Tag Archives: exercise

My 2nd walking marathon (part 1)

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This time last year, I was gearing up to walk my first marathon. Given the schedule, this year’s walk came sooner…but at least I knew what to expect this time around. Until I registered for the 2011 Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk, I figured that there’s no way I’d ever get to do a marathon. First off, I thought you could only really run them (not true). Second, I knew I couldn’t run one (true – and also would be in direct violation of my doctor’s “DON’T RUN” rule). Third, I assumed marathons were only for elite athletes or people who are VERY, very in-shape (not necessarily true). And it wasn’t until I did my first marathon that I figured out what was really true and what wasn’t. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, walking one marathon prepared me so much more for the successive ones than anyone’s advice could have, so I’ve decided to cram all those lessons learned into the next couple of blog posts.

As a reminder, the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk is an annual walking event in the Boston area that benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a cancer research and treatment facility that has gained a lot of notoriety for their pediatric care, in addition to their adult care, as well as a boatload of research and treatment options that they’ve developed or pioneered. Loads of people support them, and they have strong affiliations with local sports teams, like the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins. Kids with cancer – how can you NOT support that?!

You don’t have to walk a full marathon; you can walk a half-marathon (13.1mi), which departs from Babson College, you can walk a 5mi course that departs from Boston College, or you can walk a 5K course that departs from Dana-Farber itself. I chose the full marathon (26.2mi), which leaves from Hopkinton, MA, and follows the entire Boston Marathon route run by all those amazing people on Patriots Day every year.

The way I see it, walking any marathon comes down to a few essential things – and walking one for charity just adds an additional component:

  1. Event Selection
  2. Gearing Up
  3. Training
  4. Fundraising
  5. Walking
  6. Recovering

I’ll cover the first two of those items in this post, and the remaining two will go into the next three posts. Now for the VERY important disclaimer: None of the manufacturers, companies, etc. that I’m writing about have given me ONE THING in exchange for this. I’m writing my opinion about products, services, and businesses that I picked on my own without any kind of quid pro quo. Also, I’m not an expert. Before you go and do something as nuts as walking 26.2mi in one day, PLEASE consult with your doctor, personal trainer, and any other folks who can give you an eyeball up and down and determine whether they think you’re up for it. In other words, don’t do or say as I do until you’ve had someone else confirm that you should take part in a walking event.

Event Selection

There aren’t a ton of walking marathons in this area, or at least there aren’t a lot that I hear about. The Boston Marathon is one of those elite, world-famous races, so the temptation to get to do this amazing route is incredibly high. Since I know I can’t run a race (remember: doctor’s orders!), I figured I HAD to try to walk it. The bar for entry is incredibly low – anybody can register (small entry fee) and this year, you needed to raise a minimum of $300. In events like this, where there’s a minimum fundraising amount, the event organizer will take a credit card number from you (whatever you use for registering) and if you haven’t raised at least the minimum by some time on or after the event date, the difference to get you to that minimum will be charged to your card. So, there’s motivation to raise $$. If you want to try a walking marathon with no fee, I suppose you could always organize something that gives you bathroom breaks around every 2-3mi, walking past your friends’ houses for 26.2mi…but going with a professionally organized event is a much better bet. Really.

Gearing Up

I had some trial and error going on here, at first. My first selection of shoes, a pair of Saucony Grid shoes, was nice enough…but the toebox wasn’t really big enough for my ultra-wide feet. What this meant was that I ended up with a bloody sock and damage to my feet. NOT. GOOD. My pointer toenails STILL haven’t recovered from that, even more than a year later.

After a false start attempt with a running store nearish to my office, I found what I needed at Marathon Sports – a local chain of running stores that’s known for being serious about getting you into the right gear. In my case, my wide feet demanded a similarly wide shoe, so the right fit for me ended up being an EXTRA WIDE pair of men’s Brooks Addiction sneakers. What’s the lesson here? It’s not that you should go to a running store, since that should be a given. The lesson I learned was that I should ignore the mens/womens labels when it comes to certain gear, since the womens line may not have what I need to fit my size or shape. Mens shoes proved to be the right way to go.

As far as everything else – all I wear is wicking material. A trip to the nearby outlet mall scored me plenty of that; I have sleeveless shirts (tanks, but not spaghetti strap ones), capri pants, and jog bras that all wick moisture away from my body. I’ve come to the point in my life where I’m so used to wearing wicking materials that I can’t work out in cotton. I had a workout in a cotton t-shirt at BlogHer ’12 and I thought I was going to suffocate, the material was so hot and stuffy. UGH. I won’t link to specific items, since everything I got came from the outlet and is likely discontinued by now. I can say that I tend to favor Reebok items, because they’re local. Of course.

