Updates on training

So this past week has been an absolute shambles for my winter training progress.  In between being on vacation, sweltering heat, endless amounts of food, and lots of nice drinks, not a whole lot of moving was done other than getting up, going from my room, to the restaurant, back to my room and then going to the beach.  So in terms of training it's been kind of non-existent. I did manage to squeeze in some romp arounds on the treadmill (and I still hate it more than ever), so I guess not a complete loss.  While I'm writing this, I believe I'm starting to get sick, soooo that always bodes well considering that I start my training for the marathon in like 3 days. 

This will more or less be a return to normal programming (no more holiday posts, and random disappearances), but I'll be hopefully posting more training tips and keep you guys updated.  With that time to go think up of some new years resolutions, methinks it's going to be fitness pursuits related.

~Cheers

Boxing day?

So today's the day after Christmas, people will usualy get a late start to the day, I know I will.  I hope everyone had a fantastic christmas day, we're almost getting to New Years and that will bring a close to the year 2010.  I know for sure that for Jess and I 2011 is going to be jam packed with lots of running, and adventures, so keep reading, and this should be the last post for a while due to me wanting a break. So with that, Happy Boxing (Shopping) Day

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas guys, enjoy spending time with the family, and hope you're enjoying the holidays

Christmas Eve

Almost there guys, one more day.

A lazy wednesday

So today's post is coming a little bit late, and it was originally going to be a review of the nike+ system that I've come to adore over the past few years.  Unfortunately yesterday after the exams, the awesome weather beckoned for a trip to the terrain park of my local ski hill and I definitely took mother nature up on the opportunity.

Unfortunately that reared it's head this morning in the form of a horribly sore body that couldn't get out of bed for an hour.  But hey that's the perks of living somewhere where you have a real winter, and a local ski hill from the Olympics.  Now it's time to go and do all those things that were neglected during reading break.

In other news, Jess is going to get gmail over the break so look forward to posts on this blog from her.

Nobody like socks for Christmas

So today's post comes with a little bit of a holiday infusion.  There's always a running joke about why it's no fun to get socks for Christmas, but I'm going to tell you why socks are a little bit more important than you likely give credit for

Blisters
Nobody likes them, everybody gets them at some point.  So how do you get them? The most common cause for getting them in athletics and probably the only way you get them is due to excess friction being produced in a single area.  So this will happen when you're breaking in shoes and they're super stiff and haven't moulded yet.  The can also happen when you're doing a super long run, or even a longish run. Another cause is improperly fitted shoes.  If you get them too big and you're moving around a lot, or even if you have small shoes that just put a clamp on your feet.  Neither are good for you.  So with that, lets look at how socks can help prevent blisters.

What you should look for
The material first and foremost is the most important material.  One thing that is ALWAYS the enemy is cotton.  The reason why is your feet sweat, believe it or not, and this kind of sweat will get nicely absorbed by cotton.  Only problem is that once it's been absorbed it just stays there and wet cotton is fantastic for creating friction against your feet.  So you should look for something that is not cotton, or at worst, very little.  Synthetic materials are usually good for this.

Cotton is the enemy

Depending on where you run you, it may be advisable to find socks that come a little bit higher on the ankles.  The reason for this is to keep dirt and pebbles and all sorts of other nasty stuff out your socks.  Granted the majority of dedicated "running" socks will be pretty low cut.

Fit of the sock should be pretty snug, not loose because if it is it's going to move around and create the friction that generates the blisters in the first place.  But you don't want to get some that are too too tight and cut off circulation, because that's bad as well.

A wee bit of cushioning is always nice, but don't get super thick socks.

Recommendation
Personally I have three pairs of running socks that I rotate through.  Two of the pairs are the same ones, and then I have a pair of super thing ones.  The recurring theme about them is that they're from Under Armour.  I actually got given a pair of these but they have become quite a favourite of mine.

Nike also makes very nice running socks and they are feet specific so they give you support where you need it and it's not that much.

High 5 Zero

So those that have read this blog will notice there are certain things about my that I really like.  I like my gadgets, I like my toys, I like new stuff.  I'm also a little bit of a geek so when there are claims where there is science proven stuff and what not I'm kinda all over it.

High5 is a company that is based out of the UK that has been doing sports nutrition for quite a while. The interesting thing is that they they're a pretty heavily science backed and they actually listen to stuff that we ask them to do, like making gels less sweet, more liquidy, tasting like real food.

So today's post is about a certain electrolyte drink tablet from them that's touted to have very little calories, 1.4/ 100ml.  Not only do you not ingest a whole lot of calories, but you also burn 41% more fat while using this compared to regular carbohydrate sport drink.  This was independently verified by the University of Glasgow.  It's supposed to help with cramping by preventing both dehydration and electrolyte balance.  It contains sodium, magnesium, pottasium and calcium.  There's also a so called "extreme" version of this that gives you some caffeine along with you drink.  There's 65 mg in these tablets (which is about the same as a mild cup of coffee)

Now usually I wouldn't get excited about really simple stuff like this but when it showed up in the mail the other day, I was actually pretty excited to go and give these a spin.  So may it will taste better than gatorade and it won't add any calories.  Best of all if this stuff follows the typical high5 formula of inexpensive, good tasting and works well? Then I'll probably love these as much as my gels.  I will post a review of these when i've tried them out and let you know how the work.

~Cheers

6 more days until Christmas

And here it is guys less than a week, we're almost there, and I'm almost done exams.  Happy Times

I'm dreaming of a white christmas

For those that haven't already realized.... I really like snoopy.

Week in Review Dec 18, 2010

So  as you've probably realized I tend to be really all over the place and write a bunch of little sentence fragments.  I also always have these little things that kinda just crop up and don't really make a full post so they just usually never make it to a full post.  But hopefully with this weekly review I will be able to put them in, and there can be a quick recap of what I've written this week.

So here it is, a nice small summary of a week in the life of the Adventures of Jess and Kel

Posts this week

Saturday -  Week in Review
Sunday - 13 Days until Christmas
Monday - Nike+ Sportband

Tuesday - The importance of sleep

Wednesday - Why we do what we do

Thursday - Training Updates

Friday - Winter Wodnerland

Random Notes

It's been a really busy week for me because of exams, but the end is in sight, and by insight I mean 6 days... I think it's a little bit less than that.  Exciting things to look forward to in the new year include....... wait for it.......JESS.  Well she will actually be getting gmail, because I will bug her incessantly about it till she does, she has no excuse after the 22.

