To Soy or Not to Soy?

Yesterday's Run:
5.7 miles over the Ravenel Bridge (And to those of you who asked, yes you can run the bridge anytime! Not just during Bridge Run weekend. There is a sweet little walk way for runners/walkers and a separate lane for bikers. It's basically Charleston's only hill, so I try to run over down, turn around and run over and back at least once a week. Since I've been a slacker this week, I did it yesterday as well as Wednesday to try and whip my little tail back into shape.)

It was tough for sure, and very humid. I had to take 2 walk breaks coming back over! How lame am I.

Tonight I'm taking off running to clean/study. Plus I woke up mucho sore this morning. This weekend is 100% studying...I moved my test to next Thursday so I would have enough time to study for my upcoming 7 hour test! If I don't pass, I have to wait 30 days to take it again, plus I will have to pay the test fees out of my pocket so I definitely don't want that!

Saturday and Sunday are both running days. A short one on Saturday and my first TNT "long" run Sunday morning, I am really excited to officially meet everyone!

***
So on to today's discussion about soy.

Recently I switched from drinking cow's milk to trying out various alternatives, including soy milk and almond milk. I never have been a huge milk drinker, I like it in my cereal and occasionally I might want a glass, and of course it's in my coffee and (sometimes) tea, but that's about it. Matt however, goes through a gallon in like negative 5 days.

But since I started up with these green smoothies, I have been consuming a TON of it as well. I have always heard a bit of noise about the negative effects of soy, but it never really pertained to me when I wasn't consuming much of it, so once I started, naturally I was curious and a bit concerned. Especially about the negative effects of soy in relation to women and breast cancer. Although it doesn't run in my family, I know it could easily happen to me, so I obvisouly want to take precaution where I can.

{I have also been researching a bit on the benefits of buying organic produce, and have been buying organic greens for my smoothies and organic apples and bananas and other produce where I eat the skin (when I can afford it). It hasn't proved to be that much more expensive yet. But more on that topic (and other rants) another day.}

So yesterday I decided to ask everyone's favorite raw foodist (I don't know if I could ever go raw...but here's to her!) and nutritional smarty pants, Gena, of Choosing Raw about her throughts on all things soy.

KBo:

Hi Gena!

I've been reading your blog and I find that your way of eating is very inspiring, and extremely informative. I have always had an interest in a healthy lifestyle and I eat pretty well, although I am not vegan or raw :) I tend to stay away from most meats and I'm starting to ween myself off dairy. (Cheese is the hard part!) Anyways, I was just wondering if you could shed some light for me on soy products. Are they bad for us? Why?

Gena:

Hey Kristin!

Thanks for your message! I am delighted to hear from you and so happy that you like my blog. It's not about 100% vegan or raw, my dear: it's about 100% healthiest you can be within what works in your own lifestyle.

Here's my deal with soy: if you're looking to transition into a vegan lifestyle, then I absolutely support soy as a transitional food, meaning that I think it's fine to eat tofu or tempeh as you get used to life without meat. But that's where my support ends. I'm fundamentally quite anti soy, for a few reasons:

1) Soy is heavily mucuos forming, which means it ends up clogging digestion
2) Soy affects phytoestrogen levels in the body, which means that it's not only a bit scary, but also a very precarious food for women who have a family history of breast cancer (and my Mom is a breast cancer survivor).
3) Soy slows down thyroid function.
4) Most soy is heavily processed: tofu included.

Bottom line? I'd stay away.

Thanks Gena! (Y'all should definitely go visit her site for some info on the raw food lifestyle. It's definitely not for everyone, but I still think it's fascinating and is a great healthy choice to make for yourself, even if you only do it on occasion.)

I was going to do some internet digging on the subject, but I know that you guys probably know way more than I do, so can you point me in the direction of some solid soy facts?

Do you guys eat soy? Do you worry about it's negative effects or do you think it's all hype? I hope I get some good responses because this really intrigues me!

In the meantime, I'm all almond milk ;)

Hooray for Spring 6 Miler!

Okay, okay. I know I said I was going to do this on Thursday. But once I got running last night, I decided that my time would be good enough to enter for this virtual "race."


