Running Injuries

This is one of those things I fear saying out loud, but I have never been sidelines for more than a day or two with a running injury. I recognize that I am not normal – I have a good running posture and form, good joints, and a fast recovery. I tend to bounce back from ‘doing something stupid’ (my wife’s mantra) pretty quickly As a result I avoid giving much advice – because I am always on the edge of stupidity! So when Judie decided to use a RunKeeper 5K training plan – and quickly ended up with an injury she needed to deal with, Carly and I reminded her of something critical: recovery is training, too!

There are two terms that are used interchangeably but really mean different things: rest and recovery, with recovery having two different contexts. Let’s look at each in turn:

Rest

Rest is easy because it is exactly what it sounds like – you take it easy. And by ‘take it easy’ I mean first that you DO NOT RUN. And second, that you don’t substitute a long brisk walk or strenuous bike ride in for your run.

But do you know what you should NOT do? Plop on the couch all day! Rest days are not revisiting those teen years where you could sleep until noon and sit on the couch watching bad TV and eating cereal until figuring out at 5PM what you want to do that day.

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Today marks an important – though totally artificial – milestone: the day Roger Bannister first officially broke the 4 minute mile. It is important because it removed a mental obstacle – and it is artificial because it is an arbitrary round number. That mark remains a goal for all milers and a remarkable achievement for any runner. The American Running Association is using the anniversary to push fitness and running among young people with their ‘R U A MILER’ campaign.

The American Running Association is hoping that by pushing the mile in schools they can get more kids involved with athletics and running, and overall just get a push into a more active lifestyle. ARA is a nonprofit organization founded in 1968 to promote healthy living and active lifestyles among all Americans.

“The ‘R U A MILER’ focus is intended to get more of our youth motivated and enthused to run,” said ARA’s Executive Director Dave Watt. “The Mile is a good test and a great first step.”

You can get more details about the initiative here.

This is all part of a school-based infrastructure around health and fitness that goes back 60 years – back to a report from NYU professor Dr. Hans Kraus about how unfit American kids were compared to European kids the same age, which he attributed to affluence and leisure. Dwight Eisenhower started a Council on Youth Fitness, and JFK modified it to reflect the need for more fitness activities for all Americans. LBJ instituted the first formal program in 1966, and that has remained in place ever since with only minor tweaks and attention from Nixon and Reagan.

In 2010 Barack Obama made the latest changes by emphasizing the role of nutrition in overall health and fitness, as part of the administrations hope to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation. All of which sounds great – but for kids with little interest in sports, it means getting to show off in public their inability to do a chin-up.

OK … now I just have to ask – do you remember being pushed to run a mile, or do other sets of ‘Presidential Physical Fitness’ tasks back in elementary school through high school? I remember them well and have related the lingering impact of being tormented by my elementary school Phys Ed teacher for being so slow.

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Early Morning Running Safety Tips

For all of the years I lived in Massachusetts and was a morning runner, which I count as 18 or 19 – Patriots Day would mark the time when people would come out of hibernation and either start exercising or take the exercise routines outdoors. As I have noted, I keep running outdoors in pretty much any weather, this winter contending with wind chills around -25. But for those who mark the Boston Marathon as ‘oh crap I made a resolution and we are four months into the year I better get my butt outdoors’ time, there is a bit of a quandary: the temperatures have generally risen to above freezing each morning, but it is still dark until after 6AM for most people. Therefore with more people out and about it is a good idea to go through some basic morning running safety tips.

I have always loved running in the early morning because it is a time I can dedicate to myself, because it is so quiet and peaceful, and as I once read – because the drunks and nutjobs had already passed out, and the rest of the world wasn’t awake yet.

• Run against traffic: this is the law pretty much everywhere – bikes are vehicles, and so they travel WITH traffic. Pedestrians and runners travel AGAINST traffic. As an added bonus you get to see what is coming at you, and with people half-awake rushing to work while juggling cell phones and coffee and so on … this works to your advantage!
• Choose well-lit routes if possible: this might sound obvious, but a better lit area means that predators (animal or human) will not be able to hide or surprise you, and that you are more obvious and visible to approaching cars.

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Saucony #BostonStrong Medallion

Much has been written about all of the amazing people who stepped up after the Boston Marathon bombings, as well as companies in the area that opened their doors for stranded runners and other impacted individuals. We have since seen both good and bad examples of those who claim to want to help. The obvious bad example was the fake Twitter account looking for retweets claiming a donation would be made for each one, and the many fake charities looking to funnel off some of the generosity that has sprung up.

One of the best things that happened was the immediate formation of an official charity; you should definitely check that out.

In the nearly two weeks since the tragic events, I have been glad to see the intense fundraising continue to help the families of those whose lives were lost and the survivors whose lives have been forever altered. As a runner who subscribes to dozens of blogs and has accounts on pretty much every running-related site or app, I continue to see loads of email and blog traffic about this. Amongst these there are mostly good ideas with a few bad ones mixed in. Let’s take a quick look:

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One of the aftershocks of the Boston Marathon bombings this week is that racing is going to drastically change. Competitor.com, the organizers of the wildly popular (and often sold-out) “Rock n Roll” marathons has already said they’re working on updated security procedures, and runners at New York Road Runners are being told they can only bag check items in official clear plastic bags, with absolutely no backpacks or other bags placed inside the clear ones for security reasons. Organizing yourself for a race is going to become more than just training and showing up, but there is one item every runner and spectator should have: a RoadID.

RoadID is the best $20 you will ever spend. A RoadID is a rubber or fabric bracelet with a metal information plate engraved with your name, age, town, emergency contacts, and any medical history that needs to be known to a first responder. So, for example, mine indicates that I am allergic to penicillin, and lists Sarah and my father (and their cell numbers) as emergency contacts. Sarah and I each have one, and after reading RoadID’s post on Facebook I am going to make sure we both wear them even if only one of us is participating in a race. Apparently a RoadID customer was running Boston, and her husband was waiting at the finish. He was near the second blast, and the RoadID helped them reunite at the hospital.

For $20, first responders can know any immediate medical issues, and even if you aren’t aware, someone can contact your loved ones. Even if you aren’t participating in an athletic event, this is a cheap and very easy way to make sure important information can be conveyed in an emergency. One note: RoadID sells a Shoe Tag version, but I’ve heard from EMTs that they prefer and recommend wrist or dog tag style RoadID instead, because shoes can be separated from you more easily, defeating the purpose of the ID.

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5 Ways to Honor the Boston Marathon Tragedy Victims

As someone who was born and spent more than forty years in the Boston area, my heart is heavy today. Although I am glad that the numbers didn’t continue climbing through the night in terms of those hurt, I am still having trouble wrapping my head around the horrific events that occurred at yesterday’s Boston Marathon. As I went for my run this morning, my mind was constantly thinking about the situation, and I posted that on my Facebook page. Since then, I have also been thinking about how we can best deal with the feeling of loss that every runner and Bostonian I have talked to describes.

Here is what I said earlier:
As I ran yesterday morning, Boston was on my mind – as it was for pretty much every runner. For me it was thinking that as my pace has improved, being a ‘Boston Qualifier’ has become a realistic goal, and how awesome it would be for all of us to take a day to go to our favorite city and have my wife and kids waiting for me crossing the finish line.

But as I got up to go out this morning for what was a great 8.5 miles, rather than thinking about the gorgeous 55 degree morning, the fact that I had been able to try to help my brother in some small way and that he continues to make a strong recovery, and so on … Boston was once again on my mind.

The senseless and needless tragedy, my ability to just go out for a run while over a hundred people are hurt by a cowardly bomber, innocents all, including a little kid. Those who will not be able to run again due to injury or lost limbs, and those for whom going for a run will never be the same. And how when the bombs went off most of the people running were those doing so for charity, people who raised millions for the good of others – and those cheering them on.

So as I ran this morning, I dedicated myself to the memory of all those forever changed by this tragedy, as well as to my brother — improving but still in the hospital — and my amazing family. I enjoyed hearing from so many folks yesterday and each safe voice lightened things a little, but the tragic events still weighs on all of us today.

Here are a few ways to honor those impacted by this tragedy:

• Give Blood – while Boston is all set according to the Red Cross, I am sure they need help in Providence, Nashua, Worcester, and pretty much everywhere else. We had a blood drive in my engineering building at Corning yesterday so I am set for a while … but the sad reality is there is always something happening that means people need blood transfusions.
• Help Financially If You Can, But Don’t Get Scammed – wherever there is tragedy you can count on two things: conspiracy theorists and scammers. I won’t discuss conspiracy nuts, but there are already people on eBay selling Marathon stuff ‘to raise money’, and Facebook sites set up, Twitter accounts, and so on. Right now the only trustworthy site is the Red Cross, according to this report.I have just learned that MeetingHouse Bank in Boston has set up a fund to help the family of Martin Richard, the 8-year year old boy who died, and whose sister lost her leg and mother has a grave brain injury. The site is here, but you should definitely call the bank directly.
• Don’t Stop Running – it might feel like a cliché to say ‘if we stop living due to fear, the terrorists win’, but it is true. For runners, the best thing to do is L.U.N.A.R. (lace up now and run)! It will help us all heal, and seeing people out running will help others remember that while there were a couple or at any rate fewer than a hundred people responsible for this attack, there are thousands of runners out each weekend in every city across the country, and hundreds even in small communities like mine. There will always be bad guys … but there are so many more good people.
• Continue Supporting Races – on the one hand there is an easy thought ‘why make yourself an easy target’? But then do we need to cancel all professional sports? All high school and intramural sports? All concerts and plays and musicals and theater and movies? Close all bars and restaurants? My point is that if someone wanted to set off a bomb that hurt more than 150 people and struck fear and disbelief it would be easy.For anyone who has run a race – or biked a race, or pretty much done anything of the sort — you know what it is like to round a corner and hear the cheers of the crowd. It is amazing — and many of these people don’t care who you are, they are there to cheer on everyone. This is not like the infamous parents at soccer games screaming at 12-year old refs for getting it wrong … running crowds are awesome.
• Do a ‘Memorial Run’ of your own – head to RunJunkies and print out a ‘virtual race bib’. ‘Sign Up’ for the event. Then … go for a run. Gather up a few friends. I have two groups in my area, both of which are having group runs over the next week. Does it actually accomplish anything? Yes – it helps us all heal, and helps to do something with this sense of loss and helplessness.

There is plenty of outrage, anger and sadness to go around, but we also need to be sure to show the cowards who perpetrate these kinds of attacks that we will not quit, we will not, stop, we will not cower. And they will not win.

My One-Year Runnerversary

I have posted several times about running as well as other fitness and health issues over the past year; I have also started a weekly ‘Monday Mile’ feature – and everyone has been amazing and supportive throughout, with loads of great discussions and tons of new stuff I have learned. At this point, I have no hesitation calling myself ‘a runner’ – something I would never have done before last fall. But when I look back to when the moment was that I turned the corner from being a ‘guy who jogged to control weight’ to ‘a runner’, it was Easter weekend last year, making this (well, yesterday) my ‘My One-Year Runnerversary’!

I chose the top picture of my brother and I before we headed out to run the Wineglass Marathon last fall for two reasons – first off because he was the inspiration (ok, boot in the butt) that got me going out running again, and second off because a week ago he had a very serious heart attack. While doing much better, he has a long road to recovery ahead which may never include another Marathon.

