:( Hmph

Not sure if any one has ever tried to leave a comment... but I fixed the settings, so now any one should be able to leave one!
Tuesday
So being the nice wife I am I went along with James to do scout out a forest for his deer hunting... I kept my mouth shut the entire time but I absolutely hated it. Besides all the mud, blood, and tics I dealt with I have a hideous rash every where... and this is 2 weeks later. Turns out Poison Oak! So now I've got swollen ears, lips, and stuff all over my hands, mouth, and legs. GRRR never again!!
After going to the Doctor for this I went for my 3 mile tempo run, not good. I barely made it a mile and half before my knee stiffened up and refused to work. So I hobbled on over and finally made my Physical Therapy appointment. We'll see what happens!!!

Besides all that bad stuff I've got lots of better things to talk about!! CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT SUNDAY!! VA BEACH ROCK N ROLL HALF MARATHON!! I've been waiting for ever for this! I will have tons of pictures to share. This past Sundays long run was only 7 miles, so I decided to up it to 8 miles... then I looked at my phone towards the end of my run and it said 8.79, so it turned into a 9 mile run! I felt so good I could've kept going for a while.

I can't stop eating my Oatmeal cookies I posted the other week. Now I'll eat them by reheating them and putting a thin layer of peanut butter on top... NOMNOM! I also used craisins in the last batch I made which were pretty good.

Thursday
 Bleh had another bad run day. I planned on doing 6 miles but my knee hurt so bad again and my arch felt like it was ripping!! I had to stop and walk a few times before just quitting or hurting myself worse before Sunday. I ended up stopping at 5.35 miles and I'm taking the rest of the week off :( MAKES ME SAD! I'll do an hours of cross training Friday and tons of stretching and foam rolling till Sunday. I did make my running playlist for Sunday so that got me all pumped up again! 

New Running Fuel
*I tried out my new GU Chomps and they were delicious, but took too much time to chew during my run so I think I'll stick to normal gels. 
*I also tried out the Vanilla Honey Stingers. AMAZING also. They're like chewy wafer cookies.

Even though I know you don't need to carbo load for a half marathon, I'm still debating on what I'll be munching the day before. Last Saturday I was bad and had a few pieces of pizza and then ran 2 extra miles the next day... So I might possibly whip up a home made healthier pizza.

So Excited for SUNDAY!!!! SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! 

12 Inches lighter :D

So I'm taking advantage of my icing bum around time and thought I'd catch up on everything! I've also been working on putting some of my photography up, so I posted a few things in the 'Snap' section if ya wanted to check it out!

I tried lots of new recipes, bought some new race fuels, and had some greats runs!!
First I'll start with my WARNING!!! The banana raisin oatmeal cookies might make you take a few trips to the bathroom if ya eat a few, just letting you know!
I'll start off with all the yummy recipes and food I've eaten this week! First I created an amaazzzinnngg smoothie. I'll call it Blue Mango:
*1/3 C of plain fat free greek yogurt
*1/2 C Frozen blueberries
*bunches of spinach
*Whole mango
*few drops of vanilla extract
Then blend it all together! I didn't follow these exact measurements... sorta just dumped them into my blender.


Next, I made a healthy desert for James and I... Diet Coke Brownies!
I found this super simple recipe on pinterest all ya need is
*Box of Brownie mix
*12 oz Diet Coke
I used Sugar free Brownie mix which is less mix than a normal box, so I probably should've used a little less soda. They come out kind thing but turned out super delicious though. Using the sugar free mix there were only 90 calories a serving!



Another recipe I made was for a Single Serving Chobani Muffin, again I got this from one of my favorite bloggers, Rabbit Food for my Bunny Teeth. All you need it:
*4 Tbsp Chobani Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Greek Yogurt (I used plain and added some powdered vanilla jello)
*3 Tbsp whole wheat flour
*1 Tbsp liquid egg whites
*1 Tbsp chia seeds
*1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
*1/4 tsp or 1 packet of stevia
*1/4 tsp baking powder
 *I also added a dark chocolate kiss in the middle
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients and stir until well mixed. Pour the batter into a cupcake liner in a muffin tin. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Enjoy warm out of the oven.


 Besides being addicted to Sugar Free Icees at 7/11, they also have a pretty healthy snack I love to get, Smart Fries. 110 Calories a bag, they're a healthy alternative to chips and french fries.

