Mrs Pie Tries Tri

This is mostly workout logs and stuff about training, with occasionally more general stuff about running, swimming, cycling, weight, and body image. When I can keep up with it.

[mrspietriestri]

On Friday the pool wife and I went swimming. We’ve had a rough winter for swimming, and pretty much gave up being able to regularly get to the pool, between bad weather and the cold and a rather unpleasant series of encounters with a woman who works for the pool.

There’s a rule that when you use the pool you have to take off both pool covers. But when it’s just the two of us we like to leave one on; we’re not using that half of the pool and it wastes energy to take that cover off, and it’s not like we are playing in the pool: we’re swimming laps in our lanes, not even diving. Nothing bad is going to happen. But in December this lady just freaked out at us about the cover left on the pool, insisting we had to remove it because it was a safety issue and blah blah blah. She showed up every time we went swimming for a while, yelling at us like a crazy person. Finally she said she was going to come check the pool every day to see if we were swimming with the cover on and we just kind of gave up and stopped swimming.

So Friday we went to the pool for the first time in a while. Took both stupid covers off, which didn’t feel so bad because it was kind of a warm night. I swam about 15 laps, which is not really that much, before we finished up and went home. It wasn’t much but by the end I was almost cramping up with hunger. That’s the thing about swimming; I sure do notice any dietary restrictions with it.

No other exercise this weekend. I spent some time working on my bees, cleaning the hive up and pruning the roses away from it, but that’s not much exercise. I’m going to see how adding more running days next week works out.

[mrspietriestri]

Hey.

So there was a terrible election, and the night of the election my elderly dog got sick and spent the next two weeks on what would end up being her final illness. Then my roofer had a heart attack at the start of the wettest winter in 120 years. Then a warehouse burned down in Oakland and I took on another full-time job helping art spaces in warehouses get safe and legal. Then Mr Pie’s cousin died. Then my aunt died. Then I got an ear infection that made me intensely dizzy because it turns out that if anything touches my inner ear my brain gets some kind of post-traumatic stress reaction and thinks we are having another stroke and that sucked a lot. 

Anyway, that’s how I signed up for a race series and ran an 8K without doing any training on Sunday, and have spent the last several days literally hobbling around while my achilles tendons yell at me. As you do.

So, yeah, still alive. Not running very much. I gained several pounds over the holidays while not running and not tracking food, and have only just gotten back on the bandwagon. My running fitness is back to hellishly bad, though I did run the entire 8K, albeit slowly. I’ve had to go back to being in the office early, too, which is a huge adjustment in terms of time to run.

So thanks for the PMs and sorry to worry you. Just had a life full of stuff to deal with.

[mrspietriestri]

Back out for a run today, because if I didn’t, I knew I wouldn’t. I ran the same route I planned for yesterday, including over the fateful place where I fell down, because I had to get that over with, too. It was an uneventful run, not too hard but not exceedingly easy. My hands are still a mess and the wounds from yesterday are weepy and gross, which added a little extra special to the whole thing.

And last night I got a new pair of running shoes, some Altra Torins which are a little more cushioned than my Altra Ones while still having (I hope) the same basic shape. I need to try them on and see, but they could be game-changers for my shins if they fit well.

Time: 0:47:06

Distance: 3.51 miles

Shoes: black altras

Pain: none

[mrspietriestri]

I fell down running today  Not metaphorically, literally. Destroyed my phone, ripped my hands and knees up. Not a good start to my day. The worst of it are a couple of places where I skinned the ends of my fingers. That is going to suck for typing. Now I’m waiting for the Apple store to open so I can get a new phone. And maybe a case, though with a case even the SE won’t fit in my pocket.

Time: ?

Distance: about .5 miles

Shoes: black altras

Pain: my hands are like hamburger

[mrspietriestri]

Three miles-ish in the rain today. My phone died near the end, though, so does the last half mile even count???

I definitely wanted to run today because I’m swimming again tomorrow, so no running. I kind of dithered all morning about whether to run on the treadmill or outside, and finally decided “eh, how wet can I get?” The answer to that is really, really wet. I was soaked and dripping when I got home, though weirdly my shirt and jacket had a dry spot in the small of my back.

It was pretty good except there was a lot of flooding from three days of rain, so I spent a lot of time running around huge puddles. I ran most of the way with a few pauses to walk around puddles and a couple of times to catch interesting pokemon (growlithe and clefable). Which is probably what killed my phone, since that game eats phone batteries for breakfast.

