Dai's Musings

Post PEE

05/04/2012 18:15:00

Post Experiment Wrap Up for PEE:

Personal Experiment in Endurance (PEE) was a way for me to understand the nature of longer "ultra" runs and the specifics of what is needed to maintain optimal racing efficiency during such events. The hypothesis stated that endurance is only limited by nutrition and mental fortitude. If the nutrition can be optimized for the individual and the will to continue can be maintained then endurance should be unlimited.

The Race across America (RAAM )http://goo.gl/rAPT and Rosie Swales 5 year run around the world http://www.rosiearoundtheworld.co.uk/ are two examples of ultra endurance events that have been succesful due primarily to nutrition and willpower.

Nutrition does not only support basic muscle contractions, heart, lung, brain and organ function but also the mind, the will to continue and also when optimized can help prevent muscle damage. This later aspect is probably the absolute limiting factor for continuous movement, but muscle repairs quite quickly given the right nutrients and time.

The experiment was set up as a series of "10k" (actually 7.5 miles/12.3km) trail runs with a rest period and the initial aim was to see how many of these runs could be done. It was decided to set-off on each run at 90 minute intervals including the run portion and the rest portion. During the run portion the aim was to run at a normal training pace. The rest portions were designed for fuelling, rest, ice, leg-elevation and massage and a nutrition/hydration plan was made for each 30 minute segment.
Weather and condtions on the day: Temps up to 83 degrees and humidity at 80% with light winds and sunny to partly cloudy skies for the majority of the time. The event began at 7:10 am and sunset was 6:45.

The protocol as described was continued until 7 of the 2 lap runs had been completing resulting in 52.5 miles total running distance beginning at 7:10am and ending at 6pm. A longer rest was planned for several hours and then the rains began and we waited in the gazebo until 4am and decided to call it a day, ending the experiment.

So what did we find during this experiment that we didnt already know:

Planning and details is important, but be prepared to deviate when necessary to overcome circumstances and conditions.
Stopping every 7.5 miles had it's advantages for rest and time to eat, drink and recover and also for relief of boredom on a short lap course, but also several disadvantages; muscle stiffness increased even when lying down and with massage and the time taken for each lap increased by 22%.

Gut tolerance for fluids and solids while running provided some discomfort, running with a full feeling may have been caused by eating too much too close to the start time (within 45 minutes). Access to bathrooms made these issues less of a problem. Nausea was never a problem.
Fatigue was never a problem with good nutrition and hydration and the rest portions.
Muscle damage and therefore pain were major limiting factors and the lack of an ice bath or cold river meant that relief was limited to massage, elevation and recovery drinks including BCAA and Endurox R4. Painkillers such as aspirin might have helped (Alka seltzer for example) Portable instant ice packs could also have alleviated the problem.
The will to get running again after each rest portion did not present any real challanges as there was a "strict" timeline but after such a relatively short run distance that is no surprise.

Conclusions: The experiment did help us understand what happens during longer running events; our primary goal. We discovered that leg muscle damage and overall muscle stiffness were 2 major limiting factors. Nutrition could not keep up with muscle damage although could address fatigue and this was not an issue. An ice bath (which was planned but not executed) could have helped with muscle damage.

Nutrition has to be balanced and food tolerance must be practiced including timings, quantities, content/variety and fluid input. BCAA, protein, carbohydrates, sodium and to a lesser extent other electrolytes, in fluids and some solids is key to continuing mind and body function. Timing is very important so that desire to eat is satisfied without any feeling of being overstuffed, the use of sodium tablets to support overall nutrition absorption and tolerance should be practiced, especially with very warm/hot and humid conditions.

Book Review of A life without limits by Chrissie Wellington

05/03/2012 08:21:00

In Chrissie's book, "A life without limits", the 4 time IRO NMAN World Champion lays her life bare for all to see. The first 4 chapters detail her struggles with self image, eating disorders - first bulimia, then anorexia. She goes on to tell of her disillusionment as a civil servant with government red-tape and their aid or development programs. A totally driven woman from an early age, Chrissie wanted to win and be the best at everything she did; this attitude has helped her to become a successful and happy woman. In chapter 7 the story really begins with her 2006 coach Tim Weeks who's structured 10 week program had her training 25-28 hours a week for the Age Group World Triathlon Championships at the Olympic Distance, a phenomenal amount of training including ride to the pool, swim, ride to work, work, ride home, and then go out training! Chrissie won her World Championships age group and was fastest woman overall including the pro group by 4 minutes. This success eventually set up an "audience" with Tim Don's triathlon coach Brett Sutton which set her off on the path to so many victories.

