Running... a rather absurd pastime.

I started writing this post on Tuesday, the day after Patriot's day. For many of my readers, this is equivalent to me saying "the day after the Boston Marathon." And for each of you, whether or not you were aware yesterday morning was the Boston Marathon, by yesterday afternoon I'm sure everyone had heard that two explosions had gone off on Boylston Street, in the final stretch of the Boston Marathon. They occurred right around the 4 hour mark, when the largest number of people were streaming past the Citgo sign into the final mile of the race. Current counts have 3 dead and well over 100 injured. I'm not a particularly good or timely news source, but I figure it's worth giving some small amount of context for this post as I write it.

All afternoon and night, my family and friends were calling, emailing, texting, and Facebooking me to make sure I wasn't at the race. Much to their relief, I didn't decide to run Boston this year. But I did know about a dozen people who were. I couldn't believe what had happened. Very few fatal attacks of terror have been executed successfully in the United States since I've been alive, and while this certainly doesn't lessen the horror of attacks in places where violence is more common, it has a particular shocking value if you're not used to it happening so close to home. I managed to track down the people I knew who were running yesterday, but I was lucky. There were all sorts of families who couldn't reach their runners for hours, since the gear-check bags were not available to be retrieved until today. Many people were left without phones or wallets or plane tickets without access to their bags. I  guess I've been freaked out by the closeness of it all. I knew people who were within a few blocks of the explosion. Many of my friends are runners, many of whom have been to Boston. I started the race last year.

That being said, I've decided that if I alter my life in any substantial way, the terrorists win. So, let me only say that my thoughts go out to those affected by the bombings yesterday in Boston, and more generally the people injured by acts of terror worldwide. I've also decided if I don't give the Eugene Marathon my all, the Terrorists Win. So I plan to give it my all (even if the Terrorists don't notice).

Watching the race yesterday was also really exciting. The womens' race was the most exciting race I've seen in a long time. A big pack of women went out quite cautiously, with a pack of 4 women about 15 seconds ahead at the 5k. Their first 10K was in just 35:50, which equates to a 2:31, despite several of the women in the field having PRs about 10 minutes faster. Eventually, the lead pack thinned a bit, and a gang of four went out for it. Portugal's Caballero took the lead at around 11 miles and put 30something seconds between herself and the chase pack. It was super-strange: the weather must have been perfect and windless, or the road must have been very slanted, because the rest of the pack spread all across the road rather than drafting off each other. I've never seen elite runners do that before.... and the men's race (which I admittedly paid less attention to) did the same thing at roughly the same spot in the course.

At about 15 miles, another Portugese runner, Ana Felix, plays catch-up and takes the lead from Caballero. The rest of the chase group held back at this point. Felix looked really strong, and Caballero let her lead. She put well over a minute between herself and the chase pack between 15 and 20 miles, and while she looked strong in terms of her stride and form, she kept glancing back over her shoulder, wondering when the pack of women were going to catch back up.

And catch back up they did! A pack of 5 women starts to pick at her lead at about 20 miles. Rita Jeptoo, the Boston Champion from 2006,  Shalene Flannigan, Meseret Hailu, and Sharon Cherop come and get her, dropping the hammer with a few 5:10ish miles in a row. They cut a 1+ minute lead in just 3 miles: Rita Jeptoo overtook Felix at 23 miles. The last few miles were gutwrenching: watching these women who had run a much more strategic race than I've ever watched before, vied for place. Kara Goucher and one other female runner are a bit back. Then, the final turn onto Boylston street, and the group of four lead women separates. Rita Jeptoo pulls away from the other women, Hailu keeps her sights on Jeptoo but doesn't have the leg strength to get her back, Cherop follows shortly behind, and Shalene Flannigan comes in fourth. Shortly thereafter, Kara Goucher finishes 6th, with a time of 2:28. The race was won in 2:26 and change, which is about 5:00 slower than Jeptoo's personal best. As I mentioned, it was the most strategically interesting marathon I've ever watched: the race went out very, very slow: the first mile was just 6:01, despite the winning time averaging a 5:38. A bunch of women were freaked out at various points about the pack not cutting the pace down fast enough, and took the lead with a strong pace. That turned out to be an error: that effort left both women too tired to pick up the pace when the pack caught up with them. 

