An ultra runner in the emergency room

I have been battling with a chest infection for the last month. I finally seemed to be winning after a week of antibiotics and even having the chance to run a 20 miler on Saturday. The run was slower than normal but it was fun to be out in God's creation running with friends. Sunday was a casual family day with church and hanging out with friends.

Then on Monday, when biking into work, I had sharp pains on the left top part of my chest. Hmmmm. Lasted for about a minute and then faded away. Deep breathing made the pain worse.

This repeated around 11 am. Thought nothing more about it. Did a casual lunch run with my running buddy Rick with no issues. Finished up my work day and prepped to head to the kid's track practice, when I was hit with the pain again. Then I made the first of my mistakes: I looked up the symptoms on-line :-)
With the symptoms and with just finishing the antibiotics for the possible chest infection, the web MDs were telling me that I might have an infection of the pericardium (the sack around the heart) called pericarditis. Not good from what I read. So trying to be responsible, I phoned Trisha and then phoned the doctor's office. Relayed my symptoms and was informed to head to emergency room...bummer.

My running buddy Dave gave me a ride to the ER, and I once again tell my little story and very quickly I am sitting down getting my vitals taken. Everything seemed to go well: normal blood pressure and heart rate...for me. And therein lies my next mistake: my normal resting heart rate set off all kinds of alarms for the triage nurse. My resting heart rate is 38-41 bpm. 10 years of distance running will help do that for you :-) This worried the triage nurse (bradycaridia) but we never talked about me being an ultra runner. The result: back into the bowels of the hospital with a nasty hospital gown on. EKG was next, then a chest x-ray and blood work. From the x-ray, the doctor could see that I have an enlarged heart. The doctor knew at this point that I have done a fair bit of running but he could not tell whether my heart was enlarged from the exercise or from an infection. So we finished off with an echocariogram: an ultrasound of my heart. This was really cool to see my heart valves in action and, using Doppler, the blood moving around the four chambers.

Test results: no pneumonia, no infection or swelling of the heart, no leaky valves, no anemia, and minimal heart enzymes in the blood (no heart attack). Nothing. Just got to take my health insurance out for a spin.

So what caused the chest pain: likely a irritation of the lining of my lungs possibly from the infection...nothing conclusive. What to do about it: nothing really. Rest for a couple of days and take some Motrin/Advil. Running is fine and running the Boston marathon poses no risk.

The short of it is that I have a very healthy, enlarged heart with a low resting heart rate. And I have learned my lesson to always state right up front that I am an ultra runner if I ever go to the emergency room again.

Eclipse Ant Integration and Google Summer of Code

I have added an idea for a Google Summer of Code (GSOC) project to work on improving the Eclipse Ant integration by facilitating Ant buildfile refactorings.

To see some ideas of the refactorings that could be supported have a look at bug 89938.

For information on Ant, check out the Apache Ant site.

Learning about the inner workings of Eclipse and Ant are skills that would help out any student. Adding the refactoring support would make you the friend of Build Meisters and Releng wizards everywhere. These are very good people to be friends with :-)

The deadline for GSOC applications is April 7, 5:00 PM PDT /00:00 UTC April 8, 2008.
The FAQ for GSOC can be found here.

So please consider submitting to work on the Ant integration enhancement or any of the other Eclipse based ideas.

Dumb Debugger Trick in Eclipse

I am often attempting to isolate the class or classes that pertain to a bug report. This week while we are pushing towards Jazz M6, I have been knee deep in UI code: wizards, dialogs, and editors, oh my!

Since my code is always golden (ya right!) and/or my memory is getting weak for remembering the names of all the classes involved, I often do not know how to find the source that is causing / exhibiting the problem.
Or I know of some UI within Eclipse or Jazz that has similar or desired behavior that I would like to emulate. Good old monkey see, monkey do.

A dumb or simple Eclipse debugger trick in case it ever might help you out:

1. Launch a target Eclipse.
2. Invoke the UI action to realize the wizard, dialog or editor.
3. Pause the main thread of the target launch. If the code is not run on the main or UI thread, pause the VM while things are chugging away and find the interesting thread.
4. Find the relevant stack frame and locate the interesting variables.
5. Jump to the correct code to find the bug or the example you wish to emulate.
   

This trick requires no addition plug-ins or latest code so please try this at home :-)
Hope this helps someone work faster and smarter.

Guide to Running Boston

I have run the Boston marathon twice. Once in 2004 and then again in 2005.
In 2004 I ran 3:53:53 for my slowest marathon time.
In 2005 I ran 3:02:33 for my fastest marathon time.

