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Training Recap: 1/30 – 2/5

6 Feb

I have a case of the Mondays today. I was so tired that I got up an hour late, I ate too much at the Super Bowl party last night so I feel like a blob, and I still haven’t quite shaken my sinus/throat congestion.

My training last week:

Monday: 3.0 mile run (37:36, 12:31/mile)

I did this run at a really easy pace because I was still recovering from the chest congestion of the previous week.

Tuesday: 6 x 400 repeats @ 2:30 on treadmill (3 miles total, 33:56); Physical therapy

I was going to do 4 x 800 but it wasn’t happening. So I did 6 x 400 instead and even though I was only running a 10:00 pace for my repeats, I felt challenged by the end. I blame the sickness.

I also count physical therapy as my strength training because I always end up sweating.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 1.15 mile dog walk (20:00); 2.4 mile run (28:00); 1.5 mile walk at incline on treadmill (24:00); 15 minute tabata workout

This was the night that I discovered I should not eat a salad before a run. I was planning to run 5 but could only muscle through to 2.4. I actually felt sick enough that I had to sit down and rest for 5 minutes. Ever the stubborn one, I finished off an unofficial 5 miles by walking 1.5 miles on the treadmill, starting at 2.0 incline, working up to 8.0 and back down.

My tabata workout (from what I remember) consisted of squats with overhead press, lunges with bicep curls, knee pushups, and bicycle crunches.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 11 mile run on track (1:58:36, 10:46/mile)

Sunday: 1.5 mile dog walk

I was going to do yoga when I got home from the Super Bowl party but instead, I went straight to bed. I’ll try to do a longer cross-training workout this Wednesday.

…………………………….

Even though I’m coughing and blowing my nose less each day, I still wake up feeling like poo. And since I have races the next two weekends (so I’m technically in taper mode now) and I would prefer to not start official marathon training still sick, these next two weeks are going to be fairly laid back – yoga, cross-training, hydration, sleep. Nothing too crazy.

And since this cheered me up on this Blah of a Monday, I had to share:

There are some other funny ones there too.

What is your favorite part of tapering before a race?

Mine is usually having time to do all the things I haven’t had time to do during training but since I just had an entire week of no running, I think the perk this time is having yet another reason to go to bed at 8 pm. 😉

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New Discoveries.

4 Feb

Thursday night, I discovered that a salad is not a good pre-run meal.

Friday, I discovered that it’s actually kind of nice that everything in Denver shuts down with a big snowstorm, because I get to work from home.

I also discovered that working from home with nothing to do is only slightly less boring that being at work with nothing to do.

I discovered that it takes two feet of snow for Denver to actually plow main side roads with any sort of decency {these pictures were taken Friday morning – it continued snowing all day and we ended up with about 2 feet).

This afternoon, I discovered that the plows still don’t always do a very good job because I almost got stranded at the library.

This morning, I discovered that running 11 miles, or 115 circles, on the indoor track is surprisingly painless with a friend. (Thanks Heidi!)

I also discovered that with no wind and no hills, I can run a 10:45/mile pace for 11 miles…

…and that despite good intentions and a camera, I can still forget to take a picture of my first-ever blogger meetup, and instead make do with a crappy picture of me in my bathroom.

This afternoon, I discovered that the day before the Super Bowl is an even worse day to grocery shop than the day before Thanksgiving.

I also discovered (again) that one of my all-time favorite kinds of candy is Australian Style licorice. Seriously, try it. It’s amazing. (I found it at the regular grocery store in the candy section.)

And finally, I discovered that Reese’s peanut butter eggs are just as delicious as I remember them. Mmmm…

Have you discovered anything new this weekend?

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This is not good.

2 Feb

Of course, right when I’ve gotten used to Denver having no snow and spring-like temperatures, someone decides we need a foot or more of snow dropped on us. Didn’t they know I had 11 miles planned for Saturday? What am I supposed to do now?!?!

::sigh:: (first world problems)

Would you rather run 11 miles on a treadmill or do 110 laps around a track?

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January Goal: Achieved.

2 Feb

Well, friends, I made it. Survived one entire month without sweets of any sorts. It was rough. Especially last week. The culmination of busyness at work, that time of the month, tiredness, and sickness made me want to punch someone and steal their ice cream. But I didn’t.

