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First PR of the Year

Happy Wednesday! I’m blogging in the sunshine between classes. I have a few food pictures and a few recent workouts to share today.

Food

Monday morning, since I didn’t have class, I went out to brunch with friends.

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I got a brie omelet with green onions and mushrooms. YUM. This may be a new favorite brunch plate, because I also want to try the goat cheese omelet!

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I debated for a while whether to get hash browns or fruit. Next time I would do fruit-I guess I’m not a huge hash brown person, although these were good ones.

At breakfast, I’ve been making instant coffee a lot lately. It’s actually pretty good if you make it with just milk and no water. If I want less of a caffeine kick, I’ll do half a pack of it.

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A giant cup of milk has been surprisingly filling, so I’ve kept the rest of breakfast a bit lighter. Whole wheat english muffin with cream cheese and eggs.

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Yet another freezer meal-grilled chicken, balsamic brussels, and mashed yams.

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I completely forgot to thaw a lunch for today, so I went to the dining halls t breakfast and grabbed the essentials for an egg sandwich-whole wheat english muffin, cream cheese, and hard boiled egg. Served with some grapes.

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And then dinner last night was basic but solid. They had my favorite cabbage-miso salad, plus lemon caper salmon. There were also stuffed peppers but I wasn’t a fan, mostly because I don’t really like peppers.

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Workouts

Monday: 1 rep max front squats at Crossfit. I PRed at 165#! ONLY 5# PR but I’ll take it! The conditioning portion was a little running, kettle bell swings, and fairly heavy dumbbell push presses.

Tuesday: Crossfit-over head squats and toes to bar (knees to elbow) for strength, and a pretty tough conditioning workout.

AMRAP 15

10 Wall Ball (14#)
20 Double Under
10 DB Snatch (25#)

I did actual double unders- and those gassed me! I’ve randomly made a double under breakthrough recently, and they’ve been pretty good. The downside? I whipped myself. A lot. Pretty badly. I think it’s a cute look.

I was supposed to do a tempo run that evening but I had a lot of school work. I have a race in 1.5 weeks and I’m feeling pretty unprepared!

Wednesday: 6 mile run. Since I skipped my tempo run, I picked it up a bit at the turnaround point, and did a mile at a fairly fast clip (definitely not race pace though). So….a week and a half to get fast…?

How do you work on speed?

Skipping Burpees

Do you ever have one of those days when you just feel like you killed your workouts?

That was yesterday for me. I’m loving these afternoon treadmill runs!

I did my heavy squats, and then I knocked out a treadmill speedy run. I started with 2 miles at an 8:00 pace. This is big for me, since I haven’t run fast much lately! I’m hoping to slowly increase this distance-honestly it’s harder mentally than physically!  So maybe if I do that I’ll have some hope of being prepared for the turkey trot? I followed those 2 miles with 5 intervals-2:00 @ 7:30, 2 min walking. I covered 4 miles total. It felt amazing. After all that running though, I made sure to come back and ice my foot right away! I’m pretty sure my feet like the extra cushion of the treadmill.

In terms of food, yesterday was pretty clean cut.

Breakfast part 1: cranberry orange bread (so good!!).

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Breakfast part 2:

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Lunch: Leftover Goat Cheese Souffle+ roasted carrots and a persimmon.

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Snack immediately post run: coconut covered date roll.

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After my workout, I was pretty ravenous for dinner. I had a salad with BBQ chicken, more veggies, and then I went back for a roll on the side.

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I also snacked on a protein bar plus some cheese and crackers later on!

So…last night I managed to be really dumb and somehow totally wiped out…in my room…Our beds are sort of raised, so I either have to jump up and down or use a chair. I tend to only use a chair when I’m lazy, which apparently I was. Somehow while I was stepping off the chair I lost my balance, and my other leg got caught on the back of the chair, so I had no where to go but down-I ended up falling pretty hard on my knee. Luckily I was wearing pants, but I still have pretty bad carpet burn plus a bruise. The only upside? It meant there was no way I was doing burpees during this morning’s Crossfit workout. I subbed 1 squat+1push up for each burpee….which was definitely much preferred!

