Minuteman Trail: also pwned.

About 7 miles in a solo river loop out to BU. This was after 1 hour of sleep from it being a late night in lab. The run felt pretty OK, although I was getting tired in miles 6 and 7. After I took my shower I took a nap for five hours though.

Got in a rather fast 5 mile run with TC today. Felt good to having a running buddy again; scheduling snafus and travel by CL had had be operating solo for a fair bit.

About 8 miles today, solo, along the river. Felt great, even though it was really hot, humid, and windy.

Managed to do 16 miles today along the Minuteman Trail. Felt really good, although I did stop along the way to get a drink. Unwisely, I decided on a Sobe Blackberry Grape Life Water, which was 100% vile.

Last week and this week both I tried out ice baths afterward my long run. I was skeptical at first, but I think I like it. It's definitely calming and refreshing after a long run, and I think it also made a big difference in how sore I become the following day, at least for my 20 mile run last week.

I was supposed to meet TC at 7:30am to run ~7 or 8 mi with him this morning, but I didn't wake up until 7:33. Oops, I'm late! I rushed out the door and threw on my jogging clothes, in frantically trying to to find TC before he gave up on me...but when I sprinted into our meetup point, he wasn't there--he must've already left.

A little frustrated with myself for the snafu, but still determined to get in some miles, I continued out to the River St. bridge. But after mile 4, I began to realize that I hadn't attended to all the business that I usually attend to in the mornings before running. That realization became a very pressing urge in no time. I slowed to a walk, just to avoid jostling things around in there too much. Eventually I had to make a detour back over the Mass. Ave. bridge and ducked into campus to attend to the aforementioned business. After that, I just jogged home. Still was about 7 miles total, with maybe 5 or so of consistent jogging.

The best part is, when I saw TC later in the day, it turns out he'd sent me a text messaging bailing out of our running plans late last night. So it turns out I'd rushed myself into this, um, crappy situation for no good reason after all....

7 miles with CL before he took off on his trip. Was still very sore from the 20 miler on Sunday, and perhaps a few steps slower than usual as a result, but it felt good to work out some of that soreness from the ol' legs.

Charles River (of previously being pwned fame), long run, 20.13 miles, with CL. He tells me we did 3:21:03, 9:59 pace. I was dying big-time in the last four or so. Glad he was there to bring me home.

Yawn. Ms Hippo is here. /Trots into the blog after a long time away/

So, I finished the race with a 2:24:26 time, taking over an extra hour over my goal-time. As tentrillion posted, the results are in. As you can see, I finished near the bottom -- there were over a 1000 people who participated, but it looks like a good 400 people either didn't finish or finished beyond the alloted time.

The Waikiki Roughwater Swim was way harder than in a pool. Although the length of the course, 2.4miles, was what I'd practiced in a pool, I wasn't prepared for the current and all the waves. The course was marked with flags so that you could see where you were going, but unfortunately, there were so many times when waves completely blocked my view of the flags. However, the flags were just there for guidance -- to point you in the correct direction. You could have the athletic freedom to severely zig zag on both sides of the flags if you wanted to. You could swim to Japan and back if you wanted to. The only rule with regard to swimming the course was that you had to round two particular buoys (one at the beginning of the race and one at the end) in a specified way. Other than that, all flag markers in between were just for guidance. So, I definitely zig zagged a LOT -- not deliberately, but I had some issues with navigation. Even though you did have the athletic freedom in theory to severely zig zag, I suppose it was controlled to a certain extent -- an official on a kayak at some point had to stop me to tell me I was swimming too far off-course and that I should turn and swim in another direction.

Yet, even though I couldn't see the flags most of the time, it's not like it was a storm out there -- there were just way more waves than in a pool, which I wasn't prepared for. I kept getting pummeled, so I forced myself to breathe only on my right side, which faced the shore, to avoid swallowing unnecessary water. By the time 2 hours hit, I felt like I was really dying out there, because I wasn't prepared to swim much longer than 1:30; I ended up swimming really slowly by the end.

The highlight of the swim was seeing a turtle swimming on sea floor...pretty exciting! However, I soon noticed that it was swimming faster than I was, which was rather discouraging. You know a race is going poorly when a turtle is moving faster than you.

