Brie Fit

Ahh!  We leave for Chicago first thing tomorrow morning!

(Your comments last night, by the way, were incredibly kind and insightful.  It is so nice to know that I’m not alone in how I feel sometimes!)

Tonight’s project?  PACKING.  This is my first ever “destination race,” so to speak, and I’m terrified I’m going to forget something crucial for race day.  I tend to go head to foot when I’m packing for an important event (like the wedding), so, here is my head-to-toe half marathon race day packing list:

1. BondiBand
2. Sunglasses
3. Walkman (which I need to charge!)
4. Handheld water bottle
5. Inhaler
6. Race shirt
7. Sports bra
8. Shorts (I haven’t decided whether to risk the new pair I haven’t fully tested or go with my trusty old, but hotter, compression shorts!  Help!)
9. Body Glide
10. Socks
11. Shoes
12. Gu
13. Garmin (and charger)

What am I missing?  Help!

Tonight we needed a quick dinner, so I decided to make a Macaroni Grill frozen dinner MyBlogSpark sent me to test out.

I like that it is perfectly portioned for two people.  That works well in this household.

The nutritional stats were so-so.  I like that it has a lot of protein, but I’m not crazy about the high sodium!  This could easily be cut in half.

The ingredients aren’t too scary.  Nothing I can’t pronounce.

Directions are simple: put it in a nonstick skillet on medium for 15 minutes on medium heat.   Stir occasionally.  I like a nice, low-maintenance meal once in awhile.

After everything cooked, we got two decent-sized servings out of the package.

Unfortunately, we weren’t totally impressed with this.  It was pretty good, and I liked the convenience factor, but there weren’t any standout flavors.  Tim agreed.  I am interested in trying the other flavors, though, and I wouldn’t mind having one in the freezer for when I’m in a pinch.

Want to try one for yourself?  Enter to win your very own Macaroni Grill entree, as well as a pasta bowl and tongs by leaving a comment on your favorite kind of pasta!  I’ll choose a winner on Monday. (Product sample, info, and giveaway were all provided by Macaroni Grill through My Blog Spark!)

Thanks for all the sweet comments last night.  You guys are the bees’ knees!

I’m sorry for the occasional emo, down-on-myself posts.  I know they’re probably not really fun to read and sometimes I feel like the drama llama a few hours after I post stuff like that.

But…I think it’s important, too.  In the spirit of the Hollaback Health movement,  I’m going to be real.  I’m not going to sugar coat every post and say that I feel great about myself when I don’t.  Running sucks a lot of the time for me.  It is hard.  And yeah, sometimes I struggle with body image issues, as much as I try hard not to.  A lot of the time I am in pain and have trouble comparing myself to the other runners whose blogs I read, who never get injured, never skip a run, never take weeks off, and just seem SO perfect.  And even if they DO get injured, it’s all, “Oh, yay, now I have more time to devote to Ironman swim and bike training!” 

COME ON.  I wonder if those people ever feel fat, or like a failure, and I bet they probably do.  But they don’t blog about it.  And I think, frankly, that’s a disservice to the blogging community at large.  If we don’t all admit to being human, and feeling like crap once in awhile about ourselves, we just perpetuate the pressure to be shiny and happy and confident all the time.  Let’s get real, folks.

So…I’ll say it, and I did, and I’m not sorry. 

Anyway, I feel less emo and much better today.  I know this is a minor setback in the grand scheme of things, but it’s discouraging nonetheless.  I’m resting until the race on Sunday and hope to get back into things next week.  My foot’s felt great today, so that’s encouraging!

Several of you mentioned cross-training in the comments.  I’ve admittedly been crappy about cross-training this…year?  I basically, well, don’t, unless brisk beagle-led walks count.  I think the reasons for this are multi-fold:

1. The gym I started going to in October doesn’t have classes.   I loved going to classes at my old gym—kickboxing, body pump, yoga, step, spin, Pilates.  I really miss them, but they just don’t fit in with my work schedule, and I’m under contract with my current gym until this October.   
2. Cross-training options available at my current gym don’t really interest me.  I haaate the elliptical, and don’t really enjoy stationary bikes either.  Plus, neither of these options really rests my foot, which has kind of been the problem lately.
3. The one cross-training option that’s sounded really appealing to me lately is swimming!  There’s a big, gorgeous lap pool at my gym.  But I’m pretty bad at swimming.  I am an excellent backstroker and water-treader, but since having an asthma attack with my face in the water as a kid…I’m a little iffy on the face in the water thing.  Lame, I know.
4. I think I’d like biking outdoors, but I don’t have a bike and money is tight.

