After reading No Meat Athlete’s Roadmap and Eat and Run by Scott Jurek I have been trying to add some of their diet suggestions to my daily life. I’ve been adding Udo’s Choice Oil 3-6-9 to my morning protein shake and I’ve been eating more avocados. Tonight, bored of my usual, I conjured up some avocado couscous for dinner. I gobbled it all up before I could take a photo…
Whenever I mention my weight online I feel like Bridget Jones.
Today’s Weight: 154.6 pounds
Optimal Race Weight: 120 pounds (or less)
Happy Weight: 130 pounds
I’m doing it now because I just finished reading the intro e-books for Run Your BQ and one of them mentions that for every 2 pounds of extra weight your carrying around that 2 seconds are taken off your pace. Well, since I am currently 24.6 pounds over happy weight, I am also 49 seconds slower than I should be. And I am a full 60 seconds slower than I was last season (2011). That actually coincides perfectly. My average overall pace was about 12 miles and its currently over 13. I am slow.
I feel obsessed with those 2 seconds per pound now, just like Bridget Jones was obsessed with bad Christmas Sweaters or women’s magazines or something. I read that book so long ago. Perhaps I should also chronicle my alcohol units per week and my propensity for over the top swearing.
I’m not one for making lists, especially bucket lists, which is a term I wish would disappear (I certainly don’t understand making a 2013 bucket list. It’s supposed to be things you want to do before you die. Not in the next year. Unachievable, amazing things you probably will never get the chance to do I digress.) I don’t really make resolutions either. If I want to do something, I just make it happen somehow. This year, I have a goal, a quest for 2013. And it doesn’t even end in 2013.
I am not training very well or very hard for the Tinkerbell Half. Life has gotten in the way. I am getting a few miles in when I can and when it’s not ice raining. I know I should suck it up and run in the rain, as I live in Seattle, but it’s 36 degrees. But a couple days ago, I strapped on my headphones and blasted the running mix (I’ve been slowly rebuilding it since my iPhone 5 ate it) and went a running.
My goal for the end of this season, my off season, and next season is to keep running up the hills in my neighborhood. I am the master of avoiding hills, because in Ballard if you make the right turns you could always be running up hill both directions. Instead of winding around the hills, I am running straight through them, right on up the hills. There is only one that has me beat and I’m making it 3/4 of the or more up before I have to stop. I will make it to the top.
With that aside, I went running. It was cold. It was wet. It was windy. It was beautiful out still. And as I pounded the wet concrete, I found myself smiling. Yes, smiling.
Don’t tell anyone. I think I might hate running slightly less than I used to.
This update is long overdue. I’ll start the story quick. I ran the Disney Dine & Wine Half with the flu. Don’t do that. Don’t ever do that. I survived. It didn’t feel good. I was sick for, oh, three weeks….and that brings us to Las Vegas.
I’ll write a full recap later, but this was another slow finish–3:08. I expected it. I haven’t run hardly at all since the Dine & Wine. It took me a while to get over the flu, and it was raining hard lately in Seattle. The last thing I wanted was to get sick again or sicker. I didn’t so much as taper as just not run at all. I did do a couple short 2-3 mile runs and the Turkey Trot (which I was definitely still sick for). My sore throat is gone finally, having disappeared around Thursday, so I’m going to step it up and train hard for the Tinkerbell Half. I will come in under 3! It might be 2:59.
In short, Vegas was great. I was slow but felt great. Took plenty of time out to take photos this time!
…I leave for Vegas tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be spending a couple days in Zion National Park with KH before meeting the team in Vegas. Having been slow fully recovering from the flu, I haven’t been training much, so I don’t expect a major time improvement. I have about six weeks between the Las Vegas half and the Tinkerbell half, so I’ll kick up training so I can kick some butt at Disneyland. Six weeks should be plenty of time…
I am just $75 away from raising $10,000 for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation through my Team Challenge fundraising and training! That’s amazing. It’s also just 3 $25 donations or 6 $13.10 donations (that’s just $1 for every mile I’ll be running in Vegas!)
http://www.active.com/donate/seaLV12/kmacris
My mom’s guts thank you!!!!
Road ID is one of those stocking stuffers that a runner will love but probably wouldn’t buy themselves. Not that they/you shouldn’t. You should. But it’s one of those things we don’t normally think about. Kind of like carrying an ID in the first place.
There’s a whole ton of versions at various price levels, but all let you carry your name, address, phone number, and emergency contacts easily, just in case you end up in a ditch one day. Personally I like the bracelet, but they also have dog tags, a ankle band, and a shoelace band–something for everyone. Whichever you choose, they offer a comfortable way to carry ID while training or racing.
It takes about three days to laser engrave your band and get it in the mail, so you have plenty of time to order before Christmas. That’s why I’m bringing this up; they are having a sale right now. www.RoadID.com
Get 20% off all Road ID gear with promo code pcGiftFB204. Expires at the stroke of midnight tomorrow November 27. www.RoadID.com
In case anyone ever tells you its okay to run a 1.2 marathon with the flu, it probably isn’t going to kill you, but I definitely don’t recommend it if you have another 1/2 marathon to run three weeks later. It’s 10 days since my first symptoms (and the 1/2) and while my sore throat, fever and general flu symptoms are gone. My body is a wreck. My bones still ache and I’m still exhausted. It probably didn’t help that I still had three days of vacation left and a very, very long day of traveling to get through. All I want is like four days of not getting our of bed. All I want is to go run six miles. Conflicts!
