The Road To Fitville 6.19: a challenge
[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]
Anne Lamott wrote in Operating Instructions about her body after her son was born: "When I lie on my side in bed, my stomach lies politely beside me, like a puppy." For a year after my own son was born, in May 2005, I kept repeating my own addendum. An affirmation. "Someday," I said, "my stomach will get up and join the rest of my body."Problem was, my stomach wasn't going to get up and join me without my help. According to Professor Judy Maloni of Case Western Reserve University, recovering from both childbirth and bed rest is more complicated than recovering from childbirth alone, and she suggests quite reasonably asking for help from a physical therapist to create a recovery program. That's something I never thought of, and it wasn't offered to me by my health care providers. I muddled through, astonished to find I needed both hands to help me do my first post-partum sit-up.Continue reading The Road To Fitville 6.19: a challenge
[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]This week I faced a tough decision, one that seems easy enough, even inconsequential. But for me - a former chubby child - it was a decision fraught with wild emotion. To Athena or not to Athena?For those uninitiated in the ways of running races, Athena is a special category for, um, heavier women runners. By signing up for this oh-so-special category, those of us over 150 pounds can compete for honors among our own crowd as well as within the overall race roster. For men, the equivalent is the Clydesdale category, with its own weight guidelines and all the glory that being a "Clydesdale" can possibly entail.This week I signed up for the All Women's Sprint Duathlon, a very small race that is part of a much larger women's triathlon. Last time I did the du I was one of 26 participants and I came in dead last. I ran the last mile with another slow run/walker who, like me, admitted to not training enough beforehand. But she crossed the finish line one second before me. What can I say? I let her win.This week as I filled in my online registration, I realized that since the duathlon competition was so slim (pun intended) I could have been the #1 Athena in that duathlon, even though I came in last in the entire race! Then I realized right away that a) this would have been a very dubious achievement and b) for me, it would have symbolized something that I never want to happen again. It would have singled me out as heavy.Continue reading The Road To Fitville 7.10: to Athena or not to Athena?
[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]
Perusing the Runners World chart of risks for heat stroke and heat related sports injury, it occurs to me I should be some sort of poster child. A recent review of six fatalities from exercise heatstroke in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences examined the factors that contributed to death.
The highest scoring factor-present in all six deaths-was exercising too hard for fitness level. Check! I do that sometimes.
Exercising in high heat, humidity, and sunshine? Check!
Low overall fitness? Check! (Well, I'm trying to change that, thank you).
Overweight? Check! At 164.5 pounds this week, and at 5 feet 2 inches tall, my government considers me "obese."
Sleep deprivation? Oh check! I'm a relatively new mama, after all.
The only two factors I don't have going against me are "insufficient acclimatization" and "underlying infection."Also, because of the way the Hood To Coast relay start times are assigned, I won't know until a few weeks out what time of day I'll likely be running each of my three legs. So I need to be prepared for Oregon's wide range of temperatures and weather features that swing rapidly from one extreme to another as you cross the state and move from day to night, ranging from freezing summer mornings to windy hot noons, and foggy wet cold evenings.So what am I to do? Runners World gives some suggestions.Continue reading The Road To Fitville 7.17: at least I don't have an infection
[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]
Today my training seemed like it was finally paying off (my monthly stats to prove it are at the end of this post). My uphill swing into the park was marked with bounding and confident steps, rather than the heavy shuffling of a month ago. I ran swiftly and happily through the bark-chipped trails with their winding inclines and steep downhills. I leapt over 6-inch curbs that just last week felt like mountains I had to scale with crampons. The only trouble?My sluggish dog.Cheryl Harris, D.V.M., gives tips for running with your dog. Among them is the common tip of getting a doctor's approval before beginning an exercise program. And she's not talking about your doctor, but rather the dog's. Dr. Harris echoes many experts around the web when she suggests that like humans dogs need to build up their exercise abilities over time, starting with easy short workouts. Several web articles give good dog running tips, including bringing along plenty of water, keeping footpads off of hot pavement or concrete, training your dog to heal and obey, and keeping pre-run meals to a minimum.Dr. Harris says signs that your dog needs to rest include a stiff gait or reluctance to run. I've seen the reluctance thing firsthand. I had to talk Ellie home through the last block of our 30 minute run this week.Continue reading The Road to Fitville 7.24: it's the dog's fault
[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]
This weekend I did the duathlon. It was empowering, tiring, and I didn't improve my time all that much over my last go at it a few years ago. But I did come in 34th out of 38 women. It was someone else's turn to be last, and I'm never going to look back. I now have a thing for this event, this course. And next year I'm going to attack it and come in way higher on the list.In the meantime I learned something about the State of Larissa as of August 7, 2006. I am not ready. I have about 15 days left until my big relay race and I am, frankly, afraid.It's not that my body can't run far or fast enough, because it can. And it's not that I won't finish, because I will. I'm a finisher. In fact, during the second 5K run of the duathlon I found my head talking to my body like it was a three-year-old child. "Well, if you don't want to run then you'll have to walk the whole thing and it will take longer and you'll be embarrassed. Those are your choices." Continue reading The Road To Fitville 8.7: those are my choices