Dinner at La Pita

Dinner last night was fantastic! Jerry and I had a "date night", so we decided to either do dinner at La Pita or go to the movies to see Mockingjay. La Pita sounded so good, and we hadn't been there in a long time, so we opted for La Pita. (I suppose we could have done both, but we are getting old--we don't stay out late anymore!)

I wasn't sure what I was going to order, but I ended up getting a new-to-me dish called Ghalaba. The description on the menu was: sautéed carrots, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and green peppers, served with rice". I love sautéed vegetables, and La Pita's rice pilaf is awesome, so it sounded really good to me. I got a salad to start--I had planned to only eat half of it, but it was so good I ate it all.

I was hungry, and it was hard not to eat the deep-fried pita chips that they put in front of us while we waited for our food! When the food came, it smelled delicious.

The rice portion was HUGE--I estimated 2 cups of rice total, so I just divided it in half (I only planned to eat 1 cup, which is 7 PP). The Ghalaba was amazing--I don't know what they seasoned the veggies with, but it was really good. I estimated that it was 7 PP (veggies are 0, but they were sautéed in oil).

I also ate one small pita (2 PP) and a smear of Jerry's hummus (1 PP). I counted the salad as 3 PP, so the whole meal ended up being about 20 PP. Totally worth it! I love that no matter what I order at La Pita, I never feel gross when I leave there. The food is all healthy (well, maybe not the deep fried pita chips!).

The kids love hummus, so I ordered a large side of hummus to go.

It came with five large pita breads, so for dinner tonight, I made a mock version of La Pita's Chicken Tawook wrap. Chunks of chicken breast, pickles, and hummus, wrapped in a large, thin pita--it sounds really strange, but the ingredients go together so well! The pickles just seemed so odd when I saw it on their menu, but they are definitely necessary. I ordered it once when I was at La Pita, and I never would have thought I'd have liked it that much.

Anyway, here is my food log from yesterday:

Today was a rest day, and I spent it being completely lazy. I didn't even change out of my pajamas until around noon, and then Jerry and I decided to work on a puzzle I'd gotten several months ago.

We learned that Jerry is terrible at puzzles, haha! He was getting so frustrated, while I thought it was almost therapeutic. I didn't even eat an afternoon snack, even though I was hungry, because I didn't want to stop working on it. I haven't done a puzzle since I was a kid, but I really like it! This is a tough one, and right now, I only have the edges and the bottom left quarter of the puzzle done. Maybe I'll finish it up tomorrow, after my long run. Twelve miles on the schedule! Tonight, we're having a movie night with the kids.

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Almonds

Sticking with my goal of posting my food log every day this month, here is my food log from yesterday:

The tuna with Dill Triscuits was SO good. I used to eat that pretty often for lunch, but hadn't had it in a while. I would probably eat tuna every day for lunch if I weren't worried about the mercury warnings!

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I was kind of looking forward to my run today--four miles at an easy pace. For the past few months, I've really been focusing on doing my easy runs at a truly easy pace (the way they're meant to be run), and it makes the easy runs much more enjoyable. The weather was decent today, too--36 degrees and no wind.

I was a little bit cold for the first mile, but after that, I felt really good. I'm starting to really get the hang of the rhythmic breathing technique that I learned from Budd Coates (he describes it in detail in his book, Running On Air). Inhale for three steps, exhale for two. I'm getting to the point where I can do it without even thinking about it. Today, I just focused on the rhythmic breathing to try to keep a steady, easy pace. I was surprised to see how close my splits were when I was done!

The first and fourth mile were only one-tenth of a second apart; and miles two and three were identical down to the tenth of a second. Being a numbers-person, I found that really interesting! Anyway, it was a nice run this morning.

After a shower and some tea, I headed out to Victoria's Secret and Sam's Club. I had a free panty coupon for VS that was going to expire soon, so I wanted to use it. I needed a couple of things from Sam's Club, so I went there while I was out that way.

I wanted to get some more almonds, but those can be a binge-trigger for me. I've been doing well with tracking my food, but I ended up getting the single serving bags of almonds. Normally, when I eat almonds as a snack, I'll measure out 1 ounce, which is 5 PointsPlus. The single serving bags are 1.5 ounces, which is 7 PointsPlus. I never buy the single servings because 7 PP is a lot to spend on a tiny handful of almonds!

Since I tend to overeat them when there is a big bag in the pantry (I might grab a handful a couple of times a day without really considering how many extra calories that adds up to), I thought it may be worth it to just get the single serving bags. This way, I can't just grab a handful; I'll have to open a little pouch, knowing that the contents are 7 PP. It's more PP than I would like to spend on them, but I think it may work out better that way. (Now, if only they sold my beloved dried cherries in single-serving pouches, I'd be all set!)

