"Lady Glide"

Friends, let's talk about chafing for a moment.

No, it's not the sexiest or most glamorous of topics related to running, but it's definitely not something any of us can afford to ignore.

Lately, thanks to my own absent-mindedness and nothing else, I've been suffering from yet another running injury -- the painful, unsightly affliction known as "marathon tattoo," front and center, right where the front band of my sports bras sit. I'm pretty sure I have a permanent scar in this spot from years of neglect; occasionally, I also get it on the inside of my upper arm from rubbing against the edge of my bra or tank top, and all manner of places from the waist down that I'll do us all a favor and not photograph for the internet.

Which leads me to what I consider to be an essential piece of running paraphernalia (I mean, after shoes and clothes): BodyGlide. I can still remember when I first learned about BodyGlide from a runner-coworker. After years of using Vaseline (ew), I cannot tell you how THRILLED I was to find something made for athletes that prevented chafing but wasn't--how shall I put this?--completely gross and disgusting.

This was right before my first half-marathon, and honest to god, I rubbed it over every square inch of my body that stood even the remotest chance of suffering marathon tattoo or otherwise becoming a victim of unfortunate friction. 'Cause let's be real...Ain't nothin' ruins a long race like chafing. (Did I mention it's also good for preventing blisters if you rub it all over your feet? I don't get them anymore for some reason, but at that time, this was the most magical of discoveries.) Most of the time, slathering up before a long run is second nature. While it doesn't completely prevent 100% of chafing incidents (I'm guessing nothing will, probably), it does a damn fine job of minimizing it, it doesn't smell revolting (in fact it barely smells at all), and it's the perfect balance between sticky (keeps fabric in place to some extent, doesn't make clothes feel wet) and slippery (prevents friction). When I forget to put it on, as I have on my last few long runs, I can definitely tell the difference (usually because I am missing skin; see above).

The stuff also lasts forever--I just recently finished off my second stick ever, in five years. When I went to grab another from my local sporting goods store, though, I spotted the most curious thing: BodyGlide For Her.

Seriously?

I don't know about you, but I had a very difficult time trying to understand why regular non-pink BodyGlide would be insufficient for we ladies. Could it be that I've been using the wrong one all these years?!? (More importantly - could that be why I haven't broken 100 minutes in the half yet??)

There's definitely a phenomenon that happens, where a gender-neutral product will suddenly become available in a special "lady" or "for her" version. I guess it bothers me a little because it implies that the original product was specifically "for him," not all of us, and that somehow we ladies are incapable of making use of that version.

In the course of some Googling, I came across this post from Forward Foot Strides. It was somewhat reassuring to find I wasn't the only person who's wondered about this. Also, mad props for actually contacting BodyGlide for some info. Click through for her entire post, but to quote a bit from BG's response:

"We were asked (by women) to create a package that is more approachable, to introduce more women to the benefits of a product that they, too, may have otherwise perceived as for the professionals.

So, the difference is packaging... and the benefits are reliable and consistent as they have been since we came to market in 1996!"

(So yes -- it is indeed the exact same product as regular BodyGlide.)

I'm a bit confused as to why 'women' in this context is being contrasted with 'professionals.' This statement would make more sense to me if it read "We were asked (by women) to create a package that is more approachable, to introduce more women to the benefits of a product that they, too, may have otherwise perceived as for men." Why women would perceive that regular-ol-run-o-the-mill BodyGlide is only for men, though, is as mysterious to me as why we would perceive that it was only for professionals. I guess it bugs me because it reeks of feminine apologetic, which I've spent enough time dealing with (and being grossed out by) as a woman in the martial arts, thankyouverymuch.

But here's the main thing that gets me. Regular ol' BodyGlide is available in three different sizes: .45 oz, 1.3 oz, and 2.5 oz., meaning that unless you get the super-tiny travel size (.45 oz), you pay at most ~$7.70 per oz. As far as I can tell, BodyGlide for her is only available in a .8 oz size, so at best, the ladies who have decried the lack of an "approachable" sports lube will pay $8.75 for the privilege of buying the exact same product, post pink-and-shrink.

So....alright. It's a little hard for me to believe that women in actual need of sports lube would find a non-pink package to be "unapproachable" or that women would perceive such a product to be "for the professionals" when men don't (is this also because of the lack of pink?). But if we're going to claim that, could we at least give these women the opportunity to buy the product at the same price point as men/professionals?

