On Marathons, Goals, and Health
This is day two of marathon recovery and I am still walking around the house like an unsteady new-born calf. The pain is slightly less sharp today, however.
So, first things first…race report. Sunday’s marathon and the week leading up to it was exciting, nerve-wracking, exhilarating, and exhausting on both a physical and mental level.
Thoughts during the “taper week,” (when you severely cut down your mileage in order to rest and gather strength):
“How much is enough running?” “Will I forget how to run?” “Will my legs and body be angry if I rest?” “What if my tendon gets worse or snaps on Sunday?” “Is it possible that it could get better with enough rest this week?” “What if I have to stop at some point on Sunday? Will my friends understand? Will I be all right if I let myself fail to finish?”
Earlier in the week I can honestly say I was DREADING Sunday. You know that feeling of having some chore coming up that you’re not looking forward to, but that is beyond your control? Days move on into the future whether you want them to or not…That’s how I was feeling through Wednesday. Not very confident. Each short, slow 3- mile run was accompanied by some tendon pain, nothing unbearable, but I was worried. “How long can I or will I put up with this on Sunday? Three miles? 26.2?”
John Lennon pretty much screams “Why on earth are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear!” in his song
Instant Karma. I try to remember that moment in the song like a mantra whenever I approach the future with dread. You see I chose to give up dread several years ago. By the end of the work week I was able to look forward to Sunday, ready to rely on months of expecting brutal things from myself and ready for it all to be over and get some rest.
The weather at the start was pretty much perfect. I ran the first half to the best of my abilities with strength and free of pain.
And I paid for it from about mile 15 on. As the heat started in, I wound up walking much more than I wanted to and much more than in any of my training runs. I knew two things about walking. 1) Once I allowed myself to walk the first time, the second time becomes easier, leading to a downward spiral of motivation and 2) Starting running again after walking a while KILLED my Achilles tendon. I also became kind of nervous about two columns of salt running down both of my legs at about mile 17 and started taking in pretzels as much as I could stand. Salt deficiency is nothing to play around with in an event like a marathon.
My final time was 4:43:21, simultaneously a disappointment and a great accomplishment. It was a great achievement because I beat last year’s time by an hour and twenty-one minutes. It was a disappointment because I knew I was capable of better. I had a goal somewhere between 4:06 and 4:30. And that’s the real complication, isn’t it? Goals. Actually I had three goals in mind: dream, realistic, and acceptable. “Acceptable” for me was 4:30.
But what is the point of goals? Are they just arbitrary things we keep in our heads to ruin our chances of being content? Am I too hard on myself? Who knows? I really can’t complain though. It’s not like those time goals came from anywhere other than my own head. It’s self-imposed.
The playlist.
I always run with my ipod and for races I shuffle through a playlist of songs I haven’t heard hundreds of times in training so as to give me something to think about. Here’s what played on Sunday if you’re interested:
Lines In the Suit 3:47 Spoon Girls Can Tell
Mistake of My Life 3:51 Caedmon's Call Long Line of Leavers
Everlong 4:11 Foo Fighters The Colour And The Shape
Wendy Clear 2:50 Blink-182 Enema of the State
How Indscreet 4:35 Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire Swimming Hour, The
When I Grow Up 3:25 Garbage Version 2.0
Only In Dreams 7:59 Weezer Weezer
Heroes 3:38 David Bowie Changesbowie
Mutt 3:24 Blink-182 Enema of the State
Jump Man 4:22 Buckethead Monsters & Robots
Mayonaise 5:49 Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
Devil's Haircut 3:14 Beck Odelay
Trying to Pull Myself Away 3:36 Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova Once (Music from the Motion Picture)
Hot for Teacher 4:45 Van Halen 1984
