Post-race recovery
Friday, May 28, 2010
I’m almost a week out from the race now and feeling mentally recovered but not completely there yet physically. It’s not just the race that I need to recover from, but also the training. I don’t keep a training log like I used to back in the day when I was road racing, but I write my mileage and stuff on the calendar now. I averaged between 100 and 110 miles per week, with 3 to 5 hours on the elliptical each week as well, for about the last five months. And, I had a couple 120 mile weeks and one at 131 miles.
I had run that kind of quantity when I was road racing, but now I run only once/day and for the first time ever I take a day off each week. Plus, I never used to get on the elliptical on a regular basis. I wasn’t as dedicated about strength work like I would have liked, but there are only so many hours in the day! And, it was easy to talk myself into skipping form drills and strides. Over the summer, I’ll try to fit in that basic, remedial work and get back on track again with all that.
I took three whole days off completely from running. I went walking some. For instance, I went with my friend Judith (who was down from NY visiting for a few days) to Duke Gardens and we took pictures and checked out the new rock gardens and the additions to the Asiatic Gardens. They also have a carnivorous plants bog that is in great shape now. Here are a couple pics from the gardens trip:
this is one of the bridges in the Asiatic Gardens
this is one of the new stone patios
here are a couple from the carnivorous plants bog
Judith got a funny picture of me at a huge boulder that had a towing strap around it. I’ll get her to send me a copy of that one and post it too.
So, all in all, I’m feeling pretty good and I started running again Wednesday morning with a short and easy run. Then, yesterday, I ran 11 miles. And, this morning, I ran my usual 12 mile loop. My blood sugars have been staying manageable even with the down-time, so that has been a pleasant surprise. I added a tiny bit of extra Lantus and have checked my blood sugar a little more often, but that’s about it. I’m always careful about what I eat from evening on, trying to stay a bit low carb later in the day so that I don’t have to worry what my blood sugar is doing overnight.
I won’t start training for anything for a while. I have a LOT of work to get through for my dissertation research and I need to have a more flexible schedule to focus on that. I have some travel scheduled as well and it’s always hard for me to keep up with training when I’m jetting around a lot. I love running and I actually like training too, but I also really enjoy a good break from it!
I wrote out a lot of notes on my long training runs while prepping for this race and I also wrote down as much detail as I could remember from the race, so I think I can actually answer some questions about all that somewhat intelligently. So, either shoot off an email or post a question.
Happy trails!
Missy
More stuff about the race
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
I finally went for a run this morning. I took three days off after the DPRT 50 Miler. I walked some and got on the elliptical, but I didn’t run until this morning. My left hip feels better (I went into the race with a little bit of tendonitis or bursitis in my left hip) and my right foot feels better (I tweaked the middle top part during the race, probably with my shoe laces). I was still just a little stiff and flat, though, but that actually may just be from not running for three days.
I’m still feeling good about the race. I hope to run it next year. Well, I hope to run it next year without flooded trails! I have to admit, though, that it was kind of fun to slosh through the water during the race. It added some excitement and it wasn’t really so terrible. And, everyone had to go through it, so it wasn’t like my own special little hell or anything like that. But, the “side of the highway stint” that we had to navigate due to the flooding really was a special little piece of misery!
I can’t say enough about how beautiful the Des Plaines River Trails are. When I was road racing, the aesthetics of a race didn’t matter to me. All I noticed on a road race was the asphalt, my watch, and the competition. I couldn’t understand when someone would ask me something like, wasn’t the clock tower in the neighborhood at mile 20 great? It was like a Bing commercial: mile 20? 32K; 10K to go; 2:08 something on the watch; started 4th pack of carb gel; etc, etc, etc. In ultras, I see a lot more of the race and a setting like Saturday’s race made the day feel so much more relaxed and pleasant.
The race staff was fantastic! This was a first time event and I bet these guys didn’t get more than ten hours of sleep in the days leading up to the race. They were so concerned with having everything go well and making sure everyone had a great experience. When we got home on Sunday, we found a message from Terry Madl, the race director, on the home phone - he had called Friday but we had already left. He was calling to make sure we had a way over to the packet pick-up thingy and dinner and all.
Another thing about the race management that impressed me was the aid station volunteer staff. These people were incredible. The aid stations were well-stocked and the volunteers were ready to go - two of them had somebody sighting runners and yelling back to the tables that a runner was coming in and what you said you needed. They were great.
Zach Gingerich won the race. This guy is amazing. He won the Umstead 100 Miler in a huge record at the end of March. He was way out in front in no time and he never looked back. I got to see him a few times because of the out-and-back legs we had to run. Zach is a tall, lanky guy. He was wearing shorts that looked almost like those long basketball shorts. He carried nothing - no water bottle, no food, no gels, nothing. I guess he got whatever he needed at the aid stations, but it seemed odd to watch someone run 50 miles just on aid station stops. I was told that Zach ran 5:35 or thereabouts. He looked like he was some high school cross country runner out for a jog.
The second place guy finished 6 or 7 minutes ahead of me in 6:48 something. I would have loved to catch him, but that’s the way it goes! I finished third (first woman) in 6:55:02. I’m really happy with the time considering the deep water sections of the trail and the highway stint. A couple people asked me what I thought I could have run without all that - honestly, I don’t know. I could do something like add up all the time I lost on wading through water, being slowed to a crawl on the highway embankment, changing socks and shoes, etc. and it would probably come to about 25 minutes. But, that does NOT mean I could have run 6:30 without those conditions. Every time I had to slow (or completely stop), I may have lost time but I also got to rest. Over the course of 50 miles, that rest (even if it’s not a lot of rest) makes a big difference. I don’t think it’s possible to guess at how much that rest has a positive impact on pace, but I think it has a lot of impact.
