Crash and Burn like Bamboo

I wondered if something was going to go wrong when I started running Friday afternoon and I felt sore and just a tad bit tired. Nothing big in itself, but I had my third epic run in just as many Saturdays the very next day. It crossed my mind that I should take the day off before I try to run 28 miles, but I ran anyway.

I got up at 5 am on Saturday, got my crap together, and drove to Lake Bryan to run on the trails. It had rained all day Friday. I got there about 15 minutes before dawn and had an overwhelming feeling to sleep. Yet another bad sign.

I was too tired to run.

But I'm no sissy, so I did it anyway. I had full intention of completing 4 of the 7 mile loops for a total of 28 miles. I also had show notes and a mic to record a podcast on the last loop.

The first loop hurt. That was another bad sign. The second loop, well, that's when I started thinking about possibly not doing a fourth. The course was very runnable, but 2 sections had that sticky mud that made your feet resemble 20 lb. snowshoes.

The third loop made me realize that doing a fourth would cause me more harm than good. My upward curve of improvement had hit a brick wall. There was no more improvement to make with running, only rest.

It was still a great time. 21 miles in the butt-ass cold and mud was very primal and fun. I went home, then went to a birthday party of Kai's friend. Then the crash and burn occured.

I couldn't warm up. Hell, I'm still cold two days later. We were supposed to go to a punk rock concert and I felt too chilled and sick and tired to go. I was supposed to go on a recovery ride today, but pushed it back until Monday.

Never one to have a shortage of crazy projects to work on, I started collecting bamboo to make a bike rack. Why bamboo? It's a grass and grows like crazy, so it is considered a much more renewable resource than trees. It also has incredible strength, commonly called nature's carbon fiber. The trick is curing it so it doesn't get brittle and crack with time. Here is a cool link to Calfee building bikes out of bamboo.

I stumbled across a website that showed a great way to cure bamboo quickly. The magic occurs with the use of a torch, which freaks me out and excites me at the same time. Armed with information that only the Internet could provide (that ain't saying much), I chopped down some THICK sections of bamboo that was growing near my house. I then bought a torch and went to work. I had a ton of fun, but this is going to take some time. I'll post some pix soon. After working on computers 5 days a week, I love working on a project with my bare hands.

I gotta say, I was surprised at how impressive a 2 inch thick piece of bamboo can be. If the curing method works, I've got a little side business making some cool stuff going on.

Why HR is Good, but not Great

One important thing I learned last year is that HR is not an ideal method for measuring performance. Many things can mess up your HR. Here's a short list of the usual suspects:

• Dehydration - usually lowers it


• Caffeine - raises it


• Lack of sleep


• Food


• Anxiety


• Time of day


• Weather


• Unexplained

I decided to write this post specifically because of today's run. Instead of starting at 5:30 AM, I started at 3:45 PM in the freezing rain and after drinking a 16 oz diet Coke. Check this craziness out. (You can click on it to get the full size image)

After running for 15 minutes with my HR more than 30 BPM higher than it should be, I said "F-this!" and walked for about 30 seconds and adjusted my shoes. Look what happened afterwards. The short break dropped my HR by a massive amount and let me settle into my run.

I've got an email into Suunto to try to figure out how view just the data after I took a split at 30 minutes. It was in the low 120s again, but I can't figure out how to calculate exactly how much. My watch seems to be taking splits at random intervals along with the one I did by hand. Weird.

Just for kicks, I thought I'd include a picture I found of my bike at mile 56 when I did my second self-supported Ironman in 2005. Look for the MP3 player stuck to the Bento box along with heavy gloves resting on the handlebars. I recall that the temperature was between 33 and 42 degrees that whole day. That was living life on the edge!

For an extra special treat, BIKE PORN! Check out this photo stream in flickr of a guy that takes pix of women riding around in everyday clothes in Amsterdam.  I suggest checking it out in Slideshow Mode.

Phone Interview with Trails and Tribulations and Proof of the Running Gods

Kim and Andrew of the Trails and Tribulations Podcast called me for a phone interview last night. That was fun.

I got at least one doubter about the time vs. distance method of training I talked about on my last post. I searched the blogs of two of the best Ultra runners for examples of running by time, not distance and listed them below. Open up the links and us ctrl+f to search for the word "hour". You'll find 3 hour runs, 7 hour runs, 2 hour runs, listed over and over again. I'm sure it will help us all get a better grasp of the concept.

