Redemption Tastes Sweaty: McDowell Mountain Frenzy 50k Race Report

It's strange how things end up sometimes, especially when it comes to the human body (and super-especially when it comes to my body). DNF'ing at Pass Mountain 50k was a demoralizing, embarrassing experience that apparently shattered my ambitious plans for the year (it was number 3 of the 8 ultras between September and March that I was signed up for). Still, as much as I'd had my heart set on finishing the races I'd signed up (and paid) for, the last spark of common sense in me told me to not be an idiot and to take time to heal before I did real damage. So, I went down to Tucson for some Graston Technique therapy, cut out most of my running, and resigned myself to running a shorter (non-ultra) distance at McDowell Mountain Frenzy the following month.

Fast-forward to four weeks later. It was 7 or 8pm the night before the race and Emily and I had just finished setting up our tent when it occurred to me that both of my Achilles tendons felt pretty good. I tried bouncing up and down for a little bit. No pain at all. That's weird. A thought--probably a stupid thought--started to form in my head. I wonder if they'd last through a 50k... One fierce internal argument later, I decided to wake up in time for the 50k and see how I felt then.

Amazingly, I still felt fine the next morning, so I said what the heck and lined up with the 50k runners. This would not be a particularly easy race to drop from but I promised myself that if things weren't going well I would call it a day, even if it meant walking 10 miles back. I really didn't want it to come to that, so I started out extremely slowly, even by my standards.

10 miles in, the backs of my ankles still weren't painful but they felt a little bit off, so I kept the pace slow. It wasn't until mile 15 or so that I felt warmed up all the way, but once I was, my legs started feeling better and I let myself run more. In fact, over the next 10 miles I felt better and better.

By the time I came through the start/finish area at mile 25 I felt fresh as a daisy. I was a little bit tired but not much, and my legs felt the happiest they'd felt in over a month. On top of that, my watch read around 5:30-something, which put me on track for a PR. I wasn't sure how it had happened, but it had somehow turned into a good day for me. I refilled my bottles and pockets and took off like the proverbial bat out of H-E-double hockey sticks and covered the last 6 moderately hilly miles in under an hour (which for someone with a road marathon PR of 4:25 is borderline supersonic). I crossed the finish line in 6:35, 43 minutes faster than Paatuwaqatsi and over an hour faster than Cave Creek.

I couldn't believe how well the day had gone. Not only had I run a PR, but I had felt great doing it. It was my first 50k in which I genuinely felt good the whole race, instead of wishing for death to take me like I usually do the last few hours.

So how did this happen? Beats me. The moral of the story, I suppose, is once again to listen to my body, whatever it is trying to tell me. I did that when I DNF'd at Pass Mountain and I did it when I ran here, and both ended up being the right decisions. I also think my injury ended up working to my advantage. First, being constantly worried about my legs forced me to pace conservatively, which gave me my first negative-split ultra. Second, it forced me to take some time off from running, which in retrospect was probably rest I badly needed. Even aside from the injury, I didn't enjoy Pass Mountain because of how lethargic I felt. It was a beautiful day but and a scenic course but I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for running. Looking back, I was exhibiting textbook overtraining symptoms. After four weeks off, I was ready and eager to run again.

Due to my extreme laziness, I'm writing this five weeks after the race. Since then, I've been training moderately but consistently for Coldwater Rumble on January 19, where I will be attempting the 50 miler. Based on McDowell Mountain I'm cautiously optimistic, but if I've learned anything from the experience it's that you never know what will happen.

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Order my children's book about barefoot running: What Should I Put on My Feet to Go Run?

The Secret to Good Health

I read an excellent article recently about the problematic nature of scientific research in the area of human health, and it made me think of all of the idiotic news stories I've read recently about how exercise is bad for your heart, or obesity helps you live longer, and on and on. If you've ever been worried or confused by headlines like these, I encourage you to read the article. One eye-popping statistic is that about two thirds of the studies published in top medical journals reach results that turn out to be wrong. (Let that sink in for a moment. Two thirds--that's a result 16% worse than having a monkey flip a coin.) The article goes on to parse out the reasons for this; two of the big ones are the difficulty of experimenting on humans and the journals' preference for exciting results (scientific journals love catchy headlines as much as any other news source).

