The Running Thread - 2016

[NJlauren]

Someone posted a few days back about what to do when it's hot and running. They mentioned don't wear cotton.... But for the life of me I can't remember what was recommended to wear instead.

Any suggestions? Including brands or stores to go to?

Thanks!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Someone posted a few days back about what to do when it's hot and running. They mentioned don't wear cotton.... But for the life of me I can't remember what was recommended to wear instead.

Any suggestions? Including brands or stores to go to?

Thanks!

Any clothes made of wicking fabrics will do - you don't have to spend a lot of money. My wife gets most of our running clothes from Marshalls.

 

[NJlauren]

Any clothes made of wicking fabrics will do - you don't have to spend a lot of money. My wife gets most of our running clothes from Marshalls.

So the stupid follow up... What does that mean?

 

[Waiting2goback]

Stay strong, @Waiting2goback . Dopey 2018 is on my list as well. Sometimes it seems so far away, yet it also feels like it's coming too soon when I think of how far I still have to go to get there. Thanks for your running quote posts. I find them inspiring.

Yes, it will be here before we know it. Just keep doing your best and making improvements and the time will take care of itself. I'm glad you are liking the quotes as well. I will keep posting them as long as they are helping people.

So it has been a while since I have posted. I now haven't run since 8th May and I still have my chest infection. Antibiotics haven't shifted it and I had an x-ray today.
Been able to keep calm about the fact I haven't started training for the Disney Paris Half but beginning to panic now. Thinking that I am going to have 12 weeks max to train if I can shift my chest infection soon. What was going to be try and aim for a time, I think at maximum it is going to be just finish in the time limit.

I never thought I would be someone to say that I mis training and I want to be running again. So frustrating!

You don't know what you have until it's gone! I can't think of the song it came from for the life of me but seems fitting. Sometimes it feels like work getting in the workouts and stuff but the minute it is taken away you feel helpless, or at least I do.

So the stupid follow up... What does that mean?

You would be looking for anything that might be called a "tech shirt". Just read the description on the tag. It will say moisture wicking fabric, or just wicking fabric. It's usually a slippery material. Any company that makes running apparel will have these types of clothes. Here is an example of one from Champion that can be found at Target.

http://www.target.com/p/c9-champion-women-s-tech-t-shirt/-/A-50332901

I posted women's given your screen name but the same rules apply for men. I actually get a lot of my stuff at Kohl's because they have good sales usually.

 

[Waiting2goback]

 

[Baloo in MI]

Way to go!



Wow, a 19:00 minute 5K is ambitious. That's a 6:07 min/mile. What training plan are you going to follow? I've got Jack Daniels book which has a few 5K plans based on weekly mileage. I'd be willing to share the details, just let me know. I'm interested because I also plan on following a 5K/10K plan next Spring.



Congrats on the race! Bummer the conditions were so hot though. Did you use any pre-cooling strategies prior to the race? My recent research binge suggests it can improve heat adjusted times by 7-13%. Everyone reacts differently to the heat, but that's a pretty healthy improvement by implementing a few simple strategies. So nice the neighbors were spraying everyone. You could most definitely use your past POT if you're still happy with last year's corral placement.

My POT was pretty solid putting me in A and D, so for now I think I will just go with that time. As for the heat, I drank lots of water, stayed out of the sun pre-race and took two water cups at each of the water stations one for my head and one to drink. Still I was melting. I would love to learn about any other strategies you could suggest.

 

[keahgirl8]

You are absolutely right to say that a lot of runners don't listen to their doctor. I think it's important, though, to chime in that doctors don't always have the right answer. They are human with biases and the ability to make mistakes, along with a financial incentive to make the most conservative recommendation, lest they be sued for malpractice.

In my case, I had a knee injury back in 2009 that required surgery for meniscal cleanup. I thought all was going well through the surgery, PT and rehab and I was on track for a return to Ultimate frisbee (which precipitated the injury). At the last follow-up visit, the orthopedist/surgeon dropped on me that I should never play again and I shouldn't even walk up and down steps if they could be avoided, at all! I had been clear in my intention to return to activity throughout the process and to have that delivered at the eleventh hour in an "oh, by the way" manner was devastating.

