Austin Bits and Atoms

This bear is out of hibernation

2011-02-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

The last four runs have been fantastic. The legs feels like brand new springs.

I got a tweet the other day from a friend's stream saying the Mexican smoke is back. I found a NASA satellite image that we should all check to see if the smoke is making its way to Central Texas at the particular time we decide to run.

Endurance Events No More

2010-11-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

Participating in the Longhorn 70.3 Ironman on Oct. 17 for the third time proved one thing; I'm done with endurance-type events. I don't know if it was the bike crash or not being able to take in nutrition during the race that made me feel so bad about long-distance triathlons. The first Longhorn 70.3 race I felt great. The second one I had mechanical problems on the bike and landed in a bed of ants so that was probably the start of my ill feelings towards the event. I signed up for the 2010 event because my brother Kevin wanted to do one.

Endurance races are for the young. I'd rather be done with the event in under two hours and get on with it; sitting with friends, drinking a beer and having a meal.

Training for endurance sports take too much time away from other things I like to do.

I'd rather go fast for minutes than go slow for hours.

I noticed some avid runners, three-to-four years ahead of me in age and in my running group, were having issues with MCLs, bone-on-bone knee problems and it was time for me to take a long, hard look at what my outcome may be if I keep up with the amount of miles I'm running.

So it was a good ride while it lasted. I'm getting out with my knees intact and enough cartilage to last a few more years.

Bad Shoes

2010-07-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have passed along most of the free pairs of running shoes I accumulated, from sponsored training sessions, to others whose feet are a better fit for them. One pair remained though (not New Balance) and I made sure they were designated gym shoes and would never see the light of day as running shoes. Until yesterday. I got to the trail and found I had left my numero uno pair of New Balance on the deck drying. Ugh! I felt a slight rubbing on the right side of the right foot but disregarded it inconsequential as I wasn't over five miles for the evening. I gasped when I saw my little toe while getting dressed for a gym workout today at noon. A reddish bloody blister.

The numero dos pair of New Balance will find themselves in the trunk of the car tonight and that's where they'll stay, except for when they're on my feet while on the trail. Other than the wrong shoes, the runs on the trail in the heat have been ok. I'm already getting acclimated and the Barton Springs cool-downs at sundown are wonderful.

Wednesday nights I get the added benefit of listening to Blues on the Green, a weekly concert in the park. Traffic is a little hairy and I end up parking down the road which adds another mile to the run but it's not a problem.

Maximum Weight/Low Reps Done Until Nov.

2010-07-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

The gym free-weight workouts of maximum weight with low reps needs to be removed from my training plan. My shoulders and arms take too long to recover to have anything close to a good swim the next day. Even if they recover, it seems everything is tighter than they should be. I find myself stopping every 100 or 200 yards to rub the area where it's tight. So I'll set aside the workout until November, even though I was noticing good results from it.

I've learned every workout needs a period of time off during the year. Swimming is only enjoyable if I can take a few months away from it. Running is only possible if my legs and especially the knees get a break from the high impact for a couple of months. I look forward to going to the gym most when I haven't been in some time.

Visiting the Longhorn Half-Ironman Again This Coming October

2010-07-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

There's only one thing that could get me back to do the Longhorn Half-Ironman again. If my brother called up and said, "Why don't we do it together?" He did.

There was a long pause of several weeks between the call and the registration. I think we were each feeling the other one out on level of seriousness. Yesterday, he registered. I manned up and registered as well.

I knew it would happen and that's why I started training a couple of weeks ago. I seem a lot more sore than I did the last time I trained for this race. I can really tell I took last winter easy.

Yesterday, I ran five miles in the heat to start to get acclimated. All I can say is thank God for Barton Springs. The 68-degree water is heaven for a dip and cooldown after summer runs.

Workouts for the day: (AM) 5K run, 1000 yard easy swim. (PM) weight machine circuits + 1 hour bike.

Phone Recluse No Longer

2010-06-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Sprint HTC Evo 4G phone arrived last night.

Android 2.1

1 GHz processor

3G and 4G capability

8 megapixel camera

8 GB SD card

The Palm Treo never recovered from tagging along in the pool during my long swim. The dry rice trick didn't work. Many speculated on FB that I intentionally killed the Treo.

Separation of People and Toxins

2010-06-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

"It may be that going forward we need to be thinking about the locations of industrial facilities and the locations of where people live and keeping a healthy distance between them."

Dr. Howard Frumkin
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

How safe is the air you're breathing, and where is it coming from? Tune in to "Toxic America," a two-night special investigation, with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, June 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. ET.

Changes Over Time

2010-05-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

"When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood” ~Sam Ewing

I just went and looked at two blogs I read daily when all into triathlons and marathons and one now requires an invitation and the other has allowed the domain to drop so it fails. I feel like I went home to look at the house I grew up in only to find a parking lot.

It tells me to move on. Nothing to see there.

This weekend is the Capital of Texas Triathlon. I have no urge to participate. I am nursing the hip back into shape after the Austin Half and a busted knee. Even if I was well I don't think I'd want to visit the race again. With all of the sewage problems finding a way to the swim course I think staying out of that water is the safest bet at this point.

Both the knee and hip are 100% and I think next week I'll be in the pool several times a week with no expectations. Just swimming and running and maybe some cycling. My brother still wants to look at the Austin 70.3 as a possible fall race.

First Lunch Run in a Long Time

2010-03-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

I was debating whether or not to go to the gym at noon and by chance checked the levels of particulates before walking out the door. Austin had a 0.2 level of particulates. No gym workout was going to be able to compete with the cleanest air in a long time. Halfway into the run I remembered I had taken an antibiotic in the morning and as the UV Index was about eight and this was the most sun I'd seen since last October, I decided to head back to the office.

The left adductor pain has subsided since the Austin Half-marathon with more stretching. Just another issue to add to the list of things to watch out for and treat.

Ugh!

2010-02-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

from the Austin American Statesman the other day...

City might add admission fee for two free-swim hours at Barton Springs

By Sarah Coppola | Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 12:16 PM

Austin’s Parks Department might charge an admission fee during one extra hour in the morning and evening at Barton Springs Pool.

The hours of 8-9 a.m. and 9-10 p.m. currently have lifeguards but no admission fee, and officials say attendance has grown so large, especially at night, that they must keep a full shift of lifeguards on duty.

Read the rest and attend the public hearing on the matter.

Many of those attending before 9:00 am are runners soaking their legs after a long run. At least on Saturday and Sunday mornings. If the City starts charging at 8:00 a.m., I think I'll permanently be found soaking my legs downstream in shallow runoff waters of the dog park. The water is just as cold as the water in the fenced Barton Springs pool. There are more snakes, turtles, dogs, ducks and people downstream in the dog park, but in many ways it's more interesting. And, best of all it's free. Well, free until the City decides to fence it off and charge a fee for it too.

Hibernation and Breasts

2010-01-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

The cold front is just about to the ATX and we'll soon be in experiencing temps in the teens. As I have a 13-mile run on Valentine's Day, I should be hitting the trail just about each and ever day but all I want to do this time of year is lift weights and do the minimal amount of cardio to keep in half-ass shape. Three years in a row the same thing. Granted last year I had the injury and couldn't run but I don't think it really mattered.

On another topic, I went to pick up a chicken breast last night for Chicken & Dumplings. Although I have seen three or four movies about what's happening to the animals we eat, it had not registered so plainly as last night's visit at the grocery store. I think it hadn't registered as the two products were always separated by 30 feet of shelf space and so I would put one or the other in the basket and not think twice or do a comparison.

Side-by-side I had chicken breast packages. One organic, one not. One cost $9.00, the other cost $3.00. The organic chicken breasts were small. The non-organic breasts were HUGE and resembled turkey breasts more than their sisters in the other package. Thoughts that came to mind included, OMG, C'mon Man!, and the F-bomb; all within a matter of seconds. I chose the $9 organic breasts but it really was a challenge to put the HUGE $3 breasts back on the shelf.

More of the Same Please

2009-12-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

My one resolution for 2009 was to see at least one live music performance per month. After all, inhabiting the self proclaimed 'Live Music Capital of the World' requires one to show some support of some kind at least once a month. Last week's performance by the The Eggmen at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar completed the year's resolution. Ditto for 2010.

Fitness still plays into the resolution matrix somehow. Each year it's becoming more like brushing my teeth and washing the car than a mid-life crisis response. The whole racing and training aspect is overly hyped and as I'm not competitive in this area of my nature, I'd rather just let it go. That's not to say I won't enjoy running down the street with 15,000 people at the Austin Marathon and 13-miler. Having a race on the calendar creates just enough motivation to get out of bed each day and go for a run and do a couple extra pushups. All training schedules will be purged from the harddrives, with the printed ones meeting their maker in the shredder.

My bro does want to do a half-iron with me in October so that'll take some motivation. More than I have now. I have just enough to get through a morning strength workout of 30 minutes and some sort of run in the afternoon. Sometimes one and not the other. Half-iron means two or three times per day every day or almost every day with the nutrition factor thrown in. Less beer, less sweets, less food overall. Of course I could indulge and just suffer for six or seven hours in the heat come October. Ugh....

Ice Skating Outdoors is Much Better

2009-12-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

The outdoor Wollman Ice-skating Rink in Central Park did not disappoint. Perfect mild-for-NYC winter temperatures with Christmas carols playing out of the speakers hidden among the rocks and trees made for a great experience. Even though the ice was rough and the rink crowded Kayla dazzled the kids with effortless turns and spins. She slowed down enough to skate backwards, holding my hands and pulling me along.

Afterwards it was time to find a hot dog cart. The dog wasn't as good as I remember but it tasted just good enough. After skating and walking what seemed like ten miles, I would have eaten cardboard with a dab of mustard.

With ten seconds to spare before the curtain was opened to start the show, we sat down for the best 90 minutes of entertainment I've had in a long, long time. It was well worth the price. The Rockettes are amazing. The singing waitstaff at Ellen's Stardust Diner where we ate prior to the show were equally amazing. Broadway wannabes who are just a few months short of making it big sang on the tabletops and as they walked through the restaurant.

New York, New York Christmas 2009

2009-12-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

New York was one of the last places I thought I would miss. The last time I was here in 1997 I was sick and had a so-so time. The guy playing non-stop drums in Times Square, just below our hotel room may have had something to do with it. Fast forward to 2009 and 20 blocks north, next to Central Park and needless to say the drummer is gone, even though we're next to Lincoln Center with the Philharmonic and The Julliard School. They have really good drummers. So if I lack sleep this trip, at least the percussion will be in tune.

Not having a fever or a pounding headache has seemed to make a difference. The cab ride from the airport was scary and could have given 90% of people a migraine. Are they never scary? The cabby did cut in front of all kind of cars, pedestrians and cyclists to get us to the hotel fast. Key work on fast. I did notice the one person he stopped for was a NYPD officer in a neon-yellow jacket. Smart move.

The first order of business, outside of dropping off the luggage, was a slice of sicilian pizza. In the rain without an umbrella we found Francesco Pizzeria on the NYC Upper Westside. Sicilian pizza, calzone and about 100 other dishes I wanted to consume on the spot. No lie, the best pizzeria I found in the rain.

After filling my gut with pizza I found the Apple store on my way back to the hotel. I had Facebooked 24 hours ago that I would soon be listening to a jazz band next to Central Park with a glass of wine. The comment came to life sort of. The jazz band turned out to be a jazz ensemble from The Julliard School and I had already consumed the wine at the pizzeria. By the way the Apple store NYC is split over two levels. Otherwise, it's about the same as the Austin store, except it doesn't have a jazz ensemble playing from The Julliard School. Yeah.

Running Again

2009-12-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

I think the vacation from running is over. I felt like running today and packed a bag of stuff for a run later this afternoon. This time around I let my urge to run again tell me when it was time to start back up. By the time the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll half was over, I was sick of running. I think my feet were too. The blisters have healed up. The plantar fasciitis is all but a memory and the knees are good.

I'm also wanting to get back in the pool. Runner's World Magazine had a feature called Wet Equity in the January 2010 issue available now that really gets into detail about pool running. I felt so weird running in the pool last summer with swimming a couple laps freestyle and then run a couple of laps but wouldn't you know it, the article advises doing that very thing.

Here's more on greenhouse gases and the trouble they cause. Luckily in the winter the air is tolerable during the noon hour or afternoon if there's an updraft to carry the pollutants away. That way I don't have to wake up before the sunrise to get my run in.

A side note. Three of the last four cars I rode in didn't have the air conditioner setting to recirculate the inside air. I didn't make it a point to check when I first got in the car. It was only when I smelled something bad like exhaust that I would then look for the inside air button.

Catch-22s

2009-11-17T06:37:00.000-08:00

In order to run a marathon or even 10 or 13 miles you have to at least plan a few weeks, if not months ahead. I mean, sure, you could wake up one morning at 4:00 a.m. and think you could drive down to the race of the week and sign up at that moment. It's been done many times and the people who did this probably survived.

But to do it the "right way" or the idea that you have to start to prepare so far in advance and that you will get to the race in the shape that you envisioned or that everything that needs to line up does so is a crap shoot. So many things can go wrong between the time you need to register for the race, make reservations and the time you line up at the starting line.

Such was the case with the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon. Sickness got me two months out and on race day my body decided to flush fluids just prior to the race. My stomach didn't settle for six miles which was a first. I did have three good miles before the blisters started to appear, even though I was wearing the same socks I always do. Blown calf two months out, etc.

