Dressing For Cold

This morning, one of the instructors at my gym cornered me while I was stretching and asked me about how to dress for running outside in winter. I shared the 15 degree rule (I guess in metric countries that this is probably more like the 10 degree rule), which says that for outdoor activity, you want to dress like it’s 15 degrees warmer than the actual temperature. I also told her that in calm air, a breathable top layer lets moisture out much more readily, but when winds get up beyond about the 20 mph (35 kph) level, putting on a nylon shell keeps wind from penetrating through your clothing.

Down to about 50°F (10°C), I wear shorts and a tee shirt (usually technical fabric). Down to about 45°F (7°C), the shirt becomes a long-sleeve. Down to about 40°F (5°C), tights are added. Below that, a jacket goes on.

I also recommended a hat, at least when temperatures drop to around freezing or below. I told her that I wear double gloves, a knit inner, which I’ll wear alone down to about 35-40°F (2-5°C), and an outer shell that goes on in temperatures below that. I can easily adjust by peeling off gloves or hat, and tuck them into the front of my tights. Zippers are also very handy to have. If you've overdressed, opening a zipper can make the difference between comfort and cooking.

The process of dressing for outside is quite easy. If you don’t feel a bit cool during your first few minutes outside, you’re probably overdressed.

That Time Of Year

We attended my son's Cub Scout Pack meeting late last week. It's time for this year's Pinewood Derby. The car shown here is last year's car. It was based on an early 1950's Indy car. This year's will be based on cross between a slimmed down Formula 1 racer and a rail dragster. The race is in early March, so you'll see the car and results then.

Meantime, for regular readers, I've posted my son's Crazy Hair Day hairdo on the post where I mentioned it.

Fatigued

This morning, I woke well, but moving, that was another story. My body was wracked with fatigue. All the little hurts of yesterday added up to make it rebel at the prospect of doing road work this morning. So, I wimped out. I racewalked, mostly at a fairly leisurely 5.0 mph about 2.4 miles this morning. I should have run about 4 as my recovery, but the price of yesterday was a bit higher than I'd hoped.

Meantime, my "haven't missed a workout day this year" streak is still intact. (What? You're counting walking? You bet I am...and if any of you want to argue the point with me, let's walk a few miles together. If you're ahead of me at the end, I'll consider changing my views on this.)

Just What I Needed!

I posted on Friday that I felt like a deer in the headlights. Today, I went out in the rain for my long run. I put on the FuelBelt with 2 bottles, my 20 year-old fashion crime, but I'll be seen Pearl Izumi Wind Jacket, a ball cap to keep my glasses kind of dry, lightweight tights, and 2 wicking shirts. Off I went.

Since Hal Higdon and Alison had put fear into my brain, I decided to head up the hills to start my long run. Off I went towards the large park that caps the ridge just to my north. Twenty minutes in, as I ran the roadway at the margin of the park, through the gray haze, I spotted four deer descending the hill, about to cross my path. They watched me as I ground my way towards them, up the park roadway. When I got to within about 50 feet, they bolted, showing me their white tails as they ran a tangent just slightly away from the roadway. The road curves upward just beyond where this occurred, and sure enough as the hill steepened, there they were on my left. Again, they watched me, but this time, my path was far enough from them that they didn't feel threatened. This time, they watched me pass.

I continued my climb over the ridge. Forty minutes put me near the bottom. It had been many months since I'd run a truly big descent, even several months since the smaller ones at Holmdel Park. My legs were starting to whine. I now had twenty or thirty minutes of flat running before I'd need to face the hills again. My legs were feeling beat up by the hills. Heading back over the ridge, my legs were feeling leaden. They still worked, but clearly weren't happy with the loads being put on them.

Descending from the ridge, for some reason, into my head pops "Hey there fella, with hair colored yella..." before I knew it, I'm shouting Lynyrd Skynyrd's lines, "Gimme three steps, gimme three steps mister...." It came from somewhere deep inside, but it gave me the separation from the discomfort to keep pounding it out without too much angst. I got to the bottom of the hill just after the light changed against me, so I headed for the pedestrian bridge. Over the bridge and I decided to cut the run a bit short. My big toe on my right foot was blistering from the wet, hilly conditions. I got home in 1:52, which I'll credit as 13 miles. A bit short as long runs go, but better to feel OK tomorrow.

Sometimes, fear can make you face unpleasant work bravely. Thank you Alison and Mr. Higdon.

Follow-up here.

Running Club Banquet

Last night was the annual banquet of my running club...well, the one I compete for. It was a very nice event, though the awards tend to ramble a bit. One of the things I enjoyed most was the "cocktail hour". I quote that because, as runners, the amount of drinking that was going on was pretty limited.

