8/1

I started half-marathon training earlier this week.  It's good to be back on a rigorous daily schedule like that.  Unfortunately, this also means that I backed out of running with my friend, partially because of Neil's schedule (he likes to go into work really early), partially because I was really struggling with the post-run crash hitting mid-morning, and partially because I was enjoying easy runs and conversations too much, and I wasn't pushing myself hard enough.  Today I ran hills on the treadmill-- as hard and steep as I could stand--until just before I started throwing up and I felt so much more satisfied with myself than the gentle runs where I was having fun talking with my friend.  And then I toed off my shoes and realized that my mind is very messed up sometimes.  Maybe it's just the fever talking (oh yeah, i'm really sick right now, which is another awesome reason to go run the crap out of some hills).  I've realized over the past year how crazy it was to find someone with my exact same schedule who ran the exact same pace and was training for the exact same run...I really want to find someone who is training for a half so that we can trade babysitting but so far, I don't know anyone else who is running that much.

Another thing--I have been totally feeling like crap lately, mentally and physically.  So in an effort to dig myself out of my little black pit of despair where I've been living for the last four or five months, I'm trying to be much more disciplined about what I eat.  And one of the ways I want to do this is by writing down everything I eat.  I'm hoping that the combination of race training and watching food intake will work some magic (I'm also downing a lot of interesting vitamin combinations).  And tracking my sleep and exercise.

Breakfast: apricot, homemade whole-wheat toast with honey, strawberry yogurt, pint of water
Lunch:  four carrots, quinoa bowl (with peppers, cannelloni beans, red onion), and green smoothie (spinach, blueberries, carrots, OJ), pint of water
Snack: another pint of water and 1.5 apricots (Luke dove on the second half)
Dinner: roasted tomato soup, one homemade whole-wheat roll, and 3 helpings of quinoa salad (quinoa with spinach, lettuce, craisins, apples, and cashews).  and another pint of water.

looking at this I think I need a lot more protein.  and maybe I should measure portion sizes.  that sounds exhausting. 
Sleep: 5.5 hours
Run: 3 miles of really crappy hills, around 9:05/mile (so slow, so slow, but I am so not where I need to be and I seriously feel like death today).  Ran 5x400 yesterday, around 8:50/mile or so and another 3 on Monday.  Kind of nice having a break from my regular 5 milers and I'm trying to run harder and work in more hills while my mileage is still so low.  I always love that first week of training.