Month: October 2014

racing · running · sports nutrition · training

Training for my first marathon (Guest post)

stephkkeating6 Comments
A long run with marathon training buddies.
A long run with marathon training buddies

I’m about four days from completing my very first marathon – the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. I’m terrified and I’m excited and, to be perfectly honest, I’m finding it very difficult to put this whole experience into words. I’ve tried several times to write a blog post talking about why I decided to run a marathon, and every time I’ve gotten a few paragraphs in and scrapped the whole thing. The truth is, I’m not entirely sure why I’m running it – yet here I am, with less than a week to go!

My training has been rather free-form. I’ve aimed to do at least a couple of 5-10 km runs throughout each week and I’ve added on a couple of kilometres to my long runs on each weekend. I have also added strength training back in to my routine, and I am just loving that!

So how has it all gone?

Well. I’ve chafed in places I didn’t realize it was possible to chafe. I’ve also learned that there can be such thing as too much BodyGlide. I’ve gotten blisters on top of blisters, and sought out the measures I can take to avoid blisters (hello, my new friend moleskin!). I’ve become a connoisseur of energy gels (for the record: Gu Peanut Butter flavour is my favourite, followed by Salted Caramel. Espresso Love and Chocolate Outrage are tolerable but not preferable). I’ve discussed the finer points of electrolyte replacement beverages (Nuun is my go-to now). I’ve required more food than I ever thought possible. I swear, it feels like there’s a black hole inside me instead of a stomach! (“Some people,” my good friend warned me, “may ask if you lose weight during marathon training. You don’t. Because you’re eating so much. All the time.” This is truth.)

Legs after a trail run
Legs after a trail run

I’ve burst into tears while running on more than one occasion. My longest run, 32 km, was a disaster. Nothing felt “right”. My legs, stomach, and head were all conspiring against me. I ran it on a Monday afternoon instead of on the weekend, and as the day turned into night, my sweat turned cold. My stomach growled. When I finally made it to my neighbourhood, I knew I wanted a nice comforting burrito bowl. Guac and cheese? Yes, please! But I stepped to the door of the burrito place at 9:02, only to find they closed at 9:00. I cried on the short walk back to my apartment, hoping no one would see me and ask what was wrong, because I knew even in my run-addled state of mind that “The burrito place was closed!” was going to sound absurd to pretty much everyone. (Happy ending to that story: the Chinese place next door was still open!)

Most recently, I started a run this weekend only to be greeted with a foreign, burning pain in my knee. Panic set in immediately. What was this? What did it mean? Was I injured? What if I couldn’t run the marathon? I let out a full-on sob and alarmed a woman walking nearby, who seemed rather skeptical when I insisted I was okay. The pain worked itself out a few minutes later, thankfully!

Still, it definitely hasn’t all been painful. There have been some wonderful and joyful moments. I’ve been very lucky to I have two friends who are also running marathons this year to share much of the training with. Many of my long runs have been spent in their company, and I can’t express enough how much their support has eased the process. With them, I’ve run through trails and through the city, laughed, commiserated, listened to stories and told my own, and tucked into several incredibly delicious post-run brunches. Both of them are running STWM: one (my triathlon buddy) will be doing the half-marathon as preparation for her full marathon in November, and the other I’m fortunate enough to be running the whole 42.2 km with on Sunday!

Finally, because this is my first marathon, I wanted to mark the occasion by fundraising for a worthy cause. I have been raising funds for Oolagen Youth Mental Health, a centre that runs a city-wide walk-in counselling service for youth aged 13-18 years and their families. If you would like to support me, you can do so here: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=2503535&langPref=en-CA

I have no idea what it’s going to be like to run 42.2 kilometres.The build-up is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. I have random moments where I let out an audible “eek!” to myself just thinking about it. But those who have already done it have told me that the feeling of crossing the finish line is like nothing else. I can’t wait to find out.

Trail running in Algonquin Provincial Park.
Trail running in Algonquin Provincial Park

Stephanie is a PhD candidate in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. She is also a triathlete, photographer, drinker of craft beer, and marathoner-in-training.

athletes · body image · cycling · racing · training · weight loss

Big women on bikes

Sam B17 Comments

In my recent post about strava and downhill segments, I said it was no big surprise the victories were mine as weight is an advantage downhill and I’m the largest woman out there on a road bike. I don’t think that means I don’t deserve them. After all, being small is an advantage uphill and yet we don’t say the fastest climbers don’t deserve their strava trophies because they’re small.

Here I’m using the bigger/smaller language rather than calling all larger people “fat.”  Language is tricky. See here for why.

I confess I’ve often wondered why you don’t see more women of size on road bikes. Unlike running, cycling isn’t a weight bearing exercise. Your weight isn’t a huge disadvantage when riding on flat roads. Weight does hurt going up hill. Hill climbing is all about power to weight ratio but absent hills, weight doesn’t make a big difference.

