My first trail run at Renaissance in awhile and it was a disaster. Terry and I ran a 6+ mile course and around the 2nd mile I felt completely gassed. I just felt heavy and exhausted. I even walked - something I never do - not once or twice - but numerous times. It was 82 outside and extremely humid today which was a big factor but the bigger factor is that I simply lacked motivation today. It was my first training run since running 3 races in 12 days - Uwharrie Rumble 8K, Warrior Dash, and the Rock2Rock 10K. I trained hard for those races and now that they are over I don't have that fire under my butt. Now that I feel humiliated at my poor performance I think I will get the fire back because finishing 5 minutes behind my running buddies does not rest well with me.
I am going to view this as my first day back to training. I have not done any tough high intensity workouts in awhile either so now it is time to get back into the swing of things. We have trail runs planned for Monday and Wednesday so I will have more updates to come!
Showing posts with label 5K. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5K. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2010
Alkaline Water!?!?
When I did the Waxhaw 5K back in April there was vendor selling an Alkaline water machine. I was holding a free bottle of water that I received from another race vendor and the Alkaline water folks asked me if I wanted to get my water tested. I obliged and handed them my bottle. They put some kind of chemical in the water and lo and behold it turned a sort of purple color and they told me it was as acidic as Gatorade. They then replaced my acidic water with their alkaline water which they claimed would make me feel lighter and will absorb into my cells faster than the acidic water. So I tried it, ran my 5K and as usual, and I felt no different than I usually do.
If you are not familiar with the terms acidic and alkaline, it refers to pH. A pH of 7 is considered balanced. Anything over 7 is alkaline and under 7 is acidic. Most processed foods and carbonated beverages are acidic and a diet that consists mainly of highly acidic foods, like the typical American fast food diet, will lead to health problems. The alkaline water people claim their water will detoxify your body and, of course, make you healthy. This article, written by Dr. Ben Kim explains all about pH and how the body processes acidic and alkaline foods.
This isn't the first time I have seen these water machines and I have been wondering if there is any real science behind them. This link gives you the science and debunks the claims made by these alkaline water vendors...
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
I am sure there are plenty of people who claim these machines work. As the author of the last link states, the placebo effect likely plays a big role. My explanation is that anyone who starts drinking alkaline water is likely to start eating a healthier diet with less processed foods and more healthy whole foods and also likely start exercising. These changes result in improved health and vitality. In this scenario can you truly claim the machine works?
If you are not familiar with the terms acidic and alkaline, it refers to pH. A pH of 7 is considered balanced. Anything over 7 is alkaline and under 7 is acidic. Most processed foods and carbonated beverages are acidic and a diet that consists mainly of highly acidic foods, like the typical American fast food diet, will lead to health problems. The alkaline water people claim their water will detoxify your body and, of course, make you healthy. This article, written by Dr. Ben Kim explains all about pH and how the body processes acidic and alkaline foods.
This isn't the first time I have seen these water machines and I have been wondering if there is any real science behind them. This link gives you the science and debunks the claims made by these alkaline water vendors...
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
I am sure there are plenty of people who claim these machines work. As the author of the last link states, the placebo effect likely plays a big role. My explanation is that anyone who starts drinking alkaline water is likely to start eating a healthier diet with less processed foods and more healthy whole foods and also likely start exercising. These changes result in improved health and vitality. In this scenario can you truly claim the machine works?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
2010 Waxhaw Town and Country 5K Recap
The Waxhaw Town and Country 5K became a fairly challenging evening for me this past Friday but I had a great time nevertheless. The highlight of my night was my 8 year old son, Jack, who ran his first 1/2 mile fun run and finished 4th among all kids in a time of about 3:37. He received a medal after the race and wore it proudly for the rest of the evening.
As I mentioned in my previous post I wore my Vibram Five Finger KSOs (VFFs) for this race. That decision was what made the night challenging for me. The good news is that I ran my best time of 22:09 which is a 7:08 min/mile pace. The bad news is that my decision to wear the VFFs tore up my feet .
