The one about the pull ups

I can't do a single pull-up, I hang there and bend my elbows pretending I'm lifting myself.

I did five yesterday. By 'did' I mean, I hung there and bent my elbows while the guy who helped me did 5 of those 'lift a weak G' exercises that are so trendy right now.

My arms hurt.

Weekend run

My first ever 14 miler. It's the longest distance I've ever run and I can't believe it went so well. My knees were tired by the end of it but otherwise I felt great. Since my left side (leg, knee, hips back) are weaker than my right, I was encouraged (is that the right word to be using here?) by the fact that both my knees felt equally worn out. We've started to experiment with salt tablets and they make such a difference during the long runs especially given the humidity in this hell-hole that is austin this summer.
I ran with Leslie and Jessica. I'm surprised how smoothly things went considering, I ran 14, Leslie ran 12 and Jessica ran 8. We ran into a fellow Gazelle that had been left behind by her group who ran my 14 with me. Having someone to run large distances with you is great but having someone who is fun to talk to really makes the run. Emily, the girl I ran with, was a talker and interesting to boot.
She also happens to be crazy!
She is training for her second marathon and she does all her runs without any nutritional supplements, I mean no food whatsoever! The only time she has used gels was during the marathon itself and it her cramps so she's a little weary of using them. I shared an extra gel and salt tablets with her during our run and I hope that has changed her mind about using the stuff.

A weird result of the salt tablets is that I need less gels to run on. I took three with me since that's how many I used during my training runs over 12 miles during the half. I ended up using only two. As long as I was alternating the tablets w/ the gels. I was fine. Actually that's a lie. I almost forgot to take a second gel because I felt fine but around mile 9 I started to feel a little nauseous. Realizing that I was probably low on sugar, I took a gel and immediately felt better. Ah, mustn't forget to take those things.

Then, the strangest thing happened once stretching was finished. I realized how amazing my legs are. This is a big deal because my legs (thighs) are what I like the least on my body. But the run made me feel this intense love for them. They carried me through those miles and kept me moving. They are getting stronger as training progresses and I can't help but be proud of them.

Mile repeats

Yesterday's workout was mile repeats. I've never done this one before so I was a little nervous. I was also late. The cat hasn't been feeling well and I woke up to puke. I ran by myself to Zilker where we do mile repeats around the pool area. My group did 3-4 depending on how 'accomplished' they were feeling. I stopped at 3. I ran all three at an approx 9:35 mins pace. That's crazy because I'm not that fast in reality. Even coach was surprised.

The first two miles were great, albeit tough. The last one though was like running with 20lbs weights attached to my legs. I couldn't seem to move as fast as I wanted to. This was also how I felt during my long run on saturday. The same long run that we had to cut down to 10 miles from 13.5 because of the humidity.
So the question here is, is the humidity making it difficult to run because it makes my legs really heavy or is it something to do with what I'm eating or drinking. I suspect it's the humidity combined with the fact that I have been a little lax with my water/electrolyte intake.

Peanut butter smoothie time

My mom-in-law (MIL) is a teacher and she gets the most crazy gifts from parents. One of the gifts she got was the magic bullet. Actually she got two. While it may sound kitchy is supposed to work really well and is a really great tool to have for a small kitchen.Since she doesn't use either, I asked her to send one to me.

It arrived yesterday in all it's awesome informecial glory complete with the other ten thousand things I will never need to use. I don't have the space for a blender but this fits in a much smaller area and I think I might able to get rid of some of the other single taskers I own (like my coffee grinder I use for spices).

Anyways, the number one reason I've wanted one was to make smoothies with. It's just too hot for a warm breakfast but smoothies are perfect for this weather.
So this morning I went for a run. A short one, around 4 miles and made a smoothie when I got back. It was delicious. I can't wait to try more recipes.

For this morning I used:
Ice
Milk
Soaked almonds
Banana
Cottage cheese
Honey

I've been adding strained yogurt or cottage cheese to my smoothies to add protien since I can't take the taste of whey protein. It works beautifully. There is absolutely no texture of the cottage cheese in the smoothie. It's smooth and a little tangy from the addition which makes it really tasty. I think I want to experiment w/ rose/kewra water(kewra is a flower, the essence is a bit similar to rose but flowery-er) and vanilla next.

Did you know?

1.Alcohol is metabolized as fat? Fat has 30-something kcals (kJ, I can't remember) per gram, alcohol has 29. Both protein and carbs are in the late teens for energy/gram.

