Tuesday, April 8, 2014

What's new, folks?


Makiko and I, reunited at the Twilight Ultra Challenge I was volunteering at - her husband was running!
Reading list, on and off 
I've just finished Charles Stross's 'Glasshouse', on SF Road Warrior's recommendation. Sure, it's scifi, but all good scifi contains a kernel or six of incisive social commentary, and this one says a lot of things about gender norms, identity and 20th century society despite being set in the centuries-distant future. It's bubbling over with ideas and is a pretty fast, fun read.

Also just read Jonathan Black's 'Making the American Body'. I feel like the publishers didn't do a great job of marketing this book...or editing it, because it could have been so much more. It's a nice packaged history at a glance of the fitness industry, from Arnold to Zumba. You'll meet Abbye 'Pudgy' Stockton of 1940s Muscle Beach, who at 115 lbs could lift her 180lb husband and wrote a column called Barbelles; and the business-savvy founder of Jazzercise, Judi Sheppard Missett. (Yep, before there was Zumba, there was Jazzercise.) But I feel like the author didn't push deep enough into exactly who these characters were and what their motivations were - or draw much of a link to modern-day fitness trends, cultural neuroses, body dysmorphic disorder, gender, or obesity.

Gold Coast week 5 of 18 - training log 

Monday - 8km to/ at the gym, plus hot yoga. I have the world's best yoga instructor - zero nonsense, nothing faux-spiritual, just a good stretch in a warm room. Short, sturdy, loud, and hilarious are not things one typically associates with yoga teachers. I'm a regular. This is a good class.

Tuesday track - 5km time trial in 25:49 (not my best time, but now I'm sure Venus Run was probably not a fluke. Dear lord, do I hate time trials. Does anyone ever do better in a TT than in an actual race?)

Wednesday - a warmup jog and strength work

Thursday - 10km of very painful, miserable, appalling tempo attempt; you could have melted down my legs for solder. This week I'll try doing my strength work AFTER the tempo run and have Wednesday as a true rest day.

Friday - 8km easy

Saturday - skipped my planned 10km because I was working

Sunday - The longest long run I've done in a while, and the most successful in terms of sticking to plan. 20km: 8km easy (in the neighbourhood of 7min/km), 6km tempo at 6min/km around Pandan Reservoir, 6km easy all the way home - hooray! Fuelled by shot blocks and overnight oats (oats soaked in cold soymilk overnight because oatmeal keeps me full longer than anything else, but trying to eat a hot breakfast when it's 30C in the morning is just too much to ask). Who says I never learn?

Total: 52km 

12 comments:

  1. Your workouts are amazing! May I ask where you get the shot blocks from? And also... how do you ever motivate yourself to work up to a time trial? The days I run my timed 2.4 are the ones I dread most!

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    1. Shoe! Please don't take these as any sort of benchmark for distances or paces at which to run - they're just my personal training log. I don't usually post training logs (I have a notebook for that) but I thought someone else thinking of training for a marathon on the same plan might find them a useful reference. Also, training for longer and longer distances has totally broken my perspective on what I think of as a 'short' or 'long' run. And they're not that amazing. Sometimes, like Thursday, they SUCK. :)

      Oh gosh, the dreaded time trial. Er, I make myself go to track where I know my coach and the rest of my running group are waiting for me...so major props that you motivate YOURSELF to do it. If I had to do it solo, I'd use a little bit of visualisation - before and during the run, imagine the time you want to hit on each lap - and a little bit of chocolate afterwards.

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    2. Oh and the shot blocks - online! I have a whole carton to get me through the next few months. Generally half to one package per long run and one or two during a full marathon. Nom. Would you like some?

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    3. Yeah! My brother has started cycling long distances, so we were thinking of getting a couple packages to try and share... I'll google around to see where I can get some. Thank you! And hope this week's runs go smoothly :D

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  2. Great work! And I want to hear more about the ultra challenge you were volunteering for!

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    1. Thanks! Heh, we'll get to that! I'm just lagging, so I put up a placeholder photo first.

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  3. Time trials are a form of sadistic torture designed by hateful coaches. You have to put in all the effort of a race but without the shiny trinket reward at the end.

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  4. A 5K time trial sounds like THE WORST. I can barely get myself to do a timed mile every month (my 2014 goal) -- at least I know it will be over relatively quickly. I doubt anyone would do better during a TT than during a race -- TT's are much more of a mental challenge, I'd think!

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  5. Gaaaaaah I can never make myself run a time trial. I have to sign up for a race so that it feels, y'know, real. On the track or whatever, my body is like, O EFF THIS MESS.

    Nice week!

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    1. I see everyone commiserates on the time trials :) If I wasn't doing them with a running group, no way I'd be doing them on my own every quarter. That's what races are for!

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  6. I cannot fathom early morning runs at that temperature! Ugh.

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    1. Don't forget the 80% humidity!

      This is why I'm always a puddle when I run, no matter what the distance is. You just kind of get used to it...

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