Monday, November 30, 2009

Day 4, no sugar

To recap, I going from the day after Thanksgiving to the day before Christmas Eve with no refined sugar. Today is day 4 of this experiment, and it's going rather well. Day 1 was particularly hard, because I hadn't planned for it and hadn't prepared any substitutes for the candy and snacks, etc., that are laying around our house perpetually, and especially this month of the year. Serendipitously, my sister emailed me a recipe for peanut butter bars the same day that Frayed Laces posted a similar recipe on her blog. I sort of combined the two into a really yummy snack that has been my fall back when I need a cookie-ish treat. Basically, this is my version of the recipe:
  • 1 cup chunky peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • about 1 cup nonfat dry milk
  • 1 1/2 cups oats
  • 1 TBS unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Microwave the PB & honey together to make it more stir-able, then add oats, cocoa, and vanilla. Add dry milk until it becomes non-sticky enough to roll into a ball (about the size of a cookie-dough ball before you bake it). Refrigerate on waxed paper until firm. Enjoy.

They're goooooooooooood. They're not calorie-free or anything like that, but they're good. I think overall I'm running on fewer calories, mainly from missing the soda and all the candy that finds its way into my gullet. I will weigh in today as an official "beginning" weight after my run at lunchtime, and then again weekly and on the 23rd to keep track of any progress. I do plan on continuing to run and exercise at normal (for me) levels during this experiment. Keep ya posted.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Diet month and updates

Okay, so I think I figured out what's up with my foot. It's the shoes. The doctor suggested as much when I went in back in September, just before the marathon. However, he indicated the wrong shoes. Here's the deal. Today I went outside for a 5 mile run in my Nike Vomero 3s. It felt fine... for the first half mile. Yeah. Then it felt a little wanky. At the end of 5 miles, it was definitely irritating, if not a little bit painful. The day it started hurting, way back in September? Sure, it was after a 20 mile run in my New Balance 805s, but that run was a day after 6.1 miles in the Nikes. Then the trial run the next Thursday, when I only got through 2 miles before walking it in? Yeah, in the Nikes. The marathon? You know, where my foot hurt the whole freaking time? Again, the Nikes. Then, the next trial run 2+ weeks after the marathon... where I did only 2 miles on the treadmill because my foot started acting up... yep, you guessed it, the Nikes. Incidentally, I've done a few other runs in the 4-5 mile range in the last few weeks, NOT in the Nikes, and I've been great. Until today. 5 miles in the Nikes, and ouch.

So the Nikes are for sale. Anyone want a pair of slightly used Vomero 3s? I have 100.9 miles on them, still lots of life left (200-400 miles easy). Just not for me.

On another note, the lack of any real long runs or rides or anything in the last 6-7 weeks since the marathon is starting to take a toll on my waistline (yeah, Halloween has something to do with it too.) And Thanksgiving and Christmas and just December in general coming up aren't going to help, really. So here's what I decided to do: No sugary junk foods (including soda - oy vey!) for a month for yours truly. Now, there may be a sugary component to a meal, such as teriyaki sauce (lots of sugar there) on chicken, or something like that, but that will be it. There will be no candy, no non-diet soda (HFCS, that means you), no brownies, cookies, or pastries, no cinnamon rolls, no maple syrup, no hot chocolate, none of that. This will last from the day after Thanksgiving (I get to bring the cheesecake, and I'm not going to miss out!) until December 23rd (because Christmas Eve is the traditional family cinnamon roll breakfast, and I'm not going to miss out on that either!) So it's not quite a month, but still. Anyone who knows me will know this is a major undertaking for me, and I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to accomplish it, but this will be my goal. I'm going to allow myself 2 cheats for the month, just so I don't get derailed if I fall off the wagon for a shake or something just once. But only 2. That's it.

I'll be posting updates, including weigh ins, etc., as I go. This should be interesting (to me, at least).

Monday, November 2, 2009

4 miles! Happy Day!!

Today I decided to give the peroneal tendon another test. I've been sick for about a week, give or take, with a cold/cough/weakness fit that kind of came and went from last Tuesday through Saturday. Never got a fever or chills or aches, thankfully. So, since last Monday I've not only been off my foot, but I've been off of everything. I'm feeling about 90% recovered today, so I brought in running clothes and shoes and hit the treadmill (torture on a beautiful day like this one!) at lunch time. Again, I wanted to be able to stop whenever I wanted if I felt the tendonitis wake up.

I hit the treadmill and started off at an easy 10 minute pace... went a mile, no problem. Bumped up the speed to 6.1 (9:50 pace) and went another mile, no problem. My foot did feel a little wanky in a lot of places, but not where it's been hurting, and they all worked themselves out. In short, I ended up at 4 miles in 39:12, a 9:48 avg pace, and NO PAIN. BooYah!

After I stopped the treadmill and stepped off, I could feel slight tenderness where the pain has occurred in the past. (Hear that!? In the PAST! WOOHOO!) But nothing that's going to alter my gait or even cause any real discomfort. I will take it as a sign not to run tomorrow (at the least), but I will be back running now. And that's a good thing. I was starting to go insane.