I Hated My Runner's Body

Faking it. We've all seen it. That guy at the local 10K who is decked out from head to toe in the latest running garb, has a wrist computer roughly the size of a Jr. Whopper, and is doing some sort of aerobic routine al-la Richard Simmons to warm up. Most likely, this is his first rodeo, and he's trying to fake being in on this whole running thing. It's not the worst thing really. I'd much rather smile at that guy than grimace at someone toeing the line in hiking boots (I've seen this).

Sadly, I must admit that I have been faking. I've been faking about not being a runner.

For the last month or so, I've been keeping myself off the road for the sake of spending my athletic energies in the gym. My heart and mind are always on the road, but for the last little while my body has been leaving those two behind and started to head toward a stack of weights instead. I've always enjoyed cross training, but the only cross in this training was written over my running workouts.

Why? What led me to fake? It's because I have a runner's body.Yes, I can hear your scoffs, but hear me out.

Thanks to genetics and my chosen hobbies, I've always been a bit underweight, and my body has roughly the same contours as a sheet of printer paper. That quote from Once a Runner "Gaunt is Beautiful" comes to mind.

I'm not sure when it started, but I started to see this as a negative. I started to want a UFC/CrossFit-esk physique. Why you ask? Uh, have you seen those guys? They look powerful. They look aggressive. Their physicality effortlessly demands respect from those of us without so much muscle fiber. This started to bother me. Occasional "harmless" little jokes asking me when the last time I had a steak didn't help much either.

Alright, place your bets. Who's going down?

          

Truthfully, GSP isn't even a fair comparison among other UFC fighters. What a machine!

So, I made like a runner and put my time into strength training. I started getting into a rhythm, and kept up the momentum through some very unusual kinds of muscle soreness. I added 4 pounds in 3 weeks and could already see a change in my vanity muscles (biceps, delts, quads, etc.) .

The biggest change, however, was the inner conflict this lifestyle change created. I enjoyed the workouts, but not in the same way. I was always eyeing the treadmills or wondering how long it would take me to circle the gym 100 times. I missed running, but I stayed off the road because running isn't really known for helping you put on the pounds. I was slowly getting what I wanted, but I just didn't feel right.

Finally, I have had enough. I'm over this. I have realized that some of us are meant to look like we could take down a rhino with our bare hands, and some of us are meant to look like we might be recovering from a hunger strike. Life is too short to waste it trying to look like something I'm not. Changing your life based on your thoughts about your appearance is a losing game for everyone.

I am a runner, and I am ok looking like one.I hope others will read this and take more pride in their frames, regardless of its type.

I know it sickens some to hear that I am having trouble keeping weight on, but let this article serve as proof that body image issues affect the petite as well as the plump. The grass is always greener on the other side, but it's a bi*%h to mow on every side.

Best Training Tools I Know

I want to share the best training tools I have for just about every athletic thing I do. I'm going to try to make this useful and information without giving too much detail.

Pace Calculator -
This pace calculator thing is amazing. It can help you prepare for target pace workouts or give you a great breakdown of race performance.

Course Map -
 MapMyRun - Works great and is very accurate. Very few glitches.

Self Therapy -
My wife got me a Trigger Point Cool Roller last Christmas and it has quickly become an invaluable tool. Rolling is a great way to speed up recovery after a hard set or a really long workout. You can roll-out more areas of your body with a traditional foam roller  (cold stainless steel doesn't feel good on my hips and it's too small for my back), but the cold really helps large muscles in the legs.

Music -
I just have a regular iPod shuffle, but a waterproof one might be a good idea if you want to use it in the pool (Triathletes).

Running Headphones - I use iRun earphones and they work perfectly. I love the short cord. I hear great things about JayBird's and YurBuds.

Here's a tip -Combine the iPod shuffle and iRun earbuds (or something similar) and attach them to a thin, elastic hairband (like some soccer players wear) to hold the combo onto the back of your head. It works great for times when you don't want to wear a hat and it works MUCH better than attaching it to your shirt collar.

