I have not been able to run very much in the past three months, because of the excruciating hip pain I felt in November and again in January. I’ve been keeping somewhat fit with hooping and dance class, but not fit enough to avoid gaining four pounds. However, I went into yesterday’s half with the hope that I at least had enough fitness to finish! I worried that my hip would act up or that I would have trouble with my lungs because I just got over a bad cold. The night before, I was very careful and ate dinner at Chipotle, since I knew that was safe running food for me. I went to bed early, but was awoken by driving bass from outside the hotel window. That went on from 11pm to 2am. I gave up on sleep and chatted with my husband on Skype. I finally got back to sleep around 2:30.

Up at 5am to bundle up in my warm running tights, a long sleeve shirt under a short sleeve shirt, and two jackets. I went to get my coffee and wandered toward the start area. It didn’t take me long to realize I was overdressed. Back to the room to change to my running skirt and Air Force t-shirt. Back to the start line, where I got a text from my husband and sent him a picture of me.

I started behind the 5 hour folks. If I had trained, my hopes were to start closer to the 4 hour folks, but I knew there was no chance of that now. Start was as expected… took 17 minutes to cross the start line. I took the first five minutes slow to warm up, then settled in to an 11:15 pace. That pace felt really good, except my stomach started acting up within the first mile. Porta-potty lines were VERY long (there were only about four or five porta potties every two miles or so.) I spent a total of about 15 minutes in two lines, but finally got my gastro issues sorted and was able to run. I walked the hills (see above re: detrained) which I would have run if I had not been detrained (the hills in my subdivision put Austin to shame.)

There were some very interesting runners in my area of the run. Two women were ruck-sacking it in their Army boots. One woman was wearing full firefighting gear and a tank. An engaged couple ran together in sashes, the woman in a veil and white tutu.

It was a nice run. Green Bay is still my favorite, but I would come back and do this one again. I particularly liked the “water monsters” at the aid stations– I carry my own bottle when I run, so it was nice to be able to refill it and waste one (or five) fewer paper cups. I hope to see more races adopt that. Aid stations are still awesome, and if I ever try to run less than 2 or less than 4 for a marathon, I will probably not carry a bottle, but it’s nice to have the more sustainable options for those of us who can lose a minute or two.

Lessons learned: you can never predict which part of your body will fail on the run. I guess that’s part of the fun of it! It was also nice to know I could finish a half on last year’s training. Not as fast as I would have liked, but I finished.

I don’t have another run lined up. I need to take the time to work on my base. You could say 2012 will be my base year (I’m also doing foundational work for my dancing and hooping.) I really need to work on losing that 20-30 pounds and balancing my muscles in the lower body. I’m also working on flexibility in my lower body (more for dancing and hooping, but that can’t hurt my running!) I’m going to try to do the local running club’s monthly run (choices of a mile, 5K, and 10K.) I might take on the local half in October, but more as a long run than as a race.

I know I need to figure out how to lose this weight. I don’t mind the slow and steady loss, but I’m very aware that my potential for speed is declining now (I’m 40.) I think that one key will be eating more regularly. I still have all those challenges with food (including the worry that in addition to wheat, I can’t eat oats.) It’s too much work to think about, so I don’t. But I know that if I ate three to six small meals a day, I would probably see results. (Also, a recent blood test showed low blood sugar, so my doctor advises eating three meals a day.) I’ve already failed at that today. It’s 11am and I’m still working on a medium soy latte. But I am going to lunch with Candi in an hour (after she walks her five miles.) I really don’t know how to get myself on track with the food thing. I know that would be the best thing for me, though.

Oh, my race times:
Clock: 3:17-ish
Chip: 3:01-ish
Actual non-porta-potty time: 2:47-ish

I’ll upload my Garmin map when I get my new cradle (managed to lose my old one.)

I’ve been working on aligning my back and dealing with my tight right hip. I feel like if I can get things straightened out there, I can get faster. I’m doing Trigger Point therapy on myself, along with foam rolling, yoga, and stretching. (Since I also do vertical fitness– AKA pole dancing– the stretching is focused on flexibility for that, too.) I’m holding off on significantly increasing mileage until I can get that hip loosened up.

Of course, I also need to lose weight. I did an online weight calculator (which decided based on my wrist size that I am small-framed) and it said I should weigh between 120 and 132. Sigh. It’s probably right. If I want to see how fast I REALLY can go, I should probably aim for the lower end of that range. I’m trying to lose about 20 pounds before the Austin half in February, if I can do it in a safe and healthy way and keep my energy up. I think the added mileage for training will take off about 10 pounds, so the diet will be the other half. If I am successful, I’ll be at 140, with 15-20 left to lose before trying a marathon. I think I’ll stick with half-marathons or shorter until I get to 120-130. My main diet focus is juicing, salads, and eating enough early in the day so I’m not starving in the evening. I also have to be careful that my eating doesn’t get disordered, which is very likely for me. Often when I’m dieting, I stop eating regularly and my calories drop below 1200. I can’t exercise OR lose weight with that kind of intake. So keeping the intake up at around 1700-2000, balanced throughout the day, is a challenge.

We also invested in a good indoor cycle. I’m going to use it on cross-training days (like tomorrow) specifically for leg turnover and cadence. It doesn’t seem to be suited to pedalling slowly while reading or working, but that’s fine. I want to get some spinning workouts I can do, since it’s that kind of bike. I could get a way better spinning-type bike than standard exercise bike.

Today was a run day. Had a good run to the post office and back with Blackie. I think on Saturday we can try our regular run– I seem to have gotten my fitness back pretty quickly this time. I’m doing 5 minutes running, 1 minute walking right now.

My “diet” is going well except I’ve kind of lost my appetite. It’s hard enough to eat that much healthy food, but even harder when you can’t eat! It might be a side effect of medication or just my body getting used to the new diet. Being vegan, I already got plenty of fiber, but I didn’t eat a whole lot of salad. I hope this is just temporary. Luckily, there are always smoothies! And delicious hemp protein.

I’d love to do it completely by exercise, but I seem to be one of those lucky people who gets flulike symptoms from working out too hard, so I have to be careful. I lose almost a week every time I push it too hard. I’m trying to be diligent about taking my vitamins to try to help.

However, I don’t have as much energy as I would like and I’m beginning to realize I’m going to get old someday! So I’m rededicating myself to a healthy diet and more exercise. My right shoulder has been acting up the same way my left shoulder did way back in 1998. It took years for my left shoulder to heal. So, I’m incorporating some special shoulder-strengthening exercises into my routine to try to avoid problems. We still go to TKD every week. I can only go on Tuesdays until the end of the semester, and then I can go twice a week. I love TKD and I want to get better at it, so my daily exercise will be practicing all of my patterns, punches, and kicks. I also want to get back into running once I get over the latest cold that burned through my family.

I miss my Middle Eastern dance class, but the schedule conflicts with my Scout meetings. Sad.

The key part of my healthy diet right now is working on making my lunches again. I’ve gotten into the VERY bad habit of eating nothing all day except soy lattes and a Chipotle vegetarian bol with guacamole. It’s not that those foods are inherently bad, but I’m not fueling my body appropriately. My eating out choices are very limited… Chipotle is pretty much it for me, unless I want to eat french fries all the time (and at a lot of places, those are not vegan– I’m looking at you, McDonald’s!)

I’ve ordered some new bento accessories and will start planning a week’s worth of bento meals at a time. Last time I did that, I kept packing foods that needed to be heated to be tasty, but this time, I’m going to pack more foods that can be eaten at room temperature. I’ll incorporate my raging love for avocados into onigiri and veggie rolls, for one thing. If I have the time and energy, I will try to photograph these works of art and post them here.

Usually, I just carry rice and veggies or leftovers, but I love the way the food is compartmentalized. It’s also very nicely portion-controlled.

It’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember something I wanted to talk about earlier. It has something to do with my new attitudes about food. It’s so refreshing to feel “normal.” How strange that I had to go vegan to do it. (Speaking of vegan, I went to a special lunch today and was amazed at how many of the foods had meat in them. Even the mushroom rice had meat in it! Why do people feel the need to put meat and other animal effluence in everything? I noticed one other person didn’t eat her rice either.)

Now I remember what I wanted to say. It did have to do with my new attitudes about food. Food has taken a more appropriate role in my life. I eat when I’m hungry, I stop when I’m not hungry, and most of what I eat is objectively healthy (fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts.) I do like chocolate and eat a little piece of it most days, but I don’t obsess about it. The downside of my healthy new attitude is that when I want to give a treat to someone who has done something special for me (or when I have my committee get together), I don’t want to give them junk or anything unhealthy. But how many people would be thrilled with a vegan fruit plate? I would… when I go to gatherings where they lure broke graduate students with promises of food, I’m all over the fruit. It makes me feel weird… not because I don’t eat animal products, but because I’m honestly starting to prefer the healthy choices. They taste better, look better, and make me feel better.

How did I get here and what took me so long?

Well, I’m not making my goal of bed by 11pm tonight, but after I post this, I’m shutting down my computer.

I did some calisthenics and some bellydancing tonight. I can’t take classes right now, partly because they’re at the same time that my son’s Boy Scout troop will be meeting. I’ll miss it. I took classes for a year. But I only have a few more years with my darling son at home, so I’m going to enjoy them. There will be plenty of time for dance classes later.

I took the dogs for a walk. They enjoyed it. It was rather cold, though. About 18 degrees F. So, it wasn’t a very long walk.

I posted about this in another thread, but yesterday, we went to Pizza Hut. I ordered the pan vegetarian with no cheese. After I was done, I had the worst taste in my mouth! So greasy and rancid! My usual fat intake is far lower than 50 grams a day. If I ever go back to Pizza Hut, I’ll try the thin and crispy. I think that has less fat. But it was nice to see how much my tastes have changed. I really do prefer fruits and veggies and low fat foods.

Now, to become addicted to exercise again. I’m working on it!

I also need to stop drinking coffee.  Again.  Detoxing again.  Sigh.  I’ve gotten up to a pot a day.  Definitely not healthy.