Morning exercises
When I was loosing weight rapidly in Miami I would work out before breakfast. I got to a point where I hated to do that because I would totally run out of energy before my workout was over. Of course, I was being a bit nutty about it all - I roller bladed 10 miles before breakfast or rode my bike for 20 miles. I was totally bonking on no breakfast. Over the past year or so I've read a few articles about how you burn more fat exercising before you break your fast, but my aversion from previous experience kept me from trying it again. I read another quick article about it again, and this one motivated me to give it a try. Anything to stave off holiday weight gain (except not eating holiday treats....) I got up yesterday morning and walked on the treadmill before breakfast, and it was totally fine. I did it again this morning too with no ill effects. I suspect I will be able to run/walk before breakfast as well. If I get to the point that I am training for an actual race I will probably shift to eating breakfast before running, but that seems to be a ways away from the moment. We shall see if this one tweak to my routine has any positive effects. I was 200.8 lbs on Monday. I'll be curious to see where I am on Friday.
What about running?
My feet are feeling great. I am still adjusting to my new Terra Plana vivobarefoot shoes. I wake up with a little soreness in my feet (overall) that fades as I walk around. I can feel my general walking pace picking up, and I'm up to walking at a 2.6 mph pace on the treadmill. These are all fabulous things. I have done a few walk/run sessions on the treadmill. I've decided to lay off on that until about January 15th, 2011. This will give me about a month of walking around totally barefoot style. I can feel my feet getting stronger, but since I am still experiencing some foot fatigue I want to be darn sure I'm ready to take the next step.
When I can run again I will run for 2 minutes 30 seconds for four sprints during my roughly 30 minutes on the treadmill. I'll start the process by run/walk one day, walk for 2 days in a row and then run again. My week will go run, walk walk, run, walk walk. Once I have NO foot soreness from this set up I will move up to a run walk run walk pattern. Again, once I have NO foot soreness at all I will move on to extending my running segments past 2 minutes and 30 seconds (which is the average length of a commercial break). I may end up with a full month going by between changes, rather than a week. But since all of my recent foot misery (metatarsalia, Achilles tendinitis) has come from rushing into running, I think I will slow down and remember my mantra: This is for the rest of my life. If it takes me a year to get to running 30 minutes without a break, so what? I will get there. And go past that. And run a marathon. I have time. And if I don't, I don't know it so why get all worked up about it?
What about weight lifting?
I think winter has worked it's usual "meh" magic on my weight-lifting. I want to lift, but I think it would be better if I do this in the evening after dinner. It's not like I'm doing anything that I can't work around between 6 pm and 9 pm (when I go to bed). I seem to need a somewhat rigid schedule in the morning 30 minutes on the treadmill provides - I don't really like having to think much about what I am doing at 6 am.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Minimalist / barefoot work shoes for women
What the heck are minimalist shoes?
Or, more realistically, what does Round Runner mean by the phrase minimalist shoes? It's pretty simple in concept, but hard to get to in practice:
Terra Plana has an awesome collection of casual shoes that fit the definition above to a T in their vivobarefoot line. One of the best things about vivobarefoot shoes is that in style and quality they look like regular shoes and won't draw any unwanted attention to your footwear. They are pretty awesome (I have the Lucy and Kali styles), but price out between $110 - $160 a pair. You can often find good coupon codes for vivobarefoot shoes by searching the net.
Softstar shoes are a well-regarded minimalist shoe company. Their product has a rougher quality to it than the vivobarefoot shoes, but some people swear by them. Each pair is custom made, and the prices run around $75-$90.
Merrell is starting a barefoot line due out February 2011. Since they are a large shoe manufacturer I assume that the shoes will conform to their usual quality standards. I have no idea what the price range will be.
Camper has a line out called Peu that seems to be a minimalist/barefoot line. The shoes look great and I'd love to try them, or hear from anyone who has. The price range seems to be around $130 - $150.
Keen has the Roatan water shoes that look great, and may work well as a minimalist shoe. I've notice that a lot of water shoes might be able to make the jump to minimalist work wear. I have some questions about neoprene for comfort during the summer, but in the winter I bet it would be grand.
Nike has the Sneakerboat II, which is another aqua sock style shoe, but it looks great and would be totally wearable in a casual work environment.
Sockwa has several lines of aqua socks and yoga shoes that could work for some in the workplace. As I get older I am getting bolder in my footwear sensibility.
Feelmax produces minimalist shoes with a very European sensibility, and are sold online but only out of the EU. Some of the styles are quite cute, in my opinion.
Kigo is another aqua sock vendor who shoes work well for minimalist purposes. Unlike some of the other aqua sock companies, Kigo seems focused on style as much as function. They have some uber-cute Mary Jane style shoes as well as some nicely funky yoga-shoe looking styles.
SodHoppers is a fairly high end custom moccasin manufacturer. I lust after these shoes. I think it's possible to get a pair that doesn't make you look like a refugee from a Renaissance fair, but why would you want to? They are on the priciest end of the shoes listed here, easily into the $200 - $500 territory. But how cool would they be to wear to work? And I bet they are the most comfortable shoes you will ever own.
Dance shoes
Dance and gymnastic shoes are the original minimalist shoes because those athletes need great freedom to move their feet in performances. Here are a few shoes that may work in the workplace.
Capezio Freedom
Capezio Breeze
Gymnastic Shoe
German gymnastic shoes
Ballet flats from various companies that seem like they might be good for minimalist work shoes (assuming that they don't crunch your toes too much)
French Sole
Born
EMU Australia
Blowfish (some of their boots and booties also look like likely candidates for minimalist shoes)
Or, more realistically, what does Round Runner mean by the phrase minimalist shoes? It's pretty simple in concept, but hard to get to in practice:
- No lift at all in the heel of the shoe
- Very flexible sole
- Thinnest shoe sole you can get
- Shoe design that allows for full range of motion in your forefoot and ankle
Terra Plana has an awesome collection of casual shoes that fit the definition above to a T in their vivobarefoot line. One of the best things about vivobarefoot shoes is that in style and quality they look like regular shoes and won't draw any unwanted attention to your footwear. They are pretty awesome (I have the Lucy and Kali styles), but price out between $110 - $160 a pair. You can often find good coupon codes for vivobarefoot shoes by searching the net.
Softstar shoes are a well-regarded minimalist shoe company. Their product has a rougher quality to it than the vivobarefoot shoes, but some people swear by them. Each pair is custom made, and the prices run around $75-$90.
Merrell is starting a barefoot line due out February 2011. Since they are a large shoe manufacturer I assume that the shoes will conform to their usual quality standards. I have no idea what the price range will be.
Camper has a line out called Peu that seems to be a minimalist/barefoot line. The shoes look great and I'd love to try them, or hear from anyone who has. The price range seems to be around $130 - $150.
Keen has the Roatan water shoes that look great, and may work well as a minimalist shoe. I've notice that a lot of water shoes might be able to make the jump to minimalist work wear. I have some questions about neoprene for comfort during the summer, but in the winter I bet it would be grand.
Nike has the Sneakerboat II, which is another aqua sock style shoe, but it looks great and would be totally wearable in a casual work environment.
Sockwa has several lines of aqua socks and yoga shoes that could work for some in the workplace. As I get older I am getting bolder in my footwear sensibility.
Feelmax produces minimalist shoes with a very European sensibility, and are sold online but only out of the EU. Some of the styles are quite cute, in my opinion.
Kigo is another aqua sock vendor who shoes work well for minimalist purposes. Unlike some of the other aqua sock companies, Kigo seems focused on style as much as function. They have some uber-cute Mary Jane style shoes as well as some nicely funky yoga-shoe looking styles.
SodHoppers is a fairly high end custom moccasin manufacturer. I lust after these shoes. I think it's possible to get a pair that doesn't make you look like a refugee from a Renaissance fair, but why would you want to? They are on the priciest end of the shoes listed here, easily into the $200 - $500 territory. But how cool would they be to wear to work? And I bet they are the most comfortable shoes you will ever own.
Dance shoes
Dance and gymnastic shoes are the original minimalist shoes because those athletes need great freedom to move their feet in performances. Here are a few shoes that may work in the workplace.
Capezio Freedom
Capezio Breeze
Gymnastic Shoe
German gymnastic shoes
Ballet flats from various companies that seem like they might be good for minimalist work shoes (assuming that they don't crunch your toes too much)
French Sole
Born
EMU Australia
Blowfish (some of their boots and booties also look like likely candidates for minimalist shoes)
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Can you make regular shoes work as minimalist shoes?
The Tale of Woe (you can skip this bit if you don't like consumerist whining)
I tend to be a bit obsessive. Once I decided I wanted to wear minimalist shoes to work I went online an bought a pair of Terra Plana's vivobarefoot Lucy shoes, and even paid the extra $10 for 2 day shipping. Too bad the shoe size conversion between US and EU shoe sizes was way off. I'm a 9.5 in US sizes, so I bought the US 10/EU 40 size. My left big toe touched the end of the shoe. I had to ship them back and wait for them to ship another pair to me via 6-10 day shipping. The next pair was an EU 41 (still too small) and the wrong style. Apparently I originally ordered a pair of Lucy Black Nappa, and they sent me a pair of Lucy Black Eco back. I snail mailed them back and ordered a replacement pair of Lucy Black Nappy in size 42. The total time it took me to get the final pair was: +2 days, +4 days back, +6 days to me, + 6 days back, + 7 days to me, for a total of 25 days to get the correct pair of shoes in the correct size. This is the reason why people don't like to buy shoes online, but I was willing to do it to sort out my correct shoe size since there were no local retailers who carried the shoes I wanted.
The Experiment using a pair of flats
Regardless of how long sorting out my vivobarefoot order was going to take I wanted to get started on my new shoe odyssey. I decided to see if I could find a really flexible pair of flats to wear in the meantime. I went to the local DSW shoe store and bought a pair of Born flats on clearance. They were the best (affordable) pair of shoes I thought I could make work. The heel seemed only slightly higher than the forefoot.
The Good
With the approximately 1/4 inch insert taken out the shoes seemed really flat. They were fairly flexible in the forefoot and definitely lower than any other pair of shoes I had. I noticed an improvement in the ease of my barefoot walking after several weeks of wearing the flats at work. I didn't wear them out of work due to cold winter temperatures and the open structure of the flats. I did experience general foot fatigue in the first week or so of wearing the flats, but over time that went away. My fitness goal is to take 11,000 steps a day, and during the experiment phase I was averaging 9-12,000 steps a work day.
The Bad
With the insert taken out the top of the heel hit much higher on my Achilles tendon than usual. This new position on the back of my foot had the tendency to push my toes farther forward into the front of my shoe than normal. Since my toes were father forward they did not have as much room to splay when I walked as I would have liked. While it was okay to deal with for a few weeks, it wasn't comfortable enough to wear all the time, or for more than the experimental period while I waited for my shoes to arrive in the mail.
Comparison to the vivobarefoot shoes
It is possible that I could have dealt with the minor discomforts of the flats without their inserts if I had not finally gotten the EU 42 Lucys. The instant I put them on my feet said YES. My toes had plenty of room to move about and I now have about a scant 1/2" between the tip of my big toe and the inside of the front of the shoe. This is a huge improvement over the regular flats. The first time I walked in them I noticed a definite difference in how my heel felt. First of all, it felt the ground. I had some minimal ground feel in my forefoot in the flats, but no ground sensation in my heel at all, beyond the pressure of planting my foot when I stepped. While the flats were the lowest shoes I owned prior to the tpvbs, the heel was probably still 1/4 - 3/8" thick, preventing me from walking with a barefoot gait and feel.
Compared to my other shoes the flats had great flexibility in the forefoot, but compared to the tpvbs they were stiff, which affected how my foot rolls through a walking step. I've noticed that I seem to land on the outer edge of my foot and roll onwards toward my big toe as I step down. That motion was muted in the flats but very evident in the Lucys. I also seem to step softer/lighter in the tpvbs than in the flats or in any other pair of shoes that I own. The Lucys have a much lower heel back placement than the flats, and have a notch cut out to allow full ankle movement without causing any friction on the Achilles tendon.
As with the flats, I have noticed increased foot fatigue in my arch and forefoot during the first week of wearing the tpvbs, but that is fading as the days go on. I have no problems wearing them outside - the lace up area keeps the top of my foot comfortable in the cold wind, and I use the very thin inserts that came with the shoes to insulate my sock clad feet from whatever cold would seep up through the 4mm soles of the shoes. The inserts do seem a little cushy, but they don't seem to be marring my road feel very much. Without a doubt, the Terra Plana vivobarefoot Lucy shoes are the most comfortable shoes I can remember wearing.
Conclusion
Terra Plana shoes are great, but they are also expensive, and may be prohibitively so for many people who would like to try wearing minimalist shoes in the office workplace. Removing the inserts from very flat shoes can bring them closer to a barefoot style shoe, but may also shift how your foot rides in the shoe to an unacceptable degree. The fewer degree difference between your heel height and your forefoot height, the more flexible the shoe is overall, and the more room your toes have to move naturally the better. I will follow up this post with one on potential minimalist shoes for women in the workplace.
