End of Week 9. Layers: Onion vs. Parfait

Shrek and Donkey are arguing about layers... Shrek insists that ogres are like onions, with lots of layers. Donkey suggests that not everyone likes onions, but cakes have layers, and a parfait has layers. Then, maybe the funniest line in the movie happens, as Donkey says, "Have you ever met a person, you say, 'Let's get some parfait,' they say, 'Hell no, I don't like no parfait'? Parfaits are delicious!"

So, I did not post anything from last week, because there were no results... I've been sick with stuff (that's the technical medical term, by the way), and sort of gave up. But, I found my motivation again, and got "back on the horse" this week. And I needed some layers of my own... it was a bit nippy this morning, the the 11-12 F range. So, I layered up with a bicycle jersey (long sleeves), then a micro fleece, then a thick fleece coat. Found a better hat than my ball cap, and headed out for a bit of a walk/run.

Because I had been out of commission for a while, I decided to take it a little easier in terms of intensity, but still wanted a decent work out. I decided to just go farther... So I did two warm-up loops, then a run, then two walking loops, etc. Went over 30 minutes, which was exciting.

And speaking of exciting, a stretch of the trail had all kinds of crazy ice formations... So after I finished, I went back for the camera. Here's what I discovered:


The photo leading the entry is the portion of trail that had the fun icy stuff. As I walked or jogged along, my feet kept breaking through icy leaves, almost like little cave-ins. I pulled some of the detritus back, and that's the first picture, above... the gap between the snow-covered leaves and the ground had a lot of moisture, and that moisture clung to the bottom of the leaves, eventually freezing into little fuzzy stalactites.

The second photo above is what composed the portion of trail... delicate, icy strands that formed as moisture from the ground expanded on freezing, and passed through the perforated clay soil. You can see particles of clay trapped in the ice. If I were to squeeze the collection of strands, they would break apart into many fine tendrils.

The final photo is nearby to the portion of trail, and explains all the moisture! It's the edge of a still-wet stream (despite several nights with single digit temperatures), whose surface has an interesting "flash frozen" star pattern on it.

Lap Times
Loop 1 (walk) : 4:49.2
Loop 2 (walk) : 4:41.3
Loop 3 (jog) : 2:56.8
Loop 4 (walk) : 4:42.2
Loop 5 (jog) : 3:21.5
Loop 6 (walk) : 4:49.9
Loop 7 (cool down walk) : 6:01.8

Total distance: 2.8 km, Total time: 31:21.9, Best mile: 15:41.8
Weekly weigh-in: 310 pounds    <-- Hell, yeah!
Average power: 476 Watts
Heart rate following final run: 165
Heart rate five minutes after cool-down walk: 111

End of Week 7 - and Mixed Metaphors

Mixed metaphors... done well if done intentionally, but usually done poorly because the person simply doesn't realize what they're saying. Here are two I've heard recently...

1) It was an eleventh hour, drop back and punt situation. Not only is this a mixed metaphor (taking the notion of completing a task in the 11th hour, or with very little time to spare, and confusing it with the notion of using 4th down to punt away the football, signifying a situation in which you are temporarily ceding control to another group, or giving up entirely), but the ideas themselves are completely disparate! An 11th hour situation is one in which you marshal your reserves and push toward the deadline... A drop back and punt situation is one in which you are giving up now in hopes of regaining the momentum later.

2) Two to one, half a dozen to the other. This one makes me laugh every time I hear the person say it... I'm not exactly sure what is meant, because it is nonsensical as is, but I think the confusion here is between suggesting there are "two" available choices, and that one of those choices is to call it a half dozen. We all know this should really be "six to one, half a dozen to the other," and it suggests that one person may use the number six, while another person may use the phrase "half a dozen" and they really mean the same thing... We'd use it to suggest, "Hey, you know, we may be using different words, but we're describing the same thing."

I know it shouldn't be funny to me when someone screws up trying to sound learned... but it is. I'm just a terrible person that way.

So, the walk/run today was very, very cold and wet... the course has managed to become almost swamp-like in places... and the air temperature this morning was about 27 F... so as I broke through thin layers of crusty ice, my feet got soaked in cold, gooey mud. I'm not complaining... I started to like it after a lap or two. It was a bit of suffering that I was able to transform into joy! My daughter, though, has insisted that if I were more careful, I could avoid the dampness along the course... so I invited her to come out with me next time! We'll see how she fares.

Because I missed last week, and most of this week I was out with a serious cold, I did an 11th hour drop back and punt kind of thing and reduced my distance back down to 2 clicks, or 2K if you prefer... two to one, half a dozen to the other.

