My run today.
Out to Golden Gate Park and Back
It was actually an accident. The plan was three hours. Out to GG Park for 1 hr 15 Minutes, then back down to Dolores Park for hill repeats. BUT, after I was on my way back to the Mission, I looked at my Garmin and THOUGHT it was already 3 hours, which meant I was late to get home and go to brunch with Hubby. So I starting "sprinting." (My sprint would be most people's leisurely jog.)
Turned out it was no where's near three hours. But it meant I got in some pretty intense cardio, a very good thing, since it attacked my hated belly fat.
I have two great bete noirs regarding both my body and eating behavior. I eat at night. Every night. I think I managed to get through the night before my fasting blood panel but it was a white knuckler. It's a behavior I got from my father, which I grew up seeing and which has haunted me ever since. In the weight-loss process, I've managed to rationalize that it's only fruit, but I have been totally unwilling to let go of bananas. I love bananas. I love to eat a banana at around one in the morning. Unfortunately there are two or three "zombie runs" after that. Even fruit adds up. I'm trying to keep the calorie count between 1200 and 1500 per die and three or four servings of fruit can kill that pretty fast.
I hate my pooch with a vengeance. No matter how fit the rest of me gets, seeing that gut makes me want to attack myself with a machete and just cut it off. I consulted with my trainer/friend/foam-roller sponsor/karaoke krony/girl-crush Peggy and asked what to do. I figured I was asking for an ab exercise.
She made me go over my whole food plan and suggested I have a tablespoon full of peanut butter before I went to sleep. I've given up peanut butter because 1 TBSPN=100 calories and it didnt' seem worth it, but let's face it 1 Banana=105 Calories and if I eat a pear and a cup of strawberries AND 1 cup 1/2 cup blueberries between Midnight and 5 AM, that's way more. Plus I really want to overcome this particular behavior because of the programming it represents and my relationship to my father's food issues.
I tried it last night. A nice Bi-rite, locavore, hippy-dippy, organic healthy peanut butter. I hate it just around midnight. Very slowly. And it worked. I woke up a few times to urinate---AND WENT BACK TO BED WITHOUT eating.
One night does not a miracle make, but if I can really break this habit, it will a sea-change in my life in the same category as the weight-loss itself.
Here other suggestion was NOT an abs exercise, it was more intensity on the cardio. So when I freaked out and started "sprinting," it was another bit of a breakthrough. I've been scared to run fast on the long runs because of fear of pain from my muscle spasms or getting fatigued too far from home base, or just needing to pee. If you look at that last mile, I did it in just over 15 minutes. That's more or less the pace I need to maintain to get even close to a 3 hour 30 minute 1/2 marathon
I got home exhausted and sweating like a pig, but damn did I enjoy my splurge brunch.
What am I willing to give up: bananas. What am I willing to do: run through my back pain.
(Especially when I got stuck with a 15 MINUTE Pink Floyd track on my Ipod.)
It was actually an accident. The plan was three hours. Out to GG Park for 1 hr 15 Minutes, then back down to Dolores Park for hill repeats. BUT, after I was on my way back to the Mission, I looked at my Garmin and THOUGHT it was already 3 hours, which meant I was late to get home and go to brunch with Hubby. So I starting "sprinting." (My sprint would be most people's leisurely jog.)
Turned out it was no where's near three hours. But it meant I got in some pretty intense cardio, a very good thing, since it attacked my hated belly fat.
I have two great bete noirs regarding both my body and eating behavior. I eat at night. Every night. I think I managed to get through the night before my fasting blood panel but it was a white knuckler. It's a behavior I got from my father, which I grew up seeing and which has haunted me ever since. In the weight-loss process, I've managed to rationalize that it's only fruit, but I have been totally unwilling to let go of bananas. I love bananas. I love to eat a banana at around one in the morning. Unfortunately there are two or three "zombie runs" after that. Even fruit adds up. I'm trying to keep the calorie count between 1200 and 1500 per die and three or four servings of fruit can kill that pretty fast.
I hate my pooch with a vengeance. No matter how fit the rest of me gets, seeing that gut makes me want to attack myself with a machete and just cut it off. I consulted with my trainer/friend/foam-roller sponsor/karaoke krony/girl-crush Peggy and asked what to do. I figured I was asking for an ab exercise.
She made me go over my whole food plan and suggested I have a tablespoon full of peanut butter before I went to sleep. I've given up peanut butter because 1 TBSPN=100 calories and it didnt' seem worth it, but let's face it 1 Banana=105 Calories and if I eat a pear and a cup of strawberries AND 1 cup 1/2 cup blueberries between Midnight and 5 AM, that's way more. Plus I really want to overcome this particular behavior because of the programming it represents and my relationship to my father's food issues.
I tried it last night. A nice Bi-rite, locavore, hippy-dippy, organic healthy peanut butter. I hate it just around midnight. Very slowly. And it worked. I woke up a few times to urinate---AND WENT BACK TO BED WITHOUT eating.
One night does not a miracle make, but if I can really break this habit, it will a sea-change in my life in the same category as the weight-loss itself.
Here other suggestion was NOT an abs exercise, it was more intensity on the cardio. So when I freaked out and started "sprinting," it was another bit of a breakthrough. I've been scared to run fast on the long runs because of fear of pain from my muscle spasms or getting fatigued too far from home base, or just needing to pee. If you look at that last mile, I did it in just over 15 minutes. That's more or less the pace I need to maintain to get even close to a 3 hour 30 minute 1/2 marathon
I got home exhausted and sweating like a pig, but damn did I enjoy my splurge brunch.
What am I willing to give up: bananas. What am I willing to do: run through my back pain.
(Especially when I got stuck with a 15 MINUTE Pink Floyd track on my Ipod.)