Month: March 2013

I only have time this morning to post about yesterday’s nine-mile run OR my March 31 weigh-in, and the weigh-in is more exciting, so here ya go!

(As always, ignore the body fat percentage.)

March 15: 138.4
March 31: 138.0
Loss: 0.4 pound

Total loss since March 1: 7.6 pounds

I’ve weighed myself daily and noticed that I fluctuate between 138 and 139 day to day. I dipped down to 137.6 once, but 140 has NOT reappeared on the scale!

I’ve always said that 138 was my marathon “fighting weight” — where I feel in good shape, but not stick-thin, and strong enough to run a solid marathon. At 5’6" with an athletic build (very muscular legs that have had people asking me, “Do you play soccer?” all my life), it works for me. I like it here.

The photo on the right is from after a run a few days ago (sweaty bra), but it’s a good representation of what I look like today.

Here’s the beginning of month/end of month comparison:

The girl on the left is just coasting along; the girl on the right is treating her body well!

When the temps heated up this week and I dug out all my warm-weather running clothes, I was thrilled to discover that all of my tank tops and shorts fit perfectly again. I have a white Nike tank that used to fit really well when I bought it a few years ago, then just clung to my stomach and showed every bulge when I tried it on last summer. Now it looks good again because there are no bulges to show!

I’ve regained the confidence to walk around without worrying about sucking in my stomach. I’ve gotten a bunch of new clothes because it’s fun to try them on again, and the sizes I expect to fit actually fit, or I have to go down a size. 

All that just from a month of cleaning up my eating. And I haven’t been perfect, either. I had a DQ blizzard last weekend, and a few of my favorite Easter treats on Friday — one marshmallow Peep, one Cadbury egg. The difference is that now when I choose to indulge, I really think about what I want to indulge in. I look at the nutrition facts first and think about how the treat(s) will play into the rest of my eating that day. I plug each treat in to My Fitness Pal, then ask myself, “Is it worth it?” and if the answer is yes, then I eat it and savor it without guilt. 

That’s just what works for me. Keeping track of my calories, carbs, fat, sugar, etc. in My Fitness Pal has made me so much more mindful of what I eat and why, so I’ll continue to do it — not to lose weight, necessarily, but just to stay on track with the progress I’ve made and make sure I’m eating good food and enough food as I continue to train for my June marathon.

And that’s all for now. Happy Easter!

We have lots to catch up on, yo!

TUESDAY

I blew off my strength-training after work to shop. You see, losing seven pounds has made me feel much better about my body and given me the confidence to buy new clothes. I didn’t want to get new stuff seven+ pounds ago because I knew I eventually wanted to get back to my pre-travel weight. And hey, here I am!

The clothes I currently have fall under two categories: Clothes that I’ve had since before I left for my trip over a year ago, which fit me now, but are fairly old and worn-looking; and clothes that I bought last summer/fall because my pre-travel clothes didn’t fit me, and are now saggy (because I’m smaller) and worn-looking (because I suck at having style and wear the same stuff over and over).

So I sprang for new jeans. Super-skinny jeans, to be exact, in my pre-travel size.

I’m still a little nervous about these, but I was assured by the saleslady (of cour$e) and Aaron that they look OK. I wore them to work the other day with sort of an oversized top and felt fine. Comfortable, even. Yay!

I also got quite a few tops, as I’m making a continued effort to branch out from v-neck tees. FYI, ladies, this is the most flattering shirt EVER. It can be dressed up for work, or all trendy-like for happy hour, or whatever. I got it in four colors. AND IT’S ON SALE. So get on it! I think it runs a bit big, as I am usually a small, but the XS fits perfectly. (Mind = blown.)

Anyway, this is not a fashion blog…

WEDNESDAY

May I remind you why I like to run in the evening?

It’s just so dang pretty.

I did six miles at Green Lake, but my stomach started feeling icky just a few miles in. I think it was because Aaron was grilling pineapple slices (as one does) at home and I ate one just before I left. ‘Twas delicious, but super-sweet, and probably not the best thing to eat immediately before running.

Regardless, a good pace overall:

I did this run in SHORTS (omggggg yessssssss) and was just so excited about spring that I took a photo with a flowering tree.

I’m so nervous that this nice weather is just a tease and Seattle will go back to being cold and dreary, as it often is through JULY, but I’m also just trying to enjoy it while it’s here… and trying not to jinx it.

THURSDAY

It was 63 degrees and sunny when I set out for my hill repeats, so I wore shorts and a TANK TOP! OH MY GOD!!!

Isn’t that graph just so cute and pretty? The little peaks are all like, “Wheeee!! Up, down, up, down, isn’t this fun!?”

Insert sweating, grunting, uncontrollable flying spit, and willing my legs to go up one. more. time. to hit nine repeats. That’s more accurate.

I’m anxiously waiting for the RnR Seattle Marathon course elevation chart to be posted so I can get an idea of what kind of hills I’ll be facing in June, but I think I’m off to a good start with weekly hill training. I’ll work on adding some hills to my long runs, too.

Speaking of long runs… my “long” run on Saturday is nine miles. Haven’t done a long run that short in a while! Maybe I’ll choose a hilly beezy of a route to make it interesting. : )

It was so, so sunny today. Everything is good and right in the world again. Yayyyyy, spriiiiiiing! Please just let it stay this way!

My run was downright balmy tonight. Three miles at a fairly consistent pace:

Because Aaron gets his workout in during the day by riding his bike to and from work, he will often make dinner while I’m out running. Tonight, I came home to this glorious sight:

Cute, herby, roasted Cornish game hen! Oh, delight. Paired with crispy kale chips, this was just dreamy.

Aaron wins fiance of the year. I continue to be useless.

And now, this is very important: If you have self-restraint and can control your portion sizes when it comes to incredibly delicious snacks, then read on. Otherwise, RUN DON’T WALK away from your computer.

OK? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This bag… this bag is everything.

I blame my employer for stocking an obscene variety of food from Costco, free for the taking. This magically appeared for the first time last week, and I made the mistake of trying one. Now… I’m lost forever.

They’re not Paleo — brown rice syrup is the delicious minx that holds these little clusters of heaven together — but I just don’t care. Damn you, clusters! Why do you have to be so good??

If you have the willpower to not demolish an entire bag in one sitting, give ‘em a try and let me know what you think.

If not, then pat yourself on the back. You’ve made a narrow escape.

…and now there’s more for the rest of us!

Time for another catch-up post since I’ve been too busy to blog!

THURSDAY

As you may recall, Aaron and I attended our very first catering tasting to sample food for our wedding. We’re working on choosing a caterer from our venue’s list of preferred caterers, and tasting yummy food is part of the fun!

I did some Paleo cheating here (cheeeeeese) in the name of, uhhh, getting a comprehensive idea of what this caterer has to offer. (It will quickly become clear that Paleo cheating was kind of the theme of these past few days.)

Here’s what I went back for more of AFTER I demolished my first two plates of food. The standout dishes pictured here are:

• Baby arugula & fennel salad: Full Circle Farms baby arugula and Bibb lettuce, shaved fennel, pink grapefruit, goat cheese, blood orange vinaigrette. (SPOILER ALERT: This salad WILL be at our wedding, whether we hire this caterer or not. It was AMAZING.)
• Grilled & roasted vegetables: Beets, carrots, parsnips, and onions. (I couldn’t get enough of the beets!)
• Yukon Gold mashed potato bar: With crispy bacon, sour cream, blue cheese, monterey jack, and scallions. (Um, I’m sorry, but we need to have a mashed potato bar at our wedding. I only tried bacon as a topping, but all that other stuff would be amazing, too.)

And Aaron couldn’t stop eating the braised Oregon country short ribs with red wine reduction. I thought they were great, too, but I was too busy eating multiple servings of salad to go back for more.

I LIKE THIS PART OF WEDDING PLANNING.

FRIDAY

I enjoyed my regular rest day, and put together a homemade dinner with my four BFFs/bridesmaids. I had not one, but two amaaaazing slices of Macrina Bakery bread because it smelled soooo good toasting in the oven and I figured a slice… or two… would just help fuel my Saturday long run. Also, if we choose the aforementioned caterer, this bread could be part of our menu, so I did it for science. Or something.

SATURDAY

I done ran 12 miles.

My planned route didn’t work out so well because the University Bridge was closed for the day. Totes dropped an F-bomb when I realized that because I was, uhhh, kinda far from home, and I wasn’t prepared to swim across Lake Union or anything.

