5 at 5

Last night, I was really excited to go to Body Attack, the best exercise class ever. So excited I actually was planning to work out at 6:30 pm, and I am so NOT a night exerciser! Chasing little kids all day saps my energy a little bit. But, I got called in for emergency tutoring (sounds made up but I swear it happened) in the opposite direction, and ended up leaving later than usual so Body Attack was out. In the car I tried to talk myself into the elliptical for a low impact workout but I just could not get psyched up for staring at that little clock for 50 minutes, even with the prospect of a brand new Self. So, I did Jillian Michael's Boost Your Metabolism - such an awesome workout. And today I didn't feel nearly as sore as after the marathon like I did last time -score!

This morning I was up at 4:40 and out the door by 5 for a 5 mile run. This was my first solo early morning run since the marathon. I was nervous it would be tough with the cooler temps (mid 30s when I left), plus I haven't been working out in the morning recently since all the fun classes seem to be at night. I actually felt really strong and had awesome negative splits.
Mile 1 - 10:35
Mile 2 - 10:04
Mile 3 - 9:39
Mile 4 - 9:28
Mile 5 - 9:02

It was one of those runs where I was just loving running the whole time. I only have one early morning running route that is well lit with sidewalks, so I really need to explore the neighborhood because doing that out and back all winter and spring could get boring. I was dying to go to Zumba tonight at 6:30 but my lame grad class professor was talking our ears off about pointless stuff that is so not enhancing my teaching abilities, so I missed it. Sad. At least we have Halstead Zumba after school tomorrow!

I just finished the book The Help. I think one thing I want to do on this blog is review books, since I read a decent amount. Plus then maybe I'll have a log of what I've read, so I won't get to the last chapter of a book and realize I already read it, which has actually happened to me. I would tell you the name of that book but I actually can't remember it. True story. Book review coming!

Post Marathon Long Run

Today was my first long - ish run since the marathon. I met my friend Lily at her house and we headed down to the BWI airport trail to meet some other friends and a local running group. I love meeting new people when running and hearing about their lives, it makes the time fly by! Carolyn got a bit lost and ended up pulling in to the parking lot just as the group was leaving, and we didn't know the trail. This turned into Carolyn's warmup being slamming her car door and we sprinted to catch up. The first mile was 8:57 which was pretty quick considering I was planning on more like 10:30 - I didn't know how my legs would handle the distance, not to mention it was my first cold air long run this year. Luckily we brought the pace down after that and had fun. We met another girl doing the Columbia Irongirl that also doesn't even own a bike and she wants to train with us! I was really happy with how good my body felt doing that distance, it was a bit tough but overall I was able to chat and enjoy the run. I was tired afterwards, maybe more so than the last 10 miler before the marathon. The cold air was killing my asthma which didn't help. I forgot to restart my garmin after a Goo break and ended up missing at least a mile of the run. I got upset at first before I realized it didn't matter. I am not training for anything, this run was for fun, so who cared if I didn't know the exact distance or my pace at every single moment? I really want to enjoy running without worrying about the numbers until I begin training for a race again. We ended up doing about 10.5 miles and were really proud of ourselves. I think keeping up my fitness with an occasional long run will make beginning training again so much more pleasant.

On Friday, during our lunchtime discussion of weekend plans, I mentioned I was doing a "sort of long" run with a new group. My friend asked what a "sort of long" run meant - 5 miles? I told her more like ten, but we were taking it easy. She laughed at me for talking about my "easy 10 mile run", and I realized how CRAZY it actually does sound! I remember when that seemed like a completely insane idea that only super intense athletes would even attempt. I love how marathon training totally changes your mindset.

When I got home I had a salad, but that's seriously not doing it for me so I am about to enjoy some stuffed acorn squash and homemade rice pudding.

Chocolate Addict

Usually I feel like this. I could eat that whole bar and look just as blissful that whole time. I truly wonder if I have a chocolate addiction because it really feels like sometimes I eat a ridiculous amount and can't stop! This article states:

Chocolate is the most frequently craved food in women, and many women describe themselves as ‘chocoholics.’ Chocoholics insist that it is habit-forming, that it produces an instant feeling of well-being, and even that abstinence leads to withdrawal symptoms.

Oh it's habit forming all right! I can shun fried food, takeout, alcohol, etc but when it comes to chocolate I can't say no. I'm pretty much like a little kid on November 1st - I don't want to eat one treat a night, I want to kill that whole bag! Even though I am an adult and I know this will lead to sugar high, followed by the sugar crash, followed by a bloated belly ache, etc etc. But chocolate just tastes so good!

