Eats of the Week

Got the camera working, so here's some chow from earlier this week:



Prerun breakfast from Sunday! Mojo bar, Nanner, and Yogurt with peaches and Kashi rice puffs. I like Mojo Bars better than regular Clif Bars- they aren't as bulky, but still just as delicious.

Post-run lunch from today!!!: PB&J&A&A (apple butter, apple) with an orange, and then brown rice with 1 egg (all we had left! And I was so looking foward to an omelet!!) with mushrooms, spinach, red pepper, onion, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and pepper.

About Me Saturday, a.k.a I am so Happy I Finished My English Essay I am Rewarding Myself With Blog Reading/Writing

Sorry for yesterday's uber-short post! Lifeguarding class was okay, though the girl next to me kept coughing and went outside to vomit (twice)... I hope I don't catch whatever she had! When I came home from class at 10:23, I realized I look like a total greaseball and I cannot believe people were not horrified by my lack of shower. At least I had some earrings and mascara on. Otherwise, I think I might have been the reason that girl puked.
   So, after waking up, eating breakfast, doing art homework, napping, running 8.25 miles, eating lunch, doing Stat homework, doing Environmental Science homework, eating again, finish my English essay, and going to the gym and doing the elliptical for 75 minutes (because my shoulder muscles would not have been able to handle the swim I wanted to do), I finally have time to update the blog!
  I thought I would take today and share some stuff about me, since I haven't really told you all much beyond 1. I sweat a lot 2. I work out a lot 3. I eat a lot of peanut butter.

So, here goes!

This is me at our County Championship game. I was on JV and we didn't make it, so this is me crazily cheering for our Varsity.

1. I played field hockey for 5 years. I stopped my senior year after being benched for all of my junior season. I got tired of warming the bench.

2. I read A LOT. Over the summer I read 30 books. That sounds like a ridiculous amount, but keep in mind that when my pool isn't busy, I can just sit at a table and read during my breaks, which come once an hour.

              3. As you probably already guessed from the previous post, I am a summer lifeguard! I switched pools this year, and am now Head Guard at a country club that apparently only has patrons on the weekends, so even more time for reading!!!

4. My brother is my best friend in the whole world. We have the same taste in music and food (we are both obsessed with Indian food), and he is the smartest person I know. After I got Spring Admission to that college the other day, he cheered me up so easily, and made me feel way less crappy. Plus, we share books too :).
5. I drink more tea than any person on a dieuretic should. Favorite? Chai or Pumpkin Spice. Don't make me choose!!


So, now that you have some fun facts about me, tell me about you!! What's your favorite food, movie, race distance, and season?

Insanely Busy Friday=very short post

Best Dessert EVER

So today after school I rushed home, scarfed a bunch of produce and hummus down, did 42 minutes of power yoga, changed into yoga pants (ironic), did not shower even though I got a little sweaty, and now have 15 minutes before I have to leave for a five hour lifeguarding recertification. And am now eating my dessert at 4:16 because I am afraid I won't have a big enough food break during the class...


Workout this morning:
Hour of strength training in the morning (if you ever need strength training ideas, go to Men's Health's website! Their workouts are way more intense (and, in my opinion, effective) than the lady version. If they can make me sweat at 5 in the morning with what seems like only sloth-like movement, they must work. 
Afternoon: Crunch PowerSlim Yoga from Netflix.com! I love the internet! No more buying yoga DVDs!


And now I am off to find socks and go to class. Hope no one can smell the post-exercise remnants (hmm... probably not the best way to make new guard friends...)

Sugar-Free Candy Obsession and Awkward Moments at Walgreens



I think I might be obsessed with these...

Today was an easy day, workout wise: 6.12 miles in the morning at 8:27 pace with minutes 1% incline followed by 1 minute 2% incline, then an hour of a bike speed workout in the evening and the fastest arm/ab workout in history (I really had to pee, and was also really hungry, so I tried to scootch outta there as fast as possible).
   My legs feel wayyy better than yesterday, and have that wonderful residual soreness you get from a good, hard effort. Only problem was that I was a sleepy, exhausted girl by about 9:30 last night and basically conked out as soon as my head hit the pillow, which meant that I may have cut my stretching routine short... and now my calves are paying for it!
    So, onto today's topics. Since my camera is being a bozo and won't let me upload my pictures, I have resorted to google images for the next few days' blog pics. Werthers, you ask? I had never tried this candy before, but while grocery shopping over the weekend, I went on a sugar-free product-buying rampage and bought those along with Sugar-free maple syrup and Sugar-free chocolate sauce (syrup=delicious. chocolate sauce=horrendous). After eating like 5 in an hour, I quickly realized SUGAR FREE CARAMEL IS THE BOMB. I get seriously excited when I find this kind of stuff; you don't know how woeful it is to go from a life of desserts and chocolate to having to watch your sugar intake... zero fun. These things are now a total vice, and the coffee flavor is like heaven in a small, aluminum package.