A winter wonderland

So here in Calgary we're known for our very pleasantly cold winters.  This year La Nina is supposed to give us a colder than normal winter, with more snow.  I'm actually not against more snow, although the thought of a colder than usual winter doesn't sit so well with me.

I was sitting at my desk yesterday studying, not at school for once and just looked out the window while it was snowing, and I caught myself just completely mesmerized by the falling snowflakes.

Camera didn't capture it quite right.

So with that it's now back on to real life guys.  As you read this I'm probably sitting in what will be a relatively cold, inhospitable gym writing the first of three exams today.

~Cheers Guys

Updates on training

Today's post is a little bit of a short one, I'm in the midst of madly trying to learn all that I need for all of my exams.  There never seems to be quite enough time in the day do all that you need to do. 

Jess
Jess officially started her program on Monday, but knowing the both of us, this past week and up till Tuesday is going to be a nice and busy time due to us having to big exams.  Plant physiology and invertebrate physiology.  She started running a bit last week and was super sore, so we'll probably take it slow to make sure that no injuries pop up and throw a giant monkey wrench into the plans.  Both of us have had/are dealing with knee injuries and there's a staggering statistic floating out there somewhere about the proportion of people that get injuries doing their first marathon.

Me
I've not been doing a whole lot, I've been putting time in on the bike to make sure that I still maintain some semblance of  fitness but chances are it will be quite different come the time to actually eat pavement for breakfast and other runners for snacks. I always feel some twinges of pain every so often and then I will embark on a major stretching session, but I think this year I will definitely have to do more of that to make sure that I don't get injured.  My heavy running starts on the first day of january, so I shall likely be bringing you pics of the joy that is Winter running.  And with that, it is back to studying how nematodes are actually kinda bad in infecting you

~Cheers

Why we do what we do

Happy Wednesday Folks, when this post finally makes it onto the internet, and by the time that you actually get around to reading it, I will more than likely be crazily cramming for my three finals coming up this Friday.  So chances are most of the posts this week will have been written ahead of time.  Today's post comes from a quote seen on a friends blog.

"People ask why I run. I say, “If you have to ask, you will never understand”. It is something only those select few know. Those who put themselves through pain, but know, deep down, how good it really feels" ~Erin Leonard


This quote really does signify any athlete who puts themselves through the things that suck in pursuit of a higher goal.  No one likes waking up when it's still dark outside and going for a long run.  I don't like coming home from labs at 7 and having to go out for a run lit by street lights. But it's things like that gets you through 4 hours of running hell.  After completing a marathon, you have a feeling like none other and all the training, all the pain, blood, sweat and tears that you've put in, it feels worth it.  Although it didn't set in till after I had popped a few advil's ate some food and what not.  The reminder of the accomplishment stuck around for many days (I couldn't quite walk).  

Speaking of which a random anecdote, I was working in a lab at the hospital during the summer and our floor was getting renovations and thus did not have washrooms on the floor, they were either one floor up or one floor down.  So one day, decided needed to make a visit there and took the elevator up one floor (breaking a personal rule of mine) and happened a washroom closed for cleaning.  The cleaning lady was like oh this washroom is closed for cleaning, but there's one on the other side of the building, so I said my thanks, walked away and proceeded to wait for the elevator to take me down to the main floor.  The cleaning lady comes out and is perplexed, thinking I didn't understand her instructions, I told her I did, but that I can't walk.  She then had pity and was like wellll..... alright go ahead and use this one.  So word or friendly advice to those that are running their first long distance event, stretch LOTS after your run, and then go take an ice bath, drink up on some recovery drinks, and wear some compression gear if you can after.


But back to the quote, we put ourselves through all this, there's no words to describe the feeling.  My brother once told me, that pain you feel after working out just means the muscles are there.  To this day I still hold that to heart, if it hurts it means they're there and you worked them hard. Just make sure you don't overtrain.  I'll let you know what the feeling is for my second marathon maybe it won't be quite as awesome, maybe it will.


~Cheers

The importance of sleep

So today's post goes over something that everybody has probably experience or dealt with before, not enough sleep.  We all deal with it different ways, pushing through it, taking supplements or drinking some kind of caffeinated beverage.  Even though it may make you "feel" better and more awake and ignoring the fact that taking it in large quantities is not good as I talked about before, how big of a factor is sleep in performance?

Physical effects
- reduced endurance
- reduced cardiovascular performance
- poor reaction times
- hormonal disturbances
- Slower recovery

Now an interesting thing is that even though we all have had this idea of sleep is important bestowed upon us, it has been hard to put data to back that up physically.  What has been linked is that the RPE (rating of perceived exertion) goes up when you're lacking in sleep.  This is important because if you've done a certain route before and you felt great, going back and feeling like you're getting bent over a rock does wonders for motivation.  Conversely, when you're well rested you feel good, a lower RPE so you can finish your workout.  You can hit your time, or if nothing else, you felt compelled to push a little bit more than you normally would.

Another really important thing is recovery.  You produce growth hormones while you're sleeping which will aid in the recovery of muscles and thus makes it easier for you to back up for the next day and hit it hard again. This on the other hand does have a whole lot of significance behind it. 

This next part has less science backing and is more of like personal realizations.  You're usually in a better mood when you're rested, and it's easier to pull yourself out the door.  You're usually generally less stressed when you're well rested and the lions share of sicknesses that the typical individual is afflicted to can be traced back to sleep.  So if you're well rested, less stress, less sickness, I'd say it's a win win.

So at the end of the day how important is sleep?  Well it won't make you the worlds fastest athlete, but it will give you a free percent or more improvement for not doing a whole lot.  You can recover quicker to hit it quicker.  You will probably be injured less often and healthier more often.  So it's part science, part convention that people have found sleep to be very important and I'd have to agree with people on that one.

~Cheers

Nike+ Sportband

So here's actually a gadget that I was looking at a little while back, but never ended up getting it and I'll tell you why at the end.  The entire nike+ system is actually a really great idea of getting people into running, they way that they've built the platform it makes running a little bit more than that.  I won't go into it too too much because I'll hopefully be covering this in a review sometime next week.  The basic idea is you can do things like tracking distance, average pace, calories, stuff like that.  Then you can go back and look at it online and progress through different "levels"  But more on the sportband

The sportband comes in two fantastic colors right now pink and yellow.  So pretty much a male or female version.

