Goals This Week

Last week I did ok on my Goals board. While I kept my carbs low, I did eat sugar twice in the form of 88% dark chocolate and once in hoisin sauce (I am counting it because there was so much sugar in it that it had more carbs than my chocolate).

I became a bit de-motivated to do my strength on the weekend since I wasn't running. It kind of deflated me and I just didn't care as much. I did do stregnth twice on Friday, though!

I was consistent with my HRV training and did at least 5 minutes a day, and did a 20 minute session on Saturday. I think the combination of keto, exercise, and HRV training is doing great things for my mental health, energy, and creativity.

Writing every day has been a great addition to my weekly goal board. I've produced much more blogs for our business than in the past and I love that. I also have some work projects that nrequire mostly writing to get done in the next week so I will be writing a lot. I hope the lack of running doesn't hurt my creativity too much this week.

Goal Board Daily List

Write
HRV/Meditate
Carbs Under 30
Cardio and Strength

-Switching the food one from "No Sugar and Under 30g Carbs" to just the 30g carbs. I'm not in the mood right now to go completely without sugar (my 88% dark chocolate is the only sugar I eat).

-Cardio and Strength is new this week instead of just strength. Gotta force myself to do something else in place of running until Wednesday.

Weekly Lists

Work:
Finish Spectating doc and FAQ.
One race plan per day for Chattanooga athletes
Email each client with thoughts on upcoming race and/or off-season

Household:
List 3 things for sale
Cook one thing kids can eat for breakfast (granola, muffins, something like that)
Go through Jack's clothes and get rid of small summer stuff

Family:
Go to the YMCA with Andrew and put Jack in the daycare
Send Andrew a card in the mail
Write each kid a short note for lunch box or put on their steering wheel

Long Term Progress:
Call one of the following: fencing company, insulation company, or someone with a backhoe
Begin to formulate plan to Buy Nothing New and cut expenses

Training Week Recap #12

Oh, how I hate to say this. I had to take some days off of running due to my foot problem. I saw our chiropractor on Friday and was told there is a 50-60% chance that my injury is a stress fracture. It could alternatively be soft tissue stuff, so I am supposed to do some self-ART on it every 2 hours.

Doc also told me to lay off running but that I could run if running didn't make it worse. I don't think the running is making it worse but to be safe I am taking 5 days off. I think that's all I can handle mentally right now and I am hoping (really, really hoping) that it's not a SF and that the ART is working to fix it. It hurts like heck to manipulate it and my foot is more sore now than it was before, but hopefully in a good way??

Earlier in the week my runs had been consistently going great. My times are coming down really nicely thanks to the weather and I felt strong out there.

Anyway, so that means I missed a 2 mile run and my long 6 mile run last week. And I will probably skip my long run this week as well, just to be safe. I plan on trying to run again on Wednesday and in the meantime find motivation to get on the bike, which so far is non-existent.

Not much else to report. I love both my new Merrells. I'm losing weight very, very slowly. I'm still only down about 2 pounds total as of this morning and I've been keto for a month or so. However, my brain is working really well and that is motivation enough to stay ketonic.

I'm going to make a new post for my weekly goals from now on.

Training Week Recap #11

This was not the best but not the worst week. I'll bullet point the good and bad:

• Had a great long run this week thanks to cooler weather. Ran 6 miles a full MINUTE per mile faster than the same distance last week! It was first thing in the morning after one cup of bulletproof coffee and my energy level was great.
  
• Stuck with 20 miles this week just like I was hoping too.
  
• Am seeing my pace slowly, slowly creep back down as I get more keto adapted and the weather is slightly improved.

Bad:

• My foot. My foot. My foot. Ever since I had a stress fracture in my foot back in 2008-9 (can't remember exactly), I have had trouble with foot pain when I try to start running longer distances again. When I had the initial injury, it was caused by a sharp increase in miles, running a half marathon I wasn't trained for, changing my stride, and running in Newtons. I haven't run in Newtons since then but just recently decided to give them another shot. Well, here I am about 3 weeks later with pain in my foot so they are never going on my feet ever again! Never ever! I just ordered 2 pairs of zero drop Merrells that should arrive in the mail today. One of them has a 14mm sole and the other is 6mm, I think. I also saw a woman wearing Nikes that looked like exactly what I want to replace my current 2 year old pair that is literally falling apart this past weekend. She told me she found them at the Nike outlet so I will be heading there this week.
  
