If you don't get blisters ever, feel free to skip this. I used to get blisters especially from racing and I hated it. I can stay cheerful through all kinds physical difficulties from either end of the GI tract to cramping to late night delusions. Blisters just *#@#**# tick me off. I read all sorts of blogs and product reviews during my first year running ultras and I performed all sorts of experiments on myself. Here's a summary of the things that make a difference for me.
1) The fit of my shoes. I used to wear my shoes tighter, thinking that I would have more stability and that less movement would mean fewer blisters. Your shoe will always move on your foot. The harder it is pressed against the skin the quicker it will generate heat and skin damage so now I wear my shoes looser. 'But Lee, won't that lead to more falls, to rolling your ankles, to your shoes falling off?' I like stretch bungee laces not only because they prevent me from having to trust in my ability to tie my shoes but also because they have give while still keeping your shoe on your foot. In an ultra my feet may swell a little over the course of the race. Almost everyone's do. I may not notice very quickly or may not want to bend down late in the race to retie my shoes laces (who knows what's going through my head then, but certainly not squatting down and standing back up). What about a looser shoe making me fall? If its so loose it can fall off then its too loose. If loosening your shoe laces or going up just a half size makes you fall on the trails then it is likely that your ankles are weak and that you also are not actually setting your feet down flat (the nervous system can lie to you about this, a blog next month on that topic). Do lunges with your eyes closed. Do single leg toe raises. Will deep mud suck a looser shoe right off my foot? It's happened. Twice. It was still lots better than running with blisters and the people running with me had a good laugh as I yelped and hopped around so it was a win-win. The key thing here I think is to experiment on training runs and see how your feet feel.
2) Socks matter a whole lot. I wore cotton socks once. They ate my feet. Some of the cheaper synthetics do too. I like Smartwool, Bridgedale, Balega, and Merrell to name a few. There are other brands that are similar and good. I hear a lot of people find happiness with drymax. For me a thicker sock is better than a thinner one. The main reason as far as I can tell is that the shoe rubs the sock and there's enough sock there to keep the rubbing from getting through to my skin. All of these socks perform just as well for me wet as they do dry. If a thicker running sock makes your shoes too tight consider a shoe with a wider toe box or a half size increase in shoe size.
3) Lubricating your feet for ultras is a great plan. I don't bother on training runs because I'm trying to toughen my feet up but training runs aren't generally as long and fast as races either. What and how much lubrication do I use? I'm not that picky with the rest of my body, though I really like Body Glide. For my feet, for an ultra? Skin Sake. Its A&D ointment with some other stuff thrown in and is much thicker on the skin than anything else I've tried, even vaseline. How much? I coat both feet everywhere my sock covers. If its the right amount then when I put on my sock and shoe it feels a little bit uncomfortably squishy for the first half mile or so. I ran an 80 mile mountain race over summer and a 100 miler in September and both involved a lot of water. I didn't get any blisters at all. Seriously.
4) Wet feet are actually good for me. When I wore my shoes tighter wet feet meant more blisters. With thicker, high quality running socks of the sort mentioned above and with lubrication on the feet (and even without, though the skin sake seems to also keep my feet from turning into prunes after 20 wet hours) wetness seems to just provide extra lubrication and keep the temperature of my skin down. Surely you've notice the skin feels hot before it blisters? That a blister from running looks like a burn? Not entirely coincidental. Once I sorted out all of the above stuff I found that wet feet ceased to be a problem which is good because you never know what it will do on race day. What about water proof shoes? You can try them but expect hot feet. Also, expect that if you do have to cross a creek (I prefer courses where this is likely because that's the kind of trail race I love most) and water gets over the top of your shoe it will not drain. No fun at all. Its also possible for it to rain so much that rain gets into your shoe. Gamble all you want, if its a race I prefer to sprint right across the creek without worrying about it. At lower paces and especially in the snow a waterproof shoe may still make sense for some runners. I just wear all mountain or thick ski socks and older, slightly stretched out shoes.
5) Blisters can be dangerous. If a blister tears open and then you blister again underneath so that you have gone through most if not all of your skin then you can wind up with a situation as dangerous as a third degree burn. This has never happened to me (very happily). In this case infection can set in and spread and turn into cellulitis which can land you in the hospital on IV antibiotics and losing tissue. First, take your blisters seriously if they are broken. Keep them clean and covered. Second, if you are at all nervous about infection but not ready to seek immediate medical intervention then take a pen and draw around the blister, outlining everywhere the skin is red/angry pink. Keep checking the blister. If the redness spreads over the line you drew you need antibiotics. You need them right away. When you get to the doctor, tell them when you put the line around the redness and how quickly it spread over the line so that they will understand the problem. I hope this never happens to anyone ever but if it does, its gonna be a whole lot easier to deal with the more quickly you get it treated.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Canadian Death Race (yeah, 2 months ago)
The Canadian Death Race website describes the course as 125 K (77 miles) with 17,000 feet of elevation gain and it isn't much longer or hillier than that. The views of from the Canadian Rockies outside Grande Cache, Alberta are fantastic although we didn't see any grizzlies or mountain lions. My running partner Gabe and I stayed together for the whole race, finishing in 21 hours and change, still able to walk and talk. We were pretty happy and then the race people told us only ten percent of first time solo runners finish at all and we were even happier and then we very, very hungry.
The night before the race we stayed in tent-city, which is a public park set aside for racers and crew to camp in since the town of Grande Cache doesn't have anywhere near enough housing to accommodate the influx of thousands of people over the August long weekend. Why is it 'August long weekend'? I had no idea either but apparently in Canada there's a long weekend every month. Seriously.