Awkward Walgreens Experience: I go to buy tampons and pads, am waiting patiently in line and secretly jumping for joy that the checkout person is a girl and won't look at me funny for being in Walgreens at 8 o'clock buying feminine products in my pajamas, when I see the guy in front of me, who is paying for his purchases, eyeing me and my box of 45 Tampax Regulars. I quickly realize that HOLY POOOP IT'S THE FATHER OF MY BEST FRIEND FROM SEVENTH GRADE. Super. Awkward. We don't exchange any words, just another awkward glance, but I started laughing to myself at the hilarity of the situation. I probably looked like a loon, too, especially after I walked out of the store and literally burst out laughing, by myself in a suburban parking lot.

  In other news, I have a race on Sunday! A 5k, which you know I hate, but after talking to Coach SuperWoman, we decided we'd turn it into a tempo run and focus on negative mile splits and sprinting to the finish, something I am sure will be easy considering my college counselor is volunteering at the finish line!!!  Off to bed now. Oh yeah, IT'S SUPPOSED TO SNOW AGAIN. I am really liking these snow days. I get to sleep in between workouts and watch Paula Deen to my heart's content.

Throw Your Arms Up for POWERADE



This is me about 200 yeards from the finish line of my marathon. Notice the exhausted face? The legs that want to break off and go lie in a ditch somewhere? This people, is sort of how I feel right now.

Today was way better than yesterday; my track workout was super awesome, I had a delicious lunch that involved, you guessed it, a PB&J (technically, a PB&AB&A, aka peanut butter apple butter apple sandwich. Try it. Your life will be changed), and a ridiculous session on the elliptical in the afternoon that left my legs with that awful "parched" feeling in my muscles that means I should probably be chugging massive amounts of Powerade right now.
  Powerade? you ask? Well readers, I guess I should mention now that I am on a blood-pressure dieuretic to treat an unrelated condition (I don't have high blood pressure; on the contrary, I have what I consider bragging-rights BP: 100/50 ish), and because my dosage is really high and I sweat more than every man you have ever met (seriously. When I get back from a morning run and go upstairs to chat with my Mom while she reads the paper, she cringes a little at my general soppiness. It's okay, though; her cringing reminds me that I am probably just used to the sweat covering ever part of my body and that I should probably go shower so I don't freak out the dog), I have to really watch my salt intake. Except I am also really bad about this; Powerade is a bit strong for me sometimes, so I dilute it with water; this kind of cancels out its effects however, hence the parched feelings in my legs even though I had some of the purple goop this morning in my water bottle.
    Here was the workout for this morning:
2 mile warm-up with pickups
2x5 minutes at 7:55 pace with 2 minute EZ in between
2x3x2 minutes at 7:30 pace with 1 minute EZ in between
2 mile cool down.
 It felt AWESOME! It totally recharged my psyche (I sound like a nerd for saying that) and I felt totally ready to conquer my day and ignore the fact that the girl in my Spanish class was wearing the sweatshirt of the school that I got a you-sort-of-got-rejected-but-not-really from. The only way this day could possibly get better is...


They are the only ice-cream type place that I know of that has no-sugar added stuff for us insulin-resitant folk. White Macadamian Nut=best.flavor.everrrrrr.

   However, it is windier than Chicago outside right now and I am afraid my power is going to go out so I think it best to huddle inside with some rice pudding, my entire fridge full of fruit (frozen fruit is a godsend in the winter. Anyone else agree? Plus, blackberries are way cheaper in the frozen section), and watch some FOOD NETWORK. After I do my Stat homework, that is....

Rough Day

Snow. Needs. To. Go. Away. (This is actually a picture from 2 years' ago's fall; this years' is WAY MORE).

