Getting Back on Schedule

So I did a recovery mile on Monday and strength training on Tuesday--that means I'm off my schedule. Today I did another recovery mile followed by the scheduled strength training. My heart rate was well into the "recovery zone" at under 130 bpm.

Mile 1 - 13:29.9 (8:23.2 min/km)

Afterwards I did my full strength/stretching routing to aid recovery. Tomorrow I should do 3 miles building up each mile until I'm back to 12 minutes for an "easy" mile (7:27 min/km). Speed work on Saturday should complete recovery. Without another race on the schedule I'm not sure what to do for the long workout on Sunday. Looks like it is time to lookup training recommendations for a sub 1-hour 10k (6:00 min/km).

Start Reverse Taper

The L.A. Marathon is behind me and it is time to recover and get back into shape. I had lots of energy after the marathon and although I was somewhat sore, it wasn't bad at all.

Monday I did a slow recovery mile with Rosie, just a 15:49 pace but good enough to put some life back into my legs.

This morning, Tuesday, I did my strength training/stretching routine. Perhaps I wasn't putting enough emphasis on this routine in my blog because it isn't as easy to measure as the distance/time workouts, but I believe that strength training and stretching are an important part of a walking/running exercise program.

Now I've got to decide on which of the many upcoming races I want to participate in and start training for it. It is also time to set some new goals--of course that 12 min/mile marathon pace would still be a good one to try and reach. How about these goals:

5 kilometers under 30 minutes

10 kilometers under 1 hour

Time to start switching over gears from miles to kilometers! Let's see, 12 min/mile = 7:27 min/kilometer and 26.2 miles = 42.26 kilometers.

2007 L.A. Marathon Racewalking Results

Here are the racewalking results from the 22nd L.A. Marathon. These are the finishers and I trimmed it down to the information that would be most suitable for number crunching. Note that I updated the results on March 15 and it looks like some finishers were disqualified (DQ'd).

What was advertised as a new faster course turned out to be much slower than last year. Put part of the blame is on the weather, part on the uphill start, burn out long downhill early in the course and those hills near the end.

I was trying to better Steve Collins' time from last year but looks like his pace was way down this year. Placing wasn't in the cards either, looks like they broke it down in 10 year age/sex divisions and the top two finishers were in my division.

No more excuses--time to start training for the next race!

