Santa Fe, New Mexico

Half Marathon #26

You may not have read my last blog entitled Diet, Pickle Juice, Carb-Loading and Altitude, but within that blog, I detailed a few things that pertain to my last race in New Mexico and the weeks leading up to it.

I was really kind of hoping that I would have a good race.  I was aware of the altitude and thought that I might feel the effects of 7000 ft, but hoped that the weight loss would make enough of a difference that I could overcome the altitude.  Also, I really believed that it would not be a major issue considering the race was primarily downhill.  I mean, seriously... 10.6 of the 13.1 miles were downhill.  Would you not think this would make one run faster than normal?

I'll address the weight aspect here, in the beginning, then I will move into the race specifics... for those of you who don't care about the race.  You can simply read this short part and then move on to FaceSnap or Snap 'o' gram or twittle dee or something.

I mentioned in the previous blog that Valerie and I made a concerted effort to conform to an eating plan and for me to actively, consciously lose some weight.  As of yesterday, Sept 22, 2018 it has been 39 days since making a change in our dietary intake.  We have now done the Prolon diet ( a 5-day fast-mimicking diet) twice and the longevity or wellness diet for 3 weeks.  In that 39 days, I have gone from 214 pounds to 181 pounds.  I am wearing a size 31 waisted pant, and that is only because I don't own anything smaller.  I had to cinch up my size 31 jeans with my belt this morning to go to church.

As far as running goes, my last three days of running have all been sub-eight min. mile average runs.  I have run 3ish miles each of the last three days and averaged about 7:40 per mile.  One of those miles was 7:08.  I mention that only to say that I feel good.  I appear to be getting faster and do not seem to be having any ill-effects of too much weight-loss, too quickly.  I intended to run home from church today, but when I went to change into my running clothes, I realized that I had forgotten my shorts.  I do not mind running without my shirt, but it may be a bit much to run without my pants. (I am aware that a few of you actually run races this way, but do not expect to see that from me at any point).  So, I won't run until later today... after lunch but before dinner.  The next race is next weekend in Ocean City, NJ and I am hoping to have a good race with some nice weather and a fairly flat course.

Half Marathon #26.  I went out by myself.  I flew out early in the am on Friday from home.  It was still dark out.  There is a two hour time difference from EST to MST, so it was still fairly early when I got to Albuquerque.  I rented a car in Albuquerque and drove to Santa Fe.  On the way I decided to stop for something to eat.  Fortunately I saw a restaurant on the side of the road and immediately thought "FLAP JACKS!!" 





I had been on a calorie restricted diet for several weeks at this point, so I had difficulty deciding what to order at the iHop.  I seriously wanted to order the entire left side of the menu.  I exercised a small amount of restraint and simply ordered eggs, bacon, hash-browns, and a stack of pancakes.  It was so good, and I was pretending that it was all good for me.  Then I got back on the road to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe seemed to consist of some mountains, some desert and some casinos.  I did not see much else.  When I booked the trip, there were not a lot of options around the runner pick-up area to bus the runners to the start, so I decided to stay at a Homewood Suites which was adjacent to the host hotel, which was affiliated with a casino.  When I arrived at the hotel, it was still a bit early and my room was not ready, but I scoped out the exercise area in the hotel and noticed a treadmill.  I was looking for a bathroom to change into my running clothes, thinking I could get my mile in on the treadmill while I waited, when they texted me and told me my room was ready now. It was literally less than 5 minutes after they told me it was not ready.  I am assuming they were cleaning at the time he inquired??  Anyway, it was a nice apartment-style suite that I was not expecting.  There were two rooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. This was all $167 per night.  Crazy.  I did not need all that room, but it was nice any way.  So, I checked in and went to the expo.  The expo was down the road about two miles, and I am not certain what I was expecting, but it was a bit different than many of the expos that I have attended.  There was a bib pick-up area and a T-shirt pick-up area and another tent and table set up to sell "running gear".  Not pictured, there were a few tables set up to sell local arts and jewelry.  I picked up my bib and shirt and went back to the hotel.