The past couple days, I’ve been thinking over whether this goal achieved its intended purpose or not, which was to destroy my intense craving for sweets at all hours of the day for part of every meal. And I have to be honest, last week I was convinced that this whole goal was one big waste of willpower.

But then this week came. And the idea of getting to eat chocolate today was like Meh. I woke up this morning and stumbled to the bathroom with one eye half open, and then I remembered, it’s over. I can eat sweets again.

I stumbled to the kitchen where the thawed Triple Decker Brownies that I had kept in the freezer since New Years were sitting. And to be honest, I didn’t really want one. But I have been waiting for this moment the entire month of January – it’s the Day of Chocolate!

So I got out a plate and made the breakfast of champions:

I ate the dark chocolate square first. It was chocolate but it didn’t explode in my mouth like I had fantasized for 30 days.

Then I started eating the brownie. And I realized that what I was doing was ridiculous. Not only was I eating chocolate for breakfast, I wasn’t even enjoying it. So I bagged up the other half of the brownie and the chocolate cherry for later. As I drank my coffee and ate a piece of peanut butter toast, my stomach was doing flip-flops – not in the elated, I can’t believe we get to eat chocolate again! way but in the What the f? What is this crap? way.

{Don’t worry, I still ate the other half of the brownie and chocolate cherry for my morning snack, and instead of the salad and butternut squash lasagna I so carefully packed, I ate a Cinnamon Crunch bagel with Honey Walnut cream cheese from Panera for lunch. Now my stomach is really confused angry.}

All that to say…

It was cutting it close but I think that my goal finally had its intended effect. That time of the month aside (because we all know that we can’t be held accountable for our actions then), I think that my craving for sweets has decreased to a normal, sane amount.

In fact, I’m not even planning to get Yogurtland tonight.

I know, I know. Who am I?

The reason being that I’m going to run 5 miles and do my physical therapy exercises. And Travis is meeting with guys from church. And I don’t want to drive all the way to Yogurtland by myself. And it’s supposed to be a blizzard tonight after work. And I don’t want my stomach to go on strike for being mistreated.

What I Learned:

This experience has taught me that I do have the willpower to resist sweets. I can never use lack of willpower as an excuse again. I will have to admit that I ate the bowl of ice cream because I wanted it more than I wanted a flat stomach or a stable blood sugar. (That’s been the truth all along anyway.)

I also learned that I turned to sweets of all kinds (including soda…who knew?) for comfort and indulgence. When I come home from a stressful or tiring day, and just want to relax, food is where I turn – because it’s fast, easy, and gratifying. I tried to think of other ways to achieve the same effect but I don’t like baths because relaxing against a cement wall isn’t my idea of a good time. Walks are just more work. Reading and TV are better with food so that’s not it either. I guess I’m left with trying to tame the beast.

Where I Go from Here:

This goal reminded me of why I believe in Intuitive Eating (IE). The main idea of IE is that you give yourself permission to eat whatever you want. There are only two rules in IE: Eat when you’re hungry. Stop when you’re full. The authors believe that when we classify foods as “bad” and “good,” food ends up exerting power over us. But when you ditch the classifications and allow yourself to have whatever you want as long as you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, food loses it power – because you know you can have it anytime you want.

With this goal, I took away that freedom. I couldn’t eat sweets when I craved them and found myself trying to fill the void with other food. This comic from Cathy sums it up beautifully:

This is exactly what the authors of IE  say – you end up eating more food and calories trying to satisfy your true craving in a “healthy” way than you would if you just ate what you truly wanted. And I really found that to be true. When I wanted something sweet after dinner, instead of being able to satisfy myself with a 35-calorie Dove chocolate, I would eat 250 calories of Pirate’s Booty or a bowl of cereal. So if you’re wondering if I lost any weight doing this challenge, sadly, no I did not. 😦

Now that the month of no sweets is over, I’m going back to giving myself the freedom to eat sweets when I’m truly craving them. But I am not going back to the licentiousness I had before I did this challenge. Then, I ate whatever was sitting out or free, whether I really wanted it or not. I exercised hardly any discretion (which is what led me to my sugar addiction in the first place). Now, I would like to be more intentional and make every choice count. If I eat a piece of chocolate cake, it better be just about the best piece of cake I’ve ever had. If I eat ice cream, it better be my favorite flavor or served on top of a gooey, still-warm brownie. That’s one rule I try to follow regarding what I eat in general: If you don’t love it, don’t eat it (even if that means throwing out “perfectly good food”).

