Half Marathon Training - Week 2 Complete!

 Am still lying in my sweaty running gear, licking the last of my post-exericse Pad See Ew off my lips, and feeling good about finishing my 3rd week of training (including the pre-training week)!

Tips I've learnt from this week:

1. Fiber.
Don't know how to put this delicately, but fiber is great, and very important for healthy bowel movement. However, when you start increasing your jogging distances... well, the natural action of jogging also helps bowel movement. Therefore, when you are running more, it can be advantageous to start eating a little bit less fiber. How do you know if you have too much in your diet? You'll know when you go running :D

2. IT bands.
There is a very good reason I did my last post on illiotibial band syndrome. I haven't gotten to the painful stage, but I can definitely felt them tightening. Therefore, I spent a few minutes before my long run today rolling them out, and am trying to do some strengthening exercises while I'm brushing my teeth so that I do it regularly.

3. Breathing and focus.
So there are two ways to get through a long training session: the first is to try and distract yourself with something else. I, for example, have been watching TV while jogging. Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems with this. Sunday afternoon is full of really bad TV! I ended up watching an hour long ad for the Total Home Gym, which is really, really repetitive, but at least made me feel good that I was working out. So, it's not great when there is nothing to distract you, but it is also pretty bad for your form.
The other option I started trying out today after I got sick of the Total Home Gym ad, was to actually stay focused on my breathing and try to get myself in a meditative state. I've done a little bit of meditation before, and I know that it is supposed to be really good for your mind to give it down time to focus on absolutely nothing. (It's highly recommended for those who suffer from depression or obsessive compulsive thoughts to take up a repetitive sport such as swimming, rowing, cycling or jogging, in case you are wondering, just for this reason along with the added benefits of exercise).
So about 2/3 of the way through my long jog today, I flicked off the TV channel, though did leave it on FM radio for background music, and tried to maintain correct technique while breathing deeply and slowly. Surprisingly, I managed to drop 10 bpm off my heart rate doing this, and felt a while lot better by the end. Am definitely going to keep working on this and developing my ability to do it for longer and longer times.


The training for this week:

I have to admit, I moved all my training sessions around, but did complete them all.

Wednesday (not Tuesday) I did my 40 minute easy jog at 9km/h, though because of the need to go to the bathroom, and then just losing it, I did take two breaks. However, I jogged for a total of 40minutes that session.

Thursday I did my 30 minutes easy, and actually went for a jog along the river, which went for almost 40 minutes, but it was feeling good. However, speed varied quite a bit looking at my RunKeeper afterwards. Might want to work on that.

Friday I took as one of my days off.

Saturday (not Wednesday)I did what was listed as a 50 minute pace piece made up of 15 minutes warm up, 2 minutes race pace and 1 minute easy x 4, and then 14 minutes cool down. So I did all that, and then realised - that doesn't add up to 50 minutes! Even taking into account it might be 'repeat 4 more times', that's still not 50. I went through a few more of the sessions later on on the app, and it appears to do this a number of times. There is the pace session where you do 30 minutes warm up, 10 minutes goal pace and 2 minutes easy x 4, and then 15 minutes cool down, for a total of 1hour and 10 mins. hmm? Really? So, got to keep an eye on that.

Sunday today was a nice long slow jog for an hour. Wore my heart rate monitor for the first time, and started off around 145 which is pretty good, then midway climbed up to around 160 bpm. However, after I started focusing, it was dropping down to 150bpm, which is a great spot for me to stick at. I did wonder if I possibly should have been going a bit faster, but by the end I was still getting a stitch, so maybe it was just right.

Weight wise: My original aim was to lose 0.5 kgs a week. Last week I had gone up just a little bit to 76.9 (I also moved to weighing in pre-run which I think is a good idea). So, not a great start.
But this week pre-run I came in at 75.8! Yah! Not totally on goal, but catching up from last week. Just need to make sure it wasn't because I've dehydrated myself or anything like that. But often weight loss does take a few weeks to show on scales, and I've now increased my mileage quite a bit on what I was doing before training.

My biggest relief is that I'm past the 3 week mark, counting the pre-training week, which I am. I have an awful habit of coming down sick 2 weeks into a new program, and I have to admit that the beginning of this week I was feeling pretty seedy (which is why I moved my first jog to Wednesday, not Tuesday). But I'm now feeling good again.

Next week I'm going to start looking into energising methods such as gels for my longer run, now that I've broached the 1 hour. I'll let you know my research.

