Becoming a Supple Leopard

The more exposure I get to running culture and the more serious runners I meet and have conversations with, the more convinced I become that we, as a group, undervalue strength, conditioning, and cross-training.

Well, perhaps undervalue is the right word - many runners openly acknowledge that they should be doing more stretching or core conditioning, but somehow it's much easier to make time for miles than it is to do the necessary maintenance and support work.

I'm a convert to the idea of integrated fitness: all of our body systems are connected and mutually supporting, and if you want to excel in any category of motion, you have to expand your fitness regime beyond your primary area of focus.  In the long term, performance will go up - but more importantly, I believe that doing stretching and conditioning are key to improving form and developing running mechanics that will minimize the risk, duration and severity of injury.

To encourage strength and mobility, I cannot recommend strongly enough Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett.

That buff guy at the beginning of the video?  That's the good doctor.  His book covers a general philosophy on mobility and core stabilization, illustrates proper technique for an extensive list of typical exercises, and most importantly, includes massage and muscle smashing techniques for more or less every muscle system in the body.  I've been using his program to do good work on my calves, quads, shins and ankles.  To implement all of his techniques, you need:

• resistance bands
• hard rubber ball (like a lacrosse ball)
• a foam roller
• (occasionally) a friend that might enjoy torturing you

Seriously, if you're a hardcore runner and you feel like you're hobbling around when you aren't running, or you feel like you have tons of nagging injuries that you can't shake, you could probably use some more flexibility and mobility to correct the imbalances that caused your "overuse" injuries in the first place.

In the introduction to Supple Leopard, Dr. Starrett makes a comment that the human body and its various joints, muscles and tendons were designed for repeated use - millions of repetitions.  Based on how sedentary most of us are compared to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, the idea that we might get "overuse" injuries is preposterous.  We get hurt because we have bad form and limited range of motion.

The book lists for $60, but the going rate on Amazon these days is about $28.  I promise you, it's worth every penny.  How many books have you seen on Amazon with 424 reviews, of which 390 are 5 stars?

Preventive Medicine: IT Band Syndrome

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: I am not a medical professional, nor do I have any particular medical training or expertise.  I am about to dispense some advice about running and health which is based entirely on my OPINIONS, formed from two years of my own anecdotal experience, talking with other runners, and absorbing information from the broader running community via blogs, podcasts, and other readings.  I've synthesized it all at the meta- level into my own perspectives, and you should do the same!  So this is what I think, for whatever it may be worth to you!

Many runners push themselves very hard.  I've been extremely guilty of that myself from time to time.  I think it's correlated with some of the personality traits that draw people to running - results, success, gravitation toward quantifiable improvement.  We push because we want to get better, because we want to nail a particular race.  What we all sometimes forget is that nothing will derail progress more significantly than an injury - particularly an injury that keeps you from performing at peak (or at all) for weeks or months at a time.

So, I think there's a lot to be said for building up speed and endurance gradually, and incorporating plentiful rest into your annual training cycle.

Likewise, I think there's A LOT to be said for conditioning of other muscles besides those you can obviously identify with running - i.e. besides your quads and calves.  I'm a big believer in the idea of integrated fitness, which is to say your running is influenced by a lot more than the amount of zip you've got in your legs and feet.

And I think that so-called Runner's Knee is a perfect example of this.

Look down at your knee: touch the lateral (farther from the center of your body) side; as you move your hand toward the back of the knee, you'll feel a tight band of tissue.  This is your ilio-tibial band, otherwise known as the IT Band.  It connects the iliac crest on your pelvis to the tibia in your lower leg, and it's essential for the part of running where you bend at the knee.  If you get the variation of Runner's Knee where you feel heat and eventually pain on the outside of your knee, chances are it's caused by your IT Band continuously rubbing against the bony protrusions by your knee joint.

image taken from http://saveyourself.ca/articles/diagnose-runners-knee.php

So they call this IT Band Syndrome.  It haunts many runners, and it's notoriously difficult to shake off.

However, I believe it's also highly preventable. Conventional understanding is that IT Band Syndrome is caused or exacerbated by poor stride motion, where your knees collapse inward as you run, rather than staying in the plane of your forward motion.  Racking up miles, taking 1700-1800 steps per mile, you cause a lot of stress on those IT Bands with that poor form, eventually shortening the tissues and making increased friction inevitable whenever you run (or even walk).