I was overweight at the time and I'm sure that played into the diagnosis, but there were no caveats or "if you drop some weight, you could..." components to the message. It was devastating, my only outlet for activity and one of my primary joys in life was taken away. I responded with depression and a spiral into about 60-70 additional pounds. That's my fault for letting it happen, but the diagnosis certainly provided the catalyst for it.

Four years later, I decided that enough was enough, lost the weight through walking, got back to playing Ultimate, and now have run distances up through a marathon with my knees feeling healthier than they ever have. If I had just "listened to my doctor" I'd still be 150 pounds heavier and would missed out on some of the most important moments of my life.

This is not to imply that doctors should not be listened to. Rather, their advice needs to be taken in context and evaluated as one piece of the puzzle, not the only piece. Don't be afraid to get second opinions, ask "what if" questions, and be prepared to evaluate and take responsibility for yourself.

I know what you mean. My doctor has suggested that I not do any more half marathons. Maybe I won't. I know I'm not ready to do one any time soon, but I'm going to re-evaluate things next summer. It is way too soon to tell.

Any clothes made of wicking fabrics will do - you don't have to spend a lot of money. My wife gets most of our running clothes from Marshalls.

Agreed! I rarely pay much for mine!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

So the stupid follow up... What does that mean?

Most wicking fabrics are synthetic, but there are a few natural wicking fabrics (like wool). When it comes to hot weather gear, I stick with the synthetic stuff, but keep in mind that it will smell worse than natural fabrics after you sweat in it.

Wicking fabrics work wonderfully, as they use "capillary" action to draw moisture away from your skin and move it toward the outside of the fabric so it can be exposed directly to the air, encouraging the evaporative process long before your shirt is soaked with sweat. This means that your body begins cooling through evaporation almost as effectively as it would if you were wearing nothing. It works best if it fits more closely, which means that baggy is bad. Too baggy and you lose most of the evaporative cooling benefits, though it is still much lighter than cotton and holds much less water. So, even if you like your running clothes baggy, it is a much better choice than cotton.

Cotton holds the moisture evenly throughout the fabric, leaving your skin "wet". Because it does not wick moisture away from your skin, it has to soak all the way through and stay soaked before the evaporative process even begins. This means that it gets wet and stays wet, and because cotton can store so much liquid it keeps getting heavier and heavier as you continue to sweat during your run.

To be sure, even wicking fabrics eventually get soaked with sweat if it is hot or humid outside, but you will feel cooler and more comfortable running in them - and even when soaked these clothes are much lighter because they cannot store as much liquid as cotton.

 

[DopeyBadger]

My POT was pretty solid putting me in A and D, so for now I think I will just go with that time. As for the heat, I drank lots of water, stayed out of the sun pre-race and took two water cups at each of the water stations one for my head and one to drink. Still I was melting. I would love to learn about any other strategies you could suggest.

Yea, that's a solid POT. You should be very comfortable there even if you aren't able to find another POT race between now and October.

My race next weekend could be hot, although right now it's looking like 60-70s in the morning. Just in case, I started researching pre-cooling strategies. I haven't finalized my plan yet, but this is what I've got so far (WARNING!!!! upcoming block of text, LOL!):

1) Haircut (It's getting bad...., LOL!)
2) Ice Cooling towels on head, neck, torso, and arms
3) Rub ice on head, neck, torso, and arms
4) Drink 10oz slushy ice mix about 10 min prior to race
5) Put my handheld bottle in an ice cooler until right before the race starts
6) If possible, have someone meet me at halfway mark and give a iced bottle of water to be consumed and poured on me

The thought process on pre-cooling is that a limiting factor in performance is when your core body temperature (or your perception of your core body temperature) reaches around 104 degrees the body starts to force a slow down. If you reach this point, there is little you can do mid-race. Thus, the strategy is to pre-cool your body prior to the race. If you lower your core body temperature by a few degrees, then the body has further to raise up to hit the 104. I've used this strategy in the past but only used item #2. According to my recent research binge, no one method is better than any other, but a combination of methods is the best plan of attack. Thus, a strategy that incorporates cooling the body within (e.g. ice slushy drink) and cooling the skin on the outside (e.g. ice and ice towels) will help with the pre-race cooling. The ice plays a critical role because that short period of time that forces the ice solid into liquid water requires a significant amount of energy.

