RUN TO FAILURE

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Race Report: Sulphur Springs 25 KM Trail Run, May 24 2014

Tough to figure out what to say about this race. My fitness has been steadily improving since I last raced at the end of April, but I've been hampered by nagging injuries (first plantar fasciitis and then some stress on my shin where I had a previous stress fracture). Things seemed to come together last week, though, with a solid 18-mile effort the weekend before this race and some relief from my injuries.

At the line, the starter (maybe the race director?) made some quips about how all we needed to do was follow the arrows and flags on the course, and if we found ourselves on a trail with no flags, we were lost, which would be impossible. I recall from looking at the race instructions that there were essentially two sections to the race - an initial 5km "spur" followed by a 20km main loop. I figured this would be well-marked and easy to follow. More on that shortly.

At the gun I took off quickly, and separated myself from the pack. It was hard not to feel good with the weather so perfect. The hills came easy, and I felt strong. About an hour into the race, Steve Moore (a former TOC runner) caught up to me for a couple of minutes. I separated myself again and had about 1:00 on him as we came up to the "finish" area. There's a big, winding hill that leads up to the finish, and I realized something was messed up as I was going up the hill, because I was under 1:20 at that point (aka 1:07 half-marathon pace, not possible).

I crossed the finish line and started asking what was going on. The first few people there didn't know. They scratched their heads. They sent me over to two guys who had me stop and stand there for an eternity while they pulled out a map, and asked me which parts of the course I had already run. I told them I followed the flags and arrows. By this point, Steve had passed me and was headed back down the hill. These guys had no clue what was going on. They concluded that I'd need to go back and do the 5km "spur" again.

I took off down the hill and caught up to Steve - we were both incredulous about what was happening. Neither of us had willfully cut off the course. We both followed every arrow and flag along the way. I pulled out in front by a bit, but at this point I began to second-guess every possible turn as a wrong way (or a right way). Steve and I got to another course marshall and we both asked him which way we needed to go. He inspired even less confidence than the first group of marshalls, but pointed us down one of the trails - "maybe".

We followed his directions but after heading out for nearly 15:00, crossing a section of the course that we had definitely run the first time around, and seeing a guy with a sign tucked under his arm that read "25KM TURN AROUND", we realized the whole thing was a lost cause. Steve and I jogged back to the finish, agreeing that we'd finish side-by-side.

In the end, I finished 8th, with an initial 20km loop of 1:20:42 followed by a "secondary" loop of over 31:00. I have no idea how much extra distance we covered....I have a feeling it was close to 27km or 28km.

I had to laugh when it was over because it seems stupid to get upset when the weather is beautiful and you've just run in the woods for a couple of hours. But this was a total joke. We heard after the race that the cause of the whole problem was a volunteer who was supposed to direct people at the 5km spur, but didn't show up in time for the race. Maybe a sign would've been a good back-up plan. Also, If you look at the results, there are all kinds of anomalies...eg. the third-place finisher in the 25km (who, incidentally, is over 50), apparently split 15:08 for the 5km loop. Nearly half of the top 100 runners in the 25km ran the course incorrectly. Even in the 50km race there are all kinds of suspect times and splits.

This race has been run for a number of years, and I've been told that it usually goes like clockwork. And I understand that it's volunteer-run, which I appreciate. But with all of the problems this year, I can't see myself going back again.  

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Race Report: Pick Your Poison 12.5/25/50KM Trail Run, April 26 2014

(forgive the image quality on the first shot, it’s a screen capture from an instagram video)

Over the last few months I have been gradually clawing back all the fitness that I lost after my stress fracture last summer. Things have been slowly improving, and earlier this year, I felt like it was time to commit to some form of competitive schedule to keep up my motivation and give me something to work towards.

Last summer I raced a couple of shorter trail races as part of the 5 Peaks series. They were great events: super-taxing courses, like the hardest cross country course you’ve ever run and then some, but without the physical stress of wearing spikes and the demoralizing aspect of being beaten by 18-year-olds. The terrain is almost always beautiful and you rarely encounter any of the negatives that plague many road races (eg. dull courses, poor organization, hordes of people, and one of the ford brothers as the starter). I was sold.

When I was planning my race schedule for the year, I decided that I’m only going to do trail races as my leadup to a possible (hopeful) marathon in Fall 2014.