So the key to heading off IT Band Syndrome is correcting your stride.  You can try to do this with your mind, but I doubt that you can brain it out for miles at a time.  What you really need to do is strength and condition your hips and glutes, because it's these support muscle groups that keep your legs in the proper plane of motion while you run.

I've recently started doing a good bit of hip/glute conditioning along with my other strength training, and I'd highly recommend it to all runners, especially if you ever feel a little niggle on the outside of your knee.  My favorite workout is from Strength Running : check it out!  They're calling this an IT Band Syndrome rehab, but why not get ahead of the beast, rather than waiting for it to bite you?

On the Horizon...

Big news!

Most of my best ideas originate with my better half, and once again this is the case.  I hadn't planned on making any attempts at an ultra until next Spring, but Christina happened to notice an email about a different sort of race coming up this November, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity, so I am now officially signed up to run the 6-hour race at Miles for Maria in Kennesaw, GA, this November.

Charging Ahead

It's a bit of an aggressive step, but I think it will be awesome for a number of reasons - 

• It's a timed race, so rather than having to cover any particular distance, I just have to stay on my feet shuffling forward for 6 hours straight.  No doubt this won't be easy, but I've been on 4-hour runs before, so it's not that tremendous of an extension.  Also, since I don't have to cover any particular distance, I can walk or jog when I feel like it, and run faster when I feel the zip, without the psychological sting of seeing everyone else disappear over the horizon.
• It's after my next Marathon, so it won't disrupt my current training plan or put any extra pressure on any other running goals.
• It's the first edition of this particular race, which means if I win, I get a de facto course record!  Whether or not that's any kind of possibility obviously depends on who else signs up for the event...  I'm not necessarily planning to run competitively at the front; I'm hoping I can average a 10' pace for 6 hours, which means I should race up at least 36 miles.  If I can get that done, I'll have a lot more confidence as I begin to prep for the Sweet H20 50k in April.

The Ultra Running Wannabe is only three and a half months from actually becoming an ultra runner!

Recovery: Secret Weapon Smoothie

Some people run to lose weight; I used to be in that category, but as my training volume has increased, I am in a position now where I have to put some effort into eating enough to maintain myself.  Christina and I spend a good bit of time (perhaps too much) thinking about healthy eating, and I would say that in general, I am proud of our refrigerator and pantry, particularly in its ability to pack a tasty, nutritional punch.  So, for any other runners out there in my position, that are looking for a good way to pack in the good stuff after depleting yourself with a long run, I wanted to share my favorite recovery treat - the secret weapon smoothie:

looks scrumptious, right?

Ingredients

• 5-6 ice cubes
• 1 cup strawberries
• 1 cup other berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc.)
• 1 banana (raw or frozen)
• 1/2 cup Silk Almond Milk (original, not vanilla or sweetened)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (any color will do)
• 1 tbsp flax seed (ground!)
• 1-2 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 1/3 cup rolled oats

How to Make it...

Well, its a smoothie, so basically you toss everything in the blender and combine it all.  A few recommendations based on my repeated tweaking -

• I find the texture comes out better if I crush the ice cubes first before adding other ingredients
• Frozen bananas will also thicken the texture - you may need to add a bit of water if your blender is having some difficulty
• Make sure you have GROUND flax seeds - apparently we can't really digest the whole ones, which doesn't mean you'll get ill, but you will miss out on the nutritional goodness
• To get the blender moving along, if your model isn't top of the line (as is the case in our apartment), I find it helps to gently press on the top of the mixture inside the blender with the bottom of a spoon, the get some of the chunky material sucked into the vortex of the blender

Why I love this Smoothie...

Simple, it's delicious, it has a fairly good calorie balance, and it packs a ton of vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants (and a particularly good spread of B-complex vitamins, which will help re-energize you if you have other things to get done in your day after the run).  Some notes and comments - you may notice in the nutrition facts below that the fat content is fairly high, so this isn't ideal for someone looking for a low-fat diet.  It comes with the peanut butter and the ground seeds.  If, on the other hand, you're looking to encourage fat burning in long-distance endurance sport, a respectable chunk of healthy fat in your diet is important.

Another note - this bad boy has a whopping 600-700 calories, so if you're not running at least 6-7 miles, you're likely reversing any weight loss progress you may be making, so if slimming down is your goal, keep that in mind!  The proportions above will make two large glasses of smoothie, probably round about 20 oz.  The nutrition facts below were computed assuming the use of blueberries (seasonal fruit, baby!)

