Pushing through mental blocks

Hi everyone! I need your help. I have a 5k planned for this Sunday. This one specifically if you're interested in stalking me.

Anyway, I am struggling with mental blocks. I can't seem to run a full 3.1 miles. I always have to give myself time for "walking breaks." I don't understand myself. I can run relatively quickly for a quarter mile but then have to start walking. I'd love to run an entire race at a 12 min pace but my body does not seem to agree. It wants to run an 8 min pace for 30 seconds, walk for 1 minute, run again, walk, rinse, repeat. It's totally a mental thing. I struggle to push through and just run!

I burn a decent amount of calories while running. I assume this has to do with my weight. I'm about 5'6 and 30 pounds over my "ideal" weight. It sucks. I work out 5-6 times a week, eat decently (but no where near perfect) and I sleep 8 hours a night. I know all of you new mothers want to slap me. I don't understand why I'm not losing weight. Running definitely hasn't helped me in that department. This is why I decided to try out Body for Life. I'm hoping the extra protein and HIIT workouts will help.

I'm just wondering if burning 500-800 calories during a fairly short run (3-5 miles) is normal at all. I'm beginning to wonder if my heart rate monitor is crazy. How many calories would I burn if I just ran the entire time without any walking breaks?

So I'm going to try to run today without stopping to walk. I have to go on the treadmill since it's rainy and wet out. Wish me luck!

And please give me some advice if you have struggled with this before!

The Great Race of Agoura Hills- Deena Kastor 5k

Yesterday Andy and I ran our very first 5k! We decided to run the Deena Kastor 5k at The Great Race of Agoura Hills. The great race is compromised of 2 different half-marathons, a 10k, 5k, kids run and a fun run. (The kid's and the fun run are a mile each.) It was a beautiful day outside for a run. My only complaint would be the wind. It was pretty intense but typical for the area of California we live in.



Andy, my sister Sarah (our photographer) and I arrived early at the 5k start point.



We were both feeling a little nervous but excited.


And how cute is it that our numbers are in sequence?

I'm so thankful that Sarah was willing to get up early to cheer us on. Sarah will be running a 5k with us in April.


Tons of kids ran the 5k too! (Most of them beat us!)

The wind knocked the big blue arch down. Fail.
At 8:50am, we took our spots in the middle of the group. About 1200 people ran in this particular race. It was CRAZY! Pretty soon it was over and I met up with Andy, my sister and my dad. Andy finished in 33:01 and I was 37:23. We were both pretty excited. I was expecting Andy to do 35 mins and for myself to do 42 mins. (I'm insanely slow!) During the run a woman ran beside me and said, "Let's do this together! We can finish this last mile strong!" We paced each other and did the walk/run thing. I walked a lot more than I would have liked but it was totally worth it.



My dad finished his half-marathon in 1:58:27! And he looked fantastic afterwards. I am so jealous of him but excited to finally be running races! I've got to be honest I was hoping that the walk/run thing would save me any knee/heel pain but I'm hurting a ton. I was limping last night! I am planning to take a few days off running, seeing a doctor and then getting right back to training for my next 5k. I plan on finishing in under 35 minutes next time! I've got to thank Mari for all of her support during my 5k training. It's great to have someone to talk to about everything! I'm excited to start training myself on speedwork. I'm thrilled about a 12 min mile and not ashamed at all. I know I'm slow but I'm also 30 lbs heavier than I'd like to me, a new runner and relatively weak (I need some muscles, yo!) I can't wait to see myself improve and change over time. I'll let Andy take it from here and share his story. I'm so proud of him! (We ran together for 10 minutes until I decided to let him go his own pace.)


Andy:HI! The 5K was sort of amazing. Amanda didn't mention that running the 5K with us was a Polish Olympic athlete. I tried to stay up with him, but he pulled away at the end. He finished under 15 minutes...so maybe he pulled away from me at the start.

I was stoked with my time since really I have only been running for about 6 months. We are playing to run again in the end of April so I'm hoping for a sub 10 minute mile pace. I was at 10:39 on this, and I think I can do better.

However, things might change. I have some severe neck pain(not due to running, an old injury that I never got checked out which is coming to haunt me). I have an MRI on Monday. Doctor said surgery is a possibility so we shall see.

The expo at the end was pretty sweet. The good people at Dole (who sponsors the event) had banana, raisins, pineapple juice, and mandarins. Whole foods was there making crepes and pancakes. A local bagel place was giving away bagels. It was the 25th anniversary of the event, so everyone got a really sweet medal. Totally a fun day! I never thought I would like running, but I totally love it!

