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Check out my radio interview with Chris Rael over at Racewalk Planet Radio

Chris is an awesome racewalker and coach. It was a video of Chris racewalking(The long and winding road) that got me interested in the sport 5 years ago. I finally had the pleasure of meeting him at Dave Mc Governs advanced racewalking clinic in Solana Beach last October.

Training for a marathon is no picnic..it’s hard work, but I’m a happy to report that I’m now 3/4′s finished with my training. With the exception of a minor, but troublesome foot injury, I’ve managed to survive this training session better than some of my previous ones. My lungs have been holding up pretty good too, with only a handful of bad breathing days so far.

Last Thursday I attempted the dreaded 21 miler, (aka, the marathon before the marathon). The walk did not go as well as planned. My legs were starting to ache from mile 1 and only got worse as I went on. Due to ill fitting shoes (the new Saucony’s) and that nagging foot injury, I was only able to complete 19.2 miles. Talk about pain, and this on top of an already arthritic body. The walk left me totally trashed and as expected, threw me into my yellow breathing zone for a couple of days after. I would have stopped at mile 10 and re-attempted the walk the following week, but there simply isn’t enough time.

With less than 3 weeks of training left , I can’t take the risk of anymore injuries, so Ive decided to start tapering off my mileage right now and just hope for the best. For the remainder of my training walks, which consists of 2 more long distance walks ( a 14 mile and a 10 mile) and 8 more medium distance walks ( 4-6 miles each), I will be back to wearing my Asics Hyperspeed IIs . They might not be the best shoes for me, but my feet are used them and they haven’t caused me any injuries. The Sauconies are OK for short sprints, but not for long slow walks.

Getting back to that foot problem, Ive developed what they call a metatarsalgia in the ball of my left foot. It’s a fairly common injury in older marathoner runners, and normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but because I’m supposed to be walking a marathon in just 3 weeks, it’s a potentially huge problem. What happens, is that because I’ve trying to avoid landing on that part of my foot when I walk, I end up landing instead on the outer edge of my foot which is causing the rest of my leg to get sore. Add to that the pain of an already arthritic body, and it can make walking long distances pure torture. If it flared up during the marathon, it could prevent me from finishing the race. I’m hoping now, that because I’m finished with the majority of my long walks, that my foot will have more time to heal…albeit 3 weeks isn’t much time.

(See the redness circled under my big toe?)

On a more positive note, Ive had fewer problems this year with calf cramps, which I attribute to better stretching and better hydration.

As far as my asthma goes, my lung function has been been fairly stable. This time of year tends to be when I have my best breathing, which is a good thing. I do however, get short of breath much easier these days, especially when I exert myself. Even my shorter walks are taking a lot more out of me than they used to.

Assuming that I have the good fortune of crossing the finish line at this marathon, this will definitely be my last full marathon. As much as I love doing these races, my body just can’t tolerate 26.2 mile distances anymore and/or the training it takes to prepare for them. Ive now done 6 full marathons in just 5 years and I think that’s a respectable number to retire at. Half marathons are challenging enough, and I think I still have a few of those left in me.

On Thursday I did this……..

for this many miles
⇩

in the blazing California

and I used this

6-8 times

After I finished the walk, I did this……..

AND THEN THIS
⇩

Holy S**T !

Intense exercise actually causes microtrauma, or tiny tears in muscle fibers. This muscle damage not only stimulates muscle cell activity and helps repair the damage and strengthen the muscles ( muscle hypertrophy), but it is also linked with delayed onset muscle pain and soreness (DOMS) , which occurs between 24 and 72 hours after exercise.

By taking an ice bath after a long walk or run, it’s believed that you slow down this metabolic process, which in turn, reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. It helps release lactic acid and soothes aching muscles.

Then, with rewarming, the increased blood flow speeds circulation, and in turn, improves the healing process. Although there is no current protocol regarding the ideal time and temperature for cold immersion routines, most athletes or trainers who use them recommend a water temperature between 12 to 15 degrees Celsius and immersion times of 5 to 10 and sometimes up to 20 minutes.

