Three Oxymorons of Fitness

Oxymoron: something that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements.

Oxymoron of Fitness #1: To get energy, you need to expend energy.
Otherwise known as: an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. (Thanks, Isaac!)



I'm betting you experience this phenomenon on lazy Saturday mornings. You get up, get breakfast, and park it on the couch. Next thing you know it's lunchtime. You're stuck. You're not in motion. But if you were to get out of bed, go for a short jog, then eat breakfast, your day looks a lot different. You have energy to take care of things. That activity in the morning carries through your entire day. An object in motion stays in motion.

When Zach and I started exercising at 5am five years ago, this phenomenon blew me away. You mean I was "giving up" two hours of sleep, but I felt more energized, more alert throughout the day? You bet. It's oxymoron #1.

Oxymoron #2: If you want to lose weight, you must EAT.
C'mon, I know you've had this thought before: "Shoot. I need to lose a few pounds. I'm going to skip breakfast and lunch and just eat dinner today."

That's called the starvation diet, and it works. For about a day. Then one of two things happens:
A) You are SO HUNGRY and SO CRANKY that you eat a day's worth of calories at the dinner table, or
B) You are successful in starving yourself for a few days, and your metabolism rewards you accordingly by slowing down a notch or six, causing you to hold on to every ounce of fat because clearly there is a famine going on.

If you want to be healthy and lose weight, you must feed your body regularly. Preferably stuff it recognizes like veggies, fruit, lean protein, whole grains. (If you want some recipe ideas, click on the "Recipes" label on the right side of this blog. I'm not posting these recipes for my health...I'm posting them for yours!)

There are many methods to the madness of eating, but here's how Zach and I do it:
6:30am: Breakfast (usually Shakeology, oatmeal or eggs)
9:30am: Morning snack
Noon: Lunch
3:30pm: Afternoon snack
6pm: Dinner

We eat like infants on a strict schedule. And why wouldn't you eat that way? You're not hungry and your metabolism is revving like a fine-tuned engine. I've messed with cutting out snacks and I end up gaining weight. I feel like this is the world's best kept oxymoron secret: EAT to lose weight!

Oxymoron #3: If you are retaining water, drink more water.
I don't have solid evidence on this belief, but I think that most people in America walk around in a dehydrated state most of the time. We drink plenty of "stuff," but not near enough water. Here's what happens when you don't drink enough water:

From APEC Water, www.freedrinkingwater.com

Water helps your liver convert fat into usable energy. If you don't drink enough, your kidneys are overwhelmed with concentrated fluids, and they will make your liver do extra work. Your liver works hard to turn your body fat into the energy that you use but if it has to do the kidney's work, then it simply hold onto the extra fat that would have been burned off if you simply had enough water. 

And what's worse is that instead of excreting water and waste products, you body retains existing water to reuse. This is what causes water retention and bloating. When you don't get enough water, your body panics and holds on to it selfishly, as though you're in a famine. Dehydration thus can make you look bloated and fat instead of thin and taut. The best way to get rid of this water retention is to drink enough of it to return your body and its processes back to a normal equilibrium. 

Water regulates body temperature, filters out impurities, and keeps the brain working properly while transporting nutrients to and from cells. While the human body can store energy as glycogen, fat, and tissue, it cannot "store" water - the body uses its own water but expects us to provide a continuous supply of fresh new water regularly to function. Water is critical in moving nutrients into and out of a cell, an action known as the "ion pump". When you take in the improper balance of sodium and potassium or do not drink adequate water, your body will increase a hormone and try to "retain" water by keeping your kidneys from filtering it. Ironically, one of the best ways to stop retaining water is to drink more water!

If you have trouble with water retention, turn to oxymoron #3, which says to drink more water to get rid of water!

The great news is that all these oxymorons boil down to the following facts:
- If you exercise, you're going to have tons of energy to expend on the other things you've got to do in life.
- If you want to lose weight, you get to eat* on a regular basis.
- If you drink water, you get to lose that extra water weight you're carrying around.

What's not to like about oxymorons?

* By eat, I mean real stuff like the things in my recipe section. Not Cheetos.   

Why would someone run 50 miles in one day?

This Saturday Zach and a friend are running in the 50-mile Rocky Raccoon Ultra Endurance Trail Run.

When he told me he was going to do such a long race, I wondered why in the world someone would want to do such a thing. So I decided to ask him.

Many moons ago, I was a reporter for my college newspaper, The Baylor Lariat. It was one of the best things I did while at Baylor; for one because of the people I met and experiences I had, and for two because it gave me at least one marketable skill after leaving Waco with an English degree and no desire to teach school.

