So last week I was home for the weekend, during which time I was to run about 45 miles in 3 days. My mother and I have very different views on what constitutes an appropriate amount of exercise (or, more specifically, running). She's a big yoga freak, which, most of you know, is my least-favorite form of exercise of all time. As a general rule, she thinks I run too much. Which maybe I do. But mostly I think this judgment is unfounded on her part: she doesn't have any idea how many miles/hours I actually run, nor how healthy I am as a function of that running (mentally and physically). Anyway, here was the week's schedule:
M: 8 miles. Run uphill 4:00 at marathon HR; downhill at marathon pace
T: 8 AM/ 4 PM
W: 5 easy AM/ 3 mile progression + 3 x 1 mile @~6:20 pace (plus a warmup + cooldown)
Thursday: 6.5 easy
Friday: 12 mile progression. Not allowed to look at watch. Supposed to feel like MP towards the end
Saturday: 24 miles
Sunday: Skiing AM/ 8 miles PM
So there were several good things about this week. Running with Club NW on Wednesday was fun, even though I slightly modified my workout (6x1 mile) and theirs (4 mile progression) so I could run with them for awhile.
Steps to keeping your mother from thinking you run too much:
1. Surround the time you are home with all the running you can
-Thursday I left for home, so I just ran a few miles in the morning before catching my flight.
2. Make sure to leave after she's seen you in the morning, if you're going for a short run, so she doesn't overestimate an easy run
- On Friday, for example, I had some cereal and water and read the paper with her before she left for work and I went running with Brooke, a HS buddy. This allowed her to know that I didn't start running at 5 am and continue running all day.
3. On a long run day, maybe it's just best to leave before she gets up
-While this seems to contradict the previous bit of advice, if you actually are going running for 3+ hours, it may be best for her to not see you leave. Then she will have a very inaccurate estimate of how long you went running, so (if she doesn't assume 3 hours is even a conceivable amount of running) she definitely wouldn't think you could have possibly run for that long.
4. Get a ride home from a friend (again, Brooke, thanks!) so you can excuse a bunch of the time you were gone as chit-chat and drive time. Better yet, get brunch!
The week was good: I made it through my highest mileage week ever (87 miles!) and was successful in all of my workouts. Running with Brooke on Friday and Saturday was nice: it was fun to run fast with someone fast and run far with someone who doesn't like running far :).
Also, some bad news. I have a broken sesamoid in my right foot. But, I have the official approval to run through it from Dr. MD (actually her initials), so I've bought some sesamoid pads and I'll ice the crap out of it for the next month and hope it feels better. I don't really know how I broke it, but I do know the pain isn't severe (it has been stiff and achy on and off since my fall marathon), so if it doesn't get worse I'll be fine to race in a month. Ugh. I'll post when I have more info/any useful updates.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Who knew it could snow in the rainforest?
This week was rather compressed for training, as B and I decided to go backpacking in the Hoh rainforest Saturday and Sunday. So, in a feat I wouldn't have thought possible, I packed 65 miles into 5 weekdays, and 59 miles into 4 in a row. My week:
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 3 mile warmup, 7 miles at marathon pace by HR
Wednesday: 5 miles AM/ 3 mile warmup, 3.5 mile tempo, 15 minute jog, 5 x 45'' hill sprints, 2 mile cd
Thursday: 5 miles easy AM/ 5 miles easy PM
Friday: 21 miles. 13 easy, 3 fartleck marathon pace/7:30, 4 at MP effort (without looking at watch), CD
Saturday: 10 miles backpacking
Sunday: 10 miles backpacking
So, as you might imagine, this week beat me up a little bit. Tuesday's marathon heart-rate workout went really well, after I took off my tech tee (apparently, the combination of wind and tech material makes the heart-rate monitor freak out). I was to keep my HR between 155 and 165 for 5-7 miles, including a back-off on the pace as I tired. I felt really good! My splits were pretty consistently clustered around 6:40, which is goal marathon pace. It looks like 2:55 is going to be within reach at Eugene!
Wednesday, I went to work out with Club Northwest, The group to run with if you're a fast runner in Seattle. I had a nice tempo, where we ran 3.5 miles at about 6:08 pace on average (we were supposed to be more like 6:15, whoops!). After 15 minutes of jogging around, we headed over to do some hill sprints. Most of the hill workouts I've done this season have been at least 1:30 in length, so these all-out sprints were very tough for me. By the last one, I knew I'd be pretty busted for Thursday. It was fun to have some fun and fast people to run with; since I've been out on the West Coast, I've been hitting the Burke Gilman trail all alone.
