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August 18, 2005
Fatigue
The problem with this whole fatigue thing is that I can't tell whether there's really something going on or if I'm just being a big, lazy wuss. I had a lot of trouble dragging myself out of my bed this morning, despite having spent the previous 9 hours in it. I was actually awakened out of a sound sleep by my alarm. Once I got up and got moving, I felt ok, though, so I decided to give my aborted workout from Tuesday (4x6:00 tempo w/1 min. easy recovery; 5 mins. easy; 3x6:00 tempo w/1 min. easy recovery) a go. Once again I started really struggling in the second interval, but I decided that even if "comfortably hard" degenerated into a shuffle I was going to get through the workout. And get through it I did, at some points barely avoiding the dreaded shuffle, I think.
I swung by the produce market (I've decided that perhaps part of the source of my lethargy is that I haven't been eating enough fruits and vegetables lately) on my cool-down run home. Naturally I was soaked (I sweat more than anyone I know; by the time I got home my fingertips were pruned from stewing in my sweat -- eeew), so I decided to spare the checkout clerk my soggy cash and use my credit card. This didn't, however, cause him to overlook my sodden state.
Clerk: "...Have you been running?"
Me: "Yup."
Clerk: "And that's all... sweat?"
Me: "Yup."
Clerk: "How long were you running for?"
And on. I was amused.
So, I promised I'd elaborate on this paper and talk on legal remedies to the American obesity problem. I'd really like to post a link to the article, but I wasn't able to find one. I will post it when it's published. Richard Epstein's main point was that all these people are in an uproar about the problem of obesity in this country, however no one has proposed a truly viable solution. If a proposal is grand enough to actually make an impact, there will be all kinds of political objections to it -- it will never get passed. If a proposal is modest enough to survive the political process, it's not grand enough to really make an impact on the problem. For example, re-zoning so that fast food and other places selling unhealthy options are not allowed within a certain distance of schools would never fly politically. Firstly, there would be the problem of determining which establishments qualified as unhealthy food vendors. Then, there would be all sorts of takings issues. A tax on fast-food establishments and the like, and on unhealthy junk foods, which would then be passed on to the consumer in the form of increased prices would also fail to survive the political process. Part of the problem lies in the fact that food is very difficult to regulate. New products are constantly coming on to the market; older products are constantly being re-formulated. So it would take a huge output of resources to track and test every new food product that came on to the market and decide whether it qualified for the fat tax. The other problem is that the poverty lobby would awaken and cry foul. Even though the availability of cheap fast food is clearly connected to the incidence of obesity in impoverished communities, the poverty lobby would kick and scream that increased food prices could lead to starvation.
Other proposals shot down: Obesity counseling programs run by employers (even though decrease in weight corresponds to decrease in absenteeism and medical visits, these programs ultimately don't yield enough return to employers because of the high incidence of employee turnover today -- the counseling might help an employee to slim down, but then he's off to another company so the employer doesn't get to reap the benefits); increased medicare premiums for the obese (a political non-starter); better food labeling and labeling on restaurant menus (for the average consumer, more detailed labeling wouldn't increase his understanding of the health value of the food in question; there are numerous problems with putting nutritional information on restaurant labels -- high cost/low return -- menus at many restaurants aren't static, so it would be cost- and labor-intensive to provide nutritional information; differences in preparation yield different nutritional results; you get about 85% of the information you need about a dish's nutritional value by looking at it; etc. etc.).
*The views above re: obesity solutions are Professor Epstein's, so if you disagree, don't shoot the messenger! I actually think that there would have to be some way we could use a tax on unhealthy foods to subsidize healthy foods, so the price of healthier foods would go down as that of unhealthy foods went up. However, there are all kinds of problems with that. For example, there just are no "Whole Foods" and similar stores in impoverished, inner-city communities. One could, maybe, use the taxes on the unhealthy foods to subsidize such establishments in inner-city communities and provide them with incentives to open up branches there, but such a solution is so politically hairy.... In the end, I really do agree with Epstein that there is no feasible governmental solution to the obesity problem; people have to take personal responsibility. Unfortunately, so many people either cannot or will not do so.
Posted by alweiss at 9:14 PM | Comments (2)
August 17, 2005
Slinking Back Into Cyberspace
Yes, it has been WAY too long since I last posted. Too many distractions, not enough focus. I guess that goes for running as well as blogging right now. If I'm going to keep on track in both (or either) this fall, I'm going to have to set aside time specifically earmarked for that activity each day and stick to my schedule.