"Heat from the skin and surrounding tissues is absorbed by the ice, and as a result, the ice changes to water through a process called fusion (melting). Based on the energy exchange theory of melting, ice requires ~80 times more thermal energy to increase the temperature of water by 1 degree due to its phase change that must occur when water changes from its solid to liquid phase (at 0 degrees, 333.55kJ (if ice) vs 4.18 kJ without phase change). As a result, cooling with ice may be achieved with lower amounts of integument, at a faster rate and to a greater magnitude when compared to water." (Precooling Methods and Their Effects on Athletic Performance, Ross et al., 2013)

The same concept plays out both with the ice slushy drink and the ice to the skin. The colder the bottle of water drank mid-race the same concept, and if you can get a slushy ice mix then as well then even better. I'll add one other thought that I haven't read anywhere but that makes sense to me. If you put the ice in a bag (like a plastic bag), then I would guess it diminishes the effectiveness of this plan since there is another medium to exchange heat with. My guess is that direct contact between the skin and ice is the most optimal means to execute this plan.

Some other possible suggestions:

1) Air-conditioned building or car. If you can stay inside a cool building for as long as possible, you reap some benefits of cold induction. The protocol suggests a room at 4 degrees, but practically you're not going to find that. My alternate suggestion is a very cold car. If possible, just leave the building/car right as the race is starting.
2) Wear a phase transitioning vest. These vests are expensive, but the premise is the same as the ice/ice packs to the skin. The one advantage they have over the ice/ice pack methods is that they can be worn during warm-ups and thus keep the body cooler for longer. You have to buy a nice light one though because the added weight during warm-up can cause gait changes and that introduces a new problem (that's the reason why a ice or ice pack vest isn't as practical because it would be significantly heavier). It seems from the research that if you only use a phase transition vest for after the warm-up than ice/ice packs is equivalent in its capability.
3) Take a very cold shower for a long duration before the race. This only works well if the race is local. But take a cold shower for 30ish minutes and then head out to the starting line. The effects of the cold shower should last about 1-2 hours so that'll effect whether this is an effective race strategy. They also sell portable cooling pools, but they're expensive and require an electrical outlet (so they're not practical).
4) Swig of mouth wash. This one seems the most interesting to me. Essentially, you swig and spit out some "methanol-based" mouth wash. The kind that after you spit it out give you that cooling/tingling sensation. Apparently this "cooler" feeling in the mouth sends messages to the body that it's cooler than it thinks it is. This means rather than actually effecting the core body temperature, it affects the mind's perception of how hot it is. I find this one the most interesting because it suggests that the actual lowering of the body's temperature isn't solely important but that altering one's perception of temperature can be effective as well. This opens the door to other manipulations of perception of temperature as possible pre-cooling strategies. Although I wasn't able to find any other suggestions.

So, does it matter? Should I even worry about pre-cooling? Well, yea it's actually a pretty big deal. The improvements seen with pre-cooling range from 7-13% better races. The opposite way is to look at it like this. Say I would run a 41:46 10K under ideal conditions. And let's suppose a pre-cooling strategy effectively staved off any negative effects of heat accumulation. Then a 7% loss in performance because of no pre-cooling would be a 44:38 and a 13% loss in performance would be a 48:00 10K. So a nearly 6 minute improvement just by implementing a good pre-cooling strategy. Yea, I'm all for that!

