Starting over

May 10, 2011

herb mindless dribble, running 3 Comments

I haven’t posted anything in over a month. That’s not to say I haven’t written anything. It’s just that I’ve basically been in a very rough place in terms of running, and as a result, its been hard to get through writing about it; and even harder to re-read it without rolling my eyes in disgust.

So, I got into the habit of writing, and then deleting half ass half-finished dribble. The post where I whined about how I missed the Boston marathon on a day where the fastest race times happened under the best of conditions, made me want to reach through the computer screen and punch myself. The few of you who read this blog can thank me for deleting that.

To sum things up, over the past month, I’ve been struggling with whether or not to run, how much I can get away with running and weighing it against whether it will negatively impact my hamstring tendonitis. All the while, I’ve gained weight and have seen my fitness fly out the window.

About a month ago, I went to see an orthopedic doctor who was snivelling little nerd. This wasn’t the likeable kind of nerd you might be familiar with. Rather, he was a bitchy little arrogant bastard with a strong resemblance to Dustin Diamond… except nerdier, if that’s even possible. And he wore nerd glasses. …fuckin nerd.

Oh, I see, and um, what medical journal did you read that in?

Why the venom? Well, I have very little tolerance for the type of attitude he displayed, considering he is someone in healthcare and is getting paid a lot of money to help me with a situation I’m desperately trying to get fixed. Long story short, when he suggested NSAIDs, I mentioned reading about how they were found to inhibit tendon to bone injuries and asked him what his thoughts were. Considering I’m there to get help with my tendinitis, I think the question was more than applicable.

His response was to smirk and say “oh, and was this a medical journal you read this from?” Obviously, he took my question as a challenge. When he finally did address my question, he dismissed it as something that only occurred over long term treatment. To mention the article stated this was after a 2 week course would surely not have produced a constructive conversation, so I withheld further questioning.

Asking him for “permission” to ask another question resulted in him rolling his eyes and responded with a “Yes, of course you can” with an underlying sigh of exacerbation and disgust. Well, fuck, you, you little nerd. I walked out of there with a prescription for flector patches and physical therapy sessions which were to be conducted across the hall in the same building, and a follow up appointment with the promise of a cortisone shot if things did not improve.

The physical therapy only lasted one session. The therapist seemed like a real nice guy. He did an evaluation. Asked me to do some stretching exercises during my session. At this point I’ve been stretching every night and made a lot of improvement, so none of these were a problem. By the end, he said I really didn’t need to come back. In a way I was happy thinking it meant I was improving, but as I was leaving, I said to myself, “well, shit, now what do I do?”. I was hoping for something a bit more proactive to improve my situation.

So for the past month I’ve been running here and there. Sometimes, I was rather unintelligent about it. Running 7 minute miles around central park wanting to believe things were better was probably one of those stupid things. Running 12 miles another day, thinking if I kept it slow it would be ok was another mistake. For the most part, when I stayed disciplined and stayed slow with the mileage low, running didnt seem to make it worse, or at least not much worse. But as time went on, as grateful as I was to be just running easy after not being able to run at all, the satisfaction gradually wore off and was no longer enough. I really miss the phyiscal feeling after running a hard effort and the sense of accomplishment and pride when I can honestly tell myself I did a good job.

Last week, after reading posts from others who have had this injury and the length of time it took to heal, I realized I need to stop and get this healed as soon as possible before it turns into a life long thing. I took a full week off. A full 7 days. Nothing. No running at all. I canceled my follow up appointment with the nerd and made an appointment with another doctor, coincidentally on the same day. As I mentioned, the nerd was ready to give me a cortisone shot on the follow up visit if I wanted it; the only reason I kept the appointment in the first place.

I’m learning what a mistake that would have been. The new doctor referred me to another physical therapist and specifically wrote massage therapy and electric stimming. I’m excited about this. He also spoke about platlet rich plasma injections as a possibility and said no way to cortisone shots.

