Weekend Miles

Thanks for the shoe feedback in my last post.

Saturday, Dan and I rode our bikes 15 miles, got lunch, then rode 15 miles home.

there

back

We ate at a place with outdoor seating.  The weather was perfect for being outside - mid 70s and sunny.  We got sandwiches then split a piece of pumpkin cheesecake.  As good as a cold beer sounded, we stuck with water.  One of the last times we did this, we got beer at lunch and I think we/our legs got tired on the way home as a result.

Check out how low the water in the canal is, I don't get it.

Half of the distance was on hilly roads; half was along a towpath.  The hilly part is probably laughable for those of you reading that live in more mountainous areas.

Proof that I was there too.

Part of our adventure included navigating past this sign/fence, about 3 miles from our destination.  They are still rebuilding parts of the towpath and the spillways after the flooding from over a month ago.
 

Another guy on a bike came along a couple minutes later while we were contemplating our course of action and he said that last week the path was fine past this sign.  That was good enough for us.  We squeezed ourselves and our bikes between the fence and the trees/scratchy bushes and kept on going.  We only had one beeping bulldozer to pedal past (surprised they were actively working on a Saturday). 

 Only got a little muddy going through the work zone on the way home.  Molly made sure we were ok.

We got home RIGHT before sunset...good timing.  Total bike ride was ~30.4 miles.  Some Victory Festbier was enjoyed upon returning home.

Sunday

I went for a 10 mile run.  This was my longest run since the trail half marathon.  And aside from races, this was my longest run since September 4th.  Less than half of my miles were on a trail through a park, the rest was roads.

I ran 10 miles in 1 hour 46 minutes (10:33 pace).  Looking at my current plan, that's about Half Marathon Pace + 30 seconds.  My plan has HMP + 20 for that run...but considering it was 85 degrees out (yikes!) and I biked 30 miles the day before, I think I did ok. 

It was warm enough that I went through my entire 20 oz handheld water bottle and I refilled it from a park drinking fountain about 2/3 of the way through my run.  I snacked on some Peach Tea Gu chomps that I picked up at the expo last month.  I really like that flavor!

Monday

Thanks to Mr. Columbus, it might have been a long weekend for some, but not for me.  I worked today then went to boot camp at night. 

Over the course of an hour we did lots of: planks, crunches, Russian twists, pushups, weights for triceps & chest, lunges, squats, some laps around the indoor track, bosu ball lunges and squats.

Once again, I'm sure I'll be sore in the morning.  Hopefully not as bad as last week. Tomorrow will be a rest day though!

What's your favorite class at the gym?

What's the best thing you did this past weekend?

Random Post...including the return of good coconut water and speedwork

Wednesday I got a call from the local bike shop that my specially-ordered Mint Chocolate gu was in!  I stopped there last Friday after work, picked up some Espresso Love gu and they ordered a box of Mint Chocolate for me.  That was super fast.



I was super excited.  And still am.  I'll be having one of these on my long run on Sunday and another NEXT Sunday during my half marathon.

Despite my excitement over mint chocolate gu (did you not know I like mint + chocolate?) I was exhausted after getting home from work on Wednesday so I made it a rest day.  I think the gross weather was making me feel rather blahhh too.  Pup-a-roo felt the same way too:

 

Oh wait,  I'm pretty sure she naps on our bed every day (I caught her mid-yawn here).  Look at what a number she did to our nicely made bed while we were at work.

I kicked my feet up for a little.  Did some laundry.  And when hubs got home, he seemed to be feeling the same way, so we walked down the street to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner.

 

These flowers my husband picked up earlier this week will help me remember it's spring even though it's been barely 40 all week.  Oh, and after dinner on Wednesday?  It was raining/sleeting sideways. Hard.  And then it started to thunder and lightning.  Then we had pea-sized hail.  Perfect spring weather.

We were stuffed from dinner, but brought home this delicious macaroon to split.



...minus a couple bites.