Anyway, I've had 2 weeks without posting, so here have been the workouts:

Mon: Off. Rest day from Cherry Blossom (30 min cardio)
Tues: 4 miles easy
Wed: Dreadmill. 2 mile WU, 4x1 mile at MP, 400 at 7:00, 4x 800 at MP, 400 at 7:00
Thurs: 4 miles easy
Fri: 9 mile progression. 3 easy, 3 at 6:50, 4 at 6:40
Sat: 4 miles easy
Sun: 20 miles. 10 easy, 10 at 6:40-6:55. No real labor allowed, just keep it below 7.

All of the workouts were pretty good... Wednesday was sticky and on the treadmill. As usual, I scared the random people walking and watching E! network on their televisions by running fast on the treadmill. Friday was miserably humid/rainy on the track, where I did 5 miles at marathon pace. I didn't really go 6:50 for the second three; it was more like marathon pace for 6 miles.

Saturday night, L, J2 and myself got together and watched Without Limits. Every time I watch that movie, I get so pumped up by Steve's amazing moustache:

and his insane drive, work ethic, and will to put himself through incredible amounts of pain. I had some trouble falling asleep that night because I was so ready to go running and work my ass off. Sunday, I did 10 miles easy and 8 at marathon-ish pace. I was accompanied by The Russian for a good part of the faster stuff (also S for the first bit of it). I decided to back off a couple of miles early, because I realized I was two weeks out from my race and wanted not to beat myself up too badly. I got a sweet massage later that afternoon, which really seemed to help me recover.

Mon: 4 miles easy
Tues: 0-6 miles easy
Wed: 9 miles easy, 4 miles at marathon pace
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Random Distance run
Sat: 4 miles with 4x20" strides at ~6:00 pace
Sun: 2 mile WU, 2x3 miles at MP. 

Finally, a week that looked like a taper week! I explicitly told my coach that I wanted at least 1 day off this week, and at least 2 days off next week. Throughout this training cycle, I've had the fewest days off I've every had. I used to take a day or two off every week, then eventually that led to one day a week off, then over the summer/fall I was taking a day off every other week, or two out of three weeks. Since Tim started coaching me, I can remember each day I've had off. I had one day off at the end of January after our ridiculous All-Day run, wherein L, The Russian, J2, M, and myself (supported by many awesome teammates along the way) literally ran all day (this entire 40+ mile debacle was my idea, as you might imagine). I had two days off sometime in March, when I explicitly asked for them so I could carry a 30-pound pack 10 miles each day after cramming 60 miles into 4 workdays. The first night of Passover, I ended up with a day off because I flew across the country and my plane left at 5:55 AM MST, and I didn't get in until almost 7 pm and then had Seder that didn't end until almost 11 EST. I took the day off after Cherry Blossom, and I took Thursday off. 

After each of these days, I felt pretty awesome when I went out for my next run. The short-term fatigue from the previous workout was sometimes still there, but I felt like a little bit of the constant monotony and dragginess that came from running 7 days a week with 3 workouts seemed to subside. So, I asked for some days off. Because I'd much rather over-taper than under-taper for a marathon. 

The week in general felt good. Each of the workouts went well, though I tweaked my left ankle on my run today. It feels pretty ok at the moment, though, so I'm not going to worry about it. I also have another massage tomorrow, and a day off of running! 

For all you runners out there, don't let the Terrorists win. Taper enough for your distance, sleep enough, eat well, drink water. After all, "The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die."--Pre

But seriously. If you're racing a full you shouldn't feel that way until like 2/3 of the way through the race or you're screwed. In the last 10k, though, if these words don't echo your sentiment, you're doing it wrong.

(Thyroid) Stimulating Conversation

So, two times in the last week, I've come across derivations of this article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323550604578412913149043072.html

which talks about a group of elite athletes who have all been diagnosed with hypothyroidism by one endocrinologist.  This article didn't say the doctor is giving these athletes legal performance enhancing drugs, but definitely alluded to the possibility. The article also states that something like 17% of Nike's elite running team has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Based on diagnosis rates within the general public, somewhere between 5% and 10% of Americans are thought to have hypothyroidism. A clear inference can be made! There are differences between these two populations, and perhaps even how careful they are with their health! Of course, I'm being somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Clearly, elite athletes and the general population have a number of different scales on which they are substantially different. Moreover, an elite athlete tends to be much more aware of his/her energy levels, overall health, and tends to be much more proactive about regular physicals and doctor visits. These two things in combination don't inherently suggest that the number of elite runners with hypothyroidism is inflated, but it does say there might be substantial bias in the sampling we have (most elite athletes would go to the doctor with chronic fatigue; most average people might not bother to have a test done at all).