• I'm still not losing weight so it's time to make some adjustments. I'm no longer nursing Jack at all so my calories need to go down and I need to be a bit more pure with the foods I choose to eat. I felt great when I was doing strict Paleo, although I wasn't weighing myself at all. I still feel good (my brain does well on keto and I tend to have more energy) but I think all the cheese and a lack of veggies weighs me down a bit. Gonna focus on eating more veggies this week. 

Since my foot was bothering me this week, I stuck with 20 miles for the third week in a row. While on my long run I had a sharp pain in my foot at mile 2 and my first thought was that I had suddenly for sure gotten a stress fracture as I had to stop running. But it quickly subsided and I was able to finish the run just fine. My best guess at this point is that I am prone to have soreness and inflammation there and I have to manage it wisely but that the pain is not necessarily from the bone. I will continue to be cautious this week and may stay at 20 miles yet again if it seems the right thing to do.

I added a page to my weight spreadsheet to log my running. One thing I decided to do was calculate my average pace for the week to help me see improvements over time rather than day to day. I was hoping to find some motivation there but it wasn't as black and white as I thought. It's got to have more to do with the weather at this point than my diet.

Goals for this week:
Stay smart with the foot and see improvement in how it feels.
Try to find new Nikes and try both Merrells.
Run first thing in the morning when possible.
Go to yoga class with my husband one time this week.

Stuff I Cooked This Week

Stuff I made this week:

Low Carb, Gluten Free, Grain Free Pizza

I've made a variation of this before from a Reddit recipe but this was by FAR easier to deal with and just as tasty. I made this in my cast iron skillet and it took maybe 10 minutes. A keeper. I didn't feed it to my kids but I shared it with Andrew and he liked it.

Chicken Strips (again). 

Split Chicken Breast and Broccoli Casserole. Nothing special here. A decent weekday meal but I'd like to experiment more with the chicken.

Ahi Tuna Steaks. Yum. As easy as it gets and done in 5 minutes.

Shrimp Scampi. I ate mine with spinach instead of pasta. This is a super-simple and quick recipe.

Alfredo Sauce. I ate mine with broccoli, bacon, spinach, and cubes, cooked chicken thigh meat. This is in regular rotation in our house (about once a month).

Training Week Recap #10

This was a tough, tough week. I'm not getting decent sleep, which is Major Problem #1. Jack has slept pretty horribly this week and we have had more stress to deal with in the house as well. Friday night was the worst - I don't think I slept longer than 2.5 hours at a stretch the whole night, between picking up Tom from band at 12:30 in the morning to Jack sleeping in his crib and spitting his pacifier out every hour or so...ugh. Or maybe is was earlier in the week where Jack cried until 11pm and I spent the night sleeping on the couch while trying to pacify him in the swing, outside, etc.

Not that this should be surprising, but when you have sick kids at home, a baby that isn't sleeping well, a kid that is grounded, major stressful kid-related decisions to make, a cross country meet and a band event back to back, trying to run 20 miles, a husband who is sleeping worse than you, and miserable heat and humidity, YOU TEND TO FEEL RUN DOWN! And boy did I feel run down. So much so that I took my first day off from exercise since July 2nd yesterday (Saturday). I was so tired from the night before and then being on the go from 5:45AM-2PM that I just sat on the couch watching football for the rest of the day. Plus it was storming.

BUT BUT BUT, I did get my 20 miles in. BUT I gained weight this week and I am not sure yet if this is a temporary hormonal issue or something else, but we shall see what happens this week. If I feel like keto isn't cutting it, I am happy to bump my carbs up to 50-100 and see what happens. I'll still be plenty fat-adapted at that range. Keto has to be working on all levels to make it worth it - mentally, physically, etc. While I certainly enjoy eating all the fat and dairy stuff, I can go back to high fat/low carb paleo, too. I just don't want to do keto paleo as it's way too hard without dairy fat.

This week I will probably stick with 20 miles again, since my body is struggling a bit with the mileage and I am in no hurry to bump it up and rush things. If I can get more sleep I hope I will absorb the training better and be able to move up in mileage next week.

