I am glo’ing

I recently came across YogaGlo, and it has been exactly what I needed! When I injured my calf I realised how tight my entire body had become. It’s really easy to just run, and I had let all other forms of training slide. Yogaglo is essentially a collection of hundreds of different yoga classes, with a subscription fee of $18 per month. Having yoga classes at my fingertips any time of the day really appeals to me, and the cost is very reasonable.

The search and filter options make it really easy to choose a class. They can be narrowed down by level, duration, teacher, style, specific use. There are even classes specifically for runners – win! I’m trying out different teachers and styles, but so far I’m really enjoying Tiffany Cruikshank‘s vinyasa flow classes. She can do some pretty amazing moves, but I mainly like her personality and that she explains things in a very practical way. She has a good understanding of anatomy, and I am a very literal person so I like to know exactly what each of my muscles should be doing.

Screen shot from one of Tiffany’s classes

Some days I crave a simple yin class (where you sit in poses for extended periods, and it’s more about relaxing into the stretch) to let my muscles recover from a tough run, other days I want a more active class (like vinyasa flow). I actually find yin classes really difficult – I struggle to sit still at the best of times!

The biggest benefit for me has been that when I’m at home I don’t have anyone else to compare myself too. I’m a very competitive person, but I’ve realised that yoga is not always about pushing to those absolute limits, sometimes it’s about being gentle with your body.

I can practice anywhere, even if it means having a cat on my belly! (savasana at mum’s house)

I think I can finally say I’m a runner, and a yogi.

Setting new parkrun goals

I’m going through another parkrun phase at the moment.  It’s the perfect time of year to go to parkruns – the weather’s good, and there are a lot of fun runs/cross country coming up. Having a hard 5km effort (that’s not a race) to look forward to each week is great! So much better than doing tempo runs every week.

It is also a good opportunity to set mini goals:

Run at every different location in South East Queensland at least once. There are currently 12 events within a 1 hour drive of my house, with 2 more starting soon. I’ve recently discovered a most events list, and I want to be on it! So far I’ve run at 9 of the different events and 3 inaugrals.

Cleveland inaugral

Varsity Lakes event 4

Run naked: parkrun is the perfect opportunity to practice running to effort, rather than being a slave to the numbers on a watch. I’ve run the past 3 parkruns naked and it’s not making me slower – they’ve been some of my fastest runs in a while. Not close to my PB, but also not at a PB effort. I keep telling myself that I’m running fast but easy.

Chase course records: so this one doesn’t really gel with the parkrun philosophy, but it’s something that I’m having a bit of fun with. Some of the newer events are fairly small, and I know that my times will be beaten very quickly but seeing my name listed at the bottom of the parkrun event page is another little confidence boost. I’ll never be a world beater so this is a way for me to feel like I’m having a little bit of success.

Volunteer: parkrun depends on volunteers in order to provide free, consistent events. I haven’t volunteered yet, but I want to help out at least once over the next few months.

I’m also trying to keep my parkrun page updated to provide a central sort of resource for parkrun in this area!

Intermittent Fasting: people will think I’m nuts

Until recently I had been just about the same weight since high school. Over the past few years (since I started running, funnily enough) my weight has slowly but surely started to increase. I’m talking maybe 3-4kg, which I know isn’t heaps. I love food: I love eating, I love talking about food, and I love going out for nice meals. I definitely do not want to ever be on a diet that will make me miserable and that is unsustainable.

Intermittent fasting probably appears to be a fad diet, but it makes enough sense to me to decide to give it a go. Essentially I’ve cut back on the frequency of meals. I think eating 6 meals a day to keep your metabolism revved up is bull. Our bodies does what it wants with the food that it’s given, and the only way we can make it burn more fuel is to exercise or move more. I run often enough that my issue has been more to do with kilojoules in, not kilojoules out. I was initially worried about telling J about this, but he wasn’t too concerned. He actually supports the idea that our bodies sort out what to do with the energy we give it, he just thinks that calling it intermittent fasting is silly (rather than just saying that I’m eating less often).

