Monthly Archives: November 2011
How to Plan Your Own Turkey Trot
| November 28, 2011 | Posted by Lauren under LifeontheRun, Running |
I know it’s getting a little late to be doing Thanksgiving-ish posts, but seeing as some of us are still running off all those Thanksgiving Day treats, I figure it’s relevant. …even though I have to admit that the HOTR-house moved straight from Thanksgiving to Christmas in a matter of days. What can I say? It’s my favorite season.
But I digress. Despite the fact that EC wouldn’t go all out by dressing up in a turkey costume for the occasion, planning my Thanksgiving Day run was a very serious affair. In order to ensure success, I followed a few “very important” steps:
How To Plan Your Own Turkey Trot
Step 1: Convince your significant other to run with you on Thanksgiving morning. Seems simple, but this is perhaps the most vital step of all. Turkey Trots just aren’t quite the same when you’re running them by yourself.
Step 2: As soon as he reluctantly agrees, give your run an official name to drum up the excitement. Yes, I know – technically this is just a regular old morning run, but it’s a lot more fun to call it the First Annual LB&EC Turkey Trot…okay?
Step 3: Carefully plan out your route. Per strict instructions from EC, it must be exactly 3.1 miles (5K) – no more, no less.
Step 4: Dress yourself up with a little extra sparkle. Even though this will be a completely untimed run, wearing your racing colors won’t hurt.
Step 5: Arrive at the starting line pumped up and ready to tackle this competitive race un-timed and completely relaxed jaunt around town.
Step 6: Make sure you’ve actually memorized the route before starting off on your run…otherwise you may forget where to turn, causing your carefully planned out perfect 3.1 mile loop to turn into a 3.4 mile loop (because everyone knows it’s better to run too long “just in case” then wind up not running long enough.
Step 7: There is no step 7. Just finish the run and go get cleaned up. There’s turkey to eat! Or – if you’re a vegetarian like me, lots of vegetables covered with sugar and butter. In fact, I don’t think I ate one vegetable all day that didn’t also have {LOTS of} sugar and butter on it. So delicious. And just the start of what I’m sure is going to be a delectable holiday season.
A Few Things You Should Know
| November 23, 2011 | Posted by Lauren under LifeontheRun |
1.) About yesterday’s post: Thank you all for weighing in. I realize that not everyone agrees with me, but I hope I never make you feel as though you can’t express your opinion in the comments section of my blog. I know part of the point of even having a blog is discussion, so you are always welcome to disagree. I may write back and explain more about why I feel the way I do (it is my blog, after all), but I in no way mean to invalidate anyone’s opinion.
Related to that – a few of you mentioned education and other school programs that help students access healthy foods and encourage them to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. I don’t mean to take away from the great things that schools around the country (including in my own tiny state of RI) are doing. And I think that important work should continue. However, I also think it’s only part of the solution. We can’t have a government that on one hand says they are committed to solving America’s weight problem and then on the other hand are making policy decisions based on the highest bidder. Corporations have way too much sway over the policies in this country. A fact that I find so incredibly frustrating.
Okay, I’m off my soapbox now. I promise. Moving on…
2.) About work: I didn’t get home from work until midnight last night. And today I am the only person from my team who is actually in the office. Which means that it’s a large coffee kind of day.
Even a huge coffee from one of the best coffee shops in Providence isn’t enough to get me through this day
Now before you go thinking I’m some sort of super star employee, let me qualify that above statement with two facts.
a.) I wasn’t actually in an office until midnight last night. That would have been awful. I have to admit that fact alone was enough to make working so late not all that bad. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was one of my best days at work in a long time…especially since it ended with chocolate lava cake. At the risk of sounding cliché, it doesn’t really feel like work when you love what you’re doing.
b.) The only reason that I’m actually at work today (while everyone else is starting the holiday celebrations early) is because I don’t have the vacation time not to be. Not because I love this place so much. I guess I’ve been taking a little bit too much time off lately to run races.
