I get a lot of nutritional questions: from friends of all athletic calibers, from couch potato to potential Olympic Trials qualifier, from my family, and from people who I know less well (read: random people in Whole Foods or at the start of races).
Let me preface this first qualify this post with the bit of information that I've been a vegetarian for mostly non-health reasons for almost half my life at this point. I'm not a proselytizing vegetarian, so I will never post something that intends to tell anyone they should never eat meat. I don't think I am the healthiest person I can be eating as I do now (as opposed to the optimal way I could eat if I incorporated some amount of meat into my diet). In general, the fewer absolute constraints a person has, the easier it is to find an "optimal" diet within those constraints. That being said, I think most Americans, and Westerners in general, would be healthier eating less meat than they do. But that's a tangent for another post.
I was prompted to write this post when a running friend asked a number of the marathoning Hounds how they would carbo-load for a big race, and fuel during the race, if they were on the Paleo diet. The so-called "Paleo diet", or Caveman diet, suggests that humans ate mostly meat and vegetables until quite recently in our evolutionary history. Grains, legumes, dairy, and anything at all processed are considered relative newcomers to the human diet, or at the least, hard for us to digest. I'm far from an expert on the paleo diet, but as I understand it, followers are supposed to eat mostly meat and vegetables, some limited amount of starchy vegetables (such as sweet potatos), a small amount of fruit, and little or no simple sugars, grain, or dairy. There are several parts of this diet that are worth discussing, both on the merits and drawbacks, for normal people as well as athletes. In particular, here are my opinions on removing grains, legumes, simple sugars, and dairy, restricting the intake of fruit, and eating a lot of vegetables and meat.
I will talk about this in terms of 3 people: Joe, who's a normal, relatively sedentary person who doesn't exercise that much and has a job sitting at his desk, and would like to lose some weight, Susie, who's a serious competitive athlete, and Sam, who has recently started exercising but isn't trying to win races or compete at the limits of her physical abilities.
First, let's talk about the removal of grains from the diet. Joe, who sits at his desk and doesn't exercise, could definitely find that restricting his intake of grain makes losing weight easier, though may feel sluggish if all grains are removed. If Susie the Serious Athlete decided to cut all the grains from her diet, she would probably find that her energy reserves aren't replenished well when she wants to go do a hard track workout or long run. Sam might experience something in between: if Sam got a lot of her calories from grains, and cut them all out, she might lose some weight, but might find it difficult to continue going to the gym and working out.
All of these effects stem from the same source. Grains are calorically dense, and our bodies are very good at getting a lot of energy out of them. Specifically, for every gram of carbohydrate (of which grains are mostly composed), our bodies can extract 7 calories of energy to use or store. It's easy to over-eat some grains, because the grains and their byproducts have a lot of calories in small volume, and since our stomaches determine our fullness as a function of volume, dense things trick our bodies into thinking we haven't eaten as many calories as the equivalent number of calories from lighter, less dense foods. So, Joe might lose some weight from cutting out grains because he might reduce the number of calories in his whole diet by cutting out grain. Susie, on the other hand, who needs those calories for her body to replenish the glycogen stores in her muscles before and after each hard workout, would have a difficult time making it through her hard workouts. Moreover, our bodies store calories from carbs as glycogen much more efficiently than from other sources, so even if Susie ate the same number of calories from other sources such as fat or protein, her muscles would still not have the same glycogen stores as if she ate grain. That particular statement is one which is contentious: proponents of the Paleo diet suggest that our bodies become more efficient at burning fat and protein, and storing glycogen from starchy carb sources, such as potatoes. One thing is uncontentious: most elite endurance athletes do not remove grains from their diets entirely, and given how far endurance athletics has moved towards the scientific, I'd like to believe there's at least anecdotal evidence to support my claim. Sam has some combination of these effects: she may eat fewer calories but find she's not as energized for her workouts as she was when she ate some grain.
Let's talk the removal of legumes. This is a particularly sticky point for me: as a vegetarian, and a bit of a health lentil, I have a pretty hard time understanding what's so wrong with legumes: even for people who are trying to reduce their carbohydrate count, legumes are full of fiber and protein as well as the carbohydrates they carry: a cup of them cooked often contains only 100-200 calories, and keeps a person much fuller than that volume of, say, vegetables, because our bodies take longer to process fiber and protein. They are difficult to digest, because of all of their fiber, which is part of the reason Paleos cut them out. Anyway, particularly, Joe, Sam, and Susie would probably all be healthier, both in terms of their digestive tracts and cholesterol levels, if they got more of their protein from legumes. That being said, I don't know that there are any particular negative side effects these people would notice by cutting out legumes(unlike grains, if they were getting enough protein and fiber from their meat and veggies).
Simple sugars act in some ways like grain in this hierarchy Joe would probably lose weight if he cut out all the simple sugars from his diet (they don't have much useful for inactive people: calories without vitamins, or fiber, or protein). Sam would probably have little or no difficulty exercising even if she cut out her simple sugars, and might lose some weight to boot, assuming she was still getting a reasonable amount of carbohydrates from grains or other sources. Susie is a somewhat different story. During hard workouts and races, Susie often depends on maltodextrin (derived from corn), or Gatorade, or other simple sugars, to refuel. These are the most readily available sources of energy during exercise: assuming our bodies are going to burn through our glycogen reserves during an activity, it is easiest for it to keep burning simple sugars as a replenishment. Without these sources of fast energy, Susie will probably have some trouble fueling during all-out effort events. Even when she is not racing, Susie may have trouble replenishing her glycogen, depending upon whether or not she is able to get as many carbohydrates from other sources (which is of particular worry if she is also not eating grains).
Restricting or removing dairy is, in some ways, the part of the paleo diet regarding which I am most agnostic, scientifically speaking. Some people have difficulty digesting dairy, so there's that. Other than calcium (which is found aplenty in greens that you should be eating in excess if you're paleo), there isn't much in dairy which will be hard to replace with meat. Specifically, protein deficiency is not a worry I would have for anyone following the paleo diet.
For any of the three test subjects, Joe, Susie, and Sam, they would almost be uniformly healthier if they ate more non-starchy vegetables. My mantra, when it comes to veggies, is "more is better! So long as you vary what kind of veggies you're eating somewhat" (this caveat comes from turning myself orange in college from eating too many carrots, and there is some folk lore of a woman dying after OD-ing on kale). Vegetables have fiber aplenty, some carbohydrates, lots and lots of water, and are delicious. Eat them. All the time.