Now for the real good news. I ran 4 miles yesterday on one of my favorite flat paved paths. I focused on not allowing my leg to feel that pulling sensation. I did this actually in preparation for my appointment with the doctor today. I figured if I’m going to test things out I should do it before my conversation with him. It felt a lot better than I would have thought when done. The typical tightness afterwards wasnt really there an hour later, nor was it the next day.

When I spoke to him, he mentioned I could run if it didn’t hurt, which is the most confusing advice. This thing never really hurts during running. It hurts afterwards and the next day. I tried discussing it with him and I sort of came to the conclusion I’m going to have to figure this out myself as to when it’s best to run. I tried again today and did 6 miles. I let the pulling feeling happen a bit more this time, again to test it out. The pulling sensation, or the stretching sensation still had some discomfort, but there was a familiar feeling to it and I honestly thing it may be improving. It wasn’t the sickly injured feeling, but more like a sore muscle that needed stretching, rather than one that’s being damaged when stretched. Best way I can describe it even if it doesn’t make sense. I recognized this and it brought back memories from when I had achilles tendonitis and things started turning around, so I’m very hopeful right now. It’ll be quite a while before I’m running tempo pace and intervals, but shit… I can’t wait until I can do that again.

With that said, right now I run with a slow and heavy feeling and with a lot of effort. But today, I really enjoyed it. I almost felt fast, even if my “fast” is now over 30 seconds per mile slower than my marathon pace for just a 6 mile run. But, it doesn’t bother me.
I’m confident it will come back. And I’ll be happy just to be able to put the work in. Man, do I miss it.

Injury update (and opting out of other bull$h*t)

March 31, 2011

herb health, mindless dribble, running 3 Comments

Ok, so this is my second post in a row where I used swearing in the title, but at least I’m censoring it a bit this time. I’m finding it quite liberating. Also, it seems swearing gets more hits to the blog. Obviously, people like to read swear words, so I’m trying not to disappoint.

Anyway, I’ve taken a full week off from running since finally realizing the tendons in my hamstrings were royally screwed up. Thankfully, there’s been noticeable improvement everyday. Each morning is less tight than the day prior, and stepping up on curbs causes less pain as well. After a full week, I decided to test things out by doing almost 6 miles in central park. This consisted of the lower 5 mile loop with about .7 miles for the road at 60th and 5th ave leading to and from the loop. I never skip Harlem hills, but knowing this injury, I knew that I would be making things worse if I were to include them.

The whole time while running, I focused on trying not to aggravate my hamstrings. I maintained a small stride to do this. I was mostly successful and by the end of the run things were even better than I thought they’d be. The running wasn’t easy, and by that, I mean it was tiresome in my leg muscles. I can’t for the life of me figure out why that is. How could I possibly go from running 20 miles without effort to having tired legs after 3 miles? Do you lose so much fitness in a week from doing nothing? The answers to the obvious questions most would ask are.. I ran a full minute per mile slower that what I do 20 at, and, no, aerobically this was no problem as I was carrying on a full conversation.

The next day I can’t say I noticed an improvement like I have every other day, but it didn’t feel like i regressed either. So I went out for another 6 and it didn’t go well. In fact, it was worse than the day before. I remember thinking to myself while running how much I missed running. And, I mean that easy effortless feeling of moving fast along with feeling the kind of effort that’s welcomed… almost what’s craved. This felt broken, and it was not the result of pain from my injury. I wasn’t in pain. It was just this weird tiredness in my legs in muscles I never feel tiredness in. And in my lower back also in places I never felt tired before.

