FitFeat

where daily feats & eats can be adventures in themselves

Posts Tagged Vibram FiveFingers

Why You Might Want to ADD a Pound

Jul 8

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Well hello there FitFeat friends!  Happy Friday EVE!  Gotta love short holiday weeks!

This morning started with a fantastic 5 mile client run in some unusually humid weather.  Wow, I thought I’d been transported back to Ohio for a minute with the low cloud cover and muggy air.  I left the house with nice straight hair and when I came home, MSP said I looked like I’d showered and let my hair air dry (which is to say:  NOT a pretty sight!)  Humidity and my hair do not play nicely together.  Crazy waves and cowlicks all over!

I do feel for folks who have to run in humidity ALL the time.  We are lucky here to typically have very dry air.

I wore my VFFs again today – still love running in them and still finding it to be pain free.  My knees are happy these days.  Maybe I’ll get the itch to go longer than 8 or 9 in them, but right now I’m back to just enjoying runs as they come.

After my run, I was so craving something fresh.  I couldn’t decide between a cantaloupe or a green smoothie.  So I did both.  Ate a few bites of the cantaloupe:

And then put the rest into a rocking smoothie:

  • 1/2 Cantaloupe
  • 1 small orange
  • kale
  • spinach
  • flaxseed oil
  • pepitas
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla plant protein powder
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • water

It was so refreshing post-run.

Rascal couldn’t even wait for me to stop pouring some into his bowl.

He kept trying to get his face in there before I was done.  My pups LOVE when I share my green smoothies with them.

Ready for seconds!

***

Have you ever ready any of Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s work?  I own his “Eat to Live” book and have borrowed his “Eat for Health” books from the library a few times.  Dr. Fuhrman uses the term “nutritarian” as opposed to vegetarian, flexitarian, vegan, etc. because he promotes eating foods based on their nutrient value.  For example on a scale of 1 to 1000, KALE scores 1000.  From a nutrient density standpoint, it’s the gold standard.  (Another great reason to make yourself a batch of kale chips!)

In the “Eat for Health” series he suggests to his clients that rather than making huge changes right off the bat when trying to lose weight or get healthier one should just ADD in a pound of raw green veggies a day to what they already eat.  And then over time you will find that because you are eating a pound of filling green food, you won’t need as much of the other less healthy foods you might have been eating. (As the program progresses, one then aims to eat at least 1 pound of raw greens vegetables and 1 pound of cooked veggies and at least 1 cup of legumes.)

I know that when I measure out my greens for my smoothies I typically end up with about 9 oz with the cucumber, celery, sprouts, leafy greens and occasional avocado.  I was curious what one pound of raw greens would look like all in one bowl so that I could gauge whether I was anywhere near the 1 to 2 pound mark.

For the sake of pure volume rather than variety, I just threw some veggies into a bowl to weigh.   One full head of romaine, a large stalk of celery and a medium cucumber fit the bill.

On one hand it didn’t seem like as much as I thought it would.  But then on the other hand, this bowl is way bigger than my head.

Because I’m known to have a pinhead, I’ll show you the bowl next to my iPhone for better sizing reference.  ;)

After weighing out the pound, I took out some of the greens to save for later, and then “prettied up” my salad with some dulse, avocado, red and yellow pepper – and weighed again.  I’m over a pound, wahoo!

Then I added 1/2 cup of navy beans.

And called it lunch!

How about you?  Do you think you are getting 2 pounds of veggies in each day? Are you a fledgling nutritarian or a full-on card carrying member of the club?  I think that between my large lunch salads and my green smoothies, I’m somewhere in the middle!

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

***

Shari Becht is a Fit Living Coach and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer offering online/phone coaching services to people across the U.S.  She is extremely passionate about teaching her clients how to start making small changes every day to their own lives, built around steps customized to fit their needs.

If you or someone you know could benefit from Shari’s coaching, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

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Like It Was The Summer of 2009

Jun 17

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Holy moly, I spent a few days away from the blog and I come back to find 96 spam messages!  Yowza!  I hope they at least count as page views toward my FoodBuzz account!  Haha!  Thank you Akismet for catching all that spam and keeping it from hitting my comments area!  You are a godsend of a plug-in!