When we stopped to pick up snacks at the grocery store the cashier asked whether we were in town for the race. The same thing happened at the drug store. At five in the morning, as we ran back into town toward the finish people cheered from under blankets on a few porches. The entire town of Grande Cache knows about and supports this race and the residents are interested in whether you're running solo or on a relay team. Most racers run on relay teams and solo runners are considered brave, tough, and maybe a little crazy.
We planned for the worst, in terms of race support, because we traveled too far to wind up quitting over gear or aid station problems. It turned out to be a good decision since the aid stations consisted of four water stops with water and interestingly mixed Gatorade, some granola bars, and some lunch box size fruit cups. The person staffing each of these was invariable friendly and usually able to tell us which of the two jugs on the table contained plain water. Everyone was friendly. Other relay teams we'd met on earlier sections began cheering for us as we came into aid station areas calling out “go Ohio couple”! We're not a couple but we didn't care, strangers cheering you on feels good.
As we were beginning section 2, where the course ascends rapidly for several miles, we met one of the guys on the barefoot team. Not Vibrams, barefoot. He did have on a couple layers and a nice race pack and a set of trekking poles. We jokingly offered to trade him shoes for trekking poles since they seemed to be all the rage. He laughed and then told us politely that we were absolutely crazy trying to run the whole course solo without trekking poles. He was in the rockies barefoot but we were crazy. Then he took off up the mountain. On a side note, though, trekking poles do require practice, there were pieces of broken trekking poles along all the steeper descents and abandoned bent poles at aid stations.
So what else did we learn that could be useful to other people? Creeks that run through peat bogs on mountain saddles in 23 mile aids station gaps are safe to drink out of, its been over two weeks now so I'm sure. Vega brand orange gel does not appeal to me flavor wise but when I ate the one I found on the trail it sat well in my tummy. Bring a lot of food and spare electrolytes and Gin-gins if you run this or anything with a whole lot of hill. All that up and down beats up a number of systems. Without the Gin-gins I'm not so sure I could have kept nutrition in. I decline to address rumors that I raced after spending a week on antibiotics for strep throat but I will say that should you ever make such a decision, and should it effect your ability to swallow and should gels get real unappealing, you can squirt a couple into your water bottle and shake it up and it works out pretty well IF they're fruit flavored.
If you do run this race, look at the time cut offs closely! If you're not way the heck ahead on the first one or two then you're not going to finish the race. The time cut offs don't make sense (to me anyhow) but the race tracks runners and splits very well so you can look up the splits for solo runners who finished in previous years to get a better idea of where you need to be when. Gabe and I made one of the cut offs by less than 45 minutes and we thought we were moving pretty well! Spend a whole lot of time on deadlifts and hill repeats if you want to get through these kinds of 3-6 mile ascents and descents. Don't lose the damn coin for the boat near the end (people do, we didn't). You will get disqualified and removed from the course AFTER running most of it and getting over all three mountains. They are serious about that, very serious eh.
Here's some more really helpful, learn from others' mistakes if you can type info; when its late at night and you're tired and low on calories and its getting real cold, put on your rain jacket and zip it up. During the day, when you're not doing much or when you're rested and fed, you can tell when you're getting hypothermic. At three in the morning I couldn't really tell, I just thought I was really tired, I just thought if I lay down next to the trail for a few minutes I'd feel much better. Suddenly I remembered that at pre-race they told us a guy did that and hikers found him on the side of the trail the next day, severely hypothermic, dehydrated and delusional.
Nothing waterproof breathes well no matter what the label says, so if you can manage to keep moving, you'll get much warmer in your rain jacket even if its really thin. I was still tired once I got warm but not sleepy and I suddenly had more interest in running and drinking my water/gel mix. Set this information in your mind well so you'll remember it because if you're still reading this right now then there's a reasonable chance cold night time running is in your future.
The last part of the race that sticks with me, other than the finish, was seeing what I was dreaming as I shuffled along. I figured out that the huge, black horse wasn't there because nobody would let a ten year old girl go riding at three in the morning and anyhow my headlamp didn't reach that far. I figured it out all on my own and it entertained the heck out of Gabe when I explained how that proved I was mentally okay but next time I run a race like this I think I'll find a way to get more sleep the night before!
The night before the race we stayed in tent-city, which is a public park set aside for racers and crew to camp in since the town of Grande Cache doesn't have anywhere near enough housing to accommodate the influx of thousands of people over the August long weekend. Why is it 'August long weekend'? I had no idea either but apparently in Canada there's a long weekend every month. Seriously.
When we stopped to pick up snacks at the grocery store the cashier asked whether we were in town for the race. The same thing happened at the drug store. At five in the morning, as we ran back into town toward the finish people cheered from under blankets on a few porches. The entire town of Grande Cache knows about and supports this race and the residents are interested in whether you're running solo or on a relay team. Most racers run on relay teams and solo runners are considered brave, tough, and maybe a little crazy.
We planned for the worst, in terms of race support, because we traveled too far to wind up quitting over gear or aid station problems. It turned out to be a good decision since the aid stations consisted of four water stops with water and interestingly mixed Gatorade, some granola bars, and some lunch box size fruit cups. The person staffing each of these was invariable friendly and usually able to tell us which of the two jugs on the table contained plain water. Everyone was friendly. Other relay teams we'd met on earlier sections began cheering for us as we came into aid station areas calling out “go Ohio couple”! We're not a couple but we didn't care, strangers cheering you on feels good.
As we were beginning section 2, where the course ascends rapidly for several miles, we met one of the guys on the barefoot team. Not Vibrams, barefoot. He did have on a couple layers and a nice race pack and a set of trekking poles. We jokingly offered to trade him shoes for trekking poles since they seemed to be all the rage. He laughed and then told us politely that we were absolutely crazy trying to run the whole course solo without trekking poles. He was in the rockies barefoot but we were crazy. Then he took off up the mountain. On a side note, though, trekking poles do require practice, there were pieces of broken trekking poles along all the steeper descents and abandoned bent poles at aid stations.