 

[FFigawi]

The same concept plays out both with the ice slushy drink and the ice to the skin. The colder the bottle of water drank mid-race the same concept, and if you can get a slushy ice mix then as well then even better. I'll add one other thought that I haven't read anywhere but that makes sense to me. If you put the ice in a bag (like a plastic bag), then I would guess it diminishes the effectiveness of this plan since there is another medium to exchange heat with. My guess is that direct contact between the skin and ice is the most optimal means to execute this plan.

Make it easy on yourself. Instead of trying to concoct a slushy ice mix, use Freeze Pops. Yes, those colored sugar water tubes you by at the grocery store. They're cheap, easy to freeze, easy to transport, and easy to eat. My old running group in Houston used them at all of our water stops during the summer.

One thing many people use when running in the Middle East heat is arm cooling sleeves. They're kind of like compression sleeves and do a great job of keeping you cool when you pour water on them.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Article on the advantages of drinking a slushie before a hot run: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/health/nutrition/27best.html?_r=0

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

I ran the Run for the Pies 5k last night. It was DS9 first 5k and I am so proud of him! It was so hot but atleast it was late enough that the sun was not beating down on us. One of the highlights was watching the Nike Championship 5k that was a half an hour before we started. They had to run 3 laps and we had curbside seats. It was amazing to watch them run. They all looked so graceful. There was an equalizer bonus and the women had a 2:30 head start. It was close but 2 women finished ahead of the men. The winning woman had a time of 18:05 and the winning man's time was 15:48!!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Make it easy on yourself. Instead of trying to concoct a slushy ice mix, use Freeze Pops. Yes, those colored sugar water tubes you by at the grocery store. They're cheap, easy to freeze, easy to transport, and easy to eat. My old running group in Houston used them at all of our water stops during the summer.

One thing many people use when running in the Middle East heat is arm cooling sleeves. They're kind of like compression sleeves and do a great job of keeping you cool when you pour water on them.

Thanks for the tip. That sounds much easier than trying to figure out how to make an ice slushy.

 

[Miranda]

I ran my Market Square Day 10K yesterday morning. It went ok. I was feeling ok about it until Saturday morning. My lower back was very sore on Friday night, and still sore Saturday morning. It affected me all through my run and was really bad the rest of the day yesterday, and is still sore. My back hardly ever bothers me like that anymore, but Friday was my regular monthly chiropractor appointment, and it was canceled because the doctor wasn't coming in in the morning. And then my back got sore later that night?! How did it know that I skipped my visit?

I had a pretty good race even though my legs were still super sluggish from my HM 6 days before and my lower back being sore, and in spite of my pre-race fueling. It was also kind of warm in the beginning before it got cloudy. I don't know how this happened, but I forgot to drink anything all morning before the race? I got up at 6:45 and by the time I got dressed and took the dog out and packed up all my crap to drive to the shuttle bus, I realized I'd not had any water. And I did not eat as much as I normally would before a race. I brought a Larabar with me (usually I eat some oatmeal and a banana, but we were out of bananas and I didn't have time to make oatmeal). Once I realized I forgot to drink anything before leaving the house, I was going to get a water at the race start. I should have been plenty early enough, and there is a coffee shop right in the square near the start. Last year I got to the shuttle bus parking area around 7:45 (9:00 start) and the bus started running a few of us over early (the bus wasn't supposed to start until 8:00) so I had tons of time to kill all by myself in the square at the cafe. This year, the first bus did not even leave the shuttle area until 8:25, and the cafe area was packed by the time I got there and I didn't manage to go in and get a water.

A couple of the miles I walked up some hills a lot more than I should have. But I still came out with a race PR, 1:14:38, an over 4 min race PR from last year (1:18:49). And not too far off my distance PR of 1:13:39, which was pancake flat. I think the biggest hill in the PR one was about 5 feet, no joke, it was mostly along the ocean. Kicking myself for walking up those hills now, my good splits were 10:53, 11:31, 12:21 (I could have probably done better on that one too), and 11:34. My bad splits were 12:51 and 12:41... gave away a lot of time there compared to the good ones. Oh well, my next 10K is in mid-August, and my last HM is 7/9, so I should have plenty of just base building and rest before that one.

