Crazy Week!!!

Not enough hours in a day it seems this last week. As a choir/band director married to a band director this time of year get extra hectic with performances. Over the last 6 days I have led my choirs/band in 6 performances and attended 2 additional performances of other groups. Our last performance was this morning! I finalized 80 auditions for spring choir, sat in on high school musical auditions we posted the cast list yesterday, I had two meetings and one training show for my second job (selling jewelry) It is now Christmas break. Praise the Lord!

With all of this busy hustle and bustle came dinners out with colleagues after performances. Sometimes I didn't leave school until 9:00pm. I missed running with my training group too..:( You know what else comes with Christmas break for teachers?..... Lots of gifts: ornaments, CANDY, giftcards, CANDY, hand sanitizer, CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!!! I mean it is good. Who doesn't love homemade goodies from kiddos?! Well it puts me in a pickle. I love the candy, I love the thoughtfulness, but I can't eat all that candy and train for this half marathon. The packaged candy is easier because you can save it. The homemade stuff goes stale pretty quick.

So my choices are:
1. Binge on gifted candy
2. Give it to someone (assisting them with a binge on gifted candy)
3. Throw it away and waste it.

None of those sound good. So I did a little of each with no binges. I ate a piece to tell the kiddo that it was good (I should not feel obligated, but it's hard not to), I made my husband some baggies with it portioned to take hunting, then I got rid of the rest. I can NOT have candy in the house without eating it. The packaged candy is all in the pantry for appropriate use. Lol.

So what do I do after a week that wasn't as good? Get down on myself? No!!! I make a plan for the next time I have a crazy week. The plan would keep me from missing any runs or healthy meals.

I can't wait to meet my new trainer Monday morning. !!!!!

My plan tomorrow is to run in the morning, then do some meal planning. I need to plan ahead for holiday travel. That's a whole other post!!!

How do we survive?... By survive I mean stick to a healthy lifestyle.

How do teachers survive a healthy lifestyle when this is what kids hand to us before Christmas break!?!?!

Find out tonight when I post about my crazy week as a choir teacher before Christmas.

Longest Run yet!!!

Thankful for January February March and most of April because I ran half of a half marathon distance yesterday and there is no way I could have turned around and gone back. Lol. My first half is April 28th. I feel very prepared having run 6.55 miles yesterday. I not only ran that far but I ran in Knoxville... HELLO hills! For real hills... er I mean MOUNTAINS!!

It was a great run. Yet again my brother ran with me. What a great brother. He was out training for his marathon with his wife Jamie. She ran 23 yesterday (choosing not to run the full 26.2 until the day) He was intending to run 26 (0.2 short of the full distance). So I wanted to run six miles. So we made plans for me to meet them at the 20 mile mark which just so happened to be Krispy Kreme donut shop. They had a plan to stop for a donut. When you are running 23+ miles it's not the end all be all to have a donut. My brother was scheduled to burn over 3,000 calories on his run. Wow!

One of Jamie's friends picked up with them at mile 11. So my dad (we made a family weekend out of this) dropped me off at 20 Krispy Kreme we all took a picture together (below left to right: Jason, Martha, Jamie, me!!!)

Starting at Krispy Kreme

Now what was my thought process at Krispy Kreme? I decided that I wasn't worried about the calories (I was scheduled to burn 1,000) but I was worried about the sugary glaze feeling heavy in my stomach. So I told my brother I wanted 1 donut hole (50cal) They wouldn't serve it to him. He said "can you not just put 1 hole in there?" they said no. So I got a plain cake donut instead (190cal). It was good and since it had no glaze it set just fine. I had eaten organic Kashi cereal and a banana for breakfast.

So we met at Krispy Kreme for my 6 mile run. Hilarious!

Off we went. It was hilly! I was thankful to be meeting them on the second half of their run. Their pace had slowed a bit. Good for this girl. It was neat running in territory that I was completely unfamiliar with. It was lots to see. We were in fairly congested areas. Had to watch traffic a lot. We passed a house on a residential street with an older man out front. He cheered each of us on as we passed. Super sweet. We finally got to the four lane with sidewalks! Whew! I much prefer sidewalks! I was keeping up with my brother pretty good. I was excited.

I enjoyed running past the mall. It was just cheery and Christmasy. Lots of thumbs ups from drivers. Some people blew kisses. I even had a kid roll his window down throw both hands up in the air and cheer. Lots of motivation on high traffic streets. Just after this point we dropped Jamie off to my Dad waiting at her 23 mile point.

It was me and Jason and the road shoulders were getting narrow (like 9" kind of narrow). I learned about a new group of people. Now I know I should call names but I named this group the "right turn idiots" this group I made up of people who pull up to the end of a business driveway to turn right onto a four-lane and for some reason feel that looking right before hitting the gas is unnecessary. After all the cars only come from the left! Well how bout those runners. Each time we approached a car waiting to turn right onto the four-lane we would NEVER assume they were paying attention. So we would make eye contact with them and either determine they were one of those fine "right turn idiots" or get a friendly wave ahead from them, wave back and go ahead. I can think of 3 times for sure that we would have been hit had we not anticipated an irresponsible driver was in the car. One time my brother stood to the passenger side of the car waiting. The lady didn't look our way until she had already given gas and rolled a few feet. When she looked over my brother waved at her. The lady probably messed her drawers! Once I had one of those "my truck is louder than yours" guys pulling out. He never looked I knew he wasn't looking. So I waited for him to go. He gave it lots of gas to make it loud an then saw me to the side (safe as I was because I was aware) he also freaked out. Please watch for runners/walkers/bikers. Don't be in the "right turn idiots" club!

