What’s been going on.

Posted on May 9, 2014 by HaleyComet

Humm, well. Turns out when you’ve got a bum foot, life is pretty boring. Socially, things have been busy, but workouts are minimal. I use “workouts” loosely.
Today will be a big step. I’m going to the CF gym with K. I don’t know if I’ll do the WOD, it depends on what it is. No running or jumping for me, no explosive lifts. Basically, I can do stationary shit.

I’m still working on my Zion RR. (read: procrastinating)

In other news, some races are getting planned! Last June I did the Hatfield & McCoy marathon. It was an EXCELLENT time with a bunch of maniacs. Oh yeah, I guess I should write a real race report for that…
Very lush scenery!
(that’s my friend Halbert, he never has a shirt)

Moonshine aid station? Why not?!

Many Hatfield and McCoy homes/estates/grounds open to runners and tourists. Everyone was so friendly!

Anyway, I’d been on the fence about doing it this year. It’s a really far, rural, drive and I’ve done it already. I praised the race so much last year that I talked many friends from a running group into doing it. They were making me feel guilty since I didn’t want to commit again this year. Well, the race director put a call out on FB for people from a small handful of states, so they could have every state represented. Well, my state didn’t have any registrants, and I was the first to reply, so I got a free entry and it’s only costing me $20 to stay! Going back AND it’s basically free! I’m very excited!

Oh, and a Hatfield descendant is the RD and runs the local running club. Pretty awesome.

It’s Friday, lets talk about some random stuff.
TV:
LOVING Orphan Black. I just started it this week and we’re watching as a family. Excellent so far (4 episodes into season 1). Love me some BBC programming.

Books:
Currently reading Empire of the Summer Moon. I’ll let you know.

I need to get some audiobooks as we’re taking a big, looong, trip next week. Don’t get too excited, it’s not glamorous.

Another post tomorrow or Sunday with the carnage thats about to happen at the gym!

Happy Friday, peeps!

Back for real! No, I mean it this time. 119 & 120

Posted on April 30, 2014 by HaleyComet

I’ve even worked on updating the behind-the-scenes here! I’ve missed the WordPress community.

So, what did I do yesterday? Well, not much, but *something*.
119: 5 one-legged burpees (right). OUCH. Yes, only 5. My quad was on fire and I was out of breath. Definitely counts.
BTW: I do “strict” variation of a pushup in the middle. Most videos of one-leg I found had no pushup, except the one on that page. But I did pushups.
Kettlebell: push press (one arm, both sides), Russian twist
5 more one-legged burpees. (right)
stretching & rolling.

Today (120): 30min “walking” at the dog park. We were there over an hour, but counting 30min of active walking since we were stopping and chatting with friends. Most of this 30min was the to/from on top of the levee.
Some swings of the KB.
One leg squats, pistol progression work. Right leg only. (This probably isn’t such a good idea. It will only lead to more imbalances. And “probably” should be “is a terrible idea”.)

I may try to get back to the CrossFit gym on Friday. My partner was encouraging me to go today, but I overdid it yesterday trying to bear weight without the boot and am paying for it today. So, I don’t think I’m ready. Barbell, I’m coming for you. Friday. Time to get my bench press on.
So, why are my 2 days so light? Almost classified as normal activities of daily living? Pathetic “workouts”? So weak?

Well. This is why.

One should ALWAYS wear sequins to the doctor.

“use the crutches, use the crutches”

I think it’s “tolerate.” But, I’m not a Dr.

Any guesses on how many times I’ve used the crutches?

I had a small trauma on Friday the 25th, while cleaning the stove.
Poor Cinderella.

Except a stove. Not a broom.

On Saturday I couldn’t flex, bend my toes, or bear any weight. It was decided I needed to get some x-rays since I had a day full of JazzFest’ing on Sunday planned.
My prize for being good at the Dr. was a boot! YAY! Not.

So, I’ll be doing what I can. Will NOT get down and depressed about it as I know it’s very temporary, not major, and will heal. (lets repeat that, I will NOT get down…).

With that, I think I’m done for today. I shall continue to update here, on the pages at the top: races, food, etc and backfill some race reports! I’m over a year behind…but, if I start tackling a little bit every day, I can get it done in a couple months. Hahaha. Right.

Any ideas for exercises with one leg, that will not result in gross imbalances?

