Month: May 2014

athletes

Weight categories not height categories, but why?

Sam B3 Comments

A Guardian science article last week posed an excellent question. Why don’t sports have height categories? They have weight categories after all, to ensure fairness, and height matters too.

In 1968 Thomas Khosla, a lecturer in medical statistics at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, published an article in the British Medical Journal on what he called the ‘Unfairness of Certain Events in the Olympic Games’. The unfairness was caused by another controversial T: Tallness.

Khosla crunched the numbers and concluded that “[d]ata on Olympic winners show that many running and jumping events are seriously biased in favour of the very tall.” As he pointed out, weight categories already existed in Olympic sports to ensure ‘fairness’ – so why not height categories too? As he says

“Short champion throwers, runners, hurdlers, and jumpers are waiting to be discovered. Within every nation shorter enthusiasts, however athletically able, are systematically screened off by a process of selection in the open events which favours the very tall.” There seemed no logical reason to have weight categories in boxing or weightlifting, and not height categories in high jumping or javelin throwing. (There may be some sports where height is a disadvantage too, so height categories might even make sports fairer for some taller participants).

The Guardian piece suggests we focus on height instead of on testosterone. Regardless of what you make of that argument, height does seem to make an independent difference in many sports.

Tall swimmers, for example, have a huge advantage. See Bigger is better, except when it’s not.

The same reasoning explains why elite swimmers are big. Great male swimmers often are 6 feet 4 inches tall, and muscular. And because of the advantage that large muscles give for sprints over short distances, the shorter the distance an athlete must swim, the greater the advantage it is to be big.

Tall swimmers also have another advantage: because swimmers are horizontal in the water, their long bodies give them an automatic edge. “It’s the difference between long canoes and short canoes,” Dr. Joyner said.

Height is also an advantage in rowing. That’s why even  lightweight rowers are tall. The average height of Olympic women rowing lightweight is still above the average height for women.  And that’s why there are difficult issues about disordered eating and lightweight rowing.

I’m the shortest person in my family. At 5’7 I’m above average for a Canadian woman. But my kids have nicknamed me the “Hobbit Mother.” So the issues of height and fairness hit close to home!

 

 

 

Guest Post · yoga

Meg Stone asks, “Has Yoga Made Me Too Healthy?” (Guest Post)

Sam B7 Comments

picture of Meg Stone behind a mic wearing a red topby Meg Stone

I recently attended a yoga workshop led by one of my new favorite teachers. She began by telling us the story of how she started practicing.  She was working as an advocate for abused and neglected children, struggling with everything from ulcers to insomnia, when she walked into a yoga class at a gym.  Mostly, she said, because they were having a sale and the teacher was friendly.

Eventually she did more yoga, gave up smoking and started eating healthy. From there she left child protective services and became a yoga teacher. Her classes are so good that I’ve skipped work events and cut vacations short for them. I find it reassuring to know that one of my favorite teachers is thriving in her life outside the yoga studio–she’s physically healthy, she’s doing what she loves, and she’s good at it. But I can’t help feeling sad that children whose lives are diminished by violence and abuse have lost a valuable ally.

Though I don’t teach yoga, my story is a lot like hers. I used to work at a domestic violence crisis center where I helped women get orders of protection against their abusers. Most of my job was sitting with women for hours while they waited to see a judge. Sometimes courthouse waiting rooms were so small that the only option was to sit directly across from the abuser and avoid eye contact for over an hour.

Other waiting rooms had enough privacy that women felt comfortable telling me about times they were threatened with knives or thrown down flights of stairs. Some women who had already left their abusers lived with hundreds of hang-up calls a night and no way to prove their exes were the ones calling. I remember how hard I worked to hide my gag reactions when women removed their sunglasses to show me the puffy black and purple marks around their eyes.

After two years in court I got a job working nights in a domestic violence shelter and another job working days in a domestic violence law firm. I started drinking diet soda and nine in the morning and drank can after can until my teeth stung. I ate frozen fried chicken and hot breaded cheese sticks, or I didn’t eat at all. I volunteered at a third domestic violence program on top of my two paid jobs. I was tired all the time but when I tried to sleep at night I was so agitated that I couldn’t.