I started off my run after work, and was going to do a 3 mile out and back over the Ravenel Bridge. For the first 3 miles the wind was definitely on my side and I was blazing it! Then when I turned around and the wind was pushing against me, I started to really, REALLY struggle. But once I got up and over the hill and started to descend, it got a little bit easier. I guess I managed to keep a good pace based on these split times:

Split	Total Time	Total Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Average Speed	Max Speed
1	0:09:53	1	337	87	9:53	8:41
2	0:09:13	1	66	134	9:13	8:13
3	0:08:36	1	58	164	8:36	7:55
4	0:09:34	1	132	30	9:34	8:26
5	0:09:25	1	114	140	9:25	7:46
6	0:08:03	1	11	137	8:03	6:54
Summary	0:54:45	6	719	692	9:07	6:54

So my total time was 54:45 with a 9:07 average pace. Not too shabby for lil ole me!

The Course:
(I started & finished about 1/2 mile inland on the right side of this picture)

This is the runners path on the bridge:

This is what the bridge will look like next weekend:

Yep, it's finally here! The 2009 Cooper River Bridge Run will be held next Saturday, April 4th. This event is one of the largest 10k races in the nation with 40,000 runners and over 20,000 spectators. The Holy City is packed to the gills each year during the April race weekend with runners (elite and amateur), tourists, spectators and a general feeling of contagious energy.

This will be my first year living here and also running the race. I have run the past two years but traveled from North Carolina with a group of friends. Those friends are sadly not making it down this year, but my mom and younger brother will be in town and will be cheering Matt and I on!

Yep, even Matt is running! We ran together last year and finished at a respectable time of 1:16:40. I think Matt had trained maybe one day before running it, so I was pretty proud of him! In 2007 I ran my first 10k (and longest distance to that point) in 1:06:14. This year, I am shooting for a sub-9 minute mile pace, putting me in under 56 minutes.

Tonight I am doing an easy 8 miler, so I will update you later on as to how that goes! Have a fantastic Wednesday and a big THANK YOU to RunningLaur for organizing the Hooray for Spring Race!!

:)

Holy Windstorm Batman!

For any of you in Charleston yesterday, you may have noticed that it was quite windy. It had been drizzling on and off all day, and I think overnight it actually finally rained. But prior to rainstorms, we down south and on the coast get SERIOUS windstorms.

So yesterday afternoon when I was debating via txt with my bf if I should run or not, he said, "Don't go. This wind will cut you in half." So I was weighing my options, and thinking about how we are going out of town tonight for a wedding and I most likely will not be able to run again until Monday, and came to the conclusion that I had to go.

Although it was Wednesday, and usually my track workout day, I wanted to skip ahead to Thursday's workout which is an 80 minute run with 6-8 mins of uphill running. I always do my hill runs over the Ravenel Bridge, since its more like 30 minutes total uphill running, and since it's right here near my work. Plus, it's a nice view.

So I geared up and set out at about 5:40 PM, the weather was actually kind of sunny and warmish, and it didn't seem to be all that windy initially.

But once I actually started up the bridge, I realized that this was going to be quite a challenge. The bridge was considerably empty for the time of day, and I quickly realized why. As soon as I started climbing, the wind started whipping my ponytail around and basically pushing any way against me that would make the run harder. I passed another female runner who was coming down the bridge just as that nasty wind decided to blow my shirt almost over my head...I just smiled and laughed at her hoping she wouldn't be thinking how gross my abs looked in motion (actually, they probably don't look that bad, but nothing in motion is ever good). Definitely tucked the shirt in after that.


So to make a long and boring story short, it was basically a walk/run up the hill both times, and I cut it short quite a bit. My legs were killing me and I just wanted to get out of the wind and get home. It was even impossible to keep my ear buds in my ears, so eventually just shoved all of that into my sports bra and gave up on music. I couldn't really hear it anyway over the scream of the wind.

All in all it was a decent 5 mile run, with about an avg pace of 10:20 I think, don't have my split times right here. I do know I picked it up for the last mile and ran at about 9:30. Is it me or is this marathon training making me considerably slower??

I also think that it takes me longer than a day to recover from my long runs on Sunday. Maybe I should start doing those on Saturday so I have longer to recover? Both runs so far this week since the 15 haven't been great, my legs have just been so sore and heavy as soon as I set out.

