I’m Back, and With One Scary Southern Run Under My Belt

September 6, 2008 By 3 Comments

You may have noticed I have been on hiatus.

MIA.

In South Georgia, on a house hunting expedition, as we prepare for our cross country move. We spent eleven days there, and they were jam packed days in which we got little sleep, trudged from house to house for four days in a row, suffered a lot from the three hour time difference and, thankfully, found a house that we absolutely love! Yes! We did it! We found a house!

The home is in great shape but needs some TLC as it was a bank owned property, but here is the view from our backyard! When we get the front yard cleaned up I’ll post a photo of it.

Here is a photo of our girls as we walked along the St Mary’s Historical area downtown.

We are back in So Cal now for seven weeks and then we will begin the next part of our life. It starts with a cross country drive, car loaded down, kids strapped in their seats! Now, that will be one to write about!

So I had a scary run experience while there. I felt fine starting off at 5 AM, one 17 oz bottle of water, one of Gatorade, some bagel in my stomach, a power bar in my pack. My goal: 8 miles.

I felt the humidity as soon as I stepped outside but I was committed to staying hydrated by drinking those two bottles during the run. I started drinking immediately.

About two miles in I met a guy that has run marathons in 42 states. He belongs to the 50 marathons in 50 states club. I have not looked into it yet, as I had no internet access at the condo where we stayed, but as soon as I do I will post some info. It sounds like fun.

Anyway, my stomach began to rumble about 3 miles into the run. I knew I wouldn’t make it the 8. Even the guy who lived in South Carolina said it was hot, so I knew it must be, and I have always had a sensitivity to the heat so I have to be careful when it gets really hot. Yet he had only one bottle of water, I had two bottles of liquid, and I felt prepared.

At mile 6 I told him I couldn’t go any further. I didn’t feel sick, just tired and hot and I really had to go to the bathroom.

And go I did. I won’t go into any gory details, but if you run distances you know what I’m talking about.

I was so hot I stripped down between trips to the toilet and put some water on my head. I ate a bowl of oatmeal, though I felt like puking, and I guzzled large amounts of liquids to replenish myself.

But I couldn’t stop going to the bathroom. Finally I took a cold shower, tried to eat some pretzels, which I could barely swallow, and laid down again.

We had to go house hunting and I didn’t want to miss the three houses that were first, and that were also located near our condo, so I made it down to the car but I told my husband I might not make it much further. He suggested I stay home but I didn’t want to miss it. I felt very tired, and had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Eventually, I came around some. By nighttime I felt fine.

The next day, while walking down the stairs of our new house, I pulled a muscle in my leg.

Let’s just say that the heat and humidity obviously got to me. I was not only overly hot but then I became dehydrated, and the dehydration caused the sickness to get worse and then the muscle pull the next day.

I think of myself as a smart runner. I had already run in that area a few times, so this wasn’t my first run in the humidity, and I didn’t even feel that sick while running; I just had to go to the bathroom.

It scared me so much that I took tentative runs the rest of the time. The muscle pull got better a few days later. I did a three miler and then a four miler before we left. They went fine.

I think part of the problem was that I didn’t hydrate myself as much as i should have the day before I ran. Once we get there I think I will have to make a really conscious effort of drinking tons of liquid the night before a long run in the humidity. I did go for the run at the early morning time I always do, but it was still hot, hot, hot.

Despite that run, and that scare, the rest of the runs were great. I missed having my weights and my exercise ball and particularly my kettlebell! I did my situps and crunches and push ups but they just didn’t feel the same! I’m glad to be back home with all of my tools. The condo didn’t have a great yoga place either. My new house: Perfect! I can do it right in the living room overlooking the marsh. I can’t wait!

I hope everyone has been healthy and having fun and having good runs. I have some weight to make up. I lost about four pounds, and I’m sure that part of that was how sick I got. I need to get that weight back on, so chocolate, here I come! Today I did a nine miler, and it was great. It was cool here, with some mist over the ocean. It’s going to be hard to leave this weather behind, the coolness of the early mornings, but I can’t wait to get to where we are going, either!

