2 Down, 1 To Go

I made it through 2 of 3 running workouts this week unscathed! Yesterday, I did the slow 2 miler and I threw in some free weights afterwards. I had more energy than a quick 20 minute workout. I did bicep curls, tricep extensions, chest press with a crunch, bent over row, and shoulder fly. I also did some extra abs at the end and some random leg stuff like kicks, etc. All in all, it was a fun workout! Today I did my interval run which include 3 x 1 mile segments at less than 9 min mile pace. It is a bit icy in the burgh today, so I had to improvise slightly. I did 9 fast minutes followed by 6 slow and repeated a total of 3 times. Felt great, although I could have gone a little further! It burned 918 calories though, so I can't complain!

Veg is still going well! For lunch yesterday I made myself a black bean burrito. Yum! It was a whole wheat tortilla, 1/2 cup black beans, 2 T sour cream, 0.75 ounce slice of cheddar, and 2 T salsa. I think that ended up being between 300 and 350 calories. I have a ton of beans and canned tomatoes right now, so I think my meals will consist of those for a little while. Here's a recipe I plan to try though:

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/quick-recipes/dinner/30-minute-heart-healthy-meals/?page=2

After I try it, I'll let you know how it tastes! I'm excited there's turmeric in it. I bought some because I read about it being so anti-inflammatory and I haven't figured out how to use it yet. Of course, I haven't really tried either!

Have a healthy day!

Plan for the Week

It's finals week, and life is busy! We have quarters at my school, so this is my last week of class and I'll have two finals plus various assignments due in the next 10 days. I had been thinking today would be a mess, but I got mostly done with an assignment already (by getting up early and starting to work immediately). That means I get in a bonus yoga workout before class! Mixed in with my walk to and from school, and I should have a nice low key workout day. That is much needed after a run yesterday!

Last week was a slow down week on my marathon training, but this week I am back up to full force. My first run is a slow 2 miler, and I plan to do that tomorrow morning before class. I might throw in some abs and other strength exercises too since that's such a short workout. On Wednesday, I have a tempo run that includes 3 x 1600m at 8:51 per mile with 800m jogs in the middle. It'll also include a warm up and cool down, which for me is the walk over to the track and back. My final run of the week is 14 miles. Woot! Should be fun! In the midst of all that, I'll have to throw in some strength and yoga to keep me balanced.

As for food, veg continues to go well. I now have a ton of beans, canned tomatoes, fresh produce, herbs, couscous, etc. Let's see where that all takes me! Today I'm thinking I'll eat something like this:

Breakfast = English muffin with 1 T peanut butter and 1 T jam, coffee with cream

Lunch = eggplant rollatini's from Wegman's with tomato sauce

Dinner = greens and beans leftovers, plus some couscous

I'm going to have to fill in the blanks with some snack... most likely carrots and hummus or some yogurt and fruit.

Have an excellent Monday!

The snow is melting!

Yes, that's right, the snow is melting! And people are actually clearing their sidewalks! I went for a run and managed to get in 4.5 miles without any major issues. It felt awesome! I'm definitely getting stronger, even with the snow derailment. Actually, the snow has been a killer workout. The week of the big storm I wore my HRM everywhere (almost) that I went, and I burned 6226 calories that week. Now that is INSANE. This week has been a dial back week for my running, so I've only have to run 5 miles a day for a few days. My final run will be this weekend, and it'll be a slow 5 miler. Today I did a choose your own adventure workout... that means I did whatever I felt like in front of my TV! I did a warm up similar to what Shaun T does in INSANITY, then I rotated weight exercises for 35-ish minutes. I finished with a stretch and managed to burn 523 calories. Excellent!

Veg is going well too! I switched my normal turkey sandwich for lunch to a hummus sandwich. For dinner, I had pasta and veggies one night (Barilla Plus pasta, so higher protein than normal). Last night I had a bread salad and spinach and white beans. Here are the recipes in case you're curious. I had some leftover Italian bread from Valentine's Day, so that's why I made the bread salad. I generally don't eat white flour, but I also don't like to waste food. Next time I make, I'll use a whole grain bread instead. Overall, the meal was awesome!

Bread Salad

Greens and Beans

Calorie count is in check, and I'm even losing weight. At this rate, I'll be back to my "fighting weight" in no time! :)

Have a healthy weekend!

Going veg!

Okay so that might sound a bit nutty given that I'm training for a marathon. I have in fact decided to go veg for Lent! I am Catholic although I don't really go to church very often, but this year I decided I was going to actually do something for Lent. I gave up meat a few times before for Lent, so I'm going for it again. I haven't decided exactly what that will mean to me yet, but I have a couple things that are going to be important for me to feel like this was a success.

1. I will not eat pasta and tomato sauce everyday. Boring!
2. I will not survive on peanut butter alone.
3. I will not eat veggie burgers and soy patties on a regular basis.
4. I will not eat beans and rice everyday either. Variety is key!

I bought a cookbook last night (it's already shipped... yay Amazon!), and I'm going to try recipes from there. It's called "The Conscious Cook" and it's by Tal Ronnen. It had great reviews and a friend actually recommended it. The recipes are vegan, and I'm not going straight vegan but this will help me with variety and creativity.

