A Race Report...and an offseason comment!

How Clean Should Your Colon be?

Did that get your attention? I will get to that in a minute. First of all lets talk about a race report.
I did a little ( well it wasnt little) almost 6k 5k saturday morning. It's called the Diva Dash. I had it on the radar last year but that day it snowed about 8 inches and since its about a 40 min drive from home i knew this year i would pre register and pray for no snow or rain. The day couldnt have been better. ( well it could have been 70 but i dont live in Florida)

Long story short i had hopes of using this as my run test. Usually my run test ends up being on the TM of sweat bc our roads are slippery and its too cold to get my HR above 155 and my HRM freezes anyways. So i was praying the Garmin would not go wacky in the cold. When i was warming up it was jumping around doing its usual "I am cold and cant get a good connection" telling me i was running my warm up at 180bpm. Lovely. "dear coach, my HR max was 220. I am in an ambulance now with tachycardia." Can we use this data?

I knew the course was long, but i didnt care. I would rather run a long 5k than one where i run 17 minutes and know i didnt get that time. When the gun went off ( we were following the 10k) I was towards the front and pretty much held that position. I was next to two girls i know, one a runner and one a fellow triathlete. By mile 1 they had dropped back and i was running in 5th, behind runner people. Around mile 2 I caught the #4 woman and i really felt good. I sorta was watching my Garmin but i really dont think its good (for me) to be focused in that. I would glance to be sure i didnt go out too fast or take a corner too fast, but since the course had a few turns and some paths, etc...it gave some time to watch your footing and not get too carried away. I knew it was long bc at around 3 miles i was starting to feel like i had run HARD. And I knew we had almost a half mile to go. I was right on the heels of the teeniebopper younger gal in front of me, but she heard me and gosh darn it if that last 25 yards she was able to outsprint me. I still got 4th OA, and won my 40-49 AG so i was pretty happy.

Mostly i was happy bc I can use the data for my Run Testing for this year and I actually RAN FAST! I really had doubts having done NO speed work. I did some pick ups in Aspen but that felt like i was running at 8000 feet, Oh I was. Not exactly a confidence booster. I won a cool mug and i won a $20 Gift Cert at a running store. And I won some confidence as well. That is priceless. ( and yes I know that isnt as good as the commercials you hear on TV)

Then it was so nice out ( and so windy) that i went for a ride with my buddy Kyle. Kyle is 6 foot 6 and super draft-off-able. He has been a valuable friend as we go thru this cancer stuff, and I cant thank he and his wife, Shelley, enough for their love and support. Not to mention that he will usually go ride anytime and do whatever wko i suggest:) Gotta love people that will just do MY wko, no matter what.
And come to think of that i usually have that with my guy friends. Hmm...

After the first "Double" in a long long time was done i was pooped. It's super dry here so i had a wicked sore throat and since i am not a a puker when i run, i tend to think i didnt run hard enough:) Sorry Coach. But i do breathe hard and i usually get a good GI upset. I sure had the "Asthma, i ran hard" going but no GI issues. I have a new pre race nutrition deal i have been trying so sometime i will share that with you. And while we are on that subject, lets get back to my lead in link....

If this turns into a RANT style paragraph i am sorry. But what is up with the Off Season "lets do a cleanse" thing? I cant say i know all about Colo-Rectal stuff but i know enough about it to know that unless you have any of the noted "diagnoses" and i do know that some people have Crohn's or Celiac Disease, then yes by all means listen to your MD and do what you need to do. The rest of us that are bored, feeling heavy, feeling depressed bc the Vit D isnt cutting it and you are used to being outside 5 hours a day, read up on what your AMAZING BODY does for itself! I am always giggling and then feeling a bit disgusted, that people actually think that the walls of your small intestine get lined with "Crud" ( to be a bit more PG here) and that somehow its like you need to clean em off by doing some sort of "Cleanse," natural or not!

Ask any MD that does colonoscopies for a living, they have you do some prep work of course, but its not like there is grafitti all over the inside of your small intestine. And as for the Liver Cleanse...unless you are really drinking up a storm, or as i said, you have some diagnosed situation, your liver isnt like the ohio river.

To be honest i nearly didnt write this, bc I dont really care. I thought to myself "why do i care if people are doing this?" and the reason i did write it is that even if I dont care I know how easy it is to be "swayed" into thinking that someone has some great idea and i dont want to miss out on it. Here is my idea: If you want to be obsessed with food, go on some restricitve cleanse. Spend alot of time shopping and worrying when you "cheat," as defined by ?? you or your source, and then in the mean time, be tired, and cranky, and your loved ones will thank you for that since they felt they had just gotten you back after all the summer months spent training. Or on the other hand you can just enjoy the off season, move your body some, suck wind big time when you have to do a test on the run swim or bike, eat well, but not so well that you miss out on the things you love, love your family and enjoy them, and wake up knowing that you are not in as good of shape as you were but you can get back there when the time is right.

And now that sounded a bit like we should be sitting in a bath tub overlooking a mountain view, doesnt it.

If that offends anyone, sorry. But I walk a fine line somedays with wanting to tell every one of my readers, that if one day out of nowhere you were told you had 12 mos to live, would you worry about how pure your diet is?

Thanks for reading the ups and downs of my journey:) and my rants.