Running letdown caused by beer?

There is a long-running (pardon the pun) thread on a running message board I frequent discussing the inclusion of beer in running race preparation. The consensus seems to be that a beer or two the night before a race helps because of the "carb loading" qualities of the drink. My experiences with pre-race beer seems to support that. I drank a couple the night before my first 5K of the year in April and came within 7 seconds of setting a personal record. I drank a couple the night before a half marathon I ran several weeks ago and knocked over 13 minutes off my first half marathon time.

Now I believe there are limits. This past weekend I travelled to Boston to visit friends and run a half marathon. I drank two beers on both Friday and Saturday evenings and hit the run Sunday morning. I was utilizing my fuel belt, which holds 20oz. of fluid, and which easily lasts me for my longest training runs (to this point, 12 miles). But unlike the other races where I drank beer pre-run, it was hot for this run. It might have only been about 70 degrees or so, but running on a wide asphalt street with mid-morning sun beating down and no shade had to make it at least 10 degrees warmer. Mix in the increased heart rate and body temps really had to be zooming.

My fuel belt fluids were gone by the time I got to 10 miles. That's when I knew I was in trouble. Shortly after then, at about 10.5 miles, my legs just stopped moving as quickly as I wanted. I wasn't in pain or cramping or anything. I was thirsty! I gutted it out to the 11 mile water station, which I walked through (and hated myself for it) while drinking two cups of water.

But that wasn't enough and I struggled trying to make my legs move until I could see the finish line (from about a half mile or so away), which I ran to after alternating between walking and running for about a mile. Due to the dehydration I never felt as badly as I did after crossing the finish line. For the first time ever I had to just lean on a fence they had to herd us in to the post-race area to catch my breath and down a couple bottles of water. And even after I hooked back up with a friend I had to just sit on the floor and get my wits about me for a while.

I'm not saying drinking 4 beers in two days was the only reason I had problems finishing the half. I got to Boston on Friday and spent a couple pretty active days hanging out. It was also probably the highest temperature I've run in this year to that point. And I probably didn't drink enough water in the week leading up to the race (although I do generally log about 3 liters a day). And maybe I didn't manage the fluids on my fuel belt well enough, even though I used them just as I do in training. But I'm pretty sure the beer didn't help and that the diuretic qualities of alcohol overrode the beer's carb-loading benefits this time.

While I'm still on the beer bandwagon (as is just about every issue of Runner's World magazine; we message board cronies aren't alone sitting there) I now think it's best to imbibe for races that either aren't very long (5K or so) or are run in the cooler temps of early spring and fall. And only one or two. And to leave it alone during the late spring/summer.

Anyway, I loved the race course, I loved Boston, I loved the company I was with, and I would do it all over again. If any runner is ever looking for a race/weekend getaway, Boston's Run to Remember is a great event to build your Memorial Day long weekend around.

Back from bounding around Boston

I ran a great half marathon course in a less than great time and suffered some way less than great dehydration along the way in Boston over the long weekend. I'll delve into it in more detail over the next day or so, but for now I just want to ask this: since when did it become all right for people driving cars to stop runners in the middle of their runs to ask for directions? It happened to me twice this afternoon while putting in 4.5 miles under a pretty hot sun (better get used to it, I guess). I could barely talk and darn sure didn't want to stop, but I don't want to be rude like the drivers who bothered me. Kill them with kindness and all that.

And if they found me after realizing I gave them bad directions I would have blamed it on my state of exertion at the time they stopped me.

As a bonus complaint/query, are there more ignorant drivers on the road than soccer moms in Land Cruisers? Over the last couple of weeks, 40ish year old women driving large luxury vehicles have nearly hit me by not stopping at stop signs, not looking before they crossed roads, and by passing other vehicles going too slowly. From the ones I got a good look at, all the drivers had cell phones plastered to their ears too.

What bothers me so much is that these same women would have seizures if drivers of other cars didn't watch out for their kids when they were trying to legally cross or navigate streets on foot, yet they have no problem completely ignoring common courtesy and safe practices when it comes to people in whom they have no vested interest.