It’s also an issue accelerating from standing still but again, how often do you do that on a typical ride?

Yes, modern road bikes are light but they’re not fragile. After all, they’re mostly built for men. Here’s a good discussion of bike choices which notes though the frames are typically built for 185 lb men they’re tested to a much higher weight.

Searching for information about road cycling and larger women was itself informative. I got lots of information about cycling as a means to weight loss. There’s some of that for men too, of course. But lots of the men’s info was much more matter of fact. “So you’re 350 lbs and you want to ride a road bike, here’s some advice on wheel choices.” Larger men who ride even joke about their size. A Clydesdale club was even selling jerseys that read “Big Men Break Wheels.”

I’d like to be leaner but it’s not the reason I ride my bike. Short version: I want to get up hills faster.

I see a lot more larger women running than I see riding. Of course, there’s women of all sizes running but I have wondered what puts larger women off road cycling.

There’s the image, I suppose. Road bike riding is all about the young, lean men with the physiques of greyhounds. But it’s a mistake to look at the Tour de France bodies and think that’s what you need around here.

A friend (hi Natalie!) recently suggested it was the extremely unflattering posture one assumes on a road bike that made cycling tricky for larger women. Let’s squish all the abdominal fat and breasts together! I laughed but later I wondered whether she might be on to something.

It doesn’t help either that you assume the unflattering posture while wearing skin tight cycling lycra.

Here’s the thing. I consider myself very body positive. Hills aside, I’m okay with my large active body. But Natalie got me thinking. Even I don’t like the way I look riding my bike! I love my bike. I love cycling. I post a lot of pictures of me with my bike, usually with me standing beside the bike. But riding shots? Not so much.

It’s not that I don’t own them. If you race, chances are there are photos of you out there riding. I hate it when they’ve got the camera near the top of the hill! But I tend not to share them. Tellingly, the photo below is saved on my computer with the file name “chubbyme.”

chubbyme

Maybe I’d be less self conscious if there were more of us out there. Come play! It’ll make you feel like a child again.

Here’s a happier me on a bike shot. I’m a little lighter it’s true but I’m also wearing a flowing dress on top. It’s from Red Dress Day on the Friends for Life Bike Rally…

image

Here’s some inspirational plus sized women cyclists with their stories:

http://www.borntoreignathletics.com/

Krista Henderson is an award-winning, multi sport plus size athlete. She began her athletic career in 2004 when her Fitness Director recommended she “train like an athlete”, in response to her commitment of living an active and healthy lifestyle. This advice dramatically shifted Krista away from the diet and exercise mentality, where she constantly felt the need to “fix” herself by solely focusing on losing weight. This fresh new approach set Krista on a path of changing the way she lived which resulted in becoming happier and healthier.

Since then, Krista has earned her certification as a Johnny G Spin Instructor and Can-Fit-Pro Personal Trainer, has coached athletes of all body shapes and abilities and has competed in over 20 races (triathlon, duathlon, half marathon and rowing).Through this journey, Krista has learned some key lessons and is now on a mission to share them and inspire other plus size women, to live a healthy life by tapping into their inner athlete. The foundation of the athletic lifestyle is rooted in properly fueling your body, working out with a purpose and getting plenty of rest.

 

Fat broad on a bike

Being overweight and being a cyclist is not contradictory. I’ve been both for 22 years. Too many women are psyched out by those lean bodies dancing on the pedals up the Gatineau Hills. Cycling does not require a skinny body, it helps if you want to go fast, but it’s not necessary to enjoy cycling.

Fat girl on a bike

The image of a bike commuter, especially one with true bike style, is often one of a lithe woman wearing incredibly cute clothes, pedaling easily with cute Po Campo panniers. When I say I am a bike commuter, this is the image I like to think people have. The reality for me, however, is very different, but it is one that I do my best to accept with open arms. I am a fat girl on a bike.

 

competition · gender policing

Is a Wife Carrying Race like the Warrior Dash with Added Gender Roles?

Sam B10 Comments

wife carrying movesThe popularity of an unusual Nordic tradition, the wife carrying championship,  is on the upswing. So CBC news tells me.

“Wife carrying originated in Finland, where it is known as ‘eukokanto.’ The sports’ exact origins are unknown, but there are multiple folk tales that attribute its beginning to a band of thieves that stole the wives of local villagers and carried them through the woods….Several types of carrying are allowed: piggy-back, the fireman’s carry (slung over the shoulder) or what’s known as the Estonian-style carry, in which the wife hangs upside down with her legs wrapped around her husband’s shoulders. The winners take home the wife’s weight in beer (a Finnish tradition), five times her weight in cash and an automatic spot in the World Championship, held in Finland each year. “

Now it’s a bit of adventure/mud race, with wife carrying thrown in.  Wife carrying competitions are complete with log hurdles, water hazards, mud pits, and  hill challenges. Think Warrior Dash with wives.