So there's a Catch-22 every race. You plan and train but come race day, the odds are against you having the run of your life. Out of 20-some-odd races I've experienced a great race twice. One half marathon and one 5K. Both were fantastic weather and training and without sickness but that's less than 10%. Most of the time it's too cold or too windy or too rainy or too hot. Too hot happens a lot. Must be the global warming thing.

I finished the run. Met some good people. Had a great time in San Antonio. Now disillusioned about signing up for races. I'm in a training rut that I need to figure out. Since the race the gym visit was bleh, the run was bleh, the home training has been bleh. Rut. Rut. Rut.

The rut will give way. But to what I have no idea. Maybe others just keep at it knowing that most runs are hit-and-miss. Every once in awhile a run or race comes along that blows your socks off and that makes the others fade from memory.

Link Friday

2009-10-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

I really just have one link this week due to me looking for reasons why my leg hurts and what to do about my leg hurting.

Ask the Experts: Prevent Injuries

Looking at anatomy diagrams it's apparent that my injury isn't the Achilles, but more like Flexor Hallucis Longus or the Peroneneus Brevis. I also remembered in my workout the day before the injury that I placed my feet underneath a weight machine in the gym to do some crunches on a Swiss Ball. The feet underneath the machine pinned them in such a way to cause irritation in the feet and shin area. Right where I now have pain.

I was reading the above linked article and it has some great information about my injury as did the Competitor article titled Running Past 40 in the Sept. '09 issue. Bottom line. Stay off it for three days and then half my long run. So it looks like Saturday's run will only be six to seven miles which should make the legs feel good.

Wheel Fell Off

2009-10-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

As luck would have it that after I confirmed hotel reservations for the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon and Half something would happen within minutes, like a leg falling off or a foot. It wasn't minutes but it was hours. This morning's run looked promising at the start. Cool weather, the rain had stopped, my inflammation from the cold I had over a month ago had stopped (more on this in a minute). Yes, the run looked pretty promising. I started warming up like I do every Monday and Wednesday and I could tell the warm up was going to take longer than normal. I was about two miles into the warm up when I decided to start the workout and accelerate. That's when the wheel came off.

Below my calf and to the side a little which may be part of the Achilles tendon I felt a sharp pain. Not like one of the dull pains that now crop up daily but are never in the same place, two days in a row. This pain was new. As I walked back to the house the only thing I could think of that was different was the removal of the orthotic. I had thought since all of the PF pain was gone I could go back to just using insoles. Wrong. I might be able to, as I did a long stretch of the calf muscle and tendon half way through the warm up. But I think it was the missing orthotic. Running with it for the last nine months has caused my running form to adapt to it and when it was gone, it was like the ball bearings were removed.

But looking to the bright side I get to try out some rehab products. I went to Sports Authority and picked up a pool running belt. As I tend to run in the shallow end, which will strain the Achilles, I need to move to the deep end and thus the need for the belt to keep me afloat. I also picked up a calf/shin support to wear during the day and when I get to run, which may be Friday or Saturday at the earliest. I also picked up some KT Tape or Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape. You may have seen several athletes wearing the tape that looks like a foot-wide spider is on their shoulder. I saw Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh wearing it while playing volleyball. I've heard good things about it. I'll try it out and see.

So about the inflammation. I quit Diet Cokes and all other sodas, except for plain soda water, about two months ago. The reason for quitting had to do with the aspartame. Besides the loss of caffeine, I noticed my inflammation didn't clear as fast after I had a cold as it did when I drank Diet Coke. The only thing I can attribute this to is that I've heard Coke is able to take off the acid crust on a battery, so it had no problem clearing up some inflammation. Once I had a Diet Coke, I had no problem with inflammation. Interesting.

Want to read something interesting? See how coffee and tea are decaffeinated.

90% ankle is back to 100%

2009-10-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

The ankle I turned yesterday has returned to 100%. No discoloration, the swelling went down with ice. It's all good.

ACL Plan B in Place

2009-09-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

After my normal run this morning, I ventured across the freeway to do a little trail exploring. I need to find a 2-hour run that's as far away as possible from the cluster that will be the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend. I found enough trails and a way to get there without having to cross the freeway. There are some trails that run to some tunnels under the freeway. They're dark, long and a little creepy but it's better than sucking all the exhaust from above.

It's hard to believe I haven't used this trail more often as it's super close to the house and is hardly used.

Just as I was finishing I stepped in a hole and I felt my ankle go sideways as I braced my fall crashing down on my hands. I think it'll be ok as there's hardly any swelling.

Back to the Drawing Board

2009-09-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

The orthotic experiment didn't exactly workout great. One of the cuts in the orthotic caused a blister during my last 13-mile run on Saturday. As Murphy's Law would have it, I was as far from my car as possible, crossing the Longhorn Dam (6.5 mile mark) when I felt a pinch on the arch of my foot. I knew immediately what was about to happen, but short of running barefoot on the gravel trail, there was little to do but suck it up and finish the run. It turned out to be a silver-dollar-sized blister.

If that wasn't enough, I still have the remnants of an upper respiratory infection and my Achilles tendons are still injured from thinking the Stairmaster was a good idea last week. Needless to say, I've scheduled a needed rest day for today.

It could've been worse. As my run took longer on Saturday, I was forced to ice down the legs on the outside of the Barton Springs Pool, in the unofficial dog park. As a couple of cold fronts have come through recently there was nobody except one golden retriever catching a stick int he water. With the lack of splashing and wading, more nature ventures into the area. Make that two water snakes, at least three-feet long, one alligator-snapping turtle, two red eared turtles and 15-20 baby blue gill that swam around my ankles.

What I've Been Reading This Week - Link Friday

2009-09-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

Kindle and the future of reading : The New Yorker

Really? - The Claim - Cinnamon Oil Kills Bacteria. - Question - NYTimes.com

Phys Ed: Does Ibuprofen Help or Hurt During Exercise? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

Go the Distance: Tips to Make Your Energy Last | Active.com

Build the Perfect Training Week | Active.com

How to Gain More By Running Less | Active.com

My Pandora stations I've created this week have been based on Nirvana, Peter Paul & Mary and Philip Glass.

My workouts are returning to normal after getting over the head cold, which then turned into a chest cold.

Autumn Has Finally Arrived

2009-09-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

A note to summer, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Jeeeeeeeeez, second hottest summer on record for Austin. There were 68 days over 100 degrees. The record in 1925 was 69.

And how things have changed. Particulate matter at 2.8 this morning, cool and humidity at 67%. It was the perfect way to glide into an El Nino fall. Some have predicted El Nino will bring a wet fall and winter to Central Texas.

After checking the air quality and weather readings I dressed and opened the front door in my new shoes, anticipating a wonderful run only to be greeted with the smell of skunk. I paused at the front step in the dark to try and see if it was still around but couldn't tell. It took running to the next house and the smell was gone.

The first run of fall was just as I had dreamed it would be as I ran that afternoon in July with 100-plus-degrees beating down on my forehead. I haven't worn a shirt while running in months. Today, it was just chilly enough to wear one.

UPDATE - Learning More About Feet

2009-09-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well the Dr. Scholl's advice was thrown out the window. Not entirely, but the part that stated my feet were identical was false. The arches are definitely different. They looked the same on the scanner but when I looked at them side-by-side, they are different height-wise.

Last night I sat in front of the TV watching Monday Night Football with a box full of various orthotic products, a pair of scissors and a roll of green duct tape. I vowed not to get up, except for running out the door to try the latest orthotic experiment, until I had found the perfect combination of orthotic footsy mix-mash that left my dogs feeling like they were resting in pillows.

I used this same thought as I shopped for a new pair of running shoes the other night. I said I was not leaving the store until I found the pair of shoes that made my feet feel like they were resting in pillows. It took an hour and a half and I'm sure the shoe clerks were really ticked with me stacking pair after pair next to the try-on-chair but hey, it's my money and it's my feet. I tried $39.00 shoes and $139 shoes. I tried Asics, Nike and New Balance. I tried trail, rode and trainers. I tried full running and minimalist running. I ended up with a pair of New Balance 431 ($39.00), which is similar to the pair of 413 I bought nine months ago.

I'll save you a step-by-step details of my trial and error and summarize. The left foot needed a gel arch support and extra heel padding. The right foot didn't need anything except for the gel insole. On the left foot I ended up taping the arch support in place as it has a tendency to move. I then cut the left gel insole so I wouldn't double layer, tucked it inside and then placed the heel support orthotic and took them for a spin.

Felt. Like. Running. On. Pillows.

My feet look ok but they are definitely different. But hey, I'm gellin!

Learning More About Feet

2009-09-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

There's no escaping computer technology if you're a runner. Most notable of pervasive technologies is the iPod where you'll see people listening to their favorite tunes as they run their miles at the Lady Bird Lake Trail. GPS technology, Nike chips inserted into shoes, Times watches that track distance and heart rate monitors that monitor the effort being placed on the body all help the runner perform a little better.

Dr. Scholl's has now brought computer technology for walkers and runners to the neighborhood pharmacy or grocery store with a foot-scanning kiosk. In the past, a person needed someone knowledgeable about feet or running shoes to take a look at how they walked or ran. Even with video analysis and so-called experts, the shoe recommendation was many times inaccurate.

It's very rare that a person's body is perfectly symmetrical. If one foot is a little longer than the other it can change the way a person runs, and thus cause a problem somewhere else in the body, usually the knees or the hips. As one gets older, past injuries, muscle imbalances and plain old aging of the body make selecting proper footwear more difficult.

Nike, Asics, New Balance and other show manufacturers create various types of shoes to account for differences in stride mechanics and type of running surface. You will also see various orthotics, arch supports, heel supports, etc. that'll make your feet feel good or correct foot abnormalities. But up until now it was mostly trial and error with the selection of running shoes and the additional products. For many people it wasn't until after a visit with their podiatrist that they were educated about the nature of their feet and what shoe products they should purchase.

Dr. Scholl's is placing a mobile point-of-purchase foot scanner kiosks at thousands of locations around the country. You remove your shoes and stand on the scanner and allow 2,000 pressure sensors to identify where you place the most weight. There are several scans made and you'll be required to hold the provided handles while you lift the right and left foot individually off the scanner. It also measures foot length and arch type and then recommends a custom fit orthotic. The price of the custom orthotic was $49.99, which is a little steep for my budget, but 1/10th the price of true custom orthotics which can easily cost upwards of $400.

I had always thought I had high arches. I don't recall where I received that analysis nor can I recollect an expert or shoe salesman telling me I had high arches. The Dr. Scholl's scanner indicated I had low arches with high pressure put on the heels, as well as equal pressure between the feet. Given my plantar fasciitis last year and seeing the scan of the feet, I would say this was an accurate read. I'm not sure if I'll purchase a pair of the custom orthotics but I will log the information it gave me in order to make more informed running shoe and shoe product purchases in the future.

By the way, the scanner I used was in the pharmacy section of my neighborhood HEB.

Pandora Carolyn Wonderland

2009-09-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

Just created a Pandora radio station on Carolyn Wonderland and it's the best so far. So many talents like Saving Jane, now to see live and Carolyn at Stubbs, Oct. 18.

Can Run With Head Cold

2009-09-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

I tried to run again yesterday in the rain with a head cold and managed to get eight miles in before calling it a day. It was like I had the Lady Bird Lake trail to myself. I saw another runner every half mile or so. My sinuses cleared and I felt great. This morning I worked out with my training group doing some intervals and then added a couple recovery miles to the end and have to say, my head cold is no worse and may be improving, just as it did for Dean Karnazes when he ran his 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.

Of course, running loosens up phlegm as well. Do I run when I have a cold? Yes, I do. Okay, go ahead and scold me--shame, shame--but I think the notion that you should avoid running when you're sick (unless a high fever is present) is an old wives' tale that's been perpetuated throughout the years without much validity.--Dean Karnazes

From Runner's World Magazine
SHOULD YOU RUN WHEN YOU'RE SICK?
Runners don't like to skip workouts--even when they're ill. Here's how to decide when you should take a sick day from training.

A Great Day to Run

2009-09-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

Central Texas is FINALLY experiencing a low pressure updraft weather event which is sucking the pollution right out of the ground-level environment. Current particulate matter pollution is 5.7 with Ozone at a level 10. Outstanding air for those outdoors.

I had the crud the last couple of days that's going around. Yesterday, my head was so clogged but I remembered Dean Karnazes mentioned in his book that he ran a couple of his early marathons with a head cold. That was 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states. I figured if he could run a marathon I could get through six miles. It was incredible how I felt during the run. It was the best I felt during the day. I was able to release the sinus pressure easily. Plus, it was raining out so it felt great and kept me cool. So what they advise that runners can still run with head colds but not chest colds has proven true in this case.

Looks Like a Day of Obstacles

2009-09-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

I went to the neighborhood pharmacy this morning to buy a package of Ricola throat drops. I went up and down scanning the section where cough and cold remedies are kept. Nada. Not a single throat drop to be found. Remember, guys don't ask directions. They will drive or walk for hours before they'll ask, but I had to get to work so I decided to cut the chase short. After asking the clerk, he walked me over to the candy section. Yes, right next to the Life Savers candy. That's just where I would have put them too! Pure genius. I wouldn't put any next to the cough syrup either, nor any at all in the cough/cold area. Who would look there? ;)

Link Friday

2009-09-04T01:26:00.000-07:00

The Medium: Facebook Exodus

The Way We Live Now: The New Old Guard

Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants

Are runners' knees worse off than non-runners'?

