New Shoe Day

Which was yesterday.

I ended up getting a gait analysis and having my feet measured. There are a bunch of numbers, but the main thing is the I have a medium arch, and moderately wide feet. I also bought two new pairs of shoes; some New Balance 860s in version 12, and a pair of Topo Ultrafly 3s. The Ultraflys have a drop of only 5mm, compared with the 10 of all the many pairs of 860s I've been running in. I've already added screws to the 860s (and brought one of my previously worn pairs back into service as daily walking shoes), and I intend to keep doing most of my distance running for now in the 860s, including running 10% of the distance with a forefoot strike. But the Topos will get used for long walks around the neighborhood and short runs. Running in them really does drive me to strike with my forefoot with no noticeable effort. Once I get used to them, I'll look into the possibility of trying a zero drop shoe.

Yesterday also saw a second day with 80 weighted reps during my strength training. That's pleasing. Also pleasing: I've been under 85kg for three days now, and for five of the last six days. It's unlikely that I'll lose another 5kg as quickly as I lost the first 5, but at least now I'm not at a BMI that designates me as overweight (even neglecting my athletic background). I'm around 15 or 16 percent body fat, which outs me squarely into healthy territory.

I finally bit the bullet and bought the materials to sew a running backpack, as well as the tools (a good ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter). I also got a hydroblu water filter with charcoal chemical filter attachment. I'm getting closer and closer to having all the right gear to go on fastpacking trips (or any ultralight backpacking trips); I'm going to have to spend a few nights sleeping on the back deck to test things out.

General success

The last three days have just been massively long work days. So this morning, I slept in, and it turns out that that was the start of a rather productive day.

I hit 80 reps with a 10-pound weight on both my situps and squats today (holding the weight with outstretched arms on the squats), with 20 more unweighted ones. The big accomplishment for the day was my long run; 18.24 kilometers, carrying my running vest which weighed in at 2.5 kg. I drank a couple tablespoons of honey an hour in advance, and was carrying a variety of snacks. The only one I ended up eating was a mixture of cashews and dried cranberries about a half hour after I stopped. I rode the commuter rail back to the grocery store, bought groceries for the week, came home, filled my water jug, took a nice long shower, washed my running shoes, and did laundry.

At one point during the run, I stopped for about ten seconds to take a piece of grit out of my shoe that was bothering me; I ended up stepping in a puddle with some road salt in it, but brushed my sock off and kept going. It didn't end up bothering me at all during the rest of the run, but it did convince me to take a second pair of running socks if I ever go on a truly long run. I also had good results with taking clothes; I took my wind pants and packable wind jacket, which made life much better for the entire trip home (particularly the wait at the train station). I think the "always have enough clothes along that you can stop at any point and be fine for 20 minutes" rule is pretty solid. If anything, the time is too short.

I do need to get more diligent about doing foot exercises if I want to transition to shoes with a lower drop. I also need to get new running shoes; my existing ones are pretty beat up.

Whoops!

I ran a third of a marathon!

Yesterday, I went to Heartbreak Hill and the new REI in Cambridge to see about getting some trail running shoes. I came away with a understanding that A. Solomon shoes are very, very narrow in the toebox, far too narrow for me and B. I might not need any trail running shoes. The New Balance 860s are working fine and have a lot of stability. There's something to be said for waterproofing, and I am interested in going to a shoe with less or even zero drop, but neither of those are concerns that are particular to trail shoes. I'm still looking into them, but I think I'll be getting at least one more pair of 860s, possibly 2, and also looking into a show with a lower drop (or an insert to modify the drop on the 860) so I can start to transition.

Today, I ran a bit over a third of a marathon. Before leaving, I added 200 mL of water and a bit of salt to 100 grams of dried couscous in a glass jar (yes, I know it's heavy) and put the entire thing in my pack. When I arrived at work and took out the jar, I thought at first that the entire thing had turned to mush after an hour and a half of bumping around. But when I opened it, the couscous was a reasonably good texture (a little watery), if a little underseasoned. I'm not sure if it could handle hours and hours of bashing around, but it was surprisingly tasty after having just burned upwards of 1,200 calories.

