Road to Nowhere

Are you turning 50 in 2013 or 2014? Sorry I am a bit confused...I just say you do it the year of your 50th.

Joel H wrote:Are you turning 50 in 2013 or 2014? Sorry I am a bit confused...I just say you do it the year of your 50th.

I turn 50 (irrationally cringes typing that number) in October 2013. So there's plenty of time either way.

Moving right along from that whole "age" thingy...

Walk: 3.86 miles

Weather: Marvelous. Sunny and 68, with a breeze.

I took advantage of great weather to take a long walk along the Columbia River during lunch at work. It was, in a word, gorgeous, which is nice, because the weather here has been what we call "Juneuary" in these parts.

There were several runners along the path, including at least one who seemed to be doing a last shake-out run before the Vancouver USA Marathon on Sunday. Most of the runners, though, looked like they were working way. too. hard. Pained expressions. Audible breathing. Awkward form. They were moving, which is great, but wow: It did not look like they were enjoying themselves in the least. Don't they know that running is supposed to be fun? And if it's not (even if it kicks your ass), you're not doing it right?

MAF Test: 6.25 miles total, 5 miles of testing.

Weather: Partly cloudy, warm, humid (for here), a breeze (thank heavens). 63 degrees, 85% humidity. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T (stripped after a couple of miles). Fuel: Coffee and oatmeal. Took two Endurolytes before. Chugged one handheld full of nuun after MAF Mile 2.

About time for a MAF test, but I picked probably the warmest, muggiest day so far this year to do it. I was hoping to not repeat my last performance, which started at a decent pace (10:27) but then fell below 11 minutes in the second mile. I hit the first mile in about 10:25, which wasn't a big change from last month, BUT the mile that followed dropped only to 10:41 (compared with 11:05 a month ago). The subsequent miles hovered in the 10:40s, as I tried to relax and flow and apply my barefoot lessons to shod running. The last mile fell below 11, but I'm not sure if that was simply fatigue, lack of fluid (I chugged my entire bottle after 3 miles) or the fact that the sun came out and started hitting me directly.

Regardless, it was a pretty good measure, considering the conditions, the fact that I'm in the middle of learning a new form and that I'm still dieting.

I toyed with the idea of kicking off my shoes and doing a mile barefoot just to check the difference, but I think I'll save that for another time.

Average HR for the entire run: 132

Here's the progression since February:



Bit by bit, I'm getting there.

Good progress Mark. I had to go back and reread one sentence though. I thought you said you chugged a HANDFULL of Nuun instead of a handheld.

Tom H wrote:Good progress Mark. I had to go back and reread one sentence though. I thought you said you chugged a HANDFULL of Nuun instead of a handheld.

That would have been messy!

I was thankful that I did the run early - few witnesses as I peeled off my shirt. I reserve my shirtless running to when I'm on the treadmill at home. So, to anybody who happened to open up their curtains near the track and fainted dead away from shock and horror (or were simply blinded by my pasty flab), I apologize.

Hiking! 5.33 miles on a rocky trail -- in Lunas

Weather: Partly cloudy and not too warm. 70 degrees. Gear: Luna sandals

So, it's Father's Day, and the other members of my household kept asking, "What do you want to do today?"

I asked them what they wanted to do and got an, "Oh, no! This is YOUR day. YOUR pick. And don't go guessing what we might want to do!"

After I sighed and rolled my eyes, an evil urge overtook me, and I knew what we were doing: Hiking the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park. They've never seen where I do my trail runs, and I needed an excuse to try out my Luna sandals on a trail without having to try it while running. It just so happened that I (ahem) picked the steepest, rockiest, most gnarly section of the trail. But hey, it was my choice, right?

Everybody handled the trail well, actually. We hiked up from an elevation of about 97 feet to about 975 feet and walked around the grounds at the Pittock Mansion after tanking up at the water fountain. Then we headed back down.

The sandals handled nearly everything the trail threw at me. I scampered up the rocky parts easily, and my own difficulty was on a loose sharp-edged, walnut-sized rock (felt that one!) and on steep sections where I couldn't dance down the slope in fear of encouraging Alec to try to scoot downhill too fast for his own safety. I ended up having my toes slide off the front edge of the sandals when that happened. Lesson learned. Other than that, and a little fatigue by the time we finished, it was great.



