Three Tangent Thursday

1. I think I've eaten more lunch meat and prepackage "uck" this week (staying w/the inlaws) than I had in the past ten years. So glad to be home to my "normal" food

2. Went on a lovely run with the husband Tuesday morning and saw a swan. Easiest the biggest bird I'd ever seen - who knew they were giant-sized?

3. I have satellite radio (SIRIUS) in my car, so we could theoretically listen to anything. But I only frequent two channels - 90s on 9 and OnBroadway

Update

As you may have guessed by my absence, the husband's grandma passed away and we spent the past few days with his parents. We just got home, and need to pick up the dogs and get everything sorted out before we go back to work tomorrow. Thank you all for your kind words, thought, and prayers.

Shoe time!

I've been fighting with my shins lately, and realized part of the reason that everything was achy might be the fact that I've been running soley in my Brooks Dyads since December. I went to my favorite local running store and told them my concerns: need to accomodate my orthotics, would like more support than my Dyads, and want a wide toebox. I left with these:

 Gel Kayano 17s, Limited Edition. Even though I'm "not running" until my shins don't hurt, I took these out for an easy mile, and they felt amazing. My only concern is they look "fast" something I, in fact, am not.

I also got a copy of the group picture our work group took at the 7k:

My eats for today:
Luna protein bar
Diet cherry coke
Lunch from the work cafeteria: 5oz ribeye and 1/2 cup green beans, iced tea
Pepsi
2 mini reese eggs
Home made taco  - beans, corn, mushrooms, salsa and shredded chicken in a whole wheat tortilla
1 piece red velvet cake

The husband has been traveling for work all week, so I've been stopping to see mom (a baker) every day this week. Normally the obsurb amounts of sweets aren't there (though therotically other food is)

I did try a bigger lunch today, which seemed to work better than my typically smaller work day foods.

How often do you buy new running shoes?

My new Worst Race Photo

That face summarizes my whole 7K experience.

Today's eats:
Diet cherry coke, luna protein bar
Athenos greek yogurt with honey
Oats with pb, banana, 4 almonds, and chocolate chips
Then I left work and the wheels fell off . . .
2 small cupcakes
Large diet coke
Taco Bell nachos supreme, quesadilla, and enchirito
Chocolate chip cookie

Apparently the issue happens in the evenings, huh?

In between work and class I did get in a hard hills workout on the arc trainer at the Y.

What's your worse race picture?

My Eats

Breakfast: Diet cherry coke, luna bar
Lunch: Greek yogurt with honey, oatmeal with pb, chocolate chips, banana and soymilk
Snack: whole wheat bagel and cream cheese
Dinner: 2 pieces of pizza, 2 cookies, and milk  (not the best choice, I know)

I went to the Y and did a quick workout once my class was over - stairmachine, lifted arms, and walked on an incline.

180.5

The no-good-very-bad 7K this weekend did one thing good: opened my eyes to the fact that I haven't really been working towards weight loss. Really working  - not "occasionally making better choice" but actually making a concious effort to eat right. My exercise has been spot on, but my food choices simply haven't been. And I'm not really happy with where I'm at. Or the lack of willpower that got me here.

I've never been good at food journaling, but I'm going to try again. And I'll be sharing fairly regular (maybe even daily) weight numbers for a while. 174 is  happy place for me, and I'd like to get there soon.

How do you stay motivated for weight loss?
- Reading and commenting on blogs helps me. I know I haven't been as comment-active as I like to be lately, and promise to get back to that, too.

Magnificent 7K

In theory, any time you race a new distance you get a PR; so today's 7K race was a PR for me. But not really. It was a hard race - mentally and physically. Let me start at the beginning.

I always sleep in my zensah calf sleeve the night before races. Last night, shin felt good, so I didn't.

DH and I arrived at a local elementary school at 9:25. It was 43 and sunny - perfect weather.  The parking situation was horrible - I am very picky about where I park my car - so we ended up several blocks away. We were meeting a group from work - two other couples and another guy, none of whom we've run with before. More than 200 people registered for the race, and were crowded into a gym waiting to move outside for to the start line. Pre-race conversation makes it obvious that everyone else from work is super-speedy, and I start to get nervous.

The race started down a straight away, and I was able to keep pace with DH for the entire first mile (9:51). The second mile went up a 60 degree hill, which I walked, losing DH who was able to run the whole hill,  Finished mile 2 at 22:01. The race was an out and back, so by mid-mile 2, the speedy people were coming back towards the finish. I saw the whole work group, DH leading, at about minute 24. I was hit the turned around at 25:30. Mile 2 was up a slight incline, and at around 30 minutes, my shin just went "boom" - pain. Shin splintly awfulness. I walked 3/4s of the next mile, and can't tell you where I was timewise at mile 3. I was really struggling mentally at this point - lots of mental "why do I bother running all the time if everyone is still faster than me? I'm not a runner. This sucks." By the time I hit mile 4, I had regained some confidence, and ran the whole last .25, finishing the race in 50.25. Which really isn't a bad time.

What makes this race disappointing is #1, the shins splints I'm dealing with that came from too much speedwork this week (mile repeats, tempo run, and race) #2, the fact I mentally was not tough enough to run my own race and not worry about what anyone else would think about my time. I am super shy in person, and sometime running, especially with other people, makes me feel like everyone is secretly pointing and laughing about the fat girl who calls herself an athlete. I need to be stronger than that.

The good news: Husband finished in an awesome 42:02.

What are your strategies for mental toughness?