2. Oxybenzone (half of neutrogena's helioplex) is a chemical sunscreen but it's also a carcinogen? I started to use sunscreen w/ helioplex a few months ago and had a significant allergic reaction to it. So I went online to look for what might be causing it.
I found this wikipedia link.
And it's not even the only one; the internettings are full of information about this chemical. If I remember correctly, it cannot be used in sunscreens in Europe. Just in the US. Nice.
I switched to Eucerin's sunscreen w/ titanium dioxide*. This took about half day's worth of going through all the suncreens in the stores because almost everything has oxybenzone.

* in the interest of full disclosure, titanium dioxide may also be carcinogenic but the study deals more with inhaled Ti dust not in suspended form.

A little pick me up

Never fails to make me smile.

Nike women's marathon

I love the idea of sport events directed at women. The whole feel is different at a women's sports event. It also takes some of the intimidation away from someone just getting into a sport who is starting to compete.

Now, here's my problem. I don't want to run for a tiffany necklace. Or chocolate at a water stop. Or a pedicure. It's a friggin' marathon and no amount of telling me it's a party is going to make 4-6 hours on my feet 'fun'.
I happen to know for a fact that love for chocolate, pedicures and branded jewellery don't make or define being a woman.

That being said, even I'm not stupid enough to complain about the firemen that hand said necklaces out to the finishers.

Do Not Want

I almost don't want to talk about this but I must. Please forgive me if I offend you.

I just don't want it.

I don't want to get my degree, have a kid and then do something else. I don't want to have kids, decide academia isn't for me and stay at home. Then write a blog about my kids or about gardening or food or knitting.

I want to be a researcher (well be good at it). I want to be proud of my accomplishments independent from those of my children.

Note: I do reserve the right to change my mind as the situation demands.

JELJAB!!

I've been struggling on my long runs ever since I got back to running in April. Last week changed all that. I took the first two miles really slow and that may have done the trick. Or not restricting my calories (carbs more specifically) may have done the trick. Or drinking accelerade before the run may have done the trick. Or not drinking coffee before the run may have done the trick. Or drinking electrolytes during the entire week leading up to the run may have done the trick.

Anyway, finally kept up with EELBA (w/o one E, erin but with two extra Js, Jessica V and Jessica C).

Let's see how this saturday fares, we plan to do the lopsided lolli (since there is a turnaround that looks like a circle). That's 9.8 miles with a middle with serious hills. I plan to sing 'lollipop' in all its misogynistic glory.

she says he's so sweet....

Well that was fun

Let's never do that again.

We ran a 4 mile run on wednesday with the last two miles paced.

It started out great. I kept a pace of under 10mins/mile for the first two miles and I wasn't even pushing it. I tried to take it slow to keep from overheating in the afternoon. With close to 100 degrees, I thought I was doing well. Then during the third mile, I started to struggle a bit. Walked, felt a little pucky and then ran some. Mile 4 created more nausea but also added chills. A little unusual and alarming.
When I got back Allison was nice enough to get me some water and coach didn't let me run the cool down mile.
I went to his truck to get some accelerade and managed to spill it all over my shirt. It wasn't exactly dissolved in the water and looked like I had thrown up all over myself. Yikes, I left. I went home, showered and wallowed in self-pity for the rest of the evening. This could/would have been the best tempo ever. Stupid texas summers.


Note:
self-pity entails me yelling 'my life sucks' intermittently through the night.

Currently craving

To not have to cook dinner everyday.

Note on currently craving

The 'currently craving' posts do not include any of the PMS cravings. I've been monitoring those and it seems like it is always something sweet and soft like Quack's strawberry oat bars (effing awesome!) and the newly discovered carmelita bars at Whole Foods. The interesting thing is that it never involves chocolate and the carmelitas have chocolate chips which kind of ruins them.

I tend to crave things a lot and they tend to strange, specific items like salmon sashimi or the potatoes from tacodeli. But I'm discovering that the cravings right before my period always involve sugar in a soft chewy form like caramels or fudge or local cinnamon buns (think cinnamon sugar dusted croissants).

dee-lie-ma update

Her royal laziness returned the pants and hopes to find a similar pair that are as cheap and cute. At the rate she is going, the ETA is 2012.

Cheers!

Conundrum

I bought a pair of shorts at target. For $7. Ya for me.

They are a size 13. I am not a size 13 but my thighs are. So while I fit into the smaller sizes, I like the way these look around my widest part (my thighs).