Runner's Knees

2009-09-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

I came across this post today with Hal Higdon as the author. I'm a fan of his and used some of his program when I trained for my first marathon. I'm curious to find out where 55 miles came from and also why Hal, who ran more than 100 miles per week many years ago has now downsized his recommended weekly mileage? It may be that at his age that's all he feels like doing or he's not training for a marathon and doesn't need the additional mileage.

Are runners' knees worse off than non-runners'?

"The stress of impact causes the joint to adapt positively, thereby improving its overall health," writes Barker. "There is, however, a threshold that if surpassed exceeds the normal wear and tear a joint can endure."

Determining a level of safe exercise, however, puzzles researchers. One study quoted by Barker suggests 55 weekly miles as the point where joint breakdown begins, but only a small percentage of runners train that much, even when getting ready for a marathon.

Hal Higdon
For Active.com

More From The Age of Irony

2009-09-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

The other day, The New York Times published an article titled, Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants. The two paragraphs from the article below really nail the controversy brewing about barefoot running and point to the irony. How ironic, the same company that created heel running, then created a shoe to get away from it, based on how elite college athletes were training.

Things changed in the early 1970s, when Bill Bowerman, a track coach turned entrepreneur, created a cushioned running shoe that allowed runners to take longer strides and land on their heels, rather than a more natural mid- or forefoot strike. Mr. Bowerman and his business partner, Phil Knight, marketed the new shoes under the Nike brand, and the rest is history.

The big shoe companies are clearly paying attention to the trend. Nike was first to market with the Nike Free, a flexible shoe for “barefootlike running” with less padding than the company’s typical offerings. It was introduced in 2005 after Nike representatives discovered that a prominent track coach to whom they supplied shoes had his team train barefoot.

My take. I have a pair of Nike Free, a pair of Vibram FiveFinger and a pair of New Balance running shoes. They each have their place in my training. I'm not about to go on my ten-mile run or longer with the Vibram or the Free. When I did try even five miles in the Free it put too much force on my Achilles tendon. I've been adding more distance with the barefoot shoes but actually like them more for my speed workouts and pool workouts. Then I use the New Balance for my long run. The best of both worlds.

The Short Bus

2009-09-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

Hail to the busdriver, busdriver, busdriver
Hail to the busdriver, busdriver woman.
She drinks and she cusses,
And smokes on the busses,
All hail the busdriver, busdriver, busdriver
All hail the busdriver, busdriver woman.

She parks 10 feet from my swimming,
which gets my head spinning,
All hail the busdriver, busdriver woman.

She keeps the bus running,
while makeup she's applying,
All hail the busdriver, busdriver woman.

So yes, on this level orange forecasted ozone day in the age of irony, the busdriver of the short bus of the organization concerned with pollution and encouraging more people to ride the bus on days such as this, clearly had no clue how she was negatively impacting my workout and health, the environment and how it made her organization look. She definitely belongs on the short bus.

We had this news item on our site yesterday, Harm Begins With a Few Cigarettes, a Little Smog. Levels of toxins in air don't have to be high to be hazardous. http://budurl.com/nr6p

Pool Running Mentioned

2009-09-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

Wow! From horses to high school track athletes to the rest of us.

Swimming provides the ideal medium to achieve, or maintain, a high level of fitness and conditioning without the dangers and potential injury that are inherent in track and ground workouts.

Here at Meadowview, our full size 10 feet deep indoor equine swimming pool provides both rehabilitation and conditioning to our client's horses. Before entering the pool the horses are rinsed and then lead down an extended entry ramp with a gradual descent.

From Runner's World comes 27 Ways to Run Better Every Day. They actually mention pool running as a cross-training option.

8. Join the "X" revolution. Despite the many proven benefits of cross-training, we still know too many runners who only run. C'mon, folks. We love running, too. We know all about the "specificity-of-training" rule, but we still skip the occasional running workout to get in some cross-training. Mainly strength training, bicycling, elliptical training, yoga, stairclimbing, pool running, rowing, and walking. Why? Not because we think these routines will make us faster in our next half-marathon, but because they make us fitter and less prone to injury.

Polluted Days...Do it early or do it on the treadmill

2009-09-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

from the TCEQ email...

AIR POLLUTION WATCH - LEVEL ORANGE - FOR AUSTIN

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued a Level Orange Air Pollution Watch for the Austin area for Wednesday, September 2, 2009.

Atmospheric conditions are expected to be favorable for producing high levels of ozone air pollution in the Austin area on Wednesday. Ozone levels could reach the Level Orange "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" category.Orange "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" category.

Elevated concentrations of ozone can act as a lung irritant. Individuals with chronic lung disease, such as asthma and emphysema, as well as the elderly and young children, are particularly sensitive to ozone and should attempt to avoid exposure. To avoid exposure, minimize exertion outdoors during the mid-day to early evening hours or stay indoors in an air-conditioned room during this time.

For more information on ozone:

Air Quality Index (AQI) Report
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/aqi_rpt.pl
Air Quality Warnings Status
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/warning_status.pl
Map of Current ozone levels
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/select_curlev.pl
Current hourly ozone data by site
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/daily_average.pl
Ozone Animations
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/ozone_animation.pl
Ozone forecast information
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/ozone_actionday.pl
Monitoring site locations
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/site_info.pl
American Lung Association
http://www.texaslung.org
Environmental Protection Agency, Air Now
http://airnow.gov

CLEAN AIR Force of Central Texas
www.cleanairforce.org

It Worked!

2009-08-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

The little pickle juice experiment was a success. So much so I now realize how much nutrition plays into the whole exercise equation. I took Da Fish's advice and stayed away from eating pickles while exercising.

Pre-Run Nutrition

Friday Night 7:00 pm
Mt. Olive pickle spears with Garlic
325 mg sodium x 5 spears = 1625 mg sodium

handful of pretzels
320 mg sodium x 1 = 320 mg sodium

Total = roughly 2 G of sodium or two tablespoons of salt.

Saturday Morning 5:00 am

Emergen-C Electro-Mix
Calcium 100 mg
Magnesium 120 mg
Manganese 2 mg
Chromium 20 mcg
Potassium 408 mg
Stevia 10 mg

Emergen-C Tangerine Multi-vitamin and multi-mineral
Sodium 60 mg
other minerals and vitamins

Nutrition on the Run
Accelerade Gels (2): sodium 200 mg, potassium 80 mg, carb 40g, protein 10g
water on the 10-mile course

Post Run Nutrition
Immediately after run and while soaking in the 68-degree Barton Springs
Kashi Chewy Ganola Bars (2): sodium 210 mg, 40 g carbs, 12 g protein
Accelerade powder (24 oz.): sodium 380 mg, potassium 130 mg, carbs 42 g, protein 10 g

Thirty minutes later at home.
Mt. Olive pickle spear (1): sodium 320 mg
Spaghetti sauce (100 g): 590 mg sodium carbs 9g, protein 1.2g + handful of crushed broccoli.
Spaghetti noodles: 1mg sodium, 43g carbs, 8g protein
V-8 8 oz.: 480 mg sodium, carbs 10g, 2g protein

I started to get somewhat of a pre-headache after eating the pasta and drinking the second glass of V-8. I get sodium headaches after eating heavily salted French fries that include too much salt. At that point I backed off eating and just drank water until the pre-headache went away which wasn't over 15 minutes. I felt great the rest of the day and the only indication I had ran was felt in my feet and a little in the knees. This was the best recovery ever. Using pee color for over or under hydration and the sodium headache as an indicator of too much sodium I should now be able to determine how much sodium I need on the long runs and what my sweat rate is and more importantly, how much and often I need to replace electrolytes. This is huge for me.

I Underestimated

2009-08-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

"Normal sweat rates can range from 0.75 to 2 Liters/hour, depending on conditions such as temperature, humidity, pace, clothing, and the degree of heat acclimation the rider has."

"2) Not consuming enough sodium. You're using Endurolytes, which only contain 40 mg of sodium / capsule. A liter of sweat contains 1000 mg. So you'd need to take 25 Endurolytes / liter of water. "

http://www.ultracycling.com/nutrition/wheres_the_salt.html

The two Accelerade gels I took last week amounted to 200 mg of sodium over the one hour, thirty-eight minute run. There's no way I can pop 25 Endurolytes over the course of that run every weekend.

Golden Pickle has even created a sports drink, appropriately named “Pickle Juice Sport.” Golden Pickle claims that Pickle Juice Sport has “approximately 30 times more electrolytes than Powerade and 15 times more than Gatorade.” (http://www.goldenpicklejuice.com/). It is even endorsed by Dallas Cowboy Jason Witten.

So maybe what's for dinner Friday night before the run is pickle juice and pretzels. At least while we still have the 100-degree+ days.

Switching To Gels

2009-08-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

One of the TO-DO items on any runner's list prior to an endurance race is to see what their stomach can tolerate and digest. This isn't too important for a 5K and I'd say if anyone ate A N Y T H A N G before a 5K they'd be asking for it. I've eaten pretzels, Twizzlers and drank most of the major sports drinks, along with chicken soup and even a couple of beers at mile 25 of the Austin Marathon. Most of the drinks upset my stomach upon contact. One or two more than others. Accelerade didn't upset my stomach and also had the magical 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein. As I have a high sweat rate I've found I really need to take in more than just water.

Last week I ran with two NUUN vials filled full of Accelerade powder. It got me through the run better than water alone and recovery went from eight hours with just water, after a 10-mile run, to six hours of recovery using Accelerade powder. The weather conditions were the same at 6:30 am; a temperature of 80 degrees F, with 84% humidity and little to no wind. We've been in the same weather pattern all summer it seems like. So improvement with the powder.

Last weekend I ran with two Accelerade gels. I wanted to see if I could tolerate the gels as it would be easier to run with water and carry a couple of gels, rather than mixing powder on the road while running. I took one after 45 minutes and another 30 minutes later. While soaking in the 68-degree Barton Springs, I drank a little of the powder. After I got home I drank more water and ate about 15 salty potato chips and a bowl of plain red-sauce spaghetti to replace the salt. The result was a three-hour recovery. Dang! And this was after having three tequila shots the night before so I was feeling less than normal to start with. And P.S., I added a four-mile run the day before so that made the Sat. long run a little longer.

I had heard Desiree Ficker talk about dialing in her nutrition before events and I can see what she was talking about, although she has it tougher than I doing longer distance events, combined with being gluten intolerant. "I have often the thought if I could just change one thing physically about myself it would be my celiac disease or gluten intolerance and overly sensitive stomach. It has caused me much strife, said Desiree from her Web site.

I don't have celiac disease but do have a high sweat rate that causes me to lose to much of my electrolytes and a sensitive stomach for salty drinks. For the past two marathons it's been a huge problem when trying to press on past mile 20. Even for the weekend 10-mile runs it causes quite a long recovery. I think my nutrition is finally getting dialed in.

Good recovery video on YouTube. Olympian athletes ran a tempo run and then went to the stream with 60-degree water. Olympic Marathon Trials Training Camp in Mammoth Lakes, CA. 2004 Olympic Silver medalist Meb Keflezighi, Olympian Dan Browne and marathoner Josh Cox.

Paraffin Candles in the News

2009-08-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

The amounts of misinformation on the Internet are growing as large as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I've become almost numb to the article that swims in the face of common sense and decades worth of research, such as exercise will not make you thin by TIME Magazine. It didn't take long before 10 Reasons Why Exercise Makes You Thin (Or Why TIME Magazine Got It Wrong) .

Today, was one of the first instances where I've seen the common sense finding refuted in the same article. CNN reported that paraffin-based candles emiited toxic chemicals toluene and benzene.

They found that paraffin-based candles -- the most popular kind -- emitted toxic chemicals like toluene and benzene. Soybean candles did not, according to the study, which was presented this week at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. Candles made of beeswax or soybean tend to make mention of that ingredient on their label; paraffin candles may not.

At the bottom of the article CNN reports, Barbara Miller, a spokesperson for the National Candle Association, says "no candle wax has ever been shown to be dangerous or harmful to human health....that none of the candle waxes tested -- including paraffin, soy wax, and beeswax -- produced benzene."

Which is it? It does or it doesn't? IN 2007 they didn't but in 2009 they do? This is clearly an industry-killer (paraffin candles) finding and that may be why we see such a strong, desperate denial of research findings and common sense.

My personal unscientific take. I can smell the strike of a sulfur match anywhere in the house and get an instant headache from it. I can see the black smoke rising from the flame of a paraffin candle. This is one article I'm sure Ms. Miller hopes would go up in smoke.

Link Friday

2009-08-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here's one that goes counter to common sense. BTW, it seems there are a lot of articles like this these days. New research? Thinking out of the box? But running can be good for you? Can be good for your knees?

Phys Ed: Can Running Actually Help Your Knees?

Bolt lives in a cloud of suspicion

Make Your Own Messenger Bag Out Of Old Plastic Bags

Phys Ed: Does Exercise Reduce Your Cancer Risk?

Orwell versus Huxley

Link Friday

2009-08-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Again this Friday I have just one link. The TED conference does an amazing job of bringing the bleeding-edge thinkers to speak and then shares the videos of the lectures. One such lecture was "crocheting a coral reef." Amazing stuff.

