NYC marathon Expo and morning run today

I picked up my bib for the NYC marathon yesterday. Making the deadline was a race in itself as I made it just 3minutes before close. It was a lot of fun. I always found it fascinating to see so many ultra-fit people in their causal dresses (as opposed to running dresses in races). The expo almost feels like a mall in some alternate world where everybody is in tiptop shape all the time. 

Anyway, I picked up my 4hr pace ribbon just like the last two times. Its become a tradition now. Perhaps third time is the charm and its finally time to make it into the 3hr club. I was pretty sure I will break 4hr till today morning. I had the most painful barefoot moment today though it didn't last long and no damage done.

I ran in relatively chilly morning feeling good about it after the nice run I had couple of days back in similar temperatures in wet conditions. All went okay till the last mile when I decided to do a small stretch of hill run up really fast. But by the time I finished the quarter mile cat hill stretch, the whole sole of the feet started hurting really badly. It really felt like they were on fire. Interestingly enough, the pain started pretty abruptly and well AFTER I had slowed down at top. 

I am guessing that the fast run pumped in warm blood into desensitized neural receptors in the soles and got confused and started screaming in pain. Moving to soft grass surface opposite the MET museum didn't really help the situation so it wasn't the surface. I had never felt anything like this before. I was forced to take it easy and stop running for couple of minutes for the pain to dissipate which has never happened before. The rest of the run back was fine.

I am pretty sure this was an extreme case of needle-like pain we experience if we wash very cold hands in hot water. The blood rushes to skin which has been devoid of blood for a while and every "breakthrough" causes sharp pain. The foot just happens to have substantially higher density of such pain receptors than normal skin. So when I ran fast, the circulation suddenly got a jump start. 

Good news is I am positive that there was no injury associated with this issue and within about 5minutes, everything was back to normal. Just like cramps, it was painful while it lasted but soon you cant feel anything but dull pain. But lesson learnt is

* Need to do lots of research on human skin's response to cold and how compatible is it to running related blood circulation.

* Expect the unexpected even after 700mi+ barefoot training miles. 

* Brand new type of pain which I had never experienced before. There are theories out there the first interpretation of any "sensation" not recognized by brain is pain and/or tickle. eg. if a blind person gets sight, he feels pain even if the light is not bright.

 

I am now concerned about my negative spilt strategy. I am tempted to run fast initially to get circulation going and keeping it up for rest of the race. This would be disastrous for the "glycogen reserves" but it may be worth the shot. Besides, it is always fun to enjoy manhattan crowd going slow in second half if I do end up slowing down. Here are my racing strategies:

Scientific strategy: Run first half in 2hrs evenly and depending on HR averages, speed up progressively in second half.

Evil alternative (aka "&$%# it" alternative): Just like staten island half, start at 8:30 pace and hang in there as long as possible. Then once in manhattan, slow down/take a breaks/wear shoes/sneak into subways/take nap at my apartment on the course and jump back after couple of beers...feels good to just think about it.

BF in NY for 724mi

Getting cold feet (feet cold) ahead of the marathon

Yesterday, I ventured a short 4mi run in freezing rain. The ambient temperature was 39 degrees but with windchill at 29  degrees. On top, it was raining with chilly wet sidewalk. Probably not the smartest thing I have done in my training especially just days ahead of the marathon. First few minutes felt good because feet were still warmish. But about half mile into the run, the foot started to get the familiar feeling of incremental pain we get when taking ice-bath. From that point onward, I was highly conscious that every step I take only takes me one step away from home and without money on me, one more step I have to take to get back home. 

Also slowly as the feet got chilly, they lost sensation making them more prone to injury. By the time I reached central park, I thought I was better off running on softish reservoir instead of road to avoid any sharp rocks etc. The feet still felt pretty bad while I was on reservoir, especially since the whole path was full of deep puddles full of ice cold water. I tried my best to avoid getting top of my feet wet but realized that that was a hopeless exercise and started running straight through puddless. Ironically, that helped somehow. The legs slowly recovered and I started getting sensation back in the feet. By the time I finished the reservoir loop, I was speeding up to sub 10mpm speed and faster speed only made the feet warmer. So the run back to home was very pleasant. 

I feel so much better now that I can handle temperatures in 30s. I was concerned about getting feet wet and cold on marathon morning at water stops and somehow freezing them. Since I will be running the race much faster, I am pretty sure I will be fine. I just have the challenge of keeping feet warm till I cross the start line. I am thinking two layers of socks. I had been wondering what I was going to do with the multiple family size sock packs I had bought in pre-barefoot days:-)

Its also comforting to know that if I get my feet warmed up in time, I can run in sub-40 degree temperature, even in wet conditions. This opens up at least two months of each side of winter for barefoot training. Awesome. Also hopefully the legs will develop to cope with low temperatures by building mini-capillaries carrying warm 97 degree blood to the extremities. But that remain to be seen.  In the meantime, I think I will keep my runs short with an exit strategy if I get too cold or get injured somehow. 

