Friday Funny 980: Gotta Make Sure

Why? Why do we do this? ALL of these speak to me:

Find lots more funny stuff posted 10x a day on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com! Happy weekend!

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Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursday: All About Sweat

I like to sweat. And I recently came across this article that someone shared as they mentioned they sweat more than other people. It shared some "sweat science" that I wanted to pass along.

First, let’s break down the science of sweat. “Sweating is a necessary process that cools down the body,” explains David M. Pariser, M.D., a dermatologist and founding member of the International Hyperhidrosis Society.

When your body starts to overheat, the nervous system stimulates sweat glands to release perspiration. As the droplets evaporate off of your skin, they take some body heat into the atmosphere. (Think about how chilly your skin is when still wet from the shower—as the water dries, it cools down your body. Sweat works the same way to cool you down as it evaporates.)

What sweating doesn't do is “detox” your body, Pariser says. ”More than 99 percent of sweat is water, along with trace amount of electrolytes like salt.” While a small amount of toxic substances can find their way out of the body through perspiration, detoxification primarily occurs in the liver, kidneys, and lungs—not through the skin.

So take THAT hot yoga hippies who swear by the detoxing effects of 95 degree yoga!

But how do you know if you're sweating TOO much? When is it an issue?

Just about any amount of sweat is considered normal. “There’s a lot of variability as to how much people sweat, and most of it is in a normal range,” Pariser explains. “Just like height, there’s an average when it comes sweat—and some people produce more and some produce less.”

If you’re constantly a little clammy, worry not. “Everyone sweats a baseline amount at all times,” Pariser says. And most people sweat more noticeably when exercising, in a hot place, or in a stressful, embarrassing, or uncomfortable situation. (Awkward first date, anyone?)

However, if you’re sweating a ton all the time, especially in certain body areas, it may indicate a medical condition called hyperhidrosis, which affects 2 percent of the U.S. population, Pariser says. One type, known as focal hyperhidrosis, may be genetic, and the sweating occurs only on specific body parts (usually the underarms, feet, hands, or face). The second type may be a side effect caused by another disease (such as diabetes or hyperthyroidism), menopause, or certain medications. If you feel like you're suffering from excessive sweating, talk to a doctor to see if it could be hyperhidrosis.

If you're pretty sure you don't have a medical condition but STILL think you sweat a lot, it might be a good sign. It might just mean you're in good shape! Many studies in the last 10 years have shown that "trained endurance athletes sweat sooner and produce more perspiration compared to untrained people." Nice. Blame it on your fitness.

“The more fit you are, the more efficiently your body sweats,“ explains Tony Musto, Ph.D., director of fitness and an exercise physiologist at the University of Miami. This is a good thing, since sweating helps cool you down and enables you to lift, run, or cycle at a higher intensity for longer. (What you don’t want is your body to reach the critical core temp of 104 degrees, when people tend to pass out from heat illness or heat stroke.)

This isn’t to say sedentary folks will stay dry. There’s a relationship between sweat and a person’s maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max), a measure of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. Research shows that the higher the VO2 max (and therefore fitness level) of a long-distance runner, the more quickly he starts to sweat and the more sweat he produces.

Here’s where it gets a little complicated: When performing the same absolute work (i.e. jogging at 5 miles per hour on a treadmill), an unfit person may reach his VO2 max more quickly than a fit person, prompting him to sweat sooner and sweat more, even if the fit person sweats more efficiently overall, Musto says. That's because the unfit person may be working at 80 percent of his VO2 max, while the fit person is only at 50 percent.

On the other hand, if both a fit and unfit individual are working at the same relative workload (i.e., 60 percent of their VO2 max), the fit person who’s running at 8 miles per hour will start to sweat more quickly and produce more sweat than the unfit person running at 5 miles per hour, Musto says. This also helps explain why the trained runners sweat more than the unfit people in the study above - they’re able to run faster and harder, creating more body heat and more sweat.