So, that’s that.  I think I may suck it up next week and do some backstroking in the pool one night because that sounds like fun.  I am also considering cutting back to a MWF running schedule to allow for recovery between runs, rather than running M-Th.  Once this gym contract is up in October, I may be looking for a gym with more classes at better times, because I really do miss them.

Either way, I’ll be reevaluating soon!

Also, sad news—I won’t be interviewing Meb next week after all.  I got excited and didn’t read the e-mail carefully enough and it’s at a time when I’ll still be en route to Chicago.  Boo.  But there will be some awesome fun race recaps and product reviews coming up!

In the spirit of honesty and being real…what do you struggle with that you’re afraid to own up to?

Not much to say today.  My ankle is still feeling off, and when I tried running tonight my shins felt splinty.  It’s weeks like this week that make me thing I’m a big old faker and not a runner at all.  Why is something ALWAYS broken?  If my feet don’t have giant blisters, I have shin splints.  If my asthma isn’t acting up, my foot is hurting.  I am constantly doubting my ability, and beating myself up for having to rest more than most. 

It’s obvious I wasn’t born to do this. I feel like running is breaking my body down rather than building it up.  I’m frustrated and sad and beginning to feel like a failure.  And when I feel like a failure, I always, always, always blame it on the fact that I’m heavier than most REAL runners.  The last thing I want to do is let down all the amazing, wonderful, generous Team in Training donors, and every time my body stops me from running I feel like I’m doing just that. 

I’m icing, compressing, stretching, ibuprofen-ing, and resting the best way I know how in preparation for Sunday’s half marathon.   I may make a doctor’s appointment tomorrow.

Say a few hail Marys for my well-being, mental and physical.  Hopefully I’ll be ready to fight come Sunday.

Happy Monday, everyone!  Can you believe August is almost here?

Personally, I’m excited.  I’m not a big fan of hot weather, and while I don’t hop aboard the “OMG PUMPKIN EVERYTHING” fall love train, I do prefer cooler temperatures and a bit of a breeze.

Moving right along…

Today I drove down to the gym in the morning, hoping to run.  After a mile, my foot said, “nope!” and I stopped.  This is so, so frustrating.  It seriously felt great last week.

I still worked up a sweat, though.  Ick.

I got this Nike Dri-Fit Cotton (blend) workout shirt on Saturday with part of our random Macy’s gift card we have to spend.  It’s the same make as my black one from Sony, but the major difference is that the black hides the sweat much, much better.  Duly noted.

For those of you who like to hypothesize about my various feet injuries, here’s where it hurts.  It’s not totally an ankle pain, I’ve come to realize—it’s more on the outside of my left foot when I hit in a very specific way.  As in, I can be walking (or running) fine, hit it wrong on one step and want to punch someone it hurts so badly.  It also comes and goes—I was fine running on it most of last week, but my 10-miler seems to have irritated it, even after two days off.  Discuss.

(Toenails: Lollipop by Essie.  I got it for $.99 on clearance at Ulta and it’s a really fun, bright red!)

Anyway, after I failed at my run, I biked for half an hour.  I’m happy to report that my new lucy shorts felt great during my run (although a mile isn’t really long enough to judge.)

The rest of the day was errands, errands, errands.  I went to Costco all sweaty and got dog food, chicken, oatmeal, and chocolate syrup (Tim’s a chocolate milk addict!).  Two people asked me why I was so sweaty!  Eep.

I also picked up my contacts…

…got an oil change, did two giant loads of laundry, and picked Tim up from work.  There was a beautiful rainbow on the drive home!

