Traveling without Falling Off the Wagon

I’m going to be honest here- now that I have changed my nutrition and exercise habits, going away for a weekend or on a vacation freaks me out a little.  It is not that I do not want to get away (trust me, I LOVE vacations and traveling) but I have gotten into such a dedicated habitual routine that going into a situation where I will not necessarily have 100% control over my food and exercise makes me a little nervous. The good news is that I have learned that it is possible to go on vacation or on a weekend getaway without sacrificing your entire diet and exercise routine!

Carrie's top ten tips for how to enjoy your vacation without completely falling off the wagon:

1. Plan ahead: Even though I sometimes drive my family crazy with this, I have found that if I plan ahead of time, I am able to have a much more enjoyable and relaxing vacation. I try to have a basic game plan of an itinerary that way I have an idea of which meals I will need to pack or what days I might have more time to squeeze in a quick run. Also, it allows me to look up healthy, local or organic restaurants I may want to try and have that information on hand so I do not have to waste precious beach time trying to find a place to eat!

2. Be flexible and adapt to the circumstances: No matter how much planning you have done ahead of time, you cannot control or plan for every situation. As an example, in February I was a chaperone at a youth retreat- since I would be missing running group, I brought my shoes and running clothes and planned to run the scheduled 5 mile run on the hotel treadmill.  When I arrived at the hotel, there was a big sign stating that the fitness center was under construction. Instead of letting this roadblock sabotage my run, I decided to run laps outside of the hotel.  Now was this the most fun run that I have ever had? Not by any means!  But I still did it and now every time my youth group goes on another trip, my youth girls always laughingly ask me whether I’m going to run laps around the hotel again- to which I respond, “yes, if that is my only option, that is what I will do!”

3. Make educated choices: If you are going on a business trip or vacation where you are unable to select the restaurant (or if you are at a convention where the food is served to you) do not worry, you do not need to starve yourself or only drink water. Most restaurants have their nutrition information online- so grab your smart phone and quickly look up some healthy options (fyi this might surprise you- I have found that a lot of the entrees I actually wanted were a lot healthier than the salads I almost ordered because I thought they were “healthy”). Simple choices such as only eating the chicken breast and vegetables and skipping the white bread dinner roll/margarine can make a big difference.

My pre-packaged and labelled snacks prepared for youth group convention

4. Pack snacks: This has been a huge life saver for me! Before I go on a trip, I make sure to stock up on some tasty snacks that do not require refrigeration.  That way, if I am faced with an unhealthy meal that I do not want or get hungry during the middle of the afternoon, I do not have to resort to the vending machine.  I try to find snacks that offer protein (for energy) and other nutrients that my body may not be getting while I am away.  Some of my favorite traveling snacks are pistachios, single serving packs of Justin’s almond butter, Suzie’s Spelt Puffed Cakes (like rice cakes, but packed with more nutrients- on a recent trip I would use these and the almond butter packets to make an almond butter sandwich as a meal replacement), granola, pita chips, sweet potato chips, Clif Mojo bars, and Lara bars.  Also, if you get the individual serving size packs of organic milk, they do not need to be refrigerated until you open them- so you can buy a couple of those and bring with you for cereal.

5. Pre-package/label snacks: Even when you bring healthy snacks, you have to be mindful of how much you are eating- but while I am on vacation I certainly don’t want to be measuring out my food or trying to figure out how many calories are in something.  So before I go, I divide and package all of my snacks into individual portion sizes and label it with the number of calories it contains.  Trust me the 30 minutes it takes to do this ahead of time will be well worth it!
 

Elizabeth and I- yes we did get up super early and run the next day!

6. Make time for exercise: Even if it means exercising at odd hours, do not sacrifice your exercise routine. If you can, connect with someone else who wants to get their exercise in- recently while chaperoning a youth convention, my friend Elizabeth and I got up 45 minutes early and went running together. Not only did we get our calorie burn in, we also got some extra time to talk and catch up! If you are not a runner, check out the fitness center at the hotel, bring a work out dvd to play in  your laptop, or if you are desperate walk up and down flights of stairs. As they say on Project Runway, “make it work!”

I Ran 13.1 Miles (aka "no walking b*tches!")

Ann, Erin and I working out the pre-race jitters!