Ice baths are not for the feint hearted. It helps to be a gluten for punishment like I am. If you do try this, make sure you ease in to the water gradually. After the initial shock it actually feels good!

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For the photo album, Click Here

More pics on Dave’s Tiburon Clinic Group page

(The 2010 Tiburon Racewalking Alumni)

This was my 4th World Class racewalking clinic in 3 years, and as always, I got to meet some really nice people , had a great workout, a great time, and I learned a lot.

I wanna thank our wonderful host, Liz Shepard, for organizing this whole thing. Also a special thank you to Jim and Sally Shepard for welcoming us into their beautiful home for the weekend. And of course a big thank you to Dave, for showing us all how it’s done. He’s an awesome coach and a world class athlete.

And speaking of World Class Athletes, by placing 5th and walking under 4:45 at the USATF 50k in Surprise AZ on February 7th, Dave qualified to compete in the 2012 Olympic Trials, and also earned a spot on Team USA’s 5-man team going to the World Cup of Racewalking on May 15 – 16 in Chihua, Mexico. He was already going as the manager for the team, but since they didn’t have a full team, he was convinced to step down as manager to compete in the 50k. Pretty cool eh?

(Dave, Ms Lizzy and her parents, Sally and Dr Jim Shepard)

(Liz, yours truly and Melody)

(Dave’s classroom charts ..aka Original Dave Art)

Part of what happens at one of these clinics, is that Dave does a lot of video analysis. He will take a raw “before” video of each racewalker individually as they racewalk on the track. He shoots the video from different angles so he can see how your feet, knees, hips and upper body are all moving. After pointing out any obvious problems, he’ll take an “after” video. Later on during the classroom sessions he critiques the videos and points out what you’re doing right and what you’re not doing right. He then makes specific recommendations for improvement.

Anyways, when it came to my turn to be critiqued, Dave immediately spotted a major flaw in the way I was propelling(or I should I say NOT propelling) my left foot forward, which was slowing me down, shortening my stride length and making me look clunky and slow. After the horrible way I looked during the Solana beach clinic, I thought to myself… I give up. No matter how many of these classes I attend or how hard I try, I just can’t get this right. BUT WAIT!, then he went on to say, that there were other elements of my technique that were on par with elite racewalkers! and that my overall form was very good! (phewwww)
Coming from someone who coaches Olympians, that meant a lot. The advanced racewalkers in the group were very kind in their words as well. Who knows? Maybe there’s hope for me yet .

Dave also noticed that I over-pronate quite a bit ( told you he was good) . So it looks like those nice ultra-lightweight green racing flats Ive been using for my marathon training will be shelved for the time being. Apparently I need a racewalking shoe that has a little more stability. On Monday I bought a pair of the Saucony Grid Fastwich IIIs online, which are what a lot of racewalkers are wearing nowadays. I hope to receive them and in time for next weekends 18 miler. I’m at that point in my marathon training where I only have a couple weeks left to break-in new shoes for the race.

After the video analysis, we headed back to the track where I went to work to correct that problem with my left leg. With just a few minutes of practice my form was already looking a lot better, and by the end of the first clinic day I was able to racewalk a 180 meters in near perfect form. I even managed to complete 2 legs of an 800 meter relay race that we did. I’m not very fast and that particular walk nearly killed me, but my team finished the race in 2nd place!

Part of the reason I have so many problems in trying to become a good racewalker, is that I simply can’t move my body fast enough and far enough for all the pieces to fit together smoothly. I have my lungs to thank for that. I think if it weren’t for my crappy lungs, I would be an awesome racewalker…possibly even one of the elites. Why I chose a sport I’ll never be good at, I’ll never know. Oh well, if I can walk “like” an elite racewalker , even if it’s only for a couple hundred meters, all the effort Ive put into this will be well worth it.

Now for a special treat. A sneak peak at Dave warming up (yes, he’s walking). This is what I want to look like when I grow up.

Wait a minute…….. what the heck happened to weeks 1-7?

