The craziest thing I have done for a marathon

 Spoiler alert - its not get up at the crack of dawn to go on 20 mile runs.

So I had a little mini freak out after taking a little forbidden trip to my mortal enemy, WebMD.
More like better panic attacks.
I normally strictly follow my self - imposed ban from that site for a good reason, i.e., I'm the type of person who feels a wierd ache in my shoulder for five minutes and decides it must be cancer. But since I went to Patient First yesterday instead of my regular doctor, and they basically read my xray for approximately five seconds before handing me a prescription and telling me not let the door hit me on the way out, I had some questions about bronchitis. The evil WebMD told me it could take 2-3 weeks to fully heal, and possibly more for people with asthma. Well, the Shamrock Marathon is in 20 days, so that wasn't flying with me.  I emailed my running buddy who's a surgeon for medical advice, and she thought I should be feeling better in a few days, but said to take it with a grain of salt because that wasn't her area of expertise. In the shower I started racking my brain for anyone else I knew who could give me medical advice, other than my doctor who I'd have to wait like 3 weeks for an appointment with. 

Genius idea - my ex boyfriend from college is a respiratory therapist, exactly the kind of medical professional I needed right now! So what if we hadn't talked or had any communication whatsoever in almost three years? There was a marathon on the line so the obvious thing to do was to facebook message the girl he cheated on me with to get his phone number (now there's a good story, and if I don't get any anonymous comments asking me not to put it on the internet, I'm totally writing a post and sharing it), and call him completely out of the blue and when he tried to say things like "good to hear from you, how are you?" just to roll over it with "ya, ya I'm fine we'll get to all that but seriously I need medical advice". Makes perfect sense, no?

The verdict? I'm a complete psycho who should be better after the course of antibiotics (a few more days!). He said I might have a lingering cough but the antibiotics use work pretty well, which is similar to what my buddy Dr. Jackie told me. Also, my marathon coach Marie said that since we are now in the taper, taking a few weeks off from training shouldn't hurt me. Oh, and also even though he cheated on me in college, we're cool now - I mean not on a day to day basis, but as in we eventually left things on good terms and I feel comfortable using the relationship for my own personal benefit. But, it goes both ways. I mean, if he needs to know how to teach someone the long vowel sounds, obviously I'm going to help a brother out.

I got some fun ideas for posts in the comment section, but I can't get to them all tonight...I mean, I need to save something for tomorrow, you know? Kara suggested I continue to talk about my undying love for frosting. Um, I'd be happy to. Just recently, when my family was in Williamsport, my mom's friend had given her some mini cupcakes. They got crushed in transport, so maybe a normal person would have thrown them away. I took it as an opportunity to eat some frosting with a spoon, and leave some cupcakes bald. Here's an Ipod touch photo of the remains.

Yesterday Eric went out to get me some meds and came home with my favorite kind of cookie from subway for me, white chocolate macadamia nut. However, in a shocking turn of events, I was actually too sick to eat AT ALL yesterday. This is uncharted territory for me. Finally, right before I went to sleep (so like 8pm) I ate a piece of toast and some cheerios. The point is, no cookie, I appreciate the gesture and asked him to save it for later. So, today, after dinner I thought the cookie sounded pretty good.

 

I couldn't find it and feared the worst - it had been eaten. A text followed by a phone call confirmed my suspicion. I guess this will be my dessert:

My three favorite flavors. I've been drinking this like there's no tomorrow. Apparently having a 102.6 fever and drinking very little really dehydrates you.

Thanks for all the support and positive comments! I feel like i am back to my crazy sarcastic self, even though I had to take an advil because my abs hurt so bad from coughing. Apparently I need to double up on ab workouts to get in shape for my next bout with Bronchitis.

Trying to stay positive

I have bronchitis. I can't run. I don't know when I'll be able to run again. I'm on a ton of meds so hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. My marathon is in 20 days. Obviously if you read this blog you love to hear me complaining but if I got started today it would be really excessive. Let's just say I have never been so sick in  my adult life.

I know its not the end of the world, I just need to focus on rest, hydration, and getting better right now. Since I can't post about running, any ideas for something positive and fun to post about? Anything you are dying to know about me?

ABCs

This seems like a fun activity when my legs hurt too much to move!

