First Sign of Aging: There Goes My Cementum!!

Yesterday I went to the dentist because I have had intermittent tooth pain since July. Yes, July. Five months later I was finally able to coordinate my schedule with the dentist's schedule and get in to see him. The nurse took an x-ray and the dentist came in a few minutes later, sat down next to me, and calmly said, "You're getting old".  I'm very well aware I'm getting old since the price of all my dermatologic interventions (creams etc) is rising in direct correlation with my slowly advancing wrinkles. So this was not news.  I'm willing to accept that things aren't going to work as well over time, but I wanted to know if there was something dental hygeine-wise that I should do differently.

First, some background on the tooth pain. One of my upper right molars hurts ONLY when I eat super concentrated sugar. Like Skittles. But baked goods and chocolate are okay. The inside of Nutri-Grain bars is not okay. The pain is pretty sharp but only lasts for a few minutes, then goes away completely. Back in July, I decided to brush more aggressively and often (three times a day instead of two) and lay off the sweets (not that I eat many anyway) and see if I could improve things on my own. Well, the pain stayed away because I didn't eat sweets but when I tried again....OUCH!

Apparently, this is due to the age-related degradation of my cementum. No joke. So the outer-most layer of the surface of our teeth is a one to two cell layers of a substance called cementum that covers the roots of our teeth. Over time, this layer can erode. Mr Dentist assured me that I have excellent teeth and no signs of decay, this can be just a natural part of aging teeth.

Dentinal tubules

The next layer of our teeth is called dentin. It underlies the enamel and surrounds the nerves of our teeth. Dentin is sensitive to touch and other stimuli. And dentin is holey, like swiss cheese. The holes are called 'dentinal tubules' and they connect to odontoblasts that connect directly to the nerves. This was news to me-our teeth are naturally holey?  Once the cementum is gone the dentin and the dentinal tubules (holes) and thus the nerves, are exposed to the elements. These holes generally cause no problems but they can if the odontoblasts move and irritate the nerve. Odontoblasts are particularly sensitive to fluid movements. Mr Dentist said that the sugar isn't directly hurting my teeth, rather the osmotic pressure of highly concentrated sugar is drawing water from the roots of my teeth which irritates the ondontoblasts and it is the pain of this osmosis that I am feeling. As soon as the sugar dissolves so does the pain. He described the root of the tooth as a little man whose head was being pulled into the pores of the tooth whenever I ate sugar and the pain was his head getting stuck. Who knew?
  

I was mighty happy to not have a cavity. I happily declared, "fine I just won't eat concentrated sugar!" to which he responded, "No need to do that, as long as you can just deal with the pain". I guess I'm really not causing my teeth any harm, it's just more of a nuisance, but I'm going to lay off the pain-inducing sugar nonetheless- who gives themselves pain on purpose??!!??

So my teeth aging turns out to be an inconvenience rather than a health-issue or even an expense. I hope the rest of my body ages as gracefully (yes, laugh lines I'm talking to you- GO AWAY!!!)

:)

Hiking in the Smokies

Adam and I did two day long hikes while in the Smokies. The first was the Rich Mountain loop near Cade's Cove which we soon learned is the most popular part of the park. Luckily we only saw three other people on the 8.5 mile hike- the ridiculous hordes of people spent the vast majority of their time in their cars. It was a nice hike- lots of pretty fall color and we saw an elk, but not a must do.

 

 

 

 

On the cliff.

Winter and fall at the same time. See the snow on the top trees?

Our last day in the park we did the Alum Caves hike on the recommendation of the guy who topped off our anti- freeze at the Volkswagen dealership. Seriously. We figured he was a local so knew his rocky mountain hikes. It was a really great hike. There were a few other people but there were enough points of interest and stunning views to more than make up for it. the hike starts out along a creek, very pretty with nice sound effects. Then we hiked through a cave. Then there was a nice cliff overhang at about the half way point to the peak. Most of the other hikers turned around at the cliff. It had snowed the night before so for the second half of the hike it was a winter wonderland. Very pretty. A lot of the hike was on rocky cliffs so there were wire handrails drilled into the rocks to hold on to. With all the ice we definitely utilized those!


We could not see a whole lot from the top of the mountain due to fog but that was okay. We had a quick snack then headed back down. On our way down the sun came out and it started to warm up to the point that all that snow and ice started to melt. It suddenly became spring! So we experienced fall at the beginning of the hike, winter in the middle and spring at the end. It was pretty darn cool. I definitely recommend this hike.

