Running and Fitness Report – January 2010

This year, I’m going to post monthly fitness reports.  Here’s the first one:

• Miles ran: 42
• Swimming meters: 8,593
• Core fitness workouts: 4
• Lower body workouts: 3
• Yoga sessions: 4
• Pounds lost or gained: 1.2 LOST

Comments:

1. I FINALLY lost some weight.  In my sixth month of running, I started losing pounds.  It’s a good thing my motivation to run wasn’t for weight loss because I would have stopped running months ago.  I don’t know what to attribute it to, but I did do more cross-training.  We are also eating in a lot more and eating a huge salad with dinner every night.
2. This month I learned that I cannot push myself so hard with running or I will hurt myself.  Balance is key.
3. I had hoped to do more strength training and yoga than I did this month so my goal is to increase both of those in February.  One thing I found that will help me to do more yoga is the free Yoga Journal podcasts on iTunes.  They are between 20 and 30 minutes each (instead of the 45 minutes for the iTrain ones I have) so I will be able to fit in more sessions of yoga.  I’m thinking of getting up early enough to do a session a few days a week.  It’s really nice that they concentrate on one area of the body so you really stretch that part.  So far the shoulder opening and hip opening ones have been really good.
4. I plan to continue swimming at least once a week, and I hope to buy a bike sometime before spring.  That will be good for cross-training when it’s not so cold outside.  Running in the cold is one thing, but cycling seems like it would be very cold with the wind you create by riding.
5. This month I also have the Virginia is for Lovers 14K on 2/13 so I’m looking forward to that one.  My leg seems to be doing well so I should be able to run the whole thing.  I might just walk through the water stops.

Here’s a picture of bad-ass me after a 7 mile run in the snow we got this past weekend.

Filed under: Health and Fitness, Running

Health and Fitness Links: Science2Health Podcast.

In my quest to be a better runner, I find all kinds of interesting information about general health and fitness.  I’m going to start sharing links to this information here on my blog in hopes that someone who reads it will decide to make better lifestyle choices.

My most recent and favorite discovery is the Science2Health podcast.  Former medical doctor, Dr. Monte Ladner, produces this podcast where he discusses peer-reviewed studies on a variety of topics.  He used to record the Fitness Rocks podcast but got complaints when he started to discuss non-health related and “controversial” topics like evolution and global warming [insert eye roll here].  He is very unbiased and just discusses the studies so I don’t understand how anyone but the most sciencephobic could have a problem with his content, but there you have it.  I love hearing about the studies and the actual assumptions you can make from them instead of the sound bites on the news where the content and reliability of the study is not discussed.  In other words, he expects you not to be an idiot who needs everything dumbed down to a 5th grade level.

While getting ready for work this morning, I listened to a few episodes of Science2Health, and the first one was very interesting.  It was based on a study where the percentage of people who followed a healthy lifestyle in 1988 (15%) were compared to those following a healthy lifestyle in 2006 (8%).  This is important because following these five healthy habits decreases your risk of chronic disease by 80-90% and your risk of cancer by 30-40%.  These are the factors they considered to be important to a healthy lifestyle (paraphrased from the show transcript):

1. Don’t smoke.
2. Drink moderately if you drink. (One a day for women and two for men).
3. Eat no less than 5 servings of fruit and veggies daily. 
4. Exercise 5 times a week for 30 minutes.
5. Not overweight – This is the most interesting/horrifying one to me.  They had to accept people into the study group who were slightly overweight to have enough people for a good sample size.  There weren’t enough people who are actually at a healthy weight in the United States to perform the study.

I won’t repeat the whole podcast here because you should really listen to Dr. Ladner’s interview with the principal investigator on the study.  I also don’t want to steal his content because he obviously works very hard on it, but I wanted to give you a little teaser of the kind of information you’ll find there.  If you go to the Science2Health website, there is a full transcript with links to the study if you want to see for yourself.

If you have any podcasts about health or fitness that you enjoy, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Filed under: Health and Fitness , Health and Fitness, Podcasts, Science

Revisiting The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is my favorite book of all time.  This was a re-read of it because I chose it for our January book club.  The best thing about our book club is that we take turns choosing the titles so you can force everyone to read your favorite book and talk about it!  The last time I read it before this reading was in 2001 so I wasn’t sure if I would feel the same way about the novel now that I’m older and not in the same stage of life as the main character.  I’m glad to say that I still adored the book, and it is still my favorite.

The Bell Jar follows Esther Greenwood through a summer internship in Manhattan (in the midst of the execution of the Rosenburgs) for a fashion magazine and through her subsequent mental breakdown and recovery.  I love how the book really describes what it feels like to live life in ”in the bell jar” as Plath puts it:

Wherever I sat – on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok – I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.

I personally have not had to wrestle with mental illness and find it interesting to have such an authentic look at the experience.

