Eat Clean

Yesterday I started a week long goal of eating healthy.  Only a week?  Well, it seems if I make a goal of eating clean for any period of time longer than a week I don't meet it.  So, right now, I'm working with a week. 

For this week, my goal is eat a minimal amount of processed foods.  Eating foods a natural as possible.  Not some kind of crazy "raw" diet.  And some things are just going to have to be processed.  But, my goal is to go with as natural of a diet as I can. 

I know, in order to maintain a healthy diet over a long peroid of time, I'll have to go back to the yummy Zone Bars that I love so much. 

As I type this I'm sipping a strawberry/banana/soymilk smoothie.

On tap for this weekend, a trail 5K in Dublin and a long run on Sunday.  By Monday I should have a full 7 days of clean eating under my belt, and a race report.

 

Sweetheart 12K 3/20/10

This past saturday we finally got to run the Sweetheart 12K, which was originally scheduled on 2/13/10.  The race was rescheduled due to approximately 5 inches of snow.  Yes, we live in Georiga, NO we are not used to snow!

I'm glad the race was rescheduled.  I had signed up to run the 5K in February, becuase I had only been up to running for 2 weeks post injury at that time.  I changed our entries to the 12K once I knew the re-scheduled date.  Having run a 15K last weekend, I wasn't worried about the distance at all.

I decided that after not doing so well on the Geico 12K, I was going to PR on this one.  Not just a little PR, but go from 1:06:45 to 1:05.  To do this my mile splits would have to average at around an 8:45 pace. 

Race morning came around, and what do you know.  Normal "Kat with a Goal" wasn't grouchy?  Why, I have no clue.  I wasn't nervous, grouchy, cranky, irritable, Nothing.  Weird.  We got to the race about an hour early, socialized some, then ran about a 15 minute warm up.  The weather was perfect.  About 45 degrees, sunny, and no wind. 

The race started at 8:00 AM and we were off.  My splits were as follows:

1- 8:58

2- 8:47
3- 8:36
4- 8:44
5- 8:42
6- 8:53
7- 8:43
.21- 8:00

I wish I could have picked it up a bit on mile 6, I just lost my steam. 

So, you see this race was  7.21 according to my Garmin.  A 12K is 7.45, so the race was about .25 off.  That's ok though.  My Garmin time was 1:02:59, and let's just factor in another 2 mintues for the missed distance and that STILL put's me at a huge PR of 1:05 on the dot.  I'm taking it as a victory either way and I am very happy with my results!

This weekend will be a Race-Free weekend.  I'd like to get in a decent long run this weekend since there won't be a race to concentrate on.

Yesterday began Phase 3 of my training program.  I will get in my usual speedwork each week, as well as a Tempo run each week.  I'm going to be sure to get in my long runs in preparation for my May half marathon.

Gate River Run 2010

My 5th running of the Gate River Run was a success.  Chuck and I had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed our tradition of running the best run of the year in Jacksonville FL.

We headed out of town on Friday morning and got to the race expo around lunch time.  We picked up our packets, and 10 of our friends packets.  We walked around the expo for about 2 hours then went to the hotel to check into our room.

The hotel was very nice, the Embassy Suites on Baymeadows.  After unpacking and going through our expo goodies we met up with a few friends, Mom, and her friend E.  Lunch at Wild Wings was great.  So maybe beer and spicy food wasn't the best idea for a "night before a race" meal.  Oh well, I had fun anyway. 

Friday night was early to bed.  I laid down at 9:15, and suprisingly fell almost immediately to sleep.  Me... who usually has insomina for no reason at all.  5:00 AM came early and I was up, in the shower, dressed, ate my bagel with peanut butter and was ready to go by 6:30.  We ended up leaving later than I wanted.  Which resulted in heavy traffic coming into the downtown area.  On the way to the race I realized after my peparation I still managed to forget my Garmin.  Luckily Mom let me borrow hers.  I was such a grouchy butt on the way to the race.  I'm always grumpy on race morning.