Yard Of Blonde Girls 4:07 Jeff Buckley Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk Your House 4:46 Jimmy Eat World Jimmy Eat World
When The War Came 5:06 The Decemberists The Crane Wife
Why Bother 2:08 Weezer Pinkerton
What You Want 4:02 Caedmon's Call Long Line of Leavers
Limelight 4:24 Rush Moving Pictures
I've Got A Flair 2:52 Fountains Of Wayne Fountains Of Wayne
Flight Of The Passing Fancy 3:52 Squirrel Nut Zippers Hot
Mr. Brightside 3:43 The Killers Hot Fuss
The Boxer 2:49 Me First & the Gimme Gimmes Have Another Ball
The Bends 4:06 Radiohead The Bends
Relative Ways (EP) 4:03 ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead Source Tags & Codes
Then 5:50 Yes Time And A Word
Pounding 4:45 Doves The Last Broadcast
Inner Revolution 3:14 Adrian Belew Inner Revolution
Like A Criminal 3:49 The Sheila Divine New Parade
The Crystal Lake 5:00 Grandaddy The Sophtware Slump
That Was Just Your Life 7:08 Metallica Death Magnetic
Suicide & Redemption 9:58 Metallica Death Magnetic
The Judas Kiss 8:01 Metallica Death Magnetic
Don't Leave Me 2:24 Blink-182 Enema of the State
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? 2:42 Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle: 20 Greatest Hits
Don't Make Me A Target 3:56 Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Gymnast, High Above The Ground 7:13 The Decemberists Her Majesty The Decemberists
Nun Chuka Kata 4:30 Buckethead Monsters & Robots
Cherub Rock 4:58 Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces 3:53 Ben Folds Five Whatever & Ever Amen
Mr. Bonaparte 3:55 The Bears Car Caught Fire
Drop Dead Legs 4:14 Van Halen 1984
The Camera Eye 10:59 Rush Moving Pictures
It Was There That I Saw You 4:02 ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead Source Tags & Codes
You Look So Fine 5:24 Garbage Version 2.0
Smoking Makes You Look Younger (A True Tale of Underage Smoking) 2:31 Smarty Pants Annoyager
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? 3:49 Prince The Hits/The B-Sides
Spacemilk 3:49 The Sheila Divine New Parade
Bargain 5:34 The Who Who's Next (Remastered)
Snarling Wrath Of Angry Gods (From Dry Humping The American Dream) 4:09 Gutbucket Hear This Now: Cantaloupe Music Sampler
Never Enough 3:43 Adrian Belew Here
Keep Fishin' 2:52 Weezer Maladroit
Killer Queen 3:01 Queen Greatest Hits
War 5:48 Joe Satriani The Extremist
YYZ 4:25 Rush Moving Pictures
Adam's Song 4:10 Blink-182 Enema of the State
The Party Song 2:19 Blink-182 Enema of the State
Quiet 3:42 Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
Army 3:24 Ben Folds Five The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner
The National Anthem 5:52 Radiohead Kid A
Sister Jack 3:35 Spoon Gimme Fiction
Finally, I come to the big picture stuff--lessons learned and how do I move forward…
After week 13 of training I got Achilles tendonitis, a common overuse injury for runners and as I went to the doctor and multiple physical therapy treatments I obviously had to do some thinking. The big question was “What am I doing here? Why do I run, again?” I easily have two basic answers: “I run and exercise in general to keep my body healthy and functioning well and to keep my soul and mind healthy and functioning well.” I do not run to break my body down.
Marathon training is tough. I said last year that it was the toughest thing I ever tried to do. Training “by the book” is even tougher. Since January I put 452 miles on my feet, sometimes more than 35 miles in a week. For a guy my size, that’s a lot of stress and pounding on my feet and ankles. And week after week after week starts to take its toll.
There are some things I know. I don’t have to run marathons to keep my body in check. I had forgotten that there are distances between 5k and 26.2 miles that people train for. Right now I’m thinking that I’m done with the full marathon distance. My absolute favorite part of Sunday was the opening 10k, jockeying for position in the crowd, feeling awesome and strong and fresh and clipping the miles by. I like that kind of running. I’m not a fan of the walk-run, see-what-I-can-make-myself-endure type of “running.” In training, before I developed the tendonitis, I liked the middle distance tempo runs best. My favorite race of the year is still the Tulsa Run 15k.
