Day 1/30: So far so good.

Despite the fact that these arrived yesterday, day 1 was a success.

We haven't opened them yet, but the plan is to put some aside for the end of my experiment.  That way I'm not concerned of developing a Girl Scout cookie deficiency over the next year*.

Because this is my first day, I'm including pictures of all my meals.  After today I'm just going to do dinners (sometimes) and possibly my lunch each week.

Breakfast was a variation on what I'd normally eat for breakfast- oatmeal with frozen fruit, almond butter, and protein powder- with the oatmeal replaced by a sweet potato.  Sounds a little strange, but when it's mixed together, it's really not unlike oatmeal.

Lunch was made in a huge batch for the entire week. 1 lb ground beef + 1 bag of stir fry vegetables + 1 acorn squash + 1 bottle Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry sauce = a lot of food.  I like to have a hot lunch- especially this time of year- and I don't mind eating the same thing day after day.  I get variety by changing things up from week to week.

I had an apple and 2 hardboiled eggs for my afternoon snack (you know what those look like).

Dinner was a spinach salad (not pictured, you also know what spinach looks like) with ham and pineapple and roasted butternut squash.

We had friends over last night and served hot chocolate (made with milk) but I avoided temptation by having some dark chocolate chips for desert.

My workout was 8mi with 3x(800,600,400,400).  The first 800 and 600 were slow but most of the rest of the intervals were run in the 7:35-7:45 min/mile range.

Not feeling any different so far, good or bad.

*Like women who get the once-a-year IV treatment for osteoporosis, I need my once-a-year Girl Scout cookie infusion to keep a minimum level of caramel and coconut in my blood stream.  Maybe I'll take Jess's suggestion from yesterday and go on an all-Girl Scout cookie diet next month.  They have a lot of flavors...

And now for something completely different

The hours are long but the weeks are short.  That sums up my life right now.  Although I'm happy with my work/life/rest balance, I feel a little... bored.  I haven't blogged most days because I haven't felt like I had anything new to say.  It kind of stinks because I actually enjoy writing and blogging, but I need something new to say.  Also, I don't feel like I have a theme or any special characteristic that makes my blog stand apart.  I'm not not super fast or fashionable or a gourmet cook or really funny, and I don't have a job that interests anyone other than me.  I'm not trying to whine, but that's just kind of how it is.

So I was thinking as I was walking home from work last Thursday, "What is there about me or what could I do to make my life more interesting and give me something to blog about?"  And then I realized I did have something somewhat interesting going on.  I hadn't shared anything about it on the blog because it's kind of weird, but what are blogs for if not *over* sharing crazy personal information?

Scroll down to the ***  if you want to see my announcement but have no desire to read anything that says "digestive issues".

This is going to be a long post so I'll start at the beginning.  In the beginning I was an allergy kid- pollen, dust, probably pet dander- all the "nerd" allergies.  I never had any problems with food except that I would get a raging headache sometimes from something in Pizza Hut pizza.  In 9th grade, sitting in English class (the period after lunch) with a horrible stomach ache, I discovered I probably shouldn't drink milk anymore (although I do eat ice cream and cheese from time to time with mixed results).  I also developed eczema on my hands sometime in college, and as an adult I still have random digestive issues and occasionally get this sunburn-like hives thing after eating (whining and oversharing- you lucky reader, you!).  The moral of this story is that people with weird autoimmune things tend to have a bunch of them, and it's a problem I really haven't grown out of.

*** Okay you are safe now.      

I'm about 3 years behind all trends (I was too embarrassed to post that I got my free sample case of Pom two months ago! - it was tasty- thanks, Pom people) so it makes sense that I'd get interested in the paleo diet now rather than back in 2007 when it was all the rage in the body building/ cross fit community.

That is a bean with a gun.
There is actually a movie called Killer Bean Forever.

Google "paleo diet" if you want.  There are a lot of gurus and practitioners who have different ideas of exactly constitutes a paleolithic diet, and there's a healthy dose of weirdness about how it will straighten your spine and make you less nearsighted.  But if you boil away all the crazy, you're left with the idea that some people with digestive and autoimmune weirdness have really good luck with removing "neolithic" foods- mainly grains, legumes, and dairy- from their diet.  Plus, there are a couple of high level triathletes who- after the burn in period- claim to have seen great improvements in their training.

I've been curious about the whole thing for awhile but afraid because it would mean a huge change in the way I cooked and ate.  Plus it's not like I have celiac disease or some kind of serious condition where I have to avoid wheat or another kind of food.  On the other hand, what would it hurt to try?  In my reading about the subject, I've found that people definitely have an adjustment period when they start the diet, but there's not much out there about what that's like for endurance athletes.  

So starting today and for the next month (most of what I've read says you should give it an entire month before you decide if it is working for you or not) I'm going to try to go grain, legume and dairy free.  Although that removes a lot of carbs from my diet, I'm definitely not trying to go low carb and will be taking advantage of all the squash, sweet potatoes and apples (plus other fruit) that are plentiful this season.