I am going to race it again this year. Or at least that was the plan. Racing is getting to be a relative term as I have been fighting a chest infection which has made my training less than optimal. So that means I have to rely even more on making smart choices on the actual day of the race to make my goal of running around 3:15.

This is my list of things to consider when running the Boston marathon (not in any particular order, and I am sure these are not all my original ideas)

• Race expo and the City - the Boston race expo is large, full of cool stuff and fun. As is Boston. Be careful not to walk, stand, eat, party or whatever too much on Friday and Saturday before the race if you wish to perform at your peak on Monday.
• Race morning - get on the bus. I have only heard horror stories of people trying to drive to the start. The buses are packed and slow and even get lost. Both years my bus driver had no idea where they were going and we took about 20 minutes longer to get there than it should of. But we did get there and it was still way more relaxing than driving. Also bring something to lay down on or sit on while you are waiting to be herded out to the starting corals. "Disposable" inflatable mattresses were popular the years I was out there. Know where the outhouses are and have a time line on when you are going to use them. They get very busy. You goal is to stay relaxed and save at least some of the adrenaline for those final miles. Also know which race coral you are supposed to be in and be ready to head out at the correct time to wait for the start of the race.
  
• Fuel - plan what, when and how you are going to eat out on the course. If you are going to use aid stations, know where they are and what they will have. I propose that you carry all you need on your person. One less thing to worry about. And how much do you need? I have frequently read that we can only digest about 300 calories per hour during strenuous activity. This works out to be 1 gel every 20-25 minutes. I usually start "gelling" once I am about 60 minutes in to the race. Therefore I need 6- 8 gels to fuel for the entire course. Make sure to see if you are comfortable carrying this many gels and fueling this way long before race day. Remember: nothing new on race day! Having a plan for fueling down to the minute of when to take the gel takes all the guess work out of race day and ensures that you don't do something silly while out on the course. I set my watch to beep every 20 minutes to remind me to gel. I have always needed the reminder.
  
• Hydration - the 2 years I have done Boston it was warm to hot. 2004 was 85 F at the start. 2005 was 70 degrees. Hydration is important and must match you needs and fueling. Plan it and know how to adapt based on the weather. Do not overlook planning your electrolyte needs as well. Plan it all out on paper to line up for the best chance of success.
  
• Aid stations - Boston is a big race with about 25,000 people running. If you are going to rely on the aid stations, and no matter how fast or slow you think you are as a runner, the aid stations are going to be busy. Many times there are aid stations on both sides of the street. Go to the end of the station on the left-hand side to reduce the chance of crowding or collision.
• First 6 miles - the first 6 miles are downhill. You will go faster than you should. Fight it the best you can to save those quadriceps for later in the race on the hills and the flats. Train for it as well. Find a route near you that starts with a downhill and finishes flat or up hill. Train to run fast and smart on the downhills. Don't fight gravity...learn to float :-) If you feel you are going slow in the first 6 miles you are likely running the correct pace. There is no bank of time when running a marathon. If you go too fast, you will pay much more than any deposit you make in the first miles. I think ultra runners have an advantage here as this is so very important in the longer distances...a lesson I have been slow to learn.
  
• Hill running on tired legs - Boston has hills. Know where they are and plan for them. Nothing large compared to a trail ultra but we all feel it with the distance. Train for it, attack it and blow by all those other people who are walking :-) Train on a course that has at least as big a hill as Heartbreak and ensure to run the hill with at least 12 miles already on your legs. But don't be scared....the hills are smaller than you think and once you are done with them the end is within your grasp!
• Adjust to the conditions- weather in Boston in April is unpredictable. It can be snowing or it can be 90F. Adjust your goals based on the weather on the day of the race. I posted my slowest marathon time in 2004 as I did not adjust my goals and attempted to run a PR on a very hot day when I had done no heat training. That was dumb and made for a long day once I stopped sweating at mile 14...ouch!
  
• Feed off the crowds - Breath it in. You are doing the Boston Marathon. This is as close to being a rock star as most of us get. It seems like almost all of Boston is out cheering and when you go by Wellesley Woman's College, feed off the noise and cheering. That wave of sound and excitement is good to boost anyone for at least 3-4 miles.
• Watch the women's 2008 Olympic Trails on Sunday: cheer for those Olympic hopefuls and get inspired by their running ability. Special opportunity that we just cannot miss. I will be yelling with the most volume for the women from Oregon. Just don't use all your race day energy :-)

My goal is to have fun. Please post any other recommendations that work for you.