Whole30 Running

First long run since I started Whole30. I set out this morning with Sara (you remember Sara, right? From this race and this race?) to accomplish our 8 mile training run.  I haven't gone that far in about a year and Sara had never gone that far, so we had high hopes! My knee has still been bothering me so I foam rolled before I left this morning. We had a pretty awesome morning - high humidity but the temp wasn't as high as it's been in the last few weeks. We decided to do an out-and-back so that we had no choice but to finish our complete 8 miles (once you're four miles from the car, there's not much to do but run back!)


The first few miles felt pretty easy.  When we hit mile 4, we turned around on the track and headed back and my knee completely went out. A few hobbles, some tight strides and I was back in business. Except then I got all in my head. I started thinking about the pain in my knee, trying to compensate in other ways. My feet started to go numb and I actually was a little panicked. Around mile 5.8, I really focused on my quads - I really pushed myself to LIFT my leg and move. At that time, I felt my whole body change. My knee relaxed, my feet felt better and instead of just pounding the pavement, I was PUSHING OFF of it.  We decided right in the beginning we weren't going for time on this run, just completing our 8 miles, so my average min/mile isn't my race pace. And I am OK with that. Because at the end of hte run, I FELT GOOD.

How does Whole30 tie into this? Well, my run was 1:29 long. I usually require some kind of fuel (Honey Stingers have always been my fuel of choice) after about an hour of running.  Today, I fueled with water and coconut water. I felt energized, I never "hit a wall" and I actually felt STRONGER in the second half of my run than the first!

Food the last two days - delicious. Friday I made pizza from scratch (top 5, if not the best I've ever made, according to my hubby). I had chicken sausage sauteed with onions, peppers and portobello mushroom caps. I didn't even miss the cheese I would have put on it!


Saturday we hit up our favorite BBQ place and when I asked, all of their smoked meat has sugar in the spice rubs - of course. Boo!!  But I was able to get a double grass fed burger, double tomatoes & lettuce and balsamic onions, with a side of green beans.

Today after my run I had a chicken breast and a sweet potato. Then I had breakfast for lunch - sweet potato hash, 3 eggs, yellow pepper and a ton of blueberries. Dinner was a PHENOMENAL grass fed sirloin steak, roasted potatoes and roasted broccoli.

Better this time!!

 I am not feeling the lightheadedness or dizziness that I felt during my last Whole30!  I expected that by today (day 4) I would have started to hit my carb wall like I did last time. Nothing doing! I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes today then I jumped on the elliptical for 30 more minutes. I've been eating well, of course.  

Not feeling too terribly bad, except I did have to make a cake for my daughter's school - My FAVORITE cake - a blueberry coffee cake. It's SO many different Whole30 no-no's and it was EVERYTHING I had not to lick the batter off the spatula while I cleaned up!

Breakfast: 3 eggs, bacon, power greens

Lunch: Chicken breast, sugar snap peas, olives and watermelon.

Snack: handful of blueberries. 1 small spoonful of coconut butter

Dinner: Grassfed burger, sauteed zucchini, avocado and baked fries.

My La Croix grapefruit is my "reward" for not killing anyone. .. . Day 3 in the history books!

Day 4: 

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, power greens and watermelon

Lunch: Half a grass fed burger, Applegate hot dog (been worried about getting in enough protein!), pickles, romaine with Tessamae's balsamic dressing, blueberries. 

Mid afternoon: (acting as a post workout meal even though I worked out this am) 1/2 small sweet potato, small spoonful of coconut butter

Dinner: giant massive stir fry with cauli-rice. I have found the BEST way to make it!!!

Workout: ran 3 miles in 30:27, Elliptical for another 30 minutes.

Day 4: Success!!! I'm not having the lightheadedness that I had last time. I am going to chalk that up to going off an antidepressant along with starting Whole30.

Checking in

Halfway through day 2 and the only thing I am feeling is EXHAUSTED. My heart RACED last night from the time I got into bed at 9 until I finally fell asleep at 1am.  Then I woke up at 3:00 for another 45 minutes and was up for the day by 6:45.  I don't remember this from last time at all.  Just hoping to stay focused enough to get things done today so I can move on. 

I remembered how physically bankrupt I was the first few weeks so I plan to take my runs easy - not shorten them but definitely go a little slower and stay inside until the INSANE heat strike is over here in St. Louis!  Yoga today wasn't a high calorie burn but I needed the stretch in my hips to loosen up that darned IT band!

So day 1 under my belt. I am breaking a few rules this time -
* using half and half *I know from my previous Whole30 that I do not have a reaction to dairy. I am limiting myself to 2 cups max, but I know from the last time that by day 14, I will stop requiring coffee for the most part.
* logging my food - ONLY to ensure I am eating enough carbs to sustain my half marathon training.
* weighing myself. Because I like it. 

Decision Time!

As I mentioned before, I have been looking at options for the next 6 weeks (exactly 6 weeks from today, eeek!)

And I finally settled on my plan.

I am starting another Whole30 tomorrow.  I know to people who haven't completed or attempted one that this looks ridiculous. I hated it, it was HARD to complete and there are so many rules - but I've never felt better in my LIFE. 