I think it's somewhat dangerous to make inferences about a potential performance enhancement/detriment derived from a drug without formal, scientific, and statistically reasonable studies having been done on said drug. I'm hypothyroidic, as are a number of my non-athletic, young and relatively healthy friends. As the end of the article alludes, the medical community is divided as to (a) what constitutes too little or too much thyroid stimulating hormone, (b) how best to treat those conditions, and (c) what side effects (or intended effects) these treatments have.

It is certainly the case that levothyroxin is somewhat of a stimulant. But that's exactly the point: if you don't have enough of the natural stuff, your body has less natural stimulus than is considered "normal" or "healthy". Thus, the drug is intended to replace the stimulus your body isn't giving itself. The thyroid produces 2 versions of the same hormone, which affect metabolic rate, skin and hair health, digestion, energy levels, etc etc. I was tested and ultimately diagnosed with hypothyroidism not because of my running performance (I was diagnosed many years before I started competing again), or gaining weight (I'd been the same weight between 15 and 19, when I was diagnosed), but because my sleep patterns were super awry, pretty frequent nausea, and I had very dry skin.

The article mentions several athletes who have publicly announced their diagnosis with thyroid disorders, including Ryan Hall, Galen Rupp, Amy Yoder Begley, Bob Kennedy and Patrick Smyth. Individuals less familiar with hypothyroidism might immediately reach two conclusions: first, aren't those runners all really skinny for having hypothyroidism, and two, isn't it suspicious that those names include some of the fastest people in today's distance running scene?

As far as the first point, hypothyroidism has a number of symptoms, including but not limited to weight gain, chronic fatigue, sensitivity to heat and cold, trouble sleeping, skin and hair trouble, and digestive problems. The runners above all train for hours every day. It would not be surprising in the least if their training regiments mask the weight gain that might otherwise come from hypothyroidism. Moreover, even among more "average" people diagnosed with hypothyroidism, not everyone experiences weight gain as a symptom of the disease.

The second point leads me to a somewhat different set of questions. First, is there some reason that heavy training loads suppress thyroid function? Maybe that's why a bunch of serious athletes have been diagnosed. Second, as there is much dissent within the medical community about "normal" ranges of TSH, what sorts of ranges do the elite athletes who are being treated (by this doctor) have? Are they ranges that no one else in the country would call low? Or are they just on the high side of low? Do they exhibit symptoms of hypothyroidism, besides the normal fatigue plaguing other elite athletes under significant training duress? And finally, if an athlete has low iron counts (due, perhaps in part, to training), and takes iron to fix the problem, they will see an improvement in their performance. Does that make iron a performance-enhancing drug? 

Everyone agrees that some drugs are performance-enhancing, but what line must you cross? Healthy diet, too, can improve performance, though the food might not be in pill form. So might taking supplements for other deficiencies  or taking a daily multivitamin out of habit. So too might a male athlete getting testosterone injections. Where do we draw the line? Generally speaking, wherever that line is, most people would agree that food and multivitamins should not be considered performance enhancing drugs, and that EPO and HGH should. In between those two extremes, though, are a host of other "performance enhancers", that might improve the performance of some athletes, but are more or less "natural", and have smaller or larger natural levels within the human body.

Cheery Blossom

Hey, all! Sorry I didn't post last week: between Passover and getting ready for Cherry Blossom, last week was nuts. So, here is a brief description of my last 2 weeks of training:

Monday: Off, traveling and the first night of Passover
Tuesday: 1200s at ~4:20-4:25 (7 of them)
Wednesday: 7.2 easy AM, 9.7 easy PM
Thursday: 6 miles easy
Friday: 10 mile progression run. 2 mile warmup, 6 miles starting at 6:45, cutting 5 seconds/mile. 2 mile cooldown
Saturday: 7 miles easy
Sunday: 17 miles with 5x800 at roughly Cherry Blossom Pace (~3:10 or so?)
========
Monday: Massage AM, 3 miles PM
Tuesday: 6x600 at ~1:58, with full (like 3:30 or so) rest
Wednesday: 7 miles easy
Thursday: 3 mile warmup, 3x2 at MP, 3 mile cooldown
Friday: 4 miles easy
Saturday: 4 miles easy with 6 easy strides (20")
Sunday: 4 mile warmup with 4x1:00 hard, 10 mile Cherry Blossom!

