Alameda Runners – Get After It!

The front page of today’s San Francisco Chronicle denounces the use of heart rate monitors in an article that makes no commitment for anything.  I don’t understand why someone would bother to write an article with a commanding headline and not commit to anything.

“One thing most people can safely ignore – and probably should, at least at first – are those heart rate monitors on the cardio machines”.

I can safely ignore the whole gym too.

I think heart rate monitors are great things to have on the exercise machines at the gym.  I love heart rate monitors so I can see my level of effort.  For novices, the machines use your age and weight for an estimated heart rate zone.  The machine tells you when you are going too fast or too slow.  The best thing about the heart rate monitors on exercise machines is they give you an estimate of how many calories are burned during the work out.  When you are new to exercising, it is nice to know how hard it is to burn the 140 calories consumed in one soda.  On the other hand, when you have been exercising for years, heart rate monitors help you to know how many calories you need to consume to replace what you burned.

There are some generalizations (the main complaint seems that it is not an exact science) with figuring out your maximum heart rate that the author has issues with.  The general rule of thumb for max heart rate is 220 minus age.  That would give me a max heart rate of 170.  I went to the track, did a 2 mile warm up followed by a ¼ mile sprint and found my max heart to be 167.  I did a really hilly half marathon and found my max heart rate to be 174.  Does it matter if my max heart rate is 167 or 174?  Not to me… and it is my heart so I have the final say in the matter.

I do a lot of pacing for other people on long runs.  After a while, I can judge their effort level from my heart rate.  For long endurance events, it is nice to have an estimated heart rate plan to stick with.  It is easy to go out too fast and suffer at the end.

While running, it is nice to wear a heart rate monitor for the long, slow runs.  It is surprising easy to let your heart rate ease up without noticing the exertion level changing until you run out of gas or get injured.  The long, slow runs really burn the fat.  My rule of thumb is, you are burning fat after 90 minutes of jogging or bike riding.

Heart rate monitors are a matter of personal preference.  I love mine and wear it for every run and most bike rides.  I have never had my heart rate monitor mislead me.  It tells me a number.  What I do with that number is up to me.

Crossing the finish line

Since I have a minor injury that stops me from running completely, I decided to volunteer for the Summer Breeze half marathon in San Leandro.  My job was to go around and take pictures.  I would pick the biggest Brazen race of the year to be the photographer.  I am typing this as some of the pictures resize.  I am resizing them in groups of 400.  I took over 4,000 pictures.

Walking around as the photographer puts things a new perspective.  I slowly progressed in my half marathon life.  I am not at the point where a summer half marathon is a short training day.  I forgot what it was like at the beginning where it is a great accomplishment to finish a 13.1 mile run.  I could see the top 2 or 3 finishers were happy.  The next 100 finisher were mostly finishing like it was no big deal.  The rest were the new guys who were ecstatic to be crossing the line.  It was a lot of fun being around the people who were doing there first event and were so happy to just be out doing it.  I had people come up asking to have their picture taken because they did their first 10K together.

The Brazen events are always fun.  They are usually hilly and hard.  This one is sneaky hard.  It is always windy at the San Leandro waterfront.  Sam does not start you out heading into the wind.  He starts you with the wind in your back.  You have a nice PR going for the first half, then you turn around and you hit a wall of wind.  I would not be surprised if people were a minute per mile slower on the way back.

This time, I had my fun as a volunteer.  It was a very good day being out with all of the excitement.  I did not look at the age group times yet.  I am afraid that they may be slower then my fast times.

This blog entry is all about Alameda! Alameda Runners continues to grow (thanks to both old and newer readers), and we’re beginning to receive feedback from more people in the East Bay. Today I want to share some of the Alameda newspapers and blogs that provide current events focused on Alameda and the East Bay.

(Even if you’re not familiar with the SF East Bay, it could be neat to hear about some of the issues in such a unique, fascinating community.)

SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle online) Alameda Blog: Provides a lot of Alameda-related news regarding news and current events on the island.

The Island: An excellent Alameda-themed news site spearheaded by Michele Ellson, and she does a great job with The Island.

Alameda Journal: Very good newspaper. It isn’t locally owned or operated, but the newspaper’s format is good and the articles are well written. There also is the Alameda Journal Blog that is worth the read.

Alameda Sun: The locally owned and operated newspaper in Alameda, which makes me an instant fan. I honestly prefer the Alameda Journal’s newspaper layout better, but enjoy the Alameda Sun content more.

If you know of any other Alameda blogs and Web sites, feel free to let me know. I’d love to read more news.

Tomorrow is my last trail half marathon of the season.  As you may know, we have been testing various running stuff since the site went on line back in March.  After I packed, I decided to post what actually made the cut.  I am not advocating any one product over another.  This is the equipment that I packed for the race.  All of the equipment listed here passed the test.  The biggest surprises for me are the Athletes honey milk and the Timex HRM.  I wonder how that made the cut over the Garmin 405?  Tomorrows run is going to be hilly and tough.  It would be nice know how far and how high I went.

I will do this again for my next half marathon in October.  I wonder what will change?  I know the shoes will change as tomorrow is my last run in them.  I ran more than 600 miles in them and I am pushing my luck.  That may be the reason I am wearing KT tape.

Race Gear
Shoes Asics – T941N with SuperFeet green insoles.
Road ID on shoe laces
Socks – SofSole
KT tape for calf relief from plantar faciitis pain on my lower calf
Underwear – Jockey  polyester/lycra
Running shorts – Asics
Tight long sleeve under shirt – Enso
Short sleeve undershirt – PB pro
Long sleeve top shirt – Jockey polyester spandex
Heart rate monitor – Timex Ironman race trainer
Hat – Under Armor
Maui Jim sunglasses
Nathan water carrier
Casio  Exilim camera
GU roctane
GU gel

Post race gear
Torex ice packs
Dollar store compression sleeves for ice packs
GU gel
bag of pretzels
Fig Newtons
Hammer bar cashew coconut
Athletes Honey milk (Chocolate and honey)
Cytomax bottled recovery drink

Please forgive all errors and missing links as the editor is out of town for a wedding.

When I chatted with GU, I was told by GU that it’s perfectly acceptable to eat an energy gel when not exercising, although I was curious what other companies would say. In a follow-up to the GU eating blog, Clif decided to discuss how customers should consume their products.

Clif’s Shot energy gel “is a fast-acting, easy-to-digest source of carbohydrates—your body’s preferred source of fuel during activity—and electrolytes. CLIF SHOT is primarily used by endurance athletes—cyclists, runners, mountain bikers, triathletes, and adventure racers to help sustain energy levels during exercise and competition.”

“At Clif Bar, of course we want you to eat our products, but we also want them to be eaten in the most health promoting way. If a healthy snack is what you crave, we recommend Luna, our new Clif C, and/or our new Clif Crunch.”

Since the products Clif mentioned are still new, it’s possible you may not have heard about them. Clif provides a basic breakdown of each product:

“Clif C is a new, double layered fruit and nut bar made with all natural and organic ingredients that bring a delicious blend of flavors and textures to every bite. Clif Crunch is a new line of crunchy granola bars offering classic and original flavors made with all-natural and organic ingredients.”

The company continued:

“Clif Crunch is a new line of crunchy granola bars offering classic and original flavors made with all-natural and organic ingredients.”

I haven’t tried products from the Clif C and Clif Crunch product lines just yet, but have had great experiences with past Clif products. The company is able to provide tasty, organic, and healthy treats that are beneficial for athletes – but still taste good.

As someone who moved to California and started wearing flip flops almost every day during the spring and summers, I often wondered what, if any, physical damage the flip flops caused me.

I never bothered to look for an answer – and part of me didn’t want to hear an answer.  Years later, I’ve recently switched from flip flops more towards old running shoes and regular sneakers.   Ada on Twitter (@ProbalancePT) recently Tweeted an interesting article I want to discuss.

To put it simply:  “The more the shoe conforms to your foot, the better off your foot and leg will be,” according to a kinesiology assistant professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.  “If it’s loose, your foot has to work harder to keep your flip-flop on.”

When I walk short distances, I honestly haven’t felt much of a difference between flip flops and shoes.  However, I notice it whenever walking for more than 10-to-15 minutes, and my feet and ankles begin to scream at me.

For anyone who feels the need to wear flip flops, try to find different models that have “deepened heel cups and defined arches”, they are better than regular sandals.  These models should help relieve stress that is added to the shin muscles while wearing normal flip fops.

Moral of the story: Flip-flops are okay if you’re casually walking on the beach or around the pool, but aren’t ideal for longer durations.  Since I’ve spent hours walking in several different pairs of flip-flops, I’m going to listen to the experts and wear sneakers more.

This weekend is athletes heaven for the Northern California tribe of readers.  The weather is supposed to be perfect all over the place.  I often vary my Saturday long workout routines to match the weather.  This weekend I am spoiled for choice.  There are so many options, I am going to stick with my plan that I wrote up in March!  I will bring my wet suit to the bay in case I want to add a swim at the last minute.  I encourage all of you readers to get out and do something this weekend.  I packed so much into last weekend that it felt like I was coming off vacation when I went back to work on Monday.  Just get out and do it!

Saturday 6/11/10, is the day I put the Hammer product line through the Ted tests.  I am going to workout for about 5 hours consuming nothing but hammer products.  If I make it home to write about my day, Hammer passed.  If I wind up in the hospital with the emergency crews testing my road ID, the test did not go so well.

It appears that I created a bit of stir when I singled out Yoplait yogurt as a bad food in my dieting article.  I heard so much about how Yoplait is fat free and it has dairy yogurt cultures and so on and so on.  I stand by my implication of Yoplait being junk food.  I don’t really have a problem with junk food.  You just have to be careful about how much you consume.  Pick your battles.  If Yoplait is your choice of junk food that is fine.  I would rather have chocolate or a cheeseburger as my junk food.

Here are some quick links to what I found on yogurt.  I have a link for Voskos Greek Yogurt because they sell it in the Oakland Whole foods.  I am not a big fan of Voskos but it is high quality and tastes decently enough.  I love Greek Gods Yogurt but it is very high in fat and about half the people in the link are not fans.  Of course there is a link to yoplait.com.

