Wednesday

Training Log
Rest (as rx'd)

Food Log
Breakfast: 1 chocolate iced donut, banana, coffee
Lunch: Campbell's Health Select tequila lime chicken & rice soup, 1/2 cheese quesadilla
Snack: small chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzard
Dinner: grilled chicken "zalad" from Zaxby's with ranch, unsweet iced tea
Dessert: 2 "mint-swirled" chocolate chip Tollhouse cookies

Today at noon, my Thanksgiving break officially began. I'm off this afternoon, tomorrow and Friday. While I am really sad that we are away from both of our families this year, I am excited that we will get to share Thanksgiving dinner and spend the afternoon with our friends.

Chad is smoking a turkey and two "boston butts" for the meal. Next to Jesus, me, his family and Emma, the man loves barbecue. I will be making my Paula Deen inspired twice-baked potato casserole, and a peanut butter pie.

I'll hopefully have a post up tomorrow or Friday with pictures from our Thanksgiving celebration!
post tomorrow evening with pictures

Nike+ Product Reviews

This fall, I purchased two Nike+ running products. In my fall training, I have been able to go farther and faster than I once thought possible during my weekly base training runs. I think it is largely in part to these two products below.

I'm not being paid or compensated in any way, I just wanted to put out this review of the great running products I've been using this fall!

Nike Lunarglide+

I first read about the Lunarglides in the Runner's World fall 2009 shoe guide. Runner's World seemed to be pretty keen on them, and I saw ads with Kara Goucher and Serena Williams sporting them. I've actually never been a big fan of Nike running shoes in the past, but I knew that I wanted to get a Nike+ SportBand, and to make it work you pretty much have to have Nike+ shoes. So, the starts aligned and all signs seemed to point to the Lunarglides for me. I went to my local running store in late August, but they didn't have the Lunarglides. I also wanted to check out the Lunaracers, but they only had the men's version. I was pretty disappointed with their selection, so I went back across town to Dick's Sporting Goods. They had the Lunarglides in stock and in my size, so after trying them on and walking around a little bit, I decided they were the shoes for me and headed to the cash register.

The first thing I noticed about the Lunarglides is how light they are. I've been wearing Mizuno Wave Creations for the past few years and they weigh about 13oz. The Wave Creations are great stability shoes and they've gotten me through several miles, but it was just time to upgrade to a lighter shoe. Every thing about the shoe seems minimilistic, but they still provide a ton of support and cushioning. One thing I always take into account when buying shoes is how they will work with my high arches. The Lunarglides work just fine - providing plenty of support for my arches.

I've really only experienced two negative things with the shoes. One, I have gotten blisters on the inside of my foot, just down from my big toe. But, I only get these blisters (or aggrivate the existing blisters) when I am wearing my really thin Under Armour socks. As long as I wear a thicker sock, blisters aren't an issue.

The other downside is that the standard laces they come with do not stay tied. I could easily upgrade the laces, but for now I've just been double knotting the laces to ensure that they don't come untied during a run. I hate stopping to tie my shoe during the middle of a run! But, the double knotting has worked so far.

Overall, I give the Lunarglides a 4.5 out of 5 stars!
(I am just making this rating system up - taking mainly comfort and durability into account.)

Nike+ SportBand

My interest was piqued in the SportBand when I found out that it is only $60. I bought my SportBand from Dick's Sporting Goods, as well. The SportBand is fairly basic, in that it only caclulates four things: distance, pace, time, and calories. When not being used to track run stats, it functions as a digital watch.

There are several "pros" to the SportBand:

• Much cheaper than a Garmin or Suunto watch
  
• Slim, lightweight and comfortable design
  
• Has helped me with my training immensely
  
• Allows me to go "off-route" - I don't have to plan out specific routes before a run, and I can make spur of the moment variations on my standard routes while tracking my mileage as I go
• If I choose to deviate from one of my standard routes, I can go for mileage now, not just time
• Tracks mileage more accurately than a car or www.mapmyrun.com
• Holds a pretty good battery charge - I usually can go 5 days or so before I have to charge it
• The SportBand has really helped me with my training, having my "stats" so easily accessible pushes me farther and faster in my training
  

But there are also some "cons":

• No back lighting, so if you run in the dark, you have to be under a street light to check stats
• The NikePlus software and the Nike+ website are fairly unreliable and clunky
  
• The SportBand can only can be used with Nike+ shoes (unless you alter other shoes)
• Can only be used for running
  

I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons, as it is a $60 watch. For $60, I feel like it is pretty sophisticated. I could complain about it not being able to track swimming or biking, but let's be realisitic...it is a $60 watch. There are reasons that the Garmins and Suuntos are in the $300 to $400 range. I don't need all of that stuff, so the SportBand is a great item for me. It provides a lot more info than a plain digital watch can, and for not that much more money.

