Double digits on the 'mill

Well, I did not end up doing my long run outside today like I'd hoped.

It's kind of strange, actually. Lately, I've had really bad anxiety about running outside. Ever since I was attacked by those two swallows, my stomach feels like it's in knots throughout my whole run. Even if the birds are past their defensive-attack stage, I'm constantly on edge.

My friend Hilary shared this video of a girl on a bike ride who gets dive-bombed by a bird (several times), and while the video is funny to watch, it's EXACTLY what I've been dealing with this year with the birds! (video source) I'm sure people are cracking up inside their homes when they see me freaking out during a run like this, haha.

I love when she screams, "Is it gone? Is it gone? IT'S NOT GONE!" That's pretty much exactly how I sound when birds do that to me, except I don't have a helmet on, and I am flailing my arms above my head while I run, haha. (The long version of this video shows that she drew fake eyes on her helmet to hopefully keep the birds away, which is why she's yelling, "The eyes don't work!").

Anyway, I watched this in bed this morning when I woke up, and I started feeling anxious about my run again. It seems like all of my routes have angry birds on them (except in the Metroparks or State Park, where I'm assuming the birds are used to having people around). So, the birds, plus the fact that it was really hot out today, made me decide that the treadmill was more appealing... even for 10 miles.

I increased my run portion once again--going from 4:00-run/0:30-walk to 5:00-run/0:30 walk. And since I felt so good during my run on Thursday, with the pace of 6.0 mph for my run, I figured I'd give that a try for my long run as well. If it felt too hard, I could always drop the pace a little.

At first, it actually did feel a little harder than I expected; but I decided to keep going, and hopefully I'd feel good enough to get through the whole thing at that pace. The miles seemed much longer today than they did last weekend, but somehow, I managed to finish. I stuck with the 6.0 mph for running and 4.0 mph for the walk breaks the entire run--that's a big improvement! I felt so happy when I was done.

I was messing around with my heart rate monitor strap toward the end of my run (I felt like it was chafing me) and I think that's what caused the big increase in heart rate during mile eight. The heart rate graph looked fine until that particular spot, when it increased a lot.

Anyway, I was very happy with how today's long run went!

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This afternoon, the kids asked if we could go to the parade downtown. The Monroe County Fair opened today, and there was a parade to celebrate. I'd never been to it, but the kids love parades (they hoped to get free candy), so we drove down there just before the parade started. I was thinking we'd have to stand in the sun, which I don't like to do, but one side of the street was totally shaded, thanks to the buildings, so we sat on a curb to watch.

I got teary eyed and choked up when I saw this go by:

They were World War II veterans, from the ages of 88 to 103 years old. I don't know why it made me emotional to see, but it was really fun to see them. I liked the float just behind it, too, where there were several people dressed up from the WWII era.

I liked seeing the Animal Control Shelter float, too, because they had pictures of lots of adoptable dogs. That's where we adopted Joey from, actually.

The parade went on much longer than I thought--about an hour--but the kids and I really enjoyed it. They got some candy, which thrilled them. It's such a small town that there wasn't anything too crazy to see, but it was a fun afternoon with the kids!

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a photo you'd like to send in, here is the info for that. If I don't get many submissions, I may just hold off for a week or two. We'll see what happens!

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Running, new recipe, and August goal

Well, I didn't intend not to write for a couple of days, but it just turned out that way. On Thursday, I had a FANTASTIC run. I was scheduled for a Hansons tempo (different from any other tempo, in that it's supposed to be done just 10 seconds per mile faster than marathon pace--so it's a rather slow pace compared to a traditional tempo run). I don't have a goal race pace, however, so I wasn't sure what pace to run it; I just figured I'd push the pace a little faster than what my easy pace has been lately.

I also changed the run/walk ratio to 4:00-run and 0:30-walk. I'd like to keep increasing the running portion until I'm not doing walk breaks anymore. As much as I enjoy it, and I know it's good for avoiding injury, it's hard to plan social runs (unless someone is running the same run/walk ratio as me)--and I miss running with people! Anyway, I increased the running portions by a minute for Thursday's run to see how it felt.

I've really been enjoying the treadmill lately (thanks to One Tree Hill on Netflix!), so I chose the treadmill again. For the running portions, I started out with 5.9 mph, but at around mile 1.75, I decided to switch to 6.0 mph because I was feeling so good. I did the walk breaks at 4.0 mph. I felt amazing through the entire five miles!

The Garmin showed my pace as a little faster than what the treadmill reads (the foot pod needed recalibrating, which I did today).

