Paleo Week 3

Well 3 weeks in, and I am unsure of what to do next.  My running has stabilized to the point where I no longer feel like I don't have enough carbs in the tank and I am getting used to eating in this fashion on the regular.  Its just kinda become the norm for me to reach for a handful of almonds instead of making a PBJ for a snack.  I think I will give it a few more weeks, and as my ankle heals, test out the fat adaption during the long run.

Speaking of my ankle, I am taking my own patented "Clinthorne" approach to injuries, and just hammering away on it, in hopes of beating the weakness out.   No where near being back to normal enough to run trail, but I feel pretty good on the roads, as long as I pay attention to foot placement.

Monday:  Pissed I didn't get to run long this weekend.  7 miles at lunch.  10 in the evening.  Made a big pot of beanless Buffalo chili to eat during the weak.  Hillary thought it would be gross, until she tasted it.

Tuesday:  6.5 miles at lunch, only break during an all day experiment.  Forced myself onto the treadmill in the PM, at about 9:00 when I got home.  Ran 5.5 miles and gave up.

Wednesday:  6.5 miles in the AM before work.  10 miles when I got home.  Did 20/40's (Spring 20 seconds, rest 40 seconds) for the last 15 minutes of the PM run, dang that's hard.

Thursday:  Another busy day.  7 miles in the AM.  4.5 miles in the PM before taking a prospective student out to dinner, had a few beers, and decided I was not doing anymore running that night.

Friday:  14 miles in the AM.  Today, wearing Hokas, I felt invincible, and we had some beautiful weather.  Went for a nice 9 mile jog in the PM and nearly got run over 5-6x.  Stupid homecoming traffic, I can't believe these people graduated from college, they're terrible at driving.

Saturday:  Decided to try something new - spent 3 hours on the treadmill while watching the MSU football game.  An exciting game is a great way to pass time on the mill, but to make it more tedious, I set the incline at 15% and jogged btw 4-5 mph the entire time.  Football game went to overtime making the end of the run somewhat dangerous as I was not focusing on foot placement at all.   Ended up with 15 miles and some 8000 feet of vert.  A touch over 3 hours of running.

Sunday:  Legs were toasted up pretty good after yesterday.  10 miles in the AM, and 4 miles on the stairclimber (1 hour - 520 floors climbed) in the PM.  This was also a sufferfest, and I liked it.

Total of 107 miles without having gone long, but doing a lot of 2 a day runs.  Just happy my ankle isn't totally uncooperative.  No where near normal though.

Paleo FISH TACOS!!

Ingredients:

3 Tilapia Filets
2-3 multicolored peppers
1/2 vidallia onion
1/8 red onion
1/8 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup cooking oil (Canola Oil)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
4-6 lettuce leaves

1.  Dice your peppers and onions into small pieces
2.  Heat up a large sautee pan containing oil on medium
3.  Add peppers + onion and cook until soft (approximately 10-15 minutes)
4.  Add thawed Tilapia filets
5.  Cook Tilapia, allowing it to flake and break apart in the pan
6.  Add cilantro and other spices
7.  Allow to cook until Tilapia is cooked and has fallen apart and stirred into the rest of the mixture
8.  Squeeze lemon juice from 1/2 lemon into the dish and remove from heat.  Stir a few more times
9.  Serve on lettuce leaves from iceburg lettuce and garnish with sour cream, avacado and tobasco sauce.
10.  Enjoy

Nice colorful mixture of peppers and onion 

Cook until soft and colors are melded

Add Tilapia and cilantro

Tilapia flakes apart and cooks into this dish nicely

Serve on lettuce leaves

Dont forget avacado

Paleo Week 2

Sorry to be a little late in posting.  Experiments and the writing that comes with trying to publish data have taken up most of my time as of late.

Week 2 went well.  Towards the end of week 1 I would find myself battling fatigue after about an hour into a run.  It would pass, but it was strange to be dealing with the low energy feeling.  Now I notice that it is not an issue whatsoever and I think I am beginning to be better at metabolizing fat.  I've continued focusing on a high fat paleo style diet rather than a high protein paleo style diet, which to me, makes more sense, is cheaper, and has less of an impact on the environment.

Monday:  10 miles, low HR.  Legs were tired out after the previous weeks B2B long runs.

Tuesday:  Same as Monday.  Made my garlic green beans as a nice paleo side for dinner.

Wednesday:  Felt spunky and put in a 9.5 mile tempo run in 1:03:30 in the morning.  Followed this up with an easy 10 on the trails at night.  Flank steak that marinated overnight for dinner, along with a big baked potato with avacado and sour cream (gasp not paleo?!??!).  I'm not overly stressed about being strict paleo, sour cream is delicious, and I will continue to enjoy it.  Its not like I put it on everything...

