Workout Pause

This week has flown by so far. I spent a wonderful and busy weekend celebrating Joe's 30th birthday and spending time with my mom shopping the Junior League Shopping Spree. Unfortunately, my ankle did not appreciate all the activity that came with the festivities. My lower leg was swollen and sore. I have been in and out of doctors this week trying to figure out why my ankle is not healing correctly. For now the diagnosis is a pulled tendon and sprained ankle. The prescription- a boot, rest and ice. This thing is bulky and cumbersome. Start physical therapy Friday and hope to get an estimate on how long it will take to heal.

Believe me this is extremely frustrating. I am not the type to rest. However, I know that if I continue to push myself I may just injure it more. Hoping for more insight Friday. Since this thing really prevents any strenuous cardio activity my game plan is to focus on nutrition (still a huge weakness) and work on strengthening my upper body. Kelly Ripa arms here I come!

Also, if anyone has any fashion tips on how to style this thing I would greatly appreciate it. :)

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Listening and Resting

Today my leg/ankle is still not feeling 100%. The pain has improved drastically from yesterday. I think the combination of rest and pain killers really helped minimize my discomfort today. It is still a no-go on cardio exercise since I can’t put much weight on my leg. I am taking it day by day because I want to heal fully in hopes of a full recovery by November. I have already registered and paid for the City of Oaks half-marathon in November that I was really looking forward too!

Being sidelined with an injury is no fun. Unfortunately, it happens to me often due to a weak ankle that I sprained years ago. My exercise focus right now is recovery and strength training. I love running and getting a good cardio workout so having to rest and elevate makes me a bit irritable.

 One thing I know I can control is my diet. Hoping to take this rest time to focus on my relationship with food and fueling by body with nutritious foods. Looking back at my YEARS of dieting I have learned that I tend to eat my emotions. Happy, sad, stressed or even bored have some emotional tie in with food. My relationship with food is something that I have been striving to work on these past few months. I don't want it to rule over me and fill me with regret and sadness. I want to be comfortable with enjoying what my body craves not what I feel like I have to eat.  Exercise has been my saving grace for not gaining 50+ pounds due to my emotional eating. With exercise taken away, it is the perfect time to focus on nutrition and not make it a diet but a lifestyle change.

I love that this little blog is a space of my own and can change as my goals refocus. Look forward to more healthy recipes and nutrition tips coming your way as I learn along my journey.

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Fitness Gear

Here is a little honestly for you all- I have been in quite a rut lately when it comes to working out. I am still getting in my miles for my half-marathon training but have felt unmotivated to do anything beyond that. This is not good for my goal of reaching and maintaining my happy weight by the end of the year. (I’m aiming for Thanksgiving.) When I am in a fitness rut, one thing that puts pep in my step as I head out the door is a great fitting outfit or a new cute top.  I don’t have a huge collection of workout gear  (maybe 4-5 tops, shorts and crops) but I make sure the items I have are ones that I love.

I recently received Victoria's Secret new line of sport bras through Influenster to test. The sports bra was Incredible by Victoria's Secret Sport Bra. Along with the bra, they sent a pair of compression leggings.  These are the Knockout by Victoria's Secret Tight Leggings in Black Marl. Also, inside the box was a packet of 25% off coupons (email me sweetcarolinabelle@gmail.com) if you want one.

 

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I have worn this sports bra on several long training runs and am so impressed. The bra is very well made with thick straps and underwire support. I don’t need much support  but can tell this bra provides it for others that are well endowed. It has a bit of padding and shaping which is great for gals like me who become flat chested when wearing sports bras. The leggings are okay but the sports bra stole the show for me. The design of the bra is excellent and there are lots of color/pattern variety to choose from.

A tried a true favorite for workout gear is Luluemon. I know I am one in thousands that just love this brand. Being short I have to pick and choose what works since their brand is made for tall, leggy yogis. My favorite capris for running are Luluemon’s  run inspire crop and illumina crop. The illumina crop has a perfect pocket to store your phone or fuel on runs.

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This Brooks tank has been my go to workout tank this summer. I wore it during my marathon and loved the loose but flattering fit. Even after 26 miles the tank did not stretch out one bit. It is on sale right now and comes in a ton of different colors you just have to search around to find them. My favorite is the berry color from REI. 

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Fabletics is a recent discovery of mine. It’s an online boutique that features high quality, fashion forward fitness gear. My first outfit was the Lima Capri and the Adventura Tank. Both pieces are great high quality items. I really enjoy wearing these when doing toning or lifting exercises. I also think these pieces would be great for Pure Barre! 

