Weekly Wrap-Up: Home again (temporarily!)

It is so nice to be back home!
I got some much appreciated park time with these guys when I got home Sunday. 🙂

Last week, I had to travel out to Louisiana at the last minute to help my mother coordinate a lot of healthcare issues for my grandmother. It was exhausting, but I’m glad I was able to help move things along a bit. I confess it was also very motivating, in a weird way. My mother’s mother and her brother are both hospitalized with complications of diabetes and high blood pressure that have been drastically worsened by their poor self-care. Right now I am weirdly angry that they are dying and disabled due to treatable, manageable conditions – or what are frequently treatable conditions (I know there are always exceptions). Neither of them ate well, exercised or took their medications. Neither of them got proper medical care. Lots of reasons fed into that lack of care but a big part of it was not believing the seriousness of the conditions or the need for medical treatment. With diabetes and hypertension, you often feel just fine until your disease has progressed to a point where you’re suddenly having end-organ damage and failing. This gene pool is abysmal but it’s mine and it’s a big part of the reason I lost weight and cleaned up my diet in the first place. It’s the reason I looked at the DASH diet guidelines for hypertension again when I finally got home this weekend (here) and the reason I told myself that it didn’t matter how hard it was, I had to pull myself out of this hole of poor food choices. It’s the reason I set my alarm for 5:45 today to head out to run a bit for the first time in ages.

I am happy to report that I DID get in my long walk over the weekend. I walked 7.5 miles in the Dallas airport during my long layover Sunday morning.

I am less happy to report that as I did that in Crocs, I have a blister. 😦 With a 7 mile walk and a 7.5 mile walk behind me, I feel confident that I can get through a 10K and 5K in Cincinatti for Flying Pig weekend.

I’m particularly proud of myself for getting that walk in, even with the very real possibility I’m going to be missing that race weekend for a funeral. It was so tempting to skip the long workout between the fatigue and the lack of proper footwear if there’s a chance it’s all for “nothing” but I suspect that if I’d been just sitting in the airport for hours, I’d have made a lot of bad food and drink choices. Moving helped avoid that.

Goals for this week:

• Eat lots of fruits and veggies. (Specifically, 5 servings of each a day)
• Do two run/walk workouts. (More on that specific plan later!)
• Meditate daily. (I’m overwhelmed, to say the least with all of this family business)
• Get a 4 mile walk in over the weekend. (Sort of a taper walk, before next week’s races)

Travel fitness tip: Google your airport name and “healthy” or “fitness” to find ideas for healthy food or exercise options in the airport. In the DFW airport, there’s a 0.7 mile walking path in terminal D marked by mosaic tiles like the one I took a picture of above. There’s also a yoga space, with mats and yoga videos on the TV!

What’s your favorite travel fitness tip?

Thanks as always to Tricia and Holly for hosting the wrap up!

 

 

Trying out a 3-day “cleanse” from Cooking Light

You guys know I’m not into the kind of cleanses or detoxes where I drink shakes or completely avoid certain foods or only eat cabbage soup or anything like that, but I did try a “detox” recently: the 3 day detox from the December 2016 edition of Cooking Light (recipes here). It isn’t so much of a detox (thanks liver & kidneys for doing that every day!) as it is a diet reset to get healthy foods back in focus. After the holidays, the marathon and 4 days on a cruise ship, this was just what we needed!

– I loved that the planning was taken out of our hands. I didn’t have to think about what groceries to buy when we were still in that post-vacation, get back to work fugue state or planning a meal calendar. It was already done for us, which made it much easier to get back on track during the chaos of laundry, unpacking and peeling off our 5 year old who’d missed us more than he let on.

– Because the planning was done, we weren’t really making any choices which meant we weren’t making bad choices. Definite win!

– The focus was really just on nutritionally “good” foods, nothing exotic or woo-woo. Nothing was eliminated or avoided. We just ate lots of veggies and lean proteins, with some healthy whole grains and fruits thrown in.

– Great use of leftovers! One of my favorite things about this was how thoughtfully it was designed so that you used the leftovers in the subsequent days. Any time my prep work does double duty for future meals, it’s a win! I’m not great at this level of planning in my usual cooking, but this exercise has got me thinking more proactively about that in my meal planning now. In this menu, leftover pork was used in salad on a later day and leftover sweet potatoes in a hash. Simple but smart!

