FitFeat

where daily feats & eats can be adventures in themselves

Posts Tagged barefoot running

Why You Might Want to ADD a Pound

Jul 8

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Well hello there FitFeat friends!  Happy Friday EVE!  Gotta love short holiday weeks!

This morning started with a fantastic 5 mile client run in some unusually humid weather.  Wow, I thought I’d been transported back to Ohio for a minute with the low cloud cover and muggy air.  I left the house with nice straight hair and when I came home, MSP said I looked like I’d showered and let my hair air dry (which is to say:  NOT a pretty sight!)  Humidity and my hair do not play nicely together.  Crazy waves and cowlicks all over!

I do feel for folks who have to run in humidity ALL the time.  We are lucky here to typically have very dry air.

I wore my VFFs again today – still love running in them and still finding it to be pain free.  My knees are happy these days.  Maybe I’ll get the itch to go longer than 8 or 9 in them, but right now I’m back to just enjoying runs as they come.

After my run, I was so craving something fresh.  I couldn’t decide between a cantaloupe or a green smoothie.  So I did both.  Ate a few bites of the cantaloupe:

And then put the rest into a rocking smoothie:

  • 1/2 Cantaloupe
  • 1 small orange
  • kale
  • spinach
  • flaxseed oil
  • pepitas
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla plant protein powder
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • water

It was so refreshing post-run.

Rascal couldn’t even wait for me to stop pouring some into his bowl.

He kept trying to get his face in there before I was done.  My pups LOVE when I share my green smoothies with them.

Ready for seconds!

***

Have you ever ready any of Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s work?  I own his “Eat to Live” book and have borrowed his “Eat for Health” books from the library a few times.  Dr. Fuhrman uses the term “nutritarian” as opposed to vegetarian, flexitarian, vegan, etc. because he promotes eating foods based on their nutrient value.  For example on a scale of 1 to 1000, KALE scores 1000.  From a nutrient density standpoint, it’s the gold standard.  (Another great reason to make yourself a batch of kale chips!)

In the “Eat for Health” series he suggests to his clients that rather than making huge changes right off the bat when trying to lose weight or get healthier one should just ADD in a pound of raw green veggies a day to what they already eat.  And then over time you will find that because you are eating a pound of filling green food, you won’t need as much of the other less healthy foods you might have been eating. (As the program progresses, one then aims to eat at least 1 pound of raw greens vegetables and 1 pound of cooked veggies and at least 1 cup of legumes.)

I know that when I measure out my greens for my smoothies I typically end up with about 9 oz with the cucumber, celery, sprouts, leafy greens and occasional avocado.  I was curious what one pound of raw greens would look like all in one bowl so that I could gauge whether I was anywhere near the 1 to 2 pound mark.

For the sake of pure volume rather than variety, I just threw some veggies into a bowl to weigh.   One full head of romaine, a large stalk of celery and a medium cucumber fit the bill.

On one hand it didn’t seem like as much as I thought it would.  But then on the other hand, this bowl is way bigger than my head.

Because I’m known to have a pinhead, I’ll show you the bowl next to my iPhone for better sizing reference.  ;)

After weighing out the pound, I took out some of the greens to save for later, and then “prettied up” my salad with some dulse, avocado, red and yellow pepper – and weighed again.  I’m over a pound, wahoo!

Then I added 1/2 cup of navy beans.

And called it lunch!

How about you?  Do you think you are getting 2 pounds of veggies in each day? Are you a fledgling nutritarian or a full-on card carrying member of the club?  I think that between my large lunch salads and my green smoothies, I’m somewhere in the middle!

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

***

Shari Becht is a Fit Living Coach and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer offering online/phone coaching services to people across the U.S.  She is extremely passionate about teaching her clients how to start making small changes every day to their own lives, built around steps customized to fit their needs.

If you or someone you know could benefit from Shari’s coaching, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

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Like It Was The Summer of 2009

Jun 17

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Holy moly, I spent a few days away from the blog and I come back to find 96 spam messages!  Yowza!  I hope they at least count as page views toward my FoodBuzz account!  Haha!  Thank you Akismet for catching all that spam and keeping it from hitting my comments area!  You are a godsend of a plug-in!