So for starters, we can go back to my heaviest: I weighed ~375lbs when I graduated college. I have shared a couple of pictures with Judie, Dan & Carly, and honestly people have a hard time recognizing me. I had started high school weighing ~215 and just got progressively larger, with a minor surgery that sidelined me from most activity for a few months triggering a faster increase in weight that continued throughout my undergraduate years.

As I noted in a post I wrote after my first two 5K races, in early 1989 I decided to lose weight and started jogging (actually I notice in that post I didn’t note my top weight). The combination of eating better (and much less) and exercise made the weight drop off, and as a result I was under 200 pounds by the time 1990 rolled around. Over the next 22 years I spent the majority of the time between 190 – 210 (mostly 200-210), with two increases to ~225-240 before getting close to 250 when my thyroid crashed and burned just before we moved to Corning in early 2008.

The thyroid medication helped propel me to rapid weight loss, but an inability to maintain a solid exercise routine (I joined the local gym but quickly the kids’ school schedule made that impractical, and I simply couldn’t stick with a running routine) and the fact that I did a mediocre job with my eating habits meant I slowly increased my weight over time.

Here is a picture of me just over a year ago – the intent was to show off my gorgeous new Epiphone Joe Pass guitar, but it also is a look at me weighing ~275lbs. That was the heaviest I had been since the middle of 1989.

Early 2012 – the heaviest I’ve been since first losing weight

One of my ‘resolutions’ for 2012 was to lose weight, and in 2011 when my brother did his first marathon I said I wanted to join him for the following year. But while I had gone out for a few occasional runs, I never stuck with it, and too often made the classic mistake of rewarding a couple of days of exercise with a binge of unhealthy eating. So I wasn’t getting any lighter or in better shape or even starting on my goal of preparing for a marathon.

In the post last year I also wrote about how running with my brother on Easter weekend was a wake-up call since I learned just how pathetic my running was – I was going ~2.5 miles per outing at ~15 minutes/mile … whereas I had convinced myself it was more like 4 x 10 minute miles. I knew something had to change – I was NOT on the road to a marathon!

Fortunately I have an iron will, so the Monday after Easter I got up, had decided my route and used a smartphone (at the time I was using the Droid 4) to track myself. I did ~4.5 miles and actually managed ~14 minutes/mile. Really not a bad start – and repeating it the next day wasn’t a problem … for me it is always the third day when I feel it! And that did happen, but I also increased to ~5.25 miles and improved to ~13.5 minutes/mile. I kept that route for the rest of the week. The next week I started out at 5.75 miles and ended at 6.25 miles. From there on out I was running at least 5 days a week and a minimum of 30 miles per week.

Here I am in late May after my first 5K. You can see decent weight loss compared to the previous picture, but still a way to go to get to the marathon. As I noted, I had a long-time aversion to running in public, so this was a major step for me. Also, although I set a goal pace of 12 minutes, I did the race at a 10:18 pace, so I was thrilled!

Something else started to happen as I was losing weight and actually trying to develop into a ‘real runner’ — I began to change my attitudes regarding food. I used to deny myself foods during two meals, eating very small breakfast and lunch, and then pretty much doing what I wanted at dinner and desserts. Now I was taking a balanced ‘food is fuel’ approach, ramping up my breakfast intake and streamlining the rest of the day. I also altered my parking and other habits to ensure I was constantly active – it is crazy to think that someone who was running 8-10 miles in the morning all summer was still parking as close to the entrance at work as possible!

My family had made some significant cooking changes when my wife lost weight with Weight Watchers several years ago, but some bad habits slipped back. Things like baking with yogurt, using cooking spray, using broth in mashed potatoes and other substitutions returned to our cooking. I also spent a load of time researching new ingredients – and learning more about how the so-called ‘low-fat revolution’ was really a terrible thing for our bodies!

The combination of constantly working on my running skills, eating better foods and maintaining activity all day helped me quickly lose weight, but also helped me feel better. They say you don’t know how bad you feel until you feel good – and that is so true! Whether it was deep-fried foods I would occasionally enjoy, packaged candy, or other things that we would have as ‘treats’, I found myself not enjoying the way my body felt after eating them, and as a result I simply stay away.

The pre-marathon picture above has me at ~190lbs, down 85 pounds over 5.5 months. I wrote about my marathon experience here, so I won’t belabor it again. Suffice to say I consider it a major life milestone for myself as a runner.

After the marathon, I ran a half-marathon in November and then began my 65-day ‘running streak’ with nothing organized since. But while we have seen snow, ice, and wind-chills down to -25 in a very cold winter, I have kept up running at least 5 days and at least 35 miles a week. Most weeks it is 6 days and more than 45 miles; I continue to feel great and thoroughly enjoy it, in fact it is one of the great joys in my life.

Here is a recent picture:

As of now I am down 100 pounds from last year; I am the lightest I have been since junior high (before I finished growing), and in the best shape of my life. This is when I was getting ready for an early morning run around Coronado during my recent Hyundai trip to check out the new Santa Fe. Looking at the difference from top to bottom is stunning to me, and showing it to my family prompted surprise as well. As Lisa put it ‘I knew you had put on weight, but seeing it like this REALLY shows how heavy you had gotten …’

This has been an amazing year, a transformative year, and it has been a reminder that you are never too old to learn new things and get a new outlook on life. I have just passed my 47th birthday, and I while it seems like my work travel and other family plans will prevent me completing my goals of two marathons and an ‘ultra’, I will definitely do at least one marathon this year. When I do, I will dedicate it to my wife and older son who cannot run at all due to joint issues; to myself for what I have accomplished; to all of the amazing supporters including the awesome Gear Diary crew and a couple of Corning friends who braved 35 degree temps to cheer me on; and I will also dedicate it to my brother for being my boot in the butt, in the hopes that he can join me again soon.

Tips for Your First 5K

Over the past week or so, several folks at Gear Diary have started (or re-started) running as part of training for a 5K road race. We’ve been having a number of discussions, and Carly and I have been recalling running our first races. Since spring has officially started and even in the northeast we’re starting to see temperatures climb to near 50ºF during the day – which means weekend runners! So I thought it would make sense to take a bit and offer up some tips for your First 5K!

Here we go:

• Get an App: Dan & Judie are using RunKeeper’s plan, which is NOT a ‘Couch to 5K’ plan. There are plenty of those apps available, particularly the ‘official’ C25K® – 5K Trainer FREE – Zen Labs. Why get an app? If you have a smartphone – Android or iOS – you have a timer and a GPS, and therefore can have something track your progress! Also, make sure to ‘right-size’ your app. If the thought of running a mile scares you and ‘Day One’ has you at 1.75 miles … then it is time for a new app!
• Follow a Plan: Whether you are a first time runner, or returning after time away, it is too easy to let ‘day one enthusiasm’ carry you to running too far too fast, and possibly wind up exhausted or injured, ruining your ability to run at all! I am not the best role model here, since I basically just stepped up my running to 5 miles daily and kept going from there!
• STRETCH Once again I am not the model person for advice, as I was never much of a stretching person. But in the last year since I started my REAL running, I now stretch every day, and even at other times when I am not running. Stretching is important to get your body ready for activity.
• Model Your Race it is important to know what race you will be running and how it compares to your daily runs. If you run before dawn like I do, you will realize that daytime races are warmer and challenge you by being sunny and so on. Check out the expected conditions, and try to get in a couple of ‘race runs’ to see how it feels. The other important thing is to plan your nutrition and hydration. It is easy to think ‘it is only 3.1 miles’ and just do everything as if you weren’t running a race, but you ARE! There will likely be one or two water stops, and especially if it is warmer or sunnier than your normal runs, you should plan to stop for water. They say 5K is short enough not to need in-race nutrition, but plan your breakfast and night-before dinner to have plenty of fuel without being loaded down.
• Nobody Cares I laugh at myself, looking back and seeing how I would work around things to NOT have people see me when I ran for years … I would tweak my start time a few minutes earlier, alter my route, and so on. Why? I had a long-time fear of being laughably slow, which I have documented before. After running my first 5K and NOT being last, I realized that runners come in all shapes and sizes. And since I was starting to run on the weekends, I ended up running during the day and seeing others and we would wave and occasionally comment on clothes or shoes … and it occurred to me: nobody cared, and I wasn’t even the slowest runner in the area! And as I have gotten better and faster, it has further occurred to me that I really don’t care how fast someone is going, although I DID offer someone some of my water once!
• Have Fun! If this is your first 5K chances are you are NOT going to win … so just go out there, keep your pace and HAVE FUN! If you know people there, run with them even if they are a bit faster or slower and even if you can only keep up for a bit). This is just the first one, you don’t want to get hurt, but you do want it to be memorable.

I know many of our readers have also run 5Ks; Do YOU have any advice for folks just starting out with a goal of their first 5k? Let us know. And I’ll leave with a funny picture that most non-competitive runner will find at least amusing if not relatable.

I’m on vacation in Jamaica with my wife Elana, her brother Rob and Rob’s girlfriend, Alison. We had a casual breakfast in our villa this morning after which Rob headed to the beach to read. I lingered a bit too long over my last cup of coffee and, as a result, had the opportunity to hear a FASCINATING conversation on shaving, electrolysis and waxing. (It made me happier than ever to have been born male.)

So why am I sharing this here on Gear Diary? Because Alison told Elana about the “best product ever” in this regard – Relax and Wax and their No Scream Cream. She absolutely swears by it and, as a result, Elana placed an order for herself and a few friends.

Here’s what Alison had to say about the No Scream Cream.

“No Scream Cream eliminates almost all of the pain from waxing because it numbs “everything”.” As she explained, “it literally makes it so you don’t feel the otherwise harsh pain.” Moreover, Alison says the No Scream Cream “is easy to use and it doesn’t ruin your clothing.” I asked what she meant by that and she explained that you put the No Scream Cream on 45 minutes before you are getting waxed and, once dried, can put your clothes on without fear of it staining your cloths. And, unlike other products, it stays on. In addition Alison said, it doesn’t prevent the wax from grabbing the hair and pulling it out.

As Alison put it, “I especially like it because it is gentle on all you body parts.” (Personally I took that to mean it is gentle on Alison’s legs but do what you want with that.)

The company sells a “survival kit” on the company website, but you can also buy it through Amazon. You can check out the company website here. You can get the No Scream Cream here on Amazon.

I can’t wait to hear what tomorrow’s breakfast conversation is.

Your Health is No April Fool’s Joke

Today being April 1st, you can expect to spend the day regaled by all sorts of ‘witty’ fake ads, fake ‘news’ items and so on – we have already seen Google out with a ‘YouTube closure’ and others, and it is easy to predict that many others will follow for Apple, Microsoft and more. Over at the Greatist they have a parody article about getting ‘six-pack abs in a day’ – and it is worth reading for a laugh. But as many wind down from a day of excessive ham, bacon and chocolate, it is worth remembering that your health is no April Fool’s Joke!

For the last couple of months (and next couple as well) my job has required me to do considerable travel to a manufacturing/development site in a different state. Anyone who does any amount of business travel can tell you that eating properly and getting exercise is a challenge. I have written about some of what I have done already – I have chosen my hotel based on both proximity to the facility and ease of running routes. I have shared the great ~7-8 mile routes I have run on a regular basis.

