Posts by jturnerx

Sara, have you tried the Kashi line of granola bars? I really like them. I think making home made ones is a great option too. I have a huge box that I bought at Costco ages ago and when I finish it off I think I'll try making my own. Yes, love the Food Network. Dinier, Drive-ins and Dives is another favorite of mine.

Laura, I did have some friends at the finish line but no family as they live in the middle of the US. I did get phone calls from them afterwards. Next race is in two weeks. Alton Brown was getting a bit on the heavy side but when I saw him after his weight loss I thought he had gotten sick or something since he was looking kind of gaunt but I think it was more the initial shock of seeing him look so different. Now he looks normal to me again.

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Not much going on today. Just recovering. I want to go for a walk as I'm feeling a bit stiff and sore but it's raining and cold outside so maybe not so much. Hoping for a break in the weather because I do feel the need to move and keep my legs loose.

Got my official results. 2:03:29 and got 140 out of 1408 in my age/gender and 1,693 out of ~13,500 who ran the half marathon side of the event. Not bad for an old lady who started running in January. :)

Chrissy, I think the gym shoe reference was that anything combined with garlic and olive oil would taste good.

Karey, your new profile picture rocks! You are quite photogenic if I do say so.

John, since I know you watch Food Network, have you seen Alton Brown lately. He's lost a lot of weight, like 50 pounds apparently.

Laura, I'm definitely enjoying my moment and my brief "awww, 4 minutes from breaking 2 hours" was just that, brief. It's also been great to share the experience with friends and family.

Hi all, I've been around but mostly in lurker mode. I haven't really been thinking about food and been so focused on my two races. Got my first ever half marathon done. My time was 2:03 with an average pace of 9:19 min/mile on a course with some serious climbs. I guess I did okay. I definitely felt like I laid it all out on the course. I felt spent by the time I crossed the finish line. No running home after the race this time. :)

I know one shouldn't compare but I keep reading about these people who break 2 hours for their first half and I was so close I'm a teeny tiny bit bummed. But realistically I also knew I would probably finish somewhere between 2 and 2:15. Those damn hills, lol. But seriously it was a great experience and now I know how my body responds to 13.1 miles at race pace. Now I have two weeks to recover for the next one. Oh lordy ...

Hi all, just got back from a Pasta Party over at Niketown in downtown SF. We started with a 5k run with our usual pace groups. Running around in the center of town ringing cowbells while whooping and hollering was a lot of fun. So great to see familiar faces and my pace leaders again.

One of the pace leaders told me she liked having me in her group because I was a positive, fun person. How awesome and nice is that? The ironic thing is I was a pretty negative, not fun person about a year ago. When I made the decision to get healthy I didn't realize what an effect it would also have on my mental outlook. I just thought the transformation would only be a physical one. I didn't think there would be other changes taking place. I just feel so much more confident and self assured and I guess that's showing through.

All in all, I had a pretty good day. :)

Original Post by chrissy1988:

joss: you never share your eats with us. spill. haha

'Cause it's not very interesting and I generally eat similar stuff day after day; mostly my home made meals unless I go out.

John, I've never even heard of a tricep bar.

Karey, are different exercises better suited to the curl bar vs. a regular barbell? I take it weights can be added to the ends of both. Is my complete and utter ignorance of all things regarding strength training showing? :)

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I did manage to get a short 4 mile run in. There was a lull in the bad weather and even a small sliver of sunlight that didn't last very long. The wind died down, the rain stopped so I bolted out the door. The park was a mess. Debris everywhere and it felt more like I was running an obstacle course than anything else. By the time I got back home it had started raining again and the wind was picking up. Glad to get that run over with.

Aw, Debra, I have no words of wisdom for you but heaps of empathy. I think we both share that critical voice in our heads and it can be quite a struggle tempering it.

Laura, are you a therapist? You sound quite evolved for lack of a better word. You are doing myofascial release on a metal bar? I can't even imagine. A foam roller is about all I can handle.

Chrissy, no I haven't found a picture yet. I may never. Talk about critical. lol

Clint, stay healthy and don't get anyone else sick. That's my biggest concern right now. I just want to stay illness and injury free. If something should happened to prevent me from running my two races I will be so mad after all these months of preparation.

Karey, okay, I have a dumb question. What is a curl bar?

John, Whole Foods is also known as Whole Paycheck. It's ridiculously expensive. I used to live across the street from one and while I think it carries some interesting stuff I also could not afford to shop there on a regular basis. I prefer Trader Joe's myself.

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First winter storm is rolling through the Bay Area today. It's raining really hard and very windy. The rain is actually coming down sideways. I hope it lets up later otherwise I'm heading out for a run in this mess. At least it's going to be short run.

Clint, I don't think I can change anything about the registration. As it is, I already know I'll be running as a man since it belongs to the seller's boyfriend. There's 4 scheduled runs between now and Sunday but they are supposed to be capped at 3 miles each so that's 12 miles total for the week.

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Went for a walk today to keep my legs loose. I did a lot of running on Saturday and Sunday so they were feeling a little tight.

Clint, yes, I have another half, called the US Half, two weeks after the Nike event. I signed up for that one because I missed the Nike registration. I ran with the Nike Run Club to train for the US Half since it was so close schedule wise that it still kind of fit. Little did I know I'd end up making this decision to buy a bib. The US Half is 5,000 participants which is going to be a much different experience. I would never have scheduled back to back half marathons on purpose but I'm still going to do it. The route is a lot different. If I'm not fully recovered after Nike I'll just treat the US Half like an easy training run. Then afterwards I'll take a rest month. LOL

I run with a Garmin, the Forerunner 405CX to be exact. I find it absolutely essential to help keep me on pace.

Laura, I think it's more like hilly and not as hilly in the area where I live. Stuff that seems flat to me would be more like rolling to someone else I think. I actually don't mind it much now that I'm a lot stronger and I can tell the difference it makes in my conditioning when I'm running with people who aren't used to hills. I used to do some spin classes in the past. It was okay and I wouldn't mind it necessarily as something to do on occasion as an alternative to other things but not as a primary exercise. I think the biggest deterrent for me about it is that it's indoors. I like being outside.

Yes, that dessert was the bomb. The friend that made it is such a good cook and not just with desserts. I don't think I've ever had anything she's made and not had it taste amazing. I've cooked with her before and she's just so relaxed in the kitchen. I run around like a headless chicken and she's as cool as a cucumber. She's a foodie who can manage her waistline too.

It's funny that you were inspired by Karey to make peanut butter/chocolate brownies. She's pretty much got me hooked on all things peanut butter and chocolate. lol

Karey, I really, really liked the Honeycrisp apple. It was huge so I just ate half. I usually get the Granny Smiths because they always seem consistently crunchy and I like crunch. I don't like soft fruit. And I think I've had bad mealy, mushy apple experiences with red apples so anything that's not a Granny Smith I've avoided. I think plum/pluot season is over so I'm going to see what's in season at the farmers market tomorrow. Maybe someone there will have Honeycrisp apples.

Sorry, John, you are not allowed to leave the Maintenance Board ... ever. ;)

Chrissy, right now nuts seem to be the thing I'm addicted to. I didn't used to really be that interested in eating them but I guess my tastes have changed and I like them ... a lot; the nut itself or the nut butter form. I don't want to banish them from my home so my latest "project" is figuring out how to keep them without going overboard on them.

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My left arm hurts today for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe I slept on it funny or else I was doing one armed push ups in my sleep. It feels like a joint/muscular thing around my shoulder and bicep. It's a bit weird.

Ummm, so, I made the leap and decided to buy a half marathon bib for the Nike Women's Marathon this coming Sunday. I really wanted in on this event since I've been training with these folks for a while now and I've wanted to be in it for months ever since I missed the lottery registration by two weeks. It hadn't occurred to me to do this but my pace leader told me to check out Craigslist if I really wanted to get in. So today I found someone selling a bib at face value and I'm meeting them this Friday to pick it up.

I am beyond ready for this event. 20,000 people. It's gonna be nuts. I'm so excited.

Chrissy/Karey, are we all Mac people? Sounds like it. I have an Apple laptop as well. I actually have a PC desktop that I used to use when I played World of Warcraft but now that I don't play it anymore I never turn the PC on. I live on the laptop ... and the iPhone. lol

Laura, ah, another person who likes to get their teeth cleaned. I love it. I actually enjoy going. The process doesn't bother me and I like how it feels afterwards. I don't know that many people who feel the same way. I actually sometimes fall asleep during it. lol

John, sounds like you are having a great time on your trip. I've never heard of a dessert buffet and what you experienced sounds amazing. You must have had quite the sugar rush afterwards.

Clint and Debra, hope you both had a nice Thanksgiving with your respective families.

Karey, I don't post pictures of myself on the internet as a general policy. I guess I'm just old school that way. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that I actually feel okay about all the eating out I did this past week. I felt more trepidation going into it than I felt coming out the other side. One thing I noticed is that none of it felt compulsive to me. It was just a good time shared with friends. If I gained any weight as a result I have the tools, experience and knowledge to bring it back to where I'd like it to be. It's kind of empowering when I think about it like that.

Of course, I feel a little nervous about what the scale will tell me over the next couple of days. But it's also not the enemy. It will tell me if I need to make any adjustments and I'll move on from there.

