Race PostMortem : 2nd attempt at UTMB/OCC and request for advice

In 2016 I attempted OCC for the first time and made a couple of newbie mistakes that probably lead to my first DNF on this course:

• I arrived the night before the race and didn’t account for jet lag and elevation difference
• I treated race as a fun run and took many amazing pictures and video on course whilst not paying attending to cut off times
• I didn’t make the cutoff at Trient and was (very nicely) pulled off the course by the Sweeper Sisters.  

Race Reflection : UTMB/OCC 2016

I'm in for UTMB/OCC 2018!  I'm both excited and terrified at the same time.  Two years ago I also got in, was all prepared, took many photos and videos before during and after the and and got cut.  You have no idea how it feels to be on top of the world - literally - then hear you are being cut because you didn't make the aid station cutoff time.  I'm going back much wiser from not only being cut but because I knew one of the factors was not giving myself enough time to recover from jetlag.  I'll be trained, have the cutoffs stamped on my arm and won't be taking any videos nor photos on course!

Here is my post from Aug 28, 2016 a day after I was cut from OCC because I wasn't paying attention to cutoffs.

Enjoy the photos at the end and can't wait to see everyone in Chamonix in a few months!!

Race Report : Part 3 - Running the 6th World Major, Tokyo Marathon, Feb 22, 2015, Three Days in Tokyo/Hakone

This is the third and final part of the 'Running Tokyo' series which will cover post race time activities. 

• Part1 : How to get to the race and reflections on the race itself
• Part2 : The two weeks we spent in Taiwan prior to the race
• (This Post) : The three days we spent after the race in Tokyo/Hakone (Hot Springs Area) 

We only had the rest of race Sunday through Tuesday and were scheduled to leave that Wed night back to the States - so not a lot of time. If we had more time we would have stayed longer in Hakone and toured more of the Lake, Mt Fuji, taken the tram ride, etc.

Those three days can be broker down this way:

• [Saturday] : Tokyo Afternoon Tour
• Sunday : Recovery walk and shopping in Ginza shopping district
• Monday : Train ride to Hokone, tour of Venetian glass museum, hot springs
• Tuesday : Tour of park, stay at local business hotel

Training and Recovery : Massage Envy Spa of Pleasanton, CA

What could be better than being part of the 2014 San Francisco Marathon Ambassador team and finishing the marathon on July 27, 2014?  A complimentary post-race Sports Massage that's for sure!

I had been contacted a month before race day by Massage Envy Spa if I'd like to enjoy a Sports Massage in exchange for reviewing the experience. Heck ya!

For the record, I had a three month pre-paid massage contract early in the year (Jan-Mar, 2014) and had already found Massage Envy Spa in Pleasanton and had my favorite massage therapist (Charles).  But, I got busy with life and training and didn't renew.  Since March I've run two 50Ks, a road marathon, did one day of the Western States (WS100) training camp up in ForestHill, CA and paced the last half of the American River 50 mile race.  I was beyond ready for a professional tuneup.

Based on my post-race sports massage on Aug 7th, I have officially started my next three month contract (Aug-Nov, 2014).  Here was my experience.

What are your most effective exercies to prevent shin splints?

There are no shortage of posts attempting to explain why part of the front lower leg is hurting but not nearly as many that I can find explaining effective exercises to help prevent the pain from occurring in the first place.  By 'shin splint' I mean the tingling or sometimes outright pain you get on your front 'anterior' lower leg 'tibia' normally after running longer or faster that you have previously trained before.

So let's assume for the sake of this discussion that you have NOT recently changed shoes, you have seen a shoe expert and your running shoes actually support the way you run and you do not have any kind of stress bone fracture.  You recently increased your distance, changed terrain or increased your speed and now are experiencing shin pain.

I talked to several long-time runners and have received the following exercise advice based on the assumption that the calves are too tight and shin muscle (anterior tibial), ligaments or helper stabilizing micro-stabilizing muscles were irritated by overuse:

• Shin Muscle (tibialis anterier):
• while sitting do repeated foot up raises
• walk around the house on your heels in low cushion shoes
• draw letters in carpet/sand with your toes
• job slowly with your toes pointed in, then out
• sit on your knees with toes pointed behind you and slowly put pressure on the front of your ankle/shin to flatten out on floor.
• Calf Muscle (gastrocnemius / soleus)
• have sports masseur melt any knots you may have in soleus junction or main gastroc muscle
• stand in front of wall with one leg behind you slowly move your upper body toward wall and stretching out calf.
• on curb facing sidewalk, slowly dip one foot and stretch out calf/Achilles.
• foam roll calf muscle

What exercises do you do to prevent shin splints?


Some References:
What is the Shin Muscle?
How to get rid of Shin Splints

Training and Recovery : "...Get a massage once per month..."

I'm not sure if you've heard or read this often said bit of sage advice before to '...get a massage once per month...' but I'm here to tell you there is a reason you've heard or read it before.



I was one of those that avoids 'massage' places because I don't really like the whole 'pampered' experience and thought "What has a massage got to do with running?" or "If I need a massage I'll massage myself'.  Well, you can give yourself a massage in fact you should routinely roll using your hard form roller, tennis ball or whatever you've found as a part of your post workaround routine to relax those muscles.  However, there is a subtle difference in having the right external person do it who is an experienced 'sports' masseuse, listens to you, can melt away knots and other things that is just very difficult to do yourself.

