Me, Kara, and Some Verbal Diarrhea

So you know how when you have a cold or a flu, the kind where it hurts just to move your head and you have a thousand thoughts swirling around that probably wouldn’t make sense on any other day but it makes perfect sense to you right now because you’re sick and tired and all you want to do is slip under the covers and not emerge again until this viral episode is over but you can’t because you have work to do and errands to run and deadlines to meet so you try to compromise by urging your malaise body to get up and jot these thoughts down hoping they’d serve some therapeutic purpose? Yeah, that’s where I am today, so if this post gets a bit long or superfluous or in general reads more like a bout of verbal diarrhea than what came out of my you-know-what this morning, then please excuse the intrusion and come back next week when we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Okay, you’ve been forewarned…Now welcome to my world!

I knew I was headed for trouble when I went to bed last night with a slight tickle in the back of my throat. Truth be told, I had been putting my body under a tremendous amount of physical stress ever since I got back from California two days ago. Between jetting directly from the airport to the hospital after an overnight red-eye flight to a dinner engagement that left me up ‘til the wee hours that night followed by the next morning, playing doctor to 50 kids at diabetes camp and zipping off to do an intense interval workout (12 miles with 4 x 1mile @ 5:54) where I pushed my physical limits way beyond what I had scheduled (11 miles with 3 x 1mile @ 6:03) for myself before heading home at way past my bedtime after dinner with a friend and feeling so physically exhausted that I almost passed out in the sofa before even taking off my clothes, I really have no right to complain that my body is rebelling against me right now. The funny thing about this whole episode is that over dinner last night, I had boastfully confided to my friend (when he reminded me that NYCM is 9.5 weeks away) that my marathon training is going so well and so smoothly even though I’m running faster and longer than I ever have before that I think I’ve already maxed out my miles and my long runs and am dumbfounded as to how to strategize my training for the rest of the time. Indeed, after downloading my runs from California into my training log and reviewing my progress during my flight home, I realized I’ve already done more 55+ mile weeks (3) than I did in my preparation for Boston! Now only so, but I’ve done 3 20+mile runs in the past 4 weekends, and have accumulated more miles this month (200+) than I’ve ever run! And through it all, I dare say I’m running a bit faster (as evidenced by my interval workout) and smoother (each interval clocked in at 5:53-5:54) than I ever have before. And the biggest triumph I can claim – no injuries! Yay! Truthfully though, if you don’t mind me saying so, I am a little frightened by these developments. I’ve never gone through a whole training cycle without injury before! So I’m not quite sure how I’m supposed to handle myself. Should I continue at my current pace and mileage and hope to maintain this level of fitness all the way through? Should I step back a bit and take a couple of lower mileage recovery weeks so I can build up to a peak again before the taper? If I want to add mileage, I’m not quite sure I can run more miles than I do now, given that I am putting in 55 or so miles in 5 days/week of running. I guess I can raise the ante and add a sixth day but I’m afraid I might overtrain this body and have disastrous results. (Remember, I’ve always been a proponent of 4 days/wk of running for marathon training so to be consistently running 5 days/wk now is already a big deal to me!) Besides, I don’t want to run more than 3 consecutive days since my muscles tend to get quite sore by the third day even when I run slow. So what to do, what to do? I’m leaning more on just being patient and consistent and stick with what has gotten me here. There’s a bunch of races and marathon-paced run coming up in the next several months so if I can maintain a 55-60 mile/week base and just add some dedicated speed training, I think that should be good enough for me.

