Feb 29, 2012

Do not negotiate with a closed pistachio.

Joe and I have landed on the most delicious healthy snack.  Move over, Planter's Nut & Chocolate Trail mix--flavored pistachios have made you their bitch.

Don't mind the chip clip.

Pistachios have made their way to the mainstream; even Snooki endorses them.  A sack of these nuts (pfff!) snagged our attention a few days ago at Meijer.  We love all things garlic, so when we saw that these pistachios were available in an onion and garlic flavor, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try them.  Since we ate the entire bag in a matter of a couple of days, I picked up two other bags this evening: salt and pepper (left) and sweet chili.  I can't decide which flavor I like the most out of the three, but they are all the absolute shiz.

If deliciousness isn't enough to get you to try some of these pistachios, I'll try to persuade you with some of the health benefits of pistachios.  Pistachios are:

Antioxidant superfoods.  I don't know what antioxidants actually do, but that and "superfoods" are buzzwords, so this has to be a good thing.

Filled with good fats.  Yep, right up there with avocados.  And I love avocados.  Ipso facto, I love pistachios.  Right?

Beneficial to weight loss.  It probably has something to do with nutrition.  However, I think it's mostly because it you must expend many calories removing the nuts from their shells.

An excellent source of nutrients and fiber.  Don't you want to be "regular"?

So...GO EAT SOME PISTACHIOS!  And if you buy a bag and read it, you'll understand the context of this post's title.

Feb 26, 2012

8 weeks to go

Another week of marathon training is complete.  I'll go ahead and call it a recovery week, maybe not in terms of distance, but definitely for pace.

Monday: 5.01 miles @ 9:36
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 8.18 @ 8:41
Thursday: 2.97 @ 8:10
Friday: 4.92 @ 9:15
Saturday: 15.22 @ 9:10
Sunday: 7.01 @ 9:23
Total: 43.31 miles

Slow, slow, slow.  I mentioned earlier this week that I was so stiff for the run on Monday morning.  Until Friday, my right hamstring was really tight only while running.  Wednesday's 8-miler felt really great.  On Thursday I came just short of 3 miles because I showed up late to the group run after having an 11-hour day at school.  I even changed into my running gear while driving to Levis from school (danger, danger, I know).  On Friday I was pressed for time, like I usually am on weekday mornings, because we don't get started until 5:15 and I need to be home and in the shower shortly after 6:00 to make it to school on time.  My goal for Saturday morning was 17 miles--and I could have done it; I just didn't map my run before going out and consequently underestimated the distance.  This morning I was moving super slow, likely because my body isn't quite used to going out and doing 15+ miles one day then keeping up with a group on the next day.

This morning during the run, I was feeling kinda down in the dumps.  Usually I am at the head of the pack with our Sunday morning group and they're all crackin' on me for moving too fast.  This morning, I fell behind immediately.  I was all by myself for a while, about 100 feet back, until Joe slowed down (it's been a couple of posts since I've mentioned that my husband is the shit) to keep me company.  I was all kinds of pouty, though, and insisted that he catch up with the rest of the group because I didn't want to slow down anyone.  I left them right before 5 miles because it was getting into my head that I couldn't keep up, so I did the last 2.5ish miles on my own.  I felt better when I was solo, despite not really moving much faster.

One friend told me that if she were me, after the 25K, she wouldn't have done much resting if any at all.  She gave the disclaimer, though, that she isn't known for taking required recovery time.  Another friend told me on Thursday that I should have taken more recovery time, rather than going out and doing 5 miles on Monday and only taking one rest day on Tuesday.  What should I be doing?  How do I complete these longer long runs each week but still keep my body feeling good?  Is this normal, or am I just making rookie mistakes?  If you've got an opinion, I'm all ears.

Feb 25, 2012

Gearin' up

What you wear says a lot about you.  The clothes that I wear to work and in my free time out in public are colorful, simply detailed, and always well-pressed.  I never wear sweatpants out in public--not even if I am sick and just running out for Nyquil.  I feel slightly gross on the rare occasion that I wear sneakers instead of boots or ballet flats out of the house.  I care about what people think of me when they see me in that I'd rather they see a well-dressed lady than one that is frump-tastic.

Of course, I slightly break my personal fashion norms when it's time to run OR if I need to run into the store for a Gatorade immediately after a run.  Nevertheless, as all runners know, the proper running gear is crucial to performance.  There are rules.

Wear a hat to keep sun and precipitation out of your eyes.
A headband will keep your ears warm and hair out of your face.
Shirts, sports bras, and socks must be moisture-wicking to maintain a good body temperature and comfort.
Shoes need to be a size to a size and a half bigger than where you measure for all of that delightful foot-swelling.
Tights shouldn't fall down.  Pants shouldn't tangle up your feet.

