Tired Anyone???

I've heard that your body can take a couple of weeks to recover from a race. I hope that's my problem because, can I BE any more tired (said in my best Chandler impersonation). Uggh. Every night I've been in bed early hence again my lackage of blogging.

I went to my plastics doc yesterday for a few touch ups. She tried a belly button lift and got rid of a "dog ear" on my side. It kind of looked like a nipple sticking out of my side from my scar (tummy tuck). Right now I'm feeling a bit sore and swollen in those areas. She said she may need to go in to do the belly button again. My skin just got stretched beyond recognition from the combination of being fat and then having two healthy babies in me. It's like that old sweater you love but now the arms hang to the floor and it hangs off your shoulders because it's been stretched out too much? Yeah..that's what my tummy looked like. My skin has just been very hard to deal with.

In the last blog, we were off to the farms and I promised pics so here they are:

First, they grabbed some punkins

Then, my darling duo sat in a tractor tire

Then it was family photo time


After that, I got a little lovin'

Sat in an old car (all 3 looking I can't believe it)

Went through several hay mazes

Rode some ponies

Rode a few trains and bounced on some castles

Made it to the castle in the middle of a corn maze

But we never found the great pumpkin in the pumpkin patchI LOVE living where I live. I have the city life and country life within a 30 miles radius!!! Happy fall everyone.

Tagged!

I've been meaning to blog about this but I had a super busy week. We had our Open House and I always have to work hard on that week to get everything ready. I was tagged by N.D. and have to write 6 random things about me. Here goes:

1. I always thought when I grew up I'd be a dancer. A Solid Gold Dancer to be exact (that ages me I'm sure).


2. I prefer white chocolate over milk or dark chocolate any day of the week.


3. I have never known what it's like to live with both your mom and dad. My mom divorced my dad when I was 1. I now haven't spoken to my dad in almost 2 years. Oh, and my mom is white and my father is black. I LOVES my mom. She's here at my house EVERY weekend to help with the kids.
4. I was voted Funniest Girl and Class Clown my senior year. I now get paid back everyday in my classroom.
5. I LOVE trashy, silly, bad taste movies and always have. I actually went to see Pee Wee's Big Adventure TWICE in the movie theatre back in the day. We even jumped up and did his dance with him in the middle of the movie.
6. I had braces in Jr. high and high school and I still have a permanent retainer on my lower front teeth.

On the exercise front, I took this entire week off to recover from my 1/2 marathon. I will go for a nice run tomorrow. Today, I'm taking the family to some pumpkin patches. Will ost some pics later!!

Port-a-Potty

That's where I was when my race started...in a port-a-potty. By the time I got out, I had to sprint to catch up with the police car that was following the crowd. I had to haul ass to catch up with the race but I did. There were about 25 of us in line for the bathrooms and we were all stressing that we were going to be late and we were. So my hubs got no pictures of me at the start of the race since I ran out of the bathroom, past him, said a love you and was off. I had to have on 2 shirts and a light jacket, long pants, and my running gloves. It was sunny and about 35 degrees. I was grateful for no rain or wind. I took my water bottle and one double latte PowerBar gel.



I spent a couple of hours the night before making a running compilation. It was perfect. I didn't have to mess with my ipod at all. Music is so motivating to me. I really don't see how others go without it.


The city I live in is really pretty and has a river essentially running through it. Our race ran along the river. We ran on streets, our Centennial Trail, and a few dirt roads even. I was surprised we didn't have a timing chip since this was a rather large race. There were a ton of races happening at once: Marathon, marathon relay, 1/2 marathon, and a 5 mile. I don't know how they kept it all straight. I had about 3 people I kept my eye on that I wanted to stay with. They seemed like they were running at a pace I wanted to stick with. I can't believe how much I hate it when someone passes me. I let it go a little if it's a guy, but when it's another chick ggrrrrr. The 2 girls I had my eye on had passed me so my competitiveness wanted to stick with them. At one of the water stations I took them since they both stopped for water and I kept going since I had my own water. Near the end of the race though I was running out of gas and 2 different ladies passed me. I was OK with it though because I couldn't go any faster than I was.





Here are my overall results:


Finished: 1:48:52


Average pace: 8 min. 14 sec.


Age/Female group: 6th


Overall place: 131/675




One of the ladies that passed me said to me at the end, "Thank you. You really pushed me." That made me feel good. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment after it was done. Never in my whole like until recently did I EVER think that I, ME, MOI could run 13.1 miles! That just didn't even seem like a reality to me. Now I'm even considering trying a marathon. IT still seems out of the realm of possibility, but so did a 1/2.





