#CUYOP

What the heck is #CUYOP? Why is there a hash tag on it? CUYOP stands for Commute Under Your Own Power.  I put a hash tag because I think we should be doing it and tweeting about it to get awareness and interest up.

I've started doing a mix of biking and running to work.  It's between 9 and 12 miles, depending on the route I take, and can actually be faster than doing my drive and train mixed commute. Is definitely faster than a pure driving commute given traffic, and I save on gas and parking.  I also get to take in gorgeous settings as I'm lucky enough to have a good chunk of the route along the Charles River. As much as I wanted to keep on running, I had to stop and take some photos this morning because it was just too amazing with the sun hitting the water and the way the skyline of the city came up (I was running on the Memorial Drive side, and these pics are from around the Hyatt, if you know the area).

I do it to get in a longer workout without having to wake up even earlier (I'm typically up no later than 4:30am).

I do it to fuel a great trend of teaching my son about living a healthy, active life. That's not what my childhood was like, and I feel like much of my adult life has been working to undo those habits and the impact of that lifestyle.  My son is 4, and regularly (and happily) makes really smart and healthy choices about food and being active.  He knows about charity and wants to be involved when I get involved.  He loves to run with me (we chase each other around the house, the basement, a soccer field, etc - laughing the whole time).  We talk at dinner about my running, and he's very interested and curious. He also knows about a friend of mine who is really fast, so he's always asking if I was faster than him or if I saw him run by me (@steinesq, now you know why your ears are ringing so much).

I do it to get more time to relax, reset, think (or sometimes not think), and take the world in.  For those of us chained to a desk so much of the day, it is crucial that we live out in the world if for only a few minutes a day. Every part of us will appreciate that more.

Can you CUYOP? Can you do it for even part of the commute?  Biking, running, walking, Nordic skiing, roller blading - it doesn't matter, it all counts.  You make a statement and investment in so many good things - your health, your fitness, your mind, the environment, your budget, how you role model to the next generation.  There are countless ways this can help you enlighten.your.body.

When You Act Out, Who Do You Think You're Punishing?

My wife, son and I were lucky to spend a great afternoon taking in a free concert in Boston recently amidst amazing weather, easy parking, and lots of PBS Kids characters (the poor guy in the Curious George suit was a good sport through all of my son's many friendly attacks of excitement to see him).  For the Alison Krause concert that ended the weekend, people almost camped out to save a spot in Copley Square to take in the sounds. Some folks crept into the front to stand, blocking the view of those who spent so much time to get a good spot.  As the show started, people were shouting for those up front to sit down.  Most did, but not all.

There was one guy in particular who stood out, literally. He came in at the last minute, and wasn't right at the front. Instead, he was about 20 feet back, standing along in a sea of sitters. He was blocking the view for literally around 100 people.  Literally.  He just stood there, ignoring people as they asked him (nicely) to sit down. You might think maybe he didn't hear, but he did because he'd occasionally shout out, "Give it a rest!  Why don't you stand up."  Or have this look of disgust on his face.  People got up and went to him to ask nicely for him to sit. He acted like they didn't exist.  Some even gave up their seats in a better spot so he'd move and let so many people enjoy the show. He wasn't having it.


I had the pleasure of being one person away from him. I had a great view...of a sign and some scaffolding. I didn't care. What I cared about was this guy - I was unable to really focus on anything but this guy. His attitude befuddled me. He was smug. No better way to say it.  Smug.

What I learned by watching him was that he actually wasn't enjoying the show at all. He seemed to be wishing for it to end. I don't know if he doesn't like the music (it's not my choice for music, but it's hard not to appreciate how amazing her voice is, or just feel peaceful listening to the sounds), or if he doesn't like people, or what. It was really a family-type event (lots of families and kids), and this 20-something guy being there alone with hundreds of daggers staring at him couldn't have given him a feeling of fitting in.

So why did he stay? Why did he stand?  Why, when he was so miserable, did he keep doing this? Why rob little kids of enjoying the show when they had been patient and waiting for hours after their family got a little plot of the lawn?

Why? Because he had to prove to all those people - those horrible people who just wanted to enjoy their afternoon and were being nice and even offering him better spots - weren't going to beat him. They couldn't win - not on his watch!  He'd show them!  Right.

