Wordless Wednesday: what day is it?

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Training Tuesday: Jax Bank Half week ???

Well, since I announced yesterday that I'm running one more half marathon this year, I can now label these training posts for the race :)  I've had this one on my radar for awhile now but wanted to get to double digits and have some solid long runs before I pulled the trigger.  Sadly, this past week's runs left a little to be desired, but I've been running around this block long enough to know that crappy runs happen.

Monday 11/18 - RUN 3.12 miles in 32:19 (10:21 pace).  We had a huge wind storm and didn't have school, so this was a weird time of day run to check out some of the damage.  It's always a bit odd to see a truck on my running trail - the park service was there cutting up trees that had fallen on the trail.

Tuesday 11/19 - REST.  Watched my daughter qualify for the Division 1 State Diving Championships at her Regional meet :)

Wednesday 11/20 - RUN 4 mile tempo in 38:53 (9:43 ave pace).  This was a tough run.

Thursday 11/21 - LONG RUN 8 miles.  This was supposed to happen on Saturday but I knew we'd be traveling for divegirl's state meet.  I had to do this run after school and I was poorly fueled and not well hydrated.  Basically, this run sucked balls and I even stopped my watch and sat down at mile 4, wondering who might be home to pick my sorry ass up.  I got my shit together and finished but it wasn't pretty.  8 miles in 1:28:31 (11:03 pace).

Friday 11/22 - REST while I spectated my daughter's awesome diving.  She finished 33rd in the state in Division 1 and I couldn't be more proud.

Saturday 11/23 - RUN Treadmill Mountain.  I have a friend who has started doing these workouts and I thought I'd try one.  2 miles at 10% incline in 30 min.  It was hard as hell.

Sunday 11/24 - RUN 3.1 in 30:00 (9:40 pace). This was Monday's run done a day early since I had an appointment with my sports med doc and then my girl's swim/dive banquet.  Very cold, windy morning and I finished with exactly 30:00.00 on my watch.  So bizarre.

I couldn't do that again if I tried.

So, one of my highest mileage weeks in a long time, but an epic fail where crosstraining is concerned. This week was all about the run and watching my girl dive.

Motivation Monday: another race!

How do you motivate yourself to finish the year strong? You sign up for your 10th half marathon!

Sunny Florida - here I come!

I was a bit surprised when I realized Jax would be my 10th half, especially considering my first one was only 3 years ago.  Must have been all those shiny things :)

Fitness Friday: spectating

Today I'm heading to the easy side of the state to watch my dive girl, one of her diving teammates & a relay team from our high school compete in the Division 1 State Championships.

This is K's first time qualifying for state & I'm busting with pride over how hard she's worked & her accomplishments this season. I still can't believe that she's one of the top 36 divers in division 1 in the entire state of Michigan!

State wasn't even on our radar when the diving season started this year. K is proof that you should never say never and when you work your ass off, great things happen.



Think happy, safe, strong, clean diving thoughts today & tomorrow for all 36 girls in Michigan who qualified to compete for the state championship today.

(Thanks to K for her shameless use of the selfie since she refused to let me take her picture before she left yesterday.)

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Semi Wordless Wednesday: proud

I'm celebrating my diver today.

Last night she competed in the regional diving competition and by that smile, I think you can guess that it went really well.

31 divers qualified at their conference meets to compete at Regionals.  After the first round (5 dives), they cut the field to 20.  She was in 19th place.

Then after the 2nd round (3 more dives), they cut again to 16.  She'd moved up to 13th place.  K needed to gain 1 spot to make it to State.  3 more dives and she finished 10th!

My diver is competing at Oakland University this weekend!!!

I'm so proud of all her hard work this year.  She's doing harder dives, including 3 new ones - 2 that she's learned in the past 2 weeks.  I love seeing the look on her face when she realizes all this dedication and work paying off.  I'd say her coach looks proud of her too :)

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Training Tuesday: new post-injury distance PR

This week was a bit "off" for me.  I hate making excuses for missing workouts, but I definitely didn't get in everything I should have.  I've been sick for over a month, my son had his play this week, and there were a couple days that I just wanted a break. Plus I did Monday's run on Sunday, which threw off this week. Basically, all I did was run.  And my feet hurt.  A lot. Threw in some stretching and one bike ride, but the cross training was meager at best.  All-in-all, it was still a decent week with another post-injury distance PR, so I'll take it.  I'm *thisclose* to pulling the trigger on one more big race for 2012. 

Monday 11/11 - REST

Tuesday 11/12 - REST (not a good trend - haven't had 2 rest days in a row in forever)

Wednesday 11/13 - RUN Windy mile repeats run (2 x 1600 at 8:48 pace).  Did 4 miles in 37:52 (9:28 pace) but my repeats were all over the place (8:17 and 9:13).  I need to work on consistency.

Thursday 11/14 - BIKE 8 miles in 39 min.  This was a very easy ride while I watched Nashville on my iPad.  I knew I needed to do something but had no motivation to work hard.

Friday 11/15 - REST (normally a swim day but I had family coming up for dinner and then D's play, so I scooted home to cook right after work).