The North American championships were held a couple of days ago, see Maine couple captures North American Wife Carrying Championship.

Four times they’ve been bridesmaids but now two people from Maine are champions of the North American Wife Carrying Championship. Jesse Wall carried Christina Arsenault over a 254-meter course Saturday that was bedeviled by log hurdles, sand traps and a “widow maker” water hazard at Sunday River ski resort to claim the crown in a time of 1 minute, 4.1 seconds.About 50 couples competed with the winners taking home Arsenault’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash: $482.50. Unmarried couples like Wall and Arsenault can compete. The two have finished second twice and third twice. Arsenault says they’re able to do so well because she’s “wicked small” and he’s “wicked strong.” Wall and Arsenault are now qualified for the world championship next summer in Finland.

Now I love adventure/mud races like the Warrior Dash and I’m all about having fun. But I confess the gender roles and marital status stuff put me off. What about same sex couples? Or couples in which the husband is small and the wife is strong. Can she carry him?

I admit the categories might be difficult and when you add in weight and gender, it’s tough to be fair. But still….

Some of the North American competitions allow all varieties of couples.  See this from a new report about a competition in Wisconsin. “Organizer Eric Redding said the event is open to any type of coupling. The Wife Carry had its first same-sex couple last year when two women entered together, he said. “We say ‘wife’ in parentheses. We don’t discriminate,” Redding said.”

All of this prompted me to go look at the rules for the worlds–I wondered if the international competition also took such a liberal attitude towards “wife” and who counts– and that’s where things got seriously strange.

See the WIFE CARRYING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN SONKAJARVI, FINLAND.

The competition is July 3-4th July 2015.

I won’t quote the whole things but it’s worth browsing the website. Here’s their advice on “How to Become a Master in Wife Carrying”:

You’ll find the wife carrying enthusiasts in Savo, Helsinki, Central Europe, Australia, North and South America, in short all over the world. They are strong men and tenacious women. Most of these easy-going people seem to be characterised by placidity and happiness. Of course, with a few more serious looking devotees among them.

Attitude

The wife carrying is composed of humour and hard sport on a fifty-fifty basis. Everybody may choose what attitude to take towards the competition. The course is open for all to participate.

Postures

There are four customary styles to carry the wife: the traditional piggyback, the wife dangling upside down on the carrier’s back, thrown over on the shoulder and crosswise on the carrier’s shoulders. The style is free. You may also create a new personal style of your own.

Outfit

It is preferable to wear clothes which won’t be stripped off in full speed running and which are easy to hold on to. The carrier’s belt is the only equipment allowed to help in keeping one’s grasp. Some other tools known to be beneficial are a bunch of birch switches, swimming glasses and swimming slippers.

Life

The wife carrying is an attitude towards life. The wives and the wife carriers are not afraid of challenges or burdens. They push their way persistently forward, holding tightly, generally with a twinkle in the eyes.

Eroticism

You can sense the excitement in the air during the wife carrying competition. The core of the race is made of a woman, a man and their relationship. The wife carrying and eroticism have a lot in common. Intuitive understanding of the signals sent by the partner and becoming one with the partner are essential in both of them – sometimes also whipping.

Wife

According to the rules the minimum weight of the wife is 49 kilos. If it is less, the wife will be burdened with such a heavy rucksack that the total weight is 49 kilos. Generally the best wife is the wife of one’s own, all the more if she is harmonious, gentle and able to keep her balance while riding on the shoulders of her man.

Track

The traditional track for the wife carrying consists of sand, forested terrain, a water obstacle and two log hurdles. If your style is “the wife dangling upside down”, you have better to remember that in the water pool the wife’s head is likely to go under the water.

Rhythm

It is of great importance to find a mutual rhythm. I the wife on the man’s back is rocking out of time, the speed slows down. When the rhythm is good, the wife and the carrier become one accompanying the motions of each other. It is advisable to practise in order to find the mutual rhythm before the competition.

Training

It is possible to train for the wife carrying competition everywhere in the middle of the daily routines: in the bath, in the super market, in the playground or in the body building centre. The wife carrying is good for your relationship.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“The wife carrying and eroticism have a lot in common. Intuitive understanding of the signals sent by the partner and becoming one with the partner are essential in both of them – sometimes also whipping.”

Whipping? Really? Yes, you read that correctly. It’s starting to remind me of the XRated Run I blogged about last year.

Consensual whipping is one thing–in the bedroom let many flowers bloom, to each his or her own, YMMV, YKINMKBYKIOK, yada yada– but the gender roles at play here make me a little queasy.

