A Case of the Runs

So I made a run to Whole Foods recently, since I had an hour to burn. I spent WAY too much money there (you'll find out on what in a future entry), and one of the things that contributed to that was this yogurt. I've heard so many things about Fage (pronounced: fah-YEH) and finally decided to give into the hype. For $1.89, I was thinking, "It better be good!" I got this 2% kind, because the 0% next to it weighed less, ha ha. The 0% has 80 cal and 13 g protein, and the 2% has 130 cal and 17 g protein (the "whole" has 200 cal and 20+ g protein). But yeah, after a 6-mile run, I didn't want to settle for the weenie one, especially if I was paying $1.89 for it. Okay, enough gripes, I guess. So I cracked open this baby in my car and tried to poke at it, only to find it is covered by parchment paper. After getting through that weirdness, I tasted what was the creamiest yogurt ever. I sometimes get a carton of plain low/non-fat yogurt, but this was just, as my ...

Guest review of Zipfizz: I was at Costco recently and there was a sample table hawking this Zipfizz stuff. Zipfizz is a healthy alternative to sports drinks and coffee to give you energy for whatever you may need energy for. This guy made this stuff sound so wonderful that I bought a box. Yeah, I am easily sold and am always on the look out for anything that will help me better my running abilities. So this guy was saying that this powder in a tube that you mix with a bottle of water has 30% more electrolytes than Gatorade and has all these vitamins and this and that. He made Julie and I a bottle each and we sampled it in the store. Julie drank her really quickly and got a "caffeine buzz" from it. It has 100mgs of caffeine, which is about 1/4 the caffeine in a tall Starbucks coffee, just to give you some comparison. Not much if you think about it. I really like the stuff and am glad I purchased it. I mix a bottle up everyday and take it with me to my noontime run or workout a...

Three races. One special medal. One friend who talked me into it. One heck of a challenge. Carlsbad - January 20, 2008 La Jolla - April 27, 2008 America's Finest City - August 17, 2008 I guess this means my race plans for next year are changing. And the traveling will be nice. OC Half-Marathon: January 6, 2008 Carlsbad Half-Marathon: January 20, 2008 LA Marathon: March 2, 2008 La Jolla Half-Marathon: April 27, 2008 (deleted) Palos Verdes Half-Marathon: May 2008 America's Finest City Half-Marathon: August 17, 2008 (not sure anymore) Pasadena Marathon: fall 2008 ------ Link: http://www.carlsbadmarathon.com/triplecrownc38c.htm

Since Julie has been so busy lately, I thought I would fill in with some reviews and such. I remember when I first started working out, I use to love eating those protein bars and just about any food in bar form. I was really into Power bars and Clif Bars. I still like these but they can have a strange taste to them. Eventually, I just stopped eating bars. Don't remember why but recently I started looking into them again. Well, I guess it also has to do with the fact that I've been running more in training for the LA Marathon. It's weird but the more exercise I do, the less appetite I have. But knowing how important it is to eat when training, I've been trying to find bars that are easy to eat and digest and will give me enough energy to run. I was at Costco one day and bought a big box of Zone Perfect bars. I didn't know what to expect from them since I had not had them before but the bars have 14g of protein, 7g of fat and 210 calories. Let me just say that they a...

I haven't been updating as much as I should, so I just thought I'd talk about the first 2-3-ish weeks of marathon training. Mainly, I am going to rant a bit. While everything started off well, I was hit with a familiar pain in mile 4 of 5 a few days ago. I had to finish the run because I was away from my starting point, and since it was hurting more to walk than run, I went on. Fast forward to a few hours later. The pain was along the right side of my foot, the exact opposite of the left side foot pain I had last year after running 20 miles. I guess I was tackling too many hills too strongly. I limped over to CVS and got some athletic tape/bandage so the Icy Hot patch I tacked on the area would stay. So I spent two days in this wrap, the second day in a boot, which actually helped a lot. Strangely, even wearing these heeled peep-toe shoes feels better than wearing sandals at this point. I slapped the running shoes on again today and ran three miles. I think I was feeling worse ...

Update: I just finished watching the program described below. I thought it was a very inspiring piece, though it made marathoning seem scarier than it usually is. My favorite part was one of the team member's (Steve) statement that he went for the challenge because it was so ridiculous that it's "intriguing." The segment featured 12 people who rarely exercised and put them on a 9-month (yikes!) training program to run the Boston Marathon. Many of them had other issues besides being sedentary, such as stress fractures, previous heart attack, obesity (common), and even a guy with HIV. Obviously, they had their struggles. I thought it was cool how they talked about some of the physiological aspects of running, such as VO2-MAX, glycogen, and other muscle and bone issues. It didn't make it sound very alluring, to be honest. Watching those novices cross the finish line reminded me how good it will feel in Los Angeles in March. I gotta start training my huge muscular...

Monday marks the official first day of the 18-week marathon training program a-la Hal Higdon. I'm doing the Novice 2 program because I want to improve my time but don't have the number of days to train that are called for in the Intermediate. I am probably going to make some modifications to the program. For instance, once in a while, I like to do repeats, so they may take the place of some short/moderate runs. Also, the long runs are going to flip-flop around due to my horrendous schedule. I am starting the training off with an 8-miler on Monday either at 6 am or 5:30 pm depending on how things go, though I am opting for the earlier time in the event that I get worn out going hundreds of miles on an off-site. I always like to have one week without a long run scheduled in the event that I get sick, too busy, etc. It's a safety cushion, of sorts. So I guess in a way, my training has already begun, though I'm still feeling a bit worn from the half that was almost two week...