Battle of Brooklyn

This past weekend, I ran in the Battle of Brooklyn 10 Miler, put on by JackRabbit Sports and NYCRuns.  My spring and summer race schedule has already been pretty hectic, but I really wanted to run this one.  I had just finished my clinical affiliation for the summer, and I needed to get my marathon training back on track (the desire to run long distances wanes slightly when you are on your feet for 8+ hours, running around and working with patients [which, don't get me wrong, I love]).  It only cost me $25 to register, thanks to the ubiquitous coupon codes that JackRabbit kept floating around the interwebs.  Included with admission were a exceptionally compressible reusable bag, and a pint glass emblazoned with the race logo.

I woke up the morning of the race, took Molly for a quick walk, and tried to devour some breakfast and coffee quickly.  I'm no fan of weekend subway work, line changes, and delays, so I thought I would give myself about an hour to get to the race, and leave at about 6:45.  With that, I should have had about 15-20 minutes to find a restroom, stretch out a little bit, and slowly warm up.  I jogged down to the 86th street station for the 4/5 express trains, and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to wait for 15 minutes to catch one.  However, my first mistake was lurking just around the corner.

I only checked the status of the F and 4/5/6 lines before I left, so I didn't know what was happening with the other subway lines.  If I had been thinking rationally, I would have just stuck with what I knew would be running, and stayed on the train.  Instead, I decided to transfer to the Q, which would mean only 3 stops to where I wanted to get off, and potentially, more time before the race to hang out.  Of course, as soon as I get to the Q platform, I find out that the train is making a bajillion more stops.  And it didn't show up for 10 minutes.

Frustrated at the snail's pace of the train, I began to worry about making it to the start in time.  It is also around this time that I realize my bladder has swollen to the size of a watermelon.  I got off the train at 7:52 (just 8 minutes before the race starts), and have about 3/4 of a mile from the train station to the start of the race.  I begin lightly jogging to try and make it there in time, but then realize that there's no way that I'll make it at that pace.  So I really kick it and start sprinting down Prospect Park West, frantically trying to find the entrance closest to the race start.  Perhaps a product of the stress of getting to the start, or the sudden shift in speed from sloth to cheetah, but I realize that nature is knocking...at the back door as well.

I arrive at the start line moments before the horn sounds to signal the start of the race.  In the commotion, I am unable to locate a port-a-let, so I just tuck into the crowd and get ready to run despite my ever-expanding bladder.  The race begins, and I take off pretty slowly, not wanting to jar anything loose.  About a mile in, I stop at the port-a-let (where a short line has already formed).  A woman emerges from inside, declaring for all to hear that there is no TP to be had at this particular rest stop.  Oh well.  I'm at least able to take care of one (number one, specifically) pressing need and move on with my race.

After my stop, I actually managed a pretty good race.  When I came upon the big hill where the "Time Your Climb" was taking place, I made an effort to keep my pace consistent, and make some loose visual landmarks (huge tree trunk, mile marker, and weird looking tree were the 3, to be precise) to compare my times against.  Halfway up this hill was a cavalry of "British soliders", aka people in wigs and Union Jack t-shirts, spraying runners with water from squirt guns.  It was a nice little touch to the race, and even though it wasn't smoldering outside as it has been the last several weeks, the spray of cool water was still appreciated.

Victory drink in my new pint glass.

My next two laps around the park were mostly uneventful.  I was able to stay very consistent on the big hill, and thought that I had a decent chance for winning the Most Consistent Time Your Climb.  I scurried across the finish line, finishing with a time of 1:26:30.  I had never raced the 10-mile distance before, so I didn't have a great sense of pacing.  Also, the aforementioned pee-mergency caused me to stop for 2 minutes at the first rest stop, hurting my time a little bit more.

I was much dismayed, as I roamed about the finishing area, to discover that none of the port-a-lets at the  finish had TP either (luckily, I made it home without incident).  This would probably be my only complaint about the race, aside from the monotony of running the same loop 3 times.

Two days later, I was checking the official results and was very pleased to find that I took second in the Most Consistent Time Your Climb competition!  I was only 0.1 seconds behind the winner, which is heartbreakingly close, but I was informed that I still won a prize.  A quick trip to JackRabbit Sports at Union Square, and I'm the proud recipient of a $30 gift card!  Just for being consistent going up some hill 3 times!