I didn’t know before this re-reading exactly how close The Bell Jar is to Plath’s own struggles with mental illness.  It is truly a roman a clef novel.  The edition I picked up had a short biography at the end, and it was so close to the plot of the novel that it’s almost as if she only changed the names.  I have a copy of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath at home, and I have a renewed interest in reading it now.

If you have not yet read The Bell Jar, I urge you to do so.

Filed under: Books , Books, Review, Roman A Clef, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato

Every once in a while, I get a hold delivered to my box at the library that I can’t remember requesting.  I know I read about Mathilda Savitch on a blog or end of year list, but I can’t remember where for the life of me.  Wherever it is that I read the review, I’m grateful that I decided to place a hold on it.

Mathilda Savitch is a young teenage girl who is trying to grieve for her older sister’s tragic death in the only way she knows how.  Unfortunately, her mother has disappeared behind an alcohol induced bubble where Mathilda cannot reach her.  Any efforts Mathilda makes to try to remember her sister are stopped by her father for fear of upsetting her mother.  There are some truly heartbreaking scenes where you want to reach in the book and shake sense into her mother.  Because she is forced to grieve alone, she becomes obsessed with the details of her sister’s death.  Her search for answers takes her on a journey where she is surprised by what she discovers.

The book also deals with the fact that Mathilda has grown up in a world where terrorism is always on the news.  She was young during the 9/11 attacks and is used to a constant fear that there could be another attack.  At one point in the book, she tries to bunker down in her basement in case of a bomb or other attack.

The dark subject matter of this book is made much more palatable by the precocious voice of Mathilda.  Lodato really found a good voice for his narrator.  He did use “Dawson’s Creek” and “Gilmore Girls” writing where the character speaks well above the level of her age, but this adds to the tone of the novel rather than detracting from it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone and look forward to reading more by Victor Lodato in the future.

Filed under: Books , Books, Death, Mathilda Savitch, Review, Terrorism, Victor Lodato

Forgot to share this before…

Waiting for the acorn to drop!

Originally uploaded by Bookishly Fab

This is a picture of the acorn that they drop in Raleigh, NC on New Years Eve. I had so many people say, “They drop a what?!” It is the City of Oaks so that’s why.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery

I bought Gourmet Rhapsody with a gift card for my birthday back in October, and didn’t pick it up to read until a few weeks ago.  This is the first book I read this year, and it was a great kickoff to my reading year.

Gourmet Rhapsody is actually the first novel written by Muriel Barbery, but it was not translated to English until after the success of The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  This novel focuses on food critic, Pierre Artens, who readers of Hedgehog will remember as the person who dies at the beginning of that book (that’s not a spoiler).  Gourmet Rhapsody focuses on Pierre’s quest for the perfect meal on his deathbed.  The perspective goes back and forth between him and the people around him.  He is not a likeable man, and many of the people around him express this in their sections of the novel.  His quest for the perfect meal is a literary device to tell the story of his life through his culinary experiences.   

I really enjoyed reading Gourmet Rhapsody if only for another taste of Barbery’s writing style.  I really enjoyed this quote from one of the children in Pierre’s life who is well aware of the things that all the adults think they are keeping from him:

People think that children don’t know anything.  It’s enough to make you wonder if grownups were ever children once upon a time.

While I enjoyed revisiting Barbery’s writing in Gourmet Rhapsody, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if I hadn’t read The Elegance of the Hedgehog first.  My suggestion to anyone who hasn’t read either yet is to read Hedgehog first.  It really is the better of the two books, and it will give you an appreciation of her writing in Gourmet Rhapsody.

I urge you to read this interview on Amazon with Barbery.  It is an interesting insight into her thoughts about Pierre and her writing process.  I like her answer to a question about what her last meal would be:

It’s a very personal and intimate question, indeed. If I write novels, it’s because I need fiction to put what I feel into words. And who knows what one would choose? The imminence of death is an extraordinary and radical counselor.

Filed under: Books , Books, Gourmet Rhapsody, Muriel Barbery, Review

The Stages of Injury or Why My Husband Deserves an Award

So I’m apparently really really ridiculously obsessed with running.  Last night, Dan said, “You know how you say your mom has an obsessive personality?  I think we found your trigger.”  Oops! 

I have been nursing an IT Band issue for the last few weeks, and I’m just getting back into running again.  I ran 2.5 miles last night, and I’m trying to be conservative to avoid irritating it all over again.  Now I just have a slight tightness on the outside of my knee when I go down stairs or sit for too long.  Not knowing that excessive sitting is a trigger for ITBS, I sat all day Saturday knitting on an all girl craft trip to the Outer Banks for the weekend.  That made it flare up a bit, but luckily not permanently.  Now I am standing up at the reference desk as much as possible.

