Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Week starting Feb 14, 2010

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Location:

Snoqualmie,WA,

Member Since:

Jan 31, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

Marathon PR: 4:17 at Portland Marathon, Oct. 2007

5K PR 24:37 2009

10K PR 52:58 2010

Have run 22 marathons to date.

No injuries, ever.   :)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Qualify for Boston (4:05 for my age/gender) - or, perhaps, to use my desire for a BQ as a way to get in the hated speed work so I don't just get slower and slower over the years.  This goal is "under (re)construction" right now, until I figure out whether it is truly what I want. :) 


Long-Term Running Goals:

To continue learning about myself and about running, and to enjoy being a fit, happy runner for life.   To always know why I am running and the best way to get the most (both mentally and physically) out of my runs.  To keep a sense of humor and remain optimistic about myself as a runner.  To enjoy running more and more with every passing year. 

Personal:

Baby boomer generation.  Jogged a little in my 20's and 30's.  Started running seriously in 2002.  Low-carb runner since January 2010. 

I love long runs and cold, cloudy weather.  I don't believe in "junk miles."  I am an optimist.  I adore dark chocolate, fog, my family, and knitting -- not necessarily in that order.  

"As every runner knows, running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other; it is about our lifestyle and who we are."  -- Joan Benoit Samuelson 


Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Brooks ST3 Lifetime Miles: 891.35
Vibram Five Fingers KSO Lifetime Miles: 23.77
Brooks ST3 II Lifetime Miles: 965.17
Lunaracers II Lifetime Miles: 198.23
Mizuno Wave Universe 3 Lifetime Miles: 104.14
Asics Piranha Lifetime Miles: 536.83
RunAmocs (Softstar) Lifetime Miles: 16.23
Piranha II Lifetime Miles: 219.53
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
44.901.670.003.0049.57
Brooks T6 Miles: 4.05Lunaracers II Miles: 5.29Brooks ST3 Miles: 7.06Brooks ST3 II Miles: 8.73Asics Piranha Miles: 5.24ST3-M Miles: 19.20
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.050.000.000.004.05

48F, light rain. Recovery run. 

Two miles of feeling 90 years old and two miles of feeling great.  I wanted to say "feeling 30" or "feeling 25," but even though I jogged a little in those years, I never built up to an aerobic base where running was effortless.  This is good. This is very good. 


Weekly summary for Mon-Sun

Total 49.99


Mon 4.68

Tue 8.17 w/ hill sprints

Weds off

Thurs 9.82 w/ 4 x 1 mi tempo intervals

Fri off

Sat  23.27

Sun 4.05 

Brooks T6 Miles: 4.05
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.290.000.000.005.29

38F, partly cloudy, breezy, dry. Easy run.  20 minutes strength work. 

Pleasant run.  The air felt rather nippy after the higher temperatures we've been having.  I'm beginning a bit of taper now, though this week will not be much different.  I am going to try to make this my first anxiety-free taper (or nearly so), in terms of not freaking out about the lack of difficult workouts and long miles.  Instead I'm going to focus on getting more sleep and keeping my nutrition in line.  

We had some very bad news over the weekend, which I am just now feeling up to discussing openly. My mother-in-law has ovarian cancer. Her husband is still in a care facility from the health catastrophe of  November 08, of which I blogged back when it was happening.  I know this is going to have a big impact on our family. Mr. Sno is extremely close to his mother and I'm sure we will be going down to Phoenix more than once in the coming months.  

(Warning, long rant ahead. I'm more than a little upset. Feel free to skip.)  

This painful event in our lives brings the importance of personal health choices into greater focus than ever.  The medical profession and the ever-growing behemoth of the pharmaceutical industry are not going to save us. The food pyramid is an invention of the agriculture lobby (hint, it was created by the US Dept. of Agriculture) and will not guide you to a long, healthy life.  Each person must take responsibility for their own health.

And by the way, living a long life is not the goal. The goal is to not end up on oxygen, or in constant pain, or immobilized by ill health.  The goal is not to end up broken, and breaking the hearts of everyone who loves you. 

What if you learned today that most of what passes as "healthy diet" advice is based on politics rather than science, and is dead wrong?   There are several books which I wish very much I could give, by going back in a time machine, to my in-laws, my own parents, my younger self, and everyone I know.  They are:  Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, Primal Body Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and Cereal Killer by Alan Watson.   If you think that bread is literally the "staff of life," or that saturated fats cause heart disease, or that all calories are treated equally in the body, do yourself a favor. Read one of these books, preferable Taubes' but that is the most technical one (dry reading for some). 