So Chrissie's relationship with Brett Sutton begins in chapter 8 entitled the "Wizard of Oz" as Brett is an Australian of course you knew that, but not everyone does. He was/is described as "eccentric...very blunt" and has been described as a "dinosaur of triathlon - the Tyrannosaurus Rex". So if that doesn't paint a picture, think back to some middle school teachers you might have studied under.

Anyway, she describes the relationship as it develops, some of the group workouts (or what could be better described as a collective of individuals) as they trained harder than I can imagine, for example Belinda Granger's 6 hour run!

My favorite is a "birthday session”. If it was one of the athlete's birthdays there would be a "birthday set" session. One such workout started with 100x100 after 1:30 hours in the pool, a 2 hour run with an hour of hill repeats and later a 2 1/4 hour bike ride with a 20km TT finished with 16km uphill to the apartment - now that's training for Ironman!

Having won her first Ironman in Korea a sponsor, Cervelo provided Chrissie a "proper time-trial bike" to race on and she won her first Kona IM. She describes how much of the training was physical but also much of the mental aspects that helped her to suffer more and win. Pressures from coach, agent, and manager all came to a head and lead to her eventual shift to Dave Scott as coach/advisor. Her determination to succeed and get past all barriers makes her what she has become, indeed a legend of Triathlon and the Ironman. So don’t be afraid to go for it and train hard, methodically, take risks when you can to improve and don’t be afraid to suffer like you never suffered before if you want to be a champion. Check out: www.chrissiewellington.org for a close up look at her and how she operates, a great example of an athlete ambassador.

PEE: Lunch in the park

04/20/2012 15:54:00

Lunch at the Park:

Trying out the secret recipe mix for lunch, crunch test time.

We plan to keep blogging through the run with blow by blow accounts of funtimes, badtimes, soretimes, mealtimes and goodtimes :) And eventually endtimes, Yay!!
Camping tonight at the park ready for an early start in the morning beginning with a quick massage and breakfast. I dont know what everyone is planning, but we shall break fast with oatmeal, a banana, honey, soy milk and a bottle of Accelerade and a mug of tea (British you see!).

Dai's Personal Experiment in Endurance! - Rice

04/19/2012 20:41:00

So by this time on Saturday we, team "Cheers, Beers and Never Quit" or "S-x and Strawberries"(?) will be 14 or more hours into the run for fun 24 Hour Ultra Run and Relay and will have been enjoying the sunshine !! and 80 degree weather.

So don't forget EVERYONE its not about drinking just water, electrolytes and especially SODIUM are VITAL. Check our posts today on Facebook and also on Twitter @dairoberts1 where we added some GREAT info from Trail Runner magazine about Ultra running and muscle damage from dehydration/lack of sodium.

Anyway there I was thinking that the day would never come and my thoughts moved to Ice Baths and Compression for preventing muscles damage. So we thought why not add something about The Stick and the TP Grid Foam Roller from Cassidy Phillips a great guy I met before Disney in 2002 and again at Lake Placid in 2007, how ya doing Cassidy?

Anyway back to the musings of a madman; ice baths numb the legs and anything else you dunk in there, so be warned, but are effective. There is controversy over the temperature, so I let the Chesapeake Bay water dictate for me (currently 58*), but below 60 seems to be universally accepted. 10 minutes is usually about right, I get bored after 5-6 so that's me done, frozen like a chicken.

Compression tights, that I also sleep in oft times, also work as well to keep nutrients moving and squeeze the legs and butt. Putting them on for only 30 minutes seems to help. I am currently using the 2XU brand, check them out at Final Kick Sports.

So if all goes well and the RICE works during the run, we should survive the park loop. I will also be changing shoes and we plan to post about everything each time we change, eat, drink, supplement, sleep, rest, lie down, stand up, cheer for the TEAM and for any other reason. So keep in touch and enjoy your weekend.