Since I had to stop and change socks and shoes because of the water, I took the time to check my blood sugar a couple times. The first time I checked it was at mile 13 and it was 137. I had eaten a poptart before the race and by mile 13 I’d eaten half of a poptart and 3 Clif shot blocks. I was happy with 137 - that was pretty much perfect for that point in the race. I checked again at about 30 miles and it was 110. I’m pretty good at judging my blood sugar based on how I feel (and I’ve practiced and practiced with food and insulin and pace), so I know that my blood sugar was staying in the 90 to 120 range. On the last 8 miles, though, I goofed a little. I was so afraid of crashing (which can happen really fast after 40 or so miles), that I overdid things a little. I think my blood sugar was probably in the 190s when I finished, but I didn’t get to my meter or my insulin for almost 40 minutes after I finished. By the time I did, my blood sugar had risen to 308. I could feel it going up. I still had food in my stomach and I still had my liver cranking and my adrenalin going, so the longer I went without getting insulin I was thinking, hmmm this is really going to screw up my meter’s average. Everything got back under control quickly with insulin and water. And, then Bob ordered pizza and chicken wings that night! We had a pizza delivery picnic on the bed in the hotel room! It was great.
I met a few new running friends during the race. That always happens in ultras. I ran mostly with two different guys. There was a guy we met the night before the race, David, from CT. He was there with his brother-in-law, Eric (who was from Toronto). David was a really interesting guy and I had a blast running with him off and on. Eric and Bob (my hubby) drove around to meet up with us at different places during the race. Eric was en fuego! He knew exactly what to do and before I could blink he would have a full water bottle right there in my hand while Bob was helping with my shoe changes.
I also ran some with a local guy from Frankfort named Tony. Tony was missing his left hand and forearm. He had to manage all of his fluids and food with his right hand. This guy had great running form and he just made it look so easy. At one point, Tony and I were running along and I slipped in some mud. Tony caught me and kept going right along - we never missed a step. He got way out in front of me around 25 miles, but had a recurring knee problem that slowed him down after that. He finished pretty well anyway and said that he felt fine but had to jog it in so as not to aggravate the knee too much.
I’m glad I practiced various food items during my long runs because I finally had a race where I didn’t have stomach issues! I stuck with poptarts, Clif shot blocks, PBJ sandwhiches, a couple packs of Gu, some jelly beans, a Red Bull, and lots of water. At the end, when Bob hugged me, I had to tell him not to squeeze too hard (he immediately let go). Other than a couple short little iffy times, my tummy was cast-iron.
I wore some shoes from the Nike Lunar series and they were the best long distance shoes I’ve ever run in. They felt great even through the water. I cut a slit down part of the back of the heel before the race because I was sure that it would cause a blister if I didn’t. I ended up with one small blister on a toe and one damaged toe nail. Oh, and the top of my right foot got tweaked because my shoe laces were too tight. By the time I realized it and loosened them, I had already tweaked the foot. I wore a running skirt from Runningskirts.com and it was perfect. There are pockets on the sides with velcro closures and I could fit 3 of those long packets of Clif blocks cut in half, so three half packets on each side. Plus, I put my baggie with emergency tp in there. I carried a Nathan 22 oz. water bottle and the hand strap was really comfy and the zippered pocket on the strap can hold 2 packs of Gu and some jelly beans without being crammed. So, those are the details on my running supplies.
I haven’t thought at all about what I’ll run next. I don’t have a clue right now. I want to run a marathon with my friend Marcus this Fall and that’s about all I know right now. I’ll just get back into some mileage over the next couple weeks and see how everything feels.
Happy Trails!
Missy
Race Report: Des Plaines River Trail Ultra
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I ran the Des Plaines River Trail 50 Miler in the Chicago area this past Saturday. I won in 6:55:02. Zach Gingerich won for the men, but I don’t have his time right now. When the results are posted, I can update this.
The race went really well, despite some logistical problems. The week before the race, Chicago got loads of rain and the Des Plaines River crested at 4 feet above flood stage. Obviously, the trail flooded, too. So, the original course (which was supposed to be essentially one out-and-back loop of 25 miles out and 25 miles back) was changed a bit. We ran two shorter out-and-back loops. Even with that change, though, the end part of each leg had three flooded parts. So, for each leg, we ran through almost knee deep water 3 times. Twelve times of wading through the water.
I have to say, though, that going through the water wasn’t really all that bad. I changed my socks a few times and changed my shoes once (after the final water crossing). The change in the course that was pretty awful, though, was a short stint of about 1K off the trail, up a highway side median, and back onto the trail. The stint up the side of the highway was simply horrible. The side was rutted and littered with a little bit of broken hub caps and such. The grass had been mowed recently, but it was still tall and difficult to go through. And, the highway was too busy to be able to run on the edge of the pavement.
Other than the problems that arose from the flooding, the race course was incredible. The Des Plaines River Trail is beautiful. The trails are well-maintained and the forest preserves we went through were great. The race staff did a super job putting the event together. I just can’t say enough good about it. I will definitely run it again. But, I really hope that I can run it without having to wade through water or run up the most heinous highway diversion!
I felt great for pretty much the whole race. My tummy did well for the whole race - there were a couple sort of “iffy” times, but they weren’t bad at all. Oh, and when Bob hugged me at the end I had to tell him not to squeeze too hard! I ate and drank plenty this time and never had any bad patches. I ran between 7:30 and 8:00 miles for the whole thing. But, of course, I lost huge chunks of time with the water, the highway from hell section, and the sock and shoe changes that the water caused.
