Posts Tagged ‘food’

Ah recovery!  I really needed it, no question.  I thought Monday was the nadir with 8@8:50 but nope, today I whipped out a 10-miler @9:10 on the coolest morning we’ve had in ages, 70 degrees.  I guess yesterday’s fartlek combined with LadyTime was enough to put me in the sludge.  I was planning on doing my hour-at-MP tempo tomorrow, but might wait an extra day.

More drill talk

Tuesday’s 10-miler had a slow start but ended with a few 8:00s for 8:25/mi.  At the end I did a drill/stride session which I’m really getting into for several reasons:

First off, in order to do the butt kicks, high knees and skipping, you’re automatically forced to keep your hips under you; when I run, I often have to remind myself to tuck my hips in so this is valuable.  Also, the exaggerated arm movements relax the shoulders and even affect my hand shape in the following stride.  Then there’s the powering off for your legs (most important) plus forced forefoot landings – it’s like a mini strength workout.

I think I’ll do the drill/stride combo twice a week from here on in.  It takes so little time (2 reps of 3 drills with 6 strides takes about 6½ minutes) and if I’m going to do strides anyway, may as do both.

I also found a wonderful set of drill videos from NYRR.  They’re meant for coaching kids and have the most concisely detailed instructions I’ve seen on the subject.  Excellent production values as well. (Edit: just saw the buttkicks one and the demonstration kid is actually not doing them the best way – she’s kicking too far behind which other buttkick videos, Lauren Fleshman’s for example, warn against, feet should aim directly under the ass, knees go high. Oh well, the rest is good)

Fartleks

Wednesday’s 9-miler contained a satisfying fartlek/interval session.  In last Sunday’s post, I wrote I’d be doing 10x(3min-ons/1 min-offs) but when I did the math (10×3 = 30min with 9min’s recovery), it struck me that this was too much since it was a 10-minute increase of hard running over last week’s intervals with less recovery.  So I changed it to 9 reps (27 minutes total work with 8min. recovery), still a solid work increase but a little more manageable.

I didn’t do any strides or drills preceding since, in keeping with fartlek, I wanted to keep it relaxed and laid-back so the first two were on the slow end, but after that, I got in the groove.  Thanks to the short recoveries, my average heart rate – while still low for a 10k workout (175, 84%HRR) – was closer to where it should be.  7:46/mi for the whole thing.

Heat Heat Heat!
I’ve been saying weather isn’t affecting me so badly this year and I am faring way better, but now that I’m doing more quality work of course I’d love to run the paces as written, not with any heat-deducted approximation.  But as acclimated as you can be, it’s silly to expect to run at top shape when it’s humid and high 70s-80s at 6am.  I know this, but I still chide myself some, just can’t help it.  But here’s what I was thinking about this week:

Most people’s optimal running environment is between 45 and 55 degrees, my fave is 50.  78 degrees is 28 degrees over 50.  Consider the opposite: subtract 28 from 50 and what do you get? 22 degrees.  Remember what that’s like?  All the crap you had to wear?  Did you expect to run your best at 22 degrees?  Nevermind that you’re not losing body fluids all over your shoes.

Even a 20 degree difference (70 sounds so innocuous, doesn’t it?) taken the opposite way, is 30 degrees…still below friggin’ freezing.  So let’s consider this before we blame ourselves for taking a hit on humid 70+ degree mornings (Peggy, are you listening? ). It’s not personal wimpyness, it’s bona fide physiology.

Meat Meat Meat!
I’ve been on a huge meat kick to an embarrassing extent.  In the last couple weeks, I’ve consumed two 2.25 lb pork loins, 5.5 lbs of chicken and 2 or 3 hamburgers, not to mention a handful of eggs (egg salad sandwiches).  It cracks me up that I’ve lived in the Blue Hovel for 2 years and only recently began cooking like a regular person.  Until a few months ago, I hadn’t bought a single package of chicken and had purchased one lone package of beef patties.  Nowadays, my shopping trips look like I’m feeding a family of bears.

