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Posts tagged ‘recovery’

Feb 20

Screen Shot 2013-02-20 at 8.28.04 PM
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A Breakthrough

Yesterday my very wise G+ friend told me that perhaps one day I’ll look back at this race as my “breakthrough moment.” According to Google, the definition of breakthrough is “a significant and dramatic overcoming of a perceived obstacle, allowing the completion of a process.” In my heart and in my mind,  I think my very wise G+ friend is right.

My running is cyclical. Run a lot. Get injured. Bike a lot. Forgive me when I say I am fed up with this sh*t. Why can’t I just be consistent? I learned two very important things about myself this past training season. One, I learned how much I really do love running. It’s not something I do just so I can eat my turkey burger. I really do love it and I am completely addicted. The second thing I learned about myself is I am fast and I can be much faster. I know the runner I am and I know the runner I can be. I believe my goals are well within reach and one day I will surpass them.

As I’m dealing with this injury, I’m no longer mad and I’m no longer sad. Now I’m just determined. I realize that I may not be running for a month, and I’m okay with that. I’m okay with it because I want this time to really address my problems. I am reevaluating what I do, how I excel, and what my body needs that I’m not giving it. Maybe 50 miles a week is too much for me and I need to substitute a workout with cross training and strength training. Maybe my easy runs need to be about a minute slower. Or perhaps I need to do running drills every other day. I don’t know but I look at this as a complete breakdown and a chance to build myself back up. I’m not worried about losing fitness. I’m not worried about my next race. Right now, I really don’t care about those things. I care about realizing my full potential and giving my body what it needs in order to excel. I care about finding myself in this running world. I care about completing the process.

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

Recovery Update: I’m walking much better today. I went to the doctor and it went just as I expected. It could be this or it could be that. Come to PT twice a week and let’s see how it goes. I think I now remember why I never go to doctors.

And check out one of my race day photos:

I never take good racing pictures

I never take good racing pictures

Feb 18

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Road to Recovery

I can not do much about the fact that I have injured myself. The 13.1 miles have come and gone and I have been left in this not very fun condition. Life happens. As I said yesterday, I do not want to hurt anymore. February has not been my month and I will make March a different story. Therefore, I am going to do all I possibly can to get better, faster. Today I spent some time reading about things I can do to speed up the recovery process, and I think I have a plan. Here it is: Read more

Jan 28

gatorade
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Brominated Vegetable Oil

For all of you who drink Gatorade, y ou might be interested to know that PepsiCo is removing the controversial ingredient brominted vegetable oil from some of their Gatorade drinks. Why you may ask? Well because the ingredient is patented as a flame retardant. Yummy. The ingredient is said to be linked to neurological disorders and is actually banned in the EU and Japan.

Stephanie Storm, The New York Times:

Brominated vegetable oil is banned as a food ingredient in Japan and the European Union. About 10 percent of drinks sold in the United States contain it, including Mountain Dew, which is also made by PepsiCo; some flavors of Powerade and Fresca from Coca-Cola; and Squirt and Sunkist Peach Soda, made by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. PepsiCo said it had no plans to remove the ingredient from Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew, both of which generate more than $1 billion in annual sales.

I spent some time looking through the ingredients labels of the many different flavors of Gatorade. I only saw B.V.O. in the Orange flavor. I haven’t bought Gatorade in a long time but kudos to them for taking out the ingredient. However, my next question is when are they going to remove red 40 and yellow 5? I think beet juice and turmeric would be a good replacement. :)

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

Running Update: Since I ran 21 miles yesterday and I woke up feeling pretty run down this morning, I only did weights and a little cardio at the gym this afternoon. Originally, I wasn’t going to do any cardio but then I saw there is now a stair climber beside the treadmills. I absolutely love the stair climber for some reason. Not one of those little crappy ones but the big ones with the rotating steps. I couldn’t resist and had to jump on. Then when somebody got on the one beside me, I had to up the level x10. I couldn’t help it ;)  It really is one of my favorite cardio machines.

 

Jan 27

Tomato Juice

Tomato Juice

Yesterday I met my sister, her husband and a few friends for lunch. Somehow I started talking about my wheatgrass shots and veggie juices. They got a good laugh at my juiced grass and my brother-in-law even suggested I start juicing clover. After all, it’s what all the animals eat (they live on a farm). I asked my sis why is eating healthy considered weird. Her response: it’s not eating healthy that’s odd. It’s eating healthy foods that nobody has ever heard of that’s interesting. Well I like to consider myself cutting edge I responded. ;)

When I was out for my run this morning, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts. I learned something new… tomato juice has been shown to reduce creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which are markers of exercise-induced muscle damage, more than sports drinks. The levels of CPK and LDH in the tomato juice drinkers returned back to a normal level while there was no change with the group that consumed a sports drink.  Maybe this visual will help:

 

The way I interpret this study – tomato juice is a good recovery drink post exercise.

