What I’ve learned from that episode, and from his book “The Big Book of Endurance Training” will have to wait until the next blog post. Today I want to walk through his points on nutrition.

Specifically his “two week test.”

According to Dr. Maffetone, and several other physicians I follow (Dr. Mark Cuccuzella, Dr. Steve Gangemi, and Dr. Tim Noakes) generations of people consuming foods high in sugar and processed foods in general is leading to most of the health problems we experience.  Problems such as:

• belly fat
• issues concentrating
• diabetes
• hypertension
• allergies
• etc

Trust me. I was crazy skeptical. I don’t have the best diet, but it’s a healthy one. Here was a typical day for me going back a decade:

Breakfast: Cereal or a bagel

Lunch: Sandwich, Fruit, and yogurt

Dinner: Meat (usually chicken or turkey, salad, and a starch

That’s okay, no? Once I read Dr. Maffetones writings, I began to realize that breakfast and lunch were nearly 100% processed carbs. Not good. Not good at all.

My main health issues are a looooong history of “seasonal allergies.” And my seasonal I mean year round congestion. I can’t remember when my nose wasn’t backed up and I wasn’t constantly clearing my throat.

The strange thing is is took my 5 year olds pediatric physicians assistant to pull it all together for me. This spring was a particularly bad time for me allergy wise. My daughter even had issues. AT FIVE. During a check up the PA casually told me that it’s “just allergies” and that allergies are just inflammation.

In 7 years of allergy shots, steroidal nasal sprays, and antihistamines, not one doctor suggestion anything but drugs were the answer. Not diet, not climate, nothing. I thought to myself “that Dr. Maffetone said something about sugars being inflammatory didn’t he?” Well what the hell, I’ll give his two week test a try.

What is the test you ask? It’s simple. You can eat as much of the foods on one list as you want, and nothing else. Essentially it comes down to good fats, proteins, and lots of vegetables. In other words, eggs, salads, etc. The full list is in this article. According to his theory, some people are carbohydrate intolerant (either totally or partially) and this test will tell you if you are.

Again, I went into this completely  skeptical of the two weeks leading me anywhere that modern medicine hadn’t already.

Well guess what? The test knocked me on my ass. Here are my results:

For two weeks I ate the following:

1. Week one: 57% fat, 14% carbs, and 29% protein
2. Week two: 55%, 18%, 27%

In those two weeks, I went from weighing 172 pounds down to 164 with a slight change in body fat.

But the best part? After just TWO DAYS, I could breathe like never before. No more congestion. NONE. Trust me, I was stunned, and I hate being “that guy” who changed his diet and ended up realizing dramatic results.

The second best part for me was that meals actually satisfied me. Eating a high fat/protein diet leaves you full for hours and often passed your next meal. My old high carb diet was a constant race to eat the next meal.

Now don’t get me wrong the two weeks wasn’t easy. In 14 days I was in 4 different situations were it’s socially unacceptable not to drink a beer. It wasn’t easy to either explain what I was doing or not and come up with reasons not to drink. Also, eating this way takes more time. It’s just easier to pou a box of cereal in the morning instead of making an omelet. It just is.

But in the end, it was completely and utterly worth it.

For me, I figured I can do anything for a couple weeks, and if nothing changes, oh well. But I’ve come to realize that the crap I eat has a direct negative effect on my health, and sadly the same thing is likely happening to my daughter. I feel like I’ve made really long term changes and am looking forward to a future of literally smelling the roses.

Well they talked me into running this years first of three Mud on the Mountain obstacle races.

6 days after the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, it was time for my first obstacle style mud run. If you’ve met me, you’ll quickly realize this is not an event I’m made for.

I’m respectable at the 5k or 10k.

I can run for hours in a marathon and love every minute of it.

Upper body strength? Notsomuch.

But a good friend is the brains behind the Mud on the Mountain race held at Seven Springs Mountain Resort so I took the leap. I watched the first running last year, and at the time, I wished I had run it. Now I had my chance.

