Hotlanta

Holy crap it's hot outside. I mean, I'm pretty sure I could bake a cake in our garage right now. At last check, the outside thermometer read 104 in the shade, and 108 in the sun. Despite all the predictions for record highs this weekend, I wasn't too worried about getting my workouts in. I knew today, Saturday was my biking day, and I could just do an indoor trainer ride. I know a lot of biking purists hate the trainer the way I hate treadmills. But in this area, biking can be tricky. I basically have to either stick to neighborhoods, or drive somewhere to ride. So I make good use of the trainer. And Spinervals DVDs. Those are lifesavers for trainer rides.

Of course, it turns out today was actually supposed to be a brick workout. And it might have been cool enough to run if I'd gotten up early enough. Which I was planning to do next weekend, which was when I thought the brick was. Oh well. Going to ride later this evening, and hope I can get a 15 min run in without melting. In the meantime, I'm going to bake cookies. Because that's what normal people do when it's 108 outside right? Turn on the oven.

Do-Over

Last week was a do-over. Seriously. I didn't work out at all. I ate a lot of good (bad) food. I could list all the reasons (excuses) for last weeks lack of everything. Or, I could just call it a do-over, and start again this week. It's Monday, it's a new week, I'm rebooting, and starting over, with a vengeance.

Happy National Running Day!

I run because...I like to eat
I run because...it's cheaper than therapy
I run because...cross country was the only sport in high school that didn't require a tryout
I run because...I want to look good in a bathing suit
I run because...it makes me feel strong
I run because...it's my "me" time
I run because...I like to push myself
I run because...I like to be outside

I run because I need to.

Whatever compels you to run, get out there today and have a great run!

Still baking

Seriously. Can't stop. I will say, that while my baking obsession has previously tended to cupcakes, and sweets, recently I've taken to things like baking my own bread. I can tell myself it's healthy. I'm currently making a 33% whole wheat and 50% white whole wheat sandwich loaves. And since I'm making them at home, I know exactly what's going in them- flour, some kind of fat(butter, olive oil- not at the same time), honey, yeast, salt, water. That's it. No weird preservative, nothing I can't pronounce. I know it's cheaper. One bag of flour- the ingredient that's by far the largest proportion (and I buy the good kind- I'm partial to King Arthur) is the same price as one loaf of decent sandwich bread. And one bag of flour makes at least 4 loaves. Even I can do that math.

I haven't completely stopped baking sweets though. I'm just trying to reserve them for special occasions. I.e.- someone else will eat the majority of them. Last weekend I made some amazing fresh peach cupcakes with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting for a friend's going away party (she's leaving Atlanta for the west coast- I felt these cupcakes were appropriately Georgian). Next up- car bomb cupcakes. Oh yah. You read that right.

On the exercise/workout note- Monday is the start of my triathlon training plan. Absolutely must get back into shape for the summer tri's I already signed up for. Expect more working out, less baking in the future.

My bread recipes have come from smittenkitchen.com and remedialeating.com
Cupcakes are from smittenkitchen.com

Oh, and they're awesome. Anyone can make these breads. It's really not scary or hard at all.

Must. Stop. Baking.

I've been reading triathlon, exercise related blogs for awhile now. They've inspired me, and given me great workouts, and in general, fired up my inner athlete. But recently, I discovered baking/cooking blogs. And we just bought a house. So the combination of first house/amazing recipes has created a major nesting instinct that now has an outlet. This weekend it's pies for Easter (oh, and a chocolate red wine cake, which is possibly the greatest thing ever). At least my family will eat a major portion of the results. Also, have been making homemade burger buns for various spring time cookouts we have cooking out. I have an amazing cinnamon-sugar pull-apart bread bookmarked for the first morning Adam and I have together when he gets back from Cali. Just so others can enjoy the ridiculously awesome recipes:

www.smittenkitchen.com (pies, chocolate red-wine cake, burger buns)
www.joythebaker.com (cinnaman-sugar pull apart bread)


Also,
www.joepastry.com
www.loveandoliveoil.com

What Can Be Learned From a PW (Personal Worst)

So yesterday was the Publix Georgia Half Marathon. I started training for it in January. My last few races haven't exactly been the best efforts. So I was determined to train hard for this one. For several weeks, I stuck to my training plan. And I started seeing some progress. Then, about halfway through February, I stopped training. Not just a few missed runs either. It was a complete grinding halt on training. No I wasn't injured. Just busy. Ridiculously, insanely busy. Yes, if I'm completely honest with myself, not so busy that I couldn't have snuck in a few runs. It started with 5 days in Mexico. We'd planned a trip for a friend's wedding, and I knew this would throw a wrench into my training plan. But it was just 5 days, and I figured it wouldn't be a huge derailment.

But then, we got off the plane on the way home and turned our phones back on to find out my boyfriend's grandma had passed away. So we had to turn around and drive to Illinois for the funeral. So now, we're talking Midwesterners in mourning. Midwesterners (my family is from Michigan so I'm familiar) like to cook meat and potatoes. And they like to turn to food for comfort. So Midwestern comfort food is even more meat and potatoes. So add in another 5 days of eating a ridiculous amount of carbs, and not running.

So now, I get back to work 2 weeks in the hole (yes, if you're counting, there are some extra days in there where I totally could've run. Possibly, I'd gotten a little lazy by this time). So now, I'm working 12-15 hour days for two weeks.