So what else did we learn that could be useful to other people? Creeks that run through peat bogs on mountain saddles in 23 mile aids station gaps are safe to drink out of, its been over two weeks now so I'm sure. Vega brand orange gel does not appeal to me flavor wise but when I ate the one I found on the trail it sat well in my tummy. Bring a lot of food and spare electrolytes and Gin-gins if you run this or anything with a whole lot of hill. All that up and down beats up a number of systems. Without the Gin-gins I'm not so sure I could have kept nutrition in. I decline to address rumors that I raced after spending a week on antibiotics for strep throat but I will say that should you ever make such a decision, and should it effect your ability to swallow and should gels get real unappealing, you can squirt a couple into your water bottle and shake it up and it works out pretty well IF they're fruit flavored.
If you do run this race, look at the time cut offs closely! If you're not way the heck ahead on the first one or two then you're not going to finish the race. The time cut offs don't make sense (to me anyhow) but the race tracks runners and splits very well so you can look up the splits for solo runners who finished in previous years to get a better idea of where you need to be when. Gabe and I made one of the cut offs by less than 45 minutes and we thought we were moving pretty well! Spend a whole lot of time on deadlifts and hill repeats if you want to get through these kinds of 3-6 mile ascents and descents. Don't lose the damn coin for the boat near the end (people do, we didn't). You will get disqualified and removed from the course AFTER running most of it and getting over all three mountains. They are serious about that, very serious eh.
Here's some more really helpful, learn from others' mistakes if you can type info; when its late at night and you're tired and low on calories and its getting real cold, put on your rain jacket and zip it up. During the day, when you're not doing much or when you're rested and fed, you can tell when you're getting hypothermic. At three in the morning I couldn't really tell, I just thought I was really tired, I just thought if I lay down next to the trail for a few minutes I'd feel much better. Suddenly I remembered that at pre-race they told us a guy did that and hikers found him on the side of the trail the next day, severely hypothermic, dehydrated and delusional.
Nothing waterproof breathes well no matter what the label says, so if you can manage to keep moving, you'll get much warmer in your rain jacket even if its really thin. I was still tired once I got warm but not sleepy and I suddenly had more interest in running and drinking my water/gel mix. Set this information in your mind well so you'll remember it because if you're still reading this right now then there's a reasonable chance cold night time running is in your future.
The last part of the race that sticks with me, other than the finish, was seeing what I was dreaming as I shuffled along. I figured out that the huge, black horse wasn't there because nobody would let a ten year old girl go riding at three in the morning and anyhow my headlamp didn't reach that far. I figured it out all on my own and it entertained the heck out of Gabe when I explained how that proved I was mentally okay but next time I run a race like this I think I'll find a way to get more sleep the night before!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
My Blog is Back (and where it went)
For a few months I posted a blog every couple weeks and then a little over a year ago I stopped. I didn't stop running and I didn't run out of time to write. What I had was a whole lot of denial about how much of myself I have poured into this experience of running and racing. I started to write a blog to share my experiences, to share what I learned. Every time I raced I posted a race report, every time I learned something new I talked about it.
So what happened? Well, I got over confident or over eager or maybe a little of both and I ran too many races when I should have been recovering. At the 2011 BT50K, the one year anniversary of my first ultra, it caught up with me. I finished and even in fairly good time, but I finished hurt and needing two weeks off to recover. No big deal really. Somehow though, that race got in my head. That race felt like a failure to me.
Intellectually I know I finished an ultra and did no permanent damage to my body and that's a great success. I know all kinds of facts. The biggest thing running these very long distances is teaching me about myself is how much of a disconnect I have sometimes between what I think and what I feel. I'm sorting that out, or at least accepting it and learning to see it, which is almost as good. It took a whole year for me to really learn how to handle a race that feels like a bad race to me. It was even harder because really looking at that part of myself that chooses to feel like its a bad race? Ouch. Those looks don't make me feel really mature or emotionally evolved or....well, it makes me feel weak. It made me feel weak last summer and I let it for a little while. What's that adage? 'Pain is weakness leaving the body'. Sometimes pain is weakness leaving the brain. I'm not saying I won't have races I feel bad about, just that I think now I can feel bad and then smile anyhow and then let it go.
So here's a quick summary of what I've been doing since race-wise. Soon I'll write a little more about some of them and about some of the training and nutrition I've been experimenting with. After BT50K 2011 I healed up and ran the Oil Creek 100K, finishing right around 12 and a half hours with just one guy ahead of me, breaking the women's course record and running 22 miles longer than I'd ever run before. The most exciting part? I ran into a black bear around mile 42. This is when I should have begun writing again but what had failed wasn't my body so just running a strong race didn't fix it.
The following month I ran the Mountain Masochist 50 miler down in Virginia. The views of the Blue Ridge Mountains were fantastic, I won a sword in a post race bench press contest and I got to see the shack my grandmother's parents lived in when they were first married. These are the adventures that should be shared but I had lost my confidence in having something to say that other people would want or need to hear. If you know me this will not seem believable. Its not as though I stopped talking, I certainly didn't stop running.
Spring time meant the Green Jewel 50K, my one pavement race, the Forget the PR and then the Ice Age 50 miler. Mainly I ran Ice Age to run in a more competitive field but also with an outside chance at earning a free and automatic bib for the Western States 100. I finished sixth and needed a third place, a little disappointed but a little relieved because going into it I wasn't sure I was ready for a 100 miler. I had been pushing my Saturday and Sunday runs up to 60 mile totals, I had run some 90 mile weeks, but 100 miles in a row?