(A) Age: 27
(B) Bed Size: Queen, I love it
(C) Chore You Hate: Cleaning the fridge....so gross and such a pain to take all that crap apart, I'd rather clean the toilet.
(D) Dogs? I'm probably one of the very few Americans that hates dogs. They bite, they smell, they shed. I avoid them at all costs. I don't like when people tell me "oh my dog won't hurt you" because I really don't think the dog has shared his or her intentions with you. Also, the whole scooping up and carrying around poop thing....um, no thanks.
(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: Coffee, I have a severe addiction.

(F) Favorite Color: Pink or purple, the classic girly stereotypes
(G) Gold or Silver? Silver, although my wedding ring is white gold.
(H) Height: 5 foot 1
(I) Instruments You Play: I played trumpet for 7 years in school, good times
(J) Job Title: Teacher
(K) Kids: 20 that I deal with each day, but 0 biological
(L) Live: Charm City
(M) Mom's Name: Joy
(N) Nicknames: A-MAC, Mr. Miller
(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? Knock on wood, none
(P) Pet Peeve: Waaay too many, littering/people not recycling, kids coming up and tapping me, getting an email then finding the email printed out in my mailbox, people talking to me in the morning.....
(Q) Quote from a Movie: "I'm allergic to thinamin!" The Game Plan - watch it and thank me later
(R) Right or Left Handed? Right

(S) Siblings: Younger brother (Logan) and sister (Darcy), plus a brother in law (Brett)

(T) Time You Wake Up? Usually between 5 and 5:30, 6:30 Sat and I sleep in until 7-8 on Sunday
(U) Underwear: Got a whole drawer full
(V) Vegetable You Dislike: I don't like carrots cooked...other than that I pretty much love them all
(W) What Makes You Run Late: Usually reading blogs and drinking coffee is preferable to going to work in the morning....so basically  my lack of desire to arrive at the place I'm headed
(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: ummm mouth, chest, that's all that comes to mind
(Y) Yummy Food You Make: My signature red velvet cookies....amazing

Not the greatest pic, but trust me they're good.
(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: I'm really not an animal person....I figure I do my part by not eating them, so I don't have to love them and provide them with affection.

Amanda is doing an awesome giveaway and I really really really want to win!!!

Why do my legs hurt sooooo much?????

The stubbornest runner ever

 So I woke up this morning and headed to Loch Raven reservoir to attempt my second 20 miler. When I woke up I was hacking up a lung like worse than usual and couldn't catch my breath, so bad that I woke Eric up (equivalent to waking up a corpse) and he tried to convince me to stay home.

I pulled up at the same time as Marie, my coach, and as soon as she heard me coughing she told me not to push it, if I only wanted to do one loop (7-9) miles I'd be fine for the race. We decided to attempt three 7 mile loops for a 21 miler, but obviously that gave me the option to stop early if I needed to.

When I started running, the fresh air helped my lungs a lot. I was taking it super slow, so my running buddies, Mike and Brenda, were ahead of me most of the time, which was fine with me. I liked getting some practice running "alone", without music, so I know I can handle it at the marathon. The weather was perfect and the scenery was gorgeous. Running in pretty scenery makes such a difference, the run seemed so much easier than last weekend.

 Um, check out ONE of the hills. Total elevation climbed was 3095 feet.

 The "Loch" with some random runners that I don't know.

The bathroom....luckily I broke out this little gem:

I felt pretty good up until about mile 12. Then I started the coughing again, my inhalor didn't help, and my IT band was bothering me, which has never happened before. We finished the second loop, I took a Gu, and headed out for the third time. I got about a half mile in before I just decided I couldn't handle it and told them I was done. I headed back to my car for a total of 15 miles.

Despite all the assurances that skipping the run entirely was fine, I'm stubborn and really wanted to do the full 21 miles. I was really upset that I couldn't finish and called Eric in tears when I got in the car. He cheered me up by reminding me that 15 miles is still a huge accomplishment, especially with a sinus infection. A year ago I couldn't have done that distance, and he brought up how far I'd come since signing up for my first half marathon. So, I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to finish, but its better to take it a little easier then to risk getting injured, or just prolonging my infection by pushing it too hard. Hopefully Monday morning I'll be feeling more like myself and I can get my training back to normal.

