09 Oct 2009
It’s true.
For years I ran in a motion control shoe (Aisics Gel Evolutions) that my dad helped me pick out. Being that he’s an avid runner and marathoner, I trusted his judgement. Since running has grown to become more of a passion with me rather than just a hobby, I’ve been taking more consideration into what I wear and what shoes I purchase.
A few months ago I was fitted by professionals at TrySports for running shoes. As I wrote about previously, they had me run on a treadmill while a video camera recorded my feet, posture, and motion. It was then reviewed to show that I had the wrong shoes that were causing my feet to overcorrect for pronation. I was prescribed a more stability/neutral shoe – the Brooks Adrenaline 9. I love the shoe and it felt great running. But then…
I ran the Blue Ridge Relay – the first long-distance run I had in the Brooks – and ended up having pretty bad IT band problems. I decided to go see a local physical therapist who’s also an avid runner and who works closely with runners. He was a recommendation from a friend who had similar problems.
Today was my second appointment. He had me run in my old Aisics and my new Brooks on the treadmill. Now that I’m without ankle injuries, I run more natural and it turns out I do in fact need a motion control shoe. But I need more motion control than what the Aisics was providing and way more than the new Brooks. I’ve still got some heavy pronation.
Then he asked me to run barefoot. Curious. As I was running on the treadmill he asked, “Do you realize what you’re doing?”
“No,” I replied.
“You’re running on the forefront of your feet.”
And sure enough I was. It felt more natural and comfortable and without the padding of the shoes, running heel-to-toe kinda hurt. Apparently this kind of running is natural. It’s also supposedly more efficient.
He prescribed three pairs of shoes. He said to buy them and bring them in next week and I’ll run in each and I can return the two I don’t like. He prescribed:
Newton Motion
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/NWT100/
Brooks Addiction 8
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/BRK934/
Mizuno Wave Renegade 4
http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/MIZ648/
So, after dropping $347 (but I got free shipping and $20 off) I’m anxiously awaiting my new package. I’ve got an appointment set up for next Friday to test them out. I’m very much looking forward to finding the right shoes and getting back out into training without the pain.
And I also learned this little tidbit: When you run heel-to-toe you extend your leg which causes the IT band to snap behind the knee. Then, when you follow through and bend the knee it snaps back beside the knee. Do this a lot and you get friction – thus IT band friction – and pain. Good to know!
07 Oct 2009
While in the waiting room at my physical therapist yesterday I decided to check out Runners World magazine. My friend Melissa and I have been trying to research and start good eating habits for runners. I saw a few good articles that discussed eating, training, and thinking. Here’s some of my rough notes, I’ll try to elaborate a bit:
1. Simply tasting a sports drink over water sends signals to the brain to boost motivation. Energy gels after 60 minutes; body uses up glycogen stores limiting fuel for brain and muscles. Sweet drink or something flavored can ’snap’ the brain back into gear.
When I run, I prefer regular water in my fuel belt. It’s refreshing and for some reason, the sweet stuff makes me even more thirsty. However, after reading this bit it seems the sugars in the Gatorade, or whatever, actually help keep the mind producing energy. I’ll probably start bringing on bottle of water and one with something else.
2. After a long run, the body has a 30-minute window when it’s super receptive to getting carbs back into the muscles. Divide weight by two and eat that number of grams of carbs. Within an hour of eating that, eat a full meal that’s got a 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio.
This one doesn’t need much explanation. Basically, after a good workout you wanna eat as much carbs as half your weight. I weigh 155 lbs so I should eat 77.5 grams of carbohydrates within 30 minutes of that workout. About an hour later I should eat a full meal that has 4-to-1, carbs to protein.
3. Give each run a purpose to improve training. Don’t try and do too much too soon.
I found this one interesting. The article was talking about how to prepare your mind, especially for the longer runs. I tend to get bored after a while, especially since I don’t run with music anymore, so it’s imperative I train myself to think properly. In this case, they’re suggesting devoting each run to something – a thought, a feeling, a personal goal, etc. If you run just to run, you’ll likely get bored.