Bright Colors

I'm personally a fan of how the yellow one looks and yes it is quite that bright.  The price of these things varies depending on whether you are in Canada or if you are in the states.  If you're south of the 49th then it will run you somewhere around 59 bucks (Amazon) and if you're north of the 49th, then it's going to run you anywhere from 79 to 89 dollars.  

Before the sportband, the only problem was that if you wanted to use the Nike+ system, you had to have an iPod, and now you don't have to providing you buy this system.  So what do you get for plunking down your hard earned cash?

Package Contents

Well you get a very nice plastic case (that can be recycled), your sport band, the usb stick that tracks the info and then your running chip.  

This system does your typical things like tracking pace, distance, time, calories burned.  It all operates off a pretty simple single button.  It shows you all that info on the screen, it's non-obtrusive.  After you're done your run, plug it into your computer, upload the info to nike+ and you're off to go look at your run.  This one is said to be waterproof, which is better than the past iteration which had the tendency to not agree so well with water. 

Final Thoughts
Well I think it's actually a really nice idea for your casual runner, or even somebody who doesn't feel like dropping a bill or two on a dedicated fitness watch or gps watch such as the FR60 or anything else from the FR family of Garmin.  These things aren't a bad idea.  Now the best thing is that these chips don't need to be used on Nike shoes, you can buy clips, pouches, or you can be cheap and Asian like me and throw it in a tiny ziploc bag and feed it in between your tongue and laces on your shoes.  For those that like a slightly more aesthetically pleasing solution you can find something like this probably at your local running store.

Nice little pouch

But at the end of the day the reason why I didn't get this was because unfortunately I live north of the 49th, and we get charged 89 bucks for these things up here.  At that price, I may as well throw a bit more in and get myself a fitness watch that has a HRM as well as the footpod.  That and I already have the chip with my iPod so I didn't really see a point in it.  So bottom line is, if you own a second gen or later iPod, or an iPhone 3gs or 4, just buy the chip and you're good to go

~Cheers

13 Days until Christmas

So another week, another seven days gone.  Which means it's now finals season, end of semester oh..... and Christmas.  It's getting there guys, closer and closer.

Week in Review - Dec 11, 2010

So  as you've probably realized I tend to be really all over the place and write a bunch of little sentence fragments.  I also always have these little things that kinda just crop up and don't really make a full post so they just usually never make it to a full post.  But hopefully with this weekly review I will be able to put them in, and there can be a quick recap of what I've written this week.

So here it is, a nice small summarizing Saturday post

Posts this week

Monday - Garmin Forerunner 210

Tuesday - Hydration Part 2

Wednesday - Habits of Science Students

Thursday - Race Sched is Up

Friday - Jens Voigt

Interesting Tidbits

I was reading earlier this week looking at the stats of the blog, because lets face it this is kinda my baby that I want to see grow.  For all the techy geeky people out there, the blog pretty much has an even distribution of people looking at it from a mac and people looking at it from a pc.  What is interesting is that somebody in Croatia has looked at this twice, I didn't even know I knew anyone in Croatia

Random Notes

As of yesterday, I'm pretty much putting myself on academic lockdown because I have a bunch of finals that really need to be served a good dose of WHOOPASS.  So chances are pretty likely the posts that you see next week will have been written up in advance, and there won't be a whole bunch of material that's written the night before.

Jens Voigt

So today's post is usually about people in my life, but because you start running out of people you know well enough to write a post about, that also have an effect on our athletic pursuits today's post is a slight deviation on that.  Although he does have an effect on my training, it's not because I know him personally but his entire nature just gives you that motivation.  He is the one, the only Jens Voigt.

ARRRRRRRRRRR

So I guess a little bit of a bio/intro is in order.  He's a German professional cyclist, having ridden for Team CSC, Saxo Bank, and now the Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project.  He's possibly one of the most approachable riders in the entire peloton, making time for autographs, talking to fans and what not.  He also has one of the most enduring attitudes as I will talk about later.  Oh that and he says some of the most awesome things.

Last year during the Tour de France (Tour or TdF) he had a MASSIVE crash going down a mountain and was forced to abandon the stage.  He was interviewed later and he said the only thought going through his brain was "ohhhhh this is going to hurt" and then he proceeded to slide down the mountain face first....yes face first.

After crash

So that was last year, during this years tour, he had another crash, completely totalled his bike and everything. He rode for 20 km on a kids bike that didn't fit and had toe cages and caught up to a  policeman who had a replacement bike waiting for him.  I mean that is just spirit right there.  After the race finished he said "well this time last year, I was in a hospital so I think it's alright"

He is also very candid, he tells it how it is and he's never afraid to work his face off.  Like when he needs to do something or get something done "Shut up body and do what I want you to".  Talk about mind over matter.  In the cycling world, he has a following quite similar to that of Chuck Norris, with people making all kinds of awesome facts about him.  

This has spawned a couple things, What would Jens do and Harden the fu*k up.  It's two things that always run through my mind when I'm lacking motivation to do what I probably should be doing.  So on days when the sky looks like crap, or I don't feel like hopping on the trainer, think.... what would Jens do.  Every one needs to find some motivational figures that help make the training a little bit easier to start, because chances are there's someone that you look up to in whatever field there is.  Chances are pretty good that while you're reading this, I'm at the gym or on the bike.

As a side note, if you're curious to learn a bit more about the character he is, go youtube some videos about him.  Or check out this site, Jens Voigt Facts

~Cheers

Tentative Race Sched is up

So today's post is going to be about the racing schedule, it just went up and can be found here.  Happy readings

~Kel

Habits of science students

So as a breed us science students are very interesting.  There are some things that are common to all of us.  We live a very regimented life, for example we like sitting in the exact same seat every single class.  We get annoyed when people sit in our seats because then it throws the rest of the class off.  We have a specific type of pen and pencil that we use and our pencil cases are filled with the same ones.  We have highlighters (or in my case a box of them) that I carry all around.