Where I’m at

Posted on October 18, 2013 by HaleyComet

Gosh, I’m really kicking myself for abandoning WP for so long! I’ve missed it here. I’ve enjoyed catching up with my Reader this week.
Day 289-290 (Oct. 16 & 17): easy walking. Not feeling great (sore throat & a slight cold) and making sure my ankle is healing.
Day 291 (today): some KB, couple pullups, light weights & walking (at packet pickup in Indy)

So, where am I at? I’ve been exploring what I really love, realizing things I miss and what I may want to focus on for next year:

I’m considering doing 365 again for next year! There’s always room to grow and change. I was trying to decide what direction to take this blog and/or my life after this year of great changes, and well, I don’t want to stop. If I stop 365, where does that take my blog title? Easy solution: do it again since it hasn’t been a burden.
Physically: I’m in Ohio, away from my partner. (And yes, I usually use ‘partner’ instead of ‘husband’. We each hold each other with a high level of respect, and room to each be our own person. While I do believe he possesses many great qualities I do not, I don’t like the term ‘better half’. I don’t sell myself short! I bring many things to our partnership. We each have our own athletic and life pursuits, different hobbies. The most important thing: by being secure in MYSELF, I respect his choices and don’t ‘need’ him to be happy with myself. He enhances my life, the one I make for myself. But gosh, I do miss him.)...Many twisted things fell into place (or fell out of place) and I ended up here, practically in the frozen tundra of Canada (I like to live south of the Mason-Dixon unless I’m in the mountains or the NE), and he is living next door to my family eating things like deer stew and crab stuffed flounder. Twisted and cruel I tell you! I get to go back in Dec, and we don’t plan on doing a geo-bachelor situation again. Life is too short, and while 3-4mo isn’t that long and we have seen each other, it’s not cool.

That’s my driveway. Good luck finding it.

Running: I’ve logged more miles, and more races, this year than ever before. Still not a ton of training miles, but I’ve registered and done almost every marathon or ultra I could this year. I surpassed last years running mileage in Aug or Sept. Pretty awesome.
CrossFit: I don’t have access to a CF gym here in Ohio. The closest ones are an hour away. SUCKS. Since I’m traveling or doing races almost every weekend, I do not want to drive to the Box a couple times during the week. The week is downtime and catching up on school time. Definitely something I miss and will fiercely start up when I get back to LA! I have a real pullup bar, a small amount of weights, a KB and plenty of room to run. Fitness can happen anywhere!
Friends: doing so many races has made me closer to a lot of my running friends, and I’ve met some great new ones. Being here away from him has given me time and a vigor to see people I haven’t seen in years! I’ve seen my best friend more in these 2 months than the last 4 years. Race pain and suffering can help you find your new best Race Friend. Or, even better, when you can click off 26miles with someone you met the day before and talk the whole way! St. Louis marathon 2 weeks ago was just that, and even better, a solid 4:53 marathon the week after a TOUGH 50k. That was done at a very comfortable effort and 20min faster than what we were expecting. So awesome that our brains turned off what we thought we were going to do, and look what happened. It was only 9min slower than my fastest race of the year, with just a month & 2 50k’s in between.
Denis and I ran the whole way together, and it was great! Oh, stories that come out after 4hrs of sharing pain.

Have a great weekend! I hope my first “Double” goes well. That’s 2 marathons. In 2 different states. Forecast is 38-55 degrees tomorrow morning…with rain. Yuck! Ciao!

Oct 12-16th (285-290): another race weekend!

Posted on October 16, 2013 by HaleyComet

On Sat, Oct 12 I drove to Chattanooga to meet one of my best friends for a ‘girl day’ of a nice lunch and strolling and shopping. We hit 2 parts of town, parking once and walking.
Day 285: walking, 1hr (was about 4hrs in Chatt, but logging one ‘purposeful’ hour)

Day 287: RACE! Georgia Mystery Mountain Marathon

I’m being lazy and copying what I wrote on my other site (that I complained about yesterday). If you’re coming from there…skip over this.

I knew it was highly technical, steep climbs, etc. It’s called “Mystery Mountain Marathon”. I bought some new shoes on Sat as I didn’t think my Minimus would be a good idea for the various types of rocky terrain, and I have Upchuck coming up. Anyway, the shoes were great (Inov8)! My feet felt great. However, I think I’m not used to the higher treads (still a more minimal shoe). I fell twice in the first 2.5mi Hit aid station at mile 3. Feeling ok…mile 4 on a downhill, I hit some rocks wrong and completely tumbled over, with my ankle rolling. It was bad.