We didn't have a good camera for action photos, but it was good enough in a pinch. I think the expression on my face is because I was starting to get worried I'd run right over the top of my photographer.

Oh, what the heck. A few more photos from today's hike. I broke down and got a new compact camera (Canon ELPH 300HS) a few weeks ago when it went on a ridiculously good sale. It has good low light sensitivity but is about as bad at action shots as any compact camera.

Still, I think it did a nice job on the non-action photos from today.


This is the view going up the Lower Macleay Trail, which intersects with the Wildwood Trail at the Stone House, a great Portland landmark made even more famous by the TV show "Grim."


Alec explores the ruins. Unfortunately, the place is a party spot for kids, so he came across empty bottles of orange juice, an empty 1.5 liter bottle of everclear and a 40-ounce bottle of Olde English 800.


And, as a reminder lest we ever forget... in the long run, nature always wins.


Speaking of nature, Nature Boy here thought about going barefoot but decided to give his trail rated Luna sandals a test. They performed very well.


A non-tricky part of the trail, as we head up hill (from about 90 feet elevation to 975 feet) toward Pittock Mansion.


Pittock Mansion, built by a newspaper publisher back in 1914. Not, I must note, by an assistant metro editor.


Alec tanks up on water at the turnaround point of our walk. The return journey was still technically challenging, but there was a lot more down than up.


What's Rose City without a rose? This beauty (a floribunda of some sort) was photographed by Alita. Nice job!


The view from the top. The Willamette River is in the foreground. The Columbia River winds away in the background. I don't think I've ever seen both rivers in one vista before, so this was a cool discovery.


The three of us near the end of our hike. It was pretty vigorous, but everybody managed it well. And we earned our Father's Day trip to the pizza place.

I've said it before but wow, you've got some great places to run up there! Looks like the family had a great day with dad and love the family photo at the end.

yeah, it looks a tad bit less flat than Houston.

Barefoot Run: 3.1 miles on dry asphalt

Weather: Partly cloudy, mild and muggy. 56 degrees, 80% humidity. Rain kindly waited until just after I finished. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Post breakfast.

I did a lot yesterday, but I was home alone and restless (summer break starts after Wednesday). So I went out for some barefoot laps, taking it easy, with no set distance in mind. It took about a mile to warm up, though I goosed it to see how fast I could go below my target HR at one point (8:21/mi pace) before deciding that it'd be better to see what happened if I went just a *little* bit faster rather than a lot. So I tried to relax and keep it smooth on my second mile. I went sub 10 (9:59.29) at 1 bpm below my target HR! Whoa.

By comparison, my MAF test on the perfectly flat track (in shoes) had the comparable first-mile-after-warmup coming in at 10:24.84. This route around the block is *not* flat, and I came in nearly 25 seconds faster, with less effort? Interesting.

I tried to keep it up for the mile that followed and clocked it in 10:15 (it was 10:41 on the track), again at a HR of 137.

There just might be something to this whole barefoot thing.

Average HR for the whole run: 134

Tom H wrote:I've said it before but wow, you've got some great places to run up there! Looks like the family had a great day with dad and love the family photo at the end.

Yes, I know. I'm spoiled. (Though I wish I didn't have to drive to get to a trail this great.) Heading up to Pittock Mansion is the most rocky and heavily travelled section of the Wildwood Trail, which stretches nearly 30 miles in all. Going the opposite direction lacks a great vista point, but it's less rocky and more private. I'll take them that way next time. It was a good day. Alec loved getting outside and being surrounded by the forest, as did mom, and especially, dad.

ounce wrote:yeah, it looks a tad bit less flat than Houston.

A tad bit, yes. Nothing wrong with flat (unless there's a tidal surge being pushed in by an incoming hurricane), but I do prefer the hills. One time, a conference took me to Fort Worth, Texas. My hotel room was on about the 8th floor ... and I swear I could see all the way to Canada. It was kind of unsettling.

