Category Archives: Running

Relaxation

Posted on March 31, 2012 by inmytummy| 6 Comments

Since we were away last weekend, I feel today has been the first Saturday in a long time where I was able to truly relax. I had a fun time in DC with my family, but relaxing it was not. Since I don’t get there that often – maybe two times a year – my time is often jam-packed seeing different relatives and friends.

But really today has felt relaxing because I didn’t have a long run. My long runs were, at most, two hours which really isn’t a huge portion of the day but they often felt like they were because my entire weekend revolved around when I was going to run. Was I going to get up early? Would it be too hot or too cold at a certain time? Which day had better weather? Did I have any plans that I had to fit the run around? Planning for the run was often much more exhausting than the run itself.

But today I could run however far I wanted and I wasn’t on a schedule. So instead of rushing around in the morning, I made pancakes.

Janetha’s Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes have become my go-to pancake recipe. Except for one thing – mine don’t have yogurt in them. It’s not that I don’t like yogurt, I do, but I always buy the individual yogurt cups to take to work, so when a recipe calls for 2T of yogurt and I’m doubling it, I don’t know what to do with small amount of yogurt that remains. I mean, I guess I could eat it, but instead, I’ve been using applesauce. It works just as a well, I think, although I’ve never used the yogurt to compare.

After breakfast, we went to the gym. I had planned to run 3 miles but when I got there, I realized that I’d forgot my headphones. Running for 30 minutes on the treadmill with no music is akin to torture, so I knew that if I didn’t have music to focus on, I needed something else. So I did intervals. I alternated running 3 minutes at 7.0 mph with 2 minutes at 3.5 for a recovery. I did this for 30 minutes which ended up being 2.75 miles. Close enough.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with things like ~~napping on the couch~~ cleaning the bathroom. I thought about going to the grocery store to get some ingredients to make a proper dinner, but felt like I should use what I have at home instead. Plus, I was being lazy. So I made a variation of my usual refried bean concoction.

Mixed Veggies

This was some sauteed veggies (Trader Joe’s Asian blend), 1 egg, some salsa, some black beans, some olives and some cheese all mixed together. Not exactly gourmet, but it’s easy and it tastes good.

I’m about to go to Target. The one near me was remodeled and apparently has fresh produce now. Woo, Target on a Saturday night to look at their vegetable selection. Did I say this was a relaxing weekend? Maybe I meant boring!

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Posted in Breakfast, Running, The Gym, Vegetarian

The Publix Georgia Half-Marathon (My 10th)

Posted on March 19, 2012 by inmytummy| 30 Comments

In addition to driving the expo together, Tina and I decided to drive to the race together too. In previous years, I’ve taken MARTA (the subway) but since we had brunch plans after the race, it would have taken too long to take MARTA back to my car and then drive back downtown to the restaurant. We left my house at 5:30 in order to make sure we had enough time to get downtown, park and meet Lindsay at 6:30.

#Lindsay, Tina and Me#

We managed to meet up with Lindsay right away and the three of us stood around for a minute, taking in the crowds before we split up to go into our respective corrals (they were in Corral B, I was in Corral I.) Oddly enough since there were 18,000 people running, I ran into a co-worker as soon as I stepped into my corral. We chatted for a little bit and then the race began.

#GA marathon start#

I didn’t know what this race was going to be like for me. I didn’t train as well as I could have. I did all my long runs, but I kind of slacked off when it came to the shorter runs. My training plan had me running four times a week and I often skipped one of the days. There’s no rhyme or reason to why I did that; I just did.

I was kind of hoping for a miracle, but here’s a spoiler: that didn’t happen. The first couple of miles were fine. Mile 3 was difficult but I remembered it being difficult in previous years and I kept reminding myself of that. From Miles 4-8, I felt pretty good, except that I was getting some stomach cramps. The weather was unseasonably warm and I was worried about getting dehydrated so I kept gulping down Gatorade which was not a wise move.

