Thank Goodness for Hot Sauce...

As with most type-A, OCD personalities, having one goal at a time is just simply insufficient.  So, as it goes, I have not only committed myself to at least five days of running, but I also decided somewhere along the way to try to re-vamp my "diet."  I use that term as in "what I eat everyday" and not in the context of I am on a "diet" - see prior entry on "juice cleanse" if you want to see how well those attempts go for me.  This process came about after my trainer challenged me to enter ALL of my food and more importantly my drinks into a little app that calculates your calories and breaks down your food into categories.  Well, I thought I had this, no problem...in my mind, I eat healthy pretty much under the 80/20 rule...that is, I eat healthy Monday-Thursday (maybe Friday, but unlikely) and then I do what I want on the weekend, still keeping in mind what I thought were key points.  I don't eat pasta, I thought I had a pretty high protein based diet - which would be good for rebuilding muscle after workouts and runs - I knew I drank too much wine which is just empty calories, but frankly every single runner I know is a power drinker...this seemed of no consequence to me.  Well, well, a day of entering my time into that forsaken app and WOW I was waaaay off base.  Apparently the protein I like (e.g. nuts, nut butter, red meat, olive oil, eggs, avocados) while good fat was making up around 50% of my calories in the day!  Whoa!  All of a sudden I felt completely frozen in my food choices - I really wanted a steak topped with a fried egg :) - did I have to eat grilled chicken everyday - or most of the time.  Surely there was shortcut... After about 2 weeks of denial and a large Costco bag of pistachios later, I accepted it...if I want to see changes in my workouts and how my body handles that, I have to make food changes.  As the saying goes, you can out-eat any good workout.  Food does matter.  So, with a heavy heart and very little enthusiasm I made myself a broccoli, egg white (oh I missed those butter yellows) scramble this morning.....all I can say is, everything tastes better with hot sauce!

Turning a Corner....

I heard my kids at 5:45 this morning, they were convinced it was another snow day.  I told them no way, it's not even sprinkling outside, much less snowing.  Then, I checked my phone...yes, indeed school was delayed for 2 hours and it was about 27 degrees outside, but apparently felt like the teens.  So, why on earth was I dying to get my run in?  I HATE the cold.  I didn't even own a real coat until I went to Chicago in law school in March, thinking it would be balmy there, and had to buy one when I quickly got a taste of "winter."  I would never survive in the Dakotas, Siberia, Antarctica...you get the idea.  On top of this serious disdain for the cold, I had an entire 2 extra hours to sit around, drink coffee, watch the news, take a nap, you name it, until I had to "officially" start my day, at least according to the school authorities that be.  A month ago, this would have been a no-brainer...a fool-proof excuse not to run...people aren't even out driving.  No one would expect me to stick to my "resolutions" today.  Instead of dreading gearing up for a cold run, I couldn't wait to get outside.  Am I ready to move up North?  Uh, no.  But, as I ran this morning it hit me -- it wasn't that I suddenly embraced the cold.  I had turned a corner.  For the first time in a very long time, I looked forward to my run and it did not disappoint.  

Gloves

I headed out for my first long run in a year completely unprepared for the weather.  Although I looked at my "weather" app, all I saw was mid-forties and maybe a little sprinkling of rain.  So, I left my gloves behind.  It only took about 3 minutes for me to realize that this was going to be a l-o-n-g 20 miles without gloves as the wind began howling and the "sprinkles" of rain sheeting across my now red hands.  Thank goodness I at least had some company for 17 miles of the run.  I met one friend about 1.5 miles in and then we picked up another friend on the road around mile 4 and met a big group down at the Lake for the 7 mile loop.  Having good friends to rag on you while you are in misery always keeps your mind off the running part.  In fact, staying on topic, it seems that I have been the butt of a few jokes because I lost a pair of gloves of a very good friend of mine and I am a complete idiot and instead of asking her how much they cost made an assumption and that assumption was so wrong!!  Yikes!!  This is why I love these people - they will call you out in a flash...you cannot get away with anything...whether you are trying or not!  They are like family with all the good and bad that comes with being family.  If you don't have a group like this to run with, I highly recommend finding one.  The key is that they can't be too nice or too mean - just the right amount of each seems to keep the motivation (and friendships) strong.  So, here are the lessons learned on this cold, rainy, windy Super Bowl Sunday morning:  1) if it is below 50 degrees OR windy, wear your gloves...PERIOD; and 2) if you borrow a pair of gloves, make sure to find out how much they actually cost before you write the check!