Tonight there's a UFC match so while Eric and Carolyn's husband John go to watch sweaty man rub each other at a bar, we are having a girls night. Sweatpants required. Makeup forbidden. Carolyn, Casi and I are getting Wegmans subs (I know, I'm obsessed), self serve frozen yogurt, and watching a chick flick....any suggestions?

I'm going to try not to get three weeks worth of calories in toppings on my fro-yo, but no promises.

Higher Education

Thanks for everyone's awesome advice! The consensus of the world's best blog readers, plus my marathon coach, is take today off. In the long run, is half an hour of swimming really going to affect my marathon? In the short run, I could be regretting it for 20 long miles tomorrow. Over the summer, I had friends miss entire weeks (or more!) of training due to injuries, vacations, or whatever. They all did GREAT in the marathon, so I need to remember one week of being sick isn't that big of a deal.

A few people have asked in comments about the degree that I am working on  constantly complaining about, so I thought I'd mention it. I'm working on getting a masters degree in Instructional Technology. Although my whining would probably have you believe otherwise, I actually enjoy learning about all the different technologies that are available to teachers and how they can improve my lessons and provide cool activities to help the kids to learn and use as assessments. However, the reason I do so much complaining is that the class I am currently taking is teaching me none of that, and it seems the professors biggest concern is that we write papers each week in APA format, and post on the group discussion board every single day, not that we actually learn something that we can use in our classrooms. If you can explain how editing a paper for hours so that the APA format is perfect can make me a better first grade teacher, please do, because to me it seems like a giant waste of time. I co-teach with our school's technology teacher, Kristin, who gave me the awesome mug in my last post each week. I have learned so much more in that hour a week than I have in my total of two grad classes so far. I am really hoping that the rest of the program is more of what I thought I signed up for, aka, technology I can actually use to improve my instruction. 

So that's my long winded, probably not very exciting opinion on my higher education!

Tonight I am going to my friend Carolyn's house for a Slumber Party. I'm not going to get into detail due to certain blog readers who are related to me, but let's just say I'm not sleeping over, and I need to bring a credit card. I'm really hoping I don't get made fun of too bad for drinking tea instead of wine.....

Sick running

Conclusion - running with a sinus infection is lame. It results in lack of quality, speed, and overall enjoyment of the run. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, my sinus infection affects my breathing, which makes my asthma act up, so its not exactly a shock that running is tough. But I'm still mad about it. These antibiotics better get themselves to work before my 20 miler on Saturday.

I was supposed to do my dreaded 8 mile tempo run, but I downgraded to 6, then 5, then finally 4 when I had to postpone the run for about 10 minutes due to coughing. And I barely made it through the four, so wise decision. I considered doing a cooldown, but then I realized the whole run had basically been a cooldown. It still felt good to get out there, though.

I did have two pleasant surprises this morning.

1. My friend Mr. Sun is apparently gracing us with his presence in the six o'clock hour now, so I got to leave my miner light at home.
2. When I left for my run at 6:15, there was a package outside our door? What kind of crazy hours does this postman work??

It was my camelbak water bottle!
 
I got it for two reasons. I have really wanted a hand held water bottle for awhile now, for those 6-8 mile runs where the camelbak backpack is really too much, but I still need hydration. I also want to carry disposable water bottles instead of the backpack during the marathon, so I want to get used to it. I also got a good deal on it from runningwarehouse.com.

If you want to know about it, check out Amanda's review. That's what prompted me to finally buy it. She does detailed, excellent reviews that really give you a true picture of the product, as opposed to mine, which are usually one sentence that either contains the word "awesome" or "sucks".

Other randomness - my school does "secret pal" week, which is sort of like secret santa for different holidays, so we did it last week for Valentine's day. Each day you get a little gift, and a bigger one on Friday, when your secret pal reveals themselves. My friend Kristin turned out to be mine and my Friday gift was this adorable mug, which I am using this morning.

So now I have a conundrum - do I try to do some sort of cross training, like swimming, tomorrow, to make up for my lost miles? Or do I take it off like I always do, to prepare for my 20 miler? I need your expert opinions, please!

