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Muscle Cramps

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Boulder Marathon, compression socks, Denver Marathon, electrolytes, Gatorade, sports nutrition

Based on my experience cramping in the Denver Marathon – where I felt like Rambo being electrocuted against a bed frame of steel mattress coils – my biggest concern in the Boulder Marathon was avoiding cramps.  Initially I had one strategy, I planned to drink as much electrolytes as possible at the aid stations.  The Boulder Marathon course has 10 aid stations and because you run by some of them twice, they are spaced about every two miles.  Some are closer as you pass the 10 aid stations 16 times.

They were all stocked with Gatorade Endurance Formula along with water.  Several had GU Gels and bananas and oranges.  I drank the Gatorade electrolytes at nearly every aid station.  I didn’t begin skipping any until after 13 miles.  I figure I drank a total of 1000 grams of sodium from this during the event.  The plan I blogged about earlier was to drink twice that, but I would have needed to stop at each aid station to swallow so much liquid.  And it’s too much liquid.  I also ate two gel packs – which I never do because they suck.  These weren’t bad though.  They were vanilla bean flavored.  And of course I washed them down immediately with water.  I also had a few plain waters.

I would say this plan was successful in that I didn’t cramp, except it wasn’t the most controlled scientific experiment because I also wore compression socks.  I can’t say for certain that compression socks do anything positive per claims, but I can tell you they feel good.  Or at least my calves feel good wearing them.  I’m a fan.  In the Denver Marathon, I also suffered a cramp in my hamstring at mile 22.  I never felt a twinge of cramping in my hamstring Sunday, and of course the socks stopped below my knee.  So it’s plausible the electrolytes contributed in this case.

Coincidentally, I found myself chatting with a high school boy running his first marathon somewhere during the final 10K.  I noticed him pass by me a bit earlier but now he was stopping at regular intervals to stretch.  He told me his legs were cramping.  I advised him to drink a couple of cups of Gatorade at the aid stations – which I saw him do at the next one.  I don’t know but hopefully this helped him.  In our discussion, he was actually well versed in runner’s nutrition and the need for sodium.

My feet did cramp a few hours later as I was getting a massage, but I was in the right place for that to be properly managed.  My arches did not cramp during the middle of the night, so I consider the massage successful.  As of Monday, I had one nagging knot on the inside of the top of my left leg, but most of the pain was gone by Tuesday.  I would have run Tuesday but didn’t have time so I finally ran for the first time on Wednesday in the cold rain that preceded the snow.  Actually pretty decent running weather and I got in 8 miles.  Felt great.

There’s a part of me that is still disappointed I ran 10 minutes slower than four weeks earlier in the Denver Marathon.  But I accomplished some of my goals.  I avoided cramps.  My core felt stronger and for a longer period.  Boulder was a much tougher course than Denver.  Denver is largely flat but Boulder is nonstop rolling hills.  Based on how weak my pace is the final 10K of marathons, I clearly have more to learn.  I know that I’ve yet to train properly for a marathon.  I don’t put in enough miles.  But I sort of suspect nutrition is still a big component of my 4th quarter decline in pace.  I don’t have any commitments yet but I expect to sign up for the Austin Marathon in February.  That will be my next test.

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Beer Run

20 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Tags

compression socks

The Boulder Marathon is just a 26.2 mile beer run.  Not only do they serve free beer afterward, they give you this beer pint glass along with the swag bag they gift you with your race packet.  Nice.  This adds to my collection of two other pint glasses from having run their spring half marathons the last two years.

If I understand correctly, you should be able to follow my pace at this site to get real time results at the half marathon point and 20 mile mark.  I really like how the Denver and Austin Marathons allow you to sign up for a messaging service that will text splits to your friends, but then that cost $5 and this is free.  The run kicks off at 7am Sunday so I expect to hit the half way point sometime around 8:45am and to cross the 20 mile mark sometime between 9:45am and Monday.

My daily run on the LoBo Trail takes me nearby this race course.  The trees are gorgeous with their fall colors.  Should make for some really good photos.  I’m a bit concerned in that I intend to wear knee-high compression socks and they might make me look like a school girl.  I’ll just have to crop out my legs from the pictures before posting them online.  I picked up a pair using the $10 coupon from my swag bag and wore them yesterday.  They really did make my legs feel better.  This was my first decent run since catching a cold.  My hope is that the compression socks will help keep my calves from cramping.  I’ll followup in my post run blog on how they work out.

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