Watch Out Oprah, I Got New Feet

Three years ago I started a blog named “Beating Oprah” to raise money for the American Cancer Society and to chronicle my ultimately failed attempt, at the 2007 Chicago Marathon, to best Ms. Oprah Winfrey’s personal record at the distance (she ran a 4 hour 28 minute marathon; dang Oprah!).  Sometime after that effort I renamed the blog so as to record not only time and distance, but how I was physically feeling when I ran, what was working, what wasn’t, and occasionally, the wild thoughts and stories one conjures up while swimming through a 15 mile, Houston Summertime run.  Somewhere along the way it no longer became a priority and short of time and distance, all the other information I mined from my runs was lost.

I find myself, now three years on, back in the same spot; training for the Chicago Marathon with Houston Fall FIT.  Though I’m not really concerned with Oprah’s times any more, it is interesting to realize how some of the first posts I wrote back in Spring 2007 are applicable to today.  Back then I was starting to get some heel and knee pain and had grown so weary of it that I took the biggest step a runner can make … I switched shoe brand and type!  I wrote scandalous, love-letter like posts about how great my new Mizuno stability shoes were and about how I was looking forward to finally running healthy.

That shoe love affair was short lived though, as later on in that season my left foot broke down and I got a mean case of chronic plantar fasciitis (aka, “that foot ‘itis”).  That would start what’s dragged into years of minor injuries, minor trips to Houston’s major medical establishments, and some surprisingly great runs, along with some real stinkers.  2007’s Chicago Marathon turned out to be more Southside Houston than Southside Great Lakes; the race was cancelled due to extreme heat and I, along with most participants, was pulled off the course before completing the race.  Later that year I would stumble my way through my first ultra marathon, six months later would finish Hood to Coast (“The Mother of all Relays”), but in the 2009 Houston Marathon I set an injury plagued, dismal “personal worst” at the distance.  Surprisingly, I threw in a relatively healthy season of training for last year’s Marine Corps Marathon, and with no time goals at all, came within 100 seconds of my personal record; that record was the one I thought I would never approach again, so I was excited to be a healthy runner putting up personally healthy times.  Immediately after that race though, my right leg broke down in a major way, and I found myself back in one of those major medical buildings; will it be any different this time around?

Maybe.  After many a session of physical therapy and learning way more about how the human hip works than I reason to know, I think I have the tools to stay healthy.  “New orthotics” (that’s fancy talk for shoe inserts) were prescribed as a piece of the solution and I now sit undertrained but basically pain free and two days shy of another marathon training season with Felix and my Houston FIT peeps.   

The lessons will come hard and fast as I’ll quickly work my way up to a volume and intensity of running I didn’t achieve through spring’s short races and my various layoffs while my body adjusted to its newly re-mastered feet and right hip.   This will be my attempt to record what doesn’t work, try and lay in stone what does, and absolutely record those oh so lucid hallucinations the 21 miler, in 80 degree weather, will no doubt bring.

P.S. – I’ve removed the link to the old Beating Oprah site, because frankly it is just odd to read your thoughts from three years prior (probably should remove all the old ones on here, but for now, they will stick around).  Even if I remove them I will probably bring some back on occasion, but I will certainly not bring back the one where I said Barry White must have ran in Mizuno since they make love to your feet, no, that one is gone forever!!

Beating of my drum

Dear goodness! I'm in geek runner heaven!!! For the second run of the day, I actually figured out how to pair my heart rate monitor strap with my running watch (use that Computer Engineering degree, use it!) and thus was able, with the included software, to build this bad ass chart of pace versus heart rate:

My heart rate is in red, and my pace is in blue. Not surprisingly, when my pace slowed due to a road crossing and then two walk breaks, my heart rate plummeted. What is cool is I felt like the entire run was within a hot-humid but none-the-less comfortable zone, and my heart rate did hang out in the comfortable, yet hard working, mid 170s. I'm not exactly sure if I can use all this information proactively, or simply help to diagnose my runs and any problems that occur; time will tell. Regardless, I'm quite happy with my new toy. Bring on the distance, versus elevation, versus heart rate charts!!!

Tombstone

"A veteran HoustonFIT runner said that when he dies, his tombstone will read 'Left on Crestwood, Right on Blossom' ."

Yep folks, it's marathon training season again! This weeks HoustonFIT run, the third of about 26 or so, took us along our favored path, the conjunction of Crestwood and Blossom. The quote above was relayed to our Yellow Group (9 to 10 minute mile pace) by our new head coach Alaina; she herself was quoting Mack, one of our runners with the longest tenure. There's a case to be made that the repetition of Crestwood and Blossom is mind numbingly boring. Equally valid is the case that training for my fifth marathon is a bit of a bore. But yet, despite it all, I, and many other familiar faces, continue on.

