Asian Fusion

Daniel and I almost always go out to eat on Friday night, and this past Friday we decided to check out the Dumpling Haus that opened a few weeks ago in the Hilldale Mall.

The restaurant itself is a low key affair.  It's pretty small with an open kitchen, and the "drink machine" is a pitcher of water in the corner with cups.  The main attractions on the menu are the jiao zi, which are little dumplings, and the bao zi, which are big dumplings.  They also serve some noodle bowls, salads, and rice.

We ordered the house jiao zi

and the house bao zi  

which were both stuffed with pork and scallions and served with a soy dipping sauce.

Both items were tasty and freshly made.  If you got bored watching the video about the Himalayas that was playing on a TV in the background, you could look in the kitchen and watch the kitchen staff preparing the food.  However, that means each dish is brought out to your table as soon as it's done.  Better to order a few things to split and eat them as they come than to have one dish sit and get cold before the other one arrives.

Would we go back?  I think so.  It's in a convenient location for us.  The prices are reasonable for a quick dinner out, and you can't just walk around and pick Chinese dumplings off the trees here like you can with cheese curds and bratwurst.  The only thing I'd do differently next time is- other than try different varieties of the dumplings and noodle bowls- is add a salad to share.  Although the menu describes both of our orders as containing vegetables, but I think that was true only at the atomic level, and a salad or some cooked veggies would round out the meal.

While I have no complaints about the restaurant staff or service- we had no trouble communicating with the man taking orders- I think there's some kind of weird translation thing going on.

For one, Dumpling Haus? But they serve Chinese dumplings, not German dumplings... if such a thing exists.  And also the slogan on the door.  We're steaming... hot.  I have absolutely no idea what that's supposed to mean.  Anyone???  Really- am I being dense and missing something obvious?  I mean, I get that the dumplings are steaming hot, but what's up with the ellipses?  Oh well...



In other news, I'm glad today is a rest day.  Getting back into lifting weights after taking a week off to recover from attempting two max lifts and to travel to FL made me crazy sore.  Plus, even though my max deadlift and bench press only went up about 5% from last training cycle, the regular workouts feel tougher (at least for the deadlift) already.  This was the first week of the training cycle and I'm already at 3 sets of 1 at 95lbs on the bench press and 3 sets of 1 at 130 on the deadlift.  AND- if you'll permit me one more whine- the squat rack at the gym that is open in the mornings during intercession has bars that run along the sides that aren't removable so can't actually deadlift in the squat rack.  You have to either a)Take the bar out of the squat rack and do all your weight changes on the floor, risking a smashed finger (which has happened to me already) or put the weights on the bar and then turn sideways and squeeze out through the tall bars on the back of the rack, which is not a lot of fun when you're already carrying a heavy weight.  Fortunately there's only one more week before the regular gym opens in the mornings again.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... time to go and enjoy today.  Have a good Sunday, folks.  

H-O-T

I did not sign up for this.

I signed up for this

And this

And this

But did not sign up for highs in the high 90s with a heat index in the 100s.  It's only fair, don't you think?

After a Bikram run yesterday morning and a disgusting sweaty bike ride to work, I thought I had it made, sitting in the AC all day.  But no.  Three chiller plants on campus broke, and all the remaining cold air production capability was diverted to the hospital and to buildings with animals.  Okay, I don't really have an argument with that, but I thought this line of the press release summarized the attitude of university leadership/state government toward university employees perfectly:

This means human comfort will not be a top priority in chilled water distribution until the chillers are back to full capacity.

I work in one of those tall buildings that don't have windows that can open, and our office started to get steamy by the afternoon.  There was a huge rush to get more of our stored samples to a place with AC because trying to keep samples at -80F in a room that is 100F will kill the freezers.  And then there are our servers...

The most recent update from the university says that one of the chiller plants is working again, but they are kind of non-committal about what that will actually mean for the AC situation.  I'm guessing that if it's super warm in our building most people will work from home.  I'm going to try to stick it out, but I'm not above doing that, either.

This is going to make Al Gore cry, but we've been keeping our window unit on at our apartment during the day set to 80 degrees so it's not miserably hot when we get home in the evenings.  In fact, it feels pretty good right now.

Well, I'm off to do some Bikram weight lifting followed by some Bikram SAS programming.

How are you staying cool today?

IRL/WIAW

Very early yesterday morning I wrote a post about the nine things I feel make up an ideal day for me in terms of making me feel my best, inside and out.  "I can totally do this today," I thought.  I'd even managed to drag myself out of bed not *much* later than I'd wanted.  Because the day's virtual summer retreat topic was about eating healthfully and mindfully, I was going to do a What I ate Wednesday post today, and you were going to see how healthful and mindful I could be.  By lunch time it was all out the window.

