by | December 10, 2009 · 12:31 pm

Iontophoresis for runners: What P. Diddy and I have in common

After P. Diddy finished the New York City Marathon in 2003, he credited iontophoresis, or the use of a small electrical current to The iontophoresis patch transmits anti-inflammatory medicine to the site of my ankle sprain last year. transmit an anti-inflammatory medicine, with curbing his knee pain enough to let him complete the race.

I was unaware of P. Diddy’s experience before my doctor suggested ionto, as it’s commonly called, for my IT band two years ago, the first time I received this nifty, noninvasive treatment. I’m receiving it again now for peroneal tendonitis and/or an inflamed posterior tibialis (or, to keep it simple, a cranky ankle), and I’m optimistic it’ll get me over the why-does-it-still-hurt hump.

Here’s how the treatment works: A physical therapist fastens a patch with anti-inflammatory ointment to the spot on my ankle that hurts. Then, she attaches a tiny device that administers a low electrical charge for just a few minutes – since I use the self-contained patch, there’s no need to keep it hooked up to the device for long (another version of ionto uses a large machine to transmit the charge, and takes about 15 minutes). I feel a slight twinge — not pain, exactly, but a little sensation that lets me know something’s going on. I leave the patch on for two hours to let the medicine do its thing. Repeat, essentially, every other day for two weeks.

I like that this is noninvasive and basically risk-free. I like that I’m receiving the treatment on my ankle — since the muscles and tendons are closer to the surface there, my chances of it working are greater. I like that I may have the boniest ankles in the history of ankles for the same reason.

Finally, I like that it’s only one way I’m looking to attack the problem. I’m also doing several prehab exercises given to me by the therapist I worked with yesterday, an enthusiastic woman named Toni. Toni told me she embarked on a prehab program to strengthen her own ankles after multiple ankle sprains clued her in to possible weakness.

She gave me a TheraBand, and showed me how to use by pointing and flexing my foot in all four directions: plantar flexion, like pressing on the gas pedal in your car; dorsiflexion, pulling back in the opposite direction; and inversion and eversion, or pulling the resistance band from side-to-side.With the ionto and the exercises, it can only be a matter of time before my ankles are in good working order again!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my post about managing a runner’s stomach. My next experiment, thanks to your thoughtful and interesting suggestions (other ideas still welcome!), will be oatmeal and a banana. Which sounds pretty delicious, even without the run.

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by | December 9, 2009 · 12:05 pm

Managing a runner’s stomach

Your legs are ready after months of speedwork and long runs. Your race plan is set, your gear well-tested, your shoes broken in. You’re perfectly primed to run a great race — except for your stomach, which is roiling from some unknown source of distress.

I’ve got a wide variety of perfectly manageable, not-at-all-serious digestive issues. I’m not going to elaborate on those here, but will say only that it’s not entirely surprising that I experienced race-ruining GI issues the day of the Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 25. Here’s what is surprising: Since then, I’ve read dozens of blog posts echoing mine, with well-trained runners succumbing to similar issues despite following all the obvious advice about pre-race fuel. None of them seems to have a clue about how to prevent another such experience in the future.

I know all the obvious stuff: I shouldn’t eat or drink anything new leading up to race day, I should avoid bean burritos and chocolate chip cookies and wine the night before. My new plan: Look beyond the obvious to take my own personal nutrition plan to the next level.

A few things that seem to work:

  • I’ve got a few staples I’m pretty sure I’ll never remove from the pre-race rotation — pizza has literally been my pre-race meal for every longer-distance race I’ve completed (all but one have been free of stomach issues), and one of my first cooking experiences in high school involved a pre-race banana bread for cross country (right now, I’m loving my own version of sports dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield’s banana-pumpkin bread).
  • Eating stomach-friendly foods two days before a big race, not just Race Day Eve.
  • Eating a *small* meal or snack three hours before running. Not medium-sized, which my finicky stomach can sometimes get tripped up on. Small. Like, a single piece of banana bread and an apple.

