10-K Training Plan

Well, folks, I'm back on the running wagon again!

Terry and I are officially training for our 10K. Yesterday we completed a "getting our toes wet" 5-miler, and it felt pretty good. It's funny, but once we got rolling, I felt almost as though I hadn't taken a break. Well, except for the whole gasping-for-air thing.

See, when we trained for our half marathon, it took awhile to understand how my body deals with running long distances. But this time, when I felt that little twinge in my knee, I knew that a quick massage would get rid of it. When I thought I needed to walk, I pushed a little harder. When we hit a tough hill, I focused on the tempo of my music.

I still don't ever want to run another half marathon, but I'm excited about this smaller challenge that won't totally destroy my foot. I have a lot more confidence in myself as a runner now!

The race is in four weeks, on March 23. I plan to loosely follow a combination of the Novice and Intermediate training plans that Hal Higdon designed. 

Today, though, Terry and I wanted a chance to catch up on our work days and chat a little, so we took a little walk around our neighborhood before stretching and decided to bump the upper body action to tomorrow. We'll run four miles in the morning and then hit the weights in the afternoon.

I'm so excited to have a new plan! After the last two months of creating my own workouts, I'm looking forward to a little variety in my routine. And I really love training with Terry; we complement each other well. (Perhaps that's why we got married?) I'm the one who keeps us on schedule and gets us out the door, but once we're running, Terry is a machine. He keeps an incredibly consistent pace and pushes me to keep going. Such a team. :-)

Before I go, I am thrilled to announce some SUPER exciting news: my friend Jenn started her own blog! Jenn has been incredibly supportive of my blogging journey, and I'm so happy that she has begun her own adventure.

Jenn's blog, Buff Girl on a Budget (I can't even tell you how much I love that name), follows Jenn as she explores workout discounts. She tries out unique classes throughout Los Angeles, including beach yoga, Zumba, and aerial arts. This week, Jenn asked me to write a guest post about our SoulCycle endeavor, so please check it out! I guarantee you will love her blog; she's hilarious and SO inspiring!

Have a lovely Tuesday!

What workout can you return to time and time again without feeling like you took a break? For me, running is getting more comfortable, but I'll have to say dance. Jenn took me to a hip hop class last year, and I loved getting back into the groove!

What We Ate During the Half Marathon Weekend

On Sunday, Terry and I ran a half marathon. For a recap by the numbers, check out Sunday's post. For a photo recap, check out Monday's post. For the rest of the story, stay right here. I just thought I'd pop in tonight with the details of our run.

Highlights from the run itself:

• Crossing the finish line, obviously. I cried for the last quarter mile or so. It's hard to run, breathe properly, and cry at the same time. I bet I looked really cool, and I know that my gasping breaths sounded awesome.
• Seeing SO MANY PEOPLE out there doing something so challenging. It was truly inspiring! Plus, the diversity surprised me--we saw a huge range of ages and fitness levels (walkers, runners, combo). If I ever do a half marathon again, it'll be when I'm 65 so that my grandkids can hold signs that say, "My grandma is running with you!"
• Terry and I both hit points in the run where we wanted to walk or stop, but neither of us wanted to disappoint the other person (we had agreed to try our very best to run the whole thing). So we didn't stop--we ran the whole.damn.thing, every step of the way.
  
• The costumes were cute but looked super uncomfortable. A group dressed as Nemo, Dory, and Crush was near us most of the run, and they looked adorable. Also, I'm not sure I understand running skirts--isn't the material uncomfortable?
• Disney had set up tons of entertainment: marching bands, dance groups, cheerleaders, and DJs. Those parts of the run were the easiest!
• Running through Sleeping Beauty's castle suuuuuper slowly, which meant we got to enjoy it a little more. Then again, I was so focused on not crashing into people, I barely noticed where we were.

