Eminem who?

I just ran 9.5 miles, which means I left Eminem in my dust on the home stretch...my sister and I ran around the Glenmore Reservoir this morning and it was just over 15K.  Yes, it took us over 2 hours, but it was a fantastic day, sunny and cool with the perfect breeze, and I'd never done it before. We stopped to look at herons, chipmunks, ladybugs and finches and weren't in a big hurry.

My sister, who has professional marathon training, was an excellent running partner and made us stop frequently to stretch at benches or wave our arms around like monkeys, or concentrate on breathing, none of which are things I ever do, so that was great to do.  Hopefully I'm not as sore as usual tomorrow as a result. Oh, she also smiles and says hello to everyone we pass, so she's not just a better runner, she's a nicer person!  I'm going to try to say hello to more runners on future runs and will DEFINITELY be doing the Glenmore loop again, it was beautiful!

Now I'm off to the Chinatown festival and Taste of Calgary...gotta refuel after such a long run!

Update: I ate EVERYTHING at Taste of Calgary, plus realized on Sunday that I had rubbed all the skin off my bellybutton. Eww...first running injury!

Day #4 - Feeling the effects of Lawn Bowling :)

I guess this is the week that I'll be doing random 'cross training' in a variety of different 'sports'. Last night was lawn bowling. A very good friend is getting married today so last night she got both family and friends to brave the weather and have a lawn bowling/BBQ night. A great time was had by all.. though I can't imagine that the 8 lunges I did with my throws can account for any kind of training, though holding a new baby did seem to help the arm muscles! The beer hydration also really can't be considered as a training mechanism so I guess next week we'll have to go back to the more traditional training methods.. oh well it was fun while it lasted!
All that can be said for this morning's workout is that .. thank God we do the 30Day Shred Level 1 on Friday mornings, I don't think I could have handled much more!!

Miracle Day = Miracle Food!

This morning I ran 5K on the treadmill on the speed interval setting.  I toggled between 8.5KPH and 11.5KPH and finished in 32.18.  Not my fastest 5K EVER, but it was still up there and I felt pretty good at the end!  I ran my first half marathon last year but didn't keep up the training as well as I'd like to, so these are harder than they used to be. Now, remember my last post with the brief nutritional tutorial for runners?  Well, yesterday was Miracle Day at Dairy Queen which means when you buy a Blizzard, you're not snarfing a tasty frozen treat, you're helping sick children! 

We went over and tried out the new mini Blizzards, which are a PERFECT 6oz serving, you know, to help out the kids.  I had checked nutritional info online before we went and chose the Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard (which I didn't know existed, I thought they used Reeses Pieces, which are delicious on their own but all waxy when added to ice cream and therefore not my favorite). The mini clocked in at a half decent 275 calories.  I did a breakdown of these calories and they are as follows:

38g carbs
11g fat
6g protein

In other words, the breakdown was 69-20-11.  An optimum runners diet should be roughly 60-20-20, so a Blizzard does go a bit over on carbs and under on protein, but is otherwise basically the perfect runners fuel.  No wonder my run this morning was so decent! I was being fueled by a Dairy Queen Powerhouse!

You can't argue with science, folks. I'm adding a Blizzard mini into my diet at least twice a week until they take them away.

PS....Speaking of Blizzards I went to Cambodia last year and had a Large Blizzard, which was only slightly bigger that the North American Mini version.  I think that nicely demonstrates why we're the most obese continent on the planet!  Go Team!

Day #3 - Princess Chris 'Sore and Surviving and finding Balance'

So I'm not sure if mini-golf can be considered training but either way, it must be said that we had a fantastic time at our WestJet Vacations celebration party last night. Both Princess Felic and I spent a lot of the evening balancing 'calories out' with our workouts yesterday with 'calories in' aka chicken wings (chicken wing for Felic), Coors light and other appies to finish out the evening... gotta say 'calories in' might have a slight edge.
Back at the gym this am for day #2 of Dan the Man's workout. We were able to assess which exercises from Tuesday caused so much pain and just for the heck of it, did them all over again. No cardio as my snooze button was a little too nice to me this morning and didn't force me out of bed. Will make up tomorrow????...

Lunchtime 5km Run - 33min (Christi & Crystal)

But enough about my training: What do I get to eat?

