decluttering again and a giveaway for the ladies

Okay, so yesterday evening, I cleaned under my bed at 11 PM. Thanks to vitamin d. Weird stuff this vitamin.

Today I decluttered my wardrobe, again. I don't know how often I decluttered my wardrobe in the last 2 years, but it doesn't matter, there's always more stuff to get rid off (*annoyed sigh*). Three bags of clothes go to goodwill and one bag goes directly to the garbage.

I also went through my training clothes, my reaction was: "Whoa, I didn't know I have this much". And therefore we get to my "Giveaway". My Gore running shirt. We all have our favourite brands, because of the cuts, colors or for no particular reason at all. Well, Gore running wear certainly isn't my favourite brand. This is why I only wore this shirt once and never again, after I bought it. It's an European 38 or US M and you probably guessed it already, it is a shirt for women. It has a keybag at the back with reflectors. Really practical. Here are some pics:





Since it is running wear and not that inexpensive and we all like good free stuff, here is my proposal: You like and want it? Then comment to this post and I'll pick the lucky lady randomly next Friday at noon CET (14.1.11, 12 o'clock CET). Yes, this GiveAway is international and I'll pay for the shipping.

This is it for today. Enjoy your weekend and stay healthy. Colds suck.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

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!

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.

Challenge Day 3: 14 hrs aren't enough

So, I did my run right after breakfast (smoothie) and it wasn't a good run. My pulse was too high, my legs were heavy and it's freezing cold outside. And then the schoolkids had PE at the track, so I quit 1 lap early. Too bad.

Anyway, todays stats:

time: 28 min

in zone: 14:30 min

average heartrate: 148bpm

But there is also a bright side to this day. I've already met my weeks goal regarding my weight.

61 kg (134,48 lb), and it's only Wednesday! 

That's good news! Well, I stay with this goals, since it might be that I just ate or drank less. Let's see if I can hold this weight or get even under it. Next point is that the scale isn't that exact, so come Sunday I have my own scale and then it's the moment of truth. 

Challenge Day 2

Done it. Ran again and it was worse than yesterday. I suck at running, even snails are faster than me. But my muscles were less sore, so running helps. Weird thing. 

You know, when you do such things like this 100 Day Challenge or are just starting running, you look for goals. One of the goals is running a marathon. There are a lot of marathons in Germany, but I don't want to run them. I want to broaden my horizon, so I look for marathons in places I haven't been. I've never been to Boston and the Boston Marathon is really special. You have to qualify for it. Yesterday I looked up the charts with the qualifying times. Yikes. Those people are crazy. I'm 31, so if I want to start in Boston, I have to run 5k in 19:50 min. Guess what, that is the time I need for 2k! So there is no chance that you'll see me at the 2010 Boston Marathon and I don't think in 2011 either. 

Anyway, I've had a little revelation this morning. I was off track on the weekend regarding my diet. Damn it! Today I got back on track, I've had smoothie with lettuce and bananas for breakfast (+bee pollen, raw crushed chocolate beans, milk, goji berries, curd). It tasted surprisingly good. Over the day I ate fresh strawberries, an apple, a bit of beef, a yoghurt, some cheeze and I drank a chocolate protein shake after my run in the bathtub (can you say PERFECT?).

Todays run was slow and short (I ran to the track, did three laps and ran home). It was a evening run again (7:45 to 8:15 p.m.), but I will shift it to the early morning tomorrow, since I meet with a friend in the evening. Only 12 hours of recovery, will see how my body does. 

Okay, todays stats: 

time: 30 min

in zone: 24:53 min

average heartrate: 147 bpm

C ya tomorrow

100 Day Challenge

When we went to the Moritzburg today, I've had a fabulous idea. Why not start a 100 Day Challenge as Bunny Berry did? She made it a Raw Food Challenge and I make it a running challenge. From today on I will run every single day for 100 days. Exceptions, me being really sick and my hiking days in Ireland at the end of August. The hiking days count fully, due to the distances, days missed due to illness I have to add at the end. Other than that no exceptions.

First day is today. I've actually had a bit of a hard time to go out running at 8 p.m., since I have sore muscles from the run yesterday. But I've decided to have this 100 Day Challenge, so I figured today was a good day to start since it's the first of a month. Though my time was not good, I think did well anyway.

Todays stats:

time: 27 min
in zone: 21:24 min
average heartrate: 142 bpm

I did about 3/4 of yesterdays running then I walked home slowly. But we've had a nice sunset to enjoy, so it was a nice walk home. Even though my legs where shaking a bit. I think I'll grant my muscles a protein shake now.

At every ten days point, I will give myself a treat, like a journal or a book. At the end of whole challenge, I will grant myself a new Polar training computer. It coincides with my birthday anyway, so it's nice to go a bit overboard.

The real feat for me is to stick with the challenge, since I have a certain pattern. Everytime something goes well I lose the focus, which leads me to failure. This happened a thousand times and it's making me mad, cause I don't reach my goals. Even though I know that I could reach them. So this whole challenge is about discipline for me, because I need to develop this discipline or I won't ever do a Ironman. Can't have that, so here I go.

Starting out

on my journey towards the Ironman Hawaii. 

Let me introduce myself. My nickname is San, I'm a 31 year old girl originally from Leipzig (Germany). I've never been actually sporty, in fact in PE I got always  really bad marks. Anyway. About 1 1/2 years ago I've decided to do the Ironman Hawaii. The problem at that point, I never had run 10 k without walking a good part of it. I've ran the 10 k last year during my first Halfmarathon. Which I finished in 2:56 hrs. Bad time, but I finished it!  This was April 2008, after that my ambitions floated away. The end was that until 2 days ago, I didn't know anymore what my big goal in life was. Unbelievable but true, I had totally forgotten about the Ironman! 

But since there are a lot of changes ahead, I started searching my soul to find out what I want to achieve in my life. And guess what, there it was again, right in front of me. Just took me two long walks to rediscover it. 

Anyway now I'm back on track and already did my first workout in months. It went surprisingly well, considering how long I haven't been running outdoors. Come think of it, my last outdoor run probably has been the early morning run in San Francisco, December 6th, 2008. 

Okay, here are todays stats.

Time: 38 min.

In Zone: 31 min.

Ave. Heartrate: 150 bpm

My zone is 132 to 163 bpm. I don't have a glue how long the round was, but probably no longer than 3 k. I'm slow. First goal is 10k in 70 min., to get a training schedule from Peter Greif.

I'm so proud. I even was on a little bike tour with some friends and I withstood the temptation of buying myself a piece of "Streuselkuchen", which is a cake I absolutely love!!! This is a really good day. 

Have a nice Pfingsten!