(This was meant to be posted on Sunday, but as I accidentally locked myself out of my apartment, you are getting it Monday night. For that full story, check out my post on 100 First Drafts.)

It's That Time Of The Year Again: Goal Setting!

 

Ah, Monday 31st December, 2012. To be honest, I always love this time of year. It is a great period for reflection and building up motivation for the coming year.
I am not a fan of resolutions, to be honest. I've tried making them a few times, and found that they just add pressure, stress, guilt and finally a sense of failure.

So, I'm sharing with you my top secret approach to finding motivation in 2013.

Ready?

Forget goals, forget resolutions, what you need is a 2013 Bucket List.

Instead of telling yourself what you must do, give yourself one off challenges that will lead to 2013 being a year of triumph, achievement, excitement, fulfillment and adventure.

What is an annual Bucket List?

In 2012 I made a list of the top 70 things I wanted to try. I divided this into 7 different categories (which might have overlapped a bit) to make sure I was creating a balanced lifestyle. I have seriously enjoyed myself and done quite a few things I didn't think I would.

With 70 items to tick off, you need to be doing 1-2 things a week, which keeps you on your toes, but allows you to choose what will best fit in with your schedule that week.

The nature of the items should vary in difficulty. I had some which were super easy and would cheer me up, such as buying myself flowers just because. Therefore, if I was having a bad week, my bucket list would make it all seem brighter. And as previously posted, I had much harder things such as doing a 21km ergo, which gave me a huge sense of achievement when I completed it.


How to Make the List: 

It's easiest to start by working out your categories. These are areas that you want to develop in your life. For me I had 7 categories, but you can vary this number as much as you like, and I think I will add a few extra categories this year.
This year, my areas are going to be:

- Sport/Fitness
- Culinary
- Spiritual
- Cultural
- Relationships
- Adventure
- Creative
- Learning
- Business
- Finance

Under each I'm going to come up with 7 - 8 items that I want to achieve, making sure I have a good range. For example:

- Sport/Fitness - Complete 10km in under an hour, try a brand new gym class.
- Culinary - Cook a pecan pie, go to a tapas bar.
- Spiritual - Spend a weekend at a convent, read Augustine's 'City of God'.
- Cultural - Go to a Melbourne Theatre Company play, read Faust.
- Relationships - send all my facebook friends a letter, surprise someone for their birthday.
- Adventure - Go on a hiking trip, ride a motorbike.
- Creative - get a book accepted by literary agent/ publisher, go to a writing conference.
- Learning - do a painting short course, learn to use MYOB and keep all business accounts for 2013. 
- Business - monetize fitbuster, create a niche site.
- Finance - save $10,000, start a managed fund.

Some of those will take about an hour, such as cooking pecan pie, and others, such as saving $10,000, will probably take effort all year.

When I did it last year, I also left some spaces blank for a few days and got suggestions from people, which gave me a few great ideas. So don't feel it all needs to be done by tomorrow, it is a work in progress.


My 2012 List?

Now, to be completely honest with you, I didn't tick off a lot of things on my list, in fact I'm only just over halfway. But for that I have competed in a rowing regatta, gone to the races, said 'yes' to a strange invitation, gone to the ballet, spent a day in silence, and learned to cook almond croissants just to name a few. So, looking at the list, it's been a pretty good year.

Therefore, I'm highly recommending this as a great motivator for those who hate resolutions and goals.

Sneak Preview of 2013 at Fitbuster:

I've been doing a lot of reading, and learning about blogging and thinking particularly of Fitbuster and how I can make it better and more useful for you.  2013 is going to be a great year for health and fitness, and I'm going to keep giving you great content and new ideas.

Particularly, I'm looking feedback on fitness programs or ideas that you want to know more about, and I'm searching for volunteers who would be happy to test things out. I'll be offering free stuff to be reviewed or incentives for longer programs. So if you are interested in being on my list of volunteers, either comment below or email me at b.greentr@gmail.com
I will be setting up an email subscription soon, just to let you know, which will include invitations to guest post, try out products and programs, first chance at giveaways, and useful information on designing and developing your own fitness projects. So, keep an eye out for that.

Also, as you can see from my list, I will be trying to monetize the blog. However, I don't want want it to detract from the information and utility of the site. I've signed up with Nuffnang, so it will be very Australian focused, which I think is great. While I know quite a few of you are from overseas and I will continue to provide great content for you as well, I particularly want to encourage Australians to get out and experience health and fitness in our great country.
Any feedback on the advertising; if you find it annoying or you have other great ideas, is always welcome. Email me at b.greentr@gmail.com

Thanks for a great 2012. Better is yet to come. 