4. Practice race pace once a week.
My training regimen calls for three weekly runs and one long weekend run. This week, for example, it’s 3-7-3-13 (3 miles, 7 miles, 3 miles, then 13 miles on Saturday). I’ve been running race pace on the short ones to build speed and taking it easy on the longer ones to build endurance, but this article suggests only running race pace once per week.
5. The 90-minute power run: Warm up with a 10 minute easy jog. Then run 90 minutes at an effort just short of race pace. The extended hard run will require as much glycogen as a longer run done at a slower pace.
This run is 100 minutes total. It was saying, if you don’t have the time for the long runs, you can do this method which will equate to a longer run. I wouldn’t do this every time though because you’re not getting the mental benefits from the longer runs.
06 Oct 2009
After running the Blue Ridge Relay, the doctor insisted I not run for 3 weeks to heal some shin/ankle/knee injuries sustained during the event. Who knew 36.4 miles in 32 hours could be so harsh on the body? During the last leg of the race, to make the downhill approach even more difficult, my knees started hurting to the point where I could barely walk. Having never suffered from an IT band injury before this was a different and almost terrifying pain on the outside of my knees. Apparently it’s common among runners.
I reluctantly waited my three weeks to resume running and on my first day back out my knees started giving me problems again. I wondered if it was my new shoes, which were so carefully fitted, or maybe I caused some real damage to my body during that grueling relay. So I made an appointment with a local physical therapist upon recommendation from a fellow runner friend. This physical therapist is an avid runner as well and specializes in running, cycling and other athletic injuries.
I had my first appointment today and I gotta say I am thoroughly impressed. Even without having a referral from a doctor they got me right in and to my surprise had me slip on a pair of shorts. The guy was checking bones, measuring distances, feeling around the joints, looking for all sorts of tiny things, inconsistencies, bumps, you name it. Turns out I do have IT band issues and what’s even more interesting is the common causes for IT band syndome:
1. Improper running equipment (in this case shoes)
I quickly shrugged this one off as not applicable since I was only recently fitted by specialists for the proper shoe. However, after some information from the doctor it turns out my old shoes (Aiscs Evolutions) were 70 out of 100 for motion control – what was said to be the incorrect type of shoe for me – and my new shoe (Brooks Adrenaline) is 60 out of 100, just low enough to escape the ‘motion control’ label but close enough to possibly still be the wrong shoe. We’ll see on Friday when I go back to run.
2. Hip rotation/misalignment
3. Legs aren’t the same length
It turns out, after some measuring, that my left leg is half an inch longer than my right. In addition my left hip is rotated backwards slightly andraised up higher than the right. He’s pretty sure that these last two items are the culprit for the knee/IT band pain during my runs.
Luckily, all three can be corrected with a little physical therapy. He gave me some stretches and exercises to do at home to “reverse” the hip rotation. This should get the legs to be about the same length when we’re all done. I go back this Friday to run in both my old pair of shoes and my new pair to see if my shoes could be part of the problem too.
13 Sep 2009
This year I had the opportunity to participate in the Blue Ridge Relay race – a 211 mile race from Grayson State Park in Virginia to Asheville, NC. The race spans a day and a half and consists of teams ranging from 4 members to 12. My team, Team 4tunate (to have 2 more runners), was comprised of five other super awesome people and excellent runners. We began early Friday morning with Jason Martin on Leg 1 kicking off at 7:20am finishing Saturday afternoon with me on Leg 36. With 36 total legs and six runners, we each got an even 6 legs with myself being every sixth. See some of my earlier posts for more information.
My plan was to twitter, flickr and blog about the race in real-time, but that plan was foiled when I realized there’s little to no cell phone reception up there. I did however, manage to get a few items out on twitter and Melissa wonderfully put together a nice blog for me from our text message conversations. Be sure to read it too.
Some details about the race: The race started at 7:20am Friday and did not stop until I crossed the finish line Saturday afternoon. That’s all day, all night, and all morning. Reflective vests were required at night and whenever we ran on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Red blinking LEDs were required at night along with a headlamp (otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see anything). Sleep was possible, but not really with all the excitement. With 3-5 hours between legs I made attempts at sleep, but only managed to get rest between the converstation, encouragement, door shutting and anxiety.