All in all, it was an ok race. I was glad that I finished but was really disappointed by my time. I think I'd be up for swim race, though perhaps in a lake. Any suggestions?

Lastly, thanks so much for all the support, enthusiasm, and smart-arse comments! The blog will continue to be in use for the next month or so until I find another race and tentrillion finishes his marathon. So please do write in with your thoughts on other race possibilities. It could even be as out-there as bog snorkeling.

A NOTE TO OUR READERS: No need to further heckle Ms. Hippo. I've been doing just that. She assures me that a post summarizing her race experience is imminent.

P.S. If you're interested, the results are here if you must peek early. But wait to hear about it from Ms. Hippo!

Vacation, aaaagain. A short 3.5 mile jaunt through Mountain View.

I'll hopefully try a long long distance on Saturday -- I would like to try to crack 20. I can't tell if it will be harder than my last 18.4 miler with CL because I've been slacking lately, or easier because hey, it's not slacking, its "tapering".

Vacation week continues! This time I went for a quick morning jog with DP in sunny (but less hot) Mountain View, CA. Only 2.7 miles, but better than not going at all.

A lazy week. CL was sick, but nonetheless I'd planned on doing intervals Wednesday with TC. And then, I wussed out. Boo me. On Thursday I left for vacation. Saturday I went to run a "long" run in sunny (and hot) Moorpark, California. But I only made it 8.2 miles or so. The first few was with vacation buddies DP and SS, but then I was on my own. I did this run in two laps--I was feeling a bit run down after 4 miles or so, so I went back to my home base, loaded up on Gatorade, and hit up another 4.

CL was sick and I had a miscommunication with TC, so I was alone this morning. Managed to get in a lazy 3 miles to the Longfellow and back home.

Started winding down the swimming in preparation for the big day next wkend. Actually it was a bit inadvertent. Ended up not swimming as much today or as quickly today, because it was a very busy day at the pool. Lap swim and free swim were combined today on this nice Sun afternoon, so there were a lot of people who frolicked in and out of my lane. The last straw was when I accidentally hit some lady's snorkel, which made my hand hurt a ton.

Will likely do one last long swim mid-week before the race and will probably do a tiny ocean swim on Sat to test out the course.

After last weekend's big run, it was time for an easier long run today. 11.5 miles with TC, and we pushed the pace a bit (for a long run) to average what I'll guess was 8:40 or 8:45 miles. This was my route -- I'm starting to get sick of the river.

I think TC added in an extra loop to bring his total close to 18.

Out all the way to River St. this morning. First 5.0 or so with CL and TC, but only TC finished the full 8.0 with me. Felt really good.

Swam 76 laps today in under 1:13 without doing any sprinting. Extrapolating that to 85 laps (2.4 miles), my projected time is now ~1:22. If I can get this time down by just a couple more minutes in the pool, then I think I have a fair shot of making my 1:30 goal in the ocean on race day.

The new swimming technique is working quite nicely. It makes me wonder how much more I can optimize my stroke for speed? Anyone want to be my coach?

Another 5.0 miler, with CL and TC, just like yesterday. Felt a little achey today but not as lethargic and sore as yesterday. CL says "43:11 - 5 mi, 8:38 miles". Compare that to yesterday, where, for the same route, he "had us at 45:19 for 5 mi".

Recovery is good.

Fun swim today. Today was the first day I felt I just might be able to beat my goal of 1:30:00. I tried two new things in my swim: 1) breathing more and 2) stroking differently.

As I mentioned in my last post, I realized that I did a lot better when I breathed more frequently, so this time, I swam the first 15 laps as usual but then made an conscious effort to breathe after only two strokes for the next 5 laps. Thereafter, I breathed after every three strokes, but whenever I felt short of breathe, I relaxed to breathing after every two. This turned out to work very well. I never felt short of energy.

