2012 Olympic Marathon Trials

Early this morning, my running buddy Lisa and I drove up to downtown Houston to watch the 2012 Olympic marathon trials. I was so excited to all of these amazing runners that I have read about for the past 4 years in person!

We got a great location to watch and the course set up was perfect for spectating. These are amazing athletes. Meb Keflegzighi placed first in the men's race and averaged a 4:55 min mile. ::jaw drop:: That's INSANE. Double that and that's my pace...on a good day! The women's winner, Shalane Falagan averaged5 a 5:33 mile. I am in awe.

Here are a bunch of pictures:

All ready to cheer on the Olympic hopefuls!

As I was trying to take a good picture of the starting line, this really annoying guy leaned into my photo...and then I realized it was my friend Brian (I visited him and his family in India)! I couldn't believe I ran into him and his oldest son, Corbin, in a mass of thousands of people!

The men, just before the gun

The women waiting for the "Set" call

Our Olympian men! I was so thrilled to see Ryan Hall (left) run past several times. He is such an amazing runner and gives God all the glory!

I love this picture - the 3 women Olympians comforting the 4th place woman, who actually led for part of the race. I love the sportsmansship and true camaraderie.

Our Olympian women!

Truly an amazing event to witness! Go USA! :)

Anoint me

Love this from Susannah Spurgeon's "Free Grace and Dying Love":

(Inspired from Psalm 92:10 "you have poured over me fresh oil")

"Anoint me for service, Lord, in all I do for you, either directly or indirectly, there may be manifested the power of the Holy Spirit, and the wholehearted earnestness which only he can supply.

Anoint me for sacrifice, so that contrary to my sinful nature, self may be overcome, and bound, and crucified, that Christ alone may reign in my mortal body.

Anoint me for suffering, if so it be your will, that I may praise you as I pass through the waters and the fires of affliction.

Anoint me for intercession, Oh my father, that for others, as well as for myself, I may plead with you, and may prevail."

Yes, anoint me Lord.

My new running style

Remember how I said I was going to re-train myself to not subconsciously shorten my stride when I run so my IT band would behave (if not, read here)? (by the way, may I add that it's very difficult to unlearn something you learned subconsciously?...)

I'm pretty sure this is what I look like when I try to lengthen my stride (it's only a 7 second clip and you will still get my point with mute on)

I feel all off balance and floppy and, well...Phoebe-ish.

Good news though, I just got back from a 2.3 mile run, and I just ran and told myself to run natural and the IT band behaved pretty well. A little sore now, but before Christmas, I could only make it about 0.8 miles. That's improvement!

First attempt

First attempt at gluten free baking that is...everything I have baked prior to this has been from a mix. So I chose a simple recipe to start - it had 5 ingredients: almond flour, agave nectar, coconut oil, vanilla, and salt.

I made these for Christmas (hence the snowflake and star shapes). I wouldn't use this recipe for roll-out cookies again - the dough is incredible sticky and fragile. I had to reshape every cut out once I put it on the cookie sheet. I ended up rolling the remaining dough into small balls and flattening with a fork - still tasty! Sprinkled the cookies with powdered sugar. I'm calling them Almond Cookies :).

Ready to begin the tedious process of transferring the cut outs from the parchment paper to the cookie sheet

Baked!

I made a run to Whole Foods today to get some coconut flour and white rice flour. I have two recipes I want to try: Lemon Yogurt Cake and Flourless Chocolate cupcakes. Oh yum.

Book Review!

Ah the first book review of the new year!

The Greener Grass Conspiracy by Stephen Altrogge

This book is about how we always think the grass is always greener on the other side. If we can just get out of our situation, things will be better. This is a book that I am reading twice. The first time, I couldn't put it down. I like to underline and make notes in books like these, but I couldn't because I was too anxious to turn the page! The author is hilarious - he writes with a sarcastic, self-effacing voice that shows that he is learning contentment even as he writes the book (truly, he and his wife were house searching during the time the book was written so he adds little "lessons learned" throughout the pages). The meat of this book is centered around this statement:

"The truth is, biblical contentment can't be learned unless something else is unlearned. Contentment can't be put on without first ripping something else out. The only way to grow in contentment is to undergo the process of identifying and destroying the idols in our lives. This always hurts, but the results are wonderful"

And his definition of idols (as side from the ones he says are in Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark :) ), is that the act of idolatry is loving anything more than God.

Throughout the book, Mr. Altrogge addresses contentment in trials, in everyday life, discusses complaining - each smacking you with conviction and a new awareness of the words that come out of your mouth or the thoughts that flit through your mind - and directs you to the only place where true joy can be found - in Jesus Christ. Excellent reading.