Reasons you should be like me

Today I got the most exercise I've gotten all week, aka did more than take the garbage out. I actually got off the couch and did things in an upright position, like singing the alphabet song. I probably burned a whole 100 calories all day, huge improvement from the lethargy of Monday and Tuesday. I hate being sick.

I liked reading about everyone's views on working when you're sick. Now I feel like a weenie for staying home. To clarify, on days like today, when I'm just feeling under the weather, like today, I went in. Days like Monday when my head was pounding, I was dizzy when I stood up, it took me a half hour to get the energy to walk to the bathroom and I went through half a Costco box of Kleenex before noon, are days I stay home. I'm probably still considered a wuss but that's how I roll.

I finally went to the doctor, and got some fabulous antibiotics for my sinus infection, so its officially back to running tomorrow! I can't wait.

So the super excitement of my day today, other than putting connecting cubes together into groups of ten, and discussing what I would do if I found a lost bear, was before 8am. After yesterday's snow, I had that super thick layer of ice on my windshield. I was using my super powerful arms to scrape it off, when my boot hit an ice patch and I basically flipped backwards and hit my head on the ground. 

Naturally, my reaction was to be afraid that I'd have a concussion like Dwight on The Office when he goes to rescue Michael from burning his foot on the foreman grill. 

 

I had planned to get to work early to do, um, work, but instead I used the extra time feeling my head, telling everyone my sob story, and waiting for the school nurse to get there and check my eyes. I tried to make sure I didn't call any of my coworkers by weird names, too. I also hit my elbow and the doctor said to ice it, but giving up the use of my arm means I can't blog or eat, soooo....

Oh, to add to my idiocy of the day, I forgot my debit card when I left for school. I figured I could just stop home before heading to the doctor.  But, I forgot I had a meeting after school. I'm in a book club at school for a grad credit that's led by our principal. We are reading a book called "Teach Like a Champion". Not only had I forgotten about the meeting, I had also forgotten to read the chapters, and now I wouldn't have time to go home and had no way to pay my copay. 

Moral of the Story - Alyssa is Awesome at Life

I keep my germs to myself

I didn't even know it was supposed to snow today, but we have another snow day. That's working out pretty well for me, because I have a sinus infection. Thanks to Abraham, George, and Mother Nature I haven't had to take any sick days. 

You know how you have some co-workers that will show up to work coughing, sneezing, pale, and looking like they can barely stand up? You ask why they are there, and they rasp out some explanation about a meeting they can't miss or something, expecting you to be impressed with their dedication to their job. 

Really, you are just annoyed that they brought all their germs in to work to share with you, and you wonder where they got the idea that they are so important that the whole organization will shut down if they take a day off to recover?

Ya, that's not me. If I'm sick, I take a day off. So far, I have not discovered any shocking, irreversible damage that has occurred from this practice. So far, my district and even my school have seemed to function just fine without me and my germs on those days. Still, its nice not to have to waste a sick day and worry about how much my class is torturing the poor sub.

I've been pretty much doing nothing but watching TV or movies, but I have been getting my ab workouts in by coughing like crazy. I think I am going to have to skip the track workout tonight, so I'll try to keep my ridiculous amount of exercise guilt in check. Better to miss a few workouts then to be sick and miss the marathon right? I'm just going to keep repeating "a few missed runs won't derail my training" over and over and over until I start to believe it....

Do you go to work sick, or are you a wimp like me and stay home until you are all better?

I actually have pictures!

Yesterday was my first relay race - the George Washington Birthday marathon relay. Before we started, it seemed like the hardest part was figuring out the logistics. We had a 3 person team, but we each were running two legs of the race to count as our long run for the week. So basically we each ran 2/3s of a marathon, with me driving the car back from the relay point and waiting while my teammates finished the final leg. That took about 10 minutes to come up with.

I ran the first leg (9.7) miles solo, and to be honest, I was struggling with motivation. The whole time I was just counting down the miles to when I saw Mike and Lily, my teammates who would join me for the second leg. The race was just three giant loops around Greenbelt, MD. There were rolling hills and it just seemed tough! I am way too spoiled by always running with my friends. It was also a small race and no one seemed to want to chat with me. I think I kept up a decent pace though.