The reason I am writing this is Friday night, I bought some Wegmans bulk chocolate to eat in a movie (yes, I sneak food in, I am not paying 4 dollars when I could pay 50 cents. Also I can't be trusted with movie theatre size treats, see above paragraph). If you are familiar with Wegmans bulk chocolate, you know it's basically heaven in a plastic bag. I picked out a quarter pound of a variety of chocolate covered goodness. Normally, I would tell myself "don't eat the whole bag, don't eat the whole bag" and would inevitable, eat the whole flipping bag. Last night I just went with it and figured I'd eat what I ate. I had three pieces and was satisfied - I wasn't forcing myself to stop, I truly felt I had had enough! For a normal person this probably doesn't make sense but for me it's HUGE. Last night, I had a small serving of froyo, and instead of going back for seconds....then thirds....again I felt fine with one! AND even said I would go with my hubby to get McFlurries but I didn't want one, and that turned in to him flipping a bitch (u-turn) away from McDonalds!

Am I finally turning into a grown up who can eat normal amounts of chocolate and then stop??
Time will tell.....


Drinking my coffee (now there's one addiction I have NO interest in giving up) in my NYC mug this am in honor of the NYC marathon! Good luck runners! Maybe one day I'll be lined up in a corral with them?

Random story - one year I was there for the NYC marathon, visiting my sister, and I didn't even watch it! I did go for a run the morning before and a fellow B&B guest asked if I was running the marathon, so I said yes. At the time, I thought it was hilarious because like I would ever run a marathon!

My Next Challenge

Last week I signed up for my first triathlon - The Columbia Irongirl! It's not until August so I have some time, which is a good thing considering I have biked exactly 8 miles in the past 7 years, I don't own a bike, and I have never swam in open water. It's a sprint distance, which I believe is the shortest tri distance. The swim is .62 miles, the bike is 17.5 and the run is 3.5. I know I can swim that distance at the YMCA, the problem is I won't have a push off every 25 meters in this event. I think the marathon got me addicted to that feeling of accomplishment after doing something that seems so frightening and overwhelming at the start. I actually had a huge fear of bikes since I fell off one when I was 20 and got all banged up and just rode one for the first time since that day a few months ago! So signing up for a tri was a big deal for me. I already told my Dad I need a bike for Hanukkah, so I can start training in the spring! It's weird that I will be completely starting from scratch as far as the bike. You get socks and a water bottle in your swag though so how awesome will that be? Plus it means yet another sticker for my car....

Tomorrow will be my first "long" run since the marathon! Either 10 or 12.5 miles - the email was a little unclear. I'm nervous since I've only done 6 since the big day! This week has been all about the classes. I've been working out but not running. It's just for fun though so I am excited, plus we are trying out a trail I have never been to. Let's hope I still got it. I am creepily excited to get out my running gear, like camelbak and body glide which have been gathering dust for three weeks now. Pretty awesome that the run is at 1pm, now that we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn when it's *only* 75 degrees.

My friend's birthday party tonight combines two of my great loves - 80s music and dancing! Is it totally messed up that I actually am sad I don't have the marathon training excuse for not drinking now? I'll have to make up something else to explain my love for water, since that's all I'm in the mood for tonight.

Millions of Pears, Pears for Me

Let me preface this by saying, while I spent all day having fun at the Marine Corps Marathon with my friends, my wonderful husband spent the day doing the grocery shopping (at Costco on a Sunday, no less) and the laundry - he even folded it! So, clearly I have a true appreciation for all he does for me. However, he has what someone once called "ignoring the BMW in the grocery store". This theory states, if you send you husband to the grocery store and they are giving out free BMWs to every customer, he'll come home without one. Why? It wasn't on the list, of course! Naturally, Eric's slavish devotion to buying exactly the items on the list is my own fault, because I am a super picky control freak and will be upset if he comes home with the wrong thing. But anyway, when he went to Costco, he was unsure if pears/apples meant I wanted one or the other, or both. I was on the metro at the time and not responding to texts, so he got Costco sized bags of both. Then proclaimed he didn't like either and wouldn't help me eat them. So now I have about 10 pounds of fruit and due to my incredible cheapness, it's a race against the clock to eat them all. Literally been eating pear a minimum of three times a day. Here's some examples:

Pear in my cereal
Pear in my yogurt for a snack
Baked pear with vanilla ice cream as dessert
Pear/Pumpkin butter/Ricotta cheese "pizza" (on a sandwich thin)
And my personal favorite:
Millet with blue cheese, pumpkin butter, butternut squash and pear. BEST WIERD COMBO of throwing crap that's about to go bad in a bowl ever! Also includes roasted onions, grape tomatoes, and corn.

