Category Archives: 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.

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Posted in Running

Proud and Productive

Posted on February 13, 2012 by inmytummy| 14 Comments

I might be too hard on myself, but it’s been a really long time since I’ve been proud of myself for something running related. I’ve run a marathon before. I’m never going to run more than 26.2 miles so I’ll never have another moment of “This is the farthest I’ve ever run.” Sure, there are runs when I feel good about myself because I’ve PR’d or run faster but there hasn’t been an instance in a long time where I really thought that I couldn’t do something and then I did it. Until my 9 miles on the treadmill. I honestly wasn’t sure if I could do it. My gym doesn’t have personal tvs; this was 9 miles of staring at the seconds going by. But I did do it and I feel very proud of myself for it!

I also feel a sense of accomplishment when I have a productive weekend and I think this weekend counted as one. Aside from the 9 miles, I also:

• hung out with my friends Emily and Brian
• did the dishes twice
• did 4 loads of laundry
• went grocery shopping
• walked Murphy twice
• made a good dinner

And what did I make for dinner? Well this cold weather sort of mandated something warm: soup!

#alttext#

I decided to make Nicole’s Rockin’ Red Curry Shrimp Soup. I always have a can or two of both coconut milk and vegetable broth on hand and had some curry paste too, so all I really needed were the sweet potatoes, bok choy and shrimp. Well, my grocery store didn’t have bok choy (or lemongrass for that matter), so I used kale. This was a thick and filling soup and it was good except for one thing, which was totally my fault: the shrimp. I used frozen raw shrimp from Kroger. I defrosted it first, but it just didn’t taste right. It was too shrimpy. I never learn. Every time I buy frozen seafood or fish from Kroger, I end up not liking it! I found myself picking around the shrimp, but otherwise, the soup was very good.

Blah Sunday night. All in all, a good weekend though.

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Posted in Recipe, Running, Seafood

Treadmill PDR

Posted on February 12, 2012 by inmytummy| 13 Comments

I had a 9 mile run on tap for this weekend. Everything was fine until I looked at the weather forecast.

#alttext#

Umm, we may have a problem! I’ve been spoiled by the mild winter, I realize that. Hell, I was wearing a t-shirt last weekend while I ran, but there is a major difference between running in normal Atlanta winter (temps in the 40s) and running with a strong wind making it feel like it’s in the teens.

So instead of skipping my run or dealing with the cold, I did what any psycho would do: I did it on a treadmill. Yup, that’s right, I ran 9 miles on a treadmill! I’m kind of surprised to say this, but it actually wasn’t as terrible as it sounds.

First off, I made sure that I had some good music. That was crucial. I put a lot of old songs that I hadn’t listened to in a while back on my ipod. New songs are good, but there’s definitely something to be said about running to songs that you know every word (but aren’t sick of). I also gave myself permission to run slower than normal. Normally on the treadmill, I run anywhere from 5.7mph – 6.5mph, just depending on how I’m feeling and what I’m doing, but today I allowed myself to run at 5.5mph.

I divided the runs into two parts. The first was 5 miles. In addition to allowing myself to run slowly, I also took a walk break every ten minutes. That way, the run was broken up into ten minute sections making it seem more manageable. After 5 miles, I got of the treadmill, took a bathroom break, ate a Gu and hopped back on.

When I got on the treadmill the second time, I pretended that I had just gotten to the gym and had to run 4 miles, something I often do on the treadmill. This time, instead of taking walk breaks, I just sort of plowed through. I’m not sure if it was because I was running slower, or Janetha’s Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes (although mine were Whole Wheat Applesauce Pancakes because I didn’t have any yogurt) were the perfect pre-run fuel or what, but the run really went fine! I still sort of can’t believe that I ran that far on the treadmill!

Someone did not seem to care that it felt like the sub-arctic outside and begged for a walk. That jacket just isn’t going to be warm enough, Murphy.

#Murphy with my jacket#

After my run, there was the problem of dinner. I wasn’t kidding when I said my fridge was pretty barren.

#alttext#

The obvious thing to do would be to go to the grocery store, but with the cold weather and me being hungry and tired from my run, I scrounged around and found something to eat.