On Being Disillusioned

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts while I run lately and my new favorite is The Angriest Trainer podcast. While I totally love it and the content, it's also got me thinking about how I don't think I can ever go back to being a personal trainer or doing sports nutrition consults ever again. Why? Because when they cover listener questions, it's always, always the same thing that I faced when trying to get people to change the way they freaking eat. And it always will be. 95% of the people you coach/train won't accept that there are no tips/tricks/hacks/shortcuts to success with weight loss.

Food and what we eat is such a powerful issue that most people can never permanently re-frame how they interact with food. Our culture makes it impossible to be normal AND healthy and thin, and the 95% continually battle between a desire to lose weight and a desire to be healthy. A sense of entitlement and the "I deserve a treat" mentality is always battling "I want better for myself". Future vs. present, will-power vs. rationality.

When I new to teaching my Boot Camp class, I remember reading something along the lines of this: "bad personal trainers make their workouts too easy for their clients". I found myself doing that over time with my Boot Camp class as it was a small class and everyone had gotten to know each other so well. It's so hard to push someone to do a decent pushup or squat when they have been coming to your class for a year and just.don't.give.a.shit how good their squat or pushup is.

I will tell you - it was SO hard for me to accept that I was no more effective than the next guy because all my clients were just like most of the population - feeling the health benefits of exercise and being a bit stronger but not looking any different because the dietary changes weren't there (or weren't there consistently enough). And that failure was very dejecting. I wanted my clients to be successful but in the end MY definition of success was not theirs. They just wanted to hang out with their friends and work out. That's fine, but it wasn't what I envisioned for myself and for my desire to change people's lives.

My position now is that how I feel about food and fueling sports is very, very rarely mentioned in public or in my job as a coach. I would rather keep my thoughts to myself than tell a client what they need to do to lose weight and have them ignore it because it requires real and lasting change. I hope some day that will change and I can be more vocal but that will have to wait until I work through this disillusionment in some way.

My Keto Weight Loss 2012

I found my weight loss tracker from when I went ketogenic for the first time back in 2012. At the time my weight had creeped up to 148 pounds and my clothes weren't fitting. I found a lot of great resources on Reddit in r/keto, which is where I found this spreadsheet. Every day I logged my weight and my data from My Fitness Pal.

As you can see from the spreadsheet, I ended up losing 11.7 pounds in 81 days (11.5 weeks), a very reasonable 1 pound per week average loss. I did not exercise at all during that period and my weight at the end was perfect. All my clothes fit me very nicely and I felt great.

This time I am 10 pounds heavier at the start but I am also exercising (about 20 miles of very slow running a week right now, which is about 4 hours for me). I don't believe that exercise is a good way to lose weight, so I am not sure if this will help with the weight loss or hurt. I am running because I want to be in shape and I am "dieting" because I want to lose weight. The two may or may not work together - only time will tell. I am also still nursing but just barely. I would say I am about 90% formula, 10% breastmilk at this point.

I would love to be at my goal weight by the time I run the marathon, but I have 22 weeks and 25 pounds to go. Like I said, I have no idea what affect the exercise will have on the weight loss. It'll be fun to find out, though!

It is a blessing to be in the middle of a big goal. The finish line is over-rated. I much prefer being in the trenches and being challenged both mentally and physically in the pursuit of something.

Here is my old spreadsheet.
Here is the new one. 

Stuff I Cooked This Week

I'm going to try making this a weekly post to keep track of the things I make for dinner, mostly. Sometimes I'll make an awesome new dish and forget about it. I have so many recipes stored in different places - bookmarks my computer, my All Recipes.com Recipe Box, a binder full of magazine recipes and old family favorites, cookbooks, pictures of recipes I take with my phone, etc. Maybe this way I can remind myself which ones I liked best.

Stuff I Made This Week (and last week, too):

Pulled Pork with No Sugar BBQ Sauce. Andrew liked this a lot, kids ate it and liked it as well. I didn't like it as I was tasting it from the slow cooker but I think that's because I wanted it to taste like my favorite, sugar-filled pulled pork and BBQ sauce. When I ate in out of a bowl for dinner it grew on me and I ended up liking it for what it was.

Pasta with Meat Sauce. I actually didn't eat any of this but the kids did and Andrew likes it. After trying many different recipes for meat sauce (which I eat in a bowl on a bed of spinach), I have settled on this recipe as our favorite.

Bulletproof Ice Cream. No sugar, made with gobs of yummy fat from butter, eggs, and coconut oil. Sweetened with zylitol. I didn't like it very much but the texture was great and it allowed me to have something cold and chocolaty with blueberries and heavy cream on top. The kids liked it, Andrew didn't.

