Yet Another Pair of Shoes

I'm collecting more shoes than Imelda Marcos.

"The exact number of shoes varies between accounts; estimates of up to 3000 pairs of shoes have been published. Time reported that the final tally was 1,060." From Wikipedia article.

Well, maybe not that many, but I just had to get a pair of those snazzy red Asics DS Racers. In my quest to find just the right pair of shoes I've managed to run the gamut from no support to full motion control. Looking back at my last several walks I can now see where my last breakdown started and it does seem to put the blame on the shoes.

January 18 ...  6   miles - 11:51 pace - Loco Banditos
January 21 ... 10   miles - 11:27 pace - Loco Banditos
January 23 ...  6   miles - 11:50 pace - Loco Banditos
January 25 ...  6   miles - 11:39 pace - Asics DS Trainers <-- foot started hurting.
January 27 ... 20.5 miles - 12:42 pace - Asics DS Trainers <-- blistered heel/knee started hurting.
January 30 ...  6   miles - 11:20 pace - Asics DS Trainers
February 3 ...  1   mile  - 10:28 pace - Asics DS Trainers <-- time out!

Even though the Loco Banditos were a little too large, I had no problems, they just wore out. The DS Trainers fit great in the store, I followed all the shoe fitting tips like trying them on at the end of the day because feet swell up as the day wears on, but somehow they just weren't the right shoes for me. Maybe they were just a little too stiff, the heel a bit high or the wrong size, but they didn't work out. The DS Racers are more like the NB 111's, NB 550's and Loco Banditos. Basically, they are very flexible racing flats but all the support I seem to need come from the custom orthodics. This time I made sure to get them nice and roomy--size 11's. That's a big change from the size 9.5's I've been used to buying just a few months ago.

So, coming back from some time off to get the knees back into shape and breaking in new shoes--it was time to hold back and do a very easy day.

Mile 1 - 12:33
Mile 2 - 12:45
Mile 3 - 12:18
Mile 4 - 12:25
Mile 5 - 12:12
Mile 6 - 11:56
Average Pace - 12:21 minutes per mile
Total Workout - 1:14:11

I was taking it really easy, kept my sweat shirt on even though it was rather warm and watched my heart rate stay in the low 160's bpm as the sweat started pouring.

The new shoes felt great too--a few more miles and I'll decide if these are the ones I'll use on the marathon.

Walking Fuel

There were all sorts of concoctions lined up on the aid table at the 50km Championships in Chula Vista. I saw everything from flat cola (shake until the fizz is gone) to a small bottle of tequila--though I don't think that was consumed on the race course!





It would be great to have everything prepared ahead of time and have someone pass it to you, but in the races I'll be doing it will be water or Gatorade in paper cups. Usually half of it sloshes out of the cup before gulping it down. Last time (and only time) I did a marathon they had bananas, oranges and other goodies, but by the time I got there they were all gone. It was questionable if there would even be water. I'm not kidding, here is a blurb from the 1993 L.A. Marathon report:

"The weather played a major factor in the race with a high of 87 degrees on race day, creating a temporary water shortage at water stations."

I can't weigh myself down by carrying all the water I'll need, but I do plan on taking at least a small bottle of Hydralyte aka, Gookinaid. I used it during the long workouts and found it is easier on the stomach than other sports drinks. I tried all their varieties, none were overly strong tasting, but I settled on their original citrus flavor. A few things that closed the deal for me was that Philip Dunn mentioned Hydralyte in his online journal, they were serving it at the Chula Vista Championships and Curt Clausen wrote a testimonial for it.

2004 ATHENS OLYMPIANS:

Just forwarded media releases from my last two weekends of races. I have been using the Gookinaid Hydralyte every day and in both those events with great success. Almost all my workouts I've been using the drink during and also weighing in and weighing out and then replacing my sweat loss with Gookinaid. My recovery and ability to train has greatly improved and my muscles feel much better. I've also started really monitoring my carbo intake so the combination of monitoring fluid and carbs seems to have really done the trick.
The best part is that in the last 50km I had no stomach distress at all. In the race at about 17km I was feeling a bit out of it and figured I had not kept up on fluid intake so took in 17 oz on one lap with no problems at all and felt better by the next lap. The Gookinaid Citrus Drink has worked great as it really goes down easily. I just wanted to forward you the latest results and let you know how well things are going. I am drinking a lot of the product, so after this weekend's race I am almost out of powder. Oh, which also reminds me -- two cross country flights and no illness - drinking 32 oz plus of Gookinaid onboard each flight segment has also really helped the last two trips.
Anyway, thanks so much for all your help and for the helping me get back on track. I plan on making Gookinaid Hydralyte a permanent part of my training/racing strategy as it has worked wonders for me.

Curt Clausen,
U.S. Olympic Race Walk Team
U.S. 50 km Walk Champion
U.S. 15-km Walk Champion

In addition to liquids, there are gels, candies, bars, bananas and other more substantial foods that help with endurance events. I tried a few different brands and flavors of gels and settled on probably the most boring of all--Just Plain GU. It has some caffine along with the usual postassium, carbohydrates, etc. and taking one packet just before starting then one per hour worked for the long workout I did a couple of weeks ago. For the marathon I will be putting in more effort so I'll go with their recomendation of one every 45 minutes. As for my choice of flavor, the others just tasted too strong and I want results, not a gustation moment. There was lots of GU on the aid table at the 50km Championships and I'm pretty sure I saw Curt Clausen sucking down a packet.

Anyway, that's how I made up my mind on what to eat and drink during the marathon.

A Week of Weights

Any other week I would be writing down my long workout results, but I've been limping around ever since my fast 6-miles last Tuesday. I managed to not make things worse, even with the speed work on Saturday, but my knees haven't recovered yet. I'd rather take a week off from racewalking and do strength training and stretching this week than have to take two weeks off to heal up closer to the marathon.

I'm starting to see a pattern to my knee problems. As long as I can complete all the workouts without blistering my heel or loosing a toenail, I continue doing fine. However, if I injure my foot and continue walking, my knees go out. So to protect my knees I'll need to take care of my feet.

I started racewalking after stressing out my knees running. At first I just used my running shoes for walking and I had no knee trouble--I wasn't moving very fast either. Then I started studying the art of racewalking and purchased a pair of real racewalking shoes, NB 111's. The first pair I got were the same size as my running shoes, 9.5, but they felt a little small so I loosened the laces to make them more comfortable. Big mistake--I blistered both heels the first time I worked out with them. I traded them for size 10's and they worked out quite well, though they still felt a little tight on the sides. I wanted to get a second pair in order to rotate shoes but when I found out that they were going to discontinue the 111's I got a pair of 550's, size 10 but in the 2E width to give me a little more room to spread out. Those shoes worked out fine until a long workout where I stopped in the middle of it to get something out of the car and changed to a sloppy, bent knee walk, slipping my feet in and out of the shoes--I blistered my heels again. My next pair of shoes were Loco Banditos, size 10, and they were a bit too tight, but I didn't blister in them. However, I did loose a toenail on a long workout. Guess my feet expanded and had nowhere to go. I ordered a half-size larger shoe, but they weren't in stock so the company "lent" me a pair of size 11's. Funny thing is that I never injured myself with these shoes. They were also the shoes that I got my orthotics fitted. I'm still waiting for the size 10.5's to arrive and I already wore out the size 11's. Several people told me that I should get shoes with more support so I bought a pair of Asics DS Trainers, size 10.5. These shoes worked out fair on my morning walks but for some reason I developed a pain on the top of my right foot. For the long workout I skipped some eyelets to relieve pressure on the sore spot but I made a mistake by not snugging up the laces. The right shoe was just loose enough to blister my heal. Once again some knee pain followed but after seeing some great walkers at the Chula Vista race, I wanted to go hard on my morning workout and again on the Saturday speed work. That brings things up to the present.

Every time I had a foot injury, my knees were next to go. I believe that it is because I unconsciously adjust my gait to compensate for the painful foot and that throws off my leg alignment. The blisters heal even if I continue working out, but a painful knee needs a rest. Strength training and stretching seem to help recovery as long as it doesn't stress the joint too much.

This time I'm going more aggressive on the recovery by massaging my legs with "The Stick" every morning, get a deeper stretch with a Stretchrite strap, use a heating/vibrating pad every evening and take some supplements--Papain (Papaya Extract) and a concotion of Glucosamine Hydrocloride, methylsulfonymethane, Chondrotin Sulfate and Hyaluronic Acid. The Papain is a Natural analgesics recommended in the MEAT vs. RICE article. The Glucosamine formula is designed to help with joint problems. I don't have all that much faith in these "magic pills" but then again they probably won't do any harm either so it is worth the try.

