Whole..day 8-10

Posted on June 12, 2014 by HaleyComet

Day 8:
Oh geez…I forgot to log it all. Dang. It was kind of a “down”, easy day.
I did have curry on lettuce for lunch!

Day 9:
AM: 1hr power walk
post walk: celery & cracksauce (avocado dip)

Nothing exciting.

Weight lifting:
bar warmup (5min)
sets of 5 reps
Hang Cleans: 55, 65, 75, 80
Bench Press: 65, 75, 80
Pullups (strict, banded) 3 sets of as many as possible. (Spoiler: not that many were possible. Arms: sore.)
Cool down: playing in the pool
Food:
Bowl of zoodles with basil pesto and chicken. Delicious!

Mix it up. Eat.

Day 10 (today!)
AM: 45min walk.
Hitting the road!

We leave today for a quick weekend trip. I got a free entry to one of my most FAVORITE marathons: Hatfield & McCoy in Kentucky/WV. Yes, both states. It starts in one and runs along the border to West Virginia. It’s so gorgeous and exciting to see the 26 Hatfield & McCoy historical markers (and houses, and meet them!) along the route! It’s my fiftieth marathon/ultra. Number 50! WHOA. It’s low compared to many of my Maniac friends, but pretty damn high compared to the normal population. FIFTY! If there is moonshine on the course like last year, I just may partake.

Whole day 2 & 3

Posted on June 5, 2014 by HaleyComet

I’m really enjoying being home and not driving around. I have to go to Costco and Whole Foods and get some plants from the nursery…but I’ve been avoiding it all week. See, those places are almost an hour away so it takes a whole morning or afternoon. Blah. Thursday: I will go to Costco and Whole Foods! I’ve got plenty of food though, so I’m not in danger of being without HEALTHFUL options.

Day 2
AM: Tabata Airdyne + Tabata Battle Ropes. Ohsweetgeezus the battle rope was SO MUCH harder than the Airdyne. Now, I didn’t sandbag the Airdyne. It is difficult, but the ropes….ooof. My poor arms. Which means…great workout!
Food:
10 burpees: scrambled eggs & veggies, 2 pieces bacon
30 air squats: bowl of tom kha gai w/extra veggies
10 burpees, mountain climbers, plank: tuna salad (extra greens)
PM: 20 tire flips, practice forward rolls to box (tire) jumps, forward roll pistols (hahahaha, no bueno)
tastes of sesame zoodles (zucchini noodles). Zenbelly recipe.

My body is CRAVING greens. I’ve eaten a whole container of spring mix in 2 days. I’m totally ok with that.

Day 3:
AM: 1hr power walk
10 burpees: tom kha gai, 2 pieces bacon, 1/2 pear
20 KB swings, 2×20 “high knees”: alligator sausage (Yes, that’s right. Eat local! Eat Wild!) w/mustard & kraut, sesame zoodles, 1/2 sweet potato w/ghee & cinnamon. Yum. None of it looked great together, but individually…delicious.

Pre-kruat. Looks better that way.

10 KB snatch, 20 one-arm swings: alligator sausage w/mustard & kraut, carrots

With the kraut. Looks delicious, yes?

PM: National Run Day! 2 mile run. Splits: 9:19, 9:03. OOOF. This was really difficult. It was HOT (I probably shouldn’t have gone in the heat of the day). I had to do postive self-talk the whole way. Everything about this was hard: it hurt to breathe. It was hard to keep the pace…and last year this pace was really easy for longer distance. My legs hurt. I got random twinges. Blah, blah, blah. But, last year I wasn’t carrying this extra weight and I had been more diligent in the spring about my workouts. So. I can only work with what I have TODAY. And today I ran 2 miles and it was really hot. Good training for Pikes Peak!

The lighting in my kitchen is horrid for pictures, so I often take my food outside for photographs. This is the hazard of doing so.

Damn you!

Back home and back on the wagon!

Posted on June 3, 2014 by HaleyComet

We’ve been gone for 2 solid weeks seeing the in-laws, friends, and more friends. It wasn’t a terribly exciting trip of sightseeing or gallivanting to exotic places like Zion NP or the Appalachian Trail. Just, “normal” life things of catching up with people we love. Oh yeah, there was a marathon in there, but I’d really like to forget it.
It’s good to be home, we’ve missed the ~~children~~ dogs. I think they’ve missed us.

Thanks for resting on my bladder.

Maybe one day I’ll add all the miles I’ve driven across the country. Or not. I probably don’t want to know. Anyone planning long haul drives, I’m your gal.
Did you know it’s farther from New Orleans to El Paso than it is to Madison, WI? INSANITY.
(this was just the way back! Doesn’t even count driving to TN, OH, around OH, then to WI)

Too far.

