Gravity's Siren Song

This is a bit long but it highlights an important lesson I've learned this past year, perhaps the most important lesson I've ever learned, DON'T HAUL ASS DOWN HILLS.

Last year I was injured, and I'm about 96% certain it was because of a lot of downhill running.

It's tempting, isn't it? You might be running along, or perhaps UP a hill, your stocky, bootylicious self, and you see the downhill and you say to yourself, "WARP FIVE, MR. SULU!". Chances are, if you are not a bird-person, and if you haven't (gently) trained running a lot of downhills, you might be cutting your race short and you will suffer.

If the finish is down at the bottom, fine. But if not, if you have a couple more miles to go after that long downhill (I'm talking here of marathons, 10ks, et cetera, not necessarily 5ks, although I'm not ruling them out.) say, a couple more miles or flat or--shudder--another hills, baby, you are DONE.

Last year I did several long downhills on pavement. I did the New Mexico marathon, which has a 6-mile downhill between about mile 15 and 21.
At right, this is an old profile from a training ride, but the area between miles 1 and 13 are the first half of the NM Marathon. -->

At this marathon, I abandoned my works-for-me plan and answered the siren call of gravity, hauling ass down that hill.

By the time I got to the bottom, the nagging pain I'd had the previous week while hauling ass down the road leading up to the La Luz trailhead had spread to my left tibia. I was in such pain by mile 23 than I nearly fell over when I stepped wrong at an aid station.

I laid off, and then did the Colorado Relay 2 weeks later. My splits were short, about 4 to 6 miles, but all downhill - my choice. The last one dropped in altitude over 900 feet over 3 miles. OWWW. But I was okay, I could jog, a little. X-rays were negative. Diagnosis: shin splints.

Three days later, I went for a quick (2.5 mile run) to the local aquatic center, swam, and then headed home. 100 feet into a very steep downhill on blacktop (running full tilt, of course) I suddenly could not run any more. The theory was that at that point I'd developed a stress fracture. I didn't run on pavement for over 8 weeks, although I could do some light trail running. The rest is history. I finally feel like I'm recovered.

So then, this past weekend. Here's the profile -->

Ahead of time, a fellow ultra runner, Don, warned me about the downhill. Don't go flying back down that hill, he said. You're not done yet.

There was a woman just ahead of me, who seemed invested in staying ahead of me. She is a bit trimmer than I, and she kept looking back at me. Because she did that, well, I had to beat her.

Had to.
You understand, right?

She was good on the flats, but challenged by the uphills - I passed her going up that long 2.5 mile climb. I've started doing this little hopping run--tiny steps-up hills that is faster than hiking, but I could only just now do it because I had to develop quads and calves. But anyway. So I passed her, and said as nicely as I could, "boy, I'll sure be glad when this hill ends, won't you?" as she walked dejectedly up the hill, hands on hips, taking long, huge steps*.

I went ahead, but she wasn't that far behind. She could have, mind you, passed me easily with a gentle jog, and stayed ahead. As we crested and headed back down the hill, however, she flew past me. I mean, she hauled ass, running with big huge sprinting steps, each jarring step pounding the ground with all the combination of her weight coming down on it and the force of gravity.

As tempting as it was, I'd been thinking about New Mexico marathon lately, and last year's injuries, and Scott's warning, and I continued my gentle jog down the slope.

When we got to the bottom, she was done. DONE. as in, she could barely move. She'd shocked the crap out of her shins and quads, and now barely shuffling on the rollers.

She kept looking behind her. I felt sorry for her.

But yeah, I passed her.

I tried to say something encouraging about it being almost over for us, but let's face it, when someone passes you, you just resent them for passing you at that stage of the race.

So my lesson today is, watch out for those downhills. They may be doing much more harm than good. You won't make up much time by sprinting down them that a nice brisk run with small, gentle steps won't accomplish, and you'll feel better when you do.

*Big mistake. When going uphill, change your stride to smaller steps, else you'll burn your adductors out.

...

Thursday Thirteen.

1. WINDY CITY HERE WE COME!
Mini-baboo is graduating from Navy Boot camp next Friday at Great Lakes, and I will go view the pomp of a full-on military parade while Sweet Baboo reminisces.

2. Due to Sweet Baboo 's savvy planning: our plane tickets are nearly free, we got a steep discount to a nice hotel a few miles from base, and there will be running--Yes, running!--a local 5K and the Full Moon half marathon within driving distance (It's Wisconsin, but within driving distance).