So I decided to just honestly recount my day yesterday- the good, the bad, the usual and the unusual.  Some may find this boring, but I actually kind of like reading about the mundane parts of other people's lives so here goes.

My Day 6/1/2011:

4:20am - Push snooze button without actually gaining consciousness
4:30am - Push snooze button and think, "Not yet."
4:40am - Drag self out of bed.  Start coffee maker.  Put in contacts, etc.
4:50am - Drink coffee, do e-mail, write blog post.

    
6:00am - Frantically finish blog post.  Get stuff together to leave for the gym/work.
6:10am - Ride bike to gym.
6:25am - Lift weights
7:20am - Shower at gym
7:22am - Dress.  Realize that- because I'm not at my normal gym (it's closed in the am when classes are out)- I don't have a hair brush.  Try to comb hair with hands.
7:30am - Ride bike to work
7:45am - Starving, inhale oatmeal + PB + applesauce + protein powder concoction while doing work e-mail

Yes, I stir it.

8:00am - Realize project that I need to finish STAT is going to take longer than I thought.  Go get Diet Mt. Dew from fridge.  Frantically work on project.
11:30am - Finish project.  Talk to boss about project.  Have nice conversation with boss about the weather.
11:45am - Report results of project to coworkers.  Everyone is happy.  Breathe sigh of relief.
12:15pm - Go eat lunch with coworkers at Pasqual's at Hilldale.  Do not take picture of veggie quesadilla (no olives, please) or two liters of Diet Coke I drank because I don't want to have to explain why I was doing it, and because I was so hungry I couldn't get it into my stomach fast enough.  Enjoy relaxing lunch catching up with everyone.
1:30pm - Back to work.  Finish putting together a dataset for a collaborator.  Feel guilty because I still haven't finished a dataset for someone who works with that collaborator who made the request months(!) ago.  I just need one more variable!
3:00pm - Start on analyses for presentation boss will give next Wednesday.
4:30pm - Feel brain dead.  Decide I will go home soon because I have errands to run in the evening and need to do laundry.  Wrap things up at work.  Figure leaving 15 min early is okay because I was at work from 8:00-5:15 yesterday with only 15 minute lunch break.
4:45pm - Ride bike home.
5:00pm - Get mail, start laundry.  Flip through catalog.  Lay on couch.  Drink Diet Sunkist.
5:20pm - Play piano.
5:30pm - Daniel comes home.  Talk about day.  Discuss plans for necessary errands.
5:50pm - Flip laundry.  Leave home.
6:00pm - Pick up 1st CSA box.  Discover there is rhubarb in box.  Discuss possibilities for pie.

    
6:15pm - Go to target.  Spend forever picking up pie ingredients, cereal (it's too hot for oatmeal anymore), and soda for co-worker's retirement potluck Friday.
6:45pm - Decide I am too hungry to make dinner when I get home.  Stop at Panera and order turkey artichoke panini and salad.  Snap picture while Daniel is in the bathroom.  Save apple for later.  Devour remainder.

 
7:30pm - Arrive at home.  Get laundry.  Fold laundry.  Put away Target stuff.  Research strawberry rhubarb pie options.
7:45pm - Chop strawberries to help Daniel make pie.  Refuse to taste rhubarb because I'm still full from dinner and hate tasting things.  Assemble pie.

8:30pm - Brush teeth.  Remember I wanted to show Daniel something on the internet.  Grouch at Daniel because I'd told him at dinner I wanted to show him something funny on the internet and if he was going to look at cats all night I would just have to show him tomorrow because I was tired.
8:31pm - Look at cute picture of baby sloth.  Mood improves slightly.

8:45pm - Get ready for bed.  Lay down and start reading article in The Atlantic.  Decide baking pie smells really good but don't want to stay up for pie to finish cooking, cool, etc. so get up and eat a couple Trader Joe's dark chocolate PB cups.
8:50pm - Brush teeth again.  Lay down and read.  Curse downstairs neighbors who keep opening their squeaky screen door and slamming their regular door.
9:30pm - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The bad (because it's always more obvious, isn't it?):

• Too much soda (yeesh!).  That's abnormal for a day.  Usually I have one, maybe two cans.
• Too much food.  How can I still be so hungry when I work out so much less than I used to?
• Not enough preparing my own food.  Only used delightful organic CSA vegetables to make pie.  Two fast food meals in one day = bad if not on vacation.
• Too much snooze button in am. 
• Stayed up too late in pm (which meant I didn't get up until 4:50 this am)
• Too lazy after work so I didn't get in time on the piano before Daniel got home.
• Didn't spend any time in devotion or prayer so I was more grouchy than usual when I was hungry and/or tired.
• Did not brush hair- other than with hands - all day.