There are a lot of resources out there supporting this idea, all with different periods of fasting. One such resource was Lean Gains, which suggests a 16-18 hour fast each day with a 6-8 hour ‘feeding window’. He also focuses on body building so there’s a lot more emphasis on timing of protein for workouts and getting the perfect carb:protein:fat ratio. I’m not linking to the website though – the last time he posted was back in March and his most recent posts all seem to be ranting about the popularity of other fasting methods (I might be wrong but that’s how it comes across).

Eat Stop Eat seems slightly more extreme: 5 days of normal eating per week, with 1 or 2 24 hour fasts. The 24 hour period is actually dinner to dinner, so you do get to eat one meal on your fasting day!

I decided that the daily fast was a more realistic method for me, so at the start of April I pretty much just stopped eating breakfast. If anything, I figured that this was an opportunity to ‘reset’ my diet and to start thinking differently about food and about hunger. Feeling hungry is not a bad thing, but we’re led to believe that it is the devil. The cycle of constant eating means that most people don’t actually know what it’s like to be really, properly hungry. We have such easy access to snacks (even ‘healthy’ snacks) that add up to a lot of extra (and unnecessary) kilojoules.

For the past 6 weeks I have been doing a 16-18 hour fast most days, and aiming for 2 normal sized meals. I normally drink a cup of tea and a whole heap of water in the mornings, which is sufficient until lunch. The days I’m happiest are the days that I don’t snack, because I can eat decent meals! I actually don’t fast on weekends, because breakfast food is actually delicious. I also do occasional longer fasts as well (usually days off during the week). There are some days where the hunger is more extreme than others, and for the first 3-4 days I felt a little bit crappy in the mornings. My body has adapted really well, and I now don’t get that sick/hungry feeling after running either. If I run in the morning I will have a small chocolate milk, and/or a banana. In the past I would have this after a run and then feel like I needed a bigger breakfast within an hour, and I’d still sometimes feel ill for the rest of the day.

I have lost 2kg so far, but the biggest achievement has been improving my relationship with food. I really look forward to meals now, because I’m not on autopilot and eating because I think I should – I’m eating because I’m actually hungry. I have not been perfect – there are still days that I binge on junk food during the 75 minute drive home from work – but it’s a long term work in progress. I am much happier about my eating habits now compared to a couple months ago. I’d like to lose a little bit more weight (just for vanity reasons) but I’m not worried if I stayt

This is not a starvation diet. I don’t count kilojoules, but I would say that I am easily eating the recommended amount for my size and activity level.

I found this post informative, with other good links for more reading. IF isn’t something that everyone can do (or would want to do), but it’s working well for me right now.

How to stay (almost) injury free.

I am proud of the fact that I’ve stayed away from running injuries. I had a bit of trouble with my calf recently, but within a few weeks of modified training and some treatment I was back to normal. This is how I did it:

TI + 0: (Time of injury) I had planned to do a tempo run with 15 minutes of effort, 1 minute walk, then 10 minutes effort. I felt fine during the first section, but as soon as I started the second section it almost felt like my calf seized up. I stopped to stretch, but it didn’t make any difference so I walked back to my car.

TI + 5: I took the next few days off, spending time stretching and attacking my calf with The Stick. It felt better a few days later, so I attempted my long run. Fail! Within 1km my calf was pretty unhappy so I stopped running and headed home to wallow.

TI + 7: I booked in for a massage and she spent an entire hour on my lower legs. It was agony! I’ve always had tight calves and shins, and she seemed happy there was no tear. I was instructed to take it easy for a couple more days to let it settle down, then get back into normal training.

TI + 8: I actually was starting to get sick, so I was happy to just run 20 minutes easy. The calf still didn’t feel great, but not horrible either.

TI + 9: I wanted to test the calf a bit more with a fartlek. I lasted 15 minutes before calling it quits and going for a walk.

TI + 11: My cold was fully blown by now, but I wanted to run a cross country relay (3x4km) with my club. I also decided to try using Roktape on my calf to see if it made any difference. Miraculously I was able to run without pain! And we won our race, even with my dismal performance.