On Friday, I was rather worried about my long run because my legs were still heavy and sore from Wednesday. For the first 12 miles, I ran out to Green Lake (a hilly 3 miles). Green Lake is a nice place to do some of a long run; there's a water fountain that's on year-round (unlike the water fountains in the rest of the city, that seem to be off for 9/12 of the year, even though it is never very cold here). Along the loop, there are at least 2 (maybe 3?) restrooms which seem to be open every time I go running. There are two paths, a paved one and a gravel one, around the lake, about 3 miles in length. Both are pretty flat. So, I often find myself making a couple of laps there so as to have easy water access (when I need to take a Gu). I ran 2 laps there on Friday, taking a Gu after the first, along with some water each time I passed the fountain. I ran back to the Burke Gilman trail after those two laps for the harder stuff; at that point I started doing roughly 1/2 mile pieces at marathon pace, with about a minute of 7:30 pace in between. After 3 miles of that, I turned around and did 4 miles of marathon effort work. I wasn't supposed to look at my watch much, but instead let the running flow. It was actually pretty fun. My first mile was 6:30, the next two were 6:40ish (there was some wind and they were slightly uphill, so 6:44 or something), and the last one was 6:18. I shuffled back home for one mile, showered, and rushed in to work for several highly unproductive meetings.
After work, B and I headed out to the Hoh Rainforest. We took a sweet ferry across the Puget Sound on our way. Saturday morning, we grabbed our backcountry permits and headed into the Hoh. The trail was beautiful; everything was covered in a thick blanket of green moss:
Here's a photo of me:
It rained on us for the first 5 or so miles. After that, the weather suddenly turned much colder, and the rain turned to snow. It didn't stick: everything was too wet to be frozen. I was grumgry (grumpy/hungry) around 6 miles, so we took a break to warm up and make some awesome freeze-dried food and warm up a bit. We found a sweet shelter:
called the "Happy Four Emergency Shelter". A plaque on it told us it was erected because a group of forest workers one summer got into a bit of a spat and wouldn't talk to one another and someone needed some "me time" so they built this shelter as a get-away. There were four of these workers, thus "Happy Four" became the name of the shelter.
I was in substantially better spirits after we did this, so we continued on past this shelter up to the Olympic Ranger station. On the way, B found a sweet newt that had a fluorescent orange belly. He picked it up even though he was pretty sure it was poisonous.
By the time we made it to the Ranger Station, we were pretty cold and wet. There was another shelter there, and since we hadn't really planned on the temperatures dropping into the 30s, we decided to pitch our tent inside that shelter rather than trying to find a piece of ground that wouldn't collect a large puddle under our tent if it rained/snowed all night. We made some dinner, and decided to hang out in our tent starting at about 5 pm, since it was much warmer than staying outside in the rain/snow.
At around 7, we wandered out to find several inches of snow had managed to accumulate on the very wet ground. This was somewhat worrying: first, that meant it was way colder than we thought, given how wet and muddy the ground was, and second, the snow was still falling, and the trail was unblazed and unmarked, meaning that if everything was covered in snow, it might be hard to find our way back the next morning. But at that point, it was getting dark, so we decided there wasn't much to do other than hope the trail would still be visible in the morning, or at least that the Park Rangers would come looking for people when they realized how much snow had fallen later on Sunday.
So we went to sleep. About an hour later, B claims he told me that "There was someone outside. With a light" to which I responded "I love you, too", and rolled over in my sleeping bag to fall back asleep. A few minutes later, Byron said loudly, "Hello?", and another voice responded, "Hi." I sat straight up when I heard a voice I didn't recognize, and said, "Is everything ok? Do you need help?" I was rather freaked out about someone random showing up in our shelter unannounced, albeit I was still quite groggy and somewhat confused about the whole situation. He responded, "No." I continued to babble another couple of silly questions at the man to which he responded monosyllabically. I was definitely worried he might either steal our stuff or slit our throats while we were sleeping. B was clearly also concerned; he asked if I wanted him to go out and talk to the guy. I said he didn't have to, right before the random guy said "Is it ok if I sleep in here?" I was much less freaked out once he finally offered us some information as to what he was doing. We told him that was fine, and while he was out dealing with his bear bag, B looked out and saw the man did have a sleeping bag and some other camping equipment, so he at least looked like he had a legitimate reason for being there. We eventually fell back asleep.
The next morning, we got up after almost 13 hours in the tent, made some disgusting rehydrated eggs for breakfast, and headed out into the rain/snow. The trail had been so wet, the snow didn't bury it completely and we were able to follow it on the way out. There was a huge herd of Roosevelt Elk we ran into on the way out; we tried taking a picture but my camera was way too soggy to be of any real use. Our hike home was seriously fast: it took us about 3 hours to cover 9 miles. In the last quarter of a mile, the sky opened up and there was sun! I guess we picked the wrong day to be out in the afternoon, because the weather was much nicer as we drove home than it was at any point during our hike.
All in all, it was a fun week. I didn't run Sunday night when we got home; my legs were pretty heavy and I knew the week to come was going to be intense so I wanted to be well-rested. This is definitely the most I've run in such a short block (4 miles and almost 60 miles, that is).