This is still not a food blog, but I plan to focus more on food pictures than I did before.  I'm going to talk about how it affects my training and if I see changes in my body and how I have to modify recipes and navigate restaurant menus.  The experiment will be over before the holidays so I can decide I think it's bunk and go on a pancake bender or if I think it's great and have some strategies in place so I don't drive my family crazy with dietary restrictions and requests).

Stay tuned for tomorrow's summary of Day 1.

Girls on the Run Race Report

I can do it in two words: cold and wet.

But if you want more:

The highlights:

• The race was surprisingly well organized.  When I drove up it looked like total chaos, but picking up my race bib and bag was really fast and easy.
• GOTR is a great organization.  I did dance and softball when I was in elementary school, but I'm sure I wouldn't have been motivated to run/walk 3 whole miles- especially not in the cold rain- at that age.
• Picking off one elementary schooler after another going up the second hill.
• Beating everyone under the age of 12, which exceeded my original race goal of beating everyone under the age of 8.
• Checking "5k" off my list of race distances for the year.
• The fact that my old 5k PR was so slow that even in nasty conditions I was able to eke out a tiny PR.

The lowlights:

• The weather.  Two cold, rainy races in a row is enough for me.  I'm going for just cold at the Berbee Derby.
• The start was kind of chaotic, but I was able to sort of sprint out in front of it.  
• My time: 24:07.  Rain, cold,  hill, not my day, whatever.  I've decided the nice thing about having run 9 races so far this year (I will finish 2010 with 10, woot!) is that I don't have to care that much about any individual race.  I have confidence that I can run in the low 23 range but not with 10 extra lbs of weight from soaked clothes and shoes.

 And that, as they say, is that. 

Girls on the Run Race Preview

It has been a crazy busy week this week.  We've moved from grant writing season to abstract writing season and all of a sudden I have several new projects at work.  Plus we've had meetings or events every night this week.

Makes me feel like this guy:



In T-minus 3 hours I'll be running my first and last 5k of 2010- The Girls on the Run 5k.

I'm not sure how big the turnout for the race will be (especially with the weather- kind of rainy and gross but fortunately not cold), but I'm hoping to run into both Jamie and Jessica.

I've never done this race before, but it's for a good cause, and I've raced basically every other distance up to the marathon this year so I thought I'd go head and throw a 5k in there, too.

Plus, my 5k PR from a 5k race is pretty old (24:11 set in fall 2008), and provided nothing crazy happens I think I should be able to beat it pretty easily.  I ran a 23:21 in the first 1/2 of the Bellin 10k (the best race of running career), and I'm not sure if I can beat that.  The McMillan Race calculator predicts a 23:31 based in my recent 15k time, which I felt was a well run (by both me and the organizers) but hilly race.  I feel like I tend to be able to run a bit faster than the predicted paces in shorter runs and a bit (or way in the case of the marathon) slower in longer races.  I've heard the GOTR course has a couple hills at the beginning, but I've gotten less concerned about hills thanks to almost a year of consistent strength training (read: lunges).  So in summary, I'd be happy to beat my 2008 5k PR and double happy to beat the one set in the summer.

Do I look sufficiently girly for a Girls on the Run race?  I feel like almost all my race pictures show me wearing this skirt when I actually don't wear it much at all.  I normally run in Nike tempo track shorts, but with the stitching on the inseam...woe be to her who runs in them when it's rainy or humid.  And since it is the former this morning, I'm sporting the skirt.

The rest of the day promises to be busy, but I'll be back with a race report tomorrow afternoon.  Have a great Saturday, all!

Mother nature: Such a tease

I realized that this post is totally meandering and only semi-related to the title, so I'm adding in subject headings to try to bring some organization to this party.

Weather
Light out half way through my run?  High of 70(!!!!!) today and 68(!!!!!!) tomorrow?  We're definitely getting spoiled.  It's going to be really painful when the first snow dump comes.  The only time I'm having buyers remorse on this whole "going off daylight savings" thing is at 5pm when it looks like it's 8pm.

I never realized why it was so easy to gain weight in the winter until I moved up north.  Because it's dark, your body tells you it's dinner time at 5pm and because it's cold it tells you another dinner at 8pm wouldn't be a bad idea.

The only thing I miss a little about running in the dark is scaring rabbits with my headlamp.  It's only fair because before I had the headlamp fixed they did a good job scaring my with all their rustling in the woods and sounding like zombies and ax murderers.

The raccoons, however, don't scare at all.  They just look at you with those beady eyes that say, "Chill out, light lady, I know where you live."

Exercise
I was going to take advantage of the warm weather and light do 5x1000m yesterday (seemed like a good speed workout for the week before a 5k race) but sadly when I walked outside I realized my GPS battery was totally dead.  I had charged it over the weekend, but sometimes I accidentally turn it on somehow and kill the battery.  I recharged it again yesterday and it seems to be working fine now.