So where does that leave us? If we can't believe the latest sensationalist headlines, what do we believe? Well, for starters you don't have to completely throw out scientific research; you just need to take everything with a grain of salt and work with the assumption that if a result of a study doesn't seem to make any sense, there was probably something wrong with the study. It also helps to look at research about a topic as a whole, instead of just one study. Over time, the scientific community often (but not always) corrects itself. The problem from our end is that the "Oh wait--exercising is healthier than sitting on the couch eating Cheetos after all" articles tend not to get quite the same press coverage.

Newspapers try to avoid using the word "duh" in their headlines

But let's take a step back. Does it really have to be this complicated? Do we really know so little about the needs of the human body that we have no idea what a healthy lifestyle looks like, or are we just being willfully ignorant? I believe that deep down we all know what we're supposed to be doing, we just don't want to do it. And like a kid who puts off homework until the last minute in the hope that somehow there will be a snow day or the school will burn down, we all secretly cling to the hope that someday science will justify our current lifestyle.

I can't help but wonder if this accounts for much of the success of the Atkins and paleo diets. If you tell a kid that he doesn't have to go to school because the school burned down, he's not going to become suspicious and demand proof; he's going to start planning his day off. Likewise, if you tell an adult that, yes, a whole plate of bacon and some chicken wings is a healthy meal, you're not going to get the same degree of skepticism that you would if you asserted that bacon causes AIDS.

In reality, there's nothing mysterious about getting healthier. Everything you need to know you heard from your mother as a kid. "Finish your vegetables." "Go play outside." "Eat your apple slices and stop asking for a Twinkie." The only trick is to buck up and stop acting like you don't know what you're supposed to be doing.

So what is it that we all know? Let's start with things that we all know are good for us: fruit, vegetables, exercise. Many people would argue that there are other things to add to that list, but let's cap it there for the moment. (Others would argue that some of those items are bad for you, and if you are one of those people, do me a favor and slap yourself.)

(Side rant: if you're following the paleo lifestyle and refuse to eat fruit because of it, I've got bad news for you: you aren't paleo, you're on the Atkins diet. There's never been a real hunter-gatherer who refused to eat fruit because it wasn't on his diet.)

Okay, now let's cover the things that we all know are bad for us: fast food, processed food, refined flour and sugar, sedentariness, tobacco, excessive alcohol. Again, there are a lot of additional items we could add, but let's stop here.

Now, assuming you're with me so far, we have two lists that we can all agree on, one of things we know are good for us, and one of things we know are bad for us. Guess what? That's really all you need to know to be healthy. The only secret to feeling better, weighing less, getting fitter and living longer is to get more of the first category and less of the second. It's really that simple.

Now, obviously there are a lot of foods that don't fall into our two groups, and aside from a few crackpot studies and diets (*cough*, Atkins, *cough*) it's those other foods that are the subject of most of the health debate. It's tempting to join in the fray, but first you really need to ask yourself this question: are you getting lots of our first group--are you eating tons of fruit and veggies and exercising regularly--and avoiding the second? Because if you aren't bothering to do that, you have no business arguing the details of an optimum diet. Go finish learning arithmetic, and then we'll talk trig.

Okay, back? Great. Opinions differ greatly over the relative merits of virtually all the remaining foods. I'm sure you're dying to hear mine, so here it is. Personally, I divide them into two main groups. One, foods that are probably bad for us but may be okay in small quantities: red meat, dairy, eggs, olive oil, honey, alcohol. Two, foods that are probably healthy but that are either debatable or not as healthy as fruits and veggies: whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fish. That gives me four groups total, which represent a progression from healthiest to unhealthiest:

1. Fruit, vegetables
2. Whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fish
3. Red meat, dairy, eggs, olive oil, honey
4. Fast food, processed food, refined flour and sugar.