Fast forward to me shoo-ing off some guys who offered to try to help me limp along to the aid station, leaned against a tree for several minutes as I could put no weight on it. Thankfully they said going back 1 mile to quit at the mile 3 aid station was a bad idea (since it was a big climb back up)…because hey, it might not be broken and if it’s not, then I’d be pissed if I quit….

So, I limped along until I got to the mile 7-8ish aid station, where I was going to decide if I was going to quit. But, I made it! So, since I made it I decided that my ankle was already F*CKED to hell, and I was finishing this damn state, especially if my year is over (bye, bye Upchuck, bye bye CC100 or another 50m).

I laugh now because I know to most people it’s ridiculous logic (or not logic at all), but I will probably tell people, “if you’re debating for hours if you should go to the ER after the race, the middle of the night when it’s not crowded, or Urgent Care tomorrow…” then maybe you shouldn’t be running. Yes, I’d probably tell people that. But apparently I won’t follow my own advice! I may or may not have decided that “I will not tell Kurt, or anyone what happened. I’ll finish, then go to the Dr, as it won’t change anything now. I have to get off the mountain and drive home anyway.”

Today: my ankle is feeling much better! I now know it’s not broken. Tons of ice (on the 6hr drive home), elevated it on the dashboard, slept with it elevated the last 2 nights. I have a little more ROM this morning, but it’s still stiff. Not as tender to walk on. And no, I don’t follow the “if it was broken you couldn’t walk on it” rule, because when I broke the same ankle in 2008, I walked on it for 2-3 days and went to work, before going to the ER and finding out it was broken.

Day 288: Recovery day. I took it easy in the morning as I didn’t get much sleep. I then drove into town to retrieve my computer from the Apple store repair shop (everything is ok, whew!). I parked on the opposite side of the mall, in the last row of parking spots so I could have the farthest walk to the store as possible. When I got home I did a slow stroll up and down the street as well. So, I more than covered my ’20 min purposeful walk’ requirement.

Day 289: Walked before class. Ankle doesn’t hurt with every step! Just sore and stiff.

Day 290: Raining. Kettlebells and pushups and pullups. Various weights & bodyweight stuff.

Finally a food post!

Posted on January 30, 2013 by HaleyComet

I’ve said many times this month I’d write a food post, what and how I eat, etc. Then I realized that I should wait to see how this month went before committing to put my, what conventional people call: crazy, out there for everyone to see. I’m going to show you WHAT & WHY I eat what I do! This is probably my most wordy post yet, but there will be pics, promise! BEFORE & AFTER pic at the bottom, if that’s all you care about. I will be doing this each month (or I plan to) this year!
(I will say, this works FOR ME. If you think it’s crazy, that’s fine. But, I’m HAPPY with my choices, my body and my athletic performance. I don’t have health problems. I did when I was training for Ironmans on SAD: standard american diet. I think this speaks for itself)

Since 2009, I’ve mostly eaten a Paleo or Primal diet. It’s not a “diet” in the (wrong) definition of a fad way of eating with the goal to lose weight. “Diet” does mean the types of food you habitually eat. Anyway. I do not eat this way to just lose weight (although it usually is a nice side effect). The problem is, during various times of my life since 2009, I’ve fallen off that way of eating. Usually during stressful or major life changes: breaking my femur, leaving the military, moving, moving again, moving again…you get the picture.

So, back in Sept. I went back to my beloved way of eating and started getting myself healthy again. Then in Dec I realized I needed another challenge, thus this 365 project was born. AND I realized I needed to clean up my eating habits, and how I look at food, again.