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

Well, I survived my half marathon yesterday! But geez, if you want a drama-free and uneventful race, please don't sign up for one I'm involved in, because I'm 2/2 with the halfs I've attempted so far. First Wine and Dine with its shortened course last year, and now yesterday the heat caused the race to go to a red flag and stop official timing. They still let us finish (they have a black flag that would cause race cancellation) so I at least can say I completed the distance, but I only have times up to the 10 mile split.

The weather fortunately wasn't as terrible overall as I feared. Definitely warm and humid, but when the race started, there were some thin clouds, the sun was still low, and with the course being along the Lake Michigan lakefront, there was a lake breeze almost the entire time that helped. But right around when I reached mile 9-10 was when was the sun was getting a lot stronger and between 10 and 11 for me was when they changed the flag warning and stopped the timing. If it had been like it was those last 3 miles the whole time it might have ended a lot differently for me. It was brutal. But as it was, I took it really slow the whole time, walked a lot more than I wish I had had to, and as a result was able to finish with no ill effects other than blisters on my feet. So while I'm a bit disappointed I don't have any official time, and therefore can't submit to RunDisney (although I probably wouldn't anyway since my previous 10K time is probably better) considering the conditions, I'm just proud to have finished. A half marathon, even walking a lot of it, is no joke!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I ran my Market Square Day 10K yesterday morning. It went ok. I was feeling ok about it until Saturday morning. My lower back was very sore on Friday night, and still sore Saturday morning. It affected me all through my run and was really bad the rest of the day yesterday, and is still sore. My back hardly ever bothers me like that anymore, but Friday was my regular monthly chiropractor appointment, and it was canceled because the doctor wasn't coming in in the morning. And then my back got sore later that night?! How did it know that I skipped my visit?

I had a pretty good race even though my legs were still super sluggish from my HM 6 days before and my lower back being sore, and in spite of my pre-race fueling. It was also kind of warm in the beginning before it got cloudy. I don't know how this happened, but I forgot to drink anything all morning before the race? I got up at 6:45 and by the time I got dressed and took the dog out and packed up all my crap to drive to the shuttle bus, I realized I'd not had any water. And I did not eat as much as I normally would before a race. I brought a Larabar with me (usually I eat some oatmeal and a banana, but we were out of bananas and I didn't have time to make oatmeal). Once I realized I forgot to drink anything before leaving the house, I was going to get a water at the race start. I should have been plenty early enough, and there is a coffee shop right in the square near the start. Last year I got to the shuttle bus parking area around 7:45 (9:00 start) and the bus started running a few of us over early (the bus wasn't supposed to start until 8:00) so I had tons of time to kill all by myself in the square at the cafe. This year, the first bus did not even leave the shuttle area until 8:25, and the cafe area was packed by the time I got there and I didn't manage to go in and get a water.

A couple of the miles I walked up some hills a lot more than I should have. But I still came out with a race PR, 1:14:38, an over 4 min race PR from last year (1:18:49). And not too far off my distance PR of 1:13:39, which was pancake flat. I think the biggest hill in the PR one was about 5 feet, no joke, it was mostly along the ocean. Kicking myself for walking up those hills now, my good splits were 10:53, 11:31, 12:21 (I could have probably done better on that one too), and 11:34. My bad splits were 12:51 and 12:41... gave away a lot of time there compared to the good ones. Oh well, my next 10K is in mid-August, and my last HM is 7/9, so I should have plenty of just base building and rest before that one.

A race PR of 4 minutes in a HM from one year to the next is awesome. That's a 5.3% improvement, which given the pre-race mishap is incredible and plus add on that you just ran a HM last weekend that you did well at and have likely not fully recovered from. And only one minute from a pancake flat HM PR when you had an elevation change of 95 ft this time is awesome as well. Keep up the great work! Take some well deserved easy days coming up!