So glad you guys liked the post about the crazy ingredients in our food.  I had a good time writing that one. Garbage in my food gets me all riled up!  :)

Today I’m having flashbacks of last summer.  I started the morning with a run, enjoyed half a cantaloupe when I got home, then got busy doing some ‘doody duty’ and YARDIO and followed it all up with a delicious smoothie.

Love it when the yard is freshly mowed:

And love it when I can enjoy my smoothie on the back patio in the sunshine:

(BTW, this smoothie was a keeper:  small banana, handful of frozen blackberries, vanilla brown rice protein, 1/2 a cucumber, spinach, romaine, flaxseed oil with 8 oz water — SO SO GOOD!)

Ahhh, just like the good ‘ol days of 2009.  ;)   Last year at this time I’d left my high stress no-fun job about 6 weeks prior and was taking the summer ‘off’ to enjoy life a little more and get some projects done around the house that I’d been putting off.  It was fantastic!

Fast forward one year and this summer is definitely on the BUSY BEE side of the coin.  Last year I didn’t have the ops admin job, the fit living business or the blog.  In the battle for where my time is spent sometimes the blog wins, some weeks the training wins, and this week (plus the next two weeks) the admin job will win because we are gearing up to relocate the office.  If FitFeat seems oddly quiet off and on between now and July 4th, you’ll know why!

***

Today’s run was with a client and it was a PERFECT morning.  Warm with blue skies and a light breeze.  We hit up my (and her) favorite hilly trail.  (And she was rockin’ her new pair of Vibram FiveFingers, woot woot!) It was a good thing I had her appointment on the books, because if not I think I may have hit the snooze button a few times.  It was a bit of a rough night of sleep thanks to a certain little dog who likes to howl and bark like mad when his dad comes home from softball late at night.  Picture me sleeping soundly one second, then needing to be peeled off the ceiling in the next. Instant adrenaline rush and impossible to sleep after that.

He looks so innocent doesn’t he?

It’s a good thing he’s so darn cute.

***

You have to check out the delicious dinner than Cindy posted on her blog.  It looks fantastic, and yes I do want to earn a parade (even if my parade would be quite short seeing how it’s only one person) so I might have to make something in a puff pastry for my hubs!  I’m sure he would love it.  I did make him a Bison BBQ Meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes Tuesday night.  I think the parade was postponed due to inclement weather.  ;)

My meals have been a little on the boring side as of late.  Green smoothies, big salads, oatmeal, grilled goat cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, you know the usual SHARI FARE. Nothing exciting enough to share.  But I have a great new apron (five bucks, SCORE!) so I am sure the inspiration will start flowing now.  Isn’t it the apron that makes one a good cook?

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Healthy Eats = Healthy Teeth

May 18

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi friends!

I hope your week is off to a fantastic start!  Mine is going great! :)   It’s been a “rain sandwich” kind of day.  Meaning that we started off with sunshine this morning, then thunderstorms and now sunshine again!  I’m hoping the sunshine lasts into the evening so that we can get the crazies out this evening for a walk.  And the dogs too… ha ha!

Did you try putting BEETS or some other fun veggie into your smoothie yet?

It was a perfect morning for an outdoor run with one of my clients – we did 3.61 miles of hills and valleys including 8 sets of hill repeats at the end (and I got to take my Vibram FiveFingers for a good spin too).  Yesterday I did a good old fashioned upper body strength workout:  no Tabata timer, no Insanity.

  • Smith Machine Bench Press – 5 sets
  • BB Bent Row – 5 sets
  • Pike Shoulder Presses – 2 sets
  • Overhead 1-Arm DB Presses – 2 sets
  • KB Side Lateral Swings – 1 set

It felt FAN-TAS-TIC!

