Training for life...

I was chatting with my new trainer recently about my struggles to get enough calories in my system to keep from burning out on long runs or particularly intense workouts. I told him that I used to be a "big" guy and it wasn't easy for me to get my head around the idea of eating 3500 calories a day. He responded that he had a hard time getting his head around the idea of me being a "big" guy, so I sent him this picture from the 2011 Portland Marathon.

October 2011, Portland Marathon Finish

I was 40 years old and pushing 200 pounds at the time. I had trained for 16 weeks leading up to the marathon, but all that running only took about five pounds off me. I wasn't training particularly hard since my only goal at that time was just to make it through 26.2 miles without keeling over. I finished the marathon in 4 hours 50 minutes and struggled mightily, but I finished. I was happy.

A few months later I decided I wanted to take my fitness more seriously. I wanted to be a better runner, but I also just wanted to be all around more athletic, healthy and fit. I found a trainer who was holding boot camp classes not far from me, so I went to one. I thought since I had finished a marathon that I had to be in OK shape, but I quickly learned otherwise. I ran to the bathroom halfway through the first class and threw up. I was embarrassed and frustrated and had almost convinced myself not to come back to anymore classes.

There was this voice in my head, though, that said, "That's exactly why you need to go back." So I did. Three nights a week I went. Consistently. I didn't let myself make excuses to not go. Each night it got better. I didn't throw up again. Pretty soon the other people in the class were struggling to keep up with me. We ran stairs. We did broad jumps. We bear crawled across the gym and back. It was as lot of sweaty work. I was still running two or three times a week and I was getting faster. I lost a bit over 10 pounds.

August 2012, Crater Lake Half Marathon Finish

The classes came to an end and I decided to hire the trainer as a personal trainer. I told him I wanted to be a better runner, to be lighter, stronger, faster. But I also wanted to keep my overall fitness high. Running is a great endurance sport, but fitness includes strength and flexibility. Running doesn't do much for you in those areas (trail running does include some strength building, but I wasn't trail running at the time).

He was tough on me, and I learned a lot about my physical capabilities. We sprinted and did park workouts, we squatted and pressed and did a whole lot of jumping. I lost 15 pounds in my first five weeks and another ten the next five. At one point my trainer held a dowel up about four feet off the ground and said, "Jump over this 20 times." I gave him my "You're a nut job" look and he told me that if I didn't at least try it, I could find another trainer. So I did. I jumped over it. Twenty times. And that's the moment I learned confidence in my physical abilities.

Since then I've continued training at the gym and running. I began trail running seriously about a year ago - it took me a few months to warm up to it, but I was burned out on road running and the trails have re-invigorated me. I have a new strength training coach who I'm very happy with, and I'm doing my first 50K trail run in two months. My health and fitness are great for being 44 years old... BMI is 23, body fat is 10%, VO2 max is 65 and my resting heart rate is 45-50 BPM. My doctor tells me my blood pressure is good, my cholesterol levels are ideal and I should keep doing what I'm doing. I'm strong and I have good endurance... I still need to work on flexibility, though.

Fitness is a lot of work, especially in our society where we do everything we can to NOT move. There's no magic formula. You have to move. You have to not eat like an asshole. It's not easy, especially as we get older, but if I can do it - especially with no athletic background before I hit my 40s - anyone can. And the good news is, once you get to a fit state, it's a lot easier to maintain it than it was to get there.

Relax... Slow Down... Have a Beer...

My long run in the Gorge this past weekend was a "step back" run of only 16 miles. Only. Of course, when you climb 5600 feet over those 16 miles - most of that was really in the middle four miles slogging up the tricky, rocky and very technical Wyeth Trail - it feels a lot longer. I knew it was going to be a nasty climb. I didn't realize it was going to be quite THAT nasty. I should have looked a little more closely at the topo map.

What to do when a run turns out to be a lot tougher than expected? Relax. Don't sweat your pace. Enjoy it. The weather was unbeatable - low 60s under a clear blue sky. I had a brand new Sony compact digital cam with me, so I took the opportunity to get some pretty fantastic pictures. The Gorge is a great place for photography, even if, like me, you're not a particularly good photographer. Just point it somewhere and shoot. You'll get a cool picture.

