Game ON - HBBC Day # 8

I have been off to a horrible start with the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge because of a nasty chest cold that I've had for the last week.

Actually I think I've been sick for 2 weeks but since I had a race to run last Saturday I was in total denial of my illness for the entire first week.  Once the race was over, however, there was no denying that I was fighting some nasty germs.

Because I was so determined to feel better, I did get my 7+ servings of fruits and veggies on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week so I earned a few points.  Once Thanksgiving and weekend hit the fruit/veggie consumption went downhill fast.

So today was my first run in over a week.  The other thing that bummed me out about being sick is that my family purchased a new fancy pants treadmill over a week ago and prior to tonight my husband and son were the only ones lucky enough to use it.  It is a Nordictrack C900 with LiveFit and I LOVE IT!!

Isn't the digital screen beautiful? I think so!!

I ran 4 miles tonight in 43 minutes, 43 seconds.  I felt incredibly happy to run and I'm pretty sure my lungs will thank me in the long run.

I'll get back into my fruit/veggie tallying tomorrow and I'm hoping to get 3 miles in tomorrow night.

Turkey Trot-ing in the Olympic Village

Did you know that Thanksgiving is the #1 day of the year for races?

Seems like everywhere I turned, there was another Turkey Trot, Wobble, Waddle, etc popping up in every corner of the earth, even virtual online races.  I think that's pretty darn cool!

Since I had participated in the Hobble Gobble last weekend, me & the rest of the Peak Sport Solutions crew loaded up the van and traveled to the Olympic Village of Lake Placid, NY to time the Adirondack Medical Center's 3rd Annual Turkey Trot.

Lake Placid High School & the Olympic Center overlooking the Speed Skating Oval

The race was scheduled to begin at 8:30am with registration from 7am - 8am, which meant we needed to be in the car on the way at 4:30am.  McDonald's was the only place open in town and you better believe coffee was purchased for the ride!

Nope, the sun wasn't even up yet.

The start and finish of the Turkey Trot was at the entrance to the Olympic 400m speed skating oval.  We had gotten a lovely early season snow storm the day before so there was roughly 5 inches of heavy, wet, melting snow where the race chute was supposed to be set up.  Shovels were gathered, ice melt was applied and show went on!

We had 61 preregistered runners but in the end 195 folks trotted with us Thanksgiving morning so the registration table was crazy right up to race time.  The run helped benefit a local food pantry so every registrant who brought in canned goods got a discount on their registration and lots and lots of food was donated.

Beat the Turkey!!

The Turkey Runner was a really good sport

The first 3 male and female finishers won a nice prize bag but the main goal of the race was to beat the "Turkey" runner.  The Turkey came in at 20 minutes flat on a slightly short very hilly 5k course but he got beat by 6 runners who each got frozen turkeys to take home.

Overall it was a really fun run put on by a great group of people.  It was Peak Sport Solutions' first event timing gig in Lake Placid which was an incredible experience.  I mean, it's the Olympic Village, who wouldn't want to time a race there?

Adirondack Mountains in the distance

The Olympic Center as the sun was coming up, such a cool building!

The race was followed by a quick stop at Starbucks on the way home.  I was very, very thankful they were open, I live in a very rural area where Starbucks is 2 hours away on each side and I was in need of a serious caffeine fix.

We headed home, unloaded the van and enjoyed the company of our family for the rest of the day.

Now I'm ready to bring on the Christmas cheer!! :)

HBBC Day #2

I've decided that I'm going to try my absolute best to post daily updates about my progress on the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.

This will make me WAY more accountable, right?

I think so!!

It must be true because I feel so incredibly guilty about not running today.  I'd been fighting off the plague that infected my house over the last couple of weeks but after my race yesterday my immune system must have breathed a sigh of relief and said "game over!!"

This evening I feel totally yucky, scratchy throat, post nasal drippy-ness, dry cough, generally feeling like poo.  So I decided that because I'm not feeling well and since I was so happy with the way my race went yesterday I felt I deserved a rest day.  Yeah, I'm still trying to convince myself too!

But there is another way to get points...7 or more servings of fruit or vegetables per day = 1 extra point!

