Death Race & Trail-Running Training Blog

This year’s Death Race- a walk in the park?

2011-07-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

After 3 years of Death Racing and a cumulative total of 150 miles of running, plus numerous more in training in and around Grande Cache, my body has told me I need to take a break.

And this time I have actually listened! Last year’s race was marked by the worst cramps I have ever had and a time out at the end of stage 3 which, unbeknownst to me, was extended by 3 km. I can vividly remember trying to finish that stage and thinking I had 2 km to go and 12 minutes left when a car appeared on the trail. That was strange and something I had never seen but I pretty much knew something was amiss. “You may as well take it easy you’re not going to finish on time!” My reply was I had just over a km to go. Nope, the stage is now longer than last year by a few km. OOOPS!

I spent the next 45 minutes at a very slow walk to the end of the stage. Heavy of heart!

Honestly I am not sure how much left I would have had for stage 4 at that point but I would have loved to try. After all the kids in the IM Able foundation struggle just to get out of the house!

I really do hate having to quit! But I decided to try to take care of all the things that were causing my body to shut down on Stage 2 and cramp to the point of complete immobility with requisite giant losses of time. Little did I know that a year later I would still be struggling with many of the same issues and some new ones- all part of the immense neurologic and postural retraining I have to do to have a chance at a decent run.

I remember someone quoting Steve Prefontaine as saying attempts to change his gait and running style “didn’t work”. I think he gave it about 3 weeks before he realized he would get much worse before he got better and decided it was not worth it.

I have learned a lot about kinesiology and of course running itself in the process of trying to get the perfect gait.

Did it work for me? Well not yet. My guess - we’ll have to wait until next year!
In the meantime Pagoda Pacers president Tom Chobot will be flying the flag for Dr Dave’s Best and TheRaceAgainstDeath.org.
And we’ll have a charity drive soon after this year’s CDR. But for me this year’s race will be a walk in the park. One very big, steep, beautiful park. I’ll have some pics for you for sure!

Best,
Dr Dave

Beyond the shadow of a doubt - Gait retraining and other fun stuff

2010-12-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

No one can say I am not committed to my charity! If you could see the stuff I am going through right now to retrain my biomechanics, you would never doubt me again if you ever did.

Let’s set the stage by a little recap.

In April I tore two adductors and my rectus abdominus off the pelvic attachment points on the pubic bone. Ouch. Now the MRI did not comment on whether these were full thickness tears but I don’t think they could have been or I would never have been able to train as soon as I did.

It took about a month before I could walk without pain again and in typical last minute fashion I managed to get some long distance runs in before August’s Canadian Death Race.

Unfortunately, the loss of the adductors and another very hot day took their toll in the second and most grueling stage of the race and I cramped up badly… stretching literally every 1 to 2 minutes for as much time allowed me to finish the stage. Unfortunately, it took 7 hours and I had only budgeted 6.

With a 3-hour run looming ahead and only 2 hours to finish, I vowed “they will have to make me quit before I do!”.

In what was as close to a “heroic” run as I could ever manage, I covered half the distance (or so I thought) in exactly 1 hour. Buoyed by the hope of actually squeaking under the impending cut off, I ran my heart out and was within about 2km of finishing (again, or so I thought) with about 12 minutes to go.

Certainly doable. Then a car came down the trail and the people inside said, “you may as well not kill yourself; you’ll never make it!” What I could do was 1.2 km (just over a mile for you metrically challenged) in 12 minutes.

Sorry, pal; you are 5k from the finish. Turns out this year’s race was lengthened in this stage and shortened in the next -- two facts I was unaware of!

So basically it really was an impossible task. I slowed down to a comfortable walk and settled in for the longest 5k of my life, taking about another hour to finish.

So 40 some miles into the race (11 miles farther than last year and 38 miles less than 2008) I was forced to quit.

The culprit? Agonizing bilateral sartorius muscle cramps slowing me to a crawl in Stage 2. Once again, or so I thought. Turns out all of the adductors come together on the inside of the leg just above the knee in what is known as the “adductor hiatus”. This was the area that went nuts and knotted up.

The usual suspects? Yep, poor biomechanics, overuse (secondary to poor biomechanics) and of course heat and dehydration.

I have never one to be proud of failure but in this case, as the weeks passed by I became proud of myself for not quitting even though it was hopeless.

After a month or so of no running, I began in September to try to run again. I took it slow and easy and as I was doing it, sought out the help of some real biomechanical experts to help me fix what was wrong with my gait. This includes a real rehab of my adductors and, as we’ll see, other hip muscles as well and pretty much a complete postural makeover.

Not surprisingly I suppose, the further I got into the rehab the less I was able to run, with more and more things pulling cramping and aching than ever before. Somewhere around the end of October I gave up completely when, after a 7 mile trail run, I had agonizing adductor cramps again the night after. But what a beautiful last run it was. Warm and at night, I enjoyed running down the trails with 300 other runners, lights blazing the way, lighting up the mountain trails for hundreds of yards in either direction. If this was my last race, I could not have asked for anything more beautiful!

As much of a leap of faith as it is to accept “you are going to get worse before you get better,” I really have no choice if I ever want to run again even shorter distances. I am aware beyond the shadow of a doubt that I could not continue the way I was going.

In truth, I may have to do what most runners wind up doing when they can’t run any more: bike.

But I am committed to the process and I am learning a ton about human movement, mostly by observing and understanding how screwed up mine is! LOL.

The blessing in disguise is that I probably am saving myself from a hip replacement. I have the CDR to thank for that as well. That race allowed me to see what my body would be like if it were 90 years old and allowed me to start working on the fix now in my 50’s instead of waiting for what might have happened if I had not brought out these problems with an extraordinary task.

A few quick observations that may help you in your ultra training…

While cramps can certainly be due to biomechanical and overuse issues, dehydration plays a big role as well as electrolyte balance. Duh!!! Right? Well here is even more DUH! I am a doctor and should know better. The problem is that the first and last sign of dehydration I get is cramps when I run, and fasciculations (like a bunch of worms crawling in the muscle) when I don’t. I do not get anything resembling thirst or hunger or any other warning -- just WHAM! Cramps. In addition, I have found the amount of water you have to drink to avoid dehydration (especially on a hot day, carrying 15 to 20 pounds of gear as one does in the Death Race) is almost ridiculous.