Some things I learned: Don’t fight gravity. Love your downhills. Treat them right and they’ll treat you right. Ice injured limbs. Use ‘the stick’ after each run. Eat plenty of carbohydrates, proteins and salts to avoid cramping and provide energy. Don’t push it – set a safe, smart pace and maintain it; with the number and size of the hills you’ll spend all of your energy if you don’t spend it properly and your overall time will suffer.
And now for some leg recaps, detailed information, and pictures! We’ve got more pictures and video coming soon!
Leg 6
Time start: 11:07am Friday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246412
Before I began my first leg I was worried about my ankle. I was hoping it would hold up and I think I worried so much about it that I actually made it hurt. I say that because now, after 36.4 miles it’s fine. Weird. Anyways, this leads to more and far greater problems later. Keep reading and you’ll see. Oh, the reason for the huge jump on the map is because I forgot to reset my watch and when I started it for my next leg I was miles away. The main stats are still there.
Leg 12
Time start: 4:25pm Friday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246403
This was my hardest and longest leg. About a month ago some of the legs needed to be adjusted to use different exchange zones to accomodate the increased number of runners. This year was the biggest event to date with 102 teams. A big increase from the previous years’. Lucky me, I got all the extra miles, which is why the race went from 208 to 211 miles. This leg was one of those that received the additional miles. Originally it was 7.9, but it was modified to 9.1. Jason Martin of the team was kind enough to print, laminate and prepare little cards with the mileage, directions and a map that we could carry with us as to not get lost. However, a few of them weren’t updated when the legs were. As a result I began this leg with 7.9 miles in mind, only to keep running confused as hell to 9.1. It wasn’t until I hit the 8.8 mile mark when I kinda realized what had happened.
Leg 18
Time start: 9:59pm Friday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246397
This was one of my two night legs and the first leg where I was really hurting. I was looking forward to the downhill too, but because I was worried about re-injuring my ankle I was overcompensating for that possibility by not running properly. As a result I ended up screwing up my shins, calves and knees which will only hurt the remaining three legs. Instead of leaning forward and letting gravity do the work, I resisted and “stomped” my feet slowing myself down. Never a good thing and it’s terrible on the knees.
Leg 24
Time start: 2:43am Saturday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246393
My second night leg. Actually it was early morning on Saturday. I’m feeling the pain from the previous run but hoping this 3.2 miler is as easy as it looks. With an all-downhill run you’d think it’d be easy, but when you’re shins and knees are screaming at you from the previous run, running uphill would seem far less painful. I don’t think I can get across how much pain I was in. Running at night was creepy. You run though some really backwoods, isolated places. The team made mention of Deliverance several times and even though I hadn’t seen it, I was able to make a synopsis from the details given. It’s pitch black and you’re running on narrow roads with a few houses here and there. The only source of light is my headlamp and two blinking red LED’s that are required during night runs. The air is damp and every little noise gives you a little spook. Imagine my surprise when I hear a low growling all of a sudden coming from behind me. I stop, turn around, and there’s a dog bearing it’s teeth at me. I scream at it to scare it and it backs up slightly. I continue to run and it’s chasing me growling again. I stop, turn and scream at it again a few times. Then I hear its owner calling it and it runs off. For the next few minutes I felt no pain as the adrenaline subsided. Scary leg, that one.
Leg 30
Time start: 8:22am Saturday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246388
I’m hurting. Bad. And for some odd reason slightly welcoming this uphill leg. Okay not really. I was maybe a little glad it wasn’t a downhill leg though. Nothing super exciting here other than the pain shooting through my knees, calves, ankles, soles and shins. And the fact that we’re almost done. Big uphill leg here with 1,892 feet elevation gain.
