Month: April 2015

running

Am I Going to Worry about Runner’s Face? Nope

Tracy I23 Comments
Runner's face at lunch right after the Scotiabank Half Marathon in October 2105. Maybe I look 50, but I'm a happy 50!
Runner’s face at lunch right after the Scotiabank Half Marathon in October 2014. Maybe I look 50 (whatever that means), but I’m a happy-looking 50, runner’s face be damned!

Every week another article appears trying to warn of the perils of exercise. Last week I talked about that study that warned about the harms of “strenuous exercise,” where “strenuous” meant anything that makes you sweat or gets your heart beating fast.

The newest (to me) contribution to this fear-fest: runner’s face!  It’s not new news.  This article “Runner’s Beward: Crossing the Finish Line May Accelerate Fine Lines” with the sub-heading “Do You Have Runner’s Face” hit the press in 2011.

More recently and critically came this: “Runner’s Face: Beauty Advice Rears Its Ugly Head.”  It says that “fear of gauntness takes women away from the joys of running and back into prescriptive ideas about how they should look.”

So what’s runner face?  It’s defined as “the gaunt, skeletal look you end up with if you run for fun or fitness.”

Runner’s face generally occurs in both men and women ages 40-plus who exercise to improve their body, and in doing so end up with a hollow and bony face, explains board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Brian S. Glatt of Premier Plastic Surgery in New Jersey.

Continue reading “Am I Going to Worry about Runner’s Face? Nope” →

body image

In favour of vulva diversity!

Sam B11 Comments

I was happy to see this story come across my various social media newsfeeds yesterday. It made me smile.

Vulva artist transforms Colorado women’s vaginas into body-positive art

Jamie McCartney, creator of The Great Wall of Vagina, casts American women for new work and says of the message behind his famous plaster casts: ‘You’re normal. Whatever you’ve got down there, leave it alone’

“There’s nowhere to go for information [on the vulva], so someone can easily be persuaded for surgery … If you look at medical texts of genitals, they’re not very broad, so TGWV presents 400 women and what you see is that someone in there’s going to look a little bit like you,” said McCartney. “It’s effective in combating the messages that are coming from plastic surgeons, saying ‘You’re defective if you don’t have a child-like [vulva].’ Only about 5% of the casts meet that ‘perfect’ ideal. I don’t think 95% of women are defective. That’s not possible.”

I don’t have a lot to add to this story besides “YAY!”

Go have a look at the great wall of genitalia here.

On the one hand, do what you choose with your genitals. If there’s ever a place to apply the underpants rule, it’s here. On the other hand, the pressure on women to conform to a single beauty/body ideal by any means necessary has clearly gone too far. It’s nice to see some resistance.

And part of why I don’t have much to add is that I’ve said it all before. Interested in issues about the quest for perfect labia and cosmetic surgery? Read my past posts:

 

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago at Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party

 

cycling

Spring riding, bad weather, and individual limits

Sam B12 Comments

I had my first outdoor rides of the year on my good road bike in Ontario this week.

The qualifications, “good road bike” and “Ontario,” matter.

In February I spent a week with my good bike in Arizona and in March I was at training camp in South Carolina.

I’m also back bike commuting on my cyclocrosss bike.

Sunday we were out on our road bikes in cold and the wind. Four degrees Celsius and sunny I can live with but the wind was less pleasant. We rode out into a 30 km headwind, with gusts up to 50 km. Still it was a good ride, and when combined with coffee after and then the hot tub, made for a terrific Sunday afternoon. When it started snowing Sunday night I was especially happy that I’d gotten out.

My usual Thursday ride didn’t start this week as planned. I got a note that read, “Stay in touch. I’m not riding if it’s raining. Three degrees is okay but three degrees and raining isn’t.” That was our ride leader’s limit. Cold, yes, rain, yes, but not the combo. I agree.

Tracy also chimed in about getting back on the bike: “Yes, if it’s above ten and otherwise not. Also, no rain.”

She’s written before defending being a fair weather cyclist.

I’ve been thinking about limits and where we set them.

I would say I don’t ride in the snow ever because I have done. See the above picture! It’s proof. My friend Dave and I rode 60 km in minus 5, with snow. But I did take my cyclocross bike, not my good road bike. Actually I’ve been thinking about getting a fat bike for serious winter riding. I’d like to be the sort of person who rides in all weather and just chooses her bike accordingly.

 

This weekend it was raining and snowing and below zero, and two friends were off riding 200 km. It was the first brevet of the Ontario Randonneurs season, the tour d’Essex. They won the badass award.

image

How about you? What are your limits for cycling? Are you an all weather or fair weather cyclist?