I’m big on the crockpot lately and I made this Thai Chicken recipe the week before, liked it so much that I made it again a few days later (first time with breasts, second time w/thighs…both were delicious).  In the meantime, I shared it on FB to rave reviews so if you’re a crockpot owner, give it a shot.

I also make a pork loin in the crockpot that uses a can of whole cranberries and since I’m into shredded meat lately, I shred the shit out of it, then make burritos or eat it with mashed ‘taters and brussels sprouts.  Last week’s version was a little weird though since Whole Foods finds it beneath them to stock cranberries in the summer, but they had canned blackberries so I tried that, which was actually tasty except for the millions of tiny seeds.  Live and learn.

Aside from meat (which I’m one day away from ODing on), my usual diet these days is a bowl of hot 5-grain cereal with PB and Sweet ‘n Low before my run, then when I get back, usually the same thing.  Then around noonish, an egg-salad or tuna sandwich (or as of late…meat!), a small snack around 3pm, dinner around 6 with a huge bowl of fruit for dessert, then before hitting the hay, maybe some crackers with a wedge of low-fat Laughing Cow or some carrots.

You’d think I get to eat like a pig with all the running I do but alas, no.  I haven’t had cookies, candy, cake or even low-fat ice cream for a few months.  But what’s changed is that if I make a quesadilla, for instance, I don’t measure out a little portion of shredded cheese, I pull a few handfuls out of the bag…just like a normal person would.  Instead of being miserly with the peanut butter in my hot cereal, I have a generous-sized dollop.  It’s those little things that are different.  But if I want to lose weight for better racing, I’ll have to pay more attention.

Somewhat related, I was thinking about meal times the other day and realized that the reason I get so much hungrier in the winter, besides the usual winter chill/food connection, is that I go to bed at 12:30am in the winter but eat dinner around 6:30.  That leaves 6 hours between dinner and sleep, whereas in the summer, I eat at 6pm but go to bed at 9:30, so that’s only 3.5 hours between.  That’d be like eating dinner at 9pm for a 12:30 bedtime – a little too Continental for my tastes, but I think a 7:30 or 8pm dinnertime sounds like a reasonable idea for the Fall/Winter so I’m going to try that out when the season changes.

No Sunscreen? A-OK!
My friend Todd shared a really cool page yesterday that gives you a UV Index forecast for your location – just change the zipcode in the URL to reflect your own.

Every summer, I have a constant, low-level buzz of guilt for never wearing sunscreen on my early morning runs; I hate dealing with it and feel it compromises my sweatability.  But even though I leave the house at dawn and return before 9am, I have a pretty good tan, so I still manage to get a fair amount of sun.

But according to the UV Index page, I’m not in danger without sunscreen since the UV risk remains low here until 10am (and I imagine that’ll get pushed farther out now that sunrise is getting later).  Low risk means “Unless you are especially sensitive to UV radiation generally no protection is needed.”  Yay! One less thing to feel guilty about.  That just leaves 1,352,034 more.

My, What Excellent Shoes You’re Wearing
Geoffrey Mutai, currently the best runner in the world, just set a course record in the Half at Bogota last weekend with a 1:02:20 beating out 2nd place by 2 minutes and 27 seconds…huge!  Recognize his shoes?  Adidas Adios, baby!  The kicks of champions.

Afternoon Edit…An Online Interview
The nice people at Digital Running did a little interview with me, which might not tell you anything you don’t already know, but what the hay (hey?), check it out.  Thanks Brian and Raffi, I’m flattered to be a part of your website.

This was not the plan at all but I ended up with a spankin’ new weekly mileage PR.

As you know, my running schedule these days is very loosey goosey but I do have a general idea of how I want the week to go.  What’s nice is that since it’s all “just running” I can switch it around to suit the weather or work or how I’m feeling that day.  So the week was planned to be 85 miles.  On Friday I did a 15 miler.  That left me with Saturday and Sunday to get 24 in.

Since today (Sunday) was supposed to be thunderstorms, I went 14 yesterday so I’d only have to do 10 today.  Turns out the thunderstorms were delayed and when I got out there, I felt pretty damn good!  So I just kept going.