In case you’re not sure what these races are all about, here’s a good introduction:

Mud On The Mountain May 11th, 2013 – Recap Video from Seven Springs Mountain Resort on Vimeo.

You can spot me at 1:15 sliding at warp speed…

I started the race in a chilly 50 degree foggy day at 8 am. This was the third running of the event, and the first time they added a timed “elite” heat. I wasn’t concerned about time (finishing in over 2 hours) but was happy to start first before the mountain was jammed with hours of heats and nearly 4,000 participants.

The course begins at the bottom of a ski slope and immediately turns straight up a stupid steep slope. In theory you can run the entire hill but you’re gassed at best. Regardless, the first obstacle sits at the top of the hill and is a wooden wall with a half pipe on the top. Thankfully real men scaled it in front of me and reached back to pull me up. Again, notsomuch on the upper body strength…

You then run down through the woods and towards the “Cheese Grater” – an adult slip n’ slide. I watched this obstacle last year and remember most people ran at it and slide as if into 2nd base. Here was last years version:

Little did I know that they doubled the length of the obstacle. I hit the deck and immediately spun around twice before shooting straight down the slide. They had pipes under the tarp “creating lanes” which only served to destroy my legs below my hips. The shorts on my right leg were ripped badly, and this was my left leg:

Yup, that hurt

I didn’t feel it at the time, but my tailbone was bruised (or broken) on this obstacle. Three plus weeks later and it still is a little sore. Michael Sally was right…these races are risky!

I later heard that a friend was cut badly on her backside, and they also saw a lady whose leg was cut down to the bone! Good thing their waver is a page long!!

Here’s my expression on this obstacle:

Cheese Grater

It was a blast, but damn it was painful!

After this, we turned up a relatively mild grade hill with snow makers blowing water full blast making it a slippery trip. This eventually led to the steepest climb on the course. So steep they needed to leave ropes down to pull yourself up:

Baby Crawl obstacle

This led to my first sighting of Christy and Aubrey. After watching me go through these two obstacles, they just stared at me with stunned looks on their faces;

The Head Banger

Dunk, Dunk, Goose….50 degree water!

The rest of the course was a blur of running straight uphill, multiple crawling on my stomach under things obstacles, and running straight down hill through mud. I was pleased I was able to get over all of the wall obstacles, including a 12 foot monster.The only fail I had was the monkey bars.

No chance!

For your amusement, here are the rest of the pictures of me in pain:

More effing crawling

Blitzen’s Block

Cave Conundrum…didn’t smell like mud

Claustrophobic but out

Totally out of control

Trout Line

Pole Land

…and I’m spent

They waited in the rain all day for me to finish.

I reconfigured I don’t know how many plans to get to the starting line before deciding to do the half instead.

I’ve run 2 other half marathons (Wheeling WV and Myrtle Beach) and Pittsburgh is my favorite. There’s just something about running around this city that does it for me.

After hitting the expo early on Friday, we came back to Pittsburgh to stay with my aunt for the race. We did lots of running around Saturday, which is a nice change from a full when you really can’t do much before or after the race.

As usual, I got up much earlier than necessary, and was in corral C over an hour before the gun went off. For me, there is enough stress leading up to race day not to want to worry about getting there right on time and finding parking etc.

After attempting a warm up in the corral, the gun finally went off.

My plan was to use the race as “just another” long training run. That’s easier said than done, but I didn’t want to push the pace and wind up injured.

I figured a leisurely 10:45-11:00 pace would do the trick. Because of this, I began at the very back of C to be safe.

After passing the first mile marker passed the Strip, I saw a friend from Wheeling. I sped up to talk to him for a minute, but he was shooting for a 3:40 marathon finish so I let him go on his way (he finished about 3;55 I think). At the 2 mile marker I passed an older man running in jorts who claims he runs one day a year, and it’s always the Pittsburgh Marathon…. His number looked legit, but the outward appearance suggested otherwise!

