A Lazy Saturday...

So here's what I did for "fun" this past Saturday (September 22, 2012) with some friends in Killington, VT at the Spartan Beast race.

Over the course of somewhere between 13 & 14 miles and over a 6000' of vertical ascent (and descent), these are the obstacles we encountered.

I've taken my best guess at weights & distances for the events. Few are likely to be exact, but all are in the ballpark.

Here's a link to my Garmin output of the course.
Here's a link to sign up for a Spartan Race (get a 15% discount with the coupon code EXTOL15)

1. Ditch jumps -- several of 'em filled with water/mud, about 4-5' wide.
2. <unnamed obstacle> -- crawling under some heavy screening. This is where I bent my right thumb backwards and sprained the bejeezus out of it. Yes, less than 15 minutes into the race, I hurt myself.
3. Over unders -- climb over a few 6' walls, through a gap in the walls, and under the walls.
4. Dirt mounds w/ water pits -- more dirt/mud/water. 
5. Vertical cargo -- climb over a 10' tall cargo net that was pretty freely rigged/swinging at the top.
6. Barbed wire high crawl -- strung about 4.5' off the ground for 100' or so in the middle of a single-track trail in the woods.
7. Double 7 foot walls -- Simple as it sounds; two walls to get over.
8. Barbed wire crawl #1 -- This should count as two obstacles since you crawled through probably 10 yards of gravel/rock/mud under barbed wire strung about 18" off the ground to a berm which you crested only to see a muddier & rockier 10 yards of the same in front of you. Did I mention they were spraying water over this obstacle.
9. 2 short walls -- these came within the first 3 miles and were about 6' tall and pretty easily navigated.
10. Monkey bars -- Just like it sounds, maybe 15' of monkey bars to get through. Saw quite a few burpees done here as the penalty for those who couldn't do it.
11. Trench crawl - waist-deep water in a 5' deep trench with barbed wire strung overhead. More of a squat-walk than a crawl.
12. Traverse wall -- 15' of lateral movement on a wall with awkwardly placed blocks for hands and feet. Participants were required to get from one end to the other like a rock climber using only the blocks.
13. Rope climb #1 -- Wade into a 2' deep pool of water and climb a rope about 15' up to ring a bell, then descend. Lots of burpees seen here, too, and a few impressive back-flops from dudes who got about 10' up before losing it.
14. 40° water swim -- this & the next one go together and represent the only obstacle I did not attempt. I am a very poor swimmer on a good day. The Racer's Guide said they would have PFDs on the shore for those who were poor swimmers. They didn't have on shore when I got there, so I burpeed out.
15. Tarzan swing -- After swimming maybe 200' in 41° F water, you climbed a rope ladder about 10', and then were expected to swing from rope-to-rope for about 10' (5-6 ropes), ring a bell, drop into the water, and swim 200' to shore. If you failed, you swam about 300' to the opposite shore to do burpees. I didn't hear a lot of bell-ringing here!
16. Water station -- AKA Lemonade Stand. No obstacle, just a re-hydration point. This was about the 4 mile point.
17. Memorization poster -- Based on the last 2 digits of your bib, you were given a number/phrase to memorize with the expectation you'd have to recite it later. My phrase was India-950-7200. Yes, I remembered it. :)
18. Herculean hoist - Rope attached to a pulley with a heavy concrete weight on the end (60#?). Pull the rope until the knot hit the pulley about 10' up and return it to the ground under control.
19. Water station #2 (6 miles) -- covered about 2 miles with only one obstacle.  All trail running/hiking with not a lot of elevation change.
20. Atlas carry (concrete bucket thing) -- basically they mixed up an 80# bag of concrete in a bucket, let it set, then removed it from the bucket to create an awkward 90# weight. Pick one up, carry it 50', put it down, pick up another one and carry it back to the start.
21. Barbed wire crawl #2 -- similar to the first crawl except this one wasn't as rocky, but was uphill. I think they just wanted you muddy again.
22. Double 7 foot wall #2 -- more walls to get over.
23. Wall climbs w/rope -- These walls were made of big logs with ropes hanging down. You had to grab the rope and use both arms & legs to get up & over these walls.
24. Tractor pull -- This was about a 30# concrete block attached to a chain. Drag it uphill for about 20 yards, then back the starting point.
25. Sandbag carry -- There was a pretty long mostly-downhill hike to get from the Tractor Pull to the Sandbag carry.  The sandbags were 50-60# sand filled disks that you had to carry up (and, of course, down) an increasingly steep slope.
26. Memorization test -- About 5 miles and 2 hours after viewing the Memorization Poster, you had to give your bib # and phrase/number. India-950-7200. PASS!
27. Sled pull -- The bolted a wooden basket on a pair of skis and put a bucket full of rocks in the basket. They had a nice little 50 yard oval marked off that you dragged the sled around. The first half was remarkably easier than the second!
28. Water station #3 (10 miles) -- final hydration point.
29. Tyrolean traverse (and swim) -- At least they had the life jackets at this one!  Rope strung over a pond.  Traverse 50' (either on top of or hanging beneath) on the rope, ring a bell, drop into the water, swim (or get a ride from the nice lady in they kayak who sees you with a life vest and takes pity on you) to shore.  Other than the "Swim/Tarzan Swing" obstacle which looks like the hardest one on the course, this was the most challenging one for me.
30. Giant dirt mounds with water -- Somehow I had the energy to make the jump across the mudpits for most of these. They'd basically dug 2' deep trenches and piled that + more dirt up to make the mounds & filled the trenches with water (which became mud).
31. The original list did not have this as an obstacle, but there was about a mile of single-track, over boulders, through the woods bushwhacking up this ridiculously steep mountain slope. This took a LONG TIME because there was little opportunity to get around people who were slower and there were a number of bottlenecks on the trail where progress just ground to a halt and large queues formed.
32. Rope climb #2 -- similar to the first rope climb, but not as high and climbing out of hay bales, not water (yay!)
33. Vertical cargo net #2 -- You turn the corner on what you think it the high-point of the mountain only to see that they've managed to string a cargo net over a 10' rock face that you need to ascend.
34. Double 8 foot wall #3 -- As if you haven't climbed enough (2 miles of straight-up since the Mile 10 water station), they throw a few more walls at you (and taller ones).
35. Hobie hop -- after about a mile straight down the mountain (about half of which is on more muddy single-track "trail" in the forest) they make you put an elastic band around your ankles and hop over logs and crawl under ropes.
36. Spear throw -- after about another 10-15 minutes of light hiking on a much smoother grade, you come to the last few obstacles.  The throw-a-spear-in-a-haybale is the only obstacle of all of these that I attempted and failed. The spear had to stick in the haybale and, while my aim and velocity was good, my form put enough of a twist on the spear that it wasn't going straight enough to stick. No food for Grok tonight. 30 burpees were my penalty.
37. Barbed wire crawl #3 -- short crawl under barbed wire on gravel. No rocks. No water. No mud.
38. Slippery wall -- ...and now a mud pit in front of a 45° wall (coated in slippery mud) with a rope. Git yourself over the wall.
39. Fire jump -- once over the wall, you run through a path of pyres and jump over a small bonfire at the end...
40. Gladiators -- and the run through the finish line and try not to get mauled by the buff dudes with pugil sticks.