Maffetone Method Part 3: Review

Hopefully by now you have tried the Challenge to work out your own Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate, and done some testing to set a baseline, which is all just generally useful information to have.

But is it worth actually following the Method properly and in a dedicated manner?

Well, the cons of the method:
My first issue is he complains that the maximum heart rate formula of 220-age is not individualistic enough, but what he offers is 180 - age with just a 10bpm leeway. It doesn't sound all that individualistic either. If maximum heart rate can vary a lot between people then the maximum aerobic heart rate will vary as well. Therefore, I would start with his formula and use the testing to adjust it to your needs over a few months. I am not, of course, the only one to have noted this. For example see Greg Crowther's blog post where he lists this and a number of other problems.

Second, a lot of people complain that after following it religiously, they didn't see any improvement. (For example see the lead post in the thread on the cool running forum.) I admit that I did it for three-four months earlier this year and didn't see that much improvement. Having said that, I now realise my heart rate was based on what I had worked out a few years previously when I was fit and healthy, not old and recovering. So I was probably working out at too high a level. Also, if you go three months and see no improvement, then you aren't following his method properly: you should be doing your testing every month and adjusting until you do see improvements.

One thing that Greg Crowther also noted was that most of the high level athletes that support Maffetone are competing in endurance racing such as Mark Allen who does Ironman racing and Stu Mittleton who does ultra marathons. There are questions about whether it is as useful for high level sprinters and other short distance/time events. 

Pros:
First, which most people agree with, it is amazingly peaceful and relaxing, ensuring that you actually enjoy exercising and feel better afterwards not worse. And to be honest, if that is all you get out of it, that is an awful lot in today's society.

It doesn't appear to aggravate any existing injuries or develop new ones.

When done properly, ability to run (either faster or longer) does appear to improve, even though each session is well within your comfort zone, so that's pretty exciting.

The basic concepts (regular testing, adjust programs until there are noticeable improvements, monitoring life stress when planning workouts etc) are all really sound and good ideas. 

The message that the 'no pain, no gain' theory isn't actually necessary is useful for those who have been burned and scared off exercise by Army Sergeant type gym instructors.


My Personal Experience: 
As mentioned, I did it for 3-4 months, though possibly at too high a heart rate. Over that time I didn't see much improvement, but also managed to go to the gym five times a week because I knew I wasn't going to be killing myself so didn't lose motivation. At the end of the period I then started more interval training and found my speed increasing very quickly, and I'm sure that was partly due to the good preparation. Also, I found after stopping and going onto harder workouts, my overall stress levels in general increased.

Therefore, my recommendations:
For athletes I recommend it as an off-season training tool and for active recovery. However, during the season, you will need to do some speed and weight work to be at the top of your game.

For people coming into exercise for the first time or after a long time, I definitely recommend doing at least 4 months of the method before moving onto harder programs because it will keep you motivated, keep you from injury, and build up your aerobic system.

For regular exercises it is still good to vary your workouts. Over winter, or a stressful time at work, try the Method in a dedicated manner for a few months and see if it works for you. 

For myself? Well, everything is a bit stressful at the moment, and the thought of just doing a nice, enjoyable workout is hugely appealing (and allowed me to do a 21km ergo the other day) so I'm going to be using it as my base, and added in a few other workouts a week, and just see how it all goes.

Have also just ordered his new book online, so will read that and see if it has anything particularly new. 

Open Your Big Fat Mouth - Sometimes

5th December, 2012 - Emma and Tom Christmas Run: I'm in just because I opened my big fat mouth.

I had been planning to do it all along, really I had. But then I was sick last week, and that made me think that maybe I shouldn't do the run. I wouldn't be at my best and I wanted to use it as a measure of how much I had improved.

I opened the sign up page a few times, but then closed it again. Thought about it, forgot about it, remembered at inconvenient times, and then decided that maybe I should wait until next year.

Then on Wednesday I was meeting with fellow writer Bec Butterworth to work on our NaNoWriMo writing challenge. Very excitingly, she has an article in this month's Women's Health. Though she was not so impressed when I announced this to the supermarket checkout chick while buying the magazine. Don't know why.

But we were sitting at lunch talking about health and fitness writing, and out of my mouth came 'And there is a 10km run next Wednesday I want to do, but am not sure about...' and then equally without thought she suddenly said 'I'll do it with you.'

And from then neither of us could back out.

