Yesterday I put in a rather aggressive and hilly 20 miles on the bike. It wasn’t anything more than just keeping my legs from pussing out on me.
I needed to make sure I was keeping a daily routine. It was a fun ride and at one point I reached 35 miles/hr. Pretty cool.

Today I hummed and hawed and tried to talk myuself out of working out. I had planned a 14 mile run along the Potomac river but it was getting muggy and I had excuses. BUT… I overcame and headed to the river in such a hurry that I got a Photo Camera Speeding ticket. Bastards!

I ran out 7 miles on the river then ran back. 2.5 hours and I really did feel good however I was feeling it at the end. my feet were sore. I don’t think mu HR ever got over 130 BPM. Insane!

I am ready I think for my next elevation in the challenge. Running home from work. It is a 20 mile trip, will happen in the heat of day and water is going to be an issue. Today running I sweated through 20 oz pre run water, 70 oz on the run and another 20 oz after the run. That is a total of 110 oz and I lost 4 lbs so hydration is going to be a major issue. I may have to have someone meet me in the middle with food and water. However, the urge at that point will be strong to quit. Something I need to fight mentally.

I’ll tell you what though, I had a 20 oz bottle of Nuun Citrus on Ice waiting for me at the car, OMG that was heaven to drink. I needed something cold and not sweet when I finished up.

I can always tell when my fitness is starting to pay off.

My resting heart rate this morning was 34.

It is supposed to be good for you and for the last three weeks I have been drinking 8-16 ounces a day. Sometimes mixed with Blueberries and blended into a yummy smoothie with Stevia or sometimes I just drink it straight up no sweeteners or anything and I really enjoy the tangy sour and raw flavor.

Benefits so far. WARNING: This can get to be TMI

About a 45 days ago I was misdiagnosed with Gout in my knee, it turned out to be Patellar tendinitis from kneeling during SCUBA lessons and kneeling while loading SCUBA tanks into the Hummer. The Doc, thinking I had Gout,  gave me Steroids to reduce inflammation and I ended up with a nasty yeast infection on by buttocks. I warned you, TMI! After several rounds of ointments and treatments it wasn’t going well. Someone suggested live culture yogurt and I mistakenly bought Kefir, a brother of Yogurt, and within 4 days I was healed by just eating the stuff.

After my last trip to Mexico I have been plagued by constipation and a few other abnormal intestinal issues like constant heartburn and bloating. I have a pretty tough gastrointestinal system and usually don’t take all the recommended precautions when traveling that most do so I could have picked up some off chance bug. Amazingly the Kefir cured this right up within days as well.

Not that I see this as a miricle cure for anything but I have to say I am impressed and now I want to grow my own. This amazing symbiotic bacterial yeast goo is aparently easy to grow as a water kefir feeding it cane sugar and juces or as a milk base like a yogurt.

If anyone knows of a good reliable source to get a starter of Kefir Grains please let me know.

Scientific research has shown promises that regular drinking of Kefir leads to numerous health benefits. Health benefits that you can’t get from drinking yogurt. Some of the reported health benefits of Kefir are: (claims not substantiated by the good old USA gubernment)

• Regulating cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar
• Cleaning the digestive tract and regulates metabolism and digestion
• Effectively healing diarrhea, colitis, catarrh, reflux, leaky gut syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome
• Improving the body’s immune system and resistance to disease
• Improving liver and gallbladder function
• Effective treating acne and various skin disorders
• Has anti-aging effect due to abundance of anti-oxidants in Kefir

Kefir grains in Milk brewing a delicious meal

]]> http://standingontop.com/blog/kefir-my-new-friend/feed/ 4 http://standingontop.com/blog/i-used-to-like-pigs-pigs-bring-sickness-to-the-workplace/ http://standingontop.com/blog/i-used-to-like-pigs-pigs-bring-sickness-to-the-workplace/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:38:17 +0000 Scott Schneider http://standingontop.com/blog/?p=391 Pink Floyd Pigs

Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha, charade you are
And when your hand is on your heart
You’re nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying “keep on digging”
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find?