I doubt we do it for the toys, though I am happy to report that I have a new one; I'm the proud owner of a Garmin Forerunner 405. This latest of the Garmin GPS running watches is basically a location device with more computing power than the first couple of computers I owned ... combined. Routes, pace, calories, heart rate, and wireless communication are just a few of it's tricks, and I can say that after just one run, I'm quite enamored with it. It will let me record my runs in truly gory detail (bring on the numbers!!!)!

But toys come and go, so maybe I train for the side benefits; other races. Last year was the SunMart 50k, my first Ultramarathon (or ultra hike, as the pace was admittedly slow). This year, in just a month actually, will be my first uber relay, Hood to Coast. Though most of us do bring a respectable running pedigree to the Hood team, we're all ultimately together because of the people we know.

And that's really what it comes down to, the people. Though I'm sure I've basically written this post before (probably about this time last year!), it's worth reiterating that the people and all their accompanying drama make the dynamics of a training group fun (and the training isn't bad either!). Whether it's making new friends, finding time for old ones, listening to our walkers deal with being kicked out of the marathon, or girlfriend/boyfriend athletic bonding, the people keep it fun. I really can't fathom running with another group, and am surprised by the familiar faces that I see running the streets with no group, or more surprisingly, running with the likes of Kenyan Way or Runners High. Those people are often putting their personal goals ahead of the group dynamic, and feel a change of scenery will help; I certainly can't begrudge them that. For me though, I like my little running group to much to consider anything else.

Though I'm basically healthy for the first time in a year, and running more frequently than I have in about that same amount of time (behold July's mileage to your right; the busiest month of the year thus far!), for all I know this could be my last marathon training season. Deep down I doubt that, but all things come to an end; even if I keep running for many, many years, half-marathon specialization is certainly in the cards for my old, busted knees and feet.

The thought that this marathon might be it, the last one, led to a rehash of what could be called my yearly "GET HYPED, IT'S TIME TO TRAIN" post. Though the group is fun, I also use them for peer pressure to help me accomplish my goals. As the years go by, I know I get closer to the "running is better than drinking and watching too many sports" part of my running career, so I know I have limited opportunities to set a personal best in the marathon. I'm healthy and have the support of the usual cast of characters (though one is in a slightly different role this year ... don't you just hate inside comments on a blog ... goodness!) so I hope to be able to hit things hard and have a good race come January. Good doesn't necessarily mean a record, I've certainly been running long enough to know that, but last year I was hurt, and that certainly was not the good I was looking for.

Left on Crestwood, right on Blossom ... for at least one more year!

Back on the Horse

Whew!  Now that was a good break from blogging!!!  After a bit of a hiatus which probably has no one reading this thing, I've decided that I should start it back up.  It proved useful in documenting what did and did not lead to my heel problems, so I should be equally diligent in documenting my current recovery.

 

As you'll notice from my handy-dandy RunningAhead widget to the right, my mileage for June took a nice tick upward as I finally worked my way into running three to four times a week, and I also started running some six mile runs on the weekend.  All in all my body has accepted this "return to work" with little complaint.  My stride is certainly better, as the thudding that was my left footfall has been replaced by a more smooth, less impactful step.  I wear the orthotics all the time, and that, combined with nightly socking, seem to keep my heel pain at no more than 25 to 40% of its old levels.  I'm not all the way back to full foot health, but I don't feel as if the current level of issue will affect my ability to heal ... my heel ... unless I run hills ... I'll stop.

 

If you noticed June was an increase in mileage, surely you've taken note of crazy July!  Though that mileage total won't compare with the ones from October through December, this could go down as my most active July ever.  The main facilitator of that is Hood to Coast; I've started running three times in a 24 hour span to simulate the relay.  This Monday through Tuesday was the first time I did that, and though the runs were pint sized at 3.5, 2.9, and 3.0, that does add up to decent miles by the time I throw on Thursday speed work and Saturday's long run.  As I've increased my work load, most of my pain has been muscular with some pain in the knees and right hip.  The knees, well, that's old news.  The right hip seems to be the area that has taken the longest to adjust to the orthotics (it started hurting soon after I got the new footwear), but of late I haven't noticed it, so hopefully it's rounded the corner.

