Running to Think

Running at the best pace can be tricky especially on the long distance. Physiology can help, of course. However, mathematics can assure of the optimal running strategy to follow, regardless of our training in the last weeks or the current shape.

Some applied mathematicians found out the best strategy to run at the fastest pace, with the least energy expenditure, in physiological terms, of course.

I highly recommend to read this post, in which they explain exactly how we should run.

Run fast!

Hi friends,
today I want you to introduce a fantastic sport to you. It's called CrossFit. Crossfit has been founded by Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai back in 2000. It is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes, worldwide. Promoted as both a physical exercise philosophy and a competitive fitness sport, CrossFit workouts incorporate elements from high-intensity interval training, olympic weightlifting, plyometrics, powerlifting, gymnastics, calisthenics, strongman and other exercises.

Why you should give CrossFit a chance?

I did several sports in my life such as dancing and tennis, running and fitness. With CrossFit I could find all I am familiar with: group mentality, competition, cardio, strength. Moreover, I can do it where ever and whenever I want. The fun part of CrossFit is that all workouts are short and very intensive. You can find the Workout Of the Day, WOD, on the official website. You can also find videos, explanations of movements, articles, competitions and much  much more. 
I got in touch with it several months ago. The fitness I work at recently started a training room, called the box, in the jargon of CrossFit. It took me one workout to be part of it. 
I basically loved it! As a Crossfit fan, I have assisted to a competition in Nivelles (Walloon Brabant) organised by the Belgium fitness league. It was quite inspiring and motivating.

Here is a video which summarised the WOD. Don't get discouraged. These girls are athletes and practice hours and hours per week. 

Let me give you one tip: never load too much weight at first. But try to do every movement with the correct technique. Only when you feel you master it, don't hesitate to push it up. 

World champions CrossFit 2014 

With the hope to inspire you I feel like throwing yet another observations: it is not a guy-only sport. Girls can kick asses too, believe me!
Maybe i see you around for a WOD ;)

Love,
Caroline

Hi my measuring freaks,
if there is anyone who does not like to measure her or his own progress, please raise your hand. Thing is that you get a boost when you have the feeling to be close to your target. And that, my friends, can happen only if you can measure it.

The easiest  and most well know method is measuring your weight with a scale. The cheap ones that you find in supermarkets are in my opinion not very accurate. Once you get a decent one there is a way to define your ideal weight by measuring your height and use the formula for BMI (body mass index) = weight / height². A healthy BMI should be in the range 18-25 but of course this number should be taken with care because it doesn't take into account body composition. Namely, a fat person can have the same BMI than a body builder.

Below you can find a BMI chart, provided you would like to know if you are in the green zone:

Table 1: BMI chart

More accurate scales for medical usage such as those that you can find in pharmacies like wellnescentra and fitnesscentra can do a great job. One brand I suggest is Tanita.
It uses BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) technology, which sends a safe, low-level electrical signal from footplate and hand electrodes through the body. BIA is quickly calculated and it is also non-invasive. This is considered one of the most reliable ways to measure body composition, even clinically comparable to DEXA (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and hydrostatic (underwater) weighing. These methods usually return your weight, fat percentage, fat mass, fat free mass, total body water, muscle mass, bone mass to provide a very complete profile of your body. 

Those scales are also quite expensive, one more reason to keep reading.
If you can have access to one of those scales in your city or gym, fine. Otherwise you can use other cheaper techniques which go under the term of kinathropometry.

Kinanthropometry is an emerging scientific specialization concerned with the application of measurement to appraise human size, shape, proportion, composition, maturation and gross function. It is a basic discipline for problem-solving in matters related to growth, exercise, performance and of course nutrition.


The measuring tools you need are:
1) a scale
2) a calibre (to measure skinfolds)
3) a measuring tape

Figure 2: Calibre

Figure 3: Skinfolds to measure

You got all, now what? What should you measure, where, how and what formula should you use?

Let's get busy.

Biometry

They are a lot of things you can measure such as height, weight, the circumference of the upper arm, waist, hip, calf, thigh and some other stuff but those are not really important. The skinfolds can be measured with a calibre.
In Figure 3 you can see the correct places that you should measure. Measure each twice or more to make sure you did it well, then take the average of those measurements.

Body Density (BD)

The measures at hand will allow you to calculate your fat percentage. There are 3 different formulae to do that. I will explain the two ones that I consider as the most accurate. These formulae adapt quite well according to your age, gender and the amount of skinfolds you measured.

1) Jackson- Pollock (3 site skinfold formula)

2) Durnin - Womersley (age 20-29)

Fat Percentage

Running long distance takes a consistent part of my life.  When the target of the week is mileage above 130 km, it is not possible to train every day less than 2 hours. To this I add shower time, post-workout relaxation, eating. Then the worst part, going to work. Taking the train, then commute by bike for about 40 minutes. Another hour and half is gone.
Sometimes I think that they really should have made 28-hour days, at least.
It turns out that running has the priority on almost everything else. We are runners after all. Usually this means sacrificing time for girlfriend, friends and yourself.
An effective way I have been experimenting so far is to run to work, which allows me to easily save those two missing hours of the day.
Preamble: I need 30 min train and 40 min bike (or 25 min bus) to get to the office and as much to get back home.

For the commute, a preparation is needed though.
First I had to set a laptop at the office. This laptop is a replica of the one at home, namely it synchronises all apps and data that I change from home to the office. Running with a laptop is absolutely discouraged, even in the case of those computers provided with SSD disks.
Leaving a laptop at the office and use internet services is the solution.

An internet service that allows sharing data with others and more importantly with your own devices is copy.com. In addition, Gmail, Twitter and Strava are device-agnostic services and they provide the functionality I need independently from the laptop at my disposal.

An important device, however is the running backpack. There are plenty out there. These ones are probably the best.  I personally use a Salomon trail 10L without hydration pack. It easily gives room to keys, mobile phone, a couple of rechargers and some money. More than enough for a daily running-to-work session.

What is really important is the clothing strategy. I carry with me a spare t-shirt. But the rest has been placed beforehand in the office. Cool working places usually have showers. Make sure your working place is cool enough ;)

Last but not least, your legs. Make sure they are capable of doing it, every day.

Run happy. Work smart.