Cravings

I had a healthy smoothie for breakfast, tuna and veggies for lunch, rye crackers with almond butter for afternoon snack, and a healthy dinner.

Now I want something SWEET!!

So I might have a small piece of dark chocolate.

And it will taste great and I'll make it last.

And 15 minutes later, I will STILL crave something sweet.

So I might crunch on some carrots.

And then I'll have a few raisins or nuts.

And I'll STILL be craving something sweet.

Meanwhile, over the period of a couple hours, I will have chewed up an extra 300 calories of miscellaneous snacks.

And it's always those last 300 cals, that push me over my limit.

So today, I cut out the butter, like I said I would yesterday, and now it looks like I have some 'space' for my evening cravings.

Maybe some nuts and dried fruit, with a little piece of dark chocolate.

I'm also going to make myself a cup of decaf tea with 1 tsp sugar.  Something warm and sweet will help.

This to shall pass.... right?

PS I rode the trainer for 45 min tonight.  Tomorrow I run. :)

Happy New Year!

Well I must say, the new year is always a HUGE motivator for me. I think it's partly because it follows 10-14 days of indulgence and debauchery which, while enjoyable, usually leads to feelings of "fatness" and "unfitness."

I lost 3 lbs while I was sick in December but not surprisingly, I gained them all back in the past 2 weeks and so now find myself at the same "7 lbs over race weight" that I was all most of the fall.  But fear not, for it is January and for me at least, it's a great time to get back on track.

I decided once again, to join the 10in10 challenge on Facebook, primarily because I am a creature in need of varied forms of motivation.  Initially begun by Nigel from Running from the Reaper Podcast, the challenge has now been picked up by Coach Adam, and so far there are at least 25 members.  Adam has info and links on his blog post here in case you are interested in joining as well.

So for me - I'm gonna stick with the tried and true calorie counting with lots of fruit and veggies, lean meat and alternate proteins, healthy fats, very little bread or white carbs.  This time around, I'm going to cut back 'slightly' on the carbs and up the protein and healthy fat a little, see where it takes me. This will by no means be low-carb - I will mostly be trying to eat only 'good' carbs and avoid 'bad carbs". 


Today I did pretty well with my eating plan. I managed to control myself around the crap at work, and then this evening, I did succumb to a small piece of candy and a bite of Erik's butter tart, oh, and one slice of baguette with butter.  Not great, but not terrible.

I ate about 1800 calories today - should have been closer to 1600 but at least it was a workout day.  I need to eat less fat, and more protein - tomorrow, no butter.

Of those calories:

43% carbs
21% protein
36% fat

I'd like it to be closer to:

40-45% carbs
25-30% protein
30% fat




Training is going well I think.

Here's what I've done so far this week:

Dec 31 - Ran 8.5 km on the treadmill
Jan. 1 - Rode 18 km (45 min) on trainer
Jan. 2 - Swam 2100m (1:05) and full strength/core workout (1:00)
Jan. 3 - Ran 4.75 km outside

The rest of week's plan is as follows:

Jan. 4 - Trainer (45-60 min)
Jan. 5 - Run  (30-45 min)
Jan. 6 - rest day ? or yoga / stretch / core / upper body weights?
Jan. 7 - Long run (1:15)
Jan. 8 - Swim and Weights

2011 in the bag, almost

Usually at this time of year, I look back at my year, celebrate my accomplishments and set goals for the future, but I dunno, it doesn't seem like it's been that good of a year (ooh that's bad English isn't it??!!), as far as training and racing has been concerned. I guess I worked pretty hard for the first six months up until my half iron, and then somehow, in the second half of the year, I slacked off a bunch, took it easy, ran a bunch of races for the fun of it, trained when I felt like it, let myself gain 5 lbs and stay there( where my body seems to like to be...)  But is that a bad thing, or a good thing?  Hmmm...

So I did some races:

March 27, 2011 - Okanagan College Half Marathon - 2:13:49, PR
May 15, 2011 - Oliver Sprint Triathlon - 1:30:41, 2nd AG
June 5, 2011 - Oliver Half Iron  - 6:57:53, PR
July 9, 2011 - Osoyoos Half Iron Relay - 2k swim - 49:28 
July 31, 2011 - San Francisco Half Marathon - 2:26:39
August 21, 2011 - Kelowna Apple Sprint Triathlon - 1:31:21
October 9, 2011 - Okanagan 10K (BMO Okanagan Marathon) - 58:20 (1st 10k)
November 27, 2011 - Ginger Jar Historic 10k - 1:08:51 (injured calf) 

...actually more races than I thought, now that I see them cut and pasted here. The only two I'm really proud of are my half marathon on March 27 and my half iron on June 5.  All the rest of them were sub-par as far as times were concerned.  That being said, I was always content with doing those races for fun, wasn't I?

