ConocoPhillips 10K Rodeo Run Race Report

This morning's race was nice and cool, though a bit too windy for my taste. For the first time I parked close to the finish, then took a bus to the start.  In years past I'd parked four miles from the start, then had a lengthy warm-up and cool-down jog.  My thought this year was that I'd keep my legs fresh by parking close and running just one warm-up mile.  Indeed it was nice jogging through downtown before the race while surveying the parade floats, marching bands, horses and livestock which follow us through downtown immediately after the runners pass.

Once the race began I made my unfortunately all too typical error of pushing the pace a bit too hard in the first mile, and as a result was somewhat disappointed by my positive split (7:01 pace in the 1st 5K and a 7:15 in the 2nd half), and an overall time far from my ideally hoped for P.R..

Nevertheless, I consoled myself afterward by realizing that I'd age-group placed in the top 5% by finishing 11th out of 284 runners. Also, I'd made the right shoe selection as my Newton MV2's felt light, fast and responsive.  Finally, it was nice seeing several running friends, and racing through downtown with hoards of enthusiastic spectators cheering loudly!

For my next race I will sign-up for the Bayou Classic 10K, as it supports Houston's wonderful Memorial Park, avoids the bleak, long and hilly Elysian viaduct, and instead runs out of downtown along the far more scenic and flat Memorial Drive.

Newton Motion Stability Trainer Review

Having run in Newton Motion Stability Trainers for three years, I love them.  Prior to these becoming my marathon training and race "go to" shoe, I had run in Brooks Adrenalines, widely described "traditional stability shoes."  Upon switching to the Newton Motions I immediately found their far lighter weight, significantly lower heel-to-toe drop (4 mm vs. 12 mm), and their proprietary Action/Reaction mid-sole technology all contributed to dramatically improve both my race performances and my natural running form.

So, having had success in this shoe (and even having my form professionally analyzed while wearing them) it was with trepidation when I saw that for the spring of 2012 Newton had updated their Motion Performance Trainers.  My first impression upon opening the box and looking at the shoes was... Wow!  Not one to normally post photos on DailyMile, I decided to in this case, and was blown away by the favorable comments.  As with the Newton MV2's, these are not for the timid!

I next tried them on for fit and comfort.  I had always been delighted with the prior Motions' ample toe box, which provided a roomy feel that I found critical when I increased my distance beyond ~18 miles.  Fortunately, the 2012 Motion retains this feature, and are even more comfortable owing to their new contoured sock liner.  Also, new in this release are wide-mesh uppers to facilitate more rapid sweat evaporation and cooling.  Training with a prodigious sweat rate from hot and humid Houston, this ranks in my opinion as the new Motion's greatest enhancement.

I then gave them a good ten mile distance run.  Long enough to provide a bit of the challenge that the Motions are designed for, yet short enough to allow me to concentrate fully on them.  Via running a deliberately mixed surface route, I was able to easily contrast the feel and performance of the shoe on both Memorial Park's soft dirt and gravel trails and on Houston's typical ultra-hard concrete roads.  In both cases the shoe handled and felt great, even more-so once I crossed into double digit mileage territory.

Since I had run in the ultra-lightweight MV2's just the prior day, I was sensitive to differences between these two great Newton shoes.  To be fair I shouldn't even allude to such a comparison, since they are two shoes of completely different intended purposes and race distances.  The 2012 Motions, while 5% lighter than their predecessor, retain the substance and long-lasting performance needed especially when crossing over 20 miles.  This, from my long experience is the distance beyond which most marathon runners begin to see their form deteriorate, and where the mild mid-foot mild stability elements of the Motions are the most beneficial.

As the bottom line of this review, the new 2012 Newton Motions will remain my "go-to" marathon training and racing shoe!

Newton MV2 Shoe Review

Two and a half months ago I received my Newton MV2 running shoes.  These screamers are engineered to be the lightest and most efficient Natural Running shoe using Newton's second-generation Action/Reaction Technology.  This technology has numerous patents to prevent other manufacturers from simply copying their designs, and having run in Newton shoes for three years I encourage you go to a good specialty running store to learn about them, then to give them a good run.