On marathon end, I have been biking to work through central park and its amazing to see all the finish line architecture getting built over last couple of days. As a runner I never noticed all the setups around finish line. I will try to bike around to get a feel for the first ave and fifth ave sometime before marathon but my schedule is kindda busy. Visiting the start line will have to wait for Sunday morning. The temperature forecast is sub-40 on Staten Island so it will be freezing to wait up for hours down there.

BF in NY for 719mi

I am not really into nudity per se but I came across this video which sparks some questions about nudity in social framework which somehow seems related to 

Tapering to the extreme and running in cold weather.

Since the Staten Island half marathon, I have just ran three 8mi runs. For better or for worse the Nov2 marathon tapering started couple of weeks too early. Part of the reason for cooling the training a bit has been the dull pain in right foot metatarsal. After seeing Denna Kaster dropping out due to fracture in metatarsal, not keeping high mileage seemed like common sense. To be fair, thats just an excuse but really i have been to busy to run.

The three runs included one run couple of days back in cold 45 degree weather. I had learnt from past that running in grass freezes the leg faster so I avoided running on grass for the most part. The run was fine at about 9:45 pace but the feet were less sensitive than usual and it took a couple of extra steps to notice stones digging into the sole. It is a little concerning because less sensitive sole can result in more risk of puncture injury. But it should not be a show stopper. THe previous run was also in relatively cold weather and I ventured into dark bridal path. Inevitably I stepped on a sharp gravel stone and it was too late by the time I senses it causing excruciating pain. BUt the pain was gone in few minutes and after inspecting the area after coming back home, I couldnt see anything. Sounds like lack of sensitivity is somehow offset by stronger pain in cold.

I cant really do a long run this weekend as its just one more week to the marathon but may be I will do 10-12mi run this weekend.  Since its raining, I will probably just do a quick 4miler now on Saturday morning and the "last 10-miler run" tomorrow. Tomorrow's run basically is on the last 10-miles of the NYC marathon route but on the sidewalk/bike lane (1st ave has a bike lane) instead on main street. I am a bit skeptical about running on sidewalks so much barefoot a week before marathon so I may do this in vibrams. Undecided.

BF in NY for 710.7mi (with shoes 888.8mi on target for 1000mi)

Since the Staten Island half marathon, I have just ran three 8mi runs. For better or for worse the Nov2 marathon tapering started couple of weeks too early. Part of the reason for cooling the training a bit has been the 

Some good news, lots of bad news

I ran the Staten Island half marathon today as planned. I started with couple of miles at 8:45 pace. Legs didn't feel as fresh as I had hoped despite a week long break. Also as incredible as it may sound, the road and the sun felt pretty hot. But otherwise the conditions were good to run a relatively fast half marathon barefoot. 

During the third mile, the race moved into a barren industrial waste land road. The road was battered with tiny glass and other sharp particles. I was fumbling with my fanny pack to put my vibram FFs in the belt and (ouch!) a splinter got into my left foot. I immediately stopped to inspect the damage and realized that splinter was deep enough to reach blood vessels. I considered taking it out with the medical kit I was carrying but it didn't look easy. I literally stood still deciding whether to turn back or keep running risking more damage. I even considered possibility of messing up the marathon coming up in three weeks. The whole deciding phase took over 4minutes! I decided to put my vibrams on and push for a mile and see how it feels. Loss of 4minutes blew any chance of breaking PRs but I didnt want to DNF unless I must. 

I started running pretty fast. Splinter hurts but I figured running slow or fast shouldn't make a difference. I was running pretty fast and it felt good so I thought why not finish the whole thing. After all, I had never DNFed a race before. I also thought I will run fast as long as I can and I can just walk later if necessary. Rest of the race was pretty uneventful. The splinter didn't hurt as long as I stepped on even surface. The final race time was 1:58:20 (1:54 after adjusting for 4min break).  At 1:54 I was still off couple of minutes from the PR but, despite splinter, I definitely finished very strong.  Average HR at 175 was good as well though I touched 202 at very end running sub 7min pace at finish line. 

One annoying issue came up was blister from the vibrams. Its been a while since I ran long distance in them and I developed a blister about 10mi into the race. I am not sure if it slowed me down but it was quite annoying. It just tells me that I cannot really rely on falling back on shoes or vibrams for the marathon if I cant run it barefoot. At least, I will have to rotate between barefoot, vibram and shoes or something.

But for better or for worse, my three weeks of tapering has now started. With just 20miles, last week was as good as tapering as well. I wish the half marathon had gone better than it did but it could also have been worse. Looking at today's race, here are few pointers for the marathon

* Getting a splinter in early race can ruin a race and FFs may work for long run. 

* 4hr marathon is very doable but much faster than that is not likely

* Good marathon racing strategy would be to run first half in 2hrs then run second half as fast as possible. Key HR threshold is 175bpm.

BF in NY for 687mi

No running this week and racing strategy for half tomorrow.