So we have both signed up and we have set a goal (she's pacing me, and I want to do it in under an hour, as my previous best time was 1 hour and 3 mins, though that was about three years ago now...).

And now it doesn't really matter if I don't actually do as well as I might have if I hadn't come down sick, I just have to do it so I don't disappoint Bec (or totally humiliate myself).

So, my generally conclusion is that sometimes it is good to open your big fat mouth, you never know where it might take you.

Top Tips On Psyching Yourself Up.

You sit on the train on the way home from work, planning out what you'll have for dinner and thinking about how tired you are. You get in the door and dump your bags, grab a snack and collapse on the couch, promising you'll get ready for the gym after you've had a moment to recover. Your hand probably subconsciously reaches for the remote control.

Similarly, you tell yourself the night before you are going to get up nice and early and go for a jog. You might even be excited about the idea at 10.30pm. But when your alarm goes at 6am, the idea doesn't seem so bright. You hit snooze a few times, and find that snooze is switched off. 

Well, obviously I'm talking about myself here, and none of this applies to you, I'm just trying to make myself feel better by putting it in the second person. However, so you wonderfully motivated people know how to encourage the saps like myself, I recommend you read on anyway.

These are Buffy's Top Tips on Psyching Yourself Up.

Before I start, let me just say something that sounds silly, but has some underlying truth:
You don't burn more calories or build more muscle by making it mentally harder for yourself to exercise.

It has become sort of cool among some people to whinge about how hard it is to get up, and to sabotage your own efforts to exercise. True, we all hate the people who are like 'Oh, I just love getting up at 5am and doing two hours of yoga before going to work', but make a choice: do you want to be hated and slim/fit, or in good company and unhealthy?

Actually, getting up at 5am is probably always going to suck, but there are steps to make it easier. And there is absolutely no reason not to make it as easy as possible to exercise. The first step is to make sure you are set up to exercise, then there are steps that work for both mornings and evenings. 

The Set Up:
1. The Unbreakable Routine: first of all, you need to set up a routine which is realistic, but forms the baseline, minimum of exercise you will do a week. More is great, but this is what has to be done to stay fit. This becomes an unbreakable commitment. You walk out on after work drinks for it, you turn down dinner invitations because of it, you do whatever is necessary to make these sessions.
2. The Anti-Terrorist Approach: you need to realise that part of you is a terrorist trying to undermine your own efforts. There is only one way to deal with this: a no negotiation policy. Shut down any little voice that tries to bargain with you about getting out of these sessions. Take extreme measures if necessary.

Mornings:
1. Change your alarm. Is your alarm an annoying buzzy sound that has you developing a tic every time you hear it? Immediate reaction is to turn it off? Why don't you try changing it to a song you really like. It goes off and you are allowed to lie in bed singing along until the song finishes (better if you don't share a bed with someone else, obviously). Music is one of the fastest ways to change your mood, so give yourself a free mood upgrade in the morning.
2. Keep a magazine beside your bed (no, not one of those mags, a fitness related mag!). So, your alarm goes off and you tell yourself you have to jump straight out of bed, but then that doesn't work because it is just way too much effort, so the only other option is to fall back asleep and forget it ever happened, right? Wrong! Can't get out of bed? Well, can you manage rolling over and grabbing a magazine to read? Or even just looking at the pretty pictures? Reading a sports magazine with images made to inspire is a great stepping stone to ease yourself into getting out of bed. After reading an article on the benefits of jogging in the morning, you will be much more likely to want to jump up.

photo courtesy of http://www.elitestockphotography.net

3. Podcasts: find reading too much? How about just putting in your headphones and listening to a 5 minute motivational podcast? There are plenty out there which are short, sharp, and aim to get you up and moving. So first thing in the morning, all you have to do is just put in your earphones and play the podcast and let it do the rest.

Evening:
1. Don't waste your train ride: most people spend time traveling to and from work (if you are someone that exercises on the way, such as riding, you are awesome, but this is for everyone else). This is the time you should start psyching yourself up. Don't be thinking about dinner, don't stress about work, start building up excitement about your work out. Same as for the morning, pull out a magazine, listen to a podcast, or look up new variations on the exercises you plan to do on your phone. You can even watch youtube clips to motivate you.
2. Walk in the door and chuck on your workout music. If you have to spend a few minutes at home getting changed, maybe getting a snack etc., put on some music which will keep you moving, and build up a bounce in your step. Make a playlist of a few songs that always make you want to dance, and put this on as soon as you get in the door.

These are just a few tips which work well for me. I would love to hear if people have any others.
So, get out there and exercise!