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December 9, 2004
The Effects of My Studies and a Treadmill Workout
It seems that I have been fairly consistent with keeping my Thursdays reserved for workouts so I am happy about that aspect of my training. I was planning to get up and do my workout this morning outdoors. However, I did not get to bed as early as I had planned and decided to sleep in and prepare for my morning presentation instead. I had another busy day with my presentation to start off the day. I had to give a presentation on the 10-week pedagogy class I taught to my friend on sprinting and she presented on her 10-week pedagogy class she taught to me on swimming. Everything went well with our lecture and demonstration.
Following that I had to go to my exercise physiology class and do an under water body fat test. I was designated as a volunteer along with my roommate who is a rower. The two of us had to get in the pool and hold onto a huge bottle. We had to fill the bottle about 3/4 of the way with water and then dip our heads into the water and try to blow all of the air out of our lunges. We had to get to the point where we started to sink and were at equilibrium in the middle of the pool under the water, so we were not sinking down and we were not bobbing to the top of the pool. Mostly I sank to the bottom of the pool, which meant I had to take more water out of the bottle to increase the amount of air in the bottle. Finally, I sort of reached equilibrium but it is hard to tell because I came up quickly because I was gasping for air. Anyway, we then did an equation to figure out the % of body fat we each have in out body.
My number was a lot higher than I expected. It came out to be 22%. The margin of error for this experiment is said to be +/- 4% so maybe I am 26% or 18%. Both sets of values seem off to me. Although, I did look up what the numbers should be and for a female athlete the range is somewhere between 12-18%. I don't want to obsess over it because I don't think the testing method was totally accurate because I was not able to exhale all the air out of my lunges.
Sometimes in my studies for this masters degree in exercise and science I feel that I become paralyzed by the facts and figures that I am reading about or the specific athlete situations that I try to analyze and work with on a regular basis. It's hard to explain but I feel like I am in a daze taking in a lot of information and trying to process it and figuring it all out. Most of the time when I am engaged in my own athletic endeavor/adventure of running I can just forget about it all. However, sometimes I feel that I am not up to doing all of the things that an athlete should do and I do not meet all the requirements and how could I possibly control all of the variables. It gets overwhelming. I almost feel like pre-med students feel when they say that at some point in their training they experience little symptoms of all of the diseases they study and they feel they are afflicted with a serious illness because of the intense work they are doing in the field. This is how I feel at times when I start to analyze well what should I eat or when I chastise myself for not getting enough sleep, etc. I think it will all sink in and incorporate itself into me in some fashion along the way but right now it seems as if all the information is pounding into me. Well..enough rambling about all of this... I should get on with today's workout....
My afternoon was filled with work and meetings so I did not get a chance to go outside to do my 1000-meter workout. I decided to do my intervals on the treadmill. I warmed up for three miles and ran the first mile at 7.44 pace, the second mile at 7.30 pace, and the last mile at 7.15 pace. I wanted to gradually increase so the workout would not seem so different from the entire run. I then did .7 miles at 6.48 pace and .3 miles at 7.44 pace, then I did .7 miles at 6.38 pace and .3 miles at 7.44 pace, then I did .7 miles at 6.28 pace and .3 miles at 7.44 pace, and for my last interval I did a mile at 6.18 pace and finished the workout with 3 miles at 7.30 to 7.44 pace. I felt pretty good for the entire workout. It is hard to get used to running fast on the treadmill but the time actually goes by really fast. I did not feel like I had to breath very hard for the workout. I was lamenting with my sister on the phone tonight that I have not really done any hard cardiovascular workouts since March of 2003. It has been almost two years since I have been able to give a 100% effort in a speed workout. This is a bad sign. I have been satisfied with my running and used the time to focus on my endurance training but I do miss the feeling of fatigue you get after running hard 800's or mile repeats. I have got to make my quad therapy a priority once I finish this 50k race. The three key elements I am going to do are to use the ice pool every day, to use electric stem treatment in the training room as much as possible (maybe every day or at least 3 times a week), and to massage every day even if it hurts. I hope an intensive strategy such as this makes a big difference. My hope is that my blog in January will focus on my recovery more than my running. Once I move into February I hope I can do some serious running again.
Tomorrow I am going to meet some runners to do a morning run at 7 a.m. and then in the afternoon I am going to take the team to a nearby Reservoir to run. I am looking forward to both runs. I probably won't be able to update my blog until Sunday night because after my afternoon run I will head up to the Catskills for a nice weekend get-away. It should be great to relax in a nice setting for the weekend and do some easy runs. I have one exam left and one paper left so I am pretty excited about most of my work being done. More soon...
Posted by mary at December 9, 2004 9:39 PM
Comments
A few things... Congratulations on almost being done with your work. I hope you can get more sleep once you're done. Have a great weekend in the Catskills!
I'd be surprised if your body fat was really 22%. That's really not that high, but even so, I really doubt that is accurate. I helped out on a study once (at UMass) where they used underwater weighing (in a tank). It looked absolutely awful - letting out all your air and then staying under water is scary! Please don't worry about your body composition, I'd give anything to look as fit as you do!
Posted by: Alison at December 10, 2004 12:05 AM
Thanks Alison! I am not really worried about my % body fat. I thought the method was interesting and definitely really hard - I know I did not expel all of my air out. As long as I can run the times I want to run I am not going to be too concerned about my body fat %. You do look extremely fit!! :)
Posted by: Mary at December 10, 2004 1:46 AM
hi mar
wow that body fat test seems interesting...
it seems hard too
i think it would be easy to get too wrapped up in all the #s , figures etc...but the good thing is you have a great ultra and running career to fall back on...and say...look something i'm doing must be right..or else i wouldn't be this good (b/c you ARE :) ).
your presentations to your classes sound neat too...that program seems awesome.
i wish i could listen to the talks.
more soon mar--and keep up the good training and schooling...don't overthink anything too much
you rock
liz
Posted by: liz at December 10, 2004 12:01 PM
Thanks Liz and Alison.. you know what they say.. paralysis by analysis.. I'll try not to over analyze...
Posted by: Mary at December 10, 2004 2:19 PM
That 22% number doesn't sound right. I'd say more in the 12-16% range for you.
Posted by: Dave at December 10, 2004 11:56 PM