3.) About Thanksgiving: I haven’t been able to go home for Thanksgiving in long time, which always makes me just a little sad around this time of year. But then I remember how lucky I am to have another family to take me in. And not to have to drive through a torrential downpour to get home. Or sit in awful Thanksgiving traffic. It’s the little things…
4.) About Turkey Trots: I have never in all my life participated in one. There really is no excuse for this, seeing as I usually run on Thanksgiving morning anyway. I was determined to finally break the streak this year, and sign up for the first ever family Turkey Trot in Providence. But then I found out that the Thanksgiving “dinner” I’ve been invited to is at noon. And it’s a couple of hours away. The turkey trot starts at 10. Something tells me I’m not going to make it.
So, instead EC and I are planning our own. I love this kid, but it’s not everyday that I can actually get him to agree to run with me. So you better believe I’ll be making the most of this opportunity. I’m already working on mapping out a route, and have considered making him dress up for the occasion.
(Source)
I think this will do.
5.) About contest winners: Last but definitely not least - it’s been over two weeks, and the winner of my Team Sparkle Skirt giveaway never claimed her prize. I feel really bad about the whole thing, especially because I know I’ve entered giveaways before and then completely forgotten to go back and check on them. But if you enter a contest on a blog, it’s not the blogger’s responsibility to track you down. I’m sorry, but it’s not. There were so many people who entered that I wish I could give a Team Sparkle skirt to all of you.
That said, it’s time to pick a new winner. And that person is…
You have a week to claim your prize, so email me! (please!!)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Pizza = Congress’s Favorite Vegetable
| November 21, 2011 | Posted by Lauren under Public Health Rambles |
Congress may not have solved our debt crises yet, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy – busy over-ruling proposed changes to school nutrition requirements that would have helped make them healthier.
I’m sure most of you have heard the news by now. But if you’re like me and get all your news from SNL’s Weekend Update are sometimes a little slow on the uptake, you may have missed the latest controversy over pizza being declared as a vegetable by our admirable Congress. A fact so completely ridiculous, that it seems just made for a comedy skit.
Click here to view on Hulu.com (if the above video doesn’t work).
Okay, so Congress didn’t really make some crazy declaration that pizza is now considered a vegetable. What they did do, however, was vote against new USDA guidelines in the agriculture appropriations bill that would have increased the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in school cafeterias and decreased the amount of pizza and french fries. And in doing so, they asserted the belief that a quarter cup of tomato paste is considered a serving of vegetables. Because apparently tomato paste (on it’s own) has lots of nutrients in it.
So when you take that paste, mix it with other ingredients, and put it on a pizza loaded with cheese and pepperoni, you can rest easy knowing that you are still getting a nice serving of vegetables. Add to that my second favorite vegetable – french fries deep fried in oil (they’re made of potatoes after all!) and you’ve got a well-rounded lunch.
Don’t get me wrong. I love pizza. A lot. It’s one of my favorite ways to carbo-load or refuel after a hard run. And I also know there are ways to make pizza healthier – whole grain crust, limited cheese, and lots of veggies are all positive changes you can make to your standard pie to up the nutritional value. But is the pizza served in most school cafeterias “healthy?” Not based on these ingredients:
(From the Huffington Post)
That’s hardly even recognizable as food.
There are those (like Congress, apparently) who don’t really think this is such a big deal. After all, kids are going to eat what they like, right? You can’t force them to eat fresh foods and vegetables because you make it more available. If a kid wants pizza, he’s going to eat pizza.
Without going into the behavior debate, I will simply say that the argument presented above misses the point entirely. In my mind, why this is such a big deal is twofold:
1.) It is a step in the complete opposite direction that this country needs to be heading. Obesity among children is a very real problem. It’s not just about having a little bit of extra weight on you – it’s about a medical condition that impacts your health. It’s about an epidemic that has led to the predictions that this generation of children will be the first to have shorter life expectancies than their parents (source). 17% of U.S. children between the ages of 2 and 17 are obese. Not just overweight, but obese. This number has tripled since 1980 and particularly affects children of low income families (families who the school lunch programs are put in place to serve) (Source).
See more on Know Your Meme
2.) It is a sickening example of how money drives decisions, not interest in the public good. Apparently big food companies didn’t like what they were going to lose if this bill had been passed. As of November 1st, the food industry had spent $5.6 million lobbying against the proposal (source). And in the end, that money spoke. Loud and clear. In a very well articulated article in the Huffington Post, Kristen Wartman writes (emphasis added):
Many conservative lawmakers are also insisting that the federal government shouldn’t tell people what to eat. This is the same argument Sarah Palin used against Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to the rallying cry, “nanny-state.”
