Decisions you make when you hate your race photos.

In case you were wondering where all the rambling and facetious blog posts went, I took the week off from blogging and working out after that very disappointing marathon I ran last Sunday. 

It's what I needed to do in order not to quit running entirely, actually. 

After trying so hard so many times to hit above a 4:10 in a marathon and not making it, I needed to just take a break from it all for a little bit.  I needed to step back and give my body a chance to rest, and analyze what the hell I'm doing wrong.  I needed to actually get to work somewhere close to normal time by not working out in the morning.  I also needed to channel some of male cat's intense lack of energy:

Hyooman. My chill is extreme.

How did my week off go?  It was nice.  I did some reflecting on my running.  I got to work on time.  I got pissed off at my race photos, mainly at how much weight I've let myself gain.  But I also did some deciding, and because I am all about oversharing, here are those decisions:

1) Get freaking serious about this losing weight thing.  I mean, really--I've been logging my food for months and it's been all, "Oh look, way over my calorie goal again.  Oh well-I'm marathon training so I need WAY more calories!"  Well, I think we all know that this mindset is a giant heaping load of crap.  It was specifically a load of all the crappy food I had rationalized myself into eating all in the name of marathon training.  Well, no more of that nonsense.  Here ate the specific changes I will be making to my diet:

• No more processed carbs.  That means no more desserts (*sob*) after almost every meal and no more bread for bread's sake.  I have been doing this all week, and the toughest part has been no sweet goodies after dinner each night.  So I've been chewing gum after dinner, and that seems to be doing the trick in terms of not wanting to tear into any cookie or piece of candy I can find in the hubbs' junk food stash.
• Eat more veggies.  But not carrot sticks.  When I lost my 12 pounds about a year ago, I overdid it on the carrot sticks and now I can't stand the sight of those little orange suckers.  I decided I would actually, you know, eat salad with lunch and dinner by buying the pre-bagged salads to satisfy my need for convenience.  And I decided to actually do some meal prep so I can grab and go healthy food each morning as I'm rushing out the door trying not to be late for work.  Sadly, I realized I had to throw out all my veggie tots...while tasty, I had to come to terms with the fact that veggies that are good for you aren't greasy.

2) It's time for something different with my training.  I've been using the Run Less, Run Faster plan for a while now...well, if I decided that if it hasn't help me hit my goal, then I need to do something different.  My next race is a half duathlon (10 mile run/56 mile bike/10 mile run) at the same location where I did the Olympic distance duathlon in September, so there will be a lot more biking and some different running workouts in the next month.  In fact, I decided to give the Runner's World Run Plan App a whirl, and I'll let everyone know how it goes.  However, it's already giving me so much attitude for running 5 miles instead of 4:

Off target.  Story of my life.

Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag - I started working out again on Saturday.  Large dog and I went for that Runner's World App-forbidden 5-mile run on a very nice day.

He made me run that extra mile.

Today I went for a 21 mile bike ride, which is still far away from 56 but closer to it than, say, zero miles.  

It was pretty slow because I am an idiot and biked the last 8 or so miles straight into the wind, resulting in this post-bike-ride face:

I am also an idiot because I end posts with these things that I call "learnings" that are really nothing of the sort:

• I enjoyed getting to work on time last week.
• I did not enjoy my Glass City Marathon race photos at all.  Something has clicked and now I'm committed, people.
• I'm looking forward to doing different workouts for the next month, although I'm not sure how well large dog will deal with the change.  I may get dragged into more ditches than usual.
• I have to remember that my goal for this duathlon is survival, not speed.  Kind of like most of my marathons these days.

Tomorrow's workout:  Some weird speed thing with some 200s and some easy running and more 200s.