Happy Running!

Filed Under: Health and Running, January 2008, Long Distance Running, Racing, Reflections on Running, September 2008, Training for a Marathon Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Dehydration Report

August 20, 2008 By Leave a Comment

So I posted the other day about my theory that perhaps I’m slightly dehydrated. I had a horrible Saturday long run, which never happens, and I’ve been so tired every day that I’ve had a hard time functioning by nighttime. My body has felt like led on the pavement, and I’ve been wondering if perhaps something was really wrong. I even scheduled a doctor’s appointment to make sure I didn’t have some dreaded issue!

Then I read about dehydration, and how if you lose more than one pound of weight after an exercise session you are losing too much fluid. I weighed myself at my five mile run on Monday and bingo, I’d lost 2.4 pounds!

Okay, so I’ve made a huge effort to keep hydrated and I think that it has worked. I’m feeling more revived, and my runs have been great. I shaved 11 seconds off my miles today from Monday, and I am back to where I was several weeks ago time-wise. I didn’t feel as sluggish this morning, and I wasn’t putting out full effort, either.

I cut back on the coffee, and minus the afternoon headache as my body screams for a cup of java, everything else has been fine.

I can’t say it was all hydration, but I”m guessing a huge part of my sluggishness both on and off the pavement was due in part to not being hydrated enough. So drink up before and after those runs!

Filed Under: August 2008, Health and Running Tagged With: , , , , ,

Exercising in the Heat? How to Know You are Taking in the Right Amount of Liquid

August 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I see a lot of people posting about running or taking up a running program during the brutally hot days of summer. Many have questions regarding running and exercising in the heat. Since many marathon programs run for about five months, those embarking on this journey are now beginning to train for endurance, which means covering a lot of miles when the days are at their hottest.

I always run in the early morning hours, typically starting before the sun even peeks over the mountains. It’s nice and cool, traffic isn’t ridiculous and I can get some quiet time, alone, just to think.

Yet I do see people out running in midday, when temperatures to me are soaring. But then again, anything over 75 to me is hot!

If you are wondering how to tell whether or not you have lost too much liquid during a workout, here’s a good rule to follow:

Weigh yourself before you go out, and then again when you get back. If you lost more than a pound, you aren’t getting enough to drink.

How much should you be drinking?
7-10 ounces of liquid every ten to fifteen minutes during a longer endurance run. If you are going far, shoot for something with a mix (6%) of sugar to keep the energy levels up.

Afterwards, continue to drink, consuming up to 20 ounces of liquid for every pound you lost while you ran.

Seem like a lot? Possibly so, but your body needs to stay hydrated.

So here’s the thing: I began thinking about this over the weekend, when I had the horrid run on Saturday. I have been tired lately, more tired than usual. And yes, I’m a working mother of two daughters under the age of four, but I also get plenty of rest and I eat well. I take a multivitamin since I’ve been known to run low on iron. I do yoga every night to unwind and relax before bed. So, what the heck was going on, I wondered?

Then Chris of Fab, Fit and 40 commented about the dehydration aspect and I thought, bingo! Immediately I knew that this was probably the case. Why?

First of all, I drink too much coffee-about three cups a day. Two in the morning, one in the early afternoon. Sometimes I even have another half somewhere during the day. Coffee has been a staple of mine for a very long time. My family drank tons of it, putting on a pot in the morning and running one throughout the entire day. I love the smell and I love the taste. Ironically, I don’t like the effects when I have had too much. I’m pretty sensitive to caffeine.

Secondly, I’m not drinking enough when I run. I do drink, I make sure of it, and I generally pound a drink when I get home, a 16 ouncer after a run. But take this morning. I didn’t take a bottle of water along with me and I went five miles. I was really hot and sweaty and thirsty when I got back, so I am now pounding a 16 oz water as I type.

I weighed myself before I left the house this morning to see if I was right. I wanted to test out my theory. I was 140 when I left; I was 137.6 when I got back. So, I lost 2.4 pounds during my 5 mile run, which was definitely too much to lose.