I had my first "taste" of how the race would be by heading out on the property to get my mile in.  It was a brutal mile.  I had difficulty maintaining an 8:45 pace even for one mile.  Maybe I was tired, maybe I was malnourished, maybe it was altitude, maybe I had eaten a bunch of iHop garbage, maybe my training was lacking, maybe it was a combination of things.  Maybe I just wanted something to whine about on my blog.  Either way, it was rough.  I did not sweat, but it was still tough.  At this point, I decided to go and get something for dinner and breakfast the next morning, race morning.  I got some pickle juice of course, some pasta and some pancakes.  No idea how that 7up cake got in my cart, but I did not want to embarrass myself by returning it, so I bought it too.  It would also be rude not to eat it, so I ate the entire thing between the car ride back to the hotel, that evening, race morning and after the race.  Just so no one found me rude.  (I have a problem.)

Race morning I awoke at 3:00 or was it 3:30 am?  Either way, I got up early.  With the time difference, it was my normal wake-up time, so it was no big deal.  I did not even use an alarm.  I ate my Aunt Jemima pancakes and continued to hydrate.  Lots of water.
Since I was next door to the host hotel, I was able to walk to the bus pick-up area.  It was still dark again.  I walked over, boarded a bus and ended up sitting next to a young man from Nashville who was running his first half-marathon.  He had never run more than 6 miles, but decided he wanted to run a half.  Seems like I have heard that story before.

The buses drove us to the starting area and dropped us off.  It was about an hour prior to the race start.  The race was scheduled to start at 7:30am.  There was a mariachi band playing, but pretty much nothing else going on other than race day registration.  I waited nervously trying to get and stay limber without exerting myself.  The race start was a free-for-all start.  There were no corrals, there were no pace markers, nothing.  Just line up... wherever and GO.  I made a conscious effort to place myself behind the fast runners and in the "slower start" section, but this was an impossibility.  There were slow runners in the front and middle, side and back.  There were fast starters scattered everywhere.   It was mayhem.  Before I nearly passed out, I was stepping on people and passing people and getting cut-off and cutting people off.  I don't know if I exerted more energy because I was trying to avoid people or because it was uphill or because it was 7000 feet elevation.  It was a difficult first mile, which BTW was run at a 10:37 pace.  This included the stop and walk at about the half mile mark.  Mile two was not better, but was "run" at a 10:45 pace.   From there I went 8:04, 8:42, 8:49, until I settled into about a 9:05-9:10 average.  Any faster than that I began to get winded and dizzy again.  I did not stop after mile two, but was going pretty slow overall.

  I made a little jump in this picture to give the impression that I was flying.  This is all I could muster.

The race was on a frontage road on either side of the highway and had very little in the way of scenery.  Desert and mountains in the background and casinos.  There were plenty of water stations and support, but very little in the way of entertainment.  I noticed a few dancers and a couple two-man bands, but that was about all on the course.  I do not remember if I mentioned it in the last blog post, but somehow I lost 3 miles along the way.  It was all captured by my Garmin, but I lost track of them myself.  When I finally decided to actually pay attention to which mile I was on, I was expecting to see mile 6 or 7, maybe 8, when it was actually mile 11.  There were no mile markers on the course.  No other way to tell how far you had gone.  Oh well, I finished.



At the finish there was bananas and water and a fruit popsicle.  The bananas had seen better days.  The water was warm, but wet.  The fruit popsicles were melting.  Beyond the runners finish area was a series of arts and jewelry for sale again.  I did not purchase any.  I was tired, so I went back to my room to eat the remainder of my 7-up cake.


After a short rest and cake, I packed up and went to the airport to return home late Sunday evening.... more like early Monday morning, only to be at work seeing patients at 7:00am.

Hey... New Mexico is done.  I am not certain that I would run this one again, but there is a distinct possibility that my difficulties were more due to factors that had nothing to do with the race.

As I mentioned, the next race is Sept 30 in Ocean City, NJ.  It is the 50 states half marathon club annual meet up.  Valerie will be accompanying me on this one and I am feeling very well at 181 pounds, so we will just have to see how much it affects me positively or negatively.  Stay tuned.

