Random Thoughts 3/13/10

Hail my running brothers and sisters! 

• It’s late and I’m downloading Mass Effect 2.  It looks pretty cool from the trailers.  It was made by Bioware, so it should be pretty good.
• Is anyone else watching Chuck?  I still love this show and having Kristen Kreuk guest-star was great.  She has a very smoldering, girl-next-door hotness about her.  Adam Baldwin is still delivering the funnies too.
• I’ve been listening to Banned on the Run podcast on my Blackberry.  It’s kinda fun listening to my running peers talk about their running and running in general.
• I have done little to no cross-training or conditioning this week.  I seriously need to start back before I lose my upper body fitness.
• Clearly I’m not as funny as I think I am.
• My running, while generally good lately, has suffered some because I’m not doing much variety.  Essentially, I’m doing tempo runs or long slow distance.  I really need to do some hill work and intervals.  
• I’m still playing around with the content on my blog.  I’m hoping to add more shots of my routes and maybe even an elevation chart every once and awhile. 

   
   

• I think that I ate something that did not agree with me, because I’m feeling a little queasy right now. Bleh.
• Now for some hard numbers:  I got in an easy 5.8 minute mile. 
• Ultimate Spiderman is a great read, because Brian Bendis really makes his characters fun to read.

Later kids!

The Churro Variable

Hail my running brothers and sisters! Food=Fuel=Good.  Churros+Me=Bad.  You can also substitute churros for chocolate covered almonds, cookies, apple pie, cheesecake, pizza, or burgers.  I have to come clean.  This weekend I was less than stellar in my appetite control.  There was the churro on Saturday after a late lunch of pepperoni pizza at Costco.  Sunday, I partook of that fluffy chocolaty, rich croissant.  And all through the weekend I dabbled in decadent morsels of dark chocolate almond goodness.  

Hi.  My name is Joel, and I'm a food-a-holic.  Hi Joel.  

You would think that after a year and half of dieting and exercise, it would be easy to control the cravings, but it isn't.  Now, I don't sneak ding dongs into my briefcase and  I don't secretly cram twinkies into my face at midnight, but I must admit that I do enjoy food.  I don't think food makes me feel good or secure, but is there anything better than a good juicy burger?  Okay, maybe a creamy, smooth slice of cheesecake with strawberry topping is close. Now if it just stopped at taking a few bites or eating a small portion, I would be golden.  Like cake.  Fluffy, buttery cake.  However, I tend to eat till my plate is cleared, which is why I try to avoid eating out too often.  If I make my own meals and snacks, I'm able to control the portions, but when I eat out, I always feel compelled to clean my plate.  And when I say clean, I mean clean, as in leave no-crumb-behind-clean or as in if-cleaned-the-house-this-way-my-wife-would-stroke-out-from-happiness-clean.  My latest indulgence has been dessert every night of mixed fruit with a graham cracker crust, drizzled with chocolate syrup and Cool Whip lite. I've tried doubling up on the servings of fruit to make me feel less guilty, but I have to admit to savoring the crust the most.  Hmmm....crust.  Okay, now for the hard numbers.  I ran an easy 6.2 miles today at a pace of 8:01/mile. A good run if not for this little interruption to my route:

You can see the story here.  I was hoping to just find a way around the wreck, out of the way of the police, but the officer blocking my way told me that it would probably turn into a crime scene, so I needed to go around the block.  I guess it's good that I hadn't left for my run 20 minutes earlier!

Final notes:  I received my early registration letter for the 2010 AJC Peachtree Road Race, and I have submitted my registration.  Yay for me!  This is a huge 10K that is popular, strongly supported and well organized.  However, the fact is that I enjoy the race for the opportunity that it gives me and my family to spend some time with our good friends in Atlanta over the holiday.  Finally, I signed up for ROATM's virtual race.  By the time you read this, the deadline will have passed to sign up for the race, but he has a hilarious blog that you should check out.  Later kids!