Moving on. I ran through an intersection with the people collecting money for children with disabilities. Just so happened to have an emergency dollar in my hydration belt. It wasn't much but I gave it as I ran through. So that was kinda cool.

I tried three new replenishing products on this run: Cytomax (like Gatorade) Sport Beans and Gu. My reviews of these items.
Cytomax- I use the powder mix in one of my water bottles. It was nice to have flavor along the way. Sometimes I opted for my plain water though.
Sport Beans (by Jelly Belly) - awesome I had tried them once when I wasn't running. Not nearly as good then as they are when you are running. They taste good. They bring crisp flavor to your mouth, help moisten your mouth, and they give your body a boost of energy.
Gu- very effective. Felt good after I ate/drank/washed it down with water. It was way thicker than I anticipated. I expected yogurt thickness. It was more like gel fluoride in the trays at the dentist. The flavor was fine it was just such a THICK texture! But effective. I would use it again. Just wouldn't get too excited about it.

When we were at 25 miles (5 for me) I was feeling good. When we hit 26 (6.1 for me) I wasn't ready to quit. Jason went on and began walking. I ran to him and asked "where is Starbucks?" that's where dad was picking us up. He pointed. I said "donyou think that's .5 away?... I've almost run a half of a half" he said "go! Do it!". So off I went. It wasn't long that I sensed him coming up to me. He said "why wait til Jan (his marathon) let's do it now" he motioned me in front of him. We passed starbucks and not long after I hit 6.55 miles and stopped to walk. I did it. I not only went 6 miles I did half of a half marathon. Jason ended up doing 26.45 I believe. We did a walk for a few minutes and then we saw Dad waiting at starbucks. We went it. I got a tea and Jason a black coffee. We sat for a minute. I had to use my inhaler which I hadn't use in quite some time. I think it was the temp (42*).

With our Starbuck after a few minutes rest.

So we headed home. Jason, Jamie, her friend Martha, and I all set new personal records for distances run. We were thrilled. Below you will see the screen shot of MyFitnessPal from yesterday. Can't see dinner and snacks on the screen but the point of the screen shot is how many calories I burned yesterday.

Burned lots of Calories!

I had one awesome massage last night. Today I feel awesome. No foot pain the entire time (but don't think I haven't been streching and babying that foot and calf) I also only had sore knees for a short time this time.

My "6" picture

I can't wait for 7 miles, then 8, then.....

We all survived..... this is us after showers.
We couldn't quite find it in ourselves to get dressed up. lol

Best Sandwich EVER!

Road trip with my parents tonight for the annual ladies shopping trip / to see my brother and family. Brandon is spending time on the farm while I'm away.

So on the road my parents (also health conscious) and I got dinner on the road at subway. I got my typical turkey and ham on wheat. I added an egg white and dressed it with onions, black olives, and black pepper. It was AMAZING!!!!!!

So my brother is hitting the road for a 26 mile run tomorrow. He is having friends come out and run portions with him. So I'm planning to schedule 6 miles with him in the morning. My Sis in law I believe is doing 18 or 19?

Anyhow. I'm hoping for a successful new record tomorrow!

Oh and super good news. I voluntarily switched trainers this week. Nothing against the one that Chad set me up with our personalities just didn't mesh. So I had to change. Anyhow, I'm so excited about the trainer that is going to be in charge of my training now. She is a very motivating lady. A success story herself in many many ways I can't wait to work with her.

I am continuing with my running and nutrition as is until our first meeting on Monday the 19th (this week coming up was too crazy to meet!) I am also going to pick up a book she suggested, "The Runner's Diet". She talked to me about tailoring my diet to the fact that I'm training for a half marathon while at the same time aiming for weight loss. She, being a runner herself (recently completed her frost marathon), has knowledge about this process. I just can't wait. I've looked up to her since the first few times I was around her at the gym in Zumba class. Now I get to learn from her. This is going to be good! God always has a plan.

Food Diary

Monday's Food Diary.... can't see my 30min of elliptical/10 min of treadmill cardio here.
That gave me 419 calories extra in my day that I chose not to replace.

Tuesday's Food Diary
Can't see my cardio here either... see below

I think I'm kicking butt on my nutrition this week.  What you can't see here on this tuesday report is my cardio which was a 2 mile run that added in 389 more calories to my goal calories, for a short run like that I try not to fulfill all those extra calories, now if I do a 4 or 5 mile run, I will try to replace some of the burned calories. A five mile run burns almost 900 calories, so I replace some of that.