Protein -
I tend not to like products with 50 mystery ingredients, each consisting of 10-15 syllables, that were all created in a dark lab somewhere (call me crazy), so I steer clear of the typical protein powders. Raw Meal tastes great and is holistically good for you. If you have the wallet, Vega Sport products are supreme.

Diet -
If you have a smartphone, the My Fitness Pal app is a great tool. It has virtually any food you can think of in its database. You should still check the numbers out if you think something is way off. I found a few numbers that were wrong on a kind of pasta sauce I used and corrected my sodium intake by 500 mg.

Note - My Fitness Pal will let you input exercise to measure calories burned, but strength training and such will show up as 0 calories burned  no matter how of long of a session you input. You have to put that time in the Cardiovascular section under Circuit Training. I simply estimate the amount of time I spent "in" activity (not resting) and use that. This gets you "pretty close" and I tend to find it showing fewer calories burned off than seems logical.

I'll try to follow this post up with another installment in a few months.

Please post your favorite gear in the comments so I can try it out.

Race Day Gone Wrong

Very few people would be upset if they were told they didn't have to swim/bike/run 70.3 miles in the 100+ degree heat. I happen to be one of those people who would be, and was, upset.

                                        

 My first 1/2 Ironman was supposed to be held in the metropolitan Muncie, IN last July. The summer was already pretty hot and a heat wave was baking the better part of the country. My wife and I drove up to the expo the day before and never saw the thermometer drop below 100. Shortly after arriving at the convention center I found out that the race had been shortened to an Olympic-esk length (1 mi swim, 30 mi bike, 6.2 mi run) because of the heat. To save you from a really long rant, I'll just say there were many bummed out triathletes, and I was one of them."They've got heat in Kona, you know! Lava fields anybody?" - that's the kind of vitriolic taunts I wanted to shout at the race director.

My mood dropped faster than a tap dancer on ice. All of my motivation was lost, and any sense of calm I had fostered in the days prior went out the window. Try as I might, I couldn't get over it. Then things got a little worse. I found out that I left my helmet and bike pump at home. "Hello breakdown. I think we've met before".

Enter my Godly wife. Sitting on the sofa in our hotel room she put her arms around me and talked me through what I soon saw to be the lesson God had in store for me the whole time. She asked why I was so upset, and I explained that I had told so many people I was going to do a half-ironman, and now I wasn't allowed to. I had promised myself that I was going to finish this thing, and through no fault of my own, I had to break that promise. Slowly but surely she worked me towards the true source of my rage - PRIDE.

 I was afraid what other people, including myself, were going to say when I didn't finish a half-ironman. I was afraid of how I would feel. I was angry about not getting to do what I wanted to do. None of that had anything to do with God's intentions for the day. I and the world were the focus. Not God. Issue identified.

I started off race morning by listening to David Crowder's After All. One of my favorite lines says "Oh I've dreamed dreams of majesty as brilliant as a billion stars But they're never bright enough after all...You are Holy". I tearfully prayed for God to do what He needed to do throughout the race.

I started the race off with a strong swim, kept it steady of the bike and used my extra strength on the run to come in with a respectable 2 hr 29 min finish. (The pro's had a nice race of their own.) My real story, and my final lesson, was out on the swim.

After making the first of two turns, the swim course put the races parallel to the sunrise, so if you breathed on your right side you got a face full of rays. As I made the turn the sun's light was a reminder of the previous day's lesson. God's majesty is brighter than a billion stars and just staring into a single star had enough power to turn my head the other way. What could I hope to do to brighten a billion times that with a simple race regardless of the distance?

So what great glory did God achieve in that shorter than expected race? I don't know for sure, but all I can say is that my thoughts during the race were totally on Him, and that wouldn't have been the case if nothing had changed from my initial plan. That alone makes it worth it. That alone brings God more glory than any number of miles ever could.

Love to Tri? Try to Love

The mother of all triathlons was last weekend and boy what a show! Kona nerds certainly got several surprises (I certainly didn't think Macca would be DNF). Men's winner Pete Jacobs put on a good show all the way through and deserved his win 100%.

