Running Shoes

So.. I was reading a book called Natural Running by Danny Abshire and learned something interesting. You know how everyone nowadays wears running shoes when they go running. Well it impedes with our "natural" running form. The main purpose of the running shoe was to prevent injuries in amateur runners because of impact on very hard surfaces such as asphalt roads. The way they did this was by cushioning the heel area, thus lessening the impact. However, this made us more prone to land on our heel as we run (known as heel striking) instead of the midsection of our foot (midfoot). Not only does this decrease our running efficiency but it makes us more injury prone.


I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm taking Tae Kwon Do class Wednesday nights (don't ask me why...) and our instructor makes us run barefoot. Interestingly enough, I noticed that I mainly land on my forefoot (toe area) which is the "natural" way to sprint. Afterthat, I started paying more attention to how I run in running shoes and I should say I'm not too bad because I mainly land midfoot. However, after reading about all of the injuries, I definitely advise everyone to pay close attention to their running form.

Happy midfoot strike running :D
~Nadiya

Seriously... why do people ignore pears?

I mean you see people making apple pies, apple flavoured oatmeal, or just stuff with apples. But I ask... Why not pears??? I mean they're equally delicious and nutritious! So why do people not take advantage of them?

Well I decided to make some nice yummy pear rice pudding. Yum!

The bubbling pear and peanut butter with brown sugar mixture

My Synchro Routine

:D YaY :D

:D I ran slightly over 9km yesturday :D :D :D :D :D :D

Ok by the amount of smiley faces you probably understand that I'm super happy! :D Had to add in another one... What surprised me the most was that I still had energy to keep going. I guess synchronized swimming really worked its magic...

I've always had really strong legs but what I lacked was lung/cardio power. So it only makes sense that all the underwater lengths my coach made me swim taught my body to utilize oxygen more efficiently. It might seem like only 25 meters, but your lungs burn the first few times you do it! It's a great exercise if you ever swim for cross-training, and I would suggest using nose plugs while you do it.

Speaking of synchronized swimming, the league has posted a video of my team's swim on youtube. Now I've only been doing synchro for two years and am just a beginner, so don't criticize me too much :P

YaY! Synchro!
~Nadiya

For the Love of Hummus

I love <3<3<3 hummus! However, the commercially prepared brands are often very expensive (around $3 dollars for that 1 cup of hummus) and are generally pretty high in fat. So I make my own...

McDal Cheese continued

Remember my old McDal recipe? Well I've decided to tweak it a little bit, just to start cooking and realize that I didn't have red lentils. Great...

Never fear!

Yellow Split Peas are here!

The changes I've made included adding a bit more cheese that is more aged (meaning it has more flavour) and is grated, adding some caramelized onions along with rosemary. Additionally, I used small shell noodles as I thought their shape would be better for holding sauce. So here's the new recipe

Some like it watery... Some like it thick...

YaY! It's officially reading week and I'm back to living with my parents :) But before that happened I had a pretty crazy weekend. It was one of my friend's birthdays which I ended up half hosting at my house. So there were about 6 people coming over to my place and then went out to a club (I absolutely <3 dancing but I only go clubbing with big groups of friends) where there were about 20ish people. Finally, the birthday boy and another friend of mine ended up staying over and we watched like 3 comedies. So yeah... it was a fun weekend!

Ooh! Also, my friend ended up curling my hair which looked awesome. Apparently, it matched my bubbly personality :D Here's a picture, ignore me sprawling all over the floor and the fuzziness... but it conveys the idea and no I'm not wearing any make-up and I don't photoshop pictures of myself, ever (I did make the picture brighter though because it was too dark).

My typical childhood breakfast

Having grown up in Ukraine, grains with milk and fruits were a common breakfast for me. What I remember most however was muesli. It is sort of like granola except it is not baked with oil and sugar making it a much lighter and healthier option.

Now that I have reading week (a one week vacation), I am kind of stuck in Hamilton until Sunday because I'm supposed to go out for my friend's birthday. So I decided to explore the neighbourhood and came upon this natural foods store that a couple of people from my naturopathy class talked about. There they had taste testers for some muesli. I was really tempted to buy some but it was $4.50 for 5 servings! I can't afford that on a student budget! Instead I went home (I did buy some coconut dream milk though :P) and research how to make homemade muesli. It turns out that it's pretty simple and all you need is some rolled oats, other grain flakes, nuts, dried fruits... and that's it...

Running and Musculoskeletal System

So I have recently picked up a couple of books about running just out of curiosity and I thought I should share a couple of things with you.

I'm sure we all know that running has a huge role on the musculoskeletal system, but few of us know specifically what happens to our muscles and bones.