Not-so-awesome parts of the run:

• My foot hurt for the first five or six miles (but then it stopped!).
• We spent the first three miles dodging people. It was SO crowded (but thankfully not claustrophobic-crowded, just a lot of people), and runners had to wind and weave around walkers.
• Mile 12 felt truly awful for both of us. 
• It was hard. Just super, crazy hard. Way harder than 11.5 miles, which we did two weeks ago thinking it would be pretty close to the real thing.
• At the first two water stations, it seemed like everyone just stopped. We had a hell of a time getting through there.

In other People Watching and Fun Sightings news:

• A woman at the Cheesecake Factory taking out a ten dollar bill to bribe a waiter to give her a table. (People really do that?)
• Best sign: "Worst Parade Ever"
• Other good signs: "Run, Stranger, Run" - "Your feet hurt because you're kicking so much booty!" - "I ran it, too!" (from a finisher who then stood and cheered us on!) - "Run faster so it'll be over faster!"
• Guy standing on the side of the street with a cowbell complaining that his hands hurt.
• Guy who gave us our medals said, "Finally, you decided to show up."

And some food from the weekend:

Lunch the day before

Carbo load: Cheesecake Factory

Too nauseous after the run to eat anything

For dinner Sunday night? In N Out! :-)

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Halftermath

One tremendous accomplishment dominated this weekend. It was months, years really, in the making. There were lots of stumbles along the way, plenty of opportunities to give up, but, ultimately, success was inevitable. 

Yes. You know what I'm talking about.

My husband won Super Mario Bros 3. The whole thing. Every level, no whistles. CONGRATULATIONS, TERRY!

Then, the next day, we ran a half marathon together.

Here's a little recap of the weekend: 

A little time in Downtown Disney for lunch and the Health & Fitness Expo.

Materials for spectators to make signs!

Registered Dietitian giving a talk about hydration, nutrition, and refueling.

Picked up our bibs...

Checked out the finish line (I joked that it was good to cross it now, just in case...)

Our goodies... (honestly, we both felt that Disney could have done better, but the shirt and poster were nice).

Although my shirt fits kinda weird and would be very uncomfortable to run in!

Before and after photos:

Hopefully we'll get some professional photos from the race soon! It was a great weekend, and we are SO sore, but we hope that'll only last another day or so. For now, time for bed to rest up for a (short) week of school and work! I promise that I only have one more half marathon post comin' at ya to tell about the actual race itself, and then we'll get back to business as usual at BLWB.

Thank you again for your encouragement, tweets, messages, and love over the weekend! We were so grateful for the support! 

Do you have a half marathon recap post? Link up below for anyone who's interested!

Half Marathon by the Numbers

Training

Weeks spent training: 15
Pairs of shoes for training and the race: 2 each
Highest mileage before the race: 11.5
My blood pressure, as measured by St. Joseph's Hospital at the Health & Fitness Expo yesterday: 106/71

Race Stats

Julie's bib number: 12158
Terry's bib number: 12156 (we couldn't find 12157)
Participants in the Disneyland Half Marathon: 17,073

Winning time: 1:05:29 (almost exactly half our time)
Our corral "number" (the emcees kept calling them numbers): F
Number of horse jokes my dad made about corrals: 1


Race Day
Official miles run: 13.1
Miles run according to our tracker: 13.5
Official time to completion: 2:10:48
Pace: 9:59 minutes per mile

Hours of sleep last night: 6
Time we woke up this morning: 3:50 am

Time the race began: 5:45 am
Time we crossed the START line: 6:16 am
Time we crossed the FINISH line: 8:26 am
Time we finally boarded the shuttle back to our hotel: 10:30 am

Trips to the bathroom before the race because I was nervous I'd have to go during the run: 3
Blisters acquired during today's run: 2, plus some toenail action for Terry
Possible stress fractures: 1 (Terry's left foot)
Hours spent feeling nauseous after the run: 3
Massages planned for tomorrow: 2 (one each)

Character sightings: 20
Signs that said, "McKayla is not impressed": 1
Kittens we were happy to cuddle with upon our arrival home: 1
In N Out milkshakes we enjoyed with dinner: 2 (one each)
Quantity of water consumed today: one gallon each
Time spent in Anaheim: 22 hours

Half marathons on our horizon: 0 - thank goodness


**I'll have a more detailed post later this week! Thanks so much for all your words of encouragement, good luck wishes, and support!