I should mention that my paces this week are slower in general but not from the mileage increase.  The heavy-legged days turned out to be the same story as last month…PMS.  But unlike last month, it didn’t linger beyond the expected timeframe, so if iron was the culprit as I suspect it was, the supplementation and beef I’ve been eating have in fact helped.

The other slowdown was a purposeful choice made over the last couple days.  Not that I was denying myself any sub8 runs – I wasn’t feeling that peppy this weekend, but I’m trying to be careful about potential hazards that could come with pushing the mileage envelope (or I should say, the singles envelope because that’s what makes it a bit tricky).  I think there’s a potential for injury from clumping together a 15, 14 and 15 on consecutive days, at least while I’m in this “getting acquainted” stage.  So yesterday and today especially, I was trotting along at such a comfortable rate that even the suck of a dewpoint didn’t bother me one bit.  How things are changing!

The Time It Takes
I had a nice cup o’ joe yesterday with my pal Judy from the Women’s BQ Forum, she was in town and it was fun to catch up.  One thing she asked me was “How long is all this running taking you?” and when I told her 11 hours and change, she thought that was a lot (as I’m sure lots of people will).  FYI: this week, with the extra miles and slower paces, came out to 12:37, but the norm will be closer to 11:30.  Anyway, here’s my take on it…

I remember in my 20s when I went to a gym a few times a week.  I’d travel to the gym, change clothes, do a 1½ hour step class or “cardio” and then the machines, take a shower, get dressed and travel back home.  That had to have taken over 3 hours total.

Now I know a lot of you guys go to a gym in addition to your running or you get massages or spend a lot of time stretching or maybe you cross-train in the pool or cycle, etc.  All I do is run, so comparatively, it’s not really that much time spent.  And of course, I have no people commitments and my work is on my own terms, which makes it easier still.

Back To Beef
I’m on a huge mushroom burger kick now and what makes it particularly satisfying is that, thanks to the amount of running I’m doing, I can shove more food into my pie hole.  Ordinarily, if I was to eat a home-cooked burger, I wouldn’t have a starchy side dish with it because the burger and bread alone would comprise a good amount of calories.  But I was wandering down the frozen foods aisle of Whole Foods a couple weeks ago and on a whim, bought a bag of Alexia Spicy Sweet Potato Fries.

Oh My God!  They are now my favorite side dish in the whole wide world.  They’re frozen fries that bake up crispy in the oven or toaster oven (my weapon of choice) in 20 minutes.  The non-spicy ones are also very tasty, but these are my fave.  Best part is they’re not calorically dense or deep-fried like normal fries and are actually good for you!

Dinner at The Blue Hovel has improved a lot lately; I’m cooking more now.  Gone are the boxed dinners from Trader Joes I was so tethered to during my weight-loss phase last year.  Not that I’ve stopped shopping at Trader Joes…

One of my favorite T.Js items are their bags of 4 chicken breasts; I cook ‘em all at once and then add some to salads, quesadillas (another new addiction), etc. for the next few days.  It’s also handy to have some chicken in the fridge for right after a run when you need a bit of protein for recovery.

But what makes T.J.s bags of chicken so special isn’t the price (which is great) or the chicken itself (which is very tasty), but the packaging.  Gone is the usual styrofoam tray with that stinky diaper pad at the bottom – it’s just a bag.

Because living in a city apartment where they only collect garbage once a week, those chicken diapers start to smell like dead people after a couple days even if you rinse it out thoroughly – which is a disgusting exercise unto itself.  No longer must I walk the city streets in search of a dumpster or municipal trash bin to stealthily dispose of my smelly chicken wrappings.  Quality of life has been restored.

The Week In Running
My toe finally stopped hurting on Monday – I thought that was never gonna end!  And I had a bit of weirdness on Friday’s run when I stopped to adjust my shoe and soon after got a wicked side stitch that had me starting and stopping about 6 times until it finally abated.  Saturday was a nice rainy run and temps for the week were mostly mid-70s.

