More hard work (but I can actually look okay too) and baking!

This happened again:

Still, no shame.

I did 40-minutes in 88 degree weather today.... UGH. Tomorrow will be off because I have a 9-hour work day and some nannying/babysitting to follow. And also because I just really need a day off.

After my run showered and then did abs and arms again. I think I'm already getting stronger!

While I was doing abs/arms, I was actually multi-tasking--I put something in the oven to bake. In celebration of it being Friday, I made cookie-brownies!!! Now you never have to choose between the too again. Mine taste delicious but came out sort of funny looking, so I'll include the photo that came with the recipe I used.

 

Yum!!!

After my busy morning I finally got completely cleaned up before work. I think I need to include proof that I actually do look presentable sometimes!

I wore a new dress from Target with my favorite one dollar blazer from a street fair. I've got to make a whole post on that blazer one day...it's seriously amazing and I shamelessly wear it 2-3 times a week for work. This will all make more sense when I finally make a post about it!

I have great news! I think my mom and I plan to go to see Spirit of the Marathon II!!! It's coming out in theaters on June 12th and I cannot wait!!! I'm not sure if you remember, but I ranted and raved about the first Spirit of the Marathon in earlier posts--I seriously watched in non-stop for several weeks. I was EXTREMELY excited to hear that a SOTM II is coming. If you're looking for me in the near future, you can find me one the computer reading about it and watching the trailer over and over again.

Icky Run.

Today I got up in time to hopefully beat the heat for my run...an idea which failed. It was already 87 degrees when I emerged from the house--though I didn't realize it at the time because I just assumed early must=cooler.

No. It doesn't.

                                                                   

^ Allow these pictures to illustrate what happens when you run too much in heat that you didn't realize was even there... I'm always cold so my brain wasn't exactly complaining when I finally got to warm up outside...until the very end of my 35-minute run when I realized I looked (and felt) like a baked raspberry. No shame in posting those sweaty photos. Hopefully you can't see the sweat dripping off my ears and nose...

Despite the heat, today's run felt pretty okay. It was supposed to be an "easy" pace but maintaining my pace was difficult, which I later learned was probably due to the heat. I think this can only be good preparation though, for the June 16th half-marathon that I'm preparing for. Hopefully by that time all the pollen and fuzzy things that are floating around calm down though... Those fuzzy things are ridiculous! They kept going into my eyes and I continuously felt like I had swallowed mouthfuls of them... Not to mention they kept sticking to my sweaty body! By the end of my run I looked like a cotton ball!

After a really long and also ICKY day at work I came home to THIS:

Do not let the backwards webcam-interpretation of the label fool you...that is CHOCOLATE and there is caramel inside! And it's ALL FOR ME. Running, spinning, rowing, and chocolate are all life-savers after long/tough days for me. I picked up some new books at the library which I'm looking forward to reading (and writing about!) once I finish some homework tonight. Until then, I have chocolate to keep me going...

Promises, a challenge, and more on form.

Important PSA: now everyone can know that my hair is NOT too short to have a bun!

Today Alex celebrated his birthday in Israel. I'm really jealous of his trip there--Israel's been in my top three places to visit since the beginning of high school, at least. I decided I need to live vicariously through one of my favorite films, "Promises,"in order to properly celebrate Alex's trip and birthday. "Promises" is a documentary that travels with children in Israel/Palestine over the course of about 10 years and monitors and investigates their evolving (or not-so-evolving) views on Israeli/Palestinian relations and culture.

I think this film is extraordinarily well-made and is very touching. Though the director/film-maker BZ is Jewish and grew up in Israel, I think he portrays a very fair and well-rounded view of a very sensitive and easily-biased subject. One can get a sense of both Israeli and Palestinian culture and come to see the opinions of each side of the conflict coming from real people who have endured real hardships--and even more candidly--children. So this is how I'm channeling Alex as his trip winds down!

Runner's World is having a Summer Run Streak challenge--you have run at least a mile a day between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July! 

This sounds like a good challenge to me...I'm honestly not sure if I can make it! A mile might not seem like much, but on my off days, I like to reallllly be OFF. It will also be interesting to see if I can even walk--let alone run--a mile after my second half-marathon (especially if the soreness afterwards is anything like my first!). Despite all this, I will be challenging myself!

Tomorrow I'm getting up early to beat the heat during my run...should be fun!

Fixing my form and a baby Animal!

Today I did a 35-minute run in the hot, humid late May weather that we've been presented with this week. Would've preferred the warmth during Memorial Day Weekend but I'll take what I can get to be honest. This is Cleveland, after all! Unlike many people, I like a nice hot run that makes me work. I'm not a fan of the heat in races when I'm more concerned with it slowing me down, but I like to sweat--as unladylike as that may be! As I've mentioned before, that's part of why I love hot yoga so much!

I donned some new running clothes for my run today:

Not sure if you can notice, but my tank is coordinated to the orange stripe in my shorts!

On my run, I spotted these babies! Normally I HATE geese (they're a real hazard/annoyance when rowing and simply never seem to want to get out of the way, and they're mean). But these little fuzzies captured my heart when I found them in my normal stretching place after warm-up.

I've been thinking a lot about my running form since I picked up Natural Running from the library last week. I know that I need to work on stepping with my toes before my heels, getting some body angle, etc, but when I try to do that during my runs, it seems realllllyyy hard. Obviously that's because my body is not used to it! I think that my muscles need to be completely reconfigured in order to find "proper" running form. Hungry Runner Girl posted some good pictures a few days ago of what proper form should look like.

As I read more about natural running and running form, I'll have to update my own progress/thoughts on fixing your form. Personally, I think that in the long run, if I can maintain better form I'll be a lot more efficient and hopefully speedier when running. I think I have potential to eventually shave several minutes (if not many, many more) off of my half-marathon time if I can use my form to run more efficiently as well as more safely, which will likely reduce my injury rate by tenfold!

Running, arms, abs, and snacks.

Today I had a great run through the drizzly Memorial Day weather. It was good temps for running. I had a low point when I ran past my grandparents house and got distracted when my grandfather called my name from their driveway, causing me to nearly hit a tree! I need to focus better when I'm running.

After my run I did 8-minute arms and my normal abs circuit, as well as my IT-Band stretches and hip strengthening exercises. I normally do abs every other day, though I imagine doing them everyday would be fine. I like to give it an extra day for the muscle to repair/rebuild but I imagine what I'm doing is light enough to do every day. It does help give me a great core though. This is my normal ab routine:

Today was my first day doing 8-minute arms, which I want to do just to give me a little bit stronger/more toned upper body. Surprisingly, rowing on it's own does not demand that you have super-strong arms! I do have a strong back and good lats, but my 8-inch-circumference biceps are certainly not hulking. I tried doing Hungry Runner Girl's favorite 8-minute arms: 

Of course, I don't have any weights here so I used these two free-weights of champions:

(Sorry Mom for catching you in the back of that picture....)

After my run and work-out, I inhaled a bunch of watermelon. I am SO excited that it's watermelon season; I love the stuff and find it extremely refreshing...especially after a run or hot yoga!

Even though it's rainy and cold and we were stuck indoors, we had a nice Memorial Day dinner of corn, potatoes, a bit of pasta, and grilled chicken. I had my sister pick up my favorite treat from Starbucks for me to nibble on later...

So good! I hope everyone else had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

New gear and Gatsby!

Today I went SHOPPING! I got a new short-sleeve technical shirt from GapFit and I got a couple pairs of Nike Tempo shorts. I of course had to model them straight away! I'm very particular about my athletic gear matching so you'll notice that the purple of my shirt matches the purple stripe in my shorts...might be a little picky of me... 

I also picked up a lot of other nice items in the crazy sales that were out and about today...it was well-worth the time and money spent! I'll be sure to model some of my new finds in future days.:)

My run today was really nice. The weather was just perfect. I've been finding that I like my compressions socks for things other than just compression...I'm not sure if they do much during my runs but they sure seem to help with recovery and above all, they keep plants/bugs/dirt off of my legs. I'm trying to get more into trail running so this is really awesome.

I've been skipping the use of my beloved Garmin during this week of running since I'm technically "off," or doing easy runs for the next couple of days while I continue to recover from the half-marathon. I planned not to run at all until this weekend but my body was just rarin' and ready to go on Wednesday, and I've been on four runs since the half-marathon. One was my Friday 5-miler which really was not a great run...everything was hurting...but other than that I've felt strong and on the road to recovery. I've been keeping the mileage under five this weekend, but may build it up during the week. I might start trying speed work at the end of next week, just to give it a shot (speed work won't be soon enough to help me in preparation for this up-coming 13.1, but it will be fun to see if I like it and will be something I hope to use in the future), and then plan to do an 8-miler next weekend which is two weeks before my second half-marathon. In the two weeks preceding the half-marathon, I'll do a traditional taper. 

I'm also working hard to find a bike to use so I can actually do the triathlon that I've got my eye on for August. I'll keep you updated on that...

I took some beautiful snapshots while I was stretching in the middle of my run! What a gorgeous day!

I went with my sister to see "The Great Gatsby" (finally) and I was absolutely blown away! I loved the film and when it's on DVD I can tell it's one of those movies that I'll want to watch endlessly. I just thought it was beautifully done and I really liked the way Baz used modern film techniques and technology/special effects and his own style in the movie. I liked the frequent--but not goofy--comedic relief that popped up frequently, and thought that the romance between Gatsby and Daisy was portrayed perfectly. The image that the audience is left with at the end of the film was also just how I felt after reading the book--F.Scott Fitzgerald's original point was maintained and I think he would have appreciated the film. It was phenomenal! I always tell people that even before I knew about the movie, when I first read the book, Leo DiCaprio was always how I envisioned Jay Gatsby...and alas, he was!!! He played the role perfectly. I was a bit worried due to the bad press/reviews that the film was receiving but I thought it hit the nail on the head. A+ work, five stars, the whole enchilada. I know what I'll be reading tonight!

Yum!

To be honest...I've been really missing this for the last couple of days:

I must go through hair mood swings because I know for a fact that last weekend I was LOVING the short hair and was making plans to keep it this short for awhile! But now I just miss my mermaid hair (though not when I remember that I'm providing someone else with mermaid hair!). Luckily it'll grow!

After a rough five-miler yesterday I was planning on skipping a run today...but 9.5 hours of (crazy) work (and an overall pretty lame-o day) later I NEEDED a run. It is frighteningly cold for May, but I zipped out into the crisp, clear, and sunny air and immediately felt better. Today's run went so much more smoothly than yesterday's; it was crazy! I wonder if it had to do with my mood or if all the stretching last night made that big of an impact. I'm still keeping an eye on the feisty IT-Band though...I might be able to put up with discomfort for 3 miles but no-can-do for 13.1 miles on June 16th! 

Tomorrow might be a very exciting day... I'm trying to convince my family to come out to Metro Parks with me so I can zoom off an go trail running for the first time! I am very apprehensive to drive myself out there and run completely on my own on the trails...but if I know that they are in the park somewhere I feel a lot safer. So hopefully that happens tomorrow or Monday (I get a two-day weekend from work because it's Memorial Day). 

Also to-do this Memorial Day Weekend:

• Hot yoga??? (on day that I don't run?)
• The Great Gatsby with Sister!
• Bake?
• Shopping at sales with Mom/Sister (nice clothes for work needed)?

I had to add question marks to some because I'm honestly not sure at all of what the next two days will really entail... I like to keep it sort of loose when I have free time! But I definitely want to bake. Surprisingly, I haven't wanted to bake since I got home from school. Normally I bake ALL the time (bread, cream puffs, cookies, crème brulée, you name it) and I was deprived of this at school since I didn't have the appropriate implements to cook with. Now I guess I'm a little sad to get back at it because normally I do all of my baking with Alex...and also I just haven't found the perfect, inspiring recipe yet. Alas, alack, I think the time has come. I am ready... and it's all because of THIS:

Isn't it beautiful? I regularly check tastespotting.com for awesome recipes and I just as regularly find amazing ones like this one! I think this would be great to make this week...Although this week might be just as appropriate of a time to bake my (and Alex's) favorite challah since Alex is in Israel!

Time to shake off the remnants of this chilly, draining day and burrow into my bed with a good DVD and book (love doing two of my favorite things at the same time: movies and books (though I always go back and re-read the books to absorb all of the literary goodness). Over and out!

Triathlon and MOVABLE.

One of the things that I really want to accomplish this summer is my first triathlon. I'm not sure how I will do this because I do not own a bicycle. My mom has a bike that I use but it's a clunky mountain bike. However, I'm determined! I will do this.

Usually I don't really feel like I need week-by-week books to help me, but I found this book in one of my favorite sections of the library and thought I'd pick it up because to be honest I really don't know a thing about triathlons! So this is my book of the week.

My dad invests in companies for work and a new company called "Movable" has been the latest thing that he talks about. Movable make these "Movable Bands" that count your moves for the day, and you can log them on the computer. Moves can be steps, arm movements, twists, tumbles, leaps, etc. Many companies invest in these for their employees as a part of a health/wellness program and it can become a competition to get the most "moves" per day. My dad got some Movable Bands from work and now I have one! It's not really something that's designed for really athletic people who are trying to accomplish BIG things but it's designed more for people who are starting out. I think it's great and I like to wear mine because it's COOL. It also functions as a watch but the numbers go vertically instead of the normal horizontal. I'm just starting to use it but I'll have to update more when I've used it for awhile.

Check the Movable! 

Ice, heat, chocolate, and missing.

