Archive for April, 2010
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Ada’s second 5k
Ada is becoming quite the seasoned racer.
She’s 2 and a half and already has completed two 5ks! Yesterday we ran in the APA’s Fast and Furriest 5k in Tower Grove.
Here we are at the start of the race. The thing around Ada’s muzzle is a “gentle leader” – which really helps prevent her from pulling too much. On Saturday, the day before the race, St. Louis had some tornadoes come through. I was a little worried it would still be raining during the race – but it turned out to be a very light mist. 
Mark played race photographer again this weekend and captured us quite a bit on the race.
As you can see from this picture, there were A LOT of people on the “race course” who were not racing. I didn’t really appreciate dodging them… But 5ks with animals in it are meant to be a bit relaxed. The race results said that I finished in 27:22 which is a PR, it also put me in 7th for my age group. 5ks are hard – I would rather run a long distance at a comfortable pace. Pushing myself to go fast is a lot more challenging! I still feel like I can do better though.
Here we are at the end of the race. Ignore my stupid expression. Thanks.
I have zero upcoming races. I think I might sign up for the Lewis & Clark half again this year – it will be on October third, Mark & my first anniversary! But I’m not going to sign up yet. I really want to work on my swimming and biking skills. I need a lot of work in those departments. I found some beginner swimming workouts online that I might try. My swimming is pretty bad so I’m not going to sign up for a triathlon until I am absolutely ready. So over the summer there won’t be as much running talk.
Oh! I just forgot that I will be running a 5k with my friend Robin on the 4th of July. It will be her first so I’m just running to keep her company. So there will be some running talk. I’m sure you are relieved.
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Confession
I have a secret.
It involves my google reader.
shhhh… I read food blogs.
There it is folks. OK, maybe this one was obvious because one day I featured all my food on this blog, a la food blogger.
I’m not sure why it is. About 5 years ago, it was celebrity gossip blogs. Now, it’s mostly food blogs. It’s still voyeuristic, it’s still mindless, it’s still something I do that feels good at the time but I’m not really sure why I do it. Like cracking my knuckles or something.
But, I’ve been reflecting that reading food blogs has opened my mind to trying things I otherwise would NEVER have tried (and liked) or dreamed up myself. I thought I would share those with you today.
1. First up, kale chips.
Kale chips have been around for a while but it took a food blog for me to learn about it and be convinced that it was worth trying. I’m not sure I had ever even had kale before I ate them in “chip” form. They are great when they are extra dry and crispy. Katheats.com has the best, simplest tutorial that you can read here. I would highly recommend trying this – kale is really, really good for you and the recipe is so simple that anyone can give it a shot. The real test is that my husband Mark liked them right away and loves it when I make them.
2. Banana “ice cream”
After hearing several food blogs ooh and ahh over this, I surrendered and gave it a shot. The only thing is that your food processor needs to be in pretty good shape for this. A few months before my wedding I tried it – and it blew apart the food processor, sending plastic clear across the room. Scary. Luckily I didn’t waste a moment and put a new one on my registry so that I would not be food processor-less.
Anyway, back to the “ice cream.” That is in quotes for a reason. All you do is take a frozen banana and stick it in your food processor for a few minutes until it develops into a creamy substance. Yes, you heard me right. There is nothing other than a frozen banana. Here is the proof that I’m not the only one who has tried it (and check out the comments – over 400 people cannot be wrong)!
I tried it in my new food processor – this time I cut up the banana into one inch segments. I added about two tablespoons of water to speed up the process, but if I had been more patient I don’t think I would have needed to. (And yes, Mark likes this one, too.)
