Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Here at Alameda Runners, we have no sponsors.  We get a lot of stuff to review and hand out and we always review it honestly.  If someone is added to the our links, it is because they are deemed worthy of noting.  If you see a product in the links, there is a safe bet that the product can be found at home and work and we love it.  We review stuff and hand out to people to help you find what is right for you.  It is not easy to find new products or to find things that work but we try.

Athletes Honey Milk just made it to the list because I have come to love their product.  I did not want to try it because of the name.  Once I tried it, I liked it.  I also mix protein powder with milk or water on various days.  I sometimes mix protein powder with the honey milk.  I like to change things up.  I am now a member of Team Honey Milk which means I get a free T-shirt and a coupon code which is posted here.  If you like honey milk, we can still get more coupon codes, send us an email through the contact us link above.

Clif will probably be the next company to make the list.  Their products don’t really suit my running needs but they work great for my cycling needs.  Clif has some new products that seem to be better for my long distance runs but I forgot what they are.  We have some more on the way and a review will follow shortly after we try them.

With all of the training we have been doing at new venues lately, it is getting hard to keep track of the distance run without a GPS heart rate monitor (HRM).  I am now in the market for another GPS HRM.  Here are my thoughts and decision making process on which HRM to purchase for myself.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Garmin 405.  The controls are so frustrating, I am sure that it would be on the bottom of the San Francisco b=Bay if it did not cost so much.
Polar Accurex II for every day use.  It is nice and simple with 3 buttons.
Polar F55 snazzy heart rate monitor that I use for long days because of the calorie counter feature.
Timex Ironman Race Trainer –  I don’t know where it is located.  I wonder why?
Full HRM reviews can be found here.

I bought the Polar Accurex II long before Alameda Runners came into existence.  The other three I received as review items for Alameda Runners.  I need to find the Timex before I decide who going to get my hard earned money.

I will probably make my purchase from either REI or Performance Bike.  They are both good stores and they are a block away from each other in Berkeley where I can go make the deal during lunch.  The reason I go to either of these stores with confidence is, I know that I am going to pay list price for the latest and greatest GPS HRM.

The players in my selection come from Polar, Timex and Garmin.  This should come as no surprise because they are all tops in their field invading the territory of the others.  It would be nice if they would combine their efforts for an excellent product that I probably would not be able to afford.

My front runner is the Garmin 410.  I hate the Garmin 405 as much as I love it but when I get it to do what I want, it works well until I touch the bezel.  Hopefully the have the bezel issues fixed for this version.  I hear the software works well but I use Linux and have one computer with MSWindows XP 64.  My operating systems are not covered by the software.

Next is the Timex Ironman GPS.  Timex knows watches.  Their screen setup is always good.  I already know I would need a new computer for the software.  I am not sure about being a beta tester for a $300 watch.  This is their first pass at GPS technology, so imagine finding bugs in the middle of a run.

Last on my list is the Polar RS800CX.  This one looks like the best of the bunch but it has too many drawbacks.  It comes in at $500.  It has separate parts for the GPS, HRM strap and watch band.  It looks complicated and comes with a disk.  Disks are bad for people who use open software.  It is probably the best unit overall with an remote GPS that can be strapped on the leg (good and bad) for use while swimming.  I don’t like the idea of the leg strap with batteries.  Batteries add weight and die fast.

Time will tell which product I select.  Knowing the emotional anguish that I go through when my GPS or HRM do not work after a 3 hour event.  I will research this selection thoroughly before I choose.

Now that everyone is ramping up their distance for the California International Marathon and the Oakland Running Festival in March, remember to consume enough calories for those long runs.  When you start getting into the long runs of longer than 10 miles, it is easy to start watching your waistline and legs and admiring your physique.

It is not uncommon for people who go from a sedentary lifestyle to running a marathon to lose 30 or more pounds and a few inches off the waste.  If you want to lose more weight or inches, add other workout routines, and do not cut the calories.  Your body needs them to complete the long runs.

Long runs to strange things to your body.  You have to keep your body full of good fuel.  Junk calories can sneak up on you at mile 20 of a practice run.  It is okay to fill up on junk food after your 20 mile practice run but not the day or two before the big run.  I say this because it is rare that your body will crave junk food after a 20 mile run.  It will crave salt and electrolytes so be sure to feed your body the critical minerals that were sweat out.  I found that popping a couple Hammer electrolyte pills at around mile 15 helps a lot.  Nutrition gels at the prescribed intervals listed on the package helps too.

