Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

Tag Archives: running


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Missing a toenail and proud of it!

Yikes! Where's your toenail?

Yikes! Where’s your toenail?

Bruising the space between a toenail and toe is very common among runners. We’re talking about a blood blister often referred to as “runner’s toe” or “black toe.” I think of it as nasty toe, and it’s been a fact of my life for years. In fact, I hadn’t really thought much about it lately until I saw a post on Facebook about a pooch named Hooteeny. While looking for adventure one day, Hooteeny jumped from a second story window, lost his toenail and then, like any good runner, happily went about his adventure. That impressed me.

So why do so many runners lose their toenails? The biggest culprit is poor fitting shoes. When running for long periods of time, if that toe is rubbing up against the front of your shoe, bruising can occur. Running downhill and running in hot weather (downhill causes trauma, warm temps make the feet swell) can increase the odds of injuring a toenail or two. Other causes are trauma to the toes like jumping from a second story window or stumping your toe on a rock.

To prevent bruised toenails, make sure that you’re wearing the correct running shoe size (at least 1/2 size bigger than your street size), and keep your foot as dry as possible by wearing good wicking socks, not cotton ones.

If you have a bruised toenail, no worries. It will fall off with a new nail trailing right behind. The experts say to leave it alone, as long as the pain is manageable. The damaged part of the nail is gradually pushed off, and a new nail will replace it. Don’t force the old nail off – it will fall off on its own. If at any point you notice redness and infection, see a doctor. Personally, I cut mine off so it doesn’t snag on stuff and rip off like in the case of Hooteeny. My way is by no means doctor approved and it’s gross but it’s the truth.

If you’re concerned about having a pretty pedicure, I’ve read about people who use nail polish directly on the skin as the nail comes in, or glue the nail that fell off to your new nail that is coming in. Personally I think that’s even nastier than no toenail at all. My suggestion, embrace your battle wound with pride and let nature run its course.

This post was inspired by Hooteeny, the K9 Escapologist.


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Reema & CJ take August Client of the Month!

Reema & CJ

Reema & CJ

Please send a big ol’… HEY NOW! HOLLA HOLLA!!! To Reema and CJ, Motion Starved’s August Clients of the Month!

In less than two months Reema has managed to notably increase her race speed, strengthen her entire body and say bye-bye to pain from a previous injury.

CJ on the other hand has learned that you don’t have to huff and puff to get yourself up a hill, she’s gained calorie burning, luscious looking muscle mass and increased her planking time from :15 to a full :60. The best part of CJ’s progress… she’s realized that a strong core and the ability to master the plank comes in handy not only while working out, but on the play ground of life!

Thanks for all your hard work and positive attitudes ladies! You make a gal proud!

(A special thanks to Athleta SF for supplying them with fashionable prizes.)


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Nice effort Mr. Bus… but we beat you… AGAIN!

Chilly on the starting line

6:00 pm July 11, 2012 – Myself and #1 assistant Kevin arrive at the intersection of Cervantes and Fillmore Street. Just minutes later a women in running gear walked up. I greeted her, ask if she was here to run with the bus and before she could say  “yes,” a spandex clad herd emerged. Within minutes there were 80 some people standing at the intersection. Holy cow!

As I attempted to meet and greet the racers, Kevin and Sally of Athleta managed the paperwork. Looking around I was stunned by the massive group, were they wondering  WTF was going on and when could they start running…?

Driver of our victim

6:20 I asked Jenn Pattee of Basic Training to wander across the street to where the busses deploy. Her mission, to find and make friends with our impending victim. It took a couple of trips but eventually Jenn managed to ascertain, befriend and photograph the man who would drive our target. A job well done.

6:28 pm, shockingly on time, the janky bus started sputtering toward the start. I went into hyper drive attempting to run through the rules of the race. Just as I spit out my last word the bus pulled up at the bus stop, aka: starting line.

My last words were…“When the light turns green GO!”

The second the light turned green 80 some pair of legs were off and running as the bus sputtered off down the road behind them. At the Chestnut Street bus stop, the bus was forced to stop and pick up passengers. This allowed the runners to break away, make their way across Lombard and eventually up the hill. At this point the bus had been dropped by the entire field or runners.

