Posts from the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Dean Ornish: The World’s Killer Diet

Today I went to visit my family in the lovely small town of Roxboro, NC. I was able to visit with my grandparents and while chatting with them, I realized it is in my genes to live a really long time. All of my grandparents are over 90 and are still very able to take care of themselves. My grandfather is 94 and for 30+ years has gone walking around the neighborhood with his friends every morning. My almost 91 year old grandmother still goes to the beach, plays cards with her lady friends, and loves to entertain. And her brother, who at 80+ years old, was still running, has finally retired at the age of 87. My other grandmother, who is also 90, still writes letters, plays BINGO, and walks daily. Tragic accidents aside, I’m hoping to see triple digits and still be in good health.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the importance of health, diet and exercise so when I got home tonight, I decided to watch a few TED videos on health. I watched several good ones but the one I liked the most was a presentation by Dean Ornish. It was a 3:22 video that was to the point, informative, and makes a very valid, simple, and often overlooked point – we control our health. Not pills. Not a quick diet. But our own actions. If you have a few minutes, you can watch the video here, but here are the key points:

1) Cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes are 95% preventable and reversible just by changing diet and lifestyle.

2) Asia, which once had the lowest rates of heart disease and diabetes, in just one generation, has gone to having one of the highest. (They are starting to live like we do.)

3) Cardiovascular deaths equals HIV and AIDS deaths in most African countries.

4) Children may now have a shorter life span than their parents due to obesity and heart disease

Change is hard and I get that. But how can we let something that is 95% preventable AND reversible, put his six feet under well before our time? Life is short enough as it is and I want to see triple digits. I’ll gladly drink spinach smoothies and wake up at 5am to workout if that means I still get to run when I’m 80, travel to the beach when I’m 90, and play cards with my grandkids when I’m 95

Photo Credit: The Center for Optimal Health (photo also used in Dean Ornish’s presentation)

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

Race Walking

Did anyone else get to watch the race walking this morning?  It is intense! Yes they are walking, but they are walking far and they are walking fast.  The winner of the 50K averaged 6:56 per mile and the winner of the women’s 20K averaged 6:50 per mile. I really didn’t know it was possible to walk that fast.

If you did get to see the race walking this morning you probably noticed quite a few people get carded and disqualified.  Race walking has some tricky rules.  For example:

• Walkers must have the front foot on the ground when the rear foot is raised
• The front leg must be straight when it is in contact with the ground
• A judge can issue a yellow card to caution a walker if they are pushing the envelope (but only once)
• A clear violation of the rules results in a red card (but again, a judge can only issue a red card once to a walker)
• Three red cards equals disqualification
• The chief judge can disqualify a walker with 100 meters to go in the race if he/she clearly violates the rules

In the Olympics there are three race walking events – a 20K for both men and women and a 50K for men. I wonder why there is no 50K event for women? Apparently race walking is dominated by the Russians.  This morning Russian Elena Lashmanova set a world record in the 20K with a time of 1:25:02.  Her teammate Olga Kaniskina was only .07 seconds behind her.  For the men’s 50K, Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin set an Olympic record with a time of 3:35:59.  Chen Ding from China won the men’s 20K with a time of 1:18:46. You can watch the highlights here.  American John Nunn came in 43rd for the 50K with a time of 4:03:28.  Still an impressive time for 31.1 miles if you ask me.

As far as world records go, Russians have them all – the men’s 20K, the men’s 50K, and out of the 13 fastest women for the women’s 20K, 10 are from Russia.  The other three are from China.  I think Russians are to race walking what Jamaicans are to sprinting.

And finally, there are some who think race walking has no place in the Olympics, mainly because of how difficult it is to judge.  Here is a great article from the New York Times detailing just how complex the sport can be.

I know there are some who would say walking isn’t really a sport, but anybody who can walk a mile in less than 7 minutes is pretty amazing in my opinion. Watch this 2 minute video if you have a chance.  It pretty much sums up race walking at the Olympics.

Race Walking
Photo Source: Evdcoldeportes, Wikimedia Commons

Don’t forget the men’s marathon is tomorrow morning 6:00 am EST. GO USA!

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

Recovery After a Race

This past weekend was a long weekend to say the least.  I drove a lot, raced, drove some more, went to a bridal shower, went out dancing for a friend’s birthday, ran 11 miles, cooked, cleaned, you name, I did it.  All of this with a combined total of 10 hours of sleep over two days.  On Monday, my body started to let me know it needed a little down time.  I went to the gym for some cross training and plyometric exercises and when I got home, I was ready to collapse.  First, I was soooo hungry and second, I didn’t feel like doing anything.  I mean nothing. I did manage to work for a few hours and then decided to close my eyes for a few minutes.  Two hours later I woke up and thought it was the next day.  On top of that, I still went to bed around 9:45 and slept soundly until 5am. (I’m a person who can do great off 6 hours of sleep.) I finally started to feel normal again by Tuesday afternoon (although the incredibly hilly run that I did probably didn’t help), but the lethargic feeling left me with the question – how long does it take to recover from a race?  Now yes, I only raced 5 miles on Saturday but I gave it all I had.  Then on top of that, I ran 11 miles in extremely humid conditions and with very little sleep the next day.  I wasn’t feeling like my energized self, so do I need more time to recover?

I’m sure many of us may have heard the advice that we should rest one day per mile that we raced.  Or perhaps that we should do a reverse taper in the weeks following a marathon.

Gina Kolata:

“As it turns out, there’s not much rigorous research on recovery after strenuous exercise. There have been almost no long-term studies, and there’s little agreement on what to measure or how to measure it. This aspect of competition is rife with unsubstantiated dogma.”

According to this article, there is more than just mileage that goes into determining a recovery period. I did find this table from Active.com that includes serveral different variables in determining your recovery period including, nutrition, distance, effort, course, weather conditions, level of conditioning, age, etc.  Here is the article.   Based on that, my score was a 26 which means I need a little less than a week to fully recover.  I believe it too because not only did that race take a lot out of me physically, but my mind needs a little time to recover too.  I had scheduled hill repeats yesterday, but that wasn’t happening.  My mind and my body just weren’t in it and I wasn’t ready to put forth another hard effort.  Instead I just ran a hilly course and tried not to pay attention to my time.  Even that was hard.

It’s amazing how your body can let you know when it has had enough.  Recovery is important and I’m taking the rest of this week easy.  Heck, maybe I’ll even sleep in to 6:00 am.

Now I understand why the elites only race twice a year
Photo Courtesy of Masahiro Hayata, Wikimedai Commons