Running on the White Line

One Good Earbud Review and Giveaway!

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:48:05 PST

Something I have struggled with throughout all of my miles as an endurance athlete; to wear earbuds or not? Many larger running races and nearly every triathlon all ban the use of music players. The reason is obvious. Having music blairing in your ears cuts you off from the sound of your surroundings. No longer can you hear "on your left!" if a cyclist or runner is approaching you or gone is your sense of the sound of traffic on the roads. Instead you are reduced to solely what you can see with your own two eyes in front of you.

While training outdoors what I have done in the past is purchase ear buds and cut one side off. That way I could still listen to the podcasts or music in the ear facing away from traffic, but I have that open ear to give me my sense of sound. I use non side specific ear buds so I can move it from ear to ear, depending on which side of the road I am on.

Late in 2011 I came across something that I had considered in the past, but never really thought existed. One Good Earbud is a device that puts both stereo channels from your music or podcast into the same headphone. You know when you are jamming out to Shakira and you hear a different beat in each ear, that is stereo sound. When I cut one ear bud off, I lost some of the music!

Enter the One Good Earbud Pro, combines the two stereo channels into one. For a very reasonable $20.00 you get a solidly built piece of equipment. I have put over 200 miles of running and many miles of cycling into the earbud and I am extremely happy with it.

A couple common issues I have ran into with ear buds are obnoxiously long cords and them not staying in my ear. The cord on the Pro is 42 inches, which is perfect for having the MP3 player hooked on my shorts and the cord running up inside my shirt. Since it comes with multiple sizes of rubber, I have not had an issue with it not staying in my ears.

There are many options available at OneGoodEarbud.com. They have iPod style earbuds, wrap around style earbuds, and styles with a mic for use with your mobile phone. They also have models with shorter cords. If you prefer to clip your small Sansa Clip+ or iPod Shuffle to your shirt collar or cap, this would be a great option.

A couple of things I would like to see are a smaller plug and water resistance. The Pro uses a right angle plug, and I prefer the smaller straight 3.5mm plugs. Also a waterproof or water-resistant version would be most excellent. Often the music player is protected under layers of clothing or even a zip lock bag, but the earbuds are out there for the snow and rain to beat on.

This is one of my favorite pieces of gear I use when training. I would recommend these over any other type of earbud for use during outdoor activities. They are very reasonably priced, a good quality product, and simply a smart move for those who like to listen to music or podcasts while out on the road.

If you want to purchase a One Good Earbud and support this blog, you can visit Amazon through this link and a smaller percentage of each sale comes back to the blog.

Thanks for reading!

BUT DON'T BUY ONE YET!!

We have two pairs to give away :)

Here is how you get entries:

1) In your comment, tell me which One Good Earbud you would like if you won.

2) Twitter: Follow @onegoodearbud

3) Facebook: One Good Earbud is moving to Far End Gear on Facebook, so please "like" that new page.

4) Blogger/Wordpress/Reader: Follow this blog

5) Share this review on Facebook, your blog, Daily Mile, Twitter, etc.

Five entries possible per person, complete as little or as many as you wish, I'm giving you options :) Also when you comment telling me which item you would like if you win, please also mention which of the above entries you completed.

The contest will run for a week and then I will announce the winners!

Training Jan 30 - Feb 5

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:44:21 PST

This training brought to you buy

Monday Jan 30

PM 16.02 miles @ 12:34 pace in BASE shoes

This was an insanely technical trail run with no flat sections. The terrain was primarily dirt, mud, and large rocks.

Tuesday, Jan 31
PM 11.07 miles @ 12:22 pace in BASE shoes
Same course as Monday's run.

Wednesday, Feb 1
PM 5.01 miles @ 11:59 pace in BASE shoes.
Same course as Tuesday's run :p

Thursday, Feb 2
PM 10.65 miles @ 8:30 pace in BASE shoes
Ok I am going to come clean, truth time. This run was all with the wind :p Desi had to drive into town to instruct Zumba. So I just ran into town with the wind and when she was done she just called to see where on the bike trail I was at, and picked me up :) It was not a hard run, but nice to not have to fight the wind at all!

Friday, Feb 3
AM 5.15 miles @ 10:00 in BASE shoes
This was cool. I met my friend Nathan to do some trail running. It was nice to listen to someone else talk besides a podcast :p

Saturday, Feb 4
AM 5.87 miles biked in :38 with 950 feet of gain
AM 6.00 miles @ 8:59 pace and a 132 avg HR in BASE shoes
Very good morning. I rode my bike to a rather isolated trail head to the Black Hills National Park and locked my bike up. I then ran the six miles back home. Guess what I am going to do tomorrow?

Sunday, Feb 5
AM 6.00 miles @ 10:29 pace with a 138 avg HR in BASE
AM 5.76 miles biked in :20
This was the exact same route as yesterday, except I ran up hill all the way to my bike, and rode it back down hill. I probably only pedaled 9 times the entire ride back :p

Total Week / Year
Run: 60.00 / 251.43
Bike: 11.63 / 123.63
Base: 521.88
Form: 75
Commutes: 5
Another spectacular week. I did a bunch of running on rather technical trails at a very slow pace. Doing so was extremely enjoyable. I plan to do future long runs

Mindful Eating

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:54:56 PST

Do you ever chow down a snack, treat, or meal and before you know it, you look down and think "where the hell is my food?!?" Before you even realized it, you had inhaled the rice, orange, chocolate, whatever. If you only had one more scrumptious bite! If you eat food while driving, talking on the phone, or in any type of hurry, chances are you are eating but not really noticing or enjoying the food. Those are all good examples of mindless eating.

If you want to minimize over eating, improve digestion, enjoy your food more, and feel more satisfaction from your meals, practicing mindful eating could be a very beneficial habit for you to try.

The simplest and best definition of Mindful Eating I have found is "Eating with attention and intention."

Mindful eating can come about in many ways. Two things have worked the best for me. One is eating until I am satisfied, not until I am full. To do so requires the second practice, proper chewing and not preparing another bite until I am actually done with the current one! Something else that can be done is to not multi-task when eating. A Buddhist would say, "When eating lunch, only eat lunch."

Focusing on and appreciating the food is another good practice. You would be surprised how far focusing on a simple grape can take you. Imaging putting the grape into your mouth and that first flavor explosion that is the initial bite into a grape. Slowly chew the grape. Think about where it came from. The plant grew out of the ground, tall and leafy. The grapes are then harvested by hand. Cleaned, washed, and shipped to your local store. Imagine the miles this little grape traveled to reach your mouth! You can almost taste it, can't you?

