Running on the boardwalk

Every time I go to the beach, I see runners on the boardwalk pounding away merrily, chugging along at a leisurely pace which, in part, is influenced by the speed restrictions on the boardwalk. Every time I see them, I wonder, how much does the pounding on the boardwalk hurt in the long run? The slow speed definitely makes it easier on the legs but overall you're still pounding concrete and I think that has to hurt over a period of time. When I was in my 20s, I could run anywhere and the next day would still be the same. Now that I'm in my 30s, where I run and how long I run can and does affect how I feel the next day. Indeed, if I run on concrete and/or tar roads, I am more likely to have sore legs the next day than if I run on dirt trails. Especially, if I run hard.

The other problem with concrete running is the monotonicity of the surface. Over time, this can lead to weaknesses in muscles. Variety, as that found in trail running or running on other uneven surfaces, gives the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and other assorted unpronounceable parts, a chance to work out and in the process, strengthen themselves. Running on the boardwalk fails to provide this variety, unless of course, the boardwalk is covered with potholes or little sand dunes from overnight tides.

Nonetheless, this is all still anecdotal evidence. I wasn't able to find any studies on the effects of running on concrete for several years. A proper research study would definitely make for a stronger case. If you do know something like that, please drop me an email.

iPod on the run?

Is it a good idea? Listening to your iPod while out for a jog? Two incidents in the last week bear mention. First, the female runner who apparently was killed by wolves while out for a run in Chignik, a remote part of Alaska. Second, the beach jogger who was killed by a plane making an emergency landing in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. In both cases, they were apparently listening to an iPod.

Now, it's hard to make a definitive statement that without the iPod, they might still be alive. The runner in Alaska was 4'11" and probably weighed less than a single wolf, much less a pack. Regardless of whether she was running with an iPod or not, if they had attacked, she probably would have stood no chance. In the beach case, apparently the plane had cut its engine and was gliding. Combined with the sound of the waves and wind, one can see how it's possible to not hear it come. Again, it's not clear how much of a difference the iPod would have made. On the other hand, it's possible that someone else saw the plane coming down and started yelling but the jogger didn't hear it because of his iPod. You can never know for sure unless you were there yourself.

Personally I never listen to music while out for a run. Safety being the first factor, but also because I don't like having things in my ears. Even if I did, I don't think I would do it while out on the streets. Maybe on trails.

Music might be helpful and in some cases, maybe even essential, for some people to go out and run. However, one should be aware of the fact that he/she is taking a risk while doing so. How much of a risk? It depends on the person and the environment. Some people have a tendency to get lost in music so much so that they lose track of what else is happening out there. That definitely puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to dealing with any unexpected turn of events.

The environment makes a big difference too. For example, city streets are definitely not the place to run while listening to music. Some people might argue that city streets are not the place to run. Period. Even out on trails, one needs to exercise caution and weigh the risk factors. A couple of years ago, I was in Katmai, Alaska which is another remote part of the country and a great place to see grizzly bears. Even though it was beautiful and very tempting to go for a run, I chose not to mainly because I didn't want to go alone. On the other hand, I've gone running in Yosemite out in the wilderness by myself. These were on plains where I could see the terrain far into the distance and it was in the middle of clear and sunny day.

In the end, it is a choice you make for yourself. Just be aware of your choices and the associated risks. Happy running and stay safe.

Can you get a running injury while driving?

That's what I asked myself a few times after I picked up an injury earlier this year. Internet sleuthing led to the conclusion that it was some kind of tendonitis of the foot. Funny thing is I had been running a consistent 35-45 miles a week for about two months. Then one week I couldn't run much at all. Instead there was a lot of driving, especially of the slow, stop-and-go type, where you're constantly rocking the gas pedal and the brake with your foot. The next week I went for a run and by the time I got back I could feel a niggle under my driving foot. Sure enough, another run confirmed there was something wrong.

I ruled out a bunch of factors. There was no ramp-up in mileage. I'd been at a consistent 35-45 mpw for over two months. Running terrain was the same. Shoes were in decent condition. That pretty much narrowed it to the driving. In retrospect, the other thing that I neglected to do was stretching. Usually, I do. However, this time I didn't.

For the past couple of months, I've been babying the foot. Lots of rest, icing, and a bit of compression. Also bought a new pair of shoes and an arnica-based gel to apply. Cut down running. Restricted myself to around a 9 minute pace. Been doing some walking. All this seems to be helping. I've been able to get some decent running in for the last couple of weeks. Just have to take it slow and steady.