So close!

I genuinely enjoyed my Battle of Brooklyn experience.  After doing several NYRR races over the past couple of months, it was nice to have a slightly smaller race experience, and feel like I actually mattered to the race organizers, even though I'm not part of a prestigious running club or run a 5:00 per mile pace. I look forward to running more JackRabbit/NYCRuns events in the future.

Love/Hate: Treadmills

Since the temperatures are rising well into the 90s in New York yesterday, I opted for a quick run on a treadmill at the gym instead of completely melting in the park.  Before I really knew anything about running, I really enjoyed running on treadmills.  In my novice runner naïveté, I thought it supremely convenient to hop on the treadmill, run until I was tired, hop off and go home.  Goal setting wasn’t part of my running at that point, and I didn’t have much of a motivation to increase my endurance.  I just wanted to zone out, listen to loud music, and get my run over with.

They're so happy and not drenched in sweat!

As my running has evolved from trotting around in an occasional 5K’s to training for a marathon, I’ve learned to appreciate running outside and exploring new routes.  I don’t always plan out how far I’m going to run anymore.  Sometimes, I’ll just set out in a certain direction and just go, and I’ll just find my way back home eventually.  I’ve also learned how to run in the dry, cold winter air – something that has always forced me to the treadmill in the past.  I’ve also found that running is a great way to explore a city.  When I first moved to New York, I ran a lot up and down the East River and through the East Village.  It was a great introduction to life in NYC, and a way for me to see different neighborhoods.  Since I moved further uptown, I’ve done more running in Central Park and Randall’s Island, and I now feel like I know those places inside and out.  As running outside and exploring new places have become integral parts of my training, treadmill running has slowly been phased out.  Hopping on the treadmill yesterday felt like I was reverting to my old ways.

Perhaps it was the TV mounted to the treadmill which was enticingly playing “The Price is Right” that caused my gaze to shift downwards and my form to further deterioate as a result, or perhaps it was the fact that I felt more like a hamster than a runner.  Regardless of the cause, my stride was definitely off yesterday.  I ended up heel striking more than I do out on the road, and I felt like I was landing a lot harder.  I spent most of my workout trying to soften my footstrikes, but I was too motivated to get off of the dreaded machine to really focus, so I just cranked it up and ran hard for 20 minutes.

I found it really hard to not be judgmental while at the gym.  Half of the people who were running were jogging slowly with the incline cranked up, which, in all fairness is a good workout, but were holding on for dear life to the side rails.  The other half of the runners had their speed jacked up and were pounding the treadmill with viciously hard heel strike after heel strike.  That's fine if that works for you, but probably not the best for your joints.  I also turned my judgmental eyes inward - since there is no summer park breeze whisking away the excess heat and sweat during a run at the gym, I was a giant, sweaty mess when I sat down to do some ab work. 

It’s another scorcher today, but I’m not going to the gym this time.  I think I’ll just wait until evening when the heat index is nearly tolerable to get a quick run in.

Friday Training Update

Two of the books I've read over the past couple of weeks include Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel and Eat & Run.  Both books were chock-full of useful information and insight into how I can improve my running and ultimately, run happier.  In this day and age, everyone seems to be so consumed with acquiring more data about their training: GPS maps, heart rate training zones, VO2 max, lactate thresholds, gait analysis, etc.  What both books advocate is (to some degree) ignore all of these things and just go run.  Listen to your body and the feedback it's giving you - this will generally be more relevant and applicable than if you looked at your heart rate monitor and saw you were training at 75% of your heart rate reserve.  Running in the moment, and not getting second-by-second feedback on pacing and heart rate, helps your body to find it's natural cadence much better than constantly trying to make adjustments based on empiric evidence of how you are running.  So most of this week, I've tried to not pay any attention to my iPhone while running and I just ran.