A few pre-run breakfasts other runners have suggested:

  • Oatmeal
  • Wheat toast with natural peanut butter
  • Wheat bagel with banana and peanut butter
  • An Ensure or Boost shake
  • Cream of wheat

Here’s what I’m going to try:

  • I’m keeping a food diary tracking what I eat and how it makes my stomach feel.
  • I’m mixing up my routine to see if there are new foods to add to my repertoire. My first such experiment involved everyone’s go-to pre-run food, a bagel with some peanut butter. I visited friends in New Jersey last weekend, and enjoyed one of the Garden State’s characteristic chewy, doughy bagel smeared with peanut butter, eating half for breakfast and half with a banana for lunch. It was delicious! But when I ran about three hours afterwards, I could still kind of feel the bagel hanging around in my stomach. Next up: bananas and peanut butter, oatmeal.
  • I’m reevaluating everything I think works now. My current pre-run snacks or breakfasts involve a piece of homemade banana bread or a Luna bar and a shot of espresso with a tiny bit of milk. These have served me well for years. But does the espresso shot work because it’s a good and safe pre-race food for me, or because I’ve gotten lucky? Like a cheesy murder mystery at a small-town dinner theater, even the seemingly good guys are suspects at this point.

Which foods work for you, both the night before a race or the hours before a race or workout? Which foods definitely DON’T work for you? What steps do you take to ensure you don’t suffer GI distress on race day?

A few resources I’ve found helpful:

  • This article in the International SportsMed Journal details all the different things that can go wrong in the GI tract while distance-running.
  • This Runner’s World story details some “safe” foods, but my first experiment (see above) indicates even those will have to be carefully tested.
  • This competitor.com post offers some interesting insights from a triathlete who searched for her own answers on the topic.

Coming tomorrow: my adventures in iontophoresis. I get my second treatment today, and I’ll make sure to take a picture of the magic patch of anti-inflammatory goodness to share with all of you!

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by | December 8, 2009 · 12:32 pm

December playlist: Carol of the Bells and other pump-up songs

Isn’t it funny the way playlists naturally evolve? Mine rotate about once a month through an organic process: I delete old songs one at a time when I get to the point that I just can’t listen to them one more time, then slowly replace them with hard-won new songs I deem worthy of running to.

I rename the playlist once a month, and usually find myself with a drastically different mix than what I started the month with.

December brings a boost in the form of the Christmas carols I add to the mix every year — kind of like the way pulling out my under-bed storage bin full of sweaters every winter makes me feel like I have a whole new winter wardrobe. That’s right — I run to Christmas carols. I’m not talking about “Silent Night” so much as “Carol of the Bells.” Get a good a capella recording of the latter, and I guarantee you’ll pick up the pace when it comes on. Vince Guaraldi’s tunes from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” are great for long runs, and almost any carol by Ella Fitzgerald will carry you through miles two and three of a mid-distance run.

Below is my carol-heavy December running playlist:

Carol of the Bells

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – Ella Fitzgerald

Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Ella Fitzgerald

Get Right Back – Army Navy (thanks to Erica from I Run For Dessert for recommending this great cover song!)

Empire State of Mind – Jay Z, feat. Alicia Keys

Ghetto Pop Life

Rosa Parks – Outkast

D.O.A. – Jay Z

Percussion Gun – The White Rabbits

How You Like Me Now? – The Heavy

So What – P!nk

Looking for more inspiration? Check out elite runner Lauren Fleshman’s playlist. This is basically a replica of my early-2008 playlist, and any runner looking to run off some emotional business should download “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It’ll make you run faster and heal your soul at the same time.

Speaking of healing, I had my first iontophoresis treatment yesterday. Iontophoresis is this nifty, non-invasive way to get inflammation to go down by using a small electrical charge to send an anti-inflammatory ointment through the skin. More details on this later in the week

What else should I add to my December playlist? Any great new finds, or classics that might be new to me?

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by | December 7, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Motivation Monday: The get-outside edition

We pass this section of Rock Creek on our regular route — Sunday, it was covered with snow.

This section of Rock Creek Park was dusted with snow when we ran by it yesterday.

There are lots of things I tell myself when I’m not in the mood to work out: That I always feel better after a run, that even a slow, plodding run will boost my health and fitness, that if I just make myself run to the next light post, I can probably tackle the whole route.

I have a new motivation to add to the list: I run when I don’t feel like it because you never know what you’ll see if you just go outside and open your eyes.

We’d planned to lift yesterday, but found our gym closed early. So we headed outside, a little grumpy about the cold weather.