In previous years, Mile 9 had the runners going through Piedmont Park but this year, we ran down Monroe and up 10th street instead which was a bummer. One because it’s fun to run in the park and two because 10th street is like all uphill. I was not feeling this race at all at this point. However, I knew that Laura was going to be spectating and I was looking forward to seeing her. If you’re not a runner, you might not know this, but seeing a familiar face on the sideline of a race course when you’re feeling tired, sick of running and questioning your sanity, really helps a ton. Thanks so much Laura! She stopped and took a picture of me. I think I look happy because I was glad that I could stop running for a second.

#Mile 9.5 of the race#

The last three miles of this race are pretty cruel. The race is hilly as a whole, but the last three, especially Miles 10 and 11 are pretty bad. My legs just felt like they couldn’t do it, so I did what I didn’t want to do; I took some walk breaks. Before I got to Mile 10ish, I was on target for running a 2:15 race, but my walking obviously slowed me down a lot. I didn’t care though. I just could not push through. By the last mile, I knew that a 2:20 race wasn’t feasible either. Even so, I decided to push myself and run the last mile with no walk breaks. My legs felt like they were moving in slow motion, but I didn’t walk.

I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 2:27 something. Definitely nowhere near a PR (PR is 2:14) but I’ve done worse. After the race, I found my friends and Lindsay was nice enough to let Tina and I shower in her hotel room. After we were de-stinkified, we met up at Stone Soup, a restaurant in Grant Park. And by we, I mean me, Tina, Laura, Lindsay, Lindsay’s husband Travis, Lindsay and Travis’ daughter Clara, Heather and Heather’s husband Kirk (who ran the race too).

#alttext#

This restaurant was a great choice. There were several vegans/vegetarians in the group and there were tons of choices on the menu for everyone. Plus, we got to sit outside in a cute little patio and they were able to accommodate our group of 7 (well, 8 including Clara) with no problem.

#Kirk, Heather and Lindsay at Stone Soup#

#Laura and Tina at Stone Soup#

#tofu scramble at stone soup#

I had the tofu scramble, which was good but needed some salt. It was fun to sit around and chat with everyone although by the end of the meal, I was fading fast and really was craving my bed!

And like that, Sunday night came to an end and so did half-marathon training.

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Posted in Atlanta, Atlanta Restaurants, Blogger Meet-Up, Publix Georgia Marathon, Races, Running, Vegetarian

Not My Last

Posted on March 8, 2012 by inmytummy| 17 Comments

As I started to run on the treadmill tonight, I envisioned myself typing out this blog post. In my mind, I was going to say something about how running has been tough lately, but I finished strong my last week before the taper. But it wasn’t true.

Yesterday’s 3 mile run was good. I ran at lunch and when I run during lunch, I tend to run faster because I need to fit the entire workout in a 30 minute time frame. (The rest of the hour is used traveling to and from the gym and changing.) I ran a little faster than normal and felt good. Then today, I was supposed to run 6 miles. I ran 5. And they sucked. It was probably due to running faster the day before, but that 50 or so minutes could not come fast enough.

I didn’t get home until 8 and threw together a pretty simple dinner – Trader Joe’s Gnocci ala Sorenta (or something like that), Morningstar Farms Veggie Meatballs and some steamed kale.

#alttext#

On Twitter today, there were tons of tweets about the Marine Corps Marathon. I thought about how once in my life, I wanted to be one of those people who ran a marathon. And I did run one. But I didn’t catch that marathon bug that most people did. I had a bad race and honestly, never wanted to do it again.

That’s not how I feel about half-marathoning. As much as I’ve been complaining about being sick of running, I’m at the very end of my training. The race is an week and a half and hopefully the training will pay off. And while I do intend to take a break and focus more on shorter, faster runs, I don’t think this half-marathon will be my last.

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Posted in Races, Running

11 Miles

Posted on March 5, 2012 by inmytummy| 24 Comments

Sunday morning came around and I did still did not want to run. I honestly thought about skipping it; I thought I could just have a two-week taper. But then I thought about how mad I’d be at myself for doing that. After a few hours of grumbling and generally acting like a bratty baby (sorry Jason!), I laced up my shoes and headed out the door.