Paleo Chicken Fingers. I've made this twice in the last two weeks. It was a hit. A little too spicy the first time so I lowered the amount of cayenne the second time.

Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs. This was awesome. I made for Andrew and I on a night the kids weren't here. It was delicious and Alex enjoyed it as leftovers the next day.

Quiche with Coconut Flour Crust. I ended up eating most of this myself, which was fine with me. Served as my breakfast for a few days. It's kind of dry. There is no reason to make a crust other than just feeling like it. Usually I make crustless quiches.

Chicken Strips. Another hit with everyone. This one was fried instead of the other one above that was oven baked.

Skillet Burgers. I've never made burgers on the stove before and these turned out great.

Training Week Recap #9

20.7 miles! Now what?

My goals last week were to run 20 miles and do the loop, both of which I accomplished. I feel good about hitting 20 miles and I am trying to hold onto that success instead of thinking about how slow I am. Sometimes I have a moment of weakness and wonder what the point of running 20 miles at a 12:15 pace is. It's not surprising that I would have moments where my faith in the process falters. It's a long process and my job is simply to persevere. The ultimate goal (which I realize I haven't really articulated to myself) is to run the marathon as a fat-adapted athlete at my pre-baby weight and at a decent pace. What a decent pace means is unclear right now. There is just no way for me to predict how I will adapt to the training and eating LCHF. But I guess I would rather be a slower runner and not have to eat sugar than a faster runner dependent on carbs and dealing with stomach issues and weight gain.

Anyway, I hit 20 miles this week and it's left me wondering what is next. I think it's time for me to change up the way I do my training. I'm running too many 3-4 mile runs to get to a weekly mileage goal and it's time to adjust to a more balanced approach. When I say balance I mean less mid-range runs and more of a mix of long, short, and medium. It's just very hard to do this when your long run is only 5.5 miles! I think it will become a viable option once I hit 7 or 8 miles and can do something like 8,

More thoughts on this past week:
Had a lot of evening runs this week and it was very stressful to try to sneak out the door at dinnertime. It's SO much better to run in the morning!
I accidentally wore my size large skirt for a 3 mile run and got severely chafed! It's so important to wear the right size. You wouldn't think a skirt that is too large would cause more problems than a too-small skirt but if it's too big the shorties underneath ride up.
I lost 1.5 pounds this week.

Next week's goals: 6 days of running as 1:2:3 ratio of long run (6), Medium runs (4) and short runs (2). That will get me another 20 mile week but in a healthier fashion.

The Loop

I did the loop today. As I wrote about before, the shortest route we have to run from our house is a 5.2 mile loop (5.4 from the beginning of our driveway).  I've been "looking forward to" the day when I would be ready to run the loop and this week I anticipated my long run would be 5.5 miles.

I have only run the loop once before and that was last year in June when I was a few days away from finding out I was pregnant. I ran the 5.2 in 54:52 (10:33 pace) and noted in my training log that I had to walk ONE hill and that it was a terrible run. Today I ran the loop and had to walk numerous times up numerous hills. My pace was 12:10 or so. So yeah....a lot slower. While I am happy to have hit this milestone, it is a little bit of a bummer how out of shape I am.

On the run today I had to ponder just how much slower it's taking me to get back into shape now than it did last Spring. I had some fitness in me a year ago since I was still teaching Boot Camp and riding with the group, plus I weighed 20 pounds less but I sure didn't feel like I was in shape at the time. However, when I decided to get back into shape by following a simple triathlon training program (which I began on June 20, 2013), I got back up to running the 11 mile Canal Loop at Land Between the Lakes within about 6 weeks! Not to mention the improvements I saw in cycling and swimming.

Now here I am 9 weeks into training again and happy to have run 5.5 miles at a 12:10 pace. Haha! I probably haven't been this out of shape in a decade but at least I am working my way out of this hole. Having a goal that means something and that requires a good amount of physical and mental energy is really a blessing. Life just isn't quite as interesting when you cross the finish line.

