Running Teaches Me Things

Yesterday I ran a 22 mile long run. I averaged 7:03 pace. That is pretty long and fast by my standards. How do I do it? Passion.

Longs runs are my favorite training run. I just love going out there for two hours and running. I also think long runs have a lot to teach us. Go out too fast and you will pay for it in the last few miles. You see there are many walls in the world of running. I have hit the wall two miles into a 5k more than once. I even hit the wall 250 meters into a 400 once. Where these walls are depend on the person but the awesome thing about long runs is that you are guaranteed to go past one. Running more than 10 miles at a time is huge step because of the mental double digits thing. 15 is harder than 14, 18 is way harder than 17, 20 is far harder than 19. Think of these ups and downs as a roller coaster. With almost every wall comes an emotional time where I am so happy, sometimes to the point I want to cry.

I have had a number of injuries that have prevented me from running. Call me shallow for wanting do do something physical, but I'm still going to run. Every step that I take without pain is such a blessing. Even walking across a room. I am so fortunate because I can walk across the room, because I can run out on the roads, because I can climb mountains. When I see people in wheelchairs it makes me so sad. It also makes me run harder. I have such an opportunity. I feel so fortunate not only because I can walk and run but because I can run pretty well.

I am obligated to use my talents and do everything I can. I will climb above 20,000 feet, I will race hard, I will hang on the side of cliffs, who knows what else I will do. Running teaches me to be thankful for every step because "a journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step." - Lao-Tzu

If you think my life is already crazy, hang on.

Run with Less on Your Feet

I've had my share of injuries. Most notably in terms of bad shoes patella-femoral tendonitis (runner's knee), two broken sesamoid bones, and plantar fasciitis. So now that I am training harder in preparation for the olympic marathon trials I have come across several things that I feel I need to incorporate into my training to take me to the next level (or next four levels, cause I have a long way to go). I have learned that shoes can mess me up. When I ran in high school my 20-40 miles a week I just wore some shoe that I had from a sports store. I usually only had one shoe for the whole year. I had no major injury in high school. In fact when I was 15 and 16 I trained for and ran a half marathon in the winter to try and keep in shape. One year I wore a pair of Nike waffles designed for cross country on the whole 13.1 mile pavement and dirt road corse. No injury and no pain that I remember.

Then comes college and I began to up my mileage and take an interest in what went on my feet. First it was what felt good in the store. Then it was what felt good three months later. About that time I was upping my mileage even more and it was what got me through 500 miles without an injury. I used stability shoes for a long time then switched to motion control and stability for the last two years.

We begin in January of 2006 while wearing a cushioning (women's) shoe (NB 1060) from New Balance I developed runner's knee. While clearing that up I moved to stability shoes. I went through two pairs of the NB 766, two NB 767, one NB 768, one ASICS 2110, one Nike I don't know the model, one Saucony Progrid Omni, one Brooks Adrenaline 7, and two Brooks Adrenaline 8. During that time I had a few flats that I used now and then like the NB 901 and Saucony Grid Tangent 2. Unfortunately I tried a more motion control type shoe and once you move up it is hard to move back down. I went through the Mizuno Wave Alchemy 6, Brooks Addiction 8, and Saucony Progrid Stabil. The thing is with that much motion control my feet are forced to move a certain way and I end up with knee pain or hip pain if I run too many miles. Basically the same thing as the cushioning shoe of yesteryear. So recently I moved back down and I'm on my second pair of Saucony Progrid Guide, a stability shoe.

My junior year in an indoor 5000 race I was wearing a pair of Nike Ventulus leopard print spikes and I smashed my sesamoid bone. At least I had never had pain there before but I had several problems after that. I took a month off and did some moderate to light training and ran a decent half marathon that spring. That summer I tried to incorporate barefoot running for the first time by doing strides. Bad mistake. Take that broken sesamoid bone and smash it at five minute mile pace into the ground. It really flared up and the doctor said I should take six months off from running. Yeah, I did that once it won't happen again if I can help it. Instead I put an L shaped patch under my foot in my shoe that took the pressure off. Needless to say I have been quite hesitant to take the shoes off since then. I have since learned that the key is to start by running slow and running short distances.

