Thursday, December 30, 2010

BURNED

Yesterday I attempted to run around the lake on whose shore the little town Chascomus of 40,000 people, 120 km outside of Buenos Aires, which we have inhabited for the last 4 days, is located.  When we first got into the town and I thought about running the lake, it looked maybe 10 miles around, and perhaps doing 2 laps would make for a nice long run.  Upon studying a conveniently posted map of the town, turned out the road around the lake is around 28-29km, probably just about 18 miles. 

Not to be deterred, I thought, with Galen’s encouragement, that it would be badass to still do 2 laps for a whopping 36 miler of a run.  The scenery is pretty and I can always decide to quit after lap 1 if I’m not feeling up for it.  So yesterday morning I lazily rolled out of bed around 9:30, took another lazy half an hour to get ready and wrote a note for Galen to buy more water in case I decide to do lap 2 and need to refuel.  I looked for the sunscreen and couldn’t find it.  I didn’t want to wake Galen up and figured if I made it in 3 hours or less as I hoped and stay in shade when I can, it should be OK.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that I attempted to do a fast one hour run a couple of days earlier.  The temperature was around 95, though I figured that for a run this short, I should be fine just pre-hydrating and not bringing water.  That didn’t work so well at all.  I started dying after about the first 20-25 minutes, I presumed from being hot and not having water, and hobbled on my way back.

So I figured that if I bring water with me this time, all my problems will be solved.

Well, even at 10 a.m., it was already scorching.  I set a pace that felt good – probably something in the 9:30 range – drank water generously, and made zigzags for the tiniest islands of shade.  This didn’t prevent me from continuing to get hot.  So I started taking cool down breaks under trees, and sprayed a small bit of water over my head (which felt like it was sucking in all of the sun’s heat from the air).  Finally, when my head was feeling hot enough to fry eggs over it, I decided it was time for drastic measures.

I made my way down to the lake and dunked my head in.  Not literally – unfortunately.  That would have been difficult to do without getting totally wet including my shoes.  Instead I scooped up the murky water and threw it all over my head, neck, and back. 

That felt good!  Yeah, I can do this!

Next I found myself taking a cooling break under a shaded entrance to a campground, right at about 16 km, or halfway point.  I sucked water greedily from my CamelBak, reveling in the shade.  Without warning, the sound coming from my CamelBak changed from a soft steady sucking sound to a sputtering, like a faulty engine, loud noise. 

AWW SHIT.

Out of water right at the halfway point, a little over an hour through.  Hmm… what are my options?  I clearly can’t keep running.  That generates too much heat and will dehydrate me too quick. I can always stick my thumb out and get a ride – this is a well-traveled road, there are lots of campgrounds and recreational areas.  But that would be lame.  The only other option, seemed like, was to walk most of the way back.  Walking doesn’t use much water as it’s a fairly low energy activity.  And I can go and dunk myself in the lake to keep cool. 

And that’s what I did, with a little bit of light jogging in between – as long as I felt like I wasn’t getting too hot.  And making my way down to the lake to dump water on myself.  Sometimes going under bridges, like a hobo, because that was the only spot accessible.  That’s because some of the lake’s shores are swamps, so under a bridge would be the only place with access to an even more murky water.

It was actually a pretty way to experience the lake.  Walking through and at that point not trying to set the world record, I had time to observer a great variety of birds, and a group of 97 horses (yes, I counted) grazing at a nearby range.

There was only one little problem with this solution.  I was walking under the noon sun with virtually zero shade and no sunscreen.  In fact, the sun was so vertically over me that I couldn’t even find my own shadow.  I pulled down my shorts to look like an LA gangbanger, in hopes of covering up some of the legs.  I attempted to pull my shirt up over my neck and make my hair as puffy as possible.  To no avail.

I look like a lobster.  A delicious, cooked lobster.

This may be the most burned I’ve ever been in my life!  Normally I don’t start feeling the burn until a day or so later, but I was feeling it a few hours later.  My calves look and hurt the worst, though there is a definitive burn line all around my ankle.  Arms are pretty bad, even the hands.  Face is also bright red, as is the back of the neck.  And taking a shower today, washing my head, I painfully verified that even the top of my head is burned.  Man, all that hair up there for nothing!!!

And I am now the Zombie-SwampBeast, according to Galen, thanks to, well, being in swamps, and, after the fact, putting so much sun-screen all over me, that I looked white, like a Zombie.  Talk about "closing the barn door after the cows got out."

I draw several conclusions from this experience.

  1. 1)      Run in cooler parts of the day.  I’m typically in the mode of running when it’s comfortable/convenient for me, but there are times when runs need to be planned around the sun’s schedule.
  2. 2)      Look harder for sunscreen, even if that means waking up your roommate!
  3. 3)      Get a white/reflexive brimmed hat.  I already came to that conclusion after the Cactus-to-Clouds hike with Sarah, but haven’t followed through.  It seems that just like with cold where most of the heat escapes through the head, when it’s hot, most of the heat accumulates in the head.  So perhaps reflecting it would help, not to mention the shade.
  4. 4)      Bring more water.  It appears that in the hottest weather I need about a liter for every 5 miles, or 2L for 1.5 hours.  So I need to see if CamelBak makes packs that can pack a gallon (and still not be too bulky).

