26 Weeks To 26.2 Miles

The Green Girl's Athens Marathon training starts this weekend. There will be exactly 26 weeks until the marathon.

I would misrepresent myself if I didn't admit I am feeling some apprehension. I am fearful the posterior tibial tendonitis will worsen. I am going to continue to tape my foot religiously. And I must be diligent about doing the exercises from the physical therapist on a daily basis.

Secondarily, I am concerned about my high acidity. I've made a habit of drinking green tea with raw honey on a daily basis. I make a conscious effort to avoid refined sugars and increase my consumption of nutritionally dense foods. I've even been staying away from spicy foods.

For me, high acidity manifests itself in my body in the form of severe chronic sinus infections.

This evening, on my way home from work, I stopped by my local health food store to get some pH level test strips. I got a package of TriMedica AlkaMAX pH Papers for $14.99. The roll contains 16' and is supposed to be good for 192 1" indicators.

Based on my research, twice a week is a sufficient number of times to test your pH levels. My plan is to track my results on Saturdays after my long runs and Wednesdays.



Urine is supposed to give a more accurate reading then saliva but for my initial test, I decided to do both.

I started off with testing my urine. The pH strip turned a really pretty green - indicating a reading between 6.0 and 6.5. Unfortunately for the Green Girl, green ≠ good in the pH measurement world. The strip with my saliva turned 5.0 yellow.

In addition to putting in the hours to train for this marathon, I am going to need to be highly vigilant about taking care of my Green Girl body so I can be as healthy and strong as possible.

The Alkalization of the Green Girl

The Green Girl had some blood work done and was informed by her doctor that she is highly acidic.

The most common causes of high acidity are drinking large amounts of coffee or soda or smoking. In the Green Girl's case, genetics are most likely to blame.

Acidity or alkalinity is expressed in degrees of potential of Hydrogen or pH. pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution - the ratio between positively charged ions (acid-forming) and negatively charged ions (alkaline-forming.) The lower the pH, the more acidic the substance; the higher the pH, the more alkaline the substance. A pH of 7 is neutral.



The human body is able to most effectively assimilate minerals and nutrients when the pH is balanced. The Green Girl's doctor feels her high acidity is affecting her body's ability to fight off illnesses when she gets sick.

When I tried to identify acidic and alkaline foods online, I realized there was a lot of conflicting information out there. One also has to consider the fact that some acidic foods may actually become alkalizing when digested.

I purchased some Essentia water this week to give it a try. Essentia water has a pH of 9.5±.

I'm using the different charts and tables as a general dietary guideline. I've started drinking green tea on a daily basis with raw honey because both green tea and raw honey are alkaline foods. I'm a strong believer that most things are okay in moderation so I'm not eliminating any foods but I am taking the nutritional and acidic versus alkaline values into consideration going forward.

I'm also hopeful that lowering my acidity will help with my lactic acid build-up so I won't be as sore after long runs.