Thursday:  A easy/moderate paced 6.5 at lunch.  10 more in the afternoon.

Friday:  Same as Thursday.  Teryaki Tuni steaks for dinner.  Pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

Saturday:  Had trouble getting motivated, as college football is just so entertaining and I have no races to get me out the door to train for, which honestly, feels kinda nice right now.  Was thinking about taking a day off, when I finally forced myself onto the Poto around 4pm.  Disaster struck when I rolled my ankle nasty bad, heard a loud popping nose, hobbled to my car and put ice packs on it with no idea what to expect.  I had been planning on spending the night in my car at the trail head, and then hitting 30-35 miles on Sunday, but this idea quickly disappeared as I went to sleep in my car with a busted leg.  5 miles total.

Oops

Sunday:  Made it once around the short Poto loop for 13 miles, not especially fast, but good god was a glad my ankle at least let me get that much running  in.  Iced it out for the rest of the day.

Total of 90 miles for the week.  Planning on a few more, but right now I just want to get my ankle back to normal so I can continue enjoying the beautiful fall weather and colors.

Garlic Green Bean Recipe:  Makes enough for 2.
Approximately 1 pound of green beans
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 lemon
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Buy some green beans.
Clean them with water and then break off the stems.
Dice up 2-3 cloves of garlic crushing it nicely to release the garlic essence
Heat up a skillet containing about half of your olive oil
Add the green beans, allow to cook for about 5 minutes
Add the other half of your olive oil + garlic
Sautee over low-medium heat until desired tenderness is reached (I prefer mine somewhat al-dente)
Squeeze in lemon juice, and allow to cook for another minute.  Don't cook for too long with lemon juice, otherwise it will caramelize and make a sticky mess.

If your olive oil starts to run out, add some water and the beans can continue to cook/steam without a problem.

Enjoy

(My) Top Ten Most Anticipated Trail Shoes of 2013

What shoes am I most excited about for the "spring" 2013 trail shoe season?  Here I rank them, 1 being the shoe I am most eager to test, with 10 still being anticipated!

I have reviews posted for a few of these shoes, including:
Asics Gel Fuji Trainer 2
Hoka One One Bondi B 2
La Sportiva Helios

1.  Salomon Sense Mantra - 6mm heel to toe drop makes this shoe seem useful over the LONG run.  6mm really seems to be my sweet spot.  At about 9 ounces, the Mantra is a touch heavier than the Sense, but it still retains many of the innovative technologies (endofit, uniquely lugged outsole, lightweight rock plate) utilized in the S-Lab series shoes.  Salomon makes the best gear on the market, and I have little doubt these shoes will last.

Sense Mantra (Photo Credit Alpenglow sports)

(Photo Credit Alpenglow sports)

2.  Pearl Izumi e:Motion Trail N1/2 - It was actually a tough contest between the Sense Mantra and the new P.I. e:Motion series.  While just about everyone has raved about these new P.I. shoes, my love of the well built Salomon gear won out.  Nonetheless, I have little doubt that Pearl will be putting out a quality product in the new e:Motion shoes.  The "dynamic offset" system is intriguing.  A strong forefoot/midfoot plant compresses the midsole, resulting in the true offset of the shoe.  After his record setting WS100 win in the P.I. N1 Trail, Tim Olson described his N1's as having a 1mm offset at a standstill, but a 4mm offset during the his footstrike, although runningwarehouse's blog states a 6mm offset.  My only concern is that this degree of estimated offset will be highly different between runners of different efficiencies and weight.  They also make a road shoe - which would be great if you really find these shoes to be perfect for you.  I personally am struggling with choosing between the N1 and N2.  Also the color schemes are badass.

N1 Trail (Photo Credit Runningwarehouse)

N2 Trail (Photo Credit Runningwarehouse)

3.  Asic Gel Fuji Trainer and Attack - I personally love Asics Shoes.  The Gel Fuji Racers have been a huge hit, which I hope encourages Asics to continue to make lightweight trail shoes.  Putting in over 1,000 miles in my Gel Fuji Racers, there were more than a few times that I wouldn't have minded a little more protection, as well as not having the bottom vents or drains.  The Gel Fuji Trainer addresses both these issues, at the cost of a little extra weight.  Interestingly, the Fuji series actually includes several other shoes that are available overseas, but not in the USA.  I've been considering a buying a pair from Wiggle, but decided to wait for the US iteration. Which is available for pre-order at both runningwarehouse and roadrunnersports!

