Weekly recap 3-25-13 to 3-31-13

Well, I’ve had an interesting week.  A lot of running related things but not a whole lot of running.  I hit the elliptical on Tuesday because of some soreness in my ankle after spin class on Monday, on Thursday I had the Dick Beardsley event, which I keep forgetting to blog about but I’ll get to it, I did manage to squeeze in 3.5 miles on Friday with a day off work, and then Saturday volunteered at two different races, the Lillie’s Friends 5K in the morning and then the Indoor Ultimate Runner in the afternoon which my friend Jennifer was volunteering at.

Starting Weight – 246.0
Monday – Spinning – 50 minutes
Tuesday – Elliptical – 60 minutes
Wednesday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Thursday – REST (Dick Beardsley Event)
Friday – Run – 3.5 miles
Saturday – REST (Race volunteering)
Sunday – Walking – 30 minutes
Total Mileage – 3.5 miles
Ending Weight – 245.0 (1 pound lost*)

The Y was closed today, so my weigh in was at home and not on the locker room scale like usual, so I’m going to take that with a slight grain of salt, but happy to be moving down again.  I hopped on the scale midweek last week and was at 248, so it’s likely more than a 1 pound loss, but I didn’t mark that down so it’s not “official”.  It’s also mostly water weight fluctuations the way I’ve been eating crappy lately.  Gotta get back on track.

Too fat to run?

This morning a friend at work approached me to ask my opinion on something that had happened to her the night before.  It appalled me so much I had to write about it, so you guys will get to hear my opinion as well.

She was at the gym running on the treadmill (run/walk interval training) and when she finished she was approached by a young woman who worked at the gym and the woman told her “You know you shouldn’t be running.” asking for clarification my co-worker asked “Is it because treadmills are bad for your knees? Should I be running outside instead?” to which the woman replied “No, you shouldn’t be running at all, you’re too fat to run.  You need to lose another 50 pounds before you should start running”.  Of course, this was devastating to my co-worker who has worked hard and has already lost 15 pounds, but this woman, no matter how “well intentioned” her advice was WAY off base on SO many levels.

First and foremost, she gave her “advice” in the most insulting way possible with absolutely NO tact.  If that was her opinion that’s fine, but she should have had a good reason for it, such as an injury concern or something of that nature.  Not just being “too big”.. that’s not enough of a reason.

Second, as someone who started running at 355 pounds I can say for a FACT that my co-worker is NOT too big to run, and as a matter of fact NO ONE is.  You don’t have to run far or run fast to be a “runner”.  And if you absolutely cannot run, you can WALK.  We all walk everyday, but walking for fitness is different than walking around a store or walking at work.  If you walk with purpose you will walk faster, walk longer and walk further.  You can increase your heartrate with just walking if it’s brisk enough.

Lastly, to lose weight you have to do aerobic exercises.  Exercises that will get your muscles exchanging CO2 and burning calories.  You have to increase your heartrate to pump all that blood to the muscles, and also your heart is one of the strongest muscles in your body and just getting IT pumping burns calories regardless of what you’re doing with your legs.  Running is one of the BEST cardio exercises.  It uses those big huge muscles in your legs which are a FURNACE for burning calories.  You can’t tell someone they need to lose weight to run.  NO, you need to run to lose wieght! It’s that simple.

Don’t let ANYONE (including your own inner voice) tell you that you are too big to do ANYTHING especially not exercise.  Otherwise you will never be able to make the change.  Run, walk, cycle, swim whatever works for YOU. DO IT.

Like the Nike ads say… JUST DO IT.

Disney has jumped the shark…

Well, they’ve finally done it.  They’ve gone too far.  I knew something like this was bound to happen but I didn’t expect it to happen this soon.

runDisney has made the announcement on the Disney Parks Blog of a new race and a new challenge for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon weekend.   The Goofy’s Race and a half Challenge (running both the half and full) has been around since 2006.  At some point along the way runners added the 5K to the mix for an “unofficial” challenge referred to as the Dopey Challenge, since if running a half and full marathon back to back is Goofy than surely running a 5K, half and then full back to back to back had to be “Dopey”.

Well, Disney has now made the Dopey challenge official… with a twist.  They’ve added a 10K to the mix (who’s “host” and medal will be Minnie Mouse) and instead of the Dopey being a 3 race challenge they went ahead and jumped to a four race challenge and made it the 5K, 10K, Half and then Full back to back to back to back.  The haul for this is 6 medals – 5K, 10K, Half, Full, Goofy and Dopey.  You get credit for the Goofy challenge for doing the Dopey, which I imagine is only fair.

