Semi-Occasional update

So, I don't update anything here very often.  Mainly because I don't have the time (who does?).

So, maybe I'll start writing again, and I'll just write what I feel like writing, whether it has anything to do with training or not.

On Saturday, I went to the gym.  I've been running on the dreadmill, because I was having knee issues, and I wanted to be in a position where, if something happened, and I couldn't run any farther, I wouldn't have to limp several miles home.

So, there I am, in the locker room after running 3.5 miles on the treadmill.  The temperature in the room with the 'mills, stationary bikes, and the ellipticals is around 75 degrees F.  That's ridiculously hot for exercise.  It should be about 20 degrees cooler.  I was soaked.  My shorts, my shirt, my hair, my heart monitor.  All soaking wet.  I go down to the locker room.  There's a young father there (maybe early 30's) and his two pre-teen sons.  They are in the same row of lockers as I am.   Son number one has taken up one entire bench.  No room to sit and take off my shoes on that bench.  Son number two is taking up about half the other bench -- the one in front of my locker.  Good, right?  I can sit on the other half of the bench while I take off my shoes.  Guess who's sitting, taking up the other half of the bench?  Dad.  He's texting someone.  Thanks, dad.  Setting a good example for the kids.  Dad, by the way, was sitting directly in front of my locker.  Not only keeping me from sitting down, but also making it more difficult for me to get to my locker.

Blog Post or Advertisement?

So, I happened across this blog post the other day.  Essentially, it gives several "scientific" explanations for why "running makes you fat".  Of course, I'm obese myself (I have ballooned up to 155 pounds since my injury last year).  I never really realized before -- all that running is why these guys are so fat:

And why these two look so fat:

And, of course, why he is just so roly-poly:

Of course, no matter how many counter examples you provide, the author of the blog post will probably continue to push the idea that running, or aerobic exercise in general, makes you fat.  Why would she do that?  because she's invested in a high-intensity, low volume exercise program.  As is made clear in James Heathers blog, the Denver Post blog post is almost word-for-word the same as the advertisement for turbulencetraining dot com .  It makes you wonder if the Denver Post was paid for that little bit of advertising masquerading as health advice.

Don't trust "health and fitness bloggers".  Especially if they have their own personal training business.  They will be using their blog as advertising for their own business, and not giving you advice on your own fitness.

Dark

If I could change one thing about the winter, it wouldn't be the cold.  I don't mind the cold all that much, particularly when I'm exercising. I throw off a lot of body heat and I don't need to bundle up too much to stay warm when the temperature is low. I will wear shorts down to about 28ºF.  I don't mind the snow, either. It slows me down, but then it slows everyone else down, too.  What I mind is the dark.  When I get home from work and it's already dark, it's hard to just get out the door.  Once I do, it gets easier, as I said, I don't mind cold or snow. It's just the motivation to get moving on the dark evenings.

As I implied above, I ran slowly tonight.  The yaktrax are heavy (or seem that way by comparison) and make it harder to lift my feet up.  I'm thinking that when the roads and sidewalks are cleaner, and I can run in plain running shoes instead of running shoes with straps and spikes all over them, I'll move a bit faster.  Maybe the running in the snow with the yaktrax will help me.  Assuming that I an get in some days where I can turn my legs over fast and not just the plodding through treacherous footing in spiky shoes.

Tonight, I only saw two cars run red lights, but then I ran less than three miles, and only a little over a mile of that was on main roads with traffic lights.

Cars

Quick little run of under three miles.  Within the first half mile, two cars running a red light.  Not in different directions, not even in different lanes.  One behind the other.  The first one wasn't even close, so you can imagine how bad the second one was.

Later on, crossing the same street about half a mile away (about a mile farther on in the run), two more cars running a different red light.  Same thing, one behind the other, first one wasn't even close.  And neither traffic light has a short yellow.

This is all in an inner-ring suburb of a small city.  About a quarter-mile outside the city limits.  I wonder why our fair city didn't make the list of Walk-Friendly cities?  Not even an honorable mention.  I read a lot of things online about cyclists running red lights.  But, you know, a 200-pound cyclist, on a 45-pound bike, traveling at 30 miles an hour (a worst-case scenario as far as getting hit by a cyclist) won't do anything near the damage that a small car -- even a Smart Car -- traveling at 20 miles an hour.  If you get hit by an average cyclist, you might get a few scrapes and bruises, a few cuts, maybe a broken bone.  You get hit by a driver going through a red light -- he will probably be exceeding the speed limit, so let's say he's going 40 miles an hour -- and there's a good chance you will die.

Yaktrax

OK, so it's been a long time since I posted anything here, but I'm going to start again.  See what happens.

I started running in Yaktrax this winter.  I'd never used them before, and now I've run in them twice.  Here are my impressions:

• Heavy.  I don't know what I expected, but they felt like they weighed a ton when I got out the door.  As I got going, they didn't feel like they were getting heavier, though.  A lot of the time, extra weight can feel like it's getting heavier as you go along, making you go slower and slower.

• Traction.  Not as much as bare shoes on dry pavement, but a lot better than bare shoes on packed snow.  That's what I've been running on, packed snow.  There was very little ice out there, so I can't say if they're any good on ice.  

• Deep Snow.  I don't know how they'll do in deeper snow yet.  We only have a couple of inches of snow.  There is a space between the side of my shoes and the straps that run up the sides.  Deep, wet snow might get packed in there, and that would feel like it was getting heavier.  

As long as I'm running on plowed/shoveled roads and sidewalks, they will, overall, be a positive for running.  Very little slipping and no sliding at all.  Much better than using the old 1/16"slotted hex-head screws driven into the sole of the shoe.


>>>>EDIT:
 I have run into one problem with the yaktrax:  breakage.  Several of the spikes in the toe have been bent over, pushed in, or broken off.  In addition, one of the straps has broken.