So glad you guys liked the post about the crazy ingredients in our food.  I had a good time writing that one. Garbage in my food gets me all riled up!  :)

Today I’m having flashbacks of last summer.  I started the morning with a run, enjoyed half a cantaloupe when I got home, then got busy doing some ‘doody duty’ and YARDIO and followed it all up with a delicious smoothie.

Love it when the yard is freshly mowed:

And love it when I can enjoy my smoothie on the back patio in the sunshine:

(BTW, this smoothie was a keeper:  small banana, handful of frozen blackberries, vanilla brown rice protein, 1/2 a cucumber, spinach, romaine, flaxseed oil with 8 oz water — SO SO GOOD!)

Ahhh, just like the good ‘ol days of 2009.  ;)   Last year at this time I’d left my high stress no-fun job about 6 weeks prior and was taking the summer ‘off’ to enjoy life a little more and get some projects done around the house that I’d been putting off.  It was fantastic!

Fast forward one year and this summer is definitely on the BUSY BEE side of the coin.  Last year I didn’t have the ops admin job, the fit living business or the blog.  In the battle for where my time is spent sometimes the blog wins, some weeks the training wins, and this week (plus the next two weeks) the admin job will win because we are gearing up to relocate the office.  If FitFeat seems oddly quiet off and on between now and July 4th, you’ll know why!

***

Today’s run was with a client and it was a PERFECT morning.  Warm with blue skies and a light breeze.  We hit up my (and her) favorite hilly trail.  (And she was rockin’ her new pair of Vibram FiveFingers, woot woot!) It was a good thing I had her appointment on the books, because if not I think I may have hit the snooze button a few times.  It was a bit of a rough night of sleep thanks to a certain little dog who likes to howl and bark like mad when his dad comes home from softball late at night.  Picture me sleeping soundly one second, then needing to be peeled off the ceiling in the next. Instant adrenaline rush and impossible to sleep after that.

He looks so innocent doesn’t he?

It’s a good thing he’s so darn cute.

***

You have to check out the delicious dinner than Cindy posted on her blog.  It looks fantastic, and yes I do want to earn a parade (even if my parade would be quite short seeing how it’s only one person) so I might have to make something in a puff pastry for my hubs!  I’m sure he would love it.  I did make him a Bison BBQ Meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes Tuesday night.  I think the parade was postponed due to inclement weather.  ;)

My meals have been a little on the boring side as of late.  Green smoothies, big salads, oatmeal, grilled goat cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, you know the usual SHARI FARE. Nothing exciting enough to share.  But I have a great new apron (five bucks, SCORE!) so I am sure the inspiration will start flowing now.  Isn’t it the apron that makes one a good cook?

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Windburn

Apr 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, thrive diet | 2 Comments

Hey FitFriends!  How’s your Tuesday treatin’ ya?

I had a very fun run this morning at my favorite hilly trail with two of my favorite running buddies and when I got home at first glance in the mirror I thought, “hmm, weird, my sunscreen didn’t work very well today” because my cheeks were really red.  Then I realized it must have been from the WIND!  It was CRAZY WINDY on the run today!  The hill at the beginning of the trail is a great warmup walk and we were leaning into the wind to stay upright.

But it wasn’t raining or snowing.  So that’s a big plus.  And the sun was shining, which was an even bigger plus!

So another 5.4 miles logged in the ol’ Vibram FiveFingers.  I think my calves may not have been QUITE ready after all the Vibram love they got over the weekend (leg workout Friday morning, 5 miles Friday evening, 15 sets of sprints Saturday, yoga Saturday, 7.6 miles Sunday afternoon).  They are pretty tight & tender today, even after all the stretching.  I might have to make tomorrow a yoga morning – lots of downward dogs should do the trick!

***

Welcome to “Random Topic Day” here at the FitFeat Blog.  :D

Run Carrot Run

My NO MEAT ATHLETE shirt arrived!  I’ve been a regular reader of Matt’s two blogs (No Meat Athlete and Health Blog Helper) ever since the inception of my own blog.  I happened upon NMA by accident after I starting eating along the lines of a mostly vegetarian, sometimes pescatarian diet and had done some Googling of vegan and vegetarian athletes.  Matt is an ultra-marathoner, vegetarian, soon-to-be-new-dad, animal lover, awesome blogger, and I’m sure a ton of other things.  I’ve always gotten a kick out of his logo (the carrot wearing a headband and sweating) and tagline (“Runs on Plants“).  So I finally had to treat myself to one of his running shirts.