Since Zach's reasoning for doing such a grueling race roused my reporting instincts, I decided to make it a learning experience for our kids. I sat Drew and Kate down at the kitchen table and asked if they knew what a reporter was. "No," they said. "Do you know what a newspaper is?" "No," they said.

So we really had to start from square one. I explained the concept of how a reporter asks the questions that his or her audience wants to know, and then we devised some questions. Below is a transcript of our interview -- I went first to demonstrate how questioning a source works, and the kids followed with a few questions of their own.

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Where is the Rocky Raccoon race taking place?
At Huntsville State Park in Hunstville, Texas. It's called the Rocky Raccoon 100, and it's known for its 100-mile race. But there is also a 50-mile race, which is what I'll be participating in. The 50 is like the kid's fun run.

How many people enter this race?
750 are registered to run either the 100 or 50.

Why would you want to run 50 miles in one day? How did you get interested in ultra marathons?
Because there is something wrong with my brain. Just kidding. I like to challenge myself and set a goal to work toward. I got interested when I started training for the Dallas Marathon and studying training plans for runners and how to become a better runner. I read "Ultra Marathon Man" by Dean Karnazes, and it was entertaining.

How do you train to run 50 miles?
You run. A lot. It's different from a marathon in that your training runs will never reach anywhere near 50 miles at one time, because the recovery period would be so long it would be detrimental to your training. So you build up by running back to back long runs, which is two long runs a day a part.

Define "long run."
20+ miles. The other thing I tried to do was run on trails as much as possible since the race is on a trail. Many of my trail runs had much more elevation change that what I'll see in the race due to the topography of the land in Dallas versus Huntsville. I hope that will have prepared me for the distance. It's not so much about miles, but time on your feet. During training I didn't worry so much about mileage, but just about the time I spent running. Then I made sure that I continued to be on my feet for much of the day after my runs. It's just about being active.

How long do anticipate the race will take you?
They say to double your marathon time and add one to two hours, so conservatively I am hoping to finish in nine to 10 hours.

How do you fuel your body for a race like this?
My approach is a little different than most, I think. The theory is that you just need to get calories in when you're running such a long distance. But I still want to focus on healthy calories. I stick with fruit as much as possible, peanut butter and jelly is good because they offer all three macro nutrients. When all else fails CLIF bars or an equivalent are hard to beat. It's also important to make sure you're taking in electrolytes.

Are you nervous?
Yes.

What are you most nervous about?
Not finishing. I'm nervous about not finishing due to an ailment. I think I have the ability to finish.

How will it make you feel if you don't finish?
Disappointed.

How long do you think it will take to recover?
Define recover.

Able to walk normally and form a coherent sentence.
I would hope within a couple hours.

Do you think you'll do this again, or are you a "one and done"?
I don't know, it depends on how this goes. If I'm not successful, I'll probably have to do it again. If it turns out easier than I thought, then I might have to shoot for the 100.

What will you think about all day while you're running 50 miles?
How bad it hurts. Just kidding. What I do a lot of times when I think "why am I doing this?" and I want to quit, I think about all the people who aren't able to walk or run, or enjoy the benefits of living an active lifestyle, and it makes me thankful that I can. And that makes it easier to go a few more miles. Here lately, my Dad had been on my mind a lot. (Zach's Dad was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer.)

What are you looking forward to after the run?
Breakfast the next day. I'm going to have a cheat meal breakfast that consists of pancakes and syrup. A lot of them.

You must have a pretty nice wife who lets you run off and train for these crazy races.
Yes, I do. She's been better about it than she should be.

Drew and Kate, what questions do you have for Dad?

(Drew) Will you run with me at the 5K in Sunnyvale?
You bet. Looking forward to it.

(Drew) What will you wear for the 50 mile race?
It depends on the weather. The race starts at 7am. If it's above 40 degrees, I will start with shorts and a long-sleeve top and a toboggan and gloves. If it's below 40 I will add tights to the mix.

(Drew) What will the temperature be during the race?
Right now it looks like the start of the race it will be around 45 degrees, and it will be in the upper 60s in the day. So it looks like I'll be wearing shorts, and I will lose the top when I get warm.

(Kate) Can me and Drew run with you tomorrow?...I love you...I'll miss you while you're running...How do you see when it's foggy?
Well the race isn't till Saturday, and I think it will be a little far for you. I love you, too, and will miss you, too. I don't think it will be foggy.