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I woke up at noon today. I rarely get up that late but excursions to the airport at 5:45am will do that to you I suppose. I guess I really needed the sleep. I didn't think I'd be out for so long. I did get my long run in so that was good. It was cold out and I swear I got frost bite on my knee caps. Meals are off today since I basically slept through breakfast and got such a late start. This day feels so strange since I've only been up for seven hours. Hope I can get to bed at a normal time.

Good morning, everyone.

I just got back from dropping my friend from NYC off at the airport so that's why I'm up so early on a Sunday morning. I want to go back to sleep but I can't.

This past week has been hectic and omg, talk about throwing food caution to the wind. I seriously have no idea how much I ate. I know it was a lot; especially the last couple of days where my only meals at home were breakfast. I haven't actually been home much and only got about 4 hours of sleep last night. But I enjoyed myself immensely spending time with old friends and getting to know new friends and, for better or worse, food was involved in those activities. I'm just glad these sorts of weeks don't happen to me too often.

So this coming week I'm looking forward to getting my food structure back into place. I think it will be a few days for my body to sort out the impact of this past week. Part of me is like, holy cat, I don't want to step on the scale  and wants to hide. And the other part is saying, hey, there's no free lunch, if your weight is up, you know how to address it so just go do it.

Going to go try and catch a little bit of sleep now since I'm starting to feel drowsy. It's my long run day and I don't want to be doing it as super tired as I feel right now because I think that would turn into a pretty miserable experience.

Original Post by pbear999:

Actually, that was my first thought for you, too, when you talked about the value it gave you for a training pace based on your 12k race.  You said you had enough energy at the end to run home still.  So I'd ask you "Did you give it everything you had, or did you hold back for whatever reason?".  Pacing yourself too much, in other words.

Exactly. I was wondering if I was pacing myself too much. My biggest concern has always been blowing out early and falling apart at the end so I think that dictated how I ran. I think I'll try your 12 minute test next Tuesday. It's the day after my rest day. Not that I can do much with that information at this point with my half so close. lol

You know, race days are funny animals. My average pace for the 12K was 9:09. During training I'd only hit that pace or a bit faster doing 800m repeats and that's with 400m rest intervals between and I'd feel knackered afterwards and sometimes struggle during. I would not have placed any money on me to sustain that during a race.

To everyone else, sorry for all the boring running talk.

Clint, thanks for that link to determine training paces. I plugged in my 12K because that's the only timed race I have. My easy/long pace is supposed to be 11:20? Holy moly, I can't imagine running that slow. 10:30 already feels super comfortable and like I'm coasting and I'm usually dropping closer to 10:00. My 800m interval pace is on target though. It's interesting to see my theoretical half marathon is 2:04 so that's within my 2:15 goal time so that's good news I think. Now I just have to execute, lol. And what is a threshold run? God, I feel like such a noob. lol

If you can't tell, I'm living vicariously through you regarding your coach so please keep posting about how it's going because I'm very, very interested. :)

Clint, 10:30min/mile is my training pace. To be honest I have no idea why I picked that. It's hard sometimes for me to go that slow but I try unless I'm doing a tempo run or something. That's one of the nice things about the Nike club runs I've been doing on Saturdays since they have pace groups and it really does force me to run slower.

I basically made up my training program such as it is. My jumping off point was Jeff Galloway but I've departed so much from it at this point I have no idea if I'm doing anything right or wrong. I don't think HIIT is really part of any half/full marathon training so I'm not surprised that it doesn't look like it's part of yours. I just do it mostly to have variety in my runs at this point. I think longer intervals are more beneficial like 800m repeats which are recent additions to my regiment.

Karey, my dinner at Coco500 was great. We split an appetizer of batter fried green beans which was really yummy. Very lightly battered and it seemed more like it was blanched than fried. We also spit a salad that featured a cheese called burrata which I'd never had before. The burrata is made from mozzarella and cream and was really delicious. We split some side veggies of roasted corn and beets. I had the artichoke and goat cheese pizza which was on a really super thin crust. It might be weird to order a pizza at a restaurant like this but I really like these thin crust fancy pants pizzas, lol. I ate half because I wanted dessert and brought home the other half. We shared a chocolate cake for dessert. Everything I had was really good. I'd go back again.

I went into dinner with a solid 1200 calories available to me. I still probably went over but I'm not stressing it. I spent a very pleasant 3 hours eating a delicious meal and catching up with an old friend.

John, I kicked my own ass today in my work out. Didn't need to find a random stranger today for that. ;)

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I was really meticulous about food today due to the dinner I knew I was going to have. I had a regular breakfast and lunch but just limited my normal snacking. That plus a good workout gave me quite a bit of leeway calorie wise.

My work out today was 10x800m repeats trying to keep the 800m portion to a sub-9:00min/mile pace.