A quick update while I hydrate

I did end up downloading the Expereal app the other day and so far I've been exceedingly mellow at all the times it chooses to ask.

It gives me a reminder a set number of (random) times a day and I'm supposed to record my mood at that time. I set it to three because I like multiples of three and six just seemed too often. So far it's not terribly intrusive but I wonder if there may end up being a bit of bias as all of the times I'm likely to be too busy to stop and record my mood are likely to be the times I'm doing something really cool or really crappy.

I'm currently waiting for the 32 oz of water I just drank (just now!) to cycle through me enough to go to the gym without fearing a potty emergency halfway through my workout. I think a lot of my problems with running in former years can be pinned on chronic dehydration so I have a strict hydrate before working out rule.

I have a 32 oz water bottle which I try to fill and empty into my face twice a day. I have to have at least finished one bottle full before a run (more if it's later in the day) and I have to be peeing clear or close to it.

Not what I would call ideal running form
image via http://werner.fm/post/26471931081/bathroom-occupied-taken-with-instagram-at

I'm about two thirds of the way through the 5k to 10 program and today's workout will have a short tempo run, so here's hoping I can clear some of that out soon and get to the gym in that golden window between the after work and the after-dinner crowds. Looking forward to trying out some new tech today so hopefully more on that later.

Oh, oh, oh! While I'm thinking of it!

I'd be awfully jazzed if those of you who haven't already would go like me on Facebook!

Click this text to go to my Facebook page

There's a Facebook widget link over on the right side of the page for those immediate reward button clicky types.

I have been starting to post a bit of extra content on Facebook that I hope you will enjoy - mostly random links I find and the occasional pithy comment.

Click it! I know you're out there and I'd love to know more about who you are!

In brief

I think if I do not go running tomorrow I may go a touch batty.

Ren and Stimpy - Space Madness 

I'm actually pretty tired so more on what's going on in Jawaville after that run (which will be my run4nyc virtual run, by the way), but while I'm thinking of it I thought I would also mention...

I'm going completely stir crazy with this newfangled five pm sunset. This running thing is messing with me something fierce. I'm a night person! I've never been annoyed about the Fall Daylight Savings before! As a result I am finally seriously contemplating a gym membership.

However, on the totally awesome side:

I won stuff! I almost never win stuff! http://www.fortheloveoftherun.com rocks my socks!

Actually now that I mention it; I won another stuff and I've been very rude in not mentioning it. I guess by extension http://www.runwithjess.com rocks my shoes?

Wherein I am thinking about Jason Statham the whole time

Per this page as a 33 year old woman my *max* heart rate should be 177
or 206 minus 29 (which is 88% of 33)

According to my Garmin my *average HR while running today* was 188 (my max was 194). I appear to be knocking it out of the park!!! ...but alas, overclocking is NOT the aim here.

If I am going for 80% of my max HR since the article later posits that "between 70 percent and 90 percent of its maximum is generally accepted as being optimal for improving and maintaining cardiovascular fitness" I should be aiming for a HR of about 140. I suddenly get why SUAR complains about how slow she has to go to stay in target HR. I assumed that because I'm such a beginner I couldn't possibly be going "too fast" for anything but apparently I was wrong!

Sitting at my computer about 20 min after working out my phone had my HR listed at 97. Apparently I'm still in warm up range EVEN AS I BLOG. How efficient of me!

What was that about target heart rate zones again?
Jason Statham - Crank

September Blog Challenge Day 20 List your 5 new-to-you healthy food options

1. Water - hey don't laugh, I've always hated water but I now drink it almost exclusively (my only other regular drink is one daily cup of coffee). I still drink it more like taking medicine then quenching thirst, but whatever, it's working.


2.  Quinoa - I grew up eating a lot of pasta, so having something healthy I can just dump something on top of and call a meal is a REALLY big help for me. Also it's tasty, fun to pick out of my teeth, and reminds me of bug eggs, which is all AOK by me


3. Homemade Greek yogurt - I've been lazy about this the last few weeks but I try to make regular batches and have a few oz with a bit of jam and/or some trail mix stirred in every day. I'm not a big cook so the fact that I take the time to make and strain this is a testament to how good it is. It is a completely different creature than store bought (soooo much better, but be careful because you wont be able to go back) and it really helps me with the lactose intolerance, which is one of the banes of my existence.