I am pretty proud of myself for my pear creativity. I hope they have some super human awesome nutritional powers because if they do I am living until I am 130. Maybe they make you run faster?? The apples seem to be holding up a little better so perhaps they can make it until it's time for Thanksgiving pie?

I did some more Zumba last night. We got a teacher from a local gym to come teach at a church near our school, so we have a special class for teachers from my school! It's a little awkward shaking your ass in front of all your coworkers, instead of a bunch of random strangers. Oh well, it's bonding!

Whirlwind tour

I sort of feel like the past two weeks have been a trip down the memory lane of exercises I used to love but forgot existed in the tunnel vision of marathon training. I LOVE running, but there are a ton of other fun kinds of exercise. Let me give you a look at my whirlwind tour:

In the past week, I have done:
Jillian Michaels Boost Your Metabolism
Zumba
Spin Class
Body Attack
Bikram
More Zumba!

Exercise classes are so much fun and I love making a total fool of myself "dancing" at Zumba. I used to go to Body Attack and Spin religiously and hadn't been since probably June. I'm glad I decided to mix it up, a lot of runners seem really tied to just running but I know for me, I need some variety. I have been using muscles that were basically ignored all summer and last week I seriously felt nearly as sore as after the marathon (well, maybe not). Bikram yesterday was so intense my muscles were shaking like a leaf for the majority of the 90 minutes, but I forgot how great I feel after. I was planning on Body Pump this morning but I think I'll save it until next week - plus I have more Zumba today after school!

Some people have asked if I didn't just want to take a break after the marathon. The truth might make some people want to punch me in the face, the same way I feel when people say things like

• "Oh I lost all track of time cleaning" - um really, you weren't moving at light speed and counting the seconds until you could stop?
• "I completely forgot to eat today" - wow my body has this built in sensor to avoid that, it's called hunger
  
• "that dessert was so rich, one bite was enough" - I have yet to experience this phenomenon. I have met very few desserts where one (giant) plate was enough, much less a bite

Anyway, those are statements that make me want to punch people, but I guess they are true for some. Mine is, I truly love exercise and don't feel "right" unless I get some each day. Not all types, but I have found plenty that are fun. If I ever can't exercise for a prolonged period of time for some reason, the best thing for society would be to send me to do some research project in Antarctica. I get really irritable and basically bitchy, and it would be impossible for even the most patient person to deal with me.

But, despite my reawakened love for aerobics and yoga, I still plan on running at least once a week - training for a spring marathon starts next month!

I'm famous!

I can't believe my story was just on Meghann's blog! I read it pretty much daily and feel like I was interviewed by a celebrity or something! I loved reading all her marathon stories for inspiration during training and try her meal ideas all the time. When I emailed her my marathon story I thought maybe in a few weeks she might put it up. By the time I got home that same day it was posted! I loved actually reading comments since so far there are zero over here on this blog :).

In other news, I got to be a marathon spectator this weekend. As soon as I got home I called my cheering section to thank them an extra time - it was hard work! Two of my fellow Baltimore Marathoners Lily and Jill and I went to the Marine Corps marathon in DC to cheer on our marathon coach and two other friends who were running, as well as the other 22,000 marathoners. I had thought Baltimore was a big race - WOW was I wrong! I couldn't believe how many marathoners and spectators were at Marine Corps - and it's still not even half the size of NYC or Chicago! We originally wanted to see our friends at various points but lack of planning eliminated that option, so we headed straight to the finish. My friend Katylin lives in the area and was nice enough to meet us at the metro station and escort us there.
After an hour or so of gentle pushing and rushing into people's spots the second they moved, we got up to the gate. It was like being at a concert, people were pressing into me from all sides and I couldn't move. We made it our personal mission to cheer on the runners like so many wonderful spectators did for us, and tried to yell out as many names as we could. "Our" runners were so happy to see us. It was seriously tiring though - we left my house at 8am, didn't get back until nearly 5pm and I think I was more tired than after a full day of work. It was intense but so much fun!



We didn't get any trick or treaters (luckily didn't get any candy either or there might be some serious sugar highs in my future) but still had a fabulous Halloween!










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