Frustration is the enemy and patience is the weapon in this game of recovery.

Prefontaine Classic 2010 - tickets and lineup

Tickets went on sale yesterday for this year's meet. In about half an hour the best seats were gone. Sounds like a concert, doesn't it? Actually, it's better. Much better.

Interestingly, Section U was marked "unavailable". This is the one that is right in front of where the finish line for most track events is. You get a front facing view of the athletes breaking the tape as they finish. I have a feeling that this section is probably reserved for season ticket holders or someone; the website didn't make it clear.

As per a news release on their site, released much after the tickets went on sale, this year's athletes include Kenenisa Bekele, Yelena Isinbayeva, Tyson Gay, and Sanya Richards. Should be exciting.

PreClassic 2010 tickets on sale this week

Tickets for the Prefontaine Classic 2010 will go on sale on March 5. From personal experience, the best seats sell out on day 1. So, haste is the name of the game. Here's a map of Hayward Field. You want to try and get something close to the finish line.

The only little complaint I usually have is that they don't have a list of athletes announced by the time the tickets are on sale. It's like Priceline, in a way. But you can think of it as booking a 5-star hotel on Priceline. You know it will be good - the athletes are guaranteed to be of top most tier. I've been going to the Pre Classic for the last three years without knowing (at the time of booking tickets) who I'll get to see. So, who have I seen so far? Alan Webb, Kenenisa Bekele, Craig Mottram, Maria Mutola, Bernard Lagat, Sanya Richards, Jenny Barringer, Nick Symmonds, Kara Goucher, Matt Tegenkamp, Dathan Ritzenhein, Asafa Powell, Jeremy Wariner, Asbel Kiprop, Gelete Burka, Jen Rhines, Pamela Jelimo, Saif Shaheen, Shalane Flanagan, Shannon Rowbury, Meserat Defar, Nick Willis. Needless to say, you will not be disappointed.

Moreover, this year marks the first year of the IAAF Diamond League, and of the 14 worldwide meets that are part of this, Eugene and New York are the only ones from the United States. So, there is no better way to spend your July 4th weekend this year than this. Mark the date.

How long can you wear a merino wool shirt without washing?

I had read about people trying this on backpacking forums. So, I decided to try it out for myself. How many times did I wear my merino wool shirt without washing? The answer - 10.

10 times and yet no odor. No itches either. It was as if I'd picked up a fresh shirt each time I went for a run.

Could I have gone longer? I think so. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperative. The winter rains set in, which means less time in between runs for the shirt to dry out completely. I could've let it dry out over a few days but I didn't happen to have too many extra shirts to alternate. Moreover, if you don't let it dry out completely, there is a little bit of a funky odor. Maybe next time, I'll shoot for over 10.

Prefontaine Classic - now in July

Just checked out the website for the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. Looks like they moved it to July starting this year. July 3th, Saturday. They used to have it in early June. This is great news. Moving it to the July 4th weekend is definitely a great move. Oregon usually has a bunch of other activities in the summer and more so in July than in June. This way it becomes easier to clump them together with a visit to Hayward Field to check out some of the greatest athletes in the world.

Watching the New York Marathon live online

Found a link yesterday on the letsrun.com message boards for watching the New York marathon live on the internet. The main site is channelsurfing.net. Universal Sports also had it online but for some reason, my Ubuntu machine wouldn't display it.

Are you ready for the marathon?

A funny take to help you decide whether you are ready to run a marathon. An item from the checklist:

Your freezer contains two packets of Bird’s Eye peas, NEITHER of which for are for consumption.

How to measure a marathon course

Here's an interesting read on how to measure a marathon course. An excerpt:

He says he approximately covers 10km in about one hour – meaning measuring marathon courses can take upwards of four hours, often in the early hours.

marathonguide.com - older than the Internet itself?

www.marathonguide.com is a good site if you want to get a listing of marathons in the US as well as as international. Apparently, it's been around for a long time, longer than the Internet itself. Check out this listing below - you can still run a marathon in Yugoslavia - a country that hasn't existed for a few years now.



But, below is the proof that marathonguide.com is older than the Internet. Check out Mumbai as shown by the black arrow in the screen capture below. It is listed as "British Indian Ocean Territory." Given that India gained independence in 1947 and that the Internet didn't exist back then, there is only one logical conclusion you can draw.



However, strangely enough, Bangalore is listed under "India".

Disposable version of ChampionChip?

Ran a 5K race today. Came through in 20:39. Splits was 6:43, 6:50 (1.1mile - 6:12 pace), and 7:04. Just over two minutes slower than my PR back in April. Got some work to do ahead of me.

