Austin Marathon Expo & Race Recap

I’m going to start with the expo.  The expo was great!  I wish I could have gone the first day so that I could have gotten a couple shirts I really wanted but by the time I got there Saturday afternoon, they no longer had them in my size.  I did score 2 Austin Marathon vendor shirts that I like very much. 

When I was walking into the events center where the expo was held, I saw people leaving, carrying their gear check bag with their participant shirt in it.  It was bright orange.  When I saw that, my initial reaction was, ugh, ugly!  So, when I got to the back to pick up my packet and I unfolded my shirt and looked at it…I changed my mind.  I did like it after all.  The half marathon shirt was a dark blue with the same design on the front, it just said “half marathon” instead of “marathon” on the back of the shirt.  I have to say that, since the design on the front was mostly in different shades of blue, that I didn’t like it so much on the half marathon shirt.  I like it much better on the bright orange marathon shirt.  The contrast just looks better to me.  The half marathon shirt was, well, bland since it was all just different shades of blue.  Oh and there was also like neon green on the marathon shirt.

On top of the shirts I bought, I also bought 2 more of my favorite Hippie Runner gear belts and a bunch of gels.  They had this gel, huma, that I’ve never tried before.  It has chia seeds in it.  So I got one of every flavor to try later.  Nothing new on race day, so the saying goes.  I’ll try them on training runs.

The shirts I wanted to get but was unable to get them in my size, one was a purple tank with pink piping that had an outline of the Texas state capitol dome with “come and run it” underneath it.  The other was just a short sleeved version of the white one I did get.

My day before race food consisted of meeting a friend at Olive Garden for lunch where I had risotto balls with marinara sauce, shrimp alfredo, salad, and apple bread pudding.  MMMM!  It was so good!  For dinner, I had a taco salad from a little mom and pop Mexican restaurant.  I said it after the Dallas Marathon and I’m going to say it again now, shrimp alfredo is my go-to day before a marathon meal.  It might not be a good idea for you, but it works for me and that’s what matters.  You gotta find out what works for you and then stick with that.

 
Here's my "flat me" from the night before the marathon:

On to race day!  I woke up around 5am.  I had already gotten everything I would need for race morning ready and put together the night before.  So, all I had to do was get dressed, grab my stuff, and drive to where I was going to park.  Since the race started in downtown Austin and I work in downtown Austin, I just parked in the parking garage for my work.  YAY!  Free and hassle free parking!  It was about an 8 block walk from the garage to the start line.  I missed a text from my running friend, Rob, to meet up before the race started.  A little bummed about that.  I would have really liked to have gotten a pic of us together and for him to take a pic of me in my outfit for the day.  Oh well.  We will run the same races in the future again, so we’ll have other chances.

When I got my Polar m400, I found that it has a finish time estimator function, so I had my m400 on my right wrist with the finish time estimator running so I could make sure I was still on track to finish in the time I wanted to, and my Garmin on my left wrist with the current pace and lap pace showing so I could keep track of how fast/slow I was going.  Right before the race started and I was setting up the finish time estimator, once I plugged in my distance, the display said “Start Marathon.” 

Another running friend of mine, Kirsten, is a member of the local Rogue Running group.  She had access to a pace chart calculator that was customized specifically to the Austin Marathon course.  She plugged in my goal pace for the race (11:15 min/mi) and it generated split times for the whole race, everywhere from a slow starting pace of 12:15 per mile down to 10:30 per mile during the downhill miles.  It all averaged out to 11:15 per mile if followed exactly.  I did my best to follow it as precisely as I could.  I did start running a little faster than the chart called for during a few miles just before the halfway mark because I realized I was going to have to stop and use a port-a-potty.  I wanted to make sure that I had time to use the restroom and not mess with my goal finish time.  I succeeded in putting enough time in what I started calling the “bathroom bank.”  Haha!

