Feeling good again

My eating has been back and forth this week. Some days I'm great and others I eat 1,000 calories over what I should! But my weight is staying the same so I guess that's better than gaining.

Today was my long run. I didn't go to crossfit yesterday. I was afraid since I'd done 8 miles on Monday and 4 on Thursday doing crossfit Wednesday and Friday would make my legs really tired. Turns out they were tired to begin with.

After my terrible run on Monday I've really been thinking about my training. I've been reading up on running and reading through my journal from when I was training last year. It really gave me some insight. One thing I needed to realize is that my long runs aren't for me to get my fastest time. They're for me to get my mileage in. My runs during the week are for speed. LR are for distance. My goal for my long runs is just to finish.

I also need to remember to keep my own pace. Not try to do too much or too fast. Slow and steady. It's worked so far; why change. So today when I was getting ready for my run and walking up to my starting point I thought about that. I'd worn the Garmin mostly for mileage purposes. I wanted to keep track of when I walked so I can log that later. I also wanted to make sure if I got off track or decided to change my route I still went 9 miles.

It was great to have the Garmin actually because it helped me keep my speed down. There were times I started feeling really slow so I'd speed up. Then I'd look down and see I was going 9:30 per mile and think "Can I keep this up?" I knew I couldn't so I'd slow down a little bit.

I also stashed something to drink in the middle of my route this time. Bryce told me he did it because he hates to carry water. I thought I'd give it a try and left a bottle of Powerade hidden at a church 5 miles into my route. It ended up being so wonderful! I left it there after drinking some. It was just too big to carry (I picked it up after). It was funny, about a mile after my drink I had to use the restroom. I'd drank a bunch of water before I started too so that probably didn't help. I looked around and saw that I was coming up on a house being built that had a port a potty in front. I hate those but have used them at races so figured I'd use it now. As much as I hated it I couldn't imagine running 3 more miles having to use the bathroom.

I finished my 9.09 miles in 1 hour 33 minutes. That's about 10:23 a mile. Other than my stop to drink and my stop for the bathroom I ran the whole thing. Up the hills and on the flat parts. All of it. I love that I can do that. And I felt great when I finished. I know not pushing myself was the best thing. I just kept my pace as comfortable as I could and it worked.

I love this route and may have to use it next week for my 10 miler. It has so much to look at when I'm running. I love it. 

It has a canyon where deer stand on the side of the road and look at me as I run by. :-) 

It has nice, new homes in pretty neighborhoods with yards I like to look at to get ideas for our yard. 

It has beautiful fields and mountains and even a working dairy at one point. 

And at the end I run by the Krishna Temple on the hill. 

(I didn't take any of these photos by the way-I borrowed them from Google)

All in all it was a great run. I was happy with everything when I finished. I know next week could be totally different and I could end up hating that run but for now I'm happy with my running again. 3 more runs and then it's race day. I'm getting excited! I'm looking forward to that awesome feeling at the end. Where you know you  did something amazing. Brenna says  "One and done" but we'll see. There's something about finishing and that feeling...I love it. I'm not a fast runner, I'm not a great runner but I do it. I get it done. That's enough for me. 

8 Miles of Hell

I tried a new recipe yesterday and I cooked today. I even have the ingredients for 2 other meals. I'm really together this week with food. I was tired of never having leftovers. And eating out too much. I was starting to feel nasty. And I knew if it was effecting me it was effecting everyone else. I also bought a watermelon and cut it up and tomorrow I'm buying a ton of grapes (they're on sale for about 1/2 price).

The new recipe I made last night was an instant favorite. Which is funny because no one was really happy about me putting cheese tortellini in. No one likes just the cheese ones. But I knew with everything else that was in it, cheese tortellini would be perfect. And it was. Next time I will need to double it though. Everyone had at least 2 helpings (even me darn it) so it went fast. It was SO easy! I love easy recipes. Not that many ingredients and easy. My favorite things.

The recipe I made tonight was one I'd made before. No one seemed to remember it but they all liked it the same. I liked it too. It was another one of those that are easy to through together. This time I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis. I'd put in more noodles so I needed more liquid anyway and green chilis are always a hit in my house. It's a joke when I try out a new recipe that Kim will always say "That was great but there's one thing that would have made that better." And he'll mean green chilis. He says it for everything now; even when it would be terrible!

The rest of the recipes I have are Italian Bake (aka Spaghetti casserole), is a crock pot pork roast recipe and the other is an easy stroganoff recipe in the crock pot too. I love crock pot recipes!
*****
Today was my long run with Brenna. Eight miles mapped out. Five miles down Suncrest hill-which is pretty much all downhill (a few really steep parts too). Then we were supposed to catch this canal trail that I've heard everyone in North Utah County talking about and run that for 3 miles.