It wasn’t until the second block of 15% grade on Steiner Street that the bus managed to close the gap and catch the back of the field. By this time many of the racers were just blocks away from crossing the finishing line at Sacramento.  As the bus turned to make it’s way up the final climb on Broadway I did my best to block for the remaining field. My trusty SEVEN (bike) and I made every effort to detain the bus by slowly grinding up the climb in front of the coach. That’s when the bus softly tooted its horn, put the hammer down, attacked and sped past me on my left. As I crested the top of the climb and passed the bus at the stop on the corner, I head the driver yell out his window, “nice try!”

Making my way down Fillmore toward the finishing line I noticed shop owners and bystanders cheering the runners on. It was amazing to see the racers sprinting toward the finish line while dodging pedestrian traffic to the cheers of strangers on the busy shopping street.

By the time I reached the finish line most of the runners had come through and were enthusiastically cheering on their fellow racers. There were folks of all shapes and sizes, women, men, dogs, strollers, young and forever young.  Everyone had smiles on their faces. It was thrilling.

While not every person managed to beat the bus the majority of the field did. And frankly, it seemed to me as though the bus was moving a little faster than usual. Do you suppose the driver took our challenge to heart? Or maybe Muni learned of my advice to start working on it’s climbing. We’ll never really know…

Party time!

Post race, we were off to the Athleta store for snacks, congratulations and awards. A good time was had by all and the excitement was flabbergasting.

Special thanks to Athleta on Fillmore for their bountiful sponsorship, of prizes, snacks, cheerleaders, promotion and general excitement for the cause! Thanks to Hint water for keeping the racers hydrated, to Lisa and Sports Basement for their prize contributions. To Jenn Pattee and her Basic Training crew, thank you for helping to make this the best Run with the Bus ever! To Kevin and all my friends who came out to support.

Lastly… THANK YOU to everyone who showed up, raced and had a good time. That includes The Bus! This event would not have been possible without every last one of you! Stay tuned… this is just the beginning…


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Enough already! Take care of your feet!

Why are you so mean to me?

I am completely baffled by people who don’t take care of their feet. I’m not talking about the folks who walk around with monster-long toenails or filthy-dirty feet (although that’s nasty). I’m talking about those of you who don’t take proper care of your overall foot health. You don’t wear proper athletic footwear and you let the muscles in your feet stiffen so badly that it hurts to walk. And then you complain that your feet hurt. ‘sup with that?

Think about it! You’ll be stomping around on those poor little tootsies for 80 or 100 years. Please people, show ‘em some love!

You may not think about your feet that often, way down there at the ends of your legs, but they’re an essential part of almost everything you do. Whether walking, running, exercising, or just standing, having feet that are happy and well cared for make life far more pleasant. Therefore, knowing how to care for your feet is key.

I’ve posted about this before but lets refresh with some basic things you can do to keep your feet moving.

#1 – Stretch and massage the tendons and muscles in your feet. Especially the thick tissue that runs along the bottom of your feet. Here’s how.

  • Toe Writing — With your feet on the floor and your shoes off, use your toes to “write” the letters of the alphabet, from A to Z, on the floor.
  • The Grip — With your feet on the floor and your shoes off, try picking up a pencil or pen with your toes. Or try picking up a marble.
  • Toe Stretches — Kneel on you knees and curl your toes under your feet. Heals will be up and your rear end will be resting on your heals.
  • Flex & Point — Lift one leg off the ground. Point your toes forward, like a ballerina pointing her extended foot, and hold that position for 15 seconds. Now flex your foot, hold 15 seconds and repeat 10 times each foot.
  • Stretch your arches every day — I like to sit on my shins, butt resting on my heels with toes curled under. You can also stand with your toes against a wall (one foot at time) and lean slightly into the wall until you feel a stretch along the bottom of the foot. Do each foot twice. If you don’t like those ideas, just sit on the floor and pull your toes back with your hand. The idea is to stretch the bottom of the foot.
  • Stretch your toes — Squeeze your toes together (they might crack) and hold for a few seconds, then flex them up. Do this a few times every day.
  • Don’t forget — Ankle Circles and Toe Points to keep the supporting joints flexible.