It was a little humid to start, but after I got running, the wind picked up a little bit and the humidity didn’t bother me at all after that.  Also, my left knee had been hurting for a couple days.  I’m guessing it was my bursa because it just started hurting randomly when I was just sitting down at work.  The same thing happened when the bursa in my right hip got all inflamed a while back.  But, as soon as I started running, the pain in my knee went away and stayed away.  One of my coworkers joked that my knee started hurting BECAUSE I was just sitting down…it wanted to be running!  HA!  I like that.

At the halfway point, shortly after I used the port-a-potty (oh and opened the door to some guy using the bathroom because he forgot to lock it), a friend from work was on the sidewalk waiting for his wife who was also running the marathon, so I ran up to him and got me a high five and a little pick-me-up because I saw a familiar, smiling face. 

Let me back up a little bit to around mile 6, I think.  It was the first real hill of the course.  It’s where Cesar Chavez meets up with Lake Austin Blvd.  It definitely doesn’t look like much at first glance, but then you try to run up it and it catches you completely off guard and it did just that to me and it slowed me down a lot more than I thought it would.  So I had to pick up the pace as we ran down Lake Austin Blvd.  When we turned onto Enfield, we went up a couple more hills, but I didn’t let those ones catch me off guard.  I held my pace steady and checked my Garmin for my pace frequently as I powered up the hill, breathing mindfully the whole way up. 

I really liked running through the neighborhoods.  The residents were amazing and super supportive.  A lot of them had little tables set out with oranges, cookies, pretzels, water, beer, mimosas, and all sorts of fun stuff on them.  They had fun signs and cowbells and clappy things and other noise makers.  One resident had set up sprinklers for the runners to run through at the curb in front of their house.  Kids were lined up along the side of the street for high fives.  I made sure to get a lot of those.  I’m not a kid person, but I LOVE getting high fives from kids when I run races!  Also, I got a high five from a dog as we ran up S. 1^st St, near Oltorf St.

There were quite a few really original and fun signs along the course.  A few of my favorites that I was able to remember were:

• chafing the dream (I saw this one a few times, actually)

• even Kanye thinks you’re a winner

• get your medal before Kanye gives it to Beyoncé

• Brian Williams remembers running beside you

• don’t be a Seahawk, run it!

There were a few others that were really good, but apparently I can only be expected to remember the wording of 5 different signs.  Ha!  If I had been running with my phone in my hand, I could have taken a picture of all the signs I thought were really funny.  But, I don’t like running with anything in my hand. 

The water stops were well spaced and right when I would start thinking “man, I could sure use a drink of water,” there would be a water stop right around the next turn.  It was great, you could always tell there was about to be a water stop because they’d have one of those blue kiddie pools with a sign that had a downward pointing arrow on it that said “wrapper drop” so that there was less course clean up needed.  The volunteers along the course were great!  They were hollering out words of encouragement the whole time you were running past them.  They were all very positive and happy to be there.  And let me tell you, there is just something to be said about having your name printed on your bib.  You run past people and they yell out “great job, Sara!” and the like.  It’s very motivating.

Because of my whole “padding the bathroom bank” before mile 13 where I ran a couple/few miles faster than the pace chart said to, I think I hit a little tiny bit of a wall around miles 17 and 18.  Those were right in the thick of a course of 11:15 paced miles.  I remember thinking, “how am I going to go any faster than this?”  However, when the time came a couple miles later to pick up the pace, it was no problem.  In fact, I had keep forcing myself to slow down because I was going TOO FAST!  Every mile or so, the pace would drop according to my chart and I would run faster and faster.  I finished strong…very strong.

Just before the finish, the course went through the University of Texas at Austin campus.  There was a long line of UT students in the school color (burnt orange) t-shirts with “RUN!” screen printed on them.  They all stuck their hands out and I high fived almost all of them!  They were very enthusiastic and motivating.

When I crossed the finish line, they called my name out over the PA system!  I love it whenever they give me a shout out at the finish line.  Once I crossed and stopped both my Garmin and my m400, I started looking for the people with the medals.  They were actually quite far away from the finish line, it surprised me.  For a brief moment I actually thought that the medal people weren't there and that I wasn't going to get my medal.  Then, I found them!  I got my medal and I love it!

