I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.  I don’t think I’ve gone three days in a row without a blog post since I first started FitFeat last year, missed you all!  It was a C-R-A-Z-Y busy weekend!

It started Friday night a group of girls getting together to celebrate Beth’s birthday with some All-You-Can-Eat sushi.  It was a lovely time.  The miso soup was CHOCK full of mushrooms (bonus!), and I also had two slices of Sweet Potato Tempura, a salad, and a few rolls from the shared plate (like the avocado roll and the cucumber roll).

When 9:00 PM started closing in, I had to be a party pooper and excuse myself, or I knew I’d be tired for the Saturday morning run.

I got to bed a hair before 10 then got up at 5:30 and had my pre-run meal.  This time I had one slice of Ezekial toast with almond butter and a sliced banana, drizzled with a bit of raw honey.

I packed up a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar in my little backpack along with my hydration pack, and a coconut water.

MSP and I drove over to a local trailhead where I knew they had restrooms, because I knew I was going to need it after two cups of coffee and some water that morning!  We arrived at the trailhead where a sign that said “Restrooms closed for the season” was posted.  WHAT??? Who does that? Is the park closed?  Noooo.  Not cool to close the bathrooms, Parks & Rec peeps!

MSP generously decided he’d run (rather than skate) the early miles of the outing with me so that I could be on a dirt path at first, then we’d plan to swing back by the car where he could switch to rollerblades and we’d head onto the bike path.  We each put on our VFFs and took off.  About 2 miles in, I knew I was going to have to detour to SOMEPLACE where I could use a restroom.  If it wasn’t such a busy trail, I’d have run off into the bushes.  We hit up a city street and ran to a nearby gas station to borrow their facilities, then ran back to the trail.

After 4.65 miles in our FiveFinger shoes, our calves were telling us we’d done enough ‘barefooting’ so it was time to make the switch to my trail runners, and MSP to his rollerblades.

At 5.69 miles I drank my coconut water and had a few bites of my Larabar.

At 9.81 miles, I took a look at the time and knew that I was running late.  I had to be at Keri’s YOGA grand opening at 1:00, still had to run back to the car, try to get in a post-workout drink & meal, shower and get ready, and drive 40 minutes to her studio.  And the route back was primarily uphill.  So we turned around and when we got back to the car, my total mileage ended up being 14 rather than the planned 16.

With all the ups and downs of the hills, my Garmin told me that I had a total ascent of 2,161′ and a total descent of 2,138′.  (Good Lord it’s hilly here!) My average heart rate this time was 147 bpm, which is good since I was aiming for 143.  This required a s-l-o-w pace, but I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to worry about that.

To save time, we hit up Jamba Juice on the way home since I knew I wouldn’t have time for a homemade green smoothie at the house.  I picked one with mango, orange juice, pineapple juice and 8g of protein powder, plus a double shot of wheat grass on the side.  Not ideal in my book, but this would have to do the trick.

The downside to this run is that my knees were REALLY bothering me again.  They felt GREAT while I was running in my barefoot shoes.  But shortly after  I switched to my regular shoes, they started to ache (especially the left).  There is no rhyme or reason to what part of my knee hurts in order to troubleshoot and tweak future runs.  Sometimes it’s the inner left knee, sometimes the outer left knee, sometimes just an overall burning.

While it is disheartening to say this ‘out loud’, I’m going to need to adjust my training goal for the sake of saving my knees.  I don’t mind muscular soreness (actually I oddly enjoy muscular soreness) but joint pain is not something I’m willing to mess around with.  Every run 10 miles or more on this journey has caused some pretty nasty knee pain, so I need to figure out what is at the root and fix it before I add any more distance.

It occurred to me during this weekend’s run that there is a reason someone dreamed up the idea of the HALF-MARATHON:  because 26.2 is too LONG! 

I don’t think a marathon is out of the question, and maybe even yet this year.  But I can say with a fair amount of certainty that it won’t happen on May 16.   The smart thing to do is focus on building up my PAIN-FREE mileage in the VFFs since I don’t experience any knee issues when running in them.  I’m currently near the 5-mile mark in them and aiming to progress at about 10% increases per week, maybe a bit more.

I could talk about my pros and cons, and all the thoughts that went through my head while coming to this conclusion, and how hard it was for me to make this decision (then share it publicly).  It’s been an internal dialog now for about 3 weeks.  But the long and the short of it is I talk a lot about listening to our bodies and I’m listening to mine at the moment.  I’m bummed, but I need to do this in a way that doesn’t cause damage or injury.

