Not Too Far To Walk Back

It's great to be able to link up with many of my fellow run enthusiasts and classmates by way of social media.  Every once in a while I hear a doozy:

"u know what the trouble with jogging is...by the time you realize you're not in shape for it, it's too far to walk back."  I'm not that shocked to hear a statement like this coming from a fellow Baby Boomer.  Most of my high school companions, including the sporty ones, would consider themselves to be - unlike Sir Paul McCartney - more than the man they used to be.  Even though, if asked to judge our health on a 1-to-100 scale, we would most likely give ourselves a score in the 70 range, I'm starting to see some around my age "leave" in ones and twos.  An insurance company-sponsored survey of 1,800 persons, ranging in age from 25-to-64, found folks my age more likely to define "healthy" as visiting the doctor and filling the necessary check in the block on the questionnaire each year...and the requisite bodily fluid work-up, etc.
Only one in five of us would say we're doing something to "look good in our underwear," such as a regular exercise routine.  And when it happens, it's more likely to be because we've got a goal staring us in the face; men usually tie it to an endurance event, such as a marathon...women to a wedding or reunion.

Like any 12-step program, the first step to working through the problem is admitting the problem exists.  Lots of Boomers invested the lion's share of their time and effort on raising families and developing careers.  Now that we've begun to have more time to do other stuff we receive the sudden and frightening message that we're not as fit as we were when we were in high school or university.  How do we get back to where we once belonged?  First of all, like our generation is more likely to inform the Gen-Xers and Millennials, we need to not sweat the small stuff. 

If I were going to go back and develop a running habit from the outset I would start with finding a loop course, just big enough to traverse that I felt like there was a level of accomplishment, but not so large that I couldn't do it in five minutes or so...so we're talking probably something in the range of 600 or 700 meters; no bigger than half a mile around.  Grass and packed dirt would be fantastic, but an asphalt bike path will do in a pinch.  Start by doing one minute of running, followed by walking until you're ready to run one minute again.  Do this for at least 30 minutes, every other day for three weeks. 

Test yourself at the three-week point:  Run for as long as you can without stopping.  Divide that time by three; make that the new "run" time.  Once you get to the point where you can run comfortably for thirty minutes you can start to add on time here and there as your body tolerates it.  Have fun with it; alternate hard running with easy running, easy running with brisk walks.  There are many benefits of running for time rather than for distance.  Unless you're in the surveying (or course measurement) business, a second is a second everywhere in the world (great for those persons who do a lot of traveling), and your heart and lungs will gain the same benefits whether you're doing three or five miles in a thirty minute span. 

And if the heat and/or humidity happens to be an obstacle, treadmills can be the best alternative.  I know people who despise treadmills with a passion, but I like the ability to control almost all of the potential variables which can affect exercise performance, namely air temperature, surface hardness/softness, elevation and speed (I'll include the ability to immediately stop the run, live to fight another day,should something begin to hurt badly.).  And if you're at a gym facility where there's lots of traffic, often the scenery isn't only limited to what's on the television screen.  To make certain you're not going at too quickly a pace during the run pieces, I would running the "talk test" during the first bout on the belt - start at five miles per hour.  Can you talk to yourself, or a person next to you, in complete sentences?  Bump up the speed a notch.  check yourself after a minute.  When you find the sentences are shorter, or you can't finish it without taking a deep breath you've probably found the right pace.  The walk recovery pace is not a problem; set it for anywhere between three and four miles per hour and you'll be fine.

Some persons say that treadmill running is not the same as running on the roads or trails, and they are correct, but in very small ways.  Other than wind resistance, there's not much difference between how our body reacts to running on a moving belt and how it reacts on a gravel road, or dirt trail, or rubber track.  Purists can kick the elevation on the treadmill up one notch just to make it feel more like you're working into a self-made breeze.

So don't fret if you're a boomer who's started to worry if they'll ever be able to regain lost fitness, or wants to drop weight, lower the risk of obesity-related diseases.  As long as you remain patient at the start, consistent through the process, and progressive in adding intensity once your body begins to tolerate the new (or renewed) stressors, it's never too far a walk back to a fit lifestyle.

When The Furnace Is Hot

I haven't always been anti-morning workout. When there hasn't been a rush to get in to work the run has (usually) gone well and I've loved life. I can swim in the morning and be presentable, but I'm not one of those folks who can run from 6am to 7am, hit the shower, jump in the car and be at work by 8am. Not in a state which endears me to my fellow workers.