I really felt great through the whole race. I never hit a wall, never had any aches or pains to get through, and didn’t have tummy issues to deal with. The weather was pretty good, too. Even though it was pretty humid and wet, it was about 60F at the start and it stayed cloudy until about noon. It did get hot once the sun came out, climbing into the 80s pretty quickly, but I was nearly finished by then.
Even with the water, I only lost one toenail. Every time I ran through the water, I could feel the trail grit moving around in my shoes and so I thought I would end up with some bad blisters but I didn’t. I got one small blister on the bottom of one toe.
I’m taking some down-time this week. I haven’t gone running yet. I’ve done some walking with my friend Judith who is in from NY for a visit. And, I’ve gotten on the elliptical a little bit. I might run tomorrow. It’s been nice to take a break.
So, that’s the short race report. I’m not sure what’s on tap next. I haven’t even thought about it right now. I’m just enjoying some time off!
Happy trails!
Missy
Catching up
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The subtitle for the heading of this post should be, “I’m slack!” I guess I’m way overdue for posting something. I don’t have any good reason except that I’ve just kept putting it off until tomorrow.
Running has been going okay. I’ve had a sore hip flexor which has caused me to miss one workout of road mile repeats, to slow down on the last few for one workout, and to quit the workout early this past week. It’s not terrible, I wouldn’t even call it an injury - it’s just sore. But, I don’t want it to turn into something, so caution is the dominant thought for now. I’m getting to be old for a runner, so the potential for injury is a bit more scary than when I was a young runner.
My long runs are going well. I ran between 48 and 50 miles last week and between 42 and 43 this week. I’ve had wicked allergies lately and that has made breathing in this pollen filled air tough. But, a couple days ago I realized that I think I’ve had a little bit of a virus, too. Of course my nose has been running like crazy with allergies, but that’s a certain kind of runny nose (people with allergies will know what I’m talking about here). A few days ago, the runny nose stuff started to cause that “burning skin” sensation around my nose, the kind of thing that only happens with a virus. Hmmmm. I guess I was so wrapped up in thinking about allergies that I didn’t notice I was a little more under the weather than hay fever. Well, that explained why I felt soooo tired after my long run this week. Okay, the length of the run played a part, too, but I mean I was more tired than usual. Anyway, I’m starting to feel better today, so it’s all good.
I’ve been working away on my dissertation research. I was on a roll until yesterday when I feel like a ran into a brick wall and stared at the computer for hours. I guess it was bound to happen; you can only go on a roll for so long before your brain goes blank! My brain went blank yesterday. I think it’s working again today.
The weather has been nice here in NC lately, but we need rain. We have one of those garden pumps to draw water from the lake for watering stuff and I’ve been having to use it pretty much every day lately. I can’t even remember the last good rain we had - it must have been weeks ago. At least with the pond pump thingy my vegetables are growing well and I’ve saved my azalaes from certain death. I have a container vegetable garden on the back patio. We’ve tried to do the traditional garden several times but neither of us like to get out there to weed and the deer just tear it up. We have a pretty decent container garden now. We have a large rectangle in between the porch and the patio for lettuce; we have tomatoes; we have several things of bush beans; and we have a variety of herbs. I’m thinking about trying cucumbers next year. I’d like to try peas but they have to be started so early and then protected from frost that I’m not too keen on that. I’d also like to try cantaloupe.
Thinking about the veggie garden reminds me of the pair of young squirrel brothers living in our yard. Wehn I ran my long run the other day, I came back by my stash of my small cooler and my water bottles. I have to stick them up in the tree beside the driveway (if I don’t park my car at the end of the driveway) because if I put them on the ground the next door neighbor’s cat will pee on them. That doesn’t make for a good mood day on a long run! Anyway, I cam back by my pitstop and the two young squirrel brothers who have been hanging out and looking cute were checking out my cooler and trying to figure out how to get it open. I guess they could smell the poptarts and such in there. They weren’t very afraid of me and they were pretty funny. I gave each of them a jelly bean. They were pretty funny. Yesterday morning I walked out onto the patio and there the two of them were checking out the container garden. I don’t think there was anything that really interested them too much; it was just their curiosity. Still, though, I don’t want them getting too close to the house because you know squirrels can be really destructive if they get into the house. Our little orange kitty didn’t think too highly of them, though, and ran over and gave one of them a good swat on the rear-end and I actually haven’t seen either one of them since. Our orange kitty is right outside the window as I’m writing this, whining up a racket because she wants someone to come outside with her. She doesn’t want you to do anything, just be out there.
I’d better get to work since I may need to figure in time for staring at the computer screen.
Happy trails,
Missy
Last week’s training
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Training went well last week even though I was pretty swamped with dissertation work and other stuff. I just had to get up really early and/or go to bed pretty late in order to get things in. I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes.
It also gets difficult to get work done just because of the logistics, namely that most of my work is from the home office. People who don’t work from home don’t understand this usually. For example, my husband will schedule repair work or something during the day even if he’s going to be at work … because I’ll be here. Last week, he calls me on Monday to tell me that the locksmith would be coming the next day. Great, I replied, if you’re going to be here because I’ll be at Duke all day. Silence. So, he rescheduled for Saturday, forgetting that we had something scheduled already. Okay, I can be flexible. So, I said I would stay home and try to get some extra work done while he went to represent both of us at said function. Short version: I got no work done.