My reaction to injury has been by the book according to The Competitive Runner’s Handbook.  It is very similar to the stages of grief, interestingly.  I was reading the stages out to Dan last night:

1. Denial – Yeah, this would be when I did a really intense 3 mile tempo run and didn’t stop after 2 miles when my knee and hip started to hurt.
2. Bargaining – “I will swim this week instead of running, do yoga and strength training, and then I’ll be able to run by the end of the week.”  When things didn’t work by my timetables, I moved on to the next stage…
3. Rage - I read this one out loud and said to Dan, “Rage? I didn’t really go through that stage.”  Dan: “Oh yes you did.” Hehe, I must have a mental block from that stage.
4. Depression – I think I’m on the tail end of this stage right now, hopefully.  I felt helpless that all my training would be for nothing if I don’t get better before my race on February 13.  Monday night and yesterday, I was very depressed about things.  The book notes that an athletes first injury, even if it isn’t that bad, is the worst.  Let’s hope so. 
5. Acceptance – I hope I’m moving in the direction of this one.  We’ll see.  I’m hoping that the fact that I’m willing to consider walking some of the 14K means I’m not quite as mentally unstable as before.

Filed under: Running , Exercise, Injury, ITBS, Psychology, Running

2010 Goals

Rather than do a separate post for my reading, exercising, etc goals this year, I will do one post to rule them all.  So here goes:

Reading Goals.

1. Do not sign up for any reading challenges.  Reading is for FUN.  Keep it that way.
2. Do not read more than two books in a row by any author.   Variety is the spice of life!

Running/Workout Goals.  These came about due to sloppy training and a slight injury I’ve been dealing with for a week now.  My right IT band (runs from your outer hip to your knee) has been really tight and was causing pain for a few days last week.  I think the problem was due to not enough cross-training, strenth training, or stretching and ramping up my weekly mileage too fast.  Swimming, yoga, and strength training this week have helped it feel a lot better.  I will try to run again next week.  At least I picked a really cold week to be doing indoor workouts.

1. Do IT Band stretches every day so I can keep running without injury.
2. Swim, elliptical, or bike twice a week.
3. Aim to do strength training 2-3 days a week, incoporating core, lower body, and upper body work.
4. Yoga once or twice a week.
5. Write my workout schedule in my calendar every week to make sure I fit everything in.

Other Goals.

1. Make my house feel more like a home by decorating and organizing.
2. Take more pictures.
3. Visit my friends in Raleigh more.  I only went once this year, and that was not enough.

What are your goals?  I’m not calling them resolutions because they are not empty promises that I will give up on by February (like the people crowding my gym right now).

Filed under: Books, Home, Running , 2010, Goals

Booking Through Thursday – Gifts

Barbara wants to know:

What books did you get for Christmas (or whichever holiday you may have celebrated last month)?

Do you usually ask for books on gift-giving occasions or do you prefer to buy them yourself?

______________________________________________

I actually didn’t get any books for Christmas this year.  My in-laws gave us a gift card to Barnes & Noble to pick out our own books.  The only time I actually ask for specific books is at Christmas.  My brother and I put a variety of things we want on our Amazon.com wish lists and use those to buy each other gifts.  This year, there were a few books on my list, but my brother chose the DVD of Up from the list.

Filed under: Books , booking through thursday, Books

My favorite books of 2009.

These are my favorite books out of all the books I read in 2009.  They weren’t necessarily published in 2009.  In fact, I think only two of them were.  They are in order by when i read them.  I don’t think I’d be able to pick one of these that I enjoyed more than the others so there is no real “Number 1.”

1. Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake

Atwood’s vision of a future dystopia is so well described that it seems eerily possible that this is, in fact, bound to be our future.

2. Cormac McCarthy – No Country for Old Men

Even though the subject matter  of this novel is not my typical fare, McCarthy’s writing style is amazing.  He has a wonderful ear for dialog.  I really want to read All the Pretty Horses and The Road.  I should also watch the film adaptation of this, but it seems a bit gruesome for me.  I’d rather read gore than watch it.

3. Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games / Catching Fire

This series is riveting.  I don’t think I’ve met a person who doesn’t love the story.  This is dystopian fiction at its best, and it just happens to be young adult literature.  I truly think these will be classics one day.

4. Audrey Niffenegger – Her Fearful Symmetry

This book is getting mixed reactions compared to The Time Traveler’s Wife, but I really adored it.  I felt much more connected to the characters than in her debut, and I enjoyed how offbeat they all were.  The ending wasn’t perfect, but everything else about the book was perfect to me.

5. Muriel Barbery – The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Once I got used to the writing style of this novel, I couldn’t put it down.  I just loved the two main characters, and I was so sad to finish reading the book.

6. Haruki Murakami – What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

This was a favorite of mine most likely because I’m just getting into running, but Murakami’s writing is perfect for a book on running.  I have a feeling I will re-read this one in the future.

Filed under: Books , 2009, Audrey Niffenegger, Books, Cormac McCarthy, Favorites, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, Muriel Barbery, Suzanne Collins