am actually doing a bold (or stupid) thing. have decided to run 5 tempo miles in my nike free 5.0's. I really believe the minimalist shoe thing is better for me--had some achiness after my 8 mile run in my mizuno waveriders, and I think my feet are just preferring the minimalist thing now. I ran chicago in nikes, so perhaps that is how it will go. trying to figure all of this out, marathon season starts for real the weekend after next. I have my mileage schedule already, and on october 31, I will be doing a 29 mile training run, my very first ultramarathon (technically.....) I am absolutely excited!
woohoo!!!!! I am freeeeeeee of aches, IT band issues. Ran five miles in my frees. Turned out not to be a tempo run because i wanted to ease into the frees. Ended up with 5 miles, 9:43 pace including bridges, traffic stopping and all. Average heart rate was 153. Barely into my aerobic zone, so these were really recovery miles. Will wear frees to track tomorrow, ultimately plan to do long runs and the marathon in the frees. All other workouts in vibrams. I am shocked at how light and fast these shoes are. After the run, I stretched and foam rolled at franks. Not even a titch of IT band tenderness. I do believe there is something to this near-bearfoot running thing
Between you and Roland I'll have to give this mole thing a try. It is a new thing for me, but I am curious.
I am happy you have exprienced no calf issues! I wish I was the same. I'll be out tomorrow with the Vibrams. My calves feel good and I find I have more aches and twinges in shoes than I do when not in shoes, just in general. Like I have mentioned I have had no knee issues with the vibrams, but simply sore muscles.
So how do the nike frees compare to Vibrams? What advantages do you see from one over the other?
What do you used for a HR/watch when you run?
Og.
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
the nike frees are more appropriate for me on long runs. will try them at track tomorrow night. I think the vibrams are too minimalist for me until my feet build strength. I felt amazing in the frees 5.0. so much faster it seems with much less effort. sold sold sold sold sold on the near-barefoot running concept.
I use the garmin 405 for my GPS and it has a heart rate strap.
jane and julie, yeppers running is definitely not the adrenaline shot of choice for everyone. For me, it lit my brain the very first time I ran in a training-type venue ( in contrast to sprinting toward a missed bus, etc.)
If I get a chance tonight, I want to write about it, because I would not be who I am as an athlete without the mentoring of a woman named peggy. Somehow she saw the athlete in me, even though I was morbidly obese and seemingly not an ideal candidate to become a runner. She was one of the team in training coaches who helped me reach the finish line of my first marathon
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
The Power of Peers
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I have a lot of respect for fitness professionals, I really do. Several have been instrumental in my decade-long trek from obese to fit. Today, however, I am celebrating the power of peers.
As a lifelong scary science girl, I started my fitness journey by learning everything I could about exercise and nutrition. I could detail for you the metabolic nuances of high intensity interval training versus long slow distance. I could discuss the merits of slow twitch, fast twitch, and the ever versatile undifferentiated muscle fibers. I could draw the chemical structures of simple sugars. I could detail for you the biochemical complexities of the various amino acids and how they combined to form the very building blocks of our bodies. But I was doing all of this in an obese body. Why couldn’t I take all of this head knowledge and put it into action? I was making it too complicated. And truth be told, deep down, I didn’t believe it was possible for me.
At just the right time in my life, I met Peggy. I was working out at a local gym doing one on one personal training. At 228 pounds and 5 foot 7, this trainer had me doing one set to failure of super slow reps on machines, eating 1100-1300 calories a day, and taking body building supplements, like creatine, HMB, and other popular late nineties, gym-rat-intensive concoctions. I do remember feeling really rockin’ strong when I would leg press twice my body weight for reps, but now I realize that I was doing everything back-asswards. No wonder I would inevitably “cheat” on my diet. I could have lost body fat on twice as many calories!
During one of my trips to the gym, I saw a pamphlet about training to walk a marathon while raising money for the leukemia society. My niece’s best friend had just celebrated her one year anniversary of being free of leukemia, and I thought this would be a great way to join the celebration. My trainer was dubious. He told me that I should not attempt to do a marathon until I lost weight. He said my risk of injury was too high. What I heard at the time was “you are too fat to do a marathon,” and the gauntlet was down. Game on. I’ll show you. This moment was the beginning of my fat acceptance phase. I decided if I had to live my life in an obese body, it might as well be a fit, obese body, and what better way to prove my fitness but to walk 26.2 miles while raising money for a great cause?