Monday: 9@8:15
Tuesday: 12@8:18
Wednesday: 14@8:10
Thursday: 11@9:02
Friday: 15@8:30
Saturday: 14@8:20
Sunday: 15@8:20
Total: 90 mi (avg pace 8:25)

Now that the idea is in my head, I can tell how badly I need it.  I’m seriously tired, tired of huffing and puffing through tempo runs and interval sessions and working the effort envelope.

Today was a troublesome speed session on the heels of two subpar 6mi tempos within the last couple weeks.  The speed session was supposed to be 5xmi@15k pace w/1min recoveries.  Halfway through the 2nd rep, I was thinking “I have a tempo run in just 2 days but this feels like I’m in the midst of one already and I just did one the other day…too much, I don’t wanna!”  It wasn’t good.

I was shooting for 7:00s, but couldn’t get past 7:05s  and the idea of continuing on for 3 more reps seemed a hellish prospect, so after the 2nd mile, I ditched the long intervals and switched it to 8 x .25miles w/1min rec’s.  In the end, I got 4 miles of fast out of it (total run was 9.75 mi) which is certainly worthwhile, but I feel ragged.  In response, Adam has kindly rejiggered this week’s tempo into 12×200 for which I am eternally grateful.

It’s crazy how without an injury to say “you must stop now” we really don’t have a clue when it comes to limits.  Sure, there are solid symptoms for overtraining, they concern sleep patterns, weight loss, not wanting to run among other things, but when it comes to the phase before that, overreaching, it’s your best guess.  And it’s frustratingly like that for so many areas of this sport.

Tapering, for instance: what’s the best taper for you?  How can you tell?  Even if you have a great race, could have been one thing during the taper period that made it that way, etc.  The only way to truly know what works for you is by many trials, errors and successes to reach that final “Aha!”  Or you can simply keep wearing your lucky red sports bra and say that was it.

Anyway, it continues to be a revealing learning process and despite the number of times I’ve thrown my hands up in the air out of utter frustration, I’m happy that there are still doors to unlock and secrets yet to uncover.  So I bitch, moan, whine and want to lay down to take a month-long nap, but in the end, I remain positive.

That said, Carlsbad may be more “fun run” than race for me.  We’ll see.

Food
With the holiday season, I relaxed a bit and had a little junk, but also, on the good front, I pulled out the long-ignored crockpot.  I love my crockpot but always thought of it as a two-or-more-to-feed appliance.  Well, in an effort to be a better mommy to myself, I’ve started making some wonderful cozy stews and mish-mashes of things that feed me for a few days or I freeze portions.  Today I made this Provençale Chicken: super duper easy – because cooking ain’t my thang – really healthy and yummy, too.  Shove the stuff in the pot, turn it on and go away.  That’s my kind of cooking.

(used 3 skinless breasts though, as per the reviews)

Foot
Went off ibuprofen on Saturday night, had a 17miler on Sunday (started sleeting and I wasn’t dressed for it, so a progression), a 6miler on Mon and an 8 yesterday.  My big toe knuckle was back to smarting on Monday and full-fledged hurting yesterday.  This was freaking me out, however, I think I found the cure!  I’d been using moleskin padding but it wasn’t that thick.   So I cut out a couple pieces from my foam yoga mat (one of those purple jobbers) and taped that around the bad spot…wow! it was like having a cushy pillow on the top of my foot.  That knuckle didn’t bark at all today!  I couldn’t believe it.  It’s been a downer to deal with all this last month, how lovely if it finally gets the boot.

I’ve been asked a few times what a typical day or two of eating is for me while I’m on this weight-loss adventure, so that’s what this post is all about: food, calories and a few ruminations on the subject.  If you’re not into it, skip it because this is a long one.

For the record, I don’t pay attention to the carb/protein/fat ratio of what I eat.  I did last year when I was logging food and again when I began this time, I logged a few days worth on DailyPlate.com just to check, but my ratio comes out pretty solid so I don’t sweat it.  I suggest you log your food online for a few days to make sure your proportions aren’t way off.

