Week 1 Fun (Weekly Recap)

So we're officially back in training! I'm happy about it, honestly. I like the calendar and I like knowing I'm working towards something

 Of course the first week of training coincided with Derby Week here in Kentucky so the schedule was a little screwy. Overall I'm happy with how it went.

So a big fat goose egg in the pool this week. I kind of expected that. The schedule was just wacky. I'm hoping to get both swims in this week. My Wednesday night Brick's are going to be hard to get in. I'm not really sure how to do those in the morning but I guess we'll figure it out!

Best Workout of the Week
I got my bike out twice this week and had good rides. Thursday the weather was awful so I was stuck on the trainer. Oh well. Saturday it was warm, sunny, and beautiful so I took Ghost out on my little 30 min route. Unfortunately about 5 minutes from home she popped a spoke and catapulted me back into wobbly wheel land. This is the third (or 4th?) time this has happened, which is frustrating. Luckily Hubz was able to give me a lift back home and I got her into the bike shop that day. She needed a spring tune up anyway. Hopefully they'll get her back to me quickly!

Best Meal of the Week
I ate like utter shit this week. Seriously. My nutrition coach is going to kill me. Part of it was in reaction to a bad appointment with her on Monday (more on that later) but Derby, man, just means food. And alcohol. I'm feeling the effects of all of the bad food, which I think is good in the long run. My body realizes that good tasting and good feeling aren't the same. Last night we celebrated mother's day at my parents and my mom and grandmother both cooked up a great meal. Dad did ribs on the grill (omg) and my grandma made her famous potato salad. It was by far the best meal of the week.

At the bakery picking up Mother's Day Treats

Plan for Next Week
In response to the bad eats this week I'm prepping for a good food week. I planned out our meals - which are on my computer at home, sorry! - and prepped everything yesterday. Hubz requested Taco Salad which is totally new to me. So i cooked and prepped everything and now the whole week of food is waiting for us in the fridge. Also, I cleaned out my fridge at work and brought everything for the week in today. Voila - healthy fridge full of good eats!

Workout Goals:
- Get in 2 Swims
- Get Ghost back and ride ride ride!

Happy Running!
 

The 7 Day Sweet Stop

I'm stuck in court listening to a civil hearing (yawn) so it's a perfect opportunity to jot down some thoughts about last week's "No Sweets" project. 

The Goal: no sweet snacks, candy, or "added" sugar for 7 days. 

All in all, it was a really great challenge. While it didn't totally change my life, I did gain some serious perspective about my eating habits. 

I have more will power than I thought 

The first two days were nothing more than will power. Why is it that when you tell yourself you CANT do something, that one thing is all you want? Sure enough sweets are the same way. The first two days it was all about wanting sweets. Particularly since work was slower I found myself sitting at my desk a lot. I'd think, "oh, I could get up and walk around...and grab a kit Kat from th candy bowl". It was hard to push those thoughts out. However, I found that by Wednesday I gained more satisfaction from exercising my will power than I did from  actually eating the treats. 

Your taste buds can change 

One thing I was hoping for was to adjust my sense of "sweet". My diet includes so much sugar I wasn't aware of (more on that later) and I think my palate had become accustomed to that. I was shocked at how a few days without it really impacted my taste buds. Case in point: I take my coffee with sweet&slow and cream. I have since I was 16. This was the hardest thing to give up initially. Coffee tasted terrible. However, by Thursday it didn't taste awful anymore. In fact, this morning I even found myself thinking "wow, this is pretty good". Similarly, I had something with aspartame in it on Monday and it tasted sickeningly sweet. In just 7 days my palate adjusted. I think this has helped keep me from craving sweets most days and being satisfied with other "sweet" treats. 

There is added/fake sugar in everything

When I set out on Sunday for this challenge I thought it was simple: no candy, no sweet&low in my coffee or tea. One benefit was I was drinking a lot of water. Lots of water for me also means lost of crystal light. Well on Saturday at the grocery I actually looked at the crystal light package and, sure enough, aspartame. This may have been obvious to everyone else, but I was shocked. I cut out candy but keep chugging down aspartame in my water! As I finished my shopping I checked labels and often times opted to go with "regular" foods over their non-fat or "diet" substitutes for this same reason. 

I don't need sweets - I just want them

I've always known I'm an emotional eater. But I'm also a habitual eater. Finish lunch? Have a dessert. 9pm? Time for dessert. Have a bad day? Pie will fix all emotions. So some of the bad things I eat are out of habits, things I've done since I was a kid (i.e. Dessert every night) or emotions (i.e. Stress is cured by sugar). What I found is that I can overcome both of those. One thing that helped me was to change around my eating schedule. If I eat dinner a little earlier and have a cup of tea at "dessert time" it fulfills the ritual need to eat something at that time. Figuring out how to get around emotional snacking is just more difficult. It's still a work in progress but I'm open to suggestions! 