Now, you all know I’m a stickler for customer service – let me just tell you that I am beyond impressed.  Matt wrote after I’d placed my order to say that the size small  shirts he received weren’t up to his standards and gave me a couple of options (refund?  wait for new printer? switch sizes?)   I went the route of going up to the medium size.  Well when he mailed my shirt he also included the small one that he wasn’t pleased with the printing of.  So now I am the lucky owner of not one but TWO No Meat Athlete shirts.  (Thank you Matt!)  And his standards must be higher than mine, because MSP and I both thought the small shirt was just fine!

If you haven’t checked out No Meat Athlete yet, go give it a look.   You won’t be disappointed.  Not only is he hosting a giveaway today of some compression socks, but he’s also donating all revenues from his Foodbuzz ad FOR ALL OF 2010 to help animals.

Run Drink Run

To know me is to know that I am a big believer in Brendan Brazier (professional VEGAN Ironman Triathlete), and his books.  I regularly drink Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer.   So I was excited when our local Whole Foods started carrying sample sized packets of the Vega Sport.  I tried the Lemon Lime flavor on Sunday afternoon just before heading out to run with my friend Amanda.

The taste is interesting.  Definitely not something you’d crave or have too  much of, that’s for sure!  :)   And I was a little nervous to have something that is considered an “energy” drink at 4:00 in the afternoon, for fear that I’d never get to sleep that night.  I ended up only drinking about 1/2 of what I made because I ran out of time and didn’t want to chug it.   I had a steady flow of energy during the run without ever feeling jittery and I had no trouble getting to sleep that night.  Typically I’m beat when it comes to exercising in the afternoons, so I’d like to think that I felt good thanks to this drink.  For the high cost though, I think I’ll stick to single-serve packets and only use it when absolutely necessary, like for long runs.

Delicious Dressing

One of my phone coaching/mentoring clients turned me onto this Annie’s dressing, Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette. It’s awesome!  I’m so glad she told me about this because I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise.  Only 35 calories per tablespoon, all natural, vegan.  No SOYBEAN oil either.  :)   It’s kind of a sweet smoky flavor.  I liked it so much I knew I had to share it with you too.  And by the way, this certain client is kicking some serious “you-know-what”.  I’m so proud of her!  Not only has she met her goals and continued to set new ones, she’s stayed the course while also kicking her smoking habit recently.  Maybe someday soon she’ll let me write a profile about her.   ;)

Already on Vacation (in my head anyway…)

I am getting SO excited for my upcoming vacation.  (I’m being vague on specific dates right now for a reason, even if I do have someone watching the house for us.  Safety first!!)   I’m especially looking forward to seeing my cousin Kevin and his new ‘crib’, dinner and maybe a run with reader Carrie (also my cousin), going for a run with Cindy from A Sparkle a Day, and hopefully Berni (According to Berni) will get to join us.  And I think it’s supposed to rain in Denver the day I leave, so that’s good.  Because it’s always nice to be heading TO nice weather rather than having it be gorgeous out at home as you drive to the airport.  :)

Thanks to a comment from Carrie when I went on that RV trip, I’ll be doing a lot of “sight-running“.  I’d been a little sketched out to run in strange places all by myself.  But Carrie told me about one of her best runs while she was on a trip, so I took off my ‘scaredy cat’ suit and went out at all the cities we stopped in on during the RV journey.  And LOVED it.  So I hope to post some more ‘digital postcards’ for you while I’m gone.

I’m sure I’ll do some blogging while I’m there, but not to the extent that I did while I was on the RV trip with my mom and grandma last fall.  The one lesson I learned on that trip was that I can get a little TOO caught up in technology.  (Who..me??)  And I think I missed out on some good quality time with my family because I was constantly in a mad dash to track down some Wi-Fi so that I could get my posts uploaded.  I don’t want to make that same mistake on this trip.  So there may be a few “Best of FitFeat” posts along the way.  ;)   I figure if the DJs at my favorite radio station can replay their shows while they go on vacay, I can re-post some of my favorites!

Speaking of, I better continue with the packing extravaganza!  I’m a week-long packer!  The suitcase is out of the closet, the packing LIST-writing has commenced, and we’ll have to see if I can squeeze it all into one bag or not!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday!  I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Sprints and Crows

Apr 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Hi friends!

