Thoughts on Lance Armstrong, from a man who knows cycling and cancer

As you may have seen in my About Me page, my dad has fought through a battle with cancer.  He was beaten down to a level that most people didn't think he'd be able to crawl back from (including being comatose in the ICU for two weeks), and has managed to push through and kick cancer in the ass.  He has been in remission for nearly 5 years, from a type of cancer that most people experience recurrence within 2-3 years, and so far all signs point to cancer-free *knock wood*.  Since his diagnosis, he has become very involved with various cancer charities by combining it with one of the things he likes best - cycling.  He rode in the Ride to Conquer Cancer the year after his diagnosis and treatment (200km ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls), and has continued volunteering with other rides, such as the Coast to Coast ride for kids with cancer, and currently, the Wellspring Peloton riding to Texas.  Of course, being so heavily involved in both cancer stuff and cycling stuff, he's also very interested in what's been going on lately with Lance Armstrong.

Today he is in Texas after the Wellspring ride, and is riding in the Livestrong Challenge.  He sent this email to us and some of his friends with his thoughts, and I wanted to share his thoughts with you.  Regardless of your opinion of Lance Armstrong, whether you think that he did cheat or not, I hope that this email will help to shed some light on the other side of the "scandal", and what it means to the people who have been affected by Armstrong in the years before now.

-------------------------------

I have been in Austin Texas since Friday after following 32 riders from Toronto on the Wellspring Peloton Challenge for the previous 7 days and nights. The Livestong Challenge weekend is under way with the big ride tomorrow. Of course the  buzz under everyones breath is the Lance Armstong news of cheating, sponsors bailing, his resignation as head  of the Livestong Foundation, and his fall from public grace. He had always stood firm that he was the most tested athlete on record, had never had a failed a test ( aka never been caught), and most importantly never doped. He created one of the most credable foundations around, built from his legacy, fame, and dedication to fighting the desease that almost killed him. Ultimately his fame gave him access to decision makers to influence their positions and funding for the benefit of those with Cancer beyond.
Its not so shocking to hear that any athlete has used whatever edge they can get including doping. Armstrong is the face guy for a sport riddled with complicated methods to achive super performance and he will be the poster boy for what is wrong with the sport. The old saying of folks that live in glass houses, should not throw stones, may be appropriate. His list of sporting achievements on and off the bike is long, and hopefully this chapter of his history will be a subnote to what he has given the world OFF the bike.

So, what if there was no Lance Armstrong as we know him?
What if the Livestrong Foundation never existed?
Where would we be?
What I do know is what the foundation he created does, and that we are all better off  because of it. Let's not forget that this is a guy that beat the odds to survive. To win against Cancer takes everything you have. You can't cheat. It is greater than any advisary that faces you on a bike. To come from a place of near death, and even come close to riding in the tour is nothing short of miraculous. With or without doping. I can imagine anything or anyone in the way of a goal looking like the black cloud of Cancer. A beast that must be conquered by whatever means possible. That's the only way to survive what Cancer inflicts. Let me offer a concept: a competetive athlete, survives near death, sees every obstacle in front of him in the same way.  Cancer didn't beat me , and neither will anything else.    I will use anything and everything  to win.  To some this may be arogant, or a stretch to  justifiaction.  I'm not offering an excuse, but I understand it.

I recall reading an article recently of a woman who told Cancer that it had picked the wrong bitch to F%ˆ$# with. Being a weekend warrior type althlete, she drew on her inner "force" to win. Runners have a term, "cross the wall", for moving past a place where you are completely beat but force yourself thru. That's the way it is, that's how we attack our advisary, that's how  Cancer patients focus. Translate this to Armstrong, and I can see him looking at any obsticle, as one that has to be slain, by whatever means available.

In 2009, 12 months after my stem cell transplant, I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer. From being unable and unwilling to walk accross a room, I had to draw on my inner force to move forward by inches every day, and "cross the wall" that Cancer had put in front of me.
I have been witness to incredable spirits of determination, on the Wellspring Challenge, Coast to Coast Ride, Ride to Conquer Cancer and the Livestrong Challenge, all driven by an individual and collective need to face Cancer head on and beat it by whatever means available, including simply riding a bike. It is our inner force that drives us on a bike, on a run, or in a hospital bed. Armstrong's athletic accomplishment will likely be removed from the record books, he may be another public figure that has fallen from grace, he may not even be a guy you would like to sit and have a beer with, but he is also the guy that beat Cancer head on, and has inspired millions to continue the fight. For that he deserves credit. I will continue to wear my yellow wrist band and Livestrong wear for the same reasons I always have .. what it stands for.


Ride on.

Vegetable of the Month

As we head into Thanksgiving weekend (for Canadians, anyway), what better way to celebrate than by featuring this particular veggie of the month:




POTATOES!


Yes, the humble potato will likely make an appearance front and centre on your Thanksgiving table this year, whether mashed, roasted, or scallopped.  This veggie is often shunned as being "too starchy" because it has carbs.  Remember that time when I posted about how carbs aren't the devil in disguise?  Indeed, potatoes do contain carbohydrate, but if you aren't eating a billion of them, I promise, you will live!

So what's so cool about potatoes?  This info is from the Canadian Nutrient File for a medium Russet potato (the kind that's usually used for baked potatoes, fries, etc).  Other potato varieties might have a bit different info, but quite similar in health benefits :)

• 4.5g of protein
• 168 calories (FOR A WHOLE POTATO, skin on!)
• 38g of carbohydrate
• about 3g of fibre (skin on)
• about 2mg of iron, which is about 11% of a woman's daily need (25% for you men!)
• about 15% of a woman's daily magnesium needs, 12% for men
• 17% of your daily phosphorus needs
• 16% of a women's vitamin C needs, 13% for men
• 20% of your daily niacin needs!
• 7% of your daily folate needs
• a mere 11mg of sodium (not including any extras you top it up with :P)

Potatoes are available year round, and in endless varieties.  Depending on what you are using them for, different kinds of potatoes will be best.  For example, russet potatoes are all-purpose, great for baking, roasting, making fries/wedges, putting chunks into stews, etc.  Yukon gold potatoes have a buttery texture and flavour, and are great for making mashed potatoes and soups (so that you can limit the amount of cream and butter that you need - it's already built in!).  New potatoes (the little red ones) are great for mashing, roasting, and in quarters for soups and stews.

But what about all those CARBS!?

Potatoes have a bad reputation for some reason, because everyone is concerned about carbohydrates.  Yes, potatoes have carbs.  The carbohydrate content in potatoes comes mostly from starch (only about 1g of sugar in a potato, 3g of fibre, and the rest from starch).  In humans, extra carbohydrate is stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles, and acts as a reserve energy store for when we do vigorous activity, are in periods of starvation or fasting, etc.  In plants, starch plays the same role.  Both of these compounds are made up of long chains of glucose.  So, when we eat starch, it gets broken up into little glucose molecules to be absorbed by the body.  We turn that glucose into energy (if you remember high school biology, glucose is used in ATP production), or stored as glycogen if our stores are depleted.  If we eat excess carbohydrate (or any other macronutrient, e.g. protein), it will be stored as fat instead.  It's not starch's fault -- it doesn't automatically go to your hips just to make you suffer.  It, and all the other excess macronutrients that you will probably consume over the Thanksgiving weekend, will band together and create adipose tissue - better known as body fat.

Ideally, we should aim to eat no more than one serving of starch at a meal in order to avoid consuming excess carbohydrate.  Notice that I didn't say that you should ideally eat no starches, or no more than one in a day, or something like that.  You can eat starch!  In fact, I encourage you to eat it!  Though starchy foods can increase blood sugar quicker than other foods (so diabetics, this is something you'll need to track carefully), sometimes that's not a bad thing.  If you're starving before your Thanksgiving dinner because you worked out extra hard that morning to make room, that extra surge of blood glucose will help to replenish your glycogen stores that were depleted in your workout.  When we use our muscles, and when we don't eat for extended periods of time (the pre-Thanksgiving fast to save up extra space for turkey.  What?  That's just me who does that?  Oh.), our muscles and/or liver release their glycogen stores in order to create energy.  We need to replenish that in order to keep us running strong :)!

You've convinced me!  Give me a recipe! 