The final part of the paleo diet I've yet to discuss is that of eating a bunch of low-fat meat. I guess, if you've restricted all of the simple sugars and bad sources of fat (high-fat dairy and processed food), low-fat meat won't be a huge problem in terms of fat or cholesterol, but less lean meats would be. Moreover, protein is a must, and if grains and legumes are cut out, meat and veggies are the last opportunities to get protein into a person's diet. That being said, I definitely quesiton the nutritional merits of eating so much meat. Certain cancers are found in much higher frequencies in groups that consume more meat, especially red meat. If the meat you're eating is treated with hormones or antibiotics, you'll be getting extra doses of those with eating so much meat. If a majority of your calories are coming from meat, there is a distinct possibility that you'll be eating *too much* protein, which can tax your kidneys, which have the task of removing excess protein from our bodies. This critique completely ignores two other reasons one shouldn't get most of their calories from meat: eating too much meat is environmentally irresponsible and expensive.
All in all, each of these pieces of the Paleo diet have certain drawbacks and benefits, some of which are more pronounced for sedentary or active people. I definitely think (and am backed up by Science) that reducing the amount of simple sugars, refined carbs, junk fats, and processed food in general would be beneficial for any person's health. But, making the restrictions of the Paleo diet seem somewhat artificial. Whole grains and legumes are almost certainly good for anyone, and too much meat is almost certainly bad for anyone. The problem I have with the Paleo diet is that it completely avoids what I think is the most basic part of nutrition: balance. Carbohydrates aren't inherently evil. They give us energy and a whole slough of B vitamins that are necessary for performing basic tasks as well as running marathons. A person might lose weight by removing all of the carbohydrates from their diet, but that is a function of calorie restriction more than anything else. If, instead of cutting out all carbohydrates, a person tried to cut out processed food, like white flours, simple sugars, hydrogenated fats, and anything that comes in a package, and tried to eat a bunch of vegetables, whole grains, legumes low-fat dairy and meat, they would likely find they would also lose weight, for the same reason: eating unprocessed food has more fiber which fills a person up with fewer calories. The less-processed diet doesn't ignore a very valuable source of energy that humans have been using for fuel for thousands of years, it just finds them in healthier forms than from bleached white flours or simple white granulated sugar.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
I still ****ing hate yoga
This week, between being beaten up pretty badly by last week, and wanting to have a stronger long-run training day, I ditched some of my "junk miles" and ended up with mileage in the low 70s rather than 80s. Here is what I ended up running:
Monday: 5.5 easy
Tuesday: 4x1 mile at 6:00 pace on the dreadmill
Wednesday: 4.5 AM/ 8 PM
Thursday: AM 5 x 1k at 3:33 pace/ PM 4 miles
Friday: 6 easy
Saturday: Spring Thaw, 20 miles, 13x800 at MP (6:30-6:40), 800 "easy", averaged 6:59 pace
Sunday: Some number of easy miles
Monday was a prime example of something I've noticed a lot lately. The amount of quality training expected from me has forced my already-slow easy days (formerly, roughly 8:00 pace) into 8:30+ slogs of misery. Don't get me wrong: I appreciate not always having to run hard. However, my easy days have started to feel harder than the quality days, with heavy, fatigued legs, worry about working too hard during them, worrying about overtraining, worry about the previous and next workout, etc, etc.
Anyway, Tuesday I was excited to do something faster, until around 4:45 before practice. That's when I began to have sharp, stabbing pain in my abdomen. I biked home, hoping this just stemmed from my crappy posture at my desk all day, and that some light movement would make it go away. Unfortunately for me, my stomach felt worse, not better, as the time before Hounds passed. I drove to practice, put on running clothes, and realized there was absolutely no way I could even run easy, let alone run mile repeats in the snow and wind. So, I went back home, laid in bed, and hugged my pillow for about an hour. I stood up to get a glass of water, and suddenly burped 5 or 6 times in a row, and realized that I felt totally better. It was now 7:30 pm, and the weather outside sucked. So, I went back to CMU and did mile repeats on the dreadmill. As per usual, the tiny girl walking on the treadmill next to mile looked visibly uneasy about my use of the machine just next to hers. I could almost hear her train of thought. This is what I imagined her saying to herself.
"Oh, my God! What is that noise?! Jesus, what is that girl doing on that machine?! She is shaking the entire panel with every step she takes! There's sweat, everywhere! Is she going to sweat on me? Break the machine? I didn't even know these machines went faster than 10:00/mile! Did she just take off her shirt and start running in a sports bra?!"
Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but the evil glares she kept casting on me suggest this was the general sentiment she had about my workout. Anyway, I was making other patrons of the gym angry by using more than the 25 minutes allowed to any one person at a time, so I only did 4x1 mile rather than 5. On the plus side, this allowed me to meet up with the Hounds for pizza :)
By Thursday, I still didn't feel like my legs were fresh enough to do a workout. This was unfortunate, especially given that L and I had agreed to go to the 7:00 am session on the indoor track to run our 1ks. I had also been having some trouble sleeping (that night in particular, I only slept about 4.5 hours). We were both grumpy and tired and not really recovered from Tuesday. I managed to eek out 5 1ks at 3:33 (the last one was 3:35, I guess), but each and every one was a struggle. I didn't do the last one, because I really wanted to be fresh for Saturday's marathon-specific workout.
Saturday was the Spring Thaw "race". It consists of a 5-mile loop, which people run 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 times to finish their desired distance. I had elected to do the 20 as a workout, with a bunch of marathon paced 800s sprinkled throughout the second half. After the first loop, I knew I was going to be all alone and bored if I didn't start early on the speedwork. So, for the next two laps, I did 800 at 6:30-6:40 pace, 800 easy. On the last loop, I played around with speed too, but not as consistently as on the 2nd and 3rd laps. I ended up averaging a 6:59 pace, which I guess means my "easy" running wasn't all that easy. I felt pretty good throughout, though I didn't really fuel enough throughout or after the run (one gu at 6 miles, about 60-70 calories of corn water at 10 miles). The Shamrock Shakes that we stopped for on the way home were much tastier than usual as a result.
Sunday, I woke up feeling like I needed to move in some way other than running. I really wanted a massage or something, but, being a grad student who is cheap and lazy, this option didn't actually seem that appealing. I knew what I needed: to stretch, or swim, or something. School/gym seemed far away. After some thinking, I remembered that someone had mentioned a runner-specific yoga class that was held on Sunday mornings. For those of you who don't know this, I hate yoga. A lot. Enough so that I got the Hounds "annual" "I f***ing hate yoga" award for 2012. I try it once every few years, just to make sure I hate it as much as I seem to remember, and to refuel my impassioned rants about it. So, I decided that since all the various parts of my body were begging me to do something besides running, I would go. "What's the harm? It's free, half a mile from my house, and I can always just leave if I want to. Maybe it'll actually feel good to move myself in some non-running way," I thought.