On a positive note, the yoga open house was fantastic and VERY helpful after the long run.  The Kripalu style of yoga that Keri teaches is different and fun. With moves like “Windshield Wiper” legs, how can you NOT have a good time?  I think going forward whenever time allows, I will try to schedule enough time for some yoga on long run days because it really seemed to speed up the muscular recovery.

What was your fun fitness over the weekend? Our city had the annual Running of the Green 7k race that a few people I know ran, and a client of mine in WA state ran her first 5K in a St. Patty’s Day race.

Have a MARVELOUS Monday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Today I realized that buying a car is about as time-consuming as buying a house, with about as many signatures!  We were at ONE dealership for over FIVE hours.  Yowza!  I don’t think a single closing on any house I’ve ever owned took that long.

So this evening I’m rushing around a bit, and going through MapMyRun to see if I can find a decent 16 mile route for this weekend’s L-O-O-O-N-G run.    Oh. My. Gravy. (That’s my new favorite phrase thanks to Amazing Race – Christy knows who I’m talkin’ about!)  So yes, “oh my gravy” is the nice way of saying holy freaking you-know-what, 16 miles is HELLA long when you see it laid out on a MAP.

I am scheduled to go to my friend’s yoga studio Grand Opening at 1:00 PM.  I’m starting to think I should just jog straight there.  That may be my only chance of arriving on time!   (Keri, I’m kidding, I’ll be on time!)

If you happen to live in the Denver area (or know someone who does that you can spread the word to), you’ll want to check out Keri’s new yoga studio at Om of the Rockies.  She is offering a FREE YOGA SESSION this Saturday at the Open House, which starts at 1:00 pm.  Check out her website for more info by clicking HERE.

Just looking at the logo makes me feel relaxed, so I’m SURE it’s going to be heavenly.

I can’t wait to see her studio space and enjoy the session she’s teaching after my long run, not to mention some wine and cheese being offered afterward!   If my knees feel great this weekend, I know I’ll have Keri to thank for that!

Have a terrific evening Fit Friends!  I have a long day at the office tomorrow, followed by a birthday party, the long run on Saturday, the yoga open house, and Alice in Wonderland Sunday morning!  Busy weekend for sure!  I may or may not get out here to post over the weekend, but if not I’ll definitely be here for MARATHON MONDAY!  Wahoo!

– Shari B. =)

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I hope your Tuesday is off to a great start.  Mine is flying by quickly as usual!  It started this morning with another gorgeous outdoor hilly run with one of my clients.  After our usual loop we added in some hill sprints.   Some of you asked in yesterday’s Marathon Monday post comments about further info on getting faster by going slower.  I did reply to those comments but thought I’d also bring it up briefly today as well.

In addition to working your body in the aerobic range so that you can build up your body’s ability to burn fat as fuel on long runs, you’ll also want to incorporate some faster training on your short runs (plus weight training and flexibility, but again that’s a whole other FitFeat post )

You can Google running programs and find a TON of free info on the internet that will tell  you how many miles to run each week based on your goal, on which day, that you need to do tempo runs, hill repeats, speedwork, yada, yada, yada.  I don’t follow any of them as written.  I’m not knocking them by any means.  I’m sure they are great plans (and maybe if I followed them I would complain less about my achy knees!)  But the minute I see a schedule detailing that I have to do X, Y, Z on these days and A, B, C on the other days, my eyes glaze over and the rebellion sets in immediately.     I spent too many years being overly obsessed with counting every minute of exercise and every calorie I ate to ever want to do that again.  For me, that’s the express train to Boredom City.

Yes I do get in “tempo runs” and “speedwork” but they are primarily unscripted.

I incorporate intervals during my week in a variety of ways, but I couldn’t guess as to whether they are 400, 800, or 1600 meter repeats – ask my running buddies how I feel about trying to calculate math during a run.    When my legs are running, I promise you my brain switches off.  So looking at the fractions of miles on my Garmin and converting to meters when I’m running?  Not gonna happen.

I can’t say whether I’m running at my “5K pace” or my “10K pace” because I don’t race at those distances, so I don’t track that.  I pay attention to my pace and my heart rate as they relate to each other, but not as they would relate to which race distance pace they might equate to.

What I can tell you is that I love to blast out different types of intervals and that’s basically my speedwork.  Today after our run, we picked the steepest hill and did sprint intervals for 10 seconds, then recovered until my client’s heart rate was down to around 70% of max, then we shot off for 10 more seconds, repeat, repeat, etc.  On my own, I might do this for 20 seconds, then continue walking up the hill for 40 seconds, then sprint for 20 then walk 40 and so on, until my sprint and my walk aren’t easily discernible.  Maybe I’ll find a landmark (tree, sign, streetlight) and sprint to it, then recover, find another, sprint to it and so on.