– Three days was the ideal length of time: Long enough to get us on the right track, not so long that we chafed at the restrictions or had trouble fitting in our schedule.

 – The recipes were delicious! I’ve kept the lunch quinoa toss in my rotation (and am planning it for next week!) and gained a new appreciation for how much a little lemon can jazz up dinner. Darrell still talks about how great the roasted sweet potatoes were, which is a simple thing but one we’d stopped doing for some reason.  He also really liked the spaghetti squash-shrimp recipe, even though he’s generally very anti-spaghetti squash. One note is that I usually doubled the amount of the protein, so that Darrell didn’t complain about the amount of food.

I think I’m going to adopt this approach as a routine part of our post-vacation planning from now on, to have a path to get us back to normal healthy eating and keep the vacation indulgences from creeping into every day. There are a few other menus like this on Cooking Light, so I’ll have several options to choose from.

Have you tried any similar “cleanse menus”? Love it or hate it? How long could you follow something like this?

 

Check out a couple of similar menus from Cooking Light here:

http://www.cookinglight.com/healthy-living/weight-loss/3-day-cleanse/get-healthy
http://www.cookinglight.com/healthy-living/weight-loss/meal-plan-for-weight-loss#

Weekly Wrap-Up: Still on the lupus learning curve . . .

For the most part, I forget about the lupus. Nowadays, I’m used to the constant ache and the fatigue. They’re just my baseline. Frankly, I suspect that’s the baseline of lots of overworked moms. And non-moms. I tend to forget the lessons I’ve learned about what tips things over into “noticeable” territory with lupus. Last week, I got reminded. I told you on Friday that I’d had a lot of food successes over the week with my work trip and that’s true. I made reasonable choices for the most part and came home feeling tired but successful.

Did I meet all of my goals? Nope – I didn’t get any runs in because I was just too tired and decided not to push it in this “warm up” week of my spring training. The social and professional networking at these meetings just drains me and I recognized that if I did too much, I’d set myself back more than those two runs were worth.

However, I apparently forgot about the wisdom of not overdoing things when I got home. I got home and immediately turned around to a day in which I had a 6:30 am meeting, work all day, lovely break for a facial in the afternoon (yay!) and then work all evening until I rushed out to grab dinner with Darrell for his birthday and then pick up O at parents night out. Oliver and I packed in a mad dash so we could leave early in the morning Saturday for Darrell’s birthday gift: a weekend to himself. Oliver and I left the house at 7 am Saturday morning and didn’t come back until 3 pm Sunday. I never actually unpacked from the work trip – just reloaded the bag with his stuff on top of mine. We had lots of great mother-son bonding time, including some pool time together, games, decorating a Valentine’s day box, food at our favorite places and movies cuddled in the hotel room bed. He wanted to sleep in the bed with me, which meant I got kicked and poked all night long (SPIDER MONKEY!). However, he seems like he’s in a much better place after that so it was worth the bad sleep (mostly). I need to make a conscious effort to have some one-on-one time when I get home from these work trips. Among other things, learning what he thinks is funny was incredibly enlightening. And entertaining.

Between the bad sleep and the fact that I somehow lost track of taking any of my lupus meds through this crazy Friday-Saturday-Sunday, I was in bad shape by Sunday night. Last week’s plan of four runs including back-to-back runs on the weekend? Ha. I did get in one run on Saturday, which felt good, but that was it. Oh, and that healthy eating on my work trip? Let’s not even talk about what happened over the weekend . . .

Now, I pick myself up, dust myself off and start again. It’s just the beginning on my training plan – screwing up the “warm up” week isn’t catastrophic so there’s no need to dwell on that. I refilled my pill box because I need those meds. I got some sleep. And some more sleep. I got back on my meditation pillow Monday morning. I ate whole, healthy foods all day yesterday. I ran hills today.

I am taking it one day at a time. I can’t beat myself up for last week. I just learn from it and move on. Also, lupus still sucks.

How was your week? What’s your favorite back-on-track workout? I really loved the hills this morning – you can squeeze in a hill workout even when time is short and feel like you got some quality work done before your day starts!

 

Thanks as always to Tricia and Holly for hosting our link up! Check out everyone else’s week (which were hopefully more successful than mine!)

Friday Five: Five wins for a crazy week!