I decided to spring for some patterns from a MYOG website, mostly for a fastpack-orinted backpack and a wind jacket. The backpack is interesting to me; I'd like to get it sewn and functional before I got on my trail marathon. I want to have it so the straps can hold a water bottle each, as well as having pockets or attachments for gloves, snacks, and possibly navigational aids. Speaking of, I got a great deal on a barely used Spot X satellite communicator. I doubt I'll need it for a while, but I have been looking at them for some time and I ultimately want to run farther and farther out. In the mean time, I plan to carry it just to get familiar with the device.

Tomorrow, I'll go on another longish run (12.2 km). That will round out my distance for the week, and also train me a bit on back-to-back long runs. Given that three out of every 4 weeks include an increase in distance, with the fourth being a "rest week", I'm thinking of doing back-to-back long runs for two of those three weeks and a single, truly long run for the third. Assuming that no run should be more than 30% of a week's total distance, and given a marathon of 42km (yes, I know it's a bit more), that means that 140km in a given week would put a marathon in relatively easy grasp. It would also leave 98km a week of other running to do; I would basically have to find a 10km track to and from work and commute there and back 5 days a week. Hmmmm. I really need to nail down a training plan.

I also need to nail down where I'm going to do my trail marathon. I should decide whether I'm going to limit myself to the range of the T, or the commuter rail. I could find a ride or something to go eve farther out, but I think it's wise not to push things too far for this. Maybe just a whole pile of twisting and turning in the middlesex fells reservation is the right answer. But I do need to sort some sort of path out, so I can make sure to include enough elevation changes in my training.

Trail training plan

One of the main things I need to get straight is nutrition. I still have about six kilos to lose, so I want to maintain a deficit of at least 1000 calories/day. I also intend to keep consuming a significant dose of protein right after my strength training sessions.

As to running nutrition specifically, I think there are a few basic rules I can settle on:

1. Always be carrying water, and drink whenever thirsty.

2. At the end of a run, drink at least half a liter of water immediately.

3. Eat 100-200 calories of carbs 30-60 minutes before each run.

4. During a run that's more than an hour long, eat about 200 calories of carbs per hour past the first hour.

5. For runs longer than 3 hours, add in about 100 calories per hour of fats and/or proteins past the first 3 hours.

6. At the end of a run, eat within an hour, including at least 300 calories of carbs and 200 of protein.

That seems to sum things up. I intend to go grocery shopping tomorrow, and stock up heavily on fruit. I also need to nail down my training plan. I should be getting myself to the point that I can run 80km a week at least, and I should do one run of at least 35 before I attempt a full marathon on the trail. And this has to incorporate more than just easy road miles; hill repeats, back-to-back long runs, that sort of thing.

I'm also interested in having another attempt at getting into more minimalist footwear. Perhaps not huaraches, but at least something with no drop so I can take advantage of the running shoes being made in the US. To that end, today I started running 100 steps out of every kilometer that I run on my toes. I'm allowing myself to distributed those in 100-step chunks however I wish; for example, I can run 300 steps on my toes at the start of one kilometer and do none during the following 2. I also intend to include some foot muscle exercises in my routine; 3 sets of 10 calf raises, holding my toes contracted and curled as tight as possible for 10 seconds 3 times, and arching each foot for 10 seconds 3 times. I'm not sure if I should add these to my strength training, to my stretches, or something else. Anyway, I'll do them tomorrow, and see how they feel.

Keto crash

On Saturday, I felt horrible for most of the day. I finally realized that I was very hungry for specific foods; I ended up eating a pint jar of cashews, and a nearly full pint jar of dried pineapple chunks. Given that it was near the end of the day, and how much sugar pineapple has, I should have been well out of ketosis on Sunday morning, but I wasn't. My blood ketones were still above 2.