We shouldn’t have been. The bracing air immediately made everything from our cheeks to our lungs feel more alive. We took in our neighbors’ holiday decorations, and noticed the previous night’s snow weighing down the last remaining fall leaves.We saw Rock Creek Park with a dusting of powdered-sugar snow from the area’s first snowfall over the weekend.

We turned a corner to one of our route’s steepest hills, and spotted a car with a Christmas tree strapped on top. Then, we smelled a waft of clean pine air – there’s a tree lot at the top of the hill!

Up another hill, we saw two kids trying to sled on the inch or so of snow, without much success. Then, when we were almost home, we passed a spectacular-looking snowman with stick arms and a carrot nose in the front lawn of one of our neighbors.

I run for the same reason we all get up every morning — to experience and interact with the world.

What’s motivating you this week?

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by | December 2, 2009 · 3:37 pm

Running with Back on My Feet Baltimore

One morning last spring, I woke up at 4:30 a.m., aiming to be on the road to head to Baltimore no later than 4:45 a.m.

It was my first meeting with Back on My Feet Baltimore, a group that aims to get homeless people back on their feet by getting them into a structured running program, for the group’s 5:30 a.m. run. It’s a trip I’d make several more times over the next several months as I followed the group from its initial 1- to 3-mile runs to training runs for the Baltimore Marathon in October for a story for Baltimore’s Urbanite Magazine. The story, Running for Their Lives, appears in this month’s issue. Take a few minutes to read it if you can; hopefully, you’ll be as inspired by Arnold and the rest of the Back on My Feet runners as I was.

The amazing runners I’ve gotten to meet in the course of reporting this story have inspired me not only in my own running, but in my own life. With the story published, I wanted to reflect on a few of those lessons:

Love the hills. I met Arnold at a time when I was looking for a flat, fast course for my second marathon. Then, Arnold told me the hills are his favorite because they test him. Wow. I, too, run to see what I’m made of, not for a warm, fuzzy ego boost — this was a nice reminder to embrace challenges, recognizing that they make us stronger.

Let the challenges you overcome on the race course boost your confidence in the rest of your life. BOMF founder Anne Mahlum gave me the chills when summed it up this way: “Training for a marathon speaks to the heart of our program,” Mahlum says. “If you’re willing to put in that kind of work, you can go back to school. You can get a better job. It’s a great metaphor for what we’re capable of doing in life.”

Adjust on the fly. I ran about 13 miles of the Baltimore Marathon with Arnold (read my post about it here), and was stunned to see how quickly he adjusted his goals when his original goal time slipped away. He simply kept telling himself he was going to finish, and he did. You better believe I kept that in mind when my own Marine Corps Marathon dream failed to materialize.

Don’t give up on yourself. I didn’t get to write about Micheal Tate, the group’s exuberant, personable jokester, as much as I would have liked thanks to space constraints. But one lesson I learned from him is to trust your goals, and to recognize that you can be your own worst enemy. Tate, who ran a half-marathon in October, told me that halfway through his eleventh mile, he got the urge to stop. He walked for about 10 steps, then remembered: This is that thing he does, quitting to have an excuse for not being successful.

“I just told myself, ‘If you quit this, you’ll quit everything else you do,’” Tate says.

He crossed the finish line in 2:18, 10:30-minute miles.

The group is now working to establish a program in Washington, D.C. Visit its Web site for more information.

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by | December 1, 2009 · 1:19 pm

Kicking myself out the door

I woke up yesterday in a Mood.

A trip to the pool saved my mood yesterday.

You know the kind of Mood I’m talking about — when you don’t feel like working, dread the day’s workout hours beforehand and question the motives behind even your most cherished beliefs and most staid routines. One of those.

The mood lingered even after a morning of work, so it was no surprise that I was almost frantic to avoid the early-lunchtime swim I had planned. I tried my best tips and tricks from my adventures in sports psychology over the summer to no avail. In the end, I all but kicked myself out the door.

Once I got to the pool, I had to force myself to actually jump in the water after spending three or four minutes stretching on the deck. “You’re not going home now,” I told myself. Finally, once I jumped in, I used some of the aforementioned tips to get my mind in the right place. I replaced negative thoughts (coldcoldcoldcoldcold! If I’d done the stationary bike, I’d be done by now!) with a simple refrain: I sang “Three Little Birds” to myself, and swam to that tempo.