Bib Name                    Age/Sex  Time    Overall SexPl DivPl Age Grade  Pace     10km     1/2      30km
344 Eric Fischer             57 M   04:43:30    1      1     1     52.5%   10:48.9  1:04:13  2:21:07  3:14:05
340 Alexis Davidson          51 M   04:57:51    2      2     2     47.2%   11:21.8  1:08:40  2:33:33  3:30:19
346 Mario Lopez              49 M   05:03:18    3      3     1     45.6%   11:34.3  1:04:14  2:21:05  3:18:44
317 Lindsey Goldbloom        39 F   05:30:27    4      1     1     42.6%   12:36.4  1:15:49  2:42:46  3:52:56
342 Al Cazas                 49 M   05:31:11    5      4     2     41.7%   12:38.1  1:15:29  2:38:38  3:47:52
314 Brandye Smith            46 F   05:31:33    6      2     1     45.9%   12:38.9  1:15:49  2:42:45  3:52:59
302 Steve Collins            52 M   05:37:48    7      5     3     42%     12:53.2  1:14:22  2:41:56  3:54:03
316 Robert Collins           20 M   05:37:48    8      6     1     37.4%   12:53.2  1:14:22  2:42:14  3:54:03
318 Vicki Kryszak            60 F   05:38:55    9      3     1     54.2%   12:55.8  1:14:09  2:45:07  3:55:16
320 Lynn Goodman             42 F   05:40:06   10      4     2     42.6%   12:58.5  1:22:08  2:57:05  4:00:52
358 Juan Moreno              42 M   05:44:10   11      7     3     37.8%   13:07.8  1:08:09  2:34:05  3:42:34
301 Charles Cutting          66 M   05:46:58   12      8     4     46.9%   13:14.2  1:13:14  2:40:35  3:55:26
361 David Sirkin             53 M   05:48:45   13      9     5     41.1%   13:18.3  1:17:44  3:03:04  4:02:02
332 Mary Schoenbaum          51 F   05:51:48   14      5     3     46%     13:25.3  1:20:22  3:02:55  4:04:32
366 Bert Johnson             67 M   05:53:14   15     10     6     46.6%   13:28.6  1:16:42  2:58:42  4:05:12
345 Patricia Dummett         52 F   05:57:07   16      6     3     46%     13:37.5  1:21:50  3:02:53  4:05:03
308 Martha Fitzpatrick       64 F   05:59:52   17      7     4     54.4%   13:43.8  1:15:49  2:50:18  4:09:26
330 Michael Mizote           49 M   06:02:03   18     11     4     38.2%   13:48.8  1:17:46  3:02:55  4:04:02
360 Kanani Wolf              48 F   06:05:59   19      8     3     42.6%   13:57.8  1:21:21  2:55:35  4:11:58
348 Deborah Gal              46 F   06:09:10   20      9     4     41.2%   14:05.0  1:22:30  3:01:11  4:18:34
353 Julia Gutierrez          10 F   06:09:10   21     10     1     46%     14:05.0  1:22:31  3:01:11  4:18:35
354 Michelle Gutierrez       13 F   06:09:23   22     11     2     41.6%   14:05.5  1:22:32  3:01:11  4:18:37
323 Ernest Clark Jr          55 M   06:13:12   23     12     7     39.1%   14:14.3  1:15:31  2:42:41  3:52:44
315 Daniel Fort              52 M   06:18:30   24     13     8     37.5%   14:26.4  1:13:44  2:52:59  4:07:15
322 Donna Dawson             56 F   06:19:08   25     12     5     45.7%   14:27.9  1:15:23  2:55:49  4:14:03
343 Ena Dubnoff              68 F   06:19:40   26     13     6     55.6%   14:29.1  1:25:12  3:13:16  4:24:30
329 Maria Fernandez          59 F   06:21:05   27     14     7     47.5%   14:32.3  1:20:19  3:07:57  4:17:33
324 Luis Ramos               46 M   06:21:18   28     14     5     35.3%   14:32.8  1:25:24  3:04:04  4:24:59
363 Deborah Salari           42 F   06:23:48   29     15     5     37.8%   14:38.5  1:31:14  3:10:35  4:28:02
339 Jane Adams               54 F   06:29:26   30     16     8     43.3%   14:51.4  1:25:51  3:20:08  4:35:18
305 Constance Koenig         47 F   06:29:41   31     17     6     39.5%   14:52.0  1:25:50  3:20:08  4:35:17
365 Eric Neumann             30 M   06:31:46   32     15     1     31.9%   14:56.8  1:21:12  3:02:45  4:20:31
326 Paul Kim                 63 M   06:33:14   33     16     9     40.1%   15:00.1  1:25:21  3:10:15  4:34:23
303 Raymond Billig           49 M   06:41:43   34     17     6     34.4%   15:19.6  1:32:30  3:17:17  4:43:55
359 Iris Peoples             45 F   06:41:43   35     18     7     37.4%   15:19.6  1:32:29  3:17:11  4:43:56
319 Lenny Krosinsky          67 M   06:51:43   36     18    10     40%     15:42.5  1:22:41  3:19:33  4:39:29
327 Kathleen Mcavoy-Jahraus  56 F   06:52:28   37     19     9     42%     15:44.2  1:34:30  3:32:17  4:51:20
350 William Arthur           58 M   07:10:31   38     19    11     34.9%   16:25.5  1:28:04  3:21:18  4:53:17
307 Linda Loiselle           53 F   07:13:51   39     20    10     38.3%   16:33.1  1:32:29  3:36:11  5:01:10
367 Kathleen Cureton         58 F   07:13:56   40     21    11     41.1%   16:33.3  1:34:58  3:36:56  5:04:36
311 Pierre Klein             59 M   07:31:45   41     20    12     33.6%   17:14.1  1:39:21  3:34:44  5:09:32
368 Siamak Afshar            53 M   07:49:02   42     21    13     30.6%   17:53.7  1:53:44  3:58:02  5:32:12
337 Frances Hernandez        52 F   08:02:56   43     22    12     34%     18:25.5  1:38:09  3:54:18  5:31:48
338 Phyllis Goldstein        71 F   09:22:19   44     23    13     40%     21:27.2  1:38:42  3:50:04  5:22:49
369 Vladimir Babichev        74 M   13:42:48   45     22    14     21.7%   31:23.5

