Big Sur

I've been in Monterey for over a day now getting ready for the race, and I think I've done everything I can. I ran 5 miles yesterday, and 3.5 this morning, at a very easy pace. I've eaten plenty of carbs (though I occasionally splurged on a bit of chocolate or whipped cream).

This afternoon, Todd and I drove the course, and it looks absolutely fantastic. Yes, it's hilly, but none of the hills are especially steep or long. I've seen hills this big before -- just not this many in a row. The predominant feeling is simply shock: "I get to run in a place like this?" I snapped a few pictures along our drive, and I think they do give a sense of how special this place is:

An early glimpse of the ocean

A small slice of an epic view

The surf pounds the shore at the turnaround point

Even though the course is "only" an out-and-back, it almost immediately enters a realm of spectacular scenery, which just gets more spectacular as you run farther. At one of our many stops, we could see sea otters swimming lazily among the kelp, some of them with babies resting on their bellies.

While we don't get to run up Hurricane Point, we do get to see a truly awesome portion of one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. And we get to do it with no cars spoiling the idyllic beauty. We decided to drive up Hurricane Point to see what we'd be missing, and we agreed that though it was obviously a dramatic vista and would have been a satisfying challenge, we're happy with the revised course. Todd, who's run 25 marathons, said this was by far the most scenic.

Now all that's left is for me to get my gear ready, get some sleep, and run the race. I can't wait.

Carbo Loading

For someone who has spent the last year losing 35 pounds and being fairly careful with his diet, carbo loading is a scary thing to do. Carbohydrates are the enemy of most dieters. But to maximize performance in a marathon, you need to consume lots of carbohydrates, not just the day before the race, but for three days before the race. It's not possible to elevate your glycogen levels enough to make a difference in just one day. But eating a diet that is 75 to 90 percent carbohydrates can cause you to (hopefully) temporarily gain weight.

Most guides I've read suggest that carbo-loading will lead to temporary gains of two or three pounds. I've found my weight fluctuates more than that from day to day, so I wouldn't be surprised if I end up gaining five pounds or more. Gaining five pounds in three days after spending a year losing weight is the stuff nightmares are made of!

From what I've read, many runners fail to adequately carbo-load because they don't realize just how much carbohydrate consumption is necessary to elevate glycogen levels. During a distance run, your muscles can get energy from two sources: Glycogen stored in your body, and fat. Glycogen is the preferred option because it's much easier for your body to metabolize, but you have a limited supply. Even a very thin runner is probably carrying over 5 pounds of fat, which would be plenty to get you through a marathon, you just wouldn't do it very quickly.

A typical runner has about 1,500 calories worth of glycogen available for quick metabolizing. Unfortunately, a marathon takes about 4,000 calories to complete, with most of them coming from glycogen. You can eat some food during the course of a race, but your digestive system won't process it fast enough to come up with the extra calories needed, so by the end of the race, if you don't carbo-load you'll be relying on fat stores to get you to the finish. This is one way runners hit "the wall."

The solution has actually been known for decades: Build up excess glycogen supplies in the body before the race. This used to be an arduous process involving a long run just a week before the race, three days of glycogen depletion, and three days of carbo-loading. Fortunately, more recent research has found that the long run and depletion are not necessary, and may be counterproductive as they could wear you out just when you need to be restoring yourself. All you need to do is reduce your mileage (taper) and eat more carbs in the three days leading up to the race.

But how many carbs do you need? This article suggests that you need quite a lot: 3.6 to 5 grams of carbs per day per pound of body weight. I weigh 192 pounds, so that's a minimum of 690 grams of carbs in a day. Since every gram of carbs has about 3.5 calories, for me that would mean eating 2400 calories a day in carbs alone, and since it's hard to find foods that are 100% carbs, it probably means eating a lot more than that!

And there are other potential problems with a major diet change right before a big race. Your digestive system can be thrown off. If you eat a lot of high-fiber foods (which also tend to be high-carb foods) like whole wheat bread and fruit, you can get gas, constipation, or diarrhea. Not a pleasant thought halfway through your first marathon. Fortunately my diet is already fairly high in carbs, and I can increase the ratio of carbs in the diet with fairly minor changes. I can also add some foods that are just straight carbs so I don't overload with fiber. Sugar is the ultimate carbohydrate, so pancakes with lots of syrup, toast with lots of jam, and even sugary cola work fine as part of a carbo-loading diet. Yesterday I ate a huge plate of pancakes for lunch, and this morning I actually bought a 20-ounce bottle of non-diet Coke for the first time in decades.