Ready to Run

Happy September! Can you believe it's already almost fall? Anyone have any exciting plans for this upcoming season? I'm pretty thrilled because, originally, Terry was scheduled to be traveling for two months for work, and now he's staying home! Obviously I'm stoked to have my buddy here for all that time instead of far, far away.

To kick off this Labor Day weekend, Terry and I really took it easy last night, and I was asleep on the couch by 10 pm. We still forced ourselves to wake up early this morning, though, because we need to get to bed early tonight for a 4 am wake up call. Because our half marathon is finally here! It seems like we've been training forever. As eager as I am for it to be over, I'm actually pretty excited about this whole weekend.

Today we're finishing our packing and enjoying a relaxing morning of tea, leftover quiche, playing with the kitten, and printing out all our forms.

Confession: I don't know which outfit I'm wearing tomorrow. It's going to be a game day decision.

I also downloaded some songs I've been meaning to buy for awhile now and created my playlist for tomorrow.

(Lady Danville is a band made up of three of our good friends from college! You should definitely check out their music!)

Even in our training, I don't listen to my iPod for the first hour or so; I save it for when I'm really aching and need the push. I've mentioned before that Terry would be perfectly happy to run in silence, but I like letting the music pump me up toward the end. I think I have too much music on here, but I also tend to listen to just parts of songs and then skip to the next one, so this list allows me to do that without running out of music. Some folks have said that the energy, entertainment, and music along the way is so fun that I won't even need my iPod, but I'll just keep it as a back up option.

Around noon, we'll be heading down to Anaheim (only about 45 minutes away) for the Health & Fitness Expo. I can't wait to see all the runners and to explore what goodies Disney has for us!

(Source)

After we wander around the Expo, we'll check in to our hotel and make sure our transportation to the race is all set. If I understand correctly, Disney has arranged shuttles for a ton of local hotels, so we won't have to pay for parking or walk the mile to the start line. Again, though, I just want to check.

We plan to eat dinner tonight in Downtown Disney and get back to the hotel early for bed. I'm sure I'll be way too amped to sleep early, but we can at least rest, stretch, foam roll, and prepare all our gear. Tomorrow morning we'll snack on a bit of trail mix, but neither of us likes to eat too much before we run.

The race starts at 5:45 tomorrow morning, but we're in the second-to-last corral, so I imagine we'll start running closer to 6:30 (?). You can follow me on Twitter (@BetterBurgers), Instagram (BetterBurgersJulie), or Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/abetterlifewithburgers) to see how we did (after the race--I'm not so talented that I can run and tweet at the same time).

One Week Down + Grocery Lists

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your advice and words of encouragement! Terry and I are excited for some rest tonight and tomorrow morning before we head to Anaheim for the pre-race expo and stay the night there before the race itself on Sunday morning. Wish us luck!

Today marked the end of my first week teaching at my new school. I am having so much fun getting to know my new students, and it's wonderful that they kindly greet me in the halls. After work today, Terry picked me up and we headed to a new-to-us restaurant nearby. We just went in for an appetizer to let the traffic die down a bit, and their pizza was phenomenal! We ordered the M.S.G. Pizza, a funny name for a mushroom-sausage-green onion pizza, and I can't wait to go back for more. The rest of their menu looked really inventive, too!

This week was really tough for both me and Terry, and I really slacked in the kitchen and grocery shopping areas. Every time we tried to pack our lunches, we found ourselves scratching our heads, wondering how we would create a meal out of spinach and raw oats. I finally shaped up and made a seriously delicious quiche last night (I used Lisa's crust and filling recipe, and we used manchego, spinach, and tomato to make it delicious). We had leftovers for lunch and still have more for tomorrow! So we scraped by this week, but I promised Terry I would make a list and menu today so that he could shop on his day off (teamwork!).