I have to make this a better goal. I’ve decided to replace my afternoon cup of coffee with a cup of tea. I enjoy something warm while I’m working, so I don’t want to give that up completely, but a cup of decaf lemon would be good, hot and not caffeinated.

I’m also going to start wearing my belt when I run on those four to five milers during the week. I’ll take along a water so I know I get enough, and make a point to drink every 10 minutes.

On the weekends, I guess it means guzzling more fluids, and maybe switching from water to Gatorade for a while, until the heat dies down. I don’t really like the sugary fluids. I generally use gel packs, but maybe the heat calls for something more than plain water.

When I went out last weekend, the bad run that I had difficulty finishing (and that I only completed 8 miles of instead of 9), I didn’t weigh myself before, but when I got back I was at a very low 134.5. Now, I haven’t seen 134 in ages, so I knew something was up. I didn’t equate it to losing too much liquid, but I did spend the day drinking tons of water.

So that is my goal this week: Get in the fluids. Avoid the caffeine more. Cut back on the coffee, two mugs a day max. Drink more when running.

If you are concerned about your liquid loss during a session, check your weight before and after, and make sure you are getting enough to keep your body healthy! Signs of dehydration include thirst, dizziness, chills, loss of energy. And if you are at the point of feeling dizzy, sit down and rest and drink. If you are at the point of chills, get medical attention immediately.

Stay safe!

Happy Running Trails . . .

Filed Under: August 2008, Health and Running, Long Distance Running, Training for a Marathon Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Teaching Our Girls to Be Strong

August 12, 2008 By 1 Comment

This morning as I ate breakfast I read an interview with Alannis Morissette in this month’s Women’s Health magazine.

I have always liked her. Come on, I was in my early twenties going through a bad breakup during her angry phase. I remember seeing her in concert and thinking, “How does she know me so well?!” The lyrics to her bitter songs on that bitter album (we all know the one!) screamed through my speakers with such force that I’m surprised my windows didn’t break.

Alannis has come a long way, and I still love this girl. She rides her motorcycle up to Big Sur to take a dip into the ocean. If you’ve never been to Big Sur, the road is sickeningly curvy and the water in the Pacific is so bitter cold, even in the summer, that I don’t even stick my toes in most time, much less go for a dip.

In the article, Alannis said this after talking about the fact that she has participated in several triathlons and that she cross trains. And I quote:

If I have the blessing of being a mom to a daughter one day, I will encourage her to be really physical.

This is exactly my feeling, and something that I try to teach my daughter on a regular basis.

I want both of my daughters to grow up strong. I want them to understand what their bodies can do for them if they treat them right and push them hard.

I got some strange looks from friends when I told the friends that my four year old ran in a half mile road race. She wanted to do it; many kids did. It was a Kid’s Run, for heaven’s sake! Yet some of my friends, I’m sure, felt that I was pushing it because I run.

In reality, I want my daughter to have a variety of experiences when it comes to sports and physical endurance and then I want her to learn what it is she likes and pursue that, be it running, cycling, swimming, soccer, gymnastics, or another sport we haven’t yet tried.

We have made sure that our daughter is active, and we will do the same with our youngest. We’ve set her up in several classes. We talk about how important it is to care for our bodies by eating healthy and getting exercise. To us, this is simply a part of life, and we want our girls to understand how important this is.

My girls and my husband attend my races. They cheer for me at the finish line. My four year old talks about how mommy races and how she wants to race. As much as I would love to race with her one day, I just hope that she finds a sport that she can love as much as I love running. I hope that I can instill in her the power that a person has when they own something as wonderful as running, or cycling, or another sport.

So, hats off to Alannis! I still love this lady, even if she isn’t as angry as she once was. Of course, neither am I. I guess that shows we are getting older!

Filed Under: August 2008, Fitness For Kids, Health and Running Tagged With: , , , ,

Listening to Your Body

August 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It’s funny, but long distance running has taught me one thing: To listen to my body.