The good:

• Did a blog post.
• Completed a project ASAP to everyone's satisfaction.
• Did not grouch at co-workers while stressed (I think).
• Had nice lunch with co-workers.  We do not go out very often.
• Kept focused during the afternoon when I actually wanted to Zzzzzzzzzz.
• Got errands and laundry completed.  Finally invited neighbor out to dinner (forgot to mention that one above!).  
• Helped make first rhubarb pie.

Arhg!  Now I'm running late again.  And I'm hungry, but I have to run and shower before I can eat breakfast (but good news, I have cereal now).  

And that's me.  In Real Life.

What works

I'm participating in Sarah's summer virtual retreat (If you're not, think about it), and the theme of this week is inside/out - what practices/habits can you cultivate to feel your best.  Having come back from vacation and then spent a busy day at work yesterday, I was thinking about the best of both worlds.  Vacation is a combination of novel and relaxing.  I usually get more sleep than usual, but I tend to eat a lot more and exercise a lot less.  Work is not alway so exciting and there are nights when I stay up waaaayyy too late for my early wake up, but I tend to eat healthier, be more active, and keep up with other activities I enjoy like playing the piano.  So if I could merge all the best of vacation with all the best of regular life, what would I end up with?  Here are the 9 things I consider essential components of an ideal day in the life of Chelsea.

1. Daily exercise - I get very crabby, very quickly when I sit around all day.  I'm like that pet that you thought you could leave in its cage while you were at work.  When you come home, I will chew your shoes, destroy two houseplants, and then use my tiny claws to cling to your head until you let me out for a walk.  As a side note, I've found that not just running but switching things up and doing yoga and lifting weights several times a week makes me look and feel my best.

2. Daily devotion - While I don't feel physically uncomfortable if I don't spend time praying and reading God's word, I feel... disconnected.  Starting my day with gratitude, learning from individuals who show good (and bad!) character through adversity and having an outlet to share my worries helps me focus on what is truly important in life.

3. Daily fruit and vegetables - To me a meal is not complete unless it contains at least one serving of produce.

Sorry, Ragu, you do not count.

 4. Daily music - Yes, 7 million Chinese 5-year-olds are better than me at the piano, but only 3 million are better than me at the first 20 measures of "I heard it Through the Grapevine".  Whether it's an hour or simply 10 minutes before I have to run out the door, I'm happier when I make music part of my day.

5. Daily desert - But not as much as what is still hiding in a sack under your kid's bed leftover from Easter (and last Halloween if you're lucky).

And not for breakfast.  Ummm, can I trade the candy
corn for some strawberry jam?

6. Daily novelty - Sometimes my life is busy and exciting.  Sometimes I feel like day after day is the same and I have nothing at all interesting to say.  Even if all I do is go to the sensory deprivation gym and sit at my desk at work and make Excel tables all day, I want to keep my eyes open for something new/interesting/novel.  It's that or use drugs.

7. Daily caffeine - This is where the drugs come in.  Now stop giving me a condescending look and pass me a Diet Mt. Dew.

I love you, too.

8. Daily (enough) sleep - On vacation, I could easily do 8-9 hours.  I think if I could sleep as much as I wanted every night, my body would naturally fluctuate between 7 and 9 hours.  In real life, I think never going below 6 and sticking some 9s in on the weekend to balance things out is pretty good.

9. Daily unstructured family time - I'm the kind of person who likes to schedule everything, but it never feels right to interrupt a good conversation (or Futurama episode) because it's "time" to read 1.5 pages of April's The Atlantic before I zonk out for the night.  I feel better when I get everything done before the evening so I can just relax and enjoy Daniel's company without feeling like I "should" be getting other things done.

So how about you?  Are you participating in the virtual retreat?  What do you consider essential components to your life?  

I'm about to go work on number 1 right now.

PS - Good news!  The fan is staying.
 

More signs of spring

As seen at the UW gym:

If you can't read it, the three "construction season" rules on the lower left are 1.Drink water, 2.Clean up your sweat and 3. Wear shoes.  I can attest that the first two are important because the gym does not have air conditioning.  It's not soooo bad in the morning, but by the afternoon the place is a sauna.  You could charge $15 an hour and call it Bikram's weight training.  We're talking so much sweat that you can slide around on the floor.  Which, although I've never actually seen anyone come in barefoot, explains the importance of rule #3.    

