Kicking It Up a Notch: The Timed Mile

Weight: 125.8 (eek...but not surprising because I ate restaurant food all weekend. I thought I made really smart choices. It just goes to show it's hard to control your food intake when you don't make the food yourself)
Body fat: Still waiting on those darn calipers to arrive
Goal: One mile run in less than 8 minutes. 5 full, unassisted pull-ups, 2 sets monkey bars
Breakfast and Lunch: A green smoothie (kale, cucumber, pear, apple, avocado, water). Doing a bit of detox from the restaurant-filled weekend.

Part of me was excited about tonight's workout challenge (I needed to prove I could do a mile at my 5k goal pace). But I was also feeling a bit like a Negative Nelly. ("It's hot...my weight is up...evenings are not my high energy time...I'm not going to be able to do this....then I'll be down on myself..."). Why do we beat ourselves up like this??

The run went well despite the fact that my friend, Tracy, and I were second-guessing ourselves right up to the start. As I entered the third lap, I new I had it. Here's the proof. I did a 7:28 minute mile! I'm very happy with this. It gives me new hope that I can meet my New Year's Resolution (sub 8-minute mile 5k).

Pull-ups and monkey bars: Check! I did five full, unassisted pull-ups (one up from my last try) and went through the monkey bar sets twice. (I was going for a third time, but had to stop):

Note to self: get some gloves for the Iron Warrior and monkey bar training sessions!


So, despite the little weight gain--good training day!

Kicking It Up a Notch: The Half

Weight: 122
Body Fat: I ordered some calipers! I'll have this soon!
Breakfast: Pancakes made from rice flour, oats, flax meal, almond milk and blueberries
Goal: Complete a half marathon without humiliation.

If you'll recall from last week's blog, I was struggling through a horrible 10-mile run on the bike trail (paved) so that I would feel at least a little prepared for today's half marathon. Typically, I actually train for my half marathons. But this was kind of a last minute sign-up that I did just to force myself to build up my mileage for the Iron Warrior next month (the course is about 15.5 miles). Mileage in adventure races is a little different than running straight because you keep stopping to complete challenges. Plus the terrain is totally different (trails, stream beds, crazy hills, etc.). Still, I need to prepare myself mileage-wise.

So this morning was the half. After last week's dismal run, I was really dreading it. I was picturing a 3-hour half. In fact, I swore if I was over 2:45, I wouldn't even go over the mat, because I didn't want my time officially recorded anywhere.

I decided last week's strategy of forcing myself to run very slow did not work for me. I still walked the last two miles, and my quads were killing me. Plus, keeping that slow pace was filling me with some serious negativity that I hadn't felt running for awhile. So for today, I decided my strategy was to just run a pace that felt good--and when I crashed and burned--I crashed and burned. At least the first half would be pretty fast to make up for anything I had to walk.

It was rise and shine at 5am for this one. It was a 40-minute drive, and we had to pick up our race packet. As I mentally prepared, I just hoped that my week of very clean eating (cheese and wheat-free for a week now!) would help me out a lot.

The Race
Packets were picked up, and excess junk was dropped back off at the car. The only thing left to accomplish was getting through the porta-potty line in the three minutes we had left before race time.  Yeah, that didn't happen. They need at least twice the number of porta-potties at this race!!!! But it was chip timed--so who cares. When you gotta go, you gotta go! So Mark and I got to the start line about 7 minutes late. In fact, two minutes later, they picked up the timing mat--so many people did not get a start time.

I gave Mark my Garmin for this one. I didn't want the stress of keeping a certain pace. I just wanted to run the pace that felt good. It honestly felt kind of nice to be unencumbered by my big Garmin (those of you who know what a control freak I can be sometimes will realize that this was a big step for me).

Let me just say...I may ALWAYS start showing up late for chip-timed races! No crowds at the start that you have to break through--and you are passing people who are at a slower pace the whole way! It is a great ego boost! And then, when you see people heading back (before you hit the turn-around), in your head you think, "Yeah well....I started like seven minutes after you--you're not so hot!!!" (Hey, you can think petty things in your head. Nobody else can hear them)!

Onward...before this blog gets too long...