In other news, recently I picked up a giant 1 Liter container of coconut water from Trader Joe's.  I used to love the Zico brand, but then they started selling it in plastic bottles instead of little tetra-packs and it tasted different in a not-good way (here's my previous discussion of coconut water).  But I was intrigued by the return of the tetra-pack-like packaging and took a risk.

And I'm glad I took the risk, because the taste of the coconut water in this packaging is good again!  Also, I found an explanation on the tag.  According to the tag (pictured below), the blend of Brazilian, Thai, and Indonesian coconut water tastes like balls.  However, Brazilian or Thai on its own is delicious (my opinion).

I drank some on its own the other day and in a smoothie with strawberry lowfat kefir, a frozen banana, and some frozen berries:

Last night I did my bootcamp class.  As usual there were a lot of planks, crunches, pushups. We also worked on triceps, biceps, did bench presses, and ended with some lunges and squats. (I promise the class was more varied and exciting than my summary though).

Afterward I did the speedwork I should have done Wednesday (by the way, I'm glad I took a rest day Wednesday...I ended up passing out on the couch after dinner and macaroon, somewhere around 9:30).

My speed work was 5 x 800 @10k pace.  You can see my recap on Daily Mile here. But to summarize, my goal pace for the 800s was 9:49-10:07.  I ran them at the following paces: 9:46, 10:02, 9:40, 9:38, 9:42.  I did a .15 mile rest interval between each.  0-2% incline to keep it interesting. Including a short warm up and cool down, I ran 3.5 miles.  Avg HR 167, Max 185.

(Does anyone else find some minor discomfort in the ankle/lower shin region while running on a treadmill...but never while running outside?  I stopped and stretched, changed the incline, and it got better).

Those paces weren't uncomfortable, I was just bored out of my mind because I did not bring my mp3 player, did not have headphones to plug into the built-in tv, and I couldn't figure out how to get closed-captioning on it.  So I watched a tornado special on the weather channel, without any audio or text, for 39 minutes.  There's a cool built-in fan on the treadmill which is nice...but it turns out that if you're 5'2" you're not really tall enough to enjoy the full benefit of the fan.  Bummer.

Anyway, I was pleased with Thursday's workout.  Today was a scheduled rest day.  Tomorrow's a shorter pace run. Eight days to go til my half marathon!

If you run with a Garmin, please check out my post from earlier this week and comment on how you like to use your Garmin during races (what screens you find most helpful, etc).  Inquiring minds want to know!

Enjoy your weekend!!

Wednesday & Thursday

Wednesday morning I squeezed in a fabulous 20 minute upper body workout.  How, you might ask?  Scraping this solid sheet of ice off of my car:

The ground was a solid sheet of ice too.

Here are some icy pictures from that morning to make this post interesting, because after these next two pictures I'm going to talk about the details of my Thursday night speed work.

Icicles everywhere!

Unfortunately this picture is not super in-focus, but I like Japanese maples and I think this tree looks cool anyway:

Luckily the overnight and early morning freezing rain only gave me (another) 90 minute delay for work, and my gym was open that night.

Wednesday night workout: 1 hour of Spinning with a friend (second time this week), because she joined the gym I go to!  It was a different instructor than Monday night's class, so it was interesting to see how someone else runs things.

Thursday night:  I think I have lots of work stress building right now.  So I have lots of energy for sweating.  Since I didn't do speed work Wednesday night (schedule called for 35 min tempo run), I did some tonight. 

I had hoped to have time for a 35 minute tempo run before spinning, but I didn't get out of work early enough for that.  I know splitting it up into two sessions isn't quite the same, but it's better than nothing.  I think a 15 min and a 20 min tempo run would defeat the purpose, since the point is to do it for a prolonged period.  So I did intervals, split into two sessions (still not the same as all in one shot, I know).


Week 3 called for 6 x 400 @ 5k pace; Week 5 called for 7 x 400 @ 5k pace.
5k pace for me, based on my approximate goal half time, would be somewhere in the 9:28-9:45 range.

