Going With The Flow

AM - Three loops around Liberty Park with Allie and May, 4.2 miles. 

PM - Jake and I went to the climbing gym and climbed for ~2 hours - pretty fun stuff! My hands hurt now.

AM - 3.5 miles.

These 11 Charts Show Everything That's Wrong With The Modern Diet

Typical 3.5 mile loop. 

Jake and I both highly recommend this book by Steve Magness. We haven't read the whole book (it just came out yesterday!) but Jake spent quite a bit of time last night reading to me excerpts in the book that he felt were important, which ended up being about everything.  The Science of Running: How to find your limit and train to maximize your performance. Here is a description -

If you are looking for how to finish your first 5k, this book isn't for you. The Science of Running is written for those of us looking to maximize our performance, get as close to our limits as possible, and more than anything find out how good we can be, or how good our athletes can be. In The Science of Running, elite coach and exercise physiologist Steve Magness integrates the latest research with the training processes of the world's best runners, to deliver an in depth look at how to maximize your performance.

It is a unique book that conquers both the scientific and practical points of running in two different sections. The first is aimed at identifying what limits running performance from a scientific standpoint. You will take a tour through the inside of the body, learning what causes fatigue, how we produce energy to run, and how the brain functions to hold you back from super-human performance. In section two, we turn to the practical application of this information and focus on the process of training to achieve your goals. You will learn how to develop training plans and to look at training in a completely different way. The Science of Running does not hold back information and is sure to challenge you to become a better athlete, coach, or exercise scientist in covering such topics as:

· What is fatigue? The latest research on looking at fatigue from a brain centered view.
· Why VO2max is the most overrated and misunderstood concept in both the lab and on the track
· Why "zone" training leads to suboptimal performance.
· How to properly individualize training for your own unique physiology.
· How to look at the training process in a unique way in terms of stimulus and adaptation.
· Full sample training programs from 800m to the marathon.

AM - Ran over to the tempo loop to check up on Jake during his workout (make sure he wasn't just loafing around) then finished the rest of the run with him on his cooldown.

PM - 30 minutes of strength training.

AM - 3.5 miles around the neighborhoods with Jake. 

In the past month, I have gained 3-4 lbs...this is definitely a change! When I got hurt 19 months ago, my weight dropped way low to 113lbs, and I was unable to gain the weight back (despite the fact that I stopped exercising completely). I don't really know why this happened because my diet didn't change at all...my guess is that my body was fighting the injury and trying to protect itself. My normal weight is ~117lbs so maybe this is a sign that I am healing and gaining muscle mass again! Or maybe I'm just eating way too much food :)

AM - 3.5 miles, mostly with Jake. Relieved that it's finally Friday - almost the weekend!

AM - Ran with a good crew on their warm-up for the SLC Winter Series 15K then was on camera duty. I was really disappointed to see that the organizers decided not to have heat lamps today...so I got in about 2.5 hours of shivering as well. Here is a link to photos (end of the album).