***

So today was DENTAL DAY in the FitFeat household.  Rascal and I both had our teeth cleaned (fortunately mine was at the dentist!)  ;)   I take our dogs to an anesthesia-free practitioner so that they don’t have to be put under.  I know how terrible I feel after anesthesia so I don’t like the idea of the dogs having to do that unless it is for some sort of life-saving surgery.

You know your dogs need their teeth cleaned when they are riding in the back of an SUV and when they have a barking fit you can smell their breath all the way up in the front seat!

Now Rascal has fresh breath and is once again eligible to receive mommy-kisses.

While trying to snap a pic of these kisses, Rascal turned his head and I was left looking as if I am howling at the moon!

This was a little better…

Riley has her turn on the 27th.  I learned early on not to take them both at the same time.  If you want to see a visual representation of mass mayhem, that would be it.

And the great news of the day is NO CAVITIES for me!  Wahoo!

Back in 2005 in the middle of my high protein and competing days, I went from having great healthy teeth to a dental visit where I was told I had 5 cavities.  Three of which each took a downhill turn one at a time shortly after the fillings, resulting in 2 abscesses, 3 root canals and 3 (crazy expensive) crowns.   I truly believe that the high intake of protein (and low intake of fruits/veggies) leeched minerals from my teeth, resulting in their disintegration.  For a lot of my ‘dieting’ years I ate between 40% and 55% protein which came solely from animal sources.  Since switching to a primarily plant-based diet, I have had no cavities.

If you’ve followed FitFeat for any length of time,  you know I feel strongly about health from the INSIDE out.  Getting a “good grade” from the dentist deepens my resolve that I’ve been doing a good job of taking care of the inside of me!

How about you?  Have you found any changes to your diet that affect your teeth? Did you start/stop soda and see a difference?  Switch to more raw foods?  Cut back on sweets?

Also, does your dentist take your blood pressure before your cleaning?  This is something new at my dentist over the course of the last year.  I love that they do this, because I geek out on knowing my numbers like resting heart rate, blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol, TSH, etc.   I was tickled today to see my blood pressure at 93/67.  Excellent!

Have a FIT and HEALTHY day, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Eggspensive

Apr 16

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 7 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy Friday!

Oh and happy day it is.  Vacation is SO close now I can almost smell it!  :) (Actually I think Cindy’s been sending me scratch-n-sniff stickers of seaside air…)  ;) I am SO excited to meet her and go for our run!  It’s been in the works for so long, I can’t believe it’s finally almost here!

Random observation:  So I  log in this morning to WordPress to start this post and just since yesterday I already have 12 spam comments.  Thank goodness for the Akismet plug-in.  I am always shocked at the amount of spam that comes through the blog.  Do you bloggers get that?  I can’t even imagine what it must be like for someone who has a lot more traffic than I do.

Another (not-so-random) observation:  My calves are BEAT!  They have been working very hard this week, in the final week of the Spring Slimdown.

They feel like they should look like this:

(image source)

Maybe someday!  ;)

I ran 4.5 miles yesterday with my friend Sue at a local reservoir in the foothills.  One word:  HILLS!  I sound like a broken record on this blog – I’m forever looking for flat trails on which to run, but they are hard to come by when you live a mile above sea level!

***

I found the best eggs at Whole Foods last weekend and finally tried them for the first time yesterday.  These are the most “eggspensive” eggs I’ve ever purchased.  I hope my mom isn’t reading this post or she’ll think I’m crazy.  (Hi mom!)  I know that sometimes generic eggs are on sale for like 88 cents a dozen.  But because I don’t want to think that the poor hen who laid my eggs was shoved in a cage to live ONLY for laying this egg, pumped full of who-knows-what kind of antibiotics and meds, and had her beak seared off to keep her from pecking the hen smashed right next to her, I am willing to spend a lot more for eggs.  (These were $5.99.)

Enter VITAL FARMS.

Their package says “Antibiotic Free, Hand Collected, Free Range, Grass Eating, Pasture Raised” and organic.  I hope it’s true because this is really the only way I can feel good about eating eggs any more.  :)   Notice the little newsletter that came in the package:  “Vital Farms News”.