Success! I was starving while I wrote out my menu, so you can imagine I was drooling and thinking of my favorite foods. Obviously, I wound up with comfort foods, which are sounding mighty good lately. Chili cheese fries? (I'll show you how I pump up the nutrition in that one.) Pasta pie? That one came from a recipe on Courtney's blog, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. I plan to make two pies so we can have lots of delicious leftovers throughout the week. No more scrounging for lunches around here!

As you can see, I only planned our meals up through Wednesday night. We'll likely have enough leftovers of something (pie and/or chili) to see us through the entire week of lunches, but this dinner strategy is pretty normal for me. I don't mind stopping at the store a second time during the week, and it's a great chance to stock up on more fruits or snacks as needed. Plus, honestly, I really don't know what I want to eat on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so I'll leave it open for whatever recipes strike my fancy.

Tonight, I'm taking it very easy. I came home to an incredibly clean house, because my husband is awesome, so my weekend started on a great note. We ate pizza early, so Terry's slicing up some bread, cheese, and salami for our second dinner.

Taking a break from the vegetables, apparently

 I hope to get a bit of grading in before bed, we'll watch some Arrested Development tonight, and we head to Anaheim tomorrow!

Do you plan and shop for full weeks, or just a little at a time?

And because it's Friday:

Hope you have an amazing night! See you tomorrow for a very nervous pre-race post.

Let's Be Honest

Football season started today!!! Yeah, yeah, I know NFL football started up last week (or was it the week before?), but the REAL season started today: College Football!

Terry and I got home right as the game started, threw on our Bruin gear, and--realized the game is on a channel we don't get.

Sad Terry

Cue violins. We tried "watching" on the GameTracker thing, but it was less than exhilarating to watch the little cartoon guys run around the screen. So Terry switched to the radio while I got to work, and he yelled updates from the bedroom. (I wanted to listen, too, but the static on the radio was ridiculous, and I had plenty to keep me busy.) Hopefully future games will be broadcast on accessible channels so that we can actually see them.

Oh, and while we sorta-kinda listened to the game, look what happened:

Tuesday.

Thursday.

Three days. That's all it took. And you can bet I'll be sending Terry to the store tomorrow to get more!



I have Colleen to thank for inspiring today's post. She writes over at The Lunchbox Diaries (her blog is so funny!), and her post today talked about how reaching health goals is not easy, despite the fact that people often put a super-positive spin on things.

Well, I discussed this topic with Terry on the way home today (yep, we're still carpooling!), and I think I'm actually pretty honest about most topics. I'll admit when I'm just not feelin' a workout (like the run from hell), I share my frustrations when I'm exhausted at the end of a long day, and you know I have no qualms about complaining about traffic.

But I'm not sure I've been as honest as I can about this half marathon we're doing on Sunday. Let's remedy that, shall we?

The Training

It was hard. Really, really hard. I struggled to motivate myself to want to run, and I hated the midweek "short" outings when they boosted up to 5 miles twice a week (in addition to the long runs). As for the long runs, actually, I enjoyed those more. I think I looked forward to them because I knew that, at the end, we would have completed a new PR for distance. Then again, the during part really sucked at times. The first mile was rough, the middle part was okay, then my feet would make me want to quit, and then I would push through the last mile.

After 10 miles

But at the same time, I was so proud of myself during every run. I remember (not too long ago) when running half a mile felt like certain death. Slowly--SO slowly--I built up my endurance. I didn't have to walk as much, I ran faster, and I felt stronger. Difficult, yes, but not impossible. Now, on our long runs, we hit four or five miles, and I smile to myself. I think, "Man, I remember when running that far seemed crazy, and now I'm running twice that distance!" It showed me that I really can achieve some pretty intense goals. I should have acknowledged my accomplishments along the way a little more.

