Cross-training

I have been talking a lot about running, which is obviously a big part of training for a marathon.  But even the most running-based training schedules recommend a day or two of cross-training per week, sometimes more. When I was training for my half marathons last spring, I would usually run every other day, alternating with cross training days (working in a rest day maybe once a week).

I have actually had a surprising number of people ask me: what, exactly, IS cross-training? Isn't marathon training just running? Cross-training, simply put, is any kind of training or working out that is not running.  So it can be as simple as walking, or as much a complete other sport, such as swimming.  But why cross-train, you may ask? There are multiple benefits: first of all, it helps to rest your muscles and give them more recovery by doing a different kind of workout for a day or two a week.  This has the added effect of reducing your tendency towards injury, since you are resting your joints and at the same time strengthening other muscle groups.  Finally, it increases your overall fitness. Your body can get "used" to the same kind of training over and over, so if you change what kind of workout you are doing more often, you are more likely to reap more benefit.  And most of all, I find that it helps with that most burdensome of demons: workout boredom.  If you get bored with your workouts, will you keep doing them over and over? Probably not.

Here are a few of the kinds of cross-training I do:

-Swimming: As you probably remember, I was a competitive swimmer from the age of 7 until 18, so swimming pretty much comes as second nature to me.  Swimming is a fantastic cardiovascular workout (four times harder than running and sixteen times harder than biking), and has the added benefit of being completely non-impact, which means that it doesn't hurt your joints at all.  It's also a full-body workout because you use both your arms and legs.  I often go to one of the free local pools once or twice a week (sometimes with friends), swimming about 2000-3000 yards or between 45 and 60 mins.  I like swimming, especially on these hot days, because it is complete quiet, and you can just get into a rhythm of long strokes in the cool water.

-Boxing: I started taking boxing classes when I was in college, and it's one of the most intense workouts I have ever experienced.  Now I want to point out, this is not cardio kickboxing (I have never done that- I'm sure it's great, though). It's the kind of boxing where you actually have wraps and gloves (I have my own!) and punching bags.  I have even sparred- that is, fought someone- and it's so intense that a minute and a half leaves you feeling like you have worked out for an hour.  It's also a great compliment to running, since it is a lot of arm strengthening.  I basically think of boxing as my ultimate workout apart from running, and it's also really fun!!

-Yoga: Cross training can also be very relaxing and low-intensity. On days when I am particularly sore from running or I am stressed out from work, I like to go to yoga class at one of my gyms.  Some people consider it to be an hour of "glorified stretching," which in a way it is, but it's fantastic stretching. I get really stiff and tight-muscled because I work out so much, so it's really helpful to unwind.  And believe it or not, it can be HARD, especially for someone who isn't that flexible to begin with (um, me).  I have broken into a sweat on more than one occasion in yoga, depending on the instructor and the poses.  I always leave feeling lighter, and taller, and less coiled up like a spring.

-Spinning: I have yet to get a road bike (hoping to save up for one soon), so in the meantime I go to spinning classes.  Spinning is fun for everyone, from "non-athletes" to hard-core triathletes who bring their own clip-on shoes.   I enjoy having an instructor to change up the kind of cycling we do- hills, sprints, etc. And one instructor even has us do arm weights on the bikes, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

-Personal training: Personal training is a luxury that can be difficult to afford, but luckily I have a pretty good rate as a government employee.  I have the ability to lift weights on my own (leftover knowledge from being a swimmer and a rower) but I never really push myself hard enough.  Having personal training every week or two reminds me that even though I am somewhat fit, I have a lot of potential to strengthen my body. I sometimes leave the workouts feeling like I can barely move, and I am sore for days afterward.  Flash and I sometimes have arguments about strength training and weights- as far as runners go, we are not like the tiny, wiry people (he is over six feet tall, as I mentioned, and I'm 5'8'', which isn't short for a woman).  He sometimes says that he thinks lifting weights puts on too much muscle for runners, and that it just adds bulk.  That can be true, but my trainer and I try to stay with lighter weights and more reps to make it so that I add just lean muscle. Strength training also can reduce your potential for injury.