My largest issue with eating is that if I do not think about it, I will consume food until I am literally in pain from having so much food in my stomach.

Some over eat because they enjoy food so much, it makes them eat and eat. I on the other hand, cannot seem to enjoy many foods. Thus I will often eat until literally stuffed. Lately I have been doing an admirable job with being a mindful eater. Knowing when I am satisifed with the meal volume, proper chewing and not inhaling the food.

There is a man here at the cafe at another table. He is doing a cross word, sipping on a coffee, and enjoying a scone. Every once in a while the man will take his fork and cut a small bite out of the scone and eat it. This is something I could never do. That scone would be consumed before I even got one word down on that puzzle.

I have come to realize the only foods I never over eat are fruits and vegetables. I not eat grains very often, but when I do it is usually rice. With the rice I have noticed if I use some type of sauce on it, I can potentially over consume. Snacks are also very easy for me to over eat., so I try to not have any around in the house.

One morning the Zen master was sitting in the cafe eating breakfast, drinking tea, and reading the newspaper. His students walked by and noticed. To him, they said "Master, what about "When eating breakfast, only eat breakfast?" The Zen master thought for a second, and said, "When eating breakfast, drinking tea, and reading the newspaper...only eat breakfast, drink tea, and read the newspaper."

Weight gain and loss with endurance training

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:30:56 PST

There are many reasons weight gain may occur at the onset of beginning an endurance training protocol.

1) You are building more muscle mass
2) Your body is beginning to store more muscle glycogen. This is the storage form of a carbohydrate. Glycogen is stored in muscle along with water. This increases the size and weight of muscle.

Interestingly, if a person is a "hard gainer" and wants to gain some mass, I would recommend they up their carbohydrate intake to increase stored glycogen for this very reason.

3) You may unknowingly be increasing your caloric intake. Honestly, light exercise burns an insignificant amount of calories and you may end up consuming more food after the exercise than you would have in the first place.
4) Running more may cause your body to hold on to more water weight due to water and sodium.

Number 3 is part of the reason why going to SNAP fitness and jumping on the elliptical for a half hour is not going to be enough to seriously influence your body composition. Dietary change was the key factor in helping me lose 80 pounds. In my opinion, some sort of dietary modification is essential when making new healthy habits.

So while exercise may not be a ticket to a healthy body weight, daily physical activity may be. It is not entirely uncommon to see an obese individual consuming several hundred calories less per day than a person at a healthy body weight. However, if you take a look at their daily habits, the healthy person who eats more food may simply be much more physically active in their day to day lives. The obese person may be spending time watching television or playing video games. The active person may not work at a desk job, may walk or ride their bike to work/school, take the stairs, may go for hikes. None of this is exercise, it is simply being physically active.

If a person goes to a gym and (lets be liberal) spends one hour on the elliptical at a moderate effort level, you burn an extra 500 calories that day.

Now if this person spends the rest of their day sitting around at work and at home, their daily caloric expenditure may be 2400 calories + 500 exercise = 2900 calories.

Next, lets look at an individual who lives an active lifestyle. May go for walks, hikes, etc. Their daily caloric expenditure jumps at least 500 calories, plus that 500 = 3400 calories.

Even without the hour at the elliptical, the active person has the same daily caloric expenditure than the sedentary person does with exercise.

So if a person recently started a light exercise routine with no dietary modification, I would be surprised if they lose any weight at all! To drop weight with exercise alone, I would expect at least 10 hours a week is required. However, with simple dietary changes, weight can come off fairly quickly with little if any exercise added in! Exercise takes time and a lot of effort. Dietary changes are relatively effortless, it is mainly changing habits. Of course, to get the most out of your efforts to reach or maintain a healthy body composition, I would always recommend increasing exercise, daily physical activity, and decreasing calories consumed.

Sugoi Brand Champion

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:26:41 PST

Recently I was accepted into the Sugoi Brand Champions program. This is similar to other entry level sponsorships such as the Brooks ID program or the Rudy Project BRO sponsorship.

Sugoi hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The word, Sugoi, is Japanese for "incredible".

Their Branch Champion program...

supports and encourages outstanding people who differ from your average athlete – those who set themselves apart from other athletes by their passion and commitment to push themselves to inspire others and to embody a motivating attitude, wherever they go.

Sugoi was created in 1987 (as was I) by a cyclist and a fashion student. From that small beginning they now have hundreds of apparel options to choose from and sponsor the Liquigas-Cannondale professional cycling team, and one of my favorite cyclists, Ivan Basso. The company has gear and apparel for triathletes, runners, and cyclists. There are also many options for accessories and compression.

Check them out at, Sugoi.com

How to Ice-Proof your shoes for 15 cents

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:40:28 PST

Here are my Skora BASE shoes at 462 miles. Recently after a snow/sleet/rain I went to a local hardware store and picked up 10 of the shortest screws I could find for 50 cents. Next I simply put them up into the sole of the shoe. Since the Skora Base is fairly minimalist at only 13mm thick with the insole in, I can slightly feel the screws when I run. Actually I had one more in there, under the blue SKORA up front, but that was really bothering me, so I removed it.

Obviously this is not very effective if there is a lot of snow covering the ice. However in South Dakota they say, "if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes." Meaning it can snow one day and be 50 degrees the next. I more often have to deal with trails or road covered ice from the melted snow than the actual snow itself.

If you run in a slightly thicker shoe, you will probably never feel them and only be able to tell they are present by the occasional clicking noise they make if you are on road.

Sh*t Barefoot Runners Say

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:15:28 PST

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:42:31 PST

During a discussion about cutting wheat out of a diet at Slowtwitch.com....

I am "ipull400watts"

Also, 10 guidelines to reach race weight

Guidelines to Reaching Race Weight

1. If you are losing weight and family asks if you have been sick, you are within 10 pounds.

2. Eating after 10pm is only allowed if it is a post workout recovery meal. And by meal I mean:

1 GU and 1 fruit

or 1 energy bar

3. Ensure you are consuming adequate calories throughout the day.

4. Except you can only eat between noon and 10pm.

5. If your friends are whispering to each other, wondering if you have aids or cancer, you are only 5 pounds away.

6. Sometimes all you need is a good stomach flu to get rid of the last stubborn 3 pounds.

7. Eat within 30 minutes of a workout.

8. Dinner is all you can eat, as long as it fits on a coffee saucer the first time, no refills.

9. Hungry at night, have some water and HTFU.

10. When your friends and family actually do an intervention, you are at race weight.

*Now this post is meant to be a joke and am a strong advocate of healthy weight loss*

Pre Race/Training Nutrition

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:34:07 PST

This morning I made the mistake of letting my stomach dictate pre-run nutrition. Normally I do not eat immediately before a workout. However today my stomach felt a bit hungry. I KNEW my muscle glycogen was good and god knows I have plenty of fat on my body. But I ate anyway. During the run I felt drained by mile 2 and by mile 5 I was in zombie mode.

