100 miles and paleo/primal diets

I think I might actually do it.  I might actually get 100 miles in January. (And I'm already stressing how I'll do it in February.)  I am 6 miles away from 100 as of last night.  I have run 6 miles in the past on Friday, but I think I'm going to keep it at 5 and run one mile tonight.  I have run 30 miles in 6 days, and over the weekend 19 miles in 3 days.  For me, who has cut back drastically on my running since Sept. that is a lot of miles . . . and my legs are feeling it.  Good news . . . no pain in my foot.  Today I feel a little pressure, but it's the first day in 2 or more weeks since I've felt anything in my foot.  =)  That makes me very happy. 

The thing is, I don't know which is worse, the foot discomfort or the shin splints.  I changed my shoes and my running style to prevent plantar faciitis, but now I have incredibly bad shin splints.  It reminds me of when I first started running almost 2 years ago.  So I don't know if it's the increase in miles or the shoes.  I know when I first started running I didn't have proper shoes but I got some and eventually my shin splints went away.  I don't know if it was because my body got used to the running, or because of the shoes.  I do know that they would come back whenever I needed new shoes, so I am leaning towards blaming my shoes, but I just don't know.  Shoes are expensive, and I can't afford to buy new ones after only having these for a month.  Plus, I don't know what I would get if I did get new ones.  The more supported shoes help with the shin splints, but my physical therapist wants me to do more minimalist shoes to help with the PF. 

Speaking of my PT, I quit going.  At Christmas time I had to cancel a couple times, and she had to cancel once, and I just never rescheduled.  My foot is feeling a million times better and I haven't been doing the exercises she told me to do so I quit going.  I would like to ask her about the shin splints, but now I just worry about going in there and telling seeing her after so long.  It's hard to explain, I tend to want people to think well of me, and I don't want to admit that I've slacked off on the exercises. 

I read a lot of blogs, maybe not as many as some, but enough to keep me busy when I'm bored.  And enough to allow me to get behind quite a bit if I don't keep up.  In total right now I read 24 that are actively posting.  I have more on my list, but several of them quit posting and I either haven't deleted them yet, or I was really invested in them when they did post so I hope they come back. 

Anyway, of those 24, 6 of them are paleo/primal related blogs.  And while that may not be a ton, that type of eating is really influencing me.  I have cut down drastically on my breads/wheats/sugar intake.  And honestly, it's not because I don't want to do it that I've been putting off giving it up completely.  There was a time when I thought I would NEVER be able to give up breads, but I know that I can now.  It has more to do with laziness on my part.  Chris cooks 2-3 times a week, and he always has some sort of carb in his meals.  I can skip some of them, like the potatoes, but when his meal is spaghetti or potato soup (he makes great potato soup) . . . well, that would mean I'd have to make my own meal, and I just don't want to.  So what do I do . . . well, I guess I eat more primally when I have to make my own dinner and I eat Chris's meal when he makes dinner.  However, I have a hard time staying away from wine.  I like my glass or two of wine at night.  And I firmly believe this is the reason I have been stuck at 150 lbs for 7 months. 

So, the question is, is getting down to 140 or below more important to me than what I am eating and drinking?  So far, the eating/drinking has been more important.  Yes, I would like to see lower numbers, but so far, I have been resistant to making even more change in my diet.  I eat a lot better than I did 2 years ago, or even just a year ago, but to go lower, I'll have to change it up even more and I don't know if I want to.  (I know that my body can go lower.  I was 125/130 in high school and around 140 in my early 20's.)  Can I give up nightly wine and all chocolate?  Can I give up all potatoes (I LOVE mashed potatoes and hate sweet potatoes)?  Anyway, I guess this is just one thing I'm thinking a lot about right now. 

I am curious what those of you who may be paleo/primal (I don't think I have many that read this though) think of this article.  (I will say, I thought eliminating all forms of vegetables and fruit because they have carbs is stupid, those are healthy foods.)

I do not live in an area that has been affected by the extreme cold this winter (or any winter, really) but I liked this picture and thought I'd share it with those of you that may be affected.  =)

Running in Kauai

This weekend was a pretty good weekend.  I didn't have to go anywhere and I had nothing on my schedule to do . . . well, other than hang out with my sister who came up from Lynnwood (45 min away) to see me.  It was very nice to have a relaxing weekend.

