Category Archives: Healthy Living

Day by Day

Sitting on a notepad next to me is a list of topics I plan to write about on this blog. In the drafts section of the blog editor are a handful of posts I’ve started but that aren’t quite ready to be published. And on the “notes” area of my Outlook program is another long list of things I’d like to research and write about here. Rather than complain about how there never seem to be enough hours in the day, as I’ve done before, I’m going to attempt the “day by day” strategy and just fit in what I can. On my run this morning I was thinking about all the things I haven’t done and all the things I have yet to start, blog posts being one of them.

I thought it might be helpful for both me and you to think through what has happened so far, reflect on how some things have been going, and figure out what’s next on life’s list. Ideally at the end, you’ll have something to look forward to reading and I will be accountable for getting it written.

Since the March 1st marathon and a month of recovery from ITBS, I am grateful to be back running again on a consistent schedule. I got very focused on strength training for a while, but there is some vortex that running pulls me into and it’s all I want to do. Since running had made its way back into my life, the weights have taken a back seat which goes very much against my original goal of having a better balanced work-out plan the second time around. Knowing that I will be in training mode soon, I need to work in the balance of cardio and strength training. So I am sorry to report that with the exception of core work-outs I have let the arm and leg exercises slide, but this will change starting today.

I also reported that I was going to be doing my first adventure race. Due to my own poor planning and schedule conflicts, I did not make it out to Rocky Gap for what would surely have been one of the more gratifying and challenging races on my calendar. Doing an adventure race is definitely still on my radar, however I think I’ll start with trail running first and build up an actual understanding of “off road” training before heading into the wilderness.

Cross-training is the one thing that has managed to remain a part of my new routine. Spin class continues to be at least a one time per week work-out for me and while I have yet to say that I love spinning, I can say I love the work-out that spinning provides. It makes me sweat like no other exercise makes me sweat and I am acutely aware of my beginner level skill at spinning so I welcome the challenge each time I go to the class, including the challenge of waking up at 5 a.m. to get to class on time. These are some of the things that have been going on over the last few months.

What’s Next?

With regard to races, I think I finally have my summer schedule figured out which is a huge relief because now I can start training and get some order back in my life. I plan to do the Ben Moore Memorial Half Marathon August 1st, followed by my first sprint triathlon in upstate New York with my brother-in-law on August 9th. I realize that back to back races might not be ideal but I feel as though with a solid three months to train for both that the tri training will keep me even better conditioned for a summer half marathon. The Annapolis 10-Miler is one of my favorite races and is August 30th, so that will be on the schedule as well. In June we’ll find out if I get into the NYC Marathon, so we’ll cross that marathon bridge when we come to it.

In addition to training for the above mentioned races, there will be a host of things I have to learn about triathlons and I plan to write about them as I discover the answers to my new questions. I am training again with my Polar heart rate watch and this is a subject I will cover here once I get it all figured out. I have some definite “user error” issues with the watch as well as a mental block in regard to how to train by heart rate; but I will learn and share.

I will continue to do reviews of training logs and have a couple more weeks using the Runner’s World log before I write the review, but I am eager to move on to the next log; we’ll just leave it at that for now.

One category that stands out on my multiple lists of blog topics are things in the “health” category. This blog is “Health and Running” and while running is by default a healthy thing to do, it is by no means the end all be all of health. Food and nutrition is a whole category of posts but as I am not a food or nutrition expert, I’m just a normal eater, I will explore some of my own food and nutrition questions and bring you the answers I find. A friend of mine just started a site aimed at helping others make informed eating decisions and with his knowledge and that of many other helpful resources and healthful eating experts, I imagine we will start to cover more of the “health” in Health and Running.

So that’s what’s next on my plate; feel free to add to it if you want. What’s next on yours?

Adjusting Routines

ph01938jMy goal all last winter was to keep running rather than fall into the pseudo-hibernation routine I’ve had in previous years. Because I had a goal and a training plan for the marathon I was motivated to get up and get going. Only a few mornings of extreme temperatures or winter storms kept me in bed, but otherwise I was out running in the dark and the cold and loving it. There is something about getting up early and starting the day with a work-out that makes me feel as though I’ve started the day on the right foot. By the time I start working, it’s rewarding to think about what I’ve already accomplished in the morning simply because I went for a run or to the gym.

