Archive | March, 2012

Training Recap: 3/5 – 3/11

12 Mar

The weather this past weekend was absolutely wonderful. Sunday after church, I went shopping at Gordman’s and found 4 cardigans for $5 each, as well as some basic tanks without shelf bras for $5 each. I love finding bargains! And now that it’s getting warmer outside but stays the same temperature in my office, it’ll be nice to have some cardigans to throw on over my summery tops.

After that, I went to a Silpada party, thrown by a lady I work with. I went planning to spend $50-60 and ended up deciding on this necklace:

There are so many pretty options to choose from, but I tried to buy something that I loved, that wasn’t like something I already have, and that would go with almost everything. This fit the bill!

While I was at the party, I ate more than my fair share of chips and guac, and I had a couple of margaritas. It was a great way to enjoy the beautiful weather. On the way home, I stopped and got Yogurtland. I was so full after that, I didn’t anything else until 9:00! (It was totally worth it.)

Anyway, on to last week’s training. It was a decent week, though as I look through my workout notes, I see remarks each time about my legs feeling heavy and tired. More on that in a bit.

Monday: 3.15 mile easy run (34:47, 11:02/mile)

Tuesday: Rest (day of the 12 hour meeting)

Wednesday: Rest (planned)

Thursday: 3.24 mile fartlek run (34:34, 10:40/mile)

This was the day that my legs felt the weirdest. My right leg was really stiff, and it seriously felt like I was running on someone else’s legs, or on fake legs. Just so weird. I think my body was freaking out a bit from Tuesday and Wednesday.

Friday: 4.53 mile tempo run (48:13, 10:38/mile); Insanity Strength Exercises

I ate 3 pieces of chocolate-covered licorice and 2 Starbursts before this run, even though I knew I’d regret it. And I did. Luckily, I also remembered to eat some Tums so no acid reflux, but my stomach was a little off.

Then I did the Insanity fit test exercises listed on nhershoes and that definitely got the heart rate soaring! I was amazed at my ability to do the Pushup Jacks until I re-watched the video afterward and realized that I had forgotten the pushup part. Whoops.

Saturday: 5.36 mile trail run (1:21:09, 15:08/mile)

Sunday: 2 mile walk with pooches (35:00), 40 min upper body weights (video)

I was going to do yoga again on Sunday like I did last weekend, but I figured it was a bad sign when five minutes in, my legs were already burning. So I did the upper body and core portions of Kathy Smith’s Lift Weights to Lose Weight 2 (BTW, this is a GREAT weights video – I don’t think I’ve ever not felt like jello afterward.)

Total Running Mileage: 16.28 miles

………………………..

So about those legs. I did an easy 3 mile jog today at a 12:00 pace and even that felt challenging. My legs are just exhausted. So I’m going to listen and take it easy until I’m not feeling like my legs are filled with lead – I think my legs are saying they need a little bit of a break. AND it probably didn’t help that I did a challenging trail run on my stepback week. heh.

I also crammed my 3 hard runs into Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of last week, and grouped my rest days together, both of which aren’t good. But life happened last week and it was all I could do. I am thinking through how I can be more of a stickler with my training plan – whether it requires saying no to things, running at work during lunch, running after work and not going home before my evening plans, or such. I have to put my foot down somewhere and say that my training is too important to keep getting bumped by silly things like work (kidding). So that’s where I’m at.

When can you tell your body needs a break?

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Slush and Mud.

10 Mar

Today, I ventured over to Red Rocks State Park for a 5-mile trail run. I’ve gone hiking in the foothills at this time of year before, and always regret it, because even though the snow has melted everywhere in Denver, it’s just beginning to melt up there – making the dirt trails very muddy and slippery.

But that doesn’t stop hardcore Coloradans (such as myself?). I got to the trailhead at 11:30 and the place was packed. Not a single open parking spot. There was a side section reserved for horse trailers until noon – and since there weren’t any horse trailers to be seen, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to grab a spot 30 minutes early.

