Changes

So far I have been able to stick with the Paleo diet with no problems. My family still eats junk food, so I am surrounded by it, but not tempted to eat it because I feel so much better without it.


Things that have changed since I gave up grains and only eat meat and eggs, fat, lots of veggies, and a little full fat dairy:

psoriasis is gone
not as gassy any more
seasonal allergies are improving
arthritis is not as bad (knees all better)
oxygen uptake much more efficient (working heart rate is lower)
sleeping better
ability to focus has improved
looking much better in my clothes!

I truly believe I have the Paleo diet to thank for all these changes!

Great way to start the day!

So... I was off to Houston early this morning for my second training session with Ruth. She is an awesome, sweet young lady, and I think we compliment each other nicely. She is speedy, and I have endurance for the long haul.

We did some warm up drills and stretching before we started off to finish 6 miles in what we hoped to be an average pace somewhere around 12 minutes per mile. Wow, we held it for 5 miles, then did the last mile slowly for cool down. We followed the workout with lots of quality stretching and a stop at Starbucks on our way back to her house. I do my level best to maintain racewalking form during these workouts, but the soft knee is always going to be a problem for me, and I am OK with that. Just so Ruth does not pick up any bad habits from me, which I don't think she will. Her form is awesome, and I know she works on it all the time!

Oh, and, I tried a chin up on the bars at the park. I really was able to do 2!!! I have not even tried to do a pull up since I was in high school, so I am totally amazed I was able to get my chin above the bar!

Now that I have done back to back hard efforts, I don't feel obligated to any structured workout tomorrow. I have to work all day in the mattress store, so whatever happens, happens.

August 20, 2009

So, I ended yet another walk at the cemetery, wishing I could just check in. It's kind of funny that these crummy feeling walks always seem to near their end as I am walking through the cemetery.

I just came in from what I thought was a waste of time 6 miles. It was 99 when I walked out the door. My HR seemed high from the start, so I thought I slowed down. But every time I looked at my HR, it was still high. I felt like my legs were dead. Turns out the pace was not so bad; and the walk ended up being more like tempo than LSD, so a 4 mile tempo walk with an extra mile for warm up and an extra mile for cool down for a total of 6 miles in 1:23:51. I was under the impression that the walk was a lot slower than it ended up being and I am sure the 99 degree temp had something to do with that! I had to stop once and soak my cap to cool off a little.

I also need to remind myself that the workouts I do during the couple of weeks post marathon will be kind of tough. I need to be taking it easy, and it is difficult for me to do that.

June 9, 2009

this is a little strange, but I think it is becoming a pattern. I get exhausted by the amount of training I am doing leading up to a big race. So, I take a week off. I don't know how smart it is to take a whole 7 days off during the taper for a 100 mile race... but I am trying to do the right thing and listen to the old bod'.

Hopefully it works as well as it did in January before Phoenix and last fall before the Bass Pro marathon and Sunmart. Just to let you all know I will be reporting a walk this evening after work. I don't know how far I will walk, or how fast I will go, but I will be back out there today. BTW......... 11

I do feel a lot better after my walk this evening. I went back to the park pond excavation site. Most of my walk tonight was on grass, except for 1.4 miles of dozer tracks and huge clay clumps. Oh, joy, I found an extension to the excavation site. When I uploaded the walk to Google Earth, the place I walked still looks heavily wooded on the satellite image, but all the trees are no more now. Kind of sad, but a great place to test out the knee and ankle strength. So far, so good.

6.28 miles; 1:26:38, average pace 13:47; average HR 73%, max HR 84%. The funny thing is that I walked the fastest two miles of the evening out there at the excavation site.

"It's better to be crazy than lazy!"
Maryann

ps. stayed up late last night working on drop bag and packing lists for the trip to Ohio. This is the first time I have flown to a race. I am going nuts over the tiniest detail. I have decided to bring only absolute essentials and pick up personal hygiene products when I get there.

One other thing, I got an email from the race message boards saying that the order of trail loops is changed this year (only one small change). Ok, after I printed out my pace chart and stuff last night. As I mentioned, I was up until midnight working on all this, now I have to redo part of it. I have to have my pace chart with exact times out of each aid station with me, and a copy in each drop bag just in case.

June 2, 2009

I was planning to do 8 x 400 at the track tonight after warming up, stretching and doing my drills, but things don't always work out as planned. I am trying to wear different workout clothes to see if I am going to have any problem areas at Mohican. Wore a skirt tonight, didn't bodyglide the thighs and lo and behold, no chafing. Even wore a sleeveless top, (no chance I would forget to bodyglide the pits) and no chafing there either! I must really be firming up from all the walking I have been doing. Cardio burns body fat!

1 mile walk to the track - 13:22 (mile 1)

1 mile quick racewalk to warm up completely - 11:48 (mile 2)
stopped timer to stretch fully and do flexibility drills. was able to stretch hamstring and shins properly due to self massage last night. going to do it again after I stretch post workout.

4 x 400m w/400m rests for the next +/- 2 miles - 11:42 & 12:02 (miles 3 & 4)
(could not use center lane on the track because the slow pokes were 3 and 4 across, just strolling along, some pushing strollers; so I had to use the outer lanes of the track.)

400m slow, 1mile racewalk at an ez pace, then walk home.12:44 & 14:23 (miles 5 & 6),

then .17 miles in 2:32 (pace 15:02)

total 6.17 miles average pace 12:44, average HR 77% Overall a great workout and glad I was able to get my HR up to 88% during the intervals.

February 22, 2009 - training walk

Today was a good day to walk. It was kind of cool this morning, so I waited until almost noon to leave the house. I am choosing to follow the doctor’s advice and do most of my walking on the track at the school down the street from my house for now. The roads around my house are all cambered, and walking on that slanted surface has been contributing to the problems with my hips and lower back.

So, I walked to the track, and then continued until I had walked a total of 2 miles. At that point, I stopped my timer, stretched and did some flexibility drills. I started the timer back up and continued around the track (total of 34 laps in lane 5). I had walked a total of a little over 9 miles, and then I headed home.

Today’s walk was very productive. I was trying to see if I could push myself to walk at a fairly fast sustained pace for longer than 5 or 6 miles without my knee starting to hurt, or just feeling crappy in general and needing to stop. The first 9 miles were completed in 1:55:40 with an average pace of 12:51 mpm and an average heart rate of 150 or approximately 78%. I walked the last 1.22 miles very slowly, just to cool down so that I could stretch when I got home.

I am still not sure how the 5k I signed up for this coming Sunday is going to work out for me. I am supposed to send my heart rate from the 2 mile mark in the 5k to Dave so he can give me a better estimate of what my maximum heart rate should be set to. I am just not sure I can get up enough speed on these legs to get my heart rate up very high. We shall see…