FINISH! Get Medal, get banana, get shirt, get beer, get shower (in that order).

"Thank You For Being a Friend..." *

As the 2012 London Olympics come to a close, I wanted to jot down a quick post about some thoughts that have come up in the past few weeks.

1) How awesome were our American Women? 29 of our 46 gold medals came from women this Olympics.

2) We need a Women's MLS league in America and we need to do better at supporting a professional level of women's sport in general. There are too many potentially good role models for young girls to only showcase them once every 4 years. Girls of my generation grew up idolizing Jordan and wanting to,  "Be Like Mike."  I want my girls to grow up knowing the names Rapinoe, Morgan, and Wambach. If they choose a not sporty path, that's fine, but dammit I want them to have the option!

3) More on topic with my recent rambling is that all the hoopla about Michael Phelps being the, "Best. Athlete. Ever." started bringing some focus to the topic I've been struggling with of Health vs. Fitness.  Six months ago, if you asked me about the relationship between the two, I'd probably have said that they had a mostly parallel track, meaning that as you increased your fitness, you became healthier.  Today, I don't think that's necessarily the case and Phelps (or any number of other Olympic or Professional athletes) kinda helped clear the fog in my thought process.

Few would argue that Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps weren't in phenomenal shape. Each man is literally more fit that billions of other men. The same applies to Allyson Felix or Missy Franklin with regard to women. But are they healthy and should we strive to be like them? I found myself wondering what horrible, unnatural things must they do to themselves to be able to perform at that level? Humans were not designed to train with such a singular focus to run 100m in under 10 seconds or to swim that same 100m distance in under a minute.

Granted, I'm not even a decent amateur caliber athlete, but I know the toll it takes on my body to be remarkably mediocre. I've never done any real recreational "off-roading" in terms of dietary/training supplements or dietary wonkiness, but a quick look at professional cycling (or baseball... or football... or track...) will return a laundry list of top-level athletes busted for migrating too far out of the grey area of legal supplement into the land of performance-enhancing substances. It's a safe assumption that to play at the top, you need to understand where that line is and get as close to it as possible without crossing the boundary -- if you don't, you can be certain your opponent is.

How healthy can that possibly be? Sure, many professional athletes have physiques envied by billions, but at what cost? How many retired NFL players appear "healthy" a decade after they've left the game? Many, if not most, have chronic ailments that prevent them from living a normal life. Some of that is due to the abuse of the game. Even in the case of Phelps, what the hell does it do a human's system to ingest 4-5 times the normal amount of food that a normal person requires?

What are we, the Normal Folk, doing to ourselves in our attempts to get as close to that Ideal Form as possible? We weren't built for the constant abuse we put ourselves through trying to look better, be faster, and get stronger. It's only our own arrogance in the Superiority of Humanity that convinces us that we are somehow significantly different than the dude chillaxing with his homies around the campfire 20,000 years ago. What I'm coming to believe is that we're not, and that chasing the dream of any PR fitness goal I might have, whether it be a 3:30 Marathon, 1:30 Half, or a 300# squat will not be evidence of my increased level of health, but can only come at its expense.

* Bonus points to anyone who makes the connection between the Blog Title and its content. Your prize is the sad confirmation that you're old.

