I Wonder*

(*This post was inspired by IronBrandon who asked me this provocative question - What do you wonder about when you run? Here's my response...)

...If I'll run another sub-3 marathon this year.

...If my brother will finish his first marathon in May

...if my mom will win an age group award before me.

...if the snowstorms will ever end.

...if the new blog will take off like the old one did.

...if i can trust myself to know when to say when (in terms of racing).

...if i'll ever find love in running and running in love.

...if i can run a sub-5 minute mile.

...when we'll find a cure for cancer or diabetes.

...if i can blog and write like I used to.

...if my running brings me closer to friends and family who don't run.

...if i can ever be a consistent pre-dawn runner.

...if the obesity epidemic will ever end.

...if our healthcare system will ever be fixed.

...if my sister is proud of me.

...if i'll ever learn to use Wordpress.

...if i am living up to my potential.

...if i can log 2500 miles this year or if i'll even want to.

...if medicine and running can ever coexist.

...if i'll ever find peace despite the social injustices i see around me everyday.

...if we'll ever find out how he met his mother.

...if i can keep paying it forward without asking/expecting to be paid back.

...if the Mets and Knicks will win another championship in my lifetime.

...if Flushing Meadows will ever be home base for a running club.

...if i can ever run another sub-7 min mile at Mile 25.

...if i'll retire from blogging or running first.

...if I can teach as much as I have learned from others.

...if i'll ever wear black magic marker digits on my bicep.

...how many kids died because of of the Wakefield paper.

...when i'll write another poem.

...if it's easier to run clockwise or counterclockwise around Central Park.

...if Seattle Greys will ever admit an endocrine case they can't treat surgically.

...when we'll stop selling guns to criminals.

...if i'll see a fully operational 2nd Avenue subway in my lifetime.

...if anyone is still reading this list.

...if we'll ever win the war against tyranny and terror.

...why the marathon course runs through the worst part of Queens.

...if there's such a thing as a healthy addiction.

...if i'll ever enjoy red wine.

...when i'll find my 3rd slice of heaven.

...if the 2hr marathon barrier will be broken in my lifetime.

...when the time comes, if I can actually stop, not look back...and just walk away.


What do YOU wonder about?

Running Beyond 26.2

For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a versatile runner. In my mind, the mark of a great runner was someone who was as equally proficient in short distance races as he or she is in the long ones. (Think Haile and Kara, who both excelled on the track before becoming world class marathoners). Indeed, one of the crowning achievements of the past year for me was getting PRs in the shortest of road races (5K, 4M) as well as in the longest, the marathon, in the same calendar year. To see some measure of success in both arenas in 2010 was thrilling and motivating and gave me hope that with some degree of dedication, passion, hard work, and luck, I may achieve even better results in the short and long distances in 2011.

Then December came, and with it, some rest and recovery, and slower long runs with friends and family and a laid-back trailish 10K on Christmas morning until suddenly I woke up one day a couple of weeks ago and found myself registering for a 50K...on trails no less! I'm not exactly sure why I decided to register for my first ultra that day. Maybe I was desperate for adventure. Maybe I was getting bored with base building and maintenance running. Maybe I just wanted to prove something to myself in a way that even a sub-3 marathon can't. Whatever the reason, I am scheduled to run the longest race of my life in the 50K version of the New Jersey Ultra Festival in mid-March. Holy crap, did I just admit to myself that I am crossing beyond the 26.2 threshold in hopes of becoming an ultramarathoner?

To many, what I call a "baby ultra" is nothing more than five miles beyond 26.2. To me though, it's a huge mental challenge as well as a physical one just to learn how to train properly for one of these. From what little I know so far, drawn from the knowledge and experience of those who've done a plethora of these and longer, I can already say that preparing for an ultra will be nothing like preparing for a marathon. For example,

In marathons, we eat gels and shot blocks.
In ultras, they eat chicken soup and PB&J sandwiches.

In marathons, we run on pavement and roads with thousands.
In ultras, they run on trails, mostly alone and cross rivers/streams.

In marathons, we run according to pace & measure training in miles.
In ultras, there is no set pace and training is measured in hours.

As you can see, I've got a lot to learn and practice in the next two months if I want to do well in this race. Biggest problem for me will be finding some longer distance trails to practice on. I see a lot of visits to the Central Park Bridle Path and Van Cortlandt Trails in my future!

I find it funny that a friend/teammate of mine thought I would be in danger of underestimating the distance when I first mentioned this race on a facebook post. In actuality, I'm been freaked out and scared and stressed beyond belief for the past week about this March trail run. I was so preoccupied with my race prep that I even had a vivid dream about it in my sleep a few nights back. In it, I was taking a PB&J break at an aid station during the race when Scott Jurek comes flying by from out of nowhere, whispers in my ear that "50Ks are A LOT of Ks" and takes off again. With the help of several friends, I was able to decipher the hidden dream message: Ditch the PB&J and go with Special K for the race!

Finally, I want to leave you all with this excerpt of a typical conversation between an ultramarathoner and his wife. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not married as I train for this 50K =)

Are you an ultramarathoner? If so, what are your secrets? Any good tips to share with a newbie like me? If not, why not? Has it enter piqued your interest? Is it a no for life or no just for now? As always, thanks in advance for all your tips, advice and suggestions.

How NOT To Have A Bad Race When You're Racing Badly

Just to show that I was indeed a little brain dead and racing in short sleeves and shorts with a bleeding right knee in Sunday's Joe Kleinerman 10K, I present to you this race photo compliments of brightroom. As you can see, despite the pained expression on my face and the blood trickling down the side of my leg, I looked pretty cool and color coordinated despite it being 30 degrees. Score one for me. (Yes, that's the only highlight from my race so I'm milking it for all I've got!)

Over the past few days, while remembering and analyzing the range of emotions I felt during this race, I came across this great Running Times article on Racing Your Best When Feeling Your Worst. In it, the author Matt Pulle discusses how NOT to throw in the towel at the midpoint of a race when things just aren't going your way. The article was apropos to my racing experience in my past two road races (Philly Half, JK 10K) because there were moments during each when it became painfully obvious that a PR would not be in the cards for me that day. My first instinct in each of these circumstances was to just bail and quit. After all, what's the point in racing if the end result would be disappointing or embarrassing anyway? But then, somehow, for some reason, in Philly and then again in Central Park, I continued running and racing hard until the end. How did I managed to salvage what would've otherwise be a poor performance or a DNF?

Although I tried hard to erase those forgettable races from my memory bank as quickly as possible, I still remembered a few tricks and tactics I used to keep my brain occupied and my legs turning over as quickly as possible instead of just giving up. First and foremost, I told myself NOT TO QUIT. In both circumstances, I felt I had to press on because that's what runners do. I also knew that if I gave in to the DNF temptation in these races, it will be that much easier to repeat the same patterned behavior in the future.