I've also realized I only have 6 more weeks until Eugene, and only 3 until Cherry Blossom. I guess that means I only have a few more weeks of intense training before the taper... hopefully I'll be ready!
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 3 mile warmup, 7 miles at marathon pace by HR
Wednesday: 5 miles AM/ 3 mile warmup, 3.5 mile tempo, 15 minute jog, 5 x 45'' hill sprints, 2 mile cd
Thursday: 5 miles easy AM/ 5 miles easy PM
Friday: 21 miles. 13 easy, 3 fartleck marathon pace/7:30, 4 at MP effort (without looking at watch), CD
Saturday: 10 miles backpacking
Sunday: 10 miles backpacking
So, as you might imagine, this week beat me up a little bit. Tuesday's marathon heart-rate workout went really well, after I took off my tech tee (apparently, the combination of wind and tech material makes the heart-rate monitor freak out). I was to keep my HR between 155 and 165 for 5-7 miles, including a back-off on the pace as I tired. I felt really good! My splits were pretty consistently clustered around 6:40, which is goal marathon pace. It looks like 2:55 is going to be within reach at Eugene!
Wednesday, I went to work out with Club Northwest, The group to run with if you're a fast runner in Seattle. I had a nice tempo, where we ran 3.5 miles at about 6:08 pace on average (we were supposed to be more like 6:15, whoops!). After 15 minutes of jogging around, we headed over to do some hill sprints. Most of the hill workouts I've done this season have been at least 1:30 in length, so these all-out sprints were very tough for me. By the last one, I knew I'd be pretty busted for Thursday. It was fun to have some fun and fast people to run with; since I've been out on the West Coast, I've been hitting the Burke Gilman trail all alone.
On Friday, I was rather worried about my long run because my legs were still heavy and sore from Wednesday. For the first 12 miles, I ran out to Green Lake (a hilly 3 miles). Green Lake is a nice place to do some of a long run; there's a water fountain that's on year-round (unlike the water fountains in the rest of the city, that seem to be off for 9/12 of the year, even though it is never very cold here). Along the loop, there are at least 2 (maybe 3?) restrooms which seem to be open every time I go running. There are two paths, a paved one and a gravel one, around the lake, about 3 miles in length. Both are pretty flat. So, I often find myself making a couple of laps there so as to have easy water access (when I need to take a Gu). I ran 2 laps there on Friday, taking a Gu after the first, along with some water each time I passed the fountain. I ran back to the Burke Gilman trail after those two laps for the harder stuff; at that point I started doing roughly 1/2 mile pieces at marathon pace, with about a minute of 7:30 pace in between. After 3 miles of that, I turned around and did 4 miles of marathon effort work. I wasn't supposed to look at my watch much, but instead let the running flow. It was actually pretty fun. My first mile was 6:30, the next two were 6:40ish (there was some wind and they were slightly uphill, so 6:44 or something), and the last one was 6:18. I shuffled back home for one mile, showered, and rushed in to work for several highly unproductive meetings.
After work, B and I headed out to the Hoh Rainforest. We took a sweet ferry across the Puget Sound on our way. Saturday morning, we grabbed our backcountry permits and headed into the Hoh. The trail was beautiful; everything was covered in a thick blanket of green moss:
Here's a photo of me:
It rained on us for the first 5 or so miles. After that, the weather suddenly turned much colder, and the rain turned to snow. It didn't stick: everything was too wet to be frozen. I was grumgry (grumpy/hungry) around 6 miles, so we took a break to warm up and make some awesome freeze-dried food and warm up a bit. We found a sweet shelter:
called the "Happy Four Emergency Shelter". A plaque on it told us it was erected because a group of forest workers one summer got into a bit of a spat and wouldn't talk to one another and someone needed some "me time" so they built this shelter as a get-away. There were four of these workers, thus "Happy Four" became the name of the shelter.
I was in substantially better spirits after we did this, so we continued on past this shelter up to the Olympic Ranger station. On the way, B found a sweet newt that had a fluorescent orange belly. He picked it up even though he was pretty sure it was poisonous.
By the time we made it to the Ranger Station, we were pretty cold and wet. There was another shelter there, and since we hadn't really planned on the temperatures dropping into the 30s, we decided to pitch our tent inside that shelter rather than trying to find a piece of ground that wouldn't collect a large puddle under our tent if it rained/snowed all night. We made some dinner, and decided to hang out in our tent starting at about 5 pm, since it was much warmer than staying outside in the rain/snow.
At around 7, we wandered out to find several inches of snow had managed to accumulate on the very wet ground. This was somewhat worrying: first, that meant it was way colder than we thought, given how wet and muddy the ground was, and second, the snow was still falling, and the trail was unblazed and unmarked, meaning that if everything was covered in snow, it might be hard to find our way back the next morning. But at that point, it was getting dark, so we decided there wasn't much to do other than hope the trail would still be visible in the morning, or at least that the Park Rangers would come looking for people when they realized how much snow had fallen later on Sunday.