I drove home from Wisconsin, not thinking too much about 100 milers until a couple weeks later, recovering fast and not hurting really much at all, someone pointed out to me that Mohican 100 had not sold out. Its possible that someone was a little voice inside my head. I listened, I entered, I started, I fell and sprained my knee around mile 28, I tried to finish, and had to DNF around mile 76. I tried to be happy, it was still the furthest I'd ever run. Having to pull out of a race is character building, much more character building than most of the things grown ups said that about when I was a kid.
I didn't have time to be upset, I was focused on going to Canada In August my running partner, Gabe, and I flew out to Alberta and ran the Canadian Death Race solo (most racers run on relay teams). Almost 80 miles of the Canadian Rockies and 17,000 feet of hill climbing! Afterward we found out that ten percent of first time solo racers finish and we did it, we started and finished together! It took 21 hours and 23 minutes. It was a fantastic experience and the most beautiful course I've raced so far. Even more amazing? No blisters and no lost toe nails. Seriously.
The next race, my most recent race, was the Hallucination 100. I'd been registered for the 50 miler but after two weeks of recovery I decided that it was time to finish a 100 miler. In fact, I fixated on it, it had to happen. I had something to prove. A couple friends and maybe a physical therapist suggested more than five weeks of recovery would be a good idea. What?! Well, I finished the Hallucination 100 in 22 hours and 43 minutes. There were a few miles late in the race when it felt like I was in trouble. I decided to write my blog again. I hadn't thought about it much but there it was, solid in my head. For me, whether I finished or not, I had to go back to writing it down. I had to share it. There are a lot of kinds of toughness. The kind that got me through 100 miles of trail and weather still physically standing is great, but I've got some work to do on some other kinds of toughness. I don't mean everyone has to blog to have well rounded toughness, but from me its a challenge I need to meet. It took two weeks move from thinking to writing but my blog is back. Race reports will follow soon.
So what happened? Well, I got over confident or over eager or maybe a little of both and I ran too many races when I should have been recovering. At the 2011 BT50K, the one year anniversary of my first ultra, it caught up with me. I finished and even in fairly good time, but I finished hurt and needing two weeks off to recover. No big deal really. Somehow though, that race got in my head. That race felt like a failure to me.
Intellectually I know I finished an ultra and did no permanent damage to my body and that's a great success. I know all kinds of facts. The biggest thing running these very long distances is teaching me about myself is how much of a disconnect I have sometimes between what I think and what I feel. I'm sorting that out, or at least accepting it and learning to see it, which is almost as good. It took a whole year for me to really learn how to handle a race that feels like a bad race to me. It was even harder because really looking at that part of myself that chooses to feel like its a bad race? Ouch. Those looks don't make me feel really mature or emotionally evolved or....well, it makes me feel weak. It made me feel weak last summer and I let it for a little while. What's that adage? 'Pain is weakness leaving the body'. Sometimes pain is weakness leaving the brain. I'm not saying I won't have races I feel bad about, just that I think now I can feel bad and then smile anyhow and then let it go.
So here's a quick summary of what I've been doing since race-wise. Soon I'll write a little more about some of them and about some of the training and nutrition I've been experimenting with. After BT50K 2011 I healed up and ran the Oil Creek 100K, finishing right around 12 and a half hours with just one guy ahead of me, breaking the women's course record and running 22 miles longer than I'd ever run before. The most exciting part? I ran into a black bear around mile 42. This is when I should have begun writing again but what had failed wasn't my body so just running a strong race didn't fix it.
The following month I ran the Mountain Masochist 50 miler down in Virginia. The views of the Blue Ridge Mountains were fantastic, I won a sword in a post race bench press contest and I got to see the shack my grandmother's parents lived in when they were first married. These are the adventures that should be shared but I had lost my confidence in having something to say that other people would want or need to hear. If you know me this will not seem believable. Its not as though I stopped talking, I certainly didn't stop running.
Spring time meant the Green Jewel 50K, my one pavement race, the Forget the PR and then the Ice Age 50 miler. Mainly I ran Ice Age to run in a more competitive field but also with an outside chance at earning a free and automatic bib for the Western States 100. I finished sixth and needed a third place, a little disappointed but a little relieved because going into it I wasn't sure I was ready for a 100 miler. I had been pushing my Saturday and Sunday runs up to 60 mile totals, I had run some 90 mile weeks, but 100 miles in a row?
I drove home from Wisconsin, not thinking too much about 100 milers until a couple weeks later, recovering fast and not hurting really much at all, someone pointed out to me that Mohican 100 had not sold out. Its possible that someone was a little voice inside my head. I listened, I entered, I started, I fell and sprained my knee around mile 28, I tried to finish, and had to DNF around mile 76. I tried to be happy, it was still the furthest I'd ever run. Having to pull out of a race is character building, much more character building than most of the things grown ups said that about when I was a kid.
I didn't have time to be upset, I was focused on going to Canada In August my running partner, Gabe, and I flew out to Alberta and ran the Canadian Death Race solo (most racers run on relay teams). Almost 80 miles of the Canadian Rockies and 17,000 feet of hill climbing! Afterward we found out that ten percent of first time solo racers finish and we did it, we started and finished together! It took 21 hours and 23 minutes. It was a fantastic experience and the most beautiful course I've raced so far. Even more amazing? No blisters and no lost toe nails. Seriously.