But the government clearly does not control the food Americans eat. Corporations do.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. We face this problem in public health all the time. Our government-funded and non-profit organizations can’t compete against the lobbyists from big food and beverage companies. We don’t have the money, the staff, or the reach (not to mention the fact that it’s illegal for government employees to actually lobby for things. Minor detail.). I guess I just would have expected more from a body that is supposed to be relying on expert advice to develop and enact laws, not money from corporate lobbyists.
(Source)
For further reading, I would actually encourage you to read the entire article in the Huffington Post, as well as the other articles she has linked to.
And for some comic relief, please see Marion Nestle’s post.
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And now, as always, I want to know what you think. Bad decision by Congress? Or something the media (and this blog) is blowing out of proportion?
About that Return to Running
| November 18, 2011 | Posted by Lauren under Running |
…it wasn’t quite as glorious as I had imagined.
Today is Friday, and I’ve run a total of 2 days this week. I plan on bringing that number up to 3 this afternoon. Maybe.
Even though I felt all fired up about running on Sunday night, I didn’t actually run on Monday. A long day spent in the car was enough to take away any motivation that had built up over the weekend. But on Tuesday morning I got up bright and early, determined to make my triumphant return. Before running, I popped in the one workout DVD that I own. I figured that Level 3 of the 30 Day Shred* was exactly what I needed to start toning up muscles that are beginning to feel a little marshmallowy. After 30 minutes with Jillian Michaels (that nearly killed me), it was finally time to run. So I laced up my shoes, strapped on my fully charged Garmin, and was off.
I’d love to tell you that my rested legs returned effortlessly to running. That I floated along the street, so happy to be back out there. That’s what I had imagined my run would be like, anyway. But in reality, I just sort of trudged along slowly. I kept the pace really easy and wasn’t struggling, but I didn’t exactly feel excited about running in that moment. I managed 4.5 miles before knee pain drove me back home.
I attempted another run yesterday, and although that went better than Tuesday’s jog, it brings my total to a whopping 10.5 miles for the week. Maybe I’ll bring that number up to 20 by the weekend. We’ll see. Honestly, I don’t really care about numbers at the moment. My plan for the next couple of months is to just run when I feel like it. Maybe I’ll run 10 miles a week, maybe I’ll run more. I’m not going to stress.
I actually look forward to these down times in my training. They give me a chance to refocus and rebuild. Plus, I think that most of us can agree that as great as running is, it’s not the only (or even the most important) form of physical activity. I’ve talked about this before, but I’m actually in better all around shape when I run less and focus on cross training and lifting more. Partially because it uses different muscles, and partially because I no longer use my mileage as an “excuse” to eat whatever I want.
So when I say that I want to return to training, you should know that I am using that term loosely. Very loosely. I don’t really plan to get back into training until around the 1st of the year. Until then, my very unspecific, totally relaxed {don’t get completely out of shape} plan will consist of:
- Running 3 – 4 times a week, unless I feel inspired to do more
- Cross training another 2 – 3 days a week
- Strength training 2 – 3 times per week
I try to focus more on strength training/lifting when I’m not in the middle of training for a race, not because I love it, but because it makes me stronger. Also, it helps keep off the extra pounds that would otherwise creep on from my reduced mileage and increased holiday food intake. A necessary evil, of sorts. I will say now that I hope to keep up my lifting routine once marathon training starts again, but I’ve never been truly successful with this in the past. So I’m not making any promises.
Anyway the point of this rambling post is this: I may not know everything there is to know about running, but I do know my body. And I know that I do better in the long run when I give myself the chance to rest. If you can jump right back into training after running a hard marathon, more power to you. I am not a runner that can. I don’t fear rest days or weeks when I don’t run as much because my goal is to continue running for a very long time. In the scheme of an entire lifetime, a couple of weeks isn’t going to make or break me as a runner. (If you want to read more, in the past I’ve written in detail about why I think rest is so important)
To close on a completely unrelated note, here are a couple more awesome running picture for you. So flattering. And such model form.
