Exercise Diary: Pain and Ambition

Went running today after a two-day hiatus.  It was a short run, although I had planned it to be a 40-minute workout.  It didn't happen.  Unlike Tuesday's workout, during which I had felt pain in my shins and adjusted my form to avoid worsening the injury, today I felt pain in my shins and tried but unsuccessfully offset those pains by lifting the thighs more.

I think I have overworked my body.

I've been reading various articles on Runner's World, which is very helpful for both beginners and more advanced runners, and the biggest realization that I came across was the three toos of running: too much, too soon, too fast.

I think I fell victim to all 3.  I had increased the distance I've been doing way too much from week to week, I had tried to attempt a 5K way too soon, and I tried to push myself to run faster before my body is able to cope with the added stress.

Yet all this time I thought it had been a natural result of my increased endurance and my comfort at a quicker pace.  But I think I've just been too ambitious.  I was unhappy with the same amount of distance I do everyday, I wanted to be at the top of the leader board among my friends, I wanted to do well in the upcoming 5K, I wanted to be the runner in my head.

But my body is not ready.

I think I will still run with the same frequency that I do now, but I will shorten my workouts and not attempt any long distance running any time soon.  I'm moving my run onto the road this weekend, which I'm both nervous and excited about, but I won't push myself too hard.

Interesting things of note:

1)  I know in theory the right form that I need to keep while running, but when I'm on the treadmill I'm never quite sure if I'm doing it right.  I keep my body and gaze straight, I try my best to push my elbows back, and I try to land my foot not too far ahead of my body and kick the other back as I propel myself forward.  And sometimes I feel that I can really get the full effect when I was running fast.  But at one running interval today I kind of felt how I was supposed to be running.  I felt that my back foot was pushing much higher, my elbows pulling more forcefully, and that I was really using my whole body to move forward.  I felt that for about a minute, and the next time I began to run I lost that feeling.  And sometimes when I kick too hard my shins began to hurt.

2)  Today I officially signed up for my first 5K race.  It's not the Cystic Fibriosis Foundation one that originally inspired me to run, but this one happens earlier.  It's on May 3rd, which is in 3 weeks, and it's a 5K/10K race hosted by our schools Armed Forces Alumni association to raise money for two different veteran-related charities.  I liked it for its convenient on-campus location, and the fact that the first 300 entrants gets a free T-shirt (since I was asked for my shirt size I assume that I will be getting one).  Our lab manager happily agreed to run with me, and I signed up online.  This is going to be my first race, and since I put it on Facebook, the whole world now knows.  Since you also have the option of doing a 10K, they are giving out sensor chips at the race to keep official record.  I'm excited about the whole officiality of this.

3)  I started to ice my shins after showering yesterday.  I don't have a real ice pack so I tried to fill up my glass bottle with water and freeze it to make my own.  I had underestimated how much water was going to expand as it freezes, and overfilled my bottle, and destroyed the bottle astonishingly into little pieces.  So I switched over to plastic bottles, only filled up 2/3, and left the cap unscrewed as it sits in the freezer.  In the mean time this was how I iced my shins:

I didn't have a bag of frozen peas, but frozen edamame is the same right?  I don't think I will be eating the contents of this bag, but it worked well as an ice pack.  

4) Amazon had emailed me a few days ago telling my that they've finally shipped out my Nike+ sensor pouch.  I had to get one since my shoes are not Nike+ Ready, so I had to secure my sensor to my shoes by some other means.  After looking through various hacks on the internet, I resorted to the good ol' trusty duct tape.  More specifically, my awesome Duck brand Minions duct tape that I got for no reason but have been dying to use ever since.  So until my pouch arrives, here's how I'm doing it:

First I wrap the sensor in a piece of plastic wrap to keep it from the harmful stickiness of the duct tape (and some other natural elements such as rain, just to be thorough).

Then I cut a piece of duct tape about 3X the length of the sensor.  I secure the sensor by folding ~1/3 of the duct tape over it.

Make sure the sensor is sitting in the fold the way it's supposed to be on the shoe.

Then stick this part under the shoe lace at the front of the shoe to secure it in place.

And lastly, fold the remaining tape over the while thing, not only to secure it tightly, but also to further protect it from possible rain and other things that might damage the sensor.

To me it's still pretty obvious that I have a piece of duct tape on my shoe, but compared to the less elegant way people have been taping their sensor on their sneakers I think this just has to do for the time being.  And I do dispose this make-shift pouch after every run and make a new one each time.

