27 and Sunny yields lots of Running

Arrived in Park City Utah around 2:30 on Saturday, unfortunately my bags were not with me. They were still in Denver after a "random check." So as you can imagine Sat was pretty nuts. I had a long window when the bags could arrive here between 5pm-3am, plus the room I was in was not ready. This meant I was upgraded to a bigger suite - but unfortunately in this one the TV did not work - hmm "I getting frustrated now." Having not eaten since 5am that morning and needing to get groceries for dinner and breakfast the next morning, I quickly walked over to an amazing grocery store that had more variety than Ive ever seen. Between a whole sport section with a zillion different gel varieties, and what seemed like the biggest ever aisle of cereals including one I've been trying to get for a while Kashi Go Lean Protein (13g of Protein in 1 cup - way more than vector) it eased some frustration. I got back and thankfully the bags arrived not too late (around 6:30). But still had this tv problem to solve.

Sunday: Woke up around 5:45 and was off for a quick warmup run before breakfast by 6. 4k seemed to fly by quicker than ever before from being treated to gorgeous views of the sunrise over the mountains. After, I did 15 of lunges and warmup drills (running ABCs). So a solid start to the trip. Take a look - tried to cut the vids to about 5-10min. No idea why youtude (where I uploaded from converted them to 360p when they were shot in 960)

After came to my room, ate some breakfast, watched some top chef on my computer and was off for run number 2 by 9:30. This was a 10 mile (16k) trail run up one of the smaller mountain which sits right beside my condo. Again 10 miles flew by even if I climbed higher the the CN tower of this one run - around 1500 ft most in a long and steep two mile stretch. Very high intensity run with my heart rate around 180 and up to 194 throughout, but so much fun.

After the run came back had some GU recovery brew and a full size Clif Bar (White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Flavor - yum and 4 for 5 bucks), and was off to hunt for trail shoes around town - after realized on the run the trails were extremely technical. This included about 20 kilometers of rollerblading up and down some hills, and visiting 5 stores but not luck either not my size, or only road shoes. But whatever another solid exercise session. Came back had same lunch (Toad in a Hole), and saw some of the rest of the LA - CHI game on NBC on the computer. Still this TV needed to be solved. I called yet again, asking what was the situation, guy said he doesn't have any of TVs he could get for the room, and would that be a problem to which I responded umm ya thats a problem. So he upgraded me once again but this time the upgrade was significant it was just down the hall in the deluxe studio condo which is massive and the kitchen is enormous - not to metion being kitted with some sweet appliances: Oyster blender, and immersion blender (handheld blender), hand mixers, literally everything I need and much much more. After I got into the room, downstairs for a 30 minute water running and strength workout in the pool, and then off for Run number 3 - this time a 6k run with 1 min hard 1 min easy intervals throughout. The intervals were kind of all over the map with my heart rate soaring high most were around 3:30 pace, I was actually able to get one at 3:17. Off from there to get a few more groceries, and to watch some more Food Network but now on my sweet TV.

Into thin Air..

Are those mountains in the background? Yes, it probably a little too soon to already write a blog post for this, but I figure I should write it now instead of a couple days before when I'm anticipating I won't have tonnes of time to write a post. Really though, it's only 2.5 weeks until the biggest trip of my life. For those who don't know yet, May 17 I am heading up to 7000ft altitude in the absolutely stunning Wasatch Mountains of Park City, Utah, where the ski/bobsled venues were for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake. I will be there for one month the absorb the effects of the lower atmospheric pressure, and therefore the lower driving pressure for oxygen. I think it's pretty cool that many people go on long vacations hoping to come back a different person, whether more relaxed or more cultured, etc, but with a trip up to altitude to train hard for one month my body will literally be different. The blood running through my body will be nice and rich with hemoglobin, and the have the ultimate oxygen carrying capacity to my thirsty muscles, elevated buffering capacity, and improvement in the structural and biochemical components of muscles such as the capillary density and mito density. So yes, I will be different. On my trip I'm hoping to give a more detailed day-by-day summary of not only what I'm doing, but also I will take you through the physiological adaptations that my body will going through, for instance Day 1: Dehydrating itself to trick the brain into believing the hematocrit is not reduced. Truly, besides having the month to immerse myself into my running, and come back with a new sense of mental toughness, physiological prowess, and a new view of what a hill is, this trip is going to be so great because it really will involve applying what I've studied through four years of university. I can't tell you how many courses whether Kine 2010/2011, 4010, 4120, 4445, etc we have learned about the physiological effects of altitude, and me personally for my lecture on Carbohydrates discussed the nutritional implications athletes need to keep in mind at high altitude.

Picture doesn't say but to me from my own research this looks to be taken from the
Glenwild Loop - about 1.5 from my condo. 