So far so good. Peggy was one of the volunteer coaches. When I first met her, I immediately classified her as one of those genetically gifted runner girls—she was in her mid forties then, with long, thick black hair that she would wear in a braid, gorgeous olive skin, and amazingly beautiful legs. At the time, I was struggling to maintain 20 minute miles on our walks, and it was barely even an effort for her.
Peggy wasn’t a fitness professional. She worked in an electronics factory putting together components. And she was one hell of a runner, often winning her age group. As I got to know her, she told me her story—five years prior, she had been obese, had a health crisis, and decided to take up running. I didn’t believe her. So she brought in pictures. I recognized her by that long, beautiful, thick braid, but otherwise, I wouldn’t have believed it was the same person. In that moment, I believed that change was possible. I could feel myself switch from scary science chick, overthinking, overanalyzing, overeverything to humble student. I wanted to know how Peggy did it. I wanted to be as lean as Peggy.
Fortunately, marathon training is inherently time intensive. Over many miles, Peggy became my mentor. I learned how she prioritized cooking, I learned how she fit exercise into her busy schedule. When we would go out to eat, I would watch how she seemed to effortlessly modulate her intake, and how she would leave food on her plate.
One day, we were on a training walk in my old neighborhood, and she said to me, “Wendy, why don’t we just run from here to that lamp post?” Said lamp post was maybe 200 yards ahead. She might as well have said, “Wendy, why don’t we jump off this cliff without a parachute and hope there is a big trampoline at the bottom to catch us?” I didn’t trust her. I didn’t believe that I could be a runner. Running was for thin people. Someday, when I lost enough weight, I would be a runner like Peggy. But for right now, my thighs were so large that I would get chafing just from walking. My feet were so stressed by the distance walking that I had custom orthotics made. Despite the negative head-chatter, something in me decided to trust her anyway and go for it. Those first steps, that brief fraction of a second that both of my feet were in the air at the same time--- the movement that differentiates running from walking --- was transformative, intoxicating, and literally breathtaking. I was running, but I might as well have been flying. I had jumped off the cliff, I was airborne, and I experienced a sensation so liberating. I finally believed that I had the power to transform myself into a fit, healthy, lean person. I was hooked.
Peggy carefully nurtured me to the finish line of that first marathon. She believed in me before I was capable of believing in myself. Peggy didn’t judge my external body and make assumptions about me based on my physical appearance like I had made assumptions about her based on her physical appearance. Out on the roads, we were just two athletes, training hard, swapping life stories and making memories.
It took me many more years before I was able to fully understand the things Peggy tried to teach me. I am just now putting some of those things into practice. I don’t see Peggy anymore at the races, and I often wonder what happened to her—maybe she moved, maybe she has moved on to another sport? I want her to know that the seeds that she planted in me a decade ago, are finally bearing fruit. After many years of trial and error, too much sunlight, not enough, too much fertilizer, not enough, I think I finally have negotiated a balance—just enough running, just enough strength training, just enough nutritious food, just enough rest—all working together to form the athlete I am today. The athlete that Peggy was able to see a decade ago.
This, my friends, is the power of peers. Peers who have walked before. Peers who can look at you and see your potential. Peers who can hold the vision of your very best life, and believe in your future before you are able to believe it yourself. Pretty soon, you are not only believing in your visions, you are creating them, manifesting them, achieving them. And each time you share the gift with others, each time you hold someone else’s dream for them before they are strong enough to hold it for themselves, your own resolve to reach your own goals becomes hypertrophied like a muscle. Together we can achieve our dreams, peer-to-peer, athlete-to-athlete, step-by-weightless, effortless step. Together we fly. Thanks Peggy, you have permanently altered the course of my life, and I celebrate you today.
Bytsi I hope she does too. I will try to track her down. I have another fast peggy in my life now, she is the wife of one of my fellow teachers. She will be training with me for the marathon this year. Amazing runner. Hope I can have two peggies in my life as I start the quest toward my Boston dream. My current peggy believes in my dream too!