Winter on the way up.

Snow starting to melt on the way down.

For more pictures from our trip, check out the slideshow I added to the blog homepage. Just click on it to make it bigger.

Chicago Monster Dash 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Saturday I ran the Chicago Monster Dash 1/2 mary for the 2nd year in a row. Walking to the race, I thought how funny it is that I now associate all holidays with a race. Thanksgiving is Turkey Trot day, Christmas is a Santa or Rudolph themed race, Halloween is the Monster and I traditionally do a solo long run on the 4th of July- it makes the cook-out food taste that much better:) And for my birthday, I run mileage that= my new age (with a decimal in b/t the two numbers, age 33=3.3 miles).


Last year, I dressed up as- what else?- a bison. This year, my cousin was using my bison suit so I went as Santa. I felt a little sheepish since I basically just used the beard, hat, and shirt that were given away at the Santa Shuffle last year, but it was actually a hit! Kids liked it, adults kept cheering 'go santa!'.... until I lost the beard 1/2 way through (too uncomfortable) and then the hat in the last 2 miles (too hot). Then I was just a woman in a funny red shirt holding a hat:)

Since I just ran the Louisville Marathon less than 2 weeks ago, my plan was to take it easy and enjoy the costumes during this race. However, that plan changed pretty early on. The start was ridiculously crowded. In fact, most of the race was uncomfortably crowded. I realize this is pretty standard for most of the big Chicago races. I try not to complain because the popularity of these races just means that more people are running, but the longer I run the more I like to run with space in front of me. I don't like to be cramped. In terms of a race review, I'd say, don't run this to PR. It's a good race, worth doing, but do it for the costumes and the festivities.

I was running alone, and after plodding through the first 3 cramped miles (9:56, 9:19, 9:38), I was getting kinda bored. I didn't like the idea of staring at the backs of the same people for 13.1 miles. I feel the same way about driving. I don't need to be driving super fast but I just don't like having people in front of me! So as tiny breaks in the pack opened up I jumped through them and found myself speeding up whenever I had the chance (8:40, 8:43, 9:04).

At about the halfway point I glanced down at my Garmin and noticed that I was on pace to get a sub-2. Now I've run sub-2 half marathons before in training and even during marathons but I've never had a formal sub-2 half marathon result. So I decided today was the day to knock that out. I figured the back half of the course would be more thinned out so if I just stayed at a comfortably hard pace, I'd be set.

The below graph shows miles on the x axis and pace on the y. It gives a good view of how much faster I was in the 2nd half than the first:

Miles 5-6 and 8-9 were a bit tight which explains the relatively slower paces.

Well, comfortably hard became uncomfortably hard a little earlier than I would like and the last 45 minutes weren't fun. The last 5K was really hard. The last mile I had to fight, fight, fight to not stop running. I kept looking at the Garmin to see if a sub-2 was still possible because the moment it was no longer possible I was going to take a walk break. Funny thing about keeping running- I stayed on pace so never allowed myself a walk break. I rolled in at 1:58:29.

 

This race was a good experience for me. Because the first 3 miles were so slow I had no choice but to negative split the race. So I had to run faster than was comfortable to make up for the slow miles, making the race way more painful that if I had kept a nice 9:09 pace all along. Honestly, I think keeping an 8:45-8:50 pace would have been pretty comfortable too. It was just the xx xx miles that we're pushing it a bit for me. Especially 2 weeks after a marathon.

I'm glad that I PR'd. That's always a good thing. But it was more of a formality. I'm more proud of the way I ran the race after I decided to go ahead and push it. I committed with 1 hour of running left to go for it. That's a bit early to make such decisions. But I stuck with it even though I really was darn uncomfortable. I kept telling myself running uncomfortably for an hour is excellent training for Boston. Because even when I'm optimally trained, I'm thinking my BQ run is going to be full of discomfort!

Now I have the racing bug. I want to find a less crowded 10k, 10 mile or 1/2 marathon and just run like stink. I have no idea what I'm capable of and I'd love to find out!