In a perfectly balanced world I would get up at 5:30a.m. and get in a run or a spin class or a strength session and go on with my day, eating three perfectly balanced and healthy meals, and tuck myself into bed around 10p.m. only to start over the next day. For whatever reason, I have utterly lost that balance and those routines. Do you know that feeling? Where all of a sudden life takes over without you even knowing it and all the time you spend trying to catch up actually makes you fall farther behind? Or, at least it feels that way. Continue reading

Having a Health Profile

j0439599I recently got a letter in the mail from my insurance company inviting me to find out how healthy I am. It was the kind of mail that I normally would toss right into recycling until I realized it might make a good blog post. I decided to read further.

The insurance company has set up new online profile for its carriers where we can take a free, confidential survey that is supposed to identify risky or life threatening behaviors related to an individual’s lifestyle or medical history. As it turns out, I just requested from each of the women in my family their knowledge of our family’s medical history because I realized every time I go to the doctor (which is extremely rare) I have to fill out the medical history portion of some form and I am not well educated on what has or hasn’t happened in my family. If you’re not sure if there is a history of cancer or diabetes or high blood pressure or a host of others in your family, start asking.

Knowing I finally have some medical background on my family, which is thankfully pretty clean, I decided to take the survey and find out its analysis of my health. The program focuses on risk factors that you can control or change to improve your health and the insurance company makes it clear that the assessment is just one tool for evaluating an individual’s current health status and risk factors. Continue reading

Am I a Weekend Warrior?

Photo by Kwadwo Kwarte.

Photo by Kwadwo Kwarte.

A few weeks ago I joined the online group for my local trail running club because I decided that once I get back into training (starting tomorrow as a matter of fact!) I’d like to mix up my normal street runs with some trails. I have always loved the North Face ad that stares at me from my running magazines and challenges me to “run my self-doubt into the ground.” I have a couple friends who are big into adventure racing and one that is now training for a fall Half Ironman because the JFK 50-miler just wasn’t brutal enough for him. I’ve been intrigued by his photos on Facebook–he’s dirty, sweaty, trekking through mud, in one there are icicles on his eyelashes, but his number is securely pinned to the front of his gear and he simply looks like a badass. And he loves the race.

I know little about adventure racing and perhaps that’s why I want to try it. What better way to learn than by doing? I also had the chance to meet Jim Harman who owns EX2 Adventures which puts on a range of stellar endurance, triathlon, mountain biking, trail running, team, and relay events in my local area. He absolutely lives for adventure and his enthusiasm for it is contagious. So contagious in fact that now I’m going to be heading to Rocky Gap at the end of this month for the 4th annual Greenhorn Adventure Race, though I’ll be doing the new beginner course. Continue reading

Fitness Philosophy: Finding a Starting Point

j0433055This post will be one in a series as I don’t think it’s possible to capture in one sitting my thoughts behind having a fitness philosophy let alone what my own philosophy is. I’ve had the fortune to meet a local trainer whose programs focus on total body conditioning, but rely heavily on the individual’s ability to set goals and mean what they say in their desire to achieve those goals. I’ve been corresponding with the trainer about my own fitness aspirations and have found myself wanting to really answer this question honestly.

I started the year with my goal of running a marathon–check. Planned to run the Cooper River Bridge Run–check. I’m not currently signed up for anymore events though I did register for the NYC Marathon and am anxiously awaiting June to see where I land in the lottery. I know I want to do the local Annapolis 10-miler and a triathlon this summer and hopefully another marathon in the fall. But I’ve been feeling gun shy about registering for anything. Continue reading

The Puppy Power Walk

Murphy Brown patiently waiting to play.A key element to living a healthy lifestyle is simply getting in some form of exercise that is enough to raise your heart rate and which is typically recommended to be 30 minutes per day. It doesn’t sound hard, but for some reason, sometimes getting in 30 minutes of heart pumping exercise is the last thing you want to do. If you’re tired, injured, bored, indifferent, frustrated, too busy, or any number of other excuses we can conjure up, there is one thing that will almost always bring motivation–the unconditional loving eyes and happily wagging tail of a four-legged friend.

My furry pal is Murphy Brown, a chocolate lab/pitbull mix who sits under my feet all day long, loyal and content. Her real passion is playing fetch; it’s something she could do for hours on end no matter how tired she gets. When she was a puppy she was more than happy to run alongside me for three or more miles. As she got older she cared much more about smells and marking various territories than she did at keeping pace. She can still run with me, but only for about 3 miles and I’m sure she’d rather be sniffing or chasing her ball in the backyard. Continue reading

Thinking While Doing

PARISThe past couple weeks I have gotten into spinning and strength training in lieu of my regular morning runs while my IT band gets back to normal. I am definitely enjoying the change in routine and appreciate the challenges of these new work-outs. I’m testing out the Runner’s World training log this month and one of the fields you can complete allows you to rate your effort as well as the quality of your work-out on a scale of 1 to 10 and I’m finding that with these new work-outs I have to put in a lot of effort but am not getting the quality I’d want because everything is so new.