Here is a bit about how I would normally go about and suggest pre race/training nutrition.

2-3 Weeks Out

Depending on my training load and the distance of the race, I will start my taper two to three weeks out. During this time my total mileage and time on the road decreases. With the lower amount of running I find it easier to eat more, whether I notice it or not.

During my taper, and especially the last week, I do try to consciously consume slightly less calories than I do when I'm running more, to avoid weight gain. The taper is not a time to try to loose weight though, and I always make sure I am not hungry, but I am careful not to over eat.

2-3 Days Out

Especially the last few days before the race, I try to eat as light as possible. I don't want all that extra weight being lugged around on race day. And the lighter I eat the day before, the less likely to have bad pre race issues I will be.

Mainly I focus on eating fruits, veggies, and probably a stir fry, maybe some home made Chinese or Mexican. Carb loading is not something I do since, by training less, you are eating (or retaining) more of carbohydrates you are eating anyway. Also, if you occassionally do fasted training, your body may be holding on to extra muscle glycogen anyway. In my opinion, carb loading is just an excuse to over eat at the pasta dinner and gain a bunch of unnecessary weight the night before a race. Pasta 12 hours before a race is not enough time to fully "load" anyway, such a waste of time!

Race Morning / Morning of a Workout

Now, during the morning of the race, timing is an issue. The general recommendation is to complete whatever your meal of choice is 2 to 3 hours before the start of the event. After a meal containing carbohydrates the insulin in your blood rises dramatically, which is meant to get that glucose into cells for energy. Eating a meal too soon before the event does not give your hormones and blood glucose time to stabilize. Insulin at this level may actually inhibit lipid mobilization during the training or race. This means you will be using less fat as a source of fuel and using up the available glycogen and CHO that you did consume quicker than you normally would. There is also a chance that the increased insulin levels as well as exercise may lower your BG to zombie like levels during exercise.

During training, test out which foods are best for you before performing any type of endurance sport. When race day comes, do your best to have that option available to you! Fruit and/or bagels, PB&J, etc are all very easy to store for race morning.

You may have noticed how sports gels usually suggest to consume 30-45 minutes pre workout/race. This window of time is so you begin your race before that list of badness that I mentioned above has time to occur.

Something else you may occasionally seen suggested before exercise is to consume a slower digesting carbohydrate such as oatmeal. I think the most common food I see eaten pre-race is a whole wheat bagel, which is a 75 on the GI scale, definetely not low GI. Glycemic Index is a value of how a food influences blood glucose. A high GI food such as bread increases BG quickly, a low GI food such as most fruits are slower to raise BG. A study titled The effects of low and high glycemic index foods on exercise performance and beta-endorphin responses took untrained males and had three trials. Each trial had the exerciser consume a high GI, low GI, or placebo 30 minutes before exercise, where they performed a cycling test at 65% VO2max and increased to exhaustion. They concluded “The present study indicates that ingestion of foods of different glycemic index 30 min prior to one hour cycling exercise does not result in significant changes in exercise performance, β-endorphin levels as well as carbohydrate and fat oxidation during exercise.”

Food for thought...

Suunto Ambit Preview

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:37:31 PST

Suunto is one of the oldest brands in athletics. Founded in 1936 by Finnish outdoorsman, Tuomas Vohlonen, the first product was a compass with a steadier needle, better readings, and more accuracy than ever seen before in dry compasses.

They have been producing quality GPS and HR monitors for many years now, however one of the issues is their equipment's dependency on a GPS POD or Foot POD for distance measurements. While this does offer a disadvantage of being, well somewhat annoying, they are powered by triple A batteries. While they only get about 10 hours on a single charge, if you are out doing an ultra marathon you simply need to pop the dead batteries out and put some new ones in. Slightly easier than me having to borrow a friend's Garmin for the second half of my 100 miler.

Suunto's Foot Pod however gets a 400 hours. My issue with this is foot pods are based on a pre calibrated stride length = distance. During an ultra you are going to be running up hill, running down hill, jogging, walking, puking, etc. 100 miles is a great deal of time for a foot pod to be off distance. It would be best to use the foot pod for shorter distances, such as between each aid station.

Suunto is about to launch what may be the new uber watch for road, trail, and ultra marathon runners, as well as hikers and explorers.

Enter the Ambit.

Gone is Suunto's reliance on a GPS Pod strapped to the arm.
Features include:
Temperature
3D Compass
Pace and Speed
Barometric Altitude
Accurate vertical speed
Accelerometer integrated GPS
MovesCount.com training log and community
Heart Rate Monitor with Peak Training Effect and Recovery Time

This thing is going to be an amazing piece of technology.

What I am most excited for with the Ambit is the battery life. The computer has a built in SiRF IV low power GPS chip. Apparently with accurate readings you will get 15 hours of it it. If you change the recording interval to every minute, that jumps to an impressive 50 hours!

What is also nice about Suunto's product is that they are damn good looking watches. I am not into super fancy sci fi techy looking gear like the Timex watches or Brooks Running shoes, but something like this or a Garmin 405 is something I could wear around. Plus, apparently large watches are the new "in" and cool thing these days.

Training Jan 23 - Jan 29

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:06:13 PST

This training brought to you by

Monday Jan 23
AM 15.32 miles @ 9:00 pace and a 146 avg HR in BASE
This was an excellent 35F out and back road run. Nothing really of note happened. I did the first 7.5 miles at a very conservative pace and on the way back ever so slightly sped up.

Lots of very steep climbs. Like, using your legs as walking sticks to get up, and sliding down.

Tuesday, Jan 24
PM 10.02 miles @ 10:53 pace and a 138 avg HR in BASE
This was a very hilly and partial trail run. As you can see from my HR the average intensity of the run was very low, but you can also see from the very slow pace (my avg pace was 12:01 at one point) I spent a lot of time either a) running very technical trail b)on super steep climbs where I basically had to walk and use my legs as walking sicks or c) going down hill very slowly to avoid slipping on ice or unseen snow covered trail.