But there is more to health than just getting in your workout. Maintaining your health is something that requires attention to all aspects of your life.

As an example, sleep. For many years now, I have been able to function fully on no more than 6 hours of sleep a night. But every now and then I need a good ‘reset’. When I came back from the Hyundai trip to Coronado, I found that after so much other travel I was just totally exhausted, falling into bed each night. I found myself harder to motivate to get a good run in the morning, and also found myself snacking more during the day. And while they were healthy snacks, there was still just the overall spiral – I needed to rest to get back on course. After a few easy days and relaxing weekend I was ready to go again.

The other major hurdle to health while traveling is food: living five days a week in a hotel means eating too much food you don’t fully control. Many hotels have breakfast buffets, which can work well if you choose oatmeal and fruit … or against you if you opt for bacon and home fries and bagels. Eggs and yogurt are hard to call, because I have seen greek yogurt and egg white omelets, but I have also seen ‘chemical soup’ yogurts and grease-dripping eggs. Portion control is always an issue.

For lunch you are often at the mercy of the place you are visiting, and at dinner there are often groups headed out when a number of people travel together. Fortunately, the cafeteria at the plant has a number of healthy options, so I feel much more in control of my lunch intake. Eating out for dinner is generally inevitable for short visits and conferences, but when you will be in the same place with the same people week after week, a new strategy is needed.

My solution is not particularly sociable, but it is what works for me. Each week after checking into the hotel, I head to the local grocery store and stock up on food and drinks for the week. I make sure to get ‘two ingredient’ Greek yogurt, plenty of fruit and vegetables, and a bunch of meatless options for dinner. Fortunately the main hotel I stay at is a ‘suite’, so I get a mini-fridge and a microwave.

That might sound a bit extreme, but I have always approached my health like a budget – indulgence cannot be excluded, but must be planned and balanced. Continued indulgence is a recipe for bankruptcy or obesity. I want to be able to indulge when I choose without guilt or concern, which means that the rest of time I stick to my ‘budget’.

Or look at it this way … Over the weekend I read a near constant stream of Facebook updates for whom Easter weekend has become a constant indulgence – deep-fried fish on Friday leading to junk-food March Madness on Saturday leading to bacon-wrapped cinnamon rolls followed by loads of ham and fat-laden sides accompanied by a constant stream of chocolate.

‘But it is only once a year’ I can hear some folks say. That would be one thing – although an entire weekend of gluttony is never a good plan – except that it isn’t true. For many, ‘sports weekends’ are the very antithesis of the activity they are watching. While talented college kids give their all on the court, millions of fans sit on couches drinking beer and eating deep-fried and other junk-food snacks. These weekends encompass all of football season, which barely breaks before March Madness, some watch Nascar or golf or tennis, then there is NBA, MLB and NHL, and then back to football in August. And even if you don’t celebrate sports … we just had St. Patrick’s Day a couple of weeks ago, and it seems like every month has at least one or two opportunities for indulgence.

Over the last week we have seen some spring-like temperatures, peaking above 50 for a little while this weekend. And as a result I have also seen more people out for a walk, a bike ride, or a run. Some people I know simply are not as foolish as me to go running in sub-freezing temperatures, others are trying to finally make good on that New Year’s Resolution. Either way it was great to see them out there – as the saying goes it doesn’t matter how fast you are, you are infinitely faster than everyone sitting on the couch at home!

How do you deal with keeping your health in focus during challenging times? And travels not the only challenge — we’ve seen Carly & Sarah selling and buying a house, and so on. Then there are injuries, illness, and all sorts of other obstacles. How do you make it work?

It’s summer, and that means it is time for lemonade. (Actually, I love lemonade, so all year long is lemonade time.) The problem is that lemonade is made with sugar, and more and more studies are suggesting that sugar is not only addictive but is a toxic poison. (Yeah, I know the words “addictive”, “toxic” and “poison” are strong, but I’m just referencing the words used in places such as here and here.) I even spoke about it last fall during the Jewish Holy Days and encouraged my community to begin taking their health more seriously. (Read it.) (According to one study on average, we now eat 130 pounds of sugar PER YEAR!)

The problem is that I love sweet things, and I really do love lemonade. So when trying to cut down on my sugar intake, I turned to Crystal Light Lemonade. It is tasty, and the label even says “Natural Lemonade”. That’s all well and good, but have you ever actually LOOKED at the label? It lists chemical after chemical after chemical!

Seriously, the ingredients in beverages like Crystal Light look more like a laboratory research project than something anyone should consume. Still, for a couple of years I drank this stuff by the gallon. It was even a staple in my diet when I first went on South Beach and dropped a significant amount of weight.

Maybe it has something to do with seeing 50 looming before me in two years, but a few months back I decided I was done putting these chemicals into my body. I turned to water but, as great as a cold glass of water is on a hot day, I missed the lemonade. So Elana and I began experimenting. First we squeezed fresh lemons and limes, added some liquid stevia to taste and enjoyed. It was tasty, but it was also a good bit of work each time I wanted to make a new pitcher of lemonade — and the liquid stevia Elana uses is pricey.

So we experimented a little more, tried different brands of lemon juice and powdered stevia, and we finally came up with a recipe that is quick, tastes the same each time we make a pitcher, is fairly inexpensive, and, perhaps most importantly, tastes great.

What do we do? We take half of a 10 oz bottle of Santa Cruz Organic 100 Percent Lemon Juice, mix in 1/2 tsp of Trader Joe’s Powdered Stevia Extract, add filtered water (we have a reverse osmosis system), and mix the concoction. It takes no more time than mixing a batch of Crystal Light and, unlike the chemical drink, it’s healthy.

A 10 oz bottle of Santa Cruz Organic 100 Percent Lemon Juice is about $5. Buy it.

A 2 pack of Trader Joe’s Stevia Extract is $24.99 Buy it.

That means each half-gallon pitcher of lemonade is about $2.60. And if you make the lemonade weaker, then the price obviously goes down. It is fast, delicious and healthy. Summer is practically here; give it a try!

Banish ‘Monkey Mind’ for a Better Run

‘Monkey Mind’ is the term used to describe the background chatter that happens in our mind, giving voice to the things that stress or worry or otherwise weigh on our minds. For many, going out for a run or working out in the gym is a time to think about everything – groceries, schedules, priorities, stuff going on at work, school, home and so on. In fact, having ‘monkey mind’ is a part of being human – but it can be counter-productive to getting things done. In fact, while it might seem like the perfect time to let your mind run wild, you really need to banish ‘Monkey Mind’ for a better run.

There is a point at which ‘monkey mind’ becomes a very serious anxiety disorder in which a person simply cannot quiet the negative voices anymore to address their daily lives. This is NOT that – if your internal dialogue becomes so deafening and overwhelming that it is removing you from daily life, that is a serious thing you need to address with your doctor.

I remember the day I ran my first half-marathon. It was the first time I had my whole family there for a race, and I was concerned about them sitting around for two hours, and ended up forgetting my GPS watch! I didn’t realize this until we were almost there, and there was no time to go home again, so I was stuck. Stuck without the watch, yes, but perhaps more importantly I was stuck in my own head, worrying about my family, the route, and the watch … everything, but actually running the race. I went out too fast, and as I’ve discussed — I died towards the end. While nutrition was the biggest issue, had I managed my mind I would have been in a much better place when I ran out of fuel — and likely not thinking about it so much all these months later!

But the ‘big race’ chatter is not typical – it is when you get out for a daily routine run that you need to work to fight Monkey Mind. When you go out for your daily run, do you worry about what music to play, if you remembered to turn off the lights, to feed the cat, are you wondering the last time you charged the battery in your headlamp, and so on? What about once you are into your run? Are you using that time to get your best possible workout, or to think about meetings at work, stuff going on with your marriage or with the kids? Are you making lists and solving issues in your life? THAT is where your problems are.

Monkey Mind for runners means you are not focused on the very reason you are running — to get the best possible workout.

Years ago I developed a basic system for managing myself during runs, and I was surprised to find out that I had stumbled upon a very ‘zen’ approach inadvertently! First off, no music. Why? It is a distraction – you cannot easily focus on safety, and your rhythms come from the outside rather than the inside. Also, there are few things as gorgeous as the sounds of the morning waking up before the dawn.

Second, make sure you are ready to run when you leave the house. Nature has a great way of helping you — it is called ‘stretching’. There is no better time to do an inventory and be sure you are physically ready, and to quiet your mind before starting the run. Because if your primary focus as your feet leave your driveway is NOT your run, you’ll never meet your goal. Speaking of which …

Next, every workout needs a goal and a purpose. For years I ran basically the exact same course every day without any real purpose other than to run. Well, I also knew I could think well once I quieted my mind — there were several times where major work innovations came to me on a run: it was a simply matter of taking what I had already done and applying focus and clarity. The problem was when I started trying to force the issue and turn my run into a ‘working session’. No longer was I getting the mental focus benefits or the cleansing before work — I was tired mentally before I started work, and my mood wasn’t good.

But also in terms of purpose and goals, I am referring to exercise goals. Runners need (among other things) speed, endurance and flexibility. If you are fortunate like me and have a bunch of ready-made courses from your doorstep that vary in distance, flatness and challenge, it is easy to build up a routine that changes by the day. You can also mix in fartleks and intervals and stride work and so on.

Sometimes you just need to get the workout done — this morning after an exhausting weekend with a couple of great runs and a tough week ahead what I really needed was to go on a course of medium length and challenge, and spend the entire time quiet in my mind listening to the sounds of my feet hitting the pavement and my breaths in and out. It took a very average run and made it glorious, providing the foundation to deal with some stuff at work this morning.

And the most important part was that I was of a quiet mind before I left the door to finish stretching as my Garmin found the GPS signal. Does this mean I empty my mind? Not at all! I don’t even think that is possible. But rather than trying to work through everything in my head as I ran, I allowed the tap-tap-tap of my feet and the heh-heh-heh-huh-huh of my breathing to help my mind get sorted and ready for the day.

The impact of my ‘zen running’ is clear to myself and everyone around me;  there have been more than a couple of times when one of my kids has asked ‘are you going for a run’ in a way that is more a suggestion than a question. The impact on my mood and state of mind is immediate and tremendous.

How do you clear your mind? What is your approach to ‘banish your monkey mind’?

Food is for Fuel

Image from Food is for Fuel.com

I wrote about eating disorders recently because I was surprised at just how much of an issue it was for runners. There has been a lot of coverage due to the recent Eating Disorder Awareness Week campaign, and I have learned a lot of sobering things. One important thing was a comparison to drug addicts and alcoholics: whereas people dealing with those disorders need to work to avoid using them on a one-day-at-a-time basis, people with eating disorders need to cope with their problem while simultaneously having to use the object of their difficulty multiple times a day. The reason is simple – food is for fuel and is essential to life.

While how I started running – being a 375 pound guy who decided to start running and immediately kept it up 4-5 days a week – is not exactly standard, WHY I did it – to lose weight – is very common. In fact, it was the reason I picked up running again last year after 5 sporadic years. But as I frequently say, this time I went from being someone who ran for weight control to being an actual runner who was always training and pushing to run better, longer and faster. I eat better than ever, run faster and further than ever before, and as a result I am in the best shape of my life. Also, I eat LOADS of food, but I have completely rebalanced what I eat and when.