Overall - I'm glad I did it

I'm going to keep up my efforts to cut back on sugar. I noticed my afternoon "lull" wasn't as bad most days, which is a plus. Also, now that the challenge is over I've noticed that treats really do taste better when they're actually a treat and enjoyed as something special instead of an every day thing. I'm excited to see if it has any overall changes in my body. I'll keep you posted! 

Today is Tuesday (and other obvious things)

I totally missed the weekly recap last week.

Whoops.

The Weekly Recap is basically all I can muster on this blog lately so its sad that I couldn't sit my butt down and get it done. Two reasons for this: (1) I just didn't feel like leaving the couch and (2) last week was a total dud.

Tuesday I worked late and took my rest day as expected. Wednesday I just felt awful. I was coughing up a storm and had a horrible headache. I took some cough meds and by Thursday morning felt worse. The cough meds - though super effective on my cough - make my stomach feel absolutely puke-able. By Thursday I was on sudafed to help clear up my ears and sinuses. Stayed on that through Friday and just decided not to push it. I probably would've gone out with the running group Saturday but for having to work (ugh, the worst). I did manage to get a nap in AND take Ellie for a nice long walk. It was 65 and sunny so it would've been blasphemy not to get outside. Sunday I enjoyed a law and order marathon from the bike trainer. I think the battery in my cadence sensor is dead so my speed isn't accurate, but it felt close based on my effort.

I also wasn't really eating all that well last week. If you'll recall I didn't plan through my meals Sunday and it really bit me in the ass. Duly noted, universe. I did manage to drink a lot of water - I mean a LOT of water - all week and I definitely think that helped speed my recovery.

Sunday night I cooked a nice light dinner of crab cakes and vegetable risotto. I also made some clean eating Banana Muffins. They're surprisingly good. Of course I added a few chocolate chips because I can't help myself.

So this week I'm trying something a little different; I'm going to eliminate sweets from my diet for the next 7 days (Well, 6 days now). I've been wanting to do this for awhile but never really had the will power. Sunday night, while lost in the bottom of a pint of ben and jerry's, I just decided to do it. I've tried moderation and "healthy" sweets but I think I'm the kind of person that just needs to go cold turkey. I'm hoping that a week off of the sugar will help my palate adjust. My goal is that after the 7th day I will: (1) crave sweets less (2) be more satisfied with sweets less often (3) want to go longer than 7 days

So we'll see. Day 1 was pretty good. It was hard during the day at work with all of the candy that hangs around the office. I had a lighter day so I was at my desk a lot and found myself wanting to graze my way through the office. But I didn't. So score one for will-power.

How will day 2 go? I'll let you know tomorrow.

Happy Running!

What I'm up to: Snowpocalypse edition

We are experiencing quite the little surge of winter down here. 

In case you forgot, I live in Kentucky. Ya know: 

Ellie does not approve of the 11" of snow and -15 wind chills. 

To be honest, I'm not crazy about it either. The weekend was filled with sloth and gluttony as my body tried to recoup from surgery last week and some residuals cold nonsense. I went for a run Sunday but the temperatures were starting to drop and I didn't last long. 

Monday the city shut down as the snow fell. We got about 12" in some parts over the course of a few hours. It was tense. We were on the NBC Nightly News for "southern city least capable of dealing with snowfall that they inevitably get every damn year". Something like that anyway. 

So Monday and Tuesday saw the end of my streak of healthiness. I ate like shit. I felt like shit. It has improved slightly. Today was my first day back at work this week. Being on a schedule is crucial. I am a boredom eater. Also, I found these: 

Say what?? They weren't my all time favorite (peanut butter is, in case you were wondering). But they were damn good. 

My bike has been my friend with the crazy weather and I've gotten in some good rides. I am sort of chalking this week up as a loss and hoping to just get through tomorrow before rebooting on Saturday. Here's hoping!

Happy running!!

Have you gotten any of this devil snow??

How do you deal with the winter weather?

Good, Good and Great

The ladder part of last week was conspicuously absent of exercise. I can't even remember anymore why we skipped Wednesday's walk - weather maybe? - or why I cheated myself out of Thursday's run - no time, probably. Obviously nothing memorable, just the little excuses that crop up and come between me and a run.