The second thing that worked well was changing my stroke. Turns out there are some merits to watching the Olympics. The other day, my father and I saw a news clip, analyzing Michael Phelps' stroke. Turns out, Michael Phelps minimizes the number of strokes he takes by stretching his long arms in front of him with a stroke-stroke-glide motion. He propels himself mostly with the gliding, allowing his arms to rest and optimizing his stroke. My father pointed out that Michael also does not form tight "cups" with his hands--in fact, he just lets them relax. This is a bit contrary to what they teach you when you learn to swim. So I tried copying this stroke for the first time today, and it works really well! I felt like I could swim forever.

By combining this new stroke with the change in my breathing pattern, I marched down the pool at an easy 1 min per lap for 65 laps, with no hussle and plenty of energy for the sprint at the end (which I never got to, because the pool closed). With my old technique, I would start slipping from this pace around lap #20, so this is definitely a huge improvement.

I want to take these two things and optimize them this week. I have exactly 2 weeks before the race.

Standard 5.0 mile loop with CL and TC this morning. This was a hard one! I wasn't as sore as I thought after Saturday's 18.4 miler, and had a full day rest on Sunday, so I was optimistic that this morning's jog would be routine, but I felt slower and sorer than usual today, from the get-go.

biked 8.3 miles to church today. (turns out the 0.7 miles i clocked on my test run yesterday was just me getting lost...) didn't notice the sore butt until afterwards because i was late and trying to book it. i already have one of those gel seat covers, which helps a little but there's still a fair amount of pressure on my tailbone. maybe i just have a tender tush, but enough about that... another point of adjustment that i still haven't figured out: handlebars. jen, i noticed that the bars block my view of the front wheel axle when i'm in drop position (not top)--is that bad? i don't really like holding on to the top of the bars because you don't get as good of leverage on the brakes. i adjusted the angle of the bar to be nice and comfy in drop position (angled downward to reduce the strain on my wrists because i was having a hard time grabbing the brakes when it was level). now that it's angled downward though, it's extremely awkward to hold on to the top position. people i've talked to say that you should position the handlebars so that you can bike in either position (hands on top or in drop), but if i only ever plan to be in drop position, does it matter how capable i am of riding with my hands on top? are we talking about just comfort here or serious ergonomics?

btw, where are the drowning hippo posts?

This just in: moisterizers cause cancer. So say many recent news articles about a Rutgers dermatological study.

The popular press is getting a few things right about this study. Most seem to emphasize that the study was in mice, not people, and that as such the results must be viewed as preliminary. For example, Business Week quotes the principal researcher who did the study as saying "We don't know what the implications are for humans." The LA Times' includes quotes from dermatologists unaffiliated with the study:

"The components in moisturizers are tested. There's no evidence for this being a problem in humans."

The Times also explicitly raised the possibility that the current wave of moisturizer-cancer articles might be a "another needless public health scare." So far, so good.

But of course, there's more. The studies author Allan Conney is quoted as saying

"I think it raises a red flag indicating that there's a need to determine whether or not these products could cause this problem in people."

I went looking for "red flags" in the original study. Here's one: The researchers treated mice with 100 mg of moisturizer per day. It doesn't sound like much, but mice weigh about 20 grams, meaning that the treatment was about 0.5% of body weight. Extrapolated to a 70 kg human, this would be 350 g of moisturizer every day. That's a whole bottle of moisturizer! I doubt I will ever be a daily user of that much moisturizer.

Doing the calculation on a surface area basis puts the extrapolated human dosage to a somewhat more reasonable ~23 g per 70 kg human per day. But it's not clear to me why surface area normalization is better than body mass normalization. Especially since the the original study says "mouse skin is much thinner and more permeable than human skin." Oops!

Another detail: "During the course of our studies, we developed a Custom Blend cream that was not tumorigenic..." Oh great! The researchers already solved the problem -- and patented it! -- but no one happened to mention that in the popular reports.

Here's another interesting tidbit: "[O]ur [previous] studies suggested the possible utility of caffeine and caffeine sodium benzoate as topical agents for inhibiting sunlight-induced skin cancer in humans..." Why were no journalists around to write articles about these older results when they came ou: "Caffeine cures skin cancer!" or "A link between caffeine and a cure for cancer". Maybe journalistic overreaching to find popular import for research findings is acceptable only when it leads to scary thoughts instead of hopeful ones.

