Get Active! Get Dirty...

So you've been a runner, you've tried the whole cycling thing, maybe even started swimming so that you could do all three and call yourself a triathlete. But where's the fun in pounding clean pavement, coasting down pristine roads, swimming in (hopefully) crystal clear waters? If you're ready to take your workouts to the next level and get good and dirty, then it might be time to try something new.

Soiled Runners

Tough Mudder Vermont 2012

When you're ready to combine running with getting good and dirty, plenty of options await you. Perhaps you want to get dirty but not covered in dirt - then you could find a local Color Run where you where white and get pelted with colored corn starch during the race so that you end up looking like a rainbow. Or if you need obstacles mixed with dirt, try a Warrior Dash, a 5K that has boot-camp style elements. Want to mix in some blood with that dirt? Take it one step further and do Tough Mudder race, where not only do you have obstacles which will likely involve you falling into cold water, running through fire, and on your hands and knees in the mud, but you get shocked by electrical wires at the very end, after jumping (and smacking yourself up against) a half pipe which is, of course, covered in water and mud.

Riding Rugged
I always assumed that if you were a cyclist and you wanted to get dirty, you picked up mountain biking. Mountain bikers, in my experience, enjoyed the dirt, liked the fly recklessly down bumpy mountainsides with their fat knobby tires, and did very little uphill riding. Well, turns out that if you want to get your skinny tires dirty, there is a sport for you too! I recently attended the Gran Prix of Gloucester, a championship cyclocross race. In cyclocross, participants ride several laps of a course featuring any number of obstacles such as sand, stairs, wooden risers, hairpin turns, muddy pits, etc - all on a road bike (or a special cyclocross bike which looks a whole lot like a road bike). Sometimes they have to dismount and un-clip their pedals, or if they're really skilled they can bunny hop up and over (jumping while still on your bike). The riding goes on for approximately 45 minutes and whoever finishes the course first wins! For local races in your area, check out the race calendar.

Gran Prix of Gloucester 2012

Gran Prix of Gloucester 2012

Love that Dirty Water
I like to at least pretend that all of the water that I swim in is clean - or at least a very safe level of unclean - so I won't focus on races you can do if you're a swimmer who wants to get dirty. However, because of the nickname, here is information on the Charles River Swim, a 1-mile race that takes place each June, assuming that the water has been deemed safe and free of toxic algae by the government...

Metabolic Armband Post #2!

Last time I promised to post the results of wearing a metabolic armband while handing out bars to runners at the expo, handing out numbers to runners at the expo, and watching runners run the marathon! And here it is. [Good news: I am now the proud owner of a fancy pants metabolic armband so expect more posts like this to come!]

Day of working at the marathon expo (7am-7:30pm): 2830 calories burned (3733 calories for the entire day). Clocked in almost 10 hours of “moderate” physical activity which is much higher than a normal day (see image).

The amounts of moderate physical activity (brown) and vigorous physical activity (yellow) I had from working at the expo

Handing out race numbers (12:30-6): 700 calories

Biking 15 miles of the marathon course: 363 calories

Watching people run 26.2 miles: 750 calories (and cheering, of course!)

Thursday, running for 30 min: 296 calories

Afterburn 60 minutes: 139 calories

Saturday, biking 15 miles: 255

Running a 5K (26 min): 242

Afterburn 30 minutes: 90 calories

The graph of calories per minute when biking (8:00am-9:15am) and running a 5K (10:00am-10:26am)

Unfortunately the afterburn results were not very scientifically accurate so I'll be trying out more of those types of tests soon. For now though, I'm off to Denmark... I'll be doing research for a book about eating, so I've got my running shoes and metabolic armband packed and will be reporting to you from there!

"Wear as few clothes as decently possible..."

Marathon runners coming through!

So said an e-mail sent to runners who qualified for the Boston Marathon this year. The weather in Boston has been fairly cool recently. However, today on Patriot's Day (aka BOSTON MARATHON DAY), it reached almost 90 degrees. I've spectated at races that have been unexpectedly extremely hot  and it's been a mess: officials telling runners part way through that the race was shutting down and they should stop running, runners not listening to them and continuing to run despite the removal of services like water and medical support. Not a good idea. I was impressed by the way that the Boston Athletic Association handled this year's heat wave. A few days before the race they decided to give runners the option to defer until next year if they didn't feel safe running in the heat. They advised people who had never run a marathon before not to run (aka the charity runners because all other runners had run at least one marathon before to qualify for Boston). If you did decide to run, they advised that you wear as little clothing as possible. They added mist tents, more water, and cooling stations inside buildings like churches and schools.

My favorite long-run fuel; strawberry Clif Shot Bloks

The Boston Marathon weekend is always a fun one for me and this year was no different. I spent Friday and Saturday working in the Clif Bar booth at the marathon expo. I love chatting with runners about how to incorporate Clif products into their training and racing plans and hearing people's stories about their favorite flavors or when a Clif Bar saved their life (you'd be surprised how many people have a story like this, often about a hiking trip). Then on Sunday I volunteer at the expo for registration and get to give runners their number and answer any questions they might have about the course, the buses in the morning, etc.

Then comes the day itself... Marathon Monday. There are always masses of bikers that wake up early and cycle the 26.2 miles to Hopkinton and back. I've never felt quite ready enough to do that in mid-April but I did bike 7.5 miles of the course out and back this morning, covering Heartbreak Hill and getting to Wellesley and back. It was fun seeing all of the spectators getting their chairs set up, seeing the volunteers prepping the water station, the kids writing on the streets with sidewalk chalk. After the bike ride I got to relax and cheer on the 27,000 runners from mile 23. I gave out sunscreen, my friends gave away free popsicles, and we helped a runner or two who needed some extra support.

Always trust a pale girl to bring the SPF 70 to the party

All-in-all it was an exhausting weekend - and I didn't even run the marathon! But it was well worth it. If you're curious about how many calories working at an expo, biking part of the marathon course, or cheering for hours can burn, stay tuned for an upcoming post because I had my metabolic armband on through it all... And if you're interested in trying to qualify for Boston, the guy behind No Meat Athlete has a new business called Run Your BQ (Boston Qualifier). Good luck!