A Taste of Sparkle

Not me!!

Woke up early this morning ready to get my study on for my Physics quiz today and decided to take a break and go for a run around 9:30. My little temperature thing on my computer said it was about 65 degrees out – great! Oh wait, just kidding - it was mid-80s outside, with blinding sun! I’m sure that is dream weather for some people, but it’s just too hot for me, especially to run in. I had to stop every mile or so and walk.

Another reason why today’s run was a tad rough: I felt the dreaded twinge in my right shin. You know, the one where you start crossing your fingers and whispering “Pleasenotshinsplints” over and over to yourself. I’m going to take it easy the next couple of days, probably do my speedwork on the elliptical or treadmill, and make sure I’m not running on pavement too much. Luckily, this is a week where I don’t have an increase in my long run, so that should help too. I’m not too worried yet.

I did get my scheduled 4 miles done, albeit with lots of walk breaks in between.

After that run, I needed some comfort food! I was craving something COLD.

Bear Naked granola with a Chobani vanilla yogurt (16 g of protein!):

Yum! I love the combination of walnuts, raisins, and dried cranberries.

Afterwards, for something to cool me down after my shower, I had an Edy’s fruit bar in lime. I love these! I bought them to try out last week and they will definitely be making more appearances. I like the other two flavors better, strawberry and wild berry, but this lime bar wasn’t bad either.

Alright, on the to-do list for this afternoon:

• fold laundry
• write up genetics lab
• get caught up with readings for Classics
• yoga (good for a study break: relieves stress and stretches out my tired legs!)

I’ll be back when I’m done (or probably before ).

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!

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!

I took the day off from blogging and exercise yesterday because of an annoying head-cold-y feeling. I went to bed before 10! Luckily, this meant that I was up bright and early for my long run today. I was ready to tackle seven miles!

Last night, I puzzled over how to fuel before/during/after a long run (more than an hour or so). I stared at my collection of energy gels, bars, and chews comparing and researching. Eating should not be this complicated!

I made a plan and stuck with it, and it worked out really well! I felt great my entire run, so I thought I’d share.

I woke up around 6, got dressed, and poured myself a glass of water. I drank about 10 oz. while I browsed some blogs and went down to the kitchen at 6:30. For pre-run fuel, I had a slice of Ezekiel bread toasted with some PB and a banana. I headed out at about 7.

After a four mile loop, I stopped back at my house for about a minute for some water and energy. I had half a pack of Luna Sport Moons (100 calories, 24 g carb). For longer distances I probably will have the whole thing, but I figured with only 3 miles left to go, half was a good amount. Half, incidentally, was four moon-shaped watermelon flavored chews. They come in blueberry and pomegranate flavors too.

I wasn’t expected the best, but I was pleasantly surprised! They were a little chewy, but easy to get down, and they tasted good too! I chugged about a cup of water after and then finished the other three miles.

I don’t know if it was the water or the extra carbs, but I felt so good on the last half of my run. Compared to my 2 six mile runs, where I basically just dragged after mile 4, I was flying! I managed a 10:43 pace easily, and I think my pace for my last six miler I struggled to maintain a 12 minute pace! I’m going to try out a couple other mid-run fueling options before my half-marathon, but I definitely give the Luna Sport Moons two thumbs up! I know my water intake was also important. I think getting some water down before my run was very important.

When I got back, I changed into dry clothes to have breakfast before I jumped in the shower because I wanted to refuel within the short window after exercise that our muscles are most receptive. Research has shown that after a long run, a 4:1 carbs to protein ratio is advisable. Obviously this doesn’t have to be exact, so I just made sure that my breakfast contained a bit of protein and lots of carbs. I had the other half of the Luna Sport Moons and two servings of Flax Multibran with raisins and soy milk. This kept me full until lunch!

Long runs are so important because they are basically a practice run for the race; we get to experiment with what works so that we have a definite plan on race day that will help us do our best! I’m going to experiment more in the coming weeks, but if I had my race tomorrow, I think I’d do fine with today’s plan!

Run Stats:
Distance: 7 miles
Time: 1:15:06
Pace: 10:43

Wahoo! – it’s my first post at my new domain, http://atasteofsparkle.com! I’ve begun the sloowww process of transferring my wordpress.com account over here – and I don’t even have very many posts! I’m glad I’m doing the transferring now. It’s tricky because I’m still figuring out the basics of the internet, haha!

Tonight, the new Harry Potter movie comes out! My boyfriend and his friend are coming up to my school to take me to the midnight showing. Guilty pleasure, what can I say? I’m excited Of course, this means it’s going to be quite a late night. I hope I can stay awake through the movie!

I woke up this morning not feeling so hot, with what are probably the beginnings of a cold. Sigh. I rolled myself out of bed, had a big bowl of cereal, and skipped on to my doctor’s appointment, where I got some labs drawn that my nutritionist wanted to see. Because I am vegetarian/90%vegan, she wants to make sure that my iron and B-12 levels are on track, because I have a history of low iron levels. I should hear back in about a week.

After I got back, I made myself a GM with spinach, a banana, frozen strawberries, flax, and almond milk. Afterward, I felt well enough to get my run on!

On today’s schedule was a 35 minute tempo run. I knew that was going to be a stretch, so I decided to do some intervals, kind of like several mini tempo runs

I did:

• 10 minutes warm-up jog
• 4 minutes fast run
• 2 minute recovery
• 3 minutes fast run
• 1 minute recovery
• repeat intervals once
• 10 minute warm-down jog/walk

By the end, I really wasn’t feeling that great, but I’m glad I went. Now I just have my easy 3 miler tomorrow and I think I’ll be feeling better by then anyway.

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The Nutritionist “Experiment”

As per yesterday’s N appointment, I am experimenting with eating smaller lunches that contain a fruit OR a vegetable, instead of both – the fiber was filling me up way too much to a point where it was uncomfortable.

Today’s lunch was another Gardenburger-hummus wrap, this time with a cup of melon on the side. I also had about a tablespoon of White Chocolate Wonder PB for “dessert”. Again, I was full for about 3.5 hours afterward, which is perfect!

This experiment is really interesting to me because it is giving me an idea of how long my meals will last me, and what to add if I need to make a meal last longer (like when I have labs on Wednesday from 5-9 p.m.!). While we should of course observe our hunger/fullness signals, sometimes it isn’t always possible to follow them completely. For example, when I wake up, I know I need to eat breakfast before I go to class, even if I’m not hungry, because my opportunity to eat is now. I also know that if I’m going to be in lab through dinner, I need to eat a substantial snack. I might feel too full afterward, but I need to remember that I’m not going to have the opportunity to eat dinner for another 5 hours. So, my hunger/fullness cues + my intellect and foresight allow me to develop the best eating schedule for me.

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For dinner today, I tried a new pasta – spinach fettaccini that I bought in the bulk foods section of the Co-op. I’m going to be honest here, I did pick it up at first mostly because it was green

Here it is cooked up with some tofu, broccoli, garlic and olive oil, with some soy cheese on top, and of course, some Green & Black’s dark chocolate for after:

It was yummy, although I think I prefer my usual whole wheat spirals. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit!

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It’s my boyfriend’s birthday on Saturday, and since I won’t be seeing him then, I’m giving him his present today – and I’m excited! Since he won’t see this until after he opens it, I’ll tell you what it is:

Shh! It’s an i-Pod touch! (with some creative wrapping paper )

Talk to you all tomorrow, when I’ll be very, very tired!