James and I also tried out this pretty cool burrito bar in Portsmith. You basically customize your burrito, taco, or quesadilla any way you want and mark it off on the menu. For my burrito I chose a healthy combo of a whole wheat tortilla, black beans, corn, brown rice, lettuce, tomato, and guacamole. I also had an amazing hard cider called Angry Orchard, tasted like apple juice... then I looked up how many calories it had and there were 190 -_- whoops. Always check your alcohol calories ahead of time!!!
My new favorite post run meal is... SUSHI! The commisary on base has a section where there's sushi being freshly made. I always grab a California roll or tuna roll with brown rice, lots of carbs and protein making it a good recovery meal. 









Okay so another thing I did this week... CHOP MY HAIR OFF!!! I love my long hair so I was just planning on trimming like 4 inches off but decided, Hey! My hair will grow no matter what and there's some people out there that need it a whole lot more than me! So I cut off a foot to donate to Locks of Love. I wish I would've done this at the beginning of summer though, my hair would be every where and stuck to me when I'd run. So if you're looking for a change and have some extra hair you should definitely consider it!

CHOCOLATE WASTED!!!!

But really...
After my amazing 9 mile run Sunday I went to a BBQ and ate like 10 days worth of food. I had tons of tortilla chips with buffalo chicken dip, some cookies, a burger, chili, crackers and cheese... I couldn't stop. I woke up feeling like I had a wild crazy drunken night. I felt awful, dehydrated, and sluggish alllllll day. Carbs like to suck up all the water in your body especially afer a feeding frenzy, so all day I drank water non stop. Days like this remind me exactly why I love to eat clean and in moderation. I do not enjoy feeling like a beached whale.

Any who! I've have knee pains that flare up ever few months and lately its been awful. I've never done much for it but ice it so last week I purchased one of those knee braces that is basically a band that goes underneath your knee cap to help stabalize and hold it all in place. I read some really good review on them... and IT WORKED!!! Sometimes I could feel the pain creepin back in but for the most part I've been running pain free for the past week. Such a wonderful feeling! I hate when you know you could've ran some much faster and further but pain is holding you back.
I've also been bugging James about buying me a pair of compression socks for recover. They encourage blood flow for faster recovery, and from what I've heard they are pretty great. BUT! James isn't too fond of the price. So for now I've been doing DIY Compression! For a fraction of the price I bought 2 ACE bandages and have just been wrapping them from my ankles to my knees. I might go to Walmart this week and dry out some Dr. Scholl's ones.

I'm so EXCITED to share my BANANA RAISIN OATMEAL COOKIES! 
I found a basic recipes online and added some flare to it, best thing is... there's no added sugar, butter, or oil! They taste pretty dang good. I calculated out the nutritional info on MyFitnessPal and came up with:
12 Servings
62 Cals, .5 g Fat, 13 g Carbs, 2 g Protein, 5 g sugar
All you'll need is:
*1/2 C whole wheat flour            *1/4 tsp salt
*1 C rolled oats                           *cinnamon (I just kept shakin and shakin)
*1/2 tsp baking powder               *1/2 C unsweetend applesauce
*1/2 tsp baking soda                    *5 tbs egg white
*1/2 tsp vanilla extract                *1/8 C honey
*1/4 C raisins/craisins                 *1 small-med banana
*Stevia packets optional
Directions:
I mixed all the dry ingredients together first then added in the wet stuff, then mushed up the banana and mixed it all in. Then cooked them for 12 mins at 350.

They were so good I decided to make a 2nd batch right after since I know they'll be super convenient for pre run snacks. Also, the 2nd time around I made them smaller and squeezed 17 decent sized ones out of it, so they're even lower in calorie per cookie!!! Also, try microwaving them for 5 seconds then putting a thin layer of peanut butter on top. DELICIOUS! 

I've got a 10 miler tomorrow!!! I'm going to try out drinking a couple cups of black tea before my run instead of coffee, the last few runs that I've had coffee before I had weird moments of really high heart rates so I'll see if the tea gets rid of that, plus I don't care much for the taste. Hopefully no more food hang over!

Oatmeal raisin cookies & Funfetti Cake dip!!