Sunday, I didn't eat much of anything except sausage and eggs for dinner. Today, I've had several sources of carbs; pasta being the dominant one, but also some milk chocolate. Looking into things, I think the protein levels in the keto chow I was subsisting on may have been insufficient for my exercise regime. I may also have been too aggressive on my caloric deficit. Over the next day or two, I intend to restock on groceries to support a more conventional running diet, but to maintain a deficit of approximately 1000 calories/day. I'm also still abstaining from alcohol. Keto was good the last time I tried it, but this time it's just not seeming to work. Anyway, a caloric deficit is a caloric deficit, and I should lose weight either way.

I want to get better at trail running. There' a fair bit to learn, but my birthday is on a Saturday this year, and I think I can be ready to run a self-made trail marathon by then. That's essentially 12 weeks to train, so long as I start in a week and a half, so I get that week and a half to study, increase my current road kilometers per week, and get any equipment I need. Maybe the biggest issue will be finding places around here that qualify as "trails" to train on.

More thoughts on water

I am a big fan of versatility. For backpacking, lightweight solutions are great, and of course redundancy is important when it comes to emergencies. The purification tablets that I carry in my survival kit allow for viruses, which almost no inline/straw type filters do. The only exception is the aquamira frontier max, which is undesirable in a variety of ways, not least because of its very limited connection style.

So I've settled on the HydroBlu versa flow. It allows a bottle or bladder to be threaded into either side, but still has hose barbs on both ends; maximum connection versatility. It's very light, lighter even than the sawyer micro. I'm interested to see if a bottle or bladder of clean water can be used to backflush it. The same company also manufactures an add-on combination activated charcoal/ ion exchange filter that's good for 150 gallons and removes heavy metals and chemicals. About all I might want to add on is a prefilter for large sediments.

As for containers, I'd like some of my water to be in collapsible containers to minimize sloshing around; these would be (hopefully) on the front straps of my bag or vest. I'm leaning towards 500 or 600 mL hydrapak bottles, which would also give me the flexibility to move to the befree from Katadyn. With two of them, I'd be carrying roughly 40 extra grams over using small smart water bottles, but the lack of sloshing around is worth it. Ideally, these bottles would be for clean water only; with $14 and 25 grams worth of accessories, I could even hang one of them from a 28mm screw filter to accept gravity flow (and use them to backflush such a filter).

1-1.2 liters of water is not really enough for a lot of situations, though. Also, it would be desirable to have at least one container that's not collapsible, in order to try out the use of an aspirator to obtain, and possibly prefilter, water from sources too shallow or inaccessible to dip a container into. 1-liter smart water bottles fit the bill perfectly; light, cheap, moderately rigid, and they fit the Hydroblu filter. They weigh something like 40 grams (I should buy one to weigh and clean), so I can easily carry two (one for clean water and another for dirty water). Sloshing shouldn't be an issue, since I would only carry them either empty or full most of the time. If I really find myself wanting a collapsible one liter bottle, hydrapac and cnoc both make soft 1-liter container in the 60 gram range with 28mm threads.

All told, between the versa flow, a charcoal filter, a pair of 600 mL ultraflasks, and a pair of 1-liter smart water bottles, I'd be looking at 3.2 liters of water storage, filtration for most things except viruses, and a total weight of about 300 grams. Another 25 grams would give me a gravity filter option/ ability to backflush with an ultraflask. If I decide to only carry one smart water bottle, and thus not have a clean one, these adapter would be wise to carry to ensure I can backflush. I'm not sure how much a siphon arrangement would add.

Anyway, on another note, keto doesn't seem to have seriously compromised my running pace. And I weight in at 87.5kg this morning. That's probably a bit low, but it still seems to represent a solid 2 kg in two weeks of dieting. At this pace, I should comfortable achieve my target weight by mid-march, and juuuust about use up the keto chow that I have now.