I do keep a few key things in mind:

1. Protein and fat are what keep you sated (I always thought it was carbs until I read Racing Weight), so a bit of either/both will help you feel full longer than just straight carbs.
2. After a run, you want to eat within an hour or so and include a little protein to aid recovery.
3. Since I eat less and stop eating earlier than I used to, if I have a hard run the next morning, I make sure I get a nice carby meal that night.  Might not make a difference but it can’t hurt.
4. If you don’t already, consider taking a multi-vitamin to cover any potential holes.

Tools Of The Trade - my postal scale (only used to weigh marijuana once and not successfully, either) and my cups and tablespoon.

Now About That Food…
I live alone so I rarely never feel like cooking. One thing I love to do is make a huge pot of rice or Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains and divide them into 1-cup portions, put them in baggies and shove them in the freezer.  That way I’ve always got perfectly-sized servings on hand.

Bread – I avoid those huge-ass loaves and try to keep the calories per slice around 70 – this requires some label reading since most of them are 90-120.  And I always get whole wheat or a grain mix.

Herbs – I love these Dorot frozen cubes.  I get the garlic and basil ones at Trader Joe’s.

Warning: Trader Joe’s (TJ’s) is a running theme throughout the post, though several of the items including these cubes, are available elsewhere.  I’m sorry if you don’t have one in your town or country, it kicks ass.  In lieu of that, similar frozen meals to the ones below are available in Whole Foods or normal grocery stores, though usually pricier.

Butter – I use faux stuff, 50 calories instead of 100.  I also use (but only for popcorn) “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray.  Some of you are barfing over this, but it works for me.  For cooking, I always use non-stick cooking spray.

Cheese – I had stopped buying cheese since I’m either a pig with it or it gets old in the fridge.  Now I buy individually wrapped string cheese and cheddar cheese which works great because it’s a pre-measured 70 or 80 calories, stays fresh and makes a great small snack.

Syrup – I respect that some of you hate the idea of Splenda and sweeteners, but I love my Maple Grove sugar-free syrup.  Compare 210 calories for 1/4 cup of normal to 30 calories for this stuff.  Btw, I don’t eat the standard portion size of 1/4 cup, I get 8 servings out of a bottle instead of 6, so that’s only 22 calories per slab of pancakes.  My insatiable sweet tooth is very happy.

Veggie Burgers – I’m not a vegetarian at all but I’ve not had the urge to buy or cook raw meat in a long time.  I do however, like to keep an assortment of veggie burgers on hand.  They’re so easy to prepare and yummy, too, though a couple aren’t really “burgers” at all, just shaped like them: Dr. Praeger’s California burgers (110 cal) which are so vegetabley, you can see each individual pea and carrot and Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala burgers (120 cal) which are fantastic if you like Indian food, really great to crumble over grains or rice.  When I want one that tastes and chews like an actual burger, I get Boca burgers (140 cal).

Grains and Pasta: Big favorite is TJ’s Harvest Grains which contains Israeli couscous, red and green orzo, split dried garbanzo beans, and red quinoa.  It’s 283 cal for a prepared cup, easy to make as couscous, has 10g of protein and has a wonderful substantial texture.  I make mine with chicken bullion and no added fat, cook the whole bag (yields 6 cups) and freeze half of it in the aforementioned baggies.

As for pasta, I just recently started eating whole wheat pasta and love it.  The thing about pasta is you really need to measure or weigh it before cooking because it’s too easy to make unnecessarily large portions.

Frozen Entrees: Trader Joe’s has so many excellent ones, I’m only partially ashamed of my frozen food consumption.  When buying frozen entrees, I always look for portion sizes that go with my calorie goals, 450 -500 calories.  If I bought something that had 650, I surely wouldn’t put 4 bites in the fridge for leftovers, I’d eat the whole thing, so it’s just easier to choose the right amount from the start.