And what's super cool about running apparel?  Tech gear doesn't need to be fugly.  In fact, most of it is really stinkin' cute and comfortable.  Here are a few of my go-tos this winter:

Nike Element Shield Jacket: A good jacket isn't going to be a small investment, especially if it's something you're likely going to wear for every run.  This Nike jacket is incredibly lightweight, but has some crazy thermal fabric.  I try to only wear it if the temperature is below 30 degrees--otherwise it gets to be a little too warm, even if it's just layered over a tee.  It's got a small zipper pocket in the back and reflective details on the front, back, and sleeves that are as bright as a camera flash.  The best feature, though?  In addition to thumb holes, the jacket as built-in mittens, so you don't need to wear gloves that you'll inevitably want to take off a mile into your run.

Nike Miler Running Shirt: It's a really basic wicking tee with reflective accents on the front, back, and sleeves.  Really light and comfortable.

GapFit gFast Leggings:  This is the only pair of running tights I've worn, but I've had them since October, wear and wash them at least twice per week, and they are still holding up like brand new.  There's a small zipper pocket on the back.  If you get these, do not go a size up for any reason.  I made that mistake and after the first mile of running, I usually have to readjust and yank them up--they don't fall off of my butt, but the crotch tries to slide down and it can be really annoying.  That's my own fault, though.  The only reflective accent is up along the really thick waste band (I love thick waste bands because they are way more comfortable than the nasty elastic bands that leave a bunch of ugly creases in your skin), so it serves no purpose unless you're a shirtless runner.  Still, awesome tights, lightweight, wicking, AND they are usually on promotion for $35.

Balega/Zulu socks:  For the first month or so that I was running, I was wearing my standard Hanes and Target brand low-cut socks.  I was told eventually, though, that those cotton socks are horrible for your feet.  Reluctantly, I bought a $10 pair of socks and have never turned back.  The comfort is ridiculous and the Balegas and Zulus keep your feet sweat-free.  I even wear them around the house just because they feel that good.

Brooks PureFlow: A minimalist shoe that makes your feet feel like they are running on pillows that hug and love your feet.  It takes some getting used to the unusual heel, which, when standing, makes you to feel like you are almost standing on little rocking chairs.  Liked them so much that I'm on my second pair.

What's the moral of the story?  Apparel is important, be it for work, free time, or fitness.  You can definitely rock out the standard cotton t-shirt and sweatpants to go for a run.  But I guarantee that you will look and feel better if you make the switch to actual running gear.

Feb 20, 2012

Toledo Roadrunners 25K

I had some good runs last week, despite the psychological setback of missing my planned 15-mile long run the week prior due to sub-zero wind chills.  According to Hal Higdon, I should have had a long run of 13 miles this past week.  On Friday I was feeling good and needed to tie myself down to doing that, so I decided to try my feets at a 25K at Oak Openings (details shortly).  I'm glad that I held myself to doing that!  Here are the numbers from last week:

Monday: 5.26 miles @ 8:31 pace
Tuesday: 4.48 @ 9:06
Wednesday: 7.20 @ 8:25
Thursday: 3.03 @ 7:26
Friday: 4.93 @ 8:45
Saturday: 8.02 @ 8:45
Sunday: 15.59 @ 8.28
Total mileage: 48.51

That was HUGE as far as mileage for me.  I'm sure that experienced runners will tell me I just did a big no-no, considering that I've been maintaining right around 35-mile weeks.  I won't be doing 25Ks every week, though.  Likewise, I (hopefully) am not going to do anymore weeks without a rest day.  I'm taking off tomorrow for sure.

No hood!  Totally 80s!
Let's go back to yesterday morning.  Toledo Roadrunners had a 25K at Oak Openings at 9:00AM for members only.  I had been thinking about joining, since membership includes discounted and sometimes free race entry, so the race was a good reason to finally do that.  I had planned to leave the house no later than 7:30, giving me a half-hour to 40 minutes to get to the ATM and make the 30ish minute drive to the park, wait in line to sign up for the Roadrunners and then wait again to pay my $5 to race.  Right before I left, Joe pointed out that my zipper on my coat was jacked up.  He helped me win the battle with the zipper, which went on for a few minutes, then I was out the door.  Found the park, registered for everything, got my super cool non-hooded sweatshirt, hit the port-a-potty (which had already been destroyed, leaving no other option other than trees because the restrooms are under construction right now), and then waited with around 45 minutes to spare.  I thought about joining the other more experienced runners in doing a warm-up mile, but knowing that I had never run further than 13.1 miles before, I wanted to save all of my energy for the 15.5.  I walked a loop around the parking lot, which ate up maybe 5 minutes, and then lingered around my car, periodically sitting down to play with my phone and pass the time.

