Half Training...the good, the bad, the ugly

Happy Monday people!

Yesterday I did the longest distance I’ve ever done.  Over 12 miles.  This will be my longest distance before my first half on June 2^nd, two weeks away from yesterday.  This Sunday I will taper down to an 8 mile run to make sure I don’t wear myself out before race day.  I’m really proud of myself for pushing my body …I didn’t ever think that I could be capable of something like this!

So that’s the quick summary, the "good" if you will.  Fair warning, I’m about to get pretty detailed about the side of half training that no one ever talks about.  There’s the good side everyone always talks about…then there’s the bad, and the ugly.  I’m going to talk about those last ones now…so if you don’t want to hear it, stop reading now (consider yourself warned).

My run yesterday started off pretty good.  I was feeling great, my lungs felt good, my hips and knees felt good, and I knew I could do all 12 miles without a problem.  Around mile 5 I started getting that strange pins and needles thing in my right foot again (this happened on my last long run), but I powered through and kept going.  I’ve been experimenting with different fuels to see how my body reacts to them, and yesterday I tried a power gel by stinger.

 

In a word, yuck.  Not for me.  I didn’t like this stuff for 2 main reasons.  1) I didn’t like the sensation of this warm gooey stuff coating my mouth (it didn’t help that I didn’t care for the taste) and 2) I’m pretty sure my stomach didn’t care for it either.  Which leads me to my next topic.

Poop.  There I said it. 

 

Around mile 7 I was feeling pretty crampy, and by mile 9, I knew I needed to get to a bathroom fast.  I was running by a sports field, and I thought there might be some porta-potties lined up, so I headed off course towards what I thought might be a great solution to my problem.  Alas…no porta potties, just a locked field house.  I had made it to mile 9.5, but knew that I was in serious trouble, so I made that phone call that no girl wants to make…I stopped to walk and called my husband to come pick me up so that I could get home to use the bathroom.  I continued to walk for the next .5 miles (mainly because I was truly afraid if I kept running that I might have an “accident”), and had hit 10 miles before my husband arrived.  I paused my runkeeper app, got home, did my thing, then went back out to finish the last 2 miles.  It’s hard to say if this was a result of my Crohn’s affliction, if it’s just what distance running does to your body, or if it was the gel fuel that set me off, but it pretty much sucked all of the energy out of me.  Those last 2 miles were HARD.  I tried to keep hydrating, and ended up going a little further than 2 because I felt guilty about 1) walking a ½ mile, and 2) stopping for my little “break”, even though it was probably only 10 minutes total time.

 

The rest of the day, I was pretty much a waste of life.  All I wanted to do was lie on the couch.  I felt crampy and awful the rest of the day, and had no energy to do anything around the house.  I was supposed to go grocery shopping, but I didn’t.  I was supposed to do some cleaning around the house, but I didn’t.  I took a hot shower and it was all I could do to make it through that without sitting down for a bit!  By the evening I was feeling a little better, and went out to dinner and a movie with my husband.  I took a bubble bath before bed, with lots of epsom salts to help ease my sore muslces, so that helped me a bit, but I slept like a rock last night, and I’m sore as hell this morning.

 

 

(My right knee is still pretty bruised from my fall last week, but it doesn't bother me unless I'm kneeling now)

 

I know these are things you probably don’t hear about a lot from the people that talk about training for a half, so I wanted to be honest with you about how my body is reacting.  I should also mention that this long distance running is making me HUNGRY.  Like I could eat non-stop, all day, and still not feel full.  It’s not doing wonders for my weight loss, but I’m still proud that I can say I was able to push my body that far. 

 

So there you have it.  The good, the bad, the ugly.

Do you have any experiences to share about running long distances? I’d love to hear them!

JUST. KEEP. SWIMMING.

I’ve been noticing a theme lately in some of the groups that I’m in on Facebook, posts on Instagram, and well, if I’m being honest, with my own behavior.

The common denominator is falling off the wagon…and how to stop it from totally derailing your efforts.

I’m a victim of the 5 pound tango…I do really good for a stretch, lose 5 to 10 pounds, then in one bad long weekend, gain it all back (sometimes plus some). 

Let me ask you a seemingly random question; how many times per day would you say you drop your cell phone?  I, myself, probably drop my phone at least once, if not 2 or 3 times a day.  When I drop my phone, do I pick it up and say…damn, it’s got a scratch on the back, might as well throw the stupid thing away!? Hell no! That thing is like $400 to replace without re-signing a contract, you’re damn straight I put it back in my pocket and deal with those minor cosmetic defects that I’ve caused!

 

My point is this: if you find yourself falling off the wagon, don’t beat yourself up! It’s just one meal, just one dessert, sometimes even a whole day, but it does not define you as a person! We are all human, and we all have our imperfections.  I’m a binge eater, and when I open a new container of (insert favorite fatty food here…) I have a really hard time stopping at just one serving.  9 times out of 10, if I eat right out of the container I finish the whole damn thing.  Now if I use the cell phone mentality, I should pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back to eating healthy and counting my calories like a good girl.  But most of us don’t go there…we use that slip up, that tiny pebble in our journey, as the cause and effect of an entire AVALANCHE of bad eating.  I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and I’m trying to break that habit.