Today was rough. Last night, I found out I didn't get accepted for the fall semester of one of my schools (I got accepted for spring, but it is still a bummer, because that was my safety school...). Then I got up, dreading my track workout but knowing I needed to do it, but because it was a snow day, I thought oh hey I'll just do it at 9! or 11! or 1! or 2:30! Or never!!! Because at 4:00 I went to meet with my coach, who is basically SuperWoman, and told her I hated my track workouts and couldn't do them, especially not today. Today all I managed to do was some laundry, a little eating, some reading, and A LOT of sleeping. Remember my post about naps? Today involved major nappage.

    After talking to Coach SuperWoman, who has competed in countless Ironman's (including Kona! a personal dream of mine!), over 30 marathons, and probably more 5ks than me and all my 5 readers can count on our fingers and toes, I did feel much better (My pre-coach-meeting 5-miler with pickups also helped. 5 miles in 41:30!!). She is fantastic and totally understood my anxiety over my track workouts. Like me, she loathes 5k pace, which is what all the workouts were based on, because for the past month I have been thinking I was going to run on a team in college, so I wanted to increase my speed and decrease my mile and 2 mile times, but this is no longer my mindset (the college I wanted to run for ended up not being at all what I expected, and I also realized I kind of would rather not eat peanut butter for 2 years than have to only run 5ks all throughout college).

  We realized that I am way more of a 10-miler to half-marathon runner; I can hold a pretty strong pace for a long period of time and still have a kick at the end, but though I can usually place in my age group at 5ks, I feel like vomiting/breaking my legs off the whole time. I am so happy that I found my running niche!!
  
    Now, all my track workouts will be based on time, which is way more of a motivator for me than distance, and the fastest the intervals will be is at about 7:30, a totally doable, I-can-run-without-throwing-up-but-still-get-speedier pace. Anyone else besides me also sort of loathe 5ks? It stinks that almost all local events are that distance; what about us endurance people?!?!
    After the meeting, I headed to the gym for 20 minutes of elliptical intervals, some leg strengthening exercises, and a serious 1/2 mile or so in the pool. I was literally pouding away my frustration in the water; the residual shoulder and ab pain was totally worth it. I now feel almost too fatigued to be angry/sad... though I am not sure how well that will bode for the track workout I have tomorrow (because yes, even though I skipped today's, I am still going to get it done sooner or later).

Moral of today: It is okay to wallow for a bit, but never underestimate the restorative powers of exercise. Today was yet another occasion were I didn't want to run, and yeah, I was emotionally exhausted and wanted to cry like a baby when I got on the treadmill, but 41 and a half minutes later, I felt better. Not total back to normal, but better. I have never regretted a run, and today was no exception.

Following in Hungry Runner Girl's Footsteps: Three Tangent Tuesday!

So, here goes:

1. I HATE sleeping in. I would rather wake up at 5am and take a bunch of naps during the day than sleep in until 9. I know, weird, but I love naps, and I also love waking up before everyone else. I like how quiet my house is in the morning and how I can sit quietly at my kitchen table and eat my breakfast while looking out at my backyard.

My backyard! In the springtime. Because right now everything is covered in 1 foot of snow.

2. I once had blonde hair. Yes, I am a natural ginger, but there once was a time when I hated my hair and thought the only way my life would ever be awesome and people would like me would be when I had blonde hair. Two terrible highlighting jobs and one summer full of lifeguarding later, I died it back, since it got so whitish blonde that my family actually didn't recognize me when they drove past me running in the neighborhood. Also, red roots + bleached hair=not attractive. I have since learned to love ginger locks, and don't plan on ever dyeing them again, especially since there is still 2 inches of blonde left at the ends that make my hair look really healthy until your eyes drift down to my roots, where it gets scarecrow-like.


3. I HATE the cold. I love winter, but only for about 2 weeks, and then I really want spring and summer. I get ridiculously cold very easily, as in I wore my t-shirt and shorts almost all summer long while I was lifeguarding, even though the temperature was often above 90 degrees. Don't get me wrong, I am all for snow, Christmas, New Years, etc., but I really like the feeling in the summer of walking outside and being enveloped in warmth. Plus, running in the winter either requires massive amounts of time on the treadmill or massive amounts of laundry to clean all the layers I have to wear. I like being able to just lace up my shoes, throw on a tank and shorts, and go!