The weather was absolutely beautiful today – clear skies, sunny, 60 degrees, a cool breeze just strong enough to feel good but not make it hard to run. It’s too bad I was almost working too hard to enjoy it. Almost.

Since this is my first trail run since last September, I was huffing and puffing up the steep parts. The steepest part also happened to be on the north side of the mountain, meaning it was also the muddiest and slipperiest. Which worked out okay, since I wanted to walk hike those parts anyway.

Before I knew it, I was at the top.

I really enjoy this trail.

My legs were pretty tired by the time I got to Mile 2 but I pushed on. I ended up finishing 5.37  miles in 1:21:09, a 15:08/mile pace. Pretty slow BUT that’s 8 seconds per mile faster than the last time I did this trail and this time, I did 2 more miles. I like progress, even if it’s small. 🙂

I don’t have splits again because my smartphone is being stupid (like that little play on words?). It’s 2 years old and while I am completely content with it and don’t want a new phone, I think I might have to get one.

Another sad thing is that the chest strap for my heart rate monitor is losing its juice as well – and to replace it will be about $75. I’m still debating if now is the right time to just spring for a Garmin. They do make Garmins that are also heart rate monitors – which I would really like – but they’re like $250. Ouch. Maybe for my birthday?

Anyway, it took me 46:44 to run the first 3 miles of this run, at which point I took a break to eat a Montana Huckleberry Hammer Gel and drink some water (I was carrying my Camelbak). I liked the flavor, but the gel was thicker than the Gu brand, which I wasn’t particularly a fan of.

The last 2.4 miles took me about 34 minutes.

And my legs were really dirty by the time I was done.

Well, I’m off to walk the pooches and then we’re going out to dinner and bowling with some new church friends.

Have a great Saturday night!

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School’s out for summer!

9 Mar

I get to leave work at 12:45 today. And because it’s sunny and almost 60 degrees outside, I feel like a kid getting out of school for the summer. I have been looking forward to this all week long – it’s the little things in life.

I am so excited to go on a run in the warm daylight, and still enjoy a full night of relaxation afterward. This week has been crazy and this afternoon will be Glorious.

I just have to make it through a call about life insurance with our financial planner…

You might know that I don’t do anything with money except spend it. All things financial bore me to tears and anger. When I announced last night that I was going to bed, Travis started talking to me about life insurance. Nope, not talking about this now. See ya.

Travis asked me again this morning when would be a good time to have our phone call. I couldn’t keep my eyes from rolling. The last thing I want to do on my glorious day of freedom is talk about money. 

But, in an effort to be grateful for a husband that cares about things like life insurance and kindly doesn’t ask me to be involved unless legally necessary, I will allow the phone call to infringe. I realize it’s not necessarily a good thing that I don’t want to be involved in our financial situation, but I don’t think you’d want to be involved in something that made you want to poke out your eyes with sharp objects either. (And no, I am not being overly dramatic at all.)

After the call of gloom, I will skip happily and merrily into my free afternoon of running and reading! I might even paint my toenails with the fun purple color I bought a couple weeks ago…

What are you up to this fine Friday? Do you like talking about finances and future planning?

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So tired. Need chocolate.

8 Mar

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I was starting a food log as part of the Love to Eat, Hate to Eat book study I’m doing with my church, and as a way to be more mindful of what I eat. I have been faithful in logging my food everyday, even on Tuesday when I was stuck in a meeting in the same freezing room for 12. hours. straight. Well, we did get a few breaks. But it was a looong day. Everyone at work was still exhausted yesterday. I feel mostly recovered. Wowza.

At first, I thought that my eating log wouldn’t be a true representation of my eating habits – wouldn’t knowing I was going to write it all down motivate me to choose wiser than normal? Perhaps it did for the first few days. But just like I can slouch on an exercise ball, I can eat for emotional reasons even if I’m tracking it.