Because I Have To

I'm sitting here staring at a blank screen because one of my daily habit goals is to write every day. But I don't quite feel like using this blog as a diary and I don't have time to write anything useful since it's 5 minutes till bedtime and I still have to meditate (another daily habit goal. WHY do I wait until it's almost bedtime to do 3 out of my 4 daily goals??)
And now my Podium Leg cycle is over so it's really time for me to go. So...
Dear Diary,
I ran today at 1pm and it was SO hot. However, I ran sub 12 minute miles for 3 miles so even though I felt very sluggish I would like to see this as a sign that I am getting keto-adapted. I certainly felt like I was getting there yesterday - more energy, better mood, etc.
My poor kids had to run Cross Country practice from 3:20-5:00 so I shouldn't complain about the heat.
The End

Training Week #8 Recap

Well, you already know that running was rough for me this week since I accidentally gave up caffeine Tuesday-Saturday while also keto-adapting. But it ended on a surprising good note. I felt much better on Saturday (even without caffeine) and had a decent run. I felt good on Sunday, too, which allowed me to get to 19 miles for the week!

I had a long run of 5 miles (longest run to date) on Tuesday. It was slow as heck but I got it done. My pace has shot up by about 1 minute per MILE now that I have to stick to strictly aerobic running (until I become much more fat adapted I will have to stay totally aerobic). I was starting to get runs in the 10:xx range and now I am back to 12:10-12:30. I know that if I stick with it those paces will keep dropping, so I'm not too preoccupied with the numbers.

Also, I weighed myself this week. I know I said I was going to wait a bit longer but I felt like it was needed to make sure I was getting my macro ratios correct. I was prepared to see about 165 on the scale and it was 160.4. That translates to about 20 pounds to go to where I was when I got pregnant and 25 to go to be where I like to be. I was happy that the scale didn't mess with my head much as that was my biggest concern. There has never been a doubt in my mind that I will lose all my pregnancy weight so there isn't anything to get emotional about - it's just a matter of time. In the past when I had to lose weight I would go through a long denial phase where I avoided the scale and tried to pretend I hadn't gained much weight and that feels a lot different emotionally than where I am now.

My goals this week:
Run 5-6 days
1 bike
Reach for 20 miles if it feels right
Try the loop if I am feeling good (wasn't able to do this last week)

My REALLY stupid mistake

Last time I wrote about how absolutely terrible I was feeling during the second week of keto adapting. I speculated that it was due to exercise and nursing a baby and that those factors were making it harder to adjust. Well. Guess what I discovered this morning? On Monday when I went to the grocery store I accidentally bought decaf coffee. Freaking DECAF COFFEE. And I drank that decaf for 5 days without suspecting anything was amiss. Almost my entire second week of keto adapting I was also in caffeine withdrawal. Doh!
As soon as I discovered this I headed straight to Starbucks and got a grande Americano with steamed heavy cream and now all is right with the world.

Getting Keto Adapted...Again

I've done Keto before so I didn't think it would be tough to adapt again. The last time I did it, though, I wasn't exercising and I wasn't nursing a baby. Now I'm running about 15-20 miles per week and I am having the WORST TIME getting adapted. It's been 2 weeks and the last few days have been the worst. Some issues I am having:

I have napped every day except for one the last 2 weeks
I am achy and my runs have slowed by 1 to 1:30 per mile
I am crabby
I am constipated

So yeah, it's going just great. I am really working on making sure I drink enough water, drinking Nuun at least once a day or having chicken broth, eating tons of veggies, and just plain eating more food. I think the higher volume of food is making the most difference right now. I/m easily over 2000 calories per day now but I think I need it!

It's so hard to keep trying when I feel so terrible but I have to give this a fair shake. I may feel bad now but I really, really don't want to have to eat a bunch of sugar and sports nutrition to get through races and workouts. And that's why I am doing this. I want to be ale to run and not be a sugar addict. I see too many of my athletes struggle with weight, stomach issues, and the inconvenience of eating (and carrying) hundreds of calories per hour and I don't want to do it. I want to run without compromising my health.

Hopefully things will get better soon. For now I am surviving day to day and running 12:30 miles followed by a nap with the baby.

Training Recap - Week #7

What a week! It was full of new challenges:

1. I bumped up my mileage. I had been at 15 miles for the past 2 weeks and went up to 18.5 this week.

2. I got new shoes and have accepted that my old shoes are no longer being made. I am now running alternate days in Newtons and my old Nikes that I have worn for a couple of years now and love.

3. I started eating high carb/low fat again so I am struggling with perceived exertion now that my carbs are hovering around 50g a day.

