Paleo Day 6

I'm still running off my 6 mile runner's high!! It's been quite a while since I've logged that much mileage and I'm loving it and my new shoes!! :) I'm noticing, I don't have that yucky bloated feeling anymore. I think I still have some issues with my workouts, more on that late, but I think I still need to give my body time to adjust and I think I still need to experiment with what I eat right before a run. I did buy some natural applesauce to help with my sweet cravings and I absolutely love it!! This week, I'm going to try to eat a banana and a container of the applesauce right before I run. There are some days that I do my run, immediately followed with an hour of hot yoga, so I might have to figure out something then, we'll see.

Today I took the day off from running, b/c of my "high" mileage yesterday, so I opted to do an hour of hot yoga and wow, that class kicked my a**!!!! I've never had that much difficulty, I may have been slightly dehydrated too, but wow, I didn't think I needed to eat anything before yoga, but I'm definitely second guessing that now! Live and learn, I suppose. I was never so happy to be on the last pose of the class!!

Breakfast: 
-Pork chop
-Container of applesauce

Lunch: 
-Pork Chop
-Spaghetti squash/bacon pieces/mushrooms
-Asparagus

Snacks: 
-Pistachio's
-1 organic banana

Dinner:

-Pork Chop
-Spaghetti squash/bacon pieces/mushrooms
-Asparagus
-container of apple sauce

Workout: 
-1-hour of hot yoga (fire series)

Weeked Recap

I believe I made it through my first weekend of Paleo successfully. Saturday I attempted to make something of a smoothie to start the day, but I definitely need more work in that dept. My sister and I took my dogs to the trail here in Austin and did a 4.77 mile loop. The weather was absolutely amazing. I definitely was drained at the end of the run though. I googled "Paleo eating in Austin" and found a few places to check out, so I went to "Wholly Cow Burgers" in South Austin after the trail. I ordered the Paleo Burger with a side of sweet potato fries and it was pretty good!! I think the next time I get a burger from there, I'll opt for a lettuce bun in place of the portobello mushroom bun. The mushrooms were just a bit too messy for my liking.

Saturday: 
Breakfast: 
-Smoothie (water, 1 raw egg, strawberries, almond butter)
-Lunch at Wholly Cow (Paleo Burger, sweet potato fries
-Dinner: Steak Salad at Black Finn

Workout
-Walked the dogs at Town lake running trail: 4.77 miles

Sunday: 
Lunch
-Beef Roast slices
-Grape tomatoes
-Sliced seedless cucumber

Dinner
-Pork Chops
-Spaghetti Squash, nitrate free bacon, mushrooms
-Asparagus

Workout: 
-Ran 6.25 miles at the gym(!)
I did buy new running shoes too. After the surgery on my hip, my running stride isn't quite the same, so I went to get a new assessment and ended up with Saucony's!! I'm in LOVE with them!!!

Paleo Day 3

I can not say enough how much I love Google and the fact that I live in Austin, TX, which is always on one of the "fittest cities" list!!! I've googled Paleo eating in Austin and wow!! The options of places to dine out or grocery shop are amazing!! I'm going on day 3 today and have no headache, I don't have any tired feelings, my leg muscles are a bit sore from my running, but that's expected. I was running super late this morning so didn't have much time to pack my lunch, but thanks to google, I was able to find a blog that has so many different dine out paleo options, Paleo Eating in Austin. I made the choice of Fire bowl Cafe today and WOW, it was SO DELICIOUS. I'm a HUGE rice person, I could eat cups and cups of rice on it's own and be quite content, but I omitted the rice today, in favor of salad greens with my order, I didn't even miss the rice or the fortune cookie at the end! :)

Breakfast: 
Handful of grape tomatoes

Lunch: 
Firebowl Cafe
-Beef
-Veggie Spring Mix
-Red curry sauce
-Salad Greens

Dinner: 
-left over beef roast
-seedless cucumber
-grape tomatoes

Snacks: 
1 Organic banana


Recap: 
There is no running on my workout list today, just the hot yoga class, so I'm limiting the amount of fruit today to a banana and probably some with dinner. But I don't have any headache, I'm not lethargic, I actually feel GREAT!!

Paleo Day 2 Recap

So day 2 was a LOT better. I woke up with the headache gone, I actually felt less bloated and kinda felt GREAT!!!  Here's what I consumed yesterday:  I did make some changes after reading on fueling running on Paleo....

Breakfast: 
- 1 seedless cucumber peeled
- handful of grape tomatoes

Lunch: 
- Beef roast slices (DELISH)
- leftover roasted asparagus
-Cubed cantaloupe
-sliced strawberries
-sliced almonds

Pre Run Snack: 
Organic banana with some almond butter

Workout:
Ran 4.5 miles

Dinner (post run)
- cold roast slices
- leftover squash/zucchini/bacon dish

Recap: 
So my run felt a lot better today, I did notice a bit of lethargy closer to the end, but nothing as bad as Wednesday and I think a lot of it is still adjusting to the mileage comeback from my injury. But I FEEL AMAZING!! I'm not sure if it's all in my head, but wow!! I have no bloating, my hip does not ache as bad as it used to. I'm super excited to see how much better this all becomes.

Running on Paleo (Day 1 Recap)

So, I've decided to go Paleo!! I know I have some kind of lactose intolerance, but I also know there is something else, I'm just not sure what. In college, I used to have an issue ANYTIME I ate, I immediately got "sick" within 10 mins of finishing my meal and had to race to the nearest restroom. I've also always had that bloated feeling after consuming pasta and had to REALLY plan my meals to accommodate my pasta fueling before my half marathons. Just ask my sister, how inconvenient this issue was lol.

