Never Not Running

On hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:13:00 +0000

Keep up with my running on my sporadically updated twitter feed, http://twitter.com/nevernotrunning

2012 Annual report

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:13:00 +0000

Life has been busy, which should be pretty evident from the pack of posts and the fact that I am just getting around to crunching numbers for 2012. Anyway, 2012 was pretty good for races, I completed three marathons, Gainesville (Five Points of Life), Albany (missed my sub-3 goal due to tornado weather), and MCM in October. Also did RAGNAR Key West in January. The totals are down a little from 2013, but still respectable:

1,266.67 miles
180:34 time on the road
8:35 average pace
172,194 calories

All that puts me on pace in 2013 to break a million calories since I started logging, pretty neat milestone. Total mileage since 2007 is 7,537.36 miles (including a little from 2013). Also, on Dec 18 2012, I celebrated 5 years of mile-a-day streaking!

Importance of cooking at home

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Last Fall, I spoke at a local church group with the intended topic being general "heart health". After I completed the talking points that I had brought and wanted to cover, I spent an additional hour or so answering questions which strayed far, far away from heart health. At one point I ended up explaining why you might get a tingle in your legs from sitting on the toilet for an extended period of time. Another major topic of questions was diet and how to find and eat the right foods. Since my wife and I cook all the time and we eat well, I had some practical advice for them. One tip, if you stock your house with healthy foods, fruits, and vegetables, when you get hungry, that is what is immediately available and you are more likely to eat it.

I was reminded about this experience when I came across an article in American Medical News discussing a collaboration between Harvard and the Culinary Institute of America. Together, they sponsor conferences, some of which are aimed at getting doctors to better understand how one goes about actually "making" food. So, while few of my patients want or need to take classes from a culinary institute, it certainly makes sense for doctors to have practical cooking advice so they can tell patients how to eat more healthy and cook at home for themselves. By cooking at home, you know what you are putting in your food, you have more control over the contents, and you can depend on yourself to reduce sodium or added sugars and fats. A survey done by Whole Foods in 2009 that found about 1 in 5 Americans rarely or never cook at home. The survey does not provide detail on how much "cooking" is done by the other 4/5ths (does microwaving count as cooking?)

After sharing my favorite smoothie recipe last week, perhaps I should share some of our family favorite recipes....

Favorite post-long-run smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 18:03:00 +0000

After a long run, sometime I reach for my favorite sports drink but when I have the supplies what I much prefer is a fruit smoothie. I have settled on the recipe below that tastes great and simple to make:

1 banana
4-5 clementine oranges
1 cup milk, 2%
2 cups frozen fruit

Peel the banana and clementines and put into blender. Add the milk and blend until smooth. Stop the blender then add the frozen fruit and repeat. You can easily adjust the consistency to your liking. Too thick, add some milk, too thin, add some frozen fruit.

The frozen fruit serves a couple of purposes. First, with frozen, there is no need to add ice to cool down the drink. Second the frozen requires no preparation, cutting, washing peeling etc. and the shelf life is a lot longer, requiring less fresh options on hand. The cool combination of fruit sugars and a little protein from the milk makes for a great, and healthy, recovery drink.

Happy National Running Day 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:43:00 +0000

Get out there and run! www.runningday.org

2011 Annual Report

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:28:00 +0000

2011 has been over for a few months now, so I think I can safely go ahead and post my annual report of miles, calories, and such. Running total miles were down from 1,534 in 2010 to 1,394 this year. However my cycling miles went up (396 for 2011) and my "other" activities such as elliptical went up to 22 hours. I burned 173,657 calories over 271 hours of physical activity. That is 49.6 pounds or about 1,157 glasses of red wine.

As far as races go, 2011 was an incredible year. We started with RAGNAR Key West. In February, I set my half marathon PR at the Five Points of Life race in 1:27:23. In April, I won my first race, the Cardiosmart 5K. Later in April was the Boston Marathon. The streak continues, but after Boston, some injuries that forced some daily miles to be walked. I took it easy during the summer and then in October won my second race, the Apalachicola Half in 1:27:26. November brought my fastest race ever in the Fisher House 5K, winning my age group in 18:36 for a 5:59 pace and my first ever age-grade-percent performance over 70%. That is going to be a tough set of performances to beat!