When your goal is simply weight loss and maintenance, exercise is often a ‘diet augmentation’ – in other words, you are not training, not really seeking to hit any exercise goals unrelated to weight loss, and very often heavy workouts are a part or excuse to a reward system based on … yep, food. And generally our ‘rewards’ are not proper recovery food, but instead ‘junk food’ we feel we have ‘earned’. I know that for many years my running allowed me to eat a pint of ice cream as part of lunch, have a bag of M&Ms in my desk, and so on.

What I never really thought about was the content of my diet – because I never stopped living in ‘weight loss mode’, so food was always both the enemy and the ultimate reward for me. In other words, I never saw food as simply ‘fuel for living’.

I am certainly not alone in that regard, as evidenced by the spiraling obesity statistics in our country. Rather than looking at food as fuel to be eaten in certain amounts at specific times for maximum effect, how do we use food?
- For pleasure
- For comfort
- As a painkiller when we’re sad, depressed, or hurt
- As a social tool
- As a sexual tool/toy
- A reward
- Just something to do when we’re bored
- As Gifts

Food is equated to health, it can become an obsession, and an addiction that can ruin lives. Our economy has many billion-dollar food-related industries that are constantly trying to sell us something quick, easy and highly profitable for the company that is really not great for our bodies. Through the years, it has become harder to know what is real and what is a ‘lab recreation’. We hear about how so many ‘multi-grain’ foods are actually highly processed grains reconstituted with added components and nutrients to meet labeling standards. We know that very often the cheapest foods are the least nutritious, as they are filled with chemicals that deliver taste and shelf-life without actually delivering the full nutrition of ‘real’ foods such as natural yogurts or fruit.

I have a great story of personal discovery about food from this past year. It was mid-August, and I was already under 200 lbs, having dropped more than 75 pounds in about four months. I was running 8-10 miles a day 5-6 days per week, most weeks easily exceeding 50 miles per week – and I really didn’t know that was a lot at the time. I had signed up for a half-marathon, but I really had no clue how to prepare my nutrition or anything about ‘tapering’. In fact, all I did the day before was to ‘take it easy’ with a 6 mile run the day before. But I had run 12 miles in a single go before and wasn’t overly worried about the distance – and I knew I would need something during the run, so I had bought a few Gu packets. I had a small breakfast a while before the run, but at that point all I was having was yogurt and fruit.

Boy was I ever in for a surprise! On race day, I forgot my GPS watch so had to go on feel, which I was still developing. As a result I went out fast – too fast. That pace was tough, but I kept it for the first half, and when I came to the turn-around point I had a Gu with water. Yes, water, because I didn’t want all of those extra calories, which was the same reason I only used one Gu packet. Soon enough I felt myself starting to slow down. I didn’t fight it too hard, as I knew I’d gone out too fast.

But later in the race I was getting exhausted, and by mile 11 I was seriously concerned that I couldn’t finish the race. I was afraid that if I stopped to walk I wouldn’t be able to start again, so I kept running. My joke is that I ran a 8 minute mile for the first half and an 11 minute mile for the last half to end up with my 9:24 overall pace. But how I felt crossing the finish line was no joke – I didn’t feel good. I had run out of fuel long before the end of the race, and my body felt like it was tearing itself apart to give me energy to keep going.

It has taken running a full marathon and another half to understand just how bad I felt, but it was not good. I didn’t want to be touched, had a hard time eating anything, felt muscles tightening, so I didn’t stop wandering around. Of course, I did my best to just shake it all off and get into the car to head home after a short time, my family still concerned at how I was feeling but assuming since it was my fastest pace yet that I was just spent.

Bottom line: I went to run a half-marathon in the midst of a restrictive diet that wasn’t balanced for my running needs, and neglected to remember to fuel up as part of my training plan. I learned a lot that weekend, and put it all into practice in later road races, long runs, and even running more than 22 miles over the course of this past weekend on my trip to Coronado with Hyundai. Now when I eat, I approach it from a totally different perspective: fueling heavily in the morning, sustaining mid-day and using more vegetables in my dinner fare.

I keep coming back to Setting Goals as a cornerstone: in my ‘New Years Resolutions’ article as well as several of these Monday Mile posts. And as I said, many people who exercise at a gym or pick up running (especially during the warmer months) have a goal of ‘weight loss’, but that is a bit vague, and it results in looking at food as the enemy to be minimized and avoided, rather than as an essential part of the REAL goal which is ‘healthier living’.

So by all means get out there and seek better fitness and health, but remember that food is the essential fuel that keeps our engine running. And the more you know about food, nutrition and how your body responds to foods, the better you will be able to make choices to help you meet your goals.

Your Workout is Where You Find It

I have talked about things that can keep you from working out, such as being sick, very cold or icy weather, or just ‘not feeling it’. But recently I have had to deal with another challenge to getting in my daily run – I have been traveling out of state to work on a major project at one of my company’s other locations. It is a large and important effort, and while it comes with high prestige and visibility it also has the downsides of taking me away from home and sticking me in the normal array of chain hotels. Over the last four weeks I have stayed at three different hotels, and while each has pros and cons I am constantly reminded of something I was told years ago, which is that your workout is where you find it.

For some it isn’t a huge issue – each of the hotels I’ve stayed at has some sort of fitness center, the smallest of which had a treadmill, an elliptical machine and a multi-function weight setup. And very close to one of the hotels there was a fitness center that only cost $4 for a visit with your hotel key. One of the other people traveling for the project went to that facility and reported that it has loads of fitness systems and capabilities. But there are a couple of problems: first, at all but one of the hotels the fitness centers open at 6AM (too late for me); the second problem is that I am a road runner, and that is the only workout I really want.

Being a distance road runner means finding a route that is at least five miles long, but no more than ten miles due to time constraints. I also want some street lights if possible, and the route to be safe. It is hard to determine all of this before seeing a place, but I have had some success simply using a map. Looking at the image at the top, you can see the route I chose at my most recent hotel. The total distance was ~8 miles, and you might be able to tell that almost the entire thing is in a tightly packed residential area. In the upper right part of the map I hit farmland with a narrow road and no lights … so I only did that part one day.

But the big thing to notice is that between my hotel and the bulk of my route was a multi-lane 55MPH highway. The road is 2 main lanes each way, a turn-lane on each side, and a grassy median. Crossing that type of road is generally on my ‘to be avoided’ list, but at that hotel there is no choice if I want to go for a run. Fortunately I noted that even at 10PM when I arrived there was very little traffic, and when I hit the roads at 4:30AM I had no problem crossing. The bigger challenge on that route ended up being the sharp hills up and down all of the roads. But that is a problem I seek out regularly!

For this next week I am back at a different hotel that I stayed at a couple of weeks ago. This location highlights the bizarre zoning in the area – there is industrial, commercial, apartments, small houses, mini-mansions, and farmland all in the same few square miles. The 9-mile route above is what I call my ‘farm route’, since that big rectangle is all farmland … and no lights. The bottom boundary is also a 55MPH road, but with a wide breakdown lane that makes for easy running. This time I made sure my headlamp is properly charged, and that I am prepared for the somewhat warmer weather. And while I would rather just be on the familiar roads of home, sometimes the demands of the job mean being elsewhere, and since getting my runs is very important to me, I remind myself that your workout is where you find it.

The Importance of Setting Goals and the Steps to Take to Reach Them

Way back around the start of the New Year, I commented that we should be setting goals, not making resolutions. The reasoning was that resolutions tend to be soft and vague, whereas goals have a number of elements that fall in line with the SMART system – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. If you are hoping to do something, the importance of setting goals cannot be overstated. So let’s take a look at how you can do it, and some results you might expect.

1. Pick a goal: It can be to qualify for the Boston Marathon, to compete in a full triathlon, to climb a mountain, or whatever. But the thing with goals – while you want it to be attainable, you never want it to be EASY. Easy goals are called ‘tasks’, and are what our weeks are filled doing.

2. Figure out a plan to get you there: Whether or not you tell anyone about your goal, suddenly you have that ‘oh no’ moment when you think there is simply no way you can reach this goal. That is when you need to formulate a plan, break it down into a timeline with tasks and milestones. Yes, I am saying that either explicitly or implicitly – you need to be the Project Manager for your goal, maybe even with a Gantt chart!

3. Find a connection: What is it about realizing this goal that will get you up at 4:30AM when you were up until midnight finishing a project? When you need to be awake on Saturday while everyone else sleeps in? When everyone else is watching the playoffs and you are working out? If your goal is to lose weight, is stepping on the scale each week enough – or do you need a reminder of what you can do when you hit the goal compared with when you started? Whatever it takes, figure it out early, and it will make reaching your goals easy (er).

4. Find a ‘buddy’: Some people have an internal buddy called ‘willpower’, while others thrive when someone else helps them along. Either way you need a second voice to help you out. That second voice will provide motivation, accountability and increase your determination.

5. Give yourself chances for success along the way: If you are planning to run a marathon, run a half-marathon along the way. Looking to lose 100 pounds? Set a milestone for losing 50. Even better, set milestones that are smaller and more frequent – the more chances for success (or ‘learning’), the better chance for overall success.

6. Celebrate: If you have declared your goal and met it, people will be thrilled for you! You will get high-fives crossing the finish line, and perhaps people will ask about it the next day at work or school. But by lunch, you will be the only one still thinking about it – don’t take that as a sign you shouldn’t be celebrating! You put in a ton of work, you have earned the celebration! Keep it going as long as you want, and then … set a new goal!

The obvious example for me was running a marathon last year. I entered April weighing ~275+ pounds, and unable to comfortably run ~2.5 miles in 40 minutes … and I simply no longer enjoyed running. But I had told my brother I would run the Wineglass Marathon on September 30th, which meant I had less than 6 months. So what did I do? After a couple of weeks of running I signed up for the race! I was in no shape to do a 5k, let alone a marathon. But by the end of May I had run 2 5Ks and an 8K and had signed up for a half-marathon. I kept going, setting new weekly and single-run distance goals and working up to more than 50 miles per week every week. When my marathon came along, I ran the whole thing and knew I could have run faster, but was incredibly proud and satisfied – and got to setting new goals.

But that isn’t the only example – in 2007 I knew I was unhappy at my job, and the year before arranged an organization switch in the hopes of becoming happier … but it wasn’t working. So I said I would not enter 2008 working for the same company. And in September I got my resume out and arranged my first interview in over a decade – and then was swept out as part of a huge layoff. I credit the fact that I was already in the job-hunt mindset with helping me get to the point of having four offers all over the country within three months of the layoff even as the economy was collapsing. And because I had gone through goal-setting before I started, I knew what I did and did not want and value in a new job, which helped with the decision-making process.

Over at Greatist they looked inside Lululemon’s goal-setting mentality, and highlight a video of someone who set and met what seemed an impossible goal:

What goals have you set and how have you met them? Or do you have some ‘works in progress’ you would like to share? Let us know?

just not feeling it

Did I miss the irony that my schedule precluded me getting this done in a timely fashion? Not it did not. When it comes to any runner, athlete, musician, parent, employee, or person in general … we have one thing in common: there are some days when we are ‘just not feeling it’. By that I mean that we don’t want to get out of bed, don’t want to brave the winter cold for that run, make the trek to the gym, head to school or work, or tackle that project.

