Summary of an up and down week; low carb issues; March goals of a running streak!

Tuesday RUN 3 miles on track, TIRED
Friday RUN 2 miles at home, TIRED
Saturday RUN 0.75 miles, and HIKE 5 miles TIRED

Whoosh, this week went by too fast. Vet on Monday, call about kids on Tuesday, Wednesday my first job interview preceded by a text from mom 3 minutes prior about dad, buzz home Weds night, home Thursday, busy Friday morning and then a stressed drive to Waynesville, RV overnight and stressed morning with a basketball game, and now at work on Sunday trying to catch up.

Wow, typing all that, breathe....

Tuesday's run was in surprisingly warm weather. The snow was mostly gone, leaving only only slushy grass between the street and track to worry about. I didn't get a warm up in, and I think this is why my HR was felt so high. With the chest HRM: the paces were only 12 m/m with walks and drills, 131 127 135 bpm each mile. I felt flat and drained, I kept wanting to walk, and my HR felt so high even if the HRM didn't reflect it.

Wednesday was a stressful day. 7:57 text from mom about dad, then an 8:00 zoom meeting with Michigan! A rush of stress chemicals, emotionally draining. We had a day preparing then drove to home. Thursday spent the day there, help James with homework, see dad's new truck, unpack my plants and the door I brought home, errands to town with James. I'm relaxed, but flat and sludgy, I can't remember things, I'm unmotivated, I'm not talking, I'm feeling depressed. 

Friday up to buy tires for the RV and a change in plans to bring the RV with. My head isn't taking the change in schedule, I'm still feeling so disconnected. I've been feeling this way over a week now, but now the stress doesn't falls too hard - I'm not ready to leave home yet, but I know we're leaving anyway. So I get teary eyed and can't explain myself. LA relaxes our schedule, we get a short run in, I get all the chores in that stressed me (change bedding, pack cooler and lunch, get shower), and we leave - late!! So it was a long ride to Waynesville. Basketball game, back to RV site for the night, and a full moon overhead. As I'm falling asleep, I'm trying to figure out where to go with my health. I like to try changes 30 days at a time, I'm 17 days into low carb test, should I continue? I see how my mom's health isn't what it should be, is that the track I'm on? I don't sleep well and wake up early with the same thoughts on my brain. 

Saturday morning I'm looking forward to the walk we talked about last night. But we slept in, didn't move fast enough, and I only got 0.75 miles run stressed because of a misunderstanding. Basketball game, then back to the RV site to walk a trail down to the river. I'm still emotionally flat, drained, no energy, I just want to curl up somewhere and hide, but I'm behind at work and behind at cleaning the house and feeling behind on life. I want to go home, but I don't to. My head aches, my back is tired and spasmy, my gut is heavy and bloated and pained from lack of BMs today. UGH. I eat my first meal of yesterday's eggs around 1pm, munch some ham, try to wake up. The walk drains me, I'm only looking at the road in front of me, I'm not talking, and I'm dragging behind. I feel awful. 

It's been 17 days since I started aiming for low carb - less than 50 NC per day. I've been getting about that amount. No fruit or rice or sugar, that was the biggest change. It's draining enough to resist fruit, but I soon got used to it. But I'm unsatisfied after every meal and I just want MORE. More what? I dunno, so I try more fat and more protein and more low carb veggies and I just end up feeling overfull and pained from eating too much. It's like I'm never hungry, but I'm never satisfied. My metabolism runs OK in that I feel warmer but I'm so damned tired I don't move much. My body feels weak and I'm losing strength. These aren't good tradeoffs!

After 17 days, I think I'm starting to adapt, but then a day like this just kicks me. Can't keep doing it. So at the truck I have a clementine. It's sick to think that just the 40 calories of sugar from this orange might make me feel better, it's like using a drug. But I need it. I don't feel distinctly different however. What did I expect?

Later at the russian store, I get rice paper, paleo baking mix (almond flour and coconut flour) that's still low carb, and puffed rice. My plan for March: stop eating if you're not hungry!!! 1-2 fruits a day if running. And keep the carbs low below 60 (without running) and only in the evening. I get home, have some of my new foods, and the carbs are still 80-11, OK and a little higher. 

Also for March: I want to do a running streak, at least 1 mile a day, but I also need to do PT and strength training. So I started that - alternating between core, resistance, and PT every 3 days. 

Zero to 100, is it possible?

 Last week I got in ZERO MILES. In 31 weeks, I have a 100 miler in Hennepin!

EEK!

The last week has been full of change up and stress. First the kids visit and custody exchange, then house pictures and loss of "my house", the bad weather and missed days at work, the low carb experiment and feeling weak and tired, and the upcoming stress of LA moving back to Michigan in just days. (this last one is the worst).