I’m also a bit uncomfortable with the whole carrying thing. Obviously this is consensual carrying, as in bride over threshold, but lots of imagery of men carrying wives isn’t that happy. When you think of that in the context of whipping things get worse. It’s a fine line between playing with gender roles, and I get the sense from their materials that this is all very playful, and actual lived, enforced gender roles. When you add to this strong husbands and tiny wives, I start getting nervous.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s lots I love about these competitions. I love the idea of practical functional fitness. Indeed, when my family goes camping there’s often joking attempts at picking up family members of various sizes. When my mother-in-law was suffering from ALS last year, I really appreciated all the strength I’d gained at CrossFit. I could get her in and out of her wheelchair when others struggled. I like running through mud and getting dirty. And I love competitions that count physical skill, agility, balance, strength, and speed.

But wife carrying? Count me out.

I suspect in my family anyway, given our sizesa, it’d be like the tandem bike. We’re all good at carrying but no one likes to be lifted.

eating

Fast Times: Reflections on Food Experiments

Tracy I4 Comments

no-sugar-wooden-brooch2_originalSince January, I’ve been participating in an on-line nutrition coaching program focused more on acquiring solid nutritional habits than following strict rules.  No dieting. No fads. Or so they keep claiming.

Enter the introduction a couple of months ago of “food experiments.” Every Thursday, they challenged us to experiment with different ways of eating.

The first week of food experimenting was no experiment for me at all: plant-based eating.  My team’s forum and Facebook group lit up with panicked posts about “what will I eat?”  As a vegan, I jumped in with reassurances about how easy it is to eat a plant-based diet.

The day *after* the experiment with plant-based eating, just about everyone said they didn’t love it.

The second week: Paleo.

Whats-the-Paleo-Diet-3

I don’t know about you, but I’m totally skeptical about the whole idea behind paleo. I get that some people swear by this way of eating. But the principle behind it–that this is the way our cave-dwelling ancestors ate and therefore we should eat this way too–just makes me want to laugh.

It has FAD written all over it.  There’s a whole list of what you can and what you can’t eat.  You can eat meat and fish because that’s what the hunters of the paleolithic period ate. You can go for seeds and nuts, but not peanuts because they’re legumes, and you’re not allowed to eat legumes (because the cave people didn’t eat them so they must be bad for us). You can eat fruit and veggies, even watercress, arugula and romaine. And healthy oils like avocado and olive oil. Right. Because no doubt our paleo ancestors enjoyed cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil drizzled on mixed greens all the time.

Take out legumes and dairy, neither of which are on the paleo plan, and you’ve pretty much dispensed with all vegan lean proteins.

Confession: I skipped paleo day because I just thought, “Why?”  Why do I need to know what it feels like to folow a way of eating that I do not believe in and will never adopt?

After that, we had a low-carb day, a sugar-free day, and all of this built up to the 24 hour fasting experiment.  Sugar-free and fasting were my two favourites.

I’m always slightly tempted to go sugar-free anyway because for me it’s the easiest fix.  Cut out refined sugar (not fresh fruit) and that takes care of lots of the poor nutritional choices that I make by habit.  So I enjoyed the sugar-free day quite a bit.  It made me realize how much I’ve been reaching for dried fruit here, adding a touch of sugar to my decaf soy latte there, and grabbing high sugar convenience bars, like Clif Bars, outside of endurance workouts (which are really the only time I need them).

The main purpose of the experiments is to reflect on how you feel when you’re eating that way.  For me, lowering my sugar intake always has a positive impact on my energy levels. They stay more constant and I sleep better at night. I once did this for a whole year, and I absolutely did feel better. Doing it for the one-day experiment piqued my interest in making a longer commitment to this approach. I’m considering doing it for the last two months of 2014.

Sam has written about intermittent fasting and on the idea that hunger is not an emergency.  She has also gathered up some of the latest research on fasting for health and concluded that it’s not a great strategy. See her post, “Not So Fast.”

no_food

Fasting has never been high on my list of things I want to do.  I understand that it’s a terrible weight loss strategy, just prompting a famine response.  So I would never do it for that.  But I was curious to try it as an experiment with hunger.  I like to eat at regular intervals and tend not to let myself get real hungry all that often. So for me, the idea of fasting for 24 hours helped me relate to the panic my team members felt when they couldn’t eat meat for 24 hours on plant-based day.

I planned my fast from 7 p.m. on Wednesday to 7 p.m. on Thursday.  That way, I could eat a good dinner on Wednesday night as long as I was done by 7, and then I could plan a good dinner for Thursday. I only had to skip breakfast, lunch and snacks all of Thursday.  How hard can that be?

It wasn’t all that hard. I had to fend off a couple of headaches by taking some tylenol. And I didn’t have the energy I usually do.  Some people say that fasting helps with mental focus, but by halfway through my 3-hour seminar on Thursday afternoon, I felt as if I was cognitively slower than usual and I had to work extra hard to stay present and focused.

Good thing for me I had a full schedule that day with no intense workouts. A challenging workout on a fasting day is not my idea of a fun time.  I did learn that hunger is, indeed, not an emergency. It actually comes in waves. And if I get hungry but know that I can’t eat just yet, my mind actually will let go of it if I keep myself occupied.