So I put on some running tights and a t-shirt depicting my favorite local band (Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous). I walked up to Walnut street carrying my pilates mat, wearing a hoodie to hide my face so no one would recognize me. I walked into what might be my least favorite entity in all of commercialism (yes, more than WalMart): Lululemon. My hatred for LLL comes from three sources. One, as I mentioned, I hate yoga, and this is an epicenter for yoga. Two, I'm not a big fan of gross consumption and the culture surrounding our constant "need" to buy crap. Three, yoga's "ideals" seem to be very much about (some new-age, hippy-dippy bullshit) and also something bigger than consumerism. Somehow, LLL manages to combine 2 things I hate very much that seem to be at odds with one another.
Anyway, the class was free, so I didn't feel like showing up was an immediate affront to my moral code. Two minutes after the class start time, the instructor walked up to the front of the room and locked the door. "Oh, no!", I thought. "I was sort of joking about just leaving if I hated this class, but now that I don't have that option, I feel like I've been imprisoned in this hellhole of yoga!"
The instructor had us lie down on our backs, with our knees touching. As soon as I put my knees together, one of my hips started screaming in pain. I shifted slightly, and my whole back or torso or something popped, and I immediately felt somewhat better. But not without the whole class looking around for what made that noise 10 seconds into was was supposed to be a resting position. The rest of the class felt physically better than other yoga classes I'd been to: mostly because I was tuning out what the instructor said, I could avoid the whole "paying attention to your body" nonsense that usually makes me feel nauseous and uncomfortable. I think my ability to ignore my body is what has made me a reasonably OK distance runner. When my body is angry during activity, I tend to ignore it. I don't think about all the little muscles and the physical processes going on to make my body function. If I did, I would stop torturing my body the way I do, and I happen to like the torture I call training and racing. Anyway, the times I would listen to the instructor, and think about my body, I would start to get nauseous again and work on tuning her out, and feel much better.
Towards the end of the class, there was increasingly more of the new-age, hippy-dippy bullshit that I hate most about yoga. Things about "intentions", and "energy", and all of that. And even a reading from some text that told us something about how to be peaceful, you should care about being happy more than about being right, and to let everyone else be right, and just be happy. And then maybe those people who you let be right will like you better for letting them be right. And even if they don't, you get to be happy knowing you let them be right.
Yeah. Basically, this seemed like a bunch of self-righteous nonsense about "letting others be right", only so you can feel superior and know you deserve more praise than they do: you are, in fact "in the right" even if you aren't right. Puke. This, and the other hippy-dippy bullshit, is why I hate yoga. Oh, right, and the idiotic "Ohmmmm" and "Namaste" they think it's so cool to end the class with.
So I figured out what I'd actually like as a yoga proxy. I would like an hour class of guided stretching. You can tell me what to do with my body, but don't ask me to "dedicate the practice" to something other than my hamstrings. Don't tell me to "feel good energy", or how to be a better person. If I wanted that, I'd go to something religious. What I'm actually looking for is something purely physical :)
All in all, the training week was a good one. I was glad I ditched the second easy run that was supposed to happen Friday, and glad a few miles were cut here and there due to time constraints because I felt much better during my long run this week than last. On to next week!
Monday: 5.5 easy
Tuesday: 4x1 mile at 6:00 pace on the dreadmill
Wednesday: 4.5 AM/ 8 PM
Thursday: AM 5 x 1k at 3:33 pace/ PM 4 miles
Friday: 6 easy
Saturday: Spring Thaw, 20 miles, 13x800 at MP (6:30-6:40), 800 "easy", averaged 6:59 pace
Sunday: Some number of easy miles
Monday was a prime example of something I've noticed a lot lately. The amount of quality training expected from me has forced my already-slow easy days (formerly, roughly 8:00 pace) into 8:30+ slogs of misery. Don't get me wrong: I appreciate not always having to run hard. However, my easy days have started to feel harder than the quality days, with heavy, fatigued legs, worry about working too hard during them, worrying about overtraining, worry about the previous and next workout, etc, etc.
Anyway, Tuesday I was excited to do something faster, until around 4:45 before practice. That's when I began to have sharp, stabbing pain in my abdomen. I biked home, hoping this just stemmed from my crappy posture at my desk all day, and that some light movement would make it go away. Unfortunately for me, my stomach felt worse, not better, as the time before Hounds passed. I drove to practice, put on running clothes, and realized there was absolutely no way I could even run easy, let alone run mile repeats in the snow and wind. So, I went back home, laid in bed, and hugged my pillow for about an hour. I stood up to get a glass of water, and suddenly burped 5 or 6 times in a row, and realized that I felt totally better. It was now 7:30 pm, and the weather outside sucked. So, I went back to CMU and did mile repeats on the dreadmill. As per usual, the tiny girl walking on the treadmill next to mile looked visibly uneasy about my use of the machine just next to hers. I could almost hear her train of thought. This is what I imagined her saying to herself.
"Oh, my God! What is that noise?! Jesus, what is that girl doing on that machine?! She is shaking the entire panel with every step she takes! There's sweat, everywhere! Is she going to sweat on me? Break the machine? I didn't even know these machines went faster than 10:00/mile! Did she just take off her shirt and start running in a sports bra?!"
Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but the evil glares she kept casting on me suggest this was the general sentiment she had about my workout. Anyway, I was making other patrons of the gym angry by using more than the 25 minutes allowed to any one person at a time, so I only did 4x1 mile rather than 5. On the plus side, this allowed me to meet up with the Hounds for pizza :)
By Thursday, I still didn't feel like my legs were fresh enough to do a workout. This was unfortunate, especially given that L and I had agreed to go to the 7:00 am session on the indoor track to run our 1ks. I had also been having some trouble sleeping (that night in particular, I only slept about 4.5 hours). We were both grumpy and tired and not really recovered from Tuesday. I managed to eek out 5 1ks at 3:33 (the last one was 3:35, I guess), but each and every one was a struggle. I didn't do the last one, because I really wanted to be fresh for Saturday's marathon-specific workout.
Saturday was the Spring Thaw "race". It consists of a 5-mile loop, which people run 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 times to finish their desired distance. I had elected to do the 20 as a workout, with a bunch of marathon paced 800s sprinkled throughout the second half. After the first loop, I knew I was going to be all alone and bored if I didn't start early on the speedwork. So, for the next two laps, I did 800 at 6:30-6:40 pace, 800 easy. On the last loop, I played around with speed too, but not as consistently as on the 2nd and 3rd laps. I ended up averaging a 6:59 pace, which I guess means my "easy" running wasn't all that easy. I felt pretty good throughout, though I didn't really fuel enough throughout or after the run (one gu at 6 miles, about 60-70 calories of corn water at 10 miles). The Shamrock Shakes that we stopped for on the way home were much tastier than usual as a result.