9:56
9:23
9:48
9:44
10:55 (water/ port- o - pottie break - damn my small bladder!)
9:59
9:42
10:38 (water break)
10:02
12:51 (this was where I hit the relay exchange point, I took a quick break to switch the relay sash, stop at the car to ditch my gloves, etc)

 Looking at these times I'm impressed, I thought I was running slower the whole time!
I ran the next 7 miles with my teammates, we took it a little slower but it was a lot more fun. Even though we weren't talking much somehow having that support just helps.

This race was not exactly terribly exciting. There was no crowd support, and I think the pictures will say it all.

 So we started with this. Scenic, right? I was thinking this would be a pretty race.

 Farms....interesting.

 You know this is always a good sign during a race.

 Can you believe this is only 3 miles from the Washington, DC border? Check out that hill in the background too....

 Ok, still not bad.

 OH, wait, is that a truck coming directly at us on the race course, and no shoulder whatsoever?

 Then we got to see all sorts of scenic stoplights and traffic - just beautiful.

 Team Andy Rooney!! 
 

 Small races have their benefits, but I think I officially prefer races with finish lines like this                                                                  and not this.

   

We also decided that we have the utmost respect for the full marathoners in this course. The boring loops, seeing the mile 24 sign at like mile 7 (then again at mile 15 or something), the rolling hills, lack of spectators, dodging cars...those that can run the full 26.2 here are amazing.  17.1 almost killed me.

After I finished, I had about an hour and a half to wait for Mike & Lily, so I changed and went to the awards ceremony/buffet to hang out with all the 3:00 marathoners and felt super slow. They had vegetarian chili in addition to all the usual post race stuff, so I was in heaven. Have you had a party, and you put food out and turned back to your guests, and the whole tray disappeared before you turned back around? It was like that, except it was just me eating. This race started late, so it was after 2pm by this point, so I was way more starving than I usually am after long runs.

They also had an gorgeous cake, so after staring at the table creepily for like 5 minutes conducting a detailed frosting analysis, I finally picked the piece that had the maximum icing amount to devour.

The relay was fun, but I'm not sure I'm sold on that type of racing. I left my apartment before 8am and didn't get back till after 5 - basically it was a full day of work. That's a lot of time taken away from watching reruns of The Office and reading blogs.

At yoga last week the teacher taught us this awesome tennis ball thing to relieve foot pain and gave us the tennis balls. I highly recommend it. Check out my cute race shirt too, you can't see it but it has a picture of George Washington. In the background is a clue to what Eric does all day while I am running.

 I'll leave you with a little gem I snapped when I looked up from beginning to write this blog post - totally not staged, he didn't even know I was taking the picture. You're welcome.

8 Miles of Misery

I try not to complain about things I love like running, or my husband too often, but even in the happiest of relationships, there are times when you feel less than loving. Running and I had a pretty major fight yesterday. My normal pre - tempo run anxiety had risen to astronomic levels. I had every excuse in the book going through my head before my shoes were even on "I feel sick, one run won't make a difference, I'm tired, I'll just do 5 miles, ok I'll do 8 miles but I'm not making them fast miles, etc etc whine whine more whining". I tried to focus on how great last week's tempo run was but my brain wasn't having any of my attempts at positive thoughts.

But, I knew nothing was really wrong with me so I forced my lazy self outside. The worst part was it was a completely beautiful day and I was totally not enjoying it. There is no other way to describe this run than the title: 8 miles of misery. My legs felt completely sluggish and I could barely even keep up 10:15, so I was a little confused as to how I would be attempting closer to 8:30 for the next 6 miles. Well, here's the times.

8:42
8:52
8:58
9:27
9:15
8:55

Let me just note that this was the exact same route that I did last week where my slowest mile was 8:45. Even though in my opinion these times are pitiful, I honestly felt like I was pushing myself so much harder than last week. This was a rare run where I don't think I enjoyed even a single second of it. But, what am I going to do if I feel tired or whatever during the marathon, just stop? I'll have to push through then, so I considered this run practice for when that time comes. Even though this run was so slow I felt great about forcing myself to finish it even though I constantly wanted to stop.

Only one more 8 mile tempo run, and I could not be happier. This is the hardest part of training by far.

I think this run was a clue that my legs need a break, so that's what I am doing today. I figured out that from last Saturday until today I have ran 50 miles!!!!