This also represents a chronological progression for me. Three years ago my diet mostly consisted of foods from groups 3 and 4. Gradually, I gave up the foods in group 4, then group 3, and finally group 2, so that now my diet is comprised almost entirely of fresh fruits and vegetables. At every stage along the way there was a marked improvement in the way I felt, in how much I weighed, and in my running performance.

Like this, but with fewer lobbyists

So there you go: the secret to good health in one blog post. Let me know how it goes.

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Order my children's book about barefoot running: What Should I Put on My Feet to Go Run?

Barefoot Running: The Movie Review

I had previously mentioned this movie here, so I was excited to get my hands on a copy to review. It is made by Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee of runbare.com, and is a follow-up to their book called (surprise!) Barefoot Running (I also have a copy of that and am currently working my way through it--review coming soon).

This is a great movie to get if you are curious about barefoot running, currently run and want to improve, or know someone who could use a push in the right direction. Michael, the star of most of the movie, has put in the literal and figurative miles both running and teaching and obviously knows what he's talking about. His story of how he found barefoot running is truly remarkable, and manages to be both inspirational and horrific (and if you think he's making it up, just wait for the part where he shows you where his ACL used to be.  Oof.) Jessica brings a different, complementary perspective in her sections which gives the movie a nice variety and change of pace.

The movie is 76 minutes long and is split into 17 bite-size chapters:

1. Why Run Bare

2. Michael's Story

3. Anatomy of Running

4. Jessica's Story

5. Proper Running Form

6. Syncing with Nature

7. Warming Up

8. Proper Running Form

9. Benefits for Women

10. Form Drills

11. Nature Play

12. Balance Drills

13. Blindfolded

14. Building Pads

15. Recovery

16. Footwear

17. Happy Trails & Credits

The chapters are easy to digest and make it easy to find portions you want to review. They cover form, drills, warming-up, cross-training, footwear, and quite a bit on the play and spiritual/philosophical aspects of barefoot running. These last sections have irritated some of the reviewers here but I find them to be very valuable. Not only are they some of the most enjoyable parts of running barefoot (nothing will make you feel more like a kid or closer to nature than being barefoot in the woods), but the more in touch you are with your body, the more successful your transition will be and the less likely you will be to injure yourself. Far from being new age mumbo jumbo, exercises which teach you to listen to your body have the practical value of protecting you against the injuries that many people assume are inevitable.

The video is designed for beginners but those who have been barefoot running (or running shod, for that matter) for years will still find much that is new and helpful. The advice overall is very good, and ranges from the familiar (ChiRunning practitioners will recognize the section on pelvic tilt) to the new (rolling your foot on a tennis ball before running to warm up the muscles). There were a few parts that confused me, usually offhand comments or use of some of Michael's quirky terminology. For example, at one point he recommends running with "hand weights" (which would be a terrible idea) and it wasn't until a little bit later in the movie that he mentions that "hand weights" is his term for shoes that he has beginners carry with them (which is a great idea). On the whole, though, the instruction is clear and straightforward and free of misinformation.

I can't help but mention the fantastic cinematography. The production quality in general is very professional, way above what you might expect for a how-to video in a niche sport, and the locations (all in Maui, which is much more diverse than I realized) are gorgeous. In fact, in addition to making you want to kick off your shoes, this movie will also make you want to move to Hawaii. It's also surprisingly entertaining, not at all the bone-dry monotone that instructional movies tend to be. I have to give two quotes that I especially like: "If it's a fad, then it's the longest fad to ever be on the earth". "You'd never put on your shoes to steal a cookie." Love it.

In sum, it's a great movie--instructive, entertaining, and inspirational. I highly recommend it. You can get your copy on Amazon.

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DVD provided by the authors.

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Order my children's book about barefoot running: What Should I Put on My Feet to Go Run?