Saturday 11/16 - LONG RUN 12.12 miles in 2:12:29 (10:55 pace) - this run was HARD but more so from a mental standpoint than a physical one.  I had a lot of heel pain after but the hip hasn't been feeling as bad, so I'm considering this to be progress.  I wore my 2012 Newtons with heel cups that a friend loaned me and I didn't have the numbness in my toes that I've experienced with my 2013 Newtons.  Starting to wonder if I need a different style shoe, which makes me sad.

Sunday 11/17 - STRETCH/ROLL.  Worked a lot on my calves in an effort to make my heel not hurt so much. 

I'm going to be working this week on adding some extra speedwork into my plan (or at least being a bit more consistent).  I've heard really good things about short, slow-paced hill-work sessions on the treadmill, so those might start making an appearance.

How was your week? There were a lot of races around here (our season is coming to a close). Anything fun to report?

Meal Monday: best pie EVER

I'm posting a recipe for which I cannot take any credit.  The crust is all The Beeroness and the filling is a mix of a couple different recipes based on a suggestion by one of my friends.

I've always failed at pie crust.  Never have I had one turn out even remotely flakey or tasty, so I've always used those refridgerated crusts from Pillsbury.  They aren't awful, but let's face it.  They aren't that great either.  When I saw The Beeroness's blog last week, I knew I needed to try this recipe.  I wasn't sure what type of beer to use (yes, the crust is made with beer) so I sent out some tweets and requests on Facebook for ideas.  Jackie, The Beeroness herself, even responded and suggested a higher alcohol IPA and that if it's one with a high IBU (bitterness) content, to just add an extra tablespoon of sugar.

Here's what I did for the Pale Ale Pie Dough.  This is The Beeroness's recipe but I really think you should visit her blog. Add her to your reader.  Plus, she has the ziplist and Pinterest plugins so you can save the crust recipe. 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 12 tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 8 tbs vegetable shortening (I used butter-flavored Crisco sticks)
• 1/3 cup ice cold high ABV pale ale (I used Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale - 6.8% alc and 65 IBU - no extra sugar needed)

Directions

• Add 1 ½ cups of flour, salt and sugar to a food processor, pulse once or twice to combine. Add the butter and shortening, close the openings or you will have flour all over your kitchen not that I have any experience with that then process until well combined and dough gathers around the blade. You might have to stop and push the dough back into place a few times depending on your food processor.
• Add the remaining flour and pulse 6-8 times or until all the flour has been coated. It will look a little bit crumbly. 
• Put the dough in a bowl and use a rubber spatula to stir in the beer.  The dough will be very soft and a little sticky.  This is fine.  The Beeroness says "don’t add the beer in the food processor or your dough will turn into a cracker". 
• Lay two long sheets of plastic wrap on your counter and divide the dough between the two sheets.  Mold them into flat disks and wrap them each with the plastic wrap.
• Place the disks into a freezer bag and put in the refridgerator or the freezer depending on how soon you want to use it. I kept mine in the fridge for a little over 2 hours.
• Freeze for up to 3 weeks. (If you want to use the dough the day of, place the wrapped disks in the refrigerator for 2 hours and up to 3 days)
• 24 hours before use, put the dough in the refrigerator to thaw.
• When ready to roll out the dough, roll out the first disk between 2 pieces of wax paper.  Do NOT roll it out on a floured surface.  The dough will be really soft and a little sticky but this is totally ok.  Put the first crust into your pie plate and add the filling (recipe below).  Put it in the fridge while you roll out the top crust.  You can then use the top crust however you want - lattice, whole with slits or you can make 2 single-crust pies.

Notes from The Beeroness

If the dough breaks easily when you try to roll it out, gently knead it with your hands until it comes together. Roll it out, line a pie pan and refrigerator to chill, about 30 minutes. *This recipe also works with all butter, or all shortening, if you prefer.

Filling: Peach Blueberry Pie

Ingredients:

• 5 cups frozen (partially thawed) sliced peaches
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca (I added a bit more after filling the pie shell)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• dash cinnamon
• dough for double crust pie
• milk or egg and sugar for top of pie

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425*
• In a large bowl, combine fruit, sugar, tapioca, cornstarch, lemon juice and cinnamon.  Let sit for 15 min, stirring occasionally. 
• Roll out first pie crust as directed above and line pie plate.  Spoon the fruit mixture into the crust. If there is a lot of juice in the bowl (there was with mine), use a slotted spoon and leave almost all of the juice in the bowl because you don't want a watery pie.  I thought I still had too much juice so I sprinkled a bit more tapioca on top of the fruit mixture.
• Refridgerate while you roll out the top crust.
• Gently place the top crust over the fruit and make prettier edges than I did.  Cut a few slices in the top crust to let the steam escape.
• Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and brush with milk or egg then sprinkle with sugar.  Cover edges with foil to prevent over browning.  Bake another 20-30 min or until golden brown.
• Let cool for about 2 hours so the juices in the pie set, otherwise it will be runny.
• You can reheat slices for a few seconds in the microwave if you want them warm.
• Serve with vanilla ice cream.

This was, by far, the best pie I have ever made.  The crust is super flaky and buttery tasting, plus I LOVED the peach and blueberry combination.  Some version of this pie will grace my Thanksgiving table for sure.

What's your favorite flavor pie?