I finished in 4:56:00, according to my Garmin.  My Garmin logged me at 26.6 miles (my m400 logged me at 26.3 miles) so that gave me an average split time of 11:06 per mile.  But, that same 4:56:00 per the Austin Marathon gave me an average split time of 11:18 per mile.  Either way, it was a great time and I am very happy with it.  I honestly couldn’t be more happy with my performance at the Austin Marathon.

After I made my way through the finisher’s area and had collected my bottled water, my blueberry bagel, my granola bars, and my bag of jalapeno queso potato chips, I made a beeline for the massage tent.  You know how most races will have a free 5-minute massage tent, well, this wasn’t a free massage tent.  These were 10, 20, or 30 minutes massages.  The 10 minute was $20, the 20 minute was $30 and the 30 minutes was $40.  I had $30 with me so guess what I got.  It was amazing.  As I sat in the tent waiting my turn on one of the massage tables, my leg muscles did start to get really stiff, but by the time the lady was done with my legs, they felt great.

After I got home, I found out that the Austin Marathon course is one of the toughest city race courses in the entire US.  This made me even MORE happy with my performance.

Here is the pace chart that Kirsten provided me with followed by the splits from my Garmin.

 

Weigh In & Recap

 

Well, last week was a bit of a downer with that gain I had, especially after the small gain from the week before.  But, I chose not to see it as anything more than a setback.  It was/is not a failure.  I had an off week and I got back at it this week.  Last week I allowed myself to give in to food cravings and urges and ate a bunch of crap.  This week I had a plan of attack.  I decided I would roast some brussels sprouts and some carrots to take for snacks.  I also bought some mini sweet peppers and some grapes for snacks as well.  And, for lunches, I was eating quinoa w/pinto beans, seasoned with Mrs. Dash and cumin.  I figured that I would try to eat more WHOLE foods and more nutrient-dense foods.  You know?  Quality over quantity.  What was the outcome of this “plan of attack” you ask?  Well, see for yourself:

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!  There is so much about this that is so very awesome!!!  First, not only did I lose the 3 lbs I was up on the scale last week, but I lost the .8 I was up from the week before.  Then, on top of that, I lost an additional .6 of a pound!!!  That’s a total of 5.4 pounds lost in a week.  Well, technically in 6 days.  See, I weighed myself yesterday because we were having a going away party for a coworker and I knew I would be having some foods that would cause me to retain water and all that jazz, so I thought it wise to weigh myself a day early and call it good.  So I did and boy was I thrilled to see what the scale had to say!  And, you know what this means…I am now officially LESS THAN 10 POUNDS away from my goal weight!!!  Oh, and I’m in the 170’s again!  That’s a number I haven’t seen in over a year!  So very happy right now.

Sometimes I like to list any non-scale victories I have.  I would like to announce that I had one this week!!  Someone at work went and got McDonald’s for lunch and I walked by and smelled the french fries and almost threw up because they smelled so GROSS to me!!!  So awesome.

Let’s go over this week’s exercise, shall we?

• Saturday: after 5 days without running, I ran an amazing 7 mile run that was basically mostly progressive.  My mile split times were 10:26, 10:36, 10:08, 10:18, 9:51, 9:38, and 8:58.  I am SUPER happy with this run, especially that last mile!  It got me thinking.  Maybe, after I run the Army Marathon tomorrow, maybe I will focus on getting a little faster and pushing myself to run faster paces during most of my runs.  I want to run the Las Vegas Rock’n’Roll Marathon in November and they have a cut off of 5 hours for the marathon.  Based on my Austin Marathon time of 4 hrs 56 mins, that is cutting it really close.  So, I’d like to see if I can get my marathon time down to 4 hrs 40 mins, or dare I hope, 4 hrs 30 mins just so I’m more comfortable running that race and knowing I have more than enough time.