This isn't a desperate attempt to lose weight, it isn't a "get thin quick" trick. It's a total-life decision. I had no pain, I was STRONGER and I could more easily control cravings and my emotions!  A Whole30 is just that - 30 days. Temporary.  I am going to track my calories this time, though, only to make sure I am getting sufficient carbs to support my half marathon training. 

If my training suffers for much longer than 2 weeks, I will definitely bail, but my research all shows once your body is fat adapted, running only gets stronger. 

I will say here (and I'll say it again, as I'm sure I'll be posting more food pictures!) that I am going to allow myself dairy 1x a day - in my coffee. Only because I just purchased and opened a brand new half gallon of organic Horizon half and half yesterday... :-)   And from my previous W30 I know I don't have any issues with dairy. 

So.... bring it on, 30 days.   My new mantra: I can do anything for 30 days. 

Today I woke up and at 6:25 the temperature was already around 85 and the humidity was over 70% so I decided I would hit the treadmill (DREADMILL!) later today instead of slogging through 8 mile in the humidity. I have run this interval training a few times now but today was the first time I actually finished it! 

I "dumb down" the speeds, usually about .5-1 on each. I am not in a place to sustain those speeds for that amount of time just yet, but I am improving!! I can feel it, so it won't be long before I am able to do this workout unmodified. 

Tomorrow I will be going to a foam rolling class at one of the local running stores. I am excited to learn different ways to attack my IT band and to use my foam roller more effectively! 

Here goes nothing, friends!! 

My "Recovery" Run

Looks like the verdict is:

A little rest goes a long way!! 

People, I JUST don't run this fast!  Especially when the weather looks like this:

I am VERY excited!  Found out that one of the local running stores offers a foam rolling technique class, so I am registering to take that next week. I'll post about it after I go.  Looking forward to finding out all the best ways to get rid of the pain and prep my body the best. 

Revisited the possibility of beginning another Whole30 in the next week or so. Lots and lots of runners do it and the personal accounts of how it affected their running ability are very convincing. Still working out some details, though.  I will post more about it when/if I make a decision!

I learned a new trick!

I mentioned last time I posted (geez it's been awhile, sorry!) that I was going to start running again. I've been doing well with distance, just not my self-maintenance. 

Run with Sara

Fastest Mile Ever (treadmill)
- was actually completed in 9:03!

Thursday run while my little guy was at school

So then last Sunday I was scheduled to run 10 miles.  My knee was bothering me, but nothing too severe so I just went on with my run. About 3 miles in, I realized that my knee wasn't going to make it 10 miles this week.  I aimed for 7, which is an improvement on the distances I've been going (6 miles three times in a week!) but not ridiculous. I know that when my knee hurts, it's my IT band at work. I had planned to roll it out this week and just never got around to it - my bad! 

When I came home, I took an epsom salt bath and rubbed my DoTerra Deep Blue into my knee. I put a heat pack on it and went about my day. Babying it, however, just wound up straining other muscles, namely calf and the back of my knee. I have been resting it ever since. I found a video about foam rolling that was a GAME CHANGER for me.  I linked to it below. The KEY point - your IT band isn't a muscle - it's a tendon. So foam rolling ON your IT band will actually stick it to the muscle behind it MORE making it less flexible. The key and game changing information - foam roll your hip and upper knee on a 45 degree angle, the places where the tendon attaches, because THOSE are the muscles that need to release to help the pain. 

As SOON as I was done with this, the IT band pain was almost non-existent.  GLORIOUS!  I went to yoga on Tuesday to try to further open my hips and stretch myself out. I am going to attempt a run tomorrow morning (although we have "record high temps" in the forecast, so I probably won't aim for millions of miles, just a test on my knee!).  I NEED to get out. I am going NUTS here this week. My anxiety is freaking through the roof and I am combating it by BAKING!  At least today's recipe wasn't TOO terrible (Weelicious Granola!) for us!

So here goes nothing as I try for a shortened run tomorrow and HOPEFULLY a good long run on Sunday!

Running, running!

I have been really focusing on running lately, which has changed my general workout schedule. Plus it's the last week of summer !!  My kiddos (BOTH OF THEM!) head back to school next week!

I've gotten a few shorter runs in but now that school is starting, I am going to be hitting the longer runs hard!  My son will be in preschool 2 mornings a week so I'll be running Tuesday/Thursday mornings, plus a long run on the weekends.

This week I ran 2.5 on Sunday and 5 yesterday. I figured out the way to make the miles fly on the treadmill - my Kindle!!  I never thought I could run and read but the Kindle kind of changed all that. I don't have to move physical pages, I can change the font size and the time SERIOUSLY FLEW! I looked down the first time and had already been running for 28 minutes!

So Sunday I'm running with Sara and we are going to get in a 60 minute run.  Sometime next week I'll post the training schedule I hope to follow.  

Starting around Sept 1st, I will be starting another Whole30. I have been following macros for the last few weeks and I'm liking it so far. Except days like today where I TOTALLY miss the mark and have no clue where I screwed up! Yikes!

So here goes nothing. Ramping up the running to get a few PRs come October!!