-Lacrosse: Up until recently when the session ended, I was playing lacrosse once a week in an adult DC women's lacrosse league.  I played lax from elementary school through varsity in high school and then on a club team in college, so from my first days in DC last year I was looking for a way to play again (I didn't find a league until the spring).  I really liked being able to play, since I am running around (including sprinting) for an hour without really realizing it!  There are lots of other teams in the DC area such as club or pickup soccer that you could also play as a way to get in some extra running outside of the gym.

-Elliptical: When all else fails, I sometimes do the elliptical.  I feel at this point in my fitness that it doesn't really give me as much of a workout, so I usually put the cross (that is, the height) at 10 and the resistance at 10-12, and watch a movie or read a book while I'm on the machine.  Today, for example, I watched a couple of episodes of Seinfeld and an hour passed by pretty quickly.

I obviously don't do all of these in one week, but I usually do each of them at least once or twice a month in rotation.  I pretty much always cross-train a few times a week in addition to running 25+ miles, which means that on some days I double up running and cross. As I said, I really enjoy cross training, because just running all the time can get very monotonous. That's one of the reasons I might be more cut out for triathaloning in the future! For now, though, I think it really helps with my overall strength and cardiovascular fitness.

Heat Index

When I first started really training for a half marathon, it was already late fall, and the air was crisp and wonderful for running.  As the months went by, people actually thought I was crazy for training for a race during the winter, but I didn't mind running in the cold weather- possibly because I grew up doing outside sports all winter in Colorado.  Granted, there were times when it was really freezing, but most of the time you can put on more layers and be fine running outside. For example, my second half marathon (in late March, no less) had a temperature of 31 degrees at the race start, and I ended up taking off a layer as I ran. In general, I also felt that DC winters are pretty mild, especially compared to the winters up in Rhode Island where I went to college.

The summer, though, is a different story, especially here in DC.  As anyone who lives here knows, the summer heat itself hinders outdoor sports, but an even bigger problem is the humidity (thank you, founding fathers, for creating the nation's Capital on a swamp).  Unfortunately, the humidity can make it FEEL like it's up to 20 degrees hotter than the actual high temperature, also known as the heat index.  The heat and humidity gets really bad in any DC summer, making running outside in June through September very difficult.  The problem for long runs is that even if you wake up at 6 am on the weekend to go on the run, by the time you finish at 8 or 9 it's still extremely hot.  What's more, the amount of water that you lose through sweating is pretty difficult to replace, and so dehydration and heat exhaustion is hard to combat.  Some runners even take salt pills to stay more hydrated.

All of that, though, is still normal circumstances for marathoners and other runners in the summer. This week, though, there has been a record-breaking heat wave, the likes of which is usually even unheard of in DC.  Yesterday, the heat index soared up to 113 degrees, and today and tomorrow are supposed to be even worse, with the highs at 103 or 104 and heat indices at 120 degrees.  Walking for a few minutes out there makes you feel faint, like you are wading through hot soup... so can you imagine running over 10 miles in it? At that point, it's not about toughness or enduring pain, because you could actually get heat stroke or even have a heart attack.

Because of these factors, Flash and I had discussed getting up extremely early tomorrow morning for our 11 mile run, but even at 5 or 6 am it will still be 80 degrees plus humidity, and by 8 am (when we would finish) the heat index is over 100 degrees.  Even though I hate running on the treadmill (as I have mentioned before), I did my short runs inside this week since even running outside for a half hour can be downright dangerous.  However, doing a two hour run on the treadmill is extremely taxing, both mentally and physically.  The most I have ever run on a treadmill is 10 miles, and Flash has done 12.  One of the biggest problems for that long of a run inside is that it's very boring (for some reason, running outside is less so).  What's more, most treadmills time out after an hour, so you are forced to stop for a couple of minutes when you are halfway through to reset the treadmill for the second hour.  Running on the treadmill is also harder on the joints, because your legs move in a repeated motion that doesn't vary as much like on the road.  So, basically we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, but running in a sauna like this is literally not safe.  Flash actually mentioned that it might be a good idea to split the difference, getting up early to run six miles outside and then doing the other half on the treadmill. Honestly, no option seems all that appealing.... I can't wait for the fall!