Sigh.

When running strong is surprising

Sometimes I surprise myself and have my best runs when I least expect them. Take yesterday, for example. Tuesday is a day I try my best to run outdoors. I rush home and get my run in and then race off to take care of my other after-work committments. It's always nicer to run outside than on a treadmill so it's worth the rush.

Anyway, yesterday was pretty nasty around my way. It was a little cool (good), a little windy (bad), and rainy (ok if it's warm but no so much if it's cool). I just wore a long sleeved shirt rather than a short sleeved one, put a cap on my head and headed out the door to run my 4 miles.

I felt great. It seemed like my form and breathing were just right and the rain was refreshing. After the first mile or so it took for me to warm up it was great. I felt like I was running strong and it seemed that not even the hills could wear me out.

The run took me a little over 32:00, and for the first time in several weeks I registered no pain in my foot. It was slightly gimpy afterwards, but not enough to slow me down any going into my half marathon this weekend.

In other news, I signed up for the inaugural Baltimore 10 miler on June 21. It starts and ends in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, which I ran through as part of the 2007 Zoo Zoom 5 miler. I always love running on city streets and always manage to finish in good time, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Running away from running shoes

This past weekend I decided I needed new running socks, and since you can't just pick them up at Target I went down to my local running store.

The store is the one I bought my first running shoes from a year ago. I bought two pairs that day and joined the store's loyalty program to get something like a $25 gift card after every $250 in purchases I accumulated.

I wore those shoes out over the next 5-6 months, but rather than go back for shoes from the same store I went to a store in New York when I was visiting family over the holidays. I bought one pair of shoes there and bought a 2nd pair online for something like $30 less than the store price because they were "endangered" (that style was being discontinued).

The socks I buy seemed a little different in the store than what I'm used to, so the lady who owns the store looked up exactly the kind of socks I bought and mentioned that it had been a while since I bought shoes and that I'm due for new ones. I didn't fess up that I bought shoes from another store, but I did confess that I bought new shoes online.

The lady gave me a "tsk" and asked why I'd do that when buying them in the store is the same price as buying them online. Rather than get into it with her, I just acted sheepishly, cracked a joke about how she busted me and cursed myself for being suckered into having my shopping history/habits in that store tracked for the promise of a lousy $25.

But she was only telling half the truth anyway. It's true that buying running shoes is essentially the same price online or in a store, provided it's a new, unendangered shoe version/model. The minute a shoe becomes endangered you can find it online for 30-50% less than MSRP, where as the brick and mortar stores will continue to sell them at full retail price until they're down to their most unpopular sizes and just want to get rid of what's left in inventory.

I like running stores, and I don't mind buying shoes from them at full retail because they do offer a service in analyzing and fitting you for the best shoes for you, your feet and your style of running. But after then, do I owe them something into the future for something they did in the past? I think not, and believe that I'm entitled to find the best deal for myself when I already know what I need. And truthfully, I don't really appreciate a store thinking I owe it something because I purchased from them in the past. It's not like they give me a discount just because I purchased from them in the past.

The socks I bought is another item that is essentially the same price in store and online. I thought it was nice of me to buy them from the store to give them some of my business (they're $10/pair and I bought several pair, so it wasn't an insignificant purchase... additionally, I made an impulse buy of a running hat while I was there), but I think from now on I'll buy online and bypass being chastised for the way I choose to spend my running budget.

Valley (running) boy

I got my 12 miler out of the way this morning. I went the same route I took a few weeks ago before the Frederick Half Marathon, but it took me about a minute and a half longer this time. I'm still feeling some stubborn lingering pain in my foot and I guess a combination of that, starting off a little too quickly, yesterday's hills during the 5K race, and a pretty crappy diet over the last few days all contributed to the slower time.

Even so, I made it through one monster hill and a bunch of small to medium ones and I'm no worse for wear, so I guess I'm ready for my half marathon next Sunday. My flight to Boston leaves early Friday afternoon.