Just saying.

Weather / Patterns

On my way home from work today, I listened to people talking on the radio about record-breaking heat in places like Indiana, Arkansas, and Texas & how people are being warned to stay inside if at all possible due to heat advisories; my Facebook friends are posting sad things about broken air conditioners and outdoor activities; a couple of running sites are running articles about how to run safe in the heat and stay hydrated.

I, on the other hand, went to work today in a sweater, jeans, and a rain shell, and ran the heater in the car.

I also had a track workout scheduled for this afternoon, and let me tell you just how excited I was to get out there in the wind/cold/drizzle. (Alright, I know it's not real cold, but it's too cold for my preference, and the wind makes it worse.) It made me so incredibly sad to discover I'd already gone through my three pairs of running tights this week; instead, I made due with the longest pair of shorts I have and a long-sleeve tech shirt. Kezar Stadium has been a happier place to be, that is for certain.

On the other hand, there is a certain satisfaction to completing a run in nasty weather, then curling up inside on the couch for the rest of the day. Nothing follows a nasty weather workout better than soft pants and hot tea. :)

In addition to my soft pants and tea, I am treating myself to a couple of those freaky blue ice packs. A pattern seems to be developing, and it appears to involve track workouts.

My speed work has gone through a bit of evolution lately. In May and June, I was running a lot of hard 400 repeats, usually 10-12 at a time. A few weeks into that was when my shin splints started acting up again. I'd feel fine after a long run Sunday, take Monday off, run 10-12 x 400 on Tuesday, starting having med tib pain, take Wednesday off, and then end up either cutting my Thursday run short, feeling miserable after it, or just skipping it altogether and then trying to run Friday and Saturday if I could.

This pattern went on for a few weeks. Then I basically took a week off while we were in Chicago. The week after that (last week) I did a track workout, but mile repeats at 5K pace instead of 400s, and felt great. (Slower pace = less pounding? A week of rest? Who can say?) Now I am changing things up again to better align with my 10K goals and alternating weeks between five-minute intervals at 5K pace and ten-minute intervals at 10K pace. Today I did the five-minutes, planning to do five, and knew after just a couple that I would need to cut back unless I wanted to ruin the rest of my training week. I did four, but I've been having mild shin AND Achilles tendon (!) pain in both legs since (ie, a couple of hours).

I don't think it's anything too serious; it's not the level of pain I was having a few weeks ago, and I've definitely become less hesitant about cutting things short as soon as I feel it, even if it's pretty mild. Since the 10Ks are really a means to an end, I'm trying to do my best to take the long view and invest in my fall half marathon by running less mileage and spending more time recovering when I need it so that I'll be stronger and able to run more later on. It's frustrating, but I think that if I'm conservative about my speed work, sandwich it between rest days, and ice both my shins and Achilles tendons consistently when I'm having pain, I'll end up having a better fall.

Marathon Musings...

In the past couple of weeks, I've found myself thinking more and more seriously about running a full marathon within the next six months to a year, which is not something I've ever really thought seriously about. (You may recall this post...)

So why the new interest? I don't know. Maybe it's that so many of my runner friends have done it, and I feel like it's an experience that I want to have as a runner. Maybe it's so that I'll feel like I can speak on the subject with some (read: any) amount of authority. Maybe it's that recently I've finally been able to get in a reasonable amount of mileage on a weekly basis without ending up in pain. Maybe it's that I'm currently on track to break a 100 minute half-marathon this year, which should theoretically mean a Boston Qualifying time in the full if I train well and have a good race. Maybe it's a little bit of all of that. Then, on top of all of that, there's my amazing friend Teresa.

Teresa, who is a newish runner (I think she started training with some seriousness a year or two ago), recently ran the Mayor's Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska with Team in Training. Like me, she's dealt with some recurring injuries, but managed to train for and complete the race with a more-than-respectable time and no physical issues on relatively low weekly mileage. She came back super-excited and totally gung-ho to run another & just recently signed up for the Cal International Marathon in Sacramento on Dec. 4. She also put out the call for racing buddies -- CIM is definitely on my list of races to theoretically run, and I am so tempted! Yes, it's past the early-bird registration deadline so it'd be $105 instead of $85, but for a full marathon, that's still not too ridiculous, and it would be nice to run my first marathon with a friend. Also, you really can't beat the CIM course for a BQ attempt.