Well, I've got to get ready to go out tonight. Jerry and I are having a date night, and we decided to go to La Pita. It's been a long time since I've been there! I haven't decided what I'm going to get yet, but I'm going to log it and stay on plan. Warm pita bread sounds so good right now!

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13 Going on 30

First up, yesterday's food log:

I know that my diet is far from perfect, but the reason I chose to post my food logs this month is for the accountability of tracking over the holidays. I'm going to have some good days, and probably some really not-so-good days as far as my diet goes, but my goal is just to track it no matter what--good or bad. The accountability of tracking helps me not to grab a handful of almonds here, or lick the peanut butter knife there. I know there are lots of things I could do better, but this month, my main goal is accountability.

I recently reactivated my Active Link, which is why I earned an Activity PP on a rest day. I always go back and forth with the Active Link; on one hand, I love that it pushes me to be more active outside of my running, but on the other hand, I think it gives me too many Activity PP. I'm going to use it this month, just to see what happens.

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Today, I had 3 miles at a hard effort on the schedule. Lately, a hard effort has been anything under 9:00/mile, so that was my goal. When I walked Noah to the bus stop, it was really cold outside, and I thought for sure I wanted to run on the treadmill. But then after walking back home, I realized it wouldn't be so bad, and it was only 3 miles. Last winter kind of turned me into a big baby about the cold! I used to love temps in the 20's for running.

I decided on my favorite three-mile route, and then headed out in Cold Gear and a fleece jacket. I always feel nervous about running at a hard effort for some reason. It's not like anyone is going to care if I don't hit my goal of sub-9:00's, but I get nervous just the same.

The first half-mile, I felt pretty good, and thought, "I can do this!" But it got hard after that. I wanted to slow down, but I knew I could make it three miles at that pace. I think the problem may have been that I hadn't eaten breakfast before my run. A couple of years ago, I would always run on an empty stomach, and I really preferred that. Then, I started marathon training, so I would eat breakfast before running. And I must have just gotten used to it. Since I was going to be running hard today, I thought I'd wait until I got home to eat; but I probably could have used some carbs beforehand.

Miles one and two were almost identical in pace--8:46.5 and 8:46.8. I started slowing down at the beginning of the third mile, and saw 8:50 on my watch. Then I tried hard to bump it up a little, and managed to pull off 8:32. I took a walk around the block to cool down a bit and catch my breath. It was a tough run, but it felt SO good when I was done! I always love the way I feel after a run at a particularly hard effort.

It feels really good to hit some running goals again! I felt like I was just getting slower and slower all year, which was deflating my confidence in running; but with a little effort, I'm getting better. And it's fun to start dreaming big with my goals again.

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This afternoon, I made some tea and somehow got caught up in a movie on Lifetime Movie Network: 13 Going on 30. I had meant to sit down and read, but with the movie playing, I ended up watching the movie and then reading my book through the commercials.

I was reading "It Was Me All Along", a memoir by blogger Andie Mitchell (mine is a galley copy, but it will be released publicly in January). I'm sure I'll write more about the book once I finish (love it so far!), but it was kind of freaky at one point--I was reading along, and Andie mentioned the movie 13 Going on 30 in the book as I was watching the movie (I had never heard of this movie prior to today). Quite the coincidence!

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Well, I've got to research some German desserts! Noah brought home a paper from school yesterday asking if I can send in a German dessert (because our background is German, the kids are writing reports on their backgrounds). I'm clueless as to what desserts are German, so this should be interesting ;)

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Dates

I never knew that dates (the fruit) could be so complicated! After my post yesterday, there was quite the discussion about whether they were fresh or dried, or if they contained Weight Watchers PointsPlus or not. It was interesting, and prompted me to learn a little more about dates.

The reason I counted them as 0 PP is because according to Weight Watchers, fresh dates are 0 PP; and dried dates are 4 PP (for only 2 dates!). The dates that I bought were labeled as "fresh", but apparently there are different types of fresh dates: soft, semi-soft, or dry. And get this--the "dry fresh" dates are NOT the same as "dried" dates. If that's not confusing, well, I don't know what is! But after typing in "medjool dates" on the Weight Watchers app, low and behold, they are listed as 4 PP for 2 dates. So I guess the medjool dates are a different category from "fresh dates" and aren't included with the 0 PP fruits.