Two other exciting developments from gymland are:

1. They got new towels!!!  At the UW gym, you can buy a towel one time and then swap it out after you take a shower, but as you can imagine these are some of the smallest, roughest, dingiest towels you've ever seen.  You can't even wrap one of the old ones around your torso while you walk to the shower.  You just have to hold it up in front of you and not get too bent out of shape because you are about to take a shower with eight grandmas (Hi, 6:30am senior fitness class) anyway.  BUT the new towels are still relatively soft and white and are long enough to wrap around your entire body.  Feels just a little bit more like I'm working out at a gym and not a minimum security prison.

2. I did a 150lb deadlift.  Three singles, actually.  And PS, I'm up to three reps at 105 on the bench press.  Not that I'm trying to brag... :)

Back to signs of spring- our cherry tree is blooming!  I heart you, cherry tree.

And because spring is all about new beginnings, I want to say congrats to Jamie on hers.

Check out the sweet animal print cake:

And now it's time to run!

  

Guess who did a pull-up this morning?!?

Me!!!!!!  I've been trying to do one for about forever.  Even last night when Daniel and I were walking, I made an attempt at the pull-up bars and was able to pull myself up until my chin reached the bar, but I had to give a kick to get my chin up and over it.  This morning, I walked into the gym and decided to give it another go as a warm-up.  That's when the magic happened.  I jumped up and grabbed the bar (and then let myself back down so my arms were fully extended- we're all about good form around here) and *did a pull-up*.  I was so shocked that I did another one just to be sure.  I think the main difference between this morning and yesterday afternoon is that the bar at the gym is thinner than the bar outside, so it's easier for me to get a good grip.  Regardless, it still counts!  I actually did a few more throughout my workout just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, and yep, I can do a pull-up.

Weight Training Page

I just created a new weight training page that details the plan I'm using.  Check it out!

Frosty

Sadly, no.

First of all, thanks to Daniel for getting us all huge.  In all seriousness, Daniel is pretty smart about the whole strength training gig and manages to get himself pretty strong when he can make it to the gym regularly.  He's also a big proponent of the "quality over quantity" theory of exercise- something that I am coming around to more and more.

Second, it's really really cold here.  I think it was something like -7 (which was warmer than a lot of the rest of the Upper Midwest) at 10am yesterday.  It's funny because you walk outside and think, "That's not so bad..." and then 20 seconds later you don't feel like you're even wearing pants or a jacket anymore.  The building I work in is tall and creates a wind vortex that blows straight at you when you walk toward it.  It's so cold that it no longer registers as cold- just pain.  Needless to say I ran on the treadmill at the gym yesterday morning.  After a fairly full week with the undergrads, the gym was back to its normal state of blissful emptiness.

We did brave the cold last night to enjoy Friday dinner out at Pasqual's.

We've eaten at Pasqual's on Monroe street many times, but this was our first time at their new location across from Trader Joe's (just opened on 1/20).  We overheard the service staff say they were still having some trouble getting used to being in the new place, but we didn't experience any issues as customers.

Pasqual's bills itself as a Southwestern restaurant, and as a past resident of the Southwest, I can say they have it about 85% right.  Lots of mildy spiced traditional menu items with the option to up the spiciness if that is your thing.  This review will sound a little critical, so I should emphasize that Daniel and I eat at Pasqual's a lot and really like it.  But we know just enough about what this kind of food *should* be like to make us dangerous.

The true mark of New Mexican food is that it's covered with so much red or green chili sauce (or both- that's called Christmas) that you can't see what you ordered. To the right is an example from a restaurant in Albuquerque.  Do you have any idea what that is?  No, you don't.

Pasqual's enchiladas come pretty much like that, but if you wanted a beef burrito New Mexican-style, you'd have to order a "Cowboy-style Pasqual's burrito with red sauce and beef" rather than a "beef burrito with red".  Most of the burritos come with rice and/or beans in them, which is not really a New Mexico thing either.  Normally Daniel orders a burrito or the cheese or pork enchiladas with red, and I get the garden veggie quesadilla, the salad burrito, or one of their salads (all of which are non-traditional additions to the menu that I am happy about).   The only thing I've ever had there that I didn't like was the mole sauce, which was a disappointment because I normally love mole.

Now if they would just bring out honey and a basket of sopapillas at the end of the meal.

So good... So glad they aren't as easily accessible.