Finally, here are a few other factors that impact how much you sweat:

1. Gender
Dudes sweat more. We all know that. In a study of fit men and women compared to unfit men and women biking in an 86 degree room for an hour, researchers found out that fit men perspired the most, especially during the more intense exercise. The fit women produced the second-most sweat, while the sedentary women perspired the least of any group. Even though women have more sweat glands than men, they produce less sweat from each gland, the researchers explain.

2. Body Mass
“Men tend to be heavier, have more muscle mass, and in turn produce more heat than women do while working out,“ Musto says. Further research has shown that the higher a person's body mass index (BMI), the more they sweat.

3. Coffee
Hot coffee will obviously dial up your body temp, which can encourage sweating. However, if coffee's diuretic effect takes place before you work out yet you go to the bathroom prior to exercising, you may actually sweat less, Musto says. That could equal a less-than-stellar workout, so be sure to drink plenty of H2O in addition to java to stay hydrated.

4. Alcohol
Alcohol increases your heart rate and dilates blood vessels in your skin, bringing blood to your skin's surface. This in turn raises your body temp, which can cause you to sweat more. Despite what hot yoga devotees may believe, you (sadly) can't "sweat it out" after a big night out: Only about 5 percent of alcohol leaves your body through urine, breath, and sweat; 95 percent is metabolized by the liver.

5. Spicy Foods
Eating spicy foods also triggers your body temp to go up, so your body produces sweat to help cool itself down. If you find you sweat a ton when you eat and it's making you uncomfortable, it could be a sign of Frey's syndrome, or gustatory sweating. People with Frey's sweat excessively at the mere thought or taste of any food (even ice cream).

6. Hot Weather
This may be another “duh“ moment, but warmer days raise your body temperature, increasing heart rate and blood flow in an effort to cool down the core, Musto says. Humid weather is a double whammy: Since there's more moisture in the air, it's harder for the sweat on your skin to evaporate, deterring the cooling process.

Here's the takeaway from Dr. Musto:

There are plenty of factors that determine how much sweat an individual produces, and just about every level of sweating can be considered "normal". Bonus: The fitter you are, the more you sweat, which enables your body to keep on running, lifting, cycling - whatever you're into - for longer. However, if you're constantly sweating like crazy, especially in one specific area, it could be a sign of a rare condition called hyperhidrosis. Check with a doc if you're concerned.

For more "Thirsty Thursday" posts that highlight workouts, body science, and all kinds of interesting information, CLICK HERE.

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Semi-Wordless Wednesday: a Big Day Yesterday

Yesterday was the first day of school at Henry's preschool. I Instagrammed this:

"First day of preschool in Room 2! He wanted to hold his brother before we left."


I didn't post this, but it's Henry chatting with Ms. Sue
while starting to color right after I dropped him off.

Charlie and I jumped on the chance to do an easy 6 mile run together while Henry was gone. It went well:

Unflatteringly passed out.


Still asleep after 6 miles (in 44:26) and a 15-minute walking cool down.

TC 10 training is going OK. More on that this weekend.

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Family Fun at "Farming of Yesteryear"

On Saturday, we loaded up the boys and drove south for 2 hours to go to "Farming of Yesteryear." It's basically lots of old engines, tractors, food, animals, and demonstrations on how things used to be done. My father-in-law is the president of the group that puts it on, so we got to hang out with lots of family too. Here's a dozen pics:

Piggies! There were goats, bunnies, sheep, horses, and kitties too.


My mother-in-law ran a homemade ice cream stand, so between batches,
the kids got to clean the beaters!


Cousins.


Tractor parade.


Lots of family hanging out under Grandma's ice cream tent.


Pooping.


THIS IS NO JOKE: they used an old "bait tank" from a bait shop to cook beef and
potato soup for 300 people. They started a fire under it, stirred it with an oar, and got it
out to serve up with 5 gallon pails. It was pretty good.