At the time I would have laughed at anybody who suggested I do yoga. Though I was emotionally raw most of the time and at 23 couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, I saw that kind of self-care as a pointless distraction from the real work of helping women who needed me.

Eventually I burned out. I started locking myself in the shelter office and pretended I was busy when women knocked. I called in sick a lot, and eventually realized I couldn’t go back.

After I left domestic violence crisis work I found therapy, a support group, body work and, eventually, yoga. Now I practice about three times a week and have never felt saner or stronger than I do now.

I still do abuse work but I no longer have the stomach for crisis intervention. I’m the Executive Director of an abuse prevention and self-defense training organization. A lot of our programs are for homeless women, low-income teens with disabilities, and other people who are struggling with serious threats to their stability. But at least as many of our students are living relatively stable, privileged lives.

I know the work I do is valuable. Like other people who teach physical skills, I’ve seen dozens of students make major changes in their lives after they experienced the ways in which their bodies are powerful.  But I used to be doing a lot more for people whose options and resources were extremely limited. One of the reasons I stopped is because I’m a lot less numb than I used to be.

I used to go to court hearings with women who were afraid of losing their children.  I’d shake it off by shoving squares of giant Hershey bars into my mouth.

As a privileged person who has never been personally affected by poverty or serious violence, my interactions with the world of food stamps, public housing, and restraining order hearings was almost always a choice. The truth I don’t like to face is that the healthier I get, the more often I choose to insulate myself from that world.

As grateful as I am for the strength, calm and sanity my yoga practice gives me, I struggle with how much my own desire for wellness has made the hardest and most important social justice work intolerable. I have endless respect for people who bring yoga and wellness programs to shelters and prisons. And I sometimes make donations to these organizations. Like I sometimes protest the lack of affordable housing and I occasionally email my elected officials about legislation to support parents who become homeless as a result of domestic violence.  But more often I roll out my mat and take care of myself instead.

Meg Stone is the Executive Director of IMPACT Boston, an abuse prevention and self-defense training organization. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in Cognoscenti, the opinion page of the Boston NPR station, The Patriot Ledger, make/shift, Ms. and Bitch.

fitness · traveling

Fitness Tourism Keeps It Fresh

Tracy I6 Comments

I’ve got some travel lined up over the summer, starting with just over a week in and around Zurich, Switzerland. I confess that I had some concerns going into this because I’m in a great routine with my workouts at the moment. Precision Nutrition’s Lean Eating Program is working for me.

But I don’t want to slide into old obsessions, where vacations–which I am very fortunate to have–become scary and dreaded because of the impact they might have on my routine. That’s both ungrateful and harmful (the way any obsession that interferes with the capacity to enjoy other good things in life is harmful).

So rather than give into that, I’ve taken a different approach. My vacation strategy this time is to explore fitness options that aren’t available to me at home. That could be something as simple as a new running route (for example, running in Zurich is not available to me at home) or as novel as checking out the fitness park (called the “vitaparcours“) down the road from my aunt’s house.

20140508-161043.jpg
My aunt lives in Jona, a charming area near Rapperswil on the shores of Lake Zurich. Her street is up on hill with a gorgeous view of the lake. The walking and running opportunities around here are outstanding, especially if you want to do some hill training.

Yesterday, she told me about this Vitaparcours. I’d just arrived earlier and wasn’t up to a full-on workout, but we ventured out in the rain so she could show me where to go. The route to the fitness park takes a country lane along a ridge overlooking town and the lake, sloping down on the other side to farmland where a few sheep graze in a lush green pasture. We passed by some stylish houses in both contemporary and traditional designs, a restaurant with outdoor seating that looks out over the lake with the Alps in the distance, and then down a steep slope to the road.