General Foot Love

  • Stimulate the bottom of your feet — The soles of the feet are extremely sensitive due to a high concentration of nerve endings. Post workout give ‘em a nice soapy scrub with the loofah to wake up all those neurons & synapses. A little lotion massage after is always a good idea too.
  • Rule of thumb — As soon as you’re finished working out take off your shoes. Your feet will swell from the workout (or hard day at work) so give em’ room to breath.
  • Ice your feet — After a long run or day on your feet soak your feet in an ice bath or rest them on a ice bag for 10-15 minutes, then lay on your back on the floor and put your legs up the wall. Stay here for another 10-15 minutes.
  • Don’t file down or shave calluses or corns too much —These are nature’s way to protect you from abnormal pressure. Get appropriate insoles, padding or bigger shoes. A specialist podiatrist or biomechanical evaluation may be required for this.
  • Get a foot massage — You can do it yourself but I recommend having someone else do it for you.

Shoe stuff

  • Buy all your shoes late in the day — Your feet are larger at the end of the day.
  • Running shoes — Replace your shoes every 300 to 500 miles.
  • Obvious stuff — High heeled, pointed toe shoes, mules, strappy sandals and sandals that have thongs between the toes are best avoided. If you want to wear them, keep it to short periods and show your feet some extra love when you’re done torturing them.

This is just a start but you have to start somewhere and this is easy no brainer stuff.

P.s. If you liked this post you may like this one too.


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Dusty Muddy fun – NorCal Warrior Dash 2011

We are Warriors!

Talk about stepping outside your comfort zone! When I refer to getting outside ones comfort zone I’m referring to pushing beyond your usual day-to-day physical or psychological limits. Well let me tell you, there’s nothing like walking into what seems to be a ginormous frat party where 75% of the population is well under the age of 30 and you, are close to twice the average age of participant. All you can hope for is that nobody notices.

That’s what it was like stepping into the corral at the Warrior Dash in lovely Hollister California yesterday. What’s the Warrior Dash? If you don’t know, look here. It’s video of our course. If you have a clue than you know it’s a 5K obstacle course. You run, climb things, slide down things, jump over things and swim through mud so thick it’s like being inside a pudding cup. The best part was the dude driving the truck along side as you run the first 1.5 miles kicking up warm dust so thick it felt like running through a forest fire.

In an effort to keep this quick, let me just say that in spite of dust induced diminished lung capacity and a few extra lines in my face I had a great time at The Dash. This was my first obstacle course and a great introduction to this sort of event. I will say that if you plan to participate in one of these things (even this one, the “easy” one) I suggest you do some research and some training. Old Lady Kelley passed up dozens and dozens of 20 something’s having to walk rather than run and unable to complete the challenging, but basic obstacles. These events require well-rounded fitness of endurance, agility and upper body strength. Make no mistake.

So there you have it. I give The Warrior Dash 4 stars. A great way for anyone to shake things up, step outside your comfort zone and test your fitness, or just have a little adventure. Oh… and you get a free body mud facial, you get hosed down by a hot fire man with a big hose and a really cool fuzzy hat with horns!

P.s. I’ll post official photos on our Motion Starved Facebook page once they become available. Go there now and “like” us if you want to see ‘em.


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The season of eating

Hummm, what shall I try first?

I hate to do this to you, but it needs to be done. As I’ve said before, Halloween marks the beginning of the season of eating. It starts with Halloween candy on Halloween and ends with champagne brunch or a greasy hangover recovery meal on New Years Day. In spite of our best efforts most of us end up adding layer of blubber to our winter coats during this period.

Let’s start with Halloween. Obviously the best way to keep from packing on the pounds is to completely abstain from taking a dip into the candy bag. Since I’m pretty sure every one of us (except for me because I’m perfect) is going to sample at least one treat this Halloween, there are a few things to consider.