This is a screen shot of Monday's diary and Tuesday's diary on MyFitnessPal.com (I use the app for input, if you have never used this app I highly suggest it! If you use it look me up... findtheskinny is my screen name.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter too... findtheskinny there too!

Cuboid? What is a cuboid?!

Yeah so I met the physical therapist today at the gym to discuss my foot pain. After many manipulative type tests he feels that it is my cuboid bone in my foot, located on the outside of the foot between the long pinky toe bone and the ankle bone (picture below)

My Achilles (heel cords) tendon is short/tight always has been.... As a child my mom had to stretch my ankles for me. Anyhow, due to lack of flexibility there I have also come to have tight calf muscles. Since these two things don't flex much my foot then hinges in the mid foot area (at the cuboid bone). This causes the cuboid to move in a piston action (not ideal) this then allows the cuboid to end up lower than intended. (subluxated)

Article:
http://www.cascadewellnessclinic.com/articles/2002art/0211art.shtml

So the therapist adjusted the cuboid back up for me (it didn't hurt). Kinda like a chiropractor. Lol.

He said lots and lots of stretching and warming up for the Achilles and calf. He showed me how to roll a towel and place it under my foot and lean into it to help push the cuboid back up into place. He also taught me toe crunches. Yes toe crunches. Put a pillowcase on the floor and use my toes to crunch it all up over and over. Exciting huh?

It will be exciting hen it helps and the pain goes away. Luckily he said not to stop running. So yay! He did say that if it begins to hurt while running to stop running and walk. You bet that I'll be stretching good tomorrow. I don't want to walk!!!!!!! I want to RUN!!!!!

Oh and one more thing. I will be wearing less cute flat shoes and more supportive athletic shoes. Even with my dress clothes for long days at work on my feet.

So. I'm praying for a pain free run tomorrow....

No Fuel......

Well. I did fairly well this week with my new diet. I LOVE Ezekiel bread (esp the cinnamon raisin kind) I enjoyed my hummus. I tried two flavors. Roasted Garlic and Roasted red pepper. Very tasty!!!

I did excellent on breakfast and lunch but seemed to struggle with dinner some nights. One night we were super busy so I grabbed Chick Fil a grilled chicken on wheat and fruit. Not the worst thing in the world, but not the best either. There was the flour that the Ezekeil bread gets me away from.

I had one really bad day. That was Saturday. On the way to the parade I got a cheese Danish and hot chocolate at Starbucks. Not exactly a breakfast with a fueling purpose. After the Christmas parade. We met all of our friends at BWWs (UK game was on) I was hungry, and hadn't planned ahead. So I ordered boneless wings AKA Sodium!!! Then of course water "doesn't go with wings" so I ordered sodium... Oh I mean Sprite.

So after BDubs I was due for my Saturday long run. *I can still feel the brick in my stomach* I felt so run down and sluggish from that heavy meal at lunch and was still lacking pep in my step as a result of a useless breakfast. I got ready anyhow. I planned for 3 miles. I knew it was going to be tough. It's like driving your car twenty miles after it says "zero to empty".

No fuel.... No Energy.... No success

I mean I had eaten food, but hadn't fueled my body with energy. So before I headed out I ate a Tbsp of natural peanut butter. I did take my hydratiob belt with water because I knew I would need it.

I headed downtown. I had never run there before. I wanted new scenery and wanted to be in a populated area with sidewalks for safety. I ran toward the local university which is VERY full of hills. I ran to the top of the biggest hill in my first mile. I ran down the otherside, turned around and ran back up and across the big hill and downtown again. I took two short (30 sec) walk breaks in the 3 miles. I enjoyed people watching along the way. I felt great cardio wise. My legs burned and overall I just felt fatigued (my fault).
About 1.5 out ( ran out 1.5 and back the same 1.5) my left foot /ankle started hurting pretty bad. A reoccurring pain from earlier in the week that I thought was gone.
I had three choices:
1. Keep running as long as it wasn't so painful I couldn't stand it. I knew it would suck.
2. Walk it back which would still hurt so it was suck twice as long
3. Call my husband to pick me up and not finish.
I chose choice 1... Sometimes it hurt pretty bad. I made a few huffy noises from time to time, I slowed down, and I walked steps instead of running the steps.

When I got done I felt good yet exhausted. I drive home and told my husband that I could eat no more junk.
He's a great husband and will do all he can to help me with that.

Today I woke up with my foot still hurting. I'm going to see the PT at the gym tomorrow, then possibly a trip to my doctor, who happens to specialize in sports medicine. I had been advised (and will also discuss w/ pt) to set out my two short runs this week to rest my foot and pick back up with my long run next Sat. I get to do that long run with my brother!!! So I will see what I'm told tomorrow.

I train again with my trainer tomorrow. Nervous and excited all over again.

My goal this week is to continue doing great at breakfast and lunch and also do great at dinner.

Have a great week ahead!!!

Oh and below is my latest running hair style. Anna Kournikova wears her hair like this and says it's because it keeps your hair from tangling. I tried it Saturday. I have to say that I agree!!! It worked great. Though a braid is heavier than a ponytail, or so it seems.