Why Park City? Well, my condo sits at 7000 ft, the perfect altitude to lower Hb sat% sufficiently, and not too high so that I can't train at all. Park City is ranked in the Forbes Top 20 Prettiest Places in North America, and is home to over 350 miles of beautiful trails in the mountains (some trails go up to 10500ft) with varying terrain, from smooth single track to rocky mountain ridges, forested sections, open slopes, and everything you could ever need. The training spot is so well respected that the elite Nike Oregon Distance Project coached by Alberto Salazar, including stars like Galen Rupp, Mo Farah, and Dathan Ritzeihein choose Park City for their altitude training camp. The smooth flat Rail Trail about 200 ft from my condo door is completely flat and packed dirt/with some paved sections will be where I do marathon specific, or half-marathon specific workouts, and the Park City High School 8-lane rubber track on the other side of my condo building about 0.5 km will be my spot for fast stuff. Hopefully, the students don't mind, with a sweet cafeteria with a breakfast/lunch/dinner menu and a vegetarian option I should just bring my St. E uniform and go in for a cheap and tasty looking meal. Heck, an added benefit of being at mountain time: I can watch the West Coast Games without having to pull an all nighter. But really, the place looks great, and when I get back I will race as much as possible in the first month back. What do I expect my performance to be? I'm not sure, studies are varied over sea-level performance after altitude training. Some say it works some say it doesn't because they suggest that because of the altitude you can't get those some high-quality faster speed sessions in which means you may lose leg turnover, and the neuromuscular connection to fast leg speed. Plus there are some responders, and non-responders as is the case in most training protocols. Regardless of what the research says I look to the population based data over the control trials, because out of the 215 running performances by runners who have run under 13 minutes for the 5 km, 214 trained at high altitude. Based on that stat, I really stopped listening to studies which said altitude training may not work. So for my performance I say if I'm able to train hard (baring any tibia mishaps - knock on wood) there's no reason why I can't rock that races in the subsequent weeks and really make up for the dreadful winter/spring filled with injuries, and disappointment. With ample time between training sessions, I will hope to give daily updates, and pictures from my long time coming trip into thin air.

Commit to the Comeback

2.5 weeks since the beating at the Around the Bay 30k. My body and mind were broken. I left Hamilton, not knowing what to do or how to do it. I was completely lost. But a couple days went by, and a starting swimming, and doing crazy long high intensity weights/core workout in the basement. Even managed to get myself boxing on the heavy bag in the basement, and working the speedbag. I added new tougher core exercises that really got me sweating, and heart rate soaring. I don't know what my weight is right now, but I would have to guess even after only 2.5 wks, because I was hitting the weights, swim, and bike really hard (all strength based workouts), I've probably added a few pounds of pure muscle. Really seriously, I said to my Dad the other night after some power exercises with the medicine ball, that I would maybe have to back off a little cause I could feel the muscle actually packing on in my upper body, especially the back muscles (rhomboids, and lats from the swimming). But I decided today since my leg really was feeling quite good, for an easy 8k on the grass around my old elementary school St. Joseph the Worker. No world records, not that I was trying or anything, I just wanted to see if the tibia was better. My overall evaluation, was it was pretty good. Not 100%, but their was no pain for the majority of the run, and when I felt a slight ache it was nothing compared to what it had been. So, I'll see what it feels like tommorow, and keep taking it day by day at this point, at the current moment their are no races on the calender so basically I'm not in a rush. Obviously I would like to get back to running big mileage weeks again soon, but after having quite a bit of fun putting on muscle, biking, boxing, and swimming the last few weeks I'm content for the moment with taking it slowly. Having said that their are a few races that I'm dreaming of doing in the following months. For example, the Forest City 5000m (May 4th at night on the track under the lights) sounds really awesome. I've also been planning on taking a month long trip up to altitude in Park City Utah (7000ft at the hotel so perfect elevation for quality altitude training - not too too high and not too low, and trails that go well into the 10000s). On my return, I graduate and then was hoping to do a slew of racing in the subsequent weeks while still reaping the benefits of altitude (a half marathon, a 10k, another race on the track, and a 5k on Canada Day). That's the dream, and I have truly being having dreams about being back on the track again (some good, some bad). Something I've been using for inspiration to get believing that I can comeback is this clip from the Scotiabank Marathon last year. I trimmed the clip to about 2 and a half minutes. It may not look like much but our group is rolling at the point going 3:20/km and were roughly the 11k mark here about 37 minutes into the race. I like the song because the lyrics really describe what I was feeling at the point "feel your body groove." And it was I felt awesome here rolling along the waterfront with Canadian Record holder Lanni Marchant and Krista Duchene, along with 2:17 marathoner Rejean Chiasson. Obviously, me in the blue singlet if you couldn't tell. 

What Now?