Once we got to the stadium and parked, we visited the porta-potties.  Then found our corral section to line up in.  We waited for about 30 minutes.  Then it was RACE time!

The entire 15K was as enjoyable as it has been every year I have run it.  We had no expectations of running a fast time, we just wanted to do it and enjoy the day.  We finished in just a few seconds over 1 hour 30 minutes.  This was a few seconds slower than last year, but who's counting?

The race has a great beer trailer, all of us enjoyed the refreshments.  Once we all got our fill, back to the hotel to get cleaned up.  Lunch on Saturday was at the Seven Bridges, a nice restaurant with a micro brewery.  I tried the brown ale, had fettucini with parmesan shrimp.  Then for dessert Chuck and I sampled the dessert tri.  Oh Yum.  The bread pudding was amazing!

Once we were full from lunch we all headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit.  The hotel has a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 that includes free drinks.  We were all there to enjoy the "spirits"!  After that was over we wandered over to the Omaha Steak restaurant for dinner.  I wasn't hungry, so I just had a potatoe. 

We were all full, happy, and tired, so we all went to our rooms to get a good night sleep.  8:00 AM to rise Sunday morning, and go out for a windy recovery run down Baymeadows.  We got in 3 miles at a slow pace, just to stretch out the muscles and get some blood pumping.  For breakfast we enjoyed the hotel's complimentary hot breakfast.  After filling up, we showered, packed and headed to the Jacksonville Landing to say goodbye to our mini vacation spot.  We had smoothies and shopped for about an hour before heading back to Georiga.

The trip home was uneventful.  (That's good right?)  And back to work Monday morning.

This week is my last week on Phase 2 of my training.  Last night was my speed workout, which went well.  I will either start my Tempo runs this week or next week.  I'll wait and see how I feel.

Cantrell Center 5K

Last Saturday, Feb 27, 2010 was the 2nd Annual Cantrell Center 5K, as well as my 2nd go at the race.


♥I've got love for this race♥


1.  It's about 1 mile from my apartment.
2.  I go to the Cantrell Center about 2 times per week to swim.
3.  I like the staff at the Cantrell Center.
4.  It's a Big Race.
5.  It's chip timed.
6.  It's a RACE, come on, I love races! 

Race morning was great.  I woke up In A Good Mood.  For the remainder of the morning, I REMAINED In A Good Mood.  How crazy is that.  I'm notorious for being a grouchy butt on race day.  We didn't have to get up too super early since the race was close by.  Our babysitter showed up not only on time, but early.  Everything just fell into place.  I bet the biggest factor was the fact that I wasn't trying to PR or meet a hard goal!

We had picked up out packets early so we didn't have to mess with any of that stuff.  No tummy upset for me.  We did a good warm-up run of a little over a mile.  Before we knew it, it was race time.

Coming back from my injury, I decided that my "Race" would really be a 3.1 mile "Tempo" run.  My tempo pace varies from 8:20  to 8:35 (depending on distance), so my goal was to start around 8:35 and end at around a 8:20 pace.  My actual performance was pretty true to my goal.  Granted due to the hill on the last mile of the course I spiked up to about a 8:45 for a bit.  Overall my pace was 8:26. 

After the race I chatted with a few of my running friends and enjoyed the crowd of happy "5K'ers"  I'm ready for the 12K next weekend at Geico. 

Untill Then...

Phase 1 Down

I havn't done much blogging since I've been back to running.  Which makes since, because Phase 1 was somewhat boring and uneventful and I didn't have much to say.  I am happy to be back on the road / treadmill.  I've enjoyed it although I've been less than motivated.  I think once I get back to a few quality workouts each week that will improve.

For the last 3 weeks of training in Phase 1, I'll just hit the highlights:

Week 1 - 15 miles
Week 2 - 11 miles
Week 3 - 12.6 miles

Yeah, that looks pretty sorry on "paper".  But I am mixing in a lot of weight training, I've been swimming 1-2 times per week and we've been riding our new road bikes... since we want to complete the Rock & Roll Sprint Tri in June.  I have been busy even if not running a lot.

