Diet and workouts other than (gasp) running.

When I followed the Hal Higdon Half marathon training plan, I didn't deviate it from it one iota. I was so overwhelmed by the mileage and the thought of actually sticking to the plan that I was fearful of adding anything to my days.

 After the half when my knee hurt so bad for several days, I knew I needed to add strength training into my workouts. At the gym I use the machines for the quad and hamstring strengthening, at home I do exercises I learned on a Pilates DVD from a decade ago to strengthen the psoas, and I try to swim a couple times a week.

 There's really no schedule set in stone with me. I would probably be in better shape if there was! I am just of the mindset that fitting it in when I can is better than nothing. I would also love to be in a place where the weather was more consistent to allow for more outdoor exercise. If it isn't the wind, then it's the swarms of mosquitoes, miserable heat or miserable cold. I would really like to just deal with one negative, maybe rain, or heat, but that requires moving. Sigh.

As far as diet, I try really hard to not be on my typical see-food diet, I see it and I eat it. Two years ago, after mocking everyone on the gluten free diet and rolling my eyes at this "fad diet" that I figured would be out of fashion soon enough, I read the Wheat  Belly Diet and was shocked to see I had many of the issues they listed off for people that were gluten intolerant; stomach aches (every morning!) acne well into my thirties, itchy skin, bloated stomach. I gave the Wheat Belly Diet a try and the difference in how I felt was almost immediate. It wasn't too long after that I gave the Whole 30 Diet a try. I gave up dairy, wheat, beans, rice and all sugar except in fruit. It was torturous, but what wheat removal didn't do, being dairy free did. My dark circles under my eyes went away completely and I lost 15 pounds but it was so restrictive I couldn't keep it up. Moving to the area we now live in made eating healthfully outside of the house very difficult and I have sort have gone back to my old, bad ways of eating.

  Running has helped me stay on track as best I can, waking up after an evening of pizza to go for a run is out of the question, and once you've gone on a long run and feel good, it makes it easier to make healthy meal choices. I suppose some people think if they exercise they have an excuse for bad food choices but I feel the opposite. Except for my lattes, those are fuel for my runs!

 Basically with my running I have wanted to make a full, permanent lifestyle change. Exercise and the foods we eat to fuel our body should go hand in hand for life and it is difficult to have good health without both.

New Shoes!

  I am really impressed by people that keep track of the mileage on their shoes, how do they do that? A training log? Their memory is just that good? Whatever it is, I didn't do that with my last ones and based on the holes I was creating with my big toe, it probably had a good many on them!

 Back home we had a running store in town, Fairhaven Runners how I miss you! They watched you walk, watched you run, evaluated your stride, brought out the shoes they recommended and had you run outside in them to try them out. Here on the prairie? Yeah, no such store.

  On top of that, I was making way too big a deal selecting a brand and style this time around, mostly because I feel like I am more of an actual runner while before I was just a casual jogger. I mean, I have actual running socks so that must mean I getting pretty serious, right?

  Since I have been trying to get to the whole minimalist running feel, I knew I at least wanted shoes that mimicked the Luna Sandals. Altras were recommended to me by the lady I met that ran the Leadville, if they will hold up for a 100 mile of tough mountain trails they must be worth trying out. I was thrilled to read the story on them; wide toe box and zero drop heel developed by a family that had a running store and realized that feet needed to replicate the barefoot stride inside a shoe as closely as possible. The outdoor store in town just started carrying Altras and had two trail types to choose from, the Lone Peak had the best fit, and yes I had to get the men's because they don't have my size in women's. I have big feet.

 I like that they give me lots of space for my toes and enough cushion for my foot that I don't feel the stab of every rock down the drive but still minimalist enough that if I am heel landing too much I can feel the jarring up nearly into my teeth and I am reminded to correct my stride and lighten up on the landing. I heel strike pretty bad going downhill, but maybe that is because I run hills so rarely, note to self; run more hills.

