Vead – Lehekülg 13 – Nourish, Train & Flourish

In Workout Week posts I will tell you everything about my last week’s workouts.

Monday was the day when the heatwave hit Estonia and there was well over 30 degrees Celsius outside. But we had an interval training planned and it was not going to be cancelled, especially since the weather for my Satuday’s 10K race was supposed to be just as hot.

First we ran for about 20 minutes which already got me super sweaty. Then we ran to the stadium, did some stretches and running exercises and then it was time for 3×1000 metres in race pace with 800 m of slow running and even walking (to get my heart rate down a little) in between. The heat made the task even harder, I drank a ton of water and was exhausted after the workout. My 1K times were 5:15, 5:40 and 5:27. I can be pleased with that. But what is the most important: my ankle didn’t have any pain or tension!!!

Am I really… recovered? Keep reading…

I thought I would never say this but I really didn’t enjoy Tuesday‘s BodyPump. 😦 It was just bad. I was in desperate need for new summer clothes (old clothes are either too big or well… too old) and was out shopping for 6 hours. I was exhausted from the heat and trying stuff on when I got back home and I had no time to rest. Had a quick dinner and rushed out the door again. I didn’t even have time to cycle/run to warm up before the class. Bad. And then in squats I felt like I had added +5 kg on both sides when I actually had my normal weight. I hoped that maybe it was just my legs that were tired but no: I stripped that bar down in almost every track. My heart rate was through the roof, I was feeling weak and weird. I was so disappointed. Well, every workout can’t be golden…

Wednesday‘s Jooks Jõud Venitus was easier as it always is before most of are racing on the weekend. All in total nearly 40 minutes of running (average pace: 6:10 min per km), 15 minutes of running exercises and then some stretches. Luckily it was a little cooler outside that day. And as always, I foam rolled in the evening. It has become a nice routine for me. 🙂

Oh, and that evening when looking at my fitness club workouts history, I found out it had been exactly 1 year (21.05.2013) since I first took my favourite coach Maris’s class. One year anniversary and I forgot, oh damn it. 😀

I actually shouldn’t even have been in BodyPump on Thursday but I already know that if I take easier weights and don’t push myself to the edge, I’ll be fine for weekend’s races. So it was a nice chance to really work on enhancing my technique. Literally stripped the bar down by 30–50% in every track to save my muscles. But since we did program 88 instead of 89, it still was a little harder and worked better for the body.

Friday: rest day. Only did an hour of foam rolling.

Saturday: 10K race. Summary coming in a few days.

Sunday: post-race rest day. Well needed! Spent the day walking around in parks and sunbathing on the beach. I also swam breaststroke in the river for about 15 minutes. In the evening did an hour of foam rolling again. But my injured ankle started to let me know it’s there…

In total:

2 hours of BodyPump

3 hours 15 minutes of running

4 hours 45 minutes of foam rolling / stretching (taking it seriously obviously :D)

30 minutes of cycling

15 minutes of swimming

19.-25.05.14 — (Heart rates are not correct)

A far less impressive week than last week. 11 hours of physical activity (last week: 15 hours) and a lot of it was foam rolling or stretching. But I did have 4 (really) intense workouts: intervals, 2 BP-s and a race. And I also didn’t mark down any walking that I did this week, there was quite a lot of it.

This hot weather is just not for me. My heart rate has been abnormally high all week long and my workouts haven’t been great. It will cool down next week but I can imagine going from +30 degrees to +10 will be rough as well. I also have 70K of cycling coming at me on Sunday. I’m sure about the weather for that day yet but if it’s under +16, I might have to buy some more cycling clothing. Sports gets pretty expensive.

Ankle report: fine up until today, Sunday. Today I felt discomfort, tension and a little bit of pain in the lower inside part of my calf when I was walking around. I’m a bit worried. 😦

I won’t be doing any long runs before my 21,1K. Hopefully the long cycling race will be a good enough workout to substitute one 15+ km run. Hadn’t I gotten injured, I would have done a few long runs according to my training plan by now… But you gotta work with what you’ve got.