Fall race: Run for the Bay in Apalachicola

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Continuing in the spirit of blog-posts-I-have-been-meaning-to-write, this past fall, I ran a half-marathon in Apalachicola. I skipped running a full because I spent a good part of the summer building strength in my hip and knee muscles to get rid of some knee pain. I selected the race for several reasons. Having grown up in the panhandle of FL, I was familiar with Apalachicola and the city is not far from my parents' house.

Quaint local shopping

The timing was nice and a good reason to go to the beach for the weekend. Lastly, the race is small and looking at the prior winning times, I realized that I had a chance that I could conceivably win the race based on my prior half marathon PR of 1:27.

The "expo"

Getting to the race too early, my wife took a nap in the car while I enjoyed my coffee and breakfast bar. At race start, the temperature was a lovely just below 50 degrees. After a quick mile-or-so warm up, I lined up for the start. I am going to say that I take issue with one of the claims that the race organizers make on their website (or at least they did prior to the race and as of writing this in March 2012). The claim is that the Half and Full are "two of the flattest courses in America". And while averaging the elevation over the course of the race, this is accurate. What they fail to mention is that nearly the entirety of the up and downhill is in a single bridge at the beginning and end of this out and back race.

Credit: Wikimedia commons user, ebaybe

This is the Gorrie Bridge headed east out of Apalachicola. The start/finish is on the ground of this picture, while the runners must travel out on the course over the bridge. Therefore, one must climb up on top of this bridge and then descend to the islands just visible in the distance. My Garmin did not track the elevation very well, and I cannot seem to find the exact elevation of the bridge anywhere online, but I can say that the entire bridge is about a mile or so long, and it stands several stories above the ground making the grade of this "hill" a few percentage points. Aside from this, the race is exceedingly flat, though. I must also say that seeing the sun rise just as we were getting to the top of this bridge was a breathtaking site and I wish I could have had my camera to capture an image.

Bent over gasping at the finish

I had a solid start to the race. I quickly settled into a 6:45-ish pace and kept it pretty steady for the entire time. We started behind the marathoners and somewhere around 5 to 6 miles, I caught up with the leaders of that group and was actually in the lead of the whole race, behind the pace car, until it turned off to lead the marathoners over another bridge to St. George Island, while I circled back to the half finish. I will say that I could have used a little better signage, or a pace bike directing me since I was not quite sure that I was headed the right way, but it ended up being fine. Now that the sun was up, the temperature started to climb and I was glad to only be doing the half. Being right on the coast, the humidity was pretty high, and I could taste the salty air in addition to my own sweat. Coming back across the bridges, I stopped for a water at about 10 miles and rinsed my head. I had been paying attention during the race as to whether anyone was keeping pace with me. Footstrikes had followed me until about the 6 mile turnaround, but I had not looked back to check. I chanced a glance at about 12 miles when I was climbing the Gorrie bridge again and I saw no one. Just a few 10K walkers, but no one running. I made the last couple of turns through Apalach and crossed the finish line just a few seconds shy of my PR, and in first place!

Victory!

I would run Apalachicola again. The people were very nice and the race is reasonably well organized in a small coastal town that is well worth experiencing for a weekend.

Footstrike, cadence, and new shoes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0000

The last several months have been incredibly busy for me and as such, several significant topics I have been meaning to write about have not happened. Getting into those topics, the first one to mention is that I have switched my "go-to" footwear to match my new after my issues with knee pain and transitioning from a rear foot strike pattern to a mid-forefoot strike with a higher cadence. As it turns out, I had kept several pairs of my old Asics in my closet, meaning to recycle them, so I pulled them out to examine the wear patterns. The first is an example of my Enduro 2's from about 2006.

So with these shoes, while I wore them for several months, the lining wore out more than the soles did. The wear pattern is limited, but you can see in the center of the midfoot, the wear is most obvious in the green line that is running the length of the shoe, suggesting that my foot strike was mostly midfoot. Next up is the same shoe, newer version, from circa 2009.