Next time Amanda and I will have to hold hands as we finish. Really piss everyone off. AMAZING.

Amanda again: Thanks everyone for your constant support! It means so much to us. I can't wait till the next 5k!

It's almost here!

Andy and I are running our first 5k together tomorrow! More than that later.



On Tuesday, I worked at a preschool. I worked for 2 classes. The first from 8-11 and the next from 12-3. I was pretty excited about having an hour break so I went to Camille's for a wrap.



I got my favorite. Chicken caesar with avocados and light on the dressing. It's delicious.



Dinner has been a lot of leftovers and takeout but we did make some carne asada Wednesday night since one of my classes was cancelled. Carne asada, chipotle sweet potato fries and guac.



I always try to make sure my protein is smaller than the size of my hand.



Breakfast yesterday was fabulous. Vanilla greek yogurt, strawberries and my favorite cereal of all time. Nature's Path Crunchy Maple Sunrise. The maple flavor goes so well with vanilla!



Yesterday, my little sister Emily accompanied me to pick up my race packet and bib for the 5k. We picked up Andy's and my dad's as well. (My dad is running the half marathon.)





They had a little expo inside and were selling so much stuff! I wish I had time to look through it all.



I did snag a piece of Great Harvest's guiness & gouda bread though. I had no idea there was a Great Harvest near us!



After picking up the race packets and free stuff (!!) Emily and I went to lunch.



Emily ordered a green salad with balsamic dressing.



I ordered a bowl of corn chowder. It was really creamy and really delicious.



And half a grilled cheese with fries. The grilled cheese was overly cheese and I took more than half the cheese off. Gross. The fries were very "meh." So I ate a few and called it good.



Em's cheese pizza looked way better.



As for free stuff, we got hats & bags.



Sunscreen, protein powder, dried plums (prunes) and a mini clif bar.



A water bottle



And a huge orange shirt.

Now I'm feeling pretty excited! I don't think my time will be record breaking or anything but I am excited to finish!

2 questions for you:

1. Is it easy to switch to wordpress? I've had it with blogger!
2. Should I switch to wordpress and get my own domain? I've been debating it for awhile.

Foot pain

March has been an interesting month...to say the least. I feel incredibly lucky that nothing has gone terribly wrong, all things considered.

Right now I'm attempting to ice both my right knee and my right foot at the same time. It's harder than you might think.



Nature's Path Pumpkin Granola is the best thing ever. Buy it in bulk at Costco now. You will not be disappointed.



Same with Naked Juice's Green Machine. I started buying this in bulk too since I am way too lazy to make a green smoothie.



This flavor of Yoplait was okay...if you like high fructose corn syrup. I won't buy it again. My local grocery store doesn't sell greek yogurt. I have to travel to get it! :(



And Cuties! I buy these in bulk too. They are great!



What I am really excited about...my new Brooks Ariels!

I got mine in Gray at a local running store.

It was such a great experience that I wanted to share my story with you. Recently, I started training for my first 5k (as most of you know.) Training is going okay but I struggle with pain in my right knee. Slowly but surely the pain in my right knee needed a friend and my heel started hurting as well. I chalked it up to plantar fasciitis and continued to run with my $40 crappy running shoes. Eventually after talking to Mari about it, I decided to go find some new shoes.

The lady at the running store had me walk barefoot in the store while she watched me. I didn't mention my heel or knee pain and she looked at me and told me to sit down.

"You favor your left side. Do you have any trouble with your right leg, knee or foot?" She asked.

Then she had me try on about 3 different pairs of shoes before having me run with them on. She watched me run and suggested the Brooks shoe because they can help with my motion control issues.



I also got the shoes in a giant size. 9.5!!! I usually wear 8.5. She explained that the biggest size would be better and showed me how much toe room I should have. It was nice to be able to talk to someone who knew a ton about shoes, running and foot pain.

And yes, I still pain on seeing a doctor if the shoes don't help. Andy and I ran outside today and I felt great until the last 1/2 mile. Now my right foot hurts along the arch. Lovely.

Andy and I will be running the 5k on March 27th. My dad is running the half marathon beforehand and it will be nice to cheer him on while accomplishing one of my 2010 goals. I am worried that my 5k time will be really slow (I'm thinking 42 minutes. Not even kidding.) So promise not to laugh when I post my results.

