Fun run and bike

Bill and I ran yesterday along the Lakefront. It was HOT HOT HOT (90+ degrees) and super crowded with families and teens hanging out at the beach and parks there.

I had an absolutely horrifying encounter with two people carrying a gigantic snake. I almost died, but luckily I was able to avert their path and run onto the grass, keeping a large distance as we passed each other. People should not bring disgusting, terrifying pets like that to such public places.

The first half of the run was great; we kept a decent sub-10-minute pace. The way back was brutal: hot, sweaty, thirsty and ready to pass out, we took several walking breaks. In the end, we ran 3.7 miles in 38:36. Not bad, considering the heat.

This morning i went into work late, so I had time for an awesome hour-long bike ride along the New Berlin trail. What a great trail for biking! It is completely flat, straight and paved. It follows the railroad tracks and you can see for miles along it.

Stats, from memory: 58:56, 13.29 miles, 576 calories, avg pace around 4:30

Eating has been healthy for the most part, although yesterday I had chocolate cake, homemade ice cream and licorice!

Today:
-FF vanilla yogurt w/ raspberries, blueberries, walnuts & flax
-1/2 veggie wrap
-Banana w/ almond butter
-Veggies & low-cal dip
-15 plain almonds
-Luna bar
-Leftover chicken/artichoke dish for dinner
-4 squares dark chocolate
-Low-cal Frappachino mocha
-Green Monster smoothie w/ spinach, strawberries, blueberries, banana, almond butter, flax & skim milk

I guess I really did eat a lot today, but it was mostly very healthy and low-cal. I had a pretty good appetite throughout the day, probably sparked by the long ride this morning.

Hubby returned today and it was glorious to see him again!!

Slept in... again

It happens every time I attempt to work out in the morning - I sleep in.

This morning I didn't get out of bed till after 8. Whoops.

I just missed a quick bike ride though, so no biggie.

Man, my legs were really sore today. Sitting down and standing up were quite the challenge!

Food:
-Strawberries w/ small bit FF vanilla yogurt
-Peach w/ FF cottage cheese
-Banana w/ almond butter (YUM)
-Spinach salad w/ strawberries, walnuts and feta cheese
-Egg noodles w/ butter and Muenster cheese
-Apple w/ almond butter
-1/2 cup vanilla ice cream w/ strawberries & blueberries
-1 square dark chocolate
-3 pieces strawberry licorice bites
-8 raw almonds
-4 slices celery w/ almond butter

Can you tell that my latest obsession, which I just tried for the first time today, is ALMOND BUTTER! It has such a great texture and flavor. Yum.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to go for a run with Bill and then make dinner for him. He mentioned wanting to skip the run, but I fully support persevering and running along the lake before dinner!

Time to do some quick power-cleaning and then hit the sack, though. Gotta grocery shop for dinner before work tomorrow morning (it's double coupon Wednesday at Pick 'n Save!)

Neither

That's the answer to the question I posed last week, "Paranoid or dying?" (in case you're wondering).

Thankfully, I am neither.

I went to the doctor (luckily I was due for my annual check up) and told her I had been having chest pains. She asked me where it hurt, and determined it was most likely from irritation of the muscles and nerves around my ribcage. Weird, right?

Well, it makes sense, and just knowing that makes me so much more relaxed. I seriously thought I was having a heart attack. Crazy, right?

I'm on regular doses of Ibuprofin for this week and hopefully that will calm it down. The doc said it could be caused by heavy breathing from exercise. Not that I had really been exercising all that much when it flared up...

Well, I'm just relieved I don't need a heart transplant or anything.

Shred + longest training run so far

Today was great, as far as training goes! (And eating.)

Woke up late (worked till 12:30 last night; went to bed at 2 - whoops) but shredded with Jillian before 1 p.m. It was excellent.

Ran a bunch of errands today, did some cleaning (although there's lots more that needs to be done) and then around 7:45 went for an hour-long run! This is the longest run I've done since I started training for the Chicago Marathon (my farthest run in history was 13.1 miles in the Madison Half Marathon last spring).

It felt great. I'm glad I waited till later in the evening. The heat wasn't bad, although I was a sweaty mess by the end.

