Long Run Video...

I made a little video of my 12-mile long run on Saturday... I'm working on a more substantial post but hopefully this holds you over for the present! :)

This is the first film that I've written, produced, directed, and starred in. It's a pretty big deal ;)

I do realize it's tiny and poor resolution... Still learning how to make movies!

First "Long Run."

Today I headed out for my first long run of the cycle - officially only 15 weeks until race day. That's hard to believe.

There's nothing terribly exciting about today's long run to report. The weirdest/most unusual thing was the weather. It was about 60 degrees and VERY windy/drizzly/gray for my entire run. This is pretty odd for southern Ohio when it's almost July.

It's been a long time though since I've ran up to 8 miles, and even longer since I've ran 8 outside, so my body was feeling it, especially the hills. My arms and back are sore from swimming yesterday - which I didn't expect. The first few miles of this run were slow and my calves were feeling cramped, but once I got going I fell into "race pace" towards the end - which was great. Prior to the run I had a small piece of toast with pb & banana - my regular pre-run fuel from last summer's training.

Race Across America came through my town yesterday for the most part, but there were still some stragglers coming through today and I saw them and their crews during my run. It was really motivating to see that and I cheered for them as we passed each other.

As I mentioned, I went swimming yesterday during lunch! I only had time to swim for about 25 minutes, but it felt really great. I just can't get over how slow I am. Sometimes I think about the time cut-offs for big triathlons - especially full and half Ironman triathlons (because those are my goals!) - and I am just not close enough at all. Luckily I have lots of time (years probably) before any of those types of events to improve, but it can be discouraging! 

All things pink.

After my run this morning I did something I never do and made pancakes (with mix that Alex gave me when he was getting rid of stuff during his move this summer) with fruit and homemade whipped cream. And maple syrup. And a scrambled egg on the side.

I need to work on my food pics.

Now I've got to do some stretching and study for the GRE before I head to work for the afternoon.

Have a wonderful weekend :) 

First 2 Runs of the Cycle!

On Monday I got in my first two training runs of this cycle. I went early in the morning to beat the heat and it felt great! Usually Mondays will be "off," but since this week is a little unconventional I did it on Monday to get it out of the way. The run was 5 miles with 5x20 seconds of strides (faster than marathon-pace, but not "all out" running).

Today  I got in an easy 5 miles - already the second run of the cycle! I am so excited to really work hard. I want to get stronger too, and keep doing yoga and plyometrics and my hip and core strengthening exercises.

I'm working on "8-angle pose..." I have a ways to go!

Over Father's Day weekend I had a little reunion with my friends from high school :) We were all on the rowing team together and we visited our old boathouse - it was so great to visit some of our old haunts!

I gave my dad some treats from Little Italy for Father's Day (I might've sneaked a bite, too...)

Time for me to do some studying (less than 1 week until the big day!), just wanted to say a quick hello!

I hope everyone's week is going well :)

Two things.

I feel like this is my last week of "freedom" before I get sucked into marathon training (next week, people!). So, if I don't feel like running, I don't. I've been doing a lot of yoga lately instead... Sometimes I get bored in the library and I start distracting myself with asanas since I'm the only one there. 

I usually do self-led yoga postures, but sometimes if I need some inspiration or something a little different, I resort to podcasts. This one and this one are my favorites from 3 Dog Yoga in Santa Rosa. If you have a background in yoga and have a basic knowledge of what certain postures are, I couldn't recommend these more! They are the best.

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I celebrated this past Saturday night by watching "A Lot Like Love" and making flourless chocolate cupcakes. I found this recipe and am now not only obsessed with these cupcakes but also with The Iron You. These cupcakes had everything I love; almond milk, chocolate, coconut :) And The Iron You loves all of those things plus running and yoga and racing triathlon. I will have to get lots more recipes from his blog!

Hope your week is going well :)

What am I doing besides running?

In terms of working out, there's a few other things I'm working on in addition to running.

Usually I workout twice a day - one ~40-minute run in the morning (building a base for marathon-training) and one small workout in the afternoon/evening. During this smaller workout I do my PT exercises, stretching, yoga, and strength-training.

I've talked about yoga before, which is working wonders on my strength, flexibility, and most importantly, my mind. I've also mentioned ab-workouts. However, I'm also trying to strengthen my arms and work on plyometrics. 

To work on my arms, I use hand weights. Typically I do 3 exercises, x10 reps each. I will explain as best I can:

• Extended raise: Hold weights in each hand, arms fully extended at waist. Raise arms straight up so they are a 90-degree angle with your body. Lower back down and repeat.
• Lateral raise: Arms are fully-extended, resting at hips. Raise arms up sideways so that they're parallel with the ground.
• "Push-up": Arms are resting at your shoulders with weights in hands, ready to push up. Push up straight and come back to rest at your shoulders. Repeat.

I also like to work on plyometric exercises when I can. I mostly do them because I think they're fun and different, but studies have shown that plyometrics can help train your body to run more efficiently, which seems like a great benefit. There are some great examples here and here.

My favorite:

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I went to a free injury screening yesterday morning to try to work out some of my nagging issues. I have been to the physical therapy center here many, many times of the past few years at school, and I have always been above impressed with my experiences there. 

I expressed my concerns to the physical therapist and he watched me walk and did some strength tests. He used to sell running shoes, so he checked those out and said that they seem to be a great fit for me, that I have a nice gait. I was happy to hear that I'm mostly fine, but he said that my left side is pretty weak in comparison with my right side, which is definitely a contributing factor to my repeated injuries over the years. This isn't the first time I've heard this but he gave me some specific instructions to fit in with my marathon training (starting in less than 2 weeks). 

The physical therapist said that I "definitely have a runner's frame" and that it might be a little extra hard for me to build up "big muscles" in my hips and glutes because of my frame. When combined with high mileage and longggg distances, I start to experience into problems in the form of injury. I thought this made sense but that it was also a little baffling - professional marathoners are built like me, or have even tinier frames! Meb himself is only ½ an inch taller than I am, and barely 10lbs heavier! So how do those athletes with tiny frames maintain strong enough muscles that they aren't getting injured?!! If anyone knows the answer to this question... please let me know.

These are the exercises that my PT suggested. I also do pistol squats (which are pretty tough!) and clam shells, though he said I can "up the ante" with these and may want to just forget about clam shells all together. All of my other exercises can be found in this video.

Though I run in the mornings, I find myself wanting to get outside again later in the evenings. After dinner, sometimes I ride my bike to the trails and go on a short walk and listen to music. I also like to stop to see how fast the corn is growing (exciting stuff, I know). Looks like I had a friend last night...

Have a great Thursday!

Running Lately.

So what's up with my running lately???

I've been getting back into the groove after months off on-and-off injury. A couple of months ago, after reaching a point of pain during every run after only 20-30 minutes and then having to stop, I realized how ridiculous I was being.

I was putting down a lot of junk miles. I was suffering a lot of pain and risking big-time injury for a few measly runs every week while I could just put on the brakes for a couple weeks and focus on strengthening and healing.

Sometimes we humans do silly things like that. Or is that just me???

I went on a no-running cleanse and did alllllll the strength-training and alllllll the yoga. I took 3-4 weeks off and focused primarily on these exercises (great for all runners to keep in your strength-training arsenal!).

After a those weeks off I hit the road again, expecting to be good as new.

Nope.

I still had pain after a few minutes on the pavement. Albeit, it's very hilly around here and that wasn't the best for the particular problems I was having, but I clearly still had some weaknesses that had to be worked out. I felt really defeated, though, and mentioned my frustration to Alex.

He suggested some running spots that I was unfamiliar with, out in some corn fields (not kidding). He thought the grass would allow me to run pain-free and continue to build up strength.

I was skeptical, but I tried it out.

It was an enormous success. I started doing about 30-minutes of "grass running" about 4x a week, and continued this for 2 weeks. Then I moved onto trails and built up to occasional 40 and 50-minute runs. I became quite a regular out there.

The trails are relatively popular, but I don't see many people out during the times that I run (either really early or middle of the day, depending when I can fit it into my schedule. 

Sunrise :)

I try to engage in safety precautions like bringing my phone and wearing my road ID, but luckily I do have someone to look out for me...

I named him Philip. He actually may be a girl, I don't know him that well yet. But I do stop and say hi to "Philip" every time I run past!

Now I'm running more on covered trails, and I can run on pavement occasionally and haven't had any problems. Hopefully the worst is behind me.

Now I'm trying to build my endurance back up so I can go into marathon training with a solid base, but not exhausted. Sometimes it gets a little discouraging, knowing how far I am from my goals, but then I remind myself that I'm at the exact ability-level that I was last June before I headed into marathon training!

