Another for the books!!

Saturday morning I got up and ran my longest training run to date. I ran 20k, most of which was into a headwind too.  It was a terrible and fantastic run all at the same time.  I was happily tired when I returned home.   I've been having some IT Band issues and was pretty sore but the stretching worked wonders and within an hour of getting home I was showered, fed and ready for an afternoon at Frogfest with the kids.  Frogfest is a celebration of Frog season at a local nature park.

As the day went on I could feel a cold coming on.  It seemed like my body knew that the hardest run was done and it let the virus in.  Sunday morning I went shopping and bought all the ingredients for a soup from my Oh She Glows cookbook called "on the mend red lentil-kale soup".  It is spicy and tasty and filling.  I made a pot of that and also bought stuff to make honey, lemon, ginger tea.  I ate the soup for a couple of days and drank the tea like crazy.  I am happy to report that I made it through that cold quickly and with no medications.  My mom was never shy about taking or giving us medications when we were sick but now I prefer to keep things to a minimum.  I take the things I have to but cold pills only seem to prolong the inevitable.  This time I managed to kick the cold in less than a week.  

This morning was my first run since Saturday.  I skipped my workouts for the first half of the week so that I could get a little extra rest.  I was nervous going out but quickly felt great.  It was the perfect run.  The weather was perfect, I watched the sun come up and the world wake up.  I felt great from step one to step 8905 (or at least that's how many steps my pretty pink fitbit says). 

Before today I was a little nervous for race day but after today's run I feel like I will be just fine!!  Three weeks to go!!

April Update

April has come and gone!  The year is now a third over already.  It's been a good month.

Running has been going quite well.  In April I ran 99km!!!  I wish I had added things up sooner and added a kilometer to my run on Tuesday but not much I can do about it now.  Don't get me wrong I am very happy with that distance, it's just so close to 100 that I would have loved to make it a round number.  I love my new shoes but suddenly I am having some IT band issues and am worried it's in part the shoes.  I have seen the chiropractor and have the bruises to prove it.  I'm supposed to run 20k this weekend so we'll see how it goes.  If I have to I'll switch back to my old shoes but from what I have read it's likely not the new shoes but more the increase of distance and the increased effort.  I have gotten a little faster of the last while too so it's probably just all of those things added together.  I'll ice and stretch and hope for some good old fashioned luck.

Weight loss has hit a bit of a plateau.  I have not lost as much this month as I would have liked but I also know that I have had some days where I can't stop eating.  I think my body is just getting used to my new morning workout routine and having a hard time adjusting to the earlier calorie burning.  I will pay a bit more attention to the things going into my mouth this month.  I would love to get 20lbs off by the end of summer which would get me under 200lbs for the first time in years!  I am going to work hard for this.

I have managed to get up most mornings at 5am and get my run or workout done before work. The couple of times that I didn't were the week I had some strange tummy troubles happening and the couple of times when I just didn't sleep well and that extra hour seemed so much better than the feeling of the workout.  I haven't missed a run all month though.

May is off to a good start.  It's only one month until my half marathon so it will be taper month.  I can not miss any runs this month.  June 1st is the day and then I can take a day or two off before planning what's next.  I have some ideas but I think I'll get through this one before I make any real commitments.