Getting to run 90 minutes is great.  90 minutes is the accepted point where you start burning fat.  After about 3 hours, weird things start to happen.  Your body needs minerals and calories.  If you do not get those minerals, you have a good chance at crashing or bonking.  Crashing is bad.

To keep from crashing during your long run, keep the following tips in mind.  As always, customize to suit your tastes.

• Limit the junk food for two days prior to the long run.
• Have a good breakfast on run day.  I like Ted’s terrific pancakes with an extra ½ teaspoon of salt and an extra tablespoon of sugar.  A couple pancakes and a cup off coffee the pre-run prep.
• A couple cups of water and gel right before I take off for my run.
• Gel every 45 minutes.
• Electrolyte pills at 2 hours
• One or two bites of PB&J at 2.5 to 3 hours.
• I carry water and try to consume at least 20 ounces per hour.

Follow this routine or a similar routine and you should be fine for your long runs.  If you feel like you don’t want to ever drink water again for the rest of your life, you should get some electrolytes.

Most of the things I write about here at Alameda Runners are based on my own experiences.  I usually get advice from the experts but I often take it for what it is because we are all different.  It is good to read different views and follow the advice based on your own experience.  The idea is to try things to see what works.

I say this because a friend of mine gave me some books on cycling in your geriatric years meaning over 50.  I am close enough to 50 to read the books to see what it is about.  In the first chapter of the first book I picked up, it says to give up all sports other than cycling.

That is not going to happen.  I like cross training.

As most of the regular readers know, I have been injured for the past 4 months with very little running at all.  During this time, I have been lifting weights, swimming and cycling.  I have also been doing rehabilitation work to strengthen the muscles around the injured hip flexor.  After a long 4 months of no running, I went out for a run with one the local running clubs.  We ran for about 8 miles at 8-9 minute per mile pace.  That is just a bit slower than my pace before the injury.  I feel good now.  I have to restrain myself or I will aggravate the injury by over training again.

Back to the cross training.  I was always afraid to lift weights using my legs because I was worried about injuries.  I started out very slowly with high repetitions (20-25 per set) on the various exercises.  For the first month, I did this once per week slowly increasing the weight as it got easier.

I now lift with my legs twice per week lifting 2-3 times as much weight as I did when I started.  I don’t know if the weight training will equate to increased strength and less injuries but I sure hope so.  I do think that I will incorporate leg training with weights at least once per week from now on.

In all fairness to the book, I may have taken “give up all sports, other than cycling” out of context but I am not about to read through that section of the book again because it was boring.

Another fine event by Brazen Racing.  We are all learning about the beautiful parks in the  East Bay Regional parks district and how hard it is to run around in them.  The views up on the ridge were absolutely stunning.  Unfortunately, you had to get up to the ridge to enjoy the views.

Here is a paragraph from pre-race instructions- “One note for everyone coming:  these are some tough courses.  While the distance may resemble those of road races, the experience is going to be a lot different.  Hills will be super-tough, trails will be bumpy, rocky and full of roots and water stations will be spread out much further than most would prefer.  The Las Trampas Wilderness is not for sissies!  We’re not trying to scare you, we just want to make sure you know what you are getting into and are mentally prepared.  You will likely have some tough times out there, but we believe everyone is capable of finishing.”

He was right.  I went up and down the hills for the 10k course and wound up icing my legs later in the night.

We had a nice contingent from Alameda out running the race with one of our own winning the 5K!  I did not see anyone from the 5K as I was out taking pictures on the 10k course.

John from Alameda estimated an extra 45 minutes from his PR because of the hills.  It took him an hour longer than estimated or twice the time it normally takes him to run a flat road half marathon.  Carrie, John’s wife, did her first 10k here.  That is a serious accomplishment.  Marathoners and half marathoners are used to this type of punishment.  It is rare to find a 10k with 2,000 feet of climbing.  We had Laura, a cancer survivor from Alameda, finish her first distance event in a while.

Just last year, Laura was talking about never being able to run again because of the beating she took from her battle with cancer.

I have been struggling with a hip flexor injury for the last couple of months so I have been volunteering to take pictures at the brazen events instead of running them (You can see some photos here).  I have just as much fun taking pictures as I do running the events (almost).  If you ever make to Northern California, check to see if there is a Brazen event to run.  They are all hard.  The harder they are, the better the views and the fun.