Stay cool, DC!

Is Soy Safe?

Is tofu actually good for you? You may be surprised to hear me say that I'm not sure.

As a new vegetarian back in May, I found myself leaning on soy products as an easy way to add protein instead of meat when I wasn't eating fish.  Soy (which is made from soybeans, also known as edamame) is a pure, low-fat protein source. Tofu is cheap, easy to marinate, bake, or slice up, and goes well on salads or stir frys. There are tons of other processed "fake" meats (tofurkey, tempeh, even soy chorizo) that are not so bad (ish), but I generally tried to stay away from that kind of processed food when possible.  I also have believed for some time that I am somewhat lactose intolerant, so I was also drinking soy milk and even having more soy "dairy" products such as soy cheese and yogurt.  All in all, I was eating a lot of soy, but due to the overwhelming buzz that soy is a "health" food, I had no idea that this could be a bad thing.

I noticed in the first couple of months that I was a vegetarian that my moods would swing dramatically once or twice, but I thought that it was just stress or lack of sleep.  Then I also got two canker sores in rapid succession, which I hadn't experienced in years (also usually due to stress or illness), and especially not two so close together.  Because I know my body pretty well at this point, I knew that something was up.  The body's endocrinological system (which regulates metabolism and even mood) can be changed or derailed by what foods you eat and your exercise and sleep cycles.  So I started looking back at my diet and doing research to see what could be the culprit, and I realized that the biggest change in my diet recently has been my soy intake.

To my surprise and chagrin, there has been a lot of chatter (articles and studies) in recent years about soy products and whether or not they should actually be consumed in large amounts (or at all).  Apparently, soy can change your hormonal balance, effecting the estrogen and thyroid levels, according to articles such as these:

Soy and the Thyroid

Soy's Negative Effects (Men's Health)

How Healthy is Soy? (Psychology Today)

Because I already have hypothyroidism (meaning, my thyroid gland under-produces the hormone), this shocked me: soy products can actually cause healthy people's thyroids to malfunction, and can mess up estrogen levels even in men. It can have a toxic effect on hypothyroid patients, and can change menstrual cycles. Soy may even be linked to breast cancer.  It's unclear, however, whether this is due to the genetic modification of soybeans or the overconsumption of soy products (Asian populations, for example, eat 1/3 as many grams of soy per day compared with Americans).

Of course, soy products are still much healthier as far as fat content than meat. So don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that you should stop eating it altogether- I still have soymilk and sometimes edamame. And a lot of the research is still inconclusive, because everyone's hormone balances are different. But I noticed (so far) that when I started limiting my soy intake more that some of my symptoms have subsided.  I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach, and get my thyroid levels checked soon.

In the meantime, there are tons of other ways to get protein, though each of them has pluses and minuses. Here is a breakdown of the good and bad points of protein alternatives:

-Beans and legumes (lentils, chickpeas, black beans, etc.): Great source of protein and nutrients, and doubles as a carbohydrate serving. I often put a 1/2 cup of chickpeas on a salad for a protein/complex carbohydrate serving.

-Nuts, nut butter, nut milks (natural peanut butter, almond milk, etc): Protein as well as "good" fats, but very calorically dense.  I usually buy or make "single" serving baggies of nuts to make sure I don't eat too much (you would be surprised how many calories are in 1/4 cup of nuts or two tablespoons of nut butter- 200-250!).  One of my favorite snacks is an apple with a couple of tablespoons of all natural almond or peanut butter.