The entrance to the fitness park is about 2 kilometres from the house, at the edge of the woods. There are fifteen stations, clearly marked and numbered, each with some equipment and a sign (in German) explaining what to do. Like this:

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There’s also what they call a “Finnish trail,” which is basically a soft bark trail through the woods. We strolled along that for a bit too, and my aunt translated the instructions for a fitness test that you could do there if you wanted to.

All of this got me excited to give this park a try as soon as I could (though not yesterday because not only was I exhausted, but also it poured rain throughout the day and evening, with only very short breaks of clear weather).

This morning my aunt’s partner dropped me off at the Vitaparcours on his way to the grocery store. It was perfect weather for a run through the forest.

I had my Garmin to tell me distance and time, just so I knew how long I’d been gone, not because I actually cared about time today. I’ve been reading Summit Seeker by ultra-runner Vanessa Runs, and she makes trail running sound so fabulous and captivating. I adopted her suggestion of having a willingness to stop and take in the surroundings. What a good decision because the setting is idyllic. You run mostly in the woods, across a bridge over a river, uphill at the beginning, then downhill after that.

It’s a relatively short loop (2.9K) with a station every 150 metres or so. They have pull up bars, rings, stumps for doing step ups, beams to test your balance on, and lots of other activities. I was more interested in running and stopping to take photos than in doing any of the activities, though I did all of the stretching and made a heartfelt but failed attempt to do an unassisted pull-up.

I encountered very few people — a woman who was pole-walking, a couple of teenaged girls out for a run, and towards the end of my time in the woods, some school kids who looked like they were doing some sort of nature exercise or orientation assignment.

When I got to the end of the trail, I kept going, back out to the road and up the long climb to the residential enclave my aunt lives in. I ran past the restaurant and the grazing sheep, along the ridge and through the narrow lane, back past the exquisite rock gardens with lush greenery abloom with spring flowers, to the house.

In all, I covered less than 5K, but somehow being in a new setting with novel surroundings made it the most memorable less-than-5K I’ve ever run.

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On tomorrow’s fitness tourism agenda: Alpa Mare.

eating

My desert island grocery list

Sam B11 Comments

Tracy’s goodbye letter to chocolate made me wonder about my favourite foods. Dark chocolate is one for sure. But what other foods do I love? They have to stand the test of time, leap out at me from menus, and I’d pack them for a stay on a desert island.

With those criteria in mind, and in no particular order, here’s my top twenty five:

1. Dark chocolate with sea salt, or just plain dark chocolate

2. Coffee

3. Macadamia nuts

4. Almonds

5. Hummus

6. Mangoes

7. Avocado

8. Spinach

9. Smoked tofu/tempeh

10. Ice cream

11. Blueberries

12. Raspberries

13. Sourdough bread

14. Greek yogurt

15. Asparagus

16. Black beans

17. Sweet potato french fries

18. Poached eggs

19. Bananas

20. Oatmeal

21. Pears

22. Gouda

23. Red peppers

24. Black licorice

25. Toffees

What’s on your list?

What are your favourite foods?

And excuse me. I’m hungry now. Off to buy groceries.

Uncategorized

Not “Almost Fifty” Forever: Time to Change Our Name

Tracy I

The blog name, “Fit, Feminist, and (almost) Fifty,” is time-limited. But “Fit Is a Feminist Issue” is not.

We’re still committed to our “fittest by fifty” challenges. Sam is doing the Friends for Life bike rally from July 27-August 1, riding her bike from Toronto to Montreal to raise money for people living with HIV/AIDS. I’m doing the Olympic Distance Triathlon in Bracebridge, Ontario in August and another at Lakeside in September.

Sam turns 50 on August 31st.  I turn 50 on September 24.  Nothing much else is going to change. So we thought we’d just get used to the new blog name now, and slide seamlessly into the new decade in late summer and early fall.  As Sam says, we’re entering into the “youth of old age.”  Bring it on!

 

 

Uncategorized

Bike Maintenance Is a Feminist Issue

Tracy I15 Comments

Anatomy of a bike.
Anatomy of a bike.

