The Long Thaw

Spring is upon us and with it a welcome friend: outdoor running. I've gotten four or five short outdoor runs in so far, and its been a nice change despite the wet socks and cold legs. I get a few weird looks running in shorts and sandals at 38-40 degrees. Its probably the sandals. With snow melt, there is a lot of standing water on the paths and it takes considerable concentration to avoid getting my socks soaked. My feet feel very warm so long as they are dry. I did one run in my Vibrams, but I developed a sore spot just below my little toe on my left foot, which I'm hoping isn't the start of a bunion, since they run in the family. As long as I'm in the sandals everything feels good.

There is a lot of snow an ice around this year, so the thaw will likely take longer than usual, but the forecast is 40's for the next week, so that should help speed things along. I hope to be ready to do a 13 miler by the time the paths are dry.

Quest Accepted

I signed up for the 2010 Twin Cities marathon this afternoon with a feeling of nonchalance. It has become like any other annual event like a birthday or holiday. Even more so for the fact that I can plan on spending around $100 for it. I'm not feeling particularly excited or motivated about it yet, but I expect anticipation will grow once the ice and cold start fading. As for now, I've been continuing with my 3 day a week lifting routine and trying to get in 3 days of running in between. I'm mostly running 3.5-5 miles per go--not nearly enough to be in marathon shape, but enough to keep my weight in check and keep my cardio at an acceptable level. I'll be raring to go once I can get off the treadmill.

My upper body work has been going well as of late. I've been increasing my reps often and am up to around 3 sets of 33 pull ups and dips and 3 sets of 80 push ups. I am pleased that I have been able to increase my upper body strength to this point while maintaining a weight right around 177-180. While upper body muscle mass does not translate well to distance running, I enjoy the workouts and don't feel that it has interfered with running. If anything, I feel that keeping my heart rate up around 120-130 bpm for an extra hour 3 days a week could be a good thing.

The Quest 2.0

Registration for the 2010 Twin Cities Marathon starts on February 2nd this year, which is far earlier than it has been in the past. I'm a little peeved that the date has been moved so early; I would hazard a guess that this was done because registration took a long time to fill up last year and they probably want to allow more time for people to register. I've been planning on registering again for 2010, but I didn't expect to have to do it so early. Usually I have a better idea of my fitness level and am getting back into running more by the time registration opens. Regardless, the quest version 2.0 will be starting within the next coupe of months! My toe has been relatively calm since marathon day, as I've only run in sandals, barefoot, Vibrams and Boots a couple of times. I plan to train in Sandals and Vibrams, possibly moving into barefoot on some shorter runs after my feet toughen up a bit.

Although my race time goal is to run a marathon in 4 hours or less, my greater goal this cycle is to stay healthy so that I don't miss training time. This will mean ramping up mileage slowly and making sure to stop if my footwear or anything else starts feeling uncomfortable.

Fun in the Snow

Its been a little over a month since my last post--time files during the holidays. My fitness routine has progressed well although my cardio and running training has been lagging a bit. I've been focusing on gaining some upper body strength and endurance and chiseling down the old six pack.(okay, okay, four pack) Its pretty amazing to see what the body is capable of when you give it what its built for. My body is designed to be strong, and it gains strength easily and quickly. When I was starting off about a month or so ago, I could barely do 15 pull ups for one set, 12 dips or so and then fewer on each of my next 2 sets. Today I did 3 sets of 25 pull ups, 25 dips and 45 inclined push ups among other things. My upper body feels great, with a good balance of strength and endurance. By using body weight exercises, I don't feel too bulked up. I can definitely see a visual difference, but my weight is still around 177, so I must have dropped some fat while gaining a little muscle.