-Dairy (low-fat cottage cheese, yogurt, etc):  As I mentioned before, I believe that I am somewhat lactose intolerant (60% of the adult population is, believe it or not), so I try to stay moderate in my consumption of dairy.  The great thing about it, though, is that a single serving (such as 1/2 cup of cottage cheese) can have as much as 15 grams of protein in it.  Greek yogurt is also one of my favorite things to eat, because the probiotics promote gastrointestinal health. I get plain non-fat individual servings, then stir in fruit, a sprinkle of walnuts, and maybe a bit of honey or agave nectar. Presto! A snack with up to 20 grams of protein, a fruit serving, and good fats!

-Eggs and egg whites:  Unlike a lot of people, I'm not afraid of eating real eggs. I think the yolk has some of the most important nutrients, and there have actually been studies that the cholesterol in eggs doesn't cause bad heart health in individuals with a healthy, balanced diet (Egg Nutrition and Heart Disease). Egg whites are obviously lower in fat and calories, and for people at risk for high cholesterol (especially people who eat a lot of fatty meat) it's a better way to go.  What I usually do is crack one egg (6-7 grams of protein!) into a bowl and mix it with egg whites for an omelet or scrambled eggs.

-Whole grains (bread, steel cut oats, etc): Whole grains can have about a half serving of protein in them, if you choose wisely!

-Seitan: made from wheat gluten, this is a somewhat new protein alternative.  I really like it because it takes on the flavor of sauces easily and has more of the texture of meat. Here's a recipe I made recently with Seitan:

Spicy Seitan Fajitas (vegan)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 large red bell peppers, halved, seeded, and thinly sliced (4 cups)
• 2 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced (3 cups)
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp. agave nectar
• 1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp.)
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. chipotle chile powder
• 1 8-oz. pkg. seitan, rinsed, drained, and thinly sliced
• Whole grain tortillas

Directions

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onions, and cook 10 minutes, or until vegetables are soft and beginning to brown, stirring often.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together lime juice, cilantro, agave nectar, garlic, cumin, oregano, and chile powder in small bowl.
3. Add seitan to bell pepper mixture, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until seitan begins to brown. Stir in lime juice mixture, and cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated. Serve with warm tortillas.

I chopped up some tomatoes, avocado and lettuce to serve as a garnish on the side.  I also sometimes make my own green chile by baking whole tomatillos and serrano chiles and then grinding them in the food processor with lime.

In all, there are plenty of ways to get protein without soy and tofu.  Of course, everyone is different, and new research should be taken with a grain of salt. But there has been enough buzz about soy lately that it's worth at least paying attention to soy's effect on you.

Does the Mind Matter?

"It's 90% mental. The other half is physical."  (Yogi Berra- famous baseball player)

We have all heard the phrase "mind over matter," but what have you ever stopped and thought about what that means? I love the above quote, because even though it is obviously comically absurd (as Yogi Berra quotes usually are), it points out the mind-body interaction in athletes.  One thing that I have said to friends and family is that for me, distance running has been  more about training my mind to ignore my body's signals to stop, and instead to just keep running.  Our nervous systems are amazingly complex, and we have a normal point in physical activity at which the body involuntarily sends signals to your brain, saying "STOP! You're using  up all your extra stores of energy! What are you doing?? STOP IT." At this point, most people usually stop. Evolutionarily, this makes sense, because our brain is trying to protect us from literally running our bodies until we die; akin to the involuntary mechanism that makes you snatch your hand away from a hot burner.  But as I have mentioned more than once, the discomfort I feel during running is usually temporary, like a switch that turns on and off, and usually I don't feel that kind of pain for very long.  You just have to get over those humps and keep going.  Sometimes I am aware of every step I am taking and how much it hurts, and on others I literally just seem to go to another plane of my mind and I'm hardly even aware that my legs are moving.  There is no doubt in my mind that "mental" fatigue can be much more debilitating than physical fatigue.

Check out this article from Running Times Magazine: "Mind over Matter"

I think I gained a lot of that mental toughness from being a competitive distance swimmer, where I would also have very long workouts.  One thing that I have heard the most from new swimmers, even distance runners or cyclists who are attempting to convert into triathletes, is that they get really "bored" when they are swimming (especially because they can't listen to music).  From the age of 7 I would swim one to three hours a day with nothing but my own thoughts to entertain me, so I think I was trained to have that kind of mental longevity. Granted, the races for swimming (even the 1650, which is a mile) are never any longer than about twenty minutes or so, and most of them are only one, two or three minutes long.  So I had never experienced racing for two hours straight, like in a half marathon. 

