In awe

Tag: health

  • Day491 IMTR run #2 (Training week 5)

    I went to Damascus (VA) and had my second and last on-site training run for the IMTR (Iron Mountain Trail Run), a race I will be doing in a couple week.

    This is similar to the trip I took about amont ago in July. Last time, we covered the second half of the course, from Skull Gap to Skull Gap (a loop, shaped like a p) which is from mile 15 to mile 35 on race day.

    This time we covered the first half (mile 1-15 and mile 35 to mile 50) from the town of Damacus out to Skull Gap. It is almost an out and back, with the first 5 mile being a loop, and follow by a 10 mile of out-and-back, think of it being a like a lowercase letter d. The full course is like a q and a d stack together, connected by the handle, or think of it as an elongated figure 8, where the middle is stretch out really long.

    My expectation was this first half (30 mile in total) is easier than the second half (which is on 20 miles). I don’t think I was wrong, but these 30 miles are just as hard too.

    The first half is not a walk in the park as I first thought it would be.

    A reason I might have the wrong impression was, we have 5 miles on the Virginia Creeper Trail and this is the easiest portion of the race, for being flat and on a bike trail. We ran this portion with fresh legs and so it felt fast. Then there is a mile of climb using Bleech Trail to get onto the Iron Mountain. This is hard stuff, probably the hardest part of the entire section, or the whole 50 mile course. After that, It is generally a roller coaster ride of ups and downs to Skull Gap, but I believe mostly up. Here my last year memory apparently blocked out all the ups. There were at least half of the 9 miles being climbing. And when it is not climbing, it is slightly on an upward incline. There are some descends too. The trail in this portion is not technical. However, I am probably out of shape as I couldn’t get into a good running stride for a long substainable time. I was exhausted at the turn around at Skull Gap. Of course, on race day, we would have to do the 20 mile loop out to Hurricane Gap (as we did on the first training run), plus a 13 mile back to the start.

    About halfway to Skull Gap is FS 90, where on our race day will be one of our aid stations. During training run, this was a life-saver, because we had our water there. On race day, that will determine if I will get cut or not.

    I was fortunate to be able to run with Greg (someone I met) on the return portion (about last 13 miles). Greg generally is a much faster runner than I. He was a mile ahead of me by the time I was near halfway. Because it was an out and back, I turned around and ran back to the start when I saw him. He has done the race 5 times and this year would be his 6th. He is well familiar with the trail and the race. He shared some of his race strategies. He said he normally allots 7 hours for the first half and 5 hours for the second half of the course (first half meaning from Damascus to Skull Gap and back to Damascus). Coming back is supposed to be easier than going out.

    On our training, it took us 7:18 minutes to do the out and back. Greg considered that was decent for a training run. It might have taken me a bit longer because I skipped a mile. I imagine it should have taken me 7.5 hours, if I had run the full length as Greg.

    The second portion took me about 6 hours during the last training run. The combined gives me an expected time finish time on race day of 13.5 hours. Note, the race only allows for 12 hours. I have to run faster meet the cutoff on race day.

    I am in a serious trouble of not being able to finish on time on race day. If I must, I can drop down to a 40 mile option. However, I really want to flex that I can run a 50 mile in 12 hours.

    I went back out on Sunday, doing the same loop, hoping I could shorten the time. On Sunday, I was actually slower. It took me 4 hours to descend from Skull Gap to Damascus and it took equally as long from Damascus back to Skull Gap, where I parked. It ended up 8 hours.

    The time is not indicative of what it will be like on race day. I hope I will get faster. I know I run faster when it is an actual race than on a training run.

    Even though I did not reach my target time, I enjoyed my training runs. The weather was generally much cooler. I haven’t been able to have a 70-75F day since the Catoctin Run. It has been 90+ everyday the last few weekends. So this weekend, we were lucky. Sunday, I ran in the rain during the afternoon. The rain felt refreshing. Not just the rain, but the sound of raindrops on leaves and the mist that came as the result was amazing. It was foggy. I like fog.