Runners: Do you remember your first 5k? What was your time? Did you have to train for it or not?

What kind of shoes do you run/walk/workout in?

San Diegooooooooo Super Chargers!!!!!

Ok that title is totally for my husband. I'm hoping Andy will read it and laugh. We are going to drive down to San Diego tonight to see Andy's parents. I'm excited. It's really nice to get away for a weekend and having family in a beautiful city like San Diego is awesome.

The only kicker is, I have a nasty cold! I have: a headache, a stuffed up nose, a sore throat, a dry cough and painnnnnnnnnnnnn everywhere. I loaded myself up with mucinex, dayquil and vitamin C but it's not really working. Luckily, I didn't get called into work today. I slept in till 8:30am. Felt good!

Despite my cold, I decided I needed to complete Couch to 5k Week 5. I did Day 3 today which had 20 minutes of running nonstop! I did it outside on a slightly hilly area while blasting some awesome music. It felt pretty fantastic for the first ten minutes, then I started struggling with my breathing. I slowed down and ran at a snail's pace for the rest of the time. Then I came home and laid on the floor until my body felt human.

Normally, I would feel dejected for having to slow down. The thing is, a year ago I would not have been able to run for more than two minutes. Now I can run a mile or two without stopping! I need to be proud of myself and not worry about how small my improvements are. Improvement is improvement no matter how you slice it!

I'm starting Week 6 on Sunday and I'm going to dominate it! Hopefully my cold will go away so I can really push through it.

Also? Knee pain- 50% better! I'm thrilled!

I'll be back on Sunday with updates from our mini-vacay to San Diego.

"I'm in love with this song"

Yes, I admit it. I have Ke$ha in my head. Help me!

I'm on Week Five of Couch to 5k and I'm starting to not love it. It's getting harder!

I did Day 1 of Week 5 twice because my body was not down. Andy and I went to a local park and ran around there. Like I've mentioned before, I usually run on the treadmill because it's indoors and I had no idea where to put my car keys while running outside. Stupid logic, really. I just like running with my hands free and didn't want to worry about holding onto my dang keys!

Then Andrea (One of my favorite bloggers!) gave it to me straight. I live in beautiful Southern California. It's a nice 70-80 degrees outside. What am I doing on the treadmill? And she linked me to Road Id where I purchased 2 shoe wallets for me and Andy.

Shoe wallet. It was only 4.99!

Day 2 was on the treadmill because I felt pretty congested and wasn't sure if I could finish. Luckily, I had no problems. Besides boredom on the treadmill and a slow body. My knees, heels and shins are bothering me less than when I started Week 1. Progress is progress, right?

Week 5 is different than the first four weeks. It has 3 different days of running.

Day 1- has 3 sets of 5 minute runs.
Day 2- has 2 sets of 8 minute runs.
Day 3- has 1 set of a 20 minute run.

This is not including warm-ups, walks or cooldowns. For more info check out Couch to 5k. I'm looking forward to completing day 3 tomorrow, then starting week 6 on Sunday. We'll be in San Diego visiting Andy's parents and attending a San Diego State University Basketball game. I've never been to a college basketball game so I'm pretty excited!



The other day I got bored and wandered around Whole Foods. I picked up a can of pureed sweet potatoes for no reason and stuck it in my cart. Then visions of sweet potato soup danced in my head.

Ingredients- 1 can pureed sweet potato, cut sweet potatoes (mine were in syrup so I rinsed them), 1 can broth, 1 can cuban style black beans, 1 sweet red bell pepper, and some almond milk or half & half. Chili powder and cumin were also involved.



Then combine all ingredients in a big pot, being sure to mash down the chunks of sweet potato.



Then top with smoky bacon and serve. This soup was spicy from the cuban black beans, chili powder and cumin. I loved it! I wish the photos came out a little better but oh well.



Any songs stuck in your head today?

Any one else doing Couch to 5k? I know Mari is. Anyone else? How is it going for you?

stress city.

When I had a full-time job, I always used to say "stress level 50" (or whatever number popped into my head) to express just how stressed I was feeling.

Yesterday was stress level 2000.

I had tons of homework, two 3 hour classes in the evening, no time for a good workout and some bad news! It was horrible.

Signing up for six classes this semester certainly didn't help matters. Six classes means TONS of homework and lesson planning! Part of me just wanted to throw in the towel yesterday.