And by, "Right," I mean, "Wrong. Completely wrong." When you are angry and smug like that, and act out in a childish way by being stubborn, rude and inconsiderate so as to punish all those people out there, you really are just punishing yourself.  See, those people were still listening, smiling, and enjoying themselves. Sure, not as much as if he wasn't being this way, but they were happy. He was hunching his shoulders under the weight of the anger he were holding. He were cringing at your lack of enjoyment of the activity he was forcing himself to endure because he somehow thought that would ruin the day for others.

Why would any human being want to ruin the day for anyone else? What is gained? No, what he didn't understand was that the only punishment was being imposed on himself through the clearly horrible time he was having. Add to that the feeling of so many people that this guy is a bad person. A person who would never help another person. A person who has the capacity to be cruel and nasty when the world has far too much of that already. A person who wants to go into a sweet setting and try to make it sour.

I've had some personal experience in completely the opposite direction. When I ran my third race, I made a point of thanking every police officer I saw that held traffic for us runners; thanking every volunteer who gave out water, took photos or shared a smile; and cheered back at and pumped my fist for to every spectator who came out to watch or cheer us on. And it all made me feel energized and gave me a boost I really needed on a very hot and humid run.

I do the same when biking or running when someone waits for me to go by or let's me pass. I don't want to leave anyone feeling pushed aside or inconvenienced by my enjoyment (or my desire to keep some pace going). I want them to think, "Hmm, that was unexpected and nice." I want them to get even a little spark of a good feeling for their small act of consideration and kindness.  I was behind a woman this afternoon while biking home from work, and she was apparently uncomfortable feeling like she was holding people up.  She kept looking back toward me, and then looking for places she could pull aside.  She looked worried and pressured.  I shouted up to her, "Don't worry - you're doing fine. Enjoy your ride." In that moment, I saw her shoulders drop a bit, like she had sighed a sigh of relief. She turned back and smiled at me, and rode with this happiness and calmness that had been missing since she realized I was behind her.  At the next light, I passed her, and said, "Thanks so much. Have a great day."  She had a big smile, and I'll bet she did enjoy her day. It took so little of me, but did so much to undo the tension she was feeling that she never had to feel.

The message is so simple. When you take your displeasure with a situation and try to make others pay for it, you only magnify the pain inflicted on yourself. When you try to be good to others despite how anyone has been to you, the world turns and you get to enjoy life as you deserve to. The smug, negative, hurtful people who try to infect others with their misery will just keep making things worse for themselves. Be someone who creates positivity and kindness. That is a key step to enlighten.your.body.

Review: Kinetic Compression Shirts

The buildup

I wear tight clothes. Like really tight clothes. Clothes so tight, they squeeze me.

I don't wear them all the time. No, no. I wear these clothes most of the time that I'm working out. They're compression clothes (mainly spandex garments made in anatomically-inspired shapes with varying patterns and sections to target specific muscles for compression during exercise), and they have been shown to increase blood flow, aid performance and speed recovery by strategically squeezing (ever so slightly) key muscles used in sports/fitness/workouts like quads, calves, biceps, triceps, forearms, the core muscles, etc.  From my own intensely scientific research, the stuff works. The only downside (aside from leaving nothing to the imagination if you don't wear something else on top of them) is the generally high price of compression clothing, or at least good compression clothing.

Thank goodness for The Clymb. I have gotten some really high quality compression clothes at amazing discounts.  My favorite brands are Skins, 2XU, Zoot and CW-X (in that order).  I recently had a chance to pick up some shirts from Kinetik Sportswear, a brand I was less familiar with, but that had some intelligent design in their products that I thought would be worth trying.  The deal was about 80% off, and these weren't 2 year old models, but products in their current line up.  I went for it.

What it is & how it works

I got a long and short sleeve shirt as I could use another of each in my compression arsenal.  Kinetik has an interesting design where the abs, forearms and muscles around the spine are set off in one fabric, and the shoulders, obliques and pecs are in another.  There's also venting in the arms, as some Skins shirts have.  There's also a rubbery/silicon lining to the bottom of the shirt to help keep it from riding up.

