Full Circle

This week our lesson for Girls on the Run was about being grateful and taking time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for.

And the girls had to run their laps... without partners... in silence...

One of the most rewarding parts of coaching is all the perspective it brings. I had a lousy day at work that day, left the office crying on the phone to one of my co-workers, then came to our running group where I was greeted by an excited group of girls ready to run! :)

I watched them write down things they were thankful for and it was a reminder of simpler times. A time where you were grateful for "puppys" and "elefans" and when the WORST thing to happen to you all week was being forced to run in silence for 20 minutes...

Makes all that client stuff seems silly sometimes :)

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Literally minutes after Chris and I started our long run this weekend she hit an uneven part of the pavement and was launched a few feet in the air and landed right on her elbow!

It was so scary! We were, of course, out in the dark at 5:50 in the morning, and lucky enough to be near a starbucks that had just opened. We grabbed her some coffee, then she headed back home and to the emergency room.

I was in starbucks at 6 am, and didn't have anywhere to be for two hours so I finally started reading "4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon," and then took off for a quick 6-miler... alone.

With no running partner, I was forced to run in silence.

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It had been a while since I had run alone. And I did spend the time reflecting on things I'm grateful for... especially all the wonderful people I've been running with :)

Then I thought about how Bridget and I started running Queen Anne Hill. Something I never thought was possible before. And how overwhelmed I feel at work sometimes and the only way to get through it is to buckle down and take care of one thing at a time.

That's the way all things are possible, from running marathons, to losing 100 pounds. Anything is possible one small change at a time.

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I also got to thinking, this "4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon" is totally possible... I WILL pick a race this week. :) And I'm really excited!

Stay tuned!

Heart Rate and Fat burn (heart burn and fat rate?)

Although I haven't been to the gym in months, I was always mystified by the heart rate scales on the treadmills and elliptical machines. For some reason if your heart rate stays lower you are in "Fat burn" territory. However, when your heart rate gets higher your workout is considered "Cardio."

WTF?

I thought the whole point of doing cardio workouts was to burn fat?

I read this fantastic book, Marathoning for Mortals, which I highly recommend to anyone even remotely interested in running. Here's a section from their book that breaks it down:

"You run all of your tempo workouts just below your anaerobic threshold, that is, the level at which your body begins to burn the short supply of glycogen or sugar in your system at a higher rate. Your muscles can burn one of two types of fuel–fat or glycogen (stored carbohydrates). At lower intensities–such as walking–your muscles prefer to burn mostly fat for fuel. However the higher your intensity, the more glycogen your muscles burn.

"You can go for days on fat stores but only a few hours on glycogen. The body is always using a ratio of both, but for the purpose of a successful and comfortable race, you want to burn a higher rate of fat.

"Your tempo workouts will allow you to raise your threshold. Ultimately, your body will burn a higher percentage of fat for a longer period of time at a higher intensity. This not only helps you lose weight; it also bolsters your endurance. The more your body burns fat for fuel, the more it conserves glycogen and the longer you can run without feeling tired."

Hey, I'm a fan of burning fat, So I think I'll keep up the tempo runs!

I mean, it makes sense that you can build endurance by increasing your threshold. And really I've seen evidence in my own running career.

Presently I am reading The Complete Book of Running for Women, where I discovered that women store the same amount of glycogen whether we eat a diet containing 60 or 75% carbohydrates, but we burn more fat than carbohydrates or protein compared to men. Which means our glycogen store will last longer.

So.... if I keep up the tempo work and maintain a healthy amount of carbs and fat in my diet I will be able to run forever...

Or cover the same amount of distance in less time...

I prefer the latter. Even though I totally agree with C.S. Lewis when he said, "If one could run without getting tired I don't think one would often want to do anything else," let's face it, comrades, the best part of distance running is when you're finished.

The musical fruit...

I got this tip from my sistafriend:

It said that fruit is very unique in that it contains enzymes and has a ton of nutrients. So when you eat fruit by itself, it digests very quickly on its own and gets the nutrients directly into the blood stream. But when you eat fruit along with your meal, it gets slowed down and doesn't digest as efficiently. So to get the most impact, fruit should be eaten as a snack between meals (at least 30 minutes before or after).

She read about it in "Skinny Bitch." I think that will be next in cue...

"My first book is fit or fat"... or Fit and Fat

Randomly, I saw mention of this book, "Fat Fallacy" on a message board, and immediately ordered it in Amazon. The premise is that Americans eat a low-fat diet and manage to be the fattest people in the world, while the french eat rich indulgent foods and maintain their slender frames and this book will tell us what the secret is.

Even though I strongly recommend reading this book, I'm going to tell you the secret anyway (I don't think you'll be surprised): The eat real food, we eat chemicals disguised as food that manage to ruin our nervous system, give us heart disease and cancer, and make us... fat.

It seems as though nutrition scientists are looking for he one element that can cure us from fatness. They notice that people who eat vegetables have lower chances for cardio-vascular disease. The scientists realize the veggies draw their super power from beta-carotene. So they find a way to extract the beta-carotene, but it in pill form (with other synthetic properties), and viola! We can get the effects of eating vegetables without having the suffer through all those greens.

Now, here's where it get's tricky. Of course scientific tests can show a plethora of results, but in people who took beta-carotene vs. the placebo there was not a significant difference in people who got heart disease.

So once the book teaches you to look at nutrition data in our country with a skeptical eye, you start to think about all the fad diets. Remember when butter was bad for you? Aren't carbs the devil? We were supposed to avoid nuts and oils, and now we're told we should be consuming at least two teaspoons of oil a day. Now we're knee deep in good fats vs. bad fats. The funny thing is natural fats aren't bad for us, it's the fats created by to help extend the shelf life.

What I took away from the book was that our body was created to process a certain amount of fat. By eating a fat free diet, our body goes into fat starvation mode, so it holds onto what fat you already have. It requires so many chemicals to remove the natural fats from wonderful food like cheese. And artificial sweetners that have terrible chemical reactions when they enter our bodies, or can be linked to cancer, heart-disease, and diabetes. We should be avoiding aspartame, dyes, high-fructose corn syrup, olestra... I'll get to that in a different post.

It has a little bit of a diet to follow; more like guidelines. But overall it initiates a first step in establishing a better relationship with our food.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: If it's not food don't eat it.