Seven Dwarfs of Running...

Happy to report that empty eating was back on track today. Will be fine tuning it this month and doing my best not to focus on calories but rather fueling my body. Trying, as this is much harder for me then to just saying I will, I'm obsessive with my intake, obsessive... 

Breakfast: Dave's Killer Bread (2 slices), Peanut Butter (1T), Coffee, Almond Milk (1/4c)

Snack: Fiber One Bar

Lunch: I didn't leave work today... Dave's Killer Bread (2 slices), Peanut Butter (2T)

Snack: McDonalds Caramel Latte (medium, and soooooo delicious)

Dinner: Spaghetti Pie (the girls and Bill love this, the recipe makes two, so I freeze the extra and it makes a quick dinner another night, and I can easily pick out te sausage and have a great pre-run carb meal of pasta and sauce)

Post-Run: Blueberry Greek Yogurt Protein and Flax Shake with Glutamine 

With a state complaint surveyor planning to be in our building tomorrow, I'll pass on wine tonight, need to get a run in in the morning, to take the edge of, so I don't kill anyone tomorrow. 

So yesterday I was reading another ladies blog that is a triathlete and she was talking about how she is all seven of the dwarfs when training, and I thought it was so true!!! Mine are listed below. 

1. Happy: tonight after finishing my run, there is this moment, that I feel nothing but this euphoric feeling of happiness, my body feels good, my mind refreshed, my peace found. 

2. Hungry: I love to eat, running allows me to eat more, this is a perk that I love. 

3. Stinky: yes, after a nice long run, especially lately in the heat around here, I am one stinky girl

4. Sleepy: I don't get enough sleep, I head to bed at 11, I wake up at 5... Not enough sleep... I make up for what I can on the weekends, and I drink far too much coffee, not something I'm willing to change... 

5. Grumpy: Bill once said that me running vs. me not running was like being married to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I'm pissy, rude and all around a big bitch if I don't get my runs in. I know that, Bill knows that, the girls know that, my sister knows that, my mom knows that... It's true. 

6. Nerdy: Nothing I love more than my nerdy little gadgets, apps, training calendars, shoes, technical material, flat out nerdiness.

7. Wino: I'll admit it... I like my wine. 

Tonight, I went for a nice 5 mile run on the levee, it was overcast and cool. Perfect night for a run, dark at 7:30 when I got back to my car. Feeling good!

When you give a girl a molasses cookie...

If you have ever read the children's books, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" or "If You Give A Pig A Party" by Laura Numeroff you will understand the reference... If not, the moral of the story, is one thing leads to another, that leads to another, that leads to another...

If you give Brandi a delicious cookie, she will think about how yummy it is, so she will eat a second, when she eats the second, she will think "fuck it, I'm having nachos for lunch," because she had nachos and didn't properly fuel her body, she will see Cross Train on her training schedule and think "fuck it" when she gets home. Because she ate shitty all day, when drinking her evening coffee, she will rethink about that delicious cookie and want more... And thankfully, that's where I snap out of it...

I usually eat pretty damn clean, and because of this I treat myself to my delicious 173 calorie glass of Sangria and my four squares of delicious dark chocolate for an additional 180 calories at night. I focus on keeping my food nutritionally dense and as light on calories as I can do that. When I get too low on calories, my energy level when I run sucks, so it's a fine line... A typical eating day for me: start by having two cups of coffee with 1/2 c. total dark chocolate flavored almond milk, 2 slices of Dave's Killer Bread, the 60 calorie version, with 1T peanut butter. I typically will bring a banana to work or have a 100 calorie bag of kettle corn popcorn. If Bill is in town we usually go out for lunch, Dailys is my absolutely favorite, I love their chicken caesar salad wraps on the spinach tortilla. I have peanuts or a Greek yogurt around 2-3pm. I am am uber-nerd about meal planning, make my weekly list for dinner that I write out each day on a chalkboard in the dining room, buy exactly what we need for the week (seriously, I take great pride in my grocery shopping/penny pinching skills), calculate the calories per serving, and viola! dinner!!! Tonight I made pulled pork, homemade baked beans and the for the first time a tangy apple and cabbage coleslaw that was a big hit. (This is another secret of mine, I am extremely picky, of those three things I made, I don't like a single one, so most nights I make a lame separate dinner for myself that I know Bill and the girls would want no part of). Whenever I run, morning or night, I follow it with a fruit and protein shake with flax and glutamine. Around 8pm, I usually make a second pot of coffee, and have another two cups with another half cup of almond milk. The girls go to bed at 8:30, and I watch two shows with Bill before bed. If the day has gone extremely well food wise, my run was good and I feel I deserve a treat, I have a glass of wine and sometimes that yummy chocolate, OR if my day was extremely shitty, I skip the chocolate and have two glasses of wine during the shows. :) So tonight, only coffee and grapes... Damn. 