“Normal” body water for me is 61 to 62%. I am almost never there during training, even at the start of a run. I cramp mercilessly at 57%.

So drink, drink, drink, drink and keep your electrolytes up as well on those long difficult runs.

Ok what is next for me and the charity?

My goals for this year are far less lofty. I would like to run just 2 stages totaling around 40 miles. Stage 3, which has become my nemesis, is not all that hard by Death Race standards. Stage 4, Mount Hamel, is a big challenge.

I will let others who are more fleet or feet than I handle the rest.

But, if I am successful and can do it without major trauma and actually succeed in fixing the bulk of what is wrong with me, I will challenge the Death Race solo in 2012.

If I fail, there is always the bike and I have a nice one!

I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out DrDavesBest youtube channel for some interesting things I have learned!

Dr Dave

“This year’s model”

2010-07-13T14:26:00.001-07:00

Well it’s been a long, long time so I will try to keep it succinct.

Back in late March, when I had the luxury of writing about sneakers and strength training, I was doing very well with my training indeed!

I had gotten to marathon distance on the trails and was on a perfect schedule.

But like every April before this one, this April became my nemesis.

To recap, in April of 2008, I was put out of action for 4 weeks with rip-roaring bilateral Achilles and bilabials anterior tendonitis.

In other words both the front and back of my lower legs were -unctional.

Bad biomechanics!

I got past that just in time to run and finish 2008’s Canadian Death Race as you see on the pictures here on the site of me crossing the line just over 24 hours after the start.

Last April I got either Pertussis or swine flu, no one is sure but I had respiratory problems for months past the race. Race day 2009 was a disaster, which I won’t recap but suffice it to say I had no business being there and had to quit at 30 miles.

OK, now in 2010 I’m doing great, right!?

Well I instructed at Greta Blackburn’s Fitcamp in Cancun in late April.

Greta, for those of you who don’t know, is the originator of the Fitness Boot Camp concept and has been doing them for 25+ years -- long before most of the current crop of instructors were even out of grade school!

This one was special and you can read about it at Fitcamp.com but the theme was anti-aging and fitness and we had top people there including yours truly, Dr Joe Mercola, Phil Campbell the godfather of modern sprint and interval training, Bill Andrews discoverer of the human telomerase (longevity gene) and Marjorie Brook AIS guru to name just some of the presenters.

Greta is also one of my co-authors of our upcoming book, “The Immortality Edge” due out in January 2011, published by Wiley and Sons.

Anyway, I did what I always do, led a pack of fit younger people on some very cool but tough “fun runs”. Only 3 miles but chock full of sprints, band work, body weight exercises; these are monster workouts and everyone loves them including me!

But it had been a while since I had done this much speed work in such a short period of time.

Superimposed on top of my distance training it led to a devastating injury in the last 10 yards of the last sprint on the last day of the camp.

It felt like I actually slipped on something with my right foot and it seemed like the right leg went far out behind me.

The ensuing pop, pop, pop in both groins and below my belly button and the immediate seizing up of my movement told me immediately I had done some serious damage.

The words are “sports hernia” but it’s not a hernia at all. As a matter of fact, it has nothing to do with the inguinal canal or the gut like a real hernia does.

My MRI said it best: torn adductors from the right hip to the pubic bone, torn rectus abdominis off the symphysis pubis (the top of the pubic bone) and more of the same on the left side.

Grade 1 is the simple groin pull.

Grade 2, which I had, is fluid inflammation and partial tears: minimum 4 weeks to heal and often months.

Grade 3 is a complete tear and surgery is usually required.

I did see a surgeon but no one in my area was interested in even coming close to operating on this as much due to their own inexperience with the problems as the actual protocol for taking care of it.

I very quickly became aware of the absolute lack of information and consistency of what was available. Everyone had different opinions on how long it would take to get better and how to treat it. I can never pick anything simple!

So I rested, hit the Airdyne, stretched and strengthened.

Long story short, I did a 40 mile run in late June and had a great CDR prep camp last week.

So in spite of my nasty injury and some residual pain I am off to Grande Cache in 2 weeks to run my third Canadian Death Race.

Wish me luck!!

P.S. Greta will be hosting another monster fitness and longevity event in November at her home base in Malibu California and again in Cancun at the beautiful Ceiba del Mar on the Mayan Riviera. I plan on being at both of them so come see us and let us teach you how not to get hurt, how to live long and healthy and to be in top shape! Fitcamp.com

The strange reason I strength train

2010-03-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

Before I get too deep into this, let me say that I was shocked and surprised by the numerous and mostly helpful responses I got to my shoe woes blog and will follow up with another one as soon as I have had a chance to test a few more shoe types out. Now onward to today’s blog.

I have a pretty long history of strength training, one that predates my ultra running “career” by decades.

The best shape I was ever in my life was when I combined intervals with an occasional 5 or 6 mile run, lots of plyo and regular weight lifting and body weight training.

I had it all--speed, reasonable endurance, explosive and absolute strength all in a good proportion.

The demands of an ultra race at altitude are far different than the “general training” I was doing and of course when you specialize you always lose some generalization.

I do almost no traditional lower body strength training at this juncture although I will most probably start doing some one legged stuff soon for the weeks that I am not putting in the bigger mileage.

I have a steady repetitive upper body program that mixes in abs and core along with some specific functional hip flexors stuff, again one legged, and kettle bell.

My upper body program is pretty old fashioned. Some would recognize the term “classic 5’s” which refers to the near maximum lifting toned down just a bit in to a 5-3-2 rep patter with brief rests in between for 3 to 4 sets of 10.

This program will make you bigger but it is primarily designed to add steady strength to your program and for me personally it works like a charm. Just today I hit the very interesting phase of the training that adds significant weight (12 lbs. to my overhead pressing and 22 to my bench) literally from just a few sessions, sometimes several pounds per session.

Of course when your run long or run fast your weights go down but this program will make you much stronger in a relatively short period of time and as I said put on some nice lean mass.

I would not advise it to someone who is new to strength training, however. In that case just pick up one of those awful “strength training for runners” books that shows a very broad based general strength training program and use it for 2 months before you try any of the above.

OK, so why do I care about mass? I am in a happy stable relationship, not in prison or a street gang so I don’t need to be “intimidating”, don’t need to impress anyone and have long since passed the 18-25 year old testosterone driven male syndrome (I can hardly stand to look at “ Men’s Health”! LOL).