My heart rate is still fairly low on the treadmill compared to outside. I always set the incline at 1%, but I may have to change it to 2% to get my heart rate up higher, but for right now, I'll just leave it until I get my endurance back.

I saw a post on Facebook yesterday advertising an 18-mile training run on August 30th for the Detroit Marathon. I have a 16-miler scheduled that day, but I decided to sign up for the training run anyway. I've never done a formal training run like that, and I think it'll be fun. It's on the marathon course (the U.S. side only), and I really love the Detroit Marathon course, so it'll be a nice change of scenery for my long run that day. I had to specify an approximate pace that I'd be running, and I said 11:00/mile. That's another reason I'd like to get back to running without walk breaks; during that training run, it would be nice to stay with a group (hopefully there are other people in that group! haha).

Yesterday was really nice outside, so Jerry, the kids, and I sat outside all afternoon. We opened up the big garage door that faces our backyard, and sat just inside the garage out of the sun, but still "outside", if that makes sense. Jerry brought the radio out to the garage, so we listened to music and had drinks (margaritas for Jerry and me, Shirley Temples for the kids). It was SO relaxing. Those are my favorite kinds of days during the summer!

I couldn't sleep for anything last night, and had a hard time getting myself to run this morning. But I have back-to-back longish runs on Saturdays and Sundays, which are the most important part of my training. Last week's runs were 8 and 8, but this week they are 6 and 10 miles. The weather would have been great for a run outside this morning, but considering I was so tired, I decided to do the treadmill again. I didn't want to fall apart three miles from home, so I watched Netflix and did a nice, easy pace. I used the same 4:00-run and 0:30-walk ratio as Thursday. I did the running portions at 5.7 mph and the walking portions at 4.0 mph.

If the weather is nice tomorrow (not too hot or humid) then I'll do my 10-miler outside. I've been on the treadmill all week, so I'm curious to see what my pace is outside.

For lunch today, I tried a new recipe from Forks Over Knives, called Green Chile Rice with Black Beans. I'd never actually bought a poblano chile before, so I was kind of excited (as nerdy as that sounds) to use a new-to-me ingredient.

It was pretty good! I was hoping it would be a little spicier, but it was very mild. I added some diced avocado on top, which made it even better. It's only 6 PointsPlus per serving (the bowl above was only about 3/4 of a serving, which was plenty).

I always used to come up with a goal for each month--just something small that had to do with food or exercise--and I'd like to start doing that again. Since today is August 1st, Jerry and I decided that we want to make a combined goal of no eating out all month. We ate out several times last month, and I was a little shocked when I saw how much money we spent on restaurant food! So, the goal is to eliminate restaurants from our budget this month. Anyone else want to set a goal for August?

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Active dates with friends

This morning, I woke up absolutely ravenous. It was one of those hungers that just made me want to eat an enormous, filling breakfast. I ended up making a bowl of oatmeal with a new combination of toppings: brown sugar, lots of blueberries, and some chopped almonds.

I don't know if it's just because I was so hungry, but it was one of the best bowls of oatmeal I'd ever had. And it was only 5 PointsPlus. I'm going to make this more often for sure.

Kendall, Nathan's girlfriend, asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride today. She's doing the Tour de Troit with me in September, so we want to get some rides in together before that. Jerry had to work today, so I had to take the kids with us. The most the kids have ridden is 10 miles, so I hoped to go about 12 miles today (at a leisurely pace), depending on how they felt during the ride.

Kendall picked us up in Nathan's truck, so that we could put all four bikes in the back and drive to the Metropark. I was a little shocked when I stepped outside and felt how hot and humid it was! The windows of my house were actually foggy and dripping from the moisture in the air. We loaded up on sunscreen, and packed a lot of water to carry. We parked at the far south end of the Metropark, and then decided to do an out and back from there.

We let the kids set the pace, so it was pretty slow moving, but it felt nice to go for a leisurely ride. We were able to chat while we rode, and we stopped a few times for the kids to take a drink or check out the scenery. I meant to take a ton of pictures, and I just forgot! The first stop in the park, I snapped one pic--and that ended up being the only photo I took the entire ride. And it wasn't even a good picture. (You can actually kind of see the haze in the air...)

We rode to the neighborhood where I grew up (where I lived from birth until I was 15 years old). My aunt was outside gardening, so we stopped and chatted with her for a few minutes, and then rode down my old street so I could show Kendall the house where Nathan and I grew up in. We used that as our turn around point, and then headed back to the Metropark where the car was.