Originally, I had these grand plans of where I’d run. First I thought I’d drive to a MARTA station and park my car there, run to another MARTA station 11 miles away and take MARTA back. That seemed like a pain so I made up another route where I could start and finish at Whole Foods. Again, it seemed like too much trouble to drive the 15 minutes to get there, so I ended up just running near my house. There’s a 7-mile loop that I like to run if I turn right at the end of my street. I turned left, ran two miles that way, two miles back and then did the 7-mile loop.

Sometimes people ask me what I think about when I run long distances. Pretty much this:

• I’ll just run slow. It won’t be that bad.
• Two miles already, this isn’t bad. Oh wait, how many more to go?
• Jason said he was going to the gym. I haven’t seen him pass by. I wonder if he skipped it.
• Oh, there’s Jason! Yay!
• Running back past my house again sucks. So tempted to stop.
• I’m at CVS. Time for a Gatorade and to eat my Gu.
• How do people not like Gu? The chocolate kind tastes like frosting.
• I’ve already run 7 miles, only 4 more to go!
• Oh, wait, I’ve only run 6 miles. Damn.
• What can I have for lunch?
• My new boots are coming tomorrow.
• I hope I don’t crap my pants.
• I hope my ipod doesn’t die. It doesn’t look like it has much juice left. (It didn’t die)
• I like my new job much better than my old job.
• Sunday Sales are on the ballot in my county on Tuesday. I wasn’t going to vote in the primary (I’m a democrat, so there’s not really a point.) but now I am. Alcohol brings out my civic pride.
• I like that my boss eats healthy food.
• My hips are hurting.
• What’s the point of an author tag on a blog? Is it just to show that the content truly belongs to that blog?
• Would anyone let me post about promotional products on their blog?
• What’s for lunch?
• My eyebrows are looking rough. I need to get them waxed, but that’ll involve wearing clothes that aren’t pajamas.
• I feel like my bra is chafing. If this bra that I spent $60 on chafes, I’m not going to be a happy camper. (it wasn’t)
• 1 mile to go!
• Keep running because it’ll hurt more and take longer if you walk.
• Oh hey, there’s Jason again. He’s going to work so I won’t see him. Boo.
• I did it!
• What’s for lunch?

And like that, 11 miles was done.

#After the run#

I got home by 1:30ish and I think that was key in making sure the run didn’t take up the entire day. I sometimes will wait until later to run (especially if it’s cold out) and by the time I get home, it’s already almost time for dinner, or at least time to think about dinner.

I made some coffee…

#Coffee#

…ate my lunch and then proceeded to sleep for an hour and a half on the couch. Murphy was so good and didn’t wake me up demanding a walk!

#Murphy#

(Someone needs his hair did. Looking a little fluffy.)

I actually didn’t feel tired or achy at all when I woke up, so I decided to make a good dinner.

#spinach artichoke chili#

This is spinach and artichoke white bean chili and it’s delicious. I did modify the recipe slightly. I had a 10 oz package of frozen spinach and didn’t want to only use half, so I just stuck the whole thing in there. That made it really, really thick, so I used 3 cups of broth instead of 1.5. I also used only two cans of beans. Then I topped it with parmesan.

Kitchen time wasn’t over at dinner. It was one of those days where I really felt like cooking, so I made Peach Protein Muffins for snacks to take to work.

#Peach Protein Muffins#

The peaches at the grocery store looked horrible, so I just used canned peaches, the ones in juice, not syrup. Worked for me.

I guess I managed to have a pretty productive Sunday. Having to run a long distance doesn’t have to take up the entire day. I just need to get started earlier, I realized. One more long run and then it’s the race!

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Posted in Baking, Cooking, Running, Vegetarian

No Run Today

Posted on March 4, 2012 by inmytummy| 8 Comments

It’s very frustrating to me, but I’m still very much feeling burnt out from running. The thought of running 11 miles today made me want to crawl up in a ball…and I did; I ended up taking a 2-hour nap instead of going for a 2-hour run. I will admit though, that my original plan was to do the run on Sunday. We got some major storms last night and the forecast called for rain this morning too. Jason and I ended up having a nice date night, which involved wine, so it really was never my intention to run today (I don’t drink the night before a long run. Well, not usually.)

