Tuesday Challenge - June 14

I'm phoning this one in.  Literally.  Last week I missed posting because I was at Annual Conference, but I certainly didn't miss my runs. I got home last night, expecting big numbers of the scale so I was preparing mentally for the "bad belly day" emotion some of us feel.  I ended up weighing the same as when I left for Conference!  What amazed me, was I really had to make a lot of difficult food choices.

I constantly ask how the food is cooked and in what.  For example, at one restaurant they specifically said that the green beans were not cooked in butter, grease, or bacon.  And then, when they came to the table, I found bits of bacon in them and there was enough "oil" on my plate, to lube my car. Obviously, those were never eaten.  I also never order anything with cream base or fried - I try to stick with blackened chicken or fish.   I also had to constantly cut my portions in half - when we order at restaurants, they automatically give us the "American" portion which is one of the big reasons so many people here are overweight and obese.

The first thing I do, is cut everything on the plate in half and give it away - to my 9 year old son who has suddenly become the bottomless pit and still only weighs in at 70 lbs (wet!), or to my husband, who has to have way more fuel then me because he's 6'4 and will lose double what I lose when we run.  If there is no one who will my other half, then I box and take it to the homeless (which apparently leave on the picnic benches on the boardwalk at Corpus).

Another trick, I've learned is that I drink a lot of club soda when eating out.  It fills you up, you feel like your getting something special and yet your simply hydrating your body and tricking your stomach!  What a win win!  And of course, I never order dessert -which apparently is a requirement when you eat out - you should've seen the looks on the wait staff faces when they bring those trays of wax dessert by & I say no.  Shock seems like such an inadequate description.

We ventured into a place called FreeBirds.  I was so happy to find whole wheat tortillas, fresh raw veggies and that I could customize my "burrito".  True Happy Tummy!  But, I definitely did not get one of these......

And while I got a good laugh out of this......

i didn't order it either (and who would order a Hairy Belly Button anyway?)!

So now onto the challenge: 

Incline training!  Simple, simple, simple.  You definitely need a treadmill for this one.  Set your treadmill to 15% (or the highest it goes) and walk at 4.4 pace for 2 minutes.  Readjust treadmill to 10% and run at race pace until you reach a mile.  Then hike it back to the highest incline and walk again at 4.4 for 2 minutes.  Readjust back to 10% and run for the rest of that mile.  You'll do this till you hit 7 miles.  

At the end of 7 miles, you'll do 25 burpees, 25 push ups, 25 mountain climbers and 25 chair dips.  

Have fun!!  Off to get in a quick 2 mile recovery run before hitting the trails again!!