I tend to be a bit obsessive. Once I decided I wanted to wear minimalist shoes to work I went online an bought a pair of Terra Plana's vivobarefoot Lucy shoes, and even paid the extra $10 for 2 day shipping. Too bad the shoe size conversion between US and EU shoe sizes was way off. I'm a 9.5 in US sizes, so I bought the US 10/EU 40 size. My left big toe touched the end of the shoe. I had to ship them back and wait for them to ship another pair to me via 6-10 day shipping. The next pair was an EU 41 (still too small) and the wrong style. Apparently I originally ordered a pair of Lucy Black Nappa, and they sent me a pair of Lucy Black Eco back. I snail mailed them back and ordered a replacement pair of Lucy Black Nappy in size 42. The total time it took me to get the final pair was: +2 days, +4 days back, +6 days to me, + 6 days back, + 7 days to me, for a total of 25 days to get the correct pair of shoes in the correct size. This is the reason why people don't like to buy shoes online, but I was willing to do it to sort out my correct shoe size since there were no local retailers who carried the shoes I wanted.
 |
| Lucy Black Nappa |
 |
| Lucy Black Eco |
The Experiment using a pair of flats
Regardless of how long sorting out my vivobarefoot order was going to take I wanted to get started on my new shoe odyssey. I decided to see if I could find a really flexible pair of flats to wear in the meantime. I went to the local DSW shoe store and bought a pair of Born flats on clearance. They were the best (affordable) pair of shoes I thought I could make work. The heel seemed only slightly higher than the forefoot.
The Bad
With the insert taken out the top of the heel hit much higher on my Achilles tendon than usual. This new position on the back of my foot had the tendency to push my toes farther forward into the front of my shoe than normal. Since my toes were father forward they did not have as much room to splay when I walked as I would have liked. While it was okay to deal with for a few weeks, it wasn't comfortable enough to wear all the time, or for more than the experimental period while I waited for my shoes to arrive in the mail.
Comparison to the vivobarefoot shoes
It is possible that I could have dealt with the minor discomforts of the flats without their inserts if I had not finally gotten the EU 42 Lucys. The instant I put them on my feet said YES. My toes had plenty of room to move about and I now have about a scant 1/2" between the tip of my big toe and the inside of the front of the shoe. This is a huge improvement over the regular flats. The first time I walked in them I noticed a definite difference in how my heel felt. First of all, it felt the ground. I had some minimal ground feel in my forefoot in the flats, but no ground sensation in my heel at all, beyond the pressure of planting my foot when I stepped. While the flats were the lowest shoes I owned prior to the tpvbs, the heel was probably still 1/4 - 3/8" thick, preventing me from walking with a barefoot gait and feel.
Compared to my other shoes the flats had great flexibility in the forefoot, but compared to the tpvbs they were stiff, which affected how my foot rolls through a walking step. I've noticed that I seem to land on the outer edge of my foot and roll onwards toward my big toe as I step down. That motion was muted in the flats but very evident in the Lucys. I also seem to step softer/lighter in the tpvbs than in the flats or in any other pair of shoes that I own. The Lucys have a much lower heel back placement than the flats, and have a notch cut out to allow full ankle movement without causing any friction on the Achilles tendon.
As with the flats, I have noticed increased foot fatigue in my arch and forefoot during the first week of wearing the tpvbs, but that is fading as the days go on. I have no problems wearing them outside - the lace up area keeps the top of my foot comfortable in the cold wind, and I use the very thin inserts that came with the shoes to insulate my sock clad feet from whatever cold would seep up through the 4mm soles of the shoes. The inserts do seem a little cushy, but they don't seem to be marring my road feel very much. Without a doubt, the Terra Plana vivobarefoot Lucy shoes are the most comfortable shoes I can remember wearing.
Conclusion
Terra Plana shoes are great, but they are also expensive, and may be prohibitively so for many people who would like to try wearing minimalist shoes in the office workplace. Removing the inserts from very flat shoes can bring them closer to a barefoot style shoe, but may also shift how your foot rides in the shoe to an unacceptable degree. The fewer degree difference between your heel height and your forefoot height, the more flexible the shoe is overall, and the more room your toes have to move naturally the better. I will follow up this post with one on potential minimalist shoes for women in the workplace.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
It's the little things in life
Making yogurt fun to eat
I actually like yogurt, except for one thing. Most yogurts sold in the US are too damn sweet! They taste like weird candy rather than a sweet/tart treat. I've been pretty happy eating plain Dannon Greek yogurt with some local honey in it, but I've been getting bored lately. So now I put a tablespoon of grape-nuts cereal in it, and it's fun to eat again. All smooth and crunchy. Plus the strong blandness of grape-nuts (the only thing that recommends it is the crunch) helps tame the over-sweetness of the flavored Greek yogurt, so I can eat the strawberry kind too. In an attempt to make our meals more nutritious Round Hiker and I have been playing around with Chia seed, which happens to taste pretty good mixed in with yogurt too. So all in all, I've been having a revitalization of yogurt lately.
I actually like yogurt, except for one thing. Most yogurts sold in the US are too damn sweet! They taste like weird candy rather than a sweet/tart treat. I've been pretty happy eating plain Dannon Greek yogurt with some local honey in it, but I've been getting bored lately. So now I put a tablespoon of grape-nuts cereal in it, and it's fun to eat again. All smooth and crunchy. Plus the strong blandness of grape-nuts (the only thing that recommends it is the crunch) helps tame the over-sweetness of the flavored Greek yogurt, so I can eat the strawberry kind too. In an attempt to make our meals more nutritious Round Hiker and I have been playing around with Chia seed, which happens to taste pretty good mixed in with yogurt too. So all in all, I've been having a revitalization of yogurt lately.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Back in the Saddle
Weight Update
Two large trips in November and some looming stuff in December have done a number on my workout schedule, my diet adherence, and my general calm. All told I am about 3 lbs. up total from my low of 197.8. Which is annoying, but in some respects, a total miracle. Did I mention that I ate a deep fried avocado in Harlingen, TX? I haven't been food journaling at all, so I guess I can take a 3 lb. gain as a minor victory. This is called re-framing. It helps when the voices whisper in the dark...
Victory!
For the first time since August I ran this morning. My feet feel great and everything seemed fine while I was doing it. Sadly, I found that my running pace is about 4 MPH - a brisk walking pace for Round Hiker. I was on my treadmill (best large purchase I've probably ever made!) and at a 2% incline. I set it on 2.5 mph for the show portion of the Daily Show, and on 4.0 for the commercials. I was pleased to see that I could run for the entire commercial periods as well. This is good news. I am not stuck starting back at the very beginning by running for 30 second sprints at a time. I guestimate that the commercials are about 1.75 - 2.0 minutes long. I did use my metronome during the running periods. I forgot that I can't seem to stay on beat listing to the beeps at 180 bps, but by the second commercial break I shifted back to my 60 bps. If I get my breathing controlled my feet follow. Next time I will time the commercials to see how long each break is.
Victory!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Accountability
The Scale of Doom
I got home last Wednesday evening. I took my ride home from the airport out to a very good Indian dinner. I viewed it as my last hurrah before getting back to business. Thursday morning I woke up and hopped on the scale full of hope. I hoped that I hadn't gained too much weight. I hoped that what I had gained was mostly water weight. I was expecting a 2-3 lb. gain. I was handed a flaming pile of 6 lbs. GAH!
Don't Panic
I pulled myself together and assured myself that all the salty food I ate plumed me up and that I would quickly loose it again. But I must admit that I had some serious motivation problems getting back to business after that weigh in. It took me until the following Monday to get back to the full weights and then walking workout. However, as of this morning (Monday) I am down 3 lbs. in 4 days, so I guess the water weight guess is accurate to some extent. I just home I'm down another lb. tomorrow morning. *fingers crossed*
I got home last Wednesday evening. I took my ride home from the airport out to a very good Indian dinner. I viewed it as my last hurrah before getting back to business. Thursday morning I woke up and hopped on the scale full of hope. I hoped that I hadn't gained too much weight. I hoped that what I had gained was mostly water weight. I was expecting a 2-3 lb. gain. I was handed a flaming pile of 6 lbs. GAH!
Don't Panic
I pulled myself together and assured myself that all the salty food I ate plumed me up and that I would quickly loose it again. But I must admit that I had some serious motivation problems getting back to business after that weigh in. It took me until the following Monday to get back to the full weights and then walking workout. However, as of this morning (Monday) I am down 3 lbs. in 4 days, so I guess the water weight guess is accurate to some extent. I just home I'm down another lb. tomorrow morning. *fingers crossed*
Vacations have a way of screwing up the plan
San Antonio
SA was great. The flights were fine, and Little Runner was a real trooper with the whole travel by plane thing. Next time I will definitely just get a direct flight, screw the cost, however. The frantic switching terminals in the Denver Airport I could have done without, although all that walking really helped me get my steps in for the day even though I was traveling.
Round Runner's hotel was right on the SA River Walk, which was fun. Good food (lobster bisque and later a yummy meatball sandwich) and lots to talk about with his Vietnam vet friends. I got up the next morning for an extended walk due to planning to spend much of the day in the car driving to Harlingen, TX. My goal was 7,000 steps, and I think I ended up with 7,500 or so. The Rock n' Roll San Antonio Marathon was going on that morning, so I go to see streams of colorful runners crossing bridges above me on the River Walk. It was a very inspiring sight!
The rest of the vacation included eating a deep-fried avocado stuffed with cheese and fajita meat (tasty!), shrimp stuffed with crab meat covered in Parmesan sauce (also tasty), and lots of cake. And I finally got to eat some Dippin' Dots, which I have longed for ever since I moved to Utah from Miami. Not enough to move back, mind you. Just enough to get a pang every time I see a polka-dot pattern.
 |
| Image by Dave Stone |
SA was great. The flights were fine, and Little Runner was a real trooper with the whole travel by plane thing. Next time I will definitely just get a direct flight, screw the cost, however. The frantic switching terminals in the Denver Airport I could have done without, although all that walking really helped me get my steps in for the day even though I was traveling.
Round Runner's hotel was right on the SA River Walk, which was fun. Good food (lobster bisque and later a yummy meatball sandwich) and lots to talk about with his Vietnam vet friends. I got up the next morning for an extended walk due to planning to spend much of the day in the car driving to Harlingen, TX. My goal was 7,000 steps, and I think I ended up with 7,500 or so. The Rock n' Roll San Antonio Marathon was going on that morning, so I go to see streams of colorful runners crossing bridges above me on the River Walk. It was a very inspiring sight!
The rest of the vacation included eating a deep-fried avocado stuffed with cheese and fajita meat (tasty!), shrimp stuffed with crab meat covered in Parmesan sauce (also tasty), and lots of cake. And I finally got to eat some Dippin' Dots, which I have longed for ever since I moved to Utah from Miami. Not enough to move back, mind you. Just enough to get a pang every time I see a polka-dot pattern.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The new workout from home
Kettlebells
Kettlebells look like an iron ball with a handle. When I decided that I wanted to do weight workouts from home I looked into my options. I wanted to be able to do my workouts with a minimum of equipment. Kettlebells seem to fit the bill. All of the exercises I have run into so far involve your body and the weight, and that's it. This definitely seems like something I can get behind - all I have to do it buy the weights.
I doinked around with the Weider Powerbell, which is a sort of select-a-weight kettlebell that goes from 5 lbs to 20 lbs in 2.5 lb increments. This sounded like a good idea in my naivete, but in practice the powerbell didn't work at all for me. The shape is totally wrong for the kettlebell moves. The tall cylinder tower, missing most of the plates really banged the hell out of my forearms. I like the exercises, but I could tell that the powerbell was not for me. So I embarked on my usual obesessive hunt for the perfect set-up that would cost me the least amount of money. I finally came to the conclusion that buying individual weights as needed will probably be the easiest and least crazy-making way to go. I followed my cautious nature and bought a 10 lb. neoprene covered kettlebell from WalMart.
Over time I have found that I don't like having to plot our my workouts - I want some smart and motivated person to do that for me. I love a good weight workout, but I no longer love all the research it takes for me to feel confident in my own workout design. Luckily, there are quite a few kettlebell DVDs on the market at the moment. I went with Kettlebells the Iron Core Way Vol. 1. I'll admit to a bit of female chauvinism in my choice, since this series is one of the few that is done by a woman. As a woman I generally default to female practctioners when possible. If the best qualified person is male, I'll go with him, but in the absence of that knowledge, I'll pick a female. Mercifully I wasn't disappointed. The DVD has a basic introduction to how to handle kettlebells and 6 core moves. Then there is a workout that has a short warm up, and then a circuit of kettlebell moves that repeats 3 times. So far with the 10 lb weight I can get through the warm up and 1 circuit, which takes about 25 minutes. Once I can do all three circuits for a week or two it will be time to buy the second DVD in the series.
I doinked around with the Weider Powerbell, which is a sort of select-a-weight kettlebell that goes from 5 lbs to 20 lbs in 2.5 lb increments. This sounded like a good idea in my naivete, but in practice the powerbell didn't work at all for me. The shape is totally wrong for the kettlebell moves. The tall cylinder tower, missing most of the plates really banged the hell out of my forearms. I like the exercises, but I could tell that the powerbell was not for me. So I embarked on my usual obesessive hunt for the perfect set-up that would cost me the least amount of money. I finally came to the conclusion that buying individual weights as needed will probably be the easiest and least crazy-making way to go. I followed my cautious nature and bought a 10 lb. neoprene covered kettlebell from WalMart.Over time I have found that I don't like having to plot our my workouts - I want some smart and motivated person to do that for me. I love a good weight workout, but I no longer love all the research it takes for me to feel confident in my own workout design. Luckily, there are quite a few kettlebell DVDs on the market at the moment. I went with Kettlebells the Iron Core Way Vol. 1. I'll admit to a bit of female chauvinism in my choice, since this series is one of the few that is done by a woman. As a woman I generally default to female practctioners when possible. If the best qualified person is male, I'll go with him, but in the absence of that knowledge, I'll pick a female. Mercifully I wasn't disappointed. The DVD has a basic introduction to how to handle kettlebells and 6 core moves. Then there is a workout that has a short warm up, and then a circuit of kettlebell moves that repeats 3 times. So far with the 10 lb weight I can get through the warm up and 1 circuit, which takes about 25 minutes. Once I can do all three circuits for a week or two it will be time to buy the second DVD in the series.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Where do I go from here?