#Flat Out Pizza#

Yes, again. There is not a single vegetable in my house. I have to go to the grocery store. If I only it wasn’t so cold out!

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Posted in Running, The Gym

Test Run in My New Shoes

Posted on February 10, 2012 by inmytummy| 14 Comments

I’m glad I’m not alone in my throw it away or I’ll eat it all problem. Although, I wish that none of us had to deal with it. I normally don’t buy certain things that I know will give me trouble, but sometimes they find their way into my house. Single serve things do work better (like granola bars or ice cream sandwiches) so I’ll try to stick with what works instead of thinking that maybe this time will be different when I buy other things.

Last night, I was supposed to run 5 miles. I’ve been going to the gym near my office because it’s way less crowded that the one by my house. However, I had a bit of a stomach ache last night (I think from Trader Joe’s stevia – I can only seem to tolerate Stevia in the Raw and NuNaturals; I wonder if TJ’s brand is really Truvia.) and decided to go home first. I’m sure you can see where this is going.

I actually, after much internal debate, made myself get ready and drove to the gym around 9. And you know what? It was still crowded! There was still a line to get a treadmill at 9 pm! I got a treadmill and right as I started running, my foot started hurting.

I have a lot of calluses on the bottoms of my feet. I’ll spare you a picture! It’s somewhat from running and somewhat hereditary. They are unsightly but don’t usually hurt. But yesterday, my left foot hurt right under a callus that I have on the side. Between my stomach ache, the crowded gym and my foot hurting, I was just wasn’t feeling it at all, so I went home. Usually getting out of the house to the is the hardest part, but yesterday, the actual run was.

Today during lunch, I went to buy a pair of new shoes. I was wearing Brooks and for some reason, they’ve felt too wide recently. I’m constantly trying to tighten them when I run. I don’t know if running shoes stretch out or my foot got smaller or what, but it had been about six months since I purchased them so I decided it was time for a new pair – a different brand. I ended up getting some New Balances.

#New New Balances#

My New Balances and I went to the gym (the one by my office) and did yesterday’s 5-miler tonight. My feet felt sort of sore during the first two miles, but then they felt fine. I don’t know what’s up with my feet problems lately. It wasn’t a wonderful run, but it wasn’t a horrible one either and bottom line is that it’s done!

Only problem with doing a 5-mile run after work is that by the time I get home, it’s almost 8pm and I’m starving. Our fridge was looking extremely barren so I came up with the best thing I could, a flat-out pizza. I used pesto sauce because we didn’t have tomato and canned mushrooms were the only veggie I could find. Classy, right?

#Flat Out Pizza#

I was still hungry after the pizza, so I had some popcorn. It’s slim pickins around here for sure. Don’t ask why my popcorn popper is a Georgia voter.

#Air Popped Popcorn#

I’m off to relax.

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Posted in Running, Vegetarian

Three Things Tuesday

Posted on February 8, 2012 by inmytummy| 17 Comments

1. I have been getting faster on the treadmill. The past few times that I’ve run at the gym, I’ve been setting the treadmill somewhere between 6.0-6.5. Today, I did one mile at 6.0, 5 minutes at 6.5, 5 minutes at 6.3 and 9ish minutes at 6.5 for a total of 3 miles in less than half an hour. That may not seem fast to some of you, but it is for me and it means that I can complete an entire 3-mile run and take a shower during my lunch hour. It helps that it takes me approximately 3 minutes to get from the gym back to my office (although more like 6 to get there.)

2. I met my friend Jamie for sushi after work at this new place called Bua. I had intentions of just getting one roll and a salad or something, but then we ended up splitting 5 rolls. Oops. Three of them were small at least. Let’s just pretend I only ate one, shall we?

#alttext#

I don’t know why, but I can’t take a crisp iphone picture to save my life.

3. An email came out at work today announcing that my absolute favorite yogurt brand was giving tours of it’s company store, which happens to be in the same office complex. I am very excited, we get to go next week and they said there would be samples.