My first race of the season was on April 26, the Pick Your Poison Trail Run at Heights of the Horseshoe in Horseshoe Valley, Ontario. I raced the 12.5 km and won in 58:31. I took a very conservative approach in the week leading up to the race in an attempt to clear up the plantar fasciitis I mentioned in my last post. It certainly didn’t go away, but it did settle down to the point where I felt comfortable heading out to the race on Saturday.

Conditions were cool (3 or 4 degrees at the start) with some intermittent light rain. There was a LOT of snow on the course. It started out with a few flat tractor roads for the first 2 or 3 km, some of which were covered in dirty sheets of crusty ice - the kind that’s not too bad to run on. After that, we crossed several of the downhill ski hills, which were covered in a thick layer of hard-packed snow. The angle of the climb combined with the surface made for a very slow crossing. After that section, the course emptied out into the forest, which threw a little bit of everything at you….long steady climbs, tight, technical singletrack sections, and a mix of mud, gravel, and snow on the ground.

I settled into a quick (but comfortable) pace early on with a slight lead on Matthew Gray (who would finish second). There were so many slow climbs or sections with difficult conditions throughout the race that I made a conscious effort to really ramp up the pace and spin my legs fast when we had a flatter, faster section. I ratcheted up my lead to about a minute by the time we were through 8km and kept that up through to the end.

This was a tough course but I had a really good time running on it. If you’re looking for a fun, well-organized early-season trail race this one comes highly recommended.

Some other positives to mention:

- Your race kit came with a jar of honey and an old-fashioned cotton t-shirt. You got a pair of fresh socks after the race, too.

- Food before the race: huge piles of donuts. Food after the race: huge piles of burgers and hot dogs, and cookies the size of an LP.

- My prize for winning: a case of protein bars and a very cute handmade glass plaque made by the race director’s wife.

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Running Injuries: History, Phases, Solutions

As I sit down to write this, I’m rolling a hard rubber ball that I bought from a pet store under my right foot, in a half-hearted attempt to get rid of a case of plantar fasciitis that’s been bothering me for about a month. This is nothing new. Much of the time that I’ve spent running, I’ve been dealing with one injury or another.

A list of my running-related injuries:

- Age 16: all kinds of knee pain, so I go see a physiotherapist who admittedly knows “very little” about running, but “plays pool a lot”. He fits me for an expensive pair of custom orthotics, which I wear for a while and then stop wearing. The knee pain eventually goes away but I can’t remember when or how.

- Age 20: Second year university, I’m part of a poor varsity training program with limited base mileage, easy runs always turning into races over the last 2 miles, and races nearly every weekend (not to mention eating badly, never sleeping, and drinking too much). My knee seized up after a cross country race and it became difficult to walk. Subsequent visits to the university’s athletic therapy centre result in a puzzling diagnosis of “plica syndrome" and a few stretches that I should do. Eventually the pain goes away. I also stop running on the varsity team and continue to eat badly, never sleep, and drink too much. I don’t return to running seriously until I’m about 24.

- Age 27: My first experiences with plantar fasciitis. I’ve heard people describe it as a “dull” pain, but for me this was more of a jarring, sickening feeling as if the arch of my foot was being quickly torn in half. Switching shoes seems to help and it subsides for a while.

- Age 28: I’m in possibly the best shape I’ve ever been in as I prepare for the 2012 Around the Bay 30 km race. I recall just nailing a simulator-type workout in February that year, something that I’ve heard Greg McMillan refer to as a “japanese-style tempo”: 11 miles at marathon pace and then 4 miles as hard as you can do it. Felt great. Then my plantar fasciitis comes back. I end up seeing a physiotherapist who uses the Graston Technique on my arch, leaving me covered in sweat from the discomfort…but it seems to work. I run a respectable 1:47 for 15th place in the race, which I feel good about, but I can’t help but think I would’ve been well under 1:45 without the time off to deal with the injury.

- Age 29: I get ready to take another crack at the marathon in Fall 2012. My plans derail very quickly when I start to get persistent, localized pain in my left shin, forcing me to take about 10 weeks off. My family doctor sends me for x-rays and ultrasound. Nothing shows up. He refers me to a terrible MD at a sports medicine clinic, who says it “can’t possibly” be a stress fracture. Eventually I get back to running, though me being me, I do it all too soon and too fast, running several trail races that summer on top of track workouts in spikes and an attempted 3000m on the track against a bunch of 17-year-olds. In the words of Danny Glover, I am too old for this shit.