At home on the treadmill, after a good warm-up and maybe a short run, I’ll bump the incline way up and do some incline interval running.  One day I might spend 30 seconds crazy-fast, then 60-90 seconds recovery, then repeat.  I do this for the amount of time I have and/or for the amount of time I enjoy doing it.  I don’t do X, Y, Z and A, B, C as written in a plan though.

My “tempo runs” are the ones I do for fun at my normal “happy, but pushing a tad” pace, usually with a friend and sometimes on a treadmill.  Or maybe a hike (speedwalk the ups, run the downs). But again, unscripted.

To do well at running distance, yes you do need to factor in a variety of running styles:  long slow runs, short fast runs, speedy interval training, incline work.  But to do it well and be happy doing it?  Maybe you just need to march to the beat of your own drum a little.    Find out what you like and do it.  Find out what you don’t like then figure out how you can tweak it slightly to make it something you dislike a little less so that you’ll still get some done.

***

OK friends, I am off to the dentist to have him look at my second broken crown in a year.  I’m going to ask if he’ll give me a gold crown this time, so that I can stop paying a thousand bucks a pop for these porcelain ones that keep breaking on me.  (FYI if you have porcelain crowns, be careful with SEA SALT!  Both times my crowns cracked I bit down on some sea salt that must have had a good chunk o’ minerals in that crystal…)  I’d rather have a gold tooth than give up sea salt though.

Next time you see me, maybe I’ll be rockin’ the Flavor Flav look:

Peace out yo!  ha ha!

– Shari B. =)

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So as you may recall my 14 mile run didn’t go too well.  I was awake a lot the night after that run because of my knees aching and I had a lot of time to think.  I really went back and forth a lot about whether I wanted to continue this journey.  By the time Sunday evening rolled around, while I was pre-writing the next day’s Marathon Monday post, I knew that I would press on for the time being but that I would definitely have to make some adjustments.

Prior to this experience, when I would run what I consider “comfortable” distances (in the vicinity of 3 to 5 miles) I enjoy running a 10:00 minute mile average pace.  It’s a pace at which I can carry on a conversation with running buddies yet still feel that I’m getting in a good workout.  I can run faster at those distances if I really want to challenge myself, but usually not much faster than an 8:45 or 9:00 minute pace.  The best half-marathon I completed was a time of 1:59 which is a few seconds over 9′s for the whole distance.  I was ecstatic when I crossed that finish line.

But that was 2006.

It occurred to me when I signed on for this ‘challenge’ that I’d be upping my distances in a BIG hurry and was concerned that I’d be forcing the distance progression too quickly.

Mainly because leading up to the start of our training 7 weeks ago, the farthest I’d run in the months recent to that time was 4.25 miles. It’d also been 3 years since my last half-marathon.

And during those shorter runs, I’d run at a pace that had my heart rate pretty high (mid to high 170s), without concern because I wasn’t aiming to improve my body’s aerobic capacity, increase my oxygen consumption or improve my lactate threshold.  I was just running for fun.

Now let’s talk a little about heart rate.  There are a number of methods one can use to determine their estimated maximum heart rate and the levels of training intensities as a percentage of that estimated max.  Short of doing a field test, the simplest method (but considered less accurate than other methods) is to subtract your age from 220.  For me, at 37 years old, that places my max at 183 beats per minute (bpm).  You can also use the newer equation of 205 – (.5 * age).  That one puts me at about 186 bpm.

So using the 186 bpm as the starting point, here’s what my heart rate looks like at various intensity levels:

Over the course of our recent runs, my heart rate has looked like this:

This means that I am generally working at intensity levels of 90-95% of my MHR.  For well over two hours!

Wanna know where I should be for long runs while training for a marathon?  65% to 75%  (121 to 140 bpm)

Now, I’ve known that I’ve been running at a rate that is too high.  If I had a client tell me that this is what they’d been doing, I’d be sitting them down for a serious chat.

I have been letting pride and ego get in the way of proper endurance training.  (Here’s what goes on in my head:  I don’t WANT to run slower than I already am because I already FEEL slow.  I really like having people to run with and if I go even slower I’ll lose my running buddies.  I ran a half-marathon at a 9 min mile at 155 bpm, I just need to suck it up and push through.)

But I also know that I’ve been running at an anaerobic level which isn’t going to do much to improve my AEROBIC level if I don’t start training at it. (Aerobic basically means “with oxygen” and anaerobic means “without oxygen” – there’s a little more to it than that, but that’s a whole other discussion and this is already a lengthy post.)

