running study baseline stuff

Last Wednesday, I went in to get all the baselines done for the running study I'm participating in. They did height, weight, body fat, and VO2max. I would've posted sooner, but I've been hanging out with some family that has been in town from out of state. Anyway, I wasn't able to get any pictures...oh well, I'll find some.

I'm not going to share my weight and body fat because I don't want to, but I will tell you that you would be surprised by my body fat percentage.  I'm over 5 ft tall!! Seriously, I swear!! Anyway, healthy body fat percentage for females is between 11 and 30%. It's common for female athletes to be at the lower end of that range, especially runners. To check our body fat percentage, they used a bod pod. You sit in it, and it uses air pressure or something to figure out your body fat percentage. (I hope nobody was claustrophobic!)

bod pod

Now for VO2 max testing, Josh called it "the torture machine" mainly because of the mask we had to wear. We also had to wear a heart rate monitor. I didn't think the mask was that bad. It was definitely weird and uncomfortable at first, but after a couple of minutes I was fine with it.

 We started out by walking on a treadmill (with the mask and heart rate monitor on), and every 3 minutes we went into a "new stage". With each stage, the speed and the incline increased on the treadmill. It was really tough, but I wouldn't call it torture. For the testing, you go until you can't go anymore, and when you grab the handles on the treadmill....you're done. I was able to go a little over 16 minutes. Josh made it about 19 minutes or something like that. Here's a video of someone doing VO2 max testing...

They told me that my VO2 max is 58. What does that mean?? That means I'm super athletic according to the chart. I seriously haven't been running much lately. I run maybe 1or 2 times a week (maybe), so getting 58 while being out of shape was pretty sweet!

this is the exact chart they gave us (ignore the highlighting)

As you can see by this chart, being a girl and getting 58 for my VO2 max....I'm almost olympic! haha.  If I was a 50 yr old male, i would be olympic. haha.

They'll use our VO2 max to determine our speed for the 2 hr treadmill run that we'll have to do in July. Our speed will be 75% of our VO2 max....whatever that means.  I guess I better start running more so that I can run for 2 hrs.

blogging laziness...

So I've kind of been neglecting my blog lately. It's been like 2 weeks since I last posted. I don't really have much of a reason for neglecting it other than laziness.

What have I been doing for the past 2 weeks?

• hanging out with my fiance and his family
• NOT running
• cleaning the carpets at Mom's house (she's paying me)
• knitting
• reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

Yep, that's pretty much it.

I usually just hang out with Josh and his family on weekends, but last week I pretty much spent the whole week with them because Josh's grandpa, Papa Pinyan, passed away. I spent the week with them, hanging out and helping wherever I could. Josh's dad is the oldest of 6, so his family is pretty big. At the funeral home for the visitation, the entire family was standing in a big circle. They tried to all fit in one room, but they trickled into the other room. I almost feel sorry for the people who had to go around the room, shaking everybody's hands....there were at least 25 people's hands to shake (including mine). It was the most fun visitation I've ever been to. Everyone was cracking jokes, teasing each other, and laughing...sounds odd, but that's just how the Pinyan family is and I'm happy that I get to be part of that family soon.

I've only ran 3 times since the Bare Bones 5k. Yeah, I'm really slacking on that lately, but I've got no motivation. I was thinking about it the other day, and if I wasn't participating in a running study and if I wasn't already registered for the marathon in Novermber, I would be perfectly content taking the year off.

I think part of the reason I haven't been running is because Josh hasn't been running (that's right, I'm blaming Josh!). He has bilateral (both sides) achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis with fluid on his left achilles tendon. He hasn't run but 1 time since the Boston Marathon. With him not running, I don't want to make him feel bad if I'm running all the time when he can't and I just don't have the motivation to run b/c he can't run with me. (It'd probably be a good idea for him to take the whole year off from running).

What's this running study I'm participating in? They're researching/testing arterial stiffness in runners, that's all I know. The first time I go to the testing place, I'll have my height, weight, body fat, and VO2 max tested (my vo2 probably isn't very good since I haven't been running and they'll be testing this in 1 week). Then I'll go 2 more times, one time I won't do anything except sit around and the other time I'll have to run for 2 hrs on a treadmill (they don't tell us which one we're doing on what day). They test VO2 max to determine what your speed will be during the 2 hr treadmill run. Oh, and I'll be getting paid $300 to participate. Cha Ching!

What is VO2 max? VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during exercise...it is considered the best indicator of cardiorespiratory endurance. I'll let you know how it goes...and maybe even get pictures.