This week has been sort of nuts, with travel for work, behavior problems for O at school (those two are related unfortunately) and a new chronic illness diagnosis is a family member causing some stress. All of these things will be fine, but these have also all set me up for lots of binging in the past. Even without binges, I’ve had lots of times over the last year where I would make bad choices in weeks like this, give up and say “I’ll start again next week.” This week, that didn’t happen!

• No french fries on my work trip! Poor french fries – they’ve come to embody the poor choices I’ve made in the last year, even though they are by NO means the only bad food choice I’ve made. However, they do seem to be the marker of “giving up on the healthy diet” for me. Thus, my biggest goal in eating during my travel was NO FRENCH FRIES and I succeeded. Woo hoo!
• I tried new healthy foods – and liked them! I had a fantastic savory oatmeal – which I’ll now be working into my breakfast rotation. I also got a fabulous salad in a jar from a vending machine in the Chicago Airport last night from Farmer’s Fridge (link FYI – no perks for me). It was delicious and fresh, very unlike my prior airport salad experiences.

• I drank one night – more than I should have – but didn’t give up on any of my other healthy choices. Win! I’m not the only introvert who uses alcohol to navigate professional networking, right?
• I resisted baked goods – lots of baked goods. Why are there always so many baked goods at conferences? Instead, I got healthy breakfasts each day. And lots of coffee.

• I’m handling my mom guilt over Oliver’s behaviors and the link to my travel (ugh) not with brownies, but with plans for lots of one on one time with my little man this weekend. Huge win since I do in fact have a pan of brownies at home.

What are your wins this week? Would you ever buy a jar of salad from an airport vending machine?

Thanks to Meranda, Lacey and Rachel for hosting Friday Five!

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Weekly Wrap-Up: Back in the saddle (finally!)

 

Can I say I’m back in the saddle when I’ve really only run once in the last few weeks? Sure I can – it’s Monday, so let’s aim for an optimistic note! Seriously, I took a nice LOOONNNGGG rest from the marathon and now it’s time to move again. It turns out that I sleep in and find excuses not to exercise if I’m not actively training for something. That alone makes race registrations worth it, right? Thankfully, this week starts a new training plan so I’m ready to go again.

I don’t have much to wrap up from last week, in terms of work outs but other goals are going well. I tore myself away from the news enough to run on Sunday. I cooked new foods including a keeper of a Greek chicken salad and that sushi salad I showed you a pic of earlier this week. I tracked my food all week and finished up a book on my shelf (Kitchens of the Great Midwest – interesting collection of intertwined stories). I also meditated every weekday, although weekends are still a struggle in that regard. Still, lots of wins for my goals for 2017 which is good amidst all of the chaos in our little world.

I’m traveling this week to DC for work. Work travel has been a bigger disrupter of my food and fitness plans over the last year than it has been in the past, so I’m outlining a clear set of goals for myself to help me stay on track.

– I have two workouts scheduled while I’m gone: a 3 mile easy run (Tuesday, after I arrive) and a speed workout (Thursday morning). Both can be done on the treadmill fairly readily and are thankfully short, so I have no excuse for missing them. It’s always fun to pack as much workout gear as work gear when I travel for business.

– I’ll be at a Marriott and while my meeting includes a continental breakfast, I will make the choice to get oatmeal and fruit as a healthier option from room service before I head down to the meeting. I don’t have to give in to pastries. I can take advantages of other options.

– I can still meditate in the morning and may even have the time to try out some longer meditations without my usual home duties.

Like I’ve done with travel in the past, I’m going to take advantage of real time accountability and post my food on Instagram. I used to be great about staying on track when I traveled, but for the last year have fallen into the well of french fries and pastries far too often! This will be especially important as I expect travel to be a little more chaotic than usual in and out of DC this week. Stress eating won’t fix anything.

This week marks the first week of my training plan for the Flying Pig weekend in May. I’m running the 5K and 10K at Flying Pig on Saturday, followed by the half marathon on Sunday. My primary goal is to support the amazing Meg through the hills of the first half of her marathon (as the courses overlap at the beginning). I’m going to use essentially the same training plan as I did for my back to back half marathons in the fall, with the addition of speed or hill work for one of the weekday workouts as I’ve really noticed the lack of that kind of workout in my running. I’ll definitely want to be ready for the hills that occur along that half marathon course!

Not much of a wrap up this week, but I promise next week will include actual running! I don’t even have any fun fitness or food related pics this week so I’ll leave you with this instead:

Thanks as always to Holly and Tricia for hosting our link-up!

