Rain and Train

Exciting day, well sort of, It’s my first official day of half marathon training! What a lovely rainy day it is for it. Hoping the rain goes away so I can run outside tonight. I am excited to have a structured plan to follow for a little bit and mix up my routine.

Breakfast: didn’t go to the grocery store last week so don’t have many options. I did have vita tops and pb though.

Choc PB Pumpkin Vita Sandwich

-pumpkin vita top cut in half and heated
-1 tbsp naturally nutty choc cherry pb

Not as good as the choc vita and pb combo but still a good easy breakfast.

Morning snack was some frozen very cherry berry blend from trader joe’s.

Lunch was a lean pocket and 20 (about 100 cals) savory herd special k crackers. All dipped in hot sauce of course.

Afternoon snack was a fat free chocolate snack pack someone had given me at work. I mixed in a few mixed nuts for some added protein and crunchy, salty, deliciousness. Good snack.

I also had a grande skinny caramel latte that my boss brought back from a Starbucks run.

Preworkout vita braving the rain.

Fitness: as I mentioned this week starts my training. At my work break i decided to move on and try my hand at W4D2 of pushups. Couldnt do it all but gave it a pretty good run. 25-29-25-25-19 (was supposed to do 36+ on the last one) with 90 secs in between. Later, I was slated to run 3 miles ended up per the garmin at 3.14 and took 26:50 (avg pace 8:33) Which is fast for me! I was huffing and puffing at the end.

Splits:
-mile 1 8:21
-mile 2 8:40
-mile 3 8:36
-last .14 8:40

30 mins is less time then I usually workout (i prefer to get in a full hour a day) so I decided I would add a weight session to days with runs under an hour. Besides, i haven’t done much weight lifting since committing to the 100 pushup challenge and i could really use it. I went with an on demand total body sculpt program. It was 20 mins long and used 10 lb weights. It was not very hard and didn’t do enough reps of the exercises to tire my muscles. Would not do this one again. To get the full our I also did a 10 sexy legs. This one was good for 10 mins and had some new leg moves I have never seen. Next time I need to kick up the weight session though- maybe go with the Jackie Werner on demand stuff as I originally planned. Off to volleyball later tonight. Last game of the season before playoffs.

While I was doing the weights in my living room I roasted some asparagus in the oven. Best way to cook it- about 30 mins at 350. The ends get a little burnt and crispy and somehow extremely delicious. Since I still haven’t gone to the grocery store I still have limited options. I paired the roasted asparagus with a hormel compleats roast beef and gravy (which is a top mashed potatoes).

The combination was very good. A little too salty and not the best mashed potatoes but what can you expect for something that heats up in 90 secs.

Now I am watching nova get killed by Notre Dame. Observations:
1. Where does Notre dame get so many good white athletes. We only ever have one token white kid that never plays.
2. Did the ND student section chant “shots, shots, shots…” during one of our free throw attempts? Because if they did, I can respect that.
3. Fish in a barrel, my friend. Nova’s the fish Notre dames court is the barrel. (towns the fish, people are the barrel….)

Special Post: My First Half Marathon Training Plan!

How I came to enjoy running…

 Last year my boyfriend, Dan, bought me a bodybugg.  It was an awesome gift.  And it armed me with some valuable knowledge, at the time I was starting to get bored with my workout routine (which included TONS and TONS of spinning and teaching 3 classes a week) and wearing it taught me that I had become so efficient at my routine I was no longer burning tons of calories doing it.  An hour spin class only equaled about 300 calories.  Thus I tried out other things and this is how I learned running for me was burning a lot more calories in less time.  And I took up running a few times a week.  In doing so I learned that I hated running for a given period of time, but if I had a route with a finish I actually enjoyed doing it.

 Why I decided to do a half marathon…

 It was always on my bucket list to do a marathon but I just never thought I could give up every weekend to training.  However, around the time I started to enjoy running, I also started reading healthy lifestyle blogs.  Most of the girls on the blogs ran and did races and really inspired me.  I thought starting with a full marathon may be daunting so the half would be my best bet.  I also wanted to find one that was at a good time of year where I wouldn’t be training in the sweltering heat or in the snow.  That’s when I stumbled upon the ODDyssey Half Marathon in Philadelphia (right by my house). It is May 22 which is right before memorial day and I would be training in March, April, and May which are generally pretty temperate months (fingers crossed). It was perfect so I pulled the trigger and signed up.  Now I am committed.

