Becoming a sprinter?

Since starting Crossfit last October I have reduced the time I spend running in both the frequency and in duration. I have always thought of myself as a runner, never a sprinter. First let me define "running" in my terms - Running for several consecutive miles at a time. By running, however, I really was really jogging - based on the definition put forth by my coaches at CFA (see below).
This simple understanding of jogging (I lump running into this) versus sprinting, versus walking has totally changed my outlook on fitness and exercise physiology.

And here is why:

CFA's definition of Jogging -
Let me clarify Jogging.  This is the act of repeatedly running consecutive distances of 2 or more miles at a pace slower than 8 minutes/mile. 


Coach Corey also adds that -
If you aren’t running that fast (8 min pace or faster) you should speed up and shorten your distance.


Just to clarify a couple more definitions - 


CFA's definition of walking-
Walking was meant to carry us for incredible distances by using very little energy.  The mechanics and loading mechanism shows just this.  Using muscles are TAXING to our metabolism and thus walking uses very little of them.  It instead places the forces on our bones, ligaments, and cartilage.  Because walking is a relatively slow cadence and there is little vertical movement the tissues handle it easily and without issue. 


CFA's definition of sprinting -
Sprinting is meant to carry us short distances extremely quickly by using a great deal of energy.  Sprinting uses every muscle in our body to its fullest potential and is burns a great deal of energy.  In doing so it saves our joints and bones by loading the muscles in a shock absorbing manner because otherwise the bones and joints would break down beyond repair.  Thus, sprinting and walking look entirely different and should be used for different purposes.


CFA's take on jogging (what I used to call running) and why it is actually bad for you:
The problem with Jogging is that people often speed up their walk instead of slowing down their sprint to move greater distances.  Elite 100m sprinters and elite marathoners look nearly identical in their mechanics.  Hell, elite marathoners are essentially sprinting for 26.2 miles; running faster for the first mile than most can for only one.  Speeding up the walk leads to the two issues that make jogging terrible.  It increases injury rates by increasing a load on a movement not meant to handle that load.  Walking does not spare joints but is safe at low loads.  Jogging is not low load.   It also does not burn energy at a greater rate than walking and not NEARLY as much as sprinting.  By hardly loading the muscles, jogging does not increase energy burn from walking by an appreciable rate compared to sprinting.  This means, you don’t “get into shape” any faster than walking for the same distance.


This problem of jogging is similar to what blogger Mark Sisson calls chronic cardio. Chronic cardio is the trap that many people fall into. We think that if we run for 1 hour we will be getting a good workout in. And if we go longer then all the better because we think we are burning more calories and fat, which must mean we are getting more fit, right?. But that's not what happens. What happens is that we run for 1 hour 5-6 days a week and we start to suffer from musclo-skeletal injuries (knee, ankle, shin and foot pain). This ultimately gets us nothing but frustration and misery. Not to mention that we have not improved our running pace or overall fitness by much. Has this happened to anyone out there???

How can we get out of this chronic cardio trap? What Crossfit Asheville has allowed me to realize is that by using sprinting intervals we can increase our fitness and prepare ourselves to run that 5k or 10k or 20 miler more so than continuing to do chronic cardio. How is this possible? Physiologically sprinting trains both our aerobic and anaerobic capacity, which will translate into better performance in your next race or first race.


Since starting Crossfit and incorporating sprinting and tabata intervals I have run my fastest mile, sub-7 and my fastest 5k and 10k and I have stopped running long distances for training entirely. I have experienced no pain in my feet or knees during or after those races. (The pose running technique which the CFA coaches teach is also responsible for some of this - it helps to reduce impact on joints and tissue.) My goal will be to take this training and apply it to an endurance event as a grand experiment into fitness and exercise science. My goal is to finish the Shut -In Ridge trail race (18 miles) with a decent time and to feel strong and great during and after. I have run this distance before on trail with a similar amount of elevation gain and loss but I felt like crap for days afterwards. Coach Corey has told me to check out Crossfit Endurance, which is a type of crossfit in which the WODs are focused specifically for the endurance athlete. We will see how my training goes - I hope to post updates here - the race is not until November so in the meantime I will keep up my Crossfit Asheville workouts and start to slowly incorporate some of the Crossfit Endurance WODs. Wish me luck!

