You have not ran far enough if you have not lost a toenail doing it.

Have you ever thrown your car into reverse at a red light to mess with the person behind you? Yesterday I was driving along the main road and a car from a side road turned left into the turning lane directly to my left. This is by far my biggest annoyance from other drivers. First off that is dangerous, turning into the icy lane RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Do you expect me to get over for you? So this particular car drives a quarter block in the turning lane and I'm right next to them. On goes their blinker, they want over. Excuse me, normally I am very polite on the road. But not for you, one who nearly side swiped me. So they brake and slow into the lane behind me. We both come up to the next red light and stop with her behind me. I'm annoyed with her, so throw the Explorer into reverse. I can see her face and it was pretty funny. She totally was not expecting that and was quite shocked. Priceless look, I would probably freak out a bit too, not gonna lie.

Obviously by my lack of posts in the last few weeks they have been pretty slow. Here is a post simply so you do not forget about me :)

I have not done dedicated swim training since my HIM was complete summer of 2008. However with a full Ironman on the schedule for this summer I have to get back into the pool! I have been swimming a lot more lately then I ever have, and some of it has been under the eye of Jason Melby. He is acting as coach for a "Tri Swim" group on Sundays. This was the first time I have had someone actually look at my form and give suggestions.

What he said was that my form looked ok other then I should be rotating my upper body more and my arms are crossing my center line. More rotation allows for more reach. Also the rotation takes some pressure off my arms and shoulders and puts more on my core muscles. You have heard of chicken legs, I could say I have chicken arms. That really doesnt make any sense. Anyway...to use my arms less is very much appreciated.

Another huge tip was to cut back on stroke count. He had the class swim some laps and count strokes and I was pretty high at about 25. Jason instructed us to glide more. With that front hand outstretched use it to feel when you slow down. As soon as that happens, engage the pull for another stroke. Now I am doing 20 or 21 stokes per length, compared to 24 or 26. After a few times in the pool I am now at the same speed i was for the short sprint triathlons a few years ago. The kick is though, I am doing it at a much much lower exertion, something I could keep up for much longer the distance.

Unfortunately a couple swims last week both had to be cut short because of the most painful headaches I have ever had in my life. I have only gotten headaches like this a few times in my life. Barb suggested with more rotation I am perhaps turning my neck more. Who knows. This week I stopped doing the 10 lap warm up and the headaches have gone away.

There are a lot of jokes out there about toe nails and running. The title of this particular post is an example, as is "toe nails are just nature's way of telling you that you are not running far enough." or "you know you are a true marathoner if you have lost toe nails and told people it's not that bad." I have even read about an ultra marathoner who had all of his toe nails removed so he did not have to worry about losing them. My latest victim is my left pinky toe nail. This happens if they get too long, the nail rubs against the shoe. The little guy didn't even have a chance.

My IT band has been injured from too much counter clockwise running up on the track. It is the same side that started hurting from the Jack 15 training with too much running on the same side of the road. I have decided to stop running up there for the sake of..well being able to run.

I believe for the upcoming season I am going to being practicing Low heart Rate Training. This is based off of the training Mark Allen did later in is career. When he was very successful. The idea is to find your heart rate that is the high end of fat burning, and aerobic. Train under this number. Do this instead of the "no pain no gain" training where you go hard almost every time. Eventually when training at a lower heart rate your pace will get faster over time. Allen claims when he started he was doing over 8 minute miles and within four months he was doing just over 7 minute miles at the same heart rate. After a year of this training he was doing sub 6 at that same heart rate.

A closer look at the year goes like this. The first three months of the year are trained exclusively under this HR, called the Patience Phase. this period would end when the occasional speed/hr test indicated that adaption is no longer occurring from the aerobic training.

The second phase was the Speed-Work Phase. Volume went down slightly to include a bike speed workout and a run speed workout each week.

Next is the Push Phase. This is usually before the big event of the year and includes four hard weeks and a four week taper. This will include a bit more speed work and higher volume. During the taper volume is dramatically decreased however at the same time keeping the intensity up. Of course find what works for you with a taper. I have not done enough big tapers to see what I need to consistently do.

One thing I am looking forward to is how cool recording and keeping track of HR, speed, weight lost, etc will be. Hopefully I see that speed increasing!

This type of training reduces risk of injury and burnout since the training is much lighter on your body. Less totally hammering it every session. This week only 12 miles will be done in four short three mile segments at an average HR of about 161 beats per minute. I am slightly concerned with how this will effect my Brookings Marathon time since I was planning to qualify for Boston and now am reduced to doing 12 miles this week at an average pace of about 8:06 per minute.