Bad Race, Good Deed

Right to the point--results of my L.A. Marathon from today:

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Country

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

AgeGrade

starttime

pace

split10k

half

split30k

315

Daniel

Fort

West Hollywood

CA

52

M

06:18:30

06:26:15

29

16

9

37.5%

So what happened? Basically, I didn't do enough hill work and it was hotter than usual a couple hours into the race. I was doing pretty good until about mile 10 when I really started slowing down. By the halfway mark it was clear that I was too ambitious with my pace and blew it. At mile 14 I called my wife, Rosie, to tell her I was falling off my pace so I was going to finish later than expected. She then called me at mile 18 to say that Joshua, my nephew, fell down and was having terrible problems--I was just a couple minutes behind him at that point. So instead of trying to salvage what I could (I later found out that I had a chance of placing in my age group) I ended up walking the last several miles with my nephew and encouraging him to finish the race. We crossed the finish line together. Well, I did beat him by one second because he crossed the starting line just ahead of me.

I lost track of some of my split times towards the end, but this is what I could record:

Mile 1 - 12:25          Mile 10 - 13:02          Mile 19 - 15:49
Mile 2 - 12:11          Mile 11 - 14:12          Mile 20 - 17:29
Mile 3 - 11:22          Mile 12 - 14:00          Mile 21 - 16:13
Mile 4 - 11:23          Mile 13 - 13:33          Mile 22 - 16:03
Mile 5 - 11:48          Mile 14 - 14:56          Mile 23 - 16:03
Mile 6 - 11:51          Mile 15 - 15:02          Mile 24 - 16:19
Mile 7 - 12:11          Mile 16 - 14:00          Mile 25 - 20:48
Mile 8 - 12:16          Mile 17 - 14:21          Mile 26 - 17:31
Mile 9 - 13:04          Mile 18 - 15:33

I didn't mark mile 23 so I divided the time between miles 22 and 24. Oh well, nothing to brag about, but I did help my nephew finish, and if it was any consolation, we beat one of my co-workers who was running in the marathon.

When I checked the finish times for the racewalkers I was surprised at how slow this race was for the walkers. More on this in another post. Right now I'm going to wash up and decide when I'll be ready to race again or if I'm washed up--terrible pun, sorry about that.

The Day Before Tomorrow

Maybe I'm trying too hard on these titles but it isn't that much worse than "The Day After Tomorrow" which is a movie I worked on.



Anyway, tomorrow is the L.A. Marathon. This morning I did my 3-minute hard workout, with a 5-minute warm up and 10-minute cool down/stretching afterwards. This was the last phase of the taper/carbo-loading ritual, except for maybe the spaghetti I had for lunch. I also picked up my bib, timing chip and goodie bag for the marathon at the "Quality of Life Expo" located in the L.A. Convention Center. The number is pinned to my jersey, timing chip strapped to my shoelace, fuel belt packed with GU, sunglasses, hat, foot powder, watch, heart rate monitor, cell phone, credit card, license and a few dollars stashed away. The only thing that's left is to decide where would be the best place to park and how to get my wife, nephew, brother and me to the starting line on time. Details, details.

Am I ready? I did my best to get through the knee injuries, blisters, good and bad workouts and worst of all, the self doubt. In a way it doesn't really matter how well I do tomorrow. I'm in much better shape than when I started training for this. I'm ready!

Carbo-load

So what is this ritual practiced by endurance athletes? A good introduction can be found on Wikipedia.

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Carbohydrate loading

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In sports, carbohydrate loading, also known as carbo-loading, is a strategy employed by endurance athletes such as marathon runners to maximize the storage of glycogen in the muscles.

The protocol of carbohydrate loading was originally developed in 1967 in Sweden. The original theory of carbohydrate loading was that, if the body's glycogen stores were depleted, it would store more glycogen than normal when carbohydrate intake returned to normal. Consequently, the original carbo-loading regimen began one week before the event, and called for three days of minimal carbohydrate intake and exercise to deplete the body's carbohydrate stores. Then for the next three days, the athlete would consume primarily carbohydrates, and reduce the intensity of exercise to allow for maximum storage.

