Finances and Fitness

Many people use a lack of finances as an excuse to avoid fitness. Yes, being filthy rich would make it much easier to be fit. Expendable income could mean more free time to spend exercising. Money to spend on personal trainers, ideal equipment and a personal chef would be ideal. Unless you won the lottery, figuratively or literally, you don't get to have the ideal; you have to work within reality. That does not mean you have no hope of living a healthy, fit life, though. There are many, many ways to achieve fitness on a budget.

Walking: There is minimal cost to beginning a walking program. The only needs are a comfortable pair of shoes and socks. If it's cold outside, you would need winter wear, but it can be the exact same items you wear the rest of the time. There is no need to buy special clothing to begin a walking program. You don't even need to venture far from home, if at all. You can walk around the block, up and down your hallway, or around your yard.

Running: Just like walking, the only equipment needed are a good pair of shoes and socks. I do recommend going to a good shoe store and getting the shoes fitted for running. I would also try to avoid cotton socks, but sweat-wicking socks can be bought for about the same price as cotton. If you're a woman, you will also need a good sports bra, but if that's outside your budget, you can wear a good normal bra with a cheaper sports bra over it. Again, it's not ideal, but as long as it keeps the bouncing to a minimum, it will work. As with walking, you don't really need to venture very far. I have done interval training by running around my block repeatedly for 30 minutes.

Resistance: You can work most muscles without any weights, other than your body. Push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, crunches, squats, planks, and leg lifts are all exercises where you can use gravity and your body weight to challenge your muscles. There are about as many of these exercises as there are muscles in your body. For a few dollars, you can also buy resistance bands, which work like hand-weights, but cost less and take up less room. You can also use old, handled beverage containers filled with water as hand weights.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. If you want more cardio, you can buy a jumprope. You can also search online for fitness videos. There are yoga, Tai chi, stretching, and many other fitness videos available on youtube, netflix and cable's On Demand features. As always, the internet has as much bad information as good information, so you'll have to weed through the crap to get to the good stuff. I think it's worth it to get healthier, though.

Ultrasound

When I had a stress fracture in my femoral neck last summer, I was given an ultrasound machine to help the bone heal. I recently read that ultrasound could also help with soft tissue injuries. I still have the machine, so I was going to dig it out and try it on my tendon that's been giving me issues since August.

I decided to do a little research on it before putting it to use, though. I didn't do any research when I first got the machine, but that was because I was in the middle of moving and leaving my job. I was busy and didn't really have great computer access. Now I find out that I could have saved some effort.

The theory is that ultrasound helps with pain and speeds healing. There have been studies that showed this to be true. Although the one I found was small and on rabbits. Another study showing it works involved people and was a bit larger, but was funded by the company that sells ultrasound healing devices. A study on rats showed promise, but only if used early after injury. A review of all ultrasound studies found bad science and no proof of effectiveness. I think the Wikipedia summed it up nicely: Effectiveness of therapeutic ultrasound for pain, musculoskeletal injuries, and soft tissue lesions remains questionable.

If I didn't have the machine already, I wouldn't go out and buy one. Since I already own it, and have an injury that MIGHT benefit from using the machine, I will use it. There's no side-effects from it, so I don't see why I shouldn't do everything I can to make my tendon feel better.

Holiday Wish List

It's that time of year again. It's the season when people ask you what you want for Christmas. I find this to be a really difficult question to answer. Part of that is because I don't want to ask for practical things like a new carafe for coffee. The other reason it's kind of difficult is that I don't have extravagant wants, so I tend to buy things for myself when I want them. I now understand why shopping for my dad for the holidays was so difficult; if we saw he could use something, he would go buy it for himself.

I finally took some time today and created a wish list on Amazon. Every item on the list is fitness related. I tried to come up with non-fitness items, but nothing came to mind. That's not totally accurate, I did ask for comfortable shoes that are ok to wear for work. I only need those because I stand at my desk and need shoes that aren't running shoes or heels. If I sat at my desk, I wouldn't need or want new shoes. So, that's tangentially a fitness item.

Here, for you to view are the items on my wish list:

"Duel in the Sun: The Story of Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and America's Greatest Marathon".  I also asked for Alberto Salazar's book "14 Minutes: A Running Legend's Life and Death and Life".  I've already read Dick Beardsley's autobiography "Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Race" and I've watched the video of the marathon, so I thought it was time to read the book about that race. Here's the video of an amazing marathon finish.



In addition to two books about running and runners, I also asked for items to help me be fitter. I asked for the FitBit. It's a pedometer, accelerometer and altimeter. It measures all activity, including sleep. I am hoping this will give me the push I need to shed the remaining weight that I don't like and get the flat belly I want.

I also asked for push-up bars to help me get more range of motion on push-ups, and a wobble/balance board for some added core work. I didn't ask for more microfiber socks, but I could always use those. I'm sure I could find many, many more fitness items that I would be happy to receive. That's the other reason coming up with a list is difficult; I'm happy that people just think of me, so any gifts are good gifts.

Hustle or Hustled?

Most 5Ks are run as awareness and fundraising vehicles for charities. Larger races like the marathon and half marathon are corporate sponsored, but are done simply for the sake of runners; no one is making a profit. The 5K I ran yesterday, on the other hand was organized by a company designed to make money. This was the second for-profit race I've done this summer, in addition to the one I spectated, but I won't make this mistake again.