My impressions

I really liked the look of these shirts, though my wife made fun of me in them as it sort of accentuates the boob-region.  Sorry, I'm a child, I guess.  I found the short sleeve shirt to fit nicely overall, and provide good compression where it needed to.  I was comfortable in both shirts, and really appreciated the pit venting.

My depressions

You'll notice the impressions section is short. That's where I say the good stuff. You'll also know from my other reviews that I tend to be very positive on things I review. I'm not negative on Kinetik's shirts per se, but I do find more lacking than not.

First, the shirts run a touch bigger (or perhaps are slightly less compressive) than I've found with other brands.  I have really found most compression clothing to be consistently sized across brands, with this being the first time I've had a feeling that the shirts could be tighter. As a result, I found that the collar really didn't lay flat (see the two pics of me wearing the short sleeve shirt while biking and you'll see how it stands up), and ended up bunching. It wasn't too uncomfortable when riding my road bike, but I noticed it when doing gym cardio (elliptical, mostly) and found it annoying.  It's not the end of the world, but it's not something I generally experience in compression gear since they tend to hug your body.

And that leads to my second issue, and this is weird.  You'll notice above I said I found the short sleeve shirt to fit nicely overall. The two shirts are the same, save for the sleeves, but I really found a difference in the level of compression.  Neither is strong, but the core area on the long sleeve is noticeably less compressive / fits me noticeably looser than that of the short sleeve. That sort of defeats the purpose of the shirt for a major muscle area (and who hasn't heard about the importance of the core lately, right?).  The rest of the shirt seems ok, especially the arms, but the abdomen and into the chest could stand to be something like 10% tighter on the long sleeve (and maybe 1-2% tighter on the short sleeve).

The inconsistency across the shirts is concerning from a quality standpoint, or, more accurately, a quality control standpoint.  I wonder if the same underlying driver is behind the neck collar issue I experienced.  I also found the seems between the white and black areas to be a bit too pronounced. I'm not sure they're any more pronounced than on other brands, but they're in areas you're more likely to notice them, so I feel like the bar is higher. Also, because the shirts fit looser than I'm used to, the seems don't get squeezed to sit flat and tight like they would on a 2XU or Skins shirt.  I have a Zoot shirt that fits looser, and it suffers from all of these issues.

So why am I tougher on the Kinetik shirts when I don't go off on the Zoot?  Well, the Zoot shirt retails for about half of what the Kinetik goes for, and is at the bottom of their line (same reason I'm not really a fan of the bottom-of-the-line A100 series from Skins - you can tell how they went cheaper in the design and materials).  The long sleeve Kinetik retails for $119 and the short sleeve for $89, which puts them on the high end price-wise.  The only long sleeve I own that retails for more is a 2XU Elite shirt, and I have to say, it's clearly a much higher quality product from design to execution.  Skins A200 and Sport lines are both much better performing shirts, and cost the same or slightly less.

You could say I just need to size down, but I don't think that's possible for me. A small would be too short, and the arms would be too tight.  The arms are perfectly sized for me with the mediums I bought, and I think going smaller would actually cut off blood flow.  I also think the collar issue would be worse (or at least different) as the shirt would be pulled too much in the chest and shoulders.  No, I think the sizing is fine, but the shirt isn't.

To buy or not to buy

So I think this part is pretty clear. I do like the short sleeve enough to want to wear it when I ride my rode bike. I could see myself wearing the long sleeve occasionally, but not when I know I'm going to be pushing myself.  Had I paid retail, I'd either be trying to return both shirts, or pissed that I can't return both shirts.  As much as I wanted to like these, and want to support an American company that is trying to make it in a very technical and competitive space, I just can't recommend this stuff...yet.  I will definitely keep an eye on Kinetik Sportswear to see if they come into their own soon.  Until then, I'd stick to Skins or 2XU, personally.  You can't go wrong with either.

Q: I'm running a lot, but not getting major results or being very structured. Is that ok?

Q: I've been running quite a bit, and have kept it up for a good while now. But I don't feel like I'm doing it in a structured way, and I'm not being as committed otherwise, so I'm not seeing the results in my body that I want to. I'm not doing well enough, am I?