Once I convinced myself that quitting was not an option, I began to develop strategies that would motivate me to race the remainder of the course. For starters, I forced myself to devise an alternative goal or plan that seemed somewhat worthwhile to pursue despite having lost the overall battle against the clock. In Philly, it was let's see if I can just run the last 5K faster than I did last year. In the JK 10K, it became a rallying cry to break 40 minutes. When that didn't work, I'd tell myself to forget the race and get back to basics. After all, no matter the result, races are still an extreme form of speedwork, meaning that I can still work on my breathing, my form, and my mechanics even if the rate of forward progress was a little slower than I would have liked. Finally, during the last mile of the respective races, when the physical pain seemed to have caught up to the mental anguish of a disappointing performance, I would force myself to remember (and say) that despite everything, I was still having fun and that racing/running is always better than the alternative. I remember succinctly thanking and appreciating running as I was sprinting toward the finish in the 10K which seemed so awkward to acknowledge in retrospect because I was hurting so much at the time but I needed to remind myself why I was out there in the first place and motivate myself to do the best I can given the circumstance.

Looking bad, I can say that although I'm a little disappointed that I didn't prepare adequately and missed a great opportunity to PR in the 10K and the Half, I'm proud that I didn't fall apart despite the troubles during the race and kept it together to finish each race in a decent time. Personally, I learned it is just as important to know how to race badly as it is to race well since as you gain experience and chase PRs, that's probably more likely to happen than not.

Just curious - What do you guys/gals do to motivate yourselves to race well when the race is going badly? Any tips/strategies for success you'd like to share?

Winter Running: My Ever-Evolving Dilemma

As we approach the conclusion of yet another spectacular fall racing season (the Kleinerman 10K on Sunday will be the last race for me in 2010), I am once again faced with a clean slate on my running calendar with no defined scheduled workouts for a month and asking myself the same question that I've heard from numerous running friends for the past week and a half "What are you planning for this offseason? What's your general approach to winter running? Will you be resting and recovering or training hard and racing?"

To be honest, I'm fairly new at this cold weather running game. As recently as a few years ago, I had always equated the finish line of the NYC Marathon as a metaphorical ending to the running and racing year. I'd do a few miles here or there, but once the temperatures began consistently dipping into the 30s, I'd retire the running shoes, lace up the snowboarding boots and hit the slopes instead. For the first 2 years of running, I don't think I've ever managed more than 50 miles a month during the winter. Then in fall of 2007, I did something stupid and qualified for Boston, which meant that my "No winter running" policy would soon have to be modified. To compound my mistake, I fractured my collarbone on a non-contact freak snowboarding accident in early 2008, scarring my tenacity and audacity on the slopes for life. So running during winter for me only started in earnest in early 2009. That year, in preparing for Boston, I was still training mostly indoors on a treadmill, and hitting the roads only when absolutely necessary for long runs in the cold. My accumulated mileage that winter was minimally adequate for marathon training. It resulted in a painful hammy cramp at mile 20, mere steps before Heartbreak Hill. Last winter, I corrected my mistake and got out more than I did before to do long and short runs in the park. Unfortunately, I got sick on race week and never got to run my target spring marathon. So it was impossible to tell whether my training and hard work during the winter actually benefited me. What it did though, was forced me to become more aware of and learn to treat my own overuse injuries, since I was essentially running nonstop for the better part of two years.

So this brings me to this winter. It is a little daunting to think about, because it's already cold and windy and it isn't even the official start of the season for another 3 weeks! Nevertheless, I think this winter will be a productive one in terms of running. For the first time since I don't know when, maybe forever, I will spend the next month or longer in logging miles with no intervals, no speed, and no pressure of racing. It will strictly be a period of rest, recovery, yet maintaining a stronger aerobic base on which more race specific workouts can be built upon at a later date. I will not be racing (except for possibly the Manhattan Half at the end of January as a benchmark). Rather, I'll be running with friends, family and others who I don't get to run with ordinarily because they don't run my pace. For this base building phase however, I will openly and gladly make exceptions. Most importantly, I plan to have fun when I'm out in the cold and snow. I want to enjoy my time on the roads, even if it's slow. I know the speed, like the birds, will return in the spring. I'm not worried. Let's together get through this bitter winter first.

Now that you've heard mine, what's your winter running story? Will you be or not be seen running when it's cold? Let me know so I can look out for you. We can commiserate together...

Competition

Thank you all for humoring me with your comments on my previous post and your personal testimonials on how FAST applies to you. I really enjoyed the stories of those who strive to reach their own goals regardless of what the world outside may think of their personal achievements. This is NOT to say that there is anything wrong with competition or using the standards of others to motivate oneself (as I've been accused of saying multiple times before...), my point is merely that we should NOT use our own measures of success to judge the goals and achievements of others. Just as it is my goal to do my best and run a good time in every race I enter does not mean that the less ambitious goals (i.e. just finishing or just participating) are any less worthwhile for those who train and aim for such goals. In a similar vein, running my best and aiming for a good time would not jive for those who are elite/professional who set out to WIN every race or age group award. The way I see it, we are runners all SHARING the same race course but individually STRIVING for different goals. As long as we don't get in each other's way, I for one am perfectly fine with that. My wish is that all my fellow runners would feel the same way.

Usually though I find that is often not the case. Those who thrive on competition feel as if those who run or race for anything less than to be "the best" isn't worthy of compliments and adoration. After all, those who are at or near the top must literally spend the majority of their time, running, training, and perfecting their skill. They run faster and more in a day than what the majority of runners would run in a week! In their eyes, running fast and racing is the only way to run and the only way to have fun. They often harbor the perspective that the slower runners who run slow and "just for fun" don't deserve any more respect than those who aren't even running at all.

In contrast, those who are non-competitive or competitive only with themselves, do not feel as if racing for an award, a goal time or a personal record is the only way or even the preferable way to run a race. If you ask that crowd, they'd say that running for its own sake is its own reward. Merely completing a longer distance race or marathon is for them a worthwhile accomplishment. Some of the people who are in this category don't even enter races. they run just for fun. They run just for health. They run in memory of a loved one. They run merely because they can. They all have goals and work hard in their own personal way to achieve them. So what if their goal isn't as glamorous as some others, they deserve a fighting chance at success (as they chose to define it) just as much as the next speedy guy or gal.

it may come as a shock to some that I do not regard myself as a competitive runner. Yes, I might be relatively faster than average and find myself more often closer to the front of the pack than the middle or the back in races. Still, when it comes down to it, I compete more against the clock and with myself more than against other runners. As such, I never gauge my results on the successes or failures of others. In my own mind, what they do and what I do is completely different. If I ran a good race and get a PR, does it make it less worthwhile because somebody else ran a PR too and ran it in a faster time? Or if I ran a horrible race and yet beat all my teammates and friends, does that mean i should be proud of my time and accomplishment? I really do not feel this way. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I discovered running late and never ran competitively at any level of schooling or received any direct coaching. Maybe it's because I didn't know many runners when I started in this sport and trained for my first marathon pretty much on my own, but I've always enjoyed running as an individual pursuit. We each have our own paces, our own training, our own goals. I run hard and train hard, not because I want to be better than everyone else. I do so because I want to be the best runner I can be, regardless of how it relates to others. And nowadays, the more I run (I'm aiming for a 70+ mile week this week...which would be a new training PR for me) the more I am discovering how much I really enjoy the PROCESS of running longer and running faster for its own sake. I'm having fun just comparing myself to me and no one else. Maybe that runs counter-intuitive for many who will read this, but I for one am very content with this approach right now.

Just curious...for the runners out there, if you had to identify yourself as one or the other, do you consider a competitive or non-competitive runner...does your pace, distance, goal as it relates to others (person or peoples) affect your outlook on running? Is that notion inspiring, motivating or debilitating?