Sunday, I woke up feeling like I needed to move in some way other than running. I really wanted a massage or something, but, being a grad student who is cheap and lazy, this option didn't actually seem that appealing. I knew what I needed: to stretch, or swim, or something. School/gym seemed far away. After some thinking, I remembered that someone had mentioned a runner-specific yoga class that was held on Sunday mornings. For those of you who don't know this, I hate yoga. A lot. Enough so that I got the Hounds "annual" "I f***ing hate yoga" award for 2012. I try it once every few years, just to make sure I hate it as much as I seem to remember, and to refuel my impassioned rants about it. So, I decided that since all the various parts of my body were begging me to do something besides running, I would go. "What's the harm? It's free, half a mile from my house, and I can always just leave if I want to. Maybe it'll actually feel good to move myself in some non-running way," I thought.
So I put on some running tights and a t-shirt depicting my favorite local band (Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous). I walked up to Walnut street carrying my pilates mat, wearing a hoodie to hide my face so no one would recognize me. I walked into what might be my least favorite entity in all of commercialism (yes, more than WalMart): Lululemon. My hatred for LLL comes from three sources. One, as I mentioned, I hate yoga, and this is an epicenter for yoga. Two, I'm not a big fan of gross consumption and the culture surrounding our constant "need" to buy crap. Three, yoga's "ideals" seem to be very much about (some new-age, hippy-dippy bullshit) and also something bigger than consumerism. Somehow, LLL manages to combine 2 things I hate very much that seem to be at odds with one another.
Anyway, the class was free, so I didn't feel like showing up was an immediate affront to my moral code. Two minutes after the class start time, the instructor walked up to the front of the room and locked the door. "Oh, no!", I thought. "I was sort of joking about just leaving if I hated this class, but now that I don't have that option, I feel like I've been imprisoned in this hellhole of yoga!"
The instructor had us lie down on our backs, with our knees touching. As soon as I put my knees together, one of my hips started screaming in pain. I shifted slightly, and my whole back or torso or something popped, and I immediately felt somewhat better. But not without the whole class looking around for what made that noise 10 seconds into was was supposed to be a resting position. The rest of the class felt physically better than other yoga classes I'd been to: mostly because I was tuning out what the instructor said, I could avoid the whole "paying attention to your body" nonsense that usually makes me feel nauseous and uncomfortable. I think my ability to ignore my body is what has made me a reasonably OK distance runner. When my body is angry during activity, I tend to ignore it. I don't think about all the little muscles and the physical processes going on to make my body function. If I did, I would stop torturing my body the way I do, and I happen to like the torture I call training and racing. Anyway, the times I would listen to the instructor, and think about my body, I would start to get nauseous again and work on tuning her out, and feel much better.
Towards the end of the class, there was increasingly more of the new-age, hippy-dippy bullshit that I hate most about yoga. Things about "intentions", and "energy", and all of that. And even a reading from some text that told us something about how to be peaceful, you should care about being happy more than about being right, and to let everyone else be right, and just be happy. And then maybe those people who you let be right will like you better for letting them be right. And even if they don't, you get to be happy knowing you let them be right.
Yeah. Basically, this seemed like a bunch of self-righteous nonsense about "letting others be right", only so you can feel superior and know you deserve more praise than they do: you are, in fact "in the right" even if you aren't right. Puke. This, and the other hippy-dippy bullshit, is why I hate yoga. Oh, right, and the idiotic "Ohmmmm" and "Namaste" they think it's so cool to end the class with.
So I figured out what I'd actually like as a yoga proxy. I would like an hour class of guided stretching. You can tell me what to do with my body, but don't ask me to "dedicate the practice" to something other than my hamstrings. Don't tell me to "feel good energy", or how to be a better person. If I wanted that, I'd go to something religious. What I'm actually looking for is something purely physical :)
All in all, the training week was a good one. I was glad I ditched the second easy run that was supposed to happen Friday, and glad a few miles were cut here and there due to time constraints because I felt much better during my long run this week than last. On to next week!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
I suggest you try, when possible, to only do what's legal..
... or, how S and I went to a self-defense class targeted at female marathon runners running the Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon.
First of all, I would like to thank the people who sponsored the event (Wells Fargo, from what one of the presenters said?), as well as the Pittsburgh Marathon folks. The PM has a huge presence in the community: in no other place have I seen a greater percentage of local, recreational runners choose to do a marathon or half marathon just because their city put on a great race. Having run the Pittsburgh Marathon 3 times, I know the course and the race is well-managed and community-oriented.
When S asked me on our long run on Sunday if I'd like to accompany her to a running self-defense class, I was quick to accept the invitation. First, I run, a lot, much of which I do alone, some of which I do not in the nicest neighborhoods, and some of which I run at night. Second, it seemed like a great "first roommate outing" to partake of, and hanging out with S is always a good time. And finally, though this refers to the first point, I have been assaulted, once while running in Pittsburgh, and once while walking in Chicago, both of which occurred in nice neighborhoods, in broad daylight, and I thought it would probably be good to pick up some tips for how to defend myself against the crazed druggo type that seems drawn to me.
I'll start by mentioning a little bit about the attack that occurred when I was running in Pittsburgh. It was roughly 11 AM; I had 10 miles to run, and I (in my usual summer attire), was wearing shorts and a sports bra. I was soaked in sweat by the first mile, but feeling pretty good as I coasted down the long hill from Squirrel Hill into Greenfield. The streets were gridlocked with traffic, as is common for Pittsburgh anywhere within a 5 mile radius of any tunnel, between the times of yesterday and forever, 5 days a week. When I was crossing a particularly busy intersection, someone in a car yelled a berating comment, which I heard, intentionally did not acknowledge, and continued to run past.
For those of my readers who aren't frequent runners, it is very common that I get heckled while I run, and my fellow runners tell me the same. Quite often, I get yells or comments of encouragement, such as "You go girl!" or "You're flying"; almost as often I get comments on my attire: "It's too cold for shorts!" or "I like your unicorn shoes!"; I am frequently objectified with: "Dayuuum!", or "It's so nice to see legs again!"; occasionally, drivers yell at me for no apparent reason, and, least frequently, someone says something explicitly negative. This particular time fell into the last two categories simultaneously; it was more crude than usual, but not clearly threatening.