I enjoyed a random but challenging workout composed entirely of 400s by repeating the following four times:

400 free with pull buoy
400 backstroke

The last four 400s, I added seven hard strokes to the first 50 of each freestyle set, and sprinting every other 25 of backstroke. The final 400 was an IM.

Are you surprised to hear that I had a great workout, and that the rest of the day was drastically better and more productive after I’d finished it? I’ll try to remember that feeling next time I’m struggling to get out the door.

How do you stop negative workout thoughts in their tracks? It’ll be easy to do so tonight — I’m not so much in the mood to head out into one of the first wintry nights for our Pacers Silver Spring group run tonight, but I’m definitely in the mood for a post-run happy hour at Adega Wine Cellars. Easy motivation!

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by | November 30, 2009 · 2:08 pm

Motivation Monday: Strength edition

An injured runner-friend and I were recently talking about lifting — you know, the strength-training we runners tend to ignore until we get hurt and are chastised by a smart physical therapist who says we should know better. My friend and I agreed that when we stop lifting and then start again, we literally feel stronger and more stable almost immediately, like the simple act of doing a few sets of single-leg leg presses can increase our strength and erase our muscle imbalances.

I got lazy about lifting leading up to the Marine Corps Marathon, and even after, when my usual gym at the National Naval Medical Center- Bethesda closed. I added my routine back to my workout schedule a couple weeks ago to great effect — I’m sore pretty much all the time, since I’m basically starting over, but I already feel stronger and more balanced.

On Friday, at my new gym, I got an unexpected bonus. A trainer named Lenny saw me alternating core and arm exercises, and asked a tantalizing question: “Do you want me to show you something that’ll set your arms on fire?” This is like a Nordstrom salesman asking a serial shopper: “Do you just want those boots for free?” He proceeded to show me a series of moves that did, indeed set my arms on fire. And my abs. And my back. Just one example: He had me do chest-presses on an incline with an unweighted bar — but had me hold my legs in the air at a 45-degree angle to work my abs, too. My abs are still literally sore to the touch.

On Sunday, I got a similar treat when I attended a strength-training class for runners held by Robert Gillanders, an ultramarathoner and physical therapist I’ve profiled for Examiner.com. The class at the Water Street Gym in Georgetown included several of the exercises shown in the injury-prevention workout Gillanders created for Examiner.com, but some of the tweaks still caught me by surprise. One example: While doing the plank position, he had us move one leg back and forth. Yeowch!

This week, I’m feeling motivated by this return to the weight room, which I’m adding to my existing IT band plan. Better yet, Gillanders’ class gave me a few new moves to add to the mix.

Also motivating me this week: the promise of a post-run happy hour at Adega, a cool little restaurant and wine bar in Silver Spring, after my group run tomorrow night. Oh — and my desire to run off the Christmas cookies I baked yesterday. Because my beloved University of Colorado’s football team may have lost to Nebraska on Friday, but this CU fan is still making Buffalo-themed Christmas cookies.

What’s motivating you this week?

My CU-themed, buffalo-shaped cookies.

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by | November 27, 2009 · 2:16 pm

We eat hills for breakfast: Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Chase 10K

Everyone warned me about the hills.

Somehow, the constant rise and swell of the YMCA Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Trot 10K course still took me by surprise. Spectators even held signs saying: “Love those hills!”

Steve and I decided ahead of time we’d be running this race to have a good time, not to run one. My recently adopted chilled-out approach led to a surprisingly good 5K a couple weeks ago — could it lead to a speedy 10K on Thanksgiving morning?

I passed each of the first two mile markers in 7:50 minutes — on pace for a PR and feeling surprisingly great despite the hills. Buoyed by the knowledge that as recently as Tuesday, I’d held a solid 8:10-minute-mile pace in the hills with my running group, I pushed on.

I may have slowed down a bit by mile 3, but it wasn’t until the 4-mile marker that I felt like my muscles literally slammed on the brakes. Soon, my stupid sensitive stomach joined the party by reminding me that I’d spent the day yesterday munching on the Thanksgiving goodies I was prepping rather than carefully monitoring my pre-race diet.It became clear my chilled-out approach wasn’t going to lead to my running a great time this time around.