There’s no magic pill or right way of doing this thing, but all you can do is remind yourself that this is NOT a diet, this is a LIFESTYLE.  Diets restrict and prohibit foods and calories to the point of weight loss.  Lifestyle changes incorporate healthy eating on a regular basis, and still allow for fun foods too.  This is how I’m getting myself back on track; my meal plan this week has included an after-dinner snack, every single night, for a 200 calorie “treat” of dark chocolate, frozen yogurt, or popcorn.  In the past, those things would be off limits to me, so if I had some chocolate, I would think, “what the hell, my diet is blown for the day anyway, might as well finish the bag!”.  This week I’m trying a new approach, and so far I’m happy with the results.  I didn’t feel guilty when I had chocolate last night.  And I made myself stop at the 200 calorie mark because that was part of my plan.  It may not be the right answer for you, but that just means you have to look for your own version.  Find what it is you need to keep going.  Find a sustainable way of incorporating these things into your daily routine so that it’s not inconceivable to do it FOREVER. 

 

Because this is forever.  This is your life, your body, and sometimes we just need reminders that our minor defects are not so daunting that we should give up on a healthier, happier, fitter version of the flawed person we are today.  You can do this.  WE can do this.  And we will.  One day at a time, because healthy habits lead to positive changes.

 

 

Weekend Recap

On Saturday morning I ran a 5k…but not just any 5k, my FASTEST 5k EVER!  I admittedly started off way to fast; I have a problem with that when I start towards the front of the pack.  I burnt myself out by the end of the first mile, and my pace slowed down significantly, but I did hit the 1 mile mark at 9:10 according to the lady with the stop watch (SUB 10 min MILE!? HOW THE HELL DID I DO THAT!?!?).  Up until Saturday, my fastest 5k time was 33:02, and I honestly thought that was a fluke because I haven’t been able to duplicate that time.  Saturday I proved myself wrong when I crossed the finish line in just over 30 minutes.  I’m still waiting for the official results to be posted, but I recall seeing something around 30:30 when I ran through the chute…we shall see, but in any event I’m super proud of that HUGE PR!

 

If you follow me on instagram you know already that I took a nasty fall on Saturday night:

 

We went out for a late lunch/early dinner with some friends, and it started POURING while we were in the restaurant.  We had parked a good ways down the street, so we decided to make a run for it to get to the car faster.  I was wearing flip flops (and should have known better), and when I hit the crosswalk, my feet flew out from underneath me and I came down HARD on my right knee, twisted up my other knee, scraped up my foot, and managed to hurt my wrists too when I tried to break my fall, all in the middle of the street where cars were stopped for us at the crosswalk.  UGH.

Needless to say, when I tried to get my long training run in on Sunday, it didn’t go well.  My knee started hurting the second I started running, and after about a mile I decided it was best to just turn around and walk back home.  I wasn’t happy about it, but I figure it’s better to rest it than risk doing more damage, right?

 

Will my knee all banged up, I’m going to use this time to really focus on my diet.

This is my week.

I will get back on track.

I’ve planned out all 7 days of meals and snacks, and I’m going to stick to it.  Weight loss is 80% diet, so I really need to clean mine up, NOW!

I did all of my grocery shopping on Saturday, and spent some time yesterday prepping my fruits, hard boiled eggs, salads, and turkey muffins.

Here’s a snapshot of the excel doc I used for planning:

 

I’ve got a 12 mile training run this weekend, and although I’m pretty scared, I know that using good food to fuel my body this week will make a huge difference in the way I feel on Sunday.

 

I KNOW this will be a good week for me; what are you doing to make sure this week is good for you too?

10 FREAKING MILES

I RAN 10 FREAKING MILES YESTERDAY.  Continuously.  Without stopping.  It’s a miracle!  This is the first time I’ve run double digit mileage EVER.  I’m super proud of this!

 

I was nursing a sore hip from my run on Friday (which I now know was my IT band) so I was nervous about this run, but I dropped some serious $$ at my local running store on Saturday to invest in a foam roller (IE my new BFF) and some new running sneakers (I was WAY overdue, and since that was supposed to be my 50 pound loss reward, and I was just about there before my Bahamas trip, I bent the rules a bit J )

 

I rolled the heck out of my IT bands on Saturday, took a long soak in the tub with some healing Epsom salts, and Sunday I woke up feeling pretty good.  My run was pretty good for the most part, but around mile 5 my right foot started to get all pins and needles on me….I’m not quite sure why, but it continued for the remainder of my run. I also tried out some new energy chews before/half way through my run by Stinger, and I have to say I’m a big fan.  Just one chew and my energy levels felt pretty good…and they were tasty too!  I liked them way better than the sports beans, and these are organic and much “cleaner” than any other brand I’ve researched.

 

 For the most part, my hips felt ok while I was running, it was my feet that felt like they had taken a beating by the end of my 2 hour jaunt.  Could have been the distance, could have been the new shoes…who knows, but I really like my new sneakers and I’m looking forward to a couple of shorter runs this week to see how they feel.