It was raining when I woke up but it had mostly cleared up by noon and I thought that maybe I should do the run and get it over with. I much prefer doing my long runs on Saturdays. I feel like when I do them on Sundays, it somehow takes the entire day and by the time everything is said and done, the weekend is over. Yes, I could do them early in the morning and avoid that, but the mornings are really the only time that I get to spend with Jason.

This is just a long-winded way of saying that I didn’t do my 11 mile run today. That’s not to say that I didn’t do anything; I went to the gym for a nice upper body workout. I’m still vaguely following the LiveFit Trainer. By vaguely, I mean that I’m doing the strength portion of the workouts when I decided to have a strength training day and I’m doing them in order but I’m not doing them lots of days in a row, like you’re supposed to, nor am I following them with cardio. I’m also not following the nutrition plan. I’m sure this is why I’m not really get much in terms of results, but it still provides a nice structured weight lifting routine which I like.

I’m just taking it easy tonight, to mentally and physically prepare myself for the run tomorrow. That means no wine and a good carby dinner. My friend Emily recommended the Pesto Pizza from Trader Joe’s so I bought it last weekend. While the pizza has the roughly the same nutritonals as any vegetarian pizza (this one was three servings, 310 calories each), it’s quite a bit smaller. It fit on a dinner plate.

#Trader Joe's Pesto Pizza#

In order to keep myself from demolishing the entire thing, which I could easily do, I made sure to serve my portion with some filling sides.

#alttext#

I had a slice of pizza, some leftover Asian veggies and some kale that I steamed and then added nutritional yeast and salt to. And you know what? It was plenty filling. (Edited to add: I ate another piece several hours later!)

Hopefully this will provide good run fuel for tomorrow. I’m also thinking of starting and finishing my run at Whole Foods so I can get a little treat when I finish.

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Posted in Running, Vegetarian

Don’t Give Up Now

Posted on March 2, 2012 by inmytummy| 10 Comments

I was hoping I’d wake up this morning and feel like I just couldn’t live if I didn’t go for a run. Nope, didn’t happen. In fact, I don’t think that’s ever really happened. I’m not a stranger to this feeling of burn out. In fact, it pretty much happens every time I do a half-marathon. I really enjoy racing, but training, well, not so much. Unfortunately, I enjoy racing when I’ve had a good race, which means I have to train.

Despite my crappy attitude, I saw this post on the Georgia Marathon’s facebook page and it made me feel motivated to get yesterday’s missed five miles done:

#alttext#

I mean, I can power through my training for two more weeks, right? And then I never have to run another half-marathon. But you know me, I’ll probably sign up for one right away. I wish I could say that my 5-mile run was great, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t horrible, mind you, but it was just sort of meh. While I felt fine physically, time went by pretty slowly. Maybe I need some new music.

The problem with running five miles at the gym after work is that I get home at 8pm. I’m usually pretty hungry at this point, so dinner after a longer gym workout is often something pretty quick. No cooking this late.

#Trader Joe's Curry#

I bought this curry at Trader Joe’s last weekend. Originally I thought about taking it to work for lunch, but I wasn’t sure how strong the curry smell would be (it wasn’t strong) and didn’t want to be that girl who stunk up the kitchen. The package suggested serving it over rice, but I opted for some kale instead, which I previously steamed.

#Green Curry over Kale#

(Hello super grainy pictures. Note to self: bump down the ISO!)

This was good, but it was definitely more like a soup. It gave the kale a good flavor, however, so my mission for an easy, healthy dinner after the gym was accomplished.

Two more weeks until the race!

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Posted in Cooking, Publix Georgia Marathon, Running, Vegetarian

Unplanned Rest Day

Posted on March 1, 2012 by inmytummy| 14 Comments

I had it on my schedule that I was going to run five miles at the gym after work. As usual, the end of the workday rolled around and I had little to no motivation to go the gym. Normally, I just force myself to drive there and by the time I start working out, I feel better, but tonight I decided to take a rest day.