You ARE Fast Enough For You

In my day job as a pediatric endocrinologist, one of my professional responsibilities is to evaluate and manage kids with short stature. In a given week, although there are many patients that come to my office with a growth problem as their chief complaint, surprising few have a clearly defined medical condition that causes short stature. No clear etiology exists for the majority of these children. Without a clear diagnosis, it is often hard to justify treatment unless the kid is severely short. But how short is considered "too short" to warrant treatment? For many reasons, the answer isn't always so clear. What is "short" for one child in one family wouldn't be "short" for the same child in another family. Moreover, some kids who have always been labeled as "short" aren't really all that short once they finish growing. Some of them who were once considered "short" as children are now taller than me! This is precisely the reason why I often hesitate to put labels such as short (or tall) in the medical record of children who are still growing. These terms create biases that may not be clinically warranted and in many cases are subject to personal interpretation.

In thinking about running these days, I perceive speed in much the same way. Although I know in relation to me what's fast and what's slow, I really have no clue how those terms would translate to somebody else. Because speed is so relative and everyone is by default faster or slower than somebody else, I learned early on not to alter my perception of my own speed based on the performance of others. In my mind this is a pointless exercise because in the end my main competition is really only against myself and what someone else does in their training or racing really has no bearing on me.

Over the past several weeks, I've told by several newer runners that my speed in training "intimidates" them. I've been told that because I run so fast and so far they in turn feel as if their running and training is insufficient or inadequate. They feel varying degrees of shame because they often "see" me lapping them in a theoretical race when they are running and training outside on a daily basis. As you can imagine, this news comes as a huge shock to me. To learn that I've caused others to negatively view their own training is extremely upsetting to me. I can't imagine why anyone would use me as their benchmark to assess their own speed or fitness. First of all, in a global sense, I am not really all that fast - never been, probably never will be. Second of all, why does it matter anyway? Although I initially tried hard to perceive myself through the prism of another set of eyes to gain perspective, I eventually came to the conclusion that this is ludicrous to me and not something that I can ever full appreciate. The thing is, we are all unique and come to this sport from entirely different backgrounds and talent. Also, our experience and training are not at the same level. Most of the people who make these comparisons are just starting out in this sport. I'd argue that they have not yet learned what fast or slow (for them) really means. It would be like a child telling me that I'm really tall when I'm just 5'6" (or 5'7" if I cheat a little bit). From my perspective, it is wrong and often detrimental to think "Wow that guy is fast so I must be slow" or "I'm never fast enough for anything so I must suck!" Instead, what you should be thinking is "Wow, I ran 4 miles, 4 city blocks, or 4 light poles...something I couldn't do 6 months, 6 years, or 6 decades ago.." or "Wow, I'm running 30 secs/mile faster than I did when I started running...that's really cool!" If you can look inwardly and concentrate on your own journey and successes along the way instead of comparing yourself against the barometer of others you will always be fast enough for YOU! Enjoy and revel in YOUR OWN speed because just as surely as you are impressed by what you see in me, there is another who is impressed by what YOU do as well (even if that may not be so apparent right now)!

So run YOUR OWN pace, enjoy YOUR OWN race, set YOUR OWN goals and don't let me or anyone else dictate YOUR OWN awesomeness!

Rethinking the Shoe Selection Process

In the aftermath of the recent running shoe controversy (as I've documented here) I have been thinking a lot about runners and shoes. Like many others, I'm disturbed by the mounting evidence suggesting that the traditional method of matching shoe to runner based on foot type and arch height is not only wrong but probably injurious. Since the large majority of runners currently train and run in shoes that were prescribed to them at one point in time by a salesperson at a running store utilizing this conventional system of shoe selection, I wonder if there can be many who feel completely confident and safe in their shoes right now. Even if you've worn the same running shoes for many years (even decades perhaps) and suffered no ill effects, how do you know that there isn't another model/brand/type of shoe that would fit you better, enhance your running or prevent injury better than your current shoe? As consumers, faced with the plethora of misinformation, unproven theories, and annectodal evidence out in the various forms of popular media, how does one go about figuring all of this out?

Personally, I find the entire shoe selection process simply overwhelming and extremely problematic. To think I actually have a medical science background and enjoy reading and talking about shoes. So what about the newbie or the average runner who may not be as knowledgeable or share the same degree of running shoe fetish as I? Are they then doomed to the whim of the shoe salesperson at the running store and more than likely end up in a shoe that is not ideal or appropriate for them? This is so wrong on so many levels.

I think the average runner should be left out of this process entirely. I think the entire shoe selection process should be modified to involve specialists whose job it is to understand the dynamics of each specific shoe and figure out the foot and gait that it is designed to fit. Perhaps the task should involve two or three specialists similar to the way corrective lenses are prescribed for different visual abnormalities. There can be a primary doctor (likely a podiatrist) who would perform a general examination of the foot noting anatomical dimensions and structural defects that may warrant a particular type of shoe. Then there can be a second specialist who performs a gait analysis to determine your particular style of running and the functional nuances of your foot. Finally the information is passed to a salesperson who picks out the appropriate models of shoes for you to choose from. Yes, this entire process seems a bit cumbersome and potentially expensive but if a significant portion of the running community is already wearing the wrong shoes that will inevitably lead to injury, doesn't this mean that the science of shoes and feet is too complicated for the average person to understand and apply? After all, if it requires an ophthalmologist, an optometrist and an optician to help one nearsighted or farsighted individual find an appropriate set of glasses (or contacts), why should selecting appropriate running shoes for runners be any different?

Birthday Thanks and Active Recovery

Thanks to all of my bloggy friends for your congratulatory wishes and kind words over the weekend. My birthday/graduation celebration in three parts this past weekend was a smashing success. Not only did I drink, eat, and party a lot with friends and family, I also got to lead a perfectly paced 20 mile training run for NYRR and run my 35K all at the same time. Hooray! I honestly cannot remember the last time I had as much fun celebrating my birthday as I did this year! It was all so fantabulous! (Yes, I know it's a made-up word, but it's awesome...don't judge!)

As I look back and reflect on my progression as a runner, one of the immediate things that struck me was how much my running volume has changed. It is mind boggling how I ran more miles at age 32 than I did at age 30 and 31 combined and how I ran more miles at 34 than I did at 31 and 32 combined. I remember when I used to run just 3-4 times a week in the earlier days, being fully convinced that I'd surely injure myself if I were to run more. Nowadays, I run 6 days a week without a moment's hesitation and without worrying if or when an injury might pop up next. Besides the obvious gains in knowledge and experience over the years, the main difference in my opinion between where I am now and where I was in the past is learning, applying, and embracing a concept I call active recovery.

To the naive and inexperienced, the term "active recovery" seems oxymoronic. After all, how can rest and recovery, both passive events, ever be considered active? But if you understand that muscular recovery can occur even during an ongoing activity (if the activity is kept predominantly slow and does not utilize aerobic mechanisms), then it is not hard to comprehend. However, simply understanding the concept does not imply application and practice. Over the years, far too many times, I've found myself intending an active recovery run, only to forget mid-run and end up running at a general aerobic or tempo pace. The aftermath of not taking a recovery run seriously enough is that you end up feeling just as sluggish the day after the run as you did before the run. This may lead to decreased efficiency, fatigue, or worse, overtraining.

