Category: Running
The Wall Street Journal today weighs in on the increasing number of “one-and-done” marathoners. (We runners also call them “Bucket Listers.”) Some very good points are made, including:
- In the world of fitness, doing a little every day for the rest of your life is WAY better than killing yourself for four months and then taking five years off.
- Eating like you’re still training for a marathon after you’ve finished is, well, a really bad idea.
- Despite the glamour associated with the marathon, the most popular race distance in the country is 5K (3.1 miles)- a totally fun and do-able distance that is less likely to lead to injury and/or mental fatigue.
- The real victory is not in crossing a finishline 26.2 miles from a start line once or twice. Victory in this case is still hitting the pavement (or being otherwise physically active) 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
Despite the “time-limited” marketing on P90X or Insanity or any of the other 90-day, 60-day, 6-weeks Beachbody programs– the point is not to get as ripped as you can in 90 days, it’s to see what you can do this 90 days, then set goals for the next, and the next and the next. Ultimately finding a program or combination of programs that works for you.
Click the link below and sign up! (Use the free option for starters!)
http://beachbodycoach.com/fitlifesfrob
WoWY lets you track your workouts and goal, AND for every day you register your workout, you can win up to $1000.00
(JUST FOR WORKING OUT!)
I ran the Plate to Plate 5K today in San Francisco. I’ve been back from my stress fracture about a month or so, and thought it would be fun to get a 5K under my belt while I (thought I) had more speed than endurance. Plus, some fine ladies from Stray Bar were running, so it was a no-brainer.
Bit of background on goals: I’d wanted to A) Run at about 7:40 pace; B) Get in on the low side of 24:XX, but definitely 24:XX, or C) Know that I gave it all I’ve got, which barfing would be a pretty good clue.
I’ve been looking forward to July 26, 2009 for the past year. Last year, marathon Sunday found me nursing a stress fracture of my left foot after only a few months into my new “hobby,” so Rob and I went to Pork Store on 16th for breakfast and to spectate. I committed that, on July 26, 2009, I would be running the full San Francisco Marathon.
Fast forward to March 23, 2009, when I started my official marathon training program- a somewhat modified version of Pfitz’ 18/55. Through a combination of doing new types of speedwork that I wasn’t used to, and pushing to hit paces vs just being concerned about mileage, by March 31st I’d developed extreme pain in my right hip and left shin that were later diagnosed as “stress fractures” (though, more correctly, “stress reactions.”) Whatever semantics you want to put on it, only a week and a half into my training the marathon was out. I was relegated to joining the Y for pool running, lap swimming and hitting the HELL-iptical. To add insult to injury, I was laid off 3 days after my diagnosis, and all I could think the whole time I was in with HR was, “Man, with no job, I could have had an EPIC training cycle!”
The New York Times weighs in on some sites that make music specifically for running.
I have to say, I love running to music, so this list has some options I need to check out. I know some folks are adamantly anti-iPod, but I do really love the boost music gives me.
Here are some tips, though, on how not to be a douche when running with an iPod:
- Nobody wants to see your guts on the roadway. If running on the side of the road, either take your earbuds out altogether, or take out the one facing the road so that you can hear everything going on. (I know you are technically supposed to run facing traffic, but some roads around here have more space on the with-traffic side of the road, so hearing both cars and bicyclists is important.)
- The same goes for high-traffic areas at races. If running across the Golden Gate Bridge in a race situation, for example, I’ll take out my left earbud and stay closer to the right (since I’m not the swiftest) so that I can be sure to hear people coming up behind me.
-Would you drive on the freeway with earplugs? Then don’t run on a track with an iPod.
- Not everyone thinks The Brady Bunch was a seminal artist in the development of post-Beatles musical America. Keep it turned down to a reasonable level even if you are running off-street.