I had about 20 minutes before boot camp started, so I hopped on the treadmill.

I calculated the paces afterward, as my Garmin does not communicate with the treadmill.  I just hit lap on my Garmin for each change in speed.  Then I tried really hard to commit the distances to memory.

Speed Work session 1:
 @ 1% incline

Insert one full hour of Boot Camp.  Lots of crunches, bicycles, oblique crunches, planks, chest & tricep pushups, tricep dips, some jumping jacks, squats, various exercises with 5lb dumb bells-- tricep extensions (over head and while standing, bent over); and a bunch of chest and shoulder exercises. Several circuits of each.  I'm probably missing some.

Next came... Speed Work session 2.
 @ 1% incline

Since I was already warmed up, this next warm up was shorter. I felt good still after 3 repeats, so I added a 4th. (7th, overall).  I jogged for all my rest intervals (no walking).

I'm all screwy with my speed work/ tempo/ hills schedule - compared with what I originally set out to do.  But what is important is that I'm still doing one of those each week!

Here was my last speed work session, 5 x 400.  I'm happy that I was able to cut the rest intervals down from .2 miles on January 12th to .1 miles on February 3rd, and I was still able to hit the necessary paces each time! (Progress??)

Alright, that's enough of that for now.

We have more icy stuff on the way tonight and tomorrow, but the weather is looking good for my long run Sunday!  41 sounds tropical.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Thursday night's Boot Camp kicked my butt.

I've been taking the weekly boot camp class at my gym for the last 6 weeks or so.  It is intense, and I usually feel it in some muscle group (or two or three) the next day.  This week, the regular boot camp instructor was out of town so we had a sub.  I was warned that this sub might be tough, but I had no idea!!

Some of the instructors for our gym's classes also teach at a local (bigger) gym.  I think last night's class is more like what the sub instructor does at her other gym:

BodyAttack
The sports-inspired cardio workout for building strength and stamina. This high-energy interval training class combines athletic aerobic movements with strength and stabilization exercises. 1 hr.

I was stuck at work late, and had half an hour to get home, get changed, and get to the gym.  My commute is about 20-25 minutes so I knew I was going to be a little late, and figured better late than not at all.

Well, when I walked in, the other two girls in the class were doing wall sits.  The instructor turned to me, and said, "Before you join them, I need you to do 20 push ups.  On your toes." Yikes.  So I did that, then joined them for some wall sits. We were then instructed to sit lower.  Then to pick up our weights and hold them with our arms straight, above our head (Why did I grab the 5lbs, not the 3lbs!?)

Side Note: Did you know the Guinness World Record for a Wall Sit is 11 hours, 51 minutes, and 14 seconds!? Check out how tired she is after 11:51:14 has elapsed.



My leg muscles are probably my the strongest of my muscles, and they were shaking.  We were told to put the weights down, then we were supposed to return to the wall sit and alternate lifting our heels off the ground.  It hurt!

The rest of the class is now a blur (maybe I blocked the pain out of my memory) but consisted of:

• plyometric lunges
• jogging in place while kicking our butts
• jogging in place with high knees (you can lift them higher than that!)
• jumping jacks
• this variation on a jumping jack
• tricep overhead extensions with 5lb dumbbells, 3lb dumbbells, and a single 10lb disc
• more wall sits 
• many planks and pushups mixed in (this time knees were allowed)
• jogging laps around the room (we were told to kick or butts while we ran?  It did not come naturally)
• jogging forward until she yelled, then we switched to doing "jacks" backward across the length of the room, then forward jogging, repeat...  
• abwork at the end including:
• crunches
• bicycles
• laying on your back with legs extended/feet as close to the ground as possible.

I'm sure this burned way more calories than my regular bootcamp, but I'm still a little sore today! (And it's Saturday afternoon).  I'm also sure that if I wore my Heart Rate Monitor, I would have seen that I needed to step it down a little or take more of a break between some of those moves.  My face was beat red at times, as were the faces of the other two in the class.

