Friday Thrive

Friday Thrive

Happy Friday! 

Run 

Tempo intervals are one of my favorite types of workouts, whether I’m training for a 10K or a marathon. The newest workout I’m sharing over at Runkeeper’s blog is a tempo interval workout that can be used by beginners, during base building, or for a short yet effective workout on a busy day. 

Friday Thrive

Read

From Latin being one of my favorite classes in high school to my love of superhero movies (have you seen Wonder Woman yet?), my literary and cinematic tastes favor mythology and mythopoeia (think: Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter). Ryan raved about Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology after listening to the Audible version. I finished this one a few weeks ago, but it’s still well worth mentioning and I’ll probably listen to it again soon. 

Friday Thrive

What I love about Gaiman’s Norse Mythology is how he saturates the reader into the story. Gaiman’s narration is fantastic, hearkening back to the oral tradition which brought us these myths. The individual stories are short yet engaging, making this a great choice for driving or a run. 

Race

Runner’s World published an article this week discussing the problems with banditing and bib-swapping – a problem in the running community that seems to rear its ugly head on an annual basis. As with doping and cutting a course, it’s an issue about upholding the integrity of the sport – even if you bandit only a segment of the course. Is banditing as severe as doping? No. But that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. It’s not just the issue of “one extra person,” which is a fallible argument in itself (if many people think this way, it’s more than just one person). And if you didn’t get into the lottery or missed the registration window, deal with it – desires do not outweigh what is right. 

When Ryan and I had a booth at the Snohomish Women’s Run, we had a glimpse into just how much effort race directors, volunteers, and safety and medical personnel put into a race. It costs a lot of time and money to register a course, temporarily close public roads, have police to direct traffic elsewhere, have medical staff in case of emergencies, have volunteers to direct runners, and set up start and finish areas.  Additionally, the salary of race directors comes from race registration fees – especially at smaller, local events. Banditing disregards the hard work and time invested by the individuals behind making a race happen. 

Friday Thrive

Lift

Last summer, I had the goal of doing an unassisted pull up that I never achieved – granted, I stopped focusing on that goal once I started training for CIM. Now that I’m in a base building phase, I am working towards that goal again. However, this time I have a more developed plan of progression, following this guide from Competitor and this guide from Women’s Health. Having a goal to work for helps me in strength training – otherwise, I’ll just do some lower body and core work and call it a day. 

Wear

I recently won a pair of Topo Fyi-Lyte 2 shoes from an Instagram giveaway. While I haven’t run in them yet, they have worked so well for strength training. They are flexible, responsive, and minimal enough to provide a good ground feel for movements such as squats and kettlebell swings. The specs are almost identical to the Saucony Kinvara – 3 mm drop (compared to the Kinvara’s 4 mm), 23 mm heel, and 6.9 ounces per shoe – but they feel slightly different in terms of cushioning. I’m excited to try them out for running, especially since I was looking for a shoe to rotate but didn’t want something drastically different from the Kinvara. 

Friday Thrive

[Tweet “What to read, run, wear, and more this week from @thisrunrecipes #FridayThrive #runchat”]

What’s your favorite genre of literature or film?
Can you do a pull up?
What are your plans this weekend?
 

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20 Responses

    1. I will let you know what I think! I ran in them today and they didn’t have as much traction as my Kinvaras (I was on a wet boardwalk) but overall they feel comfortable and springy, less firm than the Kinvara. There’s definitely more room in the toe box. Have a great weekend!

  1. Over the winter, I was running with a friend who was able to do unassisted pull ups like it was no big thing. My goal has always been able to do 1. Just one! She gave me some tips but then I forgot about it all. But I started to work more on it now that I have a gym membership. We’ll see what happens.

  2. Those shoes are so cute! Even if you can’t run in them, at least you can strength train in them 🙂
    SOooooooo much drama over banditing and Kelly Roberts and Oiselle and on and on and on. Make it stop. Of course banditing is wrong! Do we seriously need RW to tell us that? Sad.
    And I love listening to audiobooks when I take Star for her daily walks. Now, I’m not sure I would listen to THAT one but I like how you described the author “saturating” the reader!! Maybe you should write a book…
    Happy weekend!!