Circadian Rhythm

Anyone feeling a bit off this week? Several people over the last few days have mentioned to me that the time change throws them off each year. I too have experienced this feeling before and wanted to explore some of the reasons why this is. The time change this year came on a saturday night, which means that we 'sprang' forward by one hour. So our bodies woke up feeling like it was 9am on sunday morning but instead on the clock (if you remembered to set it forward) it was 10am. This change was most apparent to my body on this past monday morning when I woke up to go to Crossfit for the 7am class, which has been my routine 3 days a week since December. In the heart of winter, it was dark at 6:30am, which is the time I am getting up and out the door to get to class.  A few weeks before the time change it had started getting light at about 6:30am, the light of each day slowly starting earlier and lasting longer. After the time change this past weekend, it was a bit of jolt to me that after a few weeks of light at 6:30am it is now dark again. How does this change affect our bodies, minds, mental and emotional status?

Just yesterday I was telling my roommate how bad the drivers in Asheville are, IMO. That comment was after I was narrowly missed by a car while I was walking down my street. My roommate is taking a psychology class this semester and said she learned recently that there are more driving accidents following daylight savings time changes. What is that about?

I have heard of circadian rhythm before but wanted to know more in an attempt to explain why we experience the sense of feeling off after day light saving. After some brief research on the internet this is what I came up with. A circadian rhythm is a 24 hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes of all living things (animals, humans, plants, and even fungi and bacteria). Circadian is derived from the Latin circa meaning around and diem meaning day. While circadian rhythms are inherent to all living things they are also influenced by external cues like daylight. Subterranean animals and organisms for instance do not experience the external cue of daylight and their circadian rhythms are called freerunning because it is based mostly on internal processes like temperature and digestion.

The biological clock in humans is considered to be located within cells in the hypothalamus in the brain. The retina takes in light and the hypothalamus interprets the light and secretes the hormone melatonin in response to it. The secretion of melatonin peaks during the night and ebbs during the day.  Presence of melatonin, either high or low, gives the body information about the length of the night and day. This reaction determines our physiology and our behavior. Another biological marker of the human circadian rhythm is core body temperature, which reaches it highest point at about 5pm.

Overview of biological circadian clock in humans.
Biological clock affects the daily rhythm of many physiological processes. This diagram depicts the circadian patterns typical of someone who rises early in morning, eats lunch around noon, and sleeps at night (10 p.m.). Although circadian rhythms tend to be synchronized with cycles of light and dark, other factors - such as ambient temperature, meal times, stress and exercise - can influence the timing as well.

Studies show that both the amount and quality of the light the retina takes in can affect whether the circadian rhythm is triggered. In fact for the circadian rhythm to be trigger it takes more illumination of light than is found in typical household lighting.

"According to a 2010 study completed by the Lighting Research Center, daylight has a direct effect on circadian rhythms and, consequently, on performance and well-being. The research showed that students who experience disruption in lighting schemes in the morning consequently experience disruption in sleeping patterns. The change in sleeping patterns may lead to negatively impacted student performance and alertness. "

This strongly suggests that the 'off' feeling that many of us experience after the daylight savings time change is based in our biochemistry and physiology. It's not just us imagining something is off, it really is off. Maybe this is why there are more car accidents after the time change - our sleep, coordination, alertness and overall performance is negatively impacted when our circadian rhythms are changed.

Short term disruption in the circadian rhythm can have slight negative impacts, jet lag that travelers experience is an example of this. Typically this is overcome in a few days as people's circadian ryhthm gets re-set. However long term disruption of the circadian rhythm can have negative health consequences and there are several disorders associated with this. (SAD - seasonal affective disorder, sleep disorders like insomnia, and bipolar disorder). This disruption can even have adverse affects on organs other than the brain like the heart.

Perhaps this explains why I felt like I was dragging a bit on monday in Crossfit. We were gifted with the workout Fran bright and early monday morning at 7am. That was my first time doing Fran and after hearing all the stories of how people dread it so much I didn't think it was so bad although it was difficult. Okay I won't blame my monday performance with Fran all on the circadian rhythm thing - I know that I could do it better next time if I just try harder.

