Training for a half marathon

So, I've decided to train for a half marathon! I've run two before, one in 2009 and one in 2010. I wanted to  make it an annual event, but unfortunately I didn't get ready in time to run one in 2011. But I plan to do one this spring! There's one in my area scheduled for Earth Day in April. I don't have a time goal (I am way too slow of a runner for that). My goal is just to finish the race. Having the half marathon as a goal is a perfect way for me to make sure I keep up with running (or exercise of any kind).

not really how I look when I run

I wanted to share my training schedule, since I've used it before and found it easy to follow even with a busy work/life schedule. It only asks you to run three times a week, two half-hour runs during the week and one long run on the weekend. If you don't have time to do a long run on a weekend (or if it's too snowy outside -- like it was for me this weekend), just move it to Monday or Tuesday. 

When I first started training in 2009, I was a terrible, slow runner and really didn't think I could ever run 13 miles...in a row...But the training schedule (from Jeff Galloway) I used was just enough to ease me into running longer and longer distances. For those that haven't done much running at all, Jeff Galloway has a conditioning program to try for eight weeks before beginning half marathon training.

I'm currently in week six of the half marathon training schedule, which means that the reasonable-distance runs are out of the way (the longest one I have done so far is 6.5 miles). The next few weeks bring much longer ones. This is where really interesting podcasts come in handy... Anyway, without further ado, here is the schedule. Notice that it should be started 17 weeks before the race. For more information, see Jeff Galloway's site.

Half Marathon Training Schedule for Runners and Walkers
Week	Monday	Tuesday TT	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	off	30 min run	off	25 min run	easy walk	off	3 miles
2	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	4 miles
3	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	5 miles
4	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	2.5 miles
5	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	6.5 miles
6	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	3 miles with MM
7	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	8 miles
8	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	3 miles with MM
9	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	9.5 miles
10	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	4 miles
11	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	11 miles
12	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	4 miles with MM
13	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	12.5 miles
14	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	4 miles with MM
15	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	14 miles
16	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	5 miles
17	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	Half Marathon Race
18	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	5 miles
19	off	30 min run	off	30 min run	easy walk	off	6-8 miles

What the new school lunch menus will (hopefully) look like

The USDA put out a proposed before/after menu for schools, comparing what old lunches look like (hot dogs, pizza, tater tots...basically baseball game food) to what the new ones should look like when schools start following the new guidelines. Hooray! The new menu looks fantastic. These are the types of meals I would like my students to be eating. But, like I said in my previous post, now kids need to be taught how and why to eat these new healthy foods. Otherwise they won't eat them.

Here is some other coverage of the new lunch regulations:

Marion Nestle on Food Politics (who says kids need to be taught where their food comes from for this to work)
NY Times (which says that the potato industry is apparently still upset that "the potato is being downplayed in favor of other vegetables." Good.)
Fed Up with Lunch (who says kids need more time to eat these healthy lunches...currently they get about 15 minutes at most schools)

Healthy school food needs to come with healthy food education

Today Michelle Obama announced the new nutrition standards for public school lunches. The standards call for doubling the amount of fruits and vegetables, offering only whole-grain foods, and reducing fat and sodium. She had a great quote, saying

When we send our kids to school, we have a right to expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we're trying to keep from them when they're at home. We have a right to expect that the food they get at school is the same kind of food that we want to serve at our own kitchen tables.

She is right. Parents do have a right to expect healthy food be served at their kids' schools. But I don't think that kids will automatically eat these more nutritious lunches. Kids are very used to the fatty, salty, sugary foods that are so bad for them. Thus, when healthier foods are introduced, they're less likely to eat them. It's not just because "kids are picky eaters." Yes, some kids are picky eaters. But for the most part, kids will eat foods they are familiar with. They are very familiar with pizza, and chicken nuggets, and french fries. Why? Because this is what they are eating at fast food restaurants, at school, and sometimes at home. Most kids are NOT familiar with eggplant, couscous, kale, and garbanzo beans. So they don't eat them. (Would YOU eat a strange-colored, squishy and/or crunchy food that you had never seen before?)

Fortunately, this is not an insurmountable problem. With healthy lunches should come healthy food education. Kids need to be thinking about healthy food, learning about healthy food, getting excited about healthy food. The earlier a child is introduced to healthy eating habits, the more likely she is to keep these healthy eating habits.

Schools need to bring in chefs, farmers, and nutritionists to talk to their students. They need to model healthy eating habits by eating school lunches (or their own vegetable-packed homemade lunches) right next to their students. They need to make vegetables, fruits, and other unprocessed foods seem more familiar, more appetizing. And last, they need to be teaching kids about food on a regular basis. This means teaching them how to cook it, how to grow it, how to eat it.

Middle school students design a poster
explaining why green foods are so good for you

I have been working with Seven Generations Ahead, the farm-to-school organization in Chicago that I have mentioned before, to help create a food curriculum for teachers of 5th-8th grade students. The curriculum, called Linking Plants and Food, hits on all the important aspects of healthy food education: how to cook it, how to grow it, how to eat it. It also delves into issues of food justice and access and sustainable farming. This curriculum will get students thinking about food and developing healthy eating habits. Our hope is that, while school lunches slowly become healthier, kids will slowly become healthier eaters who understand where their food comes from.

Linking Plants and Food is set to be released in the next few weeks. I am so excited to see it, and use it in my classes. For more information on Linking Plants and Food, see sevengenerationsahead.org or contact act@sevengenerationsahead.org. I will repost as soon as it is officially released!

What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

I came across this video a while ago called 23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? It's a bit long (nine minutes) but it stuck with me. If you don't have time to watch it, the basic message is that thirty minutes of exercise a day will make a huge difference in your health. It's hard to find the time, particularly in the winter with days getting dark by 5:00. I'm so much less motivated to run after it starts getting dark. But this video was a good little push to help me realize it's worth it.

Some new blogs for the new year

In the past year I've discovered so many fantastic, informative food and health blogs. They inspire me to keep eating healthy, cooking creatively, and staying active. Here are a few recent discoveries:

New Domesticity: This one is perfect for anyone who has recently taken on canning, knitting, gardening, making their own shampoo, or any of those newly-popular domestic projects. The author asks, "Why are women of my generation, the daughters of post-Betty Friedan feminists, embracing the domestic tasks that our mothers and grandmothers so eagerly shrugged off?" SO interesting, since I am slowly becoming one of those women...

Eat Drink Better: This blog posts several articles a day that are related to sustainable eating. If you only had time to read one food blog, I would suggest this one, since they cover almost all current events related to food safety, politics, and cooking.

Feminist Kitchen: Pretty awesome blog that explores women and food, and how they have interacted throughout history (and still today).

Mark Bittman: Not a new blog, but I had to put it in here because I love his well-spoken and passionate articles, as well as his recipes. He also offers tons of food-related links once a week.

Homegrown: Fun articles by all different people attempting to grow their own food and generally live more sustainably.