One interesting aspect was this electronic tag that they gave us. We had to tie it to our shoe and it would register the time as we crossed the finish line. This is what it looks like from the front:



and the back:


Pretty neat stuff. Small, unobtrusive, and disposable. No more worrying about losing your tag and having to shell out 20 or 30 bucks.

I was able to make out "UPM Raflatac" on the back. A web search took me to this company that makes RFID devices: http://www.upmraflatac.com/northamerica/eng/. Wonder how this will affect the usage of ChampionChip tags? On one hand, the ChampionChip tags cost money, but on the other hand, they are environment-friendly in that that they can be used multiple times.

Running in Yosemite

The last weekend, we stopped by Yosemite National Park on our way from Death Valley. We came in through the east entrance (from Tioga Pass) and stopped for a hike to Gaylor Lakes. The trailhead is right there at the entrance. It took about half an hour to get to the lakes from the trailhead. Once up there, the weather was perfect and I just had to go for a 5-mile run even though I hadn't really planned for it. Absolutely beautiful. It's just a different feeling running in the grandeur of Yosemite, at 10,000+ feet with not a single soul in sight. Top it off with dipping your feet in the lake and you have a great run. The best thing is that since the hike is less than half an hour, you could just get a water bottle and get up there and go running to your heart's content. No need to lug your heavy backpack up there. On the way down, you can see a bunch of lakes/ponds on the other side of the road. We saw at least half a dozen.

Mark this as one of those hidden beauties of Yosemite.

How much can premature celebration cost - part 2

This weekend was the World Athletic Championships in Berlin, Germany. The women's 10,000m final was very interesting if you read this post at letsrun.com. Meselet Melkamu started celebrating a bit too soon (6 inches according to letsrun) and Linet Masai squeaked by for the win - by 0.1 second. Gold medal gone, just like that.

A couple of years I posted a link to another case of premature celebration. That one made the difference of bragging rights to the Chicago Marathon and an extra $60,000.

Moral of the story - unless your last name is Bolt, you better not start celebrating until after you've crossed the tape.

Prefontaine Classic 2009

We went to the Prefontaine Classic a couple of weeks ago, on June 7th, 2009 in Eugene, Oregon. This is our third consecutive year enjoying this event. The day was beautiful albeit a bit warm to permit any world records from falling. Below is a shot of Hayward Field, from Section A which is right in front of the finish line for the races. You get a side shot of the winners as they break the tape. Last year, we were in Section U, which provides you with a front-side shot as they finish. (Click on any of the pictures below for a larger version.)


The national anthem was the first item on the menu. This was followed by antipasti of a medley of field events - men's pole vault, men's long jump, women's discus, and women's hammer throw. Then started the main course, aka the track events, the first of which was the men's 400m hurdles. At this point, the announcer told us that we were now live on NBC TV, which was greeted by loud cheers all around. Bershawn Jackson comfortably won the hurdles in 48.38. This gave way to the highly anticipated women's 1500m with a field that read Gelete Burka, Nancy Lagat, Anna Willard, Jenny Barringer, Shannon Rowbury, Shalane Flanagan, Erin Donohue, among others.



The race didn't disappoint. Burka barely beat out Barringer by 1/100 of a second - 3:59.89 to 3:59.90. That's them finishing. Barringer had a great run down the homestretch where she almost caught up with Burka. You should've seen the expression of overjoyed surprise on her face - she was elated.

Then came the men's steeplechase with last year's winner Paul Koech being the favorite. That's him (below) winning in a comfortable time of 8:13.44, almost 8 seconds ahead of the second place.



It must have been an exhausting race, judging by these runners below. This is right after the race ended.



In the background, the field events contined to progress. The shot below is that of Dwight Phillips finishing his 8.74m jump that ultimately got him the first place. This broke the Hayward Field record of 8.49m set by Irving Saladino in 2007, who finished second this time with 8.63m.



Then followed the men's 3000m race with a field of Eliud Kipchoge, Bernard Lagat, Saif Shaheen, Alistair Craig, Matt Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky, seen in order from right to left below. (There were others but they are not in this shot below.)



Lagat and Shaheen fought it out in the last couple of hundred meters. Shaheen pulled into the lead around the 200m but soon Lagat switched gears and with around 100m to go, he took the lead. He won in 7:35.92, almost a second ahead of Shaheen.



