I just spent a couple hours reading scientific nutritional articles . . . aaahhhh. My mind is now blank, deadened, seeing stars, I'm not sure but it's like nothing is there it's so overloaded, lol.

I may have something interesting to write about over the weekend and have one of my spectacular written diatribes to send out!

In the meantime, let's discuss my running . . . I stopped running in November 2010 to "heal" read more here . I ran a couple times in early March. Nothing again until last week. So I started out nice and slow . . . 2.5 km, 3 km, 4 km, and have kept it at that. 5 runs at those varying distances. I haven't worried in the least about the actual distance - just got out there and got it done. So far I'm happy about how I feel running. That's always a good thing!

Last night I met D, (not using names until I'm told I'm allowed)  for a run so she could do her speedwork. I decided I would try to do an "easy" set of sprints around the track. I need to get my legs ready for the upcoming summer sports season. They need to be primed and ready to go for the jarring starting and stopping of baseball and now ball hockey.  (Yes, ball hockey!! More on that later - super excited.)  So anyway - jarring legs . . . participating in sports, out of the blue, tend to leave a person with pulled muscles. Not fun. First of all, it hurts, all the time, even doing regular daily stuff. Second of all, you usually have to stop playing the sport for a while until its calmed down a bit. Which totally sucks! So sprints it is. And full leg warm ups before playing - don't forget that!

So back to sprinting - I did one easy straight run around the track. Next 2 laps alternating 100 metres sprinting, 100 metres slow run. Last lap slow run. We ran to and from the track. Total distance (including sprints) I believe was 4.17 km .  It was a really nice run. The sprints hurt just enough to let me know I had done some work and the run, as always, was a great chat fest for me! Legs have a slight ache to them today but does not affect me in anyway except to remind me I had a good workout. Glad we went. I'm so glad one of us has a goal so I can benefit by getting my butt off the couch! Thx D!

Unintended Posting

I never intended on writing today but something came up which requires me to comment. Surprise surprise!

I was told the following by someone who I regard as extremely confident and organized, someone full of drive and determination, someone I look up to:


" . . . I feel like I'm working hard but I'm not seeing the results. There's a lot of things I could do better, I know that..... And I just want some time to set my own goals big and small. I feel like a bit like an unguided ship. That's not exactly true. I feel like I have a lot of guidence but no control if that makes sense. . ."

This is a great thing for all of us to stop and think about in our hectic lives. I need to throw my thoughts out there. My response would have been:

You have the vessel, you have the time, unlimited fuel, a full crew, navigation (guidance) system but NO DESTINATION. You are cruising around the world aimlessly and feeling like you aren't getting anywhere. Not getting the satisfaction of accomplishing a goal. You need to stop, pick a destination (and a few pit stops along the way) and then PLAN THE ROUTE. Map it out. That is your "control".

Lots of people will suggest different goals or activities and they all sound awesome and you want to do them all but that's not reality and definitely not under control. You need to pick the ones that are most important to YOU. Take the time to decide what your priorities are. There is always next year, and its not that you are putting something off negatively only living in reality.

Don't pick your goals based on others. You may feel "guilty" for not doing what a particular person wants but it's not about them it's about you and what is best for you. This is not selfishness. If you are not happy, nobody else will be.


Once again I am reminded that you do not know what is actually inside people. Unless they tell you their feelings, you are making assumptions. I think we can all relate to the above. We all have goals, sometimes they are clear and other times like mud. It's all mental and emotional. Physically your body will do whatever your mind tells it to. It's up to us to decide what is priority and positive for us as individuals.

We should all take some time to prioritize things in our lives. Can be in any area . . . work, fitness, health, eating, personal growth, spiritual growth, family, etc.  And don't forget that priorities change over time. What's important one month (day, week, month, year)  can change the next!

Think about it over the next few days and take some time to put it down on paper. Doesn't have to be fancy. Just scribble it down and leave it somewhere to remind you once in a while. And don't forget to map it out!

LUNCH!

This is my lunch today:  Not sure if you can tell but the bowl is the size of a large serving bowl, not a small cereal bowl. To the left is the coffee maker and right is electric kettle. Nice large salad, its huge - once you get used to seeing this you forget how big it is until someone sees you!  You couldn't eat your grain carbs this large! How many calories in a typical sandwich or wrap that you are eating for lunch? Did it have this many veggies, this much protein. NOT!

Lunch is one whole head of romaine lettuce, one whole sweet red pepper and a can of tuna in water. Yes, the whole can. Protein is good. Yes mercury can supposedly be a problem, but that's if you eat it every day I think.   Total Calories:  330, Protein: 30g, Fat 7 g (due to salad dressing,  Carb 22g (13 g for the pepper and lettuce - 9 g due to Kraft salad dressing because they insist on adding SUGAR of all things and I didn't bring my own).

Normally I don't track my calories/food etc. But since I want to get back on track and start my body burning FAT instead of CARBS as fuel, I need to keep the carbs low to teach it to burn my body fat. (more on that when I get organized).   So I am tracking. And I am using  http://www.myfitness.pal/  as the tracking website. It syncs to both pc and mobile. You can take pics with your phone camera of the barcode of product, it will find it and automatically put it into your list of foods. I used it for my can of tuna today. Not that you should be eating many foods with a barcode . . .