But here's the problem, as I mentioned, I am not a size 13. I worked really hard not to be a size 13 (actually 14) anymore but really I don't know if I care, it's just a number. But these shorts don't sit on my hips, they slip off. I could spend a little more money and get them altered to fit my hips. Or I could return them and hope to find something in my size in the same colours (did I mention they are tan, green and blue? Cute.)

So help me with my dilemma (or like Chitu likes to call the frivolous ones, dee-lie-ma), should I return the shorts or alter them?

Mama's day or the weekend of two runs

Elizabeth and I ran two shorter long runs this weekend. We ran 6 miles on saturday and decided to keep Jessica company as she ran her 6 miles on sunday.

First of all, this is bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!! I can't believe we did that. This time last year, just the one run would have been an accomplishment. It's amazing that we ran two of those in succession.

I had been dealing with a strange backache that appeared out of nowhere on thursday. After not moving for two days, I knew that warming the muscles up would help. I did make a pact with myself to stop if it didn't feel good and turn around no matter what. I considered not going on saturday and sunday but I'm so glad I went because today I woke up feeling fine.

Saturday was disgusting: humid, overcast and warm. The run was slow and uncomfortable. The highlight of the run was the family of swans on the lake, complete with five fuzzy cygnets (or as Leslie called them 'ugly ducklings'). Perfect for mother's day weekend.

Sunday was beautiful: cool, sunny and dry. We ran the eastside trail again but slightly altered so that we didn't have to deal with the road at all. We got to see the swans again, on mother's day no less! That made the two mom's day. This was the kind of run that reminds you why you love your city and running with the people you chose to run with.

I came home, called my mom who then proceeded to scold me about not 'making babies' :)

Currently Craving

Red meat but more specifically, steak; charred and salty. With onions involved somehow.

Those skinny jeans

(Ha! I typed the title as skinny cheese by mistake (lunch time).)

Funny thing about those skinny jeans, they don't always work out the way you would want to.

Four years ago, when I weighed around what I do right now I bought three pairs of khakis from jcrew. When I put on weight (again), these became my 'skinny jeans'. These are the pants I decided to fit back into as a pre-goal on my way to my final goal weight.

I've finally gotten to the point that I can start to wear them again. Funny story though, I don't like them anymore. No, I can't stand them anymore. One of them has no pockets in the back (remember when all the pants had that no back pocket thing going?). The other one is fitted around my thighs but wide-legged around my calves. And I haven't even looked at the third one yet.

So, I think I'm going to get rid of these pants and just find clothes that fit me right now.

Speaking of finding things that fit, let's take a letter:

Re: Vanity sizing

Dear Old Navy,
why change your sizing so that now a medium is now a large? I come into the store and nothing in my old sizes fits anymore (not that it did to begin with but I knew that I needed to try EVERYTHING before I bought it). I know I'm not a size small in anything (thanks boobies!!). To someone trying to lose weight, this is just cruel.

kthxbai,
Me

Birthday present

This is part I of Sandeep's birthday present. It's grainy but so worth it.

It's also the alcohol

Two weekends ago, a friend had a birthday party. A beer brewing, 16-yr old laguvilin (scotch) sharing friend. We got home feeling toasty and very much loved. The following monday, I noticed the scale was registering a heavier weight for me. I figured that would even itself out over the week and didn't think too much of it. Then on friday, we met some friends at the new neighbourhood watering hole. Didn't get drunk or even tipsy, didn't eat whataburger after (like we usually do) but again, the weighing scale registered a heavier number the following day.

I think, anything that messes with my cellular water content (i.e. water retention) messes with my weight. Salt, alcohol, humidity, gravity etc. Ever since I went off the pill, eating badly once or twice hasn't been as fatal as it used to be. This leads me to think that alcohol is particularly insidious because that 'weight gain' seems to last longer (it took almost all week to get it down to baseline).

So, for the next month, I'm going off alcohol. Completely (no let me taste your drink, no just a sip). Perhaps, once that is done, I can fiddle around with the kind and quantity of alcohol to figure out if these two factors make a difference.

Updates to follow.

Currently Craving

Eggplant.
Avocado.

I want the eggplant in a stewed, soft state and the avocado in a raw sliced state.
So I'm thinking, eggplant cooked indian style w/ broadbeans and potatoes (always craving potatoes) sometime this week maybe on friday.
And, and, and, a sliced avocado sandwich w/ just salt and pepper.

mmm....