I hope you all get your circadians re-set and look forward to springing into spring!

The Everglades

I spent last week in the Florida Everglades to attend a program planning retreat for NC Outward Bound School. We got a lot of good work done and all 10 of us whom attended now have long to-do lists of action items to follow-up on. While the purpose of the week was to work in a team and address program needs for this season and long term, we did take some time to get outside and play.

We went on a swamp hike, which was a first for me. I had no idea what to expect, however, found my self surprised that we ended up being off-trail the entire time. Well our objective was to begin off-trail and then find a "boardwalk" in the swamp which would take us back to the van. We were out there for  about 4 hours and we never found the boardwalk. Some highlights: finding the Apple Snail shells and bromyliads, and swimming with alligators. That's right swimming with alligators - because we could not find the boardwalk, we had to swim the canal to get out of the swamp and back to the van.

Enter the swamp hike

The Outward Bound base in the Everglades

As I was gone for a week I missed my Crossfit classes, I decided to attempt some workouts on my own while I was in the Everglades. I ended up getting 2 workouts in. The first was brutal - not so much because of the workout but because of the mosquitos and no-seeums that chowed on me for the 10 minutes while I was outside doing the workout. I did have a great view though overlooking the dock and river during sunset at the Outward Bound basecamp where the retreat was held. The second workout, early one morning went much better - the morning temperatures were cool enough to make the bugs scare. For these workouts I brought a jump rope with me and 1 kettlebell - it worked well, however, it was hard to motivate and time myself. I missed my fellow Crossfitters from the 7am class at CFA. Looking forward to getting back to it!

In the 21st century, what is the role of an Educator?

This past weekend I spent time with friends Caleb and Carrie who live in Winston Salem. Caleb is currently a divinity student at Wake Forest University and Carrie is a classroom teacher. As typical with them we asked big questions and had engaging discussions. Caleb, based on some discussion with his sister, posed the query: In this current reality where technology and information is so accessible (at least in the western world) via the internet, cell phones, etc, What is the role of the Educator?

Both Caleb's sister and Carrie are classroom teachers and have experienced that kids in school no longer really get their information from their teachers. In this day and age, anyone can simply jump on the internet and within seconds or minutes have the answers to any school curriculum related questions. "Oh just google it" has become a natural respond to finding out about what you don't already know for both adults and kids alike. Now with the advent of cell phones like the iPhone, you don't even need a computer station or laptop to get on the internet and start googling away. Information is much easier to come by these days and it is simple with the internet to find the most updated, most current information out there. Given that this reality growing is in every school and community across North America, what then will be the role of that Educator? If we as educators are no longer needed to provide our students with information and knowledge, what the heck are we there for? What is the future of education?

In our discussion several thoughts came up: Perhaps, as Carrie believes, the role of the educator in the classroom becomes solely a care-giver and behavior manager as kids begin to find and google information on their own. This in one way is already happening on the college level with on-line classes, where the physical presence of the "professor" is gone and they simply post expectations, assignments and quizzes online for students to complete in their own time. In this model the educator is not even a care-giver or behavior manager and they become more of a collector of assignments and tests that students complete and an assessor of whether the student meet the requirements to pass the "class". Strange huh? Already the educator is becoming stripped of the need to actually impart knowledge. The imparter of the knowledge is the assignments, the internet and the tests.

In the ancient greek world Pedagogue was the slave that took the student (males) to school, meaning they literally walked and traveled with the student to the place of knowledge and might carry their belongings. They were not the giver of knowledge, they were the vehicle for which the student got to the knowledge place and looked after them. In modern English, pedagogy (derived from Latin and Greek) means the art or profession of teaching, preparatory training and instruction; pedagogue refers to a schoolteacher or educator. Therefore our modern notions of pedagogy go beyond, the etymology and define the pedagogue as the source of learning and knowledge for the students.

Perhaps the introduction of and access to information technology in both society and schools is going to lead to a new pedagogy. Technology has already and will further change the role of the educator and force them to use new methods of instruction. Technology will also continue to change the role and needs of the learner. What impact has our fast paced, audio-visually stimulating, video gaming, googling culture had on our societies children? And how does that affect their learning abilities?