So my running has been pretty good; mileage is coming down (67 miles and then 53), which is good, given I now have 3 weeks to marathon. My 1200s were fast, the slowest was 4:21. I was pretty tired the next day, but by Friday, I was ready to go again. Steph and I went out and did the progression run in beautiful weather on the river trails. Each of my miles was a few seconds fast for that run, too. Sunday was a miserable run: between rain, shoes causing my heels to crack and bleed, dehydration and general fatigue, I was very happy to be done with that run. I guess the Hounds seder at my house Saturday night didn't really help that. The whole week was somewhat weird for nutrition: Passover means I eat nothing but dairy, produce, and matzot (no grains or legumes). Surprisingly, I didn't have much of a problem digestively despite these restrictions. I ate a bunch of sweet potatoes and matzot to supplement my carbohydrate reserves.

The next day, I had a nice sports massage to try and work out some of the tightness in my calves and glutes. I don't usually have massages that involve my legs, because (a) my legs are  quite ticklish, (b) I don't like the idea of my legs being messed up by massage, and (c) buying new shoes seems like a better investment of the money for my general leg health. But I'd been feeling like my muscles were rather bound up so I gave it a go. I'm really happy I did! While I felt a little weird for a couple of days, a week out, my legs definitely feel better than they did before. I have all these tight spots in my calves and hamstrings and glutes, and I've noticed an increased range of motion and a smoother stride since last week. I've decided that I'm going to get another massage this Sunday upcoming, to try and have this effect last until Eugene (which, as I just mentioned is only 3 weeks away now!)

L and I had 600s to do the next day, which we did with K and N. It was really fun to run fast... we were doing not too much slower than our mile pace, which meant we were passing the men (who were doing their 5k pace), when we were all synced up for start times. My legs really didn't remember how to run that fast, but I managed to be quite on pace each time we ran those, even on the first 200. Our splits were, roughly 78 or 79 at the 400. After doing 6 of them, I decided I didn't need to do any more, given my race coming up that weekend. We broke Passover at Stack'd, which was a lot of fun! I ate a veggie bean burger, on bread, with fried mac and cheese and a beer. Nothing like going off a dietary restriction by stuffing yourself with all that you couldn't eat before... my stomach was not happy with me later that night.

I woke up to do Thursday's workout, only to find it was about 20 degrees colder than I'd expected (it was 18 when I went out... brrr!) I ran down to the river trails from my place to do the 3x2. Unfortunately for me, I ran the miles a bit faster than I was supposed to... the slowest was 6:40 or so (and that was supposed to be the fastest I was to run). I promise, the remaining of my marathon paced workouts will be more consistently 6:40, because I need to know how that pace feels.

L and I made it out to DC by the evening of Friday, and had quite a good time staying with her friends L and T. Friday night, we went to a delicious and unassuming Ethiopian restaurant. On Saturday, we went through the Portrait Gallery, which was having a portrait competition, and wandered around the part of the city which was inundated with tourists and cherry trees about to bloom. We then went to the elite technical meeting and realized just how crazy our decision to start with the elites in the USATF National 10 mile championships really was. There were virtually no other sub-elite athletes who chose to start with the elite wave: everyone else seemed to know one another, and everyone looked like they were sponsored by various athletic companies (Adidas was well-represented, as was Nike and Mizuno; there were also people who were wearing shirts from some of the well-known distance teams from around the country, from Flagstaff, Boulder, and the like). This group of women were going to start 12 minutes before the elite men or the rest of the seeded runners. After the meeting, L and I stalked the list of competitors to try and figure out if any of the other early start women were going to be anywhere near our pace. We found 3 or 4 women who definitely were going to run 60 or slower, so we relaxed a little bit but were definitely nervous about running 10 miles alone, without watches or competition (Tim told us we should race, and not care about pacing). After some whole wheat pasta and delicious homemade sauce, we watched the first half of Without Limits to get Pumped UP. Any movie that has an actor depicting Steve Prefontaine being a total douche (but racing with serious guts) is enough to make me want to run hard. After all, "The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die."

Morning of the race, I woke up feeling much more refreshed by 6 hours of sleep than I expected to feel. I ate a few pieces of white bread with some jam, and a banana. I drank a little gatorade while listening to some Pump Up music on my nifty little iPod, and waited for L to wake up and get ready. I was mentally ready. I could tell, though, that I'd overeaten the night before: I was feeling kind of bloated and heavy in my stomach region. I used the bathroom before leaving for our warmup jog/transportation to the start of the race, but the feeling didn't really go away.