That pace is my 3 mile pace on the Woodway treadmill at the Wellness Center running at a 159 average HR. Outside or up on the track my pace would normally be faster at that HR or my HR would be faster at that pace. For some reason I believe the Woodway is more difficult then the track or the other treadmills. However even if it is harder then the track, it still works for comparison over the long run. Plus it is the best treadmill for HR training, so I'll use it.

My run on Monday and Tue were pretty identical. The IT band pain was a dull ache that slowly built up during the three miles. Never to more then a dull nag, like someone pushing their finger on my knee. Thursday I swam a half mile and tried to do some stationary biking. I think because I was doing intervals and sometimes the resistance would go way down my legs would be spinning at a high cadence, my IT band started acting up. Sharp pains started flaring up. Sort of what I would imagine a knife being driven into the side of my leg would feel like. After two or three of these I decided to call it quits for the evening. I probably was on the bike for 10, no more then 15 minutes. I did not expect today's run to go well, or even happen because of yesterday. However I woke up and spent the day relatively pain free. Surprisingly Friday's run was more pain free then the other two. Actually almost 100% pain free, only a few times did I get the IT pain, and it was not a almost constant ache like the other times. It would start and then go away. I finished the run feeling pretty good.

Basically I am starting over with my running, starting at zero. Or, 12 I guess. That is my mileage for this week. Next week I will add 10%, or 1.2 miles. Being injured right now I need to be super careful and will stick with the 10% rule.

This year I would also like to implement some low glycogen training into my schedule. Through distance work your body will adapt to using fat for fuel instead of glycogen. This is a good thing to become efficient at because your body unfortunately only has enough glycogen stores for two or three hours of running. The less glycogen you use, the longer you will last. Now some literature seems to support the "train low race high" theory. Doing your first workout like normal except avoiding any post workout recovery. A couple hours later again do a workout. This will not be your best PR session, since you will be low on glycogen from the first session. This second workout is simply to train your body's fuel system. Simply doing a lower effort bike or run will do, just get that body working on low fuel. It may not be the most enjoyable workout, but it will hopefully be worth it in the long run.

I have been doing very well at avoiding processed sugar lately. Really the only carbohydrates I consume are from fruit and the occasional bread or pasta I eat. This is to the point where a Dumb Dumb sucker gave me an upset stomach last week. I had breakfast earlier that morning, probably three hours before the sucker. I went to Hyvee to get a few things and they have teh suckers there where you go through the checkouts. I grabbed a blue berry one and within ten minutes my stomach hurt.

However once a week I have a single bad meal. I eat super clean throughout the week. But when Friday night rolls around it's another story. Two Fridays ago I rented a movie and ate about 1500 calories of cookie dough. Last Friday I bought some Turtle Brownies, you know the ones with caramel and walnuts. When most people binge it's a "I'm fat and depressed" binge. With me it is more like a "omg I'm so skinny I can't help it binge." Defiance and bought some Oreos. There was a coupon for free Oreo Cakesters so I picked up a box of those too :) No wonder my butt won't go away :p

I started a bike savings fund last week as well. There is a great site called SmartyPig.com that is made for savings. You create a goal and it allows you to put money into an account at the bank they are based at. I put my goal at 3 years to save $3,000 dollars for a bike. If I save 20 dollars each week for three years that is almost three grand. Who knows if that is what the money will go to, but I will keep telling myself that. The end of the goal would also be about the time I would get out of graduate school. Anyway I would like to build up a bike myself that will last me five to seven years with minimal change with the components. I do not want to purchase something that will need replacing each two years.

Some bike porn for everyone...

My current ride, a late 90's Trek Y-Foil

And for the frame I would like to build up in the future and ride for a long period of time, the BP Stealth the the most likely candidate. They are currently being produced so I would not have to buy an older frame. Directly from the company they go for 1200 I believe, which is very reasonable for a carbon frame. I could probably find one for less on Ebay.

And here is the Lotus frame. If I could get one of these on Ebay that would be so cool. However they are so rare and sought after that getting a hold of one would be unlikely.

Here are three other options. The Hotta in red is pretty rare but they are around. I have seen a few of those Giants on ebay so getting one is possible. And the last bike is a beam bike from Zipp. They are probably the most common of the alternative frame bikes. Not currently being produced but there's many out there.