1 extra point doesn't sound like much but over the entire contest it can add up to potentially 48 more points which is huge.

So here's how I earned my point today:

2 really huge salads - one for lunch & one for dinner!
   Including 3 cups of leafy greens (3 servings), 2 large tomatoes (2 servings), 1/2 cup of cucumber (1      serving)

1 large MacIntosh apple (1 serving)

3/4 cup of V8 Vegetable Juice (1 Serving)

Which actually is a total of 8 servings...and point earned! :)

Hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll get back to racking up the miles tomorrow!

Hobble Gobble Prediction Race Re-Cap

Today was a very exciting day for me!  It was the first time I've been able to race since July and I was ready to go!

This is the 2nd year I've run the Hobble Gobble.  It's a very popular local race, they actually capped and closed registration at 625 people.  It's a prediction race, so you don't find out the distance until you get there.  There are two distance options, one is 4 miles or less and the other is 7 miles or less.  This year the long course was 6.1 miles and the short course was 3.2 miles.

I ran the long course last year and was hoping to run it again this year but because of my surgery I knew it was a better idea to run the short course.  Injuries are not welcome in my life so I felt I'd be pushing my luck racing 6.1 miles without a proper base built.

This race always brings out lots of local runner friends of mine plus I was thrilled to be riding to the race with two close friends and my incredible mom-in-law.

Pre-race pics with Deb, my mom-in-law!

The weather was beautiful, you never know what you're going to get in Northern NY in November so 50 degrees and sun was perfect.  We went inside the fire hall where the packet pickup was and grabbed our swag.  We also filled out the form with our predicted times...I predicted that I would finish in 34:23.

We chatted with some friends, put on our bibs and made our way to the start.  Since it's a prediction race there are no Ipods or Garmins allowed which made me a little crazy as I have an unhealthy dependence on listening to music while I race.  The cool part about this race is that cheerleaders from local high schools come and cheer on the racers and there are local bands on the course too so I didn't miss the Ipod as much.

I hugged Deb goodbye, wished her a good race and took off.  It was a slow start because the race director didn't ask the walkers to start in the back so I was weaving in and out of people for the first few minutes.  I was so excited to be there that I had to keep reminding myself not to take off too fast.  I felt so good, it was actually fun to not be "cut off" from the other racers by my Ipod so I could cheer for everyone I knew wherever I saw them on the course.  It was an out and back course so I knew that I had a couple of decent sized hills to conquer on the way back, the biggest one being "Hobble Hill" which is right before the finish line.  

I couldn't believe it when I hit the turn around at 1.6 miles, it seemed like the race was flying by.  The 2 mile marker seemed like it appeared really quickly too.  I would've loved to have had on my Garmin to see my mile splits.  It was all good until I reached the bottom of Hobble Hill.  I don't know if I just psyched myself out or if I was running out of steam but I hit the wall hard.  I've never hit the wall like that in a 5K before, my legs felt so heavy and I had to slow down my pace quite a bit.  I finally made it to the top of the hill, ran under the finish line that was kind of falling down and got my medal.  The other thing that stinks about a prediction run is that they don't give you your time at the finish time so I had no idea how I did.

The start/finish line wasn't holding air very well, people had to duck underneath it

I stuck around the finish line to cheer on all the rest of the people I know that were finishing the race.  I met up with my friends and mom-in-law and we went inside to gorge on the after race food.  They had homemade chili, homemade cookies, bagels and cream cheese and yogurt.  I think I did more post race carb loading than necessary but it tasted so good.  We stuck around for the post race awards, the winner of the race finished within 0:00.2 of their predicted time.  Pretty wild.

Post race crew!

As we were walking out we saw they had posted the results.  I finished in 34:51, only 28 seconds off of my predicted time.  I'm very happy with that time (averaged 10:53 minutes/mile) since I haven't raced in a long time and my legs weren't as strong as I want them to be.  

Plus that hill kicked my butt.  

The solution:  Find bigger hills to train on!

It was a really fun day overall with some really great people and a great way to kick of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge! (3 points down already!)