To make sure I'm getting plenty of carbs, I decided to record everything I eat over these three days. It's actually sort of shocking when you see it all in print. Here's yesterday's menu:

Breakfast
1.5 cups Life Cereal
3/4 cup milk
1 glass V8

Snacks
1 large banana
1 apple
3 slices toast with strawberry jam
1 Nutri-grain cereal bar

Lunch
7 pancakes
1/2 cup maple syrup

Snacks
1 large banana
1/2 cup raisins

Dinner
The biggest plate of spaghetti I've eaten in years; about 1/3 of a pound, cooked.
1 cup marinara sauce
1 cup roasted eggplant
2 ounces mozzarella cheese
2 glasses red wine

That adds up to over 4,000 calories, and about 760 grams of carbs. Some protein and fat snuck in in a few places: The milk, the toast, the pancakes, and the pasta. The calories from carbs alone are only about 3,000. When I weighed myself this morning I was already up to 194 pounds. Yikes!

Now I'm on a plane on my way to California. I figured it would be hard to find carbs unaccompanied by fat and protein along the way, so I brought a bag of cereal bars and fruit to eat as I fly across the country. I will definitely be heading out for a run sometime this afternoon in California. It will be refreshing to get a couple easy miles in, and I'll feel better if I burn off at least some of those calories.

So far I'm finding that I'm actually fairly calm about the race that is now less than two days away. I didn't have any trouble sleeping last night; here's hoping I can maintain that calm as the race approaches.

Does "corrected" GPS elevation ignore bridges?

Elevation data on the typical GPS trainers runners use is notoriously bad. You can take a look at the raw GPS data from a run through Kansas and it will look like the Himalayas. To get around the problem, many running websites allow you to correct the elevations by cross-referencing against known databases maintained by NASA and the USGS. The Garmin Connect website I use to track my runs can do that. Take a look at the elevation profile from today's run, for example:

On top is the uncorrected elevation chart, and below is the corrected version. Not only does the uncorrected version appear more "jagged," it also reports a hillier overall course -- a cumulative elevation gain of 472 feet, versus 245 feet in the corrected version. The corrected version definitely feels more like what I actually experience on a run. But is it possible that even "corrected" elevation charts can be wrong?

My standard hill workout ends with a tough quarter-mile climb. But when I use the corrected elevation chart, it simply doesn't show up. I know it's there: My lungs tell me that, but Garmin doesn't see it. I guess there's just a discrepancy in whatever database Garmin uses to make its corrections. But a recent comment on the Big Sur Marathon facebook page made me wonder if there was a consistent bias to elevation corrections.

The commenter said he had noticed that corrected elevations seem to always get bridges wrong. It makes some sense: The US Geological Survey isn't going to measure the elevation of the man-made bridge; it's going to measure the elevation of the earth (or water) below the bridge. I searched around the web to see if I could find any independent confirmation of this, and didn't find much, except for this forum post: "I shut off my elevation correction because it tells me that I only traveled + or -4 feet on each run and it's more like several hundred feet because I cross over a lot of very high bridges that are high enough to allow cruise ships pass underneath."

While it's just a couple of anecdotal reports, it makes sense, and it sure sounds like the corrected data is ignoring bridges! What would that mean for Big Sur? The original course had eight high bridges; I haven't been able to get a good number for the new course, but I think it's around five. Since the course is now an out-and-back, that's around ten bridge crossings. If a corrected GPS reading measures the distance to the ground below the bridge, when a bridge spans a canyon the way the bridges at Big Sur do, the corrected elevation change will be overestimated: The corrected version assumes you ran to the bottom of the canyon and up the other side, when in fact you crossed over a level bridge. Supposing these bridges are an average of 50 feet high, that means the corrected elevation gain for the course would be overestimated by 10 X 50 or 500 feet -- not a trivial amount! That would bring the cumulative elevation gain from the official course map down from 2,406 feet to 1,906 feet!

Details of today's workout are below.

Packing for a marathon

I've never been particularly good about packing. Part of the reason, I think, is that I don't like making lists. This has gotten me into trouble, most notably when I went on a hike with two sets of raingear, but no spoon or cup (fair warning, I swear like a sailor in that blog post).

But given that I've been training for nearly a year for this marathon, I've decided to break down and make a list. A bit of googling for "marathon checklist" and "marathon packing list" came up with some examples, but not all of them seemed particularly well-thought-out. One list, for example, listed "running shoes" as an "essential" carry-on item, but suggested packing your shorts and singlet in your checked luggage. I mean, sure, if your luggage was lost, you could run a race naked, but where would you attach your bib? More than one list suggests Body Glide as a "might be handy" item. As in: If your thighs and nipples were chafed raw during the marathon, it might have been handy if you had packed the Body Glide.