So I have a few days to recover my legs as I travel to the great state of Kentucky for my bf's sister's wedding on Saturday, in which I am a bridesmaid (with a really horribly fitting dress). I am hoping to possibly get one run in while I'm there, but I'm not counting on anything.

This weekend's long run should be another 15 to catch up for being behind, so hopefully I can get that in Monday after work....eeek.

I really need a gym membership.

On another note, I tried out the Clif Kid Z Bar in Blueberry yesterday, it was pretty good but too sweet for my taste. I don't really understand why everyone is so gung-ho about all these bars, I mean yeah they're good, but I would much rather eat a piece of fresh fruit as a snack vs. something processed and pacakged. I have a thing about eating too much packaged foods. Maybe I will get into this further on another day...but the bar was decent, and I have another one with me today to try out later while we're on the road.


So I probably won't be posting anything until Monday (unless I get bored on the 10 hour drive...which is likely) but I will be Twittering!! All hail the iPhone.

Have a great weekend y'all!

Thursday's Hill Workout: Ravenel Bridge

I am extremely excited that today is Friday, for two reasons:

1) I don't have to run today!
2) I'm heading up to NC for my friend's birthday this weekend, and only have to work a half day!

A quick update on last night's run, didn't have a full hour to commit even though I was scheduled to run an hour with 4 to 6 minutes of total uphill running time, so I cut short my bridge run by a measly .2 miles....yeah that really saved me some time, I know. But I figured since running the bridge gives me, oh, about 20-30 minutes of total uphill time, I was okay with cutting the time a bit short.

Made it over and back in 5.35 miles in 52:37, with average pace being 9:50, with 8:01 as my max pace. It took me a while to get started last night, running up the first hill was pretty slow going with the first mile coming in at 10:04, and decreasing from there with last mile coming in at 9:12. I also must not have been working that hard (as I noticed while I was casually "jogging" down the first time and thought, wow I'm really being lazy and slow right now...but of course I didn't pick up the pace too much :) I felt a lazy day was in order ) because my average heart rate was only 171.

For anyone who has never witnessed the magnificent beauty that is our Arthur Ravenel Bridge...


Although I was a bit unsure about moving down here, one thing I am completely certain of is that I am extremely lucky to be living in such a beautiful and scenic place. After all, I get to witness the above every evening driving home from work. :)

This weekend's running is scheduled for 4 miles Saturday and 8 Sunday, but since I will be away that might have to be tweaked a bit. The birthday girl and I will be running Saturday morning together (my original running buddy whom I miss living close to!), and I think she wants to do 5. If we have as much fun as I think we will Saturday night, I might not be running Sunday at all, so I'm going to try to convince her to do 8 that way I won't have missed my long run. :)

Happy Friday all!

Charlie Post Classic and other local races

In doing some local running research, found the Charlie Post Classic 5k/15k run next Saturday, January 31st. I had heard about this race before, but for some reason had written it off...I think I thought it was like a 50 miler or something.

Anyways, so excited because A) I will be in town, B) 15k would be a perfect distance for me next week, and C) I might be able to convince my boyfriend to run the 5k!

Putting that one down on my calendar :)

Was planning on running a 1/2 Marathon on February 7th at Folly, the Save the Light Run, but unfortunately will be out of town on business until late that evening.

Also excited about the Bridge Run this year, which will be on April 4th. Hopefully I will have some friends come stay with us from NC for that weekend. Always a good time!

This weekend's "long run"

Well my long run today turned into a measly 6.8 mile loop around the peninsula. I thought I was taking a longer route, but it ended up not being as long as I thought. When I got back to my normal loop at East Bay, I looked down at my Garmin and it had only been about 3.5 miles....so much for trying to mix it up!

My usual long run is running from my apartment on Lockwood, down Calhoun and up East Bay, over the Ravenel and back. That's usually anywhere between 8-10 miles depending on if I go completely over the bridge.

Today's run wasn't even an easy 6.8, I was definitely struggling to keep going. Definitely have got to turn up the training this week since I won't be in town to do a long run this coming weekend.

Currently looking for a training program to follow for the marathon, have to get started on that ASAP.