Now, while some wear is obvious in the midfoot, you can see that I have done something notably different with my foot strike because the heels are shredded! The grey color there is where I have worn clear through the black layer. So, I do not have any particular recollection of changing my stride between these eras of running. The typical total miles/week also did not change that much. My thought is that I was focused on running and did very little cross training and got into a poor-form rut without noticing. The result was the knee pain that I mentioned before. That pain led to some strengthening exercises which have been very helpful for me. Once I started paying attention to my foot strike and my cadence, I found it easy to switch to a midfoot strike, and looking through my shoe history, I wonder if I was not a natural midfoot striker when I started and then got sloppy over the years.

So the one serious problem I noticed with footstrike and cadence changes is that the Enduros were now more difficult to run in. Why? The wedge of the heel (heel-toe drop about 14mm) made the footstrike quite difficult. So I spent a lot of time reading the Runblogger and settled on trying a pair of the Saucony Kinvaras. These brand new Kinvaras have a heel-toe drop of about 4 mm and I just love running in them. At a recent race expo, the local shoe store had some Kinvaras for sale, alas, not my size, but when I was browsing them, no less than 4 people commented on how much they loved them, how quickly they sold, or asked what I thought of them. Clearly, Saucony has done something right, or at least popular.

So, a couple of races under my belt with plenty of miles and my Kinvaras have some wear. A little is on the outer heel (note the grey triangle with black peeking through) but the majority of wear is actually on the outer midfoot. The wear is a little harder to see, but the texture of the ridges is notably worn. I am very happy with the Kinvaras, they feel great, and I have got my next pair waiting in the closet once these wear out.

Thanks Podrunner!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 03:00:00 +0000

Just in time for my attempt to break three hours at the Albany Marathon this weekend, DJ Steve at Podrunner has dropped a 185 bpm mix on us. I tried it out this morning and it was consistently driving me at a 6:40 pace, perfect!

The fellrnr's wiki

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:06:00 +0000

I just came across a wiki authored by an ultrarunner in NC who goes by the nom de plume of fellrnr. As opposed to my very temporally linear blog, I love the idea of a personal wiki like fellrnr's. He has posted a lot a great content about he has become a successful ultra runner including his gear, fueling, training tips, lots of running science, and the recipe for his favorite self made Go Juice. For those who have found themselves accidentally spending an hour on wikipedia clicking from topic to topic, I think you will have the same experience with fellrnr!

Upcoming races

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Just got done with RAGNAR last month, pictures of the fun are soon to come. We had such a blast, that I already registered a team for 2013! Aside from that, I have got two races coming up in the next month. First (tomorrow!) is the Five Points of Life Marathon. I have run the half and the relay a couple of times before, so this will be my first time on the 26.2 course. The exciting part though is that I have volunteered through the Florida Track Club to be a pace group leader for the race, the 4:00 group, specifically. That run is then going to be the peak of training for my goal Spring race, the Albany Marathon in Georgia. This relatively flat and fast course is where I am going to make my stand and try to break three hours! The speedwork and tempo training has been treating me pretty good, so I am excited to give it a shot.

VIDEO: Marathon Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:35:00 +0000

Just awesome....

10 myths of Barefoot running

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:12:00 +0000

If you are looking for more analysis and opinion on barefoot running, 10 myths of it are covered in this post on Podiatry today. (H/T's to Runblogger and Yelling Stop) Unfortunately, the post is a multi-page that you have to click through to get all the info, but it is advertising-free. The post is well-referenced (although I admit not being familiar with the podiatric literature). Interestingly, the author, Dr. Campitelli, considers orthotics to be overused by podiatrists. In the concluding material, he does disclose being a scientific adviser to Vibram (here is a link to his practice website)

Travel exercise tips

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0000

My job does not require too much travel, but I usually end up going on two or three trips a year. Although running is a fairly portable sport, I find it difficult, sometimes, to be fit on the road. Through the Consumerist, I found this post on exercise while you travel over at Nerdfitness.com. His tips? Make it a priority, find creative ways to workout without a gym, and eat well.

The post also reminded me of this video. Ever heard of Burpees? Check out this great video by Mike Rowe, the narrator of several shows on Discovery and star of Dirty Jobs.