My dad was working at the park, so we stopped at the building where he works to say hi to him, and then rode the rest of the way to the car. I had forgotten to start/stop my Garmin a couple of times with our stops, so I don't have totally accurate data from my Garmin, but we probably rode about 13 miles total. Noah would have loved to do more, but Eli just wasn't having it. The heat had gotten even worse during the ride, and by the time we finished, the heat index was 103 degrees. It felt so good to be done! I'd promised the kids we'd go to Subway for lunch after the ride, so we headed there afterward.

Riding a bike in the heat isn't nearly as tough as running in the heat. It's nice because you have the breeze blowing in your face when you ride (I'm not fast enough of a runner to get much of a breeze, haha). The actual ride wasn't too bad; it was the stops when we were just standing in the sun that was tough. Noah really loved it, so I'd like to go for a ride with just the two of us soon, too.

Something Kendall and I talked about today was how we found it interesting that we actually choose to do something active with friends when we hang out (like our bike ride today). Six years ago, I never would have chosen a bike ride in the heat when we could have just gone out to lunch in an air conditioned restaurant. I never could understand why people would choose to do something active--because it just sounded so unappealing to me. Now, it's become so second-nature that I don't even really think twice about it. Go for a walk? Sure. Travel for a race? Count me in. Bike ride in the summer heat? Definitely. I still enjoy coffee/tea dates, or movie dates, and things like that; but active dates are just as appealing to me!

I'll end with this question: What are some of your favorite active ways to spend time with friends or family? I'd love some more ideas!

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First speed work in over eight months!

Yesterday was a cross training day, and I was thinking about taking the kids to the rec center to swim while I did a deep water run. I remembered that Noah had recently asked me to teach him to play tennis, so I figured I could do that instead and count it as my cross training for the day.

We grabbed some rackets and a ball, and then Noah, Eli, and I drove to a nearby park that has tennis courts. I hadn't played tennis since high school, so I had a hard time even remembering how to play! But we had a lot of fun just hitting the ball back and forth, and seeing how long we could keep it in play. It was a great workout--I was a little worried about my stress fracture, because of all the changes in direction, but I didn't have any trouble with it.

It was super humid, so we only stayed for about 40 minutes, but the kids loved it and said they wanted to come back again.

Yesterday evening, the kids and I walked (with Joey) to my parents' house. Joey loves to play in the lake, so we bring him over there sometimes to get his fix. I can't get over what a good dog he is! As soon as we get to their house, I let him off leash, and he's like a rocket straight for the lake. He doesn't have any interest in running away, and he just likes to be wherever we are. He played in the lake for a while, and then Eli was going to clean him off with the hose before we left.

It was SO cute. I thought Joey would run from the spray, but he did just he opposite. He chased after it and tried to eat the water coming out!

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I was nervous about my run this morning, because I haven't done speed work in SO LONG. I think the last time I actually ran my best was at a Thanksgiving 10K last year. On the schedule today was 8 x 600's at roughly-5K pace. I don't have a clue what my current 5K pace is, but if I had to guess, I would think 9:00-9:30 ish. Mentally, this was odd for me--to run speed work (600's) at a 9:15 pace? I'm used to doing speed work in the low 7:00's or even high 6:00's when I was in good shape. But, I'm basically starting all over from scratch, so I decided to try it before I declared it "too easy".

I learned that it definitely wasn't too easy. Instead of doing 600 meters (0.37 miles), I chose to go by time instead--3:00 running, and then walking 1:30 to recover between intervals. I figured it would be roughly the same distance, but it would be easier to keep track of. I walked a couple of minutes to warm up, and then set the treadmill at 6.5 mph (a 9:13/mi pace) and ran for three minutes. It was much tougher than I expected! I think if I was to run my hardest right now, I might be able to pull off a sub-9:00 mile, and just barely finish without dying.

I continued the 3:00/1:30 intervals, at 6.5 mph and 3.0 mph respectively. After 8 intervals, I felt good. I felt like I had worked hard, but not too hard, which is what the goal was. The Hansons plan has a specific window for speed work, and it's slower than what typical plans call for. If nothing else, running at a faster pace helped me to see where my fitness level is right now.

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Yesterday, Jerry, the kids, and I walked up to the store. When we paid, Jerry used his debit card, and it was declined. That was really odd, because I knew we had money in our account. The cashier ran it through twice, and both times it said declined. I felt a little panicked when we got home, and I looked up our account online. Nothing looked too unusual, other than a few authorization holds that were pending and I had no idea what they were (but again, not that unusual).