My running for the past week or so has been decidedly uninspired. This is partly because I suspect I've been fighting off an illness or have some sort of low-grade infection. I slept for 14 or 15 hrs. on both Saturday and Sunday; I just kept dozing on and off all day both of those days. Then yesterday I woke up with a headache and stiff neck and upper back. Since my basic approach to illness is to ignore it in the belief that if I don't acknowledge it, it will simply cease to exist, I decided to go ahead and do the workout I had planned to do last night. After 2 intervals I conceded that I was struggling more than I had any right to be, so I threw in 10 mins. or so of easy running, another mile of tempo running, then a couple more miles easy and called it a day.
I had plans to bike to Grant Park to watch "The Hustler" on the outdoor movie screen they set up every Tuesday night in the summer and I decided that if that was a struggle, I might have to take more drastic measures today. As it turned out, the bike ride felt fine, and the whole experience was really fun. Great movie, good company, wine, snacks... not a single thing I can complain about (which is saying a lot, considering that I'm a New Yorker and therefore born to complain; I sometimes find myself complaining about things/people that I actually enjoy just as an excuse to talk about them).
Today I went for a run at lunch and didn't feel too bad. Ran out for 30 mins. and back in 28. My legs were a little heavy, probably from riding my bike. I'm embarassed to admit that I hadn't been on a bike since... last November I think. I skipped the shower thing because running to the gym, showering, and walking back to work would have added 30 mins. that I really couldn't spare and my office-mate claimed that my sitting around in my sweaty running clothes didn't bother him and promised me he would tell me if it started to.
I had a softball game after work (and got in another hour of running on my way home from the game). For once enough people showed up to field two complete teams. My team's pitcher was the inimitable Professor Epstein. I've heard taking notes in his class described as trying to catch Niagara Falls in a dixie cup. He's absolutely brilliant and a "character." I'm going to a talk he's giving tomorrow on a paper he's working on. It discusses the role government should take in response to the American "obesity crisis." His point of view, very persuasively argued and supported, is that government should stay out and individuals should take responsiblity for their food choices and caloric intake, practicing the Aristotelian ideal of "everything in moderation." He points out all the pitfalls involved in government regulation and "fat taxes," and even in government-sponsored educational campaigns (for every gov't-sponsored nutrition campaign, there are going to be twice as many advertisments for Weight Watchers or the South Beach diet). It's a really interesting and intelligent paper and I'm looking forward to hearing him speak about it. I will try to post more on it tomorrow or post a link to the paper if I can find one.
Posted by alweiss at 9:40 PM | Comments (3)
August 11, 2005
Running in Place
Last night I did one of the more crazy things I've done in pursuit of fitness. I ran in place for an hour and 20 mins. I'm not sure how many miles to call it, or if I can even count it toward my weekly mileage. My calves are awfully sore today, though.
I didn't run yesterday morning because by the time I was ready to stumble out the door, I realized it might be a tight squeeze to make the train I needed to catch to make it uptown for work. Then, after work I just ran a couple of miles and went swimming, deciding to put off my longer run until after the sun went down. But I got all caught up in doing some law-school-related stuff and before I realized it, it was 10:30. I didn't feel like running outside starting at 10:30, hence the running in place. I figured it was better than nothing.
Posted by alweiss at 3:26 PM | Comments (6)
August 7, 2005
Meetings
"...sometimes you literally forget to hit the accelerator, or maybe you don't want to hit it because the last time you did, nothing happened... and you don't want to feel that way again, so you just don't.... You're running, I guess you could call it that, but you're not racing."
My run at the Chicago Distance Classic today made me think of that quote from Frank Murphy's "The Silence of Great Distance: Women Running Long." It's an excerpt from a letter the author imagines Stephanie Herbst writing to her sister explaining her decision to take some time off from competitive running.
I was supposed to do the race as a marathon pace run, so my goal was 6:55-7:00 per mile. I started out a little fast (6:30 or thereabouts for the first mile), then dialed it back. Eventually I began to fall way off pace and I don't quite understand why. I wasn't working particularly hard. Every so often I'd wake up and start to pick it up, but then think about how much further I had to go and slow down again. Part of the problem was that the course was the same one I run every day (it followed the lake path), so I could picture exactly what I had left. But I think it really came down to desire. As in, I had none. I ended up averaging 7:07 pace, but there was absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have managed at the very least 7:00 pace.