I haven't completely slacked on the cardio side of things--I've mostly been getting in a few three mile runs on the tread mill and I did another stair run which wasn't close to as bad as the first one. Yesterday I finally decided to do an outdoor run, since temperatures have risen from about 5 degrees to 25. (yay?) Twenty five degrees is plenty warm for outdoor running, but I was trying something new and perhaps foolish: running in my Vibram Five Finger shoes. I had taken them out when it was about 10 degrees just to go to a restaurant, and they felt insanely cold. Not because of the air temperature, but because the cold of the ground--the concrete, snow, slush and ice--really come through the thin rubber sole. After that I knew I couldn't try using them unless it warmed up considerably. At 25 degrees I was confident that at least my feet wouldn't fall off after a 3 mile run. It wouldn't be much different than sticking my feet in an icebath at the worst. The first 10 to 15 minutes of the run were fairly uncomfortable. The snow and frigid ground left the bottom of my feet, and especially my toes, feeling very cold. By about half way, I started to feel more comfortable. The cold sensation faded, and my feet just felt normal. I was a little worried that this shift was due to my feet going completely numb, but when I got back and took off my shoes, my feet where not especially cold (confirmed by forcing my gf to touch them)--only my pinky toes seemed affected by it. They looked pretty red, but no worse than after icing. My conclusion: after the body warms up and the friction builds heat, it is possible to run in the Vibrams (using toe socks) in weather at about 25 degrees, but I wouldn't want to run any further than 3 miles. 25 seems pretty close to the limit; for anything colder I will go have to go with a full shoe or boot of some kind. I have some boots with fairly flat bottoms that might work.

On Dec 31 I will be leaving for Houston again to visit family. I look forward to running around the Rice campus, and even better, my GF (now fiancee!) is coming along and we will be going on a 7 day cruise that departs from Galveston along with a friend that is in grad school at Rice. I very much look forward to testing out my Vibrams on beaches, snorkling, coral, rocks, and pretty much anything else I can put my feet on. They have a rock climbing wall on the ship, so I'm hoping to use my upper body training to pull me up it a few times. The ship stops at Grand Cayman which has a famous beach called Seven Mile Beach; apparently the length of the beach is open to the public. I am hoping to run the length of the beach in my Vibrams. I'm not sure if this will happen since others in the party will likely want to do other things and the logistics might be difficult, but running it seems like it would be a memorable experience. Why pay $100 to pet some dolphins when I can see the entire beach and get a workout for free?

Running up the Empire State Building

November has been unseasonably warm thus far which has been great as it has allowed me to continue going outdoors for workouts. I've gone out for a few more runs, and yesterday It was a little windier so I decided to do a stair run. I hadn't really ran stairs--a lot of stairs--since high school wrestling. I don't know what possessed me to do it, apart from the fact that I wanted to get a workout similar to running, but I didn't want to use a treadmill or run in the wind. I found a 26 step staircase near a little hill I usually take down to the lake which juts right down next to a bridge and a hill, making it quite secluded from the wind. I just started running up and down, not knowing how long it would be before I got tired. I ended up going 100 laps on the stairs in about 36 minutes for a total of 5200 stairs if you count up and down. I was pretty surprised by how long I was able to go without getting tired. My cardio was fine for the stairs, but my calves really took a beating. I wore my Vibram FF shoes, which meant I was essentially running on the balls of my feet the hole time. Since Vibrams tend to be harder on the calves even during normal running, I think I was more prepared for the stairs, and stairs might be a good way to strengthen the feet to run longer normal runs using Vibrams or bare feet. Today my calves are extremely sore, an experience I haven't had in quite a while; even the day after the marathon they weren't nearly this bad.

I later found out online that they do an annual event running up the Empire State building which has around 1500 stairs. While it definitely helped switching off between going up and then down the steps, running up the ES building doesn't sound too bad now!

Shifting Gears

Its about a month since the Twin Cities Marathon and the weather hasn't changed much since then. It was 50 degrees today with light wind, which allowed for a nice 7 mile run in my Vibrams. I hadn't run too well since the race, but today I went 58:59 which is the fastest time since my toe injury, so I was happy about that. I've only run about 5 times since the marathon, since the weather has been very rainy this month and often too cold to get outside. Instead I started focusing a little bit on my neglected upper body muscles; ever since I sprained my wrist back in kickball I haven't been able to do much upper body work, but it is finally healed enough so that I can do push ups and pull ups again. My upper body muscles are definitely not what they once were, but since my weight is quite low at the moment (around 177) I can still do 50 push ups and 15 pull ups. My bench press has suffered the most, but I don't plan on lifting heavy as it is too counterproductive for distance running. I have also been doing 5 min rounds on a heavybag with 16 oz gloves which has been a decent way to get some cardio without running on the dreaded treadmill.