Walk: 2.2 miles

Weather: Overcast, mild.

A quick lunchtime walk along the Columbia River. Rain threatened but didn't fall.

Barefoot Run: 3.1 miles on dry asphalt

Weather: Partly sunny, muggy. 52 degrees, 95% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Post breakfast

*Note: Donated blood yesterday*

I donated blood yesterday, so I had no expectations for this morning's barefoot jaunt. Usually, losing a unit of blood makes it difficult to maintain a low HR without slowing w-a-y down. So I was ready to slow it down or cut it off altogether if needed.

Except it wasn't needed. I was a bit slower than I was on Monday, but not *that* much slower... and it was relatively easy to keep my effort level (aka HR) in the right zone. I even had enough juice and time to extend the run from an expected 2 miles (six laps) to 3.1 (nine laps). I had to pause briefly to pull a tiny sliver of glass out of my foot (it barely penetrated the skin, partly because I stopped immediately to deal with it) and continued on without difficulty.

All in all, it was a lot easier and more pleasant than I expected. Woot!

Average HR for the entire run: 138 (no walking warm up or cool down)

Wow, I am happy and surprised that giving blood didn't slow you down much. Usually, I am wiped out for days. Of course, I have issues giving blood since I have that combination of low resting pulse, low blood pressure, and sort of low body weight - and this makes it take up to 2 hrs to donate a pint. I only do it now if there is dire need or if it is for someone I know. (I'm O+ so the universal donor)

Walk: 2.66 miles

Weather: Sunny, mild, with a great view of four (count 'em, four!) volcanoes.

Took a lunchtime walk across the Columbia River. It was a gorgeous day - the last day of school, first day of summer - and I had a great view of Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens. A four volcano day is a very good thing around here.

I took it easy, practicing my relaxed-but-purposeful walking skills. And just like this morning, I didn't feel any significant impact from the blood donation yesterday. Maybe it's just that I've found a level of intensity - both running and walking - that doesn't strain my system enough to be affected by the loss of red blood cells? Hm.

Two hours to drain out a unit of blood? Yipes, Michele. Glad the blood bank people don't try to just wring you out! I seem to be a fairly proficient bleeder, myself. They're always a little surprised when they see I'm done.

Playing devil's advocate... Would it be a good thing to find an intensity that doesn't tax you aerobically? After all, if you're not utilizing enough oxygen to have a missing pint of blood affect your running... What would that say in terms of the effectiveness of training at such a level?

Mike MacLellan wrote:Playing devil's advocate... Would it be a good thing to find an intensity that doesn't tax you aerobically? After all, if you're not utilizing enough oxygen to have a missing pint of blood affect your running... What would that say in terms of the effectiveness of training at such a level?

"Maximizing extreme endurance while minimizing the deleterious (and all too common) consequences of overtraining."

Boom.

Okay, now that I'm done being a wise guy...

The fact is, the whole point of the type of training I am pursuing is to develop my aerobic system to make it as efficient as possible. But despite the term "aerobic," it's not so much about oxygen utilization. This type of training is more about mitochondrial development in slow-twitch muscle fibers, allowing them to generate more energy at the same effort level. It also builds capillary density, which does get blood and oxygen to those muscles more efficiently.

The result of this training is going faster at the same effort level as measured by HR, with fewer risks of intensity-caused overtraining or injury.

If you look at my MAF tests over the past several months, you can see that I'm getting pretty good results at the HR levels that I'm targeting (even though I've blown up my old running form by emphasizing barefoot running), so I'm thinking so far, so good. At some point, I'll probably want to throw in a little intensity (whether it's climbing hills or simply running faster), but I'm still in the extreme base-building phase of my plan.

Doing it the way you're doing is like adding taller gears to a transmission, so you can run a better pace at lower rpm (HR). When you're not adding torque (intensity), you're running through the gears and up to pace with less effort.

ounce wrote:Doing it the way you're doing is like adding taller gears to a transmission, so you can run a better pace at lower rpm (HR). When you're not adding torque (intensity), you're running through the gears and up to pace with less effort.