Can't Smell A Thing

2009-08-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting piece on page 18 of the September 2009 Runner's World Magazine. In the Ask Miles section, Tammy L. from Charlotte, NC posed the question, "Do elite athletes inhale the fumes from the lead caravan of motorcycles and cars?" Miles posed the question to elite runner Ryan Hall, who said," I can't remember ever smelling the exhaust." So Ryan wasn't aware of any problem and Miles didn't see fit to research if there is exhaust, if it's a problem or not so I don't think they answered the question.

It's a valid question. One that the riders of the Tour de France riders must deal with. Recently, Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon was diagnosed with cancer. Immediately everyone thought of drugs. I haven't seen anyone mention that he followed cars many a day riding on the bumper of a pacer car motor pacing, smelling God knows how many chemicals and carcinogens.

I go back to my assertion that if I run in the morning during the time of day the air is at it's cleanest and come across the recent exhaust of one car I can smell it. If I run on the hike and bike trail right next a thoroughfare of cars, maybe thousands that have gone by in the last hour, I can't smell a thing. What is that about?

"The average cancer risk from air pollution nationally is 36 in 1 million, according to the National Air Toxics Assessment, an analysis of health risks posed by toxic air. A neighborhood in Los Angeles County had the greatest cancer risk due to toxic air pollution — 1,200 in 1 million." So take the folks who spend the most time outdoors breathing hard who just may be endurance athletes. You put a few cars right in front of them for those hours and badda bing, badda boom.

Link Friday

2009-08-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

I'm including below only one link for this Friday. One, because I just got off of vacation and have been driving more than I've been reading and, two, it's something we should should spend some time reading.

For some time now I've been disagreeing with some of the NYTimes Magazine articles being published. They are contrary to common exercise thought. Now, Time Magazine is following the same premise, namely Can Exercise Be Bad For Us? and in this specific case,
Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. I have always believed and experienced the belief exercise and proper nutrition both are needed for the common person to succeed with weight loss and make physical improvement. Someone like Michael Phelps or Lance Armstrong who each spend six hours in the pool each day or six hours on a bike can eat every meal at IHop or Denny's if they wish, downing plates of pancakes drenched in syrup.

The article makes some good points. I just wish they would have emphasized exercise a little more with the thought that one must resist the temptation to power down bags of Cheetos washed down with a Starbuck's Frap after a workout.

And then there are those that didn't exercise after Jim Fixx died during a run, stating exercise was bad for one's health. It seems we finally got away from that and now a woman just died while on her daily jog and people are going to say, "See, that's why I don't run. You run, you die."

Great, that means more room for me on the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail. Hopefully, the people that take heed are the ones jogging with double strollers, two friends a two large dogs. Yeah, hopefully they stay home.

Saline Versus Chlorine

2009-08-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

I swam in my first pool treated with saline instead of chlorine. I must say that I liked it much better. Where I usually needed goggles with a chlorinated pool, I didn't with the saline pool. A secondary benefit would be clear sinus passages if you swim under water.

Pinot Noir

2009-07-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty lucky so far with the Pinot Noir choies so far. Yesterday, while at Trader Joe's in Cupertino, I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. The pinots were plentiful and well priced. I picked up a 2007 California Red Truck pinot from Sonoma. Loved it. Tonight, I'm sampling the 2006 Mission Point Pinot Noir from Santa Maria. Another winner. Austin needs a Trader Joe's.

Wayfinding

2009-07-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

I interrupt this vacation to make a point about wayfinding. Over the last five days I've been able to find my way throughout Central California by feel, or probably more accurately, by way of very well designed wayfinding measures that are unknown to me. I've driven, criss-crossing well over 1,000 square vacation miles without getting lost. I found Sausalito, Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman's Wharf and Apple's HQ without a map. Haight-Ashbury was easy. You find a psychedelic store front or mural with people wearing tie-dye and then try to determine in which direction it becomes more concentrated. You have to keep in mind that smoke shops and images of Bob Marley count as well.

Wayfinding and good design is like that. It doesn't get in the way but feels right, looks right, gets the job done. San Francisco is north, Santa Cruz is south and all the other Sans and Santas are in between. Almost. Santa Cruz is my mental southern boundary. Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, etc. don't exist at least on this trip.

Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.

Wayfinding is often used to refer to traditional navigation methods used by indigenous peoples. In more modern times, wayfinding is used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment, and it also refers to the set of architectural and/or design elements that aid orientation.

My first encounter with problematic wayfinding techniques happened on the second day here when I entered the ice rink for the first time. Kayla was to get some ice time to rehearse her routine for the competition the following morning. Kayla said she was on the yellow rink. Looking to my right, the rafters overhead were painted yellow and the trim at the top of the barrier was yellow as were the baseboards. No brainer I thought. The YELLOW rink was right in front of us. Wrong. That was the red rink. The yellow rink was in the back.

Stopping one of the San Jose Sharks hockey players I asked where the yellow rink was. "Yellow rink," he said. "All I know are the north, south, east and west rinks. No colors." Even directional navigation only works if you know which way is one direction, in relation to north. I'm sure the person that came up with the color coded method of navigation was confused with the NSEW method and decided to substitute their own for the figure skating competition. Yeah, the colors fixed e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Over the course of the next day I heard a lot of, "You're over there! Or is it over there?" I also noticed there are a lot of skaters and coaches screaming, cussing and running through the hallways. By the way, all of the rinks had yellow rafters and yellow trim.

I encountered the second wayfinding example this morning. A simple hotel map or so it should have been. Locate the gym on the map (see below & click on the map to enlarge) and see if you think it's on the second floor or the Lobby floor, which I suppose is the first floor. Hint, the gym is on the right of the rectangular shape in the upper center of the map. The image you see there rotates with two ads for restaurants in the hotel. So if you were looking at the actual map, you would have 10 seconds to find where you are before a photo of a big steak took it's place. Good Luck!

Bye to Los Gatos and Hello San Jose

2009-07-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

There weren't this many people on the Los Gatos track this morning but it started to feel like it was getting close. I started on the track with only three men doing 400-meter repeats. By the time I finished running some sprints on the football field there were at least three boot camps set up around the field.

Do barefoot sprints on the manicured grass was a treat. In Austin, there are usually signs stating to keep off the grass. Not so in Los Gatos and the grass was in much, much better shape. You almost felt like you had to go through a workout with such great grass and conditions. The dew and cold made the feet go numb rather quickly. I'm going to miss that track for the remainder of the trip as we change hotels to San Jose this afternoon. Given my quads are now thoroughly trashed and sore from yesterday's hill run and today's sprints, I may stay in the hotel gym tomorrow.

I tasted the best Mahi Mahi 've ever had down at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco yesterday. Fantastic food. A little too crowded in the city for my taste. Maybe I've been in the burbs too long. Too much congestion gets my anxiety going.

I'm a big lover of Tex-Mex so it was interesting eating in a Cal-Mex restaurant today. The Aqui Restaurant treated us to some fantastic organic Cal-Mex which was similar to organic, up-scale Tex Mex. The salmon taco was exceptional, dressed with some cabbage and nuts and a variety of salsas. The margarita swirled with sangria quenched my thirst, although it's difficult to build up a thirst when the temperature varies from 57 degrees to a high of 77.

Kayla beat out six other ice skaters in her first solo competition this morning, winning second place. This was the last time she skated to the theme song from the Titanic. She'll select a new routine and outfit for next year.

Missed It By _______ Much!

2009-07-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

In search of fish tacos yesterday, I missed them by ____ much. they were just next door to the Whale City Bakery, Bar & Grill. I discounted the dive next door to the Bar & Grill. It's ok as the food at Whale City was good, the Corona Lights were cold and the view of the Pacific Ocean was spectacular.

The day was spent winding our way to San Francisco by way of Route 1. Lots of beach stops. Lots of fog banks. Lots of fun.

Driving through San Francisco was interesting. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge twice. Once, to get to Muir Woods and it was clear and sunny. Going back it was foggy. It was amazing to see people on July 27 wearing coats. I couldn't believe it was that cool. In fact, watching the Weather Channel last night it looked like San Francisco was the coolest spot in the nation, except for maybe Alaska.

Muir Woods was an amazing experience. I don't know if I was more fascinated with the size of the giant redwoods or how clean the air was. It definitely had it's own unique scent. The winding drive up the mountain almost had Kayla blowing dumplings in the back seat.

I decided for this morning's run I'd play it by ear and not go back to the track. My gut said to do a neighborhood run easy for an hour. The easy neighborhood run turned into a tough hill workout as I climbed to 1200 feet at the top of 16448 Eugenia Way. I started at 500 feet so a net gain of 700 feet of running uphill made for a great workout. So although I missed the fish tacos, I found just the right running trail for the day. Off to San Francisco for more exploring.

Los Gatos

2009-07-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

This was the first time in as long as I can remember that I didn't get sick after getting off the plane. Maybe it was the extra water I drank, the extra helping of Emergen-C powders. Who knows. No lie. As soon as I turned on the radio in the rental SUV Jeep they were playing Hotel California by the Eagles. Maybe it was a sign of things to come and that I won't be able to leave. Want to hear something even more strange? The next song played was the theme song from Titanic, which is what Kayla is skating to in two days.

I hadn't found a trail for my running workouts. Everything looked too urban or too far to get to by foot so I left that part of the trip planning alone until I got to Los Gatos. Los Gatos is a small community of 24,000 outside of San Jose. Once I got to the lodge the workouts were already taken care of. Next to the lodge was the high school track and enormous baseball field next to the track.

I got in some speedwork this morning and finished up on the track as the local bootcampers made their way onto the field. I then went over to the baseball field and did some sprints on the cool grass barefoot. My feet were numb, as it was that cold on the ground. The temperature was in the low 60s and the humidity was around 81%.

When I first got to the track, there was heavy fog in the hills nearby. It reminded me of Hawaii. All that was missing was the rich smells of Kauai.

In terms of wine tasting, I tried the Bogle chardonay while at Opa's Greek restaurant and it was good. Later I bought a bottle of Castoro Cellars 2006, Pinot Noir from Whole Foods Market and it was sensational.

Link Friday

2009-07-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

FOOT SMART: Even your everyday shoes can prevent injuries.

Where can we swim when Barton Springs closes?

Running barefoot mixes emotions

The Claim: Red Wine Is Better for You Than White

Are Indoor Pools Bad for Your Lungs?

To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes - A WIRED Magazine article that continues the controversy. Barefoot running anyone?

The Atmospheric Dishwasher Has Arrived

2009-07-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Good rain coming down right now in Austin. I'd go run in it but there is quite a bit of lightning associated with the storm. The pollution levels are dropping so everything should be scrubbed clean for a morning run. I have scheduled a stationary bike tomorrow evening but I have to get out in the clean air. It's all about being a reed in the wind. Right? Even the pool will be cooler with the rainwater. Loving it.

This is as Far as I Can Bend

2009-07-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Fish says often that he's bending like a reed in the wind. While various translations can be found including Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, Fish uses the quote from the movie Dune.

"I will bend like a reed in the wind"
- Paul Atreides (Dune)

This is usually when things aren't going his way and there's no way to have it go any other way. My theory is everyone can listen and watch and get hints of the rest of the day that will go south from the very beginning of the morning. This morning I heard repeated sirens in the neighborhood an hour before I was to get up and then looked at the pollution readings before my 5:30 am run. As Austin hasn't had rain for 21 days but has had plenty of high pressure, it was already fixed for the pollution tarot cards to be dim. Sure enough, the pollution was at high enough levels so I needed to go to the gym across town and get on the treadmill to run in some clean air. I felt I was bending a little at that point to get a workout in.

I got to the gym and soon met my archnemesis's sidekick; ADD Boy. Unlike Golf Channel Watching Recumbent-Bike Dude who only wants one of the TVs on and it tuned to the Golf Channel or Fox News, ADD Boy wanted them all on and tuned to the three channels of his choosing. His workout routine was equally inept. He went from free weights to machines to cables to cardio, really not knowing which muscle group he wanted to work for the day. Maybe it had been so long since his last workout, he wanted to hit them all with one set. ADD Boy had to look at the weather forecast for Austin at least four times before it found it's way past his ears and settled in his noodle, as each time he shot the bird at the weatherman, as it was his fault rain was not falling.

Most of the time you hear talk about the "night people." Well, at the gym it's the early morning people that scare the hell out of me.

I'm having illusions of a home gym with a treadmill and a stationary bike and three flat screens of my own, none of which will be able to be tuned to the Golf Channel or Fox Noise. I just saw rain on the radar within the city limits. Hold that thought.

Link Friday

2009-07-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't accumulated too many links this week. Here's one that's good though.

To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes - A WIRED Magazine article that continues the controversy. Barefoot running anyone?

Books

2009-07-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

My summer reading is going strong on the iPod Touch with the Amazon Kindle software. As I mentioned the other day I downloaded and started 50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days -- and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance! by Dean Karnazes. It's been slow going at first, much like Born to Run was. I am the point of Dean's eighth marathon in eight days. I thought I would have learned more juicy tips by now but most of what has been said in countless runner-oriented articles in magazines. Dean doesn't have the time for ice baths after each marathon and has no room on the bus for massages. It sounds like he regularly prescribes himself an ice bath and massage, it just didn't happen for the 50-marathon event. One juicy tip Dean shared was for the blister that formed on his foot fairly quickly into the grueling schedule. His asstistant used duck tape and sterile gauze to patch Dean up.

