Category: Fitness

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Committing to change…again

It’s been a long time and some of my particular healthier habits have fallen a bit to the wayside with all that’s happened in the past year.

I moved to London for 6 months, got married, and now am expecting in June…all that within a year…

Given my previous and upcoming life changes I’ve decided that I will have to practice more balance.  Balance of Work, Personal learning, Family, Health, and Mental health.

For each of these categories I want to have a goal and a measurable outcome.

  • Work – Improve on my new role at work while being more flexible with my other items.  So much of my identity is actually wrapped up with work, but parts of that do have to give with my life changes.
  • Personal – Goal of learning something new.  I have rediscovered Duolingo and loved my trips in Spain.  So specifically going to aim to use it daily (ideally 2-3 “lesson sections”).  I also want to keep this blog up and aim for weekly posts.
  • Family – I have a wife and now a child on the way.  Being prepared to give them what they need physically, emotionally, and financially are goals here.  To be tangible I will ask my wife to grade me in each of those areas on a quarterly basis between 1-5.  I’ve heard it works.
  • Health – Getting back into a healthy eating and workout habit.  I can’t spend the amount of time doing what I did before, but am hoping to push back into more Paleo and work out 3 times a week.  Also sleep, which I am told I will truly miss once the little one arrives.
  • Mental – Meditation/Mindfulness seems to be a big hipster/techie thing at the moment.  Carin and I have been trying out headspace.  My goal is to be able to do 10m a day…ideally in the morning.
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Fitness Health

On The Relay 2011

Basic overview of this event.  12 people run a relay across 199 miles from Calistoga, CA down to Santa Cruz to raise money for organ donations.  This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in The Relay with Team Palantir.  The team and I want to thank my roommate Dang for filling in on a last minute volunteer swap.  We’re grateful that you helped out and showed up on time so we didn’t get DQ’d.  For the race I was assigned Legs 4, 16, and 28 which wasn’t the hardest set of legs at all.  Overall though it was a harder than I thought it was going to be, but also way more fun that I had imagined.  Who knew you could have have such energy running ~17 miles over 3 legs on ~1 hour of sleep.  It was an adventure for sure (our van having a bit more adventure than the other team van).  I’ll be going over a smattering of some of the highlights that stood out for me.

Our Start aka (Breaking and Entering)
Our official start time was April 30th 2 p.m. We arrived a bit before to sign in, decorate the van, swap runners, and redistribute provisions between the vans.  As 2 rolled around our first runner took her spot with the other 2 p.m. teams and took off.  We sent her off to cheers and hoots then headed back to the van to start our journey…only to find it was locked and we left the keys inside.  After some confusion, panic, and consideration of just breaking the window, a multitude of plans went into action.  We called AAA, some of us began pulling on the side window so that someone else could stick his fingers inside to pull the lock up, and another guy went off to get a coat hanger…(a few mins pass).  The coat hanger is steps away, AAA is getting our location, we’re almost touching the lock…just need a bit more room…pull a bit more…BOOM!  Broken glass everywhere…some minor cuts and a lot of shocked faces.  No more need for the hanger, thanks AAA, but we solved our problem.  Uh…time to roll out.

First Leg Runners (The Lost Lambs)
As we’re finally driving we get a call from Runner 1…she thinks she’s lost…wait wait…yes she did miss the turn.  We drive over to the turn and cheer her on.  Her and about 5 other runners miss a poorly marked turn…sad times.  She’s pissed, but we tell her just wait till she sees the van.  We’re thinking this is a great start =)  Our van name is now No Aplologeez.

Fourth Leg (Ditched)
This was my leg so I didn’t get the story till after.  It was a longer 7.4 mile leg going towards Yountville and man was it hot.  The van gave me a water boost at mile 4 which I asked for.  I didn’t give them my long sleeve shirt (stupid me) which they asked for.  Luckily they stopped again.  This time cheering me on and telling me not to worry about the van…which was pulled over to the side of the road and at a precarious 45 degree angle down to the right.  I continued running and hoping they were ok.  As I approached the handoff point I saw the van speed by me and the next runner already in place.  Apparently another van brought our next 2 runners to the exchange just in case our van didn’t make it in time.  Also there are photos of about 10 people trying to push the van up to no avail.  Luckily a truck driving by just happen to have a tow and tow our van out.  Already feeling the spirit of comradarie in the event.