Perhaps the modern pedagogy will make a slight return to the ancient Greek definition, where the educator's role is once again to bring the child to the learning but not to be the source of it. To look after and care for the child, whom developmentally can not attend yet to their needs entirely on their own. I suspect that the new role of the educator, in fact the true need for the educator in the 21st century will not be to giver of knowledge, but will be to mentor and facilitate the students character and ethics. Children today have access to a wonderful yet scary amount of knownledge via the internet - they can study about any subject possible, including how to make homemade bombs. Kids today are smart and with technology at their fingertips it is not a huge leap for them to go from making a prank stink bomb to creating something more dangerous. I know that is a dramatic example, but my point is - the new role of the educator may have always been to development character, judgement and a sense of ethics in their students, but going forward into this next decade I think that role is even more critical than before. With knowledge comes power and what principles and values are the foundation of that power? The mind of a child and adolescent is under constant development and they have access to information but do they know how to use that information and power for good and not evil? Okay I know dramatic again, but hopefully you understand my point.

I want to wrap this up with a plug for the world of outdoor education and experiential methods. The photo at the beginning of my post is a picture of the the outdoor classroom and of instruction and learning in action. In the realm of experiential education the educator introduces challenges that the student has to meet and those challenges are very real,  authentic and relevant. The more real the challenge the more the student becomes an invested learner and seeks to solve it. After the student has tackled the challenge, the educator then gives an opportunity for reflection so the student can evaluate how they did and helps them to identify areas of strength and how they might better meet the challenge the next time or a similiar challenge. In the photo the instructor is leading a backpacking trip and is teaching the students how to set up a backcountry kitchen and how to cook their food. This is a relevant lesson - if the students do not engage in the learning then they won't eat dinner or they may not cook it well. The character building aspect of this exercise comes in the fact that the group must figure out how to feed everyone, they have to experience cooking for someone else or having someone cook for them. They choose how to serve out portions and who gets seconds, they have to clean up their dishes and kitchen, in essence they have to engage in community with others and learn an intricate dance with others and experience how their actions either positively or negatively impact other group members. If the one whom is serving and dividing portions does not give equal shares, there will be natural consequences to the group that they will have to address and work through to make the experience positive for everyone. Character development is at the heart of outdoor and experiential education -  where is it in the 21st century classroom and what is the role of the educator in our increasingly technological world?

Sump Hole

As promised here is my first post about home projects. Glenn and I bought our house in last year in 2009, which turned out to be a record breaking year for precipitation in Asheville - let's just say that the drought of '07 and '08 is over. We got to experience this very intimately with our basement, which when we bought our house was bone dry, however with heavy rains and heavy snow fall this past year filled with water. We are by no means professional or even amatuer home repair hobbists! We are merely and simply "weekend warriors" in the realm of home projects and aspire to be competent "do-it-yourselfers".

We "fixed" 95% of the issue by simply re-grading our driveway and the land around the house so that water no longer rushing toward the house foundation and spilling into the basement. We also installed a "french drain" system this past summer which helped tremendously and made a huge improvement. Now the water in heavy rains runs off in the street where it is supposed to and not in our basement! Yeah! We both felt so great at our success of having a dry basement.

And then came more rain...the ground across WNC has become so saturated that this past fall and winter of '09-'10 we began to get water seeping up through the floor of our concrete basement. Bummer we still had a water issue. Although water seeping in is much more manageable than water rushing in like before our re-grading and french drain project. Glenn still insisted on addressing this new seepage issue so that our basement could continue to be bone dry and so that we would not have to continue shop-vacuuming the seepage. This would require he thought...A Sump Hole.

The previous owners had installed a sump hole system and left us there sump pump and float, but that sump hole is in one of the driest corners of our basement...hum. We needed a new one placed to collect the seeping water from the saturated ground. Thus begins our search for a jack hammer.