So much of training is training yourself mentally to deal with discomfort. I think that I lost more mentally than I did physically when I took 6 months off from running. My body forgot that it's supposed to hurt, and it forgot how to put the discomfort in a little box and focus on the task at hand. I need to work at getting that ability back.
That's all my bad news for today. My good, exciting news is that I finally got to meet Bridget! We looked for one another before the race and never connected, but I found her a little after the mile mark. We ran together for about a mile, but then she, feeling good, went on ahead as I slowed down. We made plans to meet up afterwards and did so for a shorter-than-originally-anticipated cool-down. I also got to meet B., who came with us on our cool-down. The cool-down was definitely the most fun event of the day. :)
Less exciting, but worth noting, I also sort of met this person I frequently see while running along the lake. Sometime before I found Bridget, he pulled up beside me and asked if I went to the U of C. A short conversation followed in which it was established that he was a grad student in Classics and he was planning to run 6:45 pace, too fast for me to run with him. Unfortunately, I never got his name. But now I feel as if I have license to accost him the next time I see him out running. Another potential running buddy (though perhaps he's a little too fast for me -- the reason I remembered seeing him, in fact the only reason I took note of him at all, was that he looked fast)! And I still possess 100% ownership of my soul, in case you were wondering.
Posted by alweiss at 11:15 PM | Comments (2)
August 4, 2005
Locked Out
So, I came up with an impossibly brilliant plan for my day today (those who know me may now stop laughing). We had a staff outing to the White Sox/Blue Jays game this afternoon, so I decided that I would run home. But here are the genius touches I added: I wore my bathing suit (for a post-run dip in the lake) and running shorts to work under my skirt and shirt so as to avoid having to waste time changing as we tried to get out of the office and to the game (getting out of the office and on our way anywhere always seems to be a monumental endeavor for us); I also drove my car to school to spare my (tired) legs a couple of miles of walking thinking I could do a short double around 9 tonight and swing by to retrieve it.
As it turned out, despite my careful wardrobe planning, I was the one who held up our departure. I was having some formatting issues with a document that needed to be mailed today. With my usual impeccable timing, I chose the moment when everyone was giving me sh!t for the delay I had caused to step out of my skirt so I could squirrel it away in my desk drawer. There was sudden silence, into which I interjected, "What? I'm wearing shorts." My boss responded that he had initially thought that perhaps mooning them all was my way of apologizing.
Despite our late departure we managed to arrive in time for first pitch. The game was was a close one, but way too long for the steamy conditions. I kept feeling that no matter how much water I drank it wasn't enough. By 4:30 or so when Hermanson finally struck Hinske out to end the game (5-4 Sox the final), the 12-miler I had planned wasn't sounding too appealing. But once I got moving I started feeling better -- and cooler, with the air circulating around me. There are a couple stretches of the lake path that are just relentless: no way to get out of the sun. So, I tried to surge through those portions to get to the shadier parts. I felt tired, especially in the last couple of miles, but not too terrible; and I felt instantly better once I slipped into the lake and actually cooled off for the first time in hours.
After floating around for a while, I started to get a little cold and decided it was time to head home. As I swam back toward shore it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't executed my brilliant plan as perfectly as one might have hoped: my apartment keys were locked in my car... at school. I had two options: either run back to school and get the car right then or take my sodden self to the building conceirge and plead lock-out. I decided that the latter was the more appealing option (if you've been reading my blog for long you know that I just don't have enough dignity left to make its preservation worthwhile).
This was my second completely avoidable lock debacle in as many days. At the gym, they issue day locks which come with metal tags attached with the combination for the lock. Yesterday, I checked out a lock so I could store my stuff. When I went to shower I decided that I wouldn't re-lock my locker because it seems that every time I do that I end up having problems getting the lock unlocked again, so I end up standing there in my towel dripping and cursing. But instead of doing the smart thing and re-locking the lock with the combination tag on it and leaving it on the bench, I unthinkingly left the open lock and the tag lying there. By the time I got back from the shower the tag was nowhere to be found. After searching all over for it, I became convinced that there was some crazy psychology student running around collecting neglected combination tags to see if people confessed to losing them. So, assuming that most people probably wouldn't confess (would just sneak the lock back into the bucket), I decided that I would throw off her data by confessing. I mean, really, where could the thing have gone? It takes real talent to lose such an object in just 5 mins. in a very limited space. I suspect that's what the guy working the check-out desk was thinking as I explained to him how I had lost it.