Damn it self. You are better than this. On an up note, great day at work.

It's not my shoes, it's my damn foot...

Well after a weird day at work, I arrived home to my sponsorship shipment from OGIO International. They sent me a really cool Tri-bag which is the coolest thing you have ever seen and their latest backpack, both imprinted with OGIO Advisory Staff, how cool. I think Bill was more excited than anyone, rushing home from work to check them out. Pretty cool for my marathon gear!!!

Did my run on the levee tonight, five mile loop. It was nice and cool out. The sun setting as I started and nearly dark by the time I returned. It was cool. And felt great. I had been thinking that maybe my shoes have been the reason for my recent foot pain, unfortunately tonight after testing out my Under Armour shoes instead, my foot hurt worse... Clearly my shoes are not the issue, but instead my foot is...

Tonight, an equally weird night, sipping a delicious glass of wine and having a block of delicious dark chocolate, watching Boardwalk Empire. :) 

Labor Day

First let me remind you, five weeks until the marathon. :) Time to dig deep, hit all my long runs and eat with running in mind. 

There is something you should know... I have a serious running clothes addiction... I'll begin by saying that this weekend I bought a pile of clothes, only one non-running t-shirt (although its a Nike tee, but its a Cougs one and I wouldn't wanna sweat all over my Cougs) and a Prana jacket (which if I could ever convince Bill to take me hiking, I could totally wear for that). Everything way for running...

Prior to these new additions, this is my running TOPS drawer. 

Followed by my running BOTTOMS drawer.

And then my running gear drawer. (Keep in mind this does not include my sports bras)

So needless to say I did not need more running gear... Thankfully Bill is a saint about my running, even so much that while checking out at the Under Armour outlet, he asked the cashier if they had the other two colors of my fav running tank as a size small in the back, AND THEY DID. :) 

Even though a caffeinated Bill promised a bike ride and run this morning, he stayed up all night on his iPad, ending in a sleepy Bill this morning. He knows that one, I get over anything after a run, and my whole mood is one hundred times better afterward. So with that, he shoved me out the door and played on his iPad and Xbox at the same time, while I ran. 

This morning's run was a nice 6.25 around the bridges. Super cool out, even a few raindrops. I wore my brand new LiveStrong capris, LiveStrong sports bra, Nike socks and UA tank. Loving my new digs!!!

These are the capris, and the reason I totally love them is the sneaky little key pocket just below my lower back. Perfect. 

Tonight Bill has a 7pm Xbox live date with his middle son and I am forcing the girls out on their bikes with me, although they have both already refused. :) 

Weekend in Seattle

We headed over to Seattle Friday night, we arrived late, after midnight. We actually stayed in Mukilteo, which is a tiny little town on the Washington coast. The next morning, I was so happy to see what a gorgeous view we had. 

 Saturday morning, we headed over to the Bellevue Mall, this is what Bill looks like as I shop in the Lululemon store that I just love!!! We did spend a small fortune at the Escape Outdoors store where I got two amazing jackets, one for running and the other to just wear, both super cute, I am excited to wear them both. 

Bill has been wanting to trade his Acura TL in for something bigger, that we can take our bikes out in when its just he and I instead of the gas guzzling Armada. So we went to the Eastside Subaru dealership, worked with a totally nerdy little dealer and left buying a suped up Subaru Forester XT. It has some of the craziest little techie things its incredible, like if you are driving with the cruise on, and you get up to a car, it changes the pace to the same pace of the car in front of you, keeping you at the distance you program! It even has a thing that will detect if you are out of your lane. I think Bill is secretly trying to keep me from having any more car accidents... Sneaky sneaky. 