Have you run Flying Pig? Leave me links to your recaps or advice on the course below! Also, Skyline Chili: Love or hate? I’ve never tried it but think that’s probably going to be part of the visit.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: Cruising to Recovery

Nothing like returning from this:

To an ice storm in Omaha that has us stuck inside for goodness knows how long. The whole city is essentially shut down today and they’ve already cancelled O’s school for tomorrow. Gotta love winter – although give me snow any day over this ice nonsense!

Last week was all about recovering from the marathon and enjoying my first real kidless vacation since Oliver was born and not so much about workouts, so there won’t be much workout recapping this week. Mostly, I walked gently and slowly around the cruise ship and looked funny every time I got out of a chair for the week. The only workout I did was the 5K on Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island, on Wednesday. Wow did that hurt! A full recap is coming, in case they continue doing these challenges and anyone else wants to know how it works, but for now I will just say that it was the most painful 5K of my life. Turns out, even if your legs are feeling good enough to walk and take the stairs, running (even at turtle pace) two days after your first marathon HURTS.

However, that Castaway Challenge medal is gorgeous so it’s worth it, right? Right. I spent the week eating and drinking too much, reading (LOTS of reading!) and taking naps. It was glorious!

Now, I’m back in the real world. I’m ready to get back to moving, even if I’m not training for anything or doing anything strenuous for a while. I’m planning on at least 150 minutes of exercise this week, with some walks (once the ice clears!), yoga and maybe hopping on the exercise bike.

We’re also getting ourselves back on regular eating after the cruise. In January’s Cooking Light, there was a 3 day reset menu that has been a lifesaver for these first few days back home! It feels good to get back to healthier eating (for me anyway – Darrell caved after less than a day). After that cruise, I don’t need any desserts or alcohol for the rest of the month. 🙂

After all of my stressing, Oliver did great without us for a week! I think he’s enjoying this ice storm though, and getting lots of extra Mom & Dad time to make up for us being gone. I suspect part of the reason he didn’t miss us is that Nana had a scavenger hunt with a new present for him every day after school. Nana’s are meant for spoiling, right?

I promise next week I’ll more fitness to report! I’m working on my marathon recap, to post later this week, and on the Castaway Challenge details.

Thanks as always to Tricia and Holly for hosting our link-up!

How did you ease back into workouts after your first big athletic endeavor? I only took a week off running after the back-to-back half marathons this fall, but think the marathon deserves at little more than that. That doesn’t mean I can’t move in other ways though!

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Racecations verus Local Weekend Warrior?

I’m really entertained at the timing of this week’s Tuesday’s on the Run topic as I am on a racecation as this posts. Clearly I’m a fan of “racecations”!

Thanks as always to Patty, Marcia and Erika for hosting our link-up!

As someone who enjoys Disney races and doesn’t live in Florida or California, racecations are a necessary part of my running life. I tend to do a couple of travel races a year, including my annual drive over to Des Moines and the occasional flight to other races. Even though I have the luxury of being able to afford these trips, costs add up and so I avoid going too often. Between flights, hotels, food and race registration, things get expensive fast! However, the occasional racecation is worth the investment for me for a couple of reasons:

⁃       Making the race a big event can be very motivating! Honestly, I don’t know if I’d be able to mentally motivate myself to run for 6 hours around Omaha. The appeal of making it an event and of running from park to park was so helpful! It also helped that I was coming back to the site of success with my first half marathon (Princess Half Marathon at Disney in 2014).

I didn’t get in line for the official photo in front of the castle, but there were photographers catching us in movement too (and videos!)

⁃       Getting away from day to day responsibilities can make it easier to rest mentally and physically before the race. At home, I’d be running errands, doing chores and working up to the last moment.

There are disadvantages too, beyond the cost.

⁃       You’ve got to have everything with you because there’s no running back home for something at the last minute.
⁃       You lose the chance to practice on the course itself, which can be really helpful so that you know what to expect.
⁃       You have to resist the urge to play tourist and tire yourself out before the race. That’s a particular risk with Disney races!

A nice hybrid option I use a lot is to look for races anywhere I’m traveling (like the Jazz Half Marathon this fall). If I’m going somewhere for work or family, might as well take the chance to try a new race while I’m out there anyway. Google your location and dates or check out the running club in the town you’re visiting to find options.