Workout: 
Going to the gym to do weights before lunch.  I swapped running to yesterday because I figured the cardio machines would be less crowded at 6am on Friday than 9am on Saturday.  Here's hoping there won't be too many virtuous undergrads there this morning.

Christmas vacation show and tell part 1

Manatees
When it gets cold enough in FL, Manatees that normally live in the Indian River move into Blue Springs, where the water stays a constant- warmer- temperature.

Manatee Hot Tub Time Machine?

Because the water is clear (and the area is probably smaller), Blue Springs is the perfect place to see them.

The best picture I got was Lindsay Lohan Manatee with her tracking device:

We did this once before when I was in the 8th grade, and back then you could actually walk down to the water and pet the manatees (Manatees as a rule have type B personalities.), but someone probably tried to ride on one and you can't get down to the water to touch them anymore.

One thing that hasn't changed is a huge tree that got hit by lightning.

Note the little kid posing in the background.

Same tree, 15 years ago:

Which answers the question, "Do I look the same as I did at 13?"  Yes.  I do.

Workout
I love UW when the undergrads aren't around!  The gym has been dead every morning.  I will be sad when the New Year's Resolution-ers get back in a few weeks.

Yesterday I ran 7mi on the treadmill doing treadmill track workout #2 from Training Plans for Multisport Athletes.  I started the intervals at 8.0 and worked up to 8.5.  I really like these workouts.  They make the time fly by, and are definitely tough enough to satisfy resolution #4.

Right before vacation I had a reader ask about running outside during the winter.  I definitely do it, but I've found that it doesn't work well for any kind of quality workout.  It's just too hard to get going when it's really cold and there's ice and snow on the ground.  As for what to wear- I'd say the closer you get to 0 (or below) and the longer you plan to be out- you should try to wear as much as possible.  Up to a down jacket, if you've got it, put it on.  Here's a post where I mention what I wear when it's really cold.  For me, the hand and toe warmers are the thing that make the biggest difference in my comfort.  Dr. TriRunner also has some excellent posts on winter running.  

But I'll be warm and toasty inside today because it's a strength training day with maybe a little elliptical depending on the time.

Mother nature: Such a tease

I realized that this post is totally meandering and only semi-related to the title, so I'm adding in subject headings to try to bring some organization to this party.

Weather
Light out half way through my run?  High of 70(!!!!!) today and 68(!!!!!!) tomorrow?  We're definitely getting spoiled.  It's going to be really painful when the first snow dump comes.  The only time I'm having buyers remorse on this whole "going off daylight savings" thing is at 5pm when it looks like it's 8pm.

I never realized why it was so easy to gain weight in the winter until I moved up north.  Because it's dark, your body tells you it's dinner time at 5pm and because it's cold it tells you another dinner at 8pm wouldn't be a bad idea.

The only thing I miss a little about running in the dark is scaring rabbits with my headlamp.  It's only fair because before I had the headlamp fixed they did a good job scaring my with all their rustling in the woods and sounding like zombies and ax murderers.

The raccoons, however, don't scare at all.  They just look at you with those beady eyes that say, "Chill out, light lady, I know where you live."

Exercise
I was going to take advantage of the warm weather and light do 5x1000m yesterday (seemed like a good speed workout for the week before a 5k race) but sadly when I walked outside I realized my GPS battery was totally dead.  I had charged it over the weekend, but sometimes I accidentally turn it on somehow and kill the battery.  I recharged it again yesterday and it seems to be working fine now.

I still wanted to get in some kind of quality workout so I did 8mi with 4mi tempo.  I know where all the mile splits are on my routes that I run regularly so I didn't need the GPS for that.  I was sad that I didn't get any of the mile splits, though, because I felt strong the whole way and think I kept a good pace.

This morning I'm headed to the gym before work.  I've decided to tinker with my workout schedule once again.  After the marathon I decided to do weights Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning so I could still run 5 days a week and take Sunday completely off.  Having tried that for a few weeks I've decided I really don't like having to go to the gym after work.  It's randomly crowded, and I always feel pressed for time getting home and getting dinner ready, laundry done, etc. especially when we have to go somewhere.  Plus I like to have the time to do other non-exercise things I enjoy like yoga (this is sort of exercise related, but not the way I do it!) and practice piano.

So the new plan is just four days of running- one speed, one tempo, one medium long, and one long with two days of lifting and one day of rest.  For me I think that the important thing is mileage in each run rather than overall weekly mileage.  Is this schedule pretty light compared to a lot of people out there?  Yeah, but I think it's going to be a good balance for me, and I'm trying to be okay with being different.