- Age 30: The same localized shin pain is back, but this time it’s even more debilitating. I take 3 months off and gain close to 20 pounds, all in the gut zone. I see my family doctor and suggest it might be a stress fracture, but he says that’s not an injury he’s familiar with. Go the same pointless route of getting x-rays, ultrasound, and then finally get a bone scan. Obviously it showed a stress fracture - I could see the black dot on the monitor from where I was lying down on the table. If you’ve had a stress fracture you know exactly what I’m describing. I wait weeks and weeks for the results. By the time I get the results, the stress fracture has more or less healed, though I do get the opportunity to see the same MD again, who gives me an expired coupon for Caltrate.

- Age 30: Fast-forward to right now. I’ve been running steadily since November 2013, with an emphasis on soft surfaces, easy pace, moderate increases in mileage, and daily maintenance with stretching and strengthening in problem areas. My fitness is improving and I’ve lost most of the weight I gained last fall. I’m preparing to run several trail races over the Spring and Summer, but my plantar fasciitis is back. This time, it’s less of a sharp tearing sensation and more of a dull ache. I’m treating it with marginal success.

* * *

There are some runners who seem to defy the odds and remain injury-free for years at a time - I’m thinking here of not just high-profile elites like Bernard Lagat, but proven age-group workhorses like Uli Steidl or Colleen De Reuck. Most of us aren’t so lucky. There is a fuzzy statistic regularly tossed around that suggests 70% of runners (“competitive” and “recreational” alike) will be injured in a given year. How true that is, I’m not sure, but I do know that whether you’re running fast or slow, lots or not so much, running is a load-bearing activity that makes you a healthier person but can also break you down bit-by-bit.

My experiences with injury usually lead me through a series of phases resembling the Kübler-Ross model:

Initially, denial: an unwillingness to accept that you might be hurt or that you might have to do anything different to fix the problem. You keep running and doing exactly the same thing you’ve already been doing. Maybe you push through a race that you have no reason to do.

Then, anger: frustration that the injury has happened despite all the hard work you’ve put in. Frustration at your garbage person body.

Following this, bargaining: I’m going to subtitle this one as “technology”. This is where you can go down a rabbit hole of searching online (did you know that both less supportive and more supportive shoes are the answer to most running injuries? Or the way to manage shin pain is to stuff ice cubes down a pair of tube socks?). Maybe you buy a new pair of shoes. Maybe you sink a bunch of money into physiotherapy, or custom orthotics, or a series of “devices”.

Afterwards, depression: the mopier version of anger. Usually involves thoughts that you’re done for the season, and probably done forever, so maybe you’ll just get a membership to Goodlife Fitness or join that racewalking group who trains in High Park.

And finally, acceptance: this one might seem to be perpetually just beyond your grasp. Usually it requires external support - a good physiotherapist who gives you a plan to deal with the injury, and some feedback from your own running that things are improving, even if it’s marginal improvement. Hopefully you can make it to this stage without taking the alternate route - the escape hatch - of quitting entirely.

* * * 

Unfortunately there’s no magic bullet to deal with injury. There are a lot of “experts” touting marginal scientific studies as support for various theories - most of the ones over the last few years have been fixated on shoe type or footstrike pattern as the panacea. Here’s the best I can come up with, based on my own experiences:

1) Wear shoes that are comfortable for you and fun to run in.

2) Run on soft surfaces as much as you can.

3) Run tall.

4) Eat well, sleep well.

5) Do daily maintenance (stretching, strengthening) whether you feel great or terrible. It won’t take too long, but almost everyone (except for fastidious pros) could do to spend more time on this stuff.

6) Stay positive and have fun. This sounds like the kind of inspirational quote you’d see superimposed on a photo of someone running during a sunset, but it is truly a gift to be moving on two legs outdoors. 

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Marathon Monday: Some Thoughts

I wrote down a few thoughts while watching the Boston Marathon earlier this week:

1) As usual, trying to watch the race feels like you’ve reset the internet to 2006. The BAA live feed (through a proxy server) was the best option, albeit choppy at times and with abrupt cutaways every few minutes to the same commercial for Adidas Energy Boost shoes.

2) Unfortunately Tim Hutchings wasn’t available, so anyone watching the telecast was subject to 2 + hours of Al Trautwig and Larry Rawson filling every second of air with total gibberish. Some gems that I wrote down:

"It’s a lot like a broadway play in the sense that you’re getting a standing ovation the whole way."