My favorite incident of the night was relating the story of my 5-lap 1600 to the parents of two high level collegiate runners, one of whom was getting our "College Athlete of the Year" award. Counting to four isn't a hard thing to do, but in the excitement of a meet, with over 25 years since your last relay leg of over 2 laps, the concept of counting laps just didn't come. This happened during a DMR (distance medley relay) which consists of four legs, I think it's a 1200, followed by a 400, an 800, and a 1600 finishes it. The total race is 4000 meters (about 2½ miles).

Anyway, I related how my rustiness resulted in my uncertainty about lap count. I got passed about 100 meters from the finish by the one team we were beating. When I passed the line, I was not pulled. Apparently, I was not the only one not counting. (In relating this tale, I've since been told that officials should be running a count and should have been informing me of my laps and pulled me when I'd completed my four.) Since I wasn't pulled and was unsure if I'd run 3 or 4, I continued for another lap. It was a goofy mistake, but relating it to these parents (whose daughter was competing a DMR last night) got them laughing.

My son was there with me. Yesterday was Crazy Hair Day at his school. His blue tinted hair in a ridge at the top of his head (sort of a Mohawk) drew a lot of attention. I'd told him that if any asked why his hair was like that, he should say, "I'm in a rebellious stage. Ya wanna make something of it?" That line also drew a few laughs.

Am I A Deer In The Headlights?

There are marathons, then there's Boston. No marathon has more tradition. I first became aware of Boston after Frank Shorter won the Olympic Marathon in 1972. I vowed then that I would run Boston. I was running track and cross-country in high school. Then, the running boom hit, difficult qualifying times were established, and the Boston vow became a dim memory.

After several years work, I ran a 3:29 at the Long Island Marathon last May. Finally, Boston was to be mine. Here it is, it's just over 11 weeks until my date with my running dream. I know my training has been a bit soft. Today, Alison posted a commentary about her training this past week. Her reference to Heartbreak Hill got me rattled. As if that was not bad enough, Runner's World posted a link to Hal Higdon's Boston Bound training plan. Higdon says of the late stages of Boston, "If you enter this stretch fatigued and unable to maintain running form--particularly if forced back onto your heels--you will pound the muscles of your lower legs to pulp."

Suddenly, I feel like a deer in the headlights!

My follow-up post can be found here.

Running With Lydiard

I recently had the pleasure of reading Mike Salkowski's blog as he spent several months training for a marathon using the methods of Arthur Lydiard. One of the frustrating things about Lydiard's books is that he establishes a framework, rather than a recipe. A degree of interpretation tends to help a user to apply his methods successfully, and in the process, it becomes clear that Lydiard training is appropriate for runners (and other athletes) at virtually all levels.

I hate to risk ruining a good story, but if you want some idea of what Lydiard's training can do, consider that Salkowski just lowered his already impressive 2:47 marathon PB by about 8 minutes. What is more remarkable is that Salkowski felt that poor pacing had cost him several minutes during the race.

One of the most interesting aspects of this was following the discussions of Salkowski with his gurus, including Nobby Hashizume of Five Circles, on this thread on Let's Run and in the comments on the blog. As is often said, "The devil is in the detail." The effort that was put into getting details right was considerable, but it paid off. I credit Arthur Lydiard (whom I regard as THE greatest running coach) with getting me to Boston.

An Excellent Commentary by Frank DeFord

Yesterday morning, I heard part of a commentary from Frank DeFord on NPR talking about changes in sport, especially as relates to size and power. I could not walk away from it. See if you feel the same way. (Note: I walked in on this when he was talking about figure skating.)

Powered By Adrenaline

When running, adrenaline gets flowing, especially when you are going fairly intensely. In yesterday's post, I mentioned striking a minivan when it stopped in my path. I had a bit of soreness in my hand through most of the day yesterday and the area behind the sore knuckles was pretty swollen. When at the library last night, I managed to bump the sore area against a desk and it seemed to really puff up after that. Today, my hand looks like this. You can probably pick out the purplish cast on two of my knuckles and some puffiness behind them. I guess I overdid it yesterday. The moving body combined with the adrenaline made me hit harder than I realized. I guess this soreness is part of what boxers go through, but with them it's both hands and head. I'm glad I don't box.



This morning, I ran just 4 miles and fairly easy. I lost one of my gloves, so after showering, I drove my route backwards and a half-mile from the end, found the glove. Maybe if I lose it again, I should replace it with a 16-ounce glove.

Mr. Boston Speaks To Me

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Dave McGillivray. For those of you who do not know, Dave is the race director for the Boston Marathon. I had inquired about what the likely qualifying time for the break between Start 1 and Start 2 would be. Dave's response was that it would likely be somewhere around 3:30±5 minutes. The result for me, with a 3:29 and change qualifier was that I don't know which start I will be in.