The thing I liked most about fasting was that I didn’t have to think about food at all and I could focus on other tasks.  I thought I would obsess about food, but in the end, not so much.  As dinner time approached, that changed. I had planned to break the fast at Zen Gardens, one of my favourite restaurants.  After not eating for 24 hours, food tastes extra good.

Fasting is the only food experiment I’ve undertaken twice.  About a week after my birthday I did it again because I’d been eating so much that I was sick of food and wanted a break.  I enjoyed it just as much the second time, and food tasted good again at the end of it.

Upshot:  experimenting with different approaches to food and eating is an interesting way to gain insight into how different things make you feel, the impact on your energy levels and mood, maybe how they digest.  As I discovered with fasting, it’s also a way of opening up to things that may not have been on the table before.  Of course, I didn’t have a totally open mind, as my rejection-without-trying-it of Paleo shows. But to me that’s more fad than anything else, and though experiments are worth exploring, fads don’t have the same allure for me.

Topless trampolining?
advertising · body image

Topless trampolining?

Sam B1 Comment

When not one or two but six different people found our blog over the weekend searching for “naked feminist trampolining” you know I had to go look too.

What’s out there? What are they trying to find? Not us! We have some nudity here on this blog–it goes along with our emphasis on body positivity and loving the body you’ve got–but we have zero posts with trampolines. A possible topic for a guest post? If you trampoline for fitness and want to write about it, let me know. Apparently, there’s an audience.

The only site that kept popping up in the search results was this one, The Topless Female Trampolining Championships. Female, not feminist, and topless, not naked. Otherwise, close.

A joke, of course. It’s about the man who has the “best job in the world.” He’s the health and safety inspector for the practice facility. But really, it’s an ad to raise awareness of breast cancer in men.

Here’s some commentary about the campaign, Topless Female Trampolining World Championships: Putting the sexy in men’s breast cancer?

The campaign is a collaboration between Britain’s CoppaFeel! and Male Cancer Awareness Campaign (MCAC) to borrow the interest of women’s breasts to raise awareness of men’s breast cancers. On the campaign site, visitors can learn facts about male breast cancer prevention and look at high-resolution pictures of bare-breasted, beautiful young women. It’s like a lad mag with a purpose. (Although, to give them credit, the photos show no evidence of retouching.)

This is one of those cause marketing situations where the intention is quite plain: use whatever means necessary to raise awareness, even if it means adding to the hypersexualization of young women and their treatment as an erotic commodity for the male gaze. (Whoa… I almost thought I was writing for Sociological Images there for a moment.) That is a deal that the women of CoppaFeel! were willing to make to fight cancer. But I’m not sure it was the right one to make.

There’s also a comic about naked feminist trampoline poetry slams.

I still have no idea what prompted people to search for it now, two years later, or what post in particular, it led them to on our blog. But it’s a rainy morning here. I’m not riding my bike. I’m supposed to be writing a book review but I’m procrastinating/web browsing instead.

Uncategorized

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sam B

I usually post Mondays but it’s Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada. Guess what I’m doing? Riding my bike in search of blueberry pie. Instead of a post about feminism or fitness or the two combined, here’s some Thanksgiving bicycle photos to enjoy until I get back:

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Photo credit: Jefferson McCarely, Mission Bicycles, Website: https://www.missionbicycle.com/
Bicycle meet, Thanksgiving, 1883
History in Photos: UC Berkeley historyinphotos.blogspot.com Bicycle meet, Thanksgiving, 1883
from totalwomenscycling.com
cycling · Guest Post

QoM v KoM: Strava’s Genders (Guest Post)

Kim Solga9 Comments

image

Sam recently wrote about her experience joining Strava, the internet hub for sporty men and women who want to measure their success against one another, and “compete” even when we aren’t officially competing (as in, when we’re just going to work and stuff). Her post resonated, in part because Sam and I are having an ongoing conversation about what it means to be marked as “female” on Strava. Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or an infinitely complicated thing – something that taps into the trickiness around gender and sport in so many areas?

A few months back I joined Strava. It was my partner’s idea: he had been using Strava to keep up with friends and to test himself on known stretches of road (we are both cyclists). He always glowed, I noticed, when we returned from a ride and he uploaded his data to discover new personal bests (or the besting of friends – coveted). Alternately, when The Strava Gods did not shine, he was blue. But I succumbed anyway: he convinced me that it would be helpful to track my progress using something; I needed data for the lovely, talented semi-pro cyclist who was coaching me (the brilliant and funny Jo McRae), and I definitely needed to let my competitive spirit loose in order to improve on my existing personal bests, which I’d been timing with my – runner’s watch. Plus, there was a handy Strava iPhone app, for when he was bogarting our shared Garmin bike computer. What’s not to love?