This morning (a Sunday) while in bed in my usual "I'm awake and he's not" thinking, I thought about this H100 plan. Even aside from the low carb weakness while I adapt, I'm not doing my PT or strength training. It's always a "tomorrow" thing. 

So my body confidence is low. I flipping back and forth between:
1. I can do this, I can walk more in training and racing
2. I broke the last time I tried this in 2019, should I do this

I wondered in bed this morning where I was at this point in 2019 - aside from the post SCAD stress and nutrition problems -- looking... -- HOLY SHIT

In week 1 I did 2000y swim, 56 miles bike, 12 miles run (1st loop of FoPa post-SCAD!), 19 mil commute
Week 2 off for some reason
Week 3 72 miles bike and 19 miles commute
Week 4 11 miles bike and 7 miles walk and 29 miles commute

What happened, I have a note that my ribs hurt...gotta look in blog history for that. Looking....ah it was the fall with the dog, bruised hip and ribs and foot. Also notable that month I first tried rice cakes, fake butter, and oatmeal, and felt so awful by the end of the week I threw it all away. I think this was the initial days of the 2019 Nutritional Fail I had. :(

Well anyway, I was barely running then as I was recovering from the SCAD. And here now, I'm in less-good shape (strength and overall) but doing better running as in January was up to an easy 15 miles a week.

So. Getting back to the H100 2021. Random thoughts as I get them.

1. While I can drop down to the 50M or 50K, I'm going for the 100. I'm planning more walking, as part of the training plan. Before I forced the running, I know I don't need to do that.
2. My nutrition fell apart that year, the changes and the nutritionists and the stress just killed me. I don't know if the hip stress fracture was nutrition or over-training, but most likely it was both.
3. I need to get back on the bike and the pool. I'm ready to cancel my YMCA membership over this COVID scheduling bull shit though.
4. I'm having some mental hangups on running, like I can't get my mind to fully agree to it. But I feel great once I get running, so I think this is more a loss of habit problem.
5. This will be a busy summer!!! LA leaves in a week or so, then my weekends are "lost". I move this summer and lose time there. We'll have the kids for four weeks, I'm afraid I'll lost training time there. But I don't plan to start my job until September (October?) so that helps. 
6. The low carb and MAF thing, perfect to do right now!

OK done thinking on this, it's stressful!

2nd week low-carb, and NO RUNNING!

RUN ZERO MILES!! ZERO ANYTHING!! (except the temperature)

Many reasons for this. Friday night last week we picked up the kids, and I took Saturday off to be with them. Then Saturday and Sunday we got SNOW and sub-zero temps, there really was no good opportunity to run. There was probably 6" of snow, uncleared on sidewalk and street, and the temps were not encouraging. So BE and I scrubbed the runs Tuesday and Thursday.

As I'm quick-typing this on Sunday, I'm planning to run this afternoon. There are rain clouds on the horizon...

As for the low-carb, I really started to feel it Wednesday. Was what I felt just low carb? Or the stress of the Weds morning custody exchange, the Thursday lost from work with house pictures, and just stress? As of today, I'm still feeling  like I'm worn out and post long run. 

Total carbs/fiber, starting on Monday: Weds in bold
86/18    67/12    70/18   63/14  48/12   92/21  

So I'm not seeing a pattern yet. And how accurate are these numbers? I was surprised to see that my fiber before and after the carb change didn't change. I have a theory though. Before I was eating sugar which is fiberless, and fruit. After I was eating more vegetables and no fruit. I expected the fiber number would go up. 

I have more to say today, separate topic and separate post. 

I gotta get my stuff done so I can run! I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have a job interview WEDNESDAY! And I'm supposed to be working on a cover letter. 

End of a busy week, start of a low-carb experiment

This post and the next will be summary posts, so much has happened in the last week!

On Wednesday of this week we drove to Michigan for a 3 day stay. I'm happy that even though we were driving Weds and Fri, I still got my 10K steps in! 

Thursday RUN in Michigan around the VA, 4 miles. This was my first MAF-ish run but I only had my wrist HR: 
Mile 1: 11:36 ave 127 bpm 167 spm
Mile 2: 11:52        129        169
Mile 3:  12:27       160        166
Mile 4:  12:28       167        143

As you can see, the HR shot up (cadence lock?) and I started walking. My HR was not that high, so it's the wrist monitor, cuz the graphs don't look like cadence lock. 

The run felt great, and I was surprised that I didn't feel the effects of the low carb yet. Quick run-down of that so far to see what I'm changing. I'm doing the 2 week test a la Maffetone. I removed the rice, fake sweets (already minimal), all candies (minimal), all sugar (was getting AWFUL), and to my surprise - all FRUITS. Holy cow!