The Quest Continues

The weather conditions of the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon turned out to be just about perfect. The race started at around 46 degrees with a little sun. I decided to wear only my short sleeved shirt since it was a bit warmer than I expected. We got to the starting area about 25 minutes early, which was probably a bit too early, although standing around in the starting corral packed in like sardines keeps you pretty warm. I started the race near the 4:00 pace group, and was feeling really good, which was a blessing considering my toe had been bothering me just the day before. I was keeping a sub 9 minute mile pace for the first 7 miles, and was at 1:29 something at the ten mile mark. I saw my brother and a friend at around mile 7 and handed off some gloves and my headband because I was getting a bit too hot. I was still feeling pretty strong at this point, so I pushed ahead for my 2 hour half marathon time. I made the half way mark at 1:58:30 or so. I knew I had put myself in a position to reach 4 hours at that point, but I was starting to get a bit tired from going out so fast. My pace slowed up quite a bit, and by around mile 15 or 16 the four hour pace group caught up with me. I begin to realize I wasn't really "tired" (my heart and lungs were not working too hard at all) but that the muscles and tendons being used to absorb shock and maintain the new stride I was using for my sandals/Vibrams were being stressed more than they had been before. 13 miles was the furthest I'd run in anything other than running shoes. I realized pretty quickly that there was no way I was going to make four hours, because I simply couldn't push hard anymore without the support of real running shoes taking the place of my natural shock absorbers--my feet and ankles weren't in good enough shape to handle a 26.2 mile sandal run yet, at least not at a 4 hour pace. I quickly went from race mode to survival mode; my main fear was that my toe pain would flare up and prevent me from finishing and but my toe felt fine, so I was happy.

Once I got to mile 20 I decided to run/walk the rest and forget about my time because I didn't want to risk injuring my ankles or anything too much because it felt like something might cramp or snap at any moment. I feel like if I could have slipped on some real running shoes I would have been able to start running off at a nice pace, albeit risking more toe trouble. I actually started getting colder toward the end because my heart and lungs weren't working very hard. I ended up finishing in 4:45 or so. My girlfriend finished about 5 minutes after me and my friend who was running for the first time got 4:33. I wasn't really disappointed with the way things turned out, because I know that I couldn't have run much faster without risking pointless strain. I also know that without my toe problems I would have made four hours. Back in May I was running very well and had I been able to train fully and been comfortable in my running shoes throughout, I would have just gotten better. This whole summer of training and the marathon has been a good learning experience. I need to improve my foot and ankle strength to hopefully run in my Vibrams for longer runs, or a similar minimal shoe. I suppose I could also consider using a more neutral running shoe but I want to explore the whole barefoot/minimalist running thing a bit more. I do feel like shifting away from running shoes could ultimately be a good choice in the long term. It could stand to save a lot of money, (I honestly think I could put 5000 miles on my Teva sandals before they fell apart) and could result in a more economical stride that will yield faster times in the long run, once I get more used to it. If anything, the race has made me more motivated to get my feet and ankles in shape and see If I can start running faster with my Vibrams (or barefoot,) and run the 4 hour race I know I can run. Hitting 1:58:30 for my first half in heavishy sandals shows me that there is definitely potential for fast running without running shoes, especially at middle or long distances. I got several comments from other racers and spectators about my sandals, I can't imagine how many people would comment on the Vibrams.

The medals they gave out this year were pretty nice, but the shirts were not the best. The material and color were are great, but the design wasn't as cool as the last couple years. Here's a pic:

(Ignore the cat leg)

The medal from this year is in the middle, last year's medal is on the left and the 2007 medal is on the right.

As crazy as it sounds, I almost feel like going out for a run today. My quads and hamstrings are only feeling mild soreness, because after I slowed my pace to ease the strain on my feet and ankles, they weren't working too hard. Mainly the tendons on the fronts of my ankles feel very sore, and my hips and knees are sore because after my form broke down I started to rely on them too much to help absorb shock. I'm hoping this whole sandal/Vibram running thing doesn't end up creating its own problems, because I've had ankle problems on and off my whole life (knock on wood) but it has served me well for the past few months and allowed me to finish the marathon this year free of toe pain.

I suppose, this means my quest to run a four hour marathon is still on... I don't really want to have to wait a whole year for another shot. But then again it might take that long to convert myself into a true vibram/barefoot guy (or convince myself that bare footing is not for me). I might consider running grandma's marathon up in Duluth next summer if I stay in shape.