Post Race Hugs!

And I'm so so proud of Deb, she beat her predicted time by 3 minutes, 53 seconds.  Can't wait to race some more next year with this incredible lady!!   

So that wraps up my "race season" for this year.  I didn't race as much as I hoped to but a lot of changes took place over the last year.  I have big dreams and big plans for 2012 though so look out!

Finally...Racing Tomorrow!!

So glad it's Friday and I'm looking forward tomorrow more than I've been excited about a Saturday in a long time.  And there's two reasons for that:

1.  I'm FINALLY racing tomorrow!!!  Between the time I've devoted to Peak Sport Solutions & my illness/surgery, I haven't raced since the end of July.  Which has killed me.  I've been so happy to hear about and talk about and be excited about everyone else in my life that has been racing but (not so) secretly I've been incredibly jealous too.  

So the Hobble Gobble is tomorrow morning.  It's a local race held in W Potsdam, NY and this year, for the first time ever, they've capped the event at 630(ish) registrations and it sold out.  This is a huge number for a local race around here.  The coolest part about this race is that it's a prediction run.  For those of you who've never ran a prediction run that means you don't find out the exact race distance until you get there and then have to predict the time you'll finish. And to win the race you don't finish first, but finish closest to the time you've predicted. 

The short course is 4 miles or less, the long course is 7 miles or less.  After much mental debate, I've decided to do the short course.  I know I'm not ready to race the longer distance and feel good about my finish but it took some time to convince myself that because I really, really wanted to race the longer course.  At this point, one month post surgery, I'm just happy to be racing at all.

With a weather forecast of 51 degrees and sunny, plus tons of my favorite friends coming out to run, tomorrow will be so. much. fun.

2.  I had totally forgotten until I read my email last night but...the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge starts tomorrow too!!

Amanda from Run to the Finish has created this incredible online challenge to keep us working on our healthy habits throughout the entire holiday season.  The average American gains and maintains 5lbs every holiday season...and I'm not going to be one of them this year!  The basic rules are that you get points for the ways you're active each day, keep track of them honestly on the master spreadsheet and you can stay healthy and happy through the holidays as well as compete with other people to win some pretty awesome prizes.  Amanda is taking late sign ups here if you're interested in getting involved.  But I warn you, I'm feeling pretty competitive...so bring it on!!

Hope everyone's Friday is fantastic!  :)

Five Random Friday Favorites

Since I had the day off today in observance of Veteran's Day, I had the chance to enjoy my Friday even more than usual.  So with that in mind, here's five of my favorite things today:

1.  My new Road ID.  I love the new slim design of that Road ID has, it doesn't irritate my wrist with velcro anymore.  Sounds like a minor issue but after running 10+ miles, even the little things can get really annoying.  Plus, it's purple, my favorite color!!

2.  Applegate Chicken Nuggets - I found these in the organic/natural section at Hannaford and they are my new favorite.  It feels like I'm eating something very unhealthy but they're not!  Yummy!

3.  Autumn Wreath Yankee Candles - these are my favorite fall scent and they make my house smell so good!  I hate having all the windows closed and no fresh air but this candle makes it bearable.  Guess I better go buy a new one tomorrow!

4.  My electric blanket - I am always, always, always cold.  It started snowing this afternoon, you better believe this bad boy will be cranked up to high so I can crawl into nice toasty blankets!

5.  A Beautiful Sunset - I took this last night when I was leaving work.  The colors were even more stunning in person.  I'm very sad it gets dark so early now (like everyone else) but this was a sunset worth noticing.

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

1 Pound = 4 Sticks of Butter

I have a confession to make. 

I step on my scale every. single. morning.  

I know you're only supposed to step on it once a week because weight can fluctuate.  I know that the number on the scale is not the most important factor in my quest to be the healthiest person I can be.  But knowing that I have to face the scale every morning reminds me that every day counts, that no work out or meal is unimportant and that everything I do (or don't do) accumulates in the end.   

And as of today, I've lost 13 pounds.

Which is huge for me.