As we are entering fall, one of my favourite things ever at this time of year is SOUP!!!!!  I make potato and leek soup every year, and this is one of my fave recipes:

Potato Leek Soup
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into evenly-sized chunks
4 leeks, washed* and chopped into rounds
5 cups reduced sodium chicken or veggie broth
pepper to taste

* leeks tend to hold a lot of sand in between their layers around the bottom.  Great washing tip: slice lenthwise into the bottom of a leek so that the layers can fan out.  Dip them in a bowl of water, and swish around so that the layers open up like a broom.  Alternatively, chop them as usual, and place into a deep bowl of water.  Again, swish them around to get the dirt out.

In a big pot, combine potatoes, leeks and stock, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Cover and simmer till veggies are very soft, about 25 minutes.
Blenderize!  Using either a hand blender (immersion blender) or using a regular blender and splitting the soup into batches, puree until the soup is smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Options: try adding diced ham or bacon for a bit of salty yummyness :)
  

Zoo Run - check!

The morning of the zoo run, I woke up at 5am to the sight of heavy, pouring, bucketing rain outside of my window, and frost growing on my poor plant on the balcony.  I peeled myself out of the warm, bundley goodness of my thick comforter, ate a small breakfast, and pulled on my running shoes.  Rain or not, I was running the zoo.

And... I did!  By the time I got to the finish line, the sun was up, the giraffes were out roaming, wolves howling at passing runners (kind of creepy, actually), and monkeys staring at us in wonder.  "You evolved from us... into THIS?  Fools. *continues munching breakfast while sitting comfortably in their tree*"

I wasn't expecting a PB to come out of the zoo run from the very beginning, because I had been told that it was very hilly (my PB came from the Sporting Life 10K, which is almost entirely downhill).  Also my performance at the Yonge St 10K was rather abysmal, and I didn't have very high expectations following that.  Especially once I got onto MapMyRun.com and mapped out the route for the zoo run.  This was the elevation that popped out:

 

 

Hooray?

Things that weren't so condusive to having a good run this day included the fact that it was rainy, making the road slippery and trails muddy.  Oh, and that I somehow blew out my knee somewhere around 7.5km and was unable to go up hills without searing agony afterward.  Interestingly, though, when I checked my time at the 5k line, I was actually faster than my pace for my target (I was hoping for 1:17:00, or a 38:30 5km; I crossed the 5k line at about 37:30 according to iPod)



But get this...




My time for the zoo was faster than the Yonge St 10K.



You know, that all-downhill run that I did in April?



And how this one was all hills and mud?


FASTER!!!!


When I stopped my iPod and checked out my time, I actually cried.  I was injured and hobbling, soaking wet and my shoes slick with mud.  But I ran this thing FASTER!!!!!!!!!

My official time was 1:18:55 (Yonge St was over 1:20:28).  I'm happy!  I took a minute and a half off my last 10k time, on a very hilly course, and a knee injury! 

The strange thing though, is that both on MapMyRun and on my iPod (which notoriously underestimates my distance since it isn't GPS), the distance was actually longer than 10K.  And not just by like, 0.02k or something, it was almost a full half km longer (iPod tracked me at 10.35km, and MapMyRun was just a bit longer).  According to the iPod, I crossed 10km at 1:16:20.  I'm happy!!

My friend Tracy was standing by the finish line to cheer me through and take this fabulous shot (note - that time is the gun time, but since I was 4 corrals in, my chip time is obviously a lot lower than that :P)  I'm hoping that the photographer got more, so I'll post some up when they have been processed.

Less than a week to go...

So it's nearly that time.  The Oasis Zoo Run is creeping up real quickly.  Who's ready for it???? *shyly sneaks into a corner to hide*

No, I didn't fall completely off the bandwagon and quit my training plan alltogether.  But no, I also didn't follow through and do what I said I would do and ensure that I was adequately trained for this one.  Mind you, I have been doing lots of extra crosstraining in order to better strengthen and build my body, which has helped my running a lot (!!!), but it's not the same thing as actually training in running shoes.


Here's the scoop.


Over the summer, I worked three part time jobs (totalling 20 hours per week), volunteered in three different hospitals (totalling 20 hours per week), and took FOUR summer courses.  People told me I was crazy.  Maybe I was.  But hey, I did it :)  At the same time, I had planned a fabulous training program to prepare me for the zoo run in September, including building up my speed gradually and including hill and interval training, because the zoo run is fraught with hilly roads and extra challenges. It turns out that working/learning for 50-60 hours a week makes it really difficult to keep a rigid training schedule.  And there were many, many times that I either had to cut runs short due to lack of time, or had to cancel them altogether.  Long story short, I wasn't able to keep that program, and had to make a lot of alterations along the way.  Boyfriend and I also signed up with a Groupon for a bootcamp at that time, and wanting to get the most out of it, started going 3-4 times per week.  Great for getting exercise, not so great if you also need to get mileage in to train for a 10k.

Then a couple of months ago, I found out that I might not actually even be in town on the day of the zoo run.  My dad is currently on a cross-Canada bike tour (he's volunteering, not riding, but still very cool), and their last day is in Halifax on the same day as the zoo run.  He was really eager to get my mom and I out there to see them at the finish line and get a couple of days in Halifax while we were at it.  Well.  There went my zoo run.  As much as I wanted to run the zoo, supporting my dad is way more important to me, obviously.

The plan was to fly out on the Thursday night or Friday morning.  I didn't have my school schedule yet, so I had to wait to find out whether I'd even be able to go on that day or not, or at least if I did have a class on Friday, would I be able to leave early enough in the afternoon to make it worthwhile.  Class schedules came out in mid-August.  Wouldn't you know it --- I did get a class on Friday.  And it ends at 3pm.  And I have something due that day, so I can't even skip.  Seriously?  With the only available flight out leaving in the evening, it wouldn't be worth it for me to fly all the way there for only 24 hours in Halifax.  Which means that I'll actually be home that weekend anyway and -- oh look! Now I'm back into the zoo run.

Oh right.  All that running that I didn't do because I thought I wasn't going to be here.  Hmm.

On the plus side, I had still been exercising A LOT thanks to that bootcamp.  So it's not like I stopped exercise altogether and gave up, I have still been doing a lot of strength training and high intensity cardio work.  Which is awesome, because in early September when I finally got myself together and started running more seriously again, I was able to pump out 5k with interval sprints and felt like I could have done more.  A month earlier when I last tied up my running shoes, that wasn't possible.  So, I'm feeling ok about it.  I've since been doing longer distances and adding hills, and it hasn't killed me yet.



If this was the Yonge St 10k, I'd be feeling relatively confident at this point.  But because it's not a nice downhill and/or flat course, I'm not.  The thing about the zoo is that there are a LOAD OF CRAZY HILLS.  And though I've been doing hill training over the last week to try to amp myself back up and get prepared for the epic hilly challenge ahead, I'm not so confident about this.

But you know what?

I'm doing it anyway.

Come hell or high water, I will run the zoo.  If I have to crawl up the hills and roll my broken-down body across the finish line, I will do it.  Because I made a commitment to myself many months ago when I signed up for this.  I'm not expecting a personal best to come out of this (and I said that right from the get-go), but I am expecting that I will do the best that I can, and not bail out simply because I couldn't commit to the full training schedule that I had set.

I know that I haven't exactly been the most motivating running blogger out there.  In fact, I've been a pretty craptastic exercise blogger.  But I hope that if nothing else, the fact that I'm not just going to stop will motivate some of you out there to keep going.  Even when it seems like there's no point in doing your event or continuing your training because you haven't been able to keep your commitment, you can still do the best that you can with the time and resources that you have available.  Doing your best is all you can do.  No one is expecting you to break a world record (unless you happen to be Usain Bolt or something, in which case, thanks for reading my blog :D!), so just do your best.  And the most important thing is to enjoy it, because if you aren't enjoying it, then why do it at all??

No matter what the outcome, I will be posting my results of the zoo run here.  Even if it takes three hours.  Even if an escaped tiger attacks me along the way and mauls me to bits.  You'll know about it.

Vegetable of the Month

It's that time again!  Drumroll please.






drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........

Yum yum yummmm!

Beets!!!

Beets have a bad reputation with many people, and I have to admit, I was one of them.  I hated beets.  With a passion.  For no good reason at all really, simply because I had a bad childhood memory of once eating some of my mom's favourite thing - pickled beets.  And they were horrific.  I didn't touch beets again for like 20 years, and didn't want anything to do with them.

That changed a couple of years ago when I came to nutrition school, and one of our assignments was to prepare ----- wait for it ---- PICKLED BEETS!  Really????