The Conditioning Factor

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  As my war on obesity rages, I've found that many neophytes try to follow my path of running as a means to lose their fatty-mc-fat-fat.  The problem with that is that Herr Burgermeister often goes out too fast and too far without conditioning his body to handle the exercise.  Running is wonderful in in its simplicity in that it need not take much training or expense to participate.  Just go out and run.  Shoes are even optional these days.  Still I try to get new runners to wade in slowly.  The run-walk method is proven way of preventing injuries and building endurance.  Unfortunately the newly converted-former couch potatoes may sometimes feel so good that they believe that they can tolerate either more speed or distance and end up hurting themselves.  Trust me, I've been there.  Lots of times.  Lots. and lots.  And it hurt. So my recommendation to new runners is that you run-walk for no more than 30 minutes every other day the first week.  I also suggest that you do some weights to strengthen your core and entire body to handle the stress from running.  The weight conditioning need not be overly-strenuous or difficult.  Body weight exercises  are a great way to build your base strength before you can start to really lose weight, as muscle burns more fat (or some other saying like that which I didn't really understand).  Geek Tip of the Day:  If you're not watching Flashforward, head over to Hulu.com and watch the first 10 episodes.  It's no Lost, but it does have an interesting premise in that people worldwide blacked out for 2.5 minutes and saw their future in that time.  Pretty cool.  All right kids, run hard and have fun.

End of the Week Recap 2/28/10

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  This week I ran a total of 19:61 miles at an average pace of 7:50/mile.  I did 1:25:00 hours of cross-training/weights.  My weight checked in at 159 lbs today.  This was a rest/taper week as I went into my first race(s) for 2010.  While I would have liked to have broken 20 miles for the week, I won't beat myself up not getting my miles as my intensity stayed pretty high.  As for my race, I only did the 10K last year, but this year I did the 5K also and managed to better my 10K time by 8:18.  Next week will be tough as I go back to my regular run week.  Next week, I'm hoping to get in 38 miles and maintain my a"t least 10 minutes of cross-training each night" rule.  Throw in that I'm fighting the early stages of a cold, and I'll be lucky to get in 10 miles.  Okay, the Nyquil is starting to kick in, so I guess I'll go crash.  Have fun and run hard!

End of the Week Recap 2/21/10

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  For this week, I ran 35.57 miles at an average of 8:22/mile.  I only did 20 minutes of cross-training (Weak, I know).  As far as my weight, I broke 160, and weighed in at 159.8 lbs this morning and 158.4 lbs after my long run.  Yay for me, especially considering that my eating habits have not been great lately despite my Cold War campaign on obesity.  With this week, I believe that I have run every mile of the CMM.  The most interesting aspect of my training this week were 2 tempo runs of under 8:00/mile at 10k distance.  Hopefully, I can build on this speed going into the marathon and achieve a decent time.  The trick, of course, is to maximize my recovery so that I don't overtrain and injure myself in the process.  Next week, I'm changing things up a little.  My plan is to do at least 10 minutes or more of cross-training/conditioning every day. By doing some working out at night, I hope that I can carry some calorie burn through the evening before bed.  Next week is also a taper/rest week as I have my first race of 2010 on Saturday.  So no more than 3 days of running before Saturday, no more than 7 miles/run, and no running on Friday.  I'm running both the 5k and the 10k Race Judicata at PWP, so rest will be very important.  All right kids, I'm off to watch some Olympics.  Go USA!  Run hard and have fun!

The Obesity Cold War

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  Fair warning:  This is a long post, which will be the first of a series of posts.

History of the War

This week marks the beginning of my Cold War campaign against obesity (Thank you Michelle O.)  A recent study of over 1,600 Tennessee participating schools found that obesity in children dropped from 40.9% in 2007-08 to 39% in 2008-09.  Yay, for the 1% drop;  boo, for the fact that nearly 50% of our children are considered obese (basically more pounds/body mass than they need to grow and develop).  If the statistics are correct, then Tennessee's numbers are still higher than the national average of 32% as found in another study.  This study suggested that obesity in children and adults may be leveling off, but still 68% of U.S. adults are either obese or overweight.  Holy schnike, people!  68% of people like you and me.  7 out of 10 people in your office or mine are obese.  4 out of 10 kids in my kids' school are considered obese.  Hey, I get it.  Kids are growing.  Some kids need more food to accommodate their growth.  Some kids are just bigger than other kids.  I know it's hard to get kids to eat a balanced meal.  Trust me I know.  My kids eat almost nothing, and if it's green, it better be a sprinkle on a cookie, darn it (I gave up cussing for Lent.  I was going to give up prideful boasting, but my wife said I couldn't handle it and she didn't want to live with me after Lent was over if I did).  But golly guys, if we don't do for our kids, who will?

