Month: December 2011

Today I set out to run 5 miles — my farthest distance since the marathon — and I was feeling good about it.

As I started running, I immediately felt “slow.” I was running under a 9:30 pace, which I don’t consider slow at all, but I felt oddly heavy compared to my mostly effortless-feeling pre-marathon runs.

Then disaster hit during mile 4 — a horrible, dreadful, crippling cramp.

I did a lot of walking during mile 4 to get rid of that cramp. It just wouldn’t go away! The last time I remember having a cramp at all was during a 15-mile run because I ate an unusual and insufficient breakfast beforehand.

After about 0.4 mi of straight-up walking, I resumed running and was able to finish out mile 4 and hit a nice pace for mile 5.

I’m 99% sure both the heavy feeling and the cramp were related to my post-marathon eating habits. I haven’t been eating unhealthily per se, but I have reintroduced grains and dairy back into my diet in a big way.

I’d say my marathon-training diet was loosely 85% Paleo. The other 15% consisted of candy corn, ice cream, cupcakes, etc. and anything I had out at a restaurant.

I never carb-loaded before runs — in fact, I specifically avoided grains, as well as dairy, for the sake of my stomach — and ate lots of protein (chicken, fish, eggs) and fruits/vegetables instead.

Now I eat… whatever I want! Grilled cheese sandwich with extra slices of cheese on the side? Sure! Pancakes for lunch? Why not!

My body is much, much happier when I eat little to no grain-based carbs or dairy, and I can clearly see that when I compare how I felt on today’s run versus how I felt before the marathon.

It was nice to have a grilled-cheese-with-a-side-of-cheese hurrah for a few weeks, but I’d much rather have enjoyable runs.

Written while eating a stomach-friendly chicken breast with roasted asparagus and mushrooms on the side. Yum.

1. Fill your plate with delicious pancakes and bacon, then clean it. Repeat. (Check.)

2. Position yourself near the mimosa-making station to ensure easy access and no fewer than three drinks. (Check.)

3. Regale your friends with groundbreaking new ideas regarding foreign policy, the environment and the global health crisis. (Err…)

That’s pretty much it. Success!

Also, here’s a new post about my adventures in travel planning:

Choosing My Backpack… and a Change of Plans

Whee!

Meg invited me to a Toys for Tots event at her box Saturday morning and today I can’t move my body.

It hurts so good.

About 40 people donated 157 toys. Woo-hoo! I pitched in two toys and won a t-shirt in a raffle at the end of the event. I never win things! There is in existence a super-awkward picture of me lunging through a giant tire while wearing the shirt; hopefully Meg can track it down for me and I can post it promptly.

Everyone divided up into teams of five to do the WOD (workout of the day):

– 200 meter run
– Burpee to 45-lb plate
– 10 meter farmer’s walk with kettlebells
– Squat hops
– Rest 

We each rotated to the next exercise as soon as the runner on our team finished the sprint, and we did this as many times as possible in 12 minutes. I started with the run and I think ran three times, and I know I ended the WOD doing burpees because I wanted to fall on the floor and die.

Each team member was supposed to keep track of his or her reps and report the number to the next person so we could keep an overall count of the team’s reps, but my team quickly got confused/lost track and had no numbers to report. Ohhhh well!

I was sweaty and out of breath when we finished. It was definitely a good workout, especially considering how sore my quads, arms and shoulders are! I don’t think Crossfit is my thing, but I can see why people some love it. Crazy people, that is.

Oh, you know it’s true.

I met a ton of awesome, friendly people at Stoneway Crossfit, and even scored a new running buddy! Allegedly he “doesn’t run that fast” (right) and we’ll take it easy since I still haven’t run farther than 4 miles since the marathon.

Yeah… we’ll see how that goes.

My post-marathon motivation to run is seriously lacking. Today I was determined to run, and it wasn’t raining, so I had no excuse.

I busted out new shoes to make it exciting.

I’ve been hoarding two brand-new pairs of Brooks Ghost 3 shoes in a closet ever since I went nuts over an online sale. I basically got two pairs of my very favorite running shoes — in PURPLE! — for the price of one. Winning!

I pushed the run a bit since I was “only” doing 3 miles. (Must get out of that “only” mindset now that I’m not training for a stupid-far race.)

Oooh yeah, that felt good. My pesky right foot didn’t hurt, and I’m hoping it’ll stay that way.

I’m clearly obsessed with the lululemon pullover I bought for the marathon. I hardly ever buy lululemon stuff because it’s so pricy, but this pullover is ridiculously comfortable, non-chafing, flattering and very high quality. This… this is love.

Plus, it’ll always remind me of my first 26.2. (I still can’t believe that happened.)

