The Ice Bath

I've been icing my ankle a lot lately, probably five nights a week. My advice on icing:

 - The first time you do it, it hurts the most. It gets easier.

 - The first three minutes are the hardest every time.

 - Keep the temperature 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit. You are trying to constrict blood vessels not get frostbite or prove how tough you are. 

 - 10-15 minutes is all you need in the ice.

 - Ideally cold - warm - cold baths are the best way to flush out the muscle toxins. So if you ever have 45 minutes and two tubs...

 - Long term your body's natural acute inflammation actually rebuilds better, stronger, muscles than icing after every workout. So save the ice baths for injuries, multi day competitions, and the very hardest training blocks. 

Recovery is Not Always Easy

Recovery can be hard.

Bruised and Swollen, FIVE DAYS LATER!!!!

For example, I skipped both of my running workouts this week and just struggled through a 2.3 mile run mostly level at 8:30 pace tonight. Of course I will put some blame on working overtime and the emotional struggle of caring about work leaving me less able or motivated to care about things after work. That's really a cop out though, I'm not working that hard.

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! Why can't I be healthy?

It's actually kind of funny. I've actually been smiling as I limp along on my slow runs. Where did second place on Saturday come from? Well, I prayed a lot during that race, mostly thanksgiving for being able to run a race, and some for getting through the whole thing healthy, and have a good experience. Well, I had a great experience. Next year I will probably win the thing, maybe in a course record. Plus this give me quite a lot of confidence going into serious training. However, I have experienced this before, when I try to race without a recent aerobic base, I can't recover well at all. I burned out in track 2009, 2005, and 2004 because I had no base. This time will probably be different, I have a coach writing workouts specifically for me and I am racing maybe once a month instead of once a week. Point being, having a race that good off of training that bad, I would expect it to tear me apart, let alone my still swollen ankle.

I Live in Iowa: Week 181

I'm writing this from my hotel somewhere in central easern Germany, although I think technically it was part of West Germany. That being said, the wall came down 25 years ago, and I'm not sure there is a differenance any more. By the way, why did all of my ancestors from Germany settle in central and southern Wisconsin and Minnesota? Because Germany seems to have exactly the same terrain and climate. I'm not joking. They even have a bunch of deere stands here too!

It was an up and down week. You heard enough about my injury, so I'll spare you reading me rehash the details. However, once I made the decision not to race CIM, my left side IT band hurt a little for a couple days and then my right foot plantar didn't feel good either. Maybe phantom pains of a body relaxing, but maybe injuries that were waiting to happen.

What?! Pandora is not available in Germany?!

Work went well, I mean, I started my new job, and only did a little reading on my new duties, but I ended up getting a trip to Germany out of it, which is awesome!

Saturday I went skiing at Chestnut over by Galena, IL. Lift tickets are only $20 until December 14th, so take it while you can still afford it! It was great, kind of funny though, I went with the two guys I rock climbing with. You would think we could convince others to rock climb and ski with us, but alas, it is actually rather difficult.

Saturday night I went to a hockey game for the Dubuque Fighting Saints. It's a junior amaetur league that oftens has players go into D1 hockey or occassionally the NHL. While maybe I should mourn the loss of the home team, the Tri-City Storm's goalie had a whopping 42 saves! That's really good. I don't know if they were poor shots, but I've never seen a goalie save so many of the goals.

I'll take it, another week in the books. While it was not fun to sit out of a race I have been working toward for a couple months, I'm just about healthy now. Had I raced a marathon yesterday, I would not be. I would like to do a lot of racing in 2015, and I'm going to need to be very recovered.

Tremendous North Coast 24 Recovery

Recovery and rest matter. They matter more than the training. Seriously. The difference between full time runners, and those of us working 40-50 hours a week is that we just don't have the time to sleep as much or lay around in a state of mental half engagement. For me to run twice a day it means waking up at 5, or at least 5:30, putting in some miles, going to work for 8-9+ hours, then putting in more miles after work, eating a big dinner, and going to sleep at 9, or even earlier sometimes. There is not much rest during the day, aside from sitting in my expensive chair at my desk at work. In short, I think that working a full time job makes it harder for me to recover than not working a full time job.

However, I realize that my personality is such that I will never be a full time runner or mountaineer or athlete of any kind. Mentally, the challenge is just not enough. I need some sort of mental stimulation, and a few puzzles does not cut it, we're talking a couple dozen hours a week of a long term project, minimum. The mental challenge gives me a balance to the physical challenge. So it's a balance. I'm not sure where the perfect balance is. At 40 hours a week of work, life is great! At 50 hours a week, I start to slide in my motivation and engagement. I've never really done less than 40 hours a week so I can't say what 30 hours a week or 20 hours a week would do for me. That's kind of getting off topic, the point is, how much I work has an impact on my running.

This post is about celebrating how amazing my recovery from my first ultra marathon has gone! Simply stunning!

North Coast 24 Recovery Mileage

Look at those numbers the last month! A 20 mile run! A 28:08 8k with 350 feet of up and down?! A set of 4x mile intervals at 5:40 pace less than two weeks post race?! I took four days completely off, a three mile run and then another day off, then I was basically back into it with a 49 mile week and an 82 mile week.