After the Strip came 3 back to back bridges. The one out of the Strip is nothing special, but the Rachel Carson bridge coming back into downtown, and the 7th street bridge heading back our are pretty cool. This was where I saw my cheering section for the first of two times. Aubrey and Christy were there, along with her sister, my niece and nephew, my aunt, cousin and her daughter all yelling and ringing cowbells for me.

Nothing special happened on the north side or the west end that stands out. Along E. Carson Street, I had the fortune to see my friend Michael who was biking the course cheering for friends. I almost didn’t recognize him, but as I was looking back at him with his bike helmet on he recognized me and YELLED my name. It certainly helped!

After making my way through the South Side it was up the last bridge for the last 2.1 miles of the race. I actually towed the center line as long as I could see the full and half split. I even contemplated how I would text my wife to tell her I went crazy and ran the full instead. I also had visions of calling her around mile 16 begging her to come get me….

I thought better of it and made the left out of the south side.

I knew my cheering section would be stationed near Grant Street and the finish wasn’t far behind.I ran passed them, gave my 4 year old the all important high five, saw Mark from Cranberry on the side, and finished with an 11 minute per mile average pace. Fairly pedestrian compared to my 2011 half finish in the low 1:50’s but that was my plan and I’m pleased to have stuck to it.

It wasn’t easy to stick to my original plan, but coming off an injury, and not being in great race shape, I knew it was the right decision for me. I plan on dedicating the next 3-4 months to rebuilding a nice aerobic base before running the Mt. Nittany Marathon in September.

Race Signs

I complained to someone lately that the marathon signs I’ve seen lately have gone stale. That is I tend to see the same ones over and over. I saw a few new ones this time I liked:

• If this were easy it would be called your momma
• Run faster I just farted
• For a good time tweet @Cprior2 (a twitter friend)
• Run faster the Pens are on at noon
• And one that just said Motivational Sign

I really want to run the Pittsburgh Marathon again next year, and am hoping playing yesterday smart will lead to 12 months of great training leading up to it.

Random

Someone I don’t know took this picture as I was coming back across the 7th street bridge. He posted it on Twitter, WPXIScott retweeted it, and my buddy Chris spotted me in it. I can’t imagine the odds of being captured in the picture all the way to me seeing it, but here it is:

If you’re new here, I signed up for Erie and Akron as training runs for Columbus. I needed to run 20-22 miles those weekends anyway, so I devised a scheme to walk portions of each so I’d get my mileage in and limit the risk of injury.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Columbus. I actually learned something.

And no, it isn’t not to ever do that again!

Lessons from Erie

The plan for Erie was to walk the first 3 miles and the last 3 miles and run the middle 20. For most people, walking the first anything is rough considering that human nature is to go out hard early in a race. The gun goes off, and everyone around you takes off at what seems like full speed. For me, knowing Columbus was the goal, it wasn’t too heard to let the field slowly drift into the distance.

After 3 miles of walking roughly 15 minute pace, I started off in a training pace. The half marathon started 30 minutes after the full, so I was surrounded by runners soon after I started running.

Ultimately, I ran the next 21 miles, before walking the final 2. Running 21 went smoothly as I was surrounded by races, had water stops every mile or so, and many spectators as certain spots. MUCH easier than running 20 in my town alone.

My previous two marathons were filled with more walking than I’d like to remember. Vegas because I was undertrained, and Pittsburgh because it was a scorcher. What I learned from Erie was how hard walking is after running a long distance.

When things go wrong in a marathon, or it hurts too much, it’s VERY tempting to walk for a stretch. Problem is, it really isn’t. I don’t know why it is, but walking the final two miles in Erie proved to me that it is. My legs seized up. I got pains in new areas. And I doubt I maintained a 20 minute pace after easily walking 13-15 pace the first 3 miles.

This knowledge really came in handy 4 weeks later in Columbus.

Lessons from Akron

Two weeks after Erie, I hit the line for the Akron Marathon. Remembering how rough walking was in Erie, I altered my plan. Originally I was going to do 2-22-2 but flipped it to walk the first 4, and run the final 22.