My road bike still scares and intimidates me a bit for a few different reasons. One of the biggies is that I don’t know a lot about how to take care of it. I had an embarrassing moment about a week ago when I couldn’t figure out how to put air in the tires.

You’d think it’s obvious. Put the pump on the thing and start pumping. It worked like that last fall, didn’t it? I posted to FB and tagged a few people whom I thought could help me, including Sam and her partner, Jeff. Jeff came through pretty quickly with, “Did you unscrew the valve?” Me, “What valve?”

I went out and had a second look. Sure enough, road bikes have a little thing on the air valve that you need to unscrew to pump up the tire and then screw back on when you’re done. And I don’t mean the cap. I know about the cap. No, this is a different thing that screws up and down at the tip of the air valve.

Me: “Oh!”

Then there were the responses to my query about bike racks for the car.  The most popular comment was: you don’t need a rack if you’re just taking your bike and perhaps one other.  You can just take off the front wheel and stick the bike in the car.

Take off the front wheel, you say?  But I don’t know how to take off the front wheel. [That was then]

So as you can see, my bike knowledge is, let’s just say, limited. This might be okay if I’m just commuting here and there around town on my sturdy commuter bike. I’m never so far from home that I would be totally stranded.

But if I’m doing the bike leg of a triathlon, or riding with a group who I don’t want to hold up, I better know something about the bike. Like how to fix a flat, for example. Until Saturday, I would have been kind of stuck, or at least thoroughly dependent on the good will of others, if my tire went flat while I was out on the road.

This makes me feel a bit more dependent than I like to feel, which is why I think bike maintenance is a feminist issue of sorts. I’m not averse to asking for help, or to accepting it if it’s offered. And I think there are some things that require specialized knowledge and skill, and I’m okay with that.  Basic, day to day bike maintenance isn’t one of them.

What changed on Saturday? I attended “Bike Maintenance 101” at our local MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op–love it!). Sam emailed me a link about it  a few days after the tire pumping and bike rack queries (she’s subtle that way). Before Saturday, the only thing I ever did to maintain my bikes was to put air in the tires. Maybe, if it was a messy day, I’d run a rag over the frame to get rid of the grit.  But I didn’t pay much attention to what’s called the drive train.

On Saturday, I learned that this is without question the most important part of the bike!  Who knew? (lots of people, apparently).  And it doesn’t just need to be repaired when somethings goes wrong. No.  It requires constant attention.

Back in the fall Sam told me she cleans her bike (the nice one anyway; not sure about the commuter bike) after every ride. This struck me as going overboard but I didn’t say anything. But the bike mechanic guy, Trevor, who ran the workshop at MEC also cleans his bike after every ride.

So, first new habit I need to integrate into my biking life: regular cleaning and maintenance of the parts of the bike that make it go: chain rings, derailleurs, chain, and a few other essential bits.

I arrived at MEC to find a semi-circle of chairs set up near the front of the store with a bike up on a repair stand in the middle. We had eight men and five women in our session. Other than myself, who asked a ton of questions, there were a lot of very vocal men, happy to jump in to answer them.

The main lesson was about chain cleaning, which you can do with a rag and oil if you do it every time you take the bike out, or with a special gizmo and chain cleaning solution if you let things build up.  I’ve never cleaned or even considered cleaning a bike chain before in my life. Honestly, I’ve never even added lubricant to my bike chain before.

That might have been okay before, when I had a $200 bike. But now I have two bikes that are a lot more expensive than that, so I’m going to do the chain cleaning thing. You use a brush to get the grit off, and a rag to wipe it down. You can use one of those things that you clamp onto your chain. Here’s what it looks like:

Bike chain cleaning tool from MEC.
Bike chain cleaning tool from MEC.

Trevor gave us a handout with a detailed anatomy of a bike and a “beginner’s home shop checklist.” It was a very long list that included spare tubes (check — I have ONE spare tube), tire levers (not sure if I have that), a patch kit (got it), a pump with a gauge (got it), various tools and cleaning supplies and three kinds of lube (wet, dry–said to be optional–, and grease).

