Injury Recovery

First, I stumbled upon an excellent time-lapse video taken from the International Space Station that's absolutely mesmerizing and is well worth the view. We truly are blessed to live on such a dramatic and beautiful planet!
Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Second, a brief update to my running and training status, as I'm about six weeks from the Houston Marathon. Approximately two weeks ago while running an intended twenty miler with the Kenyan Way training group I unfortunately felt an unexpected and disconcerting growing pain in the right lower leg, specifically the outer section of the tibia.  After walking a bit hoping for the discomfort to be relieved the Coach kindly offered an opportunity to join him in a car ride back to base.

Sean kindly provided some typically sound advice - until I got a better handle on my injury I should maintain my fitness by non-impact pool running.  With only one quickly aborted trial run as an exception (the start of the aptly named Turkey Trot) I've since followed his advice, as in my prior incidence two years ago with a minor tibial stress fracture pool running proved very effective at maintaining my running-specific fitness, while helping me avoid the emotional let-down that otherwise accompanies a dramatic reduction in training. While many consider pool running to be abjectly boring, I've not found it to be the case provided I do so in at the local 24-Hour Fitness Center's bright and cheery pool.

From my prior interactions with a physician I'd learned that unfortunately X-Rays are typically non-definitive in the early stages of a stress fracture, so I've decided in caution to treat my condition as such.  While I'm encouraged to see continual evidence of healing, I've reconciled myself that if I'm ultimately unable to run the full or half marathon in January that will be a bit disappointing but fine. I will gradually enlarge my range of cross-training activities, next adding the bike to my fitness regimen, and before I know it I'll be back at 100% running ready fitness - long before the forthcoming Texas Independence Relay which I truly enjoy each year.

My advice if you're facing an injury prior to a race? Read Julie's great post and related advice then count your many blessings.

Newton's Latest MV2 Shoes have Arrived!

Briefly lamenting yesterday's passage of my well worn (750+ miles) and multiple P.R. Newton stability trainers I was ecstatic to receive from UPS today my recently ordered new pair of their latest product, the Newton MV2!

I'm truly excited to run in Newton's new MV2 as they are engineered to be the lightest and most efficient Natural Running shoe using their second-generation Action/Reaction Technology. These shoes have a flat profile (i.e. zero heel-to-toe drop) that encourages a quick high cadence gait. This, combined with their low weight translates to increased speed.

Unlike my prior shoes these are truly neutral, which I am comfortable with since I've gradually transitioned through wearing other low-profile neutral shoes during the past two years. A gradual transition to any minimalist shoe is essential to allow the feet and calves to strengthen, and to perfect the high cadence gait with slight forward lean from the ankles to minimize the likelihood of regressing to an injurious over-striding heel striking running form.

Embedded below are four YouTube videos in which Newton's co-founder and CTO Danny Abshire: Discusses new shoe's new technology; Talks about their initial fit (buy a half-size larger); Discusses adaptation to these shoes; and Demonstrates some helpful form drills (along which I recommend his natural running book):









Once I've had some time to transition I'll put plenty of miles on these shoes. At that point I'll follow-up with my detailed review. Meanwhile, feel free to try-out these shoes at your specialty running store, and let me know what you think!

Christopher McDougall on Running Form

As a huge fan of Christopher McDougall's great book "Born to Run" I was intrigued to see his latest New York Times article on running form, running injuries, shoes, and why running magazines give "A's" to all shoes. See his excellent article at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html, then check-out this video where McDougall demonstrates a simple exercise that helps make all of us better runners:



Shedding more light on McDougall's interesting perspectives here's another video, this one from a TED conference:


Incidentally, I had fun hosting Runners Round Table episode 119 tonight, where a great group of experienced marathoners shared their Fall 2011 race experiences, thoughts, and lessons learned. You can download it from iTunes. We encourage much wider participation; if interested join the RRT Google!Group, then share your ideas with other runners!

Cool Weather Running!; Nutritional Fueling Experiment with chia seeds

In my last blog post I lamented my calf strain in the context of missing-out on my long-anticipated Chicago Marathon. Fortunately, beginning roughly one week afterward I was able to successfully begin a gradual increase in both my running mileage and intensity. While for the past two weeks I was convinced that I was cured, this was confirmed on Saturday with an excellent 17 mile Kenyan Way training run.

With wonderfully cool temperatures in the upper 40's I laced-up my Newton shoes, then met my friend Alison in the pre-dawn for our easy 1.5 mile warm-up. We then joined the KW group and were delighted to negative split and maintain a steady and strong pace (one of many benefits of running with a good group and training partner) with splits: 8:21, 8:33, 8:25, 7:53, 7:45, 7:44, 7:49, 7:31, 7:54, 7:41, 7:48, 7:56, 8:05, 7:50, 7:45, 7:40, 7:50, and 7:30.

