Illnesses Linked to Industrial Foods, Part III (Discussion & Resources)

This is Part III, the final part, of my report on the link between chronic illnesses and industrial foods consumption that I researched for a graduate-level class on social evolution taught by an archeologist. My goal was to discover and describe the markers (or in non-archeological terms "physical evidence") that are found in the human body that indicate habitual industrial food consumption. In populations that consume mostly industrial foods, the markers are mostly chronic diseases, dental deformities and some contaminated food borne infections.

Discussion

Today’s global market and industrial economy drives the demand for cheap, calorie-rich but nutrient-poor processed foods. This is not just in the United States. Industrialization has transformed commodity grains such as corn, wheat and rice into “inputs” to create profitable “outputs” through industrial production and globalized commerce all over the world. In the United States, the government promotes the industrial food system with government subsidies, which in turn fosters more surplus grain production and consumption. The unintended consequences of the industrial food system are scary:

1. Industrial foods have taken over most American’s diet and are making people sick

2. The centralized industrial food system is based on an unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels and non-reproducing genetically modified plant species that require annual seed purchases, fertilizers, herbicides and irrigation water to ensure productivity and distribution

3. The industrial food system is resistant to change as it is integrated with the American industrial economy, cultural identity and political structure.

4. The industrial food system does provide enough food for the current U.S. population with 14.6% of American households “food-insecure” in 2008 (USDA 2009).

The industrial food system is integrated in our industrial culture and economy. Mainstream consumers “show little interest in a new food economy that might require them to pay substantially more for food (to cover it’s external costs) or to eat substantially less of something they enjoy (such as meat) (Roberts 2008:272).” The current rise in health care costs due to the epidemics of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease demonstrate this. The structural barriers of the working and middle class “time famine” and lack of access to affordable nutritious foods are other roadblocks to shifting to a sustainable and nutritious food production system (Pollan 2009a).

However, with cultural change and political will, a new food system that is safer and healthier is possible. As the demand for non-industrial foods increase, their availability at affordable prices increase. You can help change the food system by voting with your dollar. If you can't grow or prepare your own foods (most people can't) then support local organic farmers, heritage or non-GMO (non-genetically modified) varieties of plant and animal foods, and humane non-industrial animal husbandry food products. It is up to you. It is only your health...

References

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2005 The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. Chicago: Aldine, retrieved on October 30, 2009, from: http://www2.truman.edu/~rgraber/cultev/agint.html

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1975 “Three Han Dynasty Tombs at Ma-Wang-Tui,” World Archeology, Vol. 7, No.1, Burial, June 1975, Pp. 30-45.

Bunker, Katie

2009 “ On the Menu: Nutrition Facts May Be coming Soon to A Restaurant Near You,” Diabetes Forecast, Pp. 72-75.

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2009a “Chronic Disease Prevention and Promotion,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site,retrieved on November 24, 2009, from: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2009b “Obesity: Halting the Epidemic by Making Health Easier,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site, retrieved on November 24, 2009, from: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/AAG/obesity.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2009c “Cancer: Halting the Cancer Burden,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site, retrieved on November 24, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/aag/dcpc.htm

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2005 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, New York, NY: Penguin Group, Pp. 575.

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2009 “”A Hill of Beans,” The Economist Magazine, November 28, 2009, P. 94.

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2005 “Economic Cost of Illness Due to Escherichia coli 0157 Infections in the United States,” Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 68, No. 12, Pp. 2623-2630.

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Johnson, Allen W. and Timothy Earle

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1981 “Skeletal and Dental Adaptations to the Shift to Agriculture on the Georgia Coast,” Current Anthropology, Vol. 22, No. 4 (August ), Pp. 422-423.

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2008 The Jungle Effect: The Healthiest Diets from Around the World, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishing, Pp. 370.

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2006 The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, New York, NY: Penguin Group, Inc., Pp. 450.

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Pollan, Michael

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Salatin, Joel

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Schlosser, Eric

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Wroth, Carmel

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Illnesses Linked to Industrial Foods, Part II ( and health linked to non-industrial foods)

This is Part II of my report on the link between chronic illnesses and industrial foods consumption that I researched for a graduate-level class on social evolution taught by an archeologist. My goal was to discover and describe the markers (or in non-archeological terms "physical evidence") that are found in the human body that indicate habitual industrial food consumption. What I found out was that in populations that consume mostly industrial foods, the markers are mostly chronic diseases, dental deformities and a few other pathalogies.

Research Results

“The way we eat has changed more in the last fifty years than in the previous ten thousand,” according to industrialized agriculture expert Eric Schlosser in the documentary Food, Inc. (Kenner 2009). Up until the past 200 years or so, most people lived relatively strenuous lives and subsisted on whole foods they foraged or produced themselves. When there was inadequate food, birth and survival rates either decreased to keep a population in equilibrium with the local ecology’s carrying capacity or there was societal collapse. Nowadays, the United States, the “leading industrial power in the world,” has longer life expectancies, longer daily work hours requiring little physical exertion and more affordable and abundant unhealthy convenience foods. This is resulting in both less access to nutritious foods and healthful physical activity and greater access to calories and unhealthful chemicals and food borne pathogens. Together these factors are making more and more Americans sick.

The United States relies on a fossil fuels-based and centralized food system that is highly resistant to change. Less than 0.6 percent of Americans are involved in producing their own food by farming, forestry/hunting or fishing (CIA Factbook 2009). In the United States where 60 percent of the adult population works in non-physically demanding service jobs, “restaurant bills account for 48 percent of spending on food” in 2008 according to National Restaurant Association (Bunker 2009; CIA Factbook 2009). The industrial diet most Americans eat is characterized by refined flours and food processed for increased profitability, shelf life and convenience instead of nutrition. Much of the industrial diet is “nutritionally worthless” (Pollan 2008:108). These foods often contain high proportions of simple carbohydrates and fat that are “energy rich and nutrient poor” according to Bruce Ames, a nutrition researcher at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California (Wroth 2009).

Self-contained societies devoid of chronic diseases

Self-contained societies that consume solely whole foods that they produce themselves seem to be devoid of chronic diseases, dental crowding and feedlot produced food borne pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7. Epidemiologists call these communities “cold spots” for these illnesses of their rarity (Miller 2008:17). Medical doctor and nutrition researcher Daphne Miller traveled and documented the cuisines of “cold spots” for chronic diseases and published them in a nutrition self-help book titled The Jungle Effect (Miller 2008). She documented the correlation between diet and health in self-contained societies where chronic diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and breast and colon cancer are rare to non-existent (Miller 2008). Dentist and medical researcher Weston Price found many traditional self-contained societies in the 1920s and 30s, some of them are located in isolated European communities in Switzerland and the Outer Hebrides Islands, that didn’t suffer from chronic diseases and dental problems that were currently endemic in the United States and industrialized Europe (Price 2008). Both researchers documented a link to the diets and these illnesses (as opposed to inherited genetic traits or socioeconomic factors) by tracking the onset of these chronic diseases in genetically and economically identical populations of decedents or relatives who became sicker and exhibited dental problems once acculturated to industrial foods (Miller 2008; Price 2008).