I have to admit, that during the week away, while things felt like they were improving quickly, I was still secretly hoping Boston could be a possibility. But, this second run absolutely killed it and in some way it was almost a relief. I guess the realization that this is absolutely out of my control took some pressure off, but it doesn’t change the fact I’m still pissed at the situation. This is true especially when I think back to the sacrifices I made to stay so consistent with training. Oh well, I whined about that in my last post so I’ll skip it here. But the point is, I’m now ready to cancel those hotel reservations :(

The scary thing about all this, is that you think there might actually be a possibility this is one of those injuries that never fully goes away. The rational side of me believes mostly this isn’t true. But, when I think about how long I’ve felt that twinge, before it became a major problem, I realize can’t remember a time not feeling that twinge. That’s also sort of the reason how this whole thing was able to creep up on me the way I did. It was like I turned around one day and said, “Hey, this isn’t getting better.” But, my point is if it took this long to get so bad, is it going to take this long to go away?

Any way, in the meantime; something non-running related, I joined a CSA which I’m very happy about.

I think our food, and the whole industry around agriculture, along with the FDA and USDA is so broken it’s quite frightening when you think about the path we’re going down. I’ve never really written about this, and if I were, you would might think I was a conspiracy theorist if you aren’t already familiar with the situation. I’ll tell you right now, I’m no extremist by any means. But, I feel like there’s this big reality out there that the majority of America knows nothing about. There are so many “definitions” and “standards” put in place by these institutions we believe are there to protect us. In reality, these definitions are so ill-defined, vague, and deceptive. Often, people make decisions with the best of intentions because of these definitions. It turns out, those institutions which we believe we can trust have become so twisted and corrupt that not only are they useless, but they’re quite destructive.

I might write more about it in future posts, especially since there will probably not be much in the way of running. In the meantime, spend some time watching this. It’s a little tough to get through the first 10 minutes, but it’s very informative.

Should I eat my cockatiel’s eggs?

February 4, 2011

herb mindless dribble , , , 6 Comments

She laid four of them.

They’re not fertilized, just as chicken eggs aren’t. She’s very healthy. I make sure of that. And she is well taken care of; and loved. She was never given antibiotics, medications, or hormones. For all intents and purposes, she is free range and is allowed to fly around the house during the day until we get tired of cleaning up her poop.

These are all the traits I would want from a chicken whose eggs I would eat. Would I be a hypocrite to not eat these?

Assuming you’re not vegan, and you eat chicken eggs, could you make an argument not to eat these other than “eewwwww, gross!!!“?

Did I mention she's also not fed a "corn only" diet?

A review of 2010

January 5, 2011

herb mindless dribble, running , , 2 Comments

With the end of the year, I’m compelled to write the obligatory post where I look back and review how it all went. In all honesty, it was a very good year for me. Better than any other so far. In terms of my race times, I’m in a place now where I couldn’t imagine being before 2010 started. Yet, nothing really feels that different.

I didn’t have any real formal goals for 2010 except for wanting to sharpen my PR in the half. I went into 2010 with a half marathon PR of 1:29:16 set back in 2007. Since then, I felt I never ran a good half and as a result, never broke 1:30 again. My hope was to break 1:29, and eventually go under 1:28 at some point.

In 2010, I raced 3 half marathons. I broke 1:30, just barely, on the first attempt in the Manhattan half with 1:29:48. I was happy with that.

I then broke my PR in May, just barely, with a poor performance at the Brooklyn Half with 1:29:05.

The Queens Half was then done in July, but I switched it to a training run due to 88 degree heat and 63% humidity.

Third was the Bronx Half where I not only broke 1:29, I also broke 1:28, and came close to breaking 1:27 with 1:27:10.

To top it off, I also ran an 18 mile race with a pace of 6:44. At that pace, there is a 1:28:16 half marathon split somewhere.

Then came the Philadelphia marathon in November where my official half marathon split was 1:29:12. That split alone broke my pre-2010 half marathon PR, and I went on to PR for the whole race itself. So, For 2010, I think I can confidently say I was successful at my goals for the half marathon.

But getting back to Philadelphia and marathons in general, my lifetime goal is to eventually go sub 3. It has been a goal since I ran my first marathon in 2006, and along the way I’ve had several doubts as to whether or not this could be a possibility. I never hurt as much as I did in 2009 when I ran the NYC marathon with 3:14:54. I questioned what it would take from me to simply run that time in the marathon again and wondered if I would even be able to do it.

