August 2nd, 2010
I had a good weekend of running, wrapping up a 61-mile week.
Due to some schedule switching, Saturday was an 11-miler with about 5.5 miles of tempo thrown in: 2x(15min@HP w/3min rec’s.), 10min@10K. Yesterday, I had a 15-miler which I’m embarrassed to say around you marathon freaks, is my longest run since Boston! I was looking forward to it for the distance and to take it to the trails so I could have that extra elevation/footing bonus.
The only hitch was that between the previous day’s tempo and 5½ hours of sleep, I was genuinely exhausted and certifiably dead-legged. I really needed a recovery run instead of a long run, but I was stubborn about gettin ‘er done, so I took it reeeeeeaaaal slow. Not that I had a choice.
The great thing was that even though I was too pooped to party, all my parts were working without complaint – not a twinge or niggle. After 4 long months, the ankle problem is gone! And I continue to do the hip exercises before every run – I can tell they’ll not only help with economy but ward off injuries as well, not to mention warming me up before I hit the road…so I’m loving them.
Speaking of Sleep
It’s getting better but still not great – July only had 3 nights of 8-hour sleep. Also, I suspect that the one weekend where my HR dipped beautifully low was due to sleeping until my body woke on its own instead of my “beat the heat” alarm clock. I’ll be thrilled when summer’s over and can sleep in regularly.
More Weight Stuff
The Racing Weight book has a lot of good stuff in it. One big change I’m making starting today, is how I time my caloric intake.
I’ve always been terrible about splitting my calories for the day. I eat about half of them after 6pm (dinner and 2 snacks). Dinner’s always been my “destination meal” and even though the snacks are healthy, I don’t need to be eating that much that late. This is common wisdom we’ve all read enough times, but seeing his schedules of how to split it up percentage-wise made it clearer and looks sensible.
For those of you lapping up the weight talk, Jaymee (aka The fastest female runner I know) posted a great entry on the subject. Also, on today’s entry she posts a sample day of what she eats which is cool to see. I was actually shocked at the pro athletes’ sample menus in the Racing Weight book, it looks like they eat hardly anything, whereas Jaymee’s intake looks more like what I’d expect a healthy athlete to eat.
Lastly, I’m anxiously awaiting UPS today – my fancy Tanita scale is scheduled for delivery, woohoo!! Will let you know how I like it and what my reported weight and body fat are in the next post.
Runners Round Table This Wednesday
I’ll be on it again. Joe’s hosting the episode about running in the heat. I imagine we’re all pretty good at it by now, but I’m sure the conversation will be stellar and sparkling. If you want to ask questions, listen to it live, otherwise, I’ll post it here afterwards.
Hair Bands That Stay On Your Head!
I ordered a headband from an online shop after a recommendation from a fellow forumite. I’d stopped wearing hair bands because the Goody Stay-Puts were the only ones that would stay and even they required a clip behind each ear for stay-put peace of mind.
So I got it and, man…it works!! It genuinely stays on your head. It’s quite ingenious actually, what keeps it in place is (drumroll)….velvet. The top part is regular woven ribbon from the notions counter, the lining is velvet ribbon and there’s just a small piece of 1/4″ elastic that goes under your head.
With shipping, the hair band was $20, but because I’m a frugal runner and handy with the sewing machine, I’m going to make a few for about $2.50 each. I won’t give measurements since I feel kind of bad about giving away the company secret, but if you’re a crafty gal, buy one from the company and then make the next ones, like I’m doing (or not) 
. Just remember if you get rayon velvet to wash it first so it doesn’t shrink when you wash it later. Or if you’re lazy like me, get nylon velvet.
And that’s it for a chatty Monday. Have a great coupla days, folks. Later!
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hey I have that scale! I’m not sure how accurate the body fat is.
Tanita says testing proves their scales to be accurate within +/- 5% of DEXA, which is pretty good (21-5%=19.95, for example, so like one percentage point different). Not that it matters that much, the trend is what counts. I love what it says on the Tanita site:
“It should be made clear that there is only one method of calculating body composition that is close to 100% accurate, and that is an autopsy.”
autopsy might be a bit extreme.
Ordered the racing weight book last week after reading your blog. Trying to make myself take in some liquid calories before my runs which I never do except races. Also trying to get recovery calories in first 30 minutes. Not being a breakfast person and having to run early probably doesn’t help me have quality workouts and recovery.
Good luck with the experimentation! That stuff’s new to me too. Since I’d always eat late, I hadn’t been eating anything before early morning runs, but now I’m eating a banana before quality runs and might do it for all runs.
way to get that long run done! and i feel you on sleep. although i know that getting 9 hours is next to impossible i need to start at least attempting to get more bedtime hours in. any tips to help pry me away from my work and actually climb into bed as the night goes on? i know that not sleeping much is likely going to hurt other areas of my life and not just my running
I think the key is planning ahead and being firm with yourself. Decide to be in bed by xx:xx no matter what. That way you know how much time you have left to do stuff, rather than let the time creep up on you. Then, once you’re in bed, really try to empty your mind, relax your face and your body. I find a head of racing thoughts goes along with a tense face, shoulders, etc.
I was going to ask what made the bands stay on, ha! I make my own hairbands and they stay on pretty well but I think I will add the velvet as mu insurance policy.