So I boiled and peeled and chopped and pickled my beets.  Decided to be brave and taste test it.  Huh.  Not as bad as I remembered it being.  In fact... they were kind of delicious.  I wondered what other delicious beety goodness I was missing out on.  I started trying roasted beets, grated beets, pickled beets, and all kinds of beets.  Did you know that there are tons of different varieties of beets, and each of them has a special taste and colour?

Here's some nifty things about beets according to the Canadian Nutrient File.  For one raw beet, you get:

• Only 35 calories!
• 1.6g of fibre
• 266mg of potassium
• about 23% of a woman's vitamin A needs (18% if you're a man)
• 22% of a woman's folate needs
• 20mg of plant sterol, which have been suggested to help lower cholesterol

How did I spend so long ignoring these little gems?!

Tell me more!

Beets can be enjoyed in many ways.  Raw beets can be peeled and grated to toss into salads, for example, or beets can be boiled and sliced and devoured.  My favourite way, though, is roasting beets.  Wash your beets well, keep the skin on, and rub it all over with olive or canola oil.  Cook it in the oven in a roasting pan or baking dish at 400 F for about 45 minutes, till the beet is fork-tender (depends on the size of your beets/power of your oven).  Bring it out of the oven, and wait till it cools enough to be handled.  Use a paper towel and rub the outside of the beet -- the skin should come off fairly easily!  

And FYI, if you want to prevent your hands and cutting board from getting all red-stained and unusable, rub your fingers and plastic (NOT WOOD!) cutting board with oil first.  The redness won't soak through and will wash off easily :)

I mentioned earlier that there are lots of different kinds of beets.  Check out this link to thenibble and see how many you can find in your farmer's market!  Red beets are the most common kind, but I have also had the pleasure of seeing (and eating!) golden beets and candy-cane beets. The flavour is similar, though the golden ones are a bit milder and the candy canes are a bit sweeter.

And don't discount the greens that come with the beets in some stores/markets -- they're edible too!  Just make sure to eat them the day of or maybe the day after, as they won't last very long :(

Enough already!  Give me a recipe!

I made this salad months ago on a whim, and it turned out to be amazing.

Roasted Beet, Apple, and Celery Salad with Horseradish dressing and walnuts

Serves 4

3 beets, roasted as described above and sliced

2 Tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp prepared horseradish

1/2 tsp salt

1 apple (any variety, but Granny Smith and honeycrisp seem to be good ones), cored and sliced thin

1-2 stalks celery, thinly sliced on the bias (to make it fancy :) )

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/4 cup walnut pieces (option - replace walnuts with pumpkin seeds! mmm)

Roast beets as described earlier.

In a bowl, combine oil, vinegar, sugar, horseradish and salt.  Toss beets with 1 Tbsp of dressing.

Toss the apple, celery and onion with remaining dressing.  Add the beets.  Sprinkle with walnuts/seeds. 

Eat!

mmmmmmmm.....

Beet salads can be really simple - such as simply combining a handful of mixed greens with sliced roasted beets and maybe topped with some goat cheese.  Or, grate up a beet and serve in a chef salad with chopped cucumber, tomatoes, and maybe shredded carrots (because they too are deeeeelish!)

What's your favourite way to enjoy beets?

CanFitPro conference

This weekend, I was hanging with personal trainers, fitness instructors, big beefy weightlifters, lean stringy yogis, and other fitness and health people at the CanFitPro conference.  I joined CanFitPro this year as a general member (because sadly, they no longer have the MindBody Specialist certification) because a) Yoga Fit Canada gives awesome discounts on awesome trainings to CanFit members, and I'm hoping to take a couple of certifications with them, and b) I got a discount on the conference :D!

I'm currently still teaching only Moksha Yoga, which follows a set series of postures with only a bit of wiggle room for "creativity" in between, however I'm looking to branch out from the series and start teaching hatha yoga.  That means that I'd be in charge of figuring out my own series.  I'm also planning to teach a couple of workshops this fall, and needed to get a refresher course and a better understanding of some of the issues that commonly arise in certain populations, such as in diabetics, seniors, and hardcore athletes.  Enter the CanFitPro conference, where I've been taking an array of workshops and learned some fun things to add to my classes to enrich my students' experience that much more.

In addition to being an amazing conference, the CanFit conference also has a trade show open to the public. Fitness professionals and general people alike can experiment with new equipment and fitness styles, get demonstrations of fitness plans from highly experienced people, eat free samples of various protein bars/other goodies, and get lectures from industry leaders.  There were loads of presentations and demos going on for all kinds of activities, including Zumba classes, TRX and CrossFit challenges, and TONS of stuff available for sale, including apparel, equipment, supplements and nutrition products, books, DVDs, etc etc etc...  You can even get your photo taken with such cool people as:

Super cool Olympic triathlete Simon Whitfield!

The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp and Bulging Brides trainer Tommy Europe!

And many more!  Trish Stratus was also around (former wrestler and current yoga studio owner), but I didn't have enough time to wait in line to see her.  I did get a sweet (free) Tshirt though :D

Long story short, the conference was fantastic, and if you are a fitness professional in Canada and haven't made it to a conference yet, I highly recommend it.  Or, if you're a regular person who is interested in fitness and health, and happen to be in the Toronto area in mid-August, check out the trade show for a great way to spend the afternoon and fill your head with awesomesauce.

Vegetable of the Month

I know, the suspense has been building for almost three weeks now!  What will it be???

Ta daaaaa....

Zucchini!

Since I'm growing it on my balcony, I might as well post about the amazingness of this tasty veggie.  Check out this photo of my very first harvest!

So what's so special about zucchini?  Get this -- according to the Canadian Nutrient File, one medium zucchini (about 196g) will give you...

• only 33 calories!!!
• 2 grams of fibre!
• 2 grams of protein
• not even one gram of fat!
• 11% of your daily folate needs
• 11% of your daily potassium needs
• 47% of your Vitamin C needs
• also contains high levels of lutein and other phytochemicals

What a little powerhouse!!!

Tell me more!

Zucchini and their other squash cousins (like yellow summer squash, pattypan squash, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, etc) are available year round, but are in peak season in the spring and summer.  When choosing zucchini, remember that the small-to-medium sized ones will contain more flavour than the larger varieties, which will hold more water.  Avoid the ones with squishy or wrinkly spots, but superficial scratches or little bruises are ok and perfectly edible.

How do I prepare it?

Cool!!!

You can eat zucchini raw or cooked.  I like my raw zucchini dipped in something, like hummus or bean dips to add a protein punch.  This veggie can be cooked in many different ways, like grilling and roasting (yummmmm!), sauteeing or including in stir fries, boiled (such as in soups or sauces).  A relatively novel way of preparing zucchini is making zucchini pasta, using a Spiralizer (or even just using a vegetable peeler if you're cheap like me!).  It basically makes a pasta that doesn't require cooking, you just blanch it to heat it through (place in boiling water for about 30 seconds).

Enough already, give me a recipe!

Another fun way to cook zucchini - baking.  As in, making a zucchini loaf!  There are many variations on zucchini loaf, including chocolate zucchini loafs, but this is one that I've made before and had it turn out really really tasty.  The website also happens to show a number of other tasty zucchini-containing recipes on the sidebar, such as vegetarian lasagna, pasta with grilled veggies, and grilled zucchini ribbons.

Click here! http://www.canadianliving.com/food/zucchini_loaf.php

Best advice - experiment with your zucchini!  It's  a very versatile ingredient that can be added to just about anything that you would normally put other veggies in (spaghetti sauce, stir fry, roasted veggie sandwich?).  And hey, for only 33 calories for a WHOLE ZUCCHINI, you can't lose :)

Fail

Wow, so that "I'll be posting regularly about my training" business totally didn't happen, huh?  I've been in summer school up until Saturday, and was run down with assignments, exams, and general business/craziness/AAAAAH!  But, I've still been good with training (though, admittedly, I haven't been following the plan to a T because of the busy/crazy/etc-ness)

Here's what's going down.

Running:  Still happening, though training has been slow (read on for everything else going on instead...).  My last run was about a week ago, but so far, I've done well in tackling hills and getting my cardio endurance up.  Now that summer school is (FINALLY!) over, I have much more time to go for longer runs, and the weather has cooled enough to allow me to be out in the afternoons (often the only time I have available, and this summer was just WAY too hot!).