Time: about 37 minutes (hahaha who knows?)

Distance: 2.82 miles when the phone died, but this route is about 3.2 miles.

Shoes: black altras, now completely soaked

Pain: left shin a little painful, calves tight

I took this photo, squinting because rain was getting in my eyes, everything all blurry from the plastic bag I put it in to protect the phone from the rain, then my screen just went black. That’s a rainy day run for you.

[mrspietriestri]

I got a replacement phone last night (very irritating process itself), and this morning it would not pair with my Garmin for about 45 minutes, so there went my workout time. To be honest I could have run without the phone being paired but I didn’t, and then it was too late.

Tonight is my dog’s 15th birthday so she and I are going on a great walk. I got her a wagon to ride in when she gets exhausted, so we can go for more than a block. It’s not a set of 400m intervals but it will have to do.

[mrspietriestri]

I started Hal Higdon’s intermediate 5k training plan today. I intended to start it yesterday, but well. I was so tired and unmotivated and then it was time to get to work.

Anyway, I’m done making excuses for myself, which I apparently just spent two months doing. Today I ran 3 miles around the base, ran the whole time apart from a stop to take my overshirt off at the halfway point. I like playing Pokemon Go while running but it makes for a slower run, and I wanted to just get this done.

It felt really good to just go out and run and not stop. I also negative split the whole thing so that felt very strong. Tomorrow is a speed workout day, 400m intervals, so I have to program that into my watch because I don’t have a convenient track open to me in the morning.

In other news, hello, I’m back-ish, though I’m so effing busy with work and my house renovation that I’m sure I will not keep up on reading here.

Time: 0:55:29

Distance: 3.93 miles (only 3 run; the rest were warmup and cooldown walks)

Shoes: black altras

Pain: shins a little throbby 

[glowinguplaura]

PCOS and Sugar and What I'm Trying to do About it

A great way to get a hang of my diet and what I’m eating when it comes to PCOS is probably by making more things homemade instead of store bought. Sugar really affects PCOS and I’m not an expert and I get so much of the information mixed up in my head but I’m pretty sure that with PCOS, sugar fucks with our insulin almost like it would in a diabetic ?

Anyways I’ve decided to try to make more conscious decisions with what I’m eating so I’ve been looking at the sugar content of stuff that I’m eating (fruit aside obviously I’m not too worried about the natural sugars in fruit) and there is added sugar in FRIGGEN EVERYTHING.

The other day my mom decided to make homemade pasta sauce for our spaghetti and meatballs. There was a half tea spoon of sugar in the whole batch and she probably made like 20 cups of sauce I’m not even joking. Whereas store bought sauce I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of added sugar that I kind of feel is unnecessary in pasta sauce ? So ya my mom and I decided from now on to make homemade pasta sauce because it’s probably way better for me and my PCOS and its so much more delicious.

And yesterday I wanted to put something on my Kodiak cakes but didn’t know what. I wanted jam but every single jar of jam in my fridge, the first or second ingredient was fructose/glucose. I had it anyways because that’s what I had but it got me thinking, why not make my own jam without any added sugars ??

So ya I want to start making more things that I would usually by store bought, but homemade instead. It’s kind of overwhelming and I don’t know where to start. I have this overwhelming urge to throw out all the packaged crap in my house. But I know that’s not realistic. So I’m gonna go with baby steps and try making some homemade jam first and see where I go from there.

I just really want to take control of my body and what I’m putting in it. And I’m tired of feeling confined by convenience and the shelves in grocery stores and the crap that the products are filled with if that makes sense.

Any other suggestions for things I should try making homemade instead of store bought ??

[mrspietriestri]

There is a ton of sugar in stuff, but some of it is necessary: jam has to have sugar as a preservative. So keep in mind that if you make your own jam, it is not actually jam and cannot be stored in a sealed jar on a shelf, but is freezer jam and has to be kept chilled (either frozen for long-term storage or refrigerated for a week or so). Just trying to save you a bout of botulism.

They do sell jams that are no-sugar-added, and some of them even have no sweetener added (preferable, to my palate), but the tradeoff is that they have other preservatives in them, and many have artificial sweeteners which I dislike. I find that just cutting down the amount of jam I use and making it with the normal ratio of sugar (about 50-50 sugar and fruit; jam is a preserved fruit product and sugar is the preservative) is a better option for me. It’s just more effective for me to get rid of sugar from things where the sugar is not part of the thing (like tomato sauce, totally agree with you there).