The next race, my most recent race, was the Hallucination 100. I'd been registered for the 50 miler but after two weeks of recovery I decided that it was time to finish a 100 miler. In fact, I fixated on it, it had to happen. I had something to prove. A couple friends and maybe a physical therapist suggested more than five weeks of recovery would be a good idea. What?! Well, I finished the Hallucination 100 in 22 hours and 43 minutes. There were a few miles late in the race when it felt like I was in trouble. I decided to write my blog again. I hadn't thought about it much but there it was, solid in my head. For me, whether I finished or not, I had to go back to writing it down. I had to share it. There are a lot of kinds of toughness. The kind that got me through 100 miles of trail and weather still physically standing is great, but I've got some work to do on some other kinds of toughness. I don't mean everyone has to blog to have well rounded toughness, but from me its a challenge I need to meet. It took two weeks move from thinking to writing but my blog is back. Race reports will follow soon.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Highland Sky 40 and some new training plans
I have a new longest distance I’ve ever run and its 42 miles (somehow a couple miles of course markers were removed). I’m pretty happy about that and more importantly, I feel a lot more confident about the two even longer races on my schedule in October and November. There was a lot to like about this race. The course has some road but not too much and the trail sections are really beautiful. The people were friendly, the weather was great and there was free beer at the finish line. The race was full of the kinds of moments that barely seem real later on. At mile one, for example, while we were still running on a country road, a pony broke loose from a neighboring farm and ran on the course right up through the front half of the race to the lead pack. The pony stuck around for about a mile. I’ve never run anything that rocky or that hilly before and I’ve also never run a race with a section like Dolly Sods, where runners are advised not to leave the path as there may be unexploded World War II era bombs out there.
For me the race was a little bit of a test of my training. Most of the places to trail run within an hour or less of Cleveland aren’t quite as hilly as some of the places I want to race and also I want to run races that are longer than my training runs and I want to run them really well. I finished this race without injury and feeling pretty good so in that regard it was a success. I didn’t run as fast as I wanted to or as fast as I think I’m able to. I’m hesitant to write about feeling disappointed with a third place finish at a new distance because maybe I should just be happy with what I’ve got. I am happy. Heck, right after the race I was pretty much elated. I just know I can do better and I think perhaps it will help somebody out there if I share how.
The first trouble I ran into was a blood sugar crash. The race information said there would be hammer gel at aid stations but after aid station #2, there wasn’t. I should have switched to just eating whatever was available right away but I figured I could just wait until the next aid station. I took too long to begin eating and my then had enough of a deficit that I had to slow down to feel better. Right before aid station #4, close to 20 miles, I had crashed to such an extent that I got confused about where I was on the course and just stood still for a minute or so before realized that I better just shuffle on ahead. It turned out I was only a couple hundred yards from the aid station. What to do differently in the future? Well, I can pack more gels in preparation for this kind of thing. I can also start eating a variety of aid station type foods on my long runs to get my system used to solids. Also that will give me a chance to make sure none of it gives me too much trouble. When I started trail running about a year and a half ago it took a few weeks to get used to even drinking water during runs so it seems likely there’ll be a few runs that get slowed down by my adjustment to solid food instead of gels but I’ll get there. Lots of careful chewing and lots of water I think.
My legs managed the hills pretty well but with some modification to the way I run hill workouts and the way I time them in my week I think I can get both stronger at hills and better at running the flatter areas. So far I’ve run hill repeats by running fairly quickly up a hill and then walking down to recover. Here’s the trouble with that; later in races, taking advantage of descents becomes increasingly risky and difficult and the downhill muscle fatigue. Also, running more quickly up hills means fewer repeats. I need far more feet of elevation gain in each hill workout. Over the next few months I’m going to do some Saturday hill repeat days where I spend maybe a couple hours jogging up and down a hill. I don’t think its going to be all that much fun but I do think it will be worth it. On Sundays, in order to learn to run tired, I will run 20+ miles of beautiful trail on those beat up legs. Mondays there will be eating and sleeping.
The only other trouble I had involved trying not to sprain my ankles. I rolled them both a little around mile 14-17 trying to maintain speed over some very rocky terrain. I didn’t injure myself really, just scared myself a little and had to slow down. What to do? Well, I’ve been working on ankle strength some and I’m pretty sure without that I would have actually injured myself. The exercise I do, which I mentioned last month, is to stand on one foot without holding onto anything and slowly raise up onto my toes and back down. More reps more times a day should take care of that. When my ankle starts to roll over I push up and onto my toes before I can think much about it. The hill repeats should also help with the stabilizing muscles.
On a side note, I’ve also concluded that I need to be a little more disciplined about signing up for shorter races. I don’t think short races are actually the same thing as tempo runs and I do think they beat me up a little more than I realize. The weekend after Vulture’s Knob 15K I ran the Ohio Warrior Dash, then the next weekend, the Hampton Hills 10 K trail race, then the Highland Sky 40 and then this weekend, a 5 mile trail race at Chapin Forest. I want to be able to race that often but I’m not very good at not racing and racing isn’t the same as training at all. Intellectually I get it but you know how it is, your friends sign up, you want to go run with them...
For me the race was a little bit of a test of my training. Most of the places to trail run within an hour or less of Cleveland aren’t quite as hilly as some of the places I want to race and also I want to run races that are longer than my training runs and I want to run them really well. I finished this race without injury and feeling pretty good so in that regard it was a success. I didn’t run as fast as I wanted to or as fast as I think I’m able to. I’m hesitant to write about feeling disappointed with a third place finish at a new distance because maybe I should just be happy with what I’ve got. I am happy. Heck, right after the race I was pretty much elated. I just know I can do better and I think perhaps it will help somebody out there if I share how.
