Always listen to Mother ...

Mother is applauded as she announces
she's in training for the marathon.
(Snap from NBC's broadcast of the
London Olympics Opening Ceremonies)

It should have come as little surprise to the throng gathered in Olympic Stadium last night that the Queen would announce her plans to run a marathon. After all, if you can make an entrance in bold fashion by parachuting from an aircraft in the dark, training for a mere marathon must be like going for a walk along the Thames. I believe I can see in her eyes a clear message to me, saying "if the queen of England can do it, so can you!" And who am I to challenge the Queen Mother? I will dutifully comply with her wishes, even if - as an American citizen - I am not legally bound to oblige.

Be one of those who can sing, "I Like to Move It!"

Jogger out for a midday jaunt
(Courtesy Elvert Barnes @ Flickr)

Not everyone wants to run a marathon. Indeed, only 0.2% of the population each year does so. Clearly that level of physical challenge and the weekly workouts undertaken to approach that challenge are way more than we need to simply be in good health. And even if each of us believes that being in good health is a desirable goal, not everyone would choose jogging / running as their way to reach that goal. That's OK. We're all different and we should choose our own path forward to good health. If we can agree that being is good physical health is something we all desire, what does it take in the way of effort to achieve that?

Digging things up ...

Front servitude all dug up

I can't say that I've ever really liked mowing the lawn. Don't get me wrong - I've done my share of pushing a mower over thick St. Augustine sod, trying to make it look pretty, New Orleans style. But I didn't realize that I had such strong feelings about having invested so much time and effort over the years cultivating my own infernal patch of grass until someone came along and undid those thirty-eight years of yard work, destroying in a few minutes what we had hand-planted, watered, fertilized, weeded and mowed for nearly four decades.

Uptight and outta sight ain't so good for runners.

Pre-run stretching or meditation?
(Courtesy Tobyotter @ Flickr)

This past Monday was a long day with little to do but imbibe liquids and watch the hands of the clock move inexorably slow, obviously an excellent time to look over The Wharton's Stretch Book and figure out what gives. Though the text waxes motivational, getting all excited about doing stretching has pretty much been a 'not gonna happen' thing for me - so I'd typically forego or shortchange any stretching ritual I actually decided to try. Ergo: the problems I've been having with my legs since I took up running again.

Heading out soon for Emerald City ...

Discussing the Yellow Brick Road
(Courtesy cjzurcher @ Flickr)

By time most readers see today's post, the timelapserunner will have been, as they say, "... off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Ahs!"

Your first marathon is like your first colonoscopy ...

Doctors eagerly awaiting patients
(Courtesy TipsTimes @ Flickr)

Searching the Internet for relevant material in preparation for this post, the timelapserunner stumbled onto a truly insightful article at Why I Suck at Running. The author - a kindred spirit who stumbles along at a 12 minute per mile pace - suggests that one would never want to know too much what one's first marathon experience will be like BEFORE the race, just like you really don't want to know too much about that first colonoscopy. Why I Suck at Running warns that knowing too much about what either experience will entail would "reinforce your hunch that nobody in their right mind would willingly put themselves in such a situation ... (and) if you really knew what was going to happen ... you'd never do it."

Week 3 Schedule

Remember when you were a kid and were waiting patiently for a package to arrive in the mail? Maybe not so patiently. Maybe you ran out to the mailbox everyday, hoping that the package containing this special item would be in that day's delivery. Well, that's how I've been since I ordered the Flex Kit from Wharton Health. I've been to the mailbox every day for a week now, hoping that it'd be in there when I opened the little mailbox door. But no, nothing for days on end. Until today. My Flex Kit has arrived! I'm about to embark on a journey to greater flexibility and elimination of all running pain forever. Perhaps I should tone down my expectations some. In any case, I will have no excuse now for not working on the stretching aspect of the timelapserunner's training.

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" ... while running.

There's a good book out by Daniel Kahneman entitled Thinking, Fast and Slow. It's about our thinking processes and a model for how these work. According to Kahneman, our brains seem to have two systems for handling thinking: one that can respond very quickly, almost without thought; and the other which is slower, more deliberate - but usually more accurate. He refers to these systems as, well, System 1 and System 2, respectively. System 1 developed, so the theory goes, to help us avoid predators, react to threats and size up our adversaries quickly. System 2 developed to help us arrive at best answers upon reflection or through computation.

It's never to early to plan ahead. (Is it?)

So, I'm already thinking about routes for some of the really long training runs. Sorry, but the timelapserunner couldn't resist. Besides, it's fun to draw little maps and see where the mile markers would be. There will, of course, be logistical challenges to these longer runs (e.g., procuring water, not getting lost, etc.); but just seeing how to squeeze all the miles into finite geography and avoid jogging down the Interstate seems like a place to start.

Curvaceousness ain't always a plus.

One of the inspiring features of the Louisiana Marathon route is the winding path taken around the LSU Lakes. It's simply beautiful. So idyllic, so tranquil. An eye-fest of nature's grandeur (notwithstanding the fact that the LSU Lakes are actually manmade). In fact, the entire marathon route can legitimately be called stunning. Based on reviews from runners touting scenic value, the Louisiana Marathon route is considered one of the top routes in the country, and surely those winding, curving scenic views help give it that reputation. But then there's the dark side.