Well, weeks 1 and 2, (January 1st-8th) I was in the hospital(on a ventilator). Week 3, I was too wiped out from said hospitalization to do any exercise. Week 4, I actually managed to pull off a 10 mile walk. Weeks 5&6 , (January 27th- February 4th) I was in the hospital again. Week 7, I was still recovering that hospitalization. Which brings us to week #8.

Week #8 ( Feb 13th) I did a 17.7 km ( appx 11 miles) training walk. This is the longest walk Ive done since my half marathon race back in October. I was able to get a couple shorter walks in earlier in the week, but it’s a huge leap going from 4 miles to 11 miles! Considering I’d only been out of the hospital for 9 days, I think this first long walk was a success. I did experience some pretty nasty abdominal cramps, but that was totally my fault. The combination of prednisone, energy gels, too much sweating and not hydrating properly, was just too much for my system and well……let’s just say, thank god there was an open restroom out there in the middle of nowhere.
I completed the walk in 2:55 min ( 16min/mile pace), which is just about right for an LSD walk. My lungs fared much better than I thought they would. During that walk I only used my inhaler about 6 times. I started wheezing a little at the end, but it quickly reversed after a couple of neb treatments. I kept the racewalking to a minimum, not so much because of my breathing, but most because my legs were sore from being bed bound a week earlier and I just couldn’t get a good rhythm going .

This was the same day the Maverick Surfing competition was going on (about 25 miles south), but even here in San Francisco, the waves were crashing pretty high near Golden Gate.

Week #9Trying to play catch up with my training, while also trying to dodge the bad weather has been a real challenge. So, on Feb 17th, just 5 days after doing the 11 mile walk, I did a 23km (14.5 mile) walk. I know it’s crazy to do two long walks back to back like that, but I really needed to get another long walk in before the next rain storm hit the region. In just a 7 day period, I clocked something like 38 miles. Way too much, but I had to take advantage of the dry days when they came. Needless to say, I’m pretty sore from last weeks walks. My lung are paying for it too, as I haven’t quite healed after spending half a month in the slammer. I pre and post medicated with neb treatments and used the inhaler about 8 times during this walk. At the time , I was only on 15mg of pred, vs 30 mg during the previous walk.

Week#10 Starts this Saturday with a series of really long walks LSD walks, which I refer to as my “REALLY LONG WALKS”. They are the 16, 18 and 20 mile( 32km) walks, and are the most important training walks in building the endurance and fortitude required to complete a full marathon. These long walks are basically mini-marathons in themselves, complete with all the not-so-pleasant after effects you can expect when doing a real marathon i.e. muscle cramps, blisters on blisters, joint and body aches, dehydration side effects and in my case, potentially severe respiratory problems.

In addition to the long endurance walks, Ive also been doing three 5 mile tempo walks per week. With most of those I try to incorporate at least a little racewalking.

Ah…. the crazy things we put our bodies through in the name of fun!

Wanna learn to walk faster than most runners run?

There’s only limited space left for this one, so reserve your spot today! Whether you’re a Newbie or a National champion of the sport, come and learn to racewalk from one of the best racewalking coaches in the world!

Join ME for an awesome weekend of racewalking fun in Tiburon, California. Dave rarely gets to SF bay area, so don’t miss this one. ( Bet you didn’t know racewalking was an Olympic sport? )

Well, despite a few minor setbacks, I still managed to end the year with883 miles walked. A drop of almost 400 miles from my best walking year back in 2006, but nonetheless, still impressive when you consider what I have to work with.

Overall, my basic walking routine really hasn’t changed that much, I’m still out there walking at least 3 days a week when my lungs are behaving, and I try to hit the gym up at least once a week. I think the reason I was lagging behind in 2009, was that I was incarcerated 3 times (exacerbations and hospitalizations can really put a damper on things). That, plus I only completed 3 training cycles for the year, instead of the usual 4. One was for a full marathon ( Boston) and the other two for half marathons (ET midnight and San Rock&Roll). Those training cycles can really pile on the extra miles. Training for a full marathon for example, can easily add an additional 300 miles to the count.

