Chafed Nipple Angst

My nipples have been useless since, well, the day I was born. Although useless, they have really never bothered me, and I will go years without giving them a second thought. That all changed a month ago when I finished a long run in pain from nipple chafing. The constant rubbing of sweat soaked tech fabric on sensitive appendages is a recipe for suffering. Once the outer epidermis is scraped off and blood is exposed, the salty sweat quickly reminds me, once again, that my nipples are still there.

So I read up on what to do about it. I didn't want to end up like those guys at the end of a marathon with streaks of blood running down their shirts:

I figure I could either opt for a red shirt, run with my hands pulling my shirt away from my body, or solve the problem. I'm not complaining much really. I mean, I wouldn't trade all guy probs for even one girl prob, but if nipple chafing can be prevented, it should be. 

Since it fixes everything else, I started with duct tape. 

It worked for five miles then slipped off due to sweat.

I next tried chap stick. That wore off too and only delayed the inevitable. I was down to Nip Guards that I have heard so much about, waterproof band aids and mole skin. 

The problem with Nip Guards is that they cost two dollars per run. Who wants to pay that much? Mole skin is second most expensive so I decided to try the waterproof band aids. 

These did the trick. I ran 15 miles with them, sweated so much that my shirt about stood up by itself after my run, and had some difficulty peeling them off after my shower. They cost about $.25-$.35 per long run, and they let me forget about my nipples again for a few years. Oh, and one last things, Make sure you shave the area the band aid will cover.

Altra

One of Altra's latest videos...




I love my Altras. I have several pair and do not run in anything else. I use Provisions for asphalt running,

Lone Peaks for loose trails and short runs,

And Olympus' for long trail runs.

Altra gives all of the advantages of barefoot running but without the pain. They are Zero Drop, meaning that they do not have a wedge sole. The area under my toes is the same thickness as the area under my heel. It is a much more natural running position. They also have a larger toe box. This allows toes to splay and be used naturally during a run.

Both conditions are beneficial to running ergonomics. My wife has had chronic knee issues for several years. A few summers ago, she ran the second half of her fourth marathon with ice packs on her knees. She put on her first pair of Altras and within a few runs her knee issues went away. 

The guys at Altra are great runners who know their stuff. Brian Beckstead ran Boston last year twice. He ran the race backward before the start then ran down when everyone else did. I ran into founder Seth Wold after one of his test runs. He holds several marathon course records including a 2:22 finish at the Ogden Marathon. He was finalizing design on the new Olympus' at the time. I asked him how far he had run on the test pair. He said he had done 28 trail miles before noon and had about 20 minor changes to design onto the Olympus' before they went into production. 

Here is part of the Altra story:

Bottom line is that I hated running before Altras. I love running now. 

Trail Run March 18, 2014

I will occasionally highlight a run or a bike ride. This is my trail run from March 18, 2014. I am contemplating signing up for the Timp Trail Marathon. This run was an evaluation to see how far along I am, if I can get ready and how I will have to change my workouts.

I ran over mostly hilly trail terrain for 8.9 miles (the Mr. Monk in me hates that!) gained 1879 feet of elevation, burned 2161 calories and kept a 12:06 mile pace.

I ran in a long sleeve, nylon shirt and shorts. It started to snow on part of the run and I wished I had worn more. Here are some of the pictures:

My Fitness Pal is My Fitness Pal

My wife read to me the conclusion of a weight loss article recently. The author matched personality types to weight loss methods. Dieters had found success with South Beach, Weight Watchers, Adkins, and HCG as long as the diet matched their lifestyle and personality choices. If there is any truth to that, I have found my perfect match. Here is how it works:

In my profile on My Fitness Pal I indicated that I wanted to lose 1.5 lbs per week. My normal calorie burn for my desk job lifestyle for a guy who weighed 255 was 2600 calories per day. Since one pound = 3500 calories, to lose 1.5 lbs per week, I would need a 750 calorie per day deficit to meet the goal. My daily allotment was 1850 calories.

At 1850 calories, I am hungry throughout the day. The only way to increase the allotment is to work out. The harder I work out, the more I get to eat. Although exercise certainly increases my appetite, it seems to do so at about a 70% rate. Meaning that if I burn 1000 calories during a workout, the exercise increases my hunger by 700 calories. That is really cool and makes sense. During a good workout, the majority of the energy I consume comes from glycogen which comes from the food I ate hours or days ago. The other portion of the energy consumed is from fat stores. It seems that my body is anxious to replenish the glycogen, hence the hunger, and not as interested in replenishing the fat stores.

I have had big days where I have burned 3500 calories. I have been able to go to bed with a 1500 calorie deficit on top of my 750 calorie deficit built into the system. Those are good days. If every day were like that, I would be able to safely drop four + lbs per week (2250 calories per day for 7 days/3500 calories), but by muscles, joints, skin and other organs need recovery time.

I had a short road run yesterday morning and a long trail run in the afternoon. The results are shown below.

