A Taste of Sparkle

Hi everyone! Sorry for the brief hiatus! My family came up to spend some time with me at school, so I’ve been with them this weekend. We had a lot of fun: we went on a hike, ate at my favorite restaurant, and saw Harry Potter again!

Today was pretty eventful. First up was my eight mile long run, a new record distance!

Running Stats

Distance: 8.00 miles

Time: 1:24:12

Pace: 10:31

I followed pretty much the same routine as last week: I did the run in two loops, stopping to get water and some sport moons in between. However, I think I ate my pre-run breakfast a little too close to actually setting out on my run, because I could feel it in my stomach for the first few miles. Something to remember next time, I guess!

Also something to remember for future long runs/my race day is that at the very end of mile 8, so close to the end that I could see the door of my house, I got a muscle cramp in my calf – ouch! Those hurt! I can still feel it a bit even though I stretched it out. I’m thinking that either I was pushing myself a bit too hard on the last loop (I ended up with a negative split, where my second 4 miles was quite a bit faster than my first.) or that my electrolytes, especially potassium, became slightly unbalanced toward the end. If it happens again, I’ll need to think about adding some Gatorade or other electrolyte mix into my mid-run refueling.

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Next, something sad happened: my favorite Sigg water bottle started leaking, all inside my bag! My phone, my wallet, my notebook: everything got wet, unfortunately. Luckily, almost everything is dry and fine by now, except for my phone which now “purrs” when I turn it on, lol. Hopefully it will dry soon.

The culprit:

This was the only water bottle I had, and since I’m away from my room going to classes for a good five hours out of the day, I really need something to carry some water! So on my way to the grocery store tonight, I stopped by EMS and bought a new bottle:

Excuse the silly hair!

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Well, I’m off to study some genetics, but I will be back tomorrow to give a review on more of my new protein bars that I’m trying, specifically these:

Yes, I bought them again! And that’s always a good thing

P.S. This site is taking up way too much of my free time: Passive Aggressive Notes

See you tomorrow!

First off, flowers of the week! (Late in the week, yes, but oh well!) They are Gerbera daisies – they were beautiful in the Co-op and who I am to resist my favorite flower?

Good news, I went to the doctor today and I do not have strep! The bad news, if I’m still not feeling well in a week, she wants me to come back to test for mono. Hopefully I’m feeling better by then, especially because I have to get on with my half-marathon training! I’m getting sick of putting off runs.

Speaking of exercise this week, so far I haven’t run, but I’ve gone to the gym twice. I went on Monday, took yesterday off due to feeling quite sick, and went today to get in some hill walking and weights. I’m feeling better right now though, so as long as I’m feeling this good or better tomorrow, I’m looking forward to a run. I definitely will be doing my long run on Saturday.

This week at my nutritionist appointment, we were trying to figure out a snack that would last me from when I have breakfast (around 8 am) to when I get out of class for lunch (2 pm) – that’s a long time! I only have 10 minutes in between each class, which I spend actually walking to the next class, so I don’t really have time to stop and snack. So she suggested protein bars.

I have been avoiding protein bars for a little while now because I’d rather get my nutrients from whole foods, but it’s not looking like that’s going to be possible for my morning snack. So, what did I do? I went shopping!

This morning, I tried an old favorite: a Zone bar. I had it at 10 (I had breakfast early today, at 7) and it kept me pretty full with its 14 grams of protein. I was hungry for lunch, but not so hungry that it was difficult to pay attention in my last class, which has been happening recently. So I am excited to continue with this protein bar experiment and test all these lovely samples. We’ll see if any of them beats the Zone bar!

What a way to start the week! I had 3 midterm exams in less than 24 hours! Well, I’m finally done and now I feel like this:

I let myself relax and read for a couple hours and now I’m going to try and get caught up on some things I’ve been putting off in order to study (like showering! Shh!). I’m going to make a big grocery store run in a few minutes with my list, and I also have to clean up a bit. I like to Swiffer the floors every Sunday, but I ended up doing work most of the day instead, so that’s on the agenda. Also, I’m lacking for weekly flowers! I need cheer in here, as my poor mums are sinking quickly.

Yesterday I managed to cram in a 3 mile elliptical workout (while studying, of course!) and today, it’s rainy and cold out, so I’m thinking a stress-relieving yoga session’s in the works for tonight.

Now, speaking of grocery shopping, here’s something new on my list:

I tried it for the first time yesterday for lunch because I was need of something quick, and I loved it! This is my first time trying Amy’s products because usually I don’t like frozen meals, but for a frozen meal, this was really good and saved me a lot of time.

It didn’t look quite as pretty in real like as it does in the picture on the box (when does that even happen, though?), but that certainly didn’t have any impact on its taste. I loved the black-eyed peas and rice combo, and you could actually see the veggies that they put in there. Also, with 9 grams of protein, it is a good little meal. I had it with some more veggies on the side, sugar snap peas and carrots.