Speaking of monster hills, since I have to run through a valley to get a run in as long as 11 or 12 miles without either running loops around my neighborhood or running along a major thoroughfare, I have to run down this crazy decline going into the valley that lasts about a half mile or so. The downhill comes about 2.5 miles into the run and I usually use it to catch my breath and prepare for the even crazier incline 3 miles down the road to take me out of the valley.

But for the first time ever my running down that hill didn't energize me. I was going down the hill thinking to myself how I was going to be happy to have that part over with so I could get back to "real" running. I have no idea what that means, if anything. Probably nothing other than I'm getting tired of that route.

Tomorrow is a glorious non-running day. The modified taper week begins now.

Another race day recap

Because I'm too lazy to write the same thing in a different way, here's the recap I wrote regarding my 5K race this morning on my favorite Jogging/Running message board:

It was hard. Really hard. It started about half way down a relatively steep hill so everyone was pretty much guaranteed to take off way too quickly. I was no exception.

After that strange downhill start it just stayed crazy hilly. According to my Garmin the grade got as high as 18%, and it got there twice, which I think is nuts for a race. To cap it off, the last half mile or so featured the entire hill we ran down to start, and then a steady incline up to the finish line.

I knew the race was going to be tough, but I didn't think it was going to be that tough.

It was a new event and from what I understand only about 150 or so people signed up [actually, there were 186 finishers]. If they want to grow the race they're going to have to do something about the course, IMO. A friend of mine was there and she was over 2 minutes off her PR too. It's not fun to get your butt kicked by a 5K.

Anyway, I came in right around 25:00, give or take a couple seconds (haven't seen the official time yet and it wasn't chip timed). Well off my PR, but still reasonably respectable considering the challenge of the route. Plus, I'm having a little lingering foot pain, even though I think I'm pretty much over it.

Not too exciting, but I got a pretty cool shirt out of it (although it's white). The bib number was just a plain number though. No logos or name of the race or anything.

So there you have it, another race down. Nothing left between me and my half marathon next weekend other than 12 miles tomorrow morning and a simplified "taper" schedule for the rest of the week.

I fly to Boston on Friday afternoon. Looking forward to the run and the weekend away.

Form fitted 5K

A while back I registered for a 5K race only because it was being held in my zip code. I liked the idea of being able to pretty much walk from my house to the start line. But then I realized that this race was going to occur toward the end of my half marathon training for Boston's Run to Remember, so I was a little concerned it was going to throw my training off.

It turns out that the day of the race, tomorrow, I'm scheduled for a 3 mile "pace" run. A 5K race is 3.1 miles. So it works out perfectly! It's like I was destined to run this race this weekend.

A 3 mile "pace" ("pace" being my half marathon race pace) run works out to my running at about 8:50 min/mile, but my 5K race pace is about 7:30 min/mile, so that'll be off. There's just no way I can run a race and not try my best. It's a hilly course, and I'm still recovering from some foot issues, so I'm not really expecting (or trying) to set a personal 5K best, but I'm too competitive to back off and run the 5K about 3 minutes slower than I know I can. Plus, since the course is hilly I want it to be over as quickly as possible.

After tomorrow's 3 miles I have 12 miles on Sunday, which marks the beginning of the end of training for my next (and last for the time being) half marathon. Since I've had some foot health issues the last couple of weeks I'm a little concerned about the half. But even with the pain I've put in all the miles (except for missing about 8-9 miles worth of runs over a couple days) so we'll see how it goes. I'm running this half for fun anyway.

And that's the weirdest thought of all. I never believed that at 38 years old I'd be running 13.1 miles for fun. Or that I'd travel to do it. Runners are truly sick in the head.

Road running recap with an observation

Ok, so my next post isn't about how much my foot hurts. Whew.