I hate to admit it, but my lungs are finally starting to impact my ability to exercise and to walk long distances. It used to be that I would get 10-15 days of decent breathing in between flare-ups, even when I was training for marathons. Now it seems that every walk or gym workout that I do leaves me severely short of breath… sometimes for days. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep this up.

Having said that, my goal for 2010 remains unchanged. I want to complete one more full marathon ( hopefully Boston) and Id also like to pass the 5,000 mile mark with my walking. After that, I’m definitely going to slow down.

And speaking of mileage; My legs, feet and lungs aren’t the only things that are suffering from wear and tear…. Check out my shoes!

In 2009, I went through 3 pairs of these Asics Hyperspeed 2s racing flats. Weighing only 158 grams (without the insoles) and with a low profile heel, they make excellent racewalking shoes. Unfortunately, since they’re made for speed and not distance, they wear out really fast. It’s also hard to find them now, since they’re not making them anymore.

[The Asics Hyperspeed 3 racing flat]

For 2010 I’m going to try out the replacement model (the Hyperspeed 3) They’re pretty much the same shoe, though the new ones don’t seem to cup my heel as well.

Pretty nice place for an early morning racewalking jaunt..eh?

Solana Beach, California;

The advanced clinic was awesome as I knew it would be. Dave always puts on a hell of a class and is one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet. I don’t think Ive never been in the company of so many World Class racewalkers at one time. 3 time Olympian, Philip Dunn, was there along with a host of other National and International champions. Also attending the clinic was an up and coming young collegiate racewalker by the name of Jose Moncado . His coach is Chris Rael. Man o Man, can this kid walk fast! More like flying actually…

And speaking of Chris Rael, I finally got to meet him. Chris is the creator of Racewalk Planet TV. Ive been watching his racewalking videos for years (this is one of my favorites, though his son is actually the one who filmed it.). An accomplished racewalker and coach in his own right, Chris produces all kinds of racewalking media, including racewalking videos and podcasts. He wanted to interview me for one of his upcoming podcasts, but I had to skip out early on Sunday and missed the opportunity. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to hook up with him again.

Did I mention that I suck at racewalking? I don’t know what happened. I looked horrible on the video analysis. I was slow, clunky and actually looked worst than I did 2 years ago at the last clinic. I didn’t have that nice smooth roll- through that the good racewalkers usually have. My form was really off. I had what they call “soft knees”, meaning that my landing leg was bending prematurely through my stride. Ok for runners, but a violation for racewalkers. Despite my lackluster performance though, I’m very grateful I got to take part in the clinic. I’m humbled and learned a lot. As Dave pointed out , that’s why you attend clinics ….to get better! And really, how many people get the opportunity to have their racewalking skills analyzed and critiqued by Olympians and National Champions?

Another thing Dave told me, which made a lot of sense, is that training to “regular walk” too many marathons (which Ive obviously been doing the past 2 years), can actually make you a slower racewalker . When you train to walk a marathon you spend a lot of time doing fat- burning, long slower training walks to build your endurance(what they call LSD’s). You gain endurance , but you loose the fast twitch muscle response that you need to be a good racewalker over the shorter distances. He recommended doing more speed drills, making my feet more “active” in all phases of my stride, and stretching out my calves out so that I land on my heel better.

(here’s a shot of me where my form actually looks pretty good)

Anyways, now that I know what I’m doing wrong, I can work on making it better. Still, the biggest problem I face in trying to become proficient in a sport like this, is that I simply don’t have the lung capacity . You can practice on your technique till the cows come home, but if you don’t have good lungs , you really can’t put the whole thing together and you certainly can’t compete in races. For me though, it’s never been about competition. It’s about doing and learning as much as you can for something you have a passion for. If you’re going to walk for fitness, why not learn about the mechanics and science behind it. Why not hang out with people who love the sport as much as you do. I know I’ll never be great at racewalking, but I get out there anyway, because it makes me feel good about myself.

