GU: an experimental trial.

GU: a packet of flavored gel that is squishy and kind of reminds me of the cheese packets that come in a box of Velveeta mac n' cheese.

Here's what GU is for those of you who are beginner runners like me:

"GU Energy Gel provides athletes with a dose of 100 calories to deliver high-quality, easily-digested and long-lasting energy for athletes in every sport and at all levels. Everything inside each packet of GU is engineered to do one simple thing: provide your body with the essential nutrition it needs to keep going for miles and miles and hours and hours. It goes down easy, and it goes to work fast so you don't have to slow down."

What's in it?

• Carbohydrates - GU provides athletes with a dose of 100 calories in the form of 70-80% maltodextrin and 30-20% fructose (The ratio depends upon the flavor.). Why the mix? It’s a complex carbohydrate, and studies have shown that some complex carbs are actually digested faster than simple sugars like table sugar and honey.
• Amino Acid Blend - GU features a unique blend of amino acids to combat muscle fatigue, accelerate the conversion of carbohydrates into usable energy, and maintain mental focus.
• Electrolytes - Sodium and potassium to replenish what is lost during strenuous activity.
• Caffeine - Some GU flavors are caffeinated while others are not. We add caffeine for two reasons: It acts as a stimulant and it lowers the perceived effort.

I've become relatively familiar with  GU and other types of energy gels/ bars/ shot blocks from reading other running blogs, but have been hesitate to try them because I know that they are prone to giving runners disgustive issues. I've been hoarding my free sample packet that came with the Country Music Marathon swag to use on a training run that was longer than 5 miles.

I was scheduled to run an 8 miler on Tues, so I thought i'd take the GU with me and try it out. It fit perfectly in the little pouch on my cool new camelback water bottle too!

I was very nervous about these 8 miles. I had not completed a run longer than 6 miles since April!!

Mile 1-3: went pretty smoothly, felt like I was still warming up and trying to get into the zone.

 Mile 4-5: started to get a little tired and felt a little out of energy. i told myself to make it to mile 5 and I would reward myself with a GU and water break.

Mile 5: GU. I LIKE IT. it was like eating a spoon of peanut butter from the jar. plus it gave me a HUGE sugar rush. whatever it was supposed to do, i think it worked.

Mile 6-8: runnnneerrsss highhhhh. i don't know if it was the GU, the perfect weather with a slight cool breeze, or the fact that i was delirious. but whatever it was I hit it. and finished in a pretty good time of 1:30 with an average pace of about 10:30-11:06 per mile. My usual speed that I've been hitting on the treadmill.

thank you GU and thank you great weather!!

What's your fav. flavor of GU?

Any energy gels/shot blocks that I should try?

confessions of a good weekend.

this weekend went too fast my friends. butttt consisted of many fun things! like fried fish!



i can't help myself....my southern roots just come out on friday. I am always either craving fried catfish or fried chicken. i usually can try to ignore these feelings, but i was weak last friday and gave in. it was worth it.

After stuffing myself with fish, i convinced my friend Bieder to hit the YMCA with me on a Friday night...so exciting right? I think she was just excited to use her new HOT PINK sneakers.

they gym was hoppin' at 8 p.m. on Friday night.....not. but I got a good 3 ish mile run and Bieder had fun watching tv with her hot pink shoes. and i also found out she's realllly good at 1 yoga move. i forget what its called though.

i was impressed.

i visited the Y again on Saturday for an excellent cross-training day. 15 min on the stationary bike, 15 min on the elliptical, and 15 min on the cool new water-arm-peddling- machine thing. i'll have to take a pic next time. it is legggitt. and makes you arms really sore.

i also hosted a little shin dig cookout on sat night with some of my bessstt fraannnsss. This pic includes all the goodies we grilled: sliced potatoes, hot dogs, brats, asparagus, and corn on the cob! not included: brownies, cookies, melted chocolate.

it was the perfect weekend weather! low 80's and in the 60's during the evening. we took Tucker on a stroll at the park on Sunday and found out he looovveesss snowcones! his tongue was bright red after it.

ok, time for some confessions. I was supposed to do an 8 mile run on sunday....i didn't. I made the excuse of having friends in town and spending time with them instead. i think that's valid! because let's be honest, running and training is important, but it never should take over one's life to where they don't get to spend quality time with their friends :)

soooo I have to make up the long run. and tonight's the night! it's perfect weather today in Nash. cloudy, low 80's. i'm feelin' a good run tonight. hopefully.