• Sunday: ran 10 miles this day and it was good.  It was cold out and I was little sore from Saturday’s fast paced 7 miles, so I ran a little slower, however not as slow as I was actually aiming for.  An 11:07 overall average pace.  I was shooting for around 11:30 overall average just because I am trying to “save my legs” for tomorrow’s marathon.

• Monday: I was going to run 5 miles but when the alarm went off I was super sore from my weekend of running and I hadn’t slept well because of it (couldn’t get comfortable so I kept waking up).  So, I chose this as a rest day.  Turned out it was a good idea because when I left to go to work I almost fell down the stairs of my apartment building because there was ice on them.  Not safe to run in those conditions.

• Tuesday: it was 30° out, but that did not stop me from running my 5 miles!  Heck, I’ve ran in colder.  Also, 30° is nice and toasty compared to a lot of the country on this day.  I was excited because a while back I went to Old Navy and they were having a big sale (up to 50% off on some stuff!) on their running gear and I bought a couple fleece jackets with thumbholes and I bought this jacket with a poofy front on it that resembles those poofy vests that some runners wear in really cold weather to keep their core warm which then increases circulation in the arms to keep them warm.  I have to say, I love this jacket.  I was nice and toasty during my 5 miles.  Plus, it’s fashionable, don’t you agree?

• Wednesday: first workout with my NEW Polar M400.  The replacement, that is.  It arrived Monday evening while I was at work, so UPS left it with my apt office (OMG!  YAY!  they usually like to leave my packages on my doorstep where they could be stolen), so I didn’t get it until Tuesday morning after my run and it had to charge still.  And oh my was it good to have my M400 with me again when I went for a run.  This was a really good short run.  3 miles at a fairly good pace. 

• Thursday: I worked the morning shift at work this day, so no workout.  Just a snapshot of my M400 and the percentage of my activity goal for the day I was able to complete.  I didn’t make it to the rowing machine.  I just didn’t have it in me.  I slept horribly the night before and was doing good to just stay awake.  I know, not an excuse.  The rowing machine would have gotten my blood pumping and woke me up, but oh well.  Next time.

• Friday: last run before the marathon.  Just 3 miles.  Also my last run for February.  So, I totaled up my mileage for the month post-run and in 12 runs (ugh, that’s it?!?!?!) this month, I ran 104.6 miles.  Not too shabby…also, not so great.  My usual monthly mileage is around 130.  However, if February had been 29 instead of 28 days, I would have logged over 130 miles after the marathon tomorrow.  But, it’s only 28 days this year, so no such luck.  I just have to deal with only 104.6.  BLAH!  I’m not saying I’m not happy with it, because I am.  My base goal is a minimum of 100 miles a month, so I definitely hit that and that makes me happy.

I would like to announce that I registered for the San Antonio Rock’n’Roll Marathon that happens on December 6^th this year.  I’m toying with the idea of, if I have the money later this summer, wanting to register for the 10K the day before (and run it super easy if I do) to get the weekend challenge medal on top of the 10K medal and the marathon medal AND my heavy medal for running multiple Rock’n’Roll races in one year.  We shall see.  I will try to run a 10K the day before one of my super long runs during training to see how it feels and if it’s something I want to actually try and do. 

What I Ate Wednesday

I decided after I gained weight the last couple of weeks that I would start posting about what I eat and do a What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW) post every week.  I’ll screen shot my daily entries into my MyFitnessPal food journal and will discuss how each day was for me.  So, normally this post will cover from the previous Wednesday thru the Tuesday that is the day before the post.  However, this week will only cover from Sunday thru yesterday. 

• Sunday: I ran 10 miles this day, so I earned myself some extra calories that I could eat.  Since I just came off a week where I caved in on my cravings and urges to eat junk and binge on junk, so I was still wanting some junk.  So, I ate a Totino’s pizza and one of those little lemon pies for my post-run meal.  I ate healthy the rest of the day.  And I controlled myself with only eating ¼ of a chocolate bar with dinner. 