 

For tomorrow's speed work, I'm going to take a break from the long ladders of the past two weeks and move back into shorter, more anaerobic distances (8 x 400m x 200m).  As most of my running this Spring has been fairly easy "recovery" runs while I acclimated to my orthotics or recovered from my ankle sprain, my body seems to sputter when I get close to going anaerobic.  These shorter repeats should encourage my body to improve it's oxygen consumption (one of the key goals), while also allowing me to repeatedly bump up into my anaerobic zone.  Since I'll bump the zone many times, but not stay in it for too long, I'll be able to rack up considerable anaerobic time without blowing up (i.e., the summation of the repeats will have be being anaerobic longer than with a ladder).  In theory, this will push my anaerobic zone to a higher speed, allowing me to work more efficiently.  I was fond of last year's Yasso workout (10 x 800m x 400m), so I may try to work my way back into those.

 

For Saturday's long run, I'm actually going to try and integrate some hills via Rick's famed parking deck at San Felipe and I-610.  The details are still a bit hazy, but as my middle leg at Hood to Coast is an extreme uphill, I need to get some hill running under my legs. 

 

Well, that will do it for today!  I plan to be more diligent in my running posts and maybe have a post a week that is on some random topic; it helps my sanity to let those rogue thoughts out!  Take care!

 

 

Running on the Hardwood

On Tuesday, I returned to my podiatrist to get direction on how to wear my new orthotics.  That was also the first day I wore them for the entire day at work; no real problems, though on dress shoes you have to work the laces a touch to make the orthotic and shoe coexist in harmony. 

 

Dr. Hasse said that I should start wearing the orthotics all the time; any shoe that I wear, the orthotic should be in it.  Once my plantar fascitis abates (she thinks the orthotics will accomplish that), I can choose to only wear them in my running shoes if I prefer.  I was given clearance to start running, it actually seemed like she wanted me to run, though I was told to take it very slow.  She recounted a runner with new orthotics who came in complaining of pain from the new inserts.  "How much have you been running?"  "Only three miles two days ago, and three miles yesterday."  With that tale told, she emphasized that I should a) return to running very slowly and b) under no circumstances should I run on back-to-back days.

 

So on Wednesday, I laced up the running shoes for the first time in almost a month, and proceeded to Memorial.  Per the doc's advice (she wanted my first run to be two repeats of one half mile running, one half mile walking), I planned to take it easy and run one half mile, walk a half mile, turn around, and run the mile back.  The first half mile went well, with only some minor ankle/heel twinging towards the end.  After the somewhat boring half mile walk, I ran the mile return while trying to force my bad foot to relax; I get the sense that I've started controlling how it lands, perhaps due to the pain in the heel.  So ran I did, with my foot all loose and landing on the ground as it damn well pleased ... and things went great.  Everything (save a little hamstring pain) was good, the mile was fast enough to be respectable (under 10 min/mile) and I ended with renewed hopes that I've finally found the elixir of life for my running career (I was starting to worry that me and running were going to have to part ways).  I will run a mile, walk a half mile, then run 1.5 miles on my next trip to the park.  On my third trip, I will (get ready for it!) run three miles with no break!!!

 

There's still much internal debate about what shoes I should run in.  Dr. Hasse seems to be a fan of New Balance, but now that I've had a successful run in Mizuno, I would like to keep the shoes the same to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether the orthotics are really to be credited with any improvement.  I have about 40 miles left on these shoes, so perhaps I will run them out, and then decide how I should proceed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a Hike

Wednesday I finished up my shock therapy (man did they hit me hard; my crusty little pinky toe was dancing every time the juice flowed) and received my orthotics. Though the podiatrist shafted me on my consultation appointment to discuss exactly how and when to wear the orthotics (thanks Doc), I know that I am to slooooowly transition my feet into them; start at one hour a day, and increase by one hour each day thereafter. I have a meeting with the podiatrist next Tuesday to discuss exactly how/when I am to wear my new toys.

I also have a decision about what kind of shoe I now want to run in. Despite the fact that a switch in shoe, a move to orthotics, and an end to heel pain (let's hope!) would mean I wouldn't know if the shoe or the orthotics helped, it still feels like a natural time to switch. The heel of the orthotic is very firm, plate-like some would say. For that reason I wonder if it really matters whether my shoes have a lot of control, as the foot will be staying in a biomechanically crisp position thanks to the orthotic. I will ponder, discuss with the doc, and do some relevant Google searching.

So a two hour hike with Melissa to Miller Outdoor Theatre tonight. Then three hours on Friday and so on. Running next week? Maybe, though not in the orthotics; I think I would run in my current shoes with the normal insoles, as I want to give my foot ample time to adjust before I start running. If I decide not to run the Race for the Pennant 5k (May 31st), then there's really no need to run next week (other than to preserve my waistline and keep my sanity ... sigh ... actually, the stationary bike is keeping me fairly sane).