Cross Training: Lots!  And really, doing cross training can only help to improve my running, since my issue seems to be mostly cardio endurance, not so much muscle endurance/stiffness/tiredness.  Boyfriend and I signed up for a Groupon at a local gym that focuses on bootcamp-style workouts.  They also have something called "personal co-training", which is basically like having a personal trainer, but the cost is split between many people.  Our Groupon gives us 60 days worth of bootcamp and 12 personal co-trainings.  We just activated it this week, and have already gone twice - one bootcamp, one personal co-training.  And so far, we love it :)  It's a massive butt-kick, but feels amazing (well, except for all that soreness a few hours later :P).  The sessions give us a really good mix of upper and lower body work, core strengthening, and cardio, and your heart rate is elevated for the majority of the 1 hour class.  I'm actually really looking forward to seeing how this affects my running, since the last time I did a boot camp, suddenly long runs were way easier!

Other cross training: I've decided to take up swimming again.  When I was younger, I swam constantly and loved it to bits.  I even competed for a while.  But by the time I was a teenager, somehow I just ended up stopping, but I always liked to swim when I got the opportunity.  I've decided to get back into it on a somewhat regular schedule.  There are a couple of community centres nearby that have indoor pools and cheap adult lane swim time, so I will be going on weekends to get some nice low-impact-high-cardio activity.

So I promise that I will get back in touch sooner than later to let you all know how it's going!

Meanwhile, a vegetable of the month is coming.  It's a veggie of the mid-month now :)

Running training - again

So it's been a while since I last posted about running.  Last time around, I posted about how I had decided to bail on the half marathon in a big epic depressing fail.  However, this isn't the end for me this running season -- I can still comfortably (but slowly) run a 5k, and I believe that I can work myself back up to a 10k that will (hopefully) go a whole lot better than the TYS10K did for me this spring :|

On that last half marathon update post, a friend posted a comment asking if I'd like to see her running training program.  I agreed, and received her training plans for both a half marathon and a 10k.  When I saw the half marathon plan, that was when I realized that I simply didn't have enough time/enough pre-training to manage a half this fall.  The 10k, however, is manageable.  It also includes great training in intervals and hills to help with speed, cardio and muscle endurance. 

After much debate, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a 10k run.  For the first time ever, I will be running the Oasis Toronto Zoo 10K in September :)

Friends who have run this one in the past tell me that it is challenging.  It has a number of hills (best described as "rolling hills" because it's not just one or two big hills, it's a constant up and down), and can be chilly because it's in September.  As much as I despise hills with a passion, I am up to the challenge.  I figure that it can only improve my running and make me better for a half next year.  I'm not expecting to beat my 10K personal best (1:12:29 from the Sporting Life 10K two years ago) because of the added hill challenge (SL10K is almost entirely downhill or flat), but I am definitely interested in the fact that I get to run around the lions, tigers and bears - and giraffes, monkeys, elephants (if they're still there) and other fantastic scenery!

I went for my first run in over a month late last week.  I had expected to be dragging myself through a horrible struggle to go even 2k, but I ran 2.5 in about 20 minutes, and wasn't gasping for air or clutching at my heart.  In fact, I ran a steady, slow pace with steady, slow breath for most of the way, something that was a bit of a struggle while I was in better running form.  There is hope for me yet!

To keep me motivated to actually follow through on this, and hopefully get some of you interested in getting more activity too, I will be posting regularly about training.  And, I will happily post other training info, such as cross training ideas and proper stretching (after all, I teach yoga too :P)

Also, this video is stupidly motivating and set me into a fit of full out ugly crying.  Yay runners!

Vegetable of the Month

What will it be, what will it be??



*drumroll* drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr



Broccoli!

Yes, the humble broccoli is in peak season in Ontario this month.  To celebrate, it has earned status as the Veggie of the Month!

These hardy little trees hold an amazing number of nutritional benefits, and they are incredibly versatile.  They can be enjoyed raw, steamed, roasted, boiled, in soups and stews, stir fries, salads, and many more delicious dishes!  This veggie is a member of the brassica family, along with cauliflower, cabbages, bok choy, brussels sprouts, and kale.  Brassica veggies are notable for their health benefits, including having high levels of vitamin C, calcium, and other nutrients and phytochemicals, which may hold potential cancer-preventing properties. 

From the Canadian Nutrient File, a half cup of raw broccoli (one serving in Canada's Food Guide) supplies:

• only 16 calories! And almost 0g of fat!
• 22mg of calcium
• 41mg of vitamin C (about half of your daily need! Also an antioxidant!)
• 168mcg of betacarotene (antioxidant!)
• 47mcg of vitamin K (about 1/2 of a woman's daily need)
• 652mcg of lutein (important in eye health and preventing macular degeneration)

What to do with your broccoli?

Broccoli should be a dark green colour, so try to avoid the broccoli that have yellow or brown patches on their florets (depending on the variety of broccoli, the florets might be a sage colour or a purple-green, and those are totally acceptable!).  The stems should be firm, not slimy or squishy.

When cooking your broccoli, cut the florets into even sized pieces (usually quarters works well) for even cooking.  You can also eat the stems!  For best results, peel the stems to remove the woody outer part and then cut into about 1/2" pieces.

Give me a recipe!

I posted this recipe for a healthier version of Cream of Broccoli soup.  Since broccoli is so ridiculously versatile though, rather than giving you only one recipe, I'm simply going to list some amazing places that you can use these teeny trees today!

• Raw, dipped into your favourite hummus/babaganoush/other veggie dip
• Steamed, eaten plain or with a little bit of butter, margarine, olive oil and/or lemon juice sprinked on top.  Only steam your broccoli until it is fork-tender, as it can be mushy and gross tasting if it is oversteamed.
• Roast on a sheet lined with parchment paper at 400 for about 12-15 minutes.  Sprinkle with lemon, olive oil and sea salt, and/or maybe some parmesan cheese.  Mmmmmmm.
• Add stems to your favourite homemade veggie soup.  They are hardier than the florets, and won't turn mushy when boiled in the soup.  You can also create your own broccoli soup by boiling broccoli (florets and/or stems) in stock and puréeing.
• Add broccoli to your omelette or scrambled eggs.  I cut up my broccoli florets into little bitty pieces, sautée in the pan till they are just fork-tender (takes only a couple of minutes if they are super teeny), and add scrambled eggs.  Also awesome when mixed with other veggies, such as mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach.
• Add steamed broccoli florets to your pasta.  You can add it to your sauce, or simply toss cooked pasta with olive oil, steamed broccoli and pine nuts.  A little cheese wouldn't hurt either :)
• Add broccoli to stews and chili.  Though it's definitely not stew/chili season right now, when it turns to fall, a great way to keep enjoying this great veggie into the winter (*shudder*) is to simply toss it into a big ol' pot. 
• Make a broccoli salad.  A quick Google search revealed hundreds of delicious looking salads, but this one from JamieOliver.com won me over.  I made this one without bacon, and added pumpkin seeds and slivered almonds.

How do you like your broccoli? 
And remember, it's not too late to submit your ideas for future veggies/fruits of the month!  Just leave me a comment!

Balcony veggie gardening

I like gardening, especially veggie gardening!  However, when you live in a condo with a small balcony that receives FULL sun, it can be a challenge to plant things in pots that will actually grow well and produce lots of good eats.  In addition, being a poor and starving student, growing your own veggies is super cheap!  Growing your own food is fairly easy if you know what your balcony conditions are (e.g. does it have full sunlight or shady areas?) and do a little bit of research to find out what plants grow best in your balcony conditions.  It's also highly rewarding when you see your plants flourishing and, oh yeah, you get to EAT IT!  Plus, you can't get produce that's more local than that!

In previous years, I've grown some veggies successfully, and my neighbours have managed to grow some other awesome veggies and fruits.  I thought it would be a neat idea to share with you some of the amazing and easy things that you can grow if you have a small space!

Cherry tomatoes: probably the easiest thing to grow on a balcony.  A little pre-grown cherry tomato plant will only cost a dollar or two, and will take off the second you plant it.  Word to the wise - you probably only need one, maybe two of these plants to be set for tomatoes for the whole summer.  I once bought the 4-pack of little plants, and ended up with about a billion little tomatoes.  It was a good year for salsa-making :)

Herbs: the great thing about planting herbs is that they can live outside in the spring/summer, and be brought inside to keep producing during the fall and winter too!  Depending on the level of sunlight that your balcony/small space receives, the herbs that you grow may be different.  Some herbs prefer high levels of sunlight, while others prefer shadier conditions.  Google-search the herbs that you'd like to grow to see what will grow well for you.  I'm currently growing basil, rosemary and cilantro, though I'd like to add some mint soon too.