The first trouble I ran into was a blood sugar crash. The race information said there would be hammer gel at aid stations but after aid station #2, there wasn’t. I should have switched to just eating whatever was available right away but I figured I could just wait until the next aid station. I took too long to begin eating and my then had enough of a deficit that I had to slow down to feel better. Right before aid station #4, close to 20 miles, I had crashed to such an extent that I got confused about where I was on the course and just stood still for a minute or so before realized that I better just shuffle on ahead. It turned out I was only a couple hundred yards from the aid station. What to do differently in the future? Well, I can pack more gels in preparation for this kind of thing. I can also start eating a variety of aid station type foods on my long runs to get my system used to solids. Also that will give me a chance to make sure none of it gives me too much trouble. When I started trail running about a year and a half ago it took a few weeks to get used to even drinking water during runs so it seems likely there’ll be a few runs that get slowed down by my adjustment to solid food instead of gels but I’ll get there. Lots of careful chewing and lots of water I think.
My legs managed the hills pretty well but with some modification to the way I run hill workouts and the way I time them in my week I think I can get both stronger at hills and better at running the flatter areas. So far I’ve run hill repeats by running fairly quickly up a hill and then walking down to recover. Here’s the trouble with that; later in races, taking advantage of descents becomes increasingly risky and difficult and the downhill muscle fatigue. Also, running more quickly up hills means fewer repeats. I need far more feet of elevation gain in each hill workout. Over the next few months I’m going to do some Saturday hill repeat days where I spend maybe a couple hours jogging up and down a hill. I don’t think its going to be all that much fun but I do think it will be worth it. On Sundays, in order to learn to run tired, I will run 20+ miles of beautiful trail on those beat up legs. Mondays there will be eating and sleeping.
The only other trouble I had involved trying not to sprain my ankles. I rolled them both a little around mile 14-17 trying to maintain speed over some very rocky terrain. I didn’t injure myself really, just scared myself a little and had to slow down. What to do? Well, I’ve been working on ankle strength some and I’m pretty sure without that I would have actually injured myself. The exercise I do, which I mentioned last month, is to stand on one foot without holding onto anything and slowly raise up onto my toes and back down. More reps more times a day should take care of that. When my ankle starts to roll over I push up and onto my toes before I can think much about it. The hill repeats should also help with the stabilizing muscles.
On a side note, I’ve also concluded that I need to be a little more disciplined about signing up for shorter races. I don’t think short races are actually the same thing as tempo runs and I do think they beat me up a little more than I realize. The weekend after Vulture’s Knob 15K I ran the Ohio Warrior Dash, then the next weekend, the Hampton Hills 10 K trail race, then the Highland Sky 40 and then this weekend, a 5 mile trail race at Chapin Forest. I want to be able to race that often but I’m not very good at not racing and racing isn’t the same as training at all. Intellectually I get it but you know how it is, your friends sign up, you want to go run with them...
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Blisters: Treatment and Prevention
Here is the best way to get a blister to heal quickly;
First make sure the blister is clean. Next, mix a half teaspoon of salt into 1 cup of water to make saline solution. Make sure everything is clean. Wet a piece of gauze that is big enough to cover the blister. Use a water proof band-aid or medical or sports tape to fix the gauze over the blister. Leave it there during your work day or overnight or some other period of time that isn’t longer than eight or nine hours in a row. DO NOT tear off the skin that covers the blister. This treatment does work well for situations when the skin is already torn, but you should avoid that if possible. If you must drain some of the fluid, sterilize a needle and make a small hole and use gentle pressure to drain most of the fluid. Leaving a little fluid is good. Your body put it there to protect you. If you drain all the fluid, your body will just make more.
If you get signs of infection, like swelling or redness around your blister that grows then go directly to a doctor because infection can be dangerous. This treatment also works on any kind of cut or burn that won’t form a proper scab and I have seen friends use it with some success on bicycling road rash.
What about preventing blisters? Well, make sure your shoes fit well. Don’t run a whole bunch of miles in a row in shoes that are brand new and know that extending miles or running faster is more likely to give you blisters. Does your foot slide around in part of your shoe even though the rest of the shoe fits? There are many different ways to lace shoes. Runners World did a good article on it, click here to see it; how to lace your running shoes
Wear good quality running socks that are made out of something other than cotton. Wet cotton is a really huge source of blisters for most people. Since feet sweat and rain happens, your socks will not stay dry. There are all sorts of great brands and I’m not going to review them all here. For me all the higher end brands sold by most running and cycling websites and stores are fairly similar in terms of results. For some people socks with merino wool blends are best and for some synthetics are best. Not all skin is the same.
Another trick that helps some people with serious blister problems is to wear very thin and tight socks under a second pair of outer socks. If you can’t find any super thin socks or don’t have room inside your shoes without making them too tight, use the feet from a pair of panty-hose. Just be sure to cut them high enough to keep them from rolling down into your shoes and causing trouble. The idea is that the socks rub more against the panty-hose than your skin and so you don’t blister so much.
If you find that you keep getting blistered in a particular spot then take off your shoe and spend some time examining the inside with your eyes and fingers to see whether there is a seam or bump somewhere. A friend of mine and I took the insole out of a pair of her trail shoes (you know, that part inside on the bottom) and found a bump under it. It was right where she gets her blisters. We took a nail file to the bump. No more blisters since. There is also mole-skin. This is a product you can buy in the band-aid aisle. While your skin is all clean and dry you apply the mole-skin to the spot that keeps getting blistered to cover and protect it. You can also apply skin lubricant like Body glide or Trislide (sold anywhere that sells trail shoes or bicycles) to your feet before you put your socks on. Slippery, lubricated feet don’t blister as easily.
First make sure the blister is clean. Next, mix a half teaspoon of salt into 1 cup of water to make saline solution. Make sure everything is clean. Wet a piece of gauze that is big enough to cover the blister. Use a water proof band-aid or medical or sports tape to fix the gauze over the blister. Leave it there during your work day or overnight or some other period of time that isn’t longer than eight or nine hours in a row. DO NOT tear off the skin that covers the blister. This treatment does work well for situations when the skin is already torn, but you should avoid that if possible. If you must drain some of the fluid, sterilize a needle and make a small hole and use gentle pressure to drain most of the fluid. Leaving a little fluid is good. Your body put it there to protect you. If you drain all the fluid, your body will just make more.