It’s not that I didn’t listen before. I did.

I just didn’t react.

Here’s a scenario. My knee hurt. I was running a few times a week a few miles at a time. I was addicted to running, having traded it in long ago for my one a day pack of cigarettes. I didn’t want to falter. So I didn’t slow down. Kept running. Hurt the knee. Out for quite some time.

Fast forward to when I began training for a marathon. My knee hurt. I cut back. Knee pain went away.

You see the difference?

I have always listened to my body. I have always heard what it had to say. However, now I finally have put two things together: If it hurts and I don’t take care of it, I don’t have it anymore. Or, at least, it doesn’t work as well as it did.

When training for a long run, I’ve become acutely aware of everything that is going on in my body. I can tell when I’m hungry long before the hunger pains strike. In fact, I eat now in advance. I eat when I wake up, before I get out of the door, on mornings when I’m running over an hour. If I’m going past one and a half hours I not only eat before I leave but I also take my preemptive slug of gel around forty five minutes so I won’t burn out at mile 13.

If my feet hurt when I am done with a run, I rest them. I put the tight shoes away and pull on the sneakers.

Now, when my body tells me something, I listen.

I’ve also gotten better at hearing what it has to say, which I think is because I am more in tune with my body when I’m out there going 12, 14, 16 miles at a time. I can feel my neck growing stiff from holding my arms at my sides, so I stretch them. I stop during a long run when my knee begins to twinge a bit and I stretch my legs out so it won’t hurt when I am done. I am so much more in tune to how I feel, to what my body feels, and to what will happen if I don’t care for myself, than I ever was.

Of course, this is mostly selfish on my part, I suppose. I don’t want to hurt myself so badly that I can’t get back out there and run again. If I hurt my knee, I won’t make the marathon. If I don’t eat, I’ll not have enough energy to kick it into high gear at the end of the race-whether I am racing others or just the clock.

How has long distance helped you relate to your body? Do you feel what it tells you more than you used to, and do you listen?

Filed Under: August 2008, Health and Running, Long Distance Running, Reflections on Running, Training for a Marathon Tagged With: , , ,

Olympic Runners: Running Through the Smog

August 5, 2008 By 3 Comments

I got my recent issue of Runner’s World the other day and they had a great article about the Olympic runners.

I hadn’t thought a lot about the fact that the athletes competing in the Olympics this year in Beijing will be facing harsh pollution problems.

I suppose I should have. After all, I live (at least for a bit longer!) in Los Angeles.

Let me correct myself: I am now in Orange County. We were in Los Angeles, just a few short minutes from downtown, when we first moved here.

The city itself was just incredible. Pasadena is this picturesque town at the bottom of the mountains, filled with majestic trees and beautiful Craftsman type homes. In fact, many of the neighborhoods you see on television when you watch commercials and sitcoms come straight from Madison Heights, which was a short jog from my front door.

We lived at the top of the street in a condo that we rented, but we could run just half a mile and be in the middle of tv town. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a commercial or show being shot, and then how many times I saw that scene on the television a few months later! It was quite magical.

The smog, though, was unbearable on most days, particularly in the middle of the summer heat.

Let me tell you, running in smog is not pretty. It burns: your eyes, your lungs, your throat. You can tell the instant you step out of the door if there is smog in the air.

I have always been a morning runner, so for the most part this didn’t affect me much. As long as I was out of the door early, while the morning fog was still settled on the town, I was okay.

But those days I did a later run, it was torture.

I can understand the idea behind the political reasons of hosting the Olympics in China, but I am having a difficult time understanding why this is working on a health basis.

We are basically sending athletes into a country filled with so much smog that they are suggesting those competing out of doors wear masks!

We know this is not good for health reasons. Why do this to these competitors? Is it fair?

What are your thoughts on this? Should the Olympics have been held in Beijing with the air quality problems?

Just curious as to what other people out there are thinking on this issue!

Filed Under: August 2008, Health and Running Tagged With: , , , ,

Feeling Sluggish? Maybe a Shot of Caffeine Before the Race Will Help!