I have mentioned in a few posts that I have gone on 10 mile runs without meaning or planning to- that I started out running on a Sunday evening, and just kept going because I felt like it.  Last weekend, however, I had to get in a 9 mile run according to my training schedule, and it's incredible how big a difference there was between those two runs.  For one thing, sometimes workouts seem much worse in anticipation; I was thinking about how and when I was going to run the 9 miles much more often in the days leading up to it than I was about those 10 mile runs (obviously, since I hadn't planned on doing them in the first place).  I was also really worried about the heat, so I was going to have to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, and I even reneged my Friday night plans in order to make that easier.  Moreover, Flash got in his 9 mile run on Thursday night, because he was getting an outpatient surgery on Friday (don't worry, guys! He's already back on his feet and itching to run), so I knew I was going to be running solo.

Luckily for me, it rained heavily on Friday afternoon, so I decided to just go on the run that night instead.  Flash had texted me the night before what his time was, so I aimed to generally hit the same pace overall.  I had run the three previous days in a row, though, which was abnormal for me (I usually cross train in between runs or take a day off before a long run).  So as I started out, I felt soreness in my thighs from the get-go.  What's more, I realized as I started running that I was going to be running for an hour and a half, starting at 7:30 pm.  Yes, I was physically more than capable of doing so, but when I had started out on those other 10 mile runs, I didn't think at the beginning "I think I will run for an hour and a half today"- it just evolved as I ran.  There's a huge difference in how daunting a long run can seem when you "have" to get in a a certain mileage versus when you just keep adding miles onto your original planned distance.

The run was fine, and although I didn't feel awesome, I was very grateful for the cool and rainy weather. Once again, I felt better at the end of the run than at the beginning, which could also be a psychological phenomenon: I knew that I only had a couple of miles left to go instead of 9.  I really have also started to miss running with Flash, and due to circumstances beyond our control we haven't been able to run much together lately. As I have said before, having someone with you while you are running can make it much easier. Just to point out how much of it is mental, I finished in just one second off Flash's 9 mile run time from the night before, almost as if we were shadow-pacing each other.

Another factor that has come up lately is the abominable heat.  As those of you who live in DC are aware, there has been a horrible heat wave recently, with the heat index at above 100 for a several days (today it's going to be 110). Even if I got up really early to run, it's possible that I could suffer from heat exhaustion, so yesterday I finally caved and used the treadmill for a short run. I used to only run on the treadmill, but as I started to train more I really transitioned to running outside, and now I can't stand running inside.  For some reason, running on the treadmill seems much more boring to me now, which once again points to "mental" fatigue versus physical.

It could be that some people are capable of shutting off their minds than others, and that those people are automatically more suited to distance sports, just as some people are born with a more natural affinity to play the piano.  But there is no one on earth who was born with the ability to play Chopin; they had to practice, even if they were naturally better at it. That's why we only train up to 20 miles before the marathon- our muscles can handle it after that, but we just have to power through the last six miles with gritted teeth on sheer will. So in essence, marathon training is about turning your mind from an impediment to your greatest weapon.  As Dory said in Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming"-- Just keep running!!

The Air is Rare: “High Altitude training”

For the long Fourth of July weekend, I was lucky enough to fly back to Colorado for a few days.  The trip is not an easy (or cheap) one to make, so I am not able to make it all that often except for Christmas or Thanksgiving.  I haven’t been there in the middle of the summer for years, so I was really excited to be able to go hiking in the mountains and do other Colorado summer activities.  Flash was not exactly thrilled that I was going to be missing the first long training run with him, but since it was just an 8 miler, I figured it wouldn’t be so bad by ourselves (unlike a 17 or 20 miler).  We decided to keep up by texting each other our runs and distances over the weekend.