In addition to yoga and the exercises I mentioned before, I've been sticking with General Strength and Mobility  exercises and 8-minute abs. I have not been rowing regularly, and want to keep the (little) arm and back strength that I had. So far, yoga is doing a great job of that!

Happy Thursday everyone! Have a great day!

Some random things and a few recipes!

A few randoms:

My friend/roommate got me this great shirt for my birthday - love it!

My toes were VERY messed up after the marathon... blisters and cuts everywhere for weeks. I've always questioned running in toe socks but I went to our local running store with a gift card and he suggested these. They have been GREAT for blister prevention. I haven't done any truly long runs yet but normally I get small blisters here and there just from short runs and with these - nothing! No rubbing. I want to get a second pair all in pink :)

This is why I like to start the day with exercise :)

My knee has slowly but surely been getting better. I tried to run outside a few weeks ago when the weather was nice but all of the hills here really aggravated my knee and I had to take some days off after that. So since then, I've stuck to the treadmill. Sometimes I'll bump it up to 1% incline about halfway through my run, other times I leave it at 0. THIS article explains that it might not necessarily be more beneficial to your runs to use the incline. I'm undecided, personally! This week my running has looked like this: 

Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: Off (work 7-9:30AM)
Thursday: 6 miles
Friday: 7 miles
Saturday: 4 miles

My most consistent "rest day" is always Wednesday because I've started working at a dining hall on that day. I typically take another rest day off on Saturday or Sunday unless my knee is feeling really good and have time!

Tried to smile but it turned out to be a grimace because it was 6:58AM.

We had a snowday on Thursday (first full day cancellation due to weather at my university in FOUR years!) and I had plenty of time to get my run in and not rush to class. It was great :)

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Let's talk about recipes!

A friend sent me an awesome cookbook for my birthday - Racing Weight Cookbook. It has TONS of amazing recipes with maximum nutrients for athletes. It written by two authors - one is a marathoner and one is a rower/marathoner, so it's pretty much perfect! I've tried several recipes from the cookbook  and wanted to share a couple.

The first one I really liked were these wheat-free banana coconut bars. They have oatmeal, a banana, and coconut oil as the main ingredients and came out really well. I cut them up and packaged them individually so I could throw them in my bag for snacks at school all week!

Another quick, easy recipe from the book were these "salmon cakes." All you need is some cooked boneless, skinless salmon (in a can) and some panko breadcrumbs and these take about 20 minutes to whip up! 

Smoothie bowls with the following ingredients are a hot item around here right now too...

Yum.

Yesterday for lunch I made a sweet-potato chickpea wrap from a recipe on Thug Kitchen. If you aren't familiar with Thug Kitchen, you should DEFINITELY go read that recipe ASAP. It's worth it - you'll probably laugh the whole time. I love Thug Kitchen because despite their tough exterior, they offer healthy, vegan recipes and make eating healthy the BA thing to do. 

These wraps were the bomb.

Steam the sweet potatoes and chickpeas

Slice up some red onion to sauté with lemon juice

Thinly sliced apple

Shazam! Delicious wrap! Or burrito bowl if you wrap ends up ripping like mine did.

Hope those recipes tide you over - more are coming!

Happy Holidays!

Merry belated Christmas to everyone celebrating! Hope everyone is having wonderful holidays and is able to relax with family. 

We went to a couple of services on Christmas Eve and went to bed early... gettin' old I guess.

Started off Christmas Day with my physical therapy exercises before everyone else went downstairs. Hopefully the new year brings new hope in terms of my recovery and return to running!

Every Christmas morning, we host a brunch, and on Christmas Eve I prepare a blueberry apple coffee cake for everyone to enjoy. I followed this recipe and would definitely use it again! 

I received some Nutella in my stocking and ate it with a banana this morning... just like I used to do for breakfast everyday in Europe!

My sister got me some socks (socks are my favorite) - these ones are perfect!

My dad set up clipless pedals on the bike I was using over the summer for the 50-mile ride. I'll start practicing to clip & unclip indoors and then try outside! A relative generously gave me some hand-me-down clipless shoes. I can still expect to go down a couple of times before I'm used to it but I'm excited to start using these clipless shoes - hopefully helps me be speedier!