21st Century Breakdown

21st Century Breakdown

I once was lost but never was found

I think I am losing

What's left of my mind

To the 20th century deadline

                    - Billie Joe Armstrong

What if everything you've been told about nutrition, health, and fitness was wrong? And not just marginally wrong, but almost the polar opposite of what was right? Spoiler alert: maybe it's not. But what if it is?  Hear me out.

The goal I undertook just over 2 years ago was to stop being a sod and get myself into shape, not just for me and not just for my amazing wife (who had already successfully unsodden herself).  I wanted to set a proper example for my then-infant girls. I wanted to set an example of being healthy and active with the hope that they might avoid the plight of the average American who finds themselves inactive, overweight, and unhealthy.

At the time the conventional wisdom was that I needed whip myself into shape with cardio, crank out hours in the gym every week, and support that activity with a whole-grain fueled low-fat diet.  As is the case for many (but certainly not all and many not even most), when I stuck to that plan, I saw pretty solid results. I was blessed with something genetically that kept me from getting fat, so I didn't have weight to lose, but I was certainly not in shape; I had a little belly an even less muscle tone.

I started running because it was "cheap cardio" and it was something where I could see weekly progress in both my speed and distance.  About 7 months after I started running, I ran a half-marathon in 1:40. 7 months after that I was training very well toward a 3:30 marathon and, despite blowing up on race day, I ran a sub-4:00 race. I believed that the faster I could run or the more weight I could lift (which has never been that much) had a direct correlation to how HEALTHY a human being I was. As of today, I'm not sure I'll go the grave believing that and that's not my belief as I'm writing today.

I've been bitten (and some would probably say infected) by the Paleo/Primal bug.  There are varying flavors of the concept, but the version I'm embracing is that we (human beings) have deviated too far from our very-recent ancestry in both lifestyle and diet.  As brief lesson in human pre-history, consider that the split in the genetic code we carry (vs. either extinct lineages or apes) occurred about 2 million years ago and the principles of natural selection (evolution) gave us a pretty rockin' person heading out of the Paleolithic into the Meso/Neolithic about 10,000 years ago.

Some anthropologists argue that this was the pinnacle of human health. Few anthropologists disagree that the health of the average human took a nose-dive in the Neolithic. Current studies are projecting that for the first time in recorded history the current generations of Americans are likely to have a shorter average life expectancy than subsequent generations.

I have always been a staunch believer in Science and logic as being able to provide answers to problems. As I have continued to read more about the status quo of our society and compare it to what we know (and in some cases what we presume to know) about what Humans are truly evolved to be/eat/do, I have started taking a hard look at how I'm going to choose to live my life and, with my own personal exceptions that come from living a 21st century life, I'm choosing to pursue a more ancestral path.  My hope is that I can find the time I've had today (yay vacation day!) to go more in-depth about what I'm doing and, more importantly, why I think it's right.

...and Piggy Makes 8!

To this day, I'm not sure what I did wrong last September.  Maybe I brought a wine for dinner that didn't pair as well with the meal as I'd promised.  Maybe I didn't pledge enough to VPR during their fall fundraising drive. Maybe they're just sadists and I'm that "sucker born every minute."  Whatever the reason, my Bro- and Sis-in-Law felt compelled to talk me into signing up for the New England Tough Mudder at Mt. Snow on 5/5/12.

If you've never heard of the Tough Mudder (or Spartan Race), spend the next 1:45 watching the lead-in video here: http://toughmudder.com/

Having run a marathon in 2011 (and not planning on doing THAT again any time soon), I was looking for a good challenge to keep me motivated through the winter going into 2012. So, like a good sucker, I bit. I registered.

I was ready for something new, something that didn't involve following a strict running schedule for months on end. My wife decided she wanted to try P90X2, so we committed to starting that in the New Year.  The workouts looked pretty intense and, at the very least, they would start putting some much needed meat on my upper body. We rocked the first two phases and lost steam (me more so than her) with what really seems like a gimmicky final stage that I plan to blog about in the near future.  Regardless, I actually started getting some upper body strength!

We decided our team name for the event would be "When Pigs Fly!" since for about half of us, that was our response when we were asked if we'd like to do the event. We had a handful of good group training exercises where we'd run up/down, crawl under/over, jump over/on/off, lift, throw, carry, climb and drag various and sundry things around our neighborhoods to whip each other into shape.

In hindsight, we should have met at the bottom of the appropriately-named Cliff St. in Burlington every Saturday, jumped into Lake Champlain, and then simply run up & down that stupid hill until we were on the verge of paralysis.  Then we could jumped back into the lake, find a boat anchor, gnaw through the rope, and carry it up & down Cliff St a few more times just for good measure.

I went into the event knowing I was in the best overall shape I've ever been in, but also knowing that getting my upper body improved came at the expense of running conditioning.  I could still knock out 7 miles without a problem, but the P90X2 program focused only occasionally on the lower body and I knew that I was somewhat down in lower body strength & power from the fall.  My cardio was still strong and I admit now that I overestimated the benefit that cardio conditioning would have for this event.

We had a pretty decent early May day for the event; 50s and mixed sun & clouds with an occasional light breeze.  I'm sure the breeze was lovely for the spectators, but constantly jumping in & out of 38F water and encountering a "gentle breeze" was far from pleasant. The best part about the mud-caking on your clothing was that it was a temporary (but hefty) wind block.