Well that's it for the foot update kiddos. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Diversify

So as for running, as I think as I promised last time, there hasn't been any. I am still awaiting my orthotics (probably a week away yet), though I do go to the foot doctor for shock therapy #3 of 6 on Tuesday. My foot, from an ankle perspective, is feeling quite stellar. From a plantar fascitis point of view, not so good; the underside of my heel bone is quite angry. I've started socking again, and hope that a nightly tug on the old plantar will alleviate most of my heel pain as I prepare to start running again.

It's been awhile since I posted about money, moolah, change, cheese, greenbacks, etc., so here we go; I'm about to sale a lot of my company's stock. This article was brought up to me today, and it embodies what I've been feeling of late; we can't find oil. With the price of oil so bloody high, national oil companies (NOCs) are making it harder and harder for us to get access to their booty. In short, they would rather get the oil and gas themselves, instead of offering us, or any other international oil company (IOC), a piece of the pie. Most people think we make a lot of money from the sale of gasoline; we don't. Actually, our refining business isn't making much these days since the cost of oil that makes gasoline is so damn high. To some people's surprise, there has always been talk of the company getting out of the gasoline business. Instead, we would just suck the stuff out of the ground, and sale it to people who do nothing but refine it into gasoline and other products (Valero being the largest such example).

Our Upstream, the folks who find and suck the oil and gas, are making all our money. Since we are making a lot, the question is, what are we doing with it. Are we buying other oil companies? Nope, they are too expensive with the price of oil so high. Are we trying to get into new areas to find oil? Yes, but with limited success, as the most lucrative areas (Russia, Saudi Arabia, United States) are either off limits (the first two) or are limiting drilling (the good old US of A!). So instead we are ... buying butt loads of our own stock. Last quarter, the company purchased $8 billion (yep, with a B) of our own stock. Why?

Two reasons are popular. One, the company leaders feel we are under priced, so why not invest in ourselves. We demand a premium share price for its stock, more so than any other IOC, so that reason doesn't hold a lot of water. The second, and more likely truthful answer, is we don't have anything else to do with the money, so we buy up our own shares.

Why should I care, you ask? After all, if we buy our own shares, we have less dividends to pay, and can thus pay more for each dividend. The reason I care is share price is ultimately dictated by Wall Street's opinion of your ability to make more money than you have before. Without additional oil and gas to suck from the ground, we will be unable to make more money than we have in the past without a run up in oil prices. Though oil could go higher, many think we are reaching some kind of ceiling, or bubble, and the price is bound to decrease. For the first quarter of 2008, we produced 3% less oil and gas than in the same period of 2007; we are not finding and producing more oil and gas.

So without higher oil prices, and without more oil being produced, what is our future? Well, we will certainly still make gads of money, as we produce a lot of oil (though only 3% of the world's daily supply; the NOCs produce most of the world's oil). But, and this is important, we will not make more money, so one would think our stock price would go stagnant, or even decrease.

But what about the recent run up in our stock price (we've had double digit returns for the past five years)? Well, that is probably due to the recent run up in oil prices, which, one imagines, cannot go on forever. So what's the future of our stock price?

I'm not sure, really, but I'm no longer comfortable having 40 some odd percent of my retirement money tied to the company stock. The international fund that we can invest in has done well, and once the US is out of its current recession, that fund should continue to provide nice returns as the world's economy keeps on chugging along.

So in short, I'm not bearish on my company's stock, but I think it's time to realize that we may be entering a period of not so stellar growth. As a young man (don't laugh!), I'm all about capital appreciation. As I've pointed out to people before, the money I make before 35 is the money that will give me heat in the old folks home and fund whatever kind of late-life crisis I choose to partake in (I'm thinking a BMW M5 would be nice when I turn 60!). So sometime, maybe even tonight if I get around to it, I'm going to sale about 10% of my total retirement fund, all of it being company stock, and buy the international index fund. The international fund has been beaten down this year, almost as bad as the US markets, so it would seem I am buying low, a good thing.

Some will never fathom betting against the largest of the IOCs when the price of oil is around $120 a barrel, but long term, I think it's the right play. I've blogged such moves in the past, if for no other reason, so as to make myself be honest when I evaluate the value of such moves. Will the international fund out perform our stock over the next year? Should I just keep the status quo, and not muck with the formula that has my retirement fund plump and happy? If I'm wrong, I suppose I have a lot of race bibs I can burn if I don't have money for heat in the old folks home.