• Monday: first day on the “new plan” of eating.  I ate my double serving of my cereal with almond milk and 2 scrambled eggs with some sea salt.  I have nixed the bacon from my breakfast.  Then I got to work and was in a position where I stand up most of the day and am also busy most of the day.  I usually drink this giant mug of coffee when I get to work with 1 sweet’n’low and some powdered creamer in it.  I wasn’t hungry at all for the majority of the day.  I did start to snack on my grapes around 6pm in an attempt to get rid of the jitters that drinking that coffee had given me since chugging over a liter of water didn’t get rid of them.  I took my roasted brussels sprouts and carrots, grapes and some mini sweet peppers for snacks (however I didn’t eat the peppers).  For lunch I took some quinoa with pinto beans, seasoned with some Mrs. Dash original, cumin and fresh ground peppercorns.  I know I’m still emotionally dependent on food, which is why I’m snacking so much.  I’m working up to eliminating most of the snacking from my daily food routine.

• Tuesday: day 2 of the new eating plan.  All is still well.  I ran, so I had “extra” eatable calories.  However, I didn’t eat anything extra because I just plain wasn’t hungry.  I ate my quinoa and beans for lunch and then chugged a bunch of water and then felt like I had overeaten.  So I never ate my mini sweet peppers…again.

• Wednesday: on to day 3 and we’re still doing great!  I know it’s only 3 days without junk, but the first few days/couple weeks are always the hardest, wouldn’t you agree?  Resisting the initial urges and cravings and all that built back up while my eating was out of control.  But, I’m feeling pretty good so far and my cravings have pretty much gone away. 

I’m going to do this for a few weeks and see how it goes.  I’m hoping that it will help keep me more accountable and will then translate into some more weight loss for me.

As always, if you want to follow along with what I’m eating daily and doing exercise wise daily, you can join MyFitnessPal and friend request me, my screenname is “sararunsthisweigh.” 

Friend Making Monday: All About That Bass

All About That Bass

Here’s how it works: you copy the questions, answer them and post them to your own blog.  Then you come back here, and in the comments, post the link to your blog post with your answers to this week’s questions.  If you don’t have a blog of your own, just post your answers in the comments.

1. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
What would now be dubbed as “classic”…Huey Lewis & The News, Roy Orbison, CCR, Jim Croce, Robert Palmer, Johnny Cash, George Jones, and the like.

2. When you were old enough to get your own radio in your bedroom or your own Walkman or mp3 player, what kind of music did you prefer to listen to?
My very first CD was Garth Brooks – No Fences.  However, country was not what I normally listened to once I had my own things to play music with.  I listened to Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ozzy Ozbourne, Guns & Roses, Nirvana, Enya…a wide variety of music, really, but definitely not like the stuff my mom and dad listened to.

3. Did/do you ever sleep with music playing?
I used to, but have gotten away from that habit.

4. Do you like to listen to seasonal music?
Not really.  I do really like listening to bands and music from Ireland around St. Patrick’s Day…but really, I like listening to that kind of music all the time…but satellite radio has a Saint Patty’s Day station that happens for a couple/few days near St. Patrick’s Day.  I am really not a fan of Christmas music, but I have to say that I love TransSiberian Orchestra and Manheim Steamroller.  I love the Nutcracker, but have never seen it.  Hopefully next year me and my friend Amanda can go see it.

5. What was your favorite singer/band/group growing up?
I loved me some New Kids on the Block

6. What was your favorite song growing up?
This is a hard one because I don’t really remember.

7. What is your current favorite singer/band/group?
I really like Five Finger Death Punch, Tartanic, Taylor Swift (I will not be ashamed of this), One Republic, Pharrell, Bruno Mars.  I don’t really have just one favorite.

8. What is your current favorite song?
I really really love Happy by Pharrell and Uptown Funk with Bruno Mars.

9. Do you have an all-time favorite song?
Yes, Horse With No Name by America

10. Did you ever want to be in a band?  Or, were you ever in one?
I did used to dream of being in a band.  I wanted to be the singer.  However, I can’t always carry a tune.

