Training for a Belt Buckle

Beautiful morning outside. I have Twilight sleeping in a crate in my room now and she made sure that I got up as soon as my alarm went off to let her go potty. I might as well enjoy watching the sky lighten for one more week before the time change messes us up again.

I ran without a headlamp this morning and really enjoyed the solitude and was able to do a lot of thinking. I realized I needed to get back to weight lifting 3x a week and get into better shape.

7.75 miles alone. .75 miles with Twilight. I thought that would be my cooldown, but she spent the first half  stopping to sniff and the last half forcing me into a dead out sprint.

11:34/11:22/10:53/11:17/11:01/11:13/11:28

No drink on the run - so I was very thirsty when I got home.

- Great lunch with Leslie- I enjoyed the company and we were all giggly about my upcoming 50 miler

PM - .25 running around the outside of my townhouse complex barefoot with the puppy. 2 miles barefoot walking on the treadmill at its highest incline (will be posting walking mileage until after my 50 miler).

I read the introduction and 1st chapter of the  Slow Down Diet by Marc David while on the treadmill.  Here are some highlights:

• Slowing down means becoming more aware: Open. Centered. Present. Balanced.
• 9 out of 10 people who claim they are overeaters actually don't eat when they eat. Because we fail to notice our food, we completely bypass the body's satiation mechanism.
• Week 1 - focus on lengthening out your meals.  Double the time it takes to eat. Eat only in a sitting position. Do not answer the phone, e-mails, or engage in any form or work while eating (probably also means don't read or blog :-) )
• Breathe more deeply.  Take 10 deep breaths before eating. Each time you pause, take 3 deep breaths.
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• Here are some of my observations from eating dinner under this plan. (I made a wonderful stir fry with veggies and chicken and seasonings and had some herbed foccacia bread): 
  
• I actually felt very uncomfortable and guilty about taking so much time to eat.  My body wanted to rush on to my other projects and I had to force myself to relax.
• It was a nice experience to smell my foot before each bite and try and determine the different flavors. I found I really liked the orange vinegar I used and the fennel seeds. I want to try and duplicate the foccacia bread in whole wheat because the herbs smelled so good.
• I actually got full before finishing my serving and had not given myself a big plate of food. AND - I stopped when I got full.
• Did you know that a hot meal can actually get cold while you eat it?
  

Wasn't that wind today fun to run in?  LOL

Ran after work and ran into the wind first so I would have it at my back.

Avg: 11:26    12:07/12:43/11:21/11:34/11:23/10:53/10:36/10:49 (D'ya think I got a negative split?)

I was a little worried because I slipped off a stair last night and twisted my right ankle.  But, I immediately iced it and took some vitamin I and it is feeling fine today.

Went to the gym after dinner and did chest and back weights.  I was talking with one of the trainers and explained about my lower abs hurting when I cough after running for a while.  He had me do some exercises and thinks that I might have a tear or an early stage hernia and thinks I need to get it checked out. Grrrrrr.

Walked the puppy for 1/4 mile tonight.  Right now the leaves blowing about are terrifying her - so it is walk 2 steps, shake, get encouragement, repeat....... I bought a dog gate tonight and set up my kitchen so she has that whole area to play in all day instead of a 4 foot by 4 foot cage.  I don't know if she likes it - she is afraid to go through the gate right now.

Quick run this morning. I had to wait until 5:30 so I could call a former developer on the East coast. Chose a hillier route.

Avg 11:34   12:05/11:35/10:43/11:09

Apparently, I'm going to be sent to my room or the principal's office soon if I don't report in.....

This report will be split between this blog and my other Adventures in Running blog.

Dang! It was cold this morning.  About a mile or so after I left to head up to Layton, I realized I forgot my outer top layer and turned around.  I was very glad to have that.

We met on Antelope Island about 8:20 and the wind just smashed into us.  It was that lovely biting cold and most of us were adding extra layers to stay warm.  Hope it's not like that for the race.  I was glad I waited for Jim Skaggs, the Race Director, to show up.  It turns out he has modified the initial loop even more and I was able to run (ok walk) the change-up.  I'm not too happy about it, but will live with it.

About one mile in I joined up with two men.  One of them took off after about 4.5 miles to loop back to his car.  He was just beginning to get back into running after being diagnosed with Insulin Dependent Type I diabetes.  The other runner made sure he had some jelly beans to munch on and I gave him a Gu packet in case his blood sugar dropped. He is still learning how to control all that.

The other runner, Joe and I stuck together the rest of the run.  It wasn't as cold after a while, so I was able to unzip my top layers and peel off my hat and gloves for about 20-30 minutes at a time.  We were going at the same pace and I was able to tell him all about previous Buffalo Runs and explain what to expect on an ultramarathon and how to set up drop bags and stuff.  I was pretty impressed, he turns 50 next week and is doing the 50K as a birthday challenge.  Even more impressive - he had a knee replacement in 2007 and this was his biggest challenge since then.

We did 16.3 miles on the island, I was going to do more, but had another appointment to get to, so stopped after the first loop.

PM - A couple of hours later, I was on my way home and decided to try and run on the trails beside the Legacy Parkway.  They are hard to get to, but I finally found my way to one.  Ran 5.7 miles in about 1:04 to put me at 22 miles.

11:46/12:04 (including VPB)/11:41/11:16 (including another VPB)/11:04

Ran .5 miles with Twilight just now to get her to burn some excess energy.  I was going to walk on the treadmill tonight - but decided not to.

The hernia is starting to impact me more.  I am seeing a doctor about it on Tuesday.