Elite runner and Bandera 100k winner Josue Corre's posts about doing runs by time -

Here's the same thing for Anton Krupicka, last year's winner of the Rocky Raccoon 100.

These are also great blogs to follow anyway because these guys are amazing runners and do a lot of barefooting.

Ok, I've also got some numbers for you from my own experience this week. I've been running roughly an hour every morning. I go by time and effort level, not distance. The methodology is to run slowly and over time bring your HR down and speed up. Here we go -

Tues: 1:03 hrs run, 127 BPM, 5.39 mi, 11.30 pace

Wed: 56 min run, 122 BPM, 5.13 miles, 10.49 pace

Thurs: 60 min run, 120 bpm, 5.51 miles 10.55 pace

What you see here is a very slight trend towards lower HR and a faster pace. Time comes first, then effort level, then come distance and speed. It should also be noted that I walked a couple minutes of the first one, about 30 seconds of the second, and none of the last one. (I actually ran the last one in aqua-socks). The speed of the last two are essentially identical, but the effort level was lower.

As time goes on, I will be able to run faster and faster during my morning hour run until I'm doing it at a 10 min/mile pace in the 120 BPM range.

How do you apply this in real life? When racing anything like a Half Ironman or greater, you have to moderate yourself so that you can endure the event. Go too hard too early, and you've ruined your race. When on the bike or run, wear your HR monitor and stay in your lower zones and you'll be able to go much faster on average by the time you finish.

When racing true long distance events, you really have no control of your top speed over the length of the race. Your body is trained as your body is trained, no matter how you trained. But a scientific fact is that if you veer into zone 4 and 5 of your HR, you are damaging your results. So, if the high end of your zone 3 is 145 BPM, then whatever that speed is for you is your top speed. Don't like it? Tough luck. You should have trained more.

At that point, if you want to beat somebody who is faster than you, your only hope is that they have a flat or don't do their nutrition right. Nutrition is a huge factor in distance training and racing, so there's lots you can do with that.

Distance via Volume

I've been training a lot lately for the Rocky Raccoon 100 (I'm just doing the 50). I learned much while being professionally coached for Ironmans last year, so I thought I'd share something with those of you that are interested.

An effective technique for racing Ultras (running or triathlon) is to train slowly. This is why and how:

• Running fast does damage, and it takes time to recover from that damage.


• You may need a day or two to recover fully from that damage so you can run well again.


• Slow yourself down to a zone 1 or 2 heart rate, and you can run a long time. Much longer than when you run fast.


• Set aside the additional time to train longer for these workouts.


• You'll find that you can run almost double the distance that you were doing before, and you can also do it day after day. Still, you should take a rest day at least once a week.


• In the end, you will be logging much higher weekly mileage and at a lower HR, which trains your body to burn fat as fuel instead of carbs.


• Bonus: Running slower prevents injuries.


• Tip 1 - Do the run+walk method (Galloway) to keep your HR down.


• Tip 2 - Never run by distance. Run by time and HR. Distance is a result, not a target.

Example: I'm now running for an hour each morning at a very casual pace. If I was doing this hard, I'd only be able to do this every other day. 6 days at 5.5 miles each day = 33 miles a week. 4 days at 6.5 miles each day = 26 miles a week. By going slowly, I'm able to get in 7 more miles, reducing injury risk, and training my body to fuel on fat.

The above isn't my actual training schedule. I'm now doing 1 hour of running every morning Mon-Fri, 4 hour long run on Sat, then an easy bike ride on Sun to flush all the lactic crap out of my legs. That is approximately 47.5 running miles per week and none of it is difficult to do. You can do it too! (I was taught to go for an easy bike ride the day after a hard run or bike to clear things out. It helps you recover faster. )

I still have to write a post about how to "Train like a Pro" from all of my experiences last year, but the above is a glimpse into that world of elite training.

Remember,

• Go slow and build that aerobic base.


• Speed kills. Do speed training when you get closer to race day.


• Never say "I'm going to run X miles today!" Instead, say that you will be running a certain length of time at a certain effort.


• Enjoy your higher mileage and fewer injuries. You'll get faster and faster at that same HR as your body becomes more efficient.