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Well, there you go if you are in the market for new, cute and functional workout clothes I encourage you give these a try! Hope y’all have a great Wednesday.

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Race Recap: Tobacco Road Half Marathon

   

      Thanks for all your well wishes for my half marathon Sunday. The rain held off in the morning and it was a brisk 50 degrees for the race which made for great running weather. I crossed the finish line at 2:11. Having a race built within my marathon training was actually harder for me than I thought. The competitive part of me  wanted to push myself hard and go for a personal best (sub 2:10). However, I knew that this week is the last build week for marathon training and I needed to save my legs because there would not be much time to recover.  I averaged a pace of 10:01 which is significantly faster than my long runs this training season which have been around 10:45- 11 pace. I feel like I ran my best without straining my legs too much.  Even knowing that I am still a little mad that did not shave off 2 more minutes to get it under 2:10.

At the Race Start

      Yesterday's race taught me several lessons. First lesson, the timing of your pre-race fuel is important. For training runs, I normally have a banana with peanut butter less than an hour before our run. At the race runners were dropped off at 5:30 am for a 7 am start time. I ate my snack in the car almost 2 hours before start time. By around mile 7, I could tell my stomach did not have enough in it and my body was getting tired. My Gu gels helped take the edge off and an extra cup of Gatorade for carbs helped me finish strong. By the time I made it home I was starving and Joe could even hear my stomach rumbling. That is never a good sign.       Second lesson,  wear a gps watch they are much more reliable than Iphone gps. I have been really slack about charging and wearing my Garmin lately. Several people I run with have watches and I just rely on them to set the pace. I used the Nike Plus app on my phone to help pace me this race since I forgot my watch. According to my phone, I was running a 9:30 minute/mile for the first few miles. I knew I was running slightly faster than my normal pace but it did not feel like a 9:30 pace. My suspicions were confirmed when we passed the 4 mile marker and my phone displayed we were at 4.5 miles. The mile calculations were way off. I spent the rest of the race just ignoring the pace and focusing on the time since I knew that would be a good gauge of how much farther I had to go.
      All together the race was a great experience. The course was extremely flat compared to training runs in downtown Raleigh which was so nice. The race is a local non-profit race that has amazing community support. It was around 40 degrees at race start with a high chance of rain. They set up a heated tent last minute for runners to wait in for the race to start. There were an abundance of port-a-potties which  is extremely important. No really. I am sure most of you know long distance running can create weird restroom habits. It was fun to see many runners and spectators dressed up for St. Patrick's day. The course was on a trail which made for beautiful scenery but had few spots for spectators. They planned it out really nicely with aid stations each place the trail widened so to not create too much congestion. Also, the trail was gravel which is so much better for your feet and joints. I look forward to running this race again next year and crushing my current record!

Five on Friday

One. I'm running a half-marathon Sunday! The Tobacco Road Half Marathon fit seamlessly into my marathon training. The forecast is absolutely terrible right now for Sunday so I'm praying the rain stays away for a few hours during the race. The course is on a old railroad track so it is extremely flat compared to the roads in Raleigh.  Also, this race marks one month out from my marathon! I am so excited to run my first race of 2014.  

Two. I have been re-discovering my favorite tunes and finding several new ones thanks to Spotify. Spotify is a free streaming service that lets you follow other's playlists as well as build your own playlists. I love that you can view all the songs on the playlist before you add it to your list.  I have been jamming out to a lot of John Mayer lately which takes me back to high school.

Three. I am trying to cut back on sweets and clean up my diet. In hopes to replace my nightly M & M fix I picked up these chocolate yogurt covered cherries at Target. The tart cherry center is a great contract to the chocolate coating. I portioned them out so I could enjoy one serving at a time.

Four. Spring break is less than 40 days away and I just booked a cruise to celebrate the break! I'm going on a mother-daughter cruise with my mom to Key West & Cozumel. I'm dreaming of warm weather and tropical drinks. This also means it's less than 40 days until I'm back in a bikini so it's crunch time!

Five. The consequences of the horrible weather in central NC is makeup days. Students were forgiven the days since there was a state of emergency. Staff luckily gets to make up the days through workdays.... on Saturdays. This coming Saturday is my first make-up workday. Thanks to a huge deadline looming at the end of the month I have more than enough work to do. Still pretty bummed about having to work on a Saturday and will be bribing myself with coffee.

Hope you all have an amazing Friday!
What are you looking forward to this weekend?