Saturday, February 27, 2010

Under Pressure

The 9-10 mile run is upon us. I am waiting for my friend Lizzie to come over at 2 pm, so in the meantime I have been anxiously tapping my foot and hydrating.

Yesterday I ran 3 miles (at a faster pace than normal) at the gym and did some arm and back strengthening and core work. There are a few abdominal exercises I've added to my routine that are getting easier. One of them is taking a medium-sized exercise ball, and going into plank position with my hands on the ball so my body is at a 45-65 degree angle. Then I take my left knee and raise it to my chest and do that about 10 times, then switch to the right knee. It is not easy! Just as we do in downward dog, I am making a conscious effort to grip the ball with my fingertips. If you let all the weight go into your wrists you will fatigue very easily!

After the workout I had a protein shake and a handful of cereal for dinner which wasn't a lot of fuel, but I was extremely tired and I pretended I was full. This morning I woke up at 6:30 AM with my stomach screaming at me so I got a small bowl of Quaker Oats Squares cereal and ate that then went back to bed for a few hours. About 10:30 I had a multi grain bagel with REAL peanut butter (my parents don't have any Sunbutter or PB & Co.) and I'm hungry again so I'm going to snack on a banana in a few minutes.

-----------24+ Hours Later ------------

I DID IT! Lizzie, her sister Rebecca, and I ran approximately 10 miles, or 108 minutes yesterday. I don't know the exact distance, but whatever, we ran for a freaking long time and it was awesome. Lizzie brought me some Gu so I got to try that for the first time. Gu is a substance that has an icing-like consistency and has caffeine and I'm sure some simple sugars to give you a boost of energy. I didn't notice a huge difference in my running after I ate it, but that might be due to already being well-fed and extremely hydrated.

After the run I led the group in a nice stretch and included the pose happy baby (it feels amazing in your hips) and made a protein shake. After that I took an ice bath which I could only stand for 3 minutes, then I took a regular bath with Epsom salts. For some reason I was CRAVING Chik-Fil-A (which I haven't eaten in years) but they won't deliver, so I settled for some macaroni and cheese a la mommyfill and some banana pudding. My legs ached and I felt dead, but today I feel GREAT. And what's even better: my back feels better than it has in two weeks!!

Tonight I am cooking dinner for my parents using a modified recipe from Paula Deen: turkey burgers and potatoes with a barbecue/tomato sauce and I'll add either a salad or brussel sprouts. Usually I mix onion soup mix with ground turkey and it's so delicious, but you have to be careful because soup mixes tend to have a lot of sodium!

I agreed to babysit tomorrow night which means I have to workout tomorrow morning. Another 5:20 wake up call...great!

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