Playing in the corn as Uncle Mike watches.


This was just after Jon (left) and I got the engine running that makes the ice cream
(which is in the foreground in the bucket of ice). We were pretty proud.


Our children are strong.


Charlie LOVED the tractors.


Family pic on a big ole' engine.


Dirty hands like Grandpa's by the end of the night!


A naked (except for socks) potty break before heading back home.

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A Brutal Workout During the Middle of an "Easy" Week

This is the end of my only "easier" week of training leading up to the TC 10 Mile and the "Loony Challenge" in 3 weeks. The timing of my recent achilles injury meant I had to consistently build and not back off my mileage for a rest week in the middle, so I told myself I'd try to throw in a week where I scaled back the intensity a bit. But I was feeling good after a moderate run on Tuesday, so I decided to do a harder run on Thursday. I did a Coach Jen Harrison workout from the 2 months she trained me leading up to my only sub-60 10 Mile in 2010.

It doesn't sound bad, but if you do it right, it sucks: it's 6 x (3 mins hard / 3 mins moderate).

The brutal part is you have NO time to recover. It's not 3 mins hard and then 3 mins EASY. So the 3 mins hard is brutal PHYSICALLY (obviously), but the 3 mins moderate is nasty MENTALLY. You can't ease up.

I did 8x(3/3) first in August of 2010 under Jen, and then again last August as I was gearing up for last year's TC 10 Mile and Loony Challenge. Five years ago, I covered about 7.23 miles over those 48 minutes, and last year, I covered 7.10 miles in the same workout. But that workout (48 minutes of hard running) is too far for me to be going right now.

A few days ago was my 3rd time doing 6x(3 mins hard / 3 mins moderate). I first did it in late Sept of 2010 (about a week before the TC 10 Mile) and covered about 6 miles. I did it again last year leading up to the Loony Challenge, and I covered about 5.5 miles (it was no secret that I wasn't in as good of shape as I was in 2010 - I don't know if I'll EVER be!). Finally, I did it 2 days ago and ACTUALLY COVERED A LITTLE MORE GROUND THAN LAST YEAR: I went 5.70 miles.

Here's a graph of my 6 intervals from Thursday:

5:43.0 average pace "HARD" interval, 7:01.8 average "MODERATE" interval.

Then I added in last year's version of this workout in lighter red and lighter blue:

My HARDs were all faster this year except for the last one, and
my MODERATEs were all faster except for the 5th (where I was climbing a hill this year).

That last moderate was REALLY slow last year, and it was still quite slow this year. I finished my final HARD effort, and as I was TRYING to keep a moderate pace on Thursday, I saw my Garmin told me I was currently going at 14:xx/mile pace. Yikes.

This is the FIRST time I can point to a workout that was FASTER this year than last year. I'm not about to say that I'll run the TC 10 Mile faster this year - this was just one workout. But it feels good to be seeing better numbers!

When I tweeted about the workout, Steve Q asked what "moderate" was, and then I got PRAISE from Caesar herself:

Follow Steve Q and Coach Jen on Twitter.
(Oh, and this was before I figured my ave speeds: I needed to add 20 secs to my moderate pace.)

That hard run was Thursday. Yesterday (Friday), I hit the trainer for nearly an hour during the boys' nap. Today, I'm not doing anything (maybe just a few PT leg exercises and stretching). And hopefully tomorrow I'll have a good 9.5 mile long run! It's 3 weeks until the big race! Actually, in exactly 3 weeks, Pharmie and I should have just done the TC 10K and 5K, and the TC 10 Mile (and Marathon for Pharmie) will be the next morning!

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Friday Funny 979: Texting Your Parents

I can't wait til Henry gets a cell phone and I can interact with him on this level. I love these:

Lots more funny stuff on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com!

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Friday Funny 978: What Drinking Organic Kale Juice Does to You

Lots more funny stuff posted all week long on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

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Friday Funny 977: Parenting Tips from Tumblr

A little advice: don't look to Tumblr for parenting advice. Because it looks like this:

Wait this is actually genius.