In terms of a review for those considering doing this race next year, a few points. Like I said above I would recommend running this for fun, not for a time (though obviously that is easier said than done for some of us..ahem). The course is nice- along the lakefront, though Lincoln park, but tight pretty much the whole way. The folks who were supposed to stop traffic near navy pier made us stop and wait for a bus to pass (2 years in a row, NOT COOL!), so there are some organizational problems that need to be fixed. Water/gatorade stops are plentiful. The post-race is well-organized. The race shirt is nice. The results were already posted by the time I got home which I LOVED. The costumes are great and it's overall a fun race. So I'd recommend doing it for fun with a friend. And don't forget to dress up!

** runnerd: a person who does not conform, often highly intelligent but socially rejected because of their obesssion with running. A runnerd will run in any condition and is either running, constantly thinking about running, or talking about running.

Cabins in the Smokies

View from our cabin's porch. Awesome.

Adam and I just got back from a wonderful week in the Smokies right outside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We were there just in time for leaf-peeping and some great hiking (posts to follow). Even more importantly we missed the massive crowds that flock the to park in the summer. The Smokies are the nation's most popular national park and they are so popular that they probably need to be avoided during popular months and weekends. More on hiking and the park later.

One of the shining stars of our trip was our cabin choice. Between the two of us, Adam and I easily spent 6 hours researching the perfect Smoky Mountain cabin. So, I must admit, it was with a little apprehension that we opened that cabin door.

But....it.....was.....awesome!! I'm going to give a pretty detailed review because I highly recommend this particular cabin ('A Starry Night') and this cabin rental company (Timber Tops) for anyone interested in a relaxing time in a beautiful place only a day's drive from Chicago.

Timber Top Pic: Dining area w/ living room in background. All w/ views of course:)

Some of these pictures are from the Timber Tops website but I feel good about using them because the place was exactly as shown. Very clean, very new, very nice.



The crowning feature of this place was the hot tub on the deck. We spent at least an hour in the hot tub every night, talking about the day, drinking adult beverages, reflecting on life and enjoying the scenery. It was pretty ridiculous how often we'd say "can you believe this view?", looking at mountains, sunsets, stars. Really great.

Timber Top pic: The hot tub

The view.

Overall, the house is dedicated to enjoying the views. Windows in all the right places. Fun activities inside the house all within view of the mountains, like the game room w/ pool, air hockey and foosball, perfect for a rainy day.

Ah, love the skillet cheese toast

 The kitchen was clean and perfectly adequate. Not an open floor plan like we had in Hawaii, but it worked fine for our dinners at home (believe me, there is nowhere good to eat in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinberg area unless you count Dolly Parton's 'Dixie Stampede'- which you shouldn't!).

There is a 'window' in the bathroom wall so you can see the mountains from the jacuzzi!

Bed was comfy. There are also 2 pull out couches- 1 in the living room and 1 in the game room. The place technically sleeps  6. I think 4 adults would be comfortable because the upstairs has its own bathroom with jacuzzi. 6 would be pushing it unless you are okay with being all in each other's grills.






As a sidenote, when the weather on our camping night was 40 degrees and raining and we had multiple planned creek crossings (hello hypothermia), we opted to book a cabin for 2 more nights. Sadly, A Starry Night was booked, and the only available one-bedroom cabin was with the Dollywood rental company, called Majestic Sunset. The sunset from the hot tub was pretty darn majestic as you can see here (2 different nights) but otherwise it was pretty junkeroo and I'd stick with Timber Tops. 'A Starry Night', Timber Tops, if you don't have plans for your next fall or spring vacation, now you do!

Day 1 of Training a Bust....Thank Goodness for Day 2..and 3...and 4...

Yeah, I didn't get up early this AM to exercise. I did get up early because I woke up wide awake at 5:30, but even though I got up and out of bed, I didn't exercise. Ugh! Getting back into the morning routine is HARD!

Then I went and had an awful day at work so no way in heck was I able to motivate myself to do more than my requisite mile tonight. So after grumbling a bit (okay a LOT) about the nonsense that happened today, I'm going to make an exercise schedule for the rest of the week, thereby making it harder for me to bail in the mornings.

I'm going to use a combo of the 3:40 and the 3:45 Run Less, Run Faster Plans. I actually need to run a bit faster than that for the race itself (for my BQ, that is), but this will be my starting point and I'll upgrade to the 3:30 plan in a few weeks (hopefully). My long runs are definitely at the paces prescribed for the 3:40 (or faster) plan. I'm confident in my ability to do any of the 1st 6 weekly long runs right now without further training. But I'm not nearly fast enough to do the tempo and speed workouts in the 3:40 plan and will be lucky to pull off those in the 3:45. Interesting. I'm really a distance runner, I guess. I'm so, so much slower on speed work. Guess that's why I need to do more speed work!

Anyway, gotta go to bed soon so here's the plan:

Tuesday: 1 mile w/u, 1 x 1600 @ 8:00, 1 x 1600 @ 7:50, 1 x 1600 at 7:40, 1 mile c/d
Wednesday: 1 mile run, JM Abs video
Thursday: 6 mile run (2 easy, 2 hard, 2 easy)
Friday: 1 mile run, JM Yoga video
Saturday: Chicago Monster 1/2 Marathon
Sunday: 1 mile run

Not super ambitious, but it is if you consider how little exercise I've done over the past few weeks!

Time to buckle down, my friends, time to buckle down.

Marathon #10: Louisville Marathon

While I opted to not run Chicago due to lack of training and desire to spectate, when Adam suggested a few weeks ago that we run the Louisville Marathon/Half Marathon during our vacation so we can "get" another state and I could officially finish my TENTH MARATHON, I said "Sure!". I have no interest in kicking my own butt during a marathon I've done numerous times before (i.e. Chicago) but I'm more than happy to do so to complete a race in my 6th state, Kentucky!











Adam and I rolled into Louisville in Elly w/ the the top down on a beautiful, sunny 70 degree day 1 week ago. We picked up our packet which included a really great shirt and went out for a nice carbo loading pizza dinner. Of note, we found a bison on the way!

Race morning was perfect- 50 degrees, a bit overcast, a nice breeze. I was really glad that Adam would get to run the first 6 or so miles with me (the half and the full shared part of the course) because I was not in the mood to run. I usually do pretty poorly in the first 4-5 miles of a marathon. It takes me a while to warm up and the number of miles ahead of me seems overwhelming. On the other hand, Adam was quite chipper so I tried to not slow him down too much. Neither of us where shooting for a time, rather were just enjoying the beautiful course right along the Ohio river.

Along the Ohio River.

Mile 1: 8:49
Mile 2: 8:58
Mile 3: 9:38
Mile 4: 9:18
Mile 5: 9:24

I started to get a bit more jazzed about the whole running thing right around the time we got to Adam's turn-around. Miles 6-15 ended up being downright enjoyable. After 6 miles on a path right along the river, the course meanders through some quiet, well kept neighborhoods, then to a forest preserve again by the river. Most of the course was shaded which became more and more important as the sun rose and the clouds parted. I opted to not wear my Nathan water pack. Since I haven't been training, I thought the extra weight might really wear me out and I figured the water stops would not be crowded given the small number of runners.

Mile 6: 9:06
Mile 7: 9:06

Adam had a great race running serious negative splits.

From Mile 8-15 I kept catching up to this nice woman in pink. We'd run together for a bit then I'd let her go ahead again because her pace was too fast for me. While we were talking, however, I learned that she was shooting for a sub-4 (my best is 4:05:18) so I started to wonder if I was doing better than I thought I was. Since the course was an out and back I decided to entertain myself by counting how many women were ahead of me (and cheering for them of course!). I was happy to find that by the 1/2 way point I was the 18th woman!

Mile 8: 8:47
Mile 9: 9:02
Mile 10: 9:07
Mile 11: 9:23
Mile 12: 8:54
Mile 13: 8:47

For a few miles, I entertained thoughts of grandeur- maybe I could pass 1 woman per mile for the last 11 miles and place in the top 10! While part of my brain held on to this thought for motivation, another part of my brain knew very well that this wasn't realistic but that it would be useful to hold on to this fantasy for a bit longer to motivate myself through the high teens. I actually did quite well b/t Miles 15 and 20. I passed 4 women, and 1 woman passed me leaving me in the top 15 women.

Mile 14: 9:13
Mile 15: 9:09
Mile 16: 9:01
Mile 17: 9:15
Mile 18: 9:43
Mile 19: 9:54

Mind you, this was not a big race. 42 women finished overall. But I've never been top 20 overall ever in any race, so I was happy.

Then Mile 20 came along. I won't say the wheels fell off because by now I'm a relatively experienced marathoner and I know how to keep myself together mentally and physically when the going gets tough. But, I was getting pretty miserable (in part because it was getting HOT!); let's just say the wheels were being held on w/ duct tape, shall we?

