If you’ve been reading lately then you know I have 19 days until the St. Louis Rock n Roll Half Marathon. Oh man.
To help with the training process I traded in my sad old shoes for these new boys. This is my first pair of Asics, but I’ve heard great reviews about them from other runners.
They, whoever they are, say that you should get a new pair of running shoes every 400 miles and considering I’ve had my tennis shoes since high school and have been everywhere in them from New York to the UK, I think I’ve hit well over the 400 mile mark. I mean, look at that tread. Not to mention the bottom is falling off.
The new ones aren’t my favorite in the looks department, but they’re so comfortable and I’m not afraid the sole is going to fly off while I’m running.
Besides new shoes, I’ve also been running at least 4 times a week and doing some other form of cardio on non-run days. I’ve also totally convinced myself that it’s okay if I need to walk and my goal is just to finish. As long as they don’t kick me off the course, I’ll be happy.
I’ve was using the Daily Burn on my Iphone to keep track of what I’ve been eating, but then I discovered My Fitness Pal. It’s an app but you can also go on their website and I love it even more. You type in your weight, height, and how much you would like to loose per week. It then tells you how many calories you can eat per day. The best part? When you add your workout in, you get some calories back. For example, I get 1200 calories a day, but if I run for 30 minutes then I get more than 1200 calories. Heck.yeah.
You enter what you eat and your day is broken into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. They have practically every food including some restaurants. And my favorite thing? At the end of the day you hit calculate and it will tell you that if you eat like you did that day everyday then you will weigh xxxx by a certain date. How awesome is that?!?
So far I’ve been able to pretty much stick within my 1200 calories. I make an exception once a week for one meal. For example, if I know we are going out to dinner and having drinks then that is my cheat meal. I like to think of it as a game. If I eat that cheeseburger for lunch, then I have to cut back at dinner etc. What I find works best for me is eating a sensible breakfast and lunch (i.e. yogurt for breakfast and a lean cuisine for lunch), and then using more calories for dinner since I usually cook something at home, but that’s what works for me. I’ve heard others say lunch is their biggest meal and then dinner is lighter. It’s all about trial and error. I notice if I eat a bigger meal at dinner then I’m less tempted to eat a snack later on at night which might end up being more calories than if I had just eaten more at dinner in the first place.
With 19 more days to go I’ll be running outside a lot and I’m still trying to find the perfect race day outfit.