In his post-race interview, Jacobs talked about one of the most important keys to his winning the race. Was it his sleek bike? No. The blistering intervals he did during training? Nope. The invisible dolphin he rode during the swim? Almost but not really. Love? You bet!

The Bible has tons to say about love. God sacrificed His son Jesus for love of His own creation. The disciples gave up their entire lives due to their love for Christ. Followers of Christ should give 10% (or more) of their income to His church because they love Him. The list goes on and on, but the Bible doesn't exactly talk about how love would help you face down a pack of hungry Ironman triathletes at the end of a marathon. So what's up with love?

Anyone who believes in God must agree that God is powerful. You don't create the universe without power. If we can also agree that God is love, then we can assume that their is power in love. By acting out of love we are acting in accordance with God's will. As the Bible tells us, those who are outside of God's will don't tend to make it very far, so love is in our best interest. To boot, Paul, John, George and Ringo also thought love was pretty important.

The power of positive thinking and positive visualization are nothing new in sports. By harnessing love rather than rage or hate (Ex -You gotta get mad to win!) during a race you not only save yourself the mental energy of thinking negative thoughts, but you also tap into something more spiritually powerful and ultimately more pleasing all around.

Unless you plan on making triathlon your job, your main goal is probably to have fun and enjoy yourself. Who's ever said "Let's get up really early, put on weird clothes, go run for a few hours and spend the entire time thinking negative thoughts - it'll be fun!"? That outlook certainly doesn't appeal to me, and I doubt it does to you either.

Want to have the best shot at winning your next race and maybe enjoying life a bit more altogether? Try love on for size. It's Christ tested, God approved.

I don't mean to speak for Pete Jacobs at all in writing this. I have no reason to believe his comments were motivated by faith. This is my attempt to use his popular comments as a jumping off point for my own discussion.

Triathlon Podcast Zen-Tri Podcast Of Pace and Faith

Get Your Zen On!

I think it's always nice to admit when something has inspired you. As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Japan, I know a thing or two about Zen. I'm not talking about the mini-rock garden on your desk, cheap flute music CD at the gas station Zen. I'm talking about za-zen, Dogen, Rinzai, etc. While it's hard to put Zen (the real kind) on a T-shirt, it is far more interesting in my opinion. But I digress.

One of the biggest inspirations for this blog was a blog/podcast series call Zen and the Art of Triathlon. The Zen-Tri Master, Coach Brett, produces both a blog and a very entertaining podcast which are both worth your time if you are interested in learning more about triathlons.

Zen-Tri materials cover everything about endurance sports:

Nutrition - Brett is a Vegan and has tons of great healthy eating tips. His nutrition advice also finds a place in my favorites list because he loves, loves, loves burritos.

Gear - I have a crush on nearly every piece of Zen Tri gear. He always uses and demo's the best stuff. Great advice. Suunto gear...Yes Please!

Training - Nearly every episode of his podcast has a training log portion where Brett basically records himself talking as he trains. These can get a little "so-so" at times (I find myself skipping to meatier sections of the episode on occasion) but there's always good for a laugh or two. He also throws out some Zen thoughts during this time, which brings me to...

Zen - While I'm not going to suggest you site his blog as a source for a philosophy paper (unless your professor is an Ironman which in that case you need to do your thesis on his site), his recurring  themes of simplicity, clam, focus and keeping things in balance are all core Zen beliefs.

Hearing about how he juggles family life, training, coaching, working and producing a blog/podcast while still staying "sane" (triathlon and sanity rarely mix) has been a real inspiration. He offers up lots of advice derived from his own experience that has served me well. Ex - Need to get in a ride but have to watch the kids? Get on the trainer. Kid needs lunch? Get off the bike, be a father and make lunch. Kids want to play - Play with them and Then get back on the bike.Well done Brett!

So charge your Ipod, put on your shoes and head out for a nice run with some Zen-Tri in your ears.