The Plan (as it stands now)
I want to walk my 11,000 goal steps a day barefoot or in minimalist shoes pretty much from now on. This will help in stretching out my uber-tight calf muscles and getting my feet and calves ready for my next shot at running.
My next weight goal is to end November weighing under 200 lbs. If I manage to weigh 199.9 lbs on December 1st it will be a victory. I'm going to San Antonio for 4 days next week, and I plan to enjoy my barbecue, mild tex-mex (is there such a thing?) and shrimp in various fatty preparations. I also plan to walk and workout, so I hope that keeps the bulge in check.
December 2010 - March 2011 I want to go back to loosing about a pound a week, for a total of 16 pounds down before I start back to running outside again. This would put me about 53 lbs lighter than when I started working on my weight and physical activity level last December 3rd, which is not shabby. If my foot feels frisky enough I will begin playing around with the incline and speed on my treadmill. I may even begin running on the treadmill at my horribly slow pace. I've already thought about how to get started - up my pace or incline starting at 30 seconds during commercials and slowly stretch it out until I am doing more and more aerobic work on the treadmill.
I will continue to alternate weight lifting and treadmill/walk/running sessions. If I have to skip a day, I'll skip the treadmill not the weight lifting. This is a shift from my previous position on which to skip, but honestly, that way lied pain.
Ideally, I'd like to shoot for running a barefoot-style 5K next September or October. This is a full year later than I had planned to do it. If my outside running ramps up quickly and comfortably in Spring I may push up my race entry, but I am in no hurry. I just want to actually manage to do it this time. I have self-aggrandizing dreams of running a marathon the year I turn 40 - in 2012. To make that mark I have to go from limping in October of 2010 to running 26.2 miles in about 20 months.
I want to walk my 11,000 goal steps a day barefoot or in minimalist shoes pretty much from now on. This will help in stretching out my uber-tight calf muscles and getting my feet and calves ready for my next shot at running.
My next weight goal is to end November weighing under 200 lbs. If I manage to weigh 199.9 lbs on December 1st it will be a victory. I'm going to San Antonio for 4 days next week, and I plan to enjoy my barbecue, mild tex-mex (is there such a thing?) and shrimp in various fatty preparations. I also plan to walk and workout, so I hope that keeps the bulge in check.
December 2010 - March 2011 I want to go back to loosing about a pound a week, for a total of 16 pounds down before I start back to running outside again. This would put me about 53 lbs lighter than when I started working on my weight and physical activity level last December 3rd, which is not shabby. If my foot feels frisky enough I will begin playing around with the incline and speed on my treadmill. I may even begin running on the treadmill at my horribly slow pace. I've already thought about how to get started - up my pace or incline starting at 30 seconds during commercials and slowly stretch it out until I am doing more and more aerobic work on the treadmill.
I will continue to alternate weight lifting and treadmill/walk/running sessions. If I have to skip a day, I'll skip the treadmill not the weight lifting. This is a shift from my previous position on which to skip, but honestly, that way lied pain.
Ideally, I'd like to shoot for running a barefoot-style 5K next September or October. This is a full year later than I had planned to do it. If my outside running ramps up quickly and comfortably in Spring I may push up my race entry, but I am in no hurry. I just want to actually manage to do it this time. I have self-aggrandizing dreams of running a marathon the year I turn 40 - in 2012. To make that mark I have to go from limping in October of 2010 to running 26.2 miles in about 20 months.
Fashion
The Shoes
Since I am a somewhat suspicious person, I'm not going to leap back into running after being on hiatus since mid-August. I'm going to try a few things that I probably should have been doing all along. During this last week I have found that walking in a zero degree shoe (one with no lift at all in the heel, often called a minimalist shoe) feels better than walking in my new $80 Merrel slides. *sigh* Of course, the only zero degree shoes I have at the moment are my VFFs, which I have begun to wear at work. They are not exactly what I think of as the most business casual of shoes. What do you think?
They are comfy, as long as you don't get all froggy and wear them outside when it is sleeting. I can't believe that I forgot they are WATER shoes, which means that the water just seems to flow into the neoprene uppers and the mesh top. Man my feet were cold on Monday. So while this is working for me on a 'how my feet feel' level, they aren't the footwear I want to routinely wear to work. I did a lot of digging around the net for alternatives that would be more work friendly. I found a pair and then continued to look about because I didn't like the $125.00 price tag. Over $100 gets classified as a significant purchase in my book. But after multiple hours of dithering, I went ahead and purchased a pair of Terra Plana's vivobarefoot Lucy shoes.
Generally speaking I think this shoe is pretty innocuous. I'd have liked them better with a less contrasty line of stitching rather than the red accent, but perhaps that splash of brightness will relieve the shoes of just being dorky. While it may look like they have a regular shoe sole that is 1/2" thick or so, the 4 mm sole material wraps up the side of the shoe. I found an online coupon code from another blog that gave me 25% off, which basically paid for my 2nd day air shipping because I am impatient. They are scheduled to arrive sometime tomorrow, and hopefully will be waiting for me when I get home from work. Yay!
Since I am a somewhat suspicious person, I'm not going to leap back into running after being on hiatus since mid-August. I'm going to try a few things that I probably should have been doing all along. During this last week I have found that walking in a zero degree shoe (one with no lift at all in the heel, often called a minimalist shoe) feels better than walking in my new $80 Merrel slides. *sigh* Of course, the only zero degree shoes I have at the moment are my VFFs, which I have begun to wear at work. They are not exactly what I think of as the most business casual of shoes. What do you think?
Accidental Cure
Oops!
My last post was October 1st - while I intended to lie a bit low until I was able to run again I didn't mean to go completely off the radar. My bad.
And now back to our program, currently in progress...
As you may recall I have been battling some insidious heel pain. Is is plantar fasciitis? Which, incidentally makes me think of agricultural fascists every time I say or read the phrase. Is is Achilles tendinitis? And why on earth is it spelled tendinitis instead of tendonitis? In the end, I don't think it really matters, because after limping for 3 months I accidentally found the cure for my heel pain. I got irritated at the irritated nature of my foot, and I decided Screw It! I began walking barefoot on the treadmill again and weightlifting at home. After my first weightlifting session my heel felt about 50% better. By the end of the week I was lifting every other day, walking on the treadmill barefoot for 30 minutes every day, and doing a yoga tape in the evening sporadically and my heel was at about 80% better. I continue to see daily improvement in normal function and a lack of pain.
As my foot felt better and better I ruminated on how it came to hurt in the first place. In July (I think) I decided to just focus on running and to cut out my alternating day of weight lifting. And from there my heel slowly began to rebel. I don't know exactly why weight lifting seems to be alleviating my heel pain, and in many ways I don't care. Pain sucks, and to find something cheap and easy to do to fix it is amazing.
My last post was October 1st - while I intended to lie a bit low until I was able to run again I didn't mean to go completely off the radar. My bad.
And now back to our program, currently in progress...
As you may recall I have been battling some insidious heel pain. Is is plantar fasciitis? Which, incidentally makes me think of agricultural fascists every time I say or read the phrase. Is is Achilles tendinitis? And why on earth is it spelled tendinitis instead of tendonitis? In the end, I don't think it really matters, because after limping for 3 months I accidentally found the cure for my heel pain. I got irritated at the irritated nature of my foot, and I decided Screw It! I began walking barefoot on the treadmill again and weightlifting at home. After my first weightlifting session my heel felt about 50% better. By the end of the week I was lifting every other day, walking on the treadmill barefoot for 30 minutes every day, and doing a yoga tape in the evening sporadically and my heel was at about 80% better. I continue to see daily improvement in normal function and a lack of pain.
As my foot felt better and better I ruminated on how it came to hurt in the first place. In July (I think) I decided to just focus on running and to cut out my alternating day of weight lifting. And from there my heel slowly began to rebel. I don't know exactly why weight lifting seems to be alleviating my heel pain, and in many ways I don't care. Pain sucks, and to find something cheap and easy to do to fix it is amazing.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Breaking the first barrier
Ta Da!
I got on the scale today and for the second day in a row it read 199.8 lbs. I have broken the 200 lb. barrier! When I started this process last December 3rd (I like to be precise about dates and all) I had several - short, medium, and long term goals.
Upcoming goals
Weight and size are obviously related to each other. At this point I am 199.8 (I love seeing that 1 there!) and a size 18. So within the next 8-10 lbs I will phase into a size 16. For the males who read this that means that shopping for clothes gets exponentially easier. For whatever reason most popular clothing manufacturers only carry up to a size 16 in their stores - even if they sell well into the 1x,2x,3x or more sizes. Those sizes are shunted to the online store, making finding clothes that fit if you are bigger than a size 16 annoying, difficult and expensive because on top of the $5 - $10 premium you pay for the plus sizes you now also have to pay shipping. So getting to a size 16 or less has real-world economic benefits. Or another way to say it is that being over a size 16 has real-world economic detriments.
Clearly I need to think of some goals between getting to a size 16 and losing the 100th pound because that gap is going to be about 50 lbs. Most of my next level goals are activity related - such as start taking Krav Maga classes, and maybe in 30 lbs. or so try to run again.
Why do I want to lose a total of 100 lbs? As Dogbert says, "humans like large round numbers". That would put me at 135 - a mystical weight I haven't seen since I was about 12. Supposedly it is at the upper end of what a 5'3" woman should weigh. It's a nice definitive and impressive number. I'll be seriously impressed with myself if I lose that much weight. In a weird way it's like any other athletic goal - can I do what it takes to make this goal? I can't really evaluate the worth of the goal yet. I'm too far off from it - I've lost 38 lbs, leaving me 62 more to go. I know that I looked and felt pretty good at 150, but I was still chunkier than I'd like to be. I'm not willing to do the massive amounts of cardio and weight-lifting I did the last time I got down to 150, which means that the next time I see that weight I may not be the trim size 8 that I was - muscle is more compact than fat. I'm willing to stop losing weight at any point that I think I look and feel good, and that my health is optimized.
Aside from my vanity (which is a surprisingly powerful driving force) my real goal is improving my current health and my long-term health prospects. Which means that whatever I do has to be sustainable and not make me crazy or too inflexible for a little boy and husband to live with happily.
I got on the scale today and for the second day in a row it read 199.8 lbs. I have broken the 200 lb. barrier! When I started this process last December 3rd (I like to be precise about dates and all) I had several - short, medium, and long term goals.
- Get below 200 lbs.
- Get down to at least a size 16
- Ultimately lose 100 lbs.
Upcoming goals
Weight and size are obviously related to each other. At this point I am 199.8 (I love seeing that 1 there!) and a size 18. So within the next 8-10 lbs I will phase into a size 16. For the males who read this that means that shopping for clothes gets exponentially easier. For whatever reason most popular clothing manufacturers only carry up to a size 16 in their stores - even if they sell well into the 1x,2x,3x or more sizes. Those sizes are shunted to the online store, making finding clothes that fit if you are bigger than a size 16 annoying, difficult and expensive because on top of the $5 - $10 premium you pay for the plus sizes you now also have to pay shipping. So getting to a size 16 or less has real-world economic benefits. Or another way to say it is that being over a size 16 has real-world economic detriments.
Clearly I need to think of some goals between getting to a size 16 and losing the 100th pound because that gap is going to be about 50 lbs. Most of my next level goals are activity related - such as start taking Krav Maga classes, and maybe in 30 lbs. or so try to run again.
Why do I want to lose a total of 100 lbs? As Dogbert says, "humans like large round numbers". That would put me at 135 - a mystical weight I haven't seen since I was about 12. Supposedly it is at the upper end of what a 5'3" woman should weigh. It's a nice definitive and impressive number. I'll be seriously impressed with myself if I lose that much weight. In a weird way it's like any other athletic goal - can I do what it takes to make this goal? I can't really evaluate the worth of the goal yet. I'm too far off from it - I've lost 38 lbs, leaving me 62 more to go. I know that I looked and felt pretty good at 150, but I was still chunkier than I'd like to be. I'm not willing to do the massive amounts of cardio and weight-lifting I did the last time I got down to 150, which means that the next time I see that weight I may not be the trim size 8 that I was - muscle is more compact than fat. I'm willing to stop losing weight at any point that I think I look and feel good, and that my health is optimized.
Aside from my vanity (which is a surprisingly powerful driving force) my real goal is improving my current health and my long-term health prospects. Which means that whatever I do has to be sustainable and not make me crazy or too inflexible for a little boy and husband to live with happily.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Bad Character
Am I the only one?
Am I the only one who finds herself working out while watching shows like Ruby (about a 700 lb+ woman who wants to lose weight) and The Biggest Loser? I think I get a sick sort of satisfaction over the fact that I am not that far off from a healthy weight in comparison to the people on the weight-loss reality shows. It's like my cyclic passion for Clean House, which seems to reassure me that my messy house isn't that bad because there are other people out that who put my clutter to SHAME.
Sometime I wonder why I am attracted to shows like this. I know that we have mirror neurons on our brains that light up when we see someone doing an action and mimic the same pathways that would light up if we were doing the action ourselves. So does watching someone work to lose weight or clean their house somehow satisfy my mental need to do the same, and then absolve me subliminally from doing the work myself?
Am I the only one who finds herself working out while watching shows like Ruby (about a 700 lb+ woman who wants to lose weight) and The Biggest Loser? I think I get a sick sort of satisfaction over the fact that I am not that far off from a healthy weight in comparison to the people on the weight-loss reality shows. It's like my cyclic passion for Clean House, which seems to reassure me that my messy house isn't that bad because there are other people out that who put my clutter to SHAME.