I could say that I know nothing more, but that is not the case. I know that I will either be one of the fastest runners in Start 2 or one of the slowest in start 1. The former scenario would allow me to run at my pace much more readily than the latter. The problem I would face, since pacing discipline is not my strong suit, would be that I might well go out too fast. At many marathons this would be unpleasant; at Boston, with the hills near the 20-mile mark, it could well mean a death march to the finish. I expect that I won't know more until registration closes.

I had seen, on occasion, condemnations of Boston Marathon management on various websites. This e-mail convinced me that those condemnations are unjustified. I am just a mid-packer, so I can be pretty confident that my communication did not get special treatment. I suggested that this information be posted on the Boston Marathon website and was told that it would be done, so (meaningless, but shameless gloat), I guess I am responsible for a change to the site.

Boring?

In reponse to my last post, Mike Salkowski posted this:

"Scooter, more drama please! As much as I like hearing about anti-inflammatories, I was wondering if there were any "inflammatory" remarks after the knockout blow to the van. Not too long ago I gave a fairly animated lecture to a driver in a VW beetle with one foot perched mid-way up his hood (just about killed me while I was pushing Haiden in the jog-stroller). Don't slip!"

My read of his comment was that he was graciously saying, "BORING!" I don't mind criticism, and love comments. So, while I often put information that I wanted to know into my blog, it may be that it is boring to you. I write for you at least as much as for me, so I ask, "Was it boring?" and the related, "What else would you like to hear about?"

It Hurts!

This morning, we had a heavy frost. The grass was so coated with rime that it looked like spaghetti. In winter, many of my morning runs parallel railroad tracks. There are roads along both sides, so I run west on the north side and east on the south side. As I got to my turnaround, I suddenly realized I was hearing a "grrr" sound, repeated again and again. It was car tires sliding on the "black ice" remaining on the road. The frost was heavy enough to coat the roadway, but light enough that it would quickly erode from the protuding aggregate. The area where this was happening was shadowed by the railroad trestle, so most of these drivers were dealing with sliding for the first time this morning. It was a bit disconcerting having several vehicles sliding around, even at very low speed, just four or five feet away from me.

Another thing that happened this morning was that I punched a minivan. I tend to defend my territory pretty fiercely, so when this woman, after passing me, turned in front of me, then stopped with her vehicle blocking my path, my left hand almost instinctively balled up and hit her quarter panel. Right now, I have some bruising on a couple of knuckles. This brings me to something I've wanted to post about for a while, analgesics and anti-inflammatories. Some runners seem to live on a steady diet of these. I take them very infrequently.

First, since let's define these terms. An analgesic is a pain reliever. An anti-inflammatory reduces swelling. Some drugs are one, some the other, and some are both. The most well known analgesic only is acetaminophen (Tylenol), it is also an anti-pyretic (fever reducer). I'd always thought that aspirin (acetylsalicylic_acid) was a "both" drug, but based on one of the articles, it seems to be an anti-inflammatory (which, since inflammation can cause pain, may reduce pain). Aspirin is also an anti-pyretic. In the "both" category is Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin). So, now you have a bit more information to help you manage injuries and discomfort.

What a Healthy Lifestyle Did For Me

In 1999, I weighed 197 lbs which was spread across my 5'11" frame. In the past couple of years, my weight has fluctuated between 151 and 171 lbs, with it mostly around the 160-165 range.

I suffered from reflux almost every day, now I have it perhaps 3 times a year. In the last several years, this condition has come to be referred to as GERD (Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease). Note: Due to a different spelling, the English call this GORD. If you suffer from it, both the National Institutes of Health and AstraZeneca have good informational websites here and here. Had I taken a drug-based approach to this problem, I'd have likely wound up on a proton pump inhibitor.


My blood pressure was 135/85, today it is about 115/75. A good rundown of types of blood pressure drugs can be found here. Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, discusses ACE Inhibitors, Beta-Blockers, and Calcium Channel Blockers, Also, my cholesterol was up around 200. This means I'd have likely wound up on a statin drug.

I was usually flatulent, now it occurs only occasionally, usually when I overeat or eat something I have difficulty digesting. So, I used to be a delight to be around (at least if you had an impaired sense of smell).

There were several other things that have cleared up as a result of my healthier lifestyle, but very clearly, by taking control of my health, I have a life that is more free from discomfort and I have saved myself and my insurer significant money because of the drugs I do not need to take.

Building Daylight

Today's sunrise is at 7:16 AM (07:16) and sunset is at 5:02 PM (17:02) for me. Last month's post about this was on the winter solstice, and the times were 7:18 AM and 4:33 PM. You can see that in the past month, I've gained about a half-hour of daylight. Unfortunately, the gain has occurred mostly during times I am in my office. This trend will continue to build daylight for five more months, making it easier to awaken early in the morning AND fit in workouts during daylight.

Big Is Better!