Before you start thinking that VFFs should not be used for street running, the reason my feet got wrecked were not any fault of the shoes. My lack of street training in my VFFs are the sole blame for the damage to my feet. Prior to this run, I trained only twice on asphalt - last Monday running 1:05 miles with my son Jack for a little over 10 minutes and Wednesday we ran 1.65 miles in around 17 minutes. That was it for street training and running in my VFFs! Running two times during the week of the race at a pace much slower than my usual pace is hardly what I would call proper training.
Keeping all this mind, I now had to run a hilly course on the streets of Waxhaw for 3.1 miles and at pace I haven't run since last November's Matthew's 5K. I knew in the back of my mind before the race that the VFFs were probably a risky choice but decided to go for it anyway. I should have listened to my rational side and not my reckless side. Making matters worse for my feet that evening, temperatures hit the low 80s and the ground was fairly warm. Earlier in the week when I ran temperatures were in the 60s.
When I began wearing VFFs last year my big issue was building enough foot and calf strength to run full races as a forefoot striker. When I run trails, which I do regularly, I wear the Inov-8 X-Talon 212s which are low profile and intended for forefoot striking. At this point strength is not an issue with my feet and calves. Sure enough, other than tearing the bottoms of my feet during this 5K, the rest of my body recovered pain free - no sore calves or hamstrings - just really bad raw skin and blisters.
My post race feet! What a mess! YUCK!!
The first mile and a half were not bad as far as my feet burning but by the time we hit some downhills inside the second mile the fire started growing. The third mile had some really steep hills and the downhills were the worst. I was never so happy when I came to uphills and flat road as that provided some minor relief. The regrettable part was that my breathing felt great that night. I had plenty in the gas in the tank even towards the end but could not run full guns in the last mile because my feet burned too much. In the end, I was still quite happy with how I finished - 28th overall out of almost 500 runners and took second in the 40-44 age group.
So my advice to anyone looking to run street races in their VFFs is to build up your speed and distance gradually in them. Sometimes when you get in shape you feel like you are invincible and all it takes is incidents like these to bring you back down to reality.
Two weeks from now is the Uwharrie Rumble, an 8K trail run, so I need to get my feet healed quickly! Until next time - have a great week!
Jack proudly wearing his race medal. He did not take it off until he went to bed that night.
As I mentioned in my previous post I wore my Vibram Five Finger KSOs (VFFs) for this race. That decision was what made the night challenging for me. The good news is that I ran my best time of 22:09 which is a 7:08 min/mile pace. The bad news is that my decision to wear the VFFs tore up my feet .
Before you start thinking that VFFs should not be used for street running, the reason my feet got wrecked were not any fault of the shoes. My lack of street training in my VFFs are the sole blame for the damage to my feet. Prior to this run, I trained only twice on asphalt - last Monday running 1:05 miles with my son Jack for a little over 10 minutes and Wednesday we ran 1.65 miles in around 17 minutes. That was it for street training and running in my VFFs! Running two times during the week of the race at a pace much slower than my usual pace is hardly what I would call proper training.
Keeping all this mind, I now had to run a hilly course on the streets of Waxhaw for 3.1 miles and at pace I haven't run since last November's Matthew's 5K. I knew in the back of my mind before the race that the VFFs were probably a risky choice but decided to go for it anyway. I should have listened to my rational side and not my reckless side. Making matters worse for my feet that evening, temperatures hit the low 80s and the ground was fairly warm. Earlier in the week when I ran temperatures were in the 60s.
When I began wearing VFFs last year my big issue was building enough foot and calf strength to run full races as a forefoot striker. When I run trails, which I do regularly, I wear the Inov-8 X-Talon 212s which are low profile and intended for forefoot striking. At this point strength is not an issue with my feet and calves. Sure enough, other than tearing the bottoms of my feet during this 5K, the rest of my body recovered pain free - no sore calves or hamstrings - just really bad raw skin and blisters.
My post race feet! What a mess! YUCK!!