August 4, 2008 By 1 Comment

Okay, so don’t throw your grounds at me if you think drinking coffee before a race is a bad idea.

I get it. You don’t want to get all hopped up on caffeine before a long race. I’m sure your heart will hate you for chugging three mugs of java right before you run ten miles.

But . . . a study in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport does show that drinking down an eight ounce mug of coffee improved race times of both recreational and advanced runners in a 5K.

Study co-author Brendan O’Brien says that the key may be that caffeine alters your perception of pain and allows you to run farther and faster than when you haven’t chugged a tall latte.

I know in my house, if I get up for a long run, or any very early morning run, I save the caffeine for post-run.

If I get up early and then head to the gym to run, I have a cup of coffee prior to working out.

I have found on days when I have that cup of coffee beforehand that it does get my blood moving.

But I have also found that it does the same on those mornings when I have had a good night’s sleep.

I doubt I’ll start consuming caffeine before each run, but the study does make me feel better about the days when I do drink coffee before a run!

So what’s your routine? Coffee or no before a run? I have read about people who get up for a marathon and go into it with one bagel and one cup of coffee in their bellies. Is this you?!

Filed Under: August 2008, Health and Running, Racing Tagged With: ,

Running While Pregnant: Tips for Great Runs

July 28, 2008 By 2 Comments

I thought I’d post about running while pregnant, since I spent the entire last pregnancy-up until the 35th or so week-running. Or, should I say wobbling by that point!

I worried for the first six months. I really thought that the jostling would do some type of damage, even though my doctor and the literature I read said otherwise.

It didn’t help that everyone I knew who didn’t run would look at me like I had three heads and say, “Won’t that damage the baby’s brain or something?”

When you are pregnant, you are paranoid. The two go hand in hand. So I worried. (Fast forward to today, one and a half years later. My daughter is fine. She’s developing normally and as we can tell her brain did not get squashed!)

Paula Radcliffe trained for a marathon during her pregnancy, picked it up two weeks after the birth of her daughter, and ran it pretty soon after that. Now, I don’t think I could have handled this type of training, but then again I’m not this type of runner. I’m in awe of what Paula can do when she isn’t carrying around a child in her womb!
There are some key things I learned to stay healthy and fit while running during my pregnancy.

1. Don’t try to increase too much, but try to maintain. If you are running four miles at a time, do four miles at a time for as long as you can comfortably do so. Don’t try to run a marathon when pregnant, unless your body is accustomed to long distance running (and then talk to you doctor first, of course, which brings me to number 2).

2. Talk to your doctor first. Your physician can alleviate any nervousness you have about maintaining your physical routine and can tell you if you have any adverse conditions that might make running while pregnant dangerous or not a great idea.

3. Remember your balance, or lack thereof, particularly when you get bigger. The only mishap I had was during my seventh or so month. As you may or may not know, your balance is off a bit when pregnant. I don’t know what happened-I believe I stepped on a twig or something-but I went down pretty hard. I had my hand out, so no belly hits, but it was scary, and I was shaken up for a while after that.

4. Hydrate. You are drinking for two. Keep up with the water intake.

5. Eat well. You need to think about running at this point as a fitness routine and not a weight loss method. If you are running to lose weight, stop it now! You need to take in enough calories to make up for what you are losing on top of feeding yourself and your baby, so factor this into the equation.

6. Think of the benefits! I didn’t get nearly as large with my second pregnancy because I ran the entire time. I didn’t do marathons; I didn’t even do halfs! Instead I focused on getting in half an hour at a time three days a week. My mileage decreased as I got bigger, but I still went out up until the very end, when I got so pregnant that I just didn’t feel so great. I also lost weight a lot more quickly, and I believe running while pregnant really helped with this. I was able to get back into a fitness routine fairly soon after giving birth.