So yes, I’ve missed my self-imposed “one blog post per week” rule, but I never had enough down time to sit at the computer for an hour and compose a post. SO. Busy. The whole trip. Sure, I probably *could* have found an hour or two, but the people we were seeing were far more important.

I have no words. ❤

PERFECT squat. We should all be so lucky.

Whole <30? Dunno. We’ll see. I can’t commit to the 30 days this month since I have a marathon smack dab in the middle on June 14. So, I’ll do it until the day before (I can be compliant the day before, but I’ll be traveling and it’s a small town, so no guarantees there will be anything close to what I deem acceptable). I haven’t decided if I’ll do the race Whole30. I’ve done it before, but I’m leaning towards “no” since I want to keep my stomach somewhat able to tolerate race foods. We’ll see. It’ll be a game-week decision.

I spent the day cooking and getting my house/kitchen in order. Roasted a chicken & veggies. Started a broth in the crock pot. Made tom kha gai soup from Paleo Comfort Foods.
Sidenote: I’ve been on a HUGE thai/vietnamese/sushi kick lately. I cannot get enough of it. Even though it’s hot, I could eat pho several days a week–extra jalapenos and basil, please! So, I’m hoping to minimize the cravings for pho and sushi by making paleo-friendly foods with the amazing flavors of the East. Hoping for the best!
Anyone have any recipes they’d like to share? I *NEED* them. Coconut, curry, broth, SPICY. Send it, please!

I’m also doing something “new” this time. I’m doing some sort of body movement/exercise before I eat. Burpees, bodyweight squats, KB swings, etc. Nothing major, just get my blood pumping a little bit.

Day 1:
AM: 1hr power walk
10 burpees: 2 bowls spicy vegetable soup, 3 boiled eggs.
KB push press (10 each arm), 10 squat cleans. Tuna salad. Or tuna on mixed greens. Same thing, right? 2 pieces bacon.
KB swings, cleans, russian twists. Dinner: roast chicken, roast carrots, kimchi. (Love Farmhouse Culture! If you don’t make your own kraut or kimchi, they are the next best thing that can be found in stores.)

Speaking of dogs…they eat just as well – if not better- than I do! Their dinner last night:

Spoiled.

Make the most of this new month! I sure am!

Day 1. #2.

Posted on January 1, 2014 by HaleyComet

Here we go again. It feels a little unoriginal to do this again, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad! The end of the year, Dec. mostly, I really pushed the boundaries of what I considered an acceptable, or ‘valid’ (per my rules) workout. I started sliding to less ‘real’ workouts in Oct & Nov as my marathons & trail runs peaked for 100 training. Dec was spent minimizing damage from the 100miler. So, I’m not too thrilled with my ‘workouts’ for a little under the last quarter of ’13.

Today the weather was gross and the CF gyms were closed. So, just a walk today. I’m fine with it as it hurts to move AT ALL from CF yesterday. I’m so out of shape!
DAY 1: Walking (treadmill) 30 minutes.
20 burpees: I’m doing a 2014 burpee challenge. Averaging about 20 a day, I should be done in April per the ‘challenge’ a friend started on Facebook.

So, I want to do this all over again. I need some specific goals, but I do know this year will include less running (over 800 miles last year, the highest for me ever!) and less races. More weights. More interval (HIIT) workouts. More CrossFit. MORE walking. I want to be more ‘healthy’ and balanced with my physical activity. None of this seems hard to do.

I’m also doing another Whole30 this month. I started today off with 3 fried eggs, some guacamole, 2 pieces bacon, & 1/2 a big Texas grapefruit (the best!). Some days are filled with pretty food. Some are not. Nothing to hide here and definitely not ashamed to show ‘real’ pics. Nothing fake here!
Lunch: hodgepodge of stuff: tuna, celery & Nuttzo, 1/2 grapefruit.
Dinner: zucchini w/ duck sausage, marinara

What’s awesome is having a partner who doesn’t mind doing the errands/shopping. I despise it. So today I get a text, “Do we need anything from the store?” and I reply with, “Spinach would be nice, but it’s not dire.” The good news is he did come back with spinach. The bad news is that he came back with all this too. (I had picked up the bananas and sweet potatoes yesterday, so he doesn’t get any points other than actually getting the spinach) Did I mention Whole30 started today?

Not yum.

Until Day 2, peeps!

FOOD! Since we all love it…

Posted on March 1, 2013 by HaleyComet

Time for another food post. Things I’ve made or eaten the last several weeks…er, month! Oops, another realization I’ve waited too long!
Recipes when available. (Ok, I lied. I only have links to 4 recipes. I usually just throw meats & veggies together! Roasts: I use tons of garlic & onion & spices. Hamburgers. Nothing fancy.) Usually, I just throw things together, or alter recipes to make them Paleo compliant, or just better!