To coincide with my new 365workouts project, I started the year off right with Whole30. What’s Whole30? You can read about it HERE. The short version is that it’s a nutritional, emotional & habitual reset by eating REAL FOODS: meat, fish, eggs, fruit, healthy oils, some nuts! Think you’re addicted to sugar? This is for you. Addicted to junk food? This is for you! I’ve never been a big junk food, soda, fast food eater, but I do enjoy nice rich meals, decadent desserts and, as a native Texan, my beloved chips and queso on occasion. (swoon)

Since today is the last day, yes I know I’m technically posting this about 12hrs early, I thought it would be good to put it out out here for you to read. As expected, I hit the typical withdrawal (not too bad), the anger phase, then it was smooth-sailing for the rest of the month. The only challenges were my 2 marathons (WHICH, is NOT recommended on Whole30 because you’re resetting your body nutritionally, not focusing on working out/weight loss, as outlined in “It Starts With Food” <—link. BUY it. I have no financial interests in it either!). However, this is my 2nd or 3rd Whole30 and I’m not new to this general way of eating, so I wanted to try it. PLUS, if I want to continue this way of eating (and I do/will), I need to see how I can incorporate this into my Marathon Addiction (Marathon Maniac #674!). AND, if you’ve read the other posts…I executed them in perfect Whole30 form! Major props to myself on that.

Ok, who is ready for food? I’ll take you through some of my meals this month!

(preface: I do not eat meals in any particular order. If I feel like having a salad for breakfast or eggs and bacon for dinner, I eat it)
Typical breakfast: Coffee (no cream or sugar!), leftovers of meat/veggies, eggs: boiled, scrambled, salads. Yes, salads for breakfast! Delicious.

I try to make my food as colorful and varied as possible! No brown processed foods.
What we have here (clockwise): black coffee (coconut milk is allowed in Whole30, but I like my coffee black), 2 fried eggs, morning salad, 2 pieces bacon for ‘dessert’, sautéed kale under 2 eggs w/hot sauce, 2 boiled eggs, bacon, Texas Rio Star Red grapefruit (the best grapefruit!).

Lunch: meat and veggies. Or usually a BIG salad, which is usually meat and veggies.

(What we have here: salad w/sautéed shrimp, shrimp hot pot from a restaurant, ground beef & veggie stuffed poblano peppers, another big salad!)

Sometimes I’ll have 2 smaller meals. A smaller breakfast, then something after a hard CrossFit workout. Sometimes, if I’m traveling, I just have to eat what is available. It might just be a piece of meat.
(sausage, chicken & mashed cinnamon sweet potato, pre-marathon steak & shrimp!, bacon wrapped chicken & sweet potato: both chicken & sweet potatoes were post-CrossFit workout)

MORE SALADS. And my dinner last night! Which, I have to say, was SO good. The sauce was a reduction of the pork juices & marinade I made. Out of this world!
(fresh veggies from the CSA, a 3lb container of salad–you will NOT be hungry after that, and my dinner last night, Day29: sausage stuffed pork loin w/broccoli)

Dinner: more of the same as what my lunch looks like. But, here’s some pics of meat! A pot roast I was searing before putting it into the crock pot and a pork belly about to be cured for homemade bacon, and the finished product!

BENEFITS.
I guess I could go through the typical Whole30 benefit list. It reads just like all the others you may have read:

IMPROVED ENERGY! (I wish I could have this flashing!) I rarely have a need for a nap anymore. Sometimes I’ve tried when I know I could use the sleep, but I just can’t. I don’t wake up groggy in the mornings. I *HAVE* to get up and out of bed.
HAPPY. I’m generally happier. Less mood swings. I don’t think this is 100% directly related to the food I’m putting into my body, but important to the whole: I’m happy to be eating good-for-me real food, I’m seeing benefits & results, I’m energetic = HAPPY!
Clearer skin. My skin isn’t perfect, and I can’t out-eat genetics, BUT, I’ve minimized my breakouts (ugh, even in my 30’s) and I get compliments that my skin looks “good.” (meaning ‘better’ than it used to be)
No big cravings. Sometimes I really crave salads. Or boiled eggs. But never deserts.
Body Change. This is what most people usually want to know/see. But, that’s not what Whole30 is about. Sure, it’s a nice side effect, but this is about being HEALTHY. And for some of us, that means needing to drop a few lbs. I have dropped a few pounds (UPDATE: -7.8lbs on Jan. 31). I know my body has changed. My loose belly is dramatically reduced, my boobs are smaller. Just yesterday, my formerly “skinny” jeans that I had to *SQUEEZE* (and not flattering) into last year, were much looser yesterday! As I instinctively went to puullllll the waistband to button it, I was floored to see and feel that there was an extra inch or two of room where my belly used to be. WHOA. What a great feeling! ………

CUE POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP = Happy!
I think I would have lost a few more pounds had I not done 2 marathons this month (much added stress & metabolic disruption), but I still saw progress.

