My book group read Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman this month and I kept highlighting passages on my Kindle to use later on the blog. I haven’t finished it yet. I’m about halfway through. I’m that kind of book group member. (I did bring not one, but two, delicious salads.) But that hasn’t stopped me from telling people to read it. It’s so good. I love her voice and her story.

For now here are some great Lindy West quotes from Shrill.

And you can read her this week in the New York Times too.

“Don’t tell thin women to eat a cheeseburger. Don’t tell fat women to put down the fork. Don’t tell underweight men to bulk up. Don’t tell women with facial hair to wax, don’t tell uncircumcised men they’re gross, don’t tell muscular women to go easy on the dead-lift, don’t tell dark-skinned women to bleach their vagina, don’t tell black women to relax their hair, don’t tell flat-chested women to get breast implants, don’t tell “apple-shaped” women what’s “flattering,” don’t tell mothers to hide their stretch marks, and don’t tell people whose toes you don’t approve of not to wear flip-flops. And so on, etc, etc, in every iteration until the mountains crumble to the sea. Basically, just go ahead and CEASE telling other human beings what they “should” and “shouldn’t” do with their bodies unless a) you are their doctor, or b) SOMEBODY GODDAMN ASKED YOU.”

“Please don’t forget: I am my body. When my body gets smaller, it is still me. When my body gets bigger, it is still me. There is not a thin woman inside me, awaiting excavation. I am one piece.”

“Maybe you are thin. You hiked that trail and you are fit and beautiful and wanted and I am so proud of you, I am so in awe of your wiry brightness; and I’m miles behind you, my breathing ragged. But you didn’t carry this up the mountain, You only carried yourself. How hard would you breathe if you had to carry me? You couldn’t. But I can.”

“Denying people access to value is an incredibly insidious form of emotional violence, one that our culture wields aggressively and liberally to keep marginalized groups small and quiet.”

“As a woman, my body is scrutinized, policed, and treated as a public commodity. As a fat woman, my body is also lampooned, openly reviled, and associated with moral and intellectual failure. My body limits my job prospects, access to medical care and fair trials, and – the one thing Hollywood movies and Internet trolls most agree on – my ability to be loved. So the subtext, when a thin person asks a fat person, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’ is, ‘You must be some sort of alien because if I looked like you, I would definitely throw myself into the sea.”

“I reject the notion that thinness is the goal, that thin = better—that I am an unfinished thing and that my life can really start when I lose weight. That then I will be a real person and have finally succeeded as a woman. I am not going to waste another second of my life thinking about this. I don’t want to have another fucking conversation with another fucking woman about what she’s eating or not eating or regrets eating or pretends to not regret eating to mask the regret. OOPS I JUST YAWNED TO DEATH.”

Tara: For the last three years, I have done the duathlon (run 3k, bike 12k, run 3k). Last year, even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I think I was the fittest I’ve ever been. I was running regularly, even training some would say, I was biking a fair bit and had other sports that I played as well. I look back and marvel at my fitness level last year and am disappointed that I didn’t appreciate it more at the time. So this year, I’m working on being more thoughtful and appreciative of me and what’s going on around me. I’m still fit…just less so than last year and that’s okay! I’m able to move without pain, I’m fast, I can go out and run 5k with minimal training and I play soccer on three teams. I’m healthy and that’s nothing to take for granted! My race went well. It was a beautiful sunny day, I hung out with family, race friends, and met new people. Goal achieved for me. I raced, completed it well and had a great time! I’ve already marked my calendar for next year’s race and if it doesn’t sell out before I sign up, then I hope to do it again next year. Signing up for this race is a bit like buying concert tickets, it sells out within a very short time (hours and sometimes less) and I think that says a lot about this race…people love it and I do too.

Tara has two busy boys, a husband and a new puppy. She also coaches U10 boys soccer, plays soccer with a lot of fun people, runs, bikes and works full-time.