It may have very well been the 100th time I've received the email from Runner's World promoting the "Paleo for the Athlete" book that did it, but I'm googling this way of eating like crazy and it's really hitting home. So I figured it can't hurt to try it. I did do Atkins back when it was all the hype and managed to lose quite a bit of weight and I've always been more of a wheat/brown option to the regular white options when it came to bread, pasta, rice, etc, so it can't be that bad. I do love veggies and my protein! The only gripe I really had while doing Atkins was I still wanted fruit and hello, I can have unlimited (within reason) quantities of fruit on paleo and I already know I'm lactose intolerant, so giving up dairy is not really going to be an issue. Paleo it is!!! I sure did pick a great day to start though, today is bagel day at work and we all know I love me some unhealthy carbs, but I will do this!! I only went to hot yoga last night so I could get to the grocery store and cook today's meals. So here is my menu for the day.

Breakfast:
Yellow squash, zucchini fried in nitrate free bacon grease
Bacon crumbles fried on their own

Lunch: 
Beef roast, (pre "browned" with Olive oil and white onions)
Asparagus (broiled in over with Olive oil, sea salt and pepper)
Limited sweet potatoes (I've never been a sweet potato fan, but went ahead and baked them in with the beef roast) Just as I predicted, I didn't consume much of the sweet potatoes.....

Snacks: 
Pistachios

Dinner: 
Cubed Cantaloupe
Strawberries
Sliced Almonds

Workout: 
1 hr of hot yoga at 6am (fire series)
Ran 4 miles at the gym. (after work)


RECAP: 
I did notice that I was a bit lethargic during my run. I just wanted to get it done and it was like using everything I had to not quit. When I was leaving the gym, I was slightly nauseous.  I also usually walk my dogs for 2.5 miles when I get home and I was NOT up for that AT ALL!! Towards the end of the evening, even after I had the fruit, I noticed a slight headache. I did go to sleep super early

Lot's to catch up on!!!

So I've decided to go Paleo!! I've been getting countless emails (thanks Runners World) on Paleo for the Athlete, so I decided to google running and the paleo diet. I've read more "success" stories than failures to entice me to at least do the 30 day Paleo challenge. Let's face it, all these stories of dropping race times, didn't hurt either. So as of yesterday, I'm officially a Paleo-lite(?) but more on that later. A LOT has transpired since my last post and the end of the year. I was training to run my very first full marathon and right before Christmas I did the longest run I've ever done to date, a 20 miler nicely named "The Run from Hell". I completed the run, but I had a LOT of difficulty getting it done. My hip was screaming at me and the pain in my groin was unbearable. I even managed to find some aspirin on course, but still it wasn't great. After the run, I went about my normal schedule and even decided to catch a Spurs game, after the game, I just couldn't walk all that great, I was noticeably limping and a few hours after the spurs game, I found myself int he ER. After several imaging studies done, an Orthopedic Dr strolled in and announced I had a fracture over an "old" stress fracture on my femoral head. I didn't even know I had an old stress fracture there to begin with. He declared he'd have to perform emergency surgery on it and "pin" the hip bone to avoid the possibility of me needed a hip replacement. I was immediately admitted to the hospital and scheduled for surgery. Who knew your hip could cause such a ruckus!! Anyway, I ended up having surgery on getting my hip pinned on Christmas eve. I was instructed that I would be on crutches for 10 weeks and no running for 12.....

Fast forward to the beginning of March, I made it through recovery!! I'm cleared to do any and all sports I want, including running and have started back up again. It's been a humbling journey even now 3-4 weeks later!! I did manage to go to hot yoga as my body allowed once I got off crutches and wow, I lost so much strength in my left leg!!! I was told that he had to cut through my IT band muscle to pin the hip and that's the culprit behind my extreme muscle pain, but I'm trekking through it. I'm being bold and have signed up for a 10 miler on April 14th and a half marathon on May 4th.....I know, back to my crazy running self!!! :)

Officially a Rogue

Hey there, long time no post!! I've been extremely busy lately!! I've officially joined a running/training program here in Austin!!! I've signed myself up for the Austin Distance Challenge, which is a "challenge" of 8 runs that take place here in Austin and end with the Austin half/full marathon in Feb. 2013. They offer a half track which ends with the half marathon option in Feb or the full track which concludes with the full Austin marathon. I'm a half marathon whore, but have never ran a full marathon. Because of this and myself being prone to injuries, I felt like I needed "professional" help if I was going to successfully tackle my first full marathon. I LOVE the Rogue training plan!!! I have an online running plan I have to follow every week and on Wednesday nights, I meet my "team" and coach downtown for a group run and every Saturday morning we meet again downtown for out "long" runs.

After being in the program for a couple of weeks, I had my first run of the Austin Distance Challenge, the IBM Uptown 10k and I ran it pretty well. I finished with a 8:30/mile pace and that was even after running 7 miles on Saturday (the day before) and staying up WAY past my bedtime the night before the race. A good friend of mine came into town so we had to paint the town red. :)

This past Saturday, I ran my first "long" run, which was a 12 miler, I'm still trying to catch up with the rest of my team, given I joined almost a month later than everyone. I'm super excited for what is to come and see how my running progresses with the aide of a running coach. :)