Well in spite of the fact that I rail against the “muscle burns fat” articles as misleading because it take months to put on natural muscle and it adds at best 100 calories per day per 10 pounds of muscle mass gained. The average no drugger person will take a year to put on 10 pounds of lean muscle and of course runners will take far longer!

But there is a point where having extra muscle actually helps you lean out and if you work to maintain it while you are increasing your mileage you will lose more fat and even a few more pounds. You’ll look a lot better too.

But that still is not the strange reason I work to add muscle before a big race. The real reason is that I noticed that most of the “everyday” runners that did well were stockier and beefier than your typical marathon runners.

Again, people, understand we are talking average athletes here--not world class winners!

I started to realize that the starvation reflex does indeed happen in races where you are out there for hours on end and thus muscle becomes your fuel and fat stores are (relatively) conserved. So I train to build muscle so I have some to feed to my heart, lungs and legs while I am out there long after the glycogen is gone and the fat has gone underground to try to save itself from impending doom! Now I am not saying you don’t burn fat in these races. YOU DO and lots of it. The actual physiologic full blown starvation reflex does not take that long to start working though as we see signs of it with a simple overnight fast, which we then break (breakfast!).

So for those of you who are just trying to survive these long runs like me, take my advice--put on some size in your upper body at least. Most of us can leave the lower body to Mother Nature and the trail as long as we stretch!

'Til next time train hard!

Doc

P.S. some of you have asked about my book on ultra running. It’s taken a back seat to “The Immortality Edge”, a book I am co-writing with Mike Fossel MD PhD and Greta Blackburn that shows you how to lengthen your telomeres to live longer and healthier. NO, ultra running is not part of the routines!!!

Shoe woes

2010-03-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

Normally, and in the future, I promise you a more positive blog but I gotta get something off my chest.

Two years ago when I first discovered that shoes were one of the most critical components of a successful Ultra, I went through a painful (literally and figuratively) period of trial and error.

I found the following:
1) A shoe that was good for a comfortable ride for 5 or 10 miles might lead to tendonitis because of lack of support at 20 or 30 miles.

2) Your feet do swell when you run long.

3) For a long haul over rough terrain most shoes won’t cut it because they are not real trail runners: they’re road shoes, prettied up (or actually usually uglied up) to look like trail runners but they don’t have it where it counts.

4) Gore-Tex, while waterproof, is not all that good for trail runners because no one blends it with all the other elements. I tried some Inov-8's and some other Gore-Tex shoes and found them way way too flexible and light weight for the type of running and my lousy feet.

So I eventually found my beloved favorite, the Montrail 2008 Hardrock, in 13 EE and bought a bunch of them. They were like Mack trucks with almost no flexibility, tremendous support, motion control and cushioning all wrapped up in one.

But they were not indestructible and even though I had 6 pairs they eventually wore out and got to the point where no amount of repair would make them serviceable again.

So merrily I thought I would just lateralize into the “Mountain Masochist” Montrial’s replacement for the Hardrock.

What a mistake!!! The MM is lightweight and flexes if you sneeze. It’s a totally different shoe and the other old model Montrial’s just never cut it. Of course they still make them!!!

I suppose the proper response would be to be grateful that Montrail made a great shoe, thank them for it and move on. But it’s a royal PIA and so I think I am actually angrier at them for D/Cing the Hardrock, replacing it with a completely bogus shoe and leaving me in the same boat I was to spend probably thousands until I find the right shoe again

Do you hear me Montrail, you idiots? What is wrong with you!!!! You were at least making a real trail runner that everyone raved about and loved. They were always in short supply so you can’t tell me they did not sell.

Such is the way of shoe manufactures--they always have to change things and make them worse!

None of the brand names work either.

The New Balance 910 is OK but it’s got too much motion in the toe box.

The Aetrex can’t make a size that fits--the 12 is too small--the 13 is too big and there's nothing in between.

The Brooks Beast is not right for me. My favorite road running shoe, the Triax Structure, is to narrow in the toe box and flexes like a newspaper in the wind--clearly a runner masquerading as a trail runner.

So I am at the same point again: Bad feet, lousy biomechanics, a big wide size needed to accommodate the armor plated orthotics and no place to go!

While this may seem funny and was intended to stir a laugh or two, it is truly a serious problem for anyone who needs their shoes to actually be dedicated trail runners. I understand the marketing value and the need to not invest in a small segment of the running world but to call your shoes "trail runners" when I can bend them in half with no effort is plain bogus. No on, no one, NO ONE who runs on real trails-- no matter how perfect their feet and biomechanics are, no matter how much or how little pronation, suppination, etc, etc they have-- benefits from a wimpy shoe.

So, manufactures, especially you MONTRAIL, who abandoned me... listen up: don’t fix what ain’t broke!

On the plus side I called them (Montrail), something I rarely do but probably need to do more of, and spoke to “Chris” who recommended the AT+ and the not-yet-available Sabino, so I will try them. As a matter of fact, I am wearing the AT+ as we speak and I can tell you it does not feel anything like the Hardrock in terms of overall cushioning. BUT…

Here’s hoping because nothing is more elemental than what is on your foot.

Oh Yeah, I guess I should comment on the current craze of barefoot running based on the Massai and other running tribes. First off, if you have any kind of below-the-knee tendon problems, do not run or even walk far in any of the rocker bottom shoes without going into it slowly. They're hard on the Achilles unless you have perfect biomechanics.

As far as barefoot running I am aware that certain Mexican and African tribes do it. But when I start seeing people at my local races, which are on the very rough rocky (sharp, nasty rocks) trails of Eastern PA, I will guarantee you that fad will last one race--or more like one block. When your feet are shreded to ribbons, don’t cry on my shoulder! LOL, MORONS!!!

And people look at ME funny for using poles! Until next time: keep training.

Dr Dave

My favorite training tool

2009-06-30T17:10:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share my favorite training tool with you because it has helped me immensely with my running and with all aspects of fitness.

It is non-traumatic, non-weight-bearing, totally user dependent in terms of intensity and very friendly on joints, time constraints, etc.

My favorite training tool is the old fashioned Schwinn Airdyne bike that has been around in various forms for decades.

The big thing that makes it so useful is the very thing that makes it different from spin bikes and other stationary bikes: the arm action.