The second tip I found interesting was Dean's approach to training. "I train by feel. I run as fast as my body tells me to each day, though I do try to do at least two very long runs per week. Those base-building long runs are critically important to me."

My reading of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is not progressing as well. After seeing how it takes most folks three tries to get the jest of the story I've not stuck to the suggested number of pages per week.

Dr. Andrew Weil's book, Healthy Aging is being read when I'm sick of reading about running and when I don't want to make my brain hurt with the heavy reading of Infinite Jest. I would suggest everyone read as much of Dr. Weil and Dr. Oz as they can get their eyes on.

Overreaction

2009-07-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

I may be overreacting about the knees but quite a few good runners I know are having knee problems and have just had surgery or are putting it off while they run like 13 miles on Saturdays uphill. Go figure. Or maybe it's because I read this.

Being overweight or obese can cause rapid deterioration of the cartilage in the knee, leading to osteoarthritis, researchers report.

Plateau

2009-07-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to wrap my head around the concept of plateauing. Not two weeks into the marathon plan and I'm tearing up the plan. Training plans don't take into account the multiple variables in each person's life or the rate that people adapt to the level of intensity, duration or frequency. When you look at a marathon plan it doesn't state, "For people age 18 - 24." It doesn't state, "For people who have exercised intensely in the last five years or for that matter sat in front of a computer screen playing World of Warcraft for 18 hours a day." Continuing the thought for... diagnosed diabetic, overweight by X pounds, for Y pounds, obese by X and Y, asthmatic, ad infinitum of possible variables. In most cases there's JUST ONE training schedule published for all wishing to aspire to the marathon/half marathon, insert distance here. On chance occasssions there may be a trainer who publishes three plans; a beginner plan, intermediate plan and an advanced plan. Basically, the same plan but with more mileage as it advances. Mileage plans are incomplete. Number of week plans are incomplete. Amount of time plans are incomplete. Too many variables period.

This morning the pollution in Austin was a little less as was the temp and the humidity. I've been adding intensity and duration for the last three weeks, based on one of "The Plans", and found a point where Star Trek's Scotty would say, "It's becoming critical, Captain. We can't handle it." As there are quite a few variables when attempting a rigorous exercise program, one of which is weight, I decided this morning to pause or plateau for awhile. If I drop another ten pounds what will the knees feel like at this load? What about staying the same weight but keeping the same intensity, duration and frequency until the tissues have adapted? Maybe the answer is a little of both.

Keep Calm and Carry On

2009-07-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

At 5:30 am this morning I grabbed the iPod Touch as I do every morning and saw most of Texas, east of IH35 was experiencing moderate levels of 2.5 particulate matter pollution (27). I really wanted to run this morning as my Achille's tendon finally released after Saturday's long run. I think it was so tense after a long ride on Friday night and a long run on Saturday morning. It was just too much at this point in my training so I'll have to separate the two days with some low impact recovery pool running.

The Tour de France had an off day so I spent 45 minutes on the recumbent bike watching HLN and reading Runner's World Magazine, while playing tug of war with Travis. I'll get my 10K worth of running on the treadmill tonight. While it looks like the 2.5 pollution is dropping, the ozone pollution is rising and so is the heat. Treadmill time.

I just ordered and downloaded 50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days -- and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance! by Dean Karnazes. I need to order a couple more books for the Touch before I get to San Jose for a much needed vacation. If this book is as good as Born to Run, I'll have much more to share here in the next couple of weeks.

I don't know if it's the meatless diet or the added mileage or both but the winter weight is starting to come off fairly fast. Last year I never really lost the other ten pounds I should have to have good races. This year, I'm losing the 10 pounds or just not racing until I do.

One last note. It appears Governor Perry vetoed a bill that would've given more protection for cyclists. From the Austin American Statesman article.

"Anger in the bicycle-riding community does not appear to have evaporated much since Gov. Rick Perry vetoed Senate Bill 488, legislation that would have created a safe-passing distance of at least three feet for vehicles trying to pass cyclists and other so-called vulnerable road users."

I can understand the veto if a car is passing two cyclists riding side-by-side in a thin bike lane as I saw quite a few times this past weekend. This law would've put me in the other lane to pass and risked everyone, cars and bikes alike. For a single cyclist or peloton of cyclists this bill, if passed, would've added greater needed protection. It may be better to establish a mandatory bike lane width along with a law that states two or three cyclists can't ride side-by-side.

Link Friday

2009-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ultramarathoner Jenn Shelton - Jenn was featured in the book I just finished, Born to Run. She's one crazy chic!

Changing Speeds to Go the Distance - Sara Hall demonstrates some of the drills she performs to change her form plus, she talks about the difference between a warm bath and a cold one and when to use each. She's trying to land farther back and not on her toes while I'm trying to land more forward, after being on my heels. Her mileage is 85-90 while her husband Ryan is 140+ miles run per week. She also advocates ice baths for faster recovery. Barton Springs works great for my long runs. I need to find a way to cool the legs on other days when away from the springs.

How to Fix Bad Ankles - this article has some great info about strengthening the ankle with balance exercises.

Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week? - this NYTimes article touches on a point of debate for the last few years in the running community. Namely, can one get fit running intervals (faster) for a shorter amount of time compared to the long runs.

Indoors Today

2009-07-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

The moderate levels of particulate matter pollution in Austin and throughout Texas had me indoors for today's workout. At 6:00 am, the MP 2.5 level was 27. I was irritated, but it was for the better. It got me to the gym where the treadmill and elliptical were probably better as a recovery day anyway.

Waking up to bad news just started the day off wrong. And the day became so wrong in just a couple of hours. I then found the lost four-foot snake T and the neighbors were looking at the other day. Sure enough, four feet! It wasn't a Boa as previously thought. It was a harmless rat snake. Harmless, that is unless you're a frog or mouse. That's three snakes in one week. Anyway, the big one is now in the neighbor's tree.

I then forgot to lock the doors to the house. This is why I shouldn't be a pilot folks. "Landing gear, what landing gear?" And then there's the part about walking around all morning with unzipped pants. It's a wonder I even made it to work. But, as T and K often say, I have a bevy of guardian angels watching out for me. The gym workout was great, the snake non-poisonous, the house ok and I wore an untucked shirt which covered the zipper.

To change the open fly subject, I found out this morning my boss saw Food, Inc., the movie and is now buying all of her beef as grass-fed and the chickens as free-range. So far so good with my lacto-ovo-pescatarian lifestyle. I haven't had any cravings for meat or chicken yet. I need to check into what one of my coworkers is doing. She gets a box of vegetables from the Johnson Backyard Garden, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, located in Austin, Texas.

Metronome Running

2009-07-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

I came across an article on using a metronome during a run to set your foot strike cadence. The article is by Dr.Romanov, the creator of the Pose Method, which is similar to Chi Running and the Evolution Running method. Each try to get your feet underneath your hips and cadence up, thus creating less force on the bones and using more of the body's natural rubber bands.

The Evolution Method was mentioned in the book I just finished, Born to Run which describes how we've removed ourselves from a natural form of running and allowed the cushioning of the running shoe to absorb the weight-bearing stress which has resulted in 60 - 80% of runners being injured each year.

I downloaded three free iPhone metronomes and each were able to change the number of beats to 180 or 182. I strapped on the iPhone and earphones and it was relatively easy to set the pace according to the metronome.

Connection Between the Two?

2009-07-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Last week, NPR published two stories within days of each other. One story, Air Toxics Raise Cancer Risk In U.S. Neighborhoods points to several communities in the US that are so polluted, the risk of cancer goes up. A week after that story ran, another story dealing with cancer ran on NPR, Non-Smokers Suffer Lung Cancer Stigma. In the audio you can hear the disgust in the women's voices of how they're often seen by their peers as having lung cancer but are "never smokers." One of the women is a marathon runner and the other is a rower at UC/Berkeley which means they spend long intervals of time outdoors training, breathing air deep into their lungs.

"But breathing very polluted air long-term can raise the risk of lung cancer as much as breathing second-hand smoke," said study co-author C. Arden Pope III, PhD, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.." The study, Air Pollution Linked to Deaths From Lung Cancer clearly points out, "The risk comes when gases from auto exhaust and smokestacks combine with oxygen in the air to form very small particles that are breathed in."

"By the late 1980s and 1990s studies were showing that even at very low levels, air pollution was causing damage to health, the authors noted."

I'm still amazed at the number of convertibles I see sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway. I wonder how many of the non-convertibles have the ventilation pulling air from the outside, rather than recirculating the air within the car's cabin? I remember always having to change my Mom's ventilation setting in her car. I still wonder if this contributed to her getting cancer or whether it was one of the many other lifestyle aspects?

Along Those Same Lines From Yesterday

2009-06-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

From the NYTimes article on June 24, 2009, That Little Voice Inside Your Twinge.

"Everyone tells you to listen to your body, but what are you supposed to listen to?"
Turns out it’s not so obvious.
Deena Kastor, the American record holder for the marathon, interprets the advice selectively.
“Running isn’t always comfortable,” she said. “I remember running through a lot of discomfort and pain.”
And, Ms. Kastor added, she also runs when she does not feel like it.
“So many times the alarm goes off in the morning and you tell yourself you are too tired,” she said. “There are times when you are unmotivated, you don’t feel your best and most accomplished.”
But if you ignore those messages from your body and just go out and run or do your sport, she said, “those are the days when we have the most pride.”
“The trick in listening to your body is to know what you can run through,” she said. “If you have a sharp pain you should take care of it.”
So does listening to your body mean learning to understand the difference between a pain that signals a serious injury and one that can be ignored? And if it does, why do athletes like Ms. Kastor become seriously injured, anyway?
Last year she broke her foot three miles into the marathon at the Beijing Olympics. In that same race, Paula Radcliffe, who holds the world record in the women’s marathon, ran less than her best because her training was interrupted by a stress fracture that had set her back for months.

These are America's best runners getting injured. The best runners I know personally are getting injured. Maybe for them, there's more on the line. For 66% of Americancs this is definitely not a problem as they don't exercise. Maybe this is a problem for less than 1% of the population that exercise too much.

Have you been injured in the last year from running?

More Born to Run

2009-06-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

"...he's convinced that the next great advance in fitness will come not from training or technology, but technique--the athlete who avoids injury will be the one who leaves the competition behind."--Eric Orton, former fitness director for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

from the book by Christopher Mcdougall, Born to Run

I think this is accurate, but I'd change it from leaving the competition behind to being able to run injury free all year and for years to come without being limited by age. With proper form comes freedom from injury and it doesn't matter what surface you run on and what shoe you're wearing.

Link Friday

2009-06-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

Food Inc. The Movie starts today in Austin. I'm going to try and see it tonight if possible.

Inc.com: The Way I Work: Matt Mullenweg

The New York Times: Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

The New York Times: In Some Swimming Pools, a Nasty Intestinal Parasite

The New York Times: The Limits of Willpower

The Seafood Eater’s Latest Conundrum

Bill Rodgers and the Perfect Running Shoe

Vibram Five and Yoga

2009-06-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing it's yoga day on my training schedule as the air in Austin today is going to suck. We're supposed to reach the orange level of alert for Ozone later today. The orange alert means being outside for certain groups is unhealthy. I don't see myself fitting in one of the designated groups but I know how it affects me and that means inside workouts for today.

Shana led the group of 11 in more of a stretching yoga routine this morning. This proved great for my hip flexors, calf muscles and hamstrings. I wore my new Vibram FiveFingers which provided a little more traction. And despite what others may say, that yoga is all about stretching and toning and flexibility, it's really about traction. The more the better. I'm surpised a company like Vibram was able to get a stronghold on this market. I would've thought Goodyear or Pirelli would've locked up the market on yoga shoes, mats and clothing years ago. In fact Goodyear plainly states, "Traction is everything on their site. Look at the image above. You should take a look below how their ad for shoes would've looked.

Bass Dude

2009-06-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

The band was a rockin' and we were sitting at the first table next to the stage so it was loud, but not too loud. A tall guy, maybe 6' 4" and appearing sober walks right in front of me and asked,"Did I just hear you say you caught a big bass?" Uh,hmm. No. "I said he had a big ass!" Weird. No I didn't say that or anything like it but the big stranger did ask that question. And the guy interrupted one of the most heartfelt renditions of Amazing Grace, I think I have ever heard. I'm Googling this bass phrase to see if it's a secret code for something like, "If you and your friends don't vacate that prime table, me and my boys are going to kick your bass!" See how it could be misinterpreted? It was extremely hot outside (102 degrees) so it may have just been a case of a lack of fluids making it's way to his brain.

The Gourds concert, labeled the Summer Sunday Social at the Nutty Brown Cafe, was the piece de resistance to a wonderful Father's Day. I started the day with a plate full of delectable migas, washed down with a full glass of Bloody Mary, made with Tito's vodka. My daughter surprised me with a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSO to continue my adventure with barefoot running. This just happened to coincide with my reading of chapter 25 of Born to Run which ripped the shoe industry. In all fairness though, if you happen to stumble upon (<-- running joke) chapter 25, take it with a grain of salt as neither side is 100 percent correct. The body, by nature is imbalanced and somewhat asymmetrical. Feet are not identical size or strength and the same goes with the rest of the parts of the legs, especially after age 40. There are times when orthotics are needed in maybe one shoe, contrary to what the book may say. A lot more massage is needed. More rest is needed. It's also true what surface material we choose to run on influences greatly whether we get hurt or not.

