Bayshore Half Training: week 4

I think I got back closer to the plan this week but I still moved workouts around quite a bit.  Recovery from the Groundhog Day Half Marathon was surprisingly easy (or maybe was easy because I took it so slow) and my runs this week went well.

Monday 2/4/13 - Plan: RUN easy 4 miles at 11:18 pace.  Did: SWIM - 1200 yards in about 33 minutes.  My foot was still pretty sore from Saturday's crazy half marathon so I figured a cross training day was my best bet.

Tuesday 2/5/13 - Plan: CROSS TRAIN.  Did: RUN/BIKE Brick - I had planned on running Monday's 4 miles, but 2 miles into the run (trying out my Newton Gravity shoes) I knew I wasn't ready to run 4 miles.  My foot started to hurt and I decided to play it safe.  I finished with 9 miles on the bike.  Total workout time was about 45 minutes.

Wednesday 2/6/13 - Plan: RUN Tempo 4 MI, inc w/u; 2 MI @ 9:33, c/d Did: RUN Tempo! I nailed this workout. I really hadn't planned on running since my run the day before was less than stellar, but the day was sunny and relatively warm, so I put on my Asics and headed out the door. Ran a mile w/u in 11:14 and then averaged a 9:25 pace for the 2 mile tempo. Finished with a 1 mile c/d in 10:56. Felt great the entire run - no pain other than some calf tightness.

Thursday 2/7/13 - Plan: BIKE/STRENGTH.  Did: BIKE - 13.8 miles in a hour.  Skipped the strength training.  Mentally I wasn't in a good place and it was a struggle just to get the bike ride done.

Friday 2/8/13 - REST. Did: STRENGTH/RUN - We had another snow day so I shoveled, then scooted over to the gym for a 45 min barefoot fitness class.  It was SO HARD but I loved it.  Tons of squats, lunges and balance activities.  Finished with a 1 mile run in my Newtons (10:10 pace).  I was surprised how good I felt today.

Saturday 2/9/13 - Plan: RUN "long" run of 5 miles at 11:18 pace.  Did: RUN - bitterly cold 5 mile run on the Butterworth hills.  These are a series of rollers that tend to make an appearance in every long race here.  Managed to stay pretty close to my training pace (ran the 5 in 54:55 - a 10:59 pace).  Had some calf tightness again but no real pain.  Finished the run looking like a girlier version of Frosty :)

Sunday 2/10/13 - Plan: REST  Did: REST  I threw in a little foam rolling and stretching.  Rest days are hard for me because I really value the calories I burn so I can eat more later.  When I don't have an activity like a run or bike ride, it makes eating during the day much more difficult.

I felt really good about this week.  Having that weird foot pain after last weekend's half definitely concerned me, but overall, I think I recovered quite nicely.

I'm still working to win a new medal display from Allied Medal Displays.  Could you please head over here and vote for my picture?  I'd really appreciate it.  (Last I checked I was in 2nd place and about 10 votes behind.) You can vote once a day! Thanks so much!

Meal Monday: Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Not really a meal, but makes a nice appetizer or side dish. One of the restaurants here has a similar dish on their menu & I found a recipe online that worked.

Ingredients:


1 cup water
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp garlic powder
6 1/2 cups cauliflower florets
3/4 cup Franks Hot Sauce
1 Tbsp melted unsalted butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450*. Cover a baking dish with foil & lightly spray with oil or cooking spray.

Combine water, flour & garlic powder in a large bowl. Toss in cauliflower pieces to coat. Spread out on prepared pan. (It will look gross - don't worry.)

Bake for 20 minutes. While cauliflower is baking, combine butter and hot sauce.

Remove from oven and poor hot sauce over veggies. I used a spoon to keep from making a mess. Toss a bit and return to the oven. Bake another 5 minutes.



Serve with celery and blue cheese dressing if desired.


This was surprisingly good! I wasn't sure with how garlicky it smelled before adding the hot sauce, but it ended up not garlicky at all.

Recipe serves about 6 people and is about 120 calories per serving (not including the blue cheese dressing).

Have you ever tried to duplicate a restaurant recipe?
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Fitness Friday: get what you can get!

Snow day again around these parts so today's workouts included:









What did you do to be active today?

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Thankful Thursday: randoms

Today I'm feeling extremely scattered and stressed out.  Another epic snowstorm is supposed to be coming tonight and one of my kids is supposed to be traveling up north for a jazz band competition in the morning.  Plus, I have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow that because of my schedule next week it will be near impossible to reschedule.  But...I have a few things I'd like to be thankful for today.

The rare sunny winter day in West Michigan.

Kick-ass runs that come out of nowhere.

Caffeine in my favorite Disney mug that reminds me of happy times.

Friends who have been voting for me on Facebook to win a new medal hanger.

I'm currently in 2nd place and the voting is tight, so PLEASE!!! keep voting! You can vote once a day, so like they say - Vote Chicago Style - early and often!

What are you thankful for today?

Weigh In Wednesday: slow & steady

Starting Weight (11-28-12): 153.6

Last week: 148.4

This week: 147.2

Change: down 1.2

Total change: down 6.4

I'm at my lowest weight in 3 months and I lost more than Jackson did on Biggest Loser this week. (What was up with that? He has to be cheating on his diet or something.)

Anyhoo...onward and continuing downward I hope.

While you are here, I have a small favor to ask.  I've entered a photo to win a new medal display from Allied Medal Displays.  Could you please head over here and vote for my picture?  You can vote once a day! Thanks so much!

