Hipocracy

Saturday was the fireman's auction up on Southport Island where I grew up, and since it is the social event of the season, a bunch of close friends and family and I were all up for the weekend. Last night as a few of us made dinner (veggie stir fry with tempeh and chicken sausage, yum!) we started talking about some family members that are struggling. Both are dealing with addiction in a way. One has a substance addiction issues, and the other has some serious health problems but continues to eat in a way that is making the health problems worse. We talked about how it is frustrating to watch them do damage to themselves. Why can't they see what they are doing themselves and just stop??

Later as I was driving home and stopping at Dairy Queen for a post dinner and dessert Blizzard, it occurred to me that I was being awfully hypocritical. I was talking about other people and their addictions as if I were just perfect? Here I was stopping for a blizzard when I wasn't even remotely hungry. I'd eat a bunch of cookies earlier in the day when I was making them and already had ice cream after dinner. I too just can't stop eating. And I there I was driving home late at night, missing out on an impromptu family reunion, because I "needed" to get home for a long bike ride this morning. As I read "Dear Overexercising" earlier this week, I started crying because I recognized myself in it so much. If I can't get at least one workout in a day, I get panicky and angry and totally out of control. That is not a healthy thing.

But that's the thing about our society I think. Unless there is something negative associated with your addiction, like drugs or obesity, people don't see it as a huge problem. I think it's a good lesson. Look at the things in your own life. Are they truly healthy- physically, mentally, and spiritually? And next time you see someone that you would normally condemn consider that you may have more in common than you think.

It's baaaack........ (and I finally join the modern era)

After a wonderful year mostly free of the horrible plantar fasciitis that plagued me for 3 years, it is back. It isn't terrible but I am feeling some definite twinges (or niggles as my friends over at Marathon Talk would say). While niggles is fun to say, it isn't so fun to say.

It is my own fault, I've been lax with my calf and foot stretching and I've spent a lot of the summer barefoot or in flip-flops. I do not want this to turn back into the debilitating pain I experienced before, so I am immediately taking action to get ahead of it. I am not slowing down on my running, because I have to be pretty much dead to do that, but I am spending a lot of time with an ice pack on my foot.


My flip-flops are lying in a neglected pile in my closet while I wear my lovely arch supporting Birkenstocks.




And perhaps worse of all, I am back to sleeping in my lovely boot. Not so much fun when it is a million degrees out, it makes my foot hot and itchy. Also, I tend to roll over in the night and kick myself hard in the other shin. So now my shins hurt too. 

On a more positive note, I finally, finally joined twitter. I don't know what took me so long. I currently have a whopping 0 followers. Who wants to be my first follower?

https://twitter.com/KierstenDawn


I also finally got on the black bean brownie train. Again, I'm a good five years behind the trend, but better late than never. My intention at ourdoor yoga last night was joy. I certainly felt joyful watching the water, feeling the grass, and swaying in the cool breeze as I practiced at Fort Williams and decided the best way to continue the joy when I got home was by eating brownies for dinner.

I used the Dark Chocolate and Black Bean Brownies recipe from Eat Good 4 Life as inspiration, but halved it and made further modifications to healthify it. Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
Yields 10-12 servings

1/2 (15.5 oz.) can black beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup tablespoon unrefined sugar
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 egg
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place parchment paper in a small baking pan.
 .
Place all the ingredients except chocolate chips and walnuts in a food processor or blender and pulse thoroughly until smooth and well combined.
.
Pour batter in the baking dish. Top with nuts and chocolate chips. Bake for 20ish minutes or until the top is dry and edges begin to pull away from the baking dish.

 I ate these immediately after they came out of the oven. They have a slightly different texture than normal brownies, they are soft and fudgy, but without the super chewy edges (probably because they are so low in fat), but were delicious. I made a substantial dent in the pan. Joy indeed. 

Recruiting for Reach the Beach 2012

Any runners out there interested in joining my Reach the Beach team?

Sole Sacrifice is a great group of runners of all ages and abilities. Your pace doesn't matter, as long as you are out there to have a fantastic time, you'll fit right in.  If you've never done a relay style race, it's a total blast!

We do some rocking out to air guitars.

 

Take naps in the sun. 