So we went to sleep. About an hour later, B claims he told me that "There was someone outside. With a light" to which I responded "I love you, too", and rolled over in my sleeping bag to fall back asleep. A few minutes later, Byron said loudly, "Hello?", and another voice responded, "Hi." I sat straight up when I heard a voice I didn't recognize, and said, "Is everything ok? Do you need help?" I was rather freaked out about someone random showing up in our shelter unannounced, albeit I was still quite groggy and somewhat confused about the whole situation. He responded, "No." I continued to babble another couple of silly questions at the man to which he responded monosyllabically. I was definitely worried he might either steal our stuff or slit our throats while we were sleeping. B was clearly also concerned; he asked if I wanted him to go out and talk to the guy. I said he didn't have to, right before the random guy said "Is it ok if I sleep in here?" I was much less freaked out once he finally offered us some information as to what he was doing. We told him that was fine, and while he was out dealing with his bear bag, B looked out and saw the man did have a sleeping bag and some other camping equipment, so he at least looked like he had a legitimate reason for being there. We eventually fell back asleep.
The next morning, we got up after almost 13 hours in the tent, made some disgusting rehydrated eggs for breakfast, and headed out into the rain/snow. The trail had been so wet, the snow didn't bury it completely and we were able to follow it on the way out. There was a huge herd of Roosevelt Elk we ran into on the way out; we tried taking a picture but my camera was way too soggy to be of any real use. Our hike home was seriously fast: it took us about 3 hours to cover 9 miles. In the last quarter of a mile, the sky opened up and there was sun! I guess we picked the wrong day to be out in the afternoon, because the weather was much nicer as we drove home than it was at any point during our hike.
All in all, it was a fun week. I didn't run Sunday night when we got home; my legs were pretty heavy and I knew the week to come was going to be intense so I wanted to be well-rested. This is definitely the most I've run in such a short block (4 miles and almost 60 miles, that is).
I've also realized I only have 6 more weeks until Eugene, and only 3 until Cherry Blossom. I guess that means I only have a few more weeks of intense training before the taper... hopefully I'll be ready!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Hippy-dippy Kale recipes!
I love kale. I know that puts me squarely in the 1% that my salary never will*. But it's awesome. Basically, the food makes me feel good when I eat it, and is super-duper-healthy, and relatively inexpensive, and tastes good when you prepare it well. Lots of people complain that kale and other "cooking greens" are too bitter; I agree that there is a bitterness to kale, but it is tempered by cooking it or adding something sweet to the recipe. More importantly, though, bitter flavors are interesting: it is my very humble opinion that not all foods should be light on the palate. Spicy, sour, bitter, sharp tastes are fun, and I, for one, don't like all my food to taste like white flour with butter and sugar (though some of my food tasting like that is much desired: mmmm pastries!).
Here are my current favorite three ways to prepare kale as the center of a veggie dish (I also add it julienned to lots of stews/lentils/beans/sauces):
1. Kale with Shallots
This is a modification of a recipe I found here:
http://www.wholeliving.com/130333/delicata-squash-salad-kale-and-cranberry-beans?center=136760&gallery=136045&slide=131141
Start by cutting up a bunch kale, either in bite-sized pieces or julienned. Sauté some diced shallots in a little bit of olive oil. When the shallots are transparent, add some garlic for a minute or two. Add 4-6 tablespoons of some combination of basalmic vinegar and red wine vinegar (I love basalmic, so I use more of that), and a couple tablespoons of honey. Heat the dressing in the pan for a minute or two, stirring to keep it from burning to the pan. Take the kale, add it to the pan, mix it around so it's covered with the dressing, and put a lid or a plate (if you don't have a lid) over the pan for a couple of minutes to cook the kale. Every couple of minutes, I'd recommend stirring this. Depending upon how well-cooked you like the kale, somewhere between 4 and 10 minutes of steaming should suffice. Serve hot (better) or cold (still pretty good).
2. Kale with cranberries and quinoa
This one is easy. Cook up some quinoa (half a cup to a cup dry), steam (put some water in a pot with the kale, turn on the stove, and cover the pot) some julienned kale for 5-10 minutes, and chop up a few handfulls of dried cranberries. Strain the kale. Mix all of the above in a bowl for a tasty salad.
3. Kale with spicy Thai peanut sauce
This is my take on the classic Thai peanut sauce over wilted spinach. It is also simple, so easy to do, say, when you get home from a hard workout and you want to beat up anyone who comes between your Hangry self and food. First, cut up your kale and steam it (I like bite-sized pieces for this recipe). Take a saucepan and add:
1 can of light coconut milk
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons red curry paste
or combination of ground spicy pepper, such as cayenne or red chili powder, to taste (not 4 Tbs)
Sugar, to taste (I start with 1/4 cup and add as appropriate)
Cook the mixture on medium, stirring regularly, until it simmers, for a few minutes (it'll thicken a bunch in a short period of time), and take it off the heat. Let it cool somewhat before pouring it over the strained kale. Very good with rice or quinoa and protein source of your choice.