So My love of pigs seems to have diminished since I contracted the lovely swine Pig Flu. No it wasn’t tested and positivity identified as H1N1 but since I ran a 101.1 – 101.5 fever for three days, Coughed my lungs out, literally, at least it felt like it, Felt like I was run over by a train and had almost no energy, Id say it is a fairly good guess. FOLKS! If you are sick then stay home. I swear if I walk into another meeting where people are coughing, sneezing and generally sick I will go nuts. It just isn’t fair to a Company, your friends or others you don’t even care about. Stay home and get better. Tell your boss to let you telecommute or take a day off.

Good news though, I get to take the boot off and start walking on the foot. Bad news, it hurts like a beeatch! He said it would hurt and swell and that I should Ice massage it 3-5 times a day with a frozen Dixie cup of ice. Cute little irony there since it was a dixie cup that did this too me. I said it hurt and the Doc told me to suck it up.  Dick!

So I am walking and if I am lucky in three weeks I might get to start a slow come back. Right now I really don’t see that happening but the body does heal fast. In 4 weeks I will be in Kona for a nice deserved vacation and some maintenance on the house. I really hope to get in a few short runs by then and do some Island Running. That would be awesome!

After my EKG he walked in with a rather somber face and asked if I was getting Dizzy, Passing Out, Chest Pain, Nausea or any other strange symptoms. I said no and he said well your either in really great health or have something seriously wrong with your heart cause I only see this when people are dying. My heart rate on the EKG was 40 BPM. I told him that was normal and he thought it was awesome.

As I left I said, “Well, I suppose I am not dying” he laughed and said no, see you in a year.

Well times change, bodies heal and time rolls on and a few years passed. I was running 3 and 5 mile short runs and trying my hand at some longer weekend runs but every time I started to increase the miles. My first pair of running shoes were New Balance 880s. They were neutral and cushioned and pretty much just another ugly running shoe with no bells, no whistles and no gel pods. I really liked running in them and after two years I decided they needed to be replaced. I took them down to the local Fleet Feet store and said I like these shoes and want something close to them. They laughed and said “Those aren’t running shoes, they are trainers. you need real running shoes? And they proceeded to tell me I pronated and needed a stability and cushioned shoe. They sold me on some Asiics something or others with Gel pods, stiff rubber stability and the first thing I noticed is they had a heel.

I was excited to get out there and blow away my personal record of 10 miles and after a few weeks of breaking in the shoes I went after my record. I broke the record by a whopping mile and was so damn proud of myself and then it started; Leg pain. I had the worst case of shin splints and it just wasn’t going away. I went to the doc and they x-rayed the leg. Nothing seemed too wrong, just some R.I.C.E. and it will get better. After two weeks, I was ready to start again. First a few miles, then a few more and eventually I was back to my 15 miles a week and longest runs of 6 miles and I decide to go for 8 when blammo! Shin pain again.

Well this cycle continued for several years. Spring would arrive and I would start adding miles and by June I was approaching 10 miles then bingo! The legs would fail me or the knees would swell or I would get a calf pain and I was out of commission for another race season. This was ridiculously frustrating. In 2007 someone suggested I try Barefoot running but without any idea what I was doing I just made things worse and gave up. I was able to literally limp through an Army 10 Miler and DNR’d a couple more as well as DNR’d a marathon. I was getting really tired of donating entry fees.

Well speed forward to last year, 2009! Spring arrives and like a fool I decide to start running again. I have maintained a level of fitness throughout the winter and so I start ramping up miles. First some 3 milers, then some 5’s, Soon I am running 8 and 10’s with regularity and things are going well so I go for 12 and although I am getting some pain, I take a light week then shoot for 13. There it is, Pain again. The calf literally feels like it will explode when I run, the muscle feels like it will rip off the bone every step. I back off the miles and take it easy, the Doc puts me in orthotics and matters get worse. Finally the Annapolis 10 miler comes and I am at a loss. I cannot stand the shoes I have, the orthotics make life miserable and so I go and buy a pair of brand new Asiic cumulus and run the race. At the end of the race my legs hurt, I made it but I am not happy. Runners should be happy otherwise, Why Run?

Well, This is the last race I run in non minimalistic shoes. I start researching again barefoot running and minimalist when someone suggests I read Born to Run. Halleluiah, someone validates the way I think and feel and I start running barefoot. Ha Ha! I still remember that first run. I made it maybe 1000 feet and my feet were killing me, I had blisters and couldn’t hardly walk for three days. I started searching the internet and found a few web sites that talked about running barefoot and minimalist shoes. Over the past two years I had read Chi Running and as I started running barefoot I got the POSE Method DVD. Pose helped me see many of the errors in my running style and running barefoot reminded me when I was running incorrectly. Soon I was running 3-4 miles barefoot basically pain free.