I was prepared but then again I wasn't. I didn't bring water; which I knew I was going to need because we weren't even starting to run until 9:30am and I"m use to starting at 6:30am. I also didn't eat anything carb wise last night. I did that last Sunday and I swear it helped. Some people swear by it but others say it doesn't do anything. I wish I would have eaten a bunch last night-I would have known for sure today.

The main thing that really kicked my butt today was Brenna. She runs so much faster than me! I had my Garmin on and noticed we were running between a 9:00 - 9:30 mile all the way down. That's so much faster than I usually am. I'm usually 9:30 - 10:00. We ended up running the first 5 miles in 46 minutes where as it would have taken me probably 50 at the least. So I was dying by the time we hit 5 miles and waited at the light to cross the street.

The last 3 miles were terrible. I couldn't get any energy. I was hot and tired. I was thirsty and I was beat. I walked and ran and felt bad the whole time because I was holding Brenna back. I kept apologizing and she reminded me that she's run a lot longer than I have and that she hardly ever runs the whole time. But I still felt bad. I told her when we do the run she isn't to stay back with me; just go at her own pace and I'll go at mine.

The last 3 miles ended up taking 34 minutes; which was way better than I thought it would be. It was really a terrible run though. But it felt good to get it done. Plus 8 miles is quite a feet...even if I didn't run the whole thing.

I also need to remember that Brenna is 9 years younger than me. 9 years. That's quite a bit. That does make a difference I'm sure. But still I hated that I had to stop.

I'm looking forward to Saturday morning. It's my next long run. It's 9 miles and I'm doing it around here. I'll also be starting at 6:30am so I won't have to worry about it being too hot. That was such a killer! And the blacktop of the canal trail just made it worse. But that's just me whining again and giving excuses.

I couldn't do it. As much as I'd like to say it was age, or heat, or no water, or running faster than normal, the end result was I couldn't run the whole thing.

But then I look back at last year when I was training and remember how many miles I would go before I had to stop and I know I'm doing better this year. I know I am. I just need to remember that. And remember...I really do like to run. Just some days/runs are worse than others.

Gummy bears

Once again my long run had to be changed from Saturday to Monday. On Saturday I ended up chaperoning Dallin's choir group up to the University of Utah for a choir competition. They were so amazing! I was blown away by how great they sounded. I've listened to their programs before but this time they just sang with so much feeling. I was really glad I was able to go. I've had to say no to helping out all year so I felt like I really needed to make this work. It ended up being a fun and relaxing. I almost read a whole book in one day! That hasn't happened in years!

It was Mother's Day yesterday. All of my kid's told me how much they loved me. It was a nice relaxing day. Even for family dinner at my mom's I only had to bring rolls...how easy is that?! Kim helped Leah find something for me for Mother's Day. It's funny...I don't think he likes how much I talk about running and how much time I spend at the gym or running but for my Mother's Day gift he got me this running shirt. It was one he saw at the fashion show I did last month. It has these titanium dots that help let in air...I'm not quiet sure what it does but he was fascinated and wanted to see if it really worked. So he got me a shirt. He figured I could wear it for my half and be nice and cool. It should come before my next long run on Saturday, so I'll try it out then.

My long run today was amazing! I felt great the whole way. I woke up at 5:50 am to get ready to go. By the time I'd gotten ready and walked up to the starting point it was 6:25 am. I was running into town to my car (that I had left at the gym the night before). The first mile was hard-like it usually is. I try not to gauge anything by the 1st mile. Halfway through the 2nd mile there were a couple hills I wasn't looking forward to. I just put my head down, looked at the ground and plugged on. Before I knew it I was up both hills and headed down. It felt great to be able to make it up those hills without stopping. It kind of gave me this "I can do it" feeling for the rest of my run. I ended up running the whole. All 7 miles! I know I wasn't going very fast up those hills and my first mile felt very slow so I wasn't surprised when my time was an average of 10:25 per mile. I was hoping for better but I was happier about running the whole thing. No stopping at all. Not once during all 7 miles. :-) It was a great feeling.

I tried a new snack while I was running. I really want to stay away from the Gu stuff. It makes my stomach hurt and it costs a lot. I tried taking a small thing of applesauce with me last week. While I loved the taste it didn't give me any pick me up and it was a pain to carry with me. It kept coming out of my pocket the whole time. I finally ate it just to be done. This time I decided to try gummy bears. I've been reading up on alternatives to Gu and that was one (but so was the applesauce). So I put about 20 in a baggie and stuffed them in my pocket with my phone. I brought WAY too many. Ten would have been more than enough. But I have to say they were great! I loved the taste, they did give me a little bit of energy, I didn't feel sick after eating them and they actually helped me take the dry, icky feeling I usually have in my mouth. I can drink water to make it go away but hate carrying water with me (or drinking it constantly).

