Alligator Arms (Daily Summary May 22 '08)

No, my title isn't about scaly skin or anything like that. I am a big lotion and sunscreen fan, so no problems there. What my title means is that like alligator arms, my arms did not appear to move in all directions that they normally would today. I wasn't sore after an 8 mile run on Tuesday, but strength training yesterday left me a bit sore today in that little area where my arms connect to my chest, between the shoulder and underarm. I still managed to run without problems other than the bit of soreness.

I also stayed up too late last night. I had to fight to not have an extra cup of coffee like I did yesterday. Today, is one of the many days where I fully believe that there is a link between not enough sleep and being overweight. The days I have to wake up very early to fly out (to where ever my client happens to be) are the hardest in terms of getting in exercise and eating well, because I constantly want to munch on something or have another cup of coffee and do not feel like exercising. A nice little article on the link between sleep and weight loss from WebMD:

The Dream Diet: Losing Weight While You Sleep

Even given the soreness and sleep deprivation, I managed to make it through the day within a few calories of my goal and ran what were probably my fastest 6 miles.

Food & Beverages Ingested:
2 cups coffee with agave nectar
Oats with 1/2 banana, rice milk, no honey
Open Face Toasted Sandwich (One slice gluten-free Whole Foods bread, once slice dill Havarti cheese, natural honeyed turkey slice)
Pickle quarter
1/2 banana
Fage 2% Greek Yogurt with 1 tbl spoon of black currant jam
Slice of turkey meat and 1/2 slice of Swiss cheese
Pacific's organic red pepper and tomato soup
1 cup Trader Joe's Pomegranate White Tea
2.5 liters of water

Exercise: I ran 6 miles, averaging 9 minutes and 3 seconds a mile over the six miles. That is very speedy for me. I usually run a little over 10 minutes per mile. I am intentionally trying to pick up the pace, as I want to improve my time when I run the Army Ten Miler this year (and burning the extra calories is a bonus). I did just a little bit of speed training, but not as much as I had hoped to do. Still, I am quite pleased.