If you've been staying up-to-date with my last couple post, you'll know that heading into Around the Bay this past weekend I was seriously questioning lining up due to a persistent, and agonizingly painful injury to my right tibia. But me being me, I decided to at least take the warm-up and make a decision if I felt the leg would be good enough to let me run. I warmed up with some running ABCs, and other drills, but due to the huge mass of people at the start line, and the race directors closing off access to the road in front of the start line, I couldn't actually get any strides at race pace in prior to the start. In the few drills that I could do there was some discomfort, but I figured once the adrenaline started pumping at the gun the leg would be okay. The gun sounded, and we were off. The six Kenyan runners in the race took off, and within the first 100m or so there was the pain. Maybe if I was able to do some strides before the race I would have realized that this wasn't going to work, but stubbornness and pride to finish what I've started made me keep going and just pray that eventually maybe after the first couple kilometers the pain would settle. Kenyan runners have this expression that if you look at your watch in the first couple kilometers then its going to be a long long race. Well, I looked at my watch within the first couple hundred meters, and then a few hundred meters later. "BEEP," one kilometer completed, okay 29 to go I thought to myself. A few hundred meters later, okay 28.6 kilometers to go. Very early on, this was not going well. My stride felt weak, and awkward. My breathing was very heavy, and my competition was looking smooth and relaxed. At the moment, I was running once again in Krista Duchene's group, the same group I was with for the first 21k of the Scotiabank Marathon last October. But, this was not the same Frank that raced in Toronto 5 or so months ago. I couldn't stay with them, I could feel my heart rate racing, as it was taking so much effort to pull my injured leg along. I drop back to the next group with a few young guys in my age group. I let both of them set the pace, both in front side by side, and me tucked right in behind. Despite my sweet drafting technique, the gentle but long grades of the new first half of the route and the still penetrating wind coming out of the north-east was taking its toll on me physically and psychologically. My leg was hurting, and I felt uncomfortable. I was looking at my watch way too often, and really had to push harder than the pace indicated. We weren't ripping or anything, but because behind our group of three there was no one close, I knew I would have no chance of making it through this race if I was dropped by these two guys, since the wind would just kill me on my own. So, I really had to push to stay with the guys who were letting loose on the downhills. This took alot of effort for me as I was clearly guarding my leg. My left was doing the majority of the work, as I was pretty much running on eggshells on my right side. Despite the pain, we made it to the 10k at 35:26 - I got the 10k at 34:47 for the Scotiabank, so I wasn't thrilled with the start, but I briefly felt a little hope. Although, I was still hurting, I kept thinking maybe it will open up, and I can rip it to the end, plus because we have gone out a little easier, I will probably have some energy down the stretch to hammer it. Plus, leading up to the 10 k point the three of us had picked off 3-4 of the guys from Krista's group, and there were only a couple people left in her group. So I was thinking despite, those Kenyans way up ahead, my positioning may not be too bad. Then, 12 k or so and the pain got a little worse and I had to drop back from the one guy left in our trio, the other dropped back at 10 k. I was one my own now, at 12 k, so I knew this was trouble. This was much too early with 18k left to be on my own, especially being on my own in pain, as it would make it very easy to slow substantially since nobody would be pulling me along forcing me to push through the pain. I popped my first gel right then, and carried on. Thoughts started flooding my head, and I tried so hard to stick with it. I passed Ryan (he was also running injured with IT band problems) from the run from the grapes, and that gave me a little surge. I tried to re-focus, and put down a solid surge to catch back up to a couple other guys, but the leg just hurt too much to really hammer it. At 14 trouble came, my left quad now was feeling pretty gnarly, probably from being pissed off at working so hard for

On my own too early, but trying hard to get back.

the last 50 minutes. Now I was in real trouble. Across a steel grate bridge beat the heck out of my tibia, and this was really getting ugly now. Got to 15k in 53:20, and although I thought that it meant I could still PB I if could hold on and repeat that for the next 15k, I also knew that I was it deep trouble with my situation, and that my pace was starting to show it over the next couple kilometers. At 17k, entered the 3:40 kilometer range, and just now was entering the hilliest, toughest part of the course. At 18k, on a downhill after a steep up, my left quad seized up and was really giving me issues now, having to almost come to a stop, and seriously, considered stopping when I saw the medical tent at the next water/aid station. I couldn't bear though the thought, of stopping with 11k left, I just had to push through and pray the quad injury would pass so atleast the tibia was "all" I had to deal with. I won't go into complete detail on the next 7k or so because a. you probably are tired of hearing me complain, and b. I really don't want to relive that experience. To sum it up, it was absolute agony, and had a surreal feeling. It was as if my eyes glazed over, I wasn't paying any attention to the spectators, the scenery, the massive hills. I just put my head down, and every step hurt me to the bone - literally and figuratively. I have never felt that amount of pain in my life, at this point I wasn't competing with my fellow competitors, I wasn't trying to stay on their tails as they passed me on the downhill leading up to the biggest hill on the course and on the Ontario Road Racing Circuit at 26k, I just wanted to get to the finish. I hobbled down the steep incline, and gave whatever I had left on that massive hill. The last three k to the finish was less than inspiring, as I got past by multiple people, some of which I had a half-marathon PB 9 minutes faster than theirs, I got to the line. It was over, finally. Final time was 1:51:38 for the 30k, so 3:44/km avg. Not only, was it two minutes slower than last year's time, at Scotiabank I got to the 30k mark in 1:46:15. Obviously, I was dissapointed.

Last few k and suffering.

I thought that was it, but the fun was just getting start. Monday, Tuesday and now today I am struggling to walk, the quad seems like it has healed, but my tibia is in shambles. The optimist in me thinks maybe that race was necessary, because if not for this clear message to take a break, I would have just kept running and pushing through the immense pain. For now, I can't entirely say what the gameplan is, when I will be running again, when I will race again. What I do know is that I never want to experience that feeling on race day again shown in the picture to right. Because of that I am 99.99% pulling out of the Ottawa Marathon in May, and really going to have to rearrange my entire season. Until, I heal up, I can't start marking any days on the Calender, or making any plans. I need to take note from what other athletes including a hero of mine Tiger Woods has done, just recently pulling out of the Masters to take the necessary time and get healthy. For me, the breakthrough last year served to be such a dangerous thing. It made me feel as though success was so close, and obviously I rushed trying to attain my goals. I need to teach myself, and accept that I am 21 years old, and that time is not an issue. I will not let my injuries over the last 4 months deter me, and block my path to success. Although, I am far from my dream, I still believe that I have the talent and discipline, and that if I can break through the shackles of injury and run freely, I can someday run for Canada on the international stage. I have to realize that it takes time, and the process does not happen over a year like last year, or two. I need to be patient, and if I continue to work hard, but also be smart and realistic, everything will someday fall into place. 

My Body is a Cage...