One discovery I've made this week is that when I set my Nike+ GPS app and don't check it again until I feel I want to stop, I almost always have gone one hour and traversed somewhere between 7.3 and 7.5 miles. This has happened a few times in the last week or two, and I'm sure it's occurring in part because I haven't been setting any goal distances for runs, as I'm not really in training mode for a race yet.  Yesterday, however, I had set a goal distance of 10 miles.  At a certain point in my run, I felt like I was dragging a little bit.  I checked my iPhone just to see where I was in my run.  Sure enough, I was 58 minutes and a little over 7 miles in.  Once I reminded myself that I had set a goal for myself that day, I found that the rest of the run was easy.  I think it was an important discovery though; I could run for an hour a day and my body wouldn't really rebel at all, but when I try and push my training past that point, I'll need a little mental coaxing to get beyond the point where my body feels comfortable going.  As I get in better shape, I'm hoping that this point will happen later and later in workouts, and I'll be accustomed to running greater distances with regularity.

Eat & Run Review

Scott Jurek is perhaps the most prominent figure in an otherwise obscure pantheon of ultramarathoners.  What makes Scott unlike any other ultrarunner (or any other professional athlete, for that matter) is that he has ascended to the top of his sport while maintaining a purely vegan diet.  This is a major centerpiece in his new book, Eat & Run, which follows his journey from a poor, lanky kid from rural Minnesota to world-renowned runner who frequently pushes his mind and body to the extreme –and claims world records in the process.

At the heart of Eat & Run is Scott Jurek’s experience with food and its relation to his performance in athletics.  His story encompasses his dietary transition from omnivore with a penchant for milk, butter, and McDonalds to vegan superstar.  At a certain point in his young career, Scott realized that he not only felt better when he ate better, but his performance increased drastically as a result.  This may not seem like a major epiphany, as I think most of us understand that the less processed junk we put in our bodies, the better we will feel.  But it’s unfortunate that there aren’t more people who put this into practice.  When Scott had this revelation with food, he didn’t make excuses like, “it’s too expensive to eat whole, organic foods” or “it’s way to hard to set aside that much time to cook food this good.”  He dedicated himself to making whole, nutritious, vegan food a focal point of his life.

The strength of Eat & Run is Scott’s narrative voice as he rises from disrespected underdog to perennial powerhouse in some of the world’s most difficult races.  In a balancing act of bravado and supreme confidence, Scott quickly ascends to the heights of ultrarunning greatness.  Not everything trends upwards in Scott’s life, though, and the chapter where he describes the point in his life where he felt so thoroughly lost is revelatory and powerful.  Throughout the book, we get a glimpse into how he was able to develop the perseverance required to be the best in a tremendously difficult sport.

I really enjoyed Eat & Run.  Scott describes many of his races in great detail (both triumphs and failures alike), and tries to give some insight into the ultrarunner mindset.  Each chapter ends with some words of wisdom and a recipe that in some way characterizes the theme of the preceding chapter (examples include 8-grain strawberry pancakes, Western States trail “Cheese” spread, Tamari-lime tempeh and brown rice, and Xocolatl energy balls).  The recipes sound really delicious, and I look forward to trying a few of them, especially those where I will get to try ingredients or flavors that I’ve never experienced.

I strongly recommend Eat & Run for both runners and non-runners alike.  I think runners will appreciate the sheer will and dedication that Scott has for his craft, and non-runners will find lots of life lessons tucked into the pages amidst descriptions of Scott’s running achievements.

Monday Love/Hate: Barefoot Running

Back in 2009 when Born to Run was published, barefoot running transitioned from a small cult following into mainstream phenomenon.  Following the words of Christopher McDougall, many runners threw caution to the wind, dumped their overly cushioned trainers in the trash, and laid bare foot to pavement in an effort to reduce their risk of injury, connect with their run, and perfect their strides.

Before I delve into a diatribe, I should acknowledge that I have never spent any time running barefoot, so perhaps there is a “don’t knock it until you try it” aspect that I’m missing out on.  However, speaking as someone who has some background in kinesiology and biomechanics, I hope I can offer some perspective.

To keep it short and sweet, the main problem I have with barefoot running is the one-size-fits-all philosophy.  Every runner has a slightly different stride which they adapt to fit their body type and distance requirements.  Some runners have anatomic deficits that require support shoes or custom orthotics.  Some runners have a build that necessitates extra cushioning in their shoes.  Also, whether or not it is the widely accepted belief amongst barefooters, what I see a lot is “everyone can (and should) barefoot run.  If you’ve had patellofemoral pain, plantar fasciitis, tibial and/or metatarsal stress fractures, what you need to do is get rid of those cumbersome shoes and relearn how to run on your own 2 bare feet.”  While there is certainly compelling anecdotal evidence that runners who convert from shod to barefoot running are able to limit their injuries, I don’t entirely buy it.  Since most people in this country wear shoes starting at a very young age, the average person’s intrinsic foot musculature and ligamentous structures cannot handle as much stress as, say, a Raramuri.  When people who have run shod their whole life throw their shoes out and hit the road, the incidence of injury skyrockets within the first several runs as people try to retain their previous speed and distance.  It also troubles me that so many road runners have taken to barefoot running, as concrete and asphalt aren't exactly forgiving surfaces to run on with no support.