I ate a lot of dates when I was doing really well with my weight loss/maintenance in 2012-2013, and I always counted them as 0 PP. But, that said, I only ate 1-2 per day at most (that I can remember, anyway). If I had been eating several of them each day, there may have been a problem. But for now, I think I'll just count them as 0 PP, as long as I only have 1-2 per day. If I had to count them as 2 PP each, there is no way I'd choose them over something that's pure junk. I like dates, but they aren't worth 2 PP each!

That said, here is my food log from yesterday:

Today was a rest day. I ended up going to Target to get a couple of Christmas presents, and while I was there, I bought an electric kettle. I've wanted one of these for about 10 years, but just never got around to buying one. I make tea so much now that it was worth it to buy one.

I'm not sure if there is any advantage to having that over my stovetop kettle, but I tried it today when I made some tea, and I really like it. Noah likes to make tea for me, and the electric kettle seems safer (and it certainly pours better).

I finally got around to cooking our turkey today. Jerry's employer gives all of the employees a frozen turkey for Thanksgiving; the only problem is, we only get it two days before Thanksgiving, so it's never thawed in time. I've had this turkey in the fridge since last Tuesday, and it was still partially frozen this morning. I was tired of it taking up half the fridge, so I ran it under warm water for a few minutes thaw it out.

I've only cooked a turkey a few times in my life (we usually give it to my parents), so I don't really know much about cooking them (the first time I made one, I left the bag of innards inside! hahaha). I roasted it for four and a half hours. And then at the last minute, I realized I should probably make a couple of side dishes (I'm so used to making one-pot meals that I rarely make sides). I quickly made some mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, and corn. Then I realized I had no gravy, so I made homemade gravy for the first time in my life. It all happened so fast, and then it looked like a tornado went through my kitchen. But the food was good! The kids were very impressed with my gravy ;)

I spent more time cleaning up my kitchen mess than I had making it, and now I'm really looking forward to sitting down with a glass of wine (and Breaking Bad) tonight!

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Food logging

First, the winner of the Eddie Bauer $100 gift card giveaway is... Erica Cook! I've sent you an email, Erica. Hope you have fun spending your gift card :) Thanks to everyone who entered!

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As promised, I am posting my food log from yesterday:

It's kind of interesting how easy it was to stay on track when I knew I was going to be posting it! ;)

I ran a few miles in the morning at a really easy pace, and it felt fantastic. I didn't look at my Garmin at all, and just let my mind wander, and I felt really good the entire time. I expected my pace to be in the 11:00's, but it ended up being 10:12 average (my heart rate was low, at 141). I hope that means my easy pace is getting easier and I'm starting to get faster? We'll see.

Today, I had intervals on the schedule: 6 x 400's. It was cold and windy this morning, and I really just wanted to do the intervals on the treadmill. I ran a quarter mile at 6.0 mph (10:00/mi pace) to warm up, but I noticed my Garmin was reading 9:00/mile. I stopped the treadmill to figure out what the deal was, and somehow the foot pod calibration had reset to 103.9% (it should have been at 93.9%). So after changing it back to 93.9%, it matched the reading on the treadmill.

I ran another quarter mile at 6.0, and then for my intervals, I decided to do 8.0 mph. In between, I jogged a quarter mile recovery at 5.5 mph. I think the 8.0 was perfect--not so hard that I wanted to die, but not easy. Next time I may try 8.1 or 8.2. I did 6 repeats, and then jogged a quarter mile to cool down. In the end, the workout looked like this:

The random drop in pace at the beginning was when
I hopped off the treadmill to turn on the fan

I've been craving steel cut oats lately, but they are such a pain in the ass to make, that I haven't made them. You may remember all of my steel cut oats incidents from the past--they either burn, or undercook, or overflow, or anything else that could possibly go wrong. Then I finally learned to cook them to where they are perfect, but they take forever. So last night, I went to Kroger to buy some, and then put them on the stove to cook while Jerry and I watched Breaking Bad (I'm watching it for the second time with him, because he'd never seen it; we're on Season 3). It took about an hour, but I had four servings of the oats to keep in the fridge for breakfast this week.

While I was at Kroger yesterday, I noticed that they have medjool dates again! I love dates, but I haven't been able to find them for a couple of years. I bought some, and today I split a couple of them open and spread them with a tiny bit of peanut butter. The dates are 0 PointsPlus, and the amount of peanut butter I used was only 1 PP total. A good snack!

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My brother, Nathan, and I signed up for a race on December 14th. It's the Santa Hustle Half-Marathon at Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio.

