January 18th, 2010: I am woman

Hi guys!  As promised, here is my snack from last night.

A glass of red and triple threat chocolate!  Left to right:

  • 60% dark chocolate chips
  • Dark chocolate mint
  • Sea salt chocolate

I had one sea salt, all of the mint (so freaking good! totally my favorite) and a few of the chips.  No way I would eat all that chocolate but I wanted to be able to pick and choose while watching TV.  We finished a hockey game and watched the first episode of The Worst Cook’s In America.  We will not be watching that show again.  It’s horrible and also comes across as totally fake.  The “cooks” seem like actors who are trying to play the worst cook in America.  It’s like a spoof, it’s very strange.

Oh and we also watched some Antiques Roadshow to get our grannie and gramps moment in for the day.

I am on a quest to add in more strength training to my workouts!  I have the cardio down no problem and now I need to tone up and strengthen up.  It’s time to become hardcore and pump some iron!

In my efforts, I did level 2 and 3 of shred today.  Normally I take Mondays off since it’s the day after my long run.  Not anymore!  I am going to work that day and make it a strength day and also try and find some time during the week to add in more strength training.

I was starving for lunch when it finally rolled around and made a huge salad and a smoothie.  It was later in the afternoon so I didn’t cut up any fresh fruit and boy was I missing that.  Fresh fruit provides so much more extra fiber and yummies during lunch!  Plus if it’s an orange or something really juicy, you get the added bonus of some fruit juice with your meal. :)

Today’s smoothie:

  • 1C Carrot juice
  • 1C Unsweetened cranberry juice
  • 1C Water
  • Spinach
  • Banana
  • 2 frozen yogurt cubes
  • Frozen blueberries
  • Frozen mango

The banana and the yogurt help the smoothie become creamy and thick, it is so so good!

We are in leftovers up to our necks! That was on the agenda for dinner this evening.  I have leftover chili from Friday evening while Scott had some risotto.  I added some spaghetti squash to my chili to help stretch it out a bit.  This was squash that I had previously roasted and frozen.  All I had to do was squeeze out the excess liquid and then just added it right to the chili as it heated up.

Plus some multigrain bread with some butter.  This bread was pretty fantastic for Kroger bread.  The ingredients list was sound plus it had flax and sunflower seeds.  It was really dense and chewy, I loved it!

More on strength training:

Speaking of strength training, have you all seen Gina’s Winter Shape-Up program?  I am totally going to do this!  It could not have come at a better time!  I have everything I need except for a medicine ball which I was going to purchase anyway.

I want to run the Cap City Half again this year and that is coming up on May 1st!  Not too far away!  I am training for the miles on my own since I have to increase my mileage slowly.  Currently my long run is 8 miles, I should have no problems getting those remaining miles in by May.  However, from my experience last year I know that I definitely need to add in some strength training to avoid injury.

Last year during training, I suffered from a tight IT band.  Not a big deal, it happens to a lot of runners.  Stretching and massage helped that out.  However during the race I strained my right hamstring.  It bothered me a great deal for a long time and I was off running totally for just over a month.

As a cardio fiend and new lover of running, being sidelined was crappy.  Not only did I have to start off at a low mileage, but I’m still working on increasing and bumping my mileage back up to where it was.  When I started training last year to run another half in October, I had to pull out because my hamstring was still bothering me.

:rant:

I know this is a direct result from the lack of strength training for that first half.  I know hamstrings are a very common problem and an easily injured muscle for runners, mine were weak.  Hamstrings do a lot of work for runners and it’s up to us to make sure they are strong enough to handle training.

In an attempt to prevent injury this season and to make sure I’m getting enough strength training in, I’m signing up for Gina’s challenge!  She even provides the workouts each week, all we have to do is follow them!  Easy enough right?  Who’s in? :D

9 thoughts on “January 18th, 2010: I am woman

  1. I’m tempted to do Gina’s challenge, but I’m pretty happy with Jillian right now. I shredded (2 in a row, just like you!!) this morning too and holy shnikes! We’ll see if I buckle to the peer pressure ;)

  2. Mmmm, Mmm chocolate! The mint sounds amazing!

    So great that you are on board with the shape-up. Think I will join as well.

    Hope you had a great day hun!

  3. I need to try the seasalt chocolate. I’ve had caramels, but I think I would like the chocolate better. Great news about the strength training! It has always been an important part of my fitness routine. Thanks for sharing the program. We’ll be without a gym in about a month so I’m going to have to get creative with it again.

  4. LOL, we are running a half on May 1 and my long run is currently 8 miles as well :) I hear you on working on injury prvention. I am so paranoid about it now, after having to take 2 months off this summer. I wonder if the strength training I am doing is helping me. I just started yoga this week, and it has a lot of hammie stretches, so I am hoping that will help as well :) good luck with the program :)

    Sea salt chocolate sounds interesting!

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