Back in the groove

Several thousand years ago, the Roman poet Juvenal wrote "orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano" from which we derive that now famous quote about a healthy mind in a healthy body.

For a variety of reasons, recently, I confess I have kinda let my body and fitness slide. This has become unacceptable. Not from reasons of vanity: it's not just about the physical, there is a mental cost component as well. Mentally, I've noticed I've slid a bit too.

Of course, we all know there is a strictly limited number of hours available in a week. So, one of these reasons is purely a resource limitation. It's easy to crowd out time for physical recovery. I should know as a cyclist who used to train systematically with a powermeter, getting stronger is a feature of recovery, not the actual workout. Spacing the workouts out appropriately is crucial.

Trying to recapture my halcyon New Jersey ping pong days of a decade or more ago, I've concluded I've gone a bit overboard. This has crowded out basic fitness. I find ping pong somewhat frantic and mentally challenging. I love a good challenge but it doesn't have that mind clearing, mental relaxation aspect that accompanies a good long run (or a steady bike climb up Mt Lemmon), where endorphins enhance and subtly flavor the rhythms of one's own body: for example, the flow of breathing while teasing up again and again against the anaerobic threshold, the sheer pleasure of the mechanics of footfall blending with a moving center of gravity. It all accelerates and relaxes at the same time, footfall eventually becoming so brief and light it almost blurs into the desert landscape. And before you know it, it's 10 kilometers or 10 miles. And you smile and you smile...

Rather than attempting to wax obscurely about that state of body and mind, it is time to get real, and review and renew my basic fitness vows, to ensure that baseline I have promised myself in the past I would make time for and maintain. Simply stated:

1. To be ready to run a marathon at any time.
   When I first started running about 4 years ago, I achieved this standard in 3 months. I'm not talking about running a Boston qualifying time. I'm simply talking about the ability to smoothly run a marathon without injury in under 4 hours.

2. To be able to swim a mile.
   When I spent a semester at the MIT Stata Center (see my off-blog entry here) back in 2007, I swam nearly every day there. With the friendly encouragement of the lifeguard, (I don't even remember his name except he was a bit on the large side with a somewhat unforgettable Boston Irish accent and demeanor), I achieved the mile mark briefly despite horrible swim mechanics, and the real fear of having to be fished out before being able to count up to 37 laps or whatever it took to surpass the so-called "swimmer's mile".

3. A third secret benchmark.
   Maybe I'll expand on this in a later post, but for now allow me to leave it unclarified.

These are a set of actually rather modest minimal standards. Once achieved, they take little effort to maintain. Once let slip, they are hard to achieve, especially as life passes by. I have achieved the run and swim baselines before (but not at the same time). And if I don't get back to them, one day they'll be unachievable from scratch.

To be ready to run a marathon at any time

I've promised myself before that I'd run one marathon a year as a reality check and spur to not let myself slide.

However, it has been more than one year since I've run a marathon, see post here. I achieved the fitness to do 3:44:42 despite cramped and difficult training conditions. Basically, I ran a bunch of 10Ks in the gym and around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. So 10Ks, (crucially) doable in under an hour of spare time, can be the cornerstone of such a training program.

Yesterday, I ran a 7 miler with the running club at the university. See my Nike+ data below. Suffered some (as the heart rate stats indicate), some mild stirrings of rhythm latent, but by the end it felt good to be back on my feet again. I need to do this twice a week.

I've also done an hour occasionally on the treadmill when I am not able to run outside. It's not as nice as the outdoors, but not as bad as it sounds, especially with music playing over my iPod. And there's the opportunity to work on core muscles and upper body on the machines in the gym afterwards as part of the cooldown.

[I haven't said anything about weight yet. Obviously, weight is critical for running (it can be shown there is a direct effect) but not at the expenses of needed muscle mass. Before restarting my runs, I had been steadily losing muscle yet gaining weight despite trying to eat less. A kind of strange spiral and the wrong approach. With the metabolism rejuvenated through workouts, as of April 16th I'm down to a 18 month low of 68.7 kg (from 73 kg) with significantly better muscle tone. I hope my weight will eventually stabilize just under the 70kg mark.]