My jolly little yellow box

That brings me to the inspiration for this post... kinda.  Miss Mireault and I were talking and the marathon came up. She's like "oh you can run 42 k" and I angrily replied "42.16".  That highlights everything about us science nerds, we're very exacting.  For example it's not 26 miles....it's 26.2. And our next mountain that we scale after Calgary is 140.6.  So here's to blood sweat and tears while undertaking these long distance events

Hydration pt. 2

So in the last post of this "mini-series", Part 1 I talked a little bit about why it's good to keep on sucking on something liquidy.  Now yesterday morning (I started writing this last Friday, but then it fell apart) I decided to be crazy and embarked on a 3 hour spin session, nothing crazy to kill you but still a sustained effort.  About 20 minutes from finishing said spin and starting cool down, I ran out of my poorly, sleep deprived mixed gatorade, it was a sad moment.  So top tips, bring enough to drink when you're going to workout.

Today's post is going to cover what to drink, and when to drink it.  Undoubtedly you have seen people around the gym walking around drinking a protein shake or after they've gone for a workout.  Now some people can actually benefit from these, but these are the people who can lift you up with one finger and bench like a brick sh*t house.  Another wards, you need to push unbelievably hard for it to actually have the beneficial results it claims.  So for us normal folks that do not look like and life like 'roid monkeys, all that protein will actually just get converted to carbs.... and then more than likely.....FAT.  So onto today's post, it's going to cover the three kinda times that hydration is important.

Water:
The simplest of all drinks, for most things it's enough.  For runs under 30 min, it's probably all you're going to need because you're not exerting a whole lot.  You should probably look at something else if you're running more than that

Sports Drinks
When people think sports drinks, it is a given that everybody thinks about Gatorade, I mean it has spawned a world full of pretenders.  What it is is water that's been hopped up with six to eight percent concentration of carbs, and your typical electrolytes (sodium, potassium and other minerals lost through sweat).  The idea behind this is that the water can be absorbed faster (up to 30%) and gives your body something to sustain itself.   This should be consumed on runs longer than 30 minutes, and passed by on those shorter as water is probably enough.  Also not bad to have before, during or after too.  Some people will find certain stuff makes them feel so good (certain gels have left a less than awesome taste).

There's a subset of sports drinks that's aimed at the endurance crowd and is similar to regular sports drinks but with more electrolytes.  This is due to the fact that you're sweating pretty constantly, but now for a longer time.

Energy Drinks
So we've all had these before, more often than not, they taste.... well less than great.  More often than not these drinks are packed FULL of sugars.  So word of caution, only have these if you have a strong stomach and you're well fed and you just need an energy boost.  You can also have other additives that will get added on and make this give you a little bit more energy.  Pass in general unless you feel like you'll be fine with a truckload of sugar hitting your system in an instant.

Recovery Drinks
These will usually give you some protein and some carbs which will help to pack the glycogen into your muscles, usually in a 1:4 ratio (protein to carbs).  These will help you recover a little better or at least give your muscles the energy to back up and hit at it again with some intensity the next day.  You usually don't need these unless they're longer workouts (More than an hour).  Otherwise, pass these by as you probably don't need the help or the calories.

Random notes

Hot and Cold
Temperature of a drink is important, not only does drinking a warm drink on a warm day suck it's not good for rapid movement of water out of the stomach

Hypertonic, Hypotonic, Isotonic....OH MY
Drink companies will use these terms and it's probably somewhat confusing for the non-scientifically inclined.

Hypertonic is when a drink is more concentrated than your body's fluids (think lemonade, salt water...etc) and it is going to be absorbed slower than normal.  So it's probably not a good solution before or during your workout.  It's usually something that's higher energy so it shouldn't be rammed into your system quickly.

Hypotonic is when a drink is less concentrated than your body's fluids (think distilled water) and it is going to be absorbed faster than regular water.  Chances are it will probably make it through your body quicker in general too.

Isotonic is when a drink is about as concentrated as your body's fluids and will therefore be absorbed faster or about the same as normal water.  It draws a nice balance between refuelling (Hyper) and rehydrating (Hypo)

Smell the coffee
Now caffeine is usually not a very good idea before your races/workouts because they're a diuretic which tends to create some problems.  But in small amounts can actually give you a little bit of an extra spark, so take in small quantities.


Kel's jolly cabinet of hydration goodies
So in this part I'll let you know about what I've used, what I've thought of them.  I have absolutely no vested interest in any of these companies, nor am I getting paid to do it.  This is for the most part stuff I have bought myself, or gotten as freebies to try out from fairs.

Gatorade
Everyone know this stuff, I used to buy them in bottles because I liked the line called "Gatorade Rain".  It was supposed to be all the awesomeness of gatorade without the funny taste. Well when I started my marathon training last year, I bought a little jar of the gatorade powder (Lime something I think) and i found it to be a lot cheaper and it tasted alright.  But then I realized that I was burning through this stuff at an astronomical rate, and that's when I decided to skip the cool flavors and go for the cheap.  I bought a giant tin of this stuff and then have been going through it ever since.  I think this is big tin number 3, or 4.  So instead of buying the bottled stuff, make it yourself, and it's a lot cheaper.

Mr. Big and Orange

AminoVital
My sister actually bought this stuff after her half marathon and I have been stealing some from her every so often.  I've actually found that it's really good for helping with recovery.  You can get them in a multitude of different flavors, this for instance happened to be grape.  If you do decide to use this, follow their instructions as if you don't mix it quite right it tastes interesting.  Other gripes that I have with it is that it's one of those "zero calorie" drinks meaning they use aspartame (cancer causing)  and it tastes gross.  I hate that aftertaste, so if you don't mind it go for it.  Lastly it's not particularly cheap, but it works awesomely. Yes that's a word

Little grey jar

SlimFast

Now most of you are probably sitting there reading if you still are at this point wondering what on earth slimfast has to do with anything.  Well actually it's got a really good ratio of carbs to protein, so much that you have that perfect ratio and it's good for those that can't stomach real food after.  Or it's also good to get it in you within that magical 30 minute window.  I've actually liked this quite a bit because it tastes alright, makes it easy to ingest stuff right away.  So ya pretty much any meal replacement will have similar ideas behind the composition, just look at the nutrition label. It's a little bit expensive to get the brandname version so I'll let you know what happens when I try out the superstore brand (Presidents choice)

The little red tin

Chocolate Milk

For those that are lazy to the point where you don't want to even mix stuff? Well grab some chocolate milk, also a great recovery drink and who doesn't love chocolate milk

High 5 Products

Now this is less so a specific product so much as a general finding with this company. I actually had never heard of this company before, and most probably like every other person in Calgary, but they are a really big sports nutrition company in the UK.  They make really good stuff for pretty much anything under the sun related to sports nutrition.  In terms of hydration, they do things like carb drinks, recovery drinks, isotonic drinks, extreme carb drinks, 4:1 drinks.  Best of all this stuff tastes awesome, it's fruity, not too sweet and goes down easily without upsetting the stomach.  Only problem is they have no distributors in NA and thus I have to sneak this stuff in with my orders of bike parts from across the pond. Oh and it's not expensive either.