So I joined, and for the first couple of weeks I just let Jarret upload my data and tell me stuff. Mostly I didn’t notice; it hadn’t sunk in yet that Strava was a way for me to test myself. (Like Lisa Simpson, I respond extremely well to tests.) Then, around week three, something thrilling/troubling/discombobulating happened: Jarret told Strava I’m a woman.

Instant change. Like, kaboom. Suddenly, I wasn’t just some person called Kim who rode some rides in Surrey and East Sussex. I was in, like, third, fifth, ninth place overall on a bunch of segments and – holy mary jane! – queen of the mountain (QoM) on a particularly gruelling stretch of road near Chipstead that features a bitch of a climb sandwiched between two rather impressive stretches of steady incline. More shocking yet: to achieve this QoM I had bested a really talented category-one cyclist (NB Strava addicts – this is no longer the case; she has bested me right back). I was overwhelmed, and, of course, incredibly proud of myself.

Jarret was a bit dejected. He kicks my ass on many of these segments, but doesn’t rate at all on Strava; not only are there loads more men riding to compete with him, but of course he’s not as strong as the strongest men (hey, Mark Cavendish!) and so cannot break the top-ten in most cases. So I glory in my amazing achievements, and he discovers what it’s like to be on the short end of the gender stick for a change.

So what’s the problem? I’m awesome and Strava tells me, right? Not so fast. First of all, I’m not entirely convinced the semi-automatic division into men and women is a good thing on Strava. True, when it imagined I was a man (because I had not specified a gender, and of course default in cycling = man), Strava let me be the anonymous, me-against-the-world cyclist that Jarret and so many of his pals have to be. But once I specified a gender, Strava got excited. Now, when I upload ride data, it lets me know immediately what I’ve achieved – against other women. Which is fine. But why does the gender-specific data need to be the default? What if I want to know how I’m doing overall? More important, what if I feel like my main “competitors” aren’t (just) other strong women, but also men of similar build and strength as me? (I’m tall, muscular, and I weigh 70kg. My frame is not exactly girlish.) True, Strava offers the option to look at “men”, “women”, and “all” for any segment very easily in its navigation, and true too that more information about you and your linked friends is available through the Premium service (about $60 a year). Nevertheless, as a woman on Strava I don’t get the feeling that I’m being encouraged to use a gender-neutral approach; I feel like I’m being encouraged to measure myself primarily against other women.

Second, I’m genuinely concerned about a certain amount of gender bias against men within this system. It’s true that most people into road cycling are men, and of course it’s true that this has to do with gendered expectations about sport in general, about this sport in particular, and with a host of other things that weigh in men’s favour on the road. (Hello, giant quads and incredibly ripped calf muscles.) But it’s also true that men who cycle need to take a huge gulp when they start out, and be willing to feel extremely bad about themselves while other, more impressive male riders grandstand around them for a while. (And man oh man, do riders ever grandstand!) Women, meanwhile, often get points just for showing up. Yes, sometimes we feel we are genuinely not welcome – cycling can be a cravenly gendered sport, full of plain-spoken stereotypes. But mostly I get approving nods from men on rides who wish their wives or girlfriends would ride, too. I also know that loads of men who aren’t very talented may well drop away from the sport because they feel they aren’t man enough to ride the bike fast enough, to keep up with the pushy racers. Macho bike culture is cruel to anyone it doesn’t think makes the grade.

So what’s the solution? I do not blame Strava for its set-up; in fact, all things considered, it’s a fairly equitable site that lets me choose quickly and easily between data that places me against all athletes or against just women, and that shows me quickly how I’m doing against myself – probably the most important measure of all. But I can’t help but notice that it’s become, for me, another crucible of all the challenges we face when we try to untangle the gendered world of sport: how to measure men and women equitably, in a way that celebrates all of our achievements without condescending, and without shutting doors on those who aren’t immediately and obviously talented, regardless of gender?

Kim + Jarret in Dover, July 2013

Guest Post · running

Part Two: Running With Dogs and Succeeding (Guest Post)

joangforry
Paloma wears a jacket when the weather's cool
Paloma wears a jacket when the weather’s cool

 

“She looks like a rat. Or a gremlin. A gremlin rat dog.” My husband had just met Paloma, a Chihuahua that had happened to come to live with us after a series of unfortunate and unbelievable events. I never would’ve chosen a Chihuahua. I was an athletic person. What could you do with a Chihuahua? “Maybe she can hike with us, if I get a backpack to put her in,” I said, as cheerfully as I could muster. I searched the Interweb. “Look, here’s one that’s not pink!”

We soon learned that most of our assumptions about having a small dog were wrong. To my delight, Paloma loved running. A tiny gremlin dog who weighs just 7 lbs. (3kg) became my running partner.

In my previous post, I talked about how running with your dog can go wrong. Here, I’m going to talk about how to get it right.