Two tidbits of running history

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Early this year, I had two encounters with running history that I quite enjoyed. First was Marathon Talk Episode 103 which was an entire episode interview with a man named Bruce Tulloh, a runner whose history was unknown to me at the time. The conversation was fascinating, and even Martin, as he was doing the interview, marvelled at the level of detail that Mr. Tulloh could remember about races that he ran 50 years ago, the pacing, the strategy, the feeling and so on. They talked about running "state of the art" back then and noted about how old becomes new again (barefoot running) and how in his heyday, it was the Scandinavians not Kenyans who ran with such excellence and consistency that some thought they must have some special genetic makeup allowing them to dominate the sport (sound familiar?).

The other brush with running history came from an editorial in the Nov/Dec issue of Marathon and Beyond. Rich Benyo writes about a recent experience with a child of a friend who did not understand why people used to have to make special arrangements to watch their favorite TV shows (he asked why they did not just DVR them). Mr Benyo goes on in his editorial to remind us how, in the not too distant past, race directors somehow managed to accurately time and rank order finishers without the modern convenience of ChampionChip timers. Gatorade tastes excellent now, but he reminisced that it once tasted like the sweat it was meant to replace. (I must admit, I have no love for the new G series and would be happy with regular old lemon-lime.) He did express appreciation for some other modern conveniences, like the technical shirts and shorts, so that he no longer has to expect chafing as a daily inconvenience.

These two pieces reminded me to appreciate my trinkets and toys, but also reminded me that I could still be an excellent runner and enjoy the sport plenty without them.

On a side note, reading about someone's opinion of the early form of Gatorade, reminded me of this video.

A good use for the dreadmill?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

On episode 99 of Marathon Talk (a British podcast with great coverage of worldwide marathon news) did their training talk segment on using the treadmill (dreadmill) for interval training. They pointed out several things that made me rethink my opposition to indoor training. They mentioned that, for those of us without coaches, using a treadmill can be an easy way to make sure that you get consistent splits since you are setting the pace yourself. I must admit, having used the treadmill for some interval training during the last race buildup, I did find it a lot more enjoyable than other treadmill training. Somehow, the need to focus on being fast and keeping good form helps to keep my brain from lamenting, "ugh, we're running on the treadmill". Their practical training advice can be summed up in two simple rules: each interval must be at least as fast as the previous and the total number of intervals must go up each week. Give it a listen.

In praise of crap tech

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Marketplace from NPR invited Thomas Hayden on to discuss a blog post he did on "crap tech" (The Market place segment aired back in early December). As an avid user of "crap" mp3 players like my Sansa clip, I thought it was great. Hayden provides some excellent points as to why a $20 MP3 player is superior to a $400 media device. Crap tech lets you avoid feature creep and the need to continuously buy the newest version of something. If you drop it or lose it, no worry, you can do that 20 times over before breaking even.

Ragnar 2013 early AM nap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:11:00 +0000

ragnar 2012 3am van stop

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:05:00 +0000

Ragnar 2012 underway!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:45:00 +0000

Thoughts on RAGNAR 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

I am getting set to run the RAGNAR race to the Florida Keys again this year. This year, I am captaining a team of current and former Floridians. Reflecting on last year's experience, we are going to do a few things differently this year.

First, accurate pacing. Last year, I think our team got a little excited about the event as a "race" and put down best possible performance times to estimate our finish time and as a result, our team had to start our last 6 leg stretch early. Had we not, we would have finished well after the finish line party wrapped up. This year, more realistic times have gotten us a more realistic projected finish (hopefully!)

Second, minivans. We had ample space last year in the 15 passenger vans we rented. That and I received advice from someone else that minivans were adequate, especially if people were willing to nap outside on the grass at major exchanges. Sounds fine to me, I would rather rest on the ground than in a van anyway.

Third, bring your own food. I partook in the fundraiser spaghetti dinner at the major exchange at a local high school last year. Money went to the local cross country team. No one else in my van had the same experience that I did, but let's just say that I only got to enjoy my meal for a few hours. This year I plan to bring enough of my own food to sustain without depending on others. Although, we may stop at a restaurant somewhere along the way.

Fourth, don't get our cars towed.

Fifth, my team is all-filled up now, but a note to eager future captains, to fill a 12 person team, I had to have at least 24 interested people before I could find enough that could take the time off work, spend the cash, etc.

23 and 1/2 hours, an important tip on being healthy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Many have written about the fallacy of miracles drugs and panaceas, observing that anything which claims to cure everything is probably bogus. This video from Mike Evans is presently making the rounds on the internet, and is a great exception to the rule that miracle cures are bogus.