    1. The colors are great, aren’t they? There has been so much drama this week – I agree, it needs to stop, because banditing is plain and simple wrong. Audiobooks are so good for puppy walks! Especially the ones that are too enthralling to listen to while working… Happy weekend!

  3. I have had a recurring goal of getting back to doing a pull up for the past x number of years. I used to be able to. But then I just stopped working on it, and now, I don’t really work on much of anything! But it is such a great goal, because upper body and back strength is so important!

    1. Pull ups like so many areas of fitness are very use-it-or-lose-it. I thought I had a relatively strong upper body – I can hoist up Ollie no problem – until I tried just those hangs!

  4. The justifications for banditing are almost more obnoxious than the banditing itself. It just reeks of entitlement. And it’s rude. A race isn’t just a run, it’s an event – if you want the event experience, suck it up and be a registered guest like everyone else.

  5. I used to be able to do a couple of pull-ups last year around this time, but since I’ve packed on a few pounds, I can’t anymore. They’re tough!

  6. I’ve had an unassisted pull-up on my goal list for a couple years – but have yet to consistently train for it. I can knock out 1 or 2 chin-ups without training specifically for them, so I hoped that just building general upper body strength would eventually get me to a pull-up too. Pull-ups are so much harder though – I think some specific training is in order!

    1. That’s impressive that you can do some unassisted chin-ups! I definitely agree that the pull ups need specific training, especially for us women since we tend to have more muscle and therefore more center of gravity our lower bodies than upper.

  7. I can’t do a pull up. I don’t even know if I could do an assisted one. I have ZERO upper body strength right now, which is usually the first thing to go when I’m training because I just don’t work it. When I was injured, I was lifting a few times a week and had defined shoulder muscles! I guess you can’t be in good shape everywhere year round…

    At least I looked cute in a singlet in my first race back ;).

    I have read those articles about banditing. It seems like it’s an argument on both sides about a running blogger (who I’ve never heard of or read). What hurts me is when someone has a bandit pacer in a race. As someone who trains hard, often alone, and has to pace herself or rely on official race pacers, it seems like a very unfair advantage for someone else to have a friend run without paying to pace them to a time. Nothing wrong with having a personal pacer in a race IF THEY REGISTER. But don’t just “happen to be running their pace” while the race is going on.

    1. I notice a huge difference in my form and ability to handle hills when I’ve been doing at least some upper body work. But it is so hard to work on it all! I’m hoping if I can get a pull up down now, they can be a good maintenance strength exercise during marathon training – even if I have to use the band for assistance.
      I agree with you about the unregistered pacers. Like you said, it is unfair to the other runners – at the very least, the pacer could purchase a bib because they are still taking up room on the course. If everyone or even a quarter of runs ran with unregistered pacers, most race courses would surpass a safe capacity. It bothers me when it occurs for even just a few miles – one should be able to hold their own darn pace, because that mental toughness is a mark of a good runner just as much as a certain pace is.

      1. Yeah, I can tell my upper body has lost a lot of strength just in day to day activities. I mean, I do yoga to cross train but all my actual lifting/resistance training is lower body. I miss BodyPump but I can’t fit it into my schedule anymore (the joys of a gym class being your cross training).

        I know someone who used an unregistered pacer for an entire marathon and BQed (but was not accepted with her time). She even said there was no way she could have done that without him showing up and offering to pace her the whole time. I know it would be hard to tell someone no if they offered, or tell them to sign up for the race. Or even pay their race fee, if it’s that important, but make sure they are not banditing. That’s your integrity as a runner- either learn to pace yourself or use the race pacers. Even if you use the race pacers, you are still running and have to know proper pacing to do that for 26.2 miles. If you “need” a pacer for your marathon time, sign up for a marathon that offers that, don’t just have an unregistered person pace you.

  8. I love interval workouts, too…. 🙂

    Pull ups are damn hard. I had to be able to do one for my college degree but I don’t think I have tried since LOL maybe I should see how weak I have become!

    No plans for this weekend, just trying to stay cool… the Central Valley hit 110 this weekend. The gym it is for my workouts, I guess.

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