Jingle Bells 5K

Well the weather could not have been any worse (for the mid-atlantic). It was 42 and raining. But that didn't stop me and my mom from going out! It was hard to pick what to wear. I ended up wearing 4 layers on top, but only ran in two. Ended up running in a short sleeve under armor compression top and a long sleeve shirt with UA winter gear bottoms and running shorts. It was a little cold standing by the start, but after the first 5 minutes I was warm.




I was especially worried about my five fingers. After about the 5th step out of the car they were wet. It ended up not mattering much though. I splashed through puddles and didn't care. It kinda brought me back to an earlier childhood day when I tried to make the biggest splash with every puddle. Made the race more fun. At no point were my feet numb or even really cold.

When I hit the 1 mile marker I was at 8:05. I thought my eyes had deceived me. I tried to quickly figure out the treadmill mph equivalent, and I thought it was about 7.5 mph. I had only bumped it up to 8 once a week or so ago. And I felt like I was just warming up (well, except for my ankle, it was ready to be done!) I tried to keep up the pace. At mile 2 the clock was just turning to 16:00. Means that I upped it a little. Not bad! Sometime around the two mile mark someone behind me commented that my five fingers looked like water shoes. How fitting for the day!

As I was running down the long street that was leading up to the 3 mile mark I started to look down. It just seemed so far away. But I realized it and kept my head up. As I rounded the corner to the .2 mile home stretch I picked up the pace (much to the chagrin of my ankle). I sprinted into the finish and passed at 25:50.

I was thrilled. I thought I had run significantly better than a 30 on Thanksgiving, and this means that I definitely may have. Unfortunately the picture that Cara got has a guys head right in the way of the clock. After I stopped I realized how much my ankle was hurting. Instead of my Achilles though, it felt like it was in the right peroneus brevis and peroneus tertius tendon. I hobbled back to the car. It was all sooo worth it.

Getting Ready for the Next 5K

I am running my next 5K on Sunday the 14th. It will be the Jingle Bells run in Toms River, NJ. I was even able to convince my mom to run it with me. I have been having a little bit of pain in my Achilles tendon over the last day. Today I ran 4 miles, two thirds at a 6mph pace and one third at a 7mph pace. By the end of the workout my Achilles was pretty sore. Luckily I bought a heating pad last night, so I will be able to put it to good use.

The run was pretty easy. I did a light lifting routine afterwards. I have decided not to run tomorrow so that I don't injure myself any more. I'd hate to have to not run the race.

2nd Day Not Running

I decided not to run today either. I want my feet to feel all better by the time the next 5K rolls around. I biked 4.5 miles and then did some steep walking. Varied from 7% at 4mph to 13% at 3.5mph. It was surprisingly challenging. Especially when one of my new friends came over to talk to me! =D The whole talking thing adds another layer of difficulty. She noticed my five fingers and was wondering about them. I told her the story. She said that her daughter has problems with her knees. She also happens to be a nurse, so is on her feet all day.

As it also turns out, he husband is currently reading a book on barefoot running. He said it was pretty good but couldn't remember the title off hand. He is going to let me know what it is on Friday.

I also trained Cara this morning. We used the resistance bands for the whole workout. Seemed like it was pretty challenging. It was definitely different just watching. Good thing I had a cup of coffee to keep me busy. Finally, the boredom got so great that I had to do some inverted shoulder presses. There was that and then the demonstration of shoulder raises which prompted me flapping my "wings" like a raven. LOL.

I went down to the inner harbor today to snap some photos. I wanted to get down there for the clouds clearing, but didn't make it in time. They burnt off a little earlier than I expected... Actually on the way down. Here is my favorite.

Burn more calories during menstruation?

Today I did not go to the gym at all. Eeekk! Its hard, but I think I can manage. With all of that free time I did manage to research a pretty interesting topic: Menstruation. Last night my girlfriend and I were talking and she seemed to think that women burned more calories during their period. A very convenient fact this would be. Most women like to consume chocolate and that would be a perfect explanation as to why. Their bodies are requiring more calories. While I did not really buy into it, I decided that research was in order. Here are my findings (in plain english!):

1. Basal metabolic rate (how many calories that are burned while at complete rest) does change throughout the menstrual cycle.
2. A majority of women burn more calories in the weeks leading up to menstruation.
-BMR hits a low in early follicular phase (end of "period)
-BMR hits a high in late lenticular (right before "period")
3. Some women do not show significant variations in BMR throughout menstruation.
4. The period of decreased metabolism is similar in magnitude to the subsequent increase in metabolism.
5. Average basal metabolic rate for women was 9.4 calories per pound of body weight. (remember this doesn't take into account ANY activity.)