Moving baby to solid food ...

The heck with gels - gimme substance!
(Creative Commons by Jason Dunn)

The timelapserunner discussed previously his first experience with gels, specifically the Clif Shot Gel - likely to be available on the back half of the Louisiana Marathon route at those friendly aid stations. But gels are not the only possible source of in-race fuel for the endurance athlete. There are some foodstuffs with more substance and that are less likely to drip down your chin in mid-stride. One such item is the Clif Bar, made by those same good folk that make the gels.

Two Lessons in One Session

The timelapserunner was not going to post today. At least that was the thought last night. After all, we've been posting pretty much every day now for a while, sometimes even twice a day. My bucket of ideas and experiences was no longer overfilling, I could see, so inevitably the posting volume would subside. But we learned a couple lessons out there this morning; lessons we wanted to document lest they be forgotten too quickly.

"Cool, clear ... water."

Some water stops along the
Louisiana Marathon route

Written by Bob Nolan and made famous by the Sons of the Pioneers and Marty Robbins, Cool Water is a song about a man, his mule named Dan, and a mirage. Water's a pretty important thing out there in the desert, I'd imagine. It's also pretty important when running, especially an endurance event like a marathon. Water management (aka hydration) is a bit more important than maintaining energy reserves, for without enough water - or with too much water - there are grave dangers lurking. Indeed, consuming energy resources during a race would be ineffective without consuming water as well; so it's best that the water stops we see are not mere mirages.

Week 2 Schedule

The first week of training for the Louisiana Marathon is under our belt. Perhaps it's appropriate for the timelapserunner to reflect a moment on this past week and hopefully learn from that reflection. Here's a couple thoughts that passed through my head (with very little obstructing material to slow them down). They will certainly seem more philosophical than physical.

The Ups and Downs of the Louisiana Marathon

Boston Marathon's Heartbreak Hill
(Courtesy Stewart Dawson @ Flickr)

Yesterday, the Louisiana Marathon at Facebook posted an interesting graphic depicting the elevation change over the course, something less than 50 feet from highest to lowest points. By almost anyone's standards this amounts to a pretty flat course. But one marathoner's 'flat' might be another's Heartbreak Hill, especially at or near the finish of a long race. Admittedly, it's a stretch to claim that Baton Rouge has any hills to speak of. Folk from other areas of the country with real elevation change experience would label our dips and swells as 'bunny hills.'

A Weighty Matter

The 21st century Battle of the Bulge
(Courtesy o5com @ Flickr)

OK. Those are not my feet, but you get the idea. We are a land of overweight people, struggling to lose some of our largess instead of our pride. The timelapserunner has never thought of himself as fat, but at one point on the timeline of life, this marathoner wannabe tilted in at the tidy sum of 187 pounds. On a 5'7" frame, that was not an altogether pretty sight. Funny, I didn't 'feel' fat then. It took seeing the number on the scale and recognizing that I had 'gone where I had never gone before' to set off the alarm bells in my brain.

Everything's starting to Gel ...

A bad sign for endurance athletes
Courtesy donbuciak @ Flickr

Even those of us who have not participated in an endurance event like a marathon or a triathlon have probably heard horror stories about runners hitting the wall, some of them just yards from the finish line. Their bodies have simply run out of gas, out of fuel, out of the energy resources needed to keep their muscles working. At this point in his training, the timelapserunner hasn't given a lot of thought to such scenarios, trusting that the training regimen he'll undergo will condition against their possibility. However, the prospect of a total disaster always looms in the background.

Stretching: The (Sad) Truth

Can't reach those toes even with help
from the family dog

The timelapserunner has made reference in a number of previous posts to flirting with injuries of one sort or the other during the past fifteen months of exercise. First it was an Achilles tendon ache that most likely resulted from a workout that included too many hills. More recently the source of problems have been clustered around hamstring, rear hip and groin areas. I had read something about pre-run stretching not being of much value and potentially of harm to runners, so I had limited my flexibility work to post-run static stretching.

Murphy's Law of New Running Shoes

Rain showers rolling in from southwest

The timelapserunner had a bit of trouble rolling out of the sack this morning but the thought of putting on those bright new running shoes got me going. As I stepped out of the car and noticed that the sky was overcast, I put my clip-on sunglasses back in the vehicle - they would not be needed today. However, Murphy's Law of New Running Shoes would apply.

Making Imelda Proud

timelapserunner's
running shoes

A pair of running shoes are to a runner what a set of tires are to a car: that which protects the human occupant from the harsh tyranny of the road beneath. Scientists who calculate such things reckon that a force two to three times one's body weight is thrown back at the runner at each foot strike, resulting in the potential for significant stress and injury.

However, the logic expressed in that first paragraph has been the subject of hot debate in the last twenty years, with concern arising that typical running shoes may actually cause more injuries than they prevent. Critics of shoes with massive heal cushioning contend that such shoes actually encourage, perhaps even force runners to strike the ground with their heels, a completely unnatural way for man to run and a manner that subjects the runner to radical impact stress.