I am a runner. I am supposed to love a high carb, low-fat diet.  I don't. I think that kind of diet is unscientific, unhealthy, and illogical from an evolutionary viewpoint.  Guess who believes (or believed, in the case of my deceased mother) in high-carb, low-fat diets?  My mother-in-law (rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowels, ovarian cancer), my father-in-law (necrosis of the colon, triple bypass surgery, numerous coronary events, obesity, and now completely immobile in a care facility taking a dixi cup full of pills 3 times a day), and my own mother (heart disease, bladder cancer, severe clinical depression).   

I know I sound preachy and I don't like that. I will very likely not mention this again for a long, long time.  But someone - actually a lot of someones - have to start saying this out loud.  We need to eat what our bodies evolved to thrive on.  Even runners.  Grass-fed meats, eggs, nuts, lots of vegetables, good fats - and lots of them, very low carbs, omega 3 fats.  Not: sugar, sodas, soy, grains, factory-farmed-corn-fed meats.  There are no ancient cave paintings of wheat fields, folks.  

I have ample reason to think that humans are designed to be runners. I also have ample reason to think that we are not supposed to pack sugar into our bodies in order to run.  Apart from the health issues that started this rant, there is the matter of healthy fuel sources for runners.  You can burn off lots of sugar, but you cannot burn off the damaging insulin.  And you cannot undo the damage of a high carbohydrate diet to your leptin - the most important hormone in your body.  (For references, please see the Gedgaudas book, above.)  "Whole grains?" Every carbohydrate that reaches your blood stream looks and acts like sugar; the pancreas doesn't care where it came from.  Living a carbohydrate (sugar) dominated diet is like heating your home with kindling. You must constantly put more on the fire.  Runners have to carb load, then eat gels during the run, then refuel after the run. And all day long the temperamental blood sugar levels demand more, putting your mood and energy at the mercy of the nearest bagel.  

It doesn't have to be this way. You do have a choice. If you ever considered kicking off your shoes to run barefoot like our ancestors did, could you not consider fueling your body the way they did as well?  They lived well, and contrary to popular belief, they lived long. 

If you made it this far, thank you for reading.  Be well. :)

Lunaracers II Miles: 5.29
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.060.000.000.007.06

48F, heavy rain w/ wind.  Easy run. 20 min. strength.

res-ig-na-tion. noun. 1. Seeing a full-on rainstorm coinciding precisely with your run on the hour-by-hour weather forecast and embracing the prospect of total saturation. 

Thank goodness for iPods.  I think anyone who loves too run can do without it, but when you need one, you really need one.   :)

Brooks ST3 Miles: 7.06
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.730.000.003.008.73

35F; patchy, thick fog.  ~3 mile warmup w/ hill sprints in last mile, VO2 half mile intervals x 6  w/ 2 min. recovery between, ~2 miles cool down.  Pace on half miles: 8:40, 8:12, 8:27, 8:22, 8:40, 8:10. 

I wish the splits were a little more consistent, but I was not running on totally flat streets, and had a few slow-downs with cars and turning corners as well.  I guess I did ok.  The reps were bit slower than my true 5K pace, even though they didn't feel easier.  I wonder if that's from being bundled up against the cold, or from lack of competition, or ???...  

The lovely fog left me covered with minute droplets of water; I looked all sparkly when I came home.  Finishing runs in dusky light now.

Brooks ST3 II Miles: 8.73
Comments(9)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.240.000.000.005.24

35F, clear, starry, and frosty.  Easy run.  20 min. strength work. 

Lots of frost on cars, and one bad patch of black ice which I saw just in time. I lead such a dare-devil life. 

Asics Piranha Miles: 5.24
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.531.670.000.0019.20

Mid 30s rising to high 40s, bright sunshine. Endurance run w/ club run, Leg Builder Hill at miles 10.8 to 12.8, and a bit of faster running before cool down mile. 

The faster bit at the end had to be in pieces when I found that even the slightest uphill climb had me panting for breath worse than a 5K.  The "pieces of fast" were: .46 @ 9:02,   .85 @ 9:08 and  .36 @ 8:51.  

Great run. No one to run with at the club, but lots of extra people today, so maybe the slow folks will come back soon as well.  

ST3-M Miles: 19.20
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
44.901.670.003.0049.57
Brooks T6 Miles: 4.05Lunaracers II Miles: 5.29Brooks ST3 Miles: 7.06Brooks ST3 II Miles: 8.73Asics Piranha Miles: 5.24ST3-M Miles: 19.20
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