Lunch Wars!

I was invited to review Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children's Healthby Amy Kalafa as part of the BlogHer Book Club.

And thanks to Ms. Kalafa's informative and eye-opening book, I now feel completely overwhelmed and waaaaay behind.

Sure, my son is only in preschool and hasn't even begun to eat any of the 3,000 school meals that the average child eats between kindergarten and 12th grade. But Kalafa paints a picture of a school food system that is so broken and so in need of parental involvement that I finished the book feeling exhausted and, yes, quite behind.

After all, since my son doesn't yet eat any meals at school, who is the lunch lady in his life? That's right: I am. Me. I'm the lunch lady. And what have I  been feeding him? Mostly healthy stuff but also some of the same crap that Kalafa rails against schools for serving. Some healthy lunch lady I am . . .

But that's me. I often feel like I'm standing at the bottom of an enormous mountain when I read about what I should be doing to maximize my kids' health and wellness.

Aside from freaking me out a bit, I found Lunch Wars to be an excellent book. It was full of interesting -- and scary -- facts. As in, "Holy crap, my kid is going to be served pet-food grade 'spent-hen meat'?" (from page 19). Um, that's gross. And not cool.

Also on the not cool list:

• "American's spend $200 billion per year in diet-related health-care costs; twice as much per person than any other developed nation.
• One quarter of children ages five to 10 have elevated blood cholesterol or high blood pressure -- early warning signs for heart disease.
• Twelve percent of American children currently have type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes."

Kalafa shares tons of facts like these to bolster her case that we should be concerned about the foods served in schools. After all, we pay for part of the food (as tax payers) and then, she posits, we pay for the health problems down the road. 

Her arguments are valid but I did find the overall tone of the book a bit, perhaps, overly emotional. I don't know -- reading the book, I felt myself getting all riled up and I felt that that was the point. She wanted me to get riled up. And, OK, fair enough. The system is probably a rotten one and feeding our kids crap is a problem. So riling up moms is a good way to get things done. I just don't like feeling that I'm killing my kid if he eats some Keebler cookie or if I don't join the revolution.

Fortunately, Kalafa provides a lot of instruction on how to step into the revolution to whatever degree you are comfortable with. I appreciated her guidelines on how to get involved on a small level at your local school to taking it to Big Food and trying to make Big Changes. Her lists of things you can do, questions to ask, places to go, and people to see are all helpful and would make fighting for good food for our kids easier for anyone who wants to go for it.

So, check it out. If you liked Michael Pollan's books (like In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) I think you'll like Lunch Wars.

And while you're at it, you can check out the discussion about Lunch Wars on BlogHer.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~ Felice




Review disclosure: This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Post race.

Ah, post-race let down.

Such a weird feeling and always combined with the question of "what's next?"

Three days post-race and I'm feeling fine. I went for an easy, slow run on Monday and my hamstrings definitely felt tired but that was about it. Then, yesterday, I did a half-hour Athletic Agility program on Exercise TV. That was different. Have you tried it? Hmm . . . it was a good -- but odd -- workout and I'm really feeling it in my shoulders today.

So, basically, my body feels good after having run a tough half marathon on Sunday. That, to me, means that I was well-trained to run at that pace and for that distance. OK, good. I should have been, considering I followed my training plan fairly well, except for when I missed some runs because of a little cold and the Lyme disease.

So . . . now what?

My friend Bridget was disappointed with her race on Sunday and is dying to run another half marathon -- a redemption race of sorts. I'm not sure I'm up for that right now. I am checking out other races and right now I'm toying with the idea of a 5K on 10/15 and then a 15K on 11/13. Our local running club's winter series starts in December so I'll try to run a few of those races and have already committed to the Winter Marathon Relay with Amanda and Suzy at the end of February.

Beyond that, I'm not sure. I'm contemplating another half marathon in the spring so I can go after my 1:46 again. I'm also contemplating running a full marathon, either in the spring or fall, but I'm really not sure if I have it in me. The months ahead will tell.

In the meantime, I plan to just run for fun for a while and enjoy the fall weather. I've been in "training mode" for several months and although the results have been positive I think that running without a plan for a bit will do me well.

How long do you take off after a big race before you start training again?

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Felice

Adirondack half marathon race report.

Let's cut right to the chase: I did not meet my goal of 1:46:14  in yesterday's half marathon and I am completely, 100% OK with that.

Why? Because I set what I thought was an achievable but challenging goal and even though I didn't reach it, I went for it. I ran hard and as well as I could yesterday. With the exception of a one mile stretch where I almost let my mind get the best of me, I ran strong, in pursuit of my goal.

I fell short.

No excuses -- it just wasn't the day or the race for me to get the time I know I will ultimately run in the half.

So, how was the race? Read on . . .