In 2010, I ran two marathons with the other being Boston in April. Philadelphia was nothing but a success for me. I ran the race the way I wanted and was pretty consistent overall up until I cramped up towards the end. Leg cramps seem to be something I almost always struggle with in the marathon, and I’m still not sure why. But rather than trying to prevent them, which I’m convinced I can’t, I’m learning to run through them. At the end, I crossed the line with a net time of 3:02:25. I realized that breaking 3 hours is something I will do one day.

But what made Philadelphia even more of a success was the way I went into it. I was pretty level-headed and not a bundle of nerves relatively speaking. Which is more than I can say for any prior marathons I ran, including Boston in 2010.

In Boston, I’m not sure what happened. Recent bouts of strep throat mixed with hypochondria led me to believe I was ill and almost skipped going to the starting line. Ironically, I wound up taking more than 4 minutes from my PR, finishing with 3:10:45, and to this day, I’m not sure how I pulled it off. On a good day, I wouldn’t have thought of even coming close to my PR at the time. By the way, I never got leg cramps in Boston either. Go figure.

In between I ran two ultras. Something, I’ve always wanted to try. One was 50K, and the other was a 50 miler. They were both more training runs than races. The 50K was more of a tune-up for Boston actually with no time goals. Aside from the GI problems, I enjoyed the 50K very much and would like to do another in the near future.

With the 50 mile race, although I really wasn’t racing it, I went into it thinking a pace of 8:30 or so would be doable. I fell apart somewhere passed the 30 mile mark and walked most of the end. I was under trained and under prepared in terms of hydration, nutrition, etc. I carried nothing and naively thought the aid stations would be enough.

I learned a lot, however, including that I was not yet ready to do something like this the way I would want to do it, and wrote a somewhat controversial and incoherent post about it. I decided that I could I not focus on this type of distance without it interfering with me focusing on my goal of breaking 3 hours in the marathon. With that said, I have goals of doing another 50, but have doubts as to whether or not there will be one in 2011. The JFK 50 has a somewhat appealing allure, especially since my sub 3 hour goal aligns with guaranteed entry to that race.

Other than that, I had some loose goals regarding mileage of over 200 miles a month with around 2600 for the total year. I realized the naivety of this goal and refuse to have mileage goals like this for 2011. Illness, injury, and training plans all interfere with this. Being that I’ve done 2 marathons this year for example, both requiring a taper and a recovery period, that alone has requirements that conflict with maintaining a certain amount of mileage for the month. Therefore, my goal for 2011 will just be to stay focused as I currently am and just getting in the miles week by week when I can without making excuses.

Nonetheless, despite my lack of mileage goals, a mileage summary for the year is still appropriate for a post like this.

Monthly Mileage Totals Mileage Totals
Jan 180 Jul 201 Year to date 2417
Feb 203 Aug 205 Lifetime 11081
Mar 225 Sep 200 Highest Weekly 79
Apr 149 Oct 258 Average Weekly 46.3
May 252 Nov 152 Average Monthly 201
Jun 167 Dec 223 Yearly Goal -137.9

76 miles less than 2009, but its a minor, meaningless detail considering the success of 2010 compared to 2009.

Running goals for 2011? This will be the first year where I truly attempt to break 3 hours. I’m hoping Boston will be it. If not, I’ll try again in the Fall. And, if not in the Fall, then there’s always 2012.

I would also like to have a half marathon time with 1:25:xx. Maybe somewhat aggressive considering 1:27:10 is my current half PR, but I’ve learned the farther I reach, the farther I’ll go, even if I fail to get all the way.

Goals for this blog? None. I was unsure where I wanted this to go it when I started, and it hasn’t really taken the shape I imagined, or hoped it would. It feels it’s become something more for me than anything else, but I’m ok with that — for now. That’s not to say things can’t change in the future.