I have been encouraged to see that 85% of my eating is not emotional. Some days I don’t even make one emotional choice. But then I have days like yesterday, when I’m exhausted and grumpy, and I just want sugar, sugar and more sugar, and throw all discipline and control out the window.

The biggest surprise shock has been to actually see how many calories I eat. In the past when I’ve counted calories or tracked my eating, I’ve conveniently ignored the times when I eat a little bit too much, or regret my dinner choice. “The damage is done – I’m moving on” was my mentality.

But if I am really trying to please God with my eating habits, I can’t just ignore the ugly parts. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). So to bring everything into the light, I’ve kept track of everything – the little bites here and there, the candy, the condiments, everything (even Tums!).

During the first week, I counted calories as I wrote my food down. But I could feel the temptation to become obsessed with the numbers and this is supposed to be about gaining insight and not about making changes. So last week, I decided that I’d leave that part off.

This morning, though, I went through my log from last week and tallied it up (mostly out of curiosity). I don’t believe that our bodies operate on a 24-hour schedule like we do, so I am using a 7-day average as the measuring stick. While some days are scary high (pushing 3,000 calories), the weekly averages for both last week and the first week are around 2,190 calories a day. According to this calculator of Daily Calorie Needs for a moderate activity level (I sit around at work but am fairly active otherwise), I’m eating the right amount for my body size and activity level. My scale agrees. I’m still at the same weight I was 2 weeks ago, 2 months ago, and 2 years ago. My body just likes this weight. So while the sticker shock has yet to wear off, I think that I’m feeding my body an appropriate amount.

That leaves me to tackle the whole emotional aspect of my eating habits. I wish it were as easy to solve that issue as it is to tally a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper. But it isn’t. On days like yesterday, when I am so moody and emotional in general, the idea of not eating the delicious-though-they-cost-$1.25 Reese’s peanut butter cups awaiting me in the vending machine makes me want to yell or hit the first person who dares to annoy me. Glorify God? Respect the temple? I. Don’t. Care. 

Even though I don’t have the solution figured out when I’m already in a bad mood, I do have one insight into prevention: SLEEP. It is no coincidence that yesterday was my roughest day eating-wise, and also the day I felt like a walking zombie. I’ve known for a while that Tiredness + Kathy = Bad Life Food Decisions. I think I also channeled my frustration over having to be at work into eating – Maybe this donut will send me into a wonderfully numb sugar coma so that I don’t realize I’m still here.

“Need to get more sleep” has been written on my log more days than not over the past 2 weeks. I haven’t been doing my morning routine of Bible + writing because I wake up sooooo tired (which is not normal for me). Several days, I’ve woken up to see that I had been hitting my snooze for 45 minutes without even realizing it. Yesterday after work, I walked in the door and promptly laid down on the couch. I didn’t even take my jacket off. I seriously would’ve gone to bed right after dinner if I hadn’t had my ladies group, and I would’ve skipped that, if I hadn’t been the one leading the discussion. I left right after we were done, went straight to bed when I got home, and then… I couldn’t fall asleep. {My mind was running a mile a minute. Even about work stuff. Seriously? So I finished reading Robinson Crusoe. The book was okay. It was pretty slow moving, which isn’t that surprising since it was first published in 1719 (100 years before Dickens was even born!).}

Anyway, to sum it all up, my eating log has helped me be more mindful of what I’m eating, but I have yet to eradicate emotional eating. Stay tuned for more on that…

Do you like reading old classics like Dickens, Tolstoy, or Twain? Which book is your favorite?

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Training Recap: 2/27 – 3/4

5 Mar

Yesterday, after we got home from church, I turned on my Harry Potter audiobook and deep cleaned our kitchen. The book kept me entertained enough that I powered through cleaning the microwave, refrigerator, freezer, the front of our cabinets, and the OVEN (that has needed to be done since we moved in 3.5 years ago). Now whenever I use the oven, I will think about the first lesson that Hagrid taught at Hogwart’s about Hippogriffs, because that was the story plot as I fumigated the kitchen with oven cleaner. (Am I the only one who can remember stuff like that?)