Off to the store! I’ll be back later tonight, unless of course I’m doing this

Later!

Monday

3.5 mile run (10:00 pace)

It was super hard to get out the door for this run! I didn’t get out ’til around 6, which is really late for me. Even though I was dragging out the door and for the first few minutes, I got into a rhythm very quickly and this turned out to be a great run. More reinforcement that, even though the first few minutes may be agony, boring, or sore, the run usually turns into something positive.

Tuesday

10 min warm up, (4 min pick up, 2 min recovery, 3 min pick up, 1 min recovery) x 2, 5 min warm down

Ouch! This run was tough! I woke up feeling sick, but after breakfast felt well enough to get my scheduled run in. I decided to do short pick ups instead of a longer tempo run to go a little easier on my body. I made it through the warm up and the actual run fine, but started to not feel so well toward the end and didn’t get to jog my 10 minute warm down because I started feeling shivery and ill, so I walked instead. I don’t know what the right thing to do was in this case. Do you take the day off because you feel a tiny bit sick, but aren’t sure if you’re sick or just tired, or run, knowing that if you actually are getting sick, running may prolong the cold? It’s a tough call only made accurately in retrospect. Considering the rest of the week, I think this worked out okay.

Wednesday

Rest day

I went to bed at 4 am because I was up late watching the midnight premiere of Harry Potter. Nap > run. Enough said

Thursday

2 mile run (11:30 pace)

Blah. Today’s run wasn’t that great either. It was a combination of feeling tired and sick and the weather being far too humid. Must check the weather reports and if the humidity/heat levels are too high, run in the morning or late at night and shift my schedule as best I can to accommodate it.

Friday

Rest day!

I figured after yesterday, I’d give my body some extra time off so that it would definitely be able to carry me seven miles on Saturday.

Saturday

7 mile run (10:43 pace)

A great run! I wrote quite a long post about how exactly I fueled for my run, but in summary, what I did worked well! This is the longest I’ve ever run and I feel like I could have run more. The day after, I only have a little bit of muscle soreness – no pain. The only thing that bothered me on my run was that toward the end, my feet started to hurt a lot. They felt like they do when I’ve been shopping at the mall for five hours. This is going to be a problem in my race, since it’s 6 miles longer, so I have to experiment with new shoes or inserts or something. Anyone have any tips?

Oh, and another thing I ran into was some chafing – ouch! I got some GoldBond powder which fixed me right up, but I need to look into body glides or something for future long runs.

Sunday

Rest/possible yoga

A tiny bit sore from yesterday and I know some yoga/stretching would do me good, but this sick feeling is still lingering! I’m getting fed up, grr. I’ll probably push my to-do list off to the side for at least half an hour just to get some relaxing yoga poses in.

All in all, a good week. I didn’t feel 100%, but I’m proud of my long run.

What I Learned This Week:

• It almost always gets better after the first mile. Hang in there!
• If it’s going to be hot/humid, don’t run in the middle of the day! Nothing good can come of this!
• I have the mental toughness it takes to run long (even if I have the same annoying song stuck in my head for the entire 75 minutes).
• Fuel, especially water, is oh so important for feeling your best, and doing your best, while running.
• I am making running my half-marathon a reality!

The upcoming week:
Monday: 4 mile run
Tuesday: 7 x 400m at 5-k pace
Wednesday: 3 mile run
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: 3 mile run at race pace
Saturday: 8 mile long run

Enjoy the last bit of your weekend!

Tip 247, from 1001 Pearls of Yoga Wisdom:

Stand firm When you’re feeling a lack of focus at work, think about the stabilizing qualites transmitted by standing asanas. Imagining yourself in one of the Warrior Poses will help to restore a focus to get you through the day.

With today’s to-do list approaching 20 items, I thought I would take a few minutes to recharge and recenter myself.

It’s easy for me to get stressed out and pretty much work myself up into a frenzy about things not getting done or not getting done right, thoughts about if I am prepared for this test or not, am I working on one class too much and getting behind in another, etc. – whew! It’s stressful just thinking about it.

I liked this “pearl” because as I’ve mentioned before, the Warrior series of poses are my favorite. While in them, I feel strong, confident, and capable. This pearl is somewhat revolutionary because it is such a simple, yet effective concept: you don’t actually have to be in the pose to feel like you are. Just something to think about, whether you’re catching up on work from the weekend or preparing to go back to work tomorrow.

This book has so many great little tips. It is great to just flip through and find the ‘pearl’ that applies to you in this moment.

My lunch today looked so photo-ready, so of course my camera would choose that exact time to run out of battery! I had a Gardenburger-hummus wrap with carrots (with almond butter, of course) and sugar snap peas. The colors made the plate really appealing and now I’ve got energy to continue chipping away at my to-do list Good luck with yours!