The point here?  I have to slow down to get faster.

Seems weird huh?  Here’s why:

Once I take the time to start running in my aerobic zone I will train my body’s energy system to start burning fat as fuel (rather than carbohydrates [glycogen]).   As that happens my pace will increase, but at the lower heart rate level. So I’ll slowly be getting faster, but without having to work at 95% intensity.

So this past weekend, while my running buddies were out of town, I decided to do a 10 mile training run where I focused all of my attention on my heart rate and none of my attention on pace.

My goal was to keep my heart rate under 143.  During the first 5 miles that wasn’t too hard to accomplish because I was running downstream.  Coming back from the turnaround point it did creep up a little as I had a gradual incline (if 1,150’ of ascent is considered ‘gradual’).  Truly there is no place flat to run when you live near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Even when it LOOKS and FEELS  flat I get home and plug in my Garmin to find out it’s not even close to flat.

I finished the run with an average heart rate at 150 bpm, so I was around 81% intensity.  I need to drop that down a bit further on the next one (16 miles) and really focus on staying at LEAST under 143.  As much as I hate to see the snail’s pace I was running at this week get even SLOWER, I know it is what must be done.

The outcome:

• The run itself was VERY enjoyable.  MSP was kind enough to rollerblade alongside me while I ran and it was so nice, pointing out scenery and having a few hours of quality time together. (Thank you MSP – I know it took a lot of time out of your day!)
• My knees still hurt this time (concrete bike paths be damned!!) but they recovered pretty well by the next morning.  So well that we were able to take the dogs out Sunday morning for a hilly 5 miles, so that’s a great sign. And I didn’t even ice them Saturday (or take a torturous ice bath.)
• No issues sleeping the night before or the night after the run.
• No physical (or mental) fatigue afterward.

The trick will be finding out whether I have enough time to build up my speed within the aerobic zone before the marathon date of May 16.  (Or maybe pick one in May that’s at sea level rather than a mile high – that would definitely improve the heart rate!)

Today’s discussion question:  do you monitor your heart rate when you exercise?  Or do you follow the RPE method?  (Rate of Perceived Exertion) I have used a heart rate monitor for cardio since I became a personal trainer in 2001 and I have to admit, I love it. It helps me keep an eye on when things aren’t working as well.

Speaking of running, I want to give a big shout out to Beth who ran another half-marathon this past weekend at DisneyWorld. Nice job Beth!!  If you are interested in helping Beth raise money on behalf of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, please click on the Team In Training banner in the right side-bar to donate.  She’ll be running her first marathon in June in support of this great cause.

Make it a GREAT week everyone!

– Shari B. =)  (aka The Tortoise!)

***

For further reading on the topic of heart rate training and aerobic endurance:

http://www.duathlon.com/articles/1460

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267–1039-1-2X5-2,00.html

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Thank you all for the wonderful comments to yesterday’s Marathon Monday post.  I loved reading all of your encouraging words!  I hope you know how much more enjoyable (not to mention accountable) this marathon process is, knowing that you are all cheering me on.

I already know what I’ll be doing differently on my next run.  Something that I’ve been figuring to be the issue, but that I have neglected to implement.  (Partly due to pride, I think.)  I’m treating myself as I would a client so I’m going to take my own advice.  So stay tuned for the next Marathon Monday and I’ll share my “tweaks” and let you know how it goes!

I rested the ol’ knees on Sunday by not doing any exercise.  Then on Monday when I woke up my knees were feeling bueno!  So I’m thankful that they are recovering quickly, that’s a good sign!  I treated them to some Iron Yoga in the morning before scooting off to work.

While the knees are back to normal, that weird sneezing fit seems to be a touch of a head cold.  So I’m giving it the BOOM-BOOM-POW of green smoothies, Emergen-C drinks and green tea.  Hopefully I’ll get this thing nipped in the bud!  I feel fine, but my nose deciding to keep on running well past that 14 mile mark! 

Anyone else this messy while making green smoothies?

I have covered the entire island!

***

I was fortunate to start this morning with a delightful run at my favorite hilly trail with one of my clients.  Look at the moon as I pulled into the parking lot!

It was just getting light out and the moon was SO bright!  I love pretty runs like this!  While my little friend OSCAR told me it was 28 outside, we did freeze our hineys off a bit because it was WINDY!  (I’ve been going to this trail for about 9 years now – you’d think I’d learn that it’s ALWAYS windy there and dress accordingly!) 