If you get signs of infection, like swelling or redness around your blister that grows then go directly to a doctor because infection can be dangerous. This treatment also works on any kind of cut or burn that won’t form a proper scab and I have seen friends use it with some success on bicycling road rash.
What about preventing blisters? Well, make sure your shoes fit well. Don’t run a whole bunch of miles in a row in shoes that are brand new and know that extending miles or running faster is more likely to give you blisters. Does your foot slide around in part of your shoe even though the rest of the shoe fits? There are many different ways to lace shoes. Runners World did a good article on it, click here to see it; how to lace your running shoes
Wear good quality running socks that are made out of something other than cotton. Wet cotton is a really huge source of blisters for most people. Since feet sweat and rain happens, your socks will not stay dry. There are all sorts of great brands and I’m not going to review them all here. For me all the higher end brands sold by most running and cycling websites and stores are fairly similar in terms of results. For some people socks with merino wool blends are best and for some synthetics are best. Not all skin is the same.
Another trick that helps some people with serious blister problems is to wear very thin and tight socks under a second pair of outer socks. If you can’t find any super thin socks or don’t have room inside your shoes without making them too tight, use the feet from a pair of panty-hose. Just be sure to cut them high enough to keep them from rolling down into your shoes and causing trouble. The idea is that the socks rub more against the panty-hose than your skin and so you don’t blister so much.
If you find that you keep getting blistered in a particular spot then take off your shoe and spend some time examining the inside with your eyes and fingers to see whether there is a seam or bump somewhere. A friend of mine and I took the insole out of a pair of her trail shoes (you know, that part inside on the bottom) and found a bump under it. It was right where she gets her blisters. We took a nail file to the bump. No more blisters since. There is also mole-skin. This is a product you can buy in the band-aid aisle. While your skin is all clean and dry you apply the mole-skin to the spot that keeps getting blistered to cover and protect it. You can also apply skin lubricant like Body glide or Trislide (sold anywhere that sells trail shoes or bicycles) to your feet before you put your socks on. Slippery, lubricated feet don’t blister as easily.
Friday, June 3, 2011
#2 AKA Runners' Trots
#2
There is a moment when the zebra realizes there is a cheetah flying across the plain, ready to attack. At that moment the zebra’s adrenalin shoots way the heck up, causing a cascade of effects within it’s body to make the zebra more able to run away as fast as it can. One of those effects is a sudden evacuating of the bladder and the lower portion of the digestive system, which lightens the load the zebra has to carry while running away, increasing the chances that the cheetah will go hungry or at least find something to eat other than that zebra. We are not so different from zebras. When we gather into a herd of other runners and begin to think about how to run faster and better than the runners around us our adrenalin shoots way the heck up and with similar results.
Sometimes we’re lucky and we’re struck by nothing worse than a sudden and urgent sensation of having to pee. Usually that fades a few minutes into the race. What doesn’t always fade, and can grow much worse with lots of bouncing, is the need to empty the lower portion of the digestive system. I’m trying to be a little polite here but I know that any of you reading this who have spent time participating in endurance sports know what I’m talking about. Sometimes (and here’s where I’m glad I run trail and not road) the urge is overwhelming and you’ve got to go and squat behind a tree. At best it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing. Oh, and on a side note, if you do this, please, please kick some dirt over it when you’re done!
For some runners the problem doesn’t result in emergencies so much as stomach cramps and a miserable rest of the day. It should also be noted that it is much less common to have trouble with this at shorter distances and much more common at distances of more than ten miles and also at higher speeds. Hiking is not likely to cause much trouble at all.
Happily, there is a solution and it is available over the counter as the drug, loperamide. Loperamide is the generic for Imodium, it comes in little caplets and it treats diarrhea. For any race that is 15K or longer (10 miles) I take two of these caplets a couple hours before the start. A friend of mine takes one or two with the same timing in order to prevent painful stomach cramping in the hours following long races. For both of us, running seems to be enough of a stimulus to counteract the drug by the next morning. More clearly put, there is no lingering back up or slowing of the digestive system from taking loperamide the morning of a race. Unfortunately for those of you reading this, I haven’t raced longer than 50K yet so I don’t know what sort of wear off there will be if I run more than six hours in a row. I should know by the end of this year and will most likely share those results with all of you.
There is a moment when the zebra realizes there is a cheetah flying across the plain, ready to attack. At that moment the zebra’s adrenalin shoots way the heck up, causing a cascade of effects within it’s body to make the zebra more able to run away as fast as it can. One of those effects is a sudden evacuating of the bladder and the lower portion of the digestive system, which lightens the load the zebra has to carry while running away, increasing the chances that the cheetah will go hungry or at least find something to eat other than that zebra. We are not so different from zebras. When we gather into a herd of other runners and begin to think about how to run faster and better than the runners around us our adrenalin shoots way the heck up and with similar results.
Sometimes we’re lucky and we’re struck by nothing worse than a sudden and urgent sensation of having to pee. Usually that fades a few minutes into the race. What doesn’t always fade, and can grow much worse with lots of bouncing, is the need to empty the lower portion of the digestive system. I’m trying to be a little polite here but I know that any of you reading this who have spent time participating in endurance sports know what I’m talking about. Sometimes (and here’s where I’m glad I run trail and not road) the urge is overwhelming and you’ve got to go and squat behind a tree. At best it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing. Oh, and on a side note, if you do this, please, please kick some dirt over it when you’re done!
