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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

I must have been under the influence....

... of an over-abundance of endorphins. Remember last week when I said that I was looking forward to only eight miles on Saturday? Well, that turned out to be probably the worst walk of this whole training program. I can think of a few excuses reasons:

1)  Allergy season. They keep saying this is supposed to be such a bad season because of the heat and the drought, but until last week I haven't had any more problems than usual. Well, it caught up with me. Back to the Claritin and Flonase.

2)  It was HOT again! Not triple-digit heat, but definitely warmer than it's been. And there was no wind at all (unusual for Nebraska), so nothing helped with the evaporation / cooling factor. If I had known it would be that warm, I would have dressed cooler.

3)  While I have figured out what to eat for breakfast on long walk days, for some reason I switched it up. I don't know why either. You know what isn't good pre-walk? MaryLu's protein pancakes. Back to the PBJ, coffee, and a banana.

That all being said, after consuming my daily allotment of Advil on Saturday and Sunday, I got up yesterday kind of ready for a run. I started off pretty slow but got in the groove after about half a mile and ended up having a good workout.

One of Emily's good friends is eight months pregnant and going through a serious health crisis with her husband right now. I kept thinking of them while I was pounding the pavement, and it was like my friend Mark told me earlier; just dedicate some distance to someone in your life. C. and F., these miles are for you.

I have four miles tomorrow, and then thirteen (GULP) miles this weekend. That is a distance only crazy people run walk. After that, I start tapering in preparation for the half. I have actually been looking forward to tapering since I first read about distance training - that and the carbo-loading. The short walks will be shorter (only three, then two miles) and my long walk next weekend is eight (only eight) again.

I have two possible scenarios for the thirteen miles. One route is actually only twelve miles, but has me passing my car only once (after 7.5). The other is actually13.2, but has me passing my car two times. I don't know if I can trust myself to not stop the second time.

The timing of the walk is another issue. I usually do the long ones on Saturday or Sunday, but we have a dinner to go to on Saturday night, with maybe a more casual dinner out on Friday. Do I do it on Saturday and then feel like crap all day and try to stuff my feet into cute shoes, or do I do it on Sunday, all the while being a martyr on Saturday night and not drinking because I have a big workout on Sunday? What I'm leaning toward right now a doing it on Friday morning. If we do go out on Friday night, I can wear jeans and flip flops, and if I feel really awful, I can just stay home. What to do, what to do?

Okay, food time:

Dwight grilled the best burgers on Friday night, and we must have been hungry because I didn't take a picture. You've seen burgers before. He stuffed them with pepper-jack cheese, and they were the perfect degree of doneness. After decades of using a gas grill, we went back to charcoal this summer, and the taste really is superior. (Gas however, does win in the easy category). He also grilled some eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash slices that I had marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette for about an hour. I've already bought more veggies to grill when we do chicken later this week.

Saturday lunch after my eight-miler was a PBJ, apple, kombucha, and some peanut butter-filled pretzels. I would have been way better off having that BEFORE my workout.



Dwight knew I didn't feel like cooking on Saturday, so while Ernie watched the Ryder Cup:


he went out and picked up some Korean take-out. The beef bulgogi bibimbap was delish, but when I looked up the calorie count and found it was 663, I was really glad I had expended so many earlier in the day! But all that rice counts as carbo-loading, doesn't it?

Sunday breakfast: oatmeal, milk, PB, tsp of brown sugar
Dwight was golfing, and after a few hours of working in the garden, this sounded good for lunch
While okay, it was not fantastic. But do we ever have cherry tomatoes!
Sunday dinner was a frozen California Pizza Kitchen white pizza and a salad. I guess I got my share of preservatives that day.

I can tell that the seasons are changing by the fruit - and the prices - they have (or don't have) in the produce section. Instead of the berries I've been having with my PB bagel thin, I had an orange yesterday.

Still yummy
Lunch was uneventful. I was hungry and just grabbed some fake crab. (We call it "krab with a k" at our house). Some cocktail sauce and cherry tomatoes rounded out the meal. (I wrote "cheery" tomatoes first - kind of true!)  I have really been making sure I am consuming enough water. I fill a pitcher with 64 measured ounces, and have to finish it by bedtime. Fluid consumption has never been a problem, but I think I've been slacking and just want to make sure.


Yesterday's dinner was on of my favorite ways to make halibut. It's a recipe from Cooking Light (where else) that uses real ingredients and doesn't taste "diet", like most of the recipes I've made from that magazine. It's cornflake-crusted halibut with chili-cilantro aioli, and it tastes as good as it sounds. The link will take you to the recipe. It was so good that I had the exact same meal for lunch today, minus the cauliflower and broccoli. And I HATE leftovers. And I REALLY HATE leftover fish! But seriously, this was as good warmed up as it was yesterday.


I found this cereal yesterday when I was looking for granola. I know granola is not the best for you, but I like to mix it into my yogurt. I always measure, because I know myself and it would be w-a-y too easy to  pour myself too much. I don't know what it is about the cooler weather that makes me think pumpkin, but mmmmm....pumpkin....

Tastes a little like a sturdier Cinnamon Toast Crunch
And it WAS delicious mixed in with my key lime Greek yogurt this morning!
Besides the cereal, look what else I found:

This may be the best ice cream in the history of ice cream
Just what you think you should see on a healthy-living blog, right? Again, before you judge, I measured.

Afternoon snack today: coffee and a chocolate-almond biscotti (120 calories)
I know. I am really not denying myself, am I? But I seriously weigh and measure everything (including myself!) and enter it all into the MyFitnessPal app. I always have my phone with me, and the database is so extensive that I have no reason NOT to.

Time to get dinner started!

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