Lap Times
Loop 1 (walk) : 4:19.4
Loop 2 (jog) : 3:05.6
Loop 3 (walk) : 4:27.0
Loop 4 (jog) : 2:57.4
Loop 5 (walk) : 4:22.8

Total distance: 2 km, Total time: 19:12.2, Best mile: 14:45.2
Weekly weigh-in: 320 pounds
Average power: 626 Watts
Heart rate following final run: 165
Heart rate five minutes after cool-down walk: 108

End of Week 6 - The agony of de feet

Well, just for disclosure's sake, there are no results for this week. I injured my left foot a few days ago, tripping over a pile of wood cut ends near the barn project, and the impact set up a "trauma" in my left big toe. Then, yesterday I got dehydrated working outside all day (I keep forgetting that you have to drink, especially in the cold), and coupled with the toe trauma, this led to an onset of gout in the left toe this morning. Yes, "gout," the condition that makes you sound like you live in the 15th century...

Gout is a form of arthritis. Specifically, it is the crystallization of uric acid in a joint, typically the great toe (i.e., big toe), elbow, or wrist. The toe is especially susceptible because of the great stresses and strains that act upon it; the great toe serves as the single point of propulsion for the human gait. There is evidence that one can be more prone to gout depending on various factors, including diet, trauma, hydration, and genetic history.

Dietary considerations involve consumption of too much red meat. I haven't had a great deal of red meat in the last few weeks, so that's out. But, certainly, I qualified under trauma and hydration! Hydration plays a role because as the base amount of water in your system decreases, by default the concentration (i.e., amount of stuff dissolved in some unit of water) of all minerals and compounds in your blood will go up. So, when you get dehydrated the concentration of sodium goes up, as does the concentration of uric acid. Uric acid is a cellular waste product that is filtered by the kidneys. Unfortunately, if the concentration of uric acid gets too high, it will crystallize... forming sharp edges that cause inflammation in the joint it chose to sit on and form crystals.

So, for me, the treatment is two-fold. I drink a lot of water to get well hydrated, and I take serious anti-inflammatory meds to keep things in check. This strategy usually means I only have to suffer most of one day, rather than the three-to-four days that used to be typical for me (before I understood what was happening chemically). Sadly, that day happened to be today, when I should have been out on the course doing some timed walking/running. C'est la vie, n'est pas?

I did have to spend time on my feet, trying to close in the remaining parts of the barn before real, serious snow starts flying... so I was quite thankful for my orthotic inserts from the VA, the ones with the band of carbon fiber running along the great toe line, that help support the propulsive efforts of that joint. Although, to be honest, I cheated and just limped about not flexing my left foot at all!

Hopefully, I'll be able to get back into things later in the week.

The Turkey Trot

Well, we're up in Fort Kent for Thanksgiving... a couple of inches of snow and ice are on the ground, and the temperatures are their typical 10 degrees (F) cooler than down in western Maine... but I love it up here, in my homeland.

So, as we pull in yesterday afternoon, my Dad asks me, "Hey, now that you're a runner, do you want to go into town with me tomorrow for the Turkey Trot?" After I laughed at being called a runner (but had that secret pride nonetheless, especially from my Dad, who has been a runner and Nordic skier for the last 30+ years... trains with Olympians... he likes to run), I decided to go along with him, my brother Pete, and two of my nephews to the Turkey Trot 5K Charity Walk/Run.

The charity part of the event is to raise funds for the sports program at the Fort Kent Elementary School, which is fine by me. The 5K part was a bit daunting... Remember, my END goal for this blog is to get up to 5K, and the farthest I've run so far is one very slow mile back on Veterans Day. Well, so what? I figured I'd just walk by myself and let the fit members of the family do the run.

And that's pretty much what happened, except my Dad decided to walk with me. We had a great time talking about various carpentry projects he's doing, the horse barn I'm building, his ridiculous interactions with the Maine State Department of Education (I'll explain in some future post), fun things happening at my work, and just the sundry things we never get to regularly talk about because we live six hours apart and neither of us like talking on the phone much. It was the best 51 minutes I've had in a long time.

So, like I said, we did the 5K at a walk in 51 minutes, which is about my regular pace, and it was a great time, for which I'm quite thankful.

End of Week 5 (or, how to run WITH a cold)

There is a certain lack of elegance to the most basic bodily functions. These are made especially inelegant when you happen to have a cold. As I had during the run today...