Sometime I wonder why I am attracted to shows like this. I know that we have mirror neurons on our brains that light up when we see someone doing an action and mimic the same pathways that would light up if we were doing the action ourselves. So does watching someone work to lose weight or clean their house somehow satisfy my mental need to do the same, and then absolve me subliminally from doing the work myself?
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Update
I had to take the size 9 shoes back and switch them for 9.5. I can chalk half a size up to differences in manufacturer's sizing, except that my shoes from last year really are obviously too large for me now. So it is possible that my foot shrunk 1/2 a size, but if that was from weight loss or barefoot running, I don't know. On the bright side, I have a pair of winter shoes that fit. Yay!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Mad Scientist
The Experiment
In many ways I find loosing weight to be a science experiment with a sample size of one. I can read about what has worked for other people, but until I try it myself I won't know what works for me. I can even read about other people's results, but that doesn't mean that I can extrapolate those results to my efforts. So when I read about some barefoot runners shrinking their foot size I thought that it was interesting, but unlikely to happen to me.
The Results
I went shoe shopping today because I need to get new winter shoes. About 10 days ago we had a very short-lived cold snap that caused me to break out my winter shoes from last year. They are too big for me now. My foot slops around so much inside of them that I am concerned about the potential for injury do to poor walking form. My old shoes are a pair of Keen slip-ons that I ADORE. I bought them last November at Track n' Trail at the outlet mall in Park City. I ended up back there today. Last year when I measured my foot my big toe was over the 9 line and right at the 9.5 line - making my actual shoe size a 10 (you size up about 1/2 size for comfort). This time my toe was just a hair under the 8.5 line, making my shoe size from 9 - 9.5 depending on the cut of the shoe. I bought a pair of Merrill slip-ons in size 9. I doubt that all of my shoe size shrinkage is due solely to weight loss - that should make my foot slimmer and lower volume but not affect the length. So maybe the barefoot running really does change the length of your foot.
In many ways I find loosing weight to be a science experiment with a sample size of one. I can read about what has worked for other people, but until I try it myself I won't know what works for me. I can even read about other people's results, but that doesn't mean that I can extrapolate those results to my efforts. So when I read about some barefoot runners shrinking their foot size I thought that it was interesting, but unlikely to happen to me.
The Results
I went shoe shopping today because I need to get new winter shoes. About 10 days ago we had a very short-lived cold snap that caused me to break out my winter shoes from last year. They are too big for me now. My foot slops around so much inside of them that I am concerned about the potential for injury do to poor walking form. My old shoes are a pair of Keen slip-ons that I ADORE. I bought them last November at Track n' Trail at the outlet mall in Park City. I ended up back there today. Last year when I measured my foot my big toe was over the 9 line and right at the 9.5 line - making my actual shoe size a 10 (you size up about 1/2 size for comfort). This time my toe was just a hair under the 8.5 line, making my shoe size from 9 - 9.5 depending on the cut of the shoe. I bought a pair of Merrill slip-ons in size 9. I doubt that all of my shoe size shrinkage is due solely to weight loss - that should make my foot slimmer and lower volume but not affect the length. So maybe the barefoot running really does change the length of your foot.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
What was that Tolstoy quote?
Oh yeah...
Back to my actual thought for this post. When you have a concrete goal like running a 5K in October, posting is easy because you talk about your daily progress towards your goal and whatever else pops into your mind along the way. But now that my tendinitis has sidelined that goal until at least Spring, I find it harder to have something worth publicly saying. I walk on the treadmill every day for an hour, and I seem to be loosing weight at about a pound a week. Whoohoo! Ha! I've gone from (avert eyes and groan) a 3X shirt size down to a Large. I spend an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about what I will look like in my current batch of new clothes (it's not cold enough outside for me to wear my 3/4 sleeve shirts and sweaters yet) and thinking about shrinking down from Large to Medium. I also need to buy a new pair of winter shoes because my pair from last year are loose on me. Money I don't mind spending, if I only had it after all my wild ways the past few months.
Happy Round Runner
I am in that rare demographic of people who are loosing weight and are happy with their process and progress. Which means that I will probably continue to post sporadically until my next challenge presents itself. I am just under 3 lbs away from breaking the 200lb barrier. My reward for the first big push is to sign up for Krav Maga classes. Even though I should break the barrier this month I will probably have to wait until January or February to sign up for classes because they are $85 - $105 / month. Looking at the schedule I see that they will also require me to give up 2+ hours a week in family time, but then anything I do alone during the week nights will take me from the family.
Weird and slightly creepy Round Runner
I have long had an affinity for apocalyptic science fiction. While realistically I know that I am probably going to die in the first wave of whatever that comes along and kills off a bunch of us, I'd like to have some chance of surviving the coming shit storm if I manage to survive the big bad. Hence my hankering to pick up a martial art. I probably need to learn to shoot a gun and do some basic agriculture and chemistry. All things to look forward to in becoming a renaissance survivor.
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Chapter 1, first line
I love the Internet!! I no longer have to have a memory, I just need to retain enough information in my poor abused head to look it up later. Take that all you cretinous teachers who force children to memorize useless facts - didn't see the Internet coming, did ya?
Back to my actual thought for this post. When you have a concrete goal like running a 5K in October, posting is easy because you talk about your daily progress towards your goal and whatever else pops into your mind along the way. But now that my tendinitis has sidelined that goal until at least Spring, I find it harder to have something worth publicly saying. I walk on the treadmill every day for an hour, and I seem to be loosing weight at about a pound a week. Whoohoo! Ha! I've gone from (avert eyes and groan) a 3X shirt size down to a Large. I spend an inordinate amount of time fantasizing about what I will look like in my current batch of new clothes (it's not cold enough outside for me to wear my 3/4 sleeve shirts and sweaters yet) and thinking about shrinking down from Large to Medium. I also need to buy a new pair of winter shoes because my pair from last year are loose on me. Money I don't mind spending, if I only had it after all my wild ways the past few months.
Happy Round Runner
I am in that rare demographic of people who are loosing weight and are happy with their process and progress. Which means that I will probably continue to post sporadically until my next challenge presents itself. I am just under 3 lbs away from breaking the 200lb barrier. My reward for the first big push is to sign up for Krav Maga classes. Even though I should break the barrier this month I will probably have to wait until January or February to sign up for classes because they are $85 - $105 / month. Looking at the schedule I see that they will also require me to give up 2+ hours a week in family time, but then anything I do alone during the week nights will take me from the family.
Weird and slightly creepy Round Runner
I have long had an affinity for apocalyptic science fiction. While realistically I know that I am probably going to die in the first wave of whatever that comes along and kills off a bunch of us, I'd like to have some chance of surviving the coming shit storm if I manage to survive the big bad. Hence my hankering to pick up a martial art. I probably need to learn to shoot a gun and do some basic agriculture and chemistry. All things to look forward to in becoming a renaissance survivor.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Make it Easy
Eliminating Barriers
As of Saturday I am officially down 33.8 lbs. At this point you would think that I have it down pat, made in the shade, etc. for continued weight loss. But what worked for me at 237 doesn't necessarily work for me at 204, and what worked in the summer doesn't often work in the winter. Think about your personal barriers to moving enough every day to maintain your health and to reach your fitness goals. What are they? Here are some of the barriers that I commonly face:
Here are my solutions:
Being tired - this is okay once in a while but not on a regular basis. Suck it up and workout anyway if you have already "been tired" once this week.
Having something unusual crop up in my work schedule that makes working out in the morning difficult - this one can be hard to fade. Sometimes life happens. If I can't shift my schedule around to incorporate exercise before work I might be able to do it after work. If not, roll with it and workout the next day.
Having company - sometimes I can exercise with company present, sometimes I can't - it depends on the situation. When in doubt, exercise.
Going out of town - I relax and enjoy myself. If it's not more than a week, take the time off and have some fun.
Being sick - Relax and get well. Working out while sick is not the best use of your body's energy; getting well is.
Being injured - Work around the injury as best you can. If you must lay off exercise for an extended time period (more than a week) be extra careful of your diet to not gain weight while lame.
Not wanting to leave the house (due to bad weather or any number of issues) - find a way to workout indoors. Get home exercise equipment (treadmill, elliptical, kettle ball, weights, workout DVDs, whatever) so that bad weather doesn't become an excuse to no move.
Not being able the leave Little Runner home alone when Round Hiker is out and about - see the solution above. Being house-bound for non-illness related reasons doesn't mean that you should not exercise.
Having something better to do (like read a great book) - Taking occasional, unplanned breaks from exercise is good for you. Have at it once every few weeks or so, just not every day.
Just plain old not feeling like it - This is a major symptom that something in your workout/exercise plan is not working. You may be bored, so try changing your routine up. Or you may be over trained and need some time for your body to recuperate. A change of pace activity may help, or just taking a rest day may do the trick. If it doesn't, you may need to rethink your whole exercise plan. I have a high need for one of two kinds of exercise - novel and different, or completely mindless. Highly repetitive exercise that isn't mindless is difficult for me to sustain for more than a week or two.
As of Saturday I am officially down 33.8 lbs. At this point you would think that I have it down pat, made in the shade, etc. for continued weight loss. But what worked for me at 237 doesn't necessarily work for me at 204, and what worked in the summer doesn't often work in the winter. Think about your personal barriers to moving enough every day to maintain your health and to reach your fitness goals. What are they? Here are some of the barriers that I commonly face:
Being tired
Having something unusual crop up in my work schedule that makes working out in the morning difficult
Having company
Going out of town
Being sick
Not wanting to leave the house (due to bad weather or any number of issues)
Not being able the leave Little Runner home alone when Round Hiker is out and about
Having something better to do (like read a great book)
Just plain old not feeling like it
Here are my solutions:
Being tired - this is okay once in a while but not on a regular basis. Suck it up and workout anyway if you have already "been tired" once this week.
Having something unusual crop up in my work schedule that makes working out in the morning difficult - this one can be hard to fade. Sometimes life happens. If I can't shift my schedule around to incorporate exercise before work I might be able to do it after work. If not, roll with it and workout the next day.
Having company - sometimes I can exercise with company present, sometimes I can't - it depends on the situation. When in doubt, exercise.
Going out of town - I relax and enjoy myself. If it's not more than a week, take the time off and have some fun.
Being sick - Relax and get well. Working out while sick is not the best use of your body's energy; getting well is.
Being injured - Work around the injury as best you can. If you must lay off exercise for an extended time period (more than a week) be extra careful of your diet to not gain weight while lame.
Not wanting to leave the house (due to bad weather or any number of issues) - find a way to workout indoors. Get home exercise equipment (treadmill, elliptical, kettle ball, weights, workout DVDs, whatever) so that bad weather doesn't become an excuse to no move.
Not being able the leave Little Runner home alone when Round Hiker is out and about - see the solution above. Being house-bound for non-illness related reasons doesn't mean that you should not exercise.
Having something better to do (like read a great book) - Taking occasional, unplanned breaks from exercise is good for you. Have at it once every few weeks or so, just not every day.
Just plain old not feeling like it - This is a major symptom that something in your workout/exercise plan is not working. You may be bored, so try changing your routine up. Or you may be over trained and need some time for your body to recuperate. A change of pace activity may help, or just taking a rest day may do the trick. If it doesn't, you may need to rethink your whole exercise plan. I have a high need for one of two kinds of exercise - novel and different, or completely mindless. Highly repetitive exercise that isn't mindless is difficult for me to sustain for more than a week or two.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Difference Between Knowing and Doing
The Install
It was far easier than I expected. Round Hiker agreed to hang around the house until lunchtime when the condo association grounds crew could come over and help bring the machine in while I was at work. We expected 4 to show up, but only 2 could make it, so I paid them $30 a piece. We will probably have no problems getting them to help move things again in the future as long as we continue to pay well. So no tears on that part.
I took the lead on setting it up, and it wasn't that difficult, but we definitely needed two people to put it together. It takes up more space than I expected in the living room. It's a bit of a mondo piece of equipment, but I love it. It's even quieter than I expected, which is a total plus. My current goal is to do at least 6,000 steps a day on the machine, which at 2.0 MPH is about 1 h 05 min. I'm going to up my speed by .1 MPH a day until I get my 6,000 steps in a just under an hour. 55 minutes would be good.
The Doing
One of the things my sports doc told me is that icing my heel would help the pain. I've known this for 5 weeks or so and yesterday is the first time I managed to actually do it. And by crikey, it seems to work. So as I type I am resting my heel on a flexible ice-pack for 20 minutes. It's amazing what happens when you do the things you know you should be doing.
It was far easier than I expected. Round Hiker agreed to hang around the house until lunchtime when the condo association grounds crew could come over and help bring the machine in while I was at work. We expected 4 to show up, but only 2 could make it, so I paid them $30 a piece. We will probably have no problems getting them to help move things again in the future as long as we continue to pay well. So no tears on that part.
I took the lead on setting it up, and it wasn't that difficult, but we definitely needed two people to put it together. It takes up more space than I expected in the living room. It's a bit of a mondo piece of equipment, but I love it. It's even quieter than I expected, which is a total plus. My current goal is to do at least 6,000 steps a day on the machine, which at 2.0 MPH is about 1 h 05 min. I'm going to up my speed by .1 MPH a day until I get my 6,000 steps in a just under an hour. 55 minutes would be good.
The Doing
One of the things my sports doc told me is that icing my heel would help the pain. I've known this for 5 weeks or so and yesterday is the first time I managed to actually do it. And by crikey, it seems to work. So as I type I am resting my heel on a flexible ice-pack for 20 minutes. It's amazing what happens when you do the things you know you should be doing.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Obsessive
The secret of my success
Round Hiker says that the traits he doesn't like about me are the far end of a continuum of traits that he does like about me. He likes my tenacity, but he sometimes doesn't like my obsessiveness. But, as he well knows, you don't get one without the other. If I had to point to any one trait of mine that leads to the many successes I've had in life it's the tenacity--------obsession continuum that I have to credit. But there are some downsides. With obsession comes rigidity (for me). I really want to loose weight, and I found a pattern that worked, so I worked it until there was a problem. And then there was trouble! [that's a little side joke for all you parents of toddlers obsessed with Thomas The Tank Engine]
I've been running, barring injury, since about January. I'm on my second left-foot injury (which actually pre-dates the metatarsalia I had in February) and I know that to get rid of this Achilles tendonitis I'm going to have to change what I am doing for a while - perhaps a longer while than I would like. I've been doing nothing work-out wise for 3 weeks and my foot is very very slowly starting to feel better. I'm on Mobic (a prescription anti-inflammatory drug) and for the last week I've been doing my physical therapy exercises. My doc said to call her if I didn't start feeling better within 6 weeks - but she never said that I would feel completely better within 6 weeks. And she also told me to no run while my foot hurt. What to do?
Learning to be more flexible
It seems that I am being given the amazing opportunity to exercise all sorts of life skills during my quest to loose weight, get into running and hopefully avoid more cancer. I've had to put aside my tenacity during one foot injury, and now I have to do it again. But it seems that you can't do things the same way twice - this is looking to be a much longer layup that the 4 week running vacation I took in February. So, in the spirit of flexibility, I looked at everything I was doing and have made some decisions. Dum dum duuuuummmmmmm.....
The solution? A decent treadmill
After my usual obsessive research and shopping around behavior I am going to go to Costo after work tonight and buy a Freemotion XTR treadmill. I looked around a while ago on KSL.com's classifieds (a surprisingly effective free classified section run by a local tv station) and found that the vast majority of the MANY treadmills listed are fairly low-end machines. They often have less than a 2.0 CHP motor, which means that they won't last as long, aren't suited for running on, and are LOUD. In fact, my KSL shopping convinced me that a treadmill wouldn't work for me because I want one in the living room and the ones I tried out would be too noisy.
Then I saw an add (in the classifieds!) for a discount exercise equipment place. I checked out their models and they were all very acceptably quiet because they all had at least a 2.5 CHP motor, and the bigger the motor the quieter the machine. But like Goldilocks, I didn't buy there because the fit wasn't just right. The machines were at a discount because their packaging had gotten damaged in shipping which voided their warranties. Yuck. But armed with new knowledge I went to Costco and looked at what they had and decided it was a great buy and that I was willing to shell out the ducats necessary to purchase my in-home walking machine. I'll let you know how the living room re-arranging and treadmill assembly go. I expect lots of swearing to happen and maybe even some tears.
Round Hiker says that the traits he doesn't like about me are the far end of a continuum of traits that he does like about me. He likes my tenacity, but he sometimes doesn't like my obsessiveness. But, as he well knows, you don't get one without the other. If I had to point to any one trait of mine that leads to the many successes I've had in life it's the tenacity--------obsession continuum that I have to credit. But there are some downsides. With obsession comes rigidity (for me). I really want to loose weight, and I found a pattern that worked, so I worked it until there was a problem. And then there was trouble! [that's a little side joke for all you parents of toddlers obsessed with Thomas The Tank Engine]
I've been running, barring injury, since about January. I'm on my second left-foot injury (which actually pre-dates the metatarsalia I had in February) and I know that to get rid of this Achilles tendonitis I'm going to have to change what I am doing for a while - perhaps a longer while than I would like. I've been doing nothing work-out wise for 3 weeks and my foot is very very slowly starting to feel better. I'm on Mobic (a prescription anti-inflammatory drug) and for the last week I've been doing my physical therapy exercises. My doc said to call her if I didn't start feeling better within 6 weeks - but she never said that I would feel completely better within 6 weeks. And she also told me to no run while my foot hurt. What to do?
Learning to be more flexible
It seems that I am being given the amazing opportunity to exercise all sorts of life skills during my quest to loose weight, get into running and hopefully avoid more cancer. I've had to put aside my tenacity during one foot injury, and now I have to do it again. But it seems that you can't do things the same way twice - this is looking to be a much longer layup that the 4 week running vacation I took in February. So, in the spirit of flexibility, I looked at everything I was doing and have made some decisions. Dum dum duuuuummmmmmm.....
1) I want to loose weight
2) I can't run for an unknown period of time, and winter is creeping up on me
3) I loose focus and drive to exercise outside of the house in winter because it is damn cold out
4) I was planning on running out side this winter, but I wasn't particularly planning on liking it
The solution? A decent treadmill
Then I saw an add (in the classifieds!) for a discount exercise equipment place. I checked out their models and they were all very acceptably quiet because they all had at least a 2.5 CHP motor, and the bigger the motor the quieter the machine. But like Goldilocks, I didn't buy there because the fit wasn't just right. The machines were at a discount because their packaging had gotten damaged in shipping which voided their warranties. Yuck. But armed with new knowledge I went to Costco and looked at what they had and decided it was a great buy and that I was willing to shell out the ducats necessary to purchase my in-home walking machine. I'll let you know how the living room re-arranging and treadmill assembly go. I expect lots of swearing to happen and maybe even some tears.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Huh, it seems to work...
Weighing in every day
For the last week or so I've been weighing in every day, trying to eat about 2,000 calories and doing my physical therapy exercises. I am down about 1.8 pounds from last week. This is the most weight I've lost in a while, especially without active exercise. The book that I am listening to (Influencer) talks about the power of frequent and immediate feedback on helping people change their behavior. I don't perceive that I am doing anything different except weighing in every day instead of once a week, but I feel less hungry during the day than I have in the past. I am also not running and weightlifting, so that could account for the decrease in hunger. Obviously I'll have to test out daily weigh-ins for more than a week, but so far it seems to be helping.
I resisted weighing in every day for a long time because in the past I got obsessed with the number. The last time I lost significant weight I probably had a mild form of exercise anorexia. I lost 50 lbs in 5 months and I worked out a lot. I'd bike 20 miles before work, or Rollerblade 10 miles (alternating). Then I'd come home, eat dinner and go to the gym and lift for a couple of hours. I never ate below 1800 calories and I lost 10 pounds a month. I'd agonize if I knew I had to go out to eat for a work function - what would I eat that wouldn't interfere with my weight loss? I was very inflexible, but if anything out of my control came into my orbit, it would derail my "progress". There was no room for life to happen, just my obsession. That cycle came to a crashing halt when Round Hiker came to live with me. He brought Oreos and lots of other things that were not within my strictly constructed plan, and I was unable to maintain my freaky focus. Then we moved to Utah (from Miami) where the cold activated my Belgian genes. They loudly began to demand that I sit on the sofa and drink hot cocoa with pats of butter melted in. The rest, as they say, can be seen on my ass.
If over-concern about the numbers on the scale resurface, I'll have to cut back to once a week weigh-ins. I'd rather loose weight slowly and sanely than quickly and crazily.
For the last week or so I've been weighing in every day, trying to eat about 2,000 calories and doing my physical therapy exercises. I am down about 1.8 pounds from last week. This is the most weight I've lost in a while, especially without active exercise. The book that I am listening to (Influencer) talks about the power of frequent and immediate feedback on helping people change their behavior. I don't perceive that I am doing anything different except weighing in every day instead of once a week, but I feel less hungry during the day than I have in the past. I am also not running and weightlifting, so that could account for the decrease in hunger. Obviously I'll have to test out daily weigh-ins for more than a week, but so far it seems to be helping.
I resisted weighing in every day for a long time because in the past I got obsessed with the number. The last time I lost significant weight I probably had a mild form of exercise anorexia. I lost 50 lbs in 5 months and I worked out a lot. I'd bike 20 miles before work, or Rollerblade 10 miles (alternating). Then I'd come home, eat dinner and go to the gym and lift for a couple of hours. I never ate below 1800 calories and I lost 10 pounds a month. I'd agonize if I knew I had to go out to eat for a work function - what would I eat that wouldn't interfere with my weight loss? I was very inflexible, but if anything out of my control came into my orbit, it would derail my "progress". There was no room for life to happen, just my obsession. That cycle came to a crashing halt when Round Hiker came to live with me. He brought Oreos and lots of other things that were not within my strictly constructed plan, and I was unable to maintain my freaky focus. Then we moved to Utah (from Miami) where the cold activated my Belgian genes. They loudly began to demand that I sit on the sofa and drink hot cocoa with pats of butter melted in. The rest, as they say, can be seen on my ass.
If over-concern about the numbers on the scale resurface, I'll have to cut back to once a week weigh-ins. I'd rather loose weight slowly and sanely than quickly and crazily.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Ouch!
Kiss my boo boo
Physical therapy is tough. I guess if it wasn't, my foot would be strong enough to resist injury. I did the set of exercises on Monday morning before work and limped the rest of the day. I decided to do my exercises in the evening on Tuesday, but then never did them. So I sucked it up and did them again this morning. My heel does hurt again, but not as much as on Monday, and not enough to make me limp. So in just two sessions I may already be seeing some progress, which is a hopeful sign.
And in the two weeks that I have already been out of action the weather seems to have turned. It's cooler in the mornings now that it was a few weeks ago. I am already having to start trolling the web for long-sleeved running shirts, and soon enough I'll probably have to find some midget running pants. if that's even possible.
Just because I'm not exercising at the moment doesn't mean that I am not thinking about exercise. A lot. But I am also enjoying the opportunity to snuggle with Little Runner longer in the mornings than usual, and reading some good books. There is always an up side, especially in any situation that does not involve prison or extortion.
Physical therapy is tough. I guess if it wasn't, my foot would be strong enough to resist injury. I did the set of exercises on Monday morning before work and limped the rest of the day. I decided to do my exercises in the evening on Tuesday, but then never did them. So I sucked it up and did them again this morning. My heel does hurt again, but not as much as on Monday, and not enough to make me limp. So in just two sessions I may already be seeing some progress, which is a hopeful sign.
And in the two weeks that I have already been out of action the weather seems to have turned. It's cooler in the mornings now that it was a few weeks ago. I am already having to start trolling the web for long-sleeved running shirts, and soon enough I'll probably have to find some midget running pants. if that's even possible.
Just because I'm not exercising at the moment doesn't mean that I am not thinking about exercise. A lot. But I am also enjoying the opportunity to snuggle with Little Runner longer in the mornings than usual, and reading some good books. There is always an up side, especially in any situation that does not involve prison or extortion.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Lost Week
What the hell happened to my plan?
Well my second to last post outlined a plan of attack for the week that totally fell through from start to finish. We did get all ready and go to the pool last Sunday only to find that it closed at 2 pm, rather than 4 pm as I thought. Our 3:15 pm arrival was rather disappointing.
Sunday I stayed up late reading a good book, so I skipped working out on Monday. Tuesday I skipped working out because I had to give my first ever webinar session at a conference (on international statistics and sources) and I had some work to finish on my presentation before 9 am. The rest of the week was a write off because I bought a new netbook and had some issues with the sleep/hibernate function that drove me crazy until I finally got them fixed. Obsession is a useful personality trait when applied to the right issue, and can derail things when it's focused on a tangential issue!
The State of Round Runner Today
In accordance with my new weigh myself every day habit I found out that I am back to 207.8 lbs, which is where I started before I had company and then a conference and then a work retreat. So if I take the last even in the 10 day string of events and count out to today, it took me 9 days to recover from my disrupted schedule even without exercising. I think I am finally getting a handle on the whole eating the right amount of stuff. Now I need to work on improving the stuff that I and Little Runner eat.
Barriers to returning to my regular schedule for this week: My gym closes for a week for repairs and cleaning starting tomorrow. The U starts the fall semester on Monday. So I will continue to eat well and I will spend the week starting my physical therapy exercises and doing some walking sessions. We shall see where my left heel is next week before I make any more plans. Learning to manage my eating and exercising during stressful times and injury takes some thought and effort, but not more than I have to throw at the project.
Well my second to last post outlined a plan of attack for the week that totally fell through from start to finish. We did get all ready and go to the pool last Sunday only to find that it closed at 2 pm, rather than 4 pm as I thought. Our 3:15 pm arrival was rather disappointing.
Sunday I stayed up late reading a good book, so I skipped working out on Monday. Tuesday I skipped working out because I had to give my first ever webinar session at a conference (on international statistics and sources) and I had some work to finish on my presentation before 9 am. The rest of the week was a write off because I bought a new netbook and had some issues with the sleep/hibernate function that drove me crazy until I finally got them fixed. Obsession is a useful personality trait when applied to the right issue, and can derail things when it's focused on a tangential issue!
The State of Round Runner Today
In accordance with my new weigh myself every day habit I found out that I am back to 207.8 lbs, which is where I started before I had company and then a conference and then a work retreat. So if I take the last even in the 10 day string of events and count out to today, it took me 9 days to recover from my disrupted schedule even without exercising. I think I am finally getting a handle on the whole eating the right amount of stuff. Now I need to work on improving the stuff that I and Little Runner eat.
Barriers to returning to my regular schedule for this week: My gym closes for a week for repairs and cleaning starting tomorrow. The U starts the fall semester on Monday. So I will continue to eat well and I will spend the week starting my physical therapy exercises and doing some walking sessions. We shall see where my left heel is next week before I make any more plans. Learning to manage my eating and exercising during stressful times and injury takes some thought and effort, but not more than I have to throw at the project.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Interesting listening
Influencer
I'm listening to Influencer - the Power to Change Anything while I tool around in my car on the weekends and to and from work. Apparently there are 3 behaviors associated with people who lost at least 30 pounds and who kept if off for at least 6 years: eating breakfast, weighing themselves daily, and working out on home equipment.