Posted by alweiss at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)
August 3, 2005
Running 2, Softball 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Running 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 17 0
Softball 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3
This week I managed to get my workout in at lunch, as well as another shorter run (5 mi.) before my softball game. I decided to do my workout on the treadmill. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, as a rule I try to avoid doing workouts on the treadmill. But it's been so hot and humid out lately that the miles I'm doing are putting more stress on my body than they should and I decided that it was probably better to remind my legs what it feels like to run at a faster pace than to batter my body yet again in the weather. I knew that the heat would force me to go at a slower pace than I need to practice running at.
I scored and got the Life Fitness treadmill closest to the fan (which really doesn't move much air for a huge, "industrial strength" fan). After warming up at 8 min. pace for two miles, I increased the incline two clicks to keep myself honest and started my workout (4x12 min. at threshold pace with 2 mins. easy recovery). I did the first 12 min. interval at 6:39 pace and it felt surprisingly hard, so I dropped the pace to 6:44 for the second. 6 mins. in, I increased the pace again to 6:39 and it actually felt more comfortable than the 6:44 pace. I did the same thing with the next interval, and for the last interval I did the first 2 mins. at 6:44 before bumping it up for the last 10 mins. I did 2 miles of cool-down at 8 min. pace (which by then felt so slow I was having trouble not tripping over my own feet) for a total of 12 miles.
I then forced myself through a 5 mile death-march (my body hadn't remotely recovered from the workout) before my softball game. My classmate A. (who ran the 2004 Chicago Marathon in 3:13 off low mileage with no speed work; she's incredibly talented) graciously joined me for one of my pre-game laps of the park, which forced me out of my zombie pace.
I'm starting to feel a little obsessive about my running. I think it's partly the effect of this weekend's disaster and partly for the usual reason: when my life feels as if it's spinning away from me and things I want seem beyond my grasp, I latch onto running because it's something I can control, a known quantity. It's really comforting to KNOW that if I do X and Y, the result will be Z, that as long as I don't cross a line that by now I'm pretty well able to recognize I will eventually see results for all the effort I put in. There is nothing else I do in my life in which the effort-result connection is so absolute, probably because all other things in life are dependent to varying degrees on the whims and subjective judgments of other people, whereas my running performance hinges solely on my own decisions and actions. So, when I feel as if I'm pouring huge amounts of unrewarded effort and energy into other aspects of my life, I tend to switch all that focus to something I can count on.
I've thought about it a lot, and I don't think this is necessarily psychologically unhealthy. In fact, so long as I don't start running 200 miles per week (this might be manageable for some people, but I think my body would implode with that kind of mileage) and completely neglect the rest of my life, I think it's a pretty healthy shift of focus. And I've found that when I'm feeling fit and fast I have a more positive outlook on life: as my running improves, the rest of my life mirrors that improvement.
Addendum: so, my linescore (above) looks just fine until I publish it. At any rate, it's supposed to look like a linescore, in case you were perplexed. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix it, lemme know!
Posted by alweiss at 8:32 PM | Comments (1)
August 2, 2005
Beautiful Noise
I went to the Neil Diamond concert at the United Center last night. Got goosebumps as he rose out of the floor in a black sequined top. I'd been looking forward to the concert since March, when I bought the tickets. Generally when I have that much time to build something up I'm disappointed. But Neil didn't disappoint. He was electric, magnetic, exuding charisma and drawing his audience close through his stories and his music. Seated way up in the nosebleeds, I felt as if I could reach out and touch him ("reaching out... touching me... touching you" heh). It was over way too soon.
I actually got home at a "reasonable hour" (a little before 11). However I had trouble falling asleep because I had had a Coke at the concert and was hopped up on the caffeine and adreneline from the whole experience. So, I tossed and turned until about 4 when I finally managed to drift off. When the alarm started blaring at 7:20 I was sorely tempted to turn it off and go back to sleep. It took me a LONG time to get going, which put me behind schedule for the morning, but I eventually stumbled out the door and made my roundabout way to the gym (2.5 miles), where I lifted, then ran 5.5 more miles. The last 3 miles were a struggle: I felt over-heated and was a bit dehydrated. I took stock and realized that I probably hadn't had enough to drink after my morning run yesterday (a 9-miler) and hadn't had anything to drink after my afternoon run (6 miles in 90 degree heat that had me leaving puddles on my kitchen floor) save the soda I had at the concert and a glass of water I downed before bed.