One thing I thought was interesting is that this instructor did not do the moves with us.  She might have done one or two to demonstrate a new move, but she mostly stood there and yelled.  The regular boot camp instructor did everything with us, and knew when it was time to take a little break or to switch to something else.

I think I'm crazy, but I would probably try a class like this again - just not every week.  I think those plyometric lunges and some of the knee-high jogging is probably rough on the knees, and my main goal right now is to be training for my April half marathon, with a little strength on the side -- not killing my body.

Anyway.

Good thing Friday was a rest day!  It was another 90 minute delayed opening for work due to a couple inches of snow that came in the wee hours of the morning.  This is what it looked like when I got my 4:57 am wake up call.  It was dark. 

Hubby also had a delayed opening but decided to work from home.  Working from home apparently also meant organizing our big sampler of K-cups for our new Keurig machine.

After work we tidied up the apartment a little then met a bunch of friends for dinner at a nearby Hibachi restaurant.

I was on the end, and the chef seemed to enjoy picking on me, as I missed the zucchini he tossed in my direction about 4 or 5 times before catching it in my mouth.  After a failed onion volcano, he asked if we wanted more fire, to which we answered yes.  He then held his lighter and whatever is in that squirt bottle of theirs in front of my face and told to me to open me mouth...haha.

I should be doing a 3 mile pace run today.  It is cold out!

This morning we met friends for breakfast (bagels), cleaned the apartment some more, then decided we would finally go see the Harry Potter movie this afternoon (the one that came out back in November) with a movie gift card we got for Christmas.  After sitting for 2.5 hours, I may be more inclined to get in my 3 mile run this evening, regardless of the temperature.  Sunday should be fine for my longer run.  I'm glad Monday is a gym day! Brr.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Recipe: Stir-Fried Shrimp and Snow Peas with Coconut Curry Sauce

Last night I renewed my gym membership through the end of April, then went to a bootcamp class.  I'm 90% better after my cough/cold from last week, just the tail end of a cough.  I'm feeling better enough that I want to start moving more again!  Which is good, because I'm starting my 12-week half marathon training on Monday (more on that at some point over the weekend). 

This morning I really felt the effects of bootcamp in my upper arms, shoulders, and ab (I like to say ab because I do not have clearly defined abs).  I look forward to the prospect of having any upper body strength, and the soreness in my shoulders and arms has to be a good sign!

After I got home from the gym, I made a recipe from my new cookbook!  Stir-Fried Shrimp and Snow Peas with Coconut Curry Sauce.

Since this is a recipe from a book (not online) I probably should not copy and paste the recipe, but I will post pictures and list the ingredients I used.

I made a coconut curry sauce using light coconut milk, vegetable broth, corn starch, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, and curry powder.

I began to thaw my frozen shrimp.

I then got to work on the rest of the recipe.  Here are some of my ingredients:



I started boiling the water for the easy Boil-in-Bag brown rice. Then I heated up a skillet with some oil for the frozen veggie mix.  The recipe only called for snow peas and the red pepper, but we had a bag of frozen veggies that needed to be used.  The Hong Kong Stir Fry includes: mushrooms, onions, water chestnuts, snow peas, bean sprouts, broccoli & carrots.  I used the entire 20 oz bag of veggies + a red pepper.

I heated the frozen veggies, added the red pepper, then added a mixture of scallions, garlic and ginger to the pan. Somewhere in there, I took the rice bag out of the sauce pan to drain it.

Meanwhile, my hubby seasoned and cooked the shrimp for me.  The recipe called for a pound; we had about half a pound of shrimp left - so that's all we used.

Then I mixed in the coconut curry sauce in with the veggies, and when the shrimp were done, they were tossed into the mix as well.

Then I served the mixture over the brown rice!

We each had this for dinner last night; and there's enough for 2-3 servings of leftovers in the fridge.  Thumbs up on this one!

Another highlight of yesterday...receiving a sheet of Dunkin Donuts coupons in the mail!