Dailymile really knows how to make '0' days look depressing

Friday was an off day for a whole different reason. Remember back in March when I confided that I have a totally messed up digestive system? Well my super exciting endoscopy was bright and early Friday morning. I'm happy to report that this time was worlds different than last time - great staff, excellent drugs and the doctor was top notch. Turns out my stomach is super lazy and doesn't bother to flex and squeeze when I eat. Jerk! The good news is that it doesn't seem bad enough that I'll have to seriously alter my diet (this is awesome seeing as though the gastroparesis diet usually excludes fiber, whole wheat, raw veggies/fruits, peanut butter, fat and caffeine). Two new medications for six months and I should be good to go!

We got home from the procedure around 8:30 a.m. on Friday and I did just about nothing for the rest of the day. When I woke up Saturday I wasn't really sure whether my planned 20 miler would happen or not. I was actually a little worried about it, to be honest. As I geared up Coach Josh gave me all of the pep I needed to get out the door. I planned it so my route was based on the Derby Festival Marathon Route.

And then, I just did it. I ran 20 miles!

Not only that, but I ran them pretty fast too! Here's Saturday's 20 miler vs. my 17 miler 2 weeks before

I'm pretty excited, to say the least. On top of that, I've managed to stay on track with my healthy - and lazy stomach friendly - eating habits despite easter.

Fresh fruit & pizza w/ veggie cheese & turkey pepperoni - YUM!

Another busy week at hand and only 17 days until the Derby Festival Marathon. Well, 13 days until my Tax final so I guess I should start training for that? Nah, running's more fun so we'll do that instead. 

Happy Running!

Sidelined by sickness

I think I set a land speed record this morning for the rubber boot shuffle! While some of you have been dealing with "winter" for awhile now, we here in the bluegrass have had an unusually mild season speckled with just a few sub-30 degree days. Needless to say, I was not excited when I saw this:

"Feels like 5 degrees" = Feels like face breaking off into tiny shards. All I could think on my shuffle into work was, "You people run in this?" No thanks.

Last weekend I spent a few hours with my folks watching a UofL game that ended in double overtime sadness. Around half-time my dad started complaining of a sore throat & stuffy nose. 24 hours later I too had the sore throat and stuffy nose to go with my post-Basketball loss depression. When it comes to being sick I'm kind of odd. I can deal with pain no problem, but when it comes to stuffy-runny-pressure-cold/flu-related crap, I'm in agony. Worst of all, I hate cold medication. I know it's the only thing that will fix me up, but the hangover feeling I get from almost any kind of cold/flu medication just makes me feel abysmal.

Rather than get too depressed about being sick during training, I decided to go on the offensive: lots and lots of Vitamin C, multi-vitamins, fruits & veggies, water, pseudoephedrine, and rest.

3 Zero's in a row? Blah!

While I hate to see blanks in my training, I think my tactics may have worked. I woke up this morning with (mostly) clear sinuses and only a little cough. Thank God my sinuses finally opened up, I felt like a drunk sailor wobbling around most of Wednesday. Not really the professional sort of appearance I was hoping to put out.

Today is a planned rest day and I'm hoping I'll be able to get some sort of run in tomorrow. I have 6 miles scheduled, but I'm flexible. Just can't wait to get moving again!!

Food Journal Notes 
Last week I noticed my stomach was getting kind of upset after meals that involved a lot of dairy. Not just dairy, but straight milk (i.e. chocolate milk recovery or milk in a smoothie). I bought my first ever carton of soy milk and I have to say, I'm totally happy with it! Tastes awesome and no bellyaches. Jury's still out on yogurt or cheese yet. Greek yogurt doesn't seem to bother me, but cheese does. Any thoughts - does one have more lactose than the other? Weird.

Happy Friday the 13th everybody - hope you're safe and warm wherever you are!
Do you run when you have a cold? How sick do you have to be to cancel a workout?

Boring Post Alert

Well....hi there!!

It has been a whirwind kind of week(s), and realizing that it has been almost 2 weeks since I last blogged about anything has only made it seem longer. Shopping, baking, celebrating and traveling have made up the bulk of the last few weeks leaving little room for anything fitness related. Thus, I have almost nothing to report.