But the first half mile of my 5 miles yesterday had me concerned. A little pain shot through my foot where I'd been experiencing problems over the past week right at the beginning of the run and I really thought I aggravated something. But it went away after a little while and the rest of my run felt fine. I even ran it in my usual "easy" pace window, with an 8:28 min/mile pace over the five miles.

There's a funny thing I've noticed since the weather has warmed up some and young ladies are out running (only hardcore morons run outside during the winter when it's 14 degrees). Generally when you pass by another runner, either a guy or an older lady, you wave or say hi or something like that. You're both in the same game and you both know it, so you acknolwedge it. The younger ladies, however, will not acknowledge others at all. They will run across the street, pretend to fiddle with their iPods, anything to not acknowledge they're not the only ones out running on the road. I'm not sure why, but I find that amusing. Wait. Maybe it's me. Maybe I scare the girls away. Huh. That'd suck if that's the case.

Anyway, today is 10X400 meter sprints as my last speed workout before my next half marathon. I'll do that on a treadmill because I don't have time to hit a real track somewhere today. Workouts like the one on tap for today hurt.

Finally, feet feeling fantastic-ish

For the first time in nearly a week I am not leaning on ibuprofen or a prescription anti-inflammatory to get me through the day or night. I've made it 24 hours without them and I feel 95% great. I still don't know what's wrong with my foot, but maybe it was just a strain or something relatively minor.

So today I'm going to run my prescribed 5 miles and see how it goes. This is supposed to be an "easy" run, which I usually run at about a 8:15-8:30 minutes per mile pace, but I might take it a little easier than that depending on how my foot feels. And if there's no further problems I'll do my speed work tomorrow, which is never all that much fun even if it's necessary.

I'm hopeful this injury "crisis" is over. So my next post will probably be about how much worse my foot feels. Ha.

12 days to my next half marathon, and counting.

Eleven miles to nowhere

Saturday night I was laying in bed anticipating my 11 mile run on tap for yesterday and guessing I wasn't going to be able to do it. My foot was hurting pretty badly and I couldn't get to sleep. After popping some Vitamin I and staying up way too late watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on HBO, I finally conked out. I believe it was around 12:30am by then. I'd hope to be out on the road by 7:00am at the latest for the run but didn't think I'd make it out at any time.

I woke up at 6:20am. It's funny how my body knows when to wake up when it comes to running. If I would have had to get up for work I probably would have slept another two hours. My foot felt much better when I woke up, although I was a little gimpy. I figured since I could walk I could attempt to run. For the first time I thought about taking my phone with me in case I had to stop. I usually just wear a RoadID bracelet that has my vital info on it in case I drop dead on the side of the road or in case I'm run over by a car. I feel that's enough. In the end I decided to forgo the phone because I didn't want having it on me influencing me in cutting the run short or fooling myself into believing I was in too much pain to continue. If worse came to worse I felt I could flag down a car to call home for me.

The first three miles of my run were rough. My foot and ankle were stiff and causing me some discomfort. And I was compensating by cheating to the outside of my foot while I ran. That caused some pretty nice blistering before the run was over. But as the distance increased I was feeling better and better and by the end of the run I felt pretty good. I never couldn't tell there was soreness, but it got to the point where it was no worse than any other ache or pain you might feel by running over 10 miles.

Even though I completed the run I thought it was slow compared to when I ran the same route a few weeks ago leading up to the Frederick Half Marathon. Looking at the data on my Forerunner, however, I discovered that I was only 2 seconds per mile slower yesterday than I was last time when I felt perfect physically. That was a nice surprise.

The foot kind of hurt the rest of the day, and there was the blistering to contend with, but overall I don't believe running 11 miles yesterday was extra detrimental to my foot's health. And today it feels the best it has in 4 or 5 days.

Today is a non-running day, so I'll take it easy at the gym and see how it goes. I'm on tap for 5 miles tomorrow, but I might take an extra day off and push the 5-miler back to Wednesday and just skip the speed work I have planned for that day. I'm worried about being conditioned to finish my half marathon in a couple weeks. I'm not too worried about setting any records, which is what the speed work is designed to help me do.

