Last week was a blur of incessantly stretching my hamstring, cleaning out closets (not Eminem style, actually cleaning out closets), traveling, packing, making food and eating it! That’s what happens when you’re in race taper mode, find out it’s going to be cold rain for the race, and then have to travel to NY the following day for a 6 year-olds birthday party. Thank God (Columbus?) for the Monday holiday! I could now use a Tuesday and Wednesday one as well.
WEEK OF OCTOBER 6, 2014
RUNNING: Well, since this was a taper week, there wasn’t much running. I did take two full days off over the past weekend, when I was in Boston, so I did a 9 miler on Monday. I felt really good overall (7:26 pace) but that stupid hamstring was definitely THERE, just pissing me off. I did a last shake-out run on Wednesday (7:50 pace for 3.5 miles) and I probably should have skipped it. After that, I did a ton of stretching and rolling and yoga-ing.
At the race expo, getting my hydration on Meb-style, with Gen UCAN.
CYCLING: I taught my two spin classes, the last of which was on Thursday, a mere two days before the half. I tried to take it easy, but I just can’t. When I’m teaching, and that music comes on, I enter beast mode. Again, probably not the best idea, but it is what it is.
CROSS-TRAINING: Sleeping and eating. I kid you not. My husband was away on business for most of the week, which meant I got to go to sleep whenever I wanted, without feeling guilty. The only time we usually have together during the week is after 8pm, when the boys go to bed. I was in bed at 9pm pretty much every night he was away, which resulted in the best sleep ever leading up to a race!
RACING: It was a cold, rainy forecast but I wasn’t afraid! In fact, I’ve run some of my best longest races in the pouring, driving rain – – my first marathon and the Boston marathon come to mind. I highly prefer the rain to heat and humidity. Turns out, my body loves it. I pushed to a new PR in the half-marathon of 1:28:50, beating my previous time from last year by 47 seconds, and placing third in my age group out of 526! Full re-cap coming on Thursday…
FUEL: This may take a while. I started cooking on Monday and I just couldn’t stop. My husband was away, which meant that a lot of the food may not get eaten, but I wanted to indulge every craving. I also wanted to have a hot hearty meal at my disposal when I came home after the race. There’s nothing like coming home after a race, when you’re tired, dirty and hungry and have to figure out something to make yourself. Needless to say, I had plenty to chose from:
I made this ONE POT meal after reading Michelle of A Dish of Daily Life’s post. It was easy, delicious and everyone in the family ate it! How can you beat that? I also ate it the night before the race, so this may be my new pre-race meal!
I am in love with Siggi’s yogurt. Sorry Chobani but you’re off my list for now. I sprinkled in some Hemp Hearts…I’ll be talking more about those in another post.
Egg salad with avocado and greek yogurt (ok so Chobani is not totally off the list!) was heaven! Thank you FitBottomedGirls for the easy recipe.
I also made one of my all-time favorite fall crock pot meals – Turkey Sausage and Sweet Potato Stew. It’s absolutely delicious, easy to make, and bursting with nutrients. It was the perfect recovery meal for me, post race. With LOTS of bread!
THINGS I LOVE: The fact that my son wears his cheese head around the house, or while waiting for the bus, and yells “I’m a cheese fan!” Um, no sweetie, you’re a Green Bay Packer fan! Hilarious.
THINGS I DON’T LOVE AS MUCH: Apple. SO many curse words come to mind when I think about the release of the new phone, and all the Apple BS that goes with it, I may write an entire post about it. If not, I’ll continue complaining on social media, but will also continue to use my Apple laptop, iPad, iPod and iPhone. That’s how they get you!
MUSIC: Somehow hearing “Eye of the Tiger” during every single race, never gets old. Thank you Sylvester Stallone, for being such a badass.
READING: Train schedules! I’m headed to NYC this week bitches!! I cannot wait to meet (and room with) Amanda aka Miss Zippy and so many of my other favorite blogger friends, for Fitness Magazine’s Meet and Tweet! Obviously you need to follow me on Twitter for this one.