As far as “resolutions”. Well, I hate those. I don’t see why a one particular day out of the year should be one where we decide to change something about ourselves for the better. Everyday is a day I try to improve something new, or continue to work on something that I want to improve. Nonetheless, it might be appropriate to state a particular goal I’ve been focused on for a quite a time, and that is to have more patience. I feel running has helped me with that in a lot of ways. Patience, and faith.

Now, I have to learn how to apply it to the way I deal with other people.

Trip from hell

December 26, 2010

herb mindless dribble, running 3 Comments

At the moment, I’m in Dusseldorf, Germany in an empty hotel, 5am local time. My wife and I are the only people here. There isn’t even any staff around since they’re all gone for the Christmas holidays. I’m not sure how the arrangements were made, but my mother-in-law somehow worked out a deal with the owners that we’re able to stay here while the place is closed.

Now, combine my situation of being in a deserted hotel with the fact that there is 3 feet of snow outside. I’m told there has been this much snow for over a week. Not being able to run, with nothing to do, I’ll be climbing the walls by the end of the week. It’s beginning to feel like a scene from the The Shining.

The roads don’t seem to get plowed, at least not around the holidays. My wife, who is originally from this area, is even questioning why they’re not yet cleared. And, you can forget about sidewalks being shoveled. No one does that here. The cars seem to manage to get through ok enough on most main roads though, albeit slowly. The snow there is all packed down at this point. But, there’s no sign of pavement anywhere.

This will make for some interesting running, if any. I have no idea when I’ll be able to even attempt to see what it’s like. This is because I have nothing with me except the same jeans and tee-shirt that I’ve been wearing for the past 40 plus hours. We’ve literally had the trip from hell with delays and layovers, and to top it off, only two out of three suitcases made it through. The one missing is, of course, the one with all my clothes, including my running shoes. To make matters worse, the connecting flight with the 6 hour layover was between Continental and Lufthansa, so I’m not even sure which airline has my bag. Both are clueless as to where it is.

So I’ve lost one day of running so far, which was yesterday, the day we arrived. I only had a 5 mile recovery run planned anyway. Today, the prospects don’t look good either. Even if I had my running gear getting out there will be a shit show, but I’d gladly take it.

There’s a gym nearby, which I’ve used on occasion. They’ve allowed me to purchase a weekly pass when I’ve stayed in Düsseldorf in previous years. I might try to get access to one of their treadmills. That is, if they’re not closed for the entire holiday week. That kind of thing is more common here than you might realize and there doesn’t seem to be a predicability as to which businesses will do this.

I was looking forward to coming here, because there is absolutely nothing to do except the one thing I love to do when there’s nothing else to do. The running here is fantastic along the Rhein river. It’s a nice open landscape with a path that goes on for miles and miles with beautiful views of the river and city. There are a few bridges that can be crossed so that you can return along the other side.

The Rhein is not the only place to go either. There’s also the area around Graphenberg Wald. I blogged about this last year around this time. The week I come here, is a week where I typically think and worry about nothing. The days are short in terms of light, sunrise at 10, sundown at 4:30, and they go by pretty slowly. Now, that, mixed in with getting a good solid run in every day really allows me to feel like I’ve had some time off when I return home.

But, without the possibility of getting that run in, the vacation becomes the antithesis of what I described. It turns into something more like a jail sentence. This is my first morning waking here, and I’m already stressing out about how I’m going to get through each boring day. Let’s just hope this vacation doesn’t end like the movie did.

Inevitable at this point

Final thoughts for Philly

November 17, 2010

herb mindless dribble, racing, running 8 Comments

I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, and it’s not because I’ve had nothing on my mind. I’ve basically been trying to keep my head clear for Philly this Sunday.

taper madness

At times, I decide to myself to have no goals and just run by feel and see what I got. At other times, I’m wondering if I can break 3 hours this year. Then I realize I’m actually foolish to think I can do sub 3:00 at this point. In all honesty, I don’t know what pace to target, but I’m thinking a range from 6:51 to 7:05. A big fear I have is going too fast too soon and blowing up.