3. The 5K is the "ELVIS IS ALIVE 5k" I haven't worn my Pricilla dress and wig since the Las Vegas marathon in 2007.

4. I expect everyone to look just like these people -->
all fabulous and singing songs as they go about their day and whatnot. Right? RIGHT?

5. I used this website to workout a 50K training plan for this year's Palo Duro 50k. I'll be running 5 days a week. Somehow, I'll squeeze in swimming, cycling, working, and 11 hours of school. (eep)

6. Diet: I blew out, and made this HUGE pot of cheesy mashed potatoes. HUGE.

But. I've been eating 6 tiny meals a day and a lot of G2; thus my stomach capacity has decreased. All I could do was stare at the pot, bloated and full, after eating a slightly unreasonable couple of servings. The rest was put in rubbermaid for another binge.

BINGE: FAIL.

7. To the left is my new 2 mile run. Not a fast sprint, mind you--it's a run that goes uphill in tiny baby steps on tip toes. It's hard to explain, but faster than slogging it up the hill. As you might imagine, the half first mile involves nearly throwing up. It's getting easier.

8. Right behind my house is a large flat-topped boulder that I get to sit on and stretch and cool down, facing the mountains and the dawn. (yeah, I know. I'd hate me too, if I were you. )


9. Ever heard of a SWAMP COOLER? A swamp cooler is the charming nickname for an Evaporative Cooler. It is slightly less primitive than standing under a hose. It makes everything kind of clammy and also uses a lot of water, which is a bit scarce here. I dislike them pretty intensely.

10. Soooooo, I put a window A/C unit in our bedroom to get us through the hottest month of the summer. Since there's just the two of us, we can just hang out in the bedroom watching old Seinfeld episodes with wonderfully dry air conditioning. You don't need whole-house anything when there's no kids living within.

11. I'm eating a ridiculous amount of popcorn with cheese powder on it. It's not bad for me, but the hulls are always stuck between my teeth and there are orange stains on everything.

12. I don't know why my cats like playing in the garage. They hang out near the door and meow plaintively and bat their eyes at me. So, I open the door. You can almost hear them yelling, Wheeeeeee! as they shoot through the door into to the hot, stuffy garage. I guess if you're a house cat you find your moments where you can.

13. There this really bitter unpleasant old bag at work. She's ugly and mean and complains and derides everything and everybody. Whew! that feels better. Glad I got to say it to someone!

...

Fat Tuesday: 3 articles about fat.

1. Obese people spend more money on healthcare:

Now, of course - this doesn't include an operational definition of obese, which one would hope is not from the MetLife weight scale and, rather, uses the increasingly more useful waist circumference or bodyfat measurement. As well, all of this is based on frequency tables, and the average "obese" person probably doesn't do Ironman Triathlons and trial ultras, so I'm not too concerned. Moreover, according to the AHO's definition of obese and this calculator, I'm not obese, but I'm definitely pushing maximum density.

In any case, my comment on this was that being big is just more expensive all around. I pay more for clothes, since the amount of any shipment of clothing that is devoted to plus sizes (12+) is generally very, very small - by the time the sales hit, there's nothing left but make-believe sizes (0, 2). Don't bother complaining to me if you're a size 0. I won't believe you. You're not real. Oh, and more expensive CRAPPY clothes, too, since clothing designers haven't gotten the notion that larger women don't just increase proportionally, they change shape.

Other ways that being big is more expensive, I've found: I go through running shoes more often, I wear through socks more often, and I seem to bang into stuff more often, requiring bandaids and such (I'm still not used to being this big and taking up this much space)

2. Obesity facts 101: What are the main causes of obesity in America?

What on earth is "polycystic ovary disease?" I looked this up, and read the symptoms, and I'm fairly certain I don't have this. Still, I'm reminded of a brief conversation a few years back when I was reading the symptoms of menopause - plain, old menopause - to Sweet Baboo. He listened in astonishment for a little bit, and then finally shook his head and said, "Women's bodies just fall apart".

We do have unnecessarily complex bodies. There's all sorts of complicated plumbing and wiring down there, and up to about 40 years ago the answer was just to yank the wiring harness or the plumbing stack rather than research ways to fix it.

3. Caffeine: Women's Weight Loss Breakthrough or Bust?

From the conclusion: "Caffeine supplementation does not provide recreationally active women a viable pathway to weight loss or any meaningful ergogenic performance benefits. "

However, I did find it interesting that they found improved Vo2 max in the 6 mg/kg dose. (that's about 13 mg per pound, which is about 2 cups of brewed coffee, I think, for a 100-pound person, which I am NOT) It makes me wonder if the 5-hour Energy Shot I always take before heavy workouts is just a placebo effect. Of course, they weren't studying stamina; they were studying efficiency. Nancy can probably lend more explanation to the results than I can, because it's not really my area.