So, after I primarily ride my bike for the whole summer,and my tendonitis hopefully disappears, I’m thinking: “no running distances further than a half marathon.” I think my body will thank me in the long run, (no pun intended.)
Thanks for reading all this and thanks to everyone who showed up to cheer me on.
It’s an amazing life.
In case you didn't get an email from me..
Here are some details about Sunday's marathon:
Where do I need to be and when?"
Excellent question! The finish line is at NW 7th and Broadway. As far as
"when"--I am expecting to finish some time between 10:30 AM (pretty much
dream pace) and 11:00 AM (if the south wind is extraordinarily high or a
squall moves in.) But come early to find parking and witness much faster
people than I doing their thing.
Another option is to offer encouragement and support at the 20 mile point
(NW 63rd and Classen.) That's probably the point at which you are most
likely to witness my cussing to myself or screaming "Why, O Lord!" at the
heavens. I should probably be reaching that point around 9:30 or 9:45.
However, don't be offended if I don't recognize you on the sidelines at that
point, for I will probably be seeing double or distracted by the sight of
the demons.
While I MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer your physical presence, there are other
methods of keeping track of my progress that morning:
1) You can download an iPhone app here--
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/memorial-marathon/id363346860?mt=8#
2) Go to the marathon website and "Track Your Runner"--
http://www.okcmarathon.com/
Love,
Mike
Please Allow Me To Geek Out With Running Talk...
Since I'm winding down the days before the marathon I thought I would bring in a special guest blogger--a "spglogger," if you will. I'm going to turn this over to my running pal Charlie Neuenschwander to discuss the upcoming week and running in general.
What's your history with running? How and why did you get started? I started running while in college. At the time, I was taking time off of bike racing (cycling) to compensate for more difficult classes my last two years. When I started noticing my fitness taking a nose dive, I started jogging because it was easy and convenient. It's much easier to throw on shoes for a 30 minute run than lugging a bike and all the clothes around for rides. I ended up really enjoying running, so I simply stuck with it.
I know this last year has not been smooth sailing for you. Talk to me about injuries and coming back from them.
In January of 2009 I ran my first ultramarathon, a 50k (31 mile) trail run put on as a New Year's run by a local ultrarunner. My training leading up to it was less than par for such an event and in the weeks post ultra, I showed symptoms of a stress fracture in my right shin. I took several weeks off (mostly all of Feb) and started running again in March. My naive mind thought I could run the Memorial Marathon with only 8 weeks of prep, which I did and improved my inagural marathon year by about 18 minutes. However, the second or third week after the marathon I started noticing familiar sensations in my shin, this time on the left leg. This injury was slightly more sinister than the last, as every time I thought the injury was healed and began running again it would come back. I repeated this several times over the summer and finally kicked it around September. I learned a lot last year about myself and about being patient. Ever since mid September of 09, I've had the marathon on my mind and have basically been training soley for the marathon all this time. I wanted to make sure I had a very good foundation before I started adding the long runs.
This will be your third time to run the Memorial Marathon and I know you're out for a PR (personal record) this year. What have you done differently, as far as training, to pursue that goal? I think the most obvious aspect when I reflect on my own training is structure. I've never really laid out a "plan." I've always just run a certain distance on any given day based on how I felt. Don't get me wrong, I still run what I run each day based on how all systems are operating, but this year I've laid out a schedule that I can refer to which reminds me, for example, "this week I need to start intervals, four weeks from now I'll do tempo runs." Having a sort of structure like that mapped out on paper that I can visually see, has kept me on track and the marathon hasn't snuck up on me. We are less than two weeks out and this year I'm not saying "oh I should have done more intervals, or tempo runs, etc." But I still don't get too wrapped up in schedules. Last weekend for example, I missed my last long run because my one-year-old son was sick. I am a family man and have a day job and those things come first. I find that if I worry too much about sticking to a schedule, I'll subconciously be putting running before my family and I don't ever want to do that. I can't help the things that happen outside of running and as a result I have to always stay flexible.
