Posts Tagged ‘weight’

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!

Finally.  A workout that reminded me of what it’s like to feel you’re kicking ass: 9.25 mi w/5x mile@15k pace, 1min rec’s.

As I’ve said, mile repeats are my least favorite workout, they’re just so interminably long, and with today’s schedule having 5 of them, I wasn’t too thrilled.  On the other hand, I wasn’t too freaked either, since the pace was 15k, a nebulous speed found only from McMillan’s calculator since I’ve never raced a 15k. It’s actually quite a nice pace, a little faster than Half, little slower than 10k, so it seemed doable going into it.

The weather these last two days has been infinitely better, enough so that I haven’t had to set the alarm – went to bed at midnight and woke up at 7am, which is way more my style.  Btw, those 8-hour nights I’d been shooting for will probably never happen, but 7 is a huge improvement.  Temps-wise, it was 68 degrees when I got outside, low 70s by the end of the run.

Adequate rest and great weather had me running faster than planned and the kicker is that I actually considered adding an extra interval.  Shocking.  I ultimately decided against it, wanting to savor the feeling of having a tad extra in the tank because I haven’t felt this “right” in so long.

Funny how all it takes is one great workout to make you feel more confident about the rest of the schedule.  Friday’s tempo lands on another great weather day and I’m actually looking forward to it…more shock and awe.

Weight update
My weight hasn’t moved in a week and a half, though my bodyfat number is going down.  I’m really glad I got that scale, otherwise I’d be feeling a bit irritated about the plateau, but the bodyfat number decreasing totally makes up for it.  For the record, I’m at 118 right now so I’ve lost 5lbs since I started a month ago.

Also, I’m eating 1900-2000 calories now.  Feeling like I could stick with this calorie load forever.  In the Spring, in a misguided attempt to lose weight, I ate salad almost every night and lunch was always a turkey sandwich.  Yawn.  Haven’t had either of those in weeks, much more varied on the menu front.

And with that, it’s time to figure out what I’m having for lunch.  Likely it will involve my boyfriend, Joe.  Trader Joe, that is.  He’s dreamy and knows just how to feed a girl right.

Formative Years Of Body Crap
I was raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a college town with an excess of gorgeous Sorority girls and All-American cheerleading types.  I didn’t exactly fit that mold.

8years old, fattest one in the class

I received a lot of name-calling in my youth, “Fatso” for my body, “Anteater” and assorted other bon mots for my nose.  Many tears were shed from grade school through Jr. High over my looks.  I finally got it together around 9th grade when I realized my passcard through life would be Brains.  While certainly not as satisfying as I imagined 5’8″, blonde and perky to be, it would do.

Reality Bites
It’s funny when I think that one of my most shattering discoveries about my body was after I’d left for greener pastures and returned home to Fayetteville for a visit.  I was crossing the UofA campus plaza to enter the Student Union.  The entrance was not notable in any way, just a couple glass doors with glass panels on either side, but as I approached it, I saw for the first time that I had cellulite on the front of my thighs.  I knew I had it on the back and sides, but this was a terrible revelation.  Every step I took towards these doors filled me with one more moment of unexpected horror as my dimples reflected back at me.

That stuck with me for, oh…the next two and a half decades.  From that moment on, whenever I looked into a full-length mirror, my front-thigh cellulite was the first thing I’d focus on (before shifting to the myriad of other body disappointments, of which there were many).  Happily and shockingly, running eventually got rid of it, which I never thought possible.  It was a miracle and why Running is indeed my religion.

The Schizo Body Owner
As I mentioned in the last post, I’d gone back and forth with my weight for many, many years – my high was about 145 and my low was 106.

I think this is age 17 before moving to NYC. I lost weight for the big move.

Must have been 20 years old here.

While I truly hated being heavy, I still managed to find positive things to focus on.  Pear-shaped, I hated my big hips but was grateful for an always discernible waistline.  I hated my arms, but my calves and ankles were pretty good.  I even found the grace of a clavicle or delicate wrists a semi-worthy consolation prize.  When the rest depresses you, you hold onto those bits and pieces like a life-preserver.

