november was my last blog - whoa have things changed

i can't believe m last blog on here was back in november. november feels like an eternity ago. so much has change. i finally shook that "cold" which was really actually allergies. a spark friend suggested it may be allergies. 2 days on aerius and all cleared up. i suffered for no reason. our fall came earlier this year and with it a ton of rain in september so i am guessing my mould and dust allergies were going nuts. at least i am cured and healthy!

back in december i also started toying with the idea of going vegetarian or significantly decreasing the amount of meat i eat. i had watched some documentaries on the food industry. i honestly have been avoiding them because i knew they would disturb me but one night simon was watching and i got sucked in. apparently it didn't change his view on food but momentarily but it has pushed me to really think about my diet and what i am feeding myself.

another spark friend who is also an ultra marathoner has also gone completely vegan and she has inspired me too look at my life and diet in such a new way. i am not sure i will ever go down the vegan road but it is nice to know there are endurance athletes and mainy professional athletes that not only survive but thrive on a vegan or vegetarian diet.

as i don't want to be cooking seperate meals at every meal for all members of the family i decided that when i can i will chose not to eat meat. in reality with shift work and social activities we only eat dinner together a couple of nights a week. so on nights i am solo or it is h and i, i have decided to be as meatless as possible. i am still eating eggs and dairy. i rarely eat fish. in the past couple of weeks i have only eaten tiny amounts of chicken twice. that is it for meat. i am honestly not missing it. it is forcing me to find different foods that are filling and have the protein i was getting from meat. i am using a lot of beans and i am filling up as much as possible on veggies.

as i seem to struggle with food and seem to focus normally on my odd small bad days i am really taking the time on what i did right with food in a day and i am logging that daily. focusing on the positive for this "half empty" girl has been a real mental struggle but super rewarding at the same time.

running has been going great lately. trying some new routes. running lots more miles. i had cut my miles back a ton last year and seemed to have constant hip and itband issues. i looked back at what i was doing when my running was GOOD. what st i was doing, what cross training i was doing, my weight.

well i was running more. averaging about 80 miles a month. last year my highest mileage month was june at 60. most others were 30-50.

i was doing hill runs and repeats. i am not doing them at all anymore. i will get on that.

i was also doing making the cut circuit training type workouts 2-3 times a week. these are full body workouts. this past year i have been focusing on heavy weights. bigger muscles but not good for running it seemed.

i weighed less. i weighed then about 127-130lbs. as of january 1, i was 145lbs. yikes. since january 1st though i am down to 141.5 lbs and i am looking to get back into the 130s and hopefully maintain there again. i have never seemed to be able to be 135ish though. i tend to be 140 or 130. weird?

this year i have 2 races i am doing for sure. i am doing the seattle rock n roll 1/2 at the end of june and the muddy buddy in august. besides that i am trying to find some other smaller races to do. still trying to figure out if i want to trail race or not. when my injury issues started it was the same time as trails. not sure it is related but i get a bad feeling in my gutt about it. i may just train on some trails for less structured hill work.

roller coaster

i am knocking on wood. i feel good for the first time since october. i seriously have had a cold, cough or something for pretty much 2 months now. last week i finally got sick enough to have to be off work due to pink eye and strep throat and finally seemed to have gotten better. however, thanks to me not feeling 100% for so long i got on a roller coaster of totally inconsistent exercise and food. ok, the exercise was not so bad. kept up with my cardio mostly but the st lacked. i would get in my mtc workouts 3x per week one week then the next 5 bicep curls were doing me in. i know i felt actually weak and i do not enjoy st when a 5lb weight suddenly feels like 40lbs.

food, i turn to food when i am sick. perhaps due to boredom? perhaps due to trying to make myself feel better??? either way i do not lose my appetite when i am sick. i wish i did. i also do not make the best food choices when i am sick. i am a salt lover but when i am sick it is even more so. bleh. i know all this yet i can't stop myself. thank you amee though again for your toe blog. every time i want to reach for that tim horton's timbit i will think of your tidbit and put it down. well i hope i do. ew!!!!!

i spent the 2 previous days at my sister's house in squamish. it was so nice to get away for the night. the drive up on tuesday was stunning. it is so great my sister and i can see each other whenver we want now. ok it is a 100km drive but that is better than having to fly. yesterday i drove home late yesterday to beat the snow and it only took me 1.25 hours. the weather was perfect though. last time in weather/traffic mess it took almost 2.