Diet, Pickle Juice, Carb-Loading, and Altitude

Over the last month, just after the last half marathon in Ohio, Valerie and I started a new diet.  Before I discuss the particulars of the diet, I will explain my rationale for wanting to diet in the first place... and before you rush to bang out an admonishing email explaining how it is not healthy to run and diet, please understand that I am well aware and made appropriate alterations in my running schedule to compensate, and I will explain all of that in the following presumably boorish balderdash.

At the start of the last two half marathons, July and August, Alaska and Ohio, my weight was somewhere between 210 and 215 pounds.  I am 6.0 feet tall.  At my highest weight, in college, while playing football, making a concerted effort to gain weight with muscle mass, I could never get my weight above 215 pounds.  These days, some 26 years later, my weight distribution is significantly different,  I no longer carry the muscle mass, but I do not seem to have any difficulty carrying the weight elsewhere.  What ever happened to the saying, "muscle weighs more than fat?"  I suppose the truth is that a pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat.  Once again, please don't read me wrong here.  I am not suggesting that I am fat.  I do not have anorexia or unhealthy body image issues.  I am not concerned about my weight from an esthetic perspective.  I do not have, nor will I develop an eating disorder.

If you were to take a look at the elite athletes, (for the record, I am nowhere near an elite athlete and at this point I have resigned to myself that I never will be) they are all very thin.  Because they are all different heights, average weight is a bit meaningless, but let me give you some data.  Most running coaches utilize the Stillman height/weight ratio table that allocates 110 pounds for a 5.0ft male and then 5.5 lbs. for each additional inch.  In this calculation, I should weigh 176 pounds.  Moreover, it is suggested that distance runners need to weigh 5-10 percent less than this calculation, which would put me at 159-168 pounds.   Another common calculation is that your weight should be 15 less than your height in cm.   This would put me at 167 pounds.  This all seems a bit ridiculous to me.   I think that someone, one of my family members or one of my patients maybe would call hospice for me if I weighed 167 pounds.  Although it is commonly understood that if you weigh less you can run faster.

Running, simply stated is a form of jumping.  One cannot move forward without moving up.  Each upward movement moves against gravity and the more weight that must move against gravity requires more energy.  Imagine running with a 10 pound sandbag strapped to your waist.  It would most certainly be more difficult.

Larger athletes are also less efficient at delivering oxygen throughout the body.  Less weight means that each breath allows whatever amount of oxygen that you intake to be delivered more efficiently to the muscles and organs.  Similarly, leaner athletes can dissipate heat better.  Because they have a higher surface area to body weight ratio and less insulating fat tissue, the heat will be dissipated more efficiently and they will burn carbohydrates more efficiently.

"In professional distance running, being light is not an advantage, it’s a necessity. And it's a precarious truth that to be the fastest runner you can be is to be as light as possible without being too light. Finding that threshold can be tricky business." 

One elite runner that I like to follow is Galen Rupp            .  

Galen is the American record holder for the 10,000 meters and placed third in the olympic marathon last summer.  Galen is almost 6 feet tall and races at just over 130 pounds.  Another runner, Chris Solinsky is the heaviest man in history to run under 27 minutes for the 10,000 meters.... the heaviest man in history.   

He is 6 foot 1 and 160 pounds. -- My fastest 10,000 meters is 45 minutes... so, we are not even in the same league much less the same race.  Here is a pic of the two runners together.  Hardly a difference.

So, my point here is that it is clear that lighter equals faster to an extent.  There is certainly a such a thing as too light and too light too fast.  I also understand that my body type is a bit different than an elite runner.  I will never get down to 167 pounds, and I do not want to be that lean, but I think it is fair to say that if I were to weigh less, then I could propel by weight farther faster.

OK, so that is the why.  Now for the how.  I learned about the book below from Dr. John Kois and Dr. Doug Thompson at The Kois Center where I train and teach.  I mention that because, while I am not going to summarize the book for you, I want you to understand that this is not a fad diet, but a diet based on science.  Doug and John are very science driven and The Kois Center is an Evidence Based Dental Teaching Center whose motto is Advancing Dentistry Through Science.  This book is not about dentistry, but about wellness and longevity.