My training has gone great and I have never worked as hard for a race as I did this one. But what always makes me mentally vested in the marathon is the 3 weeks of tapering. Not running how I would like, or skipping races in order to taper for example is, in a way, harder than the training.

In fact, my taper has not gone so well. Things don’t always feel as fresh as I think they should for a taper. I did 4 miles today at a pace I wish to do the marathon and it started out great, but by the end my legs were feeling tired. I’m not sure what to make of it. Would I pull through it if I had to go longer? Did they seem tired because I’m not used to the feeling of running further than 5 miles anymore? Did I push too hard during the taper and not reap the benefits of it? That’s the stuff that drives me crazy. The over analyzing of everything during the taper.

But when I take a step back and think about what I did during training, I can’t see how I can’t do well this Sunday. And even if I don’t do well, what do I really lose? A short-term goal of a PR is only a means to an end for me. I’ll be doing plenty more of these, and have had plenty of success (and failures) so far to make this just another race amongst many.

The only thing I really fear though is having another sleepless night the night before. That, or coming down with a cold in the next day or so… the same cold everyone around me on the train, and in work has had for the past few weeks.

Just three days to go… I can’t wait!

Packing the last hay in the barn

October 26, 2010

herb mindless dribble, running, training Leave a comment

I’m in the last week of hard training before tapering for the Philly marathon. I’ve been keeping my thoughts to myself lately and off the blog, mainly because they’ve been somewhat negative in regards to my motivation.

What defines this as “hard” training for me is simply one tempo run of 9 miles on Wednesdays, and a long run of 20 miles at marathon pace. I promised myself to do this for the entire month of October. In between are easy days with just Tuesdays off. But it’s the long runs that are kind of adding up and taking their toll. More mental than anything else.

Surprisingly, all is well on the physical front with the exception on my right achilles a bit tight at times, but I have enough experience with it to know it’s not near anything like tendonitis or tendinosis. I’ve been taking some precautionary measures as well with the heating pad at nights (that’s right, NOT ice). After my long runs, I’m very diligent about getting carbs and protein in the form of tart cherry juice and 2 hard-boiled eggs (usually without the yolks). The cherry juice also has an added benefit of keeping inflammation at bay and might be why I’ve been able to recover better than usual. If it sounds gross, well, it is. But I’m a sucker for placebos like these, and these seem to work great.

Tart Cherry Juice - Liquid Aspirin


Tastes great when washed down with a glass of tart cherry juice - NOT

For October, I’ve done 60 miles for each of the past three weeks. Each week ended with a long run that left me completely hurting. Each one hurt more than the one before. I’ve done three so far. Here, here, and here. If I do all my planned miles for the rest of the month, I’ll finish off with 260 miles total. This has been the toughest month I’ve every put myself through.

For the long run I just did last Saturday, I originally planned to do it easier. And, I started with that intention, but it’s like I forgot how to run these slower. When I covered the first 10 miles, and my garmin reported an average pace faster than what I would need for a sub 3:00 marathon, I naively hoped I could hold it for 20 just to see.

Lo and behold, I could not. At least, not on that day. I slowed down enough to average a 6:59 pace by the end. And although its not a faster pace on average than the one I did in the prior week, it was probably the most painful 20 miles I’ve ever pushed through. And it was done on a day where I really could have used a long run with a finish that left me feeling great. I had a few of those back in the spring. With the last two, all I could think of was how the hell am I going to get through the next one?

End of this week, I might do my last long run a little easier. But, I’ll probably stretch it out for an extra two miles and make it 22. Then I’m done. I’ll do plenty of marathon pace runs during the taper.

I want to feel a 20 mile run at marathon pace will be easy on race day. These runs aren’t really doing that for me. In fact, I’ve been dreading my long run. That is quite the opposite of how I normally feel, since I’ always looked forward to running long on the weekend.

But, it did prove to me one thing. I could do 20 miles at marathon pace, even on a bad day. An extra 6.2? Dunno yet.