Our plans for the weekend are still up in the air, but I’m trying not to be frustrated.  Even if we have to drive up super late Friday night and drive home Sunday night, I’m going to run a fabulous race, see my mom and sister, and meet the one, the only Meb!  Oh, Chicago.  I miss you so.

What’s your most dreaded errand?  I REALLY hate getting my oil changed…it’s so boring and garages smell gross!

You guys, I did something YOOGE this weekend. 

I bought my first pair of running short-shorts. 

Until now, I’ve always run in capris, or knee-length compression shorts.  I hate the term “problem area,” but if I WERE to like it, mine would be my thighs.  Even at my skinny-mini-est, they rubbed.  I can have a pretty flat stomach with almost zero effort (hate me), but my thighs will always be big ol’ tree trunks.

I’ve learned to embrace this.  Hey, I can squat more than most grown men!  But…it’s hot.  And I want to wear light, cool running shorts when I run, and I want to shuck my cotton underwear in favor of light, wicking, built-in briefs.

So this weekend, I hit up my local lucy store.  I found these, which feel promising and like they won’t ride.  I’m hoping that with a hefty dose of Body Glide I will be able to pull them off okay!

Also, the salespeople remembered me from a previous visit yapping about my blog.  Cool, huh?  They offered to make me a lucy PRO, which means I get a discount and may be participating in their Fitness Fridays in the future.   Hooray!

Sadly, the weather for our Saturday shopping trip didn’t hold out, and we were stranded outside Crate and Barrel, figuring out how we should make a mad dash to our dinner location, just across the parking lot.

We got pretty wet, but…it was worth it.   We went to North, which was basically northern Italian cuisine.  I enjoyed some delicious sangria and olives to start and then forgot to photograph the rest of my meal.

Review: we had the bruschetta appetizer, which was good, except the asparagus smelled kind of like…socks…and turned me off.  I had chicken parm for dinner, which was kind of weird, because it was the most giant serving of chicken ever with exactly six rigatoni noodles on top.  Usually it’s about half and half pasta and chicken, but….oh well.  It was good and I’d go back.  

Around 8:00 last night I got bored and tried my hand at sugar cookies with flooded royal icing.

They are good, but man, I don’t think I have the patience to be a decorator.  As long as it tastes good…I’m a-okay with it looking bad. 

This morning, we went to church, grocery shopped, and took pictures of our animals for no good reason. 

Sometime before dinner, I got fed up with our house looking like a college hovel and went on a quest to get cheap, cute wall art.

I got a huge, cool looking mirror for over the mantle at TJ Maxx.  Southpaw liked it.

I also purchased some small canvases, paint, and painter’s tape at Michael’s.  This is still a work in progress, but eventually, it will be hung as four separate squares…somewhere in our house. 

(Still needs to finish drying and be touched up.  Obvs.)

I also got some picture frames to frame some wedding pictures.

Then I made a pork tenderloin.

Yum.   When pork is cooked properly, it’s awesome. 

Anyway, the week ahead…is still kind of up in the air.  My ankle is not feeling great after Friday’s 10 miler, but I’m going to be doing a taper of sorts for my half next Sunday.  I’m going to try for 7 tomorrow and see what happens…but otherwise, it’ll be rest, ice, repeat! 

I can’t believe I’m running a half marathon in a week—I am DEFINITELY less nervous this time around than last.   I’m not really nervous, except about the heat—I’m a big wimp in heat and humidity!  It’s my sister’s first half, too, and I don’t think we’ll be running the whole thing together, but I’m super excited for her.  I’m going to try to break my 2:10:00 goal seriously this time.  At my first half, I just wanted to finish, and I did—in 2:13:32.  I KNOW I can finish this race…but can I reach my goal?  I’m nervous!

What’s your favorite mixed drink?  I’m usually a beer and wine girl, but I won’t say no to sangria or a vodka tonic with lime!

I honestly think today was one of my fastest-passing days at work ever.  I blinked my eyes and it was 5 o’clock!  Don’t you love it when that happens?  I love that I have a job that keeps me busy and is usually super interesting.  In this economy, having struggled with unemployment, I am so, so lucky. 

