Thanks Podrunner!

Just in time for my attempt to break three hours at the Albany Marathon this weekend, DJ Steve at Podrunner has dropped a 185 bpm mix on us. I tried it out this morning and it was consistently driving me at a 6:40 pace, perfect!

Travel exercise tips

My job does not require too much travel, but I usually end up going on two or three trips a year. Although running is a fairly portable sport, I find it difficult, sometimes, to be fit on the road. Through the Consumerist, I found this post on exercise while you travel over at Nerdfitness.com. His tips? Make it a priority, find creative ways to workout without a gym, and eat well.

The post also reminded me of this video. Ever heard of Burpees? Check out this great video by Mike Rowe, the narrator of several shows on Discovery and star of Dirty Jobs.

The transition to 180

Back in July I mentioned that I was attempting to move my cadence up by shortening my stride and transitioning to a mid/fore foot strike pattern. At some point in my past, I heard about Podrunner, but I had forgotten until Mark from Run in America reminded me and gave me an excellent suggestion. Rather than jump right into 180 strides/min he suggested gradually increasing turnover and using steadily faster music from Podrunner to help. It has worked like a charm and I feel great!

I started off primarily on the treadmill. As little as I enjoy it, that way I could be sure I was keeping the right pace while tinkering with the cadence. Over a few weeks, I slowly pushed up the same 7:30 pace up to 150, 160, and then 170. It seemed to work pretty well, but I soon realized that I was going to need to do something about my footwear. On a treadmill, it was pretty easy to keep my foot hovering low over the ground and have a midfoot strike, but I could feel my heel nearly scraping the belt. Even though the road is only slightly more uneven than a treadmill, I figured there is no way this cadence was going to work on the road and in these shoes.

The shoes are my Asics Enduros that I have been through about 12 pairs of over the years. I got to reading more about the concept of shorter strides and high cadence which led me back to Pete, (the Runblogger) who has tons of reviews and material about these topics and more. It turns out that my Asics have a heel-to-toe drop of about 12 mm, which seems to be a bit of an industry standard. This wedge shape encourages a heel strike pattern as I have come to use. Many manufacturers are now producing shoes with lower drops (4-ish mm) and some that are bascially zero drop (like Vibrams). Anyway, it is time for a change in footwear, but I will write more on my options later.

In the meantime, thanks for the suggestion Mark, and I highly agree with the recommendations. Not only to the notion of a shorter stride, but Podrunner! The beats are great and incredibly helpful in pace-keeping. DJ Steve Boyett gives the music away for free, so if you like it, be sure to hit up his Paypal page and make a donation!

Hip strengthening exercises to avoid knee pain

Over the past few weeks, and at the direction of PT, I have been doing some simple strengthening exercises that have made a notable difference in my running. I have not had any further lateral knee pain after a run and I have been on several runs of up to four miles at a time. The specific exercises I have been doing are:

1. Straight leg raises
2. Side leg raises
3. One leg squats (or heel taps)
4. Front bends

First, straight leg raises. Lying on your back, bend one knee leaving your foot flat on the floor. Then keep the other leg straight and raise 12-18 inches off the ground. In the video, the person has their leg turned outward, which shifts the focus to one specific muscle in your quads (the vastus medialis) but you can do it without the twist to work all your quads. You can add weights (like in the video) to increase the difficulty.

Second, side leg raises are done lying on your side, in basically the same leg position with your knee bent and your heel just under your bottom. Then raise the opposite leg up, which should be exclusively using your hip abductors (the muscles on the outside of your hip). This guy is not bending his lower leg and using a band, instead of weights, to increase the resistance.

One leg squats, as noted in this video are good for strengthening, but also for improving balance. The variant of these that I did was on a step about 12-18 inches off the ground. This could be a single-step stool, or even a stair in your house. The other name, heel taps, comes from the idea that you should do these just briefly tapping your heel on the ground and then pushing up with your squatting leg. What I found very effective was the bench press benches at my gym. They have a small step at the back for a spotter and since the bench is quite heavy, it will not move with me supporting my weight on the back end of it. I can recall first trying these and watching my knee wobble all over the place but now I can do them without holding onto anything for balance and with easy control of my knee.

Last of the four I call front bends, but I gather that there are a number of names for the exercise. First, get a dumbbell, about 5-15 lbs. Hold that in front of you in one hand. Bend forward, allowing the weight in your hand to go straight down. Simultaneously, lift the leg opposite the hand with the weight, while keeping your leg straight.

Screenshot from user jasoncscs

So, these worked quite well for me, and I am excited to be out there running more. Of course, if your knee hurts, I recommend seeking professional help!

Risk of clots in marathon runners who travel by air

You have probably heard, at some point, that traveling on an airplane raises your risk of having a clot form in your leg veins. This is a complex phenomenon which may relate to a variety of things that occur during air travel including immobility (blood sitting still tends to clot), lower air pressure, and lower oxygen concentrations (both have been implicated in activating the clotting cascade in the body).

