Setting Goals

It's not uncommon for someone to ask me what my goal is for the marathon. But my standard response is: to run another marathon.

This probably isn't the answer they expected. Of course, the usually ask the question expecting a finish time but most non-runners don't know if a 4-hour marathon is good or bad.

But running another marathon implies quite it bit. I'm not going to kill myself just to break the 4 hour mark. I don't want to blow out my knee, have a heart attack, aneurysm, dehydrate, hyponatremate or any other number of bad things. As a matter of fact, I want to be able to walk without serious limping 48 hours after I finish. On the third day, I want take a 2 mile jog around my neighborhood. On the fifth day I'd like to be able to go down the stairs facing forwards.

That type of answer usually depresses people. Is it really that bad? No, but ultimately I want to be 80 years old and still running marathons and I think having a post-race recovery goal is as important having a race goal.

If they're still listening, then I'll tell them the answer they are looking for: I'd like to run under 4 hours, 15 minutes.

Why 4:15? Three reasons:

4:15 would be a personal record for me.
4:15 would put me in the "top half" of marathon finishers (see Numerical Madness II).
4:15 would put me on par with Sean "P-Diddy" Combs

But any marathon finish is a good finish in my book.

Just for reference, here are some "famous" people and their marathon times. Where do you fit in?

David Lee Roth, former lead singer of Van Halen, New York City Marathon 1987 (6:04:43)
Freddie Prinze, Jr., Los Angeles Marathon 2006 (5:50:49)
Mario López, Saved by the Bell, Boston Marathon 2002 (5:41:41)
Nick Hexum, Vocalist from 311, Los Angeles Marathon 2006 (5:29:44) and 2007 (5:39:?)
Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa, Little Rock Marathon 2005 (5:28:39)
Al Gore, Vice President of the United States at the time, Marine Corps Marathon 1997 (4:58:25)
David James Elliott, JAG, Boston Marathon 2000 (4:57:23)
Bill Frist, Former United States Senate Majority Leader, Marine Corps Marathon 1997 (4:54:36)
Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas, Little Rock Marathon 2005 (4:39:04)
Bill Rancic, Winner: The Apprentice (Season 1), Chicago Marathon 2001 (4:31:31)
Oprah Winfrey, Marine Corps Marathon 1994 (4:29:20)
Kyle Petty, NASCAR Nextel Cup driver, Las Vegas Marathon January 2005 (4:18:34)
Sean Combs, New York City Marathon 2002 (4:14:54)
Meredith Baxter, Family Ties, New York City Marathon 1982 (4:08:30)
Jarno Trulli, Formula One Driver, New York City Marathon 2000 (4:02:21)
Michael Waltrip, 2001 and 2003 Daytona 500 champion, Las Vegas Marathon January 2005 (3:59:23)
Will Ferrell, Boston Marathon 2003 (3:56:12)
Anthony Edwards, Chicago Marathon 2003 (3:55:40)
Kim Alexis, model, New York City Marathon 1992 (3:52:00)
George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, Houston Marathon 1993 (3:44:52)
Michael Dukakis, Former Governor of Massachusetts, Boston Marathon 1951 (3:31:00)
John Edwards, Former United States Senator, Marine Corps Marathon 1983 (3:30:18)
William Baldwin, New York City Marathon 1992 (3:24:29)
Mike Malinin, Goo Goo Dolls, 2000 Chronicle Marathon in San Francisco (3:23:56)
Björn Ulvaeus, former member of Swedish band ABBA, Stockholm Marathon 1980, (3:23:54)
Alan Turing, mathematician and cryptologist, Leicestershire Amateur Athletic Championships Marathon 1947 (2:46:03) (fast AND smart)

Chicago Marathon 2010 time lapse runner

 

Uploaded by mikesrightbrain on Oct 12, 2010

I ran the Chicago Marathon on October 10, 2010 with an HD camera strapped to my head. I compiled this timelapse from the photos taken every two seconds throughout the journey. I did my best to hold my head steady during the entire run, but it was not easy!
Thanks to Jonathan Guerra of Milano at http://hearmilano.com
for the great music. Check out his stuff- it is awesome.

Very cool!

