HCG Day 1

From the time I was senior in high school, up to the time my first son was born I weighed about 175 pounds. I could eat cereal until the cows came home. I could play basketball for hours and hours with no side effects. When Kathy got pregnant with Tayson, and started gaining weight, I gained weight too. The problem was, when she had the baby and lost all the weight, I didn't. I slowly let myself get up to about 230 pounds last year. I started training for a half Ironman, started eating healthy, and did weight watchers, and got all the way down to 190. I felt great! I loved the comments I would get about how good I looked. Well, winter started, and my exercise stopped. Thanksgiving, Christmas, a Cruise later and I was back up to 220. A couple of months ago my sister-in-law Heidi started doing th HCG diet. She did the 26 day version and lost about 20 pounds. She looked great after had done it. So I started thinking, 26 days ... That would end the middle of April. Here is Utah, that is just when it starts getting nice enough to train outside. 26 days off would really help my aching knees and ankles recover. It could be a great kick start to a great summer. So I figured, why not?

I called around and found that Elase in Orem had the best prices on the initial consultation and the goods, so I called in and scheduled an appointment. I invited Kathy to come with me since she would be the one supporting and cooking for me. They gave me a paper that outlined what foods were acceptable and how much to eat when, and a printout of the original study. She said that it takes 3 days to really start working, so she could give me the first shot there in the office, which we did. Kathy gave it to me, and the needle was so small, I barely even felt that pinch you get when the needle pierces the skin.

Day one and two on the program are "Fat Loading" days, where you "eat to capacity". This seems counterintutive, but aparatly, its so during day 3 when I start the 500 calorie diet, it's not unbearable. I wish I knew this before my 4:00 appointment, as I was eating to stay under the 500 calorie mark for the day. I had a yogurt for breakfast and a handful of grapes for lunch. After finding this out we went to Chili's for dinner where I got the Chicken Crisper's and a full White Chocolate Molten Lava Cake. I also ate a bowl of cereal later in the evening.

Stay tuned for day 2

The Big Day

I can't believe that tomorrow is the marathon. Holy cow.

Last Long Run - 8 miles

Can I really call 8 miles a long run at this point? I don't think so, but it was on the schedule and tapering is feeling good. Saturday morning I ran 8 miles and my legs felt good.

I only have 3 more runs left until the marathon. Yes I am FREAKING out a little but as I look at the training program I've followed the program and done the work so now it's time to run the race and be done with this. I'm so glad that I'm still injury free at this point and I'm going to be careful to not hurt myself this week and try to stay healthy by eating good, drinking lots of water and going to bed a little earlier every night.

Catch Up

Saturday - 12 miles. As crazy as it sounds to me this was a pretty easy distance by this point in the training program. It was nice to only have to fill up my fuel belt once and not be sore after a run. I didn't even do an ice bath and felt fine...this taper stuff is feeling good :)

Monday - Easy run. I ran 3.5 miles after sleeping in since it was Labor Day. I ran around an 8:45 average pace.

Tuesday - Spin.

Wednesday - Tempo run. We did 5 miles total with 3 tempo in the middle. The training said to run it at 8:25 and we did it at 8:13. I felt pretty good during the run.

Thursday - Spin.

Friday - Spin.

Saturday I have my last "long run" until the race - 8 miles.

Speed Work - 7 miles

Today's workout kicked my freakin' butt. Seriously, I was dying during it and still am. We did intervals today 4 x 1600 at 7:57 pace. We've done this one before and it was hard but we still managed to go faster than we were supposed to and felt good once it was done. I'm not sure if it is the lack of sleep I got earlier this week (thanks to work and kids) or the fact that my body is just tired at this point in the training.

We did our warm up and it felt just like always the first speed mile was ok we ended up right at 8:01 (fine by me) then recovered for a half mile. Second interval was killer and ended on an uphill (ugh) but we still finished it at 7:58. Third interval was right on target at 7:57, although we were faster than that until the slight uphill at the end of that one too. Then the fourth was just KILLER I had no energy left in me and my legs felt sooooo heavy. Of course we still ran it and were doing pretty good until Lola (Traci's dog) got caught on a mailbox then chased 2 bunnies which threw us off a little but we still managed to finish the mile in 8:10 so I am perfectly happy with the workout.

The hard part is just how tired I am right now. I didn't have much steam before I got up this morning and now I'm completely dragging. I got a diet coke was too early this morning and ate a huge breakfast of french toast so hopefully I'll feel better soon. :)

My Last Long Run

Saturday was the last long run in the training program - the second 20 miler. Rather than figure out a new course we started at Traci's house ran most of our normal loop then headed out to the River Trail. We only overlapped on the trail for 6 miles (3 out - 3 back) so it wasn't too bad. For some reason this 20 was harder than the last one. We finished it at a 9:50 average which is right on with where we are supposed to be for the training (the goal was 9:57 pace). I didn't cramp up or bonk but I also didn't feel nearly as strong this time.

My nutrition was the same. No breakfast, accelGel at mile 8, shot bloks at mile 12, accelGel at mile 17. For the marathon I plan on pushing back the nutrition to miles 8, 13, and 18 and 23 if I need it. I took my endorolytes and did 5 water and 1 gatorade in my fuel belt.

I sat in my ice bath for 15 minutes instead of 10 just to make sure I got all the swelling out and during my bath I drank my recovery drink hot instead of cold. Traci gave me that sweet tip and it was fabulous. I stretched good and other than VERY tired legs on Saturday I wasn't sore on Sunday.

This morning we did a 3 mile recovery run and my legs felt fine. My left hip was pretty sore for the first 2 miles but then it finally let go. I really need to make sure I'm doing all my hip exercises to keep it strong enough for the race in 3 weeks. 3 weeks ..... OH MY GOSH!!!

Speed Work

I forgot to post this a few days ago....we did speed work on Wednesday. 5 miles total. First mile was a warmup then we did 3 miles at an 8:20 pace (we actually averaged 8:13) then a mile cool down. I didn't mind the distance at all since it was the shortest speed workout we've done in a while.

Tomorrow we run 20 again! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh