Pie Run, but no Pie

Woke up to lovely running weather and was stoked to hit the Jefferson City Road Runners Club annual Thanksgiving Day Pie Run.  All of the age group prizes are pies donated by a local bakery.  Race started at 8:30 which is a great start time - early enough to have plenty of time to get your race done and on to the other family obligations, but late enough that it is easy to get yourself over there (plus the race was like 10 min from home).

After running pretty strong at the Mud Run in September, my husband decided to see what he could do at a stand alone 5K now that he is turning 40 on Monday.  He ran cross country in high school, but hasn't run for exercise since (just walking).  He decided to go out hard (TWSS) and hang on for dear life.  As expected, he took off ahead of me and I never saw him again until I crossed the finish and he handed me a bottle of water having finished a solid 7 min and one donut ahead of me.  Bastard!

When we got to the race, we ran into several folks we know.  Not really a surprise at a local race, but sometimes interesting to find out who is a "runner" and not.  Several families from our parish were there plus some other acquaintances.  Even Luke from Team Virtus was warming up for his 10K.  They let the 10K'ers go about 5 min ahead of the 5K'ers and before long it was time to head out. 

Had to dodge people quite a bit the first 1/4 mile or so, but it spread out pretty quickly.  I managed to mostly run (ok, jog) the whole time save just a couple of very short walk breaks.  I roughly looked at my watch at the mile markers.  I think the first mile was 10:17, second was 21 something (total watch time) and the third was 33 something.  The printout said I did it in about 34:26 which disappointed me because I did a course in October with more hills in 34:47.  But in all likelihood, it is a PR - even if by a very small margin.  The wind was in our face a lot the last half.  But when the faster 10K'ers were passing me (and you could tell - they were FAST), it was a little disheartening.  Kind of like finding out my "non-runner" husband did it in 27:xx. 

I ran my own race though.  My sis was with her family and they finished together (with double jogger) in about 38 min.  We visited with some friends and then headed home.  I managed to skip the finish line donuts.  Got home, threw my fruit salad together and we headed out for the big family get together.  Husband's extended family puts on a pretty good shindig.  I kept to my plan to only get one plate of food from the dinner buffet line and one "dessert".  I decided I'd rather have more mashed potatoes than pie so that is what I did.

Now I get a few more days of Christmas denial while we prep for my husband's big party (Sat night).  Might order a few gifts online tonight/tomorrow, but I'm not brave enough to get crushed at any of the big mob sales. 

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 748.0 mi / 1000
Run: 314.6 mi / 350

HBBC Points: 3.1 for the 5K + 2 bonus points for moving with my family; think I was too heavy on the carbs/meat today to get the produce point; I always wait to clean until AFTER all the guests leave and they are staying for the birthday party so I won't get any big cleaning bonus points this week.

Squeezed It In

Kids were off school today and the morning started out cold and foggy.  The weather forecast indicated it would make it into the 60's so I told myself all morning that I would wait for it to warm up a little and then head out.  Unfortunately it took until 2:30 this afternoon to climb to 59°.  In the meantime, I baked an apple pie and did some chillaxing.  Then my sis came in from WI with her family.  I hated to bail on her, but I knew I wasn't going to be getting any HBBC points any other way so it was time to squeeze in a workout.

I jumped on my bike and turns out I didn't need to wait so long as I was totally overdressed.  I just had a light jacket and tights, but I was pretty warm.  My husband wanted to leave on an errand as soon as he got home from work so I just had an hour.  I took 1:02.  I came in to map it for a lousy 12.9 miles.  Grr...I thought it was further than that (home to Taos interchange then Scholastic loop).  Oh well - still better to squeeze in a workout than not.  Couple of the hills were kicking my ass, but I got it done.  He came home early so I had to bust a move to shower and change.

Dropped off our registrations tonight for the Pie Run tomorrow so it will be nice to get my workout done early (5K plus warmup).  Sis, bro-in-law, husband and I are doing it.  It is a nice flat course - new PR maybe?  It's my husband's first running race since high school.  I already am expecting to be completely annoyed when he beats me.  He outran me at the Mud Run in September -  bastard.  He walks a couple miles most days and he's got nice long legs.  And he ran cross country in high school (though he wasn't crazy fast).  He's hoping for 30 min.  That would be a massive PR for me, but we've agreed to "run our own race".  We'll see.  Stay tuned.

Breakfast: hard boiled egg/mayo/mustard/slice of bread; banana/PB
Lunch: sliced beef, half avocado, handful of tortilla chips
Dinner: Steak quesadilla, tons of chips/salsa/cheese, margarita (can you say "Undo Workout"?)
Um...yeah...not nearly enough produce today for a point.

HBBC Points = 4.3 for bike ride

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 748.0 mi / 1000
Run: 311.5 mi / 350

HBBC Day 2

Breakfast: Banana and PB
Lunch: Hard boiled egg/mustard/mayo + one slice bread + 2 servings baby carrots
Dinner: Broccoli beef (lots and lots of broccoli - 2 big crowns)

Enough produce to get 1 pt. Didn't make it out on my bike.  Shame, shame.

HBBC points for the day = 1

Reset...HBBC Kickoff

Last week was a wash.  I got in one lousy workout on a hotel treadmill (3.1 miles at 9:30 at night).  I did pass on the copious amounts of alcohol that others kept offering me.  I ate a light dinner when I wasn't much hungry after a pretty big lunch at the conference (even when at the best bbq place in KC).  So all was not lost.  But Saturday, it was difficult to tell the difference between me and most root vegetables.  And no good reason - just pure laziness.  Kids and husband gone hunting (button buck killed by son).  Weather was gorgeous (though I didn't check the wind, it was sunny and relatively warm for Nov).  I just sat on my ass.

So thankfully, Amanda at Run to the Finish kicked off her Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge this week which I signed up for a few weeks ago.  She has an active group of folks already sharing on FB and Instagram, etc.  I'm not sure I can keep up with these people, but I'm going to hit the health and wellness reset button and give it my all.  Let's see if I can lose weight over the holidays like last year!  Let me know if you decide to join in because I can get referral points.  Yay!  The up side is that I'll be forced to blog more to keep track of how awesome I'm eating and exercising.  I'll try to remember to take some pics here and there so this isn't too insanely boring.

MMNW = 162.0  (kind of amazing as I somewhat carbo loaded yesterday)

Barely got my 7 servings of fruits and vegetables - you might have to squint a bit to come up with enough:
Breakfast - Banana, Nature Valley Oats/Honey granola bars, 1/2 cup grape juice
Lunch - Chipotle Burrito bowl (brown rice, black beans, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream)
Dinner - BBQ pork, 1/2 avocado, apple, baby carrots w/ a little dressing/dip, half dozen tortilla chips, bite size (not fun size) Baby Ruth
Only water to drink other than the little bit of grape juice - have been backsliding on the soda front so this "reset" is a good excuse to try to knock that back again
I really need some ideas of how to get in more veggies.  I just don't seem to include them in enough of my meals/snacks.

3.3 mile run with Stacy tonight at 8:30 PM.  It felt hard.  She drug me along even though it was initially my idea.  But adds to my total mileage and gives me a few HBBC points for the day.  Hoping to bike tomorrow.

HBBC points = 4.3

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 735.1 mi / 1000
Run: 311.5 mi / 350

Over 300!

Let's just say that last week was an insane workweek - though that is at least partly an excuse.  I did blow off work Thursday and get in a nice LSAR (long slow ass run) with Susan on a beautiful, sunny (if a bit cold) Thursday morning.  Susan and I did our "standard" Katy Trail 8.4 miles (trailhead to Lewis and Clark marker at the river overlook and back). 

Not sure why in my complete laziness of Thursday (workwise) that I didn't write this blog post then.  Must have been the Halloween candy coma.  Yeah, the eating hasn't been stellar.  But the good news is that I passed the 300 miles run for the year mark.  This is pretty huge for me because a year ago, I wasn't really running at all.  Ok, so not ALL of those miles were "running", but mixtures of jogging/walking.  Still - huge for me. 

Had scheduled about a 30 mile bike ride with Walter for Saturday morning, but didn't count on a childcare snafu (both grandparents busy and I didn't have a backup plan).  It was a warm and sunny day (though crazy windy).  I had a couple hours of freedom in the afternoon while daughter was at a scout event and son was deer hunting with dad.  I just didn't drag my ass out the door to get in the workout I should have.  So the bike and swim distances are stagnant this week.  With only 8 weeks to go, it is going to be tough to hit these goals.  Maybe even impossible.  But we'll see.  The HBBC kicks off next week and might be just what is needed to get me moving.  This week I'm out of town for a couple days and the kids have early release tomorrow. 

MMNW = 162.8 (down 0.2 which is a freaking miracle given how crappy I ate)

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 735.1 mi / 1000
Run: 305.1 mi / 350

"Exercising" My Right to Vote!

Haven't been working out nearly enough lately.  Really should have gone for a run last night instead of plopping on the couch because I had the day from hell work-wise and slept poorly thinking about it.  My eating has remained decent enough - though last night I dove into a few fun size Snickers to soothe my weary soul.

MMNW = 163.8 (down from 166.0 last week, but I had seen gradually lower numbers all week from eating healthy and skipping soda and was expecting something more like 161-162 so I was a little annoyed - not helped by the stressful day that followed and the raging hormones given us women every 28 days)

Another day fighting a project battle, but I think I'm over the hump and left the office this afternoon feeling like I just need to pull together the paperwork, but that the design challenge was almost behind me.  Cost me my first soda in a week - but 12 oz in one week isn't bad considering the backslide in this habit of late.

Picked up the kids from school and came home to change into workout clothes.  I mean, after hearing everyone talking about "exercising their right to vote", I figured that was a hint I needed to run to the polling place.  It is only about 1.36 mi round trip.  Daughter wanted to tag along and I encourage the kids to understand the value of voting so I told her to ride her scooter while I ran.  This worked out well as it kept our paces/efforts about the same (she is 8). 

Got to the polling location and their computers were acting up, but we got through pretty quickly considering (though the line got long behind us).  I did my civic duty and we started the run home (though the first hill out of the parking lot was kicking my butt).  Got home and mapped it and decided I had more in me so I ran to the end of the sidewalk and back to tack on just under another 2 miles (3.3 total).  Yay!

So now it is time to wait and see how it all turns out.  There were definitely some races where I didn't really care for either candidate.  I tended to go with "my" party on those though I seriously considered a couple of 3rd party options.  Fingers crossed.

Off to finish making dinner.

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 735.1 mi / 1000
Run: 296.7 mi / 350

Eating Better/BB/Bike Ride

Superkate and some of her friends (and their friends, etc) are doing a paleo diet challenge thing on FB.  I don't know that any of us are particularly 100% die hard on the idea, but I decided to join in for the accountability aspect of reporting what I eat.  One of the guys mentioned he had a piece of Halloween candy in his hand, but just didn't want to have to write it down for everyone to see so he put it back.  That is EXACTLY why I joined in.  I have gone without soda since joining.  I had been a bit of a Coke addict lately sliding back into some bad habits (32 oz fountain Coke - not diet).  I need to focus on healthier options and this keeps my hands at least mostly out of the processed carbs.  And even if it wasn't really all that "paleo", my diet has been full of much better choices this week.  I'll take the victories where I can.  Hoping for a much better MMNW.  I also like seeing what everyone else eats because it gives me ideas for my own diet. 

There were no workouts Mon, Tue or Wed - at least my daughter's basketball practice was Thur evening at the Y again.  Reversed the brick a bit doing all of the "running" first.  I started on the track because another mom acted like she wanted to walk.  She maybe did like five laps (of 1/16 mi) and then left to get her daughter's water bottle out of the car and never came back.  So I started doing more jogging with a little walking and listened to music.  I had completely lost track of laps so I'm going to estimate that in the 30 min workout, I did at least 2 miles.  Then I went to the stationary bike that was thankfully by a fan.  But I continue to battle the fact that it is NOTHING like riding on the road.  I set the "level" to "6" again and could barely crack 10-11 mph on that machine while the bike at the other Y gave me around 14-15 mph for the same setting.  And who knows if the heart monitor thingy was at all accurate with it telling me I was over 160 bpm most of the workout.  I was sweating like the proverbial whore in church so I guess all is ok.  According to the stupid machine output, I did 4.3 mi.  We'll call that good enough.  First game on Sunday afternoon - Go Angels!

Today, through a ton of effort related to my work and mom obligations, I managed to hook up with Walter and his coworker for a long bike ride on the road.  It had been warmer yesterday, but the sun was shining and it was about 55°-60°.  I dressed for the temps and did fine (even sweated a fair bit).  We did the extended Holts Summit-Fulton loop from a while ago.  Fought the wind again.  Fought the hills again.  Very early in the ride I was wishing I was somewhere else.  Then we hit the hills and I was struggling to keep up and got dropped (sad in a group of 3!) and I was annoyed - actually a little pissed.  On the last big ass hill before a quick stop to regroup and get a drink I was nearing tears.  I was dreading the fact that we still had so far to go (this was only about 16 miles in).  But as we neared Fulton (approx half way), I started feeling more hopeful and I managed to go a bit faster and before I knew it, we were on the other side of town and stopping for a snack/drink at the C-store.  Client called right as I pulled up.  I took care of that and also checked on kids that were just getting home from school.  Bless them, they were getting their homework done so they could just enjoy their weekend of hunting (youth deer hunt). 

On the way back, I still had a few cussing moments on hills.  I also resorted to my standby way of getting through hills (prayers - "...pray for us...now and at the hour of our death..." rings a bit too true).  But as we started getting closer to done, I just pedaled my ass off to get home.  Dropped my chain once and managed to fix it quickly and catch back up.  Our average speed wasn't anything to write home about, but with the conditions I was happy enough just to finish.  Walter claimed it was 38 miles, but I am going w/ Kelly's bike computer from the last time (38.9!).

My sis asked me why I like to do these long workouts.  I think part of it is the challenge - to see if I can.  Part of it is that once you've cleared your schedule to do the workout, you can just keep going.  Although I must note here that out and backs/big loops where there is no option to quit mid-workout is the only way I can do it.  In general, it's the "getting out there" part that I find so hard.  And yes, a part is being able to brag a little - sounds way more epic than shorter rides.  That said, I think I'm going to try to get out for a short run or something to shake out the soreness I fear will face me in the morning.  I stiffened up pretty good on the way home in the car.  I took some ibuprofen to get through the evening.

Going to move the laundry along and make my to do list for tomorrow.  I'm kid and husband free all day and I have a lot to get done (including more work since I blew off half of today).  Fingers crossed one or both of the kids has some luck in the woods.  Mama could use more venison for her diet!

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000 (no, I haven't forgotten - schedule just hasn't jived)
Bike: 735.1 mi / 1000 (Yay - over 700!!)
Run: 293.4 mi / 350 (chipping away at it)