Details:
I had a long run of 4.5 mile early in the week and it, like most of my runs this week, was a challenge. Not only am I fat-adapting again but the weather was tough. This week will have some cooler days so I hope to get in my long run then.

ALSO, I hit 30 days of running today (Monday) and I am ending my streak now so I don't get attached to it. I think the 30 days of running was a great way for me to get back into running and exercising, but it's time to move on. After much thought it finally hit me today as completely obvious what my plan will be for the marathon and it's super-simple. I will be doing nothing but building an aerobic base. Why? Because this is only my first race back after many years of being out of the racing mindset. This is a starting point for me so I need to treat it as a beginning, not an end. When I am done with this marathon I want to have a strong aerobic base to move on to Phase 2, whatever I decide that should be. If I try to follow a marathon training plan that is too advanced, I might sideline myself. Plus I want to prove that I have the patience to do this right, with a long-term mindset of health, strength, and continual improvement.

What this means for me right now is that starting with my next run I have to slow down. No more moderate intensity for me and of course that is going to suck, but being a coach has given me the perspective to see what happens when you don't have the patience to do things right and when you drive and competitiveness work against you. I want to be a good example to my athletes. My plan is still developing but I think I will settle into 4-5 days per week of running and fill in the other days with cross-training. Not really interested in taking days off as that hasn't ever worked well for me. Hopefully I will have this more mapped out by next week.

Goals for this week:
don't run at least one day this week
try the loop - the shortest loop I can run from my house is 5.2 miles. I have been waiting 7 weeks to be able to NOT do an out and back run!
Decide on testing protocol to establish zones - heart rate or pace and when/where to test

Looking forward to another week!

Training Recap Week 6

I have run 22 days in a row - at least one mile per day. Managed to keep the streak going through the weekend in Chattanooga during our training camp.
Also stretched my long run to 4 miles. Had decent weather this week so I was able to front-load the week with higher miles so I could just worry about squeezing in one mile on the days I was working in Chattanooga.

Everything feels good. It's been 6 weeks since I started exercising again so I think it's time to slowly move into the next phase of training. By 8 weeks I anticipate being a more formal training schedule and will also be getting a new GPS watch and some new sneakers. I am still running in my 2 year old Nikes that aren't even running shoes - just a minimal every-day shoe I can buy for 55.00 at any shoe store. I am also going to be experimenting (again) with fat-adapted training so this week I will begin logging my food on My Fitness Pal to monitor carbohydrate intake.

One thing that happened this weekend that has lit a fire under me was seeing myself in full length mirrors all damn weekend. I don't have one in my house (best decision ever) but they are everywhere at the hotel (in front of each elevator and in the room as you exit the bathroom), so I saw myself all the time and I wasn't too thrilled with that. I didn't think I was as fat as I am. But at least now I know and can work a bit harder on the weight loss. I'm debating whether it would be in my best interest to get on the scale. It's been about 41 weeks since I stepped on a scale and I had planned to lose all my baby weight without the stress of seeing those numbers on the scale but now I am wondering if that is helping me be a bit lazy when I could be losing the weight faster if I was monitoring it closer. The debate goes from "you can't change what you don't measure" to "I am a crazy person and I know that weighing myself will cause stress and an unhealthy focus on weight loss". OK, I think I just talked myself into staying off the scale for awhile longer. It's not worth it. I'll just log my food instead and hope that is enough to see some noticeable change.

Lastly, Andrew and I started a habit calendar 3 weeks ago. We list 3-4 habits we want to encourage that week on a white board and mark it off as we do it. My three things have been run, strength, and meditate, all of which I wanted to do every day of the week. Andrew's were run, strength, meditate, and read but he is more moderate with his targets and aims for 3-5 days per week of each. We take a picture of the board at the end of each week and then erase it and start over. I really like sharing the board with Andrew as it encourages us both to work on our daily rituals and it's fun to mark stuff off every day.

Training Week #5 Recap

Another 7 days of running - that makes 15 days in a row and 32 out of the last 36 days! I'm pleased with that and definitely feel that running every day is much easier mentally than running 3 or 4x a week and having the "freedom" to decide from day to day whether to run or not.
I had a few highlights this week:

1. I can wear my Medium running skirts now so I now have 3 bottoms I can wear instead of 1. I've noticed that the legs of the shorts under the skirt ride up if the size is too big and that's happening with my Large skirt so I may have to make that a walk-around skirt soon and retire it from the running rotation.