For all the foot issues I'm having right now, I'm pretty excited for this next half marathon. It should be a good one.

Favoring a foot

While there might not be anything broken in my foot, something is just not right and I should probably heed my doctor's advice and not run on it for a while. Of course, I have a pre-paid trip to Boston on the horizon for a half marathon that I've already paid for too, so not running is not in the cards until at least after Memorial Day weekend. I can suffer through until then if there's no improvement.

It's after the half marathon in Boston where decisions will have to be made. Against my better judgment, I'm leaning toward actually running a full 26.2 in Baltimore in October. The problem is that if I do that I'll have to start training for it on June 8. That leaves two weeks after the half marathon in Boston for my foot to heal completely. Assuming that I run the risk of damaging it further by not taking it easy now, I don't know if I'm going to be ready to begin a full marathon training program by the second week in June. Oh, well. If worse comes to worse and I have to forgo a full marathon in lieu of a half in Baltimore (which will only take 12 weeks to train for, giving me 8 weeks to heal after Boston if I need it) I guess I'll just have to give a full marathon a go some other time.

As for training, I ran 3 miles Thursday and 5 today, both on treadmills. With my foot still hurting I just want to log the miles and not worry about hills and elevations and grades and such. Tomorrow I'm on tap for 11 which I will run outdoors. I think 7 miles is my limit for the treadmill without going batty. It will also be a good indicator of whether I'm asking too much of my foot right now. But the truth is I felt better after my 5 miles today so we'll see how it goes.

Good news on the injury front

I went to get an x-ray taken today to see if a stress fracture would show up in my foot. This morning I was doubtful that was the case because an anti-inflammatory and a dose of Vitamin I (ibuprofen) had me feeling about 90% better.

It turns out that I do not have a stress fracture, but calcified spurs in my foot. I'm not sure how that's treated, but from my own research it seems that as long as there's no inflammation there shouldn't be much problem. For a while, at least.

Since I was feeling good, and since I was buoyed by the fact that I don't have a stress fracture in my foot, I celebrated the news by running a 5K program on a treadmill at the gym after leaving the radiology place (it was kind of rainy out so I didn't want to run outside). I took it easy because I haven't run since my half marathon on Sunday, but that just meant I didn't run on an incline. I was able to maintain my usual treadmill speed for the 5K distance.

It felt really good to run. I don't think I've taken more than two days off of running for the past year. Today was day four of not running.

Tomorrow I'll take my usual Friday rest day and get back at it on Saturday with a 5 miler. Then 11 miles on Sunday and back on track until my next half marathon in Boston on May 25.

It's nice to know none of my plans are going to be derailed by injury right now.

Personalized race summaries and injuries

I got this pretty cool e-mail regarding my participation in the Frederick half marathon last weekend:

Congratulations on finishing the 6th Annual Frederick Running Festival on May 04, 2008. For your records, the weather at start time was Sunny, low 51 high 69 degrees F, wind N/NW 10-20 mph.

There were 141 finishers in the Male 35 to 39 age group and 1842 finishers in the 1/2 Marathon Division.

Your overall finish place was 553, your age group finish place was 71 and your gender finish place was 354. Your time was 1:56:36.55 giving you an overall pace of 8:54 per mile.

This was only my second half, so I don't know if summaries like this are normal, but I didn't get anything like this after my last half. I was shooting for an 8:57 per mile overall pace in this race so I was pleased to get confirmation that I beat that. Had I been familiar with the course, however, I would have shot for somewhere between 8:45 and 8:50 per mile. I think I can run this race faster.

In other news, I'm beginning to think I have a stress fracture in my foot. There has been off and on pain on the top of my right foot over the last several weeks but it usually went away either as I ran or after a day or two. This time the pain has persisted, and it's gotten worse as time's gone by. I haven't even done any running since Sunday, so that couldn't have been aggravating it. I'm wavering between going to the doctor and not because a doctor can only guess whether it's a stress fracture without getting into a bunch of advanced tests and such so I don't know if it's even worth it to see him.