That said, while I hated a lot of it, I also accepted myself, I wasn’t afraid of showing my body.  Not one of those people to cover themselves up at a swimming pool or dress in shapeless clothing, I always had a strong sense of self.  For this, I’m entirely thankful and have nothing but empathy and heartache for women who are painfully ashamed of their bodies.  How I wish they could know what it’s like not to be so self-conscious and afraid.

What Running Did
Running changed my body completely.  In a very short time, I became an alien creature to myself.  I’m still not used to it entirely, especially because it was so unexpected and unplanned.  It’s one thing to lose weight and be smaller, but to have the whole package come out different is weird.  Fabulously cool, but genuinely weird.  It’s like I got an acting role as “The athlete” for a while.

Body Irony
After all those years of fighting fat and fearing getting bigger, I’ve now done a 180° – dealing with trepidation about getting smaller.

Because of my age, I have anxiety that I’ll look older and uglier, that my skin will hang and not snap back, that I’ll look too manly (funny how I despised my big hips my whole life but now that I don’t have them, I sometimes miss those female curves).  Anyway, the ridiculousness of it is that I can always gain the weight back if those things happen, but it goes a bit deeper.

I still hear my Ex asking “You’re not going to lose any more weight, are you?” and my friend asking “You’re not going to turn into one of those super scary runner chicks, are you?”  Well-meaning questions, but completely external and nothing to do with me, really.  My Ex was understandably sad at seeing the boobs and butt go but he also had major issues about my running (also understandable) which came out in assorted passive-aggressive ways and is a big part of why I left – yet here I am almost a year later, still holding on to those admonishments.  And I know my friend is well aware of how pragmatic I am that I’d never do anything irresponsible, so it’s time to let that go too.

Which brings me to…

My Revised Weight Goal
While running yesterday, I was passed by a woman in her 40s, about my height with a similar petite frame, who had the body I envision for myself: lean, muscles showing with every step, lithe and strong, looked like she could Kick. Ass.  If she’d have stopped at a fountain, I’d have boldly asked her how much she weighed – it sure as shit wasn’t 115.

I’d been thinking about revising the goal anyway, so here’s the dealio: 110ish…as long as it feels right and is easy to manage. Before anyone goes all Intervention on me and thinks I’m an anorexic in the making (no fucking way), here’s me at 115.  Excuse the ugly eel face, that’s me completing a damn good kick to the finish.

Because when you think about it, there’s not a whole lot that separates me from my competition (aside from those with more natural talent): I’ve got the body type, I’ve got the training know-how, I’m respectful of keeping muscle and running a clean engine, why not take it to the next level?  Why care as much as I do but stop short of real commitment?  Because that’s the only difference as far as I can see.

In a month, I’ll be 49.  I’ve been through a ton of incarnations in that time and I’m sure as hell not done yet.  So let’s just see how close to Athlete I can actually get.

As mentioned in the last post, one of my readers commented on Monday’s post “I think your (and Jaymee’s) thoughts on weight are interesting because they sound so matter of fact and not emotional”.  When I read that, I was taken aback, because I’d forgotten what it’s like to not be this way, which is pretty amazing since food ruled my life for so many years.  Not until my late 20s, early 30s was I able to make peace with food.

An Example From My Past
In the spirit of revealing things that are not pretty but you might recognize in your own individual way… When I was around 19 years-old, I had a dog-walking/dog-sitting business in NYC.  Because I was on a never-ending diet of deprivation, food was always on my mind, and I’d eventually pig out on all sorts of bad crap because I never allowed myself to have it. (no, this story has nothing to do with eating dogfood)

One thing I’d do is, when a dog-walking customer was out of town for a few days and I was hired to walk their dog, I’d always check out the customer’s fridge and cupboards and if I saw a yummy “forbidden” food or even something I’d never have thought to buy in the first place (a container of vanilla Duncan Hines frosting comes to mind) I’d end up eating the whole thing, then before the customer’s return, go the grocery store for a fresh one, eat as much as was missing in the original container, stick it back in the fridge exactly in the same spot, and they’d never know any different.