The real question (other than, "Will I be healthy & injury free long enough to put in the training?") is how feasible it is to run two long races within three weeks of each other and do them both justice. As of right now, I'm planning to run the Clarksburg Country Run Half Marathon on November 13, three weeks before CIM, so this would really mean working out a way to train for both the half and the full simultaneously, then engineering a serious recovery plan for the three weeks in between. It seems like it's do-able, but would definitely require some forethought & planning. (Then again, as Teresa reminded me today, she's running the Big Sur Half on Nov. 20, so it's difficult to use that as an excuse.)

So I'll be ruminating on that for a while. In the mean time, I had a great ten-miler today (let's not forget, only my second since October of last year), at a great and comfortable pace, with no shin splints or hip pain whatsoever, so the week is off to a good start. :)

Week In Review: July 3 - 9

This is my weekly training journal. Including it in the blog gives me a little extra accountability in the mileage department & helps me stick to my schedule. :)

Monday: 9 miles easy. There's something very gratifying about more than doubling the previous week's mileage in a single day. To be honest, I was a little hesitant to start out with this this week, given the last couple of unpleasant workouts I've had, but I reasoned I could cut it short at any time if my shins started giving me trouble. Thankfully, not only did they hold, but I felt much more like my regular self instead of like a couch potato with emphysema. I can tell that the right one is not 100% yet (I mean, I was limping on it less than a week ago after a day of walking), but it's still a huge improvement and didn't give me any trouble during the run.

Thursday: 6 miles easy. Unfortunately, after the 9 miles on Monday, my right Achilles tendon revolted something fierce and I was almost back to limping again (though not from shin splints this time, at least). I had a track workout scheduled for Tuesday, but by late that afternoon I had to give up on it & recognize the fact that it was decidedly Not a Good Idea. On Wednesday I still didn't feel quite right & decided again to err on the side of caution (how long has it taken me to learn to do that?). Finally, Thursday I decided to try another shorter, easy run and see how things went, and to cut it short if my leg started talking too much. It wasn't totally pain free, but I did get through the entire scheduled distance without feeling like I needed to stop, so that's something. Funnily, once I got back home and showered, my leg actually felt better than it did before my run. Maybe it just needed a little bit of loosening up.

Friday: 8 miles (1 mile warm up + 3 x 1 mile @ 5K pace + 4 easy). Originally I'd scheduled to do a tempo run today, but since I skipped the track session Tuesday I really wanted to get that in while my legs were feeling good (which was reassuring, btw!). Ordinarily I'd do 4-6 repeats and probably could have, but I've noticed that my worst shin splint days have followed track workouts recently, and while up until now I've been running 400 repeats and not miles, I thought it might be best to back off a little, just to make sure everything is fine. I decided to add in the easy four as a way to at least make up some mileage after skipping Tuesday; it's amazing to me how I can feel perfectly fine after mile repeats, almost as if I haven't run at all, but then by the time I finish any additional "easy" miles, I absolutely feel every single one. Again, I say, bodies are weird.

Saturday: 7 miles (2 miles warm up + 5 miles tempo). Originally, this was supposed to be a four mile tempo run with a one mile warm up, but since I skipped Tuesday, I decided to try to add a mile to each part in order to make this week 30 even, assuming my body felt up to it (and happily, it did!). As I promised myself a couple of weeks back, I didn't try to do my tempo run around the neighborhood and instead sucked it up and drove to the track. This is a bigger sacrifice than it might sound like -- I park on the street, and in my neighborhood, parking gets difficult after ~6 pm on week nights and can be downright miserable after dinner time on a Friday or Saturday. On Friday afternoon, I'd managed to park right in front of the house (score!), but when I got back Saturday around 8:30, it took me nearly half an hour to find a spot (though, happily, it was less than half a block away from home). My tempo pace is not yet quite what I'd like it to be, but I still had a great run (I really love running on the track on Saturday evenings, because it tends to be cool and empty) and I got the entire seven miles in with no problem.

Grand Total: 30 miles

Huzzah! This is the first time I've managed to get to 30 since late August of last year (so 10.5 months, give or take). I'm holding my breathe to see how my legs feel in the next couple of days or so; if I start having any weird pains (or, god forbid, the shin splints rear their ugly head again), I'm completely ready to back off next week and go back to 25 if need be and then try for 30 again the week after. As of right now, though, I'm kind of basking in the glow of having a >= 30-mile , pain-free week. :)

Food: Five Cups A Day of Fruits & Veggies = Totally Possible!