So. There it is. If you have any questions about Whole30, I’d say go to their website for more info, as I am no expert. However, I can share with you MY experiences that I’ve had the last several years!

Meh. Days 21-27

Posted on January 28, 2013 by HaleyComet

It’s been too long since posts. I guess I felt that nothing was spectacular this week as I’ve been trying recover from the 2 marathons in 2 weeks. Thankfully I did rest and fuel myself enough in recovery to keep from getting sick. Success! Since my workouts felt lackluster, I didn’t take many worokout pics this week. If you hang with me, there are puppy pictures! PUPPIEEES!!! Puppies are always fun. Oh, anyway…the only thing new this week was that I started yoga class again, and I’m not taking pictures in there! I finally got to use my hot, new yoga mat though! Schaawiiinng!

Oh yeah, I hate that gyms give out free junk food! As you can see above, mine was giving out chocolate “smoothies”. WTF. We’ve all seen the Krispy Kreme donut gym pic, right?

That said, I’m also tapering for an ultra this coming weekend. I’ll post about it later in the week, but I don’t have high expectations and am actually *almost* terrified. I am NOT prepared. I have not put in the mileage. So, I’m doing what I can to go into it as fresh as possible.

Day 21: Walk & Stretch (foam roller)
30min walk with the dogs + 10 min of stretching and/or foam roller. Really worked my hips & ITB.

Day 22: Run. Legs felt like LEAD. I felt so spastic, like a puppy who can’t find his paws. I’m sure I looked terrible. After 1/2mile I felt normal and got an actual stride going. Whew. Still need several days to recover.
1.66 miles, time 14:35, pace 8:47.

Day 23: Swim, CrossFit, & Yoga! Like I said in day 22, I still need recovery time and I felt it today. However, I took each of these 3 pretty easy. For me anyway.
Swim: 500yds, 10min, 2:00/100yd’s. Quick swim before class. Pool is only open for a short time at lunch.
Ummm, do NOT post pics of yourself in your swimsuit on the interwebs? Should be a rule, no?
CrossFit: 15min.
Modified/shortened the workout (and warmup) to keep recovering/resting/tapering.
Warmup: 200m fast walk, stretching
Strength 4×4 ‘heavy’ dumbbell push press. 25lbs each hand.
WOD: 50 push press with just the bar (45lbs) Plus some other stuff I didn’t do.
Mini WOD: 3 rounds of 10 slamball (20lbs), 10 abmat situps
Yoga: Back to classes since the semester has started. The class was PACKED and she made it super hard to “punish” us for being gone so long. I did a lot of down dog to recover! My legs just couldn’t hold some of the poses. Fried!

Day 24: CrossFit & Swim.
CrossFit
Warmup:
1min run in place, high knees
20 slamballs
20 monkey F*ckers
10 burpees
50 sun gods

Strength: practice Zercher squats (I only did the bar, probably could have done 90-95lbs)
WOD buy in: 10 Zercher squats
WOD:
4 rounds
4 Zercher squats
10 burpees
10 kb swings (25lbs)
Time: 7:50
This was not the real WOD, but the modified for me so I wouldn’t trash my legs. Still worked up a sweat!

Swim: Crappy swim, had to hurry because there were only 2 lap lanes, aerobics in the main part of the pool, and swim lessons were kicking us out of the 2 lanes. I really hate this–very small–pool, the hours & the policies.
500yds, 9min, 1:48/100m

Day 25: Walk & random play at the park
Walked over a mile at the dog park on the walking path. 4 loops on the path that’s over 1/4mi long. Not a stroll, a purposeful walk. Then walked a little over 1/4mi to the “exercise area” at the park: they have outdoor pullup bars, balance stands, stair stepper(!?)squat machine…and an elliptical! Right next to the walking path! WTF!?!

(not criticizing people who use ellipticals, however, I’m a big believer in walking, or fast walking for healthy people are able to use their own feet to propel them…Hey you, 20year old college student. Get off the elliptical that has a tv and get outside! Or lift weights!)

Annnnnnnd here’s the money shot. The elliptical is so hard:

Day 26: CrossFit at home. (saturday)
3 rounds:
20kb swings (44lbs)
10 burpees
200m run with 25lb plate (ooof)
Time 12:09

Day 27: short Run. I was so tired today. I’ve been busy all weekend, moving furniture & deep freezers & refrigerators. Also, I’ve been up since 0345 with no downtime! I felt terrible & had some pain the first .3mi, but after that I felt a lot better, and even good after the first .75.
1.3mi, Time 12:17, pace 9:27

Here’s the puppy picture I promised! Rascal found his doggie-twin at the dog park! They were so cute.