3. “Green monsters.” This one really takes an open mind – drinking bright green stuff is intimidating. The website about them is pretty wacky too. My green monster recipe usually goes like this:
a couple of handfuls of spinach
a scoop of protein powder
lots of ice
frozen banana
fresh mint
water (until it blends)
The frozen banana and ice really thicken up your smoothie so that it’s almost undrinkable through a straw. But that is how I like it. Lately I’ve been omitting the banana and using Mark’s banana flavored protein powder and adding milk. It’s just as good. This is a really good way to get vegetables in your morning — I swear you cannot taste the spinach. I usually find vegetables kinda gross before 11 a.m. I’ve forced Mark to take a sip of these things but I don’t think he has gotten past the color thing…
4. Parsnip fries. I’m not sure where I read about it first, but I think it was here. Again, I had never even had parsnips, but decided I should give them a shot if food bloggers were. When I bought them, they looked pretty weird. But as I cut them up, they smelled like carrots. And, it has proven my theory that there is really one way to cook vegetables: roasting. They turn out kind of like sweet potato fries – and also got the husband’s seal of approval.
5. Brussels sprouts. I actually could not tell you what blog convinced me to try these. But I know it was a blog, because I have no idea what would possess me to eat the vegetable you are not supposed to like. But quarter or halve them, toss with olive oil, garlic, salt and pancetta or bacon or nothing at all, and roast for 30 minutes or until they start to turn golden brown and you are in heaven. Small cabbage heaven. I get abnormally angry when they are boiled or steamed. It’s sacrilege. Oh, and definitely husband approved.
6. Oatmeal variations. Oatmeal is a pretty big deal in the food blog world. Especially at katheats.com, who takes her oatmeal as seriously as I take brussels sprouts. There is a new set of laws when it comes to making oatmeal that I have developed over the years: 1) instant flavored oatmeal is crap. It’s full of sugar and artificial flavors. And, the real, old-fashioned stuff means you get to eat more volume. The instant, flavored packets result in a very sad, deflated-looking bowl in my opinion.
2) always add a banana. Why? Volume, texture, flavor (and natural sugars from the fruit).
3) From there, I personally like adding a combo of brown sugar and cinnamon. Sometimes I mix in coconut, butterscotch or peanut butter chips, raisins or other dried fruit… Toppings make eating oatmeal fun. Adding peanut butter was something I thought sounded gross in the morning, but if you are really hungry and/or you need breakfast to hold you for a while, adding peanut butter is the solution for you. Most food bloggers do not skip the nut butters in their oatmeal.
7. Adding canned, pureed pumpkin to … a lot of things. One of them would be adding it to plain yogurt for “pumpkin yogurt”. This is great in the winter – but it needs cinnamon and maple syrup/honey/granola. I’ve also tried adding it to oatmeal but the color is pretty gross. I also just heat it up in a bowl straight out of the can. (No… this one is not husband approved.)
So there you have it: I’ve tried lots of stuff, and made my husband try lots of stuff, weird and some not so weird, from food blogs. There are a lot more I’m sure I’m forgetting at the moment but I think those are the big ones.
Now, I have some food blog reading to do . . .
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Your physical limits
Three days post-marathon and I feel great. I don’t have a trace of soreness in my legs anymore and fit in an elliptical and weights workout after work. I’m pretty amazed with my legs right now!
I was streaming my local NPR station at work today, and there was an advertisement for a story about “Limits” – and the teaser said that it was about one of the most difficult races in the world and about testing the human body. I was immediately intrigued, and immediately assumed they were referring to the Badwater ultramarathon, and disappointed that the story wasn’t supposed to air until Saturday! So I did some sleuthing and found that Radiolab already had it on a podcast (here). Phew.
It was a really cool podcast, and not about Badwater at all. The first story in the podcast is about Julie Moss, the 1982 Hawaii Ironman triathlete. While listening to the podcast, I had to watch the youtube video of her finishing, which you can watch here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avf_YJmfvvs&hl=en](No, Mom, I am not going to do an Ironman.)
Julie Moss’ account in the podcast of what was going on in those final moments and how she got to race day was really interesting stuff. The podcast goes on to talk about the brain and its relationship with physical strain. I don’t think I could do it justice by putting it all down here. You just have to listen to the podcast – it’s really interesting and motivating. Do it.
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As promised . . .
Race pictures!
Mark stole this picture of me waiting in line before the race . . .
Me at mile 26, barely lifting those legs! But neither is the guy next to me . . .
Mark thinks this picture is hilarious because he thinks the guy behind me is a hippie. I don’t know.
Too tired to smile.