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Looks like I need to up the pace

from email to Sarah:

oh guess what, i just ran 15 miles at just slightly slower than marathon pace - and that's on a trail, and with occasional distractions (cars in the park, finding my way).  oh and nothing hurts at all - just feel a little stiff and that's all.  how cool is that!?!?  ok, my feet are a bit bruised, the fronts of my feet, but to be fair, they were already sore from walking around a ton yesterday in my loafers.  so the fact that i'm in this shape 3 months before the marathon probably means that my target pace is too slow.  because i'm thinking if i can run this fast on a trail, on a bad day (i drank a little bit last night, went to bed at 4, got up at 10, and spent all day prior to the run running around the city which was tiring... that's all before the run), and that's without full effort and adrenaline of the race, i can probably squeeze out a marathon at the 9:10 pace with just a little bit more endurance training. 

the other thing that was really cool was that when i started out the run, i really felt like shit (see above).  the first lap was REAL slow - probably slower than 10 minute pace.  and then, like clockwork, about 45 or so minutes into my run, i warmed up, my endorphins kicked in, and everything was awesome!  i felt light and like i could run forever!  it really does take me about 45-60 minutes to warm up.  i think that's why on our run in the valley on Thanksgiving it took me so long to get going - seems like your endorphins kick in sooner.  in any case, i'm figuring on race dace the adrenaline will hopefully substitute for the warm-up and i'll be able to get a good pace from the start.

the other thing i noticed, again, is the importance of food and occasional walking breaks.  at the end of lap 3 i was still feeling pretty good, but felt that it was getting more difficult to keep the pace.  so i walked for 3 minutes while devouring a mint/chocolate clif bar.  and man, after that, i just booked it.  i think i was going at around 8:45 pace, which was about 0:20 faster than my previous pace - not bad for the last 4 miles.

so yeah, i think i should set my sights higher, since i have 3 more months of training (assuming i will be able to keep running regularly).  8:30 pace would be a good challenge.

i guess i'm a really good self-motivator.  most of my long/ridiculous runs have been done on my own.  i've definitely gotten better at team running, though i'm also perfectly happy as a lone wolf.

Friday, December 17, 2010

I am a trail runner

first post about running overseas!

in my 8 days here i managed to run 5 times.  and i'm going to run today, so that'd be 6 out of 9.  not bad at all.  all the runs have been in the 6-10 mile range and not particularly fast.  so if i'm going to beat sarah palin, i gotta start pushing myself and pick up the pace.  also i gotta do a long run, probably on sunday.

Palermo, where i stayed in BsAs, has a whole lot of parks, and they're all next to each other.  so one can run from park to park for miles.  though the parks are not particularly inspiring.  the grass is bleak and somewhat faded, there is little variety of plants - just bleak grass and bleak trees.  and lots of concrete roads and a few concrete bike paths going through.  and completely flat.  so i was glad to have a park to run in, but as parks go, it wasn't particularly exciting.  i guess it had one good part which was a big pond with hundreds of fat white geese as well as some exercise machines - i got to do dips for the first time in a while!  i <3 dips.

running barefoot along the beach in Rio was loads of fun.  i love running on packed wet sand.  right between where it gets too dry and starts giving and it gets to wet and starts giving.  i ran up and down along the beach for about an hour, cooled by gentle rain, wet by the occasional outlier wave, and with an idiot grin on my face.  life is hard, i thought to myself with a smile, as i pictured my co-workers running round and round the rose bowl.

i finished the run off with two cocos - they serve green coconuts there which are not quite ripe (that's when they brown).  so you get clear water instead of milk.  and apparently it's the best workout recovery drink one could have.  and i also had two cheeseburgers.  i don't know what they put in brazillian beef, or maybe i was just too hungry, but those cheap cheeseburgers on the beach were GOOD!

the best run of all though was the run two days ago here in Sao Paulo.  i found a huge park, which is their Central park.  it's not nearly as big as central park, but big.  it's close to 1 square mile or so.  and unlike argentina, it's lush green with a huge variety of plants and birds - black swans, tall ducks, and a bunch of others i didn't know.  also lots of art and cool-looking buildings.

the thing that was most exciting is that i found the local cross country trail - it was clearly marked with distance markers every 100 meters, and it was a trail, going all around the park. the whole thing was a 6K which is a standard cross country distance.  now i can time myself and know exactly how much i'm running.  it made me really happy.  i felt a sense of camaraderie with those high school or college kids running around it (not when i was, but at some points in time).  and it just made me happy to run on a trail.  no matter how hard i tried to explore the park i always found myself back on the trail near the perimeter.

i love the feel of earth under my feet.  i love all the little roots and bumps.  i love the variety of textures.  i love the soft cushioning (as compared to the hard asphalt or concrete).  i love running along trees and dodging branches.  i love all the curves and turns.  i love feeling like i'm going somewhere which is a feeling often elusive when running on roads through a monotone city with cars weezing by.  and i also love the feeling of being among grass and trees and going nowhere at all.

so yes, i'm officially a trail runner.  i'm sure i'll do my share of road races, but they'd probably be far in between the trail runs.