Day 20: marathon day! Again.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by HaleyComet

I had decided on Thursday or Friday that I was feeling good enough after the Mobile marathon last week (day 13) to go to the expo & register for the Baton Rouge marathon. Hard to pass one up thats about 30min away!

I was a little nervous as I was going to try out some new nutrition again, and last week didn’t go that well. I’m a real-food eating proponent and after the last couple of marathons (last year), I decided to try to stop using “sports food” during races. I never feel good eating/drinking them, and my stomach usually gets upset. If I’m going to feel bad anyway, I can at least try it eating real food.

The short version is, I felt GREAT the whole time, even after doing one last week. No dizziness, no pain, and I was able to actually tolerate my food. Success! Not fast by any means, but within my normal “average” times. Now, if I just start to run train more, I could get faster again. 🙂 However, I just love CrossFit too much to want to put in that many run miles. My strength carries me through a couple marathons a year, I’m ok with that.

Of course, here’s some pictures. My FAVORITE aid station was the Duck Commander theme. You’ve seen Duck Dynasty, right?! They’re my people. They were all in cammo, using duck calls to cheer people on. They were SO much fun!

For all you Marathon Maniacs out there, this was a GREAT race (Louisiana Marathon). Smaller than RnR series (ugh), but the course support was GREAT, the scenery beautiful and so many community members out with their own aid stations in their front yards. The post race jambalaya cookoff was fun, the big bands…truly a top-notch race, even with less than 5k people! The race org did a great job. HIGHLY recommend.

Here is what I wrote where I log my workouts:

“I don’t know if I was overly cautious, but I was so worried about going to the bathroom before I left home and filling my ultra pack with coconut water, that I forgot ALL my energy bars/balls that I made (the same from last week)! I only had 4 packs of baby food, 3 sticks of pork jerky (no nitrates, no sugar, local…) and 3 pieces of bacon with me. Yeah. When I realized that at the start, I was so mad at myself. NO way was this race going to be better without my Paleo food! WTF. Sure it was hot & I didn’t have salt last week, but those baby foods are only 60 calories…not enough to sustain a 5-6 hour effort! WTF! So thankful my sherpa went to Whole Foods after the start, and met me at mile 11 with extra baby food packets & emergency (not paleo) energy bars just in case. I didn’t end up needing them though! It was so much better than last week, to have help if I needed it.

New Plan (since I forgot my bars): every 45min-1hr alternate a baby food or jerky/bacon. Every even # mile, have coconut water, every odd, have water.

My primary goal was “a better race than last week”, meaning I didn’t want to feel as horrible during the race. I just wanted to feel better.

Second, if things were ‘ok’ I wanted to not be slower. Which I anticipated would be possible if I didn’t feel as bad.

Third, if things went great, I wanted to beat the time, even by 5min.

As the race went on, 5 miles, 8, 10…I said to myself, “by 10 last week I was feeling really horrible, feeling good today!”…so I kept the walk breaks to the aid stations and kept on. I kept reevaluating and I kept waiting for the wheels to fall off…they never really did! So I kept moving my “goal” up.

maybe I can finish in 5:30! 20min faster than last week…
then, maybe I can do 30min faster…
THEN…maybe I can break 5:15!
THEN, by mile 19, I figured I could and maybe 5:10 was possible…

15,16,18…no wall. I was running (slowly) without breaks consistently between aid stations. By mile 19–the end, I was just cruising past people.

Sure things got tight. My hamstrings were hurting a little, my ankle (the one I broke in 2008) was giving me sharp pain (strange, that never happens) and my hips were sore. BUT, I was still ‘running’ at mile 25. No wall…no cramps…no dizzy…

SO. There it is. 100% Paleo (even Whole30!) marathon. No added sugars. On no training. BAM.

Even K gets surprised by this. He just keeps saying, “do you know how good you could be if you trained? How many people go and do that? Just decide on a Friday morning to do another marathon, and beat your time from last week?” As we were walking to the car and I said, “I easily have another 5-10miles in me!”