[glowinguplaura]

Ya I plan on just making jam that I keep in the fridge for a bit instead of making a bunch and keeping them in the pantry because I am way too lazy to actually go through the whole canning process 😂

I wish I could make jam with the normal sugar amounts but I find that because I have PCOS, even enjoying things with sugar in moderation can sometimes backfire on me. I’ve noticed a huge plateau in my weight loss recently and I think that cutting back on sugar would really help.

I really appreciate your input though thank you !

[mrspietriestri]

Ah, that sucks that things like jam can be so triggering. I’ve been very lucky that I can have just a tablespoon of jam a couple of times a week and it doesn’t seem to affect me. I hope no-sugar-added jam works better for you.

[glowinguplaura]

PCOS and Sugar and What I'm Trying to do About it

A great way to get a hang of my diet and what I’m eating when it comes to PCOS is probably by making more things homemade instead of store bought. Sugar really affects PCOS and I’m not an expert and I get so much of the information mixed up in my head but I’m pretty sure that with PCOS, sugar fucks with our insulin almost like it would in a diabetic ?

Anyways I’ve decided to try to make more conscious decisions with what I’m eating so I’ve been looking at the sugar content of stuff that I’m eating (fruit aside obviously I’m not too worried about the natural sugars in fruit) and there is added sugar in FRIGGEN EVERYTHING.

The other day my mom decided to make homemade pasta sauce for our spaghetti and meatballs. There was a half tea spoon of sugar in the whole batch and she probably made like 20 cups of sauce I’m not even joking. Whereas store bought sauce I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of added sugar that I kind of feel is unnecessary in pasta sauce ? So ya my mom and I decided from now on to make homemade pasta sauce because it’s probably way better for me and my PCOS and its so much more delicious.

And yesterday I wanted to put something on my Kodiak cakes but didn’t know what. I wanted jam but every single jar of jam in my fridge, the first or second ingredient was fructose/glucose. I had it anyways because that’s what I had but it got me thinking, why not make my own jam without any added sugars ??

So ya I want to start making more things that I would usually by store bought, but homemade instead. It’s kind of overwhelming and I don’t know where to start. I have this overwhelming urge to throw out all the packaged crap in my house. But I know that’s not realistic. So I’m gonna go with baby steps and try making some homemade jam first and see where I go from there.

I just really want to take control of my body and what I’m putting in it. And I’m tired of feeling confined by convenience and the shelves in grocery stores and the crap that the products are filled with if that makes sense.

Any other suggestions for things I should try making homemade instead of store bought ??

[mrspietriestri]

There is a ton of sugar in stuff, but some of it is necessary: jam has to have sugar as a preservative. So keep in mind that if you make your own jam, it is not actually jam and cannot be stored in a sealed jar on a shelf, but is freezer jam and has to be kept chilled (either frozen for long-term storage or refrigerated for a week or so). Just trying to save you a bout of botulism.

They do sell jams that are no-sugar-added, and some of them even have no sweetener added (preferable, to my palate), but the tradeoff is that they have other preservatives in them, and many have artificial sweeteners which I dislike. I find that just cutting down the amount of jam I use and making it with the normal ratio of sugar (about 50-50 sugar and fruit; jam is a preserved fruit product and sugar is the preservative) is a better option for me. It’s just more effective for me to get rid of sugar from things where the sugar is not part of the thing (like tomato sauce, totally agree with you there).

[mrspietriestri]

I went for a nice run last night. My rule has been that if my shins hurt at all during the day, I don’t run the next day, which has meant a lot of days with no running. But walking! We had a miniature schnauzer visiting us for 2 weeks which was loads of fun, and he was mostly up for long walks with me almost every day. I tried to get at least 3 miles, usually 4, walking with him. He kind of sucked as a running dog; after one run he was on to me and balked at going above a slow trot. But he was a great companion for walking.

Anyway, the schnauzer went home, and I was missing running. So even though it has been devilishly hot the last couple of days, I went for a run last night around sunset. I ran around the base, then around the housing complex outside the base, for 5 miles. I played Pokemon as I did it because it makes great intervals: I stop to catch monsters or spin stops for supplies, but run in between. There are long stretches with no stops and no Pokemon at all so I got some real quality running in, and only one mile had its split ruined by a bit of a side-trip around a park looking for an exeggcute that came up on the radar.