Well, I survived my half marathon yesterday! But geez, if you want a drama-free and uneventful race, please don't sign up for one I'm involved in, because I'm 2/2 with the halfs I've attempted so far. First Wine and Dine with its shortened course last year, and now yesterday the heat caused the race to go to a red flag and stop official timing. They still let us finish (they have a black flag that would cause race cancellation) so I at least can say I completed the distance, but I only have times up to the 10 mile split.

The weather fortunately wasn't as terrible overall as I feared. Definitely warm and humid, but when the race started, there were some thin clouds, the sun was still low, and with the course being along the Lake Michigan lakefront, there was a lake breeze almost the entire time that helped. But right around when I reached mile 9-10 was when was the sun was getting a lot stronger and between 10 and 11 for me was when they changed the flag warning and stopped the timing. If it had been like it was those last 3 miles the whole time it might have ended a lot differently for me. It was brutal. But as it was, I took it really slow the whole time, walked a lot more than I wish I had had to, and as a result was able to finish with no ill effects other than blisters on my feet. So while I'm a bit disappointed I don't have any official time, and therefore can't submit to RunDisney (although I probably wouldn't anyway since my previous 10K time is probably better) considering the conditions, I'm just proud to have finished. A half marathon, even walking a lot of it, is no joke!

Virtual High-Five! Sounds like you conquered the conditions. Bummer no official race time, but a kudos to you regardless.

 

[croach]

Here's a pretty good article about hydration(I learned a couple things anyways). Hoping I posted the link correctly.

http://running.competitor.com/2014/06/nutrition/hydration-101-sports-drinks-vs-water_52293

Anybody watch the show Boundless on the Esquire Channel? I'm catching up on the current season and they do some wild races on there. Between that and watching the live feed of the Eagleman Half Ironman, I want to try some new races.

PS: heart goes out to everyone affected by the shootings in Orlando last night. So very sad.

 

[Miranda]

Sorry that happened to your race @*DisneyDreamer! That would be super frustrating. Glad you only came out of it with some blisters, though.

 

[Miranda]

A race PR of 4 minutes in a HM from one year to the next is awesome. That's a 5.3% improvement, which given the pre-race mishap is incredible and plus add on that you just ran a HM last weekend that you did well at and have likely not fully recovered from. And only one minute from a pancake flat HM PR when you had an elevation change of 95 ft this time is awesome as well. Keep up the great work! Take some well deserved easy days coming up!

Before I started running a lot again, cutting minutes off a time, especially a slow back of the pack time, seemed like NBD. But now that I have been running again for a year and a half, it is hard to find those seconds. I do plan to take it easy the next few weeks, try to get back to yoga, get back into running more regularly, and just maintain my training with a couple longer runs to get me through this last HM for the spring. My training this spring has been all over the place, between trying to train for these 3 halfs and laziness (I found it harder to get motivated sometimes without the "omg I paid a bazillion dollars to fly across the country and run Tink, I HAVE to get out there" impetus) and then the thing going on with my calf that I had earlier in the spring.

I'm doing fundraising for charity for my next HM, and it's my Half Fanatics qualifying race, so I'm just going to try and enjoy it and finish. I had been hoping to PR on these first 2, but maybe I'll have better luck in the fall. I am for sure doing one in mid-November and maybe one in late October.

 

[Baloo in MI]

Yea, that's a solid POT. You should be very comfortable there even if you aren't able to find another POT race between now and October.

My race next weekend could be hot, although right now it's looking like 60-70s in the morning. Just in case, I started researching pre-cooling strategies. I haven't finalized my plan yet, but this is what I've got so far (WARNING!!!! upcoming block of text, LOL!):

1) Haircut (It's getting bad...., LOL!)
2) Ice Cooling towels on head, neck, torso, and arms
3) Rub ice on head, neck, torso, and arms
4) Drink 10oz slushy ice mix about 10 min prior to race
5) Put my handheld bottle in an ice cooler until right before the race starts
6) If possible, have someone meet me at halfway mark and give a iced bottle of water to be consumed and poured on me

The thought process on pre-cooling is that a limiting factor in performance is when your core body temperature (or your perception of your core body temperature) reaches around 104 degrees the body starts to force a slow down. If you reach this point, there is little you can do mid-race. Thus, the strategy is to pre-cool your body prior to the race. If you lower your core body temperature by a few degrees, then the body has further to raise up to hit the 104. I've used this strategy in the past but only used item #2. According to my recent research binge, no one method is better than any other, but a combination of methods is the best plan of attack. Thus, a strategy that incorporates cooling the body within (e.g. ice slushy drink) and cooling the skin on the outside (e.g. ice and ice towels) will help with the pre-race cooling. The ice plays a critical role because that short period of time that forces the ice solid into liquid water requires a significant amount of energy.