Will all the extra effort pay off? Hard to tell, regardless of the outcome. If I bomb it could be for a slew of unrelated reasons. You can’t prove a negative. And if I do great, it doesn’t necessarily prove running 20 miles at marathon pace four times was the sole reason either.

Beeturia

October 14, 2010

herb health, mindless dribble, running, training , , 8 Comments

I’ve always been a big fan of juicing or blending vegetables. Actually, I tend to blend more often than I juice. For one thing, there are more benefits to consuming the whole vegetable instead of just its juice. But more importantly, the blender is a hell of a lot easier to clean than the juicer.

There are 6 vegetables I juice and/or blend on a regular basis. Each of these were selected for a particular reason to fit my specific needs.

  1. Kale (blend)
  2. Celery (blend)
  3. Cabbage (juice)
  4. Carrots (blend or juice)
  5. Broccoli (blend or juice)
  6. Banana (blend) ok, it’s a fruit.

From there I tend to throw in additional vegetables or fruits based on whatever is available. Beets has been one of them on occasion.

Then I read this article on how beet juice and nitric oxide can help performance. Afterwards, I decided beets should be added to the list above as a regular addition to my regimen.

Beets! - the new Perpetuem

It took a couple of tries, but I came up with my own recipe for a delicious beet smoothie

In a blender I put the following :

  • 1 whole raw beet about the size of a baseball
  • 3 stalks of celery
  • 2 carrots
  • a glass of ice and some water
  • a squeeze of agave syrup for a couple of seconds

Blend until smooth and viola.

It's actually tastes as good as it looks. ....And I meant it tastes good if that wasn't clear.

If you’re curious what the bowl of green stuff is, it’s my yogurt

  • 2/3 a cup of zero fat fage total greek yogurt
  • 4 or 5 big leaves of kale
  • 1 banana
  • a handful of chia seeds
  • a handful steel cut oatmeal

Blend until smooth.
Add almonds on top

Ok, so that’s all fun and good.

A couple of days later I went out for a pretty good marathon paced run during my lunch hour. I wound up doing about 20 seconds faster per mile than marathon pace. Things were good and easy but I was pushing the effort.

Back at work, after I took my first piss, I almost fainted in fear as I looked at what seemed to be a bright red stream of blood. I almost screamed in horror. What is it that is bleeding inside me? My kidneys? My testicles? But nothing hurts!!! What’s different? Oh right… the beets? Did the beets do that?

I ran back to my desk to google beets urine red. To my relief I have something called Beeturia. Digging deeper, I was curious to find out why all of a sudden? It wasn’t my first time consuming the beets like this. I learned this is sometimes related to an iron deficiency for unknown reasons. I know I’m not anemic. I dismissed this.

It didn’t happen again for a few days.

Then it did.

And it was worse. Much much worse. It was a bright red cherry colored stream with a flourescent hue.

And it was after running a 6 mile tempo is Central Park. That tempo was much more strenuous than the 6 mile marathon pace from before. The days in between I only ran easy. I was beginning to notice a pattern here.

Because I’m fascinated with this I dug a little deeper and I found another article.

…suggests that beeturia is more likely to occur at a time of “iron hunger” perhaps via the pathway for iron absorption. Because beeturia can appear and disappear in individuals, at least some of the 14% incidence may be due to the fluctuating nature of iron absorption in normal individuals.

Hmm. That actually made a lot of sense to me in my layman brain.

It seems, every time I run hard, I piss red now. Kind of funny.

Random Pointless Post

September 26, 2010

herb mindless dribble, running , , 1 Comment

After running 21.2 miles yesterday, I realized I had some of the 18 mile tune-up still left in my legs. I planned to go all the way to Bronxville and back, which would have been closer to 24 miles, but I ran into Joe about a mile before the turn around.

I headed out that morning thinking 24 would be a nice way to make up for the 26.2 miles I missed by skipping the Yonkers marathon in favor of that 18 mile tune-up race. Knowing things weren’t feeling as good as they should have been, I turned around early and headed back to run with him a bit as he was still on the way out of his out and back. It turned out to be a smart decision since I felt it necessary to cut off an additional half a mile before making it back .