Today, Jerry called the bank to find out what was going on, and it turns out that while we were in New York, someone stole Jerry's debit card info, and yesterday, they had a little shopping spree in New York.  There was only ONE spot that we used the debit card while we were gone (we used cash everywhere else), so we know exactly where it was. It infuriates me that someone did that! I know it happens to people fairly often these days, but that's the first time we ever had an issue like that.

The bank flagged the card and froze our account when they saw some charges for hundreds of dollars in NY. We won't be responsible for those charges, but now we need new debit cards because we can't use ours. The cards take 14 days to get here, so we'll just have to start using cash only for a while--that's going to be hard to get used to, because I very rarely carry cash with me.

So, anyway, it's kind of a mess right now, but hopefully the bank will get it all sorted out soon. I found it pretty funny that a couple of the charges on the card were $60 for Burger King and $50 for Wendy's--who spends that much money on fast food in one day?! I also had to laugh at the irony... I was in NY to learn about financial security, and while I was there, my bank account info was hacked ;)

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Motivational Monday #115

Happy Motivational Monday! It's been a few weeks since the last MM post, so I apologize for that. The MM submissions have been getting more and more sporadic, so I may end up doing just one Motivational Monday post per month, instead of each week. I want to make sure you know that Motivational Monday is not just about HUGE accomplishments, like losing 100 pounds or running a marathon. It's meant to be a place where you can shamelessly brag about an accomplishment you've made, no matter how big or small it may seem.

I have not had a very good week on Weight Watchers, unfortunately. My pre-paid WW meetings ended on July 20th, and I actually haven't weighed in for two weeks! I should probably go back and pre-pay for another 12 weeks, just to keep myself from backsliding. I had made good progress, even though it didn't show up on the scale so much--my clothes were fitting much better, and was able to wear some things that I hadn't been able to in a while. I felt really good, so I don't want to lose that.

I just feel like I need to come up with a short-term reward for staying on track. That's how I've always been able to do it in the past: I think of a reward that I really want, but I don't allow myself to have it until I've been on track for two weeks, or a month, or something like that. I'll have to give it some thought today and hopefully come up with something!

Anyways, today is Motivational Monday, and there is nothing motivating about my being off track ;) Here are some motivating readers' stories to start your week!

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Kristina lost a lot of weight several years ago, but like me, she struggles with binge eating. She's been struggling with the same eight pounds, going up and down, and had a "screw it" mentality. Earlier this month, she went to a women's conference, and attended a workshop about healthy eating and living. It was a wake-up call for her, and she made a few changes that have been really helpful to her: 1) Drinking a green smoothie for breakfast; 2) No added/refined sugar; 3) No artificial sweetener; 4) No diet soda; and 5) No processed/boxed foods. She lost over five pounds the first week! Last week, she also went for a kayaking adventure with her mom--for 6 miles! She's feeling really good about the changes she's made.

(At the end of her email, Kristina added, "Thanks always for being an inspiration to keep pushing. I hope that someday, I can do the same for others." I found this so interesting, because it was SHE that inspired ME when I started to lose the weight! We started reading each other's blogs in probably about 2005-ish, and I loved seeing her progress photos as she dropped her weight. I was envious , and hoped I'd be able to do the same thing one day! So, Kristina, trust me when I say that you've already inspired people more than you know.)

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In January 2011, at 215 pounds, Katie was extremely unhappy with her appearance and fitness level. She began tracking her calories on My Fitness Pal, and being smarter with her portions while continuing to enjoy her favorite foods. Late that year, she started the Couch to 5K program, and was very winded after running just a quarter-mile--she didn't think she'd ever improve! She ran her first 5K in Spring 2012, then continued to lose weight and run more 5K's and even a 10K. In April of this year, she decided she was ready to train for a half-marathon. She and her boyfriend, Tarik, signed up for the Shipyard Old Port Half-Marathon in Portland, Maine. As they trained together, they even set a goal to finish the race under two hours. It was extremely hot on race day, and much tougher than she'd imagined it would be, but she ended up finishing in 1:58:50! She celebrated with a much-deserved ice cream cookie sandwich and a cold beer ;)

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Last Monday, Virginia was very proud of herself--she ran for a full 30 minutes straight! She usually does a run/walk method, and had worked her way up to a ratio of 8:00-run and 2:00 walk. That day, she decided to try to run the entire first mile, and she did! Then, instead of going back to the run/walk method, she wanted to go for the whole 30 minutes of running, just to see if she could. It wasn't easy in the New Orleans humidity, but she pushed through, and completed the full run! Virginia is now down 15.5 pounds with a combination of Weight Watchers and running--something else to be very proud of.