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I'll be down at the race to procure anything they need at the drop spot and to fix dinner after the race. I'll post updates on Facebook to let everyone know how he does!

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Workout of the Day

Les Mills Combat Lower Body Lean Out

Les Mills COMBAT

Whoa, guys. Sorry for that long blogging break! With both kids at school this year there were unprecedented amounts of holiday events, parties, concerts, etc. to attend. Then they came home and all semblance of a schedule was lost. Blogging was on the back burner and then a month went by.

To catch you up on what we're doing now, workout-wise:

COMBAT!

We pre-ordered this program a few months ago, and to be honest I was only half-heartedly excited about it. I LOVE Les Mills PUMP, but the idea of a mixed-martial-arts, kicking and punching program brought me back to these days:

Don't get me wrong...I loved me some Billy Blanks back in the day. Just ask my downstairs neighbors at my college apartment! But since then I lost the love for kicking and punching. Maybe P90X Kenpo had something to do with that.

Love ya, Tony, but I can't stand the Kenpo workout.

As Beachbody Coaches, I kind of feel obligated to be "in the know" about the programs in our library, so we went ahead and ordered the program knowing it would be popular. Our plan was to dabble in COMBAT for the last few weeks of the year on route to hitting Asylum 2 in January.

Then we started trying out the workouts and absolutely dug them. This ain't no Billy Blanks kickin' and punchin'...this is Dan and Rach kickin' and punchin', which is completely different.

These two are dynamos. Quite frankly, I'm a little scared of Dan:

Dude is hard core! He's also kind of a goober. I mean that in the nicest way possible!

When we found out how fun and challenging these workouts are, we decided to go ahead and complete the program. Zach has a 50-mile ultra marathon coming up on Feb. 2 (more on that later), so this program will be a great complement to his running schedule (whereas Asylum would probably be too much to combine with a ton of running).

We got the ultimate package, which contains 11 workouts, including two HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts that are 30 minutes long and absolute killers. It also comes with these gloves:

In my opinion, these gloves are key to making you feel like a super cool fighter chick (or dude). I did a workout without them, and I didn't feel like I punched with near the intensity as when I have them on. I know it's all psychological but hey, whatever works, right?

If you want to get a flavor for the workouts, here's a clip of Zach and me doing one of the tracks from the COMBAT Live: 60 workout. (Shout out to my budding videographer Drew.)

(Side note about YouTube: I love how they say "We detected your video may be shaky. Want us to fix it?" Hah! Of course it's shaky...a 7-year-old is filming it.)

As always, if you're interested in this program you can buy it here and get Zach and me as your FREE coaches. Who doesn't love free stuff? And also, who doesn't love feeling like a super cool fighter chick?

Here's what comes in the ultimate package:

11 body-shredding workouts:

• LES MILLS COMBAT: THE BASICS. Master the techniques and movements you will use throughout all the LES MILLS COMBAT workouts.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 30: KICK START. A low-complexity but high-intensity workout, introducing you to the basic LES MILLS COMBAT combination moves.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 45: POWER KATA. This workout combines speed and power with cross-training for complete calorie scorching.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 60: EXTREME CARDIO FIGHTER. Challenge your endurance with a high-repetition sequence of moves that will have your muscles firing on all cylinders.
• LES MILLS COMBAT 60 LIVE: ULTIMATE WARRIOR'S WORKOUT. Upper body . . . legs and butt . . . core and cardio . . . this workout hits every muscle hard.
• LES MILLS COMBAT: POWER HIIT 1. High Intensity Interval Training uses short bursts of maximum effort followed by recovery to push you into muscle-conditioning overload.
• LES MILLS COMBAT: SHOCK PLYO HIIT 2. Uses propulsion exercises to improve athletic power and endurance, pushing you into peak performance mode.
• CORE ATTACK. The very best integrated and isolated exercises to help give you the ultimate core strength while chiseling and shredding a serious six-pack.
• INNER WARRIOR: STRETCH AND STRENGTH. Martial arts–based strength and flexibility training to enhance your balance, coordination, and strength.
• WARRIOR WORKOUT 1: UPPER BODY BLOWOUT. Combines weighted moves with body resistance moves to help seriously sculpt and define your biceps, triceps, shoulders, core, and back.
• WARRIOR WORKOUT 2: LOWER BODY LEAN OUT. Strengthen and lengthen your entire lower body—hips, thighs, buns, calves, and core—with this combination athletic/mixed martial arts training workout.