Breakfast? Check!
Weighing myself daily? I was doing weekly, but decided that I can easily handle doing it daily, so I weighed in this morning and got a pleasant surprise - I'm down .6 of a pound, making my current weight gain for 10 days or whacked out eating and exercise schedule to be exactly 1 pound. Which is a freaking miracle. I must be getting better at eating a reasonable amount if convention travel, a lame foot and company only gifted me with 1 pound!
Working out on home equipment? Not so much, unless running counts as home equipment. I have toyed with the idea of getting a treadmill and maybe some kettle balls, but nothing serious. I will have to cogitate on how to incorporate this behavior into my way of doing things. I think this would work best for me when I am in the maintenance phase of exercising, rather than the active phase of getting fitter and loosing weight. I find that being at the gym greatly improves my focus and ability to work out sans 3.5 year old Little Runner hanging off from me whenever he thinks he can climb on my back.
I'm listening to Influencer - the Power to Change Anything while I tool around in my car on the weekends and to and from work. Apparently there are 3 behaviors associated with people who lost at least 30 pounds and who kept if off for at least 6 years: eating breakfast, weighing themselves daily, and working out on home equipment.
Breakfast? Check!
Weighing myself daily? I was doing weekly, but decided that I can easily handle doing it daily, so I weighed in this morning and got a pleasant surprise - I'm down .6 of a pound, making my current weight gain for 10 days or whacked out eating and exercise schedule to be exactly 1 pound. Which is a freaking miracle. I must be getting better at eating a reasonable amount if convention travel, a lame foot and company only gifted me with 1 pound!
Working out on home equipment? Not so much, unless running counts as home equipment. I have toyed with the idea of getting a treadmill and maybe some kettle balls, but nothing serious. I will have to cogitate on how to incorporate this behavior into my way of doing things. I think this would work best for me when I am in the maintenance phase of exercising, rather than the active phase of getting fitter and loosing weight. I find that being at the gym greatly improves my focus and ability to work out sans 3.5 year old Little Runner hanging off from me whenever he thinks he can climb on my back.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Breathe in, Breathe Out, Whatever You Do, Don't Freak Out!
Updates
Up 1.6 pounds, which is only to be expected. I suspect at least a half pound is water weight from sitting in the car and eating a corn dog and some Cheetos (the puffy kind, natch) while looking at the gorgeous Uinta scenery from Round Hiker's new 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup truck. We had to go try it out.
Plus I had company for a week, and then went to Denver for 3 days for a conference, came home to find out that I have Achilles tendonitis and have basically been a slug for the last week and eaten out a lot. Whew! it's probably a miracle that I am not up more than 1.6 lbs. Company whacks out my schedule, as does travel, illness, and lameness. I had a trifecta the last two weeks, so I'm trying not to freak out about my lack of downward progress. My clothes still fit, and I am hanging on to that.
The Way Forward
Today (Sunday) will be my regroup and recoup day. Grocery shopping, house/life tidying, getting to the pool with Little Runner, and basically getting ready for the week. Monday will be back to the gym. Tuesday will be a long walk barefoot. I want to see how my heel does. It feels really good right now - I almost don't even notice that there is anything wrong with my heel. The Mobic prescription has really impressed me. I've never had an anti-inflammatory knock out my heel pain so quickly. I plan to be cautious and ease back into running. limping around is no fun. Plus pain makes me cranky and terse with Little Runner, which is definitely not cool. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be running again.
Up 1.6 pounds, which is only to be expected. I suspect at least a half pound is water weight from sitting in the car and eating a corn dog and some Cheetos (the puffy kind, natch) while looking at the gorgeous Uinta scenery from Round Hiker's new 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup truck. We had to go try it out.
Plus I had company for a week, and then went to Denver for 3 days for a conference, came home to find out that I have Achilles tendonitis and have basically been a slug for the last week and eaten out a lot. Whew! it's probably a miracle that I am not up more than 1.6 lbs. Company whacks out my schedule, as does travel, illness, and lameness. I had a trifecta the last two weeks, so I'm trying not to freak out about my lack of downward progress. My clothes still fit, and I am hanging on to that.
The Way Forward
Today (Sunday) will be my regroup and recoup day. Grocery shopping, house/life tidying, getting to the pool with Little Runner, and basically getting ready for the week. Monday will be back to the gym. Tuesday will be a long walk barefoot. I want to see how my heel does. It feels really good right now - I almost don't even notice that there is anything wrong with my heel. The Mobic prescription has really impressed me. I've never had an anti-inflammatory knock out my heel pain so quickly. I plan to be cautious and ease back into running. limping around is no fun. Plus pain makes me cranky and terse with Little Runner, which is definitely not cool. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be running again.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Lamest Run Ever!
Lame!
Slept like crap. Ate like crap. Ran like crap. (I originally mistyped this sentence to read ran like carp - I wasn't actually that bad, so I did correct my spelling.) Man am I slow. The two conference folk I ran with frisked off like puppies and I slowly slogged behind. I can already see that if I manage to make my October 5k run my goal had best not be placing well, but merely attending and finishing before the cut-off time. *sigh* And on top of it all my heel was ouchy, which made me feel really lame. I ran 4 out of the 5 sprints because the last 4 minutes 36 seconds of running was going to be uphill. NFW.
The plus side? I tried something new, and sort of confirmed my solitary running bias (at least for the moment). The running area was a bit of a downhill hike all the way from the hotel, but it was a cool urbanish park that I would never had seen if I hadn't gotten up to go running at 6:15 am.
The Diagnosis
I went to the Sugarhouse U of U health clinic today. Apparently I have Achilles tendonitis and not plantar fasciitis. This is the same pain I've had since 2000 or 2001 when my podiatrist diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis. That's why I wanted to see a sports medicine doctor this time. I've become somewhat suspicious of podiatrists in the last few years. At the least the sports med doc didn't tell me to quit running or try to sell me a $600 pair of orthtoics, although she did tell me to lay off while my insertion point was so inflamed. Gah. She gave me a script for Meloxicam (MOBIC) since ibuprofen hasn't been doing much for my heel inflammation. And she gave me a list of 5 or six exercises to do to stretch and strengthen my Achilles tendon to get rid of my tendinitis altogether. And a recommendation to bike or swim until my heel feels better. Grrr.
Slept like crap. Ate like crap. Ran like crap. (I originally mistyped this sentence to read ran like carp - I wasn't actually that bad, so I did correct my spelling.) Man am I slow. The two conference folk I ran with frisked off like puppies and I slowly slogged behind. I can already see that if I manage to make my October 5k run my goal had best not be placing well, but merely attending and finishing before the cut-off time. *sigh* And on top of it all my heel was ouchy, which made me feel really lame. I ran 4 out of the 5 sprints because the last 4 minutes 36 seconds of running was going to be uphill. NFW.
The plus side? I tried something new, and sort of confirmed my solitary running bias (at least for the moment). The running area was a bit of a downhill hike all the way from the hotel, but it was a cool urbanish park that I would never had seen if I hadn't gotten up to go running at 6:15 am.
The Diagnosis
I went to the Sugarhouse U of U health clinic today. Apparently I have Achilles tendonitis and not plantar fasciitis. This is the same pain I've had since 2000 or 2001 when my podiatrist diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis. That's why I wanted to see a sports medicine doctor this time. I've become somewhat suspicious of podiatrists in the last few years. At the least the sports med doc didn't tell me to quit running or try to sell me a $600 pair of orthtoics, although she did tell me to lay off while my insertion point was so inflamed. Gah. She gave me a script for Meloxicam (MOBIC) since ibuprofen hasn't been doing much for my heel inflammation. And she gave me a list of 5 or six exercises to do to stretch and strengthen my Achilles tendon to get rid of my tendinitis altogether. And a recommendation to bike or swim until my heel feels better. Grrr.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Catching Up
The Outdoor Retailer Show / OUCH!
We had company last week for the Outdoor Retailer show. It was lovely to see Stephanie again, and she was a great house guest. Everything went well until Thursday morning. For some reason my left calf was super tight after my run and my plantar fasciitis was killer that day. While my run was fine I spent the next 3 days limping, which is not cool! I did score some Injinji toe socks and some nifty Thermos water bottles at the show, so my limpfest on Friday was not a total loss.
U of U Ropes Course
Thursday morning at work I attended the U of U Ropes Course for a 1/2 day session. I was worried that my left foot would cause a problem, but we did group exercises and no actual ropes work at all. It was an interesting morning, and I was with a great group of people from work. The funniest part of the whole day was the directions to the course. I was confused by them, and muddled my way through. My friend and I mentioned it to the course instructors and noted that the word Ropes was misspelled as well. Three other library employees mentioned the mistakes in the directions. Apparently we were the 7th group that summer to use the directions and the first one to mention the problems. Librarians - we can nit-pick with the best of them!
Saturday
I did not run on Saturday. My left heel was still pretty ouchy and I am trying to learn from my past mistakes and not just bulldoze through pain to a greater injury. In fact, I even made a doctor's appointment for next week with a sports medicine doc to check my heel out and make sure that I know what is going on with my foot. My heel hurt badly enough that I am willing to entertain the idea of getting a cortisone shot in my heel to help kill the inflammation. So Steph and I went to the SLC downtown farmer's market instead. I got some local cheese, local salami, and some amazing roasted tomato and hazelnut pesto and some basil and pistachio pesto. I figured out that the tomato pesto has much much more garlic in it. I may need to cut that pesto with cream cheese or something else so that I'm not breathing garlic fire for the rest of the day when I eat it. I think my motto is "if you can't run, eat".
Denver
Right now I am in Denver for the Reference Renaissance library convention. I like the smaller more tightly focused conventions compared to the histerionic sprawl of ALA annual. I signed up for the local run on Tuesday morning, and my heel is feeling well enough that I assume I will be able to do it. It will be nice to have my second run on location - and at about the same elevation as my run at my dad's house - 5,600 feet. That's about 1,000 feet higher than I live at. I think it will be easier on me than people who came here from sea level. I'll let you know how it goes.
We had company last week for the Outdoor Retailer show. It was lovely to see Stephanie again, and she was a great house guest. Everything went well until Thursday morning. For some reason my left calf was super tight after my run and my plantar fasciitis was killer that day. While my run was fine I spent the next 3 days limping, which is not cool! I did score some Injinji toe socks and some nifty Thermos water bottles at the show, so my limpfest on Friday was not a total loss.
U of U Ropes Course
Thursday morning at work I attended the U of U Ropes Course for a 1/2 day session. I was worried that my left foot would cause a problem, but we did group exercises and no actual ropes work at all. It was an interesting morning, and I was with a great group of people from work. The funniest part of the whole day was the directions to the course. I was confused by them, and muddled my way through. My friend and I mentioned it to the course instructors and noted that the word Ropes was misspelled as well. Three other library employees mentioned the mistakes in the directions. Apparently we were the 7th group that summer to use the directions and the first one to mention the problems. Librarians - we can nit-pick with the best of them!
Saturday
I did not run on Saturday. My left heel was still pretty ouchy and I am trying to learn from my past mistakes and not just bulldoze through pain to a greater injury. In fact, I even made a doctor's appointment for next week with a sports medicine doc to check my heel out and make sure that I know what is going on with my foot. My heel hurt badly enough that I am willing to entertain the idea of getting a cortisone shot in my heel to help kill the inflammation. So Steph and I went to the SLC downtown farmer's market instead. I got some local cheese, local salami, and some amazing roasted tomato and hazelnut pesto and some basil and pistachio pesto. I figured out that the tomato pesto has much much more garlic in it. I may need to cut that pesto with cream cheese or something else so that I'm not breathing garlic fire for the rest of the day when I eat it. I think my motto is "if you can't run, eat".
Denver
Right now I am in Denver for the Reference Renaissance library convention. I like the smaller more tightly focused conventions compared to the histerionic sprawl of ALA annual. I signed up for the local run on Tuesday morning, and my heel is feeling well enough that I assume I will be able to do it. It will be nice to have my second run on location - and at about the same elevation as my run at my dad's house - 5,600 feet. That's about 1,000 feet higher than I live at. I think it will be easier on me than people who came here from sea level. I'll let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Crushing My Delusions
It's not a bad thing...
Every time I have a good run early in a new interval I have hopes and dreams of moving on like clockwork after 3 sessions, but each time that dream is dashed by reality. However, as my clock-watching during the last two minutes of my last running sprint proved, I will probably have to extend this interval through Saturday, and possibly onto Tuesday. But, that's not a bad thing. It just means that my wimpy lungs need more time to catch up to speed (huh huh) with what I am doing.
Speaking of lungs, have I told you that I have greater than average lung capacity? Apparently I have about 30% more lung capacity than a woman my age, my height should have. But, I have asthma, which busts my ability to move air in and out of my lungs by about 30%. When I get my lungs conditioned to run for 30+ minutes and I use albuteral, I'll be a superhero! Or something like that.
Every time I have a good run early in a new interval I have hopes and dreams of moving on like clockwork after 3 sessions, but each time that dream is dashed by reality. However, as my clock-watching during the last two minutes of my last running sprint proved, I will probably have to extend this interval through Saturday, and possibly onto Tuesday. But, that's not a bad thing. It just means that my wimpy lungs need more time to catch up to speed (huh huh) with what I am doing.