I know you're a big fan of trail running. Do you think those trail miles aid in any way with a road marathon? Absolutely. There is definitley more work involved in trail running versus road running. 30% extra maybe? I don't remember where I read or who wrote the article that compared the two forms of the sport but there is a quantified measurement out there somwhere. Your heart rate is usually higher even at slower paces because of terrain variation with twists, turns, up and down hills. Muscles in your legs that may go unnoticed during a road run will get their own workout on trails. I generally like to run trails every once in a while just to keep the joints and bones in check and have a break from all the repetitive motions that goes with road running. And its a lot more fun!
One thing I've noticed when preparing for an endurance event is how high my grocery bill gets as I'm pretty much always trying to take in enough calories to keep the engine going! What's your strategy as far as nutrition, both in general and during the race itself? Are you a GU man during the race? I suppose this is where my answer would be expected to be some profoud, inspiring insight but alas, I really don't pay much attention to my diet. I try to keep some obvious points in mind, though, like a diet of burgers five days per week is not going to yield the best physiological results. I try to eat a mixture of good meats like chicken and fish with a steak here and there. Veggies and fruits I eat when I can and I go for fresh over canned produce. Carbs are mostly in the form of breads and pastas. The last few weeks leading up to a large race like a marathon, I'll shy away from refined sugar (sodas, candy), which to me makes a post marathon Dr Pepper a nice treat. Flexibility here as well as the training schedule I feel keeps me well -rounded. I'll have a burger any day of the week (but not twice in the same week) and I'll take my family out for ice cream if they want to go. I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to make any diet of mine, the diet of the rest of my family. I'm not going to be the stick in the mud that stays home while family or friends are going out for pizza. These are the simple things in life that make life fullfilling and may be indulgences but in moderation really don't have much of an effect on one's running. And yes, I am a GU man during the race, and water. I will try something this year that I've been training with and as the race gets into the longer miles, I'll have my folks (who always come to the race) have a bottle of Pedialyte ready about midway through. Yes, the same stuff they give to dehydrated children. Have you ever read the ingredients list? Low calorie, but full of all the stuff that is essential to keeping the muscles in working order. I'm going to see if it makes a difference on race day.
In my experience of physical activity so far, I am starting to realize that there are some hidden ratios at work, (i.e. weight/power) The one devilish ratio involved in the marathon is speed over distance, or in other words, pace. Some people can run fast for short distances. Some people can run slower for a much longer distance. The ideal marathoner can do both. Is this concept as maddening to you as it is to me? Honestly, I don't get too worried about numbers. I know this probably sounds a little contradictory of a competitive runner but its true. Yes, I do pay attention to what I am doing in training, and what my numbers are. I know that in prep for a marathon you need to run tempo runs as part of your regimen. These I try to run at my goal pace for the marathon and therefore the numbers are important. But ultimately on race day, there are so many external factors that you have no control over (the Oklahoma wind for example) that I show up to the start line on race day with the attitude that I will simply run the best I can on this particular day. As far as short versus long distances, I believe in well-roundedness. I would rather be average at both than to be a self-proclaimed specialist. I practice this by participating in shorter distance races as well as the longer stuff.
Here's a question I get asked a lot…what is in your head as you're running? Do you find that there is a difference in your thoughts as you're training vs. a race situation? I really don't know what goes through my head. Some things I remember, most I don't. I've probably cured cancer but I don't know it. My thoughts during a run are kind of like dreams. I come back to conciousness not really knowing what I was thinking but some bits and pieces I can recall. Sometimes my mind starts playing loops of songs or shows, movies, etc. I think it may have to do with a rhythmic pairing to my cadence or something. More recently that I recall, my mind kept playing about a 30 second clip from the movie
Apollo 13. My mind just put this scene on a loop and it repeated itself for a long time until I started thinking about something else, like the events of the previous day or what tasks lay ahead. But
Apollo 13? I haven't seen that movie in probably a decade! Beats the crap out of me where that came from. But it got me through a tough run.