The benefits of using tights for trail running. I had to pick each of these off!

Wednesday, Jan 25
AM 5.13 miles @ 9:05 pace and a 148 avg HR in BASE
This was a 2 mile warm up running two miles straight into the hills. I would then perform a 30 second hill interval followed by 2 minutes of easy running back down. I did six or seven 30 second repeats while slowly making my way down the hill.
PM 3.02 miles @ 8:28 per mile in BASE
I just felt like runnin

Some "trail"

Thursday, Jan 26
AM 10.05 miles @ 8:24 pace with a 144 avg HR in BASE
This was a fairly easy out and back. The second half was a 5 minute negative split on the first half, which is the way it should be :)

Friday, Jan 27
AM 5.02 miles @ 9:06 pace with a 150 avg HR in BASE
A warm up, 8x30 second hill repeats, and a cool down
PM 2.2 miles @ 8:48 pace in BASE
I ran to the liqueur store to grab a bottle of wine for Desi and I. It fit perfectly into my Camelbak.

Saturday, Jan 28
AM 3.4 miles @ 8:40 pace in BASE
AM 100 Side Plank Leg Lifts
AM 100 Push ups
AM 100 Squat Jumps
AM 100 Sit ups
I was out the door within 20 minute of waking. I want to start running more right away in the mornings.

Sunday, Jan 29
AM 3.21 miles @ 7:53 pace in BASE
PM 16 miles biked

Total Week / Year
Run: 57.37 / 191.43
Bike: 16 / 112
Base: 461.88
Form: 75
Commutes: 5
This was a really good week. I really enjoyed doing my long run on Monday and following that with one of my mediums runs instead of a rest day or a recovery run. Best run of the week? It being 8PM and hearing Desi say she wished we had some wine. So I threw my CamelBak and some running shorts on, and literally ran to the liqueur store. I bought some cheap Barefoot wine and it fit perfectly into the Camelbak.

Legumes and ferritin shown to be quality alternative to meat or iron supplements

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:53:22 PST

This is a very interesting study that looked at different methods of iron absorption from non meat sources. Ferritin is large protein coated iron found in high quantities in legumes such as black eyed peas, kidney beans, mung beans, etc. The researchers found that unlike the absorption of smaller iron molecules, the larger ferritin is absorped via a different mechanism, even being more efficient.

Traditionally, iron deficiency, which is the most common nutrient difficienty in the world, is treated with increased meat consumption or supplements. However, meat being scare is some locations and supplements possibly causing gas and bloating, an alternative method of increasing iron consumption is welcome.

During research, it was discovered that the large ferritin is not in fact broken down from the large mineral complex containing thousands of iron molecules into individual molecules like what is found in supplements. Ferritin absorption is absorbed as the whole protein coated form. Iron from meat or supplements enters the intestine one atom at a time, each step requiring the intestine to use energy. The absorption of a single iron ferritin molecule was found to be much more efficient than taking in thousands of atoms individually.

This research shows me two things. First, legumes and ferritin are very reasonable sources of iron for those who choose to not eat meat. Second, legumes can be used as a source of dietary iron for those who may not have access to meat or who may suffer from the above mentioned side effects of iron supplementation.

Absorption of Iron from Ferritin Is Independent of Heme Iron and Ferrous Salts in Women and Rat Intestinal Segments¹,²,³

Abstract

Ferritin iron from food is readily bioavailable to humans and has the potential for treating iron deficiency. Whether ferritin iron absorption is mechanistically different from iron absorption from small iron complexes/salts remains controversial. Here, we studied iron absorption (RBC ⁵⁹Fe) from radiolabeled ferritin iron (0.5 mg) in healthy women with or without non-ferritin iron competitors, ferrous sulfate, or hemoglobin. A 9-fold excess of non-ferritin iron competitor had no significant effect on ferritin iron absorption. Larger amounts of iron (50 mg and a 99-fold excess of either competitor) inhibited iron absorption. To measure transport rates of iron that was absorbed inside ferritin, rat intestinal segments ex vivo were perfused with radiolabeled ferritin and compared to perfusion with ferric nitrilotriacetic (Fe-NTA), a well-studied form of chelated iron. Intestinal transport of iron absorbed inside exogenous ferritin was 14.8% of the rate measured for iron absorbed from chelated iron. In the steady state, endogenous enterocyte ferritin contained >90% of the iron absorbed from Fe-NTA or ferritin. We found that ferritin is a slow release source of iron, readily available to humans or animals, based on RBC iron incorporation. Ferritin iron is absorbed by a different mechanism than iron salts/chelates or heme iron. Recognition of a second, nonheme iron absorption process, ferritin endocytosis, emphasizes the need for more mechanistic studies on ferritin iron absorption and highlights the potential of ferritin present in foods such as legumes to contribute to solutions for global iron deficiency.

Vegans, DHA and EPA

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:13:33 PST

Here is a great post from Star Khechara from The Face Lift Diet that was submitted at 30 Bananas a Day about Vegans, DHA, and EPA. I thought it was very good information and as she said, "food for thought" :)

------------------------------------------------------

One of my YouTube subscribers recently asked "I keep seeing criticism of 811 on youtube from the paleo eaters who say you can't get EPA, DHA...on this diet"

To shed some light, here is my answer with a few added extras for those of you who like to look into the issue at a deeper level

EPA and DHA are made in animals this is true, but this also includes human animals - we make DHA and EPA in our bodies provided the correct ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fats is ingested.

Most diets (meat, raw, vegan, junk, macro etc etc) have massive amounts of omega 6 and hardly any omega 3 - this means that the ratio is not right for EPA/DHA conversion.

Nutritional experts argue over the ideal ratio but anthing from 1:1 to 1:5 of omega 3 to omega 6 should be fine (you can keep an eye on this using Cronometer. I currently get about 3-4g of each. I upped my omega 3s to match my omega 6 intake by adding 3 tsp of freshly ground flaxseed to one of my daily smoothies. (SAD diets tend to have a ratio of 1:14 or even 1:20!!)

Omega 3:6 ratios in fruits and vegetables and seeds:

Strawberries have a ratio of 1:1

Bananas have a ratio of 1.1

Blueberries are 1:1

Oranges are 1:3

Mangoes are 3:1

Flaxseeds are 5:1

Canteloupe 1:1

Some plant foods have bad ratios, sunflower seeds are 1:60!! Cashew nuts have no omega 3 at all, only omega 6. This would explain why raw vegans following the 'gourmet' style of raw food have problems and start supplementing with EPA/DHA because their Omega 3:6 ratio is terrible and wont allow for efficient conversion to EPA and DHA

It is not enough to simply increase the intake of Omega 3, you must also decrease omega 6. The consensus in the nutritional field is to make sure omega 6 intake does not go above 2% of daily calorie intake.