In my town, there's a burger restaurant which uses the tagline, "Big Is Better!" as part of their marketing. They offer adult burgers ranging in size from 5 1/2 oz. (precooking weight) up to 20 oz. (precooking). For many diners, getting the biggest burger they can eat is a point of honor. I am pleased to say that I have never gotten anything larger than the smallest burger.*

They also recognize overindulgence by taking and posting a photo of any adult who consumes an entire One Pounder (20 oz. pre cooking) or child who consumes a half-pounder (10 oz. pre cooking). The place has a fun atmosphere, but it does encourage overindulgence.

My son has threatened to get a half-pounder in order to get on the wall, but has chickened out whenever ordering time was upon us. (I've told him that if he orders it, he will be expected to finish it, so there is the implied threat of possibly getting sick from this.) I must say that I am confident in my ability to eat a one-pounder, but have held back because it is so unhealthy. One of these days, I'll seriously damage my eating plan and get my picture on the wall.

I have mixed feelings about this place because they do so much to encourage overconsumption, but since it's fun, I go occasionally.

*Someday, this will change. Hopefully exactly once.

Medicine and The I-Pod

There is an interesting article on Time Magazine's website this week about how doctors are using technology to hone their skills. The thing that made it interesting is that it uses the almost ubiquitous I-Pod as the key tool.

Many doctors are notoriously poor at analyzing heart sounds through a stethoscope. Part of this stems from the intrusiveness of listening (don't you just love having that seemingly ice-cold stethoscope head placed against your chest?) and part from the number of times (several hundred) that you need to hear the sound in order to learn and understand it. Dr. Michael Barrett of Temple University came up with a solution. He produced a CD with heart sounds on it, the CD was then loaded onto student's I-Pods, to be listened to repeatedly at their convenience.

This concept holds promise because it can help make better doctors and because a doctor who is well-versed in identifying these problems can make a diagnosis from the sound, thus saving the patient (and their insurer) from expensive, time-consuming tests.

Time's article, which can be found here, was based in a study published in the American Journal of Medicine.

Why Do I Keep Gaining Weight?

If you seem to gain a little weight every year, year after year, you will develop a serious weight problem. I won't list the problems you will likely encounter, but they are serious and sometimes deadly. The question of why this happens is a good one to ask.

Based on my understanding, there are three factors involved here:
1) as we age, we usually reduce our activity level
2) dieting can cause our bodies to lose muscle
3) fat is less dense than muscle
Let's look at each of these factors.

When we are kids, we run around a lot; on the playground, after school, during sports activities and so forth. In high school, many of us participate in sports, and even those who don't often had gym class and might have walked to school. Once we are adults, many of us get ready for work, get in the car and drive to work, sit at our desk at work, eat lunch at our desk, drive home from work, eat dinner, sit in front of the TV or computer, then go to bed. Do you see the lack of exercise? For many of us, walking to our car is the most vigorous thing we do on a typical day. We've engineered physical activity out of our lives.

If we diet, the intention is to take in fewer calories than our bodies expend. The problem with this is that if we are minimally active, our bodies readily go to work to conserve stored fat. To do this, they try to reduce calories used by our bodies and since muscle demands more calories than fat to survive, begin to consume excess muscle. This results in a general loss of muscle tone. If you modify your diet AND exercise, then the body believes that the muscle is necessary, and so does not consume it. This is the reason that a modified diet AND exercise is the only effective way to lose weight.

The final point, fat is less dense than muscle. This means that a lean, muscular person will be thinner than a poorly toned (that's a gracious way of saying "fatty") person of the same weight. A big part of the problem we have is our focus on the scale, rather than other factors, to judge our "healthiness." If you don't believe this is the case, take a piece of fat and a piece of meat and drop both into a glass of water the next time you eat steak. You should see the fat float and meat sink. Judge your healthiness by the really important things - the ones your doctor uses: blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

In order to get your weight to trend lower do the following things:
1) be more active - this will build muscle, train your cardiovascular system, and burn calories
2) eat less food, and make sure the food you eat is not calorie dense and is high in nutrients (that means less junk food; less processed food; more fruits and vegetables, especially the intensely colored ones).
3) Don't go on a crazy diet - it took you years to put on your weight, is it unrealistic to spend a year or two to take it off? A sensible eating program with a reasonable exercise plan will keep you progressing steadily.

Wave Start At Boston

The Boston Marathon has announced two significant changes to the race; one will affect me, the other may not. The bigger and more noticable change is the implementation of a wave start. The main start will go off at its traditional noon time. Elite women and wheelchairs will have an earlier start as has been done in the recent past. The change occurs by taking the second half of the main start and launching it 30 minutes later than usual, at 12:30. The expectation is that this will permit each start to take about 10 minutes, rather than the 30 minutes that was typical in the past.