What are your plans for next week to prepare mind and body for the rigors of going 26.2 miles? Got any rituals or superstitious activities? I usually have pizza and beer the night before. A bit unorthodox, I'm sure, but the first time I ever ran a marathon was a Sunday morning where I just simply went out and ran 26 miles to see if I could. The night before that glorious adventure I was at Sauced with some friends eating pizza and having a finely crafted beer when I made the proclamation "I'm going to run a marathon tomorrow." A month later, I ran my first "official" marathon at OKC. So, pizza and beer are sort of a personal tradition, but I wouldn't venture so far to call it a superstition or ritual.
Finally, what are your plans beyond the marathon? I'm sort of treating this year's marathon as a stepping stone to my next goal for the year and that is to run a 50 mile ultra. Assuming I make it through the next week and a half and the marathon without injury, that is the next large thing on the calendar. I'm concurrently participating with a group that is attempting to run 60 hours in 60 days (which is harder than it sounds), and that is a good motivator to not become too comfortable in a recovery period post marathon, especially since we are already about two weeks into the ordeal. I also have plans to do a couple short distance races, a 5k (possible) and for sure a 10k in June. Long term plans are to run a timed ultra in October in which I will run either a 12- or 24- hour event but I haven't decided which one I want to tackle.
Thanks, Charlie and good luck in the race, pal!
Two Things
Wow. Long time no type.
If you’re still with me, I’ve got two things to tell you about.
1) The training for this year’s Memorial Marathon has taken up the bulk of my energy, both mental and physical.
Here’s a little behind-the-scenes on how you train your body and mind for one of these things. There is one day of every week where you run a “long” distance. The first long run of the 17-week schedule was 8 miles, I think, and it generally builds up from there to, usually 20 miles. Then there are shorter runs during the week to keep you strong and build your endurance and speed, etc.
My training suffered a setback right after I did my 19 mile week. After that run I developed tendonitis in my Achilles tendon. This is a pretty common injury for runners and for me, has proven to be more of a lingering nuisance rather than unbearable pain.
While developing this condition so late in the game sucks, it’s also not a dealbreaker for me. I’ve put way too much work in to call it off. It’s an injury I CAN run on—YES I HAVE gotten clearance from my doctor, (who is also a runner), and two days ago I finished the hardest run of the whole program, the 20 miler. It wasn’t pretty the last 4 miles or so, but I got it done on a windy, warm day.
Now, to set myself up for a marathon that is enjoyable, not just something I can suffer through, I have begun physical therapy, (which is wonderful) and am being very careful and intentional the next couple of weeks.
Sidenote: It becomes increasingly apparent to me that, through this whole process of losing weight, keeping it off, and adopting healthy behaviors to grab life by the throat, I have somehow become something of an athlete. It’s funny how life works out.
But I am starting to reevaluate some of my goals and assumptions as a runner. There will be more time to stew on and pontificate about that after this goal is completed, however.
Stay tuned over the next few days for more on how YOU can help me out with this next long run and a potential special guest post.
2) I just finished reading Dave Eggers’ book
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius for the second time. Can I iterate to you how much I love this book? Probably not, but I will try.
This is a mostly true (?) memoir written in a sophisticated, sometimes funny, sometimes inspiring, sometimes “make-you-want-to-cry”-sad, always interesting style. It reads like an EEG, a direct feed of the thoughts of a neo-Romantic poet; a manic-depressive twenty-something guy forced by circumstances to become the guardian of his younger brother.
I have never read a book that makes me want to be a writer more, and I would like to recommend it right now to anyone interested in the art of stringing words and sentences together. So I will.
“I recommend this book to anyone interested in the art of stringing words and sentences together.”