The clinic was a bit haphazard, truth be told.  He kept asking whether there was anything specific that we wanted to know. After the basic drive train maintenance (you don’t just clean it, you also have to lube it regularly to keep it moving smoothly, and not overdo it or the oil will splatter all over the wheel. You’re also supposed to check your chain from time to time to make sure it’s not stretching out — I will leave that to the bike shop when I take the bikes in for tune-ups), and a demo about how to take the front wheel off, I asked about repairing a flat.

For me, that was the highlight. I know there’s a ton of info available on YouTube the shows all sorts of things, but seeing it done right in front of me where I could ask questions demystified it for me. I do think that’s something I can learn how to do. They recommended practicing removing the wheel and loosening the tire from the rim a few times. Not only will that make me more efficient, but it makes it easier to work with the tire after a few times.  Only thing is: beware of pinch punctures–that’s when the tube gets caught between the rim and the tire and gets a hole in it.

Yes, this is a very random list of what was taught and what I learned.  I feel slightly more independent about my bike.  I don’t have a partner who can help me out with this (e.g. when I couldn’t figure out how to put air in the tires Renald said I should take the bike to the shop; he’s a lot better with sailboats).  I also feel in a better position to care for my bikes in the way they deserve to be cared for.

I do feel that bike maintenance is a bit of a guy thing. The men at the workshop were more vocal and more hands on than the women. In fact, besides me, only one of the other women even asked any questions. Responding to this tendency for the men to dominate, there’s a group in Toronto called Wenches with Wrenches. They offer bike repairs for women, by women. And they have workshops.  I don’t know of anything like it in London, but I can see why it would be a good thing.

After the clinic I took the shopping list in hand and it felt overwhelming. I re-grouped in the clothing section and chose a new jersey. I had no idea what I already had in my patch kit at home, so I thought I should check. I bought a multi-tool, which I turned out to have already in my road bike patch kit. I tossed it into my commuter panier. You never know when you’re going to need a screwdriver or an allen key.  I also bought some lube.  I will acquire other things based on what I end up feeling I need once I get into maintaining my bike and what others recommend to me as essential tools.

With this basic knowledge in my repertoire now it’s probably time for me to get on my road bike. I’ve not even had it out once this season yet and the clock is ticking towards the Cambridge Triathlon on June 15th.

The bottom line is: my bike will be in good shape between more significant tune-ups at the shop and I will not be a damsel in distress at the side of the road if I get a flat. I can do this.

aging · athletes · look at you

Physio promises and running dreams

Sam B6 Comments

Physiotherapists like me. I’m a model patient. I come in before I’m completely laid up with whatever’s bothering me and I do the exercises they assign. I’m disciplined like that. I listen to instructions. I respect their expertise.

That’s learned behavior. It’s worked in the past.

I’m also lucky. I have a great job with excellent benefits including physio and a sports medicine clinic not far from my office door.

I was there Thursday for my initial assessment about my knee pain. So different from family doctors and their usual advice of taking it easy for six to eight weeks and seeing if the pain goes away. The sports medicine team instead focus on keeping you active. (I’ve written before about how much I love their attitude. See Aging and the myth of wearing out your joints.)

If your knee feels better after a given activity, that’s true for Aikido and cycling, go right ahead. If it feels worse, stop now. (Running and I’ve already stopped. It hurts! ) Jury is out on CrossFit. I’ll see what I can do this week.

Their claim, which I believe, is that people do as much or more damage to their bodies through inactivity.

One bad thing about me as a physio patient is that I don’t watch television. Not very much anyway. (Though I’ve mentioned my thing for Once Upon a Time here.) What’s the connection? If you’ve got an hour of physio exercises to do a day, it’s easy. Just watch your favourite show and do your physio homework. Bing bang bong, done.

It’s true I’m watching House of Cards with my partner, Jeff. But he works in Toronto and is there some weeknights. When we pledge to watch something together–and it’s tricky to find something, we have pretty different taste–we generally don’t watch ahead. No Netflix adultery at our house.