Going out today, I headed to the Rockies. I decided to do this in my Vibrams. I intentionally take the Vibrams on days when I need a recovery run, or on days when I’m expecting I’ll be struggling because my legs are shot.

It turned out to be quite nice. One of the thoughts that went through my head at the time was refreshing. With the cooler temperatures and the brisk air, the Vibrams only added to the fun. Eventually I started picking up pace. I swear things feel easier when I have them on. I never wore racing flats, but I image those who do, favor them occasionally as I do my Vibrams for similar reasons.

In any case, speaking of the Rockies, and of Joe, he’s getting together a day at the Rockies on Oct 17th. If you’re in the area, and never ran at Rockefeller estates, I suggest you take advantage of this meet-up. I consider this place the mecca of running, and I’m not alone. I often count my blessings that this is as close as it is to where I live. You have to experience it.

After returning, I had my favorite post recovery run meal. Soba noodles with 3 soft-boiled eggs swimming in Bonito Soy Sauce. To get the eggs just right, you need to drop them in after the water is boiling and then turn down the heat and let them simmer for 5 minutes. Run the soba noodles under cold water before putting it together.

Cold Soba noodles with egg and Bonito sauce

You get everything you need from this. Carbs from the soba noodles, protein (the best kind) from the eggs, and sodium from the bonito soy sauce.

The magic bonito sauce. It's nothing without this!

Its harder not to run

September 12, 2010

herb mindless dribble, running 2 Comments

It’s Sunday morning and I’m trying to figure out what I should do today in the way of running. Almost everyday, when I wake up, I wonder when I will run.

The weather is perfect today for a fast long run; cloudy and a little chilly. Although, I considered yesterday also perfect which was cool, breezy, and very sunny. Yesterday, I ran only 10 miles instead of the usual 20. I did this along the Bronx River Pathway by where I live. Its a nice asphalt path and I run from Kensico Dam to Hartsdale and back.

I intended to keep things easy. I’ve been having an odd pain on my left upper pelvic bone, near the very top. Some googling along with the help of Wikipedia allowed me to make an amateur diagnosis. It appears I have a strain of my Tensor fasciae latae. Never heard of it before.

Tensor fasciae latae - how do you injure this?


I can run through this, and have been doing so for the past week. But after running, an hour or so later, the problem seems to be exacerbated. It’s been gradually getting worse. I took Friday off as a result.

So Saturday morning, intending to go running easy proved to be too difficult. Running on fresh legs with a nice cool breeze, crisp air, and plenty of sun, and not the kind of sunshine that causes you to bake, I rationalized doing away with the plan of going easy and convinced myself taking Friday off was enough. I rationalized that I am still only doing 10 today. Tomorrow, the Bronx River Parkway will close to traffic at 10:00am and I will be good enough to do 20 if I can run 10 at this pace.

Then, I would realize, I’m only doing 10 today so I can do 20 tomorrow. I would then become aware of the slight pain on my hip bone and I’d slow it down, knowing that if I felt something now it would only be worse later. Until, I rationalized all the reasons I used for going fast before and I’d pick up the pace.

Half mile splits

Sure enough, later in the day, things were sore again to the touch and I felt it considerably when walking.

So, today, I know I can run. I planned to run 20 on the Bronx River Parkway and I’m trying to rationalize doing it and just keeping things very slow. I’m also wondering if I can get away with doing the type of 20 mile run I want to do at a faster pace. Or should I just run easy and do less distance than planned.

The Yonkers marathon is next Sunday. I do it almost every year as a tune-up for my fall marathon and I’m planning to do it next weekend as well. I’m wondering how I would do at Yonkers if I ran 20 today. Or better yet, how would I do if I skipped the 20 and didn’t run today. And at the moment, I’m still not sure what I’m going to be doing.

Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.