Anyhoo, enough gushing.  I haven’t been posting much about food lately because I have been on autopilot for breakfast and lunch.  I like having default meals that I don’t have to think about!  Lately, I’ve been eating…

Breakfast: Breakfast cookie made with somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 c. old fashioned oats, a sprinkle of coconut, a few chocolate chips, half a scoop of whey protein, a tablespoon of natural peanut butter, and a splash of milk.  (I blame Susan for my deep, intense love of breakfast cookies.)

Lunch: Giant container of spinach with balsamic, a whole wheat pita with roasted garlic hummus, Chobani with granola, and some kind of fruit (unfortunately, this week, it was crappy, flavorless nectarines.  Boo), and some kind of random chocolate.

Dinners have been pretty slapdash since I’ve been spending so much time running lately after work.  C’est la vie.

Today’s chocolate selection was, um, vintage.

A chocolate Santa from Christmas 2009.  Whoops!  I guess it’s a good thing that he’s lasted this long in our house,  right?  He tasted delicious, anyway.

For today’s run, I decided to go for 10 miles.  I’m happy to report that this was…dare I say it…almost easy?  I listened to my favorite hometown radio show on podcast and then rocked out to some music I recently poached from Danica’s latest and greatest playlist.  I had a Chocolate Outrage Gu at mile 5 and finished in 1:39:15, just a hair under a 10:00/mile.   My ankle hurt a bit at the end, so I took some ibuprofen and iced as soon as I got home.

Also, since many of you asked, a quick update on FAM/NFP/charting stuff: I really like it!  Now that I’m through week two, I can say that a) taking your temperature every day isn’t as big of a deal as I thought it might beand b) it’s pretty cool to see what your body can do.  I feel very good about  this decision!

ALSO also, congratulations are in order for my awesome husband.  Tim ran his first 5K at the gym today—3.14 miles in 28:23!  He is so going to kick my butt at his first actual 5K race we’re running together on August 14th.  Go, Tim!

Now we’re off for ice cream.  Hooray!

What do you do for a living?  What are your favorite and least favorite things about your job?

Took a rest day today.   I’m going to do a long run tomorrow.  I wasn’t sure if I should do last week’s 9 that I missed, or this week’s daunting, PDR-setting 14.   I think I’m going to compromise and do 10 or maybe 11—I don’t want to push too hard so soon after my ankle healed, and I have a half marathon next week!

Anyway, today was uneventful, so here are some things I just really, really like lately.

Ghirardelli chocolate chips.  Buy the good ones; they make all the difference.  I sprinkle a few in my breakfast cookie in the morning and a few in my banana soft serve at night.

My OXO pop-top canisters.  We got them for the wedding and they are great.  They’re cute, easy to use, and seal tightly.  Left to right: salt, sugar, oats, white flour, wheat flour.

Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus and Chobani Pomegranate (and pineapple and raspberry).  I’ve packed these two items in my lunch every day for the last several weeks.  Yum.

Frozen bananas.  That I process with a dash of milk and a little PB to enjoy as banana soft serve for dessert every night.  So refreshing and summery and healthy!

My favorite nail polish lately—Essie’s “Cute as a Button.”  It’s less obnoxious in person, I swear.

What things do you love lately? 

I really do like my job, a lot.  I’m very lucky to work with wonderful people, and no two days are alike!  Today I spent a lot of time working with numbers and spreadsheets, which is not my forte, and it gave me a headache and a shoulder ache and made me very sleepy.  Thank goodness I don’t have to do that very often!

Anyway, Ashley asked me a great question in the comments yesterday:

I know that you like to keep a bunch of snacks on hand in case you get hungry.  Could you do a post with some of your favorites?  I’m looking for new healthy snacks.  I always get hungry halfway through the afternoon at work and need something healthy to eat instead of getting chips out of the vending machine.

Ask and ye shall receive.

Snacking strategy, for me, is to kind of kill a fly with a baseball bat.  Same thing goes with gym bag packing.  I load up my snack drawer at work with enough snacks to last me several days and give me a wide range of choice.  I bring a bunch of stuff at once and add to it periodically.  Here’s a photo of what I’ve got stashed in my drawer right now.