  • First — My fav, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (5 mini ones) contain 220 calories, 13g fat and would take me 20 minutes to burn off running a 10-minute mile. Yikes! 20 minutes for just 5 baby cups and who can eat just 5? Not me! Is it worth it? No!
  • A better choice — Dark chocolate. Dark Choco contains less sugar and is rich in antioxidants.
  • Go nuts & fruits — Chocolate that contains raisins and or nuts contain a variety of nutrients, healthy fats and fiber that displace some of the total sugar.
  • White is evil — White chocolate is your least healthy option. It doesn’t actually contain any cocoa, only cocoa butter and it’s packed with sugar and added fat from the extra milk products used. Uck!
  • The bottom line — You put the calories in; you must burn ‘em out. You know that. Right?
  • Some math — 4 Mini Musketeers are equal to 94 calories, 4 Mini Snickers 170 cal’s, 1 snack box Raisinets, 150 cal’s and 4 Milk Maid Caramels contain 150 calories. The average 150-pound person will burn off about 115 calories during 30 minutes of cycling or 340 calories running for the same amount of time at a moderate pace. Think about that.

While I really do try to stay away from the candy I understand the desire to indulge. With that, I hope you will simply remember to work a little harder this season to keep from busting out of your holiday gear. Remember, calories in, calories out.

As always I’ll be here with suggestions so we can all stay fit and fine this yummy season.


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Weekend Warrior Challenge

I suggest you drink U'r wine after your run...

What’s the haps for the weekend? Here’s an idea, how about I give you a little challenge? It’s just a little something to get you started.

First, did you read my post on Watercress? It’s very stimulating, or at least informative. I suggest you check it out and toss together a delicious watercress feast over the weekend. Try it, you may like it.

Planning to get some exercise this weekend? If you are, good for you! If you aren’t, shame on you! Either way, I suggest that you spice things up by adding this little cardio interval circuit to your plans.

Here’s how it works:

Warm up with a jog, walk and light stretches 10 minutes.
30 seconds cardio (any form you like)
60 seconds rest (yep, rest, stand or walk around just breathe!)
Repeat this sequence for 45 minutes.
Cool down with 5 minutes of stretching.

Voila! You just burned off four glasses or wine, or roughly 400 calories. I bet you feel good too!

Not sure what I mean by “cardio?” Here are some ideas for your 30-second bouts. Choose one or mix it up.

Jog up stairs
Jump rope
Run/Run in place w/high knees
Ride a stationary bike briskly
Skip
Step Up (rapidly done)
Jumping Jacks
Mountain Climbers
Burpees or Jump Squats

Give it a try! It’s only 30 seconds of “hard,” then you get to rest for twice that. How bad can it be? I did this workout today and I’m still alive to write about it. Let me know what you think, good or bad! Same goes for the watercress! Speak up people!

Happy weekend!


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Ultra insanity

Did you hear about the woman who attempted to swim 103 miles from Cuba to Florida this week? Her name is Diana Nyada, she’s 61. The swim was expected to take about 60 hours but she was pulled from the water after 29. It’s too bad she didn’t reach her goal but they said, “Her will was stronger than her body.” Can you imagine? Regardless, you must respect the massive effort and acknowledge her success, short of her goal or not.

Last weekend Penny and I went for a trail run in The Marin Headlands. As we trundled off I noticed that there was an organized race going on. When we crested the summit of our first climb I spied a fellow staggering toward me. It was his race number that gave away the fact that he was participating in the event. Normally I would never bother someone during a race but this chap looked like he could use some love so I asked him how far he was racing. He said “100 miles.” After gasping I asked, how far along are you? “Mile 98”  (although he was wrong, I knew the finish was at least 5 miles away. I kept my mouth shut though). Thank God he was almost done, he looked like he was about to fall on his face. Poor thing!

A few seconds later a couple more 100-mile racers trotted toward us. They were behind the other fellow, but seemed like they were having a better time of it. At that point Penny said something to me that I can’t completely remember but it was to the effect of “don’t you feel insignificant?” She was referring to the fact that they were “running” 100 miles and the most we’ve ever managed is 13, plus a few yards. For a second I kind of did feel small.  I had only panted my way through 3 miles of a 6-mile run and those folks had been running since 7:30 am Saturday morning (it was now 9am Sunday morning, they’d been running for over 25 hours sans sleep, and had at least an hour still to go).

