Monthly Archives: July 2012

Foodie Pen Pals

By Posted in Food Tagged , , , , , 27 Comments

Foodie pen pals has become one of my favorite monthly topics (so if you are tired of them..well it’s once a month-stop that and come back tomorrow).  With that being said, this package was def awesome and Amy even was able to take into account that I am eating a high protein diet and have a couple of medical problems (is she not the bomb?!).

Because I like to give rhetorical questions in my blogs, I’ll answer and say-no duh. 

Right then. 

 

First she sent me sugar free chocolate covered nuts.  I tried one of them and then decided I wanted to eat all of them.  Literally within 30 minutes of opening the box they were all gone.  They were really good!

After devouring the nuts, I decided to hold off on the cookies for some time later in the week.  These were a perfect work snack for me.  Work has been really busy and stressful and having cookies at work…well it makes it a little better.

Next up was the mustard.  I have never been a mustard fan but decided to try it anyways.  It was so weird-because I really enjoyed it.  I added it to some chicken we were having that night and it didn’t disappoint.  My parents were shocked that I eating it, and then my mom decided she wanted some too (to which she fully enjoyed it).

Hiding back there is the edamame, which is one of my favorite work snacks.  I buy this on the regular so it was nice not having too LOL.  I also ate it at work.

The steel cut oats I used to make pumpkin oatmeal.  I haven’t had pumpkin oatmeal in ages and this was the perfect occasion.  Quite delicious per usual.

With sprinkles. duh. 15 extra calories of worth. Well probably like 45 because I just kinda dump a bunch in.

Then last (but not least), I’ve been sipping on the herb tea all week.  My mom is a big tea drinker and absolutely loves this stuff as well.  Me personally, I like coffee but tea is good every once in a while.  This tea is certainly at the top of my list though so I’ll be taking it back to college.

In general, another awesome box! If you want to go participate in foodie pen pals-go right over to the lovely Lindsay’s blog.

Question for you: 

  1. 1.       Tea or coffee?  (iced/hot)?
  2. 2.       Have you ever participated in Foodie Pen Pals?

Buh By JuhhLie

By Posted in Running, Swimming Tagged , , 16 Comments

Because my title make clear and coherent sense and I am hilarious.

As bloggers, I feel like we are supposed to write blogs about how our months go and how the next month will go.  Then we make ridiculous goals and get worried because we think people truly remember our monthly goals. 

Let me ponder some good blogging goals.

 

Let me tell you-I don’t remember your month goals…you don’t remember my monthly goals.  That is why I make a brief outline for me.  Nothing too rigorous and nothing that will get my panties in a bunch.  First, in my proper blogging etiquette I will look back at this month.

I raced the Allen stone and got a PR (sorry but that is no duh a highlight of my July)

As well as my 22nd birthday

My training went rather smoothly actually too.  I am still remaining injury free (which is the main objective) as well as keeping the mileage very high.  So all in all July was very successful for me.

———-

Now on to August (oh my stars!)

Here is aDuBs and I last August on her 21st birthday.

I’m going back to Upstate NY (Syracuse Area…I love to do meetups…so let me know…).

Internship aspect, I’m very nervous.  As I’ve stated before (and I got the request to do a more in-depth blog which I will), I don’t mind friends very easily and suffer from social anxiety.  So I’m going to a new area, only knowing my boss (which you don’t just hang out with) and not really in the same boat as anyone else.  Such as college freshman, everyone was new…now it’s just me…So I’m nervous for that. ).  I know I’ll make friends, but I’m living alone and coming back to my room after interning every night alone seems rather not that fun…by alone I mean…with you guys on twitter.  

I leave for my internship August 18th but I’ll continue to post more about that as the time approaches.

Moving on-Here is my race schedule for August:

August 4: Beach 2 Miler Swim Greenwich CT

August 5 (Who am I?  All dad’s idea)  VB 5k Open Water Swim

August 11: Mud Run (Dad and I are doing this as a team…you run through obstacles and such)

And here was me the only time I could do the mud run in 2010.

August 18: Timed Mile

My running training will peak and I will be hitting a 90 (oh my stars!) mile week.  If that isn’t nerve racking, I don’t really know what is.  Until the end of August, I will be doing more base building versus speed workouts. In September, I will shift to speed workouts.

So that is my life in a nutshell for August.  Incase you just wanted to forward to right here all I said was I’m moving to upstate NY, bumping up my miles and not doing any tapered races.

Questions for you:

What are doing in August?

Are you going back (going to) college? 

Training: Humidity and Heat=Short and Sweet

By Posted in Running, Swimming Tagged , 15 Comments

If I rhyme in the title, I get bonus internet kewl (not cool) points. 

To be point blank the heat and humidity cock blocked any sort of speed workout I had planned this week and I’m not thrilled about it.  Of course, I would love to feel some sort of speedyness but as is not the case.  Oh well, all miles are better then injured miles and I’m not here to complain.

Dad and I last weekend.

So with that, 84 miles of easy.  That seems like a lot (which it is, but my body feels fine because I haven’t done any speed sessions).   I’ll take each and every one of these miles versus being injured.  Some weeks are better then others and I had an extremely productive training week two weeks ago which led to my PR so this one can be chalked up to mostly recovery and mostly heat sucks.

This is the part of the post where I tell you that your training is based on consistency.  No one workout or week is going to make or break you (unless you get injured).  An easier week is never going to ruin any race. 

 

Next week I am going on travel to New York City and doing an open water swim with my relatives and then driving back home and doing another open water swim the following day.  I don’t make these things up.  Then that puts an official wrap on my summer swimming.  I may get in the pool, I may not…who knows…not me.