Tomorrow morning I venture into the crazy world of Crossfit. I’m ready to dominate some box jumps or swing the shiz out of a kettlebell or something. Wish me luck…

…and they’re my fave because they’re one of the only pairs that actually fits.

I’m trying on many others and they’re all anywhere from one to three sizes too big.

I found an old belt and put it on in an attempt to keep some jeans up, and the belt doesn’t even have enough holes to cinch tight enough.

I don’t have a documented weight-loss story like many people I follow on Tumblr, but I’m definitely more fit than I’ve ever been and down about 15 pounds since college.

2007 vs. 2011.

Running is awesome.

That is the question I must answer. Someone please get me a giant map of the world… and some darts.

Check out where I am in my planning so far: Itinerary Indecision & Shiny Travel Things

Also, I made business cards (even though I don’t have an actual business) to hand out to folks I meet as I travel.

The info side (yes, “runner” is a big part of who I am!):

The fun side (all photos I’ve taken):

I could also hand these out to:

• Cute boys I pass on the street
• Cute boys at running events
• And, retroactively, the entire cast of Thunder From Down Under in Las Vegas

Oh, did I forget to mention this happened the night before the marathon? Silly me! (Straight-up stole this picture from Cely.)

Australia is quickly moving to the very top of my travel list.

The legendary Athens Classic Marathon is on November 11, 2012.

That’s just a fun factoid I came across while trying to figure out the itinerary for my year of travel. Interesting… : )

Also, I swam today for the first time since I did the triathlon in September!

There’s so much awkwardness here.

Swimming is hard, people. I can swim from one end of the pool to the other, but then I have to rest and catch my breath for at least 30 seconds before going back. It’s humbling when everyone else is just whizzing by and doing super-cool flip turns.

I could probably outrun most of them, though. : )

I’m trying to stay active every day, whether it’s through running, yoga, swimming or lifting weights. I might bust out my bike when it’s sunny. Currently trying to give my pesky right foot a rest from running to ensure that the phantom pain doesn’t return.

And I’m trying Crossfit for the first time on Saturday, so that should be… interesting!

I’m just gonna put this here.

I recently found the post in which I first wrote about signing up for this marathon. I registered wayyyyyyy back in March, back before I’d ever run any race farther than a 5K. In fact, I think the farthest I’d ever run at that point was 7 or 8 miles.

I had no clue how fast I’d be able to run 26.2 miles (or if I could even physically run them at all), so Las Vegas’s 4:30 time limit almost deterred me from registering.

This is what I wrote back then:

I’m fairly sure I could run the marathon in under 5 hours, and perhaps even under 4:45, but a 4:30 time limit is a lot of pressure.

I’d be lying, though, if I said I didn’t secretly enjoy this extra layer of challenge. I’d love to finish under 4:30 even if there was no time limit, so this just motivates me to train extra hard.

But there was a moment when I was about to register that I considered backing out. Would it be stupid to even attempt a sub-4:30 time? Most people say you shouldn’t have a time goal for your first marathon — just focus on finishing. But I’d like to seize the opportunity to finish and kick some butt, too.

If, after several months of training, I feel like it’s absolutely impossible for me to drag my body across 26.2 miles’ worth of Las Vegas in any time close to 4:30, I can always drop down to the half-marathon.

But telling myself right now that I can’t do it is unacceptable. Quitting before I’ve even started is far more foolish than gunning for a sub-4:30 first marathon. And even if I attempt the marathon, get kicked off the course and earn myself a big, fat DNF — Did Not Finish — I’ll at least be satisfied in knowing that I trained like hell and tried my hardest to do something awesome.

I’ll take Did Not Finish over Did Not Try any day.

This morning I flung myself out of bed and went to my gym for a vinyasa yoga class. I am now one of those people who has the luxury of just doing random crap like that on a weekday, so feel free to hate me.

The truth is that it’s been a little tough to hammer out a routine, or a “new normal,” as I call it, now that I’m not working an 8-5 job or training for a race. It’s not super easy to get out of bed and be productive when you really could just sleep a little longer…

Anyway. I wrote about that shiz on Answering Oliver, and also included a bunch of scintillating photos of my bedroom and how I cleaned it up this weekend. GET EXCITED:

Decluttering & Forging a New Normal

Back to the yoga. I did yoga exactly once during my 19 weeks of marathon training, so I feared I would be a little rusty.

The 75-minute class involved lots of twists, lunges and vinyasas (obviously), and it did a number on my quads.

Also — and I haven’t mentioned this before — the outside of my right foot has hurt with various degrees of severity (ranging from “Shit, is this broken??” to “Feels fine, not broken!”) since the marathon, and Warrior II did it no favors today. Damn you, foot. Get it together.

I also walked to and from the gym instead of driving for a total of two miles.

I returned home to find our good friends Rob and Chris in the midst of a Twitter spat that somehow involved me:

I just… don’t even know.