Speaking of lungs, have I told you that I have greater than average lung capacity? Apparently I have about 30% more lung capacity than a woman my age, my height should have. But, I have asthma, which busts my ability to move air in and out of my lungs by about 30%. When I get my lungs conditioned to run for 30+ minutes and I use albuteral, I'll be a superhero! Or something like that.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Keeping the Schedule with Company
Working out while hosting company
Keeping to a reasonable sleep and exercise schedule can be difficult under ideal conditions. Things tend to fall apart for me when we have company. We have a guest for the week (Hi Phoenix Hiker!) for the Outdoor Retailer Show in SLC. I forced myself to go to bed on time last night, even though I wanted to stay up and chat, and I got up and out to exercise before she woke up, so that part was easier. When I am at my goal weight and fitness level it should be easier for me to take a week off for company, but right now it feels like I will just loose my momentum. Besides, Phoenix Hiker leaves on Saturday, and then I leave for a conference in Denver on Sunday. Exercising while away and eating within my goal for those day will be a huge challenge. No need to walk into that one already up on the scale!
Weights today
Today was a weights day. In deference to Round and Phoenix Hikers' schedule, I cut off my workout before I got to walk. I came home and they took off, so I invited Little Runner to walk barefoot with me. He was all into it until he saw someone pass us on a bicycle. The hysterics started "I want to go home! I want my bike!!". If I was certain that he would actually ride his bike the entire way I planned to walk that would have been fine. But he is still a bit wary of his new "special" bike, and he rides about 5 feet and then gets off and walks it for a bit or just sort of stands and stares at it. I didn't want to have to cajole him around the complex, so I said no. And then I bribed him with the promise of a Popsicle when we returned home, which thankfully got him moving. And surprisingly, the walk with LR turned out to be lots of fun. We splashed in a few puddles, and he got excited about identifying conifer trees as we moseyed around the walkway. I got my barefoot steps in for the day and he got to splash, point and yell, and have a Popsicle. It was a win - win.
Keeping to a reasonable sleep and exercise schedule can be difficult under ideal conditions. Things tend to fall apart for me when we have company. We have a guest for the week (Hi Phoenix Hiker!) for the Outdoor Retailer Show in SLC. I forced myself to go to bed on time last night, even though I wanted to stay up and chat, and I got up and out to exercise before she woke up, so that part was easier. When I am at my goal weight and fitness level it should be easier for me to take a week off for company, but right now it feels like I will just loose my momentum. Besides, Phoenix Hiker leaves on Saturday, and then I leave for a conference in Denver on Sunday. Exercising while away and eating within my goal for those day will be a huge challenge. No need to walk into that one already up on the scale!
Weights today
Today was a weights day. In deference to Round and Phoenix Hikers' schedule, I cut off my workout before I got to walk. I came home and they took off, so I invited Little Runner to walk barefoot with me. He was all into it until he saw someone pass us on a bicycle. The hysterics started "I want to go home! I want my bike!!". If I was certain that he would actually ride his bike the entire way I planned to walk that would have been fine. But he is still a bit wary of his new "special" bike, and he rides about 5 feet and then gets off and walks it for a bit or just sort of stands and stares at it. I didn't want to have to cajole him around the complex, so I said no. And then I bribed him with the promise of a Popsicle when we returned home, which thankfully got him moving. And surprisingly, the walk with LR turned out to be lots of fun. We splashed in a few puddles, and he got excited about identifying conifer trees as we moseyed around the walkway. I got my barefoot steps in for the day and he got to splash, point and yell, and have a Popsicle. It was a win - win.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Exercise vs. House Cleaning
I'm convinced that my BodyBugg doesn't give me enough credit for the effort I put in to cleaning the house today. Between cleaning and exercising, I'd far rather exercise. I like the fact that the kitchen and bathroom are clean, but honestly, for me cleaning is a thankless task. I am perhaps the tidiest person in the house (excepting my tendency to use lots of dishes when I cook), but I pick up more than my fair share. Of course I think that's par for the course for any adult who lives with a 3 year-old who has the nickname "Destroyer of Rooms".
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Interval 9
This morning I upped my running time to 4:36 min walk 1:30 min. At this point I am now running 23 minutes out of 30, which is 76.6% of my planned run is actually running. Whoo hoo! The run generally went very well. I looked at my stopwatch occasionally, but as usual on an increase, the last two running minutes felt like a near thing. I wasn't sucking wind and I didn't have that panicky please-stop-now! feeling. But the last 36 seconds seemed to take forever. I can tell that I am recovering faster from the running sections each week.
I've been running barefoot 3 times a week since mid-June, and I have yet to see someone else barefoot on the trail. I think I recall seeing one or two other people in Vibram fivefingers, but no bare tootsies. I had a few comments on my lack of shoes, and they were both positive. Last week one guy told me that I "must have really tough feet". Which is funny because I am a huge pain wienie. I'm running barefoot because it feel much better on my feet than running in shoes. I have some calf tightness during and after running which aggravates my preexisting plantar fasciitis but absolutely no shin splits, which were the bane of every previous attempt at running.
All in all, the morning started out in an awesome way!
I've been running barefoot 3 times a week since mid-June, and I have yet to see someone else barefoot on the trail. I think I recall seeing one or two other people in Vibram fivefingers, but no bare tootsies. I had a few comments on my lack of shoes, and they were both positive. Last week one guy told me that I "must have really tough feet". Which is funny because I am a huge pain wienie. I'm running barefoot because it feel much better on my feet than running in shoes. I have some calf tightness during and after running which aggravates my preexisting plantar fasciitis but absolutely no shin splits, which were the bane of every previous attempt at running.
All in all, the morning started out in an awesome way!
Friday, July 30, 2010
It's About Damn Time
As of this morning I have officially lost 30 lbs. Whoo Hoo! That just took me about 9 months. The plus side to going slow is that I am working on making lasting changes to my lifestyle and habits. The down side is I've been doing this for 9 months and I still have 50 - 70 lbs. to go. Gah. I have to remember to be positive and celebrate the victories. I don't weigh more now than I did 9 months ago. That's amazing in and of itself.
I did hit the gym this morning for my weights workout. It went very well, although there were several moments after one exercise or another that I contemplated puking. I think waking up late and eating cereal and milk and then immediately leaving for the gym had something to do with it. I managed to do 3 sets of 6 reps on my Smith Machine push ups on notch 3. I think I am a little below a 30 degree angle on notch 3. I'll claw my way up to doing three sets of 10, and then I'll drop a notch. Soon... soon I will be doing real push ups. That will be cool. I lust after Jessica Biel's shoulders and arms and I think push ups will hep me get there.
I did hit the gym this morning for my weights workout. It went very well, although there were several moments after one exercise or another that I contemplated puking. I think waking up late and eating cereal and milk and then immediately leaving for the gym had something to do with it. I managed to do 3 sets of 6 reps on my Smith Machine push ups on notch 3. I think I am a little below a 30 degree angle on notch 3. I'll claw my way up to doing three sets of 10, and then I'll drop a notch. Soon... soon I will be doing real push ups. That will be cool. I lust after Jessica Biel's shoulders and arms and I think push ups will hep me get there.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Splendiferous
Is that a kind of tree?
Splendiferous is just a made up word that I use to describe truly wonderful things. Although, according to spell check, splendorous is a real word, so I may have to exchange my made up word for the real one. But the real one sounds pretentious, don't you think?
Anyway, today's run was splendiferous. 5 running sprints accomplished without looking at my stopwatch. My breathing was even, my arms relaxed, my sternum high and shoulders down. The weather was perfect - a little overcast with a dramatically cloudy sky. My last running bout on Tuesday was okay, but at times I questioned how much I really enjoyed running. There were no doubts in my mind today. Which is good, because it occurred to me that increasing my running time by 30 seconds each sprint was going to mean that as I got better at running I was going to be slowing down in my forward progression towards running 30 minutes straight. Basically, as I dropped my number of sprints in each running session I would be increasing my running time by fewer and fewer minutes if I stuck to increasing by only 30 seconds each sprint.
The New Plan
So I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to increase my running amount by 3 minutes total each interval until I hit 30 minutes running, and how to drop sprints and not increase my total expected exercise time past 36 minutes since I also have a walking warm up and cool down that drags the whole shebang out to about 60 minutes. Here is where I think I'm going from now on out:
9 4:36 min run 1:30 min walk x 5 sprints
10 5:12 min run 1:30 min walk x 5 sprints
11 6:30 min run 1:30 min walk x 4 sprints
12 7:15 min run 1 min walk x 4 sprints
13 10 min run 1 min walk x 3 sprints
14 15 min run 1 min walk x 2 sprints
15 30 min run then home to celebrate!
This Saturday I'll be doing interval 9 and we will see how it goes. I think interval 10 will tell me how crazy this plan is since it will be the biggest jump in sprint time I have taken so far.
Splendiferous is just a made up word that I use to describe truly wonderful things. Although, according to spell check, splendorous is a real word, so I may have to exchange my made up word for the real one. But the real one sounds pretentious, don't you think?
Anyway, today's run was splendiferous. 5 running sprints accomplished without looking at my stopwatch. My breathing was even, my arms relaxed, my sternum high and shoulders down. The weather was perfect - a little overcast with a dramatically cloudy sky. My last running bout on Tuesday was okay, but at times I questioned how much I really enjoyed running. There were no doubts in my mind today. Which is good, because it occurred to me that increasing my running time by 30 seconds each sprint was going to mean that as I got better at running I was going to be slowing down in my forward progression towards running 30 minutes straight. Basically, as I dropped my number of sprints in each running session I would be increasing my running time by fewer and fewer minutes if I stuck to increasing by only 30 seconds each sprint.
The New Plan
So I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to increase my running amount by 3 minutes total each interval until I hit 30 minutes running, and how to drop sprints and not increase my total expected exercise time past 36 minutes since I also have a walking warm up and cool down that drags the whole shebang out to about 60 minutes. Here is where I think I'm going from now on out:
9 4:36 min run 1:30 min walk x 5 sprints
10 5:12 min run 1:30 min walk x 5 sprints
11 6:30 min run 1:30 min walk x 4 sprints
12 7:15 min run 1 min walk x 4 sprints
13 10 min run 1 min walk x 3 sprints
14 15 min run 1 min walk x 2 sprints
15 30 min run then home to celebrate!
This Saturday I'll be doing interval 9 and we will see how it goes. I think interval 10 will tell me how crazy this plan is since it will be the biggest jump in sprint time I have taken so far.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Today is an Ice Cream Kind of Day or Why I Didn't Work Out
Why I Didn't Work Out This Morning (by Round Runner)
I got home from work last night and Round Hiker suggested that Little Runner had completely negated the company value of our three area rugs in the living room by grinding a variety of foods into the surface: popsicles, scrambled eggs, mac and cheese, and Oreo cookies. Not all at once of course, but in drips and drabs and crumbs and smears for the past 18 months. We vacuum multiple times a week and attack stains with cleaners and rags, but eventually the sheer onslaught took it tole. Rest in peace area rugs.
We went out and bought a carpet remnant for the living room that looks pretty good, but then what wouldn't look better than sub-flooring?. We had to move the entertainment center to hook up the Nintendo Wii we bought this weekend so that we can watch NetFlix streaming movies on our TV rather than on a laptop. Once that was done we laid out the carpet and cut it down where necessary and placed the furniture. The process was complicated by Little Runner howling upstairs in his bedroom (I'm scared! I'm hungry! I need help Mommy! ((What do you need help with?)) Getting out of here!! I'm not sleepy! I want to come downstairs!) and Round Hiker being in a foul mood. The carpet knife came apart, the cords got tangled, we got sweaty and I just tried to hide in plain sight. I didn't get to sleep until 11 pm (two hours past my bedtime!) and Little Runner got me up at 4 am and 5 am. And he refused to let me nap in peace after I fed him some breakfast - the traitor.
And that's why I decided to simplify my life and skip the gym this morning.
Today is an Ice Cream Kind of Day
When I don't get enough sleep I morph into the Creature That Ate Salt Lake. It's not a pretty picture. I must have gotten an okay base level of sleep because I haven't been munching uncontrollably all day long. I've only eaten off my expectations once - I had a small cup of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. Man, that stuff is good. And thankfully they sell it in small 3 oz. cups so I didn't dive in to a whole pint. I have been mocked for my unseemly affection for vanilla ice cream, but I still think a good vanilla flavor is the food of the gods. I'm feeling pretty good about being able to limit my foodie carnage (so far) to one dinky cup of ice cream.
I got home from work last night and Round Hiker suggested that Little Runner had completely negated the company value of our three area rugs in the living room by grinding a variety of foods into the surface: popsicles, scrambled eggs, mac and cheese, and Oreo cookies. Not all at once of course, but in drips and drabs and crumbs and smears for the past 18 months. We vacuum multiple times a week and attack stains with cleaners and rags, but eventually the sheer onslaught took it tole. Rest in peace area rugs.
We went out and bought a carpet remnant for the living room that looks pretty good, but then what wouldn't look better than sub-flooring?. We had to move the entertainment center to hook up the Nintendo Wii we bought this weekend so that we can watch NetFlix streaming movies on our TV rather than on a laptop. Once that was done we laid out the carpet and cut it down where necessary and placed the furniture. The process was complicated by Little Runner howling upstairs in his bedroom (I'm scared! I'm hungry! I need help Mommy! ((What do you need help with?)) Getting out of here!! I'm not sleepy! I want to come downstairs!) and Round Hiker being in a foul mood. The carpet knife came apart, the cords got tangled, we got sweaty and I just tried to hide in plain sight. I didn't get to sleep until 11 pm (two hours past my bedtime!) and Little Runner got me up at 4 am and 5 am. And he refused to let me nap in peace after I fed him some breakfast - the traitor.
And that's why I decided to simplify my life and skip the gym this morning.