Peppers: Bell peppers grow well in pots, but be warned, they take FOREVER to produce anything pick-able.  If you're growing from seeds, plant them in little cups indoors earlier in the spring/late winter, around early March, to get them going.  By the time it gets warm enough to plant them outside, you will have your pre-planted little peppers ready to go.  They will start producing much earlier in the summer than they would if you had waited to plant the seeds outdoors!  I'm currently growing hot pepper plants on my balcony.  For some reason I decided it would be a great idea to plant 4 of them.  Guess who's going to be eating ridiculously spicy food all winter :D?

Strawberries: Yes!  Strawberries can be grown in pots!  I have yet to try it myself (ran out of balcony space this year), but my neighbours have had great success with strawberries, and managed to produce a decent number of berries off of just a couple of plants.



Soon my pretties...

Zucchini: I would never have thought it possible, but zucchini can be planted in pots. In fact, I have a big ol' pot of zucchini sitting on my balcony right now :) These plants grow BIG, so make sure that you have space for them. Also watch for the variety that you pick - there are some zucchini that grow upward and can grow along a trellis/cage (like tomatoes), and others that grow outward like squash, taking over your whole balcony. The type that I planted stated "pot planting" on the baggie, so I'm really hoping that this means that it will grow in a cage instead of taking over everything. Guess I'll find out soon. So far it appears to have an upward motion, and has already started to sprout little flowers and zucchini buds.

Peas and beans: Great for pots! To grow your peas and beans, you need to sprout them first. Wrap a paper towel inside of a cup and put enough water in that the paper towel becomes damp, but not soaked. Put your bean/pea seed in between the paper towel and the cup. In a couple of days, you'll see your seed sprouting! Bean sprouts are also edible (e.g. mung beans), so you can definitely use this technique to just start munching away. But if you want more food, plant 'em! Once your beans/peas get to be a couple of inches tall, you'll want to attach them to a twining surface - e.g. a trellis, or even just a couple of poles and string.

Potatoes: Also inspired by a friend.  How can this be, I hear you ask, since potatoes need really deep soil??  My friend is a genius.  He had an old green bin (the one that you put out at the road) that had a broken handle, and thus couldn't be used for garbage collection anymore.  He cleaned and sanitized it out, drilled holes around the bottom for drainage, filled it up with dirt, and planted potatoes in it.  WHAT!??!  How amazing of an idea is this!!!!!  His potatoes are now growing like crazy, and will soon be ready for plucking.

Other awesome veggies that can be grown in plant pots: (I just don't know enough about planting them - yet): salad greens, e.g. arugula or spinach, kale, onions (regular or green onions), garlic, radishes, broccoli, and way, WAY more!

Check out your local gardening centre to see what veggies are available for planting (either pre-planted or seeds), and ask about planting on balconies vs. gardens.  Keep in mind that on balconies, generally you need plants that don't require very deep roots (unless you're a genius potato planter, as described earlier :P) and don't require lots of space to spread out (such as squash or pumpkins). 

Happy planting!

Vegetable of the Month

Now that we're getting back into summer, the produce available is simply AMAZING!  Lately I've been bringing home one new fruit/veggie every week just to try to make something new out of it.  So, every month, I will bring you a veggie that you may or may not have tried before, and give a recipe (or more than one) to enjoy it!

This month: Chard

Known better as Swiss Chard in grocery stores here, chard comes in many varieties.  The leaves are big and bright green, but stems vary in colour depending on the variety that you choose.  The stems do not contain much nutritional value, but the leaves are LOADED with vitamins and minerals.  A cup of cooked and chopped chard can provide:  (info from the Canadian Nutrient File)

• only about 40 calories!
• 4g of fibre
• about 560mcg of retinol equivalents (Vitamin A), almost your entire daily requirement
• about 4g of iron - if you're a male, this is about 50% of your daily need.  Ladies, it's still about 25% of yours!
• 600mg Vitamin K (about 10x the average Canadian adult's daily need!)
• amost 7mg beta carotene (antioxidant!)
• 1000mg potassium

What to do with it

Chard leaves tend to be bitter, so some recipes will ask for leaves to be blanched before eating to remove the bitterness (many other leafy greens often have this requirement, such as kale).  Blanching is quite easy: Boil water, add your leaves.  Let the leaves sit in hot water for about a minute till they turn a very vibrant bright green colour.  Remove from the water, and dip into an ice bath or run under cold water to stop the cooking process.  You can now use your chard in a salad/whatever you want!
The stems of the white kind of chard are edible when boiled up (chop them into 1" bits), but the coloured kind of stems are too tough and don't taste so great.

Give me a recipe!

I found this easy 3-minute swiss chard salad recipe at www.whfoods.org, and adapted it a bit:

Easy 3-Minute Swiss Chard

• 1bunch of swiss chard
• 1 clove garlic, more if you really like garlic (Yes. Yes I do.)
• 1tsp lemon juice
• 1T lemon zest
• 3T olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• kalamata olives (optional)

Remove the stems from the chard and wash leaves.  Chop into 1"-ish bits.  Blanch (as described above), and squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the leaves.  I wrapped them up in paper towels and leaned my full body weight on them, repeat a few times with fresh paper towels each time.
Chop up the garlic clove.  Toss leaves with all ingredients except feta cheese and olives (if using).  Once tossed, add your cheese and olives.

Delicious and ridiculously healthy!

Any ideas for future veggies or fruits of the month?  Is there a veggie/fruit that you've been dying to try but just don't know what the heck to do with it?  Leave me a comment!  Your veggie/fruit might be featured in an upcoming post!

Oh, you study nutrition? Must be really easy.

I started a new volunteer position today.  One of the receptionists in the post-natal clinic of the hospital asked what I study at school.  I told her that I'm in nutrition, aiming to become a dietitian.

Receptionist: Oh, that's neat.... must be really easy.
Me: Um.  Excuse me?
Receptionist: Well it's like, common sense, right?  Portion sizes and all that?
Me: *glowering* you'd be amazed how uncommon common sense can be. 
Receptionist: hahahahahhahaha.  So what do you do at school, like, just cooking or something?
Me: We're studying all aspects of food.  We do some cooking, but it's so that we can learn about food prep and modifications for patients who need them, about disease management with nutrition, nutrition needs at different stages of life, and consulting skills.  And dietitians do lots of things other than just talk about portion sizes, like community nutrition counselling and diabetes education, or they might work in clinical settings... like a breastfeeding centre? *looks at the room we are currently standing in*

Sigh.

As someone who works in a BREASTFEEDING CENTRE, you'd think that the receptionist would realize that hey, maybe nutrition people are needed to help these mothers and infants?  Mom needs to eat enough and consume enough of particular nutrients to satisfy not only her needs, but also the baby's needs.  Or maybe she thinks that the dietitian would tell the infant that they need to eat 6 portions of boobs every day.  *headsmack*  Not to mention that if all my program was about was cooking stuff, why would I be volunteering at a hospital in a place other than the kitchen?????  Seriously.

So let's set the record straight here.  Nutrition professionals work in a lot of different settings, and include many different levels of education and certification.  In a hospital setting, everyone from the receiving clerks and chefs to the people assembling trays on a belt line, to the dietary aides who deliver trays to rooms, to the dietitians and menu clerks who set the menu and therapeutic modifications (for allergies, soft/puree/minced diets, for illnesses like diabetes, etc), and everyone in between count as "nutrition professionals".  Each of these people has to obtain a certain level of education, usually specialized for their field (e.g. food technician training), and often have to obtain other certifications (such as a Food Handler's certificate, or registration with a regulatory body).  Every person in this flow of food has a special role in ensuring that every patient in the hospital receives the correct nourishment that is appropriate for their condition.  You wouldn't want to send a steak dinner up to someone who is supposed to be on a puree diet due to choking risk, or a pasta dinner to someone with Celiac disease.  Also wouldn't want to be serving up expired or improperly heated/cooled food - you don't want to make sick people even sicker. 

Common sense?  Maybe.  But try coordinating that common sense for a hospital with 300+ hungry people in it, many with special dietary needs. 

Dietitians do a lot more than just say "eat this, not that, this amount, this number of portions.  Go." Because really, that's unhelpful to everyone.  In clinical settings, dietitians might be involved in consulting with patients who have been recently diagnosed with a condition (heart disease, diabetes, Crohn's/colitis, severe food allergies, cancer, infections, recent surgeries, recently used a ventilator/breathing tube, diverticulitis, inflammation, stroke, oral diseases/dentures, swallowing difficulties, using certain medications that impair nutrient absorption, etc. etc. etc.), because for these people, the things that they can and can't eat are not "common sense".  For example, when my dad was undergoing chemo, numerous dietitians visited to talk about some of the dietary side effects of chemo -- foods that won't be appetizing and those that he'll want to try, ensuring that he meets his dietary needs with a reduced appetite, nausea and mouth sores (very common in chemo), medication effects on nutrition status, and a nutrition plan when he was released to ensure that his appetite returned to normal and he met his nutritional needs during recovery and remission.  Common sense?

