Fridge fess up...part of the overhaul!

I thought I'd take a big step in our friendship and open up my refrigerator to you, from top to bottom.  As you know I am undertaking a training/everything overhaul because of my pace dropping so precipitously.  I think I might as well take some advice on my fridgie-fridge and see how I can improve my running by doing better with the foods I eat, too:

3 types of coffee creamer and skim milk on the top shelf, good priorities in this house!

Cottage cheese, eggs from our hens, blueberries, choc pudding, greek yogurt

Sugar free Red Bull, Spicy V8, Sprite...could be worse

Apples, string cheese, cauliflower, broccoli...

Cilantro, grapes, limes, sandwich thins (love em)

Yep, we bought cartons just for our own eggs...people receive them better this way

TWO pounds of butter, nutella, mustard, PB, salsa, key lime juice

Relish, jalapenos, pickled okra, garlic, applesauce, more mustard, more salsa...

Water filter, low sodium soy sauce, raspberry jelly, salad dressing, balsamic vinegar

2 types of ketchup, BBQ sauce, maple syrup, choc syrup, rice vinegar, more mustard

Yes, I store a lot of food in the pantry (pasta, soups, grains, cereals, nuts, chocolate etc) but I'd like to know, how does my food stack up?  Is this a good start for a healthy running diet?  My junk food taste is more savory than sweet (hence all the salsa and chips) but I won't lie to you, those 2 pounds of butter are going to end up in cookies this weekend.  I don't think my fridge is that bad but I admit, we do share a lot of produce with the hens and we eat elsewhere for lunch everyday since we are at work.  Also I was on a big hotdog kick while studying hence the crazy variety of condiments for two people.

Because we eat at work or out for lunch every day, we don't eat a lot of meat or fish at home, and if we do, I buy just what we are going to cook for that particular meal.  With only the two of us, stuff often goes bad before we can use it so it often goes to the hens instead of into my tummy.

Maybe next I'll share the pantry with you but I'm too short to get good pictures without dragging furniture into the kitchen, easier to wait til D is home, eh?

Epsom salts, old timey + wonderful, dust 'em off from under the sink

Over the past few years I have become a really poor sleeper.  That being said, I don't use any prescription sleep medication, and I'm pretty cautious about over-the-counter sleep aids.  My friend Barb (Leah's mom) has moderate to severe arthritis and she suggested an Epsom salt bath to help me recover from races as well as help in the sleep department and so I bought some and tried them and love them and I wish I had started using them ages ago.  I just wanted to tell you about them in case your mom hadn't told you!  Also, it's summer and overexertion is now in season and this might just be the thing to soothe your aches and pains.

Epsom is a town in England with a preponderance of magnesium salt springs.  Epsom salts and bath salts in general are just magnesium sulfate.  Medically, magnesium is very useful.  At home, you can drink it, bathe in it, or you can make it into a paste and apply to bruises and sores joints or muscles.  

I might just move to Epsom, that's some nice running weather!

 A study of people with arthritis demonstrated that a daily 12-minute epsom salt bath greatly improved arthritic pain relief and without prompting, the study participants all commented on significantly improved pain.  

Per the Epsom Salt Council, bathing in magnesium sulfate is also a way to absorb magnesium which is good for our bodies (if we are deficient).  This stuff has lots of good uses in the garden too. I used to have a garden, and then I got some chickens.  These entities are mutually exclusive.

Anyway, Epsom salt also removes "impurities" but my internet research failed to define what those impurities* might be.

For $0.88 at Walmart I bought a carton of Epsom salts which lasted about 3 baths.  I didn't measure it as I poured it into the bath so it may last even longer.  The package suggests 2 cups of salt for a regular bath tub.  Or do it like I do and just dump some salt in the bath until you think it looks good and salty.

To expand my bath repertoire, I next spent $4.88 on this larger bag of scented Epsom salts, also from Walmart.  I like this particular scent, it is fresh but not too minty or eucalyptic so it doesn't smell medicinal.