Thanks for reading this GIANT post, part 3 should be coming along sometime after this, but will likely be after reading break so in a couple weeks.

~Cheers

Garmin Forerunner 210

So ever since I got my Edge 500 I've kinda been hooked on the idea of putting numbers to my training. When you're lifting weights it's very easy to know hey... I can life more today, I'm getting better.  With cycling using rating of perceived exertion (RPE) it's pretty easy to gauge how you feel, but how do you know if you're getting fitter?  Well you can look at things like heart rate, power and stuff like that.  With running it's a little bit more difficult because without having either something like the nike+ system or a running watch you have nothing.  So that brings us to the topic of the day.

Garmin Forerunner 210

FR-210

FR-305

So here it is in all it's glory. One of the nicest things about this one is that it actually looks like a normal watch that you could wear on a regular basis and not have it look like something is growing off of your wrist like the Forerunner 305.   Garmin is a company that a lot of people associate with GPS, and in a sense their sport products do have GPS built in.  This allows you to go back after your run, see where you have run what the course profile looked like and stuff like that.

Other companies that also take part in this market are companies like Polar (which most of you will associate with fitness equipment).  They make really good heart rate monitors and in general it is much better than the Garmin heart rate straps, but there is a fix that I may talk about later.  Other companies such as Suunto also make watches as does Timex.  The problem with the Timex one once again in my opinion is that it's MASSIVE...

HUGE

So that brings us back to the FR-210, in terms of size I actually wouldn't mind putting one of these on and going and eating 20 k for breakfast. Now what can it do for you?

Features
Well it can do all the typical things you would expect a watch like this to do such as pace, distance, time, laps.  But with these kinds of dedicated training devices you can do a lot more than that.
-calculating calorie expenditure (with HRM)
-calculating cadence (with footpod)
-interval training

Now those that haven't really trained with looking at numbers other than how far you ran on a treadmill will be left with kind of a .....uhhh great feeling, so what?  Putting numbers to your training especially after when doing long distance events can be really crucial to hitting your time or missing it completely.  For example you can do per km pace calculations by just pressing the lap button your watch every k.  The only problem with that is that by the time you realize you're off pace you've already lost that time and it will probably have had a great impact on your overall time.  So what is the point of the HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) and footpod? Well heart rate training by zones (how hard your heart is working) can allow you to target specific types of fitness.  While the foot pod can do things like speed and cadence (which allows you to train indoors during the winter)  Cadence is one of those things that a lot of people let drop by the wayside without giving it a whole lot of thought, but you can run quicker by upping your cadence slightly.

Last Thoughts?
Well as you've probably realized by now I LOVE my gadgets.  So when I finally save up enough money I will probably get a GPS running watch of some sort.  The only problems with things like this is that they're not cheap in the least bit.  So until then I'll keep on using the nike+ system which I shall post a review of sometime. After training with the edge for a bit, it becomes kinda surreal to see that you are getting better (or that you are just getting crappy because of not doing anything for 2 weeks).

~Cheers

20 days till Christmas

So I lied there is a post today, but I thought its 20 days till Christmas, less than three weeks.....WOOHOOO

Week in review

So now that it seems like that I post here with some semblance of regularity, I will attempt to continue it.  Today's post is more just kinda a week in review, but maybe setting out how/what I'm going to write about.

Monday: A look at something new and exciting that I would love to get my hands on, but don't have the money to do so.  (will more than likely be a gadget)
Tuesday: A feature article, where I talk about something interesting, and right now the next one coming up should be Hydration Pt. 2
Wednesday: Review on some piece of gear that I've used or just a random revelation
Thursday: Updates on the athletic life and progress
Friday: People in my life, talking about other people that I have managed to con....... (* yes that reads con, not part of convince) into doing things with me, be it eating healthy, running a marathon, getting conned into doing IMC
Saturday: Will probably just turn into a recap of stuff that I've posted and random anecdotes that do not warrant a post.
Sunday: These days will usually and probably never have posts because it is my one day where I have a million things to do and never actually have time to do them.  So no updates today

Now I will try my best to do these posts every day, sometimes they may be a bit shorter, and sometimes they may get completely shoved under the rug, but I will try my best to hit at least 4 of the posts a week.  Maybe even more, but likely to be less.  So with that, have an awesome Saturday guys, thanks again for reading for those of you that do.  It makes it worth doing, and now I'm off to go study some more invertebrate zoology.

A certain Miss Mireault

So from time to time I shall bring in and introduce friends of mine that have a relevance on what I'm doing.

So today's post is about a certain Miss Mireault.  A little background....I met her when I was working for the city many years back and we always talked lots, went climbing together.  She actually got really good and climbs competitively now for a team, more than I can say for my skills (lacking).  So last year when I ran my marathon I think the words that she used to describe me was something along the lines of nuts.  I was crazy for putting myself through all of that.

Fast forward to this year, and she asked me stuff about my marathon experience.  We ran together one day and it kinda snowballed from there.  I had absolutely no hand in convincing her to do it, just which one to do.  So fast forward to today and voila, she is now registered for a marathon, the Calgary one (May 29, 2010).  So maybe we'll keep you posted on her happenings as well.

So this post is for you, awesome on registering, it's already half the battle.  Now's the fun part of training. And yes we will go for drinks, after I have stretched, popped painkillers, gorged on a cow, and finished an ice bath.

Cheers

No turning back now

So today, I finally decided to get off my lazy bum and register myself for the marathon. And of course in typical Kelvin fashion, I am now called "Kelving", it's a force of habit from typing Ng.  Now as those who have been reading this will know that I did it last year.  It was by far the hardest thing that I have ever done.  This time I've actually decided that I want to do this well in advance and thus have started planning much farther in advance.  I've actually convinced a few other people to do this with me, her (Jess), Tanya, and Nick.  If you want to take part in this, feel free to join me for some training runs and maybe we'll have a get together before/after the race.  Last year I registered on April 6, this year, Dec 1, that's like FIVE MONTHS in advance, so hopefully I'll have a much better result.

