My stubborn ankle!

Holy moly, it's been two weeks since my last post!!  What have I been doing lately??  Well, I have found a really amazing awesome website, http://www.strands.com/ where I log my workouts and such, as well as follow some really talented local runners.  Good luck to Jason Pyles, his wife Marian, and their friend Marshall, as they are tapering for Boston.  It's so cool witnessing them train and prepare.  I joined the site a little late, so I didn't get to see a lot of their training, but they are definitely very motivating and genuinely kind hearted.  I am still using http://www.dailymile.com/ as well because I really love the running community on there.  So, I am logging my runs on two websites!  Strands provides better stats and feedback on running, but DM is fun, too.

Well, my ankle has been injured for a while now.  It was injured a long time ago, but for some reason I was too stupid to rest and let it heal.  I think it's because it never hurt during my runs, just afterwards, then by the time I had to run again the pain would subside enough for me not to worry about it.  It finally bothered me enough to take time off.  I took 12 days off and it still wasn't healed.  Ran a mile on it on day 12, a little sore the next day.  Day 15, I was so fed up, I wrapped it in a sports band and ran 2 miles.  Still a little sore the next day, but nowhere near the pain I was in before.  Then it dawned on me: I should probably be wrapping this ankle every day!  Hell, I stand on it 10 hours a day working, so the time off isn't that great if I'm standing on it all day.  I have been wrapping it for 4 days now, and I feel like it's almost completely healed.  What a dummy, huh?  Why didn't I think to wrap it for extra support before?  Well, it feels great, and I'm hoping to be running again in about 5-7 days.  Fingers are crossed!

I definitely haven't been slacking, though.  In fear of losing my cardio, I have been doing the stationary bike and the stairmaster ever couple days.  Those are two hard workouts, let me tell you!  The stairmaster makes me sweat more than any activity I think I have ever done.  The bike really works my quads and butt!  I am hoping that it will make my running stronger.  I'm going to try to keep these cross training activities in my training plan when I return to running.

I have been pretty bummed out about this ankle thing.  I am missing races that I want to run on the weekends, and I am missing valuable long runs and speed workouts, so when I do return to the races I'm not going to have the speed I was hoping to have.  So, I am going to be about a month behind on my training plan, but if my cross training is successful I can bounce back where I left off at the 8 mile long run, and still run my half marathon in June.  I was hoping to have a great base built by June so I can train hard for the Charleston Distance Run in September.  Looks like I'm going to have to really train hard when my ankle heals if I want to reach my goals.  Last year I was starting from scratch in April for the September race.   This year, I should have the half marathon distance under my belt in June and can have 3 great months of quality long runs and speed workouts.  The year is not a total loss!

As far as the weightloss is going, I had a little setback the last couple of weeks, but got back on track for this week.  I let a cheat weekend turn into cheating most days for a little bit.  I gained 2 pounds back, but got those off, so I am still at 5 pounds lost.  Still doing ediets and loving it, just strayed from the meal planning for a little bit.  The point is, I am seriously back on track and it's ok that I stumbled.  It's going to happen!

A weekend full of mistakes

I have been following ediets now for 3 weeks. I was doing very well following the meal plan and not cheating, then this weekend I ran into problems. Friday evening, I fought the urge to eat chocolate chip cookies for hours. For some reason the late night hunger got the best of me, and I ate several cookies. I went over my calories about 500 calories Friday because of that.
Saturday, I went to a baby shower, and did remarkable well. I ate a balanced plate and stayed away from the dessert. However, Saturday evening was the Mountaineer basketball game. We went to the usual sports bar and I ate a horrible horrible meal of wings and fries!! I am kind of glad I did it, because it reminded me of how uncomfortably bloated and full I was all the time before I started ediets. I felt awful. I don't even want to think about how many calories I ate!
Sunday actually wasn't too bad. I went to the Chinese buffet, but stuck to vegetables, and stayed away from the breaded chicken in sauce. I did eat some lo mein. I was full, but not miserable. Overall, it was a weekend full of mistakes, and I ended up gaining 2 pounds back for my weigh-in today. Monday I got right back on track with my diet, but I guess it wasn't enough time to at least break even!

I have learned a couple of things from this weekend. Yes, if I completely deprive myself of the things that I enjoy the most, I am probably going to have some serious cravings and end up bingeing. I think that if I want to have something to eat, I should allow myself to have it, but within the realms of my calorie intake. If I want a cookie, I will have 1, but it gets counted. I was able to find some neat things at the grocery store Friday. Edy's makes little tiny ice cream containers that have about 160 calories in them. It's 1 serving and doesn't put too much of a hurtin on my diet. It's premeasured, so I am not tempted to underestimate exactly how much I ate out of a gallon size carton. I also found mini Cadbury eggs, that are only 45 calories each. Eating one of those would definitely satisfy my sweet tooth. Hopefully, these small changes will prevent me from bingeing. I need to work really hard this week to make up for my weight gain. The good thing is I'm not discouraged, and I'm moving on!

On the running front, I took a week off this week to let my ankle heal.  Today was the first day I woke up and it didn't hurt.  It's not 100%, but it's almost there.  Hopefully, it will be healed for the long run I have planned Sunday.  Since, I haven't been able to run, I have been very diligent about cross training this week.  My race was Saturday, then I went to the gym Tuesday night and biked 11 miles (45 minutes), then this morning I did the stairmaster for 25 minutes and biked 7 miles (25 minutes).  I didn't want to lose any cardio that I had built up.  I will probably take the day off tomorrow, then maybe try to run 2 miles Saturday to see how my ankle feels.