I would like to preserve my body’s sugar shock as long as possible. It always make me feel good (and yet at the same time, feel horrible) when I’ve been eating healthy for long enough that my body freaks out when I give it unhealthy food. I must be doing something right. 

Have you ever ransacked the cupboard trying to satisfy a craving?

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I’m All Ears.

31 Jan

As a kid, I had a lot of ear infections. As an adult, I still do because I’m stuck in a Catch 22.

Because of all my ear infections growing up, I now have a condition they call Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. The Eustachian tube is what makes your ears pop to keep the pressure on the inside and outside of your ear the same.

Even though the Eustachian tube is always at work (it opens and closes with each yawn or swallow), most people only notice their ears pop when ascending/descending in altitude (like flying) or possibly when they have nasal congestion. But when your Eustachian tube malfunctions, it’s very obvious.

I started noticing it when I’d get a cold. My ears would pop a lot and I’d be able to hear my own voice inside my head (which is very weird, by the way). When the cold went away, so did the symptoms, for the most part. But that was in college when I never cooked anything besides turkey sandwiches and cereal, I lived in a house with 5 other girls, and spent a lot of time surrounded by other students – meaning I got sick a lot. (Travis still remarks about this, though I only get sick once every 18 months or so now.) It seemed like I was always sick in high school and college. So my ears were frequently bothering me.

Finally, I had had enough. It was miserable living that way. I went to the ear doctor and they made me do at least half a dozen hearing tests, in addition to looking in my ear with their lighted instrument. They asked, “Did you have a lot of ear infections as a kid?” Why yes, yes I did.

After all of that, they sat me down and said that I had Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. They described what it was and said that since my ears still popping (as opposed to being completely shut or completely open) and my hearing was still fine, I didn’t need surgery. But then they said something that made me almost cry.

“There’s not much we can do about it.”

What? You mean I have to live like this the rest of my life?!?!?

As I choked back tears, they explained that the only thing they could do was put in ear tubes, but they usually cautioned against that in adults because it could leave a permanent hole in my eardrum. Well, I didn’t want that. And ear tubes sounded creepy. So I just left, utterly disappointed.

That was about 7 years ago.

Today, my ears still pop every time I swallow but I’ve gotten used to it. And I am soooo incredibly thankful that the condition is just an annoyance, instead of one that would cause deafness or actual pain.

But the Catch 22 is that my Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, which was caused by ear infections, is now causing ear infections. An article on Livestrong says:

In many cases, the Eustachian tubes are either too narrow or are blocked due to irregularities in the surrounding structures. For those individuals, frequent ear infections may recur due to the failure of the Eustachian tubes to drain the middle ear.

I’ve had so many ear infections that I can tell if I have one by just pushing on the outside of my ear. If it hurts, it’s infected. I go into the doctor and say, “Have ear infection. Need antibiotics.” (But they never believe me, so they get out their lighted instrument and stick it in my ear anyway.)

Right now, I have an ear infection. Every time I blow my nose, my ears pop and my right ear hurts. This time, instead of going to the doctor, I’m trying a natural remedy – garlic oil.

My friend Carrie told me about this (she uses it for her kids) and swears that it works. And because the Internet agrees, it must be true. I read here that garlic can cure ear infections because it has antibiotic properties. Who knew?

That same article gives this recipe for making garlic oil:

 

Things You’ll Need

 

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 glass measuring cup, microwave safe
  • 1 to 2 cloves garlic
  • Cheesecloth
  • Small jar with lid
  • Eye dropper or syringe
  • Cotton balls
  1. Pour the olive oil in the glass measuring cup. Chop two peeled cloves of garlic and place in cup. Microwave the oil for about a minute. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
  2. Strain the oil through a piece of cheesecloth to remove the garlic pieces. Place the oil in a covered jar and store it in the refrigerator. The oil will keep for about three weeks.
  3. To use the oil, place 1 tsp. over an open flame until lukewarm. Test the oil on the back of your hand to make sure it’s not too hot. Have the person lie down, infected ear up. Fill the dropper or syringe and put 1 or 2 drops of oil in the affected ear. Insert a cotton ball in the ear for 30 minutes. Repeat every 1 to 2 hours.