Speaking of running, I forgot to mention something that I posted about in my recap of my California adventure. While I was there, every cousin, aunt, uncle came up to me in private and congratulated me on being an awesome runner! I guess they’ve all heard at one time or another that I run marathons and such but most have never really witnessed it in person, and fewer still has ever talked to me about it. So when they saw me waking early everyday to run 5-7 miles and then found out that I took the early bird train to San Fran and ran 21 miles over the Golden Gate Bridge before they had even finished brunch, they were all beyond impressed. I became a mini-celebrity for the rest of the weekend! All the uncles and aunts came up to me afterwards and told me their individual running stories, which was so very cool to hear. Then my cousins came and asked about my marathon training and how long it takes someone to train to run long distances. I told them all my reasons for running and how it sustains me and challenges me and how it makes me a good doctor and better person when I run. I don’t know if won over any of them by my story, but it was definitely cool when I “accidentally” overheard one of my younger cousins whisper to her brother later on – “I think it’s so cool to be able to run ten or fifteen miles just because you feel like it!” Yeah, right on! I think if I had a bucket list, one of the items would definitely be to run a marathon with a member of my family.

Switching gears a bit, did you all see the marathon coverage from the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin over the weekend? Did you all see Kara Goucher (spoiler alert) and her 10th place finish? How about her courageous post-race interview afterwards – here, and here? What did you all think? I only got to see it last night on DVR since I was away this weekend so if this is old hat to you all, I apologize. I thought she did an admirable job, doing the best that she can despite having major GI issues during the race and battling her stomach for much of the race. I know she must be disappointed given as how she put her life on hold (at least for several months) just to dedicate herself to training for this race. Like she mentioned in her interview, she was training better than she ever has and was as well prepared as she could be, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I guess that is the thing about marathons - you can train like hell, be at the peak of your physical conditioning on race day and something crazy and fluky can happen at any point during the 26.2 mile course to ruin your chances at a race goal. The thing that impressed me about Kara was that despite her obvious disappointment (and some vomiting) she can still say with a straight face that she loves the marathon distance and this race. How many of us can say that minutes after crossing the finish line after a less-than-stellar time?

Watching the marathon coverage, I immediately felt humbled by Kara’s performance and her words. Because I too have felt utter disappointment at missing a PR in a marathon not too long ago and feel as if I’m currently running and training better than I ever have for any prior marathon, the words she spoke shot through the computer monitor and into my heart with a reverberation so strong it was the last sound I heard before drifting off to sleep last night – I wonder if I’ll end up with a similar performance in NYC? What if I run a 3:05 or a 3:15 or even worse a 3:00:02? Will I be happy? Will I be devastasted? Will I be gracious? Will I remaining a proponent of marathons, or will I swear off the race and take a break for as long as Kara is going to be out of the running scene? I sincerely hope not, but like every aspect of racing a marathon – you just never know.

Lessons Learned: Patience and Diligence

At the conclusion of last week’s Q&A with Bernard Lagat and Kara Goucher, they were both asked for one piece of advice to give to any up-and-coming runners. Be diligent in training, set goals, but don’t think of yourself as a failure if you don’t completely reach your goals. Just because you didn’t get there doesn’t mean you didn’t improve as a runner. You did, you totally did. You just have to be patient and have faith. One day you’ll get there if you train hard, train smart and have patience.

I’m paraphrasing a bit because I don’t remember their exact words, but that was the gist of their message. As I was walking home that night, I thought about how ironic it was that in a sport that celebrates speed, competition, and beating your fellow man to the finish line, the most important lesson to be learned was how to slow down and be patient with yourself. A part of me (albeit a slight part) wondered if that were all a ploy to discourage any aspiring racers from training as hard as they do. Maybe it was all a big USATF marketing campaign to thwart off the competition!

Frankly though, I totally dig their message because I tell myself the same thing after every run that didn’t go as well as planned. So even if I don’t run as fast, as far, or as well as I thought I was capable of, the training itself was still valuable because it is all a process of getting “there”, no matter what or where “there” is. Even though most of my loyal fan base will probably not agree, I am much more lenient and forgiving of myself than I used to be. With knowledge gained through experience, I’ve learned not to let one DNF, DNS, or a particularly bad workout ruin my confidence in my own running. I trust my training and my body enough not to worry about what will happen to me at mile 20 of the Boston Marathon if I couldn’t finish a long run or two a few months before the race. As long as I train hard but smart, and within my own abilities, and not get injured, the sky’s the limit for what can happen in the race. I am certain of that.