Plant sources of direct EPA

Also there are plant sources of EPA - there is a salad plant called Purslane. According to the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, one serving of purslane contains 300 to 400 milligrams of alpha-linolenic acid--four times as much as raw spinach and twice the amount in kale. More notably, it's a source of EPA, the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid commonly known as fish oil.

Here is an informative post from the Linus Pauling institute (Linus Pauling recived nobel prize for his nutritional research) http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/othernuts/omega3fa/#metabolism

Even Harvard disagrees with the paleos

"There are two major types of omega-3 fatty acids in our diets: One type is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is found in some vegetable oils, such as soybean, rapeseed (canola), and flaxseed, and in walnuts. ALA is also found in some green vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, and salad greens. The other type, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is found in fatty fish. The body partially converts ALA to EPA and DHA.

We do not know whether vegetable or fish omega-3 fatty acids are equally beneficial, although both seem to be beneficial. Unfortunately, most Americans do not get enough of either type. For good health, you should aim to get at least one rich source of omega-3 fatty acids in your diet every day. This could be through a serving of fatty fish (such as salmon), a tablespoon of canola or soybean oil in salad dressing or in cooking, or a handful of walnuts or ground flaxseed mixed into your morning oatmeal."

Other research shows us that non-fish eaters (which includes veggies and vegans) actually have a more efficient conversion of Omega 3 (ALA) to EPA and DHA.

Welch AA, Bingham SA, Khaw KT. Estimated conversion of alpha-linolenic acid to long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is greater than expected in non fish-eating vegetarians and non fish-eating meat-eaters than in fish-eaters. J Hum Nutr Diet

I hope this adds some 'food for thought'.

Effects of Footwear and Stride Type on Running Economy

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:24:01 PST

Here is is study looking at how running economy differs in habitual minimalist or barefoot runners if they are in minimalist shoes or in a more standard running shoe.

The researchers found that runners were 2.41% more economical in a minimal shoe when forefoot striking and 3.32% more economical in a minimal shoe when rearfoot striking.

The conclusion was that these runners in minimal shoes were more economic than runners in traditional shoes.

However, something bothers me. I quote "We measured the cost of transport (mlO2/kg/m) in subjects who habitually run in minimal shoes or barefoot while they were running at 3.0 m/s on a treadmill during forefoot and rearfoot striking while wearing minimal and standard shoes"

Bingo.

The runners tested were habitual barefoot or minimalist runners. That only shows me that we as runners become more efficient at what we most often do.

Habitually, I...

do my long runs at a 9-10 minute pace depending on terrain and distance. If I were to deviate from this, going slower or faster, my economy would be negatively impacted.
have executed the the majority of my training on flat roads. If I go to a trail I use different stabilizer muscles, may land slightly differently, etc. All negatively impacting my economy.
use minimalist Skora shoes. Like this study clearly demonstrated, if I was to go for a run in a pair of Brooks Beasts, my economy would take a hit.
run longer and slower distances. I would be more economical running a marathon than a 5k.
run at a 94 steps per minute pace. Any slower or faster and I would be less economical.

Unless I am missing something (please tell me if I am), the study does nothing to show that minimalism/barefoot is better than standard shoes. Only that if you habitually do something, you will become less economical if you make a sudden change.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Jan 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Effects of Footwear and Strike Type on Running Economy.

Perl DP, Daoud AI, Lieberman DE.

Source

Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

This study tests if running economy differs in minimal shoes versus standard running shoes with cushioned, elevated heels and arch supports, and in forefoot versus rearfoot strike gaits.

METHODS:

We measured the cost of transport (mlO2/kg/m) in subjects who habitually run in minimal shoes or barefoot while they were running at 3.0 m/s on a treadmill during forefoot and rearfoot striking while wearing minimal and standard shoes, controlling for shoe mass and stride frequency. Force and kinematic data were collected when shod and barefoot to quantify differences in knee flexion, arch strain, plantarflexor force production, and Achilles tendon-triceps surae strain.

RESULTS:

After controlling for stride frequency and shoe mass, runners were 2.41% more economical in the minimal shoe condition when forefoot striking and 3.32% more economical in the minimal shoe condition when rearfoot striking (p<0.05). In contrast, forefoot and rearfoot striking did not differ significantly in cost for either minimal or standard shoe running. Arch strain was not measured in shoes condition but was significantly greater during forefoot than rearfoot striking when barefoot. Plantarflexor force output was significantly higher in forefoot than rearfoot striking, and in barefoot than shod running. Achilles tendon-triceps surae strain and knee flexion were also lower in barefoot than standard shoe running.

CONCLUSIONS:

Minimally shod runners are modestly but significantly more economical than traditionally shod runners regardless of strike type, after controlling for shoe mass and stride frequency. The likely cause of this difference is more elastic energy storage and release in the lower extremity during minimal shoe running.

Do Epic Shit

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:24:00 PST

Stop waiting for permission to do something awesome. - Richardo Bueno

The Unchained Movement

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:30:02 PST

I have never ran for any type of cause before. Someone recently asked me why, and I said I simply have not found one I liked enough yet. I am not a fan of raising money for research or awareness for various diseases or conditions because I believe if the public was properly educated the majority of those charities, and the diseases, would be almost non existent. This is due to the fact that the majority of diseases of modern man are a result of lifestyle choices.

Recently I became aware of UNCHAINED and how real of an issue domestic sex trafficking is here in the US. Before doing my research, I thought it was just something that happened when pretty blond American girls travel alone to Paris and run into Albanian gang members.

If you want some quick information about the subject, check out this video below.

UNCHAINED seeks to educate the public about the issues of domestic sex trafficking without discrimination. Domestic sex trafficking is a growing billion dollar industry that can effect all walks of life. Our focus is to target all who could be affected by this issue or who are unaware of its effects. We will market to teens, college students, teachers, youth groups, survivors, victims, social service agencies, women’s rights groups, law enforcement agencies, legislators and advocates for hope and justice. As the sex industry continues to grow, a stronger need for advocacy, education and awareness must be ready to address the growing demand.