My friends and my coaches marvel at my "fairly-efficient cooling system." But until they tried working out in the morning, past supervisors and co-workers failed to understand or appreciate such an "efficiency." They consider a "sweating like a farmhand" appearance in the most extremely air-conditioned office environments a failure in personal hygeine. I looked the same thirty minutes after a run, after a spinning class, and - unfortunately - after a shower.

It wasn't always like this for me. In southern New Mexico humidity is a meteorological aberration. Whatever sweat hits the air is almost immediately evaporated. I didn't know what water vapor was until I went to boot camp in Texas; why was it I couldn't seem to get DRY after taking a shower? But the humidity of the Gulf Coast makes any other environment in which I've run seem rather arid. Miscalculate the amount of time necessary for a complete cool-down and it's likely you'll be in a drippy state in the office, especially if you have a heavy sweat rate.

Rather than deal with the symptoms, let's take a look at what I feel is the cause.

Exercise (Post) Oxygen Consumption, (EPOC) is one of the terms used to describe the number of calories burned in the period following a bout of exercise. The specifics of the duration and amount of calories burned are one matter - a 20-minute run at 80-percent of maximal effort may continue to burn calories for a period lasting from 30 to 105 minutes.

So, that means the furnace is still hot - heat is being moved away from the heart, brain, liver, and other vital organs - during that period of time.

There remains that other matter of "really" cooling off, isn't there?

Most coaches use the term "cool down," when they probably really mean "warm-down." It's much like when we turn off the ignition on our automobiles; the engine ceases running, but the cooling fan continues to operate. That's a period of time we probably wouldn't want to sit on the hood in a pair of running shorts...at least not until the temperature drops a little more.

So today, rather than immediately crawl into the air-conditioned comfort of my home and ditch my soggy togs, I decided to take a 15-minute stroll with my dog, then relax indoors for another 15 minutes before hitting the shower.

Eureka! Relative dryness on the way to work, and while in the office. after taking care of my personal hygeine matters. Time between workout and work can not only make us feel better but look better during the remainder of the day.

So, what tricks or tips would you recommend for the time-pressed runner?

Before The Damage Is Done...Drink

If the casual observer were to look at me after a workout they would wonder if I had been doused with a fire hose. Doesn't matter what time of the year (save for the coldest weeks), what distance, or what intensity. I still am soaking wet. My college cross-country coach, my wife, my athletes and my friends all marvel at what has politely been described as "a very efficient cooling system."

I used to joke, "I sweat when I think." Who would have considered that to be true? I didn't, until I started looking closer at thermoregulation. Our skeletal muscles (including those muscles used for running), liver, heart and our brain all generate body heat. On those days when we're hotter than our surroundings we can radiate heat (think about those infrared scopes used by military and police to observe in dark conditions) to maintain a proper temperature. When the air temperature is hotter than us we absorb heat. Add to the outside heat the heat we generate from our running, and thinking about running...you are thinking about running, right...?

External heat and internal heating can raise our body's core temperature to a point where our brains have to make a command decision; how long can the body go before vital organs are injured? Our brain decides to start shutting less important functions down in order to protect itself, the heart and other vital organs. That usually means skeletal muscles take the hit. Entire muscles don't get shut down entirely, mind you, but a few fibers here and there at first...which we usually recognize as breaks in running form or decreased range of motion (shortened, choppy strides). As the temperature continues to increase the brain becomes more concerned and shuts down more muscle fibers ("is that my calf cramping?") until we decide to either cool things down by slowing down, drinking cool fluid, getting into a cooler environment or stop exercising altogether.

So it's important to keep the core temperature as low as possible, either by deflecting radiated heat from the sun and other surfaces, or by drinking so you can continue to sweat.

Runners who sweat heavily, naturally, will need to take in more fluid per hour. You can determine your sweat ratio by stepping on a scale (naked) before and after a run and looking at the weight difference, adding the volume of fluid you drank during the run, then doing the mathematics to figure out the ratio per hour. Hotter, more humid days might demand more and colder days less, but you'll have a ballpark figure on which to base your hydration plan.

After the run, it's important to begin the recovery process by replacing the fluids lost. Again, the easiest way to know how much is by stepping on the scale to find the difference in pounds between when you started and when you got done. Multiply by 16 to get the number of ounces, then start replacing fluid on a one-to-one or a one-and-a-half-to one ratio.

Naturally, the next question is "what's the best drink?" Water has been the ideal beverage for many years, and works great for most athletes, but an entire industry has developed in the past four decades because of this question. Sweat not only contains water but minerals, lactate, urea and some trace elements. The most common elements found in sweat are the electrolytes; sodium (average 0.9 grams per liter), potassium (average 0.2 grams per liter), calcium (average 0.015 grams per liter) and magnesium (average 0.0013 grams per liter). These values naturally will vary from person to person.