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Mara has dropped a total of 60 pounds, and she started run/walking in August 2014. She tries to do at least one race per month, but recently signed up for 7 races over 37 days! The first of those was June 27, when she ran her first 10K. She had a goal of 1:06:00, but the hilly course and stiff legs made that difficult, and she finished in 1:07:00. She was happy that she had managed to run 1.3 miles without a walk break! The following weekend, on July 4th, she ran a half-marathon relay--hers was the first leg, at 6.75 miles. She set a realistic goal of 1:12:00, and ended up finishing in 1:08:28! Even more exciting for her, she ran the first 4.15 miles without a single walk break, which more than doubled her previous best run distance.

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A huge congratulations to all of you that had a great week! I love reading these stories, because they certainly motivate ME :)

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My lucky day! (Grandma's Game)

This morning, I was much more compliant about getting my run done first thing when I woke up. I had plans for lunchtime, so I wanted to make sure to get my long run in this morning. I had eight miles on the schedule, which is the same as yesterday. The Hansons Marathon Method has two back to back longish runs on weekends instead of having one long run per week, which I found much more preparatory for marathon training.

I was a little concerned about how my legs would do, since my training has been minimal lately (per the Galloway training plan). I chose the treadmill again, considering the humidity outside was awful. Today, I bumped the speed up just a touch--for the 3:00-run portions, I did 5.8 mph; and then for the 0:30-walk portions, I did 4.0 mph. My run was pretty much identical to yesterday.

After my run, I took a quick shower and then ate breakfast. While I was on the treadmill, my run ended in the middle of a One Tree Hill episode, and I really wanted to finish it. I turned that on, and while I finished watching that, I decided to play a hand of my favorite solitaire game.

I've mentioned the game in my blog several times, because it really helps me to keep from binge eating sometimes. I like to play it with real cards (not digitally). I've been playing the game for over two decades, and I'd NEVER WON. Not once!

Well, apparently, today was my lucky day. I ACTUALLY WON. My heart was pounding toward the end, because I was doing so well, and I couldn't believe it when I actually won. My mom is the one who taught me the game, and she only won it one time (about 40 years ago). It's a really difficult game to win!

I was dying to tell someone, but nobody really cares(!) so I decided to make a video that I've been planning to do for a long time but just never got around to it. I made a video that explains how to play the game. It's a hard game to describe, and I never even knew what it was called until I wrote about it on my blog a couple of years ago (the closest game I can find to what my mom taught me is called Grandma's Game, or 13 Stacks).

Anyway, if you're into playing solitaire, here is a video that explains how to play. I wish it was a little closer up, but I hope that it's pretty explanatory.

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At 1:00, we had plans to meet up with Rik and his wife Cynthia for lunch. If you don't remember, Rik is my co-captain from my From Fat to Finish Line Ragnar team. They live in Wisconsin, but were passing through the area today to look at a car they were interested in buying. We made plans to meet at Public House, a local restaurant, for lunch. It was fun to get to chat with them!

Jerry and Rik made plans for Jerry to go to Wisconsin to visit soon. I often feel guilty that I get to travel sometimes for blogging, so I encourage Jerry to go on some solo trips to have fun, too. I know he'll have a lot of fun hanging out with Rik!

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Tomorrow is Motivational Monday! It's been a few weeks, but I will definitely have a post tomorrow. If you have a submission, please get it to me by tomorrow morning. Here's how. :)

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Halo Top ice cream

The potluck yesterday was so nice! Noah and Eli's baseball coach invited the team to his house for a potluck and baseball game (he actually has a baseball diamond in his back yard!). The kids were all allowed to bring a friend, so that there would be enough kids to play a game. We stopped and picked up a friend of Noah's on the way.

The coach and his wife have a gorgeous yard, and they cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill for everyone. I made my favorite coleslaw recipe to bring. After dinner, the kids played ball, and had a blast.

I really enjoyed the kids' season this year. Their coach was fantastic, and I was hoping he was going to move up to the 11-12 year old boys' teams next year, but he's going to stick with 9-10 year olds. Eli will still be 10, so he can play in that league; but Noah has to move up. Anyway, I was really happy with their coach this season, because he obviously loves coaching, and he's really great at it.

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So, yesterday I wrote about how excited I was to start bumping up my training a little. And then this morning, I couldn't drag myself out of bed for ANYTHING, haha.

