Smoothie-a-Day

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Last week I said that nutrition was going to be my big focus for March and a major part of that would be making an effort to eat more fruits and veggies. So far I’m off to a pretty decent start. I’ve been drinking a banana-berry smoothie every day that’s super easy to make, especially in my magic bullet blender that doubles as the drinking glass!

Banana-Berry Smoothie

Banana-Berry Smoothie

I’ve made smoothies like this one before and the biggest things that have kept me from making them more regularly is the cost of fruit and the frustration when the fruit goes bad too quickly. Well I found a great solution to that  this week – frozen fruit! I’m sure it’s not as healthy as the fresh stuff, but it’s better than nothing and it’s also a lot cheaper. I bought a couple bags each of mixed berries and strawberries at Trader Joes and it’s been working out great. I really should venture out and try other kinds of smoothies, but being the picky eater that I am, I’m hesitant to try something new. Let me know if you have any good suggestions I should try. Here’s the recipe for mine:

Banana-Berry Smoothie

  • 1 cup plain, nonfat yogurt (usually ends up being 3/4 cup because of the size of my blender)
  • 1/2 cup strawberries
  • 1/2 cup mixed berries (I usually go with raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
  • 1 small frozen banana (I pre-slice a bunch at the beginning of the week and put them in baggies in the freezer)

I also usually eat a banana with breakfast and an apple as a midday snack, so the fruit is going pretty well. The veggies are a bit harder for me. I had corn a couple time this week, which is the one veggie I really like and of course not the healthiest, but still, it’s something, right? I also did something this week I don’t know if I’ve ever done before in my life. I had a salad at home with dinner. I’ll eat salads (or eat bits of them and then push it around on my plate to make it look like I ate more) when served at weddings or conferences or at other people’s homes for dinner, but I’ve never actually made one at home to go with dinner. Ian and I went the easy route to start things off and bought a bag of pre-mixed salad at Wegmans and some light Italian dressing. It wasn’t great, but I didn’t hate it either. It’s a work in progress.

Salad - yes I know it's small - I'm trying!

Salad – yes I know it’s small – I’m trying!

On the not so healthy side, Ian and I put together a delicious creation this week: buffalo chicken deep dish pizza. I made a deep dish cornmeal pizza dough in my bread machine and spread it around and up the sides of a 9-inch round baking tin. Ian added a layer of cheese to the bottom, then we topped with the chicken and buffalo sauce and finally another smaller layer of mozzarella cheese plus a sprinkling of shredded parmesan. Simply amazing!

Deep Dish Delicious Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Deep Dish Delicious Buffalo Chicken Pizza

 

Seminar: Running Your Best Race

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On Saturday, the DC Capital Striders hosted a seminar  at Lululemon in Georgetown called Successful Race Execution – Preparation, Fueling, and Pacing Strategy to Run your Best Race featuring RRCA certified running coaches Lisa Reichmann and Julie Sapper. Lisa and Julie are both experienced runners themselves and are also co-founders of local running company, Run Farther & Faster, coaching everyone from those doing their first 5k to runners looking to PR in a marathon.

They covered the right way to taper, nutrition both while your training and racing and pacing strategies. Some of it was new and some was info I’ve heard before, but it’s always great to be reminded. They highlighted the importance of the taper, which is good for me to keep hearing because like most runners I go a little stir crazy during that time and have trouble trusting that I won’t lose all my fitness in the week and a half or so before the race.

Their info on fueling was great. They talked about avoiding sugary foods so you don’t crash, embracing carbs and making sure to eat a protein/carb snack or meal within 20 minutes of finishing a run. They also gave some good advice on in-race nutrition including the invaluable – don’t ever mix Gu with Gatorade!

Gatorade and Gu - Do not mix!!

Gatorade and Gu – Do not mix!!

The top takeaway for me came when I asked Julie about her long runs. I have a tough time doing them one to two minutes slower than race pace as most training plans recommend. I always worry that there is no way I’ll be able to run the pace I want to come race day if I do that despite what a lot of the science says on the subject.

She said she used to have similar concerns at a point where she was about a 3:45 or so marathoner before hooking up with a coach and a running group and following the long-slow distance method. (You can run the last few miles of some of these slower runs at race pace as a confidence booster too.) That helped bring her down into the 3:20s. Since I’m just under the 3:40 mark now and the 3:20s is where I want to be, this was exactly what I needed to hear. Granted the same things don’t work for everyone, but hearing it form someone that it worked for as opposed to reading it in a book makes a big difference for me.

I’d love to hear about your training – what plans do you follow? How do you fuel along the way? Does the taper drive you crazy? Let me know in the comments!