One of the most popular sports drinks on the market provides .4-.5 grams per liter of sodium, .125 grams per liter of potassium and 200-to-220 calories of energy per liter from carbohydrates. There are sports beverages on the market which have protein, others have electrolytes but no carbohydrates, and some include other trace minerals like chromium. This ideally allows the athlete to make up for some of the lost minerals and nutrients before the workout or race is over. The best sports drink, however, is the one which the athlete will actually drink; all the beneficial elements and chemicals a laboratory can offer (whether or not they truly help!) are of little use if the flavor of drink is terrible.

So don't forget to keep that bottle of water or sports drink handy during your runs, or make certain your run routes have places where you can get (or stash) fluids. Drink early and drink often; if you wait until you feel thirsty the damage has already been done.

A Coaching Legend on Training in the Heat

One of the first running books I acquired was a cast-off from one of my present athletes. He purchased it to see what great advice & counsel he could glean from its pages, but was immediately scared off by a couple of the formulas printed at the front end of the text. I gladly lightened his load, sat down for a brief read one fine weekend, & subsequently informed him of his folly.

It doesn't take a degree in physiology or a USATF Level III coach certification to understand or appreciate Dr. Jack Daniels seminal work, Daniels' Running Formula (Human Kinetics). In fact, if a runner did not want to invest in Timothy Noakes' Lore of Running I would recommend Daniels' work as an 80-percent (plus!) solution to the (as I wrote previously) one running book only question.

In fact, Daniels is (probably) one of the few former Olympian & Olympic medal-winning athletes who have gone on to coach (24) NCAA national individual champions, (7) NCAA national team championships, (110) collegiate All-Americans, and (4) Olympic marathon medalists. In my humble opinion, those are bona fides.

So, I'm shamelessly borrowing some his advice to Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team In Training participants on running in the heat.

Respect the Heat - Of all the adversities that distance athletes face, heat is one of the worst. Although not necessarily so, excess heat often leads to dehydration, another major enemy of endurance athletes. It is possible to be adversely affected by the heat without becoming dehydrated, you can also become dehydrated without getting overheated. These two conditions affect the body independently.

Overheating - An overheated body is the result of inadequate cooling. Adequate body cooling depends on evaporation of water from the skin. The fluid must evaporate from the body's surface. So, when the body heats up, it starts to sweat and also starts to send more blood to the skin where it is cooled by coming in contact with the relatively cooler skin. The cooler blood then circulates, picking up heat from exercising muscles, which allows them to continue contracting more efficiently. When cooling cannot keep up with heat buildup, core temperature rises, and body functions start to suffer. When the temperature rises more than just a degree or two, function is adversely affected. When blood flow increases to the skin for cooling, less blood is being directed to the muscles. With less blood going to the muscles, less oxygen gets to the muscles, which affects performance. The body is more interested in self-preservation than in ideal race performance, so it usually chooses to maintain a desirable temperature before it allows you to keep a particular pace which would interfere with cooling. It's either go at a pace slower than you want, or overheat.

Give in to your body under these circumstances - it knows best. Slow down in the heat, if you must be in the heat.

Minimize the Effects of Hot Weather - You can acclimatize somewhat to hot weather, and exercising in the heat will speed up that process. However, it is not advisable to purposely exercise in the hottest part of the day. Rather, seek out the cooler times of hot days - early morning and evening. Early mornings are the coolest part of the day, but are often more humid. Evenings are often less humid, but considerably warmer. It is really a matter of personal choice - higher humidity and lower temperature or higher temperature and lower humidity. Either is certainly better than exercising when the sun is up. Wear light, loose-fitting clothing. Experiment with different types of garments, caps, socks, etc.

Dehydration - Dehydration is most often associated with the heat, but occurs even in cool weather. It is simply the process of losing fluid from the body. Again, the body knows what is best for it; when fluid levels get below a certain desired amount the body slows down in hopes of lowering the stress. If fluid levels get low enough, the body will just about stop functioning and you will pass out. Dehydration is a terrible way to go and must be avoided at all costs. Among healthy individuals, exercise is the most usual cause of becoming dehydrated, as a result of loss of fluid (via sweat) as you work to maintain desired temperature. Different people react differently to the same set of conditions. A loss of about 5 percent will negatively affect performance; more than 7 percent or 8 percent will not be tolerated.