    Originally, I thought I would have trouble with the logistics being that it was an out-and-back run. On the first day, we had a water drop at FS 90 (halfway point) and I ran out of water exactly by halfway (maybe 8 miles in). However, on Sunday, there was no water drop because I was by myself and I did not know the way to FS 90 where the trail crosses to leave myself water ahead of time. I was concern about where to get water for my run. Then the idea came to me to park my car at Skull Gap and run down into town. I could then go to a gas station to get water and then run back up to Skull Gap. I did just that. While I was in Damascus, I got myself lunch at a Subway. It also was a good practice to ser how fast I could get down from the mountain (no fast as I original had expected).

    No big conclusion. I am fatter and heavier. I regained much of the weight I lost before the MMT event in May. I have been slacking in my training. It shows. I do want to be better. I have three weeks to get myself in shape. I was out of breath.

  • Day467 slow week

    Maybe it is a pattern that after a big race, there is a big let down immediately after. I have been in a slump the last two weeks.

    My ability to run shouldn’t be a limiting factor, but my life has been hectic and what not. It got so bad that I haven’t run for two weeks.

    The only times I stopped running were for quarantine back in 2020. I took two weeks off then. Another time I stopped running was due to caring for my mom – that was right before the 100 mile race in West Virginia.

    This time I really messed up with my training for the next hundred miler. I should have been in my peak condition right now, but I am not. I think I am at maybe 10%. The race is maybe in 6 weeks. It is a bit late. I really bombed my February and March, the two crucial months.

    Not only that but a few days ago, it started on Wednesday, I had lower back pain. I had back pain in the past. It comes and goes. The pain was enough for me to keep me from running.

    The next morning though the pain shifted to my lower left thigh. It was as if someone stabbed me during the night in the back of my leg. I was hobbling around during the next day. Friday, it got a bit better. The pain went down to numbness. Still walking was difficult. Saturday I stayed home. The pain reduced a bit further. There were certain positions I could sit or lay down where I could be painfree now. Then came Sunday. I had a 10K race.

    A wise person would listen to their body but I am not one of them. I went to the course anyway. I paid for the race months ago and there is no way I would be giving up on it. Even if I couldn’t run it, I might be able to walk it. It might take me two hours but I will get it done.

    Before the race, I googled what was wrong with me with my conditions. I think I have an idea now. Of course I am not a doctor and the web and self diagnosis is not the most accurate thing. I think I had a high hamstring pulled. The conditions seem to match. They have a term for this. I realized I had this pain before. Some say it wouldn’t go away by resting and ice.

    Would I still going to run it or not? I could barely walk. I thought it was funny I was limping down the street while everyone was doing their warm up runs. I tried to stretch my hamstring, boy was that hurt. No worry. We would go slow.

    I chose to run. The first mile was like a 13 min pace and I was with all the slow people. Gradually I could go a bit faster and faster. The pain let up. I could go into a full sprint. Glory for now and pain later I said to myself. I could move at a 9 min pace (near my top speed) by mile 4. Mile 5 I started to get tired and my pace dropped back down to 9:30. I cruised to the finish passing a few other people on the way in.

    Now what? Don’t do what I did. Listen to your body. I don’t know if I will be able to move tomorrow. We will see.

    Fyi, I am not sure if I had covid or was it the side effect from the booster shot, but I had all of these:

    “Post-COVID-19 fatigue is more than just tiredness and can make you feel completely drained, exhausted, and generally unwell, which is common when your body is fighting a viral infection. You may also experience other symptoms such as: Weakness, Muscle and joint pain, Poor concentration, Sore throat, Headache,
    Disorientation.”

    Why did I not get tested? I forgot; it didn’t occur to me that it could have been covid. Only now as I am writing up this post, the light turned on. I could have the omicron. I should have gotten tested. Now it is too late, I already felt much better this week.

    I don’t know what will happen to me now in the weeks ahead. My conditions might take 6 more weeks to fix, but I definitely will make it worse with my running. There are exercises (stretches) I could do to strengthen my hamstring. Six weeks from now though would be my 100 mile race.

  • Day408 update

    Not much to update. My daily run is a bit better. My legs no longer feel heavy. However, I am still running very slowly. It is breathing problem now. You know, when you think you are out of breath, and have to stop running.

    It has been hard to run fast and far again. My fastest speed currently is around 11-12 min per mile. Most days were much slower (14-15). I used to run around 9-10 min per mile. Yes, I am slow. I remember 4 years ago, 8-9 min were normal.