5 Projects of UNCHAINED
Establish a residential treatment center for young girls who have been victims of domestic sex trafficking.
Develop a mobile awareness event to tour the U.S.
College Campus Awareness Events
Provide community professionals with training and tools to identify, support and care for victims of domestic sex trafficking.
Awareness and Education through special video projects

As of writing this, their website is in construction, but they have been active at their Facebook page.

During 2012 I hope to use a race or two as fundraisers. I have some timed events where the goal is to run as far as possible in 12 or 24 hours. Doing a donation per mile or lap for that would be fun.

My donation page is located here: ( don't mind the massive heel strike :p )

Thanks for reading!

Shit Ultrarunners Say

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:34:43 PST

And I think I said half of these during yesterday's run :p

Sh*t Triathletes Say

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:56:53 PST

Wow, I've said about 95% of these in the past 5 years...

How to see and prevent overtraining syndrome

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:57:08 PST

Over training is described as the physical, emotional, or behavior condition that occurs when the volume or intensity of an individual's training exceeds their recovery abilities.

Unfortunately there is no single test that will tell you if you are overtrained. But, there many indicators that can be used.

Overtraining is much more common in self coached athletes. I believe the main job of a coach is to prevent mistakes, seeing something that the athlete may miss in their training. Often an individual will be in denial about it. Or they believe the harder they push themselves, the stronger they will become. I remember following the blog of a runner attempting to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials with a 2:19 marathon. I believe he was a 2:30 marathoner at the time. However, I would constantly see key words in this blogs that confirmed to me that he was over trained, yet he kept going at it. Using words like "exhausting" and "incredibly exhausting" or "always running on empty". He even got talked to at work for falling asleep I believe.

Signs of overtraining

1) You struggle to complete your normal workouts

This refers to not being able to complete regular workouts you have done in the past. If you have done and should be able to execute 400s in 1:18 but can't seem to break 1:30, something is up.

2) It is difficult to raise your heart rate during training
This is a very common indicator of overtraining. Lets say you have 6x1 minute in heart rate zone 4, but you can't get out of zone 3, you may need to step back and take a look at your last few weeks and how you have been feeling. Not being able to get our heart rate up is no excuse to find the steepest hill you can and do those intervals on that, but it is an excuse to maybe take a recovery week.

3) Recovery days are lacking in your training
According to the theory of supercompensation an athlete does not become stronger during training, but during the recover following training. If you break your body down it rebuilds itself at a slightly higher level than previous. Part of the reason of why people plateau is because they do not change their training and the body adapts. You do not need to be constantly "confusing your muscles", but adding different training stimuli keeps your body improving.

4) Fluctuations in resting heart rate
I believe the most common method suggested to track overtraining is by tracking your heart rate as soon as you wake in the morning. While the literature goes back and forth on this being useful or not, I have seen another suggestion of using average sleeping heart rate. This is simply due to sleeping heart rate not being as easily affected by temperature, stress, mood, etc.

5) You do not feel like training
In my opinion, simply your mood may be the best method of determining your training status. Lacking motivation to do something you should love to participate in may be a good indicator of over training. However, this is also very easily affected by the environment.

6) You hurt
In a bad way. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is your body reacting to new training stresses. But sore knees, a jabbing pain in the back, etc are all good cases for taking a step back. Do not train through injuries such as a stress fracture. Long term, you could lose weeks or months of training because you could not shut your ego down and do some water jogging for a week or two.

How to prevent overtraining

Cycle training volume
This means, every 3 or 4 weeks, take a recovery week. This could mean many things to different athletes. Less sessions, less volume, less intervals, etc. An easy way to do this is simply cut your volume by 50% for a week. It may be hard to train at that low of a level, but you will come out of the sessions and the week feeling refreshed and ready to go!

Even daily cycling is beneficial. For myself and my athletes I generally follow a pattern of easy/hard/easy/hard/easy/long/off or something similar as the pattern for the week.

A rest day will never cause an injury

Go 95%
During my training I try to go 90-95% every time. Today I have a couple miles as a warm up, 6 hill repeats, and a few miles as a cool down. If I go too easy during the repeats I lose training effect. If I go too hard or execute too many intervals, I may be sore the next day and lose training effect for that run! It is all about balance :)

Repeating workouts
All good training plans should have workouts that are comparable. These could include a certain run that is done every two weeks on the same route and in the same conditions. If you see good changes in pace/heart rate, you know your training is coming along well. If you see negative changes in pace/heart rate, you can hopefully find out what is causing this. I like to do Max Aerobic Function Tests to track training.

It is better to be 10% under trained than 1% over trained

Or, as Floyd Landis said,

If you are overtrained, it means you did not train hard enough to handle that level of training. So you were not overtrained; you were actually under trained to begin with.

Skora FORM Review

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:19:20 PST

Nick at MinimalistRunningShoes.org put up a great review of the Skora Form that I would like to share with you all :) Check it out at, http://minimalistrunningshoes.org/skora-running-form-shoe-review

For the record, my review can be found at http://www.runningonthewhiteline.com/2011/12/skora-base-and-form-review.html

Training Jan 16 - Jan 22

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:08:36 PST

This training brought to you by

Tuesday, Jan 17
AM 6.07 miles @ 9:07 pace with 260 ft/mile and a 145 avg HR in BASE
PM 18.25 miles biked in 1:12:00
This was a very easy and relaxed run. I wanted to see how my right leg would do since after Saturday's run it was giving me some pain two inches below and medial of the knee when adducting the leg against resistance. Luckily, there was no pain during the run and it has gotten better everyday since the run.

This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.
I literally stopped and stared at it both times I passed the tree on my run.

Wednesday, Jan 18

AM 5.77 biked
AM 4.43 miles ran @ 10:10 pace with a 133 avg HR in FORM
AM 5.76 biked
This was a ride to a trail head, a short very easy run with a few high effort hill repeats, and another ride back home. The trail was snow covered for the most part and I ended up hitting the floor a few times from slipping on ice.

Thursday, Jan 19
AM 6.2 miles ran @ 9:24 pace with a 149 avg HR in FORM
Frankly the pace I managed surprises me. The majority of this distance was a very zig zaggy trail up and around some very steep hills at M Hill. This is one of the hills in the range that goes right through Rapid and splits the town in half. There are many trails on these hills and having them right in town is a very cool asset for the people of Rapid City.

Friday, Jan 20

AM 6.11 miles ran @ 7:41 pace with a 154 avg HR in FORM
Felt like doing a faster run, obviously.