So, today, while he’s off from work, he tells me that he’s on his way out the door - uh, no, the locksmith is supposed to come back to fix the lock that isn’t working right now. Anyway, not to beat the point to death, but he got irritated that he was now the one stuck sitting around waiting. Sidenote interruption here: hubby went out to the store “real quick” and I’m now here with the locksmith.
Anyway, back to last week’s training. This will be written in a broken fashion, of course, because I’m here with the locksmith.
I got in my workout of 10 x road mile repeats and I got in my long run. Once again, though, I skipped my tempo run - too tired. But, I ran 48-50 miles for my long run again. Running time was a tad under 6:25. I pretty much ate and drank about the same as the week before. I’m thinking that the poptarts seem to work better than anything else, so next long run I’ll try doing just poptarts, powergel chews, and clif shot blocks - along with copius amounts of water, of course.
Last week’s workout went well. The mile repeats were a little bit faster than the week before. The long run went well - again, a little bit faster than the week before. I felt a bit stronger on the end of the long run. Of course, I had to start really early again, but that allowed me to see a spectacular sunrise at about 7 miles into my run. Pretty cool.
I got my workout for this week done yesterday morning (Monday). Road mile repeats again, ten of them. I got a cramp in my left hip flexor on about number six or seven and that slowed me down some, but it still went well. It only slowed me by a few seconds each time. I just had to keep banging my hip flexor with my left fist to keep the muscle from cramping. I know it looked wierd to the neighbors who drove by as I’m running along whacking my left hip about every third stride or so. I took some potassium and some extra magnesium and it feels fine today. I’m not surprised about the cramping. I’ve had it before and it happens when you’re running a lot and sweating a lot and all that.
I’ve got another long run this week and I think I’ll do the 48 to 50 miles again. Hey, I’m on a roll! It’s not really as tough as it sounds to run that far. I like running long like that. I like doing the road mile repeats; I like really, really long runs; and I like ten mile tempo runs on a rolling course (when I’m not too tired from everything else). But, I don’t like how early I have to get up to get all of that in and still put in 40 to 50 hours of work each week. I’m not a morning person. I’m not really a night owl, either. I’m strictly an afternoon gal.
On another note, we’ve had some great weather this spring. And, my yard is looking awesome. I’ll insert a picture of my container garden on the back patio. It’s not HGTV great, but I’m liking it. The herbs are starting to sprout, the lettuce is going to be ready to start picking in a week, the beans are coming up, the tomatoes are growing, and my azaleas are in full bloom. I couldn’t have gotten it all put together without the hubby’s help this year, so I’m indebted to him again! And, I’m sure that the last thing he wanted to do was help me plant a container garden and mulch flower beds - in fact, I know he wasn’t keen on it as he kept count of how many yards of mulch we’ve used already (it never even occurred to me to keep count). But, he helped anyway and hasn’t complained even once. Smile!
That’s the back patio this morning.
Well, got to get back to work. Yesterday’s work whistle didn’t sound until 9:30pm. I don’t want a repeat of that today! I’m not really complaining, though, because I like my work. There’s a lot to be said for liking what you do.
Happy trails!
Missy
Differences between marathons and ultramarathons
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Once you get up to the marathon, how much different is it to go beyond that? The marathon used to be billed as the big mountain to tackle in running. If you could cover 26.2 miles, you had done it all. Now, however, people run marathons all the time. In fact, most of the major marathons sell out for the recreational crowd in a matter of minutes on-line. It used to be that New York was the only one that sold out and Boston, with its qualifying times, was the one that people strove to get to.
But, ultras are the big mountain in running now. It’s standard these days for 50 milers and 100 milers to close out in a matter of minutes after registration opens. I think Umstead closed out last year in 6 minutes. Think about this - people are scrambling to get the chance to run 100 miles! Wow.
For those who might be wondering about these things called ultras, I’ll see if I can tell you how they’re different … and, maybe, how they’re not so different. If you’ve run some marathons and now you’re thinking that maybe 26.2 wasn’t so hard as it sounded once upon a time, then you might be primed for an ultra.
The biggest difference between marathons and ultras is the “flavor” of the races. Marathons are almost exclusively road races. They are, at heart, races. The courses are diligently certified, the race is run by USATF rules, the start and finish line areas are set up a certain way. There is a certain structure to a marathon; you could walk up to the start area on race morning and you’d know it’s a marathon.
Ultras have a low key, casual, relaxed atmosphere. Ultras usually start in the forest somewhere or at least run through some heavily wooded section for all or most of the race. Very rarely is an ultra a road race. For most of the gang who run these events, it’s a run not a race. There’s a very social atmosphere before the start, during the race, and afterward. Ultras rarely hold awards ceremonies because the nature of the run makes it tough to do that - the finish times can be stretched out across as much as a 10 hour period. Finishing is the goal and the other runners want everyone to finish.
You do have to train differently for ultras and you also have to execute the race differently. In training for a marathon, it’s always about increasing my ability to run as close to lactate threshold (the line where too much latic acid builds up to clear it) for as long as possible. It’s a very, very uncomfortable edge and training for it is often not a lot of fun. While there are long training runs, there is always a focus on tempo and workouts play a big role, too.
In ultras, training is about endurance above all else. To run fifty miles, you have to be able to run fifty miles. I know that sounds, well, almost stupid, but it’s true. You absolutely have to be able to last for a long time on your feet. And, you have to juggle a lot of other things while continuing to put one foot in front of the other. You have to learn how to carry a bunch of crap with you, how to drink a LOT while running, how to eat normal food while running, and how to be very flexible in how you do all these things.