It only took me a split second to snap out of feeling insignificant, I thought to myself: NO, I don’t feel lesser than those folks, those people are nuts! Why would you run for that long? Or, why would you face shark-invested water and insane current like Diana Nayda did for days? I’d be so bored doing the same thing for that long that I could never invest in the physical part. I did feel bad for not understanding.

My solace came as I realized that most likely not one of those 100 mile racers or The Swimmer Lady would think that racing a bike in a pack of 60 at high-speed around tight corners or riding as fast you can up the side of a mountain is at all sane. They have their way and I have mine. That’s what makes the world go around and it seems to work pretty well in most respects.

With that I say: A very impressive job to all of you Ultra Endurance Athletes, I admire your patience and drive. To those of us who dance to a different beat, let us also celebrate our efforts. We’re all different and one of us is not better than the other, just different.

Cheers…


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Do U have what it takes 2B a Warrior?


Last month my friend Dawn participated in her first Warrior Dash. What’s a Warrior Dash? According to their website it’s a, mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme run from hell. It’s a fierce running series held on the most challenging and rugged terrain across the globe. Warriors conquer extreme obstacles, push their limits and then celebrate (with beer and “gargantuan” roasted turkey legs). Sounds like hella fun if you ask me! Dawn thought so too, which is why she and her friend Tiffany donned their old running shoes (you did wear old shoes right Dawn?) and bucked up for what sounds like a death deifying challenge.

Rather than foolishly attempting to explain Dawns’ race I ask you watch the short video above. It’s taken via a GoPro video camera that her husband Mark Brent strapped to her chest. Thanks to Mark (and Dawn) you get to experience the whole event at high speed. It looks really fun!

In the end Dawn had a great time. She says, “It was a little scary leaping over roaring fire, but EMT’s were close by, just incase…” She adds “The most challenging part was trying to untie our mud-caked shoe laces afterwards, all in all, what better way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon – got a great workout, caught up with an old friend, and got to share it with you all!  Oh, and the bonus – free body mud!”

Watch Dawns’ video! After that, you might actually consider signing up for an event like this yourself. They’re held all over the country. There’s one scheduled for the Bay Area in late October, which I’ll be participating in (can’t let Dawn have all the fun!). Let me know if you want to join the fun, we’ll be training for this event in all my classes starting next week!

P.s. Thanks for sharing your experience with us Dawn! You’re an inspiration! Wish you were here…

P.s.s. If you live in Seattle, check Dawn out. She’s at The Exercise Space. I can vouch for her, she has great taste in friends.


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Get outa the road!

I am George... go around me

This is George, George gets tired sometimes and when he does, he stops in his tracks and lays down. It’s pretty funny, but that’s because George is a dog with an impressive attitude.

It’s a little different for the rest of us, we’re expected to be a bit more mindful and to stay out of the way of things that might run us over or need to get past us. I bring this up because living in the middle of a tourist, and outdoor-life mecca I often risk my life (become annoyed) trying to get from one place to another either on my bike, running or walking.

We’ve all experienced it, folks walking or riding along in front of us only to stop dead in their tracks when they simply feel the urge. Never mind that you were right behind them.  My grandmother once fell down an escalator because some dork stepped off the moving contraption at the top but then just stood there. Granny had no place to go but down. After that Granny never got on an escalator again.

My favorite maneuver is the dude that blows past you on his bike or on foot only to slow down once ahead because he just used all his energy to pass. Now you’re forced to get around him. Even better are the hordes of people (not always tourists!) perched on bikes that like to stop in packs blocking the road or even in an intersection. WTF is that?  Get out of the road dummies! Oh… and getting a flat tire on your bike is no excuse to block the path. Find a safe place and move out-of-the-way of anything and everyone that may be headed toward you!

Consider this a friendly reminder. Be smart, be responsible and respect thy fellow public. Okay?