In other news, Jess is starting to get back into running and she has news from that. She's sore..... hahaha what a surprise.  She still hasn't gotten her gmail account, and hopefully she'll get it soon.  But she starts her actual program mid Dec so there's going to more updates from us in terms of our pursuits.

Today's post isn't really full of anything particular, just kinda an update into whats going on our lives.  Updates may be sparse in the coming weeks because exams are going to take over our lives, but with a bit of luck, her and I will survive exams and she will get gmail and start blogging.

~Cheers

Happy December

It's the first of December, and that means it's almost Christmas, almost the New Years.  Oh that and almost done Fall semester

Falling off the bike...figuratively

So this past week has been somewhat interesting in that I have not spent every day putting in sometime on the bike to keep the legs up. Finding that motivation to hop onto the bike, load up something to watch and then spend an hour or two and just spin is difficult.  So where does that motivation come from? Well for me , it came in the form of a very white space.

 That very white space would be my training peaks calendar showing that I have not done any running, nor have I done anything other than coming for the daily visits to the gym. Now being able to track information about your workout can be amazing for helping keep you track with your goals.




Kel's top tips for indoor training
1) Plan in advance - when you're going to work out, what you're going to do, stuff like that. Here is a cliche but true proverb; "fail to plan, plan to fail"
2) Keep track - what you're doing, how much, how long, how you felt, how you feel, essentially keep a       training log
3) Stuff that goes BOOM - Finding movies, stuff to watch, or just something to keep the boredom at bay while you tirelessly spinning away on a bike going nowhere.

So with that it is now goodbye from school and time to get back on the bike.

~Cheers

Hydration Pt 1.

So I was thinking this is supposed to be a blog about my experiences, pit falls and successes, so let's write about a real topic that is usually encountered at some point by all people.  Hopefully this will be a 3 part (or 4 part if I can find enough to write on):

Tentative Plan:
Part 1 - Why we need water
Part 2 - What to drink and when
Part 3 - Exercise paradigms
Part 4 - Random tidbits and other facts

Water is the most basic fluid that your body requires and although it has many uses, we don't usually realize the significance of it.  A big factor is temperature regulation, allowing your body to thermo-regulate.  A big problem with getting dehydrated is your body begins to heat up and body doesn't like this warm environment.  Now there is an optimal range, so it's not like you shouldn't keep your body warm because that's good for muscles, just don't overcook yourself.  In simpler terms, when you lose water you are decreasing your overall blood volume.  If you lose more than 2% it starts to occur and then your heart works harder to pump the blood and thus you can start feeling dizzy lethargic etc.  Getting to a point where you are dehydrated usually is correlated with a relatively lengthy time to recover and bring your body back to a point where it is adequately "hydrated" again.  Oddly enough, the opposite holds true as well.  For you to load your body with more water, you have to do this in bits and pieces as opposed to just chugging water like mad.  This usually just results it going through your body really quickly.

So how much water should one drink? A rough calculation is half an oz. for every lb you weight.  For example that would put me at just over 70 oz's a day which is not a whole lot (Think two big nalgene bottles).  Now lots of people don't end up actually drinking enough water, but for those that only drink when you're feeling thirsty, it's already a wee bit too late.  Now this type of fluid intake doesn't always have to be taken in as water itself, but fruits, other drinks etc....(But not coffee or alcohol) works too. There are a few things that change this, such as altitude, temperature, sweating and exercise duration/intensity.  The higher altitude that you are training at, the more fluids you will have to ingest to stay hydrated.  Same goes for temp, greater temp = more water needed.  The last two usually go hand in hand, upping your exercise duration or intensity will result in more sweating accounting for the need replenish with fluids. 

Now there are many papers out there that have documented quite clearly a direct correlation between dehydration and a drop in performance.  Maybe it's just the science in me, but scientific papers are awesome, because they lay out specifically how stuff gets done and what the results were.  One study tested the effect of using a diuretic drug on long distance runners, and tracking changes in time over distances.  It varied with the distance but there was always an increase in time required to run a certain distance.  So that brings us to things like coffee or alcohol.  Coffee in excess amounts is bad for you (we'll revisit this in pt. 4 hopefully) because it just makes you need to go to the washroom excessively, essentially undoing any proper hydration you have been undertaking.  Alcohol on the other hand results in the sequestering of water to process the alcohol and break it down.  So at the end of the day there is less water for your body to do other things with. 

So hopefully one now has a greater appreciation of staying properly hydrated and we'll look at the different things you can take to stay hydrated.

Random Tidbits

So I've really been more or less of a hermit these past few days and there's a really a good reason for that, I've been living in what amounts to essentially an igloo for the past week..... Don't trust me? Well I'll upload some pics that should've gone in the (Un)Happy Winter post.  Oh that and the expected high tomorrow is going to be 20 degrees below, friggen fantastic. I love Calgary for our usually warm summers (This years was ABYSMAL).  Unfortunately due to a fantastic weather phenomenon called La Nina, we're expected to have a crappier than usual winter, and that's saying something, thank god for Chinooks.

So today's post covers random things, not a whole lot on actual athletic pursuits, but more ramblings about me

My current disdain for Calgary sports teams 
So I follow sports with a certain amount of dedication, cheering, hooping and the usual hate on edmonton if they have a team.  But one thing that I have realized in all my years growing up in Cowtown is that we can not have both of our sports teams doing well at the same time.  Now this usually held true, Stamps win the cup, Flames suck, and more or less the same vice versa.  Fast forward to November 21, 2010 and you have the Stamps which are playing in the western final, and the Flames playing a regular season game.  Now the flames have been SUCKING as of late, like I mean REALLY REALLY sucking.  We're below .500, so logic based on past observations dictate that we should do well in this football game right? WRONG.  We ended up losing to the 'Riders and there were some objectionable calls,so second year in a row, we've been defeated in the Western Final.  So any hope on hoisting the Cup due to the Flames miserable performance has gone out the window, now does that mean the Flames will stop sucking? Lets hope so.