And occasionally, I need to substitute in a half-marathon weekend morning for one of these runs. Maybe once a month. A total of just 2 to 3 hours a week. I should be able to do make this happen.

To be able to swim a mile

To be honest, and probably to the casual reader's surprise, this one is a much more daunting prospect to me. Although my freestyle technique has improved since MIT 2007 (not difficult since it was so impoverished), I still get winded after swimming 50 or 100m, and I have to stop and catch my breath. It's strange that I can run a marathon without stopping but not swim more than 100m. I need to swim almost daily. And put in the laps (volume) to develop those swim muscles. Initially, perhaps just limited to 30 mins at a time. Again, the time commitment is small and I should be able to make it happen.

Since the university pool here has re-opened after refurbishment, I have lost my last excuse for not visiting the pool. Hmm, maybe I need a gadget (toy) incentive here. I have my eye on a lap counting swim watch. After all, my iPod Nano with Nike+ was reward to myself for getting out to run...

Weight loss and dieting

I spent the Fall semester preparing for the Tucson marathon in December (exercise) and actively trying to lose weight (dieting). The general claim is that: In general, for every 1 percent loss of body mass, primarily as body fat, there will be an approximate 1 percent increase in running speed. [Ignoring resting oxygen consumption, the energy cost of horizontal running is 0.2 milliliter of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per meter per minute (ml O2/kg/m/min).] Sounds good to me: free speed. I started nearly 100 days before the marathon. And ran 25-30 miles a week. At the same time, I tried to restrict my calorie intake. The results? See the weight chart below. Also see my marathon report here.) I basically cut out about 25% of my usual kcal intake. I found it pretty hard to do.

Until I hit my mid to late thirties, I never needed to diet. Training for an event by itself was more than enough to get me a single digit body fat percentage. Those days are clearly a thing of the past. Now it takes tackling it from both angles for the scale to even begin budging.

I assiduously recorded my weight (charted above). I also took proverbial bathroom pics at regular intervals to track physiological changes.

Halfway through the 100 days:

Compare with after 100 days below. Clearly, there is a large improvement (more skeletal structure is visible):

Unfortunately, graphs can be misleading. If you look at the percentage loss as a function of entire body weight, it seems like a lot of effort for very little loss:

And compare my body fat and unnecessary musculature to a professional cyclist, one of the strongest climbers in the world who puts out an insane amount of power (one who was about to win a recent Tour de France before being tossed for circumstantial evidence of performance-enhancing drug use). Rather impressive diet plan:

Clearly, I'm not even close to being in the same ballpark. My mind boggles at his obvious total dedication.

I think I could stand to try harder next year...

marathon pictures rant

Action Sports International is the outfit that took pictures at the marathon.

They want $35 for a single digital download at 1024x1536 resolution (barely more than laptop screen resolution and not good for enlarging), or $80 for all of them. In this age of inexpensive 10MP cameras, this is pitiful!

For the money, you get a limited license to use the jpg (no RAW):

This license allows you to make prints from this file, and to use the image for any other personal use, but does not grant any copyright to the image.

Sounds a bit restrictive: I'm not even sure you can put it up on your own website or blog.

A 10 x 16 print is $55.

They took 3 snaps of me:

UPDATE: In the interests of full disclosure, having said all that, I went ahead and ordered the electronic download of the 2nd picture. Apparently, 1024x1536 is what they use for printing. I'll see if it stands enlargement...

A marathon post-mortem litany

I need to remind myself of what's crucial before this event recedes into the distant reaches of my mind.

Just a couple of quick notes for posterity. (I put the aluminum foil backed space blanket that they hand out at the finish line on my laundry room wall. Every time I come home, it's the first thing I'll see entering from the garage.)

And perhaps that'd jog my memory to read this post many times (thanks to guys on cyclingforum for these!):

• #1. Toughen up. Do one long run every weekend. 10 miles. A half-marathon.
• Aerobic capacity. Short runs at higher speeds work but I overdid it.
• Electrolyte tablets for cramps during long runs.
• Running doesn't always translate well to cycling. Need to keep those muscles biking too.
• Weight control.

Baseline fitness goes but doesn't come easy.