I had 8 miles on the schedule today, which really isn't all that bad. Last week, I ran 12, so 8 should have been simple enough. I just had the worst time getting motivated to start. I woke up at around 6:45, and then convinced myself that I could wait until 7:30 to get started. Then I woke back up at around 7:30, and said I'd wait until 8:00. And so on. I finally got out of bed at 9:00! I never sleep that late.

The problem with getting such a late start is that the sun is up and it gets really hot and humid. When I stepped outside, I realized there was no way that I was going to run out there. Running in the air conditioning on the treadmill while watching One Tree Hill sounded much more appealing! ;) I was no longer in a rush to get started, so I made some breakfast and did some online banking, and finally got on the treadmill at around 11:00.

I set my Garmin for intervals of 3:00-running and 0:30-walking. I haven't used the treadmill in ages, and I wasn't sure how well the run/walk method would do on the 'mill. I hoped it wouldn't take 15 seconds to increase or decrease the speed. I decided to do my running portions at 5.7 mph and the walking portions at 4.0 mph. I guessed that would make my overall pace roughly 11:00/mile.

I had a really great run today--it felt very easy, almost to the point of thinking that I should bump up the speed. But I have to run 8 miles again tomorrow, so I didn't want to go faster than I was "supposed" to. I stuck with the 5.7/4.0 mph (1% incline) consistently throughout the whole run, and I felt great when I was done. Thankfully, the treadmill was really quick at changing between run and walk speeds (literally about 2-3 seconds max). My average pace ended up being 10:49/mile.

My heart rate was much lower than it is when I run outside, and the run as a whole felt easier than I'm used to. I think I'll have to increase the pace or incline to better mimic how it feels when I'm outside.

One thing I've noticed since I started doing the run/walk method is that I recover much more quickly! Usually, on my long run days, my legs feel a little achy or mildly sore for the rest of the day, but since I started the run/walk method, I don't even really feel like I've run that day. I'm sure that will be helpful during Hansons training. Tomorrow will be the big test, because I have another 8-miler on the schedule!

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Remember when I wrote about buying the Arctic Zero ice cream? I had been wanting to try it for years, and I finally bought some. I wasn't super impressed--it was okay, but had a very funky aftertaste that would last for HOURS after eating the ice cream. Anyway, some readers suggested Halo Top Creamery ice cream, which is low in calories as well. We don't have it at any of the grocery stores near me, so I didn't think much of it. But Halo Top apparently saw that post, and they asked if they could send me some samples. If there is one thing I'll never turn down, it's free ice cream! ;)

It was like Christmas morning when I got a box in the mail with SEVEN flavors...

Birthday Cake, Lemon Cake, Chocolate Mocha Chip, Strawberry, Mint Chip, Vanilla Bean, and Chocolate. First, I tried the Birthday Cake flavor. I love cake batter ice cream, so I hoped it would be similar. It has 70 calories per half cup, or 280 for the whole pint. I was expecting it to taste similar to the Arctic Zero--just okay, but not like "real" ice cream.

I was SUPER impressed with the Halo Top! It was honestly an ice cream that I would happily eat whether or not I was worried about calories. I let Jerry and the kids all try it, too, and they all agreed with me. The nutrition facts were appealing, as far as a treat goes:

Since then, I've also tried the Chocolate Mocha and the Chocolate flavors, and they've all been really good. I'm going to see if I can't get my local Kroger to carry this stuff--because I'm hooked on it now!

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A new training plan

I got an email back from my physical therapist, and he okay'ed my plan to gradually switch over to the Hansons Marathon Method. I didn't feel like two short runs and one long run per week was really preparing me for the marathon, so I hope that by gradually adding running days, my legs will get back in shape to run long.

I left the four S.O.S. workouts on the schedule (Hansons call the key workouts "Something Of Substance", or S.O.S.). After five weeks, I'll add in a fifth run. And a few weeks after that, I'll add in a sixth. For now, on Mondays and Fridays, I am going to do cross-training (biking or deep water running, most likely) until I swap it out with a run. Wednesdays are rest days.

Modified Hansons beginner plan

I still plan to do run/walk intervals, because adding in the extra mileage means extra stress on my legs. I am sure that my fracture is healed now, and I'm still doing the PT exercises to hopefully prevent another recurrence, but I'm doing the run/walk as extra insurance against an injury. Now, I've been doing 2:30 run and 0:30 walk segments, but I may start to slowly increase that as well, depending on how the extra mileage works out.

The runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays are done at a particular pace, depending on your goal for the marathon. I don't have a time goal for the marathon, but I think as of right now, it's looking like I could manage sub-5:00. A long way off from a PR, but I'll be very happy just to finish this thing in decent shape ;)  A 4:59:59 finish would be a pace of 11:26/mile, so with run/walk segments, that sounds pretty realistic for me.

My training paces up to now fit in with the 4:45 finish time. That means my easy runs should be a pace of 12:05-ish, long runs (on Sundays) should be 11:41, marathon pace run (on Thursdays) should be 10:52, speed work (on Tuesdays) should be 9:34-9:58. Hitting a 9:34 pace while doing run/walk intervals is actually pretty challenging for me (I have to run at a sub-9:00 pace to make up for the walking). I'm just using those paces as guidelines, though--I'm not going to focus too much on the pace for this training.

I finally got a new battery in my heart rate monitor! I had to buy a Philips size 0 screwdriver to open the HR monitor battery compartment (I can't remember who it was, but someone left me a comment with a link to the correct screwdriver--thank you so much!!). I wish I had my HR data from the past several weeks, so that I could compare and see if my fitness is improving. I have data from my first two run/walks, and comparing them with today, my HR is down over 10 beats per minute at a similar pace. That's a good thing! It means I'm able to do the same pace without working quite as hard. I'm curious to watch it as I continue training.

Working out this plan has helped get me excited to train for this marathon. I was feeling nervous about it, because I just didn't feel like the three days per week was preparing me well. Now, I just feel like I can do it, and I just have to be really careful and smart about my training. As tempting as it is to jump right in with both feet, I am going to be cautious.

Well, I have to get ready for a party tonight. The kids' baseball coach is having an end-of-the-season party for the team, and it's a potluck. We're also going to be playing baseball with the kids, so it should be a fun time! I wish it wasn't so humid today, but the party is in the evening, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

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A day at Cedar Point

Yesterday morning, I got a Groupon email that was advertising Cedar Point tickets for $40 each. That's a really good deal, and we had planned to go to Cedar Point some time this summer anyway, so I bought four tickets. I started thinking about when to go, when I realized that yesterday was the perfect opportunity. Jerry was off work, it was midweek (weekends are super busy at Cedar Point), and the weather was great.

About an hour after buying the tickets, we were loaded up in the car and off to Sandusky, Ohio. If you're not familiar with Cedar Point, it's a huge amusement park known for their roller coasters. It's about 90 minutes from my house, so it's great for a day trip. The last time we went was in 2013, and it rained harder than I'd ever seen (they ended up shutting down all of the rides because of the weather). (The Santa Hustle Half that I did with my brother in December was actually at Cedar Point as well, but the park was closed for winter).

When we got to Sandusky, it was lunch time, so we stopped at McDonald's to eat before going into the park (the food in the park is uber expensive). I got a Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad (my go-to). After lunch, we headed into the park.

My kids are scared of most of the rides, but I asked them to please go on ONE roller coaster with us. My very favorite roller coaster is the Raptor, and I hadn't been on it for years. It's a smooth coaster, which I hoped would be nice for the kids. The older coasters are very rough rides, and painful to ride in my old age ;) The kids agreed to ride it, so I said we should do it first, so that they wouldn't have to worry about it all day.

We got in line, which was stated to be about an hour and a half long (not unusual for the coasters to have lines 1-2 hours long, which is crazy). We slowly made our way toward the front of the line.

About an hour and half later, I noticed that I hadn't seen the coaster go by, and the line stopped moving. A guy came out to tell everyone that the coaster had stopped, and they were working on the issue--he said it could be 10 minutes or an hour, he had no idea. We were only about 25 people from the front of the line! We decided to wait about 15 minutes and hope that it was fixed.

Twenty minutes later, it still wasn't resolved, so we sadly got out of line to go somewhere else. I was SUPER bummed, not just because we wasted two hours of our time, but because it would be hard to convince the kids to ride something else. We walked to another roller coaster next to the Raptor, called the Blue Streak. It's very old (over 50 years), and is known for being a small, not-very-thrilling ride. I'd never actually been on it, but assumed it would be fine.

It was awful! It doesn't do anything crazy (just several hills), but I kept getting lifted off the seat and then slamming back down with each hill, and my back was KILLING me after that. The kids both cried, and said they would never go on another roller coaster again. After that ride, I couldn't even blame them.

We walked over to some of the other rides--the Scrambler, the Matterhorn, and non-coaster rides--and we had a lot of fun doing those.