So gummy bears are my new long run friends. I figured 2-3 every mile after mile 4 is what works. I'm excited to try them again on Saturday for my 8 mile run. Between today's run, the 4 miler I have to do on Thursday for my training plan and the 8 miles I have scheduled for Saturday I'm going to be running quite a bit this week! I'm feeling a lot better about my half this week. I know not to be too happy...next week's run could be terrible. You just never know.

Stuck in a runt

I didn't post last week because I didn't have anything nice to say. I've really been struggling with my eating lately. I feel like I did when I first started loosing weight. I know I'm still making better choices than I did then but I'm still not being as good as I should. I'm taking second helpings more often now and we've eaten out a lot more too lately. I really need to get myself back on track but I'm having such a hard time getting out of this rut.

I weighed myself the other day...I weigh 161.5 lbs. So not cool! I've been over 160 for a couple months now. I know if I was better about what I ate I'd get below 160 pretty quick but that's the problem. I haven't been able to make myself be better about what I eat. I just eat and don't think about it. That's not good. Or I'll start the day out great, get all the way through doing great and then eat a ton right before dinner. All bad habits from before that I never got in check I guess. I need to do something, figure something out soon. It's really depressing me that I can't get my eating under control. It means I'm not in control of me...which I hate!!

I've been using My Fitness Pal lately to write down what I eat instead of Weight Watchers. I just didn't want to pay for WW anymore and wanted to try something different. I like this site and think if I was really good about following it and staying under what they say I could lose weight. I'm not good about sticking to it though; I go over my allotted calories almost every day. I'm getting use to counting calories too instead of figuring out points. It is easier to just count calories but I'm also getting use to counting them for veggies and fruits too. That's something new. I've also been watching my sodium intake (which it also tracks). I go over by a lot every single day. That's something I should probably get better at and then I wouldn't feel so bloated all the time.
******
Today was my LR. Well it was supposed to be Saturday but Friday night Kim said he'd like to go running with me Saturday morning. He said he'd like to try running at the high school track and we could take Leah with her new bicycle. I was so excited to have them both come with me so I said sure. I knew I couldn't do 6 miles (what my LR was supposed to be) on a track (that would be 24 laps) so I decided to switch Monday and Saturday. Saturday I did 3.5 miles and today I did 6.

Leah ended up doing really great at the track. She road her bike around probably a mile or more.  She was so red faced and tired when she finished! She had to go to the bathroom about half way through. Kim had walk/run  1.5 miles and was about done so he took Leah around the outside of the school to find an open door. There were cars in the parking lot so he knew he'd be able to get her inside somewhere. I kept running while they went around. When they came back I only had 2 more laps so Kim took Leah up the stairs of the stands to give her something to do while I finished. The last half of my last lap I ran as fast as I could (without falling). It felt amazing while I was doing it but I could only do it for that short time and I wanted to fall on the ground when I was done! But it felt good while I was doing it

Today I set out to do my 6 miles and knew it was going to be bad. Leah was at the gym daycare so I could run around Salem. I figured there wouldn't be as many hills. I mapped something out on my Nook and then started running. The main problem was it was really windy today. And on top of that it was 65 degrees by 9am. So when the wind wasn't in my face pushing against me then the sun was beating down on my face. I had to walk 3 separate times which really ticked me off. But I tried to make them as short as possible. I ended up doing 5.85 miles in 62 minutes-about a 10:30 mile. Last year I would have been happy with my run but this year I was pretty down about it.

As I was running I was thinking about how bad this run was and how great my 5 miler last week felt. And last week's LR was in the rain! And a lot of uphills! But for some reason it was an amazing run. I did the whole thing without stopping with a time of about 9:40 a mile. I felt crazy running in the rain but was so glad I'd done it when I finished. Today when I was running I just wanted to be done. I hated it. I had no energy. Everything bothered me. I felt like I couldn't go another step and I wanted to walk the whole thing. I tried to remind myself that I have bad runs and good runs. Today was a bad one, last time was a good one. Next week may be great or it could be awful. I don't know. But I try to remind myself I'll have a good one again one of these days.

I just keep trying to remind myself where I was last year at this time with running. Or even were I was 2 years ago at this time with running. I know I've made progress; I just need to remember that when I'm struggling to finish 1 straight mile!