When was the last time you wiped out?

Preparations for Holiday Racing

Happy Friday! We made it! Yay! I actually was able to get my big assignment finished last night, which is a huge load off my shoulders!

This is what I made:

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Luckily we didn’t have to do any graphics for this assignment, and I just had to work on game play. I have played enough Yahtzee now to last a lifetime.

Not going to lie, I like days better that include 3 straight meals. It seems simpler and more in order. Which is weird. Either way, yesterday was one of those days. My morning began with an hour of spin on my own, followed by breakfast.

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I think the pancake was whole wheat cinnamon? Plus the typical yogurt bowl.

Then I settled in to a coffeeshop to work on the above assignment.

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I had coffee Mon-Thurs this week and I think about half of those days it was unnecessary. This was way too strong and I was WIRED.

Lunch before lab was same old, same old. My last freezer meal :'(

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After lab, I really wanted to go to Crossfit because it was squat day, and we’re following a specific program, but my feet were bothering me and I had a lot of work so I skipped it.

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Dinner was a mix of a whole bunch of things-edamame, potstickers (chicken and veg), butternut squash, barley, and teriyaki chicken. For dessert, I had hot chocolate cake with fudge. With ice cream in a separate bowl so it wouldn’t melt.

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I’ve gotten into the bad habit of having dessert at the dining hall more often than not, so something to work on. This was delicious though.

And those were my 3 meals!

Now onto running talk.

I feel like I’m not at all in speed shape, unfortunately. I’m doing a Turkey Trot 10k, and it definitely will not be a PR. On the plus side, I have been running 6 miles a lot lately, so the distance should be fine. In mid-December, I’m doing the Santa Run 5k that I’ve done the past 2 years. Last year I tried to PR this race (spoiler alert-didn’t happen), but this year I know I’m not going to be close because that’s in a month! That being said, some speed work is definitely in order. I’ve been doing Friday morning track workouts, although not super consistently. This morning was 10x400m, and I feel like in the last few repeats I was starting to get in the groove of running faster. I think next week’s track workout will be longer and not as fast, in preparation for the 10k. In addition, I think for now I’m going to make Monday afternoons (I only have 2 more of these of normal classes though) treadmill runs. These will vary somewhat, although for next week I’m thinking I’ll do 2 miles @ 8:00 pace, plus 10 2:00 intervals at 7:30. I did a shorter version of this last Monday, and I think after that I’m ready to kick it up a notch! To be honest, my main PR goal races will be in the winter-probably the same ones I did last year! So I have plenty of time. Right now, my running isn’t super focused, which I’m enjoying, but some speed workouts will be good for me!

What are your upcoming goals?

My Running Story

Hey guys! I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while now, and just a couple of days before my 4th half marathon seemed as good a time as any!

If you look at my races page, you can look at some of the recaps of races I’ve done, although as we speak it is horribly out of date.

So let’s go back a ways, shall we?

When I was very young and first did any running at all in PE, it was terrible. I hated it so, so much. And we’re talking middle school here. But halfway through middle school, something changed. I started to get a little faster, and before I knew it, I was working my butt off to get a certain mile time to get that year’s fitness award. The next year, I did track because I was actually fast. I know, crazy, right? I had one glory year where I was speedy. I could run a 6:50 mile. I definitely can’t do that now…

I also played soccer, and my freshman year of high school, when the season ended I started going for runs to stay in shape. 3 miles was the big distance run around the neighborhood (but it was also a crazy hill). I continued to run on my own some for the next few years, although I was doing a lot of other activity for softball. I think it was my junior year in high school that I randomly decided to time a mile, and it was just as fast as several years prior.

My first race ever was right before I left for college. I’m not sure how I got it in my head that one day I wanted to do a half marathon, but that summer I decided to follow a 10k training plan to get a taste of what training for a half might be like. I remember on race day starting with all the half runners and wishing I had done the half. The race went really well-I actually finished first in my age group with a time of 52:50.