More funny stuff on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.

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Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursday: Don't Swim Like a Triathlete

A week ago, this interesting article was published by Triathlete.com. In it, the author (Gary Hall Sr) talks about what he learned about triathlon swimming from one of the best swimmers in the sport: Andy Potts. He points out 4 big problems for us "triathlon" swimmers:

They don’t think of themselves as swimmers

In teaching triathletes to become better swimmers, I have found one of the greatest obstacles is in their minds. They don’t think of themselves as swimmers, but rather as runners or cyclists, trying to get better at swimming. In order to swim like a swimmer, one has to think and act like a swimmer.

During a recent triathlon swim camp, one of our campers complained rather openly that he didn’t see the value in learning to streamline or do flip turns. "What is the point?" he asked. "I am never going to do a flip turn or streamline in a triathlon."

The point is that in order to swim fast, whether in a pool or in open water, one must learn the ways of a good swimmer, and those include streamlining off every wall and doing flip turns. Doing both of these well in practice will shave seconds off each 100 repeat you swim and that will give you more confidence in your swimming ability. Streamlining helps teach you the importance of reducing frontal drag, whether during the push off the wall or during the swim itself. As long as you are moving, frontal drag is slowing you down. We spend a great deal of time teaching you how to swim with less frontal drag. Doing flip turns are not only much faster, but an important part of hypoxic and core training.

I'm still not into flip turns (LAY OFF ADAM AND ROB), but I know they'd be good for me. And I swear I've gotten better at swimming as I've focused more on feeling fast and "smooth" in the water in the pool, even though I'm "never going to do a flip turn or streamline in a triathlon."

They don’t swim enough

Andy Potts, who narrowly missed making the Olympic team in swimming, is arguably the world’s fastest swimmer in the pro triathlon circuit. Andy stated while coaching our triathlon swim camp that he trains more swimming each week than most triathletes. The reason Andy trains more in swimming than other triathletes because swimming is more of an aerobic sport, elevating his heart rate more than either running or cycling. He feels the aerobic conditioning of swimming helps him in all three disciplines. Andy gave several other reasons why he spends more than 20 percent of his time swim training when only about 8 percent of his triathlon race is spent in the water.

Most triathletes dedicate around three or so one-hour practices per week to swimming. Then they wonder why they are not getting better. I am not sure one can get much better at anything with three hours per week of practice. Swimming is no exception.

Since the shortest swim distance in a triathlon is likely 400–800 meters, and typically more, one needs to consider what training is required to sustain a good pace for the distance to be swum. 800 meters is no sprint. In my opinion, four practices per week is a minimum requirement, and each should be at least 1 ½ hrs, not just an hour. By doubling the hours of training in the pool from three to six hours per week, you will see a big difference in your fitness level and, most likely, in your swim times.

First, I totally agree about using swims to help general aerobic fitness. (Coach Jen had me doing that a few years ago.) Second, they saw that three 1-hour swims each week isn't enough? Yikes. I felt great when I got in three 35-minute training sessions this year. And that helped my speed a lot. If I did more, I'm sure it'd help even more.

Hall and Pots from the Triathlete article.

They are held back by poor technique

Some triathletes get stuck at a certain race split, even with the additional training time and effort. For those, poor technique is likely standing in the way of improvement. Being some 800 times denser than air, water shows no mercy. Make a mistake in your swim stroke, over and over again, and you pay dearly for it. There also seems to be a tendency among triathletes to think that swimming freestyle offers a big margin of error. Well, for slow swimmers there is, but not for fast swimmers. One needs to get the pulling motion, the head and body position, the kick and the connecting rotation and recovery just right...or else.

Speaking of this... can someone come look at my form when I swim? I could probably use help.