I did this last night but didn’t have a dropper and wasn’t sure if I was doing it right (and was too lazy to find out for sure). My ear feels a little better but still hurts so I will be doing this again tonight.

Have you had a lot of ear infections? Ever tried a natural remedy instead of antibiotics?

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Training Recap: 1/23 – 1/29

30 Jan

Thanks to my lovely cold, my training last week was pretty measly.

Monday: 30 Day Shred Level 1; 25 minutes yoga; 1.15 mile dog walk (20 min)

Tuesday: Rest (laziness)

Wednesday: Rest (started feeling sick this day)

Thursday: 1.97 mile dog walk (32:55)

I had been thinking about going to the gym to do cross-training but when I got out of breath on my walk from the chest congestion, I decided that would be stupid.

Friday: 3.04 mile dog walk (55:14)

Saturday: 1.7 mile dog walk (30:00)

Sunday: Rest

I was planning to go to the gym but when I got home after a baby shower, I was exhausted, had a headache, and my chest congestion had been so nice as to move to my nose. So instead, I watched a new episode of Bones that had somehow passed under my radar. So glad I didn’t delete that one before checking if I had seen it!

…………………………..

I am feeling much better today – my headache is gone, my cough has almost completely gone away, and my nose is clearing up little by little. So I am planning to attempt my first run in over a week – and I’m pretty pumped about it. It’s almost 60 degrees out today. When I got out of my car to walk into work this morning, birds were singing and it felt like spring. I am so ready for spring. I always say that spring is my least favorite season because I hate when the snow melts and you have to deal with dirty, dirty puddles everywhere. But in Colorado, I think spring is my favorite season. Which is good because every other day in January is a taste of spring. 😉

……………………………

Travis and I had a “conference call” last night with his parents to talk about our plans for Alaska. At this point, barring death or illness, I think it is 95% safe to say that I am doing the Mayor’s Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska on June 23.

Which means that after the Ralston Creek Half Marathon on 2/12 and Snowman Stampede 10 Mile on 2/18, I will completely restart my marathon training plan:

Considering my sickness this week, I am glad to have the time to start over! Hopefully I won’t get sick again during training.

In the next two weeks, I plan on researching more about the marathon course so that I know how to tailor my training. Luckily, I don’t think the hills will be an issue. Here is the elevation profile:

It looks bad but note that even the biggest hill is only a 300 foot gain from the very beginning (and less so in the individual climb) and after mile 16, it’s pretty much completely downhill. Since I’ve read that part of the course is on a gravel/rocky trail, I am aiming to do at least one run a week on a trail, and in Colorado, trails usually mean more hills. So I think I’ll kill two birds with one stone there.

Also, as I was walking the dogs the other day, I discovered a staircase on one of my favorite running routes. How I have run past that staircase 2,000 times and never thought about running on them for stair work is beyond me. But no more! Next week’s speed run will be there.

It’s exciting to finally know (almost for sure) which race I’m doing!

………………………….

Finally, I went to the grocery store (aka SuperTarget) on Saturday night and bought 25 tubs of yogurt. Ok, not really but I did buy a big tub of plain non-fat yogurt to use in recipes, smoothies, sour cream, etc, as well as 6 new (to me) Chobani flavors I had to try after seeing every blogger in the US talk about them, plus 6 Yoplait Lights for Travis so that he wouldn’t steal my Chobanis. 😉 I just ate the Blood Orange Chobani today and it was really good – a little sweet but I love how Greek yogurt is so much thicker than regular yogurt. I do not, however, like the price.

I told Travis how much we’re spending on groceries every month (from what I can guesstimate, since we’re not doing the Dave Ramsey envelope system anymore and I haven’t checked our bank account online since… 5 years ago) and he was a little surprised. Sooooo… I will be looking for ways to cut down our grocery bill in the near future. (Goodbye Chobani.)

