9 down, 3 to go

Posted on June 2, 2013 by lindaharley

Less than 3 weeks to go until the race!

I had my day off on Tuesday this week, but I had to take my car to the garage.  Since it was about 3 miles away, I chose to run home from the garage – part of that was the actual race route, which was handy.  It was a dry sunny morning, and my pacing was good.

On Thursday afternoon after work, the weather was glorious, and I linked 2 of my short routes together – started round the river, and then added on the Hillhall Road.  That was 7 km in 50 minutes.  As I was running through the bluebells, it occurred to me that I used to think when I was running “it’ll be good when it stops”.  Whereas I had such a smile on my face I was thinking “I’ll miss this when it stops!”.  The nice thing is – it doesn’t have to stop.

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Saturday’s parkrun had a delayed start, as three articulated lorries arrived in the park, not having been informed of our run.  So a bit of maneuvering was required to get them parked up somewhere safe, and marshalls ensured that there were no forklifts or similar operating while the run was underway.  My own start was then slowed as I had to fiddle a bit with the pouch I wear to carry my phone etc, so I could have been quicker at that point.  But no matter – a new PB of 28:16, and an average pace of sub-9 minute miles.

Having run almost 10 miles on the three previous Sunday long runs, this week according to the training plan I was to run 6 miles.  Since there’s a 10k race being run at the same time as the half-marathon (in fact I ran that 10k a few years ago), I though that would be a good one to have a go at.  So off I set at 8 in the morning to run 10 k before breakfast.  I’m constantly amazed at what my body is capable of!  In fact, by the time I added on the distance from my house to the leisure centre where the race starts, the total distance was 8.6 miles, done in just over an hour and a half (but with a very annoying and hyper Max to wrestle with for the last few miles, after he’d been spooked by a bicycle)

Max when he's NOT being hyper

Max when he’s NOT being hyper

Still time to donate to the great cause I’m raising funds for!

http://www.justgiving.com/Linda-HarleyGillespie

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5 and 2 and 2 to 2

Posted on June 2, 2013 by lindaharley

A slightly different approach this week, during which I have been awash with sandwiches!

Monday was a Bank Holiday, and also a Scottish Dancing party, so I didn’t fast (and had sandwiches for supper. Very odd they were too – tuna with grapes? And the dreaded raw onion in egg ones, bleurgh)
Tuesday was my day off – not normally a day I’d pick for fasting, but needs must. I had to take my car to the garage in the morning, and ran the 3 miles home afterwards. Around lunchtime I was hungry, so had a late brunch of tinned grapefruit segments with blueberries (70 calories)

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Mid afternoon I realised I was missing protein, so I had a pickled egg accompanied by some salad leaves and tomatoes (90 calories).

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Dinner was home made bolognese sauce with some zero noodle spaghetti (350 calories), before dog-training kept me busy during the evening.

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Enjoyed The Apprentice with a diet ginger-beer.
On Wednesday, I had a working lunch. This meant even more sandwiches, and my stomach was complaining all evening about this carb-fest.
Thursday arrived, with yet another working lunch and yet more sandwiches. I decided to try doing a 2pm-2pm fast which would allow me to eat the business lunch, but still be done fasting by the time Friday evening came around. And I have to say, it does have its attractions. Really, it’s a light meal one evening, skip breakfast the following morning and have a late lunch. I did find some issues – counting on MFP for starters! Usually I can track my non-fast days to my maintenance TDEE level, and also see that my fast days are coming in under 500. Using the 2pm-2pm approach, both Thursday AND Friday were knocked off whack, and I was having to make additional calculations in my head about how much I’d eaten and when. And emotionally – on Thursday evening, normally I’d be able to get through the evening going “nearly there, I can eat what I like tomorrow!” and planning my breakfast. But this time I was going to bed knowing that I would STILL be fasting in the morning.

Overall verdict – I’d do it again if I had to, but I prefer doing straightforward fast days. However, this might be a way that my mother could adapt to quite easily – she doesn’t really count calories, but if I gave her some suggested light dinner ideas, and just told her to skip breakfast and have a late lunch, then that’s really simple to follow.

So when Friday came around, I was happy to agree to my husband’s suggestion that we go out for dinner.  That IS one of the big attractions of this way of eating, that you can easily filt in working lunches and eating out.  We walked to the restaurant, but as we hadn’t booked, we had to wait at the bar for half an hour.  I ordered a fancy cocktail, husband posted a picture of me drinking it on Facebook, and minutes later my best friend was texting me, having seen it, to ask if that was the new Gok for Tu top, and wow didn’t I look fabulous!

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New low weight this week – 133 pounds, which is only 3 pounds away from goal.  I am enjoying buying clothes that say “size 8” on the label – and i’ve decided that at the hairdressers next week……I’m going blonde!

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