I have found that at 50 years old I need to get my heart rate up to about 170 beats a minute and keep it there for a few moments in order to get the benefit of interval training. Interval training is absolutely critical for anyone who wants to run faster and better. These days it has experienced a renaissance because of some savvy internet marketers and of course for its superior fat burning capabilities. All of that, including my specific routine, will be in my upcoming books but for now just be aware of these facts.

1) Interval training has been around forever. There is nothing revolutionary about it and you can call it aftershock or turbulent or any other term you want to call it but the basics are the same as what high school coaches have been telling their pupils for decades in the form of wind sprints.

2) Interval training will burn more fat than any other kind of training with less trauma.

3) Interval training will not feel good at first but as you improve your fitness levels (about 6 sessions) you will come to love it so hang in there!

4) I love the Airdyne because the arm action allows more calories, more intensity and more load on my body without a whole lot of increased perceived exertion. Much like pole running you burn more calories but you don't "feel" it.

5) This type of training, especially with the Airdyne, allows you to crank up your heart rate without the local lactate accumulations you'd get from things like a studio cycle or Versa Climber, both of which, while phenomenal, limit your actually heart rate due to this local accumulation of lactate.

Now if you read between the lines you can see how local lactate accumulation would also be a great way to train. You can always use the Airdyne for this by locking the arms in the stationary position and using just the cycling portion for short super intense intervals as well as longer "burn" type of lactate thresholds.

The other thing is, when you are injured, the low impact of this tool allows you to stay fit cardiopulmonary wise without aggravating injuries… or causing them for that matter.

These days the Airdyne runs about $550 new but you can find older versions on eBay for less, although shipping is usually a consideration.

There are few tools so versatile for the runner or any athlete for that matter.

If you need to train for high level (not high latitude, mind you) sports but do not tolerate a lot of pounding, the Airdyne is the way to go!

Tales from the Trail

2009-05-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

Trail blindness and protecting your investment

The words of a concerned friend echoed in my ear.

“If you get injured now, you are done!” While I am not into naysaying or attracting negative things with negative thoughts, the truth of these words is undeniable. Last year my race preparation was cut short by injury. It was not until 3 weeks before the Canadian Death Race that I was sure I would be able to compete. Because of all the biomechanical problems, I was “forced” to adopt a strategy of minimal preparation, much of it away from running. The net result of this is all in my book to be published later this year after CDR #2 is completed.

Now the Canadian Death Race itself is fraught with hazards: weather, bear, cougar, terrain, altitude and probably some other ones I have not thought of in addition to the training and preparation issues! But if it’s going to go south, I’d rather have it happen in the race, not a month or two before hand.

So the closer your race gets and the more time and money you have invested in it, the more you have to be sensible about protecting your investment.

Somewhere around 2 months before the race (if you’ve made it that far without damage!) you should really start to have a close look at any “high risk” behaviors in your training and begin to curb them.

In my own training this includes really hard speed work, which is notorious for inducing injury and mountain biking at least on highly technical areas (read: dangerous) although mountain biking can be a fantastic training substitute for trial running. I start to get off the bike on serious downhills and even uphills where I might fall. Pushing a 30 pound bike up a steep hill with a 20 pound pack is probably even more of a training stimulus than actually riding the hill and you remove any “fall factor”.

I learned this last year when tailing a buddy of mine around the lake we often run. All of a sudden I got a bird’s eye view of just how aggressive the tread on his Nike’s really was!

He landed a good 15 feet off trail and was banged up pretty badly 3 weeks before my race. If that had been me…

The closer the big race gets the more I personally recommend shifting over to non-running activities to support your cardio and let your “running structures” (bones, joints, and muscles) heal up for your best race effort.

Still, you have to run and trial running is inherently dangerous so here is a little personal Tale from the Trail.

Long hours of repeatedly putting one foot in front of another can be taxing on your concentration.

And yet we all know that this is part of the game of trail running no matter what the distance.

A good trail runner inherently scans the trail 20 to 50 feet in front of them depending on their visual acuity to start planning for what is coming next. But most of the time is spent looking about 6 to 10 feet ahead depending on whether you are on hills or flat and depending on how rough the trail actually is. Rails to trails are not really trails in my opinion and they require far less concentration; a nice place to do some of your training.

Rocky, slippery terrain covered with roots etc. requires pretty intense concentration. Having run long stints on these kinds of trails I can tell you concentration is a must.

Today I ran a 36 mile training run on terrain that varied from pretty technical to pretty easy.

I almost face-planted 3 times and I want to share those episodes with you so you may avoid them. I managed to fall on a nasty pointed rock a few weeks ago and hit my hip (my trochanteric bursa to be exact) and it is still a painful and slightly discolored memory of what can happen when you fall hard.

Near-fall number 1 took place on rocky rooted terrain slightly down hill. I saw the most fascinating giant mushrooms; brilliant orange and white on a tree stump nearby. In the two seconds or less I was “off trial” in my gaze, my feet found a rock and I went sailing. Because I run with poles I was able to use the poles and my upper body strength to prevent a fall. Without the poles I would most certainly have fallen hard. The fact that it was slightly down hill saved me as well.

Near-miss number 2 took place on pretty average terrain and occurred because of what I call “trail blindness”. I was looking but not seeing what was in front of me because I tuned out. No doubt it was the result of having my head tilted downward at the same angle and looking at the same distance in front of me for too long without performing the “lift-your-head-up-and-start-to-scan-farther-ahead” move. After I recovered from the rock that grabbed my foot I also realized that I had my head in a set position for a long time and my shoulders were getting sore just from holding it there. The 20 pound pack and the late run fatigue didn’t help either.

Near-miss number 3 was a replay of near miss number 1. This time I caught a peripheral glance of an object that looked out of place on the opposite shoreline of the lake I run next to. It turns out it was a herd of deer in the water wading and some swimming. It was a beautiful site and one I had not seen before although I read that deer are excellent swimmers and that this may be one of the factors involving the spread of Lyme disease to areas in nearby New York.

The actual connection between this sight and these thoughts again accounted for no more than 3 seconds but it was just enough for me to trip. Again the poles saved the day to the point where one of them actually shortened several centimeters from the impact of me desperately planting it in the ground to regain my balance.

So there you have it, my friend; the perils of looking both off and on trail in the wrong manner.