Walk Before You Run

Before you run with your dog, your dog should understand how to walk next to you on a loose leash. The basic principle of loose-leash walking is this: Your dog should learn that walking next to you is more awesome than forging ahead or lagging behind. Reward your dog for getting it right! Your dog will associate good things happening to him when he walks next to you and repeat that behavior.

Though she was three years old when she came to live with us, Paloma didn’t know how to walk on a leash. She caught on to loose-leash walking quickly, as she learned that walking next to me meant that yummy cheese would jump out of my pocket and into her mouth. You can learn more about loose-leash walking/running here.

Use the Right Equipment

Never run (or walk) with your dog on a choke or prong collar. These devices stop the unwanted behavior of the dog pulling on the leash by causing pain to your dog’s neck. These aversive devices have also been associated with behavioral problems such as fearfulness and aggression. You wouldn’t want to be choked or pinched for running too fast or too slow, would you?

Suzette Nicolini (CPDT-KA)* walked her Mastiffs, dogs that can grow to be 200lbs (90kg), on a flat buckle collar. She emphasizes the importance of teaching loose-leash walking, “The size and power of a dog shouldn’t be a factor in choosing a collar—the collar is just a tool for leash attachment.  Pulling is a training issue.  So, we should learn how to teach our dogs to want to walk with us.”

Avoid retractable leashes. The risk for injury, to both humans and dogs, is high and they make it more difficult to control your dog and keep her safe.

Paloma runs on a flat buckle collar. If we are running on hilly trails, she wears a harness where the leash attaches at the back, right over her shoulder blades. Front-attaching harnesses should not be used for running, as the straps can compress the shoulders in a way that can cause tendonitis. Head collars should be used with caution, as stopping suddenly can wrench a dog’s neck and cause injury.

During Your Run

Pay attention to the weather and terrain. Your dog will overheat before you will, and your dog’s paws are sensitive to hot sidewalks, snow, ice, and salt. Plan water stops if it’s warm.

Remember to ask these two questions:

  • Is my dog feeling safe?
  • Is my dog having fun?

Cindy Rich (KPA-CTP)**, an expert in training small dogs, also offers this advice, “Be aware of what the world looks like from your dog’s point of view. Know what may startle your dog.” This is especially important if you’re running with a small dog.  Your feet may look like an AT-AT Walker to a small dog.

Reinforce your dog’s good behavior and reward your dog for getting it right. These days, I run with a treat bag that holds a small bag of cut-up cheese and poop bags. If you want to skip the treat bag, cheese sticks tuck nicely in the waistband of running shorts or under a sports bra strap. Though it’s a mild inconvenience, it’s worth it to continue to make running fun for my dog.

After Your Run

Dogs are prone to the same kinds of ailments as human athletes: muscle soreness, fatigue, and dehydration. Check paws for sores or foreign objects.

You may have heard this adage in some form, “A tired dog is a well-behaved dog.” While it is true that dogs need exercise, an over-tired dog is likely to be cranky and have less tolerance for life’s little frustrations. Be careful not to over-exercise your dog.

Paloma the Un-Princess

Paloma loves running so much that once we start, she doesn’t want to stop. At crosswalks, she obnoxiously barks her head off. “LET’S GOOO! Stopping is BORING and TERRIBLE!” She loves to move and be outdoors. She’s hiked through the Gila National Forest. She’s run the rocky beaches in Oregon and the streets of Los Angeles. She’s hiked some short trails at The Grand Canyon. I never did buy that doggie backpack to carry her around. She’s not the dog I expected her to be. She’s so much more.

*CPDT-KA: Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed.

**KPA CTP: Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner.

Both of these designations are conferred by organizations that promote humane, ethical, science-based training.

Paloma at the Grand Canyon
Paloma at the Grand Canyon

 

Joan Forry earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Temple University in 2008. She is an independent applied ethicist who writes about feminism, sports ethics, and animal ethics. Her current work in animal ethics is concerned with how humans develop meaningful and mindful relationships with dogs. She is an amateur dog trainer who aspires to go pro someday. She documents the travels of her dog, Miles, at www.facebook.com/milesonhydrants.

aging · Guest Post

Forty and other “F” words (Guest Post)

natalieh (she/her)10 Comments

Up until this year I looked at each birthday as an accomplishment, another year under the belt and on the right side of the ground, heck ya I have a birthday! This mostly comes from a fortunately failed suicide attempt in my early teens and a long struggle with Major Depressive Disorder (don’t you love how it gets to start with capitals, it’s that important) and seeing each year as a victory in my mental health.

This year, though, 40 feels….complicated. My sister sent me flowers the day before my birthday wishing me a fantastic and fabulous 40.

flowers40

She is pretty awesome and I definitely pranked her on her 35th birthday with a 40th bouquet so she would have been well within her rights to send me a 50th or 85th or something silly but she went for sincere and I love her for that.