Today was definitely one of the more difficult days of the year. After what was a great weekend with a long run with a solid finish, and then an awesome tempo run on Sunday, I was feeling great (well better than before but not 100%) and that Around the Bay was on, and could still manage to get a PB. However, Monday was a pretty painful start to the week, but I just figured that was normal considering the hard last few days of training. Tuesday, I thought I would be back, but no, pain is an understatement to what I felt for the entirety of the 21k haul around the neighborhoods. With every step I hurt. Not just in that damn leg, but everywhere. My body literally felt like it was falling apart, at every since one of my joints - my feet hurt, tibias, knees, hips, everything was hurting. Then today came, and as you probably know by now, on the Wed. before all my races I do a solid fast workout to set the stage for Sunday, and take mental note of my feelings throughout, always aiming to end the workout fast but with energy left in the legs to leave me confident and wanting more. Got to York, nice an early, did a good hour long swim, then marched outside to do a 8k warmup before the workout. First couple steps, okay that's okay, then 1k in and damn I'm in agony. 4k I literally stopped, and took a seat on a close-by snowbank. I'm not going to going into detail of everything I said outloud to myself, at this point I did not care if someone passed by or whatever, but basically it went like this, "I can't do this anymore, I'm done with this." I ran the last 4 k back, in silence, I turned my music off, and just hobbled back to the gym. Being me I did a couple running drills and for a moment thought eh what the hell let's grab my spikes, and head to the track. But as much as every part of me wanted desperately to go, every part of me could not go bring myself to put myself through that pain again. So I got changed, and left the gym in silence, pissed off, angry, annoyed, frustrated, confused, and losing hope. Honestly, I don't know what I feel, or what to do. All I know is that right now Around the Bay is in serious doubt.

Believe me, I have tried so hard, and given everything I got to try to run a successful race on Sunday. No one can possibly question my drive, my discipline, and work ethic. I have battled so much adversity, and usually I use the tough times as something to look back on on race day for motivation, to say to myself look what I had to go through to get here. But right now, I wish for once I didn't have to push through and face adversity constantly. For once, why can't it be easy, and let me run uninhibited and free. Running is everything to me. It's my social life, my after-school activity, my defining feature that makes me who I am, and makes me different. So if I am in pain during my run, and unable to run like I want to and need to, the strain it causes is mentally exhausting. I'm not the type to give up, nor will I ever stop trying, so right now the plan is simple. Don't run for the next 3 days - thurs, friday, and saturday, and pray to God that I wake up Sunday with my leg rested and ready to race. Obviously taking 3 days, and since today was a joke of a run, and yesterday's 21 was pathetic, so really 5 day off before a race is not optimal, nor is it conducive to achieving the time I set out to accomplish, but maybe, just maybe, my body will recover and let me be me on Sunday. You may ask, why is this race on Sunday so damn important. You are young, aren't their so many more races to come, this is just an insignificant one along the path to bigger and better things. Because, I see each race as an individual goal, or objective, or task, whatever you want to call it. I set a goal, and by not lining up on Sunday, I failed to achieve that goal, meet that objective, or accomplish that task. Just as much as I love to win, I am absolutely terrified of failure. So, I will rest the leg, try to do some pool running to keep that neuromuscular connection, and pray that God will grant me this miracle, and maybe have a transcendent performance on the weekend.

Early Season Ups and downs

Haven't been able to update blog in while since I have been busy with stupid group assignments in school - and by group assignments I mean me doing everything but for a group mark, so strap in this is a very long post, please stick around to the end. A few weekends ago (Feb. 23rd) marked the beginning to what I'm hoping to be an excellent season where I smash some PBs, build on what I've already accomplished so early in my running career, and give my all to improving each and every race on my long path to my ultimate goal: to be the best. Unfortunately, I had a pretty injury riddled December. On Dec 5 I had to take a week off after beating my left tibia to smithereens and suffering a stress fracture. My own stubbornness and aggressive training caused it -with november having my all time fastest ever average. The simple fact is injuries are inevitable, and sure I could train conservatively and stay injury free for the next 60 years of running, but if I'm going to accomplish my ultimate goal I need to train aggressively, and with that I am putting my body at risk for injury. As the great Italian coach Renato Canova said: in training you are always red-lining. Meaning you have to give 99.9% effort in training because less than that and you will never amount to anything, but if you go at 101% than you will break - literally and figuratively. So December mostly entailed taking a week off completely from running, biking like a mad man on my trainer, and then slowly getting back to running comfortably. It took a while before I actually started doing some tempo work again and intervals, because I was still in some discomfort on easy runs, and just not confident that my tibia could hold up. More than the physical pains, psychologically these injuries are sometimes just as hard to get through. Because microtraumatic injuries really have no clear-cut timeline, you are left without any direction and you basically have to see how you feel from day to day hoping you will be better the next day.  Eventually though, I got back into the swing of things and in Jan. until race week logged 7 consecutive 24+ hour training weeks with lots of biking, running, and strength work. Although don't want to give the impression those were all done without any issues. I pretty much bounced around from different aches and pains in my knees especially, and IT bands - most likely from the increase in biking not from running.  But notwithstanding that, I got to the start line in one piece and relatively confident that I could push myself pretty hard. Only problem really was that over the last couple days leading into the race my right tibia this time starting getting that o-too-familiar pain that I just went through with my left. Lining up on the start line, the goal was go sub 1:13:30, maybe get a win, but most importantly give a strong effort. Now, 1:13:30 is a minute and a bit off my PB, so you may be wondering why I'm aiming backwards. Well, I wasn't comparing this race result to what shape I was in at the Mississauga Half where I set the PB, instead I was comparing this result to where I was last year at this exact point (at the Winterman half). Not to mention the fact that Mississauga is a fast, downhill course, and according to many runners I have talked to about this race, it is known for being challenging. The course is set up as an out-and-back, where at 6k or so you get to the Peterborough Lift Lock and one hell of a hill. After that hill the course is composed of rolling hills until the turn around, and to just make sure you got your fair share of hill training, you have to do this all over again on the way back including that other side of that monster hill at the lift lock. So suffice to say, much more difficult than the Mississauga course in beautiful 9-10 degree weather, and a slight downhill the whole way except for one big hill at 9k.