Also looking for a good (yet inexpensive) gym in Charleston. My boyfriend and I live downtown, so we wanted one that was close enough to run to. Were considering Eco Fitness, but they're $40 a month....seems a bit steep to me since that doesn't even include classes. Need to go check out Bluefish Fitness, East Shore Athletic Club, and the YMCA. Any suggestions (if anyone is out there reading)?

Going to pick a marathon plan by tomorrow. Stay tuned! I'm also trying to figure out if I can import my Garmin data onto here somehow....

To pass or not to pass?

The one thing I have learned since I have started running regularly (roughly four years) is that the more you get into the sport, the more competitive you get. I don't know if everyone is like me, but when I'm out on a run and I see another runner, I feel the need to PASS.

(Or, in the very least if passing isn't an option (read: that runner is WAY faster than me) try to keep up with them. )

Now we all know the stipulations involving passing another runner.
1. It's completely acceptable as long as you don't do something rude like, look at them and smile that Grinch-like grin that says not-so-discreetly "You're really slow and you better move out of my way while you EAT MY DUST." (This happened to me once with a "friend" who can be credited as "My Running Nemesis" to this day and who definitely did NOT eat my dust that day. Serious pride injury.)
2. You make sure you don't come up so close behind them that you literally scare them off of their feet (this is acceptable if you're passing one of those annoying old ladies walking their lap dogs South of Broad yapping on their cell phones who won't ever move out of the way).
3. But the number one thing every runner has to consider before passing is, am I passing because I feel the need to show them I think I am faster, or do I actually NEED to pass them because I am faster?

Because friends, let me tell you, if your reasoning for passing another runner is the former, you could be in for a long sprint race after you do the deed.

A few nights ago I was running the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston. The base is about half a mile from my work, and getting off around 5:30 I just change there and go for the about 5.5 mile run over and back to my car before heading home.

Right now I'm still trying to recover from the holidays and from starting a new job last week, so my running schedule is a bit - off. I'm not as in shape as I should be and running this ginormous hill is not as easy as it used to be. But I'm slated to run a marathon (my first!) on May 2nd so I'm trying to amp up my training to actually start my training, if that makes any sense.

Anyways I'm not the fastest right now.

Long story short, after I've already went all the way over, and am on my way back almost to the peak where I start to descend to the base, I see this girl in front of me. She's about my age, carrying a Gatorade or something, and by the way she's dressed it looks like shes more of a "recreational" runner (because clearly my running tights and fancy Nike pullover make me a pro). She's running a little bit slower than me and as I continue to climb I realize that I must pass.

So, I do.

Now, I'm not wearing my iPod so I can hear her running not too far behind me, so I start to pick it up. It's only downhill, right? That's easy, I can keep this up for a while. I only have about a mile left.

She obviously is very similar to me, and no matter how slowish she was running, she did NOT like to be passed. Because by the sound of her Gatorade flip flopping up and down she was sprinting to keep up and even possibly, pass me back.

Oh, the pass back. This has to be the most humiliating thing for a runner. It's basically just saying, oh yeah you THOUGHT you were faster than me, but guess what? YOU CAN"T KEEP UP THE PACE SO I'M FORCED TO TAKE BACK MY RIGHTFUL POSITION AHEAD OF YOU. Then you inevitably slink back in shame and hate that person until they've run so far ahead you can no longer see them. I usually hate myself almost as much at that point...

So in a desperate and glute-aching fog I did what I had to do to avoid the pass back. I sprinted. I sprinted all the way down that hill and I did all I could not to tumble over. I was basically grasping for air, hoping that my legs wouldn't give out beneath me, and more importantly, hoping that I wouldn't get completely embarrassed with a pass back.

After a few minutes I started to tune out everything else, and so by the time I came to and got to my car, the girl's Gatorade flopping sound was gone. HA! I had won!!

I never did turn around to actually confirm she was behind me, but I guess that's not what really matters (besides, we all know that turning around is a no no, that's like admitting that we're worried someone is about to pass us, and we're not worried, right?).

So to this girl, whoever you are, if you were really trying to pass me back, thanks for getting me sprinting that night. Because I have been sore for two whole days because of it.

On to the training!