Food

My breakfast this morning was a mostly egg white omelet with a little cheese and a thin slice of ham and a killer green smoothie. I could eat a package of Oreos. The only restriction I have is to be under my calorie allotment at the end of the day. Experience has taught me that if I choose the Oreos, I will be hungry a lot sooner and my workouts will suffer. In 73 days, the only unhealthy things I have eaten are two donuts and a batch of carmel popcorn (my great weakness). I will also eat Swedish Fish on long runs, but I am not counting those as junk.

Logging food takes about five minutes per day. The app displays my common food choices and has an enormous database of common branded and homemade foods. It also comes with a barcode reader that allows for quick input of packaged goods.  

Exercise

Because I do not incorporated weight lifting into my regimen, I do not know how it works. Last Saturday I needed to run 12 miles for marathon preparation (more on that later). Because the course is mostly down hill, I needed to run mostly down hill. Early in the morning I drove my car to the top of a local canyon (South Fork), ran 12 miles to my house then rode my bike up to get my car. I averaged just under a 10 minute mile during the run. Using a combination of Strava and my wife's Garmin Forerunner 305, I came up with a calorie burned number (I take the lower of the Strava and the Garmin reading. More on Strava and Garmin later). I input that number into My Fitness Pal, did the same for the bike ride and enjoyed adding on over 3500 calories to my possible daily consumption. 

My current calorie allotment prior to workouts is 1740. My weight loss has caused my overall calorie requirement to decrease.

Progress

My Fitness Pal comes with reporting. The top graph is my weight loss since January 5th. The sharp initial decline is typical for me. It represents less stuff in my system and other factors. I am more excited about the consistency after the initial drop. The bottom graph shows my net calories consumed for one month. You can see that I had four bad days, four really good days and a bunch of good days. 

Rules

1. Always record everything
2. Come in under your allotment six days per week

My Fitness Pal takes a minimal amount of discipline to use the app and a lot more to obey it. I give it five stars as a tool for fitness and weight loss.

From Fat to Fit before Fifty

On January 5th 2014 I had loosened all of my belts and my loose fitting pants were snug. The trend was bad, and the holidays had taken their toll. I normally achieve some level of fitness and shed some pounds through the spring and summer, but I never get to the point of adequate fitness. One professor of health told me that I am a classic endomorph.

This means that I have a tendency to carry large amounts of fat and muscle. It is true that I am quickly able to add strength and muscle mass when I dedicate time to weight lifting, but my passions are less in muscle strength and size and more into endurance sports. In 2007 I trained for several long cycling events including Lotoja, a 206 mile race from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming. I completed several 100 mile races and another 200 miler, the Desperado Dual. I am not fast and do not climb hills well. The body type that benefited me during high school football and college weight lifting was now burdensome. Though I do okay for a clydesdale, I cannot keep up with lighter riders.

During my peak fitness in 2007 I had gotten down in weight to 229 from a high earlier in the year of 260. At 229, even as an endomorph I am carrying around a 25 pound fat suit.

Gallons of Milk

At one point on a mountain bike ride I was trying to explain to my very light, fit friends what it is like to ride hard to keep up at my weight (245 at the time). I told Mark that to feel what it would be like to ride at my weight, he would have to strap 11 gallons of milk to his body. He asked, "what?" I explained that a gallon of milk weighs eight pounds and that the difference in weight between his and my weight was 88 lbs. I asked how he would like to bike the same trail with 11 gallons of milk strapped to his back.

He and the rest of the group were merciless. They then wanted to know the gallon of milk equivalent to everything they saw. They would say, "Hey Dave, what do you think that rock formation weighs in gallons of milk?" They were unrelenting. I got no sympathy and just tried to keep up.

Weight Loss History

I had tried lots of things to lose weight to be more fit and to ride faster and farther. Running has always been painful, and my fit wife would tell me that marathon running (she did four in one summer) at five pounds less makes a huge difference for her. I always wondered what it would be like to run at 50 pounds less. I had done South Beach which had consistently helped me drop between 5 and ten pounds very quickly, but that is as far as I could get. I tried upping my exercise to very high levels. I tried Atkins, Zone and others. None seemed to last very long. I would drop a little then start hating the food I had to eat, then plateau, then, when winter rolled around, I would pack it on again.

The top picture is of me riding Little Creek Mesa, October 2013. I got a lot of heat for the shirt selection. I weighed 250 at the time. The bottom one is of two of my lighter riding buddies weighing in at 150 and 175.

The Beginning

On January 5th, 2014, three things happened. I weighed in at 255 (I'm 6'2"), I complained and my wife suggested I use MyFitnessPal. 255 for my height is obese per the BMI. I knew that I could safely ignore the BMI score because other indicators were okay. Cholesterol, resting heart rate and blood pressure were all in normal ranges, so I did not worry about some of the problems that accompany obesity.

The following posts are the journey of my progress using My Fitness Pal. It will not work for everyone. It takes discipline not to cheat and to record all of your calorie consumption and exercise, but it has worked wonders for me.