Enjoy your day!

I'm Baaaack!

So after 1-1/2 yrs approx. I am back on this blog. For the lone one or two people that might have been reading - HI! Hope all is well!   For all my friends - you never even knew I HAD this blog lol. Welcome!

To pick up from late August of 2009 . . . I continued to run after seeing an ART therapist. Fixed myself up for the most part and ran my first marathon in October 2010. Loved it. Had a recurring pain after that point that I could not seem to shake. Took a big break - 3 months to be exact. Went back to my guy . . . he told me to stop being a dumbass - I did NOT have an injury, I just had weak glute muscles - "get in the gym!" he said. Damn!! Couldn't I please, pretty please, have an injury??

That was January 2011 . . . it is now April. Ask me how many times I went to the gym? How many squats I have done? How many lunges? Hmmm . . . I'm hearing silence. That's right!  a big fat 0 - zero, nada, not a one! So do I still have the pain you ask? I can hear your surprise right now when I say: "Why YES! I do have that pain. Isn't that great!??"  I just spent 3 MORE months procrastinating . . . Well, that is over.

It all starts with today. Today I start eating properly (more to come on that - that's a biggy for most people to wrap their heads around). Today I do a body scan that will tell me more than I ever wanted to know about my body composition and more (like my mirror isn't good enough??) So over the next couple of days I will come up with a plan for my muscles. Hmpf . . .

The best part is that I won't be doing it alone. I have a whole posse following along with me . . . right ladies?!? I know you want to . . . come on . . . deep down . . .

One more week down

I ran 20km thru the trails on Saturday a.m. Felt ok, nothing great, nothing awful. But later . . . wow I was beat. My legs were not too happy with me. Sore Sunday and Monday too. But I also had baseball Friday night and Sunday night, so sprinting the bases might have helped out with that. . .

I had decided to run Tuesday morning, just a little run to get things moving again. But when the time came for me to get up - I kept coming up with reasons why I couldn't. First of all the sun is coming up later again which means at 6 a.m. it still is not light out. So I feel like I can't run that early because it's "dark" and I'm going to get attacked. Oh come on! What am I - crazy!? For those that know me - don't answer that! It was rhetorical. Another reason is that I must need the rest since I didn't get up right away - my body was telling me something. (Nope, that was just my lazy brain trying to trick me.) Another reason is that I needed to wake the hubby up to make sure he didn't miss the train to work . . . uhmmm nope, I'd be home in enough time.

In the end I got my butt out of bed and went for a 4 km run. 6:15 a.m. sun was just coming up and it was definitely light enough outside. I decided even 6 a.m. would be light enough. So I don't have that excuse for right now. But I still wonder how I'm going to run when it's dark out. I guess the issue is that I'm alone. Lots of times in the winter I've run at night, but always with other people.

Wednesday - no run.

Thursday - 6:30 a.m. run - 4 km again. I'd like to go longer and probably should be going longer but getting up early seems to be a problem right now. Maybe I just really do need a rest. I have been using this as a "rest" week. Lighter mileage then going to ramp back up next week.

25km race is October 3. So trying to figure out how these last 4 weeks of training should go. Boggles the mind all the options.

Tonight I'm doing 12km minimum. See how I'm feeling. I'm doing it alone - my running partner is out of town. I want to check out a few trails leading off our regular loop, so we'll see how much extra that tacks on.

Rest tomorrow and then run Sunday.

Have a good weekend all!

Definitely a problem

Blogging is not natural for me . . . luckily I don't have to worry about others waiting for me to post things - ahahaha!

Maybe one day . . .

So just briefly - everything seems to be going smoothly - knock on wood. Friday night finished an 18km training run on the trails. My IT band feels good. Stretching and icing (when I remember) just to be safe. Bought "The Stick", use it regularly, like it. Still want to go for a full sports massage soon, sometime in September. Body is really tight - hamstrings and calves tight, tight, tight.

No time to continue today . . . at work and they seem to want me to do work here? go figure.

So maybe I'm not so good at this after all . . .

It's been a month basically. Writing a blog seems to be a hard habit for me to start.

I've been injured for 2 weeks.  Not a running injury per se . . . but a softball injury to my FOOT! Which makes it a little difficult to run. Decided to use my foot instead of glove to stop the ball . . . not always the best decision.

So I haven't run in 2 weeks. I did a 4 km "fast walk" on Saturday, foot was pretty sore later that day so I decided to rest it a little more. I ran for the first time last night - 3km. I felt like I was lumbering, heavy, no rhythm. It was weird. But my cardio felt fine. Foot seems ok.  A little sore in the arch today but nothing major.  I have softball tomorrow night and a 5km race on Sunday a.m.

I'm going to tape up my foot. I checked out a few websites and for now, have decided that's the best way to go. I'll test it out tonight and see how much tape I can waste trying to get it to feel right.

And  .  . .  using my glove only for stopping and catching the ball. Really need to think before I do things sometimes. The goal is to have fun not get hurt!

Hopefully I'll remember to keep you up to date!