4. I feel like I'm starting to reach here, but Clif bars have been a helpful recent addition to my diet. They're still a bit sweeter than I'd like but it's a useful enough way to get something reasonable into your system quickly.


5. Blueberries - My boyfriend (who is, not incidentally, shaven headed, Anglo, muscley, and square jawed... I might have a bit of a type) is SUPER into blueberries and I was never big into them before but they are growing on me (not literally, that'd be awfully Willy Wonka-esque). He does a simple blueberry and soymilk shake every morning and I have to admit it's not a half bad way to start the day

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My run today: C25K week 9 day 2 (only one more day!!!!)
3.51 miles at 11:24 per mile.

Per Nike today was my fastest 5k so far at 36:20 and my fastest mile so far at 10:47

Pushed myself a bit more today, I was really feeling it in my glutes in a good way and my head was buzzing for a while after I got back. I kept finding myself saying "you don't feel any worse then you did 10 minutes ago, you're fine, keep going" and for whatever reason that worked.

I messed up with the GPS so I only got 1.5 miles recorded but for that portion my average pace was listed as 11:03. Initially I messed up getting it started and later trees were interfering and making it beep constantly. I have to remember that just because it's showing data doesn't mean it's recording it. The signal loss beeping was pretty annoying so I will be turning off the auto pause and just manually starting the run on the watch when I actually start to run.

Have some more gratuitous Jason Statham. Sexypants AND a former world class diver!

It's the most wonderful time, of the year...

Day 19 What is your favourite fall workout?

Hmmmmm, favorite fall workouts, lets see...

Pumpkin picking! Or maybe jumping in leaf piles! Marathon carving sessions!

Seriously, this took about four hours straight. Loved every second of it.

I have more in my pumpkin carving toolbox than most (non homeowners) my age have in their whole home toolbox. Yes, I said pumpkin carving toolbox.

What was that, I should focus on stuff that gets my heart rate up?

Oh, in that case it would definitely be the horror movie marathons and shopping for Halloween decorations. Last minute costume crafting counts too, I think.

Ok, for real though.

I don't honestly know. I'm just too new at this.

Running is the first real "get out and do stuff" physical activity I've done since my teens. I will say as much as I love sort of existing serenely in the hot weather, 90° at 95% humidity in metropolitan NY air quality is not ideal for aerobic exercise. The cooler temps and rustling in the trees are making my runs approximately a bazillion times better, and aside from worrying about hidden tripping hazards I'm REALLY psyched to be running through the falling leaves soon.

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What active/fitness things did I do today?

Nothing workout-ish, mostly I stuffed myself with random snacks for no apparent reason (though it may be hormonal). I'm not normally into sweets and I've gone for chocolate twice today so something in my system is clearly tweaked.

I did get some totally snazzy stuff from The Cheerleader including the heart rate strap that goes with my new watch, a visor (because she had an extra one and knew I wanted one for rainy days, seriously, how cool is that?), and a shirt from the local running group she has been organizing. 

I don't call her The Cheerleader for nothing.
The woman is a running ambassadorship and enabling juggernaut! (and now you can follow her at RunningOnCandy!)

She and I also share the brain of a twelve year old boy (I keep my half in the work fridge).
We have a sort of immature crudeness based telepathy.

I've decided to go ahead with limiting the Garmin readings to just when I'm running, but I've been a bit stymied trying to figure out what my cutoff pace should be. After digging through a LOT of Nike+ entries I think I'm going to go with 14:00 as I seem to be keeping things up around 12:00 or 12:30 while running with the occasional dip or peak, and I seem to walk slower than 14:00.

I'm also trying to decide if I want to set a minimum pace alarm but that should probably wait until I have a few runs recorded without my warmup/cooldown time throwing the numbers off so I have a better idea of my actual pace.

Tomorrow I start with the heart rate strap!

Did I mention I'm a hummingbird? Per one of the iPhone finger sensor apps I was playing with a few weeks ago I appear to have a resting heart rate comparable to a chihuahua on amphetamines.

Garmin is go!

Celebrated my LAST WEEK OF C25K (holy crap!) by trying out my New(used) Garmin Forerunner 305 for the first time today and it was pretty snazzy! I bought it off of The Cheerleader after she decided to upgrade so I don't have the heart rate strap in hand yet (it's hiding), but I think I have more than enough stuff to look at for the moment anyway.