How about you guys? What do you like to do with kale?
* I recognize that I could drop out of grad school and make some money. Sorry for offending anyone with this factually inaccurate statement.
Here are my current favorite three ways to prepare kale as the center of a veggie dish (I also add it julienned to lots of stews/lentils/beans/sauces):
1. Kale with Shallots
This is a modification of a recipe I found here:
http://www.wholeliving.com/130333/delicata-squash-salad-kale-and-cranberry-beans?center=136760&gallery=136045&slide=131141
Start by cutting up a bunch kale, either in bite-sized pieces or julienned. Sauté some diced shallots in a little bit of olive oil. When the shallots are transparent, add some garlic for a minute or two. Add 4-6 tablespoons of some combination of basalmic vinegar and red wine vinegar (I love basalmic, so I use more of that), and a couple tablespoons of honey. Heat the dressing in the pan for a minute or two, stirring to keep it from burning to the pan. Take the kale, add it to the pan, mix it around so it's covered with the dressing, and put a lid or a plate (if you don't have a lid) over the pan for a couple of minutes to cook the kale. Every couple of minutes, I'd recommend stirring this. Depending upon how well-cooked you like the kale, somewhere between 4 and 10 minutes of steaming should suffice. Serve hot (better) or cold (still pretty good).
2. Kale with cranberries and quinoa
This one is easy. Cook up some quinoa (half a cup to a cup dry), steam (put some water in a pot with the kale, turn on the stove, and cover the pot) some julienned kale for 5-10 minutes, and chop up a few handfulls of dried cranberries. Strain the kale. Mix all of the above in a bowl for a tasty salad.
3. Kale with spicy Thai peanut sauce
This is my take on the classic Thai peanut sauce over wilted spinach. It is also simple, so easy to do, say, when you get home from a hard workout and you want to beat up anyone who comes between your Hangry self and food. First, cut up your kale and steam it (I like bite-sized pieces for this recipe). Take a saucepan and add:
1 can of light coconut milk
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons red curry paste
or combination of ground spicy pepper, such as cayenne or red chili powder, to taste (not 4 Tbs)
Sugar, to taste (I start with 1/4 cup and add as appropriate)
Cook the mixture on medium, stirring regularly, until it simmers, for a few minutes (it'll thicken a bunch in a short period of time), and take it off the heat. Let it cool somewhat before pouring it over the strained kale. Very good with rice or quinoa and protein source of your choice.
How about you guys? What do you like to do with kale?
* I recognize that I could drop out of grad school and make some money. Sorry for offending anyone with this factually inaccurate statement.
Monday, March 11, 2013
It's always sunny in Seattle
This week was a much-needed break from the intensity and mileage of the last month. This training cycle has had, by far, the most consistently high mileage I've ever had. I had two weeks of 80, a week of 72, and last week of 78, so this week, 70 with no double days felt like a big break. Here was my week of workouts:
Monday: 5 easy
Tuesday: 2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400
Wednesday: 6 miles with 40" strides
Thursday: 10 mile easy progression: 3 at easy, 3 at ~7:00, 3 at somewhat harder (not looking at GPS)
Friday: 8.6 (no watch)
Saturday: 8.6
Sunday: 20 miles. Second half harder than first. Last 4 miles pushing (ended up being ~6:35), 7:13 pace overall
Monday, the weather was as beautiful as you could imagine was possible for Seattle. It was 55 and sunny, with a slight breeze. B came for 5 whole miles with me, though he left me in the dust in the last 2 miles (wanted to do 7:15 pace or something, and I had held 7:30 for longer than I'd wanted to on an easy day).
Tuesday was a royal cluster, as seems to be the case every time I plan to do any trackwork anywhere but on CMU's track. I ran 4 miles up to a local high school, somewhat suspecting they might be having track practice, but hoping that by around 5 pm, they'd be wrapping things up. This was not the case. I don't know how big their high school is, but when I showed up, it looked like there were about 75 kiddos working out on it. Isn't this supposed to be an all-time high for childhood obesity? If so, why is their track team so huge?
Anyway, while I'm glad for the public health which is implied by this track participation rate, I was going to need to do something else. B met me there, and we drove back to the Burke Gilman trail. He went to the gym, and I (gasp) *put on my headphones and ran to Taylor Swift* with no idea how far my intervals actually were.