Here's the weird thing. About a half an hour after my race, I had my lowfat chocolate milk for recovery food. I even had 1 (maybe 2) Krispy Kreme's (I know don't judge me! I had aunt flo talking to me and I've never had one before). Suddenly, when I got home my body started crashing. I could not get warm and all I wanted to do was jump into a hot bath. I knew I needed a cold bath though. So I got into a cold bath and my teeth chattered the whole time. My muscles felt good but I was now FREEZING. On top of that, my tummy went all kinds of crazy. I mean...it was not good. I was laid up in bed for 6 hours. I couldn't be more than 10 feet from the bathroom or I had a problem. I have a VERY sensitive tummy. Every time I go on a vacation, I always get "traveler's tummy." I think maybe I got so anxious for this race, that I made my tummy go nuts. It started the night before and I was making great food choices. I did finally find some Luna Moons and tried them, but I don't thing just eating 6 of those could have caused what happened to me yesterday. Not to be too graphic, but I weighed 5 lbs. less today than yesterday...that's how bad it was. It's doing better now, but not 100%. I hope this is not what will happen every time, because I don't think I can keep racing if it does. But for now, I already have my sights an another 1/2 marathon in March!! Here are a few unflattering photos:

Before the race:

Waiting in a HUGE line for the Port-a-Potty

My reaction to the hubs saying, "Go back. I didn't get the shot."

Me going back under the clock to get the pic.

Race Day

It's race day and guess who came to visit me? My dear, old, sweet Aunt Flo. Curse you womanhood!!! AND there's frost on the ground. FROST!!! I can do this.....I can do this..I can this AND kick ass.

So I tried PowerBar Gel in vanilla and it was pretty good tasting and I didn't notice any GI issues.

Last weekend, I saw some sports chew that I'd never seen before. The top is for adults and the bottom is a kids version. They are supposed to be organic and healthy. I might give it a try today.

I tried the Jelly Belly Sports beans before and again my tummy churned. My son ate a few before one of his soccer games and his tummy had issues too. That's what I get for letting my 7 year old eat something with extra energy. I might try the sports chews today.

I'm going to go back a couple today for my race tomorrow. I checked the weather for tomorrow and it will be cold but sunny. Yeah!!! I don't want to run in the rain since I don't have the gear and my dear (cheap) hubs will throw an ever lovin fit if I buy an expensive jacket just for my race. I do need to buy a new pair of running gloves though since I can only find one. That happens a lot around my house. I think the last thing I need is a nice pair of cushioning socks too. I pick up my packet today! I hope it has some good stuff in it :).

On the sickness front...no throw up yesterday! Woohooo!!! And none for me either. Just a runny nose and slight sore throat still. My husband is actually going to drive me to my race, take pictures of me at the start and finish of it! This is big. My husband thinks watching races sounds boring so he hasn't gone to any. And my race is tomorrow. You know Sunday. Ya know...football Sunday. I'm usually a Sunday widow. My hubs and his friends go watch football at a local sports bar every Sunday to cheer on their Fantasy Football teams. He doesn't do family things or anything on Sundays except that. So this is HUGE and means a lot to me.

Last, I know I've heard of people carbo loading before a big race, but I've also heard this doesn't make a difference it's what you eat 2 weeks prior to the race that matters. So my question, do any of you have a certain meal you eat the night before a race? On Saturday nights, our ritual is eating a DeLite pizza. This usually is fine for the tummers, but I've been advised to avoid dairy 24 hours before a race. So...just wondering if anyone has a go to meal?

3 More Days

It's three more days until my first 1/2 marathon that I've been training for! What I've been fighting against this week though are sick people EVERYWHERE! I'm doomed when it comes to germs. I'm an elementary school teacher, have 3 kids, and 2 of them go to daycare!!! Since Friday, I have had someone throwing up near, around, or on me except for Tuesday (mysterious). Yes my darling duo are doing a tag team puke-a-thon, thus my absence from blogging since Friday. In fact, according to one of them last night I was only HIS mommy!!! I have been taking everything under the sun to avoid getting sick. I hope I don't keel over from toxic shock syndrome from all the herbs I'm pumping in me. I'm drinking E-mergen-C twice a day, sucking on zinc lozenges twice daily, and now added a new powder to drink called Umcka. A coworker swore by it so I'll try it. Right now I have a runny nose and a tiny sore throat, but I'm not vomiting so I'm A-OK.

Since my last blog I was off to jump into a hot bath after icing my knee. This was a HUGE mistake of gianormous proportions!!! I could actually feel my heart beating inside of my knee. Not a good feeling. I will stick to just ice for now. My knees for the most part are feeling better since I bought my new kix: Saucony ProGrid Omni 7 Moderates.

