Healthy Travel: Running in Las Vegas

This week, my posts will revolve around Las Vegas and staying healthy while traveling. A week in the city of sin can alter a healthy lifestyle very quickly if you’re not careful. Therefore, one of my goals for the week is to stick with my workout routine. I’ll have to alter it slightly since there aren’t spin bikes in the hotel gym, but I will still be doing my resistance/weight training and running.

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This morning when I saw this amazing view out my window I knew there was no question of whether to run outside or inside. Since the temperature was only 53 degrees I chose to run in my Lululemon crop pants and my new Nike Run NYC technical shirt.

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Within minutes I was out the door, using my Garmin to keep track of my distance. I chose a simple route,  running up the strip and back, so I didn’t have to worry about safety or getting lost. I captured pictures for y’all during my run so you could experience the Las Vegas strip, in the bright morning sun.

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I really enjoyed my route except for a few things which I forgot about running in Las Vegas:

  • During my 3.2 mile run there were 5 stoplights, 1 of which I made. Therefore I had to reroute a number of times.
  • You have to run up the escalators or stairs at every crosswalk which tired my legs out quicker than normal.
  • Even though the Weather Channel says its only 53 degrees out there it felt like 83!
  • It is really, really dry and my body still hasn’t adjusted.
  • The altitude here is 2,000 feet which is a big difference from running at sea level.

My plan is to run outside at least a few more times this week and hopefully I’ll see improvements each time as I continue to hydrate and fuel for the week’s activities.

Question: Do you exercise when you travel for business and/or pleasure?

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Friday Favorites: Running Edition

 

It’s Friday night and I’m sitting at home enjoying a glass of wine and a bowl of cereal. You can’t get much classier than that, can you?

Unfortunately, while Bo and I have lots to toast to tonight, he is unfortunately still at the office. Luckily for me, that means I have time to spend sharing with you guys the things I’m loving right now!

Today’s Friday Favorites will revolve around all the wonderful running things I’m enjoying these days!

Running Tank

I’ve had a hard time historically, finding a workout tank that will move with me from running to yoga without leaving my belly exposed or falling around my head during downward dog. Luckily, Lululemon has come to the rescue with a wonderful tank that not only breathes, but also stays in place. I am absolutely loving my inner strength tank which I have in 2 different colors!

Best Place for Running or Workout Playlists

I love finding new workout songs as I believe the make even the most boring of treadmill runs fly! While Caitlin and Jes normally feaure some great playlists on their blog, I just discovered another great website which features songs and playlists to match your workouts! Running Playlist uploads a new playlist at least once a week which also lets you know the average BPM it matches. They have playlists featuring The Doors, Glee, and even a direct from Texas country playlist! I love that they feature a sidebar showing all the different playlist categories offered. I found a few new songs on the site this week alone, including a few country favorites.  In addition, since many people have asked, below is my most recent playlist!

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Best Post Run Stretch Session

Unfortunately for my muscles, I rarely spend enough time stretching before or after my runs, whether long or short. I’ve tried to focus on yoga more during this training cycle, in hopes that my legs and body will thank me. Thus far, it is working wonderfully! I’ve found these online yoga programs very helpful since they are short, focused, and accessible almost anywhere! Make it your goal to fit at least one quality yoga session into your week and at least a 10 minute stretching and rolling session into your post long run routine.

 

What are your favorite running

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Long Run Friday: Training Aches & Pains

In honor of today’s long run with Theodora, I wanted to share with you some wonderful information I’ve been using to keep my training aches and pains at bay. Anytime I increase my weekly running mileage or intensity, I end up with tight hip flexors which affect my daily activities and my running form.

74138_1376955158715_1676948544_716614_4133841_nDuring marathon training I pushed through this pain, thinking that it was just something that came along with the territory. Of course, like any good runner I did hip flexor stretches once or twice a week after a run, used a stick or foam roller, and I tried to practice yoga every now and then. But, I never did anything to strengthen my hip flexors.

IMG_426663163_1406932988142_1676948544_763327_2938847_n Luckily, Fred Devito, half of the power team over at Exhale Core Fusion, sent me a few tips to help my hips and aching body during my new training period. exhale - mindbodyspa

Thanks for reaching out and asking for my opinion on your current situation regarding past training and current injuries.

I would have to say that by you training for the marathon without any other type of cross conditioning and not suffer some sort of set back is common, I have heard that scenario as well.

But the body doesn’t forget and what you are feeling  today with shin splints  and hip flexor inflammation is not necessarily caused by the training that you are currently doing, but rather an accumulative effect of muscle/ joint over use. But it may be the training that you are doing.

I ran distance in college and my hips and knees were fine, until about 5 years later, I couldn’t run any more.  The accumulative wear and tear from earlier running weakened the interior walls of my hip socket.  After that, even what I would consider normal activity created pain.  After an MRI, I learned that  I suffered a minor tear in my labrum and arthritis in the joint from bone touching bone.  The cartilage in my hip wore out in a genetically weak area of the joint and it didn’t manifest itself as pain until years later.

Joints have a built in obsolescence.  They wear out over time.   Every place I go, I hear people having hip or knee replacement surgeries.  That’s why when you chose exercise routines focus needs to be on positioning and alignment before movement to tax the muscles hard (they breakdown but they also rebuild). Cartilage, ligaments and tendons i.e. connective tissue does not have rejuvenation properties like muscle tissue so joints tend to just wear out or over stretch and ligaments and tendons over stretched  and need arthroscopic surgery to clip and stable them back to a functional shape.

Because of this fact, routines for functional fitness, meaning fitness that helps you with living a better lifestyle, need to be intelligent.  I know that you  are young enough to probably be my daughter, but age doesn’t matter!  If you abuse your joints with over use exercises it is only a matter of time before it comes back to haunt you.  Also another important point is to keep your activities balanced.  If you spin or run then you should be doing hip flexor stretches daily to balance out the tightness from so much hip flexion and over development of those muscle groups that are predominantly used (example, speed skater’s thighs).

If you enjoy exercise classes that focus on movement, choreography, quick changes and hardly any stretching, this is also a formula for injuries and we see it first hand when we get students from other studios come to core fusion or yoga at exhale.

We not only teach exercise we teach lifestyle and we educate our students on how to exercise safely to see results and avoid injuries.  Injuries can and will change your life, they should be avoided at all costs by making intelligent exercise choices based on balanced work of flexibility and strength.

The muscular system, like all other systems in the body, needs to be balanced. The problem is that most of the other systems of the body: circulatory, nervous, digestive, glandular are self regulating.  To balance the muscular system intelligent choices need to be made so this then comes a problem if people don’t stop and think about what activities they are choosing to do and future implications.

Fred’s great advice makes me appreciate all the cross training, yoga, and stretching I’ve added to my training plan this time around. However, it does make me realize that I need to be careful of building too many classes like 30/60/90 to my routine which also put a great stress on my joints.

Question: What are your thoughts in response to Fred’s suggestions?

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