 

Pacers Meet and Greet with Ed Moran

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Last week Pacers hosted a Q&A session with professional runner Ed Moran at their Clarendon store. He gave some great training tips and running advice in a conversational format allowing all of us that showed up to ask any questions we had and dictate where the conversation went. It was a really enjoyable, info-filled event.

Pacers

Ed was a four-time All-American at William & Mary College and a seven-time U.S. National team member. He won a gold medal in the 5000m at the Pan-American Games and ran a 2:11 in his debut marathon. It was really cool to get running advice from someone who has raced at this level.

Having dealt with many injuries over his career he talked about the importance of cross-training in our training plans and discussed ways to incorporate speed training among many other topics. One of the pieces of advice he gave that I found most interesting was on fueling during races and how to practice. He suggested looking at the water/aid stops on the course map and only allowing yourself to drink at those same points on your training runs. I think this makes so much sense and will try to put it into practice when I train for the Marine Corps Marathon this year.

Check out the Pacers calendar for more upcoming events like these and fun runs.

Blogger Ride at Revolve

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Last Thursday I was invited to a special spin class Revolve hosted for D.C. area fitness bloggers and enthusiasts. It came together out of a group of bloggers featured in the Washingtonian chatting on twitter and turned into a big event. I go to Revolve regularly and love their classes, and am also a huge fan of a lot of the bloggers that were going so I was really excited to take another class there and actually meet some of these people who’s blogs I’ve been following.

BloggerRide1

I stole this shot from Anne’s at fANNEtastic food blog.

Francina Segbefia taught our class with awesome energy, a kick-butt Vegas-themed playlist and a flair of style. She kicked things off by having everyone introduce ourselves and the name of our blog so we could know each other in the real world too. It was so much fun. She had the whole class singing along to Gold Digger and other songs and pushed us all the way to the end where we wrapped up with some weights to work on the upper body. Their body ride classes are fast becoming my favorite type of spin class – it’s a great change of pace and this one was an absolute blast.

On the bikes next to me were Melody from Will Run for Margaritas – love her blog – and Laney from Running On Veggies – I hadn’t seen her blog before, but it’s great and definitely worth your time to check out. Turns out Melody and I used to teach boot camps at the same site – small world D.C. for you. Some other bloggers I really enjoy reading were also there including Melissa Romero who does the Washingtonian Well Being blog, Ashley of Coffee Cake and Cardio, Workout Wonks and DC Fit Crasher.

Blogger Introductions

Blogger Introductions

After class we had some time to mingle and post-ride refreshments from Gouter. I was a bit skeptical that I would like something labeled raw, vegan and organic, and I’m not really into juices or cleanses, but these were surprisingly tasty!

Post-Ride Refreshments

Post-Ride Refreshments

Overall it was a great night – fun to meet other bloggers excited about health and fitness in D.C., and get a great workout in too!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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Sometimes training involves being flexible, and this week I had to do just that and retool my workout plan to include more spinning and less time pounding on my feet after a not-so-smart Tuesday tempo run left my feet covered in blisters. I still felt like I got a really good week in though and am continuing to improve my fitness. The feet are doing a lot better and I hope to test them with some more faster runs this week. I ran 14.17 total miles last week.  Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class in the morning followed by a legs workout.

Tuesday: You can read the full story here, but basically I decided to do a tempo run in really old shoes and my feet paid dearly for it leaving me a bit hobbled for the rest of the week. Somehow it was still a great run. I got in 6.67 miles on the office treadmill starting out with a mile warm-up at an 8-minute pace, bumping it down to 7:35 to start the tempo portion and working my way down to 7:03 before cooling down for 2 minutes back at the 8-minute pace.

Wednesday: I bandaged my badly blistered feet up and limped over to my apartment gym in the morning, and put in 30 minutes on the stepper and a legs workout.

Thursday: I got in a body ride spin class at Revolve Thursday night as part of a blogger ride they hosted. It was a blast – more to come on that tomorrow.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: I started the day off with an endurance ride spin class in the morning and then tested my feet out for an easy 3 miler in the afternoon at my apartment gym.

Sunday: I headed back to the spin studio for an early morning body ride before putting in an easy 4.5 miles on the treadmill at Washington Sports Clubs before my membership there ends this week.

Resolution Check-In

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Wow, another month has flown by so I wanted to take a step back and see how I’m doing with my New Year’s Resolutions. It’s always good to check back in and remember what I’m working for.

Building up my core strength and staying injury free are key goals for me this year. I made core strength my January focus and managed to keep going strong through February doing my P90X Ab Ripper workout everyday. Going back to last year I’m at 63 straight days! I’m sticking with my stretching and foam rolling too to do what I can to stave off any injuries.