Also, good to hear you talk about the timing of calories. This was key for me when I lost all my weight a few years back (70 pounds). I never ate after 7 pm. I weighed in religiously (daily) and when I would eat after 7 I either didn’t lose or I gained. Your body/metabolism is slowing down to prepare for sleep, it doesn’t need additional calories to keep the body running so if you eat later then most of those calories get stored for fat. Your body uses what it needs and stores the rest. The time to take in lots of calories is morning and afternoon while your body is running (literally and figuratively) the hardest. But I, like you, enjoy a large dinner. It’s a struggle for me, still.
Wow, congrats on the weight loss!! And thanks for the confirmation on the timing of food. Makes all the sense to me, just have to do it now. And I knew you’d enjoy the headband thing. There’s one other reader here who I know is as crafty as you and you’re both in my mind when I mention “sewing machine”. (though you guys would already know about rayon shrinkage)
I need to do a better job at eating.
One of the benefits of running, is getting to eat whatever you like, and I do just that!
You look pretty trim in your photos. :-) But yeah, we can always do better.
Nice to hear all the parts are working correctly now, Flo. Where can I sign up for my weekly autopsy? Oh, I can’t? You’re only allowed one? Well crap!
Lol! Too funny. At least it’s free. I think.
My dad once got a phone call at his medical records job from a confused individual asking for his own autopsy report.
And bravo on reverse-engineering the Sweaty Bands product. I trust there will be another modeling session in the near future.
OMG, that is freaky. As for the photo op…there might be. :-)
I’ve recently been cherry-picking to your site from your comments on other blogs and I’m officially a fan. My goodness. This is not only packed with cool information (I’m digging through my drawer right now for DIY pantyhose compression for a sore hammy), it’s also shot through with snarky giggle-inducing material … case in point, the shithead wig video. Expect me to stalk from now on!
Aw, how very cool of you to make yourself known! Thanks for reading and of course, your lovely comments are uber appreciated. Here’s to more giggles and snark coming up! :-)
Nice week of running! Thanks to you for the shout out;) I’ve been learning a lot from your posts. First, you reminded me that I had Racing Weight. I honed in on the food timing issue too, because that’s something I do very poorly. Where I still struggle is on days when I get behind the calorie curve and have a lot of make up work to do AND I have a big workout the next day. What to do? I generally choose to eat more calories so I have enough fuel for the workout the next day, but I’m sure this is promoting fat storage.
I will be interested to see what you think of the scale. I have tried several different ones and they all read about the same. They overestimate by about 5% for women, but they do give fairly good readings day to day so you can pick up your personal trends. I figured out the accuracy problem by having my body fat tested in a hydrostatic tank then comparing the value to an average from my scale. Have fun!
While you dug out Racing Weight, I went to the library and got a couple more sports nutrition books, one of them Chris Carmichaels’ Food For Fitness, at your recommendation. Great book!
About timing and sizing, I was doing the same as you, eating big at night to be ready for the next day’s workout. No more, eating my banana and peanut butter as I type this.
And I’m loving the new scale! Thanks for the tip on the 5%, that’s the +/- Tanita gives on their site, so it’s cool to get confirmation on that.
Those sweaty bands look like about the level of sewing project I can reasonably accomplish. I had grand expectations and ended up with exactly one pair of pajama pants for my mom and a decorated t-shirt over the past year.
Nice running week! I’m looking forward to getting back into it after having to take some down time because of work, definitely have lost fitness and have to do some regrouping, but I’ll get there eventually.
I think your (and Jaymee’s) thoughts on weight are interesting because they sound so matter of fact and not emotional, it’s crazy (but I mean that as a compliment). I might be the polar opposite; I have always found making food choices very stressful so a little less monitoring of food intake and less beating myself up (but still stepping on the scale pretty regularly, so I am interested in how the Tanita works) actually seems more productive/healthier for me, so long as I’m training hard in combination.
My ridiculous weight-related statistic (I don’t think I’ve shared this, but I might be wrong) is that I have run a 1:33:20 half at 118 lbs (underweight) and a 1:32:41 half at 147 lbs (definitely within normal/healthy weight but on the heavier side for a runner). To be fair, I was running less in preparation for the lighter one, but something like 45 mpw instead of 55. Both were PRs. All I need is to get another PR that proves that it is a parabolic improvement curve and not essentially a flat line
Lol at the pajama pants, bet they came out real cute! :-)
OK, well here’s the deal about eating and emotion. Been there, done that…for years! I’ve been big and small a few times but I was always a chubby kid and through my 20s fought weight constantly. It took maturity and also, believe it or not, this book make a huge dent in my relationship with food.
Your examples are interesting, running underweight isn’t optimal, either of course. But cool! Maybe you got the Erin Donahue body type. Always hard to compare this stuff when mileage changes but you know yourself best.
I know that genuinely exhausted feeling only too well. Hope I don’t fall asleep at work or they might perform an autopsy on me. If they do, I’ll get them to pass on my % fat results. Goodnight
Flo: Glad to hear you had a good week! As to “not a twinge or a niggle”. I noticed you didn’t mention a “wiggle”, and I think we all know what I’m talking about. You know I love ya, just still trying to recover from that last video…
Ewen, sweet dreams.
Tobey, play nice now.
At least you’re not talking about chafing on this site, LOL. I don’t want to anger you anyway, you would just run me down, and it wouldn’t take long :<) I'll go back to my cubicle now…