I posted once before about some of the other roles of dietitians, so I won't bore you again with it :) One thing that I really wish I'd said about the portion size comment though was that hey - who do you think decides what a portion size is, or how many you're supposed to eat?  Ever wonder why the American version of the food requirements is different from Canada?  Ever seen one from Asia or Latin America (quite different!)?  Guess what.  There are nutrition professionals in government and public health offices too who figure this kind of stuff out :)



And for the record, I love my program because I love learning about food and want to educate, help, and heal people, not because it's easy.  Because it is not easy.  If it were that easy, there would be no need for dietitians to consult with patients or clients -- after all, its just common sense, right?

Half Marathon update

I have news about that half that I've been raving about.

I've been posting for the last two months about my activity, including the TYS10K run that I felt like crap about.  Here's what's happened since:

• After the 10K, I haven't run.  Not once.  I was so bummed out for the first week that I just couldn't bring myself to even think about running.  I don't even have a good excuse for it.  I was just really, really depressed over it.  I bought new running shoes and everything, believing that maybe having shiny new shoes would do it.  Nope.
• Then we went to Hawaii.  We got in lots of other kinds of activity, but no running.
• While in Hawaii, I got a wicked bad sunburn on the back of my legs on the last day.  Even the backs of my knees were fried.  Bad enough that sitting, standing, walking, or movement of any kind was a very big challenge.  It took almost a full week before I was able to even think about exercise again.  Went to yoga, and realized just how tight my muscles and fried skin were from a week of doing pretty much nothing but healing.

So.  These things have not been so helpful in training for a half marathon.  Three weeks without running, with the race only two weeks away, is simply not realistic.  After consultation with runner friends and seeing if there was any possibility of training enough in that short of a time, I've officially come to the conclusion that I will not be able to run the half marathon this year.

If you thought I was bummed out about the TYS10K results, you have no idea just how depressed I am about this decision.

However, I've decided to defer my run until the fall.  I haven't decided which run I will sign up for yet.  I had really been looking forward to the Toronto Women's Half as being my first :( 

Now that my skin is doing better, I've been doing some cardio activity and stretching to get my legs back into some sense of flexibility and ready to run again.  I'm working on developing a proper training plan, since clearly my last plan of "just run when you feel like it" wasn't a very good one.  Sadly, I have classes on all of the nights that the Running Room training clinics are going on, so it looks like I'm on my own.

As I develop a plan (and actually follow through with it), I will post my progress and helpful info for you, so that hopefully you won't get caught in the same place that I'm in now.

Sigh :(

Spring into Action Finale

Hey blog! Sorry I've been away for a bit, but I have a good excuse (really!).  Since my last post, boyfriend and I took off to Hawaii for some much needed post-exam R&R :)!

Neither of us are really "beach people".  I like sitting on a beach and being warm and sunny, sure, but I couldn't deal with doing that, and only that, every day.  I'd be bored in like, 5 minutes.  Luckily, my boyfriend is the same way :) so, we got in as much activity as we could so that we could still see Hawaii, and work off some of the extreme food and mai tais.  Since I can't remember what days we actually did what things, here's just a recap of the activity that we actually got in while we were there:

• Attempted surfing.  He was much more successful than I was, as I just fell over and got lots of salt water up my nose.  But it turns out that surfing is a RIDICULOUS upper body workout, since the majority of the time, you're lying face down and paddling using your arms.  My upper back and shoulders were still sore two days later!  I also managed to get an epic sunburn from my hips to my heels down the back of my legs.  Turns out that my sunscreen isn't nearly as waterproof as I was lead to believe :( I couldn't actually walk properly for the first two days.  Still can't comfortably sit down/stand up or bend my knees.
• Scuba diving.  Neither of us had ever tried it before, so hey, why not now?!  I found a great company that didn't charge a crazy amount, included all of the equipment you needed, two 1/2 hour dives, and a small group (only 3 of us) lead by an awesome instructor.  This was by far the best money that I spent in Hawaii.  We saw huge schools of colourful fish, an enormous crab, and TURTLES! 
• Bike riding.  We decided to rent a couple of bikes (pretty cheap, only $20 for the whole day) and ride from Waikiki to Hanauma Bay, a popular beach destination and protected environmental reserve.  When I Google mapped the route by bike, it claimed that it would take only about an hour and 15 minutes.  The longest I have ever rode a bike in my life was about 50 minutes, so I figured I would be able to do it.  Ummmm, yeah, turns out that it was actually TWO AND A HALF HOURS.  Each way.  And, on the way there, the steepest hill I have ever seen in my life.  The wind was also INSANE on the way out, punching me in the face for the full two hours.  By the time we got halfway, I was reeeeeeally struggling.  Between the wind and the hill, I was actually in tears trying my damn hardest to push along.  Had to stop a few times along the way and complained a lot to poor, poor boyfriend (who is a cyclist, and found this to be just a leisurely roll along the beach.  Jerk).  But - we made it!  After lunch and a well-deserved ice cream, we rode back with the wind at our backs.  We later learned that the ride was 27km each way, so a total of 54km round trip :)
• Hiking.  We took a 2 mile trail up to see Manoa Falls, a beautiful little waterfall in the middle of a rainforest.  My internet research suggested that the trail was slippery because of the humidity of a rainforest.  What I didn't expect was the MUD.  The entire trail was one giant mudslide.  So, the 2 mile walk was actually an epic uphill muddy crawl, not unlike a Warrier Dash or other crazy obstacle course.  It was quite pretty though, and well worth the messy shoes.
• Yoga.  We found a place that does yoga every day on the beach (literally, in the sand), and a couple of times per week in the park.  It was actually a pretty cool class, because the teacher caters to tourists by offering multilingual classes.  In our class, we were the only two people who spoke English, everyone else was Japanese.  So, the class was taught almost entirely in Japanese with random spurts of English for us (but we were able to follow along easily enough with the Japanese instruction).  We also walked to and from the class, about a 5k walk total.
• Walking.  Everywhere.  Waikiki is a pain in the butt to drive in (like any downtown area, there are one-way streets and traffic everywhere), so it was just easier to walk most places.  I'd guess that we walked about 5-8km every day at minimum.

It just goes to show that even on vacation, you can still get in activity every day, and still have an amazing time!  I would even say that by getting in some kind of activity each day, we saw a lot more of the island than we would have had we just stuck to the beach all the time.  Of course, we still got some beach time (because you can't go to Hawaii and NOT sit on a beach with a frilly drink), but we were quite happy to get back up after a short time and get moving again.

How do you get in activity when you're on vacation?

Running Technique, tips and tricks

So the photos from the TYS10K are in.  After a quick review of both good and bad running form, I decided to post some photos featuring some tips for a good run.  I've been reading Chi Running, which (in training runs) has changed my running format and how I feel about running for the better.  Using this technique, let's explore:

How not to run

In this photo as I crossed the finish line, we can see some excellent examples of how not to run:

• huge arm swing crossing the centre of the body.  This is doing two things that are unhelpful: a) using more energy than is needed, and b) twisting around the torso, probably contributing to the amazing stomach cramping.  It is also causing my shoulders and upper back to become tense, again using muscles that don't need to be used and ultimately, contributing to soreness and potential for overuse injuries.
• heel strike.  After looking at this photo, I realized why my knees hurt so much after the run :(  Heel strikes cause you to break the momentum of your running stride, kind of like hitting the brakes.  The force of impact goes into the joints (ankles, knees, hips) which are not designed to take that kind of stress.  Enter the injuries.
• I also appear to somehow be rolling to the outside of the heel when I landed.  This is not condusive to injury-free running, and is probably another excellent reason why my knees were sore.
• leg is extending ahead of the body (which is why there is a heel strike), also expending more energy than is needed.
• large yellow sad face indicating how unfortunate the whole situation is.

A better technique

I can't quite call this one "how to run" because it still doesn't demonstrate awesome form, but it's a start anyway...