 So thanks to Pinterest I made some Funfetti Cake dip... NOMNOM, it's basically eating cake batter. Here's the website I got it from but it's super simple, only 3 ingredients: 
*Box of Funfetti cake mix
*2 cups fat-free plain yogurt (I used greek yogurt instead)

*1 cup lite Cool Whip (I used the fat free one)

Then just mix it allllll up. I also used Teddygrams to dip but you could use animal cookies, nilla waffers, etc. Again it's only 105 calories per 1/4 cup serving

Also from one of my favorite blogs I made her breakfast Oatmeal Rasin Cookies. Super easy and quick!
Here's the origional recipe! But I'll give the quick break down of it:

*1/4 cup liquid egg whites      *1Tbsp chia seeds
*1/4 cup rolled oats                 *1/2 tsp Vanilla
*1/2 banana mashed                *1/2 tsp Cinnamon
*1/4 tsp baking powder             *2 Tbsp raisins
Mix it all up in a small microwaveable bowl, then microwave it for 1 min and 30 secs. Then you can plop it out of the bowl onto a plate or eat it out of the bowl. I made this 3 times this week!

So for another healthy desert I tried (tried being the key word) to make snickerdoodle blondie brownies made with chickpeas... blehhhh Here's the website if you would want to try it, but now I have the pan of it sitting in my fridge, that will probably be there for a couple weeks. It was just too
 dry, and didn't taste like anything I'd want to try again.

The past few days James and I have been exhausted after work with out much time to cook dinner so we went out a couple times. In town we have a restaurant called Jason's Deli, DELISH! They have a huge unlimited salad bar, healthy sandwiches, lots of soups and other salads. This time I got the taco salad with chicken chili, blue corn chips, and guacamole. Lots of healthy fats, protein, and carbs. I nixed the sour cream and scrapped off as much cheese as I could to make it healthier. One of the days we got chinese take out. I know, first thought is fried stuff covered in sauce with some more greasy oily stuff. But the place we go to has a whole healthy section with steamed choices. So I got steamed chicken and veggies with rice.

Running Stuff!

I'm addicted to Runnersworld.com and their forums, so while feeding my habbit I came across some useful things I thought I'd share:
I mentioned earlier that my running pace has been getting slower and recently my legs just haven't been wanting to work. SO DEPRESSING!! Especially after taking a few days off of running, but on the forums I read about people having similar problems and a lot of responses were talking about heat and humidity having a huge impact on pace. So here's a quick trick to seeing how hard you should push yourself or if you shouldn't even be thinking about pace.

Temperature + Dew Point

Below 100: Ideal
100-120: Not ideal, but ok to go for a fast time
120-130: Ok for fast pace in races up to 10K - adjust for slower pace in longer races
130-150: Adjust for slower pace in all race distances, especially longer races
Above 150: Forget pace - just focus on finishing

Just about everyday is way over 150 for where I am, so WHEW! It's not mainly my fault!

I've also been doing research on fitting in beneficial strength work outs for running, but there's so many different things online. Of course runners world had the easiest to understand with lots of good reviews. It consists of:

*12-15 Reverse Lunges per leg              *12-15 single leg raises

*6 Single Leg Box Jumps per leg           *5-8 Planks while raising a leg for 2 seconds

*12-15 Y squats
It's all only about 7 minutes and its a warmup and strenth workout all in one!! Here's the link for instructions and more information.

I Have also found my new love...  a FOAM ROLLER!! These things are amazing for recover, sore muscles, and injuries. I found an infograph explaining all the main exercises and different kinds of rollers. They can get pretty expensive, but I found one at Walmart for $14.00 so I snatched that one. I use it everyday for my quads, hamstrings, calves, and ITB. It gets pretty painful using it but after you feel like a new person.

Yesterday I had to run on the treadmill since it was pouring with lightning and thunder. After I was done I ran back to my car and in slow motion I saw myself step in this huge puddle right next to my car. DOH! I was excited to wear my new shoes for tomorrow and now they were completely drenched. I was going to use a trick I read on Runners World for drying out shoes, but I didn't have the main component... newspaper. Runners World says to take out your inserts and then stuff your shoes with newspaper until they're dry. I used towels instead and the next morning they were dry! So today I had a 9 miler, my main goal was to finish and not feel miserable. Mission completed!! I finished feeling great and not like I wanted to quit miles back. I did my post run commissary walk around picked up lots of groceries including chocolate milk, which is the best post run recovery meal ever!