These MV2's have a truly flat profile, which encourages a quick high cadence gait. Recognizing that many runners, like myself, are transitioning to the MV2's from running shoes with a slightly higher heel-to-toe drop, Newton supplies these shoes with optional three millimeter heel inserts.  Initially feeling my calves to be a bit too tight, I applied the inserts, which relieved the tightness without adding anything to their light weight.  Combined with Newton's action-reaction technology found on the soles of the shoe near where the metatarsals strike, from my experience this results in a performance boost of 15 to 30 seconds per mile.

These MV2's are truly neutral, and, as they are extremely light weight do not provide excess cushioning that inhibits the runner's grounded feel to the running surface - that is essential at higher speeds.  As a pleasant surprise, the MV2's five versus Newton's normal four Action-Reaction lugs provides hugely enhanced responsiveness and cornering abilities, which I found to be especially helpful on a weaving Memorial Park trail.

Curious at what distance the MV2's light weight and minimal cushioning would drive me to a more substantial shoe, I wore them over varying distances while training for the Houston Marathon - up to one 20-miler.  While I've since heard that several area runners have successfully run, and P.R.'d marathons in the MV2's, I found 16 miles to be their maximum comfortable distance.  I believe this distance to solely be a personal one, as with my current level of fitness it corresponds roughly to the point beyond which my running form tends to deteriorate on Houston's hard concrete road surfaces.  So, for the remainder of my Houston Marathon training runs of 16 miles or beyond and for the race itself, I ran in the Newton Gravity Performance Trainer (an easy decision, as in prior years recent I'd successfully run numerous P.R.s and B.Q.'s in the Stability Motions.)

Now that the Houston Marathon is complete, I am training for the Rodeo Run 10K and the Texas Independence Relay.  So, after two weeks of self-enforced rest I just laced-up my MV2's, and took them for what turned out to be a great run.  By concentrating on the pivotal elements of good running form, and cranking up the speed well beyond my normal pre-marathon training pace, these shoes demonstrated again that they rock!

As the MV2's run a bit small I recommend that you get them a half to full size larger than your normal running shoe length.  Also, as I found the MV2's to be a bit snug on the width, by lacing them a bit loosely I found this relieved the tightness without affecting my grip of the road.  Since the best specialty running stores have knowledgeable sales people with a generous return policy, choose the shoe that fits best while you are running, and not simply on the cushioned surface found in many stores. Don't gauge comfort simply by walking around the store in running shoes, as a surprising number of runners do, since the Newton's Action-Reaction technology feels a bit unnatural until you run!

Regardless of the shoe you buy, it's important to transition gradually to a shoe with a smaller heel-to-toe drop.  This provides your body time to both adjust and strengthen, and to minimize the likelihood of inadvertently returning when fatigued to an inefficient and potentially injurious heel-strike.  I have consistently found that by concentrating on gradually increasing my cadence, and concentrating on a slight forward lean from my ankles, that my good running form - and boost in speed with no incremental effort - quickly follows.

Embedded below are four YouTube videos in which Newton's CTO Danny Abshire discusses the MV2's: technology, initial fit (buy a half-size larger), adaptation from other running shoes, and some helpful form drills:

Why runners should oppose the "Stop Online Piracy Act"

Visiting Wikipedia this morning, I saw that it was blacked-out to encourage its readers to educate themselves on the draft Senate and House bills SOPA and PIPA.  Having done so, I composed and submitted to my Congressman the following note.  I encourage you to educate yourself, and to contact your representative.




I am concerned that enactment of the proposed House "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) would put a huge, unnecessary and ultimately ineffective burden on website owners to police user-contributed links for possible copyright infringement.  Such legislation would destroy the vibrant and interactive internet community, and impair citizens' ability to exercise their First Amendment rights.

To provide a personal example of the way this Act would impact, I am a recent Houston Marathon runner with a long history of running and health related interests, and maintain as a pure labor of love the blog: http://RunInAmerica.com. To learn from my visitors I invite them to post comments, and on many occasions they kindly provide helpful links to other sites.  While I check that such links are valid, I have no way to verify that violations of copyrights do not exist on such sites.  Thus, enactment of SOPA would effectively force me to disable all user-contributed comments, and to delete those which were previously posted.  In fact, even if I had an effective way to determine copyright violations, such an unnecessary burden would literally be never ending as I would need to continually re-visit such links ad infinitum.

