My First Marathon (Reflections)

It's Fall, that means I dye my hair darker. I'm just festive like that.

Sunday 10/30, I ran my first marathon.
I'll post a recap later, but I want to get down ALL of the events leading up to it before I forget.
The week leading up to the marathon was supposed to be relaxation and carb loading, with a couple easy runs peppered in. It was anything but.
We had two pretty major family things happen, one on my side and one on my husbands, that kind of left the marathon in the back of my mind, with so much else to focus on.
I didn't really intend to carb load, as in I wasn't going to do difficult math problems calculating carb ratios etc...
I did plan to eat more carbs a couple days leading up to the race though. What actually happened is all of the stress really did a number on my appetite and I had to force myself to eat the little bit that I did.
Race morning was COLD. I had set my alarm for 4:45 am with intentions to leave around 5:45 for the 7 am start time. I overslept. I woke up and my phone said it was 5:27, I almost died!
I drank my coffee threw on my clothes and got to the race. I waited in the (thankfully not too long line) for the port-o-potty and had to hop one of those barriers to get to the start.
I didn't feel like running. I wasn't nervous, excited, or even tired. I just didn't want to run. I think all of the emotionally draining events from the week just left too mentally tired to think about running 26.2 miles.
I got it together though and started feeling pretty good a few miles in.
More on that when I do the recap.

After the race I left pretty quickly, I had to take my son to a birthday party.
I was sore and I'm still sore. I have never been in so much pain from running.
My right knee hurts, when I bend it, it takes a couple minutes to straighten it back out. My ankles hurt, even my wrist hurts from the way I was carrying my water bottle the whole time.
I definitely did not anticipate hurting this much. Trick-or-Treating with the kids will definitely be a "treat" for me later on. Having kids is awesome, it means I get to trick-or-treat again and I get to dress them up however I want!


Happy Halloween!

Less Than a Week To Go!!!!

Yep, I have less than a week to marathon #1.
Just 3 more runs...
So far the weather looks perfect.
It's funny it seems that everything falls on the same weekend. We can go an entire month without any weekend plans and than one weekend we have a ton of stuff to cram in. I should have expected it this time, Halloween is Monday so there are lots of things to be done. (besides a marathon).

Last weeks runs were more of the same:
Monday - 4.5 miles (8 min pace) + abs
Tuesday - 4 miles (8:44) + strength
Wednesday - 7.13 (8:25)
Thursday - 5.47 (8:25) + strength
Saturday - 8.04 (8:27)

The "vegan" week went well. I even made vegan pumpkin bars.
I don't eat a lot of meat and don't think I am going to cut it out permanently.
I don't think my body reacts well to dairy. It's hard to completely cut out dairy because it is in so many things. However, I don't drink cow's milk and will continue with that and I've stopped eating yogurt (I was never a big yogurt fan anyway).
Cheese is tough because I LOVE pizza. So I'm not willing to cut that out... maybe cut it down, but not out.

All of this food talk is making me hungry!
I can't believe I'm going to run a marathon this weekend!!!! It's the waking up at 4:30 am part that's hard for me! I'm always so scared of over sleeping!

Have a happy Monday!

Vegan for a week?

Can we do it?
Over the past 6 months we've cut down on meat. We would eat fish and chicken once a week and vegetarian the rest of the time. We never eat meat at breakfast or dinner. For the past month or 2 I've been trying to cut down on dairy (mostly for my kids) because hubby and I aren't milk drinker's or yogurt eater's. So the next step is to completely cut out meat and dairy this week and to see how we do. I also want to try and cut out gluten, but one thing at a time. I want to say this is a lifestyle change, however, I doubt that this will be permanent. I want to see if we feel different
Last night we had salad, parsnip fries, roasted turnips, and asparagus. It was great, these are all foods we eat regardless. I'm not going to try anything new just more of the veggies we currently eat and none of the meat or dairy.
I think lunches will be the most difficult because the kids usually eat yogurt and a cheese sandwich for lunch... so any ideas would be great!!!

Moving on....

Last week was my first week of taper and I can honestly say it was the best week of running I've had in months.
I was excited about the 4 mile weekday runs instead of dreading the 9 mile weekday runs from before.
This weekend was only 12 miles... ONLY! I can't believe 12 miles seems like a short run.
Here's the breakdown:
Monday - 4 miles (8:07 avg pace) + abs + 30 day shred
Tuesday - 4 miles (8:05 avg pace) + upper boday
Wednesday - 7.10 miles (8:27 avg pace)
Thursday - 3.56 miles (8:26 avg pace) + full body
Saturday - 12.61 miles (8:48 avg pace)

This week will be similar to last week.
I'm craving pizza.

Questions:
What do you eat?

Do you like to taper?
This is my first time, but I think I like it!!!

Let the Taper begin!

I completed my final long run of marathon training on Saturday.
It was a great run with a great group of runners. We literally talked for 3 1/2 hours straight. We ran the silver comet trail. The weather was perfect and it was a great way to start my weekend. I felt good afterward (not to say I wasn't super sore later on).

I'm excited to run a marathon at the end of this month. Honestly, I'm really trying not to think about it.
I don't want to spend the next 3 weeks nervous and anxious. I don't want to put pressure on myself to achieve any sort of time goal.
I'm definitely a "newer" runner and I've seen great improvements in myself over the last year. I think I'm in good enough shape to run a marathon but not enough to really put any sort of time goal expectation on myself. I didn't log the miles I should and could have. I didn't do speedwork or cross training or even a lot of strength training. I know I have a lot of room for improvement and I am looking forward to a few spring marathons.
That being said I am not disappointed in how my training went, I just know I could've put in more effort than I did. Life got in the way and I'm ok with that.
I'll always put family first and even work too... sometimes. Right now that's my reality. Kids don't always nap as planned, events pop up, work piles up, and sometimes something has to give. My husband is amazing at being supportive of my running and watching the kids when I run and even putting his own running and plans aside.
He's spent a lot of Saturday mornings up way too early, watching kids, and cleaning house, while I was running.
I'm happy not to have any 20 mile runs to deal with for a while (well a couple months anyways).