Volunteering at Chicago Marathon 10.10.10

After running the Chicago Marathon 4 times I have expanded my running horizons and got involved with volunteering. This year I am back again as the co-captain of Aid Station #9, at mile 12.5 of the Chicago Marathon.

This is a brief photo-documentary of one of 19 aid stations along the course.

Jump to Flickr gallery...or click the photos below to scroll through the documentary.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

A big shout out to Coach Jenny Hadfield for soliciting runners and volunteers for their favorite 25 Tips for Volunteering in a Race

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Not your parents summer camp...

As the temps hit near 70 today in the Chicago land area and I'm still struggling on busting out of my winter running funk, this video can't help to provide some motivation.

Thanks to super-coach Jenny Hadfield for finding this...

Nike Naked Running Camp

Go back to the basics by running super natural at the Bear Butte Running Camp.

Good news from the world of coffee…and, um, running…

Coffee Lessens the Pain of Exercise

LiveScience Staff
livescience.com – Tue Mar 31, 1:37 pm ET

(link to original article)

That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.

So the researcher, a former competitive cyclist, divided 25 fit, college-aged males into two distinct groups: subjects whose everyday caffeine consumption was extremely low to non-existent, and those with an average caffeine intake of about 400 milligrams a day, the equivalent of three to four cups of coffee.

Unexpected results

After completing an initial exercise test in the lab on a stationary bike to determine maximal oxygen consumption or aerobic power, subjects returned for two monitored high-intensity, 30-minute exercise sessions.

An hour prior to each session, cyclists - who had been instructed not to consume caffeine during the prior 24-hour period - were given a pill. On one occasion, it contained a dose of caffeine measuring 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to two to three cups of coffee); the other time, they received a placebo.

During both exercise periods, subjects' perceptions of quadriceps muscle pain was recorded at regular intervals, along with data on oxygen consumption, heart rate and work rate.

"What we saw is something we didn't expect," Motl said. "Caffeine-naïve individuals and habitual users have the same amount of reduction in pain during exercise after caffeine (consumption)."

The results are detailed in the April edition of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Co-authors included Steven P. Broglio of the University of Illinois and Sigurbjorn A. Arngrimsson of the Center for Sport and Health Sciences, Iceland University of Education.

"Clearly, if you regularly consume caffeine, you have to have more to have that bigger, mental-energy effect," Motl said. "But the tolerance effect is not ubiquitous across all stimuli. Even brain metabolism doesn't show this tolerance-type effect. That is, with individuals who are habitual users versus non-habitual users, if you give them caffeine and do brain imaging, the activation is identical. It's really interesting why some processes show tolerance and others don't."

Regarding the outcome of the current research, he said, it may be that tolerance to caffeine plays no role in the way it diminishes pain during exercise.

Motl said one of the next logical steps for his research team would be to conduct studies with rodents in order to better understand the biological mechanism for caffeine in reducing pain.

"If we can get at the biological mechanism, we can begin to understand why there may or may not be this kind of tolerance."

Will it help you win?

Motl previously has conducted other studies on the relationship between physical activity and caffeine, and considered such variables as exercise intensity, dose of caffeine, anxiety sensitivity and gender. A future research direction might be to determine caffeine's effect on sport performance.

"We've shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics. But does that reduction in pain translate into an improvement in sport performance?" he said.

Meanwhile, the current research could prove encouraging for a range of people, including the average person who wants to become more physically active to realize the health benefits.

"One of the things that may be a practical application, is if you go to the gym and you exercise and it hurts, you may be prone to stop doing that because pain is an aversive stimulus that tells you to withdraw," Motl said. "So if we could give people a little caffeine and reduce the amount of pain they're experiencing, maybe that would help them stick with that exercise."

10 Things You Need to Know About Coffee
5 Things You Must Know About Pain
Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind

Original Story: Coffee Lessens the Pain of Exercise

Great Worm Migration of 2008

I was trying to sneak in a run this morning. It's been quite wet around here recently. Now we're in the middle of three days of non-stop rain due to the effects of Ike.

The gutters were full of worms, up and down the block. Amazing.

Things to do with a waterproof camera

Jillian on left, Jessica on right

Marathon - The Day After

I originally found the video on this blog: http://briangaines.blogspot.com

I put the YouTube'd version here for easy viewing...