Over the past several weeks, many people I know have already begun to overtrain for their late summer/fall races. Because many runners and triathletes have addictive type A personalities that propel them to crush each and every workout, they run too fast for too long with not enough rest and easy miles and end up running themselves into the ground. I know because I used to be one of them. For about 1.5 to 2 years, I didn't know any better than to push every workout and race every tempo/interval run. This was until I met a friend who caught me limping after a particularly grueling workout one day and asked me how I was planning to run tomorrow or the next day. I told him I wasn't sure. Then he told me words that I still have never forgotten. "Run today as if the most important run is the one you will have tomorrow." What he meant by that is to never jeopardize your chance of having a good run tomorrow by running harder than necessary today. If it's a scheduled easy day, keep at easy pace so tomorrow's run can be great. If it's a hard/speedwork day, don't run harder than necessary to get the job done. That way, you won't injury yourself and can still run easy tomorrow.

Just knowing and embracing that fact has kept me off the injured list and running better and faster every year. That's what I would wish for every runner out there. That's my gift to you. Please take this message and apply wisely. Your running livelihood may very well depend on it. Run on, my friends!

The Ongoing Running Shoe Controversy and What I Do

Over the past week there has been a flurry of provocative news regarding running form and shoe selection that has caused quite a stir on the running community. First was the talk, as covered by Amby Burfoot from Runner's World, during a conference call in which Dathan Ritzenhein announced his entry into the 2010 NYC Marathon that Ritzeinhein has been experimenting with a new running form. Under the tutelage of Coach Alberto Salazar, Ritzenhein has been using shoe inserts and custom orthotics to adjust his running stance to be more forefoot, in an effort to prevent injuries, which has plagued him for the past couple of years. This news was intriguing as this was really the first instance that an elite American distance runner has openly declared an intention to switch to the techniques of forefoot running. Then, came the report of a study conducted by the military (summarized here by Gretchen Reynolds, in the New York Times Well blog), that found no correlation at all between wearing proper shoes (based on foot/arch type) and injury prevention. According to the report, "Injury rates were high among all the runners, but they were highest among the soldiers who had received shoes designed specifically for their foot types. If anything, wearing the “right” shoes for their particular foot shape increased trainees’ chances of being hurt." This study was frightening as it provided the first evidence that our current method of selecting shoes based on foot type may be erroneous. Then later that same day, my fellow blogger and evolutionary biologist friend Peter Larson posted a great review (Thanks Peter) on a recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that involved a randomized control trial assigning women runners training for a half marathon to categories of shoes based on their observed degree of pronation. The authors found that 100% of runners in the highly pronated group assigned to motion control shoe (as would be normally done by convention) got injured! Not only so, but pronated runners suffered more pain from wearing stability shoes (that were assigned to them based on their foot type) than from wearing neutral shoes. There were other gross inconsistencies in the fitting of the right shoe to the right foot type, forcing the authors to conclude that "...our current approach of prescribing in-shoe pronation control systems on the basis of foot type is overly simplistic and potentially injurious." And if that weren't shocking enough, as Peter as astutely points out, one of the co-authors of this paper is Gordon Valiant, a biomechanist who works for Nike Sports Research Laboratory, and is the same guy who helped Dathan Ritzenhein, under the direction of Alberto Salazar to change his footstrike from heel to forefoot!

So what are we, the recreational athletes, the everyday warriors, who have been wearing shoes for years prescribed by a salesperson based on our foot types into this categorization of shoes that has now been proven not only ineffective but potentially injurious, supposed to take away from all of this? Are we supposed to take off our shoes immediately and run barefoot? Do we have to try every model of shoe out there, regardless of our foot type and decide based on "feel"?

Many runners and friends have asked for my opinion on this subject and I hesitate to give one because I do not believe there is yet enough conclusive evidence to know what is the "right" thing to do. Most of the science is empirical, theoretical and/or anecdotal which isn't the same as facts. So in the absence of facts, any discussion about the advantages/disadvantages of a particular style of running or a particular shoe disintegrates into a philosophical debate which doesn't really interest me.

Having said all that though, I do have some guiding principles about running and shoes that has served me well that I can share. (I'm doing this only because many people have asked.) Again, this my personal philosophy based on my knowledge of medical science. Don't take it as a general recommendation or authoritative dogma.

1. It's always better to run in less shoe than more shoe. As one sports medicine colleague advised me - Running in more shoe than you need is like running with a cast on your feet.
2. I believe strongly that the foot a dynamic structure. What that means is that the hundreds of muscles that make up the feet is always constantly changing and adapting to the environment and forces applied to it. Your foot will change from month to month, year to year. What works perfectly this training cycle will not be appropriate for your next training cycle. By extension, there's no sense in hoarding shoes for longer than six months to a year.
3. Rotate your shoes. Being in different models stressing different bones and muscles of the feet is beneficial to overall health of the lower extremity. It will also highlight and pinpoint areas of weakness and pain that you might not be aware of just running in one set of shoes all the time.
4. Don't be afraid to experiment and try new techniques and new shoes no matter what your preferences and biases are. Just be careful and listen and hear what your feet are telling you. (As a rule, runners are not good listeners...especially to their own bodies. Trust me on this.)
5. I train in Saucony Rides, do tempo runs and long races in Saucony Kinvaras and race short distances and intervals in Saucony Fasttwitches. Just sayin...

Friday Survey #1 - A Hi, A Nod, or A Wave?

Wow, thanks for the feedback on the results of my summer running survey! It was indeed fun to hear such varying viewpoints on how/when we run in extreme hotness! I apologize to those of you who missed out. I had no idea so many of you wanted in on that. Not to worry though because I have a new survey question to ask all of you. Before I do, let me announce that since so many of us expressed interest in participating in these, I'm going to make it a regular feature every Friday on my blog! Every week, I'll have a new survey question for you all to think about, mull over (perhaps on a long run) and comment on throughout the weekend. Then, by the middle of next week, I'll tabulate the results, generate a scientific analysis and post my conclusions based on my findings. I think that would be cool, interesting, informative, and fun...for you and for me!

So here's my survey question for the week. It is actually based on something I experienced today while out on a morning run. Allow me to paint the picture for you.

It's Friday morning, 5AM. I enter the park just as the first rays of dawn hits the earth. There's a cool breeze in the air which is refreshing, a stark contrast to the dry and still heat we have had for the past week. I'm running at my recovery speed, enjoying the scenery and the fresh air. I feel generally happy because it's Friday and I've got cool plans coming up this weekend. In the near distance, I see a guy my size and height running towards me all serious and business-like. I give a slight wave with my right hand. He blows by me without acknowledgment. Okay, maybe he couldn't see me through this reflective sunglasses. I move on. A half mile later, I see an older woman running and approaching from that same side. I waited until she was within earshot of me. "Hi. Good morning!" I said succinctly. It startles her. She falls over a step onto the grass before apologetically mumbling "Oh Hi!" and running away. Oh, that was maybe too strong. The third runners comes through about a quarter of a mile later. It's a teenager this time. A lanky high school runner. Probably on the track team. I decide a nod was probably appropriate here, so I flick my head when he's within my visual field. He runs by, staring straight ahead, oblivious to my existence. By now I'm agitated, irritated, and hating life because I just can't seem to get this right. Never mind the next several runners I passed did say Hi back or wave or in general acknowledged my existence in some way. But by then the damage had already been done. I basically had an anxiety complex trying to decide how best to greet the next approaching runner everytime I saw one. I was traumatized for the rest of my run and through the entire day.

