Go back! Go back!

I’ve decided to go back to being Earlyrunner over on blogger.  I think this blog was just too serious for me.  So I’ll be semi-regular back on the old spot.  Thanks for endulging in my blog whims.

Daily Update

Fitness

Got in a good run yesterday morning.  6.25 mi in 56 minutes, which is slightly under a 9 min/mile pace.  That’s good for me, especially because it was super windy at some points.  Today is a rest day, but I hope to get in a walk to enjoy the weather.

Food

We made grilled chicken with strawberry avocado salsa from the current issue of Cooking Light.  It was super simple and tasty.  

Also, I finally realized that it’s my rechargable batteries not recharging anymore that’s making my camera die after a single picture, so I’m getting new batteries and will hopefully have pictures on here soon.

Finding Balance

Today is my rest day, and I admit I still struggle with the idea that I need to rest and recover even if I’m not running a crazy number of miles per week.  In the past, when my long runs were probably too long for my base mileage, all I could do was veg on Sundays.  Now it’s more of a choice.  

Which brings me to my next rest day struggle: choosing to do sedentery activities.  I have a sedentery job during the week, so I feel kind of bad sitting on my butt on the weekend.  I don’t mean I don’t do anything.  For example, this morning I’m doing laundry, which requires me to lug our clothes and sheets up and down stairs.  I’ll also go for a walk to enjoy the weather.  But I won’t be up and active all the time.  D. and I checked out Get Smart from the RedBox to watch this afternoon, and I have a project I really need to finish that requires seated work.  

I guess my hope is that one day I’ll be able to just enjoy what I do every day without judgement.  Workout days and rest days and rainy days and cold days all indicate different behavior, but one is not better than another- just different.  If that makes sense…   

 

 

Daily Update

Fitness

I got up early and got in some upper body strength training before work today.  I thought about sleeping in, but I love to start my day with exercise.  Plus, the gym is going to be closed in the early morning for the next few weeks so soon I’ll have to do afternoon workouts.

No bike ride for me today.  I left it at home because the weather forecast called for thunderstorms this afternoon.   It was a beautiful morning so I walked in to work, and I’ll walk home if the weather holds.  It’s sprinkled off and on today, but so far no big deluge.  I also want to get a picture of the baby goslings hanging around by the lake.  And hopefully not get attacked by Mama Goose in the process.  Those things are mean!

Food

Friday night is our dinner out night.  I’m not sure where we’re going yet, but I’m looking forward to it.  I’ve decided it’s enough of a challenge to go grain free between breakfast and dinner so if I can have grains tonight if I choose to do so.  I think some day I’ll be so used to just eating protein, vegetables, and fruits that it’ll be no big deal to ignore grain-based dishes, but I’m taking this one step at a time.  It’s not a race.

Finding Balance

We’re planning to travel to the Settende Mai Festival tomorrow.  It’s a festival celebrating the Norwegian heritage of a small town near us.  There will be Norwegian food and dancing and a Viking encampment.  Sounds like a lot of fun.  Two benefits of not doing a long run on Saturdays are that 1. I don’t have to worry about fitting it in before we travel and 2. I know I’m going to enjoy myself and not be hungry, cranky, tired, and dehydrated the whole time.  I can exercsise and enjoy my weekend like a normal person.

Daily Update

I didn’t make time to post yesterday so this is going to be a double daily update.

Fitness

Got in a good run this morning.  I did 4 miles with 2 miles tempo in the middle.  The first one was at 8:05 min/mile pace and the second was at 7:55 min/ mile.  That’s pretty good for me- especially the day after a leg workout- so I was pleased.  I’m still having just the slightest bit of nagging tightness in my upper hamstring, but I’m taking care to stretch and roll out my whole right leg and hip after I run.

Yesterday was leg day.  I’m still working on getting good depth on my squats.  I’ve picked a weight for my work sets that’s not hard but not easy, and I’m focusing more on depth and good form than adding weight.  My right hip is kind of weak and wobbly so I have to really watch to make sure it stays in correct alignment.

Food

I’m hanging in there, and not eating grains between breakfast and dinner is getting easier.  I’m figuring out what I need to eat for lunch to fill me up without relying on my old friends Mr. Pretzels and Mrs. Sub Sandwich.  Dinner tonight will be chicken on the George Foreman grill.  That thing is great.

Finding Balance

I spent a few minutes yesterday looking at a Facebook friend’s marathon race photos, and I admit, it made me jealous.  I was jealous of her accomplishments and jealous of how happy distance running obviously made her.   I wanted to be that smiling girl at the finish line.  But I had to remind myself that just because I’m not training for a marathon this year, doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen again.  I have a lot of years ahead of me to run, and it’s much more important that I take a step back and get my life in balance and- if I decide to add in some distace again- I do it slowly and in the right way.

Daily Update

Fitness

Today was my first “speed” workout since I hurt my hip.  I warmed up for about a 1/2 mile, did some short pick-ups off and on for about 3 miles, and finished with a 1/2 mile cool down.  My overall time was 33:48, which works out to about an 8:30 average pace.  I had a tiny bit of soreness at the top of my hamstring when I was done, but I took a lot of time to stretch and roll my leg out after I got back.  I’m looking forward to trying a tempo run on Thursday!

Food

Well, I didn’t make it through last night without having grains.  There just wasn’t that much healthy stuff to eat at the study day so I was starving when I got home and made a bowl of oatmeal with fruit.  Better than a bunch of cookies, I guess.  Today has been pretty good, although I had a major craving for strawberr Poptarts (of all things) this afternoon.