Gel Fuji Trainer
Gel Fuji Attack

Gel Fuji Attack (Photo Credit Wiggle)

Fuji Trainer (photo credit Runningwarehouse)

Fuji Trainer outsole (photo credit Runningwarehouse)

4.  La Sportiva Anakonda - I have raced in the Sportiva Crosslite, as well as in the X-Country, and felt like the Crosslite was just too much shoe in the upper, while the X-Country wasn't quite enough in the midsole.  BOOM, La Sportiva read my mind, combined the two shoes, and created the Anakonda.  Advertised as weighing 9.5 ounces, they look to have a very lightweight upper that will drain well, and utilize the amazing rubber that is a trademark of La Sportiva.  Other than that, it is rather difficult to find much more info on these shoes.  To me, the picture says it all.

(Photo Credit one50South blog)

Most similar to X-country outsole (Photo Credit Trailrunningreview)

5.  New Balance M080 - A new minimus model that seems to be under the radar, honestly, I am not even sure if these are supposed to be trail running shoes.  But they have an excellent looking, fully lugged outsole, with sticky Vibram rubber, are built on the well designed Minimus last (NL-1), and have a 4mm drop.  Having raced a 50 miler in the original MT10, I always thought that with a little more protection, and no forefoot strap, they could be perfect.  NB has made several attempts at perfecting the shoe with the MT110, MT20 (v1 and v2), and the MT1010, but small drawbacks have limited my use and/or interest in these shoes.  Hopefully NB finally nails it!

Cool suede looking upper but will it last?  (Photo Credit Runningwarehouse)

Full outsole without any holes!  (Photo Credit Runningwarehouse)

5.  Hoka One One Bondi B 2 -  I'm in the middle of a love-hate relationship with my own Bondi B's.  One of the major flaws I found with these shoes is that the upper is horribly uncomfortable.  Combine this with the fact that your feet are at the mercy of a heavy duty rather inflexible midsole and it can get to be annoying.  On the other hand, these shoes eat up nasty trail and leave the legs feeling fresh.  Updated upper on the Hoka Bondi B 2 indicates a totally new material that looks like it will be much more comfortable and lighter as well.  I have high hopes for this update, considering how much attention Hoka has recieved, I hope they continue to put out innovative new products.  I made these pics from screen shots taken from the speedgoat promo video (so please forgive my crappy computer skills), because I can't find anything out there about these guys.

6.  Salomon S-Lab Sense Ultra - The more consumer "friendly" version of the S-Lab Sense, but made to be more durable.  This is achieved by using a firmer midsole (is that a good thing? - Im not sure) as well as giving the shoe more lugs and larger lugs.  On the other hand, they're still quite pricey (180$) and heavier (8oz) so I am not sure if I will own a pair.  While I am still undecided as to if they will be the right shoe for me, I expect to see quite a few people wearing these at Ultras next year.

Black and Red color scheme - I approve (photo credit Utahoutside)

Sense Ultra Outsole (Photo Credit Sam winebaum's blog)

7.  The North Face Ultra Guide and Hypertrack Guide - I ran quite a bit in TNF Single Track Hayasa until the traction disappeared.  They had a good combination of flexibility, protection, and cushion while being light weight.  Also, all TNF shoes I have owned are incredibly comfortable, like the most comfortable.  So this has me expecting a shoe that is pleasant to wear in the ultra and hypertrack guides.  TNF is releasing/updating their trail shoes and has several other offerings coming out this spring, but I think the shoe I am most excited for is the Hypertrack version.  I'm pretty sure this is what Ian Sharman was wearing at UROC 100k, and they are bright!  Specs include an 8mm heel to toe drop, and both models weigh under 10oz.

Hypertrack guide (Photo Upprvalley.com)

Ultratrack (Photo credit Runningwarehouse)

8.  La Sportiva Helios - I really enjoy the occasional run in the Vertical K's.  However, once I hit gravel roads, or trails strewn with gravel, I start to get frustrated with myself for choosing to wear the Vert Ks.  That's because they have no rockplate.  If you catch a sharp stone in the thin area of the morphodynamic midsole, you're in for an eye opener.  That being said, they are super flexible, plenty light, have great traction, and are very fun to run downhill in.  So really all you need to do is add a rockplate.  OK YAY!  Sportiva does this with the introduction of the Helios.  It ups the weight a tad, but if you've spent time in the Vertical K, you know they are so light, a little weight for a tad more protection is no biggie.  Basic anatomy of the Vertical K is maintained, except perhaps a slightly wider platform, to increase stability.  Oh, also it looks like they have include an extra eyelet to help lock down the heel, which I think will be a nice addition.  It'll be cool to see how these shoes do over rocky trail, but I'm disappointed I will have to buy another pair of shoes so similar to a pair I already own (i.e. Vert K).  Also nice colorways.