Some other highlights of the last three weeks:

My daughter Shyenne has started running with me.  We plan to run her 1st 5K on April 24th, the day before she turns 9.  She's up to 1.5 miles.  She needs 2, 1 minute walk breaks.  I can already tell she's improving.  It's nice to be doing something that I love with her, not to mention it being great for her health.

I ran my first 5K of the year on Saturday.  I wont go into much detail about it, becuase there was no pressure, no plans, no stress.  I just ran 3.1 miles, that's it.  My time was 27:47.  I was very satisfied with that. 

I sold my old car, a Chevy Malibu that I bought new in 2000.  Chuck and I bought a "new to us" 1999 Ford Explorer Limited.  We almost came out even buying the Explorer after selling the Malibu.  I'm loving my new bigger vehicle.  The Malibu had no A/C and summer will be here soon.

One last thing... I got my hair cut.  It had gotten pretty long, I had about 6 inches cut off.  It feels much better, I'm happy with that change too!

I need to post pics... maybe next time...

Can I do it ALL?

I've spent the last month doing a lot of planning for the 2010 year.  Planning RACES!  I love races.  I love planning ahead, pre-registering.  Getting all prepared for the race once race day gets close.  I was happy with our devotion to running and racing last year, for 2010 I want even more. 

I would love to run, and race hard every single weekend.  I know that's not possible.  Races take a toll on the body, cost money to enter, and then there's childcare to arrange.  It's a good thing that I like to plan ahead, otherwise we'd be in a mess and probably get nothing accomplished.

Right now I've got everything I want to do through June figured out.  Lots of races to run and even a few trips to take.  One BIG thing Chuck and I would LOVE to do is a Sprint Tri.  There will be one close by in Macon on June 5th. 

Planning for the Tri will be all new for me.  Here's what I've got nailed down so far:
I need to register by April 1st.
We need a babysitter for the morning.
I've already began swimming laps.  Continue swimming at least twice a week until the event.
Buy a Road Bike!  Train on the bike at least once a week until the event.
Get necessary gear (attire, accessories, etc)

Ok, That should do it.  I'm sure I'll think of plenty more as time goes by and I talk to more experienced Triathlon competitors.

Who's That Girl

Running on the treadmill at the gym last night?  Me, yep, me. 

I was cleared by the Dr. last week to start back to running this week.  I could have done my first run on Monday night I guess.  I waited until Tuesday night because running Monday would have messed up my running every other day plan. 

Last night I got to the gym and walked 30 minutes at about 4mph on the treadmill.  Chuck and I then worked chest and triceps.  We threw in a few core exercises for fun.  Then it was go time.  Time to see if I was fully rested, healed, and ready to go!

I stepped up on the treadmill, fastened my mp3 player, set up my garmin to track my HR, and set the speed to about 3.5 to warm up for about 5 minutes.  My heart was beating fast and I felt so nervous.  Just as nervous as if I was about to run a race!  I just focused on my music and the cooking show on the gym TV and chilled out.  Warmed up and stretched.  Let's do this.  I set the speed to 5.5mph (about a 10:55 min mile)  Ran at that pace for a mile, then went to 5.7 for a mile, and ended at 5.8 (10:20 min mile) for the 3rd mile. 

The run felt great.  I never got tired.  I had no heel pain.  I felt like ME again. 

When Chuck and I got on the treadmills they were crowed, so he got on one about 3 or 4 down from me.  By the halfway point of my 3 miles most of the other people had finished and the treadmills cleared out.  I looked over at Chuck and smiled.  I big REAL smile, the kind that you can't stop even if you wanted to.  Not smiling because your supposed to.  I was smiling because I was truely happy.  Even when I turned away to make sure I didn't fly off the back of the treadmill.  I couldn't quit grinning!  I realized I must look like a total dork with that smile pasted on my face sweating like crazy running on the treamill. Oh well.

Well that's it.  I did it.  Now I feel like I can start planning and look forward to a smart balanced training program.  I'll run 3 miles again on Thursday night.  I hope all goes well.