I kept a slow pace and didn't walk at all. Did a neighborhood route and tried to stay on gravel as much as possible. Unfortunately, my left knee and left shin were not feeling the best during the run. I'm icing the shins a little. I really think I need good orthotics, which are expensive and P is very unlikely to support. Ugh. We'll see.

Stats:
1:00:02, 5.89 miles (although I think it was closer to 6), 635 calories, average 10:12 pace

Food:
-Strawberries, kiwi, half apple, ground flax, fat free vanilla yogurt
-Ants on a log
-1/2 turkey wrap w/ veggie dip, spinach, cucumber, red onion
-3 strawberry licorice bites
-Egg noodles w/ nasty cottage cheese/onion sauce
-3 squares dark chocolate

Tomorrow's goal: Bike 30 minutes and shred before work.

Side note: I've been listening to "positive, encouraging K-Love" on the radio and it really is just that! I've never been a devoted fan of Christian radio music, but it really is encouraging and I always try to sing along even though I don't know the words.

Thank you, Jillian

I DID fail to wake up and run this morning. :( I was tired.

I also failed to run after church, but managed to get in some 30-day shred with Jillian Micheals just before heading off to work.

I found the workout on YouTube and I'm so glad I did. It wasn't as terrible (hard) as people on other blogs make it out to be, although it definitely was a good, challenging workout. I only did Level 1. It was nice and quick.

I need to start watching what I eat. Here's today:

Strawberries, kiwi, granola, vanilla fat free yogurt
Big bowl air popped popcorn with butter powder
Chewy granola bar
Black beans, corn and cheddar cheese
Applesauce (2)
Twix bar
BBQ Lays potato chips
Chocolate chips

The last two items I totally could have done without, but instead wanted to be a glutton at 1 a.m. when I got home from work. Yuck.I hate looking at that list already.

Broke the streak

Today I finally broke my week-long non-exercising streak and got in a good workout.

It was my first workout with my new Garmin Forerunner 204 GPS watch.

It was the hottest day of the year so far (upper 80s).

And it was at high noon.

Needless to say, this was a tough workout that should not have been hard at all.

Biked to Root River Trail: 1.99 miles, 9:23, avg pace 12.7 mph, 58 calories

Ran on Root River Trail (okay, walked some too): 2.18 miles, 20:51, avg pace 9:33, 253 calories

Biked home (stopped the watch at a stoplight and forgot to hit start again): 1.08 miles, 6:39, avg pace 9.7 mph, 58 calories (seems a little fishy)

Man, it was rough. Tomorrow my aim is to wake up at 6 a.m. and run before it gets hot out (and before church - I know it will be tough to get motivated after church).

But in other news, this has been a very productive - or at least action-packed - day. Is it weird that while the husband is out of town I'm not lonely - I'm actually having lots of fun. It's like a vacation. I'm sure that's horrible, but I'm just being honest.

So, back to today. Woke up bright and early, popped over to the Farmers Market by 7:30, bought some strawberries, drove (top down) to church for a music meeting, met up with Janet, Lisa and Paula for breakfast at Pano's (YUM!), biked/ran, met up with Rachel and her "friend" Mike and went to Lakefront Festival of Arts, chatted with the parentals, weeded the front yard, did laundry, planted more herbs, worked for an hour (UGH) and am now settling down to fold laundry and plan tomorrow's Sunday School class.

Um, so, I really do feel bad that I feel so much more free and happy with husband out of town. Maybe it's just that the weather is nicer and my social calendar has been full...

Or maybe it's that I don't feel guilty for having a full social calendar because I have no one to come home to...

Either way, I do miss him and hope we'll have double the fun when he returns. Summer is finally HERE!

Marathon

So, about a month ago I registered for the Chicago Marathon. And ever since then I have totally fallen off the wagon with running.

I still have time, but it is freaking me out how easy it is to miss workouts. Sleep, social events, dinner, errands... they all have been taking priority lately and I NEED to get back on track.

I am going to start updating this blog more often with training updates (hopefully there will BE updates!)

At this point I am just thinking I am completely insane and never should have registered for this race. I cannot picture myself running 26.2 miles, but I know I just need to focus and get out there and RUN and I will be able to do it.

Paranoid or dying?

I honestly don't know if I'm paranoid or I'm dying.

Peter says I'm paranoid.

I really, really hope he's right.