I read tests about VO2Max, running efficiency, fat/carbohydrate mix, foot strikes, and all sorts of running related studies, and I have only twice been studied, both were for an undergraduate class way back in 2009. I look at this graph, and I have to wonder, how much of an anomaly am I? I mean, this is crazy! I have recovered so fast. If anyone wants to test me, please let me know. Speaking of which, between setting my 5k and 10k PRs back in 2012, I had a hematocrit of 42, which basically means, I probably stand to have a huge improvement living at altitude if I ever had that opportunity. Kind of a minor detail, but I was not drug tested after the NC24 and honestly I was hoping for a blood test because it would really cool if I was considered good enough to get a biological passport. I think I have a lot to gain my monitoring my blood, such as understanding when I need to take more iron or eat more protein. That's the scientific part of my speaking, the vast majority of what I do is based on feel. Pushing hard, but not too hard. 

In summary, Thank You God for giving me these gifts that I don't fully understand! I am not sure if I am really an anomaly, or I am an average guy with a crazy brain, whatever the case, I am blessed, and I don't want to take any recovery for granted, because I just don't know if this may be the last one I ever have.

Joe Vigil's Marathon Training Program Explained

For several years one graph has confounded me. It made utterly no sense to me. I read Joe Vigil's book, and it still made no sense to me… until this summer.

From this article on Deena Kastor winning the bronze marathon medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics, is the following graph. It's in Joe Vigil's book too, which I lent to a friend, and he never returned...

Deena Kastor's Approximate Mileage Before Athens 2004

It makes no sense. Nowhere else in running have I seen such variation in mileage. Most authors and coaches prescribe two or three weeks of higher mileage and then a down week, and only maybe 80% or 85% of the high mileage weeks. These, 40 mile jumps, going up 40% or down 30% in one week? It makes no sense. I can hear every running "expert" saying this is a sure recipe to get injured. Although, I don't have a coach because of the half dozen coaches in the world I respect enough to work with, none have returned my emails, or I haven't emailed them. It's arrogant, I know, but there is no "Joe Vigil Marathon Training Program Explained" article on the Internet I can find. I mean who advocates for such huge and regular mileage variation? I guarantee thousands have seen that same graph of mileage, and like me, not understood it, and probably not tried it.

Weekly Mileage Post-Chicago Marathon 2013 to Now

This is my weekly mileage over the last year. Check out my July and August 2014. I get it! (Ignore the 148 mile week, that includes the first 101.5 miles of my 24 hour run. Plus, I don't want to discuss my poor recovery from Chicago last year and build up to Everest this year.)

Here's the thing, 140 miles per week is 20 miles per day. Running 100 miles, in six days means running 16.7 miles per day. 20 miles per day, versus 16.7 miles per day on average is almost insignificant, and can be the difference between doing one 30 mile day versus one just 10 mile day. Plus, that doesn't take into account any workouts, which may make that 10 mile day harder than the 30 mile day. Workouts and actual daily running is beyond the scope of this article.

The point being, it's because the athlete, Deena, myself, whoever, takes a day off, and alternates pushing yourself just a little (15%) harder on a daily basis (even if it's just a longer 8 minute mile pace cool down a few times or six days of doubles instead of four days of double runs) on the hard week, and taking it just a little easier on the day off week. It's brilliant. I used to take one day off per month. That worked for many personal records, but it wasn't the best. It has been awhile since I took one day off per week. Frankly, that's a lot of days off. I'm not sure you can develop the same amount of carbohydrate storage, or fat metabolism, or tease the body into learning to recover faster. Oh I'm sure you can get close, but the leap to running seven days a week is a big one, with the benefits mentioned above.

Super-compensation is the principle that one "embarrasses" a body system, and the body rebuilds itself stronger than before. I've known about super-compensation for years, but I've always thought about it in terms of 30 mile days, or two weeks in a training cycle, like the 140 mile weeks above. However, the above graph has super mileage weeks at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, and compensation weeks at 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. It's genius. Work a little hard, recover well, even take a day off, work a little harder, recover well again, repeat.

I can't believe it really took me until this summer to understand it and finally try it. It is simple. Unintentionally, I even did this high week then low week then repeat back in the fall of 2011 when I ran my PR half marathon and marathon. I just failed to put it all together until this summer. Now, instead of that weekly mileage graph confounding me, it's a comfort. That graph says to me, "work hard, take a day off, relax a little, work hard, and I mean quite hard, then relax again." Joe Vigil, I know you are retired, and you will probably never read this, and I'll probably never email you, but well done sir.

Mmmmm... Fat and Salt!

I try to eat healthy. Well, in general I do, but I am also trying to lose a little weight, and that requires not eating everything in sight. My most recent creation is a lettuce and spinach sandwich, it's actually better than it sounds, especially on cranberry walnut bread with hummus.

However, regardless of my desires, I have cravings. Last night, after running 20 miles, which is a very long afternoon for me I wanted ice cream. Or rather, I tried to go to bed at 7:30, but woke up at 8:15, 8:45 and 10:30 to eat and drink because my restless legs did not want to sleep. One of the cravings keeping me awake was for ice cream. I have realized over time that when I crave something, there is something in that food my body really wants. Thinking about ice cream more I realized that I wanted fat and salt. The salt aspect has been an issue ever since the Wonderland Trail run in September 2010, and craving fat is probably a sign that I am calorie negative for the day and I am losing weight. I tried to fight the fat craving, but alas I was hungry. So I finished off the milk I had, ate a couple green queen olives, and had a few teaspoons of newly opened almond butter, plus a few glasses of tart lemonade (I seriously ran out of agave nectar or sugar to put in the lemonade). Finally I slept through the night. In total I was in bed for over 10 hours.

The moral of the story is to try and find the reason for a craving and satisfy it with something healthy. I still want some ice cream, but then again I haven't had any in about a month so it wouldn't destroy me.

If any of this sounds crazy and unhealthy, believe me, I am wondering that too. I am 160something days into a running streak and it has taken me to a mental place I have not been. Hopefully it is not over the edge.