The solution? A detour to the Montlake Bridge (totally winged it, magically found the correct way) that added two extra miles to the run.

I was just going to suck it up and do 14 miles because the sun was out and I was feeling great, but I stopped off at the Durn Good Grocery (not making that up) in Wallingford to call Aaron and let him know that I’d be home later than planned, and he offered to pick me up near Green Lake, thus sparing my legs the extra two miles. Keeper!

Oh, and we went shopping later that day and Aaron bought his wedding shoes (Hugo Boss) and wedding suit (J. Crew) in about two hours. No big deal. They are both fabulous.

My dress… will take a bit longer to find.

SUNDAY

Aaron had his second Cat 1 mountain bike race, and it was snow-on-the-ground cold over on Whidbey Island. This is my cold-spectator face:

Truly one of a kind, as the back of my wedding magazine says.

Aaron did three loops of the course at about 35 minutes per loop, so I had lots of time to sit and dog-ear pages in between cheering and taking photos. It was cold, man, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world!

And this just never gets old:

This was a huge race compared to the other ones he’s ridden this season, and he WON his age group at the EXPERT level!!!

So proud!!!

The sun came out after the race, and we enjoyed a Cheaty McCheaterson fish ‘n’ chips lunch on the water. The cafe served ice cream, and we longingly watched customer after customer get delicious-looking cones. That planted the seed for the ultimate cheat later in the afternoon… our very favorite guilty-pleasure treats… DQ Blizzards.

He got Oreo. I got double fudge cookie dough. We enjoyed every bite and regret nothing! The My Fitness Pal numbers are scary, but it helps a lot to be aware of that, as I compensated by making sure to do my hour of cross-training on the spin bike and having a very healthy, veggie-packed dinner.

Aaaand now it’s way past my bedtime. Good night!

I’ve been lazy with blogging this week, but not lazy with running! I ran Monday, Tuesday, AND tonight, and now I must tell you about it all in excruciating detail.

MONDAY

I had sort of a frustrating day at work, so I decided to run fast.

It felt good.

TUESDAY

Imagine super-shitty weather, and then pile some more shitty-ness on top of that. That is the kind of rain and wind that blessed Seattle on Tuesday.

And that is what rain jackets are for.

And, of course, this was my first set of hill intervals for this training cycle. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I did seven of ‘em, and you can see I took a little jogging break after the first two. I’m not used to hills… hence this training thing.

Earlier in the day, I had seen Chris’ post with this Scroobius Pip line: “You see a mousetrap. I see free cheese and a f**king challenge.”

That stuck with me through this run because I ran up and down a very busy street that leads to the freeway (there are no turns, giving me a nice stretch of uninterrupted sidewalk) and I imagined all the people coming home from work that night thought I was absolutely nuts to be chugging up that hill in such awful weather.

They see a mousetrap. I see a f**king challenge.

Anyway, this run wasn’t half bad, and as I ran home, the two little “hills” that usually take some effort felt like nothing at all. Free cheese!

WEDNESDAY

I rarely run three days in a row, so I figured my legs would be tired tonight. I had six miles planned, and my goal was to run them between 9:00 and 9:05 pace.

Then I just decided to crush them instead.

Don’t ask me. I don’t know. I just felt good and pushed myself a little, but never felt like I was pushing too hard.

Feels. So. Good.

Also, I caught a lovely sunset near the end. Whoever came up with Daylight Saving Time is a goddamn saint.

THURSDAY

Free cheese! No, really. Aaron and I are going to a catering tasting tomorrow night, and there will literally be a “chef’s selection of artisan cheeses,” among other delicious, free things — hence why I moved my Thursday run to Tuesday.

Aaron and I have a year and a half to go until our wedding, but you better believe we’re going to enjoy many, many of these tastings, since our venue gave us several preferred caterers to choose from.

This is why you have a long engagement, people — so you can drag out the very best parts! I don’t get why people rush to the altar when there is so much FREE FOOD to be had when you’re engaged!

Sadly, I won’t be eating the cheese, but I will bend the rules with some other foods so I can sample almost everything. Someone please restrain me from diving face-first into the mashed potato bar.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Two glorious rest days await me, and then 12 miles on Saturday!