And Now, We Fast

 So last year I decided to train differently for the Shamrok-Anthem half marathon. That is I decided to train sanely. I took up MAF training and by late March, I saw results. It's now November and I'm seeing even more results. I'll probably be posting on that in the future as I hope these folks don't cancel the 2021 race via announcement in December. Anyway, I've added a new twist: Intermittent fasting.

One of the goals of the MAF training was to get my body to burn fat for fuel rather than sugar. You can go longer on fat than sugar so for a long distance race, this change would be very helpful. But the one thing I noticed is that I continue to carry a significant amount of abdominal fat. Now I'm not a spring chicken so I know that as we age we generally pack in fat but the thing is that for the amount of running and biking I do, it didn't make sense. 

So I had to confess. I snack. Yes. Yes I do. So even though I eat sensible food, the snacking was undoing the gains, particularly the night snacking where since I'm not doing anything, the food is turned into fat for storage. I had to put a stop to this. Clearly will power was not going to work so I needed an incentive:

16-8 daily intermittent fasting. 

Since I'm not actually trying to lose weight (I am, but very targetted) the idea here for me is not to reduce calories. For the amount of running I do it's not healthy. But to eliminate the extra eating by blocking off 16 hours. Basically, after dinner, there is no eating again until the next day whenever 16 hours is up.

Honestly, the worst part is the last 3 hours. And really the reason why is because generally, I'm not doing anything that takes attention away from the fact that I'm USED to eating by that time. I'm on week three and have dropped weight and actually can tell the difference between what I weigh when I've eaten and when my stomach is empty. 

So far there have been no ill effects on my running, which I didn't expect there to be since I'm not on a starvation diet. I also make sure to take vitamins, etc. during the fast period because of my running and sweating out various elements.

Research says it takes about 3 to 5 weeks for your body to adjust to the schedule. I'm on the tail of week 3. We shall see.

The Swings Of The Game

 Havent' posted much on BlackJack for obvious reasons. Casinos were closed and when they opened I sat it out for a while. Having returned, I have found conditions favorable. EV has gone up because less people can play at once. Yesterday I managed to snag a table to myself. 

Wanted to post a graph showing the swings of the game. This is pretty typical of what I see when playing. 

The x-axis is time from session start. As you see I had a two-hour session most of it consisted of being in the red.  I had a particular goal in mind and a time limit. Knowing the swings when the goal was met, I got up which fortunately was near the end of the shoe, meaning I did not have to waste a positive count.

The reason I know the times is because I exit the game at any -1 count. That's when I record where I stand. So each increment shows me sitting out. You see that -1 counts happen quite frequently in the space of an hour (we had two 10 minutes apart, including the time waiting for a shuffle. 

The takeaways from this post is that yes, there will be losing. In my prior experience, I was coming way underfunded for the expected dips. This can really negatively impact your game as you may never be able to recover to preserve your bankroll. So come prepared.

Secondly, if you are playing a positive expectation game you still need to learn to deal with losing and the higher your stakes the lower those dips will be. Do not panic and manage your stress and keep playing by the math.

Road To The Sham 2021: Back To Stability

 So it's September and I'm back on the road to the March Shamrock Anthem Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.  This means I'm back on the training horse but with some significant changes. First though a note on sneakers.

In the late winter into about July I went on a non-stability shoe spree. I purchased a pair of Nike Vomeros, Nike Pegasus Turbo 2's, the latter was to be used at Shamrock 2020. Obviously that didn't happen. Those sneakers weren't used very much and still sit most of the time. Why? Because they offer no stability at all. I can watch my leg collapse inward with each step (left foot). Even the insert was not helpful. 

The Vomeros were not as bad but they are heavy. I also needed to put the insert in to stabilize my left foot. That sneaker was good. I say was because it's worn now at well over 300 miles AND I can tell that the soles no longer cushion like they did before. 

In late spring i purchased a pair of Adidas Boston 8s. Ooooh nice. Light shoe with a very low profile. Not a lot of cushion but very fast shoe indeed. Best thing was that I didn't need my insert. I think the low profile had a lot to do with it as there wasn't a lot of material to squish. Speaking of squish...

So I purchased a pair of SL20s since I liked to Boston's so much. Big mistake. I hadn't even gotten to 75 miles when I had to retire them from running due to pain in my left leg. I now use them for walking. I'm glad these weren't some $200 shoe. 

So with the weather changing and knowing I cannot use the Boston's for everything and my Vomeros being beat, I decided to go back to my trusty Saucony's and purchased a pair of Guide 13s. 

They. Are. Nice. 

My legs are happy. They put a piece of plastic under the arch. There is no collapsing of my foot. At all. Clearly I need to be on stability shoes. My little experiment with non-stability shoes for every day running is done. Now, It'll be Saucony's for daily MAF running and long runs. Boston's for track speed work or short distance speed work (5 and 10K) and the Pegs for races. Maybe.

Which brings us to the second topic of this update: MAF training.  Last Feb I noted that my street MAF was 8;17/mile (a month out from the expected race). Today I run that at 7:58 with many sections in the low 7s and hitting upper 6s.

I'll hopefully get to do a track session while temps are in the 50s and see where I am there. My intention now is to drop my heart rate by maybe 5 BPM over the winter for MAF runs to see what improvements I can make over the next 6 months. 

I think I'm going to have a great PR in 2021. Here's to hoping.

SL 20s: The Knee Killer

 So I wrote that due to the wet feet in the Boston 8's that I got a pair of SL20s which were more breathable. Indeed they were. Instead of soaked feet I had damp feet. As fate would have it, to make up for the lack of soppiness, these sneakers decided to try to kill my knees.

After a few runs I noticed that the inside tendon on my left knee was sore. My left foot is the "bad" foot. I figured it was due to not using my insert (which I haven't needed in the Boston). I put the insert in and continued to run. Same deal except now I ALSO had knee knock. That is, on occasion my knees were meeting. That doesn't happen to me and I don't have knock knees. This meant that my foot was collapsing inward and that was likely the cause of my tendon pain. 

Looking at the bottom of the sneaker I saw that the inner edge of the front of the sneaker was very worn. This is with 70 miles.  Clearly my foot was doing a lot of rolling.

The SL20s have been retired to walk duty...whenever I wear white. Had I paid full freight for these sneakers I would have been very upset. I didn't so I'm only a little upset. Even the Pegs with a similar mileage (I use it for occasional long run speed tests) weren't that worn.

It goes to show that you have to listen to your body and examine your shoes to make sure you're not headed to injury. I did notice that the SLs moved around more than the Bostons. That should have been a clue.

Your mileage may certainly vary but that's the last SL I'll be purchasing. Fortunately the weather will soon be cooling down and I'll be back to thicker sneakers. So I'll have to find a pair of Vomeros. They are heavy but handled cold weather well, heel wear issue aside.

Running To The Crawl: Not Happening

 So I did not register for the Crawling Crab because I suspected that the currant lunacy around COVID (yes it's lunacy and I've written extensively about it elsewhere), would have resulted in a cancelled race and I didn't want to have reservations to cancel and the like. Sure enough the Crawl is cancelled. Actually it's now a "Hermit" race which I suppose means virtual run. 

No thanks. Not the same. A part of racing is seeing the competition. It's seeing the person ahead of you and saying to yourself: I think I can catch them. It's suffering and seeing that mile marker or clock. It's that big ass finish line banner that makes you dig deep and cut 30 seconds off your last mile.

 So for me the 2020 race season is officially cancelled. Thanks China. 

On the plus side, this allows me to continue to heart rate train for another 6 months. I have already seen benefits and look forward to a MAF test when the weather cools into the 60s. I see no point in MAF testing in hot weather knowing the impact that heat has on your body AND the fact that my last MAF test was in cool(er) weather. The results cannot be comparable.

Run To The Crawl: No Mo' Wet Feet

So per the last post I have a pair of Adidas Boston 8 sneakers. Also it is quite "warm" now. Went for a long run in the 8's and towards the end, say 4 miles, it felt like I had been running in water. When I got home and took off the 8's they were soaked. As if I had dropped them in water.

No bueno.

So given that it wasn't going to be getting any cooler anytime soon and running in wet sneakers was not happening, I had to solve this problem. My saucony's are dead with over 300 miles on them. My Vomero's were dead. They no longer have the "bounce" and as shown in the video the soles are wearing out. The Pegs are for racing and I don't intend to wear them until near race day (last long run before taper) and then on race day. So those were out of the question. Soooooo... I got some Adidas SL20s

As soon as I stepped outside, I felt a breeze on my toes! Yay! They aren't as springy as the Pegs but far softer than the Bostons and far more breathable. Running in 90+ degrees with high humidity has resulted in dampness but not the "been walking in puddles feel that I had in the Bostons. Also, like the Bostons I haven't had to put the inserts into the left shoe. The shoe is pretty stiff. What's better is that they make the Vomeros feel like the anchors they are. I think I'll wait until the weather changes before replacing the Vomeros for winter running (cold feet are not fun).

In other news, even in this hot weather I'm reaching into the 7s for my MAF pace. This bodes well for when the temps drop. If its in the 60s on race morning I should do very well. Virginia is known for being warmer than the northeast so you never know.

Run To The Crawl: What My Sneakers Are Telling Me