My Body

If I'm being 100% honest, I shouldn't have done it. I consider myself a very fit and able-bodied young woman, but I should not be running long distances. My foot is really not up to the task. It held up alright for the "shorter" runs--6, 7, 8 miles. But the last four or five long runs really killed me. After about seven miles I would have to stop and stretch my foot because I couldn't take another step. And then I kept going, stretching when necessary. But I probably shouldn't have, and I probably won't again. I'll gladly stick to 10Ks if I feel the need to pay money and wear a bib while running with tons of other people.

In a word...OUCH. Every part of me hurt. My hips tightened up, and I had a hard time foam rolling them, but stretching helped. My Achilles tendon got sore. My IT band hates me, and foam rolling it makes me hate it right back. And then, of course, my foot.

Something I was really curious about was whether I would gain weight, lose weight, or stay the same. I've heard that some people gain 5-10 pounds while training. I'd say I've gained a few pounds (I don't weigh myself), but that could be attributed to any number of things, so I won't blame running. I'm curious to see how my body reacts when I shift back into circuits, yoga, HIIT workouts, and strength--with minimal running.

The Countdown

I. Am. Stressed. Granted, I have a lot going on right now, between starting a new job, beginning a new school year, and a few other things. Luckily, the timing worked out perfectly so that we've been tapering during the start of school, and we've only had to dedicate a few 30-minute blocks of running time here and there over the last two weeks.

But honestly, I'm incredibly nervous for Sunday. I've never done any kind of a race, and I really have no idea what to expect.

I know we're in the second-to-last corral. I imagine that's not the ideal place to start a race for someone who's claustrophobic and has panic attacks when standing in crowds of people for extended periods of time.

Based on other bloggers' post-run recaps, I'm imagining there's a solid chunk of time before you even get to the start line--how does that work? Do you walk to the start line? Run? Will I be trampled? Does the pre-start line time factor in to our overall race time? I guess I should have asked these questions awhile ago.

Any words of wisdom from race veterans out there?

Also, as I look forward to my retirement from half marathons before I've even run one, I'm thrilled to be done with long distance running for awhile.

WIAW + 3 Cheers for Today

Halfway through the week! Who's stoked? I'm super excited for a couple reasons:
1. I've officially survived my first two days of teaching at my new school.
My first two days went extremely well. I was so nervous, as if it was my first day teaching. To the teachers out there: Will I always get so antsy, or is it just because it was a new school? I can't remember being quite that anxious the last two years, but I may just be forgetting. But anyway, the students were fun and kind, and I think I have some great classes. I'm excited to see such a difference among all my classes--such different personalities! It'll be so fun to learn about each student, as it always is.
I have to say, though, I'm exhausted! Both days really took it out of me, and I know I just need to get back into the swing of things. 
2, It's 7:38 pm, and we've already finished our workout AND dinner.
Yes. That's right. And actually, we finished dinner right around seven! Lately we seem to be eating at 7:45 or 8:00, and yesterday and today we went ahead and got things done much earlier.

Part of that is shorter workouts. Since we're tapering for our half marathon (COUNTDOWN: 3 DAYS), we've agreed to focus our workouts on our upper body only (I'm still doing Tina's boot camp but omitting any leg exercises), plus some very light runs. Today after work we did a quick arm/shoulder/chest workout, and my arms were shaking when I ate dinner!

But eating earlier also means we get to bed earlier, and we feel more refreshed in the mornings. It's all part of a grand scheme, because someday I want to be a morning exerciser! We've agreed to start slowly, so here's our plan:

• Spend a week or two going to bed early and waking up a little earlier each day.
• Start getting up at 5 am to do half-workouts (30 minutes of just cardio or just weights, for example); do the second half of the workout in the afternoon/evening.
• Eventually, get up at 4:30 for full workouts!

Someday...

3. MOST exciting: Chris and Ashley are getting married in ONE MONTH!!! I can't wait to see my big brother marry his best friend!

Alright, on to today's eats!