If there is one juice that I have ever disliked with a passion, it is tomato juice. To me, it tastes like cold tomato soup. Gross. I can assure you I will not be switching my Endurox for a can of tomato juice. However, I think in the name of experimentation, I will try it at least once. You never know unless you try!

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

Running Update: I went out to the Tobacco Trail for my 20 miles this morning. It was covered in ice. I tried to run but after one mile I said forget this and headed back to Raleigh. I did my 20 miles around town and it was actually very nice. The hilly course has become so much easier. I have noticed that my need for nutrition has really decreased. I had a few sips of a Vega Electrolyte drink at mile 13 (which has zero calories) and 1 2nd Surge at mile 14. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I needed any more than that. Including my mile out at the trail, I ran 21 miles this morning. Here are my stats:

Long Run

Jan 21

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Speeding Recovery

An injury prevention and/or recovery article always seems to make it into my Google Reader feed at just the right time. That time being the I’m about to cross over the overtraining line so you better get back to those preventive exercises time.

For his latest article, Ben Greenfield interviewed David Tao, the chief researcher at Greatist.com about how to recover faster. You can read the entire article here but here are 9 things I took away from what I read:

  1. Sleep: There is strong evidence to support sleep helping with protein synthesis and muscle generation. There is also a strong connection between sleep and human growth hormone production, which helps keep muscles healthy and active. 
  2. Music: Listening to slow tempo music post exercise (in particular after an intense workout) can help bring the heart rate back down to what it would be in a resting state or before exercise.
  3. Massage: A massage helps break up the fascial connections that can form in response to stress in the muscles as well as reduce muscle tension
  4. The Stick and Foam Rollers: There is not really a lot of evidence to prove the benefits of foam rolling but there is definitely a lot of anecdotal evidence to suppor the claims. The Rumble Roller is the best.
  5. Compression Gear: Compression gear promotes optimal blood flow to those muscles that experience the most stress during exercise
  6. Icing: Research is now pointing to hot-cold therapy, not simply icing an area.
  7. Anti-inflammatories: Anti-inflammatories can hinder recovery by causing extra stress to the kidney and liver
  8. Naps: Naps for 30 or 90 minutes in the early or late afternoon (but not 5 hours within bed time) can help promote recovery
  9. Alcohol: One or two drinks post exercise is NOT going to hinder recovery

As race day approaches, I am going to focus more on sleep, music, massage, the Ruble Roller, and hot-cold therapy. I must get to the start line healthy.

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

Running Update: Oh elliptical how I’ve missed thee. Not! I made a decision today to cross train instead of run. I think it was the best decision for me and luckily this week is a lower mileage/easy week. I also did a some strength training to work on my left leg. It made me sad to not be outdoors but it was definitely what my body needed.

Nov 5

City Of Oaks Marathon 2012-1-10
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Post Marathon Swagger

I often read about the “post marathon blues” – that feeling of now what? after the race. Fortunately, I do not experience that because my life for the past 10 years has been about training for something. I know the process will start again soon enough. (I’ve already got my next two races on the calendar.) If I suffer anything post marathon, it’s post marathon gluttony. Too much good food! Luckily, I had a physical this morning and had to go to the doctor in a fasted state. That kept me from overdoing it on yogurt and granola :) . Lunch was a different story completely. Read more

Oct 29

The last time I probably slept so much - 2008 while sick in Savannah
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Sleep

This morning I woke up and pretty much felt like death. My body was aching, my head hurt, my chest hurt, and I was so tired. Yesterday I actually slept until 9:00am which is something I never do. And today after getting back home from leaving my sub plans at work, I again slept until 9:00am then woke up, moved to the couch, and slept until 12:45pm! I can’t even recall the last time I have slept so much. I’m a typical 6 to 6 1/2 hours of sleep type of person. I think it is finally catching up with me.

Sleep is obviously important, but in particular, it is super important when you are sick. Being that this is my last week of rest before race day, I’m going to welcome the extra hours of R&R. It’ll help my body get better, (at least I hope so)! Read more

Oct 7

bcaa
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Branched Chain Amino Acids

Sometimes blog ideas come easily (like my love letter to running yesterday) and sometimes I spend hours reading articles trying to figure out what I can contribue to the blogosphere. Today has been one of those long days of reading and not knowing really what to say. I’ve gone from this article on the 11 benefits of alcohol to this study on how the FDA allows claims on supplements that have yet to be proven. I’ve started two blog posts and then decided they weren’t good enough. I’ve read some more and finally after a few too many articles, I’ve picked a topic – branched chain amino acids. I know, you didn’t see that one coming did you?