Even though I really dislike the act of cleaning, I love the aftermath. A clean house just makes me happy.

What else makes me happy is my second full week of marathon training. Life threw a few curveballs of busyness last week but I fought back.

Monday: 1.5 mile run on track (18:45, 12:30/mile)

This was when I almost got killed by brussel sprouts.

Tuesday: 3.6 mile tempo run (40:09, 10:54/mile)

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 4 mile run – 3 miles moderate (33:00, 11:00/mile), 1 mile time trial (9:42)

I wanted to do a speed workout this night, but since my long run on Saturday was going to be a tough one, I decided to do most of the run easy, and then do a 1 mile time trial. I definitely could have gone faster but I had to slow down for a car or two, and I was feeling some acid reflux. After Monday, I was still a little spooked. I seriously need to start eating Tums before each and every run I go on. But I feel like 9:42 is a good starting point.

Friday: 50 min P90X Yoga

Saturday: 7.94 mile hilly long run (1:27:27, 11:00/mile)

Sunday: 10 mile bike ride (45 min)

Finally, I got to ride my bike outside! It was 60* yesterday and sunny. It felt just like spring. I’m loving every minute of it and ignoring the Debbie Downers who keep telling me that March is usually Colorado’s snowiest month. A girl can dream, right?

Riding outside also means that I got to test out my new bike setup. The verdict is: meh. The seat was comfortable enough for 10 miles but I can’t envision me doing 40-50 miles on it. And for some reason, my back still really hurt after 5 miles. We took a break and I could barely stand up straight. If any of you out there know more about bikes than I do, is that just my back needing to get used to that, or is my bike fitted incorrectly?

Total Running Miles: 17.16

………………………

Finally, can I just say that this is the most annoying ad EVER?

The lady on the right sneezes and blows the entire calendar over. What’s so annoying is that you have to wait for the ad to run before you can do anything. Ugh. I would have expect that such a craptastic display of marketing ingenuity would come from Aetna. Have I ever told you how much I hate them?

And on that note, Monday is over! I have a work meeting tomorrow from 7 am to 7 pm so I probably won’t post. But it’s not that bad because they’re feeding us breakfast, lunch and dinner, AND since I’m a contractor and can only work 40 hours a week, I get to jet early on Friday. I won’t argue with that!

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A hilly long run.

4 Mar

Yesterday, I was scheduled to run 7 miles for my weekly long run. I was going to meet a friend for a killer 3-mile hill run (according to her) so I planned to do an 4 easy miles before we met up.

I got up at 7:00 and after eating a delicious peanut butter & banana waffle sandwich, I was out the door with the pooches by 7:30 for a 4-mile route that would take me up and over a steep but short hill twice.

I had done 60 minutes of P90X Yoga the night before and my legs weren’t that sore, they just felt tired – kind of the way your legs feel during a triathlon when you get off the bike. Your legs feel so strange that you can’t really tell how fast you’re running like you normally can.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I got to mile 1 and my watch read 10:20. Since this was supposed to be my easy long run, and I didn’t want to show up for my hill run with dead legs, I focused on keeping my pace comfortable. On the way back, though, my feet felt so light and my legs felt good so I ran at whatever pace felt good. I finished out those first 4 miles at an average 10:58 pace. (I don’t have splits because my phone’s GPS was acting up. Stupid.)

On my way home, I ran by a baseball field and noticed 5 big black dogs sitting out there. They didn’t seem to be moving, but then one of their tails started wagging. I stopped running and stared. What were dogs doing out on the baseball field? And where were their owners? And why were they sitting so still? They were all still as statues, except for the one that was wagging its tail.

Then I realized they were just statues, and the wind was blowing the one’s tail. I remembered that I had seen one of those at another park near our house and that one had freaked the crap out of me too. Once I realized they weren’t real, I was like, What in the heck? WHY would somebody put statues of coyotes out here and scare the living crap out of people? Travis told me today that they’re to scare off geese so that they don’t ruin the fields. I totally understand why the geese would be scared. I’m scared.