- If a really crappy song comes on your Shuffle, that’s YOUR fault, not mine. Don’t screech to a hault in the middle of the path to dig your iPod out of your shorts and find something you like better. Wait until you can pull off the trail responsibly to fix it. (And, yes, you CAN survive without it- my iPod froze or something halfway through the Emerald Across the Bay and I had a lovely time without it. Didn’t stop to see what the problem was. Try it, you might like it!)
- Consider making a playlist specifically for your races, with slower songs upfront to keep you reigned in in the beginning and with realy adrenaline-thumpers when you think you’ll be at tough spots like hills or boring out-and-backs.
- If you lock your iPod, it won’t get progressively louder from bouncing around in your shorts.
<3 SMURF + PRECOR = TLF <3
OK, maybe not, but for as much time as I’ve spent on the nifty machine pictured above this past week, you’d sure think so! This was Week One of another P90X cycle for Rob and a modified cycle for me. I started this cycle at 133 lbs and 22.6% bodyfat and I’d like to get at least to 125 lbs and into the 19-20% range. I think Rob, optimist that he is, set my official goals at 121 lbs and 18% bodyfat. Ha!
But, honestly, my #1 goal is to finish up this sprint in 90 days once again being a healthy runner, ready to monumentally PR at the Bridge to Bridge 12K in early October- celebrating my first racing anniversary! So, here’s what I did this week to get me closer to that goal:
I got a good giggle out of this crappy copywriting job in this month’s Fitness Magazine:
“Joggers have a 40 percent lower risk of dying than people who don’t lace up their sneakers, according to Stanford University researchers.”
Or, maybe it’s not “jogging” that saves pepole, rather lots of people die by tripping over unlaced sneakers? I’m sure you understand that it’s quite difficult to pinpoint the true causual relationship in such well-presented research.
It’s been about five official weeks in recovery mode. My last run was April 31 and my next run can’t come soon enough!
I had a check-in with the doc last week and he said everything is progressing well. He wanted me to wait SIX MORE WEEKS before we talk about getting me back to running, but I bargained him down to four, so I see him again on June 26 and hope at that time to be able to add back in some running. In the meantime, I’ve been spending lots of time at the Presidio Y recumbent biking, spinning, AMT Trainer-ing and swimming.
I hope to step up the endurance crosstraining and drop a few pounds (see Rob’s post about our 90-day sprint), so that once I get back to running, it’s just a matter of getting my legs back up to the task. With any luck, I have my fingers crossed for a leisurly jog of the SF Marathon second half, but I’ll solidify those plans once I get a few runs in.
In the meantime, I’m playing personal chef and nutritionist for Rob, and, what with being unemployed, will be sure to share that with you all in daily updates.
So, the San Francisco Marathon won’t be happening for me this year. I got the news last Monday that my hip pain is, indeed, a stress “fracture” (more specifically, a stress reaction on its way to a fracture.) And likely my left tibial pain is one, too, but they didn’t MRI it because it will heal while waiting on the femur, regardless. So, this means no running or impact activity at all for about 3 months. Ugh! Boo!
The good news is that it’s not a femoral neck stress fracture (the link above is specific to femoral neck fractures, but I included it because it had the best explanation of a stress fracture I could find.) So, I’m thankful that I have something that’s not likely to “complete” while I’m walking around or cause me to need surgery, but I’m still super bummed and trying to get back to my usual chipper self. To add to that… I was laid off yesterday, so I now have a whole lotta time and can’t train! Double whammy!
Let me walk you through what a recovery week is looking like for me.
(If you are following this blog cronologically, I realize this one is WAY out of date. The clinic happened in March and I just realzied I never published this review.)
I signed up on the RunSafe website for the clinic after finding it on Yelp. Before signing up, they had me fill out a few questionnaires online, and then I got a call from the director to answer any questions and I signed up. It was $175 and took me about a month to get in (they happen every other week and there are spots for four runners in each clinic, so they fill up pretty quick.)
My clinic took place March 10. I had been feeling under the weather since Sunday night, so was really stressing out about it, not knowing how much I would need to “perform” to make the most of it. There were 4 stations: