A New Week

Regarding Paleo:

Each day this Paleo thing seems to get a little easier! I noticed that I am starting to think about food the same way I did before; that is, you think up what to have for breakfast in the context of what is available, not "Well, I guess I can't have toast. I guess I can't have yogurt and fruit." Instead it's more like "hmm, poached eggs sound good. Oooh and I can put some lox and avocado with that too. Perfect!"

And there you have it - my new favorite breakfast:

New fav breakfast! Poached egss, lox and capers, and some avocado. Nom nom nom!

Proper Fueling for Workouts

The one thing I noticed last week that was NOT so good was that I need to figure out pre- and post-workout fueling. I went out for the Tuesday Fun Run at Heart and Sole Sports last week. This was an easy 5 mile run - moderate pace, a couple of easy hills - definitely a run that could be deemed "Fun Run" as I was able to maintain a conversation throughout most of the run. Then I taught spin on Wed at 5:30pm. On Wed and Thursday nights, I woke up with my legs in extreme pain - the kind of pain that I've only experienced after doing half-Ironmans. WTF?!? It wasn't like I'd done anything crazy and yet, my legs were in so much throbbing pain that it was difficult to get back to sleep.

Upon further thought, I realized this may have had to do with improper fueling before and after workouts. Even without grains, I still need to find some proper carbohydrates to get into my system. 

This Week's Agenda

This week is all about setting up the year's schedule. I want to start planning for events now, so I can have some semblance of a training plan, and not just decide I am going to swim because I feel like it. I kind of got off the running schedule because it's been SO EFFING COLD here (it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit at 6am this morning. NOT cool.) that I haven't been doing my 6am runs. It may just be time to HTFU and do it. Or find a more reasonable hour (and temperature) to train at.

Update

I’m going to start writing again. I don’t really have the amount of time that I used to, but in order to get back into writing, you have to just keep doing it. I miss writing and now that I actually have some goals again, I feel a need to express my thoughts and feelings about the new adventure I’m on. 

When I have some more time, I’m looking to redesign the blog as well. 

But here’s what’s up in 2012:

1. Not sure if I’ll do any tris this year. Maybe one or two sprint-distance (or Olympic if I’m feeling really snappy).

2. I want to do the Marin Century this year. It’s one of my all-time favorite and hardest centuries and it’s just gorgeous. And the County of Marin has recently repaved a TON of the roads on the course, as I’ve recently found out on drives out to Dillon Beach. In order to do this challenging ride, I need to be in *awesome* riding shape (because I want to beat my best time, which is something like just over 6 hrs).

3. I want to ride my bike. A lot. (see above)

4. I want to swim. A lot. This might be a little more difficult, if I’m doing #3 well, but I’d like to swim as much as I can. But what I know is that just as many folks get “runner’s high,” I get “swimmer’s high.” Swimming exhilarates me so much more than running.

5. But now that I’ve figured out what my running problems were thanks to Dave Townsend, MPT at Santa Rosa PT, I can actually run again without pain. It doesn’t mean it’s the most awesome thing ever all of a sudden, but it IS nice to run a couple times a week without feeling like I’d rather be doing anything else. So I might do the Santa Rosa Half Marathon in August. We’ll see how that goes.

6. I went Paleo. I know there’s a lot of controversy around this ‘diet,’ but I’m not really looking to defend myself to anybody. This is a personal choice and at Day 9, I am feeling *really* good. I don’t necessarily intend to be super strict and never, ever eat dairy or grains or sugar again. But as I intend it to be a lifestyle moving forward, I plan on sticking to it as closely as possible. My reasons for choosing this are as follows:

*I’ve put on about 10 lbs over the last 1.5 years and it is largely due to how I’ve been eating. Drinking too much, consuming too much sugar, not enough veggies, too much cheese (yum!), and just generally living the life that a typical Sonoma County resident might. Let’s just say that around here, it is entirely too easy to get too much of a good thing. 

*I want to get back to the basics in my diet. Eat lots of fruits, veggies and meat, without the extra carbs that are so unnecessary. This diet just make s a lot of sense to me. I figured I would try it, and if for some reason it didn’t jive, then I would stop. But so far, it’s been great. So I’ll be using this to chronicle how I feel and the journey I’m on to take it one day at a time.

The first week of it was a little rough, feeling frustrated about everything I couldn’t have. But now that I’m just feeling really good, it’s actually starting to be fun finding alternatives and exploring new recipes with all of the veggies we have. 

That’s it for now. Next goal: write again tomorrow.