Now, in the March 2011 issue of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, Parker et al. took blood samples from two groups of Boston Marathon runners, those who flew (over 4 hours) to the race, and those who drove (less than 2 hours) to the race. Three sample were taken, before the race, at the finish, and one day later, prior to returning home. In these samples, they measured different compounds which are known to play important roles in the formation of clots. The researchers found that from pre to post race, these compounds increased in both groups, but more so in the air travel group. They conclude that marathon running induces a hyper-coagulable state, presumably more so in those who travel by air. The study is interesting, but it was only conducted in 41 people and it does not measure actual clots, just blood tests that are markers for clotting.

While people do get vein clots while traveling by plane, they also occur during car trips and even seemingly without provocation. Other factors that increase your risk include birth control pills, age, and poor circulation from other medical conditions. Many people also carry minor deficiencies of anticlotting blood proteins, and many do not know they have them (Protein S or C deficiency and Factor V Leiden mutation). Dehydration also does not help, and that may be an additional concern for runners (also airplane air is very dry, about 20% humidity). Compression hose may help and staying hydrated while avoiding alcohol seem like good suggestions even if evidence of effectiveness is limited.

Crossposted at drdavemd.com

Marathon Talk's two part interview with Jeff Galloway

Jeff Galloway has made another foray into the online world in this two part interview that he did with Tom and Martin of Marathon Talk (UK). Some of the stories were similar to the ones from his visit to the Florida Track Club. He did spend a good amount of time talking about running with his Dad, which are heartwarming stories worth a listen. Obviously, he, Tom, and Martin also talk about run-walk-run and how it can improve performance and reduce injury for many runners.

(Interview Part 1 - MP3 Download; Interview Part 2 - MP3 Download)

"Everything you know about fitness is a lie"

Men's Journal has a very interesting and in-depth article on the web. The posting is by Daniel Duane from the November 2010 magazine, but I just found it through one of my RSS feeds and I thought I would write a little about it. The general theme of the article is trying to debunk myths about exercise. Now, Men's Journal, Men's Health, and several other similar magazines aimed at men, women, and both genders have articles like this all the time, right? Usually the articles are ridiculously superficial and based on little to no scientific evidence. 

This article is also a little lean on evidence, but the general approach is refreshing. For example, rather than encouraging "some cardio" and "a little core strengthening" the author dismisses these vague statements about how to approach fitness. Instead, he dismisses them as bogus and goes on to skewer "big corporate gyms" and point out how much of what they do is not really aimed at getting people healthy, but at getting as many people as possible to sign up so that they can turn a profit on the people that pay dues and never go to the gym, or pay extra for personal training. Instead, the author encourages you to have a goal and train for it. Pick a sport that you can gear up for and then go do that sport and get out of the gym!

The author talks about why the gym is over 90% "machines" and you have to go out of your way to find the free weights. Free weights are dangerous and invite liability for the gym. Much easier to buy fancy and shiny machines that anyone can use and promote the heck out of them.

These are a couple of the sidebar images from the article, but check out the full text, it is worth your read.

Copyright held by Men's Journal

Barefoot running and blisters

Went to the beach this weekend and planned on running barefoot/Five Fingers both days. On Saturday, I got four miles in with the VFF and did okay although I think I let myself do a little too much heel striking and I'm a little sore on my left heel. So, on Sunday, I decided to forego the VFF in lieu of an old fashioned barefoot run on the beach. Felt great for the first two miles, splashing in the cool salty water, with a little trail of sand flicked up my heels and ankles. But I started to notice excessive discomfort in my toes and forefoot. I stopped for a quick exam, and I had cropped up 3-4 notable blisters.

When I came back home, my family noted, "You're such an experienced runner, how does something like that happen to you?" Well, unfortunately, it can happen to any of us. The important things to remember are how to care for them and how to change your running and gear to avoid recurrence.

Treating blisters:

Good advice from the Mayo clinic website which is to leave them alone if at all possible. Draining them invites the opportunity for infection. Now, for most young healthy people, this is unlikely and unlikely to be severe if it does occur. For older runners or people with conditions like diabetes, foot care is of greater importance. Always consult your doctor if you are unsure of how to proceed. I may end up draining mine since they are under some tension and somewhat painful, but we'll see.

Avoiding blisters:

Believe it or not, I found a useful page on this at Yahoo answers! That said, a simple Google search will give you hundreds or thousands of pages on low tech and high tech ways of preventing blisters, many trying to sell you their awesome products. Simple advice includes:

• Keeping feet dry, wrinkly damp feet provide an easy opportunity for skin layers to split and form blisters.
• Reduce friction with decent socks and well fitting shoes
• Don't tie them too tight. Allowing your socked foot some mobility will allow the surfaces to glide over one another, where cinching everything down can actually increase friction
• When necessary lube, body glide is a popular product, personally, I just use petroleum jelly

For me, preventing race day blisters is usually just adding some petroleum jelly between my toes and over my forefeet under my socks. I've never had trouble with staining my shoes and the only race I've had hot spots I got on my heel (might start lube'ing these as well).

Entertainment on the Road

I've mentioned before that one of my favorite distractions, especially on the long runs, are audiobooks. I get some as gifts (Born to Run) and there is always Audible.com (although I really hate DRM). I found this website today, (http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/) which has got more free material than I could probably ever listen to. Enjoy and I'll see you out on the road!