Plus, training tools for the Ultimate Warrior:

• LES MILLS COMBAT Training Gloves. Engage more muscles in your arms, so you can punch harder, strike with more force, and maximize your workout—building those strong and sexy lean muscles while incinerating calories.

Try it as your New Year's workout...I think you'll like it!

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Workout of the Day

Les Mills Combat 60: Extreme Cardio Fighter

I survived a half marathon!

We survived!

Or maybe it should be "I" survived, as the matter of survival was more questionable for me than it was for Zach. He considered the half marathon on Sunday a training run, while I put it all on the table as possibly the furthest and fastest I will ever run.

Our goal was to finish in under two hours, and the sub-goal was to be done with seven miles by the time we'd been running for an hour. We met the sub-goal, which made the ultimate goal more attainable. Zach finished 13.3 miles in 1 hour and 51 minutes (according to his Nike Plus app), while I finished in 1 hour 53 minutes. I was extremely happy with my run.

I've mentioned that we had an unorthodox training plan for this half marathon. While most people train for a run by...running, we chose a plan that minimized running and instead focused on cross training. I believe that our plan reduced 1) my boredom with running and 2) the chances that my knees, feet, ankles (or all three) would experience some kind of repetitive motion injury.

We used a combination of Les Mills Pump for muscular endurance and strength training, Insanity for interval cardiovascular work, P90X yoga for flexibility, and two days a week of running. Here's the schedule:

Monday: Pump Extreme
Tuesday: Insanity workout (we went through the eight cardio workouts in order, skipping the recovery week DVDs)
Wednesday: Yoga
Thursday: Tempo run of 4-5 miles (one mile warm up, two to three miles at faster than half-marathon pace, one mile cool down)
Friday: Pump Revolution
Saturday or Sunday: Long runs of 8-13 miles (added a mile each week)

I could not have been happier with how that training plan prepared me for the half-marathon. I felt strong cardiovascularly throughout the entire race. My knees started giving me trouble in mile 10, but I think that was due to the amount of running downhill I had done throughout the race.

Zach and I kept up a good 8:20-8:40 per mile pace until mile 10 where I "slowed down" (according to my husband...and, OK, according to me), and he took off ahead. But by that time I was mentally prepared to push to the finish and was able to cruise to the end with relatively few problems...except for those two killer hills at the very end!

Zach is moving on to bigger and better races over the next few months, and I'm moving on to the sidelines to cheer him on. If there's one thing I learned in this training process is that I love my convenient, relatively short, intense, at-home workouts that have me done by 6am. I'm ready to hop on board with the new programs Beachbody has coming up like Asylum 2 (available Oct. 11!) and Les Mills Combat (available for pre-order now at SmellsLikeFitness.com)!

You had to scale an 8-foot wall to get to the starting line.

The Tough Mudder is a little like childbirth. You anticipate the arrival date for months. You do everything you can to get ready, but nothing can truly prepare you. During the event, some crazy things occur: it hurts, you scream some nasty things, it's very messy. When it's done you feel amazing despite the pain. And a few days later? The pain's pretty much forgotten and you want to do it again.

I cannot believe I completed the Tough Mudder course. Every obstacle. All 12 miles. Zach and I crossed the finish line together after being on the course for more than four hours.

The day started with our team of five -- my oldest friend's husband, a teacher from Zach's school, Zach's youngest sister, Zach, and me -- gathering for breakfast at our cabin, about 20 miles from the event site. We loaded up on our protein drinks, hard boiled eggs, oatmeal, and tons of water. The mood on the drive was light-hearted. We were scheduled to be in the third wave at 9:40, and the parking lot was already packed.

We got into the site and got our numbers written on our foreheads. We found the (already disgusting) Port-O-Potties. I mixed up some E&E (Energy and Endurance Formula) and drank down the whole bottle in about four gulps. The men decided to go "skins." We watched the first two waves go off. Then we posed for a team picture in front of the Berlin Wall before we helped each other scale it to get to the starting line.

Before the start, a Tough Mudder HQ team member gave us a profanity-laden preview of the course (this course ain't for the kids) and pumped us up with some Hoo-Rahs and a stirring rendition of the National Anthem. I still wasn't sure what to expect.

The gun went off and we took our first steps into what would be about 12 miles of mud, followed by mud, then water, then more mud. And some more mud. I've never seen so much mud in my life.

One of the first obstacles we encountered was one I was most nervous about: the barrels you had to swim under.

That water took my breath away. It was murky, and all you could do was hold your breath, push forward and hope you kicked hard enough to get past the barrel. Then repeat it twice.