More pictures
https://plus.google.com/photos/108216029714705859702/albums/6123709451452847841

Also relatively new on this run - my shoes. My attempts to deal with my calf strain issues have led me back from a neutral shoe like the Inov-8 Trailroc to the Brooks Cascadia. I wore the Brooks on last week's long run in Forest Park, too, but the trails there are more forgiving. Less rocky. Less steep. Overall, I'd say I don't mind these shoes. They're heavier than my Trailrocs, but they were pretty comfortable and they dry out a lot faster - yes, I purposefully slipped... I mean, uh... stepped in a stream to find out! Footing was good with them and I didn't experience any ankle rolls, despite the Wyeth Trail's best efforts. I'm not sure if they're doing anything for my calves, but I don't supinate in them as much as in my neutral shoes.

I'm done with the crazy hill climbs for a while. My 50k race only has about 4000 feet of uphill. Over 32 miles, that's not bad at all. I'm going to stick closer to the Gorge 400 trail, which doesn't have the crazy climbs but provides some decent technical work and fantastic scenery. I'll still run up in Forest Park, of course, but there's no point in killing myself on hills at this point, especially with my calves being so delicate. Injuring myself before the race is not a good plan for successfully completing the race!

Training Crap

I realized this weekend that I had “completed” the first eight weeks of my 50k training and, well… It’s been pretty crappy. I haven’t been hitting my long runs, not even close. I was supposed to do a 22 miler this weekend and I struggled to make 15.

My training’s been pretty erratic, honestly. I was out of town on a work trip for a week and didn’t run at all. I spent a weekend in San Diego and didn’t run at all. One Saturday, it was raining so hard that the soul was sucked right out of me and I didn’t run at all. I know this is lame. No real athlete would make these excuses.

One thing that I have successfully done is go after some pretty monstrous elevation. I did some runs out in the Gorge that had me climbing 3000+ feet over about 10K. Hills like that are never gonna be easy, but I managed them fairly well, and they’re tougher than what I’ll face in my race – 4400 feet over 32 miles.

I also got some good – I mean RIDICULOUS - technical work in out there, so I’m feeling better about my ability to run on rocky, difficult terrain. I’m planning to continue doing at least one long run a month out there, although I’m probably going to scale back the ridiculous climbs a bit. No need to tear up my calves that much before the race.

I think my training mileage was simply too aggressive. If I were a more consistent runner, maybe it would work, but I’m not. I don’t want running to consume my entire life. I like to run, but I’m not THAT passionate about it. I’m not going to give up my lifting for it. I like doing both, even though they limit my ability to be top tier in either.

So… 12 weeks out from my race and I’m switching up my training plan. The long runs are shorter to start, and I’m only going to plan on one hilly run during the week. Three days a week I’ll run, two days a week I’ll cross train – weightlifting, some functional work and some metabolic conditioning – and I’ll have two days a week to recover and spend plenty of time on stretching, rolling and maintenance.

Wk	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su
1 2/16	-	-	-	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 18 M	1-hour medium effort run
2 2/23	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 7 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 20 M	1-hour medium effort run
3 3/2	Rest	X-Train	60 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 16 M	1-hour medium effort run
4 3/9	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 8 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	SPRING FLING TRAIL : 13 M	1-hour medium effort run
5 3/16	Rest	X-Train	65 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 22 M	1-hour medium effort run
6 3/23	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 9 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 24 M	1-hour medium effort run
7 3/30	Rest	X-Train	70 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 16 M	1-hour medium effort run
8 4/6	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 10 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 26 M	1-hour medium effort run
9 4/13	Rest	X-Train	70 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	Trail Half Marathon	1-hour medium effort run
10 4/20	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 8 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	30 minutes easy	Trail 10K
11 4/27	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 5 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	Trail 5K	90-minute run
12 5/4	Rest	X-Train	1-hour easy	X-Train	Rest	50K RACE

The mileage in this plan isn’t monstrous, but I think that’s OK as long as I’m hitting my long runs and getting some good quality cross training in (I approached training for my two marathons last year like this, too). I seriously hope I can get this together. If I can at least be successful with my long runs for the next month, I’ll feel a lot better about this race. 

I Can Touch My Toes!

I turned 44 last month. It was no big deal. I’m used to being in my 40s. I like being in my 40s. I’m in better shape physically than I’ve ever been. It’s amazing what a motivator middle age has been for me to get off my ass and work on my fitness.