Anyway, I got back home and was gathering my things when my friend said it was too windy over at her house (which I totally believe – that wind is ferocious!) and she didn’t have time to drive over to my place. So I was on my own for the last 3 miles. I had changed yesterday to be my hill workout of the week and had been wanting to tackle the devil hills on Carr Street (those same hills that rocked me when I biked to work over the summer). So I mapped out 3 miles quick, grabbed my stuff and drove over to the park I planned to start at.

Before getting out of the car, I ate a peanut butter Gu.

 

I had heard about these from Amanda at Run to the Finish and thought I’d try them out. After dealing with frozen Shotbloks during the Ralston Creek Half, and getting sick of picking leftover gummy out of my teeth, I decided that I needed to find a different fuel. So I picked up 4-5 different flavors of Gu and some Honey Stingers. The peanut butter Gu was surprisingly delicious. It actually tasted like peanut butter, and the consistency was very close to peanut butter, only slightly runnier. I was definitely a fan.

And with that, I was off. The wind was cold and I had cooled down with the break between runs so I was not thrilled to be out there. But I am a stubborn person when I get an idea in my head. I was going to run 7 miles, no matter what.

I feel pretty good about these hills – a 4% grade for 1.38 miles. With some walking to catch my breath and doing what felt like an insanely slow shuffle run, I made it to turnaround in about 23:20 (11:54/mile). On the way back, though, it felt like I was cruising and I made it back in 20:06 (10:15/mile).

My view heading back:

All in all, I ended up running 7.94 miles in 1:27:27, exactly an 11:00/mile pace. Considering the hills I ran up, I am very excited about this run. It has really encouraged me that all this hard work and dedication is paying off, and I really am becoming faster. Yay! It has also made me very hopeful that there are no hills like this in the Mayors Marathon. Just sayin…

Every time I rolled over last night, and when I got up this morning, I realized that I am incredibly sore from the last two days. My arms, back and core are the sorest and I know that’s from yoga. Seriously, such a good workout. I still haven’t mastered the standing half moon poses. I’m pretty sure they’re tough any time, but they’re especially so on tired legs!

Well, I’m off to bed – starting the week off right, like a grandma.

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Back-Strengthening Exercises for Home or the Gym

2 Mar

I mentioned a long time ago that I would post my physical therapy exercises for strengthening my back, so that you all could benefit from the big chunk of change I dropped to learn them. Last week, I had my last appointment. Not because I was no longer benefiting from my visits, but because my money tree was dead.

It took me this long to post the exercises because I was planning to post pictures of yours truly illustrating what to do. But then I realized that my pictures would be crap and that I might as well just post the exercises already. So without further ado…

Equipment You’ll Need:

Swiss Ball

Resistance tube or Cable pulley machine

Resistance Bands (You can tie the ends of a Pilates band together too, but the round resistance bands work better.)

Optional: Medicine Ball

 

EXERCISES:

Swiss Ball Squats

2 x 15 reps

With the ball behind your back, feet shoulder width apart, sit back as if you are trying to sit in a chair too far away. Make sure your knees don’t go past your toes.

Swiss Ball Abdominal Rollouts

2 x 15 reps

Kneel in front of the ball and place your forearms on the ball, your elbows bent at a little more than 90 degrees. Pull your belly button in towards your spine and roll forward, placing your weight on your forearms, back straight, and elbows underneath your shoulders doing a plank on the ball. You should feel your abs engage to stabilize you. To make it more challenging, roll out and lift one arm off the ball.

Swiss Ball Alternating Leg Lifts

2 x 20 reps           

Sit on the Swiss ball and roll out so that your upper back is resting on the ball, your hips are lifted, feet on the floor shoulder width apart, and your body is in a straight line, with your hands resting comfortably. Carefully, lift one leg, hold for 5 seconds, lower. Then lift the other leg, hold, lower. Repeat.