So I continued to run, because if you don't say something nice to me when I'm running, I ignore you or flip you off, depending upon the situation, and in this case, I just ignored it. I continued to glide down the hill another couple of blocks. Suddenly, I heard one footstep behind me and then there were arms grabbing me, one around my torso and the other around one of my legs. Every system in my body went into emergency mode. I flailed my arms and legs, threw my torso forward, began to slap and scratch and kick anything I could reach (later, I found, I had scratched myself pretty well, so I do mean anything). My body went from covered in sweat and way too warm to feeling as though I'd plunged into an ice bath. Everything slowed down and sped up all at once. I had a million thoughts, each perfectly clear, and none of which I could remember a moment later. I screamed and screamed, "Don't you.... don't you even think about it! Fuck!" over and over and over again for however long this interaction took place. I got a look at the man who had grabbed me: he looked just like my Montana heritage prejudices suggested he would: he was a skinny white guy, covered in tattoos, who looked like he was on meth (MT, by the way, is the source of the Meth: Not Even Once campaign, which, if you haven't seen before, check out these ads).
Fortunately for me, I was so sweaty, I imagine trying to keep hold of my scantily-clad body was at least as hard as keeping hold of a penguin greased with crisco. After a few flails of my limbs, I was able to shake the man free and sprint what I imagine was the fastest 200 meters of my life to a set of stairs up to another major road. I sprinted and sprinted and sprinted without thinking for what felt like only a minute, but when I came to consciousness, I was lying on the ground in a park, 2 miles away, breathing heavily and shaking uncontrollably.
Anyway, perhaps all of this information is not useful for the point at hand, but I was unable to sit down and write this post without first mentioning from where I come on the subject. Most importantly, I was running during the day, in a reasonable neighborhood, not wearing headphones, being generally aware of my surroundings.
So, back to the events of this evening. The seminar started with a young woman telling a story about how she was assaulted when going for a run. She, too, ran during daylight, on a trail she was familiar with and usually had a fair amount of foot-traffic, and didn't wear headphones. She carried her phone with her. After the young woman recalled the event, and how she managed to call 911 with her phone in her pocket, two (ex?) narcotics officers came to the stage to tell the 60-100 women attending the seminar how to be safer when training for the marathon.
I'll give my readers the ClifNotes version of the seminar, and spare you all the obvious "Don't run in a shitty neighborhood, alone, at night, with headphones in." That being said, I know some of us have to do some subset of those things while training. But, all of this applies to anyone who wants to add some precaution to their general wanderings of a city, whether or not you're running.
How to tell if someone is up to something fishy
Look for people who:
In the end, I think this information is useful, but wouldn't have helped me in the instance I was attacked nor the woman who started the seminar with her account. I guess I should probably take a more in-depth, physical-attack oriented self defense class. Thanks again to everyone who put this on!
First of all, I would like to thank the people who sponsored the event (Wells Fargo, from what one of the presenters said?), as well as the Pittsburgh Marathon folks. The PM has a huge presence in the community: in no other place have I seen a greater percentage of local, recreational runners choose to do a marathon or half marathon just because their city put on a great race. Having run the Pittsburgh Marathon 3 times, I know the course and the race is well-managed and community-oriented.
When S asked me on our long run on Sunday if I'd like to accompany her to a running self-defense class, I was quick to accept the invitation. First, I run, a lot, much of which I do alone, some of which I do not in the nicest neighborhoods, and some of which I run at night. Second, it seemed like a great "first roommate outing" to partake of, and hanging out with S is always a good time. And finally, though this refers to the first point, I have been assaulted, once while running in Pittsburgh, and once while walking in Chicago, both of which occurred in nice neighborhoods, in broad daylight, and I thought it would probably be good to pick up some tips for how to defend myself against the crazed druggo type that seems drawn to me.
I'll start by mentioning a little bit about the attack that occurred when I was running in Pittsburgh. It was roughly 11 AM; I had 10 miles to run, and I (in my usual summer attire), was wearing shorts and a sports bra. I was soaked in sweat by the first mile, but feeling pretty good as I coasted down the long hill from Squirrel Hill into Greenfield. The streets were gridlocked with traffic, as is common for Pittsburgh anywhere within a 5 mile radius of any tunnel, between the times of yesterday and forever, 5 days a week. When I was crossing a particularly busy intersection, someone in a car yelled a berating comment, which I heard, intentionally did not acknowledge, and continued to run past.
For those of my readers who aren't frequent runners, it is very common that I get heckled while I run, and my fellow runners tell me the same. Quite often, I get yells or comments of encouragement, such as "You go girl!" or "You're flying"; almost as often I get comments on my attire: "It's too cold for shorts!" or "I like your unicorn shoes!"; I am frequently objectified with: "Dayuuum!", or "It's so nice to see legs again!"; occasionally, drivers yell at me for no apparent reason, and, least frequently, someone says something explicitly negative. This particular time fell into the last two categories simultaneously; it was more crude than usual, but not clearly threatening.
So I continued to run, because if you don't say something nice to me when I'm running, I ignore you or flip you off, depending upon the situation, and in this case, I just ignored it. I continued to glide down the hill another couple of blocks. Suddenly, I heard one footstep behind me and then there were arms grabbing me, one around my torso and the other around one of my legs. Every system in my body went into emergency mode. I flailed my arms and legs, threw my torso forward, began to slap and scratch and kick anything I could reach (later, I found, I had scratched myself pretty well, so I do mean anything). My body went from covered in sweat and way too warm to feeling as though I'd plunged into an ice bath. Everything slowed down and sped up all at once. I had a million thoughts, each perfectly clear, and none of which I could remember a moment later. I screamed and screamed, "Don't you.... don't you even think about it! Fuck!" over and over and over again for however long this interaction took place. I got a look at the man who had grabbed me: he looked just like my Montana heritage prejudices suggested he would: he was a skinny white guy, covered in tattoos, who looked like he was on meth (MT, by the way, is the source of the Meth: Not Even Once campaign, which, if you haven't seen before, check out these ads).
Fortunately for me, I was so sweaty, I imagine trying to keep hold of my scantily-clad body was at least as hard as keeping hold of a penguin greased with crisco. After a few flails of my limbs, I was able to shake the man free and sprint what I imagine was the fastest 200 meters of my life to a set of stairs up to another major road. I sprinted and sprinted and sprinted without thinking for what felt like only a minute, but when I came to consciousness, I was lying on the ground in a park, 2 miles away, breathing heavily and shaking uncontrollably.
Anyway, perhaps all of this information is not useful for the point at hand, but I was unable to sit down and write this post without first mentioning from where I come on the subject. Most importantly, I was running during the day, in a reasonable neighborhood, not wearing headphones, being generally aware of my surroundings.