2. I had my first run with a pace that started with a 10:xx. It was only a 1.2 mile run but it was the last one of the week and in the afternoon heat after I spent the day outside at a race. Also had used our new Podium Legs for the first time the night before.

3. Managed to bump up the mileage of my long run to 3.5 miles due to correcting the issue from last week. I made sure I had short runs and long runs this week and that allowed me to get in a 3 miler AND a 3.5 miler (the cooler weather helped a lot as well).

4. Mileage went up to 15 miles.

I'm struggling with music. I love running with music but I don't NEED music to run. The problem I don't really get into music unless I am running and I haven't done much running the last few years so all my music is old. I've spent the last 1.5 years purposely not listening to the radio (I like to avoid advertising if possible and am too cheap to pay for XM) so I only listen to podcasts in the car. I also don't have time to browse iTunes since I have a baby so I have tired using Pandora. I find it really annoying, though, to not know from song to song if I'm going to be assaulted by Britney Spears and it messes with my running mojo. Pretty much the opposite of what music should do for exercise.

And now it's time for my Monday morning run...until next week.

Training Week #4 Recap

I finally got to my goal of 7 days of running but I am not sure it did me much good. I wasn't able to do a long run this week due to fatigue from running 2 miles just about every day (one day was less and one day was more but the rest were all 2 miles).  This coming week I need to force myself to have lower volume days (it just sucks to have to go down to 1 mile again) so I can bump up from my long run of 3.
I also didn't have any great runs like I had last week. Those special magic runs are elusive. But at least I did run 7 days. Let's see how long I can keep the steak going.
Mileage went from 11.1 last week to 14 this week.
I am losing weight still, I think. Andrew bought me some new pajama pants this week and they were a Medium and fit perfectly. But I have felt bloated and puffy, too. And craving some weird stuff like potato chips that I never eat.
Thinking of what I want/need to get back into serious running: shoes, another sports bra that fits, a GPS watch. Maybe after 6 weeks of training I'll start to spend some money.
This week I want to run 7 days and manage a decent long run of 3 or more miles.

Training Week #3 Recap

It was a good week. The high was getting in my first 3 mile run AND it was my first "I love this. I could go forever" run since I started running again. That was a great feeling and really motivating. I can't wait to feel that way on a real long run, like a nice 20 miler in great weather...ahhh....

The low was my crappy 1.1 mile run in Pigeon Forge in the evening after a full day of walking around Dollywood. That was just as bad as it sounds, although I was proud for getting it done! And then the next day I took the kids on a 2.5 mile hike (with Jack in a carrier on my chest) and we got caught in a downpour that lasted for the last mile or so of our hike. That meant I missed that day of running because I didn't do it in the morning and I couldn't do it in the evening because my shoes were soaked. So my (unstated) goal of running every day of the week so far has not happened.

My mileage was 11.1 miles. Only one run with Jack in the stroller and it was a short one because he cried.

I've noticed some things about running in my neck of the woods. I live in the country but just barely. My road is suburban enough that it has yellow lines down the middle but country enough that people ignore them when going around turns because they assume nobody is coming in the other direction. I don't have shoulders and I don't have sidewalks so I have to be mindful and make sure cars see me. Also, since it's the country there aren't a lot of people out walking and running (although my street gets a good amount of cyclists).

What I do to make myself seen and to get my neighbors used to seeing runners is to simply wave at everyone as they pass me. It's hard to be annoyed at someone who waves at you. But what I have sadly noticed is that the guys always wave back and the girls are only about 50/50. Also, the female drivers are much more likely to not give me plenty of room, to not slow down, and to be talking on a phone and just half-paying attention to the road. I find this all really annoying and sad.

Marathon Training - My First Two Weeks

I signed up for the New Orleans Rock and Roll Marathon. It's not until the end of January but I am starting not just from zero but from, like, negative 300 or something. I haven't run a single step since (I'm looking this up) July 15, 2013. Almost exactly one year ago, when I was about 6 or 7 weeks pregnant. And if you know me at all, you know that when I am pregnant I gain a shit-ton of weight. I stopped weighing myself at 20 weeks, at which point I had already gained roughly 25-30 pounds. I am still 20-30 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight (this is a total guess since I am still not weighing myself) so here is the math:

no running for 50 weeks +
20-30 pounds of extra weight +
sleep deprivation from having an almost 4 month old
=
-300

The good news is I am running again and I am losing weight. I'm eating pretty darn good and things will get better if I just keep truckin'. So here is my recap of first 2 weeks back to running on my journey to a marathon in January.