I spent about half of last night trying to get used to picking through the menus and confusing myself about all sorts of things, until finally I was so out of sorts I just stopped altogether and loaded up this highly soothing picture of a baby spotted skunk to reset the switches on my brainmeats.

Ridiculously soothing image shamelessly yoinked from Cute Overload

Having restored my brain to functionality (yes, for real, beats taking a cigarette break) I was able to sit down, read through the manual, and actually learn things sufficient to finish setup instead of just button clicking myself into a confused tizzy. I literally spent the entire evening poking at it in some way or another last night and I still barely feel like I have the slightest handle on what I can do with it. It was definitely overwhelming at first, but once I calmed down I could see that as a sign that I will be able to grow into this thing for a long time to come.

I was very surprised at how quickly I got used to wearing it, and I didn't pay much attention to it at all as I was running. Though it may help that I very commonly wear large bracelets on my left wrist (wearing them on the right interferes with computer use too much). It may also help that we were amping up to tornado conditions and watching for flying tree limbs and kicked up road debris was a more immediate issue.

I looked at my pace a couple of times and noted the degree of synchronicity between the audible mile markers given by Nike and those given by the watch (not dead on, but close). It did also occur to me that I now had an even BIGGER chunk of change strapped to my left arm and it may be worth obscuring some of that if I can. I might have looked at the watch more toward the end of the run but my phone decided to keep pausing my music and turning on voice control for no apparent reason (I think because I had baggied it in my armband to protect from rain). It's has however been awfully cool poking at the various graphs and metrics now that I'm back home. I feel a little lost in this glut of info, but I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun with it in the long run.

The main setting I'm trying to decide on at the moment is whether I want to set it to ignore any time spent moving slower than a certain pace so that my warm up and cool down time isn't affecting my overall pace. One the one hand since my goal as of next week is to start running for the entire 5K and see what kind of time I can do it in that will be handy, but by the same token they don't pause the race when you take a walk break on race days. I will have the phone for backup though.

I will say that I feel Garmin (and MapMyRun now that I'm mentioning it) have made a SERIOUS oversight in how they share info on their social sites. I do not mind at all sharing the nitty-gritty details of Who What When Why and How, but people really do NOT need to know about the Where. Both Nike+ and Active have the ability to turn on or off sharing options for maps and I feel this is an essential safety feature. I plan to contact both sites about this issue.

Do you run with technological assistance?

What are your favorite and least favorite features?

Would you set a minimum speed for readings if you had the option?

How do you feel about the location sharing issue?


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September Blog Challenge Day 18 Does Nike’s ‘Greatness’ ad exploit fat people?

I feel that pretty much all advertising is based on manipulation and exploitation in some way or another, advertising exploits people. Full stop. I don't think that this manipulates fat people any more than typical Nike ads exploit fit people (as products or consumers).

They're using an actor with a specific look to sell a product, just like any other advertisement, but it is an unusual take given our culture's obsession with appearance. I do applaud their willingness to take a chance on a different look and a different method, and to use a more broadly uplifting narrative rather than a generally unattainable one, but in the end never forget they're still still hawking a product.

That being said, whether it's exploitative or not (it is) I do feel that the message that it is sending about determination and will is still both positive and more generally accessible and that is worth keeping out there.


******
My run today: C25K week 9 day 1 (holy crap again!)
3.13 miles at 12:47 per mile. (full workout per Garmin 3.48 miles at 13:16 per mile - I planned a longer route and walked the remaining 0.35 miles)

Added bonus info (since I feel I can trust the Garmin more than the phone) -
Top pace 7:03 !!!
Average pace of the splits where I was actually running 12:26

A bit harder to keep pace today but I'm finding my breathing is getting MUCH easier. My phone kept spazzing toward the end of the run and pausing my music to turn on voice control (I think it was due to being in a ziplock baggie IN my armband) so I was pretty distracted. New water bottle worked very well on most counts but I may have to drill an air valve in it as I get VERY little water in each pull.

I didn't have enough to go all out at the end (I lie, I had it but I didn't commit it), but I did commit enough to pick my speed up considerably for the last minute and a half and finish at a strong pace.