Meanwhile:

I found this cool web site that helps you work out a training plan for a marathon or ultra. http://scrunners.org/ - - Click on your choice on the left.

...

Suckfest's younger brother...

is known as the "Run to Break the Silence" 20k.

It sounds innocent enough, doesn't? Awwwww. Why, it's not even a half marathon. It's a baby half marathon! How sweet. Yes, let's go do this. It's for charity, for a local Oral School

The day after the 80-mile suckfest ride in high 90s heat, after which the DailyPlate informed me that I could have 2088 more calories (but I was too tired to get them) yes, let's go run in the foothills . In the heat.

So. It starts out at Sandia Casino, and then climbs gently for a while, and then sucks your soul dry for over 2 miles, and then goes back down to the casino. It's a good, well-marked course on dirt service roads, and was well supported with water and gatorade and nice volunteers.

As you can see by the profile, it's not completely straight up and not completely straight down. I wasn't last, but it was hot, and I was pretty sick of being tired, sore, and damp, so I finally finished, and said, "take me home". And Baboo said, do you want to go get food first? So then I was like, "um - yeah, okay. Food. Then home."

There was about 1400 feet of elevation gain and loss. My quads are treshed. My inner adductors are pissed. My butt muscles are pissed.

Then I went to Einstein's bagels, and asked for a spinach and mushroom bagel pizza on a fluorentine bagel. No, wait, did I say A bagel pizza? I ordered three. And a cup of brocolli cheese soup. Then I went to Keva juice, and got a large Keva Kolada. Mmm.

Miles for this week:

Bike: 80 miles

Run: 22.3 miles

Swim: 1700 meters

Distances for July:

Bike: 367 Mi

Run: 53.65

Swim 11150

Now I will shower. And sit in air conditioning. And drink, drink, drink. And sleep, sleep, sleep.

...

Santa Fe Suckfest.

This morning Baboo, Courtney, SW TriGal, her beloved, and a couple of other pals and I boarded the Rail Runner express with our bikes and bike gear and headed for Santa Fe.

The Rail Runner express is beyond cool. When the doors are warning you that they are about to shut, they make the Road Runner sound. beep-eep!

Phrases and words to describe the train trip:

Fast

Smooth

Pleasant

Relaxed

Pretty scenery

We got off in Santa Fe, boarded our bikes, and had a quick breakfast and coffee, and then headed back to Albuquerque by bike.

Phrases and words to describe the bike trip:

Hills.

Hot.

Suckfest.

Wind.

Dehydration.

Pretty scenery.

The Garmin readout is kinda messed up, because Baboo and I rode down to the train station from our house, which is about 15 miles, but I forgot to turn on the Garmin at first. Then I shut it off until we got to Santa Fe. Then I forgot to turn it on until after we were well on our way, bellies full of breadfast burritos (potatoes, egg, veggies, cheese).

So, pretty much everything after the big line up is most of the trip back to Santa Fe. Baboo, much less scattered than I, said we got in about 80 miles for the day.

SW TriGal said she didn't care if I called her a liar publicly, so I will: she said it was mostly downhill from Santa Fe. Uh, yeah, my butt. of course, she was no more to blame that the lying weatherman, who forecast lower 90s, partly cloudy skies. But then again, SW TriGal also let me use her gloves, since I forgot mine (I get numb fingers if I don't wear gloves,) so she's forgiven. As soon as I wash all the self-pitying snot and tears I left on them, she can have them back.

How hot was it? Weather in the upper nineties, and that wind that changes from the morning cool breeze to the afternoon convection oven in your face. It was in the upper 90s, with it much hotter, of course, on the pavement.

It was so hot, that one of the guys with us, a pro cyclist, had a ride come pick him up about 18 miles from the end because he wasn't used to the heat and elevation. Well, of course after that I HAD to finish. Just so, you know, I could some day brag that I'd outlasted a pro cyclist with my badass self.

Another rider became a bit overwhelmed and got a ride home a few miles after that. That left the five of us to finish the ride. Well, sorta finish. When I got a bit less than a mile from home, and surveyed the 8% grade hill that leads up to where I live, I took a ride from a friend who happened by. I'd had about 30 miles of a painful and numb toes on the right, and toes on the left that were starting to tingle, so I was done.