The diets of hunters and gatherers and early agriculturalists reveal dietary markers in the human skeleton and dentition. A Paleoepidemiological study of genetically continuous human remains of Native Americans in Georgia for about 3,500 years (2200 B.C. – A.D. 1150) by Clark Spencer Larsen, of the Southeastern Massachusetts University, shows a decrease in maxillary bone growth and an increase in nutritional stress, infectious diseases and dental caries with the shift from hunting and gathering to corn agriculture (Larsen 1981). Studies of other pre-European contact dentition remains of Native Americans show an increase in the frequency of dental caries with the consumption of “highly-processed stone ground” flour derived from maize (corn) or gathered acorns (Schollmeyer 2004). The presence of dental caries in the teeth of acorn gathering hunters and gathers in California and mandible and dentition bone growth decreases in agriculturalists (that were once hunters and gathers) in Georgia show that dental pathologies stem more from diet than anything else (Larsen 1981; Schollmeyer 2004).

To be continued...

I will post the conclusion of my report at MultisportMama.com in a few days with the cited references. Thank you and I wish you good health.

Illnesses Linked to Industrial Foods, Part I

Why is it that chronic deseases such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers, dental crowding, and E. coli 0157:H7 infections have been increasing in industrialized countries (Dowdle 2009; Pollan 2008; Schlosser 2001; Wroth 2009)? Have technological advances in medicine and public health resulted in longer life expectancies and more age-related illnesses? Or, are these illnesses somehow linked with the industrialization of societies and industrial food production? Are these chronic illnesses correlated with an increasingly globalized food market that delivers exotic and out of season foods to ethnic groups that have not physiologically adapted to them? Or are these chronic diseases a product of over-population and insufficient food that is nutritious? Are the ever-more densely populated and urbanized industrial societies exceeding their carrying capacities for providing affordable and nutrient rich foods?

This report is from a research project I did in 2009 for a graduate level class called Social Evolution taught by an archaeologist. My goal was to discover and describe the markers (or in non-archeological terms "physical evidence") in the human body that indicate habitual industrial food consumption in populations. What I found out was that in populations that consume mostly industrial foods, the markers were mostly bad.

Chronic diseases, formerly known as “Western diseases” or “modern diseases,” are common industrialized countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan and countries in Western Europe. They are common in all populations acculturated to industrialized foods (CDC 2009; Kenner 2009; Pollan 2008; Price 2008; Roberts 2009; Schlosser 2001). In the United States where industrial food production and consumption predominate, chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability. They account for 7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year according to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC 2009). Chronic diseases such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers are believed to be diet-related diseases by medical researchers (CDC 2009). Interestingly, chronic diseases are non-existent to extremely rare in non-industrialized and pre-agricultural societies (Miller 2008; Price 2008). Fossil remains from the Cro-Magnun period “show none of the diet-related chronic diseases that plague us today,” according to Neil Mann, an expert of paleonutrition at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia (Roberts 2008:8). The only evidence of earlier peoples suffering from obesity and heart disease are the upper-class elites in early civilizations such as Ancient Egypt and Han China (Buck 1975; Rose 2009; Winslow 2009).

Human populations all over the world have physiologically adapted to a diversity of diets based on locally available foods and environments. There is no single ancestral diet that is optimal for everyone (Naban 2004:55). Some diets are entirely vegetarian and adapted to local wild and domesticated plants. Other diets are entirely carnivorous and adapted to local sources of animal protein prepared in a traditional manner. Most diets are a combination of both. But what humans have not adapted to, it appears, is the industrial food diet. The industrial diet features a high proportion of calories produced from grains. Grains are commodity foods that are easily produced, traded and stored with commercial profitability as the goal rather than nutritional value (Pollen 2008:10). “Grain is the closest thing in nature to an industrial commodity: storable, portable, fungible, ever the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow,” says journalist and food activist Michael Pollen. He adds that, “Since it can be accumulated and traded, grain is a form of wealth…throughout history governments have encouraged their farmers to grow more than enough grain… (Pollen 2007:201).” In response to food surpluses, changes in diet were induced politically by elites to encourage further consumption of wealth-building commodity foods such as sugar and tea in Victorian England (Mintz 1985), corn derivatives such as high fructose corn syrup in modern day America and the consumption of maize in Inka empire (Hastorf 1990).

In fact, the key correlate between the development of early civilizations and the concentration of political power in the hands of a few was their ability to produce, store and control commodity food surpluses. According to anthropologist Bruce Trigger, it was “the upper classes’ ability to ensure that farmers produced substantial agricultural surpluses and that most of these surpluses be at the disposal of a small ruling group” that helped early civilizations develop, and, eventually, what that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution (Trigger 2003: 395).

This report is a review of illnesses linked to the consumption of industrial foods by looking at their prevalence in the populations that consume them. Or, in other words, looking that the dietary markers in populations that consume industrial foods.

The sources of data in this paper include ethnographic research of the diets of both industrial and non-industrial or self-contained societies, where access to industrial foods is limited, and medical and dental studies. Material evidence of food production and dietary markers are from ethnographic and archeological research.

Definition of Terms

Researchers and journalists have used many different terms to categorize processed foods commonly eaten in the United States and chronic non-infectious diseases. To make my explanations more clear about the correlation between chronic illnesses and food produced by the industrial food system I will define my terms.

Industrial foods

Instead of referring to refined and processed foods made from access to cheap commodity grains such as corn, wheat or soy as “fast food,” “modern” foods or “Western” foods as some researchers do, I use a generalized term “industrial foods” because it describes their key differentiating feature: their industrial method of production (Price 2008; Pollan 2008; Schlosser 2001; Weber 2009). Industrial food production is a mechanized system in which “inputs” of capital “in the form of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machines, fuels, and research” are expected to deliver a predictable income from “outputs” such as grain, meat or processed foods made from them (Roberts 2008:25). The main “hallmarks of the industrial food system,” according to Joel Salatin, a third-generation sustainable farmer in Virginia are these:

· Centralized food production and processing

· Mono-speciation (growing only one species on a piece of land)

· Genetically modified plant species that require artificial fertilizers and herbicides and can not adapt to fluctuations in the environment

· Confined animal feeding operations (also known as feedlots or CAFOs for “centralized agricultural feed operations;” These generate huge concentrations of animal waste and methane –a significant source of green-house gas emissions)

· Chemicals that end in “cide” (Latin for “death) such as herbicides and fungicides

· Ready-to-Eat packaged convenience foods

· Long-distance transportation based on fossil fuels

· Externalized costs that hurt the economy, society, ecology and human health (Salatin 2009:189).

Most of the food consumed in the United States is produced by the industrial food system. “For all intents and purposes, the traditional farm has vanished,” according to journalist and industrial food system expert Paul Roberts in his book The End of Food (Roberts 2008:23).