So, I ask you, my fellow runner friends, for my survey question of the week - What is the most socially acceptable way to acknowledge a fellow runner approaching from the opposite side? What is the social etiquette? Is it a quick wave, a nod or a verbal greeting of some sort? Do you do a combo of things hoping to ensure that you'll catch their attention? Do you vary your tactics based on age, race, sex, location, religion, political affiliation, or how you happen to be feeling that day? I really would like to now. [For the purposes of the survey, please declare a preference and then state your reasoning. Thanks.] I'm surely going to think about this on my seventeen mile long run tomorrow.

I thank you in advance for leaving a comment and participating in this survey. Have a fun, safe, and hopefully cool weekend!

Survey Results and My Early Morning Running Experiment

The results are in! Thanks to all who participated in my extreme summer weather running survey. Before I announce the findings of my impromptu survey, let me just say that I tried to make this exercise as scientific as possible, by giving a full point to the option that was exclusively preferred by a voter and a half point to the options that weren't exclusively preferred. I think that's only fair. So without any further ado, here's what you all recommend to do when faced with the prospect of having to run during the current heat wave:

Run Early Morning - 10 votes

Run Late/Night - 1 vote

Treadmill It - 5 votes

Interesting, huh? My unrandomized uncontrolled scientific study shows that the overwhelming majority of you would rather wake up at some god-forsaken hour (like 4 or 5am), before even when all the nocturnal animals have turned in yet, to go run than suffer the ignominy of running in place on the treadmill despite the comforts of air-conditioning and cable television. But even that option seemed way better than running outdoors late at night, which I imagined is impractical and inconvenient for most runners. Also, no one picked the option of not running, which, although not explicitly stated as an option, is probably what the rest of the non-running world would have unanimously picked. As a whole, I find the results of this study rather fascinating because it highlights how much we are willing to put up with and how dedicated we are to the sport of running...and how much we hate running on the treadmill!

So as recommended, I got up on successive days (yesterday and today) at 5AM for my first early morning runs of 2010. Now let me confess right here that I've never been much of a morning person. Yes, I am usually up early for work on most days, and generally have no problem waking up early for the occasional weekend race but getting up in the dead of night (which I consider anytime before sunrise) for training runs is not really my cup of tea. For one thing, I find that I have to rearrange my entire eating and sleeping schedule to accommodate pre-daylight running. Not only so, but I find that I'm not up and rearing to go run in the early morning like I am when I run after work in the late afternoon. Maybe it's a matter of personal preference. Maybe it's a matter of establishing a habit. I figured I could try for a week or so and see what evolves.

My Tuesday morning tempo run (11 total miles with 6 at 6:37 min/mi) went well despite it being 87F with 50% humidity at 5AM). I struggled during the latter half of the tempo miles more due to the heat than to the effort, but otherwise surprised myself that I was able to get this one done on a day that hit triple digits on the thermometer. This morning, I took it easy and ran a recovery run of 6 miles at a slow 7:31 min/mi pace. The temperature was essentially the same except that the humidity was about 20% less than yesterday, which made conditions much more favorable for running. I ended the workout with some easy 6 x 100m strides which my legs liked after all the slow stuff. The only complaint I have about both of these runs was that it took me more than one-and-half miles of warmup before my body got moving and my pace felt comfortable. My legs felt like they were entirely asleep for the whole first half of the run! What's up with that? Eventually, everyone got with the program and we were running well again, but geez, this early morning running is no joke!

I'll wait to see how the legs respond tomorrow (rest day) and the next day before making a further assessment of my early morning running experiment. Anybody out there have any pointers on this transitioning process? Any pitfalls to avoid? Stories to share? Or maybe I'm just a wimp...(No, don't answer that last question and no, this is not another survey!)

Hope everyone in blogland is staying cool during these hot summer days and running well despite the heat by whatever method you employ. I'll check in with you all this weekend after my scheduled long run of 17+ miles. Yikes! I pray it'll be cooler by then.

Hot (and Humid) Weather Running

After getting a little carried away with speed the past week, with a 5 mile race on Sunday, a fast 6x800 workout on Tuesday and an impromptu 5:30 mile in front of some high schoolers on Wednesday, I was in desperate need of some slow double digit mileage runs over the weekend to get my aerobic base back to where it needed to be. As appealing as races, tempo runs, and track work seem to be to my body right now, I am training for a marathon here, not a 5K sprint, so the speed must take a back seat to endurance and stamina.

So I did as the great minds of Pfitzinger and Daniels have suggested, and got in a fifteen mile run around three city parks on Saturday, followed by an Independence Day eleven (7+4=11, get it?) mile run in and through a former US Army installation in Whitestone Queens on Sunday morning. Although I ran slow (both at about a minute slower than marathon pace), and had great scenery to accompany each of my runs, I didn’t feel great on either of them. I was honestly questioning my sanity and whether I was cut out to be a distance runner after each run. Maybe I should just stick to the track and the short road races. Maybe it’s a sign.

Or maybe it’s the sweating heat and the suffocating humidity that’s been cooking the Northeast like it’s a flank steak over a summer barbecue. I was stupid to start my run at high noon on Saturday (had no choice really because I was at work all morning) but was smart to get up at 7:30am for my Sunday run. It made no difference however. The average temperature was still the same at 87F! I couldn’t believe it. All through my miles, all I could see were people sunbathing on a beach, skinny dipping by a pool or barbecuing by the ocean and making fun of me as I try to fight a drawn out losing battle against the sun. What an idiot, they must be thinking as they see me passing by soaking wet with dripping sweat and a look of sheer agony on my face. The worst part was, with the horrid conditions I was running under, I really couldn’t blame them for making fun of me.

That got me thinking: Is it time to think about the treadmill again? Yes, I know it sounds blasphemous, and I abhor the thought of running for miles and miles staring at inanimate objects or figures moving across a TV screen during the summer, but when not running is not an option and to save my pedestrian friends the embarrassment of watching me suffer in this oppressive heat, is that not enough justification enough to take the run indoors. Besides, if you can run better and train faster on a treadmill, isn’t that more beneficial than running hot and slow outdoors, especially if you’re training for a long distance race in cooler and milder conditions? Acclimating to weather is one thing, but constantly being forced to run slow because of unfavorable weather conditions is quite another. Maybe for speed development, it would be more advantageous to train indoor than out simply because you wouldn’t be able to attain the same training intensity in inclement weather. I don’t know. But I’m definitely having second thoughts about the treadmill. Maybe it’s time for the hamster wheel and I to get reacquainted. Maybe the previous vilification was unjustified. I may have to apologize.

But first I’d like to survey the crowd on how best to deal with running and training in extreme heat. Run in early morning (when it tends to be insanely humid)? Run in late afternoon/early evening (when it tends to still be hot)? Or succumb to the comforts of air conditioning and run indoors? What do you think? What do you do? I'm open to suggestions.

