February Focus

After a successful January, I wanted to keep on with a monthly focus.  For February, I'll again focus on two areas:

Running ~ Climbs All the Hills
Strava has a variety of challenges every month.  I don't usually pay attention to them, but decided to go for their February Run Climbing Challenge - "Leave the flats behind and climb at least 2,000 meters this month."  2,000 meters is just a little over 6,500 feet.  That's a lot of hills!  I had about 5,800 feet in January without focusing on hills, but with February being a shortened month this will definitely be a challenge.  I had thought about starting speed work this month, but since hills are speed work in disguise, I think this challenge will put me on track for a speedier March!

I did an 8 mile trail run yesterday that had over 1,000 feet of climbing so I'm off to a good start.  What this really means is I need to hit the hills in my neighborhood every time I run this month.  When the hills are looking like this, it makes the pain a little more bearable:

Health ~ Increase Fruits and Vegetables
I survived my no desserts January and am going to continue to limit sugar.  My plan is to allow one dessert a week.  I didn't write it as a focus, but I ending up tracking all my eating for the month of January as well.  I use the old Weight Watchers points system (from the early 2000s)  It's what I used when I lost 30 pounds and kept it off for years.  Some of that weight has crept back on in recent years so I'm working on getting it back off.  I know more fruits and veggies are essential to healthy weight loss and overall good health.

Any new goals/focus/plans for February?

Turkey Trotting? You Won't Be Alone!

I read an interesting article in USAToday yesterday.  Thanksgiving is now the most popular holiday for running!  According to data from non-profit Running USA, in 2012, there were 490 Thanksgiving-day races, versus 290 in 2008. And in 2012, there were more than 858,000 finishers — up 155% from 2008.

The Buffalo Turkey Trot is widely considered as the first race of its kind, and it's still run at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving just as it was for the first time in 1896. That's the year Henry A. Allison beat out five other all-male runners in a 5-mile unpaved race in Buffalo, N.Y., according to the YMCA Buffalo Niagra. The event — thankfully now on paved roads and also accepting women — gets more than 14,000 participants yearly.

I thought the most interesting stat was this:  Thanksgiving is the day most people consume a traditional feast containing the same calories as 15 hot fudge sundaes!  Americans consume approximately 4,500 calories on this single day.

That also equals 43 bananas!

I'm pretty sure no one in the history of Turkey Trots has ever burned 4,500 calories before the meal.  Eat responsibly!

Brio Ice Cream

Brio Ice Cream was the sponsor of the 25k on Sunday. 

The founders of Brio are twin brothers Ron and Arnie Koss.  Ron devoted 10 years to the product development, engaging some of our best nutritionists and dietitians, as well as renowned ice cream product developers who once led the way for Ben & Jerry’s. Ron and Arnie report that the inspiration for Brio was their mom, Judith Koss. "She loved ice cream and she wanted it to be healthy," said Arnie. "We thought, 'Great idea!' and 'Why not?'"

When Judith actually needed supplemental nutrition to support her health, ice cream as a delicious healthy snack and meal supplement made perfect sense to Ron and Arnie.  "Liquid nutritional shakes had very little appeal to our mom," explained Ron. "And when you don’t like something or don’t have much appetite, an 8 fluid ounce can seems like a lot to drink."

That story right there hits really close to home with me.  I remember my Mom's battle with breast cancer.  Near the end, most foods did not appeal to her and her doctor wanted her to supplement with nutritional shakes as well.  I don't think she ever finished one.

We were given free individual cups of ice cream post race.  I tried the Vanilla-Caramel and while I was gobbling mine down, I looked at the nutritional label in surprise:

That's a lot of nutrients for a half cup of ice cream!  It is advertised as "25 percent fewer calories, half the total fat, 65 percent less saturated fat, 75 percent less cholesterol and 10 percent less sugar when compared to similar flavors of super premium ice creams."  While all that is great, I think it's the added nutrients that push it over the top.  The FAQ page is one of the more informational ones I've seen.

So nutrition aside, how did it taste??  Really good!  I thought the texture was a little firmer.  The lower sugar and fat made it more similar to gelato in my opinion. I took the taste test to the next level when I found it at the local grocery store, Don Quijote.  They had buy one get one free, so I bought Coffee Latte and Tropical Mango.  Les and I sampled both and they were good, too!