As with all good things in life, everything comes to those who wait. Patience and diligence. I believe these are the essential characteristics of a successful miler and marathoner…as best exemplified by Bernard and Kara in the Millrose Games. By their dominant performances, I’m inclined to believe that one day in the way distant future, in a race no one cares about, I can be just as perfect too. Well, here’s to hoping anyway.

Meeting Some Running Heroes

Living in New York, I don’t usually get too excited when I see the occasional celebrity traveling about town. Most of the time, depending on who it is, I’ll rarely even do a double-take to verify if the celeb is who I thought he/she was. Tonight was the first night I ever found myself somewhat awestruck by who I was talking to.

It all started when I showed up in RUN NYC tonight, hoping to meet a couple of the elite runners who were coming to the city to run in the Millrose Games being held in Madison Square Garden tomorrow night. Because I decided to join the group for a quick training run prior to the Meet and Greet session, I was slightly out of breath and sweating profusely when I first entered the store. There was a handful of people who were already there, but definitely not the huge crowd I was expecting for an event of this magnitude. This was good for me because within five minutes of my entry, I somehow found myself standing in front of this guy talking about running.

In case you are not a runner, did not watch the Beijing Olympics or one who doesn’t following the sport (in that case, I’d wonder if you’re REALLY a runner), that’s Bernard Lagat, the winner of the 1500m and 5000m races at the U.S. Olympic Trials last year in Eugene, Oregon. He was here to run the Wanamaker Mile tomorrow at the Millrose Games. Ever since he became the first ever world champion at the 1500m and 5000m simultaneously when he won both event at the Osaka games in 2007, I have known about his story and consider him one of my running heroes. So imagine my surprise when I found myself standing right in front of him with his hands extended awaiting mine in a handshake. It was a thrill and a half for me. I shook his hand, told him I was a big fan, and proceeded to spent about 5-10 minutes talking about racing, training, and the mental preparation the night before a big race. He gave me some sound advice on what I could do to improve my strength (more hill training) and my general speed (shorter, but more intervals). I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and learned a lot from our talk. He was the consummate profession and a really down-to-earth guy. In my mind, it proved once again, that runners, even the elite ones, are genuinely good people.

U.S. distance running, Kara Goucher, strolled into the store and joined Lagat on the stage for a Q & A session. For those who are unfamiliar with Kara’s story (shame on you), she is a gifted runner who made the transition from short distance track to marathoner runner late last year. Like Lagat, she also represented the country at the Beijing Olympics and competed in both the 1500m and 5000m race distances. After the Olympics, she made her marathon debut in the New York City Marathon, and finished 3^rd with a time of 2:25. Before her, it had been 14 years since the last time an American female stood on the podium at a New York City Marathon. Currently, she is training to run her very first Boston Marathon. She is also here to run in the mile at the Milrose Games, an event in which she is the defending champion. I can’t lie. I have a special affinity for Kara because we share so many similarities. We both call Queens our hometown, we both made our marathon debuts in NYC marathon and we’ll both be running our first ever Boston Marathon in twelve short weeks. During her session, I was struck by how candid she was about her diet, her training and her general approach to running. She runs about 95-100 miles a week, does not really do additional cross-training and tries to eat a well-balanced diet all year round, regardless of the race she’s preparing for. I train with the same philosophy (except my mileage is about half of hers) so it was refreshing for me to hear that an elite athlete trains the same way.

After the brief session, we all got to go on stage and meet both athletes in person. I shook Bernard’s hand, got his autograph and wished him good luck in his race tomorrow. Then I moved over to Kara where I spent a few minutes telling her about our similar running stories. She admitted to me that she was also slightly nervous about Boston (because “it’s not New York) but she’s running more volume and has more time to train than she had in New York. I told her that I’m trying to train diligently and maybe break 3 hours in Boston. She wished me luck and posed for a picture with me. Afterwards, she said I should come by and say Hi if I run into her at the expo. I told her I most definitely will and wished her the best of her luck in her race tomorrow.

I left the store very inspired to run well this year and feeling like I had just met running royalty. For some reason, I don’t think I’ll have much trouble motivating myself to get up early this weekend for my long distance run. All I got to do is think to myself, Hmmm…what would Bernard Lagat and Kara Goucher do?

Top Ten Lessons Learned From The Beijing Olympics

Now that the Olympics are over and I can stop mindlessly flipping channels at every hour of the day looking for inspiration from some obscure Olympic sport to rationalize not working for just a little while longer, it’s time to get up from the Lazy Chair, put down the remote, go out for a run (maybe?) and review what we all learned from the best two weeks of summer television.

Lession 1: Man versus Car. I thought my beating a cyclist up Harlem Hill a while back was impressive (to me at least). Then I saw Usain Bolt revving it up to 32 m.p.h. in the 100m final on his way to obliterating the field and winning the gold medal, which got me wondering…can he really outrace a car? Is that really possible? Then, I remembered, it’s Usain Bolt. He’s fast, he’s cocky, he’s young (just 21). With him, anything is possible!

Lesson 2: Older Means Faster. Like I mentioned in my last post, thirty is indeed the new twenty, or 35 is the new 25…at least if you’re female and an aspiring Olympian. Just ask Dara Torres, Constantina Tomescu, Deena Kastor, Paul Radcliffe, and a whole host of thirty- and forty-somethings who are running and swimming faster than girls half their age. Simply amazing!

Lesson 3: In Need Of A New Statistic. Maybe for the next Olympic Trials, the U.S.T.A.F. can use something other than the fastest finishing times when deciding who to invite to represent the US in the sprint relays in London 2012. Maybe for the next four years, they should keep a new stat on all the sprinters, called the baton passer rating, which similar to the quarterback passer rating in the NFL, incorporates velocity, accuracy, baton passing completion percentage, and the net result of each relay race into a single statistic that will allow each sprinter to be ranked individually in terms of their baton passing efficiency. I personally think that is the best way to prevent the baton dropping debacle that was the 4x100m relays for the U.S. Men and Women from ever happening again.

Lesson 4: Not A Woman Yet Not A Girl. Apparently, girls in China develop at a different rate than girls from any other country in the world, contrary to what we’ve always been taught in medical school. Here in the U.S., we consider girls who don’t show any secondary sexual characteristics by age 13 to have delayed puberty, a pathologic condition worthy of a full endocrine workup. In China however, apparently you can be sixteen, be so short you’d be the poster child for growth hormone deficiency, show no signs of puberty and still be considered absolutely normal, no questions asked. Unbelievable.

Lesson 5: Tall Guys Can Run. Yes, it is possible to be 6’5” and still run like a gazelle. Usain Bolt taught me that, contrary to what basketball centers in the NBA would have you believe…who knew?

Lesson 6: Humbled By Walker. Apparently, it is also possible for someone to walk faster than I run. Just ask Valerly Borchin of Russia, who won an Olympic gold medal in race walking this summer. He completed the 20K (12.4 mile) walk in 1:19:01, which equates to 6:22 per mile. By comparison, my 15K PR pace is 6:36 per mile. There was also a 50K (31 mile) race walk event, which was won by Alex Schwazer of Italy with a time of 3:37:09. This equates to a 7:00 min/mile pace. By comparison, I’ve never done a 31 mile run, and my PR pace for the marathon is only 7:11 min/mile. For someone who always associated walking with slowness of feet, I was embarrassed and truly humbled by these figures.