#alttext#

Also:

#alttext#

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Posted in Atlanta, Atlanta Restaurants, Friends, Murphy, Running

Eight Miles – Done!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by inmytummy| 15 Comments

Eight miles is my favorite distance to run. That is, provided I’m in decent enough shape that I can run it. It’s long enough that I feel pretty accomplished but short enough that I don’t need to spend the rest of the day with my feet propped up on the couch. (Need being the operative word, I probably still do lie on the couch after running any distance.)

Eight miles was on my training plan for this weekend. Even though I usually enjoy the distance, the thought of running it by my house was less than thrilling. I have some loops that I run, but they’re all on main roads and they’re not pretty and people always seem to want to honk their damn horn at the runner on the sidewalk. In other words, not the best running environment.

Instead of dealing with all that, I decided to go to the Silver Comet Trail instead. The Silver Comet Trail is about 40 minutes away. It’s far enough that I have to really decide that I’m going there, it can’t be a spur of the moment thing. The weather was really nice on Saturday though, so I made the decision to drive there.

First, I had to pick up some pants that I had altered. My plan was to also stop at REI to pick up some Gu but it was out of the way, so I hoped that I would be okay with out it. It took a while to get there because I went a weird way to stop off at the dry-cleaners, but I had a nice view of the city at least.

#skyline at freedom parkway#

I stopped at a gas station to pick up some Gatorade. I hoped that would be an okay substitute for the missing Gu. Did you know that you can buy boiled peanuts at RaceTrac? Neither did I. I never had boiled peanuts until I moved to Georgia, but I actually really like them.

#boiled peanuts racetrac gas station#

Moving on.

The trail was pretty crowded, but not horribly so and I parked my car and was on my way. The good thing about this trail for me (it’s a paved trail, by the way) is that I’ve run it so many times that I can break it up into sections. For example, I know that there’s a bridge at .75 miles, another right after 2, etc. I find that looking forward to my little checkpoints or whatever you’d call them is a good way to break up the monotony. Because even though this trail is very pretty, it’s also pretty boring.

It’s boring, but it’s flat. The race I’m training for is not flat so I do like to train on hills sometimes, however, doing a nice, flat run is a good confidence booster because my times are faster than normal.

I ran at a relaxed pace although towards the end I sort of speeded up because I wanted to be finished. I felt really great until the last mile and then my hips felt really sore. That always happens to me; the last mile is super hard no matter what the distance. Here are my mile splits:

1. 10:46
2. 10:22
3. 10:30
4. 11:06
5. 10:18
6. 9:50
7. 9:49
8. 10:06

Hello negative splits. Nice to see you.

#silver comet trailhead mavell road#

Eights miles – done!

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Posted in Atlanta, Half Marathon, Running, Silver Comet Trail

Nervous Energy

Posted on January 22, 2012 by inmytummy| 22 Comments

Today is the last day of my 80-day weekend. Wow, I bet you feel sorry for me, don’t you?! It’s weird when you type it out like that. I was unemployed for just shy of three months but when you say 80 days, it seems like so much longer!

As excited as I am about my new job and getting back into the work force in general, I have to say that I am a bit nervous. Not really about my actual job, but more just starting something new. I’ve kind of been edgy all weekend. I know that the second I set foot in the building tomorrow morning, I’ll feel fine but the anticipation drives me crazy.

I was going to do my 7-mile run yesterday but it rained all day so I had to postpone it until today. I really prefer getting my long run over with and doing it on Saturday but not so much that I wanted to either run in the rain or do 7 miles on the treadmill.

#alttext#

So I ran this morning. I was hoping that the run get rid of some of this nervous energy. It didn’t. It was an okay run, but the whole time I felt so slow. Here are my splits:

Mile 1 – 12:37 (walked the first .25 miles)
Mile 2 – 10:41
Mile 3 – 9:28 (this has a big downhill)
Mile 4 – 11:37 (walked some)
Mile 5 – 10:51
Mile 6 – 11:11
Mile 7 – 10:26

I know that it’s great that I can run seven miles and all, but I sometimes get so frustrated at my speed, or lack there of. I know that if I want to get faster, I need to run faster and I try to, but sometimes it’s just so hard. It’s just kind of disheartening to run as much as I do and be the speed that I am. I know that plenty of other people run at the same speed that I do or slower and while I think that is fine for them, it’s not fine for me because I don’t feel fine about it. I’ve been running half-marathons for seven years. My time has not improved and that’s annoying. It’s kind of the same way I feel about weight loss. I eat well, I run a lot, and the scale doesn’t budge. Annoying and frustrating.

