Wheeler Farm Loops

You've made keeping up with what's happing on the circuit easy. Thank you!

I'm not liking the super inversion forecast. With your strong aversion to treadmill running, you might need to invest in a nice gas mask. I'd like to see the looks on peoples faces if you were to wear this on your commute back and forth from work:

http://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Civilian-Mask-Nato-Filter/dp/B0002XJ2OU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358184062&sr=8-1&keywords=gas+mask

That would be great on a hard workout. I should wear it to the airport too, that won't get me any additional screening

The inversion stinks. Its our own fault, though, for driving so many cars around. If everyone that hates it even cut back their driving a little bit, it would make a huge difference in the air quality.

I've actually looked into the topic quite a bit. Alex Hutchinson has also done some interesting summaries of pollution and exercise. From what I gather, obviously running in clean air is better than running in polluted air. But running in polluted air is still better than not running. So I'll train though it, like I always do, and lay off the cigarettes for the time being to compensate :-)

At least we don't live in Beijing... check this out... http://goo.gl/XNkAU

Glad to not be training in Beijing. Question: Is treadmill training in "cleanish" air (if you don't count gym BO), better than training outside in the inversion?

That's a very good question. I guess it depends on how well they filter the air.

In terms of running outdoors, if you go early and stay away from higher traffic corridors, you are much better off.

I would assume the air quality indoors is still better.

They made a big deal last week on the news that Salt Lake was actually worse than Beijing. I get to go straight from Beijing to Boston. I look at it like Elevation training, Boston is going to feel like sea level on a clear day.

http://fox13now.com/2013/01/08/bad-air-quality-worsens-breathing-problems/

Jake, Thanks for the link. I'm so tempted to sign up for it even with my ambitions of taking maternity leave later this year. Too bad they don't give you a handicap for running with a baby :)

Rob- my brother lives in Beijing. It's a good day when they can see more than 20 feet out the window from the 15th floor they live on. You will not only get the third lung effect from sea level, but perhaps a fourth lung from being able to breathe clean air.

Just don't take maternity leave until after Des News 10K. You can get in 6-7 races by that point :-)

Good idea...!

Here's some good info on the indoor/outdoor air quality questions - Andrea just sent this to me:

---------------------------------

Inside vs. Outside

The deal with our particulate is that so much of it is ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3). Ammonium nitrate happens to be volatile at warmer temperatures and stable at cold temperatures. In our case, the cold temperatures help to keep NH4NO3 as a particle, but once you go indoors the particulate tends to volatilize into it gas phase components. Therefore, indoor air quality is a whole lot better than outdoors. DAQ has done a fair bit of work on this very issue. They conducted numerous studies inside/outside schools. I think they may have worked at Hawthorne among others. Dr. Steve Packham at DAQ would be the contact on that.

I love that I can just throw a question out there and leave it to Jake and Andrea to knock it out of the park :-)

I'm just happy that now I don't have to feel guilty that I don't have any pictures of myself running through 3' of snow with a frost bitten face.

^hahaha.

Intense hot tub workout eh? (wink wink)

^hahahaha.

Not THAT kind of workout! You should see some of the weirdos at that gym (minus Fritz and Rob, of course)

If it were possible to "Like" a comment on this blog, Lily would have received one from me.

Ha ha! I'm kidding. My gym has a few fruit cakes in it too.

Where's the Like button?!! @scottkeate he he!

The people at this gym must think we are the laziest people ever. Go in, stretch and hot tub for 30 minutes, leave. They must think we don't even exercise!

Eventually we'll re-start pool running, its just too cold right now to even think about that.

nothing like doing some intervals in a hot tub... also, I love telling cars to stop when I am running through intersections...or whereever

Hot tub intervals... It's the new elliptical heaven!

This guy had a red light and was obviously planning to turn right at the intersection. He was about 100 feet away and approaching. I had the "go" sign for the crosswalk, but I had a bad feeling, so I hesitated. I looked him in the eye, waved at him, pointed to the crosswalk sign as I started to step off the sidewalk... and then he just accelerated into the turn and right at me. I jumped back. Jack@ss. If I had just run across on green, he would have nailed me. He had to slow a bit as he rounded the turn and I punched his side window as hard as I could. Luckily I had my super-mittens on, which are sort of similar to boxing gloves, so my knuckles weren't damaged. Then again, my lack of upper body and arm strength also contributed to the reduced chance of injury from the punch.