"Heat from the skin and surrounding tissues is absorbed by the ice, and as a result, the ice changes to water through a process called fusion (melting). Based on the energy exchange theory of melting, ice requires ~80 times more thermal energy to increase the temperature of water by 1 degree due to its phase change that must occur when water changes from its solid to liquid phase (at 0 degrees, 333.55kJ (if ice) vs 4.18 kJ without phase change). As a result, cooling with ice may be achieved with lower amounts of integument, at a faster rate and to a greater magnitude when compared to water." (Precooling Methods and Their Effects on Athletic Performance, Ross et al., 2013)

The same concept plays out both with the ice slushy drink and the ice to the skin. The colder the bottle of water drank mid-race the same concept, and if you can get a slushy ice mix then as well then even better. I'll add one other thought that I haven't read anywhere but that makes sense to me. If you put the ice in a bag (like a plastic bag), then I would guess it diminishes the effectiveness of this plan since there is another medium to exchange heat with. My guess is that direct contact between the skin and ice is the most optimal means to execute this plan.

Some other possible suggestions:

1) Air-conditioned building or car. If you can stay inside a cool building for as long as possible, you reap some benefits of cold induction. The protocol suggests a room at 4 degrees, but practically you're not going to find that. My alternate suggestion is a very cold car. If possible, just leave the building/car right as the race is starting.
2) Wear a phase transitioning vest. These vests are expensive, but the premise is the same as the ice/ice packs to the skin. The one advantage they have over the ice/ice pack methods is that they can be worn during warm-ups and thus keep the body cooler for longer. You have to buy a nice light one though because the added weight during warm-up can cause gait changes and that introduces a new problem (that's the reason why a ice or ice pack vest isn't as practical because it would be significantly heavier). It seems from the research that if you only use a phase transition vest for after the warm-up than ice/ice packs is equivalent in its capability.
3) Take a very cold shower for a long duration before the race. This only works well if the race is local. But take a cold shower for 30ish minutes and then head out to the starting line. The effects of the cold shower should last about 1-2 hours so that'll effect whether this is an effective race strategy. They also sell portable cooling pools, but they're expensive and require an electrical outlet (so they're not practical).
4) Swig of mouth wash. This one seems the most interesting to me. Essentially, you swig and spit out some "methanol-based" mouth wash. The kind that after you spit it out give you that cooling/tingling sensation. Apparently this "cooler" feeling in the mouth sends messages to the body that it's cooler than it thinks it is. This means rather than actually effecting the core body temperature, it affects the mind's perception of how hot it is. I find this one the most interesting because it suggests that the actual lowering of the body's temperature isn't solely important but that altering one's perception of temperature can be effective as well. This opens the door to other manipulations of perception of temperature as possible pre-cooling strategies. Although I wasn't able to find any other suggestions.

So, does it matter? Should I even worry about pre-cooling? Well, yea it's actually a pretty big deal. The improvements seen with pre-cooling range from 7-13% better races. The opposite way is to look at it like this. Say I would run a 41:46 10K under ideal conditions. And let's suppose a pre-cooling strategy effectively staved off any negative effects of heat accumulation. Then a 7% loss in performance because of no pre-cooling would be a 44:38 and a 13% loss in performance would be a 48:00 10K. So a nearly 6 minute improvement just by implementing a good pre-cooling strategy. Yea, I'm all for that!

Thank you @DopeyBadger. As usual your feedback is very helpful!