RANDOM QUOTE(S) OF THE WEEK: “I like rice. Rice is great if you’re hungry and want 2000 of something.” – Mitch Hedberg
“People who love to eat are always the best people.” – Julia Child
What did you eat this week?
What’s your favorite food?
What song do you never tire of hearing?
If you raced – let me know how you did!!!!
Cooking is oddly therapeutic, especially baking for me 🙂 there’s something about making the batter, stirring it up, pouring it in ramekins and baking it in the oven waiting for the aroma to fill the house and watching the transformation from batter to muffins and the batter rises and hardens.
Congrats on your new PR! Sleep is the ultimate way to cros train, haha.
I think it’s a combo of baking and sleeping! Thanks 🙂
Oh, the meet and tweet sounds like a lot of fun! Michelle’s one pot dish looked awesome and will make it onto my meal plan next week. The big thing on the meal plan this week was Shepherds Pie which the kids ate (totally shocked). John raced a duathlon and took 3rd overall. It takes two by Rob Base never gets old for me 🙂 Shows my age!
Love that song!! I’m old too 🙂
That one pot meal will not disappoint, and I’m in awe your kids ate shepherd’s pie!? wow!
CONGRATS to John. He’s such a badass.
You made me lol about Apple and you already know I am an Apple addict (hey at least I admit it!), but still you are right they got me at the very least this way and use all of the above and then some! And all the goodies here, definitely hungry as I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet…so all looked yum to me. By the way, I too could use one more day added to the long holiday weekend, too (I can wish).
I was actually thinking of you when I wrote that about Apple! It’s definitely a love/hate relationship. Some days are better then others, right? hahaha!!!
I am so glad you liked my one pot meal! It’s a big favorite here as well! Sometimes when I get to cooking, I get on a roll and go a little crazy. But it usually all gets eaten with teenagers in the house. A more usual refrain is that there is nothing to eat, which of course if you know me you know there is always food in this house, because I love to eat. It basically means, there is nothing that is made and I want you to make me something. I guess it’s better than them eating junk food all the time. LOL
I really loved it and, even better, so did everyone else. I hate the “there’s nothing to eat” line. Most of the time it means there’s nothing they want, but there’s always food!!
I am very curious about how Apple wronged you!! That stew looks yummy. I love that quote by Julia Child because it’s really quite true!! “I’m a cheese fan” hilarious so am I kid, so am I. So excited about your PR but I totally knew you were going to do it! Meet and tweet is going to be great. Part fitness conference, part cooking, part social media….and a run. Everything a fitness blogger dreams of!!
I’m sure I’ll have to write a post about it…after I get my iPhone of course – hahaha!!
I love another cheese fan 🙂
It sounds like a dream come true…and so does a solo night in the city and a run in CP!!!! Yipppeeeee!
YAY! PR!!! Congrats Allie! That is wonderful, I am so happy for you! I guess the UCAn worked huh? It is a wonderful product, and I definitely will be using it again in my future marathons, that is one thing that I know did work! I am looking forward to the race recap 🙂
Thank you so much Tina! I’m looking forward to YOUR recap, even though I know it didn’t go as you planned. And, I didn’t use the UCAN since I never had before. I’m going to use it in training next week and then for a 15K I have coming up in Nov!
And I’m going to see you tomorrow, iPhone and Mac in hand, lady!
Sooo excited about your killer PR! Very, very nice. Please tell me your speedy legs are tired and will want to slum it with me on Thurs. morning at a nice, easy pace?!
Of course I’ll have all my apple stuff in tow…like a beaten dog!
And yes, any pace will do with these tired old lady legs 🙂
Sounds like you had a pretty good week. More sleep….I’m so jealous! I am going to try some of these recipes. I really want to use my crockpot more this season to make my life a little easier. Thanks for the info!
Crockpot meals make life SO much easier. I’m so glad to use mine again! Thanks Kris!!