Yes you can store your Epsom salts on a pile of dirty laundry

 It makes the whole room smell nice, too.  See in El Paso, in our small home, we don't have a bathroom door, I think this is "a thing" here because at friends' homes, there are no bathroom doors either, I mean, the toilet and shower area are separate and have a door but no joke, our bedroom has an alcove with 2 sinks, a mirror, and a bathtub (well, and a giant laundry monster) but still, that's strange, right?  I digress...anyway I for sure pour too much of this scented salt mixture into the bath each time.  It dissolves well and I notice that it effervesces a tad more than the plain salts.

In all honesty I like the store-brand, unscented salts just as much as the scented ones.  They both work the same, dissolve well and I am a sleepy bunny shortly after bath time.  It's nice to have the scent, but it's nice to save money, too.  I choose the salt bath route about once a week, for after longer runs or when I just can't sleep.

Another Epsom fan

 I haven't noticed yet if the salted bath is better than a plain bath for pain reduction in achy joints and sore muscles but I am not yet facing severe osteoarthritis, either. For me this foray into salt baths started as a sleep aid.  Osmotically it makes sense that a salt bath would draw out fluid from swollen joints etc but I am probably not so in tune with my body that I'd notice.

*By "impurities" I think they euphemistically mean doodoo.  Magnesium salts (like magnesium citrate and magnesium sulfate) are laxatives so I suppose if you were feeling a little constipated you could use the plain Epsom salts and mix a magnesium cocktail per the directions on the package.  I haven't tried it...pre-op bowel prep is no party, this is about the same.  Absolutely do not try this if you have kidney impairment or diabetes or high blood pressure etc.  Actually, don't do this at all unless your medical provider suggests it...please...I don't want to lose my job already :)  And I am 80% sure the paper carton from Walmart does not have a medical license.

Does anyone else like these simple salts as much as I do?  Or do you have your own go-to homeopathic remedies?  Or are you from Epsom and can share its history?

Mommy we took care of that pesky garden for you!

Race report: Mayor's Half Marathon (Anchorage, AK)

Everybody loves a parade but Anchorage loves a half marathon.

These are people who have changed my life

 This 40th Annual Mayor's Marathon half-marathon is responsible for convincing my husband that we should retire to Alaska.  We bought property based on this race and the incredible beauty of the day.  For serious!

Future home?

I ran more slowly than I planned and it didn't get to me as it normally would.  I was really happy to be running with UJ, his CSM, and Dan.  UJ has always pushed me to do my best athletically but we have never been able to compete together before.

UJ's daughter ran the kid's 1.6 mile race in under a 7-min mile pace, putting us all to shame.

The half marathon is a scenic course starting (and returning) to the Delaney Park Strip between 9th and 10th Avenues.  The course sets out along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail with a uber-narrow half-mile trail run in the middle (through Kincaid Park) and a killer hill at the end back to the Park Strip where the race began.  You are not running in the mountains but there are some naughty hills along the way.  Don't let sight of the airport fool you into thinking flat!

I ran this race in 2005, much more quickly, when it was a slightly different course.  I think I placed so well then because it was a chilly rainy day and there was a much smaller field.  This past Saturday was quite different, with sun, many more runners, and great views of the Chugach Mountains to the east and the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet to the west.  

A kid's 1.6 mile race and a 4-mile race also start with the half-marathon.  The full marathon and marathon relay start an hour earlier out east but end at the Park Strip with the half.  The race is always held on the Saturday nearest the summer solstice.  I didn't see Mayor Sullivan there but I assume with one's title on a race he might have been there, at least ceremonially.

Dan loved that this race begins later than most, at 0900.  No groggy morning rush!  There were ample potties at the start/finish and great end of race snacks (Great Harvest Bread Co cookies, drinks, bananas, watermelon, etc).  Nice technical finisher's t-shirt and medal, each distance a different color. Finish-line beer garden for those of age. The aid stations are well-spaced and overrunning with drinks and snacks and music, lots of Psy on this particular day...I guess if you can see Russia you can almost see South Korea too?  Why not.