Self-contained society

A “self-contained society” in this paper means any society that is either not industrialized or is not involved with an industrialized economic system by purchasing or consuming manufactured commodity foods. I use the term “self-contained society” instead of referring to self-contained population that produces it’s own food as a “non-Western” or ”pre-industrial” society as do some researchers (Mintz 1985; Trigger 2003). Self-contained societies are societies that produce their own nutritious food in adequate quantities and in environmentally sustainable ways.

Chronic Diseases

Chronic Illnesses are obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer (CDC 2009a). These are also known as “Western diseases” due to their early prevalence in Western Europe and rarity in non-European or Euro-American societies until the last hundred years (Pollan 2008). It was once believed that only Westerners suffered from chronic diseases until British doctor Denis Burkitt and other Western researchers in the early 20th Century observed that non-Westerners were also suffering from these diseases once they adopted a diet of refined and processed foods (Pollan 2008:91). The diseases seemed to occur with the introduction of sugar, refined flour, and processed “store foods” that contained high concentrations of fat or sodium (Pollan 2008:91). Chronic diseases are also known as “modern diseases” due to their significant increases world wide in the past 50 years (Miller 2008:15).

Illnesses traced to industrial foods

The industrial food system’s over-abundance and centralized production have some unintended consequences. Chronic diseases, food borne illnesses and dental crowding have been linked to the consumption of industrial foods. All three of these have increased significantly in industrial societies where people are acculturated to industrial foods.

Chronic diseases

“Chronic diseases—such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes—are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. Chronic diseases account for 7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC 2009a). Today, heart disease is leading killer worldwide (Winslow 2009:A5). As the most lethal chronic disease some believe it is an unavoidable consequence of modern times. However, the upper classes in early civilizations such as Ancient Egypt suffered from heart disease, too. A team of archeologists and medical imaging specialists has recently found out that seven of the eight mummies, determined to be older than 45, they examined from the National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, had obvious symptoms of heart disease. The “artherosclerosis looks just like it does in our modern-day patients,” cardiologist Randall Thompson said (Winslow 2009:A5). Today, due to industrial food production, high-calorie and high-sodium diets combined with a sedentary lifestyle, are now the provenance of commoners (Pollen 2008).

“Every year, cancer claims the lives of more than half a million Americans. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (Centers for Disease Control 2009c).

“The United States has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation in the world,” according to food activist Eric Schlosser (Schlosser 2001).” Obesity is a growing problem in the United States. “More than one third of U.S. adults—more than 72 million people—and 16% of U.S. children are obese. Since 1980, obesity rates for adults have doubled and rates for children have tripled according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009b).”

At least “23.6 million people in the United States (7.8% of the total population) have diabetes. Of these, 5.7 million are undiagnosed,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009d). “If current trends continue, 1 in 3 Americans will develop diabetes sometime in their lifetime, and those with diabetes will lose, on average, 10–15 years of life,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,”(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2009d).

Food borne illnesses

“Some 5,000 Americans die and 325,000 are hospitalized annually as a result of food contamination.” according to a 2009 news brief about food safety in Time Magazine (Time 2009:57).” Food borne illnesses traced to large-scale factory farms and CAFOs has increased significantly “with some of the biggest recalls in U.S. history occurring in the last few years (Schlosser 2009: 14). E. coli 0157:H7 is a particularly lethal strain of bacteria produced in the gut of a corn fed feedlot cow didn’t exist until 1980 and by 2005, 15 years later, was responsible for 73,000 illnesses and 2,000 hospitalizations (Frenzen 2005; Pollan 2006:82). Centralized meat production has brought new epidemics into the food system from pathogens that didn’t exist before the industrial food system: camphylobacter, lysteria, E. coli, salmonella, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, avian influenza or bird flu (Salatin 2009:188).

Dental crowding

Nearly two-thirds of Americans suffer from some degree of dental crowding or malocclusion caused by insufficient alveolar (tooth arch) bone growth that is related their diet diet (Rose 2009). “In contrast, most of modern society’s ancestors naturally had ideal alignment without malocclusion and their third molars were fully erupted and functioning (Rose 2009).” Recent research on relatives who consume industrial foods and those show don’t indicate that refined foods cause these pathologies and not inherited traits (Rose 2009). Dental researcher Weston Price believed that the increasing incidence of dental crowding and tooth decay that he saw in the 1920s was due to “poor health” caused by the consumption of nutritionally inferior produce grown with artificial fertilizers, factory farmed meat and processed foods made of refined grains and preserved foods (Price 2008:xxiv).

Next week, in Part II of Illnesses Linked to Industrial Foods, I will post several explanations for the increase of chronic disease, dental crowding and E. coli infections in the United States and other industrialized countries. In Part III next week I will post my research results and my references.

Stop running (or not) & lose weight by changing your diet

I believe that our bodies are adapted to mobility (such as walking or running) and surviving periods of food scarcity. Faced with running each day (or nearly each day), our body's metabolism adapts and slows down becoming more efficient with it's caloric fuel. I have a friend who complained to me that she runs hilly trails every day and she feels chubby. I've experienced the same thing, when training for a marathon, after awhile my weight plateaus and I will actually gain weight if I eat too many junk food carbs.

Science research (and personal experience!) supports that we crave ingredients that are rare in nature: sugar, fat, salt.So after a period of time, running every day and eating carbs with higher-than-found-in-nature levels of sugar, fat and salt may often result in weight gain or at least, no weight loss.

If you cut your carbs from refined grain sources and add weight training to increase your muscle mass you can increase your metabolism and burn through those excess calories. Follow that up with a decrease in your sugar, fat and salt consumption and I think most people will see the results with a more muscular and lean physique in about a month. This is because they are approaching weight loss on two fronts: increased calorie absorption through increased muscle mass-induced metabolism gains and reduced calorie intake from less nutritionally "empty" calories. Basically they are making their bodies less efficient in fuel consumption--like a big engine SUV. Increasing muscle mass is like increasing the size of one's engine. I tried this strategy and it worked better than I had expected. I even stopped running due a running injury (plantar fasciitis and hip bursitis) so I was working out less--just weight training for three months-- and I still lost weight.

On September 28, the day after I did the Sprint of the Carpinteria Triathlon, I got a cast on my foot. My plantar fasciitis, in spite of not running and daily stretching, arch supports, night splints, ice, tennis balls and other arcane treatments, was getting worse, not better. For the month of October I could not run, bike or swim--nothing but weight train. I was feeling chubby, and pretty bummed about my situation until I applied my nutrition research on myself.

Being my own test subject I radically changed my diet to exclude processed foods and industrially produced foods. By "industrial foods" I mean non-organic produce, genetically modified produce and animal products, animal products produced from CAFOs (Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operations) and anything already prepared. I've been eating solely organic, mostly locally produced produce from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. "CSA Program" is fancy name for a basket of fresh produce that I pick up each week at a local farm). For protein I get lot's of nuts, beans, organic dairy products and free-range poultry products. I haven't baked my own bread yet but I am making my own corn tortillas from scratch to avoid preservatives. By eating these foods I am getting nutrition-dense food and avoiding the big three industrial food additives that are bad for my health in excess: sugar, salt and fat. The organic foods are more costly, but not eating out anymore and not buying energy bars or other processed foods is really saving me money. The cost to our family food budget of the non-industrial diet is significantly less than with our usual diet.