One of the smartest snippets of advice I’ve ever heard someone say about ultras is to keep moving forward. It sounds so simple, but when you get tired and can’t think clearly and you have all these things to do to take care of yourself, it’s easy to stop dead in your tracks and start rambling on to someone about what you need to do, how you feel so bad, etc. Walking along while you get your stuff together not only prevents a lot of lost time from standing there like an idiot, but it minimizes the impact of said lost time. Think of it this way: if you stop and whine for, oh, say seven and a half minutes and then get started again, you’ll have the next mile go by in 7:30 PLUS however long it takes you to go through that mile (let’s say 8 minutes because you’re tired or you wouldn’t have stopped to whine); so, that mile took 15:30; if you had grabbed your stuff and walked along getting organized, you couldn’t have spent the time whining and you would have covered over a half mile in the same 7:30, so then you would start back and get through the rest of the mile in less than 4 minutes (let’s say 3:30); so, now, your organized self is four and a half minutes ahead of your whiny self. If that happens several times in the last part of the race, you could easily be talking about over a half hour eaten up by not simply moving forward. Learning to keep moving forward comes from running a long way in practice … when you’re tired … when you’re hungry … when you’ve given out mentally.
For ultras, you absolutely must learn to eat, to drink, and to carry a bunch of food and water with you. It’s not like a marathon where somebody is going to be standing around eagerly handing you water cups every two or three miles. You’ll be lucky if there’s a water jug for you to stop and refill with on your own every 4 or 5 miles. But, you can bet there will be food at the checkpoints! And I don’t mean Gu and a few orange slices. There will be real food - like cookies, hot dogs, chips, bagels, potatoes, soda, and sometimes even beer. It takes practice to eat stuff like that and still run without puking. But, you can get used to it - in fact, you have to get used to it or you won’t finish.
Do you run workouts for ultras? Well, maybe yes maybe no. I think that really depends on you. I’ve tried it both ways and for me, I need workouts. I know others, though, who say they get their training in during a combination of long runs, tempos, and varied terrain fartlek type runs. These are the people who say that the mileage is giving them the strength they need and that it’s actually pushing the envelope so much for them that structured workouts would break them down. I know exactly how that feels - been there before.
Running for a long time is a must in training for an ultra. Not only do you have to be able to handle it physically, but you have to be able to do it mentally. It’s really, really hard to make yourself run for five, six, seven, or even more hours when you’re getting tired. It’s really hard. But, then there are days when it feels like one of the greatest experiences in life. It’s nice when those days fall on the same day as a race! I’d have to say, though, that for me, running for a long time is pretty enjoyable even when I’m very tired.
Well, I’ve rambled on for long enough about ultras and all that. I had more to add, but I think I’ll just tack things on as comments for this one. I will wrap things up by saying that I have really fallen in love with the whole ultra mindset and feel like the road racing scene for me is pretty much dead and buried. I love the people at ultras, I love where the races are held, I love the challenge, I love the friendship the races cultivate, I love the training. I think now that I feel like I’ve gotten past the roads I grew up on in running, I’ll be able to embrace these events with a lot more enthusiasm and joy. I feel like I’m finally moving forward with life after the pro road circuit!
Happy trails!
Missy
Running all day long
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
I ran somewhere between 48 and 50 miles for my long run last week. It took me 6:30:09 of running time plus the extra time for the more extensive checking of blood sugars and stuff that I do during practice. So, I ran all day, basically.
There are some really interesting things about running all day. First, it’s not so impossible as it probably sounds. A lot of people could walk all day even without training to do so. If you’re in just slightly better shape than “out of shape” you could then jog and walk all day. If you’re in decent shape, there is probably some easy pace at which you could keep moving for most of the day. And, the progression goes on like that.
There are some interesting patches that you go through when you run for that long. The first time I start to struggle a little is around the 23 mile mark (or somewhere in there). That’s about the point where glycogen stored in muscle cells starts to peeter out and my body has to make a metabolic shift to include some fat metabolism. It’s an uncomfortable shift to make and that’s why many marathoners will call it “hitting the wall.” I don’t think you can completely erase the discomfort at that juncture even if you’re very fit and well trained. But, it becomes easier to tolerate and the switch is made a bit more quickly. Plus, you know what’s going on after you’ve experienced it and run through it, so you don’t panic or give up.
The second really uncomfortable point comes at about 35 miles. I think (I’m guessing) that this is the point that your body needs to start using ketones as well. This juncture is harder to get through than the marathon wall. It hurts more and lasts for a longer time. But, it does subside. It can last up to 39 or 40 miles, but usually I’m through it by around 38.
So, after I get through those two shifts in metabolism, what does it feel like to keep running? Well, I’m tired, but that’s about it. Nothing really hurts after that. I feel hungry and start daydreaming about food. If I’ve hydrated well enough up to that point, I’m not even very thirsty. I just feel kind of tired … sort of like the tired you feel when you’ve stayed up too late. So, it gets tough to think about anything complex and it’s easy to get myself confused. Actually, a couple weeks ago I ran about 42 miles and when I had something like 2 or 3 miles to go, I was thinking about a race course in another state; I looked up and suddenly didn’t know where I was because I looked around and thought: this isn’t the river trail, what the heck, where am I??? It only lasted for about 20 or 30 seconds, but that’s typical of the kind of fatigue induced confusion you experience. Oh, and don’t even try to add or subtract! Math abilities are completely lost - you can’t even compute elapsed time for a mile.