But it was a turkey trot, for goodness sake — is there any better time to chill out and not worry about one’s time? I was having a terrible race, but I could still have an awesome run. I didn’t stop trying, per se, but I definitely threw a nice, comfortable 9-minute mile in there. I was going slow enough to take in the throngs of students home for the holidays proudly wearing their college sweatshirts and fleeces. I watched dads coaching their tweenage sons to hold a steady pace, and moms tackling the killer hills with double baby joggers. The whole experience gave me a sense of contentment no PR could have, and when I crossed the finish line in 52:46, I couldn’t stop talking about how much fun I’d had.

For a more detailed course and race review, check out my Examiner.com post here.

Steve seconded my easygoing approach, and even one-upped me. When I asked what his time was, he shrugged, and told me he hadn’t even bothered to start his watch.

Easy pace notwithstanding, those hills made sure we still got an awesome workout. And after eating hills for breakfast, our Thanksgiving feast that afternoon tasted even better.

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by | November 25, 2009 · 11:12 am

Carrot and stick, part deux

I just didn’t feel like running last night.

Steve and I have both been fighting off a weird “maybe it’s a cold, maybe it’s not” throat-scratchiness, and running into the chilly darkness just didn’t seem appealing.

Then, we got an e-mail from our group-run organizer announcing we’d be going to Chipotle after the run. Chipotle changes everything.

We could have skipped the run and gone to Chipotle ourselves, but it wouldn’t have seemed right. So we headed out, more excited for the food than the run.

Of course, we had a great time once we got out there. It was a hilly route, but my pace group held a solid 8:10 pace for the 5.26-mile out-and-back — possibly fueled by the promise of yummy food after (plus, sports nutritionists say you can count on a 10-percent increase in calories burned for each degree of incline. This means running on a 10-percent incline actually doubles your calorie-burn, meaning I more than earned my veggie burrito bol).

This made me wonder why I don’t dangle carrots like these to incentivize workouts more often. My new goal, in line with my new run-happy philosophy, is to promise myself something for every workout. A month ago, I wrote about some running toys I’ve got my eye on. These are fine and good for long-term goals, but I need some rewards for micro-goals: a nice bath, an hour with a book, or some other cheap, sustainable carrot I can dangle in front of my eyes on a daily basis. I can think of lots of food-related rewards, but it would be nice to mix that up a little.

How do you reward yourself for hard workouts?

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by | November 24, 2009 · 1:44 pm

A runner-friendly Thanksgiving: turkey trot, recipes

I participated in my first-ever turkey trot last Thanksgiving, and I’m convinced this is one of the nicest possible Turkey Day

traditions a healthy family can adopt. There’s a trot almost everywhere, so even when you’re traveling, it’s possible to get in a good workout — and get a taste of that city’s running community. Last year, we ran the St. Petersburg Times Turkey Trot near my parents’ home in Florida. This year, we’ll start the day with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Trot 10K (check out a fabulous PSA for the race here).But our runner-friendly Thanksgiving doesn’t stop there.

In the interest of helping other runners plan their own Thanksgiving feasts, here’s a roundup of the recipes I’m bringing to the table (literally) this Thanksgiving:

A harvest salad with pears, dried cranberries, blue cheese and walnuts.

Roasted turkey breast brined with vegetable broth and herbs.

Sweet-potato stuffing (made with whole-grain bread, minus the bacon)

Homemade cranberry sauce. I’d hoped to use my foodie-friend Chris’ awesome-looking chipotle cranberry sauce recipe (he swears it sounds weird but tastes great), but I couldn’t find a dried chipotle pepper. I’m making this Cooking Light recipe instead.

My own roasted butternut squash recipe: Peel and dice one large butternut squash. Toss diced squash in 1 TBSP olive oil; juice from 1/2 lemon; 2 TBSP minced garlic; and cinnamon, nutmeg, red pepper flakes to taste. Bake for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. I like it a little crispier, so I leave it in for about an hour.

And a pumpkin pie. I’m planning to use up the sweet little pumpkin that’s been decorating my table since I bought it from my farm stand a couple months ago for the filling. I’m also planning to make the crust myself, because my dad worked in a bakery in high school and made fabulous pies my whole life, and ain’t no daughter of Ed Reinink’s gonna eat no store-bought crust on Thanksgiving.

Looking for more runner-friendly Thanksgiving fare that won’t make your dinner guests leave early in search of a Big Mac? Check out Deena Kastor’s Thanksgiving recipes here.

Still looking for a turkey trot? Check out my roundup of Washington-area races for Examiner.com.

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