I don’t like this for a myriad of reasons.  First, this pushes the 5K to Thursday, which complicated travel plans (and days off for those of us who, ya know, work for a living) and lodging.  If you want to come in on Saturday just to run the Full marathon only on Sunday? HA… good luck. Second, the 5K starts at 6:30AM, and the 10K start at 5:30AM just like the half and the full, so you are looking at four mornings in a row of getting up at 2AM or so to get to the start, even if you are staying on park property.  I don’t see how this is fun.  It was bad enough doing it for one race like I did. Last, it’s a money grab… pure and simple.  I love Disney, I really do, but this goes too far.  How much does it cost for the “honor” of four days of torture.  A cool five Benjamins ($495 until June 18).

This past year I paid $150 to run the half marathon by registering for it as soon as it opened.  This year the opening registration is $160.  Ok, so it’s only $10, what’s the big deal.  The big deal is it goes up every year.  Until they reach the point of diminishing returns (i.e. the price gets so high the race does not sell out) it will continue to go up.  That means in 10 years the Disney half marathon will cost $250.  Think about that. I saw someone who posted on the Half Fanatics facebook page that the Dopey was only $20 more than the combined prices of all four races.  Wait… $20 MORE? You don’t even get a discount for registering for multiple races? Damn the extra medals and the extra shirt, most other places with race combos (like the Flying Pirate or the St Leo’s this year) the price for the double is LESS than the individual prices.

Thinking back to this past year’s race experience I shudder to think what next year will be like.  Almost 60,000 runners between the three races.  The expo was MOBBED even when I went on it’s second day.  The race course was MOBBED or as one of my fellow racers so eloquently put it “We were ass-to-elbow the entire time”.  Adding an extra race and an extra day is only going to make this worse.  Now that the shorter races are part of the challenge, they are going to sell out faster and they are going to fill up with people who are doing the challenge rather than who just want to do only the 5K, or only the 10K.  Will they cap it like the Goofy so that the 5K and 10K are not 100% full of Dopey participants, yes, I’m sure they will, but it will still take a huge chunk out of both of those races. 25%? 50%? Where will they cap it?

I have other Disney races I want to run.  I’d like to run the Disneyland half in California (or even the Tink).  Lisa wants to run the Wine and Dine Half, and I love EPCOT so how can I say no to that, and her and a whole host of her friends want to do the Expedition Everest Challenge.   But, do I want to go back to the circus that the Marathon Weekend has become? Hell no.  Not even close.  You won’t see me there unless Lisa is just dying to run the Half (or the new Minnie Mouse 10K).

I know this will be an unpopular opinion, most people seem to be all “HECK YEAH!” and “BRING IT ON!” but I don’t like it.  That’s just me.  If you wanna go be Dopey for a week and spend $5000 in Central Florida in the off season, go right ahead.

Weekly recap – 3-11-13 to 3-17-13

Had a successful 10K race this weekend, and a not so successful day on the scale today, but the scale result is not a surprise.

Starting weight – 242.0
Monday – Bodyflow – 60 minutes and Spinning – 60 minutes
Tuesday – Run – 3 miles
Wednesday – Elliptical – 60 minutes
Thursday – REST
Friday – REST
Saturday – Race – St Leo’s 10K – 6.25 miles
Sunday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Total Mileage – 9.25
Ending Weight – 246.0 (4 pound gain)

Between a work party Friday, spaghetti and beer dinner Friday night, post race foodage Saturday and then a track club party on Saturday night, everything within arms reach of me went into my face this weekend so not at all surprised to see a big gain.  Hopefully most of it is salt retention/water weight so it will come back off eventually.

 

St Leo’s 10K – Winston Salem, NC – 3-16-13

This was my second time running the St Leo’s Roadraces and my first time repeating a race (not counting back to back times I walked the Autism Ribbon Run in Raleigh).  I knew what to expect this time, and knew to temper my expectations based on my performance and injuries of late.  I just wanted to finish this without issues and make it through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They made a change to the race this year that I wasn’t totally thrilled about, they started the 10K a full 45 minutes after the 5K (even when it was only 10 minutes after I’ve always contended they should start the 10K first) under the idea that people could run both the 5K and 10K, and as far as I know only 2 or 3 people did it, so was it really worth it? The back of the pack 5K finishers were still coming in when it was time to start the 10K so that delayed the 10K start for a few minutes while they set out cones to funnel the 5K people into the finish while we were getting started, so it was really an impediment to both groups.   Also, the guys who finished 1st and 2nd in the 5K also finished first and second in the 10K, which kudos to them, but is that really fair to the other runners? Not that I will EVER sniff first overall, but the guy who was 3rd in the 10K could have been first if those other two were dueling it out for the 5K win and not in the 10K.

The race started out pretty crowded, which was fine with me since I was committed to take it slow and easy.  I wasn’t 100% sure how my knee was going to handle this and hurting my quad on Tuesday was just another complication. At least the long wait for the start gave me plenty of time to stretch out and do some warm up jogging.