Filed Under: Health and Running, July 2008, running while pregnant Tagged With: , , ,

Shaking Out the Morning Cobwebs: Or Why I Work Out at 5AM

July 27, 2008 By 2 Comments

I always get this odd look when I tell people that I get up each day (five days a week) to work out at 5 AM.

Four of those days I run; one of those days I do a tri training. On Fridays, rather than get up early, I sleep in and do my abs and arms later in the day when I get time. And on Sundays, I’m supposed to get to sleep in as long as I want.

I say supposed to because, if you have children, you understand that this never happens.

They sleep in on the days I wake early and workout.

On the days I am supposed to sleep in, they are up before 7 AM, every single time!

At this point I am so conditioned to first working out and then to having a cup of coffee before anyone else in my family rises from bed that on the days when I don’t get up early I’m cranky.

Really cranky.

And tired. Really tired. Cobwebs in my head tired. Can’t pull out of the slog tired.

Maybe I should give up this idea of sleeping in, I keep thinking.

Maybe, every single day of my life, I should wake up early to get in my workout time.

On Sundays, my one day off from any type of workout, maybe I should instead get up early and write, or work on projects that are due.

For whatever reason, when given the opportunity to sleep in I just get crankier. It’s like I need that adrenaline rush that I get when I work out early in the morning in order to feel good. Awake. Alive.

I’ve also noticed on the days when I don’t work out with cardio I don’t really feel as great as I do on the days that I run.

I am a bit grouchier, maybe. A little more grumpy.

When I work out and then the kids wake, I’m ready to go. We eat. We take showers. We head outside.

On days when I don’t work out, I’m tired, and don’t feel like I can get myself in gear more quickly.

I’m sure this has to do with those endorphins people are always talking about when they talk about how great working out is for you, and how much energy you’ll have after you get up and get going. I suppose that my body is now used to these, since I have been working out in the early morning hours for the past twelve or so years. Now, my body is conditioned to getting its butt kicked as so as it wakes, and when it doesn’t, it doesn’t feel as though it is awake.

Which made me wonder: If I get a jump rope, which I’m sure my daughter has laying around here somewhere amongst all of her toys, and I spend ten minutes or so jumping on Fridays and Saturdays, my cardio free days, will this make those endorphins kick in and give me the boost I need?

Will this make mom feel more happy, more alive, less grumpy, on cardio-free days?

This will be my experiment next week, and I will let you know if it works.

For now I’m going to fill up on caffeine, quickly, as Sesame Street is almost over and I’m expected to do something with the kids to keep them busy for a few hours.

Maybe we’ll go for a run?!

Filed Under: Health and Running, July 2008, Reflections on Running Tagged With: , , , ,

Flip Flops Be Gone: Shedding the Flops, for My Knees’ Sake

July 20, 2008 By 2 Comments

I live in Southern California and I wear flip flops.

Sounds like the beginning of a Shoe Aholic Meeting, yeah? Believe me, if you live in So Cal, you own your share of flops, and you purchase them in every color at the beginning of summer since your feet don’t see another type of shoe for months on end.

In fact, in my parts it is common to wear them year around.

But my love of flip flops has come to an end. Now that my knee has begun to hurt, I believe one of the primary reasons could be my love for these sandal-like shoes.

I’ve worn them completely, totally and absolutely for the past several years. Unless I have on my running shoes, my feet are adorned in flip flops.

No sandals. No slip ons. Very rarely a pair of ballet flats. Flip flops it is.

This study shows, though, that the stride you take when wearing a pair of flip flops can harm your ankles, soles and feet. I believe, too, it has hurt my knee. I can feel it when I’m walking in one particular pair of my favorites, a brown Old Navy. They are simple yet cute and they get me everywhere.

Rather, they did.

Today I’m taking my daughter to the store and we are searching for a pair of good, comfy, probably potentially very dorky looking cushioned sandals. I have to save my knees. I have a marathon to run.

Bye bye, flip flops. It was fun while it lasted.

Filed Under: Equipment, Health and Running, July 2008, Long Distance Running, Reflections on Running, Running Gear, Training for a Marathon Tagged With: , , , ,
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