Just wanted to drop in and say HAPPY SATURDAY!!  I hope that you are having a fabulous day!  Mine has been!  15 sets of sprint intervals this morning (in my VFFs), followed by some yoga.  Bueno!  I’m trying to learn to do the crow pose and not be scared of falling on my noggin. :)   I did it twice but very briefly – now I just need to learn how to stay IN the pose!

We also got two workouts in yesterday as well (lower body in the morning and 80 minutes of hills at night)…. I must be making up for lost time this week since I missed two days and then Thursday’s was a bit on the weak side.  Day 18 and Day 19 are posted now for Spring Slimdown – almost done now!  Good thing too, because I’m running out of room in the dropdown under that tab.  So I might have to figure out someplace else to keep those pages on the blog.

Last night I pulled out the last two Summoning Summer Crab Cakes from the freezer and made little sandwiches out of them, with some steamed asparagus on the side.  What an awesome dinner!  You have to try these salmon cakes — I will definitely be making another batch to have in the freezer because it was great to have them to make a fast meal in a pinch.

Well we are getting ready to settle in for the evening – we rented “The Blind Side” (and I think we are the last two people in the country to see it!)  I’m sure I’ll need a box of tissues, right?

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Barefoot Sunday

Mar 29

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi Fit Friends!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend – Monday came quickly, didn’t it?  We had a warmer springlike day on Sunday finally so it was great to get out and enjoy it a bit.  And extra bonus: it’s a short week, since we have Good Friday off at my office!  (Wahooo!)

In case you were out enjoying the spring weather this weekend and weren’t online, check out my post about the crazy Cadbury DREAM eggs!  As well as updates to the Spring Slimdown.

Sunday morning was amazing.  We finally got to get outside for a wonderful run in our FiveFinger unshoes.

It was 35 degrees and very sunny.  35 with no snow right now feels like a tropical vacation!  :)

And things were melting down on the dirt trail.  Our “bare feet” were pretty dirty by the end.

We ran 6 miles at just over a 10 min mile pace and the slow-down I’ve been doing over the previous weeks seems to be working  – my average heart rate for the full run was only 161 this time.   It felt great.  I had ZERO KNEE PAIN.  I felt energized at the end and ready to tackle the day.  Which is exactly how I want to feel after a run, rather than completely spent.  I am LOVING these Vibram FiveFingers and very excited about continuing to add distance in them.  If I can keep adding distance without knee pain, then maybe I can get back on track with some race goals!

My calves are lightly sore today but nothing like they’ve been on past VFF runs, so I’m hoping that my lower legs are finally conditioned for barefoot running.

The best part is you can hose these shoes off and then pop them in the washing machine!  Now they are clean and ready for the next run.

Off to start Monday at the office!  Have a wonderful day everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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9 Weeks Till … ???

Mar 15

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 15 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.  I don’t think I’ve gone three days in a row without a blog post since I first started FitFeat last year, missed you all!  It was a C-R-A-Z-Y busy weekend!

It started Friday night a group of girls getting together to celebrate Beth’s birthday with some All-You-Can-Eat sushi.  It was a lovely time.  The miso soup was CHOCK full of mushrooms (bonus!), and I also had two slices of Sweet Potato Tempura, a salad, and a few rolls from the shared plate (like the avocado roll and the cucumber roll).

When 9:00 PM started closing in, I had to be a party pooper and excuse myself, or I knew I’d be tired for the Saturday morning run.

I got to bed a hair before 10 then got up at 5:30 and had my pre-run meal.  This time I had one slice of Ezekial toast with almond butter and a sliced banana, drizzled with a bit of raw honey.

I packed up a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar in my little backpack along with my hydration pack, and a coconut water.

MSP and I drove over to a local trailhead where I knew they had restrooms, because I knew I was going to need it after two cups of coffee and some water that morning!  We arrived at the trailhead where a sign that said “Restrooms closed for the season” was posted.  WHAT??? Who does that? Is the park closed?  Noooo.  Not cool to close the bathrooms, Parks & Rec peeps!

MSP generously decided he’d run (rather than skate) the early miles of the outing with me so that I could be on a dirt path at first, then we’d plan to swing back by the car where he could switch to rollerblades and we’d head onto the bike path.  We each put on our VFFs and took off.  About 2 miles in, I knew I was going to have to detour to SOMEPLACE where I could use a restroom.  If it wasn’t such a busy trail, I’d have run off into the bushes.  :) We hit up a city street and ran to a nearby gas station to borrow their facilities, then ran back to the trail.