It's kind of far to drive--1.5 hours--but I really wanted to do it. I think it'll be fun to run around the park when all the rides are shut down for the winter. I'm hoping for good weather! If the weather cooperates (no ice or snow), then I'm going to shoot for sub-2:03. According to the McMillen Calculator, and based on the 10K I just ran, I should be able to do a half in 2:02:52 (a 9:23/mi pace). But I would be happy with anything faster than the Monroe Half I did last month (2:08-something). Anyway, we're not staying the night down there, so we'll just have to get up and out the door early in order to get there on time. It looks like a fun race! Anyone else doing it?

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Motivational Monday #89

Happy Motivational Monday! I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I'm really proud of myself for the way I handled it. I made a plan, and I stuck to the plan, which is exactly what I did on holidays when I was losing the weight a few years ago. I did the Turkey Trot 10K and 5K in the morning, and then for dinner, I just ate what I really wanted (sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and corn). I don't love turkey (or any meat for that matter), so I didn't let myself feel like I had to have some just because it was Thanksgiving. I was very happy with my dinner.

I calculated the PointsPlus in the pecan pie I made, and was completely shocked to see that it's 16 PP per slice (1/8 of the pie)! That is just crazy to me. But I do love pecan pie, and I'd earned a LOT of extra points during the Turkey Trot, so I ate a piece for dessert--and it was delicious! Worth every mile I ran that morning ;)

I think my proudest moment of the week, though, was finishing the 10K in 55:07--even though it wasn't my goal time (missed it by 7 seconds!), I thought it was a lofty goal to begin with, so I am really happy to have been able to come that close. It had been a long time since I ran 6+ miles at a sub-9:00 pace!

(I know I said I would post my food log all month, and I will! I'm just going to post it on the following day, so that it's complete. Tomorrow, I'll post today's log.)

I was expecting my inbox to be flooded with Motivational Monday emails this week because of all the Turkey Trotters; but it turns out this will be a short but sweet MM. Enjoy!

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Dana just completed her first 5K! She's been working on losing weight (her goal is to lose 100 pounds total), and she just recently hit the 30-pounds lost milestone. She signed up for a Turkey Trot, and set a goal to finish under 50 minutes. She worked hard, walking faster than she thought her legs could even carry her, but she crossed the finish line in 49:29! She was inspired to set a goal to start running :)

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On November 1st, Celeste set a pretty hefty goal for herself: to run or walk 100 miles for the month of November. As of yesterday, she was at 97 miles, so in the eleventh hour, she ran 3.1 miles to bring her total to 100.1! Celeste has been maintaining a 60-pound weight loss for 5 years now. (Celeste's blog)

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Don't forget to check out more stories on the Motivational Monday Facebook post!

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Half-Marathon line-up for 2015

Ever since the last couple of races I've run (the Monroe Half and then the Turkey Trot 10K), I've been thinking of pretty much nothing but racing. I took almost all of 2014 off of racing (the races I did were just for fun, so I wasn't really pushing myself), and running the last couple of races hard felt SO good. It made me want to set all sorts of goals and do a lot of racing next year.

I was toying with the idea of running a half-marathon each month for 2015, so yesterday, I found all the half's that I want to do, and I'm "officially" setting that goal. Here is my half-marathon-per-month plan (which could always change, of course; I'm only actually registered for two of these right now):

January: Rock 'n' Roll Arizona (my friend Sarah and I were born 3 days apart, and she lives in Phoenix. She thought it would be fun for us to do this half for our birthdays this year. She doesn't run, so we're going to walk it.)
February: Ice Cube Half Marathon
March: Rock CF Half
April: Martian Half
May: Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon (with my Sole Mates!)
June: Lake Cadillac Team Marathon Half
July: Hungry Duck Half
August: Boy Scout Half
September: Brooksie Way Half
October: Heroes on Hines Half
November: Monroe Half
December: Santa Hustle Half

A few of these races are more than a short drive away, so I was thinking that Jerry and I could take the kids and make a short weekend trip out of those ones. Since we went on a big vacation this year to Punta Cana, we don't have plans of a big vacation in 2015; it might be fun to go on a few weekend trips instead. When the kids went with us to Cleveland for my first marathon, they had a blast, and they talked about Melt Bar & Grilled for two years after that ;)

I'm hoping that by May, I'll be under 2:00 for my half marathon time. And then maybe by the end of next year, I'll be able to set a new PR (currently, my PR is 1:52:07). Yesterday, I wrote up a year's training plan to include the races. Instead of alternating between tempo runs, interval runs, and hills, I decided to include the tempo runs in with the long runs (for example, I might run 10 miles for my long run with 4 of those miles at goal race pace); and then on another day, I'll alternate each week between intervals and hills.