The Adirondack half marathon (and marathon) is in Schroon Lake, NY, about 90 minutes north of where I live. I met up with Bridget, Janis and Amanda at 6:15 Sunday morning to ride up to the race together. We had a nice little ride and got into town with plenty of time to spare. We picked up our packets (packet pickup ended at 8:15) and then waited for the buses to take us to the start line (they began transporting people at 8:50).

It was around 9:15 or so when we got to the start area and we soon met up with Darlene. Here we are pre-race:

Darlene, Bridget, Janis, me, Amanda.

We were excited for the race because we had no idea how tough it would be. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss!

At 10:00, we took off.

The first mile felt great. I had been worried about my toe, especially because it was hurting while we were walking around prior to the race, but it didn't hurt at all for the first mile. Ten minutes into the race, however, I felt it. Yeah, it hurt. I told myself this was to be expected so I just had to ignore it and run on. And that's more or less what I did. I know that I ran a little awkwardly because the side of my foot and my shin felt strained after the race. So, I must have altered my gait while running because pushing off on my big toe hurt.

Aside from the toe, the first few miles were fine. I was on pace and feeling good.

Then we left the shade and the sun started to beat me down.

Fortunately, about a half mile after things got really sunny, we entered the Word of Life campus and that was an incredible part of the race. The residents (campers?) at Word of Life were amazing cheerers. It felt like an upstate NY version of what I imagine the Wellesley Scream Tunnel  must be like at the Boston Marathon.

Anyway, those kids lifted my spirits and helped me ignore the sun and how hot I was starting to feel. Once we turned out of the campus and on to dreary Route 9, however, I lost the lift.

The sun was hot. The hills were killers. I was pushing myself but not keeping my pace. I simply couldn't push up the hills and maintain an 8:06 pace. I didn't have it in me yesterday.

Around mile 8, I started to think I should just walk. Just walk?!?! What in the what?!?! Exactly. It was a struggle to get back into the racing mind-set during that mile but at some point I did and I picked up the pace again. I felt pretty sick to my stomach for the last 4 miles but I held on.

Once we entered the village of Schroon Lake (which is really quite cute), I knew the finish line was near and I tried to really press it. But, for some reason, I thought the finish line was right on Rt 9 -- the road we were running on -- but it wasn't. So, when I entered the village and couldn't see the finish line ahead, I freaked a little.  I thought it must have been so far out of sight and I just didn't think I had enough left in the tank to get there.

Then I saw that we had to turn on a little side road and that the finish line was right around the corner. Phew! I dug deep and sprinted (as well as I could at that point) to the finish and crossed the line in 1:48:27.

Really?? 1:48:27??

That time, my friends, is a 1:02 PR!!! I was thrilled.

It was a tough, tough race. I fell short of my overall goal. But I set a new PR and I am super happy about that!

I met up with my friends, including Elisa who ran 8 miles before the half and Andrea from Age Groups Rock, and some of us gave our achy legs a break in the cool water of Schroon Lake:

Darlene, me, Elisa, Amanda, Janis, Bridget

It was a well-organized finish area with lots of refreshments and, yes, the beautiful lake.

And then . . . I ended up placing second in my age group! Here I am collecting my award -- a bottle of Adirondack maple syrup. Yum, yum!

All in all, a good but hard race. I won't run it again but I am glad I did it. Now I just need to figure out where to run my next half . . .

Here are my race stats:

Finish time: 1:48:27 (8:16 pace)
Age-group place (female 40-44): 2nd out of 37
Female place: 14th out of 311
Overall place: 50th out of 498

Hope you all had a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

~ Felice

Ready to toe the line.

I tested out my busted-up toe last night, and I am happy to report that the run went well! I ran 4.2 miles at an 8:30 pace and while my toe hurt some, it wasn't too bad. I can surely handle that level of pain for the half marathon and, really, if I don't run for the next two days it will probably hurt even less on Sunday. So, a win!

And a HUGE relief.

Now, I am ready to set some race day goals!

Normally, I give myself A, B, and C goals. This time, I'm not feeling quite as generous. I have one goal: 1:46:14 or better. 

Why? Because McMillan Running tells me I can*. And, probably more important than that, I believe that I am fully capable of running an 8:07 pace for 13.1 miles. I have a 1:46 half marathon in me. I know I do.

My workouts this training cycle haven't been stellar but my recent race times have been pretty good:

I ran 1:13:59 in the Boilermaker 15K (7:57 pace).
I ran 22:51 in the Freihofer's Run for Women 5K (7:21 pace).

I believe that I have the speed and the endurance to run a fast half marathon. On Sunday, I just need to bring the will. The will to push myself to a 3 minute PR in the half marathon.

You can be sure that I will go for it!

Will you be going for it this weekend? Good luck to everyone racing!

~ Felice



*And, yeah, if you remember from this post, that's pretty close to Sarah Palin's recent half marathon time. I said at the time, "if she can do it, so can I." I stand by that!!




PS!!! I have a giveaway going on over HERE. Through Monday.