February’s focus was speed and I feel like I made great strides on this. (Yes, pun intended!) I reached my goal of two speed workouts per week though track workouts, hill repeats and tempo runs. My times have come way down since my first speed workouts back from physical therapy in January and my pace is steadily improving.

I got to register early for the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon through my deferment from last year, so now that race is officially on the calendar. So far I feel like things are right on track to get my Boston Qualifying time this October!

My focus for March is going to be nutrition. To run and workout as much as I do, I need good food to fuel me. I’m going to really try to up my fruit and veggie intake this month. I’m usually pretty good with fruits, but I’ve spent most of my life avoiding veggies so I’m trying to get better at that. I’m also going to focus on my nutrition on the run, and plan to try out some new things to fuel along the way on my long runs.

Are you still on track with your New Year’s resolutions? Tell me about your successes and challenges!

Home Sweet Dome

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Last weekend my Dad, Ian and I headed up to the Carrier Dome to see Syracuse play longtime rival Georgetown. A record-setting 35,012 people packed the Dome breaking the NCAA on-campus attendance record. Carmelo Anthony was back at the Dome to have his number retired at halftime. The place was rocking and orange was everywhere. It was perfect. Then we lost to Georgetown. Talk about a buzz-kill.

The Syracuse – Georgetown rivalry is legendary and one of the things I’m most sad to lose as conference realignment moves forward next season and the Big East falls apart. I know they plan to continue playing each other, but it just won’t be the same. Seventeen of Syracuse’s 72 games with more than 30,000 in attendance at the Dome have been against Georgetown. A few years before I was born in February of 1980 Syracuse brought a 57 consecutive home game win streak in to its final game at Manley Field House. The seniors on that team had never lost a home game in their careers. Georgetown beat the Orange that day and Coach John Thompson grabbed a mic and announced, “Manley Field House is officially closed.’’ Truly a rivalry for the ages – you just can’t make this stuff up.

Last weekend, this year’s Syracuse squad took a 38 home game winning streak onto the court. Thanks to Otto Porter blowing up for 33 points and Syracuse not being able to beat their 2-3 zone – something you think they’d know how to attack! – the ‘cuse lost their last Big East home game to the Hoyas. Current Georgetown Coach, John Thompson III, said he wasn’t going to give a Manley Field House is closed type of statement. Some might call him classy for that, but I prefer to think he just doesn’t want to give the Orange any bulletin board material for their rematch on March 9 down here in D.C.

I’ll be at that game too and I hope the ‘cuse can return the favor. I’m sure it’ll be a blast and it’s always fun to see so many Orange shirts at an away game despite Georgetown’s best efforts to keep Syracuse fans out. I actually had to make a $50 donation to Georgetown this year for the chance to buy a maximum of eight tickets. They don’t do that for any other game. It was a bit hard to swallow, but worth it to head to Carrier Dome South – I mean the Verizon Center – for the game this March.

Pics from the game at the Dome below. I unfortunately forgot my real camera so some of the iPhone shots are a bit blurry. I did have my wide angle iPhone lens adapter though, so I was able to get some good shots showing how packed it was in there!

Running Missteps

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Warning: Picture at the bottom is not safe for viewing while eating lunch!

Have you ever done something running related that you knew was a bad idea, but you went ahead and did it anyways? I know I sure have.

Tried to sweat out sickness with a tough run? Been there.

Think doing a long run or a race hungover won’t be that bad? Don’t remind me!

Done something for the first time in a race even though you’ve done enough races to know that’s breaking a cardinal rule? Check.

Run through pain thinking how much damage could I really be doing? More times than I’d like to admit. I could keep going, but I’m sure you get the drift.

Yesterday I made one of these running missteps. I ran in old shoes… really old shoes. I just couldn’t get myself out of bed for my track workout in the morning, but I had a personal training session at a client’s later last night not too far from the track so I figured I’d fit it in before then.

It was a busy morning at work and I ended up working through lunch, but hit a breaking point later in the afternoon. It was a gross, rainy day so I decided I could hit the office gym and switch my tempo run and track days. Naturally I didn’t have my gear with me, but I did have a back up set of gym clothes and an old pair of running sneaks that have seen one too many 20 milers to be used on anything but the elliptical anymore. I forgot a headband and I was wearing my glasses instead of my contacts. Clearly I should’ve paid attention to all of these signs and bagged the run.

