Spin Fail

Thursday night I tried to spin.  Look how excited I was.

 Take 1 and Take 2.  

Both are included because of Molly Waffles lurking in the background.

Check out that downward dog.

But I got to the gym with over 10 minutes to spare before the class started only to find it was full.  I thought I'd be ok because last week the same class was only 2/3 full.  I incorrectly assumed the beginning-of-semester hype had worn off. 

I was disheartened.

I wear different shoes for running than I do for spinning, so I did not want to stick around at the gym to play on the treadmill.  And it was nice out, so if I as going to run it would be outside, not at the gym.  I drove home and saved up all my leg energy for Friday morning when I planned to get in a run before work.

Then because I was dressed in workout clothes for nothing, I took the above two thumbs-up pictures after I got home.  Tricky, I know.


Friday morning I was proud of myself for waking up shortly after 6:30 am to slowly begin getting ready for an hour-ish long run.  I laid everything out the night before and yet somehow it took me 20 minutes to leave.  I think I did hit snooze once though.  And I may still have been half asleep while trying to put my contacts in.

I ran 5 miles at an average pace of 10:45.  It started off at a comfortable pace, and when I emerged from the park my pace quickened by about :40/mile.  It wasn't quite the 6 I had hoped to get in, but I'll take it.  It's the longest I have run since the trail half on the 25th.

After work, Dan and I pumped up our bike tires after neglecting them for the past month.  We went for a quick almost-4 mile bike ride to make sure our bike muscles still worked.  It's supposed to be beautiful this weekend so I'm hoping we can go for a longer bike ride.

Now for an important question.  I'm going to buy another pair of running shoes soon.

I really liked my Asics GT 2150s that I wore this spring and summer.  I put 400 miles on them.  They have held up really well!  Over the summer I bought the slightly less supportive and slightly lower heeled Asics 1160.  There's nothing wrong with them, they've been an ok pair of shoes, and I ran my Philly half in them.  I don't think I ever reviewed them though.  They have about 200ish miles on them right now, so I will still wear them, but I wanted to get a more cushioned pair for my upcoming longer runs.

I'm 99% decided on returning to the next version of the 2150: the 2160.  I know color is not the most important factor in a running shoe.  But since I know this style works for me, I'm going to worry about color.  My last few pairs have been white + blue or white + pink which is kind of boring.

Check these out!

Grey + yellow is one of my favorite color combinations.  Unfortunately that's only for the trail shoe.  And while I run in parks, it's not the bulk of my running and my November half will be on roads.  So I guess I just wanted to give Asics some credit for a nice grey + yellow shoe.

The two colors I liked better on the road version are above.  Neither really matches my existing running "wardrobe" so that's not a consideration.

Which color combo do you prefer:

Grey + Green/Yellow   --Or--   Grey + Light Blue + Orange?

What are your weekend plans?

Recovery Week

With 2 half marathons in 8 days I thought I should properly recover this week.

After Sunday's trail half and "cold water bath," I took it easy the rest of Sunday and all of Monday.  My legs felt a little tired on Tuesday but my quads and calves were not sore (hooray!) and I wanted to move my legs around.  A friend talked me into going to spinning with her that night.

So I bit the bullet and renewed my gym membership after a 5 month hiatus.

Thursday work was closed for a Jewish holiday.  I met my husband for Indian buffet lunch then swung by my favorite bakery ever.  (Alyssa and Kari can skip past this part because they have strong willpower and are 2 weeks into their dessert ban leading up to their marathons this month).

 

 For the fellow coffee fan, the coffee buttercream frosting is AMAZING.

Amazing, I tell you!

Their cinnamon buns are pretty special too.

That night, I went to spinning again, followed by a 1/2 hr abs class.

And Friday morning my abs were SORE.  Admittedly, I haven't done much for them since the Fit Abs Challenge that ended in early August.

Saturday I decided it was time to run again.  My goal was to run at a comfortable pace but with still with some effort for a favorite 3 mile loop.  I tried to not look at my watch too much.

