Half Marathon Update & Kashi

I'm still counting down to my birthday, which is this coming Friday!!!  YAY for birthdays!  My "birthday week" is turning out to be decent I guess.  Though, I was sick on Monday with those horrible stomach cramps, and things at work have been pretty busy... still, I'm going to take the "glass is half full" mentality and believe that things can only get better.

Who watches The Biggest Loser tv show?  I used to watch this off and on quite a bit, many years ago when it first started.  I haven't watched in a while, but I did catch a new episode last night.  I love seeing how far the contestants have come in their weightloss.  Sometimes their stories, how they got to where they are currently, how they really have a better sense of value in their lives, are so inspirational.  I especially love the gym scenes with Jillian and Bob yelling at them to "push harder," and "move, move, move!!"  Ha! Ha!  I wish I had them as my personal trainers.  :)  I would totally kick some butt in the gym with them.  Great show!  I need to watch more episodes.


HALF MARATHON UPDATE

Okie dokie!  One week of training down and 5 weeks to go!  Let's see how I measured up the first week of training:

Monday, March 29
~ 4 miles, 38:00min

Tuesday, March 30
~ 4 miles, 37:15min

Wednesday, March 31
~ 5.15miles, 50:00min

Thursday, April 1
~ REST DAY

Friday, April 2
~ 4.15miles, 40:00min

Saturday, April 3
~ 7miles, 1 hour, 5 min

Sunday, April 4
~ REST DAY

TOTAL MILES RUN FOR WEEK 1:  24.3 miles
GOAL MILES FOR WEEK 1:  24 miles

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, here is how this week is going.... 

Monday, April 5
~ 4.15miles, 40min

Tuesday, April 6
~ 6.15miles, 60min

You can see I have fairly close to a 9 or 10 minute mile.  I need to improve on that if I can.  I can definitely feel a difference in my running physically.  The longer mileage is getting easier for my body.  What I need to work on is how I manage the longer mileage mentally.  I get unfocused when running for long periods of time, and I start to run sloppily which is not good for my body or reaching faster running times.  Somehow I need to figure out how to retrain my mind.  Hmmmmm.

This Saturday I have a 9 mile run scheduled.  Eeek!  I think that on April 24th for my 13 mile trial run I'm going to actually attempt to run the half marathon course.  I'll have to bring my cell phone with me though in case I don't make it!!!


NEW KASHI BAR

On the foodie front, I tried out a new Kashi Bar for my afternoon snack yesterday - Honey Almond Flax.

This was a CHEWY granola bar - I prefer chewy granola - and it had:
~ 300mg of omega-3s
~ 4g of fiber
~ 7g of protein

Plus it tasted great!  There were actually whole almonds you could crunch on within the bar.  The honey gave it a great, mildly sweet taste too.  I like this flavor a lot!