Distraction and trail blindness both need to be avoided to prevent a potential injury situation.

Ironically enough, while I have slipped, occasionally fallen and slid on many occasions while practicing good visual hygiene on the trail, I have never been in a situation that was likely to cause me an injury under those circumstances.

Simply put, when your head is in the right place and you are aware of the dangers, you rarely fall and when you do, you are prepared in advance.

It’s when your mind/vision connections lapse off trail (distractions) or even on (trail blindness) you are likely to hit the dirt, or the rocks, or the tress, etc.

Tail running can be far more cerebral than most people realize in so many ways. Many people actually do all of the above very well without thinking. For them it just comes naturally.

But as your race day closes and especially race day itself you want to remind yourself to be as vigilant as possible, especially when you are tired or out for a long time.

In closing, I want to admit to you that much of what I have written in this blog is about what you DON’T want to do. This is simply me sharing my experiences and hard won knowledge with you so you don’t need to repeat my mistakes.

There are many positive and “do” aspects to running, some of which I will tackle soon.

Best,
Dr Dave

Speed work and strength training for ultras

2009-05-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

It may seem strange but I don’t actually consider myself a runner.

I say this because I do not have what I call a “typical runner’s”
Mentality, at least as I have been exposed to it.

Until recently I always ran solo. When I joined a local running club last year it was a wonderful experience from the fun social standpoint but it was of marginal value in terms of “learning the secrets of ultra running”.

Why?

Well, I am sure there are exceptions to this but basically runners run.

If they do strength training it is usually pretty much worthless because it originated in a running mag or a book where the person/people who wrote it really don’t understand strength training.

Runners run.

And of course when the idea of strength training pops into running mags and articles it is still a new concept that has not really been tested for results.

Runners read it; they pick up a light weight because it says so in the article. They do high reps because it says so in the article and they do exercises that have nothing to do with running or even function like hamstring curls, because it says so.

Now honestly, since I am writing a book on the topic and it will include a lot of info on this and many other things I have learned by not adopting the typical runner’s mentality, I can’t really go into much detail here.

But here is a hint for you.

How does running differ from walking? Answer that and you might do a better job of functionally training for running.

Also ask yourself why the ultra running crowd is usually stockier and sturdier looking than a typical marathon crowd and you will have the metabolic basis for strength training.

Sorry, have to stop here or the publisher will shoot me!

Ok, onto speed work.

Consider speed work to be the Cadillac of all running training.

Simply put, just about anyone can run long slow distances but very few people can run fast.

Or how about this analogy.

I can teach and coach an average 100 or 200 yard sprinter to run a very fast 10K in 6 to 8 weeks. But give me an average marathoner and let’s see who wins the 10K even after training.

If you guessed the sprinter, I think you are right on the mark. Once again you have to fill in the blanks but some investigative thinking will lead you to some real discoveries for your training and your running as well as making you realize that not all of what is circulated in the traditional running community or the press that caters to them is accurate.

Much of it is flat out wrong!

Wanna see something funny?

Take a group of ultra or even marathon runners who are not professional or Kenyan line them up and ask them to do a 50 yard or 100 yard sprint.

At the end of an agonizingly slow sprint you will see a bunch of people with horrified looks on their faces gasping for air.

You become what you train for and training specificity is a real thing!

You will also see this group try to use the same form to sprint they do in their distance running.

Even the ones who routinely do hill repeats will come out badly.

Wanna see something cool?

Spend a session on sprint form and use a few tools like large elastic bands and parachutes to teach proper form and add fun. By the end of the session you will have reduced their times in these sprints by at least 1 second - many times more.

Ok, distance people - one second may not seem like much to you but remember this is a 50 or 100 yard sprint.

Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Now they are still not going to be fast but just by adjusting form you make them and yourself faster.

So why, when and how to do speed work?

Well, again I can’t tell you everything or there would be no book after this second Canadian Death Race, but, here it is in a nutshell.

1) Sprint type speed work is used to change up muscle groups and build lactate and anaerobic thresholds. In most long ultra type runs you better not go near those zones or you will be walking the rest of your race. Still, in terms of building the reserve muscle needed for ultras (have you noticed ultra people are a bit stockier than their marathon counter parts?) speed work also hyper accentuates the muscles of running and pushes the cardiovascular fitness levels even though it is not considered cardio.

Finally, in my opinion, because of all of the above it helps injury proof the body.

2) Short intense speed work makes sense at the beginning of your race training, several months out from race day. As you get closer, start lengthening the distances and do longer and longer speed work segments but do not exceed a distance you can recover from quickly. This is not a way to “put miles on your feet!” It’s speed work.

As you may have guessed, I have just given you a little bit of info.
Beyond the fact that I need to keep confidence with my publisher and have new and different content in my book, some of this is still in the testing phase!

No one has ever really tested or quantified what you need to do speed work wise for ultras.

Like so many other things, running ultras falls under the mantra “runners run”.

I hope to change that with my book but I also need to continue to test and improve the protocols over the next couple of months before the race. Simply put, I want to fill the void or gap in the knowledge base for people who want to get into ultra running or improve their performance.

I do not want to write yet another “story book” about running long distances.

There are enough of those.

So stay tuned!

- Doc

Speed kills but heat massacres!

2009-05-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

We’ve all heard the adage “speed kills”. Now most people will have different interpretations but runners who have “been there” know exactly what this means.

As the title implies, heat may be a far worse enemy but let’s talk speed first from the runner’s perspective.

You will never run very much faster than you train to run. At least not for very long.

Many of us, myself included, have fallen victim to “runners high”, that euphoric feeling you get during a run where all kinds of wonderful chemicals are floating around your brain and making you feel fantastic.

Problem: it doesn’t last.

The temptation is to celebrate the feeling by running faster.

Nothing will shorten runners high faster than running too fast!

I have to go back a decade or so to one of my marathons to relay my personal experience.

I had trained to run 8 minute miles. At 215 pounds and doing a fair amount of heavy weight lifting I thought this was a reasonable goal.

That would have put me somewhere around a 3:30 marathon, something I would have been happy with.

One month earlier I had done a flat 18 miler at an average of 7:40 a mile so I thought this was all very reasonable.