I've been researching various diets and native foodways and sports nutrition for a while as an anthropology graduate student (see my foodways research on triathletes and marathon runners in an earlier posting here). I noticed that native populations that consumed their traditional foods did not suffer from chronic diseases that are the number one killers in the United States: heart disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Yet, healthy and physically fit triathletes and marathon runners still seem to suffer from heart disease and some cancers. After a bit more anthropological research I've found that it's not genetics, it's the industrial diet that is the root cause of these chronic diseases. I've come to the conclusion that if you avoid processed foods and don't eat anything made of refined grains (no store bought bread, no pizza, no pastries, muffins, burger buns, flour tortillas, white rice, corn chips, crackers, pasta,etc.), you will be healthier and feel better. In addition to the refined grain foods I have been avoiding processed packaged foods such as frozen foods, canned foods, nutrition bars, or any beverage made with corn syrup such as Gatoraid and sodas. Following my "non-industrial diet" in just one month caused a weight loss of about 3-4 pounds. The refined grains have nearly no nutrition (so you're just adding fat calories) so why do we continue to eat them? It's culture and tradition. Pre-race meals of pasta dinners, nutrition bars and food supplements during racing and a group Saturday morning runs followed by coffee and muffins. I think the traditions of consuming industrial foods is killing us.

For three months (October thru December) I weight trained three times a week and stuck to my whole foods/no refined grains non-industrial diet and lost 5 pounds since September. I'm 5 foot 9 inches and I began at 139 lbs and now weigh consistently at 134 lbs. This is with no cardio workouts. Crazy, huh?

I'm easing back into running again, with short runs of 30 minutes a week focusing on my gait and stretching a lot before and after. The heel pain from my plantar fasciitis is officially gone. (Woohoo!) I'm going to try to stick to my non-industrial diet and see if I can sustain it with increased running mileage and the need for more carbohydrate energy. If the Kenyans and the Tarahumara can run fast for hours on a traditional non-industrial diet, why can't I?

I should start a diet plan...

A Year of plantar fasciitis: 12 months of pain and recovery

I've had plantar fasciitis for about a year now. If you have plantar fasciitis and this is your first time, just know this: this running injury can take a very long time to heal. It can take "10 months" (as my orthopedic surgeon foot specialist told me) to two years to heal. Below is a review of the past year of my plantar fasciits pain and my slow road to recovery. I'm not back running yet, but at least the pain is gone--most days anyway.

December 2008:
I first got that nagging heel pain in my left foot just before Christmas last year but being me, ignored it and kept on running. Each day the pain in my heel was more acute when I stepped out of bed. Gradually, through the weeks, it did not disappear after my foot muscles loosened up after a morning run. The pain continued after Christmas during our annual "week in the snow" in Mt. Shasta. My beloved mountains runs combined the physical exultation of striving up hills in the thin cold mountain air with the gorgeous visual of mountain roads blanked in white snow lined by contrastingly dark trunks and snow covered bows of evergreens. the sky varied from gray clouds with misty white snow fall and fog to blindingly bright blue skies and fresh snow glistening in the sunlight. So ignoring the heel pain, I savored the mountain scenery and kept running.

January 2009:
The heel pain was joined by a partner in January from me favoring my "good" right foot: hip bursitis in January. I self-diagnosed the searing to aching pain on the top of my right hip bone. It made sense to me since I knew I was favoring my right side to keep pressure off my left foot with plantar fascia pain. Being stubborn I kept on running because (1) if I didn't get a good run in every day I got cranky and (2) See number one.

April 2009:
The pain got worse each week of running that by April I was limping and down to running only two to three times a week with a long run on Saturday's with a fun local running club. I resisted getting off my feet because I would miss my morning chats with fellow runners at the Inside Track Running Club. Running was more than just a work out for me--it was also the only way I could spend time with my busy running friends. To lesson the tenderness I was applying ice to the painful foot and hip and taking lot's of ibuprofen.

May 2009:
I started buying stuff to lesson the pain. I got over-the-counter arch supports, a heel sock that kept my foot in a dorsoflexed (toes pulled towards the knee) position while I slept at night and bought a great book on Amazon.com Injury Afoot: 30 things You Can Do to Relieve Heel Pain and Speed Healing of Plantar Faciitis by Patrick Hafner. I did every exercise in the book and found it helpful. However, I think my injury was too far gone. Also, I kept walking barefoot on the beach each week when I did my open water swims with my new swimming friends. The "ice pick in the heel" pain of the plantar fasciitis in my left foot persisted.

June 2009:
Finally, after six months of increasing heel and hip pain joined with lower back pain (!), I stopped running. I replaced my 4-6 day a week running habit with road cycling and doing more open water swims. I started seeing a Rolfer once a month who came highly recommended. The Rolfer helped me walk normally. I was pain free after each session which was great. But the plantar fasciits and hip pain returned a day or two after each session. By this time I was wearing a night splint (which keeps my arch stretched while sleeping) every night.

August 2009:
I bought arch supports such as SuperFeet and wore them all the time. I got a special bicycle shoe version for my road cleats. My workouts consisted of road biking 2-3 times a week and swimming 2-3 times a week. No running or long walks. I saw a doctor for the first time in August and my x-ray showed that at least my foot bones were normal. I stopped running totally per the doc's advice and stretched my calf muscles every day, several times a day. According the doctor, I had to loosen up my tight calves as they were pulling on my foot tendons and exacerbating my symptoms.

September 2009:
I didn't run at all this month until a test jog a few days before the Carpinteria Triathlon. This month I just swam and road biked. I did the Carpinteria Triathlon and think I did my fastest swim and bike ever. I ran the 5K run portion slowly in the triathlon and had a realy fun race and saw lot's of old tri-geek friends. Was it worth it? I don't know now. I think that 5K really messed up my plantar fascia. I got a cast put on my throbbing left foot the day after the triathlon.

October 2009:
The day after the Carpinteria Triathlon I got a cast put on my foot. I wore the cast for four weeks. The week before the cast was to be removed, I had no heel or hip bursitis pain at all. Then I did a fast hike, hop and jog up Romero Canyon with some ultra runner friends. I think I re-injured my left foot then. The next day my left heel was painful to the touch again when I got the cast removed. I got a prescription for physical therapy (PT). The cast did cure that nagging right hip pain from hip bursitis, though.