It's hard sometimes to get excited these days about a "normal" amount of weight loss.  So much revolves around Biggest Loser-type numbers, but for us mere mortals losing 10 pounds in one week is not likely or healthy.  These 13 pounds have taken a month and a half to disappear, not 1 or 2 weeks.  But I've still worked hard for them.  I've replaced useless fat with lean muscle.  I've eaten healthy, natural foods and never EVER starved my body.  I've ran miles and miles.  

And the purpose of my weight loss is not "to get skinny".  It's to become the strongest, healthiest person I can be and improve my running PRs.

So for all of us working hard to lose "just" a couple of pounds, who feel that they aren't getting anywhere by losing "only" 1 or 2 pounds per week and who want to give up and dive back into their previously unhealthy lifestyle, remember this:

1 Pound = 4 Sticks of Butter

Picture it.  Or go to your fridge and take out that box of butter or margarine and look at it.  By losing 1 pound, that's the equivalent of the amount of weight you've removed from your body.  That's no small accomplishment.

By losing "just" 13 pounds, I've melted 52 sticks of butter from my body. 

Everyone's journey to fitness is different.  Just remember that no achievement is too small to celebrate! :)

"Happy" Meal?

Since Daddy & Thing 1 are gone to camp for the night and Thing 2 is not happy about being left at home with me I thought I'd treat him to a McDonalds Happy Meal for dinner tonight.

Let me clarify a few points before I go any further:

         1.  I personally do not eat McDonalds food, haven't in over 3(ish) months and quite honestly the thought of the grease completely grosses me out.

         2.  My kiddos do not eat McDonalds on a regular basis, they are fed home cooked, healthy foods most of the time.

         3.  Please do not tell me I'm a horrible parent for occasionally giving my kids an unhealthy meal, I know what the food at McDonalds consists of but I feel that it's better to let them have it once in a while than to have them binge on it when they are with friends, etc., because I know I can't shelter them forever.

Okay, so I ask Thing 2 if he wants a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets, he chooses a cheeseburger, we order through the drive through and take it home so Mommy can eat her dinner too.

I get home, open the bag and pulled out the french fries.  What there was of the french fries...10 fries in all.  I know, I counted.  There was a little bag of the fruit formerly known as apple dippers (now known as apple slices since we're not allowed to have caramel dipping sauce anymore either).  Thank goodness the cheeseburger and the toy he really, really wanted were there.

Reese's PB Cup used to show actual size of french fry packaging, more packaging than french fries!

Since I was then intrigued by the lack of french fries, I googled "Happy Meals changed" and found out that due to public outcry, McDonalds has reduced the calories in the Happy Meal by 20%.  Guess I've been under a rock since this was announced in July.

I totally and completely support any and all efforts to curb obesity in this country.  It's a terrible thing to walk around my sons' elementary school and see so many overweight children.  

What I don't support is that now I feel like, as a parent, my choices are being taken away from me.  The one little treat that I give the boys now makes me feel like a horrible parent for choosing it at all.  

The worst part is that I'm feeling bad about this but I'm supposed to be okay with letting my kids buy school lunch that consists of mozzarella sticks one day, "rib-b-que" (think McRib, no joke) the next, followed by corn dogs the next.  Seriously.  How does that make any sense?

Actual school lunch menu

Can't make this stuff up...mozzarella sticks were on the October menu

At the end of the day, my kids' nutrition is my responsibility, just like every other parent out there.  These children can not buy themselves a Happy Meal unless Mommy or Daddy or some other adult in their life takes them to McDonalds and buys it for them.  I have an issue with being told that since others are "irresponsible", I need to be "punished" with everyone else.  

And you can't tell me that if a kid wants french fries, Mommy or Daddy won't order a larger fry to go with their healthier Happy Meal.  Should we just put McDonalds and every other restaurant out of business and be done with it? 

I took it in my stride when restaurants started posting calorie content on their menu and banned trans fat but this just seems out of control to me.  

When are we going to wake up and realize that we are responsible for our own choices, good and bad? 

Sometimes there's no one but ourselves to blame for where we are today.

Every choice you make matters, some more than others, but over time bad choices add up.  

Just don't forget that good choices add up too. :)