All this while, the field events continued. At some points, you could see three or four athletes in action simultaneously - someone running, someone jumping, someone throwing. It was pretty exciting, almost like a fast-paced video game. The above picture shows the lineup for the men's shot put, with a guy getting ready for the high jump in the immediate background, and another guy getting ready for the pole vault in the far background.

I don't mean to downplay the field events vis-a-vis the track events. Indeed, they have their own unique, inimitable moments. Below, Irving Saldino shows how to chat with the photographer while still jumping an 8.63. Perhaps that was the reason he lost to Phillips.



Or better yet, take the woman jumper below. She seems to be from the kung-fu school of long jump, unveiling here, for the first time ever, the soon-to-be-famous Flying Dragon style. This esoteric style is a few centuries older than the Fosbury flop technique in high jump. Unfortunately, I don't remember who the athlete is. If you do, please drop me a note.



Reese Hoffa won the men's shot put with a 71ft 10in throw. Here he is on his way out of the stadium, with a smile that seems to fit a persona of a gentle giant. The announcer reminded us that Hayward Field is the home of the 70-foot throw, there have been more such throws than anywhere else in the world. Adam Nelson, who won last year, fouled on all six of his attempts.



Sanya Richards (below) won the women's 400m easily in 49.86 seconds. Later she was in the Nutrilite tent signing autographs.



The men's 800m was won by Nick Symmonds in 1:45.86 beating last year's winner Alfred Yego. That's Symmonds in the pic below with Elijah Greer, a Oregon high-schooler following closely. Though he finished last here, he's supposed to be one of the up-and-coming stars with a lot of potential. A few days after the race, I was talking to someone in the little town of Tillamook, Oregon and he knew about Greer.



This was followed by the women's 800. Maggie Vessey, pictured below, won comfortably, beating out the favorite(?) Pamela Jelimo who finished dead last. The expression on her face after she won was worth a Mastercard commercial, though Visa being the main sponsors of this meet might not take too kindly to that. Check out this video; you can hear her say "Oh, my God!" She's the one behind everyone else at the completion of the first lap.



Then followed the women's 2000m with a field consisting of Vivian Cheruiyot, Maryam Jamal, Linet Masai, Kara Goucher, Jen Rhines, Sara Hall, among others. Cheruiyot won in 5:31.52 beating Mary Slaney's Hayward Field record and better yet, setting the fastest time ever on US soil.



As the winner started on her the victory lap, out came the athletes for what is arguably the grand finale - the men's Bowerman mile. The field - Asbel Kiprop, Alan Webb, Lopez Lomong, Leonel Manzano, Belal Mansoor, Shedrack Korir, etc. Kiprop won in 3:48.50 barely missing out on the Hayward Field record of 3:48.28 by Daniel Komen. If had hadn't done a Bolt by waving kisses to the crowd more than 50 meters from the finish, he might have had the record. Below is a picture at some point in the race, with all but the guy on the left with their feet in the air. Incidentally, that guy on the left went on to win.



Here's Kiprop doing a Bolt, albeit a bit restrained in comparison to Bolt.



The results showed up one by one on the scoreboard. They were hoping for a sub-4:00 finish by all. It looked good as the screen below shows. Alas, as the results scrolled by on to the second screen with more 3:XX.XX's, the last one burst the bubble - 4:01.09. Nevertheless, it was pretty exciting - 13 sub-4 finishers.



That was it for the races. The final event was the presentation of the Maria Mutola award. Last year was the inaugural one - won by pole vaulter Brad Walker. This year it went to long jumper Dwight Phillips. Here he is below, after being presented with the award by Mary Slaney.



A great end to a great meet. Best of all, it didn't rain! I think the announcer said something like 12,000+ was the stadium attendance, which if I recall correctly is slightly lower than last year's record of 14,000+. Everything was well-organized. The bib numbers that the athletes had, matched those in the booklet that we bought, which made it much easier to follow the races and also to compile this post. Though, I still don't understand why they have a hip number in addition. Nutrilite, one of the sponsors, had a tent set up and a little kiosk with cool stuff. We even got free T-shirts, energy bars, energy pills, and a carry-sack. There were a bunch of athletes signing autographs in the Nutrilite tent - Sanya Richards, LaShawn Merritt, Bryan Clay, etc.

We then headed out the gates and took a hop, skip, and a jump across the street to some absolutely fantastic ice-cream at Prince Pucklers.

(If you're interested, here's a link to my post from the 2008 meet and the 2007 meet.)