After my run I attempted my first ever ICE BATH.

 

That sh*t is for the birds.  I HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT….I may have gotten into the tub a little prematurely (it was still filling up) and this may have been the reason I couldn’t handle it for more than a minute…my body wasn’t totally submerged and having the ice cold water creep up and over my legs at a painfully slow rate was not exactly pleasant.  I have to say though…I woke up this morning feeling pretty good muscle-ache wise, so maybe I’ll give it one more try next week with the tub FILLED before I lower myself in!

So my diet….well it hasn’t been that great since I got back from the Bahamas last week.  I’m starting fresh today, back at logging my calories into MFP, back to eating clean and avoiding processed sugars, dairy, and alcohol for a while.  I NEED to get back down to my pre-Bahamas weight so I can start focusing on that new decade again!  I have to do some prepping tonight since I had too busy of a weekend to get it done yesterday, so I’m hoping I’m not too wiped out after work to get it all done!

How was your weekend? Anything you want to brag about??

My new bathroom

IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!
Five years ago, we moved into the house we live in.  Five years ago, I took my first shower in the upstairs bathrooom, and water leaked through to the kitchen ceiling below.  We haven't used that bathroom since (we have another full bathroom on the first floor).
Three years ago, I got ambitious and thought I could take on the renovation myself.  I took a sledge hammer to the tile surround, and found that the wall behind was PLYWOOD.  It was so rotten you could put your hand right through it! Worse yet, the plywood went above the plane of the ceiling, so we would have to cut back the ceiling (or take it down completely) to get the wood out.  So I focused on taking down the nasty wallpaper.  And found that the gypsum board behind it was DESTROYED.  Unsalvageable.  We went to take out the vanity, and the water shut-offs didn't work.  The list goes on.
So, for 3 years, that bathroom door has stayed closed while we ignored the problem (since we had another fully functionally bathroom).

This year, we finally decided to hire someone to do the work.  It was supposed to be 2 weeks.  It started April 1st, and finished yesterday, a week and a half behind schedule (he ended up working Saturdays too).  We encountered just about every problem you could think of once the bathroom was gutted.  Our house was built in 1920, it's got some history, but it's also got some issues.  The framing was bad, the roof was leaking, the old cast iron pipes all needed to be replaced, there was no insulation in the exterior walls, the door had to be moved, the floor was unlevel and the framing needed extra support...the list goes on.  All I can say is, THANK GOD IT'S DONE!  I took my first shower in my new bathroom this morning and it was glorious. 
Now for your viewing pleasure, the pictures:

Before:

(Yes that's a mint green tub and matching sink...no we didn't save those ;)

During:

 

 

After!!!

 

And just for good measure, me in the beautiful new lighting that my new bathroom gives me :)

 

 

Happy Tuesday!!

HUUUUGE GIVEAWAY!!!!

Ok peeps, I've teamed up with some fine ladies to bring you a ginormous giveaway today (no, this is not a cruel April Fool's joke!) There's some awesome prizes involved here so take a look below to get all the details!! (And yes, I know the formating is a bit screwy on my blog, but the design code was provided to me and I'm not quite sure how to fix it, so you're just going to have to deal :-P)

This past week Laura from Walking in Memphis in High Heels reached 1,000 followers on her blog!  To celebrate and thank her readers, she has teamed up with some of her favorite bloggers to have a huge giveaway!  Please take a moment to show these women (and one man) some love!  One lucky reader will win a $300 gift card to J.Crew, a $200 gift card to Target and a $200 gift card to Sephora!  How amazing is that?!  You can check out each blog by clicking on the link below their name, and enter the giveaway by using the Rafflecopter below.

 

 

Abigail  ||  Ady  ||  Alicia

 

Andrea D  ||  Andrea M  ||  Angela

 

 

Alyssa  ||  Amy D  ||  Analisa

 

 

  Ashlee  ||   Bekah  ||   Brianne

   

 

  

Chioma   ||   Colleen   ||   Dani

Emily  ||  Holly  ||  Jaclyn

 

 

Jaime  ||  Jason  ||  Jessica M

 

 

Jessica S  ||  Jessica T  ||  Jodi

 

 

Karri  ||  Keyona  ||  Kira 

 

 

Laura  ||  Lindsey  ||  Maria

 

 

 

Merchon  ||  Serena  ||  Taber 

 

 

 

Tasha  ||  Amanda

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quickie and last weekend for FlipBelt code!!

Quickie post today for 3 things:

1)      I’m feeling SOOO much better today.  Wednesday was truly hump day for me, and yesterday I felt a little better, but today I’m feeling amazing! High energy, slept well, and NO HEADACHE! Oh and the scale keeps going down, so I’m a happy camper! J

2)      I’m really excited to be taking part in a HUGE giveaway that starts on Monday, check back then for more details!

3)      This is the last weekend to use the FlipBelt coupon code, so if you’ve been thinking about getting one, now’s the time!  Check out my review here.  Coupon code is “BBB”

 

Happy Easter Weekend!!