I wore my VFFs for the 3.7 miles we did.  Ohhh boy do you feel every little rock on a gravel trail in them, especially when your feet are frozen!  But I loved it! They thawed out after about 15 minutes, once the blood started pumping and then it was like skipping along like a kid!  These things are a hoot!

I so wish that my calves were ready to wear these ‘unshoes’ for longer distances because the impact on my knees is almost nil.  I’m getting there!  I’ve added another mile to my longest run in them… progressing slowly but safely.

Today’s discussion:  what’s your “tried and true” remedy when you have a cold? As I mentioned, I like to try to knock it out with high nutrient foods, like what I add to my green smoothies.  This is the first I’ve had in almost a year – I didn’t even catch one when I flew to Michigan in the fall (and I was that person who would catch something every time I stepped on a plane.)  I have attributed this good immunity to all the fruits and veggies I’ve been eating since last April.  But recently I’ve let some refined carbs and sugars creep back into my diet so I know that’s partly to blame.  Time to get back to basics! 

Enjoy the rest of your day!

– Shari B. =)

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Which means another installment of MARATHON MONDAY!

When I was growing up, a phrase my mom often used was, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”  Try as I might, I seem to break this rule more often than not.  I’ll definitely be breaking it today as I recap my 14 miler from this weekend.

To sum up this run in one word:  DISCOURAGING.

To start with, I had a pretty rough night of sleep leading into which doesn’t make for an energetic start to a long run right off the bat.

Since our meet up time was planned for 7:45 this week, I ate my pre-run meal at 6:00 am.  Two slices of Ezekial cinnamon raisin toast with almond butter on one and coconut butter on the other.

I made my date snack to take along during the run, this time using coconut butter in the pit ‘void’ rather than coconut oil.  I also crumbled half of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar into a baggie to bring in my Camelbak.

It was 26 degrees at the start of the run and a little breezy so I took a fleece and a light windbreaker plus a scarf with mittens since we’d be running directly into the wind during the first half.  My calves were still sore from the Thursday run in my VFFs and for some reason my low back was stiff, so I arrived about 15 minutes early to get in a good warm-up and do some stretching before we took off.

At about the 5 mile mark, I was really feeling blah.  Just wasn’t feeling the run this time.  The spotty night of sleep wasn’t helping the situation.  My heart rate was running high, staying between 175 and 180 bpm so I kept trying to run a bit slower to bring it down.  I really prefer to keep it under 170 on the flats.  I had my fuel at this point because I was hoping for a little energy boost.

Finally we reached the 7 mile mark and turnaround point. As soon as we headed back the other direction, it became very clear that we’d been running a pretty good incline during that first half.  I knew we were running “upstream” along the creek, but didn’t realize how “UP” it was.  This is the elevation graph from my Garmin:

From there until mile 9,  I felt so much better.  My HR was back down to 164.  My knees weren’t screaming as badly.

We used the ‘walk one minute at every mile’ strategy again this time, which my heart rate was thankful for:

But unfortunately it didn’t seem to offer the same relief to my knees.

The run just seemed to drag on forever.  I felt cranky the last few miles and spent a lot of time ‘in my head’, questioning my desire to run a marathon.

I already knew I was going to be miserable the rest of that day.  Bags of frozen edamame weren’t going to cut it this week.

Gonna have to bring out the big guns:

I picked up 20 lbs of ice on the way home and built a torture chamber ran an ice bath in the spare bathroom.

I did two rounds of immersion of my knees and lower legs in the ice bath.  I had a hot bath (with Epsom salt) waiting in the other tub as soon as I got out of this one.  I’m not kidding you, my lips were BLUE!

Throughout the rest of the day I iced my knees three more times with bagged ice.

From a “FUEL” standpoint, since I was in such a hurry to get home and finish stretching, I scrapped the planned banana and glutamine drink.  While buying ice at the gas station, I got a GREEN MACHINE  by Naked Juice to chug in the car.  This juice is so high in sugar that I would rarely choose to drink this any other time – but is why it was perfect for replenishment directly following a workout where I’d burned 1,237 calories.

I drank the whole bottle.  66 grams of carbs (56 of which are sugars) and 800 mg of potassium.  After I was home for a while I had a hard-boiled egg for a shot of protein and two Umeboshi plums for a sodium boost.  I also took ginger root capsules AND bromelain for inflammation.

Then to top the day off, while I was in the car driving back from the run, I got a weird tickle in my right nostril like I inhaled something funny.  And I had one of those sneezing fits where I thought I was going to run my car off the road!  It was about 10 huge sneezes in a row and then my right eye got really squinty and watery.  It was BIZARRE to say the least.  I don’t know WHAT it was, but I felt like I had a cold the rest of the day:  I sounded congested and my nose ran nonstop.

