A Day out of time

you sometimes need days like this. And yesterday certainly was one for me.

I went to sleep really late Saturday night 4 o'clock in the morning. No, I haven't been out, it was what I call a "link-aton" on youtube. I started watching with some video, by midnight I wanted to watch "The Glass Slipper" with Leslie Caron (I love this movie and wish the would finally release it on DVD). Thanks to the Pawlowian reflex I'm trained to eat something while watching it. And since I had no bell pepper already cut, I turned to toast bread. (Which is wrong on sooo many levels.) Gone the two days of nearly eating Paleo (the cheese remember?!).

Here's my first trick for you, always keep some fresh vegetable pieces in the refrigerator ready to eat. Because sometimes you just need something to nosh on and are mostly to lazy to make something at these moments. Prepare some slices of apple, bell pepper, carrots or whatever you like. But remember, it has to be raw and non-starchy. I love green bell peppers for this, funnily enough I don't like them cooked or baked, they are getting too bitter for me through it.

My Mampf Diary of Saturday, 28.11.09:
BF: 400 ml of chocolate protein shake, 1 sliced apple
Lunch: 1 saladheart (green salad which is sold as a triplet, I found that 1 saladheart is just the right amount for a salad for me alone), cherry tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, some mushrooms & a diced and baked turkey cutlet.
Dinner: non, since I ate lunch a 5:30pm.
Snacks: 1 green bell pepper, 1 bag of nuts, 2 slices of toast.

My lunch salad. (Sorry that it's so blurry, I haven't found the right way to take these pictures, but I'm working on it. :-)

Trick No. 2: As you've read I ate a bag of nuts. Now before you're too shocked. Nuts are perfect for your body, rich in good fatty acids and other stuff, really low in carbohydrats. Still you shouldn't eat too much. Now since they are so munchable you easily eat too much, but you can outwit yourself fairly easy. Put the allowed amount (something around 50 g per day) in small(!) zipper bags, this way you can't overeat unconsciously. I bought a 200g bag of nuts and put about 50 grams in the zipper bags. (Since it was a nutmix I actually counted every sort of nut and put the same amount in every bag. I know, I'm weird, it probably comes with the engineering, everything has to be measured. ;-) You don't have to count them, if you've got a kitchen scale it's much easier, but I don't have one, so... (I think I'll get myself one for x-mas.) These little snack bags are really practical, you can put one in your bag/purse, this way your not tempted to get some easily available sweets (e.g. cupcakes or really bad things like donuts, don't get me wrong I like them too) or burger.

Back to my Sunday. I had to get up fairly early (8 am) to meet with my friend at the flea market (9:30 am). I walked there (2.5 km) and didn't buy a thing (proudly swelled chest;-). The market was a lot smaller then the last time and no interesting stuff. But my friend and I talked about a job offer for which I have an interview in exactly two weeks, about which I have really split feelings (Story for another post). When I came back (11am), I repaired my bed together with my dad and then we had lunch. Afterwards I took a really long sunday afternoon nap, because of my sleeping deficit. The dream I had was a nice mixture of a lot of my favourite stories and stayed with me when I woke. So I dozed along, since it was already dark outside and could think of nothing better to do. Later on I watched "Howl's Moving Castle" (if you haven't watched it yet, you should it's one of my alltime favs) and got to bed fairly early.

Sunday Mampf Diary:
BF: 400 ml of chocolate protein shake,
Lunch: scalloped cutlets, salsifies, apple puree
Dinner: 4 slices of toast with hungarian peperoni (my mom bought the peperoni just for me, so I had to eat it, otherwise there would have been a 'discussion', now that there is no peperoni left I can eat fully Paleo)
Snacks: 1 Dream Apple, 3 pieces of dark chocolate

Since I was in a hurry yesterday morning I didn't weigh myself. But I did today, so its SCAL(R)E DAY.
weight: 65,3 kg (300 gr. less than Friday, impressing no?)
water: 51,1 %
bodyfat: 30,0 % (1,4% less, but don't get too excited, I think it's because I changed some of the parameters, the activity level is 3 now and was 2 on friday)
muscles: 34,0 %
Next SCAL(R)E DAY is Sunday.

I won't run or march today, but do some stretching and crunches to strengthen my stomach muscles. Tomorrow I march/run 12 km though.

Enough, this post is a lot longer than I wanted it to be.

Keep running!

What do you eat? My Food or better my Mampf Diary ;-)

Good Morning. And what a lovely morning it is here in Leipzig. The sun is shining and it's 10° C in the shadow. Pretty warm for November.

I've decided Thursday night to go for the marathon distance and throw all my knowledge and will in. Most of my decisions I will decide on whats best for my running / marathon performance. And two things, which are interlinked, are crucial for it. My weight and my diet(style of eating not diet as in I want to lose weight).