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Right after coming to college, I started rowing which had me in great shape. I did 4, 5, 6 mile runs without too much thought. That winter I signed up for my first half-the same race I had down the 10k for. What I didn’t anticipate was getting really sick that winter/early spring. It was bad enough that I stopped rowing and lay in bed for a solid month. (I had mono.) Once I recovered, getting back to working out was SO hard. I was so weak from being sick, plus I hadn’t done as much as sit up in bed in the past month. I slowly worked my way back into activities again, but even by the time summer started and I started Crossfit, I was in some of the worst shape of my life. When I started training for my half. It was terrible. Running felt awful, and so, so hard. Each long run was a huge struggle, even the first long runs which were “only” 5 and 6 miles. I worked my way through the training schedule, completing my first double digit runs (and then being unable to move).

Then there was the scare 2 weeks before race day when I pushed a bit too hard during a run and hurt my calf-and couldn’t run hardly at all before race day. I made it to starting line by some miracle and amazing physical therapy, and finished much faster than I was expecting (2:12).

After a couple of weeks off, I started training for my second half, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. I was amazed by how much easier everything felt the second time through. Despite a much harder course (HILLS) I PRed the race by 3 minutes.

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I also didn’t feel nearly as bad right after the race as I did before. After my first half, I couldn’t walk my hips were so sore. An hour after finishing this one, I ran a couple more miles with my sister as she finished her marathon.

Then, a couple of weeks later, I finished my longest run to date, a 16 miler. This was mainly to see if my feet would be able to handle marathon training.

Then, I went into speed training and did some shorter races, so going into my 3rd half I felt faster. Then, this summer, I trained in heat and humidity, both of which will be absent on race day. Plus, I went to run club every week which kicked my butt so hard, but I’m faster for it!

So…we shall see what happens. It’s been a great journey, and I credit the blog world for helping me get over the initial fear of a half!

Tell me about your running story.

3000 Miles Later…

Hello, hello! I’m back in CA!

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Everyone has been complaining about how “hot” it is. It’s 82 and dry. That’s cute. I ran in long sleeves yesterday morning!

In terms of travel, everything went pretty smoothly. I enjoyed one last Sweetgreens salad.

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And one last Georgetown cupcake. These are salted caramel and chocolate birthday cake.

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The cupcake competition in DC may require its own post.

After packing my bags, I lugged 125 lbs of luggage through the cobbled streets of DC. That, my friends, is why I do Crossfit. Needless to say I had to pay quite a bit in overweight baggage fees…

Immediately upon arriving home, I became a furry mess, as I will continue to be for the next 3 weeks.

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Besides cuddling my kitty, I’m going to be putting some work into this blog in the next few weeks. I haven’t had much time to do much with it lately other than throw up posts-my race page is sorely outdated. So be on the lookout for a fun recipe tonight!

In terms of the last few days, yesterday morning I tried out my current pre-run breakfast. Yogurt with cocoa banana and sunflower seed butter.

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Then, I headed out for my run. I went out to the bay and my mom walked while I ran. I guess I got a bit faster this summer-it’s really nice to run when a) it’s 20 degrees cooler and b) not 5am and I’m just rolling out of bed to the street.

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Lunch out with my family afterwards was a cobb salad with chicken and avocado.

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For snack, I had some pumpkin yogurt. Yes, I know it’s too soon. It was good though.

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In the evening, I went to my home Crossfit! I’m so happy to be back there! We worked on pull ups, and then the WOD included lots of tire flips. My arms hurt.

For dinner, I made a copycat Sweetgreens seasonal salad.

I also utilized my new knife skills I learned at a culinary bootcamp in DC that I went to for work to cut the watermelon.

The salad included arugula, baby kale, fresh mint, feta, watermelon, cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, spicy sunflower seeds, chicken, and champagne vinaigrette.

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It came out really well!

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And because we need to end on a cat picture clearly:

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