Over the winter of 2009-2010 I continued to run either barefoot or in Vibram FiveFinger shoes and was able to maintain a solid 15 miles per week. Once the spring hit I was running hard and increasing my miles. One thing was different though, I wasn’t getting shin, knee and calf pain. In the early days of running barefoot I did get some calf pain as they changed to meet my new running style but now, no pain. I did decide that runs over 6 miles would be run in a minimalist shoe like VFF’s of huaraches and anything under 6 would be barefoot. Soon I was cranking out 6-8 mile runs and feeling great so I started pushing up miles.

First I tried a few 10 mile runs. There was no pain except maybe a little calf soreness, to be expected, then I went for a 12 and again, I felt great. Two weeks ago I headed down to the C&O canal towpath and decided that I would run out 7 miles and back for 14. Worse comes to worse I could walk out. Again, I finished and there was no pain. I was tired but I didn’t feel like I just ran 14 miles. Then I decided to go for a new Scooter record and on Sunday July 11th 2010 I started down the towpath with 16 miles in my sites. After 3 solid hours of running and some seriously sore feet I arrived back at the Violet’s Lock parking lot with no shin pain, no knee pain, some slightly sore ankles and a big smile on my face.

So it took me nearly 8 years to run 16 miles but I did it and from what I can tell, there are many more miles to come. If all goes well. I will get a marathon distance under my belt this year and maybe even a 30 miler.
Here I am at the end of my 16 mile run!

Definition from Paleodiet Site

“Paleo is a simple dietary lifestyle that is based on foods being either in or out. In are the Paleolithic Era foods that we ate prior to agriculture and animal husbandry (meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, tree nuts, vegetables, roots, fruit, berries, mushrooms, etc.). Out are Neolithic Era foods that result from agriculture or animal husbandry (grains, dairy, beans/legumes, potatoes, sugar and fake foods). “

I can certainly see where most grains may be out but seriously, grains are seeds and my guess is that monkey man ate anything he could get in his mouth that didn’t kill him/her. If the Paleo Man found a potato does anyone really think he would toss it because it wasn’t on his list of approved foods? Sugars are out but there are literally hundreds of sugary foods this early man would have eaten. Sugar cane, Banana stocks, Coconuts etc. and would this pre modern human turn down a nice wild sweet pea? Seriously? They would have ate it for the energy value in a split second. I’d bet my life on it. I mean seriously, and in a joking manor, these people watched a white hard thing come out of a birds butt and they ate it. They would eat anything that didn’t kill them. I am not sure what the difference is between meats pre animal husbandry and post animal husbandry but my guess is that if you’re eating beef of any kind the rules are violated. However, beef came from someplace so somewhere some place Paleolithic hunter-gatherers ate a cow.

Second, anyone have a clue what the life expectancy of the Paleo man was? It was short probably from injury and just plain hardship i suppose. Paleolithic hunter-gatherers would, in my estimation, do anything to make life easier. That is why we evolved. If they had the option of smashing open a walnut or getting into an almond vs. the simplicity of eating a pea pod or a potato, I can almost guess where they would go for food.

I can see excluding foods that are created that didn’t exist in nature, they are unnatural. And I can see eliminating grains to some extent but tender green wheat might have been valid food item. If I were a paleo era dude and I found a corn stock, which we know existed back then, I’d eat it raw right off the stock. I can’t imagine a world where they wouldn’t eat it and any scientist that says they wouldn’t is blinded by his own research. The oldest South American cultures ate roots and corn. There are several roots that are all over the world that are genetically traced back to South America. If they had it available, they would eat it.

These fad diets never cease to amaze me. Paleo is really the next generation of Atkins and South beach, just a slightly healthier version.

And now I see people talking on the Google Groups about how to take a bath Paleo style. How do I shave my legs, what do I use in place of soap. OK people, throw out the houses, clothes, toilet paper, toothbrushes and grow some balls. Go Paleo full out! I really hope they don’t come over my house after a run if they go on a soap strike. Enough of my rant but everywhere I go I see some post on this diet.

Paleolithic Mammoth Farmer