"Larry, if you’re from here, where exactly does New England begin and end?"

"Now the shoes are very light - they only weigh 3 and a half slices of bread."

"The road to success is always under construction."

It’s a very particular mixture of hackneyed platitudes, mispronounced names, inaccurate statistics, and baffling logorreah that seems to accompany the broadcast of a marathon. It makes me think back to coverage of the London 2012 Olympic marathon, where you had the option of streaming a live feed of raw international footage without commentary or graphics. Watching the race this way was a totally different experience, devoid of campy sentiment and framing, just human beings, architecture, movement and sound. Not “exciting” in the sense of most televised sports, but totally captivating and moving nonetheless.

3) All of this being said, the actual races were great. Rita Jeptoo dismantled the field over the last few miles, proving she’s the top female marathoner in the world right now, and possibly the top marathoner of either gender from 23 miles onwards. Meb Keflezighi’s victory (and PR) was extremely impressive and hugely inspirational. The rest of the men’s field just didn’t show up, first granting Meb a big lead up to 18 miles and then trying to play catch-up over some of the hardest climbs of the course.

4) Good representation from Toronto Olympic Club at the race: Laura Portis fulfilled her elite billing and finished 27th in 2:38. Nikki Butters had a tough race but came through in 3:25. And Rachel Sinasac unfortunately DNF’d around 24 kms (though rest assured she’ll be back).

[runtofailure]

Mizuno Wave Sayonara: Review

A brief preamble before I get to the guts of this: As someone invested in running and pretty heavily interested in running shoes, I spend a fair bit of time reading shoe reviews online and in print. But I also recognize that these reviews often fail to offer much. Print reviews (in Runner’s World, Running Times, etc.) are usually very brief descriptions of a shoe’s features along with a smattering of one-sentence opinions from a handful of anonymous shoe testers, in a magazine that just happens to feature numerous ads from the same shoe manufacturers being reviewed. Online reviews tend to be more in-depth, but they almost always omit critical context. What is the reviewer’s running history? Have they been running competitively since they were 12 or did they take up the sport in the last couple of years to get into shape? What is their gait like? At what pace do they usually run? What is their “ideal” shoe and have they ever found that ideal? Did they wear the shoes for a week or two before writing the review, or is the review a “post-mortem” once the shoes have outlasted their lifespan? Did they receive the shoes as a media sample and does this arrangement explicitly require positive feedback? There are certainly some thoughtful, clever reviews out there but a lot of what I’ve read tends to fall short.

All of this being said, I keep reading shoe reviews, because I’m interested in seeing how shoes actually perform, and also to see how effective the design decisions being made by shoe manufacturers actually are. There’s a huge amount of noise in the way running shoes are marketed, from cryptically high-tech names for proprietary cushioning materials, to advance claims of what a shoe can “do” (look through the website of any given manufacturer and it won’t take long to find the assertion that a shoe can “promote” a certain kind of footstrike).

I plan on including reviews from time to time on this site. These reviews will be a reflection of my experiences in using a given pair of shoes but I hope I can also draw on some of the wider context around the shoe’s release (design, industry trends, past models from the manufacturer) that I think is worth mentioning.

I started seeing previews for this shoe back in Spring 2013 and I got excited. I had worn several mizuno models (mainly in the alchemy series) going back at least 10-12 years, but I gave them up when I moved to lighter-weight options from other manufacturers in 2007/2008. I didn’t pay much attention to the brand after that - I knew they made some pretty wild racing flats for the Asian market, but my sense was that their daily trainers were clunky and dated.

Fast-forward to last Spring, where I had come off a stress reaction in late Summer 2012 and had spent the next several months getting back into shape. What I read about the Sayonara seemed to check a lot of boxes for me…..lower (but not low/zero) drop, lower stack height, lightweight but with ample cushioning for big miles, and a slightly soft ride without a loss of responsiveness. Not unlike some shoes that I had really enjoyed in the past, like the old Nike Marathoner, the first iteration of the Saucony Kinvara, and the New Balance 890 V2.

I bought a pair when they were released in Summer 2013 but had to put them on the shelf for a while when my shin issues returned. I was eventually diagnosed with a stress fracture in my left tibia, and I had to take almost three months off before it healed.