Luckily a good friend and great guy who works construction was able to lend us a handheld jack hammer, yes! The rather large Makita jack hammer arrived at our house late thursday night, we had it for the weekend. Glenn of course wanted to start as soon as possible and made a run to Lowe's for some extra items we needed. Another friend of ours let us borrow his Skil saw, which we needed to make the initial cut into the concrete (in the shape of a square so as to avoid splintering cracks in the concrete). All we needed other than the Skil saw, and jack hammer was a concrete blade for Skil saw ($3), a respirator ($29.87 the priciest item), a kit that included safety googles and ear plugs ($6.87 ), a glass cutter ($3.98 ), a bag of quick-crete ($3.85) and a PVC collar to line the hole. It turned out that the diameter of the hole needed to be 10 inches so that our sump pump and float could fit and switch on automatically. Well Lowe's does not carry 10 inch PVC pipe so we callled the plumbers in the phone book to see if any of them had some PVC scrapes (all we needed was about 12-14 inches long of 10 inch diameter PVC). Well no one had any 10 inch so we decided to fashion a 5 gallon bucket as the sleeve for the hole. And oddly enough a 5 gallon bucket on the inside measures exactly 10 inches in diameter! I know this is getting really geeky! Please don't feel bad about not continuing to read the rest of this post - I don't blame you (I promise I will try to post something more interesting soon!)

At this point all Glenn had to do was cut off the bottom of the bucket with the skil saw and viola we had a sleeve to line the hole! Incidentally, we just happened to have about 6 spare 5 gallon buckets sitting around for odd projects such as these, so we did not factor the cost of the bucket into our project budget.




Next step - measuring and cutting the square and 10 inch diameter circle inside it with the skil saw.

Next step - Out comes the Jack Hammer! Bust up the concrete and get going on our hole. Well it turned out that the concrete floor of our basement is only about 2 inches deep (it should be more I think?) and under than is the gound, which here in WNC is red compacted clay earth. This meant the the jack hammering would go faster than anticipated. The jack hammer was extremely helpful though in breaking up the harded clay earth and soon enough we had our hole, dug down about 14 inches or so.





Next step - place the bucket sleeve inside the square hole and back fill the corners with dirt then concrete over the top.



Next step - which didn't go as planned, was to cut a hole in the glass window near the sump hole through which we can run the sump pump hose. This hose will carry the water outside into the yard, which will then run into the street drain. The $3.98 glass cutting tool cut a hole but it wasn't pretty. I guess you get what you pay for! Instead of a circle hole in the window it's more like a pentagon shape and has splintering cracks. We may try and silicone the edges and glue the cracks.

Time - it took from about 3pm in the afternoon until about 6pm, not too bad. Total cost was about - $50.

Now we shall see if it all works out. What would be classic is that if we have a dry year and don't get any rain to test it out!

Once again sorry for this boring and geeky post, but Home Projects can be fun and satisfying when they work out!

Get your running shoes on!

I want to begin promoting the River Bound trail run race series that is taking place this year at the Charlotte Whitewater Center, which besides the paddling has 14 miles of trail for running and mountain biking.

The series is a partnership of the Whitewater Center (where many Olympic paddlers and aspiring team members train) and the non-profit organization that I work for, The North Carolina Outward Bound School. This is a fund-raising event that will help North Carolina youth get scholarships to go on an Outward Bound course. Plus it offers a great way to train for a half marathon.

The series includes 4 races:

March 13th is a 5K
May 22nd is a 10k
July 17th is a 15k
September 25th is a Half Marathon

You can participate in one or all of the races. I think if you register to do all 4 you get a discounted rate.

This is a first time race series, so I can not personally vouch for how the run or trails will be since it hasn't been done before, but I can tell you that your participation will help make a difference in the lives of young people. Check out the link I have for more info on NC Outward Bound; we're good people!

Spread the word, get your friends involved and carpool your way out to Charlotte to participate.

Register Online at
www.usnwc.org

The paddling at the center is fun, kind of an amusement park-like experience. Some friends and I paddled there last summer in open canoes and got some funny looks from people (they mostly just see rafts and kayaks), but it was lots of fun. If you are interested in paddling there too, let me know. They also have nice climbing wall and a zip line.

Ben surfing


Keith, a lone open boater in a sea of kayaks and rafts


The "M" Wave


Video of a slalom team practice at whitewater center - check out the C1er, wish I was that smooth!

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