Anyone up for a BRICK on Sunday afternoon; work never stops.... :))

Personal Experiment in Endurance - Recovery

04/18/2012 14:53:00

As I am thinking about the PEE on Saturday and how to get through 24 hours of "run and fun"!

Recovery hits me full on as a huge challenge for marathoners let alone 24 hour'ers (?) and how to recover during the run and afterwards also.

If you don't stop at all, just kept chugging along, there are no breaks, but still recovery is essential and probably involves using different muscles and that doesn't mean doing hand stands along the trail !!

By varying the type of shoes maybe you can alter the way you run slightly to save muscle damage to the same muscles. I am not sure that this would work too well, so other methods of recovery must include taking brief breaks from running by walking or even walking backwards for short periods (in the dark ?).

Icing the legs and glutes will also help with muscle recovery with a portable ice bath and Epsom salts or a nice river! The ice restricts blood flow, numbs aches and pains and then afterwards allows a flushing of the system as good blood floods in.

Compression, about which a lot has been written and discussed lately. Compression also promotes the movement of nutrients back into the legs and feels good too.

Elevating the legs while resting during these short breaks might also prevent pooling of blood in the lower extremities and all combined should allow for decent revovery in the 30 minute windows I am allowing myself.

Of course nutrition timing and content are critical and we will look at these issues tomorrow.

Taper well dear friends...

Personal Experiment in Endurance

04/17/2012 09:29:00

The PEE: (Personal Experiment in Endurance)

With the Virginia 24 Hour Run for Cancer coming in 4 days, its time to get the muscles repaired and rested for the long day and night of "Forward Motion", some running, riding and bathing in the bay is called for. I have heard different plans from people: run all the time, run 3 laps walk a lap, rest a while and my plan which is to run 2 laps, rest then repeat for as long as I can. After all cancer is often a long struggle for those who are sick and for friends and family.

So for me this is an experiment from way out in left field and my hypothesis is that all I need to complete the event (not race it) is the right nutrition/hydration. Put in the fuel and the engine will keep going. The fuel must contain sugar to burn, fats to burn, protein to repair and fats to oil the joints. The fuels must be varied and tasty and supply the nutrients needed for movement and cellular health.

The big unknown for me now is muscle damage and how much nutrition can keep damage at bay? The right fuels with fluids and some supplements (arnica, alka-seltzer, fish oil, salts) I think covers everything! As we don't really understand cramping or what causes it, that's an unknown linked probably to muscle damage, so we will have to deal with that as it comes.

We have some more topics on sleep, rest, compression, ice baths and finally on "willpower", the power of mind over movement.

As I read in the Tricia Downing book, "Cycle of HOPE", "suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us. (Romans 5:3-5) thus the power of will to overcome is powerful.

A Personal Experiment in Endurance

04/12/2012 20:44:00

A Personal blog to describe the PEE

Eight days Out:

A Personal Experiment in Endurance, abbreviated to just PEE, is 8 days from getting underway, then it is one day from being done so that can't be but so bad, right? Having not run like this for many years, the planning is critical and the plan will be something to deviate from once things kick off.

So today the 8th day, it is time to try out the food, because I think I will crave something to chew and more important CRUNCH! There's something satisfying about crunching food, so we are working on adding some CRUNCH, maybe with some rice chips with sea salt added to the dish of the day. So my current thinking may sound odd, but I am thinking; sweet potato mashed, potato mashed, boiled eggs chopped up, Mortons salt, olive oil, honey, Marmite and for the CRUNCH some sliced almonds and sea-salt rice chips. Pre made and warmed for eating. Hmm, tastes good, sounds nasty, but we have 8 days to modify the recipe. So for the running, I am getting fitter daily and leaner also, had a good run this morning and felt like a runner for the first time in months, then rode 40 miles for endurance.

PEE hypothesis; That with suitable, adequate nutrients, calories, fluids, supplements and rest I should be able to run 28 miles every 6 hours at a 7:30 pace.