Things from the Past

• Last week I managed to get some activity in almost every single day - I was quite pleased!
• Wednesday (21st) I celebrated my 25th Birthday and it was glorious. One of my birthday "traditions" is to go for a run - sort of my present to myself - and this year instead of a run alone, J went for a long walk with me. Best birthday present ever.
• I managed to make some smart food choices over Christmas weekend, including lots of veggies, some veggie smoothies, and no true dessert craziness. I'm pretty proud of myself
• The day after Christmas we left for Tennessee to visit J's family. All good food decisions and exercise regimens disappeared when we crossed into Tennessee. As much as I love being with J's family (they are truly wonderful people) I'm ready to get back into my own groove and my own routine

Things for the Future

• Tomorrow we leave to head back to Kentucky. My ToDo list is insane, and as much as I'm looking forward to getting on a schedule, that schedule is going to be brutal
• I heard from the DerbyFest people saying "you can switch to the full marathon" (for a huge fee, obviously) "can we proceed?" and after my response, I've heard nothing. The email address she contacted me from is invalid to actually send emails to, which makes it difficult. We shall see - either way I'm still running 13.1 in April so that's great
• Trying to nail down my training plan for the spring - I can't wait to share! I think blogging through training will be a great tool to keep me honest and push me through training

I'm still catching up on all of YOUR holiday fun, so keep the posts coming. So excited to start a new year!

New things, new results

Today was one of those miraculous days that started out as a crappy descent into hell and ended pretty fabulously.

Years later if someone asks me "what did you do on Monday November 29th 2011" I will have nothing to say. I did not leave the house. I don't even remember if I showered. I sat in one place, meticulously plotting my path to a "C" on my wills & estates exam tomorrow. Well, I take that back - I did do one thing. I made J this jello salad he's obsessed with for our dinner tonight. And I cut the living S#%! out of my thumb in the process. Looks like the Manson Family used my kitchen (and bathroom). It also rained for 24 straight hours, I didn't get to work out, and J was unable to give me every answer to every question I would randomly call up and ask him at a moment's notice.

So needless to say, when I woke up this morning I was hoping for today to have a much different character. The morning wasn't very promising, as I headed to weight watchers prepared to pay for the meeting (which I didn't have to, but more on this in a minute). While there, my thumb started oozing all over the place and I didn't realize when I later handed a cashier at Walmart a wad of $1 bills spotted with blood with a smile on my face. The South is a forgiving place, but not that forgiving.

I got home and I felt ultimately defeated - weight gain, bloody hands, this impossible exam and to top it off, my "grape-fruit knee" (personal medical diagnosis) forbade me to run.

And then I decided I was done being a pissy-whiney-angry-mopey-mess. I popped in Shaun-T's Hip Hop Abs. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds, but I love to dance and I love to sweat, so what the hell? It was a decent workout - not earth shattering like Insanity®, but not bad for 30 minutes in my living room.

What he doesn't tell you is that Abs like that don't come with a smile

While I was hip-hopping w/ Shaun T, I had a voicemail from my friend Sarah. Sarah, who had turned me on to Insanity®, had bought a Groupon to some new fitness class and had three extra. Would I want them? Well...why not? The Groupon was for a new Pure Barre location in Louisville. I looked up the schedule and made an appointment -- for 2 hours later. Crazy? Yes.

Before the groupon, I'd only heard of Pure Barre from a friend who'd become addicted to it prior to her wedding. Essentially, it's a one hour mix of pilates, yoga, and dance-related stretching and resistance that provide a well-rounded strength training workout without much cardio or stress. According to the website:

"Pure Barre is a total body workout that lifts your seat, tones your thighs and burns fat in record-breaking time. Utilizing the ballet barre to perform small isometric movements set to fantastic music, Pure Barre is the fastest, most effective, yet safest way to change your body. Students see results in just 10 classes."

 My reaction? It was a good workout, but not the "blast-you-into-fitness" type thing I was prepared for. It's also relatively expensive (as you can imagine, law school doesn't leave much for the discretionary sports budget). My tune may change depending on how good/bad I feel tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Going Going Going

Business as usual here in my world. Finals are just around the corner and while I lucked into only having one in-class exam (yay!) I have two other "finals" due between now and Thanksgiving (boo!). The first is a "brief" to the US Supreme Court that's due tomorrow. I'm so deep in the religion clauses I might drown (it's possible, trust me).

The best thing about running is that it doesn't contain any religion clauses. It doesn't contain any statutory interpretation, it doesn't include any professors, it doesn't include any judges - running just 'is'. That's the beauty of it.

In keeping with my "Just go with it" theme I've been working on being 'present'. It seems lately like a lot of my life is being lived in the future: planning for finals, planning for spring semester, planning for graduation, planning for the wedding, etc. Everything I do seems purposed toward "tomorrow." It shouldn't be a surprise to me that I fall into the same trap with running. Each run is done with the next workout in mind, each workout with the next long run in mind, each long run with the next race, etc. This is no way to live.