One thing I think will help is to stop buying processed food (like mac ‘n’ cheese in a box, frozen pizza, cans of soup). Every couple months, I buy those things more often than I should because I just get lazy in the kitchen. But I realized yesterday that making my own little pizzas on whole wheat pitas isn’t really that much more work and it’s way healthier; it’s really easy and healthy to make soup from scratch with low-sodium ingredients (dump everything into the crockpot!); and it doesn’t take much longer for me to boil whole wheat or brown rice noodles and add real cheese than it does for me to use a pre-packaged box. Not only do I pay more with my wallet for the convenience, I pay more with my health too.

I just get lured in by the pictures of creamy deliciousness and liquid gold – I never knew I was such a sucker for Mac ‘n’ Cheese until I was paging through my binder of printed recipes the other day and had 4 or 5 different versions of it. Heh.

What are your tips for keeping the grocery bill down?

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Bright.

28 Jan

That’s how I would define my new Brooks running jacket and Aspaeris compression shorts.

In the words of Elf, That’s shocking.

But colors aside, I think my new running gear is going to be good. The jacket fits snugly but a good snug. The bottom black part is elastic so it stretches across my booty and the jacket is roomy enough in the chest and arms for me to fit one or two thin layers underneath. I’m not sure I’ll need to though, since this jacket clearly states that it’s designed for “40 degrees and below.” The jacket is thinner than I expected but when I put it on, I do feel warmer. According to the tag, the “lightweight aluminum membrane retains your heat so you stay warm without adding layers.” For $110, it better live up to the hype. Now I’m wishing for Colorado to cool off so I can try it out. 😉

I really like the reflective details on the jacket – you can see the vertical one at the bottom in the picture above (there’s another one on the right side). There’s also a reflective logo on the left sleeve, and on the back, there’s a reflective logo at the top and then another reflective piping strip along the vent in the middle (never mind the black specks, those are mascara smudges on the mirror that I can’t get off):

And never mind that you can see the stripes of my underwear through the red shorts (buyers, beware). I also like the left inside pocket for holding your mp3 player or phone (the gray mesh part is also a bigger pocket, on both sides):

And the thumb holes:

The black fabric, which is just from the cuff down, is really soft. I’ve never had a jacket or sweatshirt with thumb holes before but I think I’ll like it. At the very least, it’ll force me to not obsess over my pace because I can’t get to my watch!

I’ve wanted the compression shorts because SkinnyRunner raves about them, I don’t like my other tight running shorts, and I’m in love with all shapes and sizes of compression gear – but I couldn’t stomach the $60 price tag. The minute I heard they were 50% off with the code cooleronline (in support of SR’s Ragnar team – I’m not sure if it still works but give it a shot), I snatched them up. And in red. Why not? It’s actually a very pretty red, IMO.

The shorts fit really well – they’re definitely tight and hard to get on, which is the key to compression gear. If it slides on easily, it isn’t compression.

I also like that they come up higher so I don’t feel like my belly is hanging over them or getting some muffin top action. That’s never good. In case you’re wondering, I ordered a medium in both the jacket and shorts. It’s a rare day that I’m not a medium!

But it’ll be a couple of days until I can try these things out – or try running in general because I ended up getting sick. Boo. I started feeling sick on Wednesday but didn’t feel sick enough to stay home so I went to work that day and Thursday. Finally, Friday I felt crappy enough to merit starting the weekend early staying home from work.

As far as sickness goes, it’s been kind of bittersweet. I have hardly any sinus congestion but I have a major headache that I can’t get rid of (even with acetaminophen and lots of water) and some major chest congestion and a hacking cough. Which means I feel well enough to read, bake and take the dogs on slow walks, but I can’t run or do anything that would get my heart rate up. I’m a little bummed because I was looking forward to running this weekend but the smart thing is to rest until this blows over. (I’m pretty sure I’d hack up a lung running anyway and I need to keep what little lung I have.)

I am thankful that I can mostly enjoy being forced to take things easy, instead of being in a Sudafed-induced coma. I’ll live vicariously through reading about all of your runs. 😉

Hope you’re having a good weekend!

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Setting the Record Straight

26 Jan

A little-known tidbit about me: I can’t read cooking blogs. The pictures are fun to look at and the recipes look delicious but they just make me overwhelmed. I even feel slightly intimidated by the cookbooks I own. Some people thrive on options; I do not. They just make me feel like there’s too much to do, and too little time.