Overall, I give the SportBand 4 out of 5 stars!

R&R

Training Log
Rest day, as rx'd

Food Log
Breakfast: oatmeal with peanut butter, raisins, dry roasted peanuts
Lunch: Pizza Hut buffet...4 pieces of pizza, 4 cinnamon sticks, salad w/ tomatoes and mushrooms, unsweet iced tea (apparently resting makes you hungry)
Dinner: grilled steak, cous cous, salad, 1 piece Texas toast, 2% chocolate milk
Dessert: 1 serving cappuccino chip frozen yogurt

I got my hair cut last night, and I learned all about the benefits of conditioner. My hair is super thin and straight as a board, and every time I've used conditioner in the past it just makes my hair that much more limp. However, my eyes have now been opened to the benefits of conditioner. Apparently, when you use shampoo, your hair follicles open up so that the shampoo can clean out all of the accumulated gunk. If you don't use conditioner, those follicles stay open and get damaged and accumulate even more gunk. But, if you use conditioner, the follicles close and are prepared for any impending straightening or onslaught of products.

The girl who cut my hair said that I was pretty much killing my hair by only using shampoo, and then straightening it everyday. My hair has enough trouble on its own - I certainly don't want to add to its demise. So, the first item on my grocery list is now conditioner. I''ll use Chad's shampoo/conditioner combo until I can get my own!

Mystery Diagnosis: Solved

Training Log
Scheduled rest day

Food Log
Breakfast: oatmeal with peanut butter & banana
Snack: banana
Lunch: turkey and cheddar Lunchables, 20oz Diet Coke
Dinner: grilled chicken "zalad" from Zaxbys, milk

This morning, my chest pain was still with me. I thought it would go away over the weekend with Pepcid AC and a non-inflammatory diet, but alas, it actually only got worse over the weekend. When I woke up yesterday, the pain was the worse it had been in the 5 days. So I decided to go to the doctor to get a diagnosis. Even if it was just heartburn, I wanted to have the peace of mind that any other more serious afflictions had been ruled out.

So, I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with chest wall inflammation, or chest wall pain. He said that it could be caused by a sudden increase in activity, or a blow to the chest. While I haven't received any hard blows to the chest lately, I have ramped up my running mileage and swimming time in the past few weeks. The doctor said that could be enough to do it. And, over the weekend I followed my running schedule like normal, getting a 5k PR on Saturday and running a little under 8 miles on Sunday. Under the guise that I was suffering from heart burn, I didn't want to alter my daily schedule. But, since it was actually chest wall pain - sticking to my running schedule was the one thing from day to day that was actually making it worse.

So, I'm really glad to know it is nothing serious like a blood clot or anything. I left with a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and to rest from running and swimming for a few days. The rest part kind of sucks, because I was really getting into a good groove with my running and my mileage. My plan is to take this week off, and then get in 2 miles on Friday or Saturday and then go from there, slowly building the mileage back up.

And yes, I did have a Lunachables for lunch today.

Sunday

Training Log
Distance: 7.6 miles
Time: 1 hour, 8 minutes
Average pace: 8:56 per mile

Food Log
Pre-run: whole wheat toast with peanut butter, Gatorade/water mix
Breakfast/Brunch: McDonalds hot cakes (3), sausage patty, hash browns (2), 8oz. 2% milk
Snack: tall nonfat latte
Dinner: spaghetti with whole wheat toast

This morning we got together with several of our friends for breakfast at McDonald's. Our friends Adam and Dru, and son Israel, were in town this weekend for a wedding shower, and we were lucky to get to see them and spend time with them last night and this morning. Adam and Dru are one of the first couples we became friends with when we moved to Kentucky 3 years ago. They moved to Missouri this summer, so it was great to get to see them again this weekend.

I'd like to give a shout out to Rob for organizing the breakfast - it was a really great idea!