Minimize the Effects of Fluid Loss - First, learn to drink during long runs or walks. Drink a lot with higher ambient temperatures. Your body can absorb about 1,000ml of fluid per hour, so learn to be able to take in that much, if necessary - just over a cup every 15 minutes. Drinking more than about 1,000ml per hour may not be beneficial, if not more than that can be absorbed anyway. If you lose 240ml per km (10 liters) and drink 4 liters in a 4-hour marathon, the net loss is 6 liters (13.2 pounds - 8 percent of a 165-pound runner's body weight - not good).

Some people will have real trouble completing a marathon, others very well may not. But, if it is hot enough, almost everyone will have trouble, and under some conditions, a run must be given up or the approach altered (walk/jog or just walk, which will lengthen the time taken to complete the distance, but which allows for greater fluid intake).

More To Sweat Than Water - As you sweat, you lose water and electrolytes, which is the reason specialized sport drinks have become popular - they provide you with water, electrolytes and energy. Unfortunately, many distance athletes become serious about what they consume only during races, but the body can gradually become lacking in electrolytes if fluid intake during daily training sessions is water only. Get in the habit of consuming a reputable sport drink during practice sessions. This will get you used to that particular drink and will also keep your body supplied with needed nutrients. The trouble some endurance athletes have in competitions is brought on by inadequate attention to what they do during practice, and they go into a competitive effort already partially depleted in some important nutrients.

How To Calculate Your Reaction To Warm Weather - Follow these steps to prepare your own guide to determine how much you need to drink to avoid dehydration during a marathon:

1. Record your nude body weight prior to and following runs or walks of 40 to 60 minutes at the intensity you expect to perform.

2. Record the temperature and humidity conditions for each of these test efforts.

3. If you drink, record exactly how much you drink.

4. Generate a table that presents the rate at which your body loses fluid under different temperature conditions, and what the loss would be over the course of a full marathon.

5. Take the steps necessary to counteract the predicted loss, to stay under a 5-percent loss.

The table below indicates how much slower you might expect to complete a marathon under different temperature conditions (compared to a nice day of about 55 degrees and moderate humidity). Under the indicated temperatures and with abnormally high humidity, these adjustments may underestimate the effect. Walkers will face similar reductions in time, but they have more time to ingest and absorb fluids so the problem should not be as great.

TEMP (F*) - RACE DURATION IN MINUTES
55 - - - - - - -2h10m (130’) - 2h30m (150’) - 3h (180’) - 4h (240’) - 5h (300’)
70 - - - - - - -2m - - - - - - - - 2.5m - - - - - - -3m - - - - -4m - - - - - 5m
81 - - - - - - -4m - - - - - - - - 4.5m - - - - - - -5.5m - - - -7.5m - - - - 9.5m
90 - - - - - - -6m - - - - - - - - 7m - - - - - - - - 8.5m - - - -11.5m - - - 14.5m
100 - - - - - -8m - - - - - - - - 10m - - - - - - - 12.5m - - - 17.5m - - - 22.5m

Slow Ride...Take It Easy

The conditions we've endured this summer (thanks to a wicked El Niño) have made training very entertaining. Coaches - if they believe there is one present - are often accustomed to looking for the location & quantity of the silver lining within the dark cloud of the athlete. It could be a short-term body habitus change or a change in a fitness level...sometimes both issues at the same time, if the coach works with a female athlete. In those sorts of situations the best thing anyone can hear is the need for patience, & the true hope that given enough time things will get better.

Of course, it's hard when the coach is the person in question losing confidence in their fitness. There are coaches who are self-coached, but sometimes everyone needs an ear to bend when the days are a little less than sunny. When it comes to swimming I have a couple of good friends/coaches I can turn to. As for running...I'm more likely to talk to my wife; she seems to have a good perspective on what I'm doing wrong since she hears me provide advice and counsel to others. I don't always like to hear what she has to say, but she's more likely going to initiate a plan of action to fix my problem.

So, rather than beat myself needlessly over the conditions & the fitness I decided to adapt my training plan. I figured, rather than try to accelerate a marathon training plan by two or three weeks in order to run a local marathon I had not registered for yet, I'd spin the dial all of the way back to base-building...something I could have done from mid-April until early June rather than taking so much time off. So yesterday I got on the treadmill and ran six miles at ten-minute per mile pace...very slow for me. It felt quite good when I finished but the real lessons of running slowly hit home at five o'clock this morning.

First, if your shoes are old, beat-up or beyond their best days, running slowly will make you realize the fact. And the fact? What else? It's time to spend money on another pair.