When i ran in high school, i always had my best runs in the rain. And oh- i ran twice this weekend!! woo! it was horrible and awful but i’ve promised myself im going to keep it up- i need the cardio in my life. (we’ll see how this goes.) also i have yet to get sick of “all about that bass” and “shake it off”– still get excited when those songs come on.
Rain is good for the soul! Keep it up Charlotte – you can do it!!
My kids love “all about that bass” and belt it out every time they hear it…which is a lot.
I heard “Eye of the Tiger” on the radio today! That was quite a score.
And that egg salad looks divine. I love deviled eggs and egg salad but Cassidy hates mayo and I’m not a huge fan either.
Greek yogurt and avocado? Count me in! I also want to eat Michelle’s one pot pasta!
I feel the same way about mayo. The only issue (that I didn’t think about) was that the avocado turns brown so it’s not so appealing the next day… 🙂 Michelle’s dish is amazing, and looks the same the next day!
Um, I want to bury my face in that pasta and egg salad!!
Have a fun trip to NYC!
That’s pretty much exactly what I did! Have someone make them both for you, and you can try to at least eat with one hand 🙂
Huge congrats on the PR – so awesome!!
And, I might be a little jealous that you and Amanda are going to meet up – have a great time!!!
With the cool weather I’ve been on a huge cooking (and sadly eating) binge!!!
I think tomorrow I will make some egg and avocado salad – love that combo!!!
I so wish you could join us. You would definitely complete us 🙂 Someday Kim, someday!
Just a warning on the egg salad with avocado – it turns brown the next day. I wasn’t expecting that, even though I know that about avocado!
“not Eminem style…” LMBO!!! You are a BEAST! And that egg salad with avocado–yes ma’m!
I’m glad someone enjoyed that line! Thanks Andrea 🙂
I am so, so, so excited for your new half marathon PR! You are a rock star! I am not excited about your tight hamstring so I hope you are going to get some rest and let it fully recover 🙂 I’m also very jealous of your event in NYC! Sounds totally amazing! Can’t wait to follow you along and read your race recap. xoxo
Thank you so much Jesica! I was thinking about you when I was out there, and knowing that I can do whatever I BELIEVE I can do!! And look at YOU! Talk about rock star! Just amazing. I so wish I could run Boston with you…or really, any race. We need to work on that!!
Amazing half marathon PR, great job!! All of that food looks amazing and I’m totally in love with hemp hearts, I put them on pretty much everything! I ran my very first Army 10 Miler this weekend. It’s HUGE race here in DC, you need to come down and run it some year, it was amazing. I promised myself I was going to use it as a training run, but ended up racing it instead. No PR for me, but I pushed it pretty hard. Probably would have had a PR had I not stopped with my friend for the porta potty’s at mile 2!
I read your race recap and it sounds awesome – although crazy crowded! I was just telling someone I really want to run DC. You always have the most amazing pictures of your races there. We’ll have to plot out a plan!!
Yes!! You NEED to come down here! Let’s do the ATM next fall!!
I don’t know what that is but I am IN!!!
Haha, Army 10 Miler 🙂
RIGHT!!! You had me all confused and thinking about money 🙂
Oh Apple!! They get me every time! Ugh. Please write a whole post on it. Also, why does it take weeks to get the new iPhone if you order it online? Surely they have enough consultants and analysts to approximate the demand they are expected to receive. Hello, someone there is creating a report on anticipated revenue. So annoying!
They do it on purpose. Of course they could keep up with demand, that’s another way they GET YOU! Agghhrrrrrr. So great seeing you Britt and can’t wait for all the festivities today!
Your half PR is KILLER!! So happy for you! 🙂 Apple constantly frustrates me…yet I continue to have a MacBook and iPhone. Sigh. Can’t wait to see you SOON!!
Don’t forget about your iKindle. 🙂
I did awesome!! I’m a long time Apple fan. They suck you in that way! Jealous of those getting to meet you 🙂
I know you did and I’m SO happy for you!! There is no better feeling after a race run well.
Someday we’ll get to meet Jill!!