Exercise Diary: Surrendered to Yoga

Today was yoga day.  I almost didn't make it.  It was a long ass day of talks, experiments, more talks, more experiments, and annoying logistics with my PI.  I didn't eat well either.  Had a big breakfast of chicken pot pie because after waking up I was just absolutely starved.  Then they served coffee and cookies at every talk, so I didn't eat lunch until 3pm.  And I couldn't eat too much for the fear of doing yoga on a full stomach (I had that happen once, it was so terrible.  My goal for that day was to not throw up on my mat).

Anyways, I did make to yoga, and happily found the class only half full, which meant more space for the rest of us.

The class itself today was... brutal.  It's only been less than a week since my last class, and theoretically the gap wouldn't affect my performance.  But I was just tired today.  There were a lot of crescent lunges that were really hard on my legs, and after keeping the lunge pose until I almost gave out the instructor made us move to a warrior III, which is like warrior I, but with only one leg on the mat.  It was just too much.  My balance today was terrible too.  I couldn't keep a good dance pose, and I couldn't do a good tree pose.  Oh well, we all have terrible days.

My biggest realization today was that in order to keep high and low push-up poses more effortlessly, you must engage your legs and core more.  Which made sense since a lot of the core strengthening work-outs are push-up variations, like the plank.  When you engage your core as you attempt to keep a high or low push-up pose, it's so much easier and less tiring and less pressure on the wrists.  See, this is why I go to yoga classes instead of just messing around on my own at home.

Exercise Diary: Meh run, interesting people at the gym though

After yesterday's breakthrough, I had a feeling that today's run wouldn't be spectacular in anyway.  My legs are tired.  Shin splints are cropping up.  I am acutely aware of my front leg muscles as I go about my day.  I'm not tired, I'm not injured, but I think I've overworked myself.

Good thing that I'm not running for the next two days (yoga Thursday).

In short, I did 2.87 miles in ~40 minutes today.  Fine first 10 minutes, then tired.

But I can now walk and run for a longer period of time.  I was doing a 40-minute timed workout, and for all intents and purposes I did just that.

My thighs are really tired now after today's run.  I could feel the muscles spasming, and it's time for a rest.

Interesting observations:

• I went a bit late today, at almost 8:40, since I had to go grocery shopping with my friend earlier.  I was starved and I had some bread pudding (store bought) and Snapea crisps before leaving for gym.  I don't think I'm going to make my own bread pudding, even though the stuff I bought wasn't half bad, especially after heating.  I have a very good recipe from the late Nora Ephron, but the ingredients are shocking.
• Still a lot of people in the gym.  My friend the crazy badminton guy/basketball guy was there, doing strength training I imagine.  He was sweet enough to step into my field of vision and wave hi.  Then I never saw him again.
• Apparently some channel was playing Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban.  I wasted some energy trying to figure out what movie a McGonagall scene was for, and was ashamed that it took a few shots before I could figure out.  
• On my own display/TV screen it was playing FoxNEWS.  Eww.  Though I don't watch the TV screen anymore I still had to switch to CNN (not by choice, it was just that it wasn't FoxNews) before my workout.
• Everyone around me on the treadmills were great runners, but the guy in front of me to the right was exceptionally good.  He already did almost 4 miles when I started running, and it only took him 27 minutes to do that.  He was running at a 6 or so minute pace, burning over 1000 calories an hour, and apart from his increasingly soaking wet white T-shirt he didn't change his speed, posture, or anything else until he finally stopped after a 7-mile run.  It only took him 47 minutes.  He, in essence,  did a 10K like it was nothing.  And all the while he was running he kept a similar stride speed  as I was so stride-wise I was matching him, which made my admiring him all the more effortless. Of course he had longer legs and much, much better endurance.  Good for him.  His posture was great too.
• The girl to my left was also doing exceptionally awesome.  She completed a 2.7-mile run in about 35 minutes, running at a speed of 6mi/hr for the most part.  Unlike the dude before me she kept a much quicker stride speed, taking smaller steps.  She also had great posture (and she was so skinny but her body proportion was perfect), but I imagine that if I pay attention to her while running myself I would really lose control of my breathing. 
• Stopped to watch my friends play badminton before going back home.  I think my super-good friend had hurt her back.
• I'm now going to take a shower, help myself with a large slice of (store-bough) chicken pot pie and some ice cream, hopefully do my laundry today (may still not get to it), and call it a night.

Exercise Diary: My first 5K!

After yesterday's terrible run, I've reached a new milestone today: I completed my first uninterrupted 5K run.

Whatever happened yesterday was thankfully not a reversion back to my old un-athletic self.  I think it was because I waited too long between my warm-up stretch and my actual run.  Or the machine I was using was just not good, although I can't imagine how that could be.  Anyway, after a good stretch I walked over to the gym, found the last unoccupied treadmill in the center of the fitness room, and just settled.