Mi bicicleta nueva

Saturday, Jan 21

PM 6.5 miles ran @ 9:25 pace in BASE

A nice afternoon run up into the hills. I saw a herd of 25+ deer up there, which was very cool :)

Sunday, Jan 22

AM 6.87 miles @ 9:37 pace with a 143 avg HR in BASE
100 squat jumps
100 sit ups
100 push ups
100 tuck jumps
100 side planks w/ leg lifts
100 leg kick backs
Sick run today. All the sleet from the night before froze and was covered with snow, so it made for a very sketchy road and trail run. I ran by at least 5 cars that were stuck in the snow, and even pushed one out! I only managed to hit the ground three times :)

M Hill in Rapid City

Total Week / Year
Run: 36.2 / 134.06
Bike: 29.9 / 96
Base: 404.44
Form: 75
Commutes: 4
I was very happy with this week. I toned the mileage down a bit to try some different pacing strategies. I got in lots of trail time, which was excessively relaxing. The weather was really brutal for a few days so I got in less miles and no biking during that period. The 5 day forecast looks promising for lots of miles and some cycling commutes :)

The view from the top of M Hill

Best Running MP3 Player / iPod

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:35:33 PST

During the winter months I find myself listening to music or podcasts more compared to the summer season. The main reason for this is that in the past I spent the entire winter running at the Wellness Center on a treadmill. However, this winter I plan on HTFU and doing my running outdoors. I received a really great windproof jacket for christmas from Desi this year. That jacket along with a few layers underneath have been great for temperatures down to 4 degrees so far. It is said there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing, and I was the epitome of this in years past. I was just too cheap to spend money on winter cloths when I had a great facility to spend my winter miles in.

In the past I used a second generation iPod Shuffle. Boy was this thing a beast. I used in in the rain, snow, indoor and outdoor double marathons, you name it. However one cycle in the washing machine and it was done for :(

That was when I went on the search for a new running music player. I looked into the current ipod shuffle, which was nearly identical, although due to a couple reasons inferior, to the 2nd generation. However because of the absurd price I decided to go with something new, the Sandisk Sansa Clip+ 4GB MP3 player and a Sandisk 16GB Micro SDHC Card to go along with it.

For less than the price of the 2GB iPod shuffle, I purchased a 4GB Clip+ and a 4GB micro SD card. I would recommend getting the 2GB player off Amazon.com and an accompanying micro SD card. For less or the same price, you get much more memory and many other features when comparing it to likely the most popular music player used by runners, the iPod shuffle.

Features:

Screen

Raised buttons
Small Size

Great battery life

Clip

Did I mention a screen?

Voice Recorder

Radio

I often will use the radio when I just feel like listening to some different music, such as during my 50 mile ultra marathon a few months ago. If an idea pops into my head I will quickly turn on the voice recorder, which actually works very well. The screen is a huge bonus over the shuffle, and the raised buttons work just fine even through clothing.

For a much more economical as well as more functional option, I would highly recommend looking into the Sansa Clip+ mp3 player for use while running or cycling.

Hope you enjoyed the Sansa Clip+ review!

What about ear buds? I use One Good Earbud

Also, if you want to help support the site, please purchase through the links above. It costs you nothing and a small percentage comes back to the blog.

Thanks for reading!

Lack of sleep enhances appetite sensation in brain

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:40:59 PST

This research helps to partially explain why lack of sleep correlates to weight gain and/or being over weight. As we all know, both of which are of growing concern in this fast paced world of ours. It shows that a particular brain region that contributes to appetite sensation is more active after a night of lost sleep.

Acute Sleep Deprivation Enhances the Brain's Response to Hedonic Food Stimuli

Abstract

Context: There is growing recognition that a large number of individuals living in Western society are chronically sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation is associated with an increase in food consumption and appetite. However, the brain regions that are most susceptible to sleep deprivation-induced changes when processing food stimuli are unknown.

Objective: Our objective was to examine brain activation after sleep and sleep deprivation in response to images of food.

Intervention: Twelve normal-weight male subjects were examined on two sessions in a counterbalanced fashion: after one night of total sleep deprivation and one night of sleep. On the morning after either total sleep deprivation or sleep, neural activation was measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging in a block design alternating between high- and low-calorie food items. Hunger ratings and morning fasting plasma glucose concentrations were assessed before the scan, as were appetite ratings in response to food images after the scan.

Main Outcome Measures: Compared with sleep, total sleep deprivation was associated with an increased activation in the right anterior cingulate cortex in response to food images, independent of calorie content and prescan hunger ratings. Relative to the postsleep condition, in the total sleep deprivation condition, the activation in the anterior cingulate cortex evoked by foods correlated positively with postscan subjective appetite ratings. Self-reported hunger after the nocturnal vigil was enhanced, but importantly, no change in fasting plasma glucose concentration was found.

Conclusions: These results provide evidence that acute sleep loss enhances hedonic stimulus processing in the brain underlying the drive to consume food, independent of plasma glucose levels. These findings highlight a potentially important mechanism contributing to the growing levels of obesity in Western society.

Christian Benedict,

Samantha J. Brooks,

Owen G. O'Daly,

Markus S. Almèn,

Arvid Morell,

Karin Åberg,

Malin Gingnell,

Bernd Schultes,

Manfred Hallschmid,

Jan-Erik Broman,

Elna-Marie Larsson and

Helgi B. Schiöth

-Author Affiliations

Departments of Neuroscience (C.B., S.J.B., M.S.A., J.-E.B., H.B.S.), Radiology (A.M., K.Å., E.-M.L.), and Psychology (M.G.), Uppsala University, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Neuroimaging (O.G.O.), Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom; Interdisciplinary Obesity Center, Kantonsspital St. Gallen (B.S.), CH-9007St. Gallen, Switzerland; and Department of Neuroendocrinology (M.H.), University of Lübeck, D-23538, Lübeck, Germany

Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:25:49 PST

Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011 Jul 6;(7):CD004577.

Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise.

Herbert RD, de Noronha M, Kamper SJ.

Source

Musculoskeletal Division, The George Institute for Global Health, PO Box M201, Missenden Road, Camperdown, Sydney, Australia, NWS 2050.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Many people stretch before or after engaging in athletic activity. Usually the purpose is to reduce risk of injury, reduce soreness after exercise, or enhance athletic performance. This is an update of a Cochrane review first published in 2007.

OBJECTIVES:

The aim of this review was to determine effects of stretching before or after exercise on the development of delayed-onset muscle soreness.

