Archive for January, 2009

Good Luck Surf City Runners!

Saturday 01.31.09 at 21:55 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

The Green Girl wants to wish all the Surf City USA runners good luck tomorrow!

LA Badger, I hope you have fully recovered from your cold. Good luck on a great race.

L.A. Runner, good luck pacing a 03:40. I believe in you.

Tricotine, I’ll be thinking about you at the Mid-Winter 10-Mile Classic as I’m running. Best of luck to you if you do decide to run it and if you don’t, I hope you find satisfaction in volunteering for the race and letting your body rest.

I will tape up my ankle in the morning and pop some ibuprofen. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

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The Green Girl Went To The Doctor

Friday 01.30.09 at 19:34 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

The Green Girl finally gave in and went to get her ankle checked out by a doctor today. Truth be told, a big part of me just wanted to wait until after the Surf City USA Half Marathon in case it was bad news.

As soon as my doctor heard me in the waiting room, he yelled, “What did you do to yourself now and when is your next race?” So he knows me well.

Luckily, he doesn’t think it’s a stress fracture. I’m an unemployed Green Girl right now and I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to pay out of pocket for an x-ray. Like my self-diagnosis, he said I sprained the medial (inner) ankle ligaments.

He recommended I tape up my ankle and try going for a really short run. If the tape doesn’t bother me, he wants me to tape before the race on Sunday. He said taping will give me much more support than an ankle wrap.

Until my ankle is fully healed, the doctor said he wants me to tape every single time I go kickboxing since I kickbox barefoot. I did my very first taping job tonight before I headed to the dojo. He wants me to ice after every workout even if I don’t feel any discomfort. In addition, he wants me to start doing isometric exercises on a weekly basis for both my ankles to strengthen them.

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The Green Girl Turns To Homeopathy

Wednesday 01.28.09 at 23:13 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged ,

To help speed up the recovery of her sprained ankle, the Green Girl is using Peaceful Mountain Tendon Rescue.

The Tendon Rescue gel contains comfrey, arnica, rosemary, aloe, potassium sorbate, originox, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E. According to the website, the herbs in Tendon Rescue have traditionally been used to repair damaged tendons, ligaments and soft tissues. The directions recommend using the product three times daily.

The gel has a brownish tint but doesn’t stain my skin when I rub it in. It smells like a multivitamin tablet.

I want my ankle to be as strong as possible for the Surf City USA Half Marathon this Sunday.

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The Green Girl’s Very First Run Run Run-ning Shirt

Tuesday 01.27.09 at 23:21 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged ,

The Green Girl got a new moisture wicking shirt to wear for the Surf City USA Half Marathon on Sunday.

When I workout, I usually just wear cheap, white cotton t-shirts. I wear those same shirts when I do 5k’s. When I trained for my very first marathon with Team In Training, I wore the Team In Training singlet every time I ran. Our group did a half marathon as one of our training runs so I wore my singlet for that, too. For the marathon, we got the signature purple Team In Training shirts.

When I did the Nike + Human Race, I got a shirt that was way too tight for me.

After I completed the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon with Team In Training, I joined the Beach Runners. I wore a plain white t-shirt to my first Beach Runners session but when I signed up, they gave me a Beach Runners shirt so I went to the bathroom to change into that shirt. From that point on, I always wore my Beach Runners shirt. When I did the Long Beach Half Marathon back in October, I wore my Beach Runners shirt. I did get a technical shirt from the Long Beach Half Marathon but the material is transparent and I don’t feel comfortable wearing it without a shirt underneath.

My running group just changed its name to the Sole Runners and we haven’t received new shirts yet.

I didn’t realize I didn’t really have a technical shirt to wear until this week. All this time I assumed I had “running” shirts because I was wearing the shirt associated with the group I was running with.

After hitting a number of stores today, I finally managed to find a shirt at Target. I couldn’t believe my luck when they only had two sizes left and one of them was an XXL and it was big enough for me!

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Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Monday 01.26.09 at 14:08 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged ,

According to the Chinese zodiac calendar, the Ox 丑 is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work.

I hope this new year brings health and happiness to all my friends and loved ones.

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The Green Girl Is Not A Running Machine Right Now

Saturday 01.24.09 at 16:34 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

My running group officially changed its name from “Beach Runners” to “Sole Runners.”

Today was my last long run before the Surf City USA Half Marathon next Sunday.

I managed to do just under five miles with the Sole Runners this morning. I’m not feeling so hot right now. I think I’m fighting a cold and it’s exhausting me. I had a hard time pushing myself. My energy levels have been really low for the past couple of weeks.

I’m disappointed because I wasn’t able to follow my training schedule. My longest run was 6.51 miles.

I’m not going to be looking for any personal records next week. I’m going to take it easy because my ankle is still sore and I don’t want to injure it further. My goal will be to cross the finish line in one piece.

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The Green Girl’s Inaugural Run

Tuesday 01.20.09 at 17:53 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged ,

The Green Girl sported her Obama-Biden t-shirt on her run today in honor of Obama’s presidential inauguration.

Unfortunately, my run had to be cut extremely short because I couldn’t take the heat. I struggled to run 2.94 miles and couldn’t even find it in me to make it an even 3. I had to keep stopping in the shade to cool off.

It was so hot that I sacrified 18 grams of carbohydrates to drink 10 ounces of Gatorade. I hate sacrificing my precious carbohydrates on beverages because I feel like it’s such a waste.