I’m not sure when the last day I took off was – sometime last week, I guess. I think it might have been Thursday. Working out six days in a row doesn’t work for me. I get cranky and well, just need my rest. Plus, I had two freelance things to write that are due tomorrow and I knew that if I ran the five miles, I’d get home late, write crappy because I was tired and then have to go to bed and not enjoy my night at all.

Unplanned rest days for the win! I’ll do the five miles tomorrow. I haven’t run since Monday, when I did three miles at lunch, so at least my legs will be well rested.

I kind of milked the “I have wooooooork to do.” thing for all it was worth and Jason made dinner. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I made sandwiches as an alternative to tofu last night. You knew that tofu was going to make an appearance and here it is!

#tofu stir fry#

Jason made a sauce out of soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and sesame oil. He didn’t write down the proportions though. In the sauce went a bowl of Trader Joe’s Asian stir fry vegetables and the aforementioned tofu. I made some soba noodles to help absorb the sauce.

I’m hoping that I’ll be feeling the running thing tomorrow. I have to admit: I’m ready for this race, which is March 18th, to be over. I think I might retire from half-marathoning at least for a while. I know I always feel like that and then sign up for another, but I”m really not feeling it anymore. Maybe it’s because I did most of my training alone, but whatever the reason is, I feel like I need a long break.

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Posted in Cooking, Running, Vegetarian

Charles Harris 10K – A PR!

Posted on February 26, 2012 by inmytummy| 19 Comments

My friends Erin and Baha, Jamie and Dave, Andrew and Katharine and I have a monthly (or we try to make it monthly) dinner club. Each month a one of the couples picks the restaurant. We ended up taking a long hiatus for various reasons but re-convened last night at Jamie and Dave’s choice – Chateau de Saigon.

I’d actually been wanting to try this place because a former co-worker of mine who is Vietnamese recommended it. It didn’t disappoint. Jason and I split the vegetable soup (we opted for the vegetarian broth) to start out. This was only so-so. It was on the bland side. For my entree, I got the stir-fried tofu with vegetables, while Jason had some sort of combination clay pot platter. The dishes were HUGE. Tons of food. Mine was basically a lot of fried tofu with some bok choy in a sauce. I’m not usually much for fried foods but I love fried tofu, so I was happy. I don’t eat it often, so I figure it’s okay every once in a while.

After dinner, we headed home, since I had an early wake up call for the Charles Harris 10K. I ended up waking up at 5:55, 5 minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off. I was a little worried about the sudden cold front that’d moved in, but knew that I’d be fine once I started running.

Remember when I said that I was going to make pancakes before the race? Yeah, right. Even when I typed that I knew that the likelihood of me making pancakes at 6 am was slim to none. So I had my usual instead.

#Pre Face Food#

The coffee did it’s job, if you know what I mean, before I left the house, so that was nice. I can’t tell you how many pre-race portapotties I’ve been in. Sorry, TMI?

I left the house at about 6:45 am. The start of the race is only about a mile from my house but it’s a point to point race, so I had to drive to the finish line and take the shuttle to the start. I met up with Kristy, who was also doing the race, right away.

Once we got the school, where the race started, I got my number and met up with Lindsay.

#Charles Harris bib#

I’ve done this race twice in the past, so I’m familiar with the course (plus, it’s by my house). I’ll be the first to tell you, it’s not a pretty course at all. It’s a straight shot down a 4-lane highway basically. But it’s mostly flat, by Atlanta standards at least, and that’s more important to me than nice scenery.

The other nice thing about this race is at every mile marker, there’s a big digital clock displaying the time. I didn’t bring my Garmin, so it was nice to see my pace. I got to the first mile marker at 8:55. Way too fast! The funny thing was, I didn’t feel like I was running especially fast, so I figured I’d just go with it.

I maintained a 9 minute mile pace for the first three miles. Then came the big hill. It was gradual, but there was a definite uphill in the third or fourth mile. On top of slowing down for that, my shoelace became untied. Nevertheless, I was still maintaining a 9-something pace (although closer to ten).