Soon after that, the event I was even more nervous about: the ice bath.

Lucky for us our dumpster full of ice water hadn't been refreshed recently, so there weren't many actual ice cubes. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt when we had to dive under that board and resurface to wade a few feet and jump out of the dumpster. The strange thing about that obstacle was when it felt like your shoes and feet were frozen about 20 yards down the trail after you got out.


Even though I knew I was well-conditioned going into the Tough Mudder, I just didn't know how I would handle the obstacles, mentally or physically. Successfully completing those two water obstacles early on gave me the confidence I was lacking going into the race.


The first eight miles were awesome. I felt great, had tons of energy (THANK YOU, E&E!), I was pleased with my choice of shoes, shirt, and tights, all of which were shedding water and mud as well as could be expected.

New Balance WT 101 Trail Running Shoes: Perfect for the Tough Mudder

Throughout the course it was a sloppy, slippery mess, but I was able to keep a great center of gravity and felt very strong and balanced. Asylum and P90X2 are all about performance, and this was a test of performance for sure.


Our team mostly stayed together -- if someone fell behind we'd at least wait at the next obstacle. Then somewhere around mile eight we got stuck in a traffic jam of people in a muddy creek bed. We stood there for probably 20 minutes in knee to waist-deep sludge waiting for the jam to clear. I stiffened up and started to notice the things that were hurting. My feet and ankles, mostly. The rocks and mud had caked in my socks, and my left shoe was rubbing on this crazy bone I have that sticks out under my ankle bone. I was worried it was becoming a blister.

Then rude people started climbing around us. (I'm sure those are the same people that drive in the shoulder when there's an accident on the road ahead.) The guy behind me sighed loudly about 14 times. Zach counted to 10 about 13 times. Finally, we made it out. But our attitudes weren't what they were going into the creek bed.

We were under the assumption going in that the course was 10 miles, but when we reached the sign for 10 miles we noticed we hadn't done some of the obstacles we knew were on the course. Still a long way to go. Another blow to the psyche.

All you can do is keep going.

We reached the half-pipe, where you have to gather all your strength and energy to run up a curved wall that's been greased with cooking oil. All you have to do (!) is propel yourself far enough up the wall to grab hands with some fellow Mudders who were lining the top of the half-pipe. If you could make it that far, they'd pull you the rest of the way.

My first attempt I fell short and slid back down. I watched Zach go and make it on his first try. My second attempt was successful. The rest of the guys on our team made it, then took their turn at the top of the wall to help others over. They were fortunate enough to help one of the Wounded Warriors -- a veteran missing a limb -- complete his journey over the wall. This man was missing an arm below the elbow, and the Mudders formed a chain for him to climb. Then our team met him at the top and pulled him the rest of the way. It was a great moment.

We knew by this time that it was past 1:30pm; we'd been on the course more than three hours. There were still the monkey bars, the 15-foot jump into the water from the ledge, the electric shocks just before the finish line. Who knows what else we had to do?

By this time I had shed my socks and the pain in my left foot was getting more intense. I couldn't wait to get to the finish line and loosen them up, but I didn't dare do that during the race for fear of losing my shoes in the mud.

Zach and I approached the water jump together and climbed to the platform. I don't like heights and I'm not a great swimmer. We jumped together. I held my nose (like that was going to help), but still snorted water. It felt good to wash all that mud off, though, and we actually lingered a bit in the pond before starting out again.

As we approached the final obstacle, there was none of the fanfare that you usually see at the end of a long race. Spectators -- mostly people who had just finished -- lined the sides, looking exhausted and dazed. A DJ spoke into a microphone just after the finish line. Zach and I stopped and sized up the electric shock wires dangling over a mud pit.

"How deep is that mud?" I asked a guy on the side. He motioned that it was about ankle deep. "Any recommendations on how to do this?" I asked. "Just run," the guy said.

So we did.

I put my eye on the finish line and didn't look anywhere else. If I got shocked, I didn't feel it. Zach got hit once or twice. I high fived the DJ on the way by, and then was ushered through to get my headband and T-shirt.

We did it.

We waited for the rest of our team a few minutes behind us. No yelling or cheering. No jumping up and down. No energy. Just banana eating and water drinking. Then we made as quick an exit as possible to get to our truck and back to the cabin where we could clean up and eat.

We were happy, but exhausted.

The magnitude of our team's accomplishment didn't really set in until I started looking at the pictures posted on Facebook from our event. Crawling through those tunnels. That barbwire fence. That water. Those walls. All that mud. We did it.

Holy cow, we did it.