Break Time (Birth of Pizzabox Van)
As we pulled into the van exchange some people asked if we were the team from Palo Alto.  We answered yes we’re hte broken window, towed out of a ditch team.  They laughed and shared the stories with others around them.  Notoriety up!  We met up with our second van of runners and told them of our adventures.  They were there for the broken window incident and thought we were joking about the ditch incident.  Our 6th runner had a short detour when he hit a dead end in the residential area and a kid and his dad playing ball told him he was probably in the wrong place =)  Still an awesome time on that run.  We went off to try and grab dinner.  After being rejected by a few places we found a small food court type area that had a Gott’s, Pika Pika, and Filippi’s Pizza Grotto & Fine Wine.  We each went to get our own dinner and eat outside Gott’s.  Filippi’s was even nice enough to give us a pizzabox to cover up the window as long as put their ad facing out.  Done Deal!  A short stop at home depot for some tape and we had ourselves a new pizzabox window.

Start of the Night Runs
Our 2nd batch of runs were basically all night runs.  We more or less had awesome runs here and began seeing and passing some teams.  Our first runner even found a running buddy in Team Grind’s runner though our second runner smoked their guy.  For my 2nd run I decided to use hte Vibram’s.  I was feeling good and it was not hot.  My leg took me down Sir Francis Drake through an area I had driven before heading up to eat Tomales Oysters.  Some highlights from my run are having my teammates rile up some bar goes to cheer for me and having them tell me there was a girl up ahead I needed to pass because she looked weak.  To be fair I got passed by A-Team’s runner at about the same point too.

Golden Gate Run (Fastest Way to get DQ’d, Karaoke, and Eye of the Tiger)
This leg was for our 6th runner.  We had an awesome start by having the volunteers tell us we can’t cheer due to the start being in a residential area.  Our driver then yelled out his cheer to the shock of the volunteer…oops.  During a couple of his climbs we drove next to him singing him some requested songs.  Unfortunately we led him astray and he had to climb the hill up to the Golden Gate twice.  I think we more than made up for it by finding him on the bridge, slowing down to his pace, and blasting Eye of the Tiger for a good 5 minutes.  Luckily there wasn’t much traffic and the few cars we did see passed us on the right lane.

Break Time 2 (Sleeping at the Office)
We headed into the exchange point, met up with our second van, and got some free soup being handed out by volunteers (so good).   After chatting a bit we bolted off to the office to get some shut eye.  Getting at the office I think everyone thought about showering…but weighing that with sleep we stuck with sleeping.  After about 1 hour of sleep we were up and off to meet up for our final legs.  As we pulled into the van exchange we heard some excalmations by onstanders, “Pizzabox Van!”  We’re famous =)  When we got out we noticed a magnet slapped onto our van.  It said “You’ve been tagged by the A-Team Sucka!”  Touché A-Team touché.  Their van had the big red stripe and was blasting the A-Team song.

My Final Leg (Death by Hill Climb)
We were going pretty strong on the final legs.  Basically coming down 280 through Palo Alto, down into Cupertino, and up the mountains to Skyline.  My run was actually through Cupertino into Stevens Canyon Road.  I actually biked this with Dang and Joe a few weeks go.  I was going pretty strong into Stevens Canyon Road, but about 1.5 miles into the climb I just gassed.  It was so hot and I was so tired my pace dropped significantly.  I ended up finishing just under a 10 min pace.  Sorry team!  Note to self, more hill climbing training.

Up the Mountain (Rocket Runners)
The next 2 runners after me had the luxury of climbing about 1000 ft each in 3 miles.  They rocked it coming in at under 10 min/mile paces each and passing about 8 teams each as well.  We made multiple stops and blasted music.  At one particular stop we were blasting Venga Boys and dancing.  One of the runners stopped and danced with us haha.  One of our runners even passed a bike (he said he didn’t know what to say to the cyclist).  I think we were all just so happy to be officially done we were having a great time cheering people on.

The Finish Line (Finished and Finally Showers)
We passed off to the other van for their final legs and took off to hit the house of a family friend of one of our runners.  They were so nice and so gracious to let us use their place.  We all took our showers…it was glorious.  We even snacked a bit on some chips and guac and salsa.  Sooo good.  We continued to chill for a bit and then headed off to meet with our other runners at the finish.  We saw them pull up around 4:20 and ran with our final runner across the finish!

The After (Dinner and News)
We went back to the family friend’s house and everyone hung out and got ready for dinner which was awesome.  Quinoa, fruit salad, salmon, chicken, corn bread, mac & cheese…oh so so good. We found out we finished 28/220 overall and 1/15 in our division of corporate mixed!  Way better than we thought we’d do.  Then we also found out Osama had been found and killed.  Wow what an end to a weekend!

Thanks
Thanks to all the runners on the Team and for the friends that hosted/cooked/volunteered for us!  Had an awesome time with you all!
Van 1: Ann, Kim, Tom, Ashling, and Ryan 
Van 2: Chris, Amy, Amanda, Courtney, Shreyas, Lisa
Volunteers: Dang and Shreyas’s parents
Others: Bagels and bananas that gave their lives.  Random ppl who helped get our van out.  Filippi’s Pizza Grotto & Fine Wine for the pizzabox.