I’ve been working with a chiropractor for a couple months now and I’ve learned a lot about movement patterns. I’ve seen that I have muscle engagement issues. The first one the chiro helped me identify was my glutes. I wasn’t using them while running or walking. My legs were doing all the work. It seems we’re on our way to fixing that, though. I feel them when I’m running, now, and I think about them. It hasn’t become totally unconscious for me yet, but it gets closer every time.

Sort of related to that was that I always had issues touching my toes. I assumed this was due to inflexibility in the back of my legs. Actually, it just turned out that I wasn’t doing the movement correctly. I wasn’t swinging my hips and butt back, but was just reaching for my toes and stretching out my hammies. After some corrective exercises, I can now touch my toes easily. It was just a matter of learning to engage my hips and glutes in the movement.

Last night, we started looking at my balance problems. My chiro noticed that when I’m balancing on one leg, I don’t engage my big toes. The arches of my feet are doing a lot of work to compensate for this. He gave me an exercise to do, balancing on one leg while writing the alphabet with the other foot. The difference when I actually spread my toes and get that big toe engaged is phenomenal.  It’s amazing that such a simple adjustment could make such a huge difference.

I wish I had known some of this stuff years ago, at least before I started running. Better late than never, I guess. If it ends up keeping me more or less pain and injury free when I run long distances, I’ll be a happy camper.

Flat On My Face: Preparing For 50K

Last year was a pretty kick ass year for my fitness. I lifted heavier than ever – I dead lifted over 300 pounds! I nailed my HIIT workouts. I embraced running trails and hills and ran a lot of races, including a couple of tough, hilly marathons at Crater Lake and the Columbia River Gorge. I took some boxing classes to mix things up a bit (and because I often want to hit something after work!). I found a good nutritional balance to give me enough energy for my workouts and running while not causing big weight fluctuations. My doctor told me I was the picture of good health and fitness and to keep doing everything I’d been doing.

This year I’m running my first 50K, a trail race out at Smith Rock. The distance itself doesn't scare me... It's only five miles more than a marathon! The terrain, though, is rocky and dusty trail with a couple of big hill climbs. I need to work on a few things to get ready for this. I think if I ran it right now, I’d fall flat on my face. I have a new trainer I’ll be working with on lifting, HIIT and functional skills to help me run strong in this race.

https://gobeyondracing.com/races/smith-rock-ascent/

Even though I'm no stranger to hill running, I need to take it up a notch. The climbs in the race are short and very steep with about 1000 feet of vertical over a mile in the first – and biggest – climb. I’ve already found a couple hills in the area that have similar profiles, so I’m going to work on conquering those over the next couple months.

Smith Rock 50K Elevation Profile

My downhill running has improved tremendously this past year, but the added element of rocky, technical terrain is going to need some attention. I’m going to do more running out in the Gorge to simulate these conditions and do a lot of skills work on my balance. Right now my balance sucks. I need it to be better if I’m going to tackle technical downhills with any confidence. I’ll be working on single leg dead lifts and squats, bounding, balance board exercises, etc. to get my balance and my stabilizers where they need to be.

I’ve struggled with strained calves the past few months. My chiropractor tells me I have two contributing factors: lack of gluteal engagement and inflexibility in my feet. Glute strengthening and activation exercises are going to be important to overcoming this problem. I’m also going to have to keep my feet rolled out with a ball and make sure I’m getting back to a forefoot strike when I’m running. I’ve been running pretty flat footed and that’s not helpful for foot flexibility.

I put a lot of thought last year into pre-marathon nutrition and figured out that I needed to start loading up calories about four days beforehand. I can extend that to the longer distance and time on my feet for the 50K, but I still need to work on fueling during the race. My goal is to get to about 250 calories an hour while running. I’m not sure my stomach is going to like that, but that’s what the next 18 weeks of training are for!

Finally, I have to get better about maintenance. I’m going to have my trainer keep after me about this. I know that I have a lot less knee pain when I keep my IT bands and quads rolled out well. My hips and glutes feel a lot better when I roll them on a ball regularly. Plus I know I need to stretch more. A few weeks ago, I couldn’t even touch my toes! My chiropractor has helped me fix that, but I need to keep doing stretches and exercises to keep it up. I’m too old now to ignore maintenance!