Because of the busyness my life has been lately, I have been thinking that I would not reach the 100 mile mark for January.  I have been a little disappointed about it, but I have been determined to get as many miles in as I can for these last two weeks of January.  So last week, for the first time in a long time, I ran 5 days a week.  On Saturday after my 6 mile run, I had 75 miles for the month, and 28.9 miles for the week, which is the most miles I've had in a week since the first week in September, and only 1 mile less than my highest ever weekly mileage in August. 

Anyway, on Sunday I was going to run 8 miles to try to get my monthly mileage as high as I can.  While I was running I was adding up the miles in my head to see how close I would be to 100 miles.  83 miles after the run I was doing right then, 5 miles on Tuesday, 5 miles on Wednesday, and 5 miles on Friday . . . which puts me at 98 miles.  Ugh!  I need my rest days to let my foot have a break after these high mileage weeks, so I knew I couldn't tack on extra days of running.  I just ran 3 days in a row (19 miles in 3 days), so Monday needs to be a rest day.  Then two more days and I need to rest on Thursday, because the weekend will be another 3 days in a row.  Suddenly, I had a thought, there are all sorts of people that do "run streaks" where they run a mile a day for however long.  Why can't I do a one week run streak?  =)  That would put me right at 100 miles.  One mile on Monday, and one mile on Thursday.  So, this 100 mile thing, might actually work. 

Now I need to figure out February's running schedule, it's a short month and I'm going to be gone two weekends.  That's five 5 mile runs a week, totally doable, I hope.

We are planning a trip to Hawaii in 2015.  One of my sisters, her husband, my parents, and my family are all planning this trip (my other sisters can't afford it).  My sister, Nancy, goes regularly with her husband (almost once a year, no less than every other year), I have never been.  Anyway, somewhere in all the planning of going, I thought that it would be really cool to do a race in Hawaii.  So I started looking for races on Kauai, which is where we are going to stay. I didn't find much, there is one at the end of August/beginning of September (possibly a Labor Day race) that is a marathon/half marathon, and there is one at the beginning of June.  The Labor Day one doesn't work for my sister's work schedule and the June one doesn't work with school for Damian.  I am pretty bummed that I can't find anything (if any of you know of one in the mid to end of June, that would be awesome).  I didn't even know racing in Hawaii was on my bucket list until I thought about it, and now I won't be able to do it (at least not this first trip there). 

What a beautiful place

It was the same way for our trip to Disneyland.  I didn't even know they held races in the park until after we had already scheduled (and paid for) our trip.  By then it was too late to try to do one.  So that bucket list race, that I didn't know I had, is still there.

In February we are going to Long Beach, WA for the 3 day weekend.  My family, all 3 sisters and parents, like to do something that weekend every year.  We've been doing these family vacations for about 12 years or so now (we skipped last year though because of our trip to Disneyland).  Anyway, I need to google the address of the house we are renting so that I can look at where I can run in that area.  Running on the beach has always held interest for me, however, running in the sand is HARD!  And February is a cold month, so I doubt I will do much running on the beach.

Luckily . . . or not . . . my office did not burn down

On Sunday I decided to do a 7 mile run.  Like I said yesterday, my mapmyrun app hasn't been working right.  I downloaded runkeeper, but even that hasn't been working like it should.  The GPS often turns off or stops.  The first time I used it, it stopped at 3.54 miles, I ran 5.  Then it stopped on my 6 mile run on Thursday.  (Chris thinks my phone has a problem not the apps, and I know I need a new phone, but I keep hoping the apps will start working right again.)  Needless to say I've been leery about relying on my phone's GPS to tell me how far I've gone.  I've had to get on mapmyrun.com and actually manually map out my route so that I know where to go to get the desired distance. 

Anyway, on Sunday I had my 7 mile run mapped out, I was about 4 miles into my run and I started hearing A LOT of sirens, but didn't think of it much.  Then was running a few blocks from my work, when I saw this.

It was kinda scary.  I didn't know what was going on and I didn't want to get too close, but I was very curious if it was my job.  (It wasn't.)  Anyway, I stopped to take a picture and as soon as I started going again, my phone died.  I am sooooo sick of my phone, it was fully charged when I left the house, and I had only been running 30 min or less.