November 2009:
After I got the cast off my left foot it was still sore. The doctor gave me felt heel lifts for my shoes but my heel was too sore to use them. My left ankle and foot felt very weak and fragile after being in a cast for four weeks so the physical therapists started me with some gentile strength and stability exercises that still challenged me at the time. On my first PT session I was pessimistic about the treatment and not in a good mood with my left heal throbbing in pain. It felt about the same that it did a month earlier after the triathlon and before the cast. The heel pain on the diagnostic pain scale was about a 5 or 6. It just ached the first two weeks. I did two PT sessions each week through the month of November. Each 1 1/2 hour session went something like this (from my PT notes from the November 10th):

• Stretch calves (2x 30 seconds each side)
• Stretch hamstrings (2x 30 seconds each side)
• BAPS aka the "Biomechanical Ankle Platform System" (this is an egg-shaped disk about the size of a large pizza with a screw-in half plastic sphere under it so I can rotate my foot 360 degrees)
• Straight leg extensions, four directions by pulling surgical tubing (2x 30times each direction, each foot)
• Foot/ankle stretches with a TheraBand #3
• "Monster walk" (walk about 20 feet with a giant rubber band around my ankles and legs shoulder width a part: forwards, backwards, left and right-2x)
• Ultrasound
• Deep tissue massage
• ice (1o minutes)

After a week the PT's added these exercises:

• Stand on one foot on the squishy top of Bosa ball and try not to fall off (30 seconds, 2x)
• Step up on top of a Bosa ball: forward and back, then side-to-side (2x)
• "Horses Head" (stand on one foot and at the same time pull on the light green stretchy surgical tubing with my opposite side hand towards my hip while lifting my right knee to a 90 degree position; then bend forward, letting foot down and straightening arm so the surgical tubing slakens; Repeat 15 times, each leg 2x)
• Stand on the flat bottom of a Bosa ball that is flipped upside down & do knee bends without falling off (about 30 seconds)

December 2009:
By December my heel hurt at about a 2 on the pain scale. This month, now that I'm officially "high functioning" according the PT staff they have me doing more strength and plyometric exercises in addition to the stability and core work. After each PT session I was sweating and my legs felt fatigued and shaky-- like Jell-O. Here is a typical routine of PT exercises after 6 weeks of treatment (from my PT notes from December 15 & 17):

• Treadmill walk (10 minutes, 2.0 incline, 4 mph)
• Stretch calves (2x 30 seconds each side)
• Stretch hamstrings (2x 30 seconds each side)
• Foot/ankle stretches with a TheraBand #3 (2x dorsal, medial, lateral for each foot)
• "Horses Head" (stand on my left foot on a trampoline and at the same time pull on the stiff dark gray surgical tubing with my right hand towards my right hip while lifting my right knee to a 90 degree position; then bend forward, letting foot down and straightening arm so the surgical tubing slakens; Repeat 15 times, each leg 2x)
  
• "Monster walk" (walk about 20 feet with a stiffer rubber band around my ankles and legs shoulder width a part: forwards, backwards, left and right-2x)
• "False Starts" get into a track starting position with each foot on a furniture slider (flat thing with a slick plastic bottom that slides on the carpet and sticky rubber top surface where you put your foot) and go back and forth until "fatigue"--for me that's 50x--each side, 2x)
• "Triple Threat" ( This is tough for me & I just look ridiculous so I try to get out of doing this exercise each session). Here is how it goes: lay flat on the ground with a giant beach ball (aka "balance ball") under your legs and lift up your pelvis so your legs are straight like a board. (That #1 of the "Triple Threat.") Bring the beach ball close to your butt by bending your knees and keeping your pelvis up (That is #2). With ball at your butt, lift your pelvis higher (That is #3). If I can get through 5 repetitions of these without shooting the ball across the room and hitting the ground with a thunk, it's been a good session for me. (2x5 repetitions)
• "Wooden Steps" First I step forwards one leg at a time on the step like I'm doing some sort of traditional hat dance, Then I side-step up on the step and down the other side, both feet on top and on the floor for "two-beat" version, then I step side-to-side up and over the thing with only one foot on the step and the floor at a time for the "one-beat" version.
• "The Matrix" This exercise is sick: As fast as you can do (1) 30 squats (butt out so as to not overload the knees); (2) 30 lunges (knee almost touching the ground); (3) 30 squat-jumps; (4) 30 lunge-jumps switching feet mid-air. Twice.
• Leg press (30x 80 lbs--but now I do 2x 100 lbs, twice)
• ice (1o minutes)

I have have been generally pain free from my left foot plantar fasciitis for two weeks now. I had a relapse earlier this week for two days after I had the amnesiatic and stupid idea to stroll around barefoot in the sunshine for about an hour on Saturday on a friend's deck-- but other than that, I'm recovering from this affliction. I still can't run. I can't walk barefoot. But, at least (for today anyway) my plantar fasciitis pain is gone.

My plan for January is to start running again. Slow-ly.

Triathlon Training Tips for First Time Triathletes

Now that we are entering the triathlon racing off-season, it's a great time for people considering on doing their first triathlon to start building a fitness base and getting familiar with their new sport. This posting is an abbreviated version of one I posted last summer and it's better suited to winter and spring off season training here in Southern California.

My personal philosophy for triathlon success is less "purchase" and more "practice". It's based on a daily practice of training one's body within the rhythms of one's daily life that includes work and family. During the late spring and summer racing season I call this the "Daily Practice of Triathlon Training". By "daily" I mean that each day during the racing season has a fitness purpose. It is either a training day (making me stronger/faster) for a particular sport or a recovery (non-training) day (making me stronger/faster by letting my body re-build). During the Spring and Summer I train in one of the three sports six days a week. The seventh day is a recovery day for all three of the triathlon sports.

These tips are geared towards those who live in Ojai and Ventura, California but if you replace the triathlon store name and local triathlon club or running club name with one in your town, I think this list can be helpful for most people. Also, there are many excellent online resources for information and athletic inspiration for beginners, too.

If you are interested in more details on training and sports nutrition, please checkout RunnersWorld.com or Active.com/triathlon. Both of those sites have links to training schedules and performance tips for running road or trail races and racing triathlons.

Here is my advice for training for one's first triathlon in 2010:

1. Research the sport.

• Talk to Triathletes The best information I ever got about doing triathlons was from people I met while training, buying gear and racing. You generally get un-biased information when speaking with people who don't have anything to gain by you purchasing something.
  
  
• Go online
  
  Social Media Sites Twitter.com and search "#triathletes" is a good way to find triathlon information from triathletes. Most are regular people just like you, online. It's neat to pose a question (in 140 characters or less) on Twitter and have triathletes from all over reply back with a tip. I found online training schedules on these training social media web sites: dailymile.com, endurancejunkies.com , and buckeyeoutdoors.com (you can embed your training schedule in your blog--I haven't tried this yet) and MapMyRun.com. I use dailymile.com.
  
  Websites Websites such as Active.com/triathlon and Multisports.com feature free tips and triathlon training schedules (some must be purchased).
  
  
• Books Get a good triathlon training book to get an overview of the basics the sport and time managing the multi-sport workouts. Here's a good one that a friend found for me at a garage sale: Triathlete's Training Bible. but, I'm sure there are others, too.
  
  
• Magazines Checkout Triathlete Magazine. There’s great training and nutrition articles and the race and athlete profiles inspire. Be aware that this magazine is product advertising-supported.
  
