Taper, taper

Wednesday, April 30:

Four more taper miles, just a lovely run partly on my favorite dirt road along the railroad tracks. This is running at its most enjoyable. Splits: 9:05, 9:07, 8:55, 9:01, total 36:08 for 4 mi, pace 9:02. Faster than I thought I was going, actually. Breathing was mostly five footfalls per full breath, sometimes four.

Since I’m not really trained for a marathon right now, I suppose I’ll just go out and run a pace that feels easy, feels good. This pace felt easy today, even though it’s faster than I think I can run a whole marathon. Maybe I should just run this pace until it DOESN’T feel good, then struggle to the finish as best I can. Yeah, that’ll work.

Monday, April 28:

Recovering from the Get in Gear 10k, just putting on some miles at about marathon pace. Turned out I went a little fast, but not a lot. Splits: 9:22, 9:39, 9:58 (1.1 mi), 8:35, 9:20, total 46:55 for 5.1 mi, pace 9:12. No pains during the run. Thirty-six degrees, so tights and multiple layers up top.

Tuesday, though, I had another “trick hip” incident in the right hip. Sharp, stabbing pain where I think that a bursa should be, just below the hip joint. It started when I got up from my regular chair in the office, and it “stabbed” whenever I turned a little on that hip or sometimes just at random. Stairs were especially tricky. I had not been wearing shoes, and was wearing loose pants with no wallet in the pocket. I am without a clue as to what started it.

I was extremely careful for a couple of hours, and it got a lot better. By night it was just slightly sore but no more stabbing pain. By morning I could run with no trace of pain. I have to figure out what this is - this is the fifth event now. If it happens in a race, I'm sunk.




Tuesday's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, mango, organic strawberries, blueberries, banana, organic pomegranate juice, organic nonfat milk. Sometimes when I finish, I leave just a little milk in the bowl for kitty to enjoy.


Tuesday's lunch: Mixed organic rices under a yummy turkey curry, mango, orange, organic chard with dried cranberries and pistachios. Seconds please.

10k In A Blizzard

Well, not quite, but close enough for bragging rights. The Get In Gear 10k is an annual Minnesota event with 4000 or so runners - a very big, well-organized race, one of the kickoff events of the year, held in late April. Last year it was 68 and lovely, this year 34 degrees with pellet-style snow driven by 26 mph winds, gusting to the speed of sound. At least. Three layers above, tights, gloves, and a hat, and yet when I finished my face was so cold that my lips would barely move. Nevertheless it was an interesting and enjoyable race which gave the 3400 of us who finished something to talk about.

Unfortunately my time was abysmal: 49:49, not even quite 8:00 minute miles, 8:01 in fact. This is three minutes slower than last year’s 46:53, and I don’t think motivation was the problem; I tried pretty hard. Three major excuses for the difference: (1) Less training due to fairly recent injuries, now (I hope) healed; (2) More clothing (especially the tights) and high winds, and (3) Recent cancer treatment. I’m sure that all of these contributed to the loss of speed. In any case, the training issue will be resolved as my training goes back up again (but REMEMBER the 10% rule!), and I don’t know how to figure the extra clothing.

So what about the cancer treatment? In early March I started taking two drugs, dex and CC-4047:

• Dexamethasone (Dex) is a potent corticosteroid which I take once a week, 40 mg per dose. Among other effects it makes me a diabetic for a day after taking it, and it can have the effect of reducing muscle mass and adding fat around the stomach (indeed!). Probably not good for a runner, though I’m not sure it’s happening yet.


• CC-4047 is a cancer drug so new that it doesn’t have a real name yet. It works by messing with the immune system. One side effect is a lowering of the heart rate, called "bradycardia," as in "He’s bradying down!!" I know that my usual resting HR has dropped from an average of 48 before CC-4047 to about 40 now, but I don’t know how to determine whether the drug is reducing my HR at running speeds, when HR is in the 140's and up. I don’t have recent non-drug HR’s with which to compare it. I suspect that it is making a difference, though, because today it seemed like my speed was limited by breathing rather than muscle fatigue. I had to slow to a walk several times just to catch my breath, which suggests that the limiting factor was cardiopulmonary function rather than muscle readiness or glucose transport.