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6:15 am - Breakfast

Cantaloupe, peaches, and whole wheat sourdough toast with butter and jelly

10:00 am - Morning Snack

1/2 cup of Trail Mix

1:15 pm - Lunch

Cream cheese, tomato, spinach, and cucumber on a whole wheat pita. 

5:00 pm - Pre-Workout Snack

New-to-me dip with crackers from TJ's...SO GOOD. And pretty much all real ingredients!

6:30 pm (!!!) - Dinner

Oh yeah. This happened. Just a teaser, though; recipe to come next week! (I need to tweak it so it's perfect!)

After I publish this post (approximately 8:30 pm) - Dessert

Frozen yogurt, here we come! I'll Instagram it--are you following me? I link my Instagram photos to Twitter, too...

A Fall, a Hill, and a Long Drive Home

Last night, after Terry and I arrived home from our adventure in the city, my brother and Ashley were home to spend the night at my parents' house. We all chatted, enjoyed appetizers, and ate a delicious steak dinner. The "kids" also hit up my parents' hot tub; Terry and I were hoping to loosen up our muscles for our last long run, which was today.

Oh, and Terry practiced tying his new bow tie!

Today marks two weeks until our half marathon, and this long run wasn't actually on our training schedule. But we started training earlier than the schedule required, and we decided it would be ideal to squeeze in one more long run to build up our confidence for the big day. Our plan also only calls for six days of tapering (decreasing mileage for the week or so before the run), and we thought two weeks would give our muscles more time to heal. So off we went.

The first half of the run zoomed by. We both felt good, it wasn't too hot, and we conquered two small hills with no problem. But at mile 5 - I fell. Not just a little stumble, an all-out fall. It all happened in slow motion: my foot caught an uprooted chunk of sidewalk, and I felt myself flying forward toward the ground. I caught myself with my hands, but then I maneuvered into a serious ninja roll, hitting my right shin, hip, forearm, and shoulder. Like a champ.

Terry said I was practically on my feet again before he even realized what had happened, but as I stood up and sorted it all out, I felt a wave of embarrassment, panic, and frustration. Mostly, I was hurting, and I couldn't help but ask, "Who the heck falls down?! I'm an adult! Aren't you supposed to get to a certain age where you don't fall down anymore?" Obviously I was a delight to run with for the next few minutes, but I did keep going. Terry kept telling me how proud he was that I kept moving, despite a pain in my hip where I had fallen.

The run was all downhill uphill from there. Literally. Once we hit the halfway point (six miles), we turned around and ran the same route back. That's when we figured out why the first half was so easy--it was all a slight decline! So for about four and a half miles, we were trudging up a steady, slow hill. Every time we thought we had reached a crest, the other side was just more uphill. I wanted to cry. But my awesome running buddy pushed me through, and we finally hit 11.5 miles, which was our goal.

Upon arrival home, I got to better assess my injuries, and I'd say the most noticeable damage was actually to my forearm. It's a bit scraped up but very swollen, which Terry is calling a monkey bump (I'm sure that's the official term). My hip feels better now, but my shoulder is aching more as the night goes on. I'm definitely planning to take a rest day tomorrow, because even ninjas get days off.

Normally, my bones are in straight lines.

After stretching, regaling my parents with tales of our run, and a delicious breakfast, we packed up and  got on the road back to LA. Terry and I listened to the Harry Potter audio CD the entire ride home, and we didn't even have to stop for gas, but the ride took about an hour longer than usual due to traffic. Note to self: Ideally, try not to run 11.5 miles and then sit in a car for six hours. Movement of any sort will be extremely difficult after that.

Tonight Terry and I are just so excited to be home with Scout, who has very vocally announced his thoughts about having us back. We're taking it easy, ate Wahoo's for dinner, and eventually I will have a battle with the foam roller.

Oh, and watching The Lion King and pretending Scout is Simba. 

Hope you had a fantastic weekend! In case you missed it, here's the recap of our little mini-vacation in San Francisco.

What was your most recent fall?
If you want, I can give you some ninja-roll tips.