The press release (LetsRun's Posting) about this indicates that there will be in essence two athlete's villages at Hopkinton High School, and each will be brought to the start shortly before their assigned time. It seemed to be implied that part of the reason for this was to try to keep the race on good terms with Hopkinton homeowners, who were, understandably, upset at having runners urinating and defecating on their lawns and in their bushes. I'm hopeful that this aspect of the race, one that is, to a great extent, a dysfuntion of its size, will be brought under control. It would be a real shame if the oldest annual marathon in the world were to need to sacrifice tradition because of this situation.

The second change is that to facilitate traffic movement in Boston, the race will cross under Massachusetts Avenue rather than on it. (I assume there is a tunnel with ramp that will allow this without slowing the runners.) I also expect that this change will create some challenges for TV coverage of the race. This change will not affect the start or finish line locations. (So says the press release, I expect it will change one or the other, but by an insignificant distance.)

Also, Jesse Squire, a noted running statistician, has posted his annual lists of the fastest American men and women marathoners. They are in pdf format, so you must have Adobe PDF or PDF reader to view them. If you don't, you can visit www.adobe.com to download a free copy of PDF Reader. Note: these lists tend to be "living creatures" for the first few weeks after their publication as non-Americans are culled and missed performances added.

Good-Bye, My Friend

At age 10, I was captivated by dinosaurs made out of car parts. These dinosaurs were brightly colored and BIG! I was enchanted by the pieces and by the artist, Jim Gary. Jim was a soft-spoken man who always laughed at having failed high school art class because he had no sense of color, yet he made his living for decades by making ART!

I was audacious enough to ask if he would come to my school, and Mr. Gary complied. I later found out that this became a fairly regular thing for him to do. Over the years, at various demonstrations, he made some small items which he gave to me. Two that stay in my mind are a flower made of sheet copper, a washer, and welding rod; and an owl of machine nuts and sheet metal. These were small, unpainted, unsigned pieces.


When I got older, I purchased one of his smaller pieces, a small rake-tailed bird. He also gave me an ant made of rocker arms. (I hope I identified the part correctly.) And, when running into him at a show with my son, gave us a bug made from silverware. (I will post pictures of these pieces here shortly.)

Gary's large pieces featured prominently in several movies, but the one I remember best was Howard the Duck. Unfortunately, I could find no web postings of his sculpture in movie stills. During the 1970's, there was also a special magic in recycling in an unexpected fashion. After all, to a great extent, that's what Jim Gary did.


A nice article can be found at the Lowe's Motor Speedway website here. The Bergen Musueum of Art and Science has a roadrunner sculpture in their collection and posted on the web. An interview with a couple of shots including one of his significant early works, Universal Woman, can be found here. Two good photo sites showing some of his larger works can be found here and here.

His obituary from the Asbury Park Press can be found here. Mr. Gary's website can be found here, and details on a fund to distribute his works to interested museums can be found here.

The "Jim And Friend" picture above was copied from Jim Gary's website. I am hopeful that my using it will not be regarded as an issue. If it is, please contact me and I will remove it.

Triathlon on a Hybrid Bike

I recently saw some pictures from one of the Danskin Women's Triathlons. The thing that struck me wasn't the sizes or shapes of the women represented, it was the bicycles. Naturally, the women at the front were geared out to the max. It was the bikes at the rear that enchanted me. There were hybrids. There were road bikes. There even seemed to be a few "my teenage bike rescued from my parent's basement" bikes. That said a lot to me.

Like the running world, the triathlon world had also become inclusive. Back in the days of my only triathlon (Please note that I don't use the "so far" qualifier - there will NOT be another!), the tri world was a fringe world, not unlike that of the ultrarunners today. It was starting to get bigger, but wasn't mainstream then. Today, doing a triathlon seems to be one of the normal physical challenges. Twenty years ago, except among hardcore sportpeople, it was still quite an oddity.

Thus, when I saw a significant number of "unserious" bikes in the event, it was clear to me that this sport had transitioned to one of mass participation. It was nice to see. The more activities we can involve people in, the healthier our society will be.

Training On Ice

Last night, we had a rainy and very windy night, as a front came through dropping out temperatures from the 50's (about 10°C) into the 20's (about -4°C). I emerged from the house and put in about 4½ miles. Most of this was done on a crackly glazing of ice on top of the roadway.

My YakTrax kept me feeling comfortable as I wore them for the first time (see this). I probably overdressed a bit, wearing both wind pants and jacket over top of tights and an UnderArmor t-shirt, heavy shirt and light jacket. The double gloves and knit cap were also worn. (I'd heard reports of wind gusts as high as 59 mph in the area.)

On Saturday, I'd seen numerous runners, most in shorts and tees. This morning, aside from people shoveling their walks, getting newpapapers, walking dogs and heading to/in cars, I saw nobody. I guess I can take some pride in being out there on a less than stellar morning. The peacefulness of it was actually quite nice.

