What this is about


February 2013

I am a 47 year old ultramarathon runner who  is learning to run injury-free.  I want to share the lessons I've learned...read on with the understanding that what follows is my experience and as they say, (your) "results may vary".

 I've been a trail runner for 34 years since my high school cross country days;  I 've been running ultras since 1991 when I ran the AC100.  In the nineties I ran a few 50 milers with some success (PR 6:46 at McKenzie River Trail run), but by the late nineties I became injury prone.  Back then it was my knees ...thankfully  I never believed the docs who told me they could "fix it".  I could never train for more than one big race a year and it was a dicey thing whether I would make it to the starting line for any given race (my batting average was about 50% and I was a  big believer in "vitamin I").   For the last decade or so my training and racing has been severely limited:  When I got my base mileage up and start to really train I've tended to get calf strains (calf "heart attack") and when I  increase the mileage in the mountains the big grinding decents of the San Gabriels trash my quads and knees.    So my modus operandi has been to ramp up to a base of 30-40 miles a week, quickly toss the mileage up to 50 miles a week, and do my big  run before my body notices whats happening...get the run done and then either stop running;  or try to continue and get injured.  I did 2 Grand Canyon R2R2Rs this way and a few 50ks and trail marathons.

I stayed away from long ultras because I knew that I wouldn't be able to swing the sustained training required.  

But I decided in July 2012  to run the AC100 again-- I'd gotten fired up working the finish line of AC100 as a volunteer.  It started off pretty well but soon enough I was having to ice my knees after any significant mountain run.   By October the knees were just getting trashed by the decents on Mt Lowe and Mt Wilson.   But I persisted. I worked through a hamstring strain with an ART therapist in Pasadena.  Worked through a gastroc strain.  Kept icing the knees.   

I was getting worried and was reading everything in sight.  I bought a pair of Merrill Trailgloves, thinking maybe I would try a barefoot style of running since I had read that that minimizes the beating that running puts on the body.  I went out in December and gingerly tried them.  5 minutes in,  PING!  my calves had been feeling brittle and damn, the right medial gastroc just  went.  That was that, I walked home.  I rested a few days, started running again in my ASICs, it felt OK, but after a couple days of light running PING!  I did it again, same spot Rested a week, repeat. PING!    Started mountain biking to maintain fitness.  Rest 2 weeks.  Start running again, PING! did it again on Jan 2.  Thats when I pulled out of the Ray Miller 50 that I had registered for as a qualifier for AC100.


Well, at $110 I had to use those Trailgloves for something.  So I started  in early January by power walking in the Merrill trailgloves to keep some modicum of fitness.  I started walking 3 miles....then 4...then 5.   Turns out you can put in some decent mileage walking...   After a week, I ramped the walking to 30 miles /week; Then to 40 miles/wk.  My arches ached at first...but then they were OK.  I started feeling good, and wearing the Trailgloves everywhere.  My feet felt good.   I started alternating walking and running.

Then I tackled  Mt Lowe in my Trailgloves-  power hike up;  run/walk down, 15 miles total.  No pain!  Did it the next weekend, ran more-  No pain.

The Trailgloves are a zero-drop shoe (heel and forefoot are at the same level...no wedge like in traditional marshmello shoes) with a huge toe box and just enough vibram rubber on the bottom to keep sharp rocks from bruising your foot.   They remind me of my old track racing flats I used as a highschooler but without  the spikes/spike sockets, and with a wider toe box.   You just cannot heel strike in these shoes.

After switching to zero drop shoes,  I am no longer experiencing zero knee pain on grinding downhills.    All the shock seems to be taken up by reflex in the lower leg.  

I think the reason that I have been trashing my quads and knees and calves in traditional running shoes...the lower leg cannot take up the shock because of the high heels in the back prevent it....it all dumps on the quads and knee.  The gastroc was stressed because I was trying to run while "front-pointing" in these mushy high-heels.

At this point I've lapsed into theorizing.   What counts is whether I can run the Leona Divide 50 in April and get through it injury free and on to the AC100 starting line in August  uninjured.

  • Note added May 5:  Leona Divide, check!
  • Note added July 28:  After running >~480 miles in 6 weeks, with  a peak volume of 275miles in the three peak weeks, it looks like I will be at the starting line of the 2013 AC100 uninjured baring unforeseen accidents.  Wow!
  • Aug 4:  AC100 23:13

2 comments:

  1. awesome, thanks for sharing!

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  2. Thank you for the positive feedback! Its been an amazing year, and I never thought I'd be able to run a 100 miler again like I did in August. The knee and calf injuries are evidently behind me and I am very motivated to pass on what I learned. But to be useful, such sharing of experience needs to be complete and not selective- at the moment I am dealing with some achilles tendonitis that snuck up on me through the AC100 which I finally recognized only in September. It could be argued that transitioning to a radically different (minimalist) running style and tackling a 100 miler inside of one year was a touch aggressive. While I wouldn't trade the race experience I had, I do think I ramped at the limit of what was possible or prudent and now need to pay down the debt I incurred. I will keep posting on how it goes.

    Again, thanks.

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