• arms are relaxed and not crossing the centreline of the body.  Shoulders are still tense in this photo, but imagine like they're relaxed and enjoying the ride.
• most important - a midfoot strike.  I am not slamming my heels into the ground with each step, rather landing in the middle and ball of my foot.  This way, I allow myself to continue moving with the momentum of my stride, rather than hitting the breaks and causing shock of impact in my joints.
• not seen very clearly, but my body is leaning slightly forward.  This is a very important component of Chi Running (aka the best book/running format ever).  Imagine your lean as being kind of like your "gears".  The more lean you have, the higher gear you are in and, the faster you go.  Essentially, by leaning forward, you allow gravity to do the work of propelling you forward.  All you have to do is keep your feet moving to stop you from falling on your face.
• foot is ready to touch the ground right below the hips rather than extending forward. 
• large yellow happy face indicates how much better this situation is.  However the look of unhappiness on my own face probably negates any of that :P

If you aren't sure what you do when you run (which, I think, most of us don't), it can be really helpful to get someone to take photos/videos of you running to check out your form.  Even more helpful is if they can catch you running from the side, as this will give you a better indication of where your foot lands (under the body or in front), and the degree of your body lean.

Other considerations for good posture in running:

• Abdominal strength - lower abdominals are particularly useful in good running form.  If you are using body lean to increase your speed, you will need core strength to stop you from simply collapsing forward.  Also necessary to protect your lower back from collapsing (i.e. over-swooping)
• Relax anything that doesn't need to be used.  Notice if your jaw is clenched, or your fists are balled up tight.  If they are, chances are that you're tensing up other things too that are not condusive to running.  For example, tension in the ankles reduces the joints' ability to absorb impact, tension in the hips/pelvis prevents rotation and limits the leg's movement.
• Stand tall.  Lead your run from the heart, as if you're being pulled along by a string attached to your sternum (chestbone).  The tailbone is slightly lowered toward the ground and the back of the neck lifted and long to keep the spine lengthened.
• Smile :)  Have you ever seen those photos of people running who just look so miserable??  Why would anyone do something that makes them so unhappy!?  My favourite example that I saw recently was the photos in The Star from Harry's Spring Run Off.  There are some VERY miserable looking people in there!  Amazingly, simply looking like you're having a good time can have a really strong impact on your emotional state.  If you look happy, you might just become happy :)  Ever seen the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy?

In upcoming blogs, I will post about other running tips and tricks, such as hydration and nutrition (and why avoiding Thai food the night before a race is a better idea than what I did :(!)

Spring into Action: 10k race update, and why Thai food is a bad pre-run choice

Sunday was the Toronto Yonge Street 10K, and I did NOT come anywhere close to my intended target time.  However I still crossed the finish line with a grimace smile on my face.

Let's talk about how that was an epic fail of life.  Also: why Thai food is a really bad pre-run food choice.

I really can't give any excuses about what happened on Sunday.  It was entirely within my control and I didn't follow through.  I have definitely learned some lessons for the 1/2 marathon in May (i.e. what not to do). 

I didn't get to run the week leading up to the 10K, only a 6k on the Tuesday.  Meanwhile, I'd been sitting on my butt studying all day and night for the week with little activity other than short walk breaks to save my sanity.  In addition, the weather has taken a wicked turn for the worse - my last run was in sunny warm 17+ degree weather.  Race day, I woke up to a temperature of NEGATIVE ONE.  The night before the run, boyfriend wanted to order Thai for dinner because he had a groupon that expired on Saturday.  Ok, I figured, I'd order something noodley and not spicy so that it would be kind of like a pasta dinner (traditional pre-race food).  I also drank an insane amount of water in an attempt to flush out the sodium/water-retaining properties common to Thai takeout.  Also guzzled more water the morning of the run to keep hydrated.

At the start line, I was feeling good.  Within the first 2k, suddenly I was bombarded with EPIC stomach cramps and crazy pain in my sides.  Very bad. I had to stop and walk a lot.  Like, a lot.  I ran  3 minutes, walked 3 minutes, and even at that, my running was barely faster than a walk.  By about 5k the cramping had worked it's way out and I was doing a bit better (still some cramping, but I could actually move and breathe properly).  Amazingly by this time, I was only a few minutes above my 5k goal time (normal 5k takes me about 35-36 minutes, I did it in 39).  Decided to keep running slower than usual to avoid a re-cramping situation. 

I finally crossed the finish line at a humiliating 1:20:29, the slowest 10k that I have ever run.  I later found out that a friend of mine had been waiting at the finish line to see me cross (I didn't know this ahead of time) and waited until 1:15:00 before heading out.  She figured that she had just missed seeing me in the crowd.  I nearly cried with embarassment as I told her that no, I was actually still 5 minutes away.  As I reluctantly told my dad (who picked me up) about my time, he looked at me in disbelief and said "... it was only 10k, right??".  Thanks dad.

My knees were also hella swollen by the end of the run.  My left knee has had all kinds of problems before but has been well-behaved over the last few weeks.  After the run when I stopped to stretch my quads, I couldn't actually reach my foot behind me because my knees couldn't bend that far.   I think I need new shoes. Not cool.

I was bummed out.  That's not true - I'm still very bummed out.  And I'm terrified, because in 5 weeks I will be expecting to run DOUBLE this distance.  0___0

I'm going to try to use this experience as a learning rather than dwelling on all the things I did wrong.  But I'm really struggling with it, because I had really had such high hopes for this run.  I should be realizing that 10K is a huge accomplishment, that many people could never cross in 1:20 in their wildest dreams, and the fact that only a few short years ago, I couldn't run a kilometre without feeling like death. 

And yet, I'm bummed out.
:(

The photos from the race just came out yesterday.  I will soon post a photo and yes - some education!  There will soon be a post about running technique so that you, dear readers, don't end with the same unfortunate circumstances and results as I did.

Spring into Action Week 6 and 7

I apologize for the late/double post.  I had written out the week 6 activity and thought that I posted it.  It wasn't until logging in today that I realized it was still sitting in "drafts".  Oops :)

Week 6
Sunday: Snuck in a 1hr hot yoga class at work, as the studio wasn't very busy over the Easter weekend and I wasn't needed :)

Monday: I had planned a run today, but boyfriend ended up getting the day off as well and wanted to go for a walk (and I couldn't convince him to run with me, as he is currently hobbling around with a sprained ankle).  Despite his ankle issue, we walked for an hour and a half through High Park with a 15 minute lunch break.  Our walk took us through the zoo, where a group of volunteers was encouraging donations to help save the zoo from closing in June.  I paid $2 to feed the llamas :)

Tuesday: Activity failure today.  This was the last day of one of my longest lectures, and I had expected that we would be let out early (figured that there was no way that the prof would be able to fill up 3 hours worth of talking, given that everything we needed to talk about was already done).  So, I brought my gym clothes and shoes with me to go to the gym between class and a WW meeting in the evening.  Fail.  Somehow the prof not only managed to keep us the whole 3 hours, but went OVERTIME.  By the time I left, I didn't have enough time to get in more than about a 10 minute workout before having to leave and walk up to the meeting.  Instead, I walked for 20 minutes around the neighbourhood before landing in the meeting with my heavy gym bag.  Also got another 15 minute walk in post-meeting.  Sad face.

Wednesday: Planned a 5 or 6k run on the treadmill (because it was effing cold and windy outside).  When I got to the condo gym, one treadmill was occupied, and the other was BROKEN :(!!!  I tried fiddling around with the plugs, but to no avail.  Instead of turning around and sulking back home with no activity at all (which would probably be my normal response :P), I opted to hop on the elliptical till the treadmill became available again (about 20 minutes), then jumped on the treadmill for a 3k run (about 22 minutes).  By that time, unfortunately, I had to get going to get back to studying (stupid exams >:( ), but at least I got in a solid 40+ minutes of activity, plus a really good 5 minutes of stretching.

Thursday: School all day, work all night.  I did walk home from work (30 minutes), so I guess I got at least a little bit of something in?

Friday: I had planned to go to the gym after class for a strength class, but it turned out that we got out of class early today.  Sigh.  I wasn't willing to wait around for 2 hours for the class, so I went to the gym anyway and did my own thing for an hour instead (steep incline walking on the treadmill, some weights and ab circuits)

Saturday: Another unfortunate activity fail.  Worked all morning, taught a yoga class (minimal activity), and then off to my parent's house for Easter dinner part 2.  Other than the small activity done in my class, and a bit of walking around at work, I didn't have much movement today :(

Week 7 -- The first week of exams.  I'm afraid my activity log isn't all that exciting this week...