Please note the crazy fingers in the photo below. For whatever reason, I do weird things with my hands when I get tired. If you see me running with my fingers splayed out like that, it’s a sure sign that I’m not doing so well.
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*I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t really use the DVD correctly. If you ever want to hear more about my super technical 30 Day Shred mentality, I’ll let you know. But basically – I use it more for a core strengthening/toning workout than a way to “shred” the pounds. I don’t do the workouts everyday so whenever I want to workout at home, I just put in Level 3. I’ve never actually done a workout from the other two levels. I assume they’re just okay.
On Not Running
| November 16, 2011 | Posted by Lauren under LifeontheRun, Running |
Today I want to let you all in on a little secret. A secret that may come as a bit of a surprise…or at least make me feel like an impostor in the running blogging world.
Do you want to know what I love almost as much as I love running?
NOT running.
Yes, you heard me right, and I know there’s a chance you might now be a little confused. If you’ve been reading Health on the Run for any amount of time, you may have quickly figured out that there is a heavy emphasis on the “on the run” part. In the year and a half or so that I’ve been blogging, the majority of my posts have been about running. Which may have led you to believe that I pretty much love running more than anything in the world.
That belief would be false. Because, let’s be honest here. I’m not a running machine. Yes, running is an important part of my life and yes, I love the way that I feel when I’m doing it. But I also love the way that I feel when I’m sitting on the couch eating ice cream. So there’s that…
For the past couple of weeks, I haven’t really run much at all. It all started out as marathon recovery. I always take a complete week off of running after a marathon to recover (both physically and mentally) and though I finished MCM feeling pumped up about training to run faster, this time was no exception. After that week, I tried running a couple of times and cross trained once, but my legs weren’t really feeling it. Then the week got busy, and then I took a long trip, and before I knew it all thoughts of jumping back into running went out the window.
When you regularly blog about your running, it feels a little weird to write, “Not only am I not running at the moment, but I’m barely doing anything that remotely resembles physical activity. Instead, I’ve been sitting around on my butt and eating lots of delicious treats. And you know what? I’m loving every minute.” Because I assure you that I was.
The funny thing about it all is, the longer you don’t run, the easier it is not to. Sure I had a voice in the back of my head every single day telling me that I should maybe go for a run. And I still thought about running a good portion of the time. But as each day passed without a run, that voice got quieter and quieter – until it was a whisper I barely thought about at all.
So where am I going with this? I promise there’s a point.
On Sunday evening, I was on a walk with some of my family and the dogs. It was taking longer than we had expected, it was getting darker, and my dad started thinking that my mom would be worried about us…or that the birthday dinner she was preparing for him would get cold. So he half-jokingly suggested I run back to tell her the rest of them would be home soon.
Since I hadn’t run in more days than I’d like to admit, I jumped at the chance. I knew my “well rested” legs would be ready to move. Without a second’s hesitation, I took off down the road, effortlessly gliding through the night. As I pumped my arms and sped faster through the dark I couldn’t help but think about how amazing this was. I was flying. I was alive.
For about 10 seconds. And then my lungs started seizing up and my breath grew heavy and just like that, I came rocketing back down to earth again. My weightless legs were suddenly two bricks that took all my energy to lift. I was no longer a bird gliding through the night. I was a loud, awkward elephant clumping along.
I could blame it on the fact that I was running in skinny jeans and a long sweater. Or that my lungs probably just weren’t used to that fresh Pennsylvania air. But I think we all know the truth – I was just really really out of shape (at least aerobically).
Determined not to let my family see me struggle, I kept up the charade. I wheezed and trudged all the way back home (a whole 3/4 of a mile. whew!). And then I proceeded to wheeze for a good half an hour after.
That was the tipping point. I know two weeks of inactivity isn’t really that long in the scheme of things. I know that lots of rest is important after a training cycle if you want to be able to attack the next one head on. And I also know that I tend to lose aerobic fitness faster than the average person (asthma will do that to you). But despite all that, suddenly sitting around and doing nothing didn’t feel so wonderful anymore. The rest period needed to be over. It was time to get back to training.
But first, I was going to have a piece of cake. Training could wait until Monday.
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