Sigh. Sport specific training is just so…boring. BUT, if I can continue to get in better shape…my marathon times will drop like they did several years ago. I’m getting there. AND in a ‘healthy’ (real food based) way. Doing marathons isn’t really healthy, I know this. But, I love them.”

Day 13: marathon day!

Posted on January 19, 2013 by HaleyComet

Marathons are the biggest, and probably only, reason I’m worried about this challenge. The day after, shit, the 2-3 days after a race, one doesn’t really feel like working out. Granted, walks and/or swims are good to help relieve the soreness, but lets face it, when you’ve done a marathon you’ve earned the right to be lazy! So, I won’t even address the stupid notions I have about doing some ultra marathons this year. That should be fun. Not really.

Day 13: Marathon. (Sunday) Mobile, AL “First Light Marathon”
Official distance 26.2mi. Garmin distance: farther than that.
Time: 5:54:01, pace: 13:31

The course was beautiful, through “historic Mobile”, then out through two Colleges, then back to downtown. It was mostly flat for about 5 miles, then the hills started about mile 10-22, rolling.
Funny thing about that jacked up car up there ^^. A guy was running near me as we were crossing that intersection. Cops were holding & directing traffic. He calls out to them “Tell me I’m hallucinating! Tell me that that isn’t a car taller than the trucks!” It was quite hilarious at mile 23. You’re laughing, right? Ok, we were delirious. Whatever.

I was trying something TOTALLY NEW during this race. I like to buck trends (and by “trends” I mean, solid advice & rules by experienced racers) and try completely new nutrition during the race. Without practicing during training (wait, what’s training?), I made tons of homemade ‘energy bars’ and carried them in my ultra racing pack. In my other races, my stomach usually stop tolerating sweet sports drink (Gatorade, Powerade: YUCK!) and gels/shot blocs after about mile 16ish. I just can’t tolerate them anymore. So, I think that since my eating over the past year has been dramatically cleaned up, that I can start cleaning up my race food. While some think it’s stupid to not use these sugar and chemical laden “foods” during a race, many people rely on real foods. Also, these products have only been around for about 30-40 years. Long distance racing has been around for much longer than that. Anyway…that’s enough of my soapbox. It’s an experiment and I’m going to keep tweaking.

Since I’m new to this blogging thing, I’ll say my finish time was…less than stellar. It’s not my worst race by any means, but it is definitely out of my normal 4:30-5:15 finish times. I believe it was a combination of the food, the very hot-for-winter temps (70 at the start, 100% humidity…UGH) and my stupid lack of salt mistake. Yep. In all my bars and carried food, I forgot to salt them during cooking and didn’t carry salt packets or pills. Lovely. (not really)

It was an experiment, but I wouldn’t say I failed miserably. I learned, or was reminded, that no matter how many of these things I do, I can’t get lazy and forget little things like salt! That said, I got a new state and finished my #22 marathon! Until next week…where I try for #23. With salt.

Days 10-12. The last complaints about the weather.

Posted on January 13, 2013 by HaleyComet

Ok, after this post I’ll stop complaining about the weather. Promise. Maybe.
If it stops raining, I’ll stop complaining about it. Until March when summer arrives.

Day 10: Home CrossFit & a walk. Did “Annie” at home, which is 50-40-30-20-10 double unders & sit ups. Pretty easy in the driveway! Earlier in the morning, we went for a mile walk in the storms to check out the flooding in the neighborhood.
“ANNIE”: 16:30 (really sucked on the jump rope today)
Walk: 30min

Day 11: Run. Fed up with the rain, I went and ran in the storm.
5:30pm: 2.1miles, 21:41, pace: 10:22. Ran in ankle deep water on some streets. Wasn’t too bad.

Day 12: Run & pushups: Drove to Mobile, AL today. Walked around downtown (nice little area, pleasantly surprised!). Quick run on the hotel treadmill while watching Real Housewives. Don’t judge. Had to be quick to make my 5p dinner reservation–I’m a senior citizen trapped in a 30something body: have to eat early. Then did 50 pushups after dinner.
Run: 1.59mi, time 14:42, pace: 9:15 (treadmill)
Note: after over 20 marathons, this is the first time I’ve run the day before a race! Ha. I’m usually really lazy.

Until Day 13…marathon day! Ciao!

haleycomet365

365 days of workouts, Food, and hopefully some fun!

Tag Archives: marathon