So my advice to anyone looking to run street races in their VFFs is to build up your speed and distance gradually in them. Sometimes when you get in shape you feel like you are invincible and all it takes is incidents like these to bring you back down to reality.
Two weeks from now is the Uwharrie Rumble, an 8K trail run, so I need to get my feet healed quickly! Until next time - have a great week!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Running My First 5K In Vibram Five Fingers
The day of the Matthews 5K finally arrived. It is my first 5K since July 24th and my first wearing my Vibram Five Fingers KSOs. I had slowly built up mileage on them over the past couple of months and felt confident I was ready to wear them to race. At this point going back to regular running shoes is not an option and my only other option would be to wear my Puma H Streets however with those I have to wear socks and I end up with some blisters. The plus side of wearing the Five Fingers was no socks and no apparent blisters. To be fair it was in the 50s when I ran today and not in the 80s-90s which is usually when I get blisters so the jury is still out on the blister factor. I wanted to get a few more road runs in before this race but it just wasn't happening.
The race only had 57 participants. The July 4th race back in 2008 at the same Matthews location drew almost triple that number. I am thinking perhaps the recession and other local competing races were reasons for the low attendance. With that said it was easy to get near the front at the starting line. In the first minute or two I was actually keeping pace with the leaders. We turned a couple of corners and the distance between myself and the leaders(only four or five guys) started widening. Three guys passed me early as the gap was widening. Two of them looked like they were around my age so I knew I had to keep a strong pace to stay in the top three in my age bracket. The front runners looked much younger than me so I was not concerned. The other guy that passed me was pushing one of those baby buggies and keeping a heck of a pace but luckily he too looked younger than me. This race used 10 year age groups so I was in the 40-49 which is extremely competitive even in a small race. I ended up passing one person, a 14 year old, somewhere in the first mile. In the second mile a tall guy with blonde hair passed me. He looked younger so again I was not too concerned.
I remained close behind the blonde guy when we came to the crucial part of the race - the big long downhill into the big long uphill which comes just before mile marker 2. I conserved lots of energy on the downhill and was getting ready for the uphill when I noticed Blonde Boy was not moving that quickly up the hill. I thought I would give it a go at speeding up and passing him. I tend to enjoy running up hills so I slowly kicked it into gear. For a few seconds I was neck and neck with Blondie and when he didn't seem to be accelerating I turned on the juice and regained my lead. He was not able to catch me after that.
After that there was nobody to pace with as the distance between myself and those in front of me had grown quite wide. Two of the guys in front of me were within eye shot but I knew it would take a major sprint to catch them and not knowing the course that well I was not sure how much of the race was left so I conserved for most of the last mile. Another factor in the last mile was knowing where to turn. The course was not well marked and I was thrown off a couple of times. The police were not very helpful about directing the runners either. Twice I had to ask which way to turn as I approached corners. One runner I spoke with after the race missed a turn. During the race, a police man told me I had made a right turn down the wrong street. Some turn markers would have been nice. The street I turned down ran parallel to the correct street but the confusion certainly didn't help my time.
I hope to run the 5K at the Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon in December. Overall my time of 22:52 was good for a ninth place finish overall and 3rd in my age group so I'll take it and start training for my next race.
The race only had 57 participants. The July 4th race back in 2008 at the same Matthews location drew almost triple that number. I am thinking perhaps the recession and other local competing races were reasons for the low attendance. With that said it was easy to get near the front at the starting line. In the first minute or two I was actually keeping pace with the leaders. We turned a couple of corners and the distance between myself and the leaders(only four or five guys) started widening. Three guys passed me early as the gap was widening. Two of them looked like they were around my age so I knew I had to keep a strong pace to stay in the top three in my age bracket. The front runners looked much younger than me so I was not concerned. The other guy that passed me was pushing one of those baby buggies and keeping a heck of a pace but luckily he too looked younger than me. This race used 10 year age groups so I was in the 40-49 which is extremely competitive even in a small race. I ended up passing one person, a 14 year old, somewhere in the first mile. In the second mile a tall guy with blonde hair passed me. He looked younger so again I was not too concerned.