So when I think about it - I'm more than happy with my year. I must say I really enjoyed the 'fun' races - less pressure, less worry about a PR, more focus on fun and fitness.  I think my true 'triathlete personality' may lean more toward a @trifunster than a super hardcore tri chick. :)

Training


As far as my training is concerned, I definitely did less biking and swimming than last year, but I did more running. Let me go drag up the stats for 2011 and see how they compare to previous years. I don't keep very good track of some workouts such as strength, yoga, walking etc. The only ones I record faithfully are swim, bike, and run.

2011 Totals  - about 180 hrs S, B, R
Bike:	70h 48m 50s	1699.06 KM
Run:	100h 45m 05s	871.45 KM
Swim:	8h 57m 07s	20750 M
Strength:	13h 25m
Core Training:	2h 20m
Elliptical Training:	3h 20m
Rowing:	1h 10m
Skate Skiing:	3h 30m
Stretching:	2h 50m
Volleyball:	1h 30m
Walking:	8h 50m
Yoga:	4h 25 min

2010 Totals - about 234 hrs S, B, R
Bike:	100h 50m 17s	2366.49 KM
Run:	88h 00m 43s	690.33 KM
Swim:	45h 37m 53s	96600 M
Strength:	6h 05m
Core Training:	1h 30m
Elliptical Training:	8h 50m
Hiking:	2h 15m
Massage:	2h 00m
Rowing:	1h 10m
Skate Skiing:	7h 45m
Stretching:	20m
Volleyball:	1h 30m
Walking:	55m
Yoga:	7h 50m

2009 Totals - about 188 hrs S, B, R
Bike:	102h 06m 13s	2152.08 KM
Run:	65h 42m 47s	502.33 KM
Swim:	20h 10m	41250 M
Strength:	9h 52m
Core Training:	30m
Dancing:	2h 20m
Elliptical Training:	4h 03m
Golf:	2h 00m
Hiking:	2h 25m 29s
Misc.:	20m
Plyometrics:	15m
Rowing:	1h 42m
Stationary Biking :	45m
Stretching:	1h 15m
Walking:	30m
Yoga:	5h 50m

2008 Totals - about 216 hrs S, B, R
Bike:	117h 51m 59s	2743.65 KM
Run:	62h 18m 13s	508.07 KM
Swim:	36h 38m 01s	64450.00 M
Strength:	26h 35m
Sports:	24h 05m

2007 Totals - about 173 hrs (S) B, R
Bike:	155h 13m 29s	3472.71 KM
Run:	18h 04m 02s	156.36 KM
Swim:	none
Strength:	3h 00m
Sports:	3h 35m

       
So what will 2012 hold for me? I guess we'll have to wait and see. :)

Running, a fever

Well, that flu bug really kicked my ass.  I was down for the count with fever, congestion, headache, body aches, cough, and a rash all over my body last weekend.  I stayed home from work on Monday, but reluctantly went back to work on Tuesday once my fever was gone because we had Christmas concert rehearsals and I felt I needed to be there.  I was exhausted all week at work, and went to bed as soon as I got home every night. Somehow I survived the week though and now I'm on a two week break until January 3rd. Yay!

Today, I went out for my first run in 3 weeks and for the most part, I felt ok.  I'm still hacking up a lung and my chest felt kind of tight when I was running so I took it easy and ran slow.  My calf felt really good for the first 15 minutes, and then it started to tighten up so I ran a little more and then walked the last few minutes home.  I iced the calf and put on my Zensah calf sleeve (I ran in it too). I'm REALLY hoping it's going to be ok as  get back to running and start to build up my miles again in time for marathon training in January. (Crossing everything.)

Tomorrow I plan to go to the gym - I have about half my normal energy but I figure I can do an hour at the gym if I don't push too hard.  We'll see.

PS On a brighter note - I lost 3 lbs while I was sick - hardly ate anything at all.  Hoping I can keep it off during the Christmas break. Hmmm....

December

Quick Update

The week after my last, upbeat and optimistic blog post on November 6, I had a fairly crappy running week - I didn't manage my long run on November 13th because everything hurt, and I found it tough to run longer than 30 minutes for the next 3 runs that week. I ran a few times on the treadmill at the gym the following week because of snow and ice and then focussed on my 10k race in Vancouver the following weekend.

On Sunday, November 27, I did the Ginger Jar Historic 10k race around the Stanley Park Seawall.  You can read the full race report here, on Daily Mile, but the short version is that I ran an awesome 9k at a potential PR pace, pulled my calf muscle, and walked/limped the last km in. :)

The next days were recovery from the mild calf strain - icing for 72 hours, heat and stretching for the days following. I tried a 1km run 10 days after the race, but it began to tighten up again so I stopped.

This past week, I had some ART done to my calf and the chiro gave me the all clear to try an easy run this weekend. Unfortunately, I came down with a bad cold/flu bug on Thursday and have been laid up in bed for several days.

When I do get back to running, I will be well rested. :)

On a slightly brighter note, I have been making better progress at getting to the gym to do my strength training. I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be, but I'm getting better at it.

 So that's it - short and sweet.  I'll try to post again later this week.