Over the past years, I've tried a lot of eating styles, from Forever Young over Paleo and Raw Food to "French women don't get fat". By far the best for my health, my skin in particular and my weight is the Paleo Diet of Dr. Loren Cordain. It's got (just) 6 ground rules, which are deal breakers for most people, and even I don't stick to all of them. But since you have to make anything your own to really live it, I think it's okay and it works for me.

The ground rules (page 20 of The Paleo Diet):
1. All the lean meats, fish, and seafood you can eat
2. All the fruits and nonstarchy vegetables you can eat
3. No cereals
4. No legumes
5. No dairy products (I don't stick with this rule, because I love cheese and my body tolerates it just fine)
6. No processed foods (You can say what you want, nobody gets between me and my chocolate)

Okay, bear with me, I'm only human. So I bend the rules to be comfy this lifestyle and stick with it about 90 % of the time. I do have cheese (chaumes cheese from france) and milk/hot chocolate occasionally, and I won't trade my chocolate and proteinshakes (processed food + dairy). I didn't have any trouble to stop eating cereals (never liked bread anyway), rice and potatoes.

Now a lot you will be taken aback, because Pasta is supposed to be the runners food. But how do you feel after a big portion of pasta? Full of energy or tired? Ever felt this way after a huge bowle of tossed salad with some nuts, tomatos and mushrooms? Well, the reason is that our digestive system is calibrated for the latter and not for Pasta parties and donuts (a real toxin for us, I like them still but hate how I feel afterwards and I don't mean the guilt).

So, to give you an idea how this diet works on a daily basis and to control me for the first few weeks, (I've started out only yesterday) I will write a food diary. It's in fact part of my training diary.

Which looks like this. I'll write down what I ate, my training chores, my weight and some other factors (I'm a girl as you know, so there goes a bit more in the equation - like hurting feet from wearing high heels all day - just kidding.)

Okay, since I started out yesterday with my marathon programm for real, I got my scale out, which is a diagnosis scale from Beurer, it takes not only the weight, but body fat, water and muscles too. Ooh, the embarrassment, I had my doubts that I really lost 2 kg (4lbs) since I moved to Leipzig, but to see it proved ... ouch.

Yesterdays SCALE stats (height 163 cm, activity level 2 (moderate activity)):
weight: 65,6 kg (sob, snivel, cry)
water: 50,0 % (fine level)
body fat: 31,4 % (way too high, goal: 15% or less)
muscles: 34,1 % (goal: more, how much? I'll check and give you the figure on the next weight post, which should be up tomorrow. Remember? Sundays are SCALE (Scare)Days.)
bones: 7,5 kg

Food = Mampf Diary (mampfen is german slang for munching = Munch Diary) November 27, 2009:
Breakfast: 400 ml protein shake (chocolate), 1 bowl of Dream Apple
Lunch: turkey with tomatoes, a bell pepper baked and some chaumes cheese (see pic below)
Dinner: 1 big bowl of Dream Apple with an orange
Snacks: 1 sharon/kaki, 1 carrot

The diced (?) turkey with tomatoes and bell pepper. Yesterdays lunch.

Todays breakfast: 400 ml chocolate protein shake, 1 sliced fuji apple and I had a cup of black tea with it.

That's it for today. Tomorrows post will be late, since I'll go to a flea market (I'll take pics) with a friend of mine and then it's 10 km fast walking in the afternoon. Today I'll write some more job applications and find some nice recipes to try for the next days. And clean my room, throw some useless paper away, buy groceries, stuff like that.

Have a wonderfull weekend and Keep running.

And I thought I was doing good....

but I had no idea what I'm in for. So today I went to the opening of my runners seminar. There were a lot of people, in total about 300, so the room was packed. Then the organizers talked about ... the organization. The participants of the seminar can decide until March 30th which distance we want to run. Since the races are scheduled for April 25th thats pretty late, but good for us since we can decide when we see how the training develops.

As for me I'm undecided, in my good moments I say I go for the marathon, in my really good moments, I say I for a marathon time of 4:30 hrs and in my bad moments it's 'just' half marathon. :-P And when I saw the training times and distances, my selfesteem dropped through to Australia. But I got myself the marathon plan anyway and my jaw dropped, when I saw the distances. I told you, that I was surprised how short my route is. But guess what. Last week I ran about 7 km, this week it will be about 7 + 15 km of fast walking. Because my next weeks schedule says Tuesday 10 km, Thursday 10 km (training on the blue tartan track) and Sunday its 15 km. Since our coach wants us to get our fat metabolism going, I will walk my Alone-trainings-routes.

The coach said something about diet to, but I'll give you that and my opinion on it tomorrow.