I will say what I know to be true is that they TASTE AMAZING!  They really did have ‘darker richer yolks’ and the flavor was just better.

Three delicious eggs, scrambled for my dinner last night with a side of Ezekial toast. They were DEFINITELY worth the extra money, both in taste and in their kindness to their hens.

If you’re new to the blog since November, check out my post about why I eat the WHOLE egg:  Are You Yolking?

***

Well blog buds, if I want to get a workout in before I have to go to work, I better get crackin’.  Today is the LAST day of the Spring Slimdown (wahoo!) so I’ll get the last few days’ worth of food pics & my final weigh-in posted hopefully tonight after work!

Enjoy your Friday and I’ll see you back here soon!  Make it a FANTASTIC day!

– Shari B. =)

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Windburn

Apr 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, thrive diet | 2 Comments

Hey FitFriends!  How’s your Tuesday treatin’ ya?

I had a very fun run this morning at my favorite hilly trail with two of my favorite running buddies and when I got home at first glance in the mirror I thought, “hmm, weird, my sunscreen didn’t work very well today” because my cheeks were really red.  Then I realized it must have been from the WIND!  It was CRAZY WINDY on the run today!  The hill at the beginning of the trail is a great warmup walk and we were leaning into the wind to stay upright.

But it wasn’t raining or snowing.  So that’s a big plus.  And the sun was shining, which was an even bigger plus!

So another 5.4 miles logged in the ol’ Vibram FiveFingers.  I think my calves may not have been QUITE ready after all the Vibram love they got over the weekend (leg workout Friday morning, 5 miles Friday evening, 15 sets of sprints Saturday, yoga Saturday, 7.6 miles Sunday afternoon).  They are pretty tight & tender today, even after all the stretching.  I might have to make tomorrow a yoga morning – lots of downward dogs should do the trick!

***

Welcome to “Random Topic Day” here at the FitFeat Blog.  :D

Run Carrot Run

My NO MEAT ATHLETE shirt arrived!  I’ve been a regular reader of Matt’s two blogs (No Meat Athlete and Health Blog Helper) ever since the inception of my own blog.  I happened upon NMA by accident after I starting eating along the lines of a mostly vegetarian, sometimes pescatarian diet and had done some Googling of vegan and vegetarian athletes.  Matt is an ultra-marathoner, vegetarian, soon-to-be-new-dad, animal lover, awesome blogger, and I’m sure a ton of other things.  I’ve always gotten a kick out of his logo (the carrot wearing a headband and sweating) and tagline (“Runs on Plants“).  So I finally had to treat myself to one of his running shirts.

Now, you all know I’m a stickler for customer service – let me just tell you that I am beyond impressed.  Matt wrote after I’d placed my order to say that the size small  shirts he received weren’t up to his standards and gave me a couple of options (refund?  wait for new printer? switch sizes?)   I went the route of going up to the medium size.  Well when he mailed my shirt he also included the small one that he wasn’t pleased with the printing of.  So now I am the lucky owner of not one but TWO No Meat Athlete shirts.  (Thank you Matt!)  And his standards must be higher than mine, because MSP and I both thought the small shirt was just fine!

If you haven’t checked out No Meat Athlete yet, go give it a look.   You won’t be disappointed.  Not only is he hosting a giveaway today of some compression socks, but he’s also donating all revenues from his Foodbuzz ad FOR ALL OF 2010 to help animals.

Run Drink Run

To know me is to know that I am a big believer in Brendan Brazier (professional VEGAN Ironman Triathlete), and his books.  I regularly drink Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer.   So I was excited when our local Whole Foods started carrying sample sized packets of the Vega Sport.  I tried the Lemon Lime flavor on Sunday afternoon just before heading out to run with my friend Amanda.

The taste is interesting.  Definitely not something you’d crave or have too  much of, that’s for sure!  :)   And I was a little nervous to have something that is considered an “energy” drink at 4:00 in the afternoon, for fear that I’d never get to sleep that night.  I ended up only drinking about 1/2 of what I made because I ran out of time and didn’t want to chug it.   I had a steady flow of energy during the run without ever feeling jittery and I had no trouble getting to sleep that night.  Typically I’m beat when it comes to exercising in the afternoons, so I’d like to think that I felt good thanks to this drink.  For the high cost though, I think I’ll stick to single-serve packets and only use it when absolutely necessary, like for long runs.

Delicious Dressing

One of my phone coaching/mentoring clients turned me onto this Annie’s dressing, Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette. It’s awesome!  I’m so glad she told me about this because I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise.  Only 35 calories per tablespoon, all natural, vegan.  No SOYBEAN oil either.  :)   It’s kind of a sweet smoky flavor.  I liked it so much I knew I had to share it with you too.  And by the way, this certain client is kicking some serious “you-know-what”.  I’m so proud of her!  Not only has she met her goals and continued to set new ones, she’s stayed the course while also kicking her smoking habit recently.  Maybe someday soon she’ll let me write a profile about her.   ;)

Already on Vacation (in my head anyway…)

I am getting SO excited for my upcoming vacation.  (I’m being vague on specific dates right now for a reason, even if I do have someone watching the house for us.  Safety first!!)   I’m especially looking forward to seeing my cousin Kevin and his new ‘crib’, dinner and maybe a run with reader Carrie (also my cousin), going for a run with Cindy from A Sparkle a Day, and hopefully Berni (According to Berni) will get to join us.  And I think it’s supposed to rain in Denver the day I leave, so that’s good.  Because it’s always nice to be heading TO nice weather rather than having it be gorgeous out at home as you drive to the airport.  :)

Thanks to a comment from Carrie when I went on that RV trip, I’ll be doing a lot of “sight-running“.  I’d been a little sketched out to run in strange places all by myself.  But Carrie told me about one of her best runs while she was on a trip, so I took off my ‘scaredy cat’ suit and went out at all the cities we stopped in on during the RV journey.  And LOVED it.  So I hope to post some more ‘digital postcards’ for you while I’m gone.

I’m sure I’ll do some blogging while I’m there, but not to the extent that I did while I was on the RV trip with my mom and grandma last fall.  The one lesson I learned on that trip was that I can get a little TOO caught up in technology.  (Who..me??)  And I think I missed out on some good quality time with my family because I was constantly in a mad dash to track down some Wi-Fi so that I could get my posts uploaded.  I don’t want to make that same mistake on this trip.  So there may be a few “Best of FitFeat” posts along the way.  ;)   I figure if the DJs at my favorite radio station can replay their shows while they go on vacay, I can re-post some of my favorites!

Speaking of, I better continue with the packing extravaganza!  I’m a week-long packer!  The suitcase is out of the closet, the packing LIST-writing has commenced, and we’ll have to see if I can squeeze it all into one bag or not!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday!  I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Sprints and Crows

Apr 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Hi friends!

Just wanted to drop in and say HAPPY SATURDAY!!  I hope that you are having a fabulous day!  Mine has been!  15 sets of sprint intervals this morning (in my VFFs), followed by some yoga.  Bueno!  I’m trying to learn to do the crow pose and not be scared of falling on my noggin. :)   I did it twice but very briefly – now I just need to learn how to stay IN the pose!

We also got two workouts in yesterday as well (lower body in the morning and 80 minutes of hills at night)…. I must be making up for lost time this week since I missed two days and then Thursday’s was a bit on the weak side.  Day 18 and Day 19 are posted now for Spring Slimdown – almost done now!  Good thing too, because I’m running out of room in the dropdown under that tab.  So I might have to figure out someplace else to keep those pages on the blog.

Last night I pulled out the last two Summoning Summer Crab Cakes from the freezer and made little sandwiches out of them, with some steamed asparagus on the side.  What an awesome dinner!  You have to try these salmon cakes — I will definitely be making another batch to have in the freezer because it was great to have them to make a fast meal in a pinch.