For some runners the problem doesn’t result in emergencies so much as stomach cramps and a miserable rest of the day. It should also be noted that it is much less common to have trouble with this at shorter distances and much more common at distances of more than ten miles and also at higher speeds. Hiking is not likely to cause much trouble at all.
Happily, there is a solution and it is available over the counter as the drug, loperamide. Loperamide is the generic for Imodium, it comes in little caplets and it treats diarrhea. For any race that is 15K or longer (10 miles) I take two of these caplets a couple hours before the start. A friend of mine takes one or two with the same timing in order to prevent painful stomach cramping in the hours following long races. For both of us, running seems to be enough of a stimulus to counteract the drug by the next morning. More clearly put, there is no lingering back up or slowing of the digestive system from taking loperamide the morning of a race. Unfortunately for those of you reading this, I haven’t raced longer than 50K yet so I don’t know what sort of wear off there will be if I run more than six hours in a row. I should know by the end of this year and will most likely share those results with all of you.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Ankle Sprains and Vulture's Knob
Saturday, May 28th I ran the Vulture’s Knob 15K trail race down in Wooster, Ohio with a bunch of friends. For anyone who is not familiar with the location, it is a mountain bike trail built in part, on top of an old landfill. The terrain is hilly, rocky, and on this particular day, due to recent storms, waterlogged and muddy. There were places where narrow single track hills were narrow creek beds running ankle deep. A shorter race means a faster pace and on this kind of terrain that means a certain amount of risk. For me, I took off from the starting line with the lead pack and was determined to stay as far toward the front as I could for the duration of the race and the strategy paid off, although there were a few scary moments.
From late summer last year, through several fall races and even through the late winter of 2011, I had chronic mild ankle sprains, especially of my left ankle. Nothing requiring crutches, but a whole lot of ice and a few skipped runs. Any time I stepped wrong, that ankle just seemed to want to turn over. How did it hold up during Vulture’s Knob? Great! Did I get super lucky? Well, I never want to totally discount chance but I did spend a few months trying very hard to get both ankles stronger and now they are. Want to know what I did?
I started with more standard ankle exercises that many of you have probably heard of already. I drew the alphabet in the air in front of me with my toe, I pointed my toes then pulled them up toward my head, I stood on one foot while brushing my teeth. My ankles felt better but I still had trouble if I stepped just wrong enough and over enough training miles that will happen from time to time. Switching to a trail shoe with less heel cushion so that the heel of my foot is closer to the ground did help but most of my improvement I attribute to one simple exercise. I began to do single foot raises every day. Any time I found myself with a little time, waiting for coffee to be done or waiting in line at a store, I would balance on one foot and pop up on my toes as high as I could go without holding onto anything for help. For the first week this meant getting halfway up and losing my balance and having to put my other foot down before trying again. Now I can do ten or more of these in a row. I can even hold my other leg out behind me or way off to the side and keep going. There are no weights involve, no equipment, I do these barefoot or in shoes. There is a bit of mental discipline in terms of remembering to do them but that’s really the hardest part.
During the Vulture’s knob race I did step wrong on that foot a little bit two times that I remember. I felt my ankle start to turn but my body seemed to make a decision to push up onto and then off of my forefoot. I say my body decided because I was already into my next stride as I noticed what had happened. Any motion that you repeat enough times will become reflex. People will look at you funny in the grocery store or where ever else you happen to be when you realize that really you need to keep practicing your ankle exercises. You will get very tired of doing this ankle exercise if you really take it seriously but then you’ll find that it gets to be a habit and you just do them all the time. Fifty or so a day spread across five or even ten sessions is a great number to do. Any number more than one is better than none. I don’t even really keep an exact count of them, but I do know that for three races in a row now I have been completely free the recurring sprained ankle.
From late summer last year, through several fall races and even through the late winter of 2011, I had chronic mild ankle sprains, especially of my left ankle. Nothing requiring crutches, but a whole lot of ice and a few skipped runs. Any time I stepped wrong, that ankle just seemed to want to turn over. How did it hold up during Vulture’s Knob? Great! Did I get super lucky? Well, I never want to totally discount chance but I did spend a few months trying very hard to get both ankles stronger and now they are. Want to know what I did?
I started with more standard ankle exercises that many of you have probably heard of already. I drew the alphabet in the air in front of me with my toe, I pointed my toes then pulled them up toward my head, I stood on one foot while brushing my teeth. My ankles felt better but I still had trouble if I stepped just wrong enough and over enough training miles that will happen from time to time. Switching to a trail shoe with less heel cushion so that the heel of my foot is closer to the ground did help but most of my improvement I attribute to one simple exercise. I began to do single foot raises every day. Any time I found myself with a little time, waiting for coffee to be done or waiting in line at a store, I would balance on one foot and pop up on my toes as high as I could go without holding onto anything for help. For the first week this meant getting halfway up and losing my balance and having to put my other foot down before trying again. Now I can do ten or more of these in a row. I can even hold my other leg out behind me or way off to the side and keep going. There are no weights involve, no equipment, I do these barefoot or in shoes. There is a bit of mental discipline in terms of remembering to do them but that’s really the hardest part.
During the Vulture’s knob race I did step wrong on that foot a little bit two times that I remember. I felt my ankle start to turn but my body seemed to make a decision to push up onto and then off of my forefoot. I say my body decided because I was already into my next stride as I noticed what had happened. Any motion that you repeat enough times will become reflex. People will look at you funny in the grocery store or where ever else you happen to be when you realize that really you need to keep practicing your ankle exercises. You will get very tired of doing this ankle exercise if you really take it seriously but then you’ll find that it gets to be a habit and you just do them all the time. Fifty or so a day spread across five or even ten sessions is a great number to do. Any number more than one is better than none. I don’t even really keep an exact count of them, but I do know that for three races in a row now I have been completely free the recurring sprained ankle.
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