February Review

A pretty light month of running, and none of the serious marathon training I expected to do this month, but of course taking care of myself is more important!  I've eased my way back into consistent running as slowly as I could, and I'm now about 2 weeks pain-free and ready to try a 10 mile run this weekend.  Still taking training one day at a time though.  

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Week 1 : 2/1 - 2/4 : run 4.6 miles, bike 10 miles
I ran in an icy crunchy winter wonderland on the 2nd, which was also a snow day for me!  I was on a 2 hr delay when I headed out for the run.  When I came back I decided to scrape the very thick layer of ice and snow off my car before showering, and halfway through the job I got the snow day call. 

Week 2 : 2/5 - 2/11 : run 22 miles, bike 10.6 miles
I started out the week with a brand new pair of orthotics!  I went for a run as soon as I got home from the appointment.  The run felt pretty good, but the very next day my foot hurt worse than it had in awhile, so that was rather worrying.  It didn't stop me from trying them out in a different pair of shoes the next day though.  I meant to take it easy all week as I knew the orthotics probably wouldn't be a magic instant cure, but somehow ended up sprinting a tough uphill on Tuesday and flying through a 5.5 run at sub 7:30 pace on Friday. 

Week 3 : 2/12 - 2/18 : run 26.3 miles
On the 13th I decided that my foot was strong enough to try a 6 miler.  It felt so good to do more than 4-5 miles!  By then I could tell that my trail Hokas were the best pair of shoes I had for my feet, and no longer trusted my Brooks, so I bought a pair of Hoka Cliftons.  I got to try them out in gorgeous 65 degree weather on the 15th.  Two days later I was running around Lewisburg in a mix of snow and rain. 

Week 4 : 2/19 - 2/25 : run 28.5 miles
This week was gloriously warm, and I loved getting to run in summer running attire!  I tried out an 8 mile run on Tuesday, had a really good 5 mile pick-up run ending below 7:00 pace on Friday, and did a good hill run on Saturday.  Breathing was getting a bit rough by the end of the week...I'm blaming spring allergies. 

Week 5 : 2/26 - 2/28 : run 16.8 miles
Not quite so warm this week, but at least it's not hat and gloves weather again.  Yesterday the guys said we were going to do 3 miles at 6:45 pace.  I wasn't sure how that would go for me, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.  The first mile was 6:25.  The second mile was 6:40, and I was struggling hard, but I managed to pull a 6:36 for the third mile.  (1.5 slight downhill, 1.5 slight uphill)  It's always a win if I can prevent the uphill mile from being the slowest!

Summer in February, what's not to love?

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Year to date:

total run miles : 215

total bike miles : 76

Workout Wednesday : Circuit Training

I've been holding my weekly class in my classroom since November because the gym was occupied by either basketball practice or cheer-leading practice every day. Now that the basketball season is over, the gym is once again available, so I took advantage of all the space and added a bunch of cardio exercises to the line-up for this week's workout!

There were 3 of us working out, and we all agreed that we liked the workout better with the added cardio options, so it looks like our weekly workouts will start to focus slightly less on strength and slightly more on cardio.  I'll keep some strength exercises each week of course, but I'm looking forward to the change.  I was definitely more out of breath and more sweaty today!

1 Leg Arm Curl, Press, & Dip : Stand on one leg, with a weight in each hand.  When on your right leg, hold your left hand down with the weight, while your right arm does a bicep curl, to overhead press, to tricep extension. Switch leg/arm halfway through. 

Squat Choice : I did single leg squats, the others did weighted 2 leg squats.

1 Arm Plank Reach : Plank position on your hands, extend one arm out in front of you, then reach it back to touch the opposite toe.  Alternate extension & touch.  Switch arms halfway through. 

Skip : Skip back and forth across the gym.  Go for speed, height, or both!  

Swimmer : Lie on stomach, raise opposite arm/leg pairs, hold for 1-3 seconds, alternate. 

Plank Side to Side Jump : Plank position on your hands.  Jump both feet up  behind one elbow, jump back to plank, jump both feet up behind the other elbow, back to plank.  Repeat.

Meal Prep Monday : 2/26/18

Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, & Cauliflower

The Chicken : B/S chicken thighs, sprinkled with garlic powder, oregano, basil, and sage.  Baked at 425 for 30-40 minutes. 

The Potatoes : 2 sweet potatoes and 3 yukon gold potatoes, mashed with 1 tbsp butter, some milk, and garlic powder.  I cooked the sweet potatoes in the microwave (cut the ends off first), 3:00 at a time until soft.  I chopped the yukons and boiled them until soft.  

The Veggies : 5 carrots and 2 packages of frozen cauliflower, sauteed & steamed with a bit of olive oil and garlic powder.  

Workout Wednesday : TRX atomic split pike

I was slacking on TRX along with exercise in general while I was dealing with tendonitis in my foot, but last week I kicked my butt into gear and got back to TRX.  While I was at it, I decided to try out a new move : the atomic split pike. 

Pikes have always been pretty hard on my back, but as I've been doing TRX semi-consistently for awhile now, they are finally starting to get a little bit easier.  Push-ups are also still a very weak exercise for me, so I was pretty proud of myself for pulling off these atomic pikes, plus the extra modification of the split!  You can see when I start fatiguing that I don't get my pike quite as high, and then I rally for a few and get that pike a bit higher again.