  
• Learn by doing. Now is the time to experiment with new shoes, try a friends bicycle and to have fun with triathlon training. During the off-season your goal is to buildup your base and find out what gear works best for you.
  
  Training for a triathlon is a daily practice and you will learn how to do it best by trial and error. There are core principals about physiology and nutrition but every body is unique. What works for the Dude at the Triathlon Shop Who Has Done Ironman 18 times ;) may not work for you. It’s necessary to get to know what YOUR body needs and how it performs by doing it and listening to it. Do your first Brick Workout (bike ride followed immediately by a short run) and find out what you can ingest to keep your energy consistent that doesn't make you feel sick. Go for a bike ride on borrowed bike to test it out. Do a mini-triathlon on your own from your local pool. Just do it. The cool thing with triathlon training is that it is cross-training so as your individual running or swimming mileage may be less, you will have the additional benefit of training and getting stronger from the other two sports.
  

3. Daily Practice of Triathlon Training.

• Consistency is key. The off season is a good time to get used to training once a day, six days a week. Now is a good time to experiment with new gear. It's also the time to build up one's endurance base. Triathlon training is a Daily Practice that will take some getting used to.
  
  
• During the spring and summer each day will be a workout day. By Spring you should be used to training six days a week and fitting it into your work, school or family schedules if you can. The Daily Practice includes: your daily work out, your pre-workout food/beverage that is mostly carbs and easy to digest, your post-workout recovery food/beverage and sleeping more.
  

4. Become a member of a local triathlon, running or athletic club.

• This is a good and socially fun way find out about local road rides/open water swims and have better access to find other tri newbies. Plus, according to scientific research, you will get faster and stronger training with others than if training alone.* Being a member of a training club may translate into other benefits such as club discounts on gear and race entries. Some of the more experienced or long distance triathlon club members may seem a little arrogant or hardcore to a beginner. Just don't take it personally. It takes a lot of mental and physical focus to be competitive in the Ironman triathlon distance these days and that can take a toll on one's social skills. The qualifying times Ironman and Nationals has gotten a lot tougher than when I started doing triathlons in the free-wheeling late Eighties. It seemed more fun in those days. Though training was just as tough (and in some ways more difficult without all the energy supplements they have these days) there were less people to race against and the triathlon community was smaller and friendlier to each other as crazy kindred spirits. We were considered nuts by non-triathletes in the early days of the sport.
  
  *See the article "Get Fitter with Friends”, The Economist Magazine, September 19, 2009, P. 92.

5. Swimming

• Swim Training If you are new-ish to swimming, try to get in the water (lap pool, lake or ocean) at least 2-3x/week (30 minutes each) to build up your form & confidence. Do intervals if you can when in the pool. (I have some beginner swim workouts you can do to break up the monotony, too] Check out Active.com and look up swim stroke technique web videos and tips there or on youtube.com. Sometimes having a few pointers & practicing some swim drills can really make a difference in swim efficiency.
• Swim Suit For women, the two-piece swim suites with the draw string bottoms are good and one-piece suites are fine, too but can get hot when your running.
• Swimming Wet Suit If you don't have a swim wetsuit, a surf wet suit can still work but won't have the range of motion in it's fit nor the sleeker less-resistant material for is best for swimming. Great quality swim suits are at Inside Track Multisports in Ventura and Hazard Cycle Sports in Santa Barbara for new ones. Inside Track Multisports and GoForItSports.com offer used wetsuit rentals for sale for a fraction of their new retail price if you are on a budget. I've heard that retailer Play It Again Sports in Ventura has had swimming wetsuits, too. Craig's List and Ebay have been used successfully by friends for getting good quality used wet suits and gear, also. Wetsuits are not cheap but a good one that fits can transform non-tropical open water swimming from cold misery to comfortable fun. Swim wetsuites add buoyancy and speed, too. That is always a plus for me. There are a lot of quality brands with slightly different fits for different body shapes such as 2xu, Blue Seventy, Quintana Roo and others. I wear a Woman's Blue Seventy. When I open water swim in the ocean during the winter with my Blue Seventy wetsuit and matching swim booties and neoprene cap I may look ridiculous, but I am never cold. If you are new to open water swimming or swimming with faster people, it's a good idea to invest in a pair of swim fins. I swim with TYR Crossblades in the ocean sometimes. One more point about swimming open water: wear a swim cap. Sports Chalet and several online retailers such as Goforitsports.com sell them.
  
  I recommend wearing a brightly colored swim cap when open water swimming for two reasons:

1. You will feel significantly warmer when swimming with a swim cap
   
2. You will have a better chance of being seen and not run over by boater or surfer when wearing a bright colored swim cap

6. Cycling

• Bike The bike, for non-road cyclists, can be tough hurdle for a beginner or cash-strapped first time triathlete. My best advice is to go to your local multisport or bike shop. A triathlon racing bike is not necessary to race in a triathlon. The tri-bike geometry has more severe angles for time trial efficiency on flat courses and with a proper fitting is slightly faster than a conventional road bike, but is not as comfortable to ride for long rides. A "traditional" road bike shop may not have the expertise in tri-bikes and their accessories. I ride 12-year old conventional road bike with "cross-country" geometry. To get faster, I train more. If you just need a bike, almost any bike that is safe to ride can help you achieve your goal of doing a short or Sprint triathlon this summer. You can even ride your mountain bike or a cross-bike. I don't recommend riding a single-speed cruiser bike, though as they weigh a ton and you may need hand-brakes on the handlebars to compete in a triathlon. As long as you bought your bicycle from a reputable source and it has been safety checked by an established bike dealer such as Inside Track Multisports, Avery's Open Air Bike Shop, or Trek Bicycles in Ventura or Hazard Cycle Shop in Santa Barbara, it should be fine. If you want to go fast on a bike, my best advise is to spend more time in the saddle, than buying expensive gear in a shop.
• Bike Helmet You need a certified-for-safety bicyle helmet or you can't participate in an organized triathlon race. Check out your local bike dealer or multisport shop for this. Your brain is the only one you got, so protect it with the best helmet you can afford. I've been in a bike crash before and my helmet (which hit the pavement--hard) probably saved my life.
• Bike accessories to carry your food & water, etc. If you buy a new road bike you will need two water bottle cages, a seat pack with spare tube, allen tool & patch kit, frame pump, clipless pedals and shoes. You can wait on the clipless pedals and shoes but they allow you to make a more efficient (e.g. faster/more power) pedal stroke when riding. You can buy water bottles or re-use Gatorade bottles or small water bottles in an earth-friendly fashion.

7. Running

• Races are "won" on the run Triathlons, at the elite level, are won and lost during the run. It’s during the last portion of the race, during the run, that the hours of daily training and preparation comes together. many triathlon pros believe that the last segment of the race, the run, is when real race begins. The cardiovascular conditioning benefits you get from running will transfer to swimming and cycling. However, your swimming and cycling muscular training won't transfer to running. If your training time is limited (whose isn't?), I recommend focusing on your running and swimming. You can’t "fake" either of these in a triathlon.
• Local Running Clubs: Inside Track Running Club has daily groups running workouts for all levels of runners in Ventura and Santa Barbara Athletic Club is resource for local workouts in Santa Barbara.
  