I'm sure I've never done that in a week before. 

Sunday, I am running my first relay race, the GW Marathon Relay. I love racing so I am hoping this will be where me and running kiss and make up.

I'm cheaper than you

I realized yesterday that every single blog I read talked about Valentine's Day, and I completely neglected to mention it. Somehow this year I was too busy eating cheesecake and frozen yogurt to remember to do anything special we decided that since we shower each other with love every day who needs February 24th?

I usually have a "heart healthy" party with my class where we learn about nutrition, exercise (dancing to the Cupid Shuffle), and this year we even did some yoga for kids. I ask the parents to send in healthy snacks, and send home a very specific list of what I want. I got potato chips, fun dip, and lollipops. Um, thanks for coming through, parents. You can just have that crap back.

President Obama was visiting a school about a mile away from mine, so I had a secret fantasy that he'd stop in, see my party, tell Michelle, she'd call and thank me for fighting childhood obesity with her, ask me to join her campaign, ask me go to the gym and spot her,  become her BFF....haven't heard from her yet though :(.

So with all that going on, Eric and I didn't really do much other than exchange cards. Last year on V-day we woke up at a friend's house, walked a mile to our car, only to discover it had been towed, and we had to pay a ridiculous amount to retrieve it. So waking up and seeing my car where I parked it, plus getting a funny card, seemed like a win.

So I was pretty surprised at work yesterday morning when this got delivered!

I appreciate both that he surprised me, and saved money by not sending flowers on the 14th. He knows the way to a cheapskate's heart.

Apparently I suck at math, because when I read the email from my marathon coach on my phone at lunch on Monday, I quickly added up the mileage and thought we were doing about 5 miles. Um, not so much. I got there and she told us we would be doing about 7 miles, with 5 miles of just speedwork. At the end, my Garmin said 8.2! 

I also suck at following my blog friend's advice on refueling, because my extra calories consisted of a few whole wheat triscuits with lunch (good) and three of the chocolates from Eric (bad). To be fair, I had two of the chocolates before I knew I was doing more mileage than I thought, so I thought it was just extra fat on my butt, not fuel for running.

We did a latter workout. Here's the email explaining it, with my average pace during each portion. I was mad about annoying stuff that happened at work, and running mad is the BEST way to get speedy, in my opinion!

Warm Up - Run to the Track

Set 1 - 1x through @ 10K/half marathon pace - jog a 400 between each of the below

1x400 (forgot to hit lap button, don't know)

1x800 (8:05)

1x1200 (8:08)

1x1600 (8:18)

 

Water Break

 

Set 2 - 1x through 5K/10K pace - jog a 400 between each of the below

1x1600 (8:00)

1x1200 (7:47)

1x800 (7:34)

1x400 (6:52)

 

Second set is faster then first set, really focus on feeling strong at the end

 

Cool Down - run back to your car

 

I'm proud of myself for pushing it and following the directions so well - when we first started track workouts, I was awful at pacing, and would always go out too fast. I feel like I'm finally getting the hang out it.

I just got back from Body Pump, and that seriously kicked my a$$. I hope the kids don't expect me to move at all today.

I'm easily confused

Ahhh the complete exhaustion of marathon training, that no amount of coffee can cure. Somehow I had forgotten about that, and only remembered the nonstop hunger.

Eric took this picture of me passed out, probably at some pre-school bedtime, like 8pm.

Thanks for everyone's comments on refueling! You guys inspired me to attempt to pull myself together and refuel like a grown up, as in only eating enough frozen yogurt for 3 people, not half my body weight. I'm going to try it. Paula asked how many Gus I eat during a run. On this week's long run I ate 3, during a marathon I think I would probably eat 4. I might have eaten another one if I had known I was doing 22.2 miles instead of 20, but that just sort of happened as a surprise. Maybe 3 wasn't enough though? I liked Kari's idea of second breakfast and second lunch, maybe I'll check that out, instead of one of each and then up to fifth dessert.

Plus, it worked out for Kevin and Pam.