So I need a back up physio show. I haven’t watched Orange is the New Black yet and that’s on my list. And this morning Nat posted to Facebook about watching and loving Orphan Black. So I’m scoping out my options.

What’s the physio drill?

Clam shell leg exercises to strengthen glutes, bridges (ditto), also lots of stretching and foam rolling quads and glutes.

That’s week 1. More to follow.

No word back on the x-rays, and I’ve got an MRI in my future, but assuming all that stuff comes back negative–but for mild osteoarthritis which I know about–and it’s just soft tissue stuff, then I should be good to run the Kincardine duathlon in June. (I’d already said goodbye to the Cambridge race in June.

Assuming I do all the physio regularly. Which I will. Because I’m good like that.

 

cycling · fashion

Riding bikes in skirts and dresses, totally fine if that’s your thing, here’s how

Sam B6 Comments

 

 

Though I’ve been a commuting cyclist for many years, it’s only recently I’ve gotten comfortable with riding to work in skirts and dresses. It’s a sweat thing mostly, not a modesty thing.

It’s hot here and I ride in cycling clothes and change once I get to work.

But the last few summers I’ve had lots of errands, lunch dates etc thing to do basically on my way to and from work. I also took my first stay at home sabbatical which meant more daytime errand running, on my bicycle. I started wearing my regular clothes on my bike and my regular summer clothes are mostly summer dresses and skirts. I love it. I like riding bikes in skirts a lot more than I like running skirts.

How do I do it?

Bike shorts under my skirts and dresses. That was key. No modesty worries then and I can’t imagine riding a bike without bike shorts. It also solved the dreaded summer thigh chafing problem. (See Thigh chafing and the joys of summer.)

I’m fussy about my bikes and seat height and I know it’s a bit “princess and the pea” like but my seat height is all wrong if I’m not wearing padded bike shorts. Fussy, fussy.

Here’s advice from other women riders:

I also got a pair of SPD sandals for my birthday. That helped too. (My road bike has Look pedals, but my cyclocross bike has SPD) They are not the femme-est sandals in the land but they work. I keep fancy sandals, in colours other than black, in my office but often I don’t change.

Now I confess I’m a bit ambivalent about riding in dresses as a fashion imperative. Sometimes the whole Cycle Chic movement can feel like just one more thing. (See Do Cupcake Rides and Heels on Wheels help or hurt the cause of women’s cycling?)

But for me, I love riding my bike in summer sundresses. Speaking of which, could it please warm up soon? PLEASE!

(Readers who crave an extra challenge can try the pencil skirt, but not me: Bike In A Skirt: The Pencil Skirt Challenge.)

 

 

On Being Kind to Ourselves and Succeeding in Physical Activity (Guest Post)
competition · Guest Post · racing · running · training

On Being Kind to Ourselves and Succeeding in Physical Activity (Guest Post)

Lauren Freeman4 Comments

 

In line with Kate Norlock’s recent post on this blog that highlighted the importance of being more self-forgiving in the domain of fitness, I’d like to continue on this theme and discuss the way that I exercise with the hope that others will come to love physical activity (to whatever degree they do it); learn to be easier on themselves about physical activity; and at the same time, not give up on meeting their goals and becoming more fit.

Since I began university, I have been an avid runner and fitness enthusiast. I run 4-6 days per week and on days when I don’t run, I cross-train either by spinning, rowing (on a machine), doing the elliptical, and sometimes biking. In addition to my daily running/cardio, for the past five years, I have been building my ashtunga yoga practice seven days per week. Exercise is an non-negotiable part of my daily routine for which I am entirely unapologetic and I am lucky to have a partner who understands how important it is for me and who supports this. To many, so much exercise may seem excessive, but for me, it is what I need in order to function well in every other facet of my life (as a professor/teacher/writer, a partner, and a mother of a 22-month old child). In the last ten years, I have run 3 marathons and countless half marathons, but really, what I love the most are my daily runs, which set a rhythm for my days and for my life.