This works out to 3 hours 32 min of forward motion and 2 hours 28 of stopped time where the aim is to rest, stretch,roll, stick, massage, ice, lie down feet elevated, eat, drink and change clothes, shoes, socks as needed.
The plan is to run 2 loops (7 miles approx) inside 55 minutes and then recover until 90 minutes is up and run again. This provides a minimum of 35 minutes rest every 90 minutes and 70 minutes every 3 hours. Starting every 90 minutes poses some challenges for the mind and the willpower, but we shall see who's stronger the negative or the positive influencer.
Fluids will comprise Pacific Labs Accelerade (orange) and Endurox R4, Plain water, Skratch Labs SDM(Dr Allen Lim) electrolyte drink, Succeed Ultra and Amino, Espresso.
Foods will comprise the CRUNCH mix described in the introduction, dark chocolate(80%), tomatoes, Cliff Shots, ABJ sandwiches.
Supplements will comprise Succeed S!Caps (electrolytes), BCAA, Glutamine, Solgar multivitamins, 5 Hour Energy.
Post event will of course be Guinness, Pacific Labs Endurox R4, Succeed Recover and real food.

I have no idea if this will work, but I am positive and anyway there is little choice except to not do it, which isn't really a choice as I am part of a team of 8.
Background:
I suffered a calf strain 4 weeks ago which even with the best treatment from Dr Don Bresnahan and sports massage from Denise and rehabilitation stretching and strengthening in the gym, took 3 weeks to fix enough for me to run, this left 3 weeks before the 24 Hours of Fun; PEE for short. So the only real option I theorized was to run as often as I could with a busy schedule and a Company to run. Back to back runs with the 30-40 minutes of rest were done, not as often as I would have liked, but so be it. I added cycling to boost endurance and prevent muscle damage from pounding and also used the gym for strength and the treadmill for walking steep hills to activate glutes (8-12% at 3.5-3.8 mph). I tried to manage my diet, but find that I like good food too much, so the idea of losing 5 lbs may not be achieved by PEE day.
I have also had a massage each week on the legs and have been standing in the Chesapeake Bay "icing" my legs after training (sometimes!). I have been trying to get 8-9 hours sleep but have not been sleeping well; could be over training or just that it is noisy with the wind howling and the sea churning.

With temperatures changing as Spring progresses, the change from day to day is also unsettling; one night 65F then the next down to 40F.

So we shall see what happens and how PEE works out in 8 days.
I have several workouts tomorrow (Friday) and a 10 mile run on Saturday followed by another 7 miler. On Sunday a morning run or 2 runs followed by a 60-80 mile ride in the afternoon.
Current weather forecast for the PEE is Hi 70 Lo 61, avg humidity 65%, dry, partly cloudy, wind ESE to S at 8mph.

The Keys

02/25/2012 11:00:00

The Keys

Saturday 25th

Number 5 THE LAST KEY:

Recovery - give yourself a break before training breaks you. How many people are injured through training? I can give you a list of the people we see through our injury management program, it is long, much longer than it should be. Get strong, become resilient through strength training, use the hills, use the weights, use bodyweight and become injury resistant. Plan your training with a weekly rest day, just like Ryan Hall does now after years of constant training. Plan your weeks with easy weeks and your seasons with short breaks. Never forget that the body adapts during the recovery periods.

The Keys

02/24/2012 18:24:00

The Keys

Friday 24th

Number 4. Commitment - to training and excellence. Consistent training means that you can improve fitness, speed and endurance steadily and helps you avoid injury, but the committment to a daily training routine also helps with motivation to train as the swimming, riding and running get easier and more enjoyable. Commit to your goals with a consistent well thought out program of training and you will succeed; think ahead and plan your season with care, the results will be worth it.

The Keys

02/23/2012 15:53:00

The Keys

Thursday 23rd

Number 3. Train smart for you - quality and quantity, what fits you and your goals. Is 200 miles a week too much training for a 10k race? Or is 40 miles enough for a marathon? How can you tell? The Chinese philosopher/General Sun Tzu is reported to have said something like, "know yourself and know your race and you will always be successful"! Progression, specificity and variety and the true keys to successful training. Progression ensures the human adapts, specificity ensures you are training "the right systems right" and variety ensures you are training the mind to accept suffering because tomorrow is a different workout and the body adapts continuously to deal with ever changing stresses.