I ran 3.18 miles and surprised myself with my splits: 9:50, 9:40, 9:15, followed by a .18 mile jog then walk cool down.  Apparently my spinning classes did not do enough to wear me out and I had lots of energy to get out of my system.  The run didn't feel like I was running that hard, though the cooler weather might be to blame/credit.  I didn't run until noon and it was only 62 out.  It was glorious!

[source]

Back to the gym:

Tuesday I dropped 94 big ones to get myself gym access-- including group classes-- through the end of 2011.  AND a free sample of deodorant.

 If you could smell me, today I smell like a rain kissed water lily.

The low cost, for me, is the main perk of going to a university gym.

Group classes are included which is a huge plus too.

They offer a bunch of classes, but my main interests are boot camp, spinning, and abs.  I don't see myself as a zumba person, the kickboxing paled in comparison to my previous cardio kickboxing classes at a martial arts place, but I hope to try yoga or pilates sometime in the future.


Some of the drawbacks?

• 2nd day at the gym and "looking good for spring break" has already been mentioned
• Realizing current freshmen are 10 years younger than me
• I was the oldest person in Tuesday's spin class (aside from the instructor) 
• one of the girls in the class loudly said the room "smelled like moth balls"
• The room did not smell like moth balls
• But I hope this was a reference to some of the older women leaving the room from yoga, not my friend and me-- soooo old in our mid-late 20s
• At one point during Thursday's ab class, out of 30 people, one student, another "regular" (university staff, not a student) and I were the only ones doing all the ab exercises.  The room was sooo loud because people were talking to eachother and not following along with the instructor. ONE girl was texting!!
• A) So rude to the instructor
• B) If you're taking up a spot in class, you better be working. Why else are you there?

Emily has touched on this recently, and I completely share her opinions.

I'll get over it.  Because it's cheap.  And at these classes - the undergrads will start dropping like flies in a couple weeks anyway :)
So to summarize:
This time around, my recovery included: very cold water bath, spinning, abs, baked goods, and a short run at the end of the week.

I'm ready to get running again!

Questions for you:
Do you belong to a gym?  University or other?
What's your usual post-race recovery routine?

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!

First Bootcamp and Black & White Cookies

Last night (Thursday) I tried out Bootcamp at the gym for the first time.  Bootcamp, according to my gym is: "a challenging full body bootcamp workout to burn calories, build endurance and increase your strength."

Yikes.

I arrived and was told to grab a mat and a tricep weight.  I was told that we would be doing a lot of reps, so I went with the 3lb weights over the 5lb weights.  I am weak.

We started out with running 2 laps around the indoor track (1 lap = 1/10.5 of a mile. of course... that's a logical distance!)  Then we did a plank and some tricep push ups.  Let me be clear, I cannot do a correct pushup.  Any variety. I knew I would be sore today! Then we ran 2 more laps around the track, and did a bunch of crunches and another plank.

We then went back down to the group exercise room where we did crunches then bicycle crunches for an entire song.  Then we did a plank.  And some tricep push ups.  Then we repeated that sequence...multiple times.  Somewhere along the way, while doing crunches, the instructor put steps down in front of each of us.  Then we did tricep push ups and wider chest push ups, with our hands on that step.  Note: I did all of these on my knees, not feet!

We did more crunches while laying on that step.  Then we picked up our weights and did some bicep curls with the weights while doing lunges on the step. Then we did some bent-over tricep extensions. Then more bicep curls, then some squats.  Then we repeated that whole sequence many times.

Then more crunches, some with our knees to the sides to work the obliques, and planks and both types of pushups.

For an entire hour.

Holy smokes, my legs were shaking when I got home.  I was anticipating some ab and chest soreness today.  That means it worked though, right??  It wasn't so bad in the abs, surprisingly - though they're a little tight. Maybe it's because I'm feeling it more in my upper arms and chest though.  I think I kind of liked it though, and will go back next week!

And since I had no pictures in this post, I will end with my delicious purchase from the grocery store Tuesday night.  The black and white cookie (4 them...for the 2 of us) from Wegmans.

 

My favorite part is the white butter cream frosting.  How can you not love butter cream frosting?

Turns out this combo pack had 2 chocolate cookies and 2 pumpkin spice? cookies instead of the usual 2 white cookies.  Unexpected, but not bad!