Well somewhere in this marathon around mile 7 or so I picked up a 17 year old cross country runner who was “running his first marathon”.
And I believed him! We started talking and slowly but surely the pace crept up. I remember thinking “this is pretty cool - I am running with a fit 17 year old and I am feeling great!” Around mile 13 I glanced down at my watch and realized we were doing sub 7 minute miles and had been for some time.

No worries; I still felt great. I remember distinctly hearing the kid saying a few miles later, “We are flying!” Yep, we were at mile 17 and we are down to 6:30 a mile.

At that point a little teeny tiny alarm bell went off in my mind. I was feeling just a little less great than I thought I should. I realized that while I had actually done one 5:15 mile in my speed work,
6 minutes to 6:20 was my usual “speed work pace" for one mile intervals.

Thus not a good pace to be running well into a marathon!

Almost as soon as these thoughts entered my head my body started to tell me it was realizing the same thing and I needed to slow down. I told the kid good luck and backed off.

Too little too late!

I completed the first 20 miles of this marathon in 2:30 and then I hit the wall.

Only 10K to go and I realized I had completely let my ego destroy what might have been a really nice performance for me in this marathon, 3:30.

Had I played my cards right I might have been able to do it even a bit faster.

That is what I had trained for. All the charts pointed to that number but I had completely forgotten it and ran way out of my zone.

End result: a 4 hour plus marathon with the last 10K a mere shuffle.
It didn’t hurt, it was simply a feeling as if my body had sabotaged me!

No matter what I tried to do I could not go faster. Bonked and boinked all in the same moment!

If I ran any faster for 10 steps my body yanked me back to the slow shuffle and said, “oh no you don’t!"

That was one of the very few times I hit the wall, and it was totally avoidable.

Believe me, this experience is always in the back of my mind when I am training and running long distances now.

Speed kills!

But that is just one interpretation.

The next is that speed work in training, especially longer intervals run fast (whatever fast is for you!) and repeatedly, are a huge burden on the body. Most people do not allow adequate extra time for recovery after their speed sessions.

They simply try to insert them right into their training schedule in place of a longer slower training run. This does not work unless you are genetically gifted.

The end result is injury or overtraining or both.

I applaud speed work. I do speed work even when training for a 78 miles race like the Canadian Death Race! But I always allow full days
off from running in addition to the usual breaks.

So for instance, if I am running distance Monday, Thursday and Sunday and I do a serious speed session on Sunday, I will not run again until Thursday the next week, giving me a full 4 days of recovery (calculated from a Sunday 8am session to a Thursday 8am session) before I hit my next long run.

Ok now let’s look at heat.

In the past couple of weeks I have been in some very different climates (Pennsylvania and Texas) and experienced running in 40 to 93 degrees F with heat indexes as high as 100!). The hot runs happened in no particular order with the cold runs. They simply happened as a result of heat waves in the two different states followed by colder fronts.

There was no time to acclimate and I was stupidly poorly prepared from a hydration standpoint.

The first one happened a few weeks a go in PA. I had run 35 miles two weeks before and was going out for a 20 mile downward taper run. Easy compared to the much longer run, right?!

Wrong.

The long run happened at 40 degrees, the 20 miler at 83 degrees with significant humidity. I actually thought I had hydrated adequately until I realized I had not stopped to pass my water in a couple of hours and I was getting very lightheaded with a few miles to go. My running partner had already succumbed to the heat that day!

Now please understand that in August, 83 degrees would be fine and running in it would be no problem because I would have had several runs in that kind of heat and hotter, and my body would have been prepared for it.

As it was, I finished by paying strict attention to getting more water and slowing down a whole lot.

At the end of the run I had lost 6 pounds, obviously most of it water
weight!

A few weeks later at the end of my downward taper (the next series of
runs will escalate back up in mileage). I found myself in Austin Texas
running over hilly and difficult terrain in a heat wave. Again
stupidly I didn’t realize I had not packed my Camelback and had to
make due with water bottles. I carried and consumed about 72 ounces of
water during the half marathon distance. It was clearly far too little
and the end result was that I knew early this would be a slow run and
it was.

While I did not hit the “wall” my body let me know and this time I
Listened, “go slow or you will not survive this brutal heat!”

So I let this be an acclimatization run and accepted the 3 hour plus
time it took to negotiate the trail safely.

Lessons learned.

I want to finish be telling you what happens when you underestimate
your hydration needs and overestimate your speed in the heat.

A good friend of mine and a very very experienced trail runner entered
a 50 mile race that he had completed several times before in good time
with no problems. On this particular day the area was immersed in an
early spring heat wave with starting temps close to 80 and mid day
temps close to ninety. Again the average temp he had trained in for
this race was probably less than 50 degrees.

Out he went, keeping what he thought was a solid pace, one that he
“knew” he was capable of and had done before in this very race.

But all the other races were done in seasonal temps (much cooler). As a matter of fact, seasonal temps for this race were around 50 to 55
Degrees, which many runners consider a perfect temperature to run in.

Well somewhere around 25 miles he dropped out and was taken to the
hospital. Diagnoses: dehydration and heat exhaustion.

So as we are in changeable weather and may not be able to reschedule
our runs, please keep the following in mind:

1) Heat acclimatization is a real thing and it takes a few runs to let
your body get used to the heat. If you must train in hot weather and
are not used to it, cut down your mileage and reduce your speed by at
least 30 to 60 seconds a mile. Or, if possible, run very early or later
in the day when the heat is not likely to be a problem.

Don’t worry, after a few runs in the heat your body will be ready for
faster runs but…

2) You will never run as fast in the heat as you can in cooler weather.

Not ever. Your body will rein you in in one way, shape or form or
another at least if you are doing distance running.

3) Odds are you will always under hydrate. I have read some books and
articles that say people pay too much attention to hydration and you
over hydrate. Much has been made of a few cases of dilutional
hyponatremia (low blood salt) that have happened in some of the
marathons. If you look at this, these are people who were out so long
and running so slow that they really did over drink! Bottom line, if
you are that slow you should not be out running marathons or greater
distances; you are not ready for it!

Again, most runners don’t eat or drink enough under any circumstances.
Running long distances especially puts your brain in “ignorance” mode.
You have to ignore so many noxious stimuli like pain, fatigue, boredom,
Etc. just to finish that it is not uncommon for eating and drinking to
fall by the way side too since you are not hungry or thirsty until way
after it’s too late.

A simple rule of thumb for ultra long distances is: if you have not
passed your water in the past 4 hours, you are getting dehydrated.