As soon as I got home I got on Facebook (isn't that where everyone goes for breaking news in their town?) and found out that someone had started a fire in a seed warehouse.  Sadly, that meant I still had to go to work this week. 

Monday I ran an uneventful 5 miles.  However, somehow, miraculously, mapmyrun started working again.  I don't know what the issue is.  Yesterday was a rest day.  Today I was planning on running 5 or 6 miles, but then Chris reminded me that we have a meeting with Maddox's speech therapist to discuss his progress and to see where we want to go from here.  That is at 3:30, so I'm hoping it will be done by 4:30 and I can go for a 4 mile run before it gets too dark. 

I don't think I'm going to make 100 miles in January.  I've been trying to be good and not run too much, as my physical therapist told me to not increase my miles.  I've only been running 4 days a week, and sometimes not even getting to 20 miles.  Last week I only ran 3 days, just because of lots of stuff going on.  I could have run an extra day, but I didn't.  Last week's total mileage was only 15.  So not very good.  This week I'm already at 12 miles, and I'm planning on running at least 2 more days, hopefully 3.  Even if I run 5 miles every one, with one 8 mile run, I still won't make the goal of 100 miles.  I'm kinda disappointed in myself, but the month's not over, so I guess we'll see. 

Gymnastics meet and getting lost

Last Thursday I went for a new run.  I normally use mapmyrun.com on my phone to tell me my distance and pace.  However, it automatically updated about 2 weeks ago and it hadn't worked since.  When I got home from work I mapped out a new route to determine how far to go, I decided on 6 miles, and the route I was taking was fairly flat, some minor declines and inclines, but nothing major.  It was an out and back route on a fairly busy road, so I was okay with it.  Those "minor" declines and inclines are killers though.  I felt tired for most of the run, and just when I was feeling better from doing downhill, the slope would go back uphill.  It wasn't horrible, but I definitely prefer to run a big hill and get it out of the way and then have a nice downhill run for awhile. 

The sunset during my run.

I am so thankful this was a 3 day weekend for me.  On Friday my work threw a "Winterfest" party.  I normally get off work at 1pm on Fridays, but because of the party, I wasn't going to get off until 4pm.  Fridays are one of my "guaranteed" run outside days because I get off so early.  I have to wait for Damian to get home from school, around 2:30 or 3, but I'm always able to run.  I was rather bummed that I was going to have to run on the treadmill, but I needed to run, so I decided that the treadmill would have to do. 

However, my party got done a little early.  I was driving home and I was thinking, I can definitely make it before it gets dark, the sun doesn't set now till 4:45 or so and that will give me lots of time.  I completely forgot that I had to go pick up Maddox.  But I thought, that's okay, as long as I get home by 4:15, I can still run . . . well, 4:15 came and went, so I started thinking, well, just because the sun goes down doesn't mean it's automatically dark, I could probably get a run in as long as I'm home and out the door by 4:30.  Well, I was a little after 4:30, but I was determined to run outside.  The treadmill was a distant memory and my focus was getting outside.  =)  I ended up only running 4 miles, but I was okay with that, at least I ran.

Saturday Damian had a gymnastics meet on Bainbridge Island.  I know you all don't know where that is, but it's about an hour and a half drive to the ferry in Seattle, and then a 35-45 min ferry ride, which costs $21, and then we had to find the school where it was.  I was so glad we were early.  I used to work in Seattle, I used to know Seattle, especially Pioneer Square area pretty well.  I used to take the bus there everyday and then I'd walk several blocks to my office.  I was then moved to a Belltown office and I used to walk to my old office regularly, which was a pretty long walk.  Needless to say, I used to know Seattle, at least those parts of Seattle, fairly well.  However, I never drove through Seattle, and that was about 5 years ago (not that Seattle has changed that much, especially the roads, but my memory gets hazy). 