With continued cool weather in the offing through the Houston Marathon I'm excited to be returning again to marathon training, especially as I'm looking forward to squeezing-in some fun 5 and 10K races as fitness benchmarks along the way.

Meanwhile, on a Runners Roundtable a few months ago we were lucky to have with us sports nutritionist Nancy Clark. While there was no reference made to chia seeds' nutritional value, I have been intrigued since reading about them in Christopher McDougall's great book Born to Run, and learning that the Mayan and Aztec highly valued these seeds since it gave their warriors great endurance, just as the modern-day runners of the Mexican Tarahumara tribe demonstrates by routinely running far in excess of 100 miles at a time!

Nancy had rightly encouraged each runner to individually experiment with various nutritional strategies during their training runs - versus the race (!) - so, over the past week I have tried these seeds in an ongoing experiment. In lieu of the Gu or Roctane, which I normally take every four miles for runs longer than 10 miles, on Saturday I instead consumed chia seeds. Specifically, I took one tablespoon of dry seeds every ~6 miles along with plenty of Gatorade, mixing both in my mouth then swallowing. Largely flavorless, chia seeds contains protein which helps to stabilize blood sugar better than Gatorade and/or Gu alone, are rich in vital Omega-3's, and since with fluids they swell in the stomach they slow digestion and provide a feeling of satiety. While my experiments continue (I'll try them again at the forthcoming weeks' 19 and 21 mile training runs), thus far I'm a convert!

CALF = DNF; Chicago Marathon 2011 Race Result

Twenty one successful Marathons, and then Chicago, 2011 - my first DNF! It was disappointing, as I had four very good months of training to prepare. Then, in Houston on my final semi-long training run one week prior to the Chicago Marathon I violated my Kenyan Way coach's good advice and ran 45-seconds faster than my target marathon pace. After nine-miles I felt my right calf-muscle suddenly cramp-up, which wasn't relieved by stretching. This feeling unfortunately didn't go away fully in the subsequent week's taper, and briefly got much worse only two days before. Despite my continued discomfort I decided to start the race, but, with my calf hurting badly and cognizant of the Houston Marathon only three months off, I exited the course to capture the following video of the elite men's race on my iPod Nano at miles 1.5, 13.1, 16.5 and the finish. Despite all my years of running this was literally my first opportunity to spectate a world-class marathon event, and I truly enjoyed it!

Congratulations to Kenya's Patrick Makau

Congratulations to Kenya's Patrick Makau for setting the new Men's World Record Marathon in Berlin with a time of 2:03:38, breaking Haile Gebrselassie's 3-year old record by 21-seconds! See The Science of Sports for an excellent detailed analysis of his achievement.

Inspirational Running Videos

Always valuing running-related inspiration I was impressed with today's DailyMile challenge to post a video which was personally inspirational. Impressed by a couple that were already posted by others, I added a few of my own to create this compilation. Finally, while I wasn't able to similarly embed a particularly good video click here for a treat.

Chicago Marathon Taper Has Begun!

This Saturday I completed my final 20-mile training run in anticipation of the 2011 Chicago Marathon, and I'm excited! I had a good 10.5 mile early-morning solo training run, then met-up with my wonderfully trustful and steady-paced training partner Allison and the Kenyan Way group, where we together ran another 10 miles. Thank God for the ice-cold Gatorade provided every two or three miles by Sean Wade (a huge perk of Kenyan Way versus other Houston-based marathon training programs!)

Despite high starting temperatures of 75 degrees and 90% percent humidity I managed to hold onto my goal Chicago marathon pace (MP) of ~8:00 for 15 miles (I'm shooting for a 3:29 so-as to re-BQ by 6-minutes for 2013). However, the heavy sweat running down my legs directly into my shoes and socks gave them each nearly a full pound of added weight, which combined with my increasing fatigue from holding my goal pace despite such conditions translated into a slowing cadence and pace. Nevertheless, for the full 20-miles I was delighted to have averaged an 8:22 pace despite such conditions, which - knock-on-wood - I will not find in Chicago on October 9th!

This morning, in surveying my list of top running-related blogs I read an especially apt one from Pre-Dawn Runner, recommending that we treat our tapers both as an opportunity to invest in ourselves while mixing things up in our tapering training runs. I'm completely on-board both recommendations. During past tapers I've typically offset my gradually reduced mileage with a gradually increased pace, eventually with all my remaining training mileage matching my goal MP. However, at Memorial Park today feeling especially sharp due to my having taken yesterday off I ran my full eight miles a good ~30-seconds per mile faster than MP, which felt great!

To everyone also running the 2011 Chicago Marathon (or another marathon two to four weeks out) I wish you the best of luck, and truly encourage each of you to have a great experience!