Friday Favorites!

it's FRRIIIIDDAAAYYY. thank goodness for that! and thank goodness that is has finally cooled down a little! hello outside runs. I have 2 left for the week. an easy 4 miler and an 8 mile. yikes. i am looking forward to not having to run them on the treadmill though.

today's Friday favorites are a bit random.

1. My handy dandy camelback water bottle

why did I wait so long to purchase one of these? My fav parts: the top because you can adjust the water flow that you are receiving, the handy little pouch for GU gels or a key, and the amount of water it holds! i would say a good 20-24 oz.

2. Emi-Jay's



ok yes, you can more than likely make this yourself, but don't they look so cute? they have a TON of different colors  HERE. It's a fun accessory to put in your hair at the gym, or makes your pony tail a little more acceptable at the office! Plus I've seen lots of ladies tie them around their wrists and make them double as a bracelet.

3. Usain BOLT

wait a minute....that's not Bolt.

but these are probably some of Bolt's biggest fans. they were talking my head off about him while I was babysitting these two little rascals the other evening. we even played a game where they sprinted down the sidewalk pretending they were Bolt. i'm almost positive i love them more than Bolt. even though he is pretty fast...

don't you see the resemblance?

lesson learned.

As many of you know I have been stuck in a dreaded weight plateau for about 6 ish weeks now. I've been trying to "hurdle" (Olympic pun intended) over this number so I can finally start working on losing the next 10 lbs. It has been frustrating and irritating by seeing the same number on the scale each week. So i thought i would join my co-worker in a little kick-start. change it up a bit.

I'm not one for quick fixes, because i have been down that road mannnyy of times before with the " No Carb diet", " Slim Fast", " 5 small Meals", " No Meals"....well maybe not that last one because i could nevvverrr not eat. nor should anyone else ever feel that they should not eat.

but this time i caved in. and was weak. and tried to do a quick fix kick start.

                                                          Military Diet

it's called the military diet. the diet has your meals planned for 3 days and tells your exactly what to eat. here's what it consisted of:

Day 1:

Breakfast- Half Grapefruit, 1 piece toast, 2 tbsp peanut butter
Lunch- Half cup Tuna, 1 slice toast
Dinner- 2 slices any meat (3oz), 1 cup string beans, 1 cup Vanilla ice cream

Day 2:Breakfast- 1 egg, 1 piece toast, half banana
Lunch- 1 cup cottage cheese, 5 saltine crackers
Dinner- 2 hot dogs, 1 cup broccoli, half cup carrots, half banana, half cup vanilla ice cream

Day 3:
Breakfast- 5 saltine crackers, 1 slice cheddar cheese, 1 apple
Lunch- 1 boiled egg, 1 slice toast
Dinner- 1 cup tuna, half banana, half cup vanilla ice cream

I knew from just reading the menu that I would have to add some vegetables or protein bars in the meal plan, because with running this would NOT be enough. Day 1 wasn't bad, Day 2 lunch was horrible, and then I only made it half-way through Day 3.

Moral of the story: quick fixes do not work and are not worth it, but they do provide opportunities to learn from. For instance, I think i may have found what might help me break my plateau...eating less fruit.

I know this sounds crazy because we are told that fruit is good for us, but on the WW plan all fruits and veggies are 0 points. Which is great!!...buttt fruits still have calories and sugars in them. and if you eat more than 2 half c. servings of them a day (which i def. was doing), they could be holding you back. I found this on the WW website under 5 things NOT to do:

4. Don’t stuff yourself with fruit       Fresh fruits are free because we want to encourage you to eat them. They're filling and nutritious Power Foods and we've factored the caloric impact of even the highest-calorie fruits into our calculations of your daily PointsPlus Target. So go for it! Just make sure to eat until you’re satisfied, not stuffed.

      Be particularly aware of day-long grazing. It’s a great habit to have a fruit bowl on your desk or somewhere equally accessible, but be mindful of your portions. While you’ll hear a lot of people saying, “Yeah, I’m not doing Weight Watchers because I ate too much fruit!” there is still a possibility that not listening to your hunger signals can scupper your efforts. If you really think you’re doing everything else right while eating a lot of fruit and you’re still not losing weight, then examine the amount of fruit you’re eating, and why.

I'm going to try this plan in the next couple of weeks and see if it helps! and as always, the goal of trying to lose a little bit of weight is to maintain and live a healthy lifestyle and to learn at an early age the right foods to eat to prevent health problems in the future. That is my goal at least.

Has anyone ever had any luck with quick fixes? the answer should be no! haha

Think eating less fruit will help?

finallllllyyyyy.

I finally had a great long run that was outside! I've been waiting and waiting for this moment. Sunday morning it was raining here in Nash and i did not want to miss running in it. I quickly changed into my new running clothes, grabbed a quick breakfast, and my gracious roommate agreed to drop me off at the starting point.

I was able to run in a little bit of the rain, but it was mostly overcast weather the majority of the time. I got a great 6.2 ish miles in, and ended at the perfect time because it just started to get real humid. I ran the first 6 mi. of the Women's Half Marathon course and its very do-able and flat! I think I'm really going to like this course a lot better than the Country Music Marathon's. ...which involved lots of hills.

I made a trip down to Academy and finally found a few work out shirts that fit great! longer, not too tight, and looks good on women who are not sticks. I also picked up another pair of work out Capri's and a new camelback water bottle that fits perfectly in your hand when you run. it was a lifesaver on Sunday.

and its anti-odor!! don't know how much that really works though, because i was pretty stinky after the run. but i guess it's the thought that counts.

On Saturday I enjoyed a lovely outing with my girls to Arrington Vineyards. If your not familiar with it, its the vineyard owned and operated  by Kix Brooks from Brooks and Dunn. It's about 30 miles from Nashville and is beautiful! They have a free wine tasting and encourage customers to buy a bottle of wine and relax with their own picnic style lunch/dinner. We brought cheese, crackers, grapes, and some sweets. so much fun. and so pretty and relaxing!

                                               we tried the Raspberry one...

                                        and a white mix. Both very good.

Friday Favorites!

So thankful that this week has gone by pretty quickly compared to last week's slllloowww week. I think watching the Olympics 24/7 has helped!

 I've been addicted to the NBC, MSNBC, NBC Sports channels. it's pretty bad. I'll watched Swimming, badminton, water polo, gymnastics, soccer, table tennis. I'll watch it all! love me some Olympic action. hey, it only happens every 4 years!

This week's Friday favorites theme is dance.

because i love to dance. foolishly.

1.  Dancing while running

fortunately I do not have a picture or video of me running while singing/dancing/talking to myself because i look a fool. when i'm tired of running/bored, i'll turn on my new fav jam on the iphone and start pointing and fist pumping. I'm imagining that i look like this...

or that's how i feel like i look. y'all should really try it sometime! It helps especially when you emphasis certain words in the song. " boom, boom, BOOM' gimme dat boom boom BOOM"

2. Me dancing in 50+ years

my roommate showed me this video today and I looovvvee it. this is what i aspire to be in my years to come.

pure awesomeness.

3.  Dancing accessories.

inspired directly from the Olympics...the ultimate dancing accessory is...the scrunchie.

I remember wearing these in like 3rd grade, but now...in 2012? really girls? we can do better. this pretty much sums it up.

http://olympicscrunchies.tumblr.com/



tight tops and cute shoes

You know those ladies at the gym...the ones that have on full make-up, hair is always in the perfect ponytail, fashionable gym top, and cute colored shoes....yeahhh i don't like them.

I have never been able to pull off  lookin' cute at the gym.

1. because i sweat a lot
2. those tight/cute tanks don't work with my curvy body shape
3. cute shoes does NOT = the right shoes.

Let's focus on #2 today.

This is me after going to the gym last night:

Pretty standard gym wear of an old college t-shirt, and some Capri spandex leggings.
Tucker photobomed the pic because he was trying to lick my sweat. gross dog.

Here's what I wish I was wearing/looked liked:

see: cute workout top that is not baggy, no muffin top on tight pants, half-zip matches her shoes, overall cuteness.

This weekend I'm going on a mission....to get new work-out clothes. The Zumba mom's are making me look bad with their cute tops and matching capris, while i'm rocking my Hanes white v-neck tee. It's time to invest.

However, it's going to a a struggle finding some tops I like that fit correctly. i.e. don't ride up, fit in the shoulders and chest, work on a petite frame, and made for women who have hips.

I wish Staci and Clinton had a What Not To Wear gym edition.

Here's some stores I'm going to check out: Athleta, Sports Authority, Academy, REI, Lululemon....any other suggestions?