A couple disclaimers to go along with this adventure:

1. I am not going vegan. I will eat dairy products. I'm still not sure about eggs.
2. I may eat fish. Again, still not sure... I am going to focus as much as I can on not eating fish even when I'm at home, but there may be time when it happens (restaurants, etc.).
3. I am not doing this permanently, unless I love it.
4. I am not doing this because I think meat is bad for you, etc. This is a challenge I'm giving myself for Lent.

So, I do want to also mention that when I do eat meat, I do my best to eat meat that is raised humanely and sustainably. After reading about the health problems associated with eating animals force fed corn to make them fat, I started that transition. Then, Food Inc. was really all I needed to push myself over the edge. On a student budget, it is challenging, but it's worth it!

On the running front, it is still SNOWING! I am supposed to run a slow 5 miles today, so I'll be fitting that in after class. I also have to hit the grocery store to get some food. I've got plenty of produce, but I need some more grains and legumes. Let the veg begin!

Heart Rate Monitor

So I got a couple questions about how I track my calories, so I figured I'd write a bit about my heart rate monitor. I've actually had it for years, and I love it! I will admit though that I'm kind of craving a Body Bugg so I don't know if I'll always use the one I have. In any case, it's a Polar F11. It looks like they've upgraded their models, so I can't find it on their website, but I imagine this is a comparable model.

Here are the features I love:

• Tests your fitness level, sort of like a VO2 max although nothing is ever going to be 100% accurate when it comes to that
• Use fitness level, age, sex, weight to determine calorie burn
• Stores data for you on workout time, average heart rate, max heart rate, and calories burned

It does way more than that, but that's all I use it for. I bought it because I read reviews and people seemed to think this was the most accurate calorie counter on the market. Of course, this was pre-Body Bugg. I wonder though if there are still Polar diehards out there! If you're looking for a fairly simple to use HRM, I highly recommend the Polar F series HRM's. From what I hear, the lowest level is fine if you're just looking for calorie counts and heart rate.

Another perk is that Polar has great customer service. My watch broke a year after I bought it and they sent me a brand new. Easy peasy! So if you find service to be important, that's another reason to go with Polar!

New Shoes!

All this running has caused my shoes to wear out quite quickly, so I bought myself some new ones online. I'm a devoted Asics shopper, and for the last few years I've been using the Gel Landreth. I don't think they're too popular unfortunately, so they're a bit hard to find. They only sell in specialty running stores, which is great because I like to support local running shops. This time around I bought from an online store I haven't used in ages, but I'm so happy I went back! The website is www.roadrunnersports.com and they have awesome prices and deals! In fact I joined their VIP club for just $1.99 and I get free shipping and discounts. They also sell bars, gels, apparel, etc. I'm so happy I rejoined the world of roadrunnersports! I'm going to start buying all my protein bars and gels, etc. from there. Excellent!

I also treated myself to a 1 hour massage today. It's part of my plan to not get injured during my training. Man, that was awesome! You don't realize how tight your muscles are until someone starts working on them for you. I can't wait for my next one!

The Best Revenge (on snow)

I made my way out into the beautiful (READ: FRIGID) Pittsburgh weather this morning for my long run. As I mentioned earlier in the week, I have had to improvise on the running because the snow was crazy last week and it took forever for the city to clear it. Obviously they don't have enough public works people because they overworked the ones they do have and it still took days upon days. I digress... really I should just stop complaining about the snow! In any case, my workouts for the week included:

• Hiking to and from school in soft, deep snow... this is a workout, let me tell you! It takes all you have in your abs and back to keep yourself upright! What usually would be ~100 calories burned was closer to 200 calories because of all the extra core work I was doing. SCORE!
• INSANITY!!! I did two different INSANITY workouts, one of them being Max Interval Circuit. That workout is a BEAST! I had to pause it close to the end to catch my breath. No need to puke! I burned 976 calories on that!
• My long run (today)!

So the long run went fairly well. It was supposed to be 12 miles, but I didn't quite make it that far. I'd say 30% of the people in my neck of the woods cleared their sidewalks of the 2-3 feet of snow, so I had to slow down and in a lot of cases walk. In the 2 hours and 10 minutes it should've taken me to do 12 miles, I finished 10.4 miles. I'll take it! Oh, and it was 2369 calories burned. OMG!

So this is what I called "The Best Revenge!" I spent almost a whole week not being able to run because of the weather, and I spent a lot more time sitting around and eating/drinking than I should have. Now, I know I am the one who is fully responsible for myself and my actions, so I can't really use the snow as an excuse for having wine every night or sitting and watching TV for hours on end. What's done is done, and my long run today is now representing my revenge. Revenge on snow, on laziness, on drinking every night, on not getting in my runs! I thought of this from one of my favorite running songs called "The Best Revenge" by Fischerspooner. It's kind of a crazy techno song, but it's very motivating. Love it! I listened to it several times while I was careening through the snow and kept thinking to myself that my run was the best revenge I could have on my week of being crippled by snow. It will not happen again!

In case you want to listen to the song, here it is!