We didn't look very hard for parking in the morning and we found plenty of spots close by, had we searched a little more tenaciously we could have parked right along the Park Strip itself.  The only downfall of the race was that the start was tight...sardines.  We waited a good few minutes for the crowd to thin and it didn't so if you need a PR in Anchorage, you had better line your tush up in the very front on race day.  The trail is narrow and we were stuck in a thick crowd for about 2 miles. One day, I'd love to meet my goal and break 1:45 on this course, on my turf, in my town.

Packet pick up was the day before the race.  No race day registration or pickup available.  They let Dan and I pick up UJ's number, a convenience I wish more races allowed.  We didn't have a lot of time to explore the expo but the official race ambassador greeted us there.  He has a prosthetic leg and there are more than a few wounded warriors and others with prosthetic appliances running the race.  It's Alaska, so there's not much judging going on.  Run with legs or without.  Or with your dog.  Or a stroller.  Or walk.  There were for sure all skills, ages and abilities present.

The four of us running very much appreciated the 50% military discount. We will be back to run this again.  Annually, if I had to guess. 

PowerBar Energy Blasts winner

Cecil Vermule...
...send me your address to realworldrunner [at] gmail [dot] com

Super!! Enjoy!!

I will also send you a PM :)

North to the future...back from Alaska!

Lately I have been ignoring the simple fact that stress is negatively affecting my running.  Where I used to be a solid 7:45-7:51 minute per mile runner, for the past month or so I am thrilled just to hold 8:30s or so.  I'd love to blame the arid triple digits but I know that the stress of the boards and the trepidation in waiting for score reports just about knocked me over.  We planned a week trip in Alaska immediately after my test day to enjoy some stress-free (oh my gosh, what a joke, waiting for scores was actual test stress x ONE MILLION) time off together and with friends.

I lost a lot of sleep while waiting for scores but I finally found out last Thursday (while standing at a mosquito-laden river landing at 0500) that I passed the boards and the best part was that I was in Alaska with my "family," the mentor who started it all and gave me the courage to keep pushing forward with my studies and army career.  I have been friends with UJ and his wife CB for 7 years and I would not be myself without them.  They have also adopted Dan into their family and we love their 3 beautiful and spirited children as our own. 

We found time to eat way too much good food with our great friends

This is about oh, 9 at night

 And celebrate UJ's change of command

i would never be so lucky to have UJ as my boss one day

Fish for king salmon on the Deshka River (we took pictures of all the fish we caught as you can clearly see)

True.  There are no fish in any of our pictures.

Ride horses up the butte in Palmer 

up a butte...it IS funny

 Cruise around Portage Glacier 

Run a half marathon

photo of a photo...only the best for you

 We enjoyed the midnight sun and we successfully shopped for real estate.

The biggest victory of our trip north was finally convincing California Dan that we should retire to Alaska.  Our last visit (his first) was in winter and not surprisingly, skiing through blustery -9F did not win him over.  The summer sun and beautiful landscape and opportunity for so much coffee (seriously, I've never seen such dense per capita coffee shops) and he was hooked (unlike our fish, sigh).  Maybe he just drank in too much clean air.  Or coffee.

Either way, we now have 2.3 acres of an empty wooded lot with some nice views of the Kenai Peninsula...and we have a few more years to decide (argue) what to do with it!

For now the running is not going too well.   The halfsie was a beautiful course but I just held a nice pace and didn't push myself.  I couldn't.  I changed shoes, training plans, hydration, everything, and still I can't trim the fat off my pace but I am content to work with this slower pace for now and then ease back into it.

It's nice to be back home.  The chickens did fine without us and their abandoned heap of 12 eggs demonstrated yet again that they'd be terrible mothers.  Nugget enjoyed her time at sleep-away camp.  Back to running, back to hoping I can clean up my pace!

Any suggestions to overcome my training troubles?