I also believe that there isn’t enough emphasis on transitioning from shod to barefoot running.  Shoes like the Brooks PureProject line, Saucony Kinvara, and even the Skechers GoRun are ideal for this transition period, but the barefoot zealots would have you believe that all shoes are made to cause you injury and dismay while you dole out increasing amounts of money to buy the newest models.

The 3 basic themes of barefoot running are 1) runners should strike on their forefoot, 2) take shorter strides that place your feet closer to your center of gravity, and 3) have a quicker stride rate.  I do stand by barefoot runners in the belief that these 3 modifications will lead to a more efficient stride, which will allow for significant increases in endurance and pace.  However, you will find that these can all be accomplished while wearing shoes, which allows for a margin of error if you heel strike or start to lengthen your stride slightly.   

I’ll cut it off here, though I could keep going for a while.  What do you think of barefoot running?  Is it the real deal?  Or just a fad that will go the way of Tae Bo, Walkmen, and the Atkins diet?

Friday Training Update

After a stiflingly humid stretch of weather, I've been slowly working in more training miles.  I'm still not training for any specific marathon yet, but I think that I'm targeting the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon.  It will be fairly cheap to get to, it has more affordable (and closer to the start/finish) hotel options, and the race taking place on a Saturday is huge, as it allows for a little bit more time to recover before going back to class.  But nothing is written in stone yet, and the Philadelphia Marathon still looks very appealing as well.

Randall's Island

I've recently been doing more runs on Randall's Island since the footbridge from 102nd street reopened.  It's a nice change of pace from Central Park, which can get a little bit crowded sometimes.  When we first moved up to East Harlem and I started running on Randall's Island, I remember thinking that doing a loop of the island was really tough and I felt accomplished if I made it all the way around without having to stop.  Now, I'm realizing that if I'm going to do some decent training on Randall's, I would need to do a few laps to get up to the milage I'm now accustomed to.

Wednesday Nutrition: Chia Seeds

Since becoming a more serious runner, I’ve noticed that there are a superfluity of trends that have taken hold in the running population as a whole, or sometimes only in small, intense cliques.  Everyone with 2 running shoes and the sense to make a quick buck has made some breakthrough discovery about a certain way you’re supposed to run, eat, or train.  These trends range from the potentially significant to the unspeakably absurd.  One trend that I’ve begun to buy into a bit is nutritional supplements; mostly the ones that are backed by many years (or centuries, in the case of Chia) of evidence.

My exposure to Chia seeds began while reading Born to Run, and learning about the Tarahumara who eat a mixture of pinole and Chia seeds while on their prolonged runs through the Copper Canyons.  While I am by no means an exceptional endurance athlete, I decided to give Chia seeds a shot to see if they made a difference in my training.  Without going into too much nutritional detail, a single tablespoon of Chia seeds contain many things that are essential to a runner's diet:

• 3g protein
• 5g fiber
• Calcium and potassium
• LOADS of antioxidants
• 6% DV Iron
• 2.5 g of Omega-3 fatty acids 

One of my favorite ways to incorporate Chia seeds into my diet is by throwing a tablespoon or two into fruit juice (generally a mix of tart cherry juice and pomegranate juice – both have strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties).  Chia seeds absorb water like crazy, so they tend to turn fluid into a kind of gel.  The seeds end up being just slightly crunchy when they are suspended in the juice.  The texture is akin to blackberry seeds, which might be unappealing for some, but I kind of like it.  I’ve also recently tried adding Chia seeds to oatmeal and smoothies, and they work both in great.  I haven't turned into an endurance machine since my consumption of Chia began, but I hope it will have a beneficial effect on my training and overall health.

As a side note, my copy of Eat & Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek came in the mail today, and I'm excited to read it.  Hopefully I can have a review up by next Wednesday!