I have not touched on electrolyte replacement yet since that is a more
complex topic but understand that that goes with the territory as well…
especially in the heat!

When I say heat massacres, I mean it. It will slow you down; accept it
and figure out how to make the run work for something. Even a short
run and then a longer run on a cooler day is a wise choice if you know
the weather is going to get cooler soon.

People have died from heat stroke but never from running too fast so,
while speed kills figuratively, the heat kills for real. If you are
out in the wilderness like I am for hours on end with no one in sight
and nowhere to get water or help, please do not let your ego get the
best o you!

- Doc

Tales of the biomechanical monkey

2009-05-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

Again, a brief cautionary tale that many runners can sympathize with.

For this one I will use another smart, highly-motivated, compulsive runner who also happens to be a physician.

At nearly fifty he, like me, dusted off his running shoes and started and illustrious career as a long distance tail runner… Until the nagging pain in his foot began to slow him down.

What did he do?

He ran more, of course. His social and reward systems had become attached to running and he was not willing to give them up.

To make a long story short, he ignored the pain until he could no longer take 50 steps without it becoming severe. At each juncture where his body told him “stop” he kept going.

This led to arthritis in a specific joint and eventually surgery.
After almost two years he is beginning to take a few short runs but still has pain.

It looks like my dear friend will be a great biking buddy.

Isn’t it kind of funny; it seems like so many runners wind up on bikes because they ignore their aches and pains until permanent damage is done.

Now I am not immune to this and have made the same mistakes very recently. A lot of this is in my book and more importantly how to avoid it but here it is nut a nutshell.

Your cardiovascular system (heart and lungs) is geared toward rapid improvements. You will take this as very positive feedback and well, you should because we are marvelous machines.

But our orthopedic system (muscles, tendons and bones) is nowhere near as fast to respond. There are a lot of physiologic reasons for this but here is a good rule of thumb.

What you can achieve heart and lung-wise in 2 to 3 months may take a year or more for your skeletal system to catch up with.

This is the reason people can go out and run 10 or 15 miles after 6 to
8 weeks of solid training say maybe 10 to 15 runs. And on the last run they develop a tendon, or muscular or worse yet, a bone problem that stops them dead in their tracks.

It’s also the reason why the recommended mileage increases are so much lower than it feels like they should be -- 5 or 10% every 2 to 3 weeks or less if you are going for ultra long distances.

At some point you will bump up against what I call your biomechanical monkey. That is the musculoskeletal system’s limitation (again, muscle, bone, joint or tendon) that makes you less than a perfect runner.

Unless you are one of the few lucky individuals who are truly “built”
for running, you will meet the monkey at some time.

Everyone has a distance or a speed or a combination of both that lets the monkey out of his cage to make mischief and wreak havoc with your training.

For some, it’s plantar fasciitis. For others, it’s IT band syndrome or shin splints or Achilles tendonitis or runners toe or any number of wonderfully complex sounding names that boil down to this: “too much too soon” or in some cases “that is as far as you should really be running!”

Now again, as one who has beaten some of the worst biomechanical monkeys in the book and done what most doctors told him not to do, I can tell you there are always ways around this stuff if you are truly willing.

Again that is in my book, but for now here it is:

Beware of the biomechanical monkey and pay attention to it as early as you can!!!

Otherwise it may be with you a lot longer than you want, maybe forever!

- Doc

The first thing to go

2009-05-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

As a physician who is athletic and trains athletes and hangs around athletes at places like the Institute of Human Performance in Boca Raton (www.ihpfit.com) and of course the athletes both sponsored and unsponsored at the Canadian Death Race, athletic longevity is of great interest to me.

I could go on and on about how supplements, nutrition and smarts can literally extend your career for decades, far beyond what the genetic dye your parents cast when they had you will do, but that is a topic for my anti-aging newsletters.

If you care about anti-aging and staying young and strong, feel free to visit www.DrDavesBest.com and sign up for the free newsletters there.

But for today I want to talk about overtraining and the first thing to go.

Coaches and athletes will tell you that monitoring your heart rate is a good way to see if you are over training.

Increases in heart rate 5 to 10% above your usual established resting heart rat can often indicate overtraining.

There are other factors you have to take into account which are:

1) When did you take that resting heart rate? You really need to
lay awake but still a few minutes after the alarm clock wakes you if you use an alarm clock, because that will send your heart rate and blood pressure through the roof!

2) Have you consumed any alcohol during the past 24 hours?

3) How many hours did you sleep? Sleep deprivation especially can raise resting heart rate.

4) How much caffeine or other stimulants have you had in the past 24 hours?

5) Are you sick or getting sick?

6) What has your nutrition been like?

7) And of course a whole bevy of conditions from accelerated thyroids to pregnancy anemia (in women sometimes related to menstrual flow).

If the answers to these questions are ”nothing unusual” then your resting heart rate is valid and you can use it, providing you have a couple of days to compare with each other.

Erratic heart rates are not of much use and could indicate anything from not knowing how to take a heart rate to an irregular heart rate, so keep that in mind.

OK let’s say you can use your heart rate data to watch your training.
Great, but what is really the first thing to take a pounding when you over train and what can you expect?

Well first your immune system and, depending on how many sick people you are around and what time of the year it is, you can expect anything from low grade flu-like symptoms that don’t go away and make you chronically sore and tired to a full blown viral or, in extreme cases, a sever bacterial illness like pneumonia.

Now it has been years since I’ve had a serious illness primarily due to my Immune Booster supplement and the other great things I put in my body, but journey back to my first running career, which culminated in me running a couple of marathons some 9 years ago.

During the training for the third one I was pushing really hard and also lifting some serious weights.

Giving my body mixed signals and stimulating two very different systems (strength and endurance) was more than a physician working 70+ hours a week could handle.

I developed a flu-like illness in late spring, long after the “flu” was out of the area. True, I had been around quite a few sick people; that is an occupational hazard, but I was also sleep deprived, over-caffeinated (I am not much for caffeine anymore), under rested and over stressed.

On top of that I decided to run a “practice marathon” at an 8 minute mile pace which was hard for me.

The net result was that I got sick. It started with extreme fatigue and achiness beyond what I would normally expect.

The next day I felt a bit better so I decided to do a strength workout and noticed I was very short of breath.