Advanced Clinic , Class of 2009
>

Had to get Philip’s and Dave’s sponsor in the shot

Nothing really interesting going on since I got out of the hospital. Though Ive taken a couple of short slow walks, overall Ive been trying to let my lungs heal as much as possible before jumping back into a physical fitness regimen full time. Been spending a lot of this post hospital recovery time doing non physical activities, including some asthma advocacy and research stuff. Keeping mentally busy, helps me cope with my breathlessness and the not so pleasant symptoms of prednisone withdrawal. The downtime has also allowed me to play catch up on some personal stuff.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday will hopefully, be a little more exciting and a little more normal for me. I’m supposed be going down to Solana beach ( near San Diego) for Dave’s advanced racewalking clinic. Ive been really run down lately from the steroid taper and its an awful long drive (450 mile each way), but I’m hoping that I’ll feel well enough by then to go.

If I do go, it will be mainly to hang out with other racewalkers and to meet some of the super stars of the sport. Three time Olympian, Philip Dun and two time Olympian Tim Seaman just to name a few, will be there coaching. Of course Dave Mc Govern , who’s a legend himself, will be running the whole show. My lungs are way too messed up to participate in much of the actual training, but sometimes just watching the elite walkers walk, and/or having my own racewalking form critiqued by them, provides me an adequate level of learning. Most of all though, I go to these weekend clinics because I have a passion for the sport and for the crazy people who engage in it.

In the coming weeks I have a ton of the usual medical appointments, but also a referral to a brand new service called “Symptom Management”. This new clinic is an off-chute of the Palliative care program over at UCSF. I’m going primarily, to see if there are any new therapies or strategies out there that can help me with my worsening dyspnea. To my knowledge, I’ll be the first asthmatic to receive treatment at this new clinic. I’ll be blogging more about the topic of palliative care in a future post.

Sunday was the Nike Womens Marathon. The last few miles of the marathon course passes by my old neighborhood at Ocean Beach in the outer Sunset. I know several people who are doing this years race. I hope they all had a great time!

Sorry, this race report is a little late in coming, but I didn’t want my little prison stint to over shadow all the good things about this race.

First let me say what a pleasure it was to finally meet the famous Miss Dizzy Lizzy and some of the other Mc Govern alumni who trekked in from all over the country to do this race. Talk about a ball of energy, Liz has enough enthusiasm for 100 racewalkers!

Liz and a friend of hers, Elizabeth and myself, all met up at the race Expo on Friday. Inside the Expo building they had this huge banner that actually had Lizzy’s photo on it, that they had captured at this very same Rock&Roll race 2 years ago. Naturally she had to take a picture of herself standing in front of the image of herself…..pretty cool.

We did a once through of the Expo, I didn’t buy anything, but Liz bought a pair of her favorite shoes .After that we all headed over to the hotel coffee shop and chit-chatted for a couple hours. It was great hearing everyones race stories.

On the morning of the race I managed to get to San Jose a little before 6:30 am. I parked over at the HP pavillion arena where there were already hundreds of people beginning to fill the parking lot. Good thing I got there an hour and a half early. From the parking lot, it was a full mile walk to the starting area of race.

This was a much bigger event than I thought it would be. They had something like 12,500 participants doing this race and the streets were filling fast. They had 13 starting corrals extending out about 4 blocks from the actual start line.One thing I noticed right off the bat, was how many Porta potties they had set up. I kid you not, there were hundreds of them lined up side by side , on both sides of the main street and dozens more on the side streets. This is the first event of this size Ive been too , where there were NO lines to use the johns! . At an event this size , you can usually expect to wait 30 minutes to use the toilets. In fact, thats one of the reasons I wanted to get here early. Hats off to the promoters for that one.

At about 15 minutes before the start , Liz called me and we all somehow managed to find each other in this massive crowd. Liz made it easier by wearing her famous “Ears”. After some quick photo taking, we all went over to our respective corrals ( which they packed like sardines) and waited for this huge sea of people to start moving. Once the gun went off, it took about 10 minutes for the runners in the 12th corral to make it across the starting line.