All in all, the current study showed that some moisturizers cause an increased rate of skin cancer in mouse models. I guess the popular press mostly got that part right. Here's what they missed out on:
1. The dosage of moisturizer was very high, far higher than people are ever likely to use regularly.
2. The researchers apparently understood the tumorigenic effect of the moisturizers enough to design a moisturizer which did not cause an increased rate of tumors.
3. New, caffeine-based prophylactics for skin cancer are being developed. Caffeine!

No calculation is required to arrive at points 2 and 3. They are stated explicitly in the plain text of the original study. That no articles mention these points suggests either (i) journalists don't habitually read the study they're writing about, or (ii) if they do, they ignore anything that doesn't fit into a "it's a new public health crisis" template for their article.

UPDATE: I edited the post slightly to remove a few extraneous sentences and make my central point clearer.

went biking today for 18 miles. i wanted to check out some alternative bike roads from MV to PA without having to bike down el camino. there are some decent side streets, but they add a couple of miles to my route.

my butt is really sore. there was no good way to segue to that topic of conversation, so i just decided to be blunt about it. yeah, i even went to the bike store to look at padded shorts, but they all just made me feel like i was waddling around in diapers. don't know how my ride tomorrow will be--it's 9 miles to church, and it still hurts a little to sit down.

other things i discovered: i have a terrible sense of direction. and if you're biking and go the wrong way, it takes considerable more effort to get on the right path. also while biking, i bumped into SJ and AJ. SJ was the one who found my bike for me on craig's list, and AJ works at BCM, where I volunteer. i imagine the number of bay area cyclists are relatively small, but it was still cool to see people i know biking around.

Swam for only 40 min today. Out of breathe, hungry, exhausted, dehydrated. Morning swims are way rougher, because I don't wake up early enough to eat enough, drink enough (hiccup), or digest enough. :(

On the plus side, I realized today that I do better later in the game if I breathe every two strokes instead of every 3. It takes more time to breathe, but the extra oxygen I get really helps a lot.

Charles River: pwned.

You may think this is courtney posting, but actually this is ms. hippo, wallowing in her mudhole.

Went for a 30 mile bike ride today for work (in addition to commuting by bike).  We biked from the top of a mountain down to the beach.   Although it was mostly downhill, there were some inclines and lots of flat parts that required some oomph.  Not sure if x-training helps, but it was a great ride.  The downhill parts were super fun!

Two posts from me.  Yesterday, I worked in a 40 min swim but didn't clock myself nor did I count laps.  It was just good to get in the pool.  Went full-on speed for the last 5 min of the 40min.  

~2.5 miles of warmup with CL and TC this morning. Then, a balls-to-the-wall mile. I ran it in 6:34 or so, but was still the slowest of the bunch. Cooled down with a half mile jog home.

Maybe next week we'll try some more speed work.

hey everyone! here i am to round out the posts with cycling entries to make it look like we're entering a triathlon or something. i'm a bit of a delinquent poster, but here goes: as of last friday, i am now the proud owner of a 2001 lemond buenos aires. it was found on craig's list, all thanks to my bike loving friends. i don't really know anything about bikes, but it looks pretty :D i'm still trying to figure out the proper adjustment of seat post/handlebars. i've never really ridden a road bike before, and the aggressive position is a little difficult to get used to. on sunday i rode to church and back, which was a total trip of 15 miles. it didn't help that i haven't gotten a rack installed yet, and i had to lug the 10 pound (or so) lock in my backpack the whole way. i've been meaning to bike to work this week, but haven't been able to yet. my commute would be an 11 mile ride one way, and my goal is to bike every day. considering i haven't done anything yet, i'm off to a slow start. it also doesn't help that i'm living with the slacker swimmer, and somehow every time she doesn't swim, it makes me feel a little better about not biking...

CL and I extended our usual loop by one bridge morning. CL says "6.82 miles, 58:21, 8:33 pace". Felt good.

Running can ward off death, says a news study focused on the effect of exercise in the elderly. Yay running!