I’ll have a chance to discuss all of this with Dr. Lacy at Mayo soon. She’s a runner too :-) Perhaps I'm overcritical of the drugs when the alternative may be a long dirt nap. I'd rather run at any speed.

Splits: 7:10, 7:39, 7:56, 8:34 (hill), 8:08, 10:17, 5k split 23:39. Average pace was 8:01, compared with 7:33 last year. Looks like the pace dropped to 8:22 for the last 2.2 miles, which included a half mile or so directly into that screeching wind. I tried to draft behind another runner but with only modest success; it was hard to find one going exactly my speed. Nevertheless, despite all my whining, I did finish fourth of 24 in my age group, same as last year. Some of the other runners slowed down this year too.

Last year I also over-analyzed, just like this year, and looked at ten other regular runners about my age, not including me. I found that they lost (gained) an average of 84 seconds between 2006 and 2007. This year the 2007-2008 average was 81 seconds, about the same. So maybe that much is just due to age.

No pains. It’s a masterpiece!



Today's post-run breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, cantaloupe, Don's nut/berry/fruit mix, enormous blueberries, organic pecans, banana, organic nonfat milk, organic pomegranate juice. If I eat before I race, I pay for it all the rest of the day with an upset stomach. Fine if I eat afterward instead.


Yesterday's lunch: Organic chard, pistachios, cantaloupe, mango. Good fer what ails ya, and tasty besides.

Easy Three

Thursday, April 24:

North St Paul Community Center, three easy miles at a 9:17 pace, just to stay loose and get accustomed to the pace. I had intended to try to run the last mile at a 7:30 pace, but a slight warning from one hip suggested that I shouldn’t rush around that short track. Big races coming up, no need to risk injury.

Splits: 9:17, 9:17, 9:18, total 27:51, average pace 9:17. I’d love to run the whole marathon at this pace, but I know there will be trouble after mile 15 or 20 because I haven’t really done my long runs. It’s OK - I’ll just have to slow down a little then. Maybe I’ll make the 4:15 finish, maybe not. Finishing is most important.



Recent dinner: Wild-caught sole, organic sweet relish, organic mixed vegetables, mango, cucumber, organic broccoli with shredded asiago cheese, organic lemon, organic red wine vinegar. This is food to live by.

Tuesday, April 22

Again the idea was to run easy at about marathon pace, to get used to the pace and to continue to recover from last weekend’s race. Mission accomplished more or less. Six miles in 54:15, splits 9:05, 9:18, 8:30, 8:48, 9:35, 8:58, average pace 9:03. A little faster than MP, but I’ll probably go with a pace team at the marathon anyway, to keep from burning out early. Those splits are weird - I really don’t think that the mile markers on the Gateway are placed very accurately.

Good run - nothing hurts. Passed my sweeties on the trail twice - it’s a masterpiece!



Recent breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, blueberries, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, organic plum, nonfat organic milk, dried organic cherries, banana, organic pomegranate juice.


Today's lunch: All-organic homemade soup. You can see what's in it. Add a little pepper and salt - I had two bowls.


Recent dinner: Bison curry roast, organic parsnips, organic rutabaga, organic mixed brown rices in a marvelous curry sauce.

Hip Trouble Saturday

First, today's run:

The goal was to “recover” from Saturday’s Trail Mix and also to run easily, at the 9:30 pace I’d like to run in the upcoming marathon. That would get me to the finish in 4:09, with a comfortable 6-minute margin ahead of the 4:15 Boston-qualifying time. I think 4:09 - 4:15 may be a reasonable goal for my current level of fitness, even though I have no plan to run Boston again.

I succeeded with the run - no pains at all, and muscles feel relaxed with very little residual soreness from Saturday. I did not succeed quite as well with the pace - I ran a 4:00 marathon pace instead of 4:15. But with water stops and a few uphill walk breaks, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad pace in a marathon. Splits: 9:13, 13:34 (1.5 mi), total 22:47, pace 9:07. Breathing was mostly five footfalls per full breath, some four, never three, which suggests that it was a sustainable pace. Hope so.