My awesome grammar (or lack thereof)
Those that have read this blog will have noticed a few things about me.  I like run on sentences, and I also like the opposite, fragments.  So I apologize in advance for subjecting you to the horribleness that is my writing, but that's how I am, really all over the place!  If it really does bug you, drop me a comment and I shall try my best to improve upon that.

Winter Training
So for those that are crazy enough like me, or have no other choice, you need to train through the winter, I'll hopefully write a post about that next, maybe in the next few days (I always seem to over promise, under deliver, so I'm building myself some more leeway this time)

100th Visitor
And then some, we passed out hundredth visitor a while back, and that's awesome to see, hopefully we can hit more visitors this month.  Maybe we can even double it, now that would be awesome.  I shall try to write some other posts that are not all complaining about the horrible weather conditions that we have here in Calgary, and maybe give some inspiration to all those that undertake athletic endeavors like Jess and I.

(Un)Happy Winter

So in Calgary, over the past four days,  mother nature has decided to turn Calgary into a Winter wonder/waste land.  It's really cold now so you can't even go outside and do runs.  It's only indoor training for now.  Pics will come up when I get home

Marathon programmes

So today's one is going to be a little shorty, because I'm running off to yoga in a bit.

My program is pretty much finalized, I'll probably post a copy online in a little bit, but it's going to be starting off in the first week in January, and it'll be lots and lots of running over the next 5 months.

I've managed to get actually convince quite a few other people to run this one with me (Jess included) so it should be a fantastic year, and hopefully this year we'll get warmer weather than we did last year.

Jess's program is done too, and it's sitting on my computer so we'll probably take a look at that and see if everything's alright, and if it is fantastic, but knowing me I've probably made a boo boo somewhere.  It's now been emailed, and we'll talk soon.  Speaking of which, we're both sitting in class, clearly paying riveting attention to the indispensable knowledge that is arthropods.

On a sad note, there is currently a winter storm warning in place for calgary, so barring mother nature letting up on us, there shall be pics of first real winter weather in Calgary.

Oh and Jess says she'll get gmail.... soon, oh and says HI!

Winter training

So as the weather continues to get colder, one has to resort more and more to indoor training.  Unfortunately for cyclists, that means many hours on the bike, either doing spin classes, or watching many many movies while putting in the hours on the bike.  I have been doing the latter, and I'm getting to the point where I'm running out of movies to watch, I guess I'll have to start watching stuff on the computer.  I haven't posted here in a little bit, there's a few things that still have yet to get written.  One of those is the "o" story, that should come sometime....hopefully.  I'll also hopefully be writing about nutrition stuff in the next little bit and then maybe about a certain new gadget that is making it much easier to train during these long hours.

Today's post is about the indoor bike setup. 

Indoor bike setup
So those that want to continue staying fit and keeping the legs fresh about  the biking options, have a couple options.  They can cross-train (x-country skiing, running, etc), they can use rollers, which is essentially a rolling pavement, but in a much more compact form, or you can get a trainer, where you essentially hook your wheel up onto a flywheel and you spin.   Right now, my brother and I use (read: commandeered) the basement as our place to spin.

The basement with the bikes, mine's the one on the left

It's actually kinda deceiving, because this has been many places, my dad used to watch his videos and what not on here.  Then it became the family's gaming area where we had a bunch of games for our play station 1.  Then I got a play station 2, and it kinda become my gaming area.  One thanksgiving we got rockband and then it become the rockband area.  Now fast forward a few years and it has now become the winter training area.  This spot suddenly looks really small once we put two bikes into there...... weird.


So anybody who has spun on a spinner (at the gym) or spun a bike (at home) will realize that in very little time you will get very warm.  Cycleops (the people who make these trainers) came up with a brilliant idea, and it is essentially this towel that covers the top of your bike, and it absorbs anything that happens to make it from your face and fall due to gravity.  But it's also got fantastic thing on the bike which holds two remotes.... it's BRILLIANT.  So not only do you know have access to your remotes while on you're bike, your paint won't corrode on your bike so it's a fantastic thing.

You can put two remotes on the front of your bike.... SCORE

Another thing that usually goes along with a trainer is a block of some sort that holds your wheel so that you can angle your bike and it's a wee bit more stable.  Now the block that I had been using before (a friends) was a pretty basic design, it's essentially a star, and there's three different positions that you can put your wheel at.  So when the new trainer came with these new blocks, they looked BIG.....and MANLY, so one would think they would last... right? Well you would be wrong, and my brother who was using one this morning, managed to crack it while sprinting.  Just for reference, the one that I"m using is the one on the right on the pic above, and the one that is BIG and MANLY is on the left... see I wasn't joking.  So lets look at the after pics:

Yikes

Yikes (Side view)

This just goes to confirm something that I've been realizing over the past few years, stuff made today is for the most part, of a cheaper quality.  Good thing they gave us two of these, but I have the distinct feeling that it's just going to crack again, so for now we will just keep on using the old one.

I'll post some more detailed thoughts on the trainer when I've played around with it for a little bit more, but for now, it shall be a return to the homework that I love so much.


~ps..... yes I know those couches are awesome, you just wish you had ones with such a SWEET pattern too

Rememberance Day

For all those that have served, to give us the freedom we enjoy, Lest we forget

The first weekend of november

So with November, we've actually had really nice weather for the most part we had a couple days were we had temps of 16-20 degrees, which is quite pleasant, considering that sometimes that was about as warm as the summer got.  The "o" post has been slightly delayed, you can blame that on a Botany lab report that was just written, a joyous 11 pages about Hordeum vulgare (For all you non-latin folk, that is Barley)  So suffice to say, that was an enjoyable 11 pages to write about.  So what happened this weekend?

Well, on saturday there was a charity run, Run without borders, which was run with one of the student associations that I'm part of, some of us did 10k, I wanted the food that my race reg had paid for, so I ran the 5k.  It was about -4 that morning, so not the best of running weather, but you suck it up and run, it ended up being a decent run lasting 23 odd cold, windy minutes.  So that was fun, probably could've done the 10k, but that would have resulted in me not being able to consume five yogurts, two bananas, half a muffin and cup of coffee.  But the rest of the BSA (Biology Students Association) had fantastic runs, and it looks like we're doing another one in February for heart and stroke month, seriously I don't think we had a single race in cowtown that did not have crappy weather, but so is life.  But now it's back to homework, pics from the run will be up soon.

~Kel

Is that an O I spy?