Narva Energy Run 21,1K: in less than 3 weeks.

Back in the day when I used to go to kindergarten and up to middle school (so around 10–17 years ago), I felt really left out since I was the bigger kid in the group and everyone else was skinny. There were maybe one or two other bigger kids as well out of 30 people in our groups. So clearly I was the minority at that time, something that was considered abnormal. And please remember that I actually wasn’t obese or really overweight. I was well-developed and also taller than everyone at that time (as a child and pre-teen). Maybe I could have been 2–5 kg lighter but I was nowhere near actually being obese or fat (what kids called me). My actual overweight years began in my teen years (13+). Sidenote: read about my story of how I got fat if you want to know more.

But now when I visit my old high school or just see video clips or photos from schools, I get pretty blown away each and every single time. Especially when looking at children in primary and lower middle school. So many kids are overweight! 😦 All I see are chubby arms and legs and plumped cheeks. Normal weight is an abnormality almost…

OK, I won’t talk about kids 12+ years since around that age their puberty kicks in and their bodies naturally start to change which can cause some weight issues. But the young kids, from kindergarten to middle school? Why are you overweight? The answer in my opinion is in nutrition and activity levels. And what’s even more terrifying: even babies and newborns have weight issues. There you can’t even blame food and sports, it’s more about the nutrition and lifestyle of the mother. Why would you do this to your child? Newborns are born overweight and with insulin issues as a result of the mother’s poor diet. Don’t you really care?!

And please don’t start with “it’s-the-genetics” topic with me. A wise professor in a lecture about 2 years ago said that it’s 50% genetics and 50% the environment. I find this can’t be more true. Yes, you have a bigger tendency to get overweight but if the environment doesn’t support this, you won’t get overweight. Even if you have “bad” genes, create a good environment and you won’t have a problem with obesity. The same goes for your children: create a good, healthy living environment for him/her so that he/she doesn’t have to battle being overweight and every bad thing that comes with it.

That’s where the government could actually do so much more. Health education at school, no junk options at school canteens and cafeterias, personalised physical education classes that offer options and variety suitable for everyone. Sports should be fun not torture like it was in my PE classes. Everyone should enjoy what they do in PE. The same goes for food: no transfats, margarine, half-products like frankfurters, less wheat and sugar, more tasty veggie dishes. In my days we got 50 grams (!!!) of salad (not one gram more!) and low quality mashed potatoes. Almost no veggies – how is this healthy for developing kids? It isn’t. School food should be of high quality.

Now we are beginning to get closer by each day to the point where being overweight and obese in considered “the norm” and being a normal weight and/or fit is something abnormal. In 2008 there were more than 1,4 billion overweight adults (35%) in the world (according to WHO) but do keep in mind that the indicator is much higher in developed countries, for example in Germany 60,5% of the population were overweight in 2008 (according to Eurostat). That clearly shows that not overweight people are the minority now. This is so worrying to me. Just because there is a lot of something, doesn’t mean it’s OK. Just because there were a lot of nazis and Hitler’s supporters who thought it was OK to destroy and kill everyone who wasn’t part of the class, didn’t mean it was actually OK. Just because a lot of people are being killed in war zones, doesn’t mean it’s OK. Just because everyone else is doing something, doesn’t mean it’s OK and you should do it too.

Where will the healthcare system go? How are we going to find the resources to take care of all the ill people? And by ill people I mean all the effects of the illnesses that are associated with being overweight and obese. Diabetes, sleep apnea, joint issues, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, overall reduced life quality… The population is aging as is and if the children, who should be our future tax payers, will be the ones needing the collected tax money… Well, how do we keep up? And it’s not just the money. The wait to see a medical doctor / specialist of any field is long enough today. But the future? Dark, really really dark.

What the hell, world?!

Sources:

Personal experience (for the most part)

Eurostat database

Obesity and overweight. World Health Organisation.

Obesity. Wikipedia.

DietDoctor.com