You can see tiny boxes of raisins, 100 calorie bags of popcorn, Sharkies (which I don’t snack on, really, but grab for post-run refuel so I don’t want to puke), Clif Mojo bars, Gatorade packets (again, more for running), and a box of herbal tea (which I haven’t touched since winter).   (There are also about 12 packets of Chocolate Gu in there somewhere.)  Yesterday, I polished off the last of some Nature’s Valley Nut Clusters, a Luna Bar, and a box of fruit leather.   If I want something tiny to tide me over to lunch, I’ll munch on some raisins.  For a larger, pre-run snack, I’ll go for a bar of some kind, usually.  I also usually pack some kind of fruit, whole or cut (today it was a nectarine), in my lunch bag, that winds up getting munched on whenever I get the urge.  In the past, I’ve had trail mix, dried fruits, Clif Kids bars (SO good), individual packs of almonds, Larabars, Luna Bars, Clif bars, Balance bars, Food Should Taste Good chips and all other kinds of things.

I find the trick is to keep the stash interesting so I never get bored or want to get something different.  When I start getting really bored with my normal grocery store’s offerings, I’ll shop at a different store to keep things fresh—yeah, most of the stock is the same, but I can usually find a few different, interesting things!

I also keep a 24 ounce Camelbak bottle of ice water at my desk that I’m constantly sucking on.  I polish off 2-3 a day—usually one before lunch, one with lunch, and one after lunch.  Oh, and I also have our old Keurig coffeemaker in my office, and I have a cup of coffee around 9:30 am.  And I chew lots of gum, too!

So, I hope that helps, Ashley!

Tonight’s run: 7 miles after work.  Ran a mile, reset the treadmill for six more, had to pee after another mile, then ran five.  The gym was really hot and I had some nasty reflux, so I was pretty slow and took a few short walk breaks, but I did 7 miles in 1:09:45.

And now, some really exciting news!

Recognize that guy?  That’s Meb Keflizighi, Olympic silver medalist and winner of the 2009 ING NYC Marathon.  And since he’s a fellow Sony runner, I’m going to be interviewing him at the Rock n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon Expo on July 31st!  I am totally excited and celeb-struck.   His Runner’s World profile a few months back was so awesome and inspiring—it’s definitely worth reading.   I’ve never interviewed anyone, so give me your tips!

So, if you could ask the most awesome runner ever a question or two…what would you want to know?  I’m happy to ask Meb your questions!

Ahh, I feel like myself again.

To be honest…I had kind of a rough afternoon.  I’m really struggling with homesickness.  You’d think that after a year and three months living in Kansas City, this would be my home, but I miss my friends and family in Chicago terribly.  I got some news at work today that might cut my long weekend in Chicago a few weeks from now way short, so I was sad.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything pans out and I can spend some quality time there!

When I changed into my workout clothes at 5 today at the end of a long work day, I realized, “Hey, my foot/ankle hasn’t hurt at all today!  Cool!”

I left the office and holy doom and gloom.

Anyway, this run was ALMOST perfect.  It felt great and I felt strong again!  I ran 4 miles in 37:45.  My ankle ached a teeny bit at the end, but it was really not a big deal and a huge improvement even from yesterday. 

You know what I think made a difference?  Ibuprofen.  I took some after I ran yesterday, because Tim mentioned that a co-worker had brought it up as being possibly helping reduce any inflammation I’m having.  I am honestly just one of those people that forgets about painkillers—I’m not biased against them, but I had great success with ibuprofen back when I was half training and had some shin issues.  So, three cheers!

(Note: I don’t believe in taking painkillers before you work out.  I want to be able to feel things that are painful so I stop and don’t aggravate them.  But I very much like them in the proper circumstances.)

Also, I decided to wear my new Sony shirt that I’ll be wearing for my half marathon in a few weeks, to test it out so I’m not wearing new gear on race day.  I also gave my new Walkman a test run!

(I was kind of a sweaty beast today.  Sorry.)

Thoughts about the shirt: it might chafe my armpits, but otherwise it fits well and is comfy.  Body Glide will take care of any chafing.  Whee!