In the meantime, I can be found on the erg. I've still been working on long and low pieces but I will start with shorter explosive pieces soon so I can get ready for the upcoming sprint season.

Things from this week, 20-miler & Running Talk Down.

There's been a lot of rowing and other things going on this week! Yesterday I had my first morning workout. We were on the water by 7AM! We got three good practices in this week - I'm really excited for our regatta in a week! And to visit home :)

I always lay everything out the night before : 

My new favorite pre-rowing snack: 

We headed into the city last night and Alex's aunt and uncle had us over to make PIZZAS. I typically stay away from wheat/gluten (and that has really improved my health over the last 6-7 months!) but I am planning on eating pizza (convenience) the night before the marathon so this was good timing to practice since the long run was today! Plus, who doesn't like pizza-making???

Alex=pizza expert

This morning I got up at 5:15 to start the run. My roommate planned to do 10 miles with me, and we both had somewhere to be by 10:00 so we had to start early!

 I actually started at about 5:45 on the treadmill because I don't run in the dark on my own. I set the treadmill to 2% incline to simulate outside running. So, I did 5 miles on my own, met my roommate, did the middle 10 miles with her, and then did the last 5 miles on my own again. This was a pretty nice balance. I knew I couldn't (mentally) do the full 20 completely on my own and I LOVED the company. Running in sparse country roads for 20 miles on my own would've been too scary - either because of dogs, crazy drivers, or other unknowns. I think this is something I could've definitely done in my hometown where there are TONS of runners/cyclists/pedestrians, but here it's hard to do that.

DONE.

The 20 miles felt pretty good. Honestly, not that much different from 18! After the end of my run, I hopped in our pool for an "ice bath," since it was only about 50 degrees outside (the pool was probably closer to 60. That felt GOOD.

I don't think you're going to want to see my bare toes for quite awhile.

Then it was time to head to the boathouse to get launch certified! Figured it's as good a time as ever to make it official!

Running from 09/08-09/13:
Monday : Off
Tuesday : 6 VERY slow and easy miles + an evening rowing workout - 4 x 10 min pieces.
Wednesday : 4 fast-ish miles on the treadmill.
Thursday : 8 miles - 1-mile warmup, 6 miles at 7:41 avg pace, and 1 mile cool down. 2x15 minutes rowing.
Friday : Morning row (30 minutes) and 2 mile "shake out" run to make sure everything felt okay for the long run!
Saturday : 20.2 miles, mostly easy with last 5 miles @ marathon pace.

Weekly total : 40.2 miles

Now I'm just staying horizontal, studying, and preparing something special for dinner!

Slow-Cooked Bean Medley.

It's been a busy week so far! I've had a couple of REALLY long days (like...having class/meetings/runs/practice every moment from like 8:00AM to 11:30PM or so).

My sweet friend knew just what I needed :)

Got back into rowing yesterday, which was definitely worth the time it took :) I will be rowing in a double this season, which I'm really excited about. My doubles partner is very experienced, and very awesome :)

This is what I love:

Yesterday we spent practice just getting a feel for each other and we did a 5-minute warm-up, 2x10 minute pieces and 2x8 minute pieces. With lots of chatting breaks in between!

Today I made a bean medley with lots of kinds of beans, canned corn, ketchup, and a few other veggies.

Here's the recipe to the bean medley.

It turned out really yummy. I'm delighted with the fact that I can just throw a bunch of things in the slow-cooker, turn it on, and come home with a healthy, balanced meal. One of my roommates commented that it tastes like Sloppy Joe's? I've never had a Sloppy Joe but I'm guessing it was the ketchup. My favorite part is the kidney beans and the  corn!

This week I've started bringing lunches, too. Last week I was still able to hurry home for a quick lunch but this week is just too busy now that I've got my normal schedule going! One day I did meet my sister for one of the famous salads from around here :

Otherwise, I keep it simple. I'll usually bring a PB&J roll-up and an apple. Tomorrow I decided to mix it up a bit and do a kale mix roll-up, broccoli & dip, and an apple. 

It does take a lot of time, but I definitely have been enjoying grocery shopping for myself and preparing my own meals. This is something I really liked while living abroad, as well.

Let's end on an excited note : 

All seven seasons! I am not a big TV person at all, but I'm a diehard fan of this show. I started watching it when I was 12 and I've seen every episode at least 2-3 times now. So this is a very exciting piece of news ! I might be chained to my computer for awhile now... :)