Plus it gives me an extra morning to work on the blog and see what crazy stuff comes up when I google image, "One of these things is not like the other."

Cooking  
I'm cooking again!  Yay!  Actually I was cooking before, but I was feeling less than motivated to post about it on the blog.  Not sure why, but in any case, food features are back.

This weekend I channeled my inner convenience food loving 50's housewife and put together this barbecue beef pizza for Daniel's lunch.  Why barbecue beef and not chicken?  Because that's what I made for dinner, and I used a little bit of the extra for the pizza.  The sauce was made using a recipe that I thought I remembered that Daniel said he remembered from the sauce our host made at the Halloween party: 1 cup BBQ sauce, 1 cup catsup, 1 can cranberry sauce, 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Not the healthiest thing in the world, but it turned out pretty good.

I also made cottage pie from this month's Cooking Light  to take with me to work for lunch this week.  The whole recipe makes 4 Chelsea-sized lunches and one dinner.

Mmmmm... broiler crunchies.

Well, gotta go!  Time flies when you're uploading pictures.  Have a good Tuesday, all.
  

Day 6:Yoga! Yoga!

This is the first day I rest instead of doing strength training.  Based on the recommendations of all my wise advisers (you guys!), I'm taking this week off from strength training.  This is less because I really push myself when I do weights but more because I don't want to 1.Tweak some muscle I didn't even know I had or 2.Drop something on some part of my body that I need for the race on Sunday.

I'm up at normal time today and am planning to do 45 minutes of yoga before work.  I haven't done yoga since last Thursday so I know I need some stretching out, and I'm hoping that doing yoga first thing will trick my body into thinking that I've worked out today.  So far I haven't been feeling the icky taper feeling- actually it's been kind of nice to back off- but I'm sure it will come before the end of the week.  Isn't the icky taper feeling a sign that you've rested enough and are ready to go?  I hope so.

I've really enjoyed adding in more yoga this training cycle, and I want to try to ramp it up a bit during the boring winter months.

Definitely need a pair of these.  *Bling*

Week in Review - The Birthday Edition

Yep, it's my birthday and I'm not afraid to plaster it all over the blog to get a few extra comments.  Since the BIG birthday as still a few years away (I turned 28 today), we are just having a small get together at our house this evening.  Basically I wanted to have an ice cream cake without turning into this guy

 
Such a classic.

Anyway, here's the week in review:
M- Strength training, yoga
T- 8mi with 5x1000m at 10k pace
W- 6.5 easy, yoga
R- Strength training, yoga
F- 4 easy
S- 13.1 race
U- 5mi easy, yoga

This was an easy week leading into the race, which you can read all about in yesterday's post if you are so inclined.  This week I'm going to play it by ear as far as if and how much speed work to do and how long I plan to do my long run.  I was wiped out from the race Saturday- way more than when I did my 20 miler- so this week is operation recovery and get ready for the final few long runs before the marathon.
 

Week in Review - The First Ache of Marathon Training Edition

Up to this point, I've been very lucky (actually I'm always very lucky) that I haven't had any aches and pains with marathon training, but in the last week I started to have a dull ache on the inside of my left knee.  It didn't hurt any more than any other part of me after my run yesterday, but I skipped running today as a precautionary measure and I won't run tomorrow either because it's a strength training day.  I feel a little sluggish from not working out today but I know that preventing a potential injury >> an easy 5 miler.  Plus there are lots of weeds in the garden if I feel the need to take some aggression out on anything.

So how was last week otherwise???

M- Strength and yoga

T- 8mi with 2 x (4 x 800m) 3:49 was my average 800 time

W- 8mi easy

R- 8mi with 2x15 min at marathon tempo pace.  The first was right on at 8:49 min/mile, the second was at 8:20 min/mile - more like wishful thinking marathon/ half marathon pace, yoga

F- Strength training and yoga (can you see a theme of being worried about my knee?)

S - 19 mi

U- Yoga.  Walking and weeding.

The totals were:

Run: 43 mi

Strength: 2x

Yoga: 4x

All in all not too bad.  I'm planning on running again starting Tuesday as long as my knee stays quiet.  I definitely don't want this to ruin my marathon chances.