    I feel like the vintage game Excitebike, if I push myself too fast, I would be ‘overheat’ and have to stop at the side of the road as penalty. I spent most of my run walking to “cool down”. I am not really overheat in the traditional sense, but I feel like my whole body screaming saying stop running. It is frustrating that most of my run is walking. I run every few steps (30 secs), and I would feel I couldn’t run any more and have to slow down to a walk. Then I feel good again and run a few more steps. It takes maybe 6 miles everyday to ‘warm up’ before I could run normally. Then it is a joy to be out.

    This is actually an improvement. I know I am getting back to normal. I am happy to be out there.

    I do wonder though, would it has been better if I take a month or two off before running again. I don’t know. I feel as soon as I get back out the better.

    Sleepwise, I finally reset my schedule. No longer do I go to bed at 8 pm. No longer do my body feel cold by night fall, which makes me want to go to bed.

    Yesterday evening was super warm, 50 F, but all my hands and feet were icy cold. I had on three layers, with a sweater. After a mile, I had to take all those off but the long sleeves.

    Saying this because I think something is wrong with my body. Originally I thought because I am hungry, so I was cold. But lately I started eating dinner at 4 pm, still I get cold around 5 pm.

    Anyway, the cold does not hamper me as it did during the first week back. I am in week 3 now.

    I want to put this somewhere. They say in a long race (50k or longer), to walk uphill and run downhill. I have been doing that. However, in a 100 mile, by doing only that, by the end of it, my muscle was so overused for running downhill. I started to hate every downhill. Need to balance, for those who are thinking doing long races.

    Misc. Also this should go somewhere, but I probably would not have an entire post on it. This week, I learned a late well respected preacher Ravi Zacharias, was found to live a double life (and would possibly have been charged for his sexual misconducts if he was still alive). I was late in learning about it. Most people already commented it on Feb 12, when the investigative report was released. It was a bombshell. It was not just an oopsie but was really bad because he did it over a long period and involved countless of victims and everyone around him was lied to. I then searched on Youtube for responses. I was surprised only mostly the younger crowd (people I never heard before) made some type of reactions. I am still processing it. I was hoping to hear from his peers or family. I guess his conducts were so horrible, there is nothing but condemnations and the older crowds rather kept their silence (there were couple of them now). Everyone was caught off guard because he hid it so well. My two-cent.

    How is the guy affected me? Not much. I listened to his talks before and he was a powerful speaker, but I never a follower of his stuff. It was never really my preference. Still it was a surprise how he set up the whole scheme around the world. Infamous. It is like something I would do – the big brain 😉

  • Day405

    I’m still savoring the run at the Rocky Raccoon. I was disoriented during the race and immediately afterward of putting together much coherent thoughts. Time flies.

    My sleep pattern is out of wack too. I did not get much sleep beforehand. There was no sleep during the race. And I slept a lot afterward when I finished (in the afternoon time). So after I got back to the east coast, for the past few days, I have been going to bed around 8 ish, and woke up a little past midnight. Usually I only need 4-5 hours of sleep. Then stayed awake for the rest of the night. It is out of wack.

    How is my body recovering? It has been better than if from a marathon. I felt slight sore but nothing major. I haven’t run for the past few days not because I couldn’t but because just trying to catch back up with life.

    Also going to bed early was in conflict with my normal night time running.

    Healthwise, I have been taking it easy. I know my body immune system is weaken after a long run so I let it recover on its own. I did not feel in top shape. At night after dark for the past few days, I just couldn’t stand the cold. Going to bed early help.

    There is the concern of catching Covid. I plan to get tested either at the end of this week or early next week. When you are on higher alert every little thing changed to your body spooks you. I don’t feel strong. My muscle aches; I felt cold; my throat kind of hurt; I had slight dizziness. Did I imagine it? Were these the effects from the run or am I getting sick?

    I have been staying low. No running for three days. Trying to find the new normal.

    One thing I found very perculiar during the run is my back hurt. Duh. No I mean my upper back – more like the shoulderblade areas, especially my right side. At first I thought because I run with the pack. Then I don’t have the pack on. I think my muscle there is weak. You can see some runners with their backs hunch over. I felt like that. It takes a lot of strength to keep the body upright. I definitely have to do something about that before the next race.