There were some others that Mark took but he’s got them on his laptop & I can’t get to them. I’m still waiting on the pictures the race people got too, so more to come – but maybe not very soon
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“I run for fun”
That, above, is my 26.2 necklace I’m wearing today! [Sorry for the blurry picture!]
A race recap is in order.
PRE-RACE: I was feeling nervous about the race during the two week taper, when I reduced my mileage and forgot all about how I had been training for 3.5 months. Amazing how a little taper can do that, right? I started to question whether I should run the full. Instead of visualizing myself run 26.2 miles, I visualized myself filling out forms to do the half marathon, including the night before the race and the morning of. I was not injured. I had completed my training to a T. I just didn’t, truly believe I could complete the full and was anxious as hell.
My awesome husband, Mark, woke up shortly after I did – I got up at 4:25 because I couldn’t sleep any longer – my alarm was set for 4:45. It says a lot about a man who doesn’t run himself that he will get up before the crack of dawn and wait around for over 4 hours for me to finish “running for fun” as he calls it. I showered, and drank a lot of water. Then I had my usual toast with PB&J, and we were out the door. We parked at about a quarter after 6 I think. We also brought Ada, who could not believe there was a distance she couldn’t tackle, and that there was a race that didn’t allow dogs in it.
The race had a good amount of potties and I didn’t have to wait in line too long. That was a problem at the Lewis & Clark marathon last fall – when I waited for 40 minutes and barely made it to the start in time.
RACE TIME: There was an impressive amount of half-marathoners and I was surrounded by half first-timers at the start. I felt pretty lonely – and felt that way for the next 10 miles. I kept looking around, trying to find a marathoner to stalk pace with, but couldn’t find any! I did see my husband and Ada at mile 1, and he told me he would be at mile 5, but I think he was on the opposite side of the street that I was. He got a few pictures – rest assured I look awful – and I will post them later!
The course is known for being hilly. I could definitely see that – but it didn’t bother me too much until later in the course. The first 10 miles was mainly dodging inexperienced half marathoners that didn’t realize there was an entire road and it was not necessary to step right in front of people. I also had a interesting experience at approximately 3 miles when I used the porta potty. The latch didn’t close, but since there is a line everyone watching was aware of this, until, apparently, I was mid-pee. Hold the door handle for dear life if you ever have this problem.
I had 6 shot blocks (3 at mile 14, 3 at mile 18 – trying to avoid “the wall“) and lots of water & gatorade.
I felt pretty good until those last 6 miles. It was getting pretty warm - 75+ degrees. I started implementing a Galloway-esque method of walking for a minute every mile at about mile 20. It was hard not to walk at times. A lot of runners started walking uphill and it made it mentally harder to not give in to the hill and walk, and instead to plod slowly by. So I kept giving in, especially more towards the end. I kept telling myself around mile 20 that if I got to mile 23 I was going to finish and that kept me going at times. After that it’s just a 3.2 mile run, right?
My garmin was off for maybe 2/3 of the race – or the race was off for 2/3 of it. I had an additional 1/3 of a mile clocked for most of the race, and at the end my garmin told me I had run 26.56 miles. Honestly, I trust my garmin more than the race people – sorry, but it’s true. Do they make charms for 26.56?
Anyway, my official time was 4:45, not great, but about what I expected. Based on a pace calculator off my 20 miler, I was expected to finish 26.2 in 4:40. As long as I beat Katie Holmes’ time, I’m ok.
I have to say, the volunteers and spectators rocked. There was virtually no music on the course, but the spectators shouting my name and telling me I looked great when I know I did not, and to keep going, made me happy. And I think it helped me to smile back at the volunteers and to thank them because it made me feel better.
TODAY: It’s one day post-race and my legs feel pretty sore. Kind of like I had a really hard leg workout, which is exactly what happened- but really not any worse than my challenging long runs. I waddle a little when I get up. But I’m feeling pretty good other than that!
I wanted to get this update out there but I’m at work and my lunch break is long over! Pictures to follow …
About Me
My name is Michelle and I like to write about running, food, and fitness in general. Check out my About Michelle section for more!