In the book there is a menu.  It is designed to be a representative sample of the types of foods that one should eat for wellness and longevity, that is to be healthy short-term and long-term.  There is research on foods that help prevent cancer and dementia, etc.  The menu is a two week menu -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert.  There is also a discussion about fasting and intermittent fasting and what they call the fasting mimicking diet.  This particular diet is a 5 day fasting mimicking diet from Prolon.  https://prolonfmd.com/ 
I was somehow able to convince Valerie that we should do this.  So, for two weeks we strictly followed the diet in the book.  The plan was to then do the 5 day fast after those two weeks.  Since I had a race coming up, we decided to do the fasting mimicking diet after one week of the wellness diet, then go back to the wellness diet for the second week.   I wanted to switch it up like this because I did not want to go into a race right after a fast.  BTW... it is not true fast.  It is a fasting mimicking diet.  There is roughly 1100 calories on day one and 800 calories on days 2-5.

Here is how it played out.  For one week we followed the wellness diet strictly, then went directly to the Prolon diet, then back to week two of the wellness diet.  THEN, we both had a nice binge.  Valerie was craving red meat, specifically a hamburger, so we went to a local gourmet hamburger shop that we enjoy.  We had planned this event.  We were excited about it.  It was a reward for all of our efforts and a "treat".  We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and I must have eaten about four of the kids muffins, then we went to church and went directly to the hamburger joint with our appetites and mouths watering.  As we drove up, we noticed a relatively empty parking lot, which could be a good thing as maybe there would be few other customers and we could get our lunch faster.  As it turned out, the restaurant was closed on Sunday.  I respect that, but was supremely disappointed as I wanted my hamburger.  As we looked around for an alternative binge spot, we noticed a Chili's nearby and sped over with renewed anticipation.  I'll spare you the onslaught that ensued on the meat and carbs, but suffice it to say that there was not more than a few crumbs remaining after we completed our meal and we were sufficiently impressed that no one vomited.  Of course we were stuffed like the Thanksgiving Day turkey that we would have devoured if it were Thanksgiving and it were a Thanksgiving Day Cow, but that was simply not enough glutenous activity for the day, so we went across the street to the fro yo joint and further overindulged with sweet treats.

After this event, and it was an event.  We decided to go back on the wellness diet, but modify it a bit to allow for some days of left-overs to allow Valerie a break from the chopping and cooking and shopping, and to modify it to allow a couple of days off.  One day we might eat some chicken or even a hamburger, gasp.  We later had dinner with some friends and had a nice steak and potatoes and cheesecake... OMGoodness, it was AMAZING.  One other time I had lunch with a friend at the Greek restaurant and had a lamb and chicken pita with fries.  Otherwise, we stayed on the wellness diet.

Then came race week.  Oh, ALSO, while on the wellness diet you are supposed to exercise.  So, we did.  We even walked every day for 30 minutes.  (It is supposed to be 1 hour, but I could only force Valerie to do 30 minutes a day).  While on the Prolon diet, because it is a reduced calorie diet, they suggest that you not exercise... so, we just did not run as far as fast.  We still ran our mile a day, but it was more of a light jog.  Nobody passed out, fell down or had any complications.

So, race week came.  We were still on the wellness diet, but I added some carbs.  I ate more of the carbs in those meals that contained complex carbs and even supplemented a piece of bread or a bagel or noodles or something.  I started this 3 days prior to the race.

BTW.  I weighed myself in there somewhere and I weighed 192 pounds.  Not bad for 19 days and then a couple of binge days.

You may remember the title of this day's blog.  Diet, Pickle Juice, Carb-Loading and Altitude.  I just covered the diet part, now pickle juice.  For a week or so... maybe 2, I was having some calf cramps.  The cramps would happen in the evenings when I was not active.  Maybe while I was sitting or maybe while I was sleeping.  They would wake me up as my calf would flex, tightly and a jolt of pain would disrupt my slumber.  Gradually it got more frequent and then began to happen while I was running.  I did not so much cramp while running as I would feel a tightening as if the cramp was coming.  I remembered a friend, Dr. Mark Benavides (an avid cyclist) telling me that pickle juice was the cure for cramps.  So, one day I was out running and had this happen again.  When I came in from my run, I chugged a jar of pickle juice and felt instant relief.  Maybe it was placebo, maybe not, but either way it was quite effective.  So, for the next couple of days I would drink some pickle juice.  The cramping went away completely.  Was it the pickle juice or was it going to go away anyway.  I dunno, but it went away.  The day before the race in Santa Fe New Mexico I went to the grocery to get my pre-race dinner and my race day breakfast.  I bought pasta and tomato based pasta sauce for dinner and a 7-up cake for dessert.  Carb loading....  mmmmmmm.   For breakfast, I got a package of Aunt Jemima pancake mix and a local maple syrup.  I also decided to pick up a jar of pickles to potentially help prevent cramping during the race.  I drank some of the juice with my dinner and then had some after breakfast which was almost 3 hours prior to the race start.