Additionally, SOPA would adversely affect other sites that I frequently reference and value (e.g. Wikipedia.com, DailyMile.com, NYTimes.com, WSJ.com and Chron.com). Presuming such legislation was enacted all of these sites, and many others, would be forced to curtail user-contributed input - effectively destroying the vibrant culture of the web.  SOPA and PIPA therefore directly infringes upon U.S. Citizens' First Amendment rights to the detriment of society.  For these reasons, I strongly urge you to reject any legislation such as SOPA or PIPA.

Finally, here's a great song which highlights the issue superbly:

Houston Marathon Race Report

In this morning's beautifully cool weather conditions I was a bit disappointed that I'd struck too ambitious a goal by seeking to re-Boston Qualify with a time of 3:35 or better. However, considering that my training was interrupted due to a minor injury during three pivotal weeks I'm generally okay with outcome, especially as I broke 4-hours via my 3:51:14.

Everything went according to plan for my nutrition and hydration, where I drank Gatorade to thirst. For nutrition, I consumed one tablespoon of chia seeds mixed pre-mixed with one Succeed S!Cap electrolyte capsule every five miles. Additionally, every four miles I had one Roctane.  I've taken Roctane for years, and experimented with chia this training cycle, and them both with absolutely no problems.  I'm thinking of tweaking this only slightly next marathon, potentially increasing the frequency of Roctane to about every 3.5 miles.

The big surprise for me was seeing the massive congestion associated with running with the 3:30 pacing group in the first ten miles. I've successfully run with pacing groups in the past, and I can only attribute today's problems as due to the comparative huge popularity of this particular pacing group, along with the full marathoners being merged with the half-marathoners through the tenth mile.  As such, we constantly passed slow full or half marathon runners who'd started excessively fast. As they slowed they were oblivious to faster runners such as ourselves attempting to pass, which forced us to constantly inefficiently weave back and forth.

After six miles of this frustration, Allison, a Kenyan Way friend, and I got in front of the pacing group. Unfortunately, I then made the mistake of allowing my ambition to over-ride my better judgement and experience, as I proceeded to run a minute too fast via a 1:44 half.

Inevitably, I then paid the price, as despite running the first 18.7 miles at an average 8:05 pace, the final 7.5 miles' slow-down killed my overall time goal, as I ran them at a comparatively glacial 10:25. Oh well! I'm consoling myself by at least having prevented the energy collapse from being total, and at least showing an ounce of wisdom by slowly running in the final miles. This is an improvement, from my prior recent marathons where I'd foolishly set an even more ambitious 3:10 goal, then compounded that mistake by not adjusting my goal pace until I had completely run out of energy, and was forced to walk it in. So, while pacing remains a puzzle that I obviously haven't cracked, I think I'm getting a bit better.

Olympic Marathon Trials

With a group of long-time running friends we lined-up this morning to cheer for the Houston 2012 Olympic Trials.  All of these incredible athletes inspired with their graceful and powerful running abilities and determination. My friends Dave Johnson and Chris Vandersteeg and I took the following photos of the excitement:

Finally, if you're looking for the final results, you can see them here: men and women.   Congratulations again to all of the men and women who qualified for, and who ran in today's race!

Houston, we do NOT have a problem!

Since last Friday I've emerged from the swimming pool to gradually incorporate some running miles, being vigilant for any slight twinges of discomfort which would signal that I need additional time to recover from my stress reaction. Fortunately, this process has gone much better than I'd hoped, successfully running longer and faster than I'd initially intended: 9 miles on Friday, 12 on Monday, 6 on Tuesday, 9 Wednesday and 10 today.

Yesterday's and today's Memorial Park run was extremely encouraging, as I easily ran with a negative split near my goal Houston Marathon pace of 8:00 - with absolutely no twinges of discomfort.  This was doubly reassuring it proved that my recovery is complete and that my pool running over the previous weeks had done its job of avoiding any further impact trauma while simultaneously maintaining my cardiovascular fitness.  For these reasons I thank my coach Sean Wade for pointing me to the pool, and specifically pool running, as a cautionary recommendation when I'd first developed the leg problem.

The above photo depicts the ultra-cool Houston medal which will be handed out this year - and which I'm very much looking forward to proudly placing around my neck upon crossing the finish line!

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.