What a week! I ran just once this week so far. I have been glued to Bloomberg machine at work watching markets for most of my waking hours and couldn't sneak out for run. Even today, I am just catching up on sleep and don't plan to run despite it being a Saturday...yawn.

Just like last time when I took few days off, new minor aches are popping all over legs after almost a week of no running. How can NOT running cause injuries? There must be a mild "flight or fight pain killer" effect perpetually ON when continuously training hard. It just tells me that continuous strenuous training may take more out of your legs than it makes you believe and unless you taper on regular basis, its just not sustainable.

Good news is that all this break from heavy training should bode well for the Staten Island half marathon tomorrow. I haven't really ran a longish race with fast pace so the race should be fun. Perhaps I should shoot for my half marathon PR 1:52 i.e. 8:30 pace. 

As a side note, since my very first marathon, I have run ALL races with significant negative split. Two potential exceptions include the 1 miler last month which was almost dead even split.  Also the 18mi race the following weekend (the one with two 20milers) was definitely not a negative split but it was training run the day after a 20miler run. I do want to continue running negative split and I may have to risk it tomorrow if I start fast. Last weekend's half marathon had a split of 1:04:30 (9:30mpm) and 55:30min (mpm). All I have to do it run both halfs with splits similar to second half split last week. Here are few racing strategies

* I will start with couple of miles at 8:30mpm and see how heart rate responds. 

* Alternative, I could run first half at 9mpm pace and hope to run second at 8mpm which sounds tough. 

* The third even crazier option is to forget about PR and run to the ferry 8mi to make this a 21mi run just like last weekend. Frankly I am getting tired of running 20milers and would love to run a proper half marathon distance with some speed.

I am pretty sure I will end up doing a combination of first and second option. It also depends on whether any of the aches I feel are real injuries. No point risking an injury three weeks before the marathon.

BF in NY for 673mi

4-day break from marathon training at its peak???

No running this week so far. The crazy half marathon after the 8mi warm up on Saturday was more strenuous than I thought.  There are minor strains in my right foot muscles.  I must have been compensating for the splinter causing strains in other parts of the right foot.

Perhaps a mini-break before another heavy week might not be such a bad idea. It just feels that if I run , I may make the strains worse. This weekend is my last weekend with a long run so it not worth the risk. 

There are couple of options for this weekend. There is another half marathon this weekend in Staten Island. Its a fun race with the commute on Staten Island ferry which is always fun. Also the race pass close to the NYC marathon start area. Other option is, so called, three bridge run by Flyers. This run starts in Central Park down to south tip of manhattan, over the Brooklyn Bridge and back over the 59th St bridge back. It sounds like a lot of fun but I don't think I should risk running on all these urban paths after the splinter I got last week.

In the meantime, I miss running. I cant imagine not being able to run barefoot anymore once it gets too cold. I have already started doing research on what is possible and what I can do now to help adapt my feet to cold. I got the first taste of cold weather today while biking to work. Bzzzz...

BF in NY for 665mi

1:59 GGG half marathon...

I ran one of my favorite half marathons.. GGG half in central park. The weather was near perfect. I woke up early, quickly checked the race details saying that it starts at 7:30. Soon I headed to the park with a slow run at around 7:15am. Everything was going according to plan till I realized that I forgot the racing chip home and had to run back home and get back to the park. Since I was getting late, I was running fast and reached the startline 15min late. The whole area was deserted. But I crossed the starting chipmats and started racing hoping to capture tailend of runners within mile or two. I figured with chip timing, no real damage done.

I never caught up with any tailend runners but did bump into a lot of runners with bibs on running in opposite direction. It took me a while to realize that the race hasn't started yet and 7:30 was time to start picking up bibs and not start of the race. Race was to start at 9am. I had little choice but to finish the central park loop adding total 8mi to half marathon distance (including run from home to park).

I did finish the half marathon. So today was another 20miler! The "warm up" 8mi was at 11mpm. I managed to run the half barely faster than 2hrs so about 9mpm. It felt good to finish the race with last 2miles at close to 8mpm. It was certainly good boost to confidence since I will most likely run the NYC marathon with negative split.

On barefoot front, 4 20milers in three weekends are probably not very smart and the feet are more sore than last few runs. But it is also possible than my feet are not adapted to colder weather. 45degrees is not really freezing but feet took some time to warmup and hurt during first half an hour. Somehow the abrasion seems more damaging in colder weather. Also I managed to get a real splinter just half a mile from finishline. Since I really wanted to break 2hrs, I didn't really stop for long except for a quick inspection. The splinter didn't really bother me but when I got home, I took it out and it hurt a bit. I will just take it easy tomorrow and perhaps skip running altogether just to be safe. I already have 41mi done this week so I am on schedule even if I don't run tomorrow.

While on topic, it's interesting that I got two splinters in 4long runs and both came into 20th milei. Something to think about as only one more 20miler left before tapering.

BF in NY for 665mi.