Yesterday's run was called the Santa Hustle 5K. I finished it in 26:16, a full 1:30 faster than my PR from this summer. I tweeted out that time, along with my shock, because I didn't feel that I had run that quickly. It turns out that the course, although certified, was about 1/5-1/4 of a mile short of a full 5K. The corrected distance of 4.65K seems to be the reality, but it's really going to be hard to know positively what the distance was, because the race organizers are covering their asses. They're issuing corporate statements that sound apologetic, without actually taking any blame. If I recalculate my pace based on this distance, my pace was 9:05 per mile, meaning I would have a 28:13 for a 5K.

I'm ok with that pace and time. It's slower than my last race, but not by much. The race went fine, so 28:13 seems reasonable. The first mile seemed like I was running slowly, nowhere near the 8:55 that my chronograph clocked between the start gate and the first mile marker. The field was too crowded to get any speed going, though. There was a 180 degree turn after about a mile and a half that immediately encountered the crowd-slowing hydration station. I ran the third "mile" a minute faster than my first or second mile, which seemed unlikely to me, especially considering I walked part of it while taking off my jacket.

Charity races tend to be capped at 2,000-4,000 people to make sure they run smoothly. For-profit races don't do that, because it would limit profits, so they end up with double the number of runners, if not even more. This leads to many problems with the race going off smoothly. One for-profit race this year had lines of 2-3 hours for packet pick-up because of the 40,000+ participants and poor planning. The other for-profit race I did this summer started 30 minutes late because of a vendor and people had to wait 10 minutes while a bridge lifted for a boat to pass, in the middle of their race. Those runners also had to dodge tourists during the last .2 miles of the course because it was held at a tourist attraction with no roped off course.

These races attract people because they have a clever concept and/or great swag. I received a Santa hat and beard yesterday, in addition to a long-sleeve tech shirt that looks like Santa's jacket. Others give out really expensive running jackets, sweatshirts and medals. They have much better marketing behind them, too. It makes sense; if you're making money, you can pay for a good ad campaign, which will lead to bigger profits. Charities don't want to spend money on marketing that could be better spent on their actual cause.

I don't want these for-profit races to disappear. I think they are a great gateway for new runners. People who may never consider running otherwise may be lured in by the fun concept and giveaways. If these races get more people into running, they serve at least one good purpose. Personally, I will just avoid them in the future. They aren't providing me with the product I actually want when I pay to run a race.

Standing Desk

I've been standing at my desk for several months. (Minus a few weeks when I was nursing some foot pain I wanted to get better for the marathon.) I love it. I love how my posture has improved. I also feel good knowing that I'm not endangering my health by sitting for 8 hours at work on top of the sitting I do while commuting and watching TV.

Since I first started standing at work, I have noticed and been told that several of my coworkers also stand at work. I really think that people have started to take the studies about the negative health effects of sitting to heart. This makes me really happy. I can see how this trend will continue and grow as more people learn about it.

I think that companies could really help their employees by making standing desks the standard. If people want to sit, they could, but they'd need to opt out of standing. People don't like being the odd one out, and right now, the healthiest option is the odd one. Without having the standing desk set up, finding a way to elevate a monitor to eye level and have the keyboard at a 90% angle from the elbow can be difficult. While I was typing this, I noticed that my monitor should be a bit higher, actually. I'm going to have to dig around for another catalog to put under my tower, which is under my monitor. It may be set up like a bad duct tape nightmare, but it's still better than sitting. Now I just need to convince my company to spring for a treadmill desk.

If you're sitting at your desk at work, have you considered switching to standing? What would push you to make the switch?

July 5Ks

I know I promised an update on how I did in my 5K Double-Header back in July. I am here to deliver, even if it's FOUR months late. My post might be late, but I wasn't late during the 5K Famous Racing Sausages Run/Walk at Miller Park. In fact, I passed most of the sausages, even though they had a good minute or two head start.

When trying to set a time goal, I finally settled on under 28 minutes total or faster than 9 minutes per mile. I finished in 27:37, which is 8:53 per mile. That was more than a full minute shaved off of my time from my PR 5K in April.

I've said it many times, but one of the reasons I love running is that the main competition is you on any prior day. I was not nearly as fast as the person who won the trophy for my age group (30-39) but I was about 4% better than I had been a mere 3 months prior to this. 4% might not seem like a huge improvement, but it's about 20 seconds faster per mile. I will take a 4% improvement every time.

I haven't run a 5K since that run, but I'm running one this weekend. I would love to see a 4% improvement for a finishing time of about 26:30. That would put me closer to my long-term goal time of 25:00. When I run races, I usually have a realistic goal and a reach goal. My reach goal will be 8 minute miles for a time of 25:00, but my realistic goal will be 27:00. That's not a full 4% improvement, but it's an improvement, which is always welcome.

I just looked at the best times for my age group and they're closer to 20:00. That's a pace of 6:26 per mile. I have never even run one mile faster than 7 minutes. I can't imagine running 3.1 of them at that pace. I'm sure some people would see that my goal of being 25% slower than the fastest runners of my age is "losing." I see it as realistic and competing against myself, not random strangers. It is possible that if I hit 25:00, I will evaluate my progress and aim to be faster than that.

I'm Back!!!!

I have neglected my blog for far too long. Instead of writing, I was running and training. It was all for a very good reason, but it's time that I got back to writing. I will still run and train, but also write. I promise to fill you in on some of the more exciting moments since July 27, but for now, I'll just post this picture.