What's Cookin' Sunday

This week, I was a little short on funds, so I wanted to cook a couple things that I already had most of the ingredients for.  Thank goodness I have a decent supply of ingredients.  I knew I had enough ingredients to make some form of beef curry (5 lbs of cubed beef chuck in the freezer, spices galore, tomato paste), I just had to buy some unsalted beef stock to add to it and voila!  I had decided earlier last week that I wanted to make my healthier version of my mom's Mexican enchilada casserole.  I used ground turkey instead of beef (I already had 1 lb in the freezer, just needed to buy 1 more).  Tortillas weren't expensive, plus some cheese and sliced olives.  I already had the spices and low sodium kidney beans.  So, here's those recipes!

I got these tortillas at Sam's Club.  they have 8 grams each of fiber and protein,
flaxseed oil and only 100 calories per tortilla!

 

MOM'S ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

Ingredients:
• 2 lbs lean (93%) ground turkey
• 2 cans low sodium kidney beans
• 1 large can no salt added tomato sauce
• 8 whole wheat tortillas (I used the Santa Fe Tortilla Company whole wheat tortillas)
• 1 medium or larger onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 4 cups 2% milk fat Mexican four cheese blend shredded cheese
• 1 small can sliced olives

Directions:
• brown turkey with chopped onions in a large skillet. 
• stir in beans, tomato sauce and chili powder and let simmer.
• warm tortillas in microwave.
• line up tortillas in a 9x13 baking dish (as pictured above) and fill with a handful of shredded cheese each.  roll up the tortillas (as pictured above).
• pour meat-bean mixture on top of rolled up cheese-filled tortillas.  spread remaining cheese on top and sprinkle with the sliced olives.

I had previously posted another version of this recipe back in September.  If you're curious how this recipe would be with beef instead of turkey, here's the recipe with nutritional info...it's a big difference.

________________________________________________________

MADRAS BEEF CURRY

Ingredients:
• 4 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp chili powder (optional)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 tsp grated ginger
• 5 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups unsalted beef stock
• 2 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions:
•combine coriander, cumin, turmeric, pepper, chili powder, garlic, ginger and lemon juice in a bowl to form a paste.  set aside.
• heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat.  add the beef.  cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes, or until browned.  transfer to a bowl.
• reduce heat to medium.  add spice paste.  cook for 1 minute.  return beef to saucepan.  cook, stirring, for 1 minute, or until meat is coated with paste.  add tomato paste and stock.  bring to a boil.  reduce heat to low.  cover.  cook for 1 hr 15 min, or until beef is tender.
• remove lid.  cook, uncovered, for a further 15 minutes, or until sauce has reduced and thickened slightly. 

**I will be serving this with a serving of my Restaurant-Style Indian Rice.  You can find that recipe here.

_________________________________________________________

I'm mixing up my snacks this week.  No melba toast and hummus.  No yogurt.  This week it's all about the veggies and fruit.  I got grapes for the fruit.  I got brussels sprouts and carrots that I'm going to coat with olive oil, season and roast.  I also got some mini sweet peppers.  So, here's what I did with the roasting of the brussels sprouts and the carrots.

I seasoned the brussels sprouts with Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime, some black pepper and a little sea salt.  I started with 2 lbs of raw brussels sprouts.

For the carrots, I peeled them, cut them in half and then quartered them to make little sticks.  I sprayed them with olive oil and seasoned them with cumin and black pepper.  I started with 3 pounds of raw carrots.

Weekly Weigh In & Recap

How do I feel about this?  Sigh.  I feel so much about this.  This is ridiculous.  This is going in the wrong direction.  However, I only have myself to blame.  Sure, it was my placebo week with my birth control, which translate to it basically being that time of the month for me (but I don't have an actual period) and I could blame that.  Sure, I was depressed because I hadn't run all week after the marathon on Sunday.  Sure, I could blame the uncontrolled eating of junk food on either or both of those things, but I won't.  I'm going to take responsibility for what I've done and just go from where I am.  So, as of the start of the Biggest Loser Challenge I'm doing, I have lost 5.4 lbs.  I'm frustrated with this, but I'm also owning it.