although i am physically fine the mental stress of the holidays is starting to loom. trying not to panic as i watch the calendar fill up. today it dawned on my part of that panic is because i see my me time (exercise) dwindle or hard to schedule. it always works out though. i also see my quiet time going. i am not very social. the thought of going out on christmas eve and christmas day is not fun to me at all. i want to stay home and watch movies with my baby. that won't happen though.

our new shifts at work came out today too. they start in feb. so hard to pick. we have to wait to pick based on seniority so i have to be patient as i probably won't even pick for a couple of weeks. i hate it. it alway works out. it always works out. that is my mantra the next couple of weeks.

it's back....

the pain in the back that is. seriously. pretty much 1 month to the day of it leaving. i have been kicking ass lately and doing all my workouts. 3 mtc a week, 1 spin, 1xt and 3runs. on sunday i could feel it tightening up then pow this morning. it is like someone stabbed me.

at first i wasn't going to go to the gym at all. then i thought it may help it loosen up as it sometimes does. i planned on a 2-3 mile run and mtc today. it was obvious to me that wasn't going to happen so i planned on doing light cardio and maybe mtc.

i did 10 mins on the elliptical. felt ok. so decided to do 10 mins of intervals on the treadmill. felt ok. so i went to attempt mtc. not ok. i couldn't even do light weights. just jumed on the bike to do 10 mins so i at least did do 30 mins of cardio.

i went to the chiro this afternoon. he could feel where it hurt but at the same time commented on how loose my back seemed to be in comparison to my usual tightness. whatever. i am over this today.

off day

today i had the most miserable work out. can't put my finger on it exactly. not sure what was going on. i did do a new strength workout on tuesday and that may have had something to do with it as my legs were a bit sore still today.

when i woke up this morning it was a beautiful, crisp fall day. poor puppy looked at me longingly. can we go for a run? i was going to run 2-3 miles today. i planned on it. the thought of running outside was just too much though. i decided to go to the gym instead. sorry pups.

so at the gym i did 3 miserable miles on the treadmill. they were absolute torture. i wanted off ever second of that run. i felt like i was lugging an elephant on my back. i ran mostly at 6mph. within that 3 miles i also did 3 hills at 6% for 1/4 mile. i actually planned to stop at 2.5 miles but i carried the torture on. the whole run i was fidgeting with my ipod, my clothes and pretty much everything.

when i was done it was on to strength training. pull muscle day as i did push on tuesday. very tired during weights. i even cheated my last set of lat pull downs which is not like me. i then went and did some mat work for my itband and butt. i should not have today due to my mood. i could barely do 5 reps of  simple exercises like side leg lifts and clamshells. very humbling. actually i wanted to cry a bit.

the moral of the story. some days it just sucks. we ALL have those days.

October 3

so i have been struggling the last few weeks with some back pain. it finally seems to disappear as mysteriously as it appeared after several chiro adjustments. then today i woke up to a cold and i am coughing.

for those of you who don't know often when i get a cold the cough can linger for literally months. i try not to think negatively and just hope it clears up asap.

so when i was checking out my workouts at dailymile.com i noticed there is only one week this entire year i didn't do at least one run. if i didn't run today it would have been 2 weeks. i couldn't let that happen so i did a short 2.25 mile run this morning.

i planned on starting "making the cut" workouts again this month. at this point i am going to give my back another week before i start such an intense program again.

this long weekend i am also heading to victoria, bc for a couple of nights with my friend and my son. hoping to meet some fellow sparkers. ds is going to do the kids run. so although i am not running a race i will be doing 1.2 km. this weekend is bringing up bitter sweet memories. 2 years ago i ran my pb for the half in 2:01 and i was probably in the best shape i had ever been in. ok, not sure that is 100% true but that is how i remember it. well at least the 2:01 was true. part of me wishes i was running but most of me doesn't want to dedicate so much time to training and running.

pil- yuk -tes or pilates as some of you call it

pil- yuk -tes or pilates as some of you call it

The Best Roasted Broccoli Recipe

I tried this recipe a few months back and loved it. The broccoli gets so green when you broil it. Just enough sugar that dh and ds ate it too!

The Best Roasted Broccoli Recipe