But what triggered the phrase in my head was talking to my brother the other day … more on that in a minute.

Most runners go through ups and downs throughout their lives, times of injury, times when there are just too many other obligations, and times when the excuses pile up just high enough to stop you from getting out there.

This year I will cross the point where, in spite of not running my first mile by choice until I was nearly a year out of college, I have been a runner longer than a non-runner. But during those 24 years, there have been a few notable gaps – a year where I was doing loads of travel while also having two toddlers, another period with too much travel and heavy job dissatisfaction, and the year or two before we moved to Corning – which I later found out was at least in part due to my thyroid slowly dying.

But the worst period was actually after we moved. After my thyroid was identified as kaput and I was put on meds, my metabolism took off like a rocket and I started going to the gym daily. I had tried running but really did’t find myself enjoying it so I just went to the gym. Until our schedule at home made that inconvenient – and I still wasn’t enjoying running so I didn’t do anything … well, other than eat and gain weight.

In fact, I really was ‘just not feeling it’ a year ago as I tried to force myself to get back into running, and it took tremenous willpower to power myself through until it ‘stuck’ – and boy did it ever stick!

Which brings me back to my brother on the phone – clearly not feeling it. There are plenty of good reasons: he is still dealing with the lingering effects of a bitter divorce, their house isn’t selling, his job moved to a new location making his commute even worse, and also making taking his daughter to school tougher, and after peaking in fitness at the 2011 Corning Wineglass Marathon (where he threw down the gauntlet that ended up with me racing in 2012) he has been on the decline.

Actually it started earlier, to the point where by mile 10 of the marathon he sent me ahead because he knew he was holding me back … and ended up coming in over an hour behind me. We ran together at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but his miles had been in constant decline.

He simply wasn’t getting the joy out of it anymore, instead feeling guilt at his inability to keep up. So I reminded him – life isn’t a sprint, but a very long marathon. Walking through the water stops rather than choking as you try to chug water at full pace is a reminder than in races just like in life you need to watch out for yourself and your health and safety – both mental and physical.

Again, I am not talking about how tired I have gotten of dealing with 20-30MPH winds this winter with single digit temperatures, and how after listening to the wind howl the other night I lay there as the alarm went off thinking I would SO like to not go out for that run, but then:

It is OK to step away from things when you are ‘just not feeling it’ for a while. Maybe you will return stronger than ever, maybe you will take up biking rather than running, or go to the gym or swim, or seek health through better nutrition and Yoga. There is no failure by listening to yourself rather than pushing to the point you are no longer enjoying things. My brother didn’t want to disappoint me, as it has become something we love to share. But as I reminded him, we love spending time together hanging out, sharing stuff with our kids, enjoying a beer and some laughs, and just great times together.

Have you ever lost your passion for something you once loved? What happened and how did you deal with it?

Here is an amazing video showing two women who are clearly at the far end of fatigue giving their all just to cross the finish line:

American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery presents the 33rd Annual Laser Conference, Laser2013

I wasn’t born too terribly long after the LASER (it’s an acronym; you can look it up!) was invented.  As a true product of the good ol’ modern tech age, I’m used to fast innovation.  Heck, at work we use something called the “Agile model” of development, where we break stuff up into two-week chunks.  So in one way, I’m not amazed that the Laser has been around long enough to now be having the 33rd annual conference on Laser medicine; there have been Lasers around literally all my life!  But in another way, just think about it a bit:  Lasers are a new tech, and yet just the medical portion of their applications has been around long enough to have had 33 annual conferences.  I mean: Whoa.

The keynote speaker for the conference is Dr. Robert S. Langer, who is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT.  And yes, I’m sure it’s “that” David Koch, and no I had no idea he had founded a chair at MIT.)  Dr. Langer has written more than 1175 articles on various topics.  The conference itself is going to go into the use of medical Lasers in areas like photodynamic therapy, interstitial laser devices, cutaneous laser surgery, photobiomodulation (whatever the heck that is!), and experimental and translational research.  Lots of stuff to check out for you medical Laser folks!

So if this is your area of expertise, or even if you’re just interested in this area of medicine or science (or just Lasers!), maybe you might want to attend.  You can take a look at the program information, and also surf on over to the ASLMS site for more information.  And if you do end up going, please be sure to share what you think below!

Losing Weight Will Make Me Run Faster

Despite running for about 24 years now, it is only in the last year that I have become a ‘RUNNER’. And in doing so I have discovered the nearly obsessive relationship between runners and their weight. Because I was losing weight at the time, I had concerns about running and eating to prepare for half- and full-marathons while losing weight. Searches turned up loads of resources that basically said the same thing – Losing Weight Will Make Me Run Faster.

You don’t have to go too far to find these articles – look here, here, here, here, here or here. And these are from respected sources such as Runner’s World and Active.com as well as other running blogs. In fact, the last link puts it quite bluntly: to get faster, you must get skinnier. The one difference is that the last one is ironic.

I am going to be very careful with the words I use because eating disorders are very serious and I know there might be things I could say that would act as ‘triggers’ without even realizing I was doing so.

Over at T-Rex Runner, Danielle has a series (in progress) about dealing with her eating disorder from when she was 15 until the present. She goes into some technical details about the various disorders and impacts, but mainly focuses on her ongoing journey and how she has had to adapt. It is an amazing read, and I highly recommend checking it out. It deals with someone who used running to another way to lose weight while showing people she was eating as well as to deal with all of the other crap stressing her out in life.

My older son joined the wrestling team as a freshman last year, and after going through the initial workout period and getting trained up and into better shape they started weigh-ins to determine who would compete at which weight for Varsity or JV. The general trend was to target wrestlers in classes a few pounds below their current weight. To get them to ‘target’ they recommended a number of ‘restrictions’, one of which was ‘no dairy’.

Because dairy is fat-laden and therefore bad. Essentially they had these kids on a very restrictive diet with decreased intake even as they would work them hard for a few hours each day. Kids would routinely not eat on the day of matches, and the coaches were very good at reinforcing the practices with very public put-downs and name calling. And by ‘coaches’ I am not being specific to our school – I saw it at every meet I attended, either directly or echoed through the words of the kids and parents. Also, it was little different from what I saw when I had friends on the wrestling team in my own high school days.

All of these things push people into having an unhealthy body image and an unhealthy relationship with food.

My bottom line is this – runners and other athletes fall into the ‘racing weight’ or ‘fighting weight’ trap very easily. Elite marathon runners and athletes have ways to slowly taper their weight going into a race to maximize their speed without losing any of their strength. But it is not sustainable – it is not healthy. The way that wrestling and other weight-class sports are supposed to work is to target the athlete at their healthy weight, not five or ten pounds lower.

It is very easy to fall into that trap – I have repeatedly talked about my weight loss of the last year, and I am now ~90-95 pounds lighter than I was last April. I am just below the previous lowest weight of my adult life, which I hit about a year before getting married. But I am considerably ‘skinnier’ – because I am also much more muscular. The constant long-distance runs, doing bodyweight exercises on my no-run days, and my greater emphasis on eating healthy have all combined to put me in my best shape ever, and my thinnest.

But when I compare my body size at 25 years old to now, I might think I should weigh less like the woman on the ‘Mile Posts’ blog says. I could look at things and decide I should drop another 10 pounds rather than fighting to stay constant. And for me it is a constant struggle, as I do not look at myself and see the skinny, runner body that everyone else sees.

In fact, as someone who has been dealing with weight and food issues my entire life in one way or another, it is pretty easy for me to admit that I will never have a healthy relationship with food and weight. But as an adult, it is something I can deal with and know about – and have a great support system in place to help ‘keep it real’.

Eating disorders are generally thought of as a ‘girl problem’. That isn’t fair, as there are plenty of men with issues of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and other obsessive behaviors. Also, athletes are in a position where borderline-obsessive behaviors regarding exercise and eating are the norm, and clinically obsessive behavior comes all too easily.

Danielle at T-Rex Runner ended up with hip and neck bone injuries, which are quite possibly results of malnutrition effects from anorexia and bulimia. The ‘Mile Posts’ blogger was obsessed about that ‘final 5 pounds’ she wanted to lose to get to her perceived ‘race weight’ – yet by forgetting that number and focusing on her training and nutrition, she actually made personal records.

So the next time someone tells you they need that Losing Weight Will Make Me Run Faster, ask them what they mean by that. Unless they are actually overweight, chances are they have bought into someone else’s obsessive notion that regardless of fitness of training level losing weight is directly related to running faster. It isn’t – unless you are under the observation of coaches who have your nutrition and fitness plan in mind, all you are doing is setting yourself up for failure and eating issues.

Run safe and eat healthy, and we’ll see you next Monday!

Side View of the Merrell Bare Access 2

I sing the praises of minimalist shoes every chance I get. They’re great at strengthening your legs and feet, but it can be harder on your body at first and requires some adjustment. Merrell recognizes this, and their M-Connect line isn’t just for super minimal shoes. The Merrell Bare Access 2 shoes give you the qualities of a minimalist shoe, but it has a slightly thicker sole to make it easier on your feet in the transition. Does it walk that line between just enough shoe and too much shoe? Read on to find out!

In many ways, this shoe is like the slightly thicker cousin of the Road Glove 2. They have similar heel cups, toe caps, and midfoot designs, with the lacing system looking more traditional in the Bare Access 2. The sole is also by Vibram, and the upper is thin layers of material. However, there is definitely more foam rubber underfoot, giving the shoe a cushier feel. Where the Road Glove 2 is fairly unforgiving if you land too hard, the Merrell Bare Access 2 absorbs the shock better. The tread is also less smooth than the Road Glove, and while I wouldn’t advocate hitting a rough trail in the Bare Access 2, they would be fine on roads and well-groomed trails.

The tread on the Merrell Bare Access 2

Besides being a good transition shoe into minimalism, the Merrell Bare Access 2 is also an excellent shoe if you need a bit more cushion on long runs. What feels good on a three-mile run may feel awful on a 13-mile run, and you don’t want to find that out at mile 7 when you’re 6 miles from home!  This is also a great shoe for non-running adventures where you’ll be on your feet all day. I used these when I traveled to Las Vegas for CES, and they were awesome travel sneakers. Once you start wearing zero drop, or nearly zero drop shoes, it is hard to turn back to raised heels, and so these shoes are great for times when you just want a lightweight, comfortable, all day shoe.

The Merrell Bare Access 2 is a great shoe. It’s lightweight, zero drop, has a tough Vibram sole, and is comfortable for athletics as well as everyday life. Whether you’re looking for something to ease the transition to minimalism, or just want a shoe that gives your feet a bit of softness, you’ll find a strong contender in the Bare Access 2!

Here’s a video overview of the Merrell Bare Access 2 as well:

MSRP: $90 from Merrell

What I liked: Zero drop; well constructed but lightweight upper; good tread on the soles

What Needs Improvement: Nothing

The Merrell Proterra Sport shows off its good side.

The Merrell Proterra Sport is a unique shoe. It’s part of the M-Connect line of minimalist footwear from Merrell, but if you were to line up most of the shoes in a row with the Proterra, it would look like a game of “one of these things is not like the other.” Until you put it on, it doesn’t look much like a minimalist shoe. But when you start moving, you realize the beefy look on the outside is hiding a low profile hiking sneaker designed to give you a minimal feel while still protecting your feet. How does it work? Read on …

The Proterra isn’t quite as form-fitting in the midfoot as the other shoes in the M-Connect line that I tested. In some ways it isn’t necessary, since the Proterra has more material and a tougher, more supported upper than the others. There’s a plastic/rubbery material that frames the heel and midfoot. It doesn’t add major support, but it does give the shoe more structure. Merrell says they use the framework as a way to keep the upper supported without being heavy. The heel and toe cap also have thicker protection, but that makes sense since this shoe is designed for use on rough terrain. This also explains why the sole is thicker, with lugs and holes to add traction.

Note the Merrell Proterra Sport’s sole pattern for increased grip on uneven surfaces.

Despite the thicker sole, you don’t completely lose your connection to the ground. The shoe is stiff, but between the pattern on the sole and the fact that there is some flex and give, you do feel the texture of the terrain as you walk. There is some cushion to the shoe, but it isn’t particularly soft. The closest I can describe it is like an extra-extra firm memory foam mattress. It gives with pressure, but it isn’t what you would call soft. Even as someone who prefers a very minimal sole, I find the Proterra to be remarkably comfortable.

More importantly, I have found this to be a great shoe for rough areas. I haven’t had much time to hike, but I did take these shoes to Vermont and Maine, and used them during last weekend’s snowstorm. I headed out in snow and ice, took my dog for a walk on a steep dirt road, and even wore them snowshoeing. Even though these aren’t waterproof, I found that my feet stayed dry and warm in sloppy weather. Just be careful, because these are low-cut shoes, so you will get snow in your shoes if you get into ankle-deep snow without gaiters. The Proterra has a 4mm heel to toe drop, but it wasn’t noticeable to me at all.

I have a pair of zero drop hiking sneakers, and compared to the Proterra they feel like a slab of wood on your feet. It is really hard to make a shoe that is comfortable, minimal, and protective, but Merrell manages to nail it with the Proterra. If you hate overbuilt hiking shoes with stiff soles, take a look at the Proterra. It brings the ground to you while still offering some protection from the pointy spots!

Here’s a quick video look at the Proterra Sport:

MSRP: $100 from Merrell

What I Liked: Lightweight upper compared to regular hiking shoes; good traction on the soles; still allows for ground feel despite sole thickness.

What Needs Improvement: 4mm drop may bother some people.

Note: the Merrell Road Glove 2 does not roll up like that while foot is in the shoe.

I had the opportunity to check out Merrell’s M-Connect line of minimalist shoes recently. They were kind enough to send me three pairs of their shoes to get to know the line, and while all three are part of the M-Connect lineup, each has its own unique styles and benefits. Of the three, the Merrell Road Glove 2 is the most minimal choice. How does it stack up? Read on for the full review to find out!

There isn’t much to the Road Glove 2. The upper material is quite thin, and the sole is quite flexible. It does take a bit of effort, but you can roll the shoe into a ball; great for impressing your friends with how minimal your shoes are! While the toe box is wide, the midfoot and heel fit are much more form-fitting, so the shoe feels very secure. Underfoot, the sole is made by Vibram, which may not mean much if you don’t know shoes, but Vibram makes incredibly tough, quality rubber soles.

Note the flat tread for road running!

These are definitely road shoes through and through. There isn’t much tread on the sole, and there is almost no cushioning, so you feel every bump and crack in the road. Because there isn’t much between your foot and the ground, it is relatively easy to keep a midfoot or forefoot strike with a short stride. It’s an efficient way to run, but a shoe this minimal can be hard on your feet and legs if you aren’t ready for it. I thought I was adjusted to minimalist shoes, but it had been a while since I ran in anything as minimal as the Road Glove 2′s. My first run went great. I felt amazing, like I was flying down the road. I woke up the next morning and wondered if someone had stabbed me in the calves with forks in my sleep. After resting for a few days, I found that my body readjusted quickly, but if this is your first try with minimal shoes take it slowly. I can’t emphasize that enough!

This is the part where any shoe review gets very subjective. What feels right on my feet may feel awful on yours. However, I love these shoes. If I could only own one pair of sneakers, it would be the Road Glove 2. Winter is always a hard time to pull together the motivation to run, but as long as there wasn’t ice on the roads I could run in the Road Gloves…and even on the days I wanted to just loaf around, the Road Glove 2 made it so much FUN to run again that I couldn’t wait to get out there. If that’s not the mark of a great shoe, I don’t know what is!

Here’s a quick video overview of the Merrell Road Glove 2 as well:

MSRP: $100 from Merrell

What I Liked: Flexible; very comfortable fit; allows for natural running stride; provides excellent feedback from the ground

What Needs Improvement: Nothing

Do you know the many ways your body loses heat? You should always be aware of hypothermia warning signs to keep safe in winter!

Over the last week I have heard a few stories about runners getting into a bit of trouble with the elements, and reflecting on how hard it is to interpret hypothermia warning signs … when you are the one who has gotten into trouble. One veteran runner had a ‘stomach emergency’ mid-run which led to too much exposure, and the inability to get warm. Fortunately there was a nearby gym where he stopped and called his wife to collect him. He noticed that he had a hard time operating his phone, and while driving home she remarked that the scary thing was that he was slurring his words.

Another runner was dressed for warmer temperatures, but got caught off-guard by heavy winds and a rapidly shifting front and was simply not dressed for the occasion. She was immediately aware of the danger, but actually got cold enough that she got confused and took a wrong turn on the way home, which cost her extra time. Fortunately she arrived safely and without any real harm, but it was a real wake-up call about being prepared and aware of the weather.

Both of these stories could have gone very differently based on a single scary thing:
A person with hypothermia usually isn’t aware of his or her condition, because the symptoms often begin gradually and because the confused thinking associated with hypothermia prevents self-awareness.

In these cases the people were aware enough to get out of trouble, and were in locations that allowed them to get to safety. But for many others circumstances make it more difficult to assess themselves for hypothermia warning signs. And once hypothermia sets in, a spiral of events can occur that can lead to permanent harm or even death all too quickly.

Here are some of the Hypothermia Warning Signs (from the CDC ):

• Shivering
• Clumsiness or lack of coordination in hands
• Slurred or mumbled speech
• Confusion
• Poor decision making or memory loss
• Exhaustion or very low energy
• Progressive loss of consciousness
• Weak pulse
• Shallow breathing

The CDC also has advice once you have assessed someone for hypothermia warning signs, most of which should be fairly self-explanatory:

• Get the victim into a warm room or shelter.
• Remove any wet clothing.
• Warm the center of the body first.
• Give warm beverages to help increase the body temperature, but do not give alcoholic beverages.
• Keep wrapped in blankets even after temperature increases.
• Get medical attention as soon as possible.

I have mentioned that I have run this winter for up to 7 miles in conditions where the temperature was -5F with wind chills below -20F. These are potentially dangerous conditions, something I am very much aware of. I made sure to stay within range of communications and shelter, and to have plenty of layers to keep skin and core temperature protected. Even as I write this the temperature was in the mid-30s, but with 20+MPH winds the wind chills were in the tens, and freezing rain on top made for a potentially dangerous situation if you weren’t prepared.

The old saying “you’ll catch your death of cold” sounds quaint, but unless you know and are aware of the hypothermia warning signs it can become a very real possibility.

Have you had hypothermia scares? What do you do to stay safe?

I have a confession: I am out of shape. Up until this past fall, I was doing great. I was running consistently, eating right, everything was great. But we sold our house, temporarily moved in with my parents, and are buying another house, all while juggling everything else in life. It’s been more than a little overwhelming, and I feel like I need to refocus and tune up before I lose any more fitness (or gain any more weight!) Running is always a reliable triple threat for me; I lose weight, feel stronger, and get mentally clearer. But my stressful fall made me realize I rely far too hard on running alone. To become more well-rounded at taking care of myself, I’ve turned to, what else? My iPhone — and the apps GAIN Fitness and MyFitnessPal!

GAIN Fitness

Strength:

Running is great, but it’s still important to cross train. Left to my own devices, I get very lazy. Every few months I would try to work light cross training into my running routines, but that lasted maybe one or two workouts. Part of the problem was the lack of variety. I would do a few sets of squats, maybe some push-ups and crunches, and when I was sore the next day I gave up.

So I decided to bring in some extra help. Last year I talked to GAIN Fitness about their iOS app, and how their app offers different types of workouts in customized increments, like personal training on the go. Saturday morning I fired up GAIN and selected a strength workout. A half hour later, I felt like a truck had hit me. I immediately set up a four-week strength routine.

Clearly I was more out of shape than I wanted to admit, and the GAIN app forced me to really work out properly, instead of just a few half-hearted squats. Now that I have a few more (painful, but getting better) workouts under my belt, I am beginning to understand why GAIN Fitness is working for me. Every workout starts with a warmup, and since the app dictates the specifics based on the planned strength routine I don’t have to rely on my own limited repertoire of jumping jacks and high knees. And having an enforced rest period between sets, plus a regular cool down, all help make the workouts more effective and well-rounded. Most of it is stuff I know to do on my own, but having the app remind me three times a week that it’s time for a workout dodges some of my lazy desire to just run. Plus, the app has a huge database of exercise combinations, so I won’t get bored easily!

Get the GAIN Fitness iPhone app here. (Free basic packs, paid upgrades available)

MyFitnessPal

Food:

Workouts are great, but I also recognize that the one-two punch of moving and the holidays left my nutrition in shambles. Again, this is one of those cases where I could slide by most of the time by just running more, or by just eating better, but I prefer a little added incentive. So I have been tracking my food intake through MyFitnessPal.

I know how to eat better. I fully recognize that Dunkin’ Donuts egg sandwiches are bad for me, and probably not even really made of egg, but it’s too easy to justify eating crap sometimes. “I ran this morning.”/”I will have a salad for lunch.”/”I lifted a really heavy box two days ago.” There are a million different ways that I can trick myself into justifying eating crap, all while assuring myself I know better, so it’s ok. By logging my food with MyFitnessPal, I am forcing myself to be accountable for everything I eat. It also helps with guidelines on caloric restriction, but even just seeing a breakdown of how I ate all day is powerful. And I have to admit, there’s a guilt factor too; it is easy to walk by a bowl and grab a handful of nuts, or munch on some m&ms in the fridge. But knowing I have to write down everything I eat, even the “I’m not hungry but hey there’s food” snacking, makes me think first. I’m also using it as a chance to focus on eating whole, real foods. Again, writing it down makes me more accountable; seeing the nutritional difference in real vs processed foods helps too!