Local races on the weekend have their own charms, beyond being cheaper and more convenient. I’ve found new running trails and met other people in the Omaha running community. A mix of both local and travel races works best for me right now, but who knows what the future will bring. Maybe I’ll be a little old lady with a RV and a full racecation schedule in my retirement. 🙂

Which do you prefer: racecations or running local weekend races?

Weekly Wrap-Up: Thanksgiving (and 18 miles!) survived!

As much as I love visiting family and all of the other stuff that goes along with Thanksgiving, it does feel a bit like something you survive, doesn’t it? Thankfully, we had smooth and easy travel (a holiday miracle!) and Oliver loved getting to see his family. It may take my stomach a little longer to recover from all of the unhealthy food and my body longer to catch up on sleep, but it was worth it.

We decorated gingerbread men at my sister’s house and started putting up holiday decorations here at our house, so it’s definitely starting to feel  like Christmas. This is a time of year where we just fly from one “big thing” to another. Throwing a couple of really big runs in there as I finish up marathon training (5 1/2 weeks until the race!) definitely adds to the schedule. Thankfully I was able to shuffle my schedule around to get my 18 miler done in the midst of Thanksgiving chaos, so now I just have a 20 miler to go. It still sort of blows my mind that 18 and 20  mile runs have become part of my workout dialog!

Workouts

Monday Rest day, with just some walking. I did 12 miles on Sunday and knew I had 18 miles coming Tuesday, so I took it easy Monday and just tried to stretch things out.

Tuesday 18 miles, with awful weather. I took off a couple of hours early on Tuesday so I could do my 18 miles before the Thanksgiving holiday. While you’d think a 4 day weekend would make it easier to get a long run done, it really didn’t in my case since we were traveling. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy. Even walking across campus in the cold and rain earlier in the day made my poor hands get sore and swollen, which was definitely concerning. Stupid lupus. I spent the whole day watching the weather and trying to decide what to do. When I got home, it was drizzly but not awful so I got dressed to head outside. I opened the door, hit the sidewalk and the sky opened up. It was raining so hard you couldn’t see. Sigh. I gave up. There are definitely perks to running in the rain (especially since this could happen on race day), but it would be a safety risk to run in visibility that bad and the damp and cold would flare my lupus so much I’d be useless the rest of the week. I didn’t have time to wait for it to clear, so I headed in to change and hit the gym. I decided to commit to only listening to my audiobook, like I would on a normal long run, rather than watching a movie, to at least replicate the mental aspect of 18 miles outside. I ran 17 miles on a treadmill you guys. It’s amazing what happens when you just keep going (and when your gym has enough treadmills so no one minds you tying one up for hours). I did my run / walk intervals I’d use on the road, fueled like I would  on the road and took the opportunity to test out the new tank I’m considering for race day assuming Florida is warm. I also maintained a pace about a minute faster than my 15 and 16 mile long runs had been, which was ego soothing. I stopped at 17 miles to go home to give Oliver hugs and kisses for bedtime. I feel like I deserve an extra medal for heading back out in the rain after than 30 minute break to get that last mile – and even more so for running it rather than just walking it to finish my miles for the day! I won’t lie – after stopping for a little time in the car, I was stiff, but I did it! Thank goodness it was dark and rainy and no one could see my shuffling. 🙂

Wednesday Amazingly, I felt fine! My body has held up well to these long runs. I was only occasionally stiff if I sat for very long. Lots of walking today, with work and packing, that ended up in a pleasantly uneventful flight down to Houston. I was a naughty mom and took the opportunity to upgrade for first class for free, leaving Darrell and Oliver in coach. 😉

Thursday My goal for today (well, my running goal – eating goals got kind of blown out of the water) was to get in my 9 miles in the afternoon. I knew the odds of getting in all 3 runs left on this week’s training schedule (4, 5, 9 miles) were slim during this trip because of family activities, but I wanted to get the 9 done if nothing else. I headed out in the afternoon to run through my sister’s suburb and was immediately reminded of why I enjoy the holidays so much in the Midwest. Houston is still green, warm and muggy!

Darrell said my mother was very worried the whole time I was gone and kept asking if it was normal for me to be out alone so long. She called me around 8.5 miles and I had to promise her that I was okay and on my way back. I can’t imagine how she’d have handled me being gone for 18 miles.

Friday – Sunday Know how I said I doubted I’d get all three runs in? That definitely turned out to be true. The 4 and 5 mile runs never happened. I have been really good this cycle about the long weekend runs, but definitely less diligent with the weekday runs! However, I did loads of walking and other activities that definitely count as workouts.