So, I spent the day trying to re-hydrate and had a so-so run this evening. Well, the running part of my evening workout was so-so, anyway. I finished off my 7-miler with a swim in the lake that was pure bliss. The water temperature was perfect and I had forgotten how much I enjoy swimming in open water. Especially open FRESH water where there are no red jellyfish (had a traumatic red jellyfish experience as a kid). It was an experience so delicious that I wanted to share it with someone -- it didn't seem fair that I was the only one enjoying it. I'm tempted to make finishing my second run of the day in Lake Michigan part of my daily routine, but I'm afraid that then I might start taking it for granted -- the "daily routine."
Posted by alweiss at 8:23 PM | Comments (3)
August 1, 2005
My First DNF and Brighter Things Ahead
I feel as if my running for the past couple of weeks, along perhaps with the rest of my life, has been somewhat listless. I hit a new low in my running "career" yesterday morning. Weeks ago, my friend H. and I decided we were going to run this 10K yesterday. At the time I had been toying with the idea of training for shorter races and not running a marathon this fall, but then I decided to go with the marathon thing. So the race turned into part of a longer workout -- a TLT (Tempo, Long, Tempo). My plan was to run the 10K as a tempo, then run home: an hour easy followed by a 15 minute tempo.
As it happened, we ended up leaving for the race about 20 mins. later than planned. Then, when we got there, we had to drive around for a while to find parking and hike a ways to the staging area. So, by the time we had managed to reach the staging area, we had just 20 mins. to get our race chips, warm up, and stand on line for the (remarkably tiny number of) port-a-potties. There clearly wasn't enough time to complete all three tasks, and seeing as the chip and the port-a-potty were absolutely necessary, we scrapped the warm-up.
This didn't end up working out so well for either of us. H. has been having some trouble with her hip, so a good warm-up was pretty essential to keep it from tightening up on her during the race. And as for myself, well, to put it somewhat delicately, a good warm-up was somewhat essential to making my pre-race trip to the port-a-potty effective. About a mile into the race, my body decided it needed to do what it couldn't before the race. By the two-mile mark it was apparent that it needed to do this immediately, not four miles from then. After a brief conversation, my intestines and I came to an agreement: they could hold off long enough for me to finish the 5K (being run at the same time as the 10K) if I slowed down and altered my stride some.
A mile or so later I did something really stupid: I unthinkingly crossed the chip mat at the end of the 5K instead of pulling off to the side at the finish. This would have been fine had it been a situation where the 10K runners crossed the chip mat their first time through, but the race was routed so that the 10K people turned off and didn't cross the chip mat after the first loop; the chips for the two races were just differently programmed. So, I think I also managed to screw up the scoring of the 10K, which I realized as soon as I had crossed the mat. I instantly felt terrible about that, as well as ashamed of not finishing the 10K AND running the slowest 5K I've run since high school (21-something -- in my rush to get through the finishing shoot and across the field to the port-a-potties I neglected to stop my watch).
After taking care of business, I of course felt pretty good, so I decided to run back along the course until I found H. then run the rest of her race with her (this time making sure to pull off before crossing the mat). As I got farther from the finish and encountered slower and slower runners without finding H., I began to become concerned. I finally found her, hobbling along with a little more than a mile and a half to go. She was in obvious pain from her hip and said she had had to stop and stretch for a couple of minutes (which explained her being so far back from where I expected to find her). But she's such a COMPETITOR that she was going to finish. I ran along with her at the pace her hip would let her keep -- a pace that was clearly frustrating for her -- and hoped that I wasn't annoying her.
By the time I had collected our gear from baggage check, I was feeling so low that commiserating with H. in her car on the way home seemed like a much better idea than trying to cobble together pieces of my exploded workout into some form that would approximate what I was supposed to get out of it.
Having such a terrible race experience made me realize how much I truly do want to be fit and fast and serious about my running again. It also made me realize that I'm not going to get to where I want to be with the half-hearted, going-through-the-motions effort I've been putting into my training. So, I've decided to declare a do-over. I'm going to pretend that last week never happened and re-do it this week with renewed enthusiasm and desire, and in doing so hopefully re-set my entire outlook and attitude toward my training.
Posted by alweiss at 10:30 AM | Comments (2)