And were OFF….. As always ,I waited till the pack thinned out , which happened pretty fast, and then I pulled over to the left side of the road. I didn’t really have a chance to stretch before the race, so for the first mile or so, my shins were killing me. I knew though, that as I warmed up, the pain would diminish. The next couple of miles would be my warm up mode. This is usually the part of a race where I try to find a comfortable pace and the easiest position on the road itself to walk, usually the center or the crest of the road where its more even. If theres a yellow or white dividing line on the road , I’ll usually hug that line and racewalk right down the middle of it. ( it’s a good way to practice your technique too).

The course itself had a very suburban feel. It was basically flat and meandered in and out of various neighborhoods, most of them tree lined , upscale and very beautiful….Lots of mansions too. I can see now why people pay so much to live here.

Somewhere around the mile and a half mark , I passed Elizabeth. I was going to walk with her for a while, but decided that I needed to bank some time while I still had my lung power. I told her that she would probably pass me up in the last miles of the race. Some how that never happened, and I didn’t see her again until after the race.

It was about mile 2 where we hit the first watering station and thats when it really hits me, of just how long a 13 mile race really is. I would have to pass 6 more of these aid stations before finishing the race. It was also about this time, that I got in the mood to racewalk more and more. With my headphones and music cranked up, I was pretty much oblivious to what was happening around me. The diversion of music also gives me the courage to racewalk in huge crowds without getting too embarrassed. One runner lady who did pass me, tapped me on my shoulder and told me what a nice butt I had , and how she had been been watching my hips for the last 1/2 miles. I just laughed and continued to racewalk. I had seen lots of other walkers on the course swinging there arms, power walking or speed walking (which is not real racewalking), so I felt totally comfortable doing my thing. Mind you, I might not be the best racewalker, but I am a real racewalker. I follow all the rules.

The next 10 miles were actually pretty boring. To break up the monotony I decided I would racewalk the rest of the race. I racewalked on and off as much as I could and even when I would slow to a snails pace to catch my breath, I would try my best to stay in legal form (that’s racewalking lingo for, maintaining technique…ie forward knee locked and one foot on the ground at all times).

Miles 10 through 13 were the toughest. It was starting to get really warm , the sun was shining right in my face and I could actually feel myself overheating. I forced myself to drink both the electrolyte and plain water that was offered at each aid station, but I could still feel my calf muscles and left IT band wanting to spasm and lock up. I was also starting to breath pretty heavily, which is not a good thing for me, because it means that Im gonna be trapping a lot of air in my lungs. The problem with breathing fast, is that I cant exhale fast enough to make room for the next incoming breath. The longer this goes on, the more air that gets trapped in the smaller airways of my lung .Eventually my lungs will blowup like a balloon.
For most of the race I was averaging an inhaler hit about once every half mile, but that increased to about 2 hits every half mile the further into the race I got. In total, I used my puffer about 20 times. It sounds like a lot ..I know, but not unusual for me.

There was nothing really special about the finish line, except that I was very happy to see it. I tried to pace myself through the last 1/10th mile of the race , so that I could racewalk through the finish chute and look good on camera, but I ran out of steam just a few feet short of the finish mat and ended up just walking across it. Oh…well, they didn’t take my finish line photo anyway.

I walked into the finish area, a little disoriented and trying to catch my breath. I got my medal and made my way to the Family reunion area where I spotted Lizzy’s Mouse ears poking up in the distance. She had finished about 10 minutes ahead of me and looked as fresh as she did before the race. I, on the other hand, looked like crap! Anyway, we rested a little and waited for the others to arrive. Elizabeth came in about 15 minutes after I did and looked good as well. Both Lizz’s and the rest of the gang walked with me to pick up my gear bag, we took one last picture as a group, said our goodbyes..and that was it. My 9th half marathon…completed!

Due to a glitch in the electronic timing system, my actually finish time has to be manually verified , which will take a few more days, but I think I finished somewhere between 3:00-3:10, which is much faster than I anticipated. Not a PR for me, not even close, but considering everything, I think it a respectable finish time. I performed well in this race and I’m proud of myself.