Dividing Your Calories Up
As per the Racing Weight book, when I was targeting 1800 calories, that’s 450 per meal and 150 per snack.  Now that I’m going for 1900-2000, I add a bit here and there.  My main deal is to make sure that by the time dinner rolls around, I’ve had about 1200 calories so I’m not “saving for later” as I used to.  This also makes lunch a hell of a lot more fun because I can eat the meals I’d only reserved for dinner in the past.

So let’s get into it.  Note that when you see a lower amount of calories for a meal listed, like a turkey sandwich, I’ll have a small side dish or fruit or make the next snack a bit bigger to try to keep things even as far as fueling.  It feels so much better this way – no cravings, no hunger.

Pre Run (5:30 – 6am, though the last few days 8ish…woohoo cooler weather!)
Quality run or if I’m hungry first thing: Bread with peanut butter and 1/2 banana – 220 calories
Recovery run: 1/2 banana – 55 cal
Always: Hazelnut coffee with fat-free Half and Half – 20 cal

Breakfast (whenever I get back)
Pancakes with sugar-free syrup – 330 cal
Bread with peanut butter and 1/2 banana – 220 (I’ll have 2 of these or one will have been the pre-run one)
Old Wessex 5-grain cereal (I get it at Whole Foods…love the chewiness) w/ 1 tbsp. of peanut butter and sweetener (just like a warm PB cookie!) – 250 for 1/2 cup cereal and 1 tbsp. PB or 375 calories for a bigger portion.
Eggs with spinach/mushrooms and 2pc. toast with faux butter  – 390
Dr. Praeger’s Veggie burger on toast – 250
Maple Shredded Wheat and 1% milk (1.5 cups cereal, 3/4 cup milk) – 380

Lunch or Dinner (noon and 6-7pm)
Turkey veggie sandwich with tomato, cucumber, mushrooms and lite mayo – 270 cal
Egg salad sandwich w/lite mayo – 270
1/2 cup TJ’s Harvest Grains sauteed w/spinach and garlic for a nice side dish – 150 cal
Boca burger w/cheese – 360
Trader Joe’s quiche (love these!  they fulfill my need for crust) – 460 cal
TJ’s salsa verde chicken enchiladas – 480 cal
TJ’s Olympiad greek pizza (a one-person pizza and quite delicious) – 450 cal
TJ’s Chicken Tikka Masala and a piece of garlic naan (yum!) – 490
TJ’s Masala Veggie Burger crumbled over grains w/veggies- 450
Whole wheat pasta w/sausage, veggies and tomato sauce – 500
Pasta with white clam sauce – 470
Rice and black beans w/ spicy sausage and veggies – 450
Salad with lots of veggies, 1/4 cup walnuts & 1/4 cup dried cranberries, balsamic/1tbsp. oil – 530
Chinese pork dumplings w/rice and veggies – 500
Egg noodles (3 cups dry…lots ‘o noodles) w/broccoli, garlic, basil and faux butter – 530
Sauteed fish w/low-fat coconut milk and curry sauce, mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts – 480
Shrimp coconut curry w/veggies (yes, I love curry) – 500

Once it starts getting cooler, I’ll pull out the crockpot and make stews and pork tenderloins, etc. which I’ll portion out and freeze.  I haven’t bought fresh chicken in about a year (I’m so weird), I used to cook a few breasts and freeze them, so I need to get back on that.

Snacks (10:30, 3pm and 8:30pm)
5 water crackers, 2 tbsps hummus and a carrot – 140 cal
3 crackers and an ounce of cheese – 115
Air popcorn (made in a paper bag) – 1/4 cup unpopped 145 cal, 1/3 cup unpopped 204 cal
1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-grain cereal w/cinnamon and sweetener- 160 cal
Veggie burger open sandwich – 180 to 210 cal
Tomato, cucumber, mozzarella salad w/balsamic – 140
White wine – 120
1/4 cup chopped walnuts – 200
Fruit

And that concludes my gastronomic sampler.  Hope it’s helpful if you’re stuck figuring out what to eat when trying to lose weight.  Of course, if you don’t mind cooking, the world is your oyster and there are tons of recipes online for light cooking.  Then you can invite me over for dinner.