On Saturday it was a gray, misty morning. I was surprised at how vacant the trail was. Last weekend, there were tons of people, but they were running clubs. Apparently, they run a different part of the trail on alternate Saturdays. It was quiet and peaceful, but frankly I like it when the trail is busy. More witnesses if ya know what I'm saying. Anyway, I took my new water bottle, filled it with Ultima Replienisher electolyte power and water, and a pack of Strawberry Banana Gu to try. I ate 2 pieces of lite WW bread with PB2 on them before the run. I was off but my legs felt heavy. They aren't usually like that but I made my regular time. That was strange to me because I felt like I was moving slower. Go figure. As I ran, I tried taking small sips of my water. At mile 4 I went off my trail to tackle a hill. A mile long hill to be exact. A mile long hill at a 10% grade!!! Holy hell this was hard....but I never walked. I just kept on going slow and steady. At the top is where I gave myself my GU. It tasted surprisingly good. What a relief to be able to run down hill one of my miles! I was waiting for my knee to start aching, but it felt good (new shoes I tell ya)! I was able to finish my 10 miles in 93 minutes...3 minutes slower than last week, but I didn't dot he monster hill last week either. Here's my product review:

Strawberry Banana GU- Taste: good GI Issue- Tummy gurgled and churned the rest of the day

Ultima Replenisher- Taste: ack GI Issue- Instead heartburn and burbage all through my run

Mocha Clif Shot- Taste: eewwww GI issue- None


Tomorrow I'll see what the PowerBar gel tastes like. I might just Milky Way it. Good luck to my girls who read this blog and are also racing this weekend!!!

Just Over a Week to Go

My Half Marathon is next Sunday! My knees are still aching. In fact, I was limping to bed last night. I fell asleep with ice on top and bottom of my knee and when I woke up it felt better. I read on Runner's World different symptoms of knee ailments and mine sounds like "runner's knee." They suggest backing off on mileage for now, which is an option next week since it's my taper week. I bought a new pair of shoes despite hubs argument still. I'm hoping that will help my problem. Running 6 miles on the treadmill today hurt my other knee now!

I also bought a small handheld bottle to carry on my run. I tried it out this morning and it wasn't as bad as I thought. It's really weird for me since I've never had anything to drink on a run. I have to get used to small sips. I probably should have been doing this sooner than a week before race day, but hopefully I'll adjust. Tomorrow I'm going to try peanut butter toast before my run, as well as some Clif Goo during. The goo freaks me out a bit. Anyone have a fav to recommend? I still don't even know if I need it, but it can't hurt right? I'd rather have it than not finish this race. I've purchased several different brands to try which might be cutting it close right now. I tried a PowerBar chew thing that's supposed to be similar to Clif Shot Bloks. Didn't like it at ALL. I thought I'd choke if I tried to eat that while running. I also have electrolyte powder to add to my water.

Thanks to all you runners for your advice for this newbie here. Currently as I type, there's ice on the knee and I have a warm bath I'm about to jump in. Oh, and I have been really hungry lately. Especially at night. Unfortunately, I have been giving in and eating the wrong things which has showed up in the form of 2 pounds on the scale. On Fiterella's sight, it has a guide to how much you should be eating according to your activity level and if you want to lose or maintain your weight. Since I'm STILL not back to my presurgery weight, I have been wanting to lose weight. Therefore, I've been trying to eat just 1500 calories a day. I'm down 3 pounds, but still would like to be back to what I was. I drive my husband crazy. He wants to know why I'm obsessed about getting back to that weight. Well the way my clothes still fit for one thing! He thinks it's not the extra weight that's causing my muffin top, but the fact that I'm wearing normal undies now compared to the fat-sucking-in ones that I used to wear daily. They went almost to my bra to hide my loose skin. So I could have had this back fat before and just couldn't tell. But now that my loose skin is gone, I don't want to have to wear the ugly granny panties anymore. I guess I'll have to pick the lesser of two evils. Anyhoo, my bath awaits me!

Monday- Ran 8.5 miles including 2 sets of 2:00, 3:00 & 4:00 sprints
Tuesday- rest
Wednesday- Ran 7 miles including 4 2:00 sprints and 6 gentle pickups
Thursday- rest
Friday- 6.7 miles
Tomorrow- 10 miles!

September Goal Reflection-
#1 Running 4 times a week- Accomplished
#2 Lifting Weights/Cross train 3 times a week- Not enough, very sporadic
#3 Exercise for a total of 120 miles- Close 112.36
#4 Continue Push Up challenge- Yes and redoing Week 4
#5 Say, "Thank you," to a compliment- Did AMAZINGLY well with this goal

Will think of October goals for next post.