Today is an Ice Cream Kind of Day
When I don't get enough sleep I morph into the Creature That Ate Salt Lake. It's not a pretty picture. I must have gotten an okay base level of sleep because I haven't been munching uncontrollably all day long. I've only eaten off my expectations once - I had a small cup of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. Man, that stuff is good. And thankfully they sell it in small 3 oz. cups so I didn't dive in to a whole pint. I have been mocked for my unseemly affection for vanilla ice cream, but I still think a good vanilla flavor is the food of the gods. I'm feeling pretty good about being able to limit my foodie carnage (so far) to one dinky cup of ice cream.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Running in the Rain and Running with "Boobies"
Running in the Rain
Disclaimer - it did not rain while I was running today. There, I got that off my chest. More about my chest later. I've run in the rain once, and totally by accident. I was into my run before it began to rain. During that run I solved a mystery. Every time I saw someone running in the rain I totally didn't get it. Were they not smart enough to get out of the rain? They looked miserable. Obsession, I thought, was bad for you, and not just the perfume. Here is the secret - it's really fun! You get wet, and it cools you off, and the world looks all rainy and you remember what it felt like to be a kid out playing in the rain. It's a very different sensory experience than running in sunny and dry weather, and it feels good.
Why am I talking about rain? Because it rained last night and I went out running barefoot this morning. The run was fine, but I definitely felt the difference in the wet pavement on my feet. A barefoot running book I have (which will be reviewed later) stated that the three conditions that can cause blisters are heat, moisture, and friction. It specifically noted that running in the rain for "long distances" can cause blisters due to moisture and friction. Apparently my 3 ish miles don't constitute "long distance", or the intermittent wetness of the trail wasn't enough moisture to cause any blisters, for which I am thankful. But in the future I will wear my vffs to run if it rained the night before.
Running with "Boobies"
This topic was a request from Shane. First of all Shane, the proper term is tits, not boobies. When I think of boobies, I think of this:
 |
| Blue-footed Boobies |
I have found that the Champion Jog Bra is a pretty good bra for me. My chest doesn't move more than any other part of me does when I am running, and while the bra band is snug I can still breathe easily and the compression is not so great that I feel like I have been ironed flat.In general, having the right clothes to go out running and feel good has been very important for me. Some people eschew (I love that word) the high-tech fabrics that sports clothes can come in, but I wallow in the stuff. Sweat-wicking? Bring it on. SPF 50 woven into the fabric? I'm so there. Compression and stability and all those other good things? Yes, please! If my butt and tits aren't bouncing too much and my legs can't start a fire because of friction and my feet are happy, I will happily continue to run.
Monday, July 26, 2010
The magic of alone time
Hit the gym this morning and had a pretty good workout. Exercises like split squats that killed me the first week were reasonably okay today. For reasons unknown to me it took me 1 hour 15 minutes to do my workout today instead of 1 hour. I was chided for taking too long when I got home by Round Hiker. I tamped down my murderous rage by reminding myself that he had been up all night watching several seasons of Weeds, and that he was probably not in his right mind. RH is lucky I am a loving and tolerant wife!
While I don't get much if any alone time at the end of the day, I get it when I exercise at the start of the day. And I need that alone time to gear up for the day and recharge my sense of humor and perspective. Without it I become crankier, and definitely imbued with a sense of grievance and persecution. It's amazing what wonders exercise can wreak on the body and the psyche!
While I don't get much if any alone time at the end of the day, I get it when I exercise at the start of the day. And I need that alone time to gear up for the day and recharge my sense of humor and perspective. Without it I become crankier, and definitely imbued with a sense of grievance and persecution. It's amazing what wonders exercise can wreak on the body and the psyche!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
I knew better, but I did it anyway
Got your curious up, didn't I? Unfortunately it's nothing fun. I went to bed with a headache. Unlike the rest of the planet, apparently, I cannot go to sleep with a headache and wake up without one. Noooooo. I go to bed with a headache and I wake up in about 4-5 hours with a much worse one. I have to take Ibuprofen (Vitamin I) and stay awake until the headache is gone or I am in for it. But hope and laziness spring eternal and I went to bed with a headache and got up this morning at 2 am with a worse headache. I finally got the gumption up to go downstairs and get some Ibuprofen and crawl back upstairs to lay about until I felt better. I finally fell back asleep so of course Little Runner woke up at 4 am. And then again at 5 am.
I got up with LR at 5 and stuffed him with a bottle and Thomas the Tank Engine on the tube and we both went back to sleep (intermittently) for about 2 hours. At a little after 7 I finally got up for the day and ate breakfast and got underway to go run. So I hit the trail at 8:15 instead of 6:30 am, which made a bit of a difference in temperature and brightness, but I got it done without too much horror.
I always feel pokey when I exercise after a crap night sleep. The two hours of in and out of sleep were good though because they should help keep me from munching non-stop today. A really bad night sleep ending with little sleep overall leads me to graze constantly, which kind of negates the whole getting up and exercising thing. Yay for comfy couches!
I got up with LR at 5 and stuffed him with a bottle and Thomas the Tank Engine on the tube and we both went back to sleep (intermittently) for about 2 hours. At a little after 7 I finally got up for the day and ate breakfast and got underway to go run. So I hit the trail at 8:15 instead of 6:30 am, which made a bit of a difference in temperature and brightness, but I got it done without too much horror.
I always feel pokey when I exercise after a crap night sleep. The two hours of in and out of sleep were good though because they should help keep me from munching non-stop today. A really bad night sleep ending with little sleep overall leads me to graze constantly, which kind of negates the whole getting up and exercising thing. Yay for comfy couches!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Running While Female
In my experience, girls and women are socialized to see themselves as others see them. For me this has lead to an inability to fully inhabit my fantasies as me. When I imagine myself in situations I find that I am trying to see myself as others see me rather than imagining what I am doing and feeling from inside of myself.
When Round Hiker walks and hikes he loves slipping into the Alpha state where he isn't very aware of anything but the trail and moving down it. He listens to music and zones out and comes back energized and refreshed. I get that in snatches when I run. When I am alone my brain gets quiet and everything simplifies down to three things, breath, energy, and the sensation of my feet on the ground. As soon as I see someone else on the trail it's like my radio station stops broadcasting what I think and feel and starts trying to figure out how the other person on the trail sees me. Is my butt bouncing too much? Do my arms look fat? Do they think I'm too fat to be running? Do I look like I am having a hard time running?
Sometimes my brain swerves off and starts judging the females I'm passing. "She's too tan - skin cancer is in her future. She needs a better running bra, Woa, she can totally beat the crap out of me!" Much of the socialization process that teaches girls to always think about how other people see them is done by women. One of my least favorite comments is, "That's not ladylike." Which means that I am not conforming to someone's idea of what women should be and they feel very comfortable, nay, righteous about policing my behavior because as a female everyone (male and female) feels that they have the right to comment. These intrusions into girls and women's experience make it clear that how other people see you is vitally important.
Today was the first time I put together the dots on my inability to inhabit my own brain when I think about the future or when I am running and see someone on the trail. My focus is broken and these social scripts start playing where I try to anticipate what some total stranger wants of me and mentally start self-policing to see if I am violating those expectations. Unfortunately I also start projecting my idea of what other women should be like but thankfully I don't feel the need to say any of that pointless shit. This definitely puts a crimp in my running zen. And it made me wonder about elite female athletes. I wonder if they get to the heights that they do because they have superior concentration and get pulled out of their focus less. They certainly have an incredible social spotlight put on their appearance, behavior, and personalities. From when I was little and Martina Navratilova was criticized for being too thin and muscular and manly-looking (and a lesbian), to Serena Williams being criticized for being too big and muscular and manly on one hand and then too outrageously sexy and inappropriate in her tennis outfits. McEnroe swears at an official and society is all, "He's such a naughty boy - tee hee!" Serena does it and she's fined $50,000, has to apologize (which I don't remember McEnroe doing but perhaps he did) and everyone is all "Whoa, that's unacceptable!".
I will take it as a grand personal victory when I stop caring what other people on the trail think of me. And an even bigger one when I stop caring what other women on the trail look like or are doing as long as they aren't in my way! I want the luxury of self-focus and self-expectation that I imagine male athletes have. And if they don't have it, I still want it anyway.
When Round Hiker walks and hikes he loves slipping into the Alpha state where he isn't very aware of anything but the trail and moving down it. He listens to music and zones out and comes back energized and refreshed. I get that in snatches when I run. When I am alone my brain gets quiet and everything simplifies down to three things, breath, energy, and the sensation of my feet on the ground. As soon as I see someone else on the trail it's like my radio station stops broadcasting what I think and feel and starts trying to figure out how the other person on the trail sees me. Is my butt bouncing too much? Do my arms look fat? Do they think I'm too fat to be running? Do I look like I am having a hard time running?
Sometimes my brain swerves off and starts judging the females I'm passing. "She's too tan - skin cancer is in her future. She needs a better running bra, Woa, she can totally beat the crap out of me!" Much of the socialization process that teaches girls to always think about how other people see them is done by women. One of my least favorite comments is, "That's not ladylike." Which means that I am not conforming to someone's idea of what women should be and they feel very comfortable, nay, righteous about policing my behavior because as a female everyone (male and female) feels that they have the right to comment. These intrusions into girls and women's experience make it clear that how other people see you is vitally important.
Today was the first time I put together the dots on my inability to inhabit my own brain when I think about the future or when I am running and see someone on the trail. My focus is broken and these social scripts start playing where I try to anticipate what some total stranger wants of me and mentally start self-policing to see if I am violating those expectations. Unfortunately I also start projecting my idea of what other women should be like but thankfully I don't feel the need to say any of that pointless shit. This definitely puts a crimp in my running zen. And it made me wonder about elite female athletes. I wonder if they get to the heights that they do because they have superior concentration and get pulled out of their focus less. They certainly have an incredible social spotlight put on their appearance, behavior, and personalities. From when I was little and Martina Navratilova was criticized for being too thin and muscular and manly-looking (and a lesbian), to Serena Williams being criticized for being too big and muscular and manly on one hand and then too outrageously sexy and inappropriate in her tennis outfits. McEnroe swears at an official and society is all, "He's such a naughty boy - tee hee!" Serena does it and she's fined $50,000, has to apologize (which I don't remember McEnroe doing but perhaps he did) and everyone is all "Whoa, that's unacceptable!".
I will take it as a grand personal victory when I stop caring what other people on the trail think of me. And an even bigger one when I stop caring what other women on the trail look like or are doing as long as they aren't in my way! I want the luxury of self-focus and self-expectation that I imagine male athletes have. And if they don't have it, I still want it anyway.
Flexibility
My neighbor couldn't watch Little Hiker yesterday morning so I had to drop back to plan B. I went old-school and put in a kick-boxing DVD and did a quick walk around the neighborhood. It did the job but wasn't enthralling. But more to the point life threw me a curve and I still managed to work out. Yay for me!
I did get to run this morning, which was really nice. I moved on to interval 8 which is run 4 min walk 2 x 5 repeats. Whoo hoo! Progress. I only increased my running by 30 seconds overall but I decreased my number of intervals and lengthened my running segments. It felt surprisingly good and easy to increase my running time. I may be actually hitting that mystical place where it gets easier and easier to run.
Running (and having a kid) is changing my body in good ways. Having Little Runner and then chronic pain and depression widened my waist and lower body considerably. Running and loosing almost 30 lbs has slimmed me down all over a bit, but particularly my butt and thighs. For once in my life my butt and legs fit int pants before my waist does. Strangely, this has made pants buying significantly easier. I'll be curious to see how the weight lifting and running change my body over time.
I did get to run this morning, which was really nice. I moved on to interval 8 which is run 4 min walk 2 x 5 repeats. Whoo hoo! Progress. I only increased my running by 30 seconds overall but I decreased my number of intervals and lengthened my running segments. It felt surprisingly good and easy to increase my running time. I may be actually hitting that mystical place where it gets easier and easier to run.
Running (and having a kid) is changing my body in good ways. Having Little Runner and then chronic pain and depression widened my waist and lower body considerably. Running and loosing almost 30 lbs has slimmed me down all over a bit, but particularly my butt and thighs. For once in my life my butt and legs fit int pants before my waist does. Strangely, this has made pants buying significantly easier. I'll be curious to see how the weight lifting and running change my body over time.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Coordinating is hell
Round Hiker got his name because he loves to hike, which usually involves camping. I'm a good hiker but I want a hot shower in the morning and a living environment that I don't have to unpack and pack up within 72 hours. With a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday running schedule it becomes hard for RH to take off for three days to go camping. If my neighbor can't take Little Runner at 6:30 am then I am doomed to not run. Since February I've only missed one running day. *sigh* The joys of parenthood - you just can't leave a 3 year old home alone without facing some charges should anyone find out.
On the plus side I had a great gym day today. I dropped a notch down on the Smith machine for doing my push ups. I can't do regular push ups (yet!) and I am using the bar on the Smith machine to slowly work my way down to the ground while doing push ups.
I'm on the third notch from the bottom, where the last notch would put the bar flush with the floor. I did 2 sets of 5 today. Whoo hoo! When I can do sets of 10 I will drop it down another notch. I try to increase my rep range by 2 each set each workout, so in a few weeks I hope to be doing floor push ups. That will be awesome!
On the plus side I had a great gym day today. I dropped a notch down on the Smith machine for doing my push ups. I can't do regular push ups (yet!) and I am using the bar on the Smith machine to slowly work my way down to the ground while doing push ups.
I'm on the third notch from the bottom, where the last notch would put the bar flush with the floor. I did 2 sets of 5 today. Whoo hoo! When I can do sets of 10 I will drop it down another notch. I try to increase my rep range by 2 each set each workout, so in a few weeks I hope to be doing floor push ups. That will be awesome!
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