In the 1980s, further research led to a modified carbo-loading regimen that eliminates the depletion phase, instead calling for increased carbohydrate intake and decreased training for three days prior to the event. Most athletes now follow this modified regimen, and it is recommended by many coaches, although there are some athletes who still follow the original carbo-loading regimen.

Carbohydrate loading is generally recommended for endurance events lasting longer than 90 minutes. For many endurance athletes the food of choice for carbo-loading is spaghetti. Because of this, hundreds of marathons and triathlons have huge spaghetti dinners the night before the race.

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However, there have been some more recent experiments with increasing glycogen storage. The most promising is one developed in Australia. Here is a snippit from an article that was published on several web pages, I copied this from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training web site:

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The Western Australia method

The newest and perhaps the best of all the carbo-loading strategies was devised in 2002 by scientists at the University of Western Australia. It combines depletion and loading and condenses them into a one-day time frame.

The creators of this innovative protocol recognized that a single, short workout performed at extremely high intensity creates a powerful demand for glycogen storage in both the slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers of the muscles. They hypothesized that following such a workout with heavy carbohydrate intake could result in a high level of glycogen supercompensation without a lot of fuss.

In an experiment, the researchers asked athletes to perform a short-duration, high-intensity workout consisting of two and a half minutes at 130 percent of VO₂max (about one-mile race pace) followed by a 30-second sprint. During the next 24 hours, the athletes consumed 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of lean muscle mass. This resulted in a 90-percent increase in muscle glycogen storage.

The Western Australia Carbo-Loading Method During the pre-race week, eat normally while training lightly until the day before a longer race. On the morning of the day before the race, perform a very brief, very high-intensity workout. Consume 12 g of carbs per lb. of body weight over the next 24 hours.

Runners have cause to be very pleased by these findings. Doing just a few minutes of high-intensity exercise the day before a competition will not sabotage tomorrow's performance, yet it will suffice to stimulate the desirable carbohydrate "sponging" effect that was sought in the original Ahlborg protocol. This allows the athlete to maintain a normal diet right up until the day before competition and then load in the final 24 hours.

The Western Australia carbo-loading strategy works best if preceded by a proper taper -- that is, by several days of reduced training whose purpose is to render your body rested, regenerated, and race-ready. In fact, several days of reduced training combined with your normal diet will substantially increase your glycogen storage level even before the final day's workout and carbohydrate binge.

When you exercise vigorously almost every day, your body never gets a chance to fully replenish its glycogen stores before the next workout reduces them again. Only after 48 hours of very light training or complete rest are your glycogen levels fully compensated. Then the Western Australia carbo-loading regimen can be used to achieve glycogen supercompensation.

Having said all of this, I would like to note finally that carbo-loading in general has been shown to enhance race performance only when athletes consume little or no carbohydrate during the race itself. If you do use a sports drink or sports gels to fuel your race effort -- as you should -- prior carbo-loading probably will have no effect. But it doesn't hurt to do it anyway, as insurance.

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So the morning before the marathon I'll be sprinting hard for just a few minutes before breakfast. This may seem odd training for an endurance event but this same recommendation is in Ellen Coleman's book, "Eating for Endurance."I should add that tapering is a part of the carbo-loading ritual and during the taper period it is important to maintain a low fat, high carbohydrate diet and increase hydration--for every gram of carbohydrate (glycogen) the body stores, it also stores 3-5 grams of water. I've been drinking one gallon of fluids per day during my taper phase. Basically, a quart of Hydralyte in the morning workout, a quart of water before lunch, a quart after lunch and a quart of Poweraid, which isn't ideal but is available at the commissary where I work, between 4-5pm. I don't gulp it down but sip throughout the day and try to stop before 6pm to avoid too many nightly bathroom breaks.

I've heard stories of how some endurance athletes get a "stuffy" feeling in their muscles during this taper/carbo-loading phase. Now I'm experiencing it--or is it just that lethargic feeling from cutting back the exercise? We'll find out soon enough.

Last Mile

This morning I did my last training mile before the L.A. Marathon on Sunday. I tried to walk it at my goal pace of 11:27 but ended up just a bit faster:

Mile 1 - 11:11

It felt nice and easy--we'll see how easy the last mile of the marathon feels.