After 4.65 miles in our FiveFinger shoes, our calves were telling us we’d done enough ‘barefooting’ so it was time to make the switch to my trail runners, and MSP to his rollerblades.

At 5.69 miles I drank my coconut water and had a few bites of my Larabar.

At 9.81 miles, I took a look at the time and knew that I was running late.  I had to be at Keri’s YOGA grand opening at 1:00, still had to run back to the car, try to get in a post-workout drink & meal, shower and get ready, and drive 40 minutes to her studio.  And the route back was primarily uphill.  So we turned around and when we got back to the car, my total mileage ended up being 14 rather than the planned 16.

With all the ups and downs of the hills, my Garmin told me that I had a total ascent of 2,161′ and a total descent of 2,138′.  (Good Lord it’s hilly here!) My average heart rate this time was 147 bpm, which is good since I was aiming for 143.  This required a s-l-o-w pace, but I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to worry about that.

To save time, we hit up Jamba Juice on the way home since I knew I wouldn’t have time for a homemade green smoothie at the house.  I picked one with mango, orange juice, pineapple juice and 8g of protein powder, plus a double shot of wheat grass on the side.  Not ideal in my book, but this would have to do the trick.

The downside to this run is that my knees were REALLY bothering me again.  They felt GREAT while I was running in my barefoot shoes.  But shortly after  I switched to my regular shoes, they started to ache (especially the left).  There is no rhyme or reason to what part of my knee hurts in order to troubleshoot and tweak future runs.  Sometimes it’s the inner left knee, sometimes the outer left knee, sometimes just an overall burning.

While it is disheartening to say this ‘out loud’, I’m going to need to adjust my training goal for the sake of saving my knees.  I don’t mind muscular soreness (actually I oddly enjoy muscular soreness) but joint pain is not something I’m willing to mess around with.  Every run 10 miles or more on this journey has caused some pretty nasty knee pain, so I need to figure out what is at the root and fix it before I add any more distance.

It occurred to me during this weekend’s run that there is a reason someone dreamed up the idea of the HALF-MARATHON:  because 26.2 is too LONG!  :D

I don’t think a marathon is out of the question, and maybe even yet this year.  But I can say with a fair amount of certainty that it won’t happen on May 16.   The smart thing to do is focus on building up my PAIN-FREE mileage in the VFFs since I don’t experience any knee issues when running in them.  I’m currently near the 5-mile mark in them and aiming to progress at about 10% increases per week, maybe a bit more.

I could talk about my pros and cons, and all the thoughts that went through my head while coming to this conclusion, and how hard it was for me to make this decision (then share it publicly).  It’s been an internal dialog now for about 3 weeks.  But the long and the short of it is I talk a lot about listening to our bodies and I’m listening to mine at the moment.  I’m bummed, but I need to do this in a way that doesn’t cause damage or injury.

On a positive note, the yoga open house was fantastic and VERY helpful after the long run.  The Kripalu style of yoga that Keri teaches is different and fun. With moves like “Windshield Wiper” legs, how can you NOT have a good time?  I think going forward whenever time allows, I will try to schedule enough time for some yoga on long run days because it really seemed to speed up the muscular recovery.

What was your fun fitness over the weekend? Our city had the annual Running of the Green 7k race that a few people I know ran, and a client of mine in WA state ran her first 5K in a St. Patty’s Day race.

Have a MARVELOUS Monday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Built To Run, Even If You Don’t

Feb 25

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

So I mentioned yesterday that I’d started the post about Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

I’ve had a complete mental block about writing my thoughts for this book.  I’ve procrastinated nonstop.  And to be honest even after all this time, I still haven’t finished the last chapter. (I started this book in early January!)

I have this book in audio version on my iPod.  I’ve also borrowed the hard copy from the library.  Twice.

The book obviously hit home with me on a few levels, as it convinced me to start barefoot running and I have been raving about this type of running to all who’ll listen.  I now own my own Vibram FiveFingers, MSP just got a pair (they arrived last night) and my friend Scott also got a pair.  One of my coworkers has been running in his socks now on his treadmill thanks to all my raving!