8. Training for your first Sprint Triathlon

• Plan ahead--at least six months before your first triathlon. Most Sprint distance triathlons also fill up so it's a good idea to register for a race you are interested in as soon as you can. I usually register about six months before race day for the short races. For of the more popular and longer races (such as the Wild Flower Triathlon) you may have to register up to a year before. I think the Carpinteria Triathlon Sprint Course filled up about two months before the race this year (I registered for the September 27th race the first week of July).
  
  
• If you are doing a Sprint Triathlon with a 5K run distance, I recommend going online to checkout a few 5K race training plans and modify them to your triathlon schedule. There’s a cardio-crossover benefit from cycling and swimming, so your running workouts should focus on building speed and endurance by doing intervals—but only after building up your base. Your “base” in reference to running, is how far you can run or jog comfortably for your longest run and run each week in total. Rule of thumb: do at least one speed or interval workout for running each week.

9. Weekly Triathlon Training Schedule for Sprint Triathlon

• You can train for a triathlon in as little as 1 to 1 1/2 hours per day. Just make each day’s workout a quality workout and abide by the periodization principal (hard days followed by easy days, hard weeks followed by easy weeks, etc.)
  
  
• Sample Training Week Here's a sample week from my own standard training schedule from when I was racing regularly BC (“Before Children”).

• Monday (Swim or Nothing--Recovery Day)
• Tuesday (Run & Bike)
• Wednesday (Swim)
• Thursday (Run & Bike)
• Friday (Swim or Run)
• Saturday (Swim & Long Bike)
• Sunday (Swim and Long Run, a triathlon or running race or Brick Workout (bike followed immediately after with a run, usually 10-24-mile bike/3-6-mile run)

• Do not do a tough workout of the same type of activity two days in a row. When racing, I take Mondays off if I raced or did a tough Brick on Sunday. If I raced Saturday, I planned for Sunday being a recovery day, etc.
  
  
• Brick Workout A Brick Workout (or just Brick for short) is when you combine a bike ride with a run afterwards in one long continuous work out with a few minute break just to change your shoes. Basically, you go for a bike ride, stop to change into your your running shoes (and drink water) and then start running down the road like you got rocks in your quadriceps. This sadistic workout prepares your body for race day both physically and mentally. It's a tough workout and I recommend doing a recovery day/rest day after you do a Brick Workout.

10. Train with others if you can

• It's safer and you will usually be able to get a better workout when you train with others. This is especially true when open water swimming, trail running or road riding. And, it makes the workout time go by more quickly. In my experience, triathletes are usually just busier people in general (many run their businesses, have families, etc.) and training is their way of socializing, too. I've learned more over the years about training and racing from other triathletes while chatting in between workouts, than I ever have from a book, video, or web site. Word of mouth is best. And, it's more fun, anyway.

11. Keep a Training Log or Schedule

• Keep a training log. It keeps you on track when training towards a goal and it also gives one a sense of achievement. Even if it’s just jotting down “Run, 3 miles, hilly” or "Tuesday: Run- 5 miles, hilly, felt tired." on your calendar, planner or Facebook profile or it’s worth the trouble. (You can also refer to your old training logs to track improvement progression or to help you remember how to train for a certain distance or weight loss or PR years later.) Good stuff.

12. Food & Beverages

• Nutrition & fluid/electrolyte replacement: Don't forget to drink enough water & always bring some source of carbohydrate for workouts longer than an hour (banana, bar, energy gel, cookies, orange, gummy bears, etc.). When it's hot, make sure you replace electrolytes lost during perspiration (banana, a few saltines, Gatorade, PowerFul, enduro caps, Hammer HEED, etc) during rides or runs over an hour, too.
• Sports nutrition is a practice: What and when you eat really does affect your training and can help or hinder your improvement. Triathlon is an endurance sport that requires a specific type of energy replenishment for your muscles while working out and for recovering from a workout. The most efficient form of energy for your body to process is carbohydrates. Triathletes, like runners, are known to eat lots of carbohydrate rich foods & food supplements that digest quickly: energy drinks, bagels, pasta, rice, energy gels, bananas, fig newtons, potatoes, etc. Monique Ryan and Liz Applegate are excellent sources of information of performance optimizing sports nutrition for endurance athletes. Check out Amazon.com for their books.
• Before training/racing: Try to eat a easily digestible source of carbohydrate, about 200 calories for most folks, about 1-2 hours before working out. Give yourself about 16 oz. of water with your food to aid hydration and digestion. For long slow workouts, I can eat a banana or PowerBar while I'm running or riding. However, some people can't eat when they run or bike. Trial and error is helpful here. Get to know what works for you.
• After training/racing: You will recover faster and feel better if you get eat or drink a source of carbohydrates 30-45" after a long (1 hour plus) workout or race. Just remember you have a 30"-45" window after a tough workout to replenish with carbohydrates. Research shows that long distance (over 1 1/2 hours) training should be followed by carbohydrates and some protein) Even a food as simple as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a great recovery food to have after a long bike ride or run or swim. Cold pizza is good, too. Especially on hot days when you need to replace electrolytes lost through perspiration.
• • Avoid drinking any alcoholic beverages right after you work out. Consuming alcoholic beverages after working out retards your body’s ability to rehydrate and recover from the workout. Replenish with water and nutritious foods first. Be kind to your body. It needs to recover from the stresses of training and racing with good stuff. Not beer.

13. Sleep more

• You will need more sleep if you train every day (six workout days + one recovery day). Your body will require more of sleep for new tissue growth to deal with the physical stresses of training and the mental stresses of managing workouts and racing. If you don't get enough sleep your immune system will weaken and you will be more likely to catch something and get sick. You won't recover as well from your workouts, either. And, you will be tired and grumpy which messes up relationships. So, try to get to bed at least an hour earlier this summer while you are training for your first triathlon. That means usually 8 hours of beautiful, healing sleep. (Maybe more if you can get away with it.) Naps are good, too.

14. Triathlon Terms:

• PR: "Personal Record" (Your fastest race time.)
• WR: "World Record" (I'm glad they invented the term PR for the rest of us!)
• PW: "Personal Worst" (Your slowest race time.)
• Bonk: to run out of energy while exercising; to have an over whelming desire to stop moving and lay on the couch. Symptoms include feeling exhausted, dizziness, confusion, sleepiness, an over-whelming desire to sit under a tree and take a nap, grumpiness and sometimes, even tears. This is what happens when your body runs out of accessible blood sugar called glycogen that it needs to powers your muscles and to think clearly. You can avoid this awful state by making sure you have a source of easily digestible energy and water handy when working out such as bananas, energy gels and water or an energy drink. A good pre-race practice that helps me is to consume a banana or energy gel with a 16-oz. bottle of water about 30 minutes before race start.
• Carbo Load: This is a pre-race rite of commensality (ritual meal sharing) that features a large meal of mostly carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta, potatos or rice. It is generally shared with family members, loved ones or with other triathletes. It’s stated purpose is to increase your body’s glycogen stores so you don’t bonk in the following day’s race. It also reinforces the social solidarity and specialness of the triathlete as he or she prepares to athletically test his or herself at publicly during the race the following day.
• Trigeek: a triathlete or wannabe triathlete who takes their athletic training and race performances bit too seriously for his friends and believes that upgrading to newer and more expensive triathlon gear and racing is more important than anything else.