Another interesting thing about running all day is how much fluid and food it takes. For last week’s long run, I drank 108 ounces of water. I ate about 2,500 calories (which included 512 grams of carbohydrate). This is what I ate (that line reminds me of a poem that my dad loves: she said she wasn’t hungry but this is what she ate….): 5 poptarts, 3 packs of powergel chews, 1 pack of Luna chews, 2 packs of Clif shot blocks, 2 bagels, and a few mini reeses cups. I usually eat some of those sport jelly bean thingies too but I was out of them (too bad because those things taste awesome when I’m running). My blood sugar was 93 when I finished. It takes a lot of fuel to run all day.
As wierd as it sounds, I like running all day. It’s a really cool experience. You learn to enjoy your own company. There aren’t many problems in life that can’t be worked out during an all-day run. I get to see a lot of the outdoors. I like the different experiences that I travel through as my body adapts to the stress. I feel strong, capable, sturdy, and confident. While it’s an interesting physical experience, it’s even more of an interesting mental experience.
So, I think I’ll run at least 42 miles this week, but maybe I’ll do the whole thing again. I get started before the sun comes up and it’s incredible to watch the sun rise while I’m running. I love that! And, I am sooo not a morning person that the fact that I love doing that speaks volumes about how cool it is.
happy trails!
Missy
How does diabetes affect racing? And … how does racing affect diabetes?
Friday, April 9, 2010
This topic comes up from time to time among those of us who are both diabetic and active. We get things figured out for our regular routines and everything generally works fine. There are those occassional unexplained highs or lows, but things generally stay kind of stable as long as we stay on a similar schedule.
But, throw in a race and it’s all up in the air! The most common problem that diabetic runners face with racing is an uncontrollable rise in blood sugar. Sometimes, it’s way up there before we even get out of bed in the morning. By race time, it can be in the 300s even with extra insulin.
So, what to do? I’m not going to pretend that I have the golden answer, but I have tried a lot of different things and I can usually keep things under pretty fair control.
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought recently for a number of reasons: the problems I had recently with my race at Umstead, the ongoing struggles of a runner I’ve worked with on and off for a little over a year, and the concern that a runner I’m working with right now has expressed about an upcoming race.
I thought that I’d start with some of my thoughts on what exactly happens with race day that makes everything so different. Then, I’ll talk about what I do about all of this. Sometimes it works really well, but every now and then, well, not so much.
Race day is different from our normal day-in-and-day-out schedules. That’s pretty obvious. But, do all of those differences have an impact on our diabetes management? How do we know which changes are important? How do these differences change things?
So, let’s think about what’s different. And, let’s start with the days before. Most of us try to make sure we’re fresh and ready on race day, so we may run a little less in the days before; we may even skip a day or two. Our diets change a bit as we start thinking about glycogen stores and hydration. The night before a big race we often eat at a pre-race pasta dinner, stay up late, and spend lots of extra time sitting around talking about running and racing. In summary, we’re expending less energy and taking in extra calories.
What else? Our sleep pattern often gets disrupted the night before a big race and sometimes during the days leading up to it. Anyone who has run a really important race knows how hard it is to sleep the night before. And, to make matters worse, we’re usually in a hotel room that night. Plus, we often have so much work to get in order before we head out to our big race that we spend lots of extra time getting everything organized both at work and at home.
Race morning usually starts quite a bit earlier than our normal running days. Because of work schedules, many of us don’t usually run until the afternoon. Yet, races start in the mornings, sometimes really early in the morning, and sometimes really early after a long drive.
Finally, there’s the issue of race anxiety. We all have to deal with it. Some have a worse time with it than others. It can be an issue for as much as a week before the race.
So, let me list these issues: diet, activity level, sleep, schedule, and anxiety. Hmmm, these are all things that we can learn to have some control over. It takes some time because solutions can’t be figured out in one day, but none of these issues look to be completely out of our hands. The one that seems at first glance to be the most difficult to reign in is anxiety, but people learn all the time how to control anxiety - people learn to control generalized anxiety, acute anxiety, and anxiety focused on a specific thing. And, because of its effect on our blood sugar and our insulin sensitivity, we can “measure” our success at getting this one under control (or at least we can treat the symptoms because they show up on the meter). And, further, I would say that working on the other issues will help make the anxiety problem a little bit more manageable.
Now, I’ll throw out some thoughts on each of these problems.
Diet and Activity: Changes in diet and activity require changes in insulin dosing. Period. This is a pretty straightforward formula. I’ve learned to manage changes in my diet or my activity level and to anticipate the impact of an extended change by taking meticulous notes, by testing out different potential solutions (i.e. altering my insulin dosing), and by experimenting with how much change in activity level produces how much change in my insulin requirements.
I’ve had diabetes for a pretty long time now and I still keep a blood sugar log with a fair amount of detail. I still look back through my logs to remind myself of what has worked and what has not worked when I know that my diet or activity level will change. While it’s important to test, test, test, it’s also important to record, record, record! It’s also important to write down your thoughts/notes on these logs.
Sleep: This is a tough one and it takes some experience to know how changes in your sleep pattern affect you. For those of you who have no problem with this, you’re lucky (or you’re very young!). For most of us, if we’re worrying about something, we’ll find it harder to get to sleep and harder to stay asleep.