All this leads into a half marathon that I'm woefully under trained for. My training didn't so much taper, as take a nose dive off a cliff. Shockingly, I didn't perform so well. So, what can you learn from your personal worst time?

1. Training is actually important. Yes, that's obvious. Or it should be. Sometimes though, it's easy to fall into a trap of believing that you're fit, and in shape, and can do it anyway (or at least, I do). "So what if I haven't trained, I do this all the time." Not true. It's important to remember that the it's the training, not the racing that keeps you fit and in shape.

2. It's possible to still have fun, and not PR. It's so easy to forget the whole point is to have fun. Yes, sometimes its accomplishing a PR that is the fun. But sometimes, just running with a friend and finishing the race is fun. I ran the whole way (almost, he pulled ahead in the last mile) with a friend, and instead of pushing ourselves, we paced ourselves, talked, laughed, and generally had fun. And I've never felt soooo good to finish a race.

3. It hurts. I've also never been so sore after a race.

So in summary, it's probably better to train properly, even if you're not aiming for a PR. I'm also not saying you shouldn't train at all then attempt a half marathon. Keep in mind, I'd been running for a long time, and holding fast to training plan up until a few weeks before. If I'd thought I couldn't safely complete the race, I wouldn't have run. However, you can run a PW and still have fun and a sense of accomplishment.

One of those weeks

So I've been having one of THOSE weeks. Nothing in particular went wrong. A slight disagreement with something I ate caused me to miss my long run scheduled on Sunday. It wasn't gross, bad sick, just blah.

Ordinarily, I would make up, at least some miles on Monday, my scheduled rest day. But I had to drive to Alabama for work. Didn't get home until after 8 pm due to an interstate closing wreck. Tuesday night was a professional society meeting of which I am Vice President. I really couldn't in good conscience skip the first meeting of the year. 

So finally, last night, I had time to work out. Of course it's raining, so running is out. But I did manage 30 minutes of biking on the trainer. It's something. Tonight is my boyfriend's dad's birthday, which means I can't make it to swimming, but can at least run I'll probably have to cut the run short. But it's something. And at least it's a pretty day. 

The take-away from this week, is that it's still early in my training plan. Missing a couple runs, even long runs won't make or break my race. The trick is to make sure that I get back on track, and don't let one bad week completely derail the following weeks. 

On a side note, I found a great use for that one banana that you never quite get to eat and has turned black (it doesn't matter if I buy three bananas, or five- somehow, there's always just one leftover. Not quite enough for banana bread). 

Banana Corn Muffins (from Cookinglight.com)

Ingredients

• one very ripe banana
• one 8 oz. box of corn muffin mix
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat over to 350. Mash banana. Mix all three ingredients. Spoon batter into muffin pan, lined with paper cups (I actually just sprayed the pan with PAM since I didn't have paper cups- it worked fine). Bake for 20-22 minutes. I would think you could probably use a bread pan too, and it would work fine. Might have to play with baking times a little though. 

Turned out really well. So well that I ate almost all of them. Not my best moment of moderation. 

Cupid's Undie Run

Thought for the day

Over the last year or so that I've been training, in the back of my mind, I've always been waiting for that moment, when suddenly, it's easy. That ride where hills feel easy. Or that run that doesn't feel like a struggle. But recently, something occurred to me: it never gets easier, you just go faster.

That's not quite as depressing as it sounds at first. At one point, running a mile without stopping to walk seemed almost impossible. Now I do that without hardly thinking about it. I could barely swim one length of the pool two years ago. Last night I knocked out 2250 yards in an hour. But it wasn't easy. The whole point of training is to push yourself. And racing even more so. When I run a race, I want to feel like I left everything out there. That I gave everything I had. And so, it's never easy. To use an incredibly cliched line, "if it were easy, everyone would do it." If it were easy, it wouldn't feel like an accomplishment. If biking up the hill were easy, flying down the other side wouldn't be so much fun.

So, it never gets easy. That doesn't mean you don't get better. In fact, if you want to get better, then you should make damn sure it never gets easy.

Checking in

Well, my last post outlined some goals for the off season. Frankly, other than the "eat a lot of turkey and pie" goal, I haven't done much to work towards the others. However, I've decided this year to extend my "off-season" a little longer than usual. True, I'm training for a half marathon right now, but I'm considering that my off-season from triathlons. So I found a training plan that includes a fair bit of speedwork. I'm hoping for a 13.1 PR, and to generally improve my running speed.

As far as the strength training goal, I've done zero. As in, none. Not even a token attempt. More on that later.

I've realized that in my last few races last year, I was really just phoning in my efforts at training. That is, training just enough to be able to comfortably finish the race. Which was fine and good for Beach 2 Battleship. That was my first attempt at that distance. I didn't know what to expect. But my half marathons were suffering. I got slower. I realized it's because I haven't been consistent with my training, or putting in the required effort. This year, I've decided to attempt my first full marathon, and concentrate on running. Of course, I will still bike and swim, they just won't be my main focus. I've signed up for a couple tri's this year, but I'm just sticking to Oly and sprint distance. Next year will be for tris.

But this year is for running. I want to get enough faster that if I do attempt a full marathon, I won't be running for 5 hours. To that end, I'm working hard at staying consistent with my training, and sticking to the plan as much as life allows me too.