't know the difference either. When I was in the store a long time ago looking for one, I remember just saying the word really quickly to the salesperson because I couldn't remember which one it was: Camelpak or Camelbak. I figured if I said it quick enough, he wouldn't know the difference. It worked.

Well whatever it is, mine's nasty. It's been stinking really bad lately...and not the inside of it that holds the water, but the outside cloth has a nasty BO funk to it now. Awesome.

I filled it up this morning and had it in my car on my 45 minute drive to work. The whole time it just reeeeeked of old sweat. After about 20 minutes I got used to it and forgot about my pack.
Then all of a sudden I started to question my own BO. I knew something stunk and I smelled my armpits to make sure it wasn't coming from me. I had just showered and put on deodorant so it couldn't be me...haha. Then I remembered it was my nasty funk bag stinking up the car.

It's just like when I cut onions for my salads in the morning. I always try to make sure my fingers don't actually touch the cut onion because I don't want my hands to smell like BO all day. I'll be at work and touch my face and smell something nasty and think it's me...then I thankfully remember it's the onions.

So anyway when I got to work, I googled "Cleaning Camelpaks" and that's first how I realized I've been calling it the wrong name for the past year. All of the results that came up gave instructions on how to clean the actual "Hydration Bladder" (that's a gross name for it):


I don't care about cleaning the inside...I just put water in it (although the last couple of times I carried it, the mouth piece was salty). I want to know if I can actually put the outer covering of my "bladder" in the wash or something, or if I should just play it safe and live with the awesome smell.

Until then, I'll just keep on wearing the dirty thing.

If you're interested in learning more about Camelbaks, click here.

Trail shoes

Today I stocked up on goods for the big race coming up. I had totally forgotten about blocks!! I love those! They're like fruit roll-ups. So I bought about 5 packs of blocks, 8 gus, and then a Snickers protein bar. Of course the protein bar had a tons of calories and fat but oh well...I'm trying to branch out on the food. I have so much food and only so many places to carry it. I'll have safety pins all over my body because I will NOT be wearing an old man fanny back.

I also bought some new trail shoes. I'm lazy when it comes to actually researching what kinds of trail shoes are good, and what ones for long distances and what ones for my type of foot. So I went to Dicks today and bought the only pair I saw...Adidas Exerta Trail W. I didn't talk to any of the sales people about it because I highly doubt they'd know what the heck they're talking about and I highly doubt they've run long distance on trails...so I just bought them and I'll hope for the best.

I normally don't run in Adidas. They felt fine when I ran 2 feet in them at the store.
They look like they have more traction on the bottom than my current Nike trail shoes.
I need to break them in these last two weeks because I plan on using them for the race, but I won't be doing any long distance running beforehand. I'll just bring them and my Nikes to the race in a drop bag.

At first when I went to the shoe section an employee referred me to another section for trail shoes. So I went upstairs and they had a lot of trail shoes but I don't know if they were necessarily shoes for long distance running. I saw a lot of hard core looking shoes from Colombia and Merrell (I think it is). Since I don't know anything about shoes I was tempted to buy one of those big, rugged pairs...but then leaned away from them since I don't remember seeing any other runners in those types of shoes. They're more for hiking, I imagine.

Any thoughts? I hope they'll be okay considering I didn't research Nike trail shoes before I bought that pair. I tried them on once, and then starting running a lot of miles in them and they felt fine. I don't even know why I buy specific trail shoes. When I'm on the trails and it's muddy, I still slip in them and still trip over stuff...can't really tell a difference. Oh well, it's all psychological. :)

Raynaud's disease

I think I have Raynaud's disease. This is what I was thinking about earlier when I talked about my freezing, color changing, numb hands. Check out this site for some interesting info.


I just found a picture that perfectly shows what my hands always look like, especially while running. It's really gross looking but it's exact. I think I even said after the 50 mile race that my hands looked like raw meat. They were purple, orange, and white. Yum.



Below is how my finger looked after one mile during a half marathon race. I didn't have gloves on and it was probably 45 degrees outside. It scared the crap out of me because that white finger started tingling and I thought I'd have to amputate it off.

Running awards???

I surprisingly got an envelope in the mail today and inside it was a TrailRunner buff. I guess it's from the Land Between the Lakes race in KY a couple of months ago... Who would have thunk. The letter said they give points to each runner for each mile you run and then what place you come in and then count your age group and all of that stuff. Nice. I'll take a picture of it later.
When would I wear it? It'd look funky on my head since I'm not a guy and I have long hair. Oh well...we'll make it work somehow. How long was that race, anyway? I think that was the 60k.

I don't think I wrote about this earlier but first off, the Xenia marathon was terrible for me. I had a super slow time because I walked the last 3-4 miles...and it just sucked. So as I was talking to Chris on the phone about that particular race, I walk into my house and see a package from OH. Inside was a plaque for the race saying I placed top in my age group or something like that. Then my slow-ars time appeared on it too. Funny.

Medicine- good or bad?

I've always taken about 2-3 ibuprofen before my runs and then a couple during my runs. I do this to prevent any pain I might feel. Good or bad idea? I know I'm covering up a problem that I have with my legs, but aren't legs always supposed to hurt during 5-12 hour runs? Mark said that if I'm drinking enough water, taking enough salt, and eating the right foods then my legs shouldn't hurt and medicine isn't necessary. Chris doesn't take it anymore and said he read some article about it that he can't find. :)

Any thoughts?

Thick nasty Gu

Chris just spent $80+ on Gu yesterday. Wow. That is a crapload.
He called me from the store to pick me up some. I'm looking forward to my tropical flavors, and most of all, the blueberry jelly beans! I even had a dream about my Gu.
I hate Gu, but I think it's better than eating pretzels, chips, candy during a race.

Cure to fat hands?

I have noticed that after running short and long distances (usually in cold weather) my hands seem to blow up like a huge rubber glove. They get super puffy and typically turn white.

The first time I noticed this was when I was running outside with Chris and we had run about 5 hours. We stopped to take a break and I took off my tiny gloves. I freaked out because when I took them off I saw huge marshmellow-looking hands and I didn't know why. They didn't hurt or anything (even though they were numb since it was cold out), they were just huge.

Well thanks to Chris, I realized I'm not the only one suffering from ugly fat hands. According to some people's experiences, I might need to take some elctrolyte capsules or something- hmm. See the link that Chris found: Fat Hands.

I later asked my doctor about my hands and my circulation (since my hands are always freezing and purple) and she thought it was probably linked to Raynaud's Disease. It basically means you can't do much to fix it and you just live with ugly, fat, cold hands. See this post for more info on Raynaud's Disease.