I also switched my long runs to Sundays instead of Fridays, because most of the races are on Sundays. Today, I started with an 8-mile long run, with just 1 mile at goal race pace (sub-9:00). It was super nice outside today--55 degrees! I wore long sleeves, but I should have worn a tank, because I was pretty hot after a couple of miles.

I didn't want to do my first mile at my goal pace, because I didn't want my legs to feel very fresh; but I didn't want to wait until the end, either, because it would probably be really hard on tired legs. Instead, I just ran at what felt to be very comfortable for the first few miles. I didn't even glance at my Garmin, and just ran by feel.

About a half-mile in, I saw some hunters walking along the edge of the woods, looking around at the ground. I see hunters around there all the time, so it wasn't anything new. A couple of hundred feet later, I heard a rustling and then a doe ran through the woods along the edge of the field. I must have spooked her as I ran next to the woods, but when I saw her running, my heart dropped. She had a big hole in her side, just behind her rib cage, where I'm assuming she had been shot. My guess is that those hunters knew they shot her, and were looking for her :(

I was so sad for the poor deer, and I hoped that she'd get away. About a mile later, I heard eight gunshots in a row, so I'm guessing they found her. It was upsetting, and I just kept picturing her running from me because she was scared. I know animals in slaughterhouses have it much worse, but it still makes me sad to see people hunting.

Seeing that kind of ruined my run. I tried not to think about it, but I just kept thinking about that poor deer. After I hit mile three, I sped up to a sub-9:00 pace for one mile, and then ran easy for the last four miles. That last few miles, I really tried to enjoy it, because this weather was so nice! It's supposed to get really cold again tomorrow.

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My November goal was to stick with riding my bike once a week. In short, I totally failed. It got super cold and snowy/icy, so I didn't do it for the last two weeks.

I've been giving some thought to my December goal, and I've decided to post my daily food logs on my blog--every single day--for December. Whether I'm on track with counting my points or not, or if I binge, or if I overindulge, I want to track it and post it for accountability. I already know that my diet is far from perfect, but I'm hoping that knowing it's going to be posted will help me to make better choices.

I still think it's so hard to believe that tomorrow marks the first day of the last month of 2014!

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday, so if you have a photo to share, please email it to me ASAP!

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Eddie Bauer review and giveaway!

Recently, I was asked to write a sponsored post by Eddie Bauer about some running clothes. I don't do many sponsored posts (i.e. getting paid to write a post) for several reasons, but I'd never tried Eddie Bauer running clothes, so I was genuinely curious. I asked them if I could, instead, do a review and giveaway for my readers, and they generously agreed. They sent me an outfit to review, and in return, I get to give one lucky reader a $100 Eddie Bauer gift card! (So in full disclosure, I was given an outfit, but I am not being paid to review the items. My opinions are honest, as always.)

I've always been very thrifty when it comes to clothes, and my favorite place to shop is at garage sales (followed by Goodwill). BUT, running clothes (and shoes) are my one big splurge. I've learned that you just cannot beat the comfort and quality of GOOD (read: more expensive) running clothes.

I've mentioned way more times than I care to count that I'm a huge fan of Under Armour for my running clothes. I spent a small fortune on the pieces I have (at least compared to my garage sale prices, haha); but I still have the pieces that I bought in 2010 and they are in fantastic shape. I do occasionally buy cheap items from Wal-Mart, but they usually only last a season. I really think that spending the extra money to get good quality running clothes is worth it!

Eddie Bauer sent me the following:

Incendiary Long-Sleeve Crew Shirt
Sandstone Soft Shell Jacket
Women's Movement Leggings

I was super excited to try them out, so naturally, I wore them all at once ;)

My initial impression: I loved everything! The tights were the fit that I like with the Under Armour tights. The waist went up high enough to feel like everything was held in tight (something I always liked before I had skin surgery--the compression kept my loose skin from bouncing and hurting). The fabric felt different than my Under Armour tights--it was really cozy and softer, and I worried that may cause them to slip down or something while running. The crew shirt was super comfy as well--a moisture-wicking fabric, but not at all scratchy (something I hate with cheap clothes). And the jacket was really nice--roomy enough to have a full range of motion, but not baggy or uncomfortable at all.