Then we headed to Pikes Place which is like the most amazing little place in the Northwest, in my opinion. The people watching is one of the most fun parts of walking around downtown Seattle. 

This is how Bill feels about Authentic Indian Food, especially the curry wrap he had. :)

This is the little bird that joined us...

After lunch we decided to head over to the EMP museum, this was quite a little walk. So totally worth it. The EMP is right by this huge glass museum and the Space Needle. 

The first place inside the EMP that we went to was the Sci-fi area and the Horror show areas, which were 

super cool. 

Yes! That is Anakin Skywalkers skull, the first sketches of Darth Vader and the handle for Darth Vaders light saber. 

The following were worn by Christopher Reves as Superman and Sirius Black in Harry Potter, pretty cool!

Next, we were on to the Jimi Hendrix part of the museum, which was amazing. 

And probably the coolest and also most depressing part was the Kurt Cobain / Nirvana part of the museum. I don't think Bill and I said a world to eachother the whole time. Pretty amazing. 

I was a little disappointed of the Women Who Rock part, as Brittany Spears and Lady Ga Ga both had made to the museum, but here are a few of the women I did appreciate seeing...

Afterward, we walked back to the car. Bumbershoot was starting, they were sold out, and people were everywhere begging for tickets. This was the bike corral area. Insane. 

We went to have pizza and beer/wine at this great pizza joint, Brooklyn Bros. Great little place, with a Pac Man, King Kong, Frogger ect arcade game, FUN! 

We headed back to home Sunday morning, but not before stopping off at the Outlet mall and doing a little more shopping. They had an Under Armour Outlet which made me one very happy girl. :)

Turns out 89 degrees isn't much better to run in than 95 degrees...

Another hot run... 88 degrees, 6.1 miles, pace 8.0 min/mi... And my foot is totally killing me. Damn. I really was hoping it would be feeling better today. Ugh. Thankful for my embarrassing looking socks and Bio-freeze because whether they are helping my foot or not, they are amazing post-run. 

As I listen to Bill and his buddy Zach do their fantasy football draft I am reminded, it's football season!!!!

I LOVE THE 49ers and they will be in Seattle, Sept 15th, thinking that I will need to get tickets, I mean, it's right before my birthday and all. 

This is how nerdy Bill and Zach look right now... Ha!!!

And tomorrow night we are heading to Seattle for Bumbershoot, which is a ton of bands and comedians on a bunch of different stages around downtown Seattle. Really looking forward to it! Will be a great time!!! Plus, I LOVE Seattle!!

Not my best decision...

Well, because the girls started back to school this morning, and they will be getting on the bus at 7am and I am planning to be heading to work around that time, I am moving my running time to afternoons... But today's decision to run around 4:30pm in 95 degrees was not my best decision... What was supposed to be a tempo nine mile RUN turned out to be a miserable, slow, 6.5 mile JOG... I don't use the term jog, jogging or jogger to talk about my running, but today I am using that dirty little word... But my cotton tank and capris were too hot and I was sweating like pig... Not one of more attractive moments...

By the way, I also used my amazing, expensive ($44) compression socks for the first time tonight and even though I look like a total idiot in knee high socks that take a small miracle to get into, they feel great. They feel like getting an amazing leg massage without any of the awkward touching of a stranger. I wonder sometimes if Bill ever looks at me and thinks, 'what the hell am I doing with this nerd' as I walk around the house in these ridiculous looking socks and spandex shorts... Poor guy. 

These are the socks:

On a positive note, my foot wasn't as horrible as it was previously. It didn't feel like the burning sensation it did when it was fractured before, so I am really, really hoping the bone is just bruised. I did slather on some super Bio-Freeze that a wonderful co-worker found for me, and even if it isn't helping or healing my wimpy foot, it still feels pretty damn good. 

And because I'm a mom and I think my girls are amazing and adorable, here are their first day of school pictures. :) you will see the OGIO backpacks from my OGIO sponsorship!!! I also got a sweet new purse!!!