So now I'm trying to focus on being really in the moment. I kickstarted this whole thing at Yoga last week. I focused on thinking about me, and the moment I was in; each breath, each muscle fiber in each stretch. It felt so good just to put everything else out of my head and focus on right now.

Today's run is a perfect example of this. Last night before I went to bed I made a workout knowing that I'd probably be too chicken to do it. I sent it to my Garmin and headed to bed. Turns out - it was great! I worked a ladder (1/4. 1/2. 3/4, 1. 3/4, 1/2, 1/4) with .15mi rest and HR goals. I focused on each split on it's own, independent of the others and worked on meeting the specific pace goals I'd set. And I did - on every single one!

10:48 was my slowest split...waaah?

Talk about runners high. I feel great! Cooled off with a chocolate smoothie and lots of water, due to this ridiculous "heat". Now, I feel totally grounded and ready to jump back into the Religion Clauses. Well, after I've eaten leftover Rigatoni Casserole that is.

Sans Breadcrumbs - oh there will be breadcrumbs on top

Recipe stolen from Beth @RUNNING Around my Kitchen and it's one you should steal too. Vegetarian friendly and freezes like a dream. I've posted the recipe I used along w/ the nutritional stuff!

Happy Running!

Too much mexican, not enough meatloaf

I apologize in advance to everyone up in the Northeast dealing with the remains of the horrible snow & wind. From someone whose been through her share of power outages and totally random snow/wind/ice events, I can empathize with the absolute awful that is winter weather.

Now that I've got that out of the way, it has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL here in the bluegrass this week. Right now it's 64 degrees outside and calm. I don't know what is prompting this, but it makes it almost impossible not to get outside and go for a run. That run, however, doesn't always turn out as pretty.

I was looking forward to heading home after my morning class and getting a jump start on the mountain of work I've been avoiding. Some friends goaded me into making a pit-stop at Qdoba - part in celebration of an IM football victory and part in commiseration of a project we'd just gotten back. I don't know how it happened but I managed to wolf down nearly every inch of my delectable Craft 2 meal. To put it in perspective: based on my current height/weight I'm allotted 29 weight watchers points per day. My gigantic meal took up 21 points. Oh yeah, just wait - it gets better.

About 20 minutes later I knew what I'd done. Unfortunately my digestive system is still a horrible mess after the whole gallbladder fiasco and an ounce of something irritating gives me horrible indigestion and a feeling of "full" that I can't describe. Ugh. I will admit, this whole "overeating" bit was helpful in one aspect because I wanted to bake something for my evening class. Since the thought of food made me want to die, I figured I could enjoy the baking part and not be tempted by the eating part. On that point, I was victorious!

I made these delectable Fudge Mint Brownies using Black Beans! Using some savvy googling and looking at a lot of instant brownie boxes I threw a recipe together and got to work.

How can this go badly?

After about 40 minutes I was pretty eager to see how they came out. I love experimenting with food - there's so much you can do using store bought materials and a little craftiness! After what felt like hours in the oven, they were finally ready to come out. It was nothing short of a choco-gasm.

Behold the fudgy-ness!

The black bean substitution really made them fudgy and dense, which is exactly how I like them. I'm sticking the recipe up here if you want to try it yourself. Next time I think i'm going to try with peanut butter...mmm.

Once I got the brownies all cooled and cut up I only had about 30 minutes before class to get a run in. In keeping with the spirit of "go with the flow" I laced up my shoes, set my Garmin to 25 minutes and just...went. When I came to a stop sign or a street crossing I went wherever it was quicker to go; traveled on sidewalks that had the fewest leaves, going and going until I heard the watch beep "half way" and then dutifully turned around.

About 3 minutes into it, my giant Mexican meal reared it's ugly head. I got a side cramp like you wouldn't believe. At that moment I probably could've given you an exact anatomical location of my 1/2 Chicken Quesadilla (but I wouldn't have, because that would've been impolite). I tried slowing my place,  using rhythmic breathing, rubbing the cramp - the cramp only fought back. Despite the intense grossness and pain I made it very clear to my legs - Don't.Stop.Moving.

And then Meatloaf happened. As I stopped for a walk break my little Quicksliver switched on the Meatloaf - Bat out of Hell. I figure it was my Shuffle's kind way of saying "suck it up - move it!". So I did. It wasn't the prettiest 2 miles ever, and hell, it was only 2 miles - but I made it!

So far, operation "no plan" is working like a charm. And to top it off, my seminar class ate all but 3 of the brownies! Sounds like I'll be making Black Bean Brownies again sometime soon. As for the Qdoba... well, maybe not.

Got any good recipes for me? Have you ever had to outrun a side-stitch? 


Happy Running!