The jacket has what Eddie Bauer calls a "Storm Repel DWR finish", which means that it beads water so it doesn't soak into the fabric. It just so happened to start raining as I started to run, so it was the perfect opportunity to see how well that worked! It turns out that I was very impressed with it--I didn't get soaked through at all. I even took a picture to show how it "beads" the water:

The crew shirt is now my favorite long-sleeved tech shirt. Again, I love the fit: it's long enough so I don't feel like I have to keep tugging it down, it's fitted but not uncomfortably so, the seams don't cause chafing, and it has thumb holes on the sleeves. The fabric is really soft, but moisture-wicking. The fabric is meant to keep you warm in colder weather, and it certainly does that job well.

The leggings are what surprised me the most. I've always raved about Under Armour Cold Gear tights, but I have to admit, I like the Eddie Bauer tights better. Because the fabric feels so soft, I worried it wouldn't wick moisture like the UA ones do, but they worked very well to keep me feeling dry. The seams are virtually unnoticeable, so I didn't have any problems with chafing. The biggest test was to see if I had to keep tugging on them to keep them pulled up. I went through the entire run without having to readjust or tug on the pants at all.

I liked the outfit so much that I actually decided to wear it for the Monroe Half Marathon I ran, and then I wore the leggings for the Turkey Trot on Thursday. So comfy! (By the way, I found the fit to be pretty true-to-size. My leggings are a small and the shirt and jacket are both size medium.) Normally, when I review a product, I try to write positives AND negatives--but I honestly couldn't think of any negatives about these clothes. Maybe just the price? They are expensive, but I think the quality is worth it.

As I mentioned, Eddie Bauer was kind enough to offer a $100 gift card to give away! To enter the giveaway, just fill out the form below. I'll close entries and randomly select a winner on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 at 2:00 PM EST. Good luck!

(I wanted to get this post up today, because EddieBauer.com is having a Black Friday sale until Monday--you get 30% off your entire purchase plus free shipping and returns if you use code FROSTY.)

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Detroit Turkey Trot Drumstick Double race reports

Last night, there was a last minute change of plans to our race this morning, which made things a little interesting! Nathan (my younger brother) called me to say that Brian (my older brother) and Becky (Brian's wife) decided to bail on the Turkey Trot. They were already registered, and when Jerry heard they weren't going to run, he decided to run in Brian's place.

Brian was registered for the Drumstick Double (10K followed by 5K), and Jerry hasn't run it at least a month. I told him it was a bad idea, but he really wanted to do it, so that was the plan. We realized he didn't have any cold weather running clothes, so we made a last-minute trip to Dunham's last night to get him some running tights.

We got up at 4:30 this morning to get ready and leave by 5:30. We were supposed to meet Nathan, Kendall (his girlfriend), and Trish (his friend) at 5:45 to drive up to Detroit. We got to Detroit at 6:15, and there was no traffic on the expressway. But as soon as we tried to get to the parking garage at Cobo Center, it was a HUGE mess of cars. Drivers were being really aggressive, and even though I had tried to prepare myself for how crowded it would be, I just felt stressed before we even parked.

We ended up finding a different garage to park in, and then made our way to Cobo where the packet pick-up was. It was a huge center, and we didn't see any signs directing us where to go or anything, so we just kept walking and hoped to find it. We finally got our packets and took a picture before making our way to the starting line.

Me, Jerry, Kendall, Nathan, and Trish

It took us a long time to find our way back out to the street, and by that time, it was already 7:25 (the race started at 7:30). When we got to the starting line, we were supposed to go to the blue corral because we were doing the Drumstick Double (except Kendall, who was doing the 5K). The sidewalks were so crowded, and they already sent off the first wave of people. We couldn't find anywhere to get through the gates into the corrals, so the guys hopped over them while Trish and I squeezed through the bars.

I had turned on my Garmin at around 7:00, but it STILL hadn't found satellites. I was starting to stress over that, because I was really hoping to aim for a 55:00 finish time, and I didn't want to do it blindly. I turned it off and then back on, and the blue wave started. We started walking toward the starting line, and literally about 30 seconds before we crossed it, my Garmin picked up satellites. Woo hoo! If I hadn't had a goal, I wouldn't have worried about it so much, but I needed my Garmin ;)

Nathan told me he'd pace me, so we stuck together. And Trish was with us most of the way as well. Jerry's only goal was to finish, so he ran alone. When we crossed the starting line, it was impossible to run the pace I wanted, because of all the people. I was trying to pass people, but there really wasn't room to do that. I was aiming for an 8:50 pace, but the first two miles were 9:05 and 9:00. I mentally just readjusted my goal to be sub-9:16 miles, which was my "B" goal (it was what the McMillan calculator had predicted).