First, I feel very weird admitting to running with music outdoors. I've done very little of this: my treadmill workouts always come with an iPod, but outside running seems like a temple that I've never defaced by listening to music while running. Headphones are for hobby joggers, and people who want to be hit by cars, or make their butts look good by running, not for serious runners. But, as I've been slogging through 3 days of quality each week, often with 1 or 2 or even 3 of those sessions alone, I've been getting pretty bored of the easy-to-reach flat running path. I've found that I've lost some motivation, and it's hard to run faster than sub-6:30 pace without someone sweating next to you. So, I decided to try L's approach and got a $48 iPod shuffle. This workout was my very first one using the iPod, and I'd be lying to say it wasn't fun. It was. I had a lot of fun working harder than I'd have worked without the music. Listening to TSwift, and thinking about M's metal version of that song, really pumped me up for that last 400. And Third-Eye Blind's 10 days late made the 1600 go by much faster. I still don't plan to run on streets with headphones, nor do I plan to race or do easy runs with them, but I just might use them on hard workouts when I've been running alone a bunch. Ugh. I hate myself for this so much.
Also, when I say those distances (2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400), I don't actually have any idea how far/fast I ran, because I didn't have my Garmin. So I ran for 7:55, 6:15, 4:30, 2:50, 1:25, 1:22, all trying to do what I thought were the appropriate paces for those distances. No one will ever know how fast/far those intervals actually were...
Thursday's progression run was fun. Again, I used headphones, which were a good motivator to get out the door in when it was rainy and my legs felt heavy. After the first mile, though, my legs suddenly got really light and I just flew. I ran miles 2 and 3 in 7:10ish, miles 4, 5, and 6 in 6:50-7:00, and 7,8,9 at 6:38, 6:38, and 6:26, respectively. The whole thing felt really, really good, which was a nice surprise, given how tired and heavy my legs felt Wednesday (and at the start of this run).
Sunday, I went and met up with some people from Club Northwest at Green Lake, and ran 11 miles with them. After they were done, I settled in around 7:00 pace, until I was at 15 miles. From there, I sped up to 6:35ish pace for 4 miles, and took the last mile as a slower cooldown. For fueling, I took only maltodextrin in water, and my stomach felt awesome the whole time. Also, I noticed I'm pretty good at forcing my legs to run at a particular pace just by looking at my Garmin ever .25 miles or so. While this may not be a good race strategy, I'm considering wearing it for my race in April. I won't look too closely at the beginning, but I think after about 18 miles it might be nice to have a little screen telling me to speed up or slow down, rather than once every 6 or 7 minutes being reminded that I am either too slow or fast. I'm also really glad I'm not racing a marathon on dirt paths: I find it a lot harder to run fast on gravel than I used to. The last 12 miles were all on gravel, so I'm pretty happy with that pace.
This upcoming week, I am going backpacking Sat/Sun, so my whole week of training is condensed! We'll see how that goes...
Monday: 5 easy
Tuesday: 2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400
Wednesday: 6 miles with 40" strides
Thursday: 10 mile easy progression: 3 at easy, 3 at ~7:00, 3 at somewhat harder (not looking at GPS)
Friday: 8.6 (no watch)
Saturday: 8.6
Sunday: 20 miles. Second half harder than first. Last 4 miles pushing (ended up being ~6:35), 7:13 pace overall
Monday, the weather was as beautiful as you could imagine was possible for Seattle. It was 55 and sunny, with a slight breeze. B came for 5 whole miles with me, though he left me in the dust in the last 2 miles (wanted to do 7:15 pace or something, and I had held 7:30 for longer than I'd wanted to on an easy day).
Tuesday was a royal cluster, as seems to be the case every time I plan to do any trackwork anywhere but on CMU's track. I ran 4 miles up to a local high school, somewhat suspecting they might be having track practice, but hoping that by around 5 pm, they'd be wrapping things up. This was not the case. I don't know how big their high school is, but when I showed up, it looked like there were about 75 kiddos working out on it. Isn't this supposed to be an all-time high for childhood obesity? If so, why is their track team so huge?
Anyway, while I'm glad for the public health which is implied by this track participation rate, I was going to need to do something else. B met me there, and we drove back to the Burke Gilman trail. He went to the gym, and I (gasp) *put on my headphones and ran to Taylor Swift* with no idea how far my intervals actually were.
First, I feel very weird admitting to running with music outdoors. I've done very little of this: my treadmill workouts always come with an iPod, but outside running seems like a temple that I've never defaced by listening to music while running. Headphones are for hobby joggers, and people who want to be hit by cars, or make their butts look good by running, not for serious runners. But, as I've been slogging through 3 days of quality each week, often with 1 or 2 or even 3 of those sessions alone, I've been getting pretty bored of the easy-to-reach flat running path. I've found that I've lost some motivation, and it's hard to run faster than sub-6:30 pace without someone sweating next to you. So, I decided to try L's approach and got a $48 iPod shuffle. This workout was my very first one using the iPod, and I'd be lying to say it wasn't fun. It was. I had a lot of fun working harder than I'd have worked without the music. Listening to TSwift, and thinking about M's metal version of that song, really pumped me up for that last 400. And Third-Eye Blind's 10 days late made the 1600 go by much faster. I still don't plan to run on streets with headphones, nor do I plan to race or do easy runs with them, but I just might use them on hard workouts when I've been running alone a bunch. Ugh. I hate myself for this so much.