I’d do it with cookies, chips, all kinds of stuff.  It was pathetic, sneaky, and left me feeling disgusted with myself, so the self-loathing cycle would continue.  But I was young and oh, so hungry!  Not just for food but for all the things you want when you’re that age: love, security, beauty, confidence…omg, I just now felt it again like a wave.  Thank god for getting older.  Seriously.

My point in revealing this tale of compulsive craziness is that you younger gals in particular need to know that whatever you do to fill that void is understandable, even if it’s not healthy or sounds mentally screwy (or neither of these things and you’re better adjusted than I was, lol),  I just want you to know that I get it.  I get what you go through.

And it doesn’t even matter what age or sex you are, food is a problem for more people than not.  I just looked up the latest statistics on this:  73.7% of American adults over 20 are either overweight or obese.  Oh. My. God, 73.7%!  And then you have a whole other group of people with disordered eating.  It’s mind-boggling.  The bitch of it is that we all need food to survive, it’s not like other addictions where you can say “no more” and avoid it from that point on.  But I digress.

My Turning Point
I’ve posted this before in a comment or two and it’s worth reposting because it made such an impact in my relationship to food, the book Overcoming Overeating.  Whether it came at the right time in my life or just hit me in a way no other books on the subject had, it transformed food as an emotional crutch into what it really is: sustenance and a means of taking care of yourself.  Loving yourself, even.

Through it, I learned I could live with a fridge full of my favorite treats and not feel compelled to eat it all or any of it, for that matter.  I learned what hunger feels like, because when you eat for emotion, you rarely if ever get hungry.  I learned to listen to my belly and ask what it really wanted before feeding it, the better to be truly satisfied.  Potential life-altering stuff (was for me, anyway) so worth a read if any of that speaks to you.

How I Am Now
Decades of dieting plus one major shot of self-discovery later, I finally ended up at a nice weight that hasn’t changed much in the last 16 years.  I eat what I want within reason and have no fear of crap food.  I’ll still go through stages like my cookie-chomping period after Boston, but it’s never out of control.

That said, I’m not a complete robot with food or I’d always be perfect race weight instead of half-heartedly trying to lose this handful since last Fall.  But there is something to be said for Need and I obviously haven’t felt enough need to really make the effort until now.  Funny thing is that now it isn’t requiring any effort at all and the weight’s coming off at a good clip.

I’m in a really straight headspace and it’s true that for the most part, there is very little emotion involved, it’s like following an extra training schedule.   But at the same time, I’m finding lots of emotion in it – good emotion.  I’m feeding myself with food that brings me happiness, varying my menu to include fun combinations and making 1800 calories a form of entertainment (albeit in an easy-to-prepare way because I’m a lazy cook).

I’m more casual about record-keeping this time, though no less accountable, but instead of using Dailyplate.com, I’m using pen and paper.  I have a cheatsheet for stuff I usually eat and when I need to look something up, I use CalorieKing.com because it’s really fast and lets you enter grams, ounces, cups, etc. with a minimum of clicking.  Armed with my digital postal scale and a set of measuring cups, it’s easy as pie couscous.

Satiety is also up, thanks to Racing Weight’s schedule on when to eat.  That change alone has made a huge difference in comfort level throughout the day.  By partitioning the food more evenly, I don’t have those hungry dips and valleys anymore.  It actually surprises me to see 3PM and think “Oh wow, I’m supposed to eat something now.”  Excellent, important, and a habit I will keep from this point on.

Coming Up Next Week…The Emotional Body
I had a whole other section I’d written about body image and my feelings about my own changing body but the post is already epically long, so expect this installment next week.  Let me know if these subjects interest you folks, otherwise I’ll stick to Fun With Running.  I’m aware this is female-centric territory, so sorry guys, it’s just a couple of posts (so far ).   But also, if you have topics you’d like me to address on this or something else, let me know.

Fun Chick Flick Apropos To This Subject
Eating.  Here’s the trailer.  I saw it when it came out 20 years ago so I need to see it again myself, but I remember that it was entertaining, funny and an affirmation of the female human condition.  Btw, you can watch it for $2.99 at Amazon Video On Demand (didn’t know they had that service till just now).