Did I mention I hate cycling? During the last 20 miles I was all whiney and crying and saying, I hate this. I'm dropping out of Redman and IM Utah. I can't do this. I'm not cut out for this. Cycling isn't my sport. SW TriGal and everyone else there can testify that I was whiny and very self-pitying.

Now, of course, I'm showered and hydrated and cool and I'm wondering why I was such a wuss. I'm always embarassed to look back at how negative I get. Maybe when my glucose gets low, my brain kicks up the save yourself mode. I don't know.

In any case, as many say, it's miles in the Ironman bank for me.

...

Vegetarian Squid Nugget.

Ever since my employer installed POS newest version of MSOffice and it's evil sidekick, IE 7, in my computer has started freezing up about twice an hour. In between freezes, I get some work done.

This morning, it suddenly occured to me that one of the reasons I've been feeling so blue lately is because I'm not getting to do what I love to do most of all: an easy trail run in the cool of the day before all the swarms of locusts mountain bike riders and contribitors of dog crap people who don't "believe" in leash laws show up.

Don't get me wrong - the training is going well. I'm exactly as I should be at this point. It's just that training for an Ironman is a lot like doing a thesis: you start out fairly enthusiastic and excited. Gradually, however, as THE day approaches, you're sick of the whole thing and ready to get it over with, wondering if it's all worth it. It's work.

That's not enough for me; I need at least one run every week that I do because I enjoy it. When I do, then I can shrug off most of life's annoyances and worries.

So. But. Anyway. Lying in bed, I worked out in my mind a route that I figured to be about 3 miles. I started at the crack of dawn, and it was awesome. I started out on neighborhood streets, joined silently for a short time by other morning runners who were barely discernable in the dawn light and getting their morning fix in.

After about a mile, I turned onto a trail leading up into the foothills, and I was alone. Up, up, up I climbed continuously for about a mile, jogging slowly, joined occasionally by bunnies zig-zagging down the path in front of me and the occasional coyote ambling across the path. I turned off and headed up a small arroyo, still climbing, happy that I was still running.

Alone this way, I'm not big or slow: Compared to the stillness around me, I feel swift, no matter how slowly I might moving.

On this run there are two places where I crest a hill top as I round a corner. Looking down, the whole of Albuquerque, lights still twinkling, is spread out before me. Each time I crest there's the satisfaction and grattitude that I get to do this.

I landed in my back yard and walked around for a bit, cooling off, and my cats stared at me enviously through the window. I stretched, and watched some quail run across the back yard for a bit. This is what I have to do each week, I know now, to get my fix in. Antidepressants are cheaper than running shoes, but not nearly as satisfying.

So. About the title. Well, Sweet Baboo and I go to this World Food Market every week. It has a large selection of Chinese vegetarian foods. I go every week hoping that they'll be carrying the vegetarian shrimp that I've had and loved - but alas, I think they have stopped carrying it. Anyway. While looking for it, I saw this on the shelf: vegetarian squid nugget. I'm not really sure what to do with it, but I'm of the opinion that if you find a food that looks like the name of a punk rock band, you must try it. So I brought it home. I couldn't think of any title for this post. So there ya go.

...

'Geekgirl' Misty...

...misses FaceBook and its meaningless third person, ego-centric and narcissistic statuses (statii? Statussus?) which she cannot access at work

so she'll use Blogger instead.

...is amazed and sickened at the calories in the cashew nuts she ate yesterday (she thought nuts were HEALTHY).

...is even more amazed and sickened to find that a grande "skinny" white mocha is 420 calories.

...is saddened that most of her former classmates...how shall she say this delicately...refuse to take credit for their achievements, and insisting instead that it's all due to their deity.

...is wondering how many people will be offended by the previous statement.

...finds that lately, she has the panicked feeling that time is running out.

...has begun to dislike her new job quite a bit; it's tedious and she misses working with patients.

...has an impossibly messy house.

...doesn't understand how one can be 5'6", size 12, and weigh 175 pounds. What are her bones made of, anyway? Galena?

...is trying to determine how to respond to mini-Baboo's recent idiotic declaration from bootcamp about future intentions that he has no wherewithall to follow through on.

...is wondering how to get her watch to stop beeping at 9 am and 11 am; having set these alarms and then imediately forgetting how to unset them.

...is jonesing to see the new Harry Potter movie.

...made a lovely eggplant curry for lunch all this week, which almost makes up for the white mocha and cashews.

...did a 10k last night with Baboo, in which was amazingly slow. Incredibly slow. You would not believe how slow. (Okay - maybe you would).

~.~.~.~.~.~
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