The gist of the event seemed to be to run the participants up & down blue-square ski trails for about 6 miles while occasionally giving you a "rest-break" with an obstacle that would either soak you or cover you in mud. You got to confront many common fears -- heights, drowning/water, claustrophobia/darkness, electrocution, roundworm, fire, hypothermia. Some obstacles incorporated several at once, such as the "Electric Eel," a scramble-on-your-stomach crawl through several inches of water through a myriad of wires, some of which would occasionally deliver 10,000V electric shocks.

Leading in to the event, for over a month I've been fighting a losing battle against calf cramping during some of my longer runs.  It's been something that'll come & go, but they've been pretty mild and have worked themselves out before causing me to stop mid-run to address it.  I fought these cramps in the latter stages of my marathon run, but rarely encountered this at any point in the past. Before we hit mile 2 in the race, I knew I was going to have issues before the event was done.

What I didn't know is that I'd be dealing with various calf & quad issues for about 2/3 of the event. Before Mile 3 (out of 10), my calves were starting cramp whenever I wasn't running/hiking.  This was good incentive to keep moving, but for a while, any obstacle that involved crawling or jumping (i.e. all of them) was done with limited leg assist. Crawling through tubes/mud/water with limited propulsion from your legs sucks, especially when your primary goal is to GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS THING NOW!

The calf knotting was more annoying than painful and more had the effect of trying to move around when your leg has fallen asleep -- you can move around, but the leg is pretty useless and you're a little gimpy-looking.  Somewhere around Mile 6, we were bombing down a steep slope and I felt an all-too familiar twinge in both lower inner quads.  In my first Half Marathon (Fall 2010), I started getting cramps around mile 10 out of 13, but was able to run through it and they went away. A few weeks ago during training, I was doing a lot of leg work and had my left quad completely seize up.

As I continued to bound down the mountain, the trail detoured to the right into the woods on a muddy/rocky/rooty single-track "trail" (and I use that term VERY loosely).  I paused briefly to check where my team was behind me and felt both legs start to lock.  Decision time: stop now & address it or press on and see if, like the calf cramping, the quads would work themselves out. Giddy-up, let's run.  On with the show!

It didn't get any better.  After several minutes of traversing the mountain on this mucky track I found a relatively dry area and pulled off the side and both quads instantly & completely locked.  While squatting, the knots in my quads would quickly subside, but as soon as I stood up, they immediately returned.  I couldn't navigate the terrain on tin-man legs, so we had let the world pass us by while my mind attempted to convince my body to STFU and get on with the program.  My team-mates (I don't even remember who at this point!) tried a bit of deep-tissue massage and suggested some stretches which helpled, but the only thing that got me back up and on the train was a couple minutes of rest, relaxation, and deep, calming breaths.

In many ways, my struggles during the marathon last May was probably the best training experience I had for this event. Knowing how to manage your body when Plan A and Plan B have gone out the window and knowing that you can grit through the pain and discomfort and FINISH is a huge motivator to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  I had an AWESOME team and there wasn't a single person who was going to let any other member fail to get through the course.  While I personally felt like crap that my conditioning fell apart, I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be with for the day.

At the end of the day, we got our lame orange TOUGH MUDDER headbands and lousy Dos Equis draught to mark our successful completion of the course. At the end of the day, we all were cold, wet, muddy, bruised, scraped, sore, exhausted, and relieved.  At the end of the day, we all faced obstacles, both physical and psychological that we said we'd do willingly, "When Pigs Fly!"  On a lovely Cinco de Mayo in Southern Vermont, for about 4 and half hours, there were seven pigs flying up & down Mount Snow...and Piggy makes 8.

Happy Belated Birthday, Deb!

"TRAINING" LOG:

I'm still here, but without the consistency of that [damn] marathon training, the motivational opportunities to write are few & far between.  My friend Deb has been needling me to start posting again and since yesterday was her birthday (and since I'm a cheap SOB), this is her present.

So what's happened in the past 4+ months?

In a nutshell, it took about 6 weeks to lose the big toenail on my left foot.  It only hurt for a few days after the marathon in May, but running with it was pretty uncomfortable, even when wrapped/taped.  Simultaneously, work ramped up which broke up the solid consistency of training I'd become accustomed to.  I also took a more relaxed approach to my diet and, while I didn't abandon the habits I'd spent the past year forming, I definitely did allow for more indulgences.

The net result of a more careless diet and a less-than-consistent training plan had very predictable results -- loss of conditioning, strength, and what little physique it appeared that I had developed.  The last month before the marathon, I started having a "bulletproof" feeling in my workouts -- I could push hard and recover quickly.  A month ago I started tracking my diet again and started getting some focus back in the gym.

Only in the past week have I started to get inklings of that "bulletproof" feeling again.  My running pace is still at least a minute a mile off what it was a year ago at this time and at least a minute:30 off what it was in May.  That's what happens when you go from running 3x and 25 miles a week to 3x a month with the same total mileage.  Despite the abysmal running mileage, I'm running a Half-Marathon in a few weeks with my wife (my 3rd, her 1st) and there is certainly not going to a PR in the books for me. Anything under 1:50 will be a miracle.