Get the MyFitnessPal iPhone app here. (Free)

Get the MyFitnessPal iPad app here. (Free)

Results tracking:

I was going to be really brave and post my starting weight, but when I went to use the scale the batteries were dead (I swear I am not making that up.) So we will see. At the moment I have three rough goals for myself: One, I want to be strong enough that when we move to our new house in six weeks, I won’t be physically destroyed by all the lifting like last time. Two, I have a few spring races in mind, and I think with some weight loss and cross training a personal record could be possible. Three, I’d like to make these habits automatic. I want it to become second nature to be more mindful about the food I eat, and I want being truly fit to mean more than just going for a run. All these goals are vague, and that’s on purpose. If I set a goal for the scale, or a number of weights to lift, I will reach those goals and stop moving forwards. But there will always be another reason I need to be strong, and there will always be another race or endurance challenge. Between GAIN Fitness, MyFitnessPal, and my own stubbornness, hopefully I will be fit and ready!

Have you come back from getting soft and lazy to improving your health? What’s your favorite way to track and improve? Share your tips below!

When’s the last time you walked outside barefoot? It’s fun to be in your bare feet and feel the texture of the ground and the way your feet move differently without shoes. But while it’s possible to run and hike barefoot, and some people embrace that wholeheartedly, many of us prefer to strike a balance between barefoot and big clunky “traditional” running shoes. Merrell’s M-Connect line of minimalist shoes is designed to give you everything-the feel of being barefoot, but the protection of shoes. They have a variety of models, from very minimal to hiking-oriented. Merrell was kind enough to send us samples of three shoes from the M-Connect line so we could see what made them special!

First, a word on minimal and lightweight shoes. If you haven’t already done so, check out our running shoe guide. It will help with an overview of minimal and traditional running shoes, as well as give a better idea of the vocabulary of athletic footwear.

Second, this is a long and detailed discussion, so for those who don’t have much time or want the Cliff’s Notes version: The M-Connect line combines light weight, quality construction and sole flexibility, and a low to zero heel to toe drop to make minimal shoes that fit a tremendous number of road and trail running areas. The shoes let your feet function naturally, which makes for a more stable, strong, and fun adventure, wherever you choose to take them. Be sure to read below the gallery for more information on M-Connect and why we’re so smitten here at Gear Diary with Merrell’s awesome shoes!

All the M-Connect shoes share a certain “design DNA” that roots them in the light running shoe category. I looked at three styles, the Road Glove 2, the Bare Access 2, and the Proterra Sport. Road Glove was the most minimal, Bare Access was a touch thicker underfoot for those who like or need a bit of protection from the road, and Proterra is a lightweight hiking sneaker. All of them shared certain characteristics that, when combined, make for extremely impressive minimal footwear!

Toe caps, Bare Access 2 and Road Glove 2

Weight:

I know, it’s not something that comes up in polite company. But weight is a big deal in a shoe. Lighter shoes may lead to less fatigue while on your feet, and if the shoe is incrementally less heavy, it’s that much easier to keep lifting and landing with good form. Of the shoes I tested, the Proterra is the heaviest, coming in at 13oz, while the Road Glove 2 and Bare Access 2 are downright svelte at 7.1oz and 6.2oz, respectively. If you’re not an obsessive shoe researcher, here’s how that breaks down compared to their competition (note that the Brooks Pure Connect is a more minimal shoe, while the Ravena, Elixer, Cascadia, and Kayano are all traditional shoes that are fairly popular):

-Brooks Pure Connect 2: 7.1oz

-Brooks Ravenna: 11oz

-Mizuno Wave Elixir: 9.2oz

-Asics Gel Kayano: 10.9oz

-Brooks Cascadia: 12oz

While 3-4oz may not seem like much on, that’s still a significant deviation, considering it has to come from somewhere. After all, all shoes have a sole, fabric, and laces…and that’s where the construction of the shoe comes in for our second major minimal characteristic.

Road Glove 2 rolled up inside itself. Handy if you only have room to store one shoe.

Construction and Materials:

A typical running shoe has a fairly stiff upper and a thick rubber/foam/air pocket/gel/plastic inserted sole. A solid minimal shoe, like the Merrell M-Connect line, has a thin sole with rubber for traction along the bottom, and in the case of the road shoes not much for the upper. Both the Bare Access 2 and Road Glove 2 are made without a hard plastic heel cup, and are really just fabric and shoelace to hold the shoe on your foot. The Proterra has a bit more material and construction, but the Proterra is a hiking sneaker-you want a tougher shoe on your foot while you’re on the trails, but even with a more firm heel cup and toe protection the Proterra is still a simple shoe without much excess material or weight.

As a result of their more stripped down style, there’s no arch support. Your feet will definitely grow stronger in these! In addition, the midfoot (where the lacing comes across the top of your foot) is a bit on the snug side; it’s the main place where the shoes lock down on your foot, as the forefoot is designed to be roomier and give your feet and toes a chance to spread and bend as needed. The idea here is that your toes and forefoot are able to function naturally, providing stability and power to your every stride.

One other benefit of a more minimal shoe that should carry over into the M-Connect line: minimal shoes often last far longer than traditional ones. There’s no gel or foam or anything that can wear out. A well-constructed minimal shoe will last until you wear down the soles, and from the samples I have seen of the M-Connect options, there’s no doubt in my mind that a pair of these will last you a very long time. The likely weak spot in a minimal shoe is the uppers, since they are made of fabric, but Merrell seems to have that covered. The toe area is reinforced, so even if you drive your toes right to the edge you won’t put your big toe through the upper that easily. And there’s a similar band of reinforced fabric around the heel, which helps protect it in lieu of a heel cup on the non-trail shoes. Merrell has a well-deserved reputation for solid, dependable gear, and the quality of the construction of the M-Connect line is no exception.

Foot flat on the ground, same heel to toe position as a zero-drop shoe.

Heel to Toe Drop:

Chances are, if you’ve heard of minimal shoes before or been unlucky enough to walk into an argument about them, one of the main issues no doubt centered around the heel to toe drop. This is a term that refers to how high the heel sits versus the forefoot, and it governs a great deal more than whether you get to be a few millimeters taller. Why does it matter? The argument goes something like this: If you were to tear off your shoes and head down the road in your bare feet, there’s a good chance that you’d land on your forefoot first, and not your heel. Why does that matter? For one, it’s more difficult to overextend your legs, putting excess pressure on your knees and hips, while landing on your forefoot. It’s not impossible, but for most people it’s not likely to happen regularly. As a result, you take quicker, shorter strides while barefoot, which studies have tentatively proven leads to less pounding on your body. From there, it follows that a minimal shoe, one that is flat or almost flat from the heel to the toe, lets your feet land in much the same way, giving you the softer landing and better form of running barefoot but the protection of shoes. A traditional shoe, on the other hand, does the opposite; because the heel is significantly higher, it is easier to land on your heels first, meaning it’s easy to slip into bad habits like slamming your heels into the ground and/or overstriding considerably.

Heel raised approx. 10mm using CD cases. Note how it changes the arch and heel.

I want to emphasize here that I am not a physical therapist or an exercise physiologist or an evolutionary biologist…but in my personal experience that theory plays out. I experience knee pain in a regular, traditional running shoe that I do not experience in minimal shoes, and I attribute that in large part to the fact that minimal shoes allow me to land on my forefoot comfortably. The M-Connect line is mainly made up of shoes that have a zero heel-to-toe drop, meaning your heel and forefoot are at the same height. Some of the trail options, like the Proterra, and their hybrid road/trail shoe the Mix Master, have a 4mm heel to toe drop. Some argue this means a shoe is no longer minimal, since the heel is slightly raised. To be honest, I didn’t actually notice the Proterra had a 4mm drop until I read the marketing materials-it feels like a zero-drop shoe. And it’s important to remember that 4mm is not a huge difference-it’s just shy of the height of the average CD case.

Once you get into “traditional” shoes, though, then you can see the dramatic difference. Let’s return to that list we had above of competing traditional shoes, only this time we’re looking at their heel to toe drops:

-Brooks Pure Connect: 5mm

-Brooks Ravenna: 10mm

-Mizuno Elixir: 13mm

-Asics Kayano: 10mm

-Brooks Cascadia: 10mm

(Heel to toe numbers and shoe weights courtesy of Running Warehouse)

To give you an idea, a 10mm heel to toe is almost two CD cases stacked on top of one another. Stand barefoot, then stick two CD cases under your heels. -Feel a difference in your posture and how your feet are situated? That’s what happens when you wear a traditional running shoe. And that’s why a 0-4mm heel to toe on the M-Connect line is so important!

L to R: Road Glove 2, Proterra Sport, Bare Access 2

The Whole Package:

Whether you’re primarily a road runner, a trail runner, or someone who covers a bit of everything, you need solid footwear. From the super-minimal Road Glove to the tough but easy on your feet Proterra, M-Connect has you covered! You can view the full line of M-Connect footwear here, or try them on in person at your local REI!

Last week I had a day where I planned to go out for a run, but the conditions were too icy, so I was home after about 2.5 miles to avoid possible injury. I already had myself warmed up and wanted to get in a workout, so I did the next best thing – an indoor bodyweight workout! Within a half-hour I had done a great workout that had me dripping with sweat and exhausted – and no equipment required!

After years of everyone thinking you needed some expensive equipment to get a decent workout, folks are starting to realize that all you really need is yourself – and some guidance about what exercises to do and how to execute them. Over at the Greatist there is a detailed set of benefits, and on the Tee Major Fitness YouTube channel there is a list of 44 great workouts using nothing else but yourself!

Here are just some of the reasons bodyweight exercises make sense:

• They are very efficient – you get great results in a very short time period, meaning it is something you can fit into your schedule easily.
• You combine cardio and strength training – as I mentioned, I was dripping with sweat, but I was also sore the next day from the workout … in a good way!
• Effective fat-burning – these workouts do a great job jump-starting your metabolism, making them extremely effective if you are trying to shed a few pounds.
• Improved flexibility – the first time I did bodyweight I found that some exercises were very easy for me, while others made me laugh as I fell over finding my coordination and flexibility.
• Focus on the ‘core’ – your core is more than just abs, and by strengthening your core you get better posture, less chance of injury, and set yourself up to make gains in other areas as well.

There are tons of resources available to help you get going with bodyweight exercises; there is a list of 50 exercises at Greatist, for example. For myself, I have a high school friend who is a tennis pro and fitness expert and has started his own program called ‘BMax’ that focuses on maximum metabolic activation in a short time period. Here is his YouTube channel if you want to check it out (note – I have no affiliation, I just tried it out because I know the person and happen to like his exercises).

Here is the routine I did on my ‘ice day’:

What have you done to explore bodyweight exercises, and what resources would you recommend?

Even though my family aren’t huge football fans (and lost our reason to care about the game itself two weeks ago), we enjoy using the Super Bowl as an excuse to have an ‘appetizer fest’. Our spread runs the gamut from fresh veggies to Buffalo wings with everything in between – so there are opportunities for healthy choices and decidedly UNhealthy choices.

At the top we have a ‘one serving’ image of chips and seven-layer dip, which is part of the latest ‘This Is One Serving’ series from Greatist looking at Super Bowl snacks. Those guides are always an eye-opening reminder of just how much we are eating compared to an actual serving.

Greatist also comes through with a list of 31 Guilt-Free Super Bowl snacks, including a guacamole alternative using broccoli that cuts the fat and calories and adds loads of vitamins … might have to try THAT one! CNN also put together a reasonable list of 11 healthy ideas, as does Mens Fitness, and Patch.com has some Southern-themed ideas that mix in healthy alternatives. I also really loved the list at FitSugar and might try out the roasted tomato hummus.