Also for the component gruppo I would like to go with Sampson. Rather then the mass produced Shimano, SRAM, or Campagnolo components I would like to go with a more local manufacturer. He seems like a really down to earth guy and would be great to buy from I think. However that route could end up being more expensive because I will not be able to Ebay last year's used model for 25% off. Like how when the new Shimano and the big companies release a new line up or modify an existing one the old ones are usually reduced in price and often you can find people selling them on ebay to get funds for the new version.

;ljkn

Whoooo. I need a rest after all those pictures. Getting kinda hot in here....

To average 6:52 I'm going to have to run 6:30...

I never thought of this, but recently read it in an astronomy magazine. Rainbows, like vampires, do not have a reflection. When you see a rainbow you are seeing the refracted light from water droplets in the air. So if you turn a mirror to it and see a rainbow in the mirror, you are actually seeing a completely different one. The rainbow you see only exists on the back of your eye, only at that very point in space. Anyone else viewing the same water droplets are actually seeing a completely different rainbow from a different angle. Very cool :)

Monday I ran 13.1 at a pace of 6:59 minutes per mile. I started at 7:30 per mile on the dreadmill and increased it by .1 mph each mile. It probably would have been easier if I would have just ran the 13.1 at 7 minute pace instead of running easy for a while and then finishing at 6:30 per mile but it felt good.

After that I did not feel like I was done so did 100 front squats ass to grass with the 35 lb bar and then did 2 barefoot miles up on the track.

As an ultra distance athlete I have to teach my body and my mind to run when I simply do not want to. To run when I am lacking nutrients, strength, sleep, etc. Monday's run was done on nothing more than 3/4th a bottle of water. No nutrients were taken in during the run. Generally if someone is doing a workout longer than an hour some type of nutrition is consumed. I like to try to avoid this. I feel not taking in nutrition during a strenuous workout will make me mentally stronger since it does make the run a bit more of a struggle. That along with doing 100 35lb squats and doing two barefoot miles up on the track....that was tough. Oh boy, those two miles were a struggle.

Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks. The sweat from the run diluted and really spread out the blood, I did not even notice it until I looked down while doing the last two up on the track. Yeah, I'm hardcore, just reminding everyone :p It did really hurt when I got into the shower afterwards though...

The treadmill tends to really shred up the bottom of my foot if I go too long without a long run on it. I can sometimes feel the heat through the Vibrams from the friction between the platform and the belt if I have it going fast enough. Also I believe the movement of the track and my foot in opposite directions causes movement and a great deal of friction between my Vibrams and my skin, causes blisters and lots of wear. Well after going on vacation to Rapid City and seeing Desi for a week and not running, then jumping on the treadmill for a 91 minute half marathon really shredded my soles. I probably drained three blisters, seriously.

With my nutrition lacking during many of my actual runs. My post run nutrition is very good. I always try to get a shake in as soon as possible and a good solid meal eaten within an hour or two of getting home.

Kyle Nickels is teaching a brick class that I may try to make it to each week. I believe it is a 40 minute spin session and then they do some type of workout up on the track. It would be a good way to get some biking in. If they have a deal on cardio cards once school starts I may pick one up.

Jason Melby is also doing a new Masters swim type class Sunday evenings. For my new availability at work I am going to make me unavailable during the class time so I have no excuses but to make it to the pool.

I had someone msg me on facebook who I have never met before, but she saw a post of mine on the Vibram facebook page and had some questions for me about them. I was also talking to someone recently about my Vibrams, cannot remember who it was actually, but the same thing came up about landing softer and the lack of cushion in the FiveFingers. Ok this is actually the FIRST thing to come up in almost every conversation about the Vibrams. People think it must be painful to run because there is no support and cushion in them. However the exact opposite is true. Shoes block sensory information that your feet and body would normally get from making contact with the ground. I distinctly remember how when running shod as speed would increase so would how hard my feet would slam into the ground. Now however wearing Vibrams the faster I go the smoother my stride becomes and the softer I contract the ground.

Wednesday my run was just brutal. Seriously I cannot remember a worse "easy" run. It was supposed to be eight miles but at three I decided to cut it back and stopped at five. I was running on a treadmill and my body just got super hot. I was sweating like crazy, and my stomach felt like some food was going to come up, so I called it quits. Not sure exactly what happened, no explanation, it was horrible.

Luckily Thursday's run went very well. Five miles at a pace of 6:45. The last two runs have been in my new Vibram FiveFingers Classics. They feel super heavy and stiff compared to my old model which is at 775 miles at the moment. I am afraid they may be too large of a size. Too large as in maybe 1/5th of an inch, super close. I have not been able to tighten them all the way yet though because of the strap design. It is a draw string that goes around the top of them and if it is pulled too far it hangs off the back. Hopefully just cutting this will allow me to tighten it fully and be able to run in them. I remember when I was first getting into the old pair of VFF I had the same blister issues and now they are perfect, so in time this new pair should be just fine.

Desi is all moved into her place in Mexico now (near VeraCruz) until Jan1st. She does not have a cell phone to use there so Skype will be just about the only way to talk to her now. Unfortunately her computer seems to be having issues with the webcam, I hope that gets figured out soon. The son of the family she is staying with uses Skype. Desi talked to him all the time here in the states so hopefully until her's is up and running she can jump on his computer. It is really tough not being able to talk to her between classes or when one of us is on a break at work. I keep my computer on at night now so if she wakes up and gets on her laptop in the morning I will hear her calling me and I can say good morning to her.

For as long as I have been a cyclist and switched to distance running getting in a good hammerfest workout has never been a problem. The hard part is taking those rest days. Even when I get to a rest day, I usually end up doing some lifting or getting on an elliptical, or anything besides running. That folks, is not a rest day. That is cross training, and there is a difference. Here is a page that every endurance athlete should read. It does a good job explaining that your actual training session does make you stronger. Your fitness increases during rest periods. Something I need start practicing more. Today for was supposed to be a rest day but I decided to do three miles since I cut a previous run short because of a super massive blister. After reading this I changed my mind and did not run. Yes I did 20 minutes on an elliptical and maybe 15 of lifting, but come on. If I would have done that run it probably would have been three 6:30's.

Last I have updated my 2010 race schedule. I have my three A races, the Brookings Marathon, Vineman Ironman, and Lean Horse Ultramarathon. However there are two more marathons out in the hills and now I found one taking place in a town near Sioux Falls. The entry fees for all of these are low. The Viborg one is only 50 dollars and it's only an hour drive away. A friend is doing the first Deadwood marathon with me so I could always carpool out there with him. However it would be more likely I would take a few more days off from work and go out there for a little extra time since I could stay at Desi's house for free. It depends on if she can come out with me or not. If she takes on the camp counselor job here again she will unlikely be able to make it out to the race at all.

Thanks so for reading :)

How I overcame ITBS and Plantar Fasciitis

So if you are looking for a quick fix this may not be the article for you. Few things are ever a quick fix when it comes to health and fitness. However, it has been a successful healing for me, so you may get lucky! This is a write up on how it came that I developed both Plantar Fasciitis and Iliotibial Tract Friction Syndrome. Also the important thing, how I am now running faster and farther, pain free. I am hoping with this some insight may be given and perhaps you can see something that will help you.

My IT band first became injured November of 2008. I was increasing my long runs before the inflammation occured. However I thought my ass was covered become I was very diligent with stretching before and after my workouts, and I always did a warmup and a cool down. However it just looked like the stretching and preparation were not enough. I did not run again until the very end of December, taking the time off to focus on finals for school. Nearly two full months off, it was horrible. I remember that my IT band did hurt for a while after starting running but it got better. I did purchase a new pair of shoes but ended up going back to my old worn out ones strangely enough.

Next I developed Plantar Fasciitis in early May 2009. It was really odd how and when it happened. This was right after the time of the four triathlons in three week period and I was running very low mileage during this time. However the weeks before I was running quite a bit. Also I was in a newer pair of shoes again. The last run I did before deciding to take the summer off my white flag went up early at mile 3 and I got a ride home after the run from a friend because I could barely walk. Often it is unknown exactly how these injuries develop, but they do.

So I took nearly the entire summer of 2009 off and focused on cycling. Finally early August I started running again in Vibram Fivefingers. I did roughly 30 slow mile weeks for four weeks and then one night at the end of August I went out and ran 26.2 miles for the hell of it. This was the first time I had felt my PF hurt during a run. The twinge only happened during the tail end of the 26 miles and went away before the run was over.

When I started running again I also began using a night splint, rolling the area on a golf ball, and icing the area. I would go a week in Spearfish and not wear the night splint or do any stretching, and feel absolutely no difference in my plantar fascia. Many people swear by one or all of the treatments I mentioned, I however noticed nothing. I found I was relatively pain free for the most part with our without doing them.