    What after this? I have to start training for the Laurel Highlands. I think it is harder than Rocky Raccoon because of the elevation. Rocky Raccoon has only 1000-2000 ft gain. Laurel Highlands, I am guessing 10000-20000 ft. Also the trail is not as forgiving as the Rocky Raccoon. I hiked on there and I know.

    oh, counting battle scars, I think from Rocky Raccoon, I had couple minor blisters, not worth mentioning. The strategy of switching shoes every 20 miles worked. My biggest “battle scar” I think is I might lose a toe nail. I kicked a rock or branch early in the race because a pair of shoes has very thin layer up front for toe protection. I think it is a gym/walking shoes. See, I am happy after this long race, I am still relatively well all around. I am more than pleased.

  • Day344 A second attempt – about to start

    I am a few hours away from starting the run. As of right now I just woke up and still am very comfortable on my bed in the hotel near the airport. By the way, after having been of other city airport hotels, this is one of the best! It is comfortable and inexpensive and you don’t hear the take offs and landing or airplane flying over. How do they do it? I found out they originally were a Motel 6, but they renovated it and upgraded all around. It is on the level of Comfort Suites. It is part of the Quality Inn chain, but the quality I am getting is way higher than all the Quality Inns I stayed at. I just love the hotel and want to sleep in. I paid for four nights, but tonight I won’t be there!

    Ideally I should have started the run yesterday because it was cooler and the chance of encountering rain storms during the run was lower (30% chance only), but today and tomorrow, my chance of running into a storm is around 50%. They are leftovers from Cat 4 Laura that made landfall in the Texas/Lousiana region couple nights ago.

    However, I was not ready yesterday. I had not reviewed the map then and had not decided on the starting time. Since the starting time would determine the ending time, it needed to be chosen carefully.

    Last time, I started in the evening at 6 pm and was aiming to finish at 4 am two days later. I thought of doing so again and maybe moving up the starting time by a few hours.

    I woke up late and had company’s work to do. It was my day off but I didn’t finish those stuff on the day before my trip (computer issue kept me from doing them – it decided to run an update when I tried to do my work before my flight! My frustration level was through the roof). So I spent the morning doing my work. I was not done until 2 pm. I then went for lunch. I knew the run was not happening because I had not packed yet! I got everything laid out, but still did not have my runner pack in a final ready to go condition. 100 mile requires careful consideration of what to take a long.

    Then I decided to go to Walmart to get a watch (you know the cheap one that have a stop watch feature?) but as I got there, I forgot all about getting a watch but instead got a lot of stuff for dinner and food for the run and food to eat after the run! I brought $30 worth of junk food. I probably wouldn’t finish them all – 7 cans of spagetti, lot of fruit cups, oreo cookies, packs of juicy fruit candies, instant cup noodles, package tunas and more. The watch would let me calculate the interval (time of a shorter distance, say 10 or 20 miles) during the run because I don’t want to mess with my main watch since that will track the overall 100 mile distance. Not having a spare watch is not a problem. I could still do it in my head and with paper and pen, it just a lot burdensome.

    When I got back to the hotel, I separated the food that I will take along into 6 ziplock bags. The goal is to eat a bag for every 6 hours (6 bags for 36 hours). I counted up each bag to have around 850 calories. I have six of these. This is much better than my last attempt. Last time, the whole run I only carried about one bag calories of food and ended up only eating about 10% and the rest of my calories came from sugarly drinks and I felt it affected my performance. First not enough, so I was dying halfway. I remembered my heart was racing crazy from the energy drink yet I didn’t have the power to run, and I was drained. I was so scared that I didn’t want another Powerade. It was not fun when your heart was about to explode and the lung was collapsing. Breathing hurt that time. I hope to avoid that mistake.

    Because I will be carrying so much food (6 meals), I am bringing my big bookbag. They won’t all fit in the smaller pack. It is a daypack from my hiking trip. It is heavy. Very heavy. I don’t like running with such a heavy pack! But I need the food, unless I have someone to carry them for me. This is why I wish I have local support crew (aid stations). Otherwise, I could leave all the food/drinks with my crew and they just have to show up at a given interval and give me the food. Last time I was hoping the stores along the way would be my aid station. However, drinks were easy to come by but not food! They had candies but no real food. Real food were out of the way and I didn’t want to take a detour.