But something about the book as a WHOLE did not grab me.  The chapters alternate between telling the story of the Tarahumara people (who are really fantastic runners) and the story of author’s own experience with trying to heal some running injuries and his journey to barefoot running.   I found the flip-flopping between the two stories caused me to lose interest.  I think I was looking for more of a “how to” and “why” for barefoot running, and less “play by play” commentating on the ultramarathons he attended.

I don’t feel I’d give a fair review if I tried simply because I’ve started and stopped so many times.  So I’ll tell you what I liked about it.

Overall, I do think it’s worth reading if you have any interest in barefoot running OR interest in running for the JOY of it. I thoroughly enjoyed the ‘scientific’ chapters.   The gist of it is that as humans we truly are built to RUN.  Our bodies have evolved to make us good runners.  And there’s a lot of discussion about how with all of today’s fancy shoe technology, we’ve basically weakened the supportive structure of our feet and lower legs.

My favorite part of the book comes in chapter 25 when the author is discussing said technological advances in fancy running shoes:

… the impact on your legs from running can be up to twelve times your body weight so it’s preposterous to believe a half inch of rubber is going to make a bit of difference… You can cover an egg with an oven mitt before rapping it with a hammer, but that egg ain’t coming out alive.

Of all the words in the book, THAT is what stuck with me!  :) Not only did it make me laugh out loud, it really gave me something to think about.  Changing my footstrike to lessen shock of impact for one.  The fact that I don’t need $110 Nike SHOX.   Also, that I don’t need to get new running shoes every 300-500 miles.  I even dug out an OLD pair of worn trail shoes for the last long run we did, because I wanted LESS support so that I could run a bit more like I would if I was barefootin’ it.

Like the Tarahumara, run for the fun of it.  Stop worrying about what your numbers are, how fast you’re running, etc.  Basically slow down and smell the roses.  (Don’t stop and smell the roses, because then you aren’t RUNNING anymore!)

My most enjoyable runs are those where I’m focused on chatting with my running pals and the scenery around me, and less on keeping a certain pace.  Which is why training for a long event like a marathon is troublesome for me (but that’s a whole other post for sure!)

If you’d like to learn more about barefoot running, here are some links to articles and sites I’ve enjoyed.

Harvard University Footstrike Studies and Videos

Wired Article:  To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes

WebMD Article on Barefoot Running

TrueSlant/Running Shorts Blog Article by Matt Frazier of No Meat Athlete (one of my fave blogs)

If you are currently a runner (or if you’re not and want to start), I’d like to challenge you to grab a pair of old socks that you don’t mind getting filthy and run on the treadmill.  Notice how your gait changes in order to land softly.  Then try to tell me you didn’t have a little grin on your face!  I think it’s hard not to feel childlike when I’m running around without ‘real’ shoes on!

(Trust me when I say START SMALL!  You WILL feel your calves so keep the mileage low at first!)  Then come back here to FitFeat and tell us how it went!  :D

Have a fantastic day friends!  Make it a FIT one!

– Shari B. =)

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13 Weeks Till 26.2

Feb 15

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 9 Comments

Hi blog buds!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend whether or not you were celebrating Valentine’s Day.  And a happy Presidents Day to you today, especially those of you who get the day off of work!  Guess what else it is?

It’s Marathon Monday!

We are 13 weeks away from the marathon.  Our planned long run for this weekend was 12 miles.

It occurred to me as I was getting ready Saturday morning that I’m a little neurotic when it comes to getting out the door for a run.   As you may or may not know, I’m a bit of an overplanner (remember when I was packing for my Michigan RV trip?)  I would love to be that person that just decides to take off running willy nilly when I feel like it.  But I’m not.  I have to plan for it.

You’ve read previously in my blog that a 90 minute rule works best for me before a run.  Which means that I have to eat any pre-run food no later than 90 minutes before.  Any closer and I get a crazy cramp in my lower left abdominal area that hurts so bad I can barely walk let alone jog.   Our start time this Saturday was 8:00 AM, so at 6:30 on the dot, I ate.  This time an Ezekial english muffin rather than Ezekial toast:

After getting dressed in my gear, it’s time to pack!  I have a little post-it note ‘checklist‘ that I keep because inevitably I will walk out the door without something, especially that early in the morning.  This week, without my handy note, I would have actually left without my Camelbak of all things!

