Archive | February, 2012

31… Going on 32

11 Feb

A couple of weeks ago I read about a fellow Marathonfest runner who became a heart attack survivor at the age of 31. She’s since created a blog about her experience and her road to recovery. We’ve not met, but being her same age and a newer runner myself her story really resonated with me and made me think about my health and life in general.

At 31, my brain still thinks I’m 21 but my body often reminds me that those days are long behind me. Yet, I still embody the belief that nothing will ever happen to me and that I have my whole life ahead of me.

While discussing the rarity of having a heart attack at 31 on one of our morning runs, my group leader Sue said something that stuck with me: “You know you’re really getting old when your friends start dying of natural causes.” At the time I chuckled but I came home and asked Donnie if we were at that age yet. I don’t even remember how he responded, but we got an answer in the worst way possible earlier this week.

On Thursday morning Donnie lost a good childhood friend to a heart attack. He was 33 and he left this world too young.

I missed this morning’s run to drive Donnie to the airport so he could go to the funeral this weekend. But truth be told, I have been going back and forth on skipping the run since Wednesday. My body is tired, and I can’t seem to get my energy back. I’ve been joking that it’s because I’m soon to turn 32.

It’s likelier that I’m tired from the incredibly busy month I had at work, and the marathon that I ran and only gave myself a week to recover from. And the horrible food I’ve been eating all week so that I didn’t waste our leftover Super Bowl food hasn’t helped one bit. Nor has my busier than usual social calendar, which has also lead to poor food choices.

In the effort to kickstart my energy, I’ve decided to clean up my eating habits and I need to figure out how to do it on a budget and make it fit into my schedule. Unfortunately in today’s society, eating good is neither cheap, nor convenient. And while the higher costs of healthy eating are a bit depressing, it’s the finding time to grocery shop and cook that are my biggest challenges. I will conquer and divide and it will be well worth the extra effort.

Besides, one day I want to be turning 81 and complaining that my body just isn’t like it was when I was 32.

Any words of advise on meal planning? 

Motivation

8 Feb

Tags: ,

Being a Slacker… Er… Minimalist

7 Feb

Nope, I’m not talking about my way of life or even my style of running (though I do run in the fairly minimal NB Minimus Road shoes). I’m talking about my current strength training workout. “Minimalist” sounds much nicer than “slacker.”

Since it seems that I’m having trouble motivating myself to get my strength training in, I figured I would start small then build from there. For the next two weeks, my goal is to do this minimalistic workout from Coach Jenny at Runner’s World twice a week, then build from there.

This morning three of us ran four miles at seven minute intervals (run 7 minutes / walk 1 minute). I again forgot to turn my watch off until I had been stretching for a good 7 minutes or so, but here are the slightly skewed stats:

  • Distance: 4.19 miles
  • Time: 51:40.90
  • Pace: 12:19/mile

Our average pace per running interval was 11:16/mile.

Afterwards I came home and did my slacker minimalistic workout:

  • 60-second plank
  • 60-second push-ups
  • 60-second lunges
  • 60-second squats

I was doing the workout from memory and completely forgot about the leg curls. Oops! Next time.

Do you incorporate strength training? How do you keep yourself motivated? 

Tags: , ,

Forgetting Fourteen

6 Feb

This weekend was one full of celebrations (Donnie’s birthday, Super Bowl, it being such a beautiful weekend, etc… ), but before I could start celebrating, I had to run fourteen miles.

First, we did a four-mile route: two out and two back. My times are slightly off because I didn’t stop my watch immediately after the route.

  • Distance: 4.12 miles
  • Time: 58:11.24
  • Pace: 14:07/mile

We picked up the late starters and ran our (almost) 10-mile route.

  • Distance: 9.91 miles
  • Time: 2:16.53
  • Pace: 13:48/mile

My long runs are with intervals (run five, walk one). For a good while we managed to maintain an average pace of 11:22 miles during the runs, which is faster then we’ve been running.

I’m not sure if it was our pushing the pace, or a combo of the running hills Thursday then the pace and longer distance on Saturday, but I was super sore several hours later. I think it would’ve been a good day for an ice bath, but I typically don’t need one for anything less than 16 miles so the thought hadn’t even occurred to me. I guess my body forgot what running fourteen miles was like.

Saturday night we celebrated Donnie’s birthday with the most yummy dinner at KRES Chophouse and sans ice bath I found it uncomfortable to sit still for so long, especially in a dress. I must’ve looked odd constantly shifting my body to try to get comfy. But the white chocolate bread pudding at the end made me forget all my pains. Ha! Everything we had was incredible: Steak Tartare, Filet Mignon served Oscar style (topped with asparagus, crab cakes and béarnaise sauce), Mushroom Risotto and of course, that bread pudding! And as always, the service was amazing.

Sunday was spent with friends laughing, eating, drinking and playing bocci ball, and watching football. For dessert I served a dessert inspired from one we had at Jam Rum Bar & Bistro in Puerto Rico last year: coconut ice cream topped with mango, blue berries and strawberries and served with cinnamon pita chips. When we went to the store earlier that day we couldn’t find coconut ice cream so I bought some Blue Bell Vanilla Bean ice cream, let it melt a bit, then mixed it with coconut cream in the blender and put it back in the freezer to harden again. It was delish!

What did you do this weekend? 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Hills, Groundhogs and the Most Inspiring Video

2 Feb

In the efforts of working on both my speed and strength, I’ve decided to rejoin the Marathonfest Thursday morning training sessions. I’ve been running with the ladies Tuesdays and Thursdays, but decided I could benefit from the Thursday hill and tempo workouts. The good news is, I can still join them for coffee afterwards (which I did this morning).

My goal for this morning was to run the 3.4-mile loop with hill repeats without taking any walk intervals. I was able to accomplish this goal. Since I remembered to bring my borrowed Garmin this morning, I actually have stats:

  • Distance: 3.34 miles
  • Time: 37:15.71
  • Avg Pace: 11:09/mi

Back when I trained for my half marathons, I would average around a 10:45/mi pace for shorter runs and 11:18/mi for the half marathon. My Disney Marathon pace was 13:22/mi and I hope to get that down to at least 12:00/mi for Flying Pig.

Going up hills you can usually find me muttering to myself. I tend say things like “dig deep” and “you can do this” and my favorite: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This was one of the bible verses my mom had us say before bed every night growing up and it’s always stuck with me. This morning was no exception. Unfortunately, you can usually also hear curse words flying out of my mouth during tough runs. I tend to have the mouth of a sailor. I try my hardest not to curse around the bible verse.

When I got home this morning I saw that a friend had posted this video. Watch it and tell me you don’t get the chills watching it. Tell me your whole being didn’t get excited at the end. Tell me you weren’t inspired. I think I actually clapped at the end and shouted. My dogs must think I’m weird (thought they have no room to judge).

And today’s Groundhog Day. For those of you in the colder regions, I hope the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow!

How did you feel when you watched the video I link to above?

Tags: , , , , ,

Newer Entries →