Let it snow..

The perfect race at the perfect time!

Two weeks ago me and 3 of my good friends climbed into a car and traveled down to St. George for a 50 mile - 5 man relay.  When we signed up we thought that going to St. George in December would be fantastic!  Warm weather and sunny skies would be a great change from the cold dreary Salt Lake weather.  

Well, we were wrong.  But just about the weather.  The weather report called for cold in the 30's with a chance of snow.  WHAT?  SNOW?  In St. George?  Crazy.  Let's just say that we learned that St. George only has ONE snow plow and that most/all people do not even have a snow shovel.  That's how much it snows in St. George.  Well mother nature picked the perfect weekend...well, not really. 

My team members included Tera, her husband Jason, Jen Q., me and Laura.  Laura was the wife of an attorney that works for Jason.  We were happy to have a 5th but a little worried we might be..ahh..a tad bit offensive to her.  When we are all together there just isn't any taboo subject which we are well aware isn't every one's cup of tea. 

We were prepared for the cold, we brought everything we had to keep us warm.  The morning of the race we picked up our #5.  Well Laura turned out to be absolutely perfect and HILARIOUS!!  I swear she was Jen Q's spirit sister!  They had the same sense of humor, said the same things and when they laughed they squeaked the same.  The team was awesome, funny and more then anything my laughing muscles were as sore as my running muscles.  Did I mention that the three other girls had asthma (exercise induced)?  There were inhalers all over the place!

Jason and his 4 running gals. 

Our original "outfit" was to be bright yellow shirts.  Yeah, they are there.  

Ready, set..go

Go JEN GO!

Hi FIVE girls!

No slap bracelet here!

Another exchange and the snow is starting to GO.

I love this picture.  Tera is reconsidering the weather and the fact she is going to have to run in the snow.  Plus she is worried about her stinky (Jason).

My first leg (I only had two) and off I go.

Yeah, it was a trail of packed snow.  What this picture doesn't reflect is the blowing snow.  I had a bunch of snow on the side of my head on the left side.  I was a little cold but my vest kept my core warm and I wasn't hot, which is most important.

Yeah, I'm waving!

Woot Woot!

The run actually felt great and I ran it much faster then I thought I would.  9:40 min/miles and in the blowing snow on a trail that was ROLLING. Which means I would climb up and steep hill and run down a very steep hill.  

What I wore.

The temp was 30 degrees. (2 degrees warmer then Salt Lake!) I wore my warm lined Nike long running pants that have taken me through at least 4 winters.  They have a water proof area on the front of the thigh so they never get wet and they are lined so they are toasty!  I had on my usual block and tackle running bra and a short sleeve bright yellow shirt.  Over that I wore a Lululemon long sleeve (Ice Addict LS). The same one I wore on my Thanksgiving snow run. Of course I bought it last year so they don't even have any Ice Addict shirts.  

Running in Idaho.

Over all that I had on this vest.

I bought it at Kohls.

It has been my favorite vest all winter!  I wear it over regular clothes for extra warmth and I've worn it over running clothes on a few cold weather runs and it keeps the core warm and is easy to run in.  Plus I got it on sale PLUS 20% off.  Yeah.  Score. 

I also wore a thin running hat and some running gloves.  I have to say that I really dialed in the cold weather running outfit.  If it was a longer run I may have worried about covering what little of my ankles were exposed and had a neck warmer on that I could pull up over my mouth if I was too cold.  

Back to the race.

Jen takes off!  I ran down Snow Canyon so it was super cold and snowy and it warmed up a touch when we got closer to the city again.  

This is the shit that goes on while I suffer during my second run.

Get a few dorks at the state line and shenanigans will happen!

I was suppose to tap the sign.  Yeah right.  I really don't need my feet soaking wet.  Even though they were a touch moist. 

Before this pic was taken I was running around puddles and ice and basically hell for runner conditions.  After this pic I ran on a road that had a great shoulder and no snow or ice.  I hit the "I'm super tired" stage at about mile 5 but luckily I just had a mile to go.   Much slower, around 10:30 min/miles.  Total miles around 13.  Boom.  

All done!  

I don't have a pic from the finish but we did finish!  Had a blast too!

After we dropped off Laura and went back to the condo and we all had hot showers and went to dinner.

In the elevator.  HAHA!

The snow outside the condo.  Nothing is shoveled because why would they have a snow shovel??  It was definitely an experience getting to the restaurant, but mostly because we were watching other cars all over the place.  There is a technique to driving in the snow and it's not "gunning" it up a hill.  Thankfully we had Jason's 4 wheel drive and he did great!  But I'd lie if we didn't have a few laughs on the way. 

This was a perfect get away weekend.  I was able to be with wonderful people that are great friends and have a good time.  I love getting back to regular life and being a regular single gal in her 40's.  Right.

Thanks again for every one's support!  The whole transgender husband thing is getting less and less an issue every day but only because of all the love!  

What is your trick to running in cold weather?

Next big race?

Blog on.........

PS.  YES, I'm still going to put up the Vegas Ragnar Post.  I was just...ahhh....distracted a bit.  

Whole30 DONE and RECAP!

Yesterday was the last day of my Whole30 challenge.  Keep in mind that I ate a Paleo lifestyle before starting the Whole30 so I didn't have a huge tired/cranky time followed by a surge of energy. 

I have really put some thought in how I would recap this.  Because I didn't have this HUGE life changing weight loss/food battle event then some may think it's not worth the time.  Lets start with the not so great stuff. 

Thumbs Down:

Cooking - there seems to be a lot of cooking.  I was also trying to keep food stocked up for Daniel (17 year old son).  

Homemade Mayo - I have about a 40% success rate on this.  Frustrating

Planning/planning and more planning - Then shopping shopping and more shopping.

Expensive - In the excitement of new recipes and the anticipation of limiting some foods I over spent.  It doesn't need to be expensive.  

Hard to find something to eat if your out and about - This is where just plain lazy comes in.  Remember when our flight team was stranded in an itty bitty town?  HERE   I did just fine at their grocery store, it's just not easy.

Almond milk - Goes hand in hand with the smoothies.  I only had 2 smoothies in 30 days and I needed to use homemade almond milk.  I like the convenience of store bought but not the taste, for smoothies.

No every day smoothies - I miss my smoothies

There is plenty of awesome:

Thumbs Up!

Homemade Mayo - it's DELICIOUS!  I just need to get better at making it.  I just don't like the idea that I HAVE to make it.

Almond Milk - Homemade - I could drink it all day it's so good!  I miss the store bought kind to put in my seldom eaten smoothies.  If I made enough for both I'd have to make it almost every day.

NOTE:  I have had people tell me that store bought Almond Milk is all natural.  I like the Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze.  Here is a list of the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS: ALMONDMILK (FILTERED WATER,  ALMONDS), CALCIUM CARBONATE, TAPIOCA STARCH, NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOR WITH OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS, SEA SALT, POTASSIUM CITRATE, CARRAGEENAN,  SUNFLOWER LECITHIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, VITAMIN D2 AND D-ALPHA-TOCOPHEROL (NATURAL VITAMIN E).

Hmmm

New recipes - I found some stuff that I will make over and over again

I Feel better - Overall I feel more energy and happier

My body feels tighter - Fat usually settles right on my abdomen.  In the last 30 days it has felt like there is even less there, like my body is smoothing out.

My tastebuds feel like they "re-set" - sounds really odd, but I feel like fruit tastes sweeter and I can appreciate the tastes of the foods better.  I don't have to overload them with salt or sugar.  I had a couple of small chocolates today and they were overwhelmingly sweet.

Labels - I am now a big label reader.  What is really in that season salt?  Oh, sugar, weird.  For 30 days I read labels everywhere. I even went to Whole Foods and browsed around looking for things that were simple and healthy. It is such an eye opening experience and I learned so much from it. 

My son's health - Today Daniel stated that he really didn't want to stop eating healthy, that he felt really good and he even lost a few pounds.  He also mentioned that when he eats breads and sweets they make him uncomfortable and gassy.  

My health -  Knowing that what I'm putting into my body is fresh, organic and healthy.  I am completely in charge of how my body is treated and I want to respect and give it energy and light.  Sounds a little hippie-ish but it's true.  Despite the difficulty after my surgery and frustration of just laying around I still felt great. 

Cravings  - It took at least 25 of those days but my cravings are way down!  

The Whole30 challenge was a definite success!!

I feel great and I have a clearer idea of how I want to continue eating.  I have ton's of new recipes to use and will keep making almond milk.  Today was sort of a day off, but I served my kids a completely Whole30 compliant meal (except the Sangria) for Easter. (Easter post coming)

I will continue the Paleo lifestyle and use most of the Whole30 principles.  I will have a tea with honey, crystal light and the occasional alcoholic drink.   But the majority of my day will continue in a Whole30 way.  I don't want to give up eating delicious, nutrition food and as much as I want!  I was never hungry on this challenge.  NEVER!  Cravings, yes, but not hungry.  It also got me in touch with my stress eating habits.  I'm a horrible stress eater!  Hopefully I'm on my way to conquering that battle.  

I will probably do it again when I feel like I need a restart!

I did not lose any weight.  Well, I lost about .8 lb.  I've been laying around for  9 days and unable to exercise so I didn't even measure myself.  I really don't have a lot to lose and my body LOVES this weight for some reason.  If you wanted to do this program to also lose weight then nuts and fruits have to be eaten very sparingly.  I'm sure the few pounds I would like to lose for summer will come right off when I start running again. 

If you have any questions about the Whole30 challenge you can email me, comment or check out the Whole9 website that has most of the information to get started or see if it's right for you.

Thank you for being patient with all my food pictures.  I may not stop.....

Blog on................