The only thing I had with me to track time today was my pedometer. And it does track "active minutes." So basically, I could tell how long I had been running by my active minutes. But it did not capture any walking minutes--like at water stops. So I could tell that for the first 8 miles I was keeping pretty steady 10-minute mile pace--which was fine by me. (Last weekend I was doing between a 12 and 13).

Around mile eight, fatigue was starting to kick in. But I still didn't walk. I was playing a little game in my head called, "The more you run, the quicker you'll be done with this sucker!" So other than a few small walk breaks (at one point I was going to load my Zombies Run! app. to keep me amused and motivated, but it wouldn't load).

I ended the half with a 2:18:06 time. Which, in all honesty, is only a few minutes off my personal best (that I trained for). So, not too shabby. I placed very average in my age group, but that's okay. Last week it took me longer than that to do ten miles.

So why did this week's run go soooooo much better than last week's? To me, it's a very simple answer--diet. I did last week's run after four days of restaurant food, more alcohol than usual, and birthday cake and ice cream (and then high school reunion cake). This week I ate very healthy and clean all week. I started each day with a Vitamix smoothie with tons of fruits and vegetables. I had no wheat and no dairy. I cut way back on wine (just had some on Friday after a very stressful vet appointment. Never try to shove two full-grown cats into a cat carrier by yourself. There will be blood loss--most likely yours).

I felt strong and energetic through most of the run today. It was rough toward the end, but I kept going.

So as much as I hate saying goodbye to cheese and wheat, I think it has to stay out of my life on a daily basis. I will allow it for special outings--and that will make it more enjoyable when I do have it!

Kicking It Into Gear: Day One

If you follow my Fit Life facebook page, you know that yesterday (my birthday) I made some declarations. I have a tough adventure race coming up (The Iron Warrior). And I have a New Year's Resolution I haven't accomplished yet (a sub 8-minute mile 5k). So I decided as I enter this new year of life, I need to kick it into gear a little harder,reduce the body fat to the "athlete" range, and refine my diet a little more (cut the dairy and wheat, cut back on the coffee and wine). And since I've been such a bad blogger, I thought I'd blog about it (not daily, but periodically)

It's not so much a matter of being intimidated by the Iron Warrior. We've already done the Tough Mudder, Spartan, Mud Ninja and numerous other obstacle races. It's more that I want to do really well. I'd like to place in my age group. So I need to be able to keep a decent run pace, and have excellent upper body strength. And as for my running pace goal, I think it comes down to losing some more body fat. I think I'm as fast as I can be at this weight.


Day One
Weight: 124.2
Body Fat: I don't know. I will have to order or borrow some Calipurs
Goal: 10 miles, 50 push-ups (stopping every mile of my run and doing 5 push-ups)

Breakfast: Smoothie (made in my new Vitamix!!!) with mango, banana, chia seeds, flax seeds,t hemp protein and some unsweetened almond milk.
Snack: When we came home from our run we put some frozen mango and a little unsweetened almond milk in the Vitamix for mango ice cream. It was delicious. We've decided this will be our "ice cream" from now on.









Today reminded me of why I quit doing distance on pavement. I hate it. It's boring, and it makes my body hurt. (It doesn't help that 10 miles was a huge jump in mileage for me). I like to run trails. They occupy my mind and are easier on my body. Other than a 5k race on the pavement, I run pretty much exclusively on trails or doing sprint workouts on a track. So the pavement for 10 miles was painful. The only reason I chose to do pavement was because I have a half marathon next weekend on the pavement. (And the only reason I signed up for that was to force myself to build distance before the Iron Warrior with is 15+ miles). So I need to get myself through some long runs.

I purposely made myself run at a very slow pace (4 -5 minutes slower than my 5k pace), because I haven't been doing distance. But the slow run (along with my boredom) brought on a lot of negative thought while I was running. I had to keep pushing it out of my head.

It has also been a week of indulgences--far too much sugar, wheat, dairy and alcohol. And I feel that when I run. It makes my body feel slow and tired. So I'm hoping by the simple fact that I'll run next week's half after a week of very clean eating it will go far more smoothly. Another bonus to a toxic run like this, is that it makes me look forward to changing my diet/life around a bit. My body craves something better.

The five push-ups every mile were a breeze. I probably should have pushed that up to 8 or 10. I actually looked forward to the push-ups so I could quit running for a few seconds. 

So goal accomplished, but it was not pretty. But the first day of a new practice is always a little tough.