Go Pac!

TI + 13: Unfortunately the relief was short lived. I ran an easy 40 minutes with the tape on, and the pain came back. I’ve since read that Roktape/kinesio tape isn’t proven to have any benefits, and any effect of it is short lived. It was time to call in the big guns.

TI + 15: Visit to the physio. He took a really extensive case history, did a few assessments, and told me that he thought the trouble was actually nerve pain stemming from my glutes (which had actually been suggested to me by someone else). After the physio spent some time sticking his thumbs into certain areas of my glutes I got up to walk and the pain was gone! I was actually amazed how instantaneous the improvement was. I was able to run 20 minutes that afternoon completely pain free.

TI + 15 and onwards: The pain has not returned. I am doing some hip/glute/core strengthening, stretching and self massage, and I’ve been back to the physio for some more ‘good pain’ to try and release whatever is going on.  Apart from a self sabotaged 5km race (that’s a story for another blog post) my running is back to where it was before this drama began.

The takeaway message: I have a fairly low pain threshold when it comes to bad pain. I can tolerate tattoos, painful massages, and a bit of DOMS but I back off straight away when something doesn’t feel right (which also means that I probably don’t push myself hard enough during races…). Stopping a run early, and taking a few days off is not going to kill me! If this doesn’t improve the situation it’s time to get a professional opinion (and/or treatment). I’ve also discovered that going to see different people to get the correct diagnosis can be beneficial, I think the physio probably used the fact I’d already gotten a massage as part of his differential diagnosis.

And a disclaimer: every injury is different. Just because this worked for me, it may not work for you. When we’re talking about stress fractures or biomechanical issues the game will change entirely!

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I’m kinda bummed that track season is over

Why is it that if something takes so long to arrive, it then feels like it’s over way too quickly? It has been 4 months since I started training specifically for track, and I had my last race of the official season last night. I’ve run two 800m races since I last posted, there was meant to be a 1500m in there as well but they cancelled the meet because of rain. It takes a lot of rain for a Brisbane meet to be cancelled, but I think they made the right call. I was looking forward to racing, but it just wasn’t meant to be!

The first of the two 800m races was last friday night. 12 girls entered, and they split the field 8/4 for the 2 heats. I was a bit disappointed that I’d only be racing a couple other girls in the slower heat, especially when one girl withdrew. I was still happy with my run – I went sub 2:40 for the first time (2:38 to be exact) and my splits were even for the second race in a row! The second lap is definitely key, and having people to chase (even in a 3 person race) makes it easier to cope with the hurt.

Last night wasn’t quite so great. I’d been feeling nervous all day (which is dumb – it was a low key all comers meet) and I showed up at the track feeling quite apprehensive. There was just the one heat, which means that I was up against the speedy kids. I know 800s are meant to hurt, and after 200m I was really feeling it! I think the first lap was 73 seconds, and I finished in 2:41. That’s a pretty dramatic slowdown. I was spat out the back of the race right from the start, so I essentially ran a time trial. I was pretty disappointed with my time when I finished, but it’s still my second fastest 800 and I can’t really expect to improve dramatically each time! Maybe with the right race, and the right mindset I’ll be able to maintain 73-75 second laps.

But now there are no more races

I couldn’t enter the state champs in the end (I’m working out west for a couple weeks). There are normally a few low key track meets during cross country season so I’ll race a few of those, but I really wish I had just one more race in a few weeks time! I really enjoy racing, even when I come last. There’s always something to learn from putting everything out there – and it’s not always about the time.

It’s now time to start working on endurance again. I’m going to push my long runs back up to around 15km (they’re 12km at the moment) and it’s time to add those pesky tempo runs back in as well. And hills, lots of hills. I’m bad at cross country but I know it will make me stronger so I’m going to embrace it once the season starts!

Today is a rest day, and it’s turning into a fat day of epic proportions. I had Maccas for lunch, and we’re going out for beer and wings tonight. I’m not going to feel bad about any of it – I need to let loose every once in a while! That endurance stuff can wait until tomorrow…