I also felt overwhelmed yesterday while reading the blogs I regularly follow. Reading about productive weekends full of baking, cleaning, organizing, family time, long runs, Crossfit workouts, and fun dates instantly brings back an old familiar feeling: I’m not doing enough.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because a good (IRL) friend of mine who occasionally reads my blog remarked that I seem to have a lot of things going on in an effort to improve my life (like not eating sweets for a month, limiting my laziness, reading 25 books, and training for a marathon). I dismissed her comment saying, “It’s really not that much; it probably seems like more on the blog.”

I don’t really consider myself an ambitious person. In high school and college, I did what was required of me with excellence (I did graduate from both with honors) but I didn’t go above or beyond that.

Instead of being an overachiever, I guess I was just an achiever. I never had an internship. I never volunteered or got involved in any kind of club. In fact, I somehow graduated as a member of the National Honors Society in high school, even though I never attended a meeting and only did 2 volunteer hours (I think something like 30 were required?). In my defense, I tried to return my medal but they wouldn’t take it from me.

I’m fairly certain that I’ve gotten where I am in life by being anal, not ambitious. While fellow classmates in high school were reading Cliff’s Notes in lieu of The Scarlet Letter and The Grapes of Wrath, I read every single page of every single book, including the Foreword if there was one. Partly because I actually enjoyed reading and partly because I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I hadn’t actually read the book.

Until recently, I had to finish every book I started reading, even if it was crap, just because “it bothered me” to start and not finish. (Now I know that life is too short to read bad books.)

My house is clean and organized because my personality can’t stand clutter and mess.

I don’t stop in the middle of a project, even if it’s mindnumbingly tedious, because I am stubborn.

When we first moved into our apartment in Boulder, I refused to let Travis store stuff under our bed and futon because not storing stuff in an actual closet bothered me. After a couple hours trying to cram things into the 3 tiny closets of our apartment, I saw the folly of my ways. (Although, I have to admit that storing things under the bed still bothers me. If you’re wondering if I’m annoying to live with, my husband would say no, but really mean yes.)

So why am I explaining this to you?

Well, you’ve probably heard people discussing the effects of social media on relationships today. It’s easy to project this perfect image of your life, because you get to pick and choose what people see and what people don’t. I think the same thing goes for blogs. It’s easy to post only the positive, happy things that happen in your life in the name of “making your blog positive” because people “come there to be entertained.” I personally don’t agree with that philosophy but I think it can happen without our realizing. It’s human nature to want to share happy news with others, but shrink back with bad news. You don’t want to blog just to complain, or tell about pathetically boring your day was, or relay how you behaved in a way you’re ashamed of (like throwing something at your husband or eating an entire box of cereal in one sitting).

So I just want to set the record straight: I haven’t checked off an item on my daily To-Do list all week until today (and that only because I had an appointment to get a new passport), I’m feeling slightly sick and majorly lazy, I haven’t walked my dogs in a few days, last night I ate my way through the cupboard before eating dinner trying to fill the chocolate-shaped hole in my heart, I’m having a hard time adjusting to having actual work to do at work, and my big toe is sticking out of the sock I’m wearing. I’m not perfect. I don’t have it all together. I have lots of big ideas and want to live my life intentionally but sometimes (or perhaps, often), I just need a glass of wine, Desperate Housewives, and a night on the couch. And I’m pretty sure other bloggers do too.

Would you consider yourself ambitious? Do you tend to be productive or relaxed with your free time?

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Training Recap: 1/16 – 1/22

24 Jan

I had the most amazing dinner last night: a homemade waffle topped with peanut butter, raspberry yogurt, and fresh strawberries and blueberries. It totally hit the spot. I had been craving that for days. Actually, I was craving what I used to eat in college: Eggo waffles topped with peanut butter and frozen cool whip. So delicious. But since cool whip is off-limits for January (only one week left!), I had to make do with yogurt.

Things have finally picked up at work (hip hip hooray!) so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

Last week’s workouts were:

Monday: 2.5 mile run (31:08, 12:04/mile)

It started blowing snow as I set out on this run, which was not enjoyable because I could barely keep my eyes open. The arch of my right foot felt really tight too. Not the best run.

Tuesday: 3 mile intervals on treadmill (31:58, 10:39/mile), 10 min upper body weights

I alternated between jogging at 5.5 mph for 90 seconds and sprinting at 7.5 mph for 30 seconds.