I've since reviewed the Helios - Check it out here

Blue (photo credit irunfar)

Grey/pink Women's Helios (photo credit Trail running review)

9.  Hoka One One Rapa Nui Comp - Cool to see Hoka trying something a little different as the company continues to grow.  These are what Hoka considers a racing flat :)   Keeping with the traditional Hoka ideal, they have quite a bit of compressible midsole, a rocker-ed profile, and a 5mm heel to toe drop.  Will these be as protective as Hokas normally are?  Probably not, as they appear to have only 2/3s the stack height of a pair of Bondis.  But sometimes all that foam is overkill, so it will be interesting to see how popular these shoes are.  I found all the info for this post on the blog of Ian Corless, the host of Talk Ultra, my absolute favorite podcast. They will also feature a road version.

10.  New Balance 1210 (AKA Leadville) - Last but not least!  I'm 99% sure Anton wouldn't wear these at Leadville, but for the rest of us mortals, its great to see New Balance finally apply themselves to updating the rest of their trail shoe line.  This is achieved through the use of the new Revlite foam they have designed as well as utilizing the Phantom fit upper.  I've heard great things about the Phantom fit upper, and personally love the Revlite foam, so I think these shoes will have a solid following, especially in the midpack ultra community.  Sad to see they are spec'd at a 9mm heel to toe drop, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them move this down to 6mm in following versions.

Vibram Outsole

Not bad looking (Photo credit Runningwarehouse)

Paleo Week 1

First week of paleo-style eating and ultrarunner style running complete.  Overall the energy levels have felt pretty stable, which is a good thing since I was hoping to come close to that magical 100 miles this week.

Monday:  10 miles at an easy pace at the trails.  Refueled with a bottle of grape soda after the run.  Once refueling was complete I made paleo style fish tacos for dinner.

Tuesday:  10 miles at the trails at an easy pace at the trails.  

Wednesday:  6.5 miles at lunch at a very hard pace.  Ran it in just under 41 minutes.  Refueled with 350 calories of orange juice.  10 more miles at the trails in the PM.

Thursday:  10 mile road run at an easy pace.

Friday 6.5 miles at lunch at an easy pace.  9 miles at Bird Hills in the PM.  Very high intensity hill sessions.

Saturday:  5:30 am wakeup to be out the door for a 21 mile road run with Jack.  Ryan Case joined in for the first 9-10 miles.  Longest road run I have done in a very long time.  Refreshing yet reminded me why I don't generally pound the pavement for so long.  Tired out the rest of the day.  Drank about 800 ml of water and had 1 gel for the entire run.  breakfast was 1 banana slathered in almond butter.  Refueled with 500 calories of OJ and a big egg omelet when I got home.  Paleo style burgers for dinner (romaine lettuce bun)

Sunday:  Goofed around in the AM, until I got motivated and legs woke up.   Breakfast was a cup of coffee, several handfuls of nuts, an apple and a banana.  Got running by 12:30.  22 miles at the Potowotami in Pinckney.  Good old fashion fun.  Great to be out in the woods with the fall colors changing. Had to stop and eat a handful of animal crackers at about mile 17 (animal crackers - that sounds paleo right?).  Interesting run - I felt pretty fatigued at mile 9 (uh-oh), but then dialed in and felt great until I decided to have a quick snack and hammer the last 5.  Not sure if the fatigue was due to the diet, the previous days outing, or just generally not quite recovered from Woodstock.  Refueled with an Ensure, OJ, and raisins.  Hillary made some delicious chicken soup from scratch that I feasted on when I got back to Lansing.

Final mileage = 104.5 miles.  Not a bad week.  Especially since I resisted the urge several days to go for runs twice daily and just focused on the nice aerobic ten mile jog.  The new diet seems to be working well, I feel very satiated, I think because I have been focusing on getting a lot of calories from healthy fats.  This includes mostly monounsaturated fats from nuts, avacados, and olive oil, but also some omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fats from canola oil (and nuts too).  Overall, I was pleased with my ability to do back to back long runs this weekend without really needing to eat a ton of carbs in-between the runs or even during the runs.  Part of it is staying at a relatively aerobic heart rate (not always easy when I enjoy running hills).  I think I am adjusting, albeit slowly to metabolizing more fat.  Even if I'm not, I will continue to tell myself that I am.

The hardest part so far for me has been the refueling aspect.  As a nutrition student, I know how important it is to optimize nutrition during the recovery window in order to maximize gains, limit soreness, support the immune system and prepare ones-self for the next days outing.  Overall, I am sticking to things that normally work for me, which is high glycemic index sugars and a light protein snack.  Working on swapping out a chocolate milk for a glass of orange juice and a few almonds.