If I only had a heart (rate monitor)

As I mentioned last week I'll be champing at the bit for a good nine months for my Bia watch, but in the meantime I have to figure out how to make the best use out of the tech I already own. As much as I would love to pick up random new expensive stuff all the time, I'm living on a modest single income in one of the most expensive places to live in the country.  I also have to balance any new expenditures against feeding my shoe "problem".

Admittedly I don't see it as much of a problem, and my boyfriend definitely doesn't. Wait a minute, whose problem is this anyway? I demand a recount!
*ahem* Moving onward.

There is one bit of tech I feel it worth investing in now though because I really like not hurting myself; namely a heart rate monitor.

No, not this heart monitor.
(5 bazillion bonus points if you get the reference!)

The amount of focus that the running community puts on avoiding over-training has been a huge help for me as I have a rather bad habit of hurting myself right when I get in the stride of a new type of exercise. This is the main reason why I decided to start with the couch to 5K program (*coughs* this time). I have some oooold recurring injuries - mostly caused by mild scoliosis, but in addition I am at times overly flexible, and can get a bit overzealous with new things. The bulk of my research up to this point has been focused on ultra basic training info (stretching and nutrition mostly) and figuring out how to protect my joints. Getting the right shoes was huge!

I have built up a bit of muscle and my joints seem to be getting strong enough to hold themselves together, so I am reasonably sure I'm not going to hurt myself too badly just going out for the C25K runs. Now that I feel like I have a strong(ish) base I have begun branching out in my research and developing an interest in heart rate training. I love doing random research*, I'm fussy, I like objective measures, I like not running harder than I have to, and I like new toys. So yeah, pretty much ideal!

The main issue I've had is learning enough about the receiver technology to decide on what tech to pick up. I need something that will work with my current setup (an iPhone) without becoming obsolete once I got my Bia watch. The watch relies on ANT+ technology which appears to be pretty much par for the course. However to use the same heart rate monitor with my iPhone I would also need to have an ANT+ "key" (basically a small receiver thinger which plugs into the bottom of the phone) which will cost a bit extra.

The main companies that come up when you search for bundled monitor/strap/key kits are Wahoo which will set me back about $100, and Garmin which will set me back about $80 (these prices seem pretty consistent across the board, except on the Garmin site where it is unbundled and way more expensive???). The Wahoo key is the main source of the price difference and from what I can tell the main thing that differentiates them is app accessibility: Wahoo will update to a large number of established running apps (and thus sites) while Garmin will only work with the Garmin app.

I'm a bit annoyed at Garmin today because I've been pricing out the map updates for their car GPS units (sheer ridiculousness, by the way), and furthermore I detest having that kind of limitation to a product when there are so many great fitness sites out there, so I think that decided things for me quite nicely!

The Wahoo site also generously points out that I will need a new armband that will accommodate the key. I *was* already thinking about replacing my armband for something more reliably waterproof but man oh man does this stuff add up!

Do you use a heart rate monitor?
What do you like/dislike about it?
What made you decide on your particular model?

*Current reading: the New York Road Runners Club Complete Book of Running and Fitness which I got STUPID cheap used on Amazon

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My run today: C25K week 6 day1

2.55 miles at 13:20 per mile

I'm pretty sure someone was trying to steam clean my entire neighborhood today. My legs felt fine but I just couldn't seem to catch my breath. Can't imagine why that might have been... in the 93% humidity.

I felt like I was going slower than usual and I couldn't kick up the speed as much as I would have liked at the end, but I guess I wasn't doing too bad since I actually covered more ground than ever before at a slightly faster pace.

I fear change but I love new toys, it's a conundrum.

Today's run was all sorts of fraught with new stuff!

New stuff the first:
My RoadID arrived Thursday so I got my account all set up online, this was a bit long but in all fairly easy. I also got a new pair of socks by DeFeet, but I haven't tried them yet so no comment on those for now. I'm not really used to wearing things around my wrist so I decided to wear it to bed to get it all broken in and comfortable before I took it out running. That seemed to do the trick pretty well and I quickly forgot I even had it on. I have extremely small wrists and there was not a lot of extra room in mine, so if you have any question about fit do not go for the small size.