Anyway, I knew the general area of where the ferry was, and had my directions and was fairly confident.  Problem was, I missed the road I was supposed to turn on and ended up next to Century Link field (you know, where the Seahawks play). I was really glad the game was on Sunday because I totally would have missed the ferry if I had gotten stuck in game day traffic.  Anyway, I was able to make my way towards where I thought I should be (passing my old job in the process, I really liked that job) and got to the right street . . . and lucky me, there was construction and I couldn't go where my directions were telling me to go.  I kinda made my way in the correct direction and was able to find signs for the ferry.  Even with our little detour, we were still about 30 min or so early for the ferry.  I was very happy though that I had given us lots of time.

pictures from the ferry

 Once we got off the ferry, I followed the directions to the school, and wouldn't you know, they were wrong.  I'm not kidding, Google was completely wrong.  It told me to turn right, which was not right.  When we hit a dead end, in a residential area with no schools at all, I turned around and decided to drive until we found a school.  We passed 3, and no signs at all at any of them.  I finally decided we had gone too far and set up my phone to give us directions, and wouldn't you know, they told me to go to the same place (that was wrong).  Luckily, as we were passing one of the schools there was a lady setting up signs for the meet.  I thought they should have set them up much earlier, at least about the time the ferry was supposed to arrive, for all us poor fools who didn't know where we were going and had gotten the early ferry. 

Anyway, Damian did fantastic at his meet.  He did the best he ever has.  We tallied up his points and thought he had a chance at first place for his age group.  They called out the places, starting with 10, by the time we were at 3rd place, Damian and I were giving each other looks and crossing our fingers.  His name was called for 2nd place, and we both shrugged, but we were happy.  I think 2nd place is fantastic.  =)  And he was thrilled.

I was going to talk about my weekend runs as well, but this turned out to be a much longer post than I had planned, so I guess I will save them for another day.  It's not that exciting, but this blog is "supposed" to be mainly about running, so I'll at least mention them.  =) 

I hope you all had a great weekend, even if it wasn't a 3 day weekend for you.  My weekend was great, Damian got 2nd place at his meet and the Seahawks won.  =) 

Nookachamps 5K

I am so annoyed.  I spent quite a bit of time typing up a race report on the Nookachamps 5k I did this weekend and then I tried to upload some pictures and they wouldn't upload and then the screen froze.  I finally closed the tab because it usually saves automatically and it didn't.  I was done.  I had written the whole damn thing, and it's gone.  Pisses me off!  Anyway . . .

This weekend was the Nookachamps 5K run.  I agreed to do this run "with" a coworker of mine (let's call her E) months ago.  She is trying to lose weight and started running at the beginning of last fall.  She did the couch to 5k program with her goal race being this particular one.  She told me that she was going to do it because she knows I run and when she told me I told her I would do it with her.  There are a couple other runners in my office, and when they found out, they also agreed to do it with her (F and A). 

I forgot about it and then a couple weeks ago E Facebook msged me saying she had signed up for it.  I debated about doing the 10k, but the day I registered (the last day of the cheaper fee {I know I procrastinate all my race registrations to the last cheap day}) I looked up the weather report and it said it was supposed to be windy and rainy.  I decided to just do the 5k, cause, as we all know, I HATE the wind. 

Anyway, the day of the race I looked up the weather again and it said there was an average of 16 mph winds with gusts of 60 mph!  That's crazy!  But I went anyway, because, after all, I had paid for it, and was meeting people. 

I got there and met up with my 2 of my coworkers (we didn't see A before the race at all).  E and I got separated from F at the starting line, but that was okay.  I started out with E but left her pretty quickly.  I debated about doing the whole thing with her, but she said to go ahead.  I caught up with F in the one mile range and talked to her for a min but she said to go on as well, so I went ahead.  I wasn't aiming for a PR, I'm pretty happy with my current one (24:11 at the Run for Your Mum 5K) and I knew this was going to be a windy run with some hills (the RfYM was flat on a really nice day). 

The biggest problem I had was that anytime I was running downhill I was running into the (strong) wind (don't think I ever hit 60mph gusts though) and then as soon as I'd turn to run with the wind behind me, I was running uphill.  I couldn't catch my breath.  However, at the last mile we turned onto a trail that went through a wooded area (a very well maintained trail) and went downhill, so that was nice, the trees blocked most of the wind and downhill is always good.  =)

I finished at 27:08 and got a finisher's ribbon.  I was excited for the ribbon because I've never gotten one of those before.  I went to my car to get my jacket because it had started to rain and then went to meet E on the trail before the finish line.  I was going to try to get to the beginning of the trail, but I was worried I'd miss her.  I took some pictures of her and her daughter and then walked/jogged the rest of the way with them.  When we got close to the finish line I ran ahead and took some pictures of them crossing the finish line.

As we were finishing (me for the second time) A finally showed up.  She had thought the race started at 11am (it started at 10am), so she had missed the whole thing.  We went to the gym to warm up and eat oranges and bananas (is there anything better after a workout than oranges??).  We were standing there talking (we didn't see F after the race, she went home right away) when a guy got up and said he was going to announce the winners of the 5k.  E said she thought I would get an award, and I said I didn't think so.  I had thought I might at the Run for Your Mum 5k, but I didn't, so I didn't expect anything this time either, after all I was over 3 min slower.  However, the guy called my name for 3rd place for my age group.  I was super excited (probably ridiculously so).  I got a ribbon for that too.  =)

(Go Seahawks!)

 

I had some good pictures with my coworkers, but I didn't want to show them online.  They might not like that, although they don't know about my blog, but still, it's nice to be respectful of other's privacy.  =)

 

More good news, I remembered to weigh myself today and I'm back down to 150.4.  Yay!!

Still plugging along

I am 6 days behind in all my reading on here.  I don't like to get so far behind, so when I do, I tend to get on and read as much as I can, but then I neglect posting anything.  I don't think I've posted a thing this week.  =/

Sunday I ran 7.5 miles, the farthest since my half marathon in September.  I meant to only go 7, which would have been half a mile farther than my regular "long" runs lately, but I miscalculated my route and ended up with a full mile over my "norm."  That's okay though.  I didn't feel like I was going to die and I didn't have any issues afterwards. 

Monday and Tuesday were rest days and then I ran 4 miles last night on my treadmill.  I chose the treadmill for a couple reasons, the main one being 30 mph gusts and an average of 15 mph winds and the other being the lateness of my run.  Typing it out makes me feel kinda wimpy, like I could have ran outside if I had forced myself.  And I'm right, I could have, but I didn't have to and I did buy a treadmill for those exact reasons.  I might as well use it rather than let it be a coat hanger (it's actually my work out clothes hanger when I'm not using it).  =)

The New Year's celebrations did me in. I did fairly decent with my eating up until New Year's Eve.  And then I ate a lot, and I drank a lot.  And I continued that trend for the rest of last week.  As of yesterday I was up 3 lbs.  =/  However, I am holding on to the delusion belief that it is because of the sodium and alcohol dehydrating my body.  That delusion belief was confirmed this morning when I stepped on the scale and was a whole pound lighter today, after eating well and drinking less (one glass of wine last night instead of a bottle) (all week, not just yesterday).  (I'm sure my liver thanks me.) (Lots of parantheses here today.)  Plus, I am guzzling water.  I am good at water intake over the week while I work, but not so good when I'm home on the weekends or vacations.  I will say that somewhere in the madness of my alcoholic binge mindless eating I weighed myself (in the morning, fully naked, after using the bathroom) and was allllll the way up to 157, so I'm am super happy with today's weight of 152.  =)

A couple days ago I was home for lunch and I saw a neighbor (he's the neighbor of my neighbor) running up the street with his son (4 or 5 years old).  I know that neighbor runs, I see him all the time, and even saw him and his wife at the first half marathon I did last year.  I believe he works nights, so he runs in the early afternoon.  Anyway, I was super happy to see him running with his son.  He didn't run far, because I saw him just a few min later leaving his house without his son to go on his regular run.  I can't wait for Maddox to be old enough to go running with me.  I tried to get Damian to, but he is not interested in running.  I started when he was too old to really develop an interest in what "Mommy's" doing.  But Maddox . . . I can't wait!  (I'm not worried about Damian's level of fitness, he is one busy, fit boy, he's just not interested running.)

(I swear I've seen this quote with a man running with his son, but I can't find it now.)

Many months ago a coworker started running.  She started doing the couch to 5k program.  She picked a race in mid-January as her target race.  When she was telling me about it, I told her I would totally do it with her.  Well, this weekend is the race.  She also got several other people who are runners in my office to do it with her, so I think there is a group of 4 or 5 people that is doing this race.  I debated about going rogue and doing the 10k the race offers, but finally decided to stick with the pack and do the 5k.  I don't think we are all running together, but I will definitely stick around afterwards to cheer her on over the finish line.  I'm looking forward to it.  =)

One last Christmas celebration and a look at 2013's running stats

Well, just like the whole of December, it ended in being busy, busy, busy.  Over the weekend we had to go shopping (again) for my family's Christmas celebration.  We bought all their presents and the food we were supposed to take.  I made another round of pies on Sunday (thankfully the fudge was already done). 