I hate the idea of taking time off to heal now because I have another half marathon in Boston in a couple weeks (May 25) that I'm really looking forward to. But considering that trip is pre-paid and non-refundable I'll be completing that half on crutches if I have to. But the truth is that I was pretty stoked after my last half and want to keep up the momentum.

Oh, well. Injuries happen and you deal with them, I guess.

Half marathoning for fun and fitness

I guess the change in preparation between my disappointing finish in the National Half Marathon and the Frederick Running Festival half marathon paid off because while I was extremely discouraged with suffering cramps in my calves and by my time of 2:09:55 at the National, the 1:56:37 and 13+ minute improvement at Frederick more than made up for it. I still haven't really come all that close to my ultimate time goal of 1:50, but I was a lot closer this time than last and can at least see it in my sights.

There were a lot of things going for me this time. For one thing, I was following the Hal Higdon intermediate half marathon training program rather than the novice program. Intermediate suited me much better. And as bad as I felt it was, I went in to Frederick with one half under my belt. That's a luxury I didn't have at the National.

Also, I didn't try to be Mr. Marathon Tough Guy and acted like this race was a long training run. That meant wearing my fuel belt and packing gels that I'm used to taking. I didn't rely on the water stations to keep me hydrated and carbed up. I believe that made a big difference, as I think drinking water from cups while running is a skill that I don't and likely never will have.

Anyway, I finished in the top third of all finishers and mid-pack of my age group. Considering I am in arguably THE most competitive age group for men (35-39), I'm pretty happy with my age group placing and very, very happy with my overall placing (553rd out of 1844).

Frederick was a nice place to have this kind of event. It's small towny feeling, not too large of a field (I believe there were around 5,300 runners total for all races), the course was reasonably flat and the weather was great. There were some stiff crosswinds the last couple of miles, but I can't decide whether they were good because of how great they felt or bad for making it a little tougher to run. I guess the good and bad average out.

There were a couple problems beyond the wind though. Since the race was about an hour from home and started at 6:30am I got a hotel room for the night before. And I forgot to pack my socks. Obviously, for a runner the two most important things he needs are his shoes and his socks. I bought some cheap socks from the expo at the packet pick-up location, but I started to feel blisters forming about 5 miles in. Nothing I couldn't live with but irritating anyway. There was also the one water station I did hit -- to pour the water over my head since it was starting to get pretty warm out there toward the end. The water just washed salty sweat into my eyes and that stung for a while.

As for external stimulus, I generally keep to myself during races. I listen to my music and tune out the world around me and enjoy the sites and check out the crowds, if there are any. Some people run from person to person chatting with anyone they come across. One guy, a pretty heavyset fella breathing heavily just a couple miles in was one of those people. He pulled up to me and asked if I was looking to come in under 2 hours. I said I was, and he told me a story about how he's run a few half marathons but has never broken 2 hours and how upset he was at his best half when he set his personal record of 2:03. After a few more seconds of idle banter he moved on. The last I saw of him was when he was walking through the second water stop, which was about 4.5 miles into the race. I don't know if he made his time or not, but if not it'd be my suggestion to him to talk less at the beginning of the race in order to conserve energy for the end.

I feel pretty great today, one day after the half marathon. No real soreness or anything and my blisters are ok. I'm forced to take today and tomorrow off from working out because of a time crunch, but I'll be back at it on Wednesday getting ready for the third and final half marathon in my Spring 2008 half marathon series. That one will be in Boston on May 25. In the meantime, I have the inaugural Bloomin' 5K on the 17th, which is essentially up the street from my house and finishing up getting ready for Boston.

After Boston I'm going to have to decide if I really want to run a full marathon in the fall. If I do, it's going to be in Baltimore on October 11, and I'll have to start training for it on June 8. If I had to make a decision right now I believe I'd opt for the half marathon in Baltimore. 26.2 just seems very daunting to me.