But, there are some things I’ve found that help me. The first thing I do is halt any caffeine intake after 2:00pm. I set a specific time so that I give my body plenty of time to clear the caffeine, but also so that I remember to think about what I’m doing. I also try to get in 30 minutes of walking, riding the bike, or getting on the elliptical after dinner. It helps to speed up digestion and it helps me clear out some of the extra adrenaline that comes from a low but constant level of anxiety. I make myself go to bed on time and I read or look at magazines until I get sleepy. If I’m really having trouble, I’ll sometimes let myself sleep later because I’m definitely the type who gets my best sleep just around sunrise. I’ve also heard that drinking a glass of wine before bed helps, but I don’t drink so I’m not sure about that one.
For the night before a race, I’ver learned that sometimes it’s just not going to be pretty no matter what I do. If I’ve gotten good sleep during the week, one night won’t break me. But, there are a couple things that help. If we’re in a hotel room, I usually try to get two beds because that way I won’t keep my husband awake and he won’t keep me awake. I learned that one by accident when for a race one time, they put as at a bed-and-breakfast but the inn keepers thought it was going to be two runners and had assigned me to a room with two double beds. So, we said that’s fine, not to worry. That was actually the best night’s sleep I had ever gotten before a race. One other thing that helps me is taking a hot, hot shower just before bed.
Schedule: This is a big one for runners and I believe I’ve worked out a really good approach that gets me rested for a big race but gives me a pretty normal schedule for the week leading up to the race. I use a two week formula for tapering for a race. The first week, I cut my mileage back and decrease my long run to about two-thirds or half of normal. On the second week (which is the week leading up to my race), I go back to my normal routine and normal mileage but I may replace a workout with a moderate tempo run or something like that. This is another one of those things that I kind of stumbled on (because of a combination of a sore foot and a last minute change in racing schedules), but it works really well.
Another issue that invovles scheduling is race morning. Races often start earlier than my daily runs (but sometimes later). I almost always have to get up early and then I’m trying to decide whether to take my insulin when I get up or to wait until normal time. I’ve found that what works best for me is to take my insulin when I get up just as though I had gotten up at my normal time (even if I’m actually up a couple hours earlier). Once I get out of bed and start rambling around, my body is going to start the wake-up cascade of hormones and all that. This approach almost always makes my total daily dose of insulin higher on race day (despite having run a race) because I have to take extra humalog or novolog in the afternoon and early evening to cover the gap of basal coverage created by taking a shot of Lantus so early. Hmmm, and I can end up eating a lot after a race.
Anxiety: I always feel nervous before a race. Always. I can even get myself worked up about a workout. I can feel my blood pressure running a little high just writing about race anxiety (really). I get the stomach butterflies thing so bad that it’s hard to choke down any food or water. Actually, that’s the main reason I decided to find a pre-race food that is easy to digest but also that I like a lot, so I can choke it down. Pop tarts seem to fit the bill for me. Plus, I can carry them anywhere and they don’t require any special preparation - you just open the package and eat them.
I try to practice managing pre-race anxiety. For instance, on those thankfully rare occassions that I awake with an unexpected high blood sugar, I take advantage of the opportunity to try dosing extra insulin and then running. I’ve found that anything over 130 for a morning blood sugar (I usually wake up around 75 to 95) will take a little bit of extra insulin if I want to eat the same pre-run food.
So, my usual pattern in the morning for a long run is 1 unit of R (it gives me just the right coverage for running long) and 9 units of Lantus when I wake up (which usually pans out to be 2 hours before my long run) and coffee. Then, 45-60 minutes before my long run, I eat one pop tart. If my blood sugar was running low, feels lower than usual, or I’m getting started more quickly than usual, I’ll eat one and a half pop tarts (or if I’ve had a couple days in a row where my blood sugar has dropped earlier than usual in my run).
If my blood sugar was higher than usual, I’ll take some humalog or novolog with the R: about 120-130 I’ll take what I call a trace; about 130-150 a half unit; 150-200 a half unit and only 3/4 pop tart eaten more like 30 minutes before my run; over 200 a half unit plus a trace more R and the whole pop tart but closer to 30 minutes before my run. It’s not a formula set in stone because sometimes I just have a “feeling” that I need to do something a little bit different, but it’s pretty close to that. Oh, and I keep the Lantus dosing the same, though.
On race morning, I try to stick with my normal routine for any old long run, but if I’m going to be up for more than two hours before the race, I almost always have to dip into a little bit of humalog or novolog so I can drink some coffee. But, I try to keep things in that two hour window as much as possible.
Other thoughts: For short races, like 5Ks, throw all of this out the window! Well, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. For a 5K, I pretty much have to take the half unit extra even with a normal morning blood sugar and then take a whole extra unit just before the race. I think it’s because something short and fast like a 5K puts my metabolism into some whole other system.
I’m sure I’ll think of other things to add. If anyone has something to add, feel free. I think we can all benefit from each other’s experiences. Personally, I love learning what everyone else’s tricks are.
Happy trails and speedy racing!
Missy
Feeling Recovered
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Here’s a photo of Serge, me, and Jill on the day before the Umstead race. At least I feel recovered now from my bonk at Umstead. I’m still a little irritated with myself for making a mistake like that - I’ve been doing this long enough that I should know better than to take in too little fluid and food. But, some days things go south and we just have to keep moving forward. We went down to the beach for a couple days and that helped me finish the mental part of recovery.
At least I feel great now and the week of down time has me mentally refreshed as well. I ran a workout yesterday morning and it went well. I ran a long warm up and then did 10 x road mile repeats with a 75-90 second recovery jog: 6:39, 6:40, 6:37, 6:37, 6:36, 6:36, 6:36, 6:36, 6:36, 6:28. My blood sugar was 114 before my cool down. The pace felt okay, I’d say medium-fast if that makes any sense, and I felt great by the evening. I must have been a little more tired that I thought, though, as I fell asleep for pretty much the entire second half of the game last night. Oops.