Thoughts about the Walkman: it was weird having the kind of heavy things in my ears, but I got used to it pretty quickly.  It was nice not having bouncy headphone cords, and I am impressed with the sound quality.  I also like the saucy lady voice that tells me when I’m shuffling songs.  The controls aren’t totally intuitive, and it takes a bit of trial and error getting used to which button does what, especially because you can’t see what you’re doing because it’s in your ear.  But so far, I really like it! 

So, tomorrow I’m going to go for a 7 miler.  I was thinking of attempting it today, but I forgot my water bottle and was feeling uncomfortably parched after four, and figured I might as well not push my luck with my foot.  Wish me luck!

Also, thanks for all the awesome comments on my birth control post!  I’ll post my thoughts after my first full cycle is over, but so far I feel fantastic about this decision. 

Self-medication: yay or nay?  Drug of  choice?

This morning started out…meh.

I was all set to make my triumphant return to running.  I went in with no expectations, HOPING I could do either a 4, 7, or 14 (!!!) mile run to knock something off my training schedule.

I made it 2.5 miles.  My ankle DEFINITELY feels better, thanks to the week off, but not 100% yet.  I don’t want to push too hard, so this is officially “ease back into it” week.  I’m going to run what I can—shoot to hit my mileage goals, but as long as I’m running, that’s fine.  I have a half in two weeks, and I don’t want to hurt myself worse.

The other reason I stopped was…well, this explains it, kind of.  (No, I’m NOT pregnant.)

(Strangely enough, Caitlin posted about this very subject today!  Weird!)

Anyway, after ten long, mostly wonderful years, I’ve tossed my birth control.  I’ve been on hormonal birth control since I was 15 or 16 (no, I wasn’t a teenage minx, it was for other reasons).  For 9 or so years, it was great—no problems, no nothing.  But for the last  six months to a year, my periods got progressively more heinous, and even though I tried switching formulas, I had lots of other nasty side effects I won’t discuss in detail.   The final straw was a fourteen-day-long period that was accompanied by debilitating headaches, extreme bloating, intense fatigue, and ridiculous heartburn.

I called my doctor.  She was not helpful.  So, I made the decision (with Tim’s knowledge and support) to get rid of hormones.  I will be doing the whole natural family planning thing trying to very much AVOID babies for the time being (although should one come along, we are okay with the very small possibility of a surprise).  I am nerdily excited to see what my body does.  I’ve taken Fertility Friend’s online charting course already, downloaded an iPhone app to record my temperatures, and will be reading Taking Charge of your Fertility…ASAP. 

So, that’s what’s happening with my vag, in case you were curious.  The point of this?  Said 14 day long period just ended and I suspect my iron levels are low, because at mile 2.5 of my run I got clammy, shaky, dizzy, and was struggling to hold a very slow (for me) 10:30 pace.  I’ll be loading up on beef and spinach and hoping to regain my energy quickly!

Aside from the aforementioned book, I got a bunch of other cool stuff in the mail.  Like the Nook cover I ordered a month ago!

It was frustrating having to wait so long (I’m impatient) but it’s super cute, sturdy, and has cute pockets inside.  (I got it at the Etsy store Elizabeth David Designs.)  Love it!

I also got the products I’ll be using and blogging about for Sony, namely the Bloggie flip video/still camera and the Walkman mp3 player!

Initial impressions of the Bloggie: love the built-in USB connection (no cords!) and the rotating video head thing.  Need to get used to taking pictures a little differently, though! 

Initial impressions of the Walkman: AWESOME sound quality, but the in-ear buds will take some getting used to.

I also got my fun Sony blogger shirt for the RnR Chicago half!  Whee!

(Note: Sony is paying my race fee and gave me this stuff for free.  My opinions, however, will be completely honest and my own.  I swear.  I’m a terrible liar, so it’s totally not worth it to even try.)

Less interesting: I went to the eye doctor, had my eyes dilated and wandered around blind for a few hours.  Also, I made dog treats.

Anyway, I’m going to do laundry, paint my nails, make breakfast for tomorrow, and start reading about my cervix.  Fun times!

What’s your take on birth control?  Yes, no, hormone-free, abstinence only? 

AND

Do you watch Teen Mom?  Because it premieres tomorrow on MTV, if you’re obsessed like me and need to set your DVRs.