Read more

Sep 5

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Recovery

This week is a scheduled recovery week. I’m not worrying too much about pace or really long runs, and it’s been quite relaxing. I’m trying to give my legs and body a chance to recover from training in this heat and humidity. It acutally works out perfectly because my mother-in-law is in town and I am able spend more time with her. I aim to follow the train hard for three weeks, go easy for one week method, but it sometimes can vary depending on how life happens. Also during the week, I try to take one day off completely.  However, more often than not, I just happen find myself at the gym regardless. Opps!

I decided to do a quick search tonight on how Ryan Hall incorporates rest into his training. I read a while back that since becoming self coached, he took every Sunday as a rest day. When I searched the topic tonight, I learned a little more.

Ryan Hall learned about the importance of rest from Matt Dixon, a Brit who coaches amateur athletes as well as others who are a little more competitive. Dixon has taken on the task of teaching overtrained and underperforming athletes to incorporate more rest and more food post hard workout  into their training. Not only has he helped Ryan Hall to become the fastest American marathoner ever, he also helped triathlete Chris Lieto reach peak performance. Dixon got Hall to drop his training volume from 120 miles per week to 100 miles per week as well as to eat more post workout.

Michelle Hamilton:

Dixon isn’t a 21st century wizard with secret knowledge; he just believes that recovery is under-valued and under-utilized. “Our goal is not to train as hard as we can, but to perform well,” Dixon says. “And to perform well you have to be very fit, but not fatigued.” 
Recovery, however, shouldn’t be confused with easy. “Recovery is the thing that enables hard training,” Dixon says. If you’re rested and fueled, you can you push yourself to new heights in key workouts and increase fitness.
This philosophy is the cornerstone of a broader methodology Dixon calls the four pillars of performance: endurance (or workouts), recovery, nutrition and strength. “I talk a lot about recovery because that’s what’s often missing [from people’s training],” he says. But he believes all four pillars must be treated equally if you want to maximize performance.

One of my local running heros is Kelcey Carlson – a news reporter here in Raleigh, NC. (I saw her at the grocery store once and had to introduce myself. I felt like I just met Kara Goucher. :P )  She is a 3:04 marathoner, has two kids, and a full time job. She only runs 5 days a week and I’m sure the other two are spent doing family and/or work things. She rests. Ryan Hall rests. I think I should rest too.

When I don’t rest, I end up like this no matter where I am. I actually have quite a few pictures of me randomly sleeping in various locations. I fell asleep typing a blog not too long ago.

 

Happy Trails and happy Running,

Tracie

Aug 10

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Recovery Boots

This morning I was reading an article about Meb Keflezighi and his preparation for the Olympic marathon on Sunday.  He gave a brief  look into his training and how he addresses recovery.  One of the things he mentioned was recovery boots.  Recovery boots? That’s a new one for me so it immediately peaked my interest. What I imagined (some cool boots to go with my compression socks), was far from reality.  Recovery boots are intense and when I make millions, I might just buy a pair for $1200.

I found two brands that seem to be pretty popular: Recovery Pump and NormaTec.

Recovery Pump:

The Pump is an FDA approved, medical grade SIPC-Sequential, Intermittent, Pneumatic, Compression device with 4-chambered sleeves that inflation sequential from the toes to the base of the buttock. Device used for recovery in maximal, endurance sports. The Boots massage the muscles to improve circulation during use and help reduce swelling, soreness and fatigue, all while you rest and relax.

The brand used my Meb Keflezighi and Ryan Hall is NormaTec.  They are quite a bit more expensive – $1650 for us normal athletes and you have to call if you want info on ordering the elite system. Their website has a detailed science section and testimonial section.  Some other athletes using the NormaTec boots are Chrissie Wellington, Kevin Garnett, Shaq, Levi Leipheimer, Craig Alexander, and Steve Nash. Heck, even Mark Wahlberg has a pair of the NormaTec boots.

Why are these boots good for the athlete?  The boots increase circulation and venous blood flow, reduces swelling, and massages all of the muscles in your lower extremities (thighs, calves, ankles, feet).  In addition, before a workout, the boots can be used to energize your muscles.

Right now I’m sticking to my compression socks (mainly because I clearly can not afford $1200+ for a pair of recovery boots).  BUT I am keeping them in mind so one day in the very distant future, I might just buy a pair.

Doesn’t this look fun? I wonder if they will have a booth at the expo of my next race…

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

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