The problem modern-day runners face, according to Hugh Herr, Popular Mechanics 2005 Breakthrough Award winner and head of the biomechatronic group at MIT, isn't presented by our bodies but by the evolution of running surfaces. Humans that ran to scavenge or hunt for their food weren't pounding concrete. ... "Bare feet just aren't meant to support running on modern day hard-top surfaces, Herr says."

From what I know now, I would've have come off the couch differently many years ago. I would have cycled, swam and aqua jogged until I reduced my weight sufficiently, relieving my knees from bearing too great a load, while also strengthening sedentary muscles and tendons. I would have run on grass and worked on drills to drive home to the muscle memory what proper running form felt like (off the heels and landing mid-sole). I would have engaged in more yoga, stretching and massage. Once the legs had sufficient strength I'd test them to find imbalances and then correct those imbalances with weight training.

How does the saying go? A bad day fishing (for bass I suppose) is better than the best day at the office or in my case, the worst day running is still better than the best day in the office.

I'm still learning.

MCL and Pool Running

2009-06-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

The left Medial
Collateral Ligament MCL is still a little tender. After looking over my running logs, this is the same MCL that has given me fits at various times over the last four years. I think it was what was torn when I was young and has never been 100 percent. Now that I know that extreme pushing of heavy objects and sudden bursts running uphill are the activities that strain it, I'll know what to look out for.

The pateller strap will work great to stabilize the knee until the ligament fully recovers.

As I won't be increasing my miles until the MCL is back to normal, I decided to try pool running to add some running mileage. This morning after my swim, and after everyone had left, I put on my new Body Glove aqua shoes and waded down to the 5.6-foot end of the pool. It took about five minutes to find the correct form and balance but after that, it was a great alternative to the pounding of the asphalt. I'm hooked. I've now added three of these workouts per week. Not only will it be a great cool down after my speedwork (5K), it'll also allow me to increase my weekly mileage safely.

From a Runner's World 2001 article on Water Workouts.

From Virginia to California, more and more high school teams are diving into water workouts-running in a swimming pool as a break from the track. Pool running offers a great workout without the leg-pounding of running on hard surfaces, so it helps cut down on injuries and keeps your legs fresh.

I'm not going to lie that pool running didn't feel a little weird. That's why I only attempted it after everyone had left. I'll get used to it. There's no doubt that it'll help quite a bit. Time to let go of my ego for the sake of stronger legs.

Link Friday

2009-06-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Most of my reading this week dealt with running and form as you can see below.

Thai Cooking With Jam

Natural Antiinflammatory Agents for Pain Relief in Athletes: Overview of Natural Antiinflammatory Agents

You Walk Wrong - A New York Magazine article.

Optimal Running Form

How to Prevent Running Injuries

Proper Running Form

Is it the shoes? It's gotta be the shoes.The Running Shoe Debate: How Barefoot Runners are Shaping the Shoe Industry

The Power of Negative Thinking

The Joy of Less

Knees

2009-06-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

I knew as soon as I discussed injuries that Murphy's Law would kick in and something would stretch where it wasn't supposed to, bend like it never has before, or snap like a summer butter bean. It was especially going to happen since I worked on my running form, reducing an estimated 50 percent of the stress to my knees (50 % of est. 9x body weight) with the newly-learned technique. It's not exactly new, I take that back. The Chi running folks proposed the same thing as did the Pose Method runners and I had watched that video over a year ago but just recently was reintroduced to it with the Newton running shoe videos and McDougal readings (see last post).

The problem came when I lent a hand in moving some industrial restaurant equipment to a friend's backyard. And the lending of hands turned into lending of the back, legs, shoulders and whatever else could help budge the bulky and weighty metal cooler. This stress was greater than 20x body weight, which is just the stress for jumping. Pushing the equivelant of an NFL nose tackle over gravel had to be greater than that. So doing the math means I get to wear a knee support today and do some light spinning.

I Found My Lost Twin

2009-06-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen someone who you thought was just like you? Maybe not 100% identical but enough that it made you think twice? I chanced upon a book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Chistopher initiated an interesting journey based on the question, "Why does my foot hurt?" As I've asked the same question for over the last year, my interest grew as I read more and more and watched video after video. After reading about Christopher and his journey for an hour I happened upon one his blog posts where he was glueing leather as an insole into his Vibram Five Finger shoes. Aha! That's when I knew this guy was my twin. He had a hurt foot, I had a hurt foot, he has no hair, I'm hair challenged, he wears Vibram Five, I long for a pair of Vibram five, he blogs, I blog, he glues leather insoles into his shoes, I velcro. Oops. Well, see? Almost identical except for the glue/velcro point.

Seriously, I downloaded Chistopher's book to my iPod and reading everything realated to the argument he and others are proposing about running shoes, orthotics and whether they're doing more harm than good. I'll be posting many of the links to the related articles and videos tomorrow for Link Friday. In a nutshell the articles are asking if modern athletic shoe design is contributing to poor running form, and as a result to more injuries.

I've had similar questions over the last year.

Why does my foot hurt?
Why do people drop out of the corporate fitness programs?
What is too much of endurance sports? Does running a marathon, if done right, create more bad than good for the body?

While they may seem like different questions, I'm thinking that the second question plays a lot into the first. And the third question also plays into the other two as correct form, incorrect form and just plain over use can mean the difference if someone becomes injured or not.

Two statistics to leave you with.

It's said that 95% of people starting an exercise program will leave it within the first six months.
Dr. Noakes. "I think the Pose (method of running) is advantageous in preventing injuries, which is important since about 60 percent of runners get injured each year." Christopher says it's 80 percent.

So Much For Spring

2009-06-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

On a day when the legs felt great and the lung capacity started to return, the temperature and humidity arrived. Temperature = 77, humidity = 78% for a total value of 155. Cotton was not the best choice of running shirt this morning.

A runner whose blog I followed for some time mentioned she didn't run after the temp and humidity combined for a value of 125. That's almost every day in Houston. It happens quite often in Austin too and leaves just a small window of opportunity for runs. And when you're judging when to run based on other variables like work schedule and pollution rates, the window is even smaller.

So this morning I chose the heat and humidity even though the combined heat and humidity were 20 points over 125. I knew I was going to sweat and sweat is good if you're prepared for it. It's not good while dressed in a tux, standing in front of hundreds of people singing old Dean Martin songs on stage but that's another story. Whew, just the thought is making tiny droplets form beads on top of my forehead.

The rest of the week is forecasted for good air quality but higher than normal temps (97-98 degrees). It's a good thing I don't run everyday anymore. Swims, indoor cycling and weight workouts don't depend on the weather and that's the remaining workouts for the week until Saturday morning.

Kindle for iPod Touch

2009-06-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Kindle software for iPod Touch simply works. It's simple, easy to install and has quite a volume of books to choose from. Currently, I'm reading Dr. Weil's Healthy Aging
: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Curl up with a good book. Nope. Not any more. I'll be curling up with my Touch, thank you very much.

Saturday Mornings On Lady Bird Lake

2009-06-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Lady Bird Lake. For the last couple of weeks I had the ice skaters drop me off on their way to a powerskate session. It gave me a good 90 minutes to run around the lake.

I saw Ray Mechler down at the water stop at Mopac and he was finishing a 13-mile run with two more miles to go so we ran together. He told me of his last Boston Marathon. Ray's the director of the Austin Marathon Seton Family of Hospitals medical tent each February.

The pollution was a little elevated today. The legs and lungs felt good today. It felt like I could have gone for longer for the first time in a looooong while.

Link Friday

2009-06-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

Forbes: Health Lists & Rankings, America's Fittest Cities

The New York Times: Fitness & Nutrition section: Personal Best: The Road to Success, Paved With Bad Advice

iPhone Development Course - FREE

5 iPhone Development Books You Should Read

Read Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages¹ ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.
http://infinitesummer.org/

The New York Times: End the University as We Know It

Respro City anti-pollution mask

Portable Car Air Purifiers for Auto, Truck, RV or Boat: Always have Clean Air

The New Yorker: The Cost Conundrum, What a Texas town can teach us about health care.

CapTexTri 2009 Race Report

2009-05-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

That was Zen and this is Tao.

There was a time I thought I'd never do another sprint triathlon in my life. I was all about Half-Ironmans and Ironman. Better, faster, bigger, stronger.

As I looked down at my ankle on the way to the transition corral. Immediately, I got a feeling one would get when you sit down to the first cup of coffee at the office and then realize you left the front-door-back home-13-miles-away unlocked. Yes, that's the feeling I got when I looked down and saw no timing chip on my ankle. I immediately knew it was sitting next to my chair back home. The chair I sat in while deciding to give the left foot a quick massage before putting my shoes on. &8%it!

I still had plenty of time to drive back home and retrieve my chip and also my wallet, as that too was left behind. In the past I had way too much time to sit in the transition area and do nothing anyway. I'd sit on my kitty-litter bucket now converted into a triathlon-stuff bucket wondering how many more minutes need to pass before getting on my wetsuit, before walking down to the start line, before clearing my Timex Triathlon watch out to zeroes. Maybe it was a good thing to drive all the way home and back. Maybe next time it will be extra good to sleep a little more and blow off the whole sitting around thing altogether.

My training since the Longhorn Half-Ironman last October left little to be desired. When I went to taper the conditioning schedule a week before this race I realized I'd been tapering all winter and spring. Lack of motivation, combined with bursts of allergies, a cold, outdoor Mexican smoke and the last remnants of foot pain didn't get me in the shape I needed to be in. With this lack of training my goal for this race was to figure out why I'm still doing this race.

The swim was better than expected (2.07/100yds compared to 2.39). I've only been in the pool once since last October but this is where I experienced the most improvement. Go figure. I shaved four minutes off my last sprint time. I guess this was a case where less was more.

I had tried on the wetsuit the day before the race. However, I had tried it on dry and not wet and that was how I was going to remove it in transition. And there was the problem. I could not get out of the thing. I felt like I was in a straight jacket and as my arms and shoulders were toast from the swim, my anxiety was building with every wasted minute to a point that I thought I may spend the rest of the race in T1, trying to remove my straight jacket. The race results would read, "Tony Mook, DNF (Did Not Finish) because he couldn't get out of his freakin'wetsuit."

Looking at the results, the 45-49 age groupers were anal retentive. I did not beat a one of them in T1. They were highly proficient at getting out of their wetsuits and on with their business. I had to scour the 55-59 age group to find someone I beat in my T1 time. One poor soul camped out in T1 for 17 minutes. Jeez, that's long enough to get a pizza delivered. So I feel better now.

I took a deep breath, relaxed and pulled one arm out and then another. Whew! I then proceeded to put on my bike jersey and it rolled up on my back with the moisture. The number ripped from two of the four safety pins. Ahhhhhhhhhh! More minutes ticked off the clock. This was going to be the slowest transition ever. EVER! As mentioned aove, one poor triathlete measured up with a 17-minute transition. I delivered with a 7:27 transition.

A week before the race I had decided to replace my LOOK clipless pedals for the clip and strap pedals. The CapTexTri course requires one to jog quite a ways to and from the mount and dismount lines to transition. Therefore, running shoes would be a better choice. This would prove to also save time in T2 by not having to swap bike shoes for running shoes. This is the one thing that did work well for the day.

The new bike worked well and seemed faster. However, upon inspection of the time, I was eight seconds slower than the Pawn Shop Bike time three years ago. And that's also while wearing an aero Limar helmet this time.

The run. Well. Brutal. Hot. I haven't run in the heat since last October so needless to say I wasn't ready for any heat or humidity and received a huge dose of both. Jack of Jack and Adams Bicycles was out there yet again helping the runners out by handing out cups of water. He's got to be one of the coolest business owners/bike gurus ever. EVER!

At the end of the day I found my race again. The sprint is the race. Not Xterra. Not Half-Ironman. Not Ironman. Not marathons. Just half-marathons and sprint triathlons and 8-mile bike time trials. They each have me doing my thing for 90 minutes or less. That's enough. And I like going faster for 90 minutes than slower than a slug in 90-degree heat for six hours.

Better, faster, bigger, stronger. Yes. Faster but not longer. Duration is only one component, not THE ONLY component. And not one of my components for a race. Improvement over time is the main necessary component. Seeing results from a change in training. That's a component.

There's a visual I have in my mind of what I should look like and what I should go through day after day with workouts and I'm far from realizing this nature. I think I'm getting closer to that visual but I need more time to pull it all together. More time analyzing the numbers and more time not looking at the numbers if that makes sense. For example, my heart rate was three beats less on average than last time. That's not much but could be the difference in three minutes which is the difference between a PR or not. 161 versus 158.

I had a routine that was right on track but focused in the wrong direction. Now, I need to refocus in the direction I know is the right one and give it a good push. That was Zen and this is Tao.

Link Friday

2009-05-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

The New York Times: Guest Column: Math and the City. It would be interesting to see if anyone has extended this math to then look at the number of cancer patients and how it correlates.

CNN: Astronauts enjoy recycled urine

ESPN: Life of Reilly. How do you beat a guy who throws righty and lefty? You don't. I hope this guy makes it to the bigs so I can see how he pulls this off.