I noticed a sign that said to text a particular number to let them know how your day at Cedar Point was going, so I decided to write about the Raptor. They were super nice, and said that they would allow us to go straight to the front of the line of any ride we wanted (just once); so, we chose the Raptor because we had waited so long to ride it.

When we got there, kids both said they didn't want to go on it after their experience on the Blue Streak, unfortunately. We were told to walk up the exit ramp all the way to the coaster, and they'd put us on the ride right away. They even let the kids stay right there next to them while Jerry and I rode the Raptor. It was as fun as I remember it being, and I wished that the kids had gotten to experience it! Hopefully next time.

We let the kids choose all the rest of the rides, and we rode one more roller coaster called the Iron Dragon. Noah loved it, Eli did not. It made me kind of thankful that I hadn't put him on the Raptor after all, because if he didn't like the Iron Dragon, he would have been terrified on the Raptor! The day flew by, and before we knew it, it was nearly 8:00 pm. I felt like I could actually fall asleep while we were on the Sky Ride, because it was so quiet and relaxing!

We were all starving for dinner, and we'd ridden all the rides the kids wanted to, so we headed home. We stopped at Subway for dinner (I had a veggie sub with avocado, which was delicious), and then got home at around 10:00. It had been such a long, exhausting day, but so much fun! I had been really tempted by the funnel cakes, frozen custard, french fries, etc. at the park, but I stayed on track and didn't eat anything at the park. We got in over 20,000 steps, which was nice!

I slept like a rock last night, and only woke up at a decent hour this morning because I had to drive my brother to the airport. It's interesting how I can run 12 miles or so, and not feel anything the next day; but walking around an amusement park all day was totally exhausting. The kids had a blast, though, and had gotten braver about the rides since the last time we were there. Maybe when we go again next year, they'll ride the Raptor with me :)

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Marathon training and an evening at the beach

I feel like I've been away from home for weeks, in the sense that I just feel out of my routine. It's so odd! But now that I'm home from NY and I don't have anything major planned for a while (until October, when I have the Detroit Marathon), I am glad to be back to the norm.

Taking a break from the blog was nice, but not so great for my eating. Most days, I did really well; but I overate a few times (going over my PointsPlus). And yesterday, I had a mini-binge. Technically, it probably wasn't a binge, because I didn't lose ALL control; but in my eyes, it was. So, I have to restart my binge-free streak from zero. I do so much better when I am in a solid routine, and last week was completely out of the norm for me.

I decided to talk to my physical therapist about changing up my marathon training. Right now, I'm combining Jeff Galloway's plan with Hal Higdon's plan, and it's just not working out. Galloway's plan is two 30-minute runs per week plus one long run. The problem with that is when you have a bad long run (like I did a couple of weeks ago), it's a HUGE chunk of your mileage that gets messed up.

The plan that worked best for me was Hansons Marathon Method, but it's a ton of mileage, so not the ideal plan for getting back to running after an injury. Even though the long run only goes up to 16 miles, I felt more prepared than ever for the Chicago Marathon. That's the plan I'd hoped to use for Detroit.

Anyway, what I'd like to do (and have to talk with my PT about) is to start transitioning to Hansons. I would start by adding a fourth day of running, and then use cross training (deep water running or biking) for the other two run days. After a few weeks, if I do okay with that, I can swap in a fifth run day for one of the cross training days. And a few more weeks after that, I'd make the switch over to the sixth run day and follow the schedule as planned. I would continue to do the run/walk intervals through the program.

I sent my PT an email about it today, so I'll decide once I hear back from him. Yesterday, I ran four miles instead of three, and it went really well. If I'm going to increase my mileage, I decided I'd better take my easy runs REALLY easy, so I took the pace nice and slow. I felt really good when I was done. I'm actually looking forward to increasing my mileage if my PT says it's okay!

My parents are camping for a few days, so they invited us to the campground yesterday with the kids. We brought Joey, and spent a couple of hours on the beach. Joey's favorite game is chasing after rocks in the water. It was cute to see the kids get in and play with him.

Eli started digging in the sand, and Joey thought that was a super fun game! It was hilarious to watch him dig, because he could dig ten times faster than we could. Then he would stick his face in the hole he just made, and come out with sand all over his nose. Eli was laughing non-stop.

It was a gorgeous day for the beach, too! It was warm, but not very sunny, so it wasn't miserably hot. There was a nice breeze, and not very many people on the beach, so we had a huge chunk of it to ourselves.

When we got home, Jerry and I watched One Tree Hill until almost midnight, haha. I got him sucked into that show, now, too! ;)

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