I was supposed to do a 30-minute timed workout.  I was able to run for about 15 minutes before deciding that it was enough running, walked for a few minutes, ran for another 5.  I did two more run/walk alternates, and at some point, as my 30-minute workout was about to end, I saw that I had passed the 2-mile mark, and for pure amusement wondered if I would make my way to a 5K.  I mean, it would be a 5K regardless whether I walk or run the rest of it right?  It would take more than 30 minutes, but that didn't matter.  It wasn't as if I was going to be late for something if I don't immediately stop my workout after 30 minutes.  I ran for another while, and walked the rest of the distance.

I know that 5km is about 3.1 miles, but I wasn't sure exactly, so I ended up doing 3.3 miles, for good measure.  Here's my graph:

This is like a combination of my past two runs.  I kept a nice pace for the first mile or so, crashed, but instead of giving up I alternated between running and walking the rest of the way, like I did yesterday.  I'm sure with more practice I will be able to lengthen my subsequent running periods, and keep a faster pace.  I can now run comfortably between 5.2 and 5.3 mi/hr.

Interesting related things:

• Ran into my lab manager on my way to the gym.  She was on her way back from yoga.
• As I passed the football field I saw that the gate to the field was open, which means that open field season is starting again.  During summer/fall the field is open for anyone in the community to use from dawn to sunset.  I thought about running a few laps around the track to calibrate my sensor for outdoor runs, but when I got out of the gym the sun had set and the gate was locked.  Oh well, there are still some puddles in the back of the track anyway.  So maybe next time.
• When I started to run my shins began to hurt in an alarming way.  I think I may need to walk a bit before running, despite the warm-up walk from home to the gym.  I didn't want to stop running so I altered my running posture.  I raised my legs a bit more and transferred all my motions to my thighs, which helped in that my shins weren't hurting anymore.  I stretched a lot afterwards and didn't feel injured, but could still feel slight acute pains in my calf, ankle, and other areas of my legs.  I hope they don't leave me long-term injuries.
• The gym is somewhat crowded but not as much as before.  There was a spinning class going on so all the cubbies were occupied but there were still a number of machines available.  I saw a fellow grad student who's in my year also running.  I suspect he was also training for the 5K.  He looked like he was running much better than me.
• All the triumphant feelings I got from running were successfully crushed by my celebratory ramen and chocolate ice cream.  The weight-losing part of my plan is not going very well.

Foodie Diary: 京东肉饼&红薯西米露

I took a nap this afternoon and after I woke up I had an overwhelming desire for grocery shopping.  I knew that Ben&Jerry ice creams were on sale, and I ended up deciding to try out two new recipes.

One was for 北京京东肉饼.  It's essentially meat and scallions stuffed inside pancakes.  It actually looks like quesadillas, but without the cheese and other quesadilla essentials.  Here's the website for the recipe (it's in Chinese): http://www.meishij.net/chufang/diy/gaodianxiaochi/59061.html

The recipe was... vague to say the least.  It gave no numerical amount for any of the ingredients, it didn't tell you how to make the pancake, you are apparently just supposed to know as part of you general knowledge.  And the direction was very... qualitative.  It was surprising that my food turned out very similar to the picture.  I was quite pleased with myself, even though I almost set off the smoke alarm.

Here's mine:

Looks alright, doesn't it?  This was actually my second try.  The first batch looked like this:

Oh boy...

It was too big and I left it in the pan for too long.  Tasted ok though.  

Tips:

• Originally I wanted to add other things into it, like onions or bok choy, to make it veggie rich.  But my friend kindly told me that adding these things would increase the water content in the filling, making the crust very wet and soggy when you pan-fry it.  I might still try it next time though.
• Add water to ground pork and mix before adding the other stuff.
• I added too much soy sauce.  It didn't taste bad, just kinda weird.
• don't fry it on one side for too long, it burns quite easily.  But don't take it out to quickly, there are layers of dough and meat that have to be cooked through
• If you have leftovers, like I do, you can keep it in the fridge and pan-fry it before eating the next time.  But since I'm going to bring it to work tomorrow I will haven't to microwave.  It'll still be okay I believe.

红薯椰奶西米露

This one has no recipe since it was so simple.  All the ingredients are in the title.  I picked sweet potato for its color and natural sweet taste, but I think next time I will use purple sweet potato, if I can get my hands on some.  

I used small tapioca, but it still took a while to cook.  After all the tapioca turned transparent, I poured some coconut milk over it, and put diced sweet potato in it.  That's it.