There was an out-and-back section about a mile long, and a couple of minutes after we made the turn, I suggested we start looking for Jerry to run past us. We could see the people who were approaching the turn-around, so I figured he'd be about five minutes behind us. I looked and looked, but never saw him. I wasn't sure if I should be worried, but then I figured we probably just missed him in the crowd.

As we approached the skyline, it was really pretty! I had to take a picture as I ran:

You can see Nathan and Trish on the left of the picture. I spent the last three miles just trying to keep up with them! My third mile was 9:04, and then after the crowd wasn't so crowded, I was able to dip into the 8:00's. Miles 4 and 5 were 8:46 and 8:50. I was REALLY getting tired around mile 5, and I was hoping there was a water station, but I never did see one on the course (I later learned there were two--but Nathan and I both missed them).

At mile 5.5, I happened to glance just ahead and to my right, and there was Jerry! I was SO shocked to see him. I was busting my ass to hit pace, and he, who rarely runs, was ahead of us the whole time?! He must have started at the front of the wave, because his pace was a little slower (9:10), but he ran that 10K like a champ. I briefly thought of slowing to finish with him, but my average pace was at an 8:56 at that moment, so I was going to try to finish with a sub-9:00 pace. I kept going with Nathan.

He asked me if I had anything left to give, because if I did, I could still finish under 55:00. In my head, I had tried doing the math to see if it was possible to finish under 55:00, but I was thinking it just couldn't happen at that point. I'd have to make up a lot of seconds in a short amount of time. I just told him no, that I was doing all I could.

When I could see the finish line, Nathan said I had about 14 seconds, and I could do it. I sprinted with what little energy was left in my legs, but I knew it wasn't going to happen. I crossed the finish line in 55:07--just 7 seconds from my goal! Hahaha, if I had known it would be THAT close, there are so many things I would have done differently (like maybe not take pictures while running?).

Anyway, I really felt I gave it my best, considering the crowded course and feeling stressed before the race. We waited for Jerry, and he crossed in 57:49. Then we all started walking quickly to the starting line again for the 5K. It was about a half-mile, and then we discovered we were locked out of the corrals again. We started searching for a spot to crawl through, and just as I was about to, a girl on the inside of the corral pointed out where there was an opening. Then she said, "By the way, I love your blog!" Hahaha, small world :) The 5K had already started, so we made our way to the opening, but there were way too many people standing outside of it for us to get through. Once the crowd started moving, we wormed our way in and walked toward the starting line.

This was Kendall's first 5K, and she expected to run about an 11:00-11:30 pace, so I planned to stick with her (I knew I'd be tired after that 10K!) and Nathan stayed with us as well. Running at that pace was much more enjoyable, and I actually took a few pictures.

This was the out-and-back portion

Comerica Park

Nathan and Kendall

As we were running the out-and-back portion, I heard someone on the other side going past yell, "Runs for Cookies!" I yelled back, but I was taken off guard so I'm not sure if she heard. (If you're reading, hi! Hope you had a great race!)

Kendall was doing awesome, and managed splits of 11:32, 11:13, and 10:34. We crossed the finish line in 35:16. The finish line was a mess of people, and the Drumstick Doublers were told to go inside the building for our medals. It took us a while (and a lot of asking) to find where to go, but we finally got our medals. The food line was ridiculously long, and even though I was super thirsty, I didn't want to wait.

They had some stuff for sale, and when I saw this particular hoodie, I just HAD to have it:

It has an INSULATED beer holder pocket on the front, along with an attached bottle opener! I had no money with me, because I just don't carry it when I run; but Trish offered to lend me the money to buy it (she got one too). As chaotic and unorganized as the race was, buying this shirt was totally worth it all ;)

Overall, I am VERY happy with my 10K today--even though I didn't hit my goal, I did run hard and I came very close. Running Kendall's first 5K with her was awesome. And I bought a really fun hoodie. While I'll never do this Turkey Trot again (just too unorganized for me) but I'm glad I did it. I earned a TON of Weight Watchers PointsPlus for my dinner tonight! And it was a great way to start Thanksgiving :)

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Training for a hilly race

I was SO busy yesterday; by the time I sat down to start writing a blog post, it was already after 9:00, so I just decided not to write. While the kids were in school, I spent literally the entire time deep-cleaning both bathrooms. My least favorite chore is scrubbing the shower and bath tubs because it takes so long. But the bathrooms are now super clean. I'm going to try and deep-clean all the rooms of the house over the next week or two.