Once that's over I have something ELSE to look forward to.  My jack-ass sister in law had the bright idea of doing the Tough Mudder obstacle course event in Mt. Snow next May, so we all signed up for that.  That pretty much means that once this race is complete in November, it's back into the gym to finally start working on building strength while maintaining some reasonable level of conditioning.

I did run the Race to the Top of Vermont again this year and cut about 10 minutes off my time from last year (which was more of a scouting "run" compared to this year's race effort).  That'll be a topic for another post though.

2011 Key Bank Vermont City Marathon: Race Report

EDIT: 5/8/2012  Nearly a year has passed since I ran my first (and last, for a while) marathon.  This past weekend, I completed my first Tough Mudder event and found that my marathon experience helped me immensely during the event. With the 2012 KBVCM coming up later this month (and a new blog post about the Tough Mudder forthcoming), I thought it was appropriate to blast down memory lane and revisit that experience again.

RACE REPORT:

2011-29-MAY
I am not a morning person.  I loathe getting up early and this morning was no different.  While I was excited to race, I was equally excited to just have it over and move on.  I had stuck with my training, nailed the majority of my runs, maintained my overall fitness level and weight, dialed my diet in to coincide with my activity level and the unusual demands of running ridiculous distances, and managed to avoid illness and any real injury dating back to January 2011.  Sure there were aches and pains, sniffles and 'stomach upset,' but nothing that dictated a break in training.

Memorial Day Weekend in Vermont is typically marked by one of two things.  Cold, rainy weather or hot, sunny weather. I ran all winter and spring in the cold (and, occasionally, the rain) and that worked great for me.  I do not typically fare well in even moderate heat and will run in shorts and a tank-top down into the low 40s and be comfortable.  It was with great disdain that I saw the race-day forecast with a projected low of 68 and a high of 83 and cut-it-with-a-knife humidity.  The last time I did a run longer than 8 miles with temps in the upper 60s or warmer was probably last August (and it sucked).

We drove down into Burlington shortly before 7AM through pouring rain that subsided before we hit the parking garage about a quarter mile from the starting area at Battery Park.  The air was a little cooler than had been predicted, but the steady rain overnight guaranteed a humid day.  I was glad to have gotten down to the starting area early enough to get to bag check & the portolets before any significant lines developed and got out and did my normal warm-up in plenty of time to take cover under a tree as the rain started up again.

Being a technology-loving runner, I had my Droid running iMapMyRun and RunKeeper (via GPS), a chest-strap heart-rate monitor (HRM) that also reported (poorly) my pace, and my Nike+/iTouch combination. I started my Droid gizmos running about 5 minutes before the race started (both those programs allow for time & route corrections after the workout is complete) and started the Nike+ when the horn sounded and my stopwatch/HRM when I crossed the timing stripe.

2011-MAY-29 RunKeeper Map & Stats
2011-MAY-29 Nike+ Graph (pacing off, crapped out around mile 20)

Mile 1: Anticipation.  
I was starting off running with the 3:30 pacing group.  I knew the pacer's plan was to go out at around 8:30 for the first mile and settle in from there.  This enabled me to not get caught up in the adrenaline of the moment and burst out with a 7:20 first mile.  Running down the streets of Burlington, chatting with fellow runners was an absolute rush... and the cotton-mouth I had for the first half mile was awful!

Mile 2: Belief.
The first mile ticked by in the blink of an eye.  I was having a great time and just settling in with the pack.  I had made the decision at the start to keep my headphones tucked away for a while and just enjoy the moment.  Looking forward, it looked like there were thousands of people in front of us, but considering where we started, the larger crowd was in pursuit.

Mile 3: Church Street
For those who don't know the area, Church Street is a bricked-over pedestrian-only section of Burlington that is really the heart of downtown.  The crowds here were packed along each side and the rush of adrenaline that provided was amazing.  Holding *down* to the 8:00 pace was challenging here!

Mile 4: Descent
The next section after downtown took us out on a barren section of highway known as The Beltline through a swampy wetland known as "The Intervale."  Before I ran this, I would have told you it's a flat out & back.  Having run it, I can tell you that there's a moderate downhill run before the road levels off, but for not as long as expected!

Mile 5: Easy
Still running on flat ground on the beltline and easily running with the group.  I've hooked up with a coworker who was hoping to beat his 3:42 PR.  During this mile, we start seeing the lead runners coming back down the road.  Unlike our group, they do not look like they're running Easy.

Mile 6: Foresight
My initial race plan was to run with the pacers until around mile 6 and then try to advance my pace slightly to hit the halfway mark at 1:44.  I knew the day was hotter than ideal and it felt like it would be a really dumb move to start pushing now and lose the support group I'd fallen in with.  My full-race plan moved from running two 1:44s to sticking with the 3:30 group until we hit the bikepath around mile 22 and try to either pick up a bit of time in that last stretch or burst in the last 0.2 mile to come in under my 3:30 goal

Mile 7: Greetings!
One of the (possibly the ONLY) nice things about the beltline is that, if you're paying attention, you get to see other people you know running on the out & back.  There were some good high 5s and shout-outs to & from the plethora of people I passed on this stretch.  It definitely helps the bleak, fan-deprived landscape drift by faster when you keep seeing friendly faces going the other way.