Running for me still remains the ultimate work-out not just because of the calories it sheds or the lean frame it allows me to build, but also because of the mental balance I can achieve when running. Despite the enjoyment of these new work-outs, I miss running terribly for it’s mental stimulation, quiet focus, and creative freedom. On any given run my thoughts would move between concentrating on my form to planning my “to do” list to thinking through poems to simply taking in my surroundings. Every day I could start with a run was inevitably a better day for it because the run would give me time to wake-up my body and my mind and prepare for the day ahead. Continue reading

Slow it Down

j0438725Lately it feels like life has been moving full speed ahead; this is definitely true for me and many of my friends and people I come in contact with on a regular basis. We cram as much as possible into each day, we start early, end late, we say “yes” to everything, and end up rushing from one thing to the next.

I recently had an epiphany that this same fast pace has made it’s way into exercise as well. There are two pilates classes with different instructors that I take pretty regularly at my gym. The two instructors have very different styles: one is more traditional following the “basic 10” movements with steady transitions from one movement to the next and the other instructor combines traditional pilates movements with additional strength exercises using a bar, weight, and lightweight, small medicine ball. With both of these instructors I feel like I get in a great work-out and I’m always impressed with how much they fit into one hour.

At pilates this week, I set my mat down with the others in the class and stretched while waiting for the instructor. A couple minutes before start time, a woman walked in, put her mat at the front of the room, and I quickly realized we had a substitute. She was the woman who teaches the third pilates class at my gym which happens to be at times I can never attend. This instructor (and I don’t mean to stereotype here) had the personality of a step aerobics instructor; she was high energy, loud, and conversational. At first I missed the calm, quiet of the other instructors, but it didn’t take long for me to truly appreciate following someone new. Continue reading

Starting to Spin

Photo by Chrisobal82.

Photo by Chrisobal82.

The room was dark, a fan was blowing on me from the corner, I was slightly uncomfortable on my seat, I was focusing on the upbeat music the instructor had chosen, and in my mind I was pedaling along an uphill road that I had once biked along in Cape Town, South Africa. Except that I was on a stationary bike in Charleston, South Carolina. Soon I was sweating profusely and by the end of my first spinning class I was drenched, sore in places I didn’t think possible, and my legs were shaking from being pushed like they had never been pushed before.

That was seven years ago. I’m grateful to have taken spinning classes before because I know from personal experience what an incredible work-out a well taught spinning class is and that the harder you’re willing to try, the better the class can be. In college I might have taken a couple dozen spinning classes which was great for when I needed to get in a good sweat, but not enough to get me totally hooked. Though I enjoyed the spinning classes I took in Charleston, since graduating from college I have focused my energy mostly on running. Continue reading

What Kind of Athlete Are You?

j01825271Running is a fascinating sport to me because nearly anyone can run and it can be done at almost any stage in life. Of course, not everyone likes to run and there are many other sports that welcome athletes of all levels with open arms. I have a number of friends who consider themselves beginner runners and I know plenty of people who hate running but love biking, lacrosse, swimming, tennis, pilates, and every sport in between. In trying to define what kind of athlete I am, I also find myself asking what kind of athlete to I want to be. I have always considered myself a runner at an intermediate level with middle distances as my preferred “natural selection.” However, in recovering from ITBS, I have found myself trying to become a more diverse athlete.

One interpretation of the question of “what kind of athlete are you?” is about how you perform as an athlete rather than whether you are a walker, runner, weight lifter, biker, etc. Are you a casual athlete? Consistent, competitive, weight-loss driven, diverse in your sports, beginner at everything, advanced in something? Again, I always put myself in this “runner” bubble at the self-appointed intermediate level, but the more I think about it, the less I know how to answer the question of what I want to be. I love running but I don’t know that I want to be an elite runner. I don’t feel compelled to try to win any of the races I enter, but I do want to consistently improve my personal records. I also don’t want to lose the joy found in simply going for a run.

In the hopes of adding a triathlon or two to my race schedule, I’d also like to become a biker and understand proper form, performance, and training as it relates to cycling. There is no doubt that I am a beginner biker and despite the fact that I can swim, I would place myself at the below-beginner level of swimming, if such a category exists. Continue reading