Right now, it's time for todays run. I felt a bit sluggish today which was due to the waffle and that I rode my bike to the city. In the end I was quite a bit slower than on monday. Let's get to the stats:

distance: 3.5 km
time: 31:30 min
PACE: 9 min (yeah, there are a lot of people who walk faster than I run including me)
in zone: 15:22 min (better)
heart: 161 bpm (163 is my threshold)

And now a few pics of the leipzig christmas market and the famous waffle with vanilla creme. Enjoy.

The entrance.



The tree.



The waffle bakery.



The Waffle with THE Vanilla cream.



A nice view.

Keep running.

I'm not alone anymore and doing the math...

Wahooooooo. I finally found some other woman out there blogging who run and/or are triathletes. So, HALLO LADIES!!! (I'll post the links tonight.) Sorry about my loud voice, but I'm so excited. Sharing tricks and stories. I can't wait!

We've got fabulous weather today, so I will ride my bike (pics coming soon) to my appointments. And in the afternoon (if the weather is still this good, no point in doing it in the rain) I will walk my current running route and take some pictures for you.

And there we are. This night I did my math, since I have my first runners seminar tomorrow. The results of the math were devastating to me. I knew I'm a slooow runner, but my 'pace' is ridiculous. I'm not sure if you can even call it a pace! I'm mortified.
Okay, stop rambling, San.

My current running distance is 3,5 km for which I need exactly 30 minutes with a pulse that is over my anaerob threshold (yeah, I did the test). So my current pace is 8:57! (Boston here I come, hahaha.) So, my estimated times for 10k = 1:22 hr, hm = 3:00 hrs (my time last year was actually 2:58 hrs, I was the second last if I remember it right), m = 6 hrs. I know I would get throught a marathon, I've got the will, but I probably wouldn't be able to walk the whole week afterwards. When I did my halfmarathon last year, I had to walk down the stairs backwards for 3 days!!! It hurt like hell.

I've already scheduled my training days for the coming weeks, but I don't have clue what to do about the distances and the pace. It really is about time that I got a coach, there is only so much you can do alone. ;-P

For next week I've planned to run an extra kilometer, but now I'm not so sure anymore. Should I stick with this distance and push my pace? Or should I run a fast round at the weekend, instead of a long run (not that I do that at the moment ;-). What do you think? Ulrich Th. Strunz, the fitness pope of germany, says go for the distance. But I don't want to stay that slow. I always wished I could run with this long, strong strides and not shuffle along like I do! I WANT TO BE A RUNNER!!! (sob and snivel) And I want a training schedule from Peter Greif, but for that I had to run 10 k in 40 min, which is a loooong way to go.

Well, this is it for now. Have to get my bike out. Oh, before I forget, today I get my first waffle with vanilla creme of the season at the christmas market. I'm so excited. I'll take pictures and post them. Promise.

Tell me what you think about the distance/pace problem. Any suggestions?

Keep running!!

3 Days, this is it....

Just a quick one, since I'm tired and have to rise early tomorrow.

I did run today and I actually enjoyed it very much. After 3 days my body has not only fully recovered but is even fitter than before. Next training is scheduled for Thursday accordingly.

Here are todays stats:

Exe Time: 30:32 min (I ran the same distance as last Wednesday)
In Zone: 7:14 min (wow, this surprises me because I felt fine running at this pace, weird huh?)
Average Heartrate: 163 bpm

Keep running!

SCALE DAY - Horror or fun?

Hi, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Mine certainly is, though no sunshine so far.

Today is sunday and that means SCALE DAY.

If I read the display right my weight is 63,5 kg. Which is more than last week. But since I started to run again and it's a certain time of month (you girls, know what I'm talking about) at which I always put on some weight thats okay with me.

As I've written in my Ouch - post I had been pretty sore after my first proper run in months and the Friday run wasn't exactly easy on me either. Interestingly enough yesterday and today I'm fine. No soreness whatsoever! Since I want to find out how many days of rest my body exactly needs I won't run today but tomorrow, we'll see how that works out.

Allright, I've promised a tasty recipe to you. I made this recipe up on my own and I LOVE IT. It's called Dream Apple, it's easy, fast, yummy, healthy, paleo diet okay and it contains only 3 ingredients.

Ingredients for 1 person:
1 apple (i like fuji, but you can take whatever apple you like)
pinenuts (as much as you like)
cinnamon (dito)







Additionally you'll need a small bowl, a knife and a spoon.

Preparation
Wash the apple and then diced it into the bowl, add as much pinenuts as you like and then sprinkle it with the cinnamon. Et voila. A tasty and paleolike dish or dessert. Enjoy it.



Okay, I've got some stuff to organize, I wish you a good start in the new week.

Keep running!

Please rate, comment or ask

if you want to know something. This blog should be interesting for you, so I'd really appreciate your thoughts on it.