After the kids got home from school, we went to my parents' house for dinner. Also there were: my older brother, Brian; his wife, Becky; Becky's parents, visiting from Minneosta; my younger brother, Nathan; two of my uncles and one aunt; and Jerry. None of it was even planned until yesterday morning, but it was fun.

My glutes were really sore yesterday from my hill workout on Monday. The Shamrock Run that I'm doing in Portland is SUPER hilly, even by the standards of people that regularly run hills. Thomas has mentioned it enough times that it was starting to scare me, and make me wonder why I signed up for the race. I don't have any hills to train on here, and even doing intervals on an expressway overpass isn't enough to prepare me for the race.

So on Monday morning, I looked up the elevation profile of the race, and decided to calculate the hill grade percentages to come up with a hill workout that will hopefully help me train. There were six major hills that I could see in the chart:

Some of them are short and steep, but also, the first 5 miles are basically uphill. So using the feet climbed and the distance in miles, I plugged the numbers into this calculator that then gives the grade percentages. Here is what it came up with:

Hill #1: Mile 2.13 to 3.91 climbs 382 feet
Hill #2: Mile 4.18 to 4.31 climbs 85 feet
Hill #3: Mile 4.54 to 4.71 climbs 139 feet
Hill #4: Mile 4.98 to 5.60 climbs 167 feet
Hill #5: Mile 5.74 to 5.87 climbs 62 feet
Hill #6: Mile 6.67 to 6.94 climbs 47 feet

And translated into grade percentages, this was my treadmill workout:

My treadmill only goes up to 12%, so I couldn't even get it high enough for the third hill--that's very steep! Surprisingly, I did okay for the first hill. I set the speed pretty slow (5.5 mph, a 10:54 pace). I certainly felt like I was going uphill, but it wasn't terrible. I started thinking how I was going to tell Thomas that this was a piece of cake. After each hill, I took a 2-minute rest (I don't like to lower the incline to 0% between hills for a recovery jog, because it takes too long to lower it and then increase it again, so it's simpler to just hop off the treadmill and take a short rest).

The second hill was no joke. I kept the speed where it was, but at 12% incline, I was counting down the distance until I could hop off. During the third hill, I was cursing Thomas, and it was all I could do to finish that short 0.17-mile segment. Normally, 5% incline is tough, but after doing that third hill, the fourth one felt easy. And then the sixth hill, at 3.3%, didn't even feel like a hill at all at that point.

Overall, it was a tough workout, and I'm definitely going to repeat it several times before March. In looking at the elevation profile again, I think I'm going to break the first hill into two separate ones, because it starts out as a long, gradual incline and then sharply goes up toward the end. By splitting it up, it looks like this:

Hill #1: 1.47 miles at a 2.2% grade immediately followed by 0.31 miles at 13% grade. I'd say that's a pretty significant hill!

A lot of newer treadmills now have the ability to automatically adjust incline based on a certain course. You can map out a course on Google Maps and then when you run it, the incline adjusts to what it would actually feel like. That would be really convenient to train for a race like Shamrock, because I just don't have the hills around here to mock that course. My treadmill is getting old, and it's starting to sound kind of rickety. I think I'm going to start saving up for a new one, and maybe by summertime I'll get one (I use the treadmill in the summer quite a bit because the kids are home from school).

I had been planning on rotating a hill workout with tempo runs and intervals, so I'd only be doing it every third week; but I think I may rearrange my running schedule to fit in two of the harder workouts per week, so that I can do the hill workout every week. Because my legs (and butt) were sore from this workout, I can feel that it's definitely using different muscles--always a good thing!

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Jessica called me yesterday after reading my blog post about my goal for the Turkey Trot. She's done the race for the past several years, and said that it's definitely not a race to have a time goal for. It's extremely crowded, especially during the 5K, and she said there is just no way to get around people. I told her I was worried about getting to the 5K starting line on time after running the 10K, and she said that it's not even an issue. She ran the 10K in 1:00:xx last year, and then walked a half mile to the 5K, but there were still tons of people starting the 5K at that time. She basically said it's a big cluster, but a lot of fun.

So, that made me feel relieved that I don't have to worry about getting to the 5K starting line by 8:30 (the 10K starts at 7:30). I'm still going to try and aim for an 8:50 pace, but I'm also not going to get bent out of shape if it's just not happening, either. Nathan, Brian, and Becky are going to run the Drumstick Double, too, and Kendall (Nathan's girlfriend) is running the 5K as her first race! We are going to be heading up to Detroit at around 5:30 tomorrow, so it'll be an early start to the day--but it should be fun. Then later, we're going to my parents' house for turkey dinner.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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