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a fight I just joined.  My fight with obesity started over a year and a half ago with myself.  At 210 lbs, I wouldn't have necessarily called myself a fattie (at least back then), but looking back, I know that my weight was dangerously close to causing me real problems like diabetes and heart disease, both of which run in my family.  As some of my new employees pointed out today while looking at old pictures of our office staff, they did not recognize me as that fat, Chinese guy in those pictures, and it now made sense as to why I felt guilty about pimpin' out girl scout cookies.  

Since I've joined the fight, I've tried waging my war loudly and proudly.  I've bullied and bribed my staff into joining weight loss contests and offered tips on losing weight.  I've spotted friends as they worked out at the Y and taken others out on training runs.  I've challenged peers to join races and encouraged others to realize a half-marathon isn't really that bad.  I've even started a long-winded, self-aggrandizing blog spouting my trials and tribulations with running.  But for every 1 person that I've helped, I've lost 4 more as they just went back to their old lifestyle. Clearly the fast food insurgents are too entrenched, so now I have to change my tactics.  Taking a page from American foreign policy in the 60's and 70's, I'm now engaging in a cold war.  And yes, much like those in space, I too know that all warriors are cold warriors (10 geek points if you know what movie that line came from, and 10 more points if you know the name of the character).  I also realize that if you're reading this blog with any frequency, and are not related to me, then you're probably one of the converted.  Like me, you may have started working out, and now you too have caught the running bug.  Whether you do it for health or for the challenge, you continue to pursue this lifestyle, and like me, I assume that you've found excitement, joy and satisfaction from it.  It hasn't always been easy, but so far it has been rewarding.  So now it's time to pay it forward.  But I think this is enough for tonight, but stay tuned as I lay out my plan to take over the world!  Right, Pinky?

Now for the hard numbers:  Today I did 8.6 miles.  2.4 miles I did as a warm-up with a friend that I'm trying to get into running.  The other 6.2 miles were a tempo run that I did at 7:55/mile along part of the Country Music Marathon Course.  I hadn't intended on going that hard, but it was another beautiful day and I couldn't help myself.  I also got a little workout helping with my son's basketball team.  Those kids can go hard, and I had to really push myself to stay ahead of them!  All right, it's late and warrior needs sleep badly.  Fall out soldiers!  Have fun and run hard!

The Snow Syndrome

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  With today's snow, I'm officially tired of winter, and I'm ready for spring.  I realize that this is not a new topic in the running blogsphere, but now I find myself drawn into the discussion.  I'm tired of sub-30 degree temperatures, 10 degree wind chill factors, dodging icy patches, snow pelting my face (okay, the snow is still cool, but I'm okay if it goes away), and slipping through the slush.  I'm sick of snot dripping down face, my breath burning from the cold, and then my breath freezing to my face.  I'm ridiculously tired of digging through my duffle bag for a pair of matching gloves and a hat, putting on enough layers so that I feel like I'm running in a sleeping bag, and peeling off wet, slushy socks after I'm done.  Now, the uninitiated and the neophyte might suggest that I try running inside on an indoor track, or God forbid, a dreadmill.  The problem with indoor tracks that I could use is that they tend to be narrow and short, so I never build up a great amount of speed without barreling through a crowd of walkers.  Then I also have to deal with the overwhelming feeling that I've turned into a giant hairless hamster running endlessly on that short track.  Ugh.  I won't even go into the numerous ways that I detest the treadmill.  Nope.  If I'm going to run, it better be outside. That being said, I blame that damn groundhog for all this snow.  Okay, now for the hard numbers:  I did an easy 5.2 mile run at 8:14/miles.  I didn't plan on going that hard, especially after a grueling 11 mile run yesterday, but I still managed the strong pace.  I'm still exploring the Country Music Marathon route, and I'm pretty confident that I'll have it down eventually.  Of course, it would be nice if the weather cleared up to do a decent long stretch of the course.  Well, enough ranting.  Have fun and run hard!

