Day 316 Wild, Wild West Ultra and uBiome

First year with a 50 mile event

First year with a 50 mile event

165 lbs. and 9.8% body fat (using electrical impedance). Sent new uBiome sample off this morning. Curious to see what the enema and all this mileage has done to my assay. 

Approaching my longest event to date. This part of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains is probably my favorite place in the world so attempting my first "real" ultra here has a nice symmetry to it. It is a tough race and I have concerns that I will DNF but I could train for another year and still not feel ready. A significant portion of competing at these distances is mental and I am running with confidence. So now is as good a time as any.

One thing that has been playing on my mind is how this blog has affected the choices I have been making. I suspect that the pressure of sharing has been a good thing, but every race and every result being something I publish on the internet is not healthy for me. In truth, I am a private person and there have been runs I have pushed too hard or days I have had to force myself to take selfies. It requires a level of self-scrutiny that makes me feel like a Kardashian.

Additionally, these long runs are pro-inflammatory. Even the men and women who win these things have gastrointestinal issues and uncontrolled inflammation. The optimal amount of running for humans is probably 20 to 30 miles a week at 8:30 to 10:00 minute miles. I do that in a weekend and I can feel the inflammation it causes. I did not do all this so I could replace one type of inflammation with another. So to figure out what I want to do and who I want to be I need some quiet.

This blog is almost a year old and when I get to that anniversary I am going to cease posting. I'll do a summary of the year including the results from the beta testers but that will be it (unless there is some safety issue/s that needs disseminating).  It has occurred to me that my donor is a humble and private person who would never do a blog like this. Maybe my microbiome is messing with my motivation centers or my personality is shifting. Who knows?

 

Day 315 Red Rock and Beyond

15.35 miles in 2:12:39 and second place overall. Cold wet day in Red Rock Canyon. My body is doing what I am asking it to do but I am going catabolic. My genetics are such that I am going to continue to lose weight (and muscle) if I keep running this much. There is a question I will have to answer as to which I prefer and how far I want to go with the running. I was very thin when I was doing triathlons and running in my 20s. Took a long time to put the muscle on and it will be even harder now that I am older.

 

2nd place overall but I can see my runner body starting to take over.

2nd place overall but I can see my runner body starting to take over.

Not sure I am ready to go back to this look!

Not sure I am ready to go back to this look!

Day 302 Food Reactions Greatly Diminished

I weigh 167 lbs. and ran 63 miles last week. I did have a couple days of feeling off (low energy and lack of motivation) after this last enema which was another 20 ml of material. Not sure what that was all about but I am feeling better now. Even not feeling well I was able to get my running miles logged and am looking forward to the coming weeks. I have not taken a capsule since the first enema.

The big story is how well I am tolerating my food triggers. Still experimenting but big changes in the way I react to cheese, corn and nightshades (tomatoes and peppers). Next food challenges are going to be eggs and beans. To quantify the changes I used to be able to eat one small corn tortilla without reaction. Yesterday I ate six with salsa and only the mildest of reactions so far. I am not going to be adding corn back into my diet, but it is nice to know I can now eat a meal when traveling without crushing fatigue, diarrhea and skin rashes.

My running schedule is a 5K this coming Sunday to see how I am doing speed wise. Next weekend is a 16 miler in Las Vegas and then the 50 miler in Lone Pine.

Fastest I have run a 15K.

Fastest I have run a 15K.

Day 297 Three Weeks and No Capsules

I have fallen way behind on the blog. Mostly because I have been running so much. I am only three weeks away from first 50 mile race and I am trying to get as many miles in as possible. I am going to try another enema today. I have not taken a capsule since the last enema and things have been great but I can feel it unwinding a little bit. I have been getting spoiled with the new foods I have added back into my diet so I want to experiment more. I had a family emergency yesterday and had to eat out. The only place I do that is In-n-Out and they screwed up my order so I wound up eating cheese. Have not done that in years. No reaction so far which is highly unusual.

 I still suspect that the combination of capsules and enema is going to be the way we do this but need to see what enema only can do. So far I am impressed. My experience has led me to believe that food intolerances and allergies are at least partially caused by lower bowel dysbiosis. 

Day 279 Unnatural route but effective

I can see why the bottom up route is used and I can admit when I am wrong (this is why you experiment). Definitely a stronger effect using 20ml of material delivered via enema. I have had a couple days of longer than normal naps, but also improved tolerance to foods I typically react to and strong urges to run. With the exception of the naps very good energy all day long and inflammation looks great. There is certainly a place for this delivery route and I will experiment with it more in the coming months.

Day 275 Bottom Up

I will not offer a therapy I have not tried myself so I did, with the help of Dr. Llamas, a fecal enema today. 20ml of filtered material diluted with 20ml of distilled water. This is much less material than the 150ml I see in the scientific papers but it represents 20 capsules which has had a strong effect so I wanted to be on the cautious side.  A little anxious at the prospect of the enema but it wasn't bad. Like most things what is imagined is much worse than the actual experience. Here is my notes to Dr. Llamas the following day:

 No problems today. Went for a six mile run this afternoon (4:00PM) and had to go the bathroom after. It was a liquid and definitely donors's material. Took a long nap, which I do when I take two capsules and feel tired. Some gurgling and some tightness in abdomen after meal but that is it.

I am not a big fan of the bottom up route. I consider top down to be a much more natural interaction so unless there are dramatic improvements I will continue with top down. I believe it was good to have the experience so that I can better understand what clients will be feeling but I do not see this as something I will be doing a lot.

Day 273 Pain Cave

Done.

Done.

I took a couple days to order my thoughts around this race. I made some beginner mistakes and was slower than I hoped. Without getting into too many details misread my watch and thought I was running slower than I actually was. Wound up blowing up my legs around mile 18 and limped to a 5:47:00.

Never got so bad that I wanted to quit and there were miles with lots of cramping and stabbing foot pain so that is saying something. It was a slower race, but it was a good learning experience. I am going to retire whatever competitiveness that got me all keyed up to run sub 5 hour 50K and just focus on having fun. I am very grateful to be well enough to be running ultras. That is enough.

Recovery was rough for a couple days but has been good since then. Going to take some time off and let my body heal then get back to it next week.

Day 270 Off to the Desert!

50K in Anza Borrego. I grew up in the desert so I will always be a desert rat at heart. Calf has felt good in my tune-up runs but I do have some concerns. The injury might not be uncontrolled inflammation and might actually be a popliteus strain/tear. If it is then I will know when I do the climb at mile 8.1. Uphill running is known to aggravate this type of injury.

I am back to every other day of .5ml capsules. Weight is at 166lbs. and general inflammation looks and feels good.