Wrapup Session #1

The first 6-week session down, four to go. Just like that. We had a kidney stone, illness, shin splints, bought core ball, new shoes, and started this blog. Kurt and I ran our last week 5K time trials at a 8:18 to 8:07 pace, respectively. I averaged 16 miles a week (about right, a 19 and 20 the last couple weeks); and a disappointing 2 weight-workouts per week. That will not get the results needed to sustain harder-faster running later. Ran four 8s, still my favorite distance, in last three weeks, trying to run fewer days a week to accomodate baseball.

Strangely, Kurt, after being off his feet with the stone, has developed shin splints after one week back, which suggests he tried to do to much too soon.

Times talk:
Based on our 5K trial times, Coach Bensen's training model makes these assumptions: My current 9:20p 8-milers are being run at 75-80% effort, which is exactly where we should be for the marathon and very comfortable now. But the time needs to drop to 8:40 MP at that same effort, and be equally comfortable. So I'm a long ways off.

Our 5K time trials -- and these, again, are just markers to see where we are in relation to where we need to be to run under 4 hours -- are way off as well. It says to run a realistic sub-4 at 77-78% effort at a 9:05 MP -- we need to run 8:14 pace for 10K (51:00). However, because we're really shooting for 8:40 MP, to accomodate delays from all the people and water stops, the 5K time should get down to 7:18 pace (22:38) -- or 10K time at 7:34 pace (47:00).

So, after Session One, we're both looking at dropping roughly 1-minute off 5K times and around 40 seconds off comfortable (77-78% effort) MP runs.

Looking ahead to Session #2:
Mileage up--18-20 per week, basing. Starting a hill workout every other week. My goal is still 3X weight workouts per week. 10K time trials at end of each of the 3-week cycles. Introduce 4MP runs at 8:40p. Long is still only 6-8 each week. I may start substituting 880 intervals for a couple of the 5K trials on schedule--there's 4 of them.

Leftovers, Week 30

Progressing nicely with running/workouts till this week5, when baseball took over. Five-game tournament over the weekend, and a couple more games during the week, pretty much ruined the routine. Tactic between games and practices: Running 8s to compress two days into one. *** Kurt is back on the beam, traveling but working out in his room, he tells me. Sounds like he's fully recovered from kidney stone, counting down the days. *** I'm looking at 9 weeks of strength 3x-week workouts, before ratcheting up the longs. *** Looking, also, at 5 to 7 pounds of blubber that needs to go. *** Bought one of those big balls for core work. Leaning against it and rolling down a wall for quads and knees. *** Roy is planning to have the broken cartilege floating in his knee taken out. *** 80/80s this week (80 degree temp/80% humidity) for summer preview....

Jogger's hematuria

Blood in the urine. Who wants to read about that? Well, for years, I couldn't read enough about it. I couldn't talk to enough doctors about it. Because I couldn't figure it out. And it got so bad and so frequent, it threatened all my runs over 8 miles. It burned, it nauseated, it slowed me during marathons, it could even stop me. And then I started bleeding after just 3 miles.....so what the hell was going on?

Spotting of blood in the urine is actually fairly common among runners. And it scares the, well, okay, piss out of you the first time you see it. A couple drops mixed in with urine turns it the color of a California Bourdeaux. Pre-Running Boom, hematuria was known as Marcher's Syndrome (WW II), because soldiers would pee red after long marches. Dyhydrated, the walls of the bladder would slap together, breaking capillaries filled with small amounts of blood.

I thought my problem was that simple so I followed the recommended Rx of staying well hydrated and using liquids as a cushion for the bouncing bladder walls. Didn't work. I tried cutting out coffee. Spent hundreds of dollars on special supplements. Consulted and spent hundreds more on an "alternative medicine" doctor. No, no, no.

Last fall, the light finally turned on: My Vioxx. Even the doctor who prescribed me the Vioxx for assorted aches and pains never put it together. Earlier this week, just to make sure, I performed a scientific test: My arm killing me from throwing 500 baseballs in batting practice at 13-year-olds, I ate a couple Vioxx tabs. Within two days, yep, there it was. My burning Bourdeaux.

For anybody interested, all of those NSAIDS and Cox-2 inhibitors, as great as they are for pain and inflammation, can wreak havoc on the urinary tract and cause bleeding. I still have a Vioxx stash for a really bad day, but basically....back to icing. And no Vioxx 48 hours before a run over 5. Another damn rule.

You know you're a marathoner when....

You say you're going out for a short run, and come back two hours later.....You shower 12 times a week.....You start buying energy gels in bulk.....Eighteen weeks is an important block of time. (RW 10-02)..... You start thinking about a morning run a year or two in advance....You pee blood and shrug.....

Kurt's stone

Postscript on yesterday's post: The docs decided the stone was too close to the kidney to obliterate it with shock waves. So Kurt opted for them to "go up and get it," a non-medical term for -- oh, forget it -- rather than going home and passing it in his spare time. Forget that! Training is now on hold until, well, until his thing works again without the flaming fire below.

Upside of having a stone: You try your damndest to stay hydrated before, during and after runs. Dehydration of the kidney creates an environment for calcium crystals to form, grow and eventually pass. If you're doing a good job at hydrating, your kidney is flushing the calcium out of your system before stones can crystalize. Obviously, long distance running is constantly using up liquids for cooling, and it's sometimes hard to keep up with, especially on hot or humid days. After passing a stone, however, this idea of hydrating properly has your full attention.

Marathon vs. kidney stone

Which hurts more? It's not even close, actually. Take your worst-ever ending of a marathon, the one where you're bonking badly, dehydrated, cramped with a screaming hammie or two, immersed in a fatigue that weighs on you like warm death, throw in a dizzy spell with flashing bright lights, the "wall" is as thick as the 10K you still have to run....

Now compare that to the passing of a silly millimeter kidney stone, and you'll take the dehydrated bonk any day.

Kurt's passing his first stone as we write. Or make that, the doctors have decided it's a a bit chunky to pass on its own, so they're going to puverize the little beast with some shock waves. No big deal. The hard part is behind him. The part where you crawl up in a ball as some alien beast attacks from the inside. The part where you think you're gonna die and say hurry up. For Kurt, dopey on demerol and soon to have a sore ab from the shock waves, this part is like the long walk in mylar. You're weary, but the rage is over.

For the record, I've run 12 marathons and passed 4 kidney stones, so I write this with some authority. Kurt finished his inaugural marathon in October and now the first stone. I'm not sure if he's just trying to keep up or compete in the Worst Pains Ever Department, or what. If he gets pregnant soon, I guess we'll know.