[Of course, as a professional researcher I must note that I doubt the study showed any such thing. Instead, it probably found a correlation between time spent running and decreased morbidity. Maybe the people predisposed to spend time running when they get older are also predisposed to enjoy good health longer than average -- even if for some reason they don't actually run.]

[The popular press frequently conflates correlation and causation when reporting on medical studies. I suppose it's a misguided attempt to make the "conclusions" of the article seem easier to understand.]

[I couldn't find study itself, after a brief search. If anyone knows where it is, please give a pointer in the comments -- then we'll be able to test my claims above.]

Everyone, I'm pleased to report that we recently welcomed a third contributor to our ranks -- her name is "courtney" and she (supposedly) rides her bike.

We're still waiting for her first report of a bike ride. In the comments section, let's tell "courtney" how much we need to hear about her riding her bike.

Standard 5 mi loop this morning with CL. Good to work out the tiredness from Saturday's run and yesterday's beach trip from the legs.

Long swim today but not nearly long enough. 70 complete laps in 1:14:10. Projecting this out, I'm looking at a time of basically a 1:30:00 time on race day. However, given the waves, hoards of people, lack of walls, I'm looking at a time much higher than 1:30:00.

I'm not sure what my swimming strategy should be. In the pool, I think I can march down each full lap consistently in a minute, but I'm not sure whether I should be trying to really push it in the beginning and then fall off in the middle to store energy for the final push.

Today, I sprinted in the beginning, ran out of breath by 0.5 miles and then fell off until I hit about 1.5miles, at which point I regained my normal pace of one full lap per minute. I felt totally winded at the outset, but maybe this is not a good approach. Thoughts?

15.4 miles along the Charles river in about 2.5 hours or so. Felt really good! I didn't start to fade much until the last two miles or so, and even that wasn't too bad.

The unfortunate part was that I misread the mileage chart before I left: until a few minutes after I'd finished, I was convinced I'd ran 17 miles +. I guess that distance will be for another weekend.

I've set up feeds on the blog now. If you think these heroic tales + comments are just that exciting, you can now have them sent to a news aggregator tool such as Google Reader.

5 miles this morning with TC and CL. I held up surprisingly well considering all the partying I did yesterday.

Ok , I'm slacking. I swam for about 30 minutes yesterday. Boy, I feel more sluggish, since I basically hadn't done any swimming since last Fri. Now I'm wondering how I'll even finish this race? Need to do some serious swimming tomorrow or this weekend.

The five mile usual loop, again! Yay me for getting out there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. Today was just TC and me. Felt very nice.

The usual 5 mile loop, with an army! I was joined by CL as well as TC, and, new to me, CD as well. It was a merry jaunt. Maybe next time we'll sing songs.

~3.1 miles at a (hopefully) faster speed than usual. Was alone, but it felt good to get this run in before doing my standard 5 miler tomorrow with CL and TC.

Decided to work on speed yesterday. Swam for as fast as I could and took lots of breaks. Felt a little lightheaded, but hopefully I can keep up the speed for about an hour at least.

~13.5 miles in two laps from the Science Museum to the BU Bridge, plus a jaunt through North Point Park. 2nd lap was with CL and my new running buddy TC. They helped me keep a good pace in the last few miles. Overall this run felt great! If only I could get up at 6am every day.
My route.

Yesterday, I swam 1.67 miles in 1 hour. Projecting out, I think I'm looking at a time around 1:30:00. So it doesn't look like I'm improving. :(

I did figure out that I've gotten lazier swimming in a regular pool (not an Endless Pool), because I end up kicking less and don't take powerful strokes. I found that I went faster when thinking about stressful topics and when I was really cognizant of kicking hard and stroking in complete circles with a lot of force. Good to figure this out now.

The standard 5.0 mile loop with CL. Was still a bit tired from Monday's 10.8 miler, so I was a step or two slower than usual.

I'd read that the Vibram Five Finger shoe fosters a better footstrike -- more towards the front of the foot. This is supposedly a big benefit. Rather than shell out for my own pair, on Monday I'd consciously shifted my strike a tad forward in the same old shoes I'd always had. It made my calves sore. It felt kinda interesting, but not faster or obviously better -- not sure if I'll keep it up. Maybe its one of those tips that matters only to those speedy folks who run (as opposed to the jogging and trotting at 8:30+/mi that I do).