Water while backpacking

Boy, are there a lot of water treatment options out there. Right now, I'm leaning towards some sort of inline filter like the Sawyer micro or the Aquamira frontier (the frontier is the only one I'm aware of than handles viruses), or a chemical treatment like aquamira. The straw seems like it has a higher throughput. Some of the chemical treatments demand a four hour wait time, which isn't really feasible if someone is using multiple liters in a given hour.

One issue that seems to come up quite a bit is filling the container from very shallow streams or other sources. This makes me wonder about using a water bottle with a specialized cap; one hose could run from the water source, through the cap, and down to the bottom of the bottle, while another hose from the cap could be sucked on by the user to draw water into the bottle. The hose in the water source could have a prefilter on it, while the suction hose could have an inline filter to avoid aspirating any contaminants. Come to think of it, such an arrangement could be used to prefilter any source, not just shallow sources.

Running pack

I recently got an Osprey Rev 6 for a good price secondhand. I love it when people buy things as part of a plan to do things that they end up not doing. "I'm going to dehydrate all my own healthy snacks!", or "I'll use this exercise machine every day!". And then, six months later, that stuff is on craigslist for 80% off. Have I used everything I ever bought? Nope, sure haven't. But I have used darn near all of it, and most of it until it was totally worn out.

Anyway, the rev 6 is a much smaller pack than my other osprey, a much-used hikelite 35 that I bought new (on sale) a few years ago. I still use that pack several times a week, but I wanted to get something that could hold a few more things than the elite survival systems running belt I have. Today, I went on my first run with it; a 15-kilometer jog that, for the first time, saw me running my "hatchet route" in reverse. I was feeling a bit lethargic, and my pace was quite a bit slower than usual; 6:35/kilometer, compared with my usual 6:00 or slightly under. It will be interesting to see if that gap narrows as I stay in keto for a while, and my body adapts more and more to burning fat. Anyway, I'm not bothered by it; I'm still getting a lot of cardiovascular benefit, and I'm still increasing my distance per week. My weight loss is proceeding, and I'm increasing the number of reps I use a 10-pound weight for on my strength exercises (yesterday was 70 each of my 100 crunches and squats that I had the weight for). The pack itself felt like more of an item of clothing than an item of cargo, despite what it held (a jacket, survival kit, first aid kit, and my phone).

I also got some good advice regarding packing for ultralight camping, and as a result I took a few things off my list. For example, I had listed both a lighter and a matchsafe, with the matchsafe being an emergency backup. But my survival kit already contains two different emergency ways to start fire, both matches and a sparker with tinder tabs. I did have a trowel on there, for digging catholes, but really wouldn't a tent stake be perfectly adequate? My morakniv weighs over 100 grams; gerber makes a 17 gram folding knife that's perfectly fine (and, really, I could use the RSK5 from my survival kit as my main knife and out a folding razor knife in the survival kit). There's always room for improvement, even if the effect is primarily psychological; I even spent a few moments thinking about trimming down the drawstring on the stuff sack for my titanium mug/pot. But then I realized that the bag itself might be worth replacing (is three layers of material really necessary to hold a mug?)

I also finally got my boat wrapped today. And none too soon; now I can put my dehydrator on the back porch and start dehydrating kimchi en masse.

The end of day 6

Good LORD, yesterday ended poorly.

It started well. I did 70 weighted reps of my situps and squats, with 100 reps total of all my strength exercises. Breakfast was a 200-calorie protein shake and coffee, with a keto chow shake after I got to work. I ran to work with a 6.5 kg pack. Work was going well...right up until it didn't. For better or for worse, I didn't start running home until 1930, and it was probably the worst run I've ever had while still finishing. My shoulders felt terrible, my pace was 39 second per kilometer short of my average, and I felt absolutely shattered by the time I got home. I ended up nearly collapsing on the floor. I thought that perhaps being on only day 5 of keto, coupled with a long work day and being at a significant caloric deficit for the day, was the cause. I had my keto chow for dinner and a small piece of dark chocolate for dessert. Still, this morning, my blood ketones were at 3.9; that's after a night's sleep, not immediately after exercise.