Here’s the pile of stuff:

Crazy, huh? Questions for my running readers:   Do you do that when you have a long run planned?  Or are you a “roll-out of bed and hit the pavement” kind of runner?

When deciding what jacket(s) to wear, I checked the indoor/outdoor thermometer.  I can’t remember the last time I was so EXCITED to see 30+ degrees outside!  All of our training runs so far have been started in weather around 17 degrees!  This meant I wouldn’t have to worry about my water freezing in my hydration pack.

After last week’s unhappy knees, I made a few adjustments for this run:

1.) I wore a different pair of shoes.

After learning more about barefoot running and the importance of LESS support for your feet, I chose to wear my beat-up old trail runners that don’t have much tread left on the bottom in hopes that this would force me more onto the balls of my feet much like I am in my VFFs.

2.) I brought back an old technique that I sometimes used when I trained for my first half-marathon in 2004:  run a mile, walk a minute.

This strategy allows you to still build conditioning for the distance, but eliminates some of the fatigue your leg muscles will experience.  I’ve always liked this training method because it makes a long run more of an ‘interval’ workout for me when I know it’s broken into mile segments, so mentally I find it easier.  From a speed standpoint, we’ve been averaging 10 minute miles on our long training runs.  You would think adding these walk breaks in would slow us down to 11 minute miles, but it didn’t.  We averaged a 10:20 pace this week!  So when we were running, we were running FASTER.

3.) I iced my knees in the car on the way home from the run.

I didn’t have frozen peas, so frozen EDAMAME had to do the trick.  :)   And I had to pack them in a thermal lunchbox with an icepack to keep them frozen!

4.) I kept moving as the day went on.

Last week I was exhausted and just wanted to stay off my feet, so I caught up on some reading.  Unfortunately I think this allowed my legs to really tighten up.  So this time while I was pretty beat, I made sure that I kept busy and kept my legs moving.  We ran errands, went to Costco, and did some chores around the house.

***

Fuel during the run: 2/3 of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar at the 5.55 mile mark.

Immediately following the run, while stretching: coconut water, glutamine recovery drink and a banana, plus a ginger root capsule for inflammation

Post-workout meal: vegetarian chili with red quinoa, spinach and nutritional yeast.

The outcome of the adjustments this week: My knees were a little sore directly following the run, then more sore later in the day, but almost back to normal on Sunday.  Whereas last week, I was still hobbled on Sunday.  So that’s a huge plus.  I also didn’t feel extremely sleepy as I had the previous week.   The bottoms of my feet didn’t feel ‘raw’ and I didn’t have any blisters.  So all in all I’m very pleased with how this long run went.

What’s a little daunting from here on out is knowing that all of our long runs will be more distance than a half-marathon.  Yikes.  I’m looking forward to 14 miles, because up until now I’ve only run half-marathons, so 13.1 has been the cap on my distance.  It will be fun to surpass that.  (I say “fun” now – let’s see what I say when I’m actually RUNNING it that day!) ;) This is where you dig a little deeper and remind yourself that you chose this goal for a reason and get EXCITED!

***

Don’t forget that we have FLEX-IT FRIDAY coming up this week, so get your ab shots in to my by Thursday afternoon!

Have a MAGNIFICENT Monday!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Well Hello Vibrams, We Meet Again

Feb 5

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 10 Comments

Oh yes, it’s Friday!  I’m so excited for the weekend!  It’s packed with plans: MSP is taking me out tonight for Birthday Fondue, I have an e-a-r-l-y 10 mile run planned for tomorrow morning, and a SuperBowl party on Sunday.  The weekend will be a blast and will probably FLY BY!

Lookie lookie what showed up yesterday!

My Vibrams are here! Weeeeeeee!  Aren’t they funny?  This pair fit PERFECTLY!  I wore them to the grocery store and Goodwill.  I didn’t notice anyone looking at me like I’m some kind of fool yet, but I may have been keeping my head bent low under my hat.  :)

I’ve been torturing my dogs with them. Riley can’t get enough sniffing:

And Rascal thinks they are some sort of strange playmate and keeps slapping his front paws down and wiggling his tail in an effort to engage this new friend in a game:

So far I’m LOVING them.  I wore them around for about 4 hours yesterday.  Some of that time included running 2.25 miles.  We’ll see how the calves feel later today – I hope I haven’t made them insanely sore for tomorrow’s long run!  :) (Which will be done in my regular running shoes, NOT these.  You are supposed to wear these for 1-2 hours a day while your muscles, tendons and ligaments get used to them.  Obviously I’m already bending the rules, but I’m not crazy enough to try 10 in them – yet.)