Also, when I say those distances (2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 400), I don't actually have any idea how far/fast I ran, because I didn't have my Garmin. So I ran for 7:55, 6:15, 4:30, 2:50, 1:25, 1:22, all trying to do what I thought were the appropriate paces for those distances. No one will ever know how fast/far those intervals actually were...
Thursday's progression run was fun. Again, I used headphones, which were a good motivator to get out the door in when it was rainy and my legs felt heavy. After the first mile, though, my legs suddenly got really light and I just flew. I ran miles 2 and 3 in 7:10ish, miles 4, 5, and 6 in 6:50-7:00, and 7,8,9 at 6:38, 6:38, and 6:26, respectively. The whole thing felt really, really good, which was a nice surprise, given how tired and heavy my legs felt Wednesday (and at the start of this run).
Sunday, I went and met up with some people from Club Northwest at Green Lake, and ran 11 miles with them. After they were done, I settled in around 7:00 pace, until I was at 15 miles. From there, I sped up to 6:35ish pace for 4 miles, and took the last mile as a slower cooldown. For fueling, I took only maltodextrin in water, and my stomach felt awesome the whole time. Also, I noticed I'm pretty good at forcing my legs to run at a particular pace just by looking at my Garmin ever .25 miles or so. While this may not be a good race strategy, I'm considering wearing it for my race in April. I won't look too closely at the beginning, but I think after about 18 miles it might be nice to have a little screen telling me to speed up or slow down, rather than once every 6 or 7 minutes being reminded that I am either too slow or fast. I'm also really glad I'm not racing a marathon on dirt paths: I find it a lot harder to run fast on gravel than I used to. The last 12 miles were all on gravel, so I'm pretty happy with that pace.
This upcoming week, I am going backpacking Sat/Sun, so my whole week of training is condensed! We'll see how that goes...
Monday, March 4, 2013
The day I ate 6 full-sized meals.
This week was pretty heavy on the intensity, and right around 80 miles (as usual for now, I guess). I had the following week:
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 6x1k at 3:30-3:35 (getting to be a staple!)
Wednesday: Am 6/ PM 8
Thursday: 9 mile progression run. 3 at 7-7:30 pace, 3 at 6:30-6:50, 3 at 6:10-6:30, 1 mile CD
Friday: 4 early AM/ 8.5 mid-late AM
Saturday: 5 AM/ 3 PM
Sunday: 20 miles. 6 warmup, 1mi @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @6:30, 1 @7:30, 1 @6:30, 2 easy, 3 progression to max for finish
I was, as is usual these days, beat all to hell on Monday; I ran those 5 miles about 2 minutes/mile slower than marathon goal-pace, to give you some idea how slow my easy days have become.
Tuesday went pretty well, despite the most horrific weather. K and I decided to do the 1ks outside (she was volleying for the indoor track, but I wanted to run outside. I hate track-hack and also run better on the unbanked track). It was 35 and the sky was unleashing freezing pellets of rain that stung every time they hit uncovered skin. So, of course, I was wearing Spandex shorts and a couple of long-sleeve shirts with cotton $1 throw-away gloves (the obvious attire for such weather). After each rep, I promised myself I only had to do 1 more. My legs felt fine, but the wind on the back stretch of the track was enough to discourage Rocky in any of his roided-out montages: clearly, my mere mortal self hadn't much chance in keeping my commitment. After 3 of them, I threw away my gloves, thinking the soaked cotton was only making my hands colder. I also contemplated taking my shirts off; they were soaking wet and cold, so they must only be making me colder, my pre-hypothermic brain reasoned.
I did make it through 6, all on pace, before my hands felt like they were going to fall off if I didn't warm them up.
Thursday's progression run was also really tough, but for different reasons. My legs were pretty heavy, and my stomach had been pretty unhappy throughout the day. S was kind enough to help me through it: we ran the first 3 out on the roads, then headed to the track for the harder stuff. In the last 3 miles (the ones at sub-6:30 pace), I kept telling myself that I just had to finish another lap. I honestly didn't know if I was going to finish until I had about 150 meters left. At that point, I realized I was going to successfully run the whole distance at the appropriate pace, and picked it up a bit.
On Friday, I managed to eat 6 separate normal-person meals. After my first run, I ate oatmeal. I ran to a meeting at work on run #2, at which there was pizza (I ate the pizza). When I got home from the second run, I ate rice and beans that L had made the night before. I ate a burrito at the airport en route to Seattle, and a quesadilla and a salad and frozen yogurt in Houston. This day was awesome.