Before I go any further, I should admit to having grown up surrounded by potato fields and potato farmers in the northern reaches of Maine (in the very lovely town of Fort Kent - no sarcasm, I really enjoyed it). As such, you learn certain, let's call them "short cuts," when dealing with having, for purposes of this example, to blow one's nose. One simply plugs one nostril with a finger by applying inward pressure on the fleshy bit of the nose, and then takes a deep breath through the mouth, closes the mouth, and exhales as rapidly as possible through what will hopefully soon be a cleared nostril (the one you are not holding your finger up against). Repeat with the other nostril.

Now, it should seem obvious that performing this maneuver while wearing flip-flops is verbotten. Or should be, in decent company. But obvious things are not always evident to me... so I had to learn this particular lesson the hard way. Well, technically it was the "soft and gooey" way, but I'm sure the point has been made.

So, running with a cold... I don't recommend it. My dad swears that running will help "burn off" any kind of cold you may have, but all I really experienced was discomfort and a nasty taste at the back of my throat. Regardless, I had already decided to up the distance, so I did manage to complete a total of 2.4km today, and that is it's own little victory!

Lap Times
Loop 1 (walk) : 4:33.2
Loop 2 (jog) : 3:07.8
Loop 3 (3:1, jog:walk) : 3:29.2
Loop 4 (walk) : 4:39.8
Loop 5 (jog) : 3:08.9
Loop 6 (walk) : 4:43.5

Total distance: 2.4 km, Total time: 23:42.4, Best mile: 14:19.1
Weekly weigh-in: 319 pounds
Average power: 636.6 Watts
Heart rate following final run: 175
Heart rate five minutes after cool-down walk: 114

End of Week 4

The ground is still waterlogged with the heavy rains we received about a week ago. In the several low areas around the course, there is some standing water, but mostly the moisture lurks in the form of soggy moss and wet grass atop a rich stew of black, viscous mud.

My MT910 trail shoes, described last month, are up to the challenge in terms of grip and support, even in these messy conditions... but what they lack is a certain ability to disallow liquid dirt from getting in through the cool and airy mesh linings... Ah, well. Can't have it all. Although, I used to sport GoreTex socks as part of my bicycling kit, but I imagine they'd be somewhat uncomfortable for running. If conditions worsen, I'll dig them out and give it a go. On the other hand, there's a certain je ne sais quoi to having your foot plunge into freezing cold muck... motivates you to keep warm by running faster!

I does seem I'm getting a little faster... and I want these evolutions to be at least 20 solid minutes of effort... so I'll have no choice next week but to add some extra distance. We'll try by adding one extra lap each of walking and jogging, bringing the total distance (for next time) up to 2.8 km... Over half way to the 5K goal!

Lap Times
Loop 1 (walk) : 4:12.6
Loop 2 (jog) : 3:02.7
Loop 3 (walk) : 4:29.3
Loop 4 (jog) : 2:51.6     <-- Personal Best!
Loop 5 (walk) : 4:40.0

Total distance: 2 km, Total time: 19:16.2, Best mile: 14:36.2
Weekly weigh-in: 319 pounds
Average power: 622.2 Watts
Heart rate following final run: 174
Heart rate five minutes after cool-down walk: 117

Throw the Change Up!

So, when I used to ride my bicycle a lot, I had a particular training schedule I used when getting ready for a big ride, especially centuries. Monday was an easy spin day, nothing in the big ring. Tuesday was sprint day, all-out efforts for increasing distances allowing full recovery between each effort. Wednesday was a distance day, trying to pedal at least 75% of the upcoming weekend ride, but done slowly. Thursday was interval day, 95% all-out efforts on hills or out of the saddle, never fully recovering between. Friday was another easy spin. Saturday was an easy spin with a couple of sprints. Sunday was the big ride, going for distance in the best time manageable. Then it started back with Monday...

Why do I mention this? I'm running now, not biking... but I realized today that, following my successful one mile attempt from Wednesday, it might be time to start introducing alternate training elements into my three days a week.

Early this morning, then, I set out to do something I hadn't  done since high school ski team practice... I was going to go do Fartleks! Basically, a Fartlek is similar to doing intervals or sprint training. You simply vary your pace throughout the course of your run or walk. (If you really want to try this technique, this article has more details).

The way that I did it today was to warm up with one lap, then on each subsequent lap I walked 250m, then started a jog, then sprinted the final 20m. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It was fun, actually. I think it's important to have variety in a training program so that you don't become mindless to what you're doing. So, I'm going to take one of my two non-timed days each week to do something like this... whether they're Fartleks or some other technique. Viva la difference!