I remained close behind the blonde guy when we came to the crucial part of the race - the big long downhill into the big long uphill which comes just before mile marker 2. I conserved lots of energy on the downhill and was getting ready for the uphill when I noticed Blonde Boy was not moving that quickly up the hill. I thought I would give it a go at speeding up and passing him. I tend to enjoy running up hills so I slowly kicked it into gear. For a few seconds I was neck and neck with Blondie and when he didn't seem to be accelerating I turned on the juice and regained my lead. He was not able to catch me after that.
After that there was nobody to pace with as the distance between myself and those in front of me had grown quite wide. Two of the guys in front of me were within eye shot but I knew it would take a major sprint to catch them and not knowing the course that well I was not sure how much of the race was left so I conserved for most of the last mile. Another factor in the last mile was knowing where to turn. The course was not well marked and I was thrown off a couple of times. The police were not very helpful about directing the runners either. Twice I had to ask which way to turn as I approached corners. One runner I spoke with after the race missed a turn. During the race, a police man told me I had made a right turn down the wrong street. Some turn markers would have been nice. The street I turned down ran parallel to the correct street but the confusion certainly didn't help my time.
I hope to run the 5K at the Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon in December. Overall my time of 22:52 was good for a ninth place finish overall and 3rd in my age group so I'll take it and start training for my next race.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Everything You Need To Know About Marine Mud Runs
I did another mud race this past Saturday with my friends over at John Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. We previously did one at Belmont Abbey College in Gastonia, NC back on August 1st. Mud races are growing in popularity as they offer the fitness crowd a challenging alternative to typical road races.
If you have never done a mud race, it is lots of fun as long as you are in reasonably good shape and don't mind getting dirty. By reasonably good shape I mean being capable of jogging for the better part of 5 miles and being fit enough to withstand some obstacles and challenges during the race. The challenges can vary from race to race but usually include pushups, wall or rope climbs, duck walks, low crawls, fireman carry a teammate, squats and lunges. If that is not enough, some of these challenges may have to be performed in a mud pit with Marines barking commands at you. My best advice is to be prepared for anything as the Marines are always looking for new ways to challenge you. The more functional your fitness level the easier it will be for you. It is a fun event for both men and women to test their fitness, practice some teamwork, get all muddy, and just have a great outdoor workout.
Most mud races are set up by Marine organizations or by former Marines. The proceeds from the events usually go to help the families of wounded or fallen Marines - so the races are for a great cause.
As for rules and requirements, some mud races require you to have a set number of team members while others are more flexible allowing varying team sizes. Teams can be all male, all female or any mix of both. In most cases, team categories are set by Student, Community, Commercial, Military, and Public Safety. Unlike typical running events, there are no age group or male/female categories. One of the rules is that teams must stay together throughout the race so it is important to find teammates of similar fitness and running pace if you plan to do the race competitively. Teams must also have matching uniforms and a team name. Some teams get very creative in these area. Some events offer prizes for the most creative team uniforms. For those less creative, it very easy to find inexpensive matching shorts and shirts for the event at Walmart if you are on a budget or just pressed for time.
The best gear that I would recommend for a mud run would be skin tight compression sprint or running shorts. I would advise against wearing baggy shorts or any shorts with deep pockets as they tend to get very heavy with mud which can be quite uncomfortable. Baggy clothes make for a tough time in the mud and after you leave the mud pit. As for shirts, any shirt with water wicking material works fine. The tighter the fit the better - think Under Armour or one of the less expensive competitive brands that you can find at Walmart or Target. As for footwear many wear regular running shoes but I would recommend a trail running shoe. Trail shoes are durable are made to deal with all kinds of terrain including mud, grass, roots and dirt and can be cleaned easily. I have a pair of Salomon trail shoes that I used for numerous trail runs and adventure races including the two mud runs this year and they are still in great shape.