Today I am sad because Alex has voyaged off to Israel, where he is going to be for the next 10 days for Birthright. I think this is great and he'll have a super fun time but I always get anxious when he travels and this is the first time in our 3.5-year relationship that he's travelled out of the country so....I'm just nervous/anxious. But mostly I'm sad because we probably won't be seeing each other for the next 3.5 months! I think it's okay to be sad because usually I'm pretty happy, and after a day or two hopefully I get over it and start finding lots of things to keep me occupied. We've never gone so long without seeing each other and I definitely think that qualifies as long-distance. I guess it's good training though.

Also my best friend of 10-11 years is in the hospital because her appendix ruptured. She's had to have a couple surgeries and it sounds like it was a pretty bad week for her so I'm keeping her in my thoughts and want to send her a shout-out to stay strong and keep fighting! The last time I heard from her she said she was in pretty low spirits and I know what she's going through is no fun at all.

Back to positives! My legs are finally feeling better from the half-marathon, which was 4 days ago now. I had NEVER been so sore in my life! I took a real beating from that race but I did a lot of icing and took a lot of Tylenol and actually took two ice baths, which really seem to have helped! I had never ice-bathed before and now I think I will try to do it after all my hard runs; it really seemed to turn my recovery around and quite literally get me back on my feet. My hips, which I talked about in my Race Recap, are feeling much better and I think this has just taught me to save enough time before the race to streeeetchhh out! Especially for my IT-Band.

A couple race photos came out! This is the only one where I look semi-alive, but I still seem pretty bad. I know exactly what point of the race this is, I made eye contact with the photographer. Look at that heel-strike! Youch!!!

This morning I went to Hot Yoga but I think it's still too early after the half-marathon to be sweating so much, and it might've been better to do a recovery run. I had a terrible dehydration headache for the last hour of the class and it was just sort of generally miserable. I was also tired and having trouble staying on cue with the instructor, and though my legs felt better finally they didn't want to listen to me. It's important not to underestimate how much Hot Yoga can take out of you! It's not supposed to be comfortable, but make sure you have the proper hydration and rest to make it through the class. I'll have to keep this in mind!

Last November I did the Hot Chocolate Race in Columbus, and I have every intention of doing it in the future. I found this fitting quote on their boards recently:

Yum. So true. Chocolate gets through me hard times like I'm having today! I don't understand how anyone can dislike chocolate! It's truly an amazing thing.

I was also aimlessly scrolling through the news for my next half-marathon, which is the Lake Health Half-Marathon on June 16th. I've never talked to anyone who's done this race so I'm a little nervous and apprehensive, but my fingers are crossed that it goes well. I saw a table for them at the Cleveland Expo so they seem legit! I'll start doing some hard runs next week and then I'll probably taper for a week or a week and a half. I'm worried about the possibility of extreme heat, though! I wonder if they've had issues with this before. The race doesn't start until 8 AM--a full HOUR later than Cleveland. At 8 AM last Sunday I was closer to done than not! The course is also challenging and hilly. It'll be an experience for sure. Luckily they put this post on their Facebook page. Looks like they're saving lots of popsicles for me:

Coolest Caesar Salad and what the runners didn't see.

My mom had a big birthday this week, and last night we went to out dinner! If you know our family, you know that this is a very, very rare occurrence. We went to one of my mom's favorite restaurants and we all had wonderful meals. I started my dinner with a caesar salad (I love salad and try to have some once a day), but this was no ordinary caesar salad! Before the actually plate of lettuce, etc, came out, a plate with five spoons was brought to the table! Each spoon had an ingredient (capers, egg, salmon, onion, and bacon) and then the actual salad came out with cheese and dressing. Then I was able to add the ingredients that I wanted!!! What a cool way of serving a dish (and it was probably the yummiest caesar salad I've ever had).

After dinner, we declined desert because we had a big cake waiting at home, but the waiter brought out these tiny oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for us while we waited for the check! Adorable!

Ended the night with chocolate raspberry crunch cake. Yum.

On another note, I was scrolling through some more photos from this past weekend from my mom's camera, and found some interesting aspects of the marathon that the runners probably never really see. 

For example, have you ever seen so many bananas???

 

Or finisher's medals???

My mom also found some cool downtown Cleveland sights.

Rock and Roll!

...and steam ships!

I think it's cool that she found the inner-workings of a giant marathon and got to watch the set up for the finishers. I'm sure someday I'll be a race volunteer and hopefully help with stuff like that! She also got to see cool things that the runners couldn't see, like the steam ship and Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame!

Chocolate Cream Cheese and another running book.