    I think the food I am bringing along will be enough. It still is less than what my body will consume though. Every 6 hours my body will be burning 2000 calories and I am giving back only at most 1000. I plan to buy muscle milk and yogurt along the way, they will add couple hundred of calories. No more sodas this time around. They have to be high caloric drinks. I know I will still shutdown after halfway, but at least I hope it will give me enough to press on.

    I checked the map afterward packing. I am not too worry. I wish still I had memorized the turns. We do what we have to do.

    As for start time. I’m moving it up real early to 9/9:30 AM with the aim of finishing at 7:30 pm on Sat night.

    That was the main reason I couldn’t set off yesterday. I was already behind the start time once I figured I wanted a morning start instead of an afternoon/evening start.

    Having an extra day, physically was a good thing. My poison ivy infection is getting better. My left leg is almost completely healed of the ivy reaction. My right leg started to get worse on my flight to Atlanta and yesterday the bumps (30+) started weeping/oozing, that is good, it means they will be healing soon. It was what I was concerned about that the blisters from the ivy will break during my run and the friction from repetitive foot moment will agitate the wounds and they would get infected. Now they broke while I am still at the hotel. I washed and cleaned them with the poison ivy specialty soap. I should be ready for the run. I believe they will dry out during the run.

    Only last concern is my cardio aerobic performance. It degraded a lot compare to last time. Those who have been following my blog know I was struggling with my runs. My feeling is I can only do 13 miles at most and probably drag it out to 26. I don’t know if I will even reach 50, much less get to 100. That is a realistic assessment. I know it is bad luck to envision failure even before starting.

    I do want to get to the 100. It is a long shot. Even when I was in my peak, that was very hard (in the realm of impossible) thing. Now I am four times worse. Only way to find out is go out and try. I am very nervous.

    food: My main secret to get through the run

  • Update

    Day 142

    I am on medication and my body is still very weak. Most symptoms are starting to go away. I knees are weak. Sometimes it is hard to go up the stairs. The inflammation of my back is gone now. I am no longer sore anywhere on my body. My sore throat has gone away. My jaw hinge is no longer hurting. All kind of weird stuff that was happening before are gone. One of my ear is still block from time to time. My balance is off.

    One thing though I am still very weak. I get out of breath easily and my heart too races too frequently. It is getting better.

    I tried to do some hiking today even though my friend protested against it. It was supposed to be a 9 mile loop at the Little Devil Stair. It is not an easy hike but not a too hard a hike either (rated one of the most difficult in our area) but runners run on this trail. I did it couple times before. To me it was easy. You climb it like stairs. Imagine it is a 100 stories building, like the empire state building.

    The trail started off gently for a mile and then shoot straight up for a thousand foot climb. Something like that. I did the first mile fine. I was strong. Then came the climb. I think I got to 3/4 of the way up when I became very weak all the sudden. I was out of breath and breathing hard. My heart was racing. We took a stop for me to rest up. I got my breathing under control and calmed my heart. Then we continue on. We didn’t get more than 20 steps, my vision started to go blury. My hearing too. I was disassociating all things around me. It was like I am floating. I could hardly focus. I couldn’t hear what my friend was saying. Everything was muffled. Something about I should sit down.

    I sat down. Luckily that stopped me from fainting. I felt I was on the verge of tumbling over. I told myself I got to hold on else it will freak my friend out. She was very worried about me already.

    She asked if I wanted to turn around. That choice never occur to me. I knew we were almost to the top yet, the last quarter mile seemed impossible for me to go on. I felt if I took another 20 steps the same thing might happened again.

    I told the group I can manage to get down the mountain by myself, but they were worried. So the whole group walked with me back down the ravine. I was grateful but embarrassed.

    I made it down and back to the car. I never imagined I can be this weak. I felt I can do it. Yet, when my body run out of energy it just shuts down and it was very scary. When I am not moving I felt I have enormous amount of energy and I can take on anything. However, once I started to move, my energy quickly used up.

    I then waited at the car as some of them tackled the trail again. They did the shorter version (5 miles) and ran down the last 3 miles. I wasn’t sad. Just a bit disappointed at my body is unable to keep up.