Week One: Baby Jack is 15 weeks old and I am finally sick of myself enough to go on that first run. It ended up being way more horrendous than I thought it would be. I made it 8 agonizing, horrifying minutes before I had to walk but I struggle on for a total of 2 miles. I realize that 2 miles is too much and decide for the rest of the week I am not allowed to run more than 1 mile at a time but I will try to run every day (consistency over mileage).
I then run 4 more times during the week, 1 mile only. Missed 2 days in a row when we were in Chattanooga, but I did at least walk a lot both days.

Week Two: I decide I will run a minimum of 1 mile and a maximum of 2 miles total per workout, still aiming to run every day. I skipped one day due to a complete meltdown from exhaustion (Jack's apparent 4 month sleep regression had arrived). I also experimented with run/walk intervals of 8/2 for most of this week. On that last day of the week I ran the entire 2 miles non-stop. This week I also finally started running with Jack in his fancy Mountain Buggy jogging stroller. He seems to like it!

Did I mention that I am running 12:20 miles? Did I mention that I only have one running skirt and one running bra that fit me right now? Did I mention that it's the middle of summer in the South? But it could be worse - I could still be back on Day One. Instead, I am starting my third week and just barely starting to feel a tiny bit better when I am out there. It's progress!

My Themes for 2014

I'm on a three year roll of January goal setting and reflecting that has truly made a difference in how I live my life. This year one of my goals was to read 100 books, which I did (113). By the end of the year I started wondering if 2014 should be a year where I focus my reading more in a specific area in order to develop deeper understanding and thinking on certain topics, rather than the wide range of non-fiction I read in 2013.
After pondering this for awhile, I came upon some anchoring ideas that I want to focus on:

1. Banish Confirmation Bias

2. Explore Meta-Cognition

1. Banish Confirmation Bias. My goal here is to prove myself wrong as often as possible. Last year I read a lot about how we make decisions, how we process information, and the mistakes we make in thinking. I want to try to put that to work for me in some tangible way, and I figured the most bang for the buck would be in the area of confirmation bias (only seeing and seeking out information that supports your current beliefs). Just yesterday I cam across this awesome blog post that put my thoughts into words and included these quotes from Richard Feynman:

• "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."
• "We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress."
• "I’m talking about a specific, extra type of integrity that is not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you’re maybe wrong."

Yes! That is my year in three quotes. Guess I should start by reading some more Feynman. Another quick little blog post I followed from the first briefly details some further thoughts in being wrong by Jeff Bezos:

"He’s observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary."

In practice, proving myself wrong will mean, well, I don't really know. But hopefully having it on my mind more will allow it to become a thought that I can be conscious of in the moments I need it rather than in hindsight.

2. Meta-cognition, which is most simply defined as "thinking about thinking". I really, really enjoy reading about how the brain works, how we think, how we decide, how we process information, and different philosophies of living the good life. Of the last 120 or so books I have read, I've only paid money for two of them, and they were both bought after I read a library copy and knew I had to have my own as a reference for living. They both address meta-cognition but in different ways:

Thinking: Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I've also learned this year that it really does pay to read about ideas straight from the scientists who do the research. I guess I had a bias toward academics and considered science writers more likely to write enjoyable books, but I have found that to be untrue (proved myself wrong!). While I do enjoy books by science writers a great deal (a recent favorite was How Children Succeed by Paul Tough), I have yet to be disappointed by going to the source after reading about it in a more general science book. You will read about Kahneman a LOT if you read books on thinking and decision making. Just go and read his book instead. It's amazing.

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. Oh, this book is so darn good. It was so good that it inspired me to start keeping a writing journal so I could easily reference the best parts of the book over and over. My #1 take-away from that book was that the path to happiness comes from subtraction, not addition. You can do more for your health, your relationships, your work, your home, and everything else by removing iatrogenics (things added that frequently end up causing harm, like medicine) rather than by adding things you think are good. Subtraction is more potent than addition. 

Of course, my two themes are totally inter-related. Part of meta-cognition is understanding confirmation bias. Thinking about thinking is the broader view, while battling confirmation bias gives me one area to play with putting meta-cognition to work in a tangible way to make my life better.