So first off there's an increases in the size of muscle and in quantity of blood vessels supplying it. Also, there is an increase in the number of mitochondria in the leg's muscle cells. These mitochondria are parts of the cells that are responsible for aerobic (oxygen dependent) metabolism of sugars and fats (note: anaerobic respiration does not occur in the mitochondria). Furthermore, there is an increase in mitochondrial enzymes which speeds up energy (ATP) production. Additionally, there is a switch in metabolism as your body begins to burn more fats instead of sugars during running. This is advantageous, as we have a very large fat storage and only enough glycogen (glucose storage in the liver and muscles) to get us through 2-3 hours of running. Therefore, this is a nice adaptation for marathon runners for whom the glycogen storages on their own are not enough to finish their race.

My Valentines Day

I wish I could say that I had some crazy hot date or did something fun, but I was kind of stuck studying for my metabolism midterm :(

Nothing more than than memorizing the Kreb's cycle at 6 in the morning :) However, I did discover something new called dark buckwheat flour. It actually has a very distinct taste from the regular buckwheat flour and has a deeper "toasted" flavour to it. The recipe still needs some tweaking but will be posted once complete.

Running Training Log

This week has been so busy because I had to catch up with all of the homework I didn't get done last weekend. I managed to get the schoolwork done but didn't have much time to do any cooking. So, I popped open my freezer and got some Nigerian Baked Beans  (I used less than 1/4 cup of oil though) . In general, I almost never cook the same recipe twice but this one is an exception. It's actually my third time making it meaning that I love it! Like common, beans + peanut butter= genius.

Another accomplishment was me heading over to the library to pick up some books on running. Seeing that I want to avoid any injuries, it's in my best interest to learn as much science behind running as possible. I do promise to post all of the interesting stuff I learn. For example, did you know that being flexible actually interferes with your running ability??? Apparently, having flexible joints means that your body needs to spend energy trying to balance them which decreases the available amount of energy needed for actual running. That's a dilemma because I need to maintain flexibility for synchro :( I guess it will just be a matter of finding balance. 

Additionally, I actually put together my own running training log. YaY!

Running Adaptations

I just love how my metabolism and regulation course is so applicable to running! In fact I'll be doing my final project about the regulation of the interplay between glycogen and lipid metabolism during marathon running. It's so cool!

Anyway, I went out for a run yesterday  and managed to run 8km. I was so impressed with my body because I still had energy in me to keep on running but I stopped because I want to take the first 2 weeks slow. In metabolism we learned that when you exercise, the number of mitochondria (parts of the cell that produce energy) in the muscle increases. So I guess that happened to me during my synchronized swimming because last year I've never ran more than 8 km at a time and yesterday it felt easy for me. YaY!

Something I'm a little scared about but definitely need to research about is oxidative stress during running. Oxygen radicals are produced whenever mitochondria is working which is sped up during running.

However, never fear Anti-Oxidants are here! That's why I made myself a nice high anti-oxidant post-run snack! Now to mention a yummy one!

Anti-Oxidant Recovery Oats

Ingredients (Serves 4)

·         ¼ cup almonds soaked in hot water

·         2 cups blueberries

·         1 cup steel-cut oats

·         2 cups water

·         1 cup milk

·         ½ cup chocolate milk

      Directions

1.       1. Soak the almonds in hot water for 20 minutes

2.       2. In a food processor, blend almonds and blueberries

3.       3. Soak steel-cut oats in hot water overnight

4.       4. In the morning add milk & chocolate milk and almond/ blueberry mixture

5.       5. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minute

6.       6. Enjoy 

Oatmeal Cookie Timbits

Now that the swimming season is over I'm slowly switching over to running. Yesturday I went for a nice and easy 6km run and am hoping to slowly increase my distance. Once I get my endurance a bit up, I'll start adding in drills and speedwork. Since I'll be running a 10km race in the first week of May, it works out perfectly that I have 12 weeks to train. I just still need to formulate a proper training schedule :P

The one thing that I've forgotten about running is just how hungry it makes you :S So I set out to the kitchen to make yummy portable healthy chewy oatmeal Timbits as post-running snacks. I baked these before for a friend's B-day, but I've used more honey to make them more desert like. When baking I actually like to undercook the cookies as it keeps them moist and chewy. Also, keeping them in the fridge and eating them cold makes them taste so good and refreshing! So further a do, I'd like to introduce the...

Home at Last

That was one heck of a weekend!

View of Calgary from the airport

Calgary!!!

I can't believe it! I'm going to Calgary today for my synchro competition. I am sooo psyched!!! The only thing is that I had to wake up at 4:30 am. (Hence, the picture looks so dim) Ick! I'll tell you all about my trip when I get back.

Never fear! Green Tea Infused 12 Grain Cereal is here!

I bought some of this stuff at Bulk Barn and it's got 12 grains in it. I mean it's got everything I could think of wheat, rye, brown flax, golden flax, sunflower seeds, oats, buckwheat, triticale, millet, barley, steel cut oats, and white sesame seeds. Did I name them all? Just wow! It tastes amazing and is so chewy! I didn't really have much groceries left so I decided to flavour it with some green tea and hey it worked :D

Green Tea Infused 12 Grain Cereal