Steve Cullen Healthy Heart 8k, February 12, 2011

8k is 4.97 miles. It's very funny, they put a 5 mile marker just a few steps past the finish so you can do a "five miler."

This was a great run. It's put on by the Badgerland Striders. While warming up, I met a nice lady from Shorewood who beautifully summed up the atmosphere at a Striders event: "the normal people run here, not the high tech really fast people at the RACC races."

She was right. All kinds of people, not a lot of competition. Mostly just a good excuse to drink beer and eat chili at the end.

Again it was unseasonably warm, about 36 degrees. I wore tights, a singlet and a long sleeve shirt over it, and Injinjis and the Brooks Wondershoes, and wished I hadn't worn the singlet about a mile in. My first and last miles were slow (18 and 19, respectively, the first because I got stuck behind some people and was horsing around with my mp3 player, the last because I was tired and it was uphill), but miles 2-4 were at a nice 13-14 minute/mile pace. Sweetness came back to find me (he finished in less than 50, that speed demon) and finished with me.

I was the last official finisher, but there were three unofficial behind me. Not that it matters. The lady who finished right before me was a walk-runner too, and very nice. I'm sure I'll see her around at other events.

After, Sweetness treated me to coffee and a seven layer bar. OOOoooh, I hadn't had one of those in years. Yum.

And then, I went home and registered for the half marathon in Kenosha in May. Y'know, just to keep myself moving.

February Is Freeze Yer Buns Off Month

Apparently. It's so cold my nose hairs freeze when I walk outside. Brrrr.

Sweetness tells me that the weather forecast for our 8K on Saturday is 34 and sunny. Dang, I hope so!

Also up for the weekend: Candlelight snowshoeing at Pike Lake State Park, followed by what I am almost certain will be an embarrassment of marginally nutritive food eaten. But hey, I eat all my Weight Watcher points, snowshoeing for 2 hours earns me more than I can usually eat in a day . . AND I lose a pound to a pound and a half per week. So there.

A couple of non-scale victories: new undergarments in a smaller band and cup size, and new running jackets, size large (down from XXL just a few short years ago). My "skinny" jeans are getting loose. Buying "all new" is not my forte, I just don't like dropping a huge bunch of cash all at once, but Sweetness says it's all good, and my trip to the outlet mall with my bestie helped.

Speaking of my bestie, her birthday's tomorrow, and I have to get her present. Peace out.

Milwaukee Multisport Expo 2011: Top Ten

Before snowshoeing, Sweetness and I had total fun at the Multisport Expo. Lots of race event organizers, vendors, and cool stuff to see, do, and buy. The top ten:



(10) The sweet little 6 month old baby at the TriWisconsin booth. Baby toes!



(9) Meeting the folks at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes booth. Am seriously eyeing their Headsweats visor for springtime running. Plus, what a great way to minister to athletes.



(8) The delightful lady plugging the MS 150 ride. We'd do it this year, but we're already booked that weekend. However, next year . . . .



(7) The "irunlikeagirl" tech tee I got for my daughter.



(6) Dirtygirl. Hmmmmm . . . . .



(5) I needed Moving Comfort sport bras in the next size down. The good people at Fleet Feet obliged, at half off, plus pitched in a gel pack for free. Sweet!



(4) The indoor bouncy house to entertain children, which is also used as part of the obstacle course for the Madison Mud Run. Sweetness and I briefly considered playing on it as part of his training for the Mud Run, then thought better of it.



(3) Watching grown men and women cycle to nowhere on trainers for an indoor time trial. Man, I love biking, but I'm not sure I love it that much.



(2) The cool pop up privacy tents the vendors were using as fitting rooms.



and . . .



(1) Watching my Sweetness pump out 20 push ups on a balance board in exchange for a free bag of Sport Beans.

Snowshoeing for Dummies

So let me first tell you how much I love snowshoeing. It is, bar none, my favorite winter sport. (I do not count drinking spiked egg nog and eating Christmas cookies a sport, alas). There are a couple of reasons. First, it is great for your lower body muscles and your core. Second, because of reason one, you seriously torch calories while snowshoeing. Like, I can't eat the number of calories I burn, seriously burn calories. Read that last sentence again. With me now? Good. Third, and finally, it is a stable form of winter sport. By this I mean the things I strap on to my feet are wider than my feet, unlike skiing and skating, and does not require rapid rates of speed going downhill, like snowboarding or skiing.

So first, you need snowshoes. The old wooden and rope snowshoes are no more. Now they make lovely (relatively) lightweight metal shoes with plastic bindings and settings. Basically, you buckle in once you've adjusted your setting and you are off. While these shoes are relatively light, they do add weight (thus the major calorie burn). Also, they will change your gait to a slightly wider one, and the muscles on your inner thighs will feel it.

Second, you really would love trekking poles. You can snowshoe without them, but they do add more of an upper body workout to the snowshoe experience and, if the terrain is uneven, they can help with balance.