A: This is a tough but common situation. The issue stems from having a long term goal and then universally judging yourself based on missing some sub-goals and throwing the long-term goals away. This exposes a really crucial aspect of proper goal setting, tracking, expectations and the spiral of negative generalizations.

When we set an overall goal, like completing five 5K races or losing 10 pounds and keeping it off, we must set sub-goals so that we can both track our progress and recognized incremental wins.  It's also OK to miss some of these incremental steps as missing any particular one doesn't mean the overall goal is in question.  This is the expectation you need to manage, and the place where a sub-goal being missed should not be allowed to turn into universal failure (or feelings of it).

Let's look at the five 5K goal.  This was my goal for year two of my fitness journey (from July 1, 2012 to June 30th, 2013).  Each race can be seen as a sub-goal.  I didn't quite make it, but I did have wins along the way, and did come close plus picked up a good alternate challenge along the way.  I did one 5K, a 3.5 miler (just over 5K, so that counts), a 10K (that counts as two, right?), and a three day/three mountain charity hike (my bonus challenge that was far more than 5K, but not technically a race - though I did run down some of the way on two mountains).

Am I sitting here feeling like a failure because I didn't get that final 5K race (if you could the 10K as two)? Definitely not.  Instead, I basked in the glow of each race and my performance against goals I set for that particular race.  I could have done another 5K, actually, but didn't have access to one that fit with my work and home schedules.  Still, I should be riding the high of success on those sub-goals rather than throwing it all away because of the failure of one of the sub-goals.

Another great example is the person on a diet (which I'm not a fan of - let's eat healthily all the time rather than weirdly and extremely for a short period only go back to uneducated eating and re-gaining when we're done).  The person 'is doing great' all day, but then goes out with friends to a bar, has a couple of beers and some nachos, and then goes home feeling terrible about how they just threw it all away and cracks open a pint of ice cream and whipped cream.  They then order a pizza, and house the whole thing because it's all ruined.

The reality is that the beer and nachos weren't great, but certainly didn't throw away all the progress they had made on their diet thus far.  Because they felt like they had totally - not partially, but totally - failed, they threw all progress out and went overboard.

What about looking at the success thus far and taking pride in that.  And what about the restraint they showed at the bar by only having a couple of beers and some nachos rather than four or five beers and a whole order of nachos?  They exercised some restraint.

Ultimately, this is what we're talking about - don't throw the whole goal away because some aspects of it might be off.  Don't allow yourself to go down a path of negativity or depression because you fail to see the good or allow that positivity to resonate, reverberate, and drive you forward overall.

My specific advice to my friend with the question was to stop arguing about the failure in his running and overall progress.  Stop and let the positive of the run soak in.  He's running, and has been consistently for a while (and he's doing good distances - we're not talking little five minute jogs here, but 30-60 minute runs).  He hasn't quit. These are all massively better than what most people can say, and certainly better than he could say just a few months ago (he's been at it consistently since May).

So he wants to look better and feel better than he does at the moment. I'm sure he looks and feels better than if he wasn't running.  There are surely other ways he can spark better results, but it's important not to look at the seven other things to be mindful of and get so overwhelmed that he quits. By the same token, you can get extreme and do it all right away, and surely get those desired results fast. But what are the chances the behaviors would endure? Would he be likely to burn out due to the major changes needed all at once? Would he burn out from doing too much too fast?  What good are results if they can't be maintained?  Not very, I'd say.

Take the win of running, be proud, uplift yourself. Then choose one more thing to work on at a time in succession until your life is going the way you want with the results you crave in a consistent, manageable fashion. This is how you enlighten.your.body.

Lessons from My Third Racing Experience (First 10K)

I've done three races so far this summer, and have learned a lot in the process.  I blogged about my first and second and the lessons I gleaned from them, but the third was something different.  It was about twice as long as my first two (a 5K and a 3.5 miler), hilly, took place during the height of the day's heat and much more humid.  The field was also better than that of my first race, though not quite as overall solid as my second. It was also much less densely-packed than my second race.