As for other gear, some people recommend ear plugs as some races may have your head fully submerged in the mud and I have heard stories of spending over a week to get all of the mud out of their ears. There are usually enough water stations along the course to keep you hydrated and snack stations to replenish electrolytes after the race. I usually choose to bring my own small cooler with my own drinks and snacks. There are usually a few places to hose off after the race and I would recommend bringing a couple of towels and a change of clothes as well as a plastic bag to put your muddy clothes. In my two races I have not have any clothes ruined by the mud.
As I mentioned earlier, teams must stay together during the race and therefore it is a good idea to know the fitness level of your teammates and it would be an even better idea to train together as a team at least a few times before the event. Doing 3-5 miles runs and some functional exercise workouts will pay dividends on race day. The worst time to learn about your teammates shortcomings is on race day.
So get a team together, have some fun and get dirty. The next mud race near me is in Columbia, SC in mid-September.
If you have never done a mud race, it is lots of fun as long as you are in reasonably good shape and don't mind getting dirty. By reasonably good shape I mean being capable of jogging for the better part of 5 miles and being fit enough to withstand some obstacles and challenges during the race. The challenges can vary from race to race but usually include pushups, wall or rope climbs, duck walks, low crawls, fireman carry a teammate, squats and lunges. If that is not enough, some of these challenges may have to be performed in a mud pit with Marines barking commands at you. My best advice is to be prepared for anything as the Marines are always looking for new ways to challenge you. The more functional your fitness level the easier it will be for you. It is a fun event for both men and women to test their fitness, practice some teamwork, get all muddy, and just have a great outdoor workout.
Most mud races are set up by Marine organizations or by former Marines. The proceeds from the events usually go to help the families of wounded or fallen Marines - so the races are for a great cause.
As for rules and requirements, some mud races require you to have a set number of team members while others are more flexible allowing varying team sizes. Teams can be all male, all female or any mix of both. In most cases, team categories are set by Student, Community, Commercial, Military, and Public Safety. Unlike typical running events, there are no age group or male/female categories. One of the rules is that teams must stay together throughout the race so it is important to find teammates of similar fitness and running pace if you plan to do the race competitively. Teams must also have matching uniforms and a team name. Some teams get very creative in these area. Some events offer prizes for the most creative team uniforms. For those less creative, it very easy to find inexpensive matching shorts and shirts for the event at Walmart if you are on a budget or just pressed for time.
The best gear that I would recommend for a mud run would be skin tight compression sprint or running shorts. I would advise against wearing baggy shorts or any shorts with deep pockets as they tend to get very heavy with mud which can be quite uncomfortable. Baggy clothes make for a tough time in the mud and after you leave the mud pit. As for shirts, any shirt with water wicking material works fine. The tighter the fit the better - think Under Armour or one of the less expensive competitive brands that you can find at Walmart or Target. As for footwear many wear regular running shoes but I would recommend a trail running shoe. Trail shoes are durable are made to deal with all kinds of terrain including mud, grass, roots and dirt and can be cleaned easily. I have a pair of Salomon trail shoes that I used for numerous trail runs and adventure races including the two mud runs this year and they are still in great shape.
As for other gear, some people recommend ear plugs as some races may have your head fully submerged in the mud and I have heard stories of spending over a week to get all of the mud out of their ears. There are usually enough water stations along the course to keep you hydrated and snack stations to replenish electrolytes after the race. I usually choose to bring my own small cooler with my own drinks and snacks. There are usually a few places to hose off after the race and I would recommend bringing a couple of towels and a change of clothes as well as a plastic bag to put your muddy clothes. In my two races I have not have any clothes ruined by the mud.
As I mentioned earlier, teams must stay together during the race and therefore it is a good idea to know the fitness level of your teammates and it would be an even better idea to train together as a team at least a few times before the event. Doing 3-5 miles runs and some functional exercise workouts will pay dividends on race day. The worst time to learn about your teammates shortcomings is on race day.
So get a team together, have some fun and get dirty. The next mud race near me is in Columbia, SC in mid-September.
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