Thursday, August 21, 2008

Peanut Butter Warning!

The dark chocolate dreams peanut butter I bought a week or so ago is completely gone! It was actually gone before Tuesday which means it barely lasted a week in the apartment. Poor peanut butter, it never stood a chance. So a warning if you're thinking about buying it...it's so good it's very hard to resist. Granted I didn't eat ALL of it but I definitely ate more than my fair share.

I did a 7 mile run yesterday at lunch. I've been trying to be more consistent about taking walk breaks when I'm running so I've started doing the Galloway method where you alternate minutes of running with minutes of walking. I started yesterday with a 3:1 ratio--3 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking. I did about 4 miles using that ratio and then switched to a 3:2 ratio to finish. My legs were so tired at the end I literally could not get them to run anymore. I haven't had a run in a long time where I completely exhausted my legs...usually I have a little bit left in me but not yesterday. My goal next week when I run 7 miles to do the 3:1 ratio the entire time and then the week after that I'll do 4:1 until I build up to a 9:1 ratio which is the ratio I want to use for my half-marathon. I've had such a mental block over the past month when it comes to my running and yesterday I felt like I finally got over that mental block. I just took the 7 miles in chunks of 3 minutes instead of thinking about how far I'd come or how far I still had to go or how tired I was. And in that way, running is a lot like weight loss. So much of it is mental. If I think about how I can't have a cookie for the rest of my life I immediately start wanting a cookie but if I choose to think about it as one decision at a time, it's not so unbearable. Same thing with running...if all I think about is how far I still have to go, I immediately want to stop and turn around but if I think about it as one step at a time or one minute at a time, I can run for 7 miles. Wow, that was pretty deep and insightful. See, that's what running 7 miles gets you...you have A LOT of time to think about things.

I didn't end up doing my yoga or abs last night but I did go for a bike ride and ended up being gone for an hour. The plan for exercise today is walking to and from the Metro, 5.5 mile run at lunch (my plan right now is to walk half because my calves are sore from yesterday), and yoga and abs tonight.

2 comments:

Sara said...

Way to go on your run!! You can move forward, I find, without a run that is painful!!

I used the Galloway Method for both my half marathons, but sorta made up my own timing. For my first half I used 8 and 2's and for my second I used 10 and 1's (a common time used by Running Room here in Canada). During my training I was definitely faster using 10 and 1's but for the actual half I did much better and was in a lot less pain for my first race!

Heather said...

I always ponder when I workout too! lol

Great job on the run :)