Week in Review - The Sweet and Spicy Edition

I guess it was the hot, rainy weather we've been having compared to last year's drier cooler temps, but the garden is just not producing the way it did last summer.  Our carrots didn't grow.  Our broccoli grew and bolted in one week.  The tomatoes look bedraggled.  Fortunately our butternut squash, pumpkin, peppers, and onions are doing well.  The pumpkin plant is humongous, and we even found one little green pumpkin hiding in there.  I guess each year in the garden is different, and you get what you get.  This year we got this:

Green peppers, sweet peppers (which, if you are in Madison and want some, just let me know), and one tiny head of broccoli.  Last year we had so much broccoli!  It's really kind of sad considering all the work we put in to it.  Oh well.  At least we'll have some zesty sandwiches.

On to running and other workout considerations:
M - 5mi easy recovery from long run last Sunday
T - Strength training
W - 8mi with 2x(800,600,600) at 5-10k pace (Interval paces were: 7:40, 7:23, 7:22, 7:47, 7:41, 7:45 min/mile)
R - 8mi with 40 min marathon tempo (run at 8:48 min/mile average pace), yoga
F - Strength training
S - 18mi with miles 9-12 at marathon tempo (did all of them in the 8:50-9:00 min/mile range) in 2:53:00 (9:37 min/mile overall average)
Su - 5mi easy recovery.  Yoga

I'm feeling good about my training overall.  The next two weeks will also be high mileage, and then I'll cut back for two weeks- the first will be recovery, the second will be for a 1/2 marathon fitness testing race.

The only thing that concerns me is how slow my long runs are.  My goal marathon time is 3:50, which is an 8:48 min/mile average pace.  Do you think that- based on the speed I'm doing my long runs- 3:50 is too aggressive of a goal?  I know you're supposed to do long runs slower than your goal pace, but is 45 sec/mile too slow?  Should I try to speed up my long runs?  I usually finish faster than I start, which I know is good...  Any advice would be welcome!

Back to life, back to reality

Yesterday was my first day of work in more than two weeks.  At first it felt almost strange to go, but I had an easy day in front of me with enough to keep me occupied but not so much I was stressed.  A lot of other people are stressed because of our upcoming oversight committee meeting, but for the most part that doesn't involve me, and it keeps those above me in the chain of command too busy to find too much for me to do.


I'm back to normal workouts, too.  I ran 5 miles easy Monday and did my first strength training workout in 2 weeks yesterday.  I felt like I'd lost some fitness there, but I know it will come back in time.  I mostly focused on upper body since my legs were still pretty sore from the race, but legs are going to be a big priority this summer. I think I mentioned it in my race report, but I tend to get passed a lot running up hills and pass running down them.  This isn't a horrible thing except it's easy to get boxed in on the downhill and not be able to make up time. I want to work on my leg strength so I can power up the hills as well as down them.


Finally, I'm back to cooking and eating healthy food.  I checked out Eat, Drink and Be Vegan from the library after seeing recipes from it featured on a few different blogs (Forgive me; it's 5:34am and I can't remember exactly who it was.) in my ongoing attempt to have us eat vegetables that aren't salad.


Monday night I made the cocoa coconut chili with a side of cornbread, and red leaf salad from our garden (data not shown).

I liked this recipe because I like "sweet" chili.  I didn't get a particularly strong coconut taste, but it definitely had a different flavor than any other chili I've tried.  The recipe also made a vat of chili, and I had enough left over for lunches all this week.

Last night I made pinto bean and avocado enchiladas.  The filling was made with pinto beans, mushrooms, cashews and avocado so I was hoping it would taste a little unique, but honestly it tasted like nondescript "Mexican" filling from all the spices.  Definitely not bad, though.  I would say it was tastier than the chicken enchiladas I normally make, and again, the recipe made a truckload.  All these plus some extra filling.

Here's the innards of one:

Well, it's time for me to get it in gear and run before it rains.  Happy Wednesday!  

It's raining, it's pouring

And I'm glad I swapped my workouts so I ran yesterday and am going to the gym this morning.  I was a little worried I'd still be fatigued after my long run, but I hit my intervals (4x5min fast with 2min recovery) right on pace.  The first one was a little slow- around 7:40 min/mile, but the last four were all in the 7:20-7:30 min/mile range.  This is probably slower than the oracle would predict for me for 800m repeats, but I'm doing them on a regular running path with some minor ups and downs- not a track- which slows me down a bit.

The other excitement is that... drum-roll, please... I got approved (probably extremely reluctantly, lol) to take a second week of vacation time.  One of the perks of working for the university is that we get a lot of vacation time.  One of the non-perks of working for the State of Wisconsin is that we had to take off 8!!! unpaid days in the last fiscal year.  When I got my leave statement for May I realized that I had 3 weeks of vacation (only one of which could be rolled over) and 2 unpaid days I have to take before the end of June.  It's a strange problem to have, but, even though we technically have all this time off, it's always hard to get away.  Especially because of D's school schedule.

I felt guilty asking to take two weeks off in a row, but 1.It's really the best time for us because it lets us extend our vacation (Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Cedar Point, woot!), and 2. Gives us some down time to prep to have visitors for Memorial Day weekend.  But I got approved.  Work days to vacation countdown: 4!!!!!!

Last night's dinner is probably the last real recipe I'll make before we leave: Asparagus and smoked trout fritatta (see sidebar for recipe):

I did use asparagus, but replaced the smoked trout for the last two slices of prosciutto we had in the fridge.  This was tasty, but not very filling so you don't see pictured the orange and two packets of oatmeal that went with it.  It was also a 2-alarm meal because I set off the smoke detector and then set one of our kitchen towels on fire with the broiler (The pretty one you gave us for Easter, sorry Accessory Fairy).  Sorry, neighbors!

Well, it's about time to go be productive. 4-4-4-4-4-4-4 days to vacation!  Oh yeah, tonight is our second volleyball game.  Wish me luck.  This time I will successfully serve during the game.

Friday!

Yay!  Friday!  Workdays until vacation: 6.

Not much exciting going on around here.  My tempo run was pretty good yesterday except that I got a horrible side stitch about half way through.  I was able to tough it out and finish, but my pace was a little slower than I would have liked: average 8:22 min/mile during the 40 minute tempo part.  This morning I'm headed over to the gym for some strength training.  It's supposed to rain, and I'm always happier to spend a nasty day in the dungeon gym than a pretty one.

Last night I went to TJ's for groceries for the next week.  It's always hard to figure out the right amount to buy the week before vacation.  I don't want to get so much that stuff spoils while we are gone, but I don't want us to get scurvy for lack of fresh produce.  I also stopped by the library to pick up a few things:

Not sure how I feel about Jared Leto about Steve Prefontaine (My So Called Life, anyone?), but that's the good thing about the library- no monetary investment required.

Dinner was another Cooking Light pasta dish (see sidebar for recipe).  We've gotten a lot of mileage out of the May issue of CL, and there will be more to come next week.

Tonight we're having dinner at a friend's house, and tomorrow I'm gearing up for another long run.

Madisonians, help me out: I'm trying to find a packed dirt trail to do my long runs on.  I know there's the Military Ridge trail, but it's kind of far from me.  Is there anything closer?  Is it worth it to drive all the way out there?

Well, gotta get it together and start another day.  TGIF!

Blogs + work

Finally my computer life and my real life collide.  Yesterday I went to a talk in the public health department about health-related blogs.  The presenter had a pretty broad definition that covered everything from informational to advocacy to people living with an illness to medical students trying to survive to the "healthy lifestyle" blogs that many of us read.  The talk itself was not that interesting.  It was mainly descriptive (ie X% of our sample of bloggers were women, X% had a site meter, X% had advertising, etc), but the presenter raised some interesting questions about the potential for health related blogs.

Some suggestions were:

1. When a patient is diagnosed with a chronic disease that will affect his or her lifestyle (especially one that can still have a stigma attached to it like HIV/AIDS), the physician can provide a list of (vetted) blogs by people who are also dealing with this disease.

2. For some diseases- say autism spectrum- people who are affected with disease (in this case, usually caregivers) will form "blogging communities" and share experiences and information.  How does that affect the way the individuals obtain care and interact with the medical community?  How do people who act in a more advocacy role affect these relationships?  What about people with an ax to grind?  How do you measure the impact one blog has on others?

3. How does sponsorship (which he defines as working for an organization like WebMD or a newspaper) or advertising affect what appears on the site?  Does advertising follow content or does advertising direct it?

4. The presenter didn't bring this up, but, as older people are more comfortable navigating and getting information from the Internet, what about scam blogs?  How can we teach people to discriminate between what's real and what's the same old snake oil in digital form?

Obviously I'm not a heath care provider, but I am interested in the impact of disease on quality of life, and I think this is an interesting area for potential study.  There are HUGE methodological problems to overcome.  It would be pretty hard to form hypotheses for the above statements and even harder to test them.  But all the same, I think/hope we'll see more about this in the future.

But back to 100% real life:

Yesterday was a trip to the gym for some strength training to get in one more recovery day after the race.  I feel like I'm back in action and ready to run again this morning.  The plan is 6mi with 5x hill repeats.

Last night we had an unintentional 3 course meal.  Spinach salad followed by

roasted sweet potatoes

and salmon coated with brown sugar and chili powder.

Time to head out the door.  The hills are waiting!