Alright, alright, I promise not to bore you with my plant intake on a daily basis, but I have to say, I'm pretty proud that I managed to come very close to getting in all five servings for a solid week!

Tuesday: This was the day of pineapple, cherries, seaweed salad, & kale salad. There were also some peppers, zucchini, & carrots in the lemon grass chicken we had for dinner. A strong start!

Wednesday: I've decided to start taking bananas with me to work every day to eat between breakfast and lunch, so there was that. Then for lunch, I had a good two-cup salad (plus a few other veggies on a chicken-wrap-thing). When I got home, I snacked on cherries and grapefruit (at least another cup, maybe more), and had a vegetable curry for dinner.


Thursday: I started out with the mid-morning banana; then for lunch I had my lemon grass chicken leftovers which had maybe half a cup of veggies in it, plus a good cup (maybe more?) of pomegranate seeds. Dinner was super exciting tonight -- we've been experimenting with growing different kinds of greens in the backyard, which has gone spectacularly well! They've gotten big enough recently that we decided it was time for a home-grown salad, which was FANTASTIC. I also threw in a cup or so of heirloom cherry tomatoes, then ate the rest of the package on its own. (This is another one of those things that I forget -- that I LOVE munching on cherry tomatoes; I just have to remember to buy them!) We rounded out the night with some snow peas, since they're now in season at our local farmers' market.

Friday: We have fresh farmers' market berries again, so I started off with at least a half a cup of raspberries with breakfast this morning, then mid-morning banana, then veggie curry leftovers and grapefruit for lunch. Early in the evening I finished off some basil tofu leftovers which probably had a good half cup to a cup of veggies in it, and then later I had a slice of spinach and sun dried tomato pizza. Got the fruit in, but I may have fallen slightly shy on the veggies.

Saturday: Berries in the breakfast plus a banana; we spent most of the afternoon at a barbecue where I ate mostly meat and Cheetos, so that wasn't exactly great for the fruits & veggies resolution. Before bed, though, I did manage at least a good two-cup salad, maybe more, plus a couple of figs, so if I didn't get quite to the three cups of veggies, I at least came close.

So really, not too bad for my first week! Two cups of fruit & three cups of veggies may seem like a lot, but what I've learned is that it's not so bad if you make it a priority and do whatever you have to to make sure you get them in. (Eg, a couple of days this week, I stopped by the Trader Joe's or the Whole Foods on the way home to grab a little salad or something, and making a habit out of the mid-morning banana helped a lot too.)

Also interestingly, I'm finding that if I go for the fruits & veggies first, I actually DO feel pretty full and crave other things less. There's been a couple of days where I haven't even been hungry for dinner, so eating a smaller amount of protein and carbs left me feeling just as satisfied and less snack-ey and deprived. At some points, I've even felt sort of uncomfortably full. I don't know sure if it's related, but part of me wonders if that's all the water & fiber, or if maybe my body just isn't used to getting enough fruits & vegetables in general so now it's a little weirded out.

Anyway, now that I've convinced myself that it's realistic, my plan is to try to make this five cups a day thing a real habit. Give it a try!

Food: Fruits, Veggies, & Why More Can Be Less

While it's true that I get a lot of exercise and make a point of trying to eat (at least reasonably) well most of the time, I really do believe that I have genetics to thank for a good bit of my athleticism and the fact that I've never really had to worry too much about my weight. By this, I mean I'm fit, healthy, and can more or less wear whatever I want within reason.

That said, I do tend to hover right around 13-15 pounds above what I considered my ideal racing weight in high school & college. By & large, this isn't a big deal; I won't pretend that I don't love Mission burritos, deep dish pizza, the French bakery down the street, goat cheese, crusty bread, cream-based soups, good wine, good beer, and good cocktails. I live in San Francisco, by God, and what kind of a waste would it be to not take advantage of these things?

The issue isn't IF dropping those extra pounds is possible; it's more that I KNOW it's possible, but I've done the math and I know what I would have to give up, and that it would make me a sad, sad shell of a person. For an A-race, I can buckle down for a month or so and drop maybe 5-8, but that's about as far as I'm willing to go.