Sunday's run had beautiful weather in Seattle. It was about 50 and sunny. My legs felt pretty heavy, partially due to sleep deprivation and partially due to dehydration and partially due to this being my 3rd hard workout this week. I ran from Green Lake (where I unsuccessfully tried to meet up with a local running group) to the Burke Gilman Trail, where I did the aforementioned workout. For those of you who don't know this about me, my stomach is definitely my weakest link as a runner, and this run is a prime example of just that. After the second hard 2 mile piece, I had to stop to use a restroom. While I was stopped, I figured I should take a Gu, since it'd been an hour since I'd fueled. I took it, and about 10 meters into the "easy" mile, I puked the gu right back up. I don't like Gu, and I've had any number of other negative reactions to Gu when taking it during hard running, but I've never had that one before. I guess that means (as I told Coach before this week) that 6:30 is a little too hard for marathon pace this cycle. And also that Gu is disgusting and I'll be having trouble forcing myself to take it very often in this training cycle. But, since Eugene only has 2 elite fluid tables, I'll need to take Gu at least twice. And I clearly need to practice. I managed to finish off the rest of the run as planned (including the progression at the end), but it was pretty tough.
I'm looking forward to a somewhat easier week ahead... this one beat me up!
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 6x1k at 3:30-3:35 (getting to be a staple!)
Wednesday: Am 6/ PM 8
Thursday: 9 mile progression run. 3 at 7-7:30 pace, 3 at 6:30-6:50, 3 at 6:10-6:30, 1 mile CD
Friday: 4 early AM/ 8.5 mid-late AM
Saturday: 5 AM/ 3 PM
Sunday: 20 miles. 6 warmup, 1mi @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @ 6:30, 1 @7:30, 2 @6:30, 1 @7:30, 1 @6:30, 2 easy, 3 progression to max for finish
I was, as is usual these days, beat all to hell on Monday; I ran those 5 miles about 2 minutes/mile slower than marathon goal-pace, to give you some idea how slow my easy days have become.
Tuesday went pretty well, despite the most horrific weather. K and I decided to do the 1ks outside (she was volleying for the indoor track, but I wanted to run outside. I hate track-hack and also run better on the unbanked track). It was 35 and the sky was unleashing freezing pellets of rain that stung every time they hit uncovered skin. So, of course, I was wearing Spandex shorts and a couple of long-sleeve shirts with cotton $1 throw-away gloves (the obvious attire for such weather). After each rep, I promised myself I only had to do 1 more. My legs felt fine, but the wind on the back stretch of the track was enough to discourage Rocky in any of his roided-out montages: clearly, my mere mortal self hadn't much chance in keeping my commitment. After 3 of them, I threw away my gloves, thinking the soaked cotton was only making my hands colder. I also contemplated taking my shirts off; they were soaking wet and cold, so they must only be making me colder, my pre-hypothermic brain reasoned.
I did make it through 6, all on pace, before my hands felt like they were going to fall off if I didn't warm them up.
Thursday's progression run was also really tough, but for different reasons. My legs were pretty heavy, and my stomach had been pretty unhappy throughout the day. S was kind enough to help me through it: we ran the first 3 out on the roads, then headed to the track for the harder stuff. In the last 3 miles (the ones at sub-6:30 pace), I kept telling myself that I just had to finish another lap. I honestly didn't know if I was going to finish until I had about 150 meters left. At that point, I realized I was going to successfully run the whole distance at the appropriate pace, and picked it up a bit.
On Friday, I managed to eat 6 separate normal-person meals. After my first run, I ate oatmeal. I ran to a meeting at work on run #2, at which there was pizza (I ate the pizza). When I got home from the second run, I ate rice and beans that L had made the night before. I ate a burrito at the airport en route to Seattle, and a quesadilla and a salad and frozen yogurt in Houston. This day was awesome.
Sunday's run had beautiful weather in Seattle. It was about 50 and sunny. My legs felt pretty heavy, partially due to sleep deprivation and partially due to dehydration and partially due to this being my 3rd hard workout this week. I ran from Green Lake (where I unsuccessfully tried to meet up with a local running group) to the Burke Gilman Trail, where I did the aforementioned workout. For those of you who don't know this about me, my stomach is definitely my weakest link as a runner, and this run is a prime example of just that. After the second hard 2 mile piece, I had to stop to use a restroom. While I was stopped, I figured I should take a Gu, since it'd been an hour since I'd fueled. I took it, and about 10 meters into the "easy" mile, I puked the gu right back up. I don't like Gu, and I've had any number of other negative reactions to Gu when taking it during hard running, but I've never had that one before. I guess that means (as I told Coach before this week) that 6:30 is a little too hard for marathon pace this cycle. And also that Gu is disgusting and I'll be having trouble forcing myself to take it very often in this training cycle. But, since Eugene only has 2 elite fluid tables, I'll need to take Gu at least twice. And I clearly need to practice. I managed to finish off the rest of the run as planned (including the progression at the end), but it was pretty tough.
I'm looking forward to a somewhat easier week ahead... this one beat me up!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Nutrition Post #1: Paleo/Low-carb for high-performance athletics?
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.
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.
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!
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