I’m thinking I’m developing an allergy to distance running. 

The best part of the whole run?  The SUN was shining and it was 50 degrees by the time we’d finished.  (I have to find a silver lining somewhere, right?  )

I didn’t have a stellar day and I had a lot of “pros and cons” running through my head the rest of the weekend (cons are currently winning) and questioning whether the knee pain is worth it.  The thought of having to add 12 more miles onto the distance I just completed almost brings tears to my eyes.   We’ve adjusted our training schedule to accommodate some out of town trips for each of us in the upcoming weeks, so from here on out we’ve planned the long runs for every other weekend.  So I’m hoping that putting some distance (no pun intended!) between this long run and the next will give me some time to regenerate some excitement. I know not all runs are great runs.  I certainly don’t expect that.  I’m okay with having runs where I’m just not ‘feeling the groove’.   It seems that every other run so far has been one without pain (meaning one is good, one is bad, next is good, etc.), so maybe when it’s time for the 16 miler, that will be the day my knees decide to be happy.  Time will tell!

Did I mention the sun was shining that day?    Ha ha!

Have a marvelous Monday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

PS:  If you didn’t get a chance to see it, you have to check out yesterday’s Sunday Comedy post.  It’s short and it will bring a smile to your morning!

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No, wait.  Wrong story.

It was a COLD and DREARY morning…

The kind of morning where one takes a look out the window and a sane person says, “hmm how about a second cup of coffee and a nice warm blanket?”  But no one ever accused me of being sane. 

When I checked to see what Oscar was wearing (Oscar is the little guy on my indoor/outdoor thermometer) he was totally decked out in his snow gear:

(He wears Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses when it’s warm out!)

So I figured I better bundle up too.

Not only do I look scared in that pic, I also look like I’m ready to rob the local saloon!  (Or maybe just the nearest Nike Outlet…)

Since there was new snow on the ground overnight, I even broke out the gaiters to keep snow out of my socks:

So I had my pre-run snack – one piece of toasted Ezekial.

I was close to home this time, so I didn’t need to pack up all of the postworkout gear that I had with me last week.

Driving up the road to the trailhead, I was thanking my lucky stars that we’d decided last weekend to make this week’s run a shorter one.  This kind of weather isn’t necessarily conducive to making me feel motivated

But you know what?  It ended up being a beautiful run.  The trail was soft with new snow (which made you feel a little like running in sand) and light snowflakes were falling.  We saw three deer in the first half-mile and I even saw a my friend Wendy along the trail!  Crazy Great minds think alike! 

By the end we’d accumulated 6.39 miles and many feet of ascent (and descent).  1,130 feet actually!  The green line below shows elevation from my Garmin during the run.

The second big climb got the best of me and I had to walk for a minute, but overall I felt fantastic on this run.

Fuel during exercise was a Sunsweet prune at the 3.63 mark, with a sip of water.  I came directly home afterward to get my stretching done and had my a post-workout shake of chocolate Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer (one scoop) blended with water and half of a banana.

There was ZERO knee pain, no need for icing or soaking in the tub.  It’s amazing how 6.39  miles is what we now consider a “short recovery run”.  Next week – my longest distance ever:  14 miles.  I’ve completed five half-marathons at 13.1 miles.  So this will be the first time I go beyond that distance.  I’m looking forward to breaking that ‘barrier’!

I’m sorry – did I just say I was “looking forward” to a 14 mile run?  Told ya I wasn’t sane! 

Have a MARVELOUS Monday friends!

– Shari B. =)

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I hope everyone had a lovely weekend whether or not you were celebrating Valentine’s Day.  And a happy Presidents Day to you today, especially those of you who get the day off of work!  Guess what else it is?

It’s Marathon Monday!

We are 13 weeks away from the marathon.  Our planned long run for this weekend was 12 miles.

It occurred to me as I was getting ready Saturday morning that I’m a little neurotic when it comes to getting out the door for a run.   As you may or may not know, I’m a bit of an overplanner (remember when I was packing for my Michigan RV trip?)  I would love to be that person that just decides to take off running willy nilly when I feel like it.  But I’m not.  I have to plan for it.

You’ve read previously in my blog that a 90 minute rule works best for me before a run.  Which means that I have to eat any pre-run food no later than 90 minutes before.  Any closer and I get a crazy cramp in my lower left abdominal area that hurts so bad I can barely walk let alone jog.   Our start time this Saturday was 8:00 AM, so at 6:30 on the dot, I ate.  This time an Ezekial english muffin rather than Ezekial toast:

After getting dressed in my gear, it’s time to pack!  I have a little post-it note ‘checklist‘ that I keep because inevitably I will walk out the door without something, especially that early in the morning.  This week, without my handy note, I would have actually left without my Camelbak of all things!