Okay, so this week has been all over the place.  I was going to do a 3 mile SLOW shake out run on Saturday to just get my legs warmed up for Sunday’s marathon.  However, my left knee started hurting Thursday evening for no reason.  After a lot of thought and remembering when my right hip bursa starting hurting in much the same way (not doing anything at all…just sitting) that it was most likely the knee joint bursa was inflamed.  But, anyway, I nixed the plan to run at all on Saturday, choosing to save my knee and such for the marathon and hope for the best.  I had decided earlier in the week that I would not be making a trip to the gym or doing any Zumba on Saturday because I didn’t want my legs to be tired from lifting weights and doing Zumba.  So, all I did on Saturday was eat, hydrate and attend the expo.

• Saturday: nothing, rested.

• Sunday: RAN A MARATHON!!!  Marathon #2 to be specific!  I won’t go into detail on this as I will be posting the recap of my race experience within the next week and that will be super detailed.  I had a goal – to run it in less than 5 hours.  I met that goal. 

• Monday: nothing, rested.  My legs were so sore and my sergeant at work was laughing at me all day because I was walking funny and having all sorts of issues with the stairs.

• Tuesday: I had planned to hit the gym for some strength training AND use the stationary bike for at least 30 minutes.  However, I had to make a trip to UPS to ship off my m400 to the company I bought it from so they could then send me a replacement because mine stopped responding when I would plug it in to charge or sync with my computer.  So, I just had time to do the strength training, but it was a good session and I’m glad I had time to do it.  I did get on the rowing machine at work for 2000 meters, which, since I didn’t have anyone to socialize with this time, I rowed it about a minute faster than last week.

• Wednesday: worked a double shift at work, no exercise.

• Thursday: worked a double shift at work, no exercise.
• Friday: nothing.  I was flat out lazy and didn’t get out of bed until it was far too late to do any kind of exercise before going to work.

My food was okay this week.  Yep, just okay.  I know I was feeling frustrated from the small gain I had last week…and I let it get to me with my eating this week.  I didn’t super overdo it, but I did eat a gas station burrito, some cake, cookies, and a sugary muffin…ugh.  But, I cannot change what I’ve done.  I can only accept it and move forward and try to make better decisions in the coming days and weeks.

I’m going to be honest.  Other than the marathon, this week sucked and I hated it.  I was lazy or overeating at some point all week.  I have to say that, even though I like eating salad, the salads for lunch this week just did not do it for me.  So, back to sandwiches next week.  I am really disappointed in how this week went.  Part of it was due to the placement of two 16-hour shifts at work on Tuesday and Wednesday overnights, so no working out at all on Wednesday or Thursday because of that, otherwise I would have went for a run on probably Wednesday.  I’m very unhappy with myself that I allowed myself to be lazy and stay in bed yesterday, but there’s nothing I can do now to change what I did then.  I just have to accept it and move on.  That’s my theme for this coming week.  Acceptance and learning to move on despite setbacks.  All I can do is vow to make better choices this next week.  One thing I am definitely going to work on is snacking less and making the food I do eat count more.  Even though I still have plenty of the little whole wheat melba toast and hummus, I’m nixing that snack for at least this next week.  I also want to make some roasted brussels sprouts to take for a snack.  I'm also going to nix the yogurts for now.  And maybe…hmm…maybe instead of sandwiches, maybe I’ll do some quinoa with pinto beans?  Hmm.  That with an avocado on the side maybe?  I’m trying to be more inventive with my food and eat more food that is nutrient packed.

Also, something else I’m going to start doing this next week…What I Ate Wednesday.  It’s a concept that they do on a couple other blogs I read and I think if I take a moment every week to go over what I ate in the week before that, that it will help me stay on track.  It’ll all be out there for you guys to see.  There will be no hiding from it.  I will HAVE to hold myself accountable for what I decide to stuff in my mouth.  And, well, I don’t want to look like a fool.  So, wish me luck.