I went for the first time as per advice from an experienced running friend and suffered through all the pampering till my masseuse got down to the good stuff.  I won't lie and tell you there was no pain; especially, as he found those knots in my soleus.  However, after each knot melted and as the entire muscle was relaxed via hot oil and towels I found a new level of relaxed muscles I have not felt before.  The extra work on my foot arches, behind the knee and shoulders I'm sure contributed to the total relaxed sense of feeling.

It has been two weeks since I ran my last full marathon and even though I felt I was mostly recovered from the run I know now after having been to the sports massage specialist that I wasn't.  We counted at least four tender places around the soleus that I'm working on and will get another maintenance tuneup next month but was tremendous feedback to have and sure made my following 5 mile fun run actually fun.

If you consult your fellow running friends and find the right sports masseuse for you then I think a monthly massage is yet another positive tool at your disposal to help maintain good running form and hopefully keep running pain-free for years to come.

Sunday / Sunday : Back to back half marathons and recovery.

Didn't plan it but decided to see if I could handle 'back to back' Sunday half marathons.  Since I'm on a perpetual marathon training program and do half marathon distance (or longer) every weekend I thought running two consecutive races shouldn't have any impact at all.  Was a naive thought.

Below are the race splits from Half Moon Bay on 09/29 (left) and San Jose Rock in Roll on 10/06.  Both races are flat, both had cool mornings (~55) that warmed up towards after noon (65 in HMB, 85 San Jose), HMB was an out and back, SJ was a loop, both had you traversnig through residential neighborhoods.  One obvious difference was that HMB had 2000 runners whereas SJ had 16,000.

I was able to control my pace rather well at HMB and could actually see the little lag between when I took a GU and a pop in speed (between mile 7 and 9).   In SJ, I was fine for the first 6 miles then something happened. Just lost pace/energy and basically had to push from 7 all the way till the end. A mini-wall if you will.  Times are close but I was noticeably slower and more tired after SJ.

In between each race I did one practice run and some core workouts.  I didn't do any cross-training and my conclusion was that I just wasn't recovered from the first HM.  If I do Sunday to Sunday HM again, I think I'll attempt to do some spin classes to get my aerobic system and legs back to normal faster.

For this week I plan on doing some short ~4 mile runs after one day off then jump right into stationary bike spin/core workouts to aid in recovery.

plantar fasciitis (PF) fun

Firstly, I run a base mileage of 25-35 miles per week year round.  A typical week is at least one trail run or hill repeats, a short 6.5 mile maintenance run and two long runs on the weekend.  I have never had plantar Fasciitis (PF) like symptoms in my foot arch near by heel before.

A month go I finished a 16 mile run on a Sunday in my older Sketchers Go Run 2s and felt fine.  The following week, however, I did basically the same 16 miler on Sunday in my NEW Sketchers Go Run 2, same shoe, same model just newer (and probably a bit stiffer with more arch support) and by the end of the run could barely put pressure on my left arch near heal.  The next day my left arch was sensitive to the touch.

If you get fascilltis pain, which is basically swelling due to tearing of the fasciitis that connects toe area back to heel, there is little you can do short term other than take some pair reliever, ice it and immediately start stretching out the area that caused the tearing (calf, Achilles and fasciitis).  Long term requires figuring out what exactly caused the tearing and constant stretch exercises of much of your calf, Achilles and foot area.

Two days later after that Sunday, I hit the trails for a 7.5 very hilly trail run in my TRAIL SHOES (Tecnica x-lites) and to my great surprise I had no arch pain at all. Gone.  I don't believe the few hours of massage fixed my arch but that the shoes/hills didn't annoy it.  So, something about pavement pounding and my shoes were off.

Enter experiment number one.  I tried running a test 6.5 mile run in my trail shoes whilst running on pavement.  Comfortable but felt it a little bit in my left arch.  Yesterday, I completed a half marathon in Half Moon Bay in my trail shoes and almost had to stop at mile 10 because of arch pain. Luckily it wasn't bad enough to stop but painful and learned that if I run like a crab slightly askew there was less pain.  Today (day after) my left arch is sensitive to the touch but walkable. My plan is to continue to do the stretches below and attempt to figure what about my shoes or how I'm running on pavement that is irritating my arch.  One theory is that the 'extra arch' support found in Sketchers Go Run 2 is actually too much support and tweaked my fasciitis.  Which suggests my fasciitis or calf are too tight.

 Must do exercises:

1) Foot rolling : I do both recommended forms for different reasons.  I use a golf ball to pinpoint areas up and down the arch of my foot. Painful at first but as the arch stretches out it feels much better.  And, the second technique which is to freeze a bottle of water and simply roll the arch up and down the frozen bottle.  Feels really, really good.  If you live by the beach (especially cold water like we have in northern California) walking up/down the cold seashore also feels very good.

2) Gastrocnemius muscle stretch : After a run I always stand on a curb's edge and pivot both feet one at a time down hold 30 seconds then up.  The muscles are warm after a run and perfect for stretching out but don't over do it - stop when you get a mild burn.  This stretches the calf muscles nicely.

3) Soleus muscle stretch : Similar to above just bend you knee to isolate the Soleus and Achilles area.