I could not think what to get my parents for Christmas this year.  The last few years I've had really great ideas, but this year I had nothing.  So Tuesday (we were doing our Christmas celebration on Wednesday because we all had the day off) I had Chris make salt dough while I was at work and then when I came home for lunch I helped Damian and Maddox make handprints in the dough for them.  It seems so cheesy, especially since Damian is 15, but I seriously couldn't think of a thing.  They cooked and then when I got home after work, we painted them.

We spent that evening tidying up the house because we thought my sister and her family were going to be staying with us.  Well, it turned out that they only had Wednesday and Thursday off, and they were coming from eastern WA (we celebrated Christmas at my sister in Lynnwood's {just north of Seattle} house) but they had to leave the next day.  Since my house is another hour north, they decided that they didn't want to add 2 hours to their travel time and stayed in Lynnwood. 

Tuesday was New Year's Eve (as if you didn't know) and we had been invited to a friend of a friend's house.  We went there and had a good time.  We only knew our friend, but it wasn't a big party and it was lots of fun.  I definitely drank too much, and that combined with the busyness of my last few weeks and my lack of sleep from the cat attack on Sunday night/Monday morning (which I wasn't caught up on yet) I got kinda loopy.  Thankfully I wasn't sooo loopy that I was dancing on the tables or anything.  =)  Although, as soon as the clock hit 12, and we did the customary toasts (with sparkling cider, which I thought odd) I was ready to go.  Sadly I had to wait another hour before we actually got out of the house and headed home.  Luckily it wasn't too far from my house and I was in bed by about 1:30am. 

But . . . we had to get up and go to my sister's house by 9am 10am  10:30am.  I was planning on going for a run before we left, but I was too hungover and way too exhausted.  I am a little bummed that I didn't make it out for a run, but honestly, there was no way.  It would have been the worst run ever.  I had a fleeting thought that I would run after the festivities, but that didn't happen either.

Nancy and her husband got ribs for dinner (we were all turkey and ham-ed out) and it was really fabulous.  We opened presents, which in my family is definitely a free-for-all.  And then just hung out.  Nancy, my Mom, and I went for a very slow walk, and then my Mom went back to the house and Nancy and I walked faster.  After that we played Apples to Apples (again) and generally just had a really good day visiting. 

We got home about 8:30, and I sat on the couch and almost fell asleep, so I went to bed about 9pm.  Sadly, today I had to work.  I did get a 5 mile run after work, and I still love my shoes.  I am super happy with them.
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Some statistics (bear with me, I'm not a numbers girl)

In 2012 I started running.  I ran 2 races and walked one
Tulip Run (Walk) 5 miles
Have a Heart 5k
Fowl Fun Run 10K
I ran 607.85 miles, which is an average of 50.65 miles a month.  My lowest mileage was January (0) and my highest mileage was June (74.83).
I lost 19 pounds.

I increased everything in 2013, except weight loss.
I ran 4 races, including 2 half marathons and walked one.
Runs for Cookies virtual 5K
Bloomsday (walk) 12K
Run for your Mum 5K (PR 24:11)
Berry Dairy Days half marathon
Skagit Flats half marathon (PR 1:59:47)
I ran 822.21 miles, which is an average of 68.52 miles a month, 377.79 miles short of my goal of 1200 miles. (Damn foot) =( My lowest mileage was October (26.48) and my highest mileage was April (116.06).
I only lost 8 lbs. 

I did not run any 10k's in 2013.  I wanted to run the Fowl Fun Run 10K again and PR, but with my foot issues, I did not. 

In 2014 I would like to run more races.  I definitely want to do a 10k and PR.  And I want to run a full marathon (which I find incredulous).  I'll probably do one or more half marathons and I would really, really like to run 100 miles a month.  However, with my foot still bothering me, and my physical therapist telling me not to increase my mileage . . . I don't know if I'll be able to get 100 miles in January, and maybe not February.  =(