Mile 20: 9:50
Mile 21: 10:25
Mile 22: 10:24

I tried to keep good form, I tried to keep a good pace, but needed walk breaks mostly for mental health. Miles 20-26.2 stunk because I wasn't trained. I ran the Madison Marathon on May 29th, did a random 17 miler in July, then did no long runs until 2 weeks before this race (15 miles) and the week before this race (18 miles). So minimal distance training and definitely no taper! I got what I deserved on that back 6. But I kept telling myself that after that finish line I will be a runner who has completed 10 marathons in 6 states. I even got a bit misty eyed because I remember when I first started running in 2006- I never would have thought I'd be at this point, trying to run a marathon in all 50 states, finishing my TENTH MARATHON!! Crazy.

Mile 23: 10:06
Mile 24: 10:59
Mile 25: 10:23
Mile 26: 11:23
Last 0.2: 9:43 (pace)

Finally, the finish line came and I enjoyed a post race beer and some damn good Cheetoh Puffs. I was pretty beat up at the end, and even needed a nap that afternoon (not typical for me after a race, I usually am totally fine), but rallied for a great dinner at Proof (post to follow) with Adam.

In the end, it looks like I was the 11th woman out of 42, 36th out of 113 overall. Even more exciting (and let's face it downright shocking) was when I saw this:

I'm new to this whole 'placing' thing so I honestly am not sure how this works. Is this my first age group 'win'? Or was I really 2nd in my age group because the overall female winner was also in my age group?? Just curious. Either way, yippee!!

Finishing in 4:10:12 without significant training on a day when I was taking it easy has really motivated me to make a Boston Qualifying attempt. I know I can do it, it's just a matter of making it happen! So I've got my 'Run Less, Run Faster' book in hand and after I finish this post, I'll start making my training plan to qualify for Boston in 2012 (thus run it in 2013). I prefer winter to summer running, so I'm on the lookout for a good spring race to make this dream a reality. And I'm recruiting spectators. Anyone interested? :)

Me exhausted at the Brown Hotel.

Chicago Marathon 2011 Spectator Report

A-L and I on the Red Line.

Chicago Marathon 2011 has come and gone. Congrats to all who finished the race today! I had a wonderful time as the "spectator director" with my family as we raced (pun intended) around town keeping tabs on my cousin's boyfriend, Jason.  (BTW, he ran the Twin Cities Marathon just SEVEN DAYS AGO!) Since I am the only Chicagoan in our group I was in charge of getting us to our cheer sites on time via the el. Believe it or not, I actually needed 3 separate maps to complete this task- a CTA downtown map, the race map with mile markers and the CTA "spectator map" that doesn't give enough detail about either the trains or the race course. Pfew!

We started the day at the start line. It's so inspirational to watch the mass of energetic, excited folks optimistically starting the race:) Jason is pretty fast so we didn't stick around too long- we needed run rush off to Mile 4! Jason looked great but my camera didn't cooperate so just picture a runner happily jogging along giving a cheerful hello to his favorite fans.

Next was Mile 10 and we got there in time to see the lead pack which was pretty cool. Moses had a great day! Spectating is kind of like the military...'hurry up and wait'. We'd rush to a spot worried that we might miss Jason, then we'd hang out and play 'Where's Waldo' for a bit, then we'd start to worry that we missed him, we look, we look, we see the pace teams go by, then the fabulous moment when we SEE him, we SEE him, do you see him?, there he IS! and it's all worth it:) So fun!

Spectators do all kinds of crazy things for their runners....

We provide mad-cowbell....

We provide a steady post to lean on for mid-race stretches...

And we act as on-the-fly pharmacists dispensing ibuprofen prn....

Finally, we carried balloons to ensure Jason could spot us. We found that it also helped us find each other....especially when certain members of the party needed to find a 'scarlet tanninger'.

Jason ended strong and was still smiling when we saw him at Mile 26. And, in total rock star fashion, he was totally up for photos after the race. He was even up for walking to the Bean for, what else, but more photos!

 

I'm thinking of starting a marathon spectator '50 in 50' organization. Us marathoners shouldn't be the only ones who do crazy things like run 50 marathons in 50 states. Turns out our spectators are pretty crazy too!

Again, congrats to all the Chi2011 finishers!!! :)