Marathon Training, Round 2

I'm about a month into full swing training for my second marathon, and I wanted to take a moment to compare strategies for this race versus my first, and get some feedback from the helpful minds distributed out there in the blogosphere.

When I was preparing for the Nashville Marathon, I used one of the training programs published by Hal Higdon; Christina and I had used his program to successfully prepare for our first half marathon, so it seemed like a natural transition.  I followed the distances from his Intermediate I progression, but I largely ignored the pacing guidelines.  I can't say that I gave much thought to doing specific tempo or pace workouts, and I only did speedwork about half as often as I was supposed to.  I missed some days here and there, but I more or less stuck to the distances, and when race day came around, I blew away the goals that I had set for myself, so I have to say that it went great.

One thing I wasn't happy with, even though it seems to be almost universal (particularly for new marathoners), was my split - it was terrible!  I ran the second half nearly 15 minutes slower than the first.  I know that a lot of this is race intelligence and strategy that I need to accumulate with more experience, but I also felt that I had something to gain by ratcheting up the total number of miles in my workouts, so my legs would have little more staying power for the second half.

So with that in mind, I'm trying one of the variations of Hanson Marathon Training for Round II.

What does it entail?

• 6 runs per week, of which four are at an easy pace
• Speed work once per week for weeks 2-10, transitioning into "strength" work for weeks 11-17 (see below for an explanation)
• Tempo runs once per week, starting at 6 miles and building up to 10

How is it different?

• Strength workouts - These workouts are done in the same format as whatever speed work you might have been doing, except that you double the number of intervals, and shoot to run 10-20 seconds faster than whatever you goal pace is for the race.
• Frequency - Running 6 times per week, vs. 4-5 with Higdon
• Training Volume - I'm starting out at the high 30's in terms of miles per week, and building up to about 60 miles per week before tapering
• NO (really) LONG RUN - this is probably the most striking difference from the traditional marathon training.  The long runs in this program cap at 16 miles (arguably quite long for many people), rather than going up to 20-21 miles.

Why the change?  Well, I think will help me focus on the areas where I would most like to improve. I think the strength workouts, run frequency and volume of miles all tune into the underlying metabolic and cell level adaptations that will help increase my stamina and staying power.

And on the other hand I don't particularly mind giving up the really long runs, having done the marathon once, I think that I don't need the psychological benefit of rehearsing the distance in training; the linked article above talks about the "myth of the 20 miler".  I haven't actually read or seen any research about this, but I will be poking around to see if I can dig anything up.

In the mean time, training continues, and race day will be the ultimate judge of whether this switch is paying any dividends.

Setting Goals

One of the things that has sucked me deeper and deeper into a running addiction is the quantitative aspect - as you train and progress over time, you can gauge improvements in your pace, in your distance, in the frequency of your runs.  I certainly wouldn't say that I'm a Type-A personality, but I do love planning, calculating, and projecting, so the idea of setting targets and measuring my progression is an aspect of running that I most definitely haven't burned out on yet.

I can also acknowledge that I'm in the very early stages of my running life - I've only been running with any sort of consistency for approximately 2 years at this point.  With that being the case, I realize that the fantastic, rapid progress I'm making right now will slow down considerably as a do more races and come closer to the edge of whatever my natural physical potential might be.  I certainly can't count on making the same huge improvements from race to race over time - it's just a fact of life.

So with that in mind, I (like many runners, I think), have many tiered goals for my races and development, and ambitions that span many different timeframes.  I can say that for any race, I have public goals that I discuss with friends, and I have super-secret, super ambitious goals that I won't verbalize outside of my skull - never underestimate the power of superstition and juju.  So I'll post my public goals here, and when I finish races and post my reports, I'll share whether or not I managed to ace the race and fulfill my loftier targets.

Short-Term (the next few months)

I have races coming up this fall in every distance that I've run so far; for some of these races, it will be the first time I've competitively run the distances in nearly a year.  So with that in mind, my primary goal for the next few months is to PR in each distance from the 5k up to the Marathon.

5k: Atlanta's Finest 5k, 8/3/2013
       Current PR: 22:38

10k: Big Peach Summer Sizzler, 9/2/2013
         Current PR: 43:31

Half: Atlanta Half Marathon, 11/28/2013
         Current PR: 1:40:09

Marathon: Marine Corps Marathon, 10/27/2013
                    Current PR: 3:34:38
                    (Tier 2 goal: race sub 3:20:00)

My 10k time is a bit faster than the other three, as it was set on a nice downhill course, but even so, I think I have a pretty good shot at nailing this one.

