New Year's Resolutions

Well, I made it a pretty far way last year. I started by skipping out on the New Year's Eve run and feeling even more guilty when I saw the Rock 'n Roll Arizona TV coverage a few weeks later.

So I got pissed off, got off my ass and started putting into the miles. I also started this little blog to document the effort.

Over the next 12-months I was able to put in two 10K's, a 5K and one half-marathon (a listing of them can be found here). Mostly, though, it was a year of building myself up and establishing a solid routine to base actual race training on.

I've mostly run alone due to my weird South/North America living situation. Despite that I've made a few running friends that have gotten me through the tough spots. If any of you are reading this - and I'm pretty sure you know who you are - thanks a lot, guys.

So, in two weeks I'll be at the starting line of my primary goal over the last twelvemonth, running my first marathon. Obviously, I'd prefer performing at the maximum level possible and making my next goal - running the Boston Marathon - possible.

After that... well, I'd like to put in a South America marathon during the year and, if all goes as planned, I'd love to hop over to Australia for the 2007 Blackmores Sydney Marathon on Sept. 23.

But, for today, I think it's more important to take a minute to look back and consider what I've been able to accomplish. And try my level best to heal up for the coming challenge.

The Ice Bath

There is a routine comedian Billy Connolly did as part of his 1991 Live at the Odeon Hammersmith London video where he tells of growing up in Scotland and being taken out to swim in the North Sea. The cold water hitting you in the nuts for the first time felt "like a hot potato being shoved right up your ass," he vividly recalls.

I had reason to remember this little vignette today when I decided to try taking an ice bath.

The concept here is pretty simple, as a recent Running Times article explains.

Hard running results in the buildup of toxins like lactic acid in your muscles. The cold causes your blood vessels to constrict and your body creates a "blood rush" to force more blood into the region. The sudden rapid transmission circulation flushes the damage-inflicting waste from your system.

Moreover, since the entirety of your legs are submerged, you get a more widespread effect. Which is why it is recommended as a preventive regimen rather than localized icing that is used for post-injury therapy.

Now my Sunday long run had left me pretty sore afterward. I took a nap that afternoon and woke up with burning eyes due to the toxin buildup in my body - the same sensation I get after a very effective massage. Throughout the day, moving around was done with extreme difficulty and it wasn't a lot better this morning.

So I stopped at the Water Plus store to pick up a big bottle of water for drinking and threw in two of the huge bags of ice as well.

Now, to make an ice bath you need to fill a tub with ice and water and submerge your legs into it for between 15 to 20 minutes. I started by just pouring all the ice into the tub and starting the water. Then I got in.

After about 30 seconds I realized the persistent ringing in my ears was actually my own screams. The 'Connolly effect,' as I now refer to it, seemed to be caused by the sensation of my testicles sucking back into my body with such velocity that I fear they may have bruised my kidneys.

I got out and tried to get feeling back into my legs. I also turned the water up to dissolve some of the ice and get the level high enough to submerge my legs.

Turns out, this was a good plan. The recommended temperature is between 54 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Just-above-freezing does little good and is actually pretty dangerous. Not to mention hit hurts like hell.

So, after the tub re-filled I got back in. It was brutally cold and completely agonizing but not nearly as bad as before. I turned on the timer and, never in my life has 15 minutes gone by so slow.

But, after about five minutes, it became much more bearable - although not, by any means, pleasant. I assume this is because of the influx of blood begin forced into the region by the 'blood rush.'

I finally staggered out after a quarter hour and tried feebly to walk and restore circulation. The post-run aches had been replaced by freezing agony but they were, as promised, gone. I actually felt better.

Until about ten minutes later when I couldn't stop shivering. The drop in my body temperature was pretty steep and I was having trouble recovering. I stepped outside into the sun but it didn't help much.

So I hopped into a warm shower. That helped a lot. I let the tub fill with warm - not hot - water, threw in some Epsom salt and lay there for about ten minutes letting my legs get their warmth back. Turns out, this is the method recommended in the Running Times article.

Was it worth it? I dunno. I clearly feel better now but the pain of the experience was as tough as any long run I have done to date. Most of the accounts of the practice I have been able to find on the internet seem to laud the boost it gives the day after.

Thus, the jury remains out on this one. If the pluses seem to be there I'm willing to take it on as a weekly post-long-run practice. But I'll have to remember to do something to muffle the screams.