The group thinned out pretty quickly as we move out onto the course and the faster guys took off.  I stayed with the same people most of the time and there was one guy who was with me pretty much step for step.  He was doing run walk intervals and it seemed like he would get right up beside me and his watch would beep to walk and then he would drift back as I kept going with my slow pace and then he would catch up to me again and then walk and so on and so forth.  He ended up finishing a couple seconds before me as either he was on a run interval or he was dashing to the finish and ignoring the intervals.

The weather was gorgeous, you couldn’t have asked for better.  High 40’s to wake up to, mid-50’s by race start. It was a little bit chilly at the start, but warm enough for shorts and short sleeves and warmed up a lot by the time the race was over, but not hot.  (Last year was ROASTING).  Worked up a good sweat but didn’t feel like I was going to die.  Perfect.

The whole time I kept monitoring my knee and was constantly surprised when it felt just fine.  I tried not to think about what “could” happen later in the race, and just keep going and deal with that if and when it happened.  Around mile 4.5 I started getting a sharp pain in my right foot but it wasn’t muscular so I wasn’t sure what it was. To be honest, I thought I had a rock in my shoe and debated on whether I should stop and dig it out.  It was annoying but not excruciating so I decided to keep going.  When I got to the finish I found a place to sit down and when I took my shoe I discovered it was not a rock but rather a pretty nasty blister.  I’m not sure what caused that since I’ve never gotten a blister from running before.  It was pretty gnarly though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say though, if that’s my only “injury” I’ll take that all day long.

I didn’t have any kind of time or pace goal for this race, really only wanting to “finish”, or as I thought might be the case to “survive”.  I ended up with a faster pace than I anticipated and felt good doing it so that’s always great.  I finished in 1:13:20 for an overall pace of 11:44 per mile and splits of 12:14, 11:51, 11:37, 11:42, 11:44 and 11:37 plus 0.25 miles at 10:40 pace to the finish.  That’s not a PR, but it’s not far off (Rural Hall 10K – 1:08:29).  I’m very pleased with this result! And I’m also very very glad that I didn’t get hurt again.  That would have been very discouraging.  This state of constant injury since about December is really wearing on me.  It just seems like it’s one thing after another.

Highlight of the Race: Early on, a little boy, about three years old, gave me a high five so hard it stung my hand.  He swung at the shoulders and put his whole body into it.  That how ya do it!

Next race will probably be the Susan Komen 5K in May.

Weekly Recap 3-4-13 to 3-10-13

Things went a little sideways this week, but ended on a pretty good note.  Had several late days at work with a sore knee and some nasty weather that cancelled my Tuesday and Thursday short runs, but I managed to knock out a good five miler in the gorgeous weather on Saturday which is my longest run since Disney.

I’ve got my 10K this weekend, which may very well be my last race of any distance for a while.  Things are totally up in the air for the spring and summer and I’m just literally taking things one week at a time.  Plus if my knee keeps acting up I may be out of action for a little while until it decides to behave or I have to go get something done to it.

Starting weight – 241.8
Monday – Bodyflow – 60 minutes and Spinning – 60 minutes
Tuesday – REST
Wednesday – Elliptical – 60 minutes
Thursday – REST
Friday – REST
Saturday – Run – 5 miles
Sunday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Total Mileage – 5 miles
Ending Weight – 242.0 (0.2 pound gain)

Very small gain this week which isnt too bad.. I’ve been yo-yoing up and down with the same couple of pounds back and forth for a while now so this is not a surprise.  I’ve gained a little over 4 pounds since Christmas, which is not that bad, but I’ve “shifted” (up or down) 17.2 pounds, so it’s been gain/lose/gain/lose/gain/lose… It’s pretty discouraging when one week you have a 3.4 pound gain and the following week only a 0.2 pound loss.

Weekly recap 2-25-13 to 3-3-13

I got back into running this week and decided to register for a race.  The St Leo’s 10K on March 16th.  Local race, not a bad fee, no travel and I ran it last year.  It was a difficult course, but the people put on a good show.  A pre-race spaghetti party the night before and then plenty of food and water and drinks after the race. A friend of mine from work may be running it as well, and my Maniac buddy Laura is thinking about it even though she’s signed up for the Color Run that same day.

Starting weight – 243.4
Monday – Spinning – 60 minutes
Tuesday – Run – 3 miles
Wednesday – Spinning – 50 minutes
Thursday – Run – 3 miles
Friday – REST
Saturday – Run – 4 miles
Sunday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Ending weight – 241.8 (1.4 pounds lost)
Total Mileage – 10 miles

Really surprised to see a loss this week.  My eating has been terrible lately and I know it has been but I still haven’t done anything about it.  The difference between the 60 minute spin and the 50 minute spin is more significant than you would think! May try the 60 minute class again tomorrow.