My socks are also wicking material. You may not care a ton about socks until you realize how much work they have to do on your behalf. You need the right amount of cushion but not too much thickness, you need breathable material while still providing protection…you need your socks to do a ton without costing you an arm and a leg. The ones I chose come from REI; they’re fab socks that go just above the ankle, so I don’t have to worry about any possibility of them slipping down and leaving my ankle exposed for blistering. Not that my Brooks shoes would ever TRY to give me a blister, but a little protection can go a long way.

At the recommendation of a friend, I even went with wicking underwear (also from REI). I can’t tell whether the stuff is magical or not, but I can say that having everything on your body in the same general level of breathability can contribute to your overall level of comfort, and even a little bit of straight-up cotton can throw things off. At least for me, that’s what I’ve found. In other words, your mileage may vary, so try stuff out if you want to change things up or leave them as they are when you find something that works. This is what works for me.

Next post: Training and Fundraising…

Product Review: Empower Fitness Fingertip Grip Medicine Ball

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{Disclaimers: 1) I am not, not do I claim to be a doctor. Before you attempt to use this product, check with your primary care physician and/or specialist health care professional to be sure that it’s right for you. 2) I received this product for the purpose of testing and was allowed to keep it as a courtesy for posting a review. I received no other compensation for this review and was specifically told, “Write whatever you want.” In other words: this is MY opinion and not a company-paid PR piece. Take that for what you will.}

NOTE: If you are attending BlogHer’12, you can WIN this item in my BlogHer Attendee-only giveaway!

There’s a part of me that totally wishes I were She-Ra or some other incredibly buff chica, ready to take on the world. Unfortunately, I have a love of ice cream that seems to know no bounds. (I suppose I could rationalize this by saying that I’m helping to prop up the local dairy – which is less than 5 minutes’ drive from my house – but that’s REALLY PUSHING IT.) Anyhoo, when I was presented with the opportunity to check out the Fingertip Grip Medicine Ball from Empower Fitness, I jumped at it. After all, dh had done several “medball” workouts and liked them a lot.

Initially, I went with the 8lb medball. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, since it was a bit too heavy for the level of workout that I needed to keep pace with the DVD. This resulted in me injuring my wrist and laying off the medball for a few days. Thankfully, the folks at Empower Fitness are extremely cool and (at my request) provided me with a 6lb medball so I could see if it was the medball or what I’d term “operator error”. Truly, it fell into the second category…and now I have my form down quite a bit better.

So, what all do you get when you purchase the medball? First off, this isn’t like most medicine balls out there. It’s squishy in a rather delightful way, with these fun little dimples all over that give it a sense of being a wildly oversized, smushy golf ball. The “fingertip grip” indentations make it a lot easier to grab onto the ball, especially when sweating, and I found that to be quite useful. The medball also comes with a DVD workout featuring Gin Miller and a bootcamp workout poster with a set of 10 exercises you can do at your own pace.

There are four weight options for the Fingertip Grip Medicine Ball: 4lb, 6lb, 8lb, and 10lb. I recommend starting with the lower of the weights you think you can manage best (e.g. pick the 6lb’er if you would normally think you should start at 6lb or 8lb), just to make sure you get your form down properly first. As I discovered, you figure it out when you’re doing it wrong…and while I didn’t need to go to my doctor to have an “exercise-related stupid” corrected this time, it’s always best to check with a doctor, trainer, etc. before picking up something completely new.

 

Empower Fitness 4lb Fingertip Grip Medicine BallEmpower Fitness 6lb Fingertip Grip Medicine BallEmpower Fitness 8lb Fingertip Grip Medicine BallEmpower Fitness 10lb Fingertip Grip Medicine Ball

The four lovelies: 4lbs, 6lbs, 8lbs, and 10lb Fingertip Grip Medicine Balls

 

 

The tests:

I did several workouts with the medball, first with the 8lb and then the 6lb. I tried both the DVD and the bootcamp poster, although I will say that I only tested the bootcamp workout with the 6lb’er, not the 8lb’er.

 

The results:

Overall, I think this is a really nice product. I found it comfortable to handle and easy to use. The fingertip grip indentations did come in handy as I flipped from exercise to exercise; even when I got a little sweaty or tired, I was able to hang onto the medball without fail. The size of the ball makes it easy to manage and comfortable to hold, and when you get into moves like tossing it from hand to hand or “bowling”, it balances well and doesn’t shift too much with the sand interior.