News8Austin: Austin City Council to approve $250M bike plan. Too bad there's too many cars on the ATX roads today to make this a healthy option. It's not just about creating bike lanes and making it safe to ride but also it has to be healthy and that means they'll need to clean up the air.

CapTexTri

The water temp at Lady Bird Lake is 77 degrees so I won't be wearing a wetsuit for Monday's event. I'm even thinking of using the clip and strap pedals to save some time in transition. Running with the bike in my running shoes will speed me up. With no wetsuit to worry about and no shoes to change I should be able to shave off some minutes in the T1 and T2.

It's Time to Play Visionary, Fanatic or Lunatic

2009-05-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Robert Kraft, also known as The Raven, and not to be confused with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has been running every day for 34 years straight, running an eight-mile stretch of Miami Beach. Starting 1975, Mr. Kraft has run through pneumonia, hurricanes and back pain. His reply as to why someone would do such a thing, "I wanted to discipline myself," said Mr. Kraft.

ESPN recently resurfaced a January 2008 piece on The Raven that I saw the other morning.

From the last VF or L I see Jack LaLanne as a visionary and Ronald Kmiec as a fanatic/lunatic, especially for not listening to his body after suffering a heart attack. His wife had to pressure him into seeing the doctor. With Mr. Kraft it's a little different. At first I would label him a lunatic but I think he's more of a fanatic. What's sad is that it looks like he won't have many more years of running going the way he is. Without a day off to recover and repair damaged tissue caused by the eight-mile run, over time the overuse injuries will cause a problem. Research has proven this. I think even Hal Higdon, who ran 10-miles every morning and night even took some time off to recover.

The one thing I thought was great about The Raven was his varied workout. Pullups, pushups and alike are really what runners should be doing more of.

If you haven't guessed it, I'm looking for the fitness sweet spot, the Holy Grail of sets and reps and miles, the Supreme Being of workouts, the Pièce de résistance diet plan. What gets us ripped like a Laird Hamilton but not die at 39 like Steve Larsen.

5-hour ENERGY

2009-05-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

I just slammed a 2 ounce 5-hour ENERGY drink to try it out. DANG! I was suspicious but it works like two Red Bull drinks but without the calories. It has only four calories. We'll see if it lasts for five full hours. So far, it's really kicking in at the one-hour mark.

I don't think I'd go out and run on a full two ounces but I can definitely see using it for afternoons when I'm dragging after two-a-day workouts where I need to then write 1,000 words for an article.

Update: I noticed it weakening after three hours and after four hours I felt it was pretty much done.

Surprises

2009-05-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

I love surprises.! Well, let me restate that. I love surprises that unexpectedly provide me something with which I've been yearning for. I hate the surprises like driving south on IH35 and being sandwiched by two 90-mph-speeding Yukons on the left with a 100-mph-speeding Scion tc coming up my ass and then choosing to rip past in the emergency lane to get by me and the Yukons. Yeah, surprises like that, not so much. But that was two days ago and today is well, today.

So it was a total surprise this morning when ESPN let out that Jon Gruden was replacing Tony Kornheiser on MNF. So the NYTimes wrote, "Now, ESPN has Gruden, a blond-haired football guy, unlike Kornheiser, balding writer guy." You would think as I'm a balding writer guy named Tony I'd be really ticked that one of my own was sacked from MNF. Not. at. all. I haven't watched MNF in the last three year's just because of the balding writer guy. And, he wasn't sacked but left for a reported fear of flying. So Monday nights this coming fall have new meaning. No more slinking off to bed early. There's football to watch and commentary from the blond-haired football guy to listen to, at least until he finds another team to coach.

The other total surprise this morning was seeing proof of more winter blubber weight evaporated into the ether. Pounds 13 and 14 are gone. This was a surprise as I didn't get as many workouts in while in Dallas and the one I had was cut short. I then ate at Pappadeaux for lunch which could have sent me far into blubberville for the next week but it didn't. I guess there wasn't as much butter on that tilapia as I thought. If I drop another two before the CapTexTri on Monday, I'll feel better about the race.

It's good thing there won't be any surprises on the CapTexTri course on Monday. No falling 250-feet into a ravine like Pedro Horrillo did in the Giro d'Italia. That's a surprise we can all live without.

One of Austin's Perfect Mornings

2009-05-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

David Siik, the runner on the cover of this month's Runner's World Magazine said, "I breathe so much better when I'm by the water and away from traffic." Hmmmm ya tink? That's what I've been doing lately is getting away from traffic, all traffic. That's hard to do in the city but can be accomplished if done early.

I almost missed the one of the best running mornings Austin has to give by sleeping in. A perfect 52-degrees with a one mile an hour breeze and a 5.2 PM-2.5 pollution reading. My mind and body wanted to soak up as much as I could but alas, the cars started pulling out of their driveways and it was just too much trouble holding my breath as I passed the polluted micro puff clouds so I called it a day, but not before I had thoroughly enjoyed the run. Seven AM is the absolute Cinderella moment for running in the hood. After that we all turn into black tar asphalt pumpkins.

Link Friday May 15, 2009

2009-05-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a little of what I've been reading this week.

The New York Times: Brain Dance
Creating the magazine's Green Issue cover with the dance company Momix.

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

The New York Times: In German Suburb, Life Goes On Without Cars (Bike to Work Day Today!)

The New York Times: On the Waterfront

Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog founder and former member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, lives on the Mirene, a tugboat moored in Sausalito, on the San Francisco Bay.

TweetBeep.com

The New York Times: Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed

The New York Times: Portland on a Budget

The New York Times: Frugal Traveler blog - Frugal Portland

AstroProfile: Mercury Retrograde

Mercury Retrograde and Almost a Bad Cup of Coffee

2009-05-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

That was a close one. I just overheard that she was slipping in the bad coffee every third pot to get rid of it. We're in the middle of another mercury retrograde. Two more weeks.

From AstroProfile.

Communications go awry - phone calls, letters, emails, faxes, conversations are delayed, misinterpreted, blocked. Recheck everything like appointment times, spelling, wording, the words you say.

Anticipate detours - memory lapses, confusion, failing to listen, failing to confirm, negotiation failures, changing of plans.

Another day, another sports story. Barry Zito intentionally walked Ryan Zimmerman which contributed slightly to his 30-game hitting streak to come to an end. Zimmerman had three other at bats but couldn't deliver. Good to see Zito's arm is still solid. "Zito's fifth strong effort in a row should have encouraged the Giants," said Chris Haft of MLB.com.

And this from SI on Randy Johnson. "So I told you last week I wasn't wild about Randy Johnson starting against the Rockies again and he got hit hard. Johnson is showing the effects of age, but is still pitching better than a 45 year old would have 30 years ago."

On a positive note, I got through my morning workout while watching ESPN without a single mention of that banned substance that rhymes with Altoids. I did see a mention of it on SI.com but it's hilarious Manny Ramirez has gone from the masculine sounding "ManRam" to "Nanny" in one week's time. I've heard female fertility drugs can do that sort of thing.

Already this morning, Austin's air isn't looking too good. A PM-2.5 reading of 21 doesn't bode well for health. The folks in Tyler have the cleanest air in the state of Texas at a 1.2 PM-2.5. It looks like another bike ride indoors at the gym.

I Get Over Roids as I Declare My Free Agency

2009-05-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

I forgot how much two and three-a-day-workouts tire me, both physically and mentally. The body is responding ok though. Sore from an hour on the hills with the bike yesterday.

I added these to the running_mix playlist.

Kanye West: Heartless (Thanks to K who has switched from Disney artists to hip hop)
Kanye West: Stronger (I'm a little slow with new music, release date 9/11/07)
Alanis Morssette: Citizen of the Planet

I knew the roids issue would get blown up when A-Roid came back to the Yankees active roster but jeeeeeez. The media is on roids with all the roids talk. You know, I'm ok with the roids. It's all performance enhancement and there can never be a level playing field. Vitamins are performance enhancers. Certain trainers enhance performance with their knowledge. I definitely can attest to certain shoes being performance enhancers versus the ones I had that crippled my left foot for 12 months (all better now thanks to New Balance and PT). Caffeine, creatine, protein. Yeah, roids are on a TOTALLY different plane of chemistry. Understood. Just wait for DNA enhancement. I bet we've already seen some of it at the last Olympic games.

That being said, I declare my free agency for any sports team that looks like it's going to have a winning season in my lifetime. I can't believe I was drawn into thinking the Rockets would win last night against the Lakers. Not that I'd go for the LA with Kobe but I definitely need to look elsewhere. 40 point drop. Jeeeez. Just embarrassing.

The good thing is tomorrow is another day and another story will be front and center on the sports ~~pages~~ ~~blogs~~ tweets.

More on Outdoor Air Quality

2009-05-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

I just got through publishing the latest article on GoodHealth.com. It deals with the outdoor air pollution in Central Texas and asthma. The readings for particulate matter 2.5 pollution yesterday were through the roof. Looking around town it was strange. Thick haze was obscuring views of the hills. The readings had us at a 238.1 reading for 2.5 particulate matter which is insane. I think someone had their Hummer backed up close to the measuring equipment. I stayed in and drank some red wine rather than play tennis with my next door neighbor.

I woke up this morning and checked the readings thinking there wasn't enough wind to keep the Mexican fire smoke south of the Austin area. However, when I checked at 5:45 am, the levels for 2.5 and for ozone were decent enough to get a run in. 13.1 for the PM-2.5 and 19 for the ozone.

Stable Has a New Filly and TT Season Has Started

2009-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

The new TT/triathlon bike is finished. Last night I put the finishing touches on what should be a faster bike for the 2009 cycling time trial and triathlon seasons. I took it out for a spin on the veloway without a front derailleur and it seemed faster than the same components on the Canondale frame. I changed frames as the C-dale was a couple CM too big and the Leader frame was more aerodynamic and will fit better.
Although Run-Far scheduled time trials for April I clearly wasn't in shape nor was the bike in shape to get out of the house. Next Tuesday is still a little too soon and the 26th is a day after the CapTexTri triathlon so that's probably out.
APRIL:	Tuesdays,14th and 28th (28th is still on!)
MAY:	Tuesdays, 12th and 26th
JUNE:	Tuesdays, 9th and 23rd
JULY:	Tuesdays, 14th and 28th
AUGUST:	Tuesdays, 11th and 25th
SEPTEMBER:	Tuesdays, 8th and 22nd

New Day, Cleaner Air

2009-05-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm glad I waited until this morning for the long run. Yesterday's air in Austin was horrible. PM 2.5 levels in the moderate range of 26 due to the Mexican smoke arriving in Central Texas. This morning after a front passed through and a little rain, the PM 2.5 level was down to 1.3. That's the lowest I've seen it. I could actually smell the honeysuckle from a distance.

I picked up another Money Tree yesterday from Home Depot. This one is 24" and goes for $19.98. The little one in the photo cost $7.98 and it's tiny in comparison. It's the plant recommended by Kamal Meattle at the TED 2009 Conference.

Links Friday

2009-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

American Lung Association - State of the Air 2009

Blip.FM - If you've ever wanted to be a DJ, here's your chance.

funnyordie.com - If you like Will Farrell or have seen the first season of East Bound and Down, you'll love Funny or Die.

How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air - TED 2009

NYTimes Health - Paying a Price for Loving Red Meat

Runner's World Magazine - The Pill Problem , The right drug can relieve pain and discomfort—or put you in a world of hurt.

Twitscoop - visualize in real time a tag cloud of Twitter traffic.

Austin Air Quality is Mixed in Review

2009-04-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

An old parable says that if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger. Kind of like A-Roid all of a sudden having surgery after the steroid mess came out. However, if you put that same frog into a pot of cool water and then you gradually increase the temperature until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late. Much more like how the roid situation with Clemens went down. Maybe because he kept saying the pot wasn't hot enough, denying any use.

I thought since A-Roid wasn't scheduled to come back from his rehab until May 15 we'd be treated to full days of roid-less sports coverage but that's been blown out. Thank God that ESPN spent very little time on the piece this morning and decided instead to focus on two of today's brighter players.

So back to the cooked frog. The Austin Business Journal reported yesterday on the American Lung Association's report on Austin's air quality. Long story short, Austin gets a mixed rating. Air quality in general is based on small particle pollution and another reading for ozone pollution. Austin is good on the 2.5 micron pollution but bad on the ozone. I have mixed feelings on this report as it may encourage more people to venture out, eventually becoming cooked frogs later in life.

Here's what I base this on. If you venture out first thing in the morning say around 5:00 am or 6:00, but not later than 6:45 (that's when people in my neighborhood start leaving for work) you will notice cleaner air. The reason being that overnight the pollution from the day before has been swept out of town for the most part. Wind and pressure play a part here but let's say for argument it is swept out on most days. If you are jogging and pass an early commuter in their car you will notice the exhaust from that one car. It's sufficient to make you not want to inhale until you get far enough away. So one car passing while your in a clean air environment is very noticeable.

Now go down to the hike and bike trail along Lady Bird Lake underneath the Mopac Expressway bridge where there's heavy traffic and run down Cesar Chavez street where there's heavy traffic at say 5:30 pm. Unless there's a car with flagrant expulsion of exhaust it'll be difficult to notice the exhaust. Why is this? If you look at the pollution charts that provide real time readings from monitoring equipment you'll see the levels are higher than they were at 5:30 am. If you can smell the poisonous exhaust from one car, common sense says 10,000 cars are doing some damage. And mix the sun's rays, which creates ozone, and is also said to create a sunburn effect to the lung's inner lining it's a wonder anyone jogs at all.