Showing Pride and Racing Confidence

Thanks for all the supportive comments and positive feedback on my 5 mile race this past weekend. Although I've been consciously downplaying the significance of my performance to myself after the fact as "just another race", subconsciously I knew this result was a big confidence booster for me because it providing some objective evidence that I was finally over my illness that thwarted my spring marathon attempt, and finally over the persistent right knee/ankle pain that had been bothered me all through May. Even though I didn't push myself to the max and was never in real danger of overextending myself, I proved to me that I was almost back to running well and racing fast again. (BTW, did you know that my last semi-decent race prior to this weekend was over two months ago, in the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in Washington DC? Every race since then has involved an injury or an illness of some kind - and in one, not even my own! It has been a long time coming!) Prior to this race, I'd been forcing myself to hold back both physically and mentally. Even though I was running consistently, I was not ready to challenge myself for fear of pain and injury. The setbacks I experienced a month or so ago really took a huge toll on me mentally. At least now I can say, for the most part, I'm mostly recovered. Almost.

Come to think of it, it's so weird how the mind works. One week I'm thinking that I'm in no condition to race. The next week comes and I'm challenging myself to race a sub-5:50 mile in front of the local high school track team. This latest show of provoked arrogance was unintended but definitely fueled by disrespect. It occurred as I was "borrowing" part of the neighborhood high school track for 800m intervals. The track team, lead by their fearless captain who must have been a high school senior, was running mile drills around the track at the outer lanes while I was running my 800s on the inner lanes. Since I was the "outsider" using the track, I purposefully slowed my pace down whenever I could hear the pack of five or six boys coming from the back towards me. Since they weren't running faster than 5:45-6:00 miles, it was up to me to slow down to allow them to pass. As they passed, I could feel their eyes penetrating my skin, and hear their remarks directed at me. At one point, I remember a kid whispering to his teammate within earshot of me "Why is this old guy running on our track? He looks kinda slow." I was shocked by their attitude but waited until after they were done with their sets to make my statement. As the entire team laid on the grass next to the track for recovery, I asked one of the guys who had a handy stopwatch, the same one who gave me eyes and called me old and slow, to time me for a 1600m run. He looked puzzled but obliged. I then went to work. I laced up my shoes and proceeded to bust out a 1600 m run at 5:30 pace in front of the entire high school track team. After I was done, I asked for my time, thanked him for timing me, and walked away from the stunned crowd without saying a word. Needless to say, there were no whispers, no jokes, no sounds...just eyes staring at my back because I just ran a mile faster than most of them can and more importantly, faster than any of them ever imagined I can!

Not bad for an old guy who ain't yet too old to steal the show once in a while. Right?

Lessons from The Road (in San Diego)

Thanks to all those who complimented my last post and left supportive comments. While it may have served as motivation for some and inspiration for others, my intention in writing it was strictly to serve as a reminder to myself not to allow my passion for perpetual improvement in my athletic endeavors blind me from the practical limitations of my body and the appreciation of what I've already accomplished in this recreational sport of running. It is a trap that I fall into often, especially when the ordinary seems so mundane and the drive for excellence is ever present. However, it is important for me, as well as others who take their training and racing as seriously as I do, to recognize that the journey to becoming a better runner is every bit as important as the destination. In other words, no matter what, where, and when our goals may be, we're all traveling the same roads in the same general direction so it behooves us to understand and appreciate all the qualities that make us "common" instead of constantly focusing on individual attributes that make us not.

Speaking of destinations and traveling, I myself just returned from a six day expedition to San Diego less than 24 hours ago. (Thus explaining my brief absence from the interwebs, sorry!) Although on paper this trip was arranged specifically around a medical conference for which my attendance was requested, practically speaking, I saw this interlude from the daily grind more as an excuse to explore a new city on foot while replenishing my vitamin D stores (via direct sunlight of course) than as an opportunity for education and networking. Don't get me wrong. I did attend conference for several hours every day and got to meet many old friends and colleagues in my specialty that are often too busy, as I am, to gather and socialize after work. All I'm saying is that I managed to run in excess of 50 miles during my brief stay in town and came back with a bigger tan than all the other attendees at this conference. I plan to give a summary of my runs, (including maps and pictures) around town in a future post so you can see where exactly I ran and where you might run too if you happen to visit the city on a future date. Suffice it to say that San Diego, much to my suprise, is a conglomeration of massive hills and splendid coasts. As long as you can manage the former and enjoy the latter, you will absolutely love running everywhere while you're in town.

Aside from attending conference and running, I also got to meet friends and hear some incredible stories that helped me truly understand and appreciate what's really important in life. From a tale of a friend in her early 30s who found an incidental tumor in her hip requiring surgical excision and radiation resulting in loss of mobility in her left leg to a friend who was reuniting with her mother after 20+ years apart. From a peer who lost her mother to pancreatic cancer less than six months after her own baby was born to another who confessed to me to having a eating disorder since a very early age. I was so enchanted and enriched by all of the stories that I heard while on this trip that I couldn't help but feel extremely blessed to be healthy and thought about them on all of my runs this past week. Because of these lessons, I made sure to slow down my touristy runs and take pictures of all the interesting places that I ran around. (Yes, I will share them in a later post!) I also realized that life is short; the athletic life shorter still and so we must make every opportunity to make every second count, especially when we are young and had experienced success early. The messages to me were clear: Dare to run slow and take inventory of the scenery. When you run, do not look only forward but take the time to find the magic off to the side as well. Finally, do not forget to kiss your loved ones and tell them you love them everyday and then some.

In the end, I think these lessons from the road were way more important than any esoteric information that I could have picked up just sitting there at conference. Just don't tell anyone in charge of me or my patients, who perceives my dark tan as evidence that I played hookie all weekend long! If only they knew. If only they knew.

The Plight Of The “Ordinary” Athlete

As a pediatrician who specializes in hormonal disorders, I spend a large amount of my time evaluating and treating kids who bodily proportions fall outside the normal range Whether they are too tall, too short, too fat or too small, these “extraordinary” children and their parents often come to me asking if they can be made “ordinary” again. In some cases, it is an easy fix, as when the abnormal body type is caused by an easily identifiable hormone deficiency or excess. In other cases, the treatment is much more difficult, as when a cause cannot be identified. Whatever the problem may be though, it often strikes me that to those who are affected, the desire to be normal and average is so powerful yet universal that it’s impossible for those who are normal and unaffected to fully understand and appreciate their plight. Can we really know what it’s like to live life as a 7 feet woman or a 4’ 5” man? Do we have the capacity to understand if 20 pounds underweight is as good, better, or worse health-wise than being 20 pounds over? Maybe it really doesn’t matter, or maybe it does, who’s to know? Who’s to judge? I certainly am not, which is why I often do my best to help patients achieve their personal definition of normalcy, as long as it does not have undue consequences for their present or future health.

In running as in all forms of recreational athletics though the problem is exactly the opposite. The desire here almost universally is to be the fastest, the strongest, and the best. In this context, “just average” would be seen as repulsive, unattractive, and demeaning. For many runners, especially those who are elite, professional, ultra- competitive or engage in a similar mindset, the desire to be “extraordinary” or “special” and to be admired by their peers as such, can be so intoxicating and overwhelming that it often leads to extremely destructive behavior patterns. These recreational athletes train constantly, ignore pain, and set goals that are both challenging and also potentially dangerous. Unfortunately, for those who are addicted to such behavior, they lack insight to understand the consequences of their actions. They believe (erroneously and sometimes subconsciously) that the rules don’t apply to them. They believe they are “special” and/or “invincible”, sent by a higher being to motivate and inspire other runners in their quest for perfection, whatever they may be. They adopt this “me against the world” mentality that drives them to run farther or faster and to test the limits of physical exertion almost on a daily basis. Eventually, they will train so hard and push the envelope so much that one of two things will happen. They will either sustain a major injury which will require extensive recovery time away or they will suffer the consequence of diminishing returns, lose passion in the sport and quit. Either way, at that point, and only at that point will they will understand and fully appreciate the limits and frailty of the human body and know that they are just as special as everyone else who they pass on the roads, no better, no worse.