They don’t breathe often enough

For most triathletes, breathing presents a few problems. It is not just that they take too long for the breath - that long star-gazing breath that slows the stroke rate and body’s speed down - it is also that they don’t breathe often enough. Many triathletes are taught to breathe to both sides, which usually gets translated into a 1:3 breathing pattern; one breath for three strokes. With a stroke rate of 60 (not unusual for a triathlete), that is a respiratory rate of 20 breaths per minute. On the bike or while running, one breathes 50–60 times a minute…so why do we want to swim hypoxically? Virtually all world-class freestylers breathe every cycle (1:2 pattern) and most of them are swimming at a stroke rate near 90, so they are getting 45 breaths per minute. The world record holder, Sun Yang, from China also throws in three consecutive breaths (three breaths in a row to both sides) in the middle of the pool and into and out of each turn.

Oxygen is the most precious nutrient out there for us. So use it, lots of it. If you insist on breathing to both sides, then breathe three times to the right, followed by three times to the left... but breathe more often.

I posted something right along these lines nearly a year-and-a-half ago about breathing more. Check it out.

In the end, Hall recommends getting some help from a coach. A "trained" pair of eyes on you can really help with some of these issues and get you going in the right direction.

For more "Thirsty Thursday" posts that highlight workouts, body science, and all kinds of interesting information, CLICK HERE.

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Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Meet My New Foam Roller

We got our old foam roller, Cynthia, years ago. Probably 2006 or 2007. Recently, if I used it just a little to roll my calves, it would "dent:"

So allow me to introduce you to Phyllis, my shorter but more intense foam roller:

Related:

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A Week of Decent Training

We're now less than 4 weeks from the Loony Challenge (10K and 5K on Oct 3rd, 10 Mile on Oct 4th). Here's what last week's training numbers looked like:

• MONDAY: easy run.

• TUESDAY: moderate speed long ride. I mentioned 2 weeks ago that I'm using bikes rides of over an hour to help keep my endurance up now that I'm not swimming.

• WEDNESDAY: short ride to-and-from the State Fair with my family. As shown in my last post.

• THURSDAY: 3x1 mile intervals at the track! I didn't know if I'd be healthy enough to run intervals before the Loony Challenge, but I gave them a shot last week. My heels had been feeling pretty good for a week, so I was ready for some speed. I'd been doing long runs with some "race pace" miles in the middle of them, so I thought doing a tempo run wouldn't be that helpful because a tempo run would just barely be faster than those race pace miles in the middle of my long runs. I told myself I'd try intervals and stop if my heel felt too tight. I could stop at any moment and be right next to my car, so I wouldn't be running on a sore leg. And the track is (obviously) flat, which is great for heel injuries. So I talked myself into doing it.

Tired, sweaty people at the track. (Nicole in the blue sports bra, and James in white.)

We were doing 4x1 mile repeats with a long (4 mins) rest. From the start, I said I was only doing 3. I ran with Nicole and James (my TC 10 Mile buddy from last year). Those 2 took turns leading and setting the pace, and I stayed right on their butts. Our splits were:

2:45, 2:39 = 5:24
2:45, 2:44 = 5:29
2:44, 2:42 = 5:26

I finished hot and sweaty, so (obviously) I took a selfie:

Yes, I was so hot that my glasses fogged up. And yes, that's a tiger with a
Gatorade bottle on its head behind me. Minneapolis is a strange place.


I Instagrammed this: "Humid 3x1600 this morning. This is my swass print where I stretched post-workout."

BFFFN Devon Palmer left a flattering series of hashtags on that photo on Instagram: #fastdad #dadswhofinishfast #quickdad #sweatydad #fitdad #dadswhokeepittight

• FRIDAY: 100% easy ride, no Garmin or computer! I glanced at my watch so I had I rough estimate of time, but that was it. It was a no-pressure ride to just loosen up the legs after intervals. I also caught a photo of my wife coming home from work on her bike:

She's been doing that a lot lately: in one 2-week stretch, she used her car 2 times.