15: Triathlon Race Distances (USA):

• Sprint: 0.5k-swim/15k-bike/5k-run
• Olympic: 1.5k-swim/40k-bike/10k-run
• Long Course Santa Barbara Triathlon: 1mi-swim, 34mi-bike, 10mi-run
• 70.3 or Half Ironman: 1.2mi-swim,/56mi-bike/13.1mi-run
• 140.6 or Full Ironman: 2.4mi-swim/112-bike/26.2mi-run
• Double Ironman (a multi-day stage race of double the Ironman triathlon distances): 5.4-m swim, 224-m bike, 52.4-m run

16: Upcoming Local Triathlons and Multiport Races

The best way to find local races online is Active.com which has an online database of just about every "all comers" triathlon, road race and other sports competitions in the United States. Printed race entries and flyers can be found on the "race table" at Inside Track Multisports in Ventura, CA.

You can find my daily workouts & multisport musings at: Twitter.com/multisportmama and Dailymile.com/people/multisportmama .

:) A

Plantar Fasciitis update: I got my cast off but I can't run...yet

I got my cast off today. I posted a photo of my cast-freed atrophied leg on my Facebook page with the caption, "Yikes! The horror! The hair!" The leg is cleanly shaven and sterilized with antibacterial soap now. Thank goodness.

Here is a summary of what my orthopedic surgeon told me that I need to do in order to get back to running long. If you are suffering from plantar fasciitis, I will tell you right now, I don't have the answer on how to get you back to running again. After months of self-treating it, reading about it in both consumer and fry peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, I only know this: what treatments didn't work for me, mistakes I've made that made it worse, and that there is no single cure or treatment that works for everyone.

This is the second time I've had plantar fasciitis so bad where I had to completely stop running for over three months. The first time was a flare up that happened a few months after I got Achilles Tendonitis in the last mile of the Chardonnay 10 mile race in 1995. (I think the micro-tears in my Achilles was from under-training in my running, not stretching before the race and having tight hamstrings from my long road rides and from wearing racing flats for the first time in a long time.) It took about four years and two non-running periods of third-trimester pregnancy to get rid of the plantar fasciitis the last time I had it. The Achilles tendinitis only lasted about six months.

"You still have plantar fasciitis," said the doctor.

So, that means to me that I still need to sleep in an awkward putty-colored scratchy night splint at night. And, I still need to wear my store-bought orthotics (Superfeet and Spenco), and I can't wear flip-flops or cute sandles, and I can't walk around barefoot--even to the bathroom or to the pool. *Sigh* My foot doctor wrote me a prescription for physical therapy, 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The doctor wanted me to wear the felt heal lift I got from his office, too. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit in my shoes with the arch supporting orthotics and my husband cut a hole in it. I asked him to cut a hole in it because the pressure of it was hurting the inflamed area on the front of my heal in September--before I got cast. So "no go" on the $58 felt heal lift thingy. Hopefully, that is crucial.

"It takes about 10 months to get rid of it."

Okay, so does that mean I count 10 months from my first blog posting about my plantar fasciitis injury? Or, when I stopped training with Inside Track Running Club, the day after a painful 8 mile run along the coast on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning on June 27th? Or does it mean I count from the day I finally stopped running all together, the day after the Carpinteria Triathlon on September 28th? The next day I could hardly put my left food down without a sharp ice pick-like stabbing pain in my left heal. It was also on that Monday I got the cast put on. If so...

Crap! That means I won't be back running at 100% until May 2010.

I'm going with the first blog posting date, August 6th, minus one month. That way, I will be back at 100% in March. That's not scientific but I'm an optimist. (That's me at the Carpinteria Triathlon in the photo above. Not in the photo is my son waving and my daughter yelling, "Mom! What the heck?! I thought you weren't going to run!" The ambulance in the photo is symbolic of the damage that I did to my foot that day. Next time I will listen to my kids. Photo by Christine Paone)


"Before you can run, you need to walk."

Here's my walk-to-run training regime per my doctor -- as I remembered it (I was still in shock at the time after he said, "it takes 10 months to heal...":

• 1st month: I need to walk up to a 1/4 mile the this week, then the 1/2 mile the second week and by 4 weeks be able to walk 2 miles.
• 2nd month: I need to then add 1/4 of slow jogging (8-10 mpm) then walk 1/4 mile and so on the second month. By 8 weeks, I should be able to jog 2 miles--pain free.

"This will get you running again but you won't be able to go back to doing 10 mile runs until March."

:(

"You need to strengthen your left leg."

But before that I need to do the calf/Achilles tendon stretching exercise several times a day. Here's how:

Stand facing the wall with feel comfortabley apart (8-10 inces) Put your left foot about one foot length away from the wall (about 10 inches), toes pointing straight towards the wall. Put your hands on the wall and push back so your weight goes on the left foot. Keeping your back straight, slowly bend your knees, keeping your weight on your left foot. Hold this position 30 seconds before slowly rising to a standing position. Switch to the other foot and repeat. (The image above is from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons web site. The position shown is slightly different from my doctor's instructions. In his version, the feet need to be closer together with the back foot's toe just behind the front foot's heal. This web site has other helpful stretches to treat or prevent plantar facsiitis and a good description of the injury.)

Strengthening exercises:

• Calf raises; You do this by standing facing a wall, about 24 inches away from it, and raising on your toes; do this while standing on one leg at a time and continue this exercise until you can do as many calf raises on your weak (injured) foot as you can on your strong foot
  
• Wall hamstring strengthening exercise; We called this doing "The Torture Chair" when I was in Track and Cross-Country in High School. It involves leaning against a wall in the sitting position with your legs at a 90° angle and then sliding up the wall and back down to 90°. Try it. It's fun. ;)
  
• Calf raises over steps; This exercise sounded a bit too similar to the Negative Calf Raises that aggravated my plantar fasciitis for two months last summer. I may do this exercise later when my foot gets stronger
• Do leg extensions to strengthen the quads and hamstrings in the gym
  

"Your range of motion is much better after four weeks in a cast."

Apparently, my left Achilles tendon and calf muscles were so tight before he casted my foot into a 90° angle, that he could not dorseflex my foot (push my toes towards my knee) more than a few degrees. Now I can flex my foot up 10-15°. The cast apparently immobilized the injured tissue and helped helped to loosen a tight Achilles tendon that was causing me to repeatedly strain the plantar fascia. The night splint wasn't enough.

"You will be able to run again and do ultras and race triathlons again. No problem. Just stay positive. "

Actually, he didn't say that. But I wish he did.