I know this because I used to be one of them. I used to think that I can get faster every day. I can run long whenever I want and the sky is the limit for me. But through the wisdom of personal experience and knowledge gained through others who had to go through a similar process, I realized now that I was naive to believe that about myself. I am not special. I am not fast. I am not sent to break records and do things that others only thought possible. Yet I still do what I can, I still have goals, I still train hard, and through that inspire and motivate other friends and family who see a little part of me in them. At the same time, I do my best to teach newer runners not to buy into their own hype and come to terms with the limitations of their bodies even as they are striving hard to achieve their PRs and personal goals. I admit, it doesn’t work well all the time, or even most of the time. But for the sake of these runners, I try anyway. I must.

I’m coming to the realization that the term “ordinary” does not have to sound like a bad four letter word. Maybe that should be the new goal for all of us. Maybe that is the new path to success, in running, in medicine, and in life.

Why I Did What I did

After spending the past couple of days reconstructing and analyzing the events of the Japan Day debacle (there are still gaps in the story where my memory still fails me), I realize that the main reason why I raced so hard and ran so fast at the start wasn’t really about the P.R. After all, I’ve been in plenty of similar situations before, where I started a race planning for or anticipating a P.R., yet have never lost control of my speed to the point where I’m threatening to pass out. So why was my Sunday race any different? Well, the truth is that beyond the time, beyond the PR, what I wanted the most of out that race was a personal breakthrough performance.

Honestly, it has been way too long since I’ve run a “good” race. It didn’t happen in Brooklyn (because I had to help a friend). It didn’t happen in Jersey (because I was sick and it was too hot). It didn’t happen in Ragnar NY (since my pace was far below what I had anticipated) and it didn’t quite happen in the Flushing 13.1 either (because well, I got lost!). In fact, the last time I finished a race in a somewhat respectable time was way back in March, when I ran the Blues, Salsa & Shamrock 5K and got a PR! That’s a long time ago! In between these races, my training has been a never-ending revolving door of sickness and injuries, false starts and DNS-es. So yes, it is readily apparent to me that my overwhelming passion to PR this race as a sign of my official comeback may have clouded my judgment and made me throw caution to the wind. But then again, I’ve never passed out in a race before. How could I have known that I could get in so much trouble with just a 4 mile race?

Yes, I do consider myself fortunate to have survived the debacle with barely a scratch on my body. However, I am still disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish the race with not even a mile left to go. I’m also disappointed that I allowed my personal pride to dominate and take my running to a risky and dangerous place. With yet another failed run, my summer of fruitless racing continues. My confidence in running has not been the same since the spring ended. I wonder if and when my next opportunity for a comeback race will be. I wonder if I’ll be ready. I wonder when I’ll be able to find myself in running and racing again. These are the questions I have that still remain unanswered. I hope I can find answers to them soon!

Summertime - Sweating The Small Stuff

It's getting a little ridiculous. Can someone please turn down the outdoor furnace...please?

I've barely had time to get over the disappointment of missing a spring marathon before I'm blasted with the heat and humidity that is often associated with mid July in the city this past week. Seriously, what is up with that? It's barely the first week of June and my colleagues already feel as if I've had enough sun to pass as a Hispanic!

But aside from the ever climbing temperatures and the chariot of fire climbing ever higher into the sky, there is another way I can tell that summertime is indeed upon us. Interesting, this one does not involve the weather or even taking a look outside. Instead, I can tell that summer is squarely upon us by the e-mails, phone calls and twitter messages I receive asking for training plans, coaching advice, and general guidance for running a fall goal marathon. It is quite funny that even though I haven't yet begun to think about my own training for Chicago this fall, I've already been ironing out the details and putting the finishing touches on training plans for the same marathon for a few of my friends. Obviously, we have different goals (as my clientele, if I can them that, consist solely of those who have either never run a marathon or have just done one or two and looking to improve...in other words, I'm not dealing with any veterans or elite runners here!) But still, it is a challenge to schedule workouts and build a plan in preparation for a marathon that I know so little about. To circumvent this predicament, I've given out only 4 week assignments and asked them to return for the rest. This will give me some time to research the course, devise an appropriate training strategy and build my own plan before constructing one for others. I will also use this time to gauge their individual and personal commitment to marathon training. If they have problems sticking to a 4 week 4-5 runs/week basic regimen, How would they fare for 12 more weeks with more mileage and higher intensity?

My point in all of this is to relate how insanely crazy it is that so many runners are already planning for the fall when summertime, as much as it pains me to say, has barely begun. There is something to be said to living in and enjoying the moment, which I'm trying to do by taking a short interlude from marathon training and instead focusing on "Summer of Speed". There will be ample time afterwards to adequately plan, train and prepare for a marathon that is three to four months away. For if there's one thing that my traumatic misadventures this spring has taught me, it is that the training itself cannot merely serve as a means to an end. Rather, we as runners must enjoy and learn to appreciate the training as part of running, because in us, the process of transformation is just as important as the final result. We ought to never lose sight of that.

Thanks, Apologies, and Saying No to Buffalo

My, oh my, has it been a week already?!

Thanks to all of you for all your encouragement, comments and compliments on my performance in the Brooklyn Half. In many many ways, it wasn't the race that D and I expected and from now on, I will always remember that experience every time I run by those hills in Prospect Park. For me at least, Brooklyn will always serve as a poignant reminder that there's no guarantees in racing, no matter how much you plan and how prepared you think you might be prior to race day.

I'd also like to apologize for my absence from the blogosphere the past week. I've been dealing with a lot of personal and professional issues of late and it's been taking a toll on my running and my blogging. Sometimes, things in the real world just doesn't pan out as well as we'd like and we all need time to think things through, recharge our batteries and come up with an appropriate action plan.

Towards that end, I finally decided to skip out on running the Buffalo Marathon. If you know me, then you know that was a somewhat painful decision to make. It marks the first time I've not run a marathon that I registered for. (I'm not counting Jersey earlier this month because I was sick and at least suffered through the half in that one.) It will also be the first time that I went through a whole 16-week marathon training cycle and yet not run a goal marathon. I think I could have probably suffered through one if I wanted to. But after talking to Flyers and friends and objectively assessing my current level of fitness, I realized that to NOT run a marathon right now is the best decision for me. Why? Well, for starters, my stamina and endurance took a big dip after my week long illness at the beginning of the month and after a few weeks it still hasn't returned to the level I thought it would be. It was a bit of a physical struggle to run 1:30 in Brooklyn a week ago so practically speaking, a sub-3 wasn't likely to happen. This means that I'd just be running the marathon just for fun, and not for a time. This would be fine, except that my right knees/ankles/feet are not 100% right now and I wouldn't be enjoying running if my entire right lower extremity is screaming at me to stop.