• SATURDAY: long run (8.25 miles) with the middle 4 at race pace. It was hot and humid on Saturday. For my 7 mile long run the week before, I did 4 miles at race pace in the middle, but I didn't want to go 5 this week because of the stress of intervals just 2 days before. (Again, my #1 goal is to stay injury-free, and #2 is to build distance.) My 4 "race pace" miles were 6:15, 6:21, 6:10, and 6:09, which was 6:13.8/mile. The week before, they were at 6:20 pace. Oh, and this happened as I was cooling down:

• SUNDAY: easy, short bike ride. Then a good stretch.

The plan for this week is to take 2 days off from running (Sun and Mon) before an easy run on Tuesday. Maybe something harder on Thursday. Then another 2 days off followed by a long run of 9 miles next Sunday. (And fit in some biking and/or trainer time when it fits.) My calf was a little tight yesterday from the stress of the intervals and long run, but it was nothing some foam rolling and a night in the "night splint" couldn't handle.

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Family Fun at the MN State Fair

Wednesday, Pharmie didn't have to work. So we loaded the boys into our "Chariot 2" and biked to the Minnesota State Fair (about 3 miles away).

SIDENOTE: Our Chariot is "convertible." We bought the "running" front wheel and the "bike arm" attachment when we got it a few years ago. The night before we headed to the fair, Pharmie went out and bought the "stroller" attachments: 2 small front wheels that pivot. (Chariot was bought by Thule, so technically, it was a Thule stroller kit.) That way we could (1) move around the fair easier without having a slide around a big non-pivoting running front wheel, and (2) we wouldn't run over as many people because the stroller wheels don't stick out 2 feet like the running wheel. And look at how nicely the stroller wheels can be "stowed" - here they are on top of where they go, and I just had to take them out and click them underneath (and unhook the bike arm) when we got to the fair:

Sweet.

It had rained overnight, so the roads were wet. So we had to have the plastic weather shield down for the ride to the fair so I didn't splatter the boys with mud. Charlie was a little sweaty when we got him out:

The free "bike lot" at the fair. My bike still has the Chariot "bike arm" sticking out.


GO TWINS!


Henry couldn't take his eyes off the "Sky Ride" next to us.

Our first stop was the Horticulture Building because I love the "honey sticks" that are just $0.25. (Head to this post on my Root Beer blog to see those.) After that, we headed for the kids "farm experience" on the far side of the fairgrounds:

This guy LOVED the machinery!




Milking a (fake) cow with gusto!


More tractors.


Beating up his brother to get the best seat. Seriously, we have an issue with slapping.


MINI DONUTS! He has part of one in his mouth, and there's another sitting next to him.


Getting sleepy after looking at the sheep, cows, bunnies, and pigs.


Asleep on Mama around noon.


A diaper change before packing up.

We saw lots of "kid friendly" things (like the bees in the horticulture building, the fish and snakes in the DNR building, and all the 4-H farm animals), and ate a lot of stuff. Our final food tally is:

- 4 honey sticks
- turkey jerky
- fruit snacks (Charlie) and popsicle (Henry) from the "farm experience"
- mini donuts
- licorice
- shawarma
- deep fried cheese curds
- deep fried cookie dough
- a "good" soft pretzel (not a cheap take-it-out-of-the-freezer-and-microwave-it kind)
- cotton candy

We got back to the "bike lot," popped off the stroller wheels, put on the bike arm, and loaded up:

My wife posted this later that afternoon saying "The fair wiped out daddy, too."


Henry eating left-over cotton candy that night in his sunglasses from the fair.

Here are a few other State Fair links: I went out earlier this week to make one of my "4 a.m. photos" at the fairground. See that here on my Photo Blog. And here on my root beer blog is more about the goodies we had this year. Oh, and here's a post from last year with a cute 3-year-old Henry:

A year ago with my big guy.

Back with some notes on a solid week of training on Monday. Happy weekend!

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