Paleo Diet?

So. Jason and I were talking about a friend who has lost like 50 pounds in a year, who says it's because he cut out sugar, bread, rice, and I forget what-all-else.

So. I mentioned that a lot of the CrossFit people recommend a paleo diet, which I thought was something like that: all meat and vegetables, a little fruit, and no refined anything, including flour and anything made with it.

So. We thought that would be a good idea, except, well, we'd have to have the occasional brownie, and whole-wheat bread for sandwiches, and protein shakes with yogurt, and so on, and so on, and so on.

So. Then I read in National Geographic what a REAL paleo, or prehistoric, diet might be like. And part of the article is online, if you want to read it.

So. Turns out there are a LOT of "paleo" diets some of which are still being eaten by real human beings in our times.

So. Here's another article, for those people who think you should only eat raw food, saying that what makes us human is ... wait for it ... the fact that we cook our food.

So. Back to the original idea: I do know that for myself when I cut sugar out completely (but still eating bread, cereal, etc.), I have been at my healthiest and leanest weight. And I'm working on getting there, again...

Foot Traffic University Half-Marathon Training

I started this great program on Saturday, July 26. Foot Traffic University is run by the Portland area Foot Traffic stores. There are several classes, starting at different times throughout the year and with training regimens designed for various goals.

I'm in the Session Two Half-Marathon class, a five-month program running through December 14.

At the first class, we got all the starting-up info, walked over to the Sellwood Park, did some dynamic stretches, and then jogged two miles.

(I mean, other people jogged two miles. I was still coughing and hacking from the worst summer cold I've had since 2013:), so I just walked back to the store where I bought a great pair of running shoes for half price. Are these people smart, or what?!? Having classes in their stores where you can see all the great products and take advantage of the great deals, even greater because you get a 10% discount from being an FTU member!)

I missed the second class, on Aug. 2, since I was running in the Crawford Crawl. (Yes, I know I'm doing it backwards: training for a half-marathon for 5 months after running my third one....Oh, well, you've gotta start sometime, right?)

I'll miss the Sept. 13 class, too, because I'll be biking in Ride Around the Sound.

But I'll be going to every class I can from now through the end of the session. The "recommended goal" for the session is the Holiday Half Marathon on December 14, but I won't be running in that because it's on a Sunday. I'll be choosing another goal to work towards.

Meanwhile, the Foot Traffic people send me two email messages every week with training goals and suggestions for that week, and every Saturday session also has some running and/or fitness expert talking about, and demonstrating, some aspect of fitness. 

From the FTU Web site, I learned that we'll be training with the "SMART" goals method.  The site says SMART goals are:

S specific

M measurable

A action-oriented

R realistic

T time-based

Which totally makes sense, doesn't it.  Anyway, I'll be writing more about this as the session continues.

Crawfish Crawl Half

Well, I did it. I did not improve my time today. But at least I finished this crawl. For me, and for a lot of others, it was not so much a race as a test of endurance in the heat and humidity.

I couldn't quit early, though I was tempted to several times, because Caleb told me as I was starting out, "If you finish this race today, I'll be so proud of you."

And so I finished it.I'll post more photos later.

Tour de France: All Those Falls

Here's an interesting story: When those Tour de France riders crash and fall, they're getting injured more than in the past, and it's because their bikes are made of all carbon. It's lightweight, but it's brittle, too.

Crashes in the Tour de France often send riders hurling to the road because carbon-fiber frames and wheels tend to break. Credit Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

From the article:   

Unlike steel or aluminum, carbon fiber does not bend in crashes. Rather the bikes and wheels frequently shatter, often hurling riders to the road and, many fear, increasing the severity of injuries.

“Anyone in a team who’s being honest with you will tell you how frequently their bikes are breaking; everybody knows,” said Mark Greve, a physician and assistant professor of sports medicine at Brown University who studied injuries to 3,500 competitive cyclists. “Few people in the public appreciate how many bikes a pro team will go through in a season, because they break for one reason or another. The bikes, they completely explode.”

And check out this section, about how light these bikes can get:

The International Cycling Union, concerned about the potential danger of ever lighter carbon bikes, imposed a minimum weight of 6.8 kilograms (about 15 pounds) in 2000 for bikes used in high-level races like the Tour. But that applies to the whole bicycle, including the wheels, leaving bicycle makers to continue a marketing battle to produce ever lighter frames. Professional teams simply add weight, sometimes pieces of chain, to a bike that doesn’t meet the minimum.

Before the Tour started, Trek launched the latest salvo in that war: the Émonda SLR 10, a frame that weighs 690 grams (about 24 ounces), making it, the company says, the world’s lightest bike. It sells as a complete bike for $15,750.