So, back to the events of this evening. The seminar started with a young woman telling a story about how she was assaulted when going for a run. She, too, ran during daylight, on a trail she was familiar with and usually had a fair amount of foot-traffic, and didn't wear headphones. She carried her phone with her. After the young woman recalled the event, and how she managed to call 911 with her phone in her pocket, two (ex?) narcotics officers came to the stage to tell the 60-100 women attending the seminar how to be safer when training for the marathon.
I'll give my readers the ClifNotes version of the seminar, and spare you all the obvious "Don't run in a shitty neighborhood, alone, at night, with headphones in." That being said, I know some of us have to do some subset of those things while training. But, all of this applies to anyone who wants to add some precaution to their general wanderings of a city, whether or not you're running.
How to tell if someone is up to something fishy
Look for people who:
- Touch their head or face (such as pinching the bridge of their nose, pulling on their ear, scratching their head, etc etc); people do this when they're gearing up for doing something scary
- Move their hips and body mass into a more assertive, offensive stance
- Moving their hands around the waist area (may be grabbing a weapon from a pocket or waistband)
- The gentleman who was running the seminar said he is often bad at judging or stereotyping people based on cues other than the above behaviours: criminals come in all shapes and sizes, and this was said by a law enforcement officer who later said he thought any woman would be safer if she carried a gun when running
You should always:
- Keep as much space from said suspicious characters as possible. Even an extra 6-12 inches can give you a significant advantage in avoiding and reacting to physical affronts from an attacker (S and I demonstrated this on stage)
- Don't look like an easy target: pay attention to things around you; and I'll say it, even though there was never an explicit statement of this in the seminar: running with headphones outside both makes you less aware and makes you look like an easier target
- Stop chatting with your running buddy if there's someone you're nervous about. Listening to another conversation makes it harder for you to react to physical attacks. More generally, pay attention when there's something suspicious going on around you
Some Points that don't fall into the above categories:
- "Do you think two crackheads have an easier time robbing a store than one?", aka "bad guys work in pairs"
- We as people, and women in particular, are socialized to expect the best from people, and to be friendly rather than to be assertive, confrontational, and to protect ourselves, so we must fight these tendencies when there are suspicious characters about
Verbal Strategies when there are suspicious characters around:
When someone you don't like starts to approach you,
- first request space as you come nearer, for example, "Will you wait for me to pass on your left?"
- There are several innocuous reasons people would ignore that request (they didn't hear, they thought it was unreasonable to request this, they didn't understand what you wanted, or they themselves are having an emergency)
- But, if they ignore the request and you're still feeling unsafe and they continue to approach, you can demand space, in a louder, more assertive way, such as "Stop! Let me go around you! Back up!"
- If they continue to "encroach", if you feel comfortable with profanities, now might be the right time to show how serious you are using an F-bomb. But use them appropriately: better to say "Back the fuck up!" than "Back up, motherfucker!".
- This set of things is an example of a more general model: one should start with reactions that are mild and polite, and as safety becomes more of an issue, escalate to more serious responses
Some small physical things one should keep in mind, though the class was not about physical confrontation:
- Drop your weight into a more stable, lower-center-of-gravity stance if you know you're going to "get physical" with an attacker
- Bring your hands up towards your neck or face
- Both of these should (a) make it harder to knock you over, and (b) make it easier for you to protect your head and face, and thus protect yourself from being knocked unconscious.
- Be assertive and confident; if you look scared, the attacker will be emboldened
- The jury is out on eye contact. Some eye contact is good, for showing confidence, but too much can have unusual interpretations within some gang cultures.
- There was some discussion about weapons. People asked what they should carry, if anything, and there was some disagreement about this point. Someone asked about brass knuckles, to which the presenter suggested that we try, when possible, to only use methods of protection which are legal.
In the end, I think this information is useful, but wouldn't have helped me in the instance I was attacked nor the woman who started the seminar with her account. I guess I should probably take a more in-depth, physical-attack oriented self defense class. Thanks again to everyone who put this on!
Monday, February 18, 2013
It's not over until you spend 12 hours in bed
So, this week was more challenging for a number of reasons. First, while the total mileage was about the same, I had 3 days of doubles rather than 2, and my quality sessions were spaced differently. Secondly, life things (D visiting and a party) took some time and energy away from my usual training focus. Anyway, here is what I had for a week:
M: 5 easy
T: 6x1k at 3:30-3:35
W: 7 miles am/ 6 miles pm
Th: 8 mile tempo (4 miles starting at 6:50, working down to 6:00) am/ 4 miles PM
F: 8 miles am/ 6 miles pm
Sa: 5 miles
Su: 20 miles, with 3x1 mile at 6:15 after 6 miles warmup**
** Sunday was supposed to have a second set of 3x1 mile at fast, but didn't, because my legs were totally beaten into the ground by that point. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Tuesday's workout was fun; everyone else on the team ran way faster than they said they would and I actually held my pace (3:33 was my average for my 1ks). Wednesday felt fairly easy, since all the mileage was easy.
I awoke Thursday to some very icy roads, which meant my tempo run was dreadmill-bound. I ended really fast (most of the last mile was at 6:00 pace), which, in combination with the Sahara setting of the gym's thermostat, meant the man on the elliptical next to my treadmill winced every time I took a stride, either afraid I was going to break the machine due to force or sheer sweat, or that he would catch a bit of seemingly extraneous sweat pouring off me. I say "seemingly extraneous" because, clearly, every drop of sweat was quite necessary to keep my body exerting that much effort in 75-degree temperatures. Note for all Hounds: the new jerseys are awesome and light, even when soaked in sweat! Thursday night, I caught a quick and easy run with A, in some really nice weather, just before having about a dozen ladies over for chocolate and Cards Against Humanity.
By Friday, the volume and intensity of this week had caught up to me. I awoke at 6, was ditched by my running buddy for the morning, and decided to take the opportunity to sleep in. By 8, I decided to get up and eat something. However, I was so tired and knew my 3rd day of doubles started once I got up, I stayed in bed and worked until 12. TWELVE! I don't think I've ever been in bed that late, other than when I've been sick. My legs felt like they were made of wet mud: such was their heaviness and unwillingness to move. So, I didn't run my first run until about 1. I finished around 2, feeling a little better but still really fatigued. L dragged my butt out the door for the second run, where I actually felt surprisingly better than during the first one.
