I haven't had much to write about lately so I am forcing myself to come up with something tonight.
I've been doing pretty well with my new 1,650 calorie/day plan as prescribed by a dietitian. I've also been successful at planning my entire day of meals out in advance and bringing everything I need with me to work. I'm doing ok with eating 1-2 servings of veggies each day, but not as well as I would like to be doing. I have gotten at least one serving each day, so that is good, but I was hoping to get two.
With the diligence in tracking and paying more attention to the mixture of foods, I have started to see progress on the scale, WOO HOO! I am down to 246 lbs after MONTHS of being stuck in the 250-255 range. That means 6 pounds to lose until I reach my first big goal of 240 pounds, the lowest weight I remember weighing in high school.
Most days sticking within my calorie limit is pretty easy, but some days I just want to gripe about the fact that I even have to pay attention to it. I just want to be able to self regulate, hopefully some day I will get there.
So, even though I'm making progress on the scale, my endurance during runs has completely tanked. I was supposed to do 12.5 miles on Sunday but I was on call for work (and had a ridiculously busy day) so I instead made a plan for Monday afternoon and had taken half the day off for it. Well, that all changed when I ended up needing to take the littlest one to the dermatologist to determine the cause of a nasty rash that stumped a resident and two seasoned pediatricians.
Exhibit A
Turned out to be eczema and a skin infection which we have no idea how he got. But he was pretty darn cute in the little gown they gave him to wear (it is backwards, but he put it on himself, I just tied it)
We finally got home around 2:30 or so and I got him down for a nap and tried to finish up some outstanding work issues left over from the weekend. I headed out on my run around 3:30. Within the first 5 minutes, my heart rate was way higher than it normally would be and even though I kept trying to slow my pace down, it was still way above my long run range (60-70% of Max). At about mile 4 everything fell apart. I had to stop and walk for a bit but was determined to walk for a short amount of time and then pick it back up again. I did that and then lasted for about three minutes. I think I only ran about 1 more mile spread out over the rest of the trek which I ended up cutting short to 11.20 miles.
Here are my really, really, sad splits.
That all ended up being a 15:15 mile/min pace, which is MUCH slower than my normal long runs....because it is a walking pace. I know it is silly to get upset about this kind of thing, but it was really frustrating since the last long run I did, I ran for the entire thing. Yes, it was on the treadmill last time, but I don't usually see THAT big of a difference between running on the treadmill and running outside. It was quite a bit warmer on Monday than it has been in a very long time and we didn't really get anything in between upper 30's to the upper 70's that we had then, so I'm hoping my body just needs to adjust to the warmer weather.
I'm also thinking that part of the reason my heart rate was so high is because I took the advice of a very helpful employee at Dick's Sporting Goods and bought some GU. I planned on just getting some to try mid run since I need to refuel because end up running for so long. He talked me into trying some GU Roctane (caffeinated) pre-run and then some regular GU Energy Gel for every 45 minutes during the run. I choked down the Roctane about 15 minutes before I left....it was nasty. I felt like I was going to puke pretty much immediately. He warned me that different flavors tend to sit better in some people's stomachs than others. I guess that one didn't sit well in mine. Around mile 5 I tried to take some of the Tri-Berry GU and I started gagging before I even got it up to my mouth. I think I got about half it down before I said screw it and decided it wasn't happening today.
Lesson for the day: GU + Tammy = No bueno
I did learn another valuable lesson on Monday: the success of my runs is determined long before I even step foot out the door. I was so stressed with work, Oskar and James tooth that I kind of didn't even want to run on Monday. I just wanted to crawl into bed, but I went anyway with the thought that it was probably going to suck....and it did. Every time I feel like it isn't going to go well, it doesn't. Running is far more mental than physical for me and some days I just can't get my head in the right place. I normally pray during most of my long runs and I couldn't even focus on that. I don't really know where my head was. I kind of felt a bit vacant and couldn't concentrate on anything other than my tired legs, dry mouth, pounding heart and lack of breath.
I have one more long run before my first half marathon and I'm really praying that it goes much better so I can go into race day feeling confident.
Last night I did a 30 minute run on the treadmill at the gym and it felt pretty good. I set the pace at a 12:00 min/mile and was able to run for most of it.
So that about does it. Not much else to report other than trying to keep on keeping on. I'll leave you with a few pictures from the past couple days.
Mother's Day Gift for My Mom - A bathtub faucet that doesn't leak
At the gym last night, I was drenched but it is hard to tell in the picture
Lovely Mother's Day gift from my daughter (I've never tried to cook the entire country of Chile, but I do make a mean batch of chili)
Mr. Ragerpants and me killing some time at the mall before OT today
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