This made a big difference. It certainly wasn’t easy to walk that long and have the entire field pass me. But it worked.

At mile 4, I started running. In Akron, I made 1 mistake, but learned a valuable lesson.

They’re essentially the same thing.

Erie and Akron were both to be training runs. The same pace you run any other day. But there’s something about wearing a race bib, having perfect weather, and doing the splits in your head that tell you a PR is on the table….

About halfway through, I realized maintaining my pace would lead to a PR over my time in Pittsburgh. This was irresistible to me. I wasn’t pushing it, but a 9:45 pace wasn’t in the plan. But after getting through 20 miles with no issues, I put my head down and plowed through.

I felt it by mile 23, but decided to push on. Who know what Columbus would hold, and a PR is a PR dammit.

What I learned in Akron was that if everything comes together, and I choose an appropriate pace, I can run an entire marathon. 3 previous attempts, and Akron too, included more walking than I wanted. But running 22 miles at pace, including 3-4 final miles in pain (not injury just muscle fatigue) did wonders for my confidence.

I took that pace into Columbus and ran every damn mile.

In hindsight, racing Akron wasn’t smart. It was a mistake, but it didn’t bite me. Just wasn’t smart.

Lessons from Columbus

I’ve documented the Columbus race about as well as any race to date.

But suffice it to say, the lessons learned in the previous 4 marathons came together to result in my best marathon to date. Who knows if my time would have been faster or slower without the 3 in 5 stunt. But what I do know is this:

I hit the start line confident that if I ran my race, I’d shave tons of time off my previous races. And as important of all, when times got tough, and walking would have been an easy break, I plowed through and ran straight from the start to finish.

At this point, I”m not sure if I’d ever do it again. But that doesn’t mean I wish I hadn’t done it at all. Someday I do think I would run 2 back to back, with the same theory as Akron and Columbus. I ran 18 in a race before Pittsburgh and it gave me similar confidence.

What about you?

What’s the craziest race stunt you ever pulled but came out with valuable lessons learned?

The previous week, Andy announced he was going to run the 2013 Pittsburgh Marathon to raise money for St. Judes Hospital. To that end, he invited me on to discuss all things running.

You can listen to the full show here:

Problem is, I ran through knee pain that started around mile 5 or 6. It wasn’t bad, but in hindsight, seems like a mistake.

For several weeks after the race, I had random pain twinges on the inside of my right knee. I know the drill with this type of situation. Rest, maybe some ice, and no running until it subsides.

After a month of the same, I decided to be an adult and call my doctor. Again, I knew the drill from a similar cycling injury about 10 years ago.

1. “Examination” in the doctor’s office, consisting of questions
2. Off for an X-ray that “won’t show anything” but is necessary for insurance
3. 8-10 sessions of physical therapy
4. If no results, an MRI

I’ve been tortured treated at Mountain River Physical Therapy for the last 3 weeks or so. Long story short, my hips and pelvis weren’t functioning quite right, and I likely had an imbalance in my leg muscles. Essentially the quad muscles were overdeveloped from running and hamstrings, hips, and abductors were underdeveloped. All of this combined to cause my knee to stop tracking properly.

You’d think I’d take my own advice, but about 8 weeks before Columbus I stopped lifting, and only ran. Slowly but surely, this led to problems that I didn’t feel until race day.

But back to the torture, I mean treatment.

In addition to teaching you movements that essentially train your body to move functionally again, there are two treatments they apply. The first is called ASTYM. You can read the science behind it here. For the most part it isn’t painful, until they hit a rough spot. Picture a rigid plastic shoe horn digging into your body. Fun, huh?

The second, and less frequent therapy, is called “Intramuscular Manual Therapy” or dry needling. It’s like acupuncture, but deep in the muscle. Essentially it causes a sensation like a muscle cramp at the site. In the moment it either feels like nothing, weird, or actually painful.

Good times.

All of this effort appears to be working, and I’m optimistic I’ll be able to start running again soon. We’ll see….