Second, & this is more of an opinion than anything, you find out how efficiently - or inefficiently - you run, form-wise. Shortening your stride, which works well on the roadways, isn't so effective on a treadmill. So there is such a thing as a too-slow pace on a treadmill. I learned yesterday I was probably a solid minute-per-mile too slow...at probably the last minute of the run. One minute of the "right" dead-slow (easy) pace certainly does NOT make up for the previous 59 where you were at the wrong pace.

The nice thing is, out of the whole situation...you live...you learn. And I got some very easy miles out of the process. Really it was nice to run for an hour without sweat flying all over, the ability to really enjoy the music and look out the window at folks coming into and leaving from the gym.

Now comes the adjustments...the way my back felt this morning it might involve a chiropractor.

Comfortably Numb

This weekend is what I would call "Anaerobilooza" in most civilized areas. Two events in the course of 10.5 hours. My original plan was to NOT participate in the morning's 10K race because I was going to participate in the 5K that night.

Reason for my choice?

A 10K road race in the morning on the first weekend of May in N. Florida is NEARLY GUARANTEED to be warm & humid. No matter what the conditions are in the two weeks leading up to the event it's going to happen. In fact, the thermostat in my house the afternoon prior to the race was in the 80-degree range; high time to fire up the A.C. Shucks. At that point you know it's going to be UGLY.

I had my goal split times with the (suicidal) hope of running sub-40 written down on a strip of pull tab. However, everything went to hell-in-a-handbasket at the first mile split (16 seconds off from the word go). At that point, I should have tossed the strip, relaxed and had fun. However, I did continue to push the issue for what it was worth...finishing a solid minute slower than my Crescent City performance weeks earlier. I was disappointed for a good 30 minutes, then took a pragmatic look at everything:

1. Too warm/humid.
2. Too little base training in the early year.
3. Tough course.

So you go on from there. Since there are no major races for months around here it's back to base-building. Nice, comfortable long(er) runs.

So, home to relax on the couch, talking to the dog & fold up the abundance of clothes piled up in the clean clothes basket...one very good reason to not have more than a single beer after the race. Well, two or three beers after a 10K on a Saturday is fine if you have nothing better to do for the rest of the day, however...

I almost shut down the idea of running the 5K in the evening...while running an easy warm-up over the first mile of the (out/back) course. The shut-down then almost happened at the first two strides off the starting line...but I talked myself into it. Hit the first mile at the pace I should have run in the morning's race. Probably top 15 to top 20.

DIGRESSION FROM TOPIC FOLLOWS:
As a course measurer, it's difficult if not impossible for me to go to local races. If I go to a race the first question I receive is: 'Hey, Mike...did you measure this course?' If I don't go to a race I get asked: 'Hey, Mike...how accurate was that course?' Once I get through with measuring a course it's up to the race director to communicate to the race organization (volunteer workers) exactly where the start, finish, turn-around & split points need to be. I've been at races where volunteers placed splits & turn points at locations where they always had been rather than at the correct location, without knowing the course had been changed/re-measured. The measurement & certification process, done for the benefit of the individual athlete, at the cost of several hundred dollars to the race, is derailed by something so simple as ignorance & lack of communication.

OKAY, NOW BACK TO THE STORY...
Turn off to the secondary road and I see cones in the middle of the street. Since I measured the course I knew exactly how the course should have been set up. No worries, it only made the course a tad longer than the certified length.

As I was running up the road I knew we were approaching the turn-around point, but it looked like the cones were going on for another 200-300 yards. At that point the ethical dilemma comes to pass: do you run the incorrect course because everyone else did, or do you turn in?

I ran a 10K earlier in the day. I was beat up. I saw the turn point & turned. I'm certain everyone freaked out when I was at the front of the field...going from 15th to first in a matter of moments is NOT NORMAL.

I ran the course I measured. I didn't do the course the RD laid out. It was the wrong decision for the right reason. I won't go into the end of the story in detail, but the RD & I had a chat after the race, & I told him to go ahead & scratch my performance. Better to have one or two people upset than 300.

Of course, then I have persons coming up & telling me I measured the course incorrectly. Damned if I do. Damned if I don't. Guess that happens when you're a guy doing your job.

The Invisible Man

Suzanne's on the road again this week, so all is not as well in the Bowen household as I would like. Rubin is even more the spoiled brat when she's out. In spite of a walk yesterday morning after my swim workout, and another walk in the afternoon after my 40-minute, 5-mile (well, 5.1 miles in 38 minutes and small change, if you really need to know...) run in 90-degree conditions...he still wanted to go outside, over and over again. Well, it's not the going outside (into the back yard) he wanted, but more biscuits. After a while it became a battle of wills: I'd go to the back door to let him back in the house, and he'd stand there not wanting to come in. All right, stooopid dog. Stand out there and roast. See if I care. Make me explain to your mother when she returns why your carcass is in the veterinary clinic.