To sum up, I feel like this:

So, I thought I would briefly talk basic nutrition for the distance runner instead of how I feel like I went head to head with a truck and lost.  Here goes:

First, forget everything Dr Atkins ever told you...you need lots and lots of carbs to fuel a run.

Carbs: 60% of daily intake, from pasta, rice, bread, fruit and starchy veggies
Protein: 15-20% of daily intake, from lean meats, low cal dairy and beans
Fats: 20-25% of daily intake, but the "good" kind from oils, nuts and fishes, not my favorite kind of fat.

This guide is good because carbs are my favorite. If I had my way, every day would be potato and spaghetti sandwich day. 

You also want to ensure you get plenty of calcium and iron to ensure you can perform at your best (that's what she said) and drink lots of water to stay hydrated. Which means liver milkshakes are the perfect mineral supplement.  But I'm going to stick with capsules until this shows up as Dairy Queen's featured flavor.

I did some research yesterday when I was hungry, and there's a California Pizza Kitchen near Disneyworld, so I think we'll be just fine for our pre-race dinner...HURRAY!

Two Left Feet - Princess Crys

Today seemed like it was getting off to a pretty decent start. Alarm goest off at 5:15am. Snooze. Snooze again. Snooze. Out of bed and out the door by 5:39am, at the gym and on the bike by 6am. I rode the bike for a good 25 min and watched a little BT. 6:30am chat with girls while waiting for DVD to load. Attempt to get through the whole workout but feel like dying from Dan's new workout we had started yesterday but it felt good. End workout. YAY! Quick shower, get changed and ready, go to put on my shoes...

Pull out 2 shoes. Both flats. Both black. Both for the left foot. Different shoes. Awesome.

Noun - (to have) two left feet.
1.(idiomatic) Exhibiting particular clumsiness, especially at dancing or at soccer. Um, running?

Let's hope I can remember to bring matching shoes for race day!

Day #2 - PrincessChris

There just be the chance that I might have overdone it a bit yesterday... or I'm just feeling sorry for myself! The ride home last night was made in record time though 18.57km in just under 45min. Needless to say I slept like a baby last night!

Today started with Jillian's 30 Day Shred... I think we were all feeling exhausted as it may just have been the quietest workout to date, which is amazing considering there were six ladies locked in a work out room! Will try for a run at lunch... sigh..

Update: PrincessCrys and I spent our lunch hour running out the stiff muscles with a 5km run. The best part about the run was our first "sign" that we're doing the right thing with this 1/2 marathon. Picture this.. we see an ambulance sitting at the intersection and we start joking about how we are going to need it soon, when we catch up to a woman wearing a shirt that screamed Disney! Mickey and Minnie staring at us willing us forward .. I guess this means no turning back!!

DAY 2 - PrincessCrys

So yesterday we had a meeting amongst the Princesses to chat about training, the blog, getting to and from Orlando, where we’re going to stay, where we’re going to eat after the race and most importantly how far the nearest Target is from Disney World! There was little talk of training and more of how pretty our blog will be and what delicious food we can find for after the race! Training Schmaining!! We talked about important stuff!! ;)

Alright, so about today! I got off to a GREAT start. I slept in. Didn’t make it to the gym in time to do the usual 30 min of cardio before our workout. Sleeping is important right?? But I think Dan the Man’s new workout kicked my Abs into high gear and now no one is allowed to say anything funny to me today. It hurts to laugh. Tomorrow I will make it to the gym by 6am and on that dreadmill. I mean treadmill.

Day 1 - PrincessChris

Wow.. if today speaks to how the next six plus months are going to go, I'm going to need a lot of support. I figured I'd ride to work to start my cross-training, you know, get a jump on getting into cardio shape. Unfortunately Mother Nature was the one who jumped first with a head wind that made my eyes water so much you'd think I was crying (truthfully, I may have shed a few tears for real). I got to the gym just in time to start our 'new' workout with my workout partners (as well as marathon princesses) and of course Dan the man (our personal trainer.. or so we like to pretend anyway). If you need me today, I'll be napping under my desk to rest up for my hockey game at lunch... The good news is that it is calling for rain, and I have a back up ride home if need be!!