Swiss Ball Bridging

2 x 20 reps                                                             

Lie face down on the Swiss Ball, with your hands and feet resting on the ground. Pulling your belly button into your spine, raise your right arm and left leg together, hold for 5 seconds, lower. Then lift left arm and right leg, hold, lower. Repeat.

Lunges with Torso Rotation

2 x 10 reps

Step forward and lunge, keeping your knees at 90 degrees.  Rotate your torso to both sides and return to standing. Hold a Swiss or medicine ball in your hands as you twist to make these more challenging.

Straight Arm Pull Downs / Cable Pull Across

2 x 25 reps

Note: For these exercises, use either a resistance tube anchored above your head or a cable pulley machine on the top notch, with weight set low (7-10 lbs).

Pull Down: Stand up straight and pull your belly button in, facing the tube or machine. Grasp cables in both hands and keeping your arms straight (but not locked), pull down to your side, as if you were going to graze your thigh. Keeping your arms straight, release back to starting position. Repeat.

Pull Across: Take cable in your left hand, with the left side of your body facing the tube or machine. With a slight bend in your elbow, pull down and across your body to your opposite hip (as if you were dancing 70s disco-style).  Keeping the slight bend in the elbow, release back to starting position. Repeat, then do the same with the right arm, turning your body so that the right side faces the tube or pulley.

Monster Walk (this one is killer for the hips and glutes!)

2 x 30 reps

Place a resistance band around your ankles and start with your feet together. You will be moving laterally so make sure you have enough space. Step your left foot out, keeping your toes pointed forward, then step your right foot in, bringing your feet together. Step to the left again, bring right foot in again. Do 15 reps, then step right foot out, bring left foot in, for 15 reps. Repeat to the left and to the right again.

The next part is best explained with a picture:

After 15 reps (8 to right, 7 to left), do it in the reverse direction. So instead of stepping the left foot forward, you step it backward. Do 15 reps (8 on left, 7 on right) and repeat forward and backward again.

………………………..

To keep my no-photo streak going, I made these No-Bake Granola Balls and this Chickpea and Kale Soup recently and they were both delicious. Kale was another green vegetable that I had written off as disgusting, but I was wrong! I honestly do not know what horrible recipes I used the first time I tried kale and brussel sprouts to make me hate them so much. Or maybe my tastebuds are just maturing as I get older? Whatever the reason, I like the result!

Have a great weekend!

Have you made any good recipes lately?

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Language Barriers

1 Mar

I don’t have much to post, besides the fact that I’ve been going to bed too late this week (but because I’m busy, not because I’m lazy!) and feeling the consequences. Also, work is still really busy and two huge projects with lots of details and moving parts are scrambling my brain. If you see typos in this post, it is not my fault.

One of the projects I’m working on is translating our company website into Spanish and Portuguese (I’m not actually translating – we hired a company to do it). One of the brain-frying dilemmas we’ve run into is whether or not to translate our product names. We have talked about this a lot and every day it seems like another layer is peeled off and it is still just a cluster.

Anyway, while I was musing with my boss about how languages borrow words from other languages (English is definitely one of the worst offenders), she told me about a website called engrish.com. It’s kind of like the FAIL blog, only they post pictures of attempts at using the English language that have gone so, so wrong.

Here are some of the ones that I laughed out loud at:

A couple of friends that got married while we still lived in Minneapolis went to Mexico on their honeymoon. And they said that one of the emcees had asked at the beginning of a show, “Are you ready, yes or not?” I’m sure I sound exactly like that when I speak in broken Spanish but it’s still funny!

I really do have to give kudos to all those who know English, even though it’s not their first language. I’m convinced that English is the most difficult (common) language to learn. There are so many words to describe the same thing, and so many exceptions, and stupid grammar rules, and borrowed words. I would hate learning English.

Anyway, hopefully the people reading our website after it’s translated won’t be laughing at our expense!

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