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I really can't say enough good things about this trilogy. I read almost the entire first book on the plane ride from Houston to Phoenix. I'm a fast reader, but even that's a bit ridiculous. I could not turn the pages fast enough. The writing style is fantastic, told from the main character, Katniss Everdeen's, point of view. Throughout the trilogy, I actually gasped at a couple of points, surprised by some plot twists (oh yeah, and did a little arm pump towards the end when I guessed something correctly :) ). This triology is based on a Dystopian world - i.e. opposite of perfect (Utopian). It's set in the future. The US is no more, but is now a Capitol surrounded by 12 districts. Years ago, the districts rebelled against the Capitol, lost, and now, as a reminder that they should NEVER rebel again, the districts must participate in The Hunger Games. A forced "Olympics" of sorts - 1 girl and 1 boy (aged 12-18) are randomly selected from each district to compete. And it's a battle to the death. There, now you've read pretty much what they tell you in the movie trailer for the first book. If you ever read Anne McCaffery's "Freedom" series, you will enjoy these books. If you haven't, you will enjoy these books. Bottom line, you will enjoy these books. Read them. (please :) ).

Gluten free - 1 year

Hard to believe, but it's true. I've been eating gluten free for an entire year.

Now remember, my definition of gluten free does not include sauces that might have vinegar, items with modified food starch, etc - I call these things "minor gluten" and don't try to avoid them. I do avoid major gluten items, like pastas, cookies, crackers, breads, etc that have regular wheat flour/gluten in them. I am thankful that I don't have to be strict gluten free like someone with Celiac would have to be.

Eating gluten free hasn't done what I hoped it would do - I wanted it to help with reducing inflammation in body in hopes that my flares would be less painful. Well, not only were my flares painful this year, but I had my longest one ever since being diagnosed. Disappointing, yes, but there still is a glimmer of gluten free hope.

I have solid evidence now that my G.I issues are gluten related. How do I know? In December, I started slowly reintroducing gluten. I ate a piece of zucchini bread. No problems. I waited a few days, ate another piece of bread. No problems. Then I went a bit crazy while putting a goodie plate together for some friends and ended up eating two pieces of zucchini bread and a piece of poppy seed bread. Oh, did I pay for that. Horrible stomach cramps and let's just call it other G.I. issues. Even days later, I wasn't processing food like I normally do. So, I stopped with the bread experiments. When I got to Arizona, I munched on these awesome non-gluten free crackers my mom makes. They are addicting. And I over did it. Thankfully, the reaction wasn't as violent, but my body definitely wasn't happy. So, the great thing about this discovery, is that I can cheat when it comes to gluten, as long as it is in small amounts. This means, I can have a cookie that someone brings into work... A cookie (not 3). I can have a small piece of cake to celebrate someone's birthday.

So, I plan on smartly implementing the cheating plan and maintaining my gluten free diet because of the benefits that I have seen. I am calling my gluten free experiment a success, despite not getting the desired results.

Ode to IT band

It's always gotta be something right? :)

Before the Turkey Trot 10k, both of my knees were giving me some problems, they would hurt under the kneecaps after a run. After the Turkey Trot, my knees were yelling loudly me...it was like ground glass under my kneecaps and the insides of both knees were hurting. It went away after a few days. At the Reindeer Run 5k, the outside of my right knee started hurting after 1 mile. I finished the race, but was hurting pretty bad and gimping around at our traditional Starbucks stop. I had just started using a new running shoe (Brooks Ghost) - I loved them, but started wondering if they were the cause of the knee problems, because, thankfully, I've never had any knees issues (well, until I hit the 11 mile distance mark :) ). I went back to the running store and exchanged the Ghost for my usual Mizuno Wave Riders and went for a run - and was greeted with sharp pain down the side of my right knee. That's where the illiotibial band is...I rolled it out and iced it, but was still hobbling pretty badly the next day so it was off to my awesome chiropractor/PT inflictor, Dr Alice.

After chatting with her some about the knee pain, I think we've determined what the problem is: I've changed my stride when I run. I've subconsciously shortened my stride to reduce the impact/jarring that my back experiences when I run. Go figure. And it's affecting my biomechanics - hence the knee and IT band pain (but, no back pain!). So, the good news is, I can keep running - I'm not damaging anything, it's just going to hurt like the Dickens (where did that saying come from?) until I can retrain myself to not worry about my back hurting and just run like I used to run. I find the whole situation kinda funny, apparently there always has to be something wrong with me...but it keeps me humble and depending on God, so I'll keep welcoming the challenges. Oh and my knee is an awesome purple-y gray color now from the bruises inflicted by Dr. A (I told her my IT band hated her, and she just grinned at me and said that it would like her later. Whatever. Oh the pain of PT). But seriously glad to have Dr A to help me through all these bumps.