Tag Archives: electrolytes

13 Weeks

27 Saturday Jun 2015

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BB KickBeginning this past week, I have shifted gears from speed to distance.  Speed being a relative term, my focus on interval training paid off in the 2015 Bolder Boulder as I ran a personal best.  I even displayed a strong kick in Folsom Stadium, pictured here.  I feel this was my best success at improving speed since I got back into road races six years ago.  That said, I’ve dropped to 28th place on the Shoes & Brews 800 meter beer board.  So it’s time to give up on speed and turn my focus to miles.  This plan will prepare me for my next scheduled race – the Boulder Marathon in September.

I’ve established a 13 week mileage plan that begins with 60 miles per week and reaches 100 miles before tapering back down to 60.  I hit my first 60 mile target today with a 12 mile run on Betasso Trail.  This is a good plan considering that I am starting out already in really good shape.  And because running extensive distance like this is a proven method to prepare for a marathon.  Running 26.2 miles after training this arduously will be almost a non-event.  There will be no nervousness at the starting line after completing this training plan.

If there’s any weakness to this plan, it’s that I’ve never run more than 70 miles in a single week – in my life.  And I find that the wheels tend to start falling off if I run any further than 45 miles in a single week.  Honestly, 35 miles is my sweet spot.  The challenge then will be avoiding injury. I won’t hesitate to scale back the miles given sufficient pain. I’m no hero. And I’m not stupid. Can’t run if I can’t run. But I’m actually quite interested in my ability to manage these training challenges. I’ve learned tons in terms of stretching and exercises to mitigate muscle overuse injuries. Ironically, I learned much of this from my cancer physical therapy last year. My Physical Therapist, Jennifer Davia, taught me the importance of adductor and abductor exercises to keep the muscles in balance that connect the hip to the knee.  The focus of that physical therapy was to be on pelvic floor recovery, but I leveraged Jennifer’s knowledge of running injuries and have performed these routines since last summer with good results.

My next concern is with recovery.  Even if healthy, will I have the energy to run the next day?  This week, the answer has been no.  It’s possible I’m not acclimated to the heat.  Colorado went from a cold spring of 70° days to 90° days literally overnight.  I haven’t been timing myself but I’ve been dragging with these back-to-back, 8 mile runs.  I expect to have trouble recovering after my longer weekend runs but am a bit surprised I can’t recover better after 8 milers.  Hoping it’s the heat.  I should probably start to consider supplements.  I do take supplements that focus on electrolytes (sodium, potassium and magnesium) but have never experimented much with muscle-related supplements.  Not sure I want to but might have to keep an open mind.

My final concern regards having the time for this.  I don’t generally run every day because, between work and personal obligations, who has the time?  I have to commute to the Denver Tech Center twice next week, so I’ll need to adapt for that.  I’m disciplined enough to average 5 days per week, but there are even times I’m too busy to run on the weekend.  I’ve always made concerted efforts to dedicate myself when training for marathons.  Running 26 miles is just too painful unprepared.  I do have some hiking and backpacking planned for this summer.  I’ll count mountain hiking miles as running miles.  I think that’s fair since I typically find myself pushing my aerobic threshold as hard hiking as I do running.

My training plan consists of two week segments.  The first two weeks will target 60 miles per week.  Then 70, then 80, 90 and finally 100.  That will consume 10 full weeks.  Then I taper down to 80, then 60, and then whatever I decide to run the week of the marathon for a total of 13 weeks since signing up last weekend.  I’ll keep my daily runs at 8 miles for 4 weeks, and then only add 2 miles per week to 10, then 1 mile to 11 and another mile to 12.  I add the bulk of the distance increases to my weekend runs.  I won’t have time to run longer during the week.  And I strongly believe in the need to work myself up to 20 mile runs to condition my body for 26 miles.  This might also play into my ability to avoid injury by keeping my daily runs manageable.  I believe I have the experience to pull this off.  But “it’s not the years darling, it’s the miles.”

Snake Oil

30 Sunday Jun 2013

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hammer-nutrition-logoI teased Keith after a run the other day that his breakfast waffle gave him an advantage over me on our return.  Later his wife Susan challenged me on my seemingly cavalier nutritional preparedness on runs – particularly in races.  I don’t deny some of my poor performances are due to nutritional imbalances.  I’m not sure why I haven’t focused on this more.  Actually I have at times but I have yet to develop any consistency or discipline with it.  I intend to give it more focus going forward.  Like the focus I gave to developing speed this spring, now is the time to turn my attention to hydration, supplements and electrolytes.

Part of my resistance to this stems from my fundamental belief that people should simply eat real food.  Vitamins should not be necessary if one eats a balanced diet.  I do buy vitamins occasionally but I never take them.  I throw them away a few years after their expiration date.  Yet I do understand vitamins might have a place in the diet depending on other medical or nutritional factors.  But it’s not something I have any real knowledge in.  Then another reason I don’t go in for supplements is that I can’t help but get the feeling they are modern day snake oil.  I understand approximately half of all Americans take vitamins or supplements, and that it’s a $27B industry.  Still, you have to admit some of the advertising is over the top.

Regardless, I’m committing to a supplements plan.  I like plans in general and it’s now time to focus on running nutrition.  To keep it simple, I have selected Hammer Nutrition for all my products.  I forget where I read this, but I was drawn to their web site for their electrolyte products.  I ordered their Endurolytes which come in a pill form factor.  They sent me samples of all their products along with significant reading material.  This was smart marketing.

Whenever I buy stuff like this online, I’m reminded of ordering kitschy toys with saved up bubble gum wrappers as a kid.  I’m going to try and take this seriously though and track my performance improvement.  My primary objective is to be able to avoid muscle cramps in marathons and other long events.  I actually find – weather depending – that I can run an entire half marathon without taking any drink or fuels at the aid stations and not suffer any negative effects on performance.  There is something though about running over two hours where my body becomes depleted and replenishment is necessary to avoid bonking.

Hammer makes a point that it is unwise to try to replenish water and electrolytes at the rate they are depleted.  They suggest the body can only absorb new fuel at about 30% of the rate it burns energy.  I’m going to trust them and follow their plan.  I don’t have very many events to test this but I started yesterday on their products as part of my training run.  Felt good.  If this focus on nutrition goes well for me, maybe I’ll start stretching for my next plan.

Muscle Cramps

26 Friday Oct 2012

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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.