Carolyn: This year was my first time doing the Kincardine triathlon or any triathlon for that matter. I did try registering for it in a previous year but couldn’t get my act together in time on New Year’s Day to get in before all of the spots were gone. I’m glad I was successful this year, because the race was great! Since I have two youngish children, I didn’t have much time to train, although the running around that comes with having kids I think allowed me to be fit enough to feel moderately comfortable during the race. I found the swim mercifully short and not too difficult; however, I’ve spent every summer of my life swimming in Lake Huron and so had no fear of the water or the waves. The worst part for me, hands down, was the run, despite the fact that running is the only activity of the three that I had competed in in the past. Transitioning from bike to run was hard, and I’ll definitely practice that before doing the race again. I’ve already committed to doing it again with my friend Jane, and hope to convince other friends to join us. What a wonderful way to begin the summer!

Carolyn McLeod is Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies and Feminist Research at Western University. Her extended family of McLeods hail from Southampton Ontario, where she spent her summers as a child and learned to swim in Lake Huron.

Susan T: This was my first year doing this event and also my first duathlon. I have been very focused on running this year and was only out on my bike twice before the race so I was trying to hold lightly the outcome. I had also just had a super disappointing race two weeks prior were I went for a personal best and ended up burning out and feeling awful. I drove up to Kincardine after driving back from camping in Cornwall and I was really just looking at it as a social event. I kept whispering to myself, “This is not a competition, this is not a competition, this is not a competition. . . .Bahahaha who are you kidding?” It turns out it was a redemptive experience. Yay. I felt great and the temperature was perfect. I flew through the first 3k and then got on my bike. MY CLIPS DIDN’T WORK. Always safety check these things people. I managed to fly along the bike course anyway and didn’t fall off because of unclipped feet. The second run was a bit leaden feeling but I was still going at a good pace so I was happy. I finished strong. I will definitely try to do this event again. The best part is doing it with friends 🙂

Susan blogs regularly at Fit is a Feminist Issue. You can read all of her posts here. 

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You can also read Julie’s race report here and Susan F’s race report here.

And you’re still waiting for race reports from Sam and Sarah!

Last week I had a setback one day — this happens in our line of work. We get literal “rejections” all the time. This was a big one that stung and made me feel professionally incompetent for a few hours.

Anita asked me what I was going to do to pamper myself later that day. I said I might go for a night run. Now, to some this may not seem like pampering. But it has been hot and I hadn’t managed to get out. To top it all off, I’d been at the dentist earlier that day (yeah: talk about a banner day! A rejection and two fillings!) and the freezing just hung on way beyond what seemed reasonable.

By the time my mouth un-numbed just after 9, and I was still in a bit of a funk, I threw on my running gear and was about to grab my Garmin Forerunner when a little voice inside said, “Leave it.” Then I reached for my Timex Ironman watch, thinking at least I could time myself if not track pace and mileage. But the little voice spoke again: “Leave that too.”

Out I went, just after dusk, with no gadgets (well, okay, I had my Pulse, but that’s because of the step challenge and I’m not about to forgo tracking steps that I’m going to get anyway).

Upshot: it was wonderful. I felt free and at peace. The night air was a perfect temperature and even after my planned route I didn’t want to come in. I ended up running around the block a few more times. 

How about you? Do you ever go night running? Do you ever run without gadgets? Have you ever done both at the same time?? 

This weekend I raced in a short distance duathlon,  I took Cheddar and Nat’s dog Kirby on a 5 km dog hike along with Sarah, Susan, and Gavin after the duathlon (good to keep moving, right?) and I went on 50 km social bike ride with Sarah and David the next day that ended in coffee and cruffins.

In the 217 in 2017 Facebook group I participate in each counted as a workout. But they’re very different workouts and one way you can see the difference is by looking at heart rate data.

Here’s the bike course of the duathlon:

The runs looked pretty much the same except for the short bits where I took walk breaks. Yikes. Hard work.

Here it is on my Garmin. The Garmin is a more accurate heart rate measure. It uses a chest strap rather than a wrist band.

The course starts with a hill and you can see that looking at the heart rate information.

Average heart rate: 153, Max heart rate: 166

Here’s the dog hike, by comparison.

And here’s the 50 km bike ride.

Here’s what that looked like on my Garmin.

Average heart rate: 117, Max heart rate: 150

I’ve written before about training using heart rate information. See here on why take it easy.  See here on why go hard.

Do you pay attention to your heart rate when working out? Why? Why not?