Anyway, I felt fine today. I finished off the last of my heavy cream supply with breakfast, so lunch and dinner were both made with light cream. My weight loss seems slow and steady, which is how it should be. By the time I work through the keto chow I have, I should be ready to go in for another scan.

I think I'm going to order a tent kit from Ray Jardine. He seems to have this lightweight backpacking thing sorted out.

Day 3

And I appeared, at least this morning, to have a mild keto flu. Nothing major; I was still able to do 100 reps of all my bodyweight exercises, with the 10 pounds weight for the first 60 situps and squats, as with last week. I woke up early enough to fold all the laundry and do a few other chores. And I commuted to and from work with a full pack, at about the pace I've been going for the last few weeks. According to the scale, I've lost nearly 2kg in only two days. I highly doubt it's water weight, as I'm drinking large amounts, so really the only thing I can think of is that the 90 I was at two days ago was overblown.

Anyway, my attempt to assemble a good ultralight camping kit continues. I got some things in the mail today to assemble my small survival kit. Right now, it contains a signal mirror, water purification tablets, a water bag, a whistle, a fire sparker, tinder tabs, 4 storm matches with striker, flashlight, compass, and an RSK5 knife. I still intend to add some duct tape, aluminum foil, needles, and fishing line (maybe with a few hooks and sinkers), provided I can figure out how to fit it all in the tin. I considered using a small otterbox; it's waterproof, it latches more securely, and it has a bit more space. But it weighs 128 grams to the 36 grams the tin weighs; even full, the tin survival kit weighs less (112 grams) than the otterbox does empty. And it is metal, which could come in handy. So I'll probably just make sure that the contents are each well-sealed in plastic wrappers as appropriate, seal the whole tin closed with a good strip of electrical tape or similar, and maybe tie it shut with a paracord wrap.

While I had my scale out, I weighed my headlamp and found it's quite a bit lighter than I had originally thought. So that's nice. By the time I finish my diet, I'll have lost more weight simply as body fat than my entire 3-season fastpacking kit is anticipated to weigh! I am struggling a fair bit with the stove thing; I do think I would miss having a hot cup of coffee.

Sleeping mat

So I bought a used therm-a-rest inflatable sleeping mat today. It's an older style, before they got the winglock valve, but very light (344 grams with stuff sack), it fits me, and I believe the R value is around 3. Not bad for $45.

I also came across an interesting concept. MSR used to make a device that uses electrolysis to convert salt water to an effective water purification solution; potable aqua still does. There are a few changes I would make; there doesn't seem to be a good reason to have a separate bottle for the brine solution, when there are reservoirs for salt in the device itself. It's nice that it's rechargeable and has solar charging built in, but I don't see a good reason that the batteries couldn't be replaceable (maybe the electrodes wear out too and they don't want to make those swappable?). And it seems odd that you can select only a few volumes, from 1 liter to 20; seems like they could have just made 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 liter settings, and allowed combinations. It would also be nice to have an option for 500 mL. Anyway, it's a very interesting concept, particularly because it works against all bacteria, protozoans, and viruses, and doesn't require (but would benefit from) prefiltering.

Anyway, my blood ketones this morning were at 0.8, so I was well into ketosis. I added some formulas to my keto chow calculation spreadsheet to show what my body weight will be at various body fat percentages. My goal with this round of keto is to get down to 10 percent, which should take me just about two months (and almost perfectly use up my supply of keto chow). From there, I really shouldn't let myself get back up to 20 percent again. Perhaps I should set a band; hit the upper end, say 17%, and that automatically triggers a diet until I get down to the lower end, say 13%. It would be appropriate to keep going in for a scan every 3 months or so to make sure my lean body mass isn't changing enough over time to throw off the calculation.