Leg 36
Time start: 1:48pm Saturday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13246383
The final leg of the race. 6.8 miles of painful, agonizing, tear-jerking running. Or in my case, very slowly limping. This leg begins with exiting the Blue Ridge Parkway onto a nice residential road winding down into downtown Asheville. By this time, I’m seriously wondering if my knees are going to bust and that is absolutely no exageration whatsoever. Earlier in the day my team kept saying that if I didn’t think I could finish, to let them know and they’d pick up my leg. No way was I going to come this far and not finish. I wanted to finish this race, no matter what kind of pain I was in or how broken my body was. I had to sit down and stretch several times during this leg, each time the runners passing me asking if I was okay and offering me water. I had exhausted both 8oz bottles from my fuel belt half way through this leg. Seeing that they didn’t have much water left either, I declined their offer and wished them a good rest of the run. I was seriously very ready to have one of them tell my team to come get me I was in so much pain. But, as runners passed they encouraged me by saying things like “Come on buddy, only two miles to go!” and “You can do it, come on!” Eventually, I made it downtown with only .7 miles to go and eventually across the finish line.
How am I feeling? Everything from the waist down is in excrutiating pain. My left shin and right sole are competing for the most painful making walking extremely difficult. Driving home in my Honda Civic, a stick shift, was pretty interesting as my left foot didn’t seem to want to depress the clutch. I’m pretty sure my left leg is seriously injured warranting a doctor visit this week for an x-ray. I’m hoping it’s just a really, really bad tired muscle and not a stress fracture. Mentally and emotionally I feel very energized, proud, satisfied and more confident in my running. This was an extreme event that pushes the limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. A fun challenge that I’d gladly do again next year.
All in all, this was the hardest physical, mental, and emotional challenge of my life. 36.4 miles in 32 hours is no easy feat. Thanks a bunch to my team, family, and friends who gave me support and strength to make it through. I look forward to running again next year, hopefully with the same team.
Thanks to Jason Sutton for these pictures. I’ll put up more pictures and some video later: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suttonscoop/sets/72157622231803313/
Thanks to Kevin Davis for these pictures: http://justkev.in/pics-from-blue-ridge-relay
Other related blogs:
Jason Sutton, Kevin Davis, Melissa Oyler
Thanks to Kevin, Jason S., Jason M., Alex S., and Whitney T. for being awesome teammates and for all the support from friends and family.
12 Sep 2009
Melissa here, bringing you an update on the Blue Ridge Relay via text messages and phone calls from Chris. He’s having trouble getting much signal, so I told him I’d update his blog readers with some fun tidbits from the race thus far. He’ll be back soon to elaborate!
From Chris:
After his first leg: “I’m exhausted but it’s impossible to sleep because there is so much excitement!” (for the record, he went to bed the night before at 10 p.m. and woke up around 2 a.m.)
After first leg: “This is tough.”
Then “Kevin says to tell Jeff to bring Jim Beam.” (Kevin is my brother who invited Chris to run the relay with him and four others.)
After the second run: “My card was wrong! That was my 9.1!!! Holy shit that was hard. 4.5 uphill!”
For the record, the route changed a couple months before the relay, changing Chris’ long run from 7.9 miles to 9.1, which he blogged about below. I guess he forgot though! Sucky time to remember, possibly 8 miles in …
Before the third run (I think): “About to run my 5.8 run. One of two at night.”
After the third run: “Legs cramping up badly! Three more to go!”
After getting some rest in the van (I’m sure it was a great rest with 4 other people in there): “Morning. I’m hurting.”
After I asked him about his ankle: “Ankle is fine, it’s my legs and knees that are killing me. Be safe on your run. Don’t push it. But good luck.” (I ran 10 miles this morning. He’s running 36 and telling me not to push it. I love it!)
“This is the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done! This is hard!”
About his overnight runs: “My midnight leg was a lot of downhill and I think I pulled several muscles. My following 3.2 was awful! And this 4.4 won’t be much better.”
“Kev is good. Knee hurts. He’s doing really well!”
Oh, and he added this little gem right before he went for another leg: “I got chased by a dog.” I for one can’t wait to hear more about that one!
That’s all I have for now. On the way to Ashville to meet them at the finish line. So proud and inspired by this team! (who was in 16th place out of more than 100 the last I heard.)
Team 4tunate FTW!