What many find odd about the way that I run, is that I don’t “train” in any standard sense of the term. That is not to say that I don’t push myself (sometimes) or that I don’t accomplish goals (I do!) or that I don’t improve (I definitely do). But I don’t train in any systematic or scientific way. And that is intentional.

You see, I find that in my professional life (which at the moment and for many academics, comprises a large portion of my life), I am always competing with others: be it in terms of getting a permanent job (which, after four years, I just did), getting papers accepted into conferences, publishing, etc. I find all of this terribly grueling, terribly tiring, and often, terribly off-putting. So exercise, and running in particular, is a way for me to escape from the competition (with others), the sitting, the deadlines, the stress, and the pressure. It allows me to clear my mind, to be alone, and to move.

As a trained philosopher, most of the things I do I do in a systematic and scientific way. Running, however, is perhaps the biggest exception. And I have found that I’m an anomaly in this way. I don’t read about running (although perhaps I should), I’ve never written about running (although this is fun!), I certainly don’t theorize about running, and I don’t even talk much about it. I just do it.

Although running is a non-negotiable part of my life, it’s not something that I track or chart. Often, when I come back from a run, someone will ask me: “how far did you go?” and to this question, I can only ever give a time, but never a distance. I never know how far I’ve run, only how long. Often during the week, I run for around 40 minutes, but some days I cover much more distance than others. On weekends, I try to run for over an hour. On days when I’m feeling energetic, I’ll run faster and harder and I’ll seek out hills; on days when I’m feeling less so, I’ll go at a slower pace on flat terrain. And that’s fine. You see, running is one of the only areas of my life where I don’t beat myself up if I don’t do well (that is, if I don’t have a “good” run), and if I do have a good run, well, all the better.

Now don’t get me wrong: just because I don’t chart my runs, or set out any systematic, training plan, does not mean that I don’t improve, push myself, or accomplish my goals. I remember many years ago wanting to run my first half-marathon. At the time, I was running around 5 days per week but I had never run for more than 35 minutes (but again, I had no idea how much distance I would cover in that time). About a week before the marathon, I pushed myself to run for 45 minutes. I felt pretty good afterwards and thought, “might as well try the half marathon.” The goal was simply to finish.

Race day arrived and I finished in exactly two hours. I was ecstatic. But what made me the happiest was that I didn’t pressure myself, I didn’t get anxious or nervous, I just did it at my own pace and let whatever happen happen.

For me, the most important goal of running is the daily enjoyment that I get from it. I know that the moment I start setting strict goals, if I don’t meet them, I’ll get down on myself, chastise myself, and feel like a failure. So the solution that works best for me is not to set too many extraordinary goals, but rather to just do what I love as much as possible and let the success naturally follow. Keeping up and most importantly, enjoying the daily routine is the goal. I know my body and I know what it is capable of. I know that many days it works really well and that some days it doesn’t, and that’s just fine. I also know that if I really want to achieve something, because I keep up a basic (and relatively high) level of physical fitness, I’ll be able to do it. Most importantly, I know that I’ll be able to do it on my terms, in my way, and in my own time.

When I’m asked how I trained for marathons, I say: “I don’t.” Now that isn’t exactly true, since by the standards of someone who does no exercise, my daily routine is a rigorous form of training. But for me, it’s just what I do. I don’t think of it in terms of training because the minute I tell myself that I’m “training,” it becomes stressful and it puts a kind of pressure on me (and I don’t work well under pressure). I don’t like to fail and especially with running, I don’t like to make any part of it unenjoyable. Setting standards (like, I must run X km in time T) and systemizing what I love would make it unenjoyable.

So in order to prepare for marathons, I continue my daily running routine, I do a few longer runs (an hour and a half run, an hour and forty-five minute run, and usually one two-hour run about 10 days before the marathon) but that’s it. And of the three marathons I’ve done, each time I’ve cut between 5-10 minutes off my previous time.