It's also high time I went on a stuff diet. I'm not sure I have the nearly 500 things to get rid of that it takes to do a "number of things=date, every day for a month" purge, but I definitely have extra stuff that can go. Hangar One bottles that I'm never going to cut, my razor scooter, that sort of thing. Particularly if I'm going to buy some Tyvek, netting, etc. to try to make into a bivy sack and a poncho tarp. Am I ambitious enough to sew a quilt? Maybe just a cowl first. I like the idea of a quilt with removable insulation tubes to adapt to different temperatures ranges; particularly with colder temps, because the tubes for the foot area could be shorter and held in the center of the quilt by cords, saving weight because the quilt will get wrapped around the feet anyway.

New Year

Some time ago, I read an opinion piece of how foolish it is to wait for New Year's Day to start a resolution. If a resolution is worth doing, it's probably worth doing NOW. Which makes a lot of sense, but of course having read that I developed a slight aversion to starting things on New Year's Day. But that makes just as little sense as only starting them on that day.

Anyway, I started keto today. My blood ketones were 0.2 this morning, but of course I didn't expect to be in ketosis that soon after a full day of essentially normal eating. I went on the last run of the week yesterday, finishing the year out with a cumulative full marathon in a week, but I got rather lost and stopped my run short of home instead of seriously exceeding 110% of the previous week's distance. I ate at a little local restaurant before coming home, and a fair amount if rice and arepas were still rolling around inside of me. I may well not even be well into ketosis tomorrow morning, despite having had zero carbs today. All in good time. Anyway, I started out the day at exactly 90kg; my goal is to stay on keto until I lose 10% of my body weight, then go in for a scan. I'm hoping to accomplish that goal within three months. I did find out that there are powdered versions of heavy cream and of butter available; coupled with powdered MCT oil, they could make a decent portable version of keto chow. Unfortunately, the powders are rather expensive, so it would have to be for occasional use only.

I found a great deal on craigslist for a small osprey running vest. On my way to go get it, I found myself walking by the local REI outlet. It sure is nice to be able to shop in physical reality; comparing the size of products, for example, is much easier in real life. I ended up getting a spare spigot for my water jugs and a replacement buckle for my larger osprey pack. The running vest ended up being suboptimal, but I expected that; for example, it has a flip-down case on the left strap for a smartphone or similar device, which ended up being too small for my phone (expected) but also ended up being removable (unexpected, and very nice). I may be able to make a better one.

Speaking of making gear, I think the best option for a fastpacking shelter setup is probably a poncho tarp and a good bivy sack. With a good quilt or sleeping bag, and all the necessary accessories (pegs, lines, groundsheet, etc), I should still be able to put together a decent setup for less than 2 kg. The poncho tarp has a lot of potential. I'm thinking about making a prototype out of tyvek, both to test the design and get some experience sewing. I want to give it a slight catenary curve, but still leave it able to use a normal straight-ridgeline pitch. I want to have the hood roll down and get fixed in place like the mouth of a drybag, to (hopefully) eliminate any dripping when used as a shelter. It would be great if one end, or even both, could have beaks when pitched, in order to allow for the use of a small stove. Of course, that brings up the issue of poles; should they be external, with the bivy hanging from the inside of the tarp? Or should the poles be under the tarp, reducing living space and restricting how low the tarp can be pitched? External seems the best, but the placement of internal tie points for the bivy sack will have to be done carefully to avoid chafing when the poncho is worn. Perhaps the same tie points can be used to keep the beak material inside while in "poncho mode".

When worn, I imagine the poncho first being placed on the head, and being draped over the pack. The flap out in front would be the wider of the sections, the "head" end of the shelter. It would ten be wrapped back around the body, and held in place possibly by a carabiner or other device connecting it at the back of the waist. Then, the flap hanging behind the user would be drawn forward, and held by a belt, another carabiner, etc. A few fasteners along the longer edges could allow the material to be fastened around the wrists for convenience; for example, a toggle on a short piece of elastic cord (to allow for size variations) could engage a tiedown loop. Anyway, there are a lot of options out there.

I also found some good resources for making sleeping bags and quilts. I wonder if I could wander around at goodwill and the like and get down-filled garments for a good enough price to warrant cutting them up for the down.