Running "Naked"

Further homage to Intergalactic De-lurking Week!

A recent post by Alison struck a chord with me. Over the last several months, I have been running my workouts mostly by the clock. Not the stopwatch, but the clock. Sometimes the one on the stove in the kitchen at home, other times the wall clock at the gym. I'm not usually wearing a watch*, nor a GPS device, nor a heart-rate monitor. I am running by feel.

It's me, my clothes, and my shoes out there with the cars (unfortunately). For whatever reason, this year, I seem to have seen less wildlife (in NJ, that seems to usually mean deer and racoons among the more exotic and squirrels among the common). I don't know if it's timing or what.

My feet have been generally better than in the last couple of years, even though I know a bout with plantar fasciitis may only be days away. My running style has gotten more onto the toes. I know my feet and lower legs are stronger. I FEEL more like a racer than in the past. (I don't think I'm meaningfully faster, but I feel faster, and I think there is something to be said for that.)

There is a purity to just running. I've stripped away the need for asking how fast am I moving. If I feel like I'm going fast, then I'm fast; feel slow, am slow. For me right now, I think slow may well be about 8:00 pace (per mile), but in my logs, it gets calculated at 8:30 pace, so I may be underestimating mileage. I don't care. There is a degree of joy in my running that was often lacking during the last several years.

I don't know if it is the "inner child." I'm more inclined to think it's the "inner animal." Whatever it is, it's good. I just hope my preparation for Boston doesn't drive it out.

*the whole truth - I am often wearing a pedometer that has a watch function, but virtually never check it.

Boston Marathon Entry!

I got my e-mail yesterday saying, "This is to notify you that your entry into the 110th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17, 2006 has been accepted, provided that the information you submitted is accurate." So, provided I didn't lie (I didn't), I'm in.

Here is my basic stance on marathons:
For most of us, running a marathon well is more demanding on our body than we are likely to be willing to commit to - demanding 50 or more miles per week of training, spread over about 6 or 7 days.

Running a marathon in less serious fashion is both more accessible and less demanding, requiring perhaps 35 miles per week in preparation.

Marathoning as a social activity or as a personal physical challenge can be excellent motivators to get us to be more active, control our weight, etc.

Medical professionals normally say that running in excess of 15-25 miles per week does little or nothing further to improve your health. That initial chunk of activity does A LOT, but the added wear and tear of all that pounding, exposure to the possibility of being struck by cars, etc. can limit the benefits (health-wise) of the training. That said, if you want to race, 35-40 miles per week is likely the minimum needed to achieve a reasonable level of competitiveness. Cross-training may permit you to get away with somewhat less in terms of actual running mileage. If you want to be highly competitive, then numbers in the 60-70 miles per week (or higher) range must be combined with the intense pounding of speed work. This type of training can significantly increase your likelihood of injury. If you enjoy the competition, as I do, training at levels that do more than just keep you healthy may be justified.

I've decided that I do enjoy marathons, but think I enjoy the event / social aspect more, at this stage of my life, than the performance side. As a result, unless I surprise myself or get really motivated at some point in the future, this may be my one and only Boston.

Intergalactic De-Lurking Week

One of the blogs I check regularly is See Jane Compute. I was turned onto it by the geek side of Flashes of Panic. One of Jane's recent posts pointed out that this is (Inter)national De-Lurking Week. So, I wanted to spread the word - for two reasons; I am not sure how many of you read my blog and whether you find it informative AND the idea of getting more feedback from readers to bloggers may result in a more responsive blogging community.

As a result, I did a little homework, finding couple of sites that had artwork pertaining to this concept and shamelessly stealing them. Then, since, in the great American tradition of bigger is better, as exemplified by such fine groups as WWE and the State of Texas, I figured I should change this from merely National or International De-Lurking Week into Intergalactic De-Lurking Week.

So, I stole the "Would It Kill Ya" from See Jane Compute and she'd apparently linked it from Paper Napkin, who may be the source of this whole thing. She had announced it in mid-December and linked back to a post from a year ago where she has four amusing pieces of art to encourage comments (which she invited us to copy, so, perhaps I shouldn't feel shame).

Stop lurking and post a comment! If you're a blogger, then help spread the word that it's Intergalactic De-Lurking Week.

Controlling Plantar Fasciitis (Heel Spur)

First, let me say that I am aware that, in fact, plantar fasciitis (PF) and heel spur are in fact different maladies, but PF is often misdiagnosed as a heel spur. A heel spur is a bony protuberance at the bottom front of the heel bone. It is a pretty rare occurrence, so if you have been diagnosed with a heel spur and it was done wothout an X-ray to confirm, there is a pretty good chance that you have plantar fasciitis.