The Snow Ninja Experience

Hail my running brothers and sisters!  Earlier today, I thought about posting how I hated the snow and how it was interfering with my training schedule, and for the record, I do and it did.  Let me repeat:  A little brown man from a little island in the Pacific does not like snow and ice.  I had planned to get in another 11 miles at PWP, but thanks to the snow and ice, I can't even leave my driveway.  To be fair, I'm dumb enough to make a trip out to PWP, but even if I somehow managed not to slip and slide down any of the numerous hills in PWP, I doubt that I would survive the beating from my wife when I came back.  Instead I got in an easy 3 miles.  Of course it was only easy in terms that I ran slow, slow, slowly.  Running in the snow and ice was like running in mud.  My steps felt heavy and plodding.  This experience wasn't helped by the fact that I had to bundle up so heavily that I could barely move my arms or legs.  No lie, it felt like that I had added another 5 lbs to my body with my trail shoes and 3 layers of clothes.  I did get pretty warm around mile 1.5 so I had to take off my red pullover.  The upside to this move was that I was rocking the running ninja look.  Awesome.  Now for the hard numbers:  3.15 mile easy run at 9:53/mile.  Geek Tip:  In honor of ninja day, I give you this review.  As manga goes, Naruto is a great read for runners.  Naruto has gained a lot of mainstream attention thanks to Cartoonnetwork.  Basically it's the story of a kid who's trying very hard to be the best ninja that he can be.  He's not the best or most skilled, but he does have a secret power.  He also has lots of guts and determination.  If Pre were a ninja, he would have been Naruto.  Naruto doesn't give up and isn't afraid to put it on the line to accomplish his goals.  He locks onto his goal, digs deep into his secret power, and usually manages to come out on top.  If that isn't a metaphor for runners, I don't know what is.  Okay kids, I need to go warm up my toes.  Have fun and run hard!

Back to basics

Alright, the marathon is over, and that means it's back to the gym for me. I have to admit that I was neglecting my weights workout while I was putting up mileage to train for the marathon. Right now I'm easing into it as I'm still recovering from the race. Thankfully my superior genetics have allowed me to recover fairly quickly, but pardon me while I down another 4 Motrin to type the rest of this entry. Hah!

Seriously though, I need to spend some time rebuilding my overall strength if I want to keep up this level of fitness. For now, I'm doing a relatively low weight, high intensity interval workout. I'm sticking to 6 exercises: push-ups/bench, squats, curls, deadlifts, press and clean, and woodchoppers. The number of intervals and reps will change, but I'm doing a pyramid reps, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. I'll cycle through each exercise doing the same number of reps before moving onto the next interval. The key is to do it fast with good form and no rest breaks. Then after that some cross-training cardio like the bike or elliptical. I'll do this for 2-3 days out of the week and the rest of the week will be running.

A lot of people have asked me how they can get started running. My first suggestion is just get out there and make yourself do it. You won't get anywhere unless you make yourself do it. My second suggestion is to take it slow. I realize that I didn't do that but I've been blessed with a body that can turn pie and bacon into muscle quickly. Not an easy feat, I assure you. I started out building my overall strength and endurance with weights before I seriously started running. When I did start running, I ran mostly on the treadmill till I thought that I was ready to hit the streets. For beginners, I suggest running on the treadmill no more than 10 minutes a day till you're used to it. Even then, a run-walk (i.e. walk 2 mins, run 1 min, walk 2 mins, repeat as necessary) approach till your comfortable with your stride is probably smart. After the first week, if you're feeling good about your running, then you can bump up your running by a couple more minutes, and just keep doing that until you're running marathons!

As far as general strength program, you should do 1 that builds your upper body, core and lower body. The program I'm doing is probably good if you know your proper forms for lifting. Otherwise you may need something even more basic like push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups and squats. It doesn't matter whether you do weights first or cardio/running first. I usually do weights then cardio because I like to get warmed up that way. You'll probably be pretty sore the first couple of weeks if you haven't really done much working out, but it will be a good sore that will pay off if you stick with it.

So there you have it. Build your cardio and strength at the same time, and you'll see results. Do high intensity workouts to tire and tax your muscles but keep the number of reps low to avoid injury. One final note about treadmills. I don't like them and won't run on one now unless I'm desperate, however a treadmill will be much easier on the joints than the road until you've got a good baseline tolerance for your new fitness program. All righty then, I think I've done my share of fitness preaching tonight. Good luck and godspeed.