This is “dex day,” because I took the weekly dexamethasone (steroid) cancer treatment last night. I still don’t know if dex helps or hurts endurance running, but I do know I’m happy to be taking it on Sunday night now instead of Friday, so that the weekend races can be dex-free. The dex effect is very noticeable on Monday (I’m hyper and temporarily diabetic!), less noticeable on Tuesday with poor sleep Tuesday night, then pretty normal the rest of the week. Pity those poor folks who used to take dex four days out of every eight; the doctors stopped prescribing that about a year ago when they figured out that the treatment killed almost as many people as the cancer did and that this treatment works almost as well at combating the cancer.

Hip Trouble:

Last Saturday, long after the pain-free Trail Mix race was over, I sat for a while in an uncomfortable position at a party. Standing up, I felt the sharp, stabbing pain in my right hip that I have experienced exactly three other times since early March. It is a real show-stopper - like an ice pick just at or below the joint. In the past I have thought that it was a bursa acting up, but now I’m not so sure - it seems farther inside. And it’s very tricky - some of the time during an incident I can walk normally, but then for no apparent reason the ice pick will stab and I’ll be stopped in my tracks. Sometimes I can even run a short bit, but then the same thing will happen, only worse. It will be slightly sensitive the next day and entirely gone in two, as it was today, so it’s obviously not a muscle or tendon injury. But in the meantime it prevents running and makes walking slow and difficult. In a marathon it might result in a DNF, depending on where in the marathon it happened. So far only one of the four instances occurred while running, and it did not happen during the 15-mile trail race, so I’m hopeful of finishing but concerned.

What’s common among the four instances? Three things come to mind: (1) In all cases, I was wearing running shoes with the custom orthotics in them; (2) In all cases except the run, I was wearing fairly tight jeans; and (3) In all cases but the run, the problem occurred when I was seated for at least 15 minutes and then got up and made an immediate turn to the left. So for now, until this is figured out, I will not wear old running shoes for casual use, I will not use the orthotics at all (they’re to prevent plantar fasciitis, a lesser problem), I will not wear those jeans, and I will try to remember to be very careful whenever I get out of a chair. As an extra measure: I will not sit with a wallet in my right hip pocket, especially when I drive a car with bucket seats.

And how can I take this problem to my wonderful internist, who can surely figure it out? I have to wait until the problem occurs and THEN try for a same-day appointment, because the pain will be gone by the next day. It may be a while before I can pull that off.

Longer run tomorrow, perhaps on the lovely Gateway Trail.



Yesterday's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, blueberries, banana, Dove dark chocolate, organic walnuts, Don's fruit/berry/nut mix, fresh mango, nonfat organic milk, organic pomegranate juice.


Yesterday's lunch: Organic gluten-free brown rice pasta, organic carrots and beans, organic sweet potato with organic flame raisins, homemade pasta sauce, shredded asiago and parmesan cheeses.


Tonight's dinner: Organic chicken leg, homemade cheesy corn crackers (yum), organic sweet potato with onion, organic pomegranate juice.

Should Feel Like This

No pains, only muscles with that “slightly-used” feeling. YAY! The Trail Mix 25k Race was my long run in anticipation of an upcoming marathon, and it’s a tough race, hilly and slow. Today, wherever the trail wasn’t muddy it was soft or covered with wood chips, which borrow some energy from every step and never return it. Every runner finished with mud splattered up the backs of their thighs and shoes weighing a lot more than they did at the start, myself included. I’ve seen those trails in worse shape, but not by much.

My time, according to my watch, was 2:25:20, two and a half minutes more than last year, not particularly good, especially since the race was shortened by perhaps a mile this time on account of snow on the ski hill that we usually traverse. Results are not posted yet, but compared with the posted times of two friends, I think that my average pace was about 30 to 40 seconds per mile slower this year than last. I guess this is not too surprising, because last year I had already run two 20-milers in just the month of April, before the Trail Mix. This year I haven’t run that long since January.

First loop 1:11:25, second loop 1:13:55. Breathing three or four footfalls per full breath, mostly three I think. I took gel three times and each time it did seem to rev up the motor a bit. The temperature was 45 with a noticeable breeze. I wore three shirts, probably one too many, with shorts, gloves, and ear cover. My humidistat is my running visor - when sweat drips from the visor during the run I say that the humidity is high, and it did today.

Most important, the goal of today’s race was to finish as well as possible AND without injury. Mission accomplished. Oh, and thanks to the speedier guys who didn’t bother to show up, I took home the medal for my age group. It’s a masterpiece!



Today's post-race breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, the biggest blueberries I've ever seen (grown in USA - how do they do that in April?), mango, Don's nut/berry/fruit mix, pineapple, organic walnuts, banana, nonfat organic milk, organic pomegranate juice concentrate reconstituted with sparkling water.


Dinner: Organic chicken in a wonderful curry sauce by Sunshine, over a brown rice mix, with organic broccoli and shredded cheeses.

Windy Gateway

I didn’t have plan for Tuesday’s run, just six miles, tapering toward a big weekend run. It went fine, no pains and a nice pace. Gateway Trail again, 64 degrees and winds averaging 28 mph. Happily, the Gateway offers some protection from the wind, even with no leaves on the trees, but it was still a bother. The wind provides a boost some of the time and resistance the rest of the time, but, as with hills, the net effect is negative. I ran an out-and back and got wind in both directions, so I’m pleased with my time.

Breathing was five footfalls per full breath for the first mile or so, then four most of the rest of the way. Splits: 9:03, 8:16, 7:56, 8:48, 8:36, 8:33, total 51:12. Pace 8:32. I think the Mile 10 mile marker is out of place, perhaps 100 or 200 meters too far north, accounting for some of the variation in splits. The Gateway Trail is pretty flat in the area where I ran today, and I’m sure that my pace was reasonably constant despite the wind. It’s a masterpiece!



Breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, fresh organic plum, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, blueberries, fresh mango, banana, nonfat organic milk, organic pomegranate juice, Dove dark chocolate.


Salad: Organic romaine lettuce, organic fennel, organic pecans, organic strawberries, homemade guacamole (ask Sunshine for the recipe), watermelon, organic red wine vinegar, organic teff rollup with melted parmesan.


Dinner and salad a different evening: Organic romaine lettuce, organic chicken, blue cheese, blackberry jam, onion, organic squash, shredded cheese, organic red wine vinegar.

Good Weekend

Sunday, Apr 13:

Today’s objective was just to lay down some miles to build base, of which I don’t have very much yet. We three went to the Gateway Trail. and I ran 10 miles at a pace of 8:44. I’m quite happy with that today. The best part is that I felt stronger as the miles passed. I did stop the watch briefly, twice to pee and take water, and once to say HI as I passed my sweeties, so those pauses might have given me a little extra zip.

No pains of any kind. Splits: 8:33, 8:30, 9:00, 8:37, 8:40, 9:28, 8:38, 8:51, 8:31, 8:28, total 1:27:17, pace 8:44. Temperature was 44 with a crosswind that seemed to always be a headwind! I can tell you that the Gateway is completely free of snow between miles 8 and 13, even for roller bladers. It was a good run.


Saturday, Apr 12:

Feels So Good. The plan for today’s run was to put in six miles, one way or another. I really did NOT want to run today, for some reason. But we three went to the North St Paul Community Center (bad weather outside) and ran on the gerbil track. To my surprise the first lap, which takes 40 seconds at a 9:00 pace, took only 38 seconds. Usually the first mile is slower than the rest, so I was encouraged. As I ran it just got better and better, finishing with a very nice last mile. Breathing was easy, five footfalls per full breath most of the way, dropping to four in mile 5 and three in the last mile.

This was a very nice run, and somewhat unexpected. No pains of any kind, not even going down the stairs after the run. Splits: 8:39, 8:35, 8:32, 8:32, 8:26, 8:07, total 50:50, pace 8:28. It’s a masterpiece!



Saturday's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, mango, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, organic strawberries, nonfat organic milk, banana, Dove dark chocolate, organic pomegranate juice.


Saturday's lunch: Organic rice curry with organic beans and shredded parmesan, organic sweet potato with organic salsa, cantaloupe, organic cashews, organic beets. I had a good run a few hours after eating this.


