Eat Drink Run Woman

This week’s theme is flexibility, though not in my body. Due to a social obligation earlier in the week and the onset of a cold in the latter part, I wasn’t able to follow the plan to a T (how I survived, I’ll never know). In fact, I put off this week’s long run until today, which is technically the beginning of Week 5 (shhhh… please don’t tell anyone).

This week was also the magical time of a woman’s life marked by bouts of irrational crying interspersed with intense cravings for anything sweet. I really don’t know what came over me — I normally don’t have much of a sweet tooth, even when I’m on my cycle — but this week you could have plopped me in Oompa Loompa land and I would have felt like I’d died and gone to heaven.

It started Monday evening over dinner with a few chef friends. We began at The Tasting Room for what was advertised as “three half glasses of wine and a BOWL of hot & creamy mac & cheese” (made with Beecher‘s incredibly yummy cheese). The $12 cost should have tipped us off that we’d merely be getting a small portion of the mac & cheese. It was certainly tasty, but our appetites were by no means sated. We then headed off to Etta’s for yet more food, and when the dessert menu came along we couldn’t refuse a slice of Tom Douglas’ famous coconut cream pie (we shared it five ways, but we each had several forkfuls).

The next day I showed up at my client’s house to see a container of cake in the fridge. Turns out it’s for me to take home; my client also was suffering from a sweet tooth and had to have the signature cake from a local bakery. It was a white cake with a whipped cream frosting and white chocolate sprinkles, layered with strawberry mousse. I cried “uncle” after two pieces and forced my darling to eat the rest (I had to twist his arm — NOT!)

By Wednesday my sweet tooth still hadn’t disappeared, so as I was shopping for my client I found myself wandering through the bakery. A few months ago another client had some frosted organic whole wheat shortbread cookies that were divine; I decided I MUST. HAVE. THOSE. COOKIES. I spied the container on the shelf, and while it was larger than I had anticipated (there were 27 cookies), there was no turning back. I didn’t bother to look at the price, so I was shocked to see $17.99 ring up at the cash register. ¡Ay Caramba! But that box satisfied my cravings for the rest of the week (and yes, I did get help in consuming them).

The amazing thing about all this? I actually LOST weight (I got down to a low of 162). Mind you, I’m also off alcohol until at least this coming Sunday (after the Mercer Island half). But I can’t say my diet has changed too terribly much. While I won’t make my goal of 155 pounds for the race, I ain’t complaining!

Here’s the week in a nutshell:

Sunday: Zip, nada, nuttin’ (unless you count watching the Oscars with a big bowl of truffle popcorn “exercise”)

Monday: 1-hour arm & shoulder routine; 6.5-mile general aerobic run with 10 x 100s strideouts (this should have been an 8-mile day, but I had to meet up with my chef friends). My pace for the 3.25-mile warm-up was 9:09; overall pace was 9:24 (which included walk breaks after each strideout). I doubt Garmin was totally accurate for the 100-meter strideouts, but it claims I ran between a 5:42-7:11 pace.

Tuesday: yoga; 6.25-mile recovery run w/9:28 overall pace.

Wednesday: arm & shoulder routine. As I was heading home from my cook date I started feeling the tell-tale signs of a mild cold: overall body aches, headache and general yuckiness. The weather wasn’t that great either, so I decided to postpone my 10-mile run until Thursday.

Thursday: slept in since I didn’t get the greatest night’s sleep. That afternoon was absolutely glorious, so even though I was still feeling the effects of the cold, I strapped on my running shoes and headed out for a 10 1/2 mile run (9:43 pace). Although the run was good, by the time I got home I only had enough energy to collapse on the couch until bedtime. My total mileage for February: 141.25 miles.

Friday: took advantage of a day off to fully rid myself of my cold (at least I hoped I would).

Saturday: I fully intended to do my 15-mile long run, but once again I didn’t get much sleep the night before and I was still feeling achy. I checked the weather report and when I saw there was an 80% chance of precipitation, I decided to just run a little over 4 miles and postpone my long run to Sunday (where there was just a 10% chance of precipitation). However, I added some hills at the end to make up for not doing my long run. I knew from the start I made the right decision to curtail the run; my chest was burning throughout and I thought I’d pass out on the hills. But I made it! In fact, I maintained an 8:50 pace for the first two miles, a 9:10 for the third, and then a 9:59 for the last lap with the hills.

This week will be a mini-taper as I prepare for next Sunday’s Mercer Island half marathon. I’m really looking forward to it, as it will be the first time I’m actually racing (I hope to break the 2-hour mark). Stay tuned!