Here’s the pile of stuff:

Crazy, huh? Questions for my running readers:   Do you do that when you have a long run planned?  Or are you a “roll-out of bed and hit the pavement” kind of runner?

When deciding what jacket(s) to wear, I checked the indoor/outdoor thermometer.  I can’t remember the last time I was so EXCITED to see 30+ degrees outside!  All of our training runs so far have been started in weather around 17 degrees!  This meant I wouldn’t have to worry about my water freezing in my hydration pack.

After last week’s unhappy knees, I made a few adjustments for this run:

1.) I wore a different pair of shoes.

After learning more about barefoot running and the importance of LESS support for your feet, I chose to wear my beat-up old trail runners that don’t have much tread left on the bottom in hopes that this would force me more onto the balls of my feet much like I am in my VFFs.

2.) I brought back an old technique that I sometimes used when I trained for my first half-marathon in 2004:  run a mile, walk a minute.

This strategy allows you to still build conditioning for the distance, but eliminates some of the fatigue your leg muscles will experience.  I’ve always liked this training method because it makes a long run more of an ‘interval’ workout for me when I know it’s broken into mile segments, so mentally I find it easier.  From a speed standpoint, we’ve been averaging 10 minute miles on our long training runs.  You would think adding these walk breaks in would slow us down to 11 minute miles, but it didn’t.  We averaged a 10:20 pace this week!  So when we were running, we were running FASTER.

3.) I iced my knees in the car on the way home from the run.

I didn’t have frozen peas, so frozen EDAMAME had to do the trick.    And I had to pack them in a thermal lunchbox with an icepack to keep them frozen!

4.) I kept moving as the day went on.

Last week I was exhausted and just wanted to stay off my feet, so I caught up on some reading.  Unfortunately I think this allowed my legs to really tighten up.  So this time while I was pretty beat, I made sure that I kept busy and kept my legs moving.  We ran errands, went to Costco, and did some chores around the house.

***

Fuel during the run: 2/3 of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar at the 5.55 mile mark.

Immediately following the run, while stretching: coconut water, glutamine recovery drink and a banana, plus a ginger root capsule for inflammation

Post-workout meal: vegetarian chili with red quinoa, spinach and nutritional yeast.

The outcome of the adjustments this week: My knees were a little sore directly following the run, then more sore later in the day, but almost back to normal on Sunday.  Whereas last week, I was still hobbled on Sunday.  So that’s a huge plus.  I also didn’t feel extremely sleepy as I had the previous week.   The bottoms of my feet didn’t feel ‘raw’ and I didn’t have any blisters.  So all in all I’m very pleased with how this long run went.

What’s a little daunting from here on out is knowing that all of our long runs will be more distance than a half-marathon.  Yikes.  I’m looking forward to 14 miles, because up until now I’ve only run half-marathons, so 13.1 has been the cap on my distance.  It will be fun to surpass that.  (I say “fun” now – let’s see what I say when I’m actually RUNNING it that day!) This is where you dig a little deeper and remind yourself that you chose this goal for a reason and get EXCITED!

***

Don’t forget that we have FLEX-IT FRIDAY coming up this week, so get your ab shots in to my by Thursday afternoon!

Have a MAGNIFICENT Monday!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Yesterday in closing I mentioned an upcoming Flex-it Friday.  We had a little fun with this back in November for our first Flex-it Friday, showcasing our biceps.   We had a lot of laughs, so when Cindy announced her 30 Day Core Challenge in January I figured the end of that challenge called for another round of Flex-it Friday to let everyone show off their hard work! And the rest of us who did not do the challenge (like me) have a reason to eat super-clean for the next week and maybe slap on some sunless tanner to get our abs ready for photo time!    If anything it will help us keep our mitts out of the Valentine’s Day chocolate, right?

Here’s how it works:  take a pic of your best ab-flexin’ shot with something to let us know it’s YOU (and not Dana Torres) and email to me at shari at fitfeat dot com.  (Had to write that out to keep those darn spammers from grabbing my email.)  Serious AND silly pics will both be accepted so have some fun!  If you are also a blogger, I will mention (and link) your blog with your photo, so if you are a new blogger it’s a fun way to get a little extra traffic!  I’ll accept pics through Thursday Feb 18 at 4:00 PM MST and then the blog post will be up on Friday the 19th.