I've found that using a step to stretch the plantar fascia and the achilles tendon to be one of the most useful ways to control plantar fasciitis. I used to do this stretch with both legs at once, but had one of those "lightbulb" moments one day and realized that I could stretch MUCH more effectively by stretching a single leg at a time.

To perform the stretch, stand with the ball of the foot (or front of the arch) at the nose of the step and drop the heel as far as possible. I hold the stretch for about 15 or 20 seconds and normally repeat it 2 or 3 times on each foot. I've found it to be an effective method of controlling the pain of plantar fasciitis. Normally, in order to totally eliminate PF, it is necessary to eliminate the irritation of the tissues. This can be a slow (perhaps unending) process unless the activity that irritates the tissues is significantly reduced or eliminated. (So, if you are training for a goal, you may have to live with a mild case until you achieve this goal.)

I found the website of Dr. Brian Fullem, a Connecticut-based podiatrist, to be a very thorough and informative site on this malady. Fullem is a runner and very well regarded in the running community.

Also, if you are looking for a good, small, non-technical book on running related injuries, you may want to consider Dr. Murray Weisenfeld's Runner's Repair Manual.

You Can Dodge The Flu

The best way to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated. Good health habits and antiviral medications can help protect against the flu.

Good health habits go a long way towards preventing the spread of influenza. Key among them are:
Avoid close contact
Stay home when you are sick - this means avoid presenteeism. (also see this)
Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze
Wash your hands
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth

Three prescription antiviral drugs (amantadine, rimantadine, and oseltamivir) are approved for use in preventing the flu. Speak to your doctor if you think they might be appropriate.

Some studies show that smokers are more likely to get the flu, & there is a higher mortality rate from the flu among smokers than among nonsmokers.

Because infants cannot get vaccine or antiviral drugs but are at higher risk for serious flu complications, protecting them from flu is especially important

This information is condensed from here.

To see where influenza is active now, check out the current flu map.

For more information than you're likely to ever need about the flu, check out the CDC's flu site.

Cheerleading Injuries

Due to the release of a new study about cheerleading and cheerleading injuries, a number of stories were circulating last week on the topic. When I grew up, cheerleading was mostly cheering, and if anything big was done, it was usually a pyramid built of people on hands and knees that was perhaps 3 or 4 people high. Even assuming the top participant knelt, rather than being folded double, that still put the top head at about 10 feet up. The other "tall" thing that was done was a (usually) male cheerleader supporting a female from about waist level (in college, I think they went up to shoulder level).

Now, cheerleaders, even at the high school level often perform throws and tumbling feats that involve considerable height and rotation. These types of cheers are very exciting to see, but are also quite dangerous. We must remember that they are normally performed without mats or any safety gear. A missed catch or incomplete rotation can result in lifetime injury, including paralysis or death.

The study was performed at Columbus Children's Research Institute (Ohio)and was published in Pediatrics. It revealed that during the 1990 to 2002 time period, cheerleading grew by 18%, but cheerleading injuries more than doubled. While many injuries are to the foot, ankle or leg, about 3% are head injuries. A related study found that more than half of all catastrophic women's sports injuries are cheerleading injuries.

A couple of articles I found informative are this one from ABC News and this one from Forbes Magazine. You can find information about preventing injury at the AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors) website.

A Clean Bill of Health

I got my first physical in about a decade on Friday. The results were good. Cholesterol numbers were right in line. Most other blood work was in line (a couple were marginally out, but didn't concern the doc). ECG was normal. He did identify that I have bradycardia (those of you who are runners or seriously into fitness, but don't know the term will laugh when you see the definition). The ECG tech immediately asked if I was a runner because of it.

I've gotten to the age where a digital rectal exam is a part of the process. It was my first time, and I'll just say the I found it pretty unpleasant. I think I was uncomfortable about it, and therefore, unable to relax. I hope it will be better next time.

He looked quickly at the two skin marks that I showed him and immediately dismissed each as having no risk.

I have been learning about health, but not always doing the stuff that should be done to manage my health. This physical was a step towards rectifying that situation.

Failure! and an Amusing Greeting

First, I must confess that I failed to reach my goal of 160 lbs by New Year's. After a solid start, I got sloppy during the holidays and on Jan 4th, I weighed (insert drum roll sound effect here) 165.5 lbs. I am ratcheting up my activity level. (The Boston Marathon is staring me in the face, and I don't want to dishonor my qualifying by not arriving prepared.) For those of you following the big bet, my wife also failed to reach her goal, so no dollar need be exchanged. (I guess I can take some solace in the fact that my weight didn't rise over the holidays.)

This morning at the gym, I was greeted by a neighbor with, "This getting older thing sucks." We both got a laugh out of it. I didn't make the right response to his comment, "But it beats the alternative!"