Mile 8: Hydration
I carried 24oz of Accelerade out on the course with me and my plan was to ignore it until mile 15 and use every third in-race aid stations.  As the warmth of day began increasing, I started being a little more diligent about hitting every other station.  My schedule was also to use 3 of my Clif Bloks every 4 miles (or there abouts) to coincide with my arrival at one of the stations, so while this did slightly mess up that plan, it meant that I was able to keep a relatively stead stream of fluid coming IN to replenish the fluid I was sweating out.

Mile 9: Incline
The departure from the beltline requires running back up the slope we descended nearly 5 miles ago.  Our pace leader indicated that this was likely to be our slowest mile as dictated by the pacing chart he was following.  The grade of this hill wasn't all that bad, but it was fairly long and relentless. Looking back, this is the first time in the run that I felt like I had to put forth any effort.  It wasn't a lot and there was a long downhill section coming.  My HRM was showing me running a little 'hotter' than I wanted to be, but not by much and my perceived effort was still fairly low, so it wasn't until several miles later that I even bothered to check it again.

Mile 10: Jeopardy
The course now began retracing part of its route back across the start line and down Church St., further descending Main St. before turning onto Pine St.  The charge of the crowd on Church St. was once again exhilarating and the steady descent that would continue through this mile and the next would prove to deliver false confidence in my physical condition and not only seal the fate of 3:30, but would seriously threaten the B-goal of sub 4:00.  Mile 10 was the first official check point and I crossed in at 1:19:48, 12 seconds under the "perfect" 8:00 pace for a 3:30 marathon.

Mile 11: Kryptonite
The first half of the 11th mile continued to be the easy effort run the previous 10 had been.  The first half of the 11th mile was also still slightly downhill.  As we set about moving to a very slight uphill, the sun started to come up and suddenly things started feeling difficult.  I still could keep up with the 3:30 group, but it would have involved effort and, not even being at the halfway point, I backed off and let them go.  My HRM showed I was pushing too hard and my plan was to back off to point where I was running back in my safe zone.  The problem was, the slow-down in pace wasn't achieving an appreciable drop in heart rate and I started to feel the first twinges of exertion coming from my quads.  Ironically, this was almost the same exact spot of road I had the same problem a few months in the past, but running the OTHER direction and at about mile 14 and 2h10m into the run, not mile 11 and 1h30m into the run.

Mile 12: Lactate
Here's a short physiology lesson.  During times of strenuous exercise, excess lactate is produced within muscles.  If it is produced faster than the body can process it, it accumulates in the form of lactic acid and causes muscle fatigue.  When racing, pushing beyond the lactate threshold between production and elimination is a bad thing and that's what I ran smack into at mile 12.  At this point, I haven't even reached the halfway point of the run and in the past 2 miles I've gone from feeling awesome to feeling like I was on mile 22, not mile 12.  This was not part of the race plan for the day!

Mile 13: Miserable
The race plan was to get through the first half as a nice, easy effort run, then take evaluate how to handle the next 10k, and finally how to tackle the final 10k.  The only problem with that plan is that it kinda falls apart when you enter the last mile before hitting the halfway point taking walking breaks.  The 3:30 group was a distant memory at this point and I was desperately trying to come up with a plan for salvaging a competitive time.  I couldn't find a pace to run at that felt comfortable or sustainable.  Walking felt fine, but I wasn't about to walk 14 miles to the finish.  My biggest fear was a "DNF" and I knew that pushing this early on in the race on a day where there were warnings posted about the heat/weather that I hadn't trained in brought that result into play.  My mind wanted to go.  My legs wanted to go nowhere.

Mile 14: Nutrition
In spite of the challenges I was having, I still knew I had a finish in me... somewhere, somehow, it was in there.  I spent a lot of time tweaking my diet throughout my training to ensure I was properly prepared to run. I brought a LOT of nutrition out on the course with me, probably close to 1500 Kcal between my Accelerade and the Clif Shot Bloks packed into my belt.  It's rare for a properly prepared runner to completely blow out their glycogen reserves during a race, but it's not uncommon to reach a point where the amount of glycogen being liberated from reserves fails to meet the body's demand for energy.  The resulting drop in blood sugar gives the brain a trigger to induce a fatigue response to bring the body's activity level down to a point where equilibrium is restored.  To an extent, taking energy gels temporarily 'fixes' this problem by giving the body a relatively quick shot of nutrition which in turn increases blood sugar (causing the brain to release the reins a bit and allow activity levels to increase) and providing fuel.  Between what was in my body and what was on my body, I knew I had the fuel to get to the end.  All I needed was the will.

Mile 15: Overtaken
Between mile 11 & 12, I let the 3:30 group run away from me.  Now, 4 miles later, I was overtaken, swallowed up, and promptly spit out by the 3:45 group.  In the span of about half a hour, I had lost 15 minutes of finish time.  The run back up the bikepath into the City is mostly barren, running behind old industrial plants and next to railroad tracks and chain link fence infested with claustrophobia-inducing greenery.  The heat and humidity and lack of airflow in some of these sections boarded on nauseating and I continued to find some sort of pacing strategy that would allow for reasonable progress.