I will say that running in them on the treadmill was a vast improvement over running in my socks or even sockless.  I’m DYING to get outside with them to see what it’s like on the trails.  Maybe Sunday if my legs aren’t fried from tomorrow’s run.

A definite plus:  if you are feeling bored with running, this gives you a whole new reason to be excited about it!

I’m off to get in an upper body workout before the work day starts.

Which team are you rooting for this weekend in the SuperBowl? Since neither the Broncos nor the Steelers made it far enough, I don’t really have a favorite.  But I at least try to root for an AFC team, so I guess I’ll be cheering on Colts.  What I WON’T be cheering about is the halftime show.  The WHO?  Really?  Damn you Janet and Justin for forever messing up fun and edgy halftime shows!  That was the last good one!

Have a FABULOUS Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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There’s a Fire Up in Here

Jan 29

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 10 Comments

Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY friends!  Wahoo!  TGITW (Thank goodness it’s the weekend!)

Sorry to disappear on you yesterday.  Tues/Thurs are my BIZ-EEEE days and I had two additional pieces of fun in my Thursday that kept me away from the computer.

One was a visit from one of my all time best buds after she got off of work, where we polished off about 3/4 bottle of our favorite Riesling and jibber-jabbered non-stop for two and a half hours.  It was such a wonderful time.

The other exciting thing on Thursday was my little brother and his wife welcomed their second baby into the world!  Unfortunately I live 1300 miles from them, so I won’t be seeing Baby #2 anytime soon.  Thank goodness for webcams!  :)   I was really hoping the new baby would wait until next Wednesday so that we could share a birthday, but she must have been in a hurry to meet her big sister sooner!

Speaking of birthday, MSP wanted to share with me what my gift would be a little early because it would require some ‘trying on for size’ before he could order the actual gift.  That got me curious!

In addition to reading “Born to Run“ currently, Matt from No Meat Athlete has inspired me to want to give barefoot running a go.

MSP heard that and decided to gift me with some VIbram Five Fingers!  SO EXCITED!!!

Image from Vibram FiveFingers

In anticipation of the arrival of my new fitness ‘gadgets’ I decided to get a head start on Wednesday.  Barefoot running is something you must start SLOWLY because all that running around in my fancy Nike SHOX will have changed my gait and most likely weakened some of the supportive structure of my lower legs and feet.

I did intervals of a different sort on the treadmill this time:  shoes on, shoes off, socks on, socks off, shoes and socks back on, shoes off, etc.

I did 3 miles, about two of which were ‘shoeless’.

OK, first:  holy calves of fire, Batman!  Not so much DURING as much as the days following.  I have some DOMS going on in my calves the way I figure I would if I did 1000 sets of heavy calf raises.  You should see me trying to walk DOWN a set of stairs.  Comical.

Second, it was so FUN!  You feel so much ‘lighter’ on your feet, almost springy because it truly forces you into a completely different gait.  Apparently I’m a heavy ‘heel-slapper’ in shoes and that just won’t work barefoot.  You need to be more onto the balls of your feet, while still letting your heels come down lightly.

Afterward, I did about 15 minutes of deep yoga stretching because I knew my legs were going to need it.

Then yesterday I did another 30 minutes of yoga, including a LOT of downward dogs to hit those calves a bit.

I won’t be using my new “unshoes” during the marathon, because I don’t think there’s enough time to safely transition to that distance.  But I definitely plan to use them as much as my calves will allow during my shorter training runs.  Maybe the marathon after this one… ;)

And I have to give props to our good friend Bo, because he had FiveFingers YEARS ago before they were trendy.  And I think I remember teasing him about his crazy looking shoes. :)   Bo, I’m eating my words now and you can tease me all you want to get me back!  ;)

Today’s question:  Any barefoot running ‘aficionados’ out there? Read “Born to Run”?

Friends, have a FANTASTIC Friday!  I’ll be back tomorrow sometime after my 9 MILE training run.  I really hope my calves stop crying before I head out or it will be a L-O-N-G 9 miles…

– Shari B. =)

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