Here are some pictures from the morning-

(from l-r) Adam, Amberly, Morgan, Athan, Ryan and Jake

Rob, Adam, Kat

(from l-r) Rob's head, me, Dru with Israel, Athan, Ryan, Jake

Dru and Kat, with baby Harper
(such Scandinavian features in this picture!)

Morgan and Harper

The gals: Dru, Me, Amberly, Morgan, Kat & Harper

The guys: Rob, Athan, Ryan, Jake, Adam, Israel, Chad

Turkey Strut 5k pictures

Here are some pictures from the Turkey Strut 5K -

I am making a ghastly face here, but I was trying to tell Chad and Sarah
that the guy in the blue Titleist hat (#6038) is the Mayor!
I must really enunciate my "m"s!

This was about the 4k mark...almost done!
And, I really need to do something about my heel strikes.

Coming down the finisher's chute, glad to have PR'd, yet trying not to puke.

My #1 fan Chad

Coming back to the table after accepting my AG award - a little turkey trophy!

Celebratory breakfast - blueberry bagel with cream cheese!

and a steaming mug of hot chocolate!

Turkey Strut 5k race report

Training Log
Distance: 3.16 miles
Time: 24:29 (a 25 second PR!)
Average Pace: 7:44/minute

Food Log
Pre-run: bowl of Golden Grahams with a banana, small cup of coffee, water
Post-run: a clementine orange, blueberry bagel with cream cheese, hot chocolate
Lunch: 6 in turkey on wheat with american cheese, tomato, pickle, black olive, 1 snickerdoodle cookie, 1 bag cheetos, 20 oz. cherry Coke
Dinner: hamburger with cheese, tomato, chips & dip, corn, brownie with vanilla ice cream

The Turkey Strut 5k this morning was a great race for me. It is probably the last 5k I'll do this fall/winter, so it was nice to end the fall "racing" season on a good note!

At 8:00am, I drove to the registration area to pick up my shirt and number. I was pleasantly surprised with the shirt - it is a gray long sleeve number, with a simple design on the front (a turkey running) and it fits really well. I have a ton of race shirts, but very few fall into the category of cool design + good fit. After picking that up, I drove back home and did some last minute bathroom things, changed into my running stuff and then ran back to the site for a warm-up before the race. The route I normally take to the City/County park takes me 2 miles, but on my run I found a shortcut that took only a little over 1 mile, so that was a pretty good warm-up.

The weather was absolutely perfect - it was a clear and sunny day, with no wind, and it was somewhere in the low 40's when the race began. Chad and my friend Sarah and her baby Cora came out to cheer me on, which was so fun! We decided not to bring Emma at the last minute, because the ground was covered in dew, and since she is so low to the ground, we were afraid she would get wet and freeze out in the low temperatures. To make it up to her, I took her for a long walk at the park once we got home!

It is hard to say how many people were at the race, but I would say somewhere between 50-60, so it was a pretty small race. The course is hilly, but surprisingly fast. At the start, you run out of the park area and take an immediate downhill into a neighborhood. The course then takes you around and back through the neighborhood, combining a series of uphills and downhills. My strength definitley comes going up hills - I love going up hills! I put my head down, increase my leg turnover and really churn up them. But, I really need to work on my downhills, because I just haven't figured out how to best use them to my advantage. I have long legs, so I should be able to glide down them, but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet.

From the beginning, I could tell that I was the 5th woman overall. My goal was to pass two of them, to get 3rd. There was a lady right behind me almost the entire race, and she really pushed me to go faster. I know I would not have set a PR if she hadn't been breathing down my neck! Eventually, we both passed two girls who dropped back to walk. But then the lady behind me passed me, so she was in 3rd and I was in 4th. This was around the 3k mark and I was really running out of steam. My goal at that point was to not let any one else pass me, and try as hard as I could to pass her in the final stretch.

I never did pass her, so I came in as 4th woman overall. It sucked to be so close to getting in the top 3, but I was still very proud of my PR and my overall placement! I was able to get 1st in my age group as well. After the race, I thanked the lady for pushing me so hard - I told her I got a 25 second PR because of her! She told me that I was really pushing her, too and she didn't think she would be able to pass me. That made me feel good that it worked out that way - we were both able to push each other to do better than we thought we each could do.

Running 5 days per week has really helped. I know I would have been slower in this race had it not been for my recent weeks of training. This race also solidified my decision to really start incorporating speed work into my training. I know it will make the difference for me in these smaller races, and will help with my overall marathon training.

I have some good pictures from the race that I'll put up in my next post!