P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon

Yesterday, I ran the Phoenix Marathon. I didn't do well, so I am a bit disappointed.

It has been just over a year since my very first attempt at a marathon. That was the Tucson Marathon back in December 2006. I didn't train properly and still managed 3:51. (See my report here.)

Personal philosophy-wise, I believe in maintaining a baseline level of fitness. No matter what the pressures in life or work, I try not to abrogate responsibility for maintaining fitness. This means reserving some inviolable core time for working out a certain number of days a week.

And as we age, this becomes increasingly important. Let ourselves go for a few months, and the road back to decent fitness is very long and discouragingly hard. So it's far preferable (and cost effective) to achieve a certain baseline level and hang on to it.

So what are the benchmarks? Well, basically, I should be able to comfortably run a marathon or do a double century (200 miles) on the bike at ANY TIME with ZERO NOTICE. In other words , if a friend says, let's go and run a marathon tomorrow... I should be able to say: ok sure, why not? Same goes for a double century. That'd be done on my so-called baseline or everyday fitness.

Of course, if I spent 4 months training for some specific event, I'd expect to do a lot better.

In the case of running, I decided I should test this by running a marathon every year on baseline fitness. This year, being year 2 for me, I'm actually a much smarter runner technique-wise. I was pretty clueless about running last year. So I had sizeable hopes I'd do better in Phoenix. Turns out I am still clueless. I was actually slower. 3:56.

I'm a bit bummed because:

1. I bought the Evolution Running dvd, shortened my stride, had fewer ankle problems and ran faster than I'd ever run.
2. The Running club at the University of Arizona had evening runs (6pm, 5pm) during the Fall semester to prepare for the marathon.
   I participated in most of the runs apart from 3 or 4 weeks or so when I was either traveling or sick.

3. They also had one long run per weekend at 6am. 6am was tough. I did a few of them but inconsistently. 10 miler a couple of times and a 20 miler.
4. I use compression socks, which helped with calf muscle fatigue.
5. I felt aerobically quite fit.
6. My weight was down from a high of almost 76kg to 70kg. I didn't eat once at Fat Greek's all semester long.
   Weight is very important in running. I can feel the difference each kilogram makes.
   Although my upper body is similar to a runner's physique (read: sorta wimpy), overall my body is not really a runner's type. I have muscular and very heavy legs from cycling. So 70kg for me is below 10% body fat and a reasonable accomplishment.

So what went wrong?

I believe there are three limiters to performance for endurance events:

1. Aerobic fitness.
2. Nutrition.
3. Muscle fatigue.

Basically, my muscles failed me through lack of miles/conditioning. To run a marathon successfully, one has to put in enough base miles, and I didn't have enough.

During, the race, I felt my muscles tightening up significantly shortly before halfway. Then I felt one of my quads on the verge of cramping. Later on, around mile 20, I locked up completely in the right hamstring. Last 6 miles, my calf muscles were on the verge of cramping as well. See the decline in pace reported by my iPod Nano Nike+ kit:

(Notice the distance discrepancy. My shoe sensor has the default setting. For calibration, figures have to be discounted to the 95.42% level.)

Being muscle limited, I couldn't even tax my aerobic system during the marathon at all. In other words, I couldn't make myself breathe hard because my muscles wouldn't let me run fast enough to do that.

Conditions were good. 45F at the start, warming up to 66F. Dry. Ideal running weather. The course was not totally flat but there were no hills, just one bridge near the end.

Nutrition-wise, I opted not to use my Camelbak this time to save weight. I carried Gu packets and took water and Accelerade from every water station. No trouble there. I did not run out of energy.

Results:

I'm in the 45-49 male age group. 199th out of 510 in the division. Timing chip time was 3:56:28 despite a big decline in pace towards the end due to muscle problems. I was stubborn enough to keep going and not walk, thus allowing me to sneak in under the 4 hour mark.

Lessons? I believe aerobically and nutrition-wise, I'm capable of going under 3:30 without improving my baseline aerobic fitness. However, I realize now I need a big enough distance base to acclimatize my muscles to the pounding. Unless I pay those dues, e.g. a friend says run 4 days a week religiously, I'd be restricted forever to hobbling in just under 4 hours.