In other news, check out my new TRX space!  My gym membership expires this week, and I'm not going to renew it.  It was nice to be able to use the space in the gym occasionally, but too often my workouts there were accompanied by basketballs, volleyballs, or pickleballs flying at my head, so it just wasn't worth it.  It's hard to do TRX in my apartment because my doorways are all in corners which really limits my range of motion. This room at a friend's house is working out really well though!  It's so nice to have a door in the middle of the wall that I can use so that I have room to go side to side! 

Meal Prep : 2/19/18

White Bean & Chicken Mac n Cheese

Peas with Zucchini

The mac stuff : 2 B/S chicken breasts, poached and shredded .  1/2 pound of navy beans, simmered til soft. 1/2 lb elbow macaroni, cooked and drained.  2 carrots, grated. 

The mac sauce : 2 tbsp butter, 2 oz cream cheese, 1+ c milk, 1/4 c flour, some garlic powder, 1 cup chopped swiss cheese, 1 cup chopped monterey cheese. Melt all ingredients together in a small saucepan. 

Building the mac : Layer the shredded chicken on the bottom of a glass dish.  Mix the beans, macaroni, carrots, and cheese sauce together, and then pour the mixture over the chicken.  Add a few slices of cheese on top.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. 

The veggies : 1/4 onion, chopped and sauteed in olive oil.  2 large zucchini, chopped.  2 bags of frozen peas.  Add the zucchini to the pan when the onions are translucent, cook for a minute or two, then add the frozen peas, cover the pan, and cook til done. 

Makes 8 lunches. 

Thursday Thoughts : marathon training...or not.

My thoughts towards marathon training have been all over the map lately.  There's the part of me that says my body clearly does not want to handle the level of training that my mind says I can handle.  There's also the part of me that says I am not a quitter and I'm not going to let anything get in my way. 

Maybe I keep having setbacks because my goals are beyond what my body is capable of.  Maybe I keep having setbacks because I am just too enthusiastic about training and I keep upping my mileage/pace too quickly.  Maybe I keep having setbacks just because life happens and luck has not been on my side.  It's probably a combination of all 3 scenarios...

Now that I've lost a full month of marathon training, I was seriously considering deferring my Pittsburgh Marathon entry for a year.  Not because I think it is impossible for me to be ready for the race in May, but more just to take the self-induced pressure off myself for awhile.  And also because I will be chaperoning a week-long field trip to Tybee Island/Savannah with my middle school students the week before the marathon and so I will already be exhausted when I hit the starting line.  The timing of this field trip + marathon will not be kind to me.  BUT, it turns out the Pittsburgh Marathon does not give you the option to defer entry for a year, like some races do.  So, I'm going to run the race this year, but am currently working on convincing myself not to care about my finish time, but just to run the race for love of the run. 

I know I still have plenty of time to prepare for the race and maybe I will magically manage to get adequate sleep on the field trip and arrive in Pittsburgh well-rested and ready to crush the race, but realistically that is unlikely. 

After several weeks of just a few 3-4 mile runs per week, I have successfully run two 6 mile runs so far this week, and my foot seems to be doing ok.  I have new orthotics to help take pressure off my tendonitis, and today I test-ran a new pair of Hokas that are nice and stiff to help reduce the bending in my foot as I run, which should also help.  It's still too early to go back to planning long runs, but I'm starting to feel more optimistic about being able to resume training rather than needing to take a month completely off. 

Today, I'm grateful for a fabulous test-run in my new Clifton 4s, with a last mile fast-finish of 6:56.

I'm also grateful for shorts weather twice in one week, in February.

And, of course, I'm grateful for my running buddies!

Meal Prep Monday : 2/12/18

Garlic-crusted pork tenderloin, 

cheesy mashed potatoes and a 

green bean mix. 

The pork : A 1.5 lb pork tenderloin, sprinkled with a generous amount of garlic powder, and baked for 1 hour at 400 degrees.  

The potatoes : 5 small-medium yukon gold potatoes, peeled and boiled until soft.  Mash with 2 oz cream cheese, some milk, a dash of salt, a generous shake of garlic powder, and a small handful of shredded cheese (I used monterey).  

The green beans : Chop 1/3 of an onion and saute with 3 pieces of chopped bacon.  Add two 12 oz packages of frozen french cut green beans when the onions and bacon have reached the desired crispiness.  Cover and steam, stirring occasionally.  Chop 10 mushrooms, add them and a large handful of spinach when the beans are done.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach has wilted.  

For each meal, I put in a large spoonful of mashed potatoes, filled half of the container with veggies, and added 2 slices of pork. I made 4 lunches because that is all the lunch containers I had at the moment, but had plenty of food left to portion out later in the week. I only needed 4 lunches anyway, because I have some leftover pasta & meatballs from last week. 

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If you aren't a super-active person or are watching your weight, you can leave out the cream cheese, shredded cheese, and bacon.  This meal will still be delicious without them!

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I had this meal prepared Friday night, and then Saturday evening I went to church and discovered that Lent starts this week, which means no meat on Wednesday or Friday.  So I got back in the kitchen on Sunday night and made some bacon-less green beans and some black bean salmon burgers.

Salmon burgers : 1 small can boneless/skinless salmon, 1/3 cup (ish) of black beans, bread crumbs, garlic powder, 1 egg.  I mashed up the beans, beat the egg, and mixed everything together.  I kept adding breadcrumbs until the mixture didn't seem to wet anymore.  I shaped the mixture into 4 burgers, then I put a little bit of olive oil in a pan and cooked them for 3-5 minutes on each side.