Bayshore Half Training: Week 3

Training plan?  What training plan?

Monday 1/28/13 - Plan: RUN easy 3 miles at 11:18 pace.  Did: RUN 3 miles on the track at the gym in 31 min (10:21 pace).  Trying out some Newtons and ran the first mile in them, then switched to my Asics GT 2170s for the other two.  I totally blew my pace today. Oops. Sometimes the legs just want to move I guess.  FInished with a 45 min CROSSTRAIN yoga class that was more strength than stretchy.

Tuesday 1/29/13 - Plan: BIKE.  Did: BIKE 14 miles in 1 hour using the big gear (13.8 mph). 

Wednesday 1/30/13 - Plan: RUN easy 3 miles at 11:18 pace/STRENGTH. Did: RUN 3 miles on the track again, with 1.5 miles in Newtons. 33:48 (11:15 pace) This run felt TERRIBLE but the brightside? at least I nailed my training pace. Finished with 15 min STRENGTH abs.

Thursday 1/31/13 - Plan: BIKE/STRENGTH.  Did: BIKE easy 5.4 miles in 30 min (a slow 10.8 mph). STRENGTH 15 min of abs.

Friday 2/1/13 - REST

Saturday 2/2/13 - Plan: RUN "long" run of 4 miles at 11:18 pace.  Did: "RUN" 13.1 miles - I ran the Groundhog Day Half Marathon :) Or rather, I ran the first 4.4 mile loop and then mostly walked the other 2 loops. I hadn't run more than 7 miles since my half back in November, so I knew I wasn't in any kind of shape to run the whole thing.  Plus, this was my first "trail" half and I knew the conditions were NOT PR material.  It was an absolute blast with my friends, we dressed in crazy Groundhog Day costumes, and enjoyed the 15* temps and 12+ inches of fresh powder.  You can read my race report and see lots of pictures here!

Sunday 2/3/13 - Plan: I didn't have one.  Did: another rest day.  I threw in a little foam rolling and stretching, but mostly I iced my foot that I torqued a bit running for so long in the snow.  In hindsight, I should've tried to do something to move because I was VERY sore on Monday.  Anyhoo.  Going to take it easy on the running this next week and pray I didn't do any real damage.  

I guess looking back at the week, I didn't throw the plan TOTALLY out the window.  I just more than tripled my long run, blew my training paces, and managed to tweak my foot/ankle.  The foot and ankle are feeling better today so I'm going to try a short run after school.  One of those great workout days where you bring 3 pair of shoes to the gym - cycle, Newtons and regular running shoes :)  Have you ever gone completely off book during a training cycle?  How did it work out for you? 

While you are here, I have a small favor to ask.  I've entered a photo to win a new medal display from Allied Medal Displays.  Could you please head over here and vote for my picture?  You can vote once a day! Thanks so much!

Groundhog Day Half Marathon: race report!

On Saturday, I ran my first trail half marathon.  In a blizzard.  It was epic :)  The whole goal of the day was to have fun and not break anything.  Fun was had.  Jury is still out on whether anything is broken.  KIDDING!  Well, sorta. But I'll be fine.

This is a very photo-heavy post and I figure I'll let the pictures speak for themselves with a little captioning because I can't not say anything.

We had a good 12+ inches of fresh powder and the snow was still coming down at 7 am when I met up with my friends at the parking area.

photo credit: Molly

I was Miss Sunshine and Jenny was 6 More Weeks of Winter.  We also had 2 groundhogs, The Mayor, a weatherman, spring, and a couple of shadows.

With our costumes, we managed to win "Best Group Costume" and each of us got a free Groundhog Marathon hat!

Credit - Molly

Snowy start/finish/turnaround line.  The course was a 4.4 mile loop throughout Kent Trails.  We were able to run through a couple deep groves created by the faster runners, but it was in no way plowed.  I'd also forgotten about the little hills back there.  The half marathoners made 3 loops and the crazy full marathon folks did 6.

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This is probably one of my favorite race photos of all time!

I love these people.  Nuff said.

You have to appreciate the beauty that is West Michigan during a snow storm.  The ice flowing down the Grand River was pretty amazing.  

Chasing Groundhog Jenn :)

About 1/2 way and still smiling!  I love how relaxed we were.  No stress about pace, running or walking, just a group of friends having fun in the snow.  Also, having so many runners say, "Hello, Sunshine!" to me as we passed each other was very fun.  

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Aren't we cute!

The sun (well, besides Miss Sunshine) finally made an appearance!

The bridges were hard to run on - this wasn't one of them, though. It was just pretty.

Judi, Jenn and I stopped around mile 9 or 10 for a little warm up ;)  These two ran and walked with me the entire race.  I couldn't ask for better friends.

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Happy to almost be done

Look close and you can see the cardinal that kept us company on part of loop 3.

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I don't think I've ever smiled during a race as much as I smiled during this one.

Happy Bling Whore!

I was really stressing about how slow I was going to need to run this race, but in the end, it really didn't matter.  We ran the first lap in about 59 min and then realized on the 2nd lap that it was just more fun to walk and throw in a little running here and there.  The 2nd and 3rd laps took 1:14 and 1:15.  We stopped and socialized at aid stations.  We took pictures.  We had fun.  I can honestly say this was one half that I smiled on the entire time.  It wasn't easy by any stretch, but it was fun and I had a great time.  

I set a PR in fun :)

Got some pretty sweet swag, too!