What this has to do with being nervous about work, I don’t know. Jason told me to do something nice for myself, so I got a manicure and took a bizarro picture of it. I promise I don’t have mutant hands that are bigger than my head.

#alttext#

I’ll stop with the whining now. I’m annoying myself. I promise I’ll feel better tomorrow. Wish me luck!

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Posted in Running

Bribed With Cookies

Posted on January 19, 2012 by inmytummy| 16 Comments

I finally made it to the gym last night for my four mile run. I got there around 8:30 and the after-work crowds were starting to die down. Don’t get me wrong; I still had to wait for a couple minutes to get a treadmill, but after I hopped on, several others opened up making me feel like I didn’t have to adhere to the time limit since no one was waiting.

Just to note: my gym is always very crowded. Yes, there are lots of new year’s resolutioners making it extra crowded, but this particular gym is never not full at peak times.

I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and had a really good run. It felt easy and I actually ran much faster than I normally do. I don’t know if I wore myself out or what, but yesterday’s run was awful. I just could not get into it at all. I told myself that I could stop at two miles. Two miles came and I told myself to try switching treadmills. I often will switch treadmills to make a run seem shorter.

I let myself take a five minute walking break. I ran another mile. I really wanted to stop. I told myself that three miles was the same as four really and that I could just run three. But then I bribed myself with cookies. Jason had asked that I pick up some bread and Diet Coke on my way home. The idea of also buying some chocolate chips so I could make Katie’s Chocolate Chip Almond Meringues would not leave my mind. So I told myself that if I ran one more, for a total of four, I could make the cookies. And you know what I did? I got off the treadmill at .7 miles. I went to wipe it off and then I thought that I was being ridiculous and ran the final .3.

I swear this was the longest four miles that I’ve ever run. Obviously, a bag of chocolate chips was purchased. This was my first time making meringues and my first time whisking egg whites until stiff peaks formed. I was a little nervous that they wouldn’t form. But after about 5 minutes, look – stiff peaks! I was probably a little too excited about it to tell you the truth. (Side note: I don’t know how you’d do this with a hand whisk. It seems like it would take forever).

#kitchenaid mixer stiff peaks#

I had a little bit of trouble spooning the dough (is it still considered dough?) onto the cooking sheet. It was too thin. Maybe my peaks weren’t stiff enough.

#alttext#

Nevertheless, I stuck them in the oven anyway and hoped for the best. 23 minutes later and here’s what I had:

#chocolate chip meringue#

Looks like a monster chocolate chip cookie, tastes like a meringue. Works for me. Now if I only I could stop eating them.

#alttext#

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Posted in Baking, Running, The Gym

My Training Plan

Posted on January 13, 2012 by inmytummy| 17 Comments

Even though I haven’t really been writing about it, I’ve been running four days a week for the past few weeks. I’m signed up for the Publix GA Half-Marathon on March 18th. This will be my fifth year running it (6th if you count the first year when I did the full) and I’d really, really like to PR or at least set at course PR.

I’ve done this enough times to know myself and how I respond to training and I know that if I run 5 days a week, I get really, really burned out. So, even though I do consider myself to be an intermediate runner, I decided to do Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 program.

My favorite part about training for a race is printing out the training plan, sticking it on the fridge and marking off the days as I do them. I find this works so much better for me than trying to manage it in Excel. I’m old school.

#alttext#

In addition to 4 days of running, I’m also trying to incorporate 3 days of weights. Since I don’t want to work out seven days a week, one of the days I have to do both. If I want to have Friday off too, I’ll combo up Thursday’s weights with Friday’s 3 mile run but so far I haven’t done that. My plan looks like this:

Sunday – weights
Monday – rest
Tuesday – 3miles + weights
Wed – pace run (starts at 3 miles toward beginning weeks and progresses to 5 miles toward the end)
Thursday – weigths
Friday – 3 miles
Saturday – long run

Of course, I’ll probably switch it up here and there. I’ve gone pretty much by the plan this week as I did Day 24 of the Jamie Eason Livefit Trainer (chest and triceps) this morning. It was nice to get it out of the way and focus solely on my job interview in the afternoon (which went well, I thought) instead of worrying about when I was going to workout. Plus, I had lots of time to cook dinner, so I made something with a longer cooking time: Zucchini Parmigiana.