Wednesday: Supposed to be rest but did resistance training at physical therapy

Thursday: 4 mile tempo run (43:24, 10:22/mile)

Friday: Supposed to be rest but did resistance training at physical therapy

The lateral and front/back moves with a resistance band around my ankles were killer after my tempo run. Feel the burn.

Saturday: 9.64 mile long run (1:49:42, 11:22/mile)

Sunday: 500 yard swim + 15 minute walk

I was also going to do yoga on Sunday but the couch got the best of me.

Travis and I went out to eat twice last weekend – which is uncharacteristic for us. Friday night, we went out to an Italian place called Abrusci’s. We had Chicken Saltimbocca, which was chicken breast topped with ham and mozzarella served on spaghetti with broccoli. It was delicious – and no wonder, since everything was covered in butter. They also had the most amazing garlic dipping sauce for bread. I haven’t yet advanced to the heights of taking pictures of food in restaurants, so you’ll just have to use your imagination. Sorry.

Then Saturday, after I was done with my long run, we went to Denny’s. I got their new Fit Omelette that comes with turkey bacon and fruit, plus a side of the Hearty Wheat Pancakes. Seriously delicious. And the Omelette only has 390 calories! Totally worth it.

I wanted to go to Panera for breakfast before church on Sunday but we decided we had spent enough money eating out for one weekend. But this Sunday, Pa-nay-nay here I come!

How often do you go out to eat?

What is your favorite way to eat a waffle? We had cinnamon and sugar on our waffles in Mexico during our honeymoon and I got hooked on those for a while. Now I’m hooked on pb and yogurt.

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Double Digits.

23 Jan

I must apologize for not choosing the 4-year Blogiversary Giveaway winner last week like I said I would. Sorry. I totally blanked.

But random.org has finally chosen one and the winner is Jen!

Jen – email me and let me know where you’d like to spend your $25! Congrats and thanks for reading.

Speaking of money, I just spent $108.95 on the Brooks Nightlife Speedy Bullet jacket (yes, the yellow one). I’m still not completely sold on it, so I made sure that I could return the jacket if I don’t like it. It’s just so much money! All I’m saying is that it better make me run faster.

Speaking of running (you see how nicely these all segue together?), I did my longest run since November 2010 on Saturday: 9.64 miles (but we’ll round it to 10).

I was looking forward to the run on Friday and even when I woke up Saturday morning. I checked the weather and determined that it would be warmest around 1 pm. So instead of running in the cold at sunrise, I had coffee with a friend, ran errands with Travis and then took a nap before heading out on my run around 2 pm.

By then, I wasn’t feeling the run as much. But at least it was a gorgeous day – I wore my 2XU compression tights and a t-shirt. Glorious. I took the pooches around the lake for 1.55 miles, dropped them off, and then did another 8.1 miles (I thought it would be 8.5 but I didn’t check the route before I left) in a loop that I had only done on my bike before. I figured it would be good to explore new territory (for sanity and safety) and I knew that these trails would be packed with people on such a nice day.

For the first 5 miles of that 8-mile loop, I was pretty indifferent about running. I wasn’t necessarily enjoying it, but I wasn’t hating it either.  But the last 3 miles, I felt pretty good. Half a mile from home, I thought, Another 3 miles wouldn’t be that bad.

Total was 9.64 miles in 1:49:42, an average pace of 11:22. (I didn’t start my phone app until 1 mile in to the 8 mile loop.)

After my run, I decided it was time for my first epsom salt bath – the ice bath alternative. I filled the tub up with warm water, added 2 cups of epsom salts (found at my local dollar store!), and read my book for 15 minutes while soaking in relief from sore muscles. I’ve never taken an ice bath so I can’t comment on how that feels afterward, but my legs felt pretty great after the epsom salt bath. Not nearly as sore as they have from other runs. So I’ll call that a success!

But I’ve noticed that when I use the iMapMyRun app on my phone to record my workout, it estimates the distance longer than if I manually map it out online. My Thursday run was recorded as 4.18 but mapped as 3.98. And this run was recorded as 8.1 but mapped as 7.88.  Obviously, I’d like to believe the recording. I asked Travis about it and he said that if anything, the GPS on my phone would record it too short, not too long. What do you think? 

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