I had a couple of great moments as I was running when I felt like I could go on like that forever and ever, which is that amazing flow situation where you’ve dialed in your pace to your energy and it all just works. I love that feeling.

That said, my shins did hurt like hell only a short way into the run (they got better but I knew I would pay for it), and my bunion twigged out near the end, and for some reason my ankles have been sore as hell after a run lately, too. 

Time: 1:10:47

Distance: 5.00 miles (it ticked over just as I was about to press the stop button!)

Shoes: black altras

Pain: all over, man, all over.

[mrspietriestri]

My whole body hurts. Not in a “boy, that was a hard workout” way but in a “do I have the flu?” way. It sucks, I feel crampy and sore all over but I’m not feverish so I don’t know what it is. I still went for a run this morning because I just needed to. I’m trying to ease myself into running outside by going shorter and stopping when my shins hurt but it’s hard. Mostly the going shorter part, which isn’t how I like to think of myself. 

Really, what I should do is run half the run outside then run the second half on the treadmill, but that feels almost impossible (for no good reason; it just does). When the running gets too painful, I walk, I’m not all lost to common sense, but I wish I could run as long as I want to.

Anyway, today I ran around the base a bit and said good morning to a man who I surprised and caught a bunch of Pokemon and skipped catching others because it was clear they were over where the asshole gym is (not Pokemon gym, a real gym, where the people who go there drive like crazy people as if there are no traffic rules on the base). Then I went home and discovered that the cats had caught a mouse and gotten blood all over the laundry room (cute). The mouse had hidden under the vacuum cleaner and he finally got away with Mr Pie’s assistance. Then the little dog who is visiting for a couple of weeks us lost his mind and peed all over the place where the blood was so it was extra fun to clean up. I crated the lot of them and there was a lot of cussing and the sheets that had been on the floor got in the washing machine. I guess at least the cats did their job, though they weren’t very tidy about it.

And now I’m staying late at work to make up for it but maybe not being so diligent about that, eh?

Time: 1:02:27

Distance: 3.90 miles

Shoes: black altras

Pain: shin splints both legs, right piriformis still not happy. Whole body aches

[mrspietriestri]

I’ve somehow lost my running mojo the last few weeks. I just feel really tired all the time. Part of it is me: I’ve been getting to bed later and staying up in bed reading instead of going to sleep. Part of it is the house renovation, which has hit full stride with need for my attention, so I am in part staying up late to get work on that done. Part of it is my body, which got a little injured and needs to recover. 

At any rate, I’m finding it easier now to go for runs in the evening. Last night I planned a run around sunset, which I had to push later because my Garmin was totally out of battery thanks to some dog knocking it off the charger. So around 8pm I headed out for a run. 

I ran around a bit on the base, which is less creepy in the evening than it is in the morning, even in full darkness. I went to see if a road that shows up on the map was open (it was not) then made a big loop around the residential neighborhood just outside the base, stopping for a little bit to take advantage of a lure somebody had set up on a pokestop because I’m a geek (got another Ponyta which made the whole run worth it). I was aiming for 5 miles but cut it short because it was getting late.

I did notice that it was easy to not look at my heart rate while running in the dark, because that would have required turning on my backlight on my watch. That worked well and I ran mostly by feel. My plan setting out was to run between pokemon, which works better than you might think in some places where they are sparse, and terribly in places where there is one every few feet. Still, worked OK. I do like Pokemon Go as a motivator for getting out for a run still.

I’m going to do another run, shorter, tonight. I need to get over this slump and back into things.

Time: 1:09:12

Distance: 4.65 miles

Shoes: black altras

Pain: shins were a little throbby

[findingjacqueline]

Finally getting around to trying one of these, and I’m kind of disappointed. I think I’ll stick to Lara bars. #healthyhappylife #weightloss #weightlossjourney #givemeallthepeanutbutter

[authenticpandas]

Whaaaat it sounds amazing! Bummer that it wasn’t as good as you hoped!

[mrspietriestri]

Yeah, they were kind of a letdown. Not bad, per se, but not really worth it. I usually put a smear of peanut butter on clif bars, anyway, and those taste better and have a better texture.

[mrspietriestri]

Four miles this morning, I should have run yesterday but had a near-death driving incident (a person made a left turn in front of me without enough room and I JUST missed them; couldn’t veer around them because there was a car to the left of me) and was too freaked out to do more than shake for about ten minutes and then the adrenaline crash happened. I hate that feeling. 