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Fitness Health

Running in the Rain

This past week I have had the pleasure of running in the rain not once, but twice.  I can thank my coworkers for that and in my defense I agreed to run before it started raining.  I’ll be honest, I’m usually a pretty fair weather runner.  Now while I can say I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of getting out there I’m glad I did.  I learned a couple things about rain running.  Lessons learned and ready for the next rainy day to hit the road.

First lesson: Dry fit clothing > cotton pretty much any day of the week no matter the conditions.  This difference is even bigger when it’s wet outside.  With cotton you start getting weighed down with water pretty fast and it can start getting cold.

Second lesson: Rain is less interesting than the actual temp.  I went on two runs out in the rain this week and the first time it was more rainy and less cold.  Second time it was less rainy, but colder.  Personally, I prefer more rain and less cold.  This is probably a point of personal preference, but at least I can give you my opinion.  I’d rather run in rainy warm weather than dry cold weather.

Third Lesson: Rain running is going to be messy.  Don’t kid yourself about it.  I specifically did the run both days in normal running shoes this week because I knew my Vibram’s would get soaked and I didn’t feel like getting them muddied up right after I washed them.

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Fitness Health

Subjective VFF vs Sneakers 10k Run Review

This is in no way a completely fair comparison as many variables were not equal.  I’ll list the factors that I think affected the times between the two runs and let you come to your own conclusions.

10k with Vibrams (46:50, 7:27 pace)

Sleep: 7 hours
Eating Day Before: Faily Healthy, Stuck with Paleo
Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs, with FSR Energy Drink
Wake Time: 8 am
Warmup: 1 lap
Weather: Sunny slightly cold
Fellow Runners: Around my level (Came in 2nd for Males)
Workouts: No workouts 2 days leading up to run
Motivation: Planned to run

10k with Sneakers (48:25, 7:51 pace)

Sleep: 6 hours
Eating Day Before: Somewhat Healthy, but had beers in the evening
Breakfast: None
Wake Time: 9 am
Warmup: None
Weather: Sunny slightly cold
Fellow Runners: Fast (Top finishers beat me by 1 mile, came in last for Males)
Workouts: Weights 2 days before, incline sprints day before
Motivation: Undecided about running

As you can see I was way more prepared mentally and physically for the first run.  I’m not sure how much of that accounts for the 1:35 difference between the runs.  A few seconds of that time was lost by me forgetting to use my inhaler.  I had to take a small detour and stop in the middle of the first mile to grab and use it from my backpack.

I’ll briefly describe the after run comparisons.  I can easily say I was tired after both runs.  With the Vibrams I felt soreness in the lower calfs while with the sneakers it was more draining on the legs overall.  I wore toe socks for both runs and I believe I might have a blister from running in the sneakers and no ill effects in the Vibrams.  I’m assuming this is caused by the slippage between the sock and the shoe so I believe energy transfer on the Vibrams might be more efficient.

From my subjective view, I felt better during the Vibram run, but given the prep and time differences it’s hard for me to say that I was faster with one vs the other.  The only conclusive thing I can say is that running in the Vibrams has not made me any slower than before.  I’ll also toss in that while I was disappointed with a slower time on the 2nd 10k, I don’t believe I’ve been able to keep this pace in a while.  I believe that the workout regimen I’m currently on is showing dividends.  I will continue to stick with it and will plan to have a better comparison in the future.

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Fitness Health

Vibrams…to Sock or Not To Sock

In the past week I’ve had the chance to give the Injinji socks and their Asia knockoff counterparts a try with the Vibrams.  I also tried a short barefoot tabata run just to see.  So below are the pros and cons I see with the different combinations.

Just VFF
Cons: I have the problem of possibly getting blisters from rubbing on longer runs.  The shoes also tend to get the vibram funk much faster.
Pros: On the other hand it does feel more natural as far as barefoot feeling.  Also given time I imagine the foot toughens up more this way. It’s cheaper than getting socks.

VFF + Injinjis
Cons: As people say Injinjis do take a little bit longer to put on. They also cost a lot for socks…I mean $8 for a pair? I’ve heard of issues with durability, but so far so good.  Also…when it’s wet your socks get wet too which is not a great feeling.
Pros: Despite my worries they seem to fit pretty well with the Vibrams. The fit is a little tighter, but still reasonable. I’ve never gotten any of the normal blisters I might get when running w/o socks either.

VFF + China Toe Socks
Cons: It only comes in one length which isn’t horrible. Also…still not cheap @ $5 bux a pair.  Still have the wet sock issue when it’s wet.
Pros: Actually very similar to the Injinjis. They’re a bit thicker, but still fit. Also no blisters.