I have found a new obsession. It is called Philadelphia Milk Chocolate Cream Cheese:

Seriously, that's a great invention. I love it on my whole-wheat mini bagels but it would make a great sandwich and go well on pretzels. Wayyyyy better than Nutella (sorry Nutella). 

I recently finished a new favorite running book: The Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultrarunning Greatness by Pam Reed. It's sort of an autobiography/memoir. I'm really glad I plucked this off the shelf because it turned out to be an amazing read and taught me a lot about ultrarunning, a sport which (like most people in the world) I knew nothing about about. 

Pam does a great job of introducing the sport and talking about her experience with it. She's actually a triathlete and wrote a book about her experience doing Ironman Triathlons as well (that'll be my next book!!!). In this book, however, it's really interesting to read about her experiences in 300-mile races and her experiences at Badwater. This woman loves desert races. She "invented" and is the race director of the Tucson Marathon, too. I've always talked about how much I'd like to be the director of a really big regatta like the Head of the Charles...or maybe a organizing a race someday for a cause that it close to my heart. 

Anyways, back Pam!!! I had no idea how amazing she was....I had no idea who she was. But she was the overall winner for Badwater at least twice and was the women's winner more times. She regularly wins these extremely long distance races and creams EVERYONE, even all the men. One time she ran the London marathon and a few days later she ran the Boston marathon back-to-front and then front-to-back (in other words...she ran the entire course TWICE). I found her stories and work ethic really inspiring. If you want to know about all the biggest distance races and ultramarathons, this is the book to read. I was just inspired in general, and I never even really considered ultrarunning. 

The only problem I had with this book is that sometimes she seems to brag a little bit (and I get the impression that other people have this problem with her too). To be honest...I know I can be a little braggy if I'm not careful too, and it makes sense: you want to tout your accomplishments! If you tout them too much though people tend not to like you. So be careful! Overall the book was just really great and I think most people wouldn't even notice the braggy thing. I completely recommend this book to every runner, especially ones who are looking into doing ultras. Personally...I don't know if I will ever really want to do ultras. I can barely get my mind around the half-marathon! I know I want to do a full-marathon, but who knows how long that will take me to build up to! In my mind I really want to be super awesome and do an ultra. I think the shortest ultra you can do is a 50k (31 miles) so if you can do a marathon, you probably have it in you to hustle on for a few more miles. I can't help thinking that I would get to the marathon point and be like "HAVEN'T I DONE ENOUGH???" So...it's probably safe to say that I have years before I really think about doing ultras. I do think that reading about them can be inspiring to any runner or even any athlete; it just reminds you about the mental toughness and endurance that you have to have to get your body to do these things (even if it's not a long run or a run at all! Maybe it's rowing or cycling or walking or swimming). All athletes have to have one thing in common to be successful and to keep going, and that's mental toughness. Pam does a good job with talking about this and it's importance. It's a good thing for us all to keep in mind.

A day of R&R.

Today I did a lot of relaxing on Alex's family's new speed boat. We (Alex, his friend, and Alex's dad) headed out to Lake Erie to just sit and relax (which I soon learned means "go really really fast for awhile") and enjoy the view. It was a GORGEOUS day and I was sure to lather up with lots of sunscreen!

 

We sped around the lake for awhile and admired several sailboats and life houses, and then we returned  shore to pick up Alex's mom. We passed the start and finish of the Cleveland Marathon. We sped over to the mouth of the Cuyahoga at that point, and motored into the opening that I'd rowed out of so many times. We followed the river around its many bends and past our boathouse, and up to Collision bend (where we were stopped because a freighter was going through). We saw many rowers and eights out, along with a few fours and singles shells. I was sad not to be among them. It felt weird to be with the "enemy" (a pleasure craft). I saw many familiar faces among the coaching staff that was out. The experience pushed me to decide that I am going to continue on with my endeavor to begin coaching this summer. I had been planning to do that, and then sort of backed off of that plan because I was having (mostly internal conflict) with my high school team. I was told that they didn't want me around so much. Mostly, I think that the teams leaders are afraid of more power, and the possibility of losing theirs. It was enough to make me disinterested in coming back to help. I think I need not to be a baby though; I need to toughen up and do what is really right and do what makes me happy as well. So as soon as work settles down, I'll be working on coaching.

We docked and climbed up to a restaurant that looks upon one of the bridges I've rowed under hundreds of times!!! I've never gotten a picture from this angle before!

After dinner we headed back to the launch and called it a day. I think this was a great way to distract ourselves from the post-marathon pain! It was a lot of fun and I always enjoy spending time with Alex's family.

Little goslings going for a swim with mom and dad as the sun was setting.