I think I like the Runner's World checklists the best of the ones I found. They actually offer several different lists depending on how far you're travelling for the race. Here's my list, which takes their "overnight race" list and updates / refines it for my own needs (I removed "film" and added card reader to the camera item, for example!).

Pre-race:

• Race / Hotel / Flight / Car rental info in PDF on iPhone and computer
• Body Glide
• Band-aids
• Sunscreen (in ziploc w/gels & toothpaste)
• Fruit and Granola bars for flight (buy bottle of water at airport)
• Camera / Card reader
• Extra cash/credit cards
• Street clothes and shoes
• Toiletries including a travel-sized first aid kit
• Watch with alarm for race-day wake-up
• Buy food for race-day breakfast in advance when I arrive
• Computer / iPad / cords / iPhone charger
• Compression socks for flights/post-race/the race itself if it's colder than expected.

Race:

• Shoes, orthotics if necessary
• Singlet
• Short-sleeve compression shirt
• Long-sleeve compression shirt
• Hat
• Shorts
• Spi-Belt to hold gels/bib
• Compression underwear
• Socks
• Gloves, which will probably be tossed after a few miles if worn at all
• GPS and charger
• Racing prescription sunglasses. Contact lenses as backup.
• Old sweats I can toss after a few miles
• Gels - in easily accessible ziploc for security checkpoint!
• Knee brace 

Post-race:

• Extra socks
• Extra shirt and shorts/pants
• Waterproof jacket
• Ibuprofen
• Towel
• Plastic bag for ice, dirty clothes, etc.

Tourism items:

• Binoculars

I think I should be able to fit all this in a carry-on duffel bag plus a small computer bag. The nice thing about going to a big race with a giant expo and arriving two days early is that if there's something I forgot (or didn't know I needed), I can always buy it there.

Details of today's workout are below:

The weather in Big Sur

With any luck, by precisely one week from now I will have finished my first marathon. The Big Sur Marathon starts at 6:45 a.m. on May 1, so if I run a 3:30 marathon, I'll finish somewhere between 10:15 and 10:20, depending on how long it takes me to make my way across the starting line. That's around 1:15 Eastern Time, or about an hour ago as I write this.

While here in Davidson it's currently about 80 degrees and very humid, in Carmel, California, where the race starts and ends, the temperature is a much more manageable 50 degrees. Weather.com now has the forecast all the way out to race day; here's how it looks:

If this is what we get on race day, I'll absolutely take it. Sure, it's a bit warmer than I'd like (though I imagine it might only be around 57 or 58 when I finish), but there's very little wind, and I'd rather have a bright sunny day to enjoy the views by than a cooler, cloudy or rainy day.

My main concern is actually the wind. I've read many race reports describing 20- to 30-mph winds at Big Sur. The number one piece of advice for runners in the wind: Get behind a big guy. That's a problem when you're the big guy!

I've been following the weather in Big Sur for the past couple of weeks and the main thing I've noticed is that it's very consistent; usually in the upper 40s overnight and around 60 during the day. What changes the most is the wind. The other concern for runners is the cool mornings. Because we all have to be bussed to the start, we'll be arriving 1.5 to 3 hours early, and it could be in the 40s. While that's a great temperature to run in, it's rather cold for standing / sitting around. I'm going to bring an old pair of sweats to wear to the race, and be prepared to just throw them away once the run starts. In my past races, however, I've found that as the start-time approaches, I'm usually warm enough just from adrenaline, so I can safely check my sweats and still have plenty of time to get to the start.

I'll keep my eye on the weather as race day approaches, but for now, things are looking great. I can't wait!

Details of today's workout are below

Too many miles on a taper?

My training schedule calls for a 13-mile run this weekend, just one week before my race. After the miles I've been logging as I train for this race, 13 doesn't seem like much to me, but my running companions have been telling me that's too far to be running just a week before the race.

For me at this level of fitness, 13 miles at a relatively easy pace doesn't take much out of me. I could see if a person had done a more minimalistic training regimen, a run this long wouldn't be a great idea. After all, it's possible you could get injured, and then all that hard work would have been wasted. On the other hand, there are lots of ways to get injured even if you didn't run at all. All told, this week I'll be running about 42 miles. The last time I ran so little in a week was last December. I even ran farther than that the week of my ski trip to Colorado. Next week I'll be cutting down the miles even more, to just 28 miles (not counting the marathon itself). That's less than half of what I did at peak intensity. So although in some ways it seems like I'm running a lot of miles during this taper, it definitely feels like a taper. I have no doubt that I will be very well-rested come race day.