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Gold Standard 100% Whey Variety Pack

Tuesday 01.20.09 at 13:06 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

The Green Girl struggles to keep her calorie count high but her carbohydrates low.

I know there is some controversy surrounding the usage of protein powders but I find protein shakes really help keep me full when I’m hungry but my carbohydrate count is too high for the day. For instance, if you look at my food log for today, you will see I have already consumed 124 grams of carbohydrates. Granted, I could have saved myself 26 grams had I used water instead of non-fat milk to make my protein shake but I really prefer the taste when it’s made with milk.

I always get Gold Standard 100% Whey in either French Vanilla Crème or Double Rich Chocolate but they came out with a 16 Flavor Variety Pack.

I’m going to review each of the flavors. I always mix 16 ounces of non-fat milk with 30.4 grams of the protein powder. I use my favorite BlenderBottle to mix it up.

Flavor Like or Dislike? Review
Banana Cream
Caramel Toffee Fudge
Chocolate Malt
Chocolate Mint
Cookies and Cream
Delicious Strawberry
Double Rich Chocolate Like This was the first flavor I ever tried after a recommendation from a coworker. It’s thicker than chocolate milk so it has the consistency of a cold hot chocolate.
Extreme Milk Chocolate
French Vanilla Crème Like This one tastes like a vanilla smoothie.
Mocha Cappuccino Like I couldn’t taste the mocha so it just tasted like a less rich Double Rich Chocolate.
Orange Cream Like Tasted like a really bland Orange Julius.
Rocky Road So-So Tastes like watered-down chocolate milk with marshmallows.
Root Beer Float So-So Tasted vaguely like the root beer after all the ice cream has melted.
Strawberry Banana
Tropical Punch
Vanilla Ice Cream

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The Green Girl’s Fitness Assessment

Tuesday 01.13.09 at 19:46 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged ,

On SparkPeople, there was an article about do-it-yourself fitness assessments.  I decided this would be a great way for me to measure progress for myself.

This do-it-yourself fitness assessment consists of three tests:

I started off with The Push-up Test.  I only do fist pushups now because of a bad right wrist.  I did full pushups because I didn’t realize the women’s sexist chart was only for modified pushups. Unfortunately, my hands hurt too much for me to do an entire minute but I did manage to do 40 full pushups in 40 seconds.  I spent the last 20 seconds rubbing my fists.

Ratings for Men (Full Pushups), based on Age

20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent > 54 > 44 > 39 > 34 > 29
Good 45-54 35-44 30-39 25-34 20-29
Average 35-44 24-34 20-29 15-24 10-19
Poor 20-34 15-24 12-19 8-14 5-9
Very Poor < 20 < 15 < 12 < 8 < 5

Ratings for Women (Modified Pushups), based on Age

20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent >48 >39 >34 >29 >19
Good 34-48 25-39 20-34 15-29 5-19
Average 17-33 12-24 8-19 6-14 3-4
Poor 6-16 4-11 3-7 2-5 1-2
Very Poor < 6 < 4 < 3 < 2 < 1

For The Crunch Test, I was able to do 76 crunches in a minute.

Ratings for Men, Based on Age

Rating < 35 years
 35-44 years
 > 45 years
Excellent 60 50 40
Good 45 40 25
Marginal 30 25 15
Needs Work 15 10 5

Ratings for Women, Based on Age

Rating < 35 years
 35-44 years
 > 45 years
Excellent 50 40 30
Good 40 25 15
Marginal 25 15 10
Needs Work 10 6 4

For me, the The 3-Minute Step Test was the hardest assessment because I’m not sure if I calculated my results correctly. I had to use Mr. Green Garmin to monitor my heart rate, my “regular everyday” watch for the timer, and then a metronome for the cadence.

I’m also not sure how accurate Mr. Green Garmin’s heart rate monitor is. According to him, my initial heart rate was 57. After three minutes of stepping on my 12″ sofa minus the cushion, my heart rate was 112. After exactly one minute, it was 100 and then after another minute, it was 77.

Ratings for Men, Based on Age


 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 65+
Excellent 50-76 51-76 49-76 56-82 60-77 59-81
Good 79-84 79-85 80-88 87-93 86-94 87-92
Above Average 88-93 88-94 92-88 95-101 97-100 94-102
Average 95-100 96-102 100-105 103-111 103-109 104-110
Below Average 102-107 104-110 108-113 113-119 111-117 114-118
Poor 111-119 114-121 116-124 121-126 119-128 121-126
Very Poor 124-157 126-161 130-163 131-159 131-154 130-151


Ratings for Women, Based on Age


 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 65+
Excellent 52-81 58-80 51-84 63-91 60-92 70-92
Good 85-93 85-92 89-96 95-101 97-103 96-101
Above Average 96-102 95-101 100-104 104-110 106-111 104-111
Average 104-110 104-110 107-112 113-118 113-118 116-121
Below Average 113-120 113-119 115-120 120-124 119-127 123-126
Poor 122-131 122-129 124-132 126-132 129-135 128-133
Very Poor 135-169 134-171 137-169 137-171 141-174 135-155

I’m going to repeat these tests from time to time so I can compare my results.

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The Green Girl Runs For Angelman Syndrome

Monday 01.12.09 at 18:35 · Filed under uncategorized ·Tagged ,

The Green Girl is going to be running the San Francisco Half Marathon in July to raise money for Angelman Syndrome.

I just finished setting up my fundraising page.

I will begin my training after the Surf City USA Half Marathon. I am going to have to do a lot of hill and speed training to prepare myself for the streets of San Francisco.

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