Mile 16: Pride
Initially, I labeled Mile 16 as Pain.  It seemed fitting, but it could really show up anywhere after Mile 10 (and frequently did).  Mile 16 was the steepest hill of the run: Battery Street.  I was still trying to figure out a good strategy for finishing sub-4h and, before the race, I had been supremely confident that I would chug up Battery Street like I've chugged up Sand Hill and Skunk Hollow numerous times during my training.  One of my lessons learned last year during the Race to the Top of Vermont was that there comes a point where you're running so slowly that you would truly be better off walking.  Getting to that point on Battery Street was a very tough realization, but at the same time it was oddly liberating to make the intelligent decision and keep the big picture in mind vs. the much more meaningless ego boost of "running" the entirety of the Battery Street hill.

Mile 17: Quitting
On my way out North Ave., I ran across Master Blake, a Personal Trainer, Tae Kwon Do black belt, and friend who was volunteering for the event.  I slowed to a walk to chat with him for a bit.  I don't recall much of what we talked about, but just seeing a friendly face and getting some words of encouragement from Lloyd really boosted my spirits.  As I picked up my run again and set off down North Ave feeling better about myself, I realized that not once had the thought of "quitting" even entered my mind.  Sure, I had concerns about running myself into a DNF, but as awful as this race was going, I was in it for the distance.

Mile 18: Revuvenated
Fortunately, the last 10 miles of this race were mostly flat or downhill.  Between miles 17 & 18, I finally found a good running pace that could be sustained for a good portion of a mile before I'd slow to a walk for a few minutes.  The strategy was mostly keeping me under 10 minute miles and made me feel like I had a little pop back in my step to the point where I found myself having to dial back the run intensity a bit to keep from blowing the strategy out the door.  At the end of Mile 18, I knew I was 8 miles from the finish and for whatever reason, that was the magic number in my head that said, "You've got this.  All you have to do is wrap it up!"

Mile 19: Smile :)
One thing that eluded me for the past 8 miles or so was enjoyment.  Toward the end of Mile 18, the route started taking us through some of the neighborhoods of the New North End of Burlington.  The Race organizers had set up water stations about every 2 miles, but running through these neighborhoods, there were countless families set up with Fla-vor-ice, watermelon, oranges, water, Gatorade, hoses, sprinklers, drums, music, and signs, cheering and encouraging the runners.  Once thing I'd missed while struggling was any reasonable interaction with the crowd, by my natural self is the comedian and as I took opportunities to ham it up with the locals, it really did help make these few miles slip by.

Mile 20: Toenail
It was in this section of the run that I became aware of the fact that the big toenail (the captain!) on my left foot was sore in a way it had never been sore before.  Upon removing my sock hours later, the bluish discoloration forming under the toenail was an indication that the effects of this race would be with me for weeks after the muscle soreness had faded as I am almost surely going to lose the toenail.

Mile 21: United!
Coming out of the neighborhoods, I caught up with a few guys who had just started a rest-walk at the same time and slowed down to join them.  One was also a first time marathoner and both had, like me, started in the 3:30 pack when the race started.  So here we sat (or walked), united a good 20 minutes adrift of that group, making our own race and trying to get to 26.2 any way we could.

Mile 22: Verve
Despite being a pretty dull stretch of road this mile was the last one before hitting the Burlington Bike path that marked the turn-around point and the run to the finish.  The Bike Path was my mental "final stretch" and getting to that point was as good as getting the finish in my mind.  Get to the bike path and it's a short run to the finish.

Mile 23: Wisdom
The best part of the last 2 hours of this run came as I turned onto the bike path, not so much for the mental release of getting there, but from the blast of COLD air I got to run through for a few minutes that must have been a combined effect of coming into a shaded area that was getting ventilated with cool air off the lake.  As good as it felt, I needed to keep everything in check and maintain the good run/walk strategy that was allowing me to feel [somewhat] peppy.  It was truly remarkable how in the span of 10 seconds or less how you can go from feeling like, "I could run like this all day!" to "If I run another 5 steps like this, I'm going to crumple in a heap in the middle of this path and not move for about eight days."  Keeping it between those every-narrowing boundaries became the challenge for the final four mile stretch.

Mile 24: X
Okay, I'm waiving the white flag instead of forcing a good word for "X."  In a way, though, the letter itself says more than any of the x-words I pondered.  In the world of mathematics, X represents the unknown, that which the student pursues to find the elusive answer.  In traditional lore, an X marks the spot where something of value can be found.  Also, in those olde time cartoons, the cartoonists would replace eyes with X X to signify death and would emblazon XXXX on things that could kill you.  Passing my some of the human carnage (and like some of the soon-to-be carnage), I think a simple "X" is a rather suitable entry for Mile 24!

Mile 25: Yearning
Any reader who's stuck with this report for this long knows in a literary sense what it's like to be this close to the end of a marathon and to want nothing more than for it to just. simply. be. over! Every 2 miles, there's an official clock that has the current gun-time of the race.  I know that all I need to do to be under 4h is come in with two 10:00 miles which is about what I've been mustering for the past 6 miles or so.  In about 20 minutes, it'll all be over!