Medium Term (next year or so)

My real goal in the next year is to crack into running ultra races.  I have two in mind in particular - the Sweetwater 50k trail race, and the Cremator 50 mile road race in Beaufort, SC.  Both entail some unique challenges - I'm not an experienced trail runner, and I've never done a distance longer than the marathon, so we shall see.  I have some training arcs in mind and some more specific time goals, but those will have to stay secret until I've actually finished one of these things and seen where my body can take me.

Long Term (you know, like a long time...)

I already have some 100 mile + ultras in my mental bucket list, and I hesitate to commit them to digital representation, but all lists have to begin somewhere, so within the bigger long-term goal of becoming a 100-mile ultra racer, I would specifically love to do the following:

• UTMB
• The Grand Slam of US Ultras
• Western States
• Vermont 100
• Leadville
• Wasatch Front
• Rim to Rim to Rim Grand Canyon Run

There are many more that I might add to the list, but I feel that taking it any farther than that at this point would be getting extremely carried away - exercise mental self-control!  Save it until you've actually run a 100-mile race!  Thinking about all of these epic courses is making me antsy... I think that means its time to go for a run.

I, the runner

It all started with one 5k race.

Despite playing many sports as a youngster, I was not an athletic kid.  With some gentle nudging from my parents, I participated in rec league soccer, basketball, and baseball, but I was the kid standing in right field, spending most of my time swatting at gnats and (undeservedly) winning the 'most improved' award at the end of the season.  In high school, I was the captain of the debate team, and I did quite a few events in the Science Olympiad, but I did not play sports.  A pickup game of basketball or soccer with friends perhaps, but I was more or less guaranteed to be one of the last people picked when in came down to dividing up the teams.

Running was something that I began aspired to once I moved on to college and realized that to have the kind of body that I wanted and do the sorts of things I wanted to do was something completely under my own control.  I put together a bucket list, running a marathon was right up at the top of the list, above such other equally unachievable as climbing one of the world's tallest mountains or taking a 500 mile voyage by kayak.  It didn't seem like something that could happen for me without years of rigorous preparation, so it sat far on the back burner on my brain when I occasionally made it out to the gym to plod a mile or two around the rubberized track after lifting a few weights.  I spent years running on and off, probably never exceeding more than 5-10 miles per month, taking months off at a time, and never surpassing 2 or 3 miles at a go.

Fast forward 3 years: I've been in the Peace Corps, bounced back and forth between West Africa and Atlanta a few times, and gotten married.  It was Fall 2011, Christina and I were in Atlanta (her first time living here), trying to find gainful employment, make friends, and deal with the reverse culture shock.  We were stressed, and looking for an outlet, and Christina, who was also an aspiring runner, suggested we sign up for a 5k race.  It was a completely novel idea to me, but it seemed like a good way to help build and sustain the motivation, and it gave us a great excuse to go running together, so we went for it.  We picked a Christmas race in our neighborhood, and we started to prep.

For the first time in my life, I demonstrated some athletic consistency.  For that period of a few months, I must have averaged 3 or more runs per week, and started to nudge up the distance.  We trained together, we made it to the race, and we finished our 5k, in a whopping 32 minutes.

It wasn't an impressive time by any measure, but the process helped click something into place in my brain - it proved to me that having a dedicated, motivated running partner to train with and a goal to aim for, I could work and become better.  So I tried it again.

That's me in the yellow socks! Action Dash 5k (my current PR), 9/12

Five months later, we ran a second 5k, and I knocked 8 minutes off my old time.  A month after that, we ran our first 10k.  Four months later, we ran our first half marathon.  Five months after that (3 months ago), I finished my first marathon.  The more I run, the farther and faster I want to go!

And that's how I wound up in this current mental state.  During this running escalation, Christina also helped to nurture my new passion with running books - the seminal Born to Run by Chris McDougall, and Eat and Run by Scott Jurek, both of which tell epic tales of awesome athletes running incredible long distance races.  And as I run more and get stronger and stronger, this has become my wildly ambitious long term goal - I want to race 100 mile trail races.

I am an ultra running wannabe.  And it all started with a 5k race.