Thanks. Cheers from Leipzig or L.E. like we call it.

Keep Running.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, OUCH, ouch,...

if you heard this yesterday afternoon and wondered, these were my thighs complaining with every step I took. They were really sore (and are now again). But I've been in the city anyway and bought myself a new sports bra. And I looked for a new pair of winter running tights, because I'll need a new one in December. There was only one left of the one I liked and that was 3 sizes to small for me. Yikes. Though I will lose weight through the training I won't lose that much that fast. :-(

For the ladies out there, I will put up a review on sports bras pretty soon. And there will be other reviews on running equipment too, which also guys might be interested in. Right now I'm bursting with ideas for my blogs. I've started out with two post it notes on my desk yesterday and the are both full already. So, you can be curious with what I'll come up next.

Okay let's get down to business, since I've had 2 days for recovery I went for a run this morning, even though my weaker self tried to stop me. But I ran right over it. ;-P

Todays stats:

Exe Time: 30 min (I cut off 150 m)
In Zone: 10:35 min (even worse than wednesday)
Average Heartrate: 158 bpm

As you can tell by them, I had to struggle. Might be, that 2 days of resting aren't enough for me at this point. Well, we'll see. Next training is scheduled for Sunday or Monday morning, not sure yet, because I want to check what kind of recovery time my body needs. And Tuesday I don't have the time to run in the morning.

Man, I can't wait to meet the other runners on Thursday at the marathon seminar. I'm so excited! Then I'll hopefully have some training partners for the long runs at the weekends. I'll take some pictures from the first meeting and post them here.

Since I won't run tomorrow, I'll tell you something about my diet and how I organize my running equipment, with some nice pics and a yummy and healthy recipe.


Keep running!

Sore thighs but happy ...

Today is a wonderful sunshine day. My thighs are sore from yesterdays training, so I won't run today. But since I've got stuff to do in the city, I will ride my bike this afternoon. Crosstraining. ;-D

Big news: I've already got my starting slot for the half marathon in Leipzig since I signed up for the official running seminar. (You can't register normally for a starting slot right now. So I guess I will have a pretty high starting number. Though I will end up on the end of the results list. :-( ) I was late for the entrance but another participant dropped out, so I got my chance. This means training with a professional coach once a week. Which is great, never had that before. And I get a special shirt too. (God I'm such a girl.)

This is it for today.


Keep running!

Half marathon training day 1

Hi there.

I did run today!
Right after breakfast (Proteinshake chocolate) I used the wonderful sunshine to fill up my batteries. I started out to fast, so at the end I had to walk a few secs here and there. My thighs hurt afterwards when I went down the stairs. But it's worth it. 5 months 6 days and 15 hours to go.


Anywho here are todays stats:

Exe Time: 32 min
In Zone: 16:25 min
Ave Heartrate: 155 bpm


That's it for today, I'm off to the cinema. We're watching "Louise hires a contract killer", should be hilarious.


Keep running!

63 !!!

Hello out there! I wish all of you a happy Tuesday.

Sunday I finally weighed myself again and I'm totally happy to tell ya, that I weigh 63 kg (138,9 lbs) again. Now, don't get confused. Two weeks ago my weight was 65 kg (143,3 lbs). Good, eh?

So, I've wanted to start out running again today. Problem was the weather and the errands I had to run, afterwards I was totally fix and foxy (tired , worn out), so I've decided to skip the running. But I did do my strength exercises just before writing this post. Please be patient with me. Tomorrow will have good weather so I'll run then.

Anywho, I've decided about my next official race! It will be the Half-Marathon at the Leipzig Marathon 2010 on April 25. It's five months still but training starts tomorrow. I've got a goal again!!!

Told ya it's a great day!

Keep running!

Changes

I've moved back to my hometown. I didn't think that it would feel so comfortable. But I'm kind of glad to be back for longer than just a week, though I don't want to stay.

Anyhow, I finally did get around to fix my bike. It's got new narrow tires (it's a mountain bike, Focus Aurora, and had off road tires), which are marvelous on the street. The chain is oiled and on Saturday I'll get the gearshift and brakes fixed, before you ask why I don't do it myself, I don't own the necessary tools. So on this weekend I will take it out for some longer rides. Thinking of it I'll have to get my self a bike computer, to get the distances. Keep the fingers crossed for good weather, I certainly won't do a long ride in cold November rain.

I didn't run in the last two weeks, mainly because I still have too much other things on my plate and the weather was bad. But I rode my bike a few times which I didn't do for a year.

Being back home triggered some old habits which I hate and are bad for me. Like eating in the middle of the night. But I'm working at new and good habits so we'll see how it works out.

And since I'm back in my hometown, I can finally learn freestyle swimming properly from a friend of mine. But first things first.

Okay, this is it for now.