Needless to say I'm sticking to the early morning runs unless there's a weather event that sweeps the bad air out of the atmosphere. Recent rain storms did this. I'm also staying away from heavy-traffic-streets. I'd rather run in the afternoon or evening but it's just not worth it in the long run.

Read more about dirty air in the Canada Medical Association report.

If you want to watch the Texas statewide levels rise over a period of a day, point your browser to the TCEQ ozone level map and the TCEQ PM 2.5 level map,

Chalk It Up To Not Knowing

2009-04-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Most exercise mags rehash the same content over and over to great success. Last week, as I kept one eye on the person in front of me in the grocery line placing bag after bag of cheese puffs and their favorite soda flavor containing high fructose corn syrup on the conveyer belt, my other eye locked on one of the mags near the cash register. After I found out which celebrities were bikini weather ready I shifted attention to Prevention Magazine. Prevention recombines the title phrases Over 40, Best Abs Ever, Walking and Lose Weight Fast in various combinations which are slightly different than last month but still preys on our fear of the fact that most hate getting older, have spare tires or big butts and don't exercise enough.

Runners World Magazine is like this. I've put a copy in my grocery cart each month for the past four years thinking there was something new to be found in the ever-shrinking number of pages contained within. While I've learned much from this magazine, most can be attributed to running faster which is ironic as I get slower. But as many have pointed out, we do live in the Age of Irony. Run Fast! In the May 2009 issue however, I came across a great piece of information. Which pain reliever to take. It's not a matter of preference.

I asked a volunteer at one of the aid stations on the Longhorn Half-Ironman course a couple of years ago why they had Tylenol and not anything else. It turns out my preference, which is ibuprofen, doesn't work with the kidneys so well. And since kidneys are a vital part of a race for fluid absorption as well as not vomiting up strange substances which turn out to be digestive tract lining (see story link above), Tylenol was chosen. It negatively works on the liver only when there's alcohol involved or when too many are taken. Whew! Who knew?

Who drinks when they run? Seriously. I do remember drinking a beer, no two, at the 25th mile of the 2006 Austin Marathon. It was the best beer I'd ever tasted. It was provided by the Hash House Harriers who run and drink beer. I suspect the Harriers don't need to ingest Tylenol or any pain reliever for that matter as the beer does an adequate job of numbing a runner's pain. But the Runner's World Magazine makes no mention of beer as a pain reliever.

The Hash House Harriers are no small group. 1892 hash groups in 1229 cities and in 183 countries and not one mention of someone puking up strange substances which turn out to be their digestive lining, although in all fairness I think there has been at least one case of someone drinking beer and losing their lunch and digestive lining would have only been included in the expelled substance if this runner ate at a Vietnamese restaurant and happened to order the tripe pho soup.

So to summarize, if you take lots of ibuprofen and run long distances you stand a chance of losing your digestive organs. If you drink lots of beer and run long distances you stand a chance of losing a cow's digestive organs.

First Ten Minutes of Anything Suck

2009-04-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned here a few times one of my fellow triathlete bloggers, Tracy (a.k.a. Wil) from ThroughTheWall has mentioned the first ten minutes of everything suck and then it's all good. I think of this often but yesterday was a little different. Being the first serious run in two weeks after being sick, the legs felt great from the first stride. Wow, it's not very often where it felt great from the start. The lungs felt sucky from the first stride and at the ten minute mark they felt even more sucky. In fact they never felt good and so here's an addendum to Tracy's Law of 10 Minutes.

Some days certain things will suck longer than ten minutes and may suck the whole time.

It's Time to Play Visionary, Fanatic or Lunatic

2009-04-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

fa·nat·i·cal (f-nt-kl)
adj.
1. Possessed with or motivated by excessive, irrational zeal.

vi·sion·ar·y (vzh-nr)
adj.
1. Characterized by vision or foresight.

lu·na·tic (ln-tk)
adj.
1. Suffering from lunacy; (Insanity, especially insanity relieved intermittently by periods of clear-mindedness.).
4. Characterized by lunacy or eccentricity.

"The Godfather of Fitness", Jack LaLanne is 94 and still at it. "I work out every day for two hours," he said. "Swim one-half hour, and other one and one-half hours I do weights."

May 2009 Runner's World Magazine

Ronald Kmiec, 66 of Concord, Massachusetts, ran every day for 31 years and 360 days. During a race in 2007, he felt chest pain. He finished, and ran the next four days, until his wife forced him to see a doctor. Kmiec had had a heart attack and needed surgery. But four months later, he ran the 2008 Boston Marathon, his 35th in a row.

Grabbing the Remote

2009-04-27T12:17:00.001-07:00

Got a chance to see Jacoby Ellsbury burn the Yank's Andy Pettitte stealing home. Go 'Stros and Sox. As you can see I'm giving baseball a chance again. Hopefully, the steroid era is over.

I couldn't believe ESPN went nuts with the NFL Draft, the mock draft, the fantasy draft, the speculating on top of the speculating until the whole thing was one long sentence running from one ear to the other reaching a point where I was seriously considering going downstairs and watching the Hallmark Channel and it's endless noise stream of faux Little House on the Prairie episodes with the rest of the family. Heh heh. Not really.

The NFL needs to find something to do with the 10 minutes inbetween the selections. Something other than showing Crabtree after he didn't get selected with beads of sweat building up on his forehead. They also need to find something else to show than a player talking on a cellphone to his agent while his family and friends look on. How they sold commercial time for this is beyond me.

In the end it's my fault. In this age of endless media opportunities and Tivo I need to spend more time looking for the gold nuggets like the Red Sox/Yanks match up which produced the stolen home base. Like the good articles. Like Rafael Nadal winning his fifth straight Barcelona Open whether it's live or recorded. Like BikeSnobNYC. Like the Jim Rome radio show and JRIB in the afternoon.

There's more than enough content to watch, read and listen to if I'd just apply a little strategy and not just grab the remote.

Spreading Germs

2009-04-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the swine flu outbreak.

People who go to work sick don't realize the impact they have on on others. Three weeks after getting sick from someone who couldn't stay at home and was still contagious, I'm still recovering. I haven't worked out in earnest for three weeks. My lung capacity is still compromised. When I take a deep breath my airway gurgles. Others in the family are still coughing and feeling the remnants of the cold. When I spoke to someone else who had it, they coughed their last cough four weeks after contracting the bug.

The Honeywell air purifier I bought and placed in the bedroom has helped. It's amazing how easier it is to breathe when the purifier is running. I also think my night's sleep has improved.

Mexico is getting serious about the swine flu outbreak. They advised people to stay home from Sunday mass and the soccer games.

On This Almost Earth Day

2009-04-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

On this almost Earth Day I sit inside (10:00 am) and not on the patio as the ozone level has already climbed over 50.

and food for thought from The New Yorker, In the Air.

In a recent survey, the Pew Research Center asked Americans about their priorities for Congress and the new President. “Dealing with global warming” ranked at the bottom of a list of twenty choices, far below “strengthening the nation’s economy” and “reducing health-care costs,” and even below dealing with unspecified “global trade issues.” The recession seems to have dampened the nation’s enthusiasm for any measure that could affect—or, perhaps just as important, be portrayed as affecting—people’s pocketbooks. Last month, when Gallup asked Americans whether “protection of the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth,” only forty-two per cent said yes. This was the lowest proportion in the twenty-five years since the firm started asking the question. Results like these do not make action on climate change any less imperative. But—especially since opponents can be counted on to spend tens of millions of dollars on lobbying—they do make it that much less likely.

This week, when Earth Day turns thirty-nine, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation will plant trees. The Interior Department will host a fair in Washington’s Rawlins Park, and in Bloomington volunteers will teach sixth graders about karsts and creeks. As perhaps befits a middle-aged celebration, these are all eminently reasonable activities. But Earth Day has lost its edge and, with that, the sense that a different world is possible. Even more than in 1970, what’s needed now is an outpouring that organizes itself—with millions of people and, for good measure, some stinky dead fish in the streets.

Oak Pollen Eating My Lunch

2009-04-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

I knew better than to use the blower to move a ton of fallen oak leaves from one side of the property to the next. Last year it knocked me out for a week. This year, it's going to knock me out for a week. Wednesday and Thursday were days where I literally did not move except to drink some water. The Benadryl-D played a role in knocking me out. The one benefit to being sick is that it's the best diet pill on the planet. I've lost nine pounds so far. Food poisoning was the only thing that I've seen do it faster and that's because there was absolutely zero urge to eat for days.

As I'm still coughing up a lung regularly, exercise outdoors is out of the question. As the skull throbbing has subsided I can at least now get back on the computer and write or read or tackle a little Ruby on Rails which I've been meaning to do since SXSW ended.

On This First Day of Spring...Breathe

2009-03-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the books I'm currently reading. Ultra Longevity by Mark Liponis.

Which includes... 1. Breathe: Proper breathing is the way to access the automatic functions of your body and send a peaceful message to your immune system.

Which leads you to wonder how clean your outdoor air is. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality & AirNow

And also leads us to clean up our indoor air. Kamal Meattle breaks it down what you need to do in his brief TED lecture.

Which should get us to make changes to adopt these behaviors;

Exercise outdoors in the morning when the air is cleaner.

Purchase and maintain more indoor plants.

Monitor the air when spending a length of time outdoors. Did you know on this beautiful first day of spring in Austin that the forecast calls for moderate levels of Ozone today?

Make sure you select the Air Recirculate button on your car's AC system when in traffic so you're not breathing the exhaust from the car in front of you.

Going Through SXSW Withdrawals

2009-03-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

The withdrawal syndrome immediately following the final panel presentation of SXSSW Interactive creates an immediate abstinence. Physical symptoms of this early stage seem to depend on the activity of a part of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus. SXSW has been known to depress this area and it would therefore be expected to become hyperactive during withdrawal. Constant Twittering before boarding planes or immediately upon arrival keeps the area semi-stimulated. The sufferer constantly looks down at a small electronic device (most likely an iPhone) while walking in small circles or wavy forward paths. Increased agitation will increase and swearing similar to Turrets syndrome patients may occur and this may be due to sporadic wireless connectivity. The locus coeruleus is an important center in the brain's fear-alarm system, and such hyperactivity would be consistent with the marked anxiety and agitation withdrawing addicts report. Unfortunately for withdrawing addicts, other conferences beside the SXSW can't stimulate this region with the same intencity. True replication of the feelings can only occur once a year in March.

Detoxification is usually accomplished by giving decreasing doses of Twitter sessions followed by rituals of standing in long lines for free beer.

The author goes on to say, "the duration of early abstinence depends on the conference's rate of elimination and in the case of SXSW most major symptoms should be gone within seven to ten days."

SXSW talk by Gary Vaynerchuk

2009-03-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/86998558/gary-vaynerchuks-sxsw-keynote

Clearly the best friggin' presentation I saw at SXSW this year and it's on the net.

SXSW 2009 Behind Me

2009-03-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

SXSW 2009 is over. Here are a few observations and tips I hope to follow next year at SXSWi.

1. Buy more laptop batteries. It's worth it not to have to look for power outlets and then be tethered.
2. The bigger the room for the speaker does not always mean they're a better speaker. Sometimes SXSW scheduling messes up. Suckage can occur in a BIG room. Witness Mark Zuckerberg/ Sarah Lacy Interview From SXSW 2008. Also, the Hilton was used as spillover for a reason. ;)
3. There's a lot to say about taking just an iPod Touch or iPhone and a notebook and a phone. Accessing the sxsw.mobi worked well to look at the schedule. Checking email is overrated. It can wait until the evening. Otherwise, if emergency, there's always someone's laptop or a community laptop.
4. Take a phone with Internet apps as the wireless is questionable. Sprint worked better than AT&T every day of the conference. In defense I think that was the largest concentration of iPhones ever within a two block area.
5. Try to do more small discussions with others at a pub like on Monday night. Sitting around drinking beer and talking about code, design, writing works better than struggling for free beer underneath tents where hookups or introductions are rarely made.
6. Take advantage of the free yoga as that was the best improvement to SXSW this year. It set me up for the rest of the day.
7. Getting to the Convention Center early each day for yoga allowed me to find reasonably close FREE parking.
8. Do the homework on the speakers. I spent one night reading the profiles and session descriptions but I needed to look in more detail. Maybe even their last year's rating if available. Maybe even ask through Twitter or blog other's recommendations.
9. Taking my own aluminum water bottle worked great. Do it again.

SXSW: Some Tweets I found

2009-03-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

techupdate: Lifehacker: Get 6GB of Free Music from SXSW '09 [Deals] : Looking for a whole lot of new, free music?.. http://tinyurl.com/c77ptq (expand)

mattbeckman: RT: Joomla beats out Drupal + Wordpress in the #sxsw showdown: #cmssmackdown #drupal #joomla #wordpress http://tr.im/huay

upicksRT @murnahan: 99 Essential #Twitter Tools And Applications http://is.gd/nHFw (WOW this list is amazingly long)

brianoberkirch RT @monstro So So we went a little (ok, a LOT) over our bar budget last night. Any chance you can help us out? http://32bit.chipin.com/