I still wanted to get in some kind of quality workout so I did 8mi with 4mi tempo.  I know where all the mile splits are on my routes that I run regularly so I didn't need the GPS for that.  I was sad that I didn't get any of the mile splits, though, because I felt strong the whole way and think I kept a good pace.

This morning I'm headed to the gym before work.  I've decided to tinker with my workout schedule once again.  After the marathon I decided to do weights Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning so I could still run 5 days a week and take Sunday completely off.  Having tried that for a few weeks I've decided I really don't like having to go to the gym after work.  It's randomly crowded, and I always feel pressed for time getting home and getting dinner ready, laundry done, etc. especially when we have to go somewhere.  Plus I like to have the time to do other non-exercise things I enjoy like yoga (this is sort of exercise related, but not the way I do it!) and practice piano.

So the new plan is just four days of running- one speed, one tempo, one medium long, and one long with two days of lifting and one day of rest.  For me I think that the important thing is mileage in each run rather than overall weekly mileage.  Is this schedule pretty light compared to a lot of people out there?  Yeah, but I think it's going to be a good balance for me, and I'm trying to be okay with being different.

Plus it gives me an extra morning to work on the blog and see what crazy stuff comes up when I google image, "One of these things is not like the other."

Cooking  
I'm cooking again!  Yay!  Actually I was cooking before, but I was feeling less than motivated to post about it on the blog.  Not sure why, but in any case, food features are back.

This weekend I channeled my inner convenience food loving 50's housewife and put together this barbecue beef pizza for Daniel's lunch.  Why barbecue beef and not chicken?  Because that's what I made for dinner, and I used a little bit of the extra for the pizza.  The sauce was made using a recipe that I thought I remembered that Daniel said he remembered from the sauce our host made at the Halloween party: 1 cup BBQ sauce, 1 cup catsup, 1 can cranberry sauce, 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Not the healthiest thing in the world, but it turned out pretty good.

I also made cottage pie from this month's Cooking Light  to take with me to work for lunch this week.  The whole recipe makes 4 Chelsea-sized lunches and one dinner.

Mmmmm... broiler crunchies.

Well, gotta go!  Time flies when you're uploading pictures.  Have a good Tuesday, all.
  

Diary of a Wimpy Runner

I really can't complain because it's November, and I haven't seen so much as a flurry of snow, but still... it's getting chilly out again.  I have toughened up a lot since my days running in Florida.  Back then if I saw it was 27 degrees out, I would deem it "way too cold" and go back to sleep.  Now 27 degrees means "put on capris because it's still a bit too warm for pants".  Still got some time before my long run route looks like this again.

For those Midwesterners/ New Englanders who are totally unimpressed that I am so impressed with winter... too bad!

While my core temperature is okay on all my runs, my hands got pretty cold during my long run today.  Time to bust out the second layer of glove/mitten action and maybe even the Hot Hands.  Unless someone wants to get me a pair of these for Christmas.

Just kidding... if I fell in the snow these babies would probably electrocute me.  Plus I bet they are made out of lead.

 My goal- as it is every winter- is to keep running outside as much and as long as I can.  I know at some point I'm going to have to take my speed and tempo runs inside, but I'll wait until my innate wimpy-ness kicks.  You know it's nasty out when the treadmill starts looking really appealing.  

Well, gotta go!  It's time to make dinner.

10 Things

I actually had a real post in mind (that I was finally going to write sometime this week), but after reading the 10 things post Sarah wrote, I thought I'd do one of my own.  I'm stealing this list of questions from The Glorious Pursuit of Life, (a new blog discovery for me today) because I had a hard time coming up with 10 things myself.

Do you still use a checkbook?

Yep, my landlord would be pretty unhappy if I didn't.  

What size shoe do you wear? 

Anywhere between an 8 and a 9.  I have big feet for being an otherwise little person.

Scary movies or happy endings?   

Movies that last less than 90 minutes (the absolute upper limit of my patience to watch one thing).  To actually answer the question, I absolutely hate being scared.  I cover my eyes when a commercial for a scary movie comes on.

Do you prefer spontaneity or stability?  Stability.

Who 'dat is?  My baby daddy.

  

What is the most embarrassing cd that you own? 

DJ mix 1998.  (Good news, you can still buy it on Amazon)

Do you watch reality tv? 

College football

What is your favorite home-made meal? 

Beef stew

Do you have any allergies? 

I have all the nerd allergies to things like dust and pollen.  I also may or may not be allergic to some kind of food (Trader Joe's tomato products???) because every once in awhile I get hives after I eat.

If you could open your own restaurant/store, what would it be?

A make-your-own soup place called Souped Up (bet you forgot about that, Daniel!).  We'd just have to work through the issue of not having our customers leave with 3rd degree burns.

  

Would you ever go skydiving (or have you been)?

I've never been.  I'd probably go, but I wouldn't seek it out.