I’m grateful for safe travels and as much as I made some not-great food choices over Thanksgiving, my NSV is evident in the amount of not-worth-it foods I left on my plate. I love my family, but they’re definitely a binge trigger for me so not eating all-the-things is a big win.

This week, I’m on call so I’ve built it into my training plan as a do-what-you-can week. I was at work for 13 hours yesterday and worked more at home, so workouts get tough in these weeks. My goal is 10,000 steps a day and 10 flights of stairs a day, even if I can’t get in runs. There’s also no excuse not to fit in at least a little strength training and yoga in the mornings as well before I enter the last stretch of marathon training. I have two weeks left of marathon training (12 miles, 20 miles) before taper, crazy as that seems!

While I probably won’t get a lot of workout time this week, there’s no excuse for not getting back on a better diet track now that Thanksgiving is behind us. I have a bunch of holiday parties this month, but I find it easier to stay on track through a bunch of parties so long as I have my normal home diet in between. Getting back on track will be enough of a goal during this busy week!

Thanks as always to Holly and Tricia for hosting our link-up!

Did you have a good holiday weekend? Anyone else still feel a little hungover from Thanksgiving food?

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Weekly Wrap Up: Resetting after a crazy week

I know I’m not the only one who had a chaotic week. Between the election and traveling to DC for week (wow was that bad timing!), it was rough and we’ll just leave it at that. Lack of sleep and stress meant some bad food choices, lackluster strength training and one missed run. On the bright side (and the only NSV I can think of at the moment), today is a new day.

Workouts

Monday This was supposed to be a rest day but I woke up antsy thanks to the impending travel and election, so I went out for a walk anyway. One thing about getting into more serious training is that it always leaves me feeling like I need to start each day with a workout – definitely a win!

Tuesday I woke up early to run my 4 miles before my long day of travel. Good plan as I was utterly exhausted by the time I finally got settled in Bethesda for my meeting! I was flying into Reagan airport but we got diverted because there were too many VIPs trying to land. We settled at Dulles for about an hour before making the less than 10 minute flight over to Reagan. Nuts!

Wednesday I am very proud of myself for waking up to run 4 miles on the treadmill before my meeting started, despite being up until 2 am watching election results. Of course, after a few hours of sleep and a day of meetings, I couldn’t make myself head back out in the evening to get in the other 4 miles for my scheduled 8. I passed out on the bed at 8 pm and didn’t move again until 6 am. Sometimes sleep wins and that’s okay (especially with lupus!).

Thursday I may have slept through any chance to run in the morning, but that didn’t stop me from taking a walk during lunch. It was nice to head out through the trees and decompress. This meeting was packed with new information and lots of networking, so introverted little old me was drained. I flew home after the meeting finished that day and ended up getting back to my house after midnight. LONG day!

Friday A well deserved rest day, with nothing but catching up with my family. We all three have colds, so snuggling together seemed like the best recovery.

Saturday Oliver and I went on a walk and did some strength training together. We also got tons of work done around the house. I took the stairs SO many times putting up Halloween decorations! I think that might be why my knees were achy on Sunday before my run.

We also gathered up and cataloged a ton of stuff for Goodwill. My good deed this week was teaching Oliver about why we donate things instead of throwing them away and all of the different ways we can and should give back.

Sunday 16 miles! My workout week may have felt a little lackluster, with a missed 8 miler and short walks for cross training, but I was determined to get my 16 miles done in one fell swoop and I did it! I was slow – man am I feeling this extra weight! – but I kept going. I definitely have the mental strength to finish 26.2 miles and that’s a pretty amazing thing to realize! I was tired and sore at the end (and grateful to be finished) but also knew I could keep putting one foot in front of the other if I needed to. Win!

I got a knotted up muscle along my outer shins, especially on the left, which Darrell oh-so-kindly massaged for me while we were watching Once Upon a Time. I am so grateful for that man I married. 🙂 I haven’t had trouble with shin splints since I first started running and I suspect the fact that I’m putting more pressure on my legs since I’ve gained weight is part of the problem. I’ve looked up some preventative exercises, in terms of stretches and strength exercises, to help things out and will check out the age of my shoes to be sure that isn’t a problem. I may also need to make the effort to drive over to the park to run most of the long runs, as it is a lot flatter there, rather than running in the hillier areas between my house and the park. Walt Disney World is fairly (although not completely) flat so training on flat surfaces might be good in general.