You'll probably want to read the whole article, which has details about how the new bikes are constructed, and even about how the carbon fibers themselves are made. It's fascinating. 

Big Legs! (And the Tour de France)

Rick, who was my coach-for-a-day during last year's Reach the Beach bike ride, told me he used to coach a college women's crew team. At first he would encourage them by shouting, "Big legs!" Then one of them pointed out that as women they didn't really want to have big legs. I totally understood.

But as I watched the finish of Stage 21 today, and the winners on the podium at this year's Tour de France, what struck me were their strong legs. (No, I don't have any kind of fetish about this.) Of course, that's how they won, how they kept going and going, apparently about 40 mph in the final laps around the Champs Elysee, after all they'd been through: Big legs.

I haven't seen any video on YouTube yet of the winners on the podium, but will add them when I find them. Meanwhile, these guys are real heroes to me, as are the ones who crashed at various times and got right back on their bikes to keep riding.

I couldn't help but cheer for Marcel Kittel as he surged forward to win this final stage. Big legs, indeed! But I realize that even with his physical training, his mental toughness was just as important, or maybe even more important.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/tour-de-france/10994251/Tour-de-France-2014-stage-21-Marcel-Kittel-wins-on-Champs-Elysees-as-Vincenzo-Nibali-is-crowned-champion.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/tour-de-france/10993231/Tour-de-France-2014-Vincenzo-Nibali-worth-his-place-in-history.html

This photo came with the note: "Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali will be a worthy winner of the Tour de France and, from his early days in the sport, he has always been anti-doping." 

More About CrossFit

Thanks to Laura for pointing out an article on this topic.

I've read through it and it hasn't deterred me from trying this program, though I won't have the time or money to do that immediately. It will certainly help me be careful when I do check it out, though!

Laura mentioned in her first comment that she's heard some people are injured doing the CrossFit program, and now in a new comment that some researchers had found that indeed 16 percent of people in one CrossFit program they investigated had ended the program early because of injuries.

What is striking about this whole thing is the outrage from the CrossFit community, as seen in this article from "Outside" magazine, reporting on the report. This article comments that the injury figure is "a soft number" and does not represent overall injuries. The original research concluded that people of all fitness levels "...all lost body fat and saw a jump in performance over 10 weeks of CrossFit training. The injury statistic was, literally, an afterthought."

So, what's the big deal? When I get a chance to try this out, I'll be careful, as Laura originally suggested, to stay within my body's limits, not respond to peer pressure to lift more weight than I can reasonably do or to do exercises I know will strain my already-strained joints, and so on.

The "Outside" article concludes, "That's a great description of the impasse CrossFit now faces. Desperately wanting approval, it has circled the wagons and worked actively against the very means to its validation. The biggest problem CrossFit has is itself."

Anyway, thanks again, Laura. And I've found another book comparing various fitness programs, which I'll review when I finish reading it.

The Sayings of Donna

I originally met this instructor in a class in another gym, and she was amazing.

She's the one who told off the guy who came into the class to complain about the loud music, and then when she told him it had to be that loud because, hello, it was a cycling class, came back again and shut the door. She went out and gave him a piece of her mind, and we all cheered for her when she came back in.

(And then she taught the yoga class right after that spin class, with soft ambient music and a totally different approach, and bent her body in ways that encouraged the rest of us to do yoga poses we hadn't been able to do before.)

(I'm going to attend her cycling and yoga classes again on Saturday, so I'll probably add some more sayings after that.)

ANYWAY: The other day she subbed for one of the regular cycling teachers at my gym, and, guess what, she was even more amazing.

One thing I loved was how she let herself huff and puff and sweat. Just like the rest of us.

She kept wiping the sweat off, until she said, about halfway through the class, "My towel won't accept any more sweat. It's full."

Here are a few more of her sayings:

Warming up. About five minutes. You should be sweating by the time we finish this.

And now for something completely different. 

Come on! Get up! I'm standing, can't you see? Stand up!

I loved the music she played, too, including this song, "Love Runs Out," by New Republic. (I know I included this in "The Sayings of Liz," but they both played it. And it's great for spinning, and dancing, and whatever.)

Later, when she played "Switch Me On," she said, "If I were a stripper, this would be on my playlist."

More sayings:

Okay, you're burning. Which is okay. It's good to burn. Well, except when you pee.

Let's pretend you're tired. And you want to stop now. Just ask yourself, "How would my butt look in  a mirror, naked?" That's all I have to do at ten o'clock at night when I want a snack. I look at my butt in the mirror, naked, and I realize I do not need that snack after all.

I'm horrible. I know it. But that's okay. It's just the way I am.

I need CPR.