Before the race I already knew I had some serious competition going up against the New Zealander Jesse Gibbs who won the Hamilton Marathon a couple years ago, a couple other 2:30 marathons in NZL, 1:44 at around the bay, and some fast halfs. My goal was pretty simple stick with him as long as I could and then break him at the lift lock hill on the way back (15k). From all my biking and strength work after being injured, I figured the uphills would be my points of attack. So we lined up, me and Jesse talked about the gameplan for first few clicks and I said 3:24 or so for first few. Gun sounded to start the race and 2014. That 3:24 idea was obviously too modest, within a couple hundred meters, me and Jesse were clear of any other runners and clocked a 3:04 first kilometer. Basically, when I heard my watch beep signalling the first k and looking seeing 3:04, I laughed and remarked over to Jesse, "So much for 3:24." This was definitely one of the lighter moments as it was quite obvious both of us were not planning for that fast of an opening, and slowed down quite a bit pretty much as soon as our watches both beeped simultaneously. Not too much though 3:17, 3:18, 3:19, 3:21 next 4 k, and hit the five k mark 16:22, compared to my 16:44 opening 5k in mississauga half where I set my 1:12:22 PB. So to sum it up, I was feeling pretty good about the time, but was concerned that my HR felt really high and the legs actually didn't quite feel how I wanted. We got to the lift lock hill for the first time and we both powered up it. Definitely was a cool feeling, and felt eerily similar to that hill at Boyd Conservation Park at around 2.5k in high school cross country, because at the top of the hill a few hundred people were cheering us up the hill - maybe looking to see which person would win this mini-race within the race. And ya I felt pumped up, but Daaamn that hill was steep. So as expected we slowed and clocked a 3:32k. Then on the equally steep downhill, the first sign of trouble hit, Jesse pulled away from me putting a good 20-30m gap. Why? Because of my right tibia and left tibia injury a couple months earlier, I have basically been conditioned to go easy on downhills because the pain that it causes to both bones. Seriously, I have tried to practice downhills to get better but psychologically these injuries have just made it very difficult to just fly uninhibited down a hill. So I had to push hard and catch back up to Jesse on the next uphill (like I said before from here to the turnaround was rolling hills - not as steep obviously, but longer). And from here to about 9k this pattern continued, Jesse would pull away on downhills, and I would have to dig deep to push hard to catch back up to his side on the flats and uphills. But at 9k after one more downhill, Jesse put a little larger of a gap maybe 35-45 meters, and even though I tried hard to catch back up, those previous efforts clearly took a little sting, and pop out of my legs. We hit the turn around, and we cruised maintaining the gap at about 100m maybe less, but going strong. At 13 slowed a bit and started feeling tired, but decided that I would not give up and just picture those super Kenyan runners like Wilson Kipsang going into trance mode looking ahead, expressionless, and tune everyone and everything out around me. I stopped hearing all those people on the other side of the road still approaching the turnaround telling me I could catch in, or reel him in. I focused on nothing, not the wind, or the sound of my feet, my breathing, Jesse ahead. And just as bad and tired as I felt a couple k back, logged a couple 3:24 kms. And the belief was back that I could catch Jesse and all I had to do was beast that hill at the

After the second time up the hill at the lift lock, 4-5k left.
And no, that's not a smile, it's just how I tend to grimise. Sorry
about image quality. Btw check out those new
orange (sorry solar zest) adios flats.

lock, and hopefully he would slow slightly on it. But unfortunately he didn't slow at all on the hill, and even though I still put a real hard determined effort on that hill, that steep downhill after beat the crap out of my right tibia and I slowed. The next 3-4k were some of the toughest clicks I have ran in my life. I was tiring, and now going into a strengthening west wind. I tried hard to get back into that trance mode but couldn't quite find it. 1 mile to go, I could still see Jesse hes about 1 min ahead. I figured that lead would be insurmountable but thought let's just put the hammer down, looked at my watch for the first time and saw holy smokes I'm not that far from PB if I can put a 5 min mile down I could do it. Well, I put a valiant effort in and even closed the gap to 45 second,
finished second with 1:13:17, my third fastest half on a tough course, and not PB condition with the wind the last 4k. So I was pretty darn happy with the race and my effort, knew what I had to work on (downhills), and to add to it won free entry to next years race, a free pair of pearl izumi shoes, gift cards, and bunch of other stuff (over 250$ worth of prizes).

But little did I know what was lerking in the distance - Sorry this is such a long post, lots of stuff has happened in the last couple weeks. The next morning, put my foot to the floor and could barely walk, maybe this was just some usual-post race pain, but no, I knew this pain o too well. Next few runs were a little gnarely to start but okay after 10 minutes or so. Then Saturday a true beast of a run thinking I was down and out at 24k, but then hammering 3:30 pace the last 6k for a solid 1:57 30k long run - not fast compared to any race pace but considered I was taking it easy first 20, then felt like garbage next 4 I was thrilled. Sunday morning came along, and I didn't look or feel good outside or during my intervals. The tibia was in serious pain, and by Tues I was back to taping the tibialis posterior for yet another medial tibial stress syndrome and now praying that I can prevent it from progressing to stress fracture this time. If a stress fracture ensues in the next week, then the first half of the season is in every respect over and would need to just start planning 2015 - or fall 2014. I'm praying this doesn't happen and hoping I could stop this cycle. It is so frustrating to not be able to train how I want to, and need to to achieve my goals. Plus, its the fact that last year was by every measure a true breakthrough year with PBs in every distance, but not just PBs by the skin of my teeth, but obliterating them: in the half by 6 and a half minutes, and by an unheard of 18 minutes in the marathon. To have such a year like that, I was expecting so much from this year, and right now I'm not close to where I intended on being. With these injuries I'm not only not improving, but I can feel I'm regressing and on the cusp of causing permanent damage in both my tibias. So if I am to avoid season ending, and career shortening injuries that limit my ceiling, I need to make some radical changes in training, and my overall approach. Because the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Now that's not to say I haven't tried new things, I have added lots of strength and core work to my routine, and biking to try and work the quads a little harder to balance them out with my hamstrings (which are tanks). So, as of yesterday (Mar 4)  I am adopting Bowerman's and Delinger's Hard/Easy Training Principle which has been adopted by so many world class kenyan runners. Basically, this entails running slower and easier than I ever have on easy days, and then going harder than ever before on hard days. For now obviously with the injury, I am going really easy, hopefully Sunday I am able to get a speed workout in (was planning 30X400m). Basically the idea is that most people including me go moderate pace (4 min) on their non-workout days, and then don't go hard enough on the hard workout. But the moderate on the easy days does still put more stress on the bones (tibias) and they never can really recover. Plus, the muscle is continually getting microdamage and never really having any time to heal. The Hard/Easy has been used by so many Kenyans, but it has also been heavily criticized with many people including myself before saying that those really really easy runs are pointless and just junk miles as they are commonly called. Many people also say (again including me last year especially) that you do gain alot of benefits from those moderate pace days which are not included in the hard/easy program. Basically, the popular saying is that how is it possible for the athlete to get ready to race when they are essentially jogging 4-5 times per week (wed was 4:38 avg, and tues was my slowest of all time 4:48, both 20k runs) and doing only 2 hard fast workouts until they puke every week. But as many critics as theree are, I need to change something because even though last year was in fact a breakthrough year, I will never be able to achieve my goals if I am limping from injury to injury. Plus, I think that if the Kenyans do this training method, how could it possibly be so bad. But let me tell you this will take some serious adjustment and commitment. Tues when I tried my first really easy run if I stopped paying attention for a few seconds I would look down and see I was back near 4 min pace. So it took alot of focus to go that slow, but hoping that my bones thank me, and can maybe get 2-3 real good weeks of training injury free and line up at the around the bay start line ready to PB.

Update: Ya it's strange to be updating a post that I am just posting online now, but I had starting writing this post a few days ago and once again lots of stuff has happened in only the last two days. Thurs. was my most challenging day yet. After starting this new training scheme, and hoping the easy running would maybe help cool down this "flare up" in my tibia, I hobbled to the bus stop in the morning, and sat in class thinking about what this meant. Is the season over? I even pulled out a sheet of paper before class and wrote out some scenarios. Stuff like, if I take the next couple days off what happens? Or, if I run today and just tape it up - what are the outcomes. The theory was, if I run then: A. hurts quite a bit first couple k than settles down and this pattern continues for next few days but eventually self-corrects, B. Limp throughout the run causing some further microdamage in the bone causing me to take a week or so off, C. Bone is badly damaged and can't run for next few months. Clearly it was 2-1 for the not-run camp, so I decided to atleast take the day off. But then on my way home from school after pilates and a good workout on the elliptical, a strange thing happened the bone felt a little better. Was this the miracle I was praying for. I even got inside a tried some running As, and ran back and forth in the upstairs hallway doing some drills and stuff. It felt fine. So I got my stuff on, said another prayer before I marched outside and ran. Well, within 200 meters the tibia starting hurting again, and for probably the first time in my life turned back around to the house, angry and more frustrated then you can imagine. I have treated my body with such respect feeding it only the best foods possible for it, and working so hard on strength and cross training, to only get stabbed in the back (or in the tibia) by it once again. Really, I can't understand how it is possible for me to get another stress fracture doing way less mileage than what I was doing before - from august to october I averaged over 200 k a week with that one massive week in there - 230 something, and now averaging like 60% of that and adding only 5-6k per week (way less than the recommended 10% increase in mileage). But anyways, hopped on the bike and powered through for yet another hard, long, and frustrating indoor bike ride - its not the bike ride that was frustrating, its just I much rather be running. Then onto today, got up and decided I would give the run one more go before saying goodbye to the spring season. This time I wanted to get in a hour long swim (at 7:30) before the run to see if the cold hydrostatic pressure applied by the water would help alleviate some of the inflammation around the bone. The plan was to go out, run and if it started hurted than just turn around and elliptical for a while. Started running, and everything was decent, the discomfort was there, but it was okay. Definitely better than the day before. Originally I said if it felt good I would run than circle back to tait, grab my trusty adidas cosmos spike and head to the track center to do some 400 m repeats. I had done some bursts in the final couple kms of the 14 km warmup, and thought that the bone could handle the speed. Now, you might think has he lost his mind, ease back into running man. My answer back is that at this point with 3 weeks and a couple days until around the bay, and only 11 weeks or so until the Ottawa Marathon, basically the choice came down to this simple (yet obviously not since I debated this throughout my warmup run in my head): take time off now and you won't be ready for Ottawa or around the bay, get injured from not easing back into running and you guessed it you won't be ready for Ottawa or around the bay. So pretty much I figured I might as well keep training because taking time to ease back and taking time off for injury both result in the spring season being a write off. So grabbed my spikes, and ran over to the track centre, popped em on and let me tell you I was actually pretty nervous. Sure, normally strolling into the track centre, and ripping off something like 10 by a mile, I feel pretty confident and cocky. But this time I really didn't know what to expect, would I sprint around the first bend and be forced to stop from searing pain in my leg and limp my way slowly around the track with all the other sprinters, coaches, and Ben Johnson (he was there today) watching. Jogged around a bit, and then popped off 400 meter repeats in not WR but a pretty solid pace averaging 71 seconds for the 10 repeats (2:57 per km avg) with 200m jog in between each. Felt pretty good both the truly amazing feeling of wearing my spikes that i've had since grade 9 (8 years) ran in for both track and xc (a total of around 24 races through the four year of high school), and the nice feeling of the soft springy track with banked turns. As I ran back over to the gym to change, shower, and get ready for class, I had a little swagger in my stride, and felt why can't I just stay in this moment forever. I pray that tomorrow, I will get up and be able to keep running because there really is nothing else in the world that gives me that same feeling I get running full speed, sweat beading down my face, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, and pushing myself to the limit.