#alttext#

This was basically lasagna with zucchini instead of pasta. Works for me. Everyone knows the cheese and the tomato sauce is the best part anyway.

#alttext#

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Posted in Half Marathon, Publix Georgia Marathon, Races, Running, Vegetarian

Resolution Run

Posted on January 1, 2012 by inmytummy| 20 Comments

Jason made it home from work last night with about ten minutes to spare. I had some champagne ready to go.

#alttext#

We watched the countdown on TV and when 2012 arrived, we popped the bubbly. Can you see the cork?

#alttext#

Originally, I wasn’t going to drink at all, but in the spirit of celebration, I had a glass.

#alttext#

So, the reason that I wasn’t going to drink last night – I signed up for a somewhat impromptu New Year’s Day 10K. I have been sort of thinking about the idea of starting the New Year in a healthy way instead of with a hangover. It’s kind of hard to focus on health goals when you feel like crap, right? I hoped that doing a January 1st race might set the tone for the entire year.

When I looked up New Years Day races a couple of weeks ago, I found three in the Atlanta metro area – one in Norcross, which is by my house, one in Kennesaw (45 minutes away) and one in Stockbridge (also 45 minutes away but in a different direction). Originally, I was going to do the Norcross one just because it was the closest, but then Lindsay said she was thinking of running the one in Stockbridge, so I decided to do that one with her instead and signed up on Friday night.

The race, The Resolution Run, had both a 5K and a 10K. Even though I haven’t really run more than four miles at a time during entire month of December and probably most of November, I signed up for the 10K figuring I’d just take it easy, not race for time and walk if I needed to.

The nice part about this race was that it didn’t start until 1pm. Since I had plenty of time, I decided to make pancakes. This was just from a mix that we had and I added a chopped pear. Decent pre-race fuel, I thought. Jason and I split what you see here.

#alttext#

After breakfast, I got into my running clothes, put the address into the GPS and was on my way. I’m not very familiar with the south side of Atlanta so I didn’t really know what to expect. The race started in the parking lot of a Publix shopping center which was nice because there was plenty of parking.

#alttext#

After some weird group aerobics, the race began. There wasn’t much of a formal start. Lindsay and I were making our way to the start line and we heard someone say GO! and that was it. The first half mile was along the side of a main road. They were doing construction on the road to widen it, so the runners had a nice lane to run in that didn’t have any traffic. After about a half mile, we turned into a neighborhood.

The race was typical Atlanta hilly. It wasn’t OMG this is awful and I want to die hilly (which is an official category of hilliness), but it wasn’t flat either. I walked up some of the bigger hills. Hill running is something that I really struggle with. Probably because I never really do it.

The 5K was a loop that started and ending at the same point. The 10K wasn’t a different route, it was just a repeat of the 5K. It was kind of a tease to see the finish line and know that you had to run the entire thing again! Most people were doing the 5K and the crowd really thinned out when the 10Kers started the second loop. I kind of started to worry that I was going be last because the slower runners would have all done the 5K. (Spoiler alert – I was not last.)

#alttext#

The good thing about running the 3.1 mile loop twice was that I knew exactly what I was in for. Lots of uphills and lots of downhills and lots of big houses to look at for scenery.

#alttext#

I might have walked a little bit more during the second loop of the course. I didn’t really care about my time that much (otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken pictures.) and just wanted to enjoy myself. I wasn’t wearing a Garmin and had absolutely no clue what my pace was, but I ended up crossing the finish line just shy of 1:05. Considering the walking and the lack of training, I’m okay with that time.

Doing this race was a very good idea. I could have spent New Year’s Day lying on the couch with a hangover, but I’m glad that I didn’t.

#alttext#