The race directors didn't get us herded to the start until 9:00, which is when we were supposed to have begun racing.  A dude from Thursday night runs at Levis recognized me and offered to run with me for the start of the race.  I was all for it because I thought that would help me to not go out too hard or too slow.  One of the organizers gave a little spiel and then around 9:10, we were finally moving.  It was a small crowd of maybe 100, so it wasn't a big C-F at the start of the race.

There I go, all the way to the far right!  Thanks to Monica Urbanski of the TRRC for the photo.

I told running dude that I wanted to maintain an 8:30 pace, but he had other plans.  For the first five miles, we maintained an 8-minute per mile pace, which I knew I would later regret.  Running dude had plans to meet up with another dude to do 7-minute per mile pace, so at 5 miles, I told him to do his thing.  So there I was, all on my own, sandwiched between a big group of really fast people and some not-so-really fast people.

I slowed my pace gradually to 8:28.  Miles 9 through 10.5ish were a big head game for me.  The course was sort of a figure-8, and that stretch of the 8 was one long, straight, boring road.  I've pulled off 10+ mile runs on the weekend easy-peasy, but racing and being on that straight-away was driving me nuts.  Plus, I got passed by an old dude and a woman probably my age or a bit older.  At one point in that lame-o stretch, my pace went from 8:30 to 9:15!  I wanted to run faster, but I didn't want to wear myself out anymore before I really needed it.  Then I thought about walking a bit, but I thought I'd look like a schmuck, so I just pushed until I got my pace down to 8:45 and ended up not walking at all.  Once I hit the 11-mile mark, I watched my Garmin a lot.  I kept on doing the math in my head--"4.5 miles left; 4 miles left; 3.5 miles left; 5K left; a warm-up run left.  For the record, at 13.1 miles I was at 1 hour and 50 minutes--more than 3 minutes faster than my finishing time at the Fall Classic in November!

In the last 5 miles of the race, there were a few more "maybe I should walk" moments.  What kept me from doing that, though, was thinking about how proud I'd be of myself after crossing the finish, knowing that I RAN more than 15.5 miles.  Not gonna lie--I also thought about wanting to make my friends and family proud of me, knowing that I didn't wuss out at all.  So a big thanks goes to all of the people who have knowingly or unknowingly motivated me to run: mom, Joe, Tammy, Susan, Alyssa, Rob, Becky, Ryan, and Jessica.

Just before 15 miles, I could see the end of the race up the road.  I got pumped up at that point, even after two more people passed me with another old dude stomping loudly behind me.  I started to cheese it up because I suddenly felt no pain or tiredness.  I am pretty sure that I could have gone on for another 5 miles at that point, but Joe was standing right there at the finish, waiting for me with a Gatorade and a slice of pizza (my husband is the shit, in case you didn't know it).

According to my Garmin, I did 15.59 miles in 2 hours and 11 minutes.  Results aren't yet posted, so I'll see how different my time is from what they get.  There was no chip timing of any sort, since it was such a small affair.  However it turns out, I'm happy that I did it and feel good the next day.  As it turns out, my Garmin wasn't too far off!  According to the official results, I finished in 2:11:59.  Out of about 90 runners, seems like only 30 were women!  I finished 51st overall out of 91 runners and 10th out of 28 women!  The fastest woman finished in 1:54:14.

I didn't do anything special to care for my body when I got home, other than showering, popping 5 ibuprofens, and taking a 1-hour nap.  Moving up and down the stairs was awful throughout the day, but this morning I managed to go out and do 5 miles with Tammy and Joe.  I slowed them down a lot and Joe said I was moving like Frankenstein, but I felt a lot better afterwards insofar as being loosened up.  Tomorrow, though, is a rest day.  For sure.

For your enjoyment:

Feb 15, 2012

It's rewarding

Going for a run is always rewarding.  I typcially don't need a lot of motivation to get out and run.  I look forward to waking up at 4:30AM to go for a 5-miler before school.  Deep down inside, I take pride in the fact that I don't party hard on Friday and Saturday nights so that I can do double-digit runs on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  It's when I save the run for the evening that I have a bit of trouble getting excited.

