I totally forgot to post my solution to my Spenda problem! I've been so hooked on the stuff for years and recently woke up and read all the awfulness that is being written about it. So I've been trying to find a better substitute. I didn't want to go back to regular sugar because my addiction to it in my coffee/tea was so bad 9 years ago that I'm convinced that if I used it again now, I'd be right back to my old addict self. Not pretty. On Monday, Joy Bauer was on The Today Show giving the usual nutrition tips and she said that it takes about a week for you to get used to not having that sugar taste. She said to try and stop using any kind of sugar or sugar substitute for one week and that by the end of that week, you should be totally fine without it. That's all the motivation I needed....that and for some reason I was feeling full of self-discipline. I started on Monday and am happy to report that I've made it this far with zero Splenda! Yay! I know, I know, it's not that big of a deal to most people but for me it's huge! The coffee is still not tasting great to me, but it's not as awful as it was on Monday morning either so I'd say that's progress. How's that for cold turkey?! Of course, this is all coming after I found this super cute Splenda-holder thingy. I can't tell you how many packets of the stuff is floating around at the bottom of my purse. I dig and dig for it when I'm anywhere that doesn't have it available for coffee. I could have used this thing!


In training news, I ran for 7.5 miles today on the treadmill and then took my usual 1 hour strength training class. Fortunately for me, she was 100% focused on the upper body and abs today....my quads are about ready to quit on me this week. At least they are as far as regular walking around, sitting and sleeping are concerned but as soon as I start to run, they are totally fine. I felt like I could have run a lot further today but wanted to hold off since I have a long run scheduled this weekend. Tomorrow is a day of rest that I am very much looking forward to. I'm trying to follow the training schedule from the Shamrock's website. I'm joining it 6 weeks late but I'm not too concerned because my regular base mileage wasn't much lower than what they were up to. Having said that, this weekend is supposed to be a long 12.4 miler....haven't pulled one of those out in a while.