Next time I have some free time I'll research the whole chocolate aspect of things.

References:
1. Henry, Jaya et al. (2003) British Journal of Nurtition 89, 811-817
2. Solomon, Susan et al. (1982) American Journal of Clinical Nurtition 36, 611-616
1. Author (year)Journal edition, pages

Christmas in the Aire

Today Cara and I went to her parents house to put up their Christmas tree! Her dad ordered a Balsam Fir from a tree farm in WV. It was delivered yesterday. Apparently they smell really good and don't shed their needles at quite the pace that other species do. He had fond memories from his child hood. I've got to say that it did smell very good once it got up. However, it also shed a fair amount of leaves. Maybe being without water for a couple days had it down. We strung bubble lights on the tree as well. Such a mysterious ornament. How do they bubble?

My training today consisted of high rep strength training followed by a 6-7mph mile run. I am officially training Cara now, so I didn't want to tire (or injure) her =P. The snow today made for some cold five fingers. Although, without the moisture aspect I think they will be ok. I have the KSO (keep stuff out) pair, but the Flows are supposed to be better insulated and more water resistant. I think they are made out of neoprene.

Later on tonight Cara and I are going to stay at a new hotel called Aloft and see the new Twilight movie. Can't wait!

Scaling Back

Today I decided to scale things back a little bit. I have noticed that running over 3 miles tends to make my left foot sore fore the next day or two. If I stay under that, I can retrain the next day. The Vibrams are requiring my arches to actually work. I'll try to build them up.

Today I wanted to head over to UMBC and run on their track. But then the lug nut took up all of my time because I decided to grind it out. Slow process. Took at least 7 hours. By then it was dark, and I was lucky I made it to the gym. I ended up having to go to the location that is further away because they close at 11 instead of 9.

Once I got there, I did a 2 minute warm up and then ran between 6-7mph for the full 3 miles at a 2% incline. I know that I can do the distance at 6, but I hope to be able to do it at 7 by my next 5K. The next one is going to be with my mom back home. It is on Sunday the 13th.

MY CALVES!

So I ran 4.5 miles today in 45 minutes and boy are my calves killing me. The posterior gastrocnemius and where the peroneus longus inserts with the knee. Forget that... All the muscles are sore! I put on tiger balm like it was going out of style. I think it has something to do with the stride I take in the Five Fingers. I seem to push off more forcefully. It might also have something to do with my calves acting as shock absorbers now that there are no shoes.

Check this out too... there are 26 bones in each foot (52 in both). Now flash back to high school... How many bones are in the human body? 206 (or 208 if you count the sternum as 3). That means that one quarter of your bones are in your feet. Pretty complex and pretty important. For those of you who are really good at anatomy the hands actually have more bones than the feet do. They clock in at 27 per hand. That means that your feet and hands are pretty spectacular engineering marvels. I used to ask my mom, "What did people do before running shoes?" My thought was that natural selection would have weeded out humans long ago if they could not run barefoot (or close to it!)

I found out that my result from the turkey trot did not get posted to the website. I also figured out why. There was a little "ticket" on the bottom of my running bib. It had my name/age/gender. I didn't know why it was there. Now I do. I had to leave that so that the timers knew what person to match with what tag. I was getting worried as I was scrolling down the results list. I was getting closer and closer to the 30 min mark and didn't see my name. After I got to the end I used the Firefox search and my name/number did not show up in the search. I am kinda disappointed because I think I did really well for my first 5K.

On a non-running note, one lug bolt is still stuck in my car. I tried welding another bolt to it, but broke that bolt. Now I have a 5/16 drive 3/8 screw extractor that I am trying. I get the impact socket in tomorrow to turn it (stripped the one I had). Hopefully that will get it out!