To set things straight with my hippo-fans, I'm still just swimmin' along in my mudhole. No running. Just swimmin'. But, Curt here is training for a marathon and has taken over this blog!

Not to be outdone with all this posting, yesterday I swam in a regular pool. Still slow. 1 mile in 34 minutes.

I am running and so can you! I'll be starting to delight the hippoland audience with tales of my running adventures. Working together, Ms. Hippo and I will share the joys of fitness with all y'all better than if we were working alone.

My deal is that I'm (probably) training for the Bay State Marathon on October 19th. I'm training with a buddy. Setting a time to meet him ensures that I get off my butt and run. Without him, on most days I would just sleep in.

On Monday, Gmap-pedometer said I did 10.85 miles, in about 1h41, for an average of 9:18 miles. Today was much more fun than last time I went long. My route.

This swimming business is going ok. Swam in a regular pool yesterday. Kinda an off-day.

0.9 miles in 34 minutes.

That puts me at 91 minutes, without waves and pushing and shoving. I think the Endless Pool at work pushes me to swim faster, so I think I'll spend more time on that.

Thanks for all your suggestions on training. Still trying to work out how I can make this training-business work.

Long swim with Aud today at the local public pool. Aud used to compete competitively and swims a lot (and really fast), so it was great to "train" with her. By train, I mean, she would swim in the fast lane, and I would try to catch up in the lane next to her but alas to no avail.

2 miles in 1:08 hours today, which includes pushing off the wall, so my new goal for the race is to complete it in less than 1:30, which will be a bit of a stretch.

My first long workout day. I went to a regular pool and swam for 1 hour.

The strategy in dealing with walls to slow down, turn and then resume in the opposite direction without pushing off. Unfortunately, because the pool was only 25yds in length, this plan slowed down my pace considerably, as by the time I would get crankin' I would reach another wall again.

1.5mi in 1 hour today. :(

I should try to find a longer pool. In the meantime, does anyone have any thoughts on how I can best simulate an open water swim in a pool? Any comments would be most welcome!

omg--6 comments! woo. Took Fri off and will ditch swimmin' today too.

The swimming treadmill at work is an Endless Pool. It starts shootin water at you, and you start swimmin' so that you won't hit the back wall. It's good for training, because it's really hard to adjust the speed, esp once you start swimming, so it forces me to just keep pace with whatever water it shoots at me.

There are 2 at work, but one of them is leaking water, so there's now a long line for the remaining pool. Because we're only allowed 30 min of use, I'll need to start training in a regular pool for longer time periods.

Man, this swimming-thing is hard. Like with a regular treadmill, the last 5 min are always the hardest, because I'm counting down the seconds, and they go by so slowly.

Tried 2.5 mi/hr for the first 6 min of my swim and croaked. So, I returned to the same pace as yesterday. 2.3 mi/hr for 30 min.

A couple of days ago I was feeling kinda bored and wanted to take on a cool challenge. I'd always wanted to swim in an open water race, the Escape from Alcatraz race in particular. However, given the somewhat recent oil spill and the fact that it'd be a freezing swim, I decided to look for other open water swims.

Hmmm...Hawaii, I thought sounded like a nice warm place, so soon I signed up for the Waikiki Rough Water Swim. This swim is along the lovely shores of Waikiki, requiring no wetsuit, but is also 2.4 miles. I hemmed and hoed about this race for a while, but now my tickets are booked, and I'm all registered. The only problem is that I haven't been swimming for recreation or for competition of late....

If you finish beyond 2:40:00, you don't even place...

Today was my first day in the pool in a long time, and it was an Endless Pool -- i.e. a swimming treadmill. What a weird feeling. At work, we're only allowed 30 min in the pool at a time, but apparently I averaged 2.3 miles/hour for those 30 min, so right now I'm feeling much better about my chances of getting on the board with a time -- any time less than 2:40:00. I think it's still a bit too early, though, to know what time to shoot for.