We jogged to the mall and down it towards the GW memorial. We went into the elite tent and sat, nervously, for about 20 minutes. All the women seemed nervous, probably at least as much as we were, because they depend on their results for financial wellbeing and their notoriety. They all stretched and sat and guzzled water and waited to use the elite port-a-potties, just like we mere sub-elites did. They made the occasional joke to one another, changed clothes, and went back and forth between doing warmups and sitting, conserving their energy for the race ahead. The number of 6+ packs in that tent was truly amazing, on women and men alike. In fact, I actually think the most impressive set of abs I saw were female.

Eventually, after another couple of strides, it was time for them to lead us to the start line. We all jogged along to the line, did a few strides, and lined up. Without a warning, the horn was blown and we were off. L and I tucked in to the second group, the one that looked like sub-60 was their goal, rather than the first group, who wanted to win money and set records. The weather was beautiful, 45 and sunny, but windy. We came through the first mile in 5:55, the second at 11:55, the third at about 17:55 or 18:00. I felt good. My legs felt pretty ok, but not perfect, as I'd done 2 hard workouts that week before the race. I hit the 5k at about 18:35.

Somewhere between the 5k and the 4 mile mark, my stomach started cramping up in a signal of imminent intenstinal distress. I dropped back from the group, fairly sure that slowing by a few seconds a mile would allow me to avoid some of my stomach problems. I kept them in eyesight for the next mile (hit 5 miles at 31:00 and the 10k around 38:40). I worried that, as is easy to do when something goes awry physically, I'd give up mentally. After I let the group go a bit, I was totally and completely alone, and around the 5 mile mark, I found myself running into a strong headwind. At this point, my legs started complaining in earnest, and my stomach was more unhappy rather than less. I decided that I still really wanted to keep in the race, though, so I kept my eyes on the group and tried to focus on not losing more ground to them.

The course, at this point, was totally gorgeous. There were all the cherry trees with their blossoms, and the river surrounding the peninsula that we ran along looked really nice in the early morning light. This was also the windiest part of the course. At about 7 miles, I heard footsteps from behind me, and I knew they were the footsteps of 2 people running substantially sub-5:00 miles, so the first 2 men had caught me, even with my 12 minute head start. As they passed, I noticed the ease with which they seemed to take each stride, even 70% into their race distance, into the wind, leaving their future battle to later. They ran side-by-side, in lock-step. Neither one was drafting off the other (I'm not sure if one would allow the other to draft).

As I watched them run along ahead of me, I realized both they and I had only 3 more miles to go, and while I'd lost a bunch of time in that mile (I think I ran a 6:40ish 7th mile), I didn't want to give up completely. I picked up my legs a bit and tried to see what they had left in them. I hit 8 miles in 50:30. 2 more men passed me. I knew that running under 63 (the time I had needed to qualify for running in the elite heat) was going to be difficult at best. But I decided to push anyway. I didn't see the 9th mile marker, but the first 3 American runners passed me roughly where it probably was. I saw the 800m to go sign, and tried to put my legs in top gear. It seemed as though they were more or less maxed out, and while I was pushing with all my might, I don't think my pace actually increased too much. L and T (our hosts for the weekend), were at the 500 meter mark, when I tried again to push my legs up a notch. They obliged, slightly, but my stomach screamed with the increased speed. I buckled a bit and pulled back, deciding 5 seconds wasn't worth the continual abdominal agony. I saw the clock just as it read 62:55, when I still had the better part of 100 meters left. I ran through the finish in 63:11, not as fast as I'd wanted, but not horrendously off, either.

Given the circumstances, I was quite happy with my time, and knew a number of things I'd do differently next year. First, I think it would have been better to start with the normal seeded runners, rather than having a 12 minute head start. That way, I'd have had a bunch of people to draft off of and run with for the duration of the course, which probably cost me a good minute in the second half. Next,  and this is made more clear each time I race with stomach problems, I need to figure out what is bothering my stomach for racing, because I'm sick of my stomach holding me back from running at my potential. Finally, next year, I'm going to tell my coach it's really important to me that I race this more recovered than I was this year. I guess it's hard to balance mid-cycle racing with marathon training, but I think that avoiding Thursday's workout would have left me much fresher for Sunday.