By day before the Wednesday I started the experiment, total carbs:
213 217 132 250 137 167 230 183 182 

Above, fiber numbers: I wasn't entering my psyllium husks yet
18 19 23 10 16 23 36 21 26 

After:
55 141*36 58 69 

Fiber:
14 33*11  14 10 

MFP always screws up my days when I go to Michigan, so the * marks a day where it mixed up meals between 2 days. 

Wow, what a change! But as of Sunday, I wasn't feeling any different. 

I'm registered for the Hennepin 100! Again!

 I've been watching the 2021 registration, because I knew I qualified after deferring in 2019 and the covid cancelation of 2020. When deadlines listed on the website had passed, I emailed the RD and asked -- and I was emailed the link!

So of course I registered!

And of course I probably won't be running the 100. Not that I'd ever *run* it anyway -- I've been thinking I'll shoot for the 50 miler or the 50K and drop down as needed as the race approaches. 

But as I'm typing this, could I do a 100 "walk" miler? How slow do I need to go? Quick check of the site -- the cut-off is 30 hours. Some math... that's an 18 minute mile. That number doesn't include stopping, bathroom breaks, etc. So huh -- could I walk/run the 100 instead of the usual run/walk? 

Either way, I'm registered.

I'm also planning on the Ann Arbor 26.2 -- it's on October 24th so OF COURSE I have to run it!  The Hennepin is October 2-3. I can do this. Haha, where have I heard that before? 

----------

In other new, my gut has been awful lately. Crampy, pained, bloated. Thank gawd no other symptoms like before in the bathroom. (as an aside, the bathroom aspect has be the best lately). And I need to do something. 

I track diligently my foods and highlight for patterns. I see them, but ignore them. My carbs are VERY high lately, averaging 190g/day! WHOA that's high for not being active. Running 15 mpw is not active, btw. 

So I'm looking at what the best thing to do is. I've read again the MAF 2-week test and think it's worth a try. As for the foods list, it's really only going to remove the rice, rice cakes, fruit, and berries. But what it will change is the macronutrient ratios. Only two weeks. Decide. 

Thought it was too cold to run, and it was!

 RUN 1.5 miles with LA

It was 4F with wind chill and a layer of fresh snow. I wanted to run, but not at the track. I dunno why, something about getting in the cold truck to have a cold run? I just wanted to run later in the day from the house. So I texted BE and we called it off.

LA and I did run a little later at 630am, and the snow cover made for a bright run! The sun doesn't come up until and 7am and it's cloudy, yet we had daylight-ish visibility. He hasn't been running or walking much the past few days (I think he said 1000 steps a day?!) so his legs didn't make it the full run. This was a mostly-run with some walking, and once we stopped running I stopped the garmin too. My toes were froze, but all else warm. I wanted to keep going, but also felt like stopping. 

A plumber out to the house today to fix the 3rd floor tub and the mail shutoff, and didn't get to work until 1230pm! And here I am typing! Gotta go. 

Week update: 13.7 mile week

Thursday RUN 4.5 miles with BE in FoPa
Saturday RUN 5 mins in FoPa from work

It bothers me that all I'm doing is running. I made it to the pool ONCE in January and still paid the $46 fee to the YMCA. I need to cancel it! But I keep hoping that I'll get there. Like maybe if I'm living in an AirBNB later this spring I'll find one close to the YMCA. Really? I believe that?

The running feels great, I'm being so hesitant, and still not doing the PT and strength training I need to be doing. I do some, a little everyday, but not a dedicated program with progress. 

I feel the occasional twinge in my right pelvic bone. Normal, mental? I don't know which. But I've got my sights set on the AA marathon and/or H100 (or some variation of the H100 race, 50 or 50K) and I've got time to prep. And a LOT of stuff to do in the meantime!

We came full circle -- oranges to oranges

 RUN 4 miles on track with BE

Another great morning, I almost said warm for January but now it's FEBRUARY!

I started off with me telling BE about my latest Russian training using apps made for kids - learning fruits and veggies. I noted last night that the color orange and the fruit orange don't have the same word, and that apple and pineapple aren't related either. BE was familiar with the spanish word for orange, discussed languages a bit.

Then off to the GameStop topic, that reddit thing where people borrowed a bunch of stuff they didn't own so they could sell it then buy it back only to return it again. Ugh, LA explained it last night using my colored pencils and it FINALLY made some sense! BE added a few more layers of information on it, I understand what happened now, but not the why. And it doesn't seem to matter - a few mins ago LA texted that the shares dropped.

Anyway, BE's weekend included a binge watch about a women's prison drama, something with Orange in the title, and I noted that we came full circle on the word. And BE laughed that it fits because we're running loops!

I did some light PT last night - hip bridges and leg kicks and superman - and now my high upper hamstrings feel it. Gawd am I that weak?!