I’m feeling fatigued more than fabulous, the weight of my unmet expectations as I settle into middle age is getting me a bit down. The downside of living with a philosopher is I’m well versed in possible worlds. The possible world where I stayed in the military I’d be at full pension, likely divorced and certainly not living with my children. (I’m terribly overwhelmed at single parenting even over short periods of time.) The possible world where I’d finished my undergrad ages ago and had my masters. The one where I have more material goods, the one I live off my writing and on and on. Quite boring really.

So I’m taking the day off from paid work on my birthday and filling out a great poster Your Life in Weeks to work through all my feelings. Nothing like data and charts to neatly package feelings.

I’m also sliding in and out of grasping what Tracy called making the impossible possible. I thought it was impossible for me to ride in a group yet I started in September doing just that. I also took a wicked fall last weekend while cycling with Sam, randoneur David and my partner Michel. I was messing with my gears, hit some wet leaves then slid up over a curb and went, loudly and with much commotion, over my handlebars. There are bruises on my forearms from the handles, a whopper on my left thigh from the seat and matching pedal bruises on the backs of my calves. I got up and had started shaking from the adrenaline rush and told Michel, who was staring wide eyed, I needed to get back on my bike or I was going to throw up and cry. So back on the bike I got as Sam and David circled back to see what had happened. I was shaky for about 3 km. Michel said the fall was “bad-ass” and he was glad I wasn’t seriously hurt. The thing is my stupid leg still hurts like hell and I’m feeling fragile.

Lots of “F” words to grapple with. I’d love to say I’m fearless and do new things because I feel I can. I’m actually quite fearful so I do new things because I can’t stand my fearfulness. It annoys me, it insults my intelligence.

I’m fortunate to have many friends and family who show me what life in my 40s, 50s and 60s can look like ( and they are all having quite the hootenanny!) so I’m choosing to be forward looking and plan to get the most of my future, whatever it may bring. So, and pardon the language for a moment, FUCK YOU FEAR.

40 is the year I get my degree, the year I rock climb, the year I get a paid writing gig and the year I fake fearlessness until it is actually true.

forty

cycling

Strava, QOM, and does downhill count?

Sam B6 Comments

Since joining Strava a few weeks ago, I’ve scored a few QOM on some segments. See here. If you’re local you can try and take them away from me, make them your own. Pro-tip, it helps to be drafting Chris Helwig. Shhh.

What’s Strava? Strava is a ride/run tracking app. You can either use it on its own or share your Garmin bike computer data with it.

What’s a Strava segment? Segments are one of Strava’s coolest features. Segments are user-created, user-edited, and designate a portion of route where users can compete for time. I’ll blog later about the gamification of real world cycling but for now, on to QOMs.

You can follow me on Strava, here.

skitch_iphoto.export.skitch.png

What’s QOM?

“KOM or QOM Crown: If you achieve the fastest time on a segment, you’ll receive a special crown, meaning that you are the KOM or QOM of that segment (acronyms stand for King of the Mountain and Queen of the Mountain). This crown is awarded at the time of upload if you are at that time the leader on the segment. Since Achievement Awards do not refresh in real time, even if someone later beats your time, you will still be able to see the gold crown on that activity page.

Your KOM/QOM crowns are stored in a special list on Strava for your reference. “My KOMs” or “My QOMs” is a page stored under “KOMs/CRs” or “QOMs/CRs” accessed from your Profile page. It will keep a current list of all the KOMs or QOMs you currently hold.

Note: if you tie for a KOM/QOM, you will not be awarded the KOM/QOM crown, and the crown will not be recorded in the “My KOMs/QOMs” list”

QOM is something I’m also never. I’m almost never fastest woman to the top. Okay, there was one time in the Novice Training program with the Canberra Vikings and I’ve never been so proud of a chocolate frog. I thought about framing it. I didn’t. I ate it.

However,  some the Strava segments are also downhill and there I come into my own. My weight instead of being a disadvantage becomes an advantage.

Why? Read Fatter Cyclists Faster Downhill? (Answer: Yes.)

It’s never a road race advantage. Why? Because no one wins a race going fast downhill. People attack and pass on the uphills. Also, you spend less time descending than you do climbing. You can lose a race by failing to keep up with the pack downhill but you won’t win, except in oddball cases, on a descent.

But back to my QOM. The very first thing I said after seeing them on my Strava profile was that of course I got the downhill segments because there aren’t that many large women out there on road bikes. Most of the women riding road bikes are much smaller than me. I didn’t earn that QOM, I thought.

That’s not quite right though. They’re gradual downhills and I was pedaling hard trying to stick with Chris. My heart rate certainly showed I was working hard.

Then it dawned on me that I’d never say of some skinny cyclist that her uphill QOM didn’t count because she just got it because of her size. “Of course, you won that segment. You only weigh 110 lbs.”

So I’m happily proclaiming my victory over Adelaide downhill and Vanneck to Medway (that’s more of a false flat than anything).

 

downhill in autumn
http://www.mimistudio.com/stylebook/Strange-Roads/