This particular miracle cure:

Reduces pain of knee arthritis by 47%
Reduces progression to Alzheimer's and dementia by 50%
Reduces progression to diabetes by 58%
Reduces risk of hip fracture in postmenopausal women by 41%
Reduces anxiety by 48%
Reduces depression by 30% to 47%
Reduces risk of dying by 23%

And much, much more. So what is this magic solution? Where can I get it and what does it cost? Well alas, while most Americans do not use this cheap, abundantly available intervention, it is not due to Big Pharma consipracy of suppression of this "natural" remedy, . In fact, according to the recently released 2012 Stroke and Heart Disease Update from the AHA tells us that over 60% of Americans do not get enough......

Exercise.

Watch the video for some more interesting details, but one other tidbit is where he reviews the data showing that the #1 predictor of your longevity, is cardiorespiratory fitness (ie: your ability to tolerate exercise).

Too much endurance exercise bad for the heart?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

I was intending to blog about this study on the cardiac effects of extreme endurance sport, but Dr. John beat me to it and has a great commentary on his blog. The article from the European Heart Journal agrees with prior studies that extreme endurance sport can cause heart dysfunction in the short term, which usually recovers completely. The new finding is that for extremes of endurance performace, some permanent damage may occur. The study is not conclusive, and we cannot forget that regular exercise is an excellent way to reduce your risk of dying. It is possible, however, that running an ultra every weekend might be a bit too much for the ticker.

AFib and endurance sport

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Alex, over at Sweat Science covered some research that was announced back in August at the European Society of Cardiology (press release and abstract here). He took issue with some of the reported findings and I largely agree with his assessment. These results were presented at a scientific meeting, not published in a peer-reviewed journal, and therefore should be considered preliminary.

The authors included all arrhythmias in their research, but some of those are expected results of training, like bradycardia, while others, like atrial fibrillation, are dangerous. The abstract provides data on a couple of subtypes of arrhythmias, but not atrial fibrillation so we do not really what role it played in the outcomes. Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is a particular concern for active people because it can cause serious problems with your heart rate and some of the medicines used for it can make it harder for you to get a good athletic performance. Also, many people with AFib have to be on blood thinners like warfarin to reduce the risk of stroke, but blood thinners can be dangerous if you then get in an accident.

Hopefully some of these questions will be addressed in a full journal manuscript. As Alex points out, even if risk of AFib is increased, regular exercise has shown time and time again to extend life, so I will keep on running.

A mechanism why antioxidants might be bad for you

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Thanks to Alex at Sweat Science for this one, which I have also posted on drdavemd.com.

When no good evidence exists to guide us (doctors, scientists, athletes, etc.), we frequently rely on theory or what "sounds good" to guide our actions. For example, we know that compounds called free radicals, or oxidized particles, in the body can damage things like our DNA. Our white blood cells use oxidants and free radicals to kill invading pathogens. The assumption, therefore, might be that getting rid of oxidants, by taking antioxidant supplements, would be a good thing, and prevent damage to the body. Examples include vitamin C, vitamin E, or coenzyme Q10.

A new review in Sports Medicine contradicts that notion by reviewing evidence, in sports medicine literature, and comes to the conclusion that taking antioxidant supplements might actually be harmful. While they admit that the vast majority of sports med studies are poor quality, they found evidence that oxidants may be functioning as signals to the body as part of repair mechanisms. Thus, counter to our intuition, blocking them may be bad and not good. This is why the ideal thing to do is not rely on theory or basic science, but to actually do a trial where you have some people take a supplement while others do not, and see what the differences are (ie: a randomized trial).

This conclusion parallels some recent and landmark studies in medicine (HOPE-TOO, Physician's Health Study II) which have found no significant benefit and the possibility of harm with vitamin supplementation, when given to people without deficiencies in those compounds. As an aside, my quick Google search for those two papers also turned up an essay refuting the results of the HOPE-TOO trial. While the essay is hosted on a website that sells vitamins and supplements, the author is quick to blame the "pharmaceutical-medical-industrial complex" for "attacking" the "vitamin/alternative medicine movement" by being so bold as to, you know, do research. The essay has many references and makes many arguments against the studies, but failed to refute the ultimate findings that the supplements did not have any benefit.