Another step closer to a sub-18 5K

Ran a 5K race in 18:38 this weekend. That's a new PR. Old one was 18:59, set exactly a month ago. No idea about mile splits; didn't see any mile markers. It was an out-and-back course and the splits were 9:29 and 9:09. I've been running a pretty consistent 30-35 mpw and a couple of tempo runs a week. I had been planning to start speedwork after last month's PR, but a friend in an online newsgroup suggested that mitochondria generation in response to increased mileage can last up to six weeks. (Which reminds me I still need to read up more on that.) So, I postponed the launch into the world of speed then. It got me 21 seconds. At this point, I think I'm sufficiently overconfident to make a sub-18 5K my next goal. I do plan to sit down and craft a good long-term plan, however, I'm leaning towards starting fartlek and/or hill workouts now.

Mt. Everest Climbers Measure Lowest Blood Oxygen Levels on Record

Here's the link to the story:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health_medicine/4298495.html

An average person at sea level has about 13-14 kilopascals (kPa) of oxygen in their bloodstream, University College of London medical researcher Dan Martin says. When his intensive care patients drop to around 8 kPa he gets very worried, and a normal person with 6 kPa of oxygen faces almost certain death. Imagine his shock, then, when he and three colleagues on the top of Mount Everest measured their own blood oxygen level to be between 2.5 and 4 kPa, the lowest ever measured in live people.

I tracked down the original article at the New England Journal of Medicine. Here's a link to the abstract:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/360/2/140

and an excerpt:

PaO2 fell with increasing altitude, whereas SaO2 was relatively stable. The hemoglobin concentration increased such that the oxygen content of arterial blood was maintained at or above sea-level values until the climbers reached an elevation of 7100 m (23,294 ft). In four samples taken at 8400 m (27,559 ft) — at which altitude the barometric pressure was 272 mm Hg (36.3 kPa) — the mean PaO2 in subjects breathing ambient air was 24.6 mm Hg (3.28 kPa), with a range of 19.1 to 29.5 mm Hg (2.55 to 3.93 kPa). The mean PaCO2 was 13.3 mm Hg (1.77 kPa), with a range of 10.3 to 15.7 mm Hg (1.37 to 2.09 kPa). At 8400 m, the mean arterial oxygen content was 26% lower than it was at 7100 m (145.8 ml per liter as compared with 197.1 ml per liter). The mean calculated alveolar–arterial oxygen difference was 5.4 mm Hg (0.72 kPa).

For the full article, you'll need a subscription.

According to the article, the scientists also took tiny biopsy samples of their muscles while they were there and froze them; now they are studying them, primarily the mitochondria. I'm not a doctor and I don't really understand the implications and ramifications of all this, however, this stuff could perhaps be useful to runners one day. As it is, the benefits of training at high altitude are already well-known. Though I doubt you could, would, or should really run at 29,035 feet, maybe this study might provide us with a better insight that could make runners stronger and faster.

New year, new PRs

This weekend, I ran a 5K followed by a 10K. New PRs in both races - 18:59 and 41:20. Old PRs were 19:49 and 45:16. The old 10K PR was soft and that's why the big DOW-like drop. Pleased with the 5K time. The big difference has been the miles I've been putting in. I've been getting an even 35 miles/week for the last 5 weeks leading in to the race. Throw in a few tempo runs and it's good. I anticipate cutting it down even further once I start doing interval type speedwork. Current goal is sub-18 5K by the end of the year.

Prefontaine Classic unveils a new look

The Prefontaine Classic has a new look on the web. The site used to be http://www.preclassic.com, but now it redirects you to http://www.runnerspace.com/PreClassic. The site looks good with lots of info and video and what not. Much better than the simple text-only site they used to have until recently. The only problem is they haven't updated the records on their page. Check out this screenshot that I took today. The men's 100m and 200m world records are from the pre-Bolt era. Hopefully, they'll get to fixing it soon.

active.com - the new search interface is in a recession

I used to use active.com for searching for races. But over the past few months they've been migrating to a newer search interface. Problem is the new one isn't working half as well as the old one. Like the current economy, it seems to be in a recession. This is what has happened. First, they removed a link to the old interface which they used to call the "classic event search". This means you are forced to use the new one. However, the problem with the new one is that it doesn't do what you want it to do. I tried a search for races in San Diego, California in the time period from today (Dec 7, 2008) till Dec 31, 2008. This is what it gave me.



You'll notice two things wrong with the picture. One, there is no date listed next to the events and that means you have to click on each event to find that piece of information. Two, and more importantly, it shows events from Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day both of which are a few months out of the range I specified.

This is disappointing given that they do have all the information but just that it's not being displayed correctly. Hopefully, this is just a matter of time and they will resolve this issue soon.