Lesson 7: Internationalism Trumps Nationalism. Although people all over the world from all walks of life gathered collectively to cheer on the representatives from their respective countries, so many athletes from these Olympics come from backgrounds that overlap nations and cultures that the games represented a celebration of internationalism more than a competition between the various nations. From Nastia Liukin, the gold medal winning all-around gymnast, whose parents were both former Soviet champion gymnasts, to Samuel Wanjiru, the winner of the Olympic marathon, who was born in Kenya, but learned to run and was coached in Japan, there were so many Olympians whose personal stories reached so widely across geographic barriers that to celebrate them as anything but international athletes would be wrong on so many levels.

Lesson 8: Olympics Fever. Yes, from now on, every four years, this term will be recognized as a true medical disease with universally recognized symptoms. Employers beware.

Lesson 9: World’s Greatest Athlete. It is amazing to me that despite proving that he can jump, throw, run, sprint and hurdle faster and better than anyone in the world so much so that he set an Olympic record by the widest margin of victory ever in the event, in a discipline where the winner was once celebrated as “The World’s Greatest Athlete, the name Bryan Clay, the gold medalist in the Olympic decathlon, got less mention from the media than human rights violations or the Tibetan controversy from the Chinese. This Hawaiian native led by so much after the ninth event that he jogged through the last race, the 1500m, finishing in dead last, and still set an Olympic record for the widest margin of victory. This guy is such a class act that he persuaded a fellow competitor not to drop out of the event before the 1500m race but rather that he’d jog with him to the finish if need be. So cool.

Lesson 10: Long Fingernails Wins Gold. After securing and studying the digitally enhanced replays from the men’s 100m butterfly race, I’m convinced that because Michael Phelps didn’t have time to cut and file his fingernails that day, the extra 2mm of armspan is what enabled him to outtouch Milorad Cavic by 0.01 seconds at the finish. NBC would have you believe that it was the extra half stroke Phelps took and Cavic didn’t that was the difference, but I knew it really had nothing to do with technique. He was just lucky his manicurist was late. I’m on to you, Phelps.

There you have it, my ten biggest lessons learned during these Olympics. Hope you all enjoyed the festivities as much as I did. Please feel free to comment and add your own favorite moments.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice...Random Weekend Thoughts

Wouldn’t it be nice if spring could last forever? The warm weather is finally here, the cherry blossoms are out, and everyone is full of optimism about their running plans for the year. I love this time of year because everything is fresh, and everyone is excited about something. There are more runners on the road, more participants in races. People, in general, are nicer too. Even the bikers in the park make more of an attempt to avoid you rather than run you over this time of year. Yeah, I can’t get enough of spring.

On the subject of racing, wouldn’t it be nice if we could, for one race, for one time, run well enough to stand on the podium or get an award. It just dawned on me that even though I’ve PR’d in 6 of the last 8 races that I’ve run, and no matter how much I improve in the coming years, it is still physically impossible for me to place in a race or even in my age group. Case in point. I thought I ran a real good race last week, getting a PR, and obtaining an AG of 68.6%, which is just a notch below regional class, whatever that means. Still, I ended up 30^th in my age group, and 106^th overall. That is a little bit incredible to me. I know that I’m not supposed to be running for any accolades, but more for myself, and yada yada yada, but I can’t help thinking about it sometimes, you know. I wish that maybe just for one day, for each of us, that they could develop special categories or criteria in a race where we could all be competitive and be the best at something. For example, if they could have a race, or a sub-race, for “Doctors who deal with hormone problems and live on the Upper East Side between 85^th and 86^th street”, I think I’d have a fighting chance. I think everyone could up with some “niche” that they could totally rock. I know that’s never going to happen, but it’s fun to think about sometimes.

And while I’m talking about winning races, wouldn’t it be nice if the elite and professional runners in our sport were a little bit more recognized and a little more part of the national consciousness like they are in other professional sports. For example, at a dinner party the other day, in the midst of everyone raving about the latest exploits of Kobe and Lebron, I brought up how amazing Deena Kastor was at the Olympic Trials and the spectacular women’s finish at the Boston Marathon the next day, and suddenly all conversation stopped and everyone looked at me like I was a space alien visiting from another galaxy. No one in the entire room (and there were like 10 of us) knew what I was talking about. I had to chuckle in disbelief. This is the Super Bowl weekend of our sport, happening only once every four years, where we’re sending our athletes overseas to represent our country and no one knew that it even happened? I thought it was sad on so many levels.

Oh, and while on the subject of marathoning, wouldn’t it be nice if the race was 26 miles instead of 26.2? I know it’s a tradition leftover from the Summer Olympics in 1908 when the extra 0.2 was added because Queen Alexandra wanted the finish to be situated below the Royal Box so she could have the best view. But honestly, now that we’ve seceded from the mother land and have done away with the traditions of kings and queens, can we get rid of the extra 0.2? ‘Cause that extra 365 yards is such a b*tch after you’ve run 26 and have caused so much pain and suffering for so many that we should just eliminate it altogether. (Just my way of giving respect to the Boston Marathoners who finished the race and are probably hurting bad right now.)

Lastly, speaking of 26, wouldn’t it be nice if the day was extended to 26 hours? I need that extra time to finish reading all the running blogs I have to get to before the end of the day.

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In other news…

A quick shoutout to sRod, who declared his intentions to run for president or run America, or something like that. Actually, I think he decided that he’s going to run 50 half-marathons in the 50 states (before he’s 50, that’s my contribution, but I think that’s right). I love it! FYI, sRod and I met last week for the first time on a group run and he became the inaugural member of the exclusive RBFs-that-I’ve-met-in-person club (that’s a clumsy nickname – we’ll just use the Running Laminator Fan Club from now on, haha). I’m psyched because that means he’ll have more cool and exciting running tales to regale me with on our group runs, although I’m not sure how he’ll top getting stung by a bee in his first marathon. Run well, my friend.

And if you’re coming over because Frayed Laces sent you – yeah, I know. I thought I had already fulfilled my good running deed quota for the year on my last post too. Apparently, F.L. had other ideas. But whatcha gonna do when a running friend, who ran her previous marathon with a broken pelvis for crying out loud, asks you to look over her training plan? Hmmm...yeah, I could have sent her to a real expert. But I thought none were around on a Saturday [must still be stuck in traffic coming back from Boston]. So I had to volunteer and help out.

Just don’t blame me for the crazy nickname. She came up with that all on her own.

My Want To Be Elite

Something struck my fancy as I watched the live broadcast of the women’s marathon at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka Japan earlier today. Now I must admit, I’ve never watched a marathon event on television before, so what I’m about to say might make me sound uneducated or pompous. Needless to say, I have the utmost respect and admiration for those elite women who, on a blistering hot and humid day, ran faster than I ever will in perfect weather. (Click here for the full race report.) But…did you know that each elite runner have personal bottles at every water station that’s filled with the beverage of their choice? (Actually, it caused a bit of a ruckus during the race because one of the runners inadvertently knocked Catherine Ndereba’s bottle down to the ground at a water station and she had to drop back from the lead position to pick it up. The fact that she did and still went on to win the race with a comfortable margin speaks volumes about her incredible talent and athleticism.) Still, I never knew that elites were allowed to have their beverage preference catered to them during a race. I wonder if that practice is specific to the world championship or if it was standard across all marathons. Imagine the possibilities if we ordinary runners were afforded such luxury.

The only thing similar I can compare it to was when Lance Armstrong ran NYCM last year with his own professional pacer and refreshment cart. I know a lot of people in the running community hated him for doing that. At the time, as a spectator and a marathoner, I didn’t particularly care one way or the other. I just thought it was funny how there was one motorcycle, one van, and an entire entourage of escorts following this one runner in the midst of a race with 30,000+ other participants.

But today I had a totally different reaction. After watching the emotional and exciting finish, the voice in my head kept telling me, “That’s why you train, Laminator. If you can’t be Kenyan, at least you can be elite.”

So I changed, went to the park, and ran twelve miles, yelling the entire way, “In my mind, I am elite!”