Blame it on the sugar

That's what I'm going to start using as my excuse for anything crazy & off the wall I do. I'm just going to blame it on the lack of sugar in my diet making me do insane things. I mean you have to put the blame on someone or something, right?
I thought that I ended my season on Monday and though technically I did, I found myself lining up on a line to "race" on Thursday. For some reason unbeknownst to me I thought hoping into a 1500m race was a superbly brilliant idea. What sprinter in their right mind thinks that a mile is a good idea, seriously I don't know any. Also what runner who's weekly mileage amounts to about 10-15 miles a week decides to run a distance like that. See lack of the white stuff, mmhhmm. Originally I was going to the track to join a leg of a the ridiculous relay I did last year that went into the wee hours of the morning, because I hadn't gotten a chance to get to the track to do my workout earlier in the day. It was promised this year that the same thing would not happen by only hosting 1 open race beforehand. I'd do the relay as a workout 5 200's with about 3-4min rest, just 1 200 shy of what I was supposed to do for my workout. No problem. Then somewhere during my day I said to myself I should do the 1500, just to see. Really not so sure what I wanted to see, but alas I saw. I jogged up to the Armory, paid my fee, with 10 min to spare being late per usual, chatted with a fellow teammate. Beyond the look of what in the world are you thinking, she asked if I'd pace her to 4:48. Sure since I of course ran through what splits I needed to hit to go about 4:50 (yea I was being a bit ambitious but if I was going to do it may as well attempt to go for it). I may have scared her when I told her what I was going to go through for the first 800, but she figured that she would stay a few lengths behind then take over after. I went through the first 400 exactly what I aimed, then fell a little short on the next 400 where she took over, then in true unconditioned mileage I fell off in the the 3rd quarter. Held on for the last 300m. Clocked in an impressive 5:02.5, making a 7 for 7 races all personal bests. Sweet deal, considering my lack of endurance. On top of it was able to help my teammate procure a PB as well, not so shabby for not planning to race.
Race out of the way I had a little break before the relay while the rest of the women's heats and men's heats went off. Once all the races finished up low and behold the 1st heat of the relay went off at 8ish pm, there'd be no Friday morning at the race. Nice. I managed even after a hard race an hour before to churn out some decent but painful 200's in 29-30-30-31-30.  A second faster in every 200 than last year and I didn't run anything before that one (granted it was pretty late).
Some serious strength going on right now, hope I can hold on to it (*knock on wood* injury free) for the next couple months. Good things, good things...ok so maybe the lack of sugar isn't sooo bad.

Sugar High

In my newest resolutions section I mentioned that I wanted to monitor my diet a little better and cut down my sugar intake. For those who don't know me I have an insane sweet tooth, and I don't mean some sweets here and there, I'm talking I've eaten an entire cake in one sitting without blinking an eye then going for something else sugar laden, this is on a semi daily basis too. Not good, especially when I'm trying to take my training to the next level. I can honestly say if the rest of my diet wasn't fairly healthy, I drank and I wasn't as active as I am I'm sure that I'd be severely overweight. 

Well in the spirit of Lent beginning Wednesday, what better way/day to sacrifice/give up a vice for an extended period of time. Obviously this is not just a 40 day thing it will hopefully spill over into the rest of my daily life but I sadly needed something to hold me accountable. I've attempted many times before but success rate is not very good for more than a few days. In the past I've given up baked goods for Lent but made sure to keep a loophole so I could still indulge in my sweet tooth. This time I decided I to give up all desserts! Eek! Oh but I couldn't just stop there in my typical over the top way I decided that I would throw in no refined sugars for good measure! Cut the white stuff out. Natural sugars are ok like honey, agave nectar and fruit.

 A serious undertaking to say the least. I went through my cabinets and cleared them out from all my goodies, read EVERY single label and had to rid of more than I thought. Then to the grocery store to restock the cabinets I emptied. I may have pulled out some hair during that excursion. On a normal basis I read labels, I make sure that I can read all to most of the ingredients in the products I consume. Now I was reading labels to see if there was sugar in them, and let me tell you it is amazing how much sugar is in the things you wouldn't think have sugar. I would pick up an item that I thought was "safe" only to have to put it back because of that five letter word. I did eventually cave in make an exception for cane sugar since technically it's not refined but I tried to not pick up too many things that had it, so not to defeat the whole purpose of cutting back on sugar. I thought my training was hard this is going to take so much more dedication. I know it's for the greater good as an athlete and I hope to bring more awareness to the things we put into our bodies. I look forward to  sharing the awesome things that come from this and like I said before carry it on after Lent ends. 

To a sugarless 40 days...