I ran a 7 mile recovery run on Sunday, and a 5 mile easy run Monday morning. That means I ran 34.2 miles in less than 48 hours - WOW. I have no idea what the difference is between a recovery run and an easy run, although my legs felt a lot looser after Sunday's run. I went to yoga at my apartment complex clubhouse last night. There was a sub and I told her about my long run and asked her to help me stretch my legs, and she was amazing. My legs felt awesome after class. I need to do more yoga.

I am totally mystified.  I ran 22.2 miles Saturday, and then run 7 miles Sunday. When I ran 26.2 miles, aka only 4 more miles, in the marathon, I could barely walk a mile the next day, and every movement that required my legs (basically anything more complicated than pushing a button on the remote) was painful.

What is it about the marathon? Why do those 4 miles make such a difference? 

PS - Skinny Runner is giving away an awesome jacket!
 

Refueling

I've been thinking a lot about how I refuel after long runs, and I want to hear what others do.

I run, and exercise in general, because I love it and to train for races, not to burn calories. On weekdays, if I am doing a longer run (like my 8 miler on Thursday) I'll try to just add on a little something extra to each of my meals to replenish the extra calories that I burn.

On weekends though, with that long run, its a totally different story. In an ideal world, I'd be like all those healthy living food bloggers and just add a little extra nut butter to my oatmeal, have an extra serving of whole grain pasta at dinner, and then the usual teeny tiny scoop of light ice cream for dessert.

That's not how I roll. Here's my refueling plan.

Eating my weight in frozen yogurt and toppings. I flipped it over when I got home, I like my toppings on the bottom. It was incredible and even I couldn't finish it, but I got close.
And of course wine. This picture is from after the marathon, but I followed the same plan last night.

Sometimes I feel guilty that I use these runs to finally indulge my massive sweet tooth after trying to keep it somewhat under wraps the rest of the week, and wish I could be more like those "perfect" bloggers. I will say I always make sure I get all my veggie servings in, because I feel like that makes a huge difference in how I feel the next day. But mostly, the day is a free for all, I usually don't even really eat "meals" (except dinner, since I usually cook for Eric & I), I just sort of eat randomly all day whenever I feel hungry. 

My Garmin estimated that I burned 2167 calories during my 22.2 mile run yesterday. I ate about 300 calories before the run, and 3 gels during the run, which leaves me with 1567 calories to replenish, ON TOP of whatever I am normally supposed to eat in a day, and I don't really know what that is, so email me if you do.

For dinner we had burgers (homemade black bean for me, turkey for him), homemade sweet potato fries (with my mandolin, thanks Mom & Vince!), and roasted brussel sprouts.

One cup of brussel sprouts is 65 calories.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY BRUSSEL SPROUTS I WOULD HAVE TO EAT TO REPLACE 1567 CALORIES?????

Even I, who typically can out - eat my husband who weighs over 100 pounds more than me, cannot eat that many vegetables and whole grains. My stomach just couldn't handle it.

 

Yup, you would think he could eat more, but no, it's me. I used to tell myself it was because I worked out. Then he started working out. Now I tell myself he must have had a big lunch.






However, when you start devouring mass amounts of sweets loaded with sugar, butter, and cream (I'm looking at you, cheesecake), those calories come back before you know it. On our runs, we are always talking about what we are going to eat that night, and someone always says something like "and I'm not going to feel guilty!", which implies that we normally would. This isn't necessarily true, but I probably wouldn't have let myself go crazy at the frozen yogurt shop like I did if we had went on, say, a random Wednesday.

But, as Eric pointed out, I'm not an elite athlete or training for the Olympics, so I don't need to eat three boxes of pasta to gain back the calories like Michael Phelps. I have the luxury of eating whatever I want after long runs.

I love running.                                                             I love eating.

Those two go together like peanut butter & jelly. So is there really a problem?

I even have a bondi band that explains "I run so I can eat".

Also, please note, here's a list of things I did yesterday.

• Ran 22.2 miles (can't really say that one enough, still can't believe it!)
• Wrote my first paper for grad school
• Cleaned the apartment
• Made & cleaned up from dinner
• Got my first self serve frozen yogurt

This is the highest number of accomplishments I have ever had on a Saturday, hands down. And I love having a blog, so I can brag about it.

How do you refuel after long runs (whatever you consider a long run, not necessarily double digits or anything)? Do you stick with stuff that's good for you, or eat junk like it's going out of style?