Mile 26: Zealous
Walking out of the last aid station, I caught the sign of the 4:00 pacer over my right shoulder.  Hell no.  This last stretch was all-run.  No more run/walk.  I can walk (hopefully) tomorrow.  And off I ran, down the last stretch of bike path toward the finish line.  The fans had peeled back and we ran through a no-man's-land between the neighborhoods along the bike path and the crowd gathered on the waterfront at the finish line.  I ran by at least one person who looked like they were going to make it 25.x miles into a marathon without crossing the line at 26.2.  I kept telling myself, "Just keep putting one foot in front of the other."

The Last 0.2 Mile (Now I know my ABCs, next time won't you run with me?)
I don't care that going all-out in the last few hundred meters isn't going to make a substantial difference in my time.  The finish line is that one place where you put everything into the furnace that's left and just go.  I was glad to still have enough for that last burst.  I got a good chuckle running past the Coast Guard station where 4 months ago I willingly ran into and submerged myself in 33F water as part the VT Special Olympic's Penguin Plunge fundraiser.  The weather was slightly different today!  The transition from bike path to turf that had been trampled by over a thousand runners make that last stretch challenging, but I was already running hard and just hammering toward the finish line.

Other than sucking down a pint of water in no time, the only truly remarkable experience post-finish was that I got asthmatic for about 20 seconds, something that never happens to me.  I had already planted myself near the medical tent "just in case" anything wonky happened and it was a really weird feeling and I was pretty glad when it passed on its own.

I felt pretty decent (all things considered) the rest of the day and was quad-sore on Monday.  As I expected, Tuesday was the worst day of the recovery with my quads being very sore and hamstrings tightening, likely in response to me walking funny due to the sore quads and trying to not put any weight on my left big toe.  Wednesday I did a light Kettlebell workout and pretty much took the rest of the week off, save for a little bit of walking with the family.  I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of normal workouts and resuming my 'normal' diet as well.

Regarding the, "I'm not training for/running another marathon anytime soon!" perspective I had going in to this race, many people suggested that my position would change after I did one.  Now, having done one, I can categorically say, "I'm not training for/running another marathon anytime soon!"

ONE. DAY. LEFT!

FINAL TRAINING LOG:

2011-MAY-26
Keeping with the spirit of the Taper, this was a rest day.  I did go the Mike Blount's Active Stretching class at Synergy Fitness after work to get a good foam-roller "workout."  It's amazing a) how much something so easy looking can hurt so much; and b) how good your muscles feel afterwards.  As of Wednesday night, I started dosing with Aleve 2x daily to try to bring down some of the lingering inflammation behind my left knee.  My leg responded very well, probably to a combination of the NSAID, the standing desk, the lighter workouts & additional rest days, the increased stretching, the PT, and the fact that the damn thing can only hurt for so long!

We also did our Family Meeting for Team Deep Fried Bacon and did some gorging on food (no "drink" for me, at least not the kind that comes in a corked or capped bottle).  I was an alternate to run for the team, but ended up not needing to fill in, so I'll be doing the whole thing solo in my Company's enQuesta Runtime sleeveless shirt vs. the red Team DFB tech shirt (both of which look totally hawt!)

Due to the unpredictable/unknown nature of dinner-time meal, the diet log for today is ends mid-afternoon. I can comfortably say that I hit my calorie goal for the day. :)
2011-MAY-26 Diet Log

2011-MAY-27
Crap, this race is getting close!  I logged 3 miles at my goal pace today in what will be my last run/workout before the race.  The weather for this weekend is looking awful (hot, humid, bleah) and I was hoping it would be hotter out for the run so I could see what it's going to be like.  Alas, it was a very pleasant day to be out & about.

My leg didn't bother me during the run (my hamstring was tight afterward, but it stretched out okay).  I ran at a comfortable pace which ended up being 7:48 per mile (goal was 7:55).  I didn't have my Nike+ shoes today & didn't want to run with The Belt to carry the Droid, so there's no real-time data for this run.  Sunday's run should be fully geeked out. :)
2011-MAY-27 Diet Log
2011-MAY-27 MapMyRun map of, um, my run (manually created)

2011-MAY-28
Writing mid-day with jitters already.  As this afternoon progresses and I move through more & more pre-race prep, the pre-race jitters grow!  I sat down to write to take my mind off it for a bit (fat lot of good that did!)

I'm doing a slightly increased carb diet today & yesterday and dropping down on protein & fat. I'm sticking with my ~3000 Kcal diet goal and not trying to blast in extra calories.  If I've done this right, my muscles will be full loaded with glycogen and adding a gut full of pasta tonight would only add either a) weight to carry for entire race, or b) weight that may decide it desperately wants to part ways with my body somewhere around mile 16.

Laura & I hit the expo today with the girls to get our bibs and race packets.  We went late morning and I was hoping it wouldn't be a mob-scene.  Thankfully, it wasn't and we were able to get our stuff and take a couple of laps around the expo and score a few good deals on running gear.

I'm adding my Diet Log for today now, but it won't be complete until later today.  The 5(ish)AM wake-up call tomorrow morning is going to come VERY early.

For those who want to track my run, my bib (#2056) will update at 10, 13.1, 20, and 26.2 miles.  The link to get those updates is here: http://cdn.bazumedia.com/iframe/vtcm2011-results.html  Additionally, assuming iMapMyRun is working correctly, it will be spitting out every-mile updates to Twitter (@Corrado).

Wish me luck!