None of this is to say that I don’t push myself. I do. But my point is that for me, preparing works best when I don’t set specific goals, but rather when my goals are relaxed (run for 90 minutes at whatever pace feels good). This way, I can always meet my goals. This way, I can feel good about my body, my level of physical activity, and my success. I do know, however, that this way of running is not for everyone.

Ever since I was around eight, one of my biggest goals has been to do an Ironman. I have given myself ten years (from now) in which to accomplish this goal. I imagine that my relaxed way of preparing for marathons will not work for this particular and much more challenging goal. And that’s fine. Nevertheless, I hope to find a way of training that will continue to allow me to improve, to succeed, and to accomplish my goal and most importantly, to do so in a way that still allows me to take pleasure in physical activity and to feel good about myself while doing it.

new running shoes A pair of shoes just for walking? Who knew? (Guest post)
Guest Post · running

A pair of shoes just for walking? Who knew? (Guest post)

ebjourno2 Comments

I’m not just breaking in a pair of shoes. I’m breaking in my feet.

Let me explain. Two years ago, I bicycled daily from temporary lodgings in Gatineau across a very long and miserably windy bridge to Carleton University, in Ottawa. Not because I loved to exercise – for four decades, I made fun of all those damnable endorphin junkies – but rather because I was on a student budget.

I thought I’d go through the winter as well, until I hit black ice one day and bleakly saw the choice between splatting into a car windshield or falling over just before the smash-up. I picked the wipe-out, scraping my entire left side along a nasty mix of snow, frozen water and asphalt. (But I was alive! And I found my glasses before they got crushed by traffic!)

Studded winter tires are not for me. It was time for a switch to municipal transit.

As an earnest-looking sort with an Ottawa City student bus pass, I managed to get away with using it to zip me into the nation’s capital. For a while, anyway. Eventually Gatineau bus drivers got tired of my freeloading, and ordered me to smarten up.

And let me tell ya, I am some kinda cheapskate. So I started to walk into Ottawa. I wore my usual big warm coat and the heavy boots that had seen me through two previous winters.

Once I finished my courses and moved back to my smalltown home, I happily lazed about , avoiding all exercise. No need!

One day, an ice storm made the simplest of visits to the corner store a dangerous trek. In response, my spouse, who runs daily, bought a treadmill. (It’s a bit of a monster, offering a maximum incline of 15 percent, and a speed of 12 miles per hour.)

And off she sprinted. The whole house would shake.

One day, after she’d safely left for work, I walked on the magic carpet. In woolly slippers. It felt like I wasn’t making a commitment that way. Just testing it out. All comfy-like, in my PJs.

After a couple of days, I turned on CBC Radio 1 to keep me company as I walked ever onward (unless it’s a call-in show, or Stuart Mclean – then I skedaddle over to Radio 2 PDQ).

By the time I got to a daily four miles, I was hooked. Better sleep, and stress levels were way down. I then decided I might want proper footwear. I chose an ancient pair of blue suede shoes, hoary fashion sneakers I was holding onto for bicycling to the comic book shop once the warmer weather arrived. The shoes felt weird for a couple of days, but I soon settled in.

Weeks later, my spouse, the runner, pursed her lips. “It’s like you’re running bare feet,” she said. “You’re getting older, you know. Your arches are going to fall.” And she bought the gift of expensive black shoes, with gel in the soles, specifically made for running.

I’ve never owned a pair before.

When I put them on this morning and got onto the treadmill, I could feel the give for the first time. And they’re so light! So airy! Yet the usual four-mile walk has left me with all kinds of weird muscle kinks and aches.

She says it’s going to take a little time before my body gets used to proper shoes. So I am, in truth, breaking in my feet.

After that, I’m considering getting rid of the jammy pants and buying a pair of shorts.

 

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Eleanor Brown is a freelance writer living in Sherbrooke, Quebec. She’s a former managing editor of Pink Triangle Press’ flagship publication, Xtra, in Toronto, and the former editor of a daily newspaper, the Sherbrooke Record. She can be reached at ebjourno at gmail.com.