Here are a few tips that we use to make our favorite snacks healthier:

• Go home-made. Do you know how easy it is to make salsa or guacamole or other dips and treats? Very easy! There are loads of sites that will help you with healthy home-made snacks and dips, as well as substitutes for common store-bought stuff.
• Use baked chips, or bake your own! Buying baked chips cuts calories and fat by 75%, but beware of higher sodium and potential acrylamides. Baking your own chips is super-easy – just thin-slice in a food processor or mandolin and stick on a backing sheet with Silpat. Add some salt and spices and you are all set.
• Bake your own sweet potato fries or wedges. Sweet Potatoes are a ‘superfood’, and baking them up with some salt and spices gives you a great sweet and salty treat.
• Watch those dips! I mention the hummus and ‘brocc-amole’ above, but another fave is blue cheese for the wings. We have found that yogurt is the ‘miracle substitute’ for fat-laden components. We use it in baked goods rather than oil, and to make our home-made dressing similar to this suggestion.
• Broiled chicken wings. You get a huge fat savings by not frying your wings, and with some light spices on the wings during broiling you get great flavor. Then doctor up some Frank’s Hot Sauce (or your personal favorite) and add a bit of melted butter to help adhesion and mix it all up in a dutch oven. Amazingly great taste.
• Nachos – for our ‘meal-worthy’ nacho platter, we use cooked fat-free refried beans (a large can) thinned slightly with water, then a layer of baked nacho chips, some low-fat vegetarian chili, then reduced fat cheddar cheese, jalapenos, then more of the refried beans, chips, chili and topped with cheese and jalapenos. We also dump on salsa on our plates. We have made a meal of this – and it gives you plenty of nutrition as well as filling you up!

But what if you don’t WANT to make healthier choices? There is no shortage of grease-dripping, fat-laden, calorie-packed options available … but how about something unique?

The image above is from BuzzFeed, where editors came up with a 47-layer dip that is served up in … well, basically a bucket. You can read about it here or check out Good Morning America making it live.

What is in it? Here is the list:
brown rice
white rice
1 box yellow “Mexican” rice (Goya)
1 large bag each:
Nacho Cheese Doritos
Cool Ranch Doritos
Fritos
1 box cornbread mix (Jiffy)
1 box mac n cheese (Kraft)
1 package taco seasoning mix (Ortega)
one 12-oz. can each:
pinto beans
black beans
beef chili (Hormel)
refried beans
12-oz. jar/bottle each of:
red salsa
green salsa
salsa con queso
ketchup
hot sauce (Cholula)
1 small can or jar each:
pickled jalapeños
pickled okra (Rick’s Picks Smokra)
dill pickles
black olives
1 (approx. 12-oz.) container each:
sour cream
guacamole
pico de gallo
1/2 pound each of:
ground turkey
ground beef
pulled pork (prepared from a store or restaurant)
chorizo sausage
1 cucumber
1 avocado
1 mango
1 head (or 1/2 head) red cabbage
1 head iceberg lettuce
1 bunch cilantro
1 bell pepper
3 jalapeño peppers
1 bunch scallions
1 red onion
2 yellow onions
2 large tomatoes or 1 box cherry tomatoes
1 lime
4 eggs
1 package bacon or bacon bits
1 block or 1 cup pre-grated/crumbled:
pepper jack cheese
cheddar cheese
feta or cotija cheese
1 bag frozen tater tots (Ore Ida)
1 bag frozen corn
from McDonald’s:
one 10-pc Chicken McNuggets
1 large french fries

Obviously on GMA they just dumped ingredients in the pot, but you can see there is a TON of work that goes into making this – so if you are having a party you might want to spread out responsibility for ingredients and then have fun building the stack together!

What is your Super Bowl snack strategy? Do you go healthy or just indulge? What are your favorite snacks for the big game – or any time?!?

This past week was a deep freeze for much of the northern and eastern parts of the country. In our area the temperature when I went out for my morning runs was sub-zero on four days, only creeping up to +2 on Friday. Adding in wind-chill, morning temperatures in the dark were about -10 to -15 degrees F. If you believe my Facebook timeline, I am clearly insane for going out running in these temperatures. And while I am not complaining as the morning temperatures are predicted for 20s and 30s this week, I was never too cold last week, and as very pleased with the fact that I ran over 30 miles across 4 days with an average temperature of -2 with a -10 wind chill.

When I mention this to people, the first question is ‘weren’t you COLD’?!? And as I mention above, the answer is NO. I attribute that to three things: planning, layering, and clothing technology. First, there is planning and layering. Planning means knowing what parts of you get the coldest fast, which in general are the extremities that aren’t moving … your hands and head. My hands are my definite weak point as they get cold first and take forever to warm back up, so I knew they needed to be protected. My winter running gloves were augmented by windproof winter gloves, but I ran with my hands pretty much balled in the inner portion (in other words, I would be better served with mittens).

Amazingly, I used my normal running shoes and thin ASICS socks and my feet never got cold.

In terms of layers I worked off two core layers of thermal-tech Nike ‘Pro Combat’ clothes. The image below shows my inner layer: long sleeved ‘Pro Combat’ wicking running shirt and running tights. These alone are good to at least 30F regardless of wind or time of day, and down to 20F in sunny mid-day conditions without wind.

Once those are loaded up, I add on the Nike bottoms and Livestrong Sweatshirt. Both are ‘Dri Tech’ and meant to keep you warm and dry. But they are not ‘heavy’, in fact I would compare then with relatively lightweight pair of sweats similar to the type you’d get for $5 at the local budget retailer. Except that these wick away sweat and block wind.

Above I said I was ‘never too cold’, but I never said I was really ‘warm’. That is how these new ‘tech clothes’ work. The use your body warmth to keep you comfortable, but do not trap so much as to overheat you. One morning I was running and had a strong wind hit for about a third of a mile and felt cool, but the wind didn’t bite into me. It keeps you in touch with the environment without becoming dangerously cold.

As you can see in the image at the top, I also wore loads of other stuff. On top I had a balaclava, a ‘smart wool’ neck warmer, my winter hat, and my hood. Because I run very early in the morning I also have a headlamp and reflective vest.

Of course, there really IS a point at which it is ‘too cold to run’, based on the combined temperature and wind chill. The guidance is that anything below -20F wind chill is getting into ‘seriously dangerous’ territory. Here is the chart from the National Weather Service:

Oh, another benefit of running in the cold? Research says that on average your body consumes ~13% more calories exercising in cold temperatures than warm. Currently for me that means I have to pay more attention in order to not lose any weight, but for most folks burning more is a good thing. However, colder temperatures mean being more tense, and people definitely skimp on stretching and warm-ups in cold weather, so that is the downside.

Did you experience the arctic blast last week? Did you exercise outside? What is your limit in terms of temperature and wind chill? And how do you layer-up for your runs? Let us know!

Sex is great because … well, if I have to explain THAT then I probably can’t help. But aside from the obvious benefit of being sex, there are numerous health benefits … and the folks at Greatist have detailed them out with links to some of the studies.

Here are a few:

• It can ward off the cold and flu

• It can improve overall physical fitness

• It decreases risk for heart disease

* It lowers risks during pregnancy

Head to Greatist to check out the full list, along with all of the links to the studies and research demonstrating these benefits.

There are other resources looking at the health benefits of sex including WebMD, ABC, Women’s Day, and many more.

Have you heard of any healthy side-benefits of sex? Let us know!

One of the keys to a fitness routine is … making it a routine. That means doing it on a regular basis, and for most people it means setting up a time pretty much every day when you can make it happen. For me it is 4AM runs, for others it is a post-work stop at the gym, and others have their own way of getting it done.

But what if you are not feeling great? Should you still work out, or are you better taking a day off? Here are five quick thoughts:

1. If you have a fever, just rest. Stay home and skip exercise, stay home from work or school, skip grocery shopping, and just get rest. It is better for you … and for everyone else.

2. A recent study shows that the Flu vaccine is made more effective through exercise. That is right, if you get your Flu shot and then take some time and get in a workout, your body is much more effective at developing and spreading antibodies.

3. If you are asthmatic or suffer from exercise-induced asthma symptoms, heading out in sub-freezing temperatures can exacerbate your symptoms. This is different from the old myth that you can freeze your lungs. In fact, the whole ‘exercise in cold is dangerous’ thing is a myth … it is just cold.

4. Here is the conventional medical wisdom – if your symptoms are above the neck (running nose, etc) then exercise can actually help and certainly won’t hurt. If your symptoms are below the neck (body aches, chest congestion, thick or colored phlegm, etc), better sit this one out … and maybe see the doctor.

5. If you have a cold and want to work out but are feeling less than energetic, try lowering the intensity of your workout. You could even switch up to a lower intensity or strengthening exercise instead of cardio-based activity.

Most important? Listen to your body and be honest – don’t hit snooze over a little runny nose … but don’t push through a workout when the only thing between you and a fever is the ibuprofen!

What are your exercise habits when you are not feeling great?

Since I reviewed the Garmin ForeRunner 10 back in mid-October, the YouTube video has continued gathering comments. So I figured it was time for an update. You can see the Garmin peeking out above between my two thermal-tech layers and gloves. You can even glimpse the toll all of the salting and slush are taking on my beautiful new bright orange running shoes!

Quick summary: the Garmin ForeRunner 10 is an amazing running watch that is precise and reliable, and only the 5-hour battery time is a drawback.

What have I done since the review?

• Finished training for the Corning Red Baron Half Marathon
• Completed the half marathon, taking almost 9 minutes off my half-time from August
• After a couple of days rest, started a ‘running streak’, where I sought to run at least 5 miles every day.
• Ran every day (including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day) from November 9th through January 13th (65 days!)
• My numbers cover more than 550 miles run, anywhere from 5 miles to 14 in a session.
• As winter set in, I have run in weather that was soaking rain, driving wind, heavy snow, and with temperatures from 3F up to 60F.

During all of that there was only a single issue – one morning that was ~8F with driving wind I turned on the GPS, and did my inside stretches and warm-ups before heading outside. Once outside I heard a light beep from my wrist and assumed the watch was ready so I tapped the button to Start. But evidently the beep was telling me it was going into PowerSave mode in 30 seconds, because I got another beep about a half mile into my run and saw that the watch was now ‘Ready’. I now make sure to actually check before pressing Run.

The precision of the Garmin ForeRunner 10 is simply astounding. There are two places I will hit the 1-mile mark regardless of route, and every day and every run I get the mile-marker beep within +/- 10 ft of the same location.

As for the battery life, I have never pushed it as hard as I did during the marathon. I have never gone more than two days without plugging it in to Sync and recharge. Speaking of which, the sync process is simple and works extremely well, making life easy for me when I come home from a run and want to upload my data.

I took a huge leap of faith in jumping from my Nike watch to the Garmin two days before a marathon, but I have not regretted it since. It is slim, sleek and lightweight – which is great since I don’t normally wear a watch so I didn’t want something that would be a burden to wear. It is reliable and provides all of the functionality I desire as a runner. The cool thing to remember is that this is a ‘entry level’ watch … but it doesn’t feel that way at all.

You can check out the Garmin ForeRunner 10 at Amazon, where it costs $129.99.