Furthermore, Chicago Marathon training starts in two weeks (Yikes!), which means I would have no time for recovery if I were to run a marathon this weekend. So for everyone who wanted me to run, I'd have to say Thanks, but no thanks. I'm going to save my body for marathon #10 on 10/10/10. (Besides, it has a nice ring to it doesn't it?)

So for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to ease off the miles a bit and focus on the shorter stuff. I have a 4M race this coming weekend that I'm itching to PR in (my previous 4M PR is more than a year and half old!) and a 5M race at the end of the June to keep me motivated. I also got a brand new pair of the Saucony Kinvaras that are light, fast, and yet very comfortable to run in. They are my new loves this summer! I've been hitting the track pretty regularly with them in hopes that my 400s and 800s will translate to some better race times in the short distances. After focusing on long runs and long tempo work for so long, I've forgotten how much fun it is to run fast again! Here's to rediscovering some of that racing magic from yesteryear! Summer of Speed version 2010 commence!

Happy Memorial Day to all of you out there! It's a hot one today so be careful and hydrate extra if you're running, biking or doing any type of outdoor activity. Oh, and a little sunscreen on all of the exposed areas wouldn't hurt either!

The Backup Plan

Sometime last week when I was in the depths of sickness and losing all reasonable hope of running the New Jersey Marathon, I began contacting friends and making arrangements to run the Buffalo Marathon at the end of May. At the time this seemed like a reasonable thing to do given the fact that I had physically trained and was mentally prepared to run a marathon before I got really sick. Conventional wisdom suggested that if I gave myself a week of full recovery, two full weeks of training and a final week to taper, I should be ready to tackle a marathon.

Unfortunately though, I underestimated the full impact this superbug would have on my physical conditioning and endurance. I'm telling you, people, it's been about a week since I've recovered fully from my illness but my speed and endurance are no where to be found. Just this weekend, I went on a slow 15 mile jog around town, and by the time I got to mile 14 or 15, I was in such bad shape - miserable, exhausted, and tachycardic. I couldn't imagine having to push through another 10, 11, or 12 more miles. This worried me considerably because I didn't expect myself to struggle so mightily before the heavy duty long mileage miles. Not only so, but I just felt "out of it", almost if my physical body was inhabited by someone else, someone who I don't recognize and who's not used to running.

So now, I'm back to square one, not knowing if I should still drag this body to Buffalo on Memorial Weekend, or surrender to the inevitable and rest and recover for shorter summer races instead. On the one hand, I know I should run one, if not for time (which at this point is most likely the case) then to have practice running the distance and to have closure on my spring training cycle. On the other hand though, I know I still have some injury concerns in my knees and feet and know that rest/recovery may be the best use of my time now before I crank up the mileage again to prepare for Chicago on 10.10.10. Yet, I still feel as if I have unfinished business with the spring season and should run a marathon just to welcome summer into my life. What to do, what to do?

Truth be told that I've been thinking about this all weekend and still can't come up with an adequate solution or a list of reasons FOR/AGAINST running another marathon this spring. I think this will turn out to be another race week decision for me. My plan for the rest of this month is to run Ragnar Relay this coming weekend (More details to come), than do a 20+ miler a day or two later as a dress rehearsal. If the mileage seems comfortable to me, I will proceed with the marathon plan. If not, I will not chance injury and stay home instead. I suspect this week and the next will go a long way to determining whether the backup plan is feasible or not. I hope I am ready.

Back Among The Living (Well Sorta...)

First of all, thank you all for your support, encouragement, and condolences during this period of horrible sickness and great (relative) sadness in my running life. Admittedly, I didn't know so many people knew or even cared that I was running NJM. Now that I know, it makes me even sadder that I won't be able to at least try to fulfill the expectations that many of you had for me for this goal race. It's an absolute bummer that not only have I failed myself this week, I failed you all as well :( But before I allow this post degrade into a diatribe of self-pity and despair, just know that I'm absolutely positive that the decision to withdraw was absolutely the right one for me (you'll see why in a little bit) and I will be throwing my hat back into the ring a little sooner than some of you may think. All I need is a little bit of time both to recover and to plot my revenge. More on that in a future post.

As for my physical self, I'm happy to report that for the first time yesterday, I was back among the living. I was able to stay out of bed for the whole day, had no fever or chills for 24 hours, and went back to work to take care of the really sick in my normal capacity. Yay for me! This last task for me for key because I actually got to see two new, challenging and interesting patients in my hospital clinic session yesterday. One was a college student with an unusual thyroid mass (a particular interest of mine) that no previous doctor that had seen her knew what it was or what to do with, and the other was a previously "heavy-set" teenager who took up cross-country over the winter, became "sort-a" (her words) vegetarian, lost 25 pounds as well as her periods. I was so fascinated by the running story of the latter patient that I think I might have spent more time talking about that then about the family's primary concern, which is that she hasn't had a period in 9 months! That's okay though, she's coming back to see me again in a couple of weeks with lab results and a ultrasound report. Hopefully by then I'll figure out a good treatment plan for her because my initial instinct to recommend cutting out running and resuming old dietary habits won't sit well with her, her parents or me! There's gotta be a better solution! (Maybe I'll devote a future post to elicit suggestions and comments opinions so you all can be virtual doctors to help improve her care!)

Despite my triumphant return to the workforce, I knew that I couldn't officially consider myself "back among the living" until I was back to where I am personally most comfortable - exploring the park trails next to the lake and the soccer fields and the sunbathers with a sense of swiftness generated by the power of my own two feet. So despite a long day of work and the setting sun fading towards the horizon, I quickly changed after coming home and set off for my first run of the week. (If you didn't catch that last phrase, go ahead and re-read again.)

Yes, it had been five days since my last run. Yes, I expected my body and my legs to be rusty. What I didn't expect though was the body part that would have the most difficulty on this run was MY LUNGS. Seriously, guys and girls. For the first two or three miles, I felt like I couldn't take fast enough or deep enough breaths to sustain anything faster than 8 min/mi pace. I was breathing so hard and running so slowly that I was sweaty and exhausted just trying to calm down my breathing after two miles. I knew I probably suffered a combo of bronchitis/viral pneumonia as a component of my flu-like illness but still, having to take two breaths for every stride felt completely ridiculous to me. I felt sorry for the sunbathers and the soccer players who had the misfortune of watching me curse my body as I labor-breathed around the park. I seriously wanted to quit, go home, climb back into bed and chalk up running as an experiment for the younger kids. Luckily, I remembered my cross-country patient from earlier in the day, you guys and this unfinished business I have with a certain marathon time goal and forced myself to continue running. My breathing eventually got easier, my legs got looser and by the end of my six miler, my average pace for the run resembled a slow recovery pace from months prior instead of a disgrace to my running log. Thank goodness for that.

I am also thankful that my marathon death was declared two days ago because there is no imaginable way for me to ask this zombie of a former marathon body that couldn't even suck up for 6 at a recovery pace to walk much less run for 26.2. And I'm a guy with a pretty wild imagination! Yeah, not gonna happen. That is exactly why I know, even though I've never done it before, the decision to defer this time around was the right one for me. Sometimes you just gotta know when to hold and when to fold, ya know.

Anyway, to all those who are racing NJM (or elsewhere), have fun, be safe, and crush a PR while you're at it for me, won't ya? To everyone else, have an awesome weekend and thanks again for all of your kind words this past week!

This running and blogging community ROCKS! Just sayin'!