My usual comment about exercise and aging is, "It's amazing how much older you are AFTER your workout." Quite simply, a hard workout beats you up, and so you tend to feel older afterwards. Of course, after a couple of hours of recovery, you feel great.

Anyway, let's keep getting older, both in age and by exercising.

But I Already Know!

A comment on a recent post by Brent D. on his blog struck me as another example of the elitism of runners. As a runner and sometime racewalker, I know that walkers often bear more than their fair share of abuse from the running community. One need only visit LetsRun.com's message boards (an excellent running site, but its unmoderated message boards make it a particularly egregious example) over a few days in order to find a thread bashing either racewalkers or charity marathon runners (some of whom often walk significant portions of the marathon) to see some examples of this.

Walking for performance is in fact technically more difficult and less natural than running. Additionally, walking provides an excellent pathway for beginning runners to condition themselves with less risk of injury. It can also provide an excellent aerobic workout for runners working to rehab certain injuries. This said, it's my belief that education is never a waste, and a handbook for walking, while it may not be very useful or practical for you today, may prove invaluable at some point in the future.

I was always struck by the title of one of Nigella Lawson's books, How To Eat. If you want to berate something for being obvious, then why not this book? The answer quickly becomes obvious when the book is examined, it educates you. In the case of eating, much of that education comes in the form of "stop and smell the roses" things, but others come as answers to "whys", like why do certain foods work well together.

In the case of walking, there is a lot that can be analyzed; shorter versus longer strides, arm position, hip movement, etc. Brent's post wasn't really negative, though he appears to have found the concept amusing. While most of the blog comments were either silly or expressed mild amusement, some had a tone that was at least a bit biting. (OK, you may say, "Get a thicker skin" and you may be right, but to my thinking, if running feels elitist to those outside, then our sport is less likely to grow.)

If you want to see some walking websites, I'd suggest starting with: Maggie Spilner's Walk For All Seasons, Racewalk.com, and About.com's Walking Site.

While walking may not be your thing, it certainly deserves respect. I've been coached at walking by some excellent people. I know how to walk (and might be able to outwalk some of those commenters as they run a marathon), but I am always looking for another thing I can do to improve. Do you really know how to walk?

Toothless Joe

One of the ways we can mark the passage of time is through life events. For children, the loss of teeth is one of these markers. My son is currently going through the process of losing his baby teeth and getting some of his earlier adult teeth. While he's in this state, I've nicknamed him "Toothless Joe" in homage to legendary Chicago White Sox baseball player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

Truckin' to the Doctor

You've probably seen those ads for Lamisil, with the nasty looking toenails. My nails look at least that bad - well they used to look worse, but now they just look about that bad.

I had nine nails that were badly affected, but Penlac used religiously for a year and a half got that number down to six. Penlac, with their Toe-Truck campaign, has one of the goofiest marketing concepts I've seen - a whole marketing scheme based on a bad pun. When looking for shots of Penlac's Truck I found a Seattle-based user of the same bad pun.

When I went to my doctor, he tried to discourage treatment. He told me that Lamasil only works in about half the cases (note: numbers may be off a bit - it was a couple of weeks ago) and that many people's nails are reinfected within a year or so. He said that runners have additional trouble because of the trauma to which their nails are often subjected.

Even so, he did write me a presciption for Lamisil. I will be starting with it shortly and will keep you posted on the outcome.

History Is Being Lost

Something happened recently that made me think about the loss of history. Many of us study history in schools, and while it helps us to understand how we go to where we are, it also leaves some serious holes in what many of us know. Local history is sometimes covered, but usually in a very superficial way. Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series of books on various communities go a long way to making a lot of information available as do local historical societies.

Most of you know that running is a personal passion of mine. Road racing and track and field (athletics in the rest of the world) have a rich and storied history, unfortunately, aside from a very few massively successful events, many struggle to survive year-to-year. If those races or meets cease to be run, their history often disappears with them. Some have a rich enough history to have been captured in some way by the more commercial running publications (Runner's World and Running Times), while others are recorded in regional running publications, but often these publications are not archived in libraries, so unless specialty libraries are created, that information is often at risk of being lost.

It was the recent cancellation of the Midland Run that really hit home. This run had a very storied history, with its director moving on to direct the Chicago Marathon and with its 1980 race regarded as one of the finest road races ever. Its departure removes one of New Jersey's landmark races. I hope an effort is made to preserve the history of this race and to make it available to the public.

At the same time, many of the key people in the development of road racing in the USA are getting to an age where their continued good health can no longer be assumed. Many of the key people in early road racing are in their 60's and 70's, with a few who are older. Most of the racers are now in their 50's. We have a rich history that is, in my opinion largely unrecorded. I am hopeful that some forward looking people will begin to systematically gather much of this information in order to preserve and share it.

Let's resolve to gather and make this information available to those who are students of this wonderful sport.