  • Maybe that is my current limit

    Day 138

    I always want to know what is my current limit. Now I feel like a boat out of the water. I really love running but as much as I tried this past week I couldn’t get anywhere.

    I, in the past, laughed at older runners who swing their arms vigorously while their feet do not seem to be going anywhere. Now that is me. I am willing to do anything to propel me forward even if it means swing my arms 10 times faster than my legs are moving. My body just wouldn’t budge. Now I believe my nonrunning friends who often told me they just couldn’t run. Now I couldn’t run even if I want to. I could jog and that about it.

    If it is really exhaustion or if it is due to my improper diet, I can make adjustment and in no time I will be back in my old self. Otherwise, it might be a long wait and I might have to hang up my running shoes.

    I have been reading a lot on why I am feeling anemic.

    I have a few reasons of my own. #1 reason was I just recovered from an illness. It was not serious but it lasted couple weeks and it affected my body. Apparently I am not a super hero and don’t have an indestructible body. I am human and with all its frailty. I completed couple marathons since but results were not good.

    #2 All my running friends have been telling me I have been running too much. Surprising given we are runners and there is nothing about running too much in our vocabulary. I didn’t know this myself. I have been feeling fine all the time (except for being sick, but that only happened at night) unlike my previous recovery from a long run, this time around I did not feel much pain or tired. On paper though I did a lot. I already did three official marathons in three months. I have seven more to go. I have done many off the record runs.

    A week before my ultra, the same week I was sick, I went on a 27 mile hike. It was a tough hike. I got blisters on both bottom of my heels. Then I had my ultra the following week, it was 28-29 miles and it took me 7 hours. I ran for about four hours at top/maximum heart rate. And couple hours just a step below the maximum. I didn’t think I exerted too much of effort because I felt I walked most of the time and averaging only at 3 miles an hour.

    Then the week after that, I went out again and did a 27-28 miles run/hike on my own and it took me 10.5 hours. I ran for maybe an hour at maximum heart rate. My Garmin listed it as a 5 (top) red zone for aerobic, which would require lot of time for recovery. I didn’t know at the time. I felt I could go out again and do another run.

    Since then, I did a half marathon, in which I had the worst finishing time in my life, at 2:30. Still it was a run. It was about 25% slower than my usual pace. Garmin listed that event a grade 3 aerobic.

    Throughout last week, I couldn’t really run. Thursday practice was the hardest. Garmin listed it as a grade 1 aerobic, which is not much. However, I felt that run was harder than doing the marathon. I had a 5K today too and also received my worst time. About 25% slower. For the first time I did not finish under 30 minutes.

    #3 I didn’t think of was the food I eat, but I changed my diet about couple weeks ago eating way less meat and more salad, no fat or sugar, trying to lower my cholesterol. I might be missing some vitamins. One that I could think of is vitamin B12 which only comes from eating meat. B12 affects one’s energy level, since it is needed for making blood.

    My friend K has been onto me the whole weekend, like isn’t it obvious that I am not eating and I have been doing all these crazy runs. Wouldn’t my body break down? Nope it wasn’t obvious to me until she said it. Now I felt kind of foolish.

    She said I got to eat. I got to eat the right things.

    #4. I was leaning toward the 4th reason that I might have picked up a bad bug from my recent hiking trips or running in the woods. There is a tick that spread a kind of sickness that causes the spleen to rupture and destroys red blood cells. It is like malaria. Unfortunately, or fortunately it is quite rare. Like only 50 cases in 10 years. The area where the ticks reside is in the northeast of US. I am in the mid-atlantic, too far south.

    I plan though to still get my blood tested again to rule out any parasitic infection. I did have fever and rashes. So there signs that I got something. It might not be the usual flu.

    Lastly, I need to sleep earlier, to make blood.

  • Finally got outside

    I finally got myself outside and ran. Not going to go in details about how my body reacted…and adjusted to running again. My right hip area still bothers me. It feels like something is wrong with the joint socket or one of the nerve/muscles is a bit off. I could locate that particular muscle with my finger but I was all at lost trying to look up a human anatomy diagram to figure out which one it was… I know I should go seek an expert/specialist. Somehow I am like one of those people who never seek a doctor unless it is time to roll over and die. Oh my goodness. I know.

    Anyway, the run was great.  (more…)