You Only Live Once

That's what I told myself as I shoved my way into the Pit while watching heavy metal gods The Sword at Emo's in Austin on Saturday night.

Let me back up a bit. The day started off with a nice jog. 20 miles at a 12 minute mile pace and average HR of 133 bpm. This was done off-road, mind you, on the mountain bike trails at Lake Bryan. I had to get up around 4 AM to do this run and then make it to Austin with Emily and friends.

The run went well. I was pleasantly surprised at my low HR. I also used the foot pod that works with my Suunto T6 and it was measuring the distances perfectly, far better than GPS in dense tree cover.

I was the only person on the trails that morning. It's a shame that more people don't know about it, but hey, I'll take the solitude.

Pete, Sharon, Emily, and I (all triathletes) loaded up into the minivan and headed to Austin. First stop: Bicycle Sport Shop. Pete is new to triathlon and is the market for a new bike. BSS is huge and has an incredible selection, so it wasn't long until he found a nice Specialized Allez on sale. I found the highly rated super blinky light gadget from Planet Bike (review to come), a new bite valve for my camelbak, some BMC socks, and Emily scored some feminen-y something or nother that I can't really recall at the moment.

We then met up with Brent and Jennifer at Chuy's for dinner. Love the Chuy's.

After paying some homeless guys not to take a dump on the hood keep watch on our car, we went into the first bar near Emo's, which was Coyote Ugly. It is exactly like the movie: Hot chicks dancing on a big bar. Due to the vast amount of free porn on the internet, I was only moderately impressed with fully clothed women stomping their clodhoppers, but things got more interesting after Emily and Sharon got up there and then did body shots off of some of the staff.

I decided this evening needed more spice, so I started alternating Patron shots with Newcastles and then vaguely remember one of the staff yelling over the PA system that guests are not to grope the bartenders. I'm not sure what that was all about, but it didn't matter because we were on our way out the door.

The first band to go on at Emo's was mostly talented. I say that because the singer was this fat guy that had his 3 foot long hair stuck to his face and simply shrieked into the microphone. Move on to band 2, please!

Trigger Renegade was fantastic. I think the guitar of the lead singer should be put in the hall of fame already. That thing was amazing.

When The Sword took the stage, things seemed normal. Their first two songs were new, and aside from the chick in front of me hitting me in the face several times with her uplifted hand making the devil sign, I was enjoying the show.

Then all hell broke loose. The Sword launched into one of their more popular and familiar songs and the crowd around us literally exploded into a whirlwind of flying bodies. Our group of six got off to the side a quickly as possible. For the rest of the night, we were on the perimeter of a heaving mass, convulsing with a dangerous mix of elation and anger.

After about four songs, I got the crazy idea in my head that it might be fun to jump in the pit. I mean, nobody was getting hurt and this is one of my favorite bands and I'm not getting any younger, right? Emily said that I handed her my jacket and said, "hold on to this!" and then just shoved my way in. She had no idea where I was going.

Pete and Brent said what happened next was awesome. I was moshing, shoving, jumping just like all the other idiots and would turn back at them to smile only to get broadsided and thrown around. This went on for several minutes.

Then I disappeared.

At some point during the rolling and crushing of swaying bodies, my legs got swept out from under me. Like a non-swimmer, I was clawing my way to the surface only to get shoved down again. I never got scared, because it was all happening so fast. Then my left shoe flew off.

A 6'4" 200 lb. dude on the floor of a mosh pit will tend to cause other people to fall down. Eventually, there were several of us on the ground and some people stopped their "dancing" long enough to help us out. I paused to try to find my shoe, but I couldn't see it anywhere. Next goal: Get my one-shoe ass out of that mosh pit.

I couldn't get out! I'd make some progress only to get shoved back in even deeper than before. Finally, I made it to the edge and my friends were laughing their asses off. I told them I also had lost my shoe. That was even funnier. In a break between songs, Brent spotted it and dove in to grab it.

We got home late last night and I had a boot print on the top of my left foot. Emily said it was an incredible experience.

I went for a bike ride today to shake the lactic acid out of my legs from yesterday's run. After two hours, I got bored and called it a ride. I find it interesting that I can now run or bike for longer than I have time to. I'm having to call runs and rides done because I have to get home, not because I'm tired. I suppose that's a sign of some dang good aerobic fitness.

I'll probably go for an hour run tonight. Not sure yet. I think I need a nap.