When I got back to running in Fall 2013, the Sayonara felt too firm and unforgiving. I was lacking strength and my stride was missing the smoothness that comes with regular miles. The few times I wore them, they were jarring and uncomfortable, and made my shin flare up where the bone was still healing. I wore a softer, more flexible shoe while I got stronger, and over the last 6 months or so, I have moved back to using the Sayonara as part of my regular rotation. I’ve gone through two pairs of the shoes, with the second pair currently on it’s last legs. Most of my mileage has been on a mix of semi-technical trails and roads, with weather ranging from 10 C right down to -20 C (most of it was on the colder side).

OVERALL RIDE AND FEEL

The Sayonara is lightweight (approximately 8 oz in a men’s size 9.0) - but more importantly, It feels balanced, which is sometimes lacking in lightweight/minimal shoes that I’ve tried. Mizuno attributes the light weight to their new “u4ic” midsole formulation, which is supposedly 30% lighter than their older AP+ midsole foam, while offering the same cushioning as what you might get from a “conventional midsole”. I can’t confirm or deny this, but I can attest to the fact that the shoe rides responsively. It’s more on the firm/responsive side of the scale than the cushy/marshmallow side.

The forefoot is quite flexible, but the back half of the shoe is much firmer and more rigid, and the shoes also have quite a bit of torsional rigidity. I find that if I slow down my pace and contact the ground more towards my heels, the shoes feel somewhat clunky and slappy, but at faster speeds and striking more towards the midfoot or forefoot, the ride and responsiveness open up considerably.

One issue I have found with the Sayonara is the way the shoe’s ride changes over its lifespan. As the midsole breaks down, the shoe has a tendency (for me) to feel more rigid and unforgiving, especially in the back half. I think this may be due to the rigidity of the plastic wave plate in the shoe….it simply breaks down at a slower rate than the rest of the shoe, resulting in a ride that gets somewhat uncomfortable as the shoe nears the end of its natural lifespan.

UPPER

I had to go a half-size down in the Wave Sayonara from what I usually wear in other running shoes. The fit was much better this way but there are still a few nagging fit issues in the upper. The toebox is quite roomy laterally, but the volume of the upper is somewhat low and the shoe tends to fit pretty tightly over the instep. This caused some initial discomfort, but as both pairs broke in and softened up slightly, the fit has improved.

The heel counter is stiffer than I’d like, but the padding in the heel and around the collar of the shoe is fairly minimal. This was probably a conscious decision in order to reduce weight, but it means that the fit in the heel is a little indistinct. I would prefer slightly more padding in that area of the shoe, or even something like the foam “pods” that Saucony has put in the Kinvara.

The upper is seamless, consisting of a mesh that’s very finely woven, with clear plastic film overlays on the exterior to provide structure. This combination makes for an upper that is very lightweight but more inherently stable and structured than what you see in many shoes with a combination of mesh and welded overlays. I’ve only worn these in weather that has ranged from mild to straight-up cold so I wonder what the breathability is like in hotter conditions, considering how finely woven the mesh is.   

The laces that came with the shoes felt stiff and slipped too often. I pulled them out and replaced them with some flat woven laces that hold a knot much better and allow for a better range of fit.

OTHER DESIGN FACTORS

The Sayonara is a well-executed shoe. The clear plastic overlays on the exterior are subtle and effective. There are several bands of printed overlays that arc around the forefoot and across the saddle of the shoe, containing a densely-rendered web of lines. I think the rendering is a little inelegant, but I do admire the fact that Mizuno is including printed graphic elements like this in their shoes - most manufacturers these days are sticking to a combination of their logo along with a mix of mesh and overlays, avoiding anything even remotely graphic.

I’ve gone through two colourways of the Wave Sayonara - there’s the “Dude Blue/Anthracite/Bolt” colourway (aka the blue one) and “White/Anthracite/Lime Punch” (aka the white one). The blue colourway is a little tired - I feel like this shade of royal blue is used way too often in men’s running shoes and it doesn’t do much for me. The white colourway is more effective, and once again, I have to admire Mizuno’s designers for releasing a shoe that’s primarily white when the rest of the market seems determined to go the other direction.         

OVERALL

The Wave Sayonara is a balanced, lightweight, and responsive shoe. If you’re looking for something that can handle long runs and interval workouts equally well, it’s a very solid option - but my recommendation comes with a caveat that the shoe may not accommodate all foot shapes due to its low volume upper, and that the firm/responsive ride of the shoe may become uncomfortable over its lifespan due to the inherent rigidity of the wave plate.