A day later the cough started. Within 5 days I was coughing for long spells and bringing up ugly looking stuff that does not belong in your lungs.

I broke down and took antibiotics, something I rarely do and did something even rarer. I actually finished all 10 days worth!

Of course it did absolutely nothing to speed up this illness since it was most likely viral but was desperate to get back to my training. I had to speak at a conference so I also had to travel and be on an airplane, which we all know is a cesspool of germs!

But after about 10 days of no running and no lifting I was feeling pretty good so off I went to do a standard 10K RUN.

BIG MISTAKE and I knew it within the first mile. Every hill caused me to gasp and on more than one occasion I had to stop and catch my breath. Stupidly, I willed myself to finish even though I grew more fatigued and exhausted with each step. Needless to say I was down for the count for another 10 days before I truly turned the corner.

Now I tell you this story because it represents the two opposing forces that plague all runners no matter how much they know and how educated they are.

Those forces are common sense and dogged determination.

Let’s face it, we all “run through” stuff and sometimes we get away with it. If we stopped for every little ache and pain, especially as we age, we wouldn’t be running -- we’d be swimming instead or doing Yoga (both of which are great supportive activities by the way!).

Each of us somehow thinks we are “special” and the laws of physics and the universe do not apply to us.

So we keep running as if our very lives depended on it.

And when we crash and burn we feel our bodies have let us down.

No, my friend, you and I are both human. But I have seen this drama played over and over again in so many different ways that I use my own stupidity as a cautionary tale for you.

I should have known better but the “runner” part of me won and I pushed myself.

The net result was that a 7 day illness sidelined me for almost a full month before I recuperated enough to get back on my training.

It was a blessing.

A lot of little aches and pains went away and stayed away until after the marathon.

I was so pent up and anxious to run again that I was very highly motivated, but I was also humbled by my own frailty so I was very careful about my training.

This focus and this knowing my own limitations has come in handy 9 years later when I decided to dust off my running shoes and tackle the
78 mile Canadian Death Race in 2008 and again this year.

But not before I was humbled again in a different way.

But that is a tale for another blog.

Bottom line: when you over train, your immune system goes first no matter what kind of training you do; strength, strength endurance or pure endurance. The net result will be that you will perform poorly and may wind up getting sick.

If you take time off and wait until your body tells you, really tells you “I am better” and not just that little devil in your brain saying “train, train, train” you will save yourself a ton of time and aggravation.

There is no sport anywhere where people push themselves more, over train more and ignore their bodies more than distance running! If any of this sounds like you, and as a runner I could place a 95% positive bet that you have been exactly at the place I just described, then do this magical thing: learn from your experience and don’t do it again!

In the long run this compulsive running behavior will lead you to run less and shorten your career.

My soon-to-be-released book tells you a lot about how to get around all this but in the meantime heed my advice…

Listen to your body or your running will be the first thing to go!

Introduction to Runner's Book

2009-04-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Runner,

As a bit of a tease I thought I would start this blog off with an intro to my new book, which has been over a year in the making and should be ready in about six weeks. I hope you enjoy this brief excerpt from the book's introduction.

Best,

Dr Dave

Introduction

When I sat down to write this book I had a real dilemma.

You see, there was so much drama in my life (physical, personal and even business at the time) when I decided to run my very first ultra trail marathon that this book would easily have made a tremendous semi-fictional novel.

In the end I decided to leave out the "fictionalized" real events (you know, the names have been changed to protect the guilty, etc.) and focus on the training aspects and experiential learning that I have to give you.

I did so because I did not want the drama to dilute the real information in the book as might be the case. In other words, I haven't yet figured out how to write a mix of real and semi fiction that would be taken seriously by the running community and other athletes as well.

Ok, so why did I really write this book?

As far as I am concerned Ultra Marathons are the next big thing.

As baby boomers age and some of the other generations begin to sense their own mortality the need to "do something special" and really challenging "before it's too late" comes into more and more people's minds.

About 15 years ago marathons were the thing. Then it became acceptable to walk/jog a marathon and take 6 or 7 hours to complete it.

Literally hundreds of thousands of people have now completed the distance of 26.2 miles

While this is not necessarily bad for the sport it does make the achievement a wee bit less special unless of course you go for one of the qualified marathons like Boston.

At this moment triathlons are experiencing a real surge in popularity, especially the shorter "sprint" distances.

Like the marathon craze, I think it's wonderful! People are getting into better shape, experiencing competition sometimes for the first time and in this case mastering or at least learning several different disciplines.

BRAVO!

That said, however, I am certain for all of the same reasons I have mentioned already and all the same reasons that apply to marathoning and triathloning, ultras are the next big thing and a lot more people are going to attempt them.

So who better to write the definitive "how to" guide than the crazy but well-educated dude who hasn't run in years and gave himself about 6 months to tackle one of the toughest races in the land and, walked away smiling!

Now onto a few definitions and generalizations.

Ultra marathon distances vary greatly but usually start at the 30 mile range and go all the way up to 100 miles and beyond.

The first ultra I ran in and the one that is the center of this book is called "The Canadian Death Race" and, being held in a country that is on the metric system, is referred to as 125K (just shy of 78 miles). I have known of some local races that are considered ultras that are 32 miles and of course there are many longer distances out there.

Not to be confused with adventure races, which require some kind of water craft and often long distances, biking and pure hiking, ultra marathons are strictly hike/run events, the amount of either usually being determined by 3 things: the terrain, the distance, and the ability of the athlete.

Another generalization that can be made about ultras is that they are usually off road e.g. trail running events.

One more thing that bears mentioning... Amongst the running communities that I have contact with, ultras are thought of as "races for older slower people". This comes about because many of the runners who do them are 35 and over.

While it is true that most of us slow down and become less crazy about proving our competitive worth, I honestly don't think the reasons are only speed related.

First off, running a 10 minute mile pace consistently over a 50 or 100 mile trail run that covers several mountains in the several thousand feet range would be a challenge for ANY runner.

What I have found to be the real reasons people do these are the following:

They like to run on trails because trails present an entirely different style of running and an entirely different set of problems.
They have the discipline to run at a slower pace for 12, 24 or more hours and the discipline to train correctly for that kind of running.
Believe it or not most of us who have run roads at one point and trials at another agree: you are less likely to get a serious overuse running injury on trails simply because of the diversity of the terrain your feet "see".