Runners Round Table
Off subject…I participated in Wednesday’s podcast, so if you want to hear some nice jabber on running in the heat, take a listen.  And to clarify, Coach Adam is not the same Adam who’s been helping me out and whom I sometimes refer to as Coach Adam.

OK, have a great weekend and remember boys and girls, nurture your sweet selves, treat yourselves as best you can and above all, be kind to yourselves.  You’re the closest friend you’ve got.  Kisses.

Had a satisfying speed session yesterday, 9.5 miles with 6 x 1/2mi@5K pace, 2min rec’s. My schedule originally called for 8 reps, but it was heat index of 80 and the pace would have suffered too much for VO2max, whereas with 6, I could keep it in the right neighborhood.

I did this a couple weeks ago in similar conditions, so I have something to compare it to (the one two weeks ago sucked, btw).  My workout was infinitely better yesterday, my splits dead even and I was in control throughout.  They also averaged 10 sec’s faster.

A couple reasons this workout was probably much better than two weeks ago is:
#1) My new fueling regime.  I ate nothing before the workout 2 weeks ago, figuring the previous evening’s food would tide me over (wrong!).  Yesterday, an hour before leaving for the run, I had a slice of whole wheat with peanut butter and 1/2 banana.
#2) I did those Ryan Hall leg drills before leaving the house.  (I’ve been doing the RW exercises every day but didn’t feel like getting on the floor yesterday)

Btw, I’m keeping my interval and tempo paces under my hat for a bit so I don’t feel pressured about any of the workouts.  I’ll return to reporting all the dirty details soon enough, but right now I’m in a transition period so mum’s the word.

I Love My Fancy-Ass Tanita Scale!
Got it on Monday, and of course, spent the day hopping on and off to see how the numbers changed depending on how close to meals, hydration level, etc.  Don’t worry, I’m not an obsessive weigher at all, but it is a new toy, so the entertainment factor was high.

Turns out the old scale was off by a little more than a pound which makes my weight from July 23rd when I started tracking, 123.  So  there’s the dealio today:

Weight: 119.4
Body Fat (averaged over 2 days):14.8%

Accuracy
Tanita says there’s a tolerance of +/-5% accuracy in their scales compared to DEXA testing, which is actually very accurate (.74% in this case).   Edit: Blogging pal Jaymee had hydrostatic testing done and found in comparison with that, the scales she’s tried are consistently 5 points higher for women,  making that 14.8% which I already thought was suspiciously low, to be 9.8%.  That’d be insanely low, knowing my pockets of fat (and the electrical current doesn’t reach the arms, just lower body), so I’ll stick with the scale number.  The measurement is for trends more than anything, anyway.

Whatever it is, it’s a pleasure after having the Omron handheld analyzer tell me I was 24% for over a year.  I knew it had to be wrong, but it still managed to mess with my head.  In the Omron’s defense, it takes its measurement through your arms so maybe my arm flab skewed the readings, though I have a lot of muscle there, too.  I’ll give it to my friend Lara and see what she gets.

There are a ton of additional stats I could share, like Metabolic Age, which puts me at 12 years old (12 is the lowest the scale goes, I’m sure it wants to tell me I’m a fetus, but can’t).  There’s also a BMR reading which is cool.  It’s more generous than the online calculators I’ve used in the past, and seems to fit better with the amount I actually eat/burn.

Dry Feet vs Wet
In the Racing Weight book, he tells you to moisten a towel before stepping on the scale to improve conductivity, but the Tanita FAQ only mentions that if you must wear nylons when measuring “…use a drop of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol on the foot pads to act as a conductor.”  Other than that, no mention of damp feet.  Some scales specifically ask for wet feet but since this doesn’t, I’m sticking to dry tootsies.

The Subject Of Food
Kristin, a wonderful blogger and smarty pants MIT student, made a comment in the last post that really hit home.  She said “I think your (and Jaymee’s) thoughts on weight are interesting because they sound so matter of fact and not emotional”.   This was pretty huge to read because I’ve spent the greater part of my life dealing with food as an emotional salve and going from fat to thin to fat again.   So I’m going to save this and more food talk for Friday because it really is a post a book unto itself.