If you get out for a 5 hour workout this weekend, you can eat anything you want afterwards providing your stomach is up for it.  Enjoy the weekend!

Drinking and eating the right foods and supplements after a hard effort out on the road can lead to faster recovery and less muscle pain.   The biggest problem many people have involves trying to figure out what works the best — and what is the easiest to chug down after a workout.  The kind folks over at Active.com listed 10 different post-run drinks that help “fuel fast recovery.”

I’d like to single out a single drink idea that many people likely overlook as a post-run recovery drink:  chocolate milk.

Per the article:

Why: The drink you loved as a kid has the ideal amount of carbohydrates and protein that tired muscles need for recovery, says Joel Stager, Ph.D., director of the department of kinesiology at Indiana University. According to a study Stager led, drinking chocolate milk postexercise speeds up recovery and increases the time it takes to reach exhaustion during a subsequent exercise session better than sports drinks. And a 2007 British study found that regular milk is better than water or a sports drink at restoring fluid levels following a bout of exercise in the heat. Plus, milk contains bone-strengthening vitamin D and calcium. Sipping Points: Single-serving containers are handy for tossing into a cooler for a postrun treat and for portion control.

Chocolate milk is an excellent way to recover, and can be mixed with whey protein and other recovery drinks.  Ted likes mixing chocolate milk with some of his recovery drinks, which helps make the taste a bit more bearable.

The taste of chocolate milk is good, the science behind it has been proven, so what’s your excuse?  Got milk? 😉

Of the “road tested” products listed, including Powerade Ion4, Clif Quench, Gatorade Powder Pack, and Accelerade Hydro, I’ve had the most success with the Clif Quench drink.  I posted a review of the Clif Quench in late February, which you can read here.

Editor’s Note:  I’d just like to thank @Cool_running on Twitter, who originally tweeted a link to the article. 🙂

Today is the day before a trail half marathon that I am going to run alone.  I am going to run with 700 other people but I will not be accompanying anyone as a pacer.  It is the first time in more than a year, if ever, that I plan on going as fast as I can.  I am usually concerned about other people, an injury or a bigger event (marathon) when I do a half marathon.

It is a strange feeling when you plan on giving it your best for the day.  I wonder if I can deal with the pain for a whole two hours.  Did I eat too much meat this week?  Am I drinking enough water today?  Did I drink enough all week?  All of my little injuries seem to hurt.  I wonder if one of them will cause me to stop.  Will I make my planned time?  Is my planned time feasible?  Did I rest enough?  Did I rest too much?

Everyone has the same questions when they plan on doing a hard event.  It does not matter if it is your first event or you are just planning on picking up the pace like I am.  We get nervous and wonder what we should do.  I have a good base fitness level so my taper is a little different from someone with a lower base.  I will call day one the Saturday before the race.

• Day one – Saturday – easy 15 mile jog
  Pancakes, ON 2:1:1 recovery drink, electrolyte, anything for dinner.  4 liters of water
• Day two – Sunday – rest
  Cereal, clam chowder, pizza, chocolate bar.  4 liters of water
• Day three – Monday – moderate 25 mile bike ride
  Cereal, Hammer bar, recovery drink, cheese burgers.  4 liters of water
• Day four – Tuesday – hard 5.5 mile run at race pace
  Cereal, Cytomax, chicken sandwich, lean steak. 4 liters of water
• Day five – Wednesday – rest
  Cereal, peanut butter & jelly, chicken, 4 liters of water
• Day six – Thursday – easy 4 mile jog
  Cereal, Cytomax, chicken sandwich, lean roast beef, 4 liters of water
• Day seven – Friday – rest
  Cereal, PB&J, pasta, 4 liters of water
• Day eight – race day
  Pancakes, 1 cup of coffee, water, and then race…..

Most lunches come with fruit and jello.  All dinners come with vegetables.  I would have planned a lighter dinner last night but the roast beef was good and I don’t want to be too demanding on the family for my hobbies. I do demand pasta on Friday nights because I always doing a long or hard event on Saturday morning.  I make my own pancakes on Saturday mornings.

None of my sedentary friends know the difference between a 1:45 and a 2:30 half marathon.  I am doing this run for me alone, not my friends and family.  As long as I have fun, it is a successful taper week.

Most of us use GU, Clif Shots, and similar energy gels when we’re exercising — but what about when we just need a quick burst of energy?  I recently was asked about the nutritional benefits of eating one of these gels even when not exercising.

I don’t eat these products when I’m not working out, but reached out to a few different companies to try and learn if this is something that would actually provide a boost.

“Of course it is fine,” I was told by a GU R&D person.  “It is 100 calories of carbohydrates, there are vitamins in there, amino acids.  In any case it’s going to increase blood sugar and those with caffeine may give you a little perk.”

Good.  We know it won’t cause any weird issues.  The GU employee also added:

“Sometimes when I don’t have time for lunch…I’ll eat a Vanilla Bean…or two….or…..    Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you’re hungry and you like GU…eat it.“