I ate way more pasta than I really needed.  It was weighing heavy on me that evening and I was relatively inactive, so it felt like it was just sitting in my stomach as I got up at 3:00am for my breakfast.  I knew I needed to eat, so even though I was not hungry, I ate two large pancakes and some pickle juice, then of course I had to have some more of that yummy 7-up cake.  I was stuffed, but still had time before my race to digest it all.  Just to finish up on this thought before I move on to the Altitude portion, the good news is that I did not cramp up at all, but I was burping up pickle juice the entire race.

Obviously I went a little overboard with the carb-loading.  Earlier on Saturday, when I drove to Santa Fe from the airport in Albuquerque, I stopped at IHop and had bacon and eggs and pancakes for breakfast, or maybe it was lunch since I had breakfast at the house before my flight... of course that was about 5:00am and I ate at IHop at 10:30 MST which was 1:30pm EST.  So, I was hungry and my body was all confused.

The elevation in Santa Fe was 7000 ft.  I went for my daily run Saturday afternoon, and struggled.  It was tough to get some oxygen.  I ran an 8:45 mile, but it was tough.  So, I knew the race would be tough, but hoped that if I ate well and hydrated properly then I would be OK.  What was worse about the Altitude was the first 2.5 miles were all uphill at the highest altitude.  It travelled from 7000 ft to 7300 ft. then graduated downhill to a little over 6000 ft.  over the next 10.6 miles.  Uphill in altitude was a killer.  I decided to start slow in the middle of the pack, which may have been a mistake.  It was a small street at the starting line and no corrals.  It was what I call a free-for-all start.  Fast runners trying to get up front and slow runners starting tin the front.  I hate crowds and I hate being pinched in, trapped, boxed-in.  I tried to keep it slow at the start, but I could not stop from trying to pass the slower runners.  I am certain I cut off several people.  In fact, one person said, "excuse me, Sir".  He sounded sincere, but I think he was being sarcastic as I totally cut him off.  I yelled back, "SORRY!!"  Then at about the 0.5 mile mark, I started to see a tunnel forming around me.  I was getting dizzy and my vision was darkening.  I was about to pass out.  I cut off a few more people to make my way over to the side of the road, where I was forced to stop and walk before I awoke in the ambulance.  I was able to regain my wits and started running again.  About a mile later, it happened again.  I stopped again.  Both mile 1 and mile 2 were in the 10:20 - 10:30 range.  After that, I was able to find a slower pace that I was able to maintain.  It was around 8:45- 9:15.  If I got in the 8:15-8:30 range I started getting dizzy again.  So, I maintained a slower pace and was able to finish with an average pace of 9:17. 

Somewhere in there I also lost 3 miles.  There were no mile markers on the course, so I had to rely on my watch.  It beeped and vibrated at each mile and I would check it to see what my pace was, as I always do.  One time in there it beeped and I wen to see my pace and could not remember what mile I was on.  Was this mile 6 or 7?  Maybe it is 8.  When I looked at my 9:09 pace displayed on my watch, I also noticed an 11 indicating this was mile 11.  Where did the other 3 miles go????  I was pretty excited at this point.  I only had two miles to go and I checked my time.  I was at 1:43.  I tried to do the math and see if I could finish under 2:00, but all I could focus on was the fact that I would normally be done by this time, and my breathing of course.  I tried to speed up hoping I was close.  Then I recognized that the last half a mile was uphill again.... and steeply uphill.  What a cruel joke.

I finished 2:01:55.  And it was a killer.  Next blog I will write about the race.... in the next few days.