The Ballad of the Missing Running Shoes

After almost six months of regular running it had become apparent in recent weeks that my shoes have gone about as far as they can take me.

I am way past the four months or six hundred miles whichever comes first cutoff and it really has become apparent. As I have started putting in 30-plus mile weeks my feet and lower legs have become the repository of different aches and pains after every run.

So, one weekend last month I went looking for some new shoes here in Lima. I didn't think it would be simple but I figured it would at least be possible. What I didn't contend with is that size 13 shoes do not exist in Peru. None. Nada.

The largest size running shoe I could find was a 10-and-a-half and don't even think about finding one with decent motion control like I require. So after visiting no less than a dozen different shoe stores over a two-day span it became clear. I was SOL.

Then I remembered that the awesome folks at Performance Footwear in Tempe, Arizona had a record of my last shoe purchase. Not just a record, the brand, the size and even the other shoes I tried out and liked as well.

So I got the phone number and rang them up to see if they thought buying a pair blind using my info was advisable. After a nice chat on the pluses and minuses, we agreed it was about the only option I had. So they put a pair of the shoes on layaway and my mom went and picked them up a few days later.

Now, instead of everything working fine from this point on as one might expect, this is where everything rolled up into a tight little ball of fubar.

The woman at the store suggested the shoes be mailed separately. Shoes are a common target for mail thieves and the postal service to Peru is not the best. I asked a few of my friends here about it and they agreed it was probably a good idea. So I told mom to use two packages and so she went to the mail store and they took care of it sending the packages a day apart.

Well, the first one showed up pretty quick, less than a week later. But it seems the Peruvian authorities were concerned it might contain all sorts of important and valuable stuff that is subject to taxing so they flagged it. Instead of a cardboard box, I recieved an official piece of paper saying I had to go down to their office.

So I did, expecting the worst and Lordy, I got it. It was a two-and-a-half hour bureaucratic hell. There were six service windows in the little office and I had to visit each of them at least twice not to mention a discussion with the office manager at one point. I signed my name no less than nine times and more than a dozen forms needed to be completed by either me or one of these paper pushers.

All that and, in the end, it was not even taxable.

Quick side note, my cousin mailed off a box of gels, drink powders and energy bars about this time. This package is arguably taxable since they could say I was trying to sell it due to the quantity of items. Anyhow, after one week a nice gentleman rings my doorbell and hands me the package. No problem.

So then I wait.

And I wait.

And I wait.

I passed the 10-12 business day mark last week which was the outer window for it to arrive and I still wait. I finally just assume the shoe did get stolen or the idiots in the post office misfiled it somewhere. I gird myself to get to know my good friend pain even better over the next few months.

But then, today, another guy came to my door. Not the nice delivery guy, no, this was a not-very-nice man with the piece of paper saying this package was also flagged by the customs people. And now I have to go back down to their office and endure another round of the bureaucratic nonsense to pick it up.

So I merrily saunter down there, once again, prepared for the worst. But this time, since it was completely ludicrous to go through this whole farce once again for one shoe, I wasn't going to simply go with the flow. Oh no.

The first time I got any static - it turned out they wanted me to go find a copy shop and make a photocopy of my identification this time - I went ballistic. Complete ugly American. I ranted. I raved. I waved papers. I mixed English curse words with choppy Spanish. The security guard even came over out of concern. I was a complete and total asshole.

Needless to say, after that I had no more problems. I went down the street and got the copy they wanted, came back and gave it to them and they got me out of there damn quick. Twenty minutes, total.

So, anyhow, now I have two new shoes to start running in. I am really hoping that the change, allied with the week off coming up takes care of my recent problems and I can get back to my normal training schedule.

Getting Started

Klephrun is a daily diary for my running as I try and get started doing it again this year. My goal is to run the PF Chang's Rock n' Roll Marathon in Tempe, Arizona on January 14, 2007.

I have tried to prepare for a marathon several times in the past five years but kept running into one big obstacle - my left knee. The problem is classic Iliotibial Band Syndrome acerbated by two things, scar tissue in my left thigh from a car wreck years ago and my abysmal posture.

So, in this trip home I have taken a few steps in the form of prevention, picked up a couple of remedies and tips and am going to set out and try this yet again. This blog is simply a simple way to keep up a runners diary on my progress and shame me into sticking to the thing.