Heading out the door for the race

The race was an 80s-themed 10K run through Somerville, MA in a loop.  It was the bookend to a month of races and events that started with my first race, included a three-day charity hike of the tallest mountains in the Northeast, a 3.5 mile race, and then this 10K.  It was only my third time running this far as I typically run in the 2-4 mile range.  I also went into the race with limited training as I had been dealing with knee issues as I go through my post-op PT.  My knee and muscle issues have lead to some foot issues, including serious blistering due to a funky gait, and the feeling of stress fractures between my third and fourth metatarsals on both feet - especially when I run more than 3 miles.  If you aren't good with metric to imperial conversions, 10K is roughly 6.2 miles, so this counted in the 'more than 3 mile' bucket, and my foot pain was keeping me from distance training or getting more than one or two runs in per week.  Not ideal training.

My knee pain had flared up a lot after doing the multi-day hiking, which also limited my non-running training.  I typically do 30-50 minutes of intervals on my elliptical trainer, but that hurt too much, so I was doing a mix of the hand bike and a recumbent bike (though not with great intensity to protect my knee).  Needless to say, my speed and endurance had taken a hit along with running-specific muscle development.  My original goal was to run between 46 and 48 minutes, but I had a backup goal of anything sub-50 minutes.  Spoiler alert - I ran it in 49:15.

The lessons I learned in this race were invaluable. While my learnings in my first race were all really about newbie mistakes or ignorance, and my second race was about the difference in the field vs my first, the third was really about me, my training and my mental game.

For starters, I put my prior learnings to good use and did a much better job of managing my energy and water. No bonking for me.  Well, sort of given the heat and distance, but not like on my second race.  I was good about breakfast, getting carbs and protein throughout the time before the race (but not so close that I'd have stomach issues), hydration, etc.  I used a nuun electrolyte tablet in my Nathan racing flask, which was probably my only fuel/hydration mistake since the thing got effervescent and cause water to spray out the bottle during much of the first mile.  I ran with my thumb over the top of the bottom to keep things together, which wasn't ideal.  I also drank a mix of Gu, chia seeds and water that had soaked together about 40 minutes before the start to ensure I had energy and liquid in me.

Pumping it into the finish

But my first challenge started to rear its head while I waited for the start - the heat.  I had sunscreen on, but could feel the strength of the sun really hitting me hard.  It was in the upper-80s as we headed toward the 10am start, and the mercury was rising fast.  It was also super humid.  So the first issue was the heat. Not too much you can do about that beyond dressing appropriately, and, if you can, trying to train in heat so your body is adjusted to it as much as it can be.  I made a wise decision not to use a compression tank top under my racing singlet.  I usually wear one when I run, and prefer to do so, but the added layer would have been too much.  I had found this on a run earlier in the week where it was hotter, more humid and I was in more direct sun.  The extra layer really made it dangerous for me.  My only wardrobe mistake was the racing singlet I chose. I have two newbodi.es singlets that I really like, but I picked the cooler looking one (in the pic above).  It's black, which isn't ideal for direct sun, but more importantly it doesn't seem to be as light or breathe as well as the white newbodi.es singlet I have from New Balance (see the post-race pic below).  Fashion (if you can call it that) should have lost out to function.

Just past the finish line (which I jumped through)

The second challenge was one I don't think I'd have had if my knee and musculature weren't an issue - hills.  I generally haven't run a lot of hills, and have sought out relatively flat training runs through my recovery to take it easy on my knee.  The impact of my recent hikes meant that my knee wasn't ready to take on hills just yet, so I couldn't train for the race with an elevation profile anywhere near what I'd encounter.  This touches on the third challenge - I had no idea what I'd encounter as I had zero familiarity with the course.  It was changed slightly the morning of the race, but I could have at least driven through the area of the original course to get a feel for the ups and downs.  I wasn't prepared mentally for the hills (the first was at least a half mile long, and had a good incline profile - not too high, but not shallow enough to be irrelevant), or more importantly the uncertainty of when a hill would end or if I was about to hit another.  That uncertainty really unraveled my mental strength and lead me to be almost scared throughout the race of whether my body was going to give up on me.