I’ll run long on Wednesday and then run a tempo on Saturday depending on how my legs feel. It’s a pretty simple schedule: workout Monday, long Wednesday, tempo or local race Saturday. That’s what I love about Spring running, though - low maintenance schedule, lots of daylight, good temps, less mud on the trails, and happy thoughts.
I’m planning to jump into another ultra within the next month or two. I guess there are two main reasons to jump into another one so quickly. First, I’m still in great shape and I didn’t blow myself out at Umstead. Second, I’ve found for myself that I can’t let a bad race sit in my head without doing something to erase it or I’ll develop a whole lot of race anxiety the next time. I guess it’s that old adage of getting right back on the horse that threw you. I know that not everyone works that way, but my brain does.
On another note, I have something that I’ve been playing around with and thought I’d mention it here and see what people think. I’ve had several people tell me that I should write a book about my experiences with running and diabetes and to share what I’ve learned about all of this. So, I’ve been thinking about it a lot and trying to figure out what kind of format would work, what audience to address, what things to focus on, etc. I guess if I did it, my inclination would be to blend a lot of the tangible things I’ve learned about training and about diabetes into what I guess I’d call (for lack of a better way to explain it) “my story.” Anyway, I’ll throw that out there and see what people think. Let me know if you have some thoughts - you can send an email or you can just post your thoughts here if you want - either way. Thanks ahead of time!
Happy trails everybody!!
Missy
Disappointment at Umstead
Sunday, March 28, 2010
This is the kind of column that any runner hates to write. I dropped out of the 50 miler at Umstead yesterday. The race is run on a 12.5 mile loop, so 4 loops for the 50 and 8 loops for the 100. I dropped out after 3 loops or 37.5 miles. The short of it is that I didn’t take in enough carbs and didn’t take in enough fluid, so at 37.5 miles I had a blood sugar in the 40 and was absoutely spent. I had been fighting the dropping blood sugar for 25 miles and in the last 3 or so miles of that 3rd loop, I just could not get it back up.
I’m disappointed. I’m not as down about it, though, as I would have expected. I was running fine up to about 34 miles. True, I was struggling to keep my blood sugar up, but I wasn’t feeling the detrimental effects of it until around mile 34. That’s when the bottom fell out.
I went through the first loop in a little under an hour and 38 minutes, took about a minute and a half to grab what I needed for the second loop, ran the second loop in just a tad over an hour and 38, took 4 minutes to eat poptarts and grab what I needed, was running about the same pace (would go a little faster and a little slower so some variability) and then hit 10 miles a couple minutes slow due to a quick pit stop. Then it took me 26 minutes to finish that lap at about an hour and 46 minutes, which put me at 5:07 total time at that point (I should have been well under 5 hours easily).
I spent 7 minutes with Bob helping me try everything - dex liquid, coke, poptarts, red bull … it wasn’t working and I still felt slightly confused, exhausted, and a little bit dizzy. Bob asked me, “Do you think you can finish?” “No.” So, that was it. He walked over to let the race staff know I was out. And then I had the best hotdog I’ve ever eaten in my life! After the poptarts and stuff as well as the hotdog, I was sure my blood sugar would have rebounded way, way up: 118. Hmmmm.
My blood sugar finally went up to 209 later in the afternoon after I ate some Bojangles chicken and some other stuff with only 2 units of insulin, but a couple more units brought it right back down. My glycogen stores were obviously totally wiped out. But, I never had any problems with an upset tummy. I mention the tummy thing because that will help me explain what I did wrong yesterday.
So … what did I do wrong? In a nutshell, I didn’t take in enough fluid and food. My pace was fine. I went out with my friend, Serge, and we ran along chatting and catching up on things for the first loop. I know I was running well within myself as Serge and I were telling jokes and laughing and working hard to hold each other back. Second loop, same as the first in terms of pacing. But, I started to notice right at the beginning of the second loop that my blood sugar was running lower than usual. I went through extra jelly beans, some powergel chew thingies, and some cookies. It was still running low. And, you know the rest of that story now.
I’ve struggled from time to time with an upset stomach on longer races, usually an upper GI thing with nausea, but sometimes lower GI as well. After a lot of discussions with some runners, some exercise phys people, and my doctors, we all decided that it was probably related to an acid balance shift which would require taking a bit more insulin. I practiced this and sure enough it fixed the problem. It toook some work to get all of the other elements reshaped for longer runs, but I felt pretty confident that I had it worked out. My long run paces improved rather dramatically, going from 1:35ish for 12 mile loops to 1:27 to 1:29 for the same loop running.
Races are different beasts than training runs, though, and this was my first race with this new regimen. In the back of my mind, I knew it was possible that race day would be different enough that this regimen would cave on me. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t horribly upset with how things went. The extra insulin demanded a lot more fluid and carb fuel on race day than I realized. See, on training runs, my stops are longer with blood sugar checks, making training notes, tinkering with shoes and stuff, petting the cat because she’s acting needy, etc. That extra time between my training run loops really does make a difference because it adds a significant rest time and a significant amount of time for some extra glycogen to dump into my system.
Okay. What’s the moral of the story? I would say that this failed race actually counts as a test run and now I have a better understanding of what I need to do and what I need to work on. In a nutshell, I need to work on refueling.
I’ll still take some time off this week from any kind of training and just do some walking, some yardwork, and maybe some elliptical stuff. I need the mental break, too.
Missy