After school, my feet usually hurt.  I am not a sedentary teacher; I am all over the place, jumping onto and off of chairs and tables for seven hours each day.  I hop and run back and forth across my room, I jump often to reach the top of my SmartBoard.  I do a lot of dancing.  I don't wear orthopedic shoes.  Wearing flats and 3.5" heels for seven hours of bouncing off of the walls leaves me kinda exhausted come 2:25.  I worried that I wouldn't run my planned 6 miles today, let alone get out at all.  As soon as I got home, I changed immediately into my running gear.  I knew that I'd be more likely to run if I were already dressed for the occasion.  I did things to try to procrastinate--had a bowl of Lucky Charms, sat down with the lappy, and turned on the TV.  At 3:45, it was do-or-die time.  I reluctantly laced up my shoes, turned on my Garmin, and went out the door.

Not even at the corner of our street, I thought about turning back.  I felt an annoying cramp in my left calf, which I had never felt before.  I immediately thought, "Joe would tell me to foam roll it."  I didn't turn back, though, because I (correctly) assumed that the discomfort would subside after a mile.  Around a half-mile, I felt like I needed to find a bathroom.  Still, I kept going.  I think I hit my first mile in 8:28--not bad at all.  I worried that I went out too fast and that there'd be no way I'd hit negative splits for my planned 6 miles.

The second mile was rough.  My calf and bowel discomforts were gone, but I just wasn't feeling the run.  My hands were cold, my tights were sliding down, and my pony tail-holder was trying its hardest to fall out of my hair.  Then I hit a park in which the path was covered in nasty slush.  I slowed down to 8:35.  So much for those negative splits.

Somewhere in the third mile, I had a choice to head one way and extend the 6 miles to 7 OR to keep the 6.  I felt ambitious and went for 7. It ended up being a good thing, as I started to feel better about the run, especially after the halfway-point.  I got a little bummed when I saw that mile 3 was 8:41.  That's definitely not horrible, but I am usually really good about going out slower and running only faster and faster throughout the run.

I started feeling good and then great after that third mile and improved my pace with every mile from that point to the end.  Even with those 8:30+ miles, I averaged 8:25, which is close to my goal for the Glass City Marathon.

I'm glad that I got out for the run.  I'm glad that I ran a mile longer than I had planned.  I'm pleased with my pace.  What feels best, though, is that although I had worried about my mental strength to get myself outside today, I did it!

Feb 9, 2012

Marathon training--10.5 weeks out

After a lot of strong encouragement, I am going to try to follow a structured marathon training plan.  I think last week was "Krista, you're worrying us"-week.  I came down with what I thought was a sinus infection on Sunday (1/29).  I had planned to do 8 miles with Becky Monday at 6:00PM, but just before 5:00PM I was struck with the worst pain I've experienced in my life.  It got exciting here, as I had Joe call 9-1-1 after about 30 minutes of hell.  EMTs came.  All of my vitals were really normal (plus, they mentioned that I "definitely" am a runner based off of my heart rate, which made me feel awesome mentally).  I opted to not go to the hospital, the pain subsided temporarily after about an hour, and then it came back twice later that evening.  Haven't felt it since then, but I'm pretty sure it was a kidney stone.

After all of that pain, Tuesday had me feeling like I had the crap kicked out of me, so took a second rest day.  On Wednesday evening I was feeling good and wanted to make up for what I missed, so after work I did almost 11.5 miles.  Thursday was my first real attempt at speed work.  I did the usual Friday and Saturday morning runs, with Saturday cut shorter than my planned 16 miles.  I had been in desperate need of new shoes and on Friday I started feeling some ankle and shin pain in my left leg, so I stopped at 8 miles on Saturday and went over to Dave's for a new pair (same that I was wearing before).  Sunday was shot thanks to wine, Patron, and Mexican food the night before.  Bad idea jeans.  Here are the numbers for 1/30 through 2/5:

Monday: Nada
Tuesday: Zilch
Wednesday: 11.45 miles @ 8:22
Thursday: 3 @ 7:40
Friday: 4.33 @ 9:18
Saturday: 8 @ 9:07
Sunday: Nada
Total: 26.78

I felt kind of defeated with 3 "rest" days in a week, but there was no way I would have made it out Monday and Tuesday I needed to take care of myself.  On Sunday, I paid for it and was actually hungover until Monday evening.

This week has been better.

Monday: 7.05 @ 8:43
Tuesday: 6.02 @ 8:47
Wednesday: 5.71 @ 9:01...not so bueno
Tonight: 3.03 @ 7:34
Projected for
Tomorrow: 5-6
Saturday: 15
Sunday: 8
Goal total: 40ish+

I'm heading out now to do three miles, hoping to do something like the 23:00 three-miler I did last Thursday evening.  I should hit over 40 miles in a week for the first time.  Joe is kicking butt at training for the half.  AND he's way better at pull-ups than I will ever be.