Barefoot
Cons: Blisters will form pretty fast. Your feet will get tired really fast.
Pros: Can’t get more real than this. I’m sure this will toughen up your feet in a hurry. No blisters from Vibram rubbing either. It’s also way cheaper…no pricy socks or pricy shoes.

In the end it seems like any of these options are really viable.  If you want to avoid some of the pricier addons it just requires a bit more patience and practice. 

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Fitness Health

Why Technology makes Healthcare Awesome

Also known as why gadgets make geeks do things.  You want to get a geek running?  Get him some schwag like a GPS HR Monitor or one of those Nike+ Ipod thingys.  Most of us inherently like numbers and tracking stuff.  It’s even better when it’s tracked for us and we can just look at it.  Even if I have no idea what I’m going to do with the data, knowing that I’ve got x years worth of y meticulously charted for something gives me some warm fuzzies.

As part of my 2011 Goals I was to get a physical, which I did (yay me!).  It helps when I can walk from work to the hospital in 5 mins flat haha.  Now apparently my medical group also has this online system which I just signed up for yesterday and it’s awesome.  A system has to be awesome if it can get me excited about going back so they can stick a needle in me, take my blood, and run a bunch of tests.  The online system not only lets me view all the data from my bloodwork, it also lets me make appointments, ask for refills, look at immunization records, etc.  The best part is the data is shared across all their affiliate hospitals.  The last time I was at the doc’s was 4 years ago to get a refill and it wasn’t even at the same location, but it showed up in my record with all the basic stats from that visit (HR, BP, Weight, etc).  The online system also lets you chart stats over time so keeping up with physicals allows me to view numbers I may be interested over time (like cholesterol or fasting glucose).

It’s innovations like this that should be happening.  I’m not even sure it can be considered an innovation as it’s really just digitizing medical data, but for healthcare industries I see this as a major step in the right direction.  I can finally see my results for my tests and it’s not hidden away in some filing cabinet that only docs can get access to.  I understand there’s always the issue of privacy, but the issue pops up every time we move something onto the intertubes.  For me, the convenience and transparency that these systems allow outweigh the dangers.  Apply all the same tips as you would for your online financials, be smart about your passwords, don’t share passwords, etc, etc.  Besides who likes to call and and sit on hold to make a Dr.’s appt…not me.  If we can get those systems online I say huzzah!  I really hope that other institutions move in this direction as well.  Once this becomes the norm we can think about how the data can be securely shared on an institutional level (kaiser to sutter) so that we don’t lose our historical data when changing medical groups.

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Fitness Health

VFF Longest Run Yet

Looks like posting the 2011 goals have been useful as I’ve hit the gym more often than not as of late.  Recording stats is also probably helping.  It must be the RPG nerd in me.

So today’s run has been the longest run in the VFF’s so far.  Ran a 10k split at 2 paces.  First 5k@10 min/mile and 2nd 5k@~9 min/mile.  I say approx because I tried to push a faster pace and then ended up having to slow it down a bit.  So I just did the math and found it averaged to just about 9.  To protect the rubbing areas I turned to bandaids which actually worked really really well.  Unfortunately I think I’m feeling what may be a new callous forming around the ball of my feet.  Maybe this is just part of what’s needed to push distance in the VFFs?

Finally, the Bio Impedance fat meter came today.  After trying it a few times I think I can get pretty wild readings.  So I think in the interest of keeping things consistent I’m going with an average right after waking and an average right before bed.  More than anything I’ll be tracking the trend over time since the actual % can vary depending when you use it, how hydrated you are, and even how you hold it.

 

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Fitness Health

VFF Run Outside: 3.32 miles in 28:07

Debated for a while about running since it’s still in the 40s and chilly, but decided to F it and man up so I went running around the neighborhood.  Based on yesterday’s rubbing I put on some tape on both feet just in case.  After the run I checked and while the tape took a rubbing my skin is still intact.  Still unsure about a long term solution though.  I really hope that I won’t have to tape every time I want to head out for a longer run.

I’m also wondering when I’ll be able to start doing longer runs more consistently.  I’m still feeling the calf soreness from these shorter runs, but it seems like my recovery is getting to the point where I think I could do a run everyday if I wanted to.

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Fitness Health

VFF Treadmill Run: 3.25 miles @ 10 min/mile

Wanted to go for longer, but it seems that those blisters kick in right around the 3 mile mark.  Will try with band-aids next time.

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Fitness Health

First run of the year! VFF on treadmill: 2.61 miles in 24:33

First run today and decided to try again without the tape.  Seemed like it went ok as I didn’t feel any chafing, but then again it was a pretty short run.  Will try again later this week on a longer run.  Cross your fingers!