 

And end up on a pretty beach where we eat a lot of food and drink a lot of beer.

You know you want to join  us this year!

Aggresive Race Warm-Up

I read an interesting article on Runner's World yesterday that summarizes a British study that suggests that an aggressive warm-up can improve race performance.

They had highly trained middle-distance runners do 800-meter time trials on two occasions. Before both they first jogged for 10 minutes, then did a routine of mobility drills. Before one time trial then then did two 50-meter striders. Before the other time trial, however, they did two 50-meter striders, and then 200 meters at race pace.

 On average, the runners completed their 800-meter time trial 1.2 seconds faster  when their warm-up included the hard 200.

Maybe I should put more effort in warming up and less effort into posing for pictures

I found this interesting because as I went back over my race results for the past 6 months, I noticed that my average run pace in my triathalons is actually better than my straight running races. This seems counter intuitive,  I should be exhausted by the run portion of the tri and run slower. But it seems like instead, I am primed and ready to go.

Eating coffee cake doesn't count as a warm-up??

Since I don't consider myself a "racer" I don't really ever do an extensive warm-up at races. If I am really motivated, I'll jog around a little. But it sounds like maybe I need to invest more time and effort in my warm-up.

Do you warm-up before races? What do you do?

Training Week

Sunday: Biking 21 miles in 1:25:00, pace 14.68. 1 hr yoga class.
My glutes and hamstrings were so incredibly sore from bootcamp the day before and it was the morning after the Mumford and Sons concert. I didn't want to go, but felt good once I got going. A deep stretch at yoga was just what I needed.

Monday: 50 minute kickboxing class, 30 minutes upper body weights. 
Butt still hurt a lot.

Tuesday: Run. 11 miles in 1:52, pace 10:11. 
Felt pretty darn good. It was less humid and I sought out shady routes.

Wednesday: 45 minute bootcamp, 45 minute bike ride, and 1.5 hour yoga class. 
Biked to and from bootcamp, where he killed us with lots of squats lunges and walking backward on the treadmill with the treadmill off so you have to push it. Yoga, as always, was blissful.

Thursday: Run. 6 miles in 58:23, pace 9:44.
Felt awful. It was humid, foggy, and my legs felt like lead. Not even running on the beach could perk me up.

Friday: 1 hour bootcamp. 
Felt like death. My stomach wasn't feeling great, I was exhausted, and it was about 110 in the gym.

Saturday: Bike, Run, Bike, Run, Bike. 4.1 total miles running in 38:12, pace 9:20. 10.15 total miles biking, untimed. 
So unmotivated to get out of bed, but I couldn't turn down my Mom wanting to bike. I would get ahead of her on my bike legs and then she would catch up while I ran. It was fun to have company. 

When you just don't want to run

I did not want to run this morning. I got some more unsettling work news last night (immediately after outdoor yoga, completely killing my post yoga zen) so I was up most of the night tossing and turning. Also, that nice cool, dry air is a thing of the past. The humidity has socked back in, a lovely 92%. As if often the case, humidity and heat on the Maine coast means a thick, heavy fog. It is like running through hot soup.










My body just feels tired. I've been working hard. Here's what I have done so far this week:
Saturday: Boocamp. Absolutely brutal. Tons of burpees and a solid 20 minutes of lunges. My glutes hurt for DAYS.
Sunday: 22 mile bike ride, not a super long ride, but hilly.
Monday: High intensity kickboxing and 30 minute upper body circuit.
Tuesday: 11 mile run and 1.5 hour yoga class
Wednesday: 45 minute bike ride, 45 minute bootcamp strength class (tons and tons of legs), and 1.5 hour yoga class.

As much as I didn't want to run, I knew I would regret it all day if I didn't. To get myself through, I employed a few strategies.

-Fired up the i-pod. Some good tunes do amazing things for motivation.

-Tried a new route. I knew if I did one of my normal runs, I'd be dreading every hill and counting down every mile. It was kind of fun to explore. I even ran 1/2 mile on the beach.

-Ignored my pace. I had my garmin on, but I didn't let myself look at it. I just ran by feel and let myself run as easy as I wanted to.

-Threw in a few fartleks. A few pick-ups followed by a super easy job breaks up the run.

How do you motivate yourself when  you don't want to run?