I don't sleep well when she's out...and not for the obvious reasons. Once you've developed a pattern and established a certain level of comfort, any sort of change kind of throws your system for a loop. So I was probably a little disoriented at 9:30-something when Jason, the husband of my "zeeba neighba" friend Laura, called. He finally got back into country after a year doing "gee-what" (the Navy is notorious for turning acronyms into words!) things. So, his plan was to take his week off and come get the stuff Laura put in the office, pack it in a U-Haul and get it all set up (eventually!) in Clarksville, Tennessee. Obviously the draw of money for a pharmacist was the primary reason to go there, because Laura says there's not much else to offer.
This sort of stuff doesn't happen too much here. It's more like that in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, which at one time had some of the most dangerous street crossings in the U.S. I recall fondly my efforts to cross the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Ashley (or Tampa) Street, usually in running attire, and often on days when traffic was at its worst. Since it was only half a mile from the U.Tampa campus to the offices where my girlfriend (at that time of life) worked, it was always a good chance to get together for lunch two or three times a week. I never saw anyone get hit at one of those two intersections, but there were a couple of close calls, let me tell you.

Why does summer have to happen to us? Not certain. But I'm fortunate my thermometer and air conditioning unit at home is operational. The on-line resume system for the government certainly isn't. I have resumes submitted all over the government's human resources system, yet when it came time to consider for a program analyst position in the office next door to mine my name was not in the list of qualified applicants.

Huh?
Exactly the same thing my friend Sam said to the HR person here, which she said supposedly to the HR person in Norfolk. So, now the government HR folks and my granddaughter have something in common; neither one know of me.
Aarrgghh.

Standing on the scales last Saturday, I found I weighed about seven pounds heavier than I did during/after the triathlon. Again, I guess it means no more Mickey D runs on the way into the office after swim practice. Back to bagels and hummus from Mike's (Cafe' Espresso), without the brownie chaser.
Of course, the Navy, in its infinite wisdom, continues to make dietary decision-making difficult. I walked in to see sailors selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts, five dollars for a box of 12. Sure, no problem, let's load folks down with fat and sugar, then watch them crash and burn later in the afternoon...or have heart attacks after twenty years of the stuff.
And I do like the stuff. I haven't had one in a very, very long time. The only problem is that Krispy Kreme doughnuts are like potato chips: It is almost a certainty that you will not be limited to devouring a single doughnut.

Ask the Coach - April 8, 2008

Summer is almost here and it's going to be hot. All of us know to drink more fluids and avoid running in the heat of the day. How should the heat effect our mix of intervals and long runs?

I don't presume every runner knows to drink more fluids; more importantly than this, what fluids to drink. While your kidneys are good at controlling the amount of electrolytes passed in urine, your sweat glands are going to push out electrolytes as well as fluid as part of thermoregulation. This means plain water will do you fine while you're at the workplace, if you have a job where most of your day is spent at the desk. However, plain water can be a little, er, boring to the palate; you're not going to drink what doesn't suit your taste. Sports drinks, such as Gatorade, Powerade, Propel, and so on, are good at making certain you have sufficient hydration; the down side of these drinks are that they have a great deal of high fructose corn syrup, a cheap sweetener, and not so much in sodium, potassium, chloride and other electrolytes, which are the things you need most to be replacing.

Oh, contrary to popular belief, the carbohydrates in most beer are countered by the toxicity of the ethanol. Your liver has to work to process the alcohol and remove it from your system before it can assimilate any carbs. Since alcohol can only be passed through the system by urination, sweat or respiration, like that of caffeine, you'll lose more fluid by drinking alcohol or caffeinated beverages (iced tea, iced coffee, energy drinks) than you would sugary drinks, which take longer to pass through the gut.

You can run during the daytime, but understand that the fluid you lose through cooling your body (sweat) is taken from your blood circulating through your capillaries; that's why you'll see folks looking quite red on a hot day when they've been active. The water loss from your blood as part of the cooling process makes the blood thicker and more difficult for the heart to pump through the circulatory system. Think of it like trying to suck honey through a thin straw, compared to sucking water through the same; it's much harder. Since the blood flows slower through the vessels, it takes more pumps of the heart to move it the same distance it would travel with full fluid volume...oh, did I mention the fact your blood is going to the areas of the body needed most at exercise? That means your leg muscles are probably getting the most blood sent to it, next to the brain. That's a long way to go.

So, hotter and more humid conditions of summertime running mean your perceived effort at a particular pace is going to increase. That's bad news. The good news is there aren't many "important" summer races here. The best thing you can do is continue to run through the year, listen to what your body is telling you, and adjust your effort accordingly. As for track workouts and long runs, I suggest finding a sports drink that replaces the minerals and electrolytes you lose through sweat, and keeping a bottle or two available. You can stash bottles on a long run or get your favorite drink at the local convenience store if carrying a bottle is too much of a problem. If those don't work, then adjust your workout times to take advantage of conditions, or run at places where there are water fountains.Swimming or biking may be a good way to get some exercise this summer since it will be so hot. What's the best mix of swimming, biking and running?

Swimming and bicycling are great cross-training, I like them a great deal because of the reduced impact to the musculoskeletal system. The best blend of cross-training activities depends on your fitness level and amount of time you have available to ride or swim. Borrowing the old phrase "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing," there is a limited degree of transfer between swimming, bicycling and running; you need to run if you want to be a good runner. If you bicycle, make certain you wear a CPSC or ANSI-approved bicycle helmet, follow *all* the rules of the road, and (please!) refrain from wearing headphones *in your ears* (there are devices that will allow you to listen to music in your helmet AND hear surrounding traffic).I may want to run a marathon this fall. Is it too early to start training this summer?

Good for you. A marathon will teach you a great deal about yourself; your perceived limitations, strengths and weaknesses. Training for a marathon, especially a first marathon, takes at least 18, and up to 26 weeks, depending on fitness level and goal. If your plan is to do LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, around the first week of October, this would be the time to begin marathon training. Before you mention heat as an obstacle, let me remind you of a painfully obvious fact: Chicago in the first week of October can range in temperature from the high 80s (last year) to the high 30s (about five years ago). You never know what conditions are going to be like on the day. There are good training plans available, several of which have been used by ECRT athletes to run personal best times and qualify for Boston. The biggest challenge is not so much choosing a training plan, but to follow it through and make certain you toe the line on the day as healthy as possible. A personal note: Running a marathon while injured is not a good idea.

Labor Day, Approaching

I've been opposed on general principles (read: money) to purchasing a satellite radio receiver. It's like purchasing a computer and having to pay for the internet. Oh, you mean I do that!? Never mind.

However, after five years in this town, I've learned a few things:

1. Most, if not all, of the radio stations are owned by a single entity. That means you better like a playlist loaded with country, or contemporary (read: corporate, mindless, tasteless, talentless) music genres. Oh, let me not forget the three religious radio stations.

2. What I used to understand about radio still holds true. Advertising pays the operating expenses for commercial radio. HOWEVER, there are more ads and less "entertainment" on the airwaves. When I turn on a radio I want to hear music or conversation. You can toss a shameless plug in between segments for all I care, but DON'T INUNDATE ME with bull-cr@p.

Memo to self...or memo to spouse: HD or XM for birthday. Or, let's get that inexpensive bike took kit.

Labor Day is this weekend, and I'm far from the nostalgic state of mind I was last year. I guess if the temperatures were closer to 80 degrees than 90 I might begin to think about the approach of autumn. But we're much closer to infernal than autumnal. Track workouts on Tuesday and Thursday evening (ideally) finish at 7:30, which is about the same time the sun goes down.

Positive: Temperature drops nearly ten degrees between start of workout and finish.

Negative: Still warm enough for small bugs to live.

The track's lights did not go on at 6:45 last night, either, which meant dusk approached as we were finishing our last set of repeats. Probably a one-off situation; something I hope doesn't become a more-frequent occurrence.

I'm waiting to tighten up the list of athletes who are training to run the marathon in December...but only for another two days. I mentioned on several occasions via e-mail, in the newsletter, everything but a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night that it is their responsibility to contact me personally (phone, e-mail, face-to-face), and yet, I STILL GET SECOND-HAND COMMUNICATIONS. Once again: Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Oscar?

While we're going insane here in the office getting the last of the interviews and daily activity logs collected and beginning to make sense of the numbers, the presence of one of the staff from one of our more-northern detachments has made it fun. I like working with persons who have a sense of humor and aren't constrained by artificial bull-cr@p. Yep, give me a WYSIWYG kind of co-worker, any time.

Does This FuelBelt Make My Butt Look Fat?

Hot air is one thing when you're training...an obstacle you just have to deal with and move along. Add humid conditions and you begin to need gills. If you're fortunate your training runs will have a mix of shade and sun, variations in terrain and - most importantly - many places to hydrate.

Okay, porta-potties are also important, but that's for another time.

Lately, our heat index has been in the triple digits; yes, that's above and beyond 90 days of 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity. Think higher, my friends. There's not enough cooling you can do to yourself, internally or externally, over the course of a training run. Why is it folks don't have their lawn sprinklers on at the time of day when you want to run through them most?

My Sunday morning training run is nearly optimal; a hilly, moderately-shaded loop around a large body of water. The down side is that there are only two places (three if you count the park where I begin and end) to take in water. Both of these are on the same side of the bayou. If you're in a situation where your training run goes through a residential neighborhood, make friends so you can borrow their garden hose or leave a container of fluid there. I've heard horror stories of friends leaving gallon jugs of water in front yards, only to find some local nosy-nut has taken them away.

You CAN carry water with you, though. I don't like the idea of doing it, though, because there's not a good way to carry fluid without affecting your run. Carrying a bottle in the hand is all right for some, but I feel like Quasimodo as the run approaches the first mile. Okay, so the weight is decreased after the first ten minutes or so, but in the meantime... Some gear makers have built straps that make it easier for you to grip the bottle, but the issue is still the same. If I wanted hand weights, I'd have brought two of them.

I have a Camelbak waist-mounted hydration system, which is a 36 ounce bladder in an overgrown fanny pack with elastic straps to keep everything snug at the waist. This, I think, was developed for cross-country skiers and not runners. They don't have a lot of up-and-down motion as part of their sport; two extra pounds of weight strapped to my waist is not good for the knees...as I learned a couple of years ago after my last marathon.

What I'm going to start looking at, however, is a belt-mounted system that will allow me to either carry four 6-ounce flasks and gels, or holster a bottle. The flasks are starting to sound like a very good idea, since I can carry water, electrolyte or carbohydrate in the amounts I feel are necessary. The only other options are to hope for the goodness of my fellow man (being a glass half-empty AND glass needs cleaning kind of guy, I don't hold much hope) to not borrow/steal/discard fluid bottles I cache.

Of course, if I can't find my bottles I can always "borrow" their bushes.

Someone REALLY Needs A Mental Health Day

Yes, I've seen that look before. Lately, I see a lot of it when my wife comes through the door. Most of the time she can get past a tough day (or several tough days) at work by going out for a run, taking the d-a-w-g for a walk, or slurping on a few cool beverages in the evening. However, yesterday's look took the cake. While she was looking forward to getting out to the beach for a little while last night, she was going to settle for a walk, instead. At first, I was wondering why a walk and not a run. However, the meterological conditions were, as some would say, gawd-awful.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to train hard in triple-digit heat indices. Well, you can train indoors on the treadmill, the spinning bicycle, the elliptical trainer, or hit the swimming pool. Depending on the air conditioning capability in the place where you're at, even a tough workout can be almost tolerable. However, lots of (average) folks don't have access to pools, workout studios, or indoor tracks (memo to self: build an indoor track facility when you hit the lottery.). That tends to turn a planned six-miler into a four-miler, or a sprightly four-miler into a more relaxed-pace (George says, '...this is relaxed pace!?') four-miler, with a short walk at the end.

The saving grace of all this is the fact I have all these training options. Getting back into the pool after weeks away from it has been wonderful. I'm almost back to the fitness level I was before I broke the arm; not as fast in the water, but I think the mechanics are more relaxed. Give or take a couple of seconds, my reps in the pool have not changed for the worse from early June. While swimming might not transfer much to running, it helps me to learn to control my breathing when at speed...if you can come up on another competitor without them hearing your heavy breathing, you just might be able to put a stride or two on them before they can react.

If Thomas Paine were alive today, writing a pamphlet on training in Florida in the late summer, he would begin it: '...these are the times that fry men's soles...' He could still entitle it The Crisis if he wanted. He could talk about the conflict between the conscious and the subconscious mind; it's a little over five weeks until the first late-summer/early-autumn 5,000-meter road race...and the panicky state of affairs that the very competitive local runners may be feeling. Hell, I'm feeling it, and it's only a stepping-stone race toward my main races; a half-marathon in October and a marathon in December. I've also planned a 10-kilometer road race in early November, but...

I haven't run any chunk of distance beyond 400 meters at near race pace for, oh, about two months to be exact. I did some 400s a couple of weeks ago at 95-second pace, but that was a slow ramp-up from the first ones, which were closer to 110. However, we will see how things go tonight. The plan is 8x400 at 95-97sec pace, with 100m walk breaks in between. This will be the first test of fitness. I might tell everyone to extend the 100 to a little closer to 150. We'll see.

Maybe I'm thinking too much right now. Maybe it's me who needs the mental health day.