SEARCH STRATEGY:

We searched the Cochrane Bone, Joint and Muscle Trauma Group Specialised Register (to 10 August 2009), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2010, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1966 to 8th February 2010), EMBASE (1988 to 8th February 2010), CINAHL (1982 to 23rd February 2010), SPORTDiscus (1949 to 8th February 2010), PEDro (to 15th February 2010) and reference lists of articles.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

Eligible studies were randomised or quasi-randomised studies of any pre-exercise or post-exercise stretching technique designed to prevent or treat delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). For the studies to be included, the stretching had to be conducted soon before or soon after exercise and muscle soreness had to be assessed.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:

Risk of bias was assessed using The Cochrane Collaboration's 'Risk of bias' tool and quality of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Estimates of effects of stretching were converted to a common 100-point scale. Outcomes were pooled in fixed-effect meta-analyses.

MAIN RESULTS:

Twelve studies were included in the review. This update incorporated two new studies. One of the new trials was a large field-based trial that included 2377 participants, 1220 of whom were allocated stretching. All other 11 studies were small, with between 10 and 30 participants receiving the stretch condition. Ten studies were laboratory-based and other two were field-based. All studies were exposed to either a moderate or high risk of bias. The quality of evidence was low to moderate.There was a high degree of consistency of results across studies. The pooled estimate showed that pre-exercise stretching reduced soreness at one day after exercise by, on average, half a point on a 100-point scale (mean difference -0.52, 95% CI -11.30 to 10.26; 3 studies). Post-exercise stretching reduced soreness at one day after exercise by, on average, one point on a 100-point scale (mean difference -1.04, 95% CI -6.88 to 4.79; 4 studies). Similar effects were evident between half a day and three days after exercise. One large study showed that stretching before and after exercise reduced peak soreness over a one week period by, on average, four points on a 100-point scale (mean difference -3.80, 95% CI -5.17 to -2.43). This effect, though statistically significant, is very small.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:

The evidence from randomised studies suggests that muscle stretching, whether conducted before, after, or before and after exercise, does not produce clinically important reductions in delayed-onset muscle soreness in healthy adults.

Training Jan 9 - Jan 15

ipull400watts@gmail.com (Kyle Kranz) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:07:39 PST

This training brought to you by

Monday, Jan 9th

AM 5 miles @ 8:50 pace with a 138 avg HR
Run fail. Ate before hand and screwed up my BG levels. A 15 mile run turned into a 5 mile death march. My HR was super low, but I felt like I was at the last miles of a marathoner, not mile 3 of a training run.

Tuesday, Jan 10
AM 22.9 miles @ 9:58 pace with 313 ft/mile and a 144 avg HR
This was an INTENSE run! I got lost in the Black Hills National Forest, which is about 4 or 5 miles from my house. I was running through the woods on some trails and found a bunch of houses and a paved road, so I figured it would lead back to the interstate so I could find my way home. Well it did, but it took about 5 miles longer than I had hoped to do it. I had 200 calories of Clif Bloks with me, no other fuel or hydration, and had not eaten since dinner the night before. I ended up eating some snow from the forest as hydration. Eventually I also found a capped water bottle that I filled with snow to drink. This is kind of gross, but I also found a capped Gatorade bottle with some still in it, which I poured into my ice slushy and drank. These circumstances called for dire measures! Funny thing is, not once during this run did I feel half as bad as I did at mile 3 of Monday's run :p Actually, I felt pretty good the entire time!

Wednesday, Jan 11
PM 5.22 miles @ 8:11 pace with 258 ft/mile and a 150 avg HR
For the second time, no one showed up for the "group run" so I disappointingly did a solo exploration of the bike trails.

Thursday, Jan 12
AM Strength Training
AM 5.52 miles @ 9:12 pace with 452 ft/mile and a 143 avg HR
PM 22.33 miles in 1:41
After getting lost on Tuesday the remainder of my week is pretty easy, so I split them up into shorter runs for the rest of the week. I found some trails that begin less than two miles from the house and did not running on those.

Friday, Jan 13
AM 4.15 miles @ 9:07 pace with 327 ft/mile
PM 19.9 miles biked in 1:36:45
Tell you what, I am really loving the bike commuting!

Saturday, Jan 14
AM 4.12 miles @ 8:19 pace with 252 ft/mile and a 144 avg HR
Just an easy run. I was going to do some cycling as well but was reminded that the Olympic Marathon Trials were being aired, so I stayed home instead of commuting into town so I would be able to watch those. It was worth it!

Sunday, Jan 15
AM 3 miles hiking
We were going to go up to Harney Peak, but we did not have any ice traction for our shoes and, well, it was pure ice on the trails. We decided we had enough and turned. There were only two falls during the entire trip!

Totals Week / Year
Run: 46.93 / 97.88
Bike: 49.72 / 65.72
Time: 10:36 / 19:10
Not the best week. I was hoping to hit 50 miles but the medial side of my right knee started hurting after my run on Saturday. On Sunday it felt better, but I still did not run. I will probably skip Monday as well. Hopefully I can get back on the road Tuesday.

Running on the White Line

One Good Earbud Review and Giveaway!

Training Jan 30 - Feb 5

Mindful Eating

Weight gain and loss with endurance training

Sugoi Brand Champion

How to Ice-Proof your shoes for 15 cents

Sh*t Barefoot Runners Say

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels

Pre Race/Training Nutrition

Suunto Ambit Preview

Training Jan 23 - Jan 29

Legumes and ferritin shown to be quality alternative to meat or iron supplements

Absorption of Iron from Ferritin Is Independent of Heme Iron and Ferrous Salts in Women and Rat Intestinal Segments1,2,3

Abstract

Vegans, DHA and EPA

Effects of Footwear and Stride Type on Running Economy

Effects of Footwear and Strike Type on Running Economy.

Source

Abstract

PURPOSE:

METHODS:

RESULTS:

CONCLUSIONS:

Do Epic Shit

The Unchained Movement

Shit Ultrarunners Say

Sh*t Triathletes Say

How to see and prevent overtraining syndrome

Skora FORM Review

Training Jan 16 - Jan 22

Best Running MP3 Player / iPod

Lack of sleep enhances appetite sensation in brain

Abstract

Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise

Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise.

Source

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

OBJECTIVES:

SEARCH STRATEGY:

SELECTION CRITERIA:

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:

MAIN RESULTS:

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:

Training Jan 9 - Jan 15

Absorption of Iron from Ferritin Is Independent of Heme Iron and Ferrous Salts in Women and Rat Intestinal Segments¹,²,³