 My training plan…

 The plan I created is based of Hal Higdon’s half marathon Novice plan.  Because I didn’t want to give the 2 classes I teach a week I formed the plan around them.  Also, I am trying to be flexible and my goal is to just complete the mileage every week but if I need to do it on different days due to conflicts I will.  Here is the plan:

The plan starts on Monday, February 28 and ends on race day, Sunday, May 22.

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	3 m run	spin	kb	3 m run	2 m run	4 m run	rest	10
2	3 m run	spin	kb	3 m run	2 m run	4 m run	rest	10
3	3.5 m run	spin	kb	3.5 m run	2 m run	5 m run	rest	14
4	3.5 m run	spin	kb	3.5 m run	2 m run	5 m run	rest	14
5	4 m run	spin	kb	4 m run	2 m run	6 m run	rest	16
6	4 m run	spin	kb	4 m run	2 m run	5-K Race	rest	13.2
7	4.5 m run	spin	kb	4.5 m run	3 m run	7 m run	rest	19
8	4.5 m run	spin	kb	4.5 m run	3 m run	8 m run	rest	20
9	5 m run	spin	kb	5 m run	3 m run	10-K Race	rest	19
10	5 m run	spin	kb	5 m run	3 m run	9 m run	rest	22
11	5 m run	spin	kb	5 m run	3 m run	10 m run	rest	23
12	4 m run	spin	kb	2 m run	3 m run	rest	Half Marathon	24

 So that is my commitment for the next 12 weeks. I definitely see a lot less drinking in my future since I cannot work out if I have been drinking. Just doesn’t work for me. The good part is when i finish, the next weekend it is officially summer and I will have worked out a ton and hopefully feel good in my bathing suit.

I will be posting more about the training as I go along but this will give you a good idea of what my workouts will look like for the next 3 months.

Special Post: Dan’s Chili

After much anticipation, here it goes…

“Chili is made primarily with….chili.” -D. Peveraro 2011

The ingredients:

• leanest ground beef you can find (93-95% lean preferably)
• low fat spicy chicken or turkey sausage uncooked, casings removed
• canned black beans
• canned kidney beans
• onions
• canned stewed tomatoes
• a variety of peppers of your choices (Habanero, jalapeño, serrano, etc) the spicier the better

The spices**:

• packet of hot chili spice (dry package from grocery store)
• three parts chili powder
• one part onion powder
• one part turmeric
• one and a half parts curry
• half part red pepper flakes
• one part cayenne pepper powder

**All of this sits a little less than inch thick on the bottom of a normal sized bowl. Unfortunately he has never measured out its just the taste. In the end it should taste very spicy with a hint of curry to it and delicious obviously.

Directions:

1. Brown the meats
2. Chop and sautee the onions
3. Chop the peppers (if you like spicy, as I do, leave the seeds)
4. Combine all wet ingredients in a large pot.
   1. Dan’s comment: “I also sometimes add a beer. I found that lager works pretty well. Yuengling actually works nicely. I add half a bottle to the onions while cooking them and add the other half when I combine everything.”
5. Drop the spices into the other ingredients which have been brought to a boil and stir. Let this boil for about 10-15 mins.
   1. Dan’s rambling comment: “I let this go for 10-15 minutes and then start adding more chili powder and cayenne until I get the spiciness to a level a little less than I want (depending on the type of peppers in the chili, it could get significantly spicier as you cook it). This usually ends up adding even more spices than I added to begin with, but one time I was overzealous with the spices at the beginning and ended up with radioactive chili. So I take it slow now. Once I get the spiciness down through trial and error, I add more turmeric and curry. This mellows out the spice a little bit and usually requires that I add more cayenne. At this point, the chili usually needs a good dose of salt to taste right. After the salting, the chili should taste just about right.”
6. Simmer for about another 50 minutes, stirring every ten minutes so the stuff on the bottom of the pot doesn’t burn.

   

   

   1. Dan’s TMI comment: “I let that happen once. Unpleasant chili and more unpleasant cleaning a pot when chili gunk and the pot become one.”
7. Taste/adjust spices as necessary.
8. Serve with fat-free cheddar cheese, fat-free sour cream, and corn bread vita tops.

I will humor you by giving you the ingredients that are different for his fat version…

Full fat:

(Warning this is not the Microwavin Maven endorsed)

• 80-20 ground beef
• 6 hot Italian sausages casings removed
• a quarter lb of bacon

Saddlebags.