After the 26.2 mile run, for four weeks I did 70 miles a week. This ended with a 31.16 mile out and back. There is a race here where the runners are dropped off in a town 15 miles away and race back to campus. Last year I was dropped off four miles out of town by a friend and ran to the start and back, resulting in 26.2 miles. This time I started from my house and ran to the start and back with everyone. This made the run 31.16 miles. Again I did feel some PF pain a bit towards the end for a mile but it went away quickly.

Currently the only time I will ever feel heel pain is from standing too much in shoes with too much support. Oddly enough the one thing professionals say is to NEVER go without support when you have plantar fasciitis. I had a cashiering job so did a lot of standing. I found after a few hours my PF would start to become agitated. I purchased a pair of insoles to wear, but they did nothing, perhaps even made it worse. I also tried to wear a pair of your regular running shoes, but again the pain just got worse. Finally I tried to do what I was when I ran, go as minimalist as possible. I wore my Puma Speed Cats to work one day. These have no support and are just about totally flat on the bottom. It shocked me to realize that in these shoes I had no PF pain from even an 8 hour shift at work! I had another pair of super flat unsupportive shoes, and they were the same way. However if I wore a pair of one of my shoes with inserts, the pain would come back.

The week after the 31 miles I did get some ITBS pain again. A few times after that run I did go out again on Medary, same road, and do a few runs. Towards the end, 5 or so miles into them, I would get slight IT pain but finish just fine. Afterwards I simply took some time off and took advantage of a holiday to travel and see Desi. Unfortunately I left my Vibrams in Spearfish with her and was without them for a couple weeks, running in my pair of trainers. While running in the shoes the ITBS pain started hurting within a mile or two of the runs and I would cut them short after 3 miles and have to head home. After a couple weeks without the Vibrams I got them back. First run in them, zero ITBS pain. The experience was amazing. I went from getting the twinge within two miles and cutting the run show to not having any pain at all.

This time however, I knew exactly what caused this bout of ITBS and exactly how to fix it. The race took place on paved road out of town, so I did a great deal of training on that road prior to the run. Looking back 60% of the 167 miles I ran before the 31 were on that road with the center line to same side of my body. I suppose the slight incline of the road for 100 miles caused some stress over time.

Now with my Vibrams I was again back in business. All the races were behind me for the year so I had some easier weeks and the training was down a bit. The snow came and another issue arose. Here is South Dakota is gets really cold. As of writing this I am not sure if it has been above 30 for a few weeks. That tends to make long runs, or any running outside at all, very uncomfortable and difficult. Now comes the track problem. First off, the track at my local Wellness Center is horribly designed. 9 laps for a mile and it is almost in a rectangle shape with slightly curved corners. I have ran on smaller tracks before and this has the sharpest corners I have ever seen. And, who makes an odd numbered mile track?!?

Anyway I began to find that if I went for longer than eight or nine miles with my right side on the outside, my IT band would start to hurt. Nine miles is 324 left hand turns. Luckily though all I have to do is jump on a treadmill, run outside, or go the other direction on the track (if it is late and no one else is on there) and the pain instantly goes away. I am going to rant one more time about that track quick. The old building had five lanes I believe and it was kind of understood that the outside lane was for runners so they could go the other direction and switch it up. This new track only has three lanes so that is obviously impossible and also causes walkers to often take all three lanes.

But now after so many miles of running since my return I believe I have finally found what I need to run injury free and successful. I ran for a year and a half and was injured twice for about two months off each time. Now running in the Vibram Five Fingers I am going faster and farther, injury free.

Now if you are feeling any of these pains. Do not go out and switch into minimal shoes and start running again. There is an injury and some time off will be essential, duration based on how much and what hurts. If you have been running in the regular Nike moon boots and switching to minimalist running there should be a transition time as well. You will be using muscles with your new form that have been neglected for years of running. Here is an excellent post on how to make the transition. It refers to barefoot running but the transition is very similar to switching to running in Vibram Fivefingers or XC flats.

The point of minimal running is that it forces a midfoot strike and allows your foot to land how it should. We have been running so for the last 200,000 years and Nike comes along in the last few decades and tells us we are running wrong, I'm not buying it. Here is kind of the flagship article on the subject. Not the first, but one of the best IMO. If you are looking for more, please check this out.

Cliff Notes:

Shoes = injuries

Vibrams = Faster, farther, pain free