Third, gear. Your base body temp, as with any other high intensity workout, will rise, and you will get hot, so dress in synthetic layers that can be "vented" (also known as zippered up and down). Yesterday, I went against conventional wisdom and wore jeans and a cotton turtleneck as my "base layers," then added a lightweight running jacket and a windproof jacket over that. Ten minutes in, I was hot and the outer jacket was unzipped. For footwear, I had on Sorel snow boots and wool hiking socks from Costco. I also had a headband on, and thermal gloves. I was fine. You would also do well to bring along sunglasses to protect your eyes from the winter glare (I didn't).

Finally, hydration and nutrition. I treat snowshoeing the same as any other high intensity workout -- about 30 minutes in I will need simple sugars and need water throughout, so I wore my Camelbak hydration waistpack and tried out my gel flask. I diluted a Clif shot, mocha flavor, with water. It tasted almost (but not quite) like a bottled Starbucks frappuccino. I tolerated it well. I wonder if chocolate, diluted, would taste like YooHoo. Hmmmmm.

Anyhow, besides the many health benefits of snowshoeing, you get to see places other people only see from afar. We shoed along the shoreline of Lake Michigan at Grant Park. It was tough to get a sense of how deep the snow was, and where we were on the terrain, but at places we were trekking past tree tops. We also were very close to the shoreline at one point, and may have been on top of the built up snow and ice formations at the edge of the lake. Cool.

Friday Five: Back in the Game Edition

(1) After a completely crazy December and January, culminating in a week of no exercise whatsoever, this week has been a relief. I've been kicking back, not working all that much, and getting back in the exercise groove.

(2) Speaking of the exercise groove, Sweetness and I are going snowshoeing this weekend. Two years ago we each got a set of Yukon Charlies with trekking poles at Costco and have gone whenever the accumulation and the kid schedule allows. Last year, it wasn't much, and so far this year it hasn't been either. But on Saturday we're headed out to Grant Park on the south side of Milwaukee -- nice wooded areas along Lake Michigan. Can't wait.

(3) Before the snowshoes, we're going to the Milwaukee Multisport Expo. (Yes, this is what we married people with children call a "date." If you add in Papa Murphy's pizza and a glass of wine, the statistical probabilities for Sweetness become very, very good, if you know what I mean. nudge, nudge). Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to finding all sorts of new gear tidbits to look at and drool over.

(4) Speaking of gear, I'm stoked about using my hydration pack and gel flask at my 8k in 3 weeks. The hydration pack has been indoor tested on the treadmill with excellent results. Yes, I'm sure I look like a complete doofus, and no, I really don't care.

(5) You may ask "Why on earth would you need gel for a five mile run?" And the answer will be this: about 30-40 minutes in to any run, I get cranky. Simple sugars help this problem immensely. And five miles takes me about 80 minutes, give or take a few. I plan to do the gel flask with one packet gel, diluted, and take half 30 minutes in and the other half 60 minutes in. I'm also going to be giving Nuun a try for electrolyte replacement, though my tough guy Army Ranger sergeant brother says Camelbak makes the best electrolyte tabs, and seeing as he's made it through 4 tours in Iraq and 60 days on the ground with just the pack on his back, I trust his judgment and I'll be trying that soon too.

Winged Shoes

Or something. Did 2 miles at a 15:30 pace in the new kicks. No hotspots, no blisters, nada. While I'm sick, even. Amazing.

Mama Needs a New Pair of Shoes

This, from the Barefoot Athena.

Fivefinger Bikilas rule. However, they have their limitations. One of these limitations is that they suck up water like a sponge, and in the winter, any snow whatsoever becomes snowjam between my toes and immediately makes my toes cold. A dry cold, no probs. Any precipitation on the ground, we're in frostbite city.

SO, I meandered over to Performance Running Outfitters, where the lovely Ann put me on the treadmill and proceeded to inform me of a few crucial pieces of info. First, my right foot overpronates, meaning that it rolls inward slightly too much. Second, my left foot compensates for the overpronation on the right, and this is probably what causes the blistering and hot spots on my left foot, and a mild stability shoe would correct it. Third, since I have not injured myself with the Bikila, with slow increases in speed and distance, I am likely to avoid injury in another minimalist shoe, whether or not I correct the overpronation on the right foot. Fourth, I have very good forefoot running form. And fifth, my foot requires a curved footbed (where the footbed actually looks like a "c") as opposed to a straight footbed.

This might be a good place for me to say that I will never go to another running store again. The knowledge base at Performance is amazing.

So, I tried on a number of minimalist and forefoot shoes, including Newtons (too bulky), Mizunos (too stiff), and Saucony (too tight in the toe box) before finding the perrrrrfect outdoor running shoe for me, a pair of racing flats (HA!) made by the fine folks at Brooks. They feel like bedroom slippers, but I can put on Yaktrax and my toes won't get wet. AND, they were only 67 bucks.

I'll be taking my lovely nine year old daughter to meet Ann soon, so that we can get her square for running in the springtime. She wants to do her first run this year.