The second:
I had to get a flat tire fixed so I spent a bit of time wandering the mall while I waited. I had a coupon for Sears and needed some new run shorts (I'm tired of hand washing the one pair every time) so I beelined to the sports gear *cough* after a quick jaunt through the shoe section *cough* and picked up a couple of pairs of Everlast Mesh shorts at 50% off (the piping on mine are hot pink and aqua, respectively). They have a nice reasonable rise and a comfortable loose fit, though I was a bit more aware of what my underwear was doing than I am used to.

These do not have the lower back pocket that my previously singular pair of shorts has, so I had to figure out a new way to carry my house-key and in doing so remembered this "travel belt" thing my parents had given me several years back. At the time I declared it irretrievably dorky and promptly threw in the bottom of a drawer, but it seemed like just the thing for the job and I actually remembered where it was, so I dug it out. Neoprene straps, nylon and mesh construction... no brand name on it but I do believe this thing is made for sports in the first place! I had always assumed the middle part was a cell phone pouch but it appears to be made to hold tubular objects, so I finally gave in to my Boyfriend's wishes for me to carry some sort of offensive safety measure and strapped some pepper spray into it.

Much like the wrist band I promptly forgot all about it the minute I started running. I thought it would bounce or make my shorts feel bunchy but it was really quite unobtrusive. I am looking forward to the point in my running where I will have to start putting some sort of fuel thing in that other pocket!

I did also do some changes to my audio setup but more of that with one of my coming posts, wherein I discuss music!

How do you handle your sundries?
What do you consider your baseline running kit?

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My run today: C25K week 5 day 3

2.24 miles at 13:24 per mile

20 minutes of running with no walking pauses!! Holycrap!!
Not only did I do it, but I did it without wanting to stop or die or anything! I even felt good enough to break out into a full on run for the last minute and a half (ok, I wanted to die or really mostly just hurl a little bit once I stopped running and started cooling down... but I was already walking by then so I knew it was only going to get better).
The app would have me believe that week six is the scary week, but I think this was the big hurdle for me. There doesn't seem to be anything in week six I feel like can't handle after that 20 min run.

I want it *NOW*

Waiting for the Bia: Multi-Sport GPS Sports Watch with SOS Safety Alert to exist is cramping my style.

Today marks the official halfway point in my Couch To 5K journey (well, workout-wise, hopefully not time-wise*) and I've started thinking just a little bit about where to go after it is done and what tools will be best for me at that point.

I've been using the Active.com mobile iPhone app in combination with the Nike+ iPhone app and they are both lovely, but I can't help but wince every time I take my darling, expensive, still fairly new phone out of my sweaty sweaty arm band at the end of a run. With the end of the C25K training I no longer have to use that app, but I'm still tethered to my expensive phone if I want the GPS information and the safety of having a cell phone at hand. I have also started looking a bit at heart rate monitoring because it looks cool, makes sense to me, and also toys.

That's where this lovely Bia watch comes in. I dig out my old iPod and I'm set! It has an emergency contact mode, GPS capabilities with syncing to a number of popular fitness sites, and heart rate monitoring, I've already paid for the watch part (hooray Kickstarter!) and...

And of course it doesn't hit the market until next spring.
 

Waley, waley, waley!

So in the meantime if I wanted to leave my spendy phone at home I could get a cheap heart rate monitor watch, dig out my old iPod, buy a cheap prepaid cell phone and still be short the GPS info.

Okay, so I get a GPS watch that does heart rate, dig out my iPod, get a prepaid phone, also I may need a rucksack for all of this stuff. Wait, so how am I protecting my financial investment again? By spending money? How's that work?

Though it just occurred to me that there's no reason my phone shouldn't be able to handle the signal for a wireless heart rate monitor *pauses to hit google* and a quick google search tells me that there are a number of options in this direction!

I think I have a research project for tomorrow!

Are you into the toys and gadgets? If so (or if not!) how do you prefer to keep track of your fitness?

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My run today: C25K week 5 day 2

2.25 miles at 13:46 per mile

I have been trying to start out easy and accelerate toward the end, so far I've had negative splits in all but one of my runs so this seems to be working out well, but in the end felt like I could have pushed myself much earlier. I was a bit worried about my knee this morning and my hamstring has been tight the last couple of days, but any particular discomforts during the run were fleeting.


*My first attempt at Week1 Day1 was May 4, 2012. More on why I'm not already done in another post, wherein you learn about how my body totally hates me.