Have a great weekend, my friends.  Eat well, run well!

Yesterday was an interesting 15. The bulk of it was strangely light-footed and comfortable – unexpected, considering I’d raced the day before. But then around mile 12, I got a tweak in my upper quad and had to stop a couple times to try and stretch it out. Just when I was thinking I was indestructible, lol.

So the next couple days are penciled in but subject to change depending on if my leg feels anything but fabulous. Today I’ve got an easy 8 9, but I’m skipping the scheduled hill sprints to make sure the tweak settles down.

Tomorrow, I’m scheduled for a speed session aimed at my 5K on Saturday (1200 @ 5K pace, then 6 x 400 @ 5k pace w/1min. recoveries for all). If there’s a semblance of discomfort left, I’ll skip it, just run easy. I can afford to miss a hard workout considering how regular I’ve been the past couple months and also, this will be my third race this month! However, if all is well (as I expect it to be) I’ll do the session because some race pace practice would be useful.

Other than that, the rest of the week will look like the previous one; 11 easy on Wednesday, two more shorter easy runs on Thurs/Fri and the 5K on Saturday, then 16 on Sunday.

Pushups/Chinups: I’m repeating week 5 of the pushup challenge – I felt like my form got kind of half-assed last week. Wait, scratch that, on second thought, I’m going to do Week 5, day One for a full week, then day Two and Three for a week each before moving to the final week. As for the chinup bar, I haven’t put it together yet, so that’s on the agenda for today. Then I’ll probably stare at it for another two days.

Food: Drumroll please…a few days ago I stopped logging food into dailyplate.com. I’ve been at it since the last week of December and it has been a wonderful tool (it literally taught me to eat so much healthier) but now I’m ready to cut loose and hope I stay status quo.

I’m unashamed to say I haven’t made it to that final goal of 114 lbs,  hovering instead between 116-117.5, but I’ve lost several inches and 2% of my bodyfat, so I’m satisfied. That said, I might still make it down to 114 since I haven’t been eating maintenance level and it’s new muscle that’s been slowing the scale. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, there’s a 4oz box of Jelly Bellys on the counter that a friend brought over last night. Though I’ve had occasional sugary treats and almost nightly fat-free ice cream, I haven’t dared had Jelly Bellys in the house since December. It’ll be enlightening to see, after I maul open the box in what surely will be a desperate display of pathetic sugar jonesing, how much I’ll hate myself in the morning. Life’s challenges: they never end, do they?

My new-found zoominess was back on the shelf yesterday for a slowish 8-miler.  I could feel my legs were kinda tired so I kept to a normal (9:03) easy pace.  Funny how our bodies know exactly when to wrangle in our wild ways.

Even though I’m not involved in any Mileage Challenge going on at the forums, I’m still aware that I have a few days to get those last yearly miles in, so after I write this, I’m out into the world for a 9-miler, then tomorrow probably 8.  I’m already at 2027 miles for the year and that’s with getting sick for a couple weeks and taking off for my ankle after Broad St.

Nevertheless, I’ll still refrain from making a total mileage goal for 2009 and just stick to my weekly goal of high 40s-50s/week.  Whatever it adds up to in the end is whatever it is -  after all, it’s the journey, not the destination.

Meanwhile, I’m getting more serious about losing those few pounds, so four days ago I finally signed up at The Daily Plate to track my food intake.  I really like it, it’s much better than Fitday, which I used a few years ago.  The database is much larger so it’s easier to find food items.  I even made a meatloaf the other day from Allrecipes.com and the exact recipe was in there.

The whole weight issue is very low-pressure though, since there’s no time-frame involved.  Like last night we went to a friend’s for dinner and I had no problem scarfing down 4 shots of sambuca during some card-playing, along with a couple cookies (and wine with dinner).  I would have done it anyway, now I’m just more cognizant of it.  Today’s back to being good, of course.

And this ends my Looking For Something To Write About post.  Have a good day friends, and a fine run if you haven’t been out already.