So that’s about it for today.  Oh, if you find yourself in need of something to do at 8PM EST tonight, a reminder that I’ll be on Runners Round Table talking about running (or collapsing, lol)  in the heat.  Later, gators!

I had a good weekend of running, wrapping up a 61-mile week.

Due to some schedule switching, Saturday was an 11-miler with about 5.5 miles of tempo thrown in: 2x(15min@HP w/3min rec’s.), 10min@10K.   Yesterday, I had a 15-miler which I’m embarrassed to say around you marathon freaks, is my longest run since Boston!  I was looking forward to it for the distance and to take it to the trails so I could have that extra elevation/footing bonus.

The only hitch was that between the previous day’s tempo and 5½ hours of sleep, I was genuinely exhausted and certifiably dead-legged.   I really needed a recovery run instead of a long run, but I was stubborn about gettin ‘er done, so I took it reeeeeeaaaal slow.  Not that I had a choice.

The great thing was that even though I was too pooped to party, all my parts were working without complaint – not a twinge or niggle.  After 4 long months, the ankle problem is gone! And  I continue to do the hip exercises before every run – I can tell they’ll not only help with economy but ward off injuries as well, not to mention warming me up before I hit the road…so I’m loving them.

Speaking of Sleep
It’s getting better but still not great – July only had 3 nights of 8-hour sleep.  Also, I suspect that the one weekend where my HR dipped beautifully low was due to sleeping until my body woke on its own instead of my “beat the heat” alarm clock.  I’ll be thrilled when summer’s over and can sleep in regularly.

More Weight Stuff
The Racing Weight book has a lot of good stuff in it. One big change I’m making starting today, is how I time my caloric intake.

I’ve always been terrible about splitting my calories for the day.  I eat about half of them after 6pm (dinner and 2 snacks).  Dinner’s always been my “destination meal” and even though the snacks are healthy, I don’t need to be eating that much that late.  This is common wisdom we’ve all read enough times, but seeing his schedules of how to split it up percentage-wise made it clearer and looks sensible.

For those of you lapping up the weight talk, Jaymee (aka The fastest female runner I know) posted a great entry on the subject.  Also, on today’s entry she posts a sample day of what she eats which is cool to see.  I was actually shocked at the pro athletes’ sample menus in the Racing Weight book,  it looks like they eat hardly anything, whereas Jaymee’s intake looks more like what I’d expect a healthy athlete to eat.

Lastly, I’m anxiously awaiting UPS today – my fancy Tanita scale is scheduled for delivery, woohoo!!  Will let you know how I like it and what my reported weight and body fat are in the next post.

Runners Round Table This Wednesday
I’ll be on it again.   Joe’s hosting the episode about running in the heat.  I imagine we’re all pretty good at it by now, but I’m sure the conversation will be stellar and sparkling.  If you want to ask questions, listen to it live, otherwise, I’ll post it here afterwards.

Hair Bands That Stay On Your Head!
I ordered a headband from Sweaty Bands after a recommendation from a fellow forumite.   I’d stopped wearing hair bands because the Goody Stay-Puts were the only ones that would stay and even they required a clip behind each ear for stay-put peace of mind.

So I got it and, man…it works!!  It genuinely stays on your head.  It’s quite ingenious actually, what keeps it in place is (drumroll)….velvet.  The top part is regular woven ribbon from the notions counter, the lining is velvet ribbon and there’s just a small piece of 1/4″ elastic that goes under your head.

With shipping, the hair band was $20, but because I’m a frugal runner and handy with the sewing machine, I’m going to make a few for about $2.50 each.  I won’t give measurements since I feel kind of bad about giving away the company secret, but if you’re a crafty gal, buy one from the company and then make the next ones, like I’m doing (or not) .  Just remember if you get rayon velvet to wash it first so it doesn’t shrink when you wash it later.  Or if you’re lazy like me, get nylon velvet.

And that’s it for a chatty Monday.  Have a great coupla days, folks.  Later!