Sunday: planned rest day

Monday: I had an exam on Tuesday that I desperately needed to study for, so I didn't get in the run I had hoped to get.  I did go out for a 30 minute walk as a break.

Tuesday: 6k post-exam #1 run :)

Wednesday: More studying, more 30 minute walk break

Thursday: More studying.  Walked to and from work (30 minutes each way)

Friday: More studying, took two 30 minute walk breaks (1hr total activity)

Saturday: Exam #2 day, more walking (30 minutes)


So I've been having some challenges keeping up with my goal of getting activity every day.  I had a sneaking suspicion that this would happen once exams rolled around, but I had hoped that maybe, just maybe, if I had already gotten into the habit of exercising every day well before exams started, that there would be a higher chance that I'd keep up with it during exams!  Weeeelllll unfortuntely it didn't work out that way, but I've still been active almost every day, but in shorter durations than pre-exams (e.g. instead of a 1 hour gym session, I'm lucky to fit in a half hour, but it's better than the 0 hours that I probably would have done without the Spring into Action challenge!)

Tomorrow is the Toronto Yonge Street 10K!  I signed up for this one instead of the Sporting Life 10K this year because, well, the Sporting Life one didn't exist yet at the time that the TYS10K registration opened.  The Sporting Life is no longer a Canadian Running Series event, and actually didn't even exist until several months after I signed up for the TYS10K instead.  Even stranger, they both have the exact same route, but are being held two weeks apart.  Whaaat?

My fastest 10K time was 1:12:23 (2 years ago at the Sporting Life 10K).  This year I've had much more training, so I am hoping to break that time if I can.  But really for me, this event isn't about running fast, it's another training run for me.  Because the Toronto Women's Half Marathon is only 5 weeks away  .___.

How have you been active this week?

Spring Into Action Week 5

Happy first week of April!
Sunday, April 1: rest day

Monday: Ran 6k in the park :) I tried out my exciting newfound knowledge from the Chi Running book, and I must say, I'm a believer!  Though I still didn't run as far as I'd hoped, I was thrilled that it was a heck of a lot farther than I got last week.  Plus, it didn't feel like death - I breezed through the park and my legs didn't feel like lead.  What killed me was the random gusts of wind and the enormous steep hill that I chose to run at the very end for some reason.  Next time - better route mapping :)

Tuesday: Accidental rest day (accidental because it wasn't planned, just that life kind of ended up getting in the way!)

Wednesday: Snuck in a 75min hot Flow yoga class at the end of the day.  Flow is a vinyasa-style yoga class where all of the postures flow together (get it? Flow!) without rest between postures.  It's a bit more cardiovascularly challenging than a regular hatha class, and involves a lot of downward dog flows (down dog --> plank --> chaturanga --> upward dog --> downward dog).

Thursday: Unfortunately I didn't have enough time today between class and work to fit in a workout, but I walked to my WW meeting (about a half hour walk) and back home, for a 1hr walk in total :)

Friday: We were going to boyfriend's mom's place for Easter dinner tonight, so the only time I had available to fit in a workout was this morning.  I had planned for a run, but it was still only 1 degree outside, so I went to the condo gym's treadmill.  Sadly, the gym was already full by the time I got there :(  So instead, I hopped on the eliptical for a 15 minute warmup/light cardio, followed by 20 minutes of upper body workout (bicep/tricep, lats, chest, etc), 10 minutes of lower body workout (lunges, glute lifts, squats), and 5 minutes of abs (crunches, bicycles, planks), and 5 minutes of stretching.  By the time I was about 3/4 of the way through, the treadmill became available again, but I decided to just finish up what I was doing and get in a run on Saturday instead.

Saturday: My dad and boyfriend were doing a fundraising event at a fancy shop near us to raise money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer.  I decided to go visit - and run there and back.  In total, it was just over 7k that I ran, with a little 15 minute visit break in between.

Spring into Action Week 4

This week was an unfortunate one for me... I had such great plans, but got sidelined by a recurring injury in my knee.  I had to take it easy and avoid doing too much strenuous work in order to heal my poor knee.  By the end of the week though, it was feeling much better and I had done lots of stretching and strengthening exercise instead, so hopefully next week will be a bit more impressive :P

Sunday March 25: rest day

Monday: Planned to go for a run outside, until it turned out to be -2 degrees.  Took the run inside to the treadmill instead.  I don't know what was going on with me, but my body was just EXHAUSTED.  I only squeezed out 3.4km, which is really strange since I could easily run 5+km outside just last week.  I was huffing and puffing and sweating like crazy only a few minutes in.  Wtf :(  To make up for it, I did 20 minutes of upper body work as well (squat-press, lunge with bicep curls, tricep extensions and dips, and push ups)

Tuesday: Woke up this morning with a wicked charlie horse :( Also my knee had started acting up again for the first time since like, January.  Not cool knee, not cool.  I did about a half hour of yoga at home to try to stretch out my calf and be nice to my knee.  Also did about 15 minutes of upper body stuff (push ups, tricep dips, ab work)

Wednesday: Attempted run #2, took it outside this time.  Again, I had planned a long run (6km+ minimum), but was again only able to squeeze out about 3.7km.  Wtf :( My calf was still in some pain, but problems were now starting in my foot as well (I've had problems with plantar fasciitis before, ironically in the same leg that also has knee problems and got the calf pull this week.  Sweet.)

Thursday: Another gentle stretching day to relieve my poor calf/knee/foot, did a 40 minute yoga practice in the living room.  My knee was feeling a bit better by the evening :) yay!

Friday: A one-hour strength training class at the gym, including circuits of lower body, upper body, and abdominal work.

Saturday: I had planned to get in a yoga class, but after already teaching two classes and working a WW meeting in the morning, I was just far too exhausted to make that happen.  But, I did get in some activity in my two classes by demonstrating stuff and moving through vinyasa flows with the students.  My hips were feeling it by the end of the second class, so I must have been doing something!

During the week I also picked up a book called ChiRunning.  And it is seriously blowing my mind.  I'll update next week on whether it's actually helped my running or not :)

Spring into Action: Week 3

Let's keep moving!

Sunday: rest day

Monday: went to a 1.5 hour vinyasa yoga class.  The instructor wanted to do some extra focus on backbends and twists, resulting in lots of revolved postures and wheels.  My sides and low back were a bit sore afterward, but otherwise, I was feeling gooey and wiggly and stretchy :)

Tuesday: So I got a call at 5:45am asking if I could teach the 6:30am class at my home studio.  The teacher who was scheduled wasn't able to go.  I wasn't too thrilled since a) it was 5:45am, and b) this would mean that I would miss my first class at school, but still I dragged myself out of bed and went to the studio.  The real kicker is that Tuesday mornings are a silent class, meaning that the teacher instructs the class by actually doing the class.  So, I got in an hour of hot yoga this morning!
On top of this, I also had my second session with my personal trainer.  I pleaded with him to be nice to me -- my back and ribs were SO sore (after the killer class on Monday plus this morning's class) and I was exhausted.  He claimed to be nice, but that was a damn lie :P We focused primarily on upper body work, because my arms are very weak and stringy.

Wednesday: took a rest day, because my body was in epic pain.  Still was on my feet during the entire morning at my volunteer position, I'd guess that there was at least a 45-60 minute walk minimum in there.

Thursday: the hottest day in the HISTORY of Toronto in March!  WOOOO!!!  Went for a 4.5km run in the park.  I had hoped to go a lot farther than that, but I had a few things working against me -- because of the heat, I decided to take water with me on a running belt.  This is the first time that I've used it, so it took a while to get it to sit in a place that was comfortable - which of course messed up my groove a little bit with all that jiggling around to adjust the belt.  Also my first time running in the heat all season, so I was sweating A LOT.  Finally, my hamstrings were still a bit sore from Tuesday, so they weren't so thrilled with my brilliant idea of running hills.

Friday: much cooler out today :S  Went for a run through the park, possibly a bit overdressed (lululemon pants, t-shirt and light Old Navy running jacket to block the wind).  I was definitely glad to have the jacket for the wind, but I was SO HOT when the wind did ease up!  I got in 5km, which included two massive hills.

Saturday: taught a yoga class this afternoon, but otherwise didn't get much activity.  I had planned to go to the gym for an upper body workout, but an unexpected visit by my parents prevented that.  I also had plans in the evening with friends, so sadly, an unplanned rest day today


I've often found myself feeling too busy or too lazy to go work out, but when I actually get my act together and get it done, I always feel a hundred percent better.  You will never regret getting activity, but you will ALWAYS regret not doing it!!!