After 4 months and 329.43 miles of training, yesterday morning at 4:30 a.m. I put on my running clothes, gulped down a banana and a scoop of almond butter and walked across the Ohio River to meet up with my running group to tackle the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon.  I was nervous but meeting up with the people who I had trained with during this journey converted some of that nervous energy to excitement. 

                                                            

Bob Roncker's Running Spot meet up location at 5:15 am.

My goal for the Flying Pig was to run the entire race without walking. If I had to come up with a theme for these past four months of training it would be "Carrie does not want to take walk breaks anymore." In fact, the title of this post refers to this sentiment, which I made during one of my classic “running causes me to lose oxygen and speak without a filter" moments. Early during training for the Pig (January/February) it was a hard adjustment switching my body to running straight instead of doing 4:1 run/walk intervals.  On an early Saturday morning Valentine’s Day run in the bitter cold with Bob Roncker’s training group, I was ecstatic that I had ran the entire 4 miles without walking, and so as I ran across the finish line I yelled “no walking bitches!” (I of course thought that I said that quietly, but my friend Jonna will attest that I actually yelled that loud enough for most of the town of Loveland to hear:). 

Here is a breakdown of my experience of the race:

Miles 1-4: The first miles flew by! I felt like I was running comfortably and I was chatting and laughing with my running group friends; the sun had not completely risen and so it was still a little cooler and less humid.

Jamie and Nicole and I!

Miles 4-8: After mile 4 we started the main incline portion of the route-which basically consists of a 4 mile uphill stretch through some pretty difficult hills. I knew those miles would be tough, but we had trained for those hills and so while it was difficult I felt mentally prepared for that portion of the race and I was able to push myself through even though I was starting to feel the heat.  Just a side note, all week they had been warning us about the heat (the event even offered heat deferrals, which they NEVER do) and I remember looking at the forecast and thinking 68 degrees is not that warm…let’s just say that I learned when you are running for over two hours and uphill, 68 degrees and humidity feels HOT!  

Patsy, Ann and I post-race- they were my rockstars!

Miles 8-10: What I was not anticipating was how rough miles 8-10 would be! Instead of feeling the euphoria of realizing that the hardest incline portion of the race was already behind me, the thought of still having 5.1 miles left just seemed absolutely overwhelming. I am so thankful for my running group buddies Patsy and Ann, because honestly if they had not been there running with me step by step during this time, encouraging me and pushing me, I know that I would have succumbed to that little voice in my head telling me to stop and walk. By sacrificing a faster time in order to run alongside and support me, Patsy and Ann reminded me that the true beauty of running is that while it appears on the surface to be an individual sport, distance running is truly a team endeavor. 

Miles 10-12: By mile10 I had pushed through the mental black that I was struggling with during the past two miles and I was just focused on plowing through the rest of the race.  I was still hot and tired and these miles were difficult, but I was no longer battling the voice in my head telling me to stop every 2 seconds. I just kept repeating that I could do this, that God had designed my body to run, and that I needed to keep going.

Tami and Rianna came down to support me:)

Mile 12-13.1: Seriously, this last mile felt like it was 18 miles long.  I knew that I was sooo close and yet it still felt like soo far away.  I remember telling myself that no matter how tired and sore I was, there was no way that I had run 12 miles only to walk during the last 1.1 mile.  I knew that my friends Rianna and Tami would be near the finish line and I was also thinking that I did not want them to have come all the way down to watch my race only to see me walking:) I will never forget Patsy telling me, “enjoy this, you have earned every minute of it, this is an amazing accomplishment” and Ann telling me that she believed in me.  Patsy also kept telling me all we had to do was turn the corner and we would see the finish line- (we were only like .3 miles away), but due to a dip in the road and a bridge when we turned the corner I could not see the finish line- and I distinctly remember saying “I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE COULD SEE THE FINISH LINE WHEN WE TURNED THE CORNER” and Ann saying “honey, its okay, I can’t see it either;) At the very end, Patsy said, "let's pass these people ahead of us" and even as the words "I can't" were coming out of my mouth, my body started sprinting and we raced into the finish line.

On May 6, 2012, I ran across the finish line hand in hand with Patsy and Ann and I accomplished something I never could have imagined or dreamed of 2 years or even a year ago- I RAN an entire half-marathon!   

All changed in dry clothes!

Carrie 2012 Flying Pig Half Marathon Results

Finish time: 2:25:30

Division place (30-34)- 548/1100

Gender Place: 2971/6761

Overall place: 5873/10853