Friday night's Tex/Mex dinner: Organic bison and organic rice curry, organic teff rollup with melted cheese, homemade guacamole.

30-Mile Week

Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the biggest week of running for me since January. Inching forward. Today’s run was six miles at a modest pace, designed to be gentle on the left achilles tendon that complained a little after Tuesday’s run. It worked - that tendon was a little stiff at the beginning of the run and fine afterward. No complaints going down the stairs - the acid test. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Splits: 9:01, 8:56, 8:57, 8:56, 8:57, 8:56, average pace 8:57.

My resting heart rate was 40 again this morning, compared with a normal of 46 to 50. It’s the medicine. I’ve alerted Mayo by email and will see my PCP doc this afternoon about other things, so I’ll bring it up with him too. But I’m not too concerned - the beat is steady and strong, and during the run it averaged about 132, which seems normal for that pace.

I’ve ordered my 18th pair of Brooks Burn shoes now, probably my last, as they are discontinued and supply is getting scarce. Brooks says their replacement is to be called the “Ghost,” available June 1. Same weight, for neutral runners, new technology. Do you suppose there’s a shipload of them on its way from China already?




Today's post-run breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cinnamon, blueberries, mango, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, organic lowfat milk, banana, Dove dark chocolate, organic pomegranate juice.


Today's lunch: Bison sausage, organic rutabaga, organic parsnip, homemade organic sauce, organic broccoli, shredded parmesan cheese.


Tonight's salad: Organic romaine, cucumber, organic pecans, blue cheese, avocado, pineapple, organic red wine vinegar.

Two Runs

Tuesday, April 8:

The idea for this run was to push the pace a little and charge the hills, in anticipation of a much hillier race in a couple of weeks. I ran hard enough to make it feel a bit like a race, with race-pace breathing, and was disappointed when the first mile clocked in at 8:59. The eventual average pace for the 4-mile run was 8:36, not what I had hoped, but it will have to do for now. Temperature 38, very little breeze, I wore tights, one shirt, and a wind jacket.

Slight pain in the left achilles tendon, noticed on the last downhill. Noticeable again the next morning. Hope it’s nothing. Stretch, stretch, stretch. Also the next morning my resting heart rate was 40, which is low for me. Normally it is 46 to 50. This “bradycardia” is most likely a side effect of the CC-4047 study drug that I am taking for the myeloma. If it's also happening while I run, it could account in part for the slower-than-expected pace.

I’ve almost reached the mileage limit on my “training” pair of Brooks Burns shoes. It’s my 16th pair, but now the Burn has been discontinued. I have to switch my 17th pair from “racing” over to training, and buy a new pair for racing on the discontinued shoes market or figure out what to use for a replacement. Very light, cushioned, neutral shoes.

Monday, April 7:

Objectives of a “recovery” run: (1) Keep muscles loose; and (2) Avoid injury & maybe reduce the likelihood of future injury. Should be followed by stretches, as should all runs. Today I ran three easy miles on the NSPCC indoor track (rainy out), and it felt good. Splits: 8:59, 8:57, 8:58, total 26:54, pace 8:58.



Breakfast: Irish oatmeal with cranberries and organic flame raisins, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, organic walnuts, dried hibiscus blossoms, banana, organic pomegranate juice, blueberries, nonfat organic milk.


Lunch: Cold-fighting chicken soup with organic chicken, onions, organic carrots, organic pepper, and more. Almost a stew really. And the cold is gone!


Dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan salmon (processed in the USA) with organic yogurt and dill, organic romaine lettuce with cucumber, blue cheese, and sunflower seeds, all topped with a little homemade guacamole a la Sunshine & a bit of organic red wine vinegar, roasted asparagus. Doesn't get much better than this!

Sleep Well Tonight

I will, after two runs today, five miles and 12 miles, total 17.

Morning:

As always, a delightful run with friends. Tom, Mike, and Dave zipped out ahead with Wayne and me a few minutes behind. Roy, Dave, and Charlie followed not far behind. 38 degrees with a little breeze and bright blue sky, the day started very well. Wayne and I finished the five miles in 44:07, for a modest pace of 8:49. Good enough - I have a chest cold and really didn’t want to breathe any harder. Lovely run.