Tips:

• I microwaved the sweet potato chunks for about 3 minutes.  You don't want to steam or boil them completely through or they will just be a pile of mush.  Slightly microwaved chunks are just right.
• The coconut milk I bought was only slightly sweetened, and I didn't add and sugar to the tapioca when I was boiling them.  So it was kind of bland.  I added some maple syrup since the coconut milk was cold and sugar just wouldn't dissolve.  It tasted pretty good.  
• You have to constantly stir the tapioca or everything will stick to the bottom of your saucepan.  It was a bit tedious but otherwise you would be very sorry.

I think next time I will use a different colored bowl.

Exercise Diary: 5 days of exercising in review

So I've been putting off writing down my exercise progress for a while now.  But my enthusiasm for exercising has not diminished.  So now I have 5 days worth of exercising to summarize.

In short:
Wednesday: Abs
Thursday: badminton
Friday: Yoga
Saturday: Running
Sunday: Running

Wednesday: Abs
I saw this set of plank variation that my friend posted on Facebook.  It seemed much easier than the Ab Ripper video I had downloaded before, and it only required 4 minutes of workout a day.  So I decided to try it out.
Here's the link (It's in Chinese): http://www.funfarmer.com/object_article.aspx?id=12147&ref=m
On the page you will find 8 different plank variations helpfully demonstrated in gif form.  You are supposed to do 20 secs of each, with 10 secs of rest in between.  I just do 10 of each, since counting seconds is just too much work.
I can't do 2 of the variations.  Side plank is just too much for me.  I was never able to do it in yoga class, and doing it on the hard floor at home was just too much.  And I also skipped the last one; my hand/leg coordination was just not up to par.
So to make up for those I did some crunches and bicycle kicks after the plank sets.  And the next day I really felt something.  My stomach muscles were really sore.  I hadn't felt it before with my crunches.  So I guess it is working.  Next time I will pull out my yoga mat and do it properly.

Thursday: Badminton
I was supposed to go to yoga class, but I then promised a friend that I would go play badminton with her.  I was going to run before that, but I indulged myself with a footlong Subway sandwich and just couldn't move afterwards.  I almost didn't make to badminton either.
I sucked.  Rather, my friend is super good.  Both technically and endurance-wise.  I seem to have forgotten everything I learned.  But in reality I know all the theories but just can't apply them properly.  I did sweat quite profusely and afterwards couldn't move my legs for the entire rest of the night.  It was nothing like running.  It was weird.  And it was hard on my legs and shins.  No wonder I got shin splint playing badminton in college.  I think I will go play again at some point, but compared with everything else I'm doing right now my enthusiasm for badminton at the moment is not very high.

Friday: Yoga Class
My other friend said she would go with me to yoga but at the last minute her experiment failed epically and she couldn't make it.  But our lab manager, who also went, was sweet enough to save me a spot in the back in a very full class (the undergrads are back).  The class went very well.  I sweated A LOT.  But I wasn't as tired afterwards so I guess all the running really helped my endurance.  It was a good workout that really opened up my whole body.  It was also my last class of the 10-class pass I had bought, which means I have to cough up another $115 for another pass, which I'm trying to hold out for as long as possible.  With the running and my 5K goal I think I'm going to cut back from yoga to maybe once a week, but at some point I would still need to buy another pass or I might not be going at all.  I'm good at not keeping up with things like this, so I have to be careful.

Saturday: Running
I got my Nike+ sensor in the mail on Friday, but coincidently I left my iPod in the lab so I couldn't go to the gym to try it out on.  And although my sensor had arrived, it would be another two week until my sensor pouch to come.  Since I don't own a pair of Nike+ Ready shoes I would have to attach the sensor to my shoes by some other means.  And since my sensor pouch still hasn't left the seller, I had to Macgyver up some way to keep my sensor securely attached to the shoe.  In the end I managed to concoct something out of my Minion duct tape and a piece cut from a plastic bag, and managed to tape the sensor on my shoe without making it look too conspicuous.
The sensor worked great in that my iTouch was able to pick it up without too much hackling.  I logged in two workouts that day, one for walking from the lab to the gym, and one for running on the treadmill.  The sensor is pretty accurate on the treadmill; I still calibrated it afterwards but it was only about 0.03 miles off from the actual distance.  The walk outside, however, was more off I think.  It said that the distance from my lab to the gym was 0.9 mi, which I thought was quite a bit of exaggeration (I thought it was only like 0.7mi or something), but I don't know the exact distance so I didn't calibrate it.  I will worry about that after a real run.