I'm not in terrible pain right now, in fact I feel pretty good--just not 100% especially after sitting for a prolonged period, like when I'm at my job. If I improve enough I'll do my 6-mile workout on Thursday, maybe slow, maybe not. In the meantime I'm hitting the weights and waiting.

Still Short of a 10 Minute Mile

This morning Rosie and I worked out with the Southern Cal Walkers. After warming up we did one lap slow, the next faster and so on until we were at about 70% of race pace on the 4th lap. Then we did a timed mile--another 4 laps.

This was my chance to try for a 10 minute mile, but I didn't quite reach that goal.

1st 400 meters - 2:36.00
2nd 400 meters - 2:34.40
3rd 400 meters - 2:36.40
4th 400 meters - 2:41.25
1 Mile - 10:28.05

I tried to pace myself by following Carl Acosta. The first lap was a little slow and we both picked it up on the second lap. On the third lap I was starting to get tired and when I saw that my time went up I slacked off because I knew I couldn't make up for it on the last lap.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really a mile either, 1,600 meters=0.9941939072000000266 miles. As long as I was going for accuracy I also recorded my time in hundredths of a second. Of course this didn't make any difference, I didn't walk a 10 minute mile. The good news is that I didn't do any more damage to my knees.

As a comparison, if you can call it that, just yesterday Tim Seaman walked a 5:51.18 mile at the 100th Milrose Games in Madison Square Gardens. What made this even more impressive was that he was pushing hard last Sunday at the 50km Championships in Chula Vista. He didn't finish the 50k in California but recovered to place first in New York.

Results from the WCLA 10 mile and 5km Race

Here are the results from the 10 mile and 5 kilometer race put on by the Walkers Club of Los Angeles on January 21 at the Rose Bowl.

I was so happy with a time under 2-hours, but look--everyone who finished came in under 2-hours!

WCLA 46th 10 Mile Annual Racewalk

.                                                    Average Pace
Place Time    Name                Age Club Age Grade min/km min/mi
1     1:35:34 Pedro Santoni       49  SCW  71.63%    5:56    9:33
2     1:43:21 Rick Campbell       60  ES   72.85%    6:25   10:20
3     1:43:59 Mario Lopez         49  WCLA 66.06%    6:27   10:23
4     1:50:33 Bob Nyman           68  ES   74.22%    6:52   11:03
5     1:52:14 Carol Bertino       59  ES   75.58%    6:58   11:13
6     1:54:35 Daniel Fort         52  SCW  58.56%    7:07   11:27
7     1:54:49 Al Cazas            49  IER  58.09%    7:08   11:28
8     1:55:57 Patrick Bivona      65  IER  68.38%    7:12   11:35
9     1:58:29 Roberta Hatfield    65  UNAT 77.59%    7:21   11:50
10    1:59:10 Jack Cassidy        57  W2W  61.43%    7:24   11:55