Well; sort of. One thing I've been reminded of lately is that I really don't eat enough fruits and vegetables (do any of us??), and this is unfortunate for several reasons:

• In a 2004 study, the number of servings of fruits & vegetables that subjects ate per day (on average) was inversely proportional to their risk of heart attack or stroke. (Subjects who averaged > 8 servings per day had a 30% lower risk.)
  
• In two other studies, people who ate more than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day had a 20% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke (compared with people who had only 3 servings per day, the American average).
  
• While the main studies that were once considered to prove that eating more fruits & vegetables prevented cancer have been called into question, there is still reasonably strong evidence that specific types of fruits and vegetables contain certain chemicals that prevent specific types of cancer.
  
• Because of their low energy density and high fiber and water content, fruit & vegetable consumption is strongly correlated with weight loss (or maintenance, relative to gaining). In at least one study (which I remember reading but now can't find), people lost weight simply by increasing the amount of fruits & vegetables they ate, without any additional dieting instructions. If I rightly recall, the researchers surmised that this was due to people to feeling fuller (again, fiber & water) on fewer calories and eating less meat, dairy, grain, & fats as a result.
  

So, while I don't plan to stop eating Mission burritos or goat cheese any time soon, I'm willing to eat more fruits & veggies, partly because I should, and partly because, hey, maybe 11-13 pounds over race weight isn't quite as bad as 13-15 over? :D

The next question was, precisely how many fruits & vegetables should I be shooting for each day?

Well, according to the USDA's MyPlate website (which replaces the old food pyramid), I should be eating three cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit every day (the old 'serving' measurement is out the window). The site also told me how my veggies should break down each week (click to embiggen).

I have a feeling that if I can do this consistently, I probably will end up eating less of things that are less good for me when I don't really want them (ie, I'm just snacking because I'm hungry & that's what's there).

So how's it going so far? Well, so far today I've had a small seaweed salad, two cups of pineapple, probably 3-4 cups of kale salad, and a few handfuls of cherries. How's that for a killer start! Also, it's probably important to point out that these are all foods I really like & sometimes just don't think to buy -- one thing I figured out a long time ago is that forcing myself to eat foods I don't like because I feel like I should (beets, celery, cabbage...I'm looking at you) is a no-go.


I really like the idea of going back to a 'diet' being a prescription for what you DO eat, rather than what you DON'T eat. One thing I've definitely learned about myself during those weeks before an A race when I'm actively trying to drop weight -- feeling deprived will do me in every time. So I'm quite excited about framing things in terms of what I WILL TRY to eat every day, instead of what I will try NOT to eat. :)

Week In Review: June 26 - July 2

This is my weekly training journal. Including it in the blog gives me a little extra accountability in the mileage department & helps me stick to my schedule. :)

So, I spent most of this week in Chicago for a wedding (and also general eating/drinking/sight-seeing/etc.), and it turns out that my running ambitions, humble though they were, ended up being a tad optimistic. I'd hoped to get in a few treadmill runs, but on day two of multiple hours of sightseeing on foot, I started having some disturbingly intense throbbing pains in my right tibia. By the end of the day I was limping pretty impressively (and, ok, whimpering a bit), so I figured this was maybe one of those body-trying-to-tell-you-something kind of situations and that maybe a few days off (by which I mean many, many miles of walking) was not the worst idea anyone ever had. Another runner friend also in town and I had actually been toying with the idea of a lake-front run on Saturday morning, but due to many hours of merriment and revelry the night before, that didn't happen either, and again, maybe for the best. So here is my one workout summary for this week:

Monday: 4 miles easy. Knowing we were flying out that afternoon and I wouldn't have time later, I actually got up early to run, which almost never happens. Still way more shin splint pain that I feel I should have to tolerate, and way too much feeling like a couch potato with emphysema. (I'd like to point out that my 3rd place performance at the Pride Run last Saturday was flanked on either side by such runs. My body is weird sometimes.)

Grand Total: 4 miles

Eh. Whatever. While single-digit mileage wasn't exactly ideal, this was probably a week that was better under-done than over-done. Hopefully my tibs and cardiovascular system (?) will be better for the rest next week. On the other hand, it was a super-fun trip and I had an awesome week of delicious food & drinks otherwise, so complaining is not really warranted. ;)