Well it's late, but here's a teaser about what tommorow's post is going to be about

A big one.....

So because I am for the most part done my exams, and I really could not care to start my lab writeups or continue my studying for my last midterm we're going to do a big update....

Why i'm/we're doing this?
So this is a story about a guy named Kel (me) and a girl named Jess (Her.... this used to read Pow, that is in fact her last name).  This story actually started from an afternoon lecture in Biochemistry.  Now you may be sitting there thinking, what on earth does that have to do with this....well that's where I first agreed to do "that" with Jess.  She had had thoughts earlier of doing an Ironman but then life got in the way, and dance, so that never happened, but her friend did end up doing that (Jess is this right).  So that afternoon, I somehow in delusion agreed to do it with her, but I didn't quite realize that yet.  Apparently the deal was I do an ironman with her, she does a marathon with me.  

So fast forward a couple hours and I'm sitting at home contemplating what I've done that day.... and stop... did I just agree to do ironman Canada (IMC) with Jess.

Phone call with Jess
Me: Hi Jess
Her: Hey Kel
Me: Did I happen to agree to do an ironman with you?
Her: Yes
Me: *Silence*
Her: Kel?
Me: Alright, thanks, see you Monday.

So just like that the plan had been set in motion, and we were off... well kind of. We planned to do the marathon this year (2009) and the ironman next year (2010).  Unfortunately Jess had some family thing to do so I solo'ed it.  There's a short summary of what happened in that.... all was well...but not really.

So this year, we've planned to do the marathon next year (2011) and then IMC after we finish University.  So along the way we've decided to blog our pursuits, workouts, musings, and epiphany's and let you know how we do along the way, so that's why we're doing it

So how did that marathon go?
Well that marathon was actually kinda fun, by far the hardest thing that I have done, and I did not train enough, but through a few things I would make it through.  I had my gels, purse clips to hold the gels, my shot blocks, my recovery drink powder, and my race bib... we were set.

Running Goodies

So with all my gear ready, I loaded up the gels around my running tights (on the advice of my pseudo coach Andii) and it actually worked out quite brilliantly.  The run was quite a lot of fun.... but very long and very cold.


The race was pretty much like this after the half way marker, you ran more or less by yourself, every so often you'd get reeled in, or people would reel you in.

Finishing Straight

You become quite unaware of certain things while you're running because you have much more important things to be worrying about... such as how much pain you're in.

Why yes my cap is on weirdly

But at the end up day, you've reached the finish line, and that's all that matter, I went through four hours of suck, but managed to finish it, and my sis also managed to finish her race (The half).

Notice the different looks on the faces

So for putting in that training, for downing nothing but gels, water, gatorade, shot blocks and painkillers for the four hours.  I got a nice belt buckle medal to signify the achievement

This is what it's all about

So that is a highly shortened story about my first marathon.

So whats next?
Well Jess is running her marathon this year, so we're starting up training in the winter for her.
I'm just trying to stay in shape so I'll be riding and running as much as I can over the coming two months. Then we start serious training in January.

Plans for the blog
Hopefully I will be able to do things on a regular basis, and between Jess and I you will have lots to read.
Each week, there's going to be posts on:
Reviews of gear used
How training is going
Revelations
Tips and things learned
Random miscellaneous anecdotes from the lives of two science majors.

That is all.... Happy November guys, I think I shall go and enjoy the weather outside.

No Snow, it's a good thing... really!

~Kel

Halloween Updates

So the trainer tire has come back off the bike, because it looks like it's going to be a decent next week, or at least the rumors say that there's going to be a nice and mild November, followed by an utterly crappy 3 months of colder than average winter.  So a thought would be to try and take advantage of that as much as possible, and hopefully get in the last little bits of decent weather, especially with the upcoming race.  I'm running the doctors without borders run this Saturday, it's just going to be a fun run, so we'll see what happens.

The trainer is out

Unfortunately, this past week has been not so great for the weather here in Calgary, so I have finally pulled the trainer tire onto the bike, and I've put the bike onto the trainer, and it looks like it's going to be a long winter. Pictures will come up soon

Mother nature does not co-operate (Pt 2)

So yesterday started off as a possible bust in terms of going out and getting a decent run in, but as I was determined to not be lazy, I layered up, and went out for a run, as I was heading out my sister was also heading for a run, and she's like well you run faster than me, why don't you take the key.... great idea right? WRONG
I use my iPod and Nike+ to track my runs and what not, oh that and to yell (tell) me how far I have run.  The experience yesterday will probably push me in the next little while to get a dedicated watch of some sort, probably from Garmin, probably the from the Forerunner series, more on that later.  But when I finally got the chip to hook up, my sister was already probably a good 6-8 minutes ahead, not really a huge deal, but I was only doing a 5k time trial, so that made making up time hard.  So I ran and ran and ran some more, in the end caught up to her after roughly 2k, and then got hit by a major cramp.  All in all, ran a 22.38 for the 5k, so I won't moan and groan.

Lessons Learned
- Get a real device to track your running, a gps watch, something, just not a device that's meant to be something else
- You're better off chasing someone down and making up time after you have ran a k or two, not right off the bat, because you will feel it, and it hurts
- I also remembered that I need lots of stretching...

Mother nature does not co-operate

So today was supposed to be one of the few days left to get in a decent ride on the bike, but unfortunately, between school, weather, and real life, these plans have completely and utterly derailed.  The original plan was to go out to Banff and get in two solid days of around 100k, but then I found out that I really should work on studying for my midterms which look like they're going to kick me in the face.  So we scaled those plans down and said lets just do a semi long-ish ride and then go to cadence have breakfast and carry on studying.  Then that fell through when we looked at the weather forecast and realized that it is going to be..................... 0 degrees when we left warming up to a balmy 3 degrees. so I said screw that and decided to sleep in.

Fast forward to this morning and I woke up and was like well I can't go biking, I'll go running, well got up, looked at the weather, and reached the same conclusion, I'm not going running in zero degree weather, so with that I will now go find breakfast, and get down to a long day of studying...joy.

Slightly on hold

So as midterm season rolls around, more and more midterms piling onto us, there will probably not be a whole lot of updates on this front, but on a completely different note, I have managed to get her (Jess) on board to this blogging thing.  Now the only catch is that I need to teach her how to do it, and I'm just kinda doing this as I learn too, so that should be interesting.