This week, I’m resolving to be more proactive about my strength training and about that midweek long-ish run. The reality is, I only have a few more weeks of doing this (eek!) so I can buckle down and make it happen. I NEED to if I don’t want to have a miserable race experience in January.

Thanks as always to Holly and Tricia for hosting our link up!

What’s your weirdest flight experience? A less than 10 minute flight might be my oddest experience to date. It felt like such a waste!

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Weekly Wrap-Up: New Orleans

I’m still recovering from a week in New Orleans, so this week’s wrap up is a day late. Thanks as always to Tricia and Holly for hosting our link up!

I spent most of last week in New Orleans, which meant I ate lots of delicious (but unhealthy) food and drank more than usual. I still feel thirsty after a week of too much coffee and alcohol and not enough water. It feels good to get back to normal now that I’m home, with veggies and water. Hopefully, by the end of the week I’ll feel less tired and bloated. As delicious as all of that food and drink was, it definitely highlighted how much better I feel when I eat healthier food.

Workouts for the week were pretty good. I ran on all of the days I was scheduled to run, which is a win, although there were some days I ran fewer miles than I was supposed to just because of scheduling. I walked MILES every day (and always had the sore legs to show for it) so I feel okay with shorting mileage a bit.

Workouts

Monday Rest day!

Tuesday I woke up early for 3 miles, because I thought (correctly) that I’d be too tired from traveling by the time I finally got to New Orleans to put the run off until evening.

Wednesday 7 miles on the schedule, but I only ran 3. I did lots of walking (over 18,000 steps every day this trip) since my hotel was 3/4 mile away from the convention center and the convention center itself is at least half a mile long!

It was nice to watch the sun rise over the river.

Thursday Another 3 miles (treadmill this time) that should have been 4, with many miles of walking.

Friday Guess what? More miles of walking. New Orleans is really good for that.

Saturday I ran the Jazz Half Marathon for my long run this week. It was scheduled to be a ten mile long run, but I opted for the half marathon so I didn’t have to worry about where to find ten miles to run in the city. It was a much smaller crowd in the race than I was expecting, but a great course through town. I’ll have more on the race later this week, but I highly recommend using races as training runs when you’re traveling. Very convenient!

Sunday This was cross training on the schedule, which ended up being a walk around the French Quarter for shopping after beignets, plus lots of airport walking.

I’m grateful for lots of time with old friends during this trip, which was great. I met up with one of my Lovely Ladies Losing It online friends, as well as friends from prior places I’ve trained and worked. I got to show some old friends around New Orleans, including an adventure on the trolley where our driver stopped mid-trolley ride to run into Subway for a few minutes. It was very funny, especially during those first few moments after he got off where we were wondering what he was doing and how far back we were going to roll before the trolley stopped.

My NSV this week is the fact that I never gave in to my tired legs and rode the bus. There were buses between the hotel and the convention center, but I made a commitment to walk each day to make up for the missed running miles and to balance (a bit) the rich food I ate. By the end of the trip, the bus was tempting but I got my walking in! There was actually a step challenge for this meeting, where we self-reported our steps each day into an app. I ended up in the top ten step-getters for the meeting!

All in all, it was a good trip but I’m glad to be home. My long run this week is 15 miles, which will be my longest run ever!!! That makes me feel like I’m really training for a marathon. Yikes!

Running this morning, my legs felt tight. I can definitely feel those walking miles in New Orleans and the three half marathons I’ve run in the last few weeks. Tonight, we have a family date for stretching and strength training. I have a feeling the next two months of marathon training are going to be a whole family adventure.

I’m traveling again next week (Bethesda, Maryland) so I’m glad I’ve got this week here at home with my guys. I’m afraid to step on the scale this week to see how much damage I did in New Orleans, so I’m just going to focus on healthy eating this week to get back on track before I travel again. I’m stuck in a hotel for two days of meeting in Bethesda, so the food should be less of a derailment next week.

What did you do with your leftover Halloween candy today? I had fewer trick or treaters than I expected, so I have a ton of candy. I brought it into my office to stock the candy drawer, but may instead take it to one of local shelters where they give a piece of candy to the kids with lunch each day. That seems like a better use of leftover candy than feeding graduate students. 🙂

 

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