Knowing the course is always really helpful to me and I knew that once we past the Mile 4 marker, it’d be downhill, with a somewhat steep downhill in the 5th mile. I tried to pick up the pace again once I got there.

The last half mile of the race is sort of a tease. You run right by the parking lot where you’ve parked and know the finish line is near, but have to go through a neighborhood for a while to get to it. I felt myself slowing down a bit, but I didn’t feel too bad and when I passed the 6 mile marker, I was happy to see that it read 56 something and I knew that I could achieve and possibly beat my 58 minute goal.

I ended up crossing the finish line with a clock time of 57:30 and later found out my chip time was 57:15! This is a 10K PR by a least a minute for me!

#Charles Harris shirt#

Afterward, I meant to go home and take a nap, but the day got away from me and I went to the movies and dinner with a friend instead. Now I’m absolutely exhausted and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m in bed by 9pm!

(Kristy and Lindsay kicked ass in this race too.)

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Posted in Atlanta, Blogger Meet-Up, Friends, Races, Running

A Pancake PR?

Posted on February 22, 2012 by inmytummy| 23 Comments

I’ve found the secret to my long runs.

#Whole Wheat Pancakes#

For years, I’ve been a pre-run peanut butter on toast or English muffin type of girl, but I think that I’m on to something with these pancakes. They’ve propelled me through both my nine and ten mile long runs (even when I messed up the recipe and doubled the amount of flour). But as much as I’ve enjoyed pancakes before a long run, how well will they do before a race?

I’m about to find out. I registered for the Charles Harris 10K which is this coming Saturday.

#Charles Harris logo#

I’ve done this race for the past two years. It starts about a mile from my house, which is nice and convenient. It’s not the most scenic race course (you basically run down a 4-lane road the entire time) but it’s well organized and it’s a net downhill. I always manage to convince myself that the entire race is downhill, which it isn’t. But a good part of the 5th mile is and that’s a major plus toward the end.

Last year I did this race in 59:32. I think I can beat that this year. I’m hoping for 58 something. Are pancakes the answer? Will pancakes give me a PR? Or perhaps a better question is will I be up for making pancakes at 6:30 am?

What do you eat before races?

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Posted in Races, Running

2.5 x 4 = 10

Posted on February 18, 2012 by inmytummy| 10 Comments

I don’t like running near my house. I live basically in between two main streets and while they’re not very hilly, which is nice for Atlanta, they’re not very nice to run on either. I can go about 2.5 miles in either direction before the sidewalks disappear. So, running near my house is not exactly thrilling. That said, I’m usually too lazy to drive somewhere to run and do end up running close to my house. I came up with a 10 mile loop today but I just couldn’t get excited about it.

Last weekend, pancakes proved to be a great pre-race fuel so I decided to have them again. Like last week, I used Janetha’s Whole Wheat Pancake recipe. Only this time the batter seemed really, really thick. And the pancakes were really, really chewy. I couldn’t figure out why until I looked at the recipe again and realized that instead of doubling the flour (I made two batches, one for me and one for Jason), I quadrupled it but doubled the rest of the ingredients. Fail! Don’t do math before having coffee, I guess. They did keep me full though.

So, the 10 mile run: I scrapped my planned loop and decided to do something different. I got to the end of my street and turned right and ran 2.5 miles down the road and 2.5 miles back. I told myself that I was just running five miles and it felt easy. I ran back home and had a little bit of coconut water and a Gu.

#coconut water and gu#

It was nice not to have to hold a water bottle during my run and to have a little break. I played on the computer for a couple of minutes before taking off. This time, I ran 2.5 miles in the other direction and then back. Again, I tried to pretend that I was just running a 5-mile run instead of a ten. It worked until about Mile 8 when my legs started to get tired. Even so, when I made it back home, it felt like I’d been running a shorter distance than if I done a 10 mile loop.

I must have run off my heavy pancakes because for the last mile of the run, all I could think about was what I was going to eat. And what I ate should come as no surprise…

#naan pizza#

I have a pita/tortilla/naan pizza problem. I’m off to foam roll my legs and take Murphy for a walk. He does not seem to care that I just ran ten miles.