As far as running, I like to travel and find places with hills.  Since I’m currently training in a heat box with close to one hill in my entire area. When I find places with rolling hills, it excites me.  Maybe I’ll even try and get a speed workout in next week granted the weather is up for it.  :)

Well looks like this post is short and sweet like my attention span, but who likes long wordy training posts anyways.

Questions for you: 

How was your work week?

What do you do when the weather isn’t cooperating for workouts? 

How I Pretend to Stay Injury Free

By Posted in Reads, Running Tagged , , 18 Comments

I was asked to do a post on how to stay injury free and honestly at first, I was a bit hesitant to  write this.  Though I’ve been injury free for about 6 months now, I don’t really have the greatest track record at all.  Sometimes I don’t even follow my own advice.  (That is just real talk here).  But here are some things I’ve been doing to stay injury free.  

But first an overused picture of one of my multiple injuries that occurred on my 21st birthday

First and foremost, if I feel any sort of niggle or weird pain…I have learned to stop running.  I kind of follow this rough outline:

 First, I cut out any sort of speed workouts and cut my miles.  Second, if it doesn’t go away within a day or two, I don’t run for two days.  Stress fractures don’t come about overnight and feeling something weird and not running for a few days is MUCH BETTER than not running for 3 months.  Trust me-I know. 

 

Stretching is good…I don’t do enough of it.

Foam rolling and message sticking…also good and also what I don’t do enough of.  I am really trying to push myself to do this when I’m not lazy.

Running on softer surfaces and not just because I’m training for cross country races.  Pavement is not always good for your body (if you are running a lot of miles).  I say the more you can run on grass, the better.  Trust me, I also know it takes a lot of getting used too.  I love running on pavement as well.

Though I don’t advise running on sand…that is painful stuff.

Replace your shoes.  Don’t try and save money by getting too many miles on them.  It costs a hell of a lot of money from your insurance or out of pocket to get 3 X-rays and 2 MRI’s.  With replacing your shoes, running with different shoes.   Running in different types of shoes (granted they all work for YOUR SPECIAL running form, is great to keep your legs not used to one routine.

Miss these guys. Favorite shoes ever.

The most important (to me anyways) is that you are not racing anyone in your training so stop that.  Stop pushing the pace to recover.  It’s unnecessary.  Run your easy runs at a slower then normal pace because you are doing yourself any good by running your easy runs faster.  In fact, you are saying “hey body, let’s get injured today”.  I would know.  It’s the main reason I got a stress fracture (and ripped It band…all in one swipe).

So yes-that is my two cents.

Question for you:  How do you stay injury free? 

Allen Stone Race Recap

By Posted in Running, Uncategorized Tagged , , 22 Comments

I don’t even know where to begin with race.  I keep trying to create a starting point but so many different things flood my mind.  Ha. So I guess I’ll start with, I finished and was second female overall, I ran an 18:57 PR in the final 5 and I’m still…uninjured.

That pretty much summarizes it, but I guess I’ll get into details too (if you are into that.).  

The race began at 8:10 am.  I got in a 2.3 mile (running) warmup and was ready to go.  It was very stormy skies and I was hoping the weather would hold until after our race.  How much would it stink to taper for a race and then it’s cancelled/postponed?  Your taper is messed up and well…your mojo falls flat.

As was not the case (obviously).

The first 1k was on the beach and due to all the rain the sand was very soft.  It was not compact and my feet were sinking…I was tripping over bumbling bafoons that should have started in the back but it’s not a big deal (well there were no chips for the 1k run or the 1k swim).  All I could think about in this 1k run on the beach was the ocean swells.

I deserved that for wearing a two piece.

But then it was ocean time.  In I went.  The waves were nuts and my goggles came off a few times.  I got kicked in the face multiple times and I swear nearly desuited…silly (creeper) waves.  But alas that is what I get for wearing a two piece.  The swim took me 25 minutes to do a 1k.  I did an open water mile swim in 22 a few weeks ago.  My (1000yd) pool PR is in the 11 minute range.

So you know those waves and rip currents and waves were nuts.  When I rounded the buoy to come in, I got hit by a rather large wave that knocked my goggles off completely.  I was preying my contacts didn’t come out. Thank goodness they didn’t.

wahhh waves.

And into the transition area I went.  A very fast runner from my area (who ran the 5k) told me I was 6th female overall.  And then my flame was ignited.  I quickly put on my running clothes, (well my shoes and a shirt with my bib…oopsies no pants…It was like running in booty hugger spandex).

you know…running…

Then set out for the 5k on the boardwalk.  I was actually quite terrified to run this because well, this is where my injury had occurred last year.  Mile one I felt very strong and I passed two females.

Mile 1-2was at the turn around point.  First, I passed the place I had collapsed last year.  I can honestly say I had a bit of a miniflashback.  I don’t know why and it seems silly now and possibly overdramatic but my mind quickly remembered just laying there and whaling.  I put it out of mind and literally said to myself:  FTS.  As I rounded the turn around, I also passed another female putting me 3rd.

I had seen the second place female but had put passing her out of my mind that she was at least 2 minutes in front of me. Around that time I saw the most inspirational female runners in my area Kris L and Renee cooling down, who cheered for me!  I was like oh my stars, could I be anymore socially awkward. 

Running back towards the starting line, I began to tunnel vision because I could see the female in front of me and the finish line.  (I think I was also chanting the final countdown in my mind) NEVER have I pushed so hard in my life.  I don’t Garmin during races (I just started training runs with her so maybe eventually) but I know I had to negative split that last mile.  When I was a quarter of a mile out I pushed as hard as humanly possible and just kept going.

Finishing second overall and finishing the 5k portion in 18:57.

w00t for another beer mug….

 

Sure I would have loved a win, but I love being a sub 19 minute 5ker more.

Question for you:

What is your most memoriable race? 

Do you have any inspirational runners in your area?