Instead I did a just more than 6.5 mile tempo run at an average 7:30 pace. I could feel the blisters forming and I almost never get blisters. I should have stopped. I kept telling myself I was just being a baby and looking for an excuse to get out of my tempo run. Somehow I made it the whole way, but boy did it make for an uncomfortable walk home. I had multiple blisters on both feet and the biggest blood blister I’ve ever seen on my big toe. Ouch!

Fortunately blisters will heal and my feet should be fine in a day or two, but what a stupid mistake! Just in case you’re wondering, I’m getting rid of the shoes today and have already removed them from my office so I won’t be tempted to do that again!

Have you ever done something against your better judgement on a run? How’d it turn out for you?

Second Warning: Super gross picture below!

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Locks of Love!

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It’s not a good sign when you can’t even remember the last time you had your haircut. I know it was the last time I did Locks of Love – a cool organization that lets you donate your hair to be made into wigs for kids who’ve lost their hair from cancer treatments. It’s a really great cause and if you have the patience to grow your hair long enough (10 inches) I highly recommend you give it a shot. I think it may have been May of 2011 the last time I did it, but I’m not certain. One thing that was certain is that my hair was getting crazy long and a bit out of control! There were a few incidents where it got so tangled while I was working out that I needed Ian to cut hair ties out of it when I got back home. Yikes! Ian would like to point out that this is yet another “perk” of living with a runner.

Here’s the before shot. I did like my long hair, but I will not miss the time it took to blow dry and straighten every day.

Before

Before

While I was home in Syracuse last weekend I headed down to the Fayetteville Towne Center near my parent’s home to a hair salon called Andrey’s, and told them to chop it! The girl doing my hair actually went to the same high school as I did (although a few years later than me…ouch, feeling old!) so we chatted about that while she gave me my new ‘do. She cut off 13 inches in total – I hadn’t realized just how long it had gotten!

I think it came out great and I’m loving my new short hair cut. The next step is mailing it in to Locks of Love in a plastic bag inside of a padded envelope. Don’t ask where it’s been sitting while I wait till I can get to the post office! Gross! Why is it that as soon as hair isn’t attached to your head anymore it becomes super gross?

Right after the cut!

Right after the cut!

It’s been great during my workouts to pull my hair up into a tiny pony tail and wrap the rest in a Sweaty Bands headband so nothing is on my neck or bothering me while I run. I also love how quickly I can dry it and get ready in the mornings now! This is perfect timing too – it’ll be long enough to pull all of it up again once summer hits and the D.C. humidity turns my hair into a frizzy mess no matter how carefully I straighten it.

First day I had to style it on my own.

First day I had to style it on my own.

Do you prefer long or short hair for working out? Have you ever donated your hair before – what organization?

 

Also, I have to wish my Mom a very happy birthday today!! Hope it’s a great day!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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Week three on my training schedule for the Nike Women’s D.C. Half was a fall back week so it was a bit easier than normal weeks and it came at a good time. I came down with a little bit of a cold so I wasn’t feeling great and I also had travel plans over the weekend, so it was nice not to have to worry about a couple tough runs over the weekend. I ran 12.43 miles last week. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class in the morning followed by a strength workout. Those early morning classes sure are a lot easier when you have the day off and can come home and go back to bed afterwards!

Tuesday: I was up early to get in a speed session running hill repeats before an early morning personal training session with a client. Fortunately it wasn’t too cold out as I charged up the Wilson Boulevard Hill from Rhodeside to Four Courts seven times in the middle of my 5.25 mile run.

Wednesday: Today was supposed to be a cross training day, but I had another personal training session planned for Thursday morning that was going to get in the way of my tempo run so I gave back-to-back speed days a shot. This was tougher than I expected and I struggled through just a 30-minute tempo run mid-afternoon at the office gym. I got in 4.08 miles starting at an 8-minute pace and reaching a 6:58 pace by the end. I usually don’t count my first 8 minutes at an 8-minute pace as part of my tempo pace, but just wasn’t feeling it today and let it count as part of the 30 minutes. I followed the run up with a strength workout.

Thursday: My PT session ended up getting cancelled, so instead of biking there and from there to work as the day’s cross training, I decided to hit my apartment gym early and put in 30 minutes on the stepper.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: 30 minutes on the elliptical in my parent’s basement. This made me crave a treadmill in my own apartment even more – so nice to not have to go elsewhere to workout especially when you’re not feeling great.

Sunday: My Mom got me a guest pass to the Y she belongs to. It’s an awesome gym just down the road from their house and I’m always bummed that it wasn’t there until after I left for college. I was planning on 3.1 today and knew I couldn’t go as fast as usual since I was still a tad congested, but got a pretty good run in starting at an 8-minute pace and working my way down to 7:19  by the end. I’m ready to get back into the full swing of things next week after a good recharge week.