Finding Balance

Last night was the informational meeting for the marathon training program I decided not to do.  Even though I know I made the right decision not to train for a marathon this fall, I still felt a little sad about giving up that goal.  But on the flip side, I was able to volunteer at church for “study day”.  Every semester, right before finals, the church opens its doors to students and provides free food, tutoring, open gym, and a quiet place to study.  I didn’t see much studying going on, but they had a great turn out.  I’m not sure they really needed us or our chips, but it was fun to be part of the busy atmosphere and see our life group friends.

One of the hardest things about cutting back on working out was figuring out what to do with all the extra time I had on my hands.  Well, one thing I am planning to do is get involved with the church’s youth ministry, and because they meet on Wednesday nights, it’s something I wouldn’t have been able to do had I gone ahead with the marathon training group. My new plan will give me time to keep fit and serve others, which are both very important to me.

Font Colors

Still trying to make this site look a little less hideous :).  Hopefully there will be pictures tomorrow.

Daily check in

I did my upper body lifting session this morning plus I rode my bike to and from work and did 2 rounds up and down the stairs at lunch time.  It was good to get back into lifting after my week away, but I was disappointed that I wasn’t stronger in a few lifts.  My push-ups felt a bit tired, too.  I’ve read that a good goal when weight training is to try to do something new every week- increase the weight or decrease the rest time- on at least one lift.  I’m not sure if that works in practice, though.  Some days you just feel a bit off and aren’t able to bump things up the way you want to.

Yesterday was my first  100% grain free day (if you don’t count the communion wafer and fortune cookie at lunch, which I don’t)!  I decided not to post until today to make sure there were no slip-ups before bedtime.   It wasn’t a “perfect” eating day- whatever that means- but I was happy that I was able to set a goal and achieve it.  Because I’ve been eating a certain way for so long, it’s easy for me to say, “Oh it won’t really matter if I…” but then I have to remind myself that if it didn’t matter, and what I had been doing before had been working for me, then I wouldn’t be making a big life change.

Today I’m grain free except for my breakfast (oatmeal) right after my workout.  I’m a bit more hungry today, but I’m hanging in there.  I have a sort of non-specific bored hungry thing going on where I’m not craving bready stuff, but because those are my “default” foods, being hungry makes me want to eat them.  Tonight we are going to help out at Study Day at the church and are planning to mooch food for dinner there.  I don’t think it’ll be a problem to stick to my plan because there should be lots of fruits and veggies there, and I can always dissect a sandwich for protein, but there will also be a lot of tempting treats around.

Hopefully I’ll be able to report back that I was able to stick to my eating goals.  I’m also hoping to have my camera up and running again tomorrow so I can add some pictures to the blog.

Taking it easy

Sunday is my scheduled rest day.  I usually have one of two problems on rest days.

1. I either am so exhausted from my workouts the week before that all I want to do is lay around and watch 8 hours of re-runs of The Office or

2. I’m not so exhausted from my workouts the week before and all I can think about is wanting to run so I don’t feel guilty about eating lunch.

Right now I’m falling into category 2.  Because I didn’t do a super long run yesterday, I still feel quite energetic.  However, I refuse to let myself fall into the no-run guilt trap today.   I’m going to eat fruits, vegetables, and lean protein (no grains) today so I can feel confident that I’m not going to overeat, and I’m going to channel my energy into other activities like doing some housework, practicing piano, getting ready for work tomorrow, and maybe taking a leisurely walk.

It’s going to be a challenge because I’m forcing myself to change some old habits.  For example, my go-to breakfast has always been oatmeal with fruit.  Today I’m going to have an egg white omelet with fruit.  I’m replacing one thing I enjoy with another thing I enjoy, but I still had thoughts about making oatmeal this morning.  Another example is we usually go out to lunch after church on Sundays.  Most of the time I order something “bready”- either noodles or bread with lunch at Panera, but today I’m not going to do that.  It’s not a huge deal, but it takes some mental energy to get out of default mode.  Last, we make a lot of one dish meals at home.  Tonight will be an experiment in learning how to prepare enough food that we are satisfied without an added grain.

I hope to report tonight or tomorrow morning that I had a successful, guilt-free rest day.

Hello world!

Welcome everyone- especially visitors from Early Runner.  I’m still up early to get my run in, but my goals have changed so I thought my blog should change, too.  The short story is that I decided distance running wasn’t working for me, and I wanted to back off and focus on strength training, flexibility, and nutrition.  I’m still running but shorter distances and less frequently.   If you want the long story, it’s on the  About Me page.  

First and foremost, this new blog is about my attempt to find balance in eating and exercise.  But there are a lot of blogs like that out there.  My second goal is to conduct a few experiments of one that I haven’t seen out in blog land so far.  

The first one is to experiment with a lower carb diet.  I say lower because I’m still going to eat tons of fruit and vegetables- I’m just interested in cutting out grains.  This is very different from my old diet so it’s going to take some experimenting to find a new way to cook and order in restaurants that works for me.  I’m interested to see how this affects both my body composition and my attitude toward exercise.  In the past, I’d get in a cycle where I’d eat too much and feel I had to exercise a bunch to compensate, which caused me to eat too much again.  I’m hoping this new style of eating will help me feel comfortable taking time off exercise if I’m tired or injured or life just gets in the way.

The second one is to see if I can still improve my running over short distances without cranking out the miles.  I’m planning to do one interval run, one tempo run, and one longer run (still under an hour) each week.  Obviously I’m not going to be running any marathons on that kind of training schedule, but can I still improve at the 5k?  I’m interested to see.

I hope you are interested in following along.