The good, the bad...whatever.

Had some somewhat major milestones today. I said goodbye to my purple hair and hello again to brunette. My  hair is now back to a very deep auburn and in good light you can still see some of the purple shimmer through the auburn. I kinda feel strange having "normal" colored hair again...much like I felt weird when I first went purple. At least it should take less time to get used to this color than the bright purple. The thing I'm looking forward to after the first couple of days is the lack of the hair color bleeding. With the purple, a semi-permanent dye, anytime I sweat I'd have streaks of light purple sweat and actually ruined one of my running tech shirts due to the bleed. It was really strange though...got my hair colored at the cosmetology clinic at the college and seemed to be drained of all my energy. Could it be that the purple hair was some type of energy magnet for me? Hmmm...after going back to brunette I ended up sleeping through the local run club meetup and the first part of my hatha flow yoga class. Not a good thing.

The second major thing to happen today was finally getting my Tinkerbell Half Marathon tattoo to commemorate completing my first half marathon. For those of you counting, this is number 23 in my collection of skin art. This has been a long time coming...6 months to be exact! The place I got it at offered to do it the week before the race but I was like, "I don't want to jinx anything! I don't want a tat I haven't earned." So now that the race was done and I finished with a decent time it was the right time to have it done. Now I just need to finish my duathlon, and eventually a triathlon, to balance out my arm in May...

My training run today was a treadmill run of 6 miles and was truly a bear. My left hip/IT band issues are starting to rear their ugly heads again. I could only manage a max of 1% incline and a very short burst of max speed at 6mph. Otherwise I was doing 1/4 lap walking at 3mph and 1 lap at 3.8-5.5 miles per hour. Things seemed to loosen up late in mile 4/early in mile 5 where I was able to run up to 3/4 of a mile at a time. I'm beginning to worry what's going to happen at the half at the end of the month. I also beginning to think that Zumba is the root of my hip/pelvic issues so I'm afraid I may have to abandon it all together. :(

Overall my eating and drinking habits are sorely lacking...gave in to my lack of willpower and had a Pepsi today. I've really gotta get back on board as training really has to get serious. Time to really try hard to suck things up! Until tomorrow or the next day...

100 Days Challenge:

• Day 38
• 6 mile treadmill run in 1:30:10

What I Ate Today:

• 3 pieces of fried chicken (2 thighs, 1 drumstick)
• 1 cup of white rice
• 12 oz non-fat, lactose free milk
• 24 oz low fat chocolate milk
• 1 Weinerschnitzel bacon croissant
• 1 Weinerschnitzel hash brown patty
• 8 oz orange juice
• <¼ of a Taco Box New Mexicali taco salad
• seasoned ground beef, refried beans, green chile, guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheddar, black olive slices, tomato, iceberg lettuce
• 34 oz Pepsi

Alkalete Review, Day 1:
Yesterday was my first full day taking Alkalete (manufactured by Yoli) which by all that I've read basically an alkalizing compound to neutralize the acidity of the body. I currently trying the product out on a 10-15 day trail for $9.95. It is supposed to help with delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) something I experienced after my first half marathon a week and a half ago where I felt pretty much fine for the first 3 days post-race but ended up with significantly sore feet an legs late on day 3 and most definitely through days 4-7 post race. I took the first half of a loading dose on Sunday in the evening after my 8 mile long-ish run and by Monday morning did notice a significant change in the soreness of my feet and lower legs. Yesterday I took the full 2 doses at loading levels and this morning my feet and legs feel fine although I am having some stiffness of the knees (nothing new) and some left hip/IT band pain (again, nothing new as I had been in PT for 2 months for this). The Alkalete is also supposed to help those suffering from acid indigestion/heartburn something that plagues me off and on. I am not a distributor...I'm simply sampling it for myself since I plan to run at least one half marathon a month this year. I'm hoping that it helps my recovery time so that I can start training for the next race as soon as possible.

DOMS has been described by some as occurring due to lactic acid buildup lasting up to 72 hours after strenuous activity and others describing it as being due to microscopic tears after heavy activity. However, most seem to agree that lactic acid breakdown (or neutralization) occurs within the first hour after activity. Since I added the Alkalete so late after my race I'm basing my review on using it during my training for my next half marathon late this month. After my run  on Sunday, I experienced very little muscle soreness considering how tender my feet were Sunday morning. So, stay tuned...we'll see how this goes.