Gosh, I feel like I should pipe "wind beneath my wings" into that post. I can be such a drama queen. The emotions are real though! Such a sappy girl I can be. Better tune up the F key to keep it real. Maybe I can find an iPhone app that translates sappy midlife musings into brospeak, LOL
track sucked A$$ today. totally couldnt eat until 2pm which was wayyy late for an intense track session. stopped after the first set.
had a metabolically active workout this morning with frank, so all in all, a good training day. am swtiching to a larger solid meal post frank on tuesdays, and then protein shake a noon. I do so much better at track when I arrive with a growling tummy. learning curve
and my galloway leader posted that we need to run a 7 15 track mile to qualify for the group that I have been training with. 715!!1! eek. I emailed the coaches at camp, am hoping they will time me on their track in the coolness of the greenville morning. that will be my shot at a 7 15.
You joined here while I was not super active, due to school and other reasons. I don't know if you had shared your story before, but it was good to read.
Since I have come back I have enjoyed your training log, I guess your attitude is a little infectious even all the way across the interwebz. I am sure I will enjoy it a little more knowing the path you walked to get to where you are now.
Keith.
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
thanks keith. at various points in my log I have other parts of the story. took me 10 years to get here. before pictures are at the beginning of this log.
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at graduation last thursday, I saw an ex neighbor who had not seen me in years. she asked if I had gastric bypass surgery. there was a day when I might have been offended at the intrusiveness of the question-I think it is weird that we feel so free to comment on one anothers bodies so readily in this society. I just smiled and told her, that nope, gastric bypass surgery would have resulted in a much faster weight loss than 80 pounds over 10 years, lol!
truth be told, without peggy, I really believe that I would not have "caught" my weight gain in time to lose it slowly without surgery. running was a really big key for me. I am a big fan of gastric bypass surgery, but at the same time, I am grateful that I was able to find my solutions without making drastic alterations in my anatomy. since I lost my weight so darn slowly, I have also managed to avoid plastic surgery. for sure, I won't be on the cover of a magazine or on the stage of a figure show in a teensy bikini, but I am comfortable in my own skin for the first time ever, and that is plenty good enough!
Dang Wendy you did it again. Make me all teary-eyed upon reading your write-ups.
My first Peggy was a guy . My cycling buddy Ivo took me under his wings and coached me for almost 10 years. We didn't meet as cyclists but share a common interest/language: Esperanto
at graduation last thursday, I saw an ex neighbor who had not seen me in years. she asked if I had gastric bypass surgery. there was a day when I might have been offended at the intrusiveness of the question-I think it is weird that we feel so free to comment on one anothers bodies so readily in this society. I just smiled and told her, that nope, gastric bypass surgery would have resulted in a much faster weight loss than 80 pounds over 10 years, lol!
Sorta cool to see new people who haven't seen you. Nice to know it is still possible after 10 years!
I am not sure I agree 100% on us feeling free to comment on bodies. I think we feel very free to comment on others bodies when people are skinny, I don't think we feel as free to do it when people are overweight. ie I get told plenty that I am looking skinny, I should eat more, but don't ever recall a time, at least certainly not to the same degree, I was told you I was to fat I need to eat less. Even to this day people still say I wasn't that fat.
As for the gastric. I don't think any of us are a huge fan of it. Potentially it cures a symptom and not the root cause of the problem.
There was a commen on Men's Health so many years ago about stretch marks not being pretty, but as a reminder of where we have come from. Sucks to have them, but the alternative is so much worse.
Og.
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
Stretch marks can also occur when doing an intentional bulk.
My partner got them in his upper legs from the time he was a fanatic about getting bigger and not looking so scrawny.
Hey espi, glad you enjoyed the story. The flavor bible is still fantastic!
Re stretch marks. I don't really have many visible ones, even in a bikini. But I do have extra skin in the tummy which is visible when I do sit ups, crunches, cat camel. Etc. It really doesn't affect my workouts at all, I just see it in the mirrorsat the gym. I like the idea of celebrating the extra skin as proof of where I have been. Battle wounds, per say
battle wounds/scars were pretty much the words used I believe.
I have plenty for both of us if you want some
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
Yup, I've got some of the deflated and stretch marked stuff going on too.
There's places where scarification or other body art/body modification is a desirable thing... think we could start a new fashion trend?
__________________
"Time and patience are the 2 elements that most people don't include in their plans."
-Alan Aragon
"The scale simply tells you how much the earth loves you on a particular day."
-Ogedei (Keith)
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. My cycling buddy Ivo took me under his wings and coached me for almost 10 years. We didn't meet as cyclists but share a common interest/language: Esperanto 
Linear Mode