Afternoon:

When I am running without injury I like to set up a schedule of runs and follow it rather closely. Today the schedule went out the window! I had planned to run five miles today (Saturday) and five or six more tomorrow, setting up for a 14-mile run later in the week, probably Tuesday. But a quick look at the weather of the week ahead suggested that today would be the best day of all. Furthermore, my sweeties were already out on the Gateway Trail, first time this year, so why not join them? Besides that I had already run five miles in the morning, so perhaps an additional 10 or 12 miles would be enough to equal a continuous run of 14 miles.

Sure enough, it worked. Despite the lovely 60-degree weather, the Gateway Trail was not really in running shape yet, with significant stretches still layered in squishy snow as shown on Sunshine’s Blog. Nevertheless I ran and slogged for 12 ponderous miles, finishing in 1:57:45, for an average pace of 9:49. Truly Long Slow Distance (LSD). I walked through much of the snow as a precaution against falling, especially in the last several miles when I was especially tired.

But I feel wonderful. Thigh and calf muscles have that “take me to bed” feeling that tells me this was a good training run. No pains WHATSOEVER. By far the biggest running day since January. A good day all around - it’s a masterpiece!

Splits: 9:24, 9:04, 9:28, 8:36, 9:16, 8:49, 8:51, 11:25, 10:10, 10:53, 11:45, 10:02.



First half of today's breakfast: Denver omelet with organic eggs, organic salsa, and parmesan cheese, and organic pomegranate juice. Thank you Sunshine.


Second half of today's breakfast: Fruit bowl containing a banana, organic apple, kiwi, blueberries, dried cranberries, organic yogurt, organic medjool date, Dove dark chocolate Easter egg. Maybe by now it's an Ascension egg.


Tonight's recovery dinner: Tender roasted venison with a delicious curry sauce, organic sweet potato, naval orange. Not shown: A very nice stout.

Warm Afternoon Run

What a wonderful afternoon run. A stomach full of lunch and a chest cold, but it went well nonetheless. I didn’t feel very strong, but the pace was fine. Breathing was mostly four footfalls per full breath, three toward the end. I walked a couple of times up the hills in the last mile. 58 degrees and breezy, somewhat hilly. I love running outdoors after so many miles on the gerbil track.

Splits: 8:35, 8:29, 9:52 (1.1 mi), 8:16, 8:48, total 43:59, pace 8:37. Plenty good enough. It’s a masterpiece. Run easy tomorrow.



Today's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, dried dragonfruit, organic walnuts, blueberries, banana, organic nonfat milk.


Today's lunch: Organic winter squash with melted jarlsburg cheese, organic apple, organic brazil nuts, watermelon, organic prunes, organic pomegranate juice.


Today's supper: Gluten-free teff rollup, organic beans and tomatoes with parmesan cheese, organic romaine lettuce, Sunshine's homemade guacamole, organic broccoli, nice porter.

162 Gerbil Laps

I had hoped to do this run outdoors, but with a sticky 8-inch snowfall yesterday and last night, the indoor track was a better choice. 13.5 laps per mile, 12 miles, longest run since mid-January. NO PAINS at all! It’s a masterpiece.

Splits: 8:57, 8:48, 8:59, 8:50, 9:24, 8:53, 9:03, 8:53, 9:17, 8:40, 8:49, 8:19, total 1:46:51, average pace 8:54. Water after every even mile, gel after miles 4 & 8. I walk for water and gel, so the odd miles take a bit longer. I seem to be getting a chest cold, so I really didn’t want to hurry. Felt good all the way, best toward the end.

Chicken soup tonight, liniment on my chest, an extra shirt for warmth, lots of sleep. That should help.



This morning's cold-treating & run-recovery breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries (under there somewhere), banana, medjool date, clementine, mango, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, more mango, organic nonfat milk, kiwi, Dove dark chocolate, pure organic pomegranate juice.


Recent dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan salmon, organic green beans, organic sweet potato roasted with cheese, organic lemon, organic sweet pickle relish, pure organic pomegranate juice.