The DVD workout takes approximately 30 minutes, including warm-up and cool-down, and you can do it either in one fell swoop or pop into the menu to pick and choose which exercises you want to do. Gin’s perky without being annoying, and she gives several modifications so that you can work out at your own pace. Her cardio sections have modifications from low to high impact, and her strength sections have balance moves (or deeper moves) that allow you to push yourself a little more if you want. And, obviously, once you master one weight of medball, you can always move up to the next.

The bootcamp workout was similarly good, although I found the squishy nature of the medball a bit difficult to handle when it came to the one-armed push-ups. My wrist slipped a little and that was an uncomfortable feeling. Some of that is that I am truly MISERABLE at push-ups, and some of it is how the medball just buckled under the weight of my arm. Of course, I don’t discount that it could’ve been a form issue, but a hard medball would have given more resistance and been less likely to create that collapsing feeling that made me uneasy. All of the other exercises were great, though, and I could feel my body reacting to them (as in, “You’re making me work? Le WHUT?”). This is a very good sign. The poster-based workout takes about the same amount of time as the DVD if you do a little cardio warm-up and stretch afterwards (ALWAYS a good idea). It will take longer if you do it in “bootcamp” mode, where you insert a brief interval of cardio in between each exercise.

 

Where to buy:

According to the Empower Fitness web site, you can purchase these at various places online, including Amazon.com and Modells. Check out the Empower Fitness web site for full details.

Fitness realization: you don’t have to be elite to make a splash

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So, Sunday was a big deal in our house: dh did his first triathlon! He’s been training for this for the last few months, and though he’s a longtime runner, he had doubts about his ability to finish. He hooked up with the local Y’s “tri-club” and got into group practices at least once a week, and the knowledge sharing was clearly immensely helpful.

All of this prep led up to what he called a “mini-tri”, which is smaller than the “sprint-tri” that he’s going to do next month. Sunday’s tri was a 1/4 mi swim, followed by a 9 mi bike ride, followed by a 3.1 mi run. Swim-bike-run. That’s the mantra. That’s the goal. The one in August is a 1/2 mi swim, followed by a 12.3 mi bike ride, followed by a 4.4 mi run. In other words. this was the warm-up to test the waters and figure out how to make his transitions, what it’s like being in three different packs, etc.

What really stunned me was the bell curve of participants. Sure, a triathlon tends to attract primarily the “elite” type athletes, the ones whose calf muscles don’t shimmy as they walk, the ones whose thighs don’t touch, the ones whose bellies are invariably quite flat (or if they’re bumpy, they’re in a six-pack formation). But the tri also attracted more normal looking folks. I saw people with bellies. I saw people who were clearly “chunky” all the way up to “OMG THIS PERSON IS BIGGER THAN I AM AND I’M A SIZE 14/16!!!”

Unthinkable. Impossible. INCONCEIVABLE! [“I do not think that word means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya]

Even more amazing, these folks finished the tri. Sure enough, there were just over 330 registrants, and nearly 50 of those didn’t finish the race. A couple didn’t make it through the swim. Some didn’t get through the bike portion. Still others couldn’t handle the run after all that came before it.

As I’d looked at the list of the “waves” (groupings) for this tri, I noticed that they had “Clydesdales” and “Athenas” in addition to the standard grouping by age range and gender. I asked dh about this and he explained that the heftier participants went into these categories: Clydesdales for the men, Athenas for the women. Dear Lord thank you for NOT labeling the ladies “Heifers”, since I might have had to slap someone. Even so, was it needed…? Did we have to label these folks separately? DH’s explanation was that there were awards just for those categories – #1-2-3 finishers.

Oh, well that’s different. That’s okay, then.

If you want to enter a race and specifically flag yourself in a husky division, knowing that you stand a chance of standing on the podium among that group of peers, and you’re okay with that – that’s fine. But, honestly, for anyone to finish a tri is astonishing to me, much less for someone who’s carrying a higher BMI than me. That’s just incredible. And wonderful. And inspiring.

Natch, you’re not going to see ME out there, since A) I don’t know how to ride a bike, and B) my doctor has specifically forbidden me to run because of two bad knees. Still, I think it’s fantastic and utterly wonderful that so many “Clydesdales” and “Athenas” raced and finished. Good for them. As the race emcee commented (paraphrasing), what a wonderful way to demonstrate a commitment to fitness.

You don’t have to be elite to race, and you don’t have to be elite to finish. But you do have to try.

Good on you, triathletes: of all shapes and sizes.