I never thought of it that way, but that's a really good way of putting it, Ounce.

I'm a car guy, so it's not unusual for me to analogize in that vein.

I once metaphored to my chiropractor upon his definition of ATP being the fuel for the muscles that ATP was like gasoline for the engine. He said that ATP is more like diesel fuel, which is why I refer to my style of running like an unturbo-charged diesel engine with tall gearing. No sudden speed, but can sure go a long time without a whole lot of effort.

Very true... but those who think that diesel power automatically means slow are mistaken.

Y'see, as the "gearing" improves and gets more efficient, not only are you able to keep going and going, but you can also go faster at the same effort level. I'd argue that most of the improvement in my marathon PR (from 4:29 to 3:46) a couple of years ago was the result of that sort of metamorphosis.

If you can adapt your body to run faster at a reduced effort, it gives you more range for speed once you rev the engine higher and start engaging the turbo. That's the part of Maffetone and Hadd that people don't talk about enough: how a maximized aerobic base, coupled with some higher-intensity work, can lead to better improvement than you might otherwise experience if you didn't have that base.

The bigger the base of the pyramid, the higher it can go.

This is, in fact, one of the biggest reasons why I decided to not race this year: I want to milk as much as I can out of this sort of training and see what happens. Peaking for and recovering from races seems to throw off the process for me. I pushed myself too hard back in 2010, strayed over the line and ended up totally burned out. This time, I'm trying to let my body - not my ego - drive the process.

Barefoot Run: 5.19 miles (60 minutes)

Weather: Overcast, mild, a little muggy. 56 degrees, 81% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Nothing (not even coffee)

My first run of summer this morning, and I ended up doing something pretty significantly different. I got up and didn't take any fuel - not even coffee - before heading out the door barefoot. I did a couple of miles around the block (stopping a couple of times to chat with neighbors about barefoot running) to warm up and check the systems and decided that I felt good enough to leave the neighborhood and try out part of my normal route.

Dang! The pavement is a lot rougher outside of my neighborhood, so that slowed me down a bit as I focused on staying relaxed and letting my feet sort of relax into the roughness. (The worst thing you can do in that situation is to tense up, because it makes you push your feet into the ground harder.) I'd do a bit on the rough pavement, then veer over onto a silky-smooth sidewalk, then go back again. In the last mile, once my soles felt stimulated enough, I avoided the super rough stuff and stayed on the sidewalk. (It seems that I'll be able to handle the country roads out here, though, if I work into it gently. So that's good news.)

My pace slowed once I got out of the neighborhood, but I'm not surprised. It was probably a combination of slowing down for the rougher pavement, the more hilly terrain, the fact that I didn't take any food since dinner last night - and the fact that I donated blood on Wednesday. So when I saw a split crack 12 minutes, I just shrugged. I was pleased to see my HR staying where it belonged on average.

And I was even more pleased (okay, thrilled) to see my weight at about 163 this morning. I'm not to where I want to be yet, but after starting spring at 186, this feels good.

Average HR for entire run: 137 (no walking warm up or cool down)

Low HR Run: 8 miles

Weather: Rainy, cool, humid. 52 degrees, 97% humidity. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T, jacket, hat. Fuel: Coffee and oatmeal before, nuun during.

Ah. NOW I can feel the loss of that unit of blood from earlier this week. Today's run started fine, but my HR started revealing the strain whenever I would go uphill. I'd warned my training partner, though, so he didn't mind slowing down - which we did a lot as the run progressed. We even ended up walking a bit when his knee started giving him trouble. No matter. This was supposed to be an easy run.

I have to say, after three barefoot runs in a row, it felt kind of weird to have something between my foot and the ground. Free 3.0s aren't exactly the Aix Max, but it did leave me wishing I had something less cushy. Weird, huh?

Walked first 5 minutes and last 9 minutes or so. Average HR for entire run: 132

Mark - I ran a race this morning, and a guy there had on what looked like socks with a minimal sole built into the bottom. Very funky. Almost nothing to the sole - looked like a piece of cardboard in terms of thickness. Any idea what those are? I think he'd be better off really barefoot...