Anyway, four miles, and I started watching Bob’s Burgers, which is pretty good, though there’s a lot of gratuitous meanness, so I’m not sure how long I will last. I just can’t get into that at all; I can see being mean to people who are mean or thoughtless, but I can’t see being mean to somebody who is trying hard and being a decent person. I don’t think my emotional landscape works well with most TV series.

Anyway, another low-HR run for the books. September is here and my month of recovery is over, so time to get back to it. I want to work myself up to marathon mileage by the end of the year. Just putting that out there so that when I inevitably don’t get it done (like I didn’t sign up for open water swimming this summer, and I didn’t do that sprint triathlon I was planning, either) I have something to refer to.

The problem with trying to take some rest and rejuvenation time is that resting makes me go into a spiral of depression and self-hatred. Gratuitous meanness to myself.

Time: 1:02:41

Distance: 4.34 miles

Shoes: black altras

Pain: none

[oddishodyssey-blog]

Can someone hold me accountable for getting up early tomorrow and going running??!

Just… like, remind me tonight to set my alarm? Remind me that if I try it once and don’t like it I never have to do it again? I set my alarm for 7 every day but I’m rarely out of bed before 8:30…

I need to wake up early and accomplish things even if I don’t have a job. If I get up early, I can run, eat, do chores, go to the gym, and be home again all before 2pm instead of trying to plan my meals so I don’t get stomach cramps for my afternoon run…

[mrspietriestri]

Have you set your alarm? You will feel so good if you get out of bed and run. I’m planning to do the same thing.

[mrspietriestri]

We went to a wedding on Saturday and on Friday night I had to go dress shopping. Usually this involves at least one instance of me crying in a dressing room surrounded by dresses that just don’t fit, but this time, I went into Ross (I didn’t want to spend too much) and chose some dresses that all fit just fine, and in the end came out with two perfectly good dresses that worked fine (I got both of them because I was undecided). I was a little bummed that the one that I loved the most had a stain on the chest. I prefer to make those stains on my own clothes. But no crying. And no endless shopping trip going from store to store looking for anything that will work.

Also, I recently went down another dress size. It felt really fast but the last time that happened was about 9 months ago so it’s not like weight is dropping off me super fast. I had bought a couple of pairs of my regular pants in the next size down and tried them on, and they fit really well. No wonder the larger ones felt kind of baggy. 

So, a couple of real non-scale victories. And I really like this dress although the collar kept flipping like that all day long. I need to sew a facing for it or tack it in place somehow.

Bonus kitty because I’d been out all morning at the wedding and he missed me something awful.

[robinruns]

Garmin Running Watches

I have a couple questions if there’s anyone out there who uses a Garmin watch and/or a Fitbit.

1. What’s the Garmin version you use and feel really good about?

2. Does anyone use both at the same time, tracking a run with both pieces of technology/apps? Does this work, or does the two different GPS’s muck things up?

3. Do you wear a Garmin full time or just for running?

4. Do any Garmin watches do heart rate too?

Thanks!

[robinruns]

BOOST!!! Help?!

[theunstuffedpepper]

Boooosting!

[mrspietriestri]

1. I have a Garmin Forerunner 620. I like it but it is not really worth getting the 600 series unless you really want to geek out with running data; if you want to moderately geek out a 200 series is just fine.

(I have a Charge HR as well)

2. I wear both at the same time when running. The Fitbit doesn’t have GPS so that doesn’t matter. I also use Runkeeper, which does have GPS. For treadmill runs, I ignore the Garmin data apart from the information about my stride (this comes with the 600 series watches). For outdoor runs, I track on both Runkeeper and the Garmin but the Garmin is the data I use for actual analysis or record keeping. My Fitbit does a great job of keeping track of the number of calories I use while working out on its own, with no interference from me, so I just let it do its thing. This would drive me crazy if I wanted one app with canonical data, but eh, turns out not to be that important for me.

3. I only wear the Garmin while running. If I wanted to wear a Garmin fulltime I would give up the Fitbit.

4. Some Garmin watches have optical heart rate. They usually have model numbers that end in 5. For running if you want optical heart rate, get the Forerunner 235. Other Garmin watches require a chest strap for heart rate. They can also connect to 3rd party devices like the Scosche that do heart rate in other ways.