WCLA 46th Annual Richard Oliver 5km

.                                                         Adjusted Time            Average Pace
Place Time  Name                  Age Age Group Age Grade for age 20-29 Club       min/km min/mi
1     24:56 Joe Nieroski          44  M40-44    78.28%    23:14         ES         4:59    8:01
2     29:08 Yoko Eichel           59  W55-59    83.87%    23:35         WCLA       5:49    9:22
3     29:20 Donna Cunningham      60  W60-64    84.26%    23:29         SCW        5:52    9:26
4     30:17 Alan Ede              67  M65-69    79.80%    22:47         SCW        6:03    9:44
5     30:35 Wayne Wurzburger      65  M65-69    77.28%    23:32         SCW        6:07    9:50
6     30:38 Ray Billig            49  M45-49    66.38%    27:24         SCW        6:07    9:51
7     30:58 Aleksandr Kazaryan    52  M50-54    67.33%    27:00         Unattached 6:11    9:58
8     31:32 Janet Robinson        65  W65-69    83.35%    23:44         ES         6:18   10:08
9     31:55 Jolene Steigerwalt    63  W60-64    80.26%    24:39         SDTC       6:23   10:16
10    32:14 Sylvia Ellis          59  W50-59    75.80%    26:06         SCW        6:26   10:22
11    32:40 Carl Acosta           72  M70-74    78.62%    23:08         WCLA       6:32   10:30
12    34:45 Bill Moremen          79  M75-79    81.53%    22:18         SCW        6:57   11:11
13    35:18 Stuart Ray            64  W60-64    66.24%    27:27         SCW        7:03   11:21
14    35:25 Deborah Raymer        50  W50-54    63.01%    31:24         ES         7:05   11:23
15    35:33 Leon Glazman          73  W70-74    73.18%    24:51         WCLA       7:06   11:26
16    35:45 Shirley Capps         71  W70-74    80.05%    24:42         SCW        7:09   11:30
17    36:49 Arvid Rolle           73  M70-74    70.67%    25:44         ES         7:21   11:51
18    36:56 Lloyd McGuire         75  M75-79    72.38%    25:07         SDTC       7:23   11:53
19    37:52 Joan McIntyre         70  W70-74    74.43%    26:35         ES         7:34   12:11
20    37:59 Anelise Smith         68  W65-69    72.05%    27:27         SCW        7:35   12:13
21    38:00 Gerald Saulvester     66  M65-69    62.89%    28:55         SCW        7:36   12:13
22    38:45 Suzanne Synal-Griffen 66  W65-69    68.73%    28:47         IER        7:45   12:28
23    39:41 Roz Esposito          55  W55-59    59.01%    33:37         SCW        7:56   12:46
24    41:09 Margaret Fields       64  W60-64    63.06%    31:22         SCW        8:13   13:14
25    42:25 Holly Osborne         55  W55-59    55.71%    35:50         SCW        8:29   13:39
26    42:40 Jenny Dean            55  W55-59    54.88%    36:03         IER        8:32   13:43
27    42:48 Jim Lamb              79  M75-79    66.20%    27:18         PP         8:33   13:46
28    42:53 Clifford Veasey       46  M45-49    46.25%    39:19         IER        8:34   13:48
29    43:09 Soula Thomas          82  W80-84    80.80%    24:29         ES         8:37   13:53
30    46:32 Patricia Willis       71  W70-74    61.50%    32:10         WCLA       9:18   14:58
.                                 Non-Judged
.     36:05 Lindsey Goldbloom                                           SCW        7:13   11:36
.     45:35 Dorothy Joy                                                 IER        9:07   14:40
.     45:36 Rosie Fort                                                  SCW        9:07   14:40

My wife Rosie didn't want to be judged but a judge did come up to her as said that she was bending her knees. A few more weeks practice and she'll get it right.

The awards were divided into 10-year age groups in male/female categories for the 10-mile race and 5-year age groups in male/female categories for the 5km race. The age grading is a way to compare results between the various ages and genders. Note that although I came in 6th in the 10-mile race, I won my age/gender group. However, if females would have been included in my division I would have come in second to an older woman and by age grading I would be second to last. Sort of a humbling way of looking at my first place trophy, isn't it?

No Time For This!

I missed doing my morning 6-mile walk yesterday because I had to go to work early. It didn't help that we worked late the night before. I thought about doing the walk last night, but I was a little too tired, I have never done an evening workout and saw no point starting now.

My right knee has been hurting for the past few days and both legs feel stiff. Maybe I've been pushing myself too hard on the workouts, maybe my job has been taking too much from my workout schedule or most likely that blister on my right heel caused me to change my gait and I re-injured myself.

Whatever happened, the 6-mile workout didn't happen. I did a slow 13 minute mile this morning and I didn't feel like I was warming up so I did the strength training instead. That was on my Friday schedule anyway so we'll just let Thursday go.

Tomorrow I'll be back at the Cal Tech track with the Southern Cal Walkers and Sunday will be a beach walk. I was hoping to do a fast 16 miles, but we'll see how I feel by then. At this point it might be better to cross train. I don't want to just rest because it seems that just prolongs recovery and in a couple of weeks I'll start tapering for the marathon. These next couple of week will be the last chance to get conditioned--at least until I decide to enter another race.

Lesson on Lifting

Tim Berrett from Canada was leading the 50 kilometer race at the 2007 Racewalking Championships in Chula Vista, California until he was shown the red card and disqualified with only 15 km to go. Too bad, he was way ahead and seemed that he would easily win--but he wasn't legal. Check out his feet, he is clearly off the ground.



The rules on lifting are that it has to be visible by the unaided eye. In order to be disqualified, three different judges have to report rules violations. At this event it seemed that the judges were giving courtesy "warnings" before reporting infractions. Still, there were several infractions reported while others got off Scott free. Click on these photos to view higher resolution images--these racewalkers were clearly off the ground, but was it visible to the unaided eye? I must admit, I saw very little lifting until I looked these photos carefully.