Post-race with my friend who ran it with me
(though finished several minutes ahead)

And that leads to the fourth challenge - the mind game.  I've spent a lot of time on runs talking myself out of walking. It seems like I'm perfectly fine, and then the idea will pop into my head that I could walk for a bit (e.g. to that street sign up ahead to catch my breath), and then I can't kick it. I almost feel like part of me is begging for it, even when I'm really doing fine.  My hiking experience put front and center the dichotomy between what the body can do and what the mind thinks it can do (the body is far more capable than the mind thinks it is).  The uncertainty of whether I was about to hit another hill or when the hill I was on might end really unnerved me, and I ended up walking probably seven times.  None of them was too long (maybe 30 seconds at most), but I felt defeated each time, and like I was cheating (myself, if not the race).  Others around me walked off and on, including some people who looked like far better runners than I did, but that didn't make me feel proud or at least ok about walking.  On my other two races, I either got a blow by blow from a friend who had run it or I knew the course directly myself from living and running in the area many times.  This time was like doing it blindfolded, and I wasn't enjoying it.  For me, I know I should at least scout out the course ahead of time (even if only with Google Earth).

So I hit my goal time, and should be happy.  I finished 96th out of 831, which is ok, but not in the top 10% like my prior races (this made me in the top 12%, if that's even a thing).  I really wanted to do it in 48 or better, and kicked myself for walking because that probably would have made the difference between 49:15 and 48.  In reality, there's no way to know since I could have run more slowly overall and end up with the same time (or a touch better or worse, but probably not 1:15 better).  I could also have passed out and DNFed.  Who knows, but it isn't worth beating myself up over an uncertainty.

We live, we race, we learn. We do better each time. We may not do better overall, but as long as we do better on the parts we've been learning about, we end up doing better overall.  That's how you enlighten.your.body.

Avoid The Ecosystem Black Hole

If you haven't noticed, I'm big into tracking things (it is my first Principle, after all).  I'm also a fan of doing so via various websites and social media.  I'm big into Nike+ (the FuelBand and GPS SportWatch are mainstays of my fitness gadgetry), and love how they track, share and 'gamify' the art of fitness stat tracking.  I also got into dailymile to connect with some friends, and ditto MapMyRun (or MapMyFitness, more accurately, since I use it for both running and biking).  I recently added Garmin Connect to the mix to handle my Garmin Edge 510 data from biking.  I think I'm also on RunKeeper, but don't remember (how could I at this point, right?).

When I run, I sync my phone's Nike+ app or my watch's data with my computer to Nike+.  Then I go to dailymile and sync my Nike+ activity into my dailymile account.  MapMyFitness automatically pulls in Nike+ data, so I don't have to do anything there.

If I bike, I have to give up on Nike+ giving me any credit (lest I pervert my stats with insanely fast average paces vs when I run).  MapMyFitness and dailymile both take cycling results and can connect to my Garmin Edge to pull in the computer data and maps.  I also sync into the Garmin site (I wish dailymile and MMF would just pull it through automatically, or at least not make me re-connect the device and import the activity).  It's all a bit much, and I'm left feeling uneasy that Nike+ thinks I've been slacking.

Add to that uneasy feeling the fact that my FuelBand has broken yet again (this will be my seventh!), so I've been at zero for NikeFuel for a few days, and broke my streak.  Can you imagine how horrible a problem this is?

Seriously, I actually got worked up about this a few FuelBands ago.  Then I thought I was ridiculous.

And that's the point of this post. It's great to track things, and to get into the gamification and the badges and achievements of all of these ecosystems and social media.  But don't let that stop you from enjoying your activity.  Or, worse yet, avoiding some activity because the ecosystem you are most in bed with doesn't track it.  I'm really enjoying biking, and it would be such a shame to swear it off because Nike+ can't handle it (I really don't know why - they need to get on board here).  When I climbed the three tallest peaks in New England over three days, the thought crossed my mind about my lack of activity within the various ecosystems I'm part of, and I thought about using my SportWatch and a foot pod to at least get credit for the time and distance of the hikes.  But then I decided against it out of fear of the detrimental effect a combined 20-25 hours of slow pacing would have on my lifetime average pace.

Absurd.

So, do track things, do get into these sites and do go public.  Just keep your mind right and be sure you lose neither your perspective on reality nor your general sensibility.  If you do, the exercise will quickly become work or at least a source of anxiety, and that's completely the opposite of what it should be if you want to make it part of your life going forward.

Have some fun while you have fun. That's a great way to enlighten.your.body.