Now, I’m sure that some of you have heard that Denver is also called the Mile High City, because it’s located at an altitude of 5280 feet.  Growing up I never thought that much about the altitude, except when I had to add in extra flour for baking.  When I was a swimmer, though, we would go on travel trips to sea level meets, and I remember feeling like there was a huge amount more oxygen down there (like I was Popeye with a lot of spinach).  I once read that people who grow up at high altitude actually have a greater lung and heart capacity; think about the sherpas who live in the Himilayas and are able to climb without oxygen tanks (not that Denver is quite so high- ha).  There are even Olympic athletes who come to Colorado Springs to train because it makes their peak-condition bodies even more efficient.  Having lived on the East Coast for several years, however, my body has slowly gotten used to the higher amount of oxygen, and so it sometimes takes a couple of days for me to acclimatize when I get back home. 

I flew into Denver on Thursday afternoon, and I had to get a short 3 miler in that day according to my training schedule.  My brother, who is a Dartmouth Varsity rower, was more than willing to head out with me for a short run.  Our house is located really close to the Highline Canal, which is a long dirt trail along a low canal that goes for dozens of miles and is occasionally shaded by cottonwood trees (where my dad used to train for his marathons).  That first run felt just fine- we went at a moderate jog, chatting along the way, and I didn’t feel like I was having trouble breathing; but I also wasn’t really pushing myself because I wanted to let my body adjust to working out with less oxygen.

My eight mile run on Saturday was a different story.  I got up early to avoid the worst of the summer heat, and my mom rode alongside me on her bike to hand me water bottles so I wouldn’t get dehydrated (especially in the dry Colorado heat).  I felt fine at first, starting out at about 30 seconds slower than my half marathon pace.  After a couple of miles, though, I noticed that my chest felt somewhat tight, and my breathing wasn’t as easy as it could have been.  I knew that it wasn’t my fitness level, because I did a 10 mile run last week at a comparable pace in DC.  I had to fall back on my running experience and remember that most of the time, physical discomfort while you are running is temporary and eventually you will hit another “high.”  I did hit a stride on the back stretch, and ended up picking up my pace toward the end. It hurt a bit, but I finished out the run in only a minute slower than Flash did back home in DC.

One of the other great things about being home is that I am able to do a lot of outdoor activities that are unique to Colorado.  On the Fourth of July, we headed up to Guanella Pass in the Rockies for a hike.  It was a perfect cross-training day for me: hiking steep inclines at 10,000 feet across snow drifts to Alpine cirque lakes was a welcome change from spinning class.  I noticed when I got out of the car and started trekking up the trailhead that my body had to readjust to even less oxygen, but soon I felt fine as my body acclimatized. It’s an amazing feeling to be up that high, with only the music of the wind in the background and the cool mountain air whipping down from the peaks across the still-iced lake.  Even though the air is thinner up there, I sometimes feel like it’s one of the few places I can truly breathe. 

Apart from training, I got to hang out with my siblings, who have also each embarked on healthy lifestyles similar to my own in different ways.  My little sister, who is only 16, has already been a vegetarian for a year (though like me, she still eats fish), and my brother is very committed to eating healthily ever since he joined crew (he eats small amounts of complex carbohydrates, and lots of lean protein).  Even though we all grew up in the most fit and active state in America, I feel that in the past year or two we have all encouraged each other to be healthier and to fuel our bodies well. As my brother has said, people ask him (as they ask me) whether he “is allowed” to eat certain foods, and he just responds “it’s what I want to do, not what I have to do.” 

Obviously, I didn’t go to Denver just to “train at high altitude,” but I’m sure that it is going to add to my overall fitness.  It’s the same concept as adding hills to your normal runs, speeding up at intervals on the treadmill.  I noticed a difference while I was there, so I must have fallen into a fitness complacency for the past few weeks (yes, even when I ran 10 miles).  There are always new ways to push yourself to an even greater capacity, and to reap the benefits in the long run (pun intended).  I’m excited to see how fast I feel on my first run back at sea level!