On to more important things, like food!
Last nights dinner was truly oooey gooey comfort food, at it's finest. Deep Dish Pizza and Greek Salad The pizza was amazing.

• Provolone, mozzarella, and parmesean cheese.
  
• Homemade sauce.
• Spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Congrats to all of the AMAZING Marathon finisher's!

Friday...

Doesn't mean what it used to now that I do my longrun Saturday morning.
The most surprising thing to myself and most people that know me is that I actually wake up early to run. I'm not an early riser, not even close. Tomorrow is my last attempt at 20 miles (or 21 or 22) miles before my marathon. It would be lovely to finish and feel ok instead of wondering why I signed up for a marathon and resigning my self to distances under 15 miles. Ive literally been unable to function after the last 2 20 mile runs. 3rd times a charm, right?

I have a fun filled October and am kind of glad to be tapering these last 3 weeks. I'm also excited for runs that are actually less than 8 miles long!

I can't wait to read everyones race recaps.
Good luck to all of the half and full marathon runners!
I cant wait to join you invthecranks of 26.2!

Marathon Training Recap

Soooo, in less than a month I will be running my first marathon.
I'm excited, nervous, and really intimidated.
My training hasn't been what I hoped for. I've not been recuperating from my runs very quickly.
I'm constantly sore, like really I can't walk down the stairs or sit on a toilet sore.
I've done speed work like 4 times in 3 months.
I ran 20 miles on Saturday. It was better than the 1st attempt, but not exactly a confidence builder.
I'm still very sore, I've had a lot of pain on the inside of my shin. It's sore to the touch and changing shoes has not helped. I have blisters. I'm just a mess :(
I have 22 miles on the schedule for next Saturday, I'm tempted to do it on the treadmill, but I think I really need the practice on the street.
My paces are ALL over the place. I really have no idea what to expect come marathon day.
Most of my runs are between 7-10 miles and paces are usually 8:20 - 9:00/mile. Mile repeats (the only speed work I've done) are around7:05, long runs (16 or more miles) my paces have been anywhere from 9:15 - 10:00/mile. Oh and I did yasso's 800s once at 3:45.
You know they say you make the greatest improvements from your 1st to your 2nd marathon. So that means my 2nd will go much better than this, right?

So this was last night's dinner:


I know it doesn't look very appatizing (that's mostly because I cannot take pictures), but trust me it was good and vegan!
We've got braised green beans - fresh green beans, tomatos (in a box, bpa free!!!), onion, sumac (a really yummy spice) and garlic and braise forever! They are so good.
Roasted sweet potatoes
Roasted cauliflower and broccoli
and rice... Yum-o

Tonight I'm making stuffed vegetables (acorn squash, zucchini, and red peppers) with bulgur.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Dairy free and meat free dinner ideas???

Please help. They say (obviously) to run your marathon at a pace you can sustain the entire time. I have no idea what that is (partly because I've never run a marathon) and my training paces have truly been all over the place.
HELP!

My legs are sore, my ankles hurt, my feet are a mess, and my shins hurt, but I'm going to attempt some sort of speedwork today, wish me luck!

Information overload

I try, like all of you, to live a healthy lifestyle. Nothing is off limits and I really try to practice an everything in moderation philosophy. Our diets are focused on veggies, grains, fruits, a little meat and a little dairy (more for the kids though).
My daughter drinks soy milk because regular milk seems to upset her tummy.
I have some misgivings about the soy milk because of the phytoestrogens, but I can't do almond milk because of allergies and rice milk has double the sugar and 1g of protein to soy's 7 grams.
Plus, rice milk has less fat, a lot less (good for me, bad for babies).
With all of this in mind I have been researching options and obviously coming across information I may or may not need to know.
I read some very very scary facts about dairy. I usually ignore a lot of the "facts" about why we should eliminate whole food groups etc... but this stuff really hit home and made a lot of sense.
My kids (especially my son) eat a lot of dairy and I really think we need to cut it down, drastically.
He has a lot of food allergies, read: most nuts, egg whites, white fish, sesame seeds.
That means no peanut butter or hummus (how he made it in this household I'll never know).
Anyways because of this he always had lots of dairy, cheese sandwiches, yogurt, milk, smoothies with milk.
I don't even know where to begin. Any cheese and yogurt that is not made from cow's milk is made from soy. I'm trying to get rid of the soy too.
I have been overloaded with information and am going through a nothing is healthy, I'm poisoning my kids stage.
Not to mention the whole BPA thing. I've eliminated canned beans and tomatoes because of that.
I don't plan to cut out dairy but I do think it should be limited in the same way I limit meat.
Is there such a thing as an 80% vegan?
Oh btw, I'm trying to limit wheat gluten too... you know the whole GMO thing. Yup I sound like a nutcase.
I did manage a lunch that met my requirements:
Quinoa with oven roasted veggies (broccoli, carrot, mushrooms, zucchini, and chick peas).
That may become a staple.

Do you ever feel like there is just too much "information" out there to have a perfect diet?
I do, I do!!!

Are you a vegan?
Please tell me, what do you eat?