***

Giveaways in the blogosphere:

• Christy at Fit in the City is hosting her first giveaway with an autographed copy of The Blue Zones through tonight.  I’ve not had the opportunity to read this one but I did see it featured on Oprah and it’s REALLY interesting!
• Gena at Choosing Raw is giving away a Tribest portable blender, which looks awesome and would be a GREAT way to make green smoothies at WORK!

You can bet I’ll be entering both of these and thought you might be interested too!  Who wouldn’t love to win something fun?

***

I had dinner last night at one of the coolest restaurants, so I’ll be showing you some pictures and telling you all about it!  I’m hoping to do this yet today, depending on how the day goes.

***

And because this is also a FITNESS blog, I better get yesterday’s workout on record:  52 minutes of Iron Yoga (wearing my VFFs, which ROCK for yoga) followed by 20 minutes of speedwork on the treadmill (also in the VFFs).  I am LOVING my bday unshoes.

Make it a GREAT day everyone!  See you back here soon!

– Shari B. =)

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Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Marathon Monday feature.  Sounds like you guys like it, so I’ll definitely keep it up throughout my training.  I’ll be sure to include all the ups AND the downs so that you guys can learn from my mistakes as well as my wins… since this is my first full marathon, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of “whoops, bad call” moments!

I feel a RANDOM post coming on so I’ll just give you fair warning now.  It’s probably going to be all over the place!  Lots to catch you up on!

Lets start with some EATS, shall we? A few food highlights to share from the last few days.

Here’s my portobella ‘burger’ that I grilled on the George Foreman using Ezekial ‘heels’ as the bun.  Toppings include broccoli sprouts, avocado, Tofutti, salsa and some spinach.  On the side I have steamed cauliflower sprinkled with nutritional yeast.  That was a tasty dinner right there!

Yesterday’s packed lunch was SO GOOD!  I’ve really been missing my large salads that I used to eat every day for lunch when I was home at lunchtime.  So I packed up a good ol’ Shari-Salad of the past (spinach, dulse, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, nutritional yeast and Annie’s Goddess dressing.)  I also warmed up some leftover steamed veggies from the weekend and put them on top of the salad.  Then I shook the whole thing up and darn near licked the last few drops of salad dressing out of the bowl when I was done.  I ate an ENTIRE CONTAINER of spinach yesterday between my green smoothie at breakfast, my salad at lunch and my dinner.

Dinner was a mushroom and spinach quesadilla.  This pic is before I put on the top tortilla:

The ‘innards included mushrooms, spiralized zucchini, spinach, small sprinkle of raw goat cheddar, a spoon of 505 gluten-free vegetarian green chile and some nutritional yeast.  While it TASTED FANTASTIC, I have a new “note to self” which is this:  Do NOT use just-steamed veggies  for the innards of a quesadilla – you end up with a SOGGY-dilla instead.  Next time I will use leftovers because they’ve had time to drain.

***

OK switching gears on ya!

A FitFeat reader and good friend of mine is also on a mission toward her first marathon.  Unlike yours truly who is running a marathon because I can’t seem to say no when presented with a challenge, Beth is actually doing her marathon for an amazing cause.  I’m sure many of you have heard of Team In Training, that raises money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Beth has signed up to run her first marathon in June in honor of her friend Diane who is a 15 year Leukemia survivor.  If this is a cause near and dear to your heart (or you just did your 2009 taxes and realize you could use more charitable write-offs for 2010!) head on over to Beth’s TNT Page for more info on the TNT cause and info on how to donate.   Beth has been a running machine the last few years, competing in tons of half-marathons and she’s very excited to be aiming for her first full marathon.  I’m sure she’s gonna kick that course right in the shin(splints)!

I’ll be getting a link set up in the sidebar too so that if you think of people to whom you’d like to spread the word for donations, you can send them right to FitFeat and there will be a banner to click on.

***

OK this will be the last gear-change, I promise.  I thought I’d give you a little update on how my AeroGarden is doing.  The basil is going CRAZY and growing beautifully.  I even harvested my first few leaves on Sunday for a Lemon Basil White Bean dip that I made for a SuperBowl party.

However the chives and the thyme are not looking quite so happy!  In fact, they’re looking downright PATHETIC.

I think the basil is a big bully, stealing all of the UV light and shading the other two in its huge leaves.  And probably using up all of the root space in the bowl!

***

Time is flying by and I have lots to get done on the ‘catch-up’ day so I better get cracking!

Near-future blog topics you’ll want to come back for:

• Thoughts on Physique 57 (finally, I know)
• Thoughts on Born to Run
• Calling all ABS for our next Flex-It Friday feature

Make it a FIT day!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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