The day after Whole30 ended (Jan 31), we loaded up the car and headed to Houston for my first 50miler. Since I’m originally from the area, I had lots of places to stop. We wanted to hit a museum, Central Market (best grocery store, ever!), see family. My cousins live right across the street—well, dirt road and a short walk–from a raw milk farm! We brought the big cooler and really stocked up. Dairy isn’t Whole30 at all, but if I’m going to have it, it’s going to be this stuff: pastured, no grains, no hormones, antibiotics. Just…love! No dairy from the grocery store for me. Chemicals, hormones, and whoknowswhatelse in that factory stuff. It’s taken a couple years to get to this point of not wanting store bought dairy, but I love this raw stuff. I’m really glad this farm is several hours away.
EatWild is a great site to find local farmers!

When we got home after the weekend, we used the tremendous amount of cream to make our own butter! It’s actually pretty easy, I encourage everyone to try it! You don’t need a big KitchenAid to do it, a hand mixer works fine. It’ll just take a little longer. This is the blog/instructions we usually follow. (her pics are MUCH better than mine) However, the pics & instructions below are all it takes. It’s really simple. I usually divide the butter up and make salted, unsalted and herb varieties. This time was chive, rosemary & thyme.

To start: pour cream in mixer and mix! That’s it. Just mix, mix, & mix some more.

After about 8-10min it goes past ‘whipped cream’ and starts clumping into butter! You’re left with butter and buttermilk. Delicious.
Separate it out with a mesh strainer, squeeze the liquid out, and you’re left with a butter ball. Or log. Whatever shape you like.

Now, lots of food collages! Things I’ve eaten this month.

Lets start with some breakfast.

We have sautéed veggies & bacon frittata. Then, my usual, scrambled eggs (usually with some type of veggies) w/salsa, and home cured bacon.
Marks Daily Apple has some good frittata recipes, but they’re just like scrambled egg: throw whatever you have in there! I had yellow squash, red pepper & spinach. Garlic and onion too, of course. Then bacon on top.

Lets get to lunches! Usually some type of salads or leftovers, that I eat at school. Hence the leftover containers. Here we have kale salad w/apples, radish, pine nuts & almonds, yellow beets, mint & parsley, olive oil & lemon. Delicious. Top right is roast hog and salad. Bottom right is salad with buffalo burger, I think. And then a plain ‘ol salad.

Here I wanted to show some portion sizes. I try to get a TON of volume of veggies. The top left is an egg salad. Veggies piled high with egg dumped on top. I forced myself to eat it all! (the plates are huge) Then roasted veggies w/deer & regular salad. Oyster happy hour (YUM!), I ate 3 doz. Finally, sometimes I get desperate. I *NEEDED* to eat something, and I had an orange. I was in the car. Nowhere to let the juices drip & to put the peel….
SO, an orange in a shoe box it is!

Got my first sack of crawfish for the season (it’s still a little early), and the dogs were VERY interested in them. They thought the mudbugs were delicious, btw.

Let’s address eating out!

Went out several times, especially when we were in Houston. My dining partner got some scallops over risotto (I did not try). When we were leaving the Museum of Fine Arts, the food trucks were parked outside! I was so excited. I got some kind of meat wrapped in bacon. It came with a wonderfully spicy guac. I also got some kind of taco, sans shell. Both were delicious! Finally, some BBQ in a cup.

Now, some dinners!
Fall off the bone crock pot wild hog. (no recipe)
Hog & asparagus
PaleoOMG bacon ‘alfredo’. I altered this and added tons of brocoli, lots of spices. It was really good. I’ll probably make it again.

Here’s more meat pictures.
I think this is deer or hog with caramelized onions & garlic.
On the right, is sausage stuffed pork chop and steamed broccoli. YUM.

And finally, the roast chicken I made this week. I adapted Thomas Kellers Ad Hoc recipe. I used rutabaga, turnips, carrots, leek, onion, garlic, sweet potato. Used some homemade raw butter, rosemary, thyme and tons of S&P. It was so good, I wanted to give you three views. The veggies were out of this world. I love roasted vegetables.

And, there you go! Things I’ve eaten this month! I’d like to do a food post once a week, but I don’t think I have the variety for that. I make 2-3 ‘bigger’ meals a week, and the rest of the time it’s either eggs, big salad or leftovers. The leftovers go pretty far. I’d like to try a new recipe every week, but I don’t think I’d actually take the time for that.

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!

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.

haleycomet365

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

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