Sunday morning, after some party-hardy with D and friends, L and I found snow covering the ground. So, we decided to drive out to North Park and do our 20 there. S met us there after our initial 5 miles. The brutal wind and the snow was enough to make the first 5 mile loop mentally challenging and the next miles as tough physically. I did the first 3x1 mile at approximately 6:15 pace, though the wicked wind and the mild incline on the first two actually made them a bit closer to 6:20 or 6:22. Thank you, S, for dragging my sorry butt through those! We then proceeded at roughly 7:30 pace for the remainder of the run. I tried to do the last mile up-pace, which meant it was a 6:50... my legs were totally shot. I guess I'm not used to running this much mileage, this much intensity, or I'm in crazy bad shape. Both this week and last I was beat all to hell by my 20 milers. I'll keep an eye on it, I guess...
Anyway, I was pretty beat up by the first part of the week, though 2/3 of the quality sessions were great. Hopefully my body will keep up: this week I have a similar amount of quality and quantity in my mileage.
Thanks, everyone, who dragged my butt through all these workouts!
M: 5 easy
T: 6x1k at 3:30-3:35
W: 7 miles am/ 6 miles pm
Th: 8 mile tempo (4 miles starting at 6:50, working down to 6:00) am/ 4 miles PM
F: 8 miles am/ 6 miles pm
Sa: 5 miles
Su: 20 miles, with 3x1 mile at 6:15 after 6 miles warmup**
** Sunday was supposed to have a second set of 3x1 mile at fast, but didn't, because my legs were totally beaten into the ground by that point. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Tuesday's workout was fun; everyone else on the team ran way faster than they said they would and I actually held my pace (3:33 was my average for my 1ks). Wednesday felt fairly easy, since all the mileage was easy.
I awoke Thursday to some very icy roads, which meant my tempo run was dreadmill-bound. I ended really fast (most of the last mile was at 6:00 pace), which, in combination with the Sahara setting of the gym's thermostat, meant the man on the elliptical next to my treadmill winced every time I took a stride, either afraid I was going to break the machine due to force or sheer sweat, or that he would catch a bit of seemingly extraneous sweat pouring off me. I say "seemingly extraneous" because, clearly, every drop of sweat was quite necessary to keep my body exerting that much effort in 75-degree temperatures. Note for all Hounds: the new jerseys are awesome and light, even when soaked in sweat! Thursday night, I caught a quick and easy run with A, in some really nice weather, just before having about a dozen ladies over for chocolate and Cards Against Humanity.
By Friday, the volume and intensity of this week had caught up to me. I awoke at 6, was ditched by my running buddy for the morning, and decided to take the opportunity to sleep in. By 8, I decided to get up and eat something. However, I was so tired and knew my 3rd day of doubles started once I got up, I stayed in bed and worked until 12. TWELVE! I don't think I've ever been in bed that late, other than when I've been sick. My legs felt like they were made of wet mud: such was their heaviness and unwillingness to move. So, I didn't run my first run until about 1. I finished around 2, feeling a little better but still really fatigued. L dragged my butt out the door for the second run, where I actually felt surprisingly better than during the first one.
Sunday morning, after some party-hardy with D and friends, L and I found snow covering the ground. So, we decided to drive out to North Park and do our 20 there. S met us there after our initial 5 miles. The brutal wind and the snow was enough to make the first 5 mile loop mentally challenging and the next miles as tough physically. I did the first 3x1 mile at approximately 6:15 pace, though the wicked wind and the mild incline on the first two actually made them a bit closer to 6:20 or 6:22. Thank you, S, for dragging my sorry butt through those! We then proceeded at roughly 7:30 pace for the remainder of the run. I tried to do the last mile up-pace, which meant it was a 6:50... my legs were totally shot. I guess I'm not used to running this much mileage, this much intensity, or I'm in crazy bad shape. Both this week and last I was beat all to hell by my 20 milers. I'll keep an eye on it, I guess...
Anyway, I was pretty beat up by the first part of the week, though 2/3 of the quality sessions were great. Hopefully my body will keep up: this week I have a similar amount of quality and quantity in my mileage.
Thanks, everyone, who dragged my butt through all these workouts!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
12 weeks to Eugene
This week was my first "week back", and by that, I mean it was the first week that I've gotten to do real speedwork and real miles in months! Since I had a goofy half marathon the end of January and a 43-mile all-day run the following week, I've not really gotten in the training I usually do. My coach deemed it appropriate to focus me for the last 12 weeks of pre-marathon training (finally, finally, finally!) I am apparently really bad at base training; running slowly 5 or 6 or 7 days a week wears on me mentally.
Anyway, here is what my week entailed:
Monday, 6 miles
Tuesday, 6 mile warmup, 8x1:30 hill sprints, min max HR 175 (11 miles total)
Wednesday 7 miles AM, 7 miles PM
Thursday 9 miles AM, 3 miles PM
Friday 3 miles warmup, 5 x 1 k at 3:30-3:40 (9 miles total)
Saturday 8 miles easy
Sunday 20 miles with 10x1:00 at 6:00-6:10 pace
I was so, so excited! This was my first 80 mile week since August, and I got not one but *two* quality workouts. Here are a couple of highlights:
Tuesday's hill sprints:
M and I hooked up early to get some extra miles in before the main event, since I was supposed to burn off some glycogen before the hills. The Hounds were somewhat divided, with a bunch of people working on the indoor track rather than freezing their butts off outside. So, a smaller than usual group of us headed off to run the hills in Schenley. I found it impossible to get my heart rate up to 175, probably because the hill flattens out for the last 1/4 of the "hill", and even when I was all-out sprinting my HR maxed out at 173. Anyway, it was freaking freezing, so I'll blame my slowness not on my legs, but on the course and the weather.
Thursday's doubles:
Ugh. I felt really good running Thursday AM, but by midmorning at work, I had a splitting headache and felt pretty terrible. I worried maybe I was ramping up too quickly. I drank a liter of water, fell asleep in my office Yahoo pod chair, which looks something like this:
After a 30 minute power nap (and a chocolate croissant), I felt much better. I wonder if I wasn't well enough hydrated, or electrolyted, or fueled... who knows. Anyway, my stomach still wasn't super happy in the evening so my 3 on the treadmill were slow and arduous.
Friday's 1ks:
I had set up to meet up for this workout with the Crazy Russian (whose new haircut looks like this:
), and go over to use the indoor track. B was going to meet us there. However, after we ran up the hill to the track, I noticed swarms of people surrounding the entrance of the fieldhouse. I asked a woman in the vicinity what was happening, and she told me there'd be 5000 people there to watch a wrestling match. Why anyone would choose to spend their Friday night watching a bunch of men in unflattering spandex unis is beyond me, but I read this to mean the track would be unavailable for public use. The outdoor tracks were still covered in ice, so those weren't an option either.
So, we ran back down to get Ivan's cell phone to let B know we weren't going to be able to run at the track. He picked us up, and we went over to Highland Park to do out workout on the reservoir. By the time we got up there, it had been at least 30 minutes since I stopped "warming up". So, when I started the workout, I was a little sweaty and freezing.
The loop is roughly 3/4 of a mile around, just long enough to do a 1k and jog around a bit before starting the next. Each time I made the loop, however, I had to brace myself and pray to the Running Goddesses that I wouldn't lose my balance on the couple of strides across the few patches of black ice. To make matters worse, superstorm Nemo-inspired winds attempted to bowl me over, both on the icy patches and along much of the backstretch (I wasn't doing the hard stuff on the frontstretch to balance it out, either...) Luckily, I managed to do the whole workout unscathed and was under 3:40 (though on the slow side of the 3:30-3:40 range) for all 5 reps. My legs definitely didn't remember how to go that fast; I felt like I was sprinting for parts of the workout, but my heart felt pretty good the whole time.
Not much to talk about Saturday, except for the awesome cajoling L and I got running in Spandex in 33 degree weather ("Stay orange, I love orange", and "Girls, it's really good to see legs again", are a sampling of the heckles we received in the roughly 1 hour of running).
Sunday, I mishmashed L's workout with mine (and ran with L and M for a good bit of my run). So, 8 miles easy, 5x .5 mile at 6:30, .5 mile at 7:00, then a couple "easy" (still roughly 7:00-7:20), then 8x1:00 at about 6:00 pace. So I did way more speedwork than I was supposed to do, but felt nice since the weather was beautiful, and I was able to go a little faster than normal. I took Gu at 5.6 and Honey Stinger at 12.5, and actually drank a good bit of water for the run. Around 18.5 I got pretty tired, but wasn't totally bonked. Weirdly, though, we left my house a little after 1:00 pm and didn't get back until almost 5:00; I guess we left a little later than we thought, and took our sweet time getting started down on the river trails.
All in all, the week felt like a pretty good training week! Mileage is up to 80 for the first time in 2013, and had a bunch of speedwork. It was fun! I hope I didn't break myself to badly this afternoon, because I suspect this upcoming week is going to be harder :)
Anyway, here is what my week entailed:
Monday, 6 miles
Tuesday, 6 mile warmup, 8x1:30 hill sprints, min max HR 175 (11 miles total)
Wednesday 7 miles AM, 7 miles PM
Thursday 9 miles AM, 3 miles PM
Friday 3 miles warmup, 5 x 1 k at 3:30-3:40 (9 miles total)
Saturday 8 miles easy
Sunday 20 miles with 10x1:00 at 6:00-6:10 pace
I was so, so excited! This was my first 80 mile week since August, and I got not one but *two* quality workouts. Here are a couple of highlights:
Tuesday's hill sprints:
M and I hooked up early to get some extra miles in before the main event, since I was supposed to burn off some glycogen before the hills. The Hounds were somewhat divided, with a bunch of people working on the indoor track rather than freezing their butts off outside. So, a smaller than usual group of us headed off to run the hills in Schenley. I found it impossible to get my heart rate up to 175, probably because the hill flattens out for the last 1/4 of the "hill", and even when I was all-out sprinting my HR maxed out at 173. Anyway, it was freaking freezing, so I'll blame my slowness not on my legs, but on the course and the weather.
Thursday's doubles:
Ugh. I felt really good running Thursday AM, but by midmorning at work, I had a splitting headache and felt pretty terrible. I worried maybe I was ramping up too quickly. I drank a liter of water, fell asleep in my office Yahoo pod chair, which looks something like this:
Friday's 1ks:
I had set up to meet up for this workout with the Crazy Russian (whose new haircut looks like this:
), and go over to use the indoor track. B was going to meet us there. However, after we ran up the hill to the track, I noticed swarms of people surrounding the entrance of the fieldhouse. I asked a woman in the vicinity what was happening, and she told me there'd be 5000 people there to watch a wrestling match. Why anyone would choose to spend their Friday night watching a bunch of men in unflattering spandex unis is beyond me, but I read this to mean the track would be unavailable for public use. The outdoor tracks were still covered in ice, so those weren't an option either.
So, we ran back down to get Ivan's cell phone to let B know we weren't going to be able to run at the track. He picked us up, and we went over to Highland Park to do out workout on the reservoir. By the time we got up there, it had been at least 30 minutes since I stopped "warming up". So, when I started the workout, I was a little sweaty and freezing.
The loop is roughly 3/4 of a mile around, just long enough to do a 1k and jog around a bit before starting the next. Each time I made the loop, however, I had to brace myself and pray to the Running Goddesses that I wouldn't lose my balance on the couple of strides across the few patches of black ice. To make matters worse, superstorm Nemo-inspired winds attempted to bowl me over, both on the icy patches and along much of the backstretch (I wasn't doing the hard stuff on the frontstretch to balance it out, either...) Luckily, I managed to do the whole workout unscathed and was under 3:40 (though on the slow side of the 3:30-3:40 range) for all 5 reps. My legs definitely didn't remember how to go that fast; I felt like I was sprinting for parts of the workout, but my heart felt pretty good the whole time.
Not much to talk about Saturday, except for the awesome cajoling L and I got running in Spandex in 33 degree weather ("Stay orange, I love orange", and "Girls, it's really good to see legs again", are a sampling of the heckles we received in the roughly 1 hour of running).
Sunday, I mishmashed L's workout with mine (and ran with L and M for a good bit of my run). So, 8 miles easy, 5x .5 mile at 6:30, .5 mile at 7:00, then a couple "easy" (still roughly 7:00-7:20), then 8x1:00 at about 6:00 pace. So I did way more speedwork than I was supposed to do, but felt nice since the weather was beautiful, and I was able to go a little faster than normal. I took Gu at 5.6 and Honey Stinger at 12.5, and actually drank a good bit of water for the run. Around 18.5 I got pretty tired, but wasn't totally bonked. Weirdly, though, we left my house a little after 1:00 pm and didn't get back until almost 5:00; I guess we left a little later than we thought, and took our sweet time getting started down on the river trails.
All in all, the week felt like a pretty good training week! Mileage is up to 80 for the first time in 2013, and had a bunch of speedwork. It was fun! I hope I didn't break myself to badly this afternoon, because I suspect this upcoming week is going to be harder :)
Friday, February 8, 2013
A place to keep the big picture in mind
Hello, Blogosphere! I've decided to start keeping some kind of running blog for the next while, so I can keep my weekly perspective on my training in one easy-to-find place. I keep a running journal already, but I think that it focuses too much on the details of each individual workout and too little on my longer-term goals, training, and fitness. So, I aim to write something here each Sunday after my long run. Try to keep me to this!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)