Busy busy

Woke up on Saturday to tackle my busy day in a hungover state. Nothing a little advil and a mimosa couldn’t cure though.

Our at home tailgate a la Higgins was delicious. He made whole wheat challah French toast with a warm berry compote and sausages.

The components:

This bread was awesome.

Berries were awesome too and perfect for me since I don’t really like maple syrup.

I had this cherry from the huge box I re-gifted to the boys house at new years.

At the game Dan and split these Chickie and Pete’s crab fries. $8.50 yeeeeeeah.

The game was a debauchery and I am not hopeful for Nova in the tournament this year :(. Dan and I had to duck out a little early to get up to NY for his sister’s engagement party.

I had tons of homemade deliciousness there but refrained from stalking the food.

Sunday was low key but Dan and I successfully saved money by making our own food vs ordering takeout.

Eggbeater sandwich with tomato, light Swiss cheese, and ketchup on a cheesy roll and a banana.

Chicken quesadilla made with rotisserie chicken, tomato, hot sauce, fat free mozzarella, and fat free sour cream on a smart and delicious tortilla toasted.

I snacked on s’mores goldfish, a granola bar, a few bites of a Wendy’s frosty, part of a chicken cutlet, I think that’s all… throughout the day. I also did some fitness! Unusual for a Sunday for me. I did a 30 min yoga program that was on demand. It had some great hip openers.

So tired now. G night.

spin rant…

Morning Fitness: actually woke up early this morning (5:10am) and went to a cycle class at the gym. Unfortunately it was a Johnny G trained instructor (I have this certification also, ironically, but don’t believe in following it exactly). You can tell when you’ve gone to one of these instructors because the class will have a focus of intervals, endurance, or hills and they might talk about your cadence or rpm. Anyway the classes are boring. The teacher today was doing an endurance class and he basically just had us ride out of the saddle 3 times for 20 minutes at a time. It was ridiculously boring!

Here comes my rant… I see the point of the Johnny G method if you are spinning everyday or if you have a gym dedicated to cyclists and spinners. However at the average run of the mill gym people are doing all kinds of things. I doubt many people are taking spin everyday and if they are it is very easy in a cycle class to fit it to whatever it is your workout routine is calling for that day (I.e. if its a hard die turn up the resistance). The beauty of spinning is it is so customizable no need to make it a dedicated endurance class. Thus it is pointless to follow the Johnny G method when people are really just looking for a fun workout– mix it up, make it fun, and people can motivate themselves to make it as hard or easy as they want. The end.

Anyway, the workout was boring but it worked for me today. The lame “endurance drills”, if you can call just telling people to ride for 20 mins straight a drill, worked for me because my legs were so sore they were getting easily tuckered out and raising my heart rate. I guess it worked out but I will try to avoid that teacher in the future may only give him another chance to redeem himself.

While getting ready for work I had some instant coffee. Not as good as the starbucks via.

Breakfast was a quick grab since I wanted to get to work on time and thus leave on time. I grabbed my last slices of cinnamon raisin sprouted bread and i put a tbsp of pb and a tbsp of fluff into a plastic baggy (not ideal btw). I toasted the bread and waaa-laaa cinnamon raisin fluffernutter. I have thought of so many vehicles to consume fluff and pb these days. And sorry, still not sick of it. Sugary peanut buttery goodness.

Morning snack was an apple.

Lunch was reworked leftovers from Jae’s thursday night dinner.

• Moroccan spiced pork
• hot and honey mustard
• on half a piece of whole wheat naan
• side of butter snaps (one serving at 120 calories)

I also had a chocolate covered strawberry that a coworker had gotten for her birthday. and (the moooore you knoooow) it was 50 calories- someone looked it up. not me, I swear.

Afternoon snack was a Samoa Cookie fiber plus caramel, coconut, fudge bar. Still in love.

Before meeting my roommate for happy hour I decided to eat light because i anticipated eating again after boozing. I had a bowl of cereal with grapeNuts and fiber plus cinnamon thingys. The ,ox was a good one.

I also had a rice crispy treat.

We went to Drinkers in rittenhouse and drank some delicious pitchers of blue moon. Then my friend pat though it would be a good idea to get 10 hotdogs and 10 tacos. I think I had like 7 tacos. Sick, sick display, but delicious none the less. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately… I was three sheets to the wind at this point and stopped shooting photos