Sunday: Running
Woke up early to run, but ran into some hiccups.  I made the mistake of calling my mom, who was trying to reach me yesterday, right after my warm up stretch.  It turned into a 30min phone call.  And when I got to the gym the touch screen of the treadmill I was on was horribly non-responsive and I lost a lot of energy trying to get it to work (it didn't) while running.  My endurance was terrible; I was out of breath, my legs were tired, and I just couldn't keep running.  I resorted to walking after about 8 minutes, 7min earlier than my goal time.  I was on a 30-min timed workout, so for the reminder of the time I alternated between 3min walks and 2min runs, and managed to finish the entire workout with a 2-mile distance.  Which, I guess, wasn't that horrible in the end, and my Nike+ activity graph looked kind of cool.

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I like Nike+ so far because the sensor is simple to work with.  I like that my app has timed workouts, and that every 5 minutes it tells you the time.  For me it was a nice motivation.  And I like the website that keeps track of everything.  The graphs are nice, and I get to connect with my running friends to see how everyone else is doing.  Here's my progress for the past two days:

I know it's not much yet.  But my goal right now is only 5K and I hope I can keep this up for a long time to come.

Submit to Running

Not running today.  May do some core strengthening exercises later today, but no running for today or tomorrow (yoga class).

Yesterday was... strange.  I left work before 5 to attend a gym class my friend had signed up but did not want to go by herself.  It was a strength training class, and I agreed to go with her (the first week was free) because I wanted to learn how to use the various machines that litter the gym.

It took ~20 minutes for everyone to get to the gym and changed (apparently she had also managed to persuade 3 other people to join her).  And when we got to the fitness room where the class was supposed to take place, we were already 5 minutes late.

A small group of people had already surrounded this big machine that has various stations that work on different parts of your body.  We stood around with them for a while and the teacher never showed up.  A student told us that he had taken the class last year and the teacher was... flaky at best with her own attendance.  And apparently she was out of town that day.

Out of town.  And no one at the front desk knew about it.

My friend was furious and wanted to quit the class and ask for her money back.  Then they all took off to take a zumba class that started at 5:30.

I saw a spare treadmill and decided to stay behind.

A spare treadmill in the gym that day was... a miracle.  When we got to the fitness center (yes the same place I've gone everyday for running), it was even more full than it has been at 7 for the past few days.  I didn't know it was possible.  Every treadmill and elliptical was full, and most of the weight stations were occupied.  Even most of the exercise balls and jump ropes were in use.  5pm is not a good time to come to the gym on a week day.  Not that I get too many opportunities to come at 5 anyway.  But still, important mental note nonetheless.

It was a short run.  My shins were hurting as soon as I started running because I didn't stretch enough.  I wasn't prepared for running and I didn't want to stretch too much and have the treadmill taken by someone else.  Fortunately the pain went away as the jogging continued.  My original goal was to run for another 10 minutes straight without stopping, but my breathing and endurance got so good that halfway into it I decided to make a full 1 mile (at 5.2-5.3 mi/hr).  And at the 1 mile mark, surprisingly, my body did not give me an overwhelming desire to stop running.  My breathing was steady, I only sweated a little, and I felt like I could just go on forever.

But my brain was bored.  I was bored by the monotonous motion, so I stopped at 1.2 miles, walked for another 0.3 miles, and stopped altogether.  I wasn't mentally or physically prepared for running that day, and stopping seemed like a logical thing to do.

But during the run I was also bored.  The passing time and the increasing distance wasn't big enough motivations, the podcast not very uplifting, and the view unchanging.  Although I was staring out of the window, which had a very nice view of the baseball court, the football count, and the mountains, it's the same minute after minute.

Some times when I get bored, or wanting to stop, I pretend that I was running a marathon.  The Honolulu marathon, to be exact.  I picture that it was 5 in the morning, that the sky was dark.  I imagine that the people running on the treadmills beside me are fellow marathoners.  I pretend that I was running through the residential district at the beginning of the marathon, passing by houses that are beautifully decorated for Christmas at a place that would never see snow.  I pretend that I was running on the highway, that if I look to my right I would see the ocean.

And I would tell myself that I don't have a choice but to keep running, that before my time or distance goal was up I just cannot stop, so that I should just stop thinking about slowing down or stopping.  I told myself that I didn't have a choice, so I should just submit to running.

And it worked.  It got me through the last three minutes of my run.

So yesterday was a small breakthrough for me.  I could now run an entire mile without stopping and with relative ease.  I could do that before.  I remember the first time I went to my undergrad gym I ran a mile, at 4mi/hr, and felt like an utter failure because I was exhausted.  Now I can do the same as I could 7 years ago, but faster, and with less exhaustion.  I think I'm well on my way to a successful 5k.