Since tomorrow is Easter, the DART group decided to do their long run this morning. I met up at CVS with Chad, Matt, Tim, Jeff, David, Chad's neighbor, whose name I've forgotten, and a new guy, Jacob, who was in town visiting family.

Matt, Tim, Jacob and I took off at a relatively fast pace on a hilly route up Grey road. Miles 1, 2, and 3 were 8:19, 7:54, and 8:00 on a leg that included 121 feet of climbing. When we got to the top of the hill, we waited for the rest of the group, then took off again with Chad joining us in the faster group. After Mile 4 clicked in at 7:39, I decided I probably shouldn't be running this 13-miler at near-tempo-pace, so I slowed down and waited for ultra-runners David and Jeff to catch up. My Mile 5 pace was 9:19. Then the three of us rattled off a series of 8:30-ish miles, all the way down Shearer Road to the new greenway in River Run, and out the other side of River Run. I was a little surprised to find that I wasn't feeling great on these miles, which were a little hilly but shouldn't have given me too much trouble. With two miles left to go, Jeff split off to do some more hill work, and David headed home. I decided I should pick up the pace for the finish, and completed uphill Miles 12 and 13 in 8:13 and 7:53, and felt good doing it. It's another case where speeding up can sometimes make you feel better during a long run. The finish of this run definitely gave me a nice confidence boost going into Big Sur.

My average pace for the 13.16-mile run was 8:20 per mile, which is actually nearly the same as my official pace for the National Half Marathon. Not bad at all!

Details of today's run are below.

More strategizing for Big Sur

My primary goal for the Big Sur Marathon is to run it in 3:30:00 or better. That's an 8-minute pace, which is fairly ambitious for a first marathon, especially since my half-marathon PR pace is only 7:51 (yes, I'm almost certainly faster than that now, but you never know until you actually run the race).

What's the best way to run your target time in a marathon? There's a bit of debate about this, but most research points to an even pace. Just run a consistent pace throughout, with some adjustments for terrain, and you've got the best chance of success. I've read a few articles suggesting that it might be slightly more efficient to run the first half a little faster, but not much -- perhaps only 5 to 10 seconds per mile faster than the second half. For me that would be a 7:55 pace for the first half and an 8:05 pace for the second half. That's really not much different than running a consistent pace throughout. What's more, Big Sur's first half is tougher than the second half this year, so running a consistent pace would effectively mean you're running harder at the start.

That said, I'm not sure how easy it is going to be to run a consistent pace on such a hilly course. How slow do you go on the uphills? How fast on the downhills? My experiences with hill training suggest that I slow down by 15-30 seconds per mile on uphills, and I speed up about the same amount on the downhills. I think I'm going to have to do this primarily by feel, and by consistently monitoring my progress. With the exception of the short Point Lobos loop, the hills are pretty consistent throughout the course. So I should be able to monitor my average pace throughout the race and get a very good sense of how I'm doing.

But what if I'm feeling good, say, around the halfway point? Should I go faster? At this point in my running career, I don't think I have enough experience to make that call. I've never run a marathon, so I don't know what "feeling good" feels like. On long runs, I've noticed that the first 10+ miles are always quite easy unless I've gone out exceptionally hard. I'm certainly not going to do that at Big Sur, so chances are I'll be feeling pretty good at the halfway point. What's unknown is what's beyond that. If I bump up the pace to 7:30 starting at Mile 13, I might have to slow down to a 9-minute pace at Mile 20; that's not a good trade-off! I think it's better just to try to maintain as close to an 8-minute pace as possible this time around. Maybe I could speed things up incrementally if I'm still feeling good at Mile 20, but at that point I won't be able to make up a whole lot of time. Big Sur is not the place to try to run a 3:25:00!

Fortunately, this race does have a 3:30:00 pace team, so the simplest strategy is just to run with the group. Running with a group has the added bonus of motivating you to do better. If I can stay with the team for 26.2 miles, I will have qualified for Boston on an exceptionally difficult marathon course. If I fall off the pace, I'll do what I can to keep a 9:00 pace. I've run better than a 9:00 pace in 22-mile training runs, so hopefully finishing in 3:56:00 or better should not be a problem. Supposing I just slow down to that pace for the second half, I'd still be better than a 3:45:00, which isn't bad for a first marathon.

Details of today's training run are below: