No matter what your political leanings, we have all been wondering at the missteps of Bill Clinton during Hillary's campaign. We are not used to seeing the volatility and mistakes of such an experienced politician.

John McDougall has been suspecting this behavior may be the result of Bill Clinton's open heart surgery and the known loss of cognitive function that occurs in up to 50% of patients after coronary bypass surgery. There was a recent story about this in the Wall Street Journal and you can also read more about it on McDougall's web site.

I think it is unfortunate that patients are not informed of this very real consequence of coronary by-pass surgery - and that there are safe alternatives (diet and exercise) - and patients are not told that if lifestyle habits are maintained after surgery, the same result is inevitable.

Revenue to doctors and hospitals is a big motivator. As McDougall says, over 80% of some hospitals' revenue comes from coronary by-pass surgery. It is also telling to me that heart surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic (most renowned hospital in the nation for this) disageed with Caldwell Esselstyn's research on the benefits of a plant-based diet until they were personally affected by coronary heart disease. Then, they went to Dr. Esselstyn for help with lifestyle changes (this story is told in Esselstyn's book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and in Campbell's The China Study).

People tell me all the time that a plant-based diet seems to radical to them. However, for me, the concept of having my ribs broken, by chest opened, a vein taken from my leg and attached to my heart with the very real risk of cognitive disfunction is the real radical solution. Eliminating animal food is simple and cheap with no bad side effects. In the process, I am, in my own small way, decreasing the amount of cruely to animals at factory farms and helping the environments (2007 UN study that methane from factory farm animals has bigger environmental effect than oil).

Plus, I am probably feeling especially feisty today because I walked out of a physician's office after waiting for more than 45 minutes for my annual physical (yes, he was there, yes, other patients went in ahead of me, no, there was no medical emergency). I've just read Our Daily Meds by Melody Peterson and continue to be aghast at the lack of science and propaganda used to push drugs that are financial boons to all involved except for us patients, who suffer the known, negative consequences.

Many of you have read my previous articles about nutrition (The Protein Myth and The Nutrient Myth) on this site. One of my favorite sources is John McDougall, MD. His most recent newsletter (May 2008)  has a concise article about osteoporosis and the treatments for this terrible condition. Read it if this is a concern to you.

Link to article.

My mother suffers from osteoporosis in her spine and is always in pain - so I am sensitive to this disease and wish there was some magic bullet. All of the research I have ever read confirms what McDougall says in his article:

• Drugs used to treat osteoporosis have not been shown to prevent fractures (although they  may make bone density readings look better)
• Side effects from these drugs can be dangerous
• Fear of this condition results in much money to medical equipment manufacturers, pharmaceuticals, and medical doctors for testing (note: I dutifully get tested every two years, despite my misgivings).
• Exercise and eating well (no to minimal animal foods) are the best protection against this condition. I will someday write another article about Dairy Myths, but meanwhile, know that animal foods require your body to produce acid to digest them; your body wants to stay at a constant PH level and uses your bones as a source of chemicals to neutralize this excess acid. As a result, studies have shown that women who drink two glasses of milk per day have more fractures than women consuming no dairy. Epidemiologically, there is a high correlation between bone fractures and dairy consumption in different societies.

Someday, in my spare time, I will write the dairy article - meanwhile, dear running friends - please check out McDougall.

I am a little disappointed with my race.  I did run the first 18 miles at my goal pace.  After  mile 18 I ran out of "steam".  It had been awhile since this happened to me so I was very unprepared for how to deal with it.  The last 2 miles were pretty much a death march.  All I could think about was how nice it would be to stop and take a little break.  I did make it to the finish without stopping ... barely.
Funny to think about,  that two years ago I would have killed for the time that I ran.  Instead, it is killing me that I wasn’t able to run as fast as I had trained for.  Oh well...  you win some - you lose some!  Even though I didn't have a great race I had a GREAT experience.

 
The whole "elite start" experience was awesome.   The elite women’s field consisted of 53 women.   10 min before the start we were escorted out to the start area.  It was quite unnerving.   I was not prepared for all the spectators and the many TV cameras everywhere.  It was very strange being in such a small field receiving so much attention.  It would have been a very different experience if I had started with the 25000 people that the main field consisted of.  When I saw Joan Benoit holding the starting gun, it all of a sudden struck me that I was running THE Boston Marathon.   It was such a charge!
 
Around mile 16-17 the lead men caught up to me.  They had started along with the main field, 25 minutes after the elite women’s start. The first indicator that they were approaching was 8-10 police cars with flashing lights.  Two camera trucks followed, loaded with people and cameras facing back.  When the lead men finally passed me, I was so charged up by the hoopla that I got pulled along and ran a much too fast mile.  What a sight they were:  A group of 10-12 men just floating along, seemingly effortlessly – passing me so fast it seemed like I was standing still.
 
At the finish I was identified as an elite runner (Had a little silver dot with a "V" in it, on my bib number).  Two guys more or less carried me into the VIP tent, sat me down and got me all kinds of refreshments.  Once I recovered a bit, I changed into dry clothes and got a massage.  I was about ready to leave the tent when 6-8 race officials entered the tent and asked the runners to make room for "Lance".  The runners parted like the Red Sea as Lance Armstrong made his way through the tent.  Several times he stopped to give "high fives" and have his picture taken with runners that asked him for it.  Despite being exhausted from just finishing his marathon he was very accommodating.  I was tempted to stretch my arm out and touch "The Lance".  I didn't think I would appreciate being groped like that right after having finished a marathon so I didn’t' do it.  The whole experience was such a thrill.

The last two weeks before a marathon is the tapering phase of training.  During tapering the weekly mileage is reduced significantly.  Ideally, after the long hard marathon training, you want to sit back, relax and feel yourself get stronger and “fresher”.  My taper is going completely opposite. Lately I am feeling as if I am trying to keep a sinking ship afloat.  Every few days I get hit with a virus.  So far, my immune system has been able to fight off each of these attacks while they were in their early stages.  The repeated attacks are starting to take their toll on me.  My energy levels have dropped drastically. Instead of feeling strong and energetic I am tired and struggling to get through my work day.

All my set-backs could be valid reasons for panic. So why am I not panicking?    Because getting sick during tapering seems like a regular occurrence for me!  During the last week prior to my two fastest marathons I was fighting upper respiratory infections up until the day of the race.  I was able to “take a break” from being sick, just long enough to run the marathons.  The day after the marathons I resumed the final course of the viral attacks.  Currently I am feeling a lot better than I was during the two aforementioned Marathon tapers.  So, as far as I am concerned, I am ahead of the game.  No reasons for panic, yet! 
A new respiratory virus is making its way through the office where I work.  So far it has claimed two of my co-workers.  Unfortunately, taking off from work for the rest of the week, is NOT an option.  Wayne told me to stay out of all common areas and wash my hands as often as possible.  Taking a full hit by a virus this close to the marathon would be devastating.  This situation is a good reason to panic!

The last week before a marathon is such a mental game.  The low mileage done at easy effort equates to more time on my hands which is spent thinking and worrying about the upcoming Race.  One strategy is to try and block out the upcoming race.  I tried that once. The entire week prior to the Tampa Marathon, I didn’t allow myself to think about the race.  It wasn’t until I was picking up my bib number that all of a sudden it hit me.  Wayne noticed the panic on my face and asked what was wrong.  I explained to him that I just realized why we were in Tampa.  I was totally overwhelmed with the thought of having to run a marathon the following day and I didn’t feel ready at all.  I didn’t think I would be able to complete 26.2 miles.  Wayne told me I’d better hurry up and get mentally ready, because physically, I was perfectly capable.  He was right.  (As annoying as it is, he is ALWAYS right)!

To me, one of the great mysteries of running a marathon is that there is no “dress rehearsal”.  The marathon is 26.2 miles.  During training, my longest scheduled run was 22 miles and it was done at a much slower pace than Goal Marathon Pace (GMP).  The furthest that I ran at GMP during training was close to 9 miles.  It doesn’t make sense to me that I will be able to race a longer distance at a faster pace than what I have done in training.  (The reason why I do not do the full distance during training is because it is counter productive.  Running that far would be too stressful on the body and would take too long to recover from).  Every single time I have lined up for a marathon it has been with this doubt.  Every single time I have run a marathon I have surprised myself by what I was able to accomplish.  This marathon is no different from the previous ones.  Once again I harbor that same doubt whether I can run faster for longer than I have done in training.  Wayne tells me not to worry.  It is not how far I have run during training that matters.  It is HOW I have trained that makes the difference.  16 weeks of carefully scheduled workouts based either on distance or effort will come together on race day.  I sure hope I will be able to surprise myself one more time, this time, in Boston.

I was really looking forward to Sunday’s “Race around Briggs”.  It had seemed so long since the last time we’d run a race.   I was curious about what kind of shape I am in right now.  We have trained harder for this Marathon than any other before. So by all rights, I SHOULD be in good shape.  I was worried because during our training, the fastest pace that we have run is threshold pace (10 mi race pace) for 3 x 2 miles.   Each of those workouts felt so challenging that I didn’t think it would be possible for me to run a faster pace than that.  It seemed impossible to me, to hold that pace for a longer distance than 2 miles at a time.   Another concern of mine is how well the knee will be able to handle the down hill pounding.  The Boston course is a net down hill with most of it early in the race.  Several severe down hills on the Briggs course, would be a very good test to see how well prepared my knee is for Boston.

Friday night I was unusually tired.  I thought that perhaps it was “the little Wednesday mishap” (see blog 6) that had caught up with me.  For the better part of Saturday I just “moped” around without much energy or motivation to do anything.  Saturday night I started to come around and figured I’d be fine for the race the following morning.  Sunday morning I was still a little “off”, but after breakfast and a strong cup of coffee to jumpstart me, I was all set to go.

The Briggs race was very encouraging.  I held back during the early part of the race out of concern for my recent knee problems.  After the first 4 miles I was 25 seconds behind pace compared to last years run.  To my great surprise I was able to make up 35 seconds during the last 3.2 miles, most of it being a severe uphill.  I finished 10 seconds faster than last year’s time!  I am not by any means a strong up-hill runner (that’s Wayne’s claim to fame).  With this weakness in mind, and to get me ready for the infamous “Boston Hills”, Wayne chose training runs for me that included as many mountains as possible.   Even our repeat workouts have been done on the road instead of on the track so we could practice running up-tempo on hills.  During 14 weeks of running lots and lots of hills, there were times that I wished we were training for Amsterdam, Kansas or some other flat marathon instead.  There were even times that I was cursing (not out loud) the seemingly never ending mountains.   I take it ALL back.  What a huge difference the “mountain training regime” has made.  I am able to run the up hills so much stronger than ever before.   In fact, my overall pace for the 7+ Miles on this very hilly and challenging Briggs course was very near the pace of my 2 Mile Threshold Intervals, with what seemed no more effort than those workouts. 


Monday’s easy run (the day after Briggs) went quite nicely.  I did have slight stiffness in the knee but it was much less than what I was expecting after the test I had put it through by running the race the previous day.  By Monday afternoon I started to feel sick again.  It probably was a relapse of what I had experienced Saturday morning.  When I got home from work and it was time for the second run of the day, I decided to take a nap instead.  I was not concerned about missing this run.  With two weeks left before the Boston Marathon it is more important to recover and recharge.  Wayne’s favorite saying is:  “During the taper phase, it’s much easier do too much, than too little”.

Wednesday is the very last “key” workout:  15 miles with 8-10 miles at goal marathon pace.  If there is the slightest sign of fatigue, this run will get modified and made easier.

The last key workout……. I can’t believe that we are almost at the end of this 16 week journey.  There were so many times when it seemed near impossible to continue on.  The largest challenge with the high mileage training has been getting enough sleep.  During the early phase of training there were several times that I would come home from work, run the second run of the day, take a nap, eat dinner and take a nap until it was time for bed.  In an email to Steve Spence, I complained about needing so much sleep.  He replied:  “having trouble getting enough sleep and don’t seem to be able to get enough to eat?  Sounds like you are in marathon training!"    Once again my “coach” was there providing all the support and assistance that I needed.  On the nights when he would find me sound asleep on the couch, he would make sure that he woke me up in time for me to brush my teeth and go to bed!!