It's been awhile

Since I last posted. I'm into a rest week now, but it's still quite rewarding. I've been doing forefoot striking for 10% of my runs for some time now, basically making sure to do at least 100 steps of running with my toes striking first for every KM in a given run (not necessarily 100 steps in each actual km, but the number of km in a run, rounded up to the nearest whole number, is the number of 100 step toe first iterations I'd do). At some point, I started doing at least 300 at a time. Today, I did 20% of my run to work with forefoot striking. It's working out well, and I at least partially credit having added toe and arch exercises to my routine.

I received a package from REI today. A pair of 600mL ultraflasks, an emergency bivy, that sort of thing. I'm now well into the territory of having assembled a good trail running kit.

I figured out that my vivoactive 3 just does not have enough battery life to cover a trail marathon in April. Not even close. I'm seriously considering a different watch.

More milestones

On Saturday, I went for a run during a proper blizzard; I ended up taking my jacket off, too. I had icicles built up on my eyebrow and eyelashes by the end. Worth it.

On Monday, I achieved all 100 reps of both situps and squats carrying 10 pounds. I then ran to work with a 7.5kg pack. Between adding my wind pants and jacket to the pack for the run home, it was actually 7.9kg on the run back. Both of those weights included 2 1-liter bottles of water. My right knee bothered me ever so slightly, so today I took public transportation to and from work, and took the opportunity to move a few things both ways. I took a variety of medications to work, where I achieved some success sealing them in plastic straws. I found that I could print a piece of paper with the name, dose, and expiration date of each pill, then heat seal it into a small section of a drinking straw. The font must be simple and the type very small (size 4), but it remains legible through the straw. I also bought some single-use tubes of super glue, butterfly strips, and a spool of half inch waterproof medical tape. All told, I've got just about everything for a good medical kit that should fit into a tin.

I also brought home my new cutting mat, ruler, and the patterns for the backpack I hope to make, along with my new hydroblu water filter. It filters water with much less pressure than I anticipated. There is no appreciable flow of air back through it, so the filter has to be unscrewed to allow the bottle to re-expand before more water can be squeezed through. I wonder about an intermediate attachment with a check valve. I also wonder about the wisdom of using a small piece of tube to bring the water from the outlet to the clean water bottle, to minimize the chance of dirty water leaking out from around the joint and dripping down into the clean bottle.

I've been wearing my low-drop shoes for all casual walking around, exercising my arches and toes, and running at least 100 steps per kilometer with a toe-first strike. Tomorrow, I'll run to work again, with another reasonably heavy pack.

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.