Intervals (running) were on my schedule today. Perfect since there was a thunderstorm this morning. I jogged the 2.5 miles from the Three Rivers Waldorf School to the YMCA.
Each treadmill interval is set up like this:
Grade 1% incline. Walk .1 miles, run .27 miles at 10 min/mile pace, run .625 miles (1km) fast, repeat 7 times.
1 km times
3. 3:55 (it is easy to control pace on a treadmill!)
4. 3:55 (guy next to me notes my pace and turns up his treadmill speed to be slightly faster than mine. After about 1 minute he FELL OFF THE TREADMILL!! and the support staff at the Y rushed over but he was laughing in embarrassment. This has to be my crowning achievement in interval running!)
5. 3:57 (oops, was thinking about the mishap and forgot to turn up my speed at the right time)
7. 3:55 (I am considering lowering the incline to 0.5%, but I fight it)
8. 3:52 (YES!!!) My last .1 mile was at 10.5 mph!
Afterwards a guy walked up to me and asked me if I was on the UW La Crosse track team. I laughed and said I was a 33 year old who loved to run. He said I was his inspiration. That made me happy.
There has been some continuing discussion on my previous "achieving orthorexia" post about eating meat in the Paleo/Primal diet vs. going vegetarian or pesco-vegetarian (I adhere to the latter).
There is certainly evidence that a diet higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates is better for weight loss (multiple studies in JAMA have shown this). And in myself I can see that since probably doubling my protein intake, my body looks more like a real athlete than Homer Simpson (skinny arms, big belly replaced by skinnier waste and more muscular arms). Plus I have more energy. BUT, BUT, BUT. There is no evidence that humans have evolved eating lots of meat. Followers of the paleo diet get over 55% of their daily caloric intake from animal products. This is VERY high, especially if we consider our ancient ancestors, the apes, ate essentially no meat (a cute lizard now and then, maybe) - thanks for the article, Maria!
In all of my reading about the stone age up to the days of modern agriculture, the evidence seems to suggest eating animal meat (other than fish in certain areas of the world) was a rare treat. I recently told two physicians about the Paleo diet (they had not heard of it!) and they were shocked to hear it was high in meat if it was supposed to mimic the Paleolithic era. Certainly when our ancient ancestors (rarely) ate meat they ate EVERTHING that was edible in the aninmal: heart, brain, spinal cord, tongue and bone marrow to name a few. Further evidence, meat did not come along that often. So my feeling on this subject is- if you are going to eat a paleo diet, do it right and do not waste resources. Eat and use the whole dang animal every time.
We can not afford to cut down more rain forests to raise cattle. Period. If you eat meat, eat everything and buy from a farmer you know and trust. Pay the price that animal is worth and make it a very special treat. If you do all this, I will allow you to follow the (modified) paleo diet :).
Heat vs. Ice
I just read an article in Running Times about why ice can be "harmful" for athletes. Here is all you need to know about ice vs. heat (they make it way too complicated!):
Ice - slows normal biological processes
Heat - hastens normal biological processes
If you get injured, ice it to STOP inflammation. Ankle twisted? Ice right away. Also, ice after very vigorous exercise (for example ultras) because you have injured your muscles and will benefit from stopping the inflammation.
Heat promotes healing, msucle growth and flexibility. Use heat when you are recovering or building muscle, doing yoga or training normally.
If I actually did eat ice cream, I would have to go back to taking my acid blocking PPI meds, unfortunately, but a friend of mine suggested we go out for ice cream for Mattias' birthday. Funny thing is, he didn't like the ice cream either. He just wanted to feed it to me. Christian loved it, though.