Saturday was a heavy eating day for me, so on Sunday we headed straight to Souplantation (Sweet Tomatoes everywhere but CA)



I loaded my salad with cheese, butternut squash, carrots, zucchini, chickpeas, pasta noodles, spinach, romaine, baby tomatoes, corn, broccoli and a few croutons. It was so intense and I totally inhaled it.

We went to Souplantation right after running a little over 2 miles. I did Week 4 of the Couch to 5k plan. Let me tell you slowly increasing how long I run and decreasing how long I "recover" by walking briskly is really working for me.



It's Potato month at Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes and they finally had SWEET POTATOES along side the regular potatoes. I grabbed one and ate it with butter. MMM. They actually had some pineapple whip stuff you could put on it but I don't need more sweet.

Dinner Sunday night was leftover burgers which you've seen already, so I spared you. You're welcome! :)



Breakfast on Monday was an egg sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin. It was about 400 calories and kept me full through 5 hours of lesson planning and paper writing. I loaded that thing with one scrambled egg, turkey bacon and a slice of muenster cheese. At first I worried about the calories but like I said, that thing lasted 5 hours! I drank a glass of V8 on the side. (80 cals)



Lunch was eaten on the couch while I finished typing up a paper. I had a chicken sandwich on a wheat bun, carrots, broccoli, hummus and a banana. This meal was closer to 500 calories but held me over through my first class (from 4-6:30)

I ate a caesar salad while walking from class 1 to class 2. Classy.



This morning my coffee freaked me out. Why did the milk do this? SICK.



I am officially grossed out.

Now I'm off to finish a lesson plan that's due tomorrow and run day 2 of couch to 5k. I'll be texting you after Mari (She's my Couch to 5k buddy)

Questions for you:

1. How do you handle stress?
2. Are you good at multi-tasking?

I don't handle stress well. I usually end up crying until I feel better or yelling.

I'm great at multi-tasking! :)

I caught Andy's cold!

Thanks for your support and sweet comments on my Almost Famous Chef entry. You guys are the best!

Yesterday, I subbed a kindergarten/first grade class and then had 6 hours of class. So I just didn't have the time for a normal blog. I have 150 blog posts to read on my google reader! (CRAZY!) I hate Mondays and Wednesdays when I work and have 2 long classes. If it was up to me, I'd get sub jobs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only. Working on days with short classes isn't a problem. At this point, I'll take what jobs I can get though.

I started to feel really sick yesterday so I'm pretty sure I caught Andy's cold. My eyes are watery, my nose is stuffed up, I feel light-headed and my head hurts so bad. Blah. I'm going to have to leave the apartment soon to get some cold meds in me. (Andy is still not 100% either.)



Breakfast tuesday morning was half a grapefruit with a teeny bit of sugar. Honestly, I like grapefruit without sugar, it's just a bad habit of mine!



I should probably have grapefruit this morning too. Vitamin C to the rescue!



And I had a pom chobani. This was my 2nd time having it and I really enjoyed it this time. At first I didn't like the texture of the arils on the bottom but this time? Loved it!



While enjoying breakfast, I iced my knee with my new friend.



Peas cold therapy! My dad is a marathon runner and has always used a bag of actual frozen peas to ice after long runs so I thought imitation peas would be good for me!



Later, I had the urge to make cookies. So I brought out the silpat from Andy's mom and tried it out.



Oatmeal chocolate chip goodness! My cookies never turn out actually looking like cookies, I am so impressed! Thanks again Josie!



After the cookies, I decided to make dinner because I am backwards like that. I made dinner at 5 and left for class at 6. So I didn't have much time. I roasted corn.



With 1 tbsp dijonnaise, 1/2 tbsp light olive oil mayo, chili powder, cumin, garlic salt and a dab of butter. Yes, a dab.



Slathered it on the corn, wrapped the corn in foil and baked in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.



Ignore my messy kitchen. I put some asiago cheese on the corn afterwards. It was so delicious and spicy! We had some chicken sausage and peppers n onions with it.



But the corn was the star of the show. I can't wait until corn is actually in season so I can recreate this again.

Right now, I'm icing my knee and preparing to run my last day of Week 3 for Couch to 5k. My knees are definitely not enjoying the runs but the rest of me does. I am hoping to do 3 miles in 30 minutes by the end of March. But if my knee continues to feel this way, it will probably be more like 35-40 minutes. And that is okay. Slow and steady finishes the race!