Well we are getting ready to settle in for the evening – we rented “The Blind Side” (and I think we are the last two people in the country to see it!)  I’m sure I’ll need a box of tissues, right?

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Welcome to My Chapel

Apr 5

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

Good morning blog buds and happy Monday!  I can’t believe my extra-long holiday weekend is over already!  Wow, did that ever fly by!

I hope that you had a beautiful weekend.  It was a gorgeous day in Colorado for our Easter Sunday.  So MSP and I figured it would be a perfect morning to get in our first hike of the season.

Welcome to my chapel:

I always seem to be doing something outdoors with friends or MSP on Sundays.  I don’t belong to a particular religious denomination, so I always like to say that my outdoor jaunts are my “churchtime”.  :)

We had a great hike.  We’d initially intended to wear our VFF barefoot shoes – but it was a good thing we brought our trail runners along too because we ran into a lot of this:

Saw some neat things:

And posed for some pics :

We were out for a little over two hours and had a blast.  I’m so excited that hiking season is here again!  Maybe one of these years I’ll invest in some snowshoes so that hiking season can last all year long.

Did you do anything fun and fitness related over the holiday weekend?

***

The Spring Slimdown continues to creep along with the lowest weigh-in so far at a loss of 1.8 lbs over 13 days.  Getting there slowly and could make it faster if I was willing to be a bit more obsessive.  But right now, I’m not!

Make a great day!

– Shari B. =)



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Barefoot Sunday

Mar 29

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi Fit Friends!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend – Monday came quickly, didn’t it?  We had a warmer springlike day on Sunday finally so it was great to get out and enjoy it a bit.  And extra bonus: it’s a short week, since we have Good Friday off at my office!  (Wahooo!)

In case you were out enjoying the spring weather this weekend and weren’t online, check out my post about the crazy Cadbury DREAM eggs!  As well as updates to the Spring Slimdown.

Sunday morning was amazing.  We finally got to get outside for a wonderful run in our FiveFinger unshoes.

It was 35 degrees and very sunny.  35 with no snow right now feels like a tropical vacation!  :)

And things were melting down on the dirt trail.  Our “bare feet” were pretty dirty by the end.

We ran 6 miles at just over a 10 min mile pace and the slow-down I’ve been doing over the previous weeks seems to be working  – my average heart rate for the full run was only 161 this time.   It felt great.  I had ZERO KNEE PAIN.  I felt energized at the end and ready to tackle the day.  Which is exactly how I want to feel after a run, rather than completely spent.  I am LOVING these Vibram FiveFingers and very excited about continuing to add distance in them.  If I can keep adding distance without knee pain, then maybe I can get back on track with some race goals!

My calves are lightly sore today but nothing like they’ve been on past VFF runs, so I’m hoping that my lower legs are finally conditioned for barefoot running.

The best part is you can hose these shoes off and then pop them in the washing machine!  Now they are clean and ready for the next run.

Off to start Monday at the office!  Have a wonderful day everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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TGIF & Birthday Shoes

Mar 26

Posted by Shari B. in Lose Weight, Spring Slimdown 2010 | 4 Comments

I am so glad Friday is here.  Not sure why – it’s not like it’s been a hard week of work, what with Wednesday as a snow day.  But I LIVE FOR WEEKENDS, to be sure!

Just wanted to put a note out here today that Day 4 of Spring Slimdown is posted – for those of you getting RSS feeds and email subscriptions, I wanted to give you a heads up in case you are following along. Today’s weight was down a bit from yesterday, so overall I’m sitting at a one pound loss from Monday.  Right on track.

I’m heading off to work – but wanted to share a link to a fun site about Vibram FiveFingers and barefoot running, called Birthday Shoes.  If you are interested in starting barefoot running and/or wanting to learning more about the topic, this is THE site to visit.  Great minds think alike, Justin tells me – we have a similar banner for our blog headers.  :)   This site will show you just how popular this trend is!

Have a FABULOUS Friday everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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9 Weeks Till … ???

Mar 15

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 15 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

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!  :D

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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