Nutrition in Sport Series #2

So before I started this series I was thinking about introducing topics like glutamine supplementation, beta alanine, and other pretty sophisticated supplements that many people probably haven't heard much about before. But I'm thinking in order to really help other runners (and the general public) alter their own daily nutrition practices for the better, I should discuss topics that are particularly relevant to what they are already consuming on a daily basis. For this reason my topic for this post will be on protein, and how supplementation timing, amount, and type can aid your performance. Again for this post I will focus on endurance athletes, even though as you can imagine protein supplementation is vital to strength based athletes as well, but most of the info can be applied to both. (Note: If you want me to discuss supplements like beta-alanine, glutamine, L-carnitine, and others, please leave a comment below because I can speak on those as well at length).

The word protein is derived from Greek word proteos which means "primary" or "to take place first." It is the nitrogen-containing part of food that is critical to life as it is involved is a wide array of roles within the human body such as being structural components, contractile filaments for muscle (actin-myosin), antibodies for our immune systems, transport vehicles in the blood such as those for iron (transferrin), hormones, enzymes, and more. Proteins are composed of amino acids, and only 20 amino acids are genetically coded from mRNA. Out of these 20, humans are unable to synthesize eight amino acids therefore we must consume them via dietary proteins, termed essential amino acids. Depending on the conditions in the body some of the non-essential amino acids (meaning those that our body can make) can become essential amino acids.

The net rate of protein synthesis and degradation is collectively known as protein turnover. The maintenance of muscle mass in the body is a balance between protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown. As endurance athletes we want to maximize this balance in favor of  synthesis and this is done by exercise and protein ingestion. The processes behind the adaptations such as translation, gene transcription, etc., are too complex and not necessary to the purpose of the post. While a lot of papers focus on positive protein balance being beneficial to resistance trained athletes, it is reasonable to speculate that a positive protein balance would also aid endurance athletes by increasing mitochondrial protein synthesis/volume (which is the cell organelle responsible for aerobic respiration, hence more mitochondria higher VO2 max, better performance). One study has shown that post-endurance exercise supplementation with protein resulted in greater improvements in peak oxygen uptake
compared to carbohydrate supplementation post-exercise. Basically if protein supply is in close
proximity to endurance exercise better adaptation, better subsequent performance. However, having said that, an overwhelming gap is apparent in the research regarding protein supplementation and endurance athletes, research is heavily focused on the resistance athlete. Although, one could argue that understanding resistance exercise is more vital than aerobic exercise due to it being especially important to our aging population (baby-boom cohort) to help fend off sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass), and maintain muscle coordination to avoid falls. So basically I understand why the research is so slanted towards resistance exercise.

Now to the real information about how much protein to consume post-exercise, when to consume it, and what type. I will start which the amount. According to the US Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) individuals over the age of 19 should aim to consume 0.8 g of protein/kg body weight per day. Living in North America, most of our diets exceed this value astronomically due to the high intake of meat. Some figures show that in the North America individuals consume about double the DRI. For reference, a 8 oz. sirloin steak has approximately 60 grams of protein, a small (3.5 oz.) chicken breast has 30 g, and a 5 oz salmon fillet has about 45 g. So just imagine, if you consume a piece of steak for dinner, assuming your around 150 lbs, you have already surpassed your protein requirements for the day. Having said all that, athletes need a greater amount of protein to facilitate the volume of training. A number of studies such as Tarnopolsky et al. (1993) from McMaster University cite that endurance athletes need to consume more protein than 0.8 g/kg BW to supplement the increased amount of leucine oxidation that occurs during exercise. The data varies on the optimal amount but most suggestions falls between athletes consuming 1.2-1.4 g/kg BW per day. In terms of how much athletes should look to consume following a bout of exercise to maximize muscle protein synthesis, a protein dose-response relationship was shown to exist by Moore et al. 2009 (who is at UofT and presented his research to my nutrition aids class). In the study, the authors showed that muscle protein synthesis increased as protein was increased from 0-20 g following a bout of exercise, however, when the athletes consumed 40 g there was no increase. This indicates that at these high protein intakes the excess amino acids were oxidized. So the consensus is that around following a exercise bout athletes should try to consume 20-25 g of high-quality protein.

