Lillys First Professional Grooming

I have to hand it to the folks at Petco. They possess skills which I don't have.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Coronary Heart Disease Studied in Framingham, Puerto Rico and Honolulu

I'm currently reading Anthony Colpo's "The Great Cholesterol Con" (TGCC), partly motivated by a recent "high" cholesterol test result. In chapter 6 Colpo references a 1981 article from the journal "Circulation" comparing coronary heart disease (CHD) studies from Framingham, Puerto Rico and Honolulu. Colpo writes:

"...all three populations showed an inverse relationship between total calories and CHD incidence. The more people ate, the less likely they were to suffer a heart attack."

I had to check this out for myself. Below is table 5 from that article (click on tables for larger view).

My Diet Trilogy

Sometimes when I write a blog post, I have a stream of consciousness that starts where a previous post left off. These posts aren't planned to be a series, like parts I, II, III, etc. They don't follow sequentially. They aren't necessarily planned to follow each other at all. The titles change. The topics shift. But, there is a flow to the posts.

I recently noticed in hindsight three such posts on my blog: a trilogy. It's like Star Wars, episodes IV, V and VI. Or it's like the Star Wars prequels, episodes I, II and III. It's like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Harry P...nevermind. Well, maybe it's really nothing like those trilogies.

I'm talking about my Diet Trilogy.

Part I, September 4, 2011:
Body Weight Loss = Carb or Calorie Restriction?

I looked back at my attempts to lose weight following a low carb diet, including the guidelines I followed, when I succeeded, when I failed and a hypothesis for what worked and what didn't work.

Part II, September 25, 2011:
Transitioning My Macronutrients Via Fat Loss Bible

I presented the guidelines for changing my diet for macronutrient levels that provided enough carbohydrates for energy to exercise, enough protein for muscle recovery from exercise and enough fat to reach my total calorie deficit target.

Part III, November 13, 2011:
12 Weeks of Not Livin’ La Vida Low Carb

This post has by far been my most popular. My dieting experiences are compared between one with near 15% of calories from carbohydrates, and the other with near 50% of calories from carbohydrates. It also reviews the effects of exercise on diet and weight loss.

Reddit.com humor bout Facebook

Clicking on this reddit.com "nevermind" comment reveals...

this facebook exchange... http://i.imgur.com/E9okS.jpg

Commencing Logan's Last Year of Teenagehood

I've already been told that I will not blog about Logan's P90X experience.

Podrunner: Give Me a Beat

If you are looking for a source of free music to workout to, then try Podrunner at this URL/link:

http://www.djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html

As of this post date, DJ Steve Boyett has just over 100 hundred free downloads of techno music. Each download consists of about an hour of music. He has them categorized by speed: 130 to 180 bpm (beats per minute).

I found this website while searching for methods to improve running form. I don't make any claims that listening to this music will improve your form, but it may help with motivation to get moving.

Subscribe (for free) to Podrunner and you will get regular updates on new tracks in your news reader.

Listening to this music makes running seem like dancing. I like Runner Funker.

Enjoy!

Getting Back On Track, Sorta, Via a Negative Split

I haven't run very much since reinjurying my groin in October, maybe 5 or 6 times in the last few weeks. The runs have been easy pace since sprint intervals caused the initial injury in January and the recurrence in October (for the barefoot curious, I was barefoot for the first injury and shod for the second time). My groin injury has improved, in part I believe to both restricting running and adding core exercises, but I still feel a twinge where I shouldn't every now and again.

Perhaps against my better judgement, I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving Day to "test it out". If anything, I felt I needed to justify those extra calories that I consumed on Thursday, and boy did I. And I've been anxious to get in a race mode because recent weight loss should produce faster times. But I also knew I shouldn't try to run a fast time for me, perhaps in the low 20s minutes would be alright.

I did make a different kind of time related goal, though, to run a negative split. For those not familiar with running jargon, a negative split is a description of running the second half of a race faster than the first half. I don't think I've ever run a negative split. It's not easy in the beginning of a race to hold back some juice for later. I recorded my pace data with my Garmin 305 (data charted in Excel).

My race time was just under 22 minutes, just about what I thought I would do. My pace was what I was pleased with (blue line on chart). The first half felt comfortable. Every so often, I would catch myself trying to catch runners ahead of me and have to back off the accelerator. It's curious that there were 4 pace spikes (noted with green markers on chart) in the first half at about equal distance intervals. It's as if I couldn't decide which pace to run, although there were a few small hills in the first half that slowed me down.

The 70 foot elevation climb at mile 2 (3200 meters) was a bit surprising and definitely affected my pace, both on the decline and incline. After that hill I had the juice to push it harder and get the negative split. The straight blue line on the chart shows the acceleration. My pace in the first half (2.5 Km) was 7:13/mile and in the second half was 6:56/mile. Nothing really bad happened in the race despite pushing it a little, so I think I passed "the groin test". But this race was my only run of the week and my groin was sore for about a day afterwards.

So what was the point of the negative split? Would the result be just as good if I ran a more even pace throughout the race? It's a difficult question to answer, really, but I can attest to the psychological boost from passing runners who are clearly hurting more than I am. Just maybe, the negative split is a synergistic effect and produces an improved performance otherwise.