In my efforts to make my feet stronger the past six weeks I have been trying to do a few runs of about a half mile barefoot at the end of my regular runs. I've worked my way up to a mile. It is kind of humbling because a half mile or one mile is so short. Anyway a strange thing has happened: my stability shoes hurt a little. I have some orthotics in the boots that I wear during the day and they are starting to hurt as well. I have started to run more in flats. I bought a pair of Saucony Grid Fastswitch 3 and after only 40 miles in them I want to wear them all the time. My feet hurt more in shoes now than anytime I can remember. This recent obsession led me to buy two more pairs of flats a few days ago. The experience the last several years going through a pair of $90 shoes every two months makes me want to design and sell a $40 shoe, a flat, that is good enough for 500 miles. We don't need all of this motion control. The problem is that the rubber they use for trainers is designed to last 400-600 miles but in flats the rubber is often only made to last 100-200 miles so you can actually wear through the sole much faster in flats.

Has anybody really good ever gone barefoot you might ask? Yes in fact Abebe Bikila won the 1960 olympic marathon in Rome barefoot on cobblestone streets in 2:15 and set a world record in the process. That's all the information I need. If he could run 2:15 on cobblestones barefoot nearly 50 years ago I should be able to run a 2:18:xx under better conditions. Note: then he set the world record at 2:12 and won another gold medal in 1964 at Tokyo wearing shoes.

So what is my plan? Build slowly to get to the point where I can comfortably run one of my morning runs (3-7 miles) barefoot on the turf or on grass. This process should take two or three months. Right now I am at one mile comfortably barefoot near 8:00 mile pace. I also plan to run much more in flats because they keep the heel low to the ground similar to barefoot running. Wearing a shoe with a higher heel allows the calves and Achilles to get tight. I will still keep a few pairs of my stability shoes around for runs if my feet are tired or for technical trail runs. I would also like to try a pair of Newton shoes if I ever had $150 to spare. I will also continue to do foot stability, flexibility and strengthening exercises several times a week. These I will try to do for the rest of my running career because 20 minutes a week spread out over four "workouts" is completely worth the time that it will save me from being injured.

For more information:

Runner's World article by Amby Burfoot. He talks about Abebe Bikila some.

Barefootrunner.com, it's pretty self explanatory.

Anton Krupicka wrote a good, down to earth, blog post about minimalist running. For those that don't know he came strait out of college and set all sorts of ultrarunning records.

Born to Run by Chris McDougall is about a tribe of Indians in Mexico that run hundreds of miles at all ages nearly without injury. They wear thin sandals to protect their feet from the elements.

Pakistan Video Sample: 10 of 10

Here is the last little bit of free video preview. I am still not done editing the full length film but I have a deadline of having something for the first WPI Outing Club meeting in B term in about two weeks. If you are in the area I'll announce when the meeting is and I suggest you come. It will be a food meeting with a movie probably around two hours long with so many things that I left out of this short series.

This video covers the day coming down from camp three, a visit to K2 base camp, and the trek out. I also put more effort into this short clip than any of the other clips. I tried to focus on the human aspect a little more. Ultimately it is about the humans and not the mountains.

Synthetic Chemistry

Synthetic chemistry is the science of making molecules. These are the people making the things that might cure cancer. It is possibly the most universally relentless career to pursue. I have a friend who is at graduate school for his doctorate. He works in a synthetic chemistry lab. The advisor at his lab expects everyone to work 12 hour days six days a week. Fortunately that is one of the more understanding advisors. His friend is in a lab that asks for 14 hours seven days a week. In that world there are no such things as weekends off. In fact there are rumors of professors that makes rounds at 7 AM and 11 PM every day to make sure that their students are working. I was astounded when I learned all of this. But there is more.

Synthetic chemistry was more or less started in the 50s and 60s by a professor at Harvard. He worked his students hard. Therefore when they went out and had their own lab groups they worked their students hard. The process perpetuated itself because that's one way to get breakthroughs and results. Now 50 years later most of the respected synthetic chemistry labs in the country operate on these ridiculous schedules. Now for the gory details. The professor and Nobel laureate, Elias Corey, that started it all has had three suicides in his lab group. (By the way the article linked above is really good and very long.)