What do I mean by high-quality protein? As you probably already know there are a number of different sources we can get protein from our diets. For example, we get protein from animal sources like milk (casein and whey), eggs, meat, plant sources like soy, etc. Such protein sources are graded on the
"Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score" which evaluates a protein's quality based on the amino acid requirements and our ability to digest the protein (ranges 0-1). For example wheat protein (gluten) achieves a score of only 0.25. Why? Well because it lacks a couple amino acids, and it is not as digestible. This is why vegetarians need to combine plant protein foods that have different complementary amino acids to yield a complete protein (or just have quinoa since it is a complete protein). In comparison, animal proteins such as eggs, milk, and meat score a perfect 1.0 of the scale meaning they are very high quality proteins. Soy protein is also a very high quality protein. So after a run or workout you want to look to consume 20-25g of milk protein (whey/casein) or soy protein. Just for reference straight up milk is about 80% casein protein and 20% whey. Having said this, these three proteins (casein, whey, and soy) differ in there digestion rate. Casein for example clots in the stomach and is very slowly digested, compared to whey protein which is rapidly digested (soy is somewhere in the middle). So for an endurance athlete in terms of which source to consume after a workout, I would say that largely depends on the workout schedule for the day. For example, if your doing a double workout soon after the first, I wouldn't recommend having lots a casein protein as that may cause some GI problems during the second workout since it takes so long to digest. In that case, whey protein would be the best. However, if you are running late at night, maybe something high in casein would be better since your muscles can "munch" on that casein protein all night long. Overall, most studies have shown milk protein is superior to soy protein.

This flows nicely into my next point on the timing of protein consumption. Often you hear athletes in the gym say they need to quickly get home, or to the store to buy some chocolate milk right away since they believe firmly in something called the "anabolic window." Many people believe that if they don't get there protein shake within a certain time limit (an hour) after the workout than the whole workout is wasted. Even in commercials such as the chocolate milk one, recommend you consume the product within 20 minutes of working out. Well, the fact is this is not backed by any reliable scientific research. In fact just one example of many, Reasmussen et al. found there was no significant difference in leg net amino acid balance when whey protein was ingested 1 versus 3 hours post-exercise. So don't worry about having to shower and stretch as quickly as possible to get in your protein, your muscles are not going to fall apart.

To put everything together, you've finished a 2 hour run and your done your exercise for the day. What do you do? Consume 20-25g of high quality (milk or soy, preferably milk protein) sometime after the run, and don't worry if it's a couple hours afterwards. Seems simple right...But I will throw in a caveat to that. If you are a endurance athlete consuming more 3, 4, or 5000 calories a day, do you really need to go buy a jar of whey protein isolate. Probably not. The fact is based on the number of calories you are putting in everyday you are most likely already getting 1.2-1.4 g of protein/kg of body weight per day. So the simple way to get in your 20-25 g post-workout is just to consume that through you post workout mixed meal, and not necessarily an expensive protein rich shake - and absolutely not Booster Juice, the biggest waste of money ever. Also, you could just have some skim milk after the workout - lots of protein plus lactose sugar which will help replenish glycogen stores if that workout was longer than 2 hours. Overall, the fact is that if you are consuming the typical North American diet, high in

I think this graph from study of UofWashington is pretty amazing.
As Canadians we consume 94.3 kg of meat per person per year -
that is over 200 lbs. 

meat, and then adding on protein shakes you are probably consuming an excess amount of protein per day already which offers no benefits and may actually pose health risks. For example, overconsumption of protein can increase calcium excretion leading to bone loss, and has been implicated in kidney stones, heart disease, and more. For heart disease though it is difficult to say that the high protein is solely responsible for this since high protein sources like meat also tend to be high in saturated fats. However, if you are a vegetarian like myself and eating crazy (and I mean crazy probably 80-90% of my daily calories) amount of carbohydrates for meals like bread, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, etc. having a protein supplement is probably a good idea since those CHO sources like I mentioned before score pretty low on the PDAACS. Sure I could just consume things like edamame, nuts, beans, eggs, etc. to get my protein, but doing right now 3, 4, or 5 workouts a day means that the convenience of the protein supplement makes the most sense. For example, the other day getting up early doing a workout on the trainer, then right after hitting the roads for a 18k run with 6 800m repeats in there, then a high-intensity core workout, having to get showered and dressed as quickly as possible to get to classes, then come home 5k snowshoe, and then one last workout on the bike trainer, having a scoop of protein powder in between there seems the most convenient versus having to cook up an omelette. By scoop, I mean just a scoop of tri-source (whey, casein, and soy protein) powder in a glass of water, or the new milk-to-go sport which I found is also really good has 25 g of protein plus lots of calcium, zero fat, very low sodium.

One last thing, just for fun (maybe I'm the only one who thinks its fun/interesting) track how much protein you are consuming per day and correct it to your body weight (g of protein/body weight in kilograms). I bet most of you would be shocked to see how much protein you are actually already getting. Make sure you take into account all the protein you are eating not just the protein from the steak at dinner. For example, if in the morning you put a couple of Tbsp of peanut butter on toast, that is 6g of protein plus about 8 g from the toast (14g total). Overall, become more conscious of what you are eating, and look for areas you can improve. Because if you eat right your body will repay you with high performance. In other words, Fuel the fire.

References

Phillips SM, Van Loon LJ. Dietary Protein for athletes: from requirements to optimum adaptation. JSS 2011; 29: S29-S38.

Stark M, Lukaszuk J, Prawitz A, Salacinski A. Protein timing and its effects on muscular hypertrophy and strength in individuals engaged in weight training. JISSN 2012;9:54