5 Q&As with team member Ed Viesturs

Team Time For Lyme has been fortunate to have gotten support from the first American to have climbed all 8,000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. A feat literally breath taking. Ed Viesturs is America's leading high altitude mountaineer, having climbed many of the world's most challenging summits, including ascending Mount Everest six times. He completed a 16-year quest to climb all 14 of the world's highest mountains (above 8,000 meters) without the use of supplemental oxygen. In doing so, he became the first American and the 5th person in the world to accomplish this. He reached the summit of his 14th peak, Annapurna, on May 12, 2005.

Ed felt compelled to support the quest better research for Lyme Disease since in the past 30 years little has been accomplished. I was able to take some time out of Ed's tough schedule and ask him a few questions of interest:

C: Ed, first I would like to thank you for becoming a Team Time For Lyme supporter. Tell me what adventure is in store for you at the moment?
E: I have plans to climb Aconcagua in January 2009. Then I am planning to go to Nepal in the spring to climb something fun and new-perhaps an unclimbed peak with a couple of friends.

C: Having read your great book "No short cuts to the top" are you planning to write a new book and if so what will be about?
E: I have a couple of books planned - an undated version of my photo book Himalayan Quest and another book based on one of my 8000 meter climbs with some historical perspective.

C: Having climbed K2 yourself what are your thoughts about the recent K2 incident?
E: It's a tough and unforgiving mountain. One always needs to be prepared for things to go wrong and it seems like some of the climbers were simply unprepared or didn't have the skills or equipment to rescue themselves. You can't rely on others to initiate a rescue at these extreme altitudes. Many of the climbers also climbed far too late into the day and watched the sun set while they were on the summit-when that happens your margin of safety is almost non-existent.

C: I have heard that you have run some marathons and have a good set of lungs what is your marathon PR?
E: I have only run one marathon-the New York City Marathon in 2006. I ran a 3:15 and was quite pleased.

C: Why do you think raising awareness for Lyme disease is so important?
E: This will help educated people about the disease and also alleviate some of the fears about being outside and enjoying the great open spaces we all can enjoy.

C: Thank you Ed for taking some time out of your busy schedule and for supporting Team Time For Lyme. All the best to your future endeavors!

For donations to support Lyme research (via www.timeforlyme.org) please visit:
http://www.timeforlyme.org/news-one-mans-race.html

Thank you for all of your support and feel free to forward this blog to anyone you know.
Best
Carl

Ed Viesturs supporting Team Time For Lyme!














To know more about Ed Viesturs please visit his website http://www.edviesturs.com/

Elements to contend with

Watching the weather forecast has now become more than a casual "is it going to rain today?" type of observation. Understanding the temperature changes will be very crucial to wear appropriate clothing to ensure a stable core temperature throughout. Too much will not only make you sweat and overheat but it will also slow you down with weight (believe me 200 miles with 1/2 lbs of extra clothing will make a difference). I will already wear 3 lbs of extra weight with hydration and food to the next aid station. This is not a mere road marathon where you wear a pair of shorts, tank top and sneakers.
Well today's forecast calls for light snow up in Pittsfield with a temperature with windchill at 27F. This is daytime temperature. This temperature reflects the town of Pittsfield not what the mountains will provide.
As much as I don't trust the 10 day forecast I was amused to see that on Tuesday Oct 28th of next week had a note attached stating "Grab your skis"!! Well let's hope this race does not have too much snow on the mountain or it could become the east coast version of the mid western Arrowhead Ultra.
In addition to the temperatures there will also be other obstacles to contend with such as:

• Close to 60% of the entire race will be run in darkness due to the season. This is the biggest challenge in my opinion. We all know how we run at night.
• The cumulative elevation ascent and descent will make the muscles work for sure
  
• Heavy slippery fresh foliage on the ground covering rocks, branches and "critters"
• Rock hard uneven ground or muddy slippery hills
• Keeping your fluids from freezing in your bottles
  
• Bears - looking for a last meal prior to hibernation (not a big concern but a possibility)
  
• Hunters - looking for a meal. We will run on private property to reduce this risk but you never know. I will wear bright colors.

Best

Carl

NE England 200 mile endurance run - Final course alterations - Whoa!!!

As if 200 miles wasn't enough of a challenge the course has been altered (two weeks out) and now comprises of 43,520 feet of ascent instead of 30,000 feet as previously stated. The reason for change was due to land owner issues and for safety reasons due to the hunting season. As a counter balance to this I am pleased to announce that my goal of 154 lbs as race weight has now been surpassed and that I have been weighting in for the past days at 151.6 lbs which is an important thing when it comes to running/walking and climbing. Below are some facts regarding the race issued by the RDs (race directors):

"No man can live this life (in the desert) and emerge unchanged. He will carry, however faint, the imprint of the desert, and will have within him the yearning to return." - Sir Wilfred P. Thesinger

Some stats on the funeral run:

For the first 50 and 100 miles it is the Aimee Trail Loop :

The Aimee trail loop is 12.5 miles

The Aimee trail loop profile is 3440 elevation per 12.5 mile lap

The total elevation on this 100 miles is 27520

For the second 100 miles

The South hill loop is 10 miles

South hill loop is about 1600’ of elevation per lap.

So that adds up to 16,000’ of climb over 100 miles.

So the total elevation over 200 miles is 43,520…wow unless you train at Everest I guess.

Their will be 2 aid stations on the first 100 miles (12.5 mile loop)

Their will be 2 aid stations on the second 100 miles (10 mile loop)

Aid stations are roughly ½ way through the loops.

People can camp in the Aimee farm barn. They can change, rest, sleep, daydream or do whatever they need to do to get through their challenge.

We will have food at each of the aid stations as well as water. I personally hate HEED but if you guys like it let us know.

This will be a small event but extremely well run. It will be brutal but we will do everything in our power to get you through 50-100 or 200 miles whichever it is you are trying to accomplish. The trail is incredible, the weather has been perfect, it will be well marked fires will be going at night at both aid stations. Please remember to bring gear that you may want to leave at the primary aid station. Also not sure if everyone knows about our participant that is attempting to be the ONLY finisher of all of the PEAK races this year, and entitling him to receive coveted $10,000.00 purse.

Good Luck to all and please help convince some friends to come run/walk/or hike. If it doesn’t kill you it may make you stronger.

John/Joe/Andy/Jason

Last heavy training week done 111 miles -Taper time

Last Saturday night just before 10:00pm I left my house to do my last looong run before New England 200 on October 30th. I was planning to do a fairly hilly run of 30 miles. When I started to run my legs felt exceptionally strong. I thought it must have been the massage I had gotten on Thursday. As I made my way up the hills my legs kept on feeling "topped off" with glycogen and never felt tired. As I approached the 30 mile mark I said to myself this is too good to be true so I kept on going. Halfway into it I reminded myself not to have too much of a good thing especially when the results shows up a day or two later. I stopped at 41 miles and got home just before 7am or almost 9 hours. October 30th can't come soon enough.

Best

Carl

Runners knee - Why running has gotten a bad rap

God knows that I never had the natural running anatomy. My toes and
knees pointed extremely inwards at birth and my mother was worried that I would have issues later in life. She sent me to PTs to try to correct the problem. I still think of how my feet should be pointing straight forward. I can still rotate my toes inwards and point them behind my center line (more than 90 degrees). I was still very athletic in my youth but never ventured into running. To put it bluntly I loathed running.

After a comment made by a PT earlier this year commenting that I have internal rotation of the femur I started reading up on my condition. Reading in Tim Noakes book "The Lure of Running" regarding common anatomical afflictions that may potentially predispose athletes to running injuries, it read:

"in its worst form, the malicious or miserable misalignment syndrome, comprising twisting (internal rotation) of the femur, squinting (kissing) patellae...."

That's me folks in a nut shell. My feet love pointing inwards and I deal with it every day. My daughter has gotten my syndrome. I keep telling her to point her feet straight forward but she forgets just like I did when I was a kid.

When I began running I started out as a heel striker. This lead to at times to the infamous runners knee, meaning the patellae moving and rubbing against cartilage leading to inflammation
of the knee. When I changed to forefoot striking (3 years ago) it all went away. Why you may ask? We'll I did a little investigation and experimentation myself first and then spoke to a orthopedic specialist after wards and he liked my demonstration and explanation. Since I have excessive kissing knees, meaning my patellas are pointing inwards when my feet are facing straight forward it is easy to show what happens with the patellae when you heel strike versus forefoot strike and it is fascinating what happens. Note that you don't have to have excessive patellae misalignment to cause runners knee.

When I put my heel down my patella is pointing inwards plus that the patellae is loose or floating (this is not good). Now when I put my forefoot down (balls of your feet not toes) my patellas are pointing straight forward like a natural runners knee and plus the patellae is fixed meaning it is not floating (which is good). If you combine the running motion with a heel strike moving over to a forefoot strike you now clearly understand the problem with runner's knee meaning the patellae is moving from one position to the other leading to rubbing. When I showed this to the orthopedic doctor he said that this is a very good explanation to tell people what happens when you have runners knee problem.

Heel position (right leg) - inward pointing patellae & floating patellae



















Forefoot position (right leg) - neutral patellae position & secured patellae. Note how the patellae has moved into the proper position.



















Now I will caution the person who runs out the door to change to forefoot striking that it takes patience and slow adaptation. The POSE technique is a good way to start. Do this experiment yourself and note how your patellae is locked and fixed and facing forward when standing on your forefoot (balls of your feet not toes) versus putting your heel down (feel how the patellae is floating). I have never had any knee problems when moving over to forefoot striking. Now even if you have a neutral stance and heel strike it still leaves the patellae in a floating position leaving it open to movement. And if you land on uneven ground the patellae is sure to move around which subsequently leaves the knee vulnerable. Heel striking is in my opinion why running has gotten a bad rap.

Best Carl

A day in the sun

Thank you all!

First of all I would like to thank my family and every single one of you who showed up on a hot late August day when most people are away on vacation! Thank you for all the emails as well. I heard all too familiar Lyme disease stories from people who joined me for a few laps. People from neighboring towns had come out to support me. It was a very gratifying feeling. It only reinforced my mission with Time For Lyme that we are doing the right thing in supporting research. We raised $542! Many small creeks eventually turns into a river as they say.

Why ultras?

One of the biggest allures of ultra challenges for me is the uncertainty of completion. Ultras tees up an attractive challenge that you prepare for the best possible way both physically and mentally. Drawing experience from every little mistake is vital for improvement. You also get to learn a lot about yourself and how your body works. Sometimes you succeed sometimes you don't. Last Saturday was a learning experience from many different perspectives.

24 hour run purpose

The run was to serve two purposes, first to spread Lyme awareness, connecting with people. And many fantastic people showed up on a hot summer day! Trail running would have made this much more difficult. Second the training would serve as an aerobic and mental preparation for what's to come later this fall. It would not of course include elevation change training.

Preparation - "finish strong" approach
I am not a top athlete, I consider myself a "middle of the pack" type of guy. I like to challenge myself and I do not get too wrapped up in competing with others. The reason why I like ultra challenges is because of the journey, the preparation to the destination. I also like to read up on training as much as possible and also experiment with my own theories. My family tree have a few inventors and entrepreneurs and I guess I have gotten a bit of that bug as well. For my 200 mile attempt in October I'll be running in more darkness than daylight. I knew that I would have to gradually and also in a controlled manner stress my system to a completely new level in order to handle extreme fatigue both mentally and physically. Simply put I had to train in those types of situations. The old running adage "finish strong" was key for my approach. Since a lot of ultras involve a considerable amount of walking, that is unless you are the elite, with being up all day working and finish the evening with a run, I thought that this approach would work well as a "finish strong" concept. Important was to focus on recovery thereafter. I tried to find running articles and empirical training studies about consistent night training but there were none. Another beneficial thing with running at night would be that 3 of the family's light sleepers would not be woken up since they would be in their REM sleep at that time. If I would go for an early morning run (which I have tried) I would wake the whole house up at 3:30-4:00am. So it was a good approach from both a training as well as a family perspective. I am curious to see how it all pans out. It might fail or it might work.


Going into this I had done the mileage to tackle the challenge. My legs were primed and my mind felt strong. I channeled all my lonely night runs when most people are sleeping in their warm and cosy beds and the occasional driver passing by slowing down to shout either "can I help you?- ahh great job keep it up" or "are you freaking nuts it's 3:30am!!!". I knew I could handle 24 hours since I had consistently trained for this since January. My long training runs, ranging from 4 to +7 hours, always started on a Saturday night having been up for 15-16 hours doing all kinds of things such as family outings, lawn care and other house chores etc. The longest run would end up just after 6:00am on Sunday mornings. This meant that I had been up for 20-23+ hours straight which was followed by a three hour Sunday morning nap. I would thereafter spend the entire day on Sunday with the family and surprisingly not feeling all too tired until it would really hit me hard at 08:00-08:30pm. I would then tuck myself in at the same time as the kids. I would then sleep 10-11 hours. During the weekdays I would start my run at 10:30pm and go for anywhere between 1-3 hours followed by 6-7 hours of sleep. With this whole training routine more or less every Saturday and weekdays since January gave me confidence that I could handle a 24 hour run. But as they say "Talk is cheap!" and it was time to show up. The only thing that was an unknown was that I had only 8 daylight runs since January and that I would run in quite a bit of sunlight!

The Saturday before I ran a 11 mile race at Silvermine to get a little intensity up. But I tried to hold myself back, it was after all taper time. I felt good about my race. I was ready for the challenge on Saturday and could not wait for it to come.

Logistics

Many people had asked me how I was going to keep track of the laps since I had no one to keep track of my lap counting. I did not expect anyone to spend 24 hours out there with me seeing me going around in circles. So my plan was to have rubber bands in groups of 50 attached to a light carabiner in one hand and a lap counter in the other. At the end of each lap I would discard a rubber band into a wooden box and click my lap counter in the other hand. At the end of the day I would count the number of rubber bands in the box and compare it to the counter and go with the lower number as a conservative approach. The system worked pretty well. I was off by one lap and chose the lesser amount for conservative measures. The rubber bands kept me busy during the lap as well. My routine was as I approached the last turn of each lap I isolated one rubber band from the rest and as I approach the white wooden box at each lap I would drop one in and click the lap counter with the other. Believe me you need to keep yourself busy with something when going round and round on a track.

The haul

I woke up at 3:30am and turned on the coffee maker that was already prepared the night before. Accompanying my coffee were two pieces of toast with peanut butter and jelly. As I left the house I looked above at the beautifully starlit skies. It was going to be a perfect day I thought. As I drove over to the track fully packed the night before with quite a bit of luggage I was thinking about how much stuff I bring along for big runs. Shouldn't a pair of shorts a t-shirt and sneakers do it, just like a Kenyan? No this type of running you need to bring things that you might not expect wearing such as a long sleeve t-shirt, even a jacket that I wear during winter time as an insurance if chills might set in. All the first aid stuff, gels, food, donation cups, chalk board etc. I had borrowed my kids chalk board from home and written "Support Lyme Research" 24 hour run - Team Time For Lyme. Please Donate Thank You! :-) I was rigging this up all by myself. My good and loyal crew chief Kevin was on vacation but would check in with me intermittently via cell phone. So would my good ultra friend Pete Stringer. In hindsight the absence of having a knowledgeable crew member beside you was a mistake.

When arriving at the track it was still pitch black. There would only be a small part of the track lit up during the darkness and that was close to the entrance and where the parking was located. As I entered the track I saw to my surprise that the soccer field had been chalked and field hockey goals were put in place. OK is this good or bad, I first thought. They were not there on Thursday, I thought. Then I thought, great, the more people the better.

As I started to place my cooler and other things inside lane one at the lap count area the sprinklers went off unannounced. I immediately moved my gear over to the outside lane to await ceasing of water. This would have been great to have during the day because lane one was being watered down as well. I put all my food in one area, the wooden box to hold rubber bands for lap counting on a portable stool and a set of towels at the first turn of track.

Time to run
I finally got everything in order and at 5:05am I was ready to go. I called my ultra friend Pete Stringer from Cape Cod to tell him that I was on my way. It was time for some serious laps! it was still dark and I started out with my headlight perched on my hat. My first four hours consisted of a run to walk ratio of 25/5 meaning run 25 minutes and then walk 5 minutes. This worked out perfectly and I was slightly behind my schedule due to logistics of picking up hydration and gels and towels etc. At first the weather was nice and cool and the temps had started out in the low 60s and my Ipod was doing its thing. As the sun was rising the track would carry a white veil of fog 3 feet above the track and it was so beautiful I thought for a second that I should grab my camera but then I reminded myself that I had a mission and focus was key. The first person who showed up was an elderly lady who was getting in her morning walk at track. I am surprised at the number people using the track versus walking in the park. I guess they do know without a GPS or a pedometer how far they have traveled each time. As the sun rose it was looking to become a perfect day for the run and the cause. My hydration seemed to be on par the first 1 .5 hours where I had to go twice. Right on I thought! Once an hour was my goal and it had to be clear. But then the field started to unexpectedly fill up with teenage girls who were not field hockey players but soccer players. Someone told me it was the day for "The Gauntlet" or soccer try outs. This meant close to a hundred girls were trying to out run each other on the mile! Yikes! All of a sudden I was pushed aside to lane 2 and 3 for the next 2.5 hours (this was additional distance). I cheered the girls on and they returned cheers for my cause. One girl gave everything she had and then some, some nice vomit on the final turn in lane one.

Heading up the creek without a paddle ...
As a fantastic experience, during my laps, I was overwhelmed by the various people coming out running/walking with me, sharing their stories and frustrations with Lyme disease. It was either a relative or themselves who had had Lyme. Today we all know of someone who has had Lyme. There was the ironman Greg who came from Long Island to help out for a few hours, the mother and daughter, the young athletic physical trainer, the lady who went out of her way to buy popsicles and a bucket with ice to keep me cool, the young track star, an entire family who had had it and a few members still have it, ultra runner Rob who had run the infamous Comrades ultra marathon in South Africa (54 miles or 87km) a whopping 13 times and the list goes on. It was truly a great turnout on such a hot day.

I was making good progress on my lap schedule. I was slightly behind but within reach to restore my pace.

As the sun started to bear down on me I was getting worried that my hydration plan had been miscalculated for these types of temps. The forecast said in the low to mid 80s which I thought was fine. Time passed and I had not relieved myself for over 2.5 hours! When I finally went the color was yellow. This is the first warning sign that your hydration is not going as planned. I was taking 1 electrolyte tablet every hour on the hour but now I was starting to take them every 45-50 minutes instead plus I was drinking 24 oz every 2-3 laps! It got hot quickly much hotter than I had anticipated. Although I was wearing a sleeveless black top, shorts and compression socks in hindsight was probably not the best color for that particular day. I could not tell the temperature at the time but at a later review from the data of my watch indicated 92F at its peak! I have raced in similar temps some time ago but this felt even hotter. There was nowhere to hide. I was praying for some white clouds to give me a moment of relieving shade but they came and went very quickly. Adjacent to one end of the track there is a set of tennis courts embraced by a surrounding high fence and fabric sheltering the court from wind and acting as a contrast. Well the fence sheltered the the track from the albeit weak but immensively craved wind that day. I had not trained this year for these type of temps. I was almost a nocturnal creature. October will be a lot cooler and darker.

Blistering Hot

As I was talking with these people during my laps I was getting more and more dehydrated and my left upper Achilles and calf muscle started to progressively getting more and more tense. At lap 125 my left calf cramped up hard, it felt like I had been stunned in my leg, like an buzzing electric shock. the cramp was so disruptive that I decided to stop and stretch, change shoes and change lap direction. I was hoping that walking in the other direction would cease the pain. Walking at first felt ok but every time I tried to run the pain was there and it was not the type of pain that you put aside mentally and continue to run because it was even difficult to put any weight on the forefoot since I am a forefoot striker, I could walk faster. I said to myself that ok let's walk this whole thing after all I had trained for walking as well. It was now midday and the heat was there in all of its glory and most people had hurried home to their air conditioned houses.

The few clouds that brought shade quickly disappeared. I had reapplied SPF 50 twice now. Unknowingly I had developed two sizable sun blisters behind my knee from the sun. I have read articles about sunscreens that do not let your skin breathe properly but I was pretty convinced that the sunscreen had worn off in that area.

When most people had left, one thing that was good was that I could now focus and concentrate on my walk more but the cramping started to interfere even when walking. I was not mentally tired but more frustrated by the fact I was slowing down considerably. My pace schedule was slipping fast. My lovely wife came out to walk with me for a few laps to cheer me up and I told her that I would walk the remainder due to my calf issues. She told me to hang in there. I called my friend Pete Stringer on the cell phone and informed him that I was having serious issues with my leg but I wanted to finish this. I know it was a training run but I tend to finish what I have set out to do. My walk was now an ugly sight. After some laps of agonizing mental debate, the devil and the angel perched on either side of my shoulder, of whether to continue or quit I decided that I was not going to jeopardize my 200 mile attempt in October. I was now seriously dehydrated and my calf muscle felt more torn than cramped. I later learned that I was having hyper active muscle cramps which lasted for two days. I had no soreness days after the run besides in the calf area where the cramp was. Had I continued I could have torn a muscle and it was a wise decision. Sure I have had some small cramps in my toes and even in my hamstring when sleeping in my bed but I have been fortunate not to have had any serious cramping in any endurance event until this year.

Issues but still being optimistic at 31.069 miles (50K) or 125 laps



Lessons learned

"It not the glorious victory when you learn the most but rather when you have had a stinging defeat" Unknown

The goal was to go for 24 hours and beyond 100 miles which I was determined to do. I had a well thought out pace schedule with a progressive increase of walk to run ratio. I could have decided to continue but I stopped although somewhat reluctantly when I thought it was prudent to do so. No one else made that decision for me. Knowing the difference between good and bad pain is a key element that one should possess when taking on an ultra challenge. I was starting to make less than 3 miles an hour and now the cramps started to move in on my walk as well. I walked the last 20 miles. It was a training run and I kept that in mind but the goal was to go the full 24 hours no question about it! The decision to stop was difficult and of course a big disappointment but again many lessons learned.

• Have a crew member who will monitor you even when you feel confident that you have everything under control. This person will facilitate simple things such as refilling bottles constantly asking you questions such as have you peed, have you eaten etc.


• Make good hydration and electrolyte adjustments - detemine your hydration range for different temps and humidity


• Have bright clothing available for unexpected heat
  
• For a future official 24 run race avoid lengthy conversations and focus on pace, hydration and nutrition.

Result 204 laps or 50.704 miles (81.6 km)

- 11 hours 44 minutes.

A good day for Lyme awareness and many important lessons learned from an ultra marathon perspective.

Carl

Time for Laps - 24 hours

Well, It's been a while since I last posted something. I have kept my focus on my training but I have had a few bumps in the road here and there but that's part of life. I have topped out at 85 miles per week and the taper has been welcomed. It's finally time to put the training to the test on this Saturday (start 5:00am) for 24 hours on the track at the New Canaan High School. Part of my training has been speed walking and it is harder than you think. Sure walking slowly is fine but try to keep a 15-16 min/mile for a longer period of time requires hard work. The strategy is have a well distributed run walk combination where you incorporate your hydration and food intake. If my plan goes as I want it to, my calorie consumption would land around 11,400 calories in 24 hours. I have put together a pace chart and tools to track laps rubber bands thrown in a bucket and a lap counter (best accounting practice), run/walk splits and calorie intake. At the track I will have a big cooler, plenty of water, gels, food, clothes, lights and other good stuff which should help me get through the hours. Let's not forget to load up some music on the Ipod. I will carry my cellphone and have access to emails if you care for sending some encouraging words along my way. Forgive me if I do not reply. If you are nearby come on out and run a few laps with me to support Lyme research. I will also sell cool Time For Lyme T-shirts (see picture of me wearing it) at the track that my sister has helped to design. Come on out and support a good cause! After the run I have some exciting news to tell you. Some real prominent sportsmen have joined me and Team Time for Lyme to support Lyme research but first things first.
One more thing I will carry an extra headlight for you if you care to join me when sun sets. Best Carl