My graduate school experience is not nearly as threatening. I suspect that most graduate school students enjoy life as much as they ever have. That 70-90 hours a week attitude is not one which pervades all fields of science graduate life. I encourage people to go to graduate school but before you do make sure that it is the right choice for you.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 2

The Successful Innovative Company of the week is Noodles and Company.

Why they are great: Simple, variety, fast, relaxing, easy. They have a relatively small menu of about 20 items total. They focus on noodle dishes so almost everything is some sort of pasta. They have just one menu not a separate menu for lunch and supper. The menu is also grouped by region like Asian and Mediterranean. The experience is: you go in and it is similar to Subway or Quiznos with several basic items and you can add meats or sides. Then you go to a table and sit down and 5-10 minutes later they bring your food you eat and then leave your stuff there and they clean it up. It is not a served meal so most people don't leave a tip. It is much faster than trying to go to a traditional sit down restaurant. The portion size is also fantastic. It is somewhat small but if you eat the whole meal you will not be hungry. It is probably the perfect size. They also price the meals well with most being 8-12 dollars. In summary: it's cheap, you get to sit down, the food is really good, they give you the right amount, and it is fast.

What they are lacking: More locations, especially in the northeast. This is a college wonder restaurant. I think they have free wi-fi at most places and this is definitively the kind of place to go for lunch and stay for two hours. This is a chain that should set up shop in every college town walking distance from 5000 college students.

How to Handle the Most Demanding Weeks (at School)

I've been going to school for a long time. 17 years or so. I have taken a lot of tests and had a number of weeks of my life that never seem to end. Here's how I get through them:

• Enjoy the mornings. For me this means a mocha or a sandwich or some other expensive luxury that I don't usually buy. It makes me feel like the day is important.
• Do sleep. The actual productivity between the hours of 2-5 AM for most people is pretty terrible.
• Take pleasure in the difficulty. It is supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would be doing it but they are not. This is why you are different.
• Get away from the desk now and then. Go for a walk, a run, watch an episode of Scrubs, call your parents, clean the kitchen, or read my other blog posts. It works best for me not to schedule my fun time but to let it happen when I need it.
• Buy some comfort food. Some good cheese or ice cream or cheesy potato chips helps me get through a few more hours.
• Understand that if you had done more work the last several weeks this week might be easier. Learn from this.

Hope this helps!

12 Step Plan for Running More Miles

Now running more miles is not really the best goal in the world. Running races faster or losing weight are better goals. Still one of the ways to accomplish running faster or losing weight is to run more. So you run xx miles and a week and you want to run xx or even dare I say xxx miles a week. How do you do it? Here is my 12 step plan:

1. Do a long long run. 18-25 percent of your goal weekly mileage. It doesn't have to to fast. You can walk part of it if you get tired. You just have to finish it. If you run five or less times a week and are training for a marathon you can have a long run up to 30 percent of your weekly mileage.

2. Take easy days. Of course this also implies harder or longer days. Try not to run the same distance two days in a row.

3. Run slower. If your goal is just to cover a distance take it 10 seconds a mile slower, or more.

4. Have some goal (besides the mileage). Trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon or run a PR at whatever distance will help keep you motivated on the cold, wet, windy days.

5. Stretch. I prefer active stretches like swinging my legs before runs and static stretches after my runs. A flexible runner takes less energy to move his or her legs.

6. Run with friends who are trying to do the same amount as you are. If someone else is suffering doing the same thing it makes it more bearable.

7. Run a different route every day. This keeps it mentally new and interesting.

8. Keep a running log. This way you can track your progress and see accomplishment. I use Running Ahead.

9. Do a medium long run. This is kind of a more advanced method but it is good for aerobic development.

10. Run twice in one day. This can take some getting used to but it is a sure fire way to run more miles in one day with less stress on your body than the same distance in one run.

11. Celebrate the little things. Your first 13 mile run! Your first 70 mile week! A 5k PR by only 2 seconds! Keeping a positive attitude keeps you working.

12. Don't be a slave to your mileage. If you are hurt, injured, burntout, tired, or sick take the day off. A day or even a week off now is better than three months off down the road because you didn't take care of yourself.

So those are some steps you can take in order to run more miles. Get out more!