 So far my longest run in them has been five miles on the treadmill, I told you I have been slacking off. Today I ran an actual trail, with varied terrain and rocks to deal with, other than feeling I was slipping too much in the shoes themselves, as in my foot within the shoe, when going downhill, they held up well enough and I don't have a lot of complaints. The grip on the ground was fine, but the real test will be when the ground is damp and slick. With the clay footing around here, it makes running in the winter outdoors (when it isn't in the negatives and the wind isn't blowing) even less appealing.

 The even bigger test will be the long runs, whenever those happen again.

 

On being alone

   I played sports in high school, not so much because I wanted to but because it seemed to be expected of me. I was tall, the tallest girl in my high school, so therefore my whole purpose in life seemed to be to play a sport that required tall people; volleyball and basketball and even the soccer coach came begging, saying I would make a fantastic goalie because I could take up so much of the goal with my long arms and legs. No, thanks to that one, Having people barreling towards me only to kick a ball at my face did seem not at all appealing in any shape or form. I did give in to the basketball coach and for a short time the volleyball coach and I look back on those years really not very fondly. I just didn't enjoy it, and it wasn't necessarily that I didn't enjoy the sport itself but rather the people I played with, nor did I really enjoy the coaches.

 Everyone had an agenda, the players were hoping for scholarships, or the admiration of their peers, or the approval of their parents, the coaches were re living their high school playing days and hoping for a coaching spot on the next big team or a championship title. No one really seemed to be playing the games for the love of it in the moment.

 There are those that say sports teach dedication and team work, okay I guess, but there are many things a young person can do that can teach that. In this day and age I would say quite possibly the best argument for team sports in high school would be the exercise, and that might quite be enough of an argument altogether.

 Running is something I wished I had found as a teen, beyond the endless laps around the soccer field and the suicide lines we had to run at the end of practice. If not just for the exercise but the alone time it would have granted me. I find people overwhelming, always needing something that I cannot give them. As a female, it becomes very hard to be yourself with people when your genuine self is someone that walks about as open as a book as one can be. Often people that you come across in your day to day life don't want that, they don't want honesty about your rough day, they want uplifting Facebook memes and everything hashtagged blessing. They don't want to know you have an opinion differing from theirs, whether it be on religion, politics or where you want to live. Too many people create their false idols in their hometown, their Boy Scout groups or the way they think you should behave and become easily offended if you don't fall in line with the same way of thinking. Quiet and meek has never been something I could pull off very well and my self deprecating sarcasm seems to make a lot of people uncomfortable.

 Running doesn't require anything from you, just shoes and clothes that don't enhance the chafe and you're off. I don't need a court, or a coach, I can just run. If I race, I am running against myself and not letting down a team if I have a bad run. It's easier to get over a slower time than you expected when the "we are only as strong as our weakest link" isn't in affect.

 You can run without an agenda, run alone without judgement. No relying on a teammate to kick a ball back at you or a horse to be sound and ready to go.

 The louder life gets, whether it be at work or just reading social media for 15 minutes, the more I see a need for being alone, no pressure from outside voices. Just the freedom of feeling ground rise up to meet each step, fast or slow, it's always there, waiting patiently for you.

Trying to get my mojo back

 I am watching big snow flakes come down right now, after a warm sunny day yesterday, a twenty degree drop in just an hour; welcome to Montana! Blah!

 One of my issues with keeping up with running back in Washington was the rain and I know here it will be the wind and snow. I don't know how dedicated I can be to the treadmill, it's just so boring!

  Since September 10th, the half marathon, the farthest I have run is five miles. Mainly out of boredom, I know this. I need some mental training along with physical, something beyond just kicking my butt. I need a mental kick, too! Finding a running partner would be ideal, but the husband nor the kids are interested. I don't have an addictive personality, unless you count coffee, so that's against me in the must not stop running department. I follow lots of trail runners on Instagram for inspiration but they are always posting awesome adventures in beautiful places, which inspires me to someday go and run these places but being that I am on the prairie right now, and at least a three hour drive from any great trails to run safely, that kind of negates the inspiration NOW that I was hoping for. The running groups in town seem to mainly consist of diehard runners that run 6 and 7 minute miles and require me to make a third trip into town anyway, so that's off the table for the time being.

 Until I get inspired again, I need to just run my short three and a half mile runs, just so I am at least doing something, this much I have figured out. Just keep on moving and doing!