Sunday is the big day for all of the women running the Nike marathon in San Francisco.  Good Luck.

For those of you not familiar with the Nike Marathon in SF, it is one of the big guys.  There will more than 20,000 participants this year.  The amateurs are just as fast as the elite professional runners and it can really confuse things at the end.  All of locals know what a special treat it is to be running or being a spectator at a big event in San Francisco.  Appreciate every step and every runner as it will be a great day.  Finishing any marathon is a great accomplishment.  You go girls!

Events like this one help bring out female runners that are willing to train and participate in an organized race in a very comfortable atmosphere.  Whatever gets people up and active is okay for us, especially first-time and new runners.

Swimmers itch has been in the news a lot lately in the Alameda area because there have been confirmed cases of the nuisance.  It is a flat worm parasite transmitted by an exotic marine snail that is referred to as an invasive species that was probably imported through a ship’s ballast.  Fortunately the parasites die as soon as they enter the human body.  The parasites are transmitted around the bay area by birds that eat snails and than fly around.  Sea gulls are the most common birds that eat in the shallow tide pools where the snails are prevalent but the CDC study did not find the parasites in the birds they collected in the estuary around the Oakland airport.

Here are some facts for the swimmers out there who are planning on swimming off Crown Beach in Alameda.  The cecariae parasites usually emerge at temperatures greater than 22 C or 72 F.  The Alameda water temperature is usually between 8 C and 20 C (46-68) year round.  The tide pools are the most common areas where the temperature goes above 22 degrees.  There is also a lot of standing water that gets pretty warm during low tide on sunny days.

The swimmers itch is unique to the San Francisco Bay in Alameda as it rarely occurs in salt water or cold water.  The original article that brought all of this to the news is from the CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases division.

FAQs can be found here on the CDC web site.

I really like swimming in the bay but I rarely swim in Alameda.  I don’t like the way the water feels, it is not deep enough nor does it move quickly enough.  There is also something about the solitude of swimming in the bay right in the middle of a tourist area.  The Alameda side of the bay is probably safe for swimmers who jump right in and swim out and back then rinse off as soon as they finish their swim.

If you do get swimmers itch, take a picture and contact the CDC.  They need all of the information they can get to help prevent this Emerging problem from spreading.

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.

Right around the time that I got injured Detour sent us a couple of bars for review.   The bars are huge (3 oz) and covered in chocolate.  I broke one in half and stuck in my cycle shirt for a long ride and ate it around mile 40.  The chocolate coating did not hold up very well for the ride but it stayed together well enough to eat.  My low sugar chocolate chip caramel bar tasted pretty good and went down easily.  I ate the whole bar and had no issues with it after I started riding again.  I don’t think the bars are intended to be energy bars but I felt fine for the rest of my ride and the rest of the day.

The lower sugar bar has 30 grams of protein and 34 grams of carbs.  The list of ingredients is obscene but the thing tastes good.  I will try them a few more times to see how they work out.  I am not going to carry the bar on a run because I am sure it will not hold up to the temperature of a run.

The huge list of ingredients through chemistry are a big turn off for me but the bar goes down easily and I recover well when I eat the bar.  The Detour bar is on my neutral list.  If you do not mind all of the chemicals, the bar is a definite buy.

Thinking about our friends over at Team Type 1, I decided to post a healthy recipe for the night before a long run (I usually eat pasta or pizza).  If you are diabetic or pre-diabetic, cut back on the rice.  Watching your diet and exercising are great ways to maintain your health if you are easing towards diabetes.  A few years ago, my blood test showed that I was pre-diabetic.  I started living a healthy lifestyle and my blood sugar is now so average that it is boring.

1      8-12 ounce can of tangerines
2     shallots, minced
2     tablespoons Dijon mustard one tbsp plain will work in a pinch
1     tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1     tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/2     tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2     teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1     teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste
4     8